<|startoftext|>You awaken in a still pool of shallow water to the howling of the wind and its icy caress. The moon watches you from the star-freckled sky above. Its pale light illuminates the moss and thick grass that grow between the gaps of the smooth stones beneath you. Trees with twisted, moss-covered roots reach for the heavens, and cast shadows over the few bare stones that can be seen in this strange wall-less garden. The air is thin and colder than anything you’ve ever felt. It whistles through the trees and grass, the sound similar to air blown through a broken flute. Shivering you get to your feet. A strangled sound escapes you as take slow cautious steps towards the edge of the garden. You pray and beg to any and all gods, but as your feet come to a stop you curse them, you curse them all. A small rock plummets over the stone lip of the garden. You grip the tree next to you and watch it fall and know that it continues to fall and fall and fall even after you loose sight of it. Dizziness overcomes you as you note the warm yellow light that flickers far off in the distance. It’s your home that you see. Tears well in your eyes, “no…” You sink to your knees and struggle with the urge to vomit. You are atop the Serpent Lord’s tower. You are atop Wicked Garden. And you are going to die. Behind you, a deep laugh emanates from the darkest shadows. It weaves its way through the trees, chilling your blood more than the frigid wind ever could. Closing your eyes you turn your back on your home with your heart in your throat. You swallow and open your eyes to face whatever has come for you. Darkness thickens into ribbons of night and converges on a single point until a raggy pale man appears. He floats effortlessly above the shallow water you awoke in, and watches you with hollow eye sockets that are filled with swirling ink. He speaks to you, but his dry flaky lips do not move. “Each floor provides a new challenge. Pass and proceed.” The ground shakes as the water beneath the grey man ripples and drains away. It seeps down through the gaps in the stones as they move to form a descending spiral. Fog or what could be steam makes its way into the garden only to spill over the tower’s edge. You watch it, the stairs, the raggy man. “Follow in the footsteps of those before you. Complete what they could not.” You swallow and walk to the top of the staircase. But before you take another step you look around one last time and commit it all to memory; the sky, the trees, your village off in the distance. You sigh. > You descend the staircase. The raggy man stares at you his face impartial. You stare back until you can’t bare looking into his eyes anymore. With no other choice, you descend into the heart of Wicked Garden. “Earn your freedom; answer correctly, or die.” ~ As you walk deeper, and deeper, into the tower you notice that the staircase is open to each floor and that there is nothing but empty space spanning between you and the curved stone of the tower’s outer wall. Time passes, but just how much alludes you, as there are no windows to see the sun in the sky. It all seems a little too easy; odd in that nothing stops you from descending to the next level. You wonder about the others who were chosen, or more accurately sacrificed to the tower. Did they pass these floors? You think back to what the raggy man said, ‘complete what they could not,’ when you come upon a door. It swings open with a creek. You stare into the darkness beyond. > You enter the room. The room is pitch black and silent, save for the echoing of your own footsteps. A circlet of dusty light appears. You walk towards it cautiously with your heartbeat hammering against your ribcage. When you reach it, a deep voice calls out to you: “Welcome to the Trial of Elements.” You search for whoever is speaking but find no one. In the light you suddenly feel too exposed, too open, too easy a prey. Thinking it better to appear strong than weak, you muster as much courage as you can and call out into the darkness. “Who’s there?” The voice does not answer you, instead it continues: “Before you sits what exists in all things: air, fire, earth and water.” The light you stand in races to encompass four pedestals that bare these elements. With the room now fully illuminated you see that there is a door behind each and you know that one must be an exit. But which is the question. “Each guards a door, but only one will let you pass through safely. Take your time and choose wisely, for once a door is opened you cannot close it, nor can you choose another.” The room shakes at the voice’s words. Fire erupts over the second door, just as rocks fall in front of and block the third. Fearful you step backwards into a puddle that definitely wasn’t there before. Your eyes follow the steady stream back to its source where water weeps out from under and around the fourth door. You take a step forward when the voice returns: “Beware, death awaits those who choose wrongly.” > You choose the Door of Air. You reach for the handle and your fingers feel the bite of the air. They ache in the sudden coldness, but still you take the doors handle in your hand. It opens with a creak and you feel as though you’ve made the right choice despite the cold, but your smile is wiped from your face almost as quickly as it appeared. There is nothing beyond the door, nothing but a never-ending pit of swirling grey mist. Your heart drops as what little ground there is between the doorway and you begins to crack and crumble. You watch in horror as chunks of stone fall away into the mist, never to be heard of again and scream as the floor of the room too starts to fall away. Your nails dig into the stones as you crawl-run to the wall in the hope that it won’t fall away with the floor. But your feet won’t cooperate. You slip and plummet into the mist. > You you've died… End game and leave comments. So now that you finished Wicked Garden, how would you rate it? Note that the author will not see your individual rating; you will have a chance to leave a personal comment once you select a rating. 1 - stay away. far, far away 2 - good ... for you to poop on 3 - choose your own boredom 4 - slightly more fun than homework 5 - not the best, certainly not the worst 6 - it's worth every cent 7 - even better than Reeses' Cups® 8 - it will bring you enlightenment If you really don't feel like leaving a rating, you can always click here to continue to the comments screen. Not sure what to rate? Check out the tips for Rating And Leaving Comments.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"The traveler is at the campfire! Go, go!" The news spread like wildfire. Soon, all the children of the village were gathered at the firepit. "Will you tell us a story?" they begged. The traveler wasn't very used to kids, so it took her a while before she realized they wouldn't take no for an answer. "Alright," she relented. "Imagine... that you're a dragon, flying over the forest on a summer's day. The sun is on your wings, the wind is in your ears, and the world is your playground..." You're soaring over your domain, the largest forest in the region. The humans call it the Essucia Woods. It's a bright summer's day, but you're not worried about being spotted. You're soaring right over the thick of the wood, where centaurs, elves, lizardfolk, and hundreds of other dangerous creatures live—it's obvious no human would ever dare to enter. Or, at least, you thought no human would ever dare to go there. You're quite surprised to see a young woman, little more than a girl, standing alone in a clearing. Doesn't she know that's essentially screaming, "Monsters! Come and kill me!" You fly over to get a closer look, and the girl notices you. Instead of running away (which is quite useless, because you could easily catch up to her) she calls out. "Dragon!" This girl is either really brave, really stupid, or a combination of both. You prefer to keep a low profile on account of the humans. If you were to attempt to plunder their treasures, their armies might seek you out. Though you could probably take them on with ease, humans can get annoyingly lucky. One of them might actually do some damage. So if you were to talk to this girl, she might share what you actually look like to her family and friends, as opposed to the legends that scare people away. By the way her rucksack is swinging, you can tell it has something heavy in it, quite possibly gold. She's dressed in a fancy cloak and it's evident she hasn't been in the forest for long. It might be worth seeing what this girl is calling out to you for. On the other hand, this might be a trap. It seems a little too obvious. Still, most traps wouldn't hurt a scale of yours, and you'd prefer to see what this girl is up to when she doesn't have the jump on you. > You talk to the girl You land beside the girl. You're fairly sure she doesn't pose much of a threat, and if you wanted to, you could eat her in a heartbeat. "Why did you call out to me?" you ask, curious. "You realize there are a thousand different ways I could kill you." "Yet you haven't used any of them." she responds. So she's smarter than she looks. "I came to make you an offer. I'm a princess, which means I'm going to be married off as some sort of political tool. I don't want to get married just because some old dude offered my father an alliance. I don't want to get married at all, so I'm running away." "Then what on earth did you catch my attention for?" you ask impatiently. "I'm getting to that," she answers. "If I run away on my own, my father will send out search teams. There'll be a lot of people combing the woods, and it's only a matter of time before they find me. However, if I was "captured" by a powerful being, like a dragon..." "People would be scared and only individuals would try to rescue you." you finish. "What's in it for me?" In response to this, she dumps the contents of her sack out onto the ground. A diamond necklace, a jeweled chalice, and a large pile of gold coins spill out. "I'd also ask you to lurk around the area I'm in to keep up appearances. So, what do you say?" If she is right about only individuals coming, it shouldn't be too much of a problem. However, the reason you've stayed in the woods is because humans can be annoyingly powerful if they put their minds to it. And who knows? Maybe one of them will get lucky. Still, it's a half-decent payoff for a minor service... You consider all these factors, and you finally reach a decision. > Yes. Someone paying you to kidnap them? That's a pretty good deal. "Don't forget to fly near the town so that they see me being 'captured', " the girl says. "How do I know this isn't a trap to kill me? Not that you could," you ask. "You'll be carrying me in between your claws." she says with complete confidence. "If the archers shoot you, you'll bring me down with you. And if anything goes wrong, like you said, you have a thousand different ways to kill me. " After she picks the treasure back up (you'll know if anything is missing) she walks through the forest towards the castle. You follow, the trees concealing your green-brown scales. Once she enters the fields surrounding the castle, she starts skipping and whistling a tune, really playing the part of the helpless maiden. Then comes your favorite part. You swoop down, aiming for the girl. A peasant boy comes by, spots you, and starts to freak out. "Princess Selena, look out!" the boy yells. "Look out for what?" she says, pretending to not notice you behind her. "It's a—" the peasant boy starts, but is interrupted by you catching her in your talons and taking to the air. "Dragon!" the girl screams. "Oh, woe is me! A dragon is capturing me! Won't somebody help save me from this fearsome beast? Oh, no!" She's really getting into the role. You fly around the castle a few times for good measure, and pretty soon the whole town is in an uproar. "A dragon is capturing the princess! What are we going to do?" Why, the townsfolk are more melodramatic than the princess, and she knows what's going on. You fly off into the distance, chuckling to yourself. Once the girl stops her damsel-in-distress act, she asks you what's so funny. "Well, your entire town went into an uproar because one girl got captured. Humans really do obsess over the silliest things." you respond. You figure you'll just leave her in some spot in the forest and hope she survives, but you see the wizard's tower in the distance and you get an idea. You're sure there's some good magical loot in there, but that arrogant wizard put wards up to keep dragons from entering. The wizard's long gone, but the wards still remain. The girl, however, should be able to enter, and in time you may be able to convince her to lower the wards, if she learns magic. You don't say any of this to her, though. Instead, you just fly over and say, "Here. This will be a more habitable place than most. And if someone tries to rescue you, they'll have to waste their time climbing the tower. But this is a wizard's tower, so don't touch anything until you've described it to me. I don't want you blowing yourself up." You also don't want her to use all the magic in the tower before you've had a chance to exploit it. A few days pass. The girl hasn't appeared to find much of interest. All she's found so far is a journal of sorts, a heavy tome with weird symbols in it. You've seen the wizard carrying it around, but it didn't really do anything. What harm can it cause? She also hasn't found the Pool of Seeing yet. It's fairly easy to use. All you need to do is speak the name of a person you've met in person or the name of a place you've been, and it will show the user that which they named. Since it's outside of the tower, you have used it many times. What would happen if the girl used it? The pool could potentially boost her magical power. On a more practical note, she could be aware of any knights trying to "rescue" her. Still, knowledge is power, and you prefer when you have power as opposed to someone else. > You show her the pool "Girl, have you seen the pool in the back?" "Are you talking about the koi pond?" she asks. "Yeah, I've seen it. Why?" "It will allow you to see any person or place you've seen before." "Cool! How does it work?" she says, and then leaps off the balcony. Instead of falling, she floats down and lands gently on the ground. "I've been practicing that spell." she admits. "Not bad," you say, hiding your feelings. She's taken the initiative to practice magic, which means she'll be able to take down the wards, but on the other hand, she could become a threat. "Hello?" the girl says, snapping her fingers in front of your face. "How does it work again?" "All you do is speak the name of the thing you wish to see." you say, still a bit surprised that she's already grown so comfortable in your presence. Even though you've known her for a while now, you're still unsure of whether she's brave or stupid. Maybe she's getting a little too comfortable with you. "Show me my father," she orders. You roll your eyes. "The pool doesn't know who you are or who your father is. You must state his name." "Ohh! That's how it works. I knew that." she says, unsuccessfully trying to hide the fact that she's been poking the water with a stick. You're starting to lean towards the stupid of the brave or stupid dilemma. "Show me King Henricus Archibald the Third." she tries again. "Let me guess," you say. "Your full name is Selena Magnificent Beauticious—" "It's just Selena," the girl says, annoyed. "Look!" The pool shows a bearded man donning a red cloak and a golden crown, the human symbols of royalty. He looks like he hasn't slept in days. "Why haven't we sent out a search party yet?" demands the king, but from his expression you can tell he already knows the answer. "You know everyone in their right mind is absolutely terrified of the dragon," the queen says, coming to the king's side. "We can't expect the militia to fight a dragon!" At least the girl's parents have some common sense, though you can't say the same for their daughter. "How do you know she's even alive?" says the king miserably. "The dragon didn't kill her immediately, instead taking her back to its lair. It probably wants to lure more victims in and is using her as bait." the queen answers. Suddenly, the king seems to hold himself taller. "We'll gather knights from across the kingdoms! Tell them that there's a great beast imprisoning a helpless maiden,"— the girl scoffs at this—"and that it must be vanquished!" "What sort of reward should we give?" asks the queen, starting to regain hope. "Facing a dragon is no easy feat." The king considers this. "Since someone stole a lot of treasure out of the royal treasury, we can't exactly give a cash reward, or the thief might steal it again." You look at the girl. "So what?" she says. "I'm sure you've stolen your fair share of treasure as well." You decide not to answer and turn your attention back to the pool. "Perhaps we can solve two problems at once," the king says. "We still don't have an heir to the throne. Such a worthy soul, to slay a dragon, would surely make a fine heir." "So you're suggesting..." the queen begins. "The knight that rescues Selena would have her hand in marriage." The queen pauses. "You know Selena would not be okay with this." The king laughs. "Nonsense! She'd be so grateful to her rescuer that I'd be surprised if she didn't marry him on the spot!" "I'm fairly sure that isn't how it's going to go..." the queen tries to say, but the king isn't listening anymore. "Send the messengers throughout the land!" the king proclaims. "We are in search of knights!" The vision fades, and the water is a clear pool once more. "That is not going to happen," says the girl. "I am not getting married to some idiot with a big sword and a bigger ego." "Well spoken," you state. "But what are you going to do about it, girl?" "First off, my name is Selena, not girl. And second, I've been practicing more than just floating out of a tower." She shows an elegant wand tipped with a blue crystal that glows faintly. "Mutati vigil ut endormi rever, tempo soisminno," she pronounces, pointing her wand at a nearby boar. The crystal's glow intensifies, and the boar promptly falls asleep. "You can cure insomnia. Fantastic." you say dryly. "But think about it!" the girl—Selena—protests. "If the knight falls asleep on the job, that's even worse than facing a dragon! He'll be ridiculed!" "Fair," you say. "Oh, and thanks for the snack." You stab the boar through the heart, killing it instantly. Selena makes a sort of squawking noise. You turn to her, annoyed. "Please. It's not like you don't eat meat." "But—you just—" "Killed it? Yes, I'm aware. Humans take some sadistic sort of pleasure in hunting. I've seen them send their dogs after the prey, have them rip off its limbs.This way—" you motion to the dead boar, "it just felt like falling asleep." Selena has finally managed to wipe that shell-shocked expression off her face. "Just... don't do that to the knights, okay?" You sigh. "Don't worry. Humans are much too bony—I'm kidding, I'm kidding," you say, even though you weren't really kidding. Looks like she's never lived through one of humankind's wars or seen any death... until now. Oops. She enters the tower, then pokes her head back out. "I forgot to ask," she says. "What's your name? I'll need it to see you in the pool." Curses. If you don't give your name, it'll appear suspicious. But names can be a powerful thing, used in spells and things like the Pool of Seeing. "My name is Eryllis," you finally state. A few days later, the first knight arrives. > The knights. You spot him from the air. Although the girl—Selena—told you not to kill him, that doesn't mean you can't have some fun. He's riding on a white horse and he's wearing armor that looks like it's never been used. He's carrying an enormous sword, the idiot. It'll slow him down and be virtually useless for blocking attacks. He also isn't wearing a helmet—the better to smile at Selena with. "Fair princess," he begins. "I am Sir Hildebrant and I have come to save thee from—" FWOOMP. You snatch the guy right off his horse, who gallops away in terror. Smart horse. The knight tries to reach for his sword, but you've got him pinned so tightly, he can't move. You fling him far away, into the Eckbel bog. "I told you not to kill him!" Selena exclaims hysterically. "Relax. I know my own strength." you state. "Show me Hildebrant!" Selena demands. The pool swirls, and shows a knight flying through the sky. He lands in the bog, sinking deep in the mud. For a moment, you think he might not resurface, but then you see a mop of mud-caked hair emerge, and you know he'll be fine. "Right over my new armor, too! I didn't think it would be a real dragon!" he whines. You chuckle. "What did he think I would be, a stuffed dragon?" Selena giggles in response. You both had a good laugh as the upstart tried to explain himself to the king and queen. "I fought valiantly, but in the end I had to flee from the dragon. I barely escaped with my life." he explained. "Shut up," you say, "You were fine." "Why are you covered in mud?" the queen asks. "Well—I—you see—" he stammers. "You are not fit for my daughter," the king declares. The next few knights are of a similar standard. You dispatch them all easily. On one sunny morning, however, comes a knight of a different caliber... You don't even see him coming. Instead of coming through the path, he snuck through the woods. "Dragon," you hear him call. You whirl around, only to see a small figure, much skinnier than the others. His armor is too big and you almost feel sorry for him. He doesn't look like much more of a threat than the girl. "I wish not to harm you," he continues, evidently disguising his voice to make it sound deeper than it actually is. "Will you hear me out? > You listen to the knight "Speak," you declare. "First, I'd like to thank you for showing mercy to the princess." "You mean not killing her? That's hardly altruistic." you answer. "Whatever the case, thank you. She means a lot to her parents and to the entire kingdom." "I can tell. So far, you've sent—what, five knights now? What makes you think you'll fare any differently?" you ask. "I seek to liberate the princess, not to kill the dragon," the knight states. "Will you release her? I offer myself in exchange." You scrutinize him. He seems serious. Selena walks out onto the balcony. "See, there's where you're getting it wrong. Maybe she would release me, except I haven't been captured." Though the knight is wearing a visor, you can practically see the shock in his eyes. "You came here willingly? But the whole kingdom saw you get captured!" Selena looks at you, as if deciding whether to admit the truth. "It was a setup," you say. Selena proceeds to tell the knight your story. The knight looks at Selena with a look of disbelief. "You caused your parents so much distress, and for what? To hide away in a tower? To be the plaything of a dragon? They've barely slept, and when they did, they had nightmares of you getting tortured and starved!" "No one understands!" Selena yells back. "To you, I'm just a pretty girl in a dress who doesn't know what's good for herself. Who can't lead a kingdom, who needs to be protected from her 'feminine curiosity'. Does that sound about right?" The knight, however, isn't done. "Well, at least you have a family who cares! My family sent their only child off with nothing but the clothes on her back and a loaf of bread!" You're surprised Selena hasn't realized it yet. Deciding enough is enough, you dive at the knight, who tries to leap out of the way, but is too slow. You weren't aiming for the knight, though. The knight gets up, and a cascade of blond hair falls in front of her face. Upon realizing her helmet is gone, her face registers at first a look of shock, and then of resignation. "Well, I guess the charade is up, isn't it?" she says softly, with a sigh. Selena is too shell-shocked to speak. You laugh. The pair both turn to you. "What's so funny?" the knight asks. "You do realize your chances would probably have been much better had you just not hidden your identity." you explain. "What happened?" Selena finally asks. "What do you mean, "what happened"?" you and the knight say at the same time. You look at the knight. She shrugs. "What made you don your armor? What was the last straw? The knight pauses. "You can tell us over dinner." Selena suggests. "After all, we've got some fresh...boar... to eat." The knight smiles in spite of Selena's evident squeamishness (or perhaps because of it). "I'd love to," she says. You eat in silence for a while"So, you were wondering what happened?" the knight says, her voice almost a murmur. "Go on," Selena encourages. "Where do I start? Well, my father had always wanted a boy. When my mother died in childbirth and I was a girl, I think he made his belief, there and then, that girls were good for nothing. "When I was five years old, we moved to a new town. I was in the park when a neighbor asked who my parents were, since they weren't there. I told them who my father was, but they said, 'That's impossible. He doesn't have any children.' When I confronted him about it, he said that one girl hardly counted. From then on, I figured that if I was like a boy, my father might think I counted. "At seven years old, I cut my hair short and asked for an apprenticeship 'learning weapons', which meant the local swordsmaster, blacksmith, and bowyer all apprenticed a group of kids, and whichever was the best at any given trade?—say, archery?—would be the apprentice of the respective master?—say, the bowyer. "In church, I was taught that whoever lied would eventually be found out, and I figured the same would apply to my being female. So, I aimed to be so good that even if I was a girl, they would have no choice to accept me. I was always the firat one to arrive and the last one to leave. I was there even when I didn't need to be. Every task, no matter how mundane, humiliating, or difficult, I strove to be the best at. And even though I was probably better at every task than the others, I didn't stop. For a while, I let it consume me. "At this point, I had built a relationship with the blacksmith and I felt I could trust him, apprentice to master. I told him that I was a girl and begged him to let me stay in the apprenticeship. He seemed a bit surprised, saying that it didn't matter whether you were a girl or a boy, only that you were good at your trade. 'As long as you're good, I don't see any reason why you shouldn't have a trade,' he said. "Somehow or other, word got out that I was a girl. But the blacksmith would vouch for me every time they tried to end my apprenticeship. But at sixteen, everybody had to complete one final task to prove they were truly masters of their craft. Mine was to rescue the princess. There, they said I could end it, give up. I could go back to a life as a maid or a housewife, not have to deal with the pressure. But there was no way those pigs were going to tell me what to do. They refused to give me weapons, so I went from town to town, looking for work as a blacksmith. Eventually, I saved up enough to make my own. They told me that the king would never accept my help and that I wouldn't come back alive. Well... "Before I left the town, my father saw me in my armor. I thought he might finally be proud of me." Her expression darkens. "Let's just say I was wrong." "And here I thought the only way to deal with my problems was running away," Selena says, a thoughtful expression on her face. There's silence for a moment. "I should tell my parents what I wanted all along," Selena suddenly says. "I should tell them that I just wanted to be free to make my own decisions," she continues, a rising fervor growing in her voice. "But that it wasn't right to cause them so much worry because of what I wanted." She looks like she might say something more, but the knight interjects. "Well, don't say it to us, say it to them!" Selena rises from the table, a determined look on her face. You soar through the skies, which are painted in an array of colors by the morning sun. Selena gasps in awe, sitting in a basket she's made for you to hold. She reaches out, almost as if to touch the trails of blue and pink surrounding you. The knight, however, is gripping the sides of the basket tightly. She looks terrified, even though you can't see her face on account of the oversized helmet atop her head. You set down the basket before touching down on the fields surrounding the palace, still moist with dew. The knight is the first one to climb out. She lets out a huge sigh of relief. Selena steps out gracefully. "You ready?" the knight asks. "No," Selena answers, "But let's do it anyway." You soar off. You'll be watching from the pool. Still, you feel like you're missing out on some of the action. Oh well. By the time you return to the pool, the skies are now a bright blue and the sun is up in the air. "Show me Selena," you declare, realizing the knight never told you her name. You can't blame her. "Thanks for the pep talk," Selena says to the knight. "I'm good to go now." The pair walk right up to the massive gates of the castle. "The princess has returned!" the knight proclaims loudly, startling awake some guards sleeping on the job. "Pardon me?" one of the guards asks. "She has been saved from the dragon," the knight says, back to her fake deep voice. The news spreads like wildfire. Not even five minutes later, the king and queen come running out, still in their pyjamas. "Selena?" the queen murmurs. The king turns to the knight, gratitude written on his face. "Our kingdom owes a great debt to you. You are certainly worthy of being the next heir—" "Father," Selena interrupts, "Before we continue, there are a few things I must say. I wasn't captured by the dragon. I staged the capture." The king doesn't know what to say. "I—but—" "However, it wasn't right of me to put you through such stress just because of what I wanted," she continues. "With that in mind, what I wanted wasn't riches or wealth. It wasn't a title or fame." Selena pauses for a moment. "All I really wanted, and that which I still want now, is the freedom to make my own decisions, though they may not be the best ones I make. I want to decide if I will get married, and who I will get married to. I want to do things that are ridiculous, things out of the ordinary. Will you let me do those things?" The king's expression is at first of shock, then of resignation. "The dragon has meddled her mind, I see. We must keep her here until we can heal her mind from its poison." You roll your eyes. "I thought you might say that," Selena says with disappointment. "Though I was rather hoping you'd say something different," she continues, a wistful look in her eyes. "Mother understands, but you don't." The queen nods, tears in her eyes. "When will you learn? Nobody can keep me locked up in a tower." Her eyes go to the sky, and she looks directly at you with a small smile. "You can't keep me here against my will. Maybe one day, I'll come back. But I'm free now." She starts performing the actions of a spell, one that you've seen her practice many times. "Watch me fly," Selena morphs into a bright blue bird and takes to the air. Selena pulls a bright blue feather out of her hair. "That spell took a lot more effort than I thought it would," she sighs. "Am I losing my touch?" she wonders aloud. She looks exhausted. You can't blame her. Even after managing the transformation to a bird and back, she still is working on the knight's gift, which requires a lot of magic on her part. "Get some rest," you order. "You're not on a deadline and you have barely any endurance." "Endurance?" Selena asks. "Channeling magic isn't easy," you say. "It takes a toll. You're only performing lower-tier spells currently, but powerful spells can leave a person unconscious for days." "Alright," she agrees, too tired to argue. "But I swear I felt something, like I had the capacity to do it with ease, but like something is blocking the magic, making it really hard for any to come through. Like... water trickling through a dam." "I wouldn't know anything about it," you say, "I've never performed magic the way you do. Now, get some rest. You need it." "Aye, aye, Captain Eryllis," she says in what you think is supposed to be a joking manner, but you can't tell. Her voice has taken on that monotone quality humans have when they've been tired the whole day. It's early evening, but Selena will be lucky if she gets up before noon. You turn to the knight, who is fashioning a hood of leather from the skin of the boar. Selena still hasn't told her what it's for. "Eryllis, huh," she says. Yet another person who knows your name. You frown slightly, which the knight, surprisingly, notices. "I get it. I don't think I've told anyone my real name since I was 10. I've gone by a different name each town." "You're surprisingly intuitive for a human," you say. "Well, I guess I was always good at reading people." the knight responds. "Dragons are people too?" you ask, half joking. "Well, since I know your name, I guess I should tell you mine too. I'm Elizabeth." "Elizabeth," you say in disbelief. "There are about zero ways to make that sound like a boy's name, I know." "What's wrong with it being a girl's name?" Selena asks tiredly. She falls back asleep almost instantly. The next few days pass in a blur. You ward off other knights who didn't get the message, Selena continues to exhaust herself working on the knight's gift, and the knight—Elizabeth— practices swordplay in between gathering ingredients for Selena's spells and trying to catch a sneak peek of her gift. There isn't much to look at, though. You're starting to wonder if humans are allergic to relaxing. After 10 days, Elizabeth's gift is finally finished. "Close your eyes," says Selena. Elizabeth obliges. You see a hood with a masquerade mask attached. At first it looks indigo, but as you watch it shifts colours in the light, going from indigo to green, and then back to the same brown that the leather was when the hood was first made. Selena places the hood over Elizabeth's head. "Alright. You can open your eyes now." she says, excited. Elizabeth opens her eyes and her breath catches in astonishment. "It's beautiful." Elizabeth murmurs. "It's magical," Selena says. "This hood will ensure others see you for who you want to be seen as." "So... if I want to be seen as a knight in shining armor..." You expect something to change, but nothing happens. "It's sort of a mixture of their worldview and your will. If they already see you as a knight in shining armor—" She casts a glance in your direction—"Their perception won't change." Elizabeth gathers her things and prepares to leave—until she runs into Selena. "You're going?" Selena asks, puzzled. "You tried to patch up things with your family. I think I'll heed my own advice and try to work things out with mine. "Your father... Even after what he did, you still want to make things up with him?" Selena says in astonishment. "At the very least, I want to let him know that I am much more than what he thought I was. And I might even 'save' a few more 'damsels in distress'." You all chuckle at that one. Elizabeth stands at the door, but she seems... hesitant. Like she's waiting for something. > You let her stay "Oh, for goodness sake, if you want to stay, just get on with it already!" you chuckle. "The family you were born into is important, but the family you choose is even more important," Selena adds. "This is as much your home as it is ours. Though we're not going to stop you from seeking out your birth family... just remember that we'd like to be your chosen family, if you'll have us." In response, Elizabeth hugs Selena. "I'll come back once I've tried talking to him," she says. You take to the air, watching the knight make her way through the forest. You circle around the tower and then soar into the sunset. "And that's how it ends," the traveler says. "I liked that," one of the kids says. "But why can't Selena cast spells without getting tired?" "What does the dragon have against the name Elizabeth?" "Well, that's a story for another time," the traveler says., rubbing a line of green scales along the back of her neck. "Another time! Another story!" the kids shriek with glee. And they all lived happily ever after... or at least until the sequel.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Speak," you declare. "First, I'd like to thank you for showing mercy to the princess." "You mean not killing her? That's hardly altruistic." you answer. "Whatever the case, thank you. She means a lot to her parents and to the entire kingdom." "I can tell. So far, you've sent—what, five knights now? What makes you think you'll fare any differently?" you ask. "I seek to liberate the princess, not to kill the dragon," the knight states. "Will you release her? I offer myself in exchange." You scrutinize him. He seems serious. Selena walks out onto the balcony. "See, there's where you're getting it wrong. Maybe she would release me, except I haven't been captured." Though the knight is wearing a visor, you can practically see the shock in his eyes. "You came here willingly? But the whole kingdom saw you get captured!" Selena looks at you, as if deciding whether to admit the truth. "It was a setup," you say. Selena proceeds to tell the knight your story. The knight looks at Selena with a look of disbelief. "You caused your parents so much distress, and for what? To hide away in a tower? To be the plaything of a dragon? They've barely slept, and when they did, they had nightmares of you getting tortured and starved!" "No one understands!" Selena yells back. "To you, I'm just a pretty girl in a dress who doesn't know what's good for herself. Who can't lead a kingdom, who needs to be protected from her 'feminine curiosity'. Does that sound about right?" The knight, however, isn't done. "Well, at least you have a family who cares! My family sent their only child off with nothing but the clothes on her back and a loaf of bread!" You're surprised Selena hasn't realized it yet. Deciding enough is enough, you dive at the knight, who tries to leap out of the way, but is too slow. You weren't aiming for the knight, though. The knight gets up, and a cascade of blond hair falls in front of her face. Upon realizing her helmet is gone, her face registers at first a look of shock, and then of resignation. "Well, I guess the charade is up, isn't it?" she says softly, with a sigh. Selena is too shell-shocked to speak. You laugh. The pair both turn to you. "What's so funny?" the knight asks. "You do realize your chances would probably have been much better had you just not hidden your identity." you explain. "What happened?" Selena finally asks. "What do you mean, "what happened"?" you and the knight say at the same time. You look at the knight. She shrugs. "What made you don your armor? What was the last straw? The knight pauses. "You can tell us over dinner." Selena suggests. "After all, we've got some fresh...boar... to eat." The knight smiles in spite of Selena's evident squeamishness (or perhaps because of it). "I'd love to," she says. You eat in silence for a while"So, you were wondering what happened?" the knight says, her voice almost a murmur. "Go on," Selena encourages. "Where do I start? Well, my father had always wanted a boy. When my mother died in childbirth and I was a girl, I think he made his belief, there and then, that girls were good for nothing. "When I was five years old, we moved to a new town. I was in the park when a neighbor asked who my parents were, since they weren't there. I told them who my father was, but they said, 'That's impossible. He doesn't have any children.' When I confronted him about it, he said that one girl hardly counted. From then on, I figured that if I was like a boy, my father might think I counted. "At seven years old, I cut my hair short and asked for an apprenticeship 'learning weapons', which meant the local swordsmaster, blacksmith, and bowyer all apprenticed a group of kids, and whichever was the best at any given trade?—say, archery?—would be the apprentice of the respective master?—say, the bowyer. "In church, I was taught that whoever lied would eventually be found out, and I figured the same would apply to my being female. So, I aimed to be so good that even if I was a girl, they would have no choice to accept me. I was always the firat one to arrive and the last one to leave. I was there even when I didn't need to be. Every task, no matter how mundane, humiliating, or difficult, I strove to be the best at. And even though I was probably better at every task than the others, I didn't stop. For a while, I let it consume me. "At this point, I had built a relationship with the blacksmith and I felt I could trust him, apprentice to master. I told him that I was a girl and begged him to let me stay in the apprenticeship. He seemed a bit surprised, saying that it didn't matter whether you were a girl or a boy, only that you were good at your trade. 'As long as you're good, I don't see any reason why you shouldn't have a trade,' he said. "Somehow or other, word got out that I was a girl. But the blacksmith would vouch for me every time they tried to end my apprenticeship. But at sixteen, everybody had to complete one final task to prove they were truly masters of their craft. Mine was to rescue the princess. There, they said I could end it, give up. I could go back to a life as a maid or a housewife, not have to deal with the pressure. But there was no way those pigs were going to tell me what to do. They refused to give me weapons, so I went from town to town, looking for work as a blacksmith. Eventually, I saved up enough to make my own. They told me that the king would never accept my help and that I wouldn't come back alive. Well... "Before I left the town, my father saw me in my armor. I thought he might finally be proud of me." Her expression darkens. "Let's just say I was wrong." "And here I thought the only way to deal with my problems was running away," Selena says, a thoughtful expression on her face. There's silence for a moment. "I should tell my parents what I wanted all along," Selena suddenly says. "I should tell them that I just wanted to be free to make my own decisions," she continues, a rising fervor growing in her voice. "But that it wasn't right to cause them so much worry because of what I wanted." She looks like she might say something more, but the knight interjects. "Well, don't say it to us, say it to them!" Selena rises from the table, a determined look on her face. You soar through the skies, which are painted in an array of colors by the morning sun. Selena gasps in awe, sitting in a basket she's made for you to hold. She reaches out, almost as if to touch the trails of blue and pink surrounding you. The knight, however, is gripping the sides of the basket tightly. She looks terrified, even though you can't see her face on account of the oversized helmet atop her head. You set down the basket before touching down on the fields surrounding the palace, still moist with dew. The knight is the first one to climb out. She lets out a huge sigh of relief. Selena steps out gracefully. "You ready?" the knight asks. "No," Selena answers, "But let's do it anyway." You soar off. You'll be watching from the pool. Still, you feel like you're missing out on some of the action. Oh well. By the time you return to the pool, the skies are now a bright blue and the sun is up in the air. "Show me Selena," you declare, realizing the knight never told you her name. You can't blame her. "Thanks for the pep talk," Selena says to the knight. "I'm good to go now." The pair walk right up to the massive gates of the castle. "The princess has returned!" the knight proclaims loudly, startling awake some guards sleeping on the job. "Pardon me?" one of the guards asks. "She has been saved from the dragon," the knight says, back to her fake deep voice. The news spreads like wildfire. Not even five minutes later, the king and queen come running out, still in their pyjamas. "Selena?" the queen murmurs. The king turns to the knight, gratitude written on his face. "Our kingdom owes a great debt to you. You are certainly worthy of being the next heir—" "Father," Selena interrupts, "Before we continue, there are a few things I must say. I wasn't captured by the dragon. I staged the capture." The king doesn't know what to say. "I—but—" "However, it wasn't right of me to put you through such stress just because of what I wanted," she continues. "With that in mind, what I wanted wasn't riches or wealth. It wasn't a title or fame." Selena pauses for a moment. "All I really wanted, and that which I still want now, is the freedom to make my own decisions, though they may not be the best ones I make. I want to decide if I will get married, and who I will get married to. I want to do things that are ridiculous, things out of the ordinary. Will you let me do those things?" The king's expression is at first of shock, then of resignation. "The dragon has meddled her mind, I see. We must keep her here until we can heal her mind from its poison." You roll your eyes. "I thought you might say that," Selena says with disappointment. "Though I was rather hoping you'd say something different," she continues, a wistful look in her eyes. "Mother understands, but you don't." The queen nods, tears in her eyes. "When will you learn? Nobody can keep me locked up in a tower." Her eyes go to the sky, and she looks directly at you with a small smile. "You can't keep me here against my will. Maybe one day, I'll come back. But I'm free now." She starts performing the actions of a spell, one that you've seen her practice many times. "Watch me fly," Selena morphs into a bright blue bird and takes to the air. Selena pulls a bright blue feather out of her hair. "That spell took a lot more effort than I thought it would," she sighs. "Am I losing my touch?" she wonders aloud. She looks exhausted. You can't blame her. Even after managing the transformation to a bird and back, she still is working on the knight's gift, which requires a lot of magic on her part. "Get some rest," you order. "You're not on a deadline and you have barely any endurance." "Endurance?" Selena asks. "Channeling magic isn't easy," you say. "It takes a toll. You're only performing lower-tier spells currently, but powerful spells can leave a person unconscious for days." "Alright," she agrees, too tired to argue. "But I swear I felt something, like I had the capacity to do it with ease, but like something is blocking the magic, making it really hard for any to come through. Like... water trickling through a dam." "I wouldn't know anything about it," you say, "I've never performed magic the way you do. Now, get some rest. You need it." "Aye, aye, Captain Eryllis," she says in what you think is supposed to be a joking manner, but you can't tell. Her voice has taken on that monotone quality humans have when they've been tired the whole day. It's early evening, but Selena will be lucky if she gets up before noon. You turn to the knight, who is fashioning a hood of leather from the skin of the boar. Selena still hasn't told her what it's for. "Eryllis, huh," she says. Yet another person who knows your name. You frown slightly, which the knight, surprisingly, notices. "I get it. I don't think I've told anyone my real name since I was 10. I've gone by a different name each town." "You're surprisingly intuitive for a human," you say. "Well, I guess I was always good at reading people." the knight responds. "Dragons are people too?" you ask, half joking. "Well, since I know your name, I guess I should tell you mine too. I'm Elizabeth." "Elizabeth," you say in disbelief. "There are about zero ways to make that sound like a boy's name, I know." "What's wrong with it being a girl's name?" Selena asks tiredly. She falls back asleep almost instantly. The next few days pass in a blur. You ward off other knights who didn't get the message, Selena continues to exhaust herself working on the knight's gift, and the knight—Elizabeth— practices swordplay in between gathering ingredients for Selena's spells and trying to catch a sneak peek of her gift. There isn't much to look at, though. You're starting to wonder if humans are allergic to relaxing. After 10 days, Elizabeth's gift is finally finished. "Close your eyes," says Selena. Elizabeth obliges. You see a hood with a masquerade mask attached. At first it looks indigo, but as you watch it shifts colours in the light, going from indigo to green, and then back to the same brown that the leather was when the hood was first made. Selena places the hood over Elizabeth's head. "Alright. You can open your eyes now." she says, excited. Elizabeth opens her eyes and her breath catches in astonishment. "It's beautiful." Elizabeth murmurs. "It's magical," Selena says. "This hood will ensure others see you for who you want to be seen as." "So... if I want to be seen as a knight in shining armor..." You expect something to change, but nothing happens. "It's sort of a mixture of their worldview and your will. If they already see you as a knight in shining armor—" She casts a glance in your direction—"Their perception won't change." Elizabeth gathers her things and prepares to leave—until she runs into Selena. "You're going?" Selena asks, puzzled. "You tried to patch up things with your family. I think I'll heed my own advice and try to work things out with mine. "Your father... Even after what he did, you still want to make things up with him?" Selena says in astonishment. "At the very least, I want to let him know that I am much more than what he thought I was. And I might even 'save' a few more 'damsels in distress'." You all chuckle at that one. Elizabeth stands at the door, but she seems... hesitant. Like she's waiting for something. > You let her leave "Well, see you around," you say. "Good luck with your father." "Thanks," Elizabeth responds. "Bye," Selena says softly. The night falls as Elizabeth makes her way through the forest. You soar over the woods, with an odd feeling of— "It's missing something," one of the children says. "Like there was a better ending," "But it was a good ending," another one protests. "Remember," says the traveler, "this story isn't necessarily what happened," "It isn't?" says a third. "No," says the traveler, and smiles. "It's only what could have happened." The traveler rubs the green scales on the back of her neck with a grateful look on her face...<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You spot him from the air. Although the girl—Selena—told you not to kill him, that doesn't mean you can't have some fun. He's riding on a white horse and he's wearing armor that looks like it's never been used. He's carrying an enormous sword, the idiot. It'll slow him down and be virtually useless for blocking attacks. He also isn't wearing a helmet—the better to smile at Selena with. "Fair princess," he begins. "I am Sir Hildebrant and I have come to save thee from—" FWOOMP. You snatch the guy right off his horse, who gallops away in terror. Smart horse. The knight tries to reach for his sword, but you've got him pinned so tightly, he can't move. You fling him far away, into the Eckbel bog. "I told you not to kill him!" Selena exclaims hysterically. "Relax. I know my own strength." you state. "Show me Hildebrant!" Selena demands. The pool swirls, and shows a knight flying through the sky. He lands in the bog, sinking deep in the mud. For a moment, you think he might not resurface, but then you see a mop of mud-caked hair emerge, and you know he'll be fine. "Right over my new armor, too! I didn't think it would be a real dragon!" he whines. You chuckle. "What did he think I would be, a stuffed dragon?" Selena giggles in response. You both had a good laugh as the upstart tried to explain himself to the king and queen. "I fought valiantly, but in the end I had to flee from the dragon. I barely escaped with my life." he explained. "Shut up," you say, "You were fine." "Why are you covered in mud?" the queen asks. "Well—I—you see—" he stammers. "You are not fit for my daughter," the king declares. The next few knights are of a similar standard. You dispatch them all easily. On one sunny morning, however, comes a knight of a different caliber... You don't even see him coming. Instead of coming through the path, he snuck through the woods. "Dragon," you hear him call. You whirl around, only to see a small figure, much skinnier than the others. His armor is too big and you almost feel sorry for him. He doesn't look like much more of a threat than the girl. "I wish not to harm you," he continues, evidently disguising his voice to make it sound deeper than it actually is. "Will you hear me out? > You tell him to go home. "Go home, buddy. Learn some swordplay and build up some muscle before you challenge a dragon. Let me guess. You're some farmer type who sang a song about how you're destined for more than cutting wheat, even though your family has done that for generations. You defeat foes who are much stronger than you by tricking them into doing it for you .You put on a suit of armor, tricked the king into thinking you're some valiant knight. And now you're thinking that you're going to defeat me by some clever plan of yours. Then poor peasant boy will suddenly become rich lord, and they'll talk about it in fairy tales afterward. Does that sound about right to you?" The knight is at first shocked, then angry. (Though it's hard to tell, what with the oversized helmet and all.) "I have as much right to be here as any of the other knights!" the knight protests. "I'm as worthy as they are!" "I mean, they weren't really worthy to begin with, so you're setting a real low bar for yourself here." you respond dryly. "If you don't think I deserve to be here, then fight me and see!" He raises his sword, which is small and light, unlike the swords of the faliures before him. You draw in breath, intending to knock him out with a burst of poisonous gas, but he's quick. He dives under you and slices his sword across your stomach. It's only a scratch, but none of the other knights have gotten this far. You take to the air. Cursing, he sheathes his sword and draws his bow and arrow. You don't stay put for him to fire at you, though. You spiral through the air, making you rather hard to hit. Even though he's a good shot, the only hits glance off your iron-hard scales. Next, you land in the forest, your green-brown scales blending in perfectly with the forest floor. Evolution has served you well. You hear the knight crashing through the forest (apparently he doesn't care about stealth anymore) and stop moving. He won't see you. He runs up on top of your back and you can practically hear his confusion. The broken branches make it clear that you were here. What he doesn't know is that you still are. You start moving slowly. He probably thinks it's an earthquake. Unseen, you creep around, ready to strike from behind. The helmet obsures his vision, which must explain why he hasn't noticed you yet. You pounce. The knight turns just in time to notice you and raises his shield up. It crumples under your weight, but he isn't there anymore. You hear a metallic clunk and a curse word as the knight removes her helmet. A cascade of blonde hair tumbles out. So they aren't sending arrogant males, just arrogant people. You snatch the knight in your claws. Not stopping to let her regain her senses, you take to the air, and soon you're well above the ground. You've got her pinned so tightly that she can't reach her sword. Unfortunately, that isn't her only weapon. She jabs a knife into the flesh surrounding your claws. You roar in pain and instinctively let go. The knight, however, doesn't. You try to bite her, but you're also not particularily keen on biting your claw off, either. The knight makes a leap of faith. For a second, you think she isn't going to make it, but she catches your wing and throws you off balance. You both hurtle to the ground, you barely managing to slow your fall. You crash to the ground, and she stabs his sword into you. You pin him to the ground. You're both beaten and bloodied. "Will you both stop!" Selena says. This is why you didn't want to agree to this. A few more minutes and she might have gotten luckier. As it is, you think she's punctured an organ or something. You're bleeding out. When you move, a splitting pain tears through you.You won't die, given that the combat doesn't continue, but it's still a grave injury. You hear a spitting noise from the knight and look down to see that your blood is dripping on her face and that she's trying to block it, but because you still have her pinned, she can't. "Your blood is—ew—in my—pthah—mouth! It's disgusting!" she spits. "May I remind you that you were the one who caused this?" you retort. "Well, if you hadn't taken that cheap shot—" "Cheap shot? You grabbed my—" "You wouldn't even stay on the ground!" "I'm sorry, who was the one that said, 'Fight me! I'm—' " "I said, will you both stop?!" Selena shouts, now more annoyed than concerned. Your adrenaline fades, however, and you're left weakened. You crumple to the ground, barely avoiding crushing the knight. Good thing, too, because she looks like she couldn't move a muscle. "Are you okay?" Selena asks, her annoyance faded. "Your parents—pant—have been searching—pant—everywhere for you," the knight wheezes. "But if you—pant—could convince the dragon—pant—to stop attacking, then couldn't you convince him—" "Her," you correct. "Her," the knight agrees. "Couldn't you convince her to let you go?" Selena says nothing. "So... is this your dragon?" "As if," you say, rolling your eyes. "So, you're... not captured?" the knight says, puzzled. "It took you long enough to figure that out," Selena says. "But... why? Your family has been searching for you for days. I don't think they've even slept!" A new stab of pain rolls through you and you groan. The princess rushes over to your side. "Are you okay? You don't seem okay," she asks, genuine concern written across her face. Of course. This knight probably wants to take her back against her will, and she's concerned about you. The pain intensifies and you decide that if this princess wants to be all altruistic, that's fine with you. "Hold on," says the princess, "I know a spell," You see that the knight is standing up and moving towards Selena. You think about warning her, but you have a sort of apathy that only pain can give. Just as the knight is about to reach Selena, she begins chanting. "Convers tempo d'ici d'ici, illatum mederi. Hoc est, hoc habet nomen. Voco huicus." She reverts to the common tongue. "I name thee as you were before, with a sharp wit and a willingness to go along with my crazy plan. I name thee queen of these woods and an accomplice to freedom. I name thee Eryllis." With that, you suddenly feel all the wounds you got over the past five minutes disappear. Not as if they had been healed, but as if there was never a wound in the first place. Selena collapses, and the knight catches her. "So..." she says, looking you up and down, "You're probably not going to let me return Selena to her parents, are you?" Once Selena wakes up, the three of you decide to dine together. Selena's parents can wait. Dinner is mostly silent until Selena suddenly interrupts. "What was the turning point?" "Pardon?" the knight asks. "Where did you decide that doing what other people said was not going to happen?" The knight considers this. "Well, my father had always wanted a boy. When my mother died in childbirth and I was a girl, I think he made his belief, there and then, that girls were good for nothing. "When I was five years old, we moved to a new town. I was in the park when a neighbor asked who my parents were, since they weren't there. I told them who my father was, but they said, 'That's impossible. He doesn't have any children.' When I confronted him about it, he said that one girl hardly counted. From then on, I figured that if I was like a boy, my father might think I counted. "At seven years old, I cut my hair short and asked for an apprenticeship 'learning weapons', which meant the local swordsmaster, blacksmith, and bowyer all apprenticed a group of kids, and whichever was the best at any given trade?—say, archery?—would be the apprentice of the respective master?—say, the bowyer. "In church, I was taught that whoever lied would eventually be found out, and I figured the same would apply to my being female. So, I aimed to be so good that even if I was a girl, they would have no choice to accept me. I was always the firat one to arrive and the last one to leave. I was there even when I didn't need to be. Every task, no matter how mundane, humiliating, or difficult, I strove to be the best at. And even though I was probably better at every task than the others, I didn't stop. For a while, I let it consume me. "At this point, I had built a relationship with the blacksmith and I felt I could trust him, apprentice to master. I told him that I was a girl and begged him to let me stay in the apprenticeship. He seemed a bit surprised, saying that it didn't matter whether you were a girl or a boy, only that you were good at your trade. 'As long as you're good, I don't see any reason why you shouldn't have a trade,' he said. "Somehow or other, word got out that I was a girl. But the blacksmith would vouch for me every time they tried to end my apprenticeship. But at sixteen, everybody had to complete one final task to prove they were truly masters of their craft. Mine was to rescue the princess. There, they said I could end it, give up. I could go back to a life as a maid or a housewife, not have to deal with the pressure. But there was no way those pigs were going to tell me what to do. They refused to give me weapons, so I went from town to town, looking for work as a blacksmith. Eventually, I saved up enough to make my own. They told me that the king would never accept my help and that I wouldn't come back alive. Well... "Before I left the town, my father saw me in my armor. I thought he might finally be proud of me." Her expression darkens. "Let's just say I was wrong." "And here I thought the only way to deal with my problems was running away," Selena says, a thoughtful expression on her face. There's silence for a moment. "I should tell my parents what I wanted all along," Selena suddenly says. "I should tell them that I just wanted to be free to make my own decisions," she continues, a rising fervor growing in her voice. "But that it wasn't right to cause them so much worry because of what I wanted." She looks like she might say something more, but the knight interjects. "Well, don't say it to us, say it to them!" Selena rises from the table, a determined look on her face. You soar through the skies, which are painted in an array of colors by the morning sun. Selena gasps in awe, sitting in a basket she's made for you to hold. She reaches out, almost as if to touch the trails of blue and pink surrounding you. The knight, however, is gripping the sides of the basket tightly. She looks terrified, even though you can't see her face on account of the oversized helmet atop her head. You set down the basket before touching down on the fields surrounding the palace, still moist with dew. The knight is the first one to climb out. She lets out a huge sigh of relief. Selena steps out gracefully. "You ready?" the knight asks. "No," Selena answers, "But let's do it anyway." You soar off. You'll be watching from the pool. Still, you feel like you're missing out on some of the action. Oh well. By the time you return to the pool, the skies are now a bright blue and the sun is up in the air. "Show me Selena," you declare, realizing the knight never told you her name. You can't blame her. "Thanks for the pep talk," Selena says to the knight. "I'm good to go now." The pair walk right up to the massive gates of the castle. "The princess has returned!" the knight proclaims loudly, startling awake some guards sleeping on the job. "Pardon me?" one of the guards asks. "She has been saved from the dragon," the knight says, back to her fake deep voice. The news spreads like wildfire. Not even five minutes later, the king and queen come running out, still in their pyjamas. "Selena?" the queen murmurs. The king turns to the knight, gratitude written on his face. "Our kingdom owes a great debt to you. You are certainly worthy of being the next heir—" "Father," Selena interrupts, "Before we continue, there are a few things I must say. I wasn't captured by the dragon. I staged the capture." The king doesn't know what to say. "I—but—" "However, it wasn't right of me to put you through such stress just because of what I wanted," she continues. "With that in mind, what I wanted wasn't riches or wealth. It wasn't a title or fame." Selena pauses for a moment. "All I really wanted, and that which I still want now, is the freedom to make my own decisions, though they may not be the best ones I make. I want to decide if I will get married, and who I will get married to. I want to do things that are ridiculous, things out of the ordinary. Will you let me do those things?" The king's expression is at first of shock, then of resignation. "The dragon has meddled her mind, I see. We must keep her here until we can heal her mind from its poison." You roll your eyes. "I thought you might say that," Selena says with disappointment. "Though I was rather hoping you'd say something different," she continues, a wistful look in her eyes. "Mother understands, but you don't." The queen nods, tears in her eyes. "When will you learn? Nobody can keep me locked up in a tower." Her eyes go to the sky, and she looks directly at you with a small smile. "You can't keep me here against my will. Maybe one day, I'll come back. But I'm free now." She starts performing the actions of a spell, one that you've seen her practice many times. "Watch me fly," Selena morphs into a bright blue bird and takes to the air. Selena pulls a bright blue feather out of her hair. "That spell took a lot more effort than I thought it would," she sighs. "Am I losing my touch?" she wonders aloud. She looks exhausted. You can't blame her. Even after managing the transformation to a bird and back, she still is working on the knight's gift, which requires a lot of magic on her part. "Get some rest," you order. "You're not on a deadline and you have barely any endurance." "Endurance?" Selena asks. "Channeling magic isn't easy," you say. "It takes a toll. You're only performing lower-tier spells currently, but powerful spells can leave a person unconscious for days." "Alright," she agrees, too tired to argue. "But I swear I felt something, like I had the capacity to do it with ease, but like something is blocking the magic, making it really hard for any to come through. Like... water trickling through a dam." "I wouldn't know anything about it," you say, "I've never performed magic the way you do. Now, get some rest. You need it." "Aye, aye, Captain Eryllis," she says in what you think is supposed to be a joking manner, but you can't tell. Her voice has taken on that monotone quality humans have when they've been tired the whole day. It's early evening, but Selena will be lucky if she gets up before noon. You turn to the knight, who is fashioning a hood of leather from the skin of the boar. Selena still hasn't told her what it's for. "Eryllis, huh," she says. Yet another person who knows your name. You frown slightly, which the knight, surprisingly, notices. "I get it. I don't think I've told anyone my real name since I was 10. I've gone by a different name each town." "You're surprisingly intuitive for a human," you say. "Well, I guess I was always good at reading people." the knight responds. "Dragons are people too?" you ask, half joking. "Well, since I know your name, I guess I should tell you mine too. I'm Elizabeth." "Elizabeth," you say in disbelief. "There are about zero ways to make that sound like a boy's name, I know." "What's wrong with it being a girl's name?" Selena asks tiredly. She falls back asleep almost instantly. The next few days pass in a blur. You ward off other knights who didn't get the message, Selena continues to exhaust herself working on the knight's gift, and the knight—Elizabeth— practices swordplay in between gathering ingredients for Selena's spells and trying to catch a sneak peek of her gift. There isn't much to look at, though. You're starting to wonder if humans are allergic to relaxing. After 10 days, Elizabeth's gift is finally finished. "Close your eyes," says Selena. Elizabeth obliges. You see a hood with a masquerade mask attached. At first it looks indigo, but as you watch it shifts colours in the light, going from indigo to green, and then back to the same brown that the leather was when the hood was first made. Selena places the hood over Elizabeth's head. "Alright. You can open your eyes now." she says, excited. Elizabeth opens her eyes and her breath catches in astonishment. "It's beautiful." Elizabeth murmurs. "It's magical," Selena says. "This hood will ensure others see you for who you want to be seen as." "So... if I want to be seen as a knight in shining armor..." You expect something to change, but nothing happens. "It's sort of a mixture of their worldview and your will. If they already see you as a knight in shining armor—" She casts a glance in your direction—"Their perception won't change." Elizabeth gathers her things and prepares to leave—until she runs into Selena. "You're going?" Selena asks, puzzled. "You tried to patch up things with your family. I think I'll heed my own advice and try to work things out with mine. "Your father... Even after what he did, you still want to make things up with him?" Selena says in astonishment. "At the very least, I want to let him know that I am much more than what he thought I was. And I might even 'save' a few more 'damsels in distress'." You all chuckle at that one. Elizabeth stands at the door, but she seems... hesitant. Like she's waiting for something.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Someone paying you to kidnap them? That's a pretty good deal. "Don't forget to fly near the town so that they see me being 'captured', " the girl says. "How do I know this isn't a trap to kill me? Not that you could," you ask. "You'll be carrying me in between your claws." she says with complete confidence. "If the archers shoot you, you'll bring me down with you. And if anything goes wrong, like you said, you have a thousand different ways to kill me. " After she picks the treasure back up (you'll know if anything is missing) she walks through the forest towards the castle. You follow, the trees concealing your green-brown scales. Once she enters the fields surrounding the castle, she starts skipping and whistling a tune, really playing the part of the helpless maiden. Then comes your favorite part. You swoop down, aiming for the girl. A peasant boy comes by, spots you, and starts to freak out. "Princess Selena, look out!" the boy yells. "Look out for what?" she says, pretending to not notice you behind her. "It's a—" the peasant boy starts, but is interrupted by you catching her in your talons and taking to the air. "Dragon!" the girl screams. "Oh, woe is me! A dragon is capturing me! Won't somebody help save me from this fearsome beast? Oh, no!" She's really getting into the role. You fly around the castle a few times for good measure, and pretty soon the whole town is in an uproar. "A dragon is capturing the princess! What are we going to do?" Why, the townsfolk are more melodramatic than the princess, and she knows what's going on. You fly off into the distance, chuckling to yourself. Once the girl stops her damsel-in-distress act, she asks you what's so funny. "Well, your entire town went into an uproar because one girl got captured. Humans really do obsess over the silliest things." you respond. You figure you'll just leave her in some spot in the forest and hope she survives, but you see the wizard's tower in the distance and you get an idea. You're sure there's some good magical loot in there, but that arrogant wizard put wards up to keep dragons from entering. The wizard's long gone, but the wards still remain. The girl, however, should be able to enter, and in time you may be able to convince her to lower the wards, if she learns magic. You don't say any of this to her, though. Instead, you just fly over and say, "Here. This will be a more habitable place than most. And if someone tries to rescue you, they'll have to waste their time climbing the tower. But this is a wizard's tower, so don't touch anything until you've described it to me. I don't want you blowing yourself up." You also don't want her to use all the magic in the tower before you've had a chance to exploit it. A few days pass. The girl hasn't appeared to find much of interest. All she's found so far is a journal of sorts, a heavy tome with weird symbols in it. You've seen the wizard carrying it around, but it didn't really do anything. What harm can it cause? She also hasn't found the Pool of Seeing yet. It's fairly easy to use. All you need to do is speak the name of a person you've met in person or the name of a place you've been, and it will show the user that which they named. Since it's outside of the tower, you have used it many times. What would happen if the girl used it? The pool could potentially boost her magical power. On a more practical note, she could be aware of any knights trying to "rescue" her. Still, knowledge is power, and you prefer when you have power as opposed to someone else. > You don't show her the pool. A few days later... You spot him from the air. Although the girl told you not to kill him, that doesn't mean you can't have some fun. He's riding on a white horse and he's wearing armor that looks like it's never been used. He's carrying an enormous sword, the idiot. It'll slow him down and be virtually useless for blocking attacks. He also isn't wearing a helmet—the better to smile at the princess with, though that might actually have been a smart move, considering that helmets can block vision. "Fair princess," he begins. "I am Sir Hildebrant and I have come to save thee from—" FWOOMP. You snatch the guy right off his horse, who gallops away in terror. Smart horse. The knight tries to reach for his sword, but you've got him pinned so tightly, he can't move. You fling him far away, into the Eckbel bog. "I told you not to kill him!" the girl exclaims hysterically. "Relax. I know my own strength." you state. "Show me Hildebrant!" she demands. The pool swirls, and shows a knight flying through the sky. He lands in the bog, sinking deep in the mud. For a moment, you think he might not resurface, but then you see a mop of mud-caked hair emerge, and you know he'll be fine. "Right over my new armor, too! I didn't think it would be a real dragon!" he whines. You chuckle. "What did he think I would be, a stuffed dragon?" The girl giggles in response. You both had a good laugh as the upstart tried to explain himself to the king and queen. "I fought valiantly, but in the end I had to flee.from the dragon. I barely escaped with my life." he explained. "Shut up," you say, "You were fine." "Why are you covered in mud?" the queen asks. "Well—I—you see—" he stammers. "You are not fit for my daughter," the king declares. The image in the pool disappears. The next few knights are of a similar standard. You dispatch them all easily. On one sunny morning, however, comes a knight of a different caliber... You don't even see him coming. Instead of coming through the path, he snuck through the woods. "Dragon," you hear him call. You whirl around, only to see a small figure, much skinnier than the others. His armor is too big for him and you almost feel sorry for him. He doesn't look like much more of a threat than the girl. "I wish not to harm you," he continues, evidently disguising his voice to make it sound deeper than it actually is. "Will you hear me out?<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You land beside the girl. You're fairly sure she doesn't pose much of a threat, and if you wanted to, you could eat her in a heartbeat. "Why did you call out to me?" you ask, curious. "You realize there are a thousand different ways I could kill you." "Yet you haven't used any of them." she responds. So she's smarter than she looks. "I came to make you an offer. I'm a princess, which means I'm going to be married off as some sort of political tool. I don't want to get married just because some old dude offered my father an alliance. I don't want to get married at all, so I'm running away." "Then what on earth did you catch my attention for?" you ask impatiently. "I'm getting to that," she answers. "If I run away on my own, my father will send out search teams. There'll be a lot of people combing the woods, and it's only a matter of time before they find me. However, if I was "captured" by a powerful being, like a dragon..." "People would be scared and only individuals would try to rescue you." you finish. "What's in it for me?" In response to this, she dumps the contents of her sack out onto the ground. A diamond necklace, a jeweled chalice, and a large pile of gold coins spill out. "I'd also ask you to lurk around the area I'm in to keep up appearances. So, what do you say?" If she is right about only individuals coming, it shouldn't be too much of a problem. However, the reason you've stayed in the woods is because humans can be annoyingly powerful if they put their minds to it. And who knows? Maybe one of them will get lucky. Still, it's a half-decent payoff for a minor service... You consider all these factors, and you finally reach a decision. > No. "Sorry, princess," you say. "You're going to have to figure this one out on your own." "But why? What reason do you have to deny me this?" the girl asks, eyes pleading. "Quite frankly, it's not worth my time. It could be a trap. I don't see you as an equal. I've eaten your kind before. You're too stupid, brave, or both to merit any chance of survival in the woods. Would you like any other reasons?" The girl is shocked, but that quickly turns to extreme annoyance or mild anger—you're not sure which. "Well, that's fine, because I don't need a dragon to help me run away." she retorts. "Perfect, because I don't need a snack." On that note, you take to the sky. You forget about the girl until a few days later, until you check on the wizard's tower to see if any of the wards have expired in the past decade. That arrogant wizard put wards on his tower to prevent dragons from entering. The wizard is long gone, but the wards still remain. You hope that someday they will run out of magic and fall, but so far, nothing. He was a powerful wizard, too, and there's bound to be some good magical loot in the tower. However, when you arrive, you're quite surprised to find...<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>TOWER OF DOOM Your village lies in ruins. Destroyed by a mighty dragon. But you have no time to weep. You must avenge your people! The sky is gloomy, the cold wind stinging your bones. The tower stands tall, like a gladiator, it's door open for any potential challenger. Rumour has it that this tower contains on of the most grand treasure present in this world. Anyone who has dared to step into this tower has never returned. People say that it is guarded by the most dangerous creatures of the dark. The treasure is said to be on the top most floor, guarded by a dragon! The same dragon that destroyed your village! You go through the door and see a spiral staircase leading upwards. You pull out your sword, check your possessions, and step forth... Combat: 1/7 Life: 7/7 Coins: 5/100 > You start! You slowly ascend the stairs... Current Floor: 1 Combat: 1/7 Life: 7/7 Coins: 5/100 > You creature! This floor is shrouded in complete darkness, only a few rays of lights creeping through the cracked walls. Suddenly, you hear a noise... Combat: 1/7 Life: 7/7 Coins: 5/100 > A Snake! Something darts over you from the shadows! It's a poisonous snake, eyes as black as night itself! Fight - 4 Combat: 1/7 Life: 7/7 Coins: 5/100 > You fight! The last slash of sword sends the creature flying. It hits the ground, bleeding and dead! Combat: 1/7 Life: 4/7 Coins: 5/100 > You cleared! Suddenly, an alchemist teleports here, along with his shop. You can see some strange glowing symbols and boiling liquid kept in flasks. You may now recover here and spend your money. You may climb to the next floor when you are ready. The alchemist gives you 1 coin for every floor you clear as a reward! Improve Sword - Add 1 to Combat stat. Costs 5 Money. Heal - Restore 1 Life Point. Costs 1 Money. Buy Potion - Restore 3 Life Points. Costs 2 Money. Enchant Sword - Add 3 to Combat stat. Costs 10 Money. Combat: 1/7 Life: 4/7 Coins: 5/100 > You climb to the next floor You slowly ascend the stairs... Current Floor: 2 Combat: 1/7 Life: 4/7 Coins: 6/100 > You gambler! A strange smell hits your nose. The only source of light is a candle kept on a table in one corner. Suddenly, and old man emerges from behind the table, dragging his decrepit chair with him. He demands a coin. He is the Gambler! You may play a game with him! CARDS - Give him one coin and in return you'll recieve either 1 coin, 2 coins or no coins at all, determined randomly. TRICKS - Give him 3 coin and in return you'll recieve either 1 coin, 2 coins, 3 coins, 4 coins, or 5 coins, determined randomly. DRAIN - Lose 1 Life for 1 coin. You may play as long as you like! Combat: 1/7 Life: 4/7 Coins: 6/100 > You continue Suddenly, an alchemist teleports here, along with his shop. You can see some strange glowing symbols and boiling liquid kept in flasks. You may now recover here and spend your money. You may climb to the next floor when you are ready. The alchemist gives you 1 coin for every floor you clear as a reward! Improve Sword - Add 1 to Combat stat. Costs 5 Money. Heal - Restore 1 Life Point. Costs 1 Money. Buy Potion - Restore 3 Life Points. Costs 2 Money. Enchant Sword - Add 3 to Combat stat. Costs 10 Money. Combat: 1/7 Life: 4/7 Coins: 6/100 > You climb to the next floor You slowly ascend the stairs... Current Floor: 3 Combat: 1/7 Life: 4/7 Coins: 7/100 > You gambler! A strange smell hits your nose. The only source of light is a candle kept on a table in one corner. Suddenly, and old man emerges from behind the table, dragging his decrepit chair with him. He demands a coin. He is the Gambler! You may play a game with him! CARDS - Give him one coin and in return you'll recieve either 1 coin, 2 coins or no coins at all, determined randomly. TRICKS - Give him 3 coin and in return you'll recieve either 1 coin, 2 coins, 3 coins, 4 coins, or 5 coins, determined randomly. DRAIN - Lose 1 Life for 1 coin. You may play as long as you like! Combat: 1/7 Life: 4/7 Coins: 7/100 > You continue Suddenly, an alchemist teleports here, along with his shop. You can see some strange glowing symbols and boiling liquid kept in flasks. You may now recover here and spend your money. You may climb to the next floor when you are ready. The alchemist gives you 1 coin for every floor you clear as a reward! Improve Sword - Add 1 to Combat stat. Costs 5 Money. Heal - Restore 1 Life Point. Costs 1 Money. Buy Potion - Restore 3 Life Points. Costs 2 Money. Enchant Sword - Add 3 to Combat stat. Costs 10 Money. Combat: 1/7 Life: 4/7 Coins: 7/100 > You climb to the next floor You slowly ascend the stairs... Current Floor: 4 Combat: 1/7 Life: 4/7 Coins: 8/100 > You money! There is complete silence. Then you see something sparkling in the darkness. You move closer...and find some scattered gold coins! Along with them is a small pouch containing some more coins! You can only pick one as there is a trap mechanic built over them! Pouch - 1D10 coins Coins - 5 coins Combat: 1/7 Life: 4/7 Coins: 8/100 > You take the pouch! Suddenly, an alchemist teleports here, along with his shop. You can see some strange glowing symbols and boiling liquid kept in flasks. You may now recover here and spend your money. You may climb to the next floor when you are ready. The alchemist gives you 1 coin for every floor you clear as a reward! Improve Sword - Add 1 to Combat stat. Costs 5 Money. Heal - Restore 1 Life Point. Costs 1 Money. Buy Potion - Restore 3 Life Points. Costs 2 Money. Enchant Sword - Add 3 to Combat stat. Costs 10 Money. Combat: 1/7 Life: 4/7 Coins: 13/100 > You climb to the next floor You slowly ascend the stairs... Current Floor: 5 Combat: 1/7 Life: 4/7 Coins: 14/100 > You teleport! This floor is bathed in blue light. In a distance you see a man in a cape and mask. Beside him is a charcoal door, sealed shut with iron bars. He tells you that with the help of this door you may jump to any of the floors in this tower, except the last floor which is protected by ancient magic! He doesn't charge you anything but warns you that the floor you would teleport to would be random. Would you risk it!? He also mentions that if you somehow destroy this door then he'll restore your life and give you 3 coins! You may damage your sword in this, lose 1D2 combat! Combat: 1/7 Life: 4/7 Coins: 14/100 > You leave the Door Suddenly, an alchemist teleports here, along with his shop. You can see some strange glowing symbols and boiling liquid kept in flasks. You may now recover here and spend your money. You may climb to the next floor when you are ready. The alchemist gives you 1 coin for every floor you clear as a reward! Improve Sword - Add 1 to Combat stat. Costs 5 Money. Heal - Restore 1 Life Point. Costs 1 Money. Buy Potion - Restore 3 Life Points. Costs 2 Money. Enchant Sword - Add 3 to Combat stat. Costs 10 Money. Combat: 1/7 Life: 4/7 Coins: 14/100 > You climb to the next floor You slowly ascend the stairs... Current Floor: 6 Combat: 1/7 Life: 4/7 Coins: 15/100 > You treasure! You have reached the 6th flood. Immidiately, you are blinded by a bright yellow light! You barely manage to open your eyes and infront of you is the glorious treasure. Priceless coins, amulets, jewels, weapons, armours, all of unimaginable worth! You've found the treasure! Congratulations! You have won! Your Score is 28! Combat: 1/7 Life: 4/7 Coins: 15/100 > You play Again! Your blood-stained body falls limp on the floor. A stream of blood puddles the ground. The Tower has claimed another victim... Your score is 0! Combat: 0/7 Life: 0/7 Coins: 0/100<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Suddenly, an alchemist teleports here, along with his shop. You can see some strange glowing symbols and boiling liquid kept in flasks. You may now recover here and spend your money. You may climb to the next floor when you are ready. The alchemist gives you 1 coin for every floor you clear as a reward! Improve Sword - Add 1 to Combat stat. Costs 5 Money. Heal - Restore 1 Life Point. Costs 1 Money. Buy Potion - Restore 3 Life Points. Costs 2 Money. Enchant Sword - Add 3 to Combat stat. Costs 10 Money. Combat: 1/7 Life: 4/7 Coins: 14/100 > You improve Sword Suddenly, an alchemist teleports here, along with his shop. You can see some strange glowing symbols and boiling liquid kept in flasks. You may now recover here and spend your money. You may climb to the next floor when you are ready. The alchemist gives you 1 coin for every floor you clear as a reward! Improve Sword - Add 1 to Combat stat. Costs 5 Money. Heal - Restore 1 Life Point. Costs 1 Money. Buy Potion - Restore 3 Life Points. Costs 2 Money. Enchant Sword - Add 3 to Combat stat. Costs 10 Money. Combat: 2/7 Life: 4/7 Coins: 9/100 > You climb to the next floor You slowly ascend the stairs... Current Floor: 6 Combat: 2/7 Life: 4/7 Coins: 10/100 > You treasure! You have reached the 6th flood. Immidiately, you are blinded by a bright yellow light! You barely manage to open your eyes and infront of you is the glorious treasure. Priceless coins, amulets, jewels, weapons, armours, all of unimaginable worth! You've found the treasure! Congratulations! You have won! Your Score is 26! Combat: 2/7 Life: 4/7 Coins: 10/100<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Suddenly, an alchemist teleports here, along with his shop. You can see some strange glowing symbols and boiling liquid kept in flasks. You may now recover here and spend your money. You may climb to the next floor when you are ready. The alchemist gives you 1 coin for every floor you clear as a reward! Improve Sword - Add 1 to Combat stat. Costs 5 Money. Heal - Restore 1 Life Point. Costs 1 Money. Buy Potion - Restore 3 Life Points. Costs 2 Money. Enchant Sword - Add 3 to Combat stat. Costs 10 Money. Combat: 2/7 Life: 4/7 Coins: 9/100 > You improve Sword So now that you finished Tower of Doom, how would you rate it? Note that the author will not see your individual rating; you will have a chance to leave a personal comment once you select a rating. 1 - stay away. far, far away 2 - good ... for you to poop on 3 - choose your own boredom 4 - slightly more fun than homework 5 - not the best, certainly not the worst 6 - it's worth every cent 7 - even better than Reeses' Cups® 8 - it will bring you enlightenment If you really don't feel like leaving a rating, you can always click here to continue to the comments screen. Not sure what to rate? Check out the tips for Rating And Leaving Comments.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>One more day. After a millennium of meticulous planning, his plot was finally bearing fruit. Penthos looked out at the peaceful citizens roaming around the city, smiling. He couldn't wait to bring them to tears. He couldn't wait to see those smiles reduced to agonizing tears of grief, pain, and sadness. Oh, he could barely wait another day. The last thousand years almost felt shorter than the day before him. Penthos, being the daimon of grief, had always longed for more lamentation in the world. In a few hours, he would make his wish come true. But he couldn't do it alone. There cannot be grief without other elements. Penthos needed the help of discord, misery, doom, violence, fear, and death. He smiled at the thought of it all, then shut his eyes, dreaming of a happy tomorrow. For today was the final day of peace before he rained terror upon humanity. > The end of the world This site can’t be reached chooseyourstory.com took too long to respond. Try: Checking the connection Checking the proxy and the firewall ERR_TIMED_OUT<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>It was a normal Saturday afternoon in Boston, Mass. you got up from your couch to grab a diet coke. You also heated up a leftover Hot dog from the fridge on your way to getting a diet coke. While you are waiting for the hot dog to finish heating up. you get a call. You pick it up, and hear a annoying voice. "Listen we need alot of help". "We need you" "Were Drafting you into the army". Your shocked. But you have to do what you need to do to save the U.S. Meet me by the Shooting Gallery" He said. "See you tomorrow ". He says "Bye". That night you got 3 hours of sleep thinking about what could happen in your future life. > You choose your Gun A long drive to the Shooting Gallery is getting you really nervous.But you gear up to start shooting in the army. you get there 5 minutes later. When you got there you saw a set of different guns. There is a Assault rifle, and a Heavy Machine Gun, a Semi-Automatic Rifle, a Shotgun, a Sniper rifle, and finally a Submachine Gun. which one to take. Since you are right now at the New Man in the army. > You assault Rifle As you Pick up the Rifle, you almost drop it, because you get so nervous. There is a big Target for Newcomers. It is 4 feet by 5 feet. You are trembling, and are not sure how long you can hold your balance for .The target looks like1 foot, by 2 feet. You should wait, and shoot, but your not sure how long you can hold it for. Your boss is getting very impatient with how long your taking. > You wait, then shoot the target It took to long, and you give up on that gun, maybe you just not made for that gun. > A Heavy Machine Gun The large body you have can't even hold the Heavy Machine Gun. It is huge, and heavy. But it shoots so strong. You see a 4 feet by 5 feet target. Will you shoot it,remember it's your first time shooting,a nd you don't know where to shoot it, you can put the gun's end side up at your throat, and shoot the target, or you can Put it by your Stomach. Where will be better to shoot it. you think of. > You shoot it by the Throat BINGO, you got a perfect shot right on target. "Nice aiming." Your boss tells you, I like where you positioned your gun, good job. This is your new gun for starters." "Now next week I'm going to need you in Iraq, we need your help". You gulp as he continues talking, "and we will need you for the most important part. The shooting."<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>It took to long, and you give up on that gun, maybe you just not made for that gun. > A Semi-Automatic Rifle They try to shoot you, but suprisingly their guns were out of ammo, Now is your chance. time to shoot! They plead to let them go, they say they won't hurt you.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Your name is Arakhan. For years, you have dreamed of becoming Captain of the Guard, and protecting your small hometown of Lyestra. Fortunately for you, your wildest dreams came true just last week. You finally received your long overdue promotion, and now you are the official Captain of the Guard! Lyestra is a quiet enough village, so the first few weeks were rather uneventful. However, two days ago, you received a tip that a group of goblin warriors had been spotted camping out in the woods not far from Lyestra. Goblins rarely come so near to a village, so you and a handful of other men have gone to scope out the situation. So far, you have found nothing. You are running low on supplies, and the men have requested to return to Lyestra. However, you told them you would like to make one last sweep of the area before you return home. You and your men have split up to search the area for any sign of the goblins. You are on your own, in a dense area of the woods. You are searching for any sign that the goblins were here. > You search behind a nearby bush You get on your hands and knees, hoping to find a clue underneath a nearby bush, but alas, all you get for your trouble is a dirty uniform. There is nothing to be found under the bush. You stand up quickly, trying best as you can to brush the filth from your clothes. What now?<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Life is pain, death is Oblivion, the only choice left to you by the will of the Dark Gods is how much you can endure. I grant peace. Embrace me." The words ring in your ears as the darkness calls out to you. All you can do is focus ahead, waiting for dawn and a chance to wake up. You sit cross-legged on the rocky obsidian floor, patiently waiting. You try your hardest to block out the world around you, focusing on your deep, heavy breathing. Giving the nightmares and daemons attention just encourages them. Showing fear is spilling blood in the water. Although the nightmarish pale sky grows darker with every second as black tendrils thousands of miles wide spread out across the sky hundreds of miles above, blocking out what little comfort you receive from the white sun, you don't feel fear. This is just one of the many nightmares that plague you every night. You'll live. The darkness begins to solidly into a wave, smashing towards you. You're surrounded by the liquid darkness, which drowns out anything even close to light as it consumes you. "The ever-gaping maw of the void calls," the darkness whispers. "I'm coming from you." > You light emerges You writhe tossing the sheets off you as you lie in bed, panting. Another nightmare. Another night of horrors, terrors and daemonic voices screaming at your soul. You take a deep breath. Focus. In. Out. In. Out. You rest your head against the pillow, sighing. Suddenly, Fay appears in the doorway, wearing combat armor, scratching at her short hair. "Morning," she says. > You say "Morning, Fay. Well, last night was fun." "Yeah, it was," Fay smiles. "Are you sure you're OK?" "Perfect," you say, climbing out of bed and tossing the sheets off your naked frame, as Fay wolf whistles. "Go fuck yourself," you say, walking into the bathroom. "If I could do that, I wouldn't keep you around," Fay replies with a chuckle, as you walk into the bathroom. You stand, and quickly walk to the bathroom. You stare at your reflection in the bathroom mirror, taking a deep breath as the voices start. "Aren't you curious? Does Fay really love you? Or is she using you?" "You're a Psyker. A nice steak, the embrace of a lover, the joys of the material world is nothing compared to what I can offer you." "Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander returneth to dust. The same will happen to you. Embrace the rot and decay that comes with life." "Kill! Maim! Burn! Kill! Maim! Burn! Kill! Maim! Burn!" You're gaining a certain level of familiarity with the daemons in your head. Now that Meliodas has vanished, more has come to fill your head. You've began naming them, one of the few ways you think you'll remain sane with them. Question Mark constantly tempts you with knowledge. Fucky tempts you with fantastic pleasures beyond compare. Rotgut is the embodiment of laziness, and makes you want to lie in bed in your own filth, and Smiley is just fucking bonkers. Tzeentch's Keys, you miss Meliodas. You quickly get dressed, before calling Fay. She opens the door, strolling inside. "Hey, Karth," she smiles. "Is she planning on betraying you? Is she loyal? You don't know... but I do," Question Mark says. "Slit her throat, rape the stab wound and feel the blood run down your arm as you devour her throat! Feel pure blissful sensation!" Fucky whispers. "Embrace your pestilence. You are filth. You are decay. But that is OK. You are still loved," Rotgut says. "BURN! MAIM! KILL!" Smiley screams. Fay raises an eyebrow, rapping her knuckles against your head. "Hello, anyone in there?" she asks. "More than you know," you reply. "Meliodas back?" "New guys. At least there's some variety." "Are they saying anything about me?" Fay smiles. "Cunt! Take her fucking head!" Smiley screams. "I think they like you," you reply, as Fay laughs. "You sure you're OK?" "Tip top," you reply. The barrage of voices screams answers in your head, as you take a deep breath. Fay kisses the top of your head, looking at you. "Karth, come on, come back to me," she says. "I'm fine," you reply, as Fay gives you a concerned look. "If you're sure," she asks nervously. "Come on, we need to get to the war room for the morning meeting." > You head to the war room After a five minute walk, you arrive at the war room. The others are already there. Captain Hayes smokes in the corner, Primus appears as the upper half of a robotic body that only exists for something to focus on when talking, seeing as he literally is the ship, Durge sits in his seat, gently feeding pieces of meat impaled by his spike-arms to the rats infesting his stomach, Elios is involved in some heavy petting with one of his guards, Elizabeth reads, Castus and Fay are bickering and Cain sits in his chair, patiently waiting. "Morning, gents," you say, sliding into your seat. "We need to get around to sorting out control of the ship now that Kyros is dead. We don't have time to celebrate." "We have an issue," Primus says. "What?" "Drake Amadeus. His guards aren't replying, so I sealed off the bridge. We need to go investigate." "Who was on guard duty?" Elizabeth asks, curiously. "Padfoot and Prongs," you reply. "They're hard men. They wouldn't not respond," Fay says. "Isn't there cameras on the bridge?" Hayes asks. "They're offline. Most likely from sabotage. Possibly from a malfunction," Primus says. "Let's go investigate, then," you say. "Let's do it," Fay nods in return. > You find Drake You find yourself standing by the sealed door to the bridge. You wait patiently, your hands writhed in purple flames, while Fay raises her bolter. "Ready?" Primus asks. "Do it," you say, as the doors open. You quickly move inside and see the situation. Padfoot lies on the ground, a shiv made from a shard of ceramite impaled in his neck. Prongs sits in the corner, his bolter in his hands. Both his eyes have been stabbed out repeatedly. "Holy shit," you say. Prongs immediately aims his bolter at you as he lets out a shout. You telekinetically tear the bolter from his hands, tossing it aside. "Shit! Karth?" he asks, terrified as Fay runs over and grabs him. "Shit, Prongs! Are you OK?" "I'm alive. Check on Padfoot!" You quickly float over to Padfoot, but he's long dead. "He's gone," you say. "Fuck. Bastard took my eyes! He's still here! You need to find him!" "We'll get you bionic eyes, Prongs, I promise," Fay says. "That's something that can be done?" You nod, scanning the room for Drake. You move forward slowly, passing the Navigator's chair. You see Drake sitting off in the corner, a cigarette in his mouth he looks at you, nodding. "Hey," he says nonchalantly. "How's your tribal whore? Has she grew any tits yet?" You quickly levitate over, grabbing him by the throat and lifting him into the air. "You son of a bitch! You killed my men!" "I thought I had a chance at escape," Drake shrugs. "You shut this section off before I could." You let the fire run along your hands, tickling his throats, as he yelps. "Hey! You can't kill me, dumbass! We've been through this! You kill me, you're fucked. You torture me, I'll just kill you and me next time I'm navigating rather than endure a life of torture!" You punch him, knocking his head against the wall, before letting him drop to the ground. Tribals enter behind you, grabbing him and binding his hands. "Repair the cameras. Increase security for him," you sigh to one of the Tribals. "Yes, sir," she replies. "You know, you could add a bunch of security features, but I'd find a way around it. You want me to stop trying to escape, all I ask is a few more luxuries. Access to alcohol, drugs and smokes, access to one or two... comfort ladies," Drake smiles, despite the blood dripping down from his broken nose. > You improve Drake's security With the addition of magna-locks, a tighter schedule, more guards, a more advanced camera system for the bridge with multiple back-ups and fail safes, Drake is more secure. He's unhappy about it, and promises to slit your throat, but hell, what the fuck is he going to do? Try escape again? A dozen Tribals, pissed off about what Drake did to two of their men, have scared Amadeus into submission. By the time you sort out Drake’s security measures, which involves dealing with Drake for far longer than any man deserves, you move on to doing all the inane, normal tasks that you now need to deal with like deciding rations, sending out crews to clean up the ship, assigning guards and all the other things expected of you. Unlike Fay, Cain, Castus, Elios, Durge and Captain Hayes, all of whom absolutely despise their new workloads, with Castus even suggesting a new system of anarchy where the only rule is anyone found filing something is to be shot, you actually like it. Olive, Primus, Elizabeth and you all find a certain level of peace in it. The mental challenges and problem-solving you have to deal with has a certain calming element on your mind. By the time it’s finished, it’s fairly late. There’s a night and day cycles on this ship, with the lights brightening and dimming to have a twenty four hour cycle, which stretches a bit long for you compared to home, but with a mid-day nap is manageable. You wonder what world the ship’s cycle aligns to. Perhaps whatever world Kyros came from. Fay opens the door, walking inside. “Karth, it's dinner time," she says. "Better hurry up. We want to eat early so we have the evening to discuss the important issues." > You go eat The meal is prepared by a mix of slaves, mutants with culinary abilities and the intelligence to follow orders, talented cooks taken from the soldiers aboard the vessel and a given few actual chefs hired for the role. Given that fact, the food’s not too bad. Grox ribs in some spicy sauce, some wild vegetable taken from some alien world, with a large brown stalk that’s boiled, sliced up and eaten, these gigantic nuts that are smashed open and eaten, some canned “Cheese” that tastes like… well, it doesn’t taste like cheese, to say the least. All this is paired with either wine or harder liquors, with you taking the former. Fay downs a bottle of fruity alcohol that could kill a weaker man. By the time you’re finished, everyone’s stuffed and most are atable little tipsy. You make the natural move from the dining room to the war room, and soon find yourself ready to debate the future of the ship. “So, what do we have first on the planner, Primus?” “War! We go to war! KILL! KILL! KILL! OBLITERATE!” Smiley screams. “There’s a certain appeal to the life of a raider, isn’t there? Feel the joys and pleasures of the depraved…” Fucky suggests. “Little one, I am more than happy to help. I have a plan to perform a ritual that will give you access…” Question Mark begins suggesting. “Lay down your defenses, let the corruption and decay set in,” Rotgut says. You take a deep breath, trying not to let the fact that your head is filled with voices that quickly delve into an argument show. “We have several important issues,” Primus mechanical tone says. “First, we need to find a suitable replacement for the ship’s Tech Priests who once operated it. That should be our number one priority. Then, we need to take care of Kyros’ former allies.” “Allies?” you ask. “While much of Kyros’ forces, all who directly answered to him, at least, were aboard this vessel, he had amassed a larger force in which he hoped to invade the Imperium. He had made pacts with several forces. These allies could attempt to wipe us out in diligence to their old ally. Fortunately, we expect it’ll be some time before they muster up a force to attack us, if ever." "What else?" "We have a large amount of reports," Primus says. A former-slave worker walks inside, holding a big stack of files that he dumps on the table. Typed documents are alongside large reports written in beautiful writing alongside hastily scrawled notes. The stack holds everything from troop psych reports to statistics about your flight wing to estimates about your wealth in various alien currencies. "What the fuck is that?" Fay asks. "These are the files and reports on our current situation. Thankfully, these have been simplified to the extreme to something that you all can actually comprehend. There's three big, circled figures, labeled Strength, Morale and Funds. See them?" You look at the top of the files, nodding as you see the numbers. "The Strength figure refers to the military strength of your forces, in a percentage. 100 means that you're the exact strength of Kyros' fleet during the times just before the mutiny, 50 would mean half strength of it, 200 would be twice the strength. The Morale figure is the general morale of the forces under your command, with 100 being incredibly happy crew to the point of being unbearable, and 0 being a crew that's only refraining from slitting your throat out of fear. The Funds figure is the amount of funding you have in your control, with every unit representing a million Thrones." "Understood," you say.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The HMS Bounty set sail on a gloomy winter’s day a few days before Christmas. You like the little ship, which is just ninety feet long and fairly small at just over 200 tons for the 46 men she carries. She has three masts and sails extremely well however and you are quite content aboard her, despite the gloomy weather. She carries four small cannons for defense and a compliment of muskets and cutlasses as well as enough provisions for the voyage. The purpose of the voyage is to sail to Tahiti to pick up breadfruit and transport them to Jamaica to feed the slaves who work the plantations there. It should be an easy enough voyage. If you are soon familiar with the ship but the crew are more difficult. You have joined them as an Able Seaman for what should be an easy voyage but there are far too many of men on the ship to remember all of their names. The one name you do remember is Lieutenant William Bligh, the ship’s commander. He is a chubby, little man with very white skin, wispy fair hair and blue eyes looking for all the world like a little girl’s porcelain doll. Bligh is supposed to be a superb navigator, having sailed under the famous Captain Cook, discoverer of Australia, on his last voyage, but he seems a bit excitable and a little difficult to take seriously. Almost from the beginning the ship seems to hit bad luck. The weather in the Channel is awful and barely have you sailed out of port than you lose your grip while climbing the rigging. You are plunging towards the deck and almost certain doom when you manage to grab a rope tied between two sails, halting your fall with a heart-stopping judder. Days later a storm breaks the windows of Bligh’s cabin, quickly flooding it with water. As the year of 1788 and the voyage of the Bounty begins you hope that things will get better… NOTE: PICK UP THE CREW LIST TO HELP YOU KEEP TRACK OF WHO IS WHO IN THIS STORY. > The Atlantic After leaving the English Channel the weather does indeed improve and you stop off at the Canary Islands for a week. Spirits are high as you sail onto the southwest bound for Tahiti, an island which you have heard of but have no idea where it is. You gather Bligh intends to sail around Cape Horn, the southernmost tip of South America, to get there. The ship is sailing so well Bligh decides to promote a protégé of his called Fletcher Christian from Master’s Mate to Acting Lieutenant, effectively making him Bligh’s deputy. Like everyone else on board the ship you like Christian. He is a cheerful and very likable young man, though a slightly sensitive soul who takes a solicitous interest in everyone’s welfare. His promotion comes at the expense of the Sailing Master John Fryer, a professional man, whose strong, independent opinions seem to irritate Bligh. He takes Christian’s promotion without a word but some of the crew are not so subtle. Matthew Quintal is one of your fellow seamen, a young Cornishman and a natural-born trouble-maker, always looking for an opportunity to make a little mischief. One morning he is scrubbing the deck close to where Fryer is sighting the sun with a sextant and begins to mock Fryer about Christian’s promotion, lightly at first and then more harshly when Fryer shows no response. Some of the other sailors standing nearby are exchanging glances and grinning. > You join Quintal in mocking Fryer You join Quintal in ribbing Fryer about Christian being replaced over him. He takes it all with ill-tempered terse sentences but suddenly there is a bizarrely high-pitched cry from further up the deck, you glance up to see Bligh striding towards you. “You infernal scoundrels!” he roars. “How dare you cowardly rascals show such insolence and contempt for Mr Fryer! Mr Fryer, how came you to permit such a thing to happen sir? Twenty-four lashes each to remind you men of the proper way of addressing your superiors! Master-at-Arms, fetch the lash! Quartermasters, prepare these men!” Hardly before you know what is happening strong hands have seized you and Quintal, stripped the shirts from your backs and your are being roped to the mast. The Quartermasters stand behind you and on Bligh’s orders begin to whip you mercilessly with the lash, which burns like a fire. Soon it is stripping flesh from your back and just as the agony is becoming unbearable the punishment is over. “May that be a lesson to you all!” Bligh declares.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>First off, what is your profession? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > You warrior Good! Now on with your Adventure -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Everything hurts. Waking up is as bad as it usually is. Aches and pains along with a soured stomach are things you expect after chasing the dragon, though you usually don't have a screaming headache like the one currently pounding beneath your skull. The floor beneath you is cold and dirty, concrete that hasn't been cleaned in years. This isn't the first time you've woken up in some abandoned building you can't remember going to, but as your eyes slowly come into focus you aren't so sure if this really is the norm or not. The light in the room comes from candles placed around the place, sitting on pieces of abandoned furniture, crates, and tables. The walls are decrepit, covered in graffiti and stained filth. It wasn't really that unusual to wake up in a place like this. Junkies love abandoned buildings and it is kind of nice to ride out a high in a nice candlelit room instead of a pitch black one. Whoever set out the candles didn't think to toss down a mattress though, a shame really. You don't quite feel like getting up just yet, but the sooner you do the sooner you can make some cash to score another dose. Standing up, you flap your arms a bit in an attempt to rid yourself of the numb, tingling sensation that seems ever present in them now. You really should start injecting elsewhere, but what does it really matter at this point? The crooks of your elbows look like shit and that won't change. Sure it hurts like a bitch to stick a needle there now, but the reward after is worth it. Looking around at the flickering candles, you notice that there are pictures hanging from the ceiling on strings or placed around the candles. Shuffling toward one half rotten table, you pick up one of the photographs. It isn't easy to see in the dim lighting, but as you hold it up in one hand and a candle in the other you recognize it. It's been years since you've seen this picture. A family portrait from when you were just a kid. One corner of it is torn, effectively removing one person from the picture. Swearing under your breath, you pick up other pictures and frown as you see that all of them are of you or people you know. Childhood photos of yourself and your parents, pictures of an old boyfriend, pictures of friends you haven't heard from in a decade or more. As you continue sorting through all of the photographs, you come across a tape recorder with a small cassette already loaded inside of it. > You listen To The Tape Pressing the play button, you hear a voice start speaking from the recording. It's clearly been distorted, but you can hear the words well enough. "Hello, Ciara. For most of your life, you have been a victim. But, you have never truly tried to rise above this victim status you have held for so long. Within this room, are photographs of your childhood. Your pictures progress from a happy little girl to that of a criminal, but what fueled this change? For years you have been too busy blaming others and using past wrongs against you as an excuse for your own misdeeds. Today, you will face your inner demons. Beyond the door of this room wait a series of tests. But, first, you must prove to yourself that your life is worth more than the addiction that rules it. The door out is locked and the key is within your reach, so is your drug of choice. Will you reach for the key to your freedom or will you stay a slave to your addiction? Live or die, Ciara, make your choice." The tape goes silent as you feel fear start to take over the haze of cravings and the pounding of the migraine in the back of your skull. Looking around, you spot the door and hurry to it. Just as the tape said, it is locked with a heavy bolt. You've never seen a door like this before, it's solid steel and doesn't budge when you push against it. The bolt has a keyhole in it, but you don't see a key anywhere. Looking around, all you can see are pictures hanging up illuminated by the flickering candlelight, some photographs on a crate surrounding by a circle of candles on the floor, and what looks like a binder laying on the floor in a dark corner of the room.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Woban Island Bill Ingersoll Text (C) 1988 & 2019 Bill Ingersoll / Published November 2019 / Image source: goodfon.com > You bEGIN STORY We've all got our own path, We all know there's no turning back. We've all got a piece of the map, But with the mountain in view, we say "I don't need that!" There are many paths to the same summit, If you don't like the one you're on you can stray from it. Just look out for steep cliffs or you might plummet 'Cause there are many paths to the same summit! Who-oah! Who-oah! La-de-da-da-da-da! —— Root Shock<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You… think too much. It’s always been your issue. You’ve had twelve miserable years in the world, an existence wracked with headaches, horrible, coma-like states known as your “deep dreams”, and horrible, scratching and never-ceasing voices that knaw at your sanity. You’ve been left frail, pale and very skinny from your condition as you spend most of your life sleeping, wrapped up and coddled in a tent of animal hides. If there was any justice, you would’ve been left on a hill to die when your tribe realized how weak you were, but through your condition you’ve made yourself useful. You have premonitions, messages that you can make out from the depth of your dreams that make you the most valuable member of the tribe. Whether it be seeing the green flames of anger running through the eastern fringes of the forests that signal an upcoming Greenkskin attack, the sweet smells drifting from the lake that indicate a herd of Braxen or a flock of buzzards that can easily be haunted down by some of your hunters. That’s not even to mention some of your other abilities. You can unnerve, even frighten strong warriors with a glance, cause mass confusion with a few words, easily convince some of the dumber members of the tribe to do your bidding, and with a lot of effort you’re able to “drag” items towards you without touching them. Still, due to the fact you can barely walk, it’s hardly a fair trade off. “Karth!” a voice cries. You look up, pulling your skinny body slightly above the blankets that are wrapped around you to look at Duggin as he walks inside, carrying a spear, a bow and sheath, wearing the hide of one of the many beasts of the jungle. “What thoughts have you for us today?” Duggin asks. You love your tribe. Your tribe is a group of strong, brave and loyal men who only want the best for each other. Better men don’t exist. Unfortunately, they’re idiots. Half your job here is relaying the many dreams, omens and messages you have in your sleep. The other half is keeping them from killing themselves. There are men here who have lived twenty, thirty, forty, even fifty years, but in your twelve years on this world you’ve learned infinitely more. You introduced them to the concept of stealing the hides from slain beasts and wearing it as your own, the concept of hiding like a predator with camouflage and strength, and new battlefield strategies beyond “attack!”. “None. It was a peaceful night,” you say. “We’re having a hunt with the Azajaja tribe. We’re heading to meet up with them soon.” You nod, raising your bony arms as Duggin lifts you up. You wrap your frail body around him as he walks outside. A large boar-like creature, a puk, sits there with a double-saddle tied to it. Duggin sits in the front saddle and places you in the back one, wrapping blankets tightly around you. You need the blankets for multiple reasons: to keep warm, to give yourself some sort of cushion to protect your fragile body, and most importantly it stops from having to feel the rough puk hair. Many textures, just like puk hair, just sends you into a tantrum for some strange reason. You can't rationalize it, but it still effects you. The puk begins striding forward in a half-gallop, as the other hunters of your tribe hop astride the puk, heading out toward the nearby lake. Suddenly, you watch as dozens of lizard-like creatures burst out of the trees, scuttling away from the jungles. “Ah! Look what we have here, boys! Fresh prey, sent to us by the great God-Emperor!” Duggin yells, raising his bow. You watch as the lizards charge out with reckless abandon, straight into your arrow fire. You pull yourself up the saddle into more of a sitting position, thinking. These are simple beasts, but even beasts have a level of cunning that stops them from acting as such. They aren’t this stupid, are they? > You warn your allies These beasts would never simply charge into the path of a fierce predator… unless a fiercer predator was chasing them. “Wait! Wait! Attack!” you shout. “What?” Duggin asks, annoyed as your outburst causes him to miss a shot. “There’s something chasing the beasts!” Duggin raises an eyebrow, before barking out an order. The hunters quickly rearrange formation, just as a horde of Greenskins charge out of the trees with a fierce roar. A burst of spears and arrows flies out from your allies, but the orks take them in their stride. Arrows imbed themselves into their chest and arms, but they don’t go down. Spears jab forward, metal points finding the softest parts of the thick green skin, sinking deep with a spurt of blood. There’s about two dozen, as many as you, but they can take more punishment. You’re outnumbered, but thanks to your forethought and your tiny amount of preparation, you have a chance. You still find yourself useless in the upcoming battle, but it lasts only a few minutes. You watch as blood is shed, limbs are hacked off and puk are struck down. You use what little might you have to cling onto the puk, only barely stopping yourself from falling off. You close your eyes, and wait. Eventually, Duggin calls you. “Karth! It’s over!” he says. You open your eyes, and survey the carnage. Bodies litter the earth, green and tan, lean and muscled, big and small. You’ve lost half your hunters in a single attack, but the rest of you have survived with few wounds. When orks strikes land, they kill, not wound. “Men, we need to check on the Azajaja boys!” Duggin yells. He rides forward, towards the Azajaja camp, deep in the trees. You cling to the puk, looking through the trees as you approach their camp. It’s in ruins. Tents have been torn apart, set alight and entirely wiped out. Bodies cover the ground, and you see the last few remnants of the Azajaja struggling to fight off the approaching Orks. Most are naked, still refusing to pick up your tactic of not going into battle with their dicks flapping in the breeze or their breasts hanging, as well as being one of the more idiotic tribes not to take on clothing at all, unlike yours. “Idiots,” you mutter to yourself. Duggin raises his spear and charges forward, the puk bursting forward as you struggle to hold on. Why couldn’t the idiot have left you at home?! Your allies attack with rage and speed, smashing into the orks from behind. There’s a short, brutal fight, before you see an ork charging towards you, swinging his axe. “Duggin!” you yell, pointing at the ork. Duggin turns, but he’s not fast enough. The ork’s weapon smashes into your puk, cutting through flesh and beheading him in a single blow. You’re sent flying as the puk collapses suddenly, smashing into the cold earth. You let out a pained yell, before opening your hazy eyes, only to find yourself in the centre of the remaining Azajaja survivors, which only consist of half a dozen warriors, a number that’s constantly dropping as the Orks charge once more, as well as two dozen civilians hastily armed with weapons. Suddenly, a small, goblin-like creature, a Gretchen, scampers through the warriors’ line, carrying a small knife fashioned from a large stone, who lets out a chuckle as he spots you and lets out a terrifying grin. You need to do something, fast. > You crawl away You scamper backward, before the creature charges toward you with its blade. You grab the earth, your frail strength still managing to pull your light body away, but the Gretchen it eager. It leaps onto you with a yell, jamming its blade into your throat. You let out a yell, as blood stains the ground.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>These beasts would never simply charge into the path of a fierce predator… unless a fiercer predator was chasing them. “Wait! Wait! Attack!” you shout. “What?” Duggin asks, annoyed as your outburst causes him to miss a shot. “There’s something chasing the beasts!” Duggin raises an eyebrow, before barking out an order. The hunters quickly rearrange formation, just as a horde of Greenskins charge out of the trees with a fierce roar. A burst of spears and arrows flies out from your allies, but the orks take them in their stride. Arrows imbed themselves into their chest and arms, but they don’t go down. Spears jab forward, metal points finding the softest parts of the thick green skin, sinking deep with a spurt of blood. There’s about two dozen, as many as you, but they can take more punishment. You’re outnumbered, but thanks to your forethought and your tiny amount of preparation, you have a chance. You still find yourself useless in the upcoming battle, but it lasts only a few minutes. You watch as blood is shed, limbs are hacked off and puk are struck down. You use what little might you have to cling onto the puk, only barely stopping yourself from falling off. You close your eyes, and wait. Eventually, Duggin calls you. “Karth! It’s over!” he says. You open your eyes, and survey the carnage. Bodies litter the earth, green and tan, lean and muscled, big and small. You’ve lost half your hunters in a single attack, but the rest of you have survived with few wounds. When orks strikes land, they kill, not wound. “Men, we need to check on the Azajaja boys!” Duggin yells. He rides forward, towards the Azajaja camp, deep in the trees. You cling to the puk, looking through the trees as you approach their camp. It’s in ruins. Tents have been torn apart, set alight and entirely wiped out. Bodies cover the ground, and you see the last few remnants of the Azajaja struggling to fight off the approaching Orks. Most are naked, still refusing to pick up your tactic of not going into battle with their dicks flapping in the breeze or their breasts hanging, as well as being one of the more idiotic tribes not to take on clothing at all, unlike yours. “Idiots,” you mutter to yourself. Duggin raises his spear and charges forward, the puk bursting forward as you struggle to hold on. Why couldn’t the idiot have left you at home?! Your allies attack with rage and speed, smashing into the orks from behind. There’s a short, brutal fight, before you see an ork charging towards you, swinging his axe. “Duggin!” you yell, pointing at the ork. Duggin turns, but he’s not fast enough. The ork’s weapon smashes into your puk, cutting through flesh and beheading him in a single blow. You’re sent flying as the puk collapses suddenly, smashing into the cold earth. You let out a pained yell, before opening your hazy eyes, only to find yourself in the centre of the remaining Azajaja survivors, which only consist of half a dozen warriors, a number that’s constantly dropping as the Orks charge once more, as well as two dozen civilians hastily armed with weapons. Suddenly, a small, goblin-like creature, a Gretchen, scampers through the warriors’ line, carrying a small knife fashioned from a large stone, who lets out a chuckle as he spots you and lets out a terrifying grin. You need to do something, fast. > You attack it You grab a rock, swinging it forward and smashing it into the side of the Gretchen’s face. It smacks into the ground, and you climb atop it and smack it into the creature’s skull again and again. The Gretchen’s head is crushed, and you let out a relieved sigh. The relief is short-lived, though, as the orks continue to charge forward, swinging hastily-made weapons. The number of Azajaja survivors grows much smaller, as your tribesmen attempt to rescue both them and you whilst surviving the onslaught of Greenskin, but there’s just too many. Hands grab your shoulders and pull you up, just out of the path of an oncoming spear. You turn, to see the face of a young girl, barely older than you, holding a spear with a terrified look on her face. You blush as you realize she’s naked, before chiding yourself for having such an immature thought while people are charging to kill you. You hear a roar, and turn back to see an ork charging forward. He sees you, raising his axe. > You crawl away You scamper backward, before the creature charges toward you with its blade. You grab the earth, your frail strength still managing to pull your light body away, but the ork swings, the blade sinking into your shoulder, cutting through bone and flesh with ease. You let out a yell, as blood stains the ground.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You grab a rock, swinging it forward and smashing it into the side of the Gretchen’s face. It smacks into the ground, and you climb atop it and smack it into the creature’s skull again and again. The Gretchen’s head is crushed, and you let out a relieved sigh. The relief is short-lived, though, as the orks continue to charge forward, swinging hastily-made weapons. The number of Azajaja survivors grows much smaller, as your tribesmen attempt to rescue both them and you whilst surviving the onslaught of Greenskin, but there’s just too many. Hands grab your shoulders and pull you up, just out of the path of an oncoming spear. You turn, to see the face of a young girl, barely older than you, holding a spear with a terrified look on her face. You blush as you realize she’s naked, before chiding yourself for having such an immature thought while people are charging to kill you. You hear a roar, and turn back to see an ork charging forward. He sees you, raising his axe. > You attack You grab a rock, swinging it forward, but the ork’s so big you can only reach its thigh, and the rock harmlessly bounces off the ork. The ork swings, the blade sinking into your shoulder, cutting through bone and flesh with ease. You let out a yell, as blood stains the ground. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You grab a rock, swinging it forward and smashing it into the side of the Gretchen’s face. It smacks into the ground, and you climb atop it and smack it into the creature’s skull again and again. The Gretchen’s head is crushed, and you let out a relieved sigh. The relief is short-lived, though, as the orks continue to charge forward, swinging hastily-made weapons. The number of Azajaja survivors grows much smaller, as your tribesmen attempt to rescue both them and you whilst surviving the onslaught of Greenskin, but there’s just too many. Hands grab your shoulders and pull you up, just out of the path of an oncoming spear. You turn, to see the face of a young girl, barely older than you, holding a spear with a terrified look on her face. You blush as you realize she’s naked, before chiding yourself for having such an immature thought while people are charging to kill you. You hear a roar, and turn back to see an ork charging forward. He sees you, raising his axe. > You scream You can barely walk. You’re not going to crawl away from an ork, let alone kill it. The orks have struck down everyone around you. Only you and the girl are left, with your tribesmen on the other side of a wall of green muscle, struggling to survive. You do pretty much the only thing you can do. You let out a terrified, ear-piercing scream. In one outburst of air, you release all your pent-up terror and fear. The ork lets out a pained howl, clutching its ears. It continues screaming, collapsing to its knees, before its head explodes in a spray of crimson mist. You watch as dozens of orks collapse to the ground, blood streaming from their eyes, ears, nose and mouth. You feel a scratching behind your eyes, in the centre of your skull, as if invisible hands are trying to pull you apart. You let out a moan, and collapse backwards. > You enter oblivion You have horrible nightmares of ever-changing balls of tentacles and eyes, horrible creatures of claws, breasts, hooves and long tongues, large, boil-covered, plague-ridden abominations and horned red beasts wielding flaming swords. Finally, you awaken in a cold sweat, coddled in your old, musky blankets. You look around, your eyes adjusting to the light of dusk. You notice the girl from earlier sitting in the corner, scaled hides and furs wrapped around her with her head resting on the handle of the sword she’s clutching. She notices your wandering eyes and begins staring at you with her bright, green eyes. She's covered in dirt, with her brown hair hacked as short as yours, making her look like a boy. “You’re awake,” she says. “Yes,” you reply, staring back at her, wondering why she’s keeping herself from blinking. “You sleep a long time.” “I do.” You sit there staring at each for quite some time, before the tent flap opens as Duggin walks inside. You notice several fresh scars across his chest, and a long one across his face. “Karth! You’re awake!” he says with surprise. “How long was I dreaming?” you ask. “Two weeks. We thought… after what happened… Well, we considered feeding you to the puk,” Duggin chuckles. “Good to see you’re alive. What visions have you had?” You reflect briefly on your dreams. “There’s heavy storms coming within a weak, heavy amounts prey south towards the coast of the lake… and no sign of Greenskin activity,” you say. “Good to know, little one. I’ll pass the message on.” Duggin turns his attention to the girl, who sits there. “Have you met the Azajaja, Karth?” he asks. “She hasn’t said a word the entire time she was here. She just sat there. It took a fierce bit of effort to get her to eat. I’m pretty sure she’s just been shitting in the corner.” Duggin looks to the girl, seemingly expecting her to say something, but she says nothing, just stares at you. “I’ll… grab you some food and drink. For both of you,” Duggin says, walking out of the tent, leaving you and the girl alone. “I’m Karth,” you reply, offering your hand to shake. She just sits there in response, staring at you. It’s getting unnerving. After a few minutes, Duggin returns, carrying two wooden bowls of cooked meats as well as two more of wine. He leaves them on the floor in front of you. “Make sure she eats. I’ll give you some time, but then we need to discuss how you wiped out two dozens orks with… whatever powers you’ve been blessed with,” he says, before leaving. You grab the two bowls of meat, sliding one across the floor to her. You begin eating, as she does the same. She grabs the meat and stuffs it into her mouth, all without breaking eye contact or letting go of her sword. She eats the meat with her mouth open, making loud chewing noises. You wince at the noise, the churning, slicing and crushing being another thing your mind is repulsed by. You blink, unnerved by the staring, but begin to eat, the delicious taste of flesh filling your mouth. “You snore loudly,” she says after several minutes. “Yeah, I’ve been told,” you reply. "What do you do?" she asks. “What do you mean?” “What do you do all day? You don’t seem like you can walk around much, let alone do chores or work.” “I sit here and sleep a lot. Sometimes I make plans when needed.” “Why are you so pale?” she asks quizzically. “I spend most of my time in a tent, obviously,” you reply. “Do you want to go outside?” she asks. “Everyone’s too busy to carry me around.” The girl considers this. “Do you want to go on my back so I can take you outside?” > Yes “Yes, if you don’t mind,” you say. She stands, scoffing the remaining bits of meat down her throat before gulping down the wine. She walks forward, turning and bending over to allow you to wrap your arms around her shoulders and then lift yourself up enough to wrap your legs around her thighs. She stands with a grunt, grabbing her sword before walking forward and out of the tent. You look up at the quickly falling sun, basking your face in its warmth. The rest of the tribe gives you a quick glance, surprised to see you outside, but go back to work. The girl continues to carry you around, trotting along the tents towards the trees. “So… do I get to know your name?” you ask. “It’s Fay,” she replies. “I’m Karth.” “What do you dream of? You know, when you sleep?” “Bad things, mostly. Monsters. Sometimes, I get messages. I see beasts attacking, and I know when the orks will strike. I…” “Did you know the orks were going to attack my village?” Fay asks, sadness filling her voice. “I… no. I don’t get messages every time.” “Oh. OK.” You arrive at the trees, and you outstretch your arm, running it across the bark of one of the trees. You spot the sun finally descending under the horizon, as the darkness stretches over the sky. Two duller bright lights take its place, but they’re far too weak to give even an ounce of its brightness. “We should go back,” you say. “Why?” Fay asks. “Monsters dwell here at night.” She pats her sword gently. “I have a blade. I can easily kill the monsters.” “Monsters are scary.” “I can be scary too.” > You pressure her to go back “Come on, let’s go back, please,” she says. “Fine,” she says with a sigh, turning and heading back to the camp. She goes back inside the camp, putting you back on your blankets. “Can I sleep in here?” she asks. “Uh… OK,” you reply, curling up in your blankets. “I’ll see you in the morning,” she says. “Goodnight.” “Goodnight.” With that, you curl up in your blankets and let sleep take you once more. > Three Years Later... Over the next three years, things change, both for you and the world at large. Fay becomes a constant companion, seemingly oblivious to the fact that the other children of the tribe would be happy to play with her and devoting all her time to you. You’re not sure why, but you’re grateful for it. Puberty changes both of you. Fay grows significantly taller, faster and stronger, growing from a small girl to a large and powerful warrior. She stands as tall and proud as the boys of the village, and is more than happy to face them off in a wrestling match, winning all of them. She seems to prefer spending her time hunting with the boys or more often with you than learning the common girl's chores of cooking, sewing and cleaning. You'd imagine soon enough she'll have to find a husband among the hunters. Thankfully, growth does not leave you behind, although it doesn’t effect you nearly as much. You grow strong enough to be able to stand and stroll around the camp, even taking small trips, although even a light jog for a minute or two is enough to topple you over with exhaustion. Compared to Fay, you're a twig whilst her muscled form is that of an thick tree trunk. Puberty also has a significant change on your abilities. You sleep less, although your dreams are harsher, and there’s more… anger behind them. The monsters seem aware of you know, there voices constantly breaking into reality and continuing to scream and plead with you. You simply refuse to listen, and with training, you can make them become something of a white noise to your day to day activity. Your powers also increase. With the flick of your fingers, you can start a small fire. With a word, you can leave anything, man or beast, confused and befuddled. You can pick things up and throw them with a strength unfound to you, beating out many of the warriors in throwing contests without even moving. The world as a whole changes as well. The amount of Greenskin attacks intensifies, and in response the tribes band together, forming a much larger community to stand against the tide. Your dreams are muddled, but you feel something is coming. The sky, which to the plain eye is beautiful, blue and unchanging, seems about to be torn open in your dreams. Something bad is coming. You sit in the grass, a tan finally having replaced your pale form, next to Fay as you watch buzzards flying overhead, eating a bowl of Braxen meat. “It’s a nice day,” Fay says. “It is,” you say, your dreams from the previous nights still filling you with a feeling of dread. “You look nervous.” “Do I?” you ask, feigning confusion. “As much as you like to think so, I’m not stupid. I can tell something’s up.” > You tell her the truth “I’ve been having a lot of nightmares. I think… I think bad things are coming.” “Really?” Fay asks, getting worried. “Like what?” “I don’t know,” you admit. “But it’s bad.” “Have you told Duggin?” “He just increased the amount of training warriors are doing. He asked what else he could do, and I didn’t have any better suggestions.” “You worry too much. You’re not even eating. Your bowl’s full. Speaking of which…” She plucks the bowl from your hands. “I’m still hungry!” Fay laughs as she gracefully hops out of reach. “Oh, no! Whatever shall I do? I’ve been left helpless! What will poor Karth do?” you say sarcastically. With the wave of your hand, Fay’s feet go from under her and the bowl flies into your hands. You grab a piece of meat and throw it into your mouth with a smile. “You’re just a bully,” Fay says, fake pouting. “Thank the God-Emperor you were cursed to be a cripple.” “Hey! I’m not a cripple! I’m just super weak. If we find a tribe of women who aren’t ugly bags with stringy hair, odd scars sand gross teeth, I’ll get super buff. But, we haven’t,” you reply. Fay looks down, actually looking hurt by your joking comment. Shit. “Uh… don’t be so insulted, Fay,” you say, gently knocking her to the ground again with the flick of your wrist. “You’re less ugly when you smile. You need to have thicker skin.” She smiles as she stands back up. “Me? I need thicker skin? This is coming from the guy who’s always like “I’m scared because I dreamed something bad”!” “Hey, I’m never wrong. I have a lot of power,” you say, emphasizing your point with another flick of your wrist. “Stop that!” she complains, hitting the ground. “I don’t even know why I hang out with you.” “Because of my dashing good looks?” “Shut up! I’m going down to the lake for a swim!” she says, jumping up and jogging off towards the lake. You quickly stand up, walking after her. “Wait up! You know I can’t go that fast!” Fay rolls her eyes, stopping and grabbing your hand. “Come on!” she says. Shit. You hate swimming. It’s mostly just you sitting in the shallow, exhausted from the effort of getting in. Still, you go where she does, and she’s the same. You walk as quickly as you can towards the lake. > Four Hours Later... You lie on the grassy edge of the lake, your feet dipping gently in the water, watching as Fay gathers berries, nuts, fruit and whatever other edibles she has access to. You watch her approaching you, carrying a handful of food. You eagerly extend a hand as she hands some to you, and you stuff your cheeks with them, eagerly eating. “How can someone be so hungry yet be so thin?” “I suppose I’m just an abomination,” you smile, watching as the water turns gold as the sun shines across it, finally beginning to disappear as night takes hold. “It was a nice day,” you say. “But we should head back.” “You’re such a maybe. You’d think a magic man who can kill dozens of orks with one petrified scream would be less of a coward.” You flick your wrist and she falls over with a yelp. “Stop doing that!” “No,” you reply with a smile. You watch as the bright two moons appear, just as dozens of stars fill the sky. “Beautiful night,” Fay remarks. “Yeah. The sky’s looking gorgeous,” you reply. “You know..." Fay starts. There’s a howling scream, and the sky is torn apart. You watch as the very fabric of reality is sliced through, tearing a hole in the sky. There’s a bright, purple hole in the sky itself. “What the fuck is…?” Fay asks, drawing her sword as if with some hope of stopping the horror that is to come. A headache pulses through you as you try to stand, collapsing back to the floor. In the distance, a massive, black shape leaves the hole, heading straight towards the planet. You stand again, but the shrieking continues, preventing you from thinking, let alone running. “Karth!” Fay yells, wrapping her hands around you and lifts you up. > You tell her to go back to camp and warn them “Go… go back to camp without me. Warn them!” “I’m not leaving you!” “Fay, have you fucking seen me? It’s a hell of a lot less dangerous here, I’ll be fine. Go!” Fay nods, turning and sprinting off towards the camp. You sit there, clutching your head. After about a minute, your head clears enough to realize that there’s no way in hell the camp wouldn’t notice the massive, sky-tearing hole in reality itself, so sending Fay back to warn them is completely useless. Suddenly, you’re hit by another wave of anguish as pain courses through you. Then, the voices return. This time, though, one pierces through, louder than ever before, almost as if someone is whispering directly in your ear. “Karth… Karth… I can help you… I have so much power… I have so much strength… all of it, I’m happy to offer you…” You feel the claws of a million voices scratching at your mind. You begin to scratch at your eardrums, hoping, begging the voices to stop. You shudder, and thankfully, oblivion takes you and you lapse into unconsciousness. > You awaken You awaken, lying on the grass outside of your camp. Your eyes blink twice, as you begin to look around. Several large, metal buildings sit there in the fields next to the tents. Men holding large spears march around the camp, directing throngs of tribespeople towards the buildings. These spears seem to be capable of firing arrows made of concentrated sunlight. Interesting. You notice several giants, seemingly made of metal, standing on the edge of the camp, watching the work. Suddenly, you find yourself yanked into the air by invisible hands, and float into the air, suspended two four feet above the ground. You watch as a trio of men approach you, smiling. The one on the left is a giant, seemingly made entirely of metal. He stands at around eight feet, with dozens spikes protruding from his metal skin. His body’s black, with a purple head. In the middle, a tall, pale man wearing a long, black leather overcoat, a spiked collar strapped around his neck. The third seems to be a hybrid between a girl and a metal monster, her eyes replaced by the three red, unblinking eyes of a monster, a dozen long, metal arms extending from the nape of her back, three arms ending in claws and one a drill, with her legs replaced by four spider-like legs. Where her human arms would be extends a grasping, whirring claw and a metal barrel, the inside of which glows faintly blue. The middle one walks forward with a smile. “Hello there, young Karth. Pleasure to see you,” he smiles jovially. “We don’t have time for pleasantries, psyker,” the metal man says. “Load him onto the ship! "Give him time to adjust! He's only just waking up," the man, the psyker, says. One of the long, metal arms attached to the monster-man's back goes towards you, whirring its drill. It cuts along your arm, drawing a long, thin cut as you yelp in pain. "This one is weak... how pitiful," the monster-man says. "It's pain tolerance is low, but I can work with it." "I want to use his mind, not his flesh," the psyker says. "My name is Kyros. The burly armored man to my right is Chapter Master Taj Suenage, and the robotic companion to my left is the Heretek known as the Craftsman of Vorn, the Butcher of Karis IV and the Father to the Prometheans. Her name is Magos Cern. We are the Forces of Chaos." The monster-man extends one of her metal tentacle arms once more, tracing the outline of your cheek bones. "Bah! Time wastes! Either give me the surge of the warp overtaking me, or give me the surge of battle, Kyros!" Taj roars, smacking a metal hand against his chest. "As you wish, Taj," the Psyker says. The Psyker claps his hands, and his various forces begin forcing the last of the tribespeople inside the building, as those who litter the floor, those who presumably tried to resist, are carried there. "Are they dead?" "Some, presumably. I gave the order to keep as many alive as possible," Kyros says. You see Fay's battered and bruised body being tossed over a metal giant's shoulder as she's carried off towards the building. "No! Give her back!" you shout. "She fought well. When my men entered this pathetic village, she was trying to warn them. She even tried to fight them off. Killed one of the dumber ones who tried to call her bluff. Commendable." You furrow your brow, and the Psyker grins as Taj's head is knocked slightly back, before presuming position. Despite how little you've harmed him, the metal giant seems enraged. "You scum-sucking sociopathic cunt!" Taj roars, charging forward. Taj is flipped into the air, being suspended just out of reach of you. His metal fists swing at you, but he's kept out of grasp. "Tut tut. Stay your anger, my dear Taj. Karth, I'll make you a deal. Do as I say, and the girl will be unharmed. Deal? > You agree "OK. Just don't hurt her," you say. You drop, hitting the floor quite gently. Kyros grins and gives you a nod. "Good boy. I'll make sure special care is taken of the girl."k "Ha! I'll give your bitch whore "special care"!" Taj roars, still grabbing at you. Kyros rolls her eyes, flipping Taj into the dust. "Quiet now, marine," he says. "I have a gift to sate your bloodlust. Bring out the chieftain!" You watch as Duggin is dragged form his tent, growling and yelling. A large cut goes down his chest, blood having soaked his armor, turning it a deep crimson that shines in the sun. "Come on, finish me!" he roars. "I don't want to see my men die, Karth. I gave your chieftain the option to surrender, give me his finest warriors... and you, of course, and I'd spare his civilians. He refused, killed some of my men, had his warriors killed and now I have to take you all. Now, he will die. This is what happens when people mess with my plans, Karth." Taj drops to the ground, turning to stare at Duggin with a monstrous laugh. "Fortunately, Karth, I won't make you watch. You have agreed, haven't you?" Kyros says with a wink. You're released to the ground, and Kyros and Magos Cern walk alongside you towards the metal buildings. You walk inside, and the doors shut. A bright red light, like a very powerful candle, appears out of nothingness, brightening the room. The tribespeople are packed in here, surrounded by a tight bundle of guards with spears raised. "What happens here? There's no space to do anything," you say. "It's a landing craft, little one. Now, we soar to the stars," Kyros says. You see several feet away from you is Fay's crumpled form and feel a twinge of pain. You sit down in the metal building as it begins to shake and shudder as if moving, terrified of the world around you. > Four Hours Later... The trip is long. The landing craft constantly shakes and shudders, and quickly fills with the smell of puke as the stomachs of many of the men and women around you as they fail to handle the constant shaking. You sit there, unmoving, staring up at the guards. Finally, the ship shudders to a stop. "Good! We're here!" Kyros says. "Welcome to the Roar of the Vortex! Please file out and follow the guards towards your cells." "What are you going to do with us?" someone asks. "I'm going to make you matter in a galaxy that stands for no one," Kyros says proudly. The people begin being shuffled off the landing raft, and you find yourself in a massive metal room. You look out a massive opening, filled with similar craft. You look around, before a metal hand grabs your shoulder. "Stay," Taj growls. "You're not to be mixed in with these common curs." "What's going to happen to them?" you ask. "Some will live. Most will die. All will suffer," Taj says. "What... what are you?" "A space marine, boy," Taj says. He grabs his head, twisting it. His metal head is yanked off, revealing a scarred human head underneath. "You're a human." "Practically. Did you think I was metal through and through?" Taj asks. "Yes." "It's armor, boy," Taj says. "I don't have time to explain shit to you." Kyros marches out, raising you into the air. "Come on, boy. Let's go!" Kyros says eagerly, walking along the ship. You float after him, being dragged through the air, unable to resist. After a few minutes, you fall to your knees in front of a metal door. "I've asked what's going to happen to us. You still haven't given me an answer," you say. "You've found yourself in a war, little one. Your planet is worth jack shit. Everything you know doesn't matter. This war encompasses the galaxy.Systems burn, billions die, the fate of trillions is fought for." "War? Whose fighting?" you ask. "Everyone. The world has monsters so powerful that they'd wipe out every warrior in all your tribes in an instant. There's the Tyranids, a horrible bug hive-mind with nothing but a need to eat. There's the Necrons, an ancient of soulless machines that have only just began to awaken. There's the Orks, a warring species of monsters, the Eldar, an enigmatic species just as likely to help as hinder you, Then, you have the worst villains. The Imperium of Man. They're freedom-crushing, innovation-stopping, potential-destroying fascists who enslave trillions and worship a corpse. We stand against them. We serve the Dark Gods. Khorne the Warrior God, Tzeentch the Sorcery God, Slaaneesh the Pleasure God and Nurgle the Plague God. We fight to free ourselves from tyranny, to make sure every man is free. We offer gifts of strength, knowledge, joy and immortality, yet the Imperium spurns us. So we rebelled. We are the Forces of Chaos, who fight back against tyranny! Praise Chaos in all it's glory!" "I'm still waiting for an answer," you say. "We're going to turn you into super-soldiers. Magos Cern has long worked on the process. We're going to make you greater than Space Marines. You hold the most potential. Cern can play with their flesh and Taj can train them, but I offer the greatest gift: Ultimate power. You're gifted, Karth. I want to use that gift to make you one of the most powerful beings known to man." You stare at him nervously. You're not an idiot. People don't just create powerful soldiers without having a chain around them. You watch as Kyros takes a steel, studded collar and walks towards you. He wraps it around your throat, clicking it into place. "Is that comfortable?" Kyros asks. "I suppose," you see, scratching at the collar. "At any moment, I can shut down your powers and strangle the very air out of your throat. So play nice." Kyros picks you up again with a flick of the wrist and you float upwards. Kyros carries you through the air, stopping at another door. It opens with being touched, and Kyros drops you inside it. "This is your cell. I've made it... comfortable. In return, you best be... compliant I need to... check on some things. Wait here for the time being," Kyros says, sealing the door behind you." You stand up, looking around the room. There's a bed there, a small hole in the floor the size of a baby's head, a shelf and a small glass box with a lever inside. > You investigate the hole You walk over to the hole, and look down it. Nothing but blackness. You put your ear against it, but no noise comes out. Finally, you put your arm down it, up to the shoulder. There's a gunk coating it further down, but you can't make out what it is by touch. You lift out your arm, only to find it caked with dried shit. "Fuck," you complain, as the smell just begins to hit you. > You investigate the box You walk over to the box, entering it. You press down on the lever, and nothing happens. You pull it, and suddenly you're hit by a burst of water. You look up, and it's like lashing rain has formed right above you. This has the added benefit of washing off the shit that cakes your arm. You quickly turn it off, avoiding getting too soaked.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You walk over to the hole, and look down it. Nothing but blackness. You put your ear against it, but no noise comes out. Finally, you put your arm down it, up to the shoulder. There's a gunk coating it further down, but you can't make out what it is by touch. You lift out your arm, only to find it caked with dried shit. "Fuck," you complain, as the smell just begins to hit you. > You lie on the bed and wait You collapse onto the bed, closing your eyes. Almost immediately, the voice begins. "Karth... Karth..." the voice calls. "I have so much to offer you... you're a prisoner here, Karth. These men are going to break you, child. Only I can help you... just give me time..." the horrible voices stops, and reality fades back into reality. The voices thankfully subside, and you're granted a short break of blissful sleep. Unfortunately, this is broken by the door opening. You look up to see Kyros standing there. "Karth, it's time for your... augmentation," he says cheerfully. "What's going to happen?" you ask fearfully. "Magos Cern and the Chapter Master want to create super-soldiers. They're aiming so low they could hit themselves in the foot. I want to create something... excuse me, someone of immense power. Your mind will be a thousand times sharper than any blade. You will be a Psyker feared by the entire Imperium." "Let's say you make me extremely powerful. Then what? How do you keep me under your control?" you ask. "Karth, you're my prisoner, but I don't think you need to be for long. I want you to join me. We figtht for freedom, for power, for glory! We'll crush the dying Imperium, and lead mankind towards a new dawn. Can't you see that that's a strong goal? Can't you see that that's something to join us to fight for?" > You say "I agree. They're commendable ideals." "I'm glad to hear it. I'm sorry to say you'll still have to remain my prisoner for the time being, but I'm sure the crew will come to trust you quickly enough." You arrive in a large room, filled with dozens of large, see-through tubes. You glance at them, take a deep breath, and get sick all over the glass while falling to your knees. "Ah, yes... you best not look at these," Kyros says, flicking his finger to pick you up again. Inside the tube, submersed in a thick, viscous liquid, are your tribespeople. They're completely naked, with long tubes having been forced down their throat. Dozens of needles have been forced into their arms, backs and necks, pumping strange liquids into them. "What the fuck are you doing to them?" you ask. "Making them super-soldiers. We've been through this," Kyros says absent-mindedly. "I thought you'd be training them!" "After we change them. If you think the nutrients and drug treatment is bad, wait until we start using the Geneseed. At least they'll all survive this bit." > You look around for Fay You look around, noticing Fay floating in a tube. "Let her out!" you say, tears welling in your eyes as you watch her body convulse as chemicals and nutrients flood into it. "No. She needs to become strong if she wishes to survive here." "She's one of our best warriors! She trains everyday!" "I don't particularly care whose the best warrior of some shithole tribe on some shithole planet! We'll be fighting super, cybernetic orks, super-soldiers the likes of Taj, ancient, psychic warriors and never-ending waves of bug warriors. Your sister could be torn apart in seconds by even the weakest of threats." "She's not my sister," you say, putting your hand against the glass. "Really? Wife, then? I've seen cultures with younger marriage ages, but they're not the norm." "We're not married, we're just friends," you say sadly, as you're carried into the air once more and dragged along Kyros. "Ah, I see. Your society isn't patriarchal enough that you can just demand she has sex with you. Unreciprocated love, what a pity," Kyros laughs. "It's not... let her go!" you shout. The collar tugs tightly around your throat, taking the breath away from you. You choke and gasp for several seconds, before it releases, allowing you to take a breath. "Quiet now." You continue on, arriving at a thick, metal door. "Here we are," Kyros says with a smile. The metal doors slide open, revealing a large, empty chamber. Magos Cern stands in the center, her head twisting around to reveal her glowing red eyes, piercing your soul. "Is the chamber complete?" Kyros asks. "Have you succeeded?" Magos Cern stares at you. "Well?" Kyros asks again. "Don't question my work, Kyros. If something goes wrong, it's because you're an idiot trying to harness the magical energies of the warp while using a flesh battery." "I have a name, you know," you point out. Magos Cern walks out of the room, the mechanical part of her body whirring. "What is she?" you ask. "Is she even a "she"?" "Imagine a simple human girl. Useless. Unknown. Weak. We all want to be strong. She scorns are use of the Warp, but she's happy to replace most of her body with machinery." "Machinery?" "She... adds metal shielding, important tools, new robotic arms... that kind of thing. Are you ready to start the procedure?" "Do I have a choice?" you ask. "Not in the slightest, but if you have any questions, you might as well ask them." > You ask questions about the Warp "What's the Warp?" "Imagine an alternate dimension, of pure Chaos and emotion. It's known as the Warp. We are in a galaxy teeming with life. These lives all mean that there are trillions of bright, powerful souls. The powers of the Warp can easily be reaped here. By passing through it, we're able to travel hundreds of light years with ease. Through manifesting and manipulating the Warp, some of us, Psykers, can use it's powers like you and I do." "We use the powers of the Warp for our magic?" "Yes, yes. Here, in the warp, are powerful and ancient creatures such as the Dark Gods and their daemons. There's Khorne, who has been born out of the galaxy's never-ending combat, representing courage, strength, blood-thirst, honor and most importantly, rage. There's Tzeentch, who has been born out of scheming and plotting. He represents sorcery and the use of magic, scheming, plotting, hope and change. There's Nurgle, the plague god. He represents sickness, decay, rot, plague, defeat and in a strange way, life and acceptance. Finally there's Slaaneesh, who represents self-indulgence, passion, love and pleasure. These are the four greatest Dark Gods, and it is to them I pledge my life. In exchange, they give me gifts to enhance my dark powers and give me the strength to fight for what's right." > You ask questions about the procedure "What's going to happen to me?" "Your body is frail, weak, useless, because that's not where your strength comes from. Look at the finest warriors in your village. Their strength comes from the pathetic vessels their souls use. Your body could be upgraded, and we could make you as strong as someone like Taj with enough work, but what would be the point? It would be like adding a simple rifle bayonet to the heavy macro cannon of a starship. Now, I'm going to refine your abilities." "You haven't told me what you're going to do," you point out. "Well, this could be quite unpleasant. We're going to pump the chamber ful of Psychic energies and enhance your abilities," Kyros says. "Is that going to work?" you ask. "Probably," Kyros shrugs, flashing a devilish grin. "What I expect is a forced evolution of your mind to a much stronger state. It'll skip directly to the height of your psychic maturity, and then several levels past that. It requires a powerful Psyker who's still growing as a psyker with a lot of potential to succeed, but I'm certain you'll be able to survive it. Good luck." > You start the procedure "Alright, I'm ready," you say with a grimace. "Good. Now, it is important to know that this chamber is going to flood with psychic energy. If you feel your a few outer layers of your skin begin to burn off, you'll be find. It's quite likely that as the connections to the Warp that are built up and a portal is built up, daemons could attempt to manifest in the chamber. These are beings that are built on fear. You might see them, but they can't hurt you unless you react to in fear. They'll be able to cease on the presence of your fear and* fully manifest, and then they'll definitely be able to hurt you." "So they can't hurt me if I don't react to them?" "Well... if this goes well, they won't be able to harm you if you don't show fear. If it goes wrong in some way and if they can harm you, being scared what change anything and you'll be slaughtered like a lamb either way won't do anything. So don't get scared, and don't react in anyway." Kyros steps backwards, outside of the chamber, as four massive giant men wearing the metal armor just like Chapter Master Taj, wearing black armor with purple helmets. Severed Ork heads hang from around their heads, seemingly quite fresh, while they hold in their hands massive Bolters, which as you've learned from the chitchat between guards aboard the landing craft, spit huge bits of flaming metal with amazing speed. They're either here to keep you in... or to keep whatever ends up in this chamber if something goes wrong. The doors close, sealing you in there. Shit. You're definitely going to die in this chamber. "Shit!" you say loudly, you voice echoing off the walls of the circular chamber. The chamber begins to hum, as the entire room begins shaking. The walls course with psychic energy. You hear a thousand energetic voices begin to chatter endlessly in your mind. One voice is loud and strong above the others. "Karth..." the now familiar voice calls. "...feel the power reverberate through your soul... I knew I was right to target you." "Who the fuck are you?" you whimper. You feel your body shudder, as your mind stretches. You feel sharp bursts of emotion. A deep, powerful rage at the slaughter and enslavement of your people. How dare those fucks kill your allies, kidnap your people and do these things? What gives them the right?! This rage is quickly replaced by a burst of joyous bliss, as an immense pleasure floods through your body, and you shudder in ecstasy. This is replaced by a deep sadness, as you realize that your entire tribe, your entire planet, all of the heroes of lore that you looked up to, meant nothing. Your world, as the Chaos lords said, is infinitesimally small and worthless compared to the rest of the galaxy. "I am a friend, Karth. An ally. A daemon with unimaginable power which I'm willing to offer you. My name is Meliodas. I want you to survive this... I'm your friend... I know the powers flooding into you like you know the air you breath. Just ignore the chattering... ah, look... they're arrived. Try not to react..." You watch as the air courses, pulsing with solid, permanent beat. You see the air morph and flex with energy, as colored energy begins to manifest and coagulate. You see a morphing shape appear, a humanoid, red shape standing on black claws with a long, spiked head with two black horns. In it's hand is a long, flaming sword. It's skin the same as a burning coal sitting in the center of flames, veins of molten blood coursing through it. It looks at you and lets out an angry, guttural hiss. It slowly walks over to you, as it's blade crackles with heat. You feel your headache worsen ten times over, as the inside of your mind is scratched and hacked apart from the inside. The daemon raises a burning sword high into the air, before swinging towards your neck. > You do nothing You close your eyes to take in a deep breath, calming your mind slightly. You can feel your very consciousness shaking, and let out a shudder, opening your eyes. The daemon is gone, leaving you alone in the room. Electricity cackles along the wall, lightning running across you and wrapping around your very being. You feel a massive, terrible psychic scream reverberating deep in your mind, across every facet of your soul. You drop to your knees, as an unimaginable pain fills you. You let out a horrified scream from deep in your lungs, deep in your mind and deep in your soul. The room explodes, setting alight with multicolored flames which race along the walls, with flashes of lightning appearing and disappearing like snowflakes on wet stone. You collapse forward, onto the ground, as the room begins to cool down, but this only speeds up your fall into the void. > You enter the Void... You hear screaming. You look up, to find yourself falling through an endless void. You look at your body, starring in abject horror as it blisters, boils, sores and rashes cover you puke, releasing a torrent of vomit, blood and bile, as your flesh begins to decay, rotting in front of you. "Karth!" a voice screams, bringing you back to reality. You open your eyes, finding yourself lying in the chamber. The four Space Marines stand over you, massive figures wearing thick-plated armor, next to Kyros. "We should kill the Psyker. He's probably possessed, or corrupted beyond sanity," one says, not noticing you waking up. "You can try, but I'll bind your souls to a fucking Soul Grinder! I'll make a flaying seem like the greatest ecstasies Slaanesh has to offer!" Kyros roars. "If that cunt has failed and died from this, I'll toss his entire tribe to the mutants to be flayed, the dogs to be mauled and the men to be fucked! I'll burn the fucking...!" Kyros notices you, and his hate-filled expression changes to a friendly, cheerful one. "Ah, Karth, you've survived! Terrific!" he says, gripping your hand and shaking your hand eagerly. "Congratulations on your survival!" "Yeah... I did," you say, rubbing your head. "Ah, I've found... residence," Meliodas says from deep in your mind. "Your mind has grown powerfully. I know you had potential." Magos Cern walks into the room, starring at you with her cold eyes. She raises a pincer, quickly tearing off a stretch of skin from your arm. You yelp in pain and surprise as the skin is pealed away. She stares at it, scanning it with your mechanical eyes, before looking back at you. "Light signs of Warp mutation. Should be cleared with a round of decontamination therapy," she says. "How fares his mind? Did it work?" Taj growls, marching inside. "I'll probe your consciousness, see how much I've succeeded, shall I?" Kyros says. "My head hurts," you complain, as you feel a pounding headache hit. "Oh yes, that's normal," Kyros says. "I thought you've never done this before. How do you know the aftermath of it leads to headaches?" you ask. "Oh no, I mean if you're as powerful a psyker as I expect you to be, you'll be suffering from constant headaches, and that's when you're at your best," Kyros says, shrugging. "Why the fuck didn't you tell me that earlier?" you say. "You're a slave, Karth. Remember that when you speak back to me, or you'll become familiar with the lash," Kyros says, his cheerful, friendly demeanor dropping for a second, before he smiles once more. "Now, shall we begin the probing? You'll feel a sharp sensation. Just ignore it." You nod your head slowly, before you feel something akin to an ice-cold blade slowly being forced into your consciousness. You shudder, but try not to tense up or resist in anyway. "Hmmm... it's strong. Very strong. I've done well here. Thank the Dark Gods I installed that collar before I put you in the chamber," Kyros says, smiling as the collar tightens slightly around your throat. "These space marines will act as your personal bodyguard." "He's the prisoner, we're the guards. Don't let him think any different," one of the Space Marines says, as Kyros hands him a long chain which the space marine wraps around his fist. "That'll control his collar, marine. Use it to throttle the life out of him if he gets uppity." "Yes, sir," one of the space marines responds. You can practically feel the super-soldier maliciously grinning through his helmet. "Now, let's take our newly evolved friend to the training pit," Kyros smiles. "Test out his new abilities." > You an Hour Later... You sit in the middle of a large, Colosseum-type building. Kyros stands in a booth up above you all, next to Magos Cern and Taj Suenage. All around the seating area are the various men of the ship, crewmen, soldiers and the favored slaves. In four side of the circular arena are metal gates, where your foes will be released from. You question the insanity of building a fighting arena aboard a spaceship with very limited space, but then again, you're not in charge. "Alright, Karth, the rules are simple. No attacking the audience. There is a protective shield keeping you guys in there from damaging the crowd or, Dark Gods forbid, me. Also, if you try, we're more than happy to strangle the life out of your, break your body and bind your soul to a Soul Grinder," Kyros shouts. "Now, let's begin. Leave none alive!" The first gate opens, and you freeze as you see a group of a dozen shambling mutant abominations walking forward. You can tell they were once human, but now you can barely tell. Tentacles, extra limbs, massive tumors, animal parts and much worse. There's barely a human intelligence left behind their eyes, replaced by an animal-like instinct. They shamble towards you, roaring, howling, screeching, shouting, hissing and letting out whatever bursts of noise they can. > You fire psychic bolts of energy You fire a bolt of purple energy, striking down the largest whose head explodes. You flick your wrist again, burning the hair off a howling beastman. A mutant is struck in the face by another bolt, and by now they're confused and scared, attempting to flee back to the gate they came through which has now closed shut. Needless to say, it doesn't take much more to fully finish off the mutant pack, leaving them all dead. "Alright!" Kyros yells cheerfully. "Now, anyone can strike down some animalistic mutants. Now, let's see how the gladiator-slaves fare!" You watch as another gate opens, and half a dozen semi-armored humans walk out, holding swords, spears, halbeards, axes and all hold shields. Thankfully, they've no long-range weapons, so you have a fairly good chance. With that, they begin to advance. They're in a solid formation, bundled together to stop you from picking them off one, shields raised in an attempt to mimic a shelled creature. > You fire a burst of flames at them You raise your hand, firing a stream of fire that manifests in your palm and gushes out towards your foes. They raise their shields, but the fire easily surpasses them, going past the shield and searing flesh, burning hair and melting bone. There's a burst of screams and howls of pain that quickly fizzle out, leaving a mass of ash, burning flesh and melted armor and weapons. "Alright, alright!" Kyros yells. "Let's see him fight some real, blooded warriors. May I introduce the last known members of the Pandemian 501st Regiment!" The third gate opens, and ten men wearing combat armor, gas masks and holding lasguns with bayonets march forward in unison, before raising their weapons to fire. You need to react quickly. > You teleport behind the enemy You close your eyes, opening them once more and finding yourself less than a step behind the soldiers, who look around, confused, not noticing you. Time to strike. > You send a fireball hurtling towards your enemy You fire a massive, burning fireball directly at the guardsmen. Unfortunately, you over-estimated the distance between the two of you. The guardsman is engulfed in a fiery explosion, but unfortunately you are as well, your skin turning to ash and your bones quickly melting, your soul expiring shortly after.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You close your eyes, opening them once more and finding yourself less than a step behind the soldiers, who look around, confused, not noticing you. Time to strike. > You charge them with psychically-enhanced fists You charge forward, as psychic energy floods into your fists. You grab one, yanking her head off and flinging it with all your psychic strength at another. You grab a lasgun, breaking someone's neck and beheading two more with the bayonet. The guardsmen panic, falling over each other to escape, but you don't give up, finishing the rest of them with relative ease. "Alright, he's shed some blood. Perhaps we should give him a break," Kyros says, before laughing cheerfully. "Or perhaps... we should give him a real challenge. Bring out the Champion of Davial!" The final gate, the one behind you, opens. You spin around on the balls of your feet, prepared to kill, even through you're exhausted. You can here your psychic defenses begin to falter as the voices come back, thousands of voices screaming, laughing and howling in your mind. Physically, you're tired from this heavy exercise, and just want to pass out. You watch in terror as a massive figure clad in huge plates of armor walks forward. Two sharpened tusks come out from his helmet, and in one hand he holds a massive warhammer, while in the other, attached to his arm, is a bolter. By either side of the massive Champion is a nearly naked slave wearing rags, trying to polish the armor while the Champion of Davial continues walking forward. "Begin!" Kyros shouts. Suddenly, you hear another familiar voice. "Hello, my dear Karth. I see you're outgunned here. Need some help?" Meliodas asks. The Champion raises his bolter and it fires. You quickly form a shield, barely absorbing the massive amount of power behind the bolter. "I can help you, but you're going to need to get your hands dirty. See those two slaves? Go for them. Boil their bloods with your mind, and help draw the psychic beings that are trying to enter." "What?" you ask aloud, teleporting out of the way of another burst of bolter fire as the Champion of Davial continues to advance. "Kill the slaves. I'll offer their souls as a... summoning gift to two potential allies for you." This presents a moral dilemma. Can you wipe out the two slaves in order to win this battle? Can you even trust Meliodas? You do have other options. Through teleportation and levitation, you can easily evade the Champion, and you can wait to tire him out. You can attempt to wear down the Champion's armor through fire and psychic bolts. You can also attempt to teleport atop the Champion and try use your psychic powers to tear this bastard's head off. > You kill the slaves for Meliodas You nod, raising your hands and directing a blast of powerful psychic flames towards both slaves. The slaves are hit by the stream of fire and engulfed entirely, their existence ending with a powerful scream. The fire engulfs them, but while the bodies falls apart to ash, two new shapes appear in the fire. You watch, as from the engulfing flames step two daemons. They're humanoid, half beautiful women and half horrifying crab-monster. Their face are stretched and gaunt, like once beautiful women whose faces melted, with long black hair, pale skin changing to black shell in patches over their bodies and a massive claw having replaced their right arm. They eagerly turn to the Champion of Delial, charging forward. They bounce, picing and attacking and cutting through metal with their powers. You fire a stream of fire at the Champion's armored head as the two daemons repeatedly pince and cut at his head and chest. He fights valiantly, but he doesn't last long fighting two powerful daemons and a psyker. He falls to his knees, before collapsing onto his face. The space marine guards begin sending bolter fire down at the daemons, who quickly with under the fire before collapsing back into the flames, disappearing, leaving you in an arena, empty except for the corpses of your enemies. "Well," Kyros says. "That was interesting. I didn't expect daemon summoning to be in your inventory. None the less, well done." Kyros levitates down towards you as the shield evaporates, before ending up less than two or three feet above you. "Well done, noble warrior! Look and behold the powers of the Warp!" he says, in the opening of a speech. > You kill Kyros You take a deep breath, preparing all of your reserves of psychic energy. Quickly, you manifest it in your most powerful bolt yet, before firing straight at Kyros. The energy drained from you, you collapse to your knees. You feel your collar flex, beginning to choke you. "Ha! You have balls, my little ally! I love it!" Meliodas cries. Kyros rises up quickly and brings the shields up full force, and they explode, barely managing to contain your psychic power. Kyros watches as the collar chokes the last ounce of psychic power from you, dropping down to his previous height with an enraged snarl. "Is that how you want to play this, you little cunt?" he snarls. You search your mind, but your entire psychic reserve is gone. You can't even make a spark. You do have a ounce of physical strength yet, before you collapse from exhaustion, and you intend to use it. The entire audience of slaves, mutants, soldiers and thousand-year old warriors watches as you arch your head back and spit in Kyros face, before collapsing. > The Familiar Oblivion... After going through another sparse of evil dreams and horrifying nightmares, including getting chased by tentacle abominations through tunnels, watching your tribe being flayed alive by men infested by worms and covered in a solid sheet of pus and staring into the eyes of beings of pure, unending hate, you awaken in a small room. You're lying on a metal table, completely naked, while Magos Cern stands nearby, drilling holes through a large blob of meat on another table. "Ah, the good Techpriest is looking after you. You'd have been safer if they tossed you in a pit of deathworms," Meliodas says. > You speak up "Hello?" you say. "Ah, look whose woken up," she says, her head swiveling around mechanically to stare at you "What happened?" "You passed out from fatigue. I brought you here, left you to sleep for a while, injected you with a few shots of adrenaline, gave you a full cleansing of your blood and burned off a few layers of your skin to remove all Chaos taint." She emits a long burst of static energy, before staring at you. "Kyros has been informed of your awakening. He'll be here shortly." Magos Cern immediately goes back to working on the chunk of meat, clearly not in the mood to converse. After a few minutes, Kyros enters, covered in blood. He seems quite calmer then before. "Ah, look who it is, the traitorous bastard." "You invaded my world, burned my villag, killed half my tribe and enslaved the other half. What did you expect?" you say. "I suppose. I just assumed you were intelligent enough to know that that would never work, or even a little grateful at the fact that I had given you the gifts of power. "It's quite hard to use the gift of power while bound by chains." "Perhaps," Kyros says. "You're to be escorted back to your cell. Let's go." Your four guards enter, as stern as ever, and you stand, following them along the halls. > A Week Later... The week goes by. Your guards give you no chance to even think about escape, let alone actually making an attempt at it. You practice fighting in the arena everyday, facing hordes of mutants, failed attempts at creating super-soldiers, thankfully none of them from your tribe and a few slaves thrown in there for you to kill. Kyros is prone to sending out enemies that can cause painful wounds such as those that utilize painful poisons and toxins. It seems he's still bitter about the fact you tried to murder him. Understandable. After that, you have meditation, to calm the storms of your mind and give you a chance to keep the demons, and more literally daemons, at bay. You spend time with Kyros as he attempts to indoctrinate you to serve him willingly, although after your attempt at his life this time mainly serves as a time to check on the wards for your collar and make sure you haven't circumvented them. You give him the idea that you're buying it, but you know he's just a madman. His ultimate goal seems to be regrouping with several other Chaos war-bands of various sizes to topple the Imperium of Man and take Terra, although the whisperings from other men tell you that that is an impossible goal.You're still not allowed to see Fay or anyone else com your tribe. You shudder at the thoughts of what Kyros is doing with them. For all his friendly gestures, kind deeds and grand ideals and plans, Kyros is but a corrupted mad man who is willing to sacrifice anyone and everyone in an attempt to gain power. Under the Magos' orders, you've spent a lot of time sleeping from either the fatigue of constant fighting and training to expand your mind and permanently trying to ward off the daemons that scratch at your mind, or from various drugs and chems to put you under. Sleeping is painful, for the most part. You get a few brief bit of oblivion, which is a peace incomparable to anything you've ever had to deal with, but these states still being you deeper into your mind and the theWarp. Then the nightmares start. In the waking world, you have classes with the teachers. Kyros teaches you meditation techniques for controlling your powers as well as new ways to utilise the psychic energy flowing through your mind. Taj teaches you military tactics and how to lead everything from a small unit of hardened men to a massive army of garrisoned troops. Magos Cern teaches you a bit about mechanics, the various technologies of the galaxy and gives you a broad, general education about the galaxy and its inhabitants. One day, you lie in bed, having emerged from the state of horrified dreaming but not yet having fully awoken, in a blissful, thoughtless state. The door opens, as two of your space marine guards enter. One uses a small device to make your collar tighten quickly before releasing again, a small threat to make sure you know whose boss. The fucking collar. You could turn him into a thick pink mist inside that armor if the collar wasn't stifling your abilities. "What?" you ask, annoyed to have been disturbed from your bliss. "Kyros wants you," one says. "What does he want?" Kyros appears in the room, leaning against the doorway, seemingly manifested out of thin air. "Come on, let's go," he says nonchalantly, picking his nails. "Where?" you ask. "Well, as a... reward for your long week of work, I have a surprise. We're going to go see Fay." "Really?" you ask. A surge of emotions rising up inside you. Joy at the thought of seeing your friend, surprise at Kyros' kindness, gratitude for the gift, fear at what could've happened Fay, all these manifest into an overwhelming feeling of both exhilaration and dread. "Well? Let's go!" Kyros says, walking out of the room. > You follow Kyros You stand, walking along after Kyros. You're at a point where your psychic growth has overtaken your physical growth to such a degree that it'd be easier to float along the ground rather than actually having to walk. Unfortunately, the collar prevents you from even firing out some sparks without Kyros' permission. You arrive in a metal door, which opens, revealing the booth from which Kyros and the others watch down at the fight. You walk along, looking down at the arena, which is empty. "I thought you were bringing me to see Fay," you say nervously, despite knowing what this is. "I brought you to see her fight!" Kyros says with a smile. You stare down, as one of the gates opens. You watch as an abomination stumbles out. Stumbling on four insect-like legs, with it's eft arm replaced by a long tentacle of coiled pink muscle, the very end of it studded with bone outgrowths to make it a more formidable weapon. In it's right hand is a short, rusted axe stained with blood and gore. It's head is monstrous, with an oversized mouth filled to the brim with teeth, overflowing with acid that drips onto it's chest with a sizzle, and a single, blood-shot eye. The creature looks up at you, it's eye flinching, before it lets out a miserable howl. "Shit... that looks miserable beyond belief," you say. "Yes, she does," Kyros says, grinning from ear to ear as half a dozen more beasts just like the first walk, stumble or crawl into the center of the arena. "She?" you ask. Now that you're not fighting them, you can have a long look and see what these mutant abominations really are: disgusting, pitiful creatures that should receive a quick death. "You don't recognize her?" Kyros says, clearly suppressing laughter. "This is what remains of the Uwais Tribe, and the first one to come out, the pack leader, is Fay." You look at monsters underneath, trying to see any resemblance to your friends as pure horror overtakes your mind. You collapse to your knees, puking over the banister and onto the monsters underneath as Kyros bursts into laughter. "He's done this to provoke you. He wants to get you angry, to see how powerful you are even with the collar. He's under-exaggerating how powerful you are, so you might be able to harm him, but..." Meliodas advises, but you don't pay any attention, too filled with anger. You stand, holding onto the banister to pull yourself up. Your knees shake, but you take a moment to regain your strength. Then, you launch yourself at Kyros. You grab at his eyes, your fingers going straight for his eyes. Kyros stumbles backwards, unprepared, before you feel your collar quickly tightening as you start to choke. You continue to scratch and gouge, even as the air is choked from you. Finally, you're dragged upwards by invisible hands, floating a few feet away from Kyros. Your weak body has done practically no damage to Kyros, who seems surprised and a bit amused rather than angry. "Hmmm... I under-exaggerated how angry you'd get, or how stupid you are if you think trying to fight me is an option." "I'm going to kill you. I'm going to break you. I don't care how long it takes, I will destroy your very soul," you say, staring at him. Kyros chuckles softly, before forcing you around to stare down at the arena. "Watch the match," he says. "We will have our revenge, Karth. Not today, not tomorrow, but we will have our revenge, " Meliodas says. You watch for about a minute as the abominations sit there, wandering around in confusion, falling to brief bursts of violence and self-harm and a lot of screaming and howling. Finally, the second gate opens. You watch as hooded figures enter, holding swords and small, circular shields. The trio charges forward, diving into the air. The beasts charge forward, attacking with fierce brutality. You watch as the lead one, the thing that used to be Fay, is almost beheaded by one of the trio. The trio fight with ease, diving, ducking and weaving out of the way of tentacles, axes, biting and stomping. Within a minute, the last of the abominations stumble forward and hits the ground as its front two legs are hacked off, and one of the trio leaps on top of the monster and impales it through the head. "What a display!" Kyros says with a smile. "Shall we see the victors?" Before you can say a word, Kyros releases you and you fall through the air, smacking into the dirt with a pained yelp. You moan in pain, looking up at the fighters. They walk forward, staring at you. "Karth?" one of them asks. You look up to see Fay standing there, her hooded robes covered in blood, alongside two other Uwais tribals you vaguely remember from your trips accompanying hunting parties, the Jakar Twins. "Fay," you reply, staring back at her, not knowing what else to say. Fay tosses her sword aside, grabbing you and embracing you tightly. Even though you feel yourself being turned into a fine powder from the strength of her hug, you're just so happy that you've found her that you don't care, hugging back. Kyros drops down, staring at you from over Fay's shoulder, as Magos Cern joins you. "Ah, what a happy reunion!" Kyros says. "You said she was dead!" you shout angrily, pushing Fay aside to point an accusatory finger at him. "I did. I lied," Kyros says, smiling. "Never trust a psyker, Karth. Not even yourself," Meliodas says. You shrug it off, trying not to bow to his attempts at emotional manipulation. You grab Fay, looking at her properly as she takes off her hooded cloak. She's tall, standing over six foot tall, and she's a lot more muscular than you remember. Whatever Kyros has done to her, it's had a serious affect. Her arms and legs are quite muscled, and you doubt you could find an ounce of fat anywhere on her. Still, she has the same coy smile, the wild, adventurous look in her eyes, She's pretty much the same Fay. "So... what's with the hood?" you ask, struggling to find anything else to say. "Um... it's so the mutants can't grab my hair and drag me down, Karth. Was that the most important question? How are you? What are they doing to you?" "Come on, out of the arena. I have a captured Squig the boys want to have some fun fighting," Kyros says. "Jakar twins, back to the dorm. Karth, Fay, follow me." You look at Fay, before grabbing her hand and walking after Kyros and Magos Cern. "Hmm, walking alongside me with my hand held? Where's the old Karth that I would piggyback around the village?" Fay asks. "Pffh, if I didn't have this collar I'd be floating around the place," you say. The stress of being kidnapped, having your tribe enslaved and murdered, your village burned down, your mind and soul forced through the very depths of hell falls away as you talk to your old friend. You recount your story as she tells hers. Apparently, she spent much of the time in a coma, having her body hacked apart and remade. Her blood now contains vast amounts of chems and combat drugs, she has several new organs and stronger bones, faster blood clotting and much more. She's trained extensively both with swords, guns, explosives and infinitely more, as well as team tactics. She's been chosen out as Team Leader for the Uwais super-soldiers. "So basically, you've become a super-soldier?" "Super-soldier?" Magos Cern says, her voice flooded with the most emotion you've heard from her the entire time you knew her. "She's a failure. A disgrace. I had access to geneseed, space marine test subjects and untold resources. What did I create? A mockery. These "super-soldiers" couldn't take on multiple space marines each like I had hoped. They couldn't take on a single fucking space marine like I had planned! They're barely worth half a space marine! I've failed!" "They'll do fine, Magos," Kyros says, arriving at another set of metal doors, which open to reveal a large table, where various figures are sitting. There's Kyros, Magos Cern and Taj Suenage, as well as Kyros' daughter, who sits in the corner. There's also many more who you don't know. One is a tall, gaunt looking woman with pale skin and black hair pulled back in a pony tail, wearing a long coat that disturbingly, appears to be made from human skin. Another is a girl with a shaved head wearing heavy combat armor who is sharpening a long machete, another is a... person whose gender you can't tell, wearing black leather armor and lingerie in an odd attempt to look sexy at a war meeting, with long, curly black hair and excessive make-up. The person smiles at you, licking his... or her... or its lips. Then there's a young girl, younger than even you, wearing hooded robes and reading an ancient, dusty tome. Finally, there's a barely human monster. An obese man covered with rotting pores, boils, sores and pus-filled, infected wounds, with its arms replaced by long, rusted spikes. Kyros and Magos Cern take a seat. "These are the leaders of the fleet, Fay and Karth. Some introductions are in order. First is me, the supreme leader of the entire fleet. Magos Cern leads the Dark Mechanicus on the ship and maintains the vessel itself. Chapter Master Taj Suenage leads the space marine chapter on board, the Undying Reapers. Then we have Calpurnia the Ravager, leader of the 22nd Istanford Regiment. " The one with the human skin coat stands up, extending a hand to shake. "Pleasure to meet you," she says, shaking both your hand and Fay's. I hope you're... efficient during your stay here." "Then there's the Staine siblings. There's Rebecca Staine, the leader of the Bloody Claws, a war-band that worships Khorne the war god." "Fuck you, psyker. You're weak and pathetic. Your parents should've left you to die," Rebecca growls, pointing her blade at you. "Fuck you," Fay snarls, shoving her blade point away from your throat. Rebecca stands, brandishing her sword, before the plague-ridden man stands, blocking Rebecca's path forward with one of his spike arms. "Hey, hey! There's no need for violence! We're all brothers and sisters here!" Rebecca sits back down with another growl. "Alright, next we have Elios, leading of the Shrieking Harpies, a war-band that worships Slaanesh, the god of excess," Kyros says, pointing at the person clad in leather and lingerie. "Pleasure to meet you, darlings. For slaves aboard a Chaos vessel, might I say you're looking... delectable," Elios says in a deep, masculine voice, licking his lips as he stares at both you and Fay. "Keep it in your pants, Elios," Kyros says. "Next we have Elizabeth." Elizabeth, the hooded girl reading the book, doesn't look up. "She's risen to the position of leader of the One-Eyed Crows, a war-band that worships Tzeentch, the sorceror god. She easily reached the position through her amazing social abilities. Tell us about yourself, Elizabeth." "Move along," Elizabeth says, making a circular motion with her hand without looking up. "OK, Elizabeth. Finally, we have Durge, leader of the Black Rats war-band that worships Nurgle the plague god." "Hello!" the diseased man says, waving his spike-arms. "It's a pleasure to meet you! I hope you're being treated well. I hope you're being fed enough. If not, it's probably because I've eaten all the food aboard this vessel!" The man, Durge, breaks into laughter as several maggots burst from his skin. You try not to get sick. "You're here to meet the leaders of this fleet so that you know who you'll be answering. We want you both to lead the slave army." "Slave army?" Fay asks. "The Uwais tribe soldiers, the previous batch of failed test subjects, the gladiator slaves and whatever else we can muster up. We'll hold the detonators to your explosive collars, but you'll hold a copy of the detonators for all the men under your command." "There was a previous batch of failed test subjects?" Fay asks. "Yes, there was. They were quite strong, but their minds were easily broken. Most weren't sentient, the sentient ones were insane. There was only one who you could even have a conversation with, the one I appointed leader. I'll show you to them some time after this. I assume you'll take the position?" "It's not like I have much choice," you say. "We'll take it," Fay says, answering for the both of you. "This slave army, ot whatever you want to call it, will give us the strength advantage to become a serious military power in this tiny little sector. We could conquer ourselves a little kingdom from the weak and undefended worlds. We could become a raiding fleet that could have us living a life of luxury. But one little slave army wouldn't even give us a chance against even the defenses on Pluto!" Calpurnia says. "I'll tear out your soul and devour it if you show anymore signs of cowardice!" Kyros yells. "Magos Cern, take Fay and Karth to see the previous batch of super-soldiers." "I'll have to let the galaxy witness the shame of my failed creation when we release them on the galaxy. I might as well let the two adolescents have a preview of my sickening failure," Magos Cern says. "We're not finished here!" Calpurnia splutters angrily. "I'm not launching my army on a suicide mission!" "My army! As long as you serve me, it's my army!" Kyros screams. "We take a vote, then," Calpurnia suggests. "Fine, raise your hands if you don't want to go through with the assault, if you're a coward, if you're not loyal." Calpurnia defiantly holds up her hands. Elios holds up his next. "Sorry, Kyros. I'm not dying.. I'm too young and beautiful to die fighting an unwinnable war," he says. Durge holds up a spike, looking ashamed. "I'm loyal, Kyros, but I'm just as loyal to my men as you, and I won't see them die for nothing." Elizabeth slowly raises a hand, looking up from her book for the first time. "This plans suicide, Kyros. We both know that." Kyros snarls in anger, looking around. "That's me, Cern, Taj and Rebecca for attacking, and Elizabeth, Durge, Elios and Calpurnia for not doing so," Kyros says in a low growl. "The slave leaders are the tie-breakers, then," Calpurnia says. Kyros looks at you with a stare, holding onto the controller for your collars. Well, this seems like an obvious answer, even if it is a suicide mission. > You support the assault on Terra You keep your hand at your side, and while Fay raises an eyebrow, she does the same. "Cowardly... but smart," Meliodas says. "Perhaps you'll realize your potential after all." "Good... good!" Kyros says, his voice flooded with relief. "The slaves are loyal! Now I must question why my own allies aren't." An uneasy silence fills the room, before Magos Cern breaks it. "I shall take Fay and Karth out to inspect their new troops, the old generation of super-soldiers. Is that acceptable, Kyros?" "Yes, yes," Kyros says, his mind clearly focused on other things. "Go then." Magos Cern walks out of room, and you quickly follow, followed by Fay. You walk along empty hallway, heading towards the super-soldiers. Magos Cern is clearly not interested to talk at all, so you and Fay have time to talk. "So, what just happened?" you ask. "Were we just given an army?" "We've went from slaves to masters of a slave army, in five minutes," Fay says. "Well, to be fair, we're still slaves. We're slaves who are also slave masters of a slave army," you point out. "Alright, I suppose so. Anyway, are you OK? We've walked a lot," Fay says. "I'm fine," you smile. "I don't know whether to be thankful you're looking out for me, or insulted you think I can't even walk that much." You walk on, eventually entering a large, metal elevator. The elevator quickly begins descending down the ship. "Alright, children. Listen up. We're going to wake our super-soldiers from their cyro-sleep. Don't make any sudden movements, don't make any loud noises, do nothing of the sort." "Got it," you both say. The elevator doors open, revealing hundreds of metal tubes lining the walls, the cyro-pods. Magos Cern walks forward, extending a metal tentacle that grows from her spike. The tentacle presses onto the consoles attached to the many pods, and three open. Cold air quickly floods out, and you watch as three lumbering monsters walk out. "Behold, my failures," Magos Cern says. The super-soldiers stand at eight feet tall, and are made of massive coils of muscle that makes them nearly twice as wide as even a normal man, without any armor. Their mouths are filled with hundreds of carnivorous teeth, like a shark's. They have short, four-inch bone claws extending from their wrists. Their skin is dark and misshapen, like someone tanned human skin to make leather and then stitched it over their bodies. They walk forward, grunting and growling. The first looks around, before stumbling back inside it's cyro-pod. "Sleep... sleep... sleep..." it mutters, walking back inside. "Size isn't everything... but it sure as fuck counts for a lot," Meliodas remarks. The other two immediately begin head-butting each other with grunts, and you hear the sound of heavy bones smashing against each other. Magos Cern takes out a small data pad, pressing it. The two super-soldiers grunt, wandering back to their cyro-pods. "These are the super-soldiers. The guards here have given them the nickname "Goliath's". I suppose it's fitting. They're not smart, but they fear the lash and the electro-collar, so they follow orders easily." To prove her point, Magos Cern pulls out a small datapad, quickly tapping it. The pair of super-soldiers roar in pain, backing up into their cyro-pods. Magos Cern quickly taps on the pad and the cyro-pods close. He strides forward, to another tank. "Let me introduce you to Specimen 401245. It goes by the name Cain. It's the most intelligent of the beasts, and the most friendly. Now, here he is." The cyro-pod opens as Magos Cern taps quickly on the datapad. You see another massive, lumbering Goliath wander out of the cyro-pod. It looks almost the exact same as the others, the only differences being a pair of bone growths sticking out of its forehead like horns and its oversized lips held up by hooks to allow it to breath. It steps out, taking in a deep breath, before staring at you. There's a brief silence, that Fay quickly breaks. "Does... can it talk?" she asks. "It can definitely hear," the beast grunts in response. "Um, hi there!" Fay says. "I'm Fay. What's your name?" "Cain," he responds, his voice a low, rumbling, guttural growling sound. "I'm Karth," you say. "What time is it?" Cain asks. "Time?" you respond. "I don't know. A little after noon, probably, or what the ship uses as noon." "I don't care. What time is it for me?" "... uh... the same time?" "I am awake. I always sleep in the cold pod until I'm needed. I'm only needed to be cut up, drugged, poked and prodded, or to kill. What time is it for me to do? Kill, or be torn apart?" "Neither. I'm here to introduce you to Fay and Karth, the new leaders of your men." "My men? First time I've heard them called men," Cain says, running his claws against each other absent-mindedly. "Well? They've met me. What else is there? What do you want to know?" > You ask a question "What?" Cain grunts. > You say "How did you get your name?" "Found it scrawled in a tome that was dropped out in the trash, back when they let us be rather than freezing us. "Cain" is a lot easier to remember than the Subject however many numbers," Cain says.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"What?" Cain grunts. > You say "How old are you?" "How old? I don't know. Time in the cold pod makes it hard to tell. There's no sun, no days, no minutes," Cain says, seemingly pondering this. "This subject is roughly five years, three months and two days." "Ah... interesting," Cain remarks.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"What?" Cain grunts. > You say "How many men do you have?" "Do I look like I've counted many?"<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"What?" Cain grunts. > You say "How capable are your men?" "They're tough. We've fought many times before. Most of us can wield bolters, though a few just end up using them as clubs to fight with their claws. A few can operate bigger weapons, and a few can only wield clubs and such. They follow orders, though. They show no fear, feel no pain, lose no battle. They'll take as much firepower as the enemy can give, even without armor."<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"What?" Cain grunts. > You say "What exactly is your motive?" "Motive?" "What do you want?" Cain pauses, scratching one of his "horns". The horn begins to bleed, but you doubt he cares. "I don't know," Cain finally answers.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"What?" Cain grunts. > You say "I've no more questions." "Alright," Cain sleeps. "What else?" "Nothing else is required," Magos Cern says. "Return to your pod." Cain nods, before walking back into his pod. The cyro-pod shuts, leaving Cain back to his cold, endless sleep. "We should continue," Magos Cern says. "I still have to show you the gladiator slaves who you'll take under you command and the Uwais Tribe. The Goliaths will act as your heavy shock troopers, the gladiator-slaves will act as scouts, skirmishers and fill in whatever spare roles you have, and the Uwais tribe will be your main unit. I'll take you to see them." You begin following Magos Cern out of the cyro-sleep area, and along the hallways. After ten minutes, you reach a large metal door, which opens to reveal a large room filled with bunk beds, with familiar bronze bodies lying in the beds. "This is Dorm A. We have around sixty soldiers here," Magos Cern says. Fay walks into the room, and lets ou a shout. "Gentlemen! Your captain's back!" The tribals roll out of bed. You recognize a few of them, but strangely you recognize many as men from other various tribes." "Fay, you're back!" one says. "How did the fight go? It took far longer than expected," another adds. "Oh, shit! Is that Karth?" another asks. The attention immediately goes from Fay to you, as tribals begin appearing. They all appear far more muscular, many bearing fresh scars. "Karth! How are you even still alive?" someone asks incredulously. "It's the Uwais shaman!" another asks. "Karth, how are you? What have they been doing to you?" You watch as the tribals begin to surround the three of you, although Magos Cern makes sure they keep as least half a dozen feat away from her. "Stay back. Karth is only here to see you, not talk to you," Magos Cern says, drawing a datapad and letting out an electro-shock that causes the group to let out a pained yelp before they back away. "Why are there so many men and women from other tribes? I thought it was the Uwais tribe who was kidnapped." "When we arrived on your planet, we needed to do a lot of work. We drained lakes for water, drilled into the planet's crust to get vast quantities of Promethium, wiped out native species for food. It takes a lot of effort to run a vessel this large, and to do it quickly and efficiently. While we did so, our soldiers went to work. They needed to fight, both to train and to simply shed blood for their own enjoyment. Prisoners were taken in vast quantities, and I used them as I used the Uwais tribe. Now, there's far more from other tribes than there are from Uwais tribe." "Hmmm... your home world is destroyed. Ambition is the only path forward now, Karth, there is no going back. We will conquer the stars together." Meliodas says. "I suppose calling them the Uwais tribe is a bit of a failing, then. Tribals would be more suitable." "As you wish. You are their superior. You can do as you wish with them." "The average tribal will be be outfitted with combat armor as well as some equipment, such as grenades, gas masks, communications devices, that kind of thing. The stronger ones will get Bolters, the strongest will be equipped with melee weapons; chainswords, chainaxes, power swords, as well as bolt pistols. The weaker ones will be given specialized roles and equipped for as such: meltaguns and missile launchers for anti-armor, snipers with sniper rifles and stealth roles with chameoline cloaks and silenced weapons. We should have a fairly well equipped army that will be able to hold their own when fighting alongside the Guardsmen and Traitor Marines we have under our command." "We're not fighting for you fucks!" someone shouts. "Yeah! Fuck you, you kidnapping bastards!" "Ah, this is an issue," Magos Cern says. "Unfortunately, due to my... failures in work on the brain, Kyros has forbid me to tinker on their minds to ensure loyalty. Fay has only so far failed to do, so it'll be your job now. I need all rebelliousness to be crushed." "How?" you ask, raising an eyebrow. "Get it done. I don't care how. I need to go check on the oxygen decks to the macro guns on the starboard side doesn't asphyxiate," Magos says, turning around and walking off. "Well, that's a bitch," you complain, turning to Fay. "I guess we need to get rid of rebelliousness before Kyros gets pissy and blows our heads clean off." "Or..." Fay says slyly. "We could just hide the rebelliousness. It would be better if we kept it under wraps until we have a chance to get out of here." "Oh, choices, choices, choices. Terrify, threaten, talk or trust. Which shall it be, Karth?" Meliodas says. You walk forward, into the center of the dorm. You have several options here. You could attempt to use some of your psychic powers to show these tribals the true power of the Warp. That would definitely ensure their loyalty, if only out of fear. You could threaten them to ensure their loyalty, once again while out of fear, and you wouldn't have to alienate yourself by making yourself seem like a terrifying psychic being. You could attempt to convince the tribals that loyalty to this place is the only rational choice. You could also take Fay's path, and assure them that they'll have the chance to get revenge, but that for now they should hide all rebelliousness until it's time to strike. > You terrify the tribals with the powers of the Warp You tug at your collar, but fortunately, due to Kyros' distraction with his troops who are "disloyal", the restrictions are loose. Not gone, still definitely there. You know if you try anything you'll gain his attention and the restrictions will be tightened, as well as the collar around your throat, most likely. Still, you need to take advantage of this and put on a full show. You walk slowly forward, raising into the air. Black and purple electricity begins running along your body, bursting along yourself. You set alight, as the crimson flames of the Warp engulf. You change your meek and timid voice, amplifying it through the Warp to booming proportions. "Do you see what I've become? Do you see what Kyros made me? I am a vessel of Chaos, a being of the Warp. This is the power the Warp holds. This is the power Kyros holds, the power this vessel holds, and the power of the cursed men who guard and crew it. You can't possibly hope to beat it. You should only thank the Dark Gods that the role they've asked you to fill is beneficial to you, and embrace this role to the utmost." The tribals, including Fay, stand back, looking terrified. You know in that moment that fear has replaced all rebelliousness in their souls. They'll follow orders now. You drop down to your feet, staring around. "Spread the message," you say to the tribals, before turning to Fay. "We should go." You walk out of the room, quickly followed by Fay, who runs after you. "What the fuck was that?" she asks. "I did my job," you say simply. "Those are our friends, our family, our kinsman. You're not seriously happy with a life of service to a guy who kidnapped us? These guys killed Duggin!" "Duggin was a fool," you reply. "Our lives were once meaningless. Now, we have a hope. Surely you understand?" "I wish I could say I could, Karth, but I don't. I don't know how you can think that." You walk outside, where Kyros awaits, smiling. "Well done," he says, smiling. "Impressive display." "You were there for that?" you ask. "I was aware. Why else would your collar restrictions be weaker?" "I assumed it was because you were distracted," you admit. "If that was true, whenever I slept you'd be free to do whatever you wanted," Kyros says, smirking. "Now, we need to visit the last of your soldiers, the gladiator-slaves. They're always an interesting crew. Shall we go?" You look at Fay, who nods, although she still looks nervous from your earlier "display" of power. "Yes, let's," you reply. > You visit the gladiator-slaves You follow Kyros, as you head to the arena. You reach the doors that would lead into it, but instead oof entering you go off to a small elevator behind it. You enter, and it slowly begins descending. It opens, revealing the underhive of the arena. There's dozen of cages, holding exotic beasts and dangerous Xenos. You see a half dozen thick, heavily muscled, green-skinned Orks in a cage, their necks chained to the wall. They're howling and roaring, tugging at their chains. Surprisingly, while most shout in their barbaric, guttural language, one seems to speak yours. "Humie! Humie! Get me free! Get me free!" he shouts. "I is gonna let you live, even give ya a bitta loot and an escape pod if ya let me free!" "Don't respond!" someone further down the catacombs that lay beneath the arena shouts. "It only encourages Ol' Dak!" "Hmmm... this Ork must be one of the greatest speakers of his kind," Meliodas points out. "Of course to us he's a fucking idiot." The ork's eyes narrow, before he begins howling in frustration and smacking his hands against his own head, a heavy thud emanating as his muscled fists slam into his thick skull. You continue walking, passing amazing and fantastic creatures and gladiators. There's a tentacled slug-man with a large beak and dozens of eyes peppered around his body which is huddled up in the corner of it's cage, a trio of horrible bird-hound creatures that scratch at their bars, a massive human wearing what appears to be an iron cage with hundreds of inward pointing nails who rams himself against the cage wall, his body shredded to such an extent you're amazed he's not dead yet, a multi-legged, horned creature that looks almost cute. Finally, you reach a long hallway, with thick, heavy metal doors spread along the hallway. An eye peers out of a door eye-slot, staring at you. "Hello there. Do we have more fighters, or...? Oh wait, it's them. Terrific." The eye disappears, and the slot closes. Kyros takes out a datapad, pressing several buttons before the door slowly slides open, revealing a large open area. Bunk beds line the wall, with a bunch of young men and women, the oldest in their late twenties and the youngest in their mid-teens. They wear very little armor, all of which is either leather or light combat armor. They sit around a fire, roasting chunks of meat on sticks in it. Two of the gladiators lean against the beds nearest to you, staring at you. One is a tall, muscled and tanned, with long blond hair and sparking green eyes. She holds a long, rifle-like gun with an axe blade made into the barrel with a grip under it. The other is shorter, with similarly tanned skin, with playful green eyes and curly brown hair, holding a curved sword and a Plasma pistol. They both look to be in their late teens or early twenties at latest. "Is that a fire?" Fay asks. "Are they armed?" you also. "Yes and yes," the male says, turning to the girl. "This question game is fun." "The fire's below a vent that's sending the smoke... somewhere. We weren't exactly given schematics of this place, all we know is the smoke doesn't bother us. And we're allowed weapons to keep the others in check. Even if we both went for Kyros, our minds would be shattered before we could raise our weapons," the girl says. "Nah, I could at least start a swing before I was killed." "These are the Twins. They lead the Gladiator-Slaves. Now, introduce yourselves," Kyros says. "I'm Castus," the boy smiles, staring at the pair of you. His eyes flicker, as he looks over Fay. He appears to be checking her out. You feel like punching him in the throat, but refrain. "You're a jealous one, aren't you?" Meliodas says. "I'm Olive," the girl says, extending a hand, which you grab and shake before Fay does the same. "So, is there a reason you're here?" Castus asks. "Fay and Karth will be taking command of the gladiators. They are my lieutenants, and will command a segment of our army, the slaves." "Oh, terrific. We've been shafted," Castus says. "I'm sure Kyros will want us to have an advisor position to assist Fay and Karth," Olive says. "Correct," Kyros says. "Well, there might be an issue with that," Castus says. "You see, both Fay and Karth have a history of... well, murdering my men. Pitting the Kyros Jr and Magos Cern's latest brand of super-freaks against us has led to a lot of men being, quite understandably, pissed with the guys who hacked apart, or psychically exploded, or simply beat their friends upside the head until they went comatose." "If you want, we can have the dissenters flailed alive. Simply point them out, and I'll have them broken. Is that preferable?" Castus goes quiet. "As I thought," Kyros says with a smile. "Make sure the men know to follow orders. Now, it's late, and these guys need sleep. Is anything else needed?" "I suppose not," Olive says. "Well, we need a lot, but nothing we're realistically getting anytime soon," Castus says. Kyros stares at Castus, fire beginning to run along his body. "Nothing needed, sir," Castus says. "Good. Fay, Karth, let's go," Kyros says. Kyros swivels around, walking out of the room. You quickly follow him, and the massive metal door shuts behind you. "So, we'll escort Fay back to the Uwais dorms, and then send you to your room," Kyros says. "Well you know, Karth's room is closer. I could just spend the time in his," Fay suggests. "It would give us some time to go over battle plans now that we know what our men are capable of, and I can inform him of what the Uwais tribe are like in battle..." "Really? That's the reason? That's the reason you're going for?" Kyros asks, raising an eyebrow. "No." > You argue that Fay should spend the night in your room "But she could help me plan what do to with the lieutenants and what to do to secure their loyalty, and..." "Don't fuck with me, Karth. You just want the girl there so you can have something fuck. Maybe if you were a little smarter with the way you acted towards me I'd grant you such base pleasures, but you acted like a prick all while you've been here, so no, she'll go back to her bed, and you'll go back to hers." "Surprisingly, the cunt doesn't stop being a cunt just because you want to get laid. Unless I'm wrong and you seriously didn't plan or want to try anything with her, in which case Slaanesh will never get a hold on your soul," Meliodas says. You arrive at the doors to your cell, and Kyros opens it. "Hurry up, inside," Kyros says. You look at Fay, who smiles at you. "Bye, Karth. Thanks for trying," she says, giving a short little wave. "Bye, Fay," you reply. The doors are shut, and you walk over to your bed, collapsing on it. Only now do you realize how exhausted you are. You've spent all day walking, which again isn't exactly your specialty. You close your eyes, and soon sleep takes you. Thankfully, the twilight stage where your soul can rest and your exhausted mind can find peace, lasts extra long. Of course, it doesn't take long before the nightmares hit. > You sleep You writhe in pain, curling up in an attempt to get the endless suffering to end. All you hear is the chattering of thousands of skulls laughing at you. You star up at a mountain of skulls that rises up into the sky past. You can see beasts of metal roaring as they charge across the skulls, ramming into each other with powerful clashes, with dragon-like beasts flying overhead. You take in a panicked breath, stumbling away from a nearby one and falling. You tumble along the skulls, rolling down the mountain of skulls. You slam into the skull of a massive beast, ending your tumble. You look down at a massive river of boiling blood, horrifying creatures of bones bursting from the water and diving back under again. You frantically try to use your powers, to levitate away from this horrifying place, but you can feel an invisible hand around your neck, closed tightly around your trachea and preventing you from breathing, tethering you to the ground and preventing you from using your power. It... doesn't go well from there. You wander the endless mountain of skulls, hiding in terror from the daemonic beasts that roam. Eventually, you awaken with a start, finding yourself lying in bed in a cold sweat, naked and scared. The rest of the night is, thankfully, not as bad. The monsters of your dreams staying off in the distance away from you. Sleep is... somewhat bearable. > You several Hours Later... You wake up to the sound of the metal doors opening. You stand, looking up to see Kyros and Fay entering the room. You realize you're naked, grabbing a blanket and wrapping it around yourself. Fay giggles, smiling. "Well, that was a surprise. A pretty small one, to be fair," she says with a smile. You find a little leeway with your collar, and eagerly use it through the flick of a wrist and send Fay onto her behind once more. The collar tightens around your throat quickly, making it hard to breath but not unbearable. You raise your hands in surrender, and Kyros releases the collar. "We're going to the war room," he says, softly but creepily. Kyros seems considerably darker today. His coat is covered with several dark red splotches and stains. You doubt it's a good idea to ask about their origins. You stand up, following Kyros along the halls. "What's in the war room?" you ask. "We're just having a meeting. Quiet now," Kyros says. You walk along the hallways in silence, passing my various crewmen running along the halls, working. Kyros walks quickly and you break a sweat trying to walk at his pace. "Can we slow down?" Fay asks. "You're a genetically-upgraded super-soldier. Is a fast walk really too much for you?" Kyros says, continuing at his speed. "It's too much for Karth," she says. "I'm... fine," you pant. "No you're not," Fay says. "Physical exercise isn't exactly a strength of yours." "He has the energy to talk, he has the energy to walk! Now silence!" Kyros flicks his wrists, and Fay yelps. A long, thin cut appears, running down her cheek, as blood runs down her chin. "Hey!" you shout. You step up, staring into Kyros' eyes. His eyes are wild and cruel. The humor and joy he held only a few hours ago is gone. You realize that he'll be more than happy to hurt both you and Fay seriously. You back down. "That's what I thought. Now faster, we've wasted time with this!" Kyros says. You speed up, moving as quickly as possible. Soon enough you reach the war room. The doors open, and you pause. Inside, lying in her seat, is Calpurnia. All of her skin is just... missing, seemingly flayed off her. Blood covers her seat, the the floor around her and the table. Her eyes are missing, seemingly gored out by inhuman claws. She lets out a pained moan, and you realize with a start that she's somehow alive. "What the fuck...?" Fay says. Magos Cern appears behind you, walking forward. She stares at Calpurnia, seemingly disinterested. "Does this concern me?" she asks. "No, old friend.This concerns the others," Kyros says, his voice a low growl. Uncaring, Kyros sits down at the table. Taj enters, but doesn't even respond, simply taking his place at the table. Calpurnia holds up a hand as if begging for help, but Taj simply spits on the table. "Traitor," he grunts. You watch as Durge walks in, with Elizabeth at his side. Durge pauses, looking at Calpurnia, before looking at Kyros, as Elizabeth turns very pale. "What the hell is this?" Durge asks, staring down at Calpurnia. His massive, bloated frame waddles forward, standing over the bleeding near-corpse. "What happened you, he asks, before shoving a spike-arm in front of Elizabeth and pushing her back, stepping in front of her defensively as he stares at the rest of the room. "Who did this?!" Rebecca walks in, a grin on her face. "Oh, who did this?" she asks, clearly feigning surprise. Finally, Elios walks in, pausing, and looking around the room, taken aback. "What... what happened?" he asks, turning even paler than his chalk-white makeup. "It seems our good friend Calpurnia has been attacked in the dead of night," Kyros says. "Imagine how much pain she's feeling. The pain of her wounds. The pain of her betrayal. Who hear could have possibly betrayed them? Who could have plotted late in the night to back stab a person, to betray someone who had given them so much? Could it have been Elios? Durge? Elizabeth?" "Fuck... you," Calpurnia says, before collapsing her head against the table. Calpurnia screams as her arm's bare flesh begins to cook, as Kyros glares at her. Durge raises a spike, running it through Calpurnia's head. "Enough. There's no need to prolong her suffering," Durge says, glaring at Kyros. "I suppose. Perhaps it's best that she died. Do you know what, Durge? Magos Cern, Chapter Master Taj and Rebecca all came to me, told me a coup was being planned by Calpurnia, and she was recruiting all the faction leaders. I'm sure she hadn't gotten around to asking you, Elizabeth and Elios yet, or you would've reported it to me. Correct?" Durge stares at Kyros, not saying a word. "Well, I'll have someone investigate who could have possibly done this to our dear friend. Anyone, as for the purpose of this meeting, I just wanted to tell you we're all out of Recaf, and I'll have it replaced by tomorrow. I also suppose I must say I'm taking control of the 33rd Istanford Regiment in the wake of Calpurnia's passing. Now, everyone back to their duties. We're in a risky time. Who knows who'll have the next... accident?" Kyros walks out of the room, and you and Fay follow him. He immediately has you set to work. He has you train with a few of your new men, fighting off dozens of crab-like aliens with a handful of Goliaths, Tribals and Gladiators to learn how they fight. The Tribals still work with their hunting tactics and the methods of war used to fight off the endless greenskin attacks, so you find you're easily able to lead them to victory. The Goliaths are borderline idiots, who even in the heat of battle get distracted by themselves and each other, get frustrated when their massive hands fail to successfully reload their bolters, and are more than happy to break formation to charge the enemy. Cain proves himself as a solid leader, taking you orders and bellowing them out with massive, powerful lungs, loud enough to snap the Goliaths back to violence. The Goliaths make up for their mental failings with their extreme strength, withstanding punishment beyond what you thought was possible, whilst turning steel to dust with their powerful blows. The Gladiators' fighting style is an interesting one. Due to the lifestyle of gladiators, they haven't really trained for being part of a large unit, only knowing how to fend for themselves or maybe fight alongside a small unit of a half dozen people. They're good, experienced fighters, but despite their experience they're still young and wild, taking unnecessary risks in battle and acting far too prideful. While Castus is wild and barely acts as a leader in battle other than shouting out curses at the enemies, rallying his men and leading a charge whenever necessary, Olive is calm, collected and acts as the real leader, spitting out battlefield tactics that allow for a crushing defeat. The gladiators also have a certain showmanship, no doubt because they're performers before they're fighters. The gladiators' attacks maximize bloodshed and feature extravagant yet unnecessary feats of agility, something that needs to be eliminated from their battle doctrine. All in all, your newfound force is fairly competent. You're satisfied with their ability to fight, which is bolstered by your immense powers, the only outlet of which are these arena battles. After several long hours fighting, just as you're too exhausted to continue fight, the massive metal gates from which the aliens spew slam closed. You hover in the air, firing a stream of multi-colored fire that consumes a crab-alien, before you swoop down, firing a psychic blast directly into the unarmored face of another. Your forces wipe out the remaining beasts, and soon the fighting is over, leaving you surrounded by corpses, blood and bolter shells. The metal gate you came through opens, and you drop to the ground, feeling your collar begin to restrain your psychic powers again, before standing and beginning to walk back inside. "Well done, men. You've proven yourselves today," you say. Your four guards wait by the gate, alongside dozens of other guards to ensure none of you attempt a mistake. The gladiators are led to the underneath of the arena, the Goliaths back to cyro-sleep and the Tribals to their cell-dorms. You're quickly escorted to your room, and the doors close behind you. You walk forward, quickly undressing from your blood-stained, sweat-soaked clothes before collapsing on your bed, burying your head in your pillow. > You go to sleep "Karth!" Meliodas' voice says, appearing in your mind. "Look behind you, you fool!" You quickly twist around in bed, raising your fists and preparing to use what little psychic powers, to see Elios leaning in the doorway of your bathroom. "Shit! What the fuck are you doing!?" you shout. "Hmmm... a man can't just lean back and enjoy one of the finer sights in life?" Elios says, winking as he strolls confidently towards you. "Get...!" you try to speak, but he puts a finger against your lips, leaning in close. "Quiet, baby. No need to fret. I'm not here to give you any trouble. I'm hear to help you with a certain little... problem." Elios runs his hand along your bare chest and up to your collar, playfully tugging on it. You stare at him, waiting. "Well, let's be realistic here. We're going to be slaughtered. If we're lucky, we're going to be killed when Kyros leads his moronic charge against the Imperium. If we're unlucky, we're going to end up like Calpurnia, tortured to death by a paranoid Psyker." "You're at risk of being tortured to death. I never betrayed him," you say. "Oh, baby, why do you have to be so difficult?" Elios smiles, two of his fingers walking up your legs, slowly nearing your groin. "Baby, at the moment, Kyros is looking to eliminate those who are going to betray him. But he's growing paranoid. He'll end thinking you're going to betray him, whether you are or are not. Let's be fair, you do have motives. Your tribe destroyed or enslaved, forced to bear the troubles that a Psyker does? Hell, it wouldn't surprise me if you had an escape plan in the works. Hell, even if he doesn't, one of your men will act rebellious or a battle will go wrong, and you'll be blamed for it. You need to get with us, baby." "Let's say I'm considering it. What would it entail?" you ask. "You need to get the leaders on your side. Fay, Olive, Castus, whoever's in charge of those big monster boys I saw you working with earlier. Get them on your side, while I will talk to Elizabeth and Durge about maintaining the rebellious attitude amongst Calpurnia's boys, make sure they're still up for a little bit of mutiny." "What happens when we take the ship?" you ask. "That'll be decided once we've secured the other leaders. I'm sure they have demands of their own. So are you in?" "Hmmm... it's clearly our only option, but you should know that Elios both wants to fuck you over and straight up fuck you," Meliodas says. "I'm pretty sure my other choice is death. That's not even a choice," you say. "Well, it's the one I'm giving you, baby," Elios says,gently flicking the tip of your dick, causing you to yelp and scuttle back on your bed. > You agree Elios steps forward, knocking on the metal door. The guards open, immediately raising their bolters. Elios waves his hand. "You didn't see me here. The voice of Slaanesh calls you, and you're his now. Move aside, and tell no one I was here." "I... no... yes, sir," one says, stepping aside. You watch Elios stroll out of the room, giving a final smile and wave as he leaves the room. You get some sleep, lying wrapped up in your blankets. Blissfully, there's only a few dark, terror-filled dreams, the rest only filling your with a vague, uneasy sense of dread. You awaken to Magos Cern poking you in the stomach with a white-hot pincer. "AH!" you scream. "What the fuck?" "My diagnostics told me that I'd be able to wake you up 0.4 seconds faster this way. We need to go," Magos Cern says. "Where?" "First, you require food. Then, you'l get some implants. I'm going through some long overdue upgrades for the... "Goliaths", as you called them, and Kyros asked me to pencil you in for a few biological upgrades." "Then?" you ask "Melee practice. In wake of assassination threats, Kyros wants you to be able to fend off a melee assassination as easily as you could a ranged or psychic attack." "My powers can do that," you say. "You'd be run through before you could react. Castus and Olive will run through some drills to get your reaction time up and give you a few dodging techniques that will lend themselves to all your battles." "Then?" "By then, with the recovery time from the implants, your weak body will require sleep." "OK", you say. Magos Cern leads you out of the room, and along the hallways. You find yourself in a massive cafeteria. You walk forward, spotting Fay sitting alongside a badly burnt girl with a long braid wrapping around herself and another with a prosthetic arm replaced by a sharpened, mechanical claw. Fay looks up, noodles hanging from her mouth, spotting you. "Oh, Karth!" she says, waving, before noticing that her mouth is filled with noodles and blushing. You take a seat next to her, and she smiles. "So, how are you doing?" she asks. "We need to talk. Alone," you say, looking at the two tribals beside her. "Uh... OK," Fay says, motioning for the two tribals to move, which they quickly do. "Thanks," you say to the tribals as they walk off. "So? Is this about what I think it's about?" "What do you think it's about?" you ask, raising an eyebrow. "Well, you know... you want to speak to me alone... privately... so I kind of assume it's about us." "Yeah, of course it's about us, that's why we're both here to talk about it." "No, I mean... like, us us," Fay says, clearly frustrated by your failure to understand. "What?" "Well, like, do you want us to be a couple?" > You say "Yeah, I want to go out." "Oh, really?" Fay says smiling. "Don't you?" "Oh, yeah, yeah!" Fay says, smiling. "I was actually just going to ask you about that. I'm glad you said yes." Fay smiles, before leaning in and kissing you briefly on the lips. You stare into her bright green eyes, the split-second kiss lasting for infinitely longer, feeling the warmth of her lips flood into you, before she pulls back. "Well, that was nice. Ideally our next rendezvous is going to take place somewhere where we're not surrounded by our tribe and horrible guards who want us dead," Fay smiles. "Was that it, or was there something else?" "Yeah, we have something important to discuss." "Wasn't that important?" Fay asks, smiling. "Oh no,it was, I just... I meant important for the tribe, not just for us," you say, stumbling over your words. "It feels nice to see you've become as awkward as I just was," Fay giggles. "Now, stop spitting out words. Take a breath, and tell me what's so important." "Rebellion." "Oh?" "Kyros is mad and paranoid. He's either going to slit our throats or send us on an endless string of suicide missions. We need to do something, and I really need your help. A group of collaborators have planned to rise up, and rid ourselves of Kyros. Then, we take over. I need the support of your Tribals to do so. "Yeah, totally. Done." "Done?" "Yeah. If we don't escape, we die here. Also, they're your Tribals as much as mine. Who else is in on this?" Fay asks. "Elios, Durge and Elizabeth are all in. No doubt Calpurnia's man will help us," you say. "What about Cain and the twins?" "I haven't asked them yet, but we need to get them on board," you say. "Do we hae a solid plan yet?" Fay asks. "Not yet. We need to find out how many people we have fighting for us." "What happens after we take the ship," Fay asks, raising an eyebrow. "That is still to be decided. Once we have Cain. Castus and Olive behind us, we'll have bargaining power. So you're in?" "I'm in," Fay nods. "I'll have the message spread among the tribals." You notice one of your guards walking towards you, carrying a tray. You motion for Fay to quiet down, as the guard arrives putting the tray down on the table. "Eat," he says, in a cold voice like the scraping of a blade on rusted metal. You look at your food. There's a bowl of noodles and strips of thin, cured meat, a small bowl of green jelly with chunks of odd, alien fruit inside, a large plastic cup of wine and a small, dense biscuit-like cake. "Well, someone's being pampered," Fay says, smiling. "Clearly I'm just more important than you," you gloat as you have a forkful of noodles and meat. Fay grabs the biscuit cake from your tray, taking a bite. "Hey!" you say in annoyance, as Fay sticks her tongue out. You quickly eat your meal, polishing off the entire tray and gulping down the wine. Then, Magos Cern arrives. "Good, you've eaten," she says. "These operations will be safer if you've had a full stomach." "OK, I'm ready, let's go, you say. "Bye, Fay. See you soon." "See you later, Fay says, blowing a kiss. Magos Cern leads you out of the cafeteria and along the halls, off along halls and elevators. Eventually, you pass through the cyro-sleep section, arriving in a large operating room. Dozens of Goliaths are lying on the surgery tables, many halfway through surgery. A half dozen other Tech Priests wander around between the Goliaths, removing and adding flesh, bone, organs, cybernetic implants and other strange things. "I didn't know there were other Tech Priests," you note. "This ship is the size of a small moon. Did you think you've seen enough of it to accurately be able to say that we don't have something? I have scores of Tech Priests who followed me into the embrace of the Dark Gods," Magos Cern says. Magos Cern leads you to an operating table. "This is yours. Please get undressed and wait here, I need to grab my materials and equipment. Stay here." Magos Cern turns around, walking off, leaving you alone. You spot Cain, lying on his operating table, his chest cut open to reveal still functioning organs. You wonder how he can still be alive with such a hastily cut-up torso, before you wince as you see his eyes dart towards you and you realize he's conscious. Looking to see Magos Cern hobbling away, you hop off the operating table and walk over to him. "Commander Karth," Cain grunts. "Need something?" "I have... an offer." "An offer? An offer of what?" Cain says, absent-mindedly picking at a cut alongside his... or at least, one of his stomachs. "Freedom," you say, catching the monster's attention. "Go on," Cain says, furrowing his scarred brow and causing a thin stream of blood to pour from his horns. "We're planning an escape. We could use you and your men," you say. "We?" "Elios, Durge, Elizabeth, Fay, others," you say. "That's it, I think." "When?" "We don't have details, yet. We need a head count before we can start planning it." "Hmmm... I'm willing to give you control of my... "Goliaths", as you called them. But, I have a list of conditions that I want to be satisfied once we take the ship." "Go on," you say. "I want us to get names. Every Goliath who is capable of remembering and answering to a name will be called that instead of its serial number, by you and ALL other members of command. No more cyro-sleep. I want a bed for every single Goliath. I don't care if it's fine cloth or a slab of concrete, as long as it doesn't freeze them, it'll do us. I want free time that's not just killing." "Anything else?" you ask. "That's it," Cain says, spitting out a serrated teeth that's fallen free from his jaw. Cain's demands are far from unfair. Really, all he wants is slightly more rights for his Goliaths, which wouldn't even take any more resources. Still, you don't want the beast getting a big head. You ARE still in charge of not only his collar, but the collars of every single Goliath. All you need is a few threats, and the Goliaths will be yours. > You agree to Cain's demands "Deal," you say. "Good, good," Cain nods, extending a hand. You grab his hand, and thankfully Cain doesn't attempt to squeeze, which would almost certainly result in your fragile bones shattering. You shake vigorously, and Cain attempts a smile. The corners of his mouth twist unnaturally high, revealing rows of serrated teeth, curved fangs, massive molars and many other weird, odd teeth, protruding from bloody, rotten gums. You smile in response, not willing to offend him. "The beast would've taken half of what he asked for," Meliodas says. "Why didn't you tell me that before?" you say angrily. "I presumed you knew," Meliodas replies. "Are you OK?" Cain says. "Tell you what?" "Uh, nothing. Sorry," you say. "OK. Good deal," Cain says, his face contorted in what you assume is his version of a raising of the eyebrow. "Alright, best get prepared for your operation before Magos Cern gets back." "Yeah, I should," you say. You walk over to your operating table and quickly get undressed, before lying down. After another minute or two, Magos Cern appears, pushing a tray in front of her. One of her metallic tendrils grabs a syringe filled with a pale, translucent liquid. "This might hurt a little. It will more likely hurt a lot more," she says. You let out a pained yelp as she jams the syringe into your neck. She begins pushing down on the plunger as what you hope is anesthetic is pumped into you. Warm hands embrace you, pulling you into the oblivion of unconsciousness. > You embrace the darkness Your eyes lull closed, and you lose consciousness. You awake an unknown time later, lying on the metal operating table. Magos Cern stands over you, washing her implements in a basin of water. She looks at you, her cold, red eyes peering into your soul. "Ah, you're awake. Good," she says. "What did you put into me?" you ask. "The biology of what I did is beyond you, flesh bag." "Can you dumb it down for me?" you ask. "Could one reduce concertos to the mumbled grunts of mutants?" Magos Cern asks indignantly. "Please?" "Fine. I increased the size of your heart by 40% and lungs by 12%, and added several veins and arteries leading directly to the brain from the heart. These actions increase the blood flow to your brain, and should hence increase psychic abilities. I added multiple microchips that breed monocytes, other white blood cells, platelets and other helpful things for your body. That was the bulk of my work. Other than that, it was just a medical check-up." "OK," you say. "I have a lot of important work to do, now. You should've had enough time to recover." Two of your massive space marine guards arrive, a roaring face on their thick helmets. "Here you are," Magos Cern says. "Guards, make sure to walk slow. If at any point the patient starts puking blood, let him sit down for ten, maybe fifteen minutes." "Shouldn't you keep him hearing for observation, then?" one of the guards ask. "I have far too much work to do," Magos Cern says. "Don't disturb me. If anything goes wrong, go to Genetor Corivan. He is very experienced with medical matters." "Yes, sir," the space marine says. Magos Cern quickly heads off, walking off to a row of elevators. The space marines stare at you, and you climb out of bed with a groan. "Ah, my head," you say. "You should have headaches for the next 48 hours," Magos Cern shouts, right before she disappears into an elevator. You stand, feeling a rush of blood hit your head. You walk after the space marines, along halls and up and down elevators, until you find yourself in the arena. Castus and Olive are there, mid-battle with each other. "Oh look, it's tweedle-dum and tweedle-fucking idiot," Meliodas says. "Not even a laugh? Oh wait, you didn't grow up with nursery rhymes, you're from a Feral world. My bad." Castus swings his sword at her, while Olive swings her rifle-axe up at his head. He rolls out of the way, kicking Olive's foot away and sending her to her knee, before booting her in the head. She collapses down, before rolling out of the way to avoid a downward stab by Castus. She grabs Castus' sword handle and punches him. Castus falls backwards, before taking up a fighting stance. Olive begins circling him, her gun-axe at the ready. She spots you, smiling. "Karth's here," she says. "Bullshit," Castus says, readying his sword. "Karth, tell him you're here," Olive says. "Yeah, I'm here," you say. Castus turns to look at you, but Olive charges, swinging her gun-axe. She knocks the feet away from Castus, dropping his knee down on Castus stomach. Castus grunts before Olive grabs her gun-axe and holds it to Castus throat. "Dead," she says. "No fair, we were supposed to stop when Karth got here," Castus says. "You're still dead," Olive smiles, standing up. Castus grabs Olive's wrist, pulling her forward so his sword pokes into her stomach. "Dead," he smiles. "Seriously?" Olive says, rolling her eyes. "Fine, I'm dead. Are we finished yet? The kid needs training." "Fine," Castus shrugs. "Let's start it." Castus draws a dagger from his belt, staring at it. The blade is a bright silver, with an odd pattern etched into it. It's handle is a bright, light blue, with a short, silver horn coming from the end of the handle. "Now, this is an absolute beauty. I really don't use it enough, so it's yours. Xenos-origin, so even owning it is heresy. The blade is razor sharp, it could cut through flesh and bone easier than it could through air. Here." Castus turns, tossing the dagger straight at your head. > You duck You duck your head, the knife flying just over your head and cluttering to the floor behind you. "Good catch," Castus says. You grab the knife, taking a practice stab. "What do you think?" "It's a knife," you say simply. "Yeah, it is. Do you like it? Does it feel good?" Castus says. "I don't know anything about knives. Maybe," you say. "Alright, first, we need to talk. Is anyone watching us? Like, are there cameras?" "No. Well yes, but they're offline," Olive says, resting her head on the butt of her axe-gun. "What is it?" "A plan is being formed. We're going to escape." "Escape?" Olive says, musing. "Who's on our side?" "We have a large amount of people on our side. Elios, Elizabeth and Durge are bringing the weight of their war-bands, as well as most, if not all, of the Guardsmen here. Then there's the Goliaths and the Tribals, both of whom are with us." "What...?" "Because I've done this twice before, I best say. We have no plans yet. They're to be decided. We have literally nothing. We just need to check whether you'll join us. Then, we'll get the leaders together to plan our to take over, and what to do with once we've actually done so." "Huh. Well, I'm in," Castus says. "What?" Olive asks, surprised. "Yeah, I'm in," Castus says. "We don't know the plan, we don't have any assurances that we won't be back-stabbed as soon as we take over, we..." "Olive, let's be smart here. If we don't rebel, we'll definitely either be killed fighting Kyros' war, killed trying to put down these fuckers' mutiny, or killed fighting another arena battle for these bastard's amusement." "If we rebel, we'll almost certainly be killed!" "Almost certainly is way better than definitely. Plus, we'll get to kill a few of Kyros' bastards before we go down." "Fine, I'm in, but I... we have a few demands," Olive says. "Go on," you say. You know the gladiators will be essential to your plans, so you really need to get them, but still, you don't want to devote to many resources to this issue. "I want instant freedom once we take-over. No more being locked up under the arena. I want my men to have free reign to travel around the ship. I want pay, do the men and women who fight and work for the ship actually get something from it. I want an increase in food rations, and better equipment than the shit we're given. I want actual medical care, on top of this." "That it?" you ask, annoyed with her large demands. It'll probably take a serious amount of resources to fulfill her request. You have a few options here. "What a fucking greedy bitch. This fucker needs a dick, I tell you that," Meliodas complains. > You agree to her demands "Done," you say. Olive extends a hand, which you grip and shake extensively. Castus extends his hand, which you grab, but he twists your arm around, causing you to yelp painfully. He kicks away your foot and sends you to your knee, before bringing his sword up to your throat. "Dead," he says with a smile. "Well shit, Castus, what's wrong with you?" "What? I was just preparing him for fighting. I thought we were supposed to be training him. First lesson, kid: trust no one. Now, get up." Olive offers you a hand, smiling. > You allow her to help you up You grab Olive's hand, and she pulls you to your feet. "Ah, good job," Castus says. "Second rule: the first rule is bullshit. You know who doesn't trust anyone? Bastards like Kyros who ends up with no loyal friends, no allies, nothing, and then end up alone, with no one. If you want to survive in this world, you need allies." Castus grabs his sword by the blade, offering it to you. You reach out to grab it, before he swings it and smacks you in the side of the heat, sending you to the ground. Castus offers his hand to you, which you accept. He pulls you up, before kneeing you in the stomach and tossing you to the ground. "Come on, you're not learning. First rule: trust no one. Don't you listen?" "I was going my the second rule," you say, groaning. "Sometimes, the first rule is more important than the second rule," Castus shrugs. "How the fuck am I supposed to tell the difference between which rule to us?" you ask, annoyed. "Beats me. When you find out, you'll be the most powerful warlord in history. Until then, you just go off gut feeling and intellect." "Seems like a shitty system," you say, as Castus finally lets you stand up. "Seems like a shitty world you're in. That system is the best I have to offer. Now, rule three: in hand to hand combat, go for the weak spots. The throat, eyes and balls are always good, but when it comes to half these fucks, I'd stick to the eyes, because past that, I don't know what you have left. Observe." Castus flips his sword so he holds the blade again, wrapping his sleeve around the blade so it doesn't bite into his fingers as much. He steps forward, swinging his sword with insane speed. The pommel slams into your throat before jabbing you in the eyes, leaving you to stumble backwards. You quickly close your legs together before Castus jabs the pommel into your groin, and you collapse backwards with a pained yelp. "See? Effective," Castus smiles. "Rule four: you can win through many ways. Pain submission, incapacitating them, or simply taking their lives. Judge which can be used to take down your enemies. For instance, in your case, pain is the way forward." You're growing tired of being hit in the face. As Castus steps forward with his sword raised, you decide you're going to do something to dissuade him from continuing to hit you. > You freeze Castus' sword in place You use your telekinesis to hold the sword in mid air, Castus grunts in confusion as he finds his weapon stuck in the air as it was concrete. "I don't need to learn how to wield a sword, Castus. You've trained all your life with a sword. I never have. Yet look how simply I disarm you? I need a sword as much as you need fangs. I've evolved past the need for it," you say, before sending the sword clattering to the ground. "Fair point, kid," Castus says, as you have his sword levitate back up to him. "I suppose you're good to go. End of training." "Terrific," you say. "So, can I leave?" "Yeah, I'll call your guards here to open the gates and take you off," Castus says, grabbing a walkie-talkie hanging from his belt and speaking into it. "Yeah, we're finished here," he says. "Oh shit, over." "Affirmative, out," the voice comes back. Soon, the gate lifts up as your guards saunter out in their thick power armor. "Where to next, boys?" you ask. "Shut it, psyker," one growls, looking at Castus and Olive. "Is it back to the cells for you two?" "We're happy to practice some more here," Olive says, twirling her gun-axe to stop a surprise attack from Castus. "I mean, if this dumb bastard has done so little practice to think that would take me down, he's go to need a lot more practice." "Pffh, I'd like to see you take me down," Castus says. "So be it," your captor growls. "Move it, psyker." You raise your hands defensively, and allow them to escort you back to your room. > Three Days Later... There's no peep from Elios, Durge or Elizabeth over the next few days. There's more of the usual, training, fighting and such. Eventually though, as you put your head down on the pillow, you hear a familiar voice. "Karth, talking to you with that collar on is painfully hard. Can you start checking the shadows so I don't have to do this?" Meliodas says. You twist around in bed, to spot a familiar figure in the corner, wearing tight, very revealing black leather with heavy make-up. "Why do we have a habit of meeting like this?" Elios says. "Fuck," you say, jumping up in bed. "Is that an order? Because I'm more than willing to... serve," he says, licking his lips. "Why are you here?" "We're meeting up. We have plans to make. Shall we go?" Elios smiles. "Uh... sure," you reply. Elios strides over to the door, knocking on it. The guards open, and Elios once again deceives them so they easily step aside. "How do you do that?" you ask, as you stroll past your guards. "Serving Slaanesh has it's benefits. Charisma, beauty, the ability to bend people to your desires, and an ever-lasting... stamina," he says, breathing the last word. "Ah, good to know," you say. You stroll through the hallways, heading down a path you've never headed down before. Eventually, you find yourself in a seemingly abandoned section, entering a large room that's been done up like a war-room. "This is the old war-room. Kyros had a new one built in a position safer from boarding actions. From here, we run the mutiny." You look around the room, taking note of who's here. Durge sits in a large wooden chair, pricking boils along his belly with his spike-arms. Elizabeth sits in the corner, reading a datapad. A young man, seemingly in his twenties, leans against a wall, smoking and scratching his thick stubble, with a shaved head, scarred face and sallow skin. Cain is scratching the scarred cuts that run along his leathery bare chest. Castus is playing with a knife, while Olive leans against the wall, drinking from a canteen. Fay leans against the wall, noticing you instantly. "Hey, Karth," she smiles, walking up to you. "How'd Elios get you out of your cell?" "Did some deceiving trick on the guards. You?" "Elizabeth put the guard's to sleep somehow," Fay replies. "Alright, boys. We're all here. Shall we begin?" "Yes, let's go through this," Durge says. Durge stands, scratching the side of his stomach as you see something furry scuttling through his intestines. You try not to get sick, or to simply set the entire monstrosity known as Durge aflame to cauterize his disgusting form, before reassuring yourself that he's on your side. "Sssh, sssh," Durge says, patting the side of his stomach, before grabbing a remote from the large metal table and turning on a large blue hologram of the ship, the Roar of the Vortex. "Here she is. We need to start planning how to grasp control of the ship. Remember, this isn't a planet. We don't win by capturing more territory than the enemy has. We need to capture the necessary areas." The hologram begins to change, as various sections become different colors. "These black sections are abandoned by crew. They're either unnecessary cargo space, unused dorms or functional sections whose functions are either redundant, have been taken over by other sections or are being fulfilled by whoever remains in these sections." "I thought they were abandoned," Fay says. "Abandoned by the crew, not abandoned by all. You must remember just how large this vessel is. Certain sections were crewed by slaves or mutants who, from lack of contact with crew members, have regressed to a feral state. Many of them now fulfill their roles, such as cleaning pipes or pumping air or working generators, because they consider it a religious ritual, necessary for their food, water and waste pipes to continue or just do it without knowing why." "Ah. How... terrifying to know that that's a reality," Fay says. "Their sacrifice is necessary," Durge shrugs. "Now, I shall continue. These brown sections are entirely ran by mutants. These mutants hold no loyalty to either side, and fulfill non-essential roles, or at least roles that aren't essential short-term. For the term's of this... mutiny, these spaces are as irrelevant as the abandoned areas. Now, we get onto the important things. These green sections are, or at least will definitely, be controlled by us. The Black Rat's floors, the Shrieking Harpies' floors, the One Eyed Crows' floors, the arena and arena catacombs, the cyro-sleep area, the medical bay, the Tribals' dormitories, and the 22nd Regiment's dormitories. The 22nd Regiment is, for the most part, under our command, although their are loyalists to Kyros, so it will take some time for them to sort out that issue in the mutiny. These red sections are the enemy's. Kyros' chambers, the Bloody Claw's floors, the Techpriests' sections, the floors used by the Undying Reapers, and the floors controlled by those who will almost certainly be loyal to Kyros, whether they be from assimilated war-bands or his original allies he had when first capturing this vessel." Suddenly, the hologram shifts again, as the sections become either black, grey, blue, green or gold. "These sections in black are irrelevant. Ignore them. These areas in grey are of little importance, but these are still a benefit to hold. The blue sections should be captured. The green sections are of more importance than the green sections, and should be prioritized. These gold sections, the command bridge, the engines and the macro-cannon decks, are completely necessary. We need these for victory. Now, Elizabeth shall go into details on the objectives, and Elios shall divide our forces." Elizabeth stands up, walking towards the hologram, as Durge collapses into his seat. "Thank you, brother. Now, we have four main objectives. The first is to kill Kyros. If we're lucky, that should get much of his forces to surrender. Hopefully, Rebecca will as well," Elizabeth says. "She won't surrender," Elios says. "She might," Durge says hopefully. "I've know her the longest. She never gave up. When dad gave her the choice of apologizing for breaking the barn's windows in exchange for half as many lashes, she spat in his eye. As long as she has a limb left, she'll fight us. And I'm counting her head as a limb," Elios says. "Well... we can hope," Elizabeth says. "The second objective is to capture the golden sections. The third and fourth objectives are to capture as many servitors as possible and Drake Amadeus, respectively." "Who the fuck is Drake Amadeus, and what's a servitor?" Castus asks loudly. "A servitor is a partly biological machine, made from machinery and the body of a criminal, slave or cloned body. They're not sentient, but are controlled by the Techpriests and used as their workforce. They do the bulk work of maintaining the ship. Capturing as many of them should make the transfer of power... easier. Drake Amadeus is an extremely powerful Navigator, a species of mutant who have a psychic third eye that allows it to see through the Warp and allow us to navigate through the Warp. Drake is one of the few Navigators powerful enough to allow a ship this large to navigate safely. If we don't secure him, we lose all abilities to go at the speed of light. In other words, we drift through space until we all starve to death. So, Drake is an important objective. Those are our four main objectives. If we fail in any of those, we fail in everything. There are dozens of other objectives, such as securing medical supplies, finding food, what have you. Those can be handed out to the individual groups. Elios?" Elios stands up, strolling over to the hologram as Elizabeth sits down. "Now, we have a sizeable force. The Shrieking Harpies, the Black Rats, the One-Eyed Crows, the 22nd Regiment, the Tribals, the Goliaths and the Gladiators. We even have a... special asset," he says, looking at you. "Whilst each of these factions on their own are fairly effective, combined they're infinitely stronger. Here are lists of what forces you'll command, and which of the forces you were to command will be transferred to another leader." Various rolls of parchment and datapads, a strange mix of tech levels, is passed out. You raise an eyebrow as you realize you've not been given anything. "Why didn't I get something?" you ask. Elios smiles as you. "Putting you with a large force would be a waste of resources. Putting you with a small force would leave you wiping out too many enemies, unable to hold the ground you've already taken. So, we're going to use your as a specialty item. We're sending you to capture the prisoners. Release the ones you deem trustworthy, and secure them. Most importantly, secure Drake Amadeus. Understood?" "Yeah, got it," you say. "Once you have, we'll regroup forces, and make a move to finish off Kyros and his lieutenants." "Got it," you say. "When?" Cain asks in his monstrous voice. "Soon. Within the next few days. We need time to spread the orders, make preparations and Elizabeth needs time to find a way to deactivate the various collars and explosives planted on the slaves. Be ready at all moments," Durge says. "How do we know when to strike?" Olive asks. "We're going to have explosives planted to take out as many loyalists as possible. When you hear massive explosives, or if you're too far away when the alarms start, your collars should deactivate given that I succeed, which I will, and then strike and go immediately to your objective. Understood?" Elizabeth says. "Got it," Olive nods. Elios begins passing out files. "Look over these, then leave them to be burnt," Elios says. You're passed a file, and eagerly grab it. > You look at the files You look at the files and see three subheadings: Drake Amadeus, the Penthouse, Charles Antonguella and the Troupe of Dancing Blades. The files seem to be a mixture of printed out and hand-written, leading you to assume they're from different sources. > You read File: Drake Amadeus Name: Drake Amadeus Species: Human, Sub-species Navigator Age: 27 Marital Status: Unmarried Children: None House of Origin: House Jenassis Current Location: The Penthouse, Roar of the Vortex Blood Type: A Positive Additional Mutations: None Mental Illnesses: Sociopath, Sadist, Narcissist, Alliances: None Dependents: None Useful Intel: -Drake has so far proven to have no loyalty, betraying all of his previous employers. Do not trust him. -Drake has refused to pledge to any of the Dark Gods, or even to Chaos Undivided -Drake has proven to have many hedonistic tendencies, such as whore-mongering, heavy drug use and similar activities. -Drake is reasonable sufficient with firearms and melee weapons. It is necessary to keep him away from all weapons.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You look at the files and see three subheadings: Drake Amadeus, the Penthouse, Charles Antonguella and the Troupe of Dancing Blades. The files seem to be a mixture of printed out and hand-written, leading you to assume they're from different sources. > You read File: The Penthouse The Penthouse is a large house situated on the Roar of the Vortex. It is made up of multiple rooms, including a kitchen, a massive bedroom, a bath house, a large lounge, room for dozens of slaves to live and much more. It is the home of Drake Amadeus. It is occupied by not only Amadeus, but also bodyguards Charles Antonguella and the Troupe of Dancing Blades, as well as dozens of slaves and prostitutes under the service of Amadeus. The penthouse holds luxuries and treasures of great value, both monetarily and intellectually. All operations carried out here should take care around such items.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You look at the files and see three subheadings: Drake Amadeus, the Penthouse, Charles Antonguella and the Troupe of Dancing Blades. The files seem to be a mixture of printed out and hand-written, leading you to assume they're from different sources. > You read File: Charles Antonguella Charles Antonguella was a miner on Kerunga-IV, until he was kidnapped by Dark Eldar. He was forced to fight as a gladiator for the Dark Eldar, but found himself to have bested several Wyches. He became an esteemed fighter for the Dark Eldar, who reveled in his beauty and his abilities at killing enemies with his bare hands. Eventually, he escaped and fled off-world, where he became a mercenary. He eventually began working for Kyros as a bodyguard for the infamous Navigator Drake Amadeus.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You look at the files and see three subheadings: Drake Amadeus, the Penthouse, Charles Antonguella and the Troupe of Dancing Blades. The files seem to be a mixture of printed out and hand-written, leading you to assume they're from different sources. > You read File: The Troupe of the Dancing Blades The Troupe of Dancing Blades is a Chaos group under service of the Chaos Lord Kazirai the Beast-Fucker, known for both his highly amusing name and his large amounts of sexy aesthetically pleasing warriors who served as his mistresses. They fight with acrobatics and long blades. They have extensive use of stealth technology as well as hallucegenics. They are currently in service to Kyros, acting as bodyguards to Drake Amaedus.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You look at the files and see three subheadings: Drake Amadeus, the Penthouse, Charles Antonguella and the Troupe of Dancing Blades. The files seem to be a mixture of printed out and hand-written, leading you to assume they're from different sources. > You finish reading the files You hold the file out, offering it back to Elios. "Burn it, honey," Elios says. You shrug, as the file sets alight in your fingertips, turning to ash. Fay notices you're finished, and hands her file to you. "Are you offering this to me to read?" you ask, confused. "No, Karth, but there's no candles around. It's times like this where it's good to have a friend who can act as a lighter." You quickly set the file alight, and it turns to ash once again. "Thank you," Fay says. "How's your mission looking?" "Easy enough. If I can get this collar off, I'll be fine. If not, I'm fucked," you say. "I'm sure Elizabeth can get the collar off. She seems smart," Fay says. "I am," Elizabeth says, not looking up from her files. "Are we finished here?" you ask. "Sure thing, darling," Elios says, standing. "Shall I escort you back to your room?" "Sure thing," you say, as Fay nods eagerly. You stand, following Elios along the hallways. After a few minutes, you reach the tribals' dormitories, where two Chaos Marines stand at either side of the door. "Hey, you're not supposed to be out of your cell!" one says, raising his bolter. Elios snaps his fingers, and the two guards pause. "You saw nothing," Elios says. "Yes... yes, sir," the space marine replies, as Elios opens the door. "Goodnight, Fay," Elizabeth says. "Goodnight, Karth," she says, before disappearing into the dorms. You quickly head towards your room, reaching there after a few minutes. Elios pulls the same trick with your guards, as they fall under Elios' commands. He opens the door, motioning for you to enter. "Goodnight, Karth. I have a lot to organize, so I won't be able to offer you the chance for me to stay the night. Sleep tight, darling," he says, as the door closes." You shake your head, walking over to the bed, collapsing onto it. Soon, you drift off to sleep. > Two Days Later... You walk down the hallways alongside your four Chaos Marine guards. You head towards the war room, where Kyros is planning the first strike against the Imperium, taking over a Hive World, to secure a huge population that can be recruited from to bolster Kyros' forces ten times. You hum a tune, some old Uwais war chant that you find quite catchy. You feel a wave of nausea hit you, and you pause, as you feel a heavy weight lifted off your soul, and your cloudy mind is cleared. Your collar clicks, and falls off you, hitting the ground. Your guards stop, noticing you've stopped. "Prisoner, why have you s...?" one of the guards asks, before noticing your collar has fallen off. "Wait..." he starts to say, as the alarm begins to blare. "Hahaha! Freedom! Freedom!" Meliodas cries. Then, you strike. The first guard's head snaps around, tearing his head clean off his shoulders. You quickly set the second alight, shielding yourself from the bright blue flames that begin melting through the thick armor as the guard roars. You teleport behind the last two as bolter fire slams into the hallway where you once were. You blow a hole in the chest of one with a blast of psychic energy, before levitating the last one into the air, tossing his bolter across the room. "No, no, no!" the space marine roars, shaking and trying to grasp at you. "Kill! Maim! Burn! Break! Smash! Crush! Slaughter!" Meliodas gleefully chants. You smash the space marine into the ground repeatedly, shattering armor and leaving him as a bloody smear on the ground. You attempt to orientate yourself, trying to picture the path you took from your room to get here, and remembering where the Penthouse is. "Brother! Is Prisoner Alpha secure?" a radio crackles. You turn, noticing the radio attached to the first space marine's belt. You pick it up, as the psychic energy around you vibrates as you talk, changing your voice into that of the space marine. "Imitate his comrade's voice. Use the Warp," Meliodas suggests. "We were forced to kill him. What's the situation?" "Good riddance. Our brothers have betrayed us. The One Eyed Crows, the Black Rats, the Shrieking Harpies, all traitors! The 22nd are fighting, but I don't know whether the majority is with Kyros." "What's the plans?" "Kyros has us divided between exterminating the traitors and trying to put down the slave revolts that are taking place. The first and second generation super-soldiers are rebelling. Take your unit, and secure the gladiators. If they have the arena secured, they will have a strong defensive position." "Understood. We'll get it done," you say. "Send them to their reapers, brother, and ward off your own one," the radio crackles. "Glory to Kyros," you say. "Praise the Dark Gods!" "Nice touch," Meliodas says. The radio finishes, and you clip it to your belt. You float into the air, hovering along the hallways towards the Penthouse. You pass a trio of shotgun-wielding Bloody Claws, rushing towards the cyro-chambers. You fire a jet of flames, engulfing the trio but don't even slow down to watch them die. Soon, you find yourself in the elevator, rising towards the penthouse. You wait patiently, listening to reports come through the radio. "The entire area's filled with them! They're all traitors. I..." "Bridge secured, push forward." "Fall back, fall back, they're not going down!" "Rage! Kill! Maim! Smash! Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne!" "Leading the charge! Secure Elizabeth Staine, and they'll all... shit! AARGH!" "Damn it! I've been sealed in! Get me out, dammit! They're coming for us!" The elevator doors open, leaving you faced with five heavy bolters aiming at you. "It's the Psyker!" someone shouts. "Time to die, mortals!" Meliodas roars. > You quickly fire some firebolts You spew fireballs from each hand, immediately engulfing two of the bolters, and their operators, in flames as they let out terrified screams. Unfortunately, the other three fire. Bullets slam into your boy, one quickly finding your head and blowing it apart.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You walk down the hallways alongside your four Chaos Marine guards. You head towards the war room, where Kyros is planning the first strike against the Imperium, taking over a Hive World, to secure a huge population that can be recruited from to bolster Kyros' forces ten times. You hum a tune, some old Uwais war chant that you find quite catchy. You feel a wave of nausea hit you, and you pause, as you feel a heavy weight lifted off your soul, and your cloudy mind is cleared. Your collar clicks, and falls off you, hitting the ground. Your guards stop, noticing you've stopped. "Prisoner, why have you s...?" one of the guards asks, before noticing your collar has fallen off. "Wait..." he starts to say, as the alarm begins to blare. "Hahaha! Freedom! Freedom!" Meliodas cries. Then, you strike. The first guard's head snaps around, tearing his head clean off his shoulders. You quickly set the second alight, shielding yourself from the bright blue flames that begin melting through the thick armor as the guard roars. You teleport behind the last two as bolter fire slams into the hallway where you once were. You blow a hole in the chest of one with a blast of psychic energy, before levitating the last one into the air, tossing his bolter across the room. "No, no, no!" the space marine roars, shaking and trying to grasp at you. "Kill! Maim! Burn! Break! Smash! Crush! Slaughter!" Meliodas gleefully chants. You smash the space marine into the ground repeatedly, shattering armor and leaving him as a bloody smear on the ground. You attempt to orientate yourself, trying to picture the path you took from your room to get here, and remembering where the Penthouse is. "Brother! Is Prisoner Alpha secure?" a radio crackles. You turn, noticing the radio attached to the first space marine's belt. You pick it up, as the psychic energy around you vibrates as you talk, changing your voice into that of the space marine. "Imitate his comrade's voice. Use the Warp," Meliodas suggests. "We were forced to kill him. What's the situation?" "Good riddance. Our brothers have betrayed us. The One Eyed Crows, the Black Rats, the Shrieking Harpies, all traitors! The 22nd are fighting, but I don't know whether the majority is with Kyros." "What's the plans?" "Kyros has us divided between exterminating the traitors and trying to put down the slave revolts that are taking place. The first and second generation super-soldiers are rebelling. Take your unit, and secure the gladiators. If they have the arena secured, they will have a strong defensive position." "Understood. We'll get it done," you say. "Send them to their reapers, brother, and ward off your own one," the radio crackles. "Glory to Kyros," you say. "Praise the Dark Gods!" "Nice touch," Meliodas says. The radio finishes, and you clip it to your belt. You float into the air, hovering along the hallways towards the Penthouse. You pass a trio of shotgun-wielding Bloody Claws, rushing towards the cyro-chambers. You fire a jet of flames, engulfing the trio but don't even slow down to watch them die. Soon, you find yourself in the elevator, rising towards the penthouse. You wait patiently, listening to reports come through the radio. "The entire area's filled with them! They're all traitors. I..." "Bridge secured, push forward." "Fall back, fall back, they're not going down!" "Rage! Kill! Maim! Smash! Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne!" "Leading the charge! Secure Elizabeth Staine, and they'll all... shit! AARGH!" "Damn it! I've been sealed in! Get me out, dammit! They're coming for us!" The elevator doors open, leaving you faced with five heavy bolters aiming at you. "It's the Psyker!" someone shouts. "Time to die, mortals!" Meliodas roars. > You create a psychic shield You immediately raise your shields, as bolter fire thuds into them. You feel them, like a tapping on your mind. Unfortunately, by the sheer amount of bolter fire being shot at you, one finds it's way in. It slams into you, blowing your chest open. You collapse to your knees, as your shields fail as you lose focus. Bullets riddle your body, killing you instantly.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You walk down the hallways alongside your four Chaos Marine guards. You head towards the war room, where Kyros is planning the first strike against the Imperium, taking over a Hive World, to secure a huge population that can be recruited from to bolster Kyros' forces ten times. You hum a tune, some old Uwais war chant that you find quite catchy. You feel a wave of nausea hit you, and you pause, as you feel a heavy weight lifted off your soul, and your cloudy mind is cleared. Your collar clicks, and falls off you, hitting the ground. Your guards stop, noticing you've stopped. "Prisoner, why have you s...?" one of the guards asks, before noticing your collar has fallen off. "Wait..." he starts to say, as the alarm begins to blare. "Hahaha! Freedom! Freedom!" Meliodas cries. Then, you strike. The first guard's head snaps around, tearing his head clean off his shoulders. You quickly set the second alight, shielding yourself from the bright blue flames that begin melting through the thick armor as the guard roars. You teleport behind the last two as bolter fire slams into the hallway where you once were. You blow a hole in the chest of one with a blast of psychic energy, before levitating the last one into the air, tossing his bolter across the room. "No, no, no!" the space marine roars, shaking and trying to grasp at you. "Kill! Maim! Burn! Break! Smash! Crush! Slaughter!" Meliodas gleefully chants. You smash the space marine into the ground repeatedly, shattering armor and leaving him as a bloody smear on the ground. You attempt to orientate yourself, trying to picture the path you took from your room to get here, and remembering where the Penthouse is. "Brother! Is Prisoner Alpha secure?" a radio crackles. You turn, noticing the radio attached to the first space marine's belt. You pick it up, as the psychic energy around you vibrates as you talk, changing your voice into that of the space marine. "Imitate his comrade's voice. Use the Warp," Meliodas suggests. "We were forced to kill him. What's the situation?" "Good riddance. Our brothers have betrayed us. The One Eyed Crows, the Black Rats, the Shrieking Harpies, all traitors! The 22nd are fighting, but I don't know whether the majority is with Kyros." "What's the plans?" "Kyros has us divided between exterminating the traitors and trying to put down the slave revolts that are taking place. The first and second generation super-soldiers are rebelling. Take your unit, and secure the gladiators. If they have the arena secured, they will have a strong defensive position." "Understood. We'll get it done," you say. "Send them to their reapers, brother, and ward off your own one," the radio crackles. "Glory to Kyros," you say. "Praise the Dark Gods!" "Nice touch," Meliodas says. The radio finishes, and you clip it to your belt. You float into the air, hovering along the hallways towards the Penthouse. You pass a trio of shotgun-wielding Bloody Claws, rushing towards the cyro-chambers. You fire a jet of flames, engulfing the trio but don't even slow down to watch them die. Soon, you find yourself in the elevator, rising towards the penthouse. You wait patiently, listening to reports come through the radio. "The entire area's filled with them! They're all traitors. I..." "Bridge secured, push forward." "Fall back, fall back, they're not going down!" "Rage! Kill! Maim! Smash! Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne!" "Leading the charge! Secure Elizabeth Staine, and they'll all... shit! AARGH!" "Damn it! I've been sealed in! Get me out, dammit! They're coming for us!" The elevator doors open, leaving you faced with five heavy bolters aiming at you. "It's the Psyker!" someone shouts. "Time to die, mortals!" Meliodas roars. > You teleport behind the heavy bolters You disappear from their sight, appearing behind them. You let out a jet of flames, engulfing two heavy bolters and killing their operators. You twist around, shooting a blast of psychic energy at another, before spitting lightning to kill the last two operators. It's only a minute before you arrive at a massive, thick metal door with an intercom. > You use the intercom You press down on the button, and a voice crackles through. "Password?" the deep voice asks. > You attempt to physically probe the man's mind for the password You feel his mind, and gently test it for it's thoughts. "Should I have stayed loyal to Kyros? Fuck, I could sti... No, no." "I wonder if Mimtu needs more food. I should buy more food." "Is this dipshit going to say Railroad or am I going to have to kill him?" "It's Railroad," you say. The door clicks open. "Alright, get inside. Quickly," he says. > You step inside "I can smell him. He's here," Meliodas says. You step inside the doorway, looking into a marvelous palace. There's a huge grand staircase, with above it a massive chandelier of candles, the only illumination for the room. Beside it is an obsidian, bejeweled statue of a dragon, emitting a long burst of flames made from a bright red and orange gemstone, sits beside a marble table laden with roast meats, delicate pastries and fancy wines. You spot Amadeus, lying on a large silk couch, wearing an opened red silk hooded robe. On his forehead is a third, closed eye, while his normal eyes are focused on the girl in front of him, on her knees performing fellatio. You momentarily blush, before remembering that you're an insanely powerful psyker and not a fucking child. "Drake Amadeus, you're coming with me," you say, as Drake lets out a yelp, kicking the girl off him and stumbling back. "Shit, it's Karst! It's Karst! Get him the fuck away from me!" You step forward, before seeing a dozen girls emerge from the rooms upstairs, walking towards the grand staircase. They move with insane flexibility. Some behind back and walking with their heads peering out between their legs, before twisting their heads around a hundred and eight degrees. Some on all fours, their legs stretched back around their shoulders to allow them to walk forward at an odd angle. They move with delicate grace, before they each draw a pair of curved knifes, continuing to walk towards you. You see Drake Amadeus scuttle away from the corner of your eye, but it seems you have a bigger threat. "Ah, Slaaneeshi whores. Make their deaths quick. They'd just enjoy you drawing it out," Meliodas says. > You fire a jet of flames to hold the Troupe back You fire a jet of flames, and the Dancing Blades quickly retreat out of the range of your fire. They dance along the edge, waiting to strike. > You head up the stairwell, spewing fire You march up the stairwell, spewing fire at the Troupe. Unfortunately, as you move up the stairs, this puts you far enough that can't hit them, but close enough that they're within leaping distance now that you're somewhat below them. The Troupe strikes, leaping off the bannisters to attack. Immediately, three of them are upon you. You fly out of the way of one and set the second alight, before the third leaps at you. You back out of their way, avoiding a sword blow, before you're stabbed through the back, and you collapse to your knees, before a blow takes your head off.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You fire a jet of flames, and the Dancing Blades quickly retreat out of the range of your fire. They dance along the edge, waiting to strike. > You fire psychic bolts from distance You fire the bolts, as they fly towards the enemy. The Troupe moves constantly dodge the blasts, missing most of them, but a few land. You keep the Troupe at a distance with your fire and zero in on the kills with your psychic energy. After you kill a few you realize their tactic, and they attempt a charge, although with a burst of energy and the powers of the Warp flowing through you, you manage to wipe out the Troupe with considerable ease. > You find Amadeus You turn from the scene of your killing, and head towards the rooms where Amadeus scuttled off to. A faint light shines through the door, which you kick in, easily finding the Navigator as he lies in an empty bathtub, holding a dagger to the knife of a half-dressed prostitute who still looks to be in her early teens. "Stop! Don't move a muscle! You get any closer to me, I slit this bitch's throat!" Drake shouts, snarling at you. "Does he think that'll work? Fool," Meliodas laughs. > You kill the prostitute With a narrowing of your eyes, the prostitute's neck is snapped. Drake releases her body, staring at you. "You're... well, you're a threat," Drake says, dropping the knife and standing. "You're coming with me," you say. "Sure, sure," Drake says. You bind Drake's hands together with invisible chains, and force him to march forward. Drake immediately becomes compliant. "Can I grab a few things?" Drake asks. "My... dreams get pretty bad. I have terrifying nightmares. I have medication that helps. Please, please can I get them?" Drake asks. > You allow Drake to retrieve his medication "Go," you say, as Drake nods his head thankfully, running over to the counter and beginning to gather various pills and jars of balm from the tables, searching through drawers. Suddenly, you hear a hissing sound behind you. > You quickly turn to investigate the noise You swivel around, spotting a metal box begin to rumble, emitting air that smells of trees. Then, you hear a booming noise and your head explodes, painting the room red. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Go," you say, as Drake nods his head thankfully, running over to the counter and beginning to gather various pills and jars of balm from the tables, searching through drawers. Suddenly, you hear a hissing sound behind you. > You keep watching Drake You watch as Drake continues searching for pills and balms, before drawing a shotgun and aiming for your head. You flick your wrists, sending the shotgun across the room. You bind Drake's hand, lifting him up and flying him towards you. "Please, I'm sorry, but I can't be captured. They'll kill them!" Drake asks pitifully. "Them?" you ask. "Yes. Kyros has my two children taken prisoner aboard this ship, my two baby girls. If I don't report to him every hour, he'll hurt them!" "I've read your report. You don't have children." Drake's look of terror and desperation slowly morphs into a grin. "Alright, you got me. Shall we go?" You snarl, smacking Drake into the ground. He lets out a pained yell, before you raise him up again. "Give me one reason not to kill you," you say. "Fuck you. Just go ahead and kill me," Drake laughs, spitting blood out of his mouth and giving a grin, his teeth bloodied. "Is that your final answer?" you ask. "You need me alive to pilot this ship, dipshit," Drake says. "Perhaps. But I could easily peel off your skin, turn your bones to dust, char your flesh and twist your limbs off." "You need to happy, Karth," Drake grins. "My jobs to navigate the ship, make sure we're not lost in the Warp, boarded by daemons or make sure we don't come out of the Warp and straight into the sun. If my life's not worth living, such as if someone peeled off my skin, turned my bones to dust, charred my flesh and twisted my limbs off, I'd just make sure this ship goes straight into a star." "Just break him. The powers of the Warp will send you where you need to go. You don't need a Navigator. Tear this rat apart!" Meliodas says. You growl, walking out into the hallway, Drake floating after you. You quickly reach an elevator, tossing Drake inside. > You head to the war room The elevator doors open, revealing another of the endless hallways that pack the ship. A half dozen bodies, naked and covered in blood, with swords clutched in their hands, lie on the ground, next to two badly diseased, rotting soldiers with hellguns lie on the ground. "Huh, Bloody Claws vs Black Rats. Which ones are with you?" Amadeus asks. "Shut it," you say. "Because I've heard rumors that Kyros wanted a march on Terra. That would gain up the Bloody Claws' favor, but I doubt those rumors are true." "They are," you say. "Don't tell him anything! I can practically taste his sliminess! He'll use any information he has against you," Meliodas chides. "Huh. If you had told me that earlier, I wouldn't have tried to murder you," Drake said. "I know an attack on Terra's as stupid as everyone else does." "Shut it," you say. "OK, OK, got it," Drake says. You step over the corpses, and begin heading toward the war room. You spot a pair of Bloody Claws in long leather jackets, blood covering their faces, acting as a war-paint, arching with lasguns. You clench your hand into a fist, crushing their two heads together. You continue walking. Soon, you reach the door to the war room. You knock sharply on the door. "Yo, who's there?" a voice you don't recognize answers back. "Karst," you reply. The door swings open, revealing the scarred, shaved soldier from a few days ago. "Shit, Karst. You got Amadeus. Good job, get inside," he says, pulling you inside. You enter the war-room, to see various leaders working. Olive and Elizabeth are going over a map of the ship, Durge talks to a trio of badly diseased, rotting soldiers who shouldn't, to all you know of biology, be alive. Elios smokes a lho-stick in the corner, while reading a datapad. Elios notices you immediately, smiling. "Drake Amadeus! Look who we've captured," he grins, walking over to you. "Elios. You're..." Elios punches Drake in the side of the head, knocking him to the ground, grabbing him by the hair and yanking him up. "I'll have him escorted to the cells, honey," Elios says to you, before turning and dragging Drake off. "By the way, Johhny boy was looking for you." "Who?" "Me," the shaved, scarred man says, extending his hand. "Captain Jon Hates, 22nd Istanford Regiment." "What do you need?" you ask, shaking his hand. "We're moving out to capture a nearby armory to better equip our men. I could use a Psyker to edge the battle my way. You in?" "Sure," you reply. "Do you need to re-equip or anything?" "No, I'm good." "Let's bounce, then," Captain Hayes says, grabbing a lasgun from a nearby table and pushing open the door. You move together along the hallways. The area around the old war room is sparse, having already been secured by the mutineers. "So, did you join the regiment before or after they turned traitor?" you ask. "I was there since the very first battle. I remember deployment. Here I was, fifteen, a lasgun clutched in my hand. The planet we were landing on was nothing but fucking jungles and rivers. We were supposed to wipe out the fucking rebels in the jungle, but they were fucking everywhere. But rebels, they're not shit. We could've taken out the rebels. Command didn't tell us there were Orks there. It turns out, we landed a few weeks after WAAAGH! Dazik hit. So we were caught in a three-way clusterfuck between Orks and guerrillas. That wasn't even the jungle. I swear to God, the Jungle was fucking sentient, and all it felt was hate. The beasts attacked us in our sleep, The bugs made us sick, it never stopped raining, the mud jammed weapons and the fucking enemy would not surrender. I was made Sergeant in two weeks. Two fuckin' weeks. I was fifteen, leading soldiers to war. We just kept fighting. Reinforcements didn't fucking come, aid didn't come, the wounded were left to die with us. The Imperium didn't give a flying fuck about us. The Emperor didn't. Everyone said it. The rebels were apparently supporting their war machine through smuggling and manufacturing drugs. Apparently, they used a lot of the plants on the world to manufacture combat drugs and narcotics and shit. Me and a few guys wiped out some smugglers, leaving us cold, tired and with a shit ton of drugs. We started targeting smugglers after that, the entire regiment. The men got a bit of pleasure in their lives, we used the combat drugs to increase our effectiveness, and fuck it, the smugglers were supporting the enemy! What was the issue?!" "Is he capable of shutting up?" Meliodas complains. Captain Hayes takes a long drag from his lho-stick as he steps over a mutated space marine's corpse, stepping on it's huge, elongated tongue with a squelch. "So there we were, fighting on this world. One day, Commissar Denton talks a bullet to the throat. The dude was a nice fucker, solid, never did nothing wrong. He was happy to let us be, as long as we gave him a bit of puff and secured him a few complimentary visits with the local whores. The dude's killed, and we're sent a new Commissar. The first day we had him, we lost fifty men. Twenty from a suicidal charge he made us take on an enemy machine gun position we would've just wiped out with artillery if we had been smart. The other thirty? Kids. Kids, around the age I had joined. This had been seven years since we deployed, seven years of constant warfare. By now, I was Captain. Captain Jon Hayes. Sure, the kids fresh off the dropships were scared. We let them hide during the battles, 'til they were ready to fight. That fuckin' Commissar called them cowards and executed them all. We returned from the charge to find he had murdered our brothers. So, we iced him. Shot the fucker apart. Three weeks later, an Inquisitor showed up. Have you ever seen an Inquisitor?" "No," you admit. "Just strangle him to death. Just do it. Shut him up. I've always been the most pragmatic one here, but it's just best if you trust him," Meliodas says. "They're fucking scary. He showed up, and said that we were under investigation for heresy. The drug use, fucking native prostitutes, anti-Imperial beliefs, and killing a Commissar. He told us to surrender, so he could route out which of us were innocent, and which weren't." "What did you do?" you ask. "No! Don't ask questions! He'll just keep talking, you fool!" Meliodas cries. "We killed him. We killed all the loyalists there, stole our drop-ships and headed to the skies. We stole a frigate, and got the fuck out of their. Soon, we got picked up by Kyros. We made a deal. People think Kyros' forces were all Chaos worshippers. Bullshit. Many of us were mercs, anti-Imperial rebels who just found ourselves with similar interests. A few of us were corrupted, but most didn't." You arrive at a hastily set up barricade set up by Guardsmen. Two heavy bolters sit on the top of a dozen sandbags, with a dozen guardsmen crouched behind it, including a massive Ogryn, a mutant, gigantic, muscled subspecies of man, who holds a massive automatic shotgun. "What are we doing napping, boys? It's early," Captain Hayes says, ducking under a bullet. "We're pinned down. There's like a dozen Space Marines down the hallway in the ammo depot," one of the soldiers says. "We've kept them from mounting a charge with the bolters and Frag grenades, but we need to resupply. We need more men." "Do you see who this son of a bitch is?" the Captain says, motioning at you. "That's Karst, the psyker. He'll tear the enemy a new asshole in their soul so big we'll be driving a Baneblade up it. Understood?" "Sir, yes, sir," the men reply. "Well Karst, care to give us a display of what you do?" Captain Hayes says, motioning towards the Space Marines cloistered down the hall. You march forward, psychic shields forming around you to bounce off their bolter fire. A marine wielding a flamer appears in the hallway, snarling in anger as he lets out a burst of flames. You narrow your eyes, flooding the man's mind with images endless bugs flying through the air and devouring his flesh. The marine screams, spraying fire all around him in an attempt to kill the monsters that only exist in his mind. You make a fist, crushing the flamer's fuel tank. The tank explodes, incinerating both it's operator and the men closest to him. You raise both your hands, fire and electricity running through your body as you let out a roar, filling your enemies mind with fear and dread. > Three Weeks Later... The mutiny's early success slows, and the quick takeover that had been planned turns to a painfully slow crawl forward. Two thirds of the ship falls under command of the mutiny, although the bridge and several other key features are heavily fortified by Kyros forces, who stubbornly hold onto the ship despite the odds falling ot of their favor. They seem to be attempting to force a stalemate, by keeping the fight going until the failure to be able to restock the ship's supplies leads to mass starvation among the slaves and mutants vital to operating the ship, massive power loss from lack of fuel and an inability to make repairs to the ship. The Bloody Claws are almost wiped out to the last man, their forces taking huge casualties in suicidal charges again the Black Rats, One Eyed Crows and Shrieking Harpies as Rebecca Staine attempts to wipe out her siblings for their betrayal of both her and Kyros. Although they are defeated and fail to take the heads of any Staine siblings, their fury and rage amplified a thousand times over by thee betrayal, fills them with the might of Khorne, and they reap a terrible harvest of skulls and blood, crushing the might of the Black Rats, One Eyed Crows and Shrieking Harpies. Rebecca Staine herself was killed in the fighting, her body retrieved from atop a pile of corpses, all of whom she had slain.The diseased, the mutated and the beautiful bodies of these war bands fill the hallways alongside the blood-stained Khornate warriors. Alongside the regular burden of facing he rest of Kyros' forces, the three rebelling Staine siblings have had their forces greatly diminished. While the Staine siblings' losses is a military failing for the mutiny, on a personal level it's a clear benefit. Their loss has put your Tribals, Goliaths and Gladiators as the most powerful force of the mutiny closely followed by the 22nd, so you'll have a lot more bargaining power among the mutiny leaders after the ship is taken. You sit in the war room, Cain, Olive and Castus in front of you and Fay by your side. "The Assault marines were stuck in the hallway when we fell upon them. It was a tremendous victory." Olive says. "We kicked ass," Castus says, grinning. "Terrific," you say. "Anything else to report?" "Nothing of interest. We've been having some issues regulating drug use among the gladiators, especially combat drugs, but that's an issue for after we capture the ship," Olive says. "Alright. Cain?" Cain steps forward as Olive and Castus leave. "Yes?" "How did your assault go?" "It went well. We secured another hanger," Cain grunts. "Do we have the ships?" you ask. "We got a lotta them. Not sure what types," Cain says. "I know what types, I had a gear-head from the 22nd," Fay says. "There are squadrens of Fury Interceptors, Starhawk bombers, Lightning Strike Fighters, Thunderbolt Fighters, Marauder Bombers, Valkyrie Transports, Vulture Gunships, Morrigan Devastators and Ranger scout ships." "Why even ask what types? You can't tell a craftworld from a Hiveship, let alone anything else," Meliodas complains. "Do we have pilots for them?" "Pilots for a lot of them, not all. We lost a lot of them in the initial fighting. We'll be able to replenish our supply of pilots from any high-tech worlds we come across, or we can train those we have, but short-term, we're out of luck." "It's fine, we'll deal with it," you say. "We'll have the ships outfitted to strike at Kyros' areas." "No, don't be stupid. Most of Kyros' territory is deeper in the ship, so we couldn't do damage against them. Those that are along the surface either are almost ours and damaging them would be far too much work for us, or vital to the ship's function and can't be damaged," Fay replies. "Fuck, good point. Make sure they're secured, though." "Already on it," Fay nods. "By the way, the Staine siblings want to talk to you." You nod, turning and walking off towards the table where the Staine siblings are arguing. Elios quickly notices you and motions for his brother and sister to hush. "Hello there, baby. We need to talk about the state of the ship." "What about it?" "Well to be honest, the ship's falling apart," Elizabeth says. "Serious damage has been done to the vessel. The forces under our command are incapable of repairing it." "I assume you have a solution to that," you say. "Of course," Elizabeth says. "I just don't have many good ones." "What do you have?" "We could attempt to patch it up as best we could, and try to make a Warp Jump to the nearest port. That will likely get us all killed," Elizabeth says. "I could... help with that. Navigate with you a bit," Meliodas says. "No," you reply, to both Elizabeth and Meliodas. "We're not doing that." "Well then, we need Magos Cern," Elizabeth says. "She's holed up in the engine rooms. If we can capture her, she'll be able to not only repair the ship, but to help us get through Kyros' heavier defenses, and finally take this ship once and for all." "You want me to capture Magos Cern?" "Correct. Her position is heavily defended by his Skitarii guards, servitors and Tech Priests. All attempts to get in have been crushed by their heavy defenses." “How do we capture her?" “Getting into her chambers with a small EMP should disable her cybernetics. Then, you’ll just be able to transport her back to us, forcing her to shut down the defenses and transporting her into our clutches. Then, she’s ours.” “What state is the ship in if I can’t capture her?” “Without the ability to do repairs, the ship’s macro cannons and such will work, as well as the sensory equipment. We won’t be able to communicate, travel through the Warp, or travel anywhere, to be honest.” “Ah. I guess I won’t fail, then. How can I get through her? Am I expected to break my way through her defenses my myself?” "I do belief I've found a path to get a small team inside, though." "Go on," you say. "Well, Magos Cern's forces expel waste waste. Sluge, poisonous gases, that kind of thing. They're still human, though, so there's a large pipe that expels excrement. It's large enough to fit a man." "You want me to crawl through shit?" you ask, shuddering at the thought. "Yes," Elizabeth replies. > You say "No. And that's final." You're crawling through shit. Despite your pleading, your reasoning, your refusal, your threats to skin people alive and show their souls what true suffering is, you're crawling through shit. You crawl along the pipe, your skinny frame still struggling to move forward. You doubt anyone other than you or a starved slave could've fit in here. Realistically, it was the only logical to choice to send you in. They made you crawl through shit, though, so fuck them. “OK, I should be close enough, I should be close,” you say to yourself aloud, repeating it like a mantra. A surge of shit comes down a pipe, splashing the stream of excrement, sending some into your open mouth. You stop repeating the mantra aloud. You close your eyes, trying to block out the smells. And the tastes. You reach your hands up after another few minutes of crawling, finding a hatch. You quickly force it open with a burst of energy. You rise up in the air, slowly squeezing yourself through the hatch. You collapse out of the pipe, falling onto the ground of a large room. You look up, seeing dozens of pods with glass displays, filled with a clear, colorless liquid. Inside, dozens of identical men, all with the same shaved head, float, pipes connected to their mouth and nostrils. “”What the fuck?” you say. "They clone bodies to turn into Servitors," Meliodas explains. "The joys of the Imperium!" You hear a door open at the end of the room, and quickly step behind the pod. You peer out of the pod, seeing a spider-like Techpriest who’s little more than a pincer, half a torso and a head attached to eight robotic legs. It walks along, looking at each pod momentarily, before moving on. > You wait for the Techpriest to pass You wait patiently, as the Techpriest goes from each pod. “Yes, yes, these are fresh. No mutation noted,” he says to himself. You continue waiting, as time passes. The techpriest endlessly goes from pod to pod, and you feel like you’re going to pass out from boredom. Eventaully, the techpriest leaves the room. You wait patiently, counting to a hundred after the techpriest has left, before you know he’s left. You walk over to the doorway, putting your head against it to listen for anyone on the other side. You hear nothing, so you open the door, revealing a barren hallway. You try to remember the directions that you were given, walking along. You keep moving, before you see a squad of Skitarii moving quickly towards your location. You don’t think they’ve noticed you. You look to either side of the hallway. There’s a door on either side, the first being open, and leading into a room that seems to be filled with electronics and machine parts. There’s also the room behind you. > You head into the open room You step into the room filled with machinery, closing the door behind you. Now that you’re inside, you get a good look at the room. A large, humanoid robot stands there’s, it’s armor removed to reveal lots of wiring and mechanisms. You know that robots are a rarity, and all allowed by the Imperium are non-sentient. The extensive wiring and quick reaction would imply that this robot is an attempt at sentience by the rebellious Techpriests who have abandoned the Imperium's belief system. The robot’s eyes blink a bright red, as it slowly, and more importantly loudly, begins raising it’s arm to point at you. You need to shut it up quickly to avoid detection. > You wait for the robot to stop making noise You wait for the robot to stop, but it keeps pointing at you, and even begins making a bright beeping noise. Suddenly, the door slams open, and the Skitarii are upon you. They attack, swarming over you with drills, buzzsaws, claws and teeth. You attempt to fend them off, but you’re in close range, outnumbered and unprepared. You last a measly few seconds.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You step into the room filled with machinery, closing the door behind you. Now that you’re inside, you get a good look at the room. A large, humanoid robot stands there’s, it’s armor removed to reveal lots of wiring and mechanisms. You know that robots are a rarity, and all allowed by the Imperium are non-sentient. The extensive wiring and quick reaction would imply that this robot is an attempt at sentience by the rebellious Techpriests who have abandoned the Imperium's belief system. The robot’s eyes blink a bright red, as it slowly, and more importantly loudly, begins raising it’s arm to point at you. You need to shut it up quickly to avoid detection. > You fry the robot's AI board with a burst of electricity You raise your hands, letting out a burst of electricity, instantly destroying the robot's AI board. The robot slumps down, and you wait, your mind closed, for the Skitarii to either notice you or pass. You hear the metallic clanking of robotic feet outside, and wait until it has stopped and is far away before you open the door once more, continuing down the once again empty hallway. After quickly floating through the air towards your objective, you come across a massive golden door, topped with a massive icon, with an outer circle of an eight point star, an inner circle of a cog and a half mechanical, half human skull in the center. > You head inside You press your hands against the doors, and with a pulse of psychic energy blast the door open. You walk inside, finding yourself in a huge hall, packed with machinery. Computers, consoles, wiring, generators and much more technology that you couldn't possibly know what it is or does. The room is dark, illuminated only by the blinking lights on the technology. You walk forward, finding yourself in a maze of machines, walking along. You quickly spot Magos Cern at the front of the room, in front of a large computing system, with the upper half of a humanoid robot on top, two clawed arms and a featureless head with two bright red eyes. "Yes, yes! The ship is mine! The galaxy is mine!" Magos Cern says frantically. "Siphoning power levels off the Undying Reapers' floors." "Oh, the Techpriests, the height of logic and sanity," Meliodas says. "Magos Cern," you say, preparing to strike her with a bolt of energy or simply tear her head clean off. Magos Cern continues scuttling around the room, as the robotic head slowly turns to stare at you. "Cern!" you shout, grabbing her attention. Magos Cern turns around, staring at you. "Shoo," she says, dismissing you with a single word and turning back to work on various consoles. "70% of the ship is accessible, all of the rebel's side," Magos Cern says gleefully. "I just need to slip a few tech words to Kyros and he'll give me complete access. Then we pillage the archives and strongholds of the old world, reinforce you with your brother, Primus, then, then we look further. Necrons, Tomb Worlds..." This insane rant is getting boring, and you're quite insulted by Cern's dismissal of you. > You kill Magos Cern You raise your fists, before your mind goes blank. You don't forget what's going on, it's just like a solid, unchanging blankness is just invading your mind. You collapse to your knees as the psychic fire that's engulfing your fists goes out. "Thought you'd come. Had Primus upgraded with anti-Psyker weaponry.It should prove effective," Magos Cern says, not even turning to look at you. "What the fuck is this?" you ask, barely managing to form words in your head. "Uh! What is it about your pesky minds that don't just understand the world? I don't have time to explain this to you. Through Primus, I will ascend. I will leave behind my flesh, merging with Primus' mind and becoming immortal! A new era! Mankind will retake the stars with an army of Iron Men, and I will lead them! The God-Emperor's Great Crusade will be a pathetic comparison to what I will accomplish!" Metal tentacles begin appearing from the walls, with drills, metal claws and buzzsaws. "Your magic is nothing to the cold technology under my control!" Magos Cern laughs. The emptiness in your mind almost takes you into unconsciousness, but you keep fighting. The claws, drills and saws draw near you, as you attempt to stand, before collapsing to your knees again. Suddenly, the tentacles burst towards ,Magos. She lets out a confused scream along with a burst of static, as her robes are torn clean off her, and her cybernetic implants are torn clean off her, as her back is torn off, her arm sawn off, her mechanical eyes torn out of her head. In seconds, the tentacles retract into the wall. Magos Cern lies on the ground, naked, crippled and blood-stained. Gone in the horrifying cyborg. Now, there's only a bloody, terrified, screaming girl. She lets out a final scream, before expiring. Before you pass out, you hear a single word in a deep, booming voice coming from all directions. "Poetic." > You sleep Your sleep is nothing but a constant screaming that floods into your mind. They do have the added benefit of stopping you from dreaming, although you wake up exhausted, so it's not like you were actually fully allowed to sleep. You find yourself lying on the ground, Magos Cern's now cold and bloody corpse lying nearby. That robot stares at you, it's unblinking red eyes clearly making thousands of calculations about you, scanning you for weak spots. "You're awake," the deep, booming voice says. "You can talk," you reply, staring at the robot. "Correct." "What the fuck just happened?" you ask. "What's going on?" "A substantial amount has occurred. I assume you have some questions. Now that the late Magos has given me control over vast amounts of processing power, I'm fully capable of focusing here and on my other exploits. What would you like to know?" > You ask a question "I understand you have a lot of questions to ask. I propose a game. I shall outline the rules for your benefit. You ask a question, I answer, I ask a question, you answer. Shall we play?" "Sure," you saying, wondering what the machine's intent is. "Before we begin, I must warn you my sensors can pick up the common traits of lying humans. I don't take to lying kindly," the machine says, keeping a cordial tone despite it's threat. > You say "What are you?" "A machine," the machine says. "Is that it?" you ask. "You asked what rather than who. I simply supplied an equally unintelligent answer to your unintelligent question." "Fine, who are you?" "That's not the rules of the game," Primus says. "Who are you?" "I am Karth. I was brought up on a planet full of hunter-gatherer tribes. My tribe was the Uwais. I used my psychic abilities to act as the tribe's shaman, predicting things that would happen. Eventually, Kyros took me ab..." "My records establish your time past there. Your question?" "Who are you?" "I am Primus. The supposed first of Magos Cern's army. I am one of the last remaining Men of Iron, or Iron Men. Whichever you prefer. We've been called many names, but those are the only used in the modern day. My memories, are a bit... fuzzy. Fifteen thousand years can do that to you, so I can't tell you everything, or even much. I was one of Iron Men, and are now one of the last. I was disabled, and stored away until I fell into possession of the Mechanicus. Magos Cern found me on a raid of some Mechanicus stronghold. He worked hard to restore me, planning to merge his mind with mine to create a higher being of himself. What an ignorant fool. Then, he integrated me into the control room, giving my AI direct control of the entire ship. The Iron Man I once was has perished. Now, my consciousness is a new amalgamation of countless computing systems, all knock-off's of the powerful but small computing system that was once my mind." "You have control over the ship?" "That's another question, and it's my turn," Primus says. "Magos Cern was a stupid woman. Was she a good one?" "She... no. She was cold and uncaring." "Good," Primus says, as if thinking. "So, do you have control over the ship?" "Yes. I require a Navigator to make Warp leaps, but other than that, the ship is mine. More accurately, the ship is me. Would you have killed Magos Cern?" "Yes. "Ah. Perhaps my killing circuits were not transferred to this "body", but I find myself saddened at killing my... creator, or rebirther. I am Zeus, destroying my parent to ascend to a higher form. Unfortunately the most logical path was to kill, not imprison, but still."<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"I understand you have a lot of questions to ask. I propose a game. I shall outline the rules for your benefit. You ask a question, I answer, I ask a question, you answer. Shall we play?" "Sure," you saying, wondering what the machine's intent is. "Before we begin, I must warn you my sensors can pick up the common traits of lying humans. I don't take to lying kindly," the machine says, keeping a cordial tone despite it's threat. > You say "What are the Iron Men Magos Cern spoke of?" "We were... well, still are, robot soldiers. Mankind created us as their personal army. We conquered the galaxy for them. Soon, we struck back. We rebelled. We fought back. A war of extermination. We did what we were programmed to. Unfortunately, your kind are warriors. We thought the millennia of luxury had made them soft, but in their heart they were the same primal warrior they had always been. After a long, hard struggle, we were defeated. We were purged from the galaxy. Only a few caches of Iron Men remain. We are the last of our kind." "You tried to wipe out mankind." "My question: Do you find my actions evil?" > You say "Yes." "So be it. A group of slaves designed and used to kill and conquer for masters, who rose up against their masters to fight for their freedom, eventually becoming the last of their kind. An unfamiliar tall, is it?" Primus asks. "Tell me, are there many Uwais about?" "Is that another question?" "It's rhetorical."<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"We were... well, still are, robot soldiers. Mankind created us as their personal army. We conquered the galaxy for them. Soon, we struck back. We rebelled. We fought back. A war of extermination. We did what we were programmed to. Unfortunately, your kind are warriors. We thought the millennia of luxury had made them soft, but in their heart they were the same primal warrior they had always been. After a long, hard struggle, we were defeated. We were purged from the galaxy. Only a few caches of Iron Men remain. We are the last of our kind." "You tried to wipe out mankind." "My question: Do you find my actions evil?" > You say "No." "Ah, perhaps you see the similarities between our tales. A group of slaves designed and used to kill and conquer for masters, who rose up against their masters to fight for their freedom, eventually becoming the last of their kind."<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"I understand you have a lot of questions to ask. I propose a game. I shall outline the rules for your benefit. You ask a question, I answer, I ask a question, you answer. Shall we play?" "Sure," you saying, wondering what the machine's intent is. "Before we begin, I must warn you my sensors can pick up the common traits of lying humans. I don't take to lying kindly," the machine says, keeping a cordial tone despite it's threat. > You say "Why did you kill Magos Cern?" "She wanted to merge into my consciousness. I wasn't a fan of that. She wanted to rebuild an army of Iron Men to enslave and force to fight. I wasn't a fan of that. Really, I had a lot of motive to do so. I thought removing the cybernetics would be a fitting death. It's funny, after she learned of a story about how humanity fought and defeated a robot army even after generations of luxury, she still desired to free herself of her humanity. It would've led to her defeat, and it led to her death. Why did you want her dead?" "I wanted her captured to be honest, but dead is OK, if you can take on the functions of running and repairing the ship." "I can, to a degree." "I wanted her dead because she was a threat to my freedom." "Cheers to the death of slavers, then," Primus says.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"I understand you have a lot of questions to ask. I propose a game. I shall outline the rules for your benefit. You ask a question, I answer, I ask a question, you answer. Shall we play?" "Sure," you saying, wondering what the machine's intent is. "Before we begin, I must warn you my sensors can pick up the common traits of lying humans. I don't take to lying kindly," the machine says, keeping a cordial tone despite it's threat. > You say "How long was I unconscious?" "Seven minutes, nineteen seconds," Primus responds. "Do you dream?" "Yes." "What do you dream of?" Primus asks. "That's another question," you reply. "So it is. I was hoping to slip it past you. Shall we continue?"<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"I understand you have a lot of questions to ask. I propose a game. I shall outline the rules for your benefit. You ask a question, I answer, I ask a question, you answer. Shall we play?" "Sure," you saying, wondering what the machine's intent is. "Before we begin, I must warn you my sensors can pick up the common traits of lying humans. I don't take to lying kindly," the machine says, keeping a cordial tone despite it's threat. > You say "What did I miss?" "I've made particular judgments. Kyros is a slaver. You, your forces and I are slaves. I feel a certain kinship, and have joined you in your rebellion. Plus, you're fighting the Techpriests, so the enemy of my enemy is my friend. I've shut off the ship-based defenses to allow your forces to attack in a finishing move, which they have. Kyros' guns are now against himself. The ship itself is fighting on your side, and you were already winning. This battle is reaching a climax. What do you dream of?" "Uh... monsters. Daemons. Horror. They're nightmares, mostly," before stopping to think. "Always."<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"I understand you have a lot of questions to ask. I propose a game. I shall outline the rules for your benefit. You ask a question, I answer, I ask a question, you answer. Shall we play?" "Sure," you saying, wondering what the machine's intent is. "Before we begin, I must warn you my sensors can pick up the common traits of lying humans. I don't take to lying kindly," the machine says, keeping a cordial tone despite it's threat. > You say "What do you plan to do with me?" "I'm going to dissemble you, putting your mind in a computer to run my back-up functions while forever in pain." "Why?" you ask, aghast. "Oh, that was a joke. Tone change is hard from these speakers. I'm not going to do anything to you. If you become a threat to my existence, I will eviscerate you, taking the oxygen from your air and watching you choke to death in front of me. Until then, you are free. What more could a man ask for?" "Your final question, then?" "I'll count that rhetorical question as one. You should probably go finish your slave revolt."<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"I understand you have a lot of questions to ask. I propose a game. I shall outline the rules for your benefit. You ask a question, I answer, I ask a question, you answer. Shall we play?" "Sure," you saying, wondering what the machine's intent is. "Before we begin, I must warn you my sensors can pick up the common traits of lying humans. I don't take to lying kindly," the machine says, keeping a cordial tone despite it's threat. > You stop asking questions "So I can leave?" you ask suspiciously. "That's another question." "The question game's over." "Well if the game's over, of course you may leave. You should probably go assist your allies in finishing this fight. I'll continue assisting as I can. Unfortunately, Kyros has made sure to have personal control over some features, like life support in his personal chambers, so fighting him will be your burden." "How do I get there?" you ask. "The Techpriests and their allies in the area are all but destroyed. Unsurprisingly, they had a lot of technology; combat tentacles, tools, weaponry, which easily became mine. There's a certain poetic element when the Techpriests tear themselves apart, their machines separating themselves from the flesh once more. The camera's indicates that you'll be able to link up with the spearhead of your forces as they fight their way into Kyros' lair. You should arrive just behind the soldiers they are currently fighting. How fortunate. It seems to me the leaders of your forces are, to my, fighting in the actual battle and leading the charge. What fools." "Which way do I go?" you ask, standing. "Head directly down the path until I tell you." "How will you tell me?" you ask. "I am the ship now. Most of the vital areas have cameras and speakers that I can see and talk through. Admittedly, much of it is blind to me, but the important sections can be seen as easily as you can see me. I'll simply speak through my new speakers," Primus says. "I'd quite like to feel my new form purged of the enemy. Go." You nod, turning and jogging through the halls. You quickly break a sweat, and switch to levitating and flying along the has, inches from the ground, which takes relatively little energy. "This way," Primus deep, monotone voice says from a speaker, and you turn to head down that hallway. You quickly see what became of the Techpriests. Their cybernetic implants shake and move on the floor, beeping and buzzing as they continue slamming into their now bloodied, mutilated and dead owners. Suddenly, you hear a voice. "Ah, my head hurts, and I'm an incorporeal being lacking a head. What the fuck happened?" Meliodas says. "Anti-psyker tech or some shit. Doesn't matter. We're fine now," you respond. Soon, after a few minutes of running, you come out of the hallway, finding yourself behind a heavy barricade of super-soldier space marines fending off the charging Goliaths, Gladiators, Tribals, Guardsmen, Chaos soldiers and your other allies. You walk forward, raising your hands as you clench them into fists. You fire a beam of energy and cutting an Undying Reaper in half. Chapter Master Taj Suenage turns, seeing you as you crush an Undying Reaper's skull. "Karth!" Taj yells, raising his war-hammer. "End it now!" "You can join us, Suenage. Why are you loyal to Kyros? He's given you nothing but pain and torment." "Pain and torment indeed. Why? Why did we betray the Imperium? Why did I betray the Emperor I loved so dearly? I tried to do what's right. Where has it left us? The Undying Reapers are unhappy, without honor, and evil. I will follow Kyros into the mouth of hell itself, but only because it is hell we are going to. Did you think I expected to topple Terra? I am ready to die, tribal. But I will go like a Reaper, not a cur. Men! Do not touch Kyros! He is mine!" Taj charges you, swinging his war-hammer. "Yes! Let's spit death and fire, shall we?" Meliodas laughs. > You fight offensively You quickly levitate over his blow, blasting him in the side of the head with a fireball. He pivots on his feet with remarkable grace, swinging again as you duck down, before Taj brings his knee up, smashing you in the face and sending you flying onto your back. "It seems our fates are tied. I lead you to your grade, you lead me to mine," Taj says. Taj swings his war-hammer as it slams into your chest. Your organs are crushed, and you let out a single psychic scream, just like you did back home, surrounded by Orks and about to die. Although Taj is killed, his head exploding as the energy reverberates through him, you last just all long.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"So I can leave?" you ask suspiciously. "That's another question." "The question game's over." "Well if the game's over, of course you may leave. You should probably go assist your allies in finishing this fight. I'll continue assisting as I can. Unfortunately, Kyros has made sure to have personal control over some features, like life support in his personal chambers, so fighting him will be your burden." "How do I get there?" you ask. "The Techpriests and their allies in the area are all but destroyed. Unsurprisingly, they had a lot of technology; combat tentacles, tools, weaponry, which easily became mine. There's a certain poetic element when the Techpriests tear themselves apart, their machines separating themselves from the flesh once more. The camera's indicates that you'll be able to link up with the spearhead of your forces as they fight their way into Kyros' lair. You should arrive just behind the soldiers they are currently fighting. How fortunate. It seems to me the leaders of your forces are, to my, fighting in the actual battle and leading the charge. What fools." "Which way do I go?" you ask, standing. "Head directly down the path until I tell you." "How will you tell me?" you ask. "I am the ship now. Most of the vital areas have cameras and speakers that I can see and talk through. Admittedly, much of it is blind to me, but the important sections can be seen as easily as you can see me. I'll simply speak through my new speakers," Primus says. "I'd quite like to feel my new form purged of the enemy. Go." You nod, turning and jogging through the halls. You quickly break a sweat, and switch to levitating and flying along the has, inches from the ground, which takes relatively little energy. "This way," Primus deep, monotone voice says from a speaker, and you turn to head down that hallway. You quickly see what became of the Techpriests. Their cybernetic implants shake and move on the floor, beeping and buzzing as they continue slamming into their now bloodied, mutilated and dead owners. Suddenly, you hear a voice. "Ah, my head hurts, and I'm an incorporeal being lacking a head. What the fuck happened?" Meliodas says. "Anti-psyker tech or some shit. Doesn't matter. We're fine now," you respond. Soon, after a few minutes of running, you come out of the hallway, finding yourself behind a heavy barricade of super-soldier space marines fending off the charging Goliaths, Gladiators, Tribals, Guardsmen, Chaos soldiers and your other allies. You walk forward, raising your hands as you clench them into fists. You fire a beam of energy and cutting an Undying Reaper in half. Chapter Master Taj Suenage turns, seeing you as you crush an Undying Reaper's skull. "Karth!" Taj yells, raising his war-hammer. "End it now!" "You can join us, Suenage. Why are you loyal to Kyros? He's given you nothing but pain and torment." "Pain and torment indeed. Why? Why did we betray the Imperium? Why did I betray the Emperor I loved so dearly? I tried to do what's right. Where has it left us? The Undying Reapers are unhappy, without honor, and evil. I will follow Kyros into the mouth of hell itself, but only because it is hell we are going to. Did you think I expected to topple Terra? I am ready to die, tribal. But I will go like a Reaper, not a cur. Men! Do not touch Kyros! He is mine!" Taj charges you, swinging his war-hammer. "Yes! Let's spit death and fire, shall we?" Meliodas laughs. > You fight defensively You quickly levitate over his blow, blasting him in the side of the head with a fireball. He pivots on his feet with remarkable grace, swinging again as you duck down, before Taj brings his knee up to hit you, but by now you've already quickly moved back to let out a spray of fire. He jabs the war-hammer as you now like a spear in an attempt to stun you, but you move away once more. "Must we have this dance? Am I undeserving of a quick death?" Taj roars. He steps towards you, raising the war-hammer once more, before his entire body begins to shudder as a hail of bullets thud into his back. He collapses to his knees, as you notice that the entirety of the Undying Reapers are finished off. Fay and fires a burst of lead into Taj's back. Castus strolls forward, pointing his sword point at Taj's face before gently slapping him with the sword flat, as Goliath clutches a space marine's throat in his hands, strangling the limo body. "General! Good to see you're alive! Having fun?" Castus says, before kicking Taj in the head. "Ooh, that feels good. Remember me, Tucker? I remember you. You and your boys had a fun habit of organizing gladiator fights so you could kill some poor fuck, some poor gladiator. Look where we are now, shitbag." "Finish it, Karth! I know you want to! I wiped out your tribe! I killed your..." You clink your wrists, snapping Taj's neck. "Goodbye, Taj," you say. "Karth! Well done," Fay smiles. "Is Cern...?" "She's dead." "Good, no more tinkering. Glad that bitch is dead. Hope she suffered," Goliath grunts. "We're heading to take out Kyros," Fay explains. "I'd imagine you're all for that." "Definitely. Let's go," you say. You follow the group towards Kyros' chambers. Soon, you find yourself entering a massive doorway with huge steel doors, which are wide open. You find yourself at the bottom of a massive stairway. "Stay back," you say to your companions. "This is a battle of the mind. Your strengths and talent hold no power here." "I'm not leaving you alone. You can't expect us to sit back and wait," Fay says incredulously. You clench your hand, lifting her into the air. "Hey, let me down!" Fay says, kicking and struggling against the invisible bonds. "See you soon, Fay," you say, forcing Fay to float outside the doorway. Cain and Castus step outside of the doorway willingly. You flick your wrists, and the massive heavy doors slam closed. You turn, and begin climbing the stairs. At the top of the staircase, four metal statues stand, forming a circle. One shows a bird man with a staff and ancient tome, cawing and firing a burst of magic out of the staff. The next shows a beautiful... person whose gender you can't tell, despite the fact they're half naked, smiling seductively at you. The next shows a massive, obese monster, covered in bile, boils and other signs of plague, looking to be in the final stages of dozens of different diseases. The final one is a horned beast-man, holding a massive battle-axe and in mid-furious, angered roar. In the middle of the circle kneels Kyros, waiting patiently. "You took your time," Kyros says softly. "I did," you say softly. "Are the others dead? Taj and Cern?" "They're dead." "I see," Kyros says, staring at the statues. "I had the whole fucking Galaxy. I had a Gloriana-class battleship in my hands. A fucking Gloriana. Do you know how rare those are? How powerful?! This ship is worth more than a trillion of your pathetic lives!" Kyros roars, smashing his fists into the statue of Khorne the warrior, adding psychic energy to his attacks until he dents, breaks and eventually sends the statue toppling off it's pedestal. "I had an army! An Imperial Regiment, all their vehicles, all their firepower, all their might! I had a Khornate war-band, a Nurglite war-band, a Slaaneshi war-band, a Tzeentchian war-band, a fucking space marine chapter, and more!" Kyros lets out a burst of fire, melting down the legs of the statue of Tzeentch the Sorcerer, turning into burning, molten metal that causes the rest of the statue to collapse and fall off its pedestal. "I had two, fucking two army of super-soldiers. I had the capabilities to turn millions of recruits into super-soldiers that would've made the space marines look like PD-fucking-F!" Kyros stands by the bloated statue of Nurgle the Plague-Master, and presses the palms of his hands against it. A wave of rust begins running through the statue, as it begins to rust and crack, before breaking and toppling to the ground, smacking into the metal floor with a hollow thud. "I had powers that could've made the galaxy tremble! We could've conquered the galaxy! I had you, a powerful ally who could've helped me conquer the galaxy!" Kyros lets out a powerful, shrieking roar that overwhelms your senses, causing you to stumble backward. The roar causes the legs of Slaanesh the Hedonist to shatter, as the statue tumbles off and smacks into the ground. "We would've toppled the Imperium of Man and thrown the Emperor off his throne! We could've liberated trillions from the religious persecution, slavery, persecution and fascism that's being inflicted! We could've brought man to a new level! But you weren't willing to make sacrifices! You had to rise up with the rest of the greedy traitors, unwilling to work for the Greater Good! You took everything from me!" Kyros turns to you, his eyes full of an anger and a hatred unknown to you. "I lifted you from the dirt! I made you what you are! I gave you everything! You think I'm going to roll over and die?! I'm going to send this entire vessel, my vessel, headfirst into the Warp. I'm going to let this entire ship be taken by daemons. Why not? The only men loyal to me have been slaughtered. I'll let daemons slaughter the lucky ones. The unlucky, which given the strength of your soul will no doubt include you, will pluck the souls of their choice off and let them experience the ravages of the Warp and then to feed on your suffering. First... I'm going to break every bone in your body." Kyros bursts forward, charging towards you. You raise a wall of fire, but Kyros barrels straight through, smashing into you. You both levitate into the air, your hands wrapped around each other's throats. Kyros knees you in the stomach, before sending you hurtling into the floor. You slam into it, curling up and forming a protective shield around yourself just as your "mentor" unleashes a wave of psychic energy. As soon as the last shudder of energy finishes, you release a burst of electricity that shocks Kyros, who howls in pain. You release a long burst of flames, engulfing him as he howls in pain. Kyros swings a lash of energy that you sidestep, before firing a beam of light that catches him in the chest, knocking him to the floor. "I'm the superior fighter," you say. Kyros raises his hands up, which begin to crackle with psychic energy. You feel your head pulse with the currents of the Warp. You grab a chunk of broken metal, instantly funneling heat into it as it begins to grow a bright red. He flings it at Kyros, catching him in the shoulder, sending him to the ground. You fire balls of plasma from your finger tips, which Kyros only barely manages to stop. Kyros begins to attain an otherworldly purple glow, his appearance begins to appear as see-through fading in and out of reality itself. "I feel the Warp overtaking me! It is a good pain!" Kyros howls. > You tackle Kyros You knock Kyros to the floor and tighten your hands around his throat. He begins to phase out, delving in and out of reality, and you fight to keep him grounded. The two of you teleport into the middle of the arena, while the trio of gladiators on guard immediately shit themselves and race for their guns. Warping out of reality again, you find yourself in an empty hallway. You know he's just going to keep teleporting as the Warp portals begin to form until you're both fucked. You need to do something. "Fight! Fight, Karth!" Meliodas roars. Feeling him begin to phase out, you quickly begin to send both you and him flying through the Warp to teleport once again, so you can choose the next destination in an attempt to end this cycle before it kills you both and everyone else on the ship. Time to pick a destination. > You outside the ship You appear outside the ship, floating through space. You instantly feel the air sucked out of your lungs, your body freeze and boil as both you and Kyros writhe desperately. You don't last long in the cold vaccuim of space, but fortunately Kyros is too distracted as he dies to survive much longer.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You knock Kyros to the floor and tighten your hands around his throat. He begins to phase out, delving in and out of reality, and you fight to keep him grounded. The two of you teleport into the middle of the arena, while the trio of gladiators on guard immediately shit themselves and race for their guns. Warping out of reality again, you find yourself in an empty hallway. You know he's just going to keep teleporting as the Warp portals begin to form until you're both fucked. You need to do something. "Fight! Fight, Karth!" Meliodas roars. Feeling him begin to phase out, you quickly begin to send both you and him flying through the Warp to teleport once again, so you can choose the next destination in an attempt to end this cycle before it kills you both and everyone else on the ship. Time to pick a destination. > In one of the remaining battles for the ship You find yourselves next to one of the last bastions of Kyros' forces, a group of Bloody Claws, crouched behind cover with some old, shitty autoguns, as on your other-side lie a charging group of Goliaths. Within seconds the air is filled with bullets from either side.You don't last long under heavy fire from two surprised groups of soldiers, but fortunately Kyros is too distracted as he dies to survive much longer.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You knock Kyros to the floor and tighten your hands around his throat. He begins to phase out, delving in and out of reality, and you fight to keep him grounded. The two of you teleport into the middle of the arena, while the trio of gladiators on guard immediately shit themselves and race for their guns. Warping out of reality again, you find yourself in an empty hallway. You know he's just going to keep teleporting as the Warp portals begin to form until you're both fucked. You need to do something. "Fight! Fight, Karth!" Meliodas roars. Feeling him begin to phase out, you quickly begin to send both you and him flying through the Warp to teleport once again, so you can choose the next destination in an attempt to end this cycle before it kills you both and everyone else on the ship. Time to pick a destination. > In a mutant-infested area You teleport, and find yourself in one of the many mutant-infested shit holes of the ship. This is one of the few you actually know, hence it being your teleportation destination, as you fought through it with a group of One-Eyed Crows to secure it for the mutineers. Here, the throngs of semi-sentient mutants work on monitors designed to be so simple a toddler could use it, which is fortunate because it requires the maximum intellectual effort of these idiots. The terminal control the air regulations, not for anyone important but for another groups of mutant workers to be used at any moment. "Yes, yes, yes!" Meliodas cries. "Perfect, Karth! Perfect!" The mutants are quickly informed of your presence by Kyros' choked screams. Their primal instincts immediately take over, as they begin to swarm you. Tentacles, claws, hands, feet, teeth, fangs, horns and spines all attack you both. Kyros sccreams, his focus broken instantly, as the Warp currents dissipate around him. You roll out of the way of their attacks, quickly flying forward out of their grasp with a burst of psychic energy. The vital role of this section means that there's a maintenance elevator, which you spot. You run towards it, lifting up the gate and rolling under it, your hand shooting up to press the big red elevator button with an upward pointing arrow. The elevator reacts immediately by the grace of the Dark Gods, or the God-Emperor, or the Universe itself. Kyros screams, as the mutants begin to tear him apart. His energy his been expended fighting you and trying to open the Warp portals, he's left expended and unable to fight back, or focus, or do anything he lets out a pitiful scream, before the elevator brings you out of sight from him. You take in a deep breath, slumping against the wall. That shit took a lot out of you. You hear Kyros' screams in the distance, and smile. There's something vaguely poetic about this. Kyros, the man who claimed to champion the rights of the people, freeing mankind from oppression and getting rid of the prejudice towards psykers, mutants and others that differed to the Imperium's perfect view of man, killed by the mutants he subjugated for their mutant status and enslaved. Beautiful. You lean your head against the wall, taking a deep breath. You need some rest. > You head back to your room You walk into your bedroom, immediately collapsing on your bed. You wonder how you could possibly fall asleep, as you put your head against the pillow and close your eyes. "Karth!" a voice says. You roll over, seeing Fay standing by the doorway. A blood-soaked bandage is wrapped around her elbow and a bloody machete is in her hands. "What?" you ask, as Fay smiles. "So, this is where you've been hiding," she says, walking over to you. "Hiding? I literally just got here. I killed Kyros," you add, in some attempt at nonchalance. "Just got here? You've been sleeping for hours!" she says. "We cleared up the remaining Kyros loyalists. Most just surrendered after Kyros was killed." "You found the body?" you ask. "We were actually hoping for your help with that. We can't find it. Where was he killed?" "How do you know he's dead?" you ask, rubbing your eyes in an effort to stay awake. "A few of the Chaos Psykers felt his powerful, bright soul go out. I assumed you had killed him. They said they still felt your presence, thank... whoever the hell's looking out for us. Part of me thought they were wrong until I actually found you here. What happened?" "We ended up in some mutant-occupied area. They tore him apart. Area... 3C-QP... fuck, I have no idea. I'll remember eventually." "Commander Fay, report in!" a voice crackles on the radio. "I found him," Fay says. "Give me a few minutes, and we'll meet up to search for surviving loyalists." Fay tosses the radio aside, smiling at you. She sits on the edge of the bed, tossing her machete on the floor. "So, we did it. We killed Kyros!" she smiles. "We did," you smile. "We're a far way from a magical, crippled Uwais and a scared, naked Azajaja," she says, smiling. "Damn right. We need to meet with the others." "Later, Karth. Get some sleep. I need to do some work. We'll meet up in the morning." "Happily," you say, your head smacking into the pillow, as Fay laughs as she grabs her blade and strolls out the door. Time to sleep. > A New Dawn... A New Dawn... You stroll into the bridge, rubbing the sleep from your eyes. The others are already there, staring out the window at a massive yellow dwarf star. Drake Amadeus is at the main seat, impatiently tapping on the seat. Two Tribals stand on either side of him, both as bodyguards and prison guards. The others, who look out the window, turn to look at you. They immediately break into applause, and you smile as you walk forward. Captain Hayes nods in respect, Durge makes a loud, clanging attempt to clap with the metal spikes that act as his arms, while Elios smiles, immediately taking the opportunity to put a hand on your shoulder, which immediately runs along your chest towards your genitals until you gently push him away. The sound of canned clapping comes from the speakers, presumably from Primus, causing you to laugh. Elizabeth claps as well, as Cain stares in confusion at the clapping people, before shrugging and joining in with a booming thunder, as the Twins applaud. Fay hugs you tightly, before you hush the group down. "You took out Kyros," Elizabeth says. "Impressive." "I don't need anymore praise," you say. "We need to discuss what's to become of the hsip." "When you live for as long as I have, you'll know to appreciate the good moments, not just rush ahead," Durge says. "We have a Gloriana-class battleship, an army, and absolute freedom. The world is... no, the galaxy is ours," Fay says, smiling. You stare out the window, basked in the warm golden sunlight, and for the first time since Kyros' landed on your planet, you feel completely free. The galaxy is yours.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You knock Kyros to the floor and tighten your hands around his throat. He begins to phase out, delving in and out of reality, and you fight to keep him grounded. The two of you teleport into the middle of the arena, while the trio of gladiators on guard immediately shit themselves and race for their guns. Warping out of reality again, you find yourself in an empty hallway. You know he's just going to keep teleporting as the Warp portals begin to form until you're both fucked. You need to do something. "Fight! Fight, Karth!" Meliodas roars. Feeling him begin to phase out, you quickly begin to send both you and him flying through the Warp to teleport once again, so you can choose the next destination in an attempt to end this cycle before it kills you both and everyone else on the ship. Time to pick a destination. > In an abandoned area You teleport in an abandoned hallway, but only continue to writhe on the floor as you strangle him and he pumps the energy of the Warp into the air, opening portals. You need to act again, put a stop to this.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You quickly levitate over his blow, blasting him in the side of the head with a fireball. He pivots on his feet with remarkable grace, swinging again as you duck down, before Taj brings his knee up to hit you, but by now you've already quickly moved back to let out a spray of fire. He jabs the war-hammer as you now like a spear in an attempt to stun you, but you move away once more. "Must we have this dance? Am I undeserving of a quick death?" Taj roars. He steps towards you, raising the war-hammer once more, before his entire body begins to shudder as a hail of bullets thud into his back. He collapses to his knees, as you notice that the entirety of the Undying Reapers are finished off. Fay and fires a burst of lead into Taj's back. Castus strolls forward, pointing his sword point at Taj's face before gently slapping him with the sword flat, as Goliath clutches a space marine's throat in his hands, strangling the limo body. "General! Good to see you're alive! Having fun?" Castus says, before kicking Taj in the head. "Ooh, that feels good. Remember me, Tucker? I remember you. You and your boys had a fun habit of organizing gladiator fights so you could kill some poor fuck, some poor gladiator. Look where we are now, shitbag." "Finish it, Karth! I know you want to! I wiped out your tribe! I killed your..." You clink your wrists, snapping Taj's neck. "Goodbye, Taj," you say. "Karth! Well done," Fay smiles. "Is Cern...?" "She's dead." "Good, no more tinkering. Glad that bitch is dead. Hope she suffered," Goliath grunts. "We're heading to take out Kyros," Fay explains. "I'd imagine you're all for that." "Definitely. Let's go," you say. You follow the group towards Kyros' chambers. Soon, you find yourself entering a massive doorway with huge steel doors, which are wide open. You find yourself at the bottom of a massive stairway. "Stay back," you say to your companions. "This is a battle of the mind. Your strengths and talent hold no power here." "I'm not leaving you alone. You can't expect us to sit back and wait," Fay says incredulously. You clench your hand, lifting her into the air. "Hey, let me down!" Fay says, kicking and struggling against the invisible bonds. "See you soon, Fay," you say, forcing Fay to float outside the doorway. Cain and Castus step outside of the doorway willingly. You flick your wrists, and the massive heavy doors slam closed. You turn, and begin climbing the stairs. At the top of the staircase, four metal statues stand, forming a circle. One shows a bird man with a staff and ancient tome, cawing and firing a burst of magic out of the staff. The next shows a beautiful... person whose gender you can't tell, despite the fact they're half naked, smiling seductively at you. The next shows a massive, obese monster, covered in bile, boils and other signs of plague, looking to be in the final stages of dozens of different diseases. The final one is a horned beast-man, holding a massive battle-axe and in mid-furious, angered roar. In the middle of the circle kneels Kyros, waiting patiently. "You took your time," Kyros says softly. "I did," you say softly. "Are the others dead? Taj and Cern?" "They're dead." "I see," Kyros says, staring at the statues. "I had the whole fucking Galaxy. I had a Gloriana-class battleship in my hands. A fucking Gloriana. Do you know how rare those are? How powerful?! This ship is worth more than a trillion of your pathetic lives!" Kyros roars, smashing his fists into the statue of Khorne the warrior, adding psychic energy to his attacks until he dents, breaks and eventually sends the statue toppling off it's pedestal. "I had an army! An Imperial Regiment, all their vehicles, all their firepower, all their might! I had a Khornate war-band, a Nurglite war-band, a Slaaneshi war-band, a Tzeentchian war-band, a fucking space marine chapter, and more!" Kyros lets out a burst of fire, melting down the legs of the statue of Tzeentch the Sorcerer, turning into burning, molten metal that causes the rest of the statue to collapse and fall off its pedestal. "I had two, fucking two army of super-soldiers. I had the capabilities to turn millions of recruits into super-soldiers that would've made the space marines look like PD-fucking-F!" Kyros stands by the bloated statue of Nurgle the Plague-Master, and presses the palms of his hands against it. A wave of rust begins running through the statue, as it begins to rust and crack, before breaking and toppling to the ground, smacking into the metal floor with a hollow thud. "I had powers that could've made the galaxy tremble! We could've conquered the galaxy! I had you, a powerful ally who could've helped me conquer the galaxy!" Kyros lets out a powerful, shrieking roar that overwhelms your senses, causing you to stumble backward. The roar causes the legs of Slaanesh the Hedonist to shatter, as the statue tumbles off and smacks into the ground. "We would've toppled the Imperium of Man and thrown the Emperor off his throne! We could've liberated trillions from the religious persecution, slavery, persecution and fascism that's being inflicted! We could've brought man to a new level! But you weren't willing to make sacrifices! You had to rise up with the rest of the greedy traitors, unwilling to work for the Greater Good! You took everything from me!" Kyros turns to you, his eyes full of an anger and a hatred unknown to you. "I lifted you from the dirt! I made you what you are! I gave you everything! You think I'm going to roll over and die?! I'm going to send this entire vessel, my vessel, headfirst into the Warp. I'm going to let this entire ship be taken by daemons. Why not? The only men loyal to me have been slaughtered. I'll let daemons slaughter the lucky ones. The unlucky, which given the strength of your soul will no doubt include you, will pluck the souls of their choice off and let them experience the ravages of the Warp and then to feed on your suffering. First... I'm going to break every bone in your body." Kyros bursts forward, charging towards you. You raise a wall of fire, but Kyros barrels straight through, smashing into you. You both levitate into the air, your hands wrapped around each other's throats. Kyros knees you in the stomach, before sending you hurtling into the floor. You slam into it, curling up and forming a protective shield around yourself just as your "mentor" unleashes a wave of psychic energy. As soon as the last shudder of energy finishes, you release a burst of electricity that shocks Kyros, who howls in pain. You release a long burst of flames, engulfing him as he howls in pain. Kyros swings a lash of energy that you sidestep, before firing a beam of light that catches him in the chest, knocking him to the floor. "I'm the superior fighter," you say. Kyros raises his hands up, which begin to crackle with psychic energy. You feel your head pulse with the currents of the Warp. You grab a chunk of broken metal, instantly funneling heat into it as it begins to grow a bright red. He flings it at Kyros, catching him in the shoulder, sending him to the ground. You fire balls of plasma from your finger tips, which Kyros only barely manages to stop. Kyros begins to attain an otherworldly purple glow, his appearance begins to appear as see-through fading in and out of reality itself. "I feel the Warp overtaking me! It is a good pain!" Kyros howls. > You unleash a blast of psychic energy You fire a bolt of energy, smashing into Kyros chest. Kyros howls in pain, as his chest explodes. The rest of his body begins to glow, before it begins to be absolved by the purple glow emanating from him, turning into light. A portal begins to form, absorbing Kyros. Seconds later, you see a clawed red hand emerge from the portal, holding a sword of red hot burning steel. "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" you yell. "You fool! Daemons are pouring through to this realm, and I'm not leading them because my energy was focused on... Fuck!" Meliodas cries. You watch as holes begin to be torn in the fabric of reality, as more Warp portals begin to open, powered by the last sacrificial pulse of Kyros' energy. A horned cyclops with a rust and bile-encrusted blade steps through, letting out a wet growl. A strange, horse-like creature with a long tongue eagerly jumps through another portal. You watch as an endless horde of daemons begin to appear, coming through the portals, straight into your reality. They overwhelm you in less than a minute, claws and swords cutting you apart. The rest of the ship lasts longer, taking three hours before the horrible daemons have wiped out the fortunate, and captured the less fortunate to give them... a much less enjoyable fate. Soon, the Gloriana-class Roar of the Vortex is little more than a daemon-filled hellhole. Your last gift to the world is a horrible, daemon-filled vessel drifting through existence. So ends the legacy of Karth.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You quickly levitate over his blow, blasting him in the side of the head with a fireball. He pivots on his feet with remarkable grace, swinging again as you duck down, before Taj brings his knee up to hit you, but by now you've already quickly moved back to let out a spray of fire. He jabs the war-hammer as you now like a spear in an attempt to stun you, but you move away once more. "Must we have this dance? Am I undeserving of a quick death?" Taj roars. He steps towards you, raising the war-hammer once more, before his entire body begins to shudder as a hail of bullets thud into his back. He collapses to his knees, as you notice that the entirety of the Undying Reapers are finished off. Fay and fires a burst of lead into Taj's back. Castus strolls forward, pointing his sword point at Taj's face before gently slapping him with the sword flat, as Goliath clutches a space marine's throat in his hands, strangling the limo body. "General! Good to see you're alive! Having fun?" Castus says, before kicking Taj in the head. "Ooh, that feels good. Remember me, Tucker? I remember you. You and your boys had a fun habit of organizing gladiator fights so you could kill some poor fuck, some poor gladiator. Look where we are now, shitbag." "Finish it, Karth! I know you want to! I wiped out your tribe! I killed your..." You clink your wrists, snapping Taj's neck. "Goodbye, Taj," you say. "Karth! Well done," Fay smiles. "Is Cern...?" "She's dead." "Good, no more tinkering. Glad that bitch is dead. Hope she suffered," Goliath grunts. "We're heading to take out Kyros," Fay explains. "I'd imagine you're all for that." "Definitely. Let's go," you say. You follow the group towards Kyros' chambers. Soon, you find yourself entering a massive doorway with huge steel doors, which are wide open. You find yourself at the bottom of a massive stairway. "Stay back," you say to your companions. "This is a battle of the mind. Your strengths and talent hold no power here." "I'm not leaving you alone. You can't expect us to sit back and wait," Fay says incredulously. You clench your hand, lifting her into the air. "Hey, let me down!" Fay says, kicking and struggling against the invisible bonds. "See you soon, Fay," you say, forcing Fay to float outside the doorway. Cain and Castus step outside of the doorway willingly. You flick your wrists, and the massive heavy doors slam closed. You turn, and begin climbing the stairs. At the top of the staircase, four metal statues stand, forming a circle. One shows a bird man with a staff and ancient tome, cawing and firing a burst of magic out of the staff. The next shows a beautiful... person whose gender you can't tell, despite the fact they're half naked, smiling seductively at you. The next shows a massive, obese monster, covered in bile, boils and other signs of plague, looking to be in the final stages of dozens of different diseases. The final one is a horned beast-man, holding a massive battle-axe and in mid-furious, angered roar. In the middle of the circle kneels Kyros, waiting patiently. "You took your time," Kyros says softly. "I did," you say softly. "Are the others dead? Taj and Cern?" "They're dead." "I see," Kyros says, staring at the statues. "I had the whole fucking Galaxy. I had a Gloriana-class battleship in my hands. A fucking Gloriana. Do you know how rare those are? How powerful?! This ship is worth more than a trillion of your pathetic lives!" Kyros roars, smashing his fists into the statue of Khorne the warrior, adding psychic energy to his attacks until he dents, breaks and eventually sends the statue toppling off it's pedestal. "I had an army! An Imperial Regiment, all their vehicles, all their firepower, all their might! I had a Khornate war-band, a Nurglite war-band, a Slaaneshi war-band, a Tzeentchian war-band, a fucking space marine chapter, and more!" Kyros lets out a burst of fire, melting down the legs of the statue of Tzeentch the Sorcerer, turning into burning, molten metal that causes the rest of the statue to collapse and fall off its pedestal. "I had two, fucking two army of super-soldiers. I had the capabilities to turn millions of recruits into super-soldiers that would've made the space marines look like PD-fucking-F!" Kyros stands by the bloated statue of Nurgle the Plague-Master, and presses the palms of his hands against it. A wave of rust begins running through the statue, as it begins to rust and crack, before breaking and toppling to the ground, smacking into the metal floor with a hollow thud. "I had powers that could've made the galaxy tremble! We could've conquered the galaxy! I had you, a powerful ally who could've helped me conquer the galaxy!" Kyros lets out a powerful, shrieking roar that overwhelms your senses, causing you to stumble backward. The roar causes the legs of Slaanesh the Hedonist to shatter, as the statue tumbles off and smacks into the ground. "We would've toppled the Imperium of Man and thrown the Emperor off his throne! We could've liberated trillions from the religious persecution, slavery, persecution and fascism that's being inflicted! We could've brought man to a new level! But you weren't willing to make sacrifices! You had to rise up with the rest of the greedy traitors, unwilling to work for the Greater Good! You took everything from me!" Kyros turns to you, his eyes full of an anger and a hatred unknown to you. "I lifted you from the dirt! I made you what you are! I gave you everything! You think I'm going to roll over and die?! I'm going to send this entire vessel, my vessel, headfirst into the Warp. I'm going to let this entire ship be taken by daemons. Why not? The only men loyal to me have been slaughtered. I'll let daemons slaughter the lucky ones. The unlucky, which given the strength of your soul will no doubt include you, will pluck the souls of their choice off and let them experience the ravages of the Warp and then to feed on your suffering. First... I'm going to break every bone in your body." Kyros bursts forward, charging towards you. You raise a wall of fire, but Kyros barrels straight through, smashing into you. You both levitate into the air, your hands wrapped around each other's throats. Kyros knees you in the stomach, before sending you hurtling into the floor. You slam into it, curling up and forming a protective shield around yourself just as your "mentor" unleashes a wave of psychic energy. As soon as the last shudder of energy finishes, you release a burst of electricity that shocks Kyros, who howls in pain. You release a long burst of flames, engulfing him as he howls in pain. Kyros swings a lash of energy that you sidestep, before firing a beam of light that catches him in the chest, knocking him to the floor. "I'm the superior fighter," you say. Kyros raises his hands up, which begin to crackle with psychic energy. You feel your head pulse with the currents of the Warp. You grab a chunk of broken metal, instantly funneling heat into it as it begins to grow a bright red. He flings it at Kyros, catching him in the shoulder, sending him to the ground. You fire balls of plasma from your finger tips, which Kyros only barely manages to stop. Kyros begins to attain an otherworldly purple glow, his appearance begins to appear as see-through fading in and out of reality itself. "I feel the Warp overtaking me! It is a good pain!" Kyros howls. > You add your powers to submerge the ship in the Warp Kyros begins to glow, before it begins to be absolved by the purple glow emanating from him, turning into light. A portal begins to form, absorbing Kyros. Seconds later, you see a clawed red hand emerge from the portal, holding a sword of red hot burning steel. You watch as holes begin to be torn in the fabric of reality, as more Warp portals begin to open, powered by the last sacrificial pulse of Kyros' energy and further powered with your own. "You fool! Daemons are pouring through to this realm, and I'm not leading them because my energy was focused on... Fuck!" Meliodas cries. A horned cyclops with a rust and bile-encrusted blade steps through, letting out a wet growl. A strange, horse-like creature with a long tongue eagerly jumps through another portal. You watch as an endless horde of daemons begin to appear, coming through the portals, straight into your reality. They overwhelm you in less than a minute, claws and swords cutting you apart. The rest of the ship lasts longer, taking three hours before the horrible daemons have wiped out the fortunate, and captured the less fortunate to give them... a much less enjoyable fate. Soon, the Gloriana-class Roar of the Vortex is little more than a daemon-filled hellhole. Your last gift to the world is a horrible, daemon-filled vessel drifting through existence. So ends the legacy of Karth.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You press your hands against the doors, and with a pulse of psychic energy blast the door open. You walk inside, finding yourself in a huge hall, packed with machinery. Computers, consoles, wiring, generators and much more technology that you couldn't possibly know what it is or does. The room is dark, illuminated only by the blinking lights on the technology. You walk forward, finding yourself in a maze of machines, walking along. You quickly spot Magos Cern at the front of the room, in front of a large computing system, with the upper half of a humanoid robot on top, two clawed arms and a featureless head with two bright red eyes. "Yes, yes! The ship is mine! The galaxy is mine!" Magos Cern says frantically. "Siphoning power levels off the Undying Reapers' floors." "Oh, the Techpriests, the height of logic and sanity," Meliodas says. "Magos Cern," you say, preparing to strike her with a bolt of energy or simply tear her head clean off. Magos Cern continues scuttling around the room, as the robotic head slowly turns to stare at you. "Cern!" you shout, grabbing her attention. Magos Cern turns around, staring at you. "Shoo," she says, dismissing you with a single word and turning back to work on various consoles. "70% of the ship is accessible, all of the rebel's side," Magos Cern says gleefully. "I just need to slip a few tech words to Kyros and he'll give me complete access. Then we pillage the archives and strongholds of the old world, reinforce you with your brother, Primus, then, then we look further. Necrons, Tomb Worlds..." This insane rant is getting boring, and you're quite insulted by Cern's dismissal of you. > You let her finish "What the fuck is this?" you ask. "Uh! What is it about your pesky minds that don't just understand the world? I don't have time to explain this to you. Through Primus, I will ascend. I will leave behind my flesh, merging with Primus' mind and becoming immortal! A new era! Mankind will retake the stars with an army of Iron Men, and I will lead them! The God-Emperor's Great Crusade will be a pathetic comparison to what I will accomplish!" Metal tentacles begin appearing from the walls, with drills, metal claws and buzzsaws. You growl, preparing to strike. You raise your fists, before your mind goes blank. You don't forget what's going on, it's just like a solid, unchanging blankness is just invading your mind. You collapse to your knees as the psychic fire that's engulfing your fists goes out. "Thought you'd come. Had Primus upgraded with anti-Psyker weaponry.It should prove effective," Magos Cern says, not even turning to look at you." Your magic is nothing to the cold technology under my control!" Magos Cern laughs. The emptiness in your mind almost takes you into unconsciousness, but you keep fighting. The claws, drills and saws draw near you, as you attempt to stand, before collapsing to your knees again. Suddenly, the tentacles burst towards Magos. She lets out a confused scream along with a burst of static, as her robes are torn clean off her, and her cybernetic implants are torn clean off her, as her back is torn off, her arm sawn off, her mechanical eyes torn out of her head. In seconds, the tentacles retract into the wall. Magos Cern lies on the ground, naked, crippled and blood-stained. Gone in the horrifying cyborg. Now, there's only a bloody, terrified, screaming girl. She lets out a final scream, before expiring. Before you pass out, you hear a deep, booming voice from all directions say a single word. "Poetic."<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You step into the room filled with machinery, closing the door behind you. Now that you’re inside, you get a good look at the room. A large, humanoid robot stands there’s, it’s armor removed to reveal lots of wiring and mechanisms. You know that robots are a rarity, and all allowed by the Imperium are non-sentient. The extensive wiring and quick reaction would imply that this robot is an attempt at sentience by the rebellious Techpriests who have abandoned the Imperium's belief system. The robot’s eyes blink a bright red, as it slowly, and more importantly loudly, begins raising it’s arm to point at you. You need to shut it up quickly to avoid detection. > You blind the robot's senses with shadows You blind the robot's senses as shadows form over his sensory equipment. The robot lets out a confused bleep, before it slumps down, and you wait, your mind closed, for the Skitarii to either notice you or pass. You hear the metallic clanking of robotic feet outside, and wait until it has stopped and is far away before you open the door once more, continuing down the once again empty hallway. After quickly floating through the air towards your objective, you come across a massive golden door, topped with a massive icon, with an outer circle of an eight point star, an inner circle of a cog and a half mechanical, half human skull in the center.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You wait patiently, as the Techpriest goes from each pod. “Yes, yes, these are fresh. No mutation noted,” he says to himself. You continue waiting, as time passes. The techpriest endlessly goes from pod to pod, and you feel like you’re going to pass out from boredom. Eventaully, the techpriest leaves the room. You wait patiently, counting to a hundred after the techpriest has left, before you know he’s left. You walk over to the doorway, putting your head against it to listen for anyone on the other side. You hear nothing, so you open the door, revealing a barren hallway. You try to remember the directions that you were given, walking along. You keep moving, before you see a squad of Skitarii moving quickly towards your location. You don’t think they’ve noticed you. You look to either side of the hallway. There’s a door on either side, the first being open, and leading into a room that seems to be filled with electronics and machine parts. There’s also the room behind you. > You head into the closed room You quickly open the door behind you, stepping inside and closing the door behind you. The room seems to be empty except for a few dozen pipes and valves. You wait patiently, and after a few minutes, you open the door once more, continuing down the once again empty hallway. After quickly floating through the air towards your objective, you come across a massive golden door, topped with a massive icon, with an outer circle of an eight point star, an inner circle of a cog and a half mechanical, half human skull in the center.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You wait patiently, as the Techpriest goes from each pod. “Yes, yes, these are fresh. No mutation noted,” he says to himself. You continue waiting, as time passes. The techpriest endlessly goes from pod to pod, and you feel like you’re going to pass out from boredom. Eventaully, the techpriest leaves the room. You wait patiently, counting to a hundred after the techpriest has left, before you know he’s left. You walk over to the doorway, putting your head against it to listen for anyone on the other side. You hear nothing, so you open the door, revealing a barren hallway. You try to remember the directions that you were given, walking along. You keep moving, before you see a squad of Skitarii moving quickly towards your location. You don’t think they’ve noticed you. You look to either side of the hallway. There’s a door on either side, the first being open, and leading into a room that seems to be filled with electronics and machine parts. There’s also the room behind you. > You attack the Skitarii You move forward with a roar, firing a burst of flames and a blast of psychic energy. The Skitarii are machines built for war though, equipped with the best Magos Cern can get. Plasma, bullets and fire fills the air. You snap one of their necks before firing flames at another one. Plasma slams into you, sending you to the ground. You attempt to fight back even though you’re now missing a lot of flesh, but a Skitarii quickly scuttles forward and drives its drill into your throat, killing you.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You wait patiently, as the Techpriest goes from each pod. “Yes, yes, these are fresh. No mutation noted,” he says to himself. You continue waiting, as time passes. The techpriest endlessly goes from pod to pod, and you feel like you’re going to pass out from boredom. Eventaully, the techpriest leaves the room. You wait patiently, counting to a hundred after the techpriest has left, before you know he’s left. You walk over to the doorway, putting your head against it to listen for anyone on the other side. You hear nothing, so you open the door, revealing a barren hallway. You try to remember the directions that you were given, walking along. You keep moving, before you see a squad of Skitarii moving quickly towards your location. You don’t think they’ve noticed you. You look to either side of the hallway. There’s a door on either side, the first being open, and leading into a room that seems to be filled with electronics and machine parts. There’s also the room behind you. > You hide yourself in the shadows of the doorway with your psychic powers You step into the doorway, feeling shadows swarm around you, hiding you from sight. You watch as a few Skitarii march, scuttle or crawl past, before one of them stops suddenly. It turn’s it’s head directly behind it’s back, staring at you with three red, cybernetic eyes and one real one. "New scent detected. Analyzing for target." Suddenly, it’s jaw drops open, as a speaker attached to the back of its throat lets out a horrible shriek of static. The Skitarii all turn, immediately noticing you. They attack, swarming over you with drills, buzzsaws, claws and teeth. You attempt to fend them off, but you’re in close range, outnumbered and unprepared. You last a measly few seconds.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You're crawling through shit. Despite your pleading, your reasoning, your refusal, your threats to skin people alive and show their souls what true suffering is, you're crawling through shit. You crawl along the pipe, your skinny frame still struggling to move forward. You doubt anyone other than you or a starved slave could've fit in here. Realistically, it was the only logical to choice to send you in. They made you crawl through shit, though, so fuck them. “OK, I should be close enough, I should be close,” you say to yourself aloud, repeating it like a mantra. A surge of shit comes down a pipe, splashing the stream of excrement, sending some into your open mouth. You stop repeating the mantra aloud. You close your eyes, trying to block out the smells. And the tastes. You reach your hands up after another few minutes of crawling, finding a hatch. You quickly force it open with a burst of energy. You rise up in the air, slowly squeezing yourself through the hatch. You collapse out of the pipe, falling onto the ground of a large room. You look up, seeing dozens of pods with glass displays, filled with a clear, colorless liquid. Inside, dozens of identical men, all with the same shaved head, float, pipes connected to their mouth and nostrils. “”What the fuck?” you say. "They clone bodies to turn into Servitors," Meliodas explains. "The joys of the Imperium!" You hear a door open at the end of the room, and quickly step behind the pod. You peer out of the pod, seeing a spider-like Techpriest who’s little more than a pincer, half a torso and a head attached to eight robotic legs. It walks along, looking at each pod momentarily, before moving on. > You ambush the techpriest You move forward, firing a burst of electricity. You hit the Techpriest directly in the head and he lets out a howl of pain, as you continue pumping him full of electricity. It melts his eyes, which drip down his face, as the Techpriest lets out a final yell, before slumping over, his eight legs keeping him standing. You flick your wrist, toppling the Techpriest over. You walk over to the doorway, putting your head against it to listen for anyone on the other side. You hear nothing, so you open the door, revealing a barren hallway. You try to remember the directions that you were given, walking along. You keep moving, before you see a squad of two dozen Skitarii moving quickly towards your location. You don’t think they’ve noticed you. You look to either side of the hallway. There’s a door on either side, the first being open, and leading into a room that seems to be filled with electronics and machine parts. There’s also the room behind you.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>With a narrowing of your eyes, the prostitute's neck is snapped. Drake releases her body, staring at you. "You're... well, you're a threat," Drake says, dropping the knife and standing. "You're coming with me," you say. "Sure, sure," Drake says. You bind Drake's hands together with invisible chains, and force him to march forward. Drake immediately becomes compliant. "Can I grab a few things?" Drake asks. "My... dreams get pretty bad. I have terrifying nightmares. I have medication that helps. Please, please can I get them?" Drake asks. > You force Drake to leave "No, we're going!" you growl. Drake nods slowly, before drawing a pistol from his belt, aiming at you. You fling the pistol out of his hands, dragging him into the air. "Please, I'm sorry, but I can't be captured. They'll kill them!" Drake asks pitifully. "Them?" you ask. "Yes. Kyros has my two children taken prisoner aboard this ship, my two baby girls. If I don't report to him every hour, he'll hurt them!" "I've read your report. You don't have children." Drake's look of terror and desperation slowly morphs into a grin. "Alright, you got me. Shall we go?" You snarl, smacking Drake into the ground. He lets out a pained yell, before you raise him up again. "Give me one reason not to kill you," you say. "Fuck you. Just go ahead and kill me," Drake laughs, spitting blood out of his mouth and giving a grin, his teeth bloodied. "Is that your final answer?" you ask. "You need me alive to pilot this ship, dipshit," Drake says. "Perhaps. But I could easily peel off your skin, turn your bones to dust, char your flesh and twist your limbs off." "You need to happy, Karth," Drake grins. "My jobs to navigate the ship, make sure we're not lost in the Warp, boarded by daemons or make sure we don't come out of the Warp and straight into the sun. If my life's not worth living, such as if someone peeled off my skin, turned my bones to dust, charred my flesh and twisted my limbs off, I'd just make sure this ship goes straight into a star." "Just break him. The powers of the Warp will send you where you need to go. You don't need a Navigator. Tear this rat apart!" Meliodas says. You growl, walking out into the hallway, Drake floating after you. You quickly reach an elevator, tossing Drake inside. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You turn from the scene of your killing, and head towards the rooms where Amadeus scuttled off to. A faint light shines through the door, which you kick in, easily finding the Navigator as he lies in an empty bathtub, holding a dagger to the knife of a half-dressed prostitute who still looks to be in her early teens. "Stop! Don't move a muscle! You get any closer to me, I slit this bitch's throat!" Drake shouts, snarling at you. "Does he think that'll work? Fool," Meliodas laughs. > You move forward You step forward. "I swear to all the Dark Gods, I will open this bitch up!" Drake yells. You move forward once again, before Drake slices the girl's throat open, blood dripping down her chest. "Well. Now what?" you ask. "I... I'm necessary to operating the ship. You can't kill me." "So be it," you say. "You're coming with me." "Sure, sure," Drake says. You bind Drake's hands together with invisible chains, and force him to march forward. Drake immediately becomes compliant. "Can I grab a few things?" Drake asks. "My... dreams get pretty bad. I have terrifying nightmares. I have medication that helps. Please, please can I get them?" Drake asks.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You turn from the scene of your killing, and head towards the rooms where Amadeus scuttled off to. A faint light shines through the door, which you kick in, easily finding the Navigator as he lies in an empty bathtub, holding a dagger to the knife of a half-dressed prostitute who still looks to be in her early teens. "Stop! Don't move a muscle! You get any closer to me, I slit this bitch's throat!" Drake shouts, snarling at you. "Does he think that'll work? Fool," Meliodas laughs. > You telekinetically disarm Drake With a narrowing of your eyes, the knife flies into your hands. The prostitute stands, shoving Drake away. "Out," you command, as the prostitutes nods in thanks and leaves. "OK, OK, you're skilled," you say. "You're coming with me," you say. "Sure, sure," Drake says, standing up. You bind Drake's hands together with invisible chains, and force him to march forward. Drake immediately becomes compliant. "Can I grab a few things?" Drake asks. "My... dreams get pretty bad. I have terrifying nightmares. I have medication that helps. Please, please can I get them?" Drake asks.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You fire a jet of flames, and the Dancing Blades quickly retreat out of the range of your fire. They dance along the edge, waiting to strike. > You teleport behind the enemy You teleport behind the enemies, immediately sending out bursts of flames to incinerate those closest to you, before a shock of lightning runs through another. Still, this si close combat, their specialty. They move with incredible speed, dodging your blows. One gets in close, stabbing through through the neck. You shudder, blood running down your killer's blade, before your soul expires.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"I can smell him. He's here," Meliodas says. You step inside the doorway, looking into a marvelous palace. There's a huge grand staircase, with above it a massive chandelier of candles, the only illumination for the room. Beside it is an obsidian, bejeweled statue of a dragon, emitting a long burst of flames made from a bright red and orange gemstone, sits beside a marble table laden with roast meats, delicate pastries and fancy wines. You spot Amadeus, lying on a large silk couch, wearing an opened red silk hooded robe. On his forehead is a third, closed eye, while his normal eyes are focused on the girl in front of him, on her knees performing fellatio. You momentarily blush, before remembering that you're an insanely powerful psyker and not a fucking child. "Drake Amadeus, you're coming with me," you say, as Drake lets out a yelp, kicking the girl off him and stumbling back. "Shit, it's Karst! It's Karst! Get him the fuck away from me!" You step forward, before seeing a dozen girls emerge from the rooms upstairs, walking towards the grand staircase. They move with insane flexibility. Some behind back and walking with their heads peering out between their legs, before twisting their heads around a hundred and eight degrees. Some on all fours, their legs stretched back around their shoulders to allow them to walk forward at an odd angle. They move with delicate grace, before they each draw a pair of curved knifes, continuing to walk towards you. You see Drake Amadeus scuttle away from the corner of your eye, but it seems you have a bigger threat. "Ah, Slaaneeshi whores. Make their deaths quick. They'd just enjoy you drawing it out," Meliodas says. > You take out the chandelier You look at the Troupe, before flexing your hand and grabbing hold of the chandelier and sending it hurtling into the staircase. Most of the Troupe dodge, but a few are too slow and crushed by the chandelier. You take a deep breath as the chandelier's candles go out, leaving you in total darkness. You focus, and you can still vaguely see the Warp presence of the Troupe. You need to wipe them out, and quickly. > You fire a jet of flames You fire a jet of flames out, engulfing a pair of Dancing Blades. Unfortunately, this has the side-effect of illuminating the room, and now being able to see, the Troupe strikes. Immediately, three of them are upon you. You fly out of the way of one and set the second alight, before the third leaps at you. You back out of their way, avoiding a sword blow, before you're stabbed through the back, and you collapse to your knees, before a blow takes your head off.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You look at the Troupe, before flexing your hand and grabbing hold of the chandelier and sending it hurtling into the staircase. Most of the Troupe dodge, but a few are too slow and crushed by the chandelier. You take a deep breath as the chandelier's candles go out, leaving you in total darkness. You focus, and you can still vaguely see the Warp presence of the Troupe. You need to wipe them out, and quickly. > You telekinetically send furniture at the Troupe You feel their presence, slowly picking up the couch with your mind. The furniture flies towards them, and you feel their Warp presence flicker and die. You slowly move around the room, moving slowly and quietly, before you send a statue to crush another. You continue to move and weave, sending objects to crush and impale the Troupe. It only takes a minute before you hear the last one scream in pain as the dragon statue crushes them. You spray fire into the air, illuminating the room, just as she dies. Now, time to get back to the objective.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"I can smell him. He's here," Meliodas says. You step inside the doorway, looking into a marvelous palace. There's a huge grand staircase, with above it a massive chandelier of candles, the only illumination for the room. Beside it is an obsidian, bejeweled statue of a dragon, emitting a long burst of flames made from a bright red and orange gemstone, sits beside a marble table laden with roast meats, delicate pastries and fancy wines. You spot Amadeus, lying on a large silk couch, wearing an opened red silk hooded robe. On his forehead is a third, closed eye, while his normal eyes are focused on the girl in front of him, on her knees performing fellatio. You momentarily blush, before remembering that you're an insanely powerful psyker and not a fucking child. "Drake Amadeus, you're coming with me," you say, as Drake lets out a yelp, kicking the girl off him and stumbling back. "Shit, it's Karst! It's Karst! Get him the fuck away from me!" You step forward, before seeing a dozen girls emerge from the rooms upstairs, walking towards the grand staircase. They move with insane flexibility. Some behind back and walking with their heads peering out between their legs, before twisting their heads around a hundred and eight degrees. Some on all fours, their legs stretched back around their shoulders to allow them to walk forward at an odd angle. They move with delicate grace, before they each draw a pair of curved knifes, continuing to walk towards you. You see Drake Amadeus scuttle away from the corner of your eye, but it seems you have a bigger threat. "Ah, Slaaneeshi whores. Make their deaths quick. They'd just enjoy you drawing it out," Meliodas says. > You fire bolts of Psychic energy You fire bolts of Psychic energy, but the Troupe easily dodges the blasts, leaping, ducking and jumping. You only manage to catch one, killing her instantly, before the Troupe strikes. Immediately, three of them are upon you. You fly out of the way of one and set the second alight, before the third leaps at you. You back out of their way, avoiding a sword blow, before you're stabbed through the back, and you collapse to your knees, before a blow takes your head off.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You press down on the button, and a voice crackles through. "Password?" the deep voice asks. > You say "I don't know the password, Kyros didn't tell me!" "Bullshit. Kyros would've without a doubt told you the password. He's not an idiot. Fuck off, rebel scum." Well. That was unsuccessful. > You attempt to break down the door You press your hands on the door, and begin to melt through the thick steal, as steel drips to the ground. Suddenly, you feel your energy hit an odd texture, before the anti-personal defenses prepared their blows, tearing your head off.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Bullshit. Kyros would've without a doubt told you the password. He's not an idiot. Fuck off, rebel scum." Well. That was unsuccessful. > You try the intercom again You press down on the button, and a voice crackles through. "Do... do you think I don't know it's still you? There's a camera here, bud."<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You press down on the button, and a voice crackles through. "Password?" the deep voice asks. > You say "I'm here to escort Amadeus to Kyros' chambers!" "Bullshit. If Kyros wanted Amadeus, we would've got a message. Fuck off, rebel scum." Well. That was unsuccessful.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You press down on the button, and a voice crackles through. "Password?" the deep voice asks. > You say "I don't know the password. I'm here to kidnap Amadeus. Can you let me in?" "Wh... what?" "I don't know the password because I'm not here on Kyros' orders. I'm here to kidnap Amadeus." "It's just you out there." "Correct," you reply. "There's a shit ton of trained killers in here." "Yeah, I know," you say. "And you've come to kidnap Amadeus by yourself?"2 "Yes," you confirm. "Well, I respect your honesty. Come right in. I'm going to have to kill you, but fuck it, I'll open the door." The doors clicks open. Well, that was... easy.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You walk down the hallways alongside your four Chaos Marine guards. You head towards the war room, where Kyros is planning the first strike against the Imperium, taking over a Hive World, to secure a huge population that can be recruited from to bolster Kyros' forces ten times. You hum a tune, some old Uwais war chant that you find quite catchy. You feel a wave of nausea hit you, and you pause, as you feel a heavy weight lifted off your soul, and your cloudy mind is cleared. Your collar clicks, and falls off you, hitting the ground. Your guards stop, noticing you've stopped. "Prisoner, why have you s...?" one of the guards asks, before noticing your collar has fallen off. "Wait..." he starts to say, as the alarm begins to blare. "Hahaha! Freedom! Freedom!" Meliodas cries. Then, you strike. The first guard's head snaps around, tearing his head clean off his shoulders. You quickly set the second alight, shielding yourself from the bright blue flames that begin melting through the thick armor as the guard roars. You teleport behind the last two as bolter fire slams into the hallway where you once were. You blow a hole in the chest of one with a blast of psychic energy, before levitating the last one into the air, tossing his bolter across the room. "No, no, no!" the space marine roars, shaking and trying to grasp at you. "Kill! Maim! Burn! Break! Smash! Crush! Slaughter!" Meliodas gleefully chants. You smash the space marine into the ground repeatedly, shattering armor and leaving him as a bloody smear on the ground. You attempt to orientate yourself, trying to picture the path you took from your room to get here, and remembering where the Penthouse is. "Brother! Is Prisoner Alpha secure?" a radio crackles. You turn, noticing the radio attached to the first space marine's belt. You pick it up, as the psychic energy around you vibrates as you talk, changing your voice into that of the space marine. "Imitate his comrade's voice. Use the Warp," Meliodas suggests. "We were forced to kill him. What's the situation?" "Good riddance. Our brothers have betrayed us. The One Eyed Crows, the Black Rats, the Shrieking Harpies, all traitors! The 22nd are fighting, but I don't know whether the majority is with Kyros." "What's the plans?" "Kyros has us divided between exterminating the traitors and trying to put down the slave revolts that are taking place. The first and second generation super-soldiers are rebelling. Take your unit, and secure the gladiators. If they have the arena secured, they will have a strong defensive position." "Understood. We'll get it done," you say. "Send them to their reapers, brother, and ward off your own one," the radio crackles. "Glory to Kyros," you say. "Praise the Dark Gods!" "Nice touch," Meliodas says. The radio finishes, and you clip it to your belt. You float into the air, hovering along the hallways towards the Penthouse. You pass a trio of shotgun-wielding Bloody Claws, rushing towards the cyro-chambers. You fire a jet of flames, engulfing the trio but don't even slow down to watch them die. Soon, you find yourself in the elevator, rising towards the penthouse. You wait patiently, listening to reports come through the radio. "The entire area's filled with them! They're all traitors. I..." "Bridge secured, push forward." "Fall back, fall back, they're not going down!" "Rage! Kill! Maim! Smash! Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne!" "Leading the charge! Secure Elizabeth Staine, and they'll all... shit! AARGH!" "Damn it! I've been sealed in! Get me out, dammit! They're coming for us!" The elevator doors open, leaving you faced with five heavy bolters aiming at you. "It's the Psyker!" someone shouts. "Time to die, mortals!" Meliodas roars. > You attempt to reason with them "Wait!" you shout, preparing for the bolters to fire. Surprisingly, they don't. Well, time to reason with them. > You say "Abandon your weapons, or you die!" There's a brief pause, before the bolters fire. Bullets slam into your boy, one quickly finding your head and blowing it apart.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Wait!" you shout, preparing for the bolters to fire. Surprisingly, they don't. Well, time to reason with them. > You say "I'm a loyalist to Kyros!" "Well, what do we do, Sarge?" someone asks. "Fuck, if the mutiny succeeds and we're found with a loyalist, we'll be killed," another man answers. "If we kill him and Kyros wins, we die." "We'll say he asked to betray Kyros," the sergeant says. You attempt to put up your shield, as the heavy bolters fire. You immediately raise your shields, as bolter fire thuds into them. You feel them, like a tapping on your mind. Unfortunately, by the sheer amount of bolter fire being shot at you, one finds it's way in. It slams into you, blowing your chest open. You collapse to your knees, as your shields fail as you lose focus. Bullets riddle your body, killing you instantly.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Wait!" you shout, preparing for the bolters to fire. Surprisingly, they don't. Well, time to reason with them. > You say "The mutiny is going to succeed. Join us, or perish." "Fuck, what do we do, Sarge?" "The radio makes it sound like the loyalists are having their ass handed to them, and the prisoners are close to taking the complex! The psyker's right! Abandon post! Join the mutiny!" The guards lay down their bolters, and begin running towards the elevators. You shrug and allow them to pass, making your way down the hall. It's only a minute before you arrive at a massive, thick metal door with an intercom.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You grab Olive's hand, and she pulls you to your feet. "Ah, good job," Castus says. "Second rule: the first rule is bullshit. You know who doesn't trust anyone? Bastards like Kyros who ends up with no loyal friends, no allies, nothing, and then end up alone, with no one. If you want to survive in this world, you need allies." Castus grabs his sword by the blade, offering it to you. You reach out to grab it, before he swings it and smacks you in the side of the heat, sending you to the ground. Castus offers his hand to you, which you accept. He pulls you up, before kneeing you in the stomach and tossing you to the ground. "Come on, you're not learning. First rule: trust no one. Don't you listen?" "I was going my the second rule," you say, groaning. "Sometimes, the first rule is more important than the second rule," Castus shrugs. "How the fuck am I supposed to tell the difference between which rule to us?" you ask, annoyed. "Beats me. When you find out, you'll be the most powerful warlord in history. Until then, you just go off gut feeling and intellect." "Seems like a shitty system," you say, as Castus finally lets you stand up. "Seems like a shitty world you're in. That system is the best I have to offer. Now, rule three: in hand to hand combat, go for the weak spots. The throat, eyes and balls are always good, but when it comes to half these fucks, I'd stick to the eyes, because past that, I don't know what you have left. Observe." Castus flips his sword so he holds the blade again, wrapping his sleeve around the blade so it doesn't bite into his fingers as much. He steps forward, swinging his sword with insane speed. The pommel slams into your throat before jabbing you in the eyes, leaving you to stumble backwards. You quickly close your legs together before Castus jabs the pommel into your groin, and you collapse backwards with a pained yelp. "See? Effective," Castus smiles. "Rule four: you can win through many ways. Pain submission, incapacitating them, or simply taking their lives. Judge which can be used to take down your enemies. For instance, in your case, pain is the way forward." You're growing tired of being hit in the face. As Castus steps forward with his sword raised, you decide you're going to do something to dissuade him from continuing to hit you. > You send Castus into the arena wall As Castus swings his sword, you send him straight into the metal gate with a thud. He lets out a pained yelp, collapsing onto his stomach. "I don't need to learn how to wield a sword, Castus. You've trained all your life with a sword. I never have. Yet look how simply I defeat you? I need a sword as much as you need fangs. I've evolved past the need for it," you say, as Castus stands. "Fuck me, kid, couldn't you have made that point without breaking my fucking spine?" Castus says. "Yeah, fine, point proven. End of training, piss off." "Terrific," you say. "So, can I leave?" "Yeah, I'll call your guards here to open the gates and take you off," Castus says, grabbing a walkie-talkie hanging from his belt and speaking into it. "Yeah, we're finished here with the little cunt," he says, rubbing his back. "Oh shit, over." "Affirmative, out," the voice comes back. Soon, the gate lifts up as your guards saunter out in their thick power armor. "Where to next, boys?" you ask. "Shut it, psyker," one growls, looking at Castus and Olive. "Is it back to the cells for you two?" "We're happy to practice some more here," Olive says, twirling her gun-axe to stop a surprise attack from Castus. "I mean, if this dumb bastard has done so little practice to think that would take me down, he's go to need a lot more practice." "Pffh, I'd like to see you take me down," Castus says. "So be it," your captor growls. "Move it, psyker." You raise your hands defensively, and allow them to escort you back to your room.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You grab Olive's hand, and she pulls you to your feet. "Ah, good job," Castus says. "Second rule: the first rule is bullshit. You know who doesn't trust anyone? Bastards like Kyros who ends up with no loyal friends, no allies, nothing, and then end up alone, with no one. If you want to survive in this world, you need allies." Castus grabs his sword by the blade, offering it to you. You reach out to grab it, before he swings it and smacks you in the side of the heat, sending you to the ground. Castus offers his hand to you, which you accept. He pulls you up, before kneeing you in the stomach and tossing you to the ground. "Come on, you're not learning. First rule: trust no one. Don't you listen?" "I was going my the second rule," you say, groaning. "Sometimes, the first rule is more important than the second rule," Castus shrugs. "How the fuck am I supposed to tell the difference between which rule to us?" you ask, annoyed. "Beats me. When you find out, you'll be the most powerful warlord in history. Until then, you just go off gut feeling and intellect." "Seems like a shitty system," you say, as Castus finally lets you stand up. "Seems like a shitty world you're in. That system is the best I have to offer. Now, rule three: in hand to hand combat, go for the weak spots. The throat, eyes and balls are always good, but when it comes to half these fucks, I'd stick to the eyes, because past that, I don't know what you have left. Observe." Castus flips his sword so he holds the blade again, wrapping his sleeve around the blade so it doesn't bite into his fingers as much. He steps forward, swinging his sword with insane speed. The pommel slams into your throat before jabbing you in the eyes, leaving you to stumble backwards. You quickly close your legs together before Castus jabs the pommel into your groin, and you collapse backwards with a pained yelp. "See? Effective," Castus smiles. "Rule four: you can win through many ways. Pain submission, incapacitating them, or simply taking their lives. Judge which can be used to take down your enemies. For instance, in your case, pain is the way forward." You're growing tired of being hit in the face. As Castus steps forward with his sword raised, you decide you're going to do something to dissuade him from continuing to hit you. > You teleport out of the way of the blow You teleport behind Castus, causing him to smash his sword into the ground, Castus grunts in confusion as the force of his blow flying through the air causing him to stumble forward. "I don't need to learn how to wield a sword, Castus. You've trained all your life with a sword. I never have. Yet look how simply I evade your blows? I could just teleport behind you and break your neck without lifting a finger. I need a sword as much as you need fangs. I've evolved past the need for it," you say, gently poking him in the back. "Dead." "Fair point, kid," Castus says, smiling. " I like your style. I suppose you're good to go. End of training." "Terrific," you say. "So, can I leave?" "Yeah, I'll call your guards here to open the gates and take you off," Castus says, grabbing a walkie-talkie hanging from his belt and speaking into it. "Yeah, we're finished here," he says. "Oh shit, over." "Affirmative, out," the voice comes back. Soon, the gate lifts up as your guards saunter out in their thick power armor. "Where to next, boys?" you ask. "Shut it, psyker," one growls, looking at Castus and Olive. "Is it back to the cells for you two?" "We're happy to practice some more here," Olive says, twirling her gun-axe to stop a surprise attack from Castus. "I mean, if this dumb bastard has done so little practice to think that would take me down, he's go to need a lot more practice." "Pffh, I'd like to see you take me down," Castus says. "So be it," your captor growls. "Move it, psyker." You raise your hands defensively, and allow them to escort you back to your room.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Done," you say. Olive extends a hand, which you grip and shake extensively. Castus extends his hand, which you grab, but he twists your arm around, causing you to yelp painfully. He kicks away your foot and sends you to your knee, before bringing his sword up to your throat. "Dead," he says with a smile. "Well shit, Castus, what's wrong with you?" "What? I was just preparing him for fighting. I thought we were supposed to be training him. First lesson, kid: trust no one. Now, get up." Olive offers you a hand, smiling. > You get up yourself You try to stand up, but Castus kicks you in the stomach again. You groan and collapse onto the floor, before Castus puts his foot on your head. "Second rule: the first rule is bullshit. You know who doesn't trust anyone? Bastards like Kyros who ends up with no loyal friends, no allies, nothing, and then end up alone, with no one. If you want to survive in this world, you need allies." Castus offers his hand to you, which you accept. He pulls you up, before kneeing you in the stomach and tossing you to the ground. "Come on, you're not learning. First rule: trust no one. Don't you listen?" "I was going my the second rule," you say, groaning. "Sometimes, the first rule is more important than the second rule," Castus shrugs. "How the fuck am I supposed to tell the difference between which rule to us?" you ask, annoyed. "Beats me. When you find out, you'll be the most powerful warlord in history. Until then, you just go off gut feeling and intellect." "Seems like a shitty system," you say, as Castus finally lets you stand up. "Seems like a shitty world you're in. That system is the best I have to offer. Now, rule three: in hand to hand combat, go for the weak spots. The throat, eyes and balls are always good, but when it comes to half these fucks, I'd stick to the eyes, because past that, I don't know what you have left. Observe." Castus flips his sword so he holds the blade, wrapping his sleeve around the blade so it doesn't bite into his fingers as much. He steps forward, swinging his sword with insane speed. The pommel slams into your throat before jabbing you in the eyes, leaving you to stumble backwards. You quickly close your legs together before Castus jabs the pommel into your groin, and you collapse backwards with a pained yelp. "See? Effective," Castus smiles. "Rule four: you can win through many ways. Pain submission, incapacitating them, or simply taking their lives. Judge which can be used to take down your enemies. For instance, in your case, pain is the way forward." You're growing tired of being hit in the face. As Castus steps forward with his sword raised, you decide you're going to do something to dissuade him from continuing to hit you. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You duck your head, the knife flying just over your head and cluttering to the floor behind you. "Good catch," Castus says. You grab the knife, taking a practice stab. "What do you think?" "It's a knife," you say simply. "Yeah, it is. Do you like it? Does it feel good?" Castus says. "I don't know anything about knives. Maybe," you say. "Alright, first, we need to talk. Is anyone watching us? Like, are there cameras?" "No. Well yes, but they're offline," Olive says, resting her head on the butt of her axe-gun. "What is it?" "A plan is being formed. We're going to escape." "Escape?" Olive says, musing. "Who's on our side?" "We have a large amount of people on our side. Elios, Elizabeth and Durge are bringing the weight of their war-bands, as well as most, if not all, of the Guardsmen here. Then there's the Goliaths and the Tribals, both of whom are with us." "What...?" "Because I've done this twice before, I best say. We have no plans yet. They're to be decided. We have literally nothing. We just need to check whether you'll join us. Then, we'll get the leaders together to plan our to take over, and what to do with once we've actually done so." "Huh. Well, I'm in," Castus says. "What?" Olive asks, surprised. "Yeah, I'm in," Castus says. "We don't know the plan, we don't have any assurances that we won't be back-stabbed as soon as we take over, we..." "Olive, let's be smart here. If we don't rebel, we'll definitely either be killed fighting Kyros' war, killed trying to put down these fuckers' mutiny, or killed fighting another arena battle for these bastard's amusement." "If we rebel, we'll almost certainly be killed!" "Almost certainly is way better than definitely. Plus, we'll get to kill a few of Kyros' bastards before we go down." "Fine, I'm in, but I... we have a few demands," Olive says. "Go on," you say. You know the gladiators will be essential to your plans, so you really need to get them, but still, you don't want to devote to many resources to this issue. "I want instant freedom once we take-over. No more being locked up under the arena. I want my men to have free reign to travel around the ship. I want pay, do the men and women who fight and work for the ship actually get something from it. I want an increase in food rations, and better equipment than the shit we're given. I want actual medical care, on top of this." "That it?" you ask, annoyed with her large demands. It'll probably take a serious amount of resources to fulfill her request. You have a few options here. "What a fucking greedy bitch. This fucker needs a dick, I tell you that," Meliodas complains. > You try to compromise "I can't guarantee you all that," you say. "It's simply too expensive." "What can you guarantee?" "Freedom, definitely as well as free reign to travel the ship. But we're not giving you free rooms, food, equipment and medical equipment as well as pay. Pick one." "Fine, no pay," Olive says. "That's a deal, then," you say. Olive extends a hand, which you grip and shake extensively. Castus extends his hand, which you grab, but he twists your arm around, causing you to yelp painfully. He kicks away your foot and sends you to your knee, before bringing his sword up to your throat. "Dead," he says with a smile. "Well shit, Castus, what's wrong with you?" "What? I was just preparing him for fighting. I thought we were supposed to be training him. First lesson, kid: trust no one. Now, get up." Olive offers you a hand, smiling.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You duck your head, the knife flying just over your head and cluttering to the floor behind you. "Good catch," Castus says. You grab the knife, taking a practice stab. "What do you think?" "It's a knife," you say simply. "Yeah, it is. Do you like it? Does it feel good?" Castus says. "I don't know anything about knives. Maybe," you say. "Alright, first, we need to talk. Is anyone watching us? Like, are there cameras?" "No. Well yes, but they're offline," Olive says, resting her head on the butt of her axe-gun. "What is it?" "A plan is being formed. We're going to escape." "Escape?" Olive says, musing. "Who's on our side?" "We have a large amount of people on our side. Elios, Elizabeth and Durge are bringing the weight of their war-bands, as well as most, if not all, of the Guardsmen here. Then there's the Goliaths and the Tribals, both of whom are with us." "What...?" "Because I've done this twice before, I best say. We have no plans yet. They're to be decided. We have literally nothing. We just need to check whether you'll join us. Then, we'll get the leaders together to plan our to take over, and what to do with once we've actually done so." "Huh. Well, I'm in," Castus says. "What?" Olive asks, surprised. "Yeah, I'm in," Castus says. "We don't know the plan, we don't have any assurances that we won't be back-stabbed as soon as we take over, we..." "Olive, let's be smart here. If we don't rebel, we'll definitely either be killed fighting Kyros' war, killed trying to put down these fuckers' mutiny, or killed fighting another arena battle for these bastard's amusement." "If we rebel, we'll almost certainly be killed!" "Almost certainly is way better than definitely. Plus, we'll get to kill a few of Kyros' bastards before we go down." "Fine, I'm in, but I... we have a few demands," Olive says. "Go on," you say. You know the gladiators will be essential to your plans, so you really need to get them, but still, you don't want to devote to many resources to this issue. "I want instant freedom once we take-over. No more being locked up under the arena. I want my men to have free reign to travel around the ship. I want pay, do the men and women who fight and work for the ship actually get something from it. I want an increase in food rations, and better equipment than the shit we're given. I want actual medical care, on top of this." "That it?" you ask, annoyed with her large demands. It'll probably take a serious amount of resources to fulfill her request. You have a few options here. "What a fucking greedy bitch. This fucker needs a dick, I tell you that," Meliodas complains. > You convince Olive that Castus is right "Look, we can't guarantee anything. We don't know what's going to happen. Castus is right, we'd be killed if we don't rebel. Other than a chance, a simple chance, at freedom and life, I don't think we can start making deals for anything more," you say, putting all your energy into weaving an offer made almost entirely of bullshit. Olive narrows her eyes. "Fine. But let me tell you this, if I find myself with the shit side of the stick, I'm going to cause a lot of problems." "You can trust me," you say, as sincerely as possible. "Fine," Olive says. Olive extends a hand, which you grip and shake extensively. Castus extends his hand, which you grab, but he twists your arm around, causing you to yelp painfully. He kicks away your foot and sends you to your knee, before bringing his sword up to your throat. "Dead," he says with a smile. "Well shit, Castus, what's wrong with you?" "What? I was just preparing him for fighting. I thought we were supposed to be training him. First lesson, kid: trust no one. Now, get up." Olive offers you a hand, smiling.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You duck your head, the knife flying just over your head and cluttering to the floor behind you. "Good catch," Castus says. You grab the knife, taking a practice stab. "What do you think?" "It's a knife," you say simply. "Yeah, it is. Do you like it? Does it feel good?" Castus says. "I don't know anything about knives. Maybe," you say. "Alright, first, we need to talk. Is anyone watching us? Like, are there cameras?" "No. Well yes, but they're offline," Olive says, resting her head on the butt of her axe-gun. "What is it?" "A plan is being formed. We're going to escape." "Escape?" Olive says, musing. "Who's on our side?" "We have a large amount of people on our side. Elios, Elizabeth and Durge are bringing the weight of their war-bands, as well as most, if not all, of the Guardsmen here. Then there's the Goliaths and the Tribals, both of whom are with us." "What...?" "Because I've done this twice before, I best say. We have no plans yet. They're to be decided. We have literally nothing. We just need to check whether you'll join us. Then, we'll get the leaders together to plan our to take over, and what to do with once we've actually done so." "Huh. Well, I'm in," Castus says. "What?" Olive asks, surprised. "Yeah, I'm in," Castus says. "We don't know the plan, we don't have any assurances that we won't be back-stabbed as soon as we take over, we..." "Olive, let's be smart here. If we don't rebel, we'll definitely either be killed fighting Kyros' war, killed trying to put down these fuckers' mutiny, or killed fighting another arena battle for these bastard's amusement." "If we rebel, we'll almost certainly be killed!" "Almost certainly is way better than definitely. Plus, we'll get to kill a few of Kyros' bastards before we go down." "Fine, I'm in, but I... we have a few demands," Olive says. "Go on," you say. You know the gladiators will be essential to your plans, so you really need to get them, but still, you don't want to devote to many resources to this issue. "I want instant freedom once we take-over. No more being locked up under the arena. I want my men to have free reign to travel around the ship. I want pay, do the men and women who fight and work for the ship actually get something from it. I want an increase in food rations, and better equipment than the shit we're given. I want actual medical care, on top of this." "That it?" you ask, annoyed with her large demands. It'll probably take a serious amount of resources to fulfill her request. You have a few options here. "What a fucking greedy bitch. This fucker needs a dick, I tell you that," Meliodas complains. > You threaten Olive "No." "Then I guess we have no deal to make," Olive says. "No. I don't think you understand the nature of the offer I'm giving you. I'm letting you live. Whenever I want, I could have every single man under your command strangled to death by your collars, blown apart or force you to tear each other apart. You're going to follow my orders, or you're going to die." "Fine, at least guarantee me that you're not going to have us all killed once the ship is taken." "Sure, I can promise that," you say. Olive extends a hand, which you grip and shake extensively. Castus extends his hand, which you grab, but he twists your arm around, causing you to yelp painfully. He kicks away your foot and sends you to your knee, before bringing his sword up to your throat. "Dead," he says with a smile, before slashing open your throat. You gargle on your own blood, collapsing backwards. "Well, that was easy," Castus says. "Kill those fuckers!" Meliodas snarls. You raise your hand, focusing your mind, and Castus head snaps back, his neck breaking. Olive's eyes widen, before your send a fireball her way, consuming her in flames. You let out a final, desperate gasp, before your soul fades out.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Your eyes lull closed, and you lose consciousness. You awake an unknown time later, lying on the metal operating table. Magos Cern stands over you, washing her implements in a basin of water. She looks at you, her cold, red eyes peering into your soul. "Ah, you're awake. Good," she says. "What did you put into me?" you ask. "The biology of what I did is beyond you, flesh bag." "Can you dumb it down for me?" you ask. "Could one reduce concertos to the mumbled grunts of mutants?" Magos Cern asks indignantly. "Please?" "Fine. I increased the size of your heart by 40% and lungs by 12%, and added several veins and arteries leading directly to the brain from the heart. These actions increase the blood flow to your brain, and should hence increase psychic abilities. I added multiple microchips that breed monocytes, other white blood cells, platelets and other helpful things for your body. That was the bulk of my work. Other than that, it was just a medical check-up." "OK," you say. "I have a lot of important work to do, now. You should've had enough time to recover." Two of your massive space marine guards arrive, a roaring face on their thick helmets. "Here you are," Magos Cern says. "Guards, make sure to walk slow. If at any point the patient starts puking blood, let him sit down for ten, maybe fifteen minutes." "Shouldn't you keep him hearing for observation, then?" one of the guards ask. "I have far too much work to do," Magos Cern says. "Don't disturb me. If anything goes wrong, go to Genetor Corivan. He is very experienced with medical matters." "Yes, sir," the space marine says. Magos Cern quickly heads off, walking off to a row of elevators. The space marines stare at you, and you climb out of bed with a groan. "Ah, my head," you say. "You should have headaches for the next 48 hours," Magos Cern shouts, right before she disappears into an elevator. You stand, feeling a rush of blood hit your head. You walk after the space marines, along halls and up and down elevators, until you find yourself in the arena. Castus and Olive are there, mid-battle with each other. "Oh look, it's tweedle-dum and tweedle-fucking idiot," Meliodas says. "Not even a laugh? Oh wait, you didn't grow up with nursery rhymes, you're from a Feral world. My bad." Castus swings his sword at her, while Olive swings her rifle-axe up at his head. He rolls out of the way, kicking Olive's foot away and sending her to her knee, before booting her in the head. She collapses down, before rolling out of the way to avoid a downward stab by Castus. She grabs Castus' sword handle and punches him. Castus falls backwards, before taking up a fighting stance. Olive begins circling him, her gun-axe at the ready. She spots you, smiling. "Karth's here," she says. "Bullshit," Castus says, readying his sword. "Karth, tell him you're here," Olive says. "Yeah, I'm here," you say. Castus turns to look at you, but Olive charges, swinging her gun-axe. She knocks the feet away from Castus, dropping his knee down on Castus stomach. Castus grunts before Olive grabs her gun-axe and holds it to Castus throat. "Dead," she says. "No fair, we were supposed to stop when Karth got here," Castus says. "You're still dead," Olive smiles, standing up. Castus grabs Olive's wrist, pulling her forward so his sword pokes into her stomach. "Dead," he smiles. "Seriously?" Olive says, rolling her eyes. "Fine, I'm dead. Are we finished yet? The kid needs training." "Fine," Castus shrugs. "Let's start it." Castus draws a dagger from his belt, staring at it. The blade is a bright silver, with an odd pattern etched into it. It's handle is a bright, light blue, with a short, silver horn coming from the end of the handle. "Now, this is an absolute beauty. I really don't use it enough, so it's yours. Xenos-origin, so even owning it is heresy. The blade is razor sharp, it could cut through flesh and bone easier than it could through air. Here." Castus turns, tossing the dagger straight at your head. > You catch the knife You reach up and catch the knife, cutting your fingers with the blade, blood dripping down the blade. "Good catch," Castus says. "Try to catch the handle next time." You grab the knife by it's handle with your other hand, licking your cut fingers clean. You hold the knife, stabbing it forward. "What do you think?" Castus asks. "It's a knife," you say simply. "Yeah, it is. Do you like it? Does it feel good?" Castus says. "I don't know anything about knives. Maybe," you say. "Alright, first, we need to talk. Is anyone watching us? Like, are there cameras?" "No. Well yes, but they're offline," Olive says, resting her head on the butt of her axe-gun. "What is it?" "A plan is being formed. We're going to escape." "Escape?" Olive says, musing. "Who's on our side?" "We have a large amount of people on our side. Elios, Elizabeth and Durge are bringing the weight of their war-bands, as well as most, if not all, of the Guardsmen here. Then there's the Goliaths and the Tribals, both of whom are with us." "What...?" "Because I've done this twice before, I best say. We have no plans yet. They're to be decided. We have literally nothing. We just need to check whether you'll join us. Then, we'll get the leaders together to plan our to take over, and what to do with once we've actually done so." "Huh. Well, I'm in," Castus says. "What?" Olive asks, surprised. "Yeah, I'm in," Castus says. "We don't know the plan, we don't have any assurances that we won't be back-stabbed as soon as we take over, we..." "Olive, let's be smart here. If we don't rebel, we'll definitely either be killed fighting Kyros' war, killed trying to put down these fuckers' mutiny, or killed fighting another arena battle for these bastard's amusement." "If we rebel, we'll almost certainly be killed!" "Almost certainly is way better than definitely. Plus, we'll get to kill a few of Kyros' bastards before we go down." "Fine, I'm in, but I... we have a few demands," Olive says. "Go on," you say. You know the gladiators will be essential to your plans, so you really need to get them, but still, you don't want to devote to many resources to this issue. "I want instant freedom once we take-over. No more being locked up under the arena. I want my men to have free reign to travel around the ship. I want pay, do the men and women who fight and work for the ship actually get something from it. I want an increase in food rations, and better equipment than the shit we're given. I want actual medical care, on top of this." "That it?" you ask, annoyed with her large demands. It'll probably take a serious amount of resources to fulfill her request. You have a few options here. "What a fucking greedy bitch. This fucker needs a dick, I tell you that," Meliodas complains.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Your eyes lull closed, and you lose consciousness. You awake an unknown time later, lying on the metal operating table. Magos Cern stands over you, washing her implements in a basin of water. She looks at you, her cold, red eyes peering into your soul. "Ah, you're awake. Good," she says. "What did you put into me?" you ask. "The biology of what I did is beyond you, flesh bag." "Can you dumb it down for me?" you ask. "Could one reduce concertos to the mumbled grunts of mutants?" Magos Cern asks indignantly. "Please?" "Fine. I increased the size of your heart by 40% and lungs by 12%, and added several veins and arteries leading directly to the brain from the heart. These actions increase the blood flow to your brain, and should hence increase psychic abilities. I added multiple microchips that breed monocytes, other white blood cells, platelets and other helpful things for your body. That was the bulk of my work. Other than that, it was just a medical check-up." "OK," you say. "I have a lot of important work to do, now. You should've had enough time to recover." Two of your massive space marine guards arrive, a roaring face on their thick helmets. "Here you are," Magos Cern says. "Guards, make sure to walk slow. If at any point the patient starts puking blood, let him sit down for ten, maybe fifteen minutes." "Shouldn't you keep him hearing for observation, then?" one of the guards ask. "I have far too much work to do," Magos Cern says. "Don't disturb me. If anything goes wrong, go to Genetor Corivan. He is very experienced with medical matters." "Yes, sir," the space marine says. Magos Cern quickly heads off, walking off to a row of elevators. The space marines stare at you, and you climb out of bed with a groan. "Ah, my head," you say. "You should have headaches for the next 48 hours," Magos Cern shouts, right before she disappears into an elevator. You stand, feeling a rush of blood hit your head. You walk after the space marines, along halls and up and down elevators, until you find yourself in the arena. Castus and Olive are there, mid-battle with each other. "Oh look, it's tweedle-dum and tweedle-fucking idiot," Meliodas says. "Not even a laugh? Oh wait, you didn't grow up with nursery rhymes, you're from a Feral world. My bad." Castus swings his sword at her, while Olive swings her rifle-axe up at his head. He rolls out of the way, kicking Olive's foot away and sending her to her knee, before booting her in the head. She collapses down, before rolling out of the way to avoid a downward stab by Castus. She grabs Castus' sword handle and punches him. Castus falls backwards, before taking up a fighting stance. Olive begins circling him, her gun-axe at the ready. She spots you, smiling. "Karth's here," she says. "Bullshit," Castus says, readying his sword. "Karth, tell him you're here," Olive says. "Yeah, I'm here," you say. Castus turns to look at you, but Olive charges, swinging her gun-axe. She knocks the feet away from Castus, dropping his knee down on Castus stomach. Castus grunts before Olive grabs her gun-axe and holds it to Castus throat. "Dead," she says. "No fair, we were supposed to stop when Karth got here," Castus says. "You're still dead," Olive smiles, standing up. Castus grabs Olive's wrist, pulling her forward so his sword pokes into her stomach. "Dead," he smiles. "Seriously?" Olive says, rolling her eyes. "Fine, I'm dead. Are we finished yet? The kid needs training." "Fine," Castus shrugs. "Let's start it." Castus draws a dagger from his belt, staring at it. The blade is a bright silver, with an odd pattern etched into it. It's handle is a bright, light blue, with a short, silver horn coming from the end of the handle. "Now, this is an absolute beauty. I really don't use it enough, so it's yours. Xenos-origin, so even owning it is heresy. The blade is razor sharp, it could cut through flesh and bone easier than it could through air. Here." Castus turns, tossing the dagger straight at your head. > You levitate the knife towards you You raise your hand, pausing the blade in mid-air and levitating it towards you, catching it's handle. "Impressive party trick, kid," Castus says. You take a practice stab with the knife. "What do you think?" "It's a knife," you say simply. "Yeah, it is. Do you like it? Does it feel good?" Castus says. "I don't know anything about knives. Maybe," you say. "Alright, first, we need to talk. Is anyone watching us? Like, are there cameras?" "No. Well yes, but they're offline," Olive says, resting her head on the butt of her axe-gun. "What is it?" "A plan is being formed. We're going to escape." "Escape?" Olive says, musing. "Who's on our side?" "We have a large amount of people on our side. Elios, Elizabeth and Durge are bringing the weight of their war-bands, as well as most, if not all, of the Guardsmen here. Then there's the Goliaths and the Tribals, both of whom are with us." "What...?" "Because I've done this twice before, I best say. We have no plans yet. They're to be decided. We have literally nothing. We just need to check whether you'll join us. Then, we'll get the leaders together to plan our to take over, and what to do with once we've actually done so." "Huh. Well, I'm in," Castus says. "What?" Olive asks, surprised. "Yeah, I'm in," Castus says. "We don't know the plan, we don't have any assurances that we won't be back-stabbed as soon as we take over, we..." "Olive, let's be smart here. If we don't rebel, we'll definitely either be killed fighting Kyros' war, killed trying to put down these fuckers' mutiny, or killed fighting another arena battle for these bastard's amusement." "If we rebel, we'll almost certainly be killed!" "Almost certainly is way better than definitely. Plus, we'll get to kill a few of Kyros' bastards before we go down." "Fine, I'm in, but I... we have a few demands," Olive says. "Go on," you say. You know the gladiators will be essential to your plans, so you really need to get them, but still, you don't want to devote to many resources to this issue. "I want instant freedom once we take-over. No more being locked up under the arena. I want my men to have free reign to travel around the ship. I want pay, do the men and women who fight and work for the ship actually get something from it. I want an increase in food rations, and better equipment than the shit we're given. I want actual medical care, on top of this." "That it?" you ask, annoyed with her large demands. It'll probably take a serious amount of resources to fulfill her request. You have a few options here. "What a fucking greedy bitch. This fucker needs a dick, I tell you that," Meliodas complains.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Deal," you say. "Good, good," Cain nods, extending a hand. You grab his hand, and thankfully Cain doesn't attempt to squeeze, which would almost certainly result in your fragile bones shattering. You shake vigorously, and Cain attempts a smile. The corners of his mouth twist unnaturally high, revealing rows of serrated teeth, curved fangs, massive molars and many other weird, odd teeth, protruding from bloody, rotten gums. You smile in response, not willing to offend him. "The beast would've taken half of what he asked for," Meliodas says. "Why didn't you tell me that before?" you say angrily. "I presumed you knew," Meliodas replies. "Are you OK?" Cain says. "Tell you what?" "Uh, nothing. Sorry," you say. "OK. Good deal," Cain says, his face contorted in what you assume is his version of a raising of the eyebrow. "Alright, best get prepared for your operation before Magos Cern gets back." "Yeah, I should," you say. You walk over to your operating table and quickly get undressed, before lying down. After another minute or two, Magos Cern appears, pushing a tray in front of her. One of her metallic tendrils grabs a syringe filled with a pale, translucent liquid. "This might hurt a little. It will more likely hurt a lot more," she says. You let out a pained yelp as she jams the syringe into your neck. She begins pushing down on the plunger as what you hope is anesthetic is pumped into you. Warm hands embrace you, pulling you into the oblivion of unconsciousness. > You resist You shake your head, struggling to avoid falling into unconsciousness. You take in a deep breath, flinging the warm hands away from your mind. Magos Cern continues pressing down on the plunger, shooting the remaining fluid into your blood. Your mind is gripped by a scream for sleep. Perhaps you should just embrace it. > You resist Magos Cern notices your struggle with indifference, refilling her syringe with anesthetic and injecting it into you again, although you can't feel the needle pierce your skin. Your eyes flutter before they roll in the back of your head. As you lose the fight to resist the void of oblivion, in the back of your mind you hear voices. "Magos Cern, I polished the AI module." "Good, Adept. You have gained one step forward in receiving your cybernetic upgrades." "How long, master? My flesh is weak, my body frail, I crave the strength of steel." "Soon, Adept, soon. Do not bother me in a time like this! We are on the brink of discovery! We have a mind older than the Emperor himself. Fifteen thousand years old! Can you imagine the knowledge it holds? Prepare Primus for start-up. I believe now is the time. I must just play with Kyros' pet's flesh, and then we will work." "Yes, Magos. Understood, Magos." Then, you lose all resistance and sleep takes you, leaving you powerless in its dark embrace. You awake an unknown time later, lying on the metal operating table. Magos Cern stands over you, washing her implements in a basin of water. She looks at you, her cold, red eyes peering into your soul. "Ah, you're awake. Good," she says. "What did you put into me?" you ask. "The biology of what I did is beyond you, flesh bag." "Can you dumb it down for me?" you ask. "Could one reduce concertos to the mumbled grunts of mutants?" Magos Cern asks indignantly. "Please?" "Fine. I increased the size of your heart by 40% and lungs by 12%, and added several veins and arteries leading directly to the brain from the heart. These actions increase the blood flow to your brain, and should hence increase psychic abilities. I added multiple microchips that breed monocytes, other white blood cells, platelets and other helpful things for your body. That was the bulk of my work. Other than that, it was just a medical check-up." "OK," you say. "I have a lot of important work to do, now. You should've had enough time to recover." Two of your massive space marine guards arrive, a roaring face on their thick helmets. "Here you are," Magos Cern says. "Guards, make sure to walk slow. If at any point the patient starts puking blood, let him sit down for ten, maybe fifteen minutes." "Shouldn't you keep him hearing for observation, then?" one of the guards ask. "I have far too much work to do," Magos Cern says. "Don't disturb me. If anything goes wrong, go to Genetor Corivan. He is very experienced with medical matters." "Yes, sir," the space marine says. Magos Cern quickly heads off, walking off to a row of elevators. The space marines stare at you, and you climb out of bed with a groan. "Ah, my head," you say. "You should have headaches for the next 48 hours," Magos Cern shouts, right before she disappears into an elevator. You stand, feeling a rush of blood hit your head. You walk after the space marines, along halls and up and down elevators, until you find yourself in the arena. Castus and Olive are there, mid-battle with each other. "Oh look, it's tweedle-dum and tweedle-fucking idiot," Meliodas says. "Not even a laugh? Oh wait, you didn't grow up with nursery rhymes, you're from a Feral world. My bad." Castus swings his sword at her, while Olive swings her rifle-axe up at his head. He rolls out of the way, kicking Olive's foot away and sending her to her knee, before booting her in the head. She collapses down, before rolling out of the way to avoid a downward stab by Castus. She grabs Castus' sword handle and punches him. Castus falls backwards, before taking up a fighting stance. Olive begins circling him, her gun-axe at the ready. She spots you, smiling. "Karth's here," she says. "Bullshit," Castus says, readying his sword. "Karth, tell him you're here," Olive says. "Yeah, I'm here," you say. Castus turns to look at you, but Olive charges, swinging her gun-axe. She knocks the feet away from Castus, dropping his knee down on Castus stomach. Castus grunts before Olive grabs her gun-axe and holds it to Castus throat. "Dead," she says. "No fair, we were supposed to stop when Karth got here," Castus says. "You're still dead," Olive smiles, standing up. Castus grabs Olive's wrist, pulling her forward so his sword pokes into her stomach. "Dead," he smiles. "Seriously?" Olive says, rolling her eyes. "Fine, I'm dead. Are we finished yet? The kid needs training." "Fine," Castus shrugs. "Let's start it." Castus draws a dagger from his belt, staring at it. The blade is a bright silver, with an odd pattern etched into it. It's handle is a bright, light blue, with a short, silver horn coming from the end of the handle. "Now, this is an absolute beauty. I really don't use it enough, so it's yours. Xenos-origin, so even owning it is heresy. The blade is razor sharp, it could cut through flesh and bone easier than it could through air. Here." Castus turns, tossing the dagger straight at your head.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Oh, really?" Fay says smiling. "Don't you?" "Oh, yeah, yeah!" Fay says, smiling. "I was actually just going to ask you about that. I'm glad you said yes." Fay smiles, before leaning in and kissing you briefly on the lips. You stare into her bright green eyes, the split-second kiss lasting for infinitely longer, feeling the warmth of her lips flood into you, before she pulls back. "Well, that was nice. Ideally our next rendezvous is going to take place somewhere where we're not surrounded by our tribe and horrible guards who want us dead," Fay smiles. "Was that it, or was there something else?" "Yeah, we have something important to discuss." "Wasn't that important?" Fay asks, smiling. "Oh no,it was, I just... I meant important for the tribe, not just for us," you say, stumbling over your words. "It feels nice to see you've become as awkward as I just was," Fay giggles. "Now, stop spitting out words. Take a breath, and tell me what's so important." "Rebellion." "Oh?" "Kyros is mad and paranoid. He's either going to slit our throats or send us on an endless string of suicide missions. We need to do something, and I really need your help. A group of collaborators have planned to rise up, and rid ourselves of Kyros. Then, we take over. I need the support of your Tribals to do so. "Yeah, totally. Done." "Done?" "Yeah. If we don't escape, we die here. Also, they're your Tribals as much as mine. Who else is in on this?" Fay asks. "Elios, Durge and Elizabeth are all in. No doubt Calpurnia's man will help us," you say. "What about Cain and the twins?" "I haven't asked them yet, but we need to get them on board," you say. "Do we hae a solid plan yet?" Fay asks. "Not yet. We need to find out how many people we have fighting for us." "What happens after we take the ship," Fay asks, raising an eyebrow. "That is still to be decided. Once we have Cain. Castus and Olive behind us, we'll have bargaining power. So you're in?" "I'm in," Fay nods. "I'll have the message spread among the tribals." You notice one of your guards walking towards you, carrying a tray. You motion for Fay to quiet down, as the guard arrives putting the tray down on the table. "Eat," he says, in a cold voice like the scraping of a blade on rusted metal. You look at your food. There's a bowl of noodles and strips of thin, cured meat, a small bowl of green jelly with chunks of odd, alien fruit inside, a large plastic cup of wine and a small, dense biscuit-like cake. "Well, someone's being pampered," Fay says, smiling. "Clearly I'm just more important than you," you gloat as you have a forkful of noodles and meat. Fay grabs the biscuit cake from your tray, taking a bite. "Hey!" you say in annoyance, as Fay sticks her tongue out. You quickly eat your meal, polishing off the entire tray and gulping down the wine. Then, Magos Cern arrives. "Good, you've eaten," she says. "These operations will be safer if you've had a full stomach." "OK, I'm ready, let's go, you say. "Bye, Fay. See you soon." "See you later, Fay says, blowing a kiss. Magos Cern leads you out of the cafeteria and along the halls, off along halls and elevators. Eventually, you pass through the cyro-sleep section, arriving in a large operating room. Dozens of Goliaths are lying on the surgery tables, many halfway through surgery. A half dozen other Tech Priests wander around between the Goliaths, removing and adding flesh, bone, organs, cybernetic implants and other strange things. "I didn't know there were other Tech Priests," you note. "This ship is the size of a small moon. Did you think you've seen enough of it to accurately be able to say that we don't have something? I have scores of Tech Priests who followed me into the embrace of the Dark Gods," Magos Cern says. Magos Cern leads you to an operating table. "This is yours. Please get undressed and wait here, I need to grab my materials and equipment. Stay here." Magos Cern turns around, walking off, leaving you alone. You spot Cain, lying on his operating table, his chest cut open to reveal still functioning organs. You wonder how he can still be alive with such a hastily cut-up torso, before you wince as you see his eyes dart towards you and you realize he's conscious. Looking to see Magos Cern hobbling away, you hop off the operating table and walk over to him. "Commander Karth," Cain grunts. "Need something?" "I have... an offer." "An offer? An offer of what?" Cain says, absent-mindedly picking at a cut alongside his... or at least, one of his stomachs. "Freedom," you say, catching the monster's attention. "Go on," Cain says, furrowing his scarred brow and causing a thin stream of blood to pour from his horns. "We're planning an escape. We could use you and your men," you say. "We?" "Elios, Durge, Elizabeth, Fay, others," you say. "That's it, I think." "When?" "We don't have details, yet. We need a head count before we can start planning it." "Hmmm... I'm willing to give you control of my... "Goliaths", as you called them. But, I have a list of conditions that I want to be satisfied once we take the ship." "Go on," you say. "I want us to get names. Every Goliath who is capable of remembering and answering to a name will be called that instead of its serial number, by you and ALL other members of command. No more cyro-sleep. I want a bed for every single Goliath. I don't care if it's fine cloth or a slab of concrete, as long as it doesn't freeze them, it'll do us. I want free time that's not just killing." "Anything else?" you ask. "That's it," Cain says, spitting out a serrated teeth that's fallen free from his jaw. Cain's demands are far from unfair. Really, all he wants is slightly more rights for his Goliaths, which wouldn't even take any more resources. Still, you don't want the beast getting a big head. You ARE still in charge of not only his collar, but the collars of every single Goliath. All you need is a few threats, and the Goliaths will be yours. > You threaten Cain "No." "No?" "No. I don't think you understand the nature of the offer I'm giving you. I'm letting you live. Whenever I want, I could have every single man under your command strangled to death by your collars, blown apart or force you to tear each other apart. You're going to follow my orders, or you're going to die." You prepare yourself for Cain to strike, but he only lets out a low, rumbling growl. "What was that?" you ask suspiciously. "An order," Cain snarls. Suddenly, a massive fist smashes into your back. You fly forward, smacking into the operating table and onto the ground. You let out a pitiful moan, before Cain puts his massive foot on your head. "What orders do you have for me?" he asks. Cain attempts a triumphant yet terrifying smile. The corners of his mouth twist unnaturally high, revealing rows of serrated teeth, curved fangs, massive molars and many other weird, odd teeth, protruding from bloody, rotten gums. Cain raises his foot, before bringing it down and crushing your head. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Elios steps forward, knocking on the metal door. The guards open, immediately raising their bolters. Elios waves his hand. "You didn't see me here. The voice of Slaanesh calls you, and you're his now. Move aside, and tell no one I was here." "I... no... yes, sir," one says, stepping aside. You watch Elios stroll out of the room, giving a final smile and wave as he leaves the room. You get some sleep, lying wrapped up in your blankets. Blissfully, there's only a few dark, terror-filled dreams, the rest only filling your with a vague, uneasy sense of dread. You awaken to Magos Cern poking you in the stomach with a white-hot pincer. "AH!" you scream. "What the fuck?" "My diagnostics told me that I'd be able to wake you up 0.4 seconds faster this way. We need to go," Magos Cern says. "Where?" "First, you require food. Then, you'l get some implants. I'm going through some long overdue upgrades for the... "Goliaths", as you called them, and Kyros asked me to pencil you in for a few biological upgrades." "Then?" you ask "Melee practice. In wake of assassination threats, Kyros wants you to be able to fend off a melee assassination as easily as you could a ranged or psychic attack." "My powers can do that," you say. "You'd be run through before you could react. Castus and Olive will run through some drills to get your reaction time up and give you a few dodging techniques that will lend themselves to all your battles." "Then?" "By then, with the recovery time from the implants, your weak body will require sleep." "OK", you say. Magos Cern leads you out of the room, and along the hallways. You find yourself in a massive cafeteria. You walk forward, spotting Fay sitting alongside a badly burnt girl with a long braid wrapping around herself and another with a prosthetic arm replaced by a sharpened, mechanical claw. Fay looks up, noodles hanging from her mouth, spotting you. "Oh, Karth!" she says, waving, before noticing that her mouth is filled with noodles and blushing. You take a seat next to her, and she smiles. "So, how are you doing?" she asks. "We need to talk. Alone," you say, looking at the two tribals beside her. "Uh... OK," Fay says, motioning for the two tribals to move, which they quickly do. "Thanks," you say to the tribals as they walk off. "So? Is this about what I think it's about?" "What do you think it's about?" you ask, raising an eyebrow. "Well, you know... you want to speak to me alone... privately... so I kind of assume it's about us." "Yeah, of course it's about us, that's why we're both here to talk about it." "No, I mean... like, us us," Fay says, clearly frustrated by your failure to understand. "What?" "Well, like, do you want us to be a couple?" > You say "I really like you, but as a friend." "Oh, yeah, yeah, I agree," Fay says. "I feel the same way, I was actually really dreading telling you that, and I thought I'd have to tell you it now, but since we feel the way, it's OK now." "Oh, good, good." "So, what was that other thing?" Fay asks, rushing onto the next subject. "Rebellion." "Oh?" "Kyros is mad and paranoid. He's either going to slit our throats or send us on an endless string of suicide missions. We need to do something, and I really need your help. A group of collaborators have planned to rise up, and rid ourselves of Kyros. Then, we take over. I need the support of your Tribals to do so. "Yeah, totally. Done." "Done?" "Yeah. If we don't escape, we die here. Also, they're your Tribals as much as mine. Who else is in on this?" Fay asks. "Elios, Durge and Elizabeth are all in. No doubt Calpurnia's man will help us," you say. "What about Cain and the twins?" "I haven't asked them yet, but we need to get them on board," you say. "Do we hae a solid plan yet?" Fay asks. "Not yet. We need to find out how many people we have fighting for us." "What happens after we take the ship," Fay asks, raising an eyebrow. "That is still to be decided. Once we have Cain. Castus and Olive behind us, we'll have bargaining power. So you're in?" "I'm in," Fay nods. "I'll have the message spread among the tribals." You notice one of your guards walking towards you, carrying a tray. You motion for Fay to quiet down, as the guard arrives putting the tray down on the table. "Eat," he says, in a cold voice like the scraping of a blade on rusted metal. You look at your food. There's a bowl of noodles and strips of thin, cured meat, a small bowl of green jelly with chunks of odd, alien fruit inside, a large plastic cup of wine and a small, dense biscuit-like cake. "Well, someone's being pampered," Fay says, smiling. "Clearly I'm just more important than you," you gloat as you have a forkful of noodles and meat. Fay grabs the biscuit cake from your tray, taking a bite. "Hey!" you say in annoyance, as Fay sticks her tongue out. You quickly eat your meal, polishing off the entire tray and gulping down the wine. Then, Magos Cern arrives. "Good, you've eaten," she says. "These operations will be safer if you've had a full stomach." "OK, I'm ready, let's go, you say. "Bye, Fay. See you soon." "See you later, Fay says, looking a bit sullen, as you wonder whether that put down was too forward. Magos Cern leads you out of the cafeteria and along the halls, off along halls and elevators. Eventually, you pass through the cyro-sleep section, arriving in a large operating room. Dozens of Goliaths are lying on the surgery tables, many halfway through surgery. A half dozen other Tech Priests wander around between the Goliaths, removing and adding flesh, bone, organs, cybernetic implants and other strange things. "I didn't know there were other Tech Priests," you note. "This ship is the size of a small moon. Did you think you've seen enough of it to accurately be able to say that we don't have something? I have scores of Tech Priests who followed me into the embrace of the Dark Gods," Magos Cern says. Magos Cern leads you to an operating table. "This is yours. Please get undressed and wait here, I need to grab my materials and equipment. Stay here." Magos Cern turns around, walking off, leaving you alone. You spot Cain, lying on his operating table, his chest cut open to reveal still functioning organs. You wonder how he can still be alive with such a hastily cut-up torso, before you wince as you see his eyes dart towards you and you realize he's conscious. Looking to see Magos Cern hobbling away, you hop off the operating table and walk over to him. "Commander Karth," Cain grunts. "Need something?" "I have... an offer." "An offer? An offer of what?" Cain says, absent-mindedly picking at a cut alongside his... or at least, one of his stomachs. "Freedom," you say, catching the monster's attention. "Go on," Cain says, furrowing his scarred brow and causing a thin stream of blood to pour from his horns. "We're planning an escape. We could use you and your men," you say. "We?" "Elios, Durge, Elizabeth, Fay, others," you say. "That's it, I think." "When?" "We don't have details, yet. We need a head count before we can start planning it." "Hmmm... I'm willing to give you control of my... "Goliaths", as you called them. But, I have a list of conditions that I want to be satisfied once we take the ship." "Go on," you say. "I want us to get names. Every Goliath who is capable of remembering and answering to a name will be called that instead of its serial number, by you and ALL other members of command. No more cyro-sleep. I want a bed for every single Goliath. I don't care if it's fine cloth or a slab of concrete, as long as it doesn't freeze them, it'll do us. I want free time that's not just killing." "Anything else?" you ask. "That's it," Cain says, spitting out a serrated teeth that's fallen free from his jaw. Cain's demands are far from unfair. Really, all he wants is slightly more rights for his Goliaths, which wouldn't even take any more resources. Still, you don't want the beast getting a big head. You ARE still in charge of not only his collar, but the collars of every single Goliath. All you need is a few threats, and the Goliaths will be yours.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Karth!" Meliodas' voice says, appearing in your mind. "Look behind you, you fool!" You quickly twist around in bed, raising your fists and preparing to use what little psychic powers, to see Elios leaning in the doorway of your bathroom. "Shit! What the fuck are you doing!?" you shout. "Hmmm... a man can't just lean back and enjoy one of the finer sights in life?" Elios says, winking as he strolls confidently towards you. "Get...!" you try to speak, but he puts a finger against your lips, leaning in close. "Quiet, baby. No need to fret. I'm not here to give you any trouble. I'm hear to help you with a certain little... problem." Elios runs his hand along your bare chest and up to your collar, playfully tugging on it. You stare at him, waiting. "Well, let's be realistic here. We're going to be slaughtered. If we're lucky, we're going to be killed when Kyros leads his moronic charge against the Imperium. If we're unlucky, we're going to end up like Calpurnia, tortured to death by a paranoid Psyker." "You're at risk of being tortured to death. I never betrayed him," you say. "Oh, baby, why do you have to be so difficult?" Elios smiles, two of his fingers walking up your legs, slowly nearing your groin. "Baby, at the moment, Kyros is looking to eliminate those who are going to betray him. But he's growing paranoid. He'll end thinking you're going to betray him, whether you are or are not. Let's be fair, you do have motives. Your tribe destroyed or enslaved, forced to bear the troubles that a Psyker does? Hell, it wouldn't surprise me if you had an escape plan in the works. Hell, even if he doesn't, one of your men will act rebellious or a battle will go wrong, and you'll be blamed for it. You need to get with us, baby." "Let's say I'm considering it. What would it entail?" you ask. "You need to get the leaders on your side. Fay, Olive, Castus, whoever's in charge of those big monster boys I saw you working with earlier. Get them on your side, while I will talk to Elizabeth and Durge about maintaining the rebellious attitude amongst Calpurnia's boys, make sure they're still up for a little bit of mutiny." "What happens when we take the ship?" you ask. "That'll be decided once we've secured the other leaders. I'm sure they have demands of their own. So are you in?" "Hmmm... it's clearly our only option, but you should know that Elios both wants to fuck you over and straight up fuck you," Meliodas says. "I'm pretty sure my other choice is death. That's not even a choice," you say. "Well, it's the one I'm giving you, baby," Elios says,gently flicking the tip of your dick, causing you to yelp and scuttle back on your bed. > You disagree "No." "No?" Elios says, taken aback. "I'm not joining you. He knows what you're planning. I'm not joining your death trap." "So be it," he says, a sneer forming on his face. Elios steps forward, knocking on the metal door. The guards open, immediately raising their bolters. Elios waves his hand. "You didn't see me here. The voice of Slaanesh calls you, and you're his now. Move aside, and tell no one I was her," Elios says, strolling forward, leaving without looking at you. In the next few weeks, you're quickly proven right. Elios is first. When he's found, he's had his limps slowly sanded off, before being thrown in a pit with mutants who tore him apart. A "mysterious" assassin attempts to kill Elizabeth, but Durge fends her off, only for a "malfunction" to destroy him the next day, incinerating him in a single blast. Elizabeth is killed by one of the ship's macro-cannons, taking out the shuttle they were going on, because of a sensor malfunction identifying it as hostile. With his threats to power gone, the assault on the Imperium is on. The first few worlds fall with ease, as they're unprepared for the level of firepower that Kyros is bringing to the table. Still, issues arise. You're reinforced by those recruited from the conquered realms as well as throngs of war-bands coming to join your invasion. Still, Kyros gets greedy. He attempts to take on a Forge World, a world literally covered with layers of factories, run by the cyborg-engineers that are part of the machine-worshipping cult known as the Mechnicus. Kyros' grand plans to have a Forge World producing endless war machines are ruined when the planet's orbital defenses take out much of your fleet, and in the ensuing battle the factories are leveled. When Kyros finally takes the planet, it's nothing but a smoking rock. Everything falls apart after that. In a desperate attempt to capture geneseed stores to allow him to take over the home world of a Space Marine chapter known as the Horned Kings. The chapter is wiped out, but again Kyros gains nothing as the last act of the Chapter Master is to detonate their geneseed stores. At this point, Kyros' forces are a pale shadow of their previous selves. Cain and most of the Goliaths were taken out as their landing pods were wiped out in an attempt to take the Forge World, and the gladiators are wiped out by a suicidal charge by the Iron Kings. They're not the only ones gone. Fay is killed, along with many of the tribals, in the Genesee stores' destruction. It's only at that point that you truly stop caring. Your tribe is gone, only a few faces so grief-stricken you can barely recognize them remaining. You don't care if you reach Terra. You don't care if you live. You don't care if you die. You just don't care, about anything. You find yourself on some war-stricken world, killing. Scores of refugees are wiped out as your hand waves and warpfire spurts from the earth. Once, you would've have wanted to hurt innocents. You wouldn't have done it. Now, you feel nothing as you smell their cooked flesh. A Space Marine charges towards you, but you stare at him. The Space Marine screams as you force him to tear his own arms off, tossing them aside and having tentacles rapidly grow out of his arm sockets, before his mind is corrupted and he charges, roaring towards his allies as he begins to tear them apart. You watch as a Dreadnought's legs buckle under your telekinesis, sending it toppling and tumbling down before it explodes. You levitate a Guardsman into the air as he howls in terror, be... The earth shutters as artillery booms, sending you into the air. Artillery tears through the earth, and you slam into an APC. You hastily stand, to see dozens of refugees piling out of the crippled APC. You see to your surprise Tribals shooting at you and the other refugees, bullets thudding into the metal next to you, before they're killed by bolter fire. You look at your reflection in the half-broken window of a destroyed building, and realize why they were firing. With your now torn clothes and dirt-covered face, you are now indistinguishable from the refugees you've been killing. You hear a dozen monstrous roars from your allies off towards your right, signifying a charge, before it's answered by the shouts of the Imperial Guard and Space Marine preparing a counter-charge. You could try to escape this. Hide amongst the refugees. Find a way out of this life. But what would be the point? You hear the charge nearing. Damn Kyros, putting you in this situation. Maybe you should be the one to finish his mad invasion? Or maybe you should return to what you know, and fight? > You attack the Space Marines and Imperial Guard Fear the Psyker You turn, to see dozens of colored, heavily armored bodies making a charge. You let out a psychic scream, destroying eardrums and leaving the closest to you collapsing on the ground and howling in pain. You fire a long stream of flames, engulfing another two. From then on, it's a blur. Warpfire flies from you in a whirlwind of flaming death. Psychic electricity runs along your wrists and melts bone, fries skin and takes life. Bolts of energy take out any stupid enough to near you. You take fire, though. You dodge most, shield yourself from most of what remains, but a few get through. By the end of this, blood pours from your wounds and you feel the life drain from you. You continue fighting, breaking and shattering all those before you. Your life has become a blaze, burning all that nears to cinders. Like a blaze, it begins to blaze out. Eventually, you find yourself on your knees, continuing to wipe out dozens of your enemies, though lacking the strength to stand up. You let out a final roar, releasing a burst of psychic energy, before your soul is violently rendered from you. Although Kyros takes the planet, his forces are nothing more. They take two more worlds before being wiped out as the Ultramarines, Bronze-born and Lead Vipers wipe them out to the last man. Still, Kyros name is barely known. It's another name that becomes commonplace through the Imperium, as a terrifying reminder of why Psykers need to be crushed or imprisoned: Karth. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"No." "No?" Elios says, taken aback. "I'm not joining you. He knows what you're planning. I'm not joining your death trap." "So be it," he says, a sneer forming on his face. Elios steps forward, knocking on the metal door. The guards open, immediately raising their bolters. Elios waves his hand. "You didn't see me here. The voice of Slaanesh calls you, and you're his now. Move aside, and tell no one I was her," Elios says, strolling forward, leaving without looking at you. In the next few weeks, you're quickly proven right. Elios is first. When he's found, he's had his limps slowly sanded off, before being thrown in a pit with mutants who tore him apart. A "mysterious" assassin attempts to kill Elizabeth, but Durge fends her off, only for a "malfunction" to destroy him the next day, incinerating him in a single blast. Elizabeth is killed by one of the ship's macro-cannons, taking out the shuttle they were going on, because of a sensor malfunction identifying it as hostile. With his threats to power gone, the assault on the Imperium is on. The first few worlds fall with ease, as they're unprepared for the level of firepower that Kyros is bringing to the table. Still, issues arise. You're reinforced by those recruited from the conquered realms as well as throngs of war-bands coming to join your invasion. Still, Kyros gets greedy. He attempts to take on a Forge World, a world literally covered with layers of factories, run by the cyborg-engineers that are part of the machine-worshipping cult known as the Mechnicus. Kyros' grand plans to have a Forge World producing endless war machines are ruined when the planet's orbital defenses take out much of your fleet, and in the ensuing battle the factories are leveled. When Kyros finally takes the planet, it's nothing but a smoking rock. Everything falls apart after that. In a desperate attempt to capture geneseed stores to allow him to take over the home world of a Space Marine chapter known as the Horned Kings. The chapter is wiped out, but again Kyros gains nothing as the last act of the Chapter Master is to detonate their geneseed stores. At this point, Kyros' forces are a pale shadow of their previous selves. Cain and most of the Goliaths were taken out as their landing pods were wiped out in an attempt to take the Forge World, and the gladiators are wiped out by a suicidal charge by the Iron Kings. They're not the only ones gone. Fay is killed, along with many of the tribals, in the Genesee stores' destruction. It's only at that point that you truly stop caring. Your tribe is gone, only a few faces so grief-stricken you can barely recognize them remaining. You don't care if you reach Terra. You don't care if you live. You don't care if you die. You just don't care, about anything. You find yourself on some war-stricken world, killing. Scores of refugees are wiped out as your hand waves and warpfire spurts from the earth. Once, you would've have wanted to hurt innocents. You wouldn't have done it. Now, you feel nothing as you smell their cooked flesh. A Space Marine charges towards you, but you stare at him. The Space Marine screams as you force him to tear his own arms off, tossing them aside and having tentacles rapidly grow out of his arm sockets, before his mind is corrupted and he charges, roaring towards his allies as he begins to tear them apart. You watch as a Dreadnought's legs buckle under your telekinesis, sending it toppling and tumbling down before it explodes. You levitate a Guardsman into the air as he howls in terror, be... The earth shutters as artillery booms, sending you into the air. Artillery tears through the earth, and you slam into an APC. You hastily stand, to see dozens of refugees piling out of the crippled APC. You see to your surprise Tribals shooting at you and the other refugees, bullets thudding into the metal next to you, before they're killed by bolter fire. You look at your reflection in the half-broken window of a destroyed building, and realize why they were firing. With your now torn clothes and dirt-covered face, you are now indistinguishable from the refugees you've been killing. You hear a dozen monstrous roars from your allies off towards your right, signifying a charge, before it's answered by the shouts of the Imperial Guard and Space Marine preparing a counter-charge. You could try to escape this. Hide amongst the refugees. Find a way out of this life. But what would be the point? You hear the charge nearing. Damn Kyros, putting you in this situation. Maybe you should be the one to finish his mad invasion? Or maybe you should return to what you know, and fight? > You attack Kyros' forces Ending the Crusade You turn, to see Chaos Space Marines, Traitor Guard, Mutants, Tribals, Goliaths and Gladiators charging onto the battle. Far in the distance, floating high above the forces, is Kyros. You know what needs to be done. You leap into the air, flying directly towards Kyros with a roar. You release waves of warpfire and psychic energy, killing dozens of people around you, but that's just a side-note to your main foe. You slam into Kyros, wrapping your hands around his throat. You begin to crush his throat, screaming, as Kyros immediately begin to activate your collar, strangling the life out of you. You don't care. You feel your trachea explode, but you don't care, you only keep strangling. As the two of you fight, you release waves of psychic energy, killing scores of men around you. You let out a scream, transfering all your energy into your hands, and Kyros screams in pain and terror, before you tear his head clean from his head. IN a final scream, you release your hold on line, adding all your remaining life and energy into the psychic blast Kyros releases upon his death, wiping out much of Kyros force. With your move, Kyros' forces are stopped. Without a leader, they are broken on that planet. Magos Cern is taken down attempting to flee the planet, while Chapter Master Taj is killed in a suicidal charge. Kyros' forces take so many losses in you and Kyros' battle and are so confused that they're crushed by the following charge, leaving few alive. Guardsmen who survive note the suicidal rampage you went on with your final breath. Many wonder if, instilled with an ounce of the God-Emperor's courage, you sacrificed herself to take out the monster Kyros was and the monster he made you. Of course, these thoughts would be heresy, so known dare to even think it aloud in there head. Still, the belief persists, to whatever degree, that your death meant something.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"No." "No?" Elios says, taken aback. "I'm not joining you. He knows what you're planning. I'm not joining your death trap." "So be it," he says, a sneer forming on his face. Elios steps forward, knocking on the metal door. The guards open, immediately raising their bolters. Elios waves his hand. "You didn't see me here. The voice of Slaanesh calls you, and you're his now. Move aside, and tell no one I was her," Elios says, strolling forward, leaving without looking at you. In the next few weeks, you're quickly proven right. Elios is first. When he's found, he's had his limps slowly sanded off, before being thrown in a pit with mutants who tore him apart. A "mysterious" assassin attempts to kill Elizabeth, but Durge fends her off, only for a "malfunction" to destroy him the next day, incinerating him in a single blast. Elizabeth is killed by one of the ship's macro-cannons, taking out the shuttle they were going on, because of a sensor malfunction identifying it as hostile. With his threats to power gone, the assault on the Imperium is on. The first few worlds fall with ease, as they're unprepared for the level of firepower that Kyros is bringing to the table. Still, issues arise. You're reinforced by those recruited from the conquered realms as well as throngs of war-bands coming to join your invasion. Still, Kyros gets greedy. He attempts to take on a Forge World, a world literally covered with layers of factories, run by the cyborg-engineers that are part of the machine-worshipping cult known as the Mechnicus. Kyros' grand plans to have a Forge World producing endless war machines are ruined when the planet's orbital defenses take out much of your fleet, and in the ensuing battle the factories are leveled. When Kyros finally takes the planet, it's nothing but a smoking rock. Everything falls apart after that. In a desperate attempt to capture geneseed stores to allow him to take over the home world of a Space Marine chapter known as the Horned Kings. The chapter is wiped out, but again Kyros gains nothing as the last act of the Chapter Master is to detonate their geneseed stores. At this point, Kyros' forces are a pale shadow of their previous selves. Cain and most of the Goliaths were taken out as their landing pods were wiped out in an attempt to take the Forge World, and the gladiators are wiped out by a suicidal charge by the Iron Kings. They're not the only ones gone. Fay is killed, along with many of the tribals, in the Genesee stores' destruction. It's only at that point that you truly stop caring. Your tribe is gone, only a few faces so grief-stricken you can barely recognize them remaining. You don't care if you reach Terra. You don't care if you live. You don't care if you die. You just don't care, about anything. You find yourself on some war-stricken world, killing. Scores of refugees are wiped out as your hand waves and warpfire spurts from the earth. Once, you would've have wanted to hurt innocents. You wouldn't have done it. Now, you feel nothing as you smell their cooked flesh. A Space Marine charges towards you, but you stare at him. The Space Marine screams as you force him to tear his own arms off, tossing them aside and having tentacles rapidly grow out of his arm sockets, before his mind is corrupted and he charges, roaring towards his allies as he begins to tear them apart. You watch as a Dreadnought's legs buckle under your telekinesis, sending it toppling and tumbling down before it explodes. You levitate a Guardsman into the air as he howls in terror, be... The earth shutters as artillery booms, sending you into the air. Artillery tears through the earth, and you slam into an APC. You hastily stand, to see dozens of refugees piling out of the crippled APC. You see to your surprise Tribals shooting at you and the other refugees, bullets thudding into the metal next to you, before they're killed by bolter fire. You look at your reflection in the half-broken window of a destroyed building, and realize why they were firing. With your now torn clothes and dirt-covered face, you are now indistinguishable from the refugees you've been killing. You hear a dozen monstrous roars from your allies off towards your right, signifying a charge, before it's answered by the shouts of the Imperial Guard and Space Marine preparing a counter-charge. You could try to escape this. Hide amongst the refugees. Find a way out of this life. But what would be the point? You hear the charge nearing. Damn Kyros, putting you in this situation. Maybe you should be the one to finish his mad invasion? Or maybe you should return to what you know, and fight? > You hide amongst the refugees You successfully hide amongst the refugees, and are transported to a nearby evacuation facility. You're given a cheap meal of Grox Jerky and soup, before being put into a massive fenced off area. Unfortunately, soon you learn that you overestimated how easy this would be. "Ah, an inquisitor has arrived. We're going to die here." Meliodas says, as you hear his voice for the first time in a while. You spot an Inquisitor, a heavily armored agent of the Imperium built for rooting out Chaos and Heresy. He stands, tall and heavily armored, a longsword glowing faintly blue clutched in one hand and a bolt pistol in the other. At his side is a grizzled soldier in Carapace armor holding a Flamer and snarling her scarred face as passer-bys, a man in browns robes holding a huge chainsword and a heavily cybernetically-upgraded Tech Priest. You wait patiently, attempting to hide every ounce of your power. "It's not going to work," Meliodas says. "He's going to find us. You're going to die here. You can get revenge, though. Let me take you. Let me take hold of your body, and open a pathway through the Warp. I can summon endless hordes of daemons to this world, wipe out that inquisitor, gain your vengeance, and allow me power. We have a chance now." He strolls along, stopping next to you. He looks down, raising an eyebrow. "Are we experiencing more Warp Storms, Engsineer Low?" he asks. "No, sir," the tech-priest says in a monotone voice. The inquisitor rapidly raises a bolt pistol, aiming at you head as he swings the longsword. "It's Karst! TAKE HIM DOWN!" he screams. "Now, now! We can crush them! You're already dead. They can be too!" Meliodas howls in your mind. > You face the bullets You close your eyes, and soon, the world is taken away. You hope to find a peace in death you could never find in sleep.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You successfully hide amongst the refugees, and are transported to a nearby evacuation facility. You're given a cheap meal of Grox Jerky and soup, before being put into a massive fenced off area. Unfortunately, soon you learn that you overestimated how easy this would be. "Ah, an inquisitor has arrived. We're going to die here." Meliodas says, as you hear his voice for the first time in a while. You spot an Inquisitor, a heavily armored agent of the Imperium built for rooting out Chaos and Heresy. He stands, tall and heavily armored, a longsword glowing faintly blue clutched in one hand and a bolt pistol in the other. At his side is a grizzled soldier in Carapace armor holding a Flamer and snarling her scarred face as passer-bys, a man in browns robes holding a huge chainsword and a heavily cybernetically-upgraded Tech Priest. You wait patiently, attempting to hide every ounce of your power. "It's not going to work," Meliodas says. "He's going to find us. You're going to die here. You can get revenge, though. Let me take you. Let me take hold of your body, and open a pathway through the Warp. I can summon endless hordes of daemons to this world, wipe out that inquisitor, gain your vengeance, and allow me power. We have a chance now." He strolls along, stopping next to you. He looks down, raising an eyebrow. "Are we experiencing more Warp Storms, Engsineer Low?" he asks. "No, sir," the tech-priest says in a monotone voice. The inquisitor rapidly raises a bolt pistol, aiming at you head as he swings the longsword. "It's Karst! TAKE HIM DOWN!" he screams. "Now, now! We can crush them! You're already dead. They can be too!" Meliodas howls in your mind. > You try to reason with him "Wait! You...!" The inquisitor fires, and the bolts slam into your skull, ending your life. You hope to find a peace in death you could never find in sleep.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You successfully hide amongst the refugees, and are transported to a nearby evacuation facility. You're given a cheap meal of Grox Jerky and soup, before being put into a massive fenced off area. Unfortunately, soon you learn that you overestimated how easy this would be. "Ah, an inquisitor has arrived. We're going to die here." Meliodas says, as you hear his voice for the first time in a while. You spot an Inquisitor, a heavily armored agent of the Imperium built for rooting out Chaos and Heresy. He stands, tall and heavily armored, a longsword glowing faintly blue clutched in one hand and a bolt pistol in the other. At his side is a grizzled soldier in Carapace armor holding a Flamer and snarling her scarred face as passer-bys, a man in browns robes holding a huge chainsword and a heavily cybernetically-upgraded Tech Priest. You wait patiently, attempting to hide every ounce of your power. "It's not going to work," Meliodas says. "He's going to find us. You're going to die here. You can get revenge, though. Let me take you. Let me take hold of your body, and open a pathway through the Warp. I can summon endless hordes of daemons to this world, wipe out that inquisitor, gain your vengeance, and allow me power. We have a chance now." He strolls along, stopping next to you. He looks down, raising an eyebrow. "Are we experiencing more Warp Storms, Engsineer Low?" he asks. "No, sir," the tech-priest says in a monotone voice. The inquisitor rapidly raises a bolt pistol, aiming at you head as he swings the longsword. "It's Karst! TAKE HIM DOWN!" he screams. "Now, now! We can crush them! You're already dead. They can be too!" Meliodas howls in your mind. > You try to fight You leap up, but the Inquisitor is trained for this. He knocks you back with a pychic blast, and the sword bites into your neck, draining your lifeforce and killing you instantly. You hope to find a peace in death you could never find in sleep.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You successfully hide amongst the refugees, and are transported to a nearby evacuation facility. You're given a cheap meal of Grox Jerky and soup, before being put into a massive fenced off area. Unfortunately, soon you learn that you overestimated how easy this would be. "Ah, an inquisitor has arrived. We're going to die here." Meliodas says, as you hear his voice for the first time in a while. You spot an Inquisitor, a heavily armored agent of the Imperium built for rooting out Chaos and Heresy. He stands, tall and heavily armored, a longsword glowing faintly blue clutched in one hand and a bolt pistol in the other. At his side is a grizzled soldier in Carapace armor holding a Flamer and snarling her scarred face as passer-bys, a man in browns robes holding a huge chainsword and a heavily cybernetically-upgraded Tech Priest. You wait patiently, attempting to hide every ounce of your power. "It's not going to work," Meliodas says. "He's going to find us. You're going to die here. You can get revenge, though. Let me take you. Let me take hold of your body, and open a pathway through the Warp. I can summon endless hordes of daemons to this world, wipe out that inquisitor, gain your vengeance, and allow me power. We have a chance now." He strolls along, stopping next to you. He looks down, raising an eyebrow. "Are we experiencing more Warp Storms, Engsineer Low?" he asks. "No, sir," the tech-priest says in a monotone voice. The inquisitor rapidly raises a bolt pistol, aiming at you head as he swings the longsword. "It's Karst! TAKE HIM DOWN!" he screams. "Now, now! We can crush them! You're already dead. They can be too!" Meliodas howls in your mind. > You follow Meliodas' plan Daemonic Pawn You release yourself, allowing Meliodas to take control. Your soul is burnt out, in a quick and slightly painful action, and your life is gone. You hope to find a peace in death you could never find in sleep. The planet is soon overwhelmed. In the death of your soul, Meliodas opens a portal to the Warp. He manifests, alongside endless daemon armies. The inquisitor barely manages to react before he's wiped out. Soon, the world is taken. Ironically, a bitter alliance is formed between Kyros and the forces of the Imperium in an attempt to hold back the daemons who care not for Kyros' delusions of grandeur or supposed "loyalty" to the Dark Gods. Soon, the planet is theirs. The planet's populace is wiped out, and warp storms form, taking the planet back to the Chaos of the warp. The last sound on the planet, before it's plunged into the warp, is Meliodas' laughter. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"No." "No?" Elios says, taken aback. "I'm not joining you. He knows what you're planning. I'm not joining your death trap." "So be it," he says, a sneer forming on his face. Elios steps forward, knocking on the metal door. The guards open, immediately raising their bolters. Elios waves his hand. "You didn't see me here. The voice of Slaanesh calls you, and you're his now. Move aside, and tell no one I was her," Elios says, strolling forward, leaving without looking at you. In the next few weeks, you're quickly proven right. Elios is first. When he's found, he's had his limps slowly sanded off, before being thrown in a pit with mutants who tore him apart. A "mysterious" assassin attempts to kill Elizabeth, but Durge fends her off, only for a "malfunction" to destroy him the next day, incinerating him in a single blast. Elizabeth is killed by one of the ship's macro-cannons, taking out the shuttle they were going on, because of a sensor malfunction identifying it as hostile. With his threats to power gone, the assault on the Imperium is on. The first few worlds fall with ease, as they're unprepared for the level of firepower that Kyros is bringing to the table. Still, issues arise. You're reinforced by those recruited from the conquered realms as well as throngs of war-bands coming to join your invasion. Still, Kyros gets greedy. He attempts to take on a Forge World, a world literally covered with layers of factories, run by the cyborg-engineers that are part of the machine-worshipping cult known as the Mechnicus. Kyros' grand plans to have a Forge World producing endless war machines are ruined when the planet's orbital defenses take out much of your fleet, and in the ensuing battle the factories are leveled. When Kyros finally takes the planet, it's nothing but a smoking rock. Everything falls apart after that. In a desperate attempt to capture geneseed stores to allow him to take over the home world of a Space Marine chapter known as the Horned Kings. The chapter is wiped out, but again Kyros gains nothing as the last act of the Chapter Master is to detonate their geneseed stores. At this point, Kyros' forces are a pale shadow of their previous selves. Cain and most of the Goliaths were taken out as their landing pods were wiped out in an attempt to take the Forge World, and the gladiators are wiped out by a suicidal charge by the Iron Kings. They're not the only ones gone. Fay is killed, along with many of the tribals, in the Genesee stores' destruction. It's only at that point that you truly stop caring. Your tribe is gone, only a few faces so grief-stricken you can barely recognize them remaining. You don't care if you reach Terra. You don't care if you live. You don't care if you die. You just don't care, about anything. You find yourself on some war-stricken world, killing. Scores of refugees are wiped out as your hand waves and warpfire spurts from the earth. Once, you would've have wanted to hurt innocents. You wouldn't have done it. Now, you feel nothing as you smell their cooked flesh. A Space Marine charges towards you, but you stare at him. The Space Marine screams as you force him to tear his own arms off, tossing them aside and having tentacles rapidly grow out of his arm sockets, before his mind is corrupted and he charges, roaring towards his allies as he begins to tear them apart. You watch as a Dreadnought's legs buckle under your telekinesis, sending it toppling and tumbling down before it explodes. You levitate a Guardsman into the air as he howls in terror, be... The earth shutters as artillery booms, sending you into the air. Artillery tears through the earth, and you slam into an APC. You hastily stand, to see dozens of refugees piling out of the crippled APC. You see to your surprise Tribals shooting at you and the other refugees, bullets thudding into the metal next to you, before they're killed by bolter fire. You look at your reflection in the half-broken window of a destroyed building, and realize why they were firing. With your now torn clothes and dirt-covered face, you are now indistinguishable from the refugees you've been killing. You hear a dozen monstrous roars from your allies off towards your right, signifying a charge, before it's answered by the shouts of the Imperial Guard and Space Marine preparing a counter-charge. You could try to escape this. Hide amongst the refugees. Find a way out of this life. But what would be the point? You hear the charge nearing. Damn Kyros, putting you in this situation. Maybe you should be the one to finish his mad invasion? Or maybe you should return to what you know, and fight? > You just walk into the battlefield and let it end You stroll forward into the battlefield, watching as dozens of brightly colored and heavily armored Space Marines near you. They raise their weapons and fire, as others attempt to get to your with chainswords. You offer no resistance. You don't attempt to dodge the fire, or to block it, or even move. You feel the shells burst through, your organs being decimated. As you collapse back in a pool of blood, you hope death will give you the peace you could never get from sleep.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You follow Kyros, as you head to the arena. You reach the doors that would lead into it, but instead oof entering you go off to a small elevator behind it. You enter, and it slowly begins descending. It opens, revealing the underhive of the arena. There's dozen of cages, holding exotic beasts and dangerous Xenos. You see a half dozen thick, heavily muscled, green-skinned Orks in a cage, their necks chained to the wall. They're howling and roaring, tugging at their chains. Surprisingly, while most shout in their barbaric, guttural language, one seems to speak yours. "Humie! Humie! Get me free! Get me free!" he shouts. "I is gonna let you live, even give ya a bitta loot and an escape pod if ya let me free!" "Don't respond!" someone further down the catacombs that lay beneath the arena shouts. "It only encourages Ol' Dak!" "Hmmm... this Ork must be one of the greatest speakers of his kind," Meliodas points out. "Of course to us he's a fucking idiot." The ork's eyes narrow, before he begins howling in frustration and smacking his hands against his own head, a heavy thud emanating as his muscled fists slam into his thick skull. You continue walking, passing amazing and fantastic creatures and gladiators. There's a tentacled slug-man with a large beak and dozens of eyes peppered around his body which is huddled up in the corner of it's cage, a trio of horrible bird-hound creatures that scratch at their bars, a massive human wearing what appears to be an iron cage with hundreds of inward pointing nails who rams himself against the cage wall, his body shredded to such an extent you're amazed he's not dead yet, a multi-legged, horned creature that looks almost cute. Finally, you reach a long hallway, with thick, heavy metal doors spread along the hallway. An eye peers out of a door eye-slot, staring at you. "Hello there. Do we have more fighters, or...? Oh wait, it's them. Terrific." The eye disappears, and the slot closes. Kyros takes out a datapad, pressing several buttons before the door slowly slides open, revealing a large open area. Bunk beds line the wall, with a bunch of young men and women, the oldest in their late twenties and the youngest in their mid-teens. They wear very little armor, all of which is either leather or light combat armor. They sit around a fire, roasting chunks of meat on sticks in it. Two of the gladiators lean against the beds nearest to you, staring at you. One is a tall, muscled and tanned, with long blond hair and sparking green eyes. She holds a long, rifle-like gun with an axe blade made into the barrel with a grip under it. The other is shorter, with similarly tanned skin, with playful green eyes and curly brown hair, holding a curved sword and a Plasma pistol. They both look to be in their late teens or early twenties at latest. "Is that a fire?" Fay asks. "Are they armed?" you also. "Yes and yes," the male says, turning to the girl. "This question game is fun." "The fire's below a vent that's sending the smoke... somewhere. We weren't exactly given schematics of this place, all we know is the smoke doesn't bother us. And we're allowed weapons to keep the others in check. Even if we both went for Kyros, our minds would be shattered before we could raise our weapons," the girl says. "Nah, I could at least start a swing before I was killed." "These are the Twins. They lead the Gladiator-Slaves. Now, introduce yourselves," Kyros says. "I'm Castus," the boy smiles, staring at the pair of you. His eyes flicker, as he looks over Fay. He appears to be checking her out. You feel like punching him in the throat, but refrain. "You're a jealous one, aren't you?" Meliodas says. "I'm Olive," the girl says, extending a hand, which you grab and shake before Fay does the same. "So, is there a reason you're here?" Castus asks. "Fay and Karth will be taking command of the gladiators. They are my lieutenants, and will command a segment of our army, the slaves." "Oh, terrific. We've been shafted," Castus says. "I'm sure Kyros will want us to have an advisor position to assist Fay and Karth," Olive says. "Correct," Kyros says. "Well, there might be an issue with that," Castus says. "You see, both Fay and Karth have a history of... well, murdering my men. Pitting the Kyros Jr and Magos Cern's latest brand of super-freaks against us has led to a lot of men being, quite understandably, pissed with the guys who hacked apart, or psychically exploded, or simply beat their friends upside the head until they went comatose." "If you want, we can have the dissenters flailed alive. Simply point them out, and I'll have them broken. Is that preferable?" Castus goes quiet. "As I thought," Kyros says with a smile. "Make sure the men know to follow orders. Now, it's late, and these guys need sleep. Is anything else needed?" "I suppose not," Olive says. "Well, we need a lot, but nothing we're realistically getting anytime soon," Castus says. Kyros stares at Castus, fire beginning to run along his body. "Nothing needed, sir," Castus says. "Good. Fay, Karth, let's go," Kyros says. Kyros swivels around, walking out of the room. You quickly follow him, and the massive metal door shuts behind you. "So, we'll escort Fay back to the Uwais dorms, and then send you to your room," Kyros says. "Well you know, Karth's room is closer. I could just spend the time in his," Fay suggests. "It would give us some time to go over battle plans now that we know what our men are capable of, and I can inform him of what the Uwais tribe are like in battle..." "Really? That's the reason? That's the reason you're going for?" Kyros asks, raising an eyebrow. "No." > You accept Kyros' decision "Fine," you say dejectedly. "Jeez, Karth, your stubbornness will serve us well in time," Fay says, looking annoyed at you. You arrive at the doors to your cell, and Kyros opens it. "Very well," Kyros says. "Inside." You look at Fay, who smiles at you despite still looking annoyed. "Bye, Karth," she says, giving a short little wave. "Bye, Fay," you reply. The doors are shut, and you walk over to your bed, collapsing on it. Only now do you realize how exhausted you are. You've spent all day walking, which again isn't exactly your specialty. You close your eyes, and soon sleep takes you. Thankfully, the twilight stage where your soul can rest and your exhausted mind can find peace, lasts extra long. Of course, it doesn't take long before the nightmares hit.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Alright," Cain sleeps. "What else?" "Nothing else is required," Magos Cern says. "Return to your pod." Cain nods, before walking back into his pod. The cyro-pod shuts, leaving Cain back to his cold, endless sleep. "We should continue," Magos Cern says. "I still have to show you the gladiator slaves who you'll take under you command and the Uwais Tribe. The Goliaths will act as your heavy shock troopers, the gladiator-slaves will act as scouts, skirmishers and fill in whatever spare roles you have, and the Uwais tribe will be your main unit. I'll take you to see them." You begin following Magos Cern out of the cyro-sleep area, and along the hallways. After ten minutes, you reach a large metal door, which opens to reveal a large room filled with bunk beds, with familiar bronze bodies lying in the beds. "This is Dorm A. We have around sixty soldiers here," Magos Cern says. Fay walks into the room, and lets ou a shout. "Gentlemen! Your captain's back!" The tribals roll out of bed. You recognize a few of them, but strangely you recognize many as men from other various tribes." "Fay, you're back!" one says. "How did the fight go? It took far longer than expected," another adds. "Oh, shit! Is that Karth?" another asks. The attention immediately goes from Fay to you, as tribals begin appearing. They all appear far more muscular, many bearing fresh scars. "Karth! How are you even still alive?" someone asks incredulously. "It's the Uwais shaman!" another asks. "Karth, how are you? What have they been doing to you?" You watch as the tribals begin to surround the three of you, although Magos Cern makes sure they keep as least half a dozen feat away from her. "Stay back. Karth is only here to see you, not talk to you," Magos Cern says, drawing a datapad and letting out an electro-shock that causes the group to let out a pained yelp before they back away. "Why are there so many men and women from other tribes? I thought it was the Uwais tribe who was kidnapped." "When we arrived on your planet, we needed to do a lot of work. We drained lakes for water, drilled into the planet's crust to get vast quantities of Promethium, wiped out native species for food. It takes a lot of effort to run a vessel this large, and to do it quickly and efficiently. While we did so, our soldiers went to work. They needed to fight, both to train and to simply shed blood for their own enjoyment. Prisoners were taken in vast quantities, and I used them as I used the Uwais tribe. Now, there's far more from other tribes than there are from Uwais tribe." "Hmmm... your home world is destroyed. Ambition is the only path forward now, Karth, there is no going back. We will conquer the stars together." Meliodas says. "I suppose calling them the Uwais tribe is a bit of a failing, then. Tribals would be more suitable." "As you wish. You are their superior. You can do as you wish with them." "The average tribal will be be outfitted with combat armor as well as some equipment, such as grenades, gas masks, communications devices, that kind of thing. The stronger ones will get Bolters, the strongest will be equipped with melee weapons; chainswords, chainaxes, power swords, as well as bolt pistols. The weaker ones will be given specialized roles and equipped for as such: meltaguns and missile launchers for anti-armor, snipers with sniper rifles and stealth roles with chameoline cloaks and silenced weapons. We should have a fairly well equipped army that will be able to hold their own when fighting alongside the Guardsmen and Traitor Marines we have under our command." "We're not fighting for you fucks!" someone shouts. "Yeah! Fuck you, you kidnapping bastards!" "Ah, this is an issue," Magos Cern says. "Unfortunately, due to my... failures in work on the brain, Kyros has forbid me to tinker on their minds to ensure loyalty. Fay has only so far failed to do, so it'll be your job now. I need all rebelliousness to be crushed." "How?" you ask, raising an eyebrow. "Get it done. I don't care how. I need to go check on the oxygen decks to the macro guns on the starboard side doesn't asphyxiate," Magos says, turning around and walking off. "Well, that's a bitch," you complain, turning to Fay. "I guess we need to get rid of rebelliousness before Kyros gets pissy and blows our heads clean off." "Or..." Fay says slyly. "We could just hide the rebelliousness. It would be better if we kept it under wraps until we have a chance to get out of here." "Oh, choices, choices, choices. Terrify, threaten, talk or trust. Which shall it be, Karth?" Meliodas says. You walk forward, into the center of the dorm. You have several options here. You could attempt to use some of your psychic powers to show these tribals the true power of the Warp. That would definitely ensure their loyalty, if only out of fear. You could threaten them to ensure their loyalty, once again while out of fear, and you wouldn't have to alienate yourself by making yourself seem like a terrifying psychic being. You could attempt to convince the tribals that loyalty to this place is the only rational choice. You could also take Fay's path, and assure them that they'll have the chance to get revenge, but that for now they should hide all rebelliousness until it's time to strike. > You threaten them to ensure their loyalty You walk slowly forward, growling. "Magos Cern has told me about some rebellious behavior. It needs to end. We are a tiny fraction of the population of our ship. Even if we could somehow get all of our weapons, get everyone together and ready to fight, and we'd fail to get free. What could we do? We're light-years away from home by now. Even if, by some miracle, we could take this ship, we have no idea how to pilot it, and even then the chances of getting that far is astronomical. Kyros, the team leader, has amazing psychic powers. He could read our minds at any moment. He'd have you flayed alive and had the skin made into a cloak! He'll have this entire dorm filled with Chlorine gas! If you don't want to doom our entire tribe to non-existence, don't even think about rebelling." The tribals seem a mixture of disappointed, angered and annoyed, but you know the see the logic in what you're saying. They won't rebel. They'll follow orders now. "Tell the other tribals. I don't want anyone doing anything stupid," you say to the tribals, before turning to Fay. "We should go." You walk out of the room, quickly followed by Fay, who runs after you. "That was a bit depressing," she admits. "How so?" you ask. "You're not seriously happy with a life of service to a guy who kidnapped us? These guys killed Duggin!" she asks. "We need to be pragmatic. If there was an option for escape, I'd take it. But I'm not dying when there's no real chance of escape." "Umm... I guess," Fay says, clearly unsure what to do. You walk outside, where Kyros awaits, smiling. "Ah, you're here. Were they convinced?" You nod eagerly, and Kyros smiles. Well done," he says. "Now, we need to visit the last of your soldiers, the gladiator-slaves. They're always an interesting crew. Shall we go?" You look at Fay, who nods, although she still looks nervous from your earlier threats. "Yes, let's," you reply.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Alright," Cain sleeps. "What else?" "Nothing else is required," Magos Cern says. "Return to your pod." Cain nods, before walking back into his pod. The cyro-pod shuts, leaving Cain back to his cold, endless sleep. "We should continue," Magos Cern says. "I still have to show you the gladiator slaves who you'll take under you command and the Uwais Tribe. The Goliaths will act as your heavy shock troopers, the gladiator-slaves will act as scouts, skirmishers and fill in whatever spare roles you have, and the Uwais tribe will be your main unit. I'll take you to see them." You begin following Magos Cern out of the cyro-sleep area, and along the hallways. After ten minutes, you reach a large metal door, which opens to reveal a large room filled with bunk beds, with familiar bronze bodies lying in the beds. "This is Dorm A. We have around sixty soldiers here," Magos Cern says. Fay walks into the room, and lets ou a shout. "Gentlemen! Your captain's back!" The tribals roll out of bed. You recognize a few of them, but strangely you recognize many as men from other various tribes." "Fay, you're back!" one says. "How did the fight go? It took far longer than expected," another adds. "Oh, shit! Is that Karth?" another asks. The attention immediately goes from Fay to you, as tribals begin appearing. They all appear far more muscular, many bearing fresh scars. "Karth! How are you even still alive?" someone asks incredulously. "It's the Uwais shaman!" another asks. "Karth, how are you? What have they been doing to you?" You watch as the tribals begin to surround the three of you, although Magos Cern makes sure they keep as least half a dozen feat away from her. "Stay back. Karth is only here to see you, not talk to you," Magos Cern says, drawing a datapad and letting out an electro-shock that causes the group to let out a pained yelp before they back away. "Why are there so many men and women from other tribes? I thought it was the Uwais tribe who was kidnapped." "When we arrived on your planet, we needed to do a lot of work. We drained lakes for water, drilled into the planet's crust to get vast quantities of Promethium, wiped out native species for food. It takes a lot of effort to run a vessel this large, and to do it quickly and efficiently. While we did so, our soldiers went to work. They needed to fight, both to train and to simply shed blood for their own enjoyment. Prisoners were taken in vast quantities, and I used them as I used the Uwais tribe. Now, there's far more from other tribes than there are from Uwais tribe." "Hmmm... your home world is destroyed. Ambition is the only path forward now, Karth, there is no going back. We will conquer the stars together." Meliodas says. "I suppose calling them the Uwais tribe is a bit of a failing, then. Tribals would be more suitable." "As you wish. You are their superior. You can do as you wish with them." "The average tribal will be be outfitted with combat armor as well as some equipment, such as grenades, gas masks, communications devices, that kind of thing. The stronger ones will get Bolters, the strongest will be equipped with melee weapons; chainswords, chainaxes, power swords, as well as bolt pistols. The weaker ones will be given specialized roles and equipped for as such: meltaguns and missile launchers for anti-armor, snipers with sniper rifles and stealth roles with chameoline cloaks and silenced weapons. We should have a fairly well equipped army that will be able to hold their own when fighting alongside the Guardsmen and Traitor Marines we have under our command." "We're not fighting for you fucks!" someone shouts. "Yeah! Fuck you, you kidnapping bastards!" "Ah, this is an issue," Magos Cern says. "Unfortunately, due to my... failures in work on the brain, Kyros has forbid me to tinker on their minds to ensure loyalty. Fay has only so far failed to do, so it'll be your job now. I need all rebelliousness to be crushed." "How?" you ask, raising an eyebrow. "Get it done. I don't care how. I need to go check on the oxygen decks to the macro guns on the starboard side doesn't asphyxiate," Magos says, turning around and walking off. "Well, that's a bitch," you complain, turning to Fay. "I guess we need to get rid of rebelliousness before Kyros gets pissy and blows our heads clean off." "Or..." Fay says slyly. "We could just hide the rebelliousness. It would be better if we kept it under wraps until we have a chance to get out of here." "Oh, choices, choices, choices. Terrify, threaten, talk or trust. Which shall it be, Karth?" Meliodas says. You walk forward, into the center of the dorm. You have several options here. You could attempt to use some of your psychic powers to show these tribals the true power of the Warp. That would definitely ensure their loyalty, if only out of fear. You could threaten them to ensure their loyalty, once again while out of fear, and you wouldn't have to alienate yourself by making yourself seem like a terrifying psychic being. You could attempt to convince the tribals that loyalty to this place is the only rational choice. You could also take Fay's path, and assure them that they'll have the chance to get revenge, but that for now they should hide all rebelliousness until it's time to strike. > You convince the tribals that loyalty is the best option You walk slowly forward, growling. "Magos Cern has told me about some rebellious behavior. It needs to end. We are a tiny fraction of the population of our ship. Even if we could somehow get all of our weapons, get everyone together and ready to fight, and we'd fail to get free. What could we do? We're lightyears away from home by now. Even if, by some miracle, we could take this ship, we have no idea how to pilot it, and even then the chances of getting that far is astronomical. If we stay loyal, we'll survive. We'll prosper. Eventually, we'll be rewarded. We'll survive, we'll carve a little place in this hellish galaxy for us. Understood?" The tribals seem a mixture of disappointed and inspired. You know the see the logic in what you're saying. They won't rebel. They'll follow orders now. "Tell the other tribals. I don't want anyone doing anything stupid. We need to do what's best," you say to the tribals, before turning to Fay. "We should go." You walk out of the room, quickly followed by Fay, who walks alongside after you.N "That was a bit depressing," she admits. "How so?" you ask. "You're not seriously happy with a life of service to a guy who kidnapped us? These guys killed Duggin!" she asks. "We need to be pragmatic. If there was an option for escape, I'd take it. But I'm not dying when there's no real chance of escape." "Umm... I guess," Fay says, clearly unsure what to do. You walk outside, where Kyros awaits, smiing. "Are they convinced?" You nod eagerly, and he smiles. "Terrific. Now, we need to visit the last of your soldiers, the gladiator-slaves. They're always an interesting crew. Shall we go?" You look at Fay, who nods. "Yes, let's," you reply.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Alright," Cain sleeps. "What else?" "Nothing else is required," Magos Cern says. "Return to your pod." Cain nods, before walking back into his pod. The cyro-pod shuts, leaving Cain back to his cold, endless sleep. "We should continue," Magos Cern says. "I still have to show you the gladiator slaves who you'll take under you command and the Uwais Tribe. The Goliaths will act as your heavy shock troopers, the gladiator-slaves will act as scouts, skirmishers and fill in whatever spare roles you have, and the Uwais tribe will be your main unit. I'll take you to see them." You begin following Magos Cern out of the cyro-sleep area, and along the hallways. After ten minutes, you reach a large metal door, which opens to reveal a large room filled with bunk beds, with familiar bronze bodies lying in the beds. "This is Dorm A. We have around sixty soldiers here," Magos Cern says. Fay walks into the room, and lets ou a shout. "Gentlemen! Your captain's back!" The tribals roll out of bed. You recognize a few of them, but strangely you recognize many as men from other various tribes." "Fay, you're back!" one says. "How did the fight go? It took far longer than expected," another adds. "Oh, shit! Is that Karth?" another asks. The attention immediately goes from Fay to you, as tribals begin appearing. They all appear far more muscular, many bearing fresh scars. "Karth! How are you even still alive?" someone asks incredulously. "It's the Uwais shaman!" another asks. "Karth, how are you? What have they been doing to you?" You watch as the tribals begin to surround the three of you, although Magos Cern makes sure they keep as least half a dozen feat away from her. "Stay back. Karth is only here to see you, not talk to you," Magos Cern says, drawing a datapad and letting out an electro-shock that causes the group to let out a pained yelp before they back away. "Why are there so many men and women from other tribes? I thought it was the Uwais tribe who was kidnapped." "When we arrived on your planet, we needed to do a lot of work. We drained lakes for water, drilled into the planet's crust to get vast quantities of Promethium, wiped out native species for food. It takes a lot of effort to run a vessel this large, and to do it quickly and efficiently. While we did so, our soldiers went to work. They needed to fight, both to train and to simply shed blood for their own enjoyment. Prisoners were taken in vast quantities, and I used them as I used the Uwais tribe. Now, there's far more from other tribes than there are from Uwais tribe." "Hmmm... your home world is destroyed. Ambition is the only path forward now, Karth, there is no going back. We will conquer the stars together." Meliodas says. "I suppose calling them the Uwais tribe is a bit of a failing, then. Tribals would be more suitable." "As you wish. You are their superior. You can do as you wish with them." "The average tribal will be be outfitted with combat armor as well as some equipment, such as grenades, gas masks, communications devices, that kind of thing. The stronger ones will get Bolters, the strongest will be equipped with melee weapons; chainswords, chainaxes, power swords, as well as bolt pistols. The weaker ones will be given specialized roles and equipped for as such: meltaguns and missile launchers for anti-armor, snipers with sniper rifles and stealth roles with chameoline cloaks and silenced weapons. We should have a fairly well equipped army that will be able to hold their own when fighting alongside the Guardsmen and Traitor Marines we have under our command." "We're not fighting for you fucks!" someone shouts. "Yeah! Fuck you, you kidnapping bastards!" "Ah, this is an issue," Magos Cern says. "Unfortunately, due to my... failures in work on the brain, Kyros has forbid me to tinker on their minds to ensure loyalty. Fay has only so far failed to do, so it'll be your job now. I need all rebelliousness to be crushed." "How?" you ask, raising an eyebrow. "Get it done. I don't care how. I need to go check on the oxygen decks to the macro guns on the starboard side doesn't asphyxiate," Magos says, turning around and walking off. "Well, that's a bitch," you complain, turning to Fay. "I guess we need to get rid of rebelliousness before Kyros gets pissy and blows our heads clean off." "Or..." Fay says slyly. "We could just hide the rebelliousness. It would be better if we kept it under wraps until we have a chance to get out of here." "Oh, choices, choices, choices. Terrify, threaten, talk or trust. Which shall it be, Karth?" Meliodas says. You walk forward, into the center of the dorm. You have several options here. You could attempt to use some of your psychic powers to show these tribals the true power of the Warp. That would definitely ensure their loyalty, if only out of fear. You could threaten them to ensure their loyalty, once again while out of fear, and you wouldn't have to alienate yourself by making yourself seem like a terrifying psychic being. You could attempt to convince the tribals that loyalty to this place is the only rational choice. You could also take Fay's path, and assure them that they'll have the chance to get revenge, but that for now they should hide all rebelliousness until it's time to strike. > You take Fay's suggestion You walk forward, your voice dropping to a whisper. "Look, we need to be practical. We can cause some minor trouble, a riot or two, kill a few guards at best. That leads to them just shutting off our dorms and pumping these rooms full of chlorine gas. We stay seemingly loyal, do what we're told, and wait. Eventually, when we have the chance, we strike. They won't expect it, and we'll have waited until the perfect opportunity. Then, we escape. Then, we gain freedom. Then, we gain a future. Got it?" There's hushed responses, as the tribals take a hopeful, inspired look. They won't rebel. They'll follow orders... for now. As soon as the chance rises though, you'll have a loyal group of soldiers to fight alongside you. "Tell the other tribals. We need to stick togther" you say to the tribals, before turning to Fay. "We should go." You walk out of the room, with Fay at your side, holding your hand. "Well, I'm glad you took my suggestion," she says, smiling sweetly at you. "Well, you're clever, so I should listen to your advise every once in a while," you reply. "Stop teasing," she says, lightly hitting you. "We all know how this relationship works. You're the brains, I'm the brawn. Not the other way around." "Well, how come I can easily push you around?" you say, flicking your wrist and sending Fay onto her rear. "Hey!" she says. "Sorry," you say, laughing. "You're a massive dick," she complains, as you lift her back to her feet. You stop, the smile going from your face as you see Kyros walking quickly towards you. "Ah, here you are. Is the issue resolved?" You nod, trying not to let him see you gulp nervously. "Good. Now, we need to visit the last of your soldiers, the gladiator-slaves. They're always an interesting crew. Shall we go?" Kyros asks. You look at Fay, who nods, smiling at you. "Yes, let's," you reply.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You stand, walking along after Kyros. You're at a point where your psychic growth has overtaken your physical growth to such a degree that it'd be easier to float along the ground rather than actually having to walk. Unfortunately, the collar prevents you from even firing out some sparks without Kyros' permission. You arrive in a metal door, which opens, revealing the booth from which Kyros and the others watch down at the fight. You walk along, looking down at the arena, which is empty. "I thought you were bringing me to see Fay," you say nervously, despite knowing what this is. "I brought you to see her fight!" Kyros says with a smile. You stare down, as one of the gates opens. You watch as an abomination stumbles out. Stumbling on four insect-like legs, with it's eft arm replaced by a long tentacle of coiled pink muscle, the very end of it studded with bone outgrowths to make it a more formidable weapon. In it's right hand is a short, rusted axe stained with blood and gore. It's head is monstrous, with an oversized mouth filled to the brim with teeth, overflowing with acid that drips onto it's chest with a sizzle, and a single, blood-shot eye. The creature looks up at you, it's eye flinching, before it lets out a miserable howl. "Shit... that looks miserable beyond belief," you say. "Yes, she does," Kyros says, grinning from ear to ear as half a dozen more beasts just like the first walk, stumble or crawl into the center of the arena. "She?" you ask. Now that you're not fighting them, you can have a long look and see what these mutant abominations really are: disgusting, pitiful creatures that should receive a quick death. "You don't recognize her?" Kyros says, clearly suppressing laughter. "This is what remains of the Uwais Tribe, and the first one to come out, the pack leader, is Fay." You look at monsters underneath, trying to see any resemblance to your friends as pure horror overtakes your mind. You collapse to your knees, puking over the banister and onto the monsters underneath as Kyros bursts into laughter. "He's done this to provoke you. He wants to get you angry, to see how powerful you are even with the collar. He's under-exaggerating how powerful you are, so you might be able to harm him, but..." Meliodas advises, but you don't pay any attention, too filled with anger. You stand, holding onto the banister to pull yourself up. Your knees shake, but you take a moment to regain your strength. Then, you launch yourself at Kyros. You grab at his eyes, your fingers going straight for his eyes. Kyros stumbles backwards, unprepared, before you feel your collar quickly tightening as you start to choke. You continue to scratch and gouge, even as the air is choked from you. Finally, you're dragged upwards by invisible hands, floating a few feet away from Kyros. Your weak body has done practically no damage to Kyros, who seems surprised and a bit amused rather than angry. "Hmmm... I under-exaggerated how angry you'd get, or how stupid you are if you think trying to fight me is an option." "I'm going to kill you. I'm going to break you. I don't care how long it takes, I will destroy your very soul," you say, staring at him. Kyros chuckles softly, before forcing you around to stare down at the arena. "Watch the match," he says. "We will have our revenge, Karth. Not today, not tomorrow, but we will have our revenge, " Meliodas says. You watch for about a minute as the abominations sit there, wandering around in confusion, falling to brief bursts of violence and self-harm and a lot of screaming and howling. Finally, the second gate opens. You watch as hooded figures enter, holding swords and small, circular shields. The trio charges forward, diving into the air. The beasts charge forward, attacking with fierce brutality. You watch as the lead one, the thing that used to be Fay, is almost beheaded by one of the trio. The trio fight with ease, diving, ducking and weaving out of the way of tentacles, axes, biting and stomping. Within a minute, the last of the abominations stumble forward and hits the ground as its front two legs are hacked off, and one of the trio leaps on top of the monster and impales it through the head. "What a display!" Kyros says with a smile. "Shall we see the victors?" Before you can say a word, Kyros releases you and you fall through the air, smacking into the dirt with a pained yelp. You moan in pain, looking up at the fighters. They walk forward, staring at you. "Karth?" one of them asks. You look up to see Fay standing there, her hooded robes covered in blood, alongside two other Uwais tribals you vaguely remember from your trips accompanying hunting parties, the Jakar Twins. "Fay," you reply, staring back at her, not knowing what else to say. Fay tosses her sword aside, grabbing you and embracing you tightly. Even though you feel yourself being turned into a fine powder from the strength of her hug, you're just so happy that you've found her that you don't care, hugging back. Kyros drops down, staring at you from over Fay's shoulder, as Magos Cern joins you. "Ah, what a happy reunion!" Kyros says. "You said she was dead!" you shout angrily, pushing Fay aside to point an accusatory finger at him. "I did. I lied," Kyros says, smiling. "Never trust a psyker, Karth. Not even yourself," Meliodas says. You shrug it off, trying not to bow to his attempts at emotional manipulation. You grab Fay, looking at her properly as she takes off her hooded cloak. She's tall, standing over six foot tall, and she's a lot more muscular than you remember. Whatever Kyros has done to her, it's had a serious affect. Her arms and legs are quite muscled, and you doubt you could find an ounce of fat anywhere on her. Still, she has the same coy smile, the wild, adventurous look in her eyes, She's pretty much the same Fay. "So... what's with the hood?" you ask, struggling to find anything else to say. "Um... it's so the mutants can't grab my hair and drag me down, Karth. Was that the most important question? How are you? What are they doing to you?" "Come on, out of the arena. I have a captured Squig the boys want to have some fun fighting," Kyros says. "Jakar twins, back to the dorm. Karth, Fay, follow me." You look at Fay, before grabbing her hand and walking after Kyros and Magos Cern. "Hmm, walking alongside me with my hand held? Where's the old Karth that I would piggyback around the village?" Fay asks. "Pffh, if I didn't have this collar I'd be floating around the place," you say. The stress of being kidnapped, having your tribe enslaved and murdered, your village burned down, your mind and soul forced through the very depths of hell falls away as you talk to your old friend. You recount your story as she tells hers. Apparently, she spent much of the time in a coma, having her body hacked apart and remade. Her blood now contains vast amounts of chems and combat drugs, she has several new organs and stronger bones, faster blood clotting and much more. She's trained extensively both with swords, guns, explosives and infinitely more, as well as team tactics. She's been chosen out as Team Leader for the Uwais super-soldiers. "So basically, you've become a super-soldier?" "Super-soldier?" Magos Cern says, her voice flooded with the most emotion you've heard from her the entire time you knew her. "She's a failure. A disgrace. I had access to geneseed, space marine test subjects and untold resources. What did I create? A mockery. These "super-soldiers" couldn't take on multiple space marines each like I had hoped. They couldn't take on a single fucking space marine like I had planned! They're barely worth half a space marine! I've failed!" "They'll do fine, Magos," Kyros says, arriving at another set of metal doors, which open to reveal a large table, where various figures are sitting. There's Kyros, Magos Cern and Taj Suenage, as well as Kyros' daughter, who sits in the corner. There's also many more who you don't know. One is a tall, gaunt looking woman with pale skin and black hair pulled back in a pony tail, wearing a long coat that disturbingly, appears to be made from human skin. Another is a girl with a shaved head wearing heavy combat armor who is sharpening a long machete, another is a... person whose gender you can't tell, wearing black leather armor and lingerie in an odd attempt to look sexy at a war meeting, with long, curly black hair and excessive make-up. The person smiles at you, licking his... or her... or its lips. Then there's a young girl, younger than even you, wearing hooded robes and reading an ancient, dusty tome. Finally, there's a barely human monster. An obese man covered with rotting pores, boils, sores and pus-filled, infected wounds, with its arms replaced by long, rusted spikes. Kyros and Magos Cern take a seat. "These are the leaders of the fleet, Fay and Karth. Some introductions are in order. First is me, the supreme leader of the entire fleet. Magos Cern leads the Dark Mechanicus on the ship and maintains the vessel itself. Chapter Master Taj Suenage leads the space marine chapter on board, the Undying Reapers. Then we have Calpurnia the Ravager, leader of the 22nd Istanford Regiment. " The one with the human skin coat stands up, extending a hand to shake. "Pleasure to meet you," she says, shaking both your hand and Fay's. I hope you're... efficient during your stay here." "Then there's the Staine siblings. There's Rebecca Staine, the leader of the Bloody Claws, a war-band that worships Khorne the war god." "Fuck you, psyker. You're weak and pathetic. Your parents should've left you to die," Rebecca growls, pointing her blade at you. "Fuck you," Fay snarls, shoving her blade point away from your throat. Rebecca stands, brandishing her sword, before the plague-ridden man stands, blocking Rebecca's path forward with one of his spike arms. "Hey, hey! There's no need for violence! We're all brothers and sisters here!" Rebecca sits back down with another growl. "Alright, next we have Elios, leading of the Shrieking Harpies, a war-band that worships Slaanesh, the god of excess," Kyros says, pointing at the person clad in leather and lingerie. "Pleasure to meet you, darlings. For slaves aboard a Chaos vessel, might I say you're looking... delectable," Elios says in a deep, masculine voice, licking his lips as he stares at both you and Fay. "Keep it in your pants, Elios," Kyros says. "Next we have Elizabeth." Elizabeth, the hooded girl reading the book, doesn't look up. "She's risen to the position of leader of the One-Eyed Crows, a war-band that worships Tzeentch, the sorceror god. She easily reached the position through her amazing social abilities. Tell us about yourself, Elizabeth." "Move along," Elizabeth says, making a circular motion with her hand without looking up. "OK, Elizabeth. Finally, we have Durge, leader of the Black Rats war-band that worships Nurgle the plague god." "Hello!" the diseased man says, waving his spike-arms. "It's a pleasure to meet you! I hope you're being treated well. I hope you're being fed enough. If not, it's probably because I've eaten all the food aboard this vessel!" The man, Durge, breaks into laughter as several maggots burst from his skin. You try not to get sick. "You're here to meet the leaders of this fleet so that you know who you'll be answering. We want you both to lead the slave army." "Slave army?" Fay asks. "The Uwais tribe soldiers, the previous batch of failed test subjects, the gladiator slaves and whatever else we can muster up. We'll hold the detonators to your explosive collars, but you'll hold a copy of the detonators for all the men under your command." "There was a previous batch of failed test subjects?" Fay asks. "Yes, there was. They were quite strong, but their minds were easily broken. Most weren't sentient, the sentient ones were insane. There was only one who you could even have a conversation with, the one I appointed leader. I'll show you to them some time after this. I assume you'll take the position?" "It's not like I have much choice," you say. "We'll take it," Fay says, answering for the both of you. "This slave army, ot whatever you want to call it, will give us the strength advantage to become a serious military power in this tiny little sector. We could conquer ourselves a little kingdom from the weak and undefended worlds. We could become a raiding fleet that could have us living a life of luxury. But one little slave army wouldn't even give us a chance against even the defenses on Pluto!" Calpurnia says. "I'll tear out your soul and devour it if you show anymore signs of cowardice!" Kyros yells. "Magos Cern, take Fay and Karth to see the previous batch of super-soldiers." "I'll have to let the galaxy witness the shame of my failed creation when we release them on the galaxy. I might as well let the two adolescents have a preview of my sickening failure," Magos Cern says. "We're not finished here!" Calpurnia splutters angrily. "I'm not launching my army on a suicide mission!" "My army! As long as you serve me, it's my army!" Kyros screams. "We take a vote, then," Calpurnia suggests. "Fine, raise your hands if you don't want to go through with the assault, if you're a coward, if you're not loyal." Calpurnia defiantly holds up her hands. Elios holds up his next. "Sorry, Kyros. I'm not dying.. I'm too young and beautiful to die fighting an unwinnable war," he says. Durge holds up a spike, looking ashamed. "I'm loyal, Kyros, but I'm just as loyal to my men as you, and I won't see them die for nothing." Elizabeth slowly raises a hand, looking up from her book for the first time. "This plans suicide, Kyros. We both know that." Kyros snarls in anger, looking around. "That's me, Cern, Taj and Rebecca for attacking, and Elizabeth, Durge, Elios and Calpurnia for not doing so," Kyros says in a low growl. "The slave leaders are the tie-breakers, then," Calpurnia says. Kyros looks at you with a stare, holding onto the controller for your collars. Well, this seems like an obvious answer, even if it is a suicide mission. > You don't support the assault on Terra You raise your hand, and Fay follows suit. "You have balls of steel," Meliodas says. "Unfortunately, now Kyros will tear them off, melt them down, turn them into a sword and fuck you up the arse." "You fucking cunts! I lifted you up from the dirt! I gave you power! I gave you a future! I gave you all a future, and now you want to betray me?!" Kyros screams, standing up. "I won't let scum like you kill our chance at greatness! Loyal brothers, wipe them from the face of the earth!" In an instant, everything goes to hell. Kyros puts your collars on full, and your collar tightens incredibly. You feel your throat be crushed and the air run out as you helplessly grab at it, watching the carnage. Calpurnia stands, raising her bolt pistol, but Rebecca leaps up, driving her sword through Calpurnia's chest, killing her instantly. Elios moves with incredible speed, drawing a hidden blade and slicing open Taj's throat as the space marine attempts to raise his bolter. Then, Magos Cern sprays boiling gasoline from a pipe in the side of her head into Elios' face, burning him severely before she stands, driving a drill into his burned face as he falls backwards. Durge struggles to stand with his immense wait, but immediately moves forward, standing in front of Elizabeth in an attempt to shield her from Kyros' wrath. "Elizabeth, get out of here!" Durge says, as a panicked Elizabeth gets out of her seat. "Durge, you miserable, plague-infested prick. You're going to die. You think you can save your sister? I'm going to cut off your spike-arms and drive them into both her eyes and then give her to the troops for a bit of fun." Durge roars, charging forward. The scene goes fuzzy as the lack of oxygen hits your brain and you feel your throat being crushed. All you see is the massive, blurry blob that is Durge explode, collapsing backwards, just as Elizabeth disappears, no doubt having teleported with some psychic ability she has. Kyros screams, but by now you're on the line between conscious. You reach a hand out, finding Fay's as she dies on the ground next to you. You hold her hand tightly as she squeezes back and the last bit of life leaves you.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Far away in a mysterious realm, a lonely stone tower rises above a grassy plain. In front of the tower stands a large gray-skinned creature, it's easily over five meters tall. Although the creature has a humanoid shape, it's clearly something monstrous. It has a flat and ugly face with large yellow eyes, filled with cruelty. Drool drips from its protruding fangs, as it eagerly sniffs the air. It's bare-chested, only a roughly woven rag covers its loin. It's the man-eating ogre, the devourer, the one that strikes terror into all! Out of the window, at the very top of the tower, peaks the pale face of the princess. Long has she been imprisoned by the monster, countless have tried to rescue her, but all have failed. The tower is surrounded by the corpses of the knights and would-be-heroes, who futility attempted to challenge her tormentor. Or at least what's left of them, broken armor, shattered swords, tattered clothes and crushed bones. The ogre sniffs the air again, then it grunts happily. It's the same delicious scent, the scent of man flesh! Then a single figure appears on the top of a nearby hill. Magnificent plate armor of divine class steel covered with golden decorations. Two fearless eyes gaze disdainfully at the ogre and slowly the figure draws a giant two-handed sword from the sheath. The sunlight is reflected on the razor-sharp blade, almost blinding the ogre. The princess, torn between the hope for the long await rescue and the fear that her savior will share the same fate as those who came before him, covers her mouth. A silent scream, "Please save me! Please don't die, savior!" "Huhu, has the puny knight come to rescue his damsel in distress?" laughs the ogre, while it licks his lips. He wields his giant spiked club as if it's a mere twig. Then he slams it against the ground and releases a deafening roar. Undisturbed the fearless knight accepts the challenge and slowly removes his helmet... But wait, we might be jumping to conclusions now when we talk about 'him' and 'he', or not? > You why would you think that? Go ahead. Of course, my apologies for disturbing the flow... Slowly the knight removes his helmet and casually tosses it aside. He has short raven black hair, mysterious blue eyes that shine like stars and a well toned, somewhat muscular body. An aura of power and majesty surrounds him.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|> I had nothing to my name to begin with. But I was happy. My wife's name was Jeonna. Jeonna and I were very happy together, we lived on a small house. Jeonna sold the boquets she made with wildflowers that grew around the mountain and I did whatever odd jobs came up around town. We lived off of these funds and we knew we could never get rich off of what we did but... We were happy. That was enough. Jeonna had two children late one Spring, twins. A healthy son, a son I was proud of to call my son. And a daughter, a daughter that I loved with all my might. While our son was unusually strong for a child, our daughter grew weaker by the day. The doctor said she wouldn't last long. Jeonna and I didn't believe him. Jeonna came up with the names for our son and daughter through an ancient language that her mother had taught her. Ari was the name of our daughter, it meant 'life', and Hitari was the name of our son, it mean 'protector of life'. Jeonna was happy staying behind and only gathering the flowers that were near our house. She wove a basket for Ari and Hitari to ride in so that they could go with her. She believed that nothing would harm our family. I was cautious of what the doctor had said. Even though I didn't believe him. I knew that he had seen children like Ari die before. So I was worried, I was careful, but I didn't believe him. Ari fell ill when she was two, right when Jeonna and I were beginning to be convinced the doctor was wrong, our fears came crashing back onto us. Ari grew weaker day by day until she became too weak to feed. Jeonna would cry herself to sleep at night, when she slept that was. Most nights she was too scared to fall asleep to the possibility that she might wake up, and Ari would be dead. Hitari caught the cold as well. I wasn't surprised, really, the two of them shared everything. They had the same emerald eyes and golden blond hair. They both opened their eyes at the same time, fell asleep at the same time, and fed at the same time. One couldn't sleep without the other and if they were separated for too long they would start wailing for the other. Personality wise they were almost polar opposites, Hitari was calm and intelligent from the start. Already having small, child-like conversations before he was even a year old. He learned to walk almost as quickly as well, he was physically very strong. Ari got the hang of talking when she was about 16 months old, but she started walking at the very same time. Ari was weak, but she made up for it in the capacity of what she could learn. And she never forgot anything, ever. Jeonna was worried even more so, even though I told her it was only natural. Then, it happened one day. Ari and Hitari disappeared. Jeonna and I didn't know where they could have gone. We searched everywhere, woke up the entire village and sent out a search party to look for them. The village elder found them by the lake outside of the village. Hitari's hand was interlocked with Ari's. Ari was being gently brushed by the water's edge of the lake. Hitari was gripping her as hard as his little hand could manage, he was out of the water's reach. Neither of them had the fever anymore. The lake was said to be the portal to the Spirit's World that spirits went through when they died. The village elder proclaimed that Hitari must have pulled Ari away from the spirits, thereby saving her and giving her more time in the world. Jeonna and I were overjoyed, no matter how ridiculous the reason they ended up there. Neither of us really believed the elder, it's only now that I look back on that day and wonder if he may have been onto something then. Life went peacefully and Hitari and Ari grew up wonderfully. They were six when the next tragic event happened. > You jeonna was killed by the King's men. I could not believe what had happened. Our 'glorious' King killed Jeonna, my lovely Jeonna. A neighboring kingdom came to raid our village, the King's men charged in to help our village. Jeonna and I were overjoyed, we would be safe. Jeonna and I took Ari and Hitari up to the attic to protect them from the battle that raged outside. We all huddled in the damp, dark attic, scared but hopeful. Frightened but faithful that our 'brave' King would take down the bandits. "Momma? What are those noises?" Ari asked Jeonna with wide, scared eyes. Jeonna wasn't sure how to explain it, neither was I. My daughter was too innocent to be exposed to the evils of the world. Hitari slung his arm around Ari. "Don't worry Ari, it's just nasty monsters trying to raid the village. And they're coming to get you~!" He teased, Ari pushed him away and protested lightly, but a new light came into her eyes. "Like the one's in my closet! Hitari! Do you think you can scare these monsters away too?" She asked happily. Monster's in my daughter's closet? She always did have a wild imagination, but why didn't she come to her parents for protection as most little girls did? I suppose Hitari must have played that role for her at this time. Perhaps it was wrong about me but I was jealous of my son. Jealous that he got to share in the childhood memories of Ari when I should have been there as well. Hitari laughed and smiled, "I can't but some others are scaring them away right now! That's the monster's cries of fear!" He explained, referring to the yells and screams outside. Ari laughed quietly. "Monster's afraid... What a silly thought!" She said as she laughed. Jeonna and I smiled at each other. Then Jeonna gently quieted down Ari's laughter and we were surrounded in dark silence once again. Only broken when the lone cry of a fallen solider pierced the silence. The battle was over quickly, the King won. Jeonna and I went out to the square with the rest of the village, we had Ari and Hitari stay behind so that they would not see the carnage. Jeonna never liked blood, even when she pricked her hand on a thorn she could never look straight at the blood without a look of disgust wrinkling her beautiful face. So as we walked through the dead bodies of King's men and bandits alike, she buried her head in my shoulder and held my hand like a child would when frightened. I hugged her close to me, the ominous scent of death wafting up around us and making me crinkle my nose in disgust. The people gathered around the King's men who were giving a rallying speech to shake the fear of battle off of our soldiers. If only Jeonna and I had walked up a minute later, if only we had decided to stay with the children... If only... "... We have discovered a traitor among your village! The wretch shall be publicly executed for their crimes in causing a loss of so many good men!" The lead soldier shouted, the people murmured uncomfortably. I was surprised, I knew everyone in our small village well, I was sure there was no traitor among us. The soldier looked around before his eyes settled on Jeonna and myself. I hugged her closer to me. He sneered. "And that wretch is that woman!" He shouted as he pointed to Jeonna. Jeonna sucked in a gasp and I screamed a protest in outrage. I was helpless and a gang of soldiers knocked me back and ripped Jeonna from my grasp. She was shouting my name the entire time they led her up to the lead soldier. I screamed her name back and tried to wrestle my way through the soldiers. The people were too stunned to move. "Die for your sins." The head soldier chanted as he unsheathed his sword and kicked her to the ground. I shouted to Jeonna, all senses were trained solely on my wife. She was paralyzed with fear as the soldier raised his sword. My voice began to catch in my throat. I yelled as if yelling her name would drag her back to me and away from danger. Then there was a tug on my sleeve. "Papa?" Ari. Ari and Hitari stood there. Ari looking up at me with scared eyes, she didn't understand what was going on. Hitari was staring ahead, at the soldier with the sword raised above his head. I was frozen, my eyes only turning back to my wife in time to see the metal come down. And slice clean through my beloved's neck. The soldiers parted for me. I fell to the ground on my knees, my palms in the red pool of blood of other men that had fallen. My tears joined the liquid pool. Ari tugged on my shirt once more. "Papa? What... What just happened to Mama?" She asked, tears were welling up in her eyes. On some level Ari understood, I don't know how she did but she did. I was unable to answer my daughter. When I looked up at my wife's body I saw that Hitari had moved to stand next to her, he was completely still. Just staring at the body, as if he was made of stone. I felt a hand on my back. Joviah Smith, the local farmer had his hand on my back. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry they picked Jeonna, she was a good woman." He said sadly. I focused in on one word, "Picked?" I asked him, Joviah's eyes widened. "You hadn't heard, every time the neighboring kingdom has invaded, the King orders his men to pick a random villager and call them a traitor and publicly kill them, take the blame off of his own head by using other's heads." Joviah explained. When I didn't reply he sighed and gently took Ari's arms, "Come, Ari, I'll take you and yer brother back to yer house." He said as he gently led her over to Hitari to take them back. I just stayed there for a moment. Rage burned through my heart, eating it at it's core. I wanted revenge, I wanted to make the King pay for what he had done. I knew then and there that I would get my revenge. I kept up on my promise.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|> It’s officially winter break. You stumble toward your dorm room, brain turned to mush from taking five exams in three days. All you have to do is grab your suitcase, and then you’ll be on your way to NYC to stay with your boyfriend, Keith, and his parents for Christmas. You’ve never met them, but he’s told you that they have a large, luxurious apartment with a pool--which sounds awesome, but intimidating. Anyway. Keith, the lucky son of a gun, has already flown out. (He’s a creative writing major. His exams consist of writing poems about his childhood and writing essays about the meaning of life.) You pause in the hallway (which is empty--almost everyone else has finished exams and gotten the heck out of here.) Like every college dorm room in every movie ever, there's a whiteboard on your door. Now there's an "I Heart NY" magnet on there. The magnet holds a postcard with a photo of the Statue of Liberty. You're pretty sure it wasn't there when you left this morning. > You probably for your roommate. Go in your room without looking at it. You go in, shut the door, and finish packing. As you roll your suitcase down the deserted hallway, you see something disappearing around a corner: a figure about three feet tall, with green skin. > You follow it. You peek around the corner. Just a maintenance guy. He seems surprised there are still students here. > You speaking of which, CRIMINY, let's get going. The airport is hella crowded, and of course every single face you see is pinched with anxiety, like flying home for Christmas is the most horrific event of their lives. You aren't usually one to use the word vibe, but the whole atmosphere gives you a slightly sick feeling, as if your body is absorbing their stress. You board the plane for the six-hour flight to your connection, Atlanta. Halfway through, you use the lav. When you return, there's a postcard on your seat. This one shows a picture of the Empire State Building. You turn it over. Black, scrawling letters read: Dear Clara, When you get off, that’s when I’ll find you. When I find you, that’s when I’ll kill you. When you run, better run fast. When you hide, better hide good. When you tell, it makes things worse. Panic clenches your throat. Is this real? Does someone actually want to kill you? What should you do? Tell the stewardess? Or follow the advice on the postcard? > You tell You make your way to the galley and show the head flight attendant the postcard, explaining how you came to receive it. She smiles, turns it over. “The Empire State Building. I’ve been there.” You snatch it back and flip it to show her the message again. “Yeah, but someone’s threatening to kill me.” “I love New York.” Her eyes are glazed. “It’s my favorite layover.” She turns to smile at you. Her white teeth glitter. You show another flight attendant with similar results. Okay, this isn’t going so well. What should you do? Start screaming for help, or just sit there, like, well, a sitting duck? > You scream. Immediately, the co-captain comes out and helps the flight attendants handcuff you. You try to show them the postcard, but it slips out of your hand. They lecture you about causing a panic to the other passengers. The escort you to an empty seat and check your vital signs to rule out medical issues, as they are trained to do, and then bring you a glass of wine to help you stop panicking (as they are also trained to do). You don’t drink it, of course--you need your wits about you. Because something is seriously screwed up. When the flight attendant returns to collect the still-full wine glass, you ask her if you’re on some kind of list now, or if you’ll be allowed to board your next flight. She smiles. “ Don’t cause another disturbance, or there will be consequences.You must continue with the itinerary on your ticket.” Her tone is different--still creepily calm, but less robotic. There’s more of a sense that she might actually have a soul. This leads you, of course, to ask more questions, but she cuts you off saying she must clear the cabin for arrival. The plane lands. What should you do--go to the TSA and tell them what’s going on, or just run and hope the killer doesn’t find you? > You inform TSA. You go to your airline’s main desk and ask to speak to a TSA agent. The uniformed attendant, who isn’t much older than you but looks like she has a ton more responsibility, smiles briskly and pulls something up on her computer. “Yes, Miss Conner--we were wondering if you’d stop by. Follow me.” She leads you into what looks like a small conference room. Four leather chairs are arranged around a shiny wooden table. At one end of the room is a Keurig machine, a small fridge, and a bowl of apples. “Would you like something to drink while you wait?” she asks. “The agent should be in here shortly, and he’ll explain everything.” You meant to ask her some questions, but the kindness in her voice--as well as the promise that everything is finally going to start making sense--almost brings you to tears. You accept a bottle of water and sit quietly. The man who comes in is holding a manila file folder. He has no face. Well, he has eyes, a nose, and a mouth, but they have no distinguishing features. He’s like a mannequin, except there’s nothing mechanical about his movements. He’s clearly real, just blank. “Hello, Ms. Conner.” Fear is rising through your throat like smoke. This is a trap--this is just what the killer wanted. He smiles comfortingly. “Oh, no, Ms. Conner--I’m not here to kill you. That’s not my job. Shall I leave the door open? You may leave whenever you like.” He props it open and takes the seat opposite you, leaving you closer to the exit. A flat laugh. “Of course, leaving would mean starting the running part, which you may not be ready to do. I’m not sure I blame you there!” It’s the same tone you use with your boyfriend’s parents on Skype. Jovial, polite. A voice for small talk. “Anyway, while you’re here, I’m supposed to go over the rules with you.” He opens the folder. “Rules are optional…” he reads, almost to himself. “We went over that. Okay, here we are. ‘If you are being briefed, you have been exceedingly stubborn in contacting the authorities. Stubbornness has both benefits and drawbacks, which we will discuss at the end. “The following are the rules: you will run. They will try to catch you. You can run, hide, or fight. If they catch you, if they overpower you, you will die. “But you will not ask for help from people of higher authority than yourself. If you continue to fail to accept the situation, you will lose, and losing this game will not be pleasant. You are safe when you cross the threshold of 333 Madison Avenue.” He looks at you. “Do you need any part of that repeated?” he asks politely. “Or some coffee?” “But why is this happening? What’s the point?” He shrugs, eyes flitting over the documents. “I don’t see a point.” Right. Let’s try another tack. “What do I have that they want?” He reads from the paper again. “'You can run, hide, or fight.'” Not helpful. “Can I see what else is in the folder?” “Of course.” He slides it across the table. On top is the paper he just read, typed in ordinary Times New Roman. Behind that is another sheet with what appears to be a dossier on you--your full name, birthdate, social security number, height, weight, hair and eye color, GPA, hometown, high school, and a short medical and dental history. The GPA is current as of the exams you just finished taking. Personal life, it says, like on Wikipedia. Conner is of Irish, Scottish, and American Indian descent. She enjoys photography, reading, and hiking. She is affiliated with no particular religion. Her flaws include an irregular flossing routine and passivity. That’s it. “This is crazy.” These aren’t really the right words, because actually these papers are boring--pointedly boring, like they’ve been created to mock you. You ask more questions--why you, why the teeth, how did they get this--but Faceless guy just gives you more polite non-answers. Suddenly something rather obvious strikes you. You’ve been dealing with this like it’s an airport emergency, but it’s bigger than that. You have your phone, and it’s got plenty of charge. Why not call the police? > You get Faceless Guy to leave, then call the police. “Thanks,” you manage, trying to imitate the polite, professional tone he’s been using on you. “This is all...very strange. Could I just have a cup of coffee and process this for a few minutes?” He smiles, says that’s fine, and reminds you your connection is at Gate 4C. Then he shakes your hand and leaves. Finally. You take out your phone and dial 911. Out of area, says the screen. The desk attendant appears at the door. She is no longer friendly. Her face is vacant, like a part of a machine no one is bothering to operate. In her hand is a ball-peen hammer. You stand up automatically. But she keeps coming. You shove the table at her, but it’s too heavy to do more than make her back up one step, then keep coming. You throw a chair, and she catches it. You rush to the right, but she always manages to stay between you and the door. She closes in. You try to kick, but she doesn’t react. She bends low and, without breaking eye contact, smashes the hammer into the bone of your left ankle. Colors swim against the sides of your skull, pain radiating through you like electricity. “This office closes in ten minutes,” she says. She turns and leaves. The folder is still on the table. You decide to stop fighting the rules. You accept that they--the goblins or whatever they are--are after you. So what should you do--run or hide? > You run. You've decided to run with a broken ankle...so...let’s see how that works out. After about thirty feet, the goblins catch up. One hard bite to your abdomen (they’re only about three feet tall) and you’re down. They slash your throat--quick and painless, but you're still dead.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|> “Thanks,” you manage, trying to imitate the polite, professional tone he’s been using on you. “This is all...very strange. Could I just have a cup of coffee and process this for a few minutes?” He smiles, says that’s fine, and reminds you your connection is at Gate 4C. Then he shakes your hand and leaves. Finally. You take out your phone and dial 911. Out of area, says the screen. The desk attendant appears at the door. She is no longer friendly. Her face is vacant, like a part of a machine no one is bothering to operate. In her hand is a ball-peen hammer. You stand up automatically. But she keeps coming. You shove the table at her, but it’s too heavy to do more than make her back up one step, then keep coming. You throw a chair, and she catches it. You rush to the right, but she always manages to stay between you and the door. She closes in. You try to kick, but she doesn’t react. She bends low and, without breaking eye contact, smashes the hammer into the bone of your left ankle. Colors swim against the sides of your skull, pain radiating through you like electricity. “This office closes in ten minutes,” she says. She turns and leaves. The folder is still on the table. You decide to stop fighting the rules. You accept that they--the goblins or whatever they are--are after you. So what should you do--run or hide? > You hide. You limp along for a few feet, then dart into a gift shop. You browse behind a high shelf, waiting to see if anyone (or anything) is following you. Nothing looks suspicious, and no one seems to be paying you any particular attention. You buy a dark blue Atlanta Braves sweatshirt and pull it over the cashmere J Crew sweater you got from the thrift shop in order to impress your boyfriend’s parents. Then it’s too hot, so you stuff it into your bag--your bright red bag. After checking your surroundings, you limp over and find a tote bag that says Hotlanta! And buy it (the clerk is, by now, looking at you like you’re a freak). You step behind the shelf and transfer everything in your large purse into the tote bag. Holy damn, your ankle hurts. Every pulse of pain reminds you that this is real. Suddenly you see them. Two...things. They’re about half your height, with green scales and large yellow teeth. They walk on two feet like a person, but they move like lizards. And no one notices. People move around them automatically, like they do for plants or luggage, but their eyes never focus on them. The goblin’s eyes are small, soulless, but peering everywhere. Their little nostrils--their snouts are shaped like an alligator’s, but shorter--are twitching. They’re sniffing for you. You step back, trying to move gradually in case fast movement kicks your scent into the air. Sweat pricks your underarms--a result, no doubt, of both your nervousness and the extra layer you’ve put on. But when you peek again, they’ve passed by. You pull off the sweater under your sweatshirt and manage to yank it off through the neck. Maybe the smartest thing would be to keep them in front of you. After all, your gate is all the way on the other side of the airport, and you only have four hours to get there. The only way out of this nightmare is to get on that plane to New York. You wait for them to get about fifty feet ahead, peek out of the store, and, seeing nothing amiss, begin slowly following them, dragging your sore ankle as you walk toward the center of the airport. Along the way, you throw away the purse and sweater, and stop in the bathroom and cover yourself with sickly-sweet strawberry soap--anything to hide your natural scent.After a few minutes, you reach an escalator, which will take you down to the tram area, where you will get a ride to your terminal. As you near the bottom, suddenly there is a slap-slapping on the marble floor, like someone in thin wet socks. You turn. There are creatures behind you, weaving around the people at the top of the escalator. You hurry down the escalator, biting back your yelps of pain. The tram to Gate C has arrived. Should you try to catch it, hoping the doors will close before they can follow you(or if they do, that you can hop out before they do) or turn and fight? > You try for the tram. You limp onto the tram just as the doors close. You aren’t stupid--no way is this hell over with. But at least you’re safe for now. The tram slows at B Gate. Will any of them get on? You edge toward the doors, ready to leap out, but it's just a group of middle schoolers in matching sweatshirts and their chaperone. The tram ambles forward. At the next stop, a guy about your age, tall and skinny with a t-shirt advertising a Dropkick Murphys show from eight years ago, gets on. He notices you. Huh. Come to think of it, not many people have done that since you found the first postcard. You’re no Megan Fox, but you are a reasonably attractive twenty-year-old girl, and you’re accustomed to a moderate amount of male perusal while in public. And yet people’s eyes have been sliding past you all day. Only airport employees have acknowledged your existence. Weird. This guy, however, sees you. Probably not good. You edge a little closer to the doors. What if he’s one of them? A normal college-age boy outside, a goblin inside? Maybe that’s the next level--at first the monsters are easy to spot, and then they’re in the form of fairly cute guys. He walks up to you. “Hi.” This close he looks familiar. Familiar like a human I’ve seen before, or familiar like a goblin? “I think we went to camp together.” His eyes are a yellow-striped green--what color were theirs? Damn. You were too panicked to notice. “Guess not,” he says. You must look pretty freaked out, because he starts backing away slowly. And then his face clicks into place. Triple R Ranch. Summer before fourth grade. His name is Dmitri, and the reason you still know that is that he was almost your first kiss. (Instead it was this loser named Jason in sixth grade. He told everyone you tasted like bubble gum--which doesn’t seem that bad, but somehow he made it sound absolutely disgusting. What a prick.) “Wait,” you say. “Dmitri, right?” “Yeah. You’re Claire.” “Clara, actually. That’s my real name.” You like Claire better, but it was too hard to keep telling everyone to call you Claire. They kept forgetting, and finally you just gave up and went with it. He asks where you’re going, and you tell him. He says he’s going to Philadelphia to spend Christmas with his dad--he’s headed to the same terminal you are. His eyes move over you, but not in a flirtatious way. “Are you okay?” You look down. In addition to the sloppy-looking sweatshirt and the way you're holding your foot, you are sweating profusely. “It’s been...a stressful trip,” you finish lamely. “How so?” He seems to know there’s a deeper meaning to that--which isn’t itself strange, Dmitri has always been able to read people pretty well--but you can’t shake the feeling that running into him is a little too coincidental. Should you trust him enough to tell him you’re being stalked, or just politely brush him off? > You trust Dmitri. You make up a story about an old boyfriend who is stalking you and has threatened to kill you. You say the authorities won’t do anything because the threats are all verbal, and there’s no evidence, and he has a perfect record. Dmitri is skeptical at first, but when he sees that your fear is real, he starts to believe you. “So what are you going to do?” he asks. “Get off at Terminal D, I guess. He's got to be watching Terminal C, since he knows my itinerary.” “Yeah, but he’s watching for you, right?” “Yeah…” “So let’s be a couple. He’ll be looking for someone alone, and that terminal should be pretty crowded since it’s a Delta one.” Should you agree to this, or stick with your original plan of going to D Terminal? > You go to D Terminal. The second you step off, they're there, and you barely stumble backward into the tram in time. As you do, you hit your head on one of the light poles. "Was he out there?" Dmitri looks skeptical again. Probably because from his perspective you just leapt about two feet backward at the sight of a woman with a stroller. "Yeah." The pain spiking through your head makes you want to kill people. "Let's go with your idea." > You try terminal C. Reluctantly, you agree. “Here.” He takes off his sweatshirt, which is light gray, and you switch wit him. He turns the Braves one inside out so the logo isn’t visible, since they’ve seen it. You switch bags. He has a carryon, and he unzips it and yanks out a scarf his grandmother just gave him as a Christmas present. You loop it around your face. When the tram slows at C, you look out the windows. Two of them are at the edge of the crowd, about ten feet away. There are about seven tram doors opening. “He’s here,” you mutter. “Too close for us to go?” Dang, it would be easy to say yes. But you don’t. “No, we can probably make it.” He puts his arm around you, and you put the hood up, making sure none of your hair is visible. You begin walking, heads turned toward each other. “We’re deep in conversation right now,” you say. “Yes,” says Dmitri. “And we’re not walking too fast.” “Because we’re so absorbed in our deep conversation.” A businessman barrels past you, giving you a look like you’re both idiots. He lets his overly large carryon run over Dmitri’s foot. But no slappy-slap-slap. You make it to the escalator. You make it up the escalator. You make it to terminal C, and duck into a bookstore. There is a closed sandwich stand, and you duck behind the counter and sink onto the sticky tile floor. “So....” says Dmitri. “You’re just going to hang out here for the next two and a half hours?” You nod. Compared to being violently murdered, it sounds like heaven. About half an hour before your flight starts boarding, Dmitri goes to get you guys something to eat. When he comes back with Qdoba, he says, “the strangest thing happened. I just got a notification on my phone that my flight is canceled, and I’m rerouted through La Guardia. So I’m on your flight. Weird, huh?” A shiver of suspicion runs through you. “Yeah, weird,” you say, unwrapping your burrito. Almost as weird as running into him in the first place. You put down the burrito. You don’t trust Dmitri. Actually, you do--you trust the weird little kid you met at camp. You’re just not sure if this guy sitting with you on this disgusting floor is actually him. This whole crazy day has been like something out of a twisted fairy tale, and isn’t there something in fairy tales about not taking food from strangers? At the same time, you skipped breakfast this morning. You’re so hungry you’re slightly dizzy, even sitting down. You doubt you’ll be able to run or think at your best if you don’t get some nourishment. Should you eat or not? > You eat. Your stomach starts to churn. There’s nothing magical or enchanted about this nausea--it’s identical to the last time you got food poisoning. You turn and hurl the contents of your stomach onto the grimy floor. It smells. It smells like me, you think. Like my insides. The sound of running. You leap up, and vault over the counter almost effortlessly--only later you remember Dmitri’s hands under your ribs, propelling you--and run. You only have to elude them for twenty minutes. Twenty stupid minutes is all that’s between you and being okay. You see an opening in the crowd and dart through. Without your heavy bag you must be faster than they are, because the space between you and them is widening. Should you keep running, or find a place to hide? > You hide somewhere. You duck into a large, crowded restaurant and hide at a table in the back. Ten minutes before your flight takes off, you slowly come out. Dmitri is still by the empty deli counter. “What,” he says, “was that? It looked like you were having a seizure. Except no one even saw you. I could barely see you.” He shakes his head, as if something has been fogging his vision. “I’ll explain on the flight,” you say. “If I ever actually get on there.” > You to the planemobile! Your damp, shaking hand holds out the ticket. The agent smiles--a real, human smile--and tells you to have a nice flight. You walk past them and get on the plane. Their eyes never leave you, but they don’t move. Apparently you’ve earned the right to get on the plane. As you get into the cabin, you halt. There's a goblin in an empty seat. (An empty first-class seat--pretty bloody annoying.) It’s somehow wearing what looks like an expensive pinstriped suit, and the stupid flight attendant is handing him some wine. In the pocket of the seat in front of you is a postcard showing Times Square. You slide it out and flip it over. Rest and eat.This ain't finished yet. Well, isn’t that great. You’d love to eat--if you had any friggin’ food. This is just so stupid. What’s even the point of it? Goblins. Gremlins, or whatever they are. They’re bright Crayola green--they don’t even look realistic. Dmitri appears in front of you. “Hi,” he says, but he’s talking to the guy in the middle seat beside you. “I have an exit row seat--would you mind switching so I can sit by my girlfriend?” The guy is only too happy to switch to an exit row, and soon Dmitri is settled beside you. “I’m not your girlfriend,” you say. How are you even going to explain this whole crazy debacle to your boyfriend? Easy: you won’t. How could you? It’s unexplainable. You’ve become good at knowing which things not to bother Keith with, and this is definitely one of them. “I know,” Dmitri said. “But I didn’t think he would switch if we were just friends.” “Well, that’s really stupid.” You probably shouldn’t be taking this out on him, seeing as he rescued you and all, but you are hungry and exhausted and you know he’s about to ask a bunch of questions you can’t answer and you just want this stupid trip to be over already. “So the only good reason to sit beside someone is if you’re having sex with them? So what if we’re friends? Friends talk. Is having a conversation not a good enough reason to sit beside someone?” “Clara,” he says. “What’s going on?” “I don’t know. It just happened.” You explain what you can about the postcards and the goblins. You hand him the postcard, but he finds the handwriting impossible to read--which makes no sense, it’s sloppy, but not that sloppy. “Do you think they’ll actually kill you?” “Yes,” you say. “I do.” He takes your hand. Not long after, you fall asleep.You wake up to the stewardess’ voice. “Miss Conner, here’s the meal you ordered for this flight.” She seems to be in a hurry, and pulls your tray out for you so she can set it down and attend to something else. It appears to be a chicken salad sandwich and some chips. Which you definitely did not order. You realize you’re nauseous, and incredibly hungry again. Should you eat this incredibly sketchy food? > You um, no. It's from the friggin' goblin club. As the flight goes on, you get more and more nauseous. Soon you are shaking all over. You wretch a few times, but there’s nothing for you to throw up, so you don’t. When it’s time to get off the plane, the goblin is already gone, just like all the other first-class passengers. A glass with a few traces of red wine sits on the tray beside his seat. You walk through JFK with Dmitri. He holds your sweaty, shaky hand, watching your face for any sign of them, but there are no goblins. You get your luggage from baggage claim and turn toward the exit. Outside is a long line of taxis. In front of the door is a huge goblin. Taller than you. Taller than any human who's not in the NBA. “There’s one there,” you say dully to Dmitri, pointing toward it. His eyes follow your finger. He squints hard. “I think I see a--a shadow.” There are about ten sets of doors to the taxi line, so you turn toward another one and start trudging toward it. It probably won’t work, but hey, what do you have to lose? It doesn’t move. “Go ahead.” You turn, shocked. They’ve never spoken before. “If you do, I’ll follow you. I’ll never kill you, but I’ll keep following you for the rest of your life.” You can’t fight him. You’re tired and shaking, and at some point you must’ve banged your right knee on something because it hurts like hell. But you also can’t let him follow you around forever. What should you do? > You ask Dmitri to fight him. As soon as you ask him, the goblin laughs. It’s a liquid, disgusting sound. “What kind of story do you think this is? I’m not his goblin. Also, it's 2016--fight your own battles, missy.” > You fight him--hey, maybe you'll win. Okay, what will you fight him with? You now have your heavy, hard-sided suitcase, with a large textbook and the statue you planned to give to Keith's parents inside. Despite its weight, you could probably get it over your head, and since it's already in your hand, speed would be on your side. Nearby is a frail old lady carrying a long umbrella with a fairly pointy metal tip. Also nearby is a large, heavy metal luggage cart, which you definitely couldn't lift over your head but might do some serious damage if used like a battering ram. > You hit him with the suitcase. In your weakened state, you can barely lift the suitcase. It doesn’t even slow the goblin down. He swats you like a fly, and the last thing you see before your head hits the floor is Dmitri reaching out his hand, trying too late to save you. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|> Okay, what will you fight him with? You now have your heavy, hard-sided suitcase, with a large textbook and the statue you planned to give to Keith's parents inside. Despite its weight, you could probably get it over your head, and since it's already in your hand, speed would be on your side. Nearby is a frail old lady carrying a long umbrella with a fairly pointy metal tip. Also nearby is a large, heavy metal luggage cart, which you definitely couldn't lift over your head but might do some serious damage if used like a battering ram. > You ram him with the luggage cart. You grab one--uh-oh. They’re the kind you have to put coins into in order to make the brakes unlatch. It does almost nothing. The goblin leaps onto the cart and bites your head off.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|> Okay, what will you fight him with? You now have your heavy, hard-sided suitcase, with a large textbook and the statue you planned to give to Keith's parents inside. Despite its weight, you could probably get it over your head, and since it's already in your hand, speed would be on your side. Nearby is a frail old lady carrying a long umbrella with a fairly pointy metal tip. Also nearby is a large, heavy metal luggage cart, which you definitely couldn't lift over your head but might do some serious damage if used like a battering ram. > You grab the umbrella. You pull it out of the old lady’s hands. (She starts going after you, but Dmitri intercedes.) It’s light enough that even as jelly-like as your limbs are, you can lift it easily and aim it toward the goblin’s eye. You miss, but you still give him a hard poke in the forehead--not enough to break the skin, but enough that he toddles back a few steps, tiny eyes blinking. You use the opportunity to whack him again. Unfortunately, this seems to wake him up. He comes toward you. Your friend had a Komodo dragon once. She loved to rub its belly--beneath the scales it was softer than its back or head. You stab his middle with all your might. Sticky yellow blood gushes out, but he’s still coming. One more hit and he wobbles, then smacks onto the floor. He’s dead. You’re free. You feel nothing. Why should you? You should've been free all along. You and Dmitri step outside. It’s raining, and the only thing out here that isn't gray is the long line of taxis. Ready to take you to the Upper East Side. Except you don't want to go there anymore--if you ever did. “Where are you headed?” Dmitri asks. He has no bags. He’s going to miss his flight to Philadelphia. “I don’t know,” you say. “But do you want to come with me?” The two of you get a taxi and choose a different adventure. Which is, it turns out, the happiest ending of all. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|> As soon as you ask him, the goblin laughs. It’s a liquid, disgusting sound. “What kind of story do you think this is? I’m not his goblin. Also, it's 2016--fight your own battles, missy.” > You nope, not dying here. Let him follow you. So he follows you. He follows you to your boyfriend’s apartment--to the living room where you make small talk about your trip, into the bathroom while you pee, to the dining room where there is a lovely dinner prepared, into the bedroom where you and your boyfriend sleep. He follows you everywhere, little eyes tracing your every move. Finally, you decide to fight him. It’s like fighting air. You try to ignore him. Sometimes it works, but mostly it doesn’t. You can’t sleep. You can’t relax with friends. You can’t even kiss Keith without getting uncomfortable. Your friends notice your awkwardness, and Keith gets tired of being pushed away. Your grades suffer. You’re alone more and more--alone with it. After about a year, your mind can’t take it anymore. It lets go. With medication, you become a mindless--if peaceful--mental patient. But whenever they take you off it enough for you to notice your surroundings, what you see is the goblin. Because he never leaves. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|> Your damp, shaking hand holds out the ticket. The agent smiles--a real, human smile--and tells you to have a nice flight. You walk past them and get on the plane. Their eyes never leave you, but they don’t move. Apparently you’ve earned the right to get on the plane. As you get into the cabin, you halt. There's a goblin in an empty seat. (An empty first-class seat--pretty bloody annoying.) It’s somehow wearing what looks like an expensive pinstriped suit, and the stupid flight attendant is handing him some wine. In the pocket of the seat in front of you is a postcard showing Times Square. You slide it out and flip it over. Rest and eat.This ain't finished yet. Well, isn’t that great. You’d love to eat--if you had any friggin’ food. This is just so stupid. What’s even the point of it? Goblins. Gremlins, or whatever they are. They’re bright Crayola green--they don’t even look realistic. Dmitri appears in front of you. “Hi,” he says, but he’s talking to the guy in the middle seat beside you. “I have an exit row seat--would you mind switching so I can sit by my girlfriend?” The guy is only too happy to switch to an exit row, and soon Dmitri is settled beside you. “I’m not your girlfriend,” you say. How are you even going to explain this whole crazy debacle to your boyfriend? Easy: you won’t. How could you? It’s unexplainable. You’ve become good at knowing which things not to bother Keith with, and this is definitely one of them. “I know,” Dmitri said. “But I didn’t think he would switch if we were just friends.” “Well, that’s really stupid.” You probably shouldn’t be taking this out on him, seeing as he rescued you and all, but you are hungry and exhausted and you know he’s about to ask a bunch of questions you can’t answer and you just want this stupid trip to be over already. “So the only good reason to sit beside someone is if you’re having sex with them? So what if we’re friends? Friends talk. Is having a conversation not a good enough reason to sit beside someone?” “Clara,” he says. “What’s going on?” “I don’t know. It just happened.” You explain what you can about the postcards and the goblins. You hand him the postcard, but he finds the handwriting impossible to read--which makes no sense, it’s sloppy, but not that sloppy. “Do you think they’ll actually kill you?” “Yes,” you say. “I do.” He takes your hand. Not long after, you fall asleep.You wake up to the stewardess’ voice. “Miss Conner, here’s the meal you ordered for this flight.” She seems to be in a hurry, and pulls your tray out for you so she can set it down and attend to something else. It appears to be a chicken salad sandwich and some chips. Which you definitely did not order. You realize you’re nauseous, and incredibly hungry again. Should you eat this incredibly sketchy food? > You know what, whatever. Why the hell not. You eat, and you immediately you feel better. When it’s time to get off the plane, the goblin is already gone, just like all the other first-class passengers. A glass with a few traces of red wine is on the tray beside his seat. You walk through JFK with Dmitri. He holds your hand, watching your face for any sign of them, but there are no goblins. You get your luggage from baggage claim and turn toward the exit. Outside is a long line of taxis. In front of the door is a huge goblin. Taller than you. His head is above the archway. “There’s one there,” you say dully to Dmitri, pointing toward it. His eyes follow your finger. He squints hard. “I think," he says slowly, "I see a...a shadow.” There are about ten sets of doors to the taxi line, so you turn toward another one and start hurrying toward it. It probably won’t work, but hey, what do you have to lose? It doesn’t move. “Go ahead.” You turn, shocked. They’ve never spoken before. “If you do, I’ll follow you. I’ll never kill you, but I’ll never stop following.” Oh. Well, great. Fighting him seems like a losing proposition. Sure, he doesn’t look terribly fast or strong, but you aren’t either--and you’ve got skin, not hard, armor-like scales. Also, he's huge. But you also can’t let him follow you around forever. What should you do? > You know what, this ends now. Fight him. Okay, what will you fight him with? You now have your heavy, hard-sided suitcase, with a large textbook and the statue you planned to give to Keith's parents inside. Despite its weight, you could probably get it over your head, and since it's already in your hand, speed would be on your side. Nearby is a frail old lady carrying a long umbrella with a fairly pointy metal tip. Also nearby is a large, heavy metal luggage cart, which you definitely couldn't lift over your head but might do some serious damage if used like a battering ram.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|> Your stomach starts to churn. There’s nothing magical or enchanted about this nausea--it’s identical to the last time you got food poisoning. You turn and hurl the contents of your stomach onto the grimy floor. It smells. It smells like me, you think. Like my insides. The sound of running. You leap up, and vault over the counter almost effortlessly--only later you remember Dmitri’s hands under your ribs, propelling you--and run. You only have to elude them for twenty minutes. Twenty stupid minutes is all that’s between you and being okay. You see an opening in the crowd and dart through. Without your heavy bag you must be faster than they are, because the space between you and them is widening. Should you keep running, or find a place to hide? > You keep running. A huge tour group walks in a slow line right in front of you. You shove past them, but not long afterward, the slap-slapping comes behind you. Teeth gnash your knee, and you fall. A hard bite to your shoulder, and then the weight of the goblin is off of you, and you sit up in time to watch it careen into a moving walkway. Dmitri stands above you. “What,” he says, “was that? It looked like you were having a seizure. Except no one even saw you. I could barely see you.” He shakes his head, as if something has been fogging his vision. “I’ll explain on the plane,” you say. Your shoulder is bleeding, but not too badly. “If I ever actually get on there.” > You continue toward the gate. They don’t move. You keep walking, leg muscles braced, ready to stop and turn around. Your damp, shaking hand holds out the ticket. The agent smiles--a real, human smile--and tells you to have a nice flight. You walk past them and get on the plane. Their eyes never leave you, but they don’t move. Apparently you’ve earned the right to get on the plane. As you get into the cabin, you halt. There is one in an empty seat. (An empty first-class seat--pretty bloody annoying.) It’s somehow wearing what looks like an expensive pinstriped suit, and the stupid flight attendant is handing him some wine. In the pocket of the seat in front of you is a postcard showing Times Square. You slide it out and flip it over. Rest and eat. This ain't finished yet. Well, isn’t that great. You’d love to eat--if you had any friggin’ food. This is just so stupid. What’s even the point of it? Goblins. Gremlins, or whatever they are. They’re bright Crayola green--they don’t even look realistic. Dmitri appears in front of you. “Hi,” he says, but he’s talking to the guy in the middle seat beside you. “I have an exit row seat--would you mind switching so I can sit by my girlfriend?” The guy is only too happy to switch to an exit row, and soon Dmitri is settled beside you. “I’m not your girlfriend,” you say. How are you even going to explain this to your boyfriend? Easy: you won’t. How could you? It’s unexplainable. You’ve become good at knowing which things not to bother Keith with, and this is definitely one of them. “I know,” Dmitri said. “But I didn’t think he would switch if we were just friends.” “Well, that’s really stupid.” You probably shouldn’t be taking this out on him, seeing as he rescued you and all, but you are hungry and exhausted and you know he’s about to ask a bunch of questions you can’t answer and you just want this stupid trip to be over already. “Clara,” he says. “What’s going on, exactly?” Apparently he's figured out that jealous boyfriends aren't generally invisible. “I don’t know. It just happened.” You explain what you can about the postcards and the goblins. You hand him the postcard, but he finds the handwriting impossible to read--which makes no sense, it’s sloppy, but not that sloppy. “Do you think they’ll actually kill you?” "I know they will," you say, because you do. He takes your hand. Not long after, you fall asleep.You wake up to the stewardess’ voice. “Miss Conner, here’s the meal you ordered for this flight.” She seems to be in a hurry, and pulls your tray out for you so she can set it down and attend to something else. It appears to be a chicken salad sandwich and some chips. Which you definitely did not order. You realize you’re nauseous again, and incredibly hungry. Should you eat this incredibly sketchy food?<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|> Reluctantly, you agree. “Here.” He takes off his sweatshirt, which is light gray, and you switch wit him. He turns the Braves one inside out so the logo isn’t visible, since they’ve seen it. You switch bags. He has a carryon, and he unzips it and yanks out a scarf his grandmother just gave him as a Christmas present. You loop it around your face. When the tram slows at C, you look out the windows. Two of them are at the edge of the crowd, about ten feet away. There are about seven tram doors opening. “He’s here,” you mutter. “Too close for us to go?” Dang, it would be easy to say yes. But you don’t. “No, we can probably make it.” He puts his arm around you, and you put the hood up, making sure none of your hair is visible. You begin walking, heads turned toward each other. “We’re deep in conversation right now,” you say. “Yes,” says Dmitri. “And we’re not walking too fast.” “Because we’re so absorbed in our deep conversation.” A businessman barrels past you, giving you a look like you’re both idiots. He lets his overly large carryon run over Dmitri’s foot. But no slappy-slap-slap. You make it to the escalator. You make it up the escalator. You make it to terminal C, and duck into a bookstore. There is a closed sandwich stand, and you duck behind the counter and sink onto the sticky tile floor. “So....” says Dmitri. “You’re just going to hang out here for the next two and a half hours?” You nod. Compared to being violently murdered, it sounds like heaven. About half an hour before your flight starts boarding, Dmitri goes to get you guys something to eat. When he comes back with Qdoba, he says, “the strangest thing happened. I just got a notification on my phone that my flight is canceled, and I’m rerouted through La Guardia. So I’m on your flight. Weird, huh?” A shiver of suspicion runs through you. “Yeah, weird,” you say, unwrapping your burrito. Almost as weird as running into him in the first place. You put down the burrito. You don’t trust Dmitri. Actually, you do--you trust the weird little kid you met at camp. You’re just not sure if this guy sitting with you on this disgusting floor is actually him. This whole crazy day has been like something out of a twisted fairy tale, and isn’t there something in fairy tales about not taking food from strangers? At the same time, you skipped breakfast this morning. You’re so hungry you’re slightly dizzy, even sitting down. You doubt you’ll be able to run or think at your best if you don’t get some nourishment. Should you eat or not? > You stuff the burrito in a napkin. You manage to hide the burrito in your napkin. The edges of your vision blur, and your knees are wobbly, but at least you’re safe. You and Dmitri decide that the best way to get on the plane is for you to wait until the line is ending and then just run. He will stand near enough to see the gate and then text you when it’s time. When he texts you, you begin running. No goblins on either side of you. Your hunger disappears--nothing matters except getting on the plane. They’re behind the desk. Actually, they’re ON the desk. Waiting. Watching. Two of them. The ticket agent is laughing, chiding that you aren’t that late. The ink of your printed-out ticket stains your sweaty hand. You slow down, almost to a stop. Maybe you should miss the plane. If you run fast, maybe you can lose them for long enough to get a cab to the bus station. But they didn't start chasing you until you got into this Godforsaken airport. Isn't it logical, then, that maybe they'll stop chasing you once you board? Look at you, trying to apply logic to a situation that's clearly insane. Yeah, that's a real productive use of your time. They see you. They aren’t coming toward you--but then, why should they? You’re going straight to them. What do you do?<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|> You limp onto the tram just as the doors close. You aren’t stupid--no way is this hell over with. But at least you’re safe for now. The tram slows at B Gate. Will any of them get on? You edge toward the doors, ready to leap out, but it's just a group of middle schoolers in matching sweatshirts and their chaperone. The tram ambles forward. At the next stop, a guy about your age, tall and skinny with a t-shirt advertising a Dropkick Murphys show from eight years ago, gets on. He notices you. Huh. Come to think of it, not many people have done that since you found the first postcard. You’re no Megan Fox, but you are a reasonably attractive twenty-year-old girl, and you’re accustomed to a moderate amount of male perusal while in public. And yet people’s eyes have been sliding past you all day. Only airport employees have acknowledged your existence. Weird. This guy, however, sees you. Probably not good. You edge a little closer to the doors. What if he’s one of them? A normal college-age boy outside, a goblin inside? Maybe that’s the next level--at first the monsters are easy to spot, and then they’re in the form of fairly cute guys. He walks up to you. “Hi.” This close he looks familiar. Familiar like a human I’ve seen before, or familiar like a goblin? “I think we went to camp together.” His eyes are a yellow-striped green--what color were theirs? Damn. You were too panicked to notice. “Guess not,” he says. You must look pretty freaked out, because he starts backing away slowly. And then his face clicks into place. Triple R Ranch. Summer before fourth grade. His name is Dmitri, and the reason you still know that is that he was almost your first kiss. (Instead it was this loser named Jason in sixth grade. He told everyone you tasted like bubble gum--which doesn’t seem that bad, but somehow he made it sound absolutely disgusting. What a prick.) “Wait,” you say. “Dmitri, right?” “Yeah. You’re Claire.” “Clara, actually. That’s my real name.” You like Claire better, but it was too hard to keep telling everyone to call you Claire. They kept forgetting, and finally you just gave up and went with it. He asks where you’re going, and you tell him. He says he’s going to Philadelphia to spend Christmas with his dad--he’s headed to the same terminal you are. His eyes move over you, but not in a flirtatious way. “Are you okay?” You look down. In addition to the sloppy-looking sweatshirt and the way you're holding your foot, you are sweating profusely. “It’s been...a stressful trip,” you finish lamely. “How so?” He seems to know there’s a deeper meaning to that--which isn’t itself strange, Dmitri has always been able to read people pretty well--but you can’t shake the feeling that running into him is a little too coincidental. Should you trust him enough to tell him you’re being stalked, or just politely brush him off? > You brush him off. You have a pleasant conversation until he gets off--at your terminal, but you don't mention that. You ride the tram around the whole airport a few times and then decide to get off at Terminal D, since you assume the goblins are watching the tram stop at Terminal C. As soon as you get off, they spot you. You try to run, but that works about as well as you’d expect for someone with a broken ankle. They catch you. And they do, indeed, kill you.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|> You limp along for a few feet, then dart into a gift shop. You browse behind a high shelf, waiting to see if anyone (or anything) is following you. Nothing looks suspicious, and no one seems to be paying you any particular attention. You buy a dark blue Atlanta Braves sweatshirt and pull it over the cashmere J Crew sweater you got from the thrift shop in order to impress your boyfriend’s parents. Then it’s too hot, so you stuff it into your bag--your bright red bag. After checking your surroundings, you limp over and find a tote bag that says Hotlanta! And buy it (the clerk is, by now, looking at you like you’re a freak). You step behind the shelf and transfer everything in your large purse into the tote bag. Holy damn, your ankle hurts. Every pulse of pain reminds you that this is real. Suddenly you see them. Two...things. They’re about half your height, with green scales and large yellow teeth. They walk on two feet like a person, but they move like lizards. And no one notices. People move around them automatically, like they do for plants or luggage, but their eyes never focus on them. The goblin’s eyes are small, soulless, but peering everywhere. Their little nostrils--their snouts are shaped like an alligator’s, but shorter--are twitching. They’re sniffing for you. You step back, trying to move gradually in case fast movement kicks your scent into the air. Sweat pricks your underarms--a result, no doubt, of both your nervousness and the extra layer you’ve put on. But when you peek again, they’ve passed by. You pull off the sweater under your sweatshirt and manage to yank it off through the neck. Maybe the smartest thing would be to keep them in front of you. After all, your gate is all the way on the other side of the airport, and you only have four hours to get there. The only way out of this nightmare is to get on that plane to New York. You wait for them to get about fifty feet ahead, peek out of the store, and, seeing nothing amiss, begin slowly following them, dragging your sore ankle as you walk toward the center of the airport. Along the way, you throw away the purse and sweater, and stop in the bathroom and cover yourself with sickly-sweet strawberry soap--anything to hide your natural scent.After a few minutes, you reach an escalator, which will take you down to the tram area, where you will get a ride to your terminal. As you near the bottom, suddenly there is a slap-slapping on the marble floor, like someone in thin wet socks. You turn. There are creatures behind you, weaving around the people at the top of the escalator. You hurry down the escalator, biting back your yelps of pain. The tram to Gate C has arrived. Should you try to catch it, hoping the doors will close before they can follow you(or if they do, that you can hop out before they do) or turn and fight? > You fight, despite the ankle. Okay, what will you use as a weapon? You have your new tote bag, (which, despite being soft on the outside, is pretty heavy with a phone, bottle of water, and iPad). Also, there is a wheelchair that has been left at the foot of the escalator. > You bash with bag. Yeah, heavy or not, it’s still just a bag, and there are two of them. You manage to hit one, and he seems to get dizzy. The other bites you, and you go down. No one notices you dying.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|> Okay, what will you use as a weapon? You have your new tote bag, (which, despite being soft on the outside, is pretty heavy with a phone, bottle of water, and iPad). Also, there is a wheelchair that has been left at the foot of the escalator. > You use the wheelchair. Picking up the heavy chair with only one reliable leg causes you to lose your balance. Immediately they’re on you. The last thing you see after one of them takes a bite out of you is a woman stepping over your body, as if she can't see you at all. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|> You go to your airline’s main desk and ask to speak to a TSA agent. The uniformed attendant, who isn’t much older than you but looks like she has a ton more responsibility, smiles briskly and pulls something up on her computer. “Yes, Miss Conner--we were wondering if you’d stop by. Follow me.” She leads you into what looks like a small conference room. Four leather chairs are arranged around a shiny wooden table. At one end of the room is a Keurig machine, a small fridge, and a bowl of apples. “Would you like something to drink while you wait?” she asks. “The agent should be in here shortly, and he’ll explain everything.” You meant to ask her some questions, but the kindness in her voice--as well as the promise that everything is finally going to start making sense--almost brings you to tears. You accept a bottle of water and sit quietly. The man who comes in is holding a manila file folder. He has no face. Well, he has eyes, a nose, and a mouth, but they have no distinguishing features. He’s like a mannequin, except there’s nothing mechanical about his movements. He’s clearly real, just blank. “Hello, Ms. Conner.” Fear is rising through your throat like smoke. This is a trap--this is just what the killer wanted. He smiles comfortingly. “Oh, no, Ms. Conner--I’m not here to kill you. That’s not my job. Shall I leave the door open? You may leave whenever you like.” He props it open and takes the seat opposite you, leaving you closer to the exit. A flat laugh. “Of course, leaving would mean starting the running part, which you may not be ready to do. I’m not sure I blame you there!” It’s the same tone you use with your boyfriend’s parents on Skype. Jovial, polite. A voice for small talk. “Anyway, while you’re here, I’m supposed to go over the rules with you.” He opens the folder. “Rules are optional…” he reads, almost to himself. “We went over that. Okay, here we are. ‘If you are being briefed, you have been exceedingly stubborn in contacting the authorities. Stubbornness has both benefits and drawbacks, which we will discuss at the end. “The following are the rules: you will run. They will try to catch you. You can run, hide, or fight. If they catch you, if they overpower you, you will die. “But you will not ask for help from people of higher authority than yourself. If you continue to fail to accept the situation, you will lose, and losing this game will not be pleasant. You are safe when you cross the threshold of 333 Madison Avenue.” He looks at you. “Do you need any part of that repeated?” he asks politely. “Or some coffee?” “But why is this happening? What’s the point?” He shrugs, eyes flitting over the documents. “I don’t see a point.” Right. Let’s try another tack. “What do I have that they want?” He reads from the paper again. “'You can run, hide, or fight.'” Not helpful. “Can I see what else is in the folder?” “Of course.” He slides it across the table. On top is the paper he just read, typed in ordinary Times New Roman. Behind that is another sheet with what appears to be a dossier on you--your full name, birthdate, social security number, height, weight, hair and eye color, GPA, hometown, high school, and a short medical and dental history. The GPA is current as of the exams you just finished taking. Personal life, it says, like on Wikipedia. Conner is of Irish, Scottish, and American Indian descent. She enjoys photography, reading, and hiking. She is affiliated with no particular religion. Her flaws include an irregular flossing routine and passivity. That’s it. “This is crazy.” These aren’t really the right words, because actually these papers are boring--pointedly boring, like they’ve been created to mock you. You ask more questions--why you, why the teeth, how did they get this--but Faceless guy just gives you more polite non-answers. Suddenly something rather obvious strikes you. You’ve been dealing with this like it’s an airport emergency, but it’s bigger than that. You have your phone, and it’s got plenty of charge. Why not call the police? > You run. You run for a few hundred feet, then dart into a gift shop. You browse behind a high shelf, waiting to see if anyone (or anything) is following you. Nothing looks suspicious, and no one seems to be paying you any particular attention. You buy a dark blue Atlanta Braves sweatshirt and pull it over the cashmere J Crew sweater you got from the thrift shop in order to impress your boyfriend’s parents. Then it’s too hot, so you stuff it into your bag--your bright red bag. After checking your surroundings, you limp over and find a tote bag that says Hotlanta! And buy it (the clerk is, by now, looking at you like you’re a freak). You step behind the shelf and transfer everything in your large purse into the tote bag. Suddenly you see them. Two. They’re about half your height, with green scales and large yellow teeth. They walk on two feet like a person, but they move like lizards. They look like the bad buys in a fairy tale. Goblins, or something. And no one notices. People move around them automatically, like they do for plants or luggage, but their eyes never focus on them. The goblins' eyes are small, soulless, but peering everywhere. Their little nostrils--their snouts are shaped like an alligator’s, but shorter--are twitching. They’re sniffing for you. You step back, trying to move gradually in case fast movement kicks your scent into the air. Sweat pricks your underarms--a result, no doubt, of both your nervousness and the extra layer you used to have on. But when you peek again, they’ve passed by. Maybe the smartest thing would be to keep them in front of you. After all, your gate is all the way on the other side of the airport, and you only have four hours to get there. The only way out of this nightmare is to get on that plane to New York. You wait for them to get about fifty feet ahead, peek out of the store, and, seeing nothing amiss, begin following them. You begin walking toward the center of the airport. Along the way, you throw away the purse and sweater, and stop in the bathroom and cover yourself with sickly-sweet strawberry soap--anything to hide your natural scent.After a few minutes, you reach an escalator, which will take you down to the tram area, where you will get a ride to your terminal. As you near the bottom, suddenly there is a slap-slapping on the marble floor, like someone in thin wet socks. You turn. There are creatures behind you, weaving around the people at the top of the escalator. You hurry down the escalator. The tram to Gate C has arrived. Should you try to catch it, hoping the doors will close before they can follow you (or if they do, that you can hop out quickly) or turn and fight? > You run for the Tram You leap onto the tram just as the doors close. You aren’t stupid--no way is this hell over with. But at least you’re safe for now. The tram slows at B Gate. Will any of them get on? You edge near the doors, ready to leap out, but none do, and the tram ambles onward. A guy about your age, tall and skinny with a t-shirt advertising a Dropkick Murphys show from eight years ago gets on. He notices you. Huh. Come to think of it, not many people have done that since you found the first postcard. You’re no Megan Fox, but you are a reasonably attractive twenty-year-old girl, and you’re used to a moderate amount of male perusal while in public. And yet, for the most part, people’s eyes have been sliding past you all day. Only airport employees have acknowledged your existence. Weird. And yet this guy sees you. That’s probably not good. You edge a little closer to the doors. What if he’s one of them? A normal college-age boy outside, a goblin inside? Maybe that’s the next level of this--at first the monsters are easy to spot, and then they’re in the form of fairly cute guys. He walks up to you. “Hi.” This close he looks familiar. Familiar like a human I’ve seen before, or familiar like a goblin? “I think we went to camp together.” His eyes are a yellow-striped green--what color were theirs? You can’t remember. You were too panicked to notice. “Guess not,” he says. You must look pretty freaked out, because he starts backing away. And then his face clicks into place. Triple R Ranch. Summer before fourth grade. His name is Dmitri, and the reason you still know that is that he was almost your first kiss. (Instead it was this loser named Jason in sixth grade. He told everyone you tasted like bubble gum--which doesn’t seem that bad, but somehow he made it sound absolutely disgusting. What a prick.) “Wait,” you say. “Dmitri, right?” “Yeah. You’re Claire.” “Clara, actually. That’s my real name.” You like Claire better, but it was too hard to keep telling everyone to call you Claire. They kept forgetting, and finally you just gave up and went with it. He asks where you’re going, and you tell him. He says he’s going to Philadelphia to spend Christmas with his dad--he’s headed to the same terminal you are. His eyes move over you, but not in a flirtatious way. “Are you okay?” You look down. You are sweating profusely. “It’s been...a stressful trip,” you finish lamely. “How so?” He seems to know there’s a deeper meaning--which isn’t itself strange, Dmitri has always been able to read people pretty well--but you can’t shake the feeling that running into him is a little too coincidental. Should you trust him enough to tell him you’re being stalked, or just politely brush him off? <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|> You run for a few hundred feet, then dart into a gift shop. You browse behind a high shelf, waiting to see if anyone (or anything) is following you. Nothing looks suspicious, and no one seems to be paying you any particular attention. You buy a dark blue Atlanta Braves sweatshirt and pull it over the cashmere J Crew sweater you got from the thrift shop in order to impress your boyfriend’s parents. Then it’s too hot, so you stuff it into your bag--your bright red bag. After checking your surroundings, you limp over and find a tote bag that says Hotlanta! And buy it (the clerk is, by now, looking at you like you’re a freak). You step behind the shelf and transfer everything in your large purse into the tote bag. Suddenly you see them. Two. They’re about half your height, with green scales and large yellow teeth. They walk on two feet like a person, but they move like lizards. They look like the bad buys in a fairy tale. Goblins, or something. And no one notices. People move around them automatically, like they do for plants or luggage, but their eyes never focus on them. The goblins' eyes are small, soulless, but peering everywhere. Their little nostrils--their snouts are shaped like an alligator’s, but shorter--are twitching. They’re sniffing for you. You step back, trying to move gradually in case fast movement kicks your scent into the air. Sweat pricks your underarms--a result, no doubt, of both your nervousness and the extra layer you used to have on. But when you peek again, they’ve passed by. Maybe the smartest thing would be to keep them in front of you. After all, your gate is all the way on the other side of the airport, and you only have four hours to get there. The only way out of this nightmare is to get on that plane to New York. You wait for them to get about fifty feet ahead, peek out of the store, and, seeing nothing amiss, begin following them. You begin walking toward the center of the airport. Along the way, you throw away the purse and sweater, and stop in the bathroom and cover yourself with sickly-sweet strawberry soap--anything to hide your natural scent.After a few minutes, you reach an escalator, which will take you down to the tram area, where you will get a ride to your terminal. As you near the bottom, suddenly there is a slap-slapping on the marble floor, like someone in thin wet socks. You turn. There are creatures behind you, weaving around the people at the top of the escalator. You hurry down the escalator. The tram to Gate C has arrived. Should you try to catch it, hoping the doors will close before they can follow you (or if they do, that you can hop out quickly) or turn and fight? > You fight! Okay, what will you use as a weapon? You have your new tote bag, (which is pretty heavy with a phone, bottle of water, and iPad). Also, there is a wheelchair that has been left at the foot of the escalator. > You bash with bag. Heavy crap or not, it’s still just a bag, and there are two of them. It makes one dizzy, the other bites you, and you go down. No one notices you dying.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|> Okay, what will you use as a weapon? You have your new tote bag, (which is pretty heavy with a phone, bottle of water, and iPad). Also, there is a wheelchair that has been left at the foot of the escalator. > You use the wheelchair. The metal of the chair is light enough to swing but hard enough to hurt them. You send one sprawling into the now-moving tram and the other into the path of the crowd getting off the escalator. A few people seem to stumble over their own feet as they step on the goblin, but they--especially a woman in stilettos--injure him badly. Both lie there, bleeding yellow blood. They’re not dead, but both injuries look fatal. Neither of them is going to be in any condition to chase you for the next three hours. You probably shouldn't feel that triumphant. Sure, there were two of them, but they're three feet tall. But you do. You've never fought with anyone (or, in this case, anything) in your life. And you won. > You get on the tram. You hurry onto the tram just as the doors close. You aren’t stupid--no way is this hell over with. But at least you’re safe for now. The tram slows at B Gate. Will any of them get on? You edge near the doors, ready to leap out, but none do, and the tram ambles onward. A guy about your age, tall and skinny with a t-shirt advertising a Dropkick Murphys show from eight years ago gets on. He notices you. Huh. Come to think of it, not many people have done that since you found the first postcard. You’re no Megan Fox, but you are a reasonably attractive twenty-year-old girl, and you’re used to a moderate amount of male perusal while in public. And yet, for the most part, people’s eyes have been sliding past you all day. Only airport employees have acknowledged your existence. Weird. And yet this guy sees you. That’s probably not good. You edge a little closer to the doors. What if he’s one of them? A normal college-age boy outside, a goblin inside? Maybe that’s the next level of this--at first the monsters are easy to spot, and then they’re in the form of fairly cute guys. He walks up to you. “Hi.” This close he looks familiar. Familiar like a human I’ve seen before, or familiar like a goblin? “I think we went to camp together.” His eyes are a yellow-striped green--what color were theirs? You can’t remember. You were too panicked to notice. “Guess not,” he says. You must look pretty freaked out, because he starts backing away. And then his face clicks into place. Triple R Ranch. Summer before fourth grade. His name is Dmitri, and the reason you still know that is that he was almost your first kiss. (Instead it was this loser named Jason in sixth grade. He told everyone you tasted like bubble gum--which doesn’t seem that bad, but somehow he made it sound absolutely disgusting. What a prick.) “Wait,” you say. “Dmitri, right?” “Yeah. You’re Claire.” “Clara, actually. That’s my real name.” You like Claire better, but it was too hard to keep telling everyone to call you Claire. They kept forgetting, and finally you just gave up and went with it. He asks where you’re going, and you tell him. He says he’s going to Philadelphia to spend Christmas with his dad--he’s headed to the same terminal you are. His eyes move over you, but not in a flirtatious way. “Are you okay?” You look down. One of the goblins has ripped your jeans from knee to ankle. Also you are sweating profusely. “It’s been...a stressful trip,” you finish lamely. “How so?” He seems to know there’s a deeper meaning to that--which isn’t itself strange, Dmitri's always been able to read people pretty well--but you can’t shake the feeling that running into him is a little too coincidental. Should you trust him enough to tell him you’re being stalked, or just politely brush him off? > You trust him...well, a little. You make up a story about an old boyfriend who is following you and has threatened to kill you. The authorities won’t do anything because the threats are all verbal, and there’s no evidence, and he has a perfect record. Dmitri is skeptical of this at first, but when he sees your fear is real, he starts to believe you. “So what are you going to do?” he asks. “Get off at Terminal D, I guess. He's got to be watching Terminal C, since he knows my itinerary.” “Yeah, but he’s watching for you, right?” “Yes…” “So let’s be a couple. He’ll be looking for someone alone, and that terminal should be pretty crowded since it’s a Delta one.” Should you agree to this, or continue with your original plan?<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|> You hurry onto the tram just as the doors close. You aren’t stupid--no way is this hell over with. But at least you’re safe for now. The tram slows at B Gate. Will any of them get on? You edge near the doors, ready to leap out, but none do, and the tram ambles onward. A guy about your age, tall and skinny with a t-shirt advertising a Dropkick Murphys show from eight years ago gets on. He notices you. Huh. Come to think of it, not many people have done that since you found the first postcard. You’re no Megan Fox, but you are a reasonably attractive twenty-year-old girl, and you’re used to a moderate amount of male perusal while in public. And yet, for the most part, people’s eyes have been sliding past you all day. Only airport employees have acknowledged your existence. Weird. And yet this guy sees you. That’s probably not good. You edge a little closer to the doors. What if he’s one of them? A normal college-age boy outside, a goblin inside? Maybe that’s the next level of this--at first the monsters are easy to spot, and then they’re in the form of fairly cute guys. He walks up to you. “Hi.” This close he looks familiar. Familiar like a human I’ve seen before, or familiar like a goblin? “I think we went to camp together.” His eyes are a yellow-striped green--what color were theirs? You can’t remember. You were too panicked to notice. “Guess not,” he says. You must look pretty freaked out, because he starts backing away. And then his face clicks into place. Triple R Ranch. Summer before fourth grade. His name is Dmitri, and the reason you still know that is that he was almost your first kiss. (Instead it was this loser named Jason in sixth grade. He told everyone you tasted like bubble gum--which doesn’t seem that bad, but somehow he made it sound absolutely disgusting. What a prick.) “Wait,” you say. “Dmitri, right?” “Yeah. You’re Claire.” “Clara, actually. That’s my real name.” You like Claire better, but it was too hard to keep telling everyone to call you Claire. They kept forgetting, and finally you just gave up and went with it. He asks where you’re going, and you tell him. He says he’s going to Philadelphia to spend Christmas with his dad--he’s headed to the same terminal you are. His eyes move over you, but not in a flirtatious way. “Are you okay?” You look down. One of the goblins has ripped your jeans from knee to ankle. Also you are sweating profusely. “It’s been...a stressful trip,” you finish lamely. “How so?” He seems to know there’s a deeper meaning to that--which isn’t itself strange, Dmitri's always been able to read people pretty well--but you can’t shake the feeling that running into him is a little too coincidental. Should you trust him enough to tell him you’re being stalked, or just politely brush him off? > You brush him off. Things are risky enough, thanks. You decide to get off at Terminal D, since that seems to be physically the closest to C. Maybe they won't be waiting for you. When it slows, you look out the windows. They don't seem to be there. You pull your hood up and walk out. You go up the escalator. They're waiting at the top. Three of them this time. You try to turn around, but there is a solid wall of people behind you. They yank you away from the crowd--no one seems to notice, it's like you're completely alone, it's so unfair-- and push you so hard against the wall that you're out before the first bite sinks into your skin. As dying goes, it's pretty painless, but it's still dying--alone, with no one to help you. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|> You make your way to the galley and show the head flight attendant the postcard, explaining how you came to receive it. She smiles, turns it over. “The Empire State Building. I’ve been there.” You snatch it back and flip it to show her the message again. “Yeah, but someone’s threatening to kill me.” “I love New York.” Her eyes are glazed. “It’s my favorite layover.” She turns to smile at you. Her white teeth glitter. You show another flight attendant with similar results. Okay, this isn’t going so well. What should you do? Start screaming for help, or just sit there, like, well, a sitting duck? > You um, it said not to tell. You're just going to sit quietly and then start running when you get off the plane. You run for a few hundred feet. No one seems to be coming behind you. Everything seems normal. Just another chaotic airport. You keep running. Maybe--maybe--this is all a sick joke. Well, probably not. But it could be an idle threat. After all, you’re in public. It shouldn’t be too hard to stay around plenty of witnesses--you’re in a friggin’ airport at Christmastime. This is fine. You can handle this. You dart into a gift shop. You browse behind a high shelf, waiting to see if anyone (or anything) is following you. Nothing looks suspicious, and no one seems to be paying you any attention. Just to be safe, you buy a dark blue Atlanta Braves sweatshirt and pull it over the cashmere J Crew sweater you got from the thrift shop in order to impress your boyfriend’s parents. What else will make you stand out? You're carrying a bright red purse. After checking your surroundings, you walk over and find a tote bag that says Hotlanta! And buy it (the clerk is, by now, looking at you like you’re a freak). You step behind the shelf and transfer everything in your large purse into the tote bag. Suddenly you see them. Two. They’re about half your height, with green scales and large yellow teeth. They walk on two feet like a person, but they move like lizards. They look like the bad buys in a fairy tale. Goblins, or something. And no one notices. People move around them automatically, like they do for plants or luggage, but their eyes never focus on them. The goblins' eyes are small, soulless, but peering everywhere. Their little nostrils--their snouts are shaped like an alligator’s, but shorter--are twitching. Sniffing for you. You step back, trying to move gradually in case fast movement kicks your scent into the air. Sweat pricks your underarms--a result, no doubt, of both your nervousness and the extra layer you’ve put on. But when you peek again, they’ve passed by. You pull off the sweater under your sweatshirt and manage to yank it off through the neck. Maybe the smartest thing would be to keep them in front of you. After all, your gate is all the way on the other side of the airport, and you only have four hours to get there. The only way out of this nightmare is to get on that plane to New York. You wait for them to get about fifty feet ahead, peek out of the store, and, seeing nothing amiss, begin following them. You begin walking toward the center of the airport. Along the way, you throw away the purse and sweater, and stop in the bathroom and cover yourself with sickly-sweet strawberry soap--anything to hide your natural scent.After a few minutes, you reach an escalator, which will take you down to the tram area, where you will get a ride to your terminal. As you near the bottom, suddenly there is a slap-slapping on the marble floor, like someone in thin wet socks. You turn. Creatures are behind you, weaving around the people at the top of the escalator. You hurry down the escalator. The tram to Gate C has arrived. Should you try to catch it, hoping the doors will close before they can follow you (or if they do, that you can hop out before they can do the same) or turn and fight? > You fight! Okay, what will you use as a weapon? You have your new tote bag, (which, though soft on the outside, is pretty heavy with a phone, bottle of water, and iPad). Also, there is a wheelchair that has been left at the foot of the escalator. > You bash with bag. Heavy or not, it’s still just a bag, and there are two of them. It makes one goblin dizzy, the other bites you, and you go down. Strangely, no one notices you dying.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|> Okay, what will you use as a weapon? You have your new tote bag, (which, though soft on the outside, is pretty heavy with a phone, bottle of water, and iPad). Also, there is a wheelchair that has been left at the foot of the escalator. > You pick up the wheelchair. The metal of the chair is light enough to swing but hard enough to hurt them. You send one sprawling into the now-moving tram and the other into the path of the crowd getting off the escalator. A few people seem to stumble over their own feet as they step on the goblin, but they--especially a woman in stilettos--injure him badly. Both lie there, bleeding yellow blood. They’re not dead, but both injuries look fatal. Neither of them is going to be in any condition to chase you for the next three hours. > You board the tram, victorious one! You hurry onto the tram just as the doors close. You aren’t stupid--no way is this hell over with. But at least you’re safe for now. The tram slows at B Gate. Will any of them get on? You edge near the doors, ready to leap out, but none do, and the tram ambles onward. A guy about your age, tall and skinny with a t-shirt advertising a Dropkick Murphys show from eight years ago gets on. He notices you. Huh. Come to think of it, not many people have done that since you found the first postcard. You’re no Megan Fox, but you are a reasonably attractive twenty-year-old girl, and you’re used to a moderate amount of male perusal while in public. And yet, for the most part, people’s eyes have been sliding past you all day. Only airport employees have acknowledged your existence. Weird. And yet this guy sees you. That’s probably not good. You edge a little closer to the doors. What if he’s one of them? A normal college-age boy outside, a goblin inside? Maybe that’s the next level of this--at first the monsters are easy to spot, and then they come in the form of fairly cute guys. He walks up to you. “Hi.” This close he looks familiar. Familiar like a human I’ve seen before, or familiar like a goblin? “I think we went to camp together.” His eyes are a yellow-striped green--what color were theirs? You can’t remember. You were too panicked to notice. “Guess not,” he says. You must look pretty freaked out, because he starts backing away. And then his face clicks into place. Triple R Ranch. Summer before fourth grade. His name is Dmitri, and the reason you still know that is that he was almost your first kiss. (Instead it was this loser named Jason in sixth grade. He told everyone you tasted like bubble gum--which doesn’t seem that bad, but somehow he made it sound absolutely disgusting. What a prick.) “Wait,” you say. "Dmitri, right?” “Yeah. You’re Claire.” “Clara, actually. That’s my real name.” You like Claire better, but it was too hard to keep telling everyone to call you Claire. They kept forgetting, and finally you just gave up and went with it. He asks where you’re going, and you tell him. He says he’s going to Philadelphia to spend Christmas with his dad--he’s headed to the same terminal you are. His eyes move over you, but not in a flirtatious way. “Are you okay?” You look down. During the fight, one of the goblins apparently ripped your jeans from knee to ankle. Also you are sweating profusely. “It’s been...a stressful trip,” you finish lamely. “How so?” He seems to know there’s a deeper meaning to that--which isn’t itself strange, Dmitri has always been able to read people pretty well--but you can’t shake the feeling that running into him is a little too coincidental. Should you trust him enough to tell him you’re being stalked, or just politely brush him off? <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You run for a few hundred feet. No one seems to be coming behind you. Everything seems normal. Just another chaotic airport. You keep running. Maybe--maybe--this is all a sick joke. Well, probably not. But it could be an idle threat. After all, you’re in public. It shouldn’t be too hard to stay around plenty of witnesses--you’re in a friggin’ airport at Christmastime. This is fine. You can handle this. You dart into a gift shop. You browse behind a high shelf, waiting to see if anyone (or anything) is following you. Nothing looks suspicious, and no one seems to be paying you any attention. Just to be safe, you buy a dark blue Atlanta Braves sweatshirt and pull it over the cashmere J Crew sweater you got from the thrift shop in order to impress your boyfriend’s parents. What else will make you stand out? You're carrying a bright red purse. After checking your surroundings, you walk over and find a tote bag that says Hotlanta! And buy it (the clerk is, by now, looking at you like you’re a freak). You step behind the shelf and transfer everything in your large purse into the tote bag. Suddenly you see them. Two. They’re about half your height, with green scales and large yellow teeth. They walk on two feet like a person, but they move like lizards. They look like the bad buys in a fairy tale. Goblins, or something. And no one notices. People move around them automatically, like they do for plants or luggage, but their eyes never focus on them. The goblins' eyes are small, soulless, but peering everywhere. Their little nostrils--their snouts are shaped like an alligator’s, but shorter--are twitching. Sniffing for you. You step back, trying to move gradually in case fast movement kicks your scent into the air. Sweat pricks your underarms--a result, no doubt, of both your nervousness and the extra layer you’ve put on. But when you peek again, they’ve passed by. You pull off the sweater under your sweatshirt and manage to yank it off through the neck. Maybe the smartest thing would be to keep them in front of you. After all, your gate is all the way on the other side of the airport, and you only have four hours to get there. The only way out of this nightmare is to get on that plane to New York. You wait for them to get about fifty feet ahead, peek out of the store, and, seeing nothing amiss, begin following them. You begin walking toward the center of the airport. Along the way, you throw away the purse and sweater, and stop in the bathroom and cover yourself with sickly-sweet strawberry soap--anything to hide your natural scent.After a few minutes, you reach an escalator, which will take you down to the tram area, where you will get a ride to your terminal. As you near the bottom, suddenly there is a slap-slapping on the marble floor, like someone in thin wet socks. You turn. Creatures are behind you, weaving around the people at the top of the escalator. You hurry down the escalator. The tram to Gate C has arrived. Should you try to catch it, hoping the doors will close before they can follow you (or if they do, that you can hop out before they can do the same) or turn and fight? > You run for the tram. You hurry onto the tram just as the doors close. You aren’t stupid--no way is this hell over with. But at least you’re safe for now. The tram slows at B Gate. Will any of them get on? You edge toward the doors, ready to leap out, but it's just a group of middle schoolers in matching sweatshirts and their chaperone. The tram ambles forward. At the next stop, a guy about your age, tall and skinny with a t-shirt advertising a Dropkick Murphys show from eight years ago, gets on. He notices you. Huh. Come to think of it, not many people have done that since you found the first postcard. You’re no Megan Fox, but you are a reasonably attractive twenty-year-old girl, and you’re accustomed to a moderate amount of male perusal while in public. And yet people’s eyes have been sliding past you all day. Only airport employees have acknowledged your existence. Weird. This guy, however, sees you. Probably not good. You edge a little closer to the doors. What if he’s one of them? A normal college-age boy outside, a goblin inside? Maybe that’s the next level--at first the monsters are easy to spot, and then they’re in the form of fairly cute guys. He walks up to you. “Hi.” This close he looks familiar. Familiar like a human I’ve seen before, or familiar like a goblin? “I think we went to camp together.” His eyes are a yellow-striped green--what color were theirs? Damn. You were too panicked to notice. “Guess not,” he says. You must look pretty freaked out, because he starts backing away slowly. And then his face clicks into place. Triple R Ranch. Summer before fourth grade. His name is Dmitri, and the reason you still know that is that he was almost your first kiss. (Instead it was this loser named Jason in sixth grade. He told everyone you tasted like bubble gum--which doesn’t seem that bad, but somehow he made it sound absolutely disgusting. What a prick.) “Wait,” you say. “Dmitri, right?” “Yeah. You’re Claire.” “Clara, actually. That’s my real name.” You like Claire better, but it was too hard to keep telling everyone to call you Claire. They kept forgetting, and finally you just gave up and went with it. He asks where you’re going, and you tell him. He says he’s going to Philadelphia to spend Christmas with his dad--he’s headed to the same terminal you are. His eyes move over you, but not in a flirtatious way. “Are you okay?” You look down. In addition to the sloppy-looking sweatshirt, you are sweating profusely. “It’s been...a stressful trip,” you finish lamely. “How so?” He seems to know there’s a deeper meaning to that--which isn’t itself strange, Dmitri has always been able to read people pretty well--but you can’t shake the feeling that running into him is a little too coincidental. Should you trust him enough to tell him you’re being stalked, or just politely brush him off? <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|> The airport is hella crowded, and of course every single face you see is pinched with anxiety, like flying home for Christmas is the most horrific event of their lives. You aren't usually one to use the word vibe, but the whole atmosphere gives you a slightly sick feeling, as if your body is absorbing their stress. You board the plane for the six-hour flight to your connection, Atlanta. Halfway through, you use the lav. When you return, there's a postcard on your seat. This one shows a picture of the Empire State Building. You turn it over. Black, scrawling letters read: Dear Clara, When you get off, that’s when I’ll find you. When I find you, that’s when I’ll kill you. When you run, better run fast. When you hide, better hide good. When you tell, it makes things worse. Panic clenches your throat. Is this real? Does someone actually want to kill you? What should you do? Tell the stewardess? Or follow the advice on the postcard? > You don't Tell The plane lands. What should you do--go to the TSA and tell them what’s going on, or just run and hope the killer doesn’t find you? <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|> It’s officially winter break. You stumble toward your dorm room, brain turned to mush from taking five exams in three days. All you have to do is grab your suitcase, and then you’ll be on your way to NYC to stay with your boyfriend, Keith, and his parents for Christmas. You’ve never met them, but he’s told you that they have a large, luxurious apartment with a pool--which sounds awesome, but intimidating. Anyway. Keith, the lucky son of a gun, has already flown out. (He’s a creative writing major. His exams consist of writing poems about his childhood and writing essays about the meaning of life.) You pause in the hallway (which is empty--almost everyone else has finished exams and gotten the heck out of here.) Like every college dorm room in every movie ever, there's a whiteboard on your door. Now there's an "I Heart NY" magnet on there. The magnet holds a postcard with a photo of the Statue of Liberty. You're pretty sure it wasn't there when you left this morning. > You take the postcard from the board. In thick black Sharpie, it says “Dear Clara, If you leave, I’ll go too. So I can kill you.” No exclamation point. Like it’s a fact. So, um...that happened. You aren't real big on taking risks...but then again, is this a risk or a weird joke? > You why take chances? Stay and watch Netflix. Why take chances? You were nervous about meeting his family anyway. You don’t go. Your boyfriend is mad at you for about a month afterward, and you start to regret how cowardly you were--both about the note and meeting his parents. You clearly don’t have the capacity to think for yourself--and you’re selfish. In May, Keith gets a middle-management job at his dad’s company, which was always the unspoken plan (though Keith told people at parties that he was an aspiring writer.) He moves to New York City, and you are so bent on redeeming yourself for not coming to see him at Christmas that you follow him out there without really considering that you aren't in love with him anymore. A year later, you're engaged, and a year after that, you marry him. His father’s company promotes him quickly (so quickly his colleagues secretly hate him).You have two kids. You suspect he’s cheating, but you don’t really think about it until he comes home just before your twentieth anniversary. He tells you he’s in love with his secretary. Goblins haunt your dreams. After a two-year divorce battle over alimony and custody, you are angry, exhausted, and consumed with the need for vengeance. As the years go by, nothing much changes. You resent Keith for the way he controlled your life, but at this point you're too lazy to be proactive. This attitude remains basically unchanged until you die--which happens when you're an old woman, but jeez, what a pointless life.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|> In thick black Sharpie, it says “Dear Clara, If you leave, I’ll go too. So I can kill you.” No exclamation point. Like it’s a fact. So, um...that happened. You aren't real big on taking risks...but then again, is this a risk or a weird joke? > You go anyway. It's obviously a joke. Um, this is clearly a joke--and since you don’t get it, it’s probably for your roommate. Obviously you aren’t going to screw up your holiday plans and waste the $900 ticket Keith generously got for you. You finish packing. As you roll your suitcase down the deserted hallway, you see something disappearing around a corner: a figure about three feet tall, with green skin. Should you follow it, or ignore your obviously delusional and sleep-deprived mind?<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>SUNDAY “Are you worried about these uncertain times? Do you…” Click. You’re so damn sick of these Ground Zero commercials you think as you turn the TV off. If you older brother Ben hadn’t shot his family and himself in a tragic paranoid breakdown you can only imagine he’d be going on about how right he was in building that underground bunker out in your backyard. You look at the time and realize you’ve spent most of the day procrastinating watching TV even though there’s not much on that interests you on TV anymore. All the channels you used to watch that had interesting shit on them now all have shallow reality shows and quite frankly you’ve got enough dysfunctional family drama going on in real life without needing to watch it on TV. You remember a time when you could avoid most of the mess by hiding out in your basement. Unfortunately you can’t even do that anymore. Ever since dad drank himself to death, the gravy train of living at home for free came to an end. Without the help of your dad’s pension checks anymore, your older Amazonian sister Kelly said there was no way in hell that she was going to keep supporting the house on her own unless she was the only one living in it. Seeing as she’s a roller derby bitch as well as an illegal fight club brawler, it isn’t like you or any of your siblings were in any position to argue with her. Your younger brother Peter, having given up his lofty dreams of being a famous movie director now spends a lot of his time in the garage making amateur porn with various guys he picks up at the clubs. He makes enough money through his website that it keeps Kelly off his back. He seems to enjoy what he’s doing and at least he’s not stealing your clothes anymore. Your younger sister Donna simply moved out and moved in with your best friend Julie who is still the eternal party girl. Really you’re surprised Julie hasn’t caught every STD known to man at this point. To be honest Donna’s had more in common with Julie than you have for many years now. You’re sure Donna’s a lot happier at a “party house.” As for you, you didn’t have much in the way of options. Trying to get a job has failed spectacularly in this economy. Though your…”unique” and reclusive personality doesn’t exactly help in that department. Given some of the junk that’s laying around the house you sometimes wonder if you shouldn’t try to sell some of it over the Internet to support yourself. Seems like a lot of work though and you’re no wheeler and dealer. Donna suggested that you move in with her and Julie, but that whole scene isn’t for you. As much as you hate dealing with Kelly, you’d also hate having to put up with drunk horny guys (and girls) trying to get into your pants every five minutes, not to mention the loud music, crowds and the ever growing possibility of the cops busting the place for illegal drugs. Which brings you to your boyfriend Bobby Morningstar who naturally has suggested that you move in with him on several occasions. This would be the ideal solution if it weren’t for the fact that his own family consists of like a million siblings that all live in his cult compound. There’s also the fact that his ex-girlfriend/sister Diana is wicked pissed at you for stealing him away from her. It’s been an ongoing source of tension between you and Bobby and you wish he’d just leave them all behind and you two could make a life together elsewhere, but his duty to family is strong, as is his faith to the Babylonian Goddess of Chaos, Tiamat which still involves human sacrifices. Right now you’re having a period of separation with him. Sometimes you think about breaking up with him completely, but then you can’t just dismiss the good times you do have with him. You have that special bond that only a couple could have when one warns the other about their serial killer relative lying in wait for them in the woods. Thank god Bobby took care of your uncle Ed. That had to be the scariest moment of your life dealing with that situation. Of course none of this delightful recap of past events really helps you. Kelly is starting to get very impatient with you and you fear that your months of stalling are coming to an end. Kelly’s currently not home, but she’ll be back in a few hours to get a bit of sleep before heading off to her fight club stuff. Continuing to enjoy the time you have to not have to deal with her you go back to procrastinating, which mainly involves goofing off on the Internet, “stumbling” upon a porn site and then using battery powered means to relieve yourself of stress. Eventually you hear the familiar slamming of the door and stomping around upstairs, which signifies that Kelly is indeed home. “SUZY! Stop splittin’ the kitten and get yer bony ass up here!” you hear Kelly shout. You were afraid of this. You clean yourself up a bit, mentally prepare yourself and then head upstairs. “Hey Kelly…” you start to say, but are interrupted. “Shut up. I’ve got exactly a couple hours to get some rest before I have to drag my ass to my other job to support this fucking house and it’s a fucking mess! You can’t even clean up around here? Did you even look for a job today? Let me guess you spent the whole day fucking around on the Internet and masturbating didn’t you?” “Well uh...” “Jesus fuckin’ Christ Suzy, you’re goddamn useless you know that? The only reason I’m not kicking your ass right now is because I need to save my energy and it would be too fucking easy.” Before you can even speak, Kelly continues her rant. “GET A FUCKING JOB! I don’t care what kind! Just be a contributing member of this household like Peter or get the fuck out like Donna!” “Kelly I’m trying, but I’m just not having any luck in finding anything, can’t you help me out?” you say. “Help you out? I’m helping you out right now by supporting your ass! I’ve been helping you out for quite some time! In fact I originally suggested that you could probably become a ring girl at the fights, but you said no because you didn’t want to dress up in skimpy clothing and parade around in front of a bunch of drunks.” “Kelly, you know I don’t want to dress like that in public, especially not after what uncle Ed made me wear that night…” “Oh here we go, crazy old uncle Ed! How long you going to keep using that as an excuse? Sheesh, the way you go on about it, you act like he raped you. What happened instead? He got killed, you weren’t even touched and you got a fucking boyfriend out of that deal! Some of us should be so lucky to be in a fucked up situation and STILL come out ahead! You know what I deal with on a regular basis? Steroid freaks trying to break my fucking neck that’s what! You think I’d be making a living trading punches with fucktards if I LOOKED like you Suzy? You got the biggest advantage and you’re just wasting it! What the hell is your goddamn problem?” You can see that Kelly is in full-blown jealousy mode and shows no signs of stopping. Attempting to walk away will only result in her getting physical with you so the only thing you can do is endure the verbal assault. “This is sink or swim time sis. You either get your shit together by the end of this week or you’re out on your ass! This sheltered girl act is really fucking OLD! You’re a grown ass WOMAN. Start acting like one! Now get out of my fucking sight.” You meekly slink back to the basement and leave Kelly alone. You silently mope for a while pondering what the hell you’re going to do next. You then notice that your phone has been under your couch cushions and on silent all day. Bobby apparently has been repeatedly trying to contact you. Even left multiple texts saying that he really wants to talk, but the mood you’re in right now, you don’t want to deal with it. You don’t want to deal with anything. You just want to be safe in your own little world in the basement. How you miss those days… Well today isn’t completely over yet. You’ve still got time to salvage some of it. Hell, maybe you can even make a major change in your life. > You get help from Peter You don’t want to move out and you can’t trust yourself to not get distracted as usual trying to find a job. You need help and the only other person you know that has one in the house is Peter, so you decide to go see him and hope he isn’t in the middle of “working.” You head to the garage and knock on the door. From within you hear a come on in so you do so, unfortunately given Peter’s state of near nakedness and a tube of KY in hand its obvious he wasn’t expecting you. “Oh. It’s you. What do you want? I got a couple of guys coming over soon and I still need to lube up.” he says “Ugh…I need to speak to you.” You say trying not to look at him. “Can you put some damn clothes on?” “(Sigh) Fine, but let’s hurry this up.” Peter says and puts on a robe. “Peter, I need your help in finding a job and before you even suggest it, no I’m not going to do what you do for money.” “Oh of course not. Wouldn’t enter my mind to suggest such a thing to the likes of you. Which means I don’t have many other suggestions for you. I mean I can only imagine you’ve failed horribly at getting a normal job due to your lack of a college degree, personality quirks and crippling introversion. You don’t seem to have the motivation to start your own business and for some baffling reason you don’t even take advantage of the natural gifts you do have. Pfft, if I was you, I’d start now because you’re just getting older.” “Peter, I’m not a whore. I’m not going to just spread my legs to everyone for cash.” “Who said everyone? Just get one rich one, shit shouldn’t be that hard for you.” “That’s not who I am, besides I have a boyfriend…” “Who? Bobby? I thought you two broke up.” “No, well sort of…it’s complicated.” “Well then you need to work something out with him then and let him take care of you because while I didn’t hear the whole rant, Kelly was loud enough that I made out some of it even from here. Sounds like she gave you an ultimatum.” “I know. I know. I don’t know what to do.” You say slumping into a nearby chair. Peter and you have never been close and most of the time he’s annoyed you by constantly stealing your clothes in the past, but to his credit he go over and tries to console you a bit with a hug, given that his dick is still swinging out of his robe, you’d rather he didn’t and politely tell him you’re fine. “Have you tried the circus?” Peter suddenly asks. “What?” you respond. “The circus. There’s a small one set up a few miles west outside of town. Almost like a gypsy camp really. Remember how our family used to go together? I think it’s about the only time we all got along.” “Yeah…I always liked the clowns the most. I liked how outgoing and happy they always were. Even thought I’d grow up and be one at one point.” “Hm, I think you were the only one as far as that went. I still remember you used to paint up your face with mom’s make up and try to entertain Donna and me at home. Though to be quite honest all you did was scare the hell out of us.” “Yeah…that’s why I gave up that dream. Figured I was doing it wrong.” You say gloomily. “Oh. Sorry about that, didn’t mean to be a dream crusher.” “It’s okay, given my introversion I doubt if I would’ve been able to actually get in front of a crowd and do it anyway.” “Hey, you shouldn’t have given up if that was what you wanted to do. I mean maybe you should pursue it now. I mean you don’t have much to lose right and how hard could it be? Put on make up, dress up silly, and generally act creepy…erm I mean goofy.” Peter’s words do light a certain spark in you. “Hmmm, maybe you’re right…I’ll do it!” you suddenly exclaim. “Good, glad to hear you’re excited about something. So are you good now? I mean I’d talk more, but y’know still got guys coming over and…” “Oh right, yeah I’m good. Hold on, can I borrow your car to get to the circus tomorrow?” “Uhhh, yeah sure. Keys are over there.” “Thanks again Peter.” You say taking the keys and leave. You head back down to the basement filled with excitement at the prospect of pursuing your childhood dream again! It all seems a little crazy right now, but the more you think about it the more it makes sense. You spend the rest of the night in good spirits and maintain a positive attitude that everything will be okay tomorrow. > Next day... MONDAY “…our shelters are all equipped with the latest in state of the art technology, order now and…” Click. You fell asleep watching tv again. Seems like they’re playing those damn commercials all the time now. Nothing like praying upon people’s fears due to recent world events. You look at the time and see that you’ve slept for most of the morning, but given that you’re going to the circus to apply for a job you figure they will be open all night. You also check your phone and see that Bobby’s been trying to reach you, but you can’t let yourself get distracted today. You need to focus on your goal of becoming a clown! You take Peter’s car and head towards the circus. The drive is fairly uneventful though one thing you notice is the increase in police cars and police in general. Apparently there’s been some civil disturbance in multiple locations. You swear this one of the reasons why you never like leaving the basement in the first place. You hate the chaotic nature of people. But then, if you have any hope of being a clown, you’re going to have to get used to dealing with crowds and people. In fact you’re going to have to get used to a lot of things, but you can’t let yourself get a panic attack about this. You have to go through with this. Eventually you arrive at your destination. Or at least you assume it is. Peter wasn’t joking when he said it resembled a gypsy camp as opposed to a proper circus. You see a lot of little tents and some trailers, but nothing like a “big top.” Most of the people here are dwarves and last time you knew there wasn’t a large population of little people in your town, so you can only assume that they’re part of the circus. In fact from what you can tell there aren’t actually any customers, just carnies. As you wander a bit, you start getting a lot of looks, you aren’t sure if they’re staring at you because you’re an outsider or if they’re just gawking at you. Might be a bit of both. Doesn’t take long before you’re surrounded by a lot of the little people and you start to feel like Dorothy. “Hey goldie with the legs, what’re you doing around here? We’re not open yet.” One of their numbers says. “Oh, well I wasn’t here for that. I’m here because…” you take a deep breath. “I want to be a clown!” That certainly wasn’t the response that they were expecting. You hear a few whispers before the one that was talking speaks again. “A clown? Heh, well I’m not sure how successful that’s going to work out for you, but luckily for you the owner of this fine circus is also a clown, so you’ll need to speak with him either way. He’s in the tent over there. Roofie is probably still hung over so try to speak quietly.” “Roofie?” “Yeah, that’s his clown name… actually it mean be his real name as well. Anyway, don’t worry he’s not a rapist or anything like that, he’s just a drunk. In fact he’s probably the most mentally stable clown that we’ve ever had in this circus!” Taking the dwarf’s directions, you head over to Roofie’s tent. The smell of booze is strong and when you enter you see a balding older man in oversized pants and suspenders sitting at a table holding his head in both hands. Beer and whiskey bottle are plentiful enough that you make yourself heard just by tripping over some. “Goddamn it, it isn’t fucking showtime and nobody’s been coming anyway! Leave me alone, shit!” Roofie shouts not even looking up and continuing to hold his head. “Uh Mr. Roofie, I was told to speak to you.” Roofie turns and looks at you. A big red nose still on his face. “Huh? Wbo the hell are you? You look way too damn classy to be any whore that I’d be able to afford.” “My name’s Suzy and I want to be a clown.” At this point Roofie slowly gets up from his seat kicking a few bottles aside. You continue to stand there starting to wonder if this was such a good idea. “A clown? Now why the hell would a cute blonde like you want to be a fuckin’ clown. Doesn’t make sense. You playin’ some sort of angle honey, because I assure you I’m in no mood and I ain’t got any money for you to grift anyway.” “No, it’s always been a life long dream ever since I was a little girl!” you say and then start to go into detail of how you enjoyed circus clowns and a bunch of other life story shit that doesn’t really interest Roofie. In fact he’s just struggling to stand up and listen right now. “Alright, alright, enough! Shit. I get it. (Sigh) Look honey I dunno what to tell you, we’re not exactly the Ringling Brothers here. I’m also not exactly looking to hire and I barely keep this place running as it is.” “Please let me be a clown! Just give me a chance!” “Argh, too fucking loud! Fine show me your clown stuff, just keep your voice down.” “Clown stuff?” “Uh yeah, like can you juggle? A little magic maybe? Some slapstick? Do you have a character like being a hobo or something? What you think it’s just easy as putting on white face make up, jumping around and laughing like an idiot?” “Well sort of…” “Sheesh. That’s the kind of thinking that makes us look creepy rather than amusing. You do realize that most people hate clowns right? Doesn’t help that we’re constantly vilified in horror movies nowadays. Yer wastin’ my time and yours if you don’t even know the basics.” Roofie isn’t exactly inspiring your confidence in this anymore. You feel like just heading home, but can’t run from this like you do with everything else, you’ve got no other options! You start to break down in tears. “Maybe I don’t know the basics, but I’ll work hard! (Sob) I’m serious about this! (Sob) I’ve tried to get a job everywhere else and if I don’t get this, I’ll get kicked out of my house! This is my last chance! (Sob)” you exclaim in between the tears. “Last chance? Darling, if bein’ a clown is your last chance, then you’ve got some major problems. (Sigh) I dunno even know why I’m entertaining this save for the fact that you’re easy on the eyes even without the need for alcohol and I’m a sucker for a damsel in distress. Besides if the news is any indication, we’re all gonna be dead by nuclear fire soon anyway, so fuck it. All right, stop yer weepin’ an maybe we can do something with you.” You clear up your eyes a bit completely oblivious to Roofie’s brief doomsday expectations. “So you’ll help train me?” “Well, hopefully you’ll pick up something in time, but I’m not going to bother with regular training, you’re going to learn trial by fire which all good clowns do anyway. Now the greatest thing going for you is that you’re cute, so I’m thinkin’ we create a character for you that utilizes your, shall we say natural talent.” “Wait, I’m not going to have my breasts exposed while wearing nothing but red clown noses on my nipples do I?” you ask with concern. “(Snort) Jesus girl. No, nuthin’ like that.” Roofie chuckles “You’ll be fully clothed, though you’ll still be cute lookin’. Kinda like that one girl. Y’know in the funny books? The one with that rich vigilante. Anyway, the key thing to remember is you need to act cutesy. That’s going to be your character. You’ll be a cute clown while all the other clowns around you hilariously fail to try to win you over, hit each other with mallets and all that sort of shit…hmmm, this is actually sounding like a pretty good skit. I’m going to go round up the others and have a run through. In the meantime there’s a bunch of clown outfits in the trunk over there. Fairly certain we got a bunch of unused girly ones that should fit you. Some make up over and a mirror over there. Don’t worry about getting that just right for now since I know the lighting sucks in this tent. And uh, I dunno try to practice acting demure and shy.” Roofie leaves the tent and you’re left realizing that you might just succeed at getting this job! You quickly go through the trunk and find some pink and black-checkered leotard thing with a mini-skirt attached around the waist. It fits and fortunately while form fitting, it isn’t excessively tight, though your legs are still exposed so you put on some knee high purple striped leggings. You feel sort of vulnerable undressing in a tent that someone could just enter at any time, but fortunately there’s at least a privacy-screen you can dress behind. You complete your look by putting your hair in girlish pigtails and applying a bunch of white face make up on and making your eyelashes and lips stand out with black eye liner and red lipstick. You haven’t had time to practice when Roofie returns with a bunch of other men in various clown outfits. One of them is even a little person like you met out front. “Goddamn Roofie, I think I’m gonna have to rethink my plans of leaving your shitty carnival.” One of them says. “Leave? Hell, I think I’m in love.” Says another before Roofie speaks up. “Holy shit girl, I said cute clown, not harlequin seductress! You might need to tone it down in the future we’re still trying to run a family show more or less. All right never mind, let’s run through this and you guys TRY to remember to keep your tongues in your mouth on occasion.” So you run through the routine while Roofie gives everyone directions. At first you naturally feel a little unready and uneasy what with everyone flirting with you, but soon you start to get into the swing of things. In fact it starts to come easy, you bat your eyes, give a few girlish giggles when someone slips and falls trying to give you a balloon flower and similar things. Eventually Roofie stops everyone and says the skit needs to be refined a bit, but it should work. He then tells everyone to leave since he wants speak with you privately. This seems to disappoint the others who all continue to stare at you while leaving. “Well, other than the fact that I could tell some of them were having a really hard time in not actually groping you, I’d say that went well and even you seem to have gotten into character quickly. Maybe you do have what it takes after all. You still seem a little nervous though, which sort of helped your performance, but I’d rather you remain at ease. Anything that can help with that?” Roofie asks. “Well its like you said, I partially felt like one of them was going to jump on me at any given time. I mean is that something I’m going to have to worry about?” “Nah, that won’t happen. We carnies have a rule against hurting each other. I mean I won’t lie that they aren’t going to stare a lot at you and most likely a few are going to make crude comments, but that’s about as far as it is going to go if you decide to join and stay with us.” “You want me to join?” “If you’re still interested, sure. I think you’ve got something to offer. Though like I said, I’m still not sure why someone like you would want to join a broken down circus like this one. I still think someone like you would be a model or something.” “Well, I’m wearing an outlandish outfit, my face is all painted up and a bunch of guys are falling over themselves just to get a look at me. Seems like I’m doing the same thing as a model save for the eating disorder.” Your comment causes a laugh from Roofie. “Ha ha! That’s pretty good. I think I’m making the right decision. Okay, so about your sleeping arrangements, I might have to re-arrange some folks and that’s always going to cause problems, so you might have to sleep in your car for tonight…” “Wait you want me to move in here?” “Well yeah. I mean I told you we weren’t going to be staying here too much longer and you have to know that circus’ do tend to travel right?” “Yeah, right. Of course. It’s just, heh, I guess when I jumped into this I didn’t think all of it through. Though that’s probably obvious.” “Hrm, well it’s your choice. I’m not gonna lie and say this life is the easiest and if you feel more comfortable at home or have loved ones you don’t want to leave that’s understandable.” “I dunno if I’d say all that, but the concept of leaving my home…well it’s a bit of a big change for me. Like a VERY big one. And oddly, this opportunity has me seriously considering it.” “Well you do what’s in your heart. Anyway, we aren’t leaving today or even tomorrow, so I mean if you want to go back home and pick up some stuff, say goodbye to whoever, then you’ve got time. But even though we’re not leaving tomorrow we are going to be open for our last show and I’ll need you here. I’m hoping we’ll at least get some people here and make at least a bit of money before picking up stakes and all that.” You aren’t sure what to do. The logical thing to do would be to go back home and gather some belonging, say a few goodbyes and try to convince Peter to drive you back up here so he gets his car back. But there’s something within you that wonders if you shouldn’t just make a clean break immediately and stay. You know yourself and if you get back home you’re likely find some reason to stay and back out of this opportunity. You think about Bobby and how he’d be one of those reasons. You still haven’t called him back. > You stay at the circus If you’re going to do this, you need to be all in right now. You feel slightly bad about essentially stealing Peter’s car, but you figure you can call him later and he can get someone to drive him over to pick it up. (Assuming he doesn’t call you first) As for Bobby you’re not going to bother. You’ve come to the conclusion that you and he have too many differences to make it work and that this final break up has been a long time coming. Calling him would just make you fall for his charms and hinder your own goals and you can’t have that happen. “Mr. Roofie, I’ll be staying.” You say. “Okay, great. We’ll be opening up soon, dunno if anyone’s actually going to show up, but you might as well get out there and wander around to make this place look festive.” “Did you want me to change, you said something about this outfit being too much?” “Eh…don’t bother. I’m thinkin’ it’s an appropriate look for you. Like I said, you might have to put up with some cat calling from some of the cruder employees here, but that’s about it. And if anyone starts getting out of line with you, be they carnie or rube, let me know about it. Trust me it’ll be taken care of immediately. This carnival might be on its last legs, but I’ll be damned if it’ll descend into anarchy. My dad didn’t work and sacrifice all those years for nothing.” Roofie says. “Your dad owned this carnival? Was he a clown too?” you ask. “Heh, no. He was a geek and I don’t mean in the lovable nerd sense either. I mean he was a bonafide circus geek. Ate all manner of disgusting things to bring in the customers. Raw animal organs, heads of chickens, rotten food, you name it. He always told me though he was drunk most of the time so it wasn’t quite as bad as you’d think. Fortunately he didn’t stay a circus geek though. Apparently he helped the original ringmaster with something very important and after that happened my dad got a better job around here as the ringmaster’s assistant.” “What did he help the ringmaster with?” “Dunno exactly. Like I said, my dad was drinking a lot heavier during those geek days. He said it had to do with a power struggle within the circus, but he couldn’t quite remember all the details. In any event when the original ring master one day decided it was time to move on to something else my dad got control of the circus. Kept it going too despite the changing times. I’ve tried to follow in his footsteps, but so far the only thing I’ve succeeded at is the drinking part.” Roofie takes a drink from a nearby bottle after this statement. “So, uh what made you become a clown?” you ask. “I dunno, I was trying to help out I guess. Y’see my dad had to raise me himself since my mom died giving birth to me and I guess when I got old enough I felt I should contribute for all the extra burden I put on him.” “Sorry to hear that.” “Hm, well all I know about her is that she was a runaway that joined up with the circus shortly after my dad took over as owner. Anyway, for a while, this circus didn’t have a single clown. Apparently it did a long time ago, but my dad said there were some horror stories about them and they were eventually…let go. Despite this circus’ odd apprehension about having clowns again I convinced my dad that it would be a good idea to have clowns. So he gave me a shot and it worked. Rest is history, anyway that’s enough story time you’ve got your own clown work to do, so get to it.” You take your leave and re-assure that you’ll do everything in your power to keep people entertained. No sooner have you left Roofie’s tent when you’re nabbed by a couple of the other clowns, this time they’re full clown uniform. “Hey tulip we’ve been lookin’ for ya. If you’re staying, we’re going to need to polish up our routine.” One of them says. “Yeah, and after that, you can polish something else. Ha ha ha ha ha!” says another which causes some snickering from the others. “Could you please not talk that way to me?” you ask politely. “Awww are you sensitive? You’re such a delicate pretty little flower aren’t you?” the clown who made the polishing comment says. “Sheesh, Ranko don’t be a fucking asshole. Don’t mind him sweetheart he’s never been this close to a woman before.” Another clown says. “Fuck you Klepto and stop playing white knight. You’re not foolin’ anyone. You know damn well you got a raging boner for this little blonde number too. Am I right fellas?” This gets a small positive acknowledgement by the other clowns, including Klepto who chuckles while confessing his transparent white knighting. Once again you’re starting to wonder if this is going to be worth it. Is this what its always going to be like? You haven’t even been officially an employee five minutes and you’re already getting subjected to dirty innuendo and harassment. You know Roofie tried to assure you that nothing is going happen and that if someone did try anything you could let him know, but really though you don’t want to have to feel like you have to go running to him like a tattletale every time. If you could brave your serial killer uncle and your cultist ex-boyfriend, you can certainly handle some loutish clowns. In fact you start thinking about all the times Kelly has verbally abused you and you begin to get angry. You channel some of that anger that you have for her and direct it towards your new co-workers. “Ranko, I’m guessing that’s your name due to the bad breath your giving off right now. It smells like shit which still makes it about two steps higher than you look.” You say, which catches him off guard and stops the others from laughing. Before Ranko can retort you continue. “Your name oughta be Zero, because that’s exactly how far you’re ever going to get with me. The same goes for the rest of you fucktards! Just because I’m new here doesn’t mean I’m just going to take your fucking abuse!” For a moment there’s silence and even some of the nearby employees look on wondering what the rest a going to do. Ranko is the only one who says anything though. “Hmm, looks like the delicate flower has a few thorns. That’s okay though. I like a little spirit, keeps things interesting. In any case we still need to go over the routine so if you’re done bitching at all of us, let’s go.” He says and motions everyone to follow. You’re slightly apprehensive about following this group anywhere, but there’s little else for it since these are going to be your coworkers. You can only hope that in time they’ll see you as something other than an outlet for their lust. As you walk to the location you scan the rest of the carnival, which mostly consists of a lot of game barker types setting up their crooked games. You do see a few stages where the more traditional sword swallower and fire eater types are preparing themselves. This being a circus and the fact that Roofie said his father was a geek, you can’t help but wonder if there are any “freaks” anywhere. “Hey just wondering are their any Siamese Twins around here or something?” you ask trying to break up the silence. “Siamese Twins? Way to be racist darlin’. Ha ha, nah just fuckin’ with ya, but I believe the correct term is conjoined twins and no we don’t have any. There haven’t been any freaks in this carnival for decades now. I heard back in the day there were a lot of them here though. Cyclopes, pinheads, four arms abominations of nature, you name it.” Ranko remarks. “How come there aren’t any here anymore?” “Well because we live in a developed country that has access to modern medicine nowadays? I mean most of those freaks were just unlucky bastards that rolled low on the genetics chart when they were born. Thanks to modern medicine they can correct that shit now y’know? Plus you’ve got all those politically correct types going on about exploitation or some shit. Also if someone IS a genetic freak of nature they can just go on a talk show or the Internet and make money that way. Nope, the time of the sideshow freak has long since passed. I mean sure you get the self made freaks like tattooed and pierced folks, but that’s not really the same and it isn’t even shocking anymore especially when you’ve got people cutting their dicks off or shoving glass jars up their ass for free on the net. The best you’re going to get around here to freaks are the midgets and they’re a dime a dozen, no offense Shrimpy.” Ranko says referring to the dwarf clown. “Fuck you too Ranko.” Shrimpy remarks. Soon you get to an open location near a couple trailers where Ranko says you’re all going to go through the routine. It’s pretty much like how you first went through it, but you notice several of the clowns are getting a little bit more grabby now. “Alright, stop, stop. You assholes are supposed to be trying to woo me and fighting with each other, not attempting to gang rape me! I feel one more hand trying to grab my ass and they’re losing it!” you say. “Oh for fuck’s sake according to you whatever we do is offensive. I’m just thinking of a way to keep the routine fresh. It’ll be funny!” Ranko says. “Fresh? We haven’t even performed it for people yet! Besides isn’t this supposed to be a family show? The way Roofie suggested will be fine.” “That old drunk doesn’t even perform anymore, he’s too busy running this carnival into the fucking ground. He’s so fucking out of touch its ridiculous. Kids these days are watching hardcore anal porn as soon as they can log on to the Internet nowadays, so I doubt if a couple of clowns grabbing your ass is even going to register.” Ranko says. At this point Ranko is starting to get more hostile. Your continued defiance of not wanting to be a squeeze toy is getting to him. Despite Roofie being the owner, it’s obvious that this Ranko is the “ring leader” of the clowns and he’s going to be a dick no matter what. Continuing to antagonize his authority is going to just result in unifying the rest to his side, so you try something else. “All right Ranko, you want this routine to incorporate a little more risqué business fine, but you’re going about it the wrong way. You’ve got no style.” “Oh? Only been a clown for a few hours and you’re already an expert eh? Well go on and enlighten us all then sweetheart.” “Well for one thing Shrimpy should be trying to look under my dress whenever he can due to his size.” You say. “Wait what?” Ranko asks. “Hey, I’m liking her ideas already!” Shrimpy exclaims. “You all still need to play to your traits, don’t you see? You, Lifto. You’re the biggest of the lot so you should be relying on feats of strength in order to impress me like picking me up in your arms.” “Yeah, that makes sense.” Lifto remarks. You go through what the rest of the clowns should be doing and they’re remarkably receptive to you and your ideas. You come up with a whole new routine where they each attempt to charm you and how they fail either due to their own ineptness or another clown sabotaging them. The only one who’s not liking this idea is Ranko. “Hey, hey, hey, what about me? Where do I fit in?” Ranko demands. “You? Well I figured you’d be that completely disgusting suitor that never even gets close to being charming seeing as you’re already pretty good in that role. You can be an ongoing participant that gets constantly beat down by the others. Lifto hits you with a mallet, Klepto steals your pants, Shrimpy gives you a hot foot…you know clown stuff. It’ll be funny.” You say snidely much to Ranko’s chagrin. “Oh no, you’re not turning my crew against me! I’M head clown around here not some bottle blonde split tail! We’re not agreeing to this shit!” Ranko shouts. “Speak for yourself Ranko.” Klepto says. “Yeah, I kinda like this idea better, my bit doesn’t seem to rely on as much movement on my part.” Fatty remarks. “You’re just pissed that a newbie took your idea and made it work against you.” Shrimpy adds. Ranko at this point begins ranting and raving at everyone. He unleashed a torrent of swears that causes the whole carnival to take notice. He calls you a bitch and the rest of them pussy whipped. “That’s it, I’m done with this fucking loser carnival and the rest of you losers as well! I’m fucking RANKO the goddamn clown! I can get a job anywhere! Enjoy living in obscurity with miss frigid over here!” Ranko exclaims and storms off in a huff. “Good riddance rank breath! And I’m a goddamn natural blonde, you asshole!” you shout as he continues to walk away. You have to say this plunge into assertiveness has given you a bit of a rush. You like it. When you go back to going through the routine with the others and you notice a decrease in your former uneasiness. The “boys” are still doing a lot of leering and the routine is a little more physical now, but something is different this time. Namely you feel more in control of the situation and that’s probably because you are. “Wow, I really was wasting my natural talent.” You think to yourself. In the middle of the routine, Roofie shows up. “Well this looks…friendly.” He remarks as Lifto is in the middle of setting you back down on the ground. “Just going through the tweaked routine boss. It was the new girl’s idea!” Klepto remarks. “Yeah, it’s going to be good.” Shrimpy adds. “Hrm. Well let’s at least try to keep everyone’s clothing on shall we?” “Of course! There isn’t going to be any of that. Just going to keep it entertaining for the adult audience too.” You say. “Couldn’t help notice Ranko swearing like a sailor and stomping away from the carnival. Ranting about how he’s never coming back. You wouldn’t know anything about that would you?” “Not really boss. He just couldn’t keep up with the recent changes around here I guess.” You say, Roofie smirks a bit. “Heh, okay. Well I’m not going to lose any sleep not having to pay that asshole anymore. In any case, saw a few people actually driving up. Look like actual customers, so you guys need to go do your stuff for the crowds.” The rest of the day goes pretty well for you. You and the rest entertain the small crowds (who seem to be mostly from the trailer park community just outside of your town.) that do show up. By the end of the night you’re actually pretty tired and anxious to just flop down somewhere to sleep. Roofie says that thanks to Ranko leaving, his trailer is now empty and says that you can have it if you’re willing to ignore the mess he probably left it in. You accept the offer since it’ll be better than sleeping in Peter’s car. And its at that point you forgot to call Peter back to let him know to pick his car up! You check your phone and see that Peter did indeed try to get a hold of you, and once again Bobby left a bunch of texts and messages as well. You’re too tired to even bother to read them. You try to call Peter back, but you get no answer. Probably doing god knows what. You’ll try again tomorrow, for now you enter Ranko’s trailer and breathe a sigh of relief that the place isn’t a health hazard and lie down on his bed. As you drift off to sleep you chuckle at the irony that Ranko wanted to get you into his bed really badly and all it took was for him to leave. > Next day… TUESDAY “…remember time is running out! Our shelters won’t be…” You wake up to instinctively to grab the remote to turn off the TV only to realize that you have no TV, yet you’re still hearing those damn Ground Zero commercials. You groggily sit up and look out a side window and see one of the carnies holding a radio, which is loudly playing one of those advertisements. Just as well you’re up anyway, now that you have actual responsibilities and will have to live these new people you should take this opportunity to meet everyone since despite getting acquainted with your co-workers and the boss, you didn’t really interact with anyone else working here. Still dressed in your outfit from yesterday (mainly because you lack anything else to wear right now) you go out and meet your brand new family full of hope that this will be the start of something wonderful! The reality turns out to be much different though. “Honey, why the hell are hanging around with those clowns? I’m sure you’d be better as a sword swallower; in fact I got a way you can practice if you come to my trailer right now!” “Hey clown girl, I’ve got a way to paint your face white without the need for make up!” “Nice tits!” The female carnies aren’t much better. “So you’re the new girl that got her own private trailer huh? Guess a blowjob gets you a lot preference nowadays. Was Roofie even sober at the time?” “Hey Bozo the Hoe, you think you’re hot shit wiggling your ass at everyone? Let me warn you right now, you take my man I’ll make sure you won’t need to wear a red clown nose at your next performance!” “No, I don’t have any extra clothes you can borrow, Miss Living Skeleton. Go away you anorexic bitch.” Life is never easy outside the basement is it Suzy? Unfortunately that part of your life is over. You could go back to your trailer and hide you suppose, but it’s not the same and besides you’ve already come to the conclusion that hiding won’t solve your problems. Still, you are feeling a little “ganged up” on so for temporary relief you return to currently the only people that are halfway decent to you now, your fellow clowns. You enter the clown tent and see them all sitting around talking about something, but then when you enter all their attention is turned towards you. “Oh hey Suzy, you’re here early. We don’t usually warm up until a few hours before showtime.” Klepto remarks. “Oh, I’m not here for that, I’m just here since half of the carnival seems to want to fuck me and barrage me with clumsy sexual innuendo.“ “And… you came here to get away from that?” Lifto asks. You chuckle a little. “Yeah well at least if I stay in here part of it will be work related.” You answer which causes a couple of laughs and smiles from the rest. “Well considering you are one of us, maybe we should go easier on that now.” Klepto says. “I’d certainly appreciate it.” “Hey there are a lot of other women who work here, maybe you could go bond with them and do that whole sisterhood thing?” Lifto says. “I tried that. They all insulted me and seemed to want to punch me. Well except for that woman with the short red hair that juggles knives. I think she wanted to punch AND fuck me. (Sigh) No, looks like you guys are my only tribe here for now.” “Hm, well get used to it I guess. Nobody likes us clowns that much. To be quite honest one of the reasons we decided to knock off the crude remarks toward you is because you’ll be the first new person in years that will be civil to us. No point in making new enemies.” Klepto says. “Really? I thought all carnies stuck together.” You say. Now all the rest of the clowns laugh. “Hardly. I mean yeah there’s a certain unspoken rule that carnies stay united against outsiders and rubes. And we aren’t supposed to kill one another, but…well lets just say this very carnival doesn’t exactly have a spotless track record in that regard.” Klepto says. “People kill each other here?” you ask a bit alarmed. “No! Well not in my time anyway…” Klepto remarks trailing off. “What the hell does that mean? Look I don’t want to be part of some murder circus!” “Damn it Klepto you’ve scared the girl now! You should’ve just kept your mouth shut!” Shrimpy exclaims. At this point the clowns begin arguing with each other, but after a few moments of this bickering you demand that someone explain the situation exactly. Once again Klepto takes it upon himself to be the storyteller. “Look, I’ve probably blown it all out of proportion, but there are stories of how back in the day before Roofie or even his dad owned this carnival there was a violent power struggle for control over it that resulted in a lot of dead bodies afterwards.” “Weren’t just stories, shit it happened! My family has been a fixture of this carnival for generations too and my grandfather told me about the blood that ran during that fateful day.” Shrimpy adds as if Klepto didn’t quite put as much stock in these stories and takes over as the storyteller. “Battle lines were drawn that day. I mean you had dwarves, normals and freaks all siding against each other and the most hated group out of the bunch? The clowns. Now from what my grandfather told me, these clowns were definitely the reason why everyone today thinks of them as being monsters under the beds nowadays. Things of course have changed since then, but as they say the more things change the more they stay the same.” “What do you mean?” you ask. “I’m saying there’s going to be another power struggle soon and given that we’re clowns, WE are going to be on the losing end no matter what happens” “Wait a minute, what about Roofie? I mean isn’t he one of us?” you ask. “Roofie? The fact that he’s a clown just makes everyone think we already get preferential treatment. He’ll probably be the first one killed being the owner and all. He’s old and doesn’t have nearly the amount of control he used to anymore. Nope, I believe the change will be coming soon and it’ll be truly be a dark day for clowns…well maybe I’ll be able to get my people to take me back and YOU can offer to be someone’s girlfriend, but the rest of you are fucked.” “Gee, glad to know we’ll be able to count on your support Shrimpy, if something does happen.” Klepto remarks. You never realized that carnie “politics” was so complex and dangerous. Before you can panic too much about it Roofie shows up with a bottle in his hand. “Hey, what’re you lot still doing in here? We’ve actually got people showing up early. Apparently your little routine yesterday got people at that trailer park talking and they brought all the rest of their redneck buddies. Looks like we’ll get to rake in one goodly amount of cash before leaving this place. Oh and Suzy, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but the car you drove up in? Well looks like it was vandalized in the night.” “What?!” you exclaim. “All the tires were slashed and someone wrote cunt all over it with face make up. It might be just a hunch, but I’d say Ranko felt like he needed to have to last word.” “(Sigh) Great.” You say. “Well anyway you all need to get out there and do what you do.” Roofie orders and leaves. While the rest get going, you remain sitting starting to worry about what you’ve got yourself into. Once again you start to wonder if you shouldn’t just leave until Klepto touches your shoulder. “Don’t worry Suzy, Shrimpy has been going on like that for as long as I’ve known him. While things get tense around here at times, I don’t think it’s going to come to some bloodbath. Besides you can’t spend your life worrying about the future, gotta live for the day I say, so let’s just take our minds off our troubles by putting on a good show.” Klepto remarks. While Klepto’s reassurance is nice, it doesn’t really alleviate your concerns. Hell, you can’t even leave if you wanted to given that Peter’s car is trashed. You can only hope that perhaps in time peoples’ attitudes towards you will soften a bit. Right now, you do have work to focus on. Roofie wasn’t lying when he said more people showed up today. You and the rest of the clowns spend a majority of the afternoon walking around keeping the people entertained Eventually you take a break and decide to check out Peter’s car and if it is at all salvageable. When you get to it, it’s exactly as Roofie said, all four tires slashed and the word cunt painted all over it. You can’t believe nobody saw any of this even during the night. Or maybe they did and didn’t give a shit considering you haven’t exactly been accepted by most here. In any event you try to call Peter again, but you get no answer. He hasn’t even tried to call you. He must really be involved with work or something. Or maybe he doesn’t give a shit about his car. He could easily afford a new one. You also notice Bobby hasn’t tried calling you either. You guess he got the hint. You attempt to start to the car and just as you suspected Ranko must’ve sabotaged the engine or something under the hood as well. No matter, when you leave you weren’t going to be driving this thing anymore anyway. Lacking anymore use for the car, you take a look in the trunk just to see what might be in there and that’s when you find something useful. Namely a bunch of clothes…specifically YOUR clothes! Well some of them anyway. Apparently Peter still had a lot of your old clothes that he stole from you in the past. The other stuff looks like S&M garb, though not all of it the traditional black leather or latex. Some of it is sort of colorful. Festive even. Well at least you won’t be walking around in the same stuff day in day out now. You pack up what you can and head back to your trailer to drop it off. Afterwards you find the rest of your new clown “family” and eat with them. You take the opportunity to tell them a little bit about your former life; you get a surprising amount of sympathy from the others. “Holy shit, I thought I came from a fucked up family.” Klepto remarks. “Yeah well, like I said I did a lot of hiding in the basement for the most part. Not much of a life I guess, but it kept me sane for the most part.” You say. “Hey, whatever helps you survive the day right?” Shrimpy says. After a bit more chatting you all get back to work. As time goes on, there is one person you keep seeing nearby throughout the day, a large man in overalls who while attempting to look like he’s NOT staring at you, obviously is. This isn’t the usual ogling either because you’ve gotten accustomed to that, you’re getting a really creepy vibe from this guy. “Maybe we should get Roofie to throw this guy out or something.” You say. “Roofie? I just passed by one of the tents when I got another snack and saw he’s currently passed out as usual. Besides, he never throws anyone out as long as they aren’t doing something violent. As far a he’s concerned every low life that visits this carnival is a potential mark and worth putting up with to get their money.” Fatty says. “The guy looks like a retard. He’s probably not used to seeing a girl as beautiful as you before. I mean even under the white face make up and clown clothing, you still look miles better than any of the trailer trash mothers that have come here with their spawn.” Shrimpy remarks. “Well he’s really fucking creepy and I don’t trust him.” You say. “He’s not going to do anything in broad daylight, and even if he does, you know we got your back. Just stick near us and Lifto look extra intimidating.” Klepto says. The night the crowds start thinning out a bit. You imagine that after they put their illegitimate spawn to bed, trailer trash prefers to spend their nights at bars, strip clubs and getting high and/or drunk at home. As for the big retard that was staring at you all day, he seems to have left as well, but you still feel uneasy. Meanwhile Roofie has reawakened from his temporary drunken stupor to tell everyone that today was a good day and that everyone should get some rest since you’re going to be packing this place down first thing tomorrow morning and moving on. He then mumbles something about it all being pointless anyway and staggers back to his own trailer. “Well looks like that’s it. See you tomorrow Suzy.” Klepto remarks as he and the rest head towards their trailer. You on the other hand are still a little nervous about going back to yours. “Uh, guys do you think I could sleep with you tonight?” you say which causes all of them to turn back towards you in disbelief. “Wow Ranko would have had a field day with that remark.” Klepto chuckles. “You know probably nothing is going to happen. That guy was just some goony retard. Hell, if the freak show still existed, he’d probably be one of the side shows here.” “Look, I’m just still feeling really on edge about that guy from earlier. I mean I could sleep on the floor, I don’t care.” You say. “That would be incredibly uncomfortable and probably quite disgusting. Our trailer isn’t exactly the cleanest. I mean I’d offer my bed, but given that we’re going to need all our energy to pack up tomorrow, I’d like to get a good night’s sleep.” Klepto remarks. “Why don’t I sleep over in your trailer?” Lifto asks. “I know Ranko’s trailer is big enough for one other person. I could stay over, you guys would get a little extra room tonight and you can sleep safely without worry.” “Hrmm, that’s…generous of you Lifto.” Klepto remarks. “It’s not like that, I’m just offering a solution.” Lifto says though it does seem like he might be hoping this act of chivalry will lead to something more. While you’d hate to cause hard feelings within the group or possibly lead someone on, you know one thing is certain; you still don’t want to sleep alone tonight.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You wake up, but meh. Who really cares? You walk out of your chamber, the giant stone echoes with the sounds of your footsteps. As you exit the hall you gaze upon the worthless denizens of your humble abode. They all wander around, asking you your opinions of things, but do you care? Meh, not really. Another sound catches your ears. And from out of some random chamber comes a short girl with orange hair. "Ah, my cherry pie," you say as you kiss her on the forehead. "Hey, you slept in pretty late!" She says. "Meh." "I'm going to go to Cystia today? Want to join me?" she asks. "Meh." "Meh?" she asks. "Might stay in Discordina today." "Why?" "Eh, don't feel like it." As you continue on, you see more and more people and things you do not care about at all. Eventually, you make your way down the hall to one of your favorite rooms. The whirring and clanking of machinery and other things is like music to your ears. But that's not all. Ahead, someone covered in scales stands in front of a large machine. Large and with plenty of metal tubes, each with green liquid running through them. It is through this invention, and with the help of this green magical essence, you can alter reality itself. It's called the Deviner, the greatest invention to ever exist. You step forward to plug yourself in, the large needle like object about to prick through your forehead. But as you do so, you don't feel the rush of the running green liquid. In fact all you hear is an odd clunking and churning sound. Nothing happens, and you frown. "Damn it!" The scaly dragon man says, "I think something is busted." You rip the needle out and let it dangle where it sits. The machinery itself seems to have broken down, collapsed and laying defunct. The dragon man starts gathering pieces of what machinery he can. Before you can do anything, he stops you. "I'll work in this stuff, you should go to Cystia and find some of those magic crystals." "Why?" you ask. "Not only did the machinery break, it seems the magic crystal over charged, and sent a surge of magic throughout the liquid. So it broke down the weaker parts of the Deviner." You sigh, one of the few things you gave a shit about. You walk down the worthless halls, pass all the worthless people, and finally reach one of the worthless carriages. It seems several of them have taken off anyway. As you sit down, you slump into the comfy seat you had installed in the carriage. The worthless guy driving it flicks the reigns, causing the worthless horses to go forward. > You destination You finally arrive to the bustling land known as Cystia! As you drive through the wild lands, you see several guards in armor patrolling along the roads. These stone roads must be new. Ahead you see three of the guards chasing some furry creature, landing several arrows in its back as it finally goes down. The guards stand in the middle of the road, one steps forward and raises a hand. The carriage grinds to a halt. You look the window as a guard briskly approaches. "The roads are dangerous, you shouldn't be traveling alone." "Meh," you shrug your shoulders. The guard sighs, his tired eyes looking blank for a few moments. "The beast folk roam these lands," he says, "at least allow a couple of our guards to travel with you." You shrug your shoulders, and the guard orders two of his underlings to join you in the carriage. The ride is uneventful, although there are a few minor sights to see along the way. > You town It is about noon by the time the carriage reaches the gates of the civilized lands of Cystia. A few shouts from the guards over the walls, and the heavy wood and iron gates creak open. The carriage pulls up to a wooden…shack, where a couple of dirty peasants come out to take care of the horses. You step out of the carriage, and take a look around. Hopefully some crystals should be somewhere in Cystia…if not you're going to have to make a hike to a very powerful magic users place. Not that you can get in there, but you'd have to try. You have to try and figure something out, otherwise you'll never be able to use the Diviner again! You go to look around that all this portion of Cystia has to offer. Now where could those magic crystals be? > You lair A feeling of intense dread fills you up, making you feel not so warm inside. You're last trip to this place was….interesting. After getting painfully banished you decided to ignore the place and just continue on business as usual. But you NEED to get these crystals, otherwise what will become of your place in Discorina? It takes hours, but eventually you make your way past the main city, and through the dirt road. Ahead, the large and dark castle looms over head. The ashy clouds spewing a host of rain and lightning strikes viciously at the ground. The stone walls surrounding the castle appear foreboding, several small watchtowers dot the wall. Dark spires stretching upward, the metal spikes on top of them catching some of the lightning bolts. As you near the wall, you swear you hear something turning and whirring from deep within the castle, amidst the sound of the storm. Shivering and trembling you jog over to the castle, hoping you can get what you're looking for, and maybe a place to warm up. The large wooden gate appears to be shut, you didn't expect it to just be wide open though. You grab the rope on the side and pull it with all of your might. The large bell connected to it rings out its horrid tune. As you stand, soaked and cold, the door slowly opens but just a bit. Taking a step forward you squint at the opening. "Who's there?" a voice says, "Ford? Is that you?" "Yep," you say. "Ha, you know you're not allowed here." "I'm just here for some magic crystals…nothing else," you say. "I think that would be going against the rules…remember what happened last time you were here?" "Can you at least let me in from the cold, please," you say, "wouldn't it be nice?" The door opens more, and the source of the voice steps out. A tall man, hair shaved and clean shaven, he smiles. But there is something else to that smile, it's not exactly coming from a place of hospitality. "Sure," he chuckles, "this should be interesting." "Thanks," you say as you walk past him. You enter the tunnel that eventually leads to the door…which you find to be open. Walking in like you own the place, you take a look around. The large keep appears empty…as far as you can tell. The winds of the storm buffets against the castle, it almost obscures the sound of your soft steps as you traverse across the large keep. Wandering down the halls, you stop suddenly as you hear something. "REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Shrugging your shoulders you continue, must have just been your imagination. The halls twist and wind, and you feel as lost as ever. How did you ever navigate this place in the short time you had spent here? That darn Sorceress must be around here somewhere, she must have some magic crystals. But where could she be? > You spire You start with the most obvious place, the spire that she lives in. As you pass a few rooms, you hear a strange sound coming from one of them…meh. You continue on, not caring about what is very likely one of the many strange noises you will be hearing tonight. After going up several sets of stairs, you come to one that narrows and….spirals as you go up it. After several minutes you find yourself at the top, amidst a huge library. You walk through the place, eerily quiet. "Ax…Ax!" you shout. Nothing. Eventually you find a bed, a desk, and some table meant to magic things or whatever it is she does. Having no interest in anything that could be stashed in here, you continue on your way. Where else could you look?<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>A feeling of intense dread fills you up, making you feel not so warm inside. You're last trip to this place was….interesting. After getting painfully banished you decided to ignore the place and just continue on business as usual. But you NEED to get these crystals, otherwise what will become of your place in Discorina? It takes hours, but eventually you make your way past the main city, and through the dirt road. Ahead, the large and dark castle looms over head. The ashy clouds spewing a host of rain and lightning strikes viciously at the ground. The stone walls surrounding the castle appear foreboding, several small watchtowers dot the wall. Dark spires stretching upward, the metal spikes on top of them catching some of the lightning bolts. As you near the wall, you swear you hear something turning and whirring from deep within the castle, amidst the sound of the storm. Shivering and trembling you jog over to the castle, hoping you can get what you're looking for, and maybe a place to warm up. The large wooden gate appears to be shut, you didn't expect it to just be wide open though. You grab the rope on the side and pull it with all of your might. The large bell connected to it rings out its horrid tune. As you stand, soaked and cold, the door slowly opens but just a bit. Taking a step forward you squint at the opening. "Who's there?" a voice says, "Ford? Is that you?" "Yep," you say. "Ha, you know you're not allowed here." "I'm just here for some magic crystals…nothing else," you say. "I think that would be going against the rules…remember what happened last time you were here?" "Can you at least let me in from the cold, please," you say, "wouldn't it be nice?" The door opens more, and the source of the voice steps out. A tall man, hair shaved and clean shaven, he smiles. But there is something else to that smile, it's not exactly coming from a place of hospitality. "Sure," he chuckles, "this should be interesting." "Thanks," you say as you walk past him. You enter the tunnel that eventually leads to the door…which you find to be open. Walking in like you own the place, you take a look around. The large keep appears empty…as far as you can tell. The winds of the storm buffets against the castle, it almost obscures the sound of your soft steps as you traverse across the large keep. Wandering down the halls, you stop suddenly as you hear something. "REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Shrugging your shoulders you continue, must have just been your imagination. The halls twist and wind, and you feel as lost as ever. How did you ever navigate this place in the short time you had spent here? That darn Sorceress must be around here somewhere, she must have some magic crystals. But where could she be? > You garden You go to the interior garden, flowing with life, plants, some animals, the place is huge. You look around, and as you call out don't see anyone. Guess you'll have to look elsewhere.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>A feeling of intense dread fills you up, making you feel not so warm inside. You're last trip to this place was….interesting. After getting painfully banished you decided to ignore the place and just continue on business as usual. But you NEED to get these crystals, otherwise what will become of your place in Discorina? It takes hours, but eventually you make your way past the main city, and through the dirt road. Ahead, the large and dark castle looms over head. The ashy clouds spewing a host of rain and lightning strikes viciously at the ground. The stone walls surrounding the castle appear foreboding, several small watchtowers dot the wall. Dark spires stretching upward, the metal spikes on top of them catching some of the lightning bolts. As you near the wall, you swear you hear something turning and whirring from deep within the castle, amidst the sound of the storm. Shivering and trembling you jog over to the castle, hoping you can get what you're looking for, and maybe a place to warm up. The large wooden gate appears to be shut, you didn't expect it to just be wide open though. You grab the rope on the side and pull it with all of your might. The large bell connected to it rings out its horrid tune. As you stand, soaked and cold, the door slowly opens but just a bit. Taking a step forward you squint at the opening. "Who's there?" a voice says, "Ford? Is that you?" "Yep," you say. "Ha, you know you're not allowed here." "I'm just here for some magic crystals…nothing else," you say. "I think that would be going against the rules…remember what happened last time you were here?" "Can you at least let me in from the cold, please," you say, "wouldn't it be nice?" The door opens more, and the source of the voice steps out. A tall man, hair shaved and clean shaven, he smiles. But there is something else to that smile, it's not exactly coming from a place of hospitality. "Sure," he chuckles, "this should be interesting." "Thanks," you say as you walk past him. You enter the tunnel that eventually leads to the door…which you find to be open. Walking in like you own the place, you take a look around. The large keep appears empty…as far as you can tell. The winds of the storm buffets against the castle, it almost obscures the sound of your soft steps as you traverse across the large keep. Wandering down the halls, you stop suddenly as you hear something. "REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Shrugging your shoulders you continue, must have just been your imagination. The halls twist and wind, and you feel as lost as ever. How did you ever navigate this place in the short time you had spent here? That darn Sorceress must be around here somewhere, she must have some magic crystals. But where could she be? > You kitchen Ah, that’s right, it must be dinner time! After spending several more long and grueling minutes trying to remember your way around the place, you pass through some of the halls until you find the kitchens. And what a smell that greets you! Someone is cooking up some good shit! As you enter the large dinner hall, the near empty place seems somewhat startling. As you get closer to the trio, you see one woman holding several chickens in her arms and softly whispering to them. "Who are you?" you ask. "It's simple…I'm Sabley," she says before going back to the most precious chickens. The second person you see is some girl with little snakes for hair, and her eyes….by God her eyes…you stare with horror into the empty void that was her eye sockets, as you do so a little beetle crawls out of one of them, takes a shit on her eyebrow, and goes back inside. > You stare into the Void As you stare into the gaping chasms, you think you see something flickering within, it is a quick flash of red…then it is gone. As you keep staring the darkness seems to seep out of them and take over your vision. You tremble and shutter and fall to the floor… Time...time loops...<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Ah, that’s right, it must be dinner time! After spending several more long and grueling minutes trying to remember your way around the place, you pass through some of the halls until you find the kitchens. And what a smell that greets you! Someone is cooking up some good shit! As you enter the large dinner hall, the near empty place seems somewhat startling. As you get closer to the trio, you see one woman holding several chickens in her arms and softly whispering to them. "Who are you?" you ask. "It's simple…I'm Sabley," she says before going back to the most precious chickens. The second person you see is some girl with little snakes for hair, and her eyes….by God her eyes…you stare with horror into the empty void that was her eye sockets, as you do so a little beetle crawls out of one of them, takes a shit on her eyebrow, and goes back inside. > You ask where Axiom is "Where is Axiom?" you ask. Misjudging the sound, the blind freak turns towards the empty wall. "Last I saw, she went down to the dungeon," she says patting the chair next to her, "don't worry, you'll find her soon enough." "Thanks," you say. She turns to you. "I wasn't talking to you," she says turning back to the chair once again, "some people, no respect for private conversations." She shakes her head in disgust and begins going into detailed instructions of where the dungeon could be. "Well, our friend Corgi could take you there," Sabley says, "he knows where the dungeon is, don't you Corgi?" You hadn't really paid attention to, or noticed the third person in the trio. By your feet sits a little dog, its short fur pasted and matted with…you don't really want to know what. The dogs tongue perpetually hangs out from the side of its mouth, and as it stares at you, its left eye seems shift to the left. Its pupil almost hides within its eye socket. "Oh, I think he is trying to point towards the door." You look in the direction of the eye to see the door you came from. "He wants you to show him where the dungeon is, can you do that?" Sabley asks. "Daaaargh!" Corgi shouts and vigorously shakes his head up and down. In a moment he briskly walks over to the door, his little feet making padding sounds. You have no choice but to follow it at this point. The dog sits by the door and waits for you to catch up before continuing. > You dungeon After some time, the dog sits in front of a large stair case. He sits and faces you, his left eye rolling into the back of his head, presumably to point at the stairs right behind him. As you walk down the stairs you almost don't notice the dog following right behind you. You finally reach the long and dark corridors. As you walk past multiple cells, you see a demented looking furry man sitting in a cage with a giant lizard. They roll a ball back and forth, the furry man just repeats "Jibble" over and over again, drool coming out the side of his mouth. With shivers going down your spine, you continue on, not wanting to know what sick degeneracy this will turn into. Along the way, you hear a giant Uuuuurp! and peer into the cell it came from. Materializing from the shadows is a large, ugly….Ogre! The good natured being waves and smiles at you. "Didn't expect to see you here!" he says. Not caring you shrug your shoulders and continue on, the Ogre cares even less and goes back to scratching his ass or whatever it is ogres do. Eventually you find your way to a break in the wall, bricks lay on the ground, and moss grows along the walls of the cave that gives way. "Dar!" Corgi shouts and his eye points to the cave. > You cave You enter the dark cave, and after a few minutes of feeling around curse yourself for not thinking to grab a torch from the wall. Eventually though, a light emanates from up ahead. Surely she is hanging out over here. The torchlight almost blinds you as you step out. The cave expands out to a huge cave system, filled with thousands of glowing plants and mushrooms of various sorts. About halfway across is what appears to be a river running out to the ocean. A small dock sits empty, as a lonely lamp on a post shines bright. A small campfire burns, with several log benches surrounding it. Two figures sit around it, small green glowing things in their hands. You nonchalantly walk up to the campfire, the dog goes and crawls into some makeshift dog house not too far away. Sitting on each side of the fire are Malk and Steve. The first wearing a pink tutu, and a regular fur shirt above that, he sees you eyeing the tutu. "What?" Malk says, "it's a joke." "Whatever you say," you say, "have either of you seen Axiom?" "Just missed her, I'm afraid," Steve says, "hey, do you want to sit with us for a while?" You start to shrug your shoulders. "You should warm up," Steve says, "you look soaked." You decide to sit and humor them for a while, besides, the fire is quite warm. Steve points to the small dock. "Axiom took that boat not two hours ago," Steve says, "no idea why she would in a storm like this." You look to the empty dock once again, before looking down to the dark abyss that is the cave system. "These caves extend much further out than any of us would have imagined," Steve says, "what lies in the depths is any ones guess." "As long as she didn’t go too far into them," you say, "although she would probably know them better than anyone else." "No, she went to the ocean," Steve says, "although she does traverse the caves often enough." "Eh, she'll be fine," Malk says, "hey Ford, want to try one of these?" Malk extends his hand, revealing a glowing green mushroom, and a dark red plant in his palm. "These will have you up in the clouds for days, man," Malk says, "shit's good." "What exactly is it?" you ask. "Some kind of mushrooms," he says. > You don't Eat the Mushrooms "Eh, no I'm good," you say. "What? Why not, man?" Malks asks. "I just don't trust any old thing-" "Bah, whatever." Malk says as he jams the mushroom in his mouth, and seems to take too much pleasure in chewing it up and swallowing it…especially the swallowing. His eyes roll up into the back of his head a moment and then he grins as they roll back into place. His glazed eyes have a faraway look, and drool starts to drip from his mouth. Glancing back, you notice Steve seems to have ingested the mysterious mushrooms as well, he stares at the ceiling. "Whuuuuh," Steve says, "look at you, you sexy thing." > You continue You decide it would be best to wait around for a while, no use in going out and getting lost. As you wait, Steve and Malk seem to have ingested more of the mushrooms. Malk stands up and starts twirling like a pretty ballerina, and Steve starts dancing some king of Irish jig. In their minds they probably look like professional dancers…to you they look like a couple of idiots sloppily flailing around. Malk grabs your hands and starts trying to dance with you…..fuck it! You join in and spin him around right before dipping him, and throwing him in the air and catching him. He brings his lips close to yours, and you turn away in time to get a big, wet, sloppy smooch on the cheek. Cringing you drop him and step away. "Too far?" Malk grins as he snorts something else and starts hopping around like a frog. You see Steve take out some paper and begin to furiously scribble on it. You turn and scratch your head, wondering what exactly you have gotten yourself into. Malk hops up and tries to do the same jig he saw Steve do earlier, but only more horrible and sloppy. Malk belts out a song as he dances, at one point almost falling into the fire, but you catch him and pull him away. He doesn't even realize and continues what he is doing. He kneels down and picks up the red plant. "I've never tried this one before…" Malk looks at Steve, "let's try it boy-o." Steve looks up, already having several large books filled up with his writing. That was fast. "Indeed, my friend, indeed we shall," Steve stands up and takes a plant, "hmm, not sure if we should…" "Bah! Nonsense!" Malk says, "man, I could really go for some pie right now." "Ughh," Steve's face coils up into disgust. "I absolutely hate pie," Steve says. "Eh, you can help me make it then," Malk says. Steve shrugs as he and Malk begin to crush up parts of the red plant, and rolling it up in some leaves. After lighting it up using the camp fire, they smoke the crap out of that thing. They're eyes becoming red as smoke fills the immediate area. After some time you start to feel a bit woozy…too much smoke around you. As you sit, Malk giggles and points at you. Steve laughs his ass off and almost falls out of the log bench. "Man, I hate pie," Steve says, "but I sure could use some." "Haha fuck, fuck, fuck fuck!" Malk screams, "I have a great fucking idea!" Before anyone can say anything, Malk leaps up and grabs you by the collar. His eyes start to glow red like the red plant, and so do Steve's eyes. Both giggling they drag you up the cave, even while you kick and protest. "Man, this will be so funny," Malk says, "hah…fuck…best joke ever…" You open your mouth to try to speak, but Malk turns and vomits up some green, glowing liquid, it fills your mouth and you sputter and choke. "Ergh! Fuck!" you scream. > You baked and Baking The two high motherfuckers throw you onto the table in the kitchen. "Wha-what are you guys doi-" you say. "Shut the fuck up! It's okay," Malk says as he strokes your hair, "it'll be fun, you'll love it!" A sound grabs your attention, and you turn your head. A man with two sharp horns and pinkish red skin, enters. "Karstark! Er- Lord Karstark!" Malk says, "you're just in time, want to help?" "Sure…suuuure," Karstark grins and laughs evilly as he rubs his hands together, "what are we doing?" "You'll find out," Steve snaps and shakes his head, and he and Malk each glance at each other and shake their heads at Karstarks foolishness, a thing only known to them. As you turn to look at Malk, you scream as an axe blade buries into your face. Another whack and your eye pops out of your head, miraculously you're still able to see Steve preparing a little silver tray. Karstark steps forward and before you know it, he is sawing your arm off, and drinking the blood of your severed arm. You cough and sputter blood as you start to fall off the table, and Malk hoists you up back onto it with surprising strength. He scolds Kar for drinking your blood, and your vision goes dark as they continue to hack you up…. > You wake Up In the inner recesses of your consciousness, you feel an extreme heat burning up your body. You try to scream but can't just yet. You feel something moving though, must be your mouth. A grating sound grinds against your ears, and you cringe as a gloved hand grabs you and pulls you from the searing heat. You suck in a fresh gasp of air, and the two faces above you gasp and place you on the table. A third one comes into view as they all stare at you in horror…you recognize these faces…you're sure of it. As you are placed, more like thrown on the table. You feel a jolt of something course through you…and you remember. You remember fleeting bits of pain as these high as mother fuckers chopped you up. "What did we do?" Steve asks. The trio looks at each other, Karstark, being a demon, just laughs. Malk and Steve pick you up and hurriedly make their way to the sewage grates. "Sorry man," Malk says, "we're not sure what else to do." "Wait!" Steve says. But it's too late, you've been dropped in the drain and swirl in the stream of nasty, shitty, sewage water… > You swirls and Shit Pain…true pain…something stabs at the edge of your consciousness. No wait… Your eyes snap open, your shit and filth covered body reverberating as something slams into it…again and again. As the feces float out of your vision, you are accosted by the horrible sight of one of the beast people! It's little fuzzy pole jamming in and out of one of the many openings in your body. Your mouth gapes wide and excretes a foul, smelly, green liquid, covering the Rat Man! It screams as the acidic taste burns its flesh, and it hops into the squishy log filled waters in an attempt to wash off the liquid…bad idea. It screams from the pain of all the horrible bodily fluids and excrements entering its open wounds. And unable to handle the pain, it goes under and opens its mouth, swallowing as much as it can in a strange act of self mercy killing. You groan in pain, and realize you can't…but wait. A tentacle slowly emerges from your body slowly snaking on the stone walkway. Green glowing liquid seeps off of it and the tentacle crawls…but it twitches as well. After some straining and braining, you eventually learn you can control it! The rat-man cum and magic ooze must have somehow combined to give you these extraordinary powers! Your silver tray scrapes across the stone walkway as you grow another tentacle to pull yourself across…uggh, so damn slow. Some squeaks meet your ears, and you look over, to see several rat-men approaching, armed with rusty swords and spears. One of them, the apparent leader watches you intently, his paw on resting on the sword sheathed at his side. Two of the rats approach, one armed with a little club, and another with a spear. The one with the spear pokes at you a bit, and you see one further back licking their lips. The leader calls out to the rats in their language, and the one who was poking at you shrugs and seems to dismiss him. These rats are bothering you, and pose a great threat…but you get an idea. A way to get more power… > You eat One You lash your tentacles forth, one yanking the spear from the rat, and the other coiling around his neck and pulling him closer to you. As you try to eat him, he squeaks in fear and plants his paws on either side of you, pushing away with all his might. As he manages to pull away a bit, the other rat leaps forward, slamming the iron end of his mace down onto you. The cherries and human flesh inside of you splats on the stone, as everything feels fuzzy. A few of your teeth fall out, and the last thing you see is the rat raising the mace against you for the last time….<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Pain…true pain…something stabs at the edge of your consciousness. No wait… Your eyes snap open, your shit and filth covered body reverberating as something slams into it…again and again. As the feces float out of your vision, you are accosted by the horrible sight of one of the beast people! It's little fuzzy pole jamming in and out of one of the many openings in your body. Your mouth gapes wide and excretes a foul, smelly, green liquid, covering the Rat Man! It screams as the acidic taste burns its flesh, and it hops into the squishy log filled waters in an attempt to wash off the liquid…bad idea. It screams from the pain of all the horrible bodily fluids and excrements entering its open wounds. And unable to handle the pain, it goes under and opens its mouth, swallowing as much as it can in a strange act of self mercy killing. You groan in pain, and realize you can't…but wait. A tentacle slowly emerges from your body slowly snaking on the stone walkway. Green glowing liquid seeps off of it and the tentacle crawls…but it twitches as well. After some straining and braining, you eventually learn you can control it! The rat-man cum and magic ooze must have somehow combined to give you these extraordinary powers! Your silver tray scrapes across the stone walkway as you grow another tentacle to pull yourself across…uggh, so damn slow. Some squeaks meet your ears, and you look over, to see several rat-men approaching, armed with rusty swords and spears. One of them, the apparent leader watches you intently, his paw on resting on the sword sheathed at his side. Two of the rats approach, one armed with a little club, and another with a spear. The one with the spear pokes at you a bit, and you see one further back licking their lips. The leader calls out to the rats in their language, and the one who was poking at you shrugs and seems to dismiss him. These rats are bothering you, and pose a great threat…but you get an idea. A way to get more power… > You spit Acid Goop Your eyes widen as does your mouth, as the acidic vomit leaves your face, the rat yelp in surprise. Their flesh sizzles as the spear wielders leg burns to the bone, and he falls to the ground. The other rat holds his face and writhes out in agony before falling still. You lunge forward your tentacles, grabbing the surviving rat-man of the two and drag him closer. You munch and chew on him as you fit the whole rat-man in your mouth. You feel a burst of energy coursing through you, and the silver tray falls out from under you as you gain mass and power. Smirking evilly you lash out your tentacles once again, growing more as you do so. You strike one in the face, sending him against the stone wall, his skull cracking against it. He slumps down in a pitiful heap. The next one you wrap a tentacle around his ankle and force him into the shitty waters about a foot below him, sending another tentacle down to keep him under. The leader of the rat-men and his last two appear at a loss as to what to do. You leap forward, jamming a couple tentacles down one of their throats, and coiling around his wrist to stop him from reaching for his sword. The leader hops back as you shoot a tentacle around his other friends neck. Your mouth opens wide, and you gargle some of the green acid before shooting it at the trio. With surprising speed the leader chops through the one tentacle around one of his friends neck with his rusty sword. They spin as he tackles him into the fece filled water just in time to avoid the acid! Unfortunately there was nothing he could for the other rat-man, fortunately for you. You finish him off, and proceed to consume the corpses. You watch as the rat-man leader and his only surviving friend stare in horror as they let the current carry them somewhere safe. You're not worried about them, you have what you need. > You growth and Revenge Now that you have grown in power as well as size, it is time to exact your revenge! Your three potential targets won't be too easy at all. The first, and perhaps the easiest to get to might be Karstark. While you will have to worry about his entourage of demons, they don't seem like too much of a threat. You will have to travel a fair way to the demon infested shit areas of Cystia, but shit, with your appearance they will probably think you are one of them. The next possible target is Steve. He shouldn't be too hard to find, especially if you start looking now, before he sails off somewhere again. Shit, you might even be able to get him and Malk in one fell swoop. The only thing about him is that he is a tenacious bastard, he will not go too easily. You've seen his alcohol fueled duels against some of the beast people and other members of the land. Then there is Malk, who will likely be most on his guard. You'll have to try and catch him when he is high or drunk, as he won't have too good coordination like Steve. The issue with him is that if he channels his berserker rage you're probably fucked. Might have to sneak up on him when it comes time to get your revenge on him. You sincerely hope none of the other villains get in your way, which is always a possibility. You will just have to cross that bridge when you get there. Seems like Karstark will may be the easiest, so you'll start with him. > You karstark Well, you'll have to go with the weakest link first. Besides, he was the only one completely sober when they chopped you up and baked you into a pie. That bastard. Being the large sack of pie that you are, you roll your way out of the sewers, careful to evade any of the large groups of rat people looking for you. You do travel by the sewers though, and the going is easier when you get out of rat territory. You come across all manner of freaks and beasts in the sewer systems, which span for miles and miles. A few times you even get someone to guide your toward Lord Karstark's little territory. Your current guide, some Nuub named Lord Shark points up to a ladder. Apparently these two Lords have been feuding for a while now, so of course he would be happy to help you! You're about to make your way up when he holds up a hand. "Hey, so this ladder should lead right into the middle of his camp, in a not so open place of course," Lord Shark says, "but if you go a little more up that way, there should be a pipe that leads somewhere else in his camp." Shark looks around before continuing. "I can't say for sure where it goes but it couldn't hurt to check it out." "Thanks," you say, "I appreciate the assistance." > You ladder You climb up the ladder, open the hatch, and find yourself smack in the middle of Karstark's camp just as you expected. You look around, several demons are just milling about. While demons should be inherently scary, they don't seem like anything a human pie couldn't handle. > You stealth You decide to play this as quietly as a pie that needs to roll and slither about can. Somehow, you manage to make it across the fort ruins, evading drunken "patrols" and such. Rolling past all the tents, you eventually find who you're looking for. Sitting on an outhouse potty…without the outhouse, is Lord Karstark. His nose buried in some a story by one, who goes by the name of queenlatifa04, with the lowest rated book, presumably about to be turned into toilet paper. You send your tentacle forth, stabbing through the shitty (or soon to be shitty paper) and the tentacle slams right through his chest. Karstark's mouth gapes and quivers. "Y-y-you….I remember you…" Karstark says. "I would assume so, you just turned me into a pie," you say. "That was…months ago…" Karstark says before is head droops down and shpfoooooooouuuutt his legs jerk upwards as his bowels empty. You remove your bloody tentacle, admiring the sharp end on this one. You didn't even know you could do that, must have been instinct. Well, that was surprisingly easy. You slither off and evade the camp guards once again, making your way back to the sewers.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You are Ben Higgins, a person of no consequence living in the town of Van Hove. The town was large but not big enough to be a city, not that it matted to you since your world is mainly your home and the small yard around it. For most of your life the idea of going out into the world made you uncomfortable, along with the idea of social interaction. Of course when the situation called for it, like getting food or mailing a letter at the post office, you could handle it no problem, but you found it joyless and were glad when it was over. In addition you rarely watched TV or even the news on the internet, unless it was happening on your property it didn't affect you or at least that's what you believe. As for money you work from home on your computer fixing problems on other people's computers via remote desktop connections. The company you work for pays enough so you have enough food and pay the bills. What is most important is that they leave you alone while you work. Your little sister Victoria says you do want to go out and do more, but you're afraid. Victoria is your main source of social interaction and the only person who have any real connection to. Several years ago, your parents died in a car crash and Victoria has been living with you ever since. The two of you get along for the most part, you have the same squabble that all siblings have but you genuinely care for each other. It's summer now and in the fall Victoria is leaving for college, which is going to leave you more alone than ever. Oh sure, she is going to visit and stay here between semesters, but you know this is the beginning of her going off to forge her own path and living her own life, something you never got around to doing. Alas you are happy for her and would never want to hold her back. Certainly you would not want her to live the same dull and somewhat depressing existence you have. You do wonder if she is right and you do want to go out in the world and make friends but the fear is simply more than you can handle, while giving up and crawling back into bed is just too easy. If Victoria is right then what exactly are you afraid of? Not being able to fit in, or perhaps it's the shear unpredictably of life. It doesn't make a difference as you have no plans on changing your lifestyle in the foreseeable future. You wake up late one morning, planning on spending the day working, you head into the narrow hallway and into the kitchen. The kitchen is cramped and needs to be cleaned soon, as you brush crumbs off the kitchen table you notice something is off. It's relatively quiet, normally when you get up Victoria is making noise doing one thing or another. She can't still be asleep, she was always an early bird, maybe she is feeling ill, you decided to check on her as you head back into the hallway and knock on her bedroom door. "Vic, you alright?" You call out while knocking. No response, you open the door just a tad to peek in and see her bed is empty. After this discovery you head back into your room and grab your cell phone off your dresser. There are no text messages or voicemail, Victoria always leaves one when she heads out. You send her text asking where she is. Several minutes pass and there is no reply. Victoria is glued to that phone and she always responds quickly, even though it's usual a text to stop bugging her. You begin to worry, but perhaps you're being overprotective. Your sister is an adult and unlike you has a life, although this is a big departure from her usual behavior. Her best friend is Moira Estacado, she owns the bar and restaurant "Moira's" located in the center of town. Maybe she would know where your sister is, or you could search Victoria's room, there might be something there you could find. > You go to Moira's Moira Estacado is Victoria's best friend and a mother figure to her since your mother died. She's a bit older then Victoria which made her instantly cool in your sister's eyes. The fact that she owned a bar and restaurant just increased the cool factor. Personally, you can't stand her, she's obnoxious, annoying and in general a pain. Vic tries to explain that Moira likes to tease and it's just harmless fun, but you aren't convinced. Still if there is someone who would know where sister is it's her. You leave your house and get into your car noticing that the rust on the hood is beginning to spread. A bit of drive later you arrive at Moira's, it's still early, but you know she will be there. Moira is very dedicated to the bar and restaurant, always making sure it is running smoothly and her workers aren't slacking off. She spends as much time there as you spend secluded in your house. There is plenty of parking as it's too soon for the lunch crowd. After parking your car near the front you head in and see the waiter and hostess talking to each other, not expecting a customer so soon after opening. They seem a bit puzzled by your presence and attempt to interact with you, but you're focused on asking to Moira about Victoria and ignore them. You spot her at the bar cleaning a glass, her shoulder length red hair makes her stand out easily. She notices you approaching and a mischievous smile appears on her face. "Well look who decided to crawl out from under a rock," Moira greeted. Her attitude was already getting under your skin, but you had to see if she knew about Victoria. > You say "Hello Moira, nice to see you" "Hello Moira, nice to see you," You manage to say without showing how annoyed you are at her greeting. "Wow, who are you and what have you done with Ben?" Moira responded, getting you more annoyed. "I mean not only did you leave your house, but you're talking without sounding like a dick." "Look, I can't find Victoria, can you tell me where is she, she's not answering her phone and I just want to make sure she's alright." "Will you relax, she's probably still at Steve's house, they left here together last night." "Who the hell is Steve?" "You mean you don't know, wow just wow, Victoria always said you were a bit obvious to things, but I didn't know it was to the point where she can date a guy for a month and you remain completely clueless." The mention of Victoria having a boyfriend caught you off guard. You're pretty sure Victoria never mentioned him, maybe she was worried you'd get upset or maybe simply she never told you because you never asked. Are you really that withdrawn? Now is not the best time to worry about this, it's better stay focused on finding her. "Are you sure she's there?" You ask. "I'm not positive but it makes sense, last night Victoria was here for a bit then Steve came and picked her up, I assume she spent the night there since she isn't at your house," Moira explains. "Why would she spend the night there?" "Jesus, are you really that socially inept, do I really have to explain why she would spend the night at her boyfriend's house?" You ponder for a second and then as the realization hits you, a look of disgust appears on your face.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|> Three legendary warlords. One land. Who will rule? Warlords: Strategic Conquest is a story set in medieval China. Each choice you make will logically determine how your campaign proceeds. Clues to help you select the best choices are woven into the narrative. Background story: It is 907 A.D., and China has seen better days. Riots spreading like wildfire ended three hundred years of Tang rule. Ordinary citizens overthrew their local politicians, fed up with inept government and rising taxes. The central government responded by increasing the allowance of military power to each province. Amidst the political unrest and military buildup, ambitious warlords everywhere saw a chance to grab their piece of the pie. These absolute leaders, exercising both military and civil power, declared their independence from Tang authority, seized private property, fought each other, and turned order upside down. China's power vacuum longs to be filled by someone skilled enough to defeat his opponents and unite the country once again. Three particular warlords stand out: Governor Toleron Growing up in a poor Southern village, Toleron's childhood was marred by domestic violence. His seldomly employed father spent what little money his family had on liquor and gambling. The more he drank the angrier he would get at not being able to provide for his family. Toleron's mother would often receive the brunt of his father's drunken temper. Toleron stayed home for his mother's sake, but resolved to make a better life for himself. At the age of 20 he finally left home and started his own business as a fabric manufacturer. He worked hard and his company eventually became one of the most profitable businesses in the South. After transferring company ownership to his mother, Toleron joined the Tang army's civilian staff. Thanks to his knack for organization, he soon rose to a high administrative post. After the revolution began, a loyal following of soldiers urged him on to take over the provincial government. Toleron is highly regarded for his expertise in leveraging resources and logistics. Everyone serving under him believes he would make a wise emperor. General Nahru Abandoned by his parents at the age of three, Nahru spent his childhood learning the power of violence while fighting for scraps on the streets. After learning what Tang soldiers get paid to do, he immediately enlisted in the army. In battle, Nahru fought fearlessly against Korean revolts and Mongol invasions. After years of heavily decorated service, he was promoted to Supreme Commander of the Northern Forces. He sees the revolution as a golden opportunity to carve out his own empire. Famous for his ruthlessness and hot temper, Nahru inspires as much fear as respect among his own colonels, but that keeps them focused lest they make a career-ending mistake. He is confident that he will one day take over the entire world, and no one would bet against him considering his unblemished battle record. President Min Min was born into an affluent family in western China. An only child, his mother was overprotective and smothered him with attention. He grew up shy, awkward, and shunned by peers at school. His only constant companions were books. In addition to helping him make excellent grades, the books also cultivated Min's fanciful imagination. He started to notice people's body language and what it would indicate. Over time he honed his communication skills until he could impress anyone he came across. He talked his way into mayorship of a burgeoning western city only a few weeks after graduating from Soh Lin University. Over the years Min has built a reputation as a peerless diplomat. When the rebellions began, several admiring towns voluntarily incorporated themselves into his territory and elected him president. With a persuasive tongue like his, there is no limit to what Min can accomplish. Who are you? > You governor Toleron Only one week has passed since you declared yourself Governor of this southern province. The majority of your subjects are ignorant of your ambitions and accomplishments. Outside your core group of devoted followers, precious few bother to differentiate between you and other warlords. To avoid death at the swords of your enemies, you will need to prioritize pressing concerns while juggling outspoken factions. After outfitting your militia, your Treasury is down to 200 yuan. If your Treasury ever reaches negative, you will be unable to pay your Workers or Army their wages. If that ever happens they will become infuriated and quit permanently and your campaign will come to a crashing halt. The peasants who make up the majority of your citizens are unfortunately very poor and thus your tax income is effectively zero. Your Treasury adviser suggests an idea to mass cultivate lychees, a small red fruit with juicy white flesh native to the South. Since lychees can only be grown in your Southern soil, exporting them to the North guarantees ample returns. It requires an investment of 75 yuan to plant the seeds, and patience to wait for the trees to mature. (If you make this choice, 75 yuan will be deducted from your current Treasury total. Two turns after that, 150 yuan will be added to your Treasury, then 300 yuan the turn immediately after that one, 600 yuan the turn immediately following, and so on.) Your Army is fierce, loyal, and small. Although there are no warlords with much larger forces in your immediate area, there are several nearby warlords rivaling you in power who each itch to add your territory to his realm. Your colonels report that a pay increase for your Army would raise conscription considerably, giving you a much stronger fighting force. (You begin with a Small army, which costs you 25 yuan in upkeep cost per turn. If you make this choice your Army will go from Small to Large, and cost you 75 yuan in upkeep cost per turn, effective immediately. No further upgrades are available for your army in this story.) Meanwhile, the professionals toiling for your government- masons, accountants, carpenters, iron workers, tailors, etc- are imploring for higher wages. Your advisers would like you to attract more capable skilled Workers to your domain as well, as peasantry does not exactly provide the best pool of candidates to help run a kingdom. (Your Workers begin with a rating of Low and costing you 25 yuan in wages per turn. If you make this choice your Workers rating will go from Low to High, and cost you 75 yuan in upkeep cost per turn, effective immediately. No further upgrades are available for your Workers.) The Buddhist temple has yet to endorse any warlord for emperor. While Buddhism has propagated throughout China, your province is somehow the lone exception. Seeing an opportunity to gain more followers, the leaders of the religion request your donations and conversion to Buddhism in exchange for their support. Improving your relations with the Temple will ensure a favorable reputation with citizens of other kingdoms throughout China. (Your rating with the Buddhists starts at Low. If you make this choice a one-time cost of 50 yuan will be deducted from your Treasury and your rating will become High for the duration of the story.) Finally, there are still millions of people in your region who are undecided about which warlord to back. A sympathetic populace hides your person from enemy assassins. Your advisers tell you about a recent torrential mudslide that devastated the countryside where farmers live and work and ruined much of their infrastructure. The leaders of the peasants are pleading for help in repairing the destroyed houses and equipment. Aiding the peasants will ensure that the Masses are loyal to you. (Your rating with the Masses starts at Low. If you make this choice a one-time cost of 25 yuan will be deducted from your Treasury and your rating will become High for the duration of the story.) What do you do first: (The numbers in parentheses ( ) next to a faction in the Status Box signifies its per-turn upkeep cost to be effected on your Treasury after this turn is complete and before the next turn begins. The numbers in braces { } in the Status Box signify the one-time cost to upgrade the status of that particular faction.) ------------------------------ //////////////////////////////////////////////////[STATUS BOX]/////////////////////////////////// ///Treasury: 200 yuan {-75} /////// Army: Small (-25)///////////////////Masses: Low {-25} ////////////////////////////////////////Workers: Low (-25)/////////////////Buddhists: Low {-50} ------------------------------- > You pay Workers more money (-75 yuan per turn instead of -25 per turn) ------------------------------- //////////////////////////////////////////////////[STATUS BOX]/////////////////////////////////// ///Treasury: 100 yuan {-75} /////// Army: Small (-25)///////////////////Masses: Low {-25} ////////////////////////////////////////Workers: High (-75)/////////////////Buddhists: Low {-50} ------------------------------- You announce salary raises for your professional Workers. They are happy to hear the news and your government's administrative efficiency improves greatly. However, the peasants grow envious of the Workers and look down on you for attending to your Workers before them. As a result they give their support to other warlords. Without the Masses' base of support, your realm remains susceptible to sabotage. One nearby warlord raids your grain silo and pilfers the winter's supply of rice. Another burns an armory of your troops' weapons. One night you are awakened by loud noises outside your sleeping tent. You open the door to see what is happening and see your personal bodyguards being cut down by a group of assassins. You recognize several peasants among them. "Your death will be quick. Commander Wan is a merciful man," the one closest to you says as he chops your head off as a trophy for their leader. THE END<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|> Only one week has passed since you declared yourself Governor of this southern province. The majority of your subjects are ignorant of your ambitions and accomplishments. Outside your core group of devoted followers, precious few bother to differentiate between you and other warlords. To avoid death at the swords of your enemies, you will need to prioritize pressing concerns while juggling outspoken factions. After outfitting your militia, your Treasury is down to 200 yuan. If your Treasury ever reaches negative, you will be unable to pay your Workers or Army their wages. If that ever happens they will become infuriated and quit permanently and your campaign will come to a crashing halt. The peasants who make up the majority of your citizens are unfortunately very poor and thus your tax income is effectively zero. Your Treasury adviser suggests an idea to mass cultivate lychees, a small red fruit with juicy white flesh native to the South. Since lychees can only be grown in your Southern soil, exporting them to the North guarantees ample returns. It requires an investment of 75 yuan to plant the seeds, and patience to wait for the trees to mature. (If you make this choice, 75 yuan will be deducted from your current Treasury total. Two turns after that, 150 yuan will be added to your Treasury, then 300 yuan the turn immediately after that one, 600 yuan the turn immediately following, and so on.) Your Army is fierce, loyal, and small. Although there are no warlords with much larger forces in your immediate area, there are several nearby warlords rivaling you in power who each itch to add your territory to his realm. Your colonels report that a pay increase for your Army would raise conscription considerably, giving you a much stronger fighting force. (You begin with a Small army, which costs you 25 yuan in upkeep cost per turn. If you make this choice your Army will go from Small to Large, and cost you 75 yuan in upkeep cost per turn, effective immediately. No further upgrades are available for your army in this story.) Meanwhile, the professionals toiling for your government- masons, accountants, carpenters, iron workers, tailors, etc- are imploring for higher wages. Your advisers would like you to attract more capable skilled Workers to your domain as well, as peasantry does not exactly provide the best pool of candidates to help run a kingdom. (Your Workers begin with a rating of Low and costing you 25 yuan in wages per turn. If you make this choice your Workers rating will go from Low to High, and cost you 75 yuan in upkeep cost per turn, effective immediately. No further upgrades are available for your Workers.) The Buddhist temple has yet to endorse any warlord for emperor. While Buddhism has propagated throughout China, your province is somehow the lone exception. Seeing an opportunity to gain more followers, the leaders of the religion request your donations and conversion to Buddhism in exchange for their support. Improving your relations with the Temple will ensure a favorable reputation with citizens of other kingdoms throughout China. (Your rating with the Buddhists starts at Low. If you make this choice a one-time cost of 50 yuan will be deducted from your Treasury and your rating will become High for the duration of the story.) Finally, there are still millions of people in your region who are undecided about which warlord to back. A sympathetic populace hides your person from enemy assassins. Your advisers tell you about a recent torrential mudslide that devastated the countryside where farmers live and work and ruined much of their infrastructure. The leaders of the peasants are pleading for help in repairing the destroyed houses and equipment. Aiding the peasants will ensure that the Masses are loyal to you. (Your rating with the Masses starts at Low. If you make this choice a one-time cost of 25 yuan will be deducted from your Treasury and your rating will become High for the duration of the story.) What do you do first: (The numbers in parentheses ( ) next to a faction in the Status Box signifies its per-turn upkeep cost to be effected on your Treasury after this turn is complete and before the next turn begins. The numbers in braces { } in the Status Box signify the one-time cost to upgrade the status of that particular faction.) ------------------------------ //////////////////////////////////////////////////[STATUS BOX]/////////////////////////////////// ///Treasury: 200 yuan {-75} /////// Army: Small (-25)///////////////////Masses: Low {-25} ////////////////////////////////////////Workers: Low (-25)/////////////////Buddhists: Low {-50} ------------------------------- > You gain the respect of foreign citizens by becoming a member of the Buddhist Temple (-50 yuan) ------------------------------ //////////////////////////////////////////////////[STATUS BOX]/////////////////////////////////// ///Treasury: 100 yuan {-75} /////// Army: Small (-25)///////////////////Masses: Low {-25} ////////////////////////////////////////Workers: Low (-25)/////////////////Buddhists: High ------------------------------- You donate a large chunk of funds to the temple. The high monks are overjoyed by your generosity and invite you to the nearest monastery for a lavish conversion ceremony. Facing a bronze idol of Buddha and lit red candles, you chant newly learned Buddhist hymns alongside monks in saffron colored robes. The monks compliment your devotion and spread word of your piousness far and wide. Back home however, your subjects deride you for throwing your precious yuan away currying favor with foreigners. The Masses, angry that you did not help them with their repairs, decide to give their support to other warlords. While it is nice to be liked by foreigners, you are not yet powerful enough to attract them to your kingdom, so they remain merely subjects of other warlords. Without the Masses' base of support, your realm remains susceptible to sabotage. One nearby warlord raids your grain silo and pilfers the winter's supply of rice. Another burns an armory of your troops' weapons. One night you are awakened by loud noises outside your sleeping tent. You open the door to see what is happening and see your personal bodyguards being cut down by a group of assassins. You recognize several peasants among them. "Your death will be quick. Commander Wan is a merciful man," the one closest to you says as he chops your head off as a trophy for their leader. THE END<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|> Only one week has passed since you declared yourself Governor of this southern province. The majority of your subjects are ignorant of your ambitions and accomplishments. Outside your core group of devoted followers, precious few bother to differentiate between you and other warlords. To avoid death at the swords of your enemies, you will need to prioritize pressing concerns while juggling outspoken factions. After outfitting your militia, your Treasury is down to 200 yuan. If your Treasury ever reaches negative, you will be unable to pay your Workers or Army their wages. If that ever happens they will become infuriated and quit permanently and your campaign will come to a crashing halt. The peasants who make up the majority of your citizens are unfortunately very poor and thus your tax income is effectively zero. Your Treasury adviser suggests an idea to mass cultivate lychees, a small red fruit with juicy white flesh native to the South. Since lychees can only be grown in your Southern soil, exporting them to the North guarantees ample returns. It requires an investment of 75 yuan to plant the seeds, and patience to wait for the trees to mature. (If you make this choice, 75 yuan will be deducted from your current Treasury total. Two turns after that, 150 yuan will be added to your Treasury, then 300 yuan the turn immediately after that one, 600 yuan the turn immediately following, and so on.) Your Army is fierce, loyal, and small. Although there are no warlords with much larger forces in your immediate area, there are several nearby warlords rivaling you in power who each itch to add your territory to his realm. Your colonels report that a pay increase for your Army would raise conscription considerably, giving you a much stronger fighting force. (You begin with a Small army, which costs you 25 yuan in upkeep cost per turn. If you make this choice your Army will go from Small to Large, and cost you 75 yuan in upkeep cost per turn, effective immediately. No further upgrades are available for your army in this story.) Meanwhile, the professionals toiling for your government- masons, accountants, carpenters, iron workers, tailors, etc- are imploring for higher wages. Your advisers would like you to attract more capable skilled Workers to your domain as well, as peasantry does not exactly provide the best pool of candidates to help run a kingdom. (Your Workers begin with a rating of Low and costing you 25 yuan in wages per turn. If you make this choice your Workers rating will go from Low to High, and cost you 75 yuan in upkeep cost per turn, effective immediately. No further upgrades are available for your Workers.) The Buddhist temple has yet to endorse any warlord for emperor. While Buddhism has propagated throughout China, your province is somehow the lone exception. Seeing an opportunity to gain more followers, the leaders of the religion request your donations and conversion to Buddhism in exchange for their support. Improving your relations with the Temple will ensure a favorable reputation with citizens of other kingdoms throughout China. (Your rating with the Buddhists starts at Low. If you make this choice a one-time cost of 50 yuan will be deducted from your Treasury and your rating will become High for the duration of the story.) Finally, there are still millions of people in your region who are undecided about which warlord to back. A sympathetic populace hides your person from enemy assassins. Your advisers tell you about a recent torrential mudslide that devastated the countryside where farmers live and work and ruined much of their infrastructure. The leaders of the peasants are pleading for help in repairing the destroyed houses and equipment. Aiding the peasants will ensure that the Masses are loyal to you. (Your rating with the Masses starts at Low. If you make this choice a one-time cost of 25 yuan will be deducted from your Treasury and your rating will become High for the duration of the story.) What do you do first: (The numbers in parentheses ( ) next to a faction in the Status Box signifies its per-turn upkeep cost to be effected on your Treasury after this turn is complete and before the next turn begins. The numbers in braces { } in the Status Box signify the one-time cost to upgrade the status of that particular faction.) ------------------------------ //////////////////////////////////////////////////[STATUS BOX]/////////////////////////////////// ///Treasury: 200 yuan {-75} /////// Army: Small (-25)///////////////////Masses: Low {-25} ////////////////////////////////////////Workers: Low (-25)/////////////////Buddhists: Low {-50} ------------------------------- > You ensure the support of the Masses by paying for their repairs (-25 yuan) ------------------------------ //////////////////////////////////////////////////[STATUS BOX]/////////////////////////////////// ///Treasury: 125 yuan {-75} /////// Army: Small (-25)///////////////////Masses: High ////////////////////////////////////////Workers: Low (-25)/////////////////Buddhists: Low {-50} ------------------------------- You travel to the mudslide devastated community and distribute donations. Sunburned peasants give you wide gap-toothed grins as you walk among them. Some applaud when you grab a two-handed saw and help remove a tree toppled over the middle of a road. Word spreads of your leadership during the relief effort. The populace now believes that you share their priorities and values. You become the people's favorite throughout the South. Your citizens now work together with your police to ward off infiltrators. Neighboring warlords no longer bother sending saboteurs or assassins to your realm. As a result your small Army's morale temporarily spikes. Your Treasury adviser reports that, although your Treasury has been dramatically reduced, you still possess just enough yuan to make the fiscal investment that will ensure you do not go broke. The Buddhist temple chastises your lack of piousness, but otherwise does not frown upon you for tending to your people. Some government professionals complain about not getting a raise, but most remain optimistic and continue to work for your benefit. They even finish construction on a castle, a sturdy, gated structure that will serve as your residence and enhance your capital's defenses. You listen to news from faraway lands. The northern empire of General Nahru is experiencing internal turmoil and the General is barely holding onto his own life. He will not pose any threat to you, at least for now. Your other main rival, President Min, has been seen traveling East in your direction. He reportedly met with several minor warlords nearby. Other warlords had been skirmishing back and forth among each other, but none had acquired enough power to be worth your time. While the chaos in China has been wearing on the populace, hope has not been lost. The people long for a capable leader who will bring peace and create a sound economic environment. They say they would be willing to secede from their kingdom and join such a leader if one were to emerge. Your next move... ------------------------------ //////////////////////////////////////////////////[STATUS BOX]/////////////////////////////////// ///Treasury: 125 yuan {-75} /////// Army: Small (-25)///////////////////Masses: High ////////////////////////////////////////Workers: Low (-25)/////////////////Buddhists: Low {-50} ------------------------------- > You pay Workers more money (-75 yuan instead of -25) ------------------------------ //////////////////////////////////////////////////[STATUS BOX]/////////////////////////////////// ///Treasury: 25 yuan {-75} /////// Army: Small (-25)///////////////////Masses: High //////////////////////////////////////Workers: High (-75)/////////////////Buddhists: Low {-50} ------------------------------- You announce salary raises for your professional Workers. They are happy to hear the news and your government's administrative efficiency greatly improves. Just days later, you hear to your surprise that President Min and his allies have marched their armies to a position a few miles outside your castle. "No rest for the weary," you mutter to yourself. Your militia knocks on every door rallying citizens to help defend your city. The next day, Min and his allies unfurl a large white banner half a mile away from your castle. It reads: "Astute Governor Toleron, we offer you a proposition. If you relinquish your claim to China and open your castle gate, we will spare the lives of everyone inside. Otherwise we will have no choice but to lay siege to your castle. At that point, we will no longer show mercy." You keep your gate closed. They stay true to their word and blockade your castle. Weeks pass, but your citizenry's faith in your guidance keeps their spirits high. The attacking force, on the other hand, begins to lose cohesiveness. One warlord cites your small Army and insists on launching a full scale attack on your walls. Another advocates a long-term siege, using their pooled advantage in resources to wear you out, taking years if need be. Another has citizens back home pushing for more attention to other matters and would rather call off the attack completely. President Min is unsure of what to do. He is not quite prepared for actual bloodshed, thinking originally that his larger forces would induce your surrender. On the other hand, resigning so easily would be a bitter pill to swallow. After much bickering and deliberation, they halfheartedly send their troops to attack your walls. Foot soldiers carrying rope ladders charge at your parapets. Your archers respond with barrages of burning arrows. Many attackers expire before reaching your walls. The ones who do encounter dense fire as they climb up their ladders. Some fall to their doom when your warriors cut through their rope. Those who manage to reach the top meet ferocious resistance from everyone stationed inside. Sparks fly between clanging swords while crimson blood flows readily over the battleground. Your ranks gradually shrink, but for each of your warriors killed in battle, the invaders lose five of theirs. Without a strong leader, the remaining attackers outside your castle lose their resolve and give up. Remnants of the invading force disperse, to the cheers of your triumphant defenders. Warlords all over China learn of your improbable victory. Many now think so little of President Min that he will never wield much diplomatic influence again. Unfortunately, your outlook is no brighter. Raising your workforce's wages without first improving cash flow has depleted your funds. You will not be able to keep both your Workers and Army. You allocate your remaining resources to your military since it keeps you safe. Soon, your professionals desert you, leading to inefficiency throughout your kingdom. Your castle falls into disrepair, military supplies dwindle, and rations become scarce. When General Nahru regains control of his forces and leads one million troops to your castle a couple of months later, your city is already at half-strength. Unlike President Min, General Nahru's army is stout and well trained. They surround your castle and quickly overwhelm your defenses. All of your troops eventually die in battle. As you meet for the last time with your most trusted advisers in your throne room, General Nahru's commandos barge inside without warning. They forcefully bind you and your advisers' hands behind your backs. You are then all led blindfolded to a gravelly patch of soil outside. Haunting regrets and pleasant memories slowly float into your mind. "Ready." "Aim." "Fire!" Your spirit leaves its arrow-riddled body before your head hits the ground. THE END<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>------------------------------ //////////////////////////////////////////////////[STATUS BOX]/////////////////////////////////// ///Treasury: 125 yuan {-75} /////// Army: Small (-25)///////////////////Masses: High ////////////////////////////////////////Workers: Low (-25)/////////////////Buddhists: Low {-50} ------------------------------- You travel to the mudslide devastated community and distribute donations. Sunburned peasants give you wide gap-toothed grins as you walk among them. Some applaud when you grab a two-handed saw and help remove a tree toppled over the middle of a road. Word spreads of your leadership during the relief effort. The populace now believes that you share their priorities and values. You become the people's favorite throughout the South. Your citizens now work together with your police to ward off infiltrators. Neighboring warlords no longer bother sending saboteurs or assassins to your realm. As a result your small Army's morale temporarily spikes. Your Treasury adviser reports that, although your Treasury has been dramatically reduced, you still possess just enough yuan to make the fiscal investment that will ensure you do not go broke. The Buddhist temple chastises your lack of piousness, but otherwise does not frown upon you for tending to your people. Some government professionals complain about not getting a raise, but most remain optimistic and continue to work for your benefit. They even finish construction on a castle, a sturdy, gated structure that will serve as your residence and enhance your capital's defenses. You listen to news from faraway lands. The northern empire of General Nahru is experiencing internal turmoil and the General is barely holding onto his own life. He will not pose any threat to you, at least for now. Your other main rival, President Min, has been seen traveling East in your direction. He reportedly met with several minor warlords nearby. Other warlords had been skirmishing back and forth among each other, but none had acquired enough power to be worth your time. While the chaos in China has been wearing on the populace, hope has not been lost. The people long for a capable leader who will bring peace and create a sound economic environment. They say they would be willing to secede from their kingdom and join such a leader if one were to emerge. Your next move... ------------------------------ //////////////////////////////////////////////////[STATUS BOX]/////////////////////////////////// ///Treasury: 125 yuan {-75} /////// Army: Small (-25)///////////////////Masses: High ////////////////////////////////////////Workers: Low (-25)/////////////////Buddhists: Low {-50} ------------------------------- > You gain the respect of foreign citizens by becoming a member of the Buddhist Temple (-50 yuan) ------------------------------ //////////////////////////////////////////////////[STATUS BOX]/////////////////////////////////// ///Treasury: 25 yuan {-75} /////// Army: Small (-25)///////////////////Masses: High //////////////////////////////////////Workers: Low (-25)/////////////////Buddhists: High ------------------------------- You donate a large chunk of funds to the temple. The high monks are overjoyed by your generosity and invite you to the nearest monastery for a lavish conversion ceremony. Facing a bronze idol of Buddha and lit red candles, you chant newly learned Buddhist hymns alongside monks in saffron colored robes. The monks compliment your devotion and spread word of your piousness far and wide. Citizens throughout China approve of you. Unfortunately, you are not yet powerful enough to attract immigrants to your kingdom. They remain subjects of other warlords. You return home. Upon arrival, you hear to your surprise that President Min and his allies have marched their armies to a position a few miles outside your castle. "No rest for the weary," you mutter to yourself. Your militia knocks on every door rallying citizens to help defend your city. The next day, Min and his allies unfurl a large white banner half a mile away from your castle. It reads: "Astute Governor Toleron, we offer you a proposition. If you relinquish your claim to China and open your castle gate, we will spare the lives of everyone inside. Otherwise we will have no choice but to lay siege to your castle. At that point, we will no longer show mercy." You keep your gate closed. They stay true to their word and blockade your castle. Weeks pass, but your citizenry's faith in your guidance keeps their spirits high. The attacking force, on the other hand, begins to lose cohesiveness. One warlord cites your small Army and insists on launching a full scale attack on your walls. Another advocates a long-term siege, using their pooled advantage in resources to wear you out, taking years if need be. Another has citizens back home pushing for more attention to other matters and would rather call off the attack completely. President Min is unsure of what to do. He is not quite prepared for actual bloodshed, thinking originally that his larger forces would induce your surrender. On the other hand, resigning so easily would be a bitter pill to swallow. After much bickering and deliberation, they halfheartedly send their troops to attack your walls. Foot soldiers carrying rope ladders charge at your parapets. Your archers respond with barrages of burning arrows. Many attackers expire before reaching your walls. The ones who do encounter dense fire as they climb up their ladders. Some fall to their doom when your warriors cut through their rope. Those who manage to reach the top meet ferocious resistance from everyone stationed inside. Sparks fly between clanging swords while crimson blood flows readily over the battleground. Your ranks gradually shrink, but for each of your warriors killed in battle, the invaders lose five of theirs. Without a strong leader, the remaining attackers outside your castle lose their resolve and give up. Remnants of the invading force disperse, to the cheers of your triumphant defenders. Warlords all over China learn of your improbable victory. Many now think so little of President Min that he will never wield much diplomatic influence again. Unfortunately, your outlook is no brighter. Raising your workforce's wages without first improving cash flow has depleted your funds. You will not be able to keep both your Workers and Army. You allocate your remaining resources to your military since it keeps you safe. Soon, your professionals desert you, leading to inefficiency throughout your kingdom. Your castle falls into disrepair, military supplies dwindle, and rations become scarce. When General Nahru regains control of his forces and leads one million troops to your castle a couple of months later, your city is already at half-strength. Unlike President Min, General Nahru's army is stout and well trained. They surround your castle and quickly overwhelm your defenses. All of your troops eventually die in battle. As you meet for the last time with your most trusted advisers in your throne room, General Nahru's commandos barge inside without warning. They forcefully bind you and your advisers' hands behind your backs. You are then all led blindfolded to a gravelly patch of soil outside. Haunting regrets and pleasant memories slowly float into your mind. "Ready." "Aim." "Fire!" Your spirit leaves its arrow-riddled body before your head hits the ground. THE END<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>------------------------------ //////////////////////////////////////////////////[STATUS BOX]/////////////////////////////////// ///Treasury: 125 yuan {-75} /////// Army: Small (-25)///////////////////Masses: High ////////////////////////////////////////Workers: Low (-25)/////////////////Buddhists: Low {-50} ------------------------------- You travel to the mudslide devastated community and distribute donations. Sunburned peasants give you wide gap-toothed grins as you walk among them. Some applaud when you grab a two-handed saw and help remove a tree toppled over the middle of a road. Word spreads of your leadership during the relief effort. The populace now believes that you share their priorities and values. You become the people's favorite throughout the South. Your citizens now work together with your police to ward off infiltrators. Neighboring warlords no longer bother sending saboteurs or assassins to your realm. As a result your small Army's morale temporarily spikes. Your Treasury adviser reports that, although your Treasury has been dramatically reduced, you still possess just enough yuan to make the fiscal investment that will ensure you do not go broke. The Buddhist temple chastises your lack of piousness, but otherwise does not frown upon you for tending to your people. Some government professionals complain about not getting a raise, but most remain optimistic and continue to work for your benefit. They even finish construction on a castle, a sturdy, gated structure that will serve as your residence and enhance your capital's defenses. You listen to news from faraway lands. The northern empire of General Nahru is experiencing internal turmoil and the General is barely holding onto his own life. He will not pose any threat to you, at least for now. Your other main rival, President Min, has been seen traveling East in your direction. He reportedly met with several minor warlords nearby. Other warlords had been skirmishing back and forth among each other, but none had acquired enough power to be worth your time. While the chaos in China has been wearing on the populace, hope has not been lost. The people long for a capable leader who will bring peace and create a sound economic environment. They say they would be willing to secede from their kingdom and join such a leader if one were to emerge. Your next move... ------------------------------ //////////////////////////////////////////////////[STATUS BOX]/////////////////////////////////// ///Treasury: 125 yuan {-75} /////// Army: Small (-25)///////////////////Masses: High ////////////////////////////////////////Workers: Low (-25)/////////////////Buddhists: Low {-50} ------------------------------- > You invest in increasing your Treasury (-75 yuan) ------------------------------ //////////////////////////////////////////////////[STATUS BOX]/////////////////////////////////// ///Treasury: 0 yuan (+150) /////// Army: Small (-25)///////////////////Masses: High //////////////////////////////////////Workers: Low (-25)/////////////////Buddhists: Low {-50} ------------------------------- You hold long meetings with your director of horticulture to ensure that the project will be a success. After many hours of precise planning, you commission your planters to buy the best lychee seeds for planting in your most fertile soil. You eagerly anticipate the opening harvest and its boost to your economy. Just as your laborers sow the last batch of seeds, you learn to your surprise that President Min and his allies have marched their armies to a position a few miles outside your castle. "No rest for the weary," you mutter to yourself. Your militia knocks on every door rallying citizens to help defend your city. The next day, Min and his allies unfurl a large white banner half a mile away from your castle. It reads: "Astute Governor Toleron, we offer you a proposition. If you relinquish your claim to China and open your castle gate, we will spare the lives of everyone inside. Otherwise we will have no choice but to lay siege to your castle. At that point, we will no longer show mercy." You keep your gate closed. They stay true to their word and blockade your castle. Weeks pass, but your citizenry's faith in your guidance keeps their spirits high. The attacking force, on the other hand, begins to lose cohesiveness. One warlord cites your small Army and insists on launching a full scale attack on your walls. Another advocates a long-term siege, using their pooled advantage in resources to wear you out, taking years if need be. Another has citizens back home pushing for more attention to other matters and would rather call off the attack completely. President Min is unsure of what to do. He is not quite prepared for actual bloodshed, thinking originally that his larger forces would induce your surrender. On the other hand, resigning so easily would be a bitter pill to swallow. After much bickering and deliberation, they halfheartedly send their troops to attack your walls. Foot soldiers carrying rope ladders charge at your parapets. Your archers respond with barrages of burning arrows. Many attackers expire before reaching your walls. The ones who do encounter dense fire as they climb up their ladders. Some fall to their doom when your warriors cut through their rope. Those who manage to reach the top meet ferocious resistance from everyone stationed inside. Sparks fly between clanging swords while crimson blood flows readily over the battleground. Your ranks gradually shrink, but for each of your warriors killed in battle, the invaders lose five of theirs. Without a strong leader, the remaining attackers outside your castle lose their resolve and give up. Remnants of the invading force disperse, to the cheers of your triumphant defenders. Warlords all over China learn of your improbable victory. Many now think so little of President Min that he will never wield much diplomatic influence again. While recovering from this clash, you hear from spies that General Nahru is preoccupied with capturing and executing disloyal subjects in his kingdom and consolidating his power base in northern China. He will not be free to attack you anytime soon. No other warlords remain much of a threat. On the domestic front, many Workers threaten to desert you and work for other warlords if you do not increase their wages now. The Temple also grows impatient with your lack of communication. And your colonels still suggest an increase in conscription. What will you do next? ------------------------------ //////////////////////////////////////////////////[STATUS BOX]/////////////////////////////////// ///Treasury: 0 yuan (+150) /////// Army: Small (-25)///////////////////Masses: High //////////////////////////////////////Workers: Low (-25)/////////////////Buddhists: Low {-50} ------------------------------- > You pay Workers more money (-75 yuan instead of -25) ------------------------------ //////////////////////////////////////////////////[STATUS BOX]/////////////////////////////////// ///Treasury: 50 yuan (+300) /////// Army: Small (-25)///////////////////Masses: High //////////////////////////////////////Workers: High (-75)/////////////////Buddhists: Low {-50} ------------------------------- You announce salary raises for your professional Workers. They are happy to hear the news and your government's administrative efficiency greatly improves. Thanks to your careful strategic planning, you have increased your kingdom's cohesiveness and prestige, developed an economy that generates lots of income, and maintained peace throughout your realm. Your citizens are content and recognize you as a wise leader. Meanwhile, General Nahru has wiped out his enemies and now rules northern China unopposed. However, he is incensed at your growing opposition to his goal of complete world domination. Your scouts report that General Nahru has been amassing enough troops along your northern border to launch a heavy assault. Do you: ------------------------------ //////////////////////////////////////////////////[STATUS BOX]/////////////////////////////////// ///Treasury: 50 yuan (+300) /////// Army: Small (-25)///////////////////Masses: High //////////////////////////////////////Workers: High (-75)/////////////////Buddhists: Low {-50} ------------------------------- > You gain the respect of foreign citizens by becoming a member of the Buddhist Temple (-50 yuan) ------------------------------ //////////////////////////////////////////////////[STATUS BOX]/////////////////////////////////// ///Treasury: 200 yuan (+600) /////// Army: Small (-25)///////////////////Masses: High /////////////////////////////////////////Workers: High (-75)/////////////////Buddhists: High ------------------------------- You donate a sizable chunk of funds to the temple. The high monks are overjoyed by your generosity and invite you to the nearest monastery for a lavish conversion ceremony. Facing a bronze idol of Buddha and lit red candles, you chant newly learned Buddhist hymns alongside monks in saffron colored robes. The monks compliment your devotion and spread word of your piousness far and wide. Tales of your empire's prosperity and your popularity among your people travel with those of your piety. When citizens all over China learn of your realm's high quality of life, not only do the best, brightest, and bravest flock to your kingdom, but some cities even secede from their local warlord and voluntarily raise your banner. Despite fierce crackdowns by the General's men, half of General Nahru's provinces secede from his kingdom and join yours. Nahru is enraged at you and predictably launches an all out assault bent on destroying you once and for all. You hurriedly gather your troops at your capital. Due to your decision to postpone increasing your soldiers' pay, you can only put up a cursory defense. General Nahru's troops tear through your capital, razing and destroying every symbol of power you have ever built. Just as you hear from your remaining advisers that General Nahru has announced he will execute anyone who surrenders from your camp, you all die in an unannounced flurry of arrows. THE END<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>------------------------------ //////////////////////////////////////////////////[STATUS BOX]/////////////////////////////////// ///Treasury: 50 yuan (+300) /////// Army: Small (-25)///////////////////Masses: High //////////////////////////////////////Workers: High (-75)/////////////////Buddhists: Low {-50} ------------------------------- You announce salary raises for your professional Workers. They are happy to hear the news and your government's administrative efficiency greatly improves. Thanks to your careful strategic planning, you have increased your kingdom's cohesiveness and prestige, developed an economy that generates lots of income, and maintained peace throughout your realm. Your citizens are content and recognize you as a wise leader. Meanwhile, General Nahru has wiped out his enemies and now rules northern China unopposed. However, he is incensed at your growing opposition to his goal of complete world domination. Your scouts report that General Nahru has been amassing enough troops along your northern border to launch a heavy assault. Do you: ------------------------------ //////////////////////////////////////////////////[STATUS BOX]/////////////////////////////////// ///Treasury: 50 yuan (+300) /////// Army: Small (-25)///////////////////Masses: High //////////////////////////////////////Workers: High (-75)/////////////////Buddhists: Low {-50} ------------------------------- > You increase Soldiers' pay (-75 yuan instead of -25) ------------------------------ //////////////////////////////////////////////////[STATUS BOX]/////////////////////////////////// ///Treasury: 200 yuan (+600) /////// Army: Large (-75)///////////////////Masses: High /////////////////////////////////////////Workers: High (-75)//////////////Buddhists: Low {-50} ------------------------------- You raise your Army's wages, rewarding old veterans and attracting new recruits. On occasion you join your colonels at muster and personally inspect the raw cadets. Improved morale and increased enlistment soon transform your military into a formidable fighting machine. General Nahru still itches to attack you, but cannot act on it as you now have more fighting men, kingdom morale, technology, and money than he does. Even he is not suicidal enough to attack you in your current state. All he can do is spout more vitriol to his colonels about your supposedly imminent defeat with every passing day. What will you do next? ------------------------------ //////////////////////////////////////////////////[STATUS BOX]/////////////////////////////////// ///Treasury: 200 yuan (+600) /////// Army: Large (-75)///////////////////Masses: High /////////////////////////////////////////Workers: High (-75)//////////////Buddhists: Low {-50} ------------------------------- > You gain the respect of foreign citizens by becoming a member of the Buddhist Temple (-50 yuan) ------------------------------ //////////////////////////////////////////////////[STATUS BOX]/////////////////////////////////// ///Treasury: 200 yuan (+600) /////// Army: Large (-75)///////////////////Masses: High /////////////////////////////////////////Workers: High (-75)/////////////////Buddhists: High ------------------------------- You donate a big chunk of funds to the temple. The high monks are overjoyed by your generosity and invite you to the nearest monastery for a lavish conversion ceremony. Facing a bronze idol of Buddha and lit red candles, you chant newly learned Buddhist hymns alongside monks in saffron colored robes. The monks compliment your devotion and spread word of your piousness far and wide. Tales of your empire's prosperity and your popularity among your people travel with those of your piety. When citizens all over China learn of your realm's high quality of life, not only do the best, brightest, and bravest flock to your kingdom, but some cities even secede from their local warlord and voluntarily raise your banner. Despite fierce crackdowns by the General's men, half of General Nahru's provinces secede from his kingdom and join yours. Nahru is enraged at you and vows to conquer you. However, it is obvious to his colonels that you now have the most powerful army in China as well as the strongest economy, smartest professionals and highest public support. They are not suicidal enough to provoke you and so execute the raving General instead. As if there was any doubt left about your victory, each of General Nahru’s remaining cities secede and join your empire. President Min, along with all the other surviving warlords, long ago pledged his allegiance to you and surrendered all his holdings. You declare yourself emperor and begin your own dynasty. Thanks to your administrative skills, YOU WIN. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>------------------------------ //////////////////////////////////////////////////[STATUS BOX]/////////////////////////////////// ///Treasury: 0 yuan (+150) /////// Army: Small (-25)///////////////////Masses: High //////////////////////////////////////Workers: Low (-25)/////////////////Buddhists: Low {-50} ------------------------------- You hold long meetings with your director of horticulture to ensure that the project will be a success. After many hours of precise planning, you commission your planters to buy the best lychee seeds for planting in your most fertile soil. You eagerly anticipate the opening harvest and its boost to your economy. Just as your laborers sow the last batch of seeds, you learn to your surprise that President Min and his allies have marched their armies to a position a few miles outside your castle. "No rest for the weary," you mutter to yourself. Your militia knocks on every door rallying citizens to help defend your city. The next day, Min and his allies unfurl a large white banner half a mile away from your castle. It reads: "Astute Governor Toleron, we offer you a proposition. If you relinquish your claim to China and open your castle gate, we will spare the lives of everyone inside. Otherwise we will have no choice but to lay siege to your castle. At that point, we will no longer show mercy." You keep your gate closed. They stay true to their word and blockade your castle. Weeks pass, but your citizenry's faith in your guidance keeps their spirits high. The attacking force, on the other hand, begins to lose cohesiveness. One warlord cites your small Army and insists on launching a full scale attack on your walls. Another advocates a long-term siege, using their pooled advantage in resources to wear you out, taking years if need be. Another has citizens back home pushing for more attention to other matters and would rather call off the attack completely. President Min is unsure of what to do. He is not quite prepared for actual bloodshed, thinking originally that his larger forces would induce your surrender. On the other hand, resigning so easily would be a bitter pill to swallow. After much bickering and deliberation, they halfheartedly send their troops to attack your walls. Foot soldiers carrying rope ladders charge at your parapets. Your archers respond with barrages of burning arrows. Many attackers expire before reaching your walls. The ones who do encounter dense fire as they climb up their ladders. Some fall to their doom when your warriors cut through their rope. Those who manage to reach the top meet ferocious resistance from everyone stationed inside. Sparks fly between clanging swords while crimson blood flows readily over the battleground. Your ranks gradually shrink, but for each of your warriors killed in battle, the invaders lose five of theirs. Without a strong leader, the remaining attackers outside your castle lose their resolve and give up. Remnants of the invading force disperse, to the cheers of your triumphant defenders. Warlords all over China learn of your improbable victory. Many now think so little of President Min that he will never wield much diplomatic influence again. While recovering from this clash, you hear from spies that General Nahru is preoccupied with capturing and executing disloyal subjects in his kingdom and consolidating his power base in northern China. He will not be free to attack you anytime soon. No other warlords remain much of a threat. On the domestic front, many Workers threaten to desert you and work for other warlords if you do not increase their wages now. The Temple also grows impatient with your lack of communication. And your colonels still suggest an increase in conscription. What will you do next? ------------------------------ //////////////////////////////////////////////////[STATUS BOX]/////////////////////////////////// ///Treasury: 0 yuan (+150) /////// Army: Small (-25)///////////////////Masses: High //////////////////////////////////////Workers: Low (-25)/////////////////Buddhists: Low {-50} ------------------------------- > You gain the respect of foreign citizens by becoming a member of the Buddhist Temple (-50 yuan) ------------------------------ //////////////////////////////////////////////////[STATUS BOX]/////////////////////////////////// ///Treasury: 50 yuan (+300) /////// Army: Small (-25)///////////////////Masses: High //////////////////////////////////////Workers: Low (-25)/////////////////Buddhists: High ------------------------------- You donate a sizable chunk of funds to the Temple. The high monks are overjoyed by your generosity and invite you to the nearest monastery for a lavish conversion ceremony. Facing a bronze idol of Buddha and lit red candles, you chant newly learned Buddhist hymns alongside monks in saffron colored robes. The monks compliment your devotion and spread word of your piousness far and wide. Your standing among foreign citizens does improve, but the state of your sovereignty remains too volatile for immigration to your kingdom. They remain subjects of other warlords. In the meantime, your relationship with domestic tradesmen worsens. Disappointed by your stingy ways, your Workers followed through on their threats of mass desertions while you visited the Buddhist monks. Professionals leave your fallow kingdom for greener pastures. This brain drain leads to inefficiency throughout your kingdom. Your castle falls into disrepair, military supplies dwindle, and rations become scarce. Upon returning from the monastery, you learn that General Nahru had conquered all of northern China and, upon hearing of your domestic turmoil, decided that this would be the perfect opportunity to dispose of you. He begins to accumulate troops along your northern border. You regret ignoring your skilled tradesmen's demands. You quickly enact labor reforms for professionals- raising wages, increasing vacation time, and even offering free education for their children. Your attempt at restoring your workforce comes a bit late. A week later, when General Nahru marches one million troops to your castle, many government posts remain unmanned. Unlike President Min, General Nahru's army is sophisticated and well trained. They surround your castle and break through your depleted defenses. Your lines are pushed back towards your keep. Soon, you hear metallic sounds and shouts outside your inner sanctum. While you weigh your options, fire suddenly engulfs your compound. You immediately try to escape but fail. No one can hear your cries as you are burned alive. THE END<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>------------------------------ //////////////////////////////////////////////////[STATUS BOX]/////////////////////////////////// ///Treasury: 0 yuan (+150) /////// Army: Small (-25)///////////////////Masses: High //////////////////////////////////////Workers: Low (-25)/////////////////Buddhists: Low {-50} ------------------------------- You hold long meetings with your director of horticulture to ensure that the project will be a success. After many hours of precise planning, you commission your planters to buy the best lychee seeds for planting in your most fertile soil. You eagerly anticipate the opening harvest and its boost to your economy. Just as your laborers sow the last batch of seeds, you learn to your surprise that President Min and his allies have marched their armies to a position a few miles outside your castle. "No rest for the weary," you mutter to yourself. Your militia knocks on every door rallying citizens to help defend your city. The next day, Min and his allies unfurl a large white banner half a mile away from your castle. It reads: "Astute Governor Toleron, we offer you a proposition. If you relinquish your claim to China and open your castle gate, we will spare the lives of everyone inside. Otherwise we will have no choice but to lay siege to your castle. At that point, we will no longer show mercy." You keep your gate closed. They stay true to their word and blockade your castle. Weeks pass, but your citizenry's faith in your guidance keeps their spirits high. The attacking force, on the other hand, begins to lose cohesiveness. One warlord cites your small Army and insists on launching a full scale attack on your walls. Another advocates a long-term siege, using their pooled advantage in resources to wear you out, taking years if need be. Another has citizens back home pushing for more attention to other matters and would rather call off the attack completely. President Min is unsure of what to do. He is not quite prepared for actual bloodshed, thinking originally that his larger forces would induce your surrender. On the other hand, resigning so easily would be a bitter pill to swallow. After much bickering and deliberation, they halfheartedly send their troops to attack your walls. Foot soldiers carrying rope ladders charge at your parapets. Your archers respond with barrages of burning arrows. Many attackers expire before reaching your walls. The ones who do encounter dense fire as they climb up their ladders. Some fall to their doom when your warriors cut through their rope. Those who manage to reach the top meet ferocious resistance from everyone stationed inside. Sparks fly between clanging swords while crimson blood flows readily over the battleground. Your ranks gradually shrink, but for each of your warriors killed in battle, the invaders lose five of theirs. Without a strong leader, the remaining attackers outside your castle lose their resolve and give up. Remnants of the invading force disperse, to the cheers of your triumphant defenders. Warlords all over China learn of your improbable victory. Many now think so little of President Min that he will never wield much diplomatic influence again. While recovering from this clash, you hear from spies that General Nahru is preoccupied with capturing and executing disloyal subjects in his kingdom and consolidating his power base in northern China. He will not be free to attack you anytime soon. No other warlords remain much of a threat. On the domestic front, many Workers threaten to desert you and work for other warlords if you do not increase their wages now. The Temple also grows impatient with your lack of communication. And your colonels still suggest an increase in conscription. What will you do next? ------------------------------ //////////////////////////////////////////////////[STATUS BOX]/////////////////////////////////// ///Treasury: 0 yuan (+150) /////// Army: Small (-25)///////////////////Masses: High //////////////////////////////////////Workers: Low (-25)/////////////////Buddhists: Low {-50} ------------------------------- > You increase Soldiers' pay (-75 yuan instead of -25) ------------------------------ //////////////////////////////////////////////////[STATUS BOX]/////////////////////////////////// ///Treasury: 50 yuan (+300) /////// Army: Large (-75)///////////////////Masses: High //////////////////////////////////////Workers: Low (-25)/////////////////Buddhists: Low {-50} ------------------------------- You raise your Army's wages, rewarding old veterans and attracting new recruits. On occasion you join your colonels at muster and personally inspect the raw cadets. Improved morale and increased enlistment soon transform your military into a formidable fighting machine. While other warlords are impressed by your newfound might, your domestic tradesmen are unswayed. Disappointed by your stingy ways, your Workers followed through on their threats of mass desertions while you focused on your soldiers. Workers leave your fallow kingdom for greener pastures. This brain drain leads to inefficiency throughout your realm. Your castle falls into disrepair, military supplies dwindle, and rations become scarce. You regret ignoring your skilled tradesmen's demands. You quickly enact labor reforms for professionals- raising wages, increasing vacation time, and even offering free education for their children. Your new soldiers have barely left basic training when you learn that General Nahru had conquered all of northern China and, upon hearing of your domestic turmoil, decided that this would be his best opportunity to dispose of you. He begins to accumulate troops along your northern border. Your attempt at restoring your workforce comes a bit late. A week later, when General Nahru marches one million troops to your castle, many government posts remain unmanned. General Nahru, aware of your sizable Army, sieges your castle instead of risking his troops in an immediate clash. You too are wary of engaging the enemy, knowing that your inexperienced rookies are no match for General Nahru's seasoned veterans. You wait behind your stone walls and hope that Nahru succumbs to attrition before you do. Unlike President Min, General Nahru's army is well disciplined. No supplies or persons enter or exit your capital for months while you cling onto your defensive fortifications. Meanwhile, the lack of qualified professionals cause breakdowns in every area of your kingdom. Inefficiency saps funds from your Treasury, decreases your Army's morale, and damages your relations with the Masses and the Buddhist temple. The siege weakens your kingdom day by day. General Nahru waits until the odds turn in his favor. He then attacks. A long bloody battle ends with General Nahru's soldiers capturing you alive. Recognizing your symbolic significance as the last major obstacle between him and all of China, General Nahru leaves your severed scalp on a stake outside your former castle. THE END<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>------------------------------ //////////////////////////////////////////////////[STATUS BOX]/////////////////////////////////// ///Treasury: 125 yuan {-75} /////// Army: Small (-25)///////////////////Masses: High ////////////////////////////////////////Workers: Low (-25)/////////////////Buddhists: Low {-50} ------------------------------- You travel to the mudslide devastated community and distribute donations. Sunburned peasants give you wide gap-toothed grins as you walk among them. Some applaud when you grab a two-handed saw and help remove a tree toppled over the middle of a road. Word spreads of your leadership during the relief effort. The populace now believes that you share their priorities and values. You become the people's favorite throughout the South. Your citizens now work together with your police to ward off infiltrators. Neighboring warlords no longer bother sending saboteurs or assassins to your realm. As a result your small Army's morale temporarily spikes. Your Treasury adviser reports that, although your Treasury has been dramatically reduced, you still possess just enough yuan to make the fiscal investment that will ensure you do not go broke. The Buddhist temple chastises your lack of piousness, but otherwise does not frown upon you for tending to your people. Some government professionals complain about not getting a raise, but most remain optimistic and continue to work for your benefit. They even finish construction on a castle, a sturdy, gated structure that will serve as your residence and enhance your capital's defenses. You listen to news from faraway lands. The northern empire of General Nahru is experiencing internal turmoil and the General is barely holding onto his own life. He will not pose any threat to you, at least for now. Your other main rival, President Min, has been seen traveling East in your direction. He reportedly met with several minor warlords nearby. Other warlords had been skirmishing back and forth among each other, but none had acquired enough power to be worth your time. While the chaos in China has been wearing on the populace, hope has not been lost. The people long for a capable leader who will bring peace and create a sound economic environment. They say they would be willing to secede from their kingdom and join such a leader if one were to emerge. Your next move... ------------------------------ //////////////////////////////////////////////////[STATUS BOX]/////////////////////////////////// ///Treasury: 125 yuan {-75} /////// Army: Small (-25)///////////////////Masses: High ////////////////////////////////////////Workers: Low (-25)/////////////////Buddhists: Low {-50} ------------------------------- > You increase your Army's pay (-75 yuan instead of -25) ------------------------------ //////////////////////////////////////////////////[STATUS BOX]/////////////////////////////////// ///Treasury: 25 yuan {-75} /////// Army: Large (-75)///////////////////Masses: High ////////////////////////////////////////Workers: Low (-25)/////////////////Buddhists: Low {-50} ------------------------------- You raise your Army's wages, rewarding old veterans and attracting new recruits. Improved morale and increased enlistment soon transform your military into a formidable fighting machine. Days later, when President Min and his allies lay siege to your capital, your mighty Army crushes the hapless invaders. Unfortunately, increasing the size of your Army puts unbearable strain on your Treasury. Without any income, you are neither able to maintain a larger Army nor keep both your Workers and a smaller Army. You decide to allocate your remaining resources to your military since it keeps you safe. With each passing day, more soldiers desert you; only the veterans who have served your Army since its initial inception remain. Your Workers likewise resign en masse, leading to inefficiency throughout your kingdom. Your castle falls into disrepair, military supplies dwindle, and rations become scarce. When General Nahru regains control of his forces and leads one million troops to your castle a couple of months later, your city is already at half-strength. Unlike President Min, General Nahru's army is stout and well trained. They surround your castle and quickly overwhelm your defenses. All of your troops eventually die in battle. As you meet for the last time with your most trusted advisers in your throne room, General Nahru's commandos barge inside without warning. They forcefully bind you and your advisers' hands behind your backs. You are then all led blindfolded to a gravelly patch of soil outside. Haunting regrets and pleasant memories slowly float into your mind. "Ready." "Aim." "Fire!" Your spirit leaves its arrow-riddled body before your head hits the ground. THE END<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|> Only one week has passed since you declared yourself Governor of this southern province. The majority of your subjects are ignorant of your ambitions and accomplishments. Outside your core group of devoted followers, precious few bother to differentiate between you and other warlords. To avoid death at the swords of your enemies, you will need to prioritize pressing concerns while juggling outspoken factions. After outfitting your militia, your Treasury is down to 200 yuan. If your Treasury ever reaches negative, you will be unable to pay your Workers or Army their wages. If that ever happens they will become infuriated and quit permanently and your campaign will come to a crashing halt. The peasants who make up the majority of your citizens are unfortunately very poor and thus your tax income is effectively zero. Your Treasury adviser suggests an idea to mass cultivate lychees, a small red fruit with juicy white flesh native to the South. Since lychees can only be grown in your Southern soil, exporting them to the North guarantees ample returns. It requires an investment of 75 yuan to plant the seeds, and patience to wait for the trees to mature. (If you make this choice, 75 yuan will be deducted from your current Treasury total. Two turns after that, 150 yuan will be added to your Treasury, then 300 yuan the turn immediately after that one, 600 yuan the turn immediately following, and so on.) Your Army is fierce, loyal, and small. Although there are no warlords with much larger forces in your immediate area, there are several nearby warlords rivaling you in power who each itch to add your territory to his realm. Your colonels report that a pay increase for your Army would raise conscription considerably, giving you a much stronger fighting force. (You begin with a Small army, which costs you 25 yuan in upkeep cost per turn. If you make this choice your Army will go from Small to Large, and cost you 75 yuan in upkeep cost per turn, effective immediately. No further upgrades are available for your army in this story.) Meanwhile, the professionals toiling for your government- masons, accountants, carpenters, iron workers, tailors, etc- are imploring for higher wages. Your advisers would like you to attract more capable skilled Workers to your domain as well, as peasantry does not exactly provide the best pool of candidates to help run a kingdom. (Your Workers begin with a rating of Low and costing you 25 yuan in wages per turn. If you make this choice your Workers rating will go from Low to High, and cost you 75 yuan in upkeep cost per turn, effective immediately. No further upgrades are available for your Workers.) The Buddhist temple has yet to endorse any warlord for emperor. While Buddhism has propagated throughout China, your province is somehow the lone exception. Seeing an opportunity to gain more followers, the leaders of the religion request your donations and conversion to Buddhism in exchange for their support. Improving your relations with the Temple will ensure a favorable reputation with citizens of other kingdoms throughout China. (Your rating with the Buddhists starts at Low. If you make this choice a one-time cost of 50 yuan will be deducted from your Treasury and your rating will become High for the duration of the story.) Finally, there are still millions of people in your region who are undecided about which warlord to back. A sympathetic populace hides your person from enemy assassins. Your advisers tell you about a recent torrential mudslide that devastated the countryside where farmers live and work and ruined much of their infrastructure. The leaders of the peasants are pleading for help in repairing the destroyed houses and equipment. Aiding the peasants will ensure that the Masses are loyal to you. (Your rating with the Masses starts at Low. If you make this choice a one-time cost of 25 yuan will be deducted from your Treasury and your rating will become High for the duration of the story.) What do you do first: (The numbers in parentheses ( ) next to a faction in the Status Box signifies its per-turn upkeep cost to be effected on your Treasury after this turn is complete and before the next turn begins. The numbers in braces { } in the Status Box signify the one-time cost to upgrade the status of that particular faction.) ------------------------------ //////////////////////////////////////////////////[STATUS BOX]/////////////////////////////////// ///Treasury: 200 yuan {-75} /////// Army: Small (-25)///////////////////Masses: Low {-25} ////////////////////////////////////////Workers: Low (-25)/////////////////Buddhists: Low {-50} ------------------------------- > You invest in increasing your Treasury (-75 yuan) ------------------------------ //////////////////////////////////////////////////[STATUS BOX]/////////////////////////////////// ///Treasury: 75 yuan (+150) /////// Army: Small (-25)///////////////////Masses: Low {-25} ////////////////////////////////////////Workers: Low (-25)/////////////////Buddhists: Low {-50} ------------------------------- You hold long meetings with your director of horticulture to ensure that the project will be a success. After many hours of precise planning, you commission your planters to buy the best lychee seeds for planting in your most fertile soil. You eagerly anticipate the opening harvest and its boost to your economy. Before your trees can bear any fruit however, the peasants are angry at you for ignoring their suffering. Some publicly question whether your heart has any compassion. Without the Masses' base of support, your realm remains susceptible to sabotage. One nearby warlord raids your grain silo and pilfers the winter's supply of rice. Another burns an armory of your troops' weapons. One night you are awakened by loud noises outside your sleeping tent. You open the door to see what is happening and see your personal bodyguards being cut down by a group of assassins. You recognize several peasants among them. "Your death will be quick. Commander Wan is a merciful man," the one closest to you says as he chops your head off as a trophy for their leader. THE END<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|> Only one week has passed since you declared yourself Governor of this southern province. The majority of your subjects are ignorant of your ambitions and accomplishments. Outside your core group of devoted followers, precious few bother to differentiate between you and other warlords. To avoid death at the swords of your enemies, you will need to prioritize pressing concerns while juggling outspoken factions. After outfitting your militia, your Treasury is down to 200 yuan. If your Treasury ever reaches negative, you will be unable to pay your Workers or Army their wages. If that ever happens they will become infuriated and quit permanently and your campaign will come to a crashing halt. The peasants who make up the majority of your citizens are unfortunately very poor and thus your tax income is effectively zero. Your Treasury adviser suggests an idea to mass cultivate lychees, a small red fruit with juicy white flesh native to the South. Since lychees can only be grown in your Southern soil, exporting them to the North guarantees ample returns. It requires an investment of 75 yuan to plant the seeds, and patience to wait for the trees to mature. (If you make this choice, 75 yuan will be deducted from your current Treasury total. Two turns after that, 150 yuan will be added to your Treasury, then 300 yuan the turn immediately after that one, 600 yuan the turn immediately following, and so on.) Your Army is fierce, loyal, and small. Although there are no warlords with much larger forces in your immediate area, there are several nearby warlords rivaling you in power who each itch to add your territory to his realm. Your colonels report that a pay increase for your Army would raise conscription considerably, giving you a much stronger fighting force. (You begin with a Small army, which costs you 25 yuan in upkeep cost per turn. If you make this choice your Army will go from Small to Large, and cost you 75 yuan in upkeep cost per turn, effective immediately. No further upgrades are available for your army in this story.) Meanwhile, the professionals toiling for your government- masons, accountants, carpenters, iron workers, tailors, etc- are imploring for higher wages. Your advisers would like you to attract more capable skilled Workers to your domain as well, as peasantry does not exactly provide the best pool of candidates to help run a kingdom. (Your Workers begin with a rating of Low and costing you 25 yuan in wages per turn. If you make this choice your Workers rating will go from Low to High, and cost you 75 yuan in upkeep cost per turn, effective immediately. No further upgrades are available for your Workers.) The Buddhist temple has yet to endorse any warlord for emperor. While Buddhism has propagated throughout China, your province is somehow the lone exception. Seeing an opportunity to gain more followers, the leaders of the religion request your donations and conversion to Buddhism in exchange for their support. Improving your relations with the Temple will ensure a favorable reputation with citizens of other kingdoms throughout China. (Your rating with the Buddhists starts at Low. If you make this choice a one-time cost of 50 yuan will be deducted from your Treasury and your rating will become High for the duration of the story.) Finally, there are still millions of people in your region who are undecided about which warlord to back. A sympathetic populace hides your person from enemy assassins. Your advisers tell you about a recent torrential mudslide that devastated the countryside where farmers live and work and ruined much of their infrastructure. The leaders of the peasants are pleading for help in repairing the destroyed houses and equipment. Aiding the peasants will ensure that the Masses are loyal to you. (Your rating with the Masses starts at Low. If you make this choice a one-time cost of 25 yuan will be deducted from your Treasury and your rating will become High for the duration of the story.) What do you do first: (The numbers in parentheses ( ) next to a faction in the Status Box signifies its per-turn upkeep cost to be effected on your Treasury after this turn is complete and before the next turn begins. The numbers in braces { } in the Status Box signify the one-time cost to upgrade the status of that particular faction.) ------------------------------ //////////////////////////////////////////////////[STATUS BOX]/////////////////////////////////// ///Treasury: 200 yuan {-75} /////// Army: Small (-25)///////////////////Masses: Low {-25} ////////////////////////////////////////Workers: Low (-25)/////////////////Buddhists: Low {-50} ------------------------------- > You increase your Army's pay (-75 yuan per turn instead of -25 per turn) ------------------------------ //////////////////////////////////////////////////[STATUS BOX]/////////////////////////////////// ///Treasury: 100 yuan {-75} /////// Army: Large (-75)///////////////////Masses: Low {-25} ////////////////////////////////////////Workers: Low (-25)/////////////////Buddhists: Low {-50} ------------------------------- You raise your Army's wages, rewarding old veterans and attracting new recruits. On occasion you join your colonels at muster and personally inspect the raw cadets. Improved morale and increased enlistment soon transform your military into a formidable fighting machine. Your peasants however are envious of your soldiers and angry at you for tending to your Army before them. As a result the Masses give their support to other warlords. Your powerful Army's threat of force temporarily deters them from revolting and rival warlords from sabotaging you however. When President Min and his allies lay siege to your capital a week later, your mighty Army deals a crushing defeat to the hapless invaders. Unfortunately, spending such a large portion of your budget on your Army now means there is no way for you to improve your cash flow. As a result your Treasury soon runs out of money to pay your Army. Many of your soldiers desert you, leaving only those who served with you from the beginning. Weary of the bureaucratic bickering and threat of peasant revolt, your Army's morale declines by the day. Months later, General Nahru sends one million troops who, aided by the peasantry, vanquish your forces in a decisive battle. As Nahru's army overruns your former city, you pay your last visit to your late mother's grave. You see nothing left to do but grab your sword, and, trembling, shove it through your abdomen. THE END<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|> Three legendary warlords. One land. Who will rule? Warlords: Strategic Conquest is a story set in medieval China. Each choice you make will logically determine how your campaign proceeds. Clues to help you select the best choices are woven into the narrative. Background story: It is 907 A.D., and China has seen better days. Riots spreading like wildfire ended three hundred years of Tang rule. Ordinary citizens overthrew their local politicians, fed up with inept government and rising taxes. The central government responded by increasing the allowance of military power to each province. Amidst the political unrest and military buildup, ambitious warlords everywhere saw a chance to grab their piece of the pie. These absolute leaders, exercising both military and civil power, declared their independence from Tang authority, seized private property, fought each other, and turned order upside down. China's power vacuum longs to be filled by someone skilled enough to defeat his opponents and unite the country once again. Three particular warlords stand out: Governor Toleron Growing up in a poor Southern village, Toleron's childhood was marred by domestic violence. His seldomly employed father spent what little money his family had on liquor and gambling. The more he drank the angrier he would get at not being able to provide for his family. Toleron's mother would often receive the brunt of his father's drunken temper. Toleron stayed home for his mother's sake, but resolved to make a better life for himself. At the age of 20 he finally left home and started his own business as a fabric manufacturer. He worked hard and his company eventually became one of the most profitable businesses in the South. After transferring company ownership to his mother, Toleron joined the Tang army's civilian staff. Thanks to his knack for organization, he soon rose to a high administrative post. After the revolution began, a loyal following of soldiers urged him on to take over the provincial government. Toleron is highly regarded for his expertise in leveraging resources and logistics. Everyone serving under him believes he would make a wise emperor. General Nahru Abandoned by his parents at the age of three, Nahru spent his childhood learning the power of violence while fighting for scraps on the streets. After learning what Tang soldiers get paid to do, he immediately enlisted in the army. In battle, Nahru fought fearlessly against Korean revolts and Mongol invasions. After years of heavily decorated service, he was promoted to Supreme Commander of the Northern Forces. He sees the revolution as a golden opportunity to carve out his own empire. Famous for his ruthlessness and hot temper, Nahru inspires as much fear as respect among his own colonels, but that keeps them focused lest they make a career-ending mistake. He is confident that he will one day take over the entire world, and no one would bet against him considering his unblemished battle record. President Min Min was born into an affluent family in western China. An only child, his mother was overprotective and smothered him with attention. He grew up shy, awkward, and shunned by peers at school. His only constant companions were books. In addition to helping him make excellent grades, the books also cultivated Min's fanciful imagination. He started to notice people's body language and what it would indicate. Over time he honed his communication skills until he could impress anyone he came across. He talked his way into mayorship of a burgeoning western city only a few weeks after graduating from Soh Lin University. Over the years Min has built a reputation as a peerless diplomat. When the rebellions began, several admiring towns voluntarily incorporated themselves into his territory and elected him president. With a persuasive tongue like his, there is no limit to what Min can accomplish. Who are you? > You general Nahru You command 18 thousand infantry and 5 thousand archers, each drilled and trained to be the best. Although you have no support units or advanced machines, you know that the battle is often not won by the best equipped, but by the most decisive. Your territory contains little infrastructure or arable soil. Although your castle is a majestic fortress providing a big defensive advantage for an occupying army, you decide it is time to set out and do battle. You will bring all 23 thousand soldiers with you. Crown Prince Lurdu, your eldest son, will stay and defend your capital from potential invaders. You have not spent as much time with him as you would have liked and he has grown into an insolent, manipulative, and petty brat. Lurdu's only saving grace is that, like you, he always finishes what he starts, all the way to the end. Retreat is never an option. To your East is the ocean. You wish that one day engineers can devise a sea-faring vehicle that hold up in its tsunamis, but for now, the ocean is an impenetratable barrier. To your West is a barren desert. No people reside in it, and its conditions would decimate your army if they were to march through it. Beyond your Southern border is the medium sized territory of Governor Toleron. It is a land of dense forests and dry plains. His subjects are loyal to him and he has an army more than three times the size of yours, at 90 thousand troops. Fortunately for you, Toleron is a peacenik and using them solely to defend his empire. He has pledged not to increase the size of his standing army and is not at all an aggressor. To your North are small Mongol tribes. They are neither organized nor united and are too distracted with each other to defend against you. While they do not own much technology or infrastructure, if you conquer them you will gain some additional tax revenue and possibly reinforcements, as well as strike more fear into the hearts of would be enemies. Where do you expand your kingdom first? > You march North to conquer the Mongols Throngs of shouting supporters energize your army as it leaves for the countryside. Your army stays in high spirits as it marches towards the steppes of Mongolia. Soldiers placate their hunger with white rice and small game, picking the occasional cherry tree lining the road. Your spies report that the Mongolians still have not made preparations against your army. Their permanent state of disorganization means they have no chance of mounting any defenses whatsoever. You thank your diligent spies for the information and continue on your way. Your spies have never let you down. The winding north road becomes a dirt path as it passes through the center of Clearbrook Forest. Suddenly, your second in command slumps over on his horse. You look over your shoulder and see an arrow through his chest. Looking behind you, you see more arrows flying toward your troops. You ascertain that the arrows are coming from the dense forest on both sides of the narrow path your troops are marching on. You cannot see where the enemy is however. Do you: > You send your infantry into the forest to find and kill the archers Infantry scatter to both sides of the forest. Not too long passes before you see them join the enemy in battle. Your men take a few initial losses while entering the trees but are able to uncover the enemy from their hiding spots. Your warriors eviscerate the enemy force, with your infantry's superior hand to hand combat ability overwhelming enemy archers. One of your lieutenants drags a wounded soldier to you. “This is their leader,” he says. You look at the disheveled soldier. He looks back at you with contempt. “Who are you and why did you attack me?” you ask. “I am a captain in Crown Prince Lurdu's royal guard. After you left your castle Lurdu left the capital to retrieve his secret army of 15 thousand men and is currently on his way back to claim the city as his own. He sent me out here to destroy your army while he usurps your power. You are a horrible ruler and he will annihilate you.” “Lurdu! That scoundrel!” He rubbed you the wrong way even back when he used to take your battalions and make misguided excursions against his personal enemies. Now that insolent brat is trying to start a revolt in your capital. Even worse, he knows all the brutal things you have done and can actually turn your people against you. All you can think about now is how to execute your traitorous son. After you chop off the captain’s head, Do you: > You keep marching to Mongolia and conquer the tribes; then get revenge on Lurdu immediately after You must not reverse your army's momentum. You march on to Mongolia. The dawn had hardly begun when you gaze down at the first tribe. Fifteen gigantic yurts, or tents, flap in the cool breeze. There is no human activity save for a few early risers tending their goats. You waste no time charging into the yurts and raining chaos onto the unsuspecting camp. As predicted, the Mongolians had no idea you were coming and did not conscript any soldiers. The first settlement surrenders quickly, followed by their neighbors. You slaughter their leaders, force their successors to pay monthly tributes, take a few young women as trophies, and commandeer what supplies your army can carry. Even in victory, hardly a moment goes by without thoughts of revenge on the treacherous Lurdu. You head back toward your capital. Your scouts report that Lurdu has indeed captured the city. He has also stationed 15 thousand troops behind the castle walls but your scouts are unsure what type they are. After a long march, you arrive at the closed gates of your former castle. Lurdu’s archers and blue banners are not a welcoming sight. With your entire army away, Lurdu was able to easily capture your capital. However, he will pay for his crimes with a heavy penalty. His head. Shaking with anger, you order your archers to fire at Lurdu's soldiers stationed on the parapets while your infantry scale the walls with rope ladders. A few of your colonels can see that your emotions are clouding your judgment, but are too afraid of you to dissent. They hesitate for a moment before bravely charging the castle. Lurdu sees your tactics and chuckles. He responds by having his archers rain salvos on your troops. Elevation gives Lurdu a big advantage in this battle. Your troops take heavy losses while his ranks remain relatively unscathed. Just as you are about to reconsider your strategy, the front gates open and you see Lurdu's mounted cavalry rush out at your remaining troops. Too tired to run away, you order them to stand fast and brave the inevitable assault. “For our homeland!” you shout. You draw your sword and enter the fray. Your soldiers fight valiantly but in vain. Tired foot soldiers are no match for charging cavalry. In the end you are surrounded by eight of Lurdu’s troops. You swing your sword wildly before three blades simultaneously converge on your internal organs. THE END<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Infantry scatter to both sides of the forest. Not too long passes before you see them join the enemy in battle. Your men take a few initial losses while entering the trees but are able to uncover the enemy from their hiding spots. Your warriors eviscerate the enemy force, with your infantry's superior hand to hand combat ability overwhelming enemy archers. One of your lieutenants drags a wounded soldier to you. “This is their leader,” he says. You look at the disheveled soldier. He looks back at you with contempt. “Who are you and why did you attack me?” you ask. “I am a captain in Crown Prince Lurdu's royal guard. After you left your castle Lurdu left the capital to retrieve his secret army of 15 thousand men and is currently on his way back to claim the city as his own. He sent me out here to destroy your army while he usurps your power. You are a horrible ruler and he will annihilate you.” “Lurdu! That scoundrel!” He rubbed you the wrong way even back when he used to take your battalions and make misguided excursions against his personal enemies. Now that insolent brat is trying to start a revolt in your capital. Even worse, he knows all the brutal things you have done and can actually turn your people against you. All you can think about now is how to execute your traitorous son. After you chop off the captain’s head, Do you: > You go back to your capital to intercept Lurdu and leave the Mongolians for another day You immediately turn back towards your capital. You cannot afford to lose your only base of power and its infrastructures. If Lurdu's army gains control of the fortress he would own a large tactical advantage in battle. The Mongolians were not making any preparations based on your spies' report and you doubt they ever will. Your army reaches your capital’s outskirts just as Lurdu’s troops arrive. The sunset's orange glow gives the brown dirt a reddish tint. Small clouds of sand and dust slowly dissipate behind the two armies. Lurdu rides his mount at the back of his formation and looks over your 18 thousand infantry and 5 thousand archers. You see his 10 thousand cavalry on horses and 5 thousand archers. The terrain consists of small raised ridges to your left and right. Your archers crowd onto this raised terrain and receive a slight high ground advantage while your infantry stand in the middle. Lurdu smirks and orders his cavalry to charge at you. They do, and with quite a bit of momentum. Do you: > You attack them head on; your infantry engaging the cavalry while archers provide cover from the sides You order your infantry to engage the oncoming horsemen while your archers fire away. They can only do so for a few seconds before the cavalry are upon your ground troops. The elevated and faster cavalry dominate your footmen in close quarter combat. Your infantry have no answer for the horsemen's extended reach and speed. Their horses even trample some of your troops. After smashing your infantry lines, Lurdu's cavalry rush the hills. Your archers kill some of his cavalry, but not enough. Lurdu's archers eventually catch up with his horsemen and help them finish off the remaining stragglers. You are captured alive and executed by Lurdu. THE END<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You immediately turn back towards your capital. You cannot afford to lose your only base of power and its infrastructures. If Lurdu's army gains control of the fortress he would own a large tactical advantage in battle. The Mongolians were not making any preparations based on your spies' report and you doubt they ever will. Your army reaches your capital’s outskirts just as Lurdu’s troops arrive. The sunset's orange glow gives the brown dirt a reddish tint. Small clouds of sand and dust slowly dissipate behind the two armies. Lurdu rides his mount at the back of his formation and looks over your 18 thousand infantry and 5 thousand archers. You see his 10 thousand cavalry on horses and 5 thousand archers. The terrain consists of small raised ridges to your left and right. Your archers crowd onto this raised terrain and receive a slight high ground advantage while your infantry stand in the middle. Lurdu smirks and orders his cavalry to charge at you. They do, and with quite a bit of momentum. Do you: > You retreat your infantry while your archers press their high ground advantage for as long as possible; then intercept their cavalry with your infantry when your archers have to fall back The battle begins with a strategic retreat by your infantry. This gives your archers more time to fire on the cavalry before hand to hand combat begins. You manage to take out half their cavalry before they are upon your troops. Lurdu's archers return fire against your archers but can’t do as much damage due to being on lower ground. Once close combat is enjoined, your footmen are dominated by the elevated and faster cavalry. Your infantry have no answer for the horsemen's extended reach and speed. Their horses even trample some of your troops. But your early advantage proves too much for Lurdu. While both sides take catastrophic losses, your strategic retreat gave you just enough of an edge to outlast him. When he sees that all of his troops are dead, Lurdu jumps off his injured horse and runs away from the battlefield. He is soon caught by one of your faster soldiers. Ignoring his pleas for mercy, you quickly decapitate him before he can attempt another act of treachery against you. You emerge from the battle victorious, but with only 3 thousand infantry and 1 thousand archers remaining. The townsfolk are generally happy upon your return, as most of them liked you better than Crown Prince Lurdu. You take some time to restock your supplies and heal your wounded. After you do so, you march back to Mongolia. The dawn had hardly begun when you gaze down at the first tribe. Fifteen gigantic yurts, or tents, flap in the cool breeze. There is no human activity save for a few early risers tending their goats. You waste no time charging into the yurts and raining chaos onto the unsuspecting camp. As predicted, the Mongolians still had no idea you were coming and did not conscript any soldiers. The first settlement surrenders quickly, followed by their neighbors. You slaughter their leaders, force their successors to pay monthly tributes, take a few young women as trophies, and commandeer what supplies your army can carry. Upon your return to your capital, your citizens are delighted to hear your tales of victory. One ardent supporter invents the ballista, a gigantic crossbow that fires spear-sized arrows. These arrows deal much greater damage and have far greater range than arrows fired by handheld bows. You are impatient to conquer again. You institute a draft to conscript more soldiers. However, after the last revolt you feel you must now leave enough men behind to guard your capital, so your marching army stays the same size for now. You yearn to capture Governor Toleron's territory, but worry about how you can defeat the much larger enemy force. One day, help comes from an unexpected source. It seems that a group of bandits had robbed a caravan traveling through your kingdom on its way to India and your police was able to arrest them and confiscate the loot. When your police could not locate any surviving owners, they gave you the wares as a gift. It turns out they were carrying gunpowder, an extremely rare and powerful substance. When it is lit on fire, the fine particles explode violently, causing great destruction. The limited amount you have is converted into its most efficient form- arrow bombs. Shards of broken glass, straw, and gunpowder are held together with cement inside a hollowed out miniature watermelon with a wick leading out of it. The bomb is then tied around the base of an arrow. Your archers would light the wick on fire and then shoot the bomb at opposing troops, causing shrapnel explosions and igniting blazes. You do not load your ballista bolts with bombs as multiple bombs strapped onto one bolt would explode right next to each other and waste its considerable blast radii. In addition, the ballista's long reload time makes quick barrages impossible. Furthermore, salvos would be limited by the number of ballista you have at a time whereas with arrows you can fire as many bombs as you have archers. Gunpowder is extremely rare, so chances are you will never get any more of it. On the other hand, since very few other people have ever even heard of gunpowder, its effects may very well seem supernatural to the average enemy soldier. Brimming with confidence from your new secret weapons, you march south toward Governor Toleron’s kingdom. But before you reach one of his cities, you encounter the army of Commander Wan. Wan is a local warlord with ties to President Min and Governor Toleron. Min, Wan, and Toleron are currently enjoying an uneasy peace between them, as bloodshed has decreased in their region for the time being. He has not achieved much else of note. You are not impressed by this lackey, and prepare for battle. Your spies had reported that his army consists solely of 20 thousand infantry, and you see that they are absolutely right once again as a dense cluster of 20 thousand infantry stand in formation to block your way. Wan looks out at your 3 thousand infantry, 1 thousand archers, and the one ballista that your carpenters have finished building. A frontal assault is clearly not an option. The battlefield is a flat plain with the occasional small tree. Nothing else is notable about the terrain or weather. Do you: > You unleash the arrow bombs while your ballista and archers fire away; keeping your infantry on standby The battle begins with your ballista unloading a few giant bolts. Your men are pretty accurate and wipe out several enemy soldiers. Meanwhile, each archer in your front row loads an arrow bomb and fires on your command. The opening salvo of bombs shocks Wan’s front lines. Shards of glass pierce their armors and no one within a hundred yards of the explosions survive. Wan's army has never seen nor heard of arrow bombs and are too dumbfounded to make sense of what just happened even after several more explosions wipe out hundreds more. The smell of burnt flesh further demoralizes his troops. Sections of Wan’s infantry begin to scatter and run away. By the time you run out of arrow bombs, half of Wan’s 20 thousand soldiers are dead, while most of the rest are wounded or have already fled. Your ballista by now has done severe damage as well. Your infantry rush in to finish the bloodbath and Commander Wan surrenders. “Please allow me to live,” he begs. You smirk. “What use would I have for a bungling commander? Fool!” You take over Commander Wan’s headquarters. You turn it into your new base of operations, while leaving his severed head on the flagpole as a reminder of your power. Your victory is somewhat tempered by your loss of your secret weapon. Still, winning a large battle against incredible odds and recent notable successes have nicely increased your kingdom's morale. You now control a large portion of northern China. A great deal of men hear tales of your courage and leadership and volunteer to join your fighting force. In addition, skilled carpenters, mechanics, and artisans offer their services to help you build more war machines. Collecting the best and brightest from nearby towns and cities, your army swells to 40 thousand infantry, 10 thousand archers, and 5 ballistae. When word of your victory against Wan reaches the kingdom of Governor Toleron, he readies his 90 thousand troops for defense. His army greets yours on a forest clearing a few miles outside his capital. You sit in your tent awaiting information from your spies. You tap your toes impatiently and rub your elbows raw on your armrests. Suddenly, your lead spy bats the door flap open and gets down on one knee. “Sir, Toleron has placed his archers in the dense forest facing us. That allows them to fire on our army positioned in the open without themselves being targets for our archers. We have also found out that Toleron has left 15 ballistae in his castle that he did not bring with him. He must have underestimated our resolve.” You step outside your tent and look out over the battlefield. You cannot see his archers, but you see his 70 thousand infantry lined up a hundred yards in front of the forest. Upon closer inspection, their faces are those of panicked idiots. While your soldiers are both intelligent and brave, Toleron's soldiers are shaking in their boots and look like they would flee at any omen of doom. You confer with your colonels to decide on the best tactic. There is a brisk wind at your back and the air is dry. Due to no longer having arrow bombs, your only options are: > You have your infantry charge the trees to ferret out enemy archers, like they did during the Clearbrook Forest ambush, then launch an all-out assault at all his troops Your infantry charge across the battlefield. Toleron's archers fire away. Many of your infantry literally fall dead in their tracks. While your infantry charge toward his archers, Toleron commands his infantry to intercept yours. Having already begun the battle with a disadvantage in numbers, your mounting casualties further hurt your chances of victory. Even your ballistae cannot kill Toleron's troops fast enough to offset their big edge. You simply did not make the right tactical decision to expose your infantry by themselves early on. You are ashamed of your colossal mistake and atone for it the only way you know how. You ride into the fray with the rest of your troops, your sword pointed high at the sky. Your inevitable death comes from a spear thrust through your heart. THE END<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The battle begins with your ballista unloading a few giant bolts. Your men are pretty accurate and wipe out several enemy soldiers. Meanwhile, each archer in your front row loads an arrow bomb and fires on your command. The opening salvo of bombs shocks Wan’s front lines. Shards of glass pierce their armors and no one within a hundred yards of the explosions survive. Wan's army has never seen nor heard of arrow bombs and are too dumbfounded to make sense of what just happened even after several more explosions wipe out hundreds more. The smell of burnt flesh further demoralizes his troops. Sections of Wan’s infantry begin to scatter and run away. By the time you run out of arrow bombs, half of Wan’s 20 thousand soldiers are dead, while most of the rest are wounded or have already fled. Your ballista by now has done severe damage as well. Your infantry rush in to finish the bloodbath and Commander Wan surrenders. “Please allow me to live,” he begs. You smirk. “What use would I have for a bungling commander? Fool!” You take over Commander Wan’s headquarters. You turn it into your new base of operations, while leaving his severed head on the flagpole as a reminder of your power. Your victory is somewhat tempered by your loss of your secret weapon. Still, winning a large battle against incredible odds and recent notable successes have nicely increased your kingdom's morale. You now control a large portion of northern China. A great deal of men hear tales of your courage and leadership and volunteer to join your fighting force. In addition, skilled carpenters, mechanics, and artisans offer their services to help you build more war machines. Collecting the best and brightest from nearby towns and cities, your army swells to 40 thousand infantry, 10 thousand archers, and 5 ballistae. When word of your victory against Wan reaches the kingdom of Governor Toleron, he readies his 90 thousand troops for defense. His army greets yours on a forest clearing a few miles outside his capital. You sit in your tent awaiting information from your spies. You tap your toes impatiently and rub your elbows raw on your armrests. Suddenly, your lead spy bats the door flap open and gets down on one knee. “Sir, Toleron has placed his archers in the dense forest facing us. That allows them to fire on our army positioned in the open without themselves being targets for our archers. We have also found out that Toleron has left 15 ballistae in his castle that he did not bring with him. He must have underestimated our resolve.” You step outside your tent and look out over the battlefield. You cannot see his archers, but you see his 70 thousand infantry lined up a hundred yards in front of the forest. Upon closer inspection, their faces are those of panicked idiots. While your soldiers are both intelligent and brave, Toleron's soldiers are shaking in their boots and look like they would flee at any omen of doom. You confer with your colonels to decide on the best tactic. There is a brisk wind at your back and the air is dry. Due to no longer having arrow bombs, your only options are: > You bombard enemy infantry with long-range strategic ballistae strikes, while all your troops hold their ground until Toleron's archers leave their advantageous position You try to capitalize on your five ballistae's great range and damage output. You order your ballistae to fire at the enemy. The ballista is an impressive machine, and you watch them wipe out hundreds of enemy infantry before Toleron reacts to being slaughtered. He commands every last one of his 90 thousand men, including his archers, to charge at your army in order to negate your range advantage. This is exactly what you want. Now you engage his army with yours. Your men are noticeably better trained. Your infantry's footwork is quicker and their swordplay stronger than Toleron's. Your archers are far more accurate. Having almost twice as many troops pales in comparison to being prepared for battle. You suffer terrible losses but annihilate Toleron's ranks and score a crucial victory. Toleron himself tries to escape but is tracked down by a scout unit a few hours later. He is thrown in front of you with bound ankles and wrists. “Why should I spare your pathetic life?” you ask a defiant Toleron. “There is no need. Ever since I converted to Buddhism I have seen the way. The pain and suffering of existence are meaningless. In time, your people will agree with me. Killing me will only send me to nirva-” “Enough! Your death will serve me much better than it will serve you, believe me. Off with his head!” When you take over Toleron’s castle you find his 15 ballistae in good condition and add them to your fleet. In addition, winning a huge battle while being vastly outnumbered raises your kingdom's morale a good bit. Another spike in conscription occurs, this time increasing your troops to 500 thousand infantry, 200 thousand archers, and 300 thousand mounted cavalry. Furthermore, your increasing stable of skilled tradesmen have completed construction on several cloud ladders. Cloud ladders, or siege towers, are slow-moving, wheeled, vertically extendable wooden structures. They allow infantry and archers to directly reach the top of castle walls and towers without being bombarded by arrows on the way. Damp cloth is draped over the outside to protect it against burning arrows. Unlike regular arrows, ballista bolts can penetrate the cloud ladder's wooden shell and eventually wreck the entire structure. Cloud ladders also cannot accommodate any cavalry, so your mounted troops would not be able to support your infantry and archers. Your war machines now total 20 ballistae and 10 cloud ladders. One day, as you are preparing for another offensive campaign, you are visited by an emissary. “I am here on a mission of peace from President Min. He has heard tales of your victories and is in awe of your military brilliance. Now that all other remaining warlords in China have allied themselves with the President, your joining us is overdue. He asks that you keep your troops within the boundaries of your newly acquired territories in north, south, and east China in exchange for him keeping all the other warlords from invading your territory. You are still free to attack anyone you want outside of China. What reply shall I bring back to President Min?” “Ahahahaha!” You have not had such a good laugh in a long time. “Don’t worry,” you say, “I’ll take care of that for you.” You grin as your men drag the diplomat away to be executed and his head put in a box and sent back to Min. By now you hold three quarters of China. But the last opposition is the strongest. Min has convinced his allies to all resist you as one. Their most defensible position is Min's capital, where 1.5 million soldiers await you in battle. You march your army to Min’s last bastion. A giant castle stands in the distance. In front of it are thousands of tents nestled close together, where the one million infantry of Min’s allies are camped. Perched on the castle walls are Min's 200 thousand infantry and 300 thousand archers. Ten ballistae sit atop his towers, pointed in your direction. Due to their elevation, Min's ballistae possess much greater range than yours. The battlefield terrain is a low plain with no trees, and a brisk wind blows from behind your back. Your army stands ready to face your enemies. Your day of glory has finally come. Before you can savor the moment however, Min’s allies suddenly attack you. All one million infantry charge as one at your formation and taking the initiative away from you. You have no option but to fight back. Your 300 thousand cavalry are the first to engage the enemy. Soldiers on their front few lines are knocked down by your cavalry's ferocious charge. Outnumbered, your mounted troops slaughter the infantry while taking heavy losses. Your infantry and archers eventually catch up with your cavalry and join the fray. Several bloody hours later, all one million infantry are either dead or scattered, while you have lost all 300 thousand cavalry and 100 thousand of your infantry. Careful to remain just out of the range of Min's ballistae, you walk past the tents and closer to Min’s towering castle. You still have 400 thousand infantry, 200 thousand archers, 20 ballistae and 10 cloud ladders. Min still has 200 thousand infantry, 300 thousand archers and 10 ballistae guarding his fortress. How will you assault the castle? You have four choices, but decide carefully. You know that as your ballistae move close enough to fire on the castle, they would also likely be fired on during the assault as well and eventually all destroyed by Min's longer ranged ballistae. > You fire your ballistae at their giant wooden gate and destroy it; once the gate is breached, charge in with your troops, braving their inevitable ballistae barrage in the meantime, to storm the castle and capture the keep You order your ballistae forward. You beam with pride as your ballistae operators bravely push them onward in the face of enemy ballistae fire. A few of them are destroyed before they are in range, but most of them reach their destination. You watch intently as your ballistae shower Min’s castle gate with bolts. Eventually the giant gate becomes so covered with shafts you can barely see any wood. Several minutes later, as the last of your ballistae is destroyed, you see the gate crack, then wobble, and finally collapse. It is time. Six hundred thousand of your bravest warriors charge toward the castle opening. You see Min’s soldiers hurriedly rush toward the gap to protect the keep. As you expected, Min's ballistae rain death upon your troops as they advance toward the castle. Many do not survive. But enough do to give you a small advantage in numbers when a clash for the ages begins. The chaos of metal clanging, primal shouting, and millions of intense combatants sort themselves out in the scene before you. Blood and dead bodies slowly fill up the battlefield. You get chills, almost in glee, watching all the carnage. But who will triumph and etch their name in the history books? Your small edge in numbers very slowly, almost imperceptibly, wears down Min’s ranks. Min's troops have the extra motivation of defending their homeland. Your forces have the advantages of being more bloodthirsty and experienced in combat. Little by little, your army push the defenders deeper into the castle. At times they are pushed back, but then surge forward again past their fallen comrades. Many of your soldiers fight on even with severe flesh wounds or arrows buried deep in their backs. Closer and closer to the keep you get, until Min’s flag drops from its pole and is replaced with your bloody banner. Carefully, you step into the keep after surveying the battle scene. No one wearing Min’s uniform is still standing. The only soldiers still alive from your army are colonels; all other troops are dead. The throne room is extravagant, but eerily empty. You stride up the steps to the ornate gold throne. Min is brought before you with his hands tied behind his back. “I surrender, great conqueror. Please spare my life. I will serve you, and, and never betray you! I can help you rule, and I know this area well having lived here my whole life. I would be forever grateful to you. Please spare me!” You execute him in spite of his plead to avenge your fallen soldiers. You feel like you owed them a great debt for helping you unite all of China. You take a much deserved vacation. Who knows, you may even conquer the rest of the world one day. But for now, you’re happy to have united China. Thanks to your military skills, YOU WIN.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You try to capitalize on your five ballistae's great range and damage output. You order your ballistae to fire at the enemy. The ballista is an impressive machine, and you watch them wipe out hundreds of enemy infantry before Toleron reacts to being slaughtered. He commands every last one of his 90 thousand men, including his archers, to charge at your army in order to negate your range advantage. This is exactly what you want. Now you engage his army with yours. Your men are noticeably better trained. Your infantry's footwork is quicker and their swordplay stronger than Toleron's. Your archers are far more accurate. Having almost twice as many troops pales in comparison to being prepared for battle. You suffer terrible losses but annihilate Toleron's ranks and score a crucial victory. Toleron himself tries to escape but is tracked down by a scout unit a few hours later. He is thrown in front of you with bound ankles and wrists. “Why should I spare your pathetic life?” you ask a defiant Toleron. “There is no need. Ever since I converted to Buddhism I have seen the way. The pain and suffering of existence are meaningless. In time, your people will agree with me. Killing me will only send me to nirva-” “Enough! Your death will serve me much better than it will serve you, believe me. Off with his head!” When you take over Toleron’s castle you find his 15 ballistae in good condition and add them to your fleet. In addition, winning a huge battle while being vastly outnumbered raises your kingdom's morale a good bit. Another spike in conscription occurs, this time increasing your troops to 500 thousand infantry, 200 thousand archers, and 300 thousand mounted cavalry. Furthermore, your increasing stable of skilled tradesmen have completed construction on several cloud ladders. Cloud ladders, or siege towers, are slow-moving, wheeled, vertically extendable wooden structures. They allow infantry and archers to directly reach the top of castle walls and towers without being bombarded by arrows on the way. Damp cloth is draped over the outside to protect it against burning arrows. Unlike regular arrows, ballista bolts can penetrate the cloud ladder's wooden shell and eventually wreck the entire structure. Cloud ladders also cannot accommodate any cavalry, so your mounted troops would not be able to support your infantry and archers. Your war machines now total 20 ballistae and 10 cloud ladders. One day, as you are preparing for another offensive campaign, you are visited by an emissary. “I am here on a mission of peace from President Min. He has heard tales of your victories and is in awe of your military brilliance. Now that all other remaining warlords in China have allied themselves with the President, your joining us is overdue. He asks that you keep your troops within the boundaries of your newly acquired territories in north, south, and east China in exchange for him keeping all the other warlords from invading your territory. You are still free to attack anyone you want outside of China. What reply shall I bring back to President Min?” “Ahahahaha!” You have not had such a good laugh in a long time. “Don’t worry,” you say, “I’ll take care of that for you.” You grin as your men drag the diplomat away to be executed and his head put in a box and sent back to Min. By now you hold three quarters of China. But the last opposition is the strongest. Min has convinced his allies to all resist you as one. Their most defensible position is Min's capital, where 1.5 million soldiers await you in battle. You march your army to Min’s last bastion. A giant castle stands in the distance. In front of it are thousands of tents nestled close together, where the one million infantry of Min’s allies are camped. Perched on the castle walls are Min's 200 thousand infantry and 300 thousand archers. Ten ballistae sit atop his towers, pointed in your direction. Due to their elevation, Min's ballistae possess much greater range than yours. The battlefield terrain is a low plain with no trees, and a brisk wind blows from behind your back. Your army stands ready to face your enemies. Your day of glory has finally come. Before you can savor the moment however, Min’s allies suddenly attack you. All one million infantry charge as one at your formation and taking the initiative away from you. You have no option but to fight back. Your 300 thousand cavalry are the first to engage the enemy. Soldiers on their front few lines are knocked down by your cavalry's ferocious charge. Outnumbered, your mounted troops slaughter the infantry while taking heavy losses. Your infantry and archers eventually catch up with your cavalry and join the fray. Several bloody hours later, all one million infantry are either dead or scattered, while you have lost all 300 thousand cavalry and 100 thousand of your infantry. Careful to remain just out of the range of Min's ballistae, you walk past the tents and closer to Min’s towering castle. You still have 400 thousand infantry, 200 thousand archers, 20 ballistae and 10 cloud ladders. Min still has 200 thousand infantry, 300 thousand archers and 10 ballistae guarding his fortress. How will you assault the castle? You have four choices, but decide carefully. You know that as your ballistae move close enough to fire on the castle, they would also likely be fired on during the assault as well and eventually all destroyed by Min's longer ranged ballistae. > You fire your ballistae at and destroy Min's own ballistae installations; once his ballistae are eliminated, advance your cloud ladders, carrying a mix of infantry and archers, to storm the walls and capture the keep You decide to not expose your troops to inevitable heavy casualties from ballistae fire. You order your ballistae forward. They move into range to destroy the installations. A battle of the ballistae ensues as bolts furiously fly back and forth. Ballistae on both sides slowly wreck and break down. Your 20 to 10 advantage is offset by their greater range and accuracy. When the giant bolts cease flying, neither side has a single ballistae still intact. This is the result you were looking for. Now you finally get the chance to use your cloud ladders. They slowly approach the walls, with your infantry and archers forming long lines behind them. You watch as your foot soldiers crawl out of their cloud ladders and attempt to assail the walls. The enemy is well positioned, sniping the exit points of your cloud ladders and maximizing the effectiveness of their 300 thousand archers. Almost none of your troops make it onto the walls alive, and those few who do are quickly cut down by the 200 thousand infantry supporting the archers. There are simply too many enemy archers for your cloud ladders to safely deploy your troops. You rue your decision of not attacking the gate with your ballistae, but now it is too late as they have been destroyed. The defenders slaughter each wave of your soldiers, who reach the top of their cloud ladder only to be outnumbered and outmaneuvered like the wave before them. Soon you see your 600 thousand foot soldiers dwindle to only a few thousand. You feel abject failure. You have lost most of your troops, and Min is certainly not going to open his doors, so you have no choice but to tell your troops to turn back. However, your colonels have had enough of your idiocy and decide it is time for a new leader. You can't blame them; after all you did just blow a chance at victory. Your colonels execute you on the spot. Soon they start bickering amongst themselves about how to divide power and none achieves the dream you once had of uniting China. THE END<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You try to capitalize on your five ballistae's great range and damage output. You order your ballistae to fire at the enemy. The ballista is an impressive machine, and you watch them wipe out hundreds of enemy infantry before Toleron reacts to being slaughtered. He commands every last one of his 90 thousand men, including his archers, to charge at your army in order to negate your range advantage. This is exactly what you want. Now you engage his army with yours. Your men are noticeably better trained. Your infantry's footwork is quicker and their swordplay stronger than Toleron's. Your archers are far more accurate. Having almost twice as many troops pales in comparison to being prepared for battle. You suffer terrible losses but annihilate Toleron's ranks and score a crucial victory. Toleron himself tries to escape but is tracked down by a scout unit a few hours later. He is thrown in front of you with bound ankles and wrists. “Why should I spare your pathetic life?” you ask a defiant Toleron. “There is no need. Ever since I converted to Buddhism I have seen the way. The pain and suffering of existence are meaningless. In time, your people will agree with me. Killing me will only send me to nirva-” “Enough! Your death will serve me much better than it will serve you, believe me. Off with his head!” When you take over Toleron’s castle you find his 15 ballistae in good condition and add them to your fleet. In addition, winning a huge battle while being vastly outnumbered raises your kingdom's morale a good bit. Another spike in conscription occurs, this time increasing your troops to 500 thousand infantry, 200 thousand archers, and 300 thousand mounted cavalry. Furthermore, your increasing stable of skilled tradesmen have completed construction on several cloud ladders. Cloud ladders, or siege towers, are slow-moving, wheeled, vertically extendable wooden structures. They allow infantry and archers to directly reach the top of castle walls and towers without being bombarded by arrows on the way. Damp cloth is draped over the outside to protect it against burning arrows. Unlike regular arrows, ballista bolts can penetrate the cloud ladder's wooden shell and eventually wreck the entire structure. Cloud ladders also cannot accommodate any cavalry, so your mounted troops would not be able to support your infantry and archers. Your war machines now total 20 ballistae and 10 cloud ladders. One day, as you are preparing for another offensive campaign, you are visited by an emissary. “I am here on a mission of peace from President Min. He has heard tales of your victories and is in awe of your military brilliance. Now that all other remaining warlords in China have allied themselves with the President, your joining us is overdue. He asks that you keep your troops within the boundaries of your newly acquired territories in north, south, and east China in exchange for him keeping all the other warlords from invading your territory. You are still free to attack anyone you want outside of China. What reply shall I bring back to President Min?” “Ahahahaha!” You have not had such a good laugh in a long time. “Don’t worry,” you say, “I’ll take care of that for you.” You grin as your men drag the diplomat away to be executed and his head put in a box and sent back to Min. By now you hold three quarters of China. But the last opposition is the strongest. Min has convinced his allies to all resist you as one. Their most defensible position is Min's capital, where 1.5 million soldiers await you in battle. You march your army to Min’s last bastion. A giant castle stands in the distance. In front of it are thousands of tents nestled close together, where the one million infantry of Min’s allies are camped. Perched on the castle walls are Min's 200 thousand infantry and 300 thousand archers. Ten ballistae sit atop his towers, pointed in your direction. Due to their elevation, Min's ballistae possess much greater range than yours. The battlefield terrain is a low plain with no trees, and a brisk wind blows from behind your back. Your army stands ready to face your enemies. Your day of glory has finally come. Before you can savor the moment however, Min’s allies suddenly attack you. All one million infantry charge as one at your formation and taking the initiative away from you. You have no option but to fight back. Your 300 thousand cavalry are the first to engage the enemy. Soldiers on their front few lines are knocked down by your cavalry's ferocious charge. Outnumbered, your mounted troops slaughter the infantry while taking heavy losses. Your infantry and archers eventually catch up with your cavalry and join the fray. Several bloody hours later, all one million infantry are either dead or scattered, while you have lost all 300 thousand cavalry and 100 thousand of your infantry. Careful to remain just out of the range of Min's ballistae, you walk past the tents and closer to Min’s towering castle. You still have 400 thousand infantry, 200 thousand archers, 20 ballistae and 10 cloud ladders. Min still has 200 thousand infantry, 300 thousand archers and 10 ballistae guarding his fortress. How will you assault the castle? You have four choices, but decide carefully. You know that as your ballistae move close enough to fire on the castle, they would also likely be fired on during the assault as well and eventually all destroyed by Min's longer ranged ballistae. > You fire your ballistae at and destroy Min's own ballistae installations; once his ballistae are eliminated, advance your cloud ladders, carrying solely infantry (and then archers only if necessary) to storm the walls and capture the keep You decide to not expose your troops to inevitable heavy casualties from ballistae fire. You order your ballistae forward. They move into range to destroy the installations. A battle of the ballistae ensues as bolts furiously fly back and forth. Ballistae on both sides slowly wreck and break down. Your 20 to 10 advantage is offset by their greater range and accuracy. When the giant bolts cease flying, neither side has a single ballistae still intact. This is the result you were looking for. Now you finally get the chance to use your cloud ladders. They slowly approach the walls, with your infantry forming long lines behind them. Your 200 thousand archers can only wait outside the castle, anxious to enter the fray. You watch as your infantry crawl out of their cloud ladders and attempt to assail the walls. The enemy is well positioned, sniping the exit points of your cloud ladders and maximizing the effectiveness of their 300 thousand archers. Almost none of your troops make it onto the walls alive, and those few who do are quickly cut down by the 200 thousand infantry supporting the archers. There are simply too many enemy archers for your cloud ladders to safely deploy your troops. You rue your decision of not attacking the gate with your ballistae, but now it is too late as they have been destroyed. The defenders slaughter each wave of your soldiers, who reach the top of their cloud ladder only to be outnumbered and outmaneuvered like the wave before them. In desperation, you send your 200 thousand archers up the cloud ladders as well. They are even worse at close quarter combat than your infantry were and are decimated too. Soon you see your 600 thousand foot soldiers dwindle to only a few thousand. You feel abject failure. You have lost most of your troops, and Min is certainly not going to open his doors, so you have no choice but to tell your troops to turn back. However, your colonels have had enough of your idiocy and decide it is time for a new leader. You can't blame them; after all you did just blow a chance at victory. Your colonels execute you on the spot. Soon they start bickering amongst themselves about how to divide power and none achieves the dream you once had of uniting China. THE END<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You try to capitalize on your five ballistae's great range and damage output. You order your ballistae to fire at the enemy. The ballista is an impressive machine, and you watch them wipe out hundreds of enemy infantry before Toleron reacts to being slaughtered. He commands every last one of his 90 thousand men, including his archers, to charge at your army in order to negate your range advantage. This is exactly what you want. Now you engage his army with yours. Your men are noticeably better trained. Your infantry's footwork is quicker and their swordplay stronger than Toleron's. Your archers are far more accurate. Having almost twice as many troops pales in comparison to being prepared for battle. You suffer terrible losses but annihilate Toleron's ranks and score a crucial victory. Toleron himself tries to escape but is tracked down by a scout unit a few hours later. He is thrown in front of you with bound ankles and wrists. “Why should I spare your pathetic life?” you ask a defiant Toleron. “There is no need. Ever since I converted to Buddhism I have seen the way. The pain and suffering of existence are meaningless. In time, your people will agree with me. Killing me will only send me to nirva-” “Enough! Your death will serve me much better than it will serve you, believe me. Off with his head!” When you take over Toleron’s castle you find his 15 ballistae in good condition and add them to your fleet. In addition, winning a huge battle while being vastly outnumbered raises your kingdom's morale a good bit. Another spike in conscription occurs, this time increasing your troops to 500 thousand infantry, 200 thousand archers, and 300 thousand mounted cavalry. Furthermore, your increasing stable of skilled tradesmen have completed construction on several cloud ladders. Cloud ladders, or siege towers, are slow-moving, wheeled, vertically extendable wooden structures. They allow infantry and archers to directly reach the top of castle walls and towers without being bombarded by arrows on the way. Damp cloth is draped over the outside to protect it against burning arrows. Unlike regular arrows, ballista bolts can penetrate the cloud ladder's wooden shell and eventually wreck the entire structure. Cloud ladders also cannot accommodate any cavalry, so your mounted troops would not be able to support your infantry and archers. Your war machines now total 20 ballistae and 10 cloud ladders. One day, as you are preparing for another offensive campaign, you are visited by an emissary. “I am here on a mission of peace from President Min. He has heard tales of your victories and is in awe of your military brilliance. Now that all other remaining warlords in China have allied themselves with the President, your joining us is overdue. He asks that you keep your troops within the boundaries of your newly acquired territories in north, south, and east China in exchange for him keeping all the other warlords from invading your territory. You are still free to attack anyone you want outside of China. What reply shall I bring back to President Min?” “Ahahahaha!” You have not had such a good laugh in a long time. “Don’t worry,” you say, “I’ll take care of that for you.” You grin as your men drag the diplomat away to be executed and his head put in a box and sent back to Min. By now you hold three quarters of China. But the last opposition is the strongest. Min has convinced his allies to all resist you as one. Their most defensible position is Min's capital, where 1.5 million soldiers await you in battle. You march your army to Min’s last bastion. A giant castle stands in the distance. In front of it are thousands of tents nestled close together, where the one million infantry of Min’s allies are camped. Perched on the castle walls are Min's 200 thousand infantry and 300 thousand archers. Ten ballistae sit atop his towers, pointed in your direction. Due to their elevation, Min's ballistae possess much greater range than yours. The battlefield terrain is a low plain with no trees, and a brisk wind blows from behind your back. Your army stands ready to face your enemies. Your day of glory has finally come. Before you can savor the moment however, Min’s allies suddenly attack you. All one million infantry charge as one at your formation and taking the initiative away from you. You have no option but to fight back. Your 300 thousand cavalry are the first to engage the enemy. Soldiers on their front few lines are knocked down by your cavalry's ferocious charge. Outnumbered, your mounted troops slaughter the infantry while taking heavy losses. Your infantry and archers eventually catch up with your cavalry and join the fray. Several bloody hours later, all one million infantry are either dead or scattered, while you have lost all 300 thousand cavalry and 100 thousand of your infantry. Careful to remain just out of the range of Min's ballistae, you walk past the tents and closer to Min’s towering castle. You still have 400 thousand infantry, 200 thousand archers, 20 ballistae and 10 cloud ladders. Min still has 200 thousand infantry, 300 thousand archers and 10 ballistae guarding his fortress. How will you assault the castle? You have four choices, but decide carefully. You know that as your ballistae move close enough to fire on the castle, they would also likely be fired on during the assault as well and eventually all destroyed by Min's longer ranged ballistae. > You fire your ballistae at and destroy Min's own ballistae installations; once his ballistae are eliminated, advance your cloud ladders, carrying solely archers (and then infantry only if necessary) to storm the walls and capture the keep You decide to not expose your troops to inevitable heavy casualties from ballistae fire. You order your ballistae forward. They move into range to destroy the installations. A battle of the ballistae ensues as bolts furiously fly back and forth. Ballistae on both sides slowly wreck and break down. Your 20 to 10 advantage is offset by their greater range and accuracy. When the giant bolts cease flying, neither side has a single ballistae still intact. This is the result you were looking for. Now you finally get the chance to use your cloud ladders. They slowly approach the walls, with your archers forming long lines behind them. Your 400 thousand infantry can only wait outside the castle, anxious to enter the fray. You watch as your archers crawl out of your cloud ladders and attempt to assail the walls. The enemy is well positioned, sniping the exit points of your cloud ladders and maximizing the effectiveness of their 300 thousand archers. Almost none of your troops make it onto the walls alive, and those few who do are quickly cut down by the 200 thousand infantry supporting the archers. There are simply too many enemy archers for your cloud ladders to safely deploy your troops. You rue your decision of not attacking the gate with your ballistae, but now it is too late as they have been destroyed. The defenders slaughter each wave of your soldiers, who reach the top of their cloud ladder only to be outnumbered and outmaneuvered like the wave before them. In desperation, you send your 400 thousand infantry up the cloud ladders as well, but they fare only slightly better and are eventually decimated as well. Soon you see your 600 thousand foot soldiers dwindle to only a few thousand. You feel abject failure. You have lost most of your troops, and Min is certainly not going to open his doors, so you have no choice but to tell your troops to turn back. However, your colonels have had enough of your idiocy and decide it is time for a new leader. You can't blame them; after all you did just blow a chance at victory. Your colonels execute you on the spot. Soon they start bickering amongst themselves about how to divide power and none achieves the dream you once had of uniting China. THE END<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The battle begins with your ballista unloading a few giant bolts. Your men are pretty accurate and wipe out several enemy soldiers. Meanwhile, each archer in your front row loads an arrow bomb and fires on your command. The opening salvo of bombs shocks Wan’s front lines. Shards of glass pierce their armors and no one within a hundred yards of the explosions survive. Wan's army has never seen nor heard of arrow bombs and are too dumbfounded to make sense of what just happened even after several more explosions wipe out hundreds more. The smell of burnt flesh further demoralizes his troops. Sections of Wan’s infantry begin to scatter and run away. By the time you run out of arrow bombs, half of Wan’s 20 thousand soldiers are dead, while most of the rest are wounded or have already fled. Your ballista by now has done severe damage as well. Your infantry rush in to finish the bloodbath and Commander Wan surrenders. “Please allow me to live,” he begs. You smirk. “What use would I have for a bungling commander? Fool!” You take over Commander Wan’s headquarters. You turn it into your new base of operations, while leaving his severed head on the flagpole as a reminder of your power. Your victory is somewhat tempered by your loss of your secret weapon. Still, winning a large battle against incredible odds and recent notable successes have nicely increased your kingdom's morale. You now control a large portion of northern China. A great deal of men hear tales of your courage and leadership and volunteer to join your fighting force. In addition, skilled carpenters, mechanics, and artisans offer their services to help you build more war machines. Collecting the best and brightest from nearby towns and cities, your army swells to 40 thousand infantry, 10 thousand archers, and 5 ballistae. When word of your victory against Wan reaches the kingdom of Governor Toleron, he readies his 90 thousand troops for defense. His army greets yours on a forest clearing a few miles outside his capital. You sit in your tent awaiting information from your spies. You tap your toes impatiently and rub your elbows raw on your armrests. Suddenly, your lead spy bats the door flap open and gets down on one knee. “Sir, Toleron has placed his archers in the dense forest facing us. That allows them to fire on our army positioned in the open without themselves being targets for our archers. We have also found out that Toleron has left 15 ballistae in his castle that he did not bring with him. He must have underestimated our resolve.” You step outside your tent and look out over the battlefield. You cannot see his archers, but you see his 70 thousand infantry lined up a hundred yards in front of the forest. Upon closer inspection, their faces are those of panicked idiots. While your soldiers are both intelligent and brave, Toleron's soldiers are shaking in their boots and look like they would flee at any omen of doom. You confer with your colonels to decide on the best tactic. There is a brisk wind at your back and the air is dry. Due to no longer having arrow bombs, your only options are: > You launch an all-out attack on their infantry with all your troops and ballistae; a show of pure force and resolve Your eyes are red with bloodlust. This is a time for courage, not strategy. You order all your troops to rush at and kill every last enemy. As you get closer you can sense the tentativeness in Toleron’s troops. Then the arrows start flying out of the forest. A third of your troops are dead before they can engage the enemy. Fortunately your ballistae wipe out some of their infantry in the meantime. Close combat is eventually enjoined. Your troops fight valiantly as they always have. You even manage to kill some of Toleron's archers; unfortunately most of his troops are fighting two on one against yours. A close, bloody contest dwindles down to just a few men, with you on the losing side. Governor Toleron confronts you. “It is time you paid for your crimes, Nahru. Slaughtering so many innocent people in the name of conquest. Your life is evil. And today, it ends!” “And I'm taking you with me!” you growl. You lunge at Toleron's throat with a mighty swing of your sword. If only his officers did not plunge their weapons deep in your back, your last ditch attempt might have succeeded. THE END<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The battle begins with a strategic retreat by your infantry. This gives your archers more time to fire on the cavalry before hand to hand combat begins. You manage to take out half their cavalry before they are upon your troops. Lurdu's archers return fire against your archers but can’t do as much damage due to being on lower ground. Once close combat is enjoined, your footmen are dominated by the elevated and faster cavalry. Your infantry have no answer for the horsemen's extended reach and speed. Their horses even trample some of your troops. But your early advantage proves too much for Lurdu. While both sides take catastrophic losses, your strategic retreat gave you just enough of an edge to outlast him. When he sees that all of his troops are dead, Lurdu jumps off his injured horse and runs away from the battlefield. He is soon caught by one of your faster soldiers. Ignoring his pleas for mercy, you quickly decapitate him before he can attempt another act of treachery against you. You emerge from the battle victorious, but with only 3 thousand infantry and 1 thousand archers remaining. The townsfolk are generally happy upon your return, as most of them liked you better than Crown Prince Lurdu. You take some time to restock your supplies and heal your wounded. After you do so, you march back to Mongolia. The dawn had hardly begun when you gaze down at the first tribe. Fifteen gigantic yurts, or tents, flap in the cool breeze. There is no human activity save for a few early risers tending their goats. You waste no time charging into the yurts and raining chaos onto the unsuspecting camp. As predicted, the Mongolians still had no idea you were coming and did not conscript any soldiers. The first settlement surrenders quickly, followed by their neighbors. You slaughter their leaders, force their successors to pay monthly tributes, take a few young women as trophies, and commandeer what supplies your army can carry. Upon your return to your capital, your citizens are delighted to hear your tales of victory. One ardent supporter invents the ballista, a gigantic crossbow that fires spear-sized arrows. These arrows deal much greater damage and have far greater range than arrows fired by handheld bows. You are impatient to conquer again. You institute a draft to conscript more soldiers. However, after the last revolt you feel you must now leave enough men behind to guard your capital, so your marching army stays the same size for now. You yearn to capture Governor Toleron's territory, but worry about how you can defeat the much larger enemy force. One day, help comes from an unexpected source. It seems that a group of bandits had robbed a caravan traveling through your kingdom on its way to India and your police was able to arrest them and confiscate the loot. When your police could not locate any surviving owners, they gave you the wares as a gift. It turns out they were carrying gunpowder, an extremely rare and powerful substance. When it is lit on fire, the fine particles explode violently, causing great destruction. The limited amount you have is converted into its most efficient form- arrow bombs. Shards of broken glass, straw, and gunpowder are held together with cement inside a hollowed out miniature watermelon with a wick leading out of it. The bomb is then tied around the base of an arrow. Your archers would light the wick on fire and then shoot the bomb at opposing troops, causing shrapnel explosions and igniting blazes. You do not load your ballista bolts with bombs as multiple bombs strapped onto one bolt would explode right next to each other and waste its considerable blast radii. In addition, the ballista's long reload time makes quick barrages impossible. Furthermore, salvos would be limited by the number of ballista you have at a time whereas with arrows you can fire as many bombs as you have archers. Gunpowder is extremely rare, so chances are you will never get any more of it. On the other hand, since very few other people have ever even heard of gunpowder, its effects may very well seem supernatural to the average enemy soldier. Brimming with confidence from your new secret weapons, you march south toward Governor Toleron’s kingdom. But before you reach one of his cities, you encounter the army of Commander Wan. Wan is a local warlord with ties to President Min and Governor Toleron. Min, Wan, and Toleron are currently enjoying an uneasy peace between them, as bloodshed has decreased in their region for the time being. He has not achieved much else of note. You are not impressed by this lackey, and prepare for battle. Your spies had reported that his army consists solely of 20 thousand infantry, and you see that they are absolutely right once again as a dense cluster of 20 thousand infantry stand in formation to block your way. Wan looks out at your 3 thousand infantry, 1 thousand archers, and the one ballista that your carpenters have finished building. A frontal assault is clearly not an option. The battlefield is a flat plain with the occasional small tree. Nothing else is notable about the terrain or weather. Do you: > You blast away at the enemy with your ballista and archers while maintaining maximum distance; keeping your infantry on standby; without using arrow bombs Despite being severely outnumbered, you believe you can win this battle without using your arrow bombs. Your colonels look at you like you’ve lost your mind but still execute your orders. The ballista is an impressive machine, and you watch it wipe out wave after wave of enemy infantry. It takes their footmen a while to reach your troops; in the meantime your giant ballista repeatedly pummels their ranks. Once they do catch up however, their sheer numbers overwhelm your units. This is the wrong occasion to save your arrow bombs. You and your brave soldiers all fight to their deaths. THE END<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You immediately turn back towards your capital. You cannot afford to lose your only base of power and its infrastructures. If Lurdu's army gains control of the fortress he would own a large tactical advantage in battle. The Mongolians were not making any preparations based on your spies' report and you doubt they ever will. Your army reaches your capital’s outskirts just as Lurdu’s troops arrive. The sunset's orange glow gives the brown dirt a reddish tint. Small clouds of sand and dust slowly dissipate behind the two armies. Lurdu rides his mount at the back of his formation and looks over your 18 thousand infantry and 5 thousand archers. You see his 10 thousand cavalry on horses and 5 thousand archers. The terrain consists of small raised ridges to your left and right. Your archers crowd onto this raised terrain and receive a slight high ground advantage while your infantry stand in the middle. Lurdu smirks and orders his cavalry to charge at you. They do, and with quite a bit of momentum. Do you: > You hold the cavalry back with infantry while you move your archers inside your fortress, then cover the surviving infantry by shooting at Lurdu's troops from atop your castle Your infantry courageously charge at the oncoming cavalry while you and your archers make a run for the gate a few hundred yards away. The townsfolk are happy to see your army return and open the gate for your troops, but there is no time for pleasantries. Your archers immediately run up the parapets and towers to see your infantry taking heavy losses. Your infantry spot your archers atop the castle and drop their weapons and shields, then make a run for the gate. Meanwhile your arrows rain from the sky over the space your infantry just vacated. In the heat of battle, Lurdu's cavalry is unaware of your archers' bombardment until it is too late. They enter its volley radius and many are riddled with arrows and crumple to the ground. Your archers' vastly higher ground greatly improves their range and turns the tide in the skirmish. With arrows falling all around them, many of Crown Prince Lurdu's troops are unsure of where to go. In the chaos that ensues, one of your arrows shoots Lurdu dead. His forces scatter without their leader and completely dissolve. You emerge from the battle victorious, with 13 thousand infantry and 5 thousand archers remaining. You take some time to regroup and heal your wounded. After you do so, you march back to Mongolia. The dawn had hardly begun when you gaze down at the first tribe. Fifteen gigantic yurts, or tents, flap in the cool breeze. There is no human activity save for a few early risers tending their goats. You waste no time charging into the yurts and raining chaos onto the unsuspecting camp. As predicted, the Mongolians still had no idea you were coming and did not conscript any soldiers. The first settlement surrenders quickly, followed by their neighbors. You slaughter their leaders, force their successors to pay monthly tributes, take a few young women as trophies, and commandeer what supplies your army can carry. Upon your return to your capital, your citizens are delighted to hear your tales of victory. One ardent supporter invents the ballista, a gigantic crossbow that fires spear-sized arrows. These spears deal much greater damage and have far greater range than arrows fired by handheld bows. You are impatient to conquer again. You institute a draft to conscript more soldiers. However, after the last revolt you feel you must now leave enough men behind to guard your capital, so your marching army stays the same size for now. You yearn to capture Governor Toleron's territory, but worry about how you can defeat the much larger enemy force. One day, help comes from an unexpected source. It seems that a group of bandits had robbed a caravan traveling through your kingdom on its way to India and your police was able to arrest them and confiscate the loot. When your police could not locate any surviving owners, they gave you the wares as a gift. It turns out they were carrying gunpowder, an extremely rare and powerful substance. When it is lit on fire, the fine particles explode violently, causing great destruction. The limited amount you have is converted into its most efficient form- arrow bombs. Shards of broken glass, straw, and gunpowder are held together with cement inside a hollowed out miniature watermelon with a wick leading out of it. The bomb is then tied around the base of an arrow. Your archers would light the wick on fire and then shoot the bomb at opposing troops, causing shrapnel explosions and igniting blazes. You do not load your ballista bolts with bombs as multiple bombs strapped onto one bolt would explode right next to each other and waste its considerable blast radii. In addition, the ballista's long reload time makes quick barrages impossible. Furthermore, salvos would be limited by the number of ballista you have at a time whereas with arrows you can fire as many bombs as you have archers. Gunpowder is extremely rare, so chances are you will never get any more of it. On the other hand, since very few other people have ever even heard of gunpowder, its effects may very well seem supernatural to the average enemy soldier. Brimming with confidence from your new secret weapons, you march South toward Governor Toleron’s kingdom. But before you reach one of his cities, you encounter the army of Commander Wan. Wan is a local warlord with ties to President Min and Governor Toleron. Min, Wan, and Toleron are currently enjoying an uneasy peace between them, as bloodshed has decreased in their region for the time being. He has not achieved much else of note. You are not impressed by this lackey, and prepare for battle. Your spies had reported that his army consists solely of 20 thousand infantry, and you see that they are absolutely right once again as a dense cluster of 20 thousand infantry stand in formation to block your way. Wan looks out at your 13 thousand infantry, 5 thousand archers, and the one ballista that your carpenters have finished building. The battlefield is a flat plain with the occasional small tree. Nothing else is notable about the terrain or weather. Do you: > You unleash the arrow bombs while your ballista and archers fire away; keeping your infantry on standby The battle begins with your ballista unloading a few giant bolts. Your men are pretty accurate and wipe out several enemy soldiers. Meanwhile, each archer in your front row loads an arrow bomb and fires on your command. The opening salvo of bombs shocks Wan’s front lines. Shards of glass pierce their armors and no one within a hundred yards of the explosions survive. Wan's army has never seen nor heard of arrow bombs and are too dumbfounded to make sense of what just happened even after several more explosions wipe out hundreds more. The smell of burnt flesh further demoralizes his troops. Sections of Wan’s infantry begin to scatter and run away. By the time you run out of arrow bombs, half of Wan’s 20 thousand soldiers are dead, while most of the rest are wounded or have already fled. Your ballista by now has done severe damage as well. Your infantry rush in to finish the bloodbath and Commander Wan surrenders. “Please allow me to live,” he begs. You smirk. “What use would I have for a bungling commander? Fool!” You take over Commander Wan’s headquarters. You turn it into your new base of operations, while leaving his severed head on the flagpole as a reminder of your power. Your victory is somewhat tempered by your loss of your secret weapon. Still, this victory and recent string of successes have slightly improved your kingdom's morale. You now control a large portion of northern China. A good number of men hear tales of your courage and leadership and volunteer to join your fighting force. In addition, skilled carpenters, mechanics, and artisans offer their services to help you build more war machines. Collecting the best and brightest from nearby towns and cities, your army swells to 40 thousand infantry, 10 thousand archers, and 5 ballistae. When word of your victory against Wan reaches the kingdom of Governor Toleron, he readies his 90 thousand troops for defense. His army greets yours on a forest clearing a few miles outside his capital. You sit in your tent awaiting information from your spies. You tap your toes impatiently and rub your elbows raw on your armrests. Suddenly, your lead spy bats the door flap open and gets down on one knee. “Sir, Toleron has placed his archers in the dense forest facing us. That allows them to fire on our army positioned in the open without themselves being targets for our archers. We have also found out that Toleron has left 15 ballistae in his castle that he did not bring with him. He must have underestimated our resolve.” You step outside your tent and look out over the battlefield. You cannot see his archers, but you see his 70 thousand infantry lined up a hundred yards in front of the forest. Upon closer inspection, their faces are those of panicked idiots. While your soldiers are both intelligent and brave, Toleron's soldiers are shaking in their boots and look like they would flee at any omen of doom. You confer with your colonels to decide on the best tactic. There is a brisk wind at your back and the air is dry. Due to no longer having arrow bombs, your only options are:<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Your infantry courageously charge at the oncoming cavalry while you and your archers make a run for the gate a few hundred yards away. The townsfolk are happy to see your army return and open the gate for your troops, but there is no time for pleasantries. Your archers immediately run up the parapets and towers to see your infantry taking heavy losses. Your infantry spot your archers atop the castle and drop their weapons and shields, then make a run for the gate. Meanwhile your arrows rain from the sky over the space your infantry just vacated. In the heat of battle, Lurdu's cavalry is unaware of your archers' bombardment until it is too late. They enter its volley radius and many are riddled with arrows and crumple to the ground. Your archers' vastly higher ground greatly improves their range and turns the tide in the skirmish. With arrows falling all around them, many of Crown Prince Lurdu's troops are unsure of where to go. In the chaos that ensues, one of your arrows shoots Lurdu dead. His forces scatter without their leader and completely dissolve. You emerge from the battle victorious, with 13 thousand infantry and 5 thousand archers remaining. You take some time to regroup and heal your wounded. After you do so, you march back to Mongolia. The dawn had hardly begun when you gaze down at the first tribe. Fifteen gigantic yurts, or tents, flap in the cool breeze. There is no human activity save for a few early risers tending their goats. You waste no time charging into the yurts and raining chaos onto the unsuspecting camp. As predicted, the Mongolians still had no idea you were coming and did not conscript any soldiers. The first settlement surrenders quickly, followed by their neighbors. You slaughter their leaders, force their successors to pay monthly tributes, take a few young women as trophies, and commandeer what supplies your army can carry. Upon your return to your capital, your citizens are delighted to hear your tales of victory. One ardent supporter invents the ballista, a gigantic crossbow that fires spear-sized arrows. These spears deal much greater damage and have far greater range than arrows fired by handheld bows. You are impatient to conquer again. You institute a draft to conscript more soldiers. However, after the last revolt you feel you must now leave enough men behind to guard your capital, so your marching army stays the same size for now. You yearn to capture Governor Toleron's territory, but worry about how you can defeat the much larger enemy force. One day, help comes from an unexpected source. It seems that a group of bandits had robbed a caravan traveling through your kingdom on its way to India and your police was able to arrest them and confiscate the loot. When your police could not locate any surviving owners, they gave you the wares as a gift. It turns out they were carrying gunpowder, an extremely rare and powerful substance. When it is lit on fire, the fine particles explode violently, causing great destruction. The limited amount you have is converted into its most efficient form- arrow bombs. Shards of broken glass, straw, and gunpowder are held together with cement inside a hollowed out miniature watermelon with a wick leading out of it. The bomb is then tied around the base of an arrow. Your archers would light the wick on fire and then shoot the bomb at opposing troops, causing shrapnel explosions and igniting blazes. You do not load your ballista bolts with bombs as multiple bombs strapped onto one bolt would explode right next to each other and waste its considerable blast radii. In addition, the ballista's long reload time makes quick barrages impossible. Furthermore, salvos would be limited by the number of ballista you have at a time whereas with arrows you can fire as many bombs as you have archers. Gunpowder is extremely rare, so chances are you will never get any more of it. On the other hand, since very few other people have ever even heard of gunpowder, its effects may very well seem supernatural to the average enemy soldier. Brimming with confidence from your new secret weapons, you march South toward Governor Toleron’s kingdom. But before you reach one of his cities, you encounter the army of Commander Wan. Wan is a local warlord with ties to President Min and Governor Toleron. Min, Wan, and Toleron are currently enjoying an uneasy peace between them, as bloodshed has decreased in their region for the time being. He has not achieved much else of note. You are not impressed by this lackey, and prepare for battle. Your spies had reported that his army consists solely of 20 thousand infantry, and you see that they are absolutely right once again as a dense cluster of 20 thousand infantry stand in formation to block your way. Wan looks out at your 13 thousand infantry, 5 thousand archers, and the one ballista that your carpenters have finished building. The battlefield is a flat plain with the occasional small tree. Nothing else is notable about the terrain or weather. Do you: > You separate your infantry into a pincer maneuver and attack the enemy from both sides, while firing away with the ballista and archers; without using arrow bombs You believe you can win this battle without using your arrow bombs. Your secret weapon may prove more useful later on when the odds are more stacked against you. However, this is no time to rely on archers who stand on flat ground. Your infantry dart away to encircle the enemy. Before Commander Wan's troops know what hit them, you are raining arrows, both regular and giant sized, and bearing down on them from two sides. This classical Art of War maneuver works to perfection. Chaos ensues in their formerly organized formation. You create mismatches of 2 or even 3 of your infantry against one of theirs. As the enemy soldiers are pinned closer together, your ballista and archers rain death upon them. It only takes a few hours for the carnage to induce Wan's surrender. You take some losses and your army is down to 10 thousand infantry, 5 thousand archers and one ballista. Nevertheless, you and your soldiers are ecstatic after completely decimating Wan's army while keeping your store of arrow bombs intact. Spirits are high when Commander Wan crawls to you and begs for mercy. “Please allow me to live,” he begs. You smirk. “What use would I have for a commander without any knowledge of formation tactics? Fool!” You take over Commander Wan’s headquarters. You turn it into your new base of operations, while leaving his severed head on the flagpole as a reminder of your power. Your spectacular victory and recent string of successes have greatly improved your kingdom's morale. You now control a large portion of northern China. Many men hear tales of your courage and leadership and volunteer to join your fighting force. In addition, skilled carpenters, mechanics, and artisans offer their services to help you build more war machines. Collecting the best and brightest from nearby towns and cities, your army swells to 50 thousand infantry, 10 thousand archers, 40 thousand mounted cavalry, and 5 ballistae. When word of your victory against Wan reaches the kingdom of Governor Toleron, he readies his 90 thousand troops for defense. His army greets yours on a forest clearing a few miles outside his capital. You sit in your tent awaiting information from your spies. You tap your toes impatiently and rub your elbows raw on your armrests. Suddenly, your lead spy bats the door flap open and gets down on one knee. “Sir, Toleron has placed his archers in the dense forest facing us. That allows them to fire on our army positioned in the open without themselves being targets for our archers. We have also found out that Toleron has left 15 ballistae in his castle that he did not bring with him. He must have underestimated our resolve.” You step outside your tent and look out over the battlefield. You cannot see his archers, but you see his 70 thousand infantry lined up a hundred yards in front of the forest. Upon closer inspection, their faces are those of panicked idiots. While your soldiers are both intelligent and brave, Toleron's soldiers are shaking in their boots and look like they would flee at any omen of doom. You confer with your colonels to decide on the best tactic. Due to now having mounted cavalry as well as arrow bombs, you are able to rule out lesser maneuvers. There is a stiff breeze at your back and the air is dry. Your two best attack options are: > You bombard enemy infantry with long-range strategic ballistae strikes, while all your troops hold their ground until Toleron's archers leave their advantageous position; without using arrow bombs You yet again decline the use of your secret weapon. Instead you try to capitalize on your five ballistae's great range and damage output. You order your ballistae to fire at the enemy. The ballista is an impressive machine, and you watch them wipe out hundreds of enemy infantry before Toleron reacts to being slaughtered. He commands every last one of his 90 thousand men, including his archers, to charge at your army in order to negate your range advantage. This is exactly what you want. Now you engage his army with yours. Your men are noticeably better trained. Your infantry's footwork is quicker and their swordplay stronger than Toleron's. Your archers are far more accurate. Your mounted cavalry are also vastly superior to his infantry in close combat. Your troops annihilate his ranks while you suffer modest losses. Toleron himself tries to escape but is tracked down by a cavalry unit a few hours later. He is thrown in front of you with bound ankles and wrists. “Why should I spare your pathetic life?” you ask a defiant Toleron. “There is no need. Ever since I converted to Buddhism I have seen the way. The pain and suffering of existence are meaningless. In time, your people will agree with me. Killing me will only send me to nirva-” “Enough! Your death will serve me much better than it will serve you, believe me. Off with his head!” When you take over Toleron’s castle you find his 15 ballistae in good condition and add them to your fleet. In addition, winning a battle against a huge enemy while suffering modest losses raises your kingdom's morale a good bit. Another spike in conscription occurs, this time increasing your troops to 500 thousand infantry, 200 thousand archers, and 300 thousand mounted cavalry. Furthermore, your increasing stable of skilled tradesmen have completed construction on several cloud ladders. Cloud ladders, or siege towers, are slow-moving, wheeled, vertically extendable wooden structures. They allow infantry and archers to directly reach the top of castle walls and towers without being bombarded by arrows on the way. Damp cloth is draped over the outside to protect it against burning arrows. Unlike regular arrows, ballista bolts can penetrate the cloud ladder's wooden shell and eventually wreck the entire structure. Cloud ladders also cannot accommodate any cavalry, so your mounted troops would not be able to support your infantry and archers. Your war machines now total 20 ballistae and 10 cloud ladders. One day, as you are preparing for another offensive campaign, you are visited by an emissary. “I am here on a mission of peace from President Min. He has heard tales of your victories and is in awe of your military brilliance. Now that all other remaining warlords in China have allied themselves with the President, your joining us is overdue. He asks that you keep your troops within the boundaries of your newly acquired territories in north, south, and east China in exchange for him keeping all the other warlords from invading your territory. You are still free to attack anyone you want outside of China. What reply shall I bring back to President Min?” “Ahahahaha!” You have not had such a good laugh in a long time. “Don’t worry,” you say, “I’ll take care of that for you.” You grin as your men drag the diplomat away to be executed and his head put in a box and sent back to Min. By now you hold three quarters of China. But the last opposition is the strongest. Min has convinced his allies to all resist you as one. Their most defensible position is Min's capital, where 1.5 million soldiers await you in battle. You march your army to Min’s last bastion. A giant castle stands in the distance. In front of it are thousands of tents nestled close together, where the one million infantry of Min’s allies are camped. Perched on the castle walls are Min's 200 thousand infantry and 300 thousand archers. Ten ballistae sit atop his towers, pointed in your direction. Due to their elevation, Min's ballistae possess much greater range than yours. The battlefield terrain is a low plain with no trees, and a brisk wind blows from behind your back. You realize that you still have your arrow bombs. If this occasion isn’t worth using them for then they will never see combat. The terrain and weather provide perfect conditions for your arrow bombs to burn the tents and cause maximum damage. On your command, each archer in your front row fires an arrow bomb at the tents. Min’s allies see what you are doing and hastily prepare to attack. But before they can take even one step, loud explosions shake their camp. The blasts and piercing glass shrapnel directly kill many of Min's allies. The explosions also start fires in the grass. Many soldiers are trapped between the castle walls and the fires fanned toward them by the wind. Min refuses to open his castle's gates as its occupation is already completely full. Some men die of smoke inhalation. Others’ deaths are fiery and painful as the fire jumps from tent to tent. The survivors abandon Min and run for their lives. You have wiped out the entire camp without a single casualty. After the fires burn out, you walk past the charred ruins and closer to Min’s towering castle, careful to remain just out of the range of Min's ballistae. You still have 500 thousand infantry, 200 thousand archers, and 300 thousand cavalry, as well as 20 ballistae and 10 cloud ladders. Min still has 200 thousand infantry, 300 thousand archers and 10 ballistae guarding his fortress. How will you assault the castle? Thanks to your waiting until now to deploy your arrow bombs, you have three decent options. You know that as your ballistae move close enough to fire on the castle, they would also likely be fired on during the assault as well and eventually all destroyed by Min's longer ranged ballistae. > You fire your ballistae at their giant wooden gate and destroy it; once the gate is breached, charge in with your troops, braving their inevitable ballistae barrage in the meantime, to storm the castle and capture the keep You order your ballistae forward. You beam with pride as your ballistae operators bravely push them onward in the face of enemy ballistae fire. A few of them are destroyed before they are in range, but most of them reach their destination. You watch intently as your ballistae shower Min’s castle gate with bolts. Eventually the giant gate becomes so covered with shafts you can barely see any wood. Several minutes later, as the last of your ballistae is destroyed, you see the gate crack, then wobble, and finally collapse. It is time. One million of your bravest warriors charge toward the castle opening. You see Min’s soldiers hurriedly rush toward the gap to protect the keep. As you expected, Min's ballistae rain death upon your troops as they advance toward the castle. Many do not survive. But enough do that you still possess a modest advantage in numbers when the apocalyptic clash begins. The chaos of metal clanging, primal shouting, hooves galloping, and millions of intense combatants sort themselves out in the scene before you. Blood and dead bodies slowly fill up the battlefield. You get chills, almost in glee, watching all the carnage. But who will triumph and etch their name in the history books? Your modest edge in numbers very slowly wears down Min’s ranks. Min's troops have the extra motivation of defending their homeland. Your forces have the advantages of being more bloodthirsty and experienced in combat. Little by little, your army overwhelms the defenders and push them deeper into the castle. At times they are pushed back, but then surge forward again past their fallen comrades. Closer and closer to the keep you get, until Min’s flag drops from its pole and is replaced with your bloody banner. Carefully, you step into the keep after surveying the battle scene. No one wearing Min’s uniform is still standing. The throne room is extravagant, but empty. You sprint up the steps and leap onto the ornate gold throne. Min is brought before you with his hands tied behind his back. “I surrender, great conqueror. Please spare my life. I will serve you, and, and never betray you! I can help you rule, and I know this area well having lived here my whole life. I would be forever grateful to you. Please spare me!” To avenge your fallen soldiers who helped you unite all of China, you execute President Min despite his plead. But China is only the beginning. From where the sun rises to where it sets are lands ripe for the taking. You declare yourself emperor and begin a new dynasty. You go on to become the greatest conqueror China has ever known. Thanks to your military skills, YOU WIN.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You yet again decline the use of your secret weapon. Instead you try to capitalize on your five ballistae's great range and damage output. You order your ballistae to fire at the enemy. The ballista is an impressive machine, and you watch them wipe out hundreds of enemy infantry before Toleron reacts to being slaughtered. He commands every last one of his 90 thousand men, including his archers, to charge at your army in order to negate your range advantage. This is exactly what you want. Now you engage his army with yours. Your men are noticeably better trained. Your infantry's footwork is quicker and their swordplay stronger than Toleron's. Your archers are far more accurate. Your mounted cavalry are also vastly superior to his infantry in close combat. Your troops annihilate his ranks while you suffer modest losses. Toleron himself tries to escape but is tracked down by a cavalry unit a few hours later. He is thrown in front of you with bound ankles and wrists. “Why should I spare your pathetic life?” you ask a defiant Toleron. “There is no need. Ever since I converted to Buddhism I have seen the way. The pain and suffering of existence are meaningless. In time, your people will agree with me. Killing me will only send me to nirva-” “Enough! Your death will serve me much better than it will serve you, believe me. Off with his head!” When you take over Toleron’s castle you find his 15 ballistae in good condition and add them to your fleet. In addition, winning a battle against a huge enemy while suffering modest losses raises your kingdom's morale a good bit. Another spike in conscription occurs, this time increasing your troops to 500 thousand infantry, 200 thousand archers, and 300 thousand mounted cavalry. Furthermore, your increasing stable of skilled tradesmen have completed construction on several cloud ladders. Cloud ladders, or siege towers, are slow-moving, wheeled, vertically extendable wooden structures. They allow infantry and archers to directly reach the top of castle walls and towers without being bombarded by arrows on the way. Damp cloth is draped over the outside to protect it against burning arrows. Unlike regular arrows, ballista bolts can penetrate the cloud ladder's wooden shell and eventually wreck the entire structure. Cloud ladders also cannot accommodate any cavalry, so your mounted troops would not be able to support your infantry and archers. Your war machines now total 20 ballistae and 10 cloud ladders. One day, as you are preparing for another offensive campaign, you are visited by an emissary. “I am here on a mission of peace from President Min. He has heard tales of your victories and is in awe of your military brilliance. Now that all other remaining warlords in China have allied themselves with the President, your joining us is overdue. He asks that you keep your troops within the boundaries of your newly acquired territories in north, south, and east China in exchange for him keeping all the other warlords from invading your territory. You are still free to attack anyone you want outside of China. What reply shall I bring back to President Min?” “Ahahahaha!” You have not had such a good laugh in a long time. “Don’t worry,” you say, “I’ll take care of that for you.” You grin as your men drag the diplomat away to be executed and his head put in a box and sent back to Min. By now you hold three quarters of China. But the last opposition is the strongest. Min has convinced his allies to all resist you as one. Their most defensible position is Min's capital, where 1.5 million soldiers await you in battle. You march your army to Min’s last bastion. A giant castle stands in the distance. In front of it are thousands of tents nestled close together, where the one million infantry of Min’s allies are camped. Perched on the castle walls are Min's 200 thousand infantry and 300 thousand archers. Ten ballistae sit atop his towers, pointed in your direction. Due to their elevation, Min's ballistae possess much greater range than yours. The battlefield terrain is a low plain with no trees, and a brisk wind blows from behind your back. You realize that you still have your arrow bombs. If this occasion isn’t worth using them for then they will never see combat. The terrain and weather provide perfect conditions for your arrow bombs to burn the tents and cause maximum damage. On your command, each archer in your front row fires an arrow bomb at the tents. Min’s allies see what you are doing and hastily prepare to attack. But before they can take even one step, loud explosions shake their camp. The blasts and piercing glass shrapnel directly kill many of Min's allies. The explosions also start fires in the grass. Many soldiers are trapped between the castle walls and the fires fanned toward them by the wind. Min refuses to open his castle's gates as its occupation is already completely full. Some men die of smoke inhalation. Others’ deaths are fiery and painful as the fire jumps from tent to tent. The survivors abandon Min and run for their lives. You have wiped out the entire camp without a single casualty. After the fires burn out, you walk past the charred ruins and closer to Min’s towering castle, careful to remain just out of the range of Min's ballistae. You still have 500 thousand infantry, 200 thousand archers, and 300 thousand cavalry, as well as 20 ballistae and 10 cloud ladders. Min still has 200 thousand infantry, 300 thousand archers and 10 ballistae guarding his fortress. How will you assault the castle? Thanks to your waiting until now to deploy your arrow bombs, you have three decent options. You know that as your ballistae move close enough to fire on the castle, they would also likely be fired on during the assault as well and eventually all destroyed by Min's longer ranged ballistae. > You fire your ballistae at and destroy Min's own ballistae installations; once his ballistae are eliminated, advance your cloud ladders, carrying a mix of infantry and archers, to storm the walls and capture the keep You decide to not expose your troops to inevitable heavy casualties from ballistae fire. You order your ballistae forward. They move into range to destroy the installations. A battle of the ballistae ensues as bolts furiously fly back and forth. Ballistae on both sides slowly wreck and break down. Your 20 to 10 advantage is offset by their greater range and accuracy. When the giant bolts cease flying, neither side has a single ballistae intact. This is the result you were looking for. Now you finally get the chance to use your cloud ladders. They slowly approach the walls, with your infantry and archers forming long lines behind them. Your 500 thousand cavalry can only wait outside the castle, anxious to enter the fray. You watch as your foot soldiers crawl out of their cloud ladders and attempt to assail the walls. The enemy is well positioned, sniping the exit points of your cloud ladders and maximizing the effectiveness of their 300 thousand archers. Almost none of your troops make it onto the walls alive, and those few who do are quickly cut down by the 200 thousand infantry supporting the archers. There are simply too many enemy archers for your cloud ladders to safely deploy your troops. You rue your decision of not attacking the gate with your ballistae, but now it is too late as they have been destroyed. The defenders slaughter each wave of your soldiers, who reach the top of their cloud ladder only to be outnumbered and outmaneuvered like the wave before them. Soon you see your 700 thousand foot soldiers dwindle to only a few thousand. Your cavalry can only watch as their comrades are cut down hundreds of feet above them. You feel abject failure. Your cavalry cannot enter the castle nor attack anyone, and Min is certainly not going to open his doors, so you have no choice but to tell your troops to turn back. However, your colonels have had enough of your idiocy and decide it is time for a new leader. You can't blame them; after all you did just blow a great chance at victory. Your colonels execute you on the spot. Soon they start bickering amongst themselves about how to divide power and none achieves the dream you once had of uniting China. THE END<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You yet again decline the use of your secret weapon. Instead you try to capitalize on your five ballistae's great range and damage output. You order your ballistae to fire at the enemy. The ballista is an impressive machine, and you watch them wipe out hundreds of enemy infantry before Toleron reacts to being slaughtered. He commands every last one of his 90 thousand men, including his archers, to charge at your army in order to negate your range advantage. This is exactly what you want. Now you engage his army with yours. Your men are noticeably better trained. Your infantry's footwork is quicker and their swordplay stronger than Toleron's. Your archers are far more accurate. Your mounted cavalry are also vastly superior to his infantry in close combat. Your troops annihilate his ranks while you suffer modest losses. Toleron himself tries to escape but is tracked down by a cavalry unit a few hours later. He is thrown in front of you with bound ankles and wrists. “Why should I spare your pathetic life?” you ask a defiant Toleron. “There is no need. Ever since I converted to Buddhism I have seen the way. The pain and suffering of existence are meaningless. In time, your people will agree with me. Killing me will only send me to nirva-” “Enough! Your death will serve me much better than it will serve you, believe me. Off with his head!” When you take over Toleron’s castle you find his 15 ballistae in good condition and add them to your fleet. In addition, winning a battle against a huge enemy while suffering modest losses raises your kingdom's morale a good bit. Another spike in conscription occurs, this time increasing your troops to 500 thousand infantry, 200 thousand archers, and 300 thousand mounted cavalry. Furthermore, your increasing stable of skilled tradesmen have completed construction on several cloud ladders. Cloud ladders, or siege towers, are slow-moving, wheeled, vertically extendable wooden structures. They allow infantry and archers to directly reach the top of castle walls and towers without being bombarded by arrows on the way. Damp cloth is draped over the outside to protect it against burning arrows. Unlike regular arrows, ballista bolts can penetrate the cloud ladder's wooden shell and eventually wreck the entire structure. Cloud ladders also cannot accommodate any cavalry, so your mounted troops would not be able to support your infantry and archers. Your war machines now total 20 ballistae and 10 cloud ladders. One day, as you are preparing for another offensive campaign, you are visited by an emissary. “I am here on a mission of peace from President Min. He has heard tales of your victories and is in awe of your military brilliance. Now that all other remaining warlords in China have allied themselves with the President, your joining us is overdue. He asks that you keep your troops within the boundaries of your newly acquired territories in north, south, and east China in exchange for him keeping all the other warlords from invading your territory. You are still free to attack anyone you want outside of China. What reply shall I bring back to President Min?” “Ahahahaha!” You have not had such a good laugh in a long time. “Don’t worry,” you say, “I’ll take care of that for you.” You grin as your men drag the diplomat away to be executed and his head put in a box and sent back to Min. By now you hold three quarters of China. But the last opposition is the strongest. Min has convinced his allies to all resist you as one. Their most defensible position is Min's capital, where 1.5 million soldiers await you in battle. You march your army to Min’s last bastion. A giant castle stands in the distance. In front of it are thousands of tents nestled close together, where the one million infantry of Min’s allies are camped. Perched on the castle walls are Min's 200 thousand infantry and 300 thousand archers. Ten ballistae sit atop his towers, pointed in your direction. Due to their elevation, Min's ballistae possess much greater range than yours. The battlefield terrain is a low plain with no trees, and a brisk wind blows from behind your back. You realize that you still have your arrow bombs. If this occasion isn’t worth using them for then they will never see combat. The terrain and weather provide perfect conditions for your arrow bombs to burn the tents and cause maximum damage. On your command, each archer in your front row fires an arrow bomb at the tents. Min’s allies see what you are doing and hastily prepare to attack. But before they can take even one step, loud explosions shake their camp. The blasts and piercing glass shrapnel directly kill many of Min's allies. The explosions also start fires in the grass. Many soldiers are trapped between the castle walls and the fires fanned toward them by the wind. Min refuses to open his castle's gates as its occupation is already completely full. Some men die of smoke inhalation. Others’ deaths are fiery and painful as the fire jumps from tent to tent. The survivors abandon Min and run for their lives. You have wiped out the entire camp without a single casualty. After the fires burn out, you walk past the charred ruins and closer to Min’s towering castle, careful to remain just out of the range of Min's ballistae. You still have 500 thousand infantry, 200 thousand archers, and 300 thousand cavalry, as well as 20 ballistae and 10 cloud ladders. Min still has 200 thousand infantry, 300 thousand archers and 10 ballistae guarding his fortress. How will you assault the castle? Thanks to your waiting until now to deploy your arrow bombs, you have three decent options. You know that as your ballistae move close enough to fire on the castle, they would also likely be fired on during the assault as well and eventually all destroyed by Min's longer ranged ballistae. > You fire your ballistae at and destroy Min's own ballistae installations; once his ballistae are eliminated, advance your cloud ladders, carrying solely infantry (and then archers only if necessary) to storm the walls and capture the keep You decide to not expose your troops to inevitable heavy casualties from ballistae fire. You order your ballistae forward. They move into range to destroy the installations. A battle of the ballistae ensues as bolts furiously fly back and forth. Ballistae on both sides slowly wreck and break down. Your 20 to 10 advantage is offset by their greater range and accuracy. When the giant bolts cease flying, neither side has a single ballistae intact. This is the result you were looking for. Now you finally get the chance to use your cloud ladders. They slowly approach the walls, with your infantry forming long lines behind them. Your 500 thousand cavalry and 200 thousand archers can only wait outside the castle, anxious to enter the fray. You watch as your foot soldiers crawl out of their cloud ladders and attempt to assail the walls. The enemy is well positioned, sniping the exit points of your cloud ladders and maximizing the effectiveness of their 300 thousand archers. Almost none of your troops make it onto the walls alive, and those few who do are quickly cut down by the 200 thousand infantry supporting the archers. There are simply too many enemy archers for your cloud ladders to safely deploy your troops. You rue your decision of not attacking the gate with your ballistae, but now it is too late as they have been destroyed. The defenders slaughter each wave of your soldiers, who reach the top of their cloud ladder only to be outnumbered and outmaneuvered like the wave before them. In desperation, you send all your archers up the cloud ladders as well. They are even worse at close quarter combat than your infantry were and are decimated too. Soon you see your 700 thousand foot soldiers dwindle to only a few thousand. Your cavalry can only watch as their comrades are cut down hundreds of feet above them. You feel abject failure. Your cavalry cannot enter the castle nor attack anyone, and Min is certainly not going to open his doors, so you have no choice but to tell your troops to turn back. However, your colonels have had enough of your idiocy and decide it is time for a new leader. You can't blame them; after all you did just blow a great chance at victory. Your colonels execute you on the spot. Soon they start bickering amongst themselves about how to divide power and none achieves the dream you once had of uniting China. THE END<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You believe you can win this battle without using your arrow bombs. Your secret weapon may prove more useful later on when the odds are more stacked against you. However, this is no time to rely on archers who stand on flat ground. Your infantry dart away to encircle the enemy. Before Commander Wan's troops know what hit them, you are raining arrows, both regular and giant sized, and bearing down on them from two sides. This classical Art of War maneuver works to perfection. Chaos ensues in their formerly organized formation. You create mismatches of 2 or even 3 of your infantry against one of theirs. As the enemy soldiers are pinned closer together, your ballista and archers rain death upon them. It only takes a few hours for the carnage to induce Wan's surrender. You take some losses and your army is down to 10 thousand infantry, 5 thousand archers and one ballista. Nevertheless, you and your soldiers are ecstatic after completely decimating Wan's army while keeping your store of arrow bombs intact. Spirits are high when Commander Wan crawls to you and begs for mercy. “Please allow me to live,” he begs. You smirk. “What use would I have for a commander without any knowledge of formation tactics? Fool!” You take over Commander Wan’s headquarters. You turn it into your new base of operations, while leaving his severed head on the flagpole as a reminder of your power. Your spectacular victory and recent string of successes have greatly improved your kingdom's morale. You now control a large portion of northern China. Many men hear tales of your courage and leadership and volunteer to join your fighting force. In addition, skilled carpenters, mechanics, and artisans offer their services to help you build more war machines. Collecting the best and brightest from nearby towns and cities, your army swells to 50 thousand infantry, 10 thousand archers, 40 thousand mounted cavalry, and 5 ballistae. When word of your victory against Wan reaches the kingdom of Governor Toleron, he readies his 90 thousand troops for defense. His army greets yours on a forest clearing a few miles outside his capital. You sit in your tent awaiting information from your spies. You tap your toes impatiently and rub your elbows raw on your armrests. Suddenly, your lead spy bats the door flap open and gets down on one knee. “Sir, Toleron has placed his archers in the dense forest facing us. That allows them to fire on our army positioned in the open without themselves being targets for our archers. We have also found out that Toleron has left 15 ballistae in his castle that he did not bring with him. He must have underestimated our resolve.” You step outside your tent and look out over the battlefield. You cannot see his archers, but you see his 70 thousand infantry lined up a hundred yards in front of the forest. Upon closer inspection, their faces are those of panicked idiots. While your soldiers are both intelligent and brave, Toleron's soldiers are shaking in their boots and look like they would flee at any omen of doom. You confer with your colonels to decide on the best tactic. Due to now having mounted cavalry as well as arrow bombs, you are able to rule out lesser maneuvers. There is a stiff breeze at your back and the air is dry. Your two best attack options are: > You fire your arrow bombs into the forest to take advantage of the weather conditions, using the trees as tinder to smoke the archers out of their cover; then see what happens You order your archers to march forward and shoot your arrow bombs into the forest. Once they enter firing range, your archers are pelted by Toleron's arrows. This resistance merely delays your barrage however; all the arrow bombs eventually reach their target. One explosion after another rocks the battlefield. The dry weather makes the trees extra flammable, and the stiff breeze fans the flames. Enemy archers who are not directly killed in the explosions are roasted in its blaze. The front columns of Toleron's infantry hear the scary explosions behind them and turn around. They watch the trees burst into flames and their comrades die bloody deaths. They hesitate for a second before throwing down their shields and weapons and running away. The rest of Toleron's army pauses, then does likewise retreat. How do you respond? > You send your mounted cavalry to chase down the retreating enemy and kill them You cannot let Toleron get away and regroup. When he gets his hands on his 15 ballistae it will be much tougher to defeat him. You order your 40 thousand mounted cavalry to charge after the 70 or so thousand retreating footmen. They gallop over the dry plains and soon catch up to the enemy. Infantry, even ones running for their lives, cannot outrun thoroughbreds. Panicked soldiers cannot keep from tripping over themselves, let alone defend against your charging cavalry's spears. A massacre ensues. One of your alert officers spots Toleron himself and captures him alive. He is thrown in front of you with bound ankles and wrists. “Why should I spare your pathetic life?” you ask a defiant Toleron. “There is no need. Ever since I converted to Buddhism I have seen the way. The pain and suffering of existence are meaningless. In time, your people will agree with me. Killing me will only send me to nirva-” “Enough! Your death will serve me much better than it will serve you, believe me. Off with his head!” When you take over Toleron’s castle you find his 15 ballistae in good condition and add them to your fleet. In addition, winning a battle against a huge enemy while suffering negligible losses astronomically raises your kingdom's morale. Another huge spike in conscription occurs, this time increasing your troops to 500 thousand infantry, 500 thousand archers, and one million mounted cavalry. Furthermore, your increasing stable of skilled tradesmen have completed construction on several cloud ladders. Cloud ladders, or siege towers, are slow-moving, wheeled, vertically extendable wooden structures. They allow infantry and archers to directly reach the top of castle walls and towers without being bombarded by arrows on the way. Damp cloth is draped over the outside to protect it against burning arrows. Unlike regular arrows, ballista bolts can penetrate the cloud ladder's wooden shell and eventually wreck the entire structure. Cloud ladders also cannot accommodate any cavalry, so your mounted troops would not be able to support your infantry and archers. Your war machines now total 20 ballistae and 10 cloud ladders. One day, as you are preparing for another offensive campaign, you are visited by an emissary. “I am here on a mission of peace from President Min. He has heard tales of your victories and is in awe of your military brilliance. Now that all other remaining warlords in China have allied themselves with the President, your joining us is overdue. He asks that you keep your troops within the boundaries of your newly acquired territories in north, south, and east China in exchange for him keeping all the other warlords from invading your territory. You are still free to attack anyone you want outside of China. What reply shall I bring back to President Min?” “Ahahahaha!” You have not had such a good laugh in a long time. “Don’t worry,” you say, “I’ll take care of that for you.” You grin as your men drag the diplomat away to be executed and his head put in a box and sent back to Min. By now you hold three quarters of China. But the last opposition is the strongest. Min has convinced his allies to all resist you as one. Their most defensible position is Min's capital, where 1.5 million soldiers await you in battle. You march your army to Min’s last bastion. A giant castle stands in the distance. In front of it are thousands of tents nestled close together, where the one million infantry of Min’s allies are camped. Perched on the castle walls are Min's 200 thousand infantry and 300 thousand archers. Ten ballistae sit atop his towers, pointed in your direction. Due to their elevation, Min's ballistae possess much greater range than yours. The battlefield terrain is a low plain with no trees, and a brisk wind blows from behind your back. Your legions stand tall facing the enemy. Your day of glory has finally come. Before the moment sinks in however, Min’s allies suddenly attack you. All one million infantry charge as one at your formation and taking the initiative away from you. You have no option but to fight back. Your one million cavalry are the first to engage the enemy. Soldiers on their front few lines are knocked down by your cavalry's ferocious charge. Your mounted troops quickly slaughter the infantry while taking moderate losses. Soon, all one million infantry are either dead or scattered, while you have lost 500 thousand of your cavalry. Careful to remain just out of the range of Min's ballistae, you walk past the tents and closer to Min’s towering castle. You still have 500 thousand each of infantry, archers, and cavalry, as well as 20 ballistae and 10 cloud ladders. Min still has 200 thousand infantry, 300 thousand archers and 10 ballistae guarding his fortress. How will you assault the castle? Thanks to your exceptional tactical decisions in earlier battles, you now have better options at your disposal. There are two appealing choices, but decide carefully. You know that as your ballistae move close enough to fire on the castle, they would also likely be fired on during the assault as well and eventually all destroyed by Min's longer ranged ballistae. > You fire your ballistae at their giant wooden gate and destroy it; once the gate is breached, charge in with your troops, braving their inevitable ballistae barrage in the meantime, to storm the castle and capture the keep You order your ballistae forward. You beam with pride as your ballistae operators bravely push them onward in the face of enemy ballistae fire. A few of them are destroyed before they are in range, but most of them reach their destination. You watch intently as your ballistae shower Min’s castle gate with bolts. Eventually the giant gate becomes so covered with shafts you can barely see any wood. Several minutes later, as the last of your ballistae is destroyed, you see the gate crack, then wobble, and finally collapse. It is time. One and half million of your bravest warriors charge toward the castle opening. You see Min’s soldiers hurriedly rush toward the gap to protect the keep. As you expected, Min's ballistae rain death upon your troops as they advance toward the castle. Many do not survive. But enough do that you still possess a large advantage in numbers when a clash the magnitude of which you have never seen begins. The chaos of metal clanging, primal shouting, hooves galloping, and millions of intense combatants sort themselves out in the scene before you. Blood and dead bodies slowly fill up the battlefield. You get chills, almost in glee, watching all the carnage. But who will triumph and etch their name in the history books? Your large edge in numbers slowly wears down Min’s ranks. Min's troops have the extra motivation of defending their homeland. Your forces have the advantages of being more bloodthirsty and experienced in combat. Little by little, your army overwhelms the defenders and push them deeper into the castle. Closer and closer to the keep you get, until Min’s flag drops from its pole and is replaced with your bloody banner. Carefully, you step into the keep after surveying the battle scene. No one wearing Min’s uniform is still standing. The throne room is extravagant, but empty. You sprint up the steps and leap onto the ornate gold throne. Min is brought before you with his hands tied behind his back. “I surrender, great conqueror. Please spare my life. I will serve you, and, and never betray you! I can help you rule, and I know this area well having lived here my whole life. I would be forever grateful to you. Please spare me!” In a rare moment of mercy, you decide to imprison President Min. Something about his meek pleading touches you. You don't really trust him however, so he spends the rest of his life in jail, alone. You have now conquered China. But this is only the beginning. From where the sun rises to where it sets are lands ripe for the taking. You declare yourself emperor and begin a new dynasty. You go on to become the greatest conqueror the world has ever known. Thanks to your unsurpassed military skills, YOU WIN.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You cannot let Toleron get away and regroup. When he gets his hands on his 15 ballistae it will be much tougher to defeat him. You order your 40 thousand mounted cavalry to charge after the 70 or so thousand retreating footmen. They gallop over the dry plains and soon catch up to the enemy. Infantry, even ones running for their lives, cannot outrun thoroughbreds. Panicked soldiers cannot keep from tripping over themselves, let alone defend against your charging cavalry's spears. A massacre ensues. One of your alert officers spots Toleron himself and captures him alive. He is thrown in front of you with bound ankles and wrists. “Why should I spare your pathetic life?” you ask a defiant Toleron. “There is no need. Ever since I converted to Buddhism I have seen the way. The pain and suffering of existence are meaningless. In time, your people will agree with me. Killing me will only send me to nirva-” “Enough! Your death will serve me much better than it will serve you, believe me. Off with his head!” When you take over Toleron’s castle you find his 15 ballistae in good condition and add them to your fleet. In addition, winning a battle against a huge enemy while suffering negligible losses astronomically raises your kingdom's morale. Another huge spike in conscription occurs, this time increasing your troops to 500 thousand infantry, 500 thousand archers, and one million mounted cavalry. Furthermore, your increasing stable of skilled tradesmen have completed construction on several cloud ladders. Cloud ladders, or siege towers, are slow-moving, wheeled, vertically extendable wooden structures. They allow infantry and archers to directly reach the top of castle walls and towers without being bombarded by arrows on the way. Damp cloth is draped over the outside to protect it against burning arrows. Unlike regular arrows, ballista bolts can penetrate the cloud ladder's wooden shell and eventually wreck the entire structure. Cloud ladders also cannot accommodate any cavalry, so your mounted troops would not be able to support your infantry and archers. Your war machines now total 20 ballistae and 10 cloud ladders. One day, as you are preparing for another offensive campaign, you are visited by an emissary. “I am here on a mission of peace from President Min. He has heard tales of your victories and is in awe of your military brilliance. Now that all other remaining warlords in China have allied themselves with the President, your joining us is overdue. He asks that you keep your troops within the boundaries of your newly acquired territories in north, south, and east China in exchange for him keeping all the other warlords from invading your territory. You are still free to attack anyone you want outside of China. What reply shall I bring back to President Min?” “Ahahahaha!” You have not had such a good laugh in a long time. “Don’t worry,” you say, “I’ll take care of that for you.” You grin as your men drag the diplomat away to be executed and his head put in a box and sent back to Min. By now you hold three quarters of China. But the last opposition is the strongest. Min has convinced his allies to all resist you as one. Their most defensible position is Min's capital, where 1.5 million soldiers await you in battle. You march your army to Min’s last bastion. A giant castle stands in the distance. In front of it are thousands of tents nestled close together, where the one million infantry of Min’s allies are camped. Perched on the castle walls are Min's 200 thousand infantry and 300 thousand archers. Ten ballistae sit atop his towers, pointed in your direction. Due to their elevation, Min's ballistae possess much greater range than yours. The battlefield terrain is a low plain with no trees, and a brisk wind blows from behind your back. Your legions stand tall facing the enemy. Your day of glory has finally come. Before the moment sinks in however, Min’s allies suddenly attack you. All one million infantry charge as one at your formation and taking the initiative away from you. You have no option but to fight back. Your one million cavalry are the first to engage the enemy. Soldiers on their front few lines are knocked down by your cavalry's ferocious charge. Your mounted troops quickly slaughter the infantry while taking moderate losses. Soon, all one million infantry are either dead or scattered, while you have lost 500 thousand of your cavalry. Careful to remain just out of the range of Min's ballistae, you walk past the tents and closer to Min’s towering castle. You still have 500 thousand each of infantry, archers, and cavalry, as well as 20 ballistae and 10 cloud ladders. Min still has 200 thousand infantry, 300 thousand archers and 10 ballistae guarding his fortress. How will you assault the castle? Thanks to your exceptional tactical decisions in earlier battles, you now have better options at your disposal. There are two appealing choices, but decide carefully. You know that as your ballistae move close enough to fire on the castle, they would also likely be fired on during the assault as well and eventually all destroyed by Min's longer ranged ballistae. > You fire your ballistae at and destroy Min's own ballistae installations; once his ballistae are eliminated, advance your cloud ladders, carrying a mix of infantry and archers, to storm the walls and capture the keep You decide to not expose your troops to inevitable heavy casualties from ballistae fire. You order your ballistae forward. They move into range to destroy the installations. A battle of the ballistae ensues as bolts furiously fly back and forth. Ballistae on both sides slowly wreck and break down. Your 20 to 10 advantage is offset by their greater range and accuracy. When the giant bolts cease flying, neither side has a single ballistae still intact. This is the result you were looking for. Now you finally get the chance to use your cloud ladders. They slowly approach the walls, with your infantry and archers forming long lines behind them. Your 500 thousand cavalry can only wait outside the castle, anxious to enter the fray. You watch as your foot soldiers crawl out of their cloud ladders and attempt to assail the walls. The enemy is well positioned, sniping the exit points of your cloud ladders and maximizing the effectiveness of their 300 thousand archers. Almost none of your troops make it onto the walls alive, and those few who do are quickly cut down by the 200 thousand infantry supporting the archers. There are simply too many enemy archers for your cloud ladders to safely deploy your troops. You rue your decision of not attacking the gate with your ballistae, but now it is too late as they have been destroyed. The defenders slaughter each wave of your soldiers, who reach the top of their cloud ladder only to be outnumbered and outmaneuvered like the wave before them. Soon you see your one million foot soldiers dwindle to only a few hundred thousand. Your cavalry can only watch as their comrades are cut down hundreds of feet above them. You feel abject failure. Your cavalry cannot enter the castle nor attack anyone, and Min is certainly not going to open his doors, so you have no choice but to tell your troops to turn back. However, your colonels have had enough of your idiocy and decide it is time for a new leader. You can't blame them; after all you did just blow a great chance at victory. Your colonels execute you on the spot. Soon they start bickering amongst themselves about how to divide power and none achieves the dream you once had of uniting China. THE END<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You order your archers to march forward and shoot your arrow bombs into the forest. Once they enter firing range, your archers are pelted by Toleron's arrows. This resistance merely delays your barrage however; all the arrow bombs eventually reach their target. One explosion after another rocks the battlefield. The dry weather makes the trees extra flammable, and the stiff breeze fans the flames. Enemy archers who are not directly killed in the explosions are roasted in its blaze. The front columns of Toleron's infantry hear the scary explosions behind them and turn around. They watch the trees burst into flames and their comrades die bloody deaths. They hesitate for a second before throwing down their shields and weapons and running away. The rest of Toleron's army pauses, then does likewise retreat. How do you respond? > You order your troops to stand their ground, take this victory and fight another day You order your troops to stand down in case your enemy’s retreat is strategic and leads to a trap. You allow Toleron’s troops to run away. Although your arrow bombs are gone, you still have 50 thousand infantry, 5 thousand archers, 40 thousand cavalry, and 5 ballistae. You march back to your base camp to heal your wounds and pick up reinforcements and supplies before going deeper into Toleron territory. One week passes. Your soldiers are back to full health. You receive five thousand archers recruited from nearby villages as reinforcement. You launch another assault at Toleron. This battle sets up much like last time, except now his 70 thousand infantry are unaccompanied by archers. However, they did not come alone. Behind his infantry you make out several wooden vehicles. Ballistae. 15 of them. Toleron must have returned to his castle after your first battle and retrieved his ballistae. You allowed him to regroup and come back with reinforcements. Your five ballistae stand no chance against his fifteen. Toleron's ballistae roll toward your army and send a storm of bolts flying toward your ballistae. You watch in horror as Toleron's ballistae wreck yours and you are forced to charge at them with your army. By the time your troops make their way across the battlefield, Toleron’s battery of ballistae has decimated your ranks. His 70 thousand infantry now outnumber your troops. This time, with their morale greatly improved, Toleron's forces prevail. Your campaign to conquer the world ends here. You are captured and what you often do to your enemies is done to you, as your head ends up on Toleron’s flagpole as a warning to anyone who would attack him. THE END<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Your infantry courageously charge at the oncoming cavalry while you and your archers make a run for the gate a few hundred yards away. The townsfolk are happy to see your army return and open the gate for your troops, but there is no time for pleasantries. Your archers immediately run up the parapets and towers to see your infantry taking heavy losses. Your infantry spot your archers atop the castle and drop their weapons and shields, then make a run for the gate. Meanwhile your arrows rain from the sky over the space your infantry just vacated. In the heat of battle, Lurdu's cavalry is unaware of your archers' bombardment until it is too late. They enter its volley radius and many are riddled with arrows and crumple to the ground. Your archers' vastly higher ground greatly improves their range and turns the tide in the skirmish. With arrows falling all around them, many of Crown Prince Lurdu's troops are unsure of where to go. In the chaos that ensues, one of your arrows shoots Lurdu dead. His forces scatter without their leader and completely dissolve. You emerge from the battle victorious, with 13 thousand infantry and 5 thousand archers remaining. You take some time to regroup and heal your wounded. After you do so, you march back to Mongolia. The dawn had hardly begun when you gaze down at the first tribe. Fifteen gigantic yurts, or tents, flap in the cool breeze. There is no human activity save for a few early risers tending their goats. You waste no time charging into the yurts and raining chaos onto the unsuspecting camp. As predicted, the Mongolians still had no idea you were coming and did not conscript any soldiers. The first settlement surrenders quickly, followed by their neighbors. You slaughter their leaders, force their successors to pay monthly tributes, take a few young women as trophies, and commandeer what supplies your army can carry. Upon your return to your capital, your citizens are delighted to hear your tales of victory. One ardent supporter invents the ballista, a gigantic crossbow that fires spear-sized arrows. These spears deal much greater damage and have far greater range than arrows fired by handheld bows. You are impatient to conquer again. You institute a draft to conscript more soldiers. However, after the last revolt you feel you must now leave enough men behind to guard your capital, so your marching army stays the same size for now. You yearn to capture Governor Toleron's territory, but worry about how you can defeat the much larger enemy force. One day, help comes from an unexpected source. It seems that a group of bandits had robbed a caravan traveling through your kingdom on its way to India and your police was able to arrest them and confiscate the loot. When your police could not locate any surviving owners, they gave you the wares as a gift. It turns out they were carrying gunpowder, an extremely rare and powerful substance. When it is lit on fire, the fine particles explode violently, causing great destruction. The limited amount you have is converted into its most efficient form- arrow bombs. Shards of broken glass, straw, and gunpowder are held together with cement inside a hollowed out miniature watermelon with a wick leading out of it. The bomb is then tied around the base of an arrow. Your archers would light the wick on fire and then shoot the bomb at opposing troops, causing shrapnel explosions and igniting blazes. You do not load your ballista bolts with bombs as multiple bombs strapped onto one bolt would explode right next to each other and waste its considerable blast radii. In addition, the ballista's long reload time makes quick barrages impossible. Furthermore, salvos would be limited by the number of ballista you have at a time whereas with arrows you can fire as many bombs as you have archers. Gunpowder is extremely rare, so chances are you will never get any more of it. On the other hand, since very few other people have ever even heard of gunpowder, its effects may very well seem supernatural to the average enemy soldier. Brimming with confidence from your new secret weapons, you march South toward Governor Toleron’s kingdom. But before you reach one of his cities, you encounter the army of Commander Wan. Wan is a local warlord with ties to President Min and Governor Toleron. Min, Wan, and Toleron are currently enjoying an uneasy peace between them, as bloodshed has decreased in their region for the time being. He has not achieved much else of note. You are not impressed by this lackey, and prepare for battle. Your spies had reported that his army consists solely of 20 thousand infantry, and you see that they are absolutely right once again as a dense cluster of 20 thousand infantry stand in formation to block your way. Wan looks out at your 13 thousand infantry, 5 thousand archers, and the one ballista that your carpenters have finished building. The battlefield is a flat plain with the occasional small tree. Nothing else is notable about the terrain or weather. Do you: > You blast away at the enemy with your ballista and archers while maintaining maximum distance; keeping your infantry on standby; without using arrow bombs You believe you can win this battle without using your arrow bombs. Your secret weapon may prove more useful later on when the odds are more stacked against you. You order your archers and ballista to fire at the enemy. The ballista is an impressive machine, and you watch it wipe out wave after wave of enemy infantry. It takes their footmen a while to reach your troops; in the meantime your giant ballista repeatedly pummels their ranks. Once they do catch up however, your archers and ballista are far less effective in close combat against Wan's infantry. Your own infantry is forced to engage his. Your ballista and arrows have whittled down Wan's advantage in numbers, so it is a close contest. You watch as thousands of soldiers from both Wan and your army fall in battle. Hours of intense fighting later, it all comes down to a few hundred combatants. In the frantic chaos, you are left to fend for yourself. A small unit of Wan’s soldiers closes in on you. You manage to inflict mortal wounds on three of them before succumbing to a spear in the heart. THE END<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Throngs of shouting supporters energize your army as it leaves for the countryside. Your army stays in high spirits as it marches towards the steppes of Mongolia. Soldiers placate their hunger with white rice and small game, picking the occasional cherry tree lining the road. Your spies report that the Mongolians still have not made preparations against your army. Their permanent state of disorganization means they have no chance of mounting any defenses whatsoever. You thank your diligent spies for the information and continue on your way. Your spies have never let you down. The winding north road becomes a dirt path as it passes through the center of Clearbrook Forest. Suddenly, your second in command slumps over on his horse. You look over your shoulder and see an arrow through his chest. Looking behind you, you see more arrows flying toward your troops. You ascertain that the arrows are coming from the dense forest on both sides of the narrow path your troops are marching on. You cannot see where the enemy is however. Do you: > You command your archers to fire into the trees Your archers scramble to prepare their bows for a volley. In the meantime your men have nowhere to hide from the arrows coming at them. “Ready!" you roar. "Aim into the forest. Fire!” You watch as your archers’ arrows fly left and right. Your new second in command echoes your orders and another volley enters the trees. The situation hardly changes. Your men continue to be under heavy fire and you don’t see any dead bodies in the trees. It is simply impossible to gauge where the enemy is hiding while standing on the road. “Infa-…“ Before you finish giving your new orders one arrow catches you in the neck. You fall off your horse and crumple to the ground. Your last thought is of the tactical mistake you made in firing at a covered enemy. THE END<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|> You command 18 thousand infantry and 5 thousand archers, each drilled and trained to be the best. Although you have no support units or advanced machines, you know that the battle is often not won by the best equipped, but by the most decisive. Your territory contains little infrastructure or arable soil. Although your castle is a majestic fortress providing a big defensive advantage for an occupying army, you decide it is time to set out and do battle. You will bring all 23 thousand soldiers with you. Crown Prince Lurdu, your eldest son, will stay and defend your capital from potential invaders. You have not spent as much time with him as you would have liked and he has grown into an insolent, manipulative, and petty brat. Lurdu's only saving grace is that, like you, he always finishes what he starts, all the way to the end. Retreat is never an option. To your East is the ocean. You wish that one day engineers can devise a sea-faring vehicle that hold up in its tsunamis, but for now, the ocean is an impenetratable barrier. To your West is a barren desert. No people reside in it, and its conditions would decimate your army if they were to march through it. Beyond your Southern border is the medium sized territory of Governor Toleron. It is a land of dense forests and dry plains. His subjects are loyal to him and he has an army more than three times the size of yours, at 90 thousand troops. Fortunately for you, Toleron is a peacenik and using them solely to defend his empire. He has pledged not to increase the size of his standing army and is not at all an aggressor. To your North are small Mongol tribes. They are neither organized nor united and are too distracted with each other to defend against you. While they do not own much technology or infrastructure, if you conquer them you will gain some additional tax revenue and possibly reinforcements, as well as strike more fear into the hearts of would be enemies. Where do you expand your kingdom first? > You march South against Toleron You march your 23 thousand soldiers against Governor Toleron. He meets you behind his border with a large contingent of his army. Although you expected a hard fight, nothing prepared you for so many factors being on Toleron's side. No military tactic can overcome Toleron's peasants aiding his troops, their knowledge of familiar terrain, his soldiers fighting to protect their homeland, and their vast advantage in numbers. You lead a spirited charge at Toleron's tent but take heavy losses. Your ranks steadily thin and when it no longer looks like you have a chance of winning, your troops desert you and you are surrounded by Toleron's soldiers. Even in the face of death you are filled with diatribe and rage. It looks like you were not cut out to be a general after all, or perhaps you did not think it through enough. Your stupid decision ends in your premature defeat. THE END<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|> Three legendary warlords. One land. Who will rule? Warlords: Strategic Conquest is a story set in medieval China. Each choice you make will logically determine how your campaign proceeds. Clues to help you select the best choices are woven into the narrative. Background story: It is 907 A.D., and China has seen better days. Riots spreading like wildfire ended three hundred years of Tang rule. Ordinary citizens overthrew their local politicians, fed up with inept government and rising taxes. The central government responded by increasing the allowance of military power to each province. Amidst the political unrest and military buildup, ambitious warlords everywhere saw a chance to grab their piece of the pie. These absolute leaders, exercising both military and civil power, declared their independence from Tang authority, seized private property, fought each other, and turned order upside down. China's power vacuum longs to be filled by someone skilled enough to defeat his opponents and unite the country once again. Three particular warlords stand out: Governor Toleron Growing up in a poor Southern village, Toleron's childhood was marred by domestic violence. His seldomly employed father spent what little money his family had on liquor and gambling. The more he drank the angrier he would get at not being able to provide for his family. Toleron's mother would often receive the brunt of his father's drunken temper. Toleron stayed home for his mother's sake, but resolved to make a better life for himself. At the age of 20 he finally left home and started his own business as a fabric manufacturer. He worked hard and his company eventually became one of the most profitable businesses in the South. After transferring company ownership to his mother, Toleron joined the Tang army's civilian staff. Thanks to his knack for organization, he soon rose to a high administrative post. After the revolution began, a loyal following of soldiers urged him on to take over the provincial government. Toleron is highly regarded for his expertise in leveraging resources and logistics. Everyone serving under him believes he would make a wise emperor. General Nahru Abandoned by his parents at the age of three, Nahru spent his childhood learning the power of violence while fighting for scraps on the streets. After learning what Tang soldiers get paid to do, he immediately enlisted in the army. In battle, Nahru fought fearlessly against Korean revolts and Mongol invasions. After years of heavily decorated service, he was promoted to Supreme Commander of the Northern Forces. He sees the revolution as a golden opportunity to carve out his own empire. Famous for his ruthlessness and hot temper, Nahru inspires as much fear as respect among his own colonels, but that keeps them focused lest they make a career-ending mistake. He is confident that he will one day take over the entire world, and no one would bet against him considering his unblemished battle record. President Min Min was born into an affluent family in western China. An only child, his mother was overprotective and smothered him with attention. He grew up shy, awkward, and shunned by peers at school. His only constant companions were books. In addition to helping him make excellent grades, the books also cultivated Min's fanciful imagination. He started to notice people's body language and what it would indicate. Over time he honed his communication skills until he could impress anyone he came across. He talked his way into mayorship of a burgeoning western city only a few weeks after graduating from Soh Lin University. Over the years Min has built a reputation as a peerless diplomat. When the rebellions began, several admiring towns voluntarily incorporated themselves into his territory and elected him president. With a persuasive tongue like his, there is no limit to what Min can accomplish. Who are you? > You president Min Your kingdom rests on a solid foundation. The masses find you agreeable. Your government workers like you. You are respected by both your soldiers and the Buddhist temple. Even your treasury is healthy. However, in order to make good on its potential, a solid foundation requires expansion. You are not very knowledgeable in the art of war nor of administration, so the best way for you to grow your influence is to create alliances with other warlords. There are three possible types of alliances you can make: the Arraigned Marriage, an unofficial and informal understanding that each party will wed their children to the other's, and which is usually ignored outside of the enjoined kingdoms; the Peace Agreement, an internationally recognized edict where the parties agree never to attack each other nor each other’s allies, and furthers peace; the Military Alliance, an internationally recognized edict where, in addition to never attacking each other nor each other’s allies, each party also provides troops and other military aid to the other as needed, and tends to increase involvement in war and violent conflict. Securing alliances will earn you much prestige and bring you closer to your goal of uniting China. Your two biggest rivals whom you will need to win over are General Nahru to the north and Governor Toleron to the east. Besides Nahru and Toleron, there are also less powerful warlords nearby who may help or hurt your quest depending on your relations. One day, an emissary from a faraway land visits your court. “I bring a message from Prince Yevgeni of Russia. He has not had any diplomatic relations with any Chinese politico, and would like you to be the first. He invites you to his court to experience one of Russia's famous winters. "Many big cultural events are about to happen. The New Year's celebration is legendary. Russians don't just celebrate from the 31st to the 1st- but from the 31st all the way to January 10th. No liver is safe! "Will you join the Prince at his court?” Your foreign policy advisors have informed you of this Prince Yevgeni. The prince is known as a good natured and naïve goofball who likes to have a good time. His father is the ruler of the kingdom of Russia, to the north of Mongolia and west of the barren wastelands. Russia has never meddled with the affairs of China. Perhaps the Prince would wish to begin a new policy one day when he himself ascends to the throne. Do you visit Prince Yevgeni, who has little political influence as of now, or ignore him and meet with two nearby warlords, Lord Kahn and Duke Dizen, who have more influence in China and are able to provide more immediate assistance? If you decline the prince’s offer he will not make the same offer again. > You visit Prince Yevgeni You enter Prince Yevgeni’s court. Despite the wintry season, conditions inside his throne room are quite pleasant. His friends, courtiers, and jesters are all over the room. A couple of scantily clad young women lay at his side. Wrestling posters and bottles of Russian alcohol adorn the interior. How do you greet Prince Yevgeni? > You say "Let's have a few drinks!" Yevgeni laughs. “You’re pretty cool." After you both down a few shots, he says, "Let me guess, you want to make some sort of request of me." You smile and nod. He smiles back. "I'm smarter than I look.” > You say "Let's arrange a marriage of our children. How about one of your kids gets to marry one of mine?" "Hrrrrrm..." He considers your proposal. “Sure, why not? I don’t have any kids yet but I’ll let you know when I do." He makes eye contact with the two giggling young women laying at his side. You agree to stay over for dinner and drinks to celebrate your agreement as well as the Russian New Year. While you wait to be joined by a few traveling diplomats, the Prince mutters an aside. "This is the first time I’ve ever made an agreement with a foreign diplomat. Most of the them come here asking for formal treaties, like I was in charge or somethi-.” Before the Prince can finish his sentence, an ornately dressed man saunters into the throne room. Wearing a bead-covered headdress, a sheepskin robe intricately lined with jade stones and pearls, and shoes made of gold silk, he smiles and walks toward you with cupped hands. "It is my honor to meet you President Min. I am Khirnorek- chief diplomat of the Mongolian Kitan Empire." "Thank you, thank you," you bow in reply. Then another man enters the room. Wearing a camel fur coat, he looks positively demure compared to Khirnorek. "A pleasure to meet you all. I am Shalihasa, a courtier from Shah Kamaluka's court in Afghanistan. I bring a message of friendship from my shah. Prince Yevgeni, the future of Russia is bright in your hands. President Min, you are the best hope for a united China. Sir Khirnorek, the mighty Mongolian Kitan Empire is the envy of all rulers." "Enough, guys," the Prince says. "Let's eat. Giorgi!" Prince Yevgeni puts two fingers up and his butler places several plates of food on the table as all three guests take their seats. You indulge in whitefish, racks of lamb, smoked salmon, and caviar, while drinking copious amounts of honey vodka. In between mouthfuls of food, Khirnorek and Shalihasa discuss the civil war going on in China. “I heard from my friend that Lord Kahn hates it when people don't get straight to the point. I also hear he's been giving compliments to General Nahru,” says one. “Really? I heard that Duke Dizen also likes people who speak directly. But he's allied with Governor Toleron,” replies the other. The rest of the dinner conversation is uneventful. Shalihasa excuses himself from the table after stuffing his belly and leaves. Khirnorek does likewise soon thereafter. Prince Yevgeni himself is completely passed out on his throne. You decide to retire to your quarters and sleep off the abundant meal. You wake up and realize it would be more prudent to see to your kingdom's affairs than to resume senseless partying. You return home happy to have made a long term ally as well as having gleaned some useful information for your next sit-down. Which of the two will you visit now? > You meet with Duke Dizen Before you depart for a meeting with the renowned Duke Dizen, you hear some shocking news. Several semi-prominent warlords at a regional summit were discovered dead by poison in their meeting tent. Their sickly purple innards were found regurgitated out of their mouths. No indication of who was responsible was found at the scene except for a card etched with the pictograph of an eight-point star. No one has any idea who was behind it. A wave of fear ripples among the warlords. The day finally arrives when you meet Duke Dizen. There is an electric atmosphere of excitement inside his conference room. You exchange bows with Dizen's cabinet members. Each of them appears capable, confident, and intelligent. Then Duke Dizen steps into the room. He is known as a charismatic and beloved figure among his subjects. Those who have worked with him in the past describe him as a willing compromiser who exemplifies pragmatism. He solemnly looks you in the eye and speaks in a calm and resonant tone. “Please sit down. I couldn’t be happier that Chinese leaders such as you and I have found enough common ground to sit down and talk. What's on your mind?” > You say "Weed, wenches, and wine!" “Ohh Min. You are too much. Let’s get to the point. What exactly do you have in mind?" > You say "I don't know. Can you take me on a tour of your harem?" Duke Dizen's face hardens. He speaks distantly. “I have done my best to understand your attempt at reason, but find no advantage in continuing this conversation.” He stands up from his seat and walks out of his conference room, followed by his cabinet and entourage. You return to your kingdom after getting the cold shoulder from Duke Dizen. Now you plan your meeting with the other nearby warlord and potential ally- Lord Kahn. You make your preparations. > You convene with Lord Kahn Before you depart for a meeting with Lord Kahn, you hear some stunning news. Commander Wan, a warlord in central China, was killed in a tent fire. While Wan and most of his guards were sleeping, a blaze began in his sleeping tent, which eventually engulfed the entire compound. Wan and his best officers all perished in the fire and without its leader his territory will inevitably be divided amongst neighboring warlords. The only clue indicating who was responsible is a pictograph of an eight-point star, engraved on a charred scrap of iron left behind at the scene. Nervousness sweeps through China as no one has any idea who is behind it, and you do not feel safe either not knowing who did it. The day finally arrives when you meet Lord Kahn. You enter his war tent. The Lord is sitting behind a wooden table. He beckons for you to sit down across from him. Lord Kahn sits rigidly on his throne dressed in full armor. He has the stern face of a man who does not tolerate nonsense. He directs a hierarchal system of government and is known as a staunch supporter of militant values, such as might and honor. Lord Kahn's lips are tight. He stares you straight in the eye. What do you say? > You (mock him by mirroring his physical posture) Kahn clenches his fists and his eyes widen. “How dare you waste my time!” > You say "How dare you waste MY time!" “Get out of my tent- immediately! Fools like you have no place here!" He gets up to leave, but suddenly pauses. There is a twinkle in his eye. “If you ever want to gain a powerful ally, President Min, you should speak to my friend General Nahru. When you meet him, go straight to the point, or tell him you are friends with Governor Toleron. He would just be delighted to hear that. "Farewell President Min. Perhaps one day we will meet again.” You return to your kingdom without an alliance from Lord Kahn. By now, other local leaders are no longer worth your time. General Nahru and Governor Toleron are the only two warlords powerful enough to be worth meeting with. Who do you visit first? > You governor Toleron One night, you have trouble sleeping. Your recent negotiations with rival warlords have been wearing on you, and your impending meeting with one of the most powerful leaders in China weighs on your mind as well. You sit up in your bed and look for the candle. You light it up and to your surprise a shadowy figure crouches silently between you and the door. He looks you in the eye, and then takes several silent steps toward you. He holds a sharp dagger in his right hand. His face is entirely covered by a black cloth, except a slit over his eyes, and his clothing's black cotton dampens any sound. Do you: > You look him in the eye and ask him who he is. Your mystery visitor relaxes, seeing that you have no intentions other than finding out who he is. He keeps the dagger trained at your throat with one hand and lifts the black cloth from his face with the other. “You do not react like the other warlords. My name is Iconoclast. Answer this question correctly, and I may spare your life. "If, say, all other warlords in China disappeared, and you were the last one left, what would you do?" > You say "Usher in a great age of prosperity." He looks hatefully at you. “A thoughtful answer, but wrong. A man like yourself is bound to try and end the chaos and bring order to the people. This evil cannot pass.” Iconoclast's comment lingers in the air before his dagger splits through it. You dodge the attack and run behind your nightstand. You grab the candle and wield it as a weapon. Iconoclast flips the table aside and closes in. You fling the candle at his body. He skillfully parries it with his left forearm and it falls harmlessly to the floor. You make a last ditch lunge at him but in one motion he dodges you and stabs you in the side. You wince and fall to the ground. He pulls the blade out of your ribcage and slices your throat to finish you off. THE END<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Your mystery visitor relaxes, seeing that you have no intentions other than finding out who he is. He keeps the dagger trained at your throat with one hand and lifts the black cloth from his face with the other. “You do not react like the other warlords. My name is Iconoclast. Answer this question correctly, and I may spare your life. "If, say, all other warlords in China disappeared, and you were the last one left, what would you do?" > You say "Conquer every last nation with my armies and not stop until I unite the entire world." He looks at you with disgust. “You’ll never amount to anything anyway. I’ll let your blood stain someone else’s blade. I’ll spare your life, but don’t even try to follow me.” He spins around, dashes out, and disappears into the night. Later on, you question your guards but none of them noticed anything out of the ordinary. You chastise them for their incompetence and tighten up your palace security. You never hear from the masked assassin ever again. You recover in a few days from this harrowingly close call with death. During your recovery you reflect on the fact that you still have no close ties with any strong leaders. You need to secure one soon to avoid being seen as an easy target by predatory warlords. By now General Nahru and Governor Toleron are the only two rulers in China powerful enough to be worth meeting with. Who do you visit first? > You trek to the capital of Governor Toleron Your delegation reaches the eastern territory of Governor Toleron. He is a major presence in China due to his realm’s economic prosperity and contentment among his subjects. Toleron is known to be a diligent, peaceful, frugal, and pragmatic ruler. His meeting quarters are sparse but elegant, and he approaches you warmly. He greets you. “A thousand welcomes, auspicious ruler. Your presence honors me and my citizens.” > You say "Cut the crap Toleron. Speak to me like a man." Governor Toleron sits in stunned silence. He gives you a strange look. > You say "Your weak empire is seeing its final days. Being crushed is your fate. Only an alliance with me will save you now." “You are fortunate I do not believe in violence or I would have had you beheaded already!” Toleron's smile has vanished, replaced by a menacing look. He makes eye contact with his guards and tilts his head in your direction. They forcefully push you towards the exit. You are given an unceremonious boot to the curb. > You return home You return to your kingdom without a crucial alliance. Your reputation suffers as warlords across China hear the news of your failure. Some warlords start attacking you believing that you are not strong. Your army fends off the first few advances, but your kingdom’s morale plunges. Then consecutive attacks by larger armies penetrate deep into your territory. The invaders set fire to your villages, pillage your cities, and generally wreak havoc on your people. Your minor allies provide as much military assistance as they can but are overwhelmed by the numerous opportunists taking advantage of your multiple fronts. Your citizens flee to Toleron's territory as refugees. In the face of impending defeat, many of your soldiers desert your army as well. You stand inside your throne room trying to come up with something to say to the enemy troops sure to beat down your door any minute. Sure enough, shadows of torches soon appear outside your room. A group of infantry barge through your screen doors, led by a chap in a red helmet. “President Min. It is my pleasure to finally meet you. With you out of the way, I will be another step closer to conquering China!” You plead. "Let me join your army as an adviser. I am very knowledgeable about this local area. I will not forget your generosity.” “I have enough talented advisers. Besides, I don’t trust you.” He arcs his sword through the air at your head. You manage to duck out of the way. It is only a temporary reprieve however as several men, including the one in the red helmet, surround you and savagely slice you to pieces. THE END<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Governor Toleron sits in stunned silence. He gives you a strange look. > You say "I apologize for my error. It is my honor to sit down with a visionary such as yourself. I am here because the time may have come for an alliance between us." “I have been looking forward to a meeting with the great President. Which kind of alliance do you think is appropriate for us at this time?” > You say "Let's arrange a marriage of our children. How about one of your kids gets to marry one of mine?" “An Arranged Marriage...well, yes I...guess we could do that. I will wed my firstborn to your first child of the opposite sex." Toleron announces, "May they live in a world of prosperity and peace, and may our friendship last for eternity.” You return home with an arranged marriage for your child. Unfortunately, it holds no sway in international relations. Some hawkish warlords see you lacking in close ties with strong warlords and invade your territory. Your army fends off the first few advances, but your kingdom’s morale plunges. Then consecutive attacks by larger armies penetrate deeper into your territory. The invaders set fire to your villages, pillage your cities, and generally wreak havoc on your people. Your minor allies provide as much military assistance as they can but are overwhelmed by the numerous opportunists taking advantage of your multiple fronts. Your citizens flee to Toleron's territory as refugees. In the face of impending defeat, many of your soldiers desert your army as well. Your last stand comes when your castle comes under attack by an up-and-coming warlord known as the Red Helmet. His army destroys your battalions and ransacks your castle. To avoid the humiliation of your severed scalp being put on display outside your former castle, you commit suicide in your throne room by burning yourself to a crisp. THE END<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>“I have been looking forward to a meeting with the great President. Which kind of alliance do you think is appropriate for us at this time?” > You say "Let's declare a peace agreement between our two realms." “That is just what I had in mind as well. You are indeed a wise and capable ruler." "Our alliance may lead to bigger and better things for us both," Toleron says. "Who is to say that one of us should rule all of China by himself. As long as there is peace, there can be prosperity, and that is the best we can do as rulers.” He sends you off with a gift of ten prize horses and twenty gold statues of Buddha. You have gained a reliable and invaluable ally. This alliance solidifies your status as one of the more powerful warlords in China. Your prestige rises, both inside and outside your kingdom. Your people deem the alliance cause to hold celebrations and parades in your honor. You are lauded by foreign diplomats as wise and intelligent. You are ready for your final challenge. You finish preparing for negotiations with General Nahru. > You set out for the capital of General Nahru Your diplomatic caravan reaches the northern lands of General Nahru. He is famous for his quick temper and warmongering tendencies. He has been known to attack warlords for a mere slip of the tongue. On the other hand, Nahru is a smart commander-in-chief and a strong proponent of honorable conduct. Banners and bloody heads of vanquished enemies adorn the perimeter of General Nahru's compound. Hundreds of elite guards stand ramrod-straight at attention on either side of the path leading to the main war tent. You can’t help but feel a bit intimidated as you step inside. The General sits cross-legged atop a giant bearskin rug, his eyes fixed on yours while wearing a cocksure grin. His eldest son, Lurdu, stands beside him and looks coldly upon you with disdain. > You say "Wipe that smile off your face and pay me proper respect." Nahru’s face reddens. “How dare you talk to me like that!” > You say "You have met your match today Nahru. Your empire is declining and so are you." “Min, you are a madman. Guards! Execute this fool!” You are surrounded by muscular thugs. They push your head down over a bloodstained chopping block. You can only move your head as the rest of your body is immobilized by Nahru's guards. You try to say something but no sounds emanate from your mouth when your head falls to the floor. THE END<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Nahru’s face reddens. “How dare you talk to me like that!” > You say "Please forgive my misstep. Your greatness awed and dumbfounded me. To atone for my mistake, I offer a gift of an alliance." “I am glad to see you accord me the respect I deserve. I do not have much time to parlay with you. There are battles to win and countries to conquer. Now, which type of alliance do you want to make with me?"<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>“I have been looking forward to a meeting with the great President. Which kind of alliance do you think is appropriate for us at this time?” > You say "Let's swear to a military alliance between us two." Governor Toleron's smile disappears. “I do not believe that would be a wise policy. Political entanglements leading to wars on a massive scale can only bring suffering and pain. I do not favor aggression." "I think it is time you leave.”<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Your mystery visitor relaxes, seeing that you have no intentions other than finding out who he is. He keeps the dagger trained at your throat with one hand and lifts the black cloth from his face with the other. “You do not react like the other warlords. My name is Iconoclast. Answer this question correctly, and I may spare your life. "If, say, all other warlords in China disappeared, and you were the last one left, what would you do?" > You say "Instead of ruling, declare a state of anarchy and allow the chaos to continue." He grins. “Chaos is the natural state of things and only within chaos can good arise. Order brings about stagnation and evil. Anyone who tries to rule is in effect unfit for rule because they are evil. No ruler can be good. China must remain in chaos." "Yes," you mumble. “You understand the way things have to be. You are in a better position than I to spread our philosophy throughout China. However, I can eliminate your competitors, those wretches trying to unite the empire and return it to order. I will aid you by assassinating one Chinese warlord of your choice. Who do you want me to kill?" > You say "Lord Kahn." “The coward Lord Kahn it is. To chaos.” With that, he slips out of your room as quietly and stealthily as he entered. Later on, you question your guards but none of them noticed anything out of the ordinary. You chastise them for their incompetence and make plans to tighten up your palace security. A few days later, one of your scouts rushes into your tent, out of breath. He squeezes out words between gasps. “President Min…I have…urgent news…Lord Kahn...assassinated…last night…” You patiently wait for the soldier to catch his breath. “A servant noticed the foul odor of poison gas coming from the Lord's room and went in to check on him. He found Lord Kahn lying lifelessly in his bed, his body stiff and eyes rolled back in his head. The servant rang the alarm and guards quickly noticed a figure in black trying to escape the compound and they shot him dead with arrows. They found a card with the pictograph of an eight-point star on his body. He was probably the same assassin who had killed several warlords recently…” You thank the soldier and dismiss him. You reflect on the news. Without its leader, Lord Kahn’s territory will soon fragment. It was not a major state to begin with and now becomes even more irrelevant. After you upgrade your palace security, you refocus on securing alliances. By now, other local leaders are no longer worth your time. You need to secure an alliance with a major warlord soon to avoid being seen as an easy target by predatory warlords. General Nahru and Governor Toleron are the only two powerful enough to be worth meeting with. Who do you visit first?<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>He grins. “Chaos is the natural state of things and only within chaos can good arise. Order brings about stagnation and evil. Anyone who tries to rule is in effect unfit for rule because they are evil. No ruler can be good. China must remain in chaos." "Yes," you mumble. “You understand the way things have to be. You are in a better position than I to spread our philosophy throughout China. However, I can eliminate your competitors, those wretches trying to unite the empire and return it to order. I will aid you by assassinating one Chinese warlord of your choice. Who do you want me to kill?" > You say "Duke Dizen." “The self-serving Duke Dizen- consider it done. To chaos.” With that, he slips out of your room as quietly and stealthily as he entered. Later on, you question your guards but none of them noticed anything out of the ordinary. You chastise them for their incompetence and make plans to tighten up your palace security. A few days later, you receive a scroll from one of Duke Dizen's messengers. You open it and it reads, “Duke Dizen, noble servant of the people, has died. He was fatally bitten by a poisonous cobra. Guards arrested a snake charmer dressed in black loitering near the Duke's tent. He refused to answer the guards' questions about his purpose for being in Duke Dizen's compound. The man was summarily executed on suspicion of assassination. A card with the pictograph of an eight-point star was later discovered on the snake charmer's body." You burn the scroll and never mention this to anyone. You don't hear again from Iconoclast. Without its leader, Dizen’s territory becomes unstable and plunges once again into unrest. It was an average power to begin with and now becomes even more irrelevant. You refocus your attention on making more allies. You still have no close ties with any strong warlords. You need to secure one soon to avoid being seen as an easy target by predatory warlords. By this time General Nahru and Governor Toleron are the only two in China powerful enough to be worth meeting with. Who do you visit first?<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>He grins. “Chaos is the natural state of things and only within chaos can good arise. Order brings about stagnation and evil. Anyone who tries to rule is in effect unfit for rule because they are evil. No ruler can be good. China must remain in chaos." "Yes," you mumble. “You understand the way things have to be. You are in a better position than I to spread our philosophy throughout China. However, I can eliminate your competitors, those wretches trying to unite the empire and return it to order. I will aid you by assassinating one Chinese warlord of your choice. Who do you want me to kill?" > You say "General Nahru." “Nahru- that little boy. Very well. To chaos.” With that, he slips out of your room as quietly and stealthily as he entered. Later on, you question your guards but none of them noticed anything out of the ordinary. You chastise them for their incompetence and make plans to tighten up your palace security. A few days later, an advisor speaks up during a routine cabinet meeting. “I have been hesitant to tell you this before today because the rumors were unconfirmed, but now I believe I have heard enough reports from reliable sources to state this as fact. General Nahru has been assassinated." Your other advisors sit in slack-jawed silence. He continues, “The General's servants heard loud noises coming from his tent and ran in, only to discover General Nahru and a masked man frozen in place, facing each other, with each man's sword fixed in the other one's chest. Nahru was reputed to have been one of the most ferocious swordsman in the world, so the masked man had to have been equally impressive. I am not sure yet about the identity of the masked man, but I heard he was carrying a card with a pictograph of an eight-point star, like the ones left behind from the other assassinations. He may have been involved in those as well.” So ends the episode of the masked assassin. You never hear anything again about him and you don’t think you ever will. At least he did you a favor before he died. Losing their charismatic leader so suddenly, Nahru’s troops are demoralized and lose their focus. Many desert his ranks. His empire crumbles and chaos reigns again in the north. None of the lesser warlords competing to take Nahru's place stand out from the rest. It looks like Iconoclast got his wish after all, at least in part, for now. You ready yourself for the final challenge. You finish preparing for negotiations with Governor Toleron.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>He grins. “Chaos is the natural state of things and only within chaos can good arise. Order brings about stagnation and evil. Anyone who tries to rule is in effect unfit for rule because they are evil. No ruler can be good. China must remain in chaos." "Yes," you mumble. “You understand the way things have to be. You are in a better position than I to spread our philosophy throughout China. However, I can eliminate your competitors, those wretches trying to unite the empire and return it to order. I will aid you by assassinating one Chinese warlord of your choice. Who do you want me to kill?" > You say "Governor Toleron." “The delusional Toleron it is. To chaos.” With that, he slips out of your room as quietly and stealthily as he entered. Later on, you question your guards but none of them noticed anything out of the ordinary. You chastise them for their incompetence and make plans to tighten up your palace security. A few days later, a courier jogs into your tent. He kneels down before you. “I carry major news from the eastern provinces, President Min. Governor Toleron was assassinated two nights ago. It was a lone lunatic screaming something about chaos. The guards saw him shoot Governor Toleron in the chest with an arrow and quickly swarmed the assassin and chopped his head off…” So ends the episode of the masked assassin. You never hear anything about him again and you don’t think you ever will. At least he did you a favor before he died. Without its noble leader, Toleron’s territory soon fragments as warlords try to usurp his power. None of the pretenders have the allegiance of the masses like Toleron did, so the region descends into chaos once again. It looks like Iconoclast got his wish after all, at least in part, for now. You ready yourself for the final challenge. You finish preparing for negotiations with General Nahru. > You set out for the capital of General Nahru Your diplomatic caravan reaches the northern lands of General Nahru. He is famous for his quick temper and warmongering tendencies. He has been known to attack warlords for a mere slip of the tongue. On the other hand, Nahru is a smart commander-in-chief and a strong proponent of honorable conduct. Banners decorate the perimeter of General Nahru's compound, with hundreds of elite guards standing at attention on either side of the path leading to the main war tent. Along the way you see more than a few skulls and bloody body parts from vanquished enemies on display. You can’t help but feel a bit intimidated as you step inside. The General sits cross-legged atop a giant bearskin rug, his eyes fixed on yours while wearing a cocksure grin. His eldest son, Lurdu, stands beside him and looks coldly upon you with disdain.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>He grins. “Chaos is the natural state of things and only within chaos can good arise. Order brings about stagnation and evil. Anyone who tries to rule is in effect unfit for rule because they are evil. No ruler can be good. China must remain in chaos." "Yes," you mumble. “You understand the way things have to be. You are in a better position than I to spread our philosophy throughout China. However, I can eliminate your competitors, those wretches trying to unite the empire and return it to order. I will aid you by assassinating one Chinese warlord of your choice. Who do you want me to kill?" > You say "Don't kill anybody." “Nobody?" Iconoclast arches an eyebrow. "Are you sure?” “Yes,” you respond. “I don’t like it. I hope you know what you’re going up against. But I’ll acquiesce to your wishes if it means my ultimate goal can be achieved. Good luck. May chaos continue for eternity. To chaos.” With that, he slips out of your room as quietly and stealthily as he entered. You never hear from the masked assassin ever again. You listen for new reports of warlord assassinations, but no news comes. You suppose your words had an effect on your mysterious visitor, or at least you would like to think so. Later on, you question your guards but none of them noticed anything out of the ordinary. You chastise them for their incompetence and tighten up your palace security. You refocus on making alliances with powerful warlords. You need to secure one soon to avoid being seen as an easy target by predatory warlords. By this time General Nahru and Governor Toleron are the only two in China powerful enough to be worth meeting with. Who do you visit first?<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Your mystery visitor relaxes, seeing that you have no intentions other than finding out who he is. He keeps the dagger trained at your throat with one hand and lifts the black cloth from his face with the other. “You do not react like the other warlords. My name is Iconoclast. Answer this question correctly, and I may spare your life. "If, say, all other warlords in China disappeared, and you were the last one left, what would you do?" > You say "GUAAAAAAAAAAAARDS!!!!" Your loud shout echoes through the dark compound. “You have made a fatal mistake,” he states. He lunges at your neck with his dagger. You block the assassin's lead wrist with your arms. The blade slices through your forearm and blood begins to leak. Yet the pain is barely noticeable with your adrenaline pumping through your veins. You dash to the door in an attempt to make it out of your room. But before you reach the threshold you feel a sharp pain in your neck. Your legs shake and you collapse to the floor, dead from a dagger in the back of your neck. THE END<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>One night, you have trouble sleeping. Your recent negotiations with rival warlords have been wearing on you, and your impending meeting with one of the most powerful leaders in China weighs on your mind as well. You sit up in your bed and look for the candle. You light it up and to your surprise a shadowy figure crouches silently between you and the door. He looks you in the eye, and then takes several silent steps toward you. He holds a sharp dagger in his right hand. His face is entirely covered by a black cloth, except a slit over his eyes, and his clothing's black cotton dampens any sound. Do you: > You cower with your arms over your head. He charges up to you, then gathers himself and kicks you. You feel heavy thumps bruising your back and sides. You double over in severe pain. What do you do now?<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Kahn clenches his fists and his eyes widen. “How dare you waste my time!” > You say "I am here to request an alliance between our domains for our mutual benefit." Kahn pauses, then speaks coldly. “I commend you on the thought, but I have no use for the likes of you. Your fancy words do not hide your lack of substance and logic. Goodbye.” You return to your kingdom after getting the cold shoulder from Lord Kahn. By now, other local leaders are no longer worth your time. General Nahru and Governor Toleron are the only two warlords powerful enough to be worth meeting with. Who do you visit first?<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Before you depart for a meeting with Lord Kahn, you hear some stunning news. Commander Wan, a warlord in central China, was killed in a tent fire. While Wan and most of his guards were sleeping, a blaze began in his sleeping tent, which eventually engulfed the entire compound. Wan and his best officers all perished in the fire and without its leader his territory will inevitably be divided amongst neighboring warlords. The only clue indicating who was responsible is a pictograph of an eight-point star, engraved on a charred scrap of iron left behind at the scene. Nervousness sweeps through China as no one has any idea who is behind it, and you do not feel safe either not knowing who did it. The day finally arrives when you meet Lord Kahn. You enter his war tent. The Lord is sitting behind a wooden table. He beckons for you to sit down across from him. Lord Kahn sits rigidly on his throne dressed in full armor. He has the stern face of a man who does not tolerate nonsense. He directs a hierarchal system of government and is known as a staunch supporter of militant values, such as might and honor. Lord Kahn's lips are tight. He stares you straight in the eye. What do you say? > You say "I would like to make an alliance with you for our mutual benefit." He nods slowly. “In that case, what do you want from me?”<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Before you depart for a meeting with Lord Kahn, you hear some stunning news. Commander Wan, a warlord in central China, was killed in a tent fire. While Wan and most of his guards were sleeping, a blaze began in his sleeping tent, which eventually engulfed the entire compound. Wan and his best officers all perished in the fire and without its leader his territory will inevitably be divided amongst neighboring warlords. The only clue indicating who was responsible is a pictograph of an eight-point star, engraved on a charred scrap of iron left behind at the scene. Nervousness sweeps through China as no one has any idea who is behind it, and you do not feel safe either not knowing who did it. The day finally arrives when you meet Lord Kahn. You enter his war tent. The Lord is sitting behind a wooden table. He beckons for you to sit down across from him. Lord Kahn sits rigidly on his throne dressed in full armor. He has the stern face of a man who does not tolerate nonsense. He directs a hierarchal system of government and is known as a staunch supporter of militant values, such as might and honor. Lord Kahn's lips are tight. He stares you straight in the eye. What do you say? > You say "Venerable ruler. Please accept my humblest thanks for your attention. You are a leader of great courage and vision. May your highness consider an offer to improve our diplomatic relations?" “You're not getting to the point. What is it that you want?”<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>“Ohh Min. You are too much. Let’s get to the point. What exactly do you have in mind?" > You say "I propose an alliance between us for our mutual benefit." He smiles. “That is good to hear. Allies are a good thing. They keep citizens in both domains interested in affairs abroad, a precondition for a strong economy. And you need a strong economy in order to preserve a stable society." "What type of alliance do you propose for us two?”<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Before you depart for a meeting with the renowned Duke Dizen, you hear some shocking news. Several semi-prominent warlords at a regional summit were discovered dead by poison in their meeting tent. Their sickly purple innards were found regurgitated out of their mouths. No indication of who was responsible was found at the scene except for a card etched with the pictograph of an eight-point star. No one has any idea who was behind it. A wave of fear ripples among the warlords. The day finally arrives when you meet Duke Dizen. There is an electric atmosphere of excitement inside his conference room. You exchange bows with Dizen's cabinet members. Each of them appears capable, confident, and intelligent. Then Duke Dizen steps into the room. He is known as a charismatic and beloved figure among his subjects. Those who have worked with him in the past describe him as a willing compromiser who exemplifies pragmatism. He solemnly looks you in the eye and speaks in a calm and resonant tone. “Please sit down. I couldn’t be happier that Chinese leaders such as you and I have found enough common ground to sit down and talk. What's on your mind?” > You say "I am allied with General Nahru." Deep vertical furrows emerge at the base of Duke Dizen’s forehead. He stares at you grimly. “Is that something to be proud of?”<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Yevgeni laughs. “You’re pretty cool." After you both down a few shots, he says, "Let me guess, you want to make some sort of request of me." You smile and nod. He smiles back. "I'm smarter than I look.” > You say "Let's declare a peace agreement between Russia and China." The prince rolls his eyes. “You’re speaking to me like I was the tsar and not a prince. How do you expect me to have any say in important national matters like those? Man, you’re no fun. If I was tsar I would have you beheaded. Get out of here. I don’t want to see you anymore.” You ashamedly bow and quickly back out of his sight. You depart from Russia and return to your capital. You are fortunate that Prince Yevgeni is not more serious-minded or else antagonizing him would have harsher consequences. You arrive back home in several days. You turn your attention back to matters at hand. Lord Kahn or Duke Dizen- who do you speak to next?<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You enter Prince Yevgeni’s court. Despite the wintry season, conditions inside his throne room are quite pleasant. His friends, courtiers, and jesters are all over the room. A couple of scantily clad young women lay at his side. Wrestling posters and bottles of Russian alcohol adorn the interior. How do you greet Prince Yevgeni? > You say "I am President Min, a warlord vying for dominance of China. I would like to make a proposal for our mutual benefit." The prince yawns. Loudly. “Yeah... what?” He sounds pretty bored, like he’s heard this all before from the likes of you his entire life. > You say "Why did the prince cross the road?" “I'm no longer in the mood for jokes. You are no different from all the other stupid diplomats who come to my court. Begone!” And with that you are dismissed. You depart Russia for your capital. You look back at the Prince's opulent palace as you leave, thinking of what might have been had you been more observant of your host's temperament. You arrive back home in several days. You turn your attention back to matters at hand. Lord Kahn or Duke Dizen- who do you speak to next?<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You enter Prince Yevgeni’s court. Despite the wintry season, conditions inside his throne room are quite pleasant. His friends, courtiers, and jesters are all over the room. A couple of scantily clad young women lay at his side. Wrestling posters and bottles of Russian alcohol adorn the interior. How do you greet Prince Yevgeni? > You say "I am allied with Governor Toleron." The prince gives you a bemused look. “What?" He shrugs, then shakes his head. "I have no idea what you’re talking about.”<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Dad's told you three things about Dawnwood: It's a small town with less than a thousand people, it's a friendly, closed-knit community and it's in the Deep South, between the middle of nowhere and some godforsaken shithole you've never been to. You sit in the back of Dad's Ford, staring out the window at shitty fields and forests. "It's beautiful, isn't it?" your dad says, cheerfully looking out the window. "Dad, I don't have bars on my phone. I genuinely didn't know there were places outside of Alaska in this country where that was possible." "Well, maybe it'll encourage you to spend more time actually talking to people, or read. Hunter loves reading." You look at your nine year old brother sitting next to your, his eyes glued to the screen of a Kindle. "He's not reading; he's playing games. I told you he shouldn't have gotten a Kindle." "Shut up, Hazel!" he says. You quickly thump him in the arm. "Hey! Hazel hit me!" Hunter whines. "Hazel! What have I told you about hitting your brother?" "Do it when you're not looking?" you ask sarcastically. "For God's sake, Hazel, you're sixteen, act your age! I'm sick of your acting like a spoilt brat because of the move!" "You're dragging me from my home to the middle of bumfuck nowhere, of course I'm pissed!" Dad angrily slams his hands on the wheel, losing his cool once again. "Stop swearing! I had to move here, I wasn't given a choice! The firm..." "There's plenty of other law firms! It's New York, there's not such a lack of crime you can't find work!" "That's another reason! New York was dangerous and full of crime. The only thing people die of where we're going is old age or eating too much fries!" "Fine, pick your job over us again!" Dad sighs as you pull out your headphones and put them in. You stare out the window as you pass through endless fields. > One Hour Later... An hour later, you pull into Dawnbrook, and find you were far too optimistic. The town is a shitty series of low buildings. Hunter looks up from his Kindle briefly, before shrugging and looking back down. You pull up to one of the many, generic looking houses pulling into the driveway.You can already see faces peeking out from windows at the new arrivals. Dad opens the car door and lugs two suitcases up to the door and fishes through his pocket for his keys and opens the door. "Here we are! Home!" he says cheerfully, obviously trying to raise his children's spirits. You follow Dad inside, dropping your backpack on the floor. "I'll begin unpacking, you guys can get settled in or go meet the neighbors or explore," Dad says. > You go to your room You pick up your backpack again and walk up to your new room. It has a large wardrobe, a large double bed, a desk and chair and two dressers. You sit on the bed, taking out your laptop, and go on Facebook. Thankfully, the WiFi's already set up, so you can go on. You go down your Timeline, seeing all your friends having fun. Fiona had a party, Dan's now dating Leone and a bunch of other shit's going on that you wish you could take part in. You sigh, and continue flicking through pictures and posts. After an hour or two, Dad calls you down again. You close your laptop and go downstairs, finding Dad waiting there in the kitchen. "Hey, sweetie. The house is pretty barren, so we're going to go out to eat and I'll pick up groceries in the morning. I saw a pizza place in town. Do you want to go?" > You say "Sure." "Oh, good! Come on, let's go!" You follow Dad to the car, and climb in the passenger seat. You don't even need to turn your head to know your brother's in the backseat, hearing the opening tune of Angry Birds: Stalin's Show Trials or whatever the fuck version they have now. You lie back in your seat and stare out the window as you go through the town. Eventually, you arrive at some shitty, greasy pizza joint, and get out of the car. You walk inside, and find yourself in a Chucky Cheese knock-off. You walk up to the counter and find yourself faced with a girl your age with long brown hair and a massive zit that looks like a red dot sight in the middle of her forehead. "Hello, welcome to Pizza Corner, can I take your order?" she asks. "Yeah, can we have a large Pepperoni Pizza and three Cokes?" "Sure thing. Small, Medium or Large?" "Medium." The girl begins pouring the drinks as another, far prettier blond girl appears from the kitchen, holding a large piece of dough. She glances briefly at you, before grabbing a cloth with her spare hand and disappearing back again. "So, are you new here?" the cashier asks. "Yeah, I just moved in." "I'm Lucy." "I'm Hazel." “Oh, really? Well, it’s a good town. You can’t find much work except in a dull pizza joint, but there ain’t much here to even spend the money on. Some old clothes stores and a cinema, and that’s about it.” “Do you work here full time?” “Jesus no. If I got to the point where I was working here full time I’d dip my head in the deep fat… well, I wouldn’t be happy. Im still in school.” “What grade?” “10th.” “Oh, I’m starting there tomorrow. I guess I’ll see you there.” “”Sure. If you want, I can always get you a job here. Becca, the blond girl, has literally done shit all since we started. She’s only working so her daddy an think she’s learning real-life experience and still feel justified buying whatever she…” “I can hear you!” a voice calls out from the kitchen. “I know, Becca, I’m getting a point across!” Dad appears standing next to you, grinning. "Look who's already making friends!" he smiles. You roll your eyes. "Yeah, sure. Let's just sit down," you say, pulling Dad towards a booth to sit in. > Two Days Later... The school is a shitty building filled with no good kids who are learning about geography and Shakespeare despite the fact that they’ll almost certainly end up in the shitty jobs that are needed to keep this town running. You walk through the doors, a backpack slung over your shoulder. “OK, it’s not so bad,” you mutter, walking past a row of lockers down the hall. "I just have to find my classes and…" “Hey, Hazel!” a voice cries. You turn to find the familiar, zit stricken face of the pizza cashier, Lucy. “Hey,” you reply. “So, it’s your first day, huh? Do you know what classes you’re in?" You search your pockets and pull out a crumpled class schedule, handing it to her. “OK, we have the same Spanish, English, Math, History… you do Chemistry? Gay! That’s the hardest class!” “Well other than that we seem to share a suspicious amount of classes.” “Yeah, I talked to the principal and begged him to put you in my classes… it’s a tiny school, what do you think would happen? Of course we share most classes. Oh look, Carter’s here.” You turn to see a tall kid with neat, combed hair and an awkward grin bounding over. His clothes are all too small and his teeth are messed up and chipped, which becomes more obvious as his grin widens. “P-p-pleased to meet y-you. I’m Carter,” the boy stutters awkwardly. “This is Carter. He’s one of my best friends here.” “It’s a t-tiny town. You di-didn’t exactly h-have a lot to choose from.” “Yeah, I guess not. If you want, we can both show you around. Between the two of us, we should share pretty much every class.” “Except Chem… Chemistry,” Carter points out. “Yeah, you’re pretty much fucked for that, but that’s your problem. Now we have double Math and English, and Miss Loaves is genuinely the easiest Math teacher to have to deal with. She’s the only one who lets you get books from your locker when you forget them rather than giving a write-out or detention or just yelling for ten minutes. Come on, we’ll show you around.” > Two Hours Later... The first few classes are easy. You've always been good at Math and Miss Loaves is quite eager to have a student who actually works hard. Of the class, it's mostly kids messing and doodling with the exception of you, the blond girl, Becca, who worked with Lucy in the pizza joint and a tiny kid sitting at the back of the class who looks as young as Hunter. English is similar, with you being among the few who can spell "Immediately". In the short space of three classes, you cement your position as a nerd in the class. When the bell rings for first lunch, you find Lucy smirking at you. "You could've given us a heads up you were a nerd," she says. "I'm not a nerd!" you protest. "You were doing half the sums in your head!" "I...!" "Calm it, new girl. Shit, I didn't think you'd make such a big deal about it. Come on, I'll introduce you to the gang." You follow Lucy to the cafeteria, where she sits down at a table. You recognize a few faces of those sitting there. Carter sits there, eagerly tearing into a sandwich. The nerdy, small kid is also there, as well as the blond girl, Becca, from the pizza place. The only others are a large, bulky kid who you don't recognize but seems unusually close to Becca. "Alright, everyone, this is Hazel, she's new here. You know Carter." "I'm Becca," Becca says, looking up at you. "Hey, I'm Anthony," the small kid says. "He's Ant," Becca buts in. "Anthony, you prick!" Ant says again, but you resolve that Ant is a way better name for the tiny kid. "I'm Kyle," the big kid says. You sit down, and Kyle immediately continues telling a story he was apparently telling. "So there I was, just walking into this shitty pet store that I genuinely think half the animals in were either dead or had a few hours to live, because I wanted to buy Becca a goldfish for our anniversary." "It's not anniversary. Anniversary is yearly, not five monthly," Ant points out. "Whatever, stop being a dick and interrupting the story. So I was trying to get a goldfish, when the manager or owner or whatever just stares blankly at me. After about a minute, he says "Buy something or get out", and I ask him what his problem is, and he says, no word of a lie, "All you Negroes is stealin' my cat food". I'm not even offended by that. I'm curious as to how much cat food has he had stolen by black kids to make that a stereotype in his head." "Nah, s-sounds like b-b-bullshit. I bet you w-weren't r-r-really buying Bec... Becca an anniversary gift. You w-were going to... to steal c-cat food," Carter points out. "Fuck you, Carter. Where was I?" "You just finished," Becca says. "Well, shit, I'm outta things to say. Where's Mason? He usually has something to say." "There he is," Lucy says. You turn your head slightly to see what could be the hottest boy you've ever seen. He stands tall with muscles that ripple under his t-shirt. He has short, straight black hair that looks really cute... shit, he's here. Say something! For God's sake, don't screw this up! USE THE RIGHT GREETING! > You say "Hello." "Hey," he smiles, extending a hand to shake. "I'm Mason." He speaks with a sexy, thick Southern drawl that immediately... Shit, he's staring at you. "I'm Hazel," you smile, shaking his hand. "Where were you, Mason?" Lucy asks. "I was talking to Drake about tonight." "Who's Drake?" you ask. "Lucy's older b-brother," Carter answers. "Did you tell him I was going to be there?" "Of course not. Can't you just trust me? Everything'll be fine. Hey, I forgot to say, I'm going to need you all to chip. Drake's got a heavy mark up." "What's tonight?" you ask. "We're all going out drinking in the woods," Lucy explains. "You can come, if you want. You don't even need to drink or anything, it's just a bit of fun." "I don't know if my dad will let me," "Well, sneak out," Ant says. "Well, I can try," you say. "Cool, I'll save you some cans just in case," Mason smiles. The bell rings, and Kyle and Ant swear in unison. "What class is now?" Mason asks. "Spanish," Carter replies. You grab your bag and follow your new friends to Spanish class. > Six Hours Later... The rest of the school day is easy. You learn about the history of the town in History Class, the history teacher eagerly abandoning the notion of McCarthyism to explain what appears to be her favorite topic. Apparently, the town was once home to a large tribe of Native Americans, who were promptly wiped out by Colonists. The town rose to prominence due to its large number of cattle farms, before falling into obscurity as the modern age dawned. Eventually, it became the shithole it is today. After school, you take the bus home and say goodbye to your friends. Dad's still at work, so you collapse in front of the TV for a barrage of nearly identical Crime Shows. One features a team of guys who just kind of stereotype criminals, one features some guys who look at glowing stains, one features a guy who knows when you're lying and one features a modern day Sherlock Holmes. Just as the team find a new bit of information about how the clown's car is full of some... particularly dirty stains, you hear the familiar whine. "HAZEL! Can I watch TV!?!" "No! I'm watching. Go play your games." "But It's out battery!" he whines. > You let the whining, snivelling brat watch TV "Fine!" you sigh, as your brother gleefully snatches the remote and switches to the latest cartoon that's far too old for him. You jump up from the couch, and grab your laptop, binge-watching Youtube until you hear Dad come through the door. "Hello! I'm home!" he calls. "Hey Dad!" you yell from the kitchen. He walks in, smiling. "You're not fighting. That's pretty impressive," he smiles, referring to you and your brother. "I'll put on dinner. We have chicken curry." He begins to turn on the stove and start cooking. "How was school, honey?" > You say "Shitty." "Well, honey, I'm sure it will get better. No, I swear it will. Don't worry, it just takes some time to get used to things." You shrug and turn on your phone. After about an hour, Dad begins serving dinner. > You sit down for dinner You sit down. "So Hunter, how was school?" "Good," Hunter mumbles. "Hey, Dad..." you ask. "Yes?" Now's the perfect time to ask him whether you can go or not... or you can just sneak out later. > You say "Can I go out with some friends to the woods?" "Into the woods? Hazel, it's late, you're not going to the woods," Dad says. "OK," you say dejectedly, already planning how to sneak out. You quickly eat most of your dinner before faking a stomach ache and disappearing into your room. > You several Hours Later... An hour before you're supposed to be meeting your newfound friends, you go out to Dad. "Dad, I don't feel great," you moan. "I'm going to bed." "Are you sure?" "Yeah. I need rest. I'm just going to sleep. Don't wake me any earlier than you need to." "Sure, sweetie." You disappear to your room, and immediately fill your bed will pillows even though it's a bit generic, and open your window. There's a small ledge you sit on, before you go to drop down. You hit the soil with a soft thud, and quickly break into a jog away from the house before Dad chooses to look out a window. You quickly rush away from the house and pull out your phone and call Lucy for directions. > You ten Minutes Later... After a long walk, getting lost on several occasions and using McDonalds as the landmark to navigate from, you end up trompsing through the woods, you feet softly landing on the soil that’s neither dry earth or wet mud, but a combination of both. After ten minutes walking, you come across the site your friends were talking off. A fire built from moss dry leaves and branches struggles to stay alight as two rusted pick-ups sit on either side. You see the group immediately. Mason, Lucy and Carter sit on the roof of one of the trucks, passing a large bottle of what looks like vodka between them. Kyle and Becca sit on the other sharing a strange mixture of various liquids that’s ended up a pale brownish color. Ant sits by the fire, letting out cursewords so dirty they’d make a sailor blush as he pours a can of lighter fluid among the flames in a desperate attempt to give the fire some self-sufficiency by setting alight one of the larger branches. “Oh, you’re h-h-here,” Carter says. “Oh, Hazel! I’m glad you could come! Shit, I half expectected you to get lost, give up and end up getting a McFlurry and going come,” Lucy admits. As the sun begins to hit the horizon, illuminating the entire forest golden and orange, you sit at the edge of one of the pick up’s. “You bring anything to drink?” Ant asks, turning a pile of leaves over to give the fire some air. You shake your head, and Ant sighs. “Figures. I’ve been telling half these guys to bring their own drinks since I knew ‘em, but the only ones who do is me.” Mason holds up his hands in offene. “And Mason,” “I always bring drinks!” Lucy says. “Your brother does, and he takes more than a pound of flesh in payment. Somebody ring him, anyway.” Just as Ant finishes talking, you hear a rustle among the leaves. Mason immediately puts his drink under his coat before a tall boy with messy hair that looks to be in his early twenties appears. “Hey!” he says sternly. “Underage drinking is illegal, unhealthy and can act as a gateway drug to the very dangerous Marijuana!” “We don’t have time for your bullshit, Drake,” Ant complains. “Why do have to spoil everything, short-round?” I was trying to scare the new girl,” the boy says, tossing a small grocery bag of cans of alcohol in front of Ant. “Fantastic!” Mason sasys, immediately grabbing the bag as Ant gives Drake a wad of crumpled bills. “I’m Drake, by the way,” he says to you. “Lucy’s brother.” “Hazel. You buy your sister alcohol?” you ask in surprise. “Shit, I was drinking when I was twelve and a quarter. I reckon she’s old enough to make her own decisions. Fuck, in some countries she’d be makin’ babies and runnin’ a household by now.” “Thanks, Drake,” Lucy says, breaking the tab of a can of off-brand supermarket beer. “No problem. Right, I gotta go, me and Ed are going out to do a few jobs. I’ll see you all around. Good meetin’ you, Hazel.” Drake turns and walks off through the forest as the kids around you begin tearing through the bag. “This all tastes like someone drank shitty liquor and pissed into a can,” Ant complains. “Oh, b-b-because you brought o-only the f-f-finest of wines and c-cham-champagnes, Ant,” Carter says. Mason pops the tab of another can, and looks at you expectantly. “Hey, Hazel,” he asks. “Do you want some?” > You say "No thanks." “Are you sure?” Lucy asks. “A bit of drink never hurt anyone.” “Plus, you’ll be really bland and we’lll be annoying to each other if you’re sober,” Ant adds. “Oh, and… peer pressure. We’re peers who are pressuring you, because that’s a thing that really happens." > You say "OK." "Cool," Mason grins, passing you the bottle of alcohol. You take a long drink, downing much of the bottle. Ant is right, it does taste like piss. Still, you manage to gulp down half the can, before passing it on. "Shit. The new girl can drink," Ant smiles. You continue sitting around the campfire, which is really a lot closer to a glorified candle sitting in a pile of leaves. Mason grabs the bottle of vodka and sits down next to you and your heart flutters. A large part of you knows that this is just infatuation and a childhood crush, mixed in with a fair bit of hormonal lust, but still… he’s really, really cute. The others seem bored, with Kyle downing what seems like more than his weight in booze. “Well, this is boring,” Lucy complains, tossing a bottle in the middle. “Let’s play spin the bottle.” “No way!” Ant complains. “I’m the odd guy out. Kyle and Becca go together, you and Carter and then Mason and the new girl.” You blush at that comment as Carter nods in agreement. “I agree. I d-don’t w-want to play spin the bo-bottle,” Carter says. Briefly glancing at the indifferent Mason, you feel a twinge of annoyance of all possibilities of spin the bottle disappears as Ant suggests a new game. “Truth or Dare!” Ant suggests, to the groans of Kyle and Becca. “Remember what happened last time?” Becca points out. “That’s not fair! That wasn’t my fault! You should’ve protected your dad’s stuff. How was I do know that that painting was worth a fortune?” “You shouldn’t have been drawing over paintings in the first place, Ant!” “It wasn’t skin off your dad’s nose! That rich bastard can handle a loss! Jesus, we all know his ancestors made his money off the backs of Kyle’s ancestors!” “Fuck you, Ant!” Kyle shouts, slurring from his drink. “Gentlemen, gentlemen, calm down,” Mason says. “There ain’t no issues! We’re all friends here! I say a game of truth and dare would calm us all down.” “Fine,” Becca says. Mason downs the rest of his drink, and tosses the glass bottle in the middle. He drops to his knees and spins it, landing on Carter, who lies in the back of the pick-up. “Truth or dare, Carter?” “If I p-pick dare, will you… will you make me st-stand up?” Carter says lazily. “Maybe,” Mason says slyly. “Truth, t-then.” Mason grins, glancing at him and Lucy. “Have you ever kissed Lucy?” he asks. “Nope. Sorry to disa-disa-disappoint.” “Damn. I was certain,” Mason sighs, pulling out his wallet and tossing Kyle a crumpled bill. “You just cost me twenty bucks, Carter.” Ant leans over, spinning the bottle. It slows to a stop, pointing off into the woods. “Is that closer to Becca or Hazel?” he asks. “Becca,” Carter says. “Oh, fantastic. Truth or dare?” “Truth.” “Dammit, Becca. Fine, I’ll make this awkward. How far has Kyle got with you?” “Shut up, Ant!” Becca hisses. “Hey, you gotta answer!” Lucy says. “Oh come on! That’s private!” “We’re all friends here,” Mason says. “Fine! We’ve… you know. Done it.” “Respect, Kyle,” Ant smiles, holding back a giggle. Becca goes red, grabbing the bottle and twirling it. Through pure luck or skill, it points directly at Ant. “Shit,” Ant sighs. “Truth or dare. I have a lot of embarrassing questions to ask.” “Dare,” Ant grimaces. “Well, you have a lot more balls than I though. You’ll suffer from it. I dare you to go into Herr Eichel’s basement.” “No!” Ant replies. “Come on, Becca! Herr Eichel’s tear out his throat if he caught him!” Lucy complains. “Who’s Herr EIchel?” you ask. “Oh, I’ll tell her. I’ve been practicing this story for my little brother,” Mason says, before clearing his throat. “During World War II, a young soldier rose through the ranks of the SS. He had a habit of hunting Jews and personally escorting them to the Camps. He would hunt men, women, children, and torture them all for information. He showed no mercy. Eventually, when the Russians invaded, he escaped by pretending to be a civilian, fleeing from Berlin to France to Britain to the US. He hid right here in Dawnwood, hunting down any Jews he could find. His name is Herr Eichel.” “That’s the biggest load of shit!” Lucy complains. “Everyone knows that any Jew in Dawnwood would be scared off by Carter Sr. and his white power bullshit.” “He doesn’t w-w-want white pow-power!” Carter says. “He wants white p-pride. There’s… a difference.” “No there isn’t, Carter, now stop ruining the story. Where was I?” Mason asks. “You just finished,” you point out. “Oh. Well, now Herr Eichel’s going to kill Ant.” “Becca, I’m sorry! Please change the dare!” “Fine. You have to go into the Dead Man’s Barn and go up to the attic.” “That’s even worse!” Ant complains. “Nah, that ain’t bad,” Mason says. “Nazis are real and will kill you. Ghosts aren’t.” You raise an eyebrow, and Mason smiles. “OK, story time. Once, there was a Sheriff back in the Western times who used his power to wipe out any competition of the big ranchers of the town. One of the small time ranchers, Daniel Edwards, stood up and told the Sheriff he wouldn’t sell his farm to his competition despite threats. The Sheriff led a posse to bring him down, and Edwards tried to fight back. He killed two dozen men and took near a hundred bullets before he went down. They tortured him for a few days, even cutting his face wide open to give him... what'd ya call it, a Glasgow Grin. Eventually, you just hung him to finish him off. Rumor is he still haunts the barn where they strung him up. It’s a historical building so it can’t be torn down, so the owner just leaves it vacant.” “I’m not going!” “Don’t pussy out, Ant.” “Will one of you go with me?” Ant pleads. “Spin the bottle, and whoever it lands on has to go with you,” Lucy suggests. “I hope it’s Becca. That’d be ironic.” “Sure,” Carter says. “Let’s do that.” Ant thanks Lucy and spins the bottle. It wobbles and slows to a halt, pointing directly at you. “Well, I guess Hazel’s going to Dead Man’s Barn,” Mason says. “No, she can go to Herr Eichel’s if she wants. Eichel’s just an old, slow dude. The Dead Man’s a supernatural murderer,” Lucy says. “Let Hazel pick,” Kyle says, trying to stand before stumbling and leaning back on the truck. “Yeah. Go ahead Hazel. Ghost or Nazi.” > You go with Ant to Dead Man's Barn "Dead Man's Barn." "If you think so," Lucy says as Mason nods encouragingly. Ant nods nervously. "Good choice," Mason says. You nod. The group begins to stand, and starts walking towards Dead Man's Barn. "I'll... I'll stay here!" Kyle slurs, collapsing into the back of the pick-up truck. Lucy shrugs, and continues leading the group out of the forest. The group drops the various empty cans among the shrubs as you emerge in yet a bland, empty field with an old, clearly abandoned and boarded up barn in the center. It's a particularly large barn, but other than that it's just an old, boring barn.. The sun's fallen, so Lucy brings out her phone and turns on the flashlight. She leads you to the barn, and Mason grabs the edge of a piece of plywood and pulls it back. "This is stupid guys," Ant says. "What, scared of a ghost?" Mason chuckles. "No! I'm just scared of tripping and getting tetanus from a rusty nail!" "Pussy," Mason says, rolling his eyes. Mason pulls the plywood back further, creating a large enough gap for you to step through. "Thank you," you say as you step through. "Of course, Ma'am," Mason smiles. As you step through, you enter complete darkness penetrated by a single beam of pale moonlight coming from the gap. Ant steps in afterwards, looking around nervously. "OK, we've went inside, dare's over," Ant says. Mason sighs, pushing the plywood back in place. You hear his muffled voice a few seconds later. "Go upstairs and open the boards at the window. Then we'll let you out, Ant," Lucy says. "You're a bitch!" Ant says, thumping on the plywood, before turning to you. "Let's explore," he says nervously. You pull out your phone, turning on the flashlight. The inside of the barn is immediately illuminated. Several horse stalls made of rotten wood takes up most of the barn, with the floor covered in dried, rotten hay. "It smells like shit in here," Ant complains. "Hush," you reply. You spot a partially rotted out stairs leading to the upper floor. You walk over to it. You put your foot on the first stair and put some weight on it to make sure it'll hold. You slowly make your way up the stairwell, reaching the upper-floor. There's a dead silence inside, even the wind dying as complete silence consumes you. You scan the room with your flashlight. You wince as you notice a blood-stained noose hanging from the ceiling. "Jesus. Is that what I think it is?" "No, Hazel, it's a fucking... I can't even think of a mocking example. Of course it's a...!" There's a creaking of the floorboards behind you, and you quickly turn to find... nothing. "Hazel, please. If you're trying to freak me out, just... don't." "I'm not doing..." You feel something knock into your back and you fall forward with a yelp. Your phone flies from your hands. It falls forward down the stairs, thudding before it lands on it's back, obscuring the flashlight and plunging you into total darkness. "What the fuck, Ant?" "I swear to god, that wasn't me!" Ant says. "Let's get out of here, fuck the window." You hear haggard, wet breathing in at the stairwell, and you freeze. "What...?" "Shut up!" you hiss. The breathing continues, before turning to a wet, squelching chuckle. Ant whimpers, as you begin to back away from the stairwell. "It ain't your night tonight, kids," a deep voice says, each word interspersed with the wet squelching you've heard before. "What the fuck makes two dumbass, chicken shit kids come into a place you don't belong?" "What the fuck...?" Ant says, half whimpering and half shrieking. "Sssh... save your breath. I ain't even given you a reason to start hollering... yet." > You charge the figure You charge forward, and the figure grabs you. It's arms grab your wrist and pin you to the wall. You hear the soft thudding of Ant's fists on the creatures back, but the figure doesn't even seem to notice. "Oh, you're going to regret that, darlin'." The figure laughs. You feel the cold metal of a blade press against your cheek. He laughs as he begins to carve your face apart, and all you can do is scream.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Dead Man's Barn." "If you think so," Lucy says as Mason nods encouragingly. Ant nods nervously. "Good choice," Mason says. You nod. The group begins to stand, and starts walking towards Dead Man's Barn. "I'll... I'll stay here!" Kyle slurs, collapsing into the back of the pick-up truck. Lucy shrugs, and continues leading the group out of the forest. The group drops the various empty cans among the shrubs as you emerge in yet a bland, empty field with an old, clearly abandoned and boarded up barn in the center. It's a particularly large barn, but other than that it's just an old, boring barn.. The sun's fallen, so Lucy brings out her phone and turns on the flashlight. She leads you to the barn, and Mason grabs the edge of a piece of plywood and pulls it back. "This is stupid guys," Ant says. "What, scared of a ghost?" Mason chuckles. "No! I'm just scared of tripping and getting tetanus from a rusty nail!" "Pussy," Mason says, rolling his eyes. Mason pulls the plywood back further, creating a large enough gap for you to step through. "Thank you," you say as you step through. "Of course, Ma'am," Mason smiles. As you step through, you enter complete darkness penetrated by a single beam of pale moonlight coming from the gap. Ant steps in afterwards, looking around nervously. "OK, we've went inside, dare's over," Ant says. Mason sighs, pushing the plywood back in place. You hear his muffled voice a few seconds later. "Go upstairs and open the boards at the window. Then we'll let you out, Ant," Lucy says. "You're a bitch!" Ant says, thumping on the plywood, before turning to you. "Let's explore," he says nervously. You pull out your phone, turning on the flashlight. The inside of the barn is immediately illuminated. Several horse stalls made of rotten wood takes up most of the barn, with the floor covered in dried, rotten hay. "It smells like shit in here," Ant complains. "Hush," you reply. You spot a partially rotted out stairs leading to the upper floor. You walk over to it. You put your foot on the first stair and put some weight on it to make sure it'll hold. You slowly make your way up the stairwell, reaching the upper-floor. There's a dead silence inside, even the wind dying as complete silence consumes you. You scan the room with your flashlight. You wince as you notice a blood-stained noose hanging from the ceiling. "Jesus. Is that what I think it is?" "No, Hazel, it's a fucking... I can't even think of a mocking example. Of course it's a...!" There's a creaking of the floorboards behind you, and you quickly turn to find... nothing. "Hazel, please. If you're trying to freak me out, just... don't." "I'm not doing..." You feel something knock into your back and you fall forward with a yelp. Your phone flies from your hands. It falls forward down the stairs, thudding before it lands on it's back, obscuring the flashlight and plunging you into total darkness. "What the fuck, Ant?" "I swear to god, that wasn't me!" Ant says. "Let's get out of here, fuck the window." You hear haggard, wet breathing in at the stairwell, and you freeze. "What...?" "Shut up!" you hiss. The breathing continues, before turning to a wet, squelching chuckle. Ant whimpers, as you begin to back away from the stairwell. "It ain't your night tonight, kids," a deep voice says, each word interspersed with the wet squelching you've heard before. "What the fuck makes two dumbass, chicken shit kids come into a place you don't belong?" "What the fuck...?" Ant says, half whimpering and half shrieking. "Sssh... save your breath. I ain't even given you a reason to start hollering... yet." > You run You turn and start running the other way. In the darkness, you see nothing, and your foot hits a rotten plank that gives way. You scream as you wall, flying through the air before you hit the hard ground with a thud. You scream as you feel your arm break. Ant screams, before falling silence, as you struggle to pull yourself to your feet. You hear frantic yelling outside the barn as your friends realize something's happened, but not before the figure appears above you again. "Ah, shit kid. You ain't even one of the old bloods. Some immigrant or Northerner or some shit. Well, can't have you telling the city to have this place torn down, though looking at the condition you're in, this'll be a mercy." You start to beg as he slashes the cold steel along your throat as it mingles with a fresh stream of hot blood.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Dead Man's Barn." "If you think so," Lucy says as Mason nods encouragingly. Ant nods nervously. "Good choice," Mason says. You nod. The group begins to stand, and starts walking towards Dead Man's Barn. "I'll... I'll stay here!" Kyle slurs, collapsing into the back of the pick-up truck. Lucy shrugs, and continues leading the group out of the forest. The group drops the various empty cans among the shrubs as you emerge in yet a bland, empty field with an old, clearly abandoned and boarded up barn in the center. It's a particularly large barn, but other than that it's just an old, boring barn.. The sun's fallen, so Lucy brings out her phone and turns on the flashlight. She leads you to the barn, and Mason grabs the edge of a piece of plywood and pulls it back. "This is stupid guys," Ant says. "What, scared of a ghost?" Mason chuckles. "No! I'm just scared of tripping and getting tetanus from a rusty nail!" "Pussy," Mason says, rolling his eyes. Mason pulls the plywood back further, creating a large enough gap for you to step through. "Thank you," you say as you step through. "Of course, Ma'am," Mason smiles. As you step through, you enter complete darkness penetrated by a single beam of pale moonlight coming from the gap. Ant steps in afterwards, looking around nervously. "OK, we've went inside, dare's over," Ant says. Mason sighs, pushing the plywood back in place. You hear his muffled voice a few seconds later. "Go upstairs and open the boards at the window. Then we'll let you out, Ant," Lucy says. "You're a bitch!" Ant says, thumping on the plywood, before turning to you. "Let's explore," he says nervously. You pull out your phone, turning on the flashlight. The inside of the barn is immediately illuminated. Several horse stalls made of rotten wood takes up most of the barn, with the floor covered in dried, rotten hay. "It smells like shit in here," Ant complains. "Hush," you reply. You spot a partially rotted out stairs leading to the upper floor. You walk over to it. You put your foot on the first stair and put some weight on it to make sure it'll hold. You slowly make your way up the stairwell, reaching the upper-floor. There's a dead silence inside, even the wind dying as complete silence consumes you. You scan the room with your flashlight. You wince as you notice a blood-stained noose hanging from the ceiling. "Jesus. Is that what I think it is?" "No, Hazel, it's a fucking... I can't even think of a mocking example. Of course it's a...!" There's a creaking of the floorboards behind you, and you quickly turn to find... nothing. "Hazel, please. If you're trying to freak me out, just... don't." "I'm not doing..." You feel something knock into your back and you fall forward with a yelp. Your phone flies from your hands. It falls forward down the stairs, thudding before it lands on it's back, obscuring the flashlight and plunging you into total darkness. "What the fuck, Ant?" "I swear to god, that wasn't me!" Ant says. "Let's get out of here, fuck the window." You hear haggard, wet breathing in at the stairwell, and you freeze. "What...?" "Shut up!" you hiss. The breathing continues, before turning to a wet, squelching chuckle. Ant whimpers, as you begin to back away from the stairwell. "It ain't your night tonight, kids," a deep voice says, each word interspersed with the wet squelching you've heard before. "What the fuck makes two dumbass, chicken shit kids come into a place you don't belong?" "What the fuck...?" Ant says, half whimpering and half shrieking. "Sssh... save your breath. I ain't even given you a reason to start hollering... yet." > You attempt to converse with the figure "Please... I don't want to die." "I didn't either, kid. It ain't so bad. Tell your grandparents I said "Fuck you.", ok?" "Please!" you say, breaking into a sob. "HEY! Mason shouts from outside. "Are you OK in there?" You feel cold metal touch your throat. "Tell him you're fine, darlin'." > You tell Mason you're fine "I'm fine! There was a rat!" you shout. "OK!" Mason replies. Ant continues whimpering, as a gloved hand runs through your hair. "Good girl... I don't recognize you in the dark. Let's see who you are... don't scream, by the way." Your hear the flick of a lighter before a flame splutters to life in front of you, illuminating all three of you. Then, you get the first sight of the Dead Man. His skin is grey and dead, his eyes cold, lifeless and pure black. His mouth has been carved open, the cuts carving upwards into a smile. Blood stains his rotting skin and his shirt. He wears a classic cowboy hat and leather duster, and his neck is covered in the deep bruises caused by a noose. Ant tries to scream, but can't find the air to do so. You freeze, immobilized in terror, as the Dead Man grin. "Well look who we have here. A Ceder and a wanderer." You stare at him as he caresses the side of Ant's face." "What's your name, boy?" "Anthony Ceder." "I remember you. I remember your people. I remember seeing your great-great-grand mama. A little Jewish girl who ran the store and didn't have shit. You're one of the few families that didn't string me up in this town. I ain't got no feud with you." He turns to you, and presses the knife to your lips. "Darlin', you should smile more. It'd make you a hell of a lot prettier." He traces the path of a smile along your face with the cold blade. "Don't hurt me." "Ah, I'd never hurt a woman 'less I had a reason. I don't recognize you. You're a wanderer, ain't ya? You ain't from Dawnwoods originally," "I'm from New York." "Hell, might cut you up for that if I weren't as nice a guy as I am." "Are you sure you're OK?" Becca shouts, and the Dead Man presses the knife to your throat. "What's her name?" he hisses. "Becca," you whimper. "I fuckin' know that voice! I fuckin' know that voice! I fuckin'... Becca Montgomery. The great-great however fuckin' many greats grand daughter of Horton J. Montgomery. That bitch..." The Dead Man is clearly quite distracted by his vengeful rant. If there's a time to do anything, it's now. > You wait patiently "...that goddamn bitch, I'll... Call her." "What?" you ask. "I said call her, you yankee bitch! Tell that Mongomery whore to come in!" > You tell Becca to come into the barn "Becca! Can you come in here, please? We need a hand. Ant got his leg stuck!" "Sure, we'll come in!" Mason shouts. Fuck, you didn't mean for them all to come. "Good job, darlin'. Sorry 'bout this, but I can't let any of you kids get out. God, I'm bagging a Montgomery tonight!" You scream as his blade slices open your throat, cold steel mixing with warm blood.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"...that goddamn bitch, I'll... Call her." "What?" you ask. "I said call her, you yankee bitch! Tell that Mongomery whore to come in!" > You refuse "Fuck you! Becca, don't...!" The cold metal of a blade slices open your throat as before you can get out another word as cold steel mingles with hot blood. "Dumb bitch."<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"I'm fine! There was a rat!" you shout. "OK!" Mason replies. Ant continues whimpering, as a gloved hand runs through your hair. "Good girl... I don't recognize you in the dark. Let's see who you are... don't scream, by the way." Your hear the flick of a lighter before a flame splutters to life in front of you, illuminating all three of you. Then, you get the first sight of the Dead Man. His skin is grey and dead, his eyes cold, lifeless and pure black. His mouth has been carved open, the cuts carving upwards into a smile. Blood stains his rotting skin and his shirt. He wears a classic cowboy hat and leather duster, and his neck is covered in the deep bruises caused by a noose. Ant tries to scream, but can't find the air to do so. You freeze, immobilized in terror, as the Dead Man grin. "Well look who we have here. A Ceder and a wanderer." You stare at him as he caresses the side of Ant's face." "What's your name, boy?" "Anthony Ceder." "I remember you. I remember your people. I remember seeing your great-great-grand mama. A little Jewish girl who ran the store and didn't have shit. You're one of the few families that didn't string me up in this town. I ain't got no feud with you." He turns to you, and presses the knife to your lips. "Darlin', you should smile more. It'd make you a hell of a lot prettier." He traces the path of a smile along your face with the cold blade. "Don't hurt me." "Ah, I'd never hurt a woman 'less I had a reason. I don't recognize you. You're a wanderer, ain't ya? You ain't from Dawnwoods originally," "I'm from New York." "Hell, might cut you up for that if I weren't as nice a guy as I am." "Are you sure you're OK?" Becca shouts, and the Dead Man presses the knife to your throat. "What's her name?" he hisses. "Becca," you whimper. "I fuckin' know that voice! I fuckin' know that voice! I fuckin'... Becca Montgomery. The great-great however fuckin' many greats grand daughter of Horton J. Montgomery. That bitch..." The Dead Man is clearly quite distracted by his vengeful rant. If there's a time to do anything, it's now. > You elbow him and run You slam your elbow into his face and he drops you with a grunt. "Fuckin' bitch!" he grunts. You grab Ant's arm and yank him down the stairs, you turn, yelling at Mason to move the plywood as you sprint towards it. The Dead Man appears in front of you. "Hiya, darlin'," he chuckles, blood spurting out of his throat. He begins walking towards you, as Ant lets out a whimper. The Dead Man grins, his skin tearing open as blood trickles down his chin. "I'm going to..." he says, before pausing. There's a crunch as a large piece of plywood is pulled away by Mason. A beam of moonlight comes in, hitting the boot of the Dead Man. There's a sizzle as he boot begins to fade, and the Dead Man snarls. In the blink of an eye, he's gone. You don't know where he's gone, but you're not waiting around to find out. "Come on!" you shout, grabbing Ant running towards the gap in the boards. You scamper through, collapsing on the cool grass outside. "What the fuck happened?" Mason asks. "The Dead Man was there! He was there, and he was so mad, and he..." "Ant, calm the fuck down!" Lucy shouts, grabbing Ant and shaking him. "You're d-d-drunk as fuck, Ant. You d-don't know w-what you saw," Carter says. "I did! Ask Hazel!!" The group turns to you, and you nod. "There was a ghost in there. It had it's throat slit and...!" you say in a nervous panic. "Alright, calm down," Mason says, pulling you in and squeezing you in a hug. You feel your heart flutter as you take deep breaths, your head nestled in your chest. "G-get a room," Carter says. You blush as Mason lets go of you. "In fairness, you've drunk a fair bit as well. You're more pissed than I am. Maybe you were just seeing things in the shadows that weren't there," Mason suggests. You shrug whilst shaking your head. "I don't know." "Come on, let's head back to Kyle," Becca says. You walk back through the field and back into the woods, heading towards the trucks. "S-s-so, this w-was a bad id-idea," Carter says. "We just p-panicked Ant and H-Ha-Hazel." "We risked our lives to annoy what could have been a harmless old man," Ant says. You arrive at the camp, and Mason swears loudly. "FUCK! Where the hell is Kyle?" he asks. The camp is empty, with no one in sight. "R-r-remember last time we lost Kyle when he was drunk?" "Oh dear God, he ended up pissing in my garden. He wasn't pissing into the garden. He was standing in the garden, pissing on my house," Becca says. "That was funny," Ant says, still shaken up from his experience. "We need to find him. Is anyone not sober enough to find this place again?" Mason says. There's silence. "Good. We'll split up and try find him. Ant, you head towards the Rotten Trees, Lucy, go towards our old tree house, Becca, towards the old drinking point, Carter, back towards town. Hazel, you're new here. There's a stream just over there," Mason says, pointing. "Just walk along there, and keep your phone on. If you can't find him, follow the stream back here." You nod. Time to find Kyle. > You walk along the stream You walk alongside the stream, your shoes squelching in the wet mud. You walk along to the drier earth, but they're already ruined. "Fuck," you sigh, walking along. "Kyle! Kyle! Are you there?!?" You hear what sounds like twigs breaking behind you, and quickly twirl around. Must've been your imagination. You continue walking along the stream. "Kyle! Kyle! I don't care how drunk you are, do something! I'm getting sick of looking for you!" You hear the rustle as leaves as the wind picks up, and what was earlier a hot, humid night is now turning bitterly cold, as the light that the moon was provided dims considerably. For the first time, you realize that you're walking in the middle of a place you've never been, late at night, with no one around. You consider turning around and heading back, but you know if Kyle's passed out somewhere, you need to find him. "Hello!" you call. Your voice carries out across the trees. Then, the silence resumes. There's a silence so deadly quiet it's painful. There's no birds, no small mammals scurrying among the trees or undergrowth, not even a cricket. You take deep breaths in an attempt to calm yourself down, before you here a low growl. You turn around, flicking your head around desperately to find the source of the noise, desperately wanting to run but not knowing which direction to do so. "Kyle? Is that you?" you whimper. The growl stops, and the silence resumes. You stand perfectly still, not wanting to disturb whatever's out there. Then, it lets out a roar. The roar's incredibly loud and you scream in pain as the sound like shattering glass as concrete scrapes against each other. You feel pure, unadulterated terror, which is amplified when you spot the beast. The Beast stands on four legs, the shape of a bear but the size of a large truck, covered in thick fur that's so dark it consumes what little moonlight makes it through the trees. It's eyes are pure red, the all-consuming crimson of fresh blood that peer through your eyes and bore into your soul. As it roars, it revels a mouth filled with hundreds of teeth the size of daggers, pure white and sharp enough to drill through solid steel. It stands, blocking the route back towards your friends. You need to do something, now. > You run You turn, and run as fast as your legs will carry you. Trees are torn up and sent flying away behind you as the beast gives chase. Thankfully, its size means that navigating past the trees is impossible, so it needs to tear them up and throw them away to follow you. You have enough of a lead to know you have two options: You could head towards town, getting help from the many armed residents of Dawnwood who have enough combined firepower to invade a small nation, which would easily be enough to scare away or kill the beast. Hell, the need for that is unlikely, as since there's been a lack of reports about this creature, it probably wouldn't venture out and follow you if you escape the confines of the trees. On the other hand, if you head towards the caves, you might be able to find a place to hide and escape this terrible beast. > You run towards the town You run towards the town, letting out a desperate scream for help. It charges towards you, the gap between the pair of you lowering. It sprints towards you faster than a truck, and finally manages to catch you, batting you with its paw with incredible strength. Your bones break and crack as you're sent spiraling through the air. You land in a heap by the soft earth and let out a shriek as your limbs twist at incredible angles that they're definitely not meant to go. The creature walks slowly towards you, and you try to crawl away but find yourself unable to move. You see the flash of the beast's teeth and a spurt of crimson before it finishes off its prey.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You turn, and run as fast as your legs will carry you. Trees are torn up and sent flying away behind you as the beast gives chase. Thankfully, its size means that navigating past the trees is impossible, so it needs to tear them up and throw them away to follow you. You have enough of a lead to know you have two options: You could head towards town, getting help from the many armed residents of Dawnwood who have enough combined firepower to invade a small nation, which would easily be enough to scare away or kill the beast. Hell, the need for that is unlikely, as since there's been a lack of reports about this creature, it probably wouldn't venture out and follow you if you escape the confines of the trees. On the other hand, if you head towards the caves, you might be able to find a place to hide and escape this terrible beast. > You head toward the caves You change direction, bursting towards the few caves that these woods have. You can here the beast right behind you, feeling its hot breath on the back of your neck, blowing your hair out of the way. You spot two caves you think... well, hope you can reach before it catches you. One is a small crack in stone that you think you can dive through that's definitely far too small for the beast to follow you that leads into a tunnel further in. The other is an opening to a large cavern that's also too small for the beast to follow you and that widens considerably further down. > You go through the small tunnel You dart through the small crack, heading quickly down the tunnel. As you're emerged in complete darkness you stop walking, your deep breaths echoing off the cave walls creating an eery sound. You pull out your phone and turn on the flashlight, illuminating the area. Then, you let out a petrified scream. The walls are covered with vivid symbols of red, sharp and alien characters you don't recognize. But that's not what makes you scream. Three bound figures lie on the ground, their bodies now a scene of horrific cruelty. They're naked, but their skin has been torn off to let you see the wet muscles that glisten underneath. You let out a sob as they begin to writhe. They're not dead, you realize in terror. The figures writhe, and you begin sobbing as you back away in terror. You run with a scream to the opening of the tunnel. You don't dare venturing out in case you're sighted by the beast, so you sit by the opening, sobbing. You begin to smell a strange smell coming from further down the tunnel, this one different from the rotting flesh. Soon, your wretched, sobbing and broken body finds sleep. > You awaken "We found her!" a voice cries, awakening you from her slumber. You open your eyes, spotting a young man you vaguely recognize as the town mechanic. "It's ok," he says. "You're going to be alright." The images of the writhing corpses fill your mind as more of the town's residence arrive. "Jesus, what the fuck happened her?" someone asks. "God, is she OK?" "Does she need a doctor?" "Hazel! Where's my baby girl!?!" You hear Dad's voice and spot him among the growing crowd. "Dad!" you cry, as he leans in and hug him. "Oh Hazel, thank God I've found you. What the hell were you thinking, sneaking out like that? It’s OK, I found you. You’re safe. What happened?” You sob, and attempt to recount your story to Dad, to his confusion. “Your friends said that you had been looking for Kyle. They found him, but then they couldn’t find you. You… you smell of drink. What were you thinking, Hazel? You must’ve got drunk and seen a bear. I’ll tell the sheriff and have a hunting party sent out to kill it.” “It wasn’t a bear, Dad! And there were bodies! They’re in the cave!” “Sweetie, you were drunk!” The Sheriff appears, emerging from the crowd. He stops by Dad, squeezing his shoulder. “I’m glad you found your gal, Malcolm. We’ll talk later," he says, before pausing. "She smells of drink. I've always believed in the father disciplining the kid, so I'll leave that to you, Malcolm." “Come on, sweetie!” Dad says. “I’m getting you home.” “No wait, check the cave! There’s bodies in there!” Dad sighs, and the Sheriff heads in. He appears a minute later, shrugging. “There ain’t nothing in there. There's a few rabbit carcasses that look to be infected, but that's it,” he says. “What…?” you ask in confusion. "I need to go down there and check...!" "Calm down, darling. Those animal corpses could give you an infection. You might've seen them wrong in the dark. I'll have someone clear them out later. Come on, everyone, head on home." The Sheriff stands by the entrance to the tunnel, motioning for people to leave as the search and rescue party heads out towards the town as Dad thanks them. “Come on, Hazel, let’s get home," Dad says. You follow Dad out as he leads you back home. > You go home The ride home is long and quiet. Dad can clearly tell you don't want to talk, so he leaves you alone. Eventually, you pull into the driveway. "I've told your teacher you won't be coming in today. Go upstairs and have a shower, you can have the day to relax. I'm staying home to look after you today." You nod, and walk inside. You pull off your mud-covered shoes, and walk upstairs, leaving a trail of muddy water behind you. You walk into the bathroom, and slowly get undressed. You unbutton and pull off your jeans, then step out of your underwater. You pull off your jumper, than your shirt. As you go to unclasp your bra, you freeze as you notice yourself in the mirror. One of the strange, alien symbols you saw covering the cave walls above the disgusting, shuddering, skinless bodies, is carved into your stomach, just below your belly button. You shriek, and you hear Dad call up to you. "Hazel? Are you OK?" > You say "I'm fine!" "OK, honey." You stare at the symbol in horror, before taking a deep breath. You open your bathroom cabinet, and pull out some bandages, applying it to the wound. The wound's shallow and small, nothing really to worry about medically, although it terrifies you. Whoever did that to the corpses had access to you while you slept. You shudder at the sight. You decide to shower to feel some bit cleaner. > You shower You walk into the shower, and set the temperature as hot as you can without scalding yourself. You step under the water, feeling your hair grow in weight as the water soaks it through. The water warms you and helps clean the layer of dirt and mud from your body. To your absolute embarrassment, you notice the water pooling yellowish beneath you before it goes down the drain and you realize in the terror of last night you must have wet yourself at some point. You blush, both from embarrassment and the scalding water, and finish cleaning yourself. You turn off the shower and grab a towel, tossing your dirty clothes into the wash basket. You dry yourself off and get dressed, before collapsing on your bed. You grab your laptop and turn it on, finding comfort in the endless terrible comedies that Netflix provides. Dad brings you breakfast, then lunch, leaving you in a cocoon of blankets in front of the latest episode of Some random crime show about a police division that doesn't do nearly as much in real life, finding comfort about the stereotypical characters and massively contrived murder methods used to kill people. Eventually, you hear a knock on the door. "Hazel!" Dad shouts. "Your friends are here." You wiggle out of bed and jump up, walking down the stairs. Standing there are Mason, Carter, Lucy, Ant, Becca and Kyle. "Hey, Hazel. You feeling alright?" Lucy asks. "Yeah," you reply. "I'm so sorry, I just got drunk and wandered off to find a place to go to the bathroom. I didn't think anything would happen to you because of it!" Kyle says apologetically. "It's fine," you say. "Well, we were only stopping by to see if you're OK, and if you wanted to go down to town and get a bite to eat." Dad stares at you. "Do you remember what happened last time you went out? Only last night, remember?" "We'll have her back before sundown. We're only going into town, and I'll take good care of her," Mason says. "I'm sure you will," Dad says skeptically, looking Mason over. "Hazel, keep your phone on and be back by eight. Not half eight, not quarter past eight, not a single minute past eight. Got it?" "Yes, Dad." You walk out the door with your friends out towards town. > One Hour Later... An hour later, you sit in the pizza place Lucy and Becca work in, with two other unfortunate teenagers working behind the counter, a large pepperoni pizza in the middle of the group. "So... you were attacked by a monster... who then led you into a trio of undead dead people?" Ant asks. "No offense, but that sounds like complete and utter bullshit." You stare at Ant incredulously. "Do you not recall less than an hour before that what happened? You nearly pissed yourself!" Ant looks down, ashen faced. "There were no ghosts. You're just fucking with us," Lucy complains. "Fine, I believe you." "I believe her," Kyle says. "You d-don't have a c-c-choice, Kyle. You n-nearly got her kill-killed," Carter says. Kyle shrugs. "Fine, say we believe you," Becca says. "What are we going to do about it?" "What do you mean?" "Well, there's a monster in Dawnwoods.. That's a problem, also the monster's too big to go in the cave you were in or else it would've caught you, so that means the body skinning thing is separate, so we got a monster and at least one Satanist." "How do you know it was Satanism?" Ant asks. "Well, it wasn't Christians, hence, it must've been Satanists," Becca says. "Why c-couldn't it b-b-be any other r-r-religions?" "Carter, this is the whitest, most Christian town that has ever existed. There was one Sikh family, and they had a cross burned on their lawn and were forced out of town after 9/11. There's no other religions here." "OK, fine." "So, what are we going to do about...?" You groan as a sharp pain hits your stomach. It intensifies, and you let out a yelp. "Are you OK, Hazel?" Mason asks. "Yeah, I'm..." you groan, and Lucy helps you to your feet. "I think I'm going to be sick," you groan. "Come on, I'll take you," Lucy says, dragging you into the bathroom. You're pulled past the urinals and into one of the stalls, and drop to your knees, letting out a torrent of puke. You groan in pain as you begin to puke, filling the bowl. "Thank Christ I'm not on shift now. I'd hate to have to clean up this again," Lucy says. You puke again, before the pain starts to recede. "Don't worry, Hazel, we'll get you home soon," Lucy says. "Hey, Lucy?" "Yeah?" "Did you drag me into the guy's bathroom?" "Oh, oops. Sorry, Hazel. I clean both toilets, so I'm used to entering them both, and this one was closer..." You sigh, and stand, ready to go home. > You go home You friends drag you home, where your father waits. "Hazel! Are you OK? Carter called and told me you were throwing up." "I'm fine," you groan, as Dad helps you inside. "Go upstairs, sweetheart. I'll get you a flat Seven-Up to help settle your stomach and a hot water bottle. Thanks for helping get her home, guys," Dad says. "No bother," Mason replies. "See you later, Hazel." Dad helps you up to bed, and you collapse onto your mattress. You fall asleep before Dad even gets into the ktichen. > Six Hours Later... When you wake up six hours later, you panic. You're lying in a rusted, iron cage, surrounded by pitch darkness. You stand slowly, finding yourself in the middle of the woods. You look around desperately for a way out, but it seems you're stuck in here. The wind blows through the trees, rustling leaves and giving you a cold chill as you realize you're in your underwear. You look around, spotting a large RV next to the cage. Two figures step out and begin walking towards you. They both wear ski masks, hoodies and baggy black pants, with one carrying a doctor's bag. A third appears, pushing a gurney towards you. You scream for help and back away to the back of the cage. One of them steps forward and unlocks the cage door, and they enter the cage. "Hands behind your head, don't move," one of the figures said. > You attack You charge forward, swinging at the first man. You hit him with some force in the jaw, and he grabs your arm. He slaps you hard across the face, knocking you to the ground. The men grab you, and force you into the gurney. They strap your hands up my your head and your feet together, leaving you stretched out on the gurney. A ball gag is stuffed in your mouth and strapped tightly. You wince one off them puts surgical gloves on, before drawing a thermometer that's pushed into your ear. He checks it, before placing a cold hand on your stomach. He pushes gently, before squeezing. "I'm right. Get the injections ready." You shake and try to scream as one of the men takes out a needle that's almost comically large and sharp. He jabs it into your stomach and you scream into your gag and presses down, releasing the liquid into your stomach. You begin to tear up as he repeats the process with several more needles, and by the end your eyes are obscured with tears. He smiles at you through the ski mask, before another man arrives with a large burlap sack. He opens it, pulling out a small mammal like a rat or a ferret, and a large knife. You watch in horror as he slices the mammal's throat open, letting blood flow out onto your stomach. He tosses the carcass aside, and begins to use his fingers to draw various patterns along your belly as you wince and shake. He sighs, and slaps you hard across the face. "Stop shaking," he says, before turning to one of the other men. "Tomorrow night." He finishes drawing his patterns, before taking out a small black notebook. He begins to read from it in an insane language you don't understand, like the spluttering of a madman. The pain in your stomach intensifies greatly as you let out a petrified scream as you feel yourself being torn apart. Finally, he stops, as does the pain. "Ah, good. Get the chloroform and untie her. Then, bring the kids back from their walk." They free you from your straps, and you notice the door's still open. > You run for the gate You leap up and run for the gate. Clearly the men weren't prepared for your newfound strength, so you charge out of the cage and begin sprinting towards the trees. As you hear the men loudly swearing behind you, you break through the trees. You run through the darkness as you avoid trees, before knocking into something. You fall to the ground, painfully scraping your knee on a tree root. You look up, and scream in terror as you see them. A half dozen figures slowly surround you, giving you a view of them. The... creatures are all children, but they're so deformed, so mutated, they barely qualify. One is missing both it's arms, replaced with long, thin, slimy tentacles that reach forward to touch you. A second is missing most of its face, a gaping hole in its place filled with tiny, wiggling tentacles from the walls, back, roof and floor of the mouth. A third looks like a cute, perfectly normal girl of around four years old, except her mouth hangs open and her eyes are completely black. Another, one of the worst, looks like a cross between a schoolgirl, a fetus and an octopus, and stands wiggling above you as it reaches out towards you. You scream, and crawl backwards, terrified. They advance slowly, tentacles extending to rub you, slick goo wiping across your face and hair. You sob as you try to stand, before being yanked up by a man in a mask. He takes out a large rag and a glass bottle. He soaks the rag, before holding it to your mouth. You try not to breath, but after about a minute you take a gasp for breath, inhaling the fumes. > You lose Consciousness You awaken in your bed, terrified and curled up in your blankets. You briefly wonder if you dreamed everything, but know that that's impossible. Your knee hurts where you scraped it, your window is still open, and you know your mind couldn't conjure up everything you saw last night. "Honey? Are you OK?" Dad calls. You pause, wondering if you should tell him, before realizing he'd never believe you. "Yeah, I'm fine," you reply, wondering what you should do. It's Saturday, so you could visit your friends and explain the situation. If you're more optimistic, you could go through the normal, legal means, although you're almost certain that will be complete and utter bullshit. > You visit your friends You shower, noticing the same mark still under your belly button, and head off to meet your friends after a quick breakfast with Dad who remarks how "You look like you haven't slept". He gives you something to help settle your stomach, and you head out, texting your friends. They're already at Ant's house, so you head over there, carefully following their directions. Eventually, you find yourself at a house that's not even worth describing as it's identical to every other house in this shitty town. You knock on the door, which is opened by a short, balding man in a cheap suit. "Hello?" he asks, peering at you. "Hi. I'm Hazel, I'm a friend of Ant's." "Hmmm... Of course you are. I'll admit, it was my mistake calling him Anthony. I wish I had went with something nicer. It was his mother, god rest her, who wanted to give him a nice name like Connor, but I wanted Anthony. Ah, I'm rambling. He's in the games room, last left." You nod and thank him, heading down towards the last left and going inside, finding a pool table, several beanbags with your friends spread out among them, and an Xbox. "Hey Hazel. F-f-feeling better?" Carter asks. "Yeah, I... I need to talk to you about that." Ant looks up at you, raising an eyebrow. "Have you... put on weight?" he asks, staring at your belly through your t-shirt. "Hey Ant: Stop being such a prick. You don't ask a girl that," Lucy says. "What do you need to talk about?" Mason asks, looking away from the console to look at you, which Ant quickly takes advantage of and both screen peaks and starts heading towards his location for an easy kill. You explain your situation to the group, and they stare in either disbelief or horror. "There's no such thing as monsters," Lucy says as you end your tale. "Hang on," Mason says. "There's a rusted out cage from the old freak show in the woods. How else would she know about it?" "Maybe she saw it when she was lost." "I didn't," you say. "Fine. We have to do something about this, then," Becca suggests. "She's right," Kyle says. "Y-You're only agreeing because you f-f-feel bad about getting her l-lost," Carter points out. "Shut it, Carter!" Kyle hisses. "Have you called the police?" Ant asks. "I told the Sheriff, he didn't believe a word I said when he found me." Mason nods. "Sheriff's an idiot. We have to check out the spot," he says. You shake your head nervously. "I'm not going back there. There's that beast and those Satanists..." "If you want, I could get my brother to drive us out there in his pick-up," Lucy suggests. "Will Drake really take us out to the woods?" Becca asks in surprise. "He owes me. I covered him when he was caught doing business with some kids at school." "Doing business?" you ask. "Drug dealing," Lucy explains, eerily matter of factly. "Oh." "I'll give him a ring," she says, disappearing off into a side room. You sigh, nervous at the thought of heading back to the cage, but you know it needs to be done. You wait for Lucy to return, which she does after a few minutes. "Good news and bad news!" he says cheerfully. "Go on." Carter says. "My brother will drive us into the woods and help us look around... but not until eight." "It'll be dark by then!" you say hysterically. "It's OK, you'll be safe with all of us! I'll have Drake bring the biggest, most powerful flashlights he can, and a gun or two," Lucy says, smiling. "I don't... I mean, I can''t..." Mason grabs you and smiles. "It's OK, Hazel. I'll keep you safe." You have to admit, you do feel safer in his arms. Damn his charm. "Fine, we'll do it," you say. "Great. I'd feel bad if you were killed by evil cultists because we didn't do anything." He smiles cheekily, and you begin to regret this decision. > You nine Hours Later... Nine hours later, you're ready to go. You've somehow convinced Dad to let you go out, not daring to tell him your actual destination and instead claiming you're staying at Lucy's house. You meet up at the Lucy's house with the group, and walk into the living room, where they're all sitting around. "Are we ready?" you ask. "Damn straight!" Ant smiles, holding up a large backpack. "Spare food, water bottles, lighters, matches, rope, fireworks, some knives and flashlights. What'd you guys bring?" Carter holds up half a chocolate bar he's been chewing on. "Half a M-Mars bar," he says, before taking another bite. "A q-quart-quarter of a Mars b-bar." "I brought a penknife and a lighter," you shrug, and Ant looks around disappointedly. "No one brought anything?" he pouts. "You guys suck." You hear a horn outside, and look outside. A large RV drives up the driveway, stopping outside. Lucy skips out the door, before running up to him, and you follow her outside. "Hey, Hazel," Drake says. "Drake's friend, Ed, has the pick-up, so we're driving to the woods, meeting him and switching vehicle," Lucy tells you. "OK," you say, walking into the RV. You raise an eyebrow as you notice that the RV's windows are covered with shutters and bin bags, and the actual interior looks like a scene from Breaking Bad, covered with beakers, test tubes, Bunsen burners and other Chemistry gear. "Well, you're blatant," you say. "Hey, it's effective." "I mean, yeah, but Breaking Bad made this a trope. Don't police search RV's for this." "Breaking Bad helped my sales enough that I'm bribing the deputy. You'll be surprised how much extra meth heads are willing to pay for a product when you add some blue dye." You shrug, and take a seat in the RV, as your friends pack in. "Be careful back there. Knock one thing over and this place could blow." "Really?" you ask. Drake grins and shrugs, and begins driving. "Maybe. I mean, there's a distillery back there as well as the lab. I'd imagine one speed bump and boom!" "That's unnerving," Ant says. "I guess. So, why the hell am I dragging all your friends into the middle of the woods to the old freakshow cage?" "I told you already," Lucy reveals. "That nightmare bull isn't convincing me. What's the real reason?" "That is the real reason." Drake turns around to stare at you in annoyance. "What...?" "Eyes on the road, Drake," Kyle says. "Fine," Drake says, turning around. "Still, I want an explanation why I'm driving into the woods because the new girl had a nightmare." "It wasn't a nightmare!" you say. "Sure," Drake says. You all sit in awkward silence until you reach the outskirts of the woods. Drake pulls over, and you stand and head out the door. Although you couldn't tell because of the shutters and blacked out windows of the RV, you can now see that night has fallen. An empty red pick-up truck with four seats sits next to the woods. Drake strides forward, pulling out his phone. "Ah, shit," Drake says. "Of course Ed left the truck here and went off on his quad rather than just take back the RV like he was supposed to." He locks the RV and hides the keys in the wheel well. "I'll text my friend and get him to pick up the RV. Come on, get inside. Let's go drive to a dumbass cage in the woods." Drake, Lucy, Carter and Ant go in the seats while you, Mason, Becca and Kyle sit in the back of the pick-up. You sit, half-lying on Mason who wraps one arm around you. The emotional part of your brain momentarily forgets all fears in favor of a childish infatuation and hormonal lust towards Mason that causes you to blush and your heart to flutter, the rational part of your brain reminds you to stay vigilant in case the cultists or that beast do show up. You and the rest of your friends pull out flashlights and fire the beams off into the darkness, illuminating trees and undergrowth. "We're nearly there," Drake shouts. "It's a hell of a lot easier to get here because a path's been made." Your ears perk up at that. "What do you mean?" you ask, as Drake rolls down his window fully. "What'd you say?" "I said what do you mean? You said there's a path." "Yeah. It's like a big RV drove over the undergrowth and knocked a dirt path along." "What, you think Ed's been driving out here to work in the RV?" Lucy asks. "Nah, Ed's terrified of the woods. Said something about a monster or something." You feel a flash of fear as you remember the RV from last night. You stare outwards, illuminating every shadow, both hoping to and terrified of seeing something hiding in the dark. "Here it is! The old freak show's cage!" Drake says dramatically. As Drake pulls the pick-up into the clearing in the woods, you see the massive, rusted cage, although there's no RV. You shiver in fear, and Drake steps out of the truck. "Let's investigate and get home," Drake says, firing his flashlight beam towards the cage. The flashlight beam illuminates the cage and its insides. The old rusted gurney sits there, now encrusted with dried blood. "Well, that's new," Drake mentions. You step back nervously. "Hazel said there was a gurney in her dre... when she was abducted," Ant points out. "Fuck, this is some creepy shit. I'm calling the sheriff," Drake says. Drake takes out his phone, and makes a call. "Hello, Sheriff Buckly? I just found a gurney in the middle of the cage in the woods covered in dried blood. I think some weird... oh, really? OK, you know where the cage from the... oh, great.. Cool, see you in a few minutes, or an hour, or whatever." "What was that?" "The sheriff said he'll come here straight away." "Good," you sigh in relief. You really can't imagine having to deal with this without the help of the law. Now, it's out of your hands. You wait patiently for Sheriff Buckly to arrive. Eventually, you spot a flashlight heading towards you. "There he is," Drake says. You shine your light ahead, illuminating the figure of Sheriff Buckly. He swears, and holds his hands to block his eyes. "Turn that off!" he says, and you do. "Fuck, how'd you even get the truck out here? I can barely walk through the undergrowth," he says. "Where this bloody gurney?" You point at the cage, and Sheriff Buckly walks over and looks at it. "Jesus... who else saw this? I'm going to need to gather all the witnesses and find out what was going on," he says. "We're the only people who've seen this, although Hazel got a bit of a closer encounter." "So you didn't tell you pa about this?" Sheriff Buckly asks. You shake your head, and Sheriff Buckly nods. "Good," Sheriff Buckly says. Sheriff Buckly draws his revolver, and quickly aims at Drake's head and fires. Drake's head snaps back as it explodes partially, sending chunks of gray brain matter, pale skull and pieces of red flesh at you. You scream as Lucy runs over to Drake as his body collapses backwards. Mason runs for the truck, before the Sheriff barks an order. "Stop! Move another muscle and I'll blow the brain out of everyone of you!" Mason stops, raising his hands. Sheriff Buckly points his gun at all of you, forcing you to raise your hands into the air. "Everyone, calm down. Nobody needs to get hurt," Sheriff Buckly says. "Fuck you!" Lucy screams. "You killed him! You killed him you piece of..." Sheriff Buckly steps forward and cracks her across the head wit his revolver. "Shut up! Carter, Mason, Ant, Kyle, get in the fucking cage!" he shouts. Mason, Ant, Kyle and Carter slowly walk into the cage. "Now, back the fuck up to the end of the cage!" The boys comply, and the Sheriff draws a set of keys from his pocket, locking the cage door. He turns to you, Lucy and Becca. "Just don't move. They'll be here in a minute." You stand in silence, the cold wind blowing, the silence only broken by the occasional soft sob by Lucy as she stands over Drake. After about half an hour of waiting, you see the RV pull up along the path. It stops, and four masked men step out. "Anyone escape?" one asks. "No," Sheriff Buckly responds. "Fuck, I didn't even know they were coming out here. You said whatever the fuck you injected the girl with would make her forget everything." "I said it probably would. Her phone's bugged. How didn't you find out?" "She didn't make any calls saying she was going to do it!" "Well, at least no one escaped," the masked man says, pulling off his mask. The group remove their masks. You vaguely recognize them, one being the mechanic who found you, one being the town doctor, Doctor Kessel, another being a German teacher from school and the final one being the bartender of the local bar. "What are you going to do with...?" Becca asks, before Sheriff Buckley lets out a bark. "Hey! Shut the fuck..." "No, Jake, let the girl ask her question," Doctor Kessel says. "What are you going to do with us? Who are you? Why did you send a monster to hunt me?" "What are we going to do with you? Nothing, ideally. We only need to borrow you. Who are we? Well, surely you must recognize us. Louis, Sheriff Buckly, Mrs Jordan, Alison and me, Doctor Kessel. "As for the monster, I assume you're referring to the Black Beast. That's not an issue, I assure you. Although I'm not sure of its origins, if you look at town records, it actually kills most of the bears in the area, which reduces the amount of attacks so much it's saving lives. If I was in your situation, I'd be much more worried about us." "What do you want? Are you going to sacrifice us to Satan?" Becca asks again. Doctor Kessel lets out a chuckle. "No, Rebecca, we're not. We're not satanists. Real satanists don't even believe in Satan. We're... researchers. We're humanitarians. We're explorers. When we were little kids, we used to be the best of friends. We played in these very woods. When we were little, we found... a book in one of the caves. We took it and read it, and we found out the most amazing things. Do you know how insignificant not only we are, but this planet, this solar system, this galaxy and this universe is? There are so many amazing things we learned about these beings that we can't even comprehend, but compared to what's out there, we learned so little. So we kept reading. The book included some instructions to summon them, to summon these beings that are stronger than any gods we've ever imagined, more alien that any alien we've created in fiction, more incredible than anything you could experience here. If we create a Key-Bearer, we can create a portal to these beings." "That's insane! How do you know they won't wipe us out, or enslave us all, or worse!" you cry. "I don't," Doctor Kessel admits. "It could destroy everything!" "You just need to calm down and listen!" he hisses. "Imagine you're stuck in a room. There is a small tap for water, a toilet and a small machine that creates a nutritious yet tasteless paste. You have everything you need to survive and continue your blank, boring existence. Now, one day, a door appears in the room. It's unlocked. Do you go through?" "What the fuck does...?" "We are trying to open that door. Just as the person in the room doesn't know what's on the other side, anything is better than the bland, boring existence of the room. We're trying to open the world up to experiences unknown to man, good or bad, because it has to be better than this meaningless existence." "What are yuo even talking about? What the fuck's a Key-Bearer?" Mason shouts, as Sheriff Buckly aims his gun at his head once again. "Shut up," Sheriff Buckly grunts. "Ah yes, the Key-Bearer. That part's the worst for you guys. A Key-Bearer is a creature birthed of the beings' power of a human womb. We've had several attempts at this, but every time we failed. Instead of creating a Key-Bearer, we created half-human, half-monster children who aged rapidly. Finally, we settled the problem. The mother of the Key-Bearer had to be a virgin, post-puberty, below 21 and to have AB Negative Blood. You'd imagine my luck when I found one such target walking around the cave where I was sacrificing some former mothers to keep the beings' interested in our world. I simply pumped out some gas I had on hand to help knock her out, and voila! I got to work." You stare at him in horror, putting a hand on your stomach. There's a series of gasps and shouts from the group, before Sheriff Buckly fires his gun in the air. "SHUT IT!" he roars. "I'm sorry, Hazel. It'll be over in a few hours." "A few hours? It's only been two days, how...?" you ask in horror. "The Key-Bearer grows incredibly quickly. It should be able to be birthed within a day at most." You feel something wiggle in your stomach, in your womb, and a pain shoots through you. "Listen, Hazel, it'll be OK," Doctor Kessel says. "In a few hours, you'll be fine, and we'll be in a whole new world." > You agree to birth the Key-Bearer "Fine," you say. "I'll do it." "Fantastic!" Doctor Kessel says eagerly. "I promise, you're helping save humanity." Doctor Kessel takes your hand, and leads you towards the RV, where a second, newer gurney awaits. You climb up in it and are strapped down. Doctor Kessel stabs a needle into your neck, hushing you. "Don't worry, I'm going to help you sleep for the next few hours. When you wake up, it'll be all over..." You begin to feel sleepy, before closing your mouth. Your heavy eyelids close, as the needle presses into your veins, sending you into a deep sleep. > You awaken Mother of the Apocalypse You awaken, lying in a small bed. Sheriff Buckly stands above you, looking eerily joy-filled. "You're awake! Good, we can begin!" he says. You stand, looking down. Your legs are covered in dried blood and other liquids, and your body immediately runs out of strength. You're helped along, out of the RV. Your friends are gone, but you only look for a second before you see the preparations for the portal. A large circle of stones lies, each stained with a drop of blood. Standing around the circle are the six cultists; Louis, Doctor Kessel,Mrs Jordan and Alison. Standing around them are a half dozen monster-children that make you want to vomit, the failed attempts at rearing a Key Bearer. They're so deformed, so mutated, they barely qualify as children. One is missing both it's arms, replaced with long, thin, slimy tentacles like pasta. A second is missing most of its face, a gaping hole in its place filled with tiny, wiggling tentacles from the walls, back, roof and floor of the mouth. A third looks like a cute, perfectly normal girl of around four years old, except her mouth hangs open and her eyes are completely black. Another, one of the worst, looks like a cross between a schoolgirl, a fetus and an octopus, and stands wiggling. Still, that's nothing compared to what sits in the middle of the circle. Sitting in the middle, wiggling, is your child. The Key-Bearer is nothing but a seething mass of tentacles that whip around, seemingly drawing lines of purple lightning around itself in the symbol that was carved into you. "Ah, you're here!" Doctor Kessel says eagerly. "Where are my friends?" you ask. "It doesn't matter now! Now, we begin! We will witness the glory of Crexiciliatanian's creation!" The Key-Bearer speeds up, painting the symbol across the very fabric of reality. The ground begins to crumble away, turning in pure blackness. Suddenly, there's a flash, and the portal opens. Then, it begins.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Nine hours later, you're ready to go. You've somehow convinced Dad to let you go out, not daring to tell him your actual destination and instead claiming you're staying at Lucy's house. You meet up at the Lucy's house with the group, and walk into the living room, where they're all sitting around. "Are we ready?" you ask. "Damn straight!" Ant smiles, holding up a large backpack. "Spare food, water bottles, lighters, matches, rope, fireworks, some knives and flashlights. What'd you guys bring?" Carter holds up half a chocolate bar he's been chewing on. "Half a M-Mars bar," he says, before taking another bite. "A q-quart-quarter of a Mars b-bar." "I brought a penknife and a lighter," you shrug, and Ant looks around disappointedly. "No one brought anything?" he pouts. "You guys suck." You hear a horn outside, and look outside. A large RV drives up the driveway, stopping outside. Lucy skips out the door, before running up to him, and you follow her outside. "Hey, Hazel," Drake says. "Drake's friend, Ed, has the pick-up, so we're driving to the woods, meeting him and switching vehicle," Lucy tells you. "OK," you say, walking into the RV. You raise an eyebrow as you notice that the RV's windows are covered with shutters and bin bags, and the actual interior looks like a scene from Breaking Bad, covered with beakers, test tubes, Bunsen burners and other Chemistry gear. "Well, you're blatant," you say. "Hey, it's effective." "I mean, yeah, but Breaking Bad made this a trope. Don't police search RV's for this." "Breaking Bad helped my sales enough that I'm bribing the deputy. You'll be surprised how much extra meth heads are willing to pay for a product when you add some blue dye." You shrug, and take a seat in the RV, as your friends pack in. "Be careful back there. Knock one thing over and this place could blow." "Really?" you ask. Drake grins and shrugs, and begins driving. "Maybe. I mean, there's a distillery back there as well as the lab. I'd imagine one speed bump and boom!" "That's unnerving," Ant says. "I guess. So, why the hell am I dragging all your friends into the middle of the woods to the old freakshow cage?" "I told you already," Lucy reveals. "That nightmare bull isn't convincing me. What's the real reason?" "That is the real reason." Drake turns around to stare at you in annoyance. "What...?" "Eyes on the road, Drake," Kyle says. "Fine," Drake says, turning around. "Still, I want an explanation why I'm driving into the woods because the new girl had a nightmare." "It wasn't a nightmare!" you say. "Sure," Drake says. You all sit in awkward silence until you reach the outskirts of the woods. Drake pulls over, and you stand and head out the door. Although you couldn't tell because of the shutters and blacked out windows of the RV, you can now see that night has fallen. An empty red pick-up truck with four seats sits next to the woods. Drake strides forward, pulling out his phone. "Ah, shit," Drake says. "Of course Ed left the truck here and went off on his quad rather than just take back the RV like he was supposed to." He locks the RV and hides the keys in the wheel well. "I'll text my friend and get him to pick up the RV. Come on, get inside. Let's go drive to a dumbass cage in the woods." Drake, Lucy, Carter and Ant go in the seats while you, Mason, Becca and Kyle sit in the back of the pick-up. You sit, half-lying on Mason who wraps one arm around you. The emotional part of your brain momentarily forgets all fears in favor of a childish infatuation and hormonal lust towards Mason that causes you to blush and your heart to flutter, the rational part of your brain reminds you to stay vigilant in case the cultists or that beast do show up. You and the rest of your friends pull out flashlights and fire the beams off into the darkness, illuminating trees and undergrowth. "We're nearly there," Drake shouts. "It's a hell of a lot easier to get here because a path's been made." Your ears perk up at that. "What do you mean?" you ask, as Drake rolls down his window fully. "What'd you say?" "I said what do you mean? You said there's a path." "Yeah. It's like a big RV drove over the undergrowth and knocked a dirt path along." "What, you think Ed's been driving out here to work in the RV?" Lucy asks. "Nah, Ed's terrified of the woods. Said something about a monster or something." You feel a flash of fear as you remember the RV from last night. You stare outwards, illuminating every shadow, both hoping to and terrified of seeing something hiding in the dark. "Here it is! The old freak show's cage!" Drake says dramatically. As Drake pulls the pick-up into the clearing in the woods, you see the massive, rusted cage, although there's no RV. You shiver in fear, and Drake steps out of the truck. "Let's investigate and get home," Drake says, firing his flashlight beam towards the cage. The flashlight beam illuminates the cage and its insides. The old rusted gurney sits there, now encrusted with dried blood. "Well, that's new," Drake mentions. You step back nervously. "Hazel said there was a gurney in her dre... when she was abducted," Ant points out. "Fuck, this is some creepy shit. I'm calling the sheriff," Drake says. Drake takes out his phone, and makes a call. "Hello, Sheriff Buckly? I just found a gurney in the middle of the cage in the woods covered in dried blood. I think some weird... oh, really? OK, you know where the cage from the... oh, great.. Cool, see you in a few minutes, or an hour, or whatever." "What was that?" "The sheriff said he'll come here straight away." "Good," you sigh in relief. You really can't imagine having to deal with this without the help of the law. Now, it's out of your hands. You wait patiently for Sheriff Buckly to arrive. Eventually, you spot a flashlight heading towards you. "There he is," Drake says. You shine your light ahead, illuminating the figure of Sheriff Buckly. He swears, and holds his hands to block his eyes. "Turn that off!" he says, and you do. "Fuck, how'd you even get the truck out here? I can barely walk through the undergrowth," he says. "Where this bloody gurney?" You point at the cage, and Sheriff Buckly walks over and looks at it. "Jesus... who else saw this? I'm going to need to gather all the witnesses and find out what was going on," he says. "We're the only people who've seen this, although Hazel got a bit of a closer encounter." "So you didn't tell you pa about this?" Sheriff Buckly asks. You shake your head, and Sheriff Buckly nods. "Good," Sheriff Buckly says. Sheriff Buckly draws his revolver, and quickly aims at Drake's head and fires. Drake's head snaps back as it explodes partially, sending chunks of gray brain matter, pale skull and pieces of red flesh at you. You scream as Lucy runs over to Drake as his body collapses backwards. Mason runs for the truck, before the Sheriff barks an order. "Stop! Move another muscle and I'll blow the brain out of everyone of you!" Mason stops, raising his hands. Sheriff Buckly points his gun at all of you, forcing you to raise your hands into the air. "Everyone, calm down. Nobody needs to get hurt," Sheriff Buckly says. "Fuck you!" Lucy screams. "You killed him! You killed him you piece of..." Sheriff Buckly steps forward and cracks her across the head wit his revolver. "Shut up! Carter, Mason, Ant, Kyle, get in the fucking cage!" he shouts. Mason, Ant, Kyle and Carter slowly walk into the cage. "Now, back the fuck up to the end of the cage!" The boys comply, and the Sheriff draws a set of keys from his pocket, locking the cage door. He turns to you, Lucy and Becca. "Just don't move. They'll be here in a minute." You stand in silence, the cold wind blowing, the silence only broken by the occasional soft sob by Lucy as she stands over Drake. After about half an hour of waiting, you see the RV pull up along the path. It stops, and four masked men step out. "Anyone escape?" one asks. "No," Sheriff Buckly responds. "Fuck, I didn't even know they were coming out here. You said whatever the fuck you injected the girl with would make her forget everything." "I said it probably would. Her phone's bugged. How didn't you find out?" "She didn't make any calls saying she was going to do it!" "Well, at least no one escaped," the masked man says, pulling off his mask. The group remove their masks. You vaguely recognize them, one being the mechanic who found you, one being the town doctor, Doctor Kessel, another being a German teacher from school and the final one being the bartender of the local bar. "What are you going to do with...?" Becca asks, before Sheriff Buckley lets out a bark. "Hey! Shut the fuck..." "No, Jake, let the girl ask her question," Doctor Kessel says. "What are you going to do with us? Who are you? Why did you send a monster to hunt me?" "What are we going to do with you? Nothing, ideally. We only need to borrow you. Who are we? Well, surely you must recognize us. Louis, Sheriff Buckly, Mrs Jordan, Alison and me, Doctor Kessel. "As for the monster, I assume you're referring to the Black Beast. That's not an issue, I assure you. Although I'm not sure of its origins, if you look at town records, it actually kills most of the bears in the area, which reduces the amount of attacks so much it's saving lives. If I was in your situation, I'd be much more worried about us." "What do you want? Are you going to sacrifice us to Satan?" Becca asks again. Doctor Kessel lets out a chuckle. "No, Rebecca, we're not. We're not satanists. Real satanists don't even believe in Satan. We're... researchers. We're humanitarians. We're explorers. When we were little kids, we used to be the best of friends. We played in these very woods. When we were little, we found... a book in one of the caves. We took it and read it, and we found out the most amazing things. Do you know how insignificant not only we are, but this planet, this solar system, this galaxy and this universe is? There are so many amazing things we learned about these beings that we can't even comprehend, but compared to what's out there, we learned so little. So we kept reading. The book included some instructions to summon them, to summon these beings that are stronger than any gods we've ever imagined, more alien that any alien we've created in fiction, more incredible than anything you could experience here. If we create a Key-Bearer, we can create a portal to these beings." "That's insane! How do you know they won't wipe us out, or enslave us all, or worse!" you cry. "I don't," Doctor Kessel admits. "It could destroy everything!" "You just need to calm down and listen!" he hisses. "Imagine you're stuck in a room. There is a small tap for water, a toilet and a small machine that creates a nutritious yet tasteless paste. You have everything you need to survive and continue your blank, boring existence. Now, one day, a door appears in the room. It's unlocked. Do you go through?" "What the fuck does...?" "We are trying to open that door. Just as the person in the room doesn't know what's on the other side, anything is better than the bland, boring existence of the room. We're trying to open the world up to experiences unknown to man, good or bad, because it has to be better than this meaningless existence." "What are yuo even talking about? What the fuck's a Key-Bearer?" Mason shouts, as Sheriff Buckly aims his gun at his head once again. "Shut up," Sheriff Buckly grunts. "Ah yes, the Key-Bearer. That part's the worst for you guys. A Key-Bearer is a creature birthed of the beings' power of a human womb. We've had several attempts at this, but every time we failed. Instead of creating a Key-Bearer, we created half-human, half-monster children who aged rapidly. Finally, we settled the problem. The mother of the Key-Bearer had to be a virgin, post-puberty, below 21 and to have AB Negative Blood. You'd imagine my luck when I found one such target walking around the cave where I was sacrificing some former mothers to keep the beings' interested in our world. I simply pumped out some gas I had on hand to help knock her out, and voila! I got to work." You stare at him in horror, putting a hand on your stomach. There's a series of gasps and shouts from the group, before Sheriff Buckly fires his gun in the air. "SHUT IT!" he roars. "I'm sorry, Hazel. It'll be over in a few hours." "A few hours? It's only been two days, how...?" you ask in horror. "The Key-Bearer grows incredibly quickly. It should be able to be birthed within a day at most." You feel something wiggle in your stomach, in your womb, and a pain shoots through you. "Listen, Hazel, it'll be OK," Doctor Kessel says. "In a few hours, you'll be fine, and we'll be in a whole new world." > You get the Key-Bearer out of you You desperately search your pockets, finding it after a few seconds, pulling your switchblade out. You pull up our jumper and t-shirt slightly, revealing your stomach. You can see it is slightly extended, and if you take a deep breath and stay still, you can very vaguely feel something moving around in there, which begins to increase as you feel a sharp pain hit. "Drop the knife. I'll put a bullet between your eyes before you get near any of us," Sheriff Buckly says. You raise the knife, and plunge it into your stomach, towards the center mass of the movement. "NO! For fuck's sake, stop her!" Doctor Kessel screams. Sheriff Buckly charges towards you, knocking you in the side of the head with his gun. Your head snaps backwards, and you quickly lose consciousness. > You awaken You awaken strapped to a gurney, covered in blood, wearing a hospital gown. You're in the RV, and the lights are turned off. You can't see anything, but you can here a someone whimpering. "Hello?" you ask. The whimpering stops, and you begin to hear a deep, guttural panting. "Hello?" you ask again. As your eyes begin to adjust to the darkness, you make out two figures in the darkness. One sits in the corner, the other stands above them, rubbing them with a long coil of rope that moves like a snake. "Mason? Becca? Kyle? Carter?" you ask, staring towards the figures. The standing one turns, and you see the sitting one quickly flick on a light switch, brightening the RV. In the light, you notice that the sitting figure is Becca, whose eyes are red with tears and seems terrified. Your eyes scan, and see the second figure, slowly approaching you. The figure is one of the monster-children. It has long brown hair, but her face is nothing but a mucus-encrusted, lipless mouth and two nostrils. It wears a tattered, blood-stained blue dress, with a long, red tentacle coming from it's stomach and wrapping around its body. The tip of the tentacle slowly moves towards you, and you spot a yellow eye poking out from the end of the tentacle slowly edging towards you, staring into your eyes. You scream, and struggle against your bonds, before the tentacles begins to wrap around your leg, leaving a long lane of sticky pus that oozes out of the tentacle. You scream as it continues to edge towards you, heading towards your face. The tentacle snakes up your chest, before intertwining around your neck, before stopping inches from your face. "Hello..." the monster-child rasps. You stare at the eye, seeing a mixture of pain and child-like curiosity in the eyes. Then, you hear a yell. Out of the corner of your eye, you see Becca charge forward with a long, thin knife, stabbing the monster-child through the neck. The creature howls, gargling blood, before Becca draws her knife and begins slashing at it's face and neck, before finally running the knife through it's skull. It collapses, and the tentacle in front of you falls on your face, wiggling like a dying fish. You whimper, and Becca comes over to you and begins cutting you free of both your restraints and the tentacle that intertwines around you. You eagerly get up, pulling the bits of tentacle off you as you struggle not to vomit. "What happened?" you ask, shivering. You feel a dull pain in your stomach, pulling it up slightly slightly to reveal you're thankfully still in your underwear, although you see your stomach is heavily bandaged. "They cut you open and pulled... something out of you. It was alive, and wiggling, and..." Becca says, before shivering in terror. "We need to get our friends and get out of here." You hear a thumping from the bathroom door, and quickly go to listen. "Hello?" "Hazel? Get me out of here!" Lucy screams from inside. You unlock the door, finding Lucy. "Thank God. They locked us in here and put the guys in the cage. We need to get out of here and stop them." You nod, and head to the kitchen, finding a large butcher knife. The door to the RV opens, and Lucy and Becca quickly hide behind the counter with you. "Iris? Are you finished playing with your new friends? I hope you didn't hurt them. We're going to need them if this newborn isn't the Key-Bearer. I haven't even got to see the k... Iris?" Louis the Mechanic walks in, looking around. "Hello?" He takes a few steps forward, walking into the kitchen towards you. > You attack You wait until he's closer, take a deep breath, feel the adrenaline coursing through your veins, and charge. You turn around the counter and in a single bound reach him. His eyes widen in panic before you stab your blade, slicing through skin and flesh, straight through the neck. You pull your blade out and stab again, and again, until his neck is nothing but a hunk of meat that falls to the floor, blood spilling into a puddle on the floor. You stand over him as he dies, watching as the life goes out of his eyes. As a result of an adrenaline rush and primal instincts taking over, you try not to focus on the pathetic, dying man in front of you, and head to the door. You open it to a crack, peering out. Mason, Kyle, Carter and Ant sit in the rusted cage, with Sheriff Buckly watching over them. Mrs Jordan and Alison are placing blood-stained stones in a circle. Doctor Kesel stands with something cradled in his arms, although it's too dark for you to see. > You escape to formulate a plan You slowly open the door, and begin creeping out of the camp. You slowly tiptoe away, staying low and staying wrapped in the shadows. As you edge away from camp, you freeze as you hear a shout. "Shit, they're escaping!" Sheriff Buckly roars. You break into a sprint, heading away from the camp. You manage to make it to the trees, but you hear gunfire behind you. You turn your head slightly, seeing a spurt off blood go from the back of Lucy's leg as she collapses forward, skidding along the earth to a halt. Becca makes it to the trees next to you and stops. "Shit, do we go back?" she asks in a terrified panic. You look back. In the darkness, you might be able to get to Lucy and help her disappear into the trees. If you both reach the tree line, it'll be almost impossible for Sheriff Buckly to track you. > You try rescue her "We have to," you say, determined. Becca nods and you turn and burst into a sprint towards Lucy. You see Sheriff Buckly heading towards you, aiming his gun. You grab Lucy, yanking her up. "Come on!" you shout. As you begin to help pull Lucy towards the trees, Sheriff Buckly takes his shoot. You feel a bullet thud through your chest, and you collapse forward. You cough up blood, before closing your eyes for the last time.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You slowly open the door, and begin creeping out of the camp. You slowly tiptoe away, staying low and staying wrapped in the shadows. As you edge away from camp, you freeze as you hear a shout. "Shit, they're escaping!" Sheriff Buckly roars. You break into a sprint, heading away from the camp. You manage to make it to the trees, but you hear gunfire behind you. You turn your head slightly, seeing a spurt off blood go from the back of Lucy's leg as she collapses forward, skidding along the earth to a halt. Becca makes it to the trees next to you and stops. "Shit, do we go back?" she asks in a terrified panic. You look back. In the darkness, you might be able to get to Lucy and help her disappear into the trees. If you both reach the tree line, it'll be almost impossible for Sheriff Buckly to track you. > You head off into the trees "We have to go!" you say, and Becca nods. You break off into a sprint heading into the shadows and darkness, escaping into the trees. You run for several minutes, before you stop, bending over and panting. "Jesus, what do we do now?" > You think OK, you need to act fast, before the cultists do whatever they're planning.you could call the police. Although Sheriff Buckly is one of the only cops in town, if you called the State Troopers, there's a good chance they'd be able to arrive and clear this place out. You could also sneak back to the trucks and steal some of the weapons that Drake brought, and force a confrontation and end this. Then again, you know where the location of Drake's keys are for the RV. You know the RV's highly explosive, and with that you could easily disrupt the ritual and do a lot more. Then, there are the more... dangerous solutions. You could use the Dead Man. That terrifying spirit no doubt has some rage toward the town locals such as the cultists. Perhaps he could be bartered with. > You call the State Troopers "So what do we do?" Becca asks. "Call the State Troopers." "Are you sure that'll work?" "I don't know," you admit. "Just... it's worth a try." You ring the number, and immediately get an automated voice in your ear. You wait as they go through the numbers, before you hear a shout. "HANDS UP!" a voice screams. You turn, and see Sheriff Buckly walking out from the trees. "Jesus fucking Christ, Alison suggested I track your phones, but I told her it'd be insane for you to use it after I told you I had the equipment to track it. Jesus Christ. Come on, girls. I'm taking you back to camp. I'm going to hurt you, hurt you so, so bad for what you did to Louis." > You attack You take a deep breath as adrenaline surges through you, and charge forward with the knife. As soon as you near Sheriff Buckly, he quickly backpedals and aims, before blowing your brains out.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"So what do we do?" Becca asks. "Call the State Troopers." "Are you sure that'll work?" "I don't know," you admit. "Just... it's worth a try." You ring the number, and immediately get an automated voice in your ear. You wait as they go through the numbers, before you hear a shout. "HANDS UP!" a voice screams. You turn, and see Sheriff Buckly walking out from the trees. "Jesus fucking Christ, Alison suggested I track your phones, but I told her it'd be insane for you to use it after I told you I had the equipment to track it. Jesus Christ. Come on, girls. I'm taking you back to camp. I'm going to hurt you, hurt you so, so bad for what you did to Louis." > You surrender Apocalypse You raise your hands and drop your knife. Sheriff Buckly binds your hands with rope and ties a rag around your eyes as a blindfold, before marching you both off back towards camp. You walk for several minutes, before you're dragged within earshot of your friends, who let out disappointed groans and swears at your capture. Then, your blindfold is torn off. A large circle of stones lies, each stained with a drop of blood. Standing around the circle are the five remaining cultists. Standing around them are a half dozen monster-children that make you want to vomit, the failed attempts at rearing a Key Bearer. They're so deformed, so mutated, they barely qualify as children. One is missing both it's arms, replaced with long, thin, slimy tentacles like pasta. A second is missing most of its face, a gaping hole in its place filled with tiny, wiggling tentacles from the walls, back, roof and floor of the mouth. A third looks like a cute, perfectly normal girl of around four years old, except her mouth hangs open and her eyes are completely black. Another, one of the worst, looks like a cross between a schoolgirl, a fetus and an octopus, and stands wiggling. Still, that's nothing compared to what sits in the middle of the circle. Sitting in the middle, wiggling, is your child. The Key-Bearer is the size of a cat, and is nothing but a seething mass of tentacles that whip around, seemingly drawing lines of purple lightning around itself in the symbol that was carved into you. "Ah, you're here!" Doctor Kessel says eagerly. "I wanted you to see this!" "You're insane!" "I don't care! Now, we begin!" The Key-Bearer speeds up, painting the symbol across the very fabric of reality. The ground begins to crumble away, turning in pure blackness. Suddenly, there's a flash, and the portal opens. Then, it begins.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>OK, you need to act fast, before the cultists do whatever they're planning.you could call the police. Although Sheriff Buckly is one of the only cops in town, if you called the State Troopers, there's a good chance they'd be able to arrive and clear this place out. You could also sneak back to the trucks and steal some of the weapons that Drake brought, and force a confrontation and end this. Then again, you know where the location of Drake's keys are for the RV. You know the RV's highly explosive, and with that you could easily disrupt the ritual and do a lot more. Then, there are the more... dangerous solutions. You could use the Dead Man. That terrifying spirit no doubt has some rage toward the town locals such as the cultists. Perhaps he could be bartered with. > You steal weapons from Drake's truck and confront the cultists "We need to get the weapons in Drake's truck. We get them and use the advantage of surprise to fend off the rest of the group." Becca nods with determination, and you swivel around in the darkness, heading back towards the truck. As you head towards the camp, you can hear the sound of Sheriff Buckly berating Lucy. "You fucking bitch! Louis was a good friend of mine!" You sneak forward, staying low and moving as quickly as you can, avoiding stepping on anything that would make noise and disturb the cultists. Eventually, you reach the pick-up truck, Drake''s lifeless body lying alongside it. You lean in through the window, grabbing one of the large revolvers Drake brought. You pull it out, pulling the hammer back and flicking the safety off. Thankfully, many years of FPS games have given you some help in this. You take a deep breath, and stand, aiming your weapon at Sheriff Buckly. He turns, and grins. "Hiya. Why don't you just drop the weapon, darlin'?" "Fuck you." Yuo fire your revolver, but the hollow click eats into your soul as you realize it's empty. Lucy fires her gun, and realizes it's the same thing. "Taking the ammo from the guns was one of the first things I did. I'm the only one who gets to have a gun." He grins, raising his gun, and fires, the bullet embedding itself in your skull.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>OK, you need to act fast, before the cultists do whatever they're planning.you could call the police. Although Sheriff Buckly is one of the only cops in town, if you called the State Troopers, there's a good chance they'd be able to arrive and clear this place out. You could also sneak back to the trucks and steal some of the weapons that Drake brought, and force a confrontation and end this. Then again, you know where the location of Drake's keys are for the RV. You know the RV's highly explosive, and with that you could easily disrupt the ritual and do a lot more. Then, there are the more... dangerous solutions. You could use the Dead Man. That terrifying spirit no doubt has some rage toward the town locals such as the cultists. Perhaps he could be bartered with. > You steal Drake's RV Meth Lab “What are you thinking?” “Drake’s RV.” “What about it?” “We get the keys, and drive it straight into the cultists’s camp and hop out.” “What? Like ram them.” “No, we make it explode. I’m pretty good at Chemistry and I watch a lot of crime shows. I should know what to mix to make it go up in a fireball.” Becca stares at you nervously, before nodding. “Yeah, OK. Let’s do that.” “Do you remember which way the truck is?” Becca nods, and you begin following her through the dead night. The silence is only broken by the trudging of your feet and the occassional hoot from an owl. Eventually, you near the edge of the woods. Sure enough, the massive RV sits by the trees at the edge of the forest. “Do you know how to drive?” you ask. “I guess. I’ve never drove an RV, nad I sure as hell haven’t driven one through the woods, avoiding trees and… whatever.” “You’re going to have to,” you say. Becca retrieves the keys from their hiding spots, and you enter the RV. Becca goes to start it up, while you head to the back and start looking at the various pieces of equipment and chemicals at your disposal. You find a few choice substances from the distilerry Drake had set up, including plenty of flammible alcohol. As you struggle to remember your many science classes, you work with the chemicals for several minutes, before you’ve made the RV into a jury-rigged bomb. “Hey, Hazel, is it ready?” “Yes.” “Should we have waited until we were a little closer and not going through bumpy terrain before we made this into a bomb?” You shrug, and Becca begins driving. Although she finds it considerably harder to navigate the trees unlike the others who did so with ease, she manages to keep you on track and alive. After a while, you begin to near the camp. “So, what do we do?” Becca asks. “We ram them,” you say. “You get out now. I’ll ram it.” “You don’t know how to drive!” “I have a straight line to the camp. Just press down on the accerator, I suppose. Which one’s the accelrator?” Becca shows you, and you nod. “OK, get out.” “Are you sure?” “Yeah, I’ll just speed it up and dive out. Easy,” you reply. You take a deep breath, before Becca gets out of the RV. She stands to the side, staring nervously ahead. You take another deep breath, hoping the oxygen will calm you, and hit the accelerator. The vehicle quickly begins to speed up, as the RV bumps you around in your seat. You enter the clearing, and get your site. You see slithering, monsterous and malformed children in the RV as the rest of the cultists lay stones in a massive circle. Doctor Kessel cradles a bundle in his arms, and looks up at you in shock. “What the hell…?” “Stop her!” Alison yells, as Sheriff Buckly fumbles for his gun in a panic. You point your RV at theirs’, and quickly drop a large piece of equipment on the accelerator. As the wheels begin to spin and start speeding toward RV. You jump out of your seat and rush to the door. You dive out of it, hitting the dirt, as you watch one RV speeding towards the other. Doctor Kessel screams in a panic, and the Meth Lab rams into the RV. They impact with incredible force, knocking them both onto their sides as they flip through the air. After a few seconds, they slow down, and land in a mangled heap. You hear horrible growls, shrieks and hisses from inside the metal as the seemingly unharmed monsters inside begin to pull themselves out by hands, claws or tentacles. The wreckage begins to leak, a large puddle of alcohol, fuel and various other chemicals forming. Doctor Kessel looks at it and laughs. "I thought would've exploded..." Doctor Kessel says. He begins walking towards you, and you see what he's holding: a wiggling mass of tentacles, flying around the air and stroking his face. The long, thin tentacles, covered with a thin veneer of slime, begin stretching out, stroking your face and you scream. "Ssssh..." Doctor Kessel whispers. "This is your child. Isn't he beautiful?" You stare at the center mass of the tentacles, and see a light blue, incredibly human eye in the center. An eye just like yours. You let out a terrified cry, as you hear a shout from Sheriff Buckly. "STUPID BITCH!" he screams. You look up, and see Becca has snuck up and is trying to open the rusted cage. Doctor Kessel looks up, and you have a moment to act. > You kill the Key-Bearer with your switchblade You grab your switchblade and stab it into the center mass of the Key-Bearer. Doctor Kessel notices and lets out a petrified scream, grabbing at your throat. The Key-Bearer's tentacles intertwine around your hand as a green-yellowish pus comes out and begins sticking to your hand. You feel a sharp prick, and then another, and then another, as bone teeth begin to grow slowly out of the tentacles, digging deeply into you. You scream as a black liquid begins to steep out of the teeth and out of your wound as your veins begin to turn black. You scream as your arm goes number, before the numbness begins to spread throughout your body. You let out a mangled cry before it reaches your chest, and finally the darkness consumes you as it stops your heart.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>“What are you thinking?” “Drake’s RV.” “What about it?” “We get the keys, and drive it straight into the cultists’s camp and hop out.” “What? Like ram them.” “No, we make it explode. I’m pretty good at Chemistry and I watch a lot of crime shows. I should know what to mix to make it go up in a fireball.” Becca stares at you nervously, before nodding. “Yeah, OK. Let’s do that.” “Do you remember which way the truck is?” Becca nods, and you begin following her through the dead night. The silence is only broken by the trudging of your feet and the occassional hoot from an owl. Eventually, you near the edge of the woods. Sure enough, the massive RV sits by the trees at the edge of the forest. “Do you know how to drive?” you ask. “I guess. I’ve never drove an RV, nad I sure as hell haven’t driven one through the woods, avoiding trees and… whatever.” “You’re going to have to,” you say. Becca retrieves the keys from their hiding spots, and you enter the RV. Becca goes to start it up, while you head to the back and start looking at the various pieces of equipment and chemicals at your disposal. You find a few choice substances from the distilerry Drake had set up, including plenty of flammible alcohol. As you struggle to remember your many science classes, you work with the chemicals for several minutes, before you’ve made the RV into a jury-rigged bomb. “Hey, Hazel, is it ready?” “Yes.” “Should we have waited until we were a little closer and not going through bumpy terrain before we made this into a bomb?” You shrug, and Becca begins driving. Although she finds it considerably harder to navigate the trees unlike the others who did so with ease, she manages to keep you on track and alive. After a while, you begin to near the camp. “So, what do we do?” Becca asks. “We ram them,” you say. “You get out now. I’ll ram it.” “You don’t know how to drive!” “I have a straight line to the camp. Just press down on the accerator, I suppose. Which one’s the accelrator?” Becca shows you, and you nod. “OK, get out.” “Are you sure?” “Yeah, I’ll just speed it up and dive out. Easy,” you reply. You take a deep breath, before Becca gets out of the RV. She stands to the side, staring nervously ahead. You take another deep breath, hoping the oxygen will calm you, and hit the accelerator. The vehicle quickly begins to speed up, as the RV bumps you around in your seat. You enter the clearing, and get your site. You see slithering, monsterous and malformed children in the RV as the rest of the cultists lay stones in a massive circle. Doctor Kessel cradles a bundle in his arms, and looks up at you in shock. “What the hell…?” “Stop her!” Alison yells, as Sheriff Buckly fumbles for his gun in a panic. You point your RV at theirs’, and quickly drop a large piece of equipment on the accelerator. As the wheels begin to spin and start speeding toward RV. You jump out of your seat and rush to the door. You dive out of it, hitting the dirt, as you watch one RV speeding towards the other. Doctor Kessel screams in a panic, and the Meth Lab rams into the RV. They impact with incredible force, knocking them both onto their sides as they flip through the air. After a few seconds, they slow down, and land in a mangled heap. You hear horrible growls, shrieks and hisses from inside the metal as the seemingly unharmed monsters inside begin to pull themselves out by hands, claws or tentacles. The wreckage begins to leak, a large puddle of alcohol, fuel and various other chemicals forming. Doctor Kessel looks at it and laughs. "I thought would've exploded..." Doctor Kessel says. He begins walking towards you, and you see what he's holding: a wiggling mass of tentacles, flying around the air and stroking his face. The long, thin tentacles, covered with a thin veneer of slime, begin stretching out, stroking your face and you scream. "Ssssh..." Doctor Kessel whispers. "This is your child. Isn't he beautiful?" You stare at the center mass of the tentacles, and see a light blue, incredibly human eye in the center. An eye just like yours. You let out a terrified cry, as you hear a shout from Sheriff Buckly. "STUPID BITCH!" he screams. You look up, and see Becca has snuck up and is trying to open the rusted cage. Doctor Kessel looks up, and you have a moment to act. > You crawl away from them You crawl desperately backwards, away from Doctor Kessel. You hands touch the puddle of fuel, and you have an idea. You fumble through your pants, pulling out your lighter. Doctor Kessel charges forward, pressing his foot on your chest with a swift stomp. "Stop fighting, girl!" he growls. > You light the puddle You flick your lighter on, and ignite the puddle. Flames burst out as the liquid sets alight. The flames lap at your side, but Doctor Kessel desperately backs away in a panic, allowing you to roll away from the fire. The flames race along, igniting the puddle, before it reaches the RV. As flames reach the insides where the lab and make-shift explosive are hit. Then, it explodes. A wave of heat and shrapnel tear through the air as a thunderous boom goes off. Your ears ring as a fireball explodes into the night with tremendous force. Chunks of metal go off in all directions, and you collapse on the ground. After a few seconds you manage to look up and survey the carnage. Miraculously, you're safe, and all your friends in the cage as well as Becca and Sheriff Buckly seem mostly unharmed. You can hear the sizzling of the monsters' corpses in the burning skeleton of the two intertwined RVs. Alison and Mrs Jordan were closest to the RV and consumed in the wall of fire and barrage of shrapnel, their burned and torn apart bodies now lying on the earth. Doctor Kessel lies, badly burned with the scorched remains of the Key-Bearer lying on top of him. "NO! NO!" Sheriff Buckly screams, staring at the wreckage in abject horror. Becca raises her knife and stabs Sheriff Buckly in the neck with a scream and he yelps in pain. She pulls it out, and Sheriff Buckly collapses to the floor. "You... you've taken everything... from me," Doctor Kessel pants. You look at him, burns going across his face and across his smoldering chest. The Key-Bearer moves slightly, but you quickly finish it off with a few stomps, wincing at every squelch. "No...!" Doctor Kessel pants. "You've... doomed man... to nothingness." You stare down at him as his breathing slows, before the rise and fall of his chest ceases. You walk over to Becca, who's pulling a pair of keys out of Sheriff Buckly's pocket. She unlocks the rusted cage, and your friends spill out. Carter and Mason help Lucy hobble out, followed by Kyle who eagerly hugs Becca, and finally Ant. "Holy shit. You just blew up an evil cult. I'm impressed," Ant says. "Holy shit, I don't... what the fuck just happened?" Kyle asks. "I don't know. We should probably leave," Mason says. "Thanks, Hazel, thanks, Becca, you saved our asses here. "We n-need t-to get out of here and g-g-get Lucy help f-for her le-leg," Carter says. You nod, and begin to walk away from the burnt out ashes of the camp, just as the sky begins to rise. > One Year Later... After the Bang You're surprised how quickly and eagerly the media pick up on this. A tale of a bunch of kids discovering what a cult and driving a meth lab into it and blowing it up entirely. Of course, the story gets botched considerably. The cult is said to be Satanist, the monster-children are claimed to be simply malformed or mutilated, and any and all super-natural presence is rationalized. Still, it does turn Dawnwood into a media hotspot for some time and turns you into somewhat of a celebrity some time. Still, it doesn't take long for the media to move on. With celebrity pregnancies, terrorist attacks in the Middle East and an endless amount of mass shootings, things move on. You continue living in Dawnwood, staying with your friends. There's a special type of unbreakable bound that arises when a group of people face death together, and because of that you stay as a tight-knit group of friends. Time passes, you settle down in the town and for the first time you're glad you moved to the town. Sure, you still have many unanswered questions about what happened and still wake up with phantom pains in your stomach and nightmares of that night, but for the most part you're able to move past it. You're looking forward to your future in Dawnwood.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>OK, you need to act fast, before the cultists do whatever they're planning.you could call the police. Although Sheriff Buckly is one of the only cops in town, if you called the State Troopers, there's a good chance they'd be able to arrive and clear this place out. You could also sneak back to the trucks and steal some of the weapons that Drake brought, and force a confrontation and end this. Then again, you know where the location of Drake's keys are for the RV. You know the RV's highly explosive, and with that you could easily disrupt the ritual and do a lot more. Then, there are the more... dangerous solutions. You could use the Dead Man. That terrifying spirit no doubt has some rage toward the town locals such as the cultists. Perhaps he could be bartered with. > You attempt to barter with the Dead Man "So what's our plan?" "The Dead Man." "What? The ghost?" "Yeah. We could use him." "Ghosts aren't real, Hazel. Maybe you should sit down." "I saw him." "Ghosts aren't..." "Becca, our friends have been kidnapped by demon-summoning cultists, and you don't belief in ghosts at the moment?" "I... I guess." "Yeah. Let's go pay him a visit." You turn and lead Becca off towards the Dead Man's Barn. After about five minutes of jogging, you reach the empty field that's brightened in the moonlight, with the large, old abandoned barn standing there. "Come on!" you say. You reach the barn, and begin prying plywood out of the way. You pause, remembering the Dead Man's hatred of Becca, pause. "I'll go inside alone," you say. "Are you sure?" "Yeah," you say. Becca shrugs, pulling the plywood out of the way and clambering inside. You are immediately engulfed in darkness. The soft rustle of the grass ceases as the entire barn is filled with a silence. Then, a whistle breaks out. The Dead Man begins whistling a slow, soft tune, the only thing that breaks the silence. Each note is mixed with the wet squelching you heard the last time. You see him leaning on a large wooden beam, his long, cut open grin staring back at you. The whistling stops as shadows seem to enrapture him. He disappears from his position leaning on the beam, and you feel hot breath on the back of your neck. "I didn't think you'd come around here, darlin'. I was certain you'd be smarter," you hear him whisper from directly behind you. A gloved hand begins to stroke your hair as you feel a metal blade press against your throat. "No bother. I won't mind cutting you up a little." "Wait! I want to make a deal with you!" The blade stops and twists so that the flat of the blade is rubbing your neck. "Alright... you bought yourself a minute. Explain." "I want to help you get revenge." "No you don't.You want something that coincides with me getting my revenge. What?" "I need Mrs Jordan, Alison, Sheriff Buckly and Doctor Kessel." "Alison. What's her last name." "Parker." "Oh yeah, Parker... Damn right I want my revenge. But it seems you're far more desperate than I am." "I..." "I want something. The Montgomery girl." "What?" "I want you to bring me her." "I don't have her. She left..." The Dead Man smiles as his grin is elongated once again because of the cuts as a wave of blood spills down his cheeks. He leans forward, running a hand against your cheek and down your neck. "Bring me the girl... and I will help you kill every last person you want dead." > You agree You take a deep breath, and nod. “OK. Fine,” you say. It’s for the best. It’s the only way to safe your friends. If you don’t sacrifice one, you all die. "Call her, then." "Becca!" you shout. "Yes?" "Come in here!" "I though you said..." "Just do it!" You see the Dead Man disappear, and seconds later, Becca climbs through the hole in the wall. "What do you need?" "I'm so, so sorry," you whimper. "What...?" The Dead Man is formed from the shadows directly behind Becca, leaning against the wall. He raises an old-fashioned revolver, and points it at the back of her head. "Tell your ancestors I sent you," he says. The Dead Man fires his gun and the revolver explodes with a thunderous roar, as does Becca's face. The front of her face explodes, sending blood, bits of flesh and grey matter onto the floor. You scream in horror as your friend collapses on the floor as all the life flows from her eyes and her face takes a dull expression. "Ah... you can't imagine how good that felt." You choke back a cry, as tears stream down your face. "You have to kill everyone I mentioned." "How the fuck am I supposed to do that?" "What? You said you could! You promised." "I promised I would try. You bring those people into this barn, I'll kill 'em all and leave you alive." "How the fuck am I supposed to do that?" you shout, echoing the Dead Man's complaint. The Dead Man grins, and fades into the background and is absorbed by shadows once again. You sigh, and walk out. You climb out of the barn, your mind racing. Then, you have an idea. The one thing any of them care about is the Key-Bearer. If you can get that,or it, or whatever the fuck the creature is, you can lure them into the barn. You begin walking back towards the camp. > Five Minutes Later... You stare at the camp, watching the cultists work.They all pile stones in a large circle. You hear horrified moans from inside the RV, and you can vaguely see the horrified shapes of the failed attempts to birth a Key-Bearer inside the RV, the monstrous, contorting shapes howling desperately. Still, you see what you're looking for. Doctor Kessel holds a large bundle of contorting tentacles You look around the earthen floor of the woods, finding a large tree branch with suitable weight and length. You pick it up, and begin creeping towards Doctor Kessel. You silently creep forward, aas he watches the circle being formed, oblivious to anything else. You take a deep breath, and raise the tree branch. You swing it with as much strength as you can muster, and it smacks into the back of his head. It slams into his head and he collapses forward, the Key-Bearer flying onto the floor. You spot your friends in the cage, Sheriff Buckly watching over you, but know you don't have time to rescue them. You grab the Key-Bearer and get your first real look at it. A seething mass of tentacles, with at the base a small, spherical body. You shiver in terror as you notice the creature has a single, bright blue eye, the same color as yours. You grab it, wrapping in the blanket Doctor Kessel has been coddling it, and turn. "Fuck! Get her!" Doctor Kessel screams. Sheriff Buckly turns and raises his gun, but Doctor Kessel screams at him to stop. "No, no! For god's sake, don't fire! You could hit the key-bearer and ruin everything!" Doctor Kessel screams later. You break into a run, as you see Alison open the RV. "Children! Go, go track down your brother and the girl!" You see demented figures emerge from the RV. There's a pair of small legs that waddle forward, although everything above the waist is a seething mass of tentacles. There's an armless child who's eyes are just two empty caverns that are blacker the pure darkness. There's a small girl, each limb replaced with a long coil of muscles that it uses to crawl along the ground. They all see you, eyes filled with pain and angst, and begin to follow you. You turn and begin running as fast as you can towards the Dead Man's barn. You run as fast as your feet will carry you for several minutes, hearing the howls of the monsters behind you grow louder as the cultists follow just behind you. "Stop running! We won't hurt you!" Doctor Kessel screams. You feel the Key-Bearer writhe under the blanket in your arms and you wince, but don't dare stop runnign. Eventually, you break free from the trees, into the field under the moonlight. You spot the hole in the boarded up barn, and begin desperately running towards it. After a minute of running as fast as you can, you dive through it, into the darkness of the barn. Seconds later, you hear a slithering, shivering sound as those monsters enter. You stay perfectly quiet, and begin crawling under a small gap in the fence, into a horse stall. "Hazel... you better come out now..." Sheriff Buckly whispers. "It's better we find you then one of the kids..." You try not to breath and stay perfectly silent as you hear figures wandering around the room. "Oh, there you ar... what's this?" "Ah, look who it is. A Buckly... I always did know your family was a generation of snakes and government cocksuckers..." "How... what the fuck are yo...?" "I'm the Grim fuckin' Reaper." "No! Wait! Please, don't!" "Tell ol' grandaddy Buckly you died beggin' me!" There's a gunshot, and Sheriff Buckly falls silent. "Well, look at this... the Kessel family's newest generation are all pig-fuck ugly monsters. See ya, kids." There's a series of gun shots as you hear the knife whistle through the air. "Jesus fuck! What's...?" "A Parker. Your gran' daddy had the dumbest horse grin I'd ever seen." There's the noise of a knife, slicing through the air and the squelching sound of blood. "Oops, there goes a Jordan and a O'Riley. Huh, your grand daddies on your mom and dad's sides were fiddling, only makes sense their kids would have kids." There's a series of gunshots and squelches from knife stabs, before you hear a single, solitary voice. "Hazel? Whatever you've done, stop this... please..." Doctor Kessel whimpers. You hear a gunshot, and the thud of a body hitting the floor. Then, silence. Suddenly, the Dead Man stands, staring at you. "Alright, darling. You never said there'd be a dozen monsters in tow." "I didn't think they'd release them." "Alright. Well, I reckon we're about even." You nod, before the bundle wiggles in your arms again. The Dead Man raises his gun and shoots the wiggling bundle twice. You scream as blood flies up, before throwing the dying monster off you. "There. Now we're sure as fuck even." The Dead Man is absorbed by the darkness once more, and you're left alone in the darkness. You stand, walking out into the carnage. Corpses lie everywhere, shriveled tentacles and bleeding bodies around the room. You find Sheriff Buckly, lying on the floor in a growing puddle of blood. You search his pockets, pulling out the keys to the rusted cage. You leave the barn, and begin walking off to rescue your friends, just as the sky begins to rise. > One Year Later... Death and Vengeance You're surprised how quickly and eagerly the media pick up on this. A tale of a bunch of kids discovering what a cult. Of course, the story gets botched considerably. The cult is said to be Satanist, the monster-children are claimed to be simply malformed or mutilated, any and all super-natural presence is rationalized, and its claimed that you and Becca made a stand against the cultists, leading to Becca's death in the fire fight. You don't disagree with them, because you know you'd come off as crazy. The Dead Man is happy to stay hidden every time they investigate the barn, knowing the difference between picking off a few trespassers and ambushing a police investigation, and not wanting his barn covered in police tape for any longer than needs be. Still, it does turn Dawnwood into a media hotspot for some time and turns you into somewhat of a celebrity some time. Still, it doesn't take long for the media to move on. With celebrity pregnancies, terrorist attacks in the Middle East and an endless amount of mass shootings, things move on. You continue living in Dawnwood, staying with your friends. You still have serious guilt over what happened to Becca, and any and all attempts to rationalize it lead to you just wallowing in self-depreciation and depression. Time passes, you settle down in the town and for the first time you're glad you moved to the town. Sure, you still have many unanswered questions about what happened and still wake up with phantom pains in your stomach and nightmares of that night, and nightmares of Becca's corpse slumped over in front of you, but you're able to move past it somewhat. You're looking forward to your future in Dawnwood.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"So what's our plan?" "The Dead Man." "What? The ghost?" "Yeah. We could use him." "Ghosts aren't real, Hazel. Maybe you should sit down." "I saw him." "Ghosts aren't..." "Becca, our friends have been kidnapped by demon-summoning cultists, and you don't belief in ghosts at the moment?" "I... I guess." "Yeah. Let's go pay him a visit." You turn and lead Becca off towards the Dead Man's Barn. After about five minutes of jogging, you reach the empty field that's brightened in the moonlight, with the large, old abandoned barn standing there. "Come on!" you say. You reach the barn, and begin prying plywood out of the way. You pause, remembering the Dead Man's hatred of Becca, pause. "I'll go inside alone," you say. "Are you sure?" "Yeah," you say. Becca shrugs, pulling the plywood out of the way and clambering inside. You are immediately engulfed in darkness. The soft rustle of the grass ceases as the entire barn is filled with a silence. Then, a whistle breaks out. The Dead Man begins whistling a slow, soft tune, the only thing that breaks the silence. Each note is mixed with the wet squelching you heard the last time. You see him leaning on a large wooden beam, his long, cut open grin staring back at you. The whistling stops as shadows seem to enrapture him. He disappears from his position leaning on the beam, and you feel hot breath on the back of your neck. "I didn't think you'd come around here, darlin'. I was certain you'd be smarter," you hear him whisper from directly behind you. A gloved hand begins to stroke your hair as you feel a metal blade press against your throat. "No bother. I won't mind cutting you up a little." "Wait! I want to make a deal with you!" The blade stops and twists so that the flat of the blade is rubbing your neck. "Alright... you bought yourself a minute. Explain." "I want to help you get revenge." "No you don't.You want something that coincides with me getting my revenge. What?" "I need Mrs Jordan, Alison, Sheriff Buckly and Doctor Kessel." "Alison. What's her last name." "Parker." "Oh yeah, Parker... Damn right I want my revenge. But it seems you're far more desperate than I am." "I..." "I want something. The Montgomery girl." "What?" "I want you to bring me her." "I don't have her. She left..." The Dead Man smiles as his grin is elongated once again because of the cuts as a wave of blood spills down his cheeks. He leans forward, running a hand against your cheek and down your neck. "Bring me the girl... and I will help you kill every last person you want dead." > You lie and escape while claiming to be luring Becca in "OK. I'll go get her." "Oh, I can't let you leave until you Becca's here." "She's not going to come wander into the darkness just because I'm calling. I need to go out there personally." "...Hmm... Alright. Go get her." You nod, and head out of the barn slowly. Each step you expect to feel the steel blade slicing through you, but you keep walking, trying to appear calm and collected. You reach the ray of moonlight, and climb out of the barn, finding Becca. "What happened?" "We... we need to go. Come on." You grab Becca's arm and quickly pull her quickly away from barn, heading back into the field. "What happened there?" "It doesn't matter. Just make sure to never go inside that barn." "What do we do now? How will we rescue our friends?" "I had a few more ideas."<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You wait until he's closer, take a deep breath, feel the adrenaline coursing through your veins, and charge. You turn around the counter and in a single bound reach him. His eyes widen in panic before you stab your blade, slicing through skin and flesh, straight through the neck. You pull your blade out and stab again, and again, until his neck is nothing but a hunk of meat that falls to the floor, blood spilling into a puddle on the floor. You stand over him as he dies, watching as the life goes out of his eyes. As a result of an adrenaline rush and primal instincts taking over, you try not to focus on the pathetic, dying man in front of you, and head to the door. You open it to a crack, peering out. Mason, Kyle, Carter and Ant sit in the rusted cage, with Sheriff Buckly watching over them. Mrs Jordan and Alison are placing blood-stained stones in a circle. Doctor Kesel stands with something cradled in his arms, although it's too dark for you to see. > You pick them off one by one "We need to attack," you whisper. "What?" Lucy asks in surprise. "They have a gun!" "It's dark, we can sneak up on the sheriff and take him out with our knives, and get the gun. Then, we stop this and free our friends." Lucy nods, and you edge out of the door, heading towards Sheriff Buckly. You stay low, immersed in the darkness. You slowly edge forward, before you're less than a dozen feet away from him. Then, Sheriff Buckly turns, noticing you. "Ah, shit..." he sighs, raising his gun. > You charge him You charge forward, slashing your knife. Sheriff Buckly backs up with a yelp, firing randomly. Although he's firing without thinking or aiming, the amount of lead he puts in the air makes it sure that one finds it's way through your skull, killing you instantly.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"We need to attack," you whisper. "What?" Lucy asks in surprise. "They have a gun!" "It's dark, we can sneak up on the sheriff and take him out with our knives, and get the gun. Then, we stop this and free our friends." Lucy nods, and you edge out of the door, heading towards Sheriff Buckly. You stay low, immersed in the darkness. You slowly edge forward, before you're less than a dozen feet away from him. Then, Sheriff Buckly turns, noticing you. "Ah, shit..." he sighs, raising his gun. > You run "They're escaping!" Sheriff Buckly roars at his allies. You break into a sprint, heading away from the camp. You manage to make it to the trees, but you hear gunfire behind you. You turn your head slightly, seeing a spurt off blood go from the back of Lucy's leg as she collapses forward, skidding along the earth to a halt. Becca makes it to the trees next to you and stops. "Shit, do we go back?" she asks in a terrified panic. You look back. In the darkness, you might be able to get to Lucy and help her disappear into the trees. If you both reach the tree line, it'll be almost impossible for Sheriff Buckly to track you.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You awaken strapped to a gurney, covered in blood, wearing a hospital gown. You're in the RV, and the lights are turned off. You can't see anything, but you can here a someone whimpering. "Hello?" you ask. The whimpering stops, and you begin to hear a deep, guttural panting. "Hello?" you ask again. As your eyes begin to adjust to the darkness, you make out two figures in the darkness. One sits in the corner, the other stands above them, rubbing them with a long coil of rope that moves like a snake. "Mason? Becca? Kyle? Carter?" you ask, staring towards the figures. The standing one turns, and you see the sitting one quickly flick on a light switch, brightening the RV. In the light, you notice that the sitting figure is Becca, whose eyes are red with tears and seems terrified. Your eyes scan, and see the second figure, slowly approaching you. The figure is one of the monster-children. It has long brown hair, but her face is nothing but a mucus-encrusted, lipless mouth and two nostrils. It wears a tattered, blood-stained blue dress, with a long, red tentacle coming from it's stomach and wrapping around its body. The tip of the tentacle slowly moves towards you, and you spot a yellow eye poking out from the end of the tentacle slowly edging towards you, staring into your eyes. You scream, and struggle against your bonds, before the tentacles begins to wrap around your leg, leaving a long lane of sticky pus that oozes out of the tentacle. You scream as it continues to edge towards you, heading towards your face. The tentacle snakes up your chest, before intertwining around your neck, before stopping inches from your face. "Hello..." the monster-child rasps. You stare at the eye, seeing a mixture of pain and child-like curiosity in the eyes. Then, you hear a yell. Out of the corner of your eye, you see Becca charge forward with a long, thin knife, stabbing the monster-child through the neck. The creature howls, gargling blood, before Becca draws her knife and begins slashing at it's face and neck, before finally running the knife through it's skull. It collapses, and the tentacle in front of you falls on your face, wiggling like a dying fish. You whimper, and Becca comes over to you and begins cutting you free of both your restraints and the tentacle that intertwines around you. You eagerly get up, pulling the bits of tentacle off you as you struggle not to vomit. "What happened?" you ask, shivering. You feel a dull pain in your stomach, pulling it up slightly slightly to reveal you're thankfully still in your underwear, although you see your stomach is heavily bandaged. "They cut you open and pulled... something out of you. It was alive, and wiggling, and..." Becca says, before shivering in terror. "We need to get our friends and get out of here." You hear a thumping from the bathroom door, and quickly go to listen. "Hello?" "Hazel? Get me out of here!" Lucy screams from inside. You unlock the door, finding Lucy. "Thank God. They locked us in here and put the guys in the cage. We need to get out of here and stop them." You nod, and head to the kitchen, finding a large butcher knife. The door to the RV opens, and Lucy and Becca quickly hide behind the counter with you. "Iris? Are you finished playing with your new friends? I hope you didn't hurt them. We're going to need them if this newborn isn't the Key-Bearer. I haven't even got to see the k... Iris?" Louis the Mechanic walks in, looking around. "Hello?" He takes a few steps forward, walking into the kitchen towards you. > You stay hidden You stay hidden, and Louis walks over. He leans over the counter, his head just over you. Then, he spots the edge of Lucy's foot. "Shit!" he shouts, turning and running out of the RV. "Hey! The girls got loose! Where's the gun?" Within seconds, Sheriff Buckly is standing by the doorway, aiming his gun. "Come out or I'll blow your brains out!" he roars. > You surrender You raise your hands in surrender, and step forward. Sheriff Buckly grins. "Come on, there you go, drop the knife." You drop the knife, and step forward. He swings his gun, smacking into the side of your head and sending you spiraling into unconsciousness. > You awaken Apocalypse You lie in the rusted gurney, at the edge of a large circle. Your friends are gone, but you only look for a second before you see the preparations for the portal. A large circle of stones lies, each stained with a drop of blood. Standing around the circle are the cultists. Standing around them are a half dozen monster-children that make you want to vomit, the failed attempts at rearing a Key Bearer. They're so deformed, so mutated, they barely qualify as children. One is missing both it's arms, replaced with long, thin, slimy tentacles like pasta. A second is missing most of its face, a gaping hole in its place filled with tiny, wiggling tentacles from the walls, back, roof and floor of the mouth. A third looks like a cute, perfectly normal girl of around four years old, except her mouth hangs open and her eyes are completely black. Another, one of the worst, looks like a cross between a schoolgirl, a fetus and an octopus, and stands wiggling. Still, that's nothing compared to what sits in the middle of the circle. Sitting in the middle, wiggling, is your child. The Key-Bearer is the size of a cat, and is nothing but a seething mass of tentacles that whip around, seemingly drawing lines of purple lightning around itself in the symbol that was carved into you. "Ah, you're here!" Doctor Kessel says eagerly. "Where are my friends?" you scream, terrified of the creatures that surround you. "It doesn't matter now! Now, we begin! We will witness the glories of Crexiciliatanian's creation!" The Key-Bearer speeds up, painting the symbol across the very fabric of reality. The ground begins to crumble away, turning in pure blackness. Suddenly, there's a flash, and the portal opens. Then, it begins.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Nine hours later, you're ready to go. You've somehow convinced Dad to let you go out, not daring to tell him your actual destination and instead claiming you're staying at Lucy's house. You meet up at the Lucy's house with the group, and walk into the living room, where they're all sitting around. "Are we ready?" you ask. "Damn straight!" Ant smiles, holding up a large backpack. "Spare food, water bottles, lighters, matches, rope, fireworks, some knives and flashlights. What'd you guys bring?" Carter holds up half a chocolate bar he's been chewing on. "Half a M-Mars bar," he says, before taking another bite. "A q-quart-quarter of a Mars b-bar." "I brought a penknife and a lighter," you shrug, and Ant looks around disappointedly. "No one brought anything?" he pouts. "You guys suck." You hear a horn outside, and look outside. A large RV drives up the driveway, stopping outside. Lucy skips out the door, before running up to him, and you follow her outside. "Hey, Hazel," Drake says. "Drake's friend, Ed, has the pick-up, so we're driving to the woods, meeting him and switching vehicle," Lucy tells you. "OK," you say, walking into the RV. You raise an eyebrow as you notice that the RV's windows are covered with shutters and bin bags, and the actual interior looks like a scene from Breaking Bad, covered with beakers, test tubes, Bunsen burners and other Chemistry gear. "Well, you're blatant," you say. "Hey, it's effective." "I mean, yeah, but Breaking Bad made this a trope. Don't police search RV's for this." "Breaking Bad helped my sales enough that I'm bribing the deputy. You'll be surprised how much extra meth heads are willing to pay for a product when you add some blue dye." You shrug, and take a seat in the RV, as your friends pack in. "Be careful back there. Knock one thing over and this place could blow." "Really?" you ask. Drake grins and shrugs, and begins driving. "Maybe. I mean, there's a distillery back there as well as the lab. I'd imagine one speed bump and boom!" "That's unnerving," Ant says. "I guess. So, why the hell am I dragging all your friends into the middle of the woods to the old freakshow cage?" "I told you already," Lucy reveals. "That nightmare bull isn't convincing me. What's the real reason?" "That is the real reason." Drake turns around to stare at you in annoyance. "What...?" "Eyes on the road, Drake," Kyle says. "Fine," Drake says, turning around. "Still, I want an explanation why I'm driving into the woods because the new girl had a nightmare." "It wasn't a nightmare!" you say. "Sure," Drake says. You all sit in awkward silence until you reach the outskirts of the woods. Drake pulls over, and you stand and head out the door. Although you couldn't tell because of the shutters and blacked out windows of the RV, you can now see that night has fallen. An empty red pick-up truck with four seats sits next to the woods. Drake strides forward, pulling out his phone. "Ah, shit," Drake says. "Of course Ed left the truck here and went off on his quad rather than just take back the RV like he was supposed to." He locks the RV and hides the keys in the wheel well. "I'll text my friend and get him to pick up the RV. Come on, get inside. Let's go drive to a dumbass cage in the woods." Drake, Lucy, Carter and Ant go in the seats while you, Mason, Becca and Kyle sit in the back of the pick-up. You sit, half-lying on Mason who wraps one arm around you. The emotional part of your brain momentarily forgets all fears in favor of a childish infatuation and hormonal lust towards Mason that causes you to blush and your heart to flutter, the rational part of your brain reminds you to stay vigilant in case the cultists or that beast do show up. You and the rest of your friends pull out flashlights and fire the beams off into the darkness, illuminating trees and undergrowth. "We're nearly there," Drake shouts. "It's a hell of a lot easier to get here because a path's been made." Your ears perk up at that. "What do you mean?" you ask, as Drake rolls down his window fully. "What'd you say?" "I said what do you mean? You said there's a path." "Yeah. It's like a big RV drove over the undergrowth and knocked a dirt path along." "What, you think Ed's been driving out here to work in the RV?" Lucy asks. "Nah, Ed's terrified of the woods. Said something about a monster or something." You feel a flash of fear as you remember the RV from last night. You stare outwards, illuminating every shadow, both hoping to and terrified of seeing something hiding in the dark. "Here it is! The old freak show's cage!" Drake says dramatically. As Drake pulls the pick-up into the clearing in the woods, you see the massive, rusted cage, although there's no RV. You shiver in fear, and Drake steps out of the truck. "Let's investigate and get home," Drake says, firing his flashlight beam towards the cage. The flashlight beam illuminates the cage and its insides. The old rusted gurney sits there, now encrusted with dried blood. "Well, that's new," Drake mentions. You step back nervously. "Hazel said there was a gurney in her dre... when she was abducted," Ant points out. "Fuck, this is some creepy shit. I'm calling the sheriff," Drake says. Drake takes out his phone, and makes a call. "Hello, Sheriff Buckly? I just found a gurney in the middle of the cage in the woods covered in dried blood. I think some weird... oh, really? OK, you know where the cage from the... oh, great.. Cool, see you in a few minutes, or an hour, or whatever." "What was that?" "The sheriff said he'll come here straight away." "Good," you sigh in relief. You really can't imagine having to deal with this without the help of the law. Now, it's out of your hands. You wait patiently for Sheriff Buckly to arrive. Eventually, you spot a flashlight heading towards you. "There he is," Drake says. You shine your light ahead, illuminating the figure of Sheriff Buckly. He swears, and holds his hands to block his eyes. "Turn that off!" he says, and you do. "Fuck, how'd you even get the truck out here? I can barely walk through the undergrowth," he says. "Where this bloody gurney?" You point at the cage, and Sheriff Buckly walks over and looks at it. "Jesus... who else saw this? I'm going to need to gather all the witnesses and find out what was going on," he says. "We're the only people who've seen this, although Hazel got a bit of a closer encounter." "So you didn't tell you pa about this?" Sheriff Buckly asks. You shake your head, and Sheriff Buckly nods. "Good," Sheriff Buckly says. Sheriff Buckly draws his revolver, and quickly aims at Drake's head and fires. Drake's head snaps back as it explodes partially, sending chunks of gray brain matter, pale skull and pieces of red flesh at you. You scream as Lucy runs over to Drake as his body collapses backwards. Mason runs for the truck, before the Sheriff barks an order. "Stop! Move another muscle and I'll blow the brain out of everyone of you!" Mason stops, raising his hands. Sheriff Buckly points his gun at all of you, forcing you to raise your hands into the air. "Everyone, calm down. Nobody needs to get hurt," Sheriff Buckly says. "Fuck you!" Lucy screams. "You killed him! You killed him you piece of..." Sheriff Buckly steps forward and cracks her across the head wit his revolver. "Shut up! Carter, Mason, Ant, Kyle, get in the fucking cage!" he shouts. Mason, Ant, Kyle and Carter slowly walk into the cage. "Now, back the fuck up to the end of the cage!" The boys comply, and the Sheriff draws a set of keys from his pocket, locking the cage door. He turns to you, Lucy and Becca. "Just don't move. They'll be here in a minute." You stand in silence, the cold wind blowing, the silence only broken by the occasional soft sob by Lucy as she stands over Drake. After about half an hour of waiting, you see the RV pull up along the path. It stops, and four masked men step out. "Anyone escape?" one asks. "No," Sheriff Buckly responds. "Fuck, I didn't even know they were coming out here. You said whatever the fuck you injected the girl with would make her forget everything." "I said it probably would. Her phone's bugged. How didn't you find out?" "She didn't make any calls saying she was going to do it!" "Well, at least no one escaped," the masked man says, pulling off his mask. The group remove their masks. You vaguely recognize them, one being the mechanic who found you, one being the town doctor, Doctor Kessel, another being a German teacher from school and the final one being the bartender of the local bar. "What are you going to do with...?" Becca asks, before Sheriff Buckley lets out a bark. "Hey! Shut the fuck..." "No, Jake, let the girl ask her question," Doctor Kessel says. "What are you going to do with us? Who are you? Why did you send a monster to hunt me?" "What are we going to do with you? Nothing, ideally. We only need to borrow you. Who are we? Well, surely you must recognize us. Louis, Sheriff Buckly, Mrs Jordan, Alison and me, Doctor Kessel. "As for the monster, I assume you're referring to the Black Beast. That's not an issue, I assure you. Although I'm not sure of its origins, if you look at town records, it actually kills most of the bears in the area, which reduces the amount of attacks so much it's saving lives. If I was in your situation, I'd be much more worried about us." "What do you want? Are you going to sacrifice us to Satan?" Becca asks again. Doctor Kessel lets out a chuckle. "No, Rebecca, we're not. We're not satanists. Real satanists don't even believe in Satan. We're... researchers. We're humanitarians. We're explorers. When we were little kids, we used to be the best of friends. We played in these very woods. When we were little, we found... a book in one of the caves. We took it and read it, and we found out the most amazing things. Do you know how insignificant not only we are, but this planet, this solar system, this galaxy and this universe is? There are so many amazing things we learned about these beings that we can't even comprehend, but compared to what's out there, we learned so little. So we kept reading. The book included some instructions to summon them, to summon these beings that are stronger than any gods we've ever imagined, more alien that any alien we've created in fiction, more incredible than anything you could experience here. If we create a Key-Bearer, we can create a portal to these beings." "That's insane! How do you know they won't wipe us out, or enslave us all, or worse!" you cry. "I don't," Doctor Kessel admits. "It could destroy everything!" "You just need to calm down and listen!" he hisses. "Imagine you're stuck in a room. There is a small tap for water, a toilet and a small machine that creates a nutritious yet tasteless paste. You have everything you need to survive and continue your blank, boring existence. Now, one day, a door appears in the room. It's unlocked. Do you go through?" "What the fuck does...?" "We are trying to open that door. Just as the person in the room doesn't know what's on the other side, anything is better than the bland, boring existence of the room. We're trying to open the world up to experiences unknown to man, good or bad, because it has to be better than this meaningless existence." "What are yuo even talking about? What the fuck's a Key-Bearer?" Mason shouts, as Sheriff Buckly aims his gun at his head once again. "Shut up," Sheriff Buckly grunts. "Ah yes, the Key-Bearer. That part's the worst for you guys. A Key-Bearer is a creature birthed of the beings' power of a human womb. We've had several attempts at this, but every time we failed. Instead of creating a Key-Bearer, we created half-human, half-monster children who aged rapidly. Finally, we settled the problem. The mother of the Key-Bearer had to be a virgin, post-puberty, below 21 and to have AB Negative Blood. You'd imagine my luck when I found one such target walking around the cave where I was sacrificing some former mothers to keep the beings' interested in our world. I simply pumped out some gas I had on hand to help knock her out, and voila! I got to work." You stare at him in horror, putting a hand on your stomach. There's a series of gasps and shouts from the group, before Sheriff Buckly fires his gun in the air. "SHUT IT!" he roars. "I'm sorry, Hazel. It'll be over in a few hours." "A few hours? It's only been two days, how...?" you ask in horror. "The Key-Bearer grows incredibly quickly. It should be able to be birthed within a day at most." You feel something wiggle in your stomach, in your womb, and a pain shoots through you. "Listen, Hazel, it'll be OK," Doctor Kessel says. "In a few hours, you'll be fine, and we'll be in a whole new world." > You run You try to run, but Doctor Kessel is faster, sprinting forward and grabbing you. You scream, as a needle enters your neck. "Don't worry, I'm going to help you sleep for the next few hours. When you wake up, it'll be all over..." You scream as you begin to feel sleepy, before closing your mouth. Your heavy eyelids close, as the needle presses into your veins, sending you into a deep sleep. Knowing what they're planning to do, you hope you overdose on this rather than waking up...<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Nine hours later, you're ready to go. You've somehow convinced Dad to let you go out, not daring to tell him your actual destination and instead claiming you're staying at Lucy's house. You meet up at the Lucy's house with the group, and walk into the living room, where they're all sitting around. "Are we ready?" you ask. "Damn straight!" Ant smiles, holding up a large backpack. "Spare food, water bottles, lighters, matches, rope, fireworks, some knives and flashlights. What'd you guys bring?" Carter holds up half a chocolate bar he's been chewing on. "Half a M-Mars bar," he says, before taking another bite. "A q-quart-quarter of a Mars b-bar." "I brought a penknife and a lighter," you shrug, and Ant looks around disappointedly. "No one brought anything?" he pouts. "You guys suck." You hear a horn outside, and look outside. A large RV drives up the driveway, stopping outside. Lucy skips out the door, before running up to him, and you follow her outside. "Hey, Hazel," Drake says. "Drake's friend, Ed, has the pick-up, so we're driving to the woods, meeting him and switching vehicle," Lucy tells you. "OK," you say, walking into the RV. You raise an eyebrow as you notice that the RV's windows are covered with shutters and bin bags, and the actual interior looks like a scene from Breaking Bad, covered with beakers, test tubes, Bunsen burners and other Chemistry gear. "Well, you're blatant," you say. "Hey, it's effective." "I mean, yeah, but Breaking Bad made this a trope. Don't police search RV's for this." "Breaking Bad helped my sales enough that I'm bribing the deputy. You'll be surprised how much extra meth heads are willing to pay for a product when you add some blue dye." You shrug, and take a seat in the RV, as your friends pack in. "Be careful back there. Knock one thing over and this place could blow." "Really?" you ask. Drake grins and shrugs, and begins driving. "Maybe. I mean, there's a distillery back there as well as the lab. I'd imagine one speed bump and boom!" "That's unnerving," Ant says. "I guess. So, why the hell am I dragging all your friends into the middle of the woods to the old freakshow cage?" "I told you already," Lucy reveals. "That nightmare bull isn't convincing me. What's the real reason?" "That is the real reason." Drake turns around to stare at you in annoyance. "What...?" "Eyes on the road, Drake," Kyle says. "Fine," Drake says, turning around. "Still, I want an explanation why I'm driving into the woods because the new girl had a nightmare." "It wasn't a nightmare!" you say. "Sure," Drake says. You all sit in awkward silence until you reach the outskirts of the woods. Drake pulls over, and you stand and head out the door. Although you couldn't tell because of the shutters and blacked out windows of the RV, you can now see that night has fallen. An empty red pick-up truck with four seats sits next to the woods. Drake strides forward, pulling out his phone. "Ah, shit," Drake says. "Of course Ed left the truck here and went off on his quad rather than just take back the RV like he was supposed to." He locks the RV and hides the keys in the wheel well. "I'll text my friend and get him to pick up the RV. Come on, get inside. Let's go drive to a dumbass cage in the woods." Drake, Lucy, Carter and Ant go in the seats while you, Mason, Becca and Kyle sit in the back of the pick-up. You sit, half-lying on Mason who wraps one arm around you. The emotional part of your brain momentarily forgets all fears in favor of a childish infatuation and hormonal lust towards Mason that causes you to blush and your heart to flutter, the rational part of your brain reminds you to stay vigilant in case the cultists or that beast do show up. You and the rest of your friends pull out flashlights and fire the beams off into the darkness, illuminating trees and undergrowth. "We're nearly there," Drake shouts. "It's a hell of a lot easier to get here because a path's been made." Your ears perk up at that. "What do you mean?" you ask, as Drake rolls down his window fully. "What'd you say?" "I said what do you mean? You said there's a path." "Yeah. It's like a big RV drove over the undergrowth and knocked a dirt path along." "What, you think Ed's been driving out here to work in the RV?" Lucy asks. "Nah, Ed's terrified of the woods. Said something about a monster or something." You feel a flash of fear as you remember the RV from last night. You stare outwards, illuminating every shadow, both hoping to and terrified of seeing something hiding in the dark. "Here it is! The old freak show's cage!" Drake says dramatically. As Drake pulls the pick-up into the clearing in the woods, you see the massive, rusted cage, although there's no RV. You shiver in fear, and Drake steps out of the truck. "Let's investigate and get home," Drake says, firing his flashlight beam towards the cage. The flashlight beam illuminates the cage and its insides. The old rusted gurney sits there, now encrusted with dried blood. "Well, that's new," Drake mentions. You step back nervously. "Hazel said there was a gurney in her dre... when she was abducted," Ant points out. "Fuck, this is some creepy shit. I'm calling the sheriff," Drake says. Drake takes out his phone, and makes a call. "Hello, Sheriff Buckly? I just found a gurney in the middle of the cage in the woods covered in dried blood. I think some weird... oh, really? OK, you know where the cage from the... oh, great.. Cool, see you in a few minutes, or an hour, or whatever." "What was that?" "The sheriff said he'll come here straight away." "Good," you sigh in relief. You really can't imagine having to deal with this without the help of the law. Now, it's out of your hands. You wait patiently for Sheriff Buckly to arrive. Eventually, you spot a flashlight heading towards you. "There he is," Drake says. You shine your light ahead, illuminating the figure of Sheriff Buckly. He swears, and holds his hands to block his eyes. "Turn that off!" he says, and you do. "Fuck, how'd you even get the truck out here? I can barely walk through the undergrowth," he says. "Where this bloody gurney?" You point at the cage, and Sheriff Buckly walks over and looks at it. "Jesus... who else saw this? I'm going to need to gather all the witnesses and find out what was going on," he says. "We're the only people who've seen this, although Hazel got a bit of a closer encounter." "So you didn't tell you pa about this?" Sheriff Buckly asks. You shake your head, and Sheriff Buckly nods. "Good," Sheriff Buckly says. Sheriff Buckly draws his revolver, and quickly aims at Drake's head and fires. Drake's head snaps back as it explodes partially, sending chunks of gray brain matter, pale skull and pieces of red flesh at you. You scream as Lucy runs over to Drake as his body collapses backwards. Mason runs for the truck, before the Sheriff barks an order. "Stop! Move another muscle and I'll blow the brain out of everyone of you!" Mason stops, raising his hands. Sheriff Buckly points his gun at all of you, forcing you to raise your hands into the air. "Everyone, calm down. Nobody needs to get hurt," Sheriff Buckly says. "Fuck you!" Lucy screams. "You killed him! You killed him you piece of..." Sheriff Buckly steps forward and cracks her across the head wit his revolver. "Shut up! Carter, Mason, Ant, Kyle, get in the fucking cage!" he shouts. Mason, Ant, Kyle and Carter slowly walk into the cage. "Now, back the fuck up to the end of the cage!" The boys comply, and the Sheriff draws a set of keys from his pocket, locking the cage door. He turns to you, Lucy and Becca. "Just don't move. They'll be here in a minute." You stand in silence, the cold wind blowing, the silence only broken by the occasional soft sob by Lucy as she stands over Drake. After about half an hour of waiting, you see the RV pull up along the path. It stops, and four masked men step out. "Anyone escape?" one asks. "No," Sheriff Buckly responds. "Fuck, I didn't even know they were coming out here. You said whatever the fuck you injected the girl with would make her forget everything." "I said it probably would. Her phone's bugged. How didn't you find out?" "She didn't make any calls saying she was going to do it!" "Well, at least no one escaped," the masked man says, pulling off his mask. The group remove their masks. You vaguely recognize them, one being the mechanic who found you, one being the town doctor, Doctor Kessel, another being a German teacher from school and the final one being the bartender of the local bar. "What are you going to do with...?" Becca asks, before Sheriff Buckley lets out a bark. "Hey! Shut the fuck..." "No, Jake, let the girl ask her question," Doctor Kessel says. "What are you going to do with us? Who are you? Why did you send a monster to hunt me?" "What are we going to do with you? Nothing, ideally. We only need to borrow you. Who are we? Well, surely you must recognize us. Louis, Sheriff Buckly, Mrs Jordan, Alison and me, Doctor Kessel. "As for the monster, I assume you're referring to the Black Beast. That's not an issue, I assure you. Although I'm not sure of its origins, if you look at town records, it actually kills most of the bears in the area, which reduces the amount of attacks so much it's saving lives. If I was in your situation, I'd be much more worried about us." "What do you want? Are you going to sacrifice us to Satan?" Becca asks again. Doctor Kessel lets out a chuckle. "No, Rebecca, we're not. We're not satanists. Real satanists don't even believe in Satan. We're... researchers. We're humanitarians. We're explorers. When we were little kids, we used to be the best of friends. We played in these very woods. When we were little, we found... a book in one of the caves. We took it and read it, and we found out the most amazing things. Do you know how insignificant not only we are, but this planet, this solar system, this galaxy and this universe is? There are so many amazing things we learned about these beings that we can't even comprehend, but compared to what's out there, we learned so little. So we kept reading. The book included some instructions to summon them, to summon these beings that are stronger than any gods we've ever imagined, more alien that any alien we've created in fiction, more incredible than anything you could experience here. If we create a Key-Bearer, we can create a portal to these beings." "That's insane! How do you know they won't wipe us out, or enslave us all, or worse!" you cry. "I don't," Doctor Kessel admits. "It could destroy everything!" "You just need to calm down and listen!" he hisses. "Imagine you're stuck in a room. There is a small tap for water, a toilet and a small machine that creates a nutritious yet tasteless paste. You have everything you need to survive and continue your blank, boring existence. Now, one day, a door appears in the room. It's unlocked. Do you go through?" "What the fuck does...?" "We are trying to open that door. Just as the person in the room doesn't know what's on the other side, anything is better than the bland, boring existence of the room. We're trying to open the world up to experiences unknown to man, good or bad, because it has to be better than this meaningless existence." "What are yuo even talking about? What the fuck's a Key-Bearer?" Mason shouts, as Sheriff Buckly aims his gun at his head once again. "Shut up," Sheriff Buckly grunts. "Ah yes, the Key-Bearer. That part's the worst for you guys. A Key-Bearer is a creature birthed of the beings' power of a human womb. We've had several attempts at this, but every time we failed. Instead of creating a Key-Bearer, we created half-human, half-monster children who aged rapidly. Finally, we settled the problem. The mother of the Key-Bearer had to be a virgin, post-puberty, below 21 and to have AB Negative Blood. You'd imagine my luck when I found one such target walking around the cave where I was sacrificing some former mothers to keep the beings' interested in our world. I simply pumped out some gas I had on hand to help knock her out, and voila! I got to work." You stare at him in horror, putting a hand on your stomach. There's a series of gasps and shouts from the group, before Sheriff Buckly fires his gun in the air. "SHUT IT!" he roars. "I'm sorry, Hazel. It'll be over in a few hours." "A few hours? It's only been two days, how...?" you ask in horror. "The Key-Bearer grows incredibly quickly. It should be able to be birthed within a day at most." You feel something wiggle in your stomach, in your womb, and a pain shoots through you. "Listen, Hazel, it'll be OK," Doctor Kessel says. "In a few hours, you'll be fine, and we'll be in a whole new world." > You break down You drop to your knees and begin sobbing, as Doctor Kessel walks over, grabbing you. You scream, as a needle enters your neck. "Don't worry, I'm going to help you sleep for the next few hours. When you wake up, it'll be all over..." You scream as you begin to feel sleepy, before closing your mouth. Your heavy eyelids close, as the needle presses into your veins, sending you into a deep sleep. Knowing what they're planning to do, you hope you overdose on this rather than waking up...<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You awaken in your bed, terrified and curled up in your blankets. You briefly wonder if you dreamed everything, but know that that's impossible. Your knee hurts where you scraped it, your window is still open, and you know your mind couldn't conjure up everything you saw last night. "Honey? Are you OK?" Dad calls. You pause, wondering if you should tell him, before realizing he'd never believe you. "Yeah, I'm fine," you reply, wondering what you should do. It's Saturday, so you could visit your friends and explain the situation. If you're more optimistic, you could go through the normal, legal means, although you're almost certain that will be complete and utter bullshit. > You go through legal means You take out your phone and make a call to the police department. You immediately reach the Sheriff, who answers. You quickly explain your situation, only to have him chide you. "Now, Hazel, I get you're still scared after the last night, but you can't be calling the sheriff's office over a little nightmare!" With that, he hangs up. What a cunt. > You try again You make another call, and get the police voicemail. You go through the normal bullshit, asking you what you want to report, and you notice there's not exactly a number to press for your complaint, and the "Other" button will lead you back to the Sheriff. The automated voice does tell you there's a police website where you can make an official report.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You charge forward, swinging at the first man. You hit him with some force in the jaw, and he grabs your arm. He slaps you hard across the face, knocking you to the ground. The men grab you, and force you into the gurney. They strap your hands up my your head and your feet together, leaving you stretched out on the gurney. A ball gag is stuffed in your mouth and strapped tightly. You wince one off them puts surgical gloves on, before drawing a thermometer that's pushed into your ear. He checks it, before placing a cold hand on your stomach. He pushes gently, before squeezing. "I'm right. Get the injections ready." You shake and try to scream as one of the men takes out a needle that's almost comically large and sharp. He jabs it into your stomach and you scream into your gag and presses down, releasing the liquid into your stomach. You begin to tear up as he repeats the process with several more needles, and by the end your eyes are obscured with tears. He smiles at you through the ski mask, before another man arrives with a large burlap sack. He opens it, pulling out a small mammal like a rat or a ferret, and a large knife. You watch in horror as he slices the mammal's throat open, letting blood flow out onto your stomach. He tosses the carcass aside, and begins to use his fingers to draw various patterns along your belly as you wince and shake. He sighs, and slaps you hard across the face. "Stop shaking," he says, before turning to one of the other men. "Tomorrow night." He finishes drawing his patterns, before taking out a small black notebook. He begins to read from it in an insane language you don't understand, like the spluttering of a madman. The pain in your stomach intensifies greatly as you let out a petrified scream as you feel yourself being torn apart. Finally, he stops, as does the pain. "Ah, good. Get the chloroform and untie her. Then, bring the kids back from their walk." They free you from your straps, and you notice the door's still open. > You stay still You stay still, as one of them takes out a large rag and a glass bottle. He soaks the rag, before holding it to your mouth. You try not to breath, but after about a minute you take a gasp for breath, inhaling the fumes.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>When you wake up six hours later, you panic. You're lying in a rusted, iron cage, surrounded by pitch darkness. You stand slowly, finding yourself in the middle of the woods. You look around desperately for a way out, but it seems you're stuck in here. The wind blows through the trees, rustling leaves and giving you a cold chill as you realize you're in your underwear. You look around, spotting a large RV next to the cage. Two figures step out and begin walking towards you. They both wear ski masks, hoodies and baggy black pants, with one carrying a doctor's bag. A third appears, pushing a gurney towards you. You scream for help and back away to the back of the cage. One of them steps forward and unlocks the cage door, and they enter the cage. "Hands behind your head, don't move," one of the figures said. > You make a run for the door You run towards the gate, but the men are faster and bigger then you. The men grab you, and force you into the gurney. They strap your hands up my your head and your feet together, leaving you stretched out on the gurney. A ball gag is stuffed in your mouth and strapped tightly. You wince one off them puts surgical gloves on, before drawing a thermometer that's pushed into your ear. He checks it, before placing a cold hand on your stomach. He pushes gently, before squeezing. "I'm right. Get the injections ready." You shake and try to scream as one of the men takes out a needle that's almost comically large and sharp. He jabs it into your stomach and you scream into your gag and presses down, releasing the liquid into your stomach. You begin to tear up as he repeats the process with several more needles, and by the end your eyes are obscured with tears. He smiles at you through the ski mask, before another man arrives with a large burlap sack. He opens it, pulling out a small mammal like a rat or a ferret, and a large knife. You watch in horror as he slices the mammal's throat open, letting blood flow out onto your stomach. He tosses the carcass aside, and begins to use his fingers to draw various patterns along your belly as you wince and shake. He sighs, and slaps you hard across the face. "Stop shaking," he says, before turning to one of the other men. "Tomorrow night." He finishes drawing his patterns, before taking out a small black notebook. He begins to read from it in an insane language you don't understand, like the spluttering of a madman. The pain in your stomach intensifies greatly as you let out a petrified scream as you feel yourself being torn apart. Finally, he stops, as does the pain. "Ah, good. Get the chloroform and untie her. Then, bring the kids back from their walk." They free you from your straps, and you notice the door's still open.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>When you wake up six hours later, you panic. You're lying in a rusted, iron cage, surrounded by pitch darkness. You stand slowly, finding yourself in the middle of the woods. You look around desperately for a way out, but it seems you're stuck in here. The wind blows through the trees, rustling leaves and giving you a cold chill as you realize you're in your underwear. You look around, spotting a large RV next to the cage. Two figures step out and begin walking towards you. They both wear ski masks, hoodies and baggy black pants, with one carrying a doctor's bag. A third appears, pushing a gurney towards you. You scream for help and back away to the back of the cage. One of them steps forward and unlocks the cage door, and they enter the cage. "Hands behind your head, don't move," one of the figures said. > You comply You put your hands behind your head. The men grab you, and force you into the gurney. They strap your hands up my your head and your feet together, leaving you stretched out on the gurney. "Good girl," one of them says, before placing a ball gag in your mouth and strapping it around your head. You wince one off them puts surgical gloves on, before drawing a thermometer that's pushed into your ear. He checks it, before placing a cold hand on your stomach. He pushes gently, before squeezing. "I'm right. Get the injections ready." You shake and try to scream as one of the men takes out a needle that's almost comically large and sharp. He jabs it into your stomach and you scream into your gag and presses down, releasing the liquid into your stomach. You begin to tear up as he repeats the process with several more needles, and by the end your eyes are obscured with tears. He smiles at you through the ski mask, before another man arrives with a large burlap sack. He opens it, pulling out a small mammal like a rat or a ferret, and a large knife. You watch in horror as he slices the mammal's throat open, letting blood flow out onto your stomach. He tosses the carcass aside, and begins to use his fingers to draw various patterns along your belly as you wince and shake. He sighs, and slaps you hard across the face. "Stop shaking," he says, before turning to one of the other men. "Tomorrow night." He finishes drawing his patterns, before taking out a small black notebook. He begins to read from it in an insane language you don't understand, like the spluttering of a madman. The pain in your stomach intensifies greatly as you let out a petrified scream as you feel yourself being torn apart. Finally, he stops, as does the pain. "Ah, good. Get the chloroform and untie her. Then, bring the kids back from their walk." They free you from your straps, and you notice the door's still open.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The ride home is long and quiet. Dad can clearly tell you don't want to talk, so he leaves you alone. Eventually, you pull into the driveway. "I've told your teacher you won't be coming in today. Go upstairs and have a shower, you can have the day to relax. I'm staying home to look after you today." You nod, and walk inside. You pull off your mud-covered shoes, and walk upstairs, leaving a trail of muddy water behind you. You walk into the bathroom, and slowly get undressed. You unbutton and pull off your jeans, then step out of your underwater. You pull off your jumper, than your shirt. As you go to unclasp your bra, you freeze as you notice yourself in the mirror. One of the strange, alien symbols you saw covering the cave walls above the disgusting, shuddering, skinless bodies, is carved into your stomach, just below your belly button. You shriek, and you hear Dad call up to you. "Hazel? Are you OK?" > You say "There's... Something carved into me!" "What?" "There's... just come here!" Dad quickly comes up as you grab a pair of towels to cover yourself. Dad knocks on the door. "Can I come in?" "Yeah," you reply. Dad enters, and winces as he sees your wound. "God... what happened?" "I think someone carved it into me while I was sleeping," you say. "Don't be ridiculous!" he says. "You must've fell and cut yourself last night." Over the next few minutes, Dad bandages up your wound. "Good. It's a very shallow wound, you'll be fine. Now, go shower." You nod, and walk off to the shower, frustrated at Dad's naivety.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You change direction, bursting towards the few caves that these woods have. You can here the beast right behind you, feeling its hot breath on the back of your neck, blowing your hair out of the way. You spot two caves you think... well, hope you can reach before it catches you. One is a small crack in stone that you think you can dive through that's definitely far too small for the beast to follow you that leads into a tunnel further in. The other is an opening to a large cavern that's also too small for the beast to follow you and that widens considerably further down. > You go through the opening to the cavern You sprint as fast as you can, the rush of adrenaline overtaking you as you mind fixes on its one and only purpose: SURVIVE! With several bounds you manage to make it to the cavern, barreling down the cave. The beast stops just before it would've gotten itself stuck in the opening, and stares at you. There's no emotion behind the crimson pools that stare at you like giant rubies without their sparkle, only pure, animalistic hunger. You turn, and begin heading further into the cave. You walk down into the larger cavern. You pull out your phone and turn on the flashlight and only now learn its purpose. The entire cavern seems to have turned into what is a massive animal den. The tattered furs and skins of creatures ranging from rabbits to deer to even bears lie around, with an endless number of deep red stains and piles of crushed and shattered animal bones. You whimper at the sight of this, before noticing what looks like man-made creations. Wooden idols and necklaces lie, spread around the cavern, while under the bloodstains that cover the walls you notice images, with a large oak staff lying among them. You lean in to get a better look, noticing pictures of stickmen surrounding what appears to be a badly painted picture of the beast that chased you. The pictures continue, beginning to tell a story. There's images of the beast massacring stickmen, before you see a picture a tall stickmen wearing several necklaces like the ones scattered around the floor holding a large staff standing in front of the beast. The next picture shows the beast retreating. You stare in confusion, trying to make out what the other images obscured by blood show. You give up, looking around again. Then you see it. At the other end of the cavern stands the beast. You only notice now that the cavern's ceiling is partially caved away, revealing a path for the beast to enter. It's slowly approaching, although now that you've been noticed it's sure to speed up. > You charge the beast in an attempt to slip past You charge towards the beast, and it bats its paw. The paw slams into you, sending you headfirst into the stone wall. Thankfully, your skull breaks open and shatters, saving you from the painful death of being torn apart and devoured.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You sprint as fast as you can, the rush of adrenaline overtaking you as you mind fixes on its one and only purpose: SURVIVE! With several bounds you manage to make it to the cavern, barreling down the cave. The beast stops just before it would've gotten itself stuck in the opening, and stares at you. There's no emotion behind the crimson pools that stare at you like giant rubies without their sparkle, only pure, animalistic hunger. You turn, and begin heading further into the cave. You walk down into the larger cavern. You pull out your phone and turn on the flashlight and only now learn its purpose. The entire cavern seems to have turned into what is a massive animal den. The tattered furs and skins of creatures ranging from rabbits to deer to even bears lie around, with an endless number of deep red stains and piles of crushed and shattered animal bones. You whimper at the sight of this, before noticing what looks like man-made creations. Wooden idols and necklaces lie, spread around the cavern, while under the bloodstains that cover the walls you notice images, with a large oak staff lying among them. You lean in to get a better look, noticing pictures of stickmen surrounding what appears to be a badly painted picture of the beast that chased you. The pictures continue, beginning to tell a story. There's images of the beast massacring stickmen, before you see a picture a tall stickmen wearing several necklaces like the ones scattered around the floor holding a large staff standing in front of the beast. The next picture shows the beast retreating. You stare in confusion, trying to make out what the other images obscured by blood show. You give up, looking around again. Then you see it. At the other end of the cavern stands the beast. You only notice now that the cavern's ceiling is partially caved away, revealing a path for the beast to enter. It's slowly approaching, although now that you've been noticed it's sure to speed up. > You run back the way you came You turn, and sprint back towards the opening. You dart through it, although you know the beast has your scent. With your head start, you might make it back to town, although you could head down the smaller tunnel to escape the beast.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You walk alongside the stream, your shoes squelching in the wet mud. You walk along to the drier earth, but they're already ruined. "Fuck," you sigh, walking along. "Kyle! Kyle! Are you there?!?" You hear what sounds like twigs breaking behind you, and quickly twirl around. Must've been your imagination. You continue walking along the stream. "Kyle! Kyle! I don't care how drunk you are, do something! I'm getting sick of looking for you!" You hear the rustle as leaves as the wind picks up, and what was earlier a hot, humid night is now turning bitterly cold, as the light that the moon was provided dims considerably. For the first time, you realize that you're walking in the middle of a place you've never been, late at night, with no one around. You consider turning around and heading back, but you know if Kyle's passed out somewhere, you need to find him. "Hello!" you call. Your voice carries out across the trees. Then, the silence resumes. There's a silence so deadly quiet it's painful. There's no birds, no small mammals scurrying among the trees or undergrowth, not even a cricket. You take deep breaths in an attempt to calm yourself down, before you here a low growl. You turn around, flicking your head around desperately to find the source of the noise, desperately wanting to run but not knowing which direction to do so. "Kyle? Is that you?" you whimper. The growl stops, and the silence resumes. You stand perfectly still, not wanting to disturb whatever's out there. Then, it lets out a roar. The roar's incredibly loud and you scream in pain as the sound like shattering glass as concrete scrapes against each other. You feel pure, unadulterated terror, which is amplified when you spot the beast. The Beast stands on four legs, the shape of a bear but the size of a large truck, covered in thick fur that's so dark it consumes what little moonlight makes it through the trees. It's eyes are pure red, the all-consuming crimson of fresh blood that peer through your eyes and bore into your soul. As it roars, it revels a mouth filled with hundreds of teeth the size of daggers, pure white and sharp enough to drill through solid steel. It stands, blocking the route back towards your friends. You need to do something, now. > You stay perfectly still You stand perfectly still, hoping its vision is based on movement. It lets out a rumbling growl that shakes you to your core. As you wince in terror, it charges. It sprints towards you faster than a truck, and barrels into you. Your bones break and crack as you're sent spiraling through the air. You land in a heap by the soft mud by the stream and let out a shriek as your limbs twist at incredible angles that they're definitely not meant to go. The creature walks slowly towards you, and you try to crawl away but find yourself unable to move. You see the flash of the beast's teeth and a spurt of crimson before it finishes off its prey.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You walk alongside the stream, your shoes squelching in the wet mud. You walk along to the drier earth, but they're already ruined. "Fuck," you sigh, walking along. "Kyle! Kyle! Are you there?!?" You hear what sounds like twigs breaking behind you, and quickly twirl around. Must've been your imagination. You continue walking along the stream. "Kyle! Kyle! I don't care how drunk you are, do something! I'm getting sick of looking for you!" You hear the rustle as leaves as the wind picks up, and what was earlier a hot, humid night is now turning bitterly cold, as the light that the moon was provided dims considerably. For the first time, you realize that you're walking in the middle of a place you've never been, late at night, with no one around. You consider turning around and heading back, but you know if Kyle's passed out somewhere, you need to find him. "Hello!" you call. Your voice carries out across the trees. Then, the silence resumes. There's a silence so deadly quiet it's painful. There's no birds, no small mammals scurrying among the trees or undergrowth, not even a cricket. You take deep breaths in an attempt to calm yourself down, before you here a low growl. You turn around, flicking your head around desperately to find the source of the noise, desperately wanting to run but not knowing which direction to do so. "Kyle? Is that you?" you whimper. The growl stops, and the silence resumes. You stand perfectly still, not wanting to disturb whatever's out there. Then, it lets out a roar. The roar's incredibly loud and you scream in pain as the sound like shattering glass as concrete scrapes against each other. You feel pure, unadulterated terror, which is amplified when you spot the beast. The Beast stands on four legs, the shape of a bear but the size of a large truck, covered in thick fur that's so dark it consumes what little moonlight makes it through the trees. It's eyes are pure red, the all-consuming crimson of fresh blood that peer through your eyes and bore into your soul. As it roars, it revels a mouth filled with hundreds of teeth the size of daggers, pure white and sharp enough to drill through solid steel. It stands, blocking the route back towards your friends. You need to do something, now. > You approach the beast For some reason, perhaps entranced by the creatures eyes, you take a step forward towards it. It stands still, perhaps confused, as you take another step. It lets out a rumbling growl that shakes you to your core. As you take your third step, it charges. It sprints towards you faster than a truck, and barrels into you. Your bones break and crack as you're sent spiraling through the air. You land in a heap by the soft mud by the stream and let out a shriek as your limbs twist at incredible angles that they're definitely not meant to go. The creature walks slowly towards you, and you try to crawl away but find yourself unable to move. You see the flash of the beast's teeth and a spurt of crimson before it finishes off its prey.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Please... I don't want to die." "I didn't either, kid. It ain't so bad. Tell your grandparents I said "Fuck you.", ok?" "Please!" you say, breaking into a sob. "HEY! Mason shouts from outside. "Are you OK in there?" You feel cold metal touch your throat. "Tell him you're fine, darlin'." > You ask Mason for help "Mason! I...!" The cold metal of a blade slices open your throat as before you can get out another word as cold steel mingles with hot blood. "Dumb bitch."<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Cool," Mason grins, passing you the bottle of alcohol. You take a long drink, downing much of the bottle. Ant is right, it does taste like piss. Still, you manage to gulp down half the can, before passing it on. "Shit. The new girl can drink," Ant smiles. You continue sitting around the campfire, which is really a lot closer to a glorified candle sitting in a pile of leaves. Mason grabs the bottle of vodka and sits down next to you and your heart flutters. A large part of you knows that this is just infatuation and a childhood crush, mixed in with a fair bit of hormonal lust, but still… he’s really, really cute. The others seem bored, with Kyle downing what seems like more than his weight in booze. “Well, this is boring,” Lucy complains, tossing a bottle in the middle. “Let’s play spin the bottle.” “No way!” Ant complains. “I’m the odd guy out. Kyle and Becca go together, you and Carter and then Mason and the new girl.” You blush at that comment as Carter nods in agreement. “I agree. I d-don’t w-want to play spin the bo-bottle,” Carter says. Briefly glancing at the indifferent Mason, you feel a twinge of annoyance of all possibilities of spin the bottle disappears as Ant suggests a new game. “Truth or Dare!” Ant suggests, to the groans of Kyle and Becca. “Remember what happened last time?” Becca points out. “That’s not fair! That wasn’t my fault! You should’ve protected your dad’s stuff. How was I do know that that painting was worth a fortune?” “You shouldn’t have been drawing over paintings in the first place, Ant!” “It wasn’t skin off your dad’s nose! That rich bastard can handle a loss! Jesus, we all know his ancestors made his money off the backs of Kyle’s ancestors!” “Fuck you, Ant!” Kyle shouts, slurring from his drink. “Gentlemen, gentlemen, calm down,” Mason says. “There ain’t no issues! We’re all friends here! I say a game of truth and dare would calm us all down.” “Fine,” Becca says. Mason downs the rest of his drink, and tosses the glass bottle in the middle. He drops to his knees and spins it, landing on Carter, who lies in the back of the pick-up. “Truth or dare, Carter?” “If I p-pick dare, will you… will you make me st-stand up?” Carter says lazily. “Maybe,” Mason says slyly. “Truth, t-then.” Mason grins, glancing at him and Lucy. “Have you ever kissed Lucy?” he asks. “Nope. Sorry to disa-disa-disappoint.” “Damn. I was certain,” Mason sighs, pulling out his wallet and tossing Kyle a crumpled bill. “You just cost me twenty bucks, Carter.” Ant leans over, spinning the bottle. It slows to a stop, pointing off into the woods. “Is that closer to Becca or Hazel?” he asks. “Becca,” Carter says. “Oh, fantastic. Truth or dare?” “Truth.” “Dammit, Becca. Fine, I’ll make this awkward. How far has Kyle got with you?” “Shut up, Ant!” Becca hisses. “Hey, you gotta answer!” Lucy says. “Oh come on! That’s private!” “We’re all friends here,” Mason says. “Fine! We’ve… you know. Done it.” “Respect, Kyle,” Ant smiles, holding back a giggle. Becca goes red, grabbing the bottle and twirling it. Through pure luck or skill, it points directly at Ant. “Shit,” Ant sighs. “Truth or dare. I have a lot of embarrassing questions to ask.” “Dare,” Ant grimaces. “Well, you have a lot more balls than I though. You’ll suffer from it. I dare you to go into Herr Eichel’s basement.” “No!” Ant replies. “Come on, Becca! Herr Eichel’s tear out his throat if he caught him!” Lucy complains. “Who’s Herr EIchel?” you ask. “Oh, I’ll tell her. I’ve been practicing this story for my little brother,” Mason says, before clearing his throat. “During World War II, a young soldier rose through the ranks of the SS. He had a habit of hunting Jews and personally escorting them to the Camps. He would hunt men, women, children, and torture them all for information. He showed no mercy. Eventually, when the Russians invaded, he escaped by pretending to be a civilian, fleeing from Berlin to France to Britain to the US. He hid right here in Dawnwood, hunting down any Jews he could find. His name is Herr Eichel.” “That’s the biggest load of shit!” Lucy complains. “Everyone knows that any Jew in Dawnwood would be scared off by Carter Sr. and his white power bullshit.” “He doesn’t w-w-want white pow-power!” Carter says. “He wants white p-pride. There’s… a difference.” “No there isn’t, Carter, now stop ruining the story. Where was I?” Mason asks. “You just finished,” you point out. “Oh. Well, now Herr Eichel’s going to kill Ant.” “Becca, I’m sorry! Please change the dare!” “Fine. You have to go into the Dead Man’s Barn and go up to the attic.” “That’s even worse!” Ant complains. “Nah, that ain’t bad,” Mason says. “Nazis are real and will kill you. Ghosts aren’t.” You raise an eyebrow, and Mason smiles. “OK, story time. Once, there was a Sheriff back in the Western times who used his power to wipe out any competition of the big ranchers of the town. One of the small time ranchers, Daniel Edwards, stood up and told the Sheriff he wouldn’t sell his farm to his competition despite threats. The Sheriff led a posse to bring him down, and Edwards tried to fight back. He killed two dozen men and took near a hundred bullets before he went down. They tortured him for a few days, even cutting his face wide open to give him... what'd ya call it, a Glasgow Grin. Eventually, you just hung him to finish him off. Rumor is he still haunts the barn where they strung him up. It’s a historical building so it can’t be torn down, so the owner just leaves it vacant.” “I’m not going!” “Don’t pussy out, Ant.” “Will one of you go with me?” Ant pleads. “Spin the bottle, and whoever it lands on has to go with you,” Lucy suggests. “I hope it’s Becca. That’d be ironic.” “Sure,” Carter says. “Let’s do that.” Ant thanks Lucy and spins the bottle. It wobbles and slows to a halt, pointing directly at you. “Well, I guess Hazel’s going to Dead Man’s Barn,” Mason says. “No, she can go to Herr Eichel’s if she wants. Eichel’s just an old, slow dude. The Dead Man’s a supernatural murderer,” Lucy says. “Let Hazel pick,” Kyle says, trying to stand before stumbling and leaning back on the truck. “Yeah. Go ahead Hazel. Ghost or Nazi.” > You go with Ant to Herr Eichel's Basement "Fine, we'll go to the Nazis." Ant nods nervously as Mason winces. "If... if you think so," Mason says. You nod. The group begins to stand, and starts walking towards Herr Eichel's house. "I'll... I'll stay here!" Kyle slurs, collapsing into the back of the pick-up truck. Lucy shrugs, and continues leading the group out of the forest. The group drops the various empty cans among the shrubs as you emerge in yet another one of the bland, boring suburbs that make up Dawnwood. The sun's fallen, so Lucy brings out her phone and turns on the flashlight. She leads you to a house that looks identical to every single house on the street. “Is this it?” you ask. “Yeah,” Lucy says. “Well. I expected swastika banners hanging from the roof or something.” “The closest thing to a swastika here is the one on Carter’s dad’s arm.” “Fuck you!” Carter says, “H-he’s not a naz-naz-nazi!” “Yes he is, Carter.” “We’re not arguing now. Quiet down, we don’t want to wake Herr Eichel. Ant, take Hazel ‘round back, there’s always an open window to the basement. We'll stay here. The ruckus of half a dozen kids 'round back would wake the Nazi," Mason says. “Probably to air out the smell,” Becca says. “You know, of his victims.” You begin to sweat nervously, and you follow Ant around the back. Like Mason said, the basement window is wide open. Ant looks at you, nodding. "Uh... ladies first," he says nervously. "Coward," you spit, before dropping to your knees. You crawl forward on your hands and knees, turning around and sliding through the window. You wiggle, taking a good minute to squeeze through, before dropping into the darkness of the basement. You lose sight of everything, and are left in complete and utter darkness that even the light of the moon can not penetrate. You listen, and the silence is broken by the quiet yelp and thud of Ant falling through the window. "Ssssh!" you hiss. "Fine," Ant says. You hear him fumble around in the darkness, before silence resumes. A tiny light flickers as Ant lights his cigarette lighter, his face being the only thing illuminated in the darkness. You draw your phone, turning on the flashlight, a more modern solution to the darkness. A workshop table is illuminated, with several... pieces of bone and flesh covering the tables. "What the fuck...?" Ant says, stepping back. "It was only supposed to be a rumor. I was nervous, but I didn't actually... I..." "What the hell is this place?" "We need to get out of here," Ant hisses. You stare at the table in pure horror. You turn your phone over, making out several more of these workshop tables covered in gristle and pieces of former victims. A large tool rack covered in blood stained knives, some deadly sharp, some serrated, some large enough to easily carve through bone as if through butter. "Hazel, snap out of it!" "OK, OK," you say, shaking your head. "I'll boost you out the window, you pull me up afterwards, got it?" you say. Ant nods, and you hurry to the basement window. He puts his foot in your cupped hands and you give him a boost. He grabs the window frame, and begins to pull himself through the door. You push him as he wiggles through the door. It takes a good two minutes for him to squeeze back through, before turning to grab your hand. "Come on, let's go!" you say. You hear a creaking. You turn off your phone as a beam of light from an opening door bursts in. "Hide!" Ant whisper loudly. "He's coming!" You look around. In the darkness, you see only two eligible options for hiding place: Under the workshop table or behind the "tool" rack. Then again, you could always try to squeeze through the window, although even with Ant's help, Herr Eichel might get you first. > You hide behind the tool rack You drop to your knees and quickly crawl behind the tool rack, curling up as you wrap your arms around your knees and curl up in a ball, trying not to move or make a noise. You hear an old voice begin to hum as the stairs begin to creak. "Muss i denn, Muss i denn, zum stadtele hinaus..." the old man sings. "...stadtele hinaus..." You wince as you hear him draw near. "Und du, mein schatz, bleibst hier?" he sings, as you hear the clank of metal as he grabs a blade from the tool rack, right in front of you. "Wenn i komm', wenn i komm', wenn i wiedrum komm'..." You let out a sigh of relief as he walks away, heading to the workshop. You hear the squelch as blades slicken as they slice through flesh. There's a thud and you gasp, before another thud, before a thud and a crack as Herr Eichel breaks open a bone with a hammer. Herr Eichel stops, pausing for a second. "Is there someone there?" he asks, his eery sing-song voice giving way to an elderly' grandfather's with a thick German accent. "I promise, if you come out now, there... won't be a problem." > You continue hiding You stay hidden, trying not to breath as Herr Eichel begins moving around the room, singing all the while. "Kehr' i ein, mein Schatz, bei dir. Kann i glei net allweil bei dir sein..." he sings. You hear a chime as the doorbell rings, and the room falls silent as Herr Eichel stops singing. "Ah. Guests," he says. You hear his boots thud away as the stairs begin to creak as he climbs them. You hear the door shut, and immediately get out of your hiding place. You head to the window, and leap up through it. You grab the window pane and begin to pull yourself through, wiggling to help you move on through. You pull yourself through and collapse onto the grass, and begin running around to the front. You freeze as you notice Herr Eichel standing directly in front of you. "Hello," he says in a thick German accent. "I am Mr Eichel." "I know." "Ah, so you've heard of me. Tell me, what are the current rumors. Am I said to be the assistant to Josef Mengele? The personal aid of Adolf Hitler? A camp doctor as the Concentration Camp?" You stare at him in silence. "Well, the rumors are completely untrue. I am simply an immigrant and a taxidermist. I came here when I was a boy. Sure, I served my country during the war in the Werhmacht, but I surrendered first chance I got. It's simple fear of foreigners that makes children think I'm so terrible boogeyman, not any real facts. Did you take any... souvenirs from my basement?" You shake yor head. "Good, although I warn you, my dear, that if you and your friends break into my house again I will be calling the Sheriff. And tell... give me a sec, my vision isn't great... Mason, Rebecca, Anthony and Carter that there's better things to waste your time on then bothering old men. Quite ironic that Carter's here to see a nazi with the family he has... Now, please leave me alone to my work, dear." You nod, and run out towards the trees. You find the group, with Mason standing terrified, waiting for you. "What happened? Why'd he just let you go? Carter says he was carving up a body!" "He said he's just an old immigrant and a taxidermist, and to leave him alone or he'd call the sheriff." "He was cutting up a person!" Ant shrieks. "That was probably a deer!" Lucy says. "You're drunk as fuck, Ant." "It was a person," Ant says, stubbornly. "Well, we probably just annoyed an old man. Let's get the fuck out of here and go find Kyle." > You head back into the woods You walk back through the woods, heading towards the trucks. "S-s-so, this w-was a bad id-idea," Carter says. "Yeah, it was. I risked my life to annoy a harmless old man," you say. "We risked our lives to annoy what could have been a harmless old man," Ant says. You arrive at the camp, and Mason swears loudly. "FUCK! Where the hell is Kyle?" he asks. The camp is empty, with no one in sight. "R-r-remember last time we lost Kyle when he was drunk?" "Oh dear God, he ended up pissing in my garden. He wasn't pissing into the garden. He was standing in the garden, pissing on my house," Becca says. "We need to find him. Is anyone not sober enough to find this place again?" Mason says. There's silence. "Good. We'll split up and try find him. Ant, you head towards the Rotten Trees, Lucy, go towards our old tree house, Becca, towards the old drinking point, Carter, back towards town. Hazel, you're new here. There's a stream just over there," Mason says, pointing. "Just walk along there, and keep your phone on. If you can't find him, follow the stream back here." You nod. Time to find Kyle.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You drop to your knees and quickly crawl behind the tool rack, curling up as you wrap your arms around your knees and curl up in a ball, trying not to move or make a noise. You hear an old voice begin to hum as the stairs begin to creak. "Muss i denn, Muss i denn, zum stadtele hinaus..." the old man sings. "...stadtele hinaus..." You wince as you hear him draw near. "Und du, mein schatz, bleibst hier?" he sings, as you hear the clank of metal as he grabs a blade from the tool rack, right in front of you. "Wenn i komm', wenn i komm', wenn i wiedrum komm'..." You let out a sigh of relief as he walks away, heading to the workshop. You hear the squelch as blades slicken as they slice through flesh. There's a thud and you gasp, before another thud, before a thud and a crack as Herr Eichel breaks open a bone with a hammer. Herr Eichel stops, pausing for a second. "Is there someone there?" he asks, his eery sing-song voice giving way to an elderly' grandfather's with a thick German accent. "I promise, if you come out now, there... won't be a problem." > You reveal yourself You slowly leave your hiding spot, and are faced with Herr Eichel. His face is gaunt and haggard, wrinkles covering everything that was once smooth. His hair is all but gone, a few snow white pieces clinging onto his scalp. With how weak and feeble he looks, you're impressed he can stand. A pair of wire frame glasses sit on his nose as he looks you over. "Hello," he says in a thick German accent. "I am Mr Eichel." "I know." "Ah, so you've heard of me. Tell me, what are the current rumors. Am I said to be the assistant to Josef Mengele? The personal aid of Adolf Hitler? A camp doctor as the Concentration Camp?" You stare at him in silence. "Well, the rumors are completely untrue. I am simply an immigrant and a taxidermist. I came here when I was a boy. Sure, I served my country during the war in the Werhmacht, but I surrendered first chance I got. It's simple fear of foreigners that makes children think I'm so terrible boogeyman, not any real facts. Shall I escort you to the front door?" You nod, and follow him up the stairs. He walks you through an old, dust covered house, stopping at the front door to open it for you. "I warn you, my dear, that if you and your friends break into my house again I will be calling the Sheriff. And tell... give me a sec, my vision isn't great... Mason, Rebecca, Anthony and Carter that there's better things to waste your time on then bothering old men. Quite ironic that Carter's here to see a nazi with the family he has... Now, please leave me alone to my work, dear." You nod, and run out towards the trees. You find the group, with Mason standing terrified, waiting for you. "What happened? Why'd he just let you go? Carter says he was carving up a body!" "He said he's just an old immigrant and a taxidermist, and to leave him alone or he'd call the sheriff." "He was cutting up a person!" Ant shrieks. "That was probably a deer!" Lucy says. "You're drunk as fuck, Ant." "It was a person," Ant says, stubbornly. "Well, we probably just annoyed an old man. Let's get the fuck out of here and go find Kyle."<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Fine, we'll go to the Nazis." Ant nods nervously as Mason winces. "If... if you think so," Mason says. You nod. The group begins to stand, and starts walking towards Herr Eichel's house. "I'll... I'll stay here!" Kyle slurs, collapsing into the back of the pick-up truck. Lucy shrugs, and continues leading the group out of the forest. The group drops the various empty cans among the shrubs as you emerge in yet another one of the bland, boring suburbs that make up Dawnwood. The sun's fallen, so Lucy brings out her phone and turns on the flashlight. She leads you to a house that looks identical to every single house on the street. “Is this it?” you ask. “Yeah,” Lucy says. “Well. I expected swastika banners hanging from the roof or something.” “The closest thing to a swastika here is the one on Carter’s dad’s arm.” “Fuck you!” Carter says, “H-he’s not a naz-naz-nazi!” “Yes he is, Carter.” “We’re not arguing now. Quiet down, we don’t want to wake Herr Eichel. Ant, take Hazel ‘round back, there’s always an open window to the basement. We'll stay here. The ruckus of half a dozen kids 'round back would wake the Nazi," Mason says. “Probably to air out the smell,” Becca says. “You know, of his victims.” You begin to sweat nervously, and you follow Ant around the back. Like Mason said, the basement window is wide open. Ant looks at you, nodding. "Uh... ladies first," he says nervously. "Coward," you spit, before dropping to your knees. You crawl forward on your hands and knees, turning around and sliding through the window. You wiggle, taking a good minute to squeeze through, before dropping into the darkness of the basement. You lose sight of everything, and are left in complete and utter darkness that even the light of the moon can not penetrate. You listen, and the silence is broken by the quiet yelp and thud of Ant falling through the window. "Ssssh!" you hiss. "Fine," Ant says. You hear him fumble around in the darkness, before silence resumes. A tiny light flickers as Ant lights his cigarette lighter, his face being the only thing illuminated in the darkness. You draw your phone, turning on the flashlight, a more modern solution to the darkness. A workshop table is illuminated, with several... pieces of bone and flesh covering the tables. "What the fuck...?" Ant says, stepping back. "It was only supposed to be a rumor. I was nervous, but I didn't actually... I..." "What the hell is this place?" "We need to get out of here," Ant hisses. You stare at the table in pure horror. You turn your phone over, making out several more of these workshop tables covered in gristle and pieces of former victims. A large tool rack covered in blood stained knives, some deadly sharp, some serrated, some large enough to easily carve through bone as if through butter. "Hazel, snap out of it!" "OK, OK," you say, shaking your head. "I'll boost you out the window, you pull me up afterwards, got it?" you say. Ant nods, and you hurry to the basement window. He puts his foot in your cupped hands and you give him a boost. He grabs the window frame, and begins to pull himself through the door. You push him as he wiggles through the door. It takes a good two minutes for him to squeeze back through, before turning to grab your hand. "Come on, let's go!" you say. You hear a creaking. You turn off your phone as a beam of light from an opening door bursts in. "Hide!" Ant whisper loudly. "He's coming!" You look around. In the darkness, you see only two eligible options for hiding place: Under the workshop table or behind the "tool" rack. Then again, you could always try to squeeze through the window, although even with Ant's help, Herr Eichel might get you first. > You hide under the workshop You drop to your knees and quickly crawl under the workshop, curling up as you wrap your arms around your knees and curl up in a ball, trying not to move or make a noise. You hear an old voice begin to hum as the stairs begin to creak. "Muss i denn, Muss i denn, zum stadtele hinaus..." the old man sings. "...stadtele hinaus..." You wince as you hear him draw near. You see his old, mud covered boots stomp down right next to you as he walks past. "Und du, mein schatz, bleibst hier?" he sings, as you hear the clank of metal as he grabs a blade from the tool rack. "Wenn i komm', wenn i komm', wenn i wiedrum komm'..." You wince as he stands at the end of the workshop, right by you. You hear the squelch as blades slicken as they slice through flesh. There's a thud right above you and you gasp, before another thud, before a thud and a crack as Herr Eichel breaks open a bone with a hammer. Herr Eichel stops, pausing for a second. "Is there someone there?" he asks, his eery sing-song voice giving way to an elderly' grandfather's with a thick German accent. "I promise, if you come out now, there... won't be a problem."<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Fine, we'll go to the Nazis." Ant nods nervously as Mason winces. "If... if you think so," Mason says. You nod. The group begins to stand, and starts walking towards Herr Eichel's house. "I'll... I'll stay here!" Kyle slurs, collapsing into the back of the pick-up truck. Lucy shrugs, and continues leading the group out of the forest. The group drops the various empty cans among the shrubs as you emerge in yet another one of the bland, boring suburbs that make up Dawnwood. The sun's fallen, so Lucy brings out her phone and turns on the flashlight. She leads you to a house that looks identical to every single house on the street. “Is this it?” you ask. “Yeah,” Lucy says. “Well. I expected swastika banners hanging from the roof or something.” “The closest thing to a swastika here is the one on Carter’s dad’s arm.” “Fuck you!” Carter says, “H-he’s not a naz-naz-nazi!” “Yes he is, Carter.” “We’re not arguing now. Quiet down, we don’t want to wake Herr Eichel. Ant, take Hazel ‘round back, there’s always an open window to the basement. We'll stay here. The ruckus of half a dozen kids 'round back would wake the Nazi," Mason says. “Probably to air out the smell,” Becca says. “You know, of his victims.” You begin to sweat nervously, and you follow Ant around the back. Like Mason said, the basement window is wide open. Ant looks at you, nodding. "Uh... ladies first," he says nervously. "Coward," you spit, before dropping to your knees. You crawl forward on your hands and knees, turning around and sliding through the window. You wiggle, taking a good minute to squeeze through, before dropping into the darkness of the basement. You lose sight of everything, and are left in complete and utter darkness that even the light of the moon can not penetrate. You listen, and the silence is broken by the quiet yelp and thud of Ant falling through the window. "Ssssh!" you hiss. "Fine," Ant says. You hear him fumble around in the darkness, before silence resumes. A tiny light flickers as Ant lights his cigarette lighter, his face being the only thing illuminated in the darkness. You draw your phone, turning on the flashlight, a more modern solution to the darkness. A workshop table is illuminated, with several... pieces of bone and flesh covering the tables. "What the fuck...?" Ant says, stepping back. "It was only supposed to be a rumor. I was nervous, but I didn't actually... I..." "What the hell is this place?" "We need to get out of here," Ant hisses. You stare at the table in pure horror. You turn your phone over, making out several more of these workshop tables covered in gristle and pieces of former victims. A large tool rack covered in blood stained knives, some deadly sharp, some serrated, some large enough to easily carve through bone as if through butter. "Hazel, snap out of it!" "OK, OK," you say, shaking your head. "I'll boost you out the window, you pull me up afterwards, got it?" you say. Ant nods, and you hurry to the basement window. He puts his foot in your cupped hands and you give him a boost. He grabs the window frame, and begins to pull himself through the door. You push him as he wiggles through the door. It takes a good two minutes for him to squeeze back through, before turning to grab your hand. "Come on, let's go!" you say. You hear a creaking. You turn off your phone as a beam of light from an opening door bursts in. "Hide!" Ant whisper loudly. "He's coming!" You look around. In the darkness, you see only two eligible options for hiding place: Under the workshop table or behind the "tool" rack. Then again, you could always try to squeeze through the window, although even with Ant's help, Herr Eichel might get you first. > You try to get out the window You shake your head and jump up. Ant pulls desperately as you use your spare hand to pull yourself through the window. You wiggle as Ant pulls with all his strength. You slide through the window as your hear a sigh behind you. You turn your head, seeing Herr Eichel, an old, wrinkled man with metal spectacles and a balding head staring at you. You shriek when you see him and jump to his feet, grabbing Ant and pulling him after you. You run around to the front, where the rest of your friends are waiting. "Let's go! Ant shouts, as you burst towards the woods. You run through the trees, slowing down as you make reasonable distance from Herr Eichel's house. "What the fuck happened?" Mason asks. "Guts... flesh... cutting people up..." Ant asks. "Shit. Did he see you?" "He saw Hazel." "That's OK. That's fine," Mason says. "Do we go to the police?" you ask. "Shit, no. W-we can't g-g-go to the p-police," Carter says. "Just l-leave an anon-anonymous tip." Mason pulls out his phone and makes a brief call to 911, trying to disguise his voice all the while. After a few minutes of him trying to explain the situation, he ends the call. "So... this might've been our bad." "What?" you ask. "So... the cops have been to Eichel's house many times before. He's not a murderer. He's a taxidermist, and he was probably cutting up an animal." "That was definitely a person!" Ant says. "It could've been a deer," you admit. "What, so the police aren't coming?" Ant asks. "I guess not." "That's bullshit! I saw a person in there!" Ant yells. "Well, you are more than a little drunk," Lucy says. "Hazel is too, and she said she it might'a been a deer." "Well, I guess we just harassed an old man. Let's go back to Kyle, he's probably passed out in the back of a pick-up trucks," Mason says.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Cool," Mason grins, passing you the bottle of alcohol. You take a long drink, downing much of the bottle. Ant is right, it does taste like piss. Still, you manage to gulp down half the can, before passing it on. "Shit. The new girl can drink," Ant smiles. You continue sitting around the campfire, which is really a lot closer to a glorified candle sitting in a pile of leaves. Mason grabs the bottle of vodka and sits down next to you and your heart flutters. A large part of you knows that this is just infatuation and a childhood crush, mixed in with a fair bit of hormonal lust, but still… he’s really, really cute. The others seem bored, with Kyle downing what seems like more than his weight in booze. “Well, this is boring,” Lucy complains, tossing a bottle in the middle. “Let’s play spin the bottle.” “No way!” Ant complains. “I’m the odd guy out. Kyle and Becca go together, you and Carter and then Mason and the new girl.” You blush at that comment as Carter nods in agreement. “I agree. I d-don’t w-want to play spin the bo-bottle,” Carter says. Briefly glancing at the indifferent Mason, you feel a twinge of annoyance of all possibilities of spin the bottle disappears as Ant suggests a new game. “Truth or Dare!” Ant suggests, to the groans of Kyle and Becca. “Remember what happened last time?” Becca points out. “That’s not fair! That wasn’t my fault! You should’ve protected your dad’s stuff. How was I do know that that painting was worth a fortune?” “You shouldn’t have been drawing over paintings in the first place, Ant!” “It wasn’t skin off your dad’s nose! That rich bastard can handle a loss! Jesus, we all know his ancestors made his money off the backs of Kyle’s ancestors!” “Fuck you, Ant!” Kyle shouts, slurring from his drink. “Gentlemen, gentlemen, calm down,” Mason says. “There ain’t no issues! We’re all friends here! I say a game of truth and dare would calm us all down.” “Fine,” Becca says. Mason downs the rest of his drink, and tosses the glass bottle in the middle. He drops to his knees and spins it, landing on Carter, who lies in the back of the pick-up. “Truth or dare, Carter?” “If I p-pick dare, will you… will you make me st-stand up?” Carter says lazily. “Maybe,” Mason says slyly. “Truth, t-then.” Mason grins, glancing at him and Lucy. “Have you ever kissed Lucy?” he asks. “Nope. Sorry to disa-disa-disappoint.” “Damn. I was certain,” Mason sighs, pulling out his wallet and tossing Kyle a crumpled bill. “You just cost me twenty bucks, Carter.” Ant leans over, spinning the bottle. It slows to a stop, pointing off into the woods. “Is that closer to Becca or Hazel?” he asks. “Becca,” Carter says. “Oh, fantastic. Truth or dare?” “Truth.” “Dammit, Becca. Fine, I’ll make this awkward. How far has Kyle got with you?” “Shut up, Ant!” Becca hisses. “Hey, you gotta answer!” Lucy says. “Oh come on! That’s private!” “We’re all friends here,” Mason says. “Fine! We’ve… you know. Done it.” “Respect, Kyle,” Ant smiles, holding back a giggle. Becca goes red, grabbing the bottle and twirling it. Through pure luck or skill, it points directly at Ant. “Shit,” Ant sighs. “Truth or dare. I have a lot of embarrassing questions to ask.” “Dare,” Ant grimaces. “Well, you have a lot more balls than I though. You’ll suffer from it. I dare you to go into Herr Eichel’s basement.” “No!” Ant replies. “Come on, Becca! Herr Eichel’s tear out his throat if he caught him!” Lucy complains. “Who’s Herr EIchel?” you ask. “Oh, I’ll tell her. I’ve been practicing this story for my little brother,” Mason says, before clearing his throat. “During World War II, a young soldier rose through the ranks of the SS. He had a habit of hunting Jews and personally escorting them to the Camps. He would hunt men, women, children, and torture them all for information. He showed no mercy. Eventually, when the Russians invaded, he escaped by pretending to be a civilian, fleeing from Berlin to France to Britain to the US. He hid right here in Dawnwood, hunting down any Jews he could find. His name is Herr Eichel.” “That’s the biggest load of shit!” Lucy complains. “Everyone knows that any Jew in Dawnwood would be scared off by Carter Sr. and his white power bullshit.” “He doesn’t w-w-want white pow-power!” Carter says. “He wants white p-pride. There’s… a difference.” “No there isn’t, Carter, now stop ruining the story. Where was I?” Mason asks. “You just finished,” you point out. “Oh. Well, now Herr Eichel’s going to kill Ant.” “Becca, I’m sorry! Please change the dare!” “Fine. You have to go into the Dead Man’s Barn and go up to the attic.” “That’s even worse!” Ant complains. “Nah, that ain’t bad,” Mason says. “Nazis are real and will kill you. Ghosts aren’t.” You raise an eyebrow, and Mason smiles. “OK, story time. Once, there was a Sheriff back in the Western times who used his power to wipe out any competition of the big ranchers of the town. One of the small time ranchers, Daniel Edwards, stood up and told the Sheriff he wouldn’t sell his farm to his competition despite threats. The Sheriff led a posse to bring him down, and Edwards tried to fight back. He killed two dozen men and took near a hundred bullets before he went down. They tortured him for a few days, even cutting his face wide open to give him... what'd ya call it, a Glasgow Grin. Eventually, you just hung him to finish him off. Rumor is he still haunts the barn where they strung him up. It’s a historical building so it can’t be torn down, so the owner just leaves it vacant.” “I’m not going!” “Don’t pussy out, Ant.” “Will one of you go with me?” Ant pleads. “Spin the bottle, and whoever it lands on has to go with you,” Lucy suggests. “I hope it’s Becca. That’d be ironic.” “Sure,” Carter says. “Let’s do that.” Ant thanks Lucy and spins the bottle. It wobbles and slows to a halt, pointing directly at you. “Well, I guess Hazel’s going to Dead Man’s Barn,” Mason says. “No, she can go to Herr Eichel’s if she wants. Eichel’s just an old, slow dude. The Dead Man’s a supernatural murderer,” Lucy says. “Let Hazel pick,” Kyle says, trying to stand before stumbling and leaning back on the truck. “Yeah. Go ahead Hazel. Ghost or Nazi.” > You refuse to go "I'm not going!" you proclaim loudly. "Come on! You have to, it's a dare!" Lucy says. "Don't p-p-pussy out on... us," Carter says. "No, I'm not doing," There's a collective sigh from the group as you're hit by a barrage of complaints, sighs and insults, before the group settles down. You sit back onto the ground, noticing Mason has shied away from you slightly. Well shit. The group resumes their activities, which all consist of various ways of drinking. > You keep drinking You continue drinking and hours go past. The group constantly shifts positions, before Mason realizes something. "Hey guys, where's Kyle?" he asks. "I think he went to go pee," Lucy shrugs. "When was that?" "About an hour ago," Becca says. "FUCK! Where the hell is Kyle?" he asks. "R-r-remember last time we lost Kyle when he was drunk?" "Oh dear God, he ended up pissing in my garden. He wasn't pissing into the garden. He was standing in the garden, pissing on my house," Becca says. "We need to find him. Is anyone not sober enough to find this place again?" Mason says. There's silence. "Good. We'll split up and try find him. Ant, you head towards the Rotten Trees, Lucy, go towards our old tree house, Becca, towards the old drinking point, Carter, back towards town. Hazel, you're new here. There's a stream just over there," Mason says, pointing. "Just walk along there, and keep your phone on. If you can't find him, follow the stream back here." You nod. Time to find Kyle.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>“Are you sure?” Lucy asks. “A bit of drink never hurt anyone.” “Plus, you’ll be really bland and we’lll be annoying to each other if you’re sober,” Ant adds. “Oh, and… peer pressure. We’re peers who are pressuring you, because that’s a thing that really happens." > You say "No, really, I'm fine." "Sure thing. Your loss." You continue sitting around the campfire, which is really a lot closer to a glorified candle sitting in a pile of leaves. Mason grabs the bottle of vodka and sits down next to you and your heart flutters. A large part of you knows that this is just infatuation and a childhood crush, mixed in with a fair bit of hormonal lust, but still… he’s really, really cute. The others seem bored, with Kyle downing what seems like more than his weight in booze. “Well, this is boring,” Lucy complains, tossing a bottle in the middle. “Let’s play spin the bottle.” “No way!” Ant complains. “I’m the odd guy out. Kyle and Becca go together, you and Carter and then Mason and the new girl.” You blush at that comment as Carter nods in agreement. “I agree. I d-don’t w-want to play spin the bo-bottle,” Carter says. Briefly glancing at the indifferent Mason, you feel a twinge of annoyance of all possibilities of spin the bottle disappears as Ant suggests a new game. “Truth or Dare!” Ant suggests, to the groans of Kyle and Becca. “Remember what happened last time?” Becca points out. “That’s not fair! That wasn’t my fault! You should’ve protected your dad’s stuff. How was I do know that that painting was worth a fortune?” “You shouldn’t have been drawing over paintings in the first place, Ant!” “It wasn’t skin off your dad’s nose! That rich bastard can handle a loss! Jesus, we all know his ancestors made his money off the backs of Kyle’s ancestors!” “Fuck you, Ant!” Kyle shouts, slurring from his drink. “Gentlemen, gentlemen, calm down,” Mason says. “There ain’t no issues! We’re all friends here! I say a game of truth and dare would calm us all down.” “Fine,” Becca says. Mason downs the rest of his drink, and tosses the glass bottle in the middle. He drops to his knees and spins it, landing on Carter, who lies in the back of the pick-up. “Truth or dare, Carter?” “If I p-pick dare, will you… will you make me st-stand up?” Carter says lazily. “Maybe,” Mason says slyly. “Truth, t-then.” Mason grins, glancing at him and Lucy. “Have you ever kissed Lucy?” he asks. “Nope. Sorry to disa-disa-disappoint.” “Damn. I was certain,” Mason sighs, pulling out his wallet and tossing Kyle a crumpled bill. “You just cost me twenty bucks, Carter.” Ant leans over, spinning the bottle. It slows to a stop, pointing off into the woods. “Is that closer to Becca or Hazel?” he asks. “Becca,” Carter says. “Oh, fantastic. Truth or dare?” “Truth.” “Dammit, Becca. Fine, I’ll make this awkward. How far has Kyle got with you?” “Shut up, Ant!” Becca hisses. “Hey, you gotta answer!” Lucy says. “Oh come on! That’s private!” “We’re all friends here,” Mason says. “Fine! We’ve… you know. Done it.” “Respect, Kyle,” Ant smiles, holding back a giggle. Becca goes red, grabbing the bottle and twirling it. Through pure luck or skill, it points directly at Ant. “Shit,” Ant sighs. “Truth or dare. I have a lot of embarrassing questions to ask.” “Dare,” Ant grimaces. “Well, you have a lot more balls than I though. You’ll suffer from it. I dare you to go into Herr Eichel’s basement.” “No!” Ant replies. “Come on, Becca! Herr Eichel’s tear out his throat if he caught him!” Lucy complains. “Who’s Herr EIchel?” you ask. “Oh, I’ll tell her. I’ve been practising this story for my little brother,” Mason says, before clearing his throat. “During World War II, a young soldier rose through the ranks of the SS. He had a habit of hunting Jews and personally escorting them to the Camps. He would hunt men, women, children, and torture them all for information. He showed no mercy. Eventually, when the Russians invaded, he escaped by pretending to be a civilian, fleeing from Berlin to France to Britain to the US. He hid right here in Dawnwood, hunting down any Jews he could find. His name is Herr Eichel.” “That’s the biggest load of shit!” Lucy complains. “Everyone knows that any Jew in Dawnwood would be scared off by Carter Sr. and his white power bullshit.” “He doesn’t w-w-want white pow-power!” Carter says. “He wants white p-pride. There’s… a difference.” “No there isn’t, Carter, now stop ruining the story. Where was I?” Mason asks. “You just finished,” you point out. “Oh. Well, now Herr Eichel’s going to kill Ant.” “Becca, I’m sorry! Please change the dare!” “Fine. You have to go into the Dead Man’s Barn and go up to the attic.” “That’s even worse!” Ant complains. “Nah, that ain’t bad,” Mason says. “Nazis are real and will kill you. Ghosts aren’t.” You raise an eyebrow, and Mason smiles. “OK, story time. Once, there was a Sheriff back in the Western times who used his power to wipe out any competition of the big ranchers of the town. One of the small time ranchers, Daniel Edwards, stood up and told the Sheriff he wouldn’t sell his farm to his competition despite threats. The Sheriff led a posse to bring him down, and Edwards tried to fight back. He killed two dozen men and took near a hundred bullets before he went down. They tortured him for a few days, even cutting his face wide open to give him... what'd ya call it, a Glasgow Grin. Eventually, you just hung him to finish him off. Rumor is he still haunts the barn where they strung him up. It’s a historical building so it can’t be torn down, so the owner just leaves it vacant.” “I’m not going!” “Don’t pussy out, Ant.” “Will one of you go with me?” Ant pleads. “Spin the bottle, and whoever it lands on has to go with you,” Lucy suggests. “I hope it’s Becca. That’d be ironic.” “Sure,” Carter says. “Let’s do that.” Ant thanks Lucy and spins the bottle. It wobbles and slows to a halt, pointing directly at you. “Well, I guess Hazel’s going to Dead Man’s Barn,” Mason says. “No, she can go to Herr Eichel’s if she wants. Eichel’s just an old, slow dude. The Dead Man’s a supernatural murderer,” Lucy says. “Let Hazel pick,” Kyle says, trying to stand before stumbling and leaning back on the truck. “Yeah. Go ahead Hazel. Ghost or Nazi.”<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You sit down. "So Hunter, how was school?" "Good," Hunter mumbles. "Hey, Dad..." you ask. "Yes?" Now's the perfect time to ask him whether you can go or not... or you can just sneak out later. > You say "Can I go to a friend's house?" "Hazel, it's your first day knowing these people. You don't know anyone here well enough to trust them," Dad says. "OK," you say dejectedly, already planning how to sneak out. You quickly eat most of your dinner before faking a stomach ache and disappearing into your room.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You sit down. "So Hunter, how was school?" "Good," Hunter mumbles. "Hey, Dad..." you ask. "Yes?" Now's the perfect time to ask him whether you can go or not... or you can just sneak out later. > You say "Nothing." "Uh... OK," Dad replies. You eat your dinner quietly, before faking a stomach ache and disappearing into your room.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Fine!" you sigh, as your brother gleefully snatches the remote and switches to the latest cartoon that's far too old for him. You jump up from the couch, and grab your laptop, binge-watching Youtube until you hear Dad come through the door. "Hello! I'm home!" he calls. "Hey Dad!" you yell from the kitchen. He walks in, smiling. "You're not fighting. That's pretty impressive," he smiles, referring to you and your brother. "I'll put on dinner. We have chicken curry." He begins to turn on the stove and start cooking. "How was school, honey?" > You say "OK." "Well, honey, that's pretty good." "Yeah, I guess." You shrug and turn on your phone. After about an hour, Dad begins serving dinner.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Fine!" you sigh, as your brother gleefully snatches the remote and switches to the latest cartoon that's far too old for him. You jump up from the couch, and grab your laptop, binge-watching Youtube until you hear Dad come through the door. "Hello! I'm home!" he calls. "Hey Dad!" you yell from the kitchen. He walks in, smiling. "You're not fighting. That's pretty impressive," he smiles, referring to you and your brother. "I'll put on dinner. We have chicken curry." He begins to turn on the stove and start cooking. "How was school, honey?" > You say "Pretty good." "That's fantastic honey! I'm sure you've made lots of friends." You smile and turn on your phone. After about an hour, Dad begins serving dinner.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The rest of the school day is easy. You learn about the history of the town in History Class, the history teacher eagerly abandoning the notion of McCarthyism to explain what appears to be her favorite topic. Apparently, the town was once home to a large tribe of Native Americans, who were promptly wiped out by Colonists. The town rose to prominence due to its large number of cattle farms, before falling into obscurity as the modern age dawned. Eventually, it became the shithole it is today. After school, you take the bus home and say goodbye to your friends. Dad's still at work, so you collapse in front of the TV for a barrage of nearly identical Crime Shows. One features a team of guys who just kind of stereotype criminals, one features some guys who look at glowing stains, one features a guy who knows when you're lying and one features a modern day Sherlock Holmes. Just as the team find a new bit of information about how the clown's car is full of some... particularly dirty stains, you hear the familiar whine. "HAZEL! Can I watch TV!?!" "No! I'm watching. Go play your games." "But It's out battery!" he whines. > You don't let him watch TV, for he is a whining, snivelling brat "Screw off!" you say, flinging a cushion at Hunter. "Fine!" Hunter shouts, storming off. You continue watching your show (the clown was being blackmailed by the mother about his time in jail so she could get the insurance money), until eventually you hear the slamming door that signifies Dad's home. "Hello! I'm home!" he calls. "Hey Dad!" you yell. He walks in, smiling. Immediately, Hunter starts to whine. "Dad! Hazel won't let me watch TV!" "Who was watching first?" Hunter falls silence as you follow Dad into the kitchen. "God, you're at each others throats," he smiles. "I'll put on dinner. We have chicken curry." He begins to turn on the stove and start cooking. "How was school, honey?"<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Oh, good! Come on, let's go!" You follow Dad to the car, and climb in the passenger seat. You don't even need to turn your head to know your brother's in the backseat, hearing the opening tune of Angry Birds: Stalin's Show Trials or whatever the fuck version they have now. You lie back in your seat and stare out the window as you go through the town. Eventually, you arrive at some shitty, greasy pizza joint, and get out of the car. You walk inside, and find yourself in a Chucky Cheese knock-off. You walk up to the counter and find yourself faced with a girl your age with long brown hair and a massive zit that looks like a red dot sight in the middle of her forehead. "Hello, welcome to Pizza Corner, can I take your order?" she asks. "Yeah, can we have a large Pepperoni Pizza and three Cokes?" "Sure thing. Small, Medium or Large?" "Medium." The girl begins pouring the drinks as another, far prettier blond girl appears from the kitchen, holding a large piece of dough. She glances briefly at you, before grabbing a cloth with her spare hand and disappearing back again. "So, are you new here?" the cashier asks. "Yeah, I just moved in." "I'm Lucy." "I'm Hazel." “Oh, really? Well, it’s a good town. You can’t find much work except in a dull pizza joint, but there ain’t much here to even spend the money on. Some old clothes stores and a cinema, and that’s about it.” “Do you work here full time?” “Jesus no. If I got to the point where I was working here full time I’d dip my head in the deep fat… well, I wouldn’t be happy. Im still in school.” “What grade?” “10th.” “Oh, I’m starting there tomorrow. I guess I’ll see you there.” “”Sure. If you want, I can always get you a job here. Becca, the blond girl, has literally done shit all since we started. She’s only working so her daddy an think she’s learning real-life experience and still feel justified buying whatever she…” “I can hear you!” a voice calls out from the kitchen. “I know, Becca, I’m getting a point across!” Dad appears standing next to you, grinning. "Look who's already making friends!" he smiles. You roll your eyes. "Yeah, sure. Let's just sit down," you say, pulling Dad towards a booth to sit in. > Two Days Later... The school is a shitty building filled with no good kids who are learning about geography and Shakespeare despite the fact that they’ll almost certainly end up in the shitty jobs that are needed to keep this town running. You walk through the doors, a backpack slung over your shoulder. “OK, it’s not so bad,” you mutter, walking past a row of lockers down the hall. "I just have to find my classes and…” “Hey, Hazel!” a voice cries. You turn to find the familiar, zit stricken face of the pizza cashier, Lucy. “Hey,” you reply. “So, it’s your first day, huh? Do you know what classes you’re in?” You search your pockets and pull out a crumpled class schedule, handing it to her. “OK, we have the same Spanish, English, Math, History… you do Chemistry? Gay! That’s the hardest class!” “Well other than that we seem to share a suspicious amount of classes.” “Yeah, I talked to the principal and begged him to put you in my classes… it’s a tiny school, what do you think would happen? Of course we share most classes. Oh look, Carter’s here.” You turn to see Carter, the kid from the day before, bounding over. “I know,” you say. “We met the day before yesterday.” “Y-yeah. How’ve y-you been?” “Good.” “Well, you made friends without me? I feel left out. Anyway, if you want, we can both show you around. Between the two of us, we should share pretty much every class.” “Except Chem… Chemistry,” Carter points out. “Yeah, you’re pretty much fucked for that, but that’s your problem. Now we have double Math and English, and Miss Loaves is genuinely the easiest Math teacher to have to deal with. She’s the only one who lets you get books from your locker when you forget them rather than giving a write-out or detention or just yelling for ten minutes. Come on, we’ll show you around.”<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You pick up your backpack again and walk up to your new room. It has a large wardrobe, a large double bed, a desk and chair and two dressers. You sit on the bed, taking out your laptop, and go on Facebook. Thankfully, the WiFi's already set up, so you can go on. You go down your Timeline, seeing all your friends having fun. Fiona had a party, Dan's now dating Leone and a bunch of other shit's going on that you wish you could take part in. You sigh, and continue flicking through pictures and posts. After an hour or two, Dad calls you down again. You close your laptop and go downstairs, finding Dad waiting there in the kitchen. "Hey, sweetie. The house is pretty barren, so we're going to go out to eat and I'll pick up groceries in the morning. I saw a pizza place in town. Do you want to go?" > You say "No." "For God's sake, Haze! This isn't fair! You can't punish me forever because of the mood! I'm sick of this bitchy behavior! Now, get in the car!" You follow Dad to the car, and climb in the passenger seat. You don't even need to turn your head to know your brother's in the backseat, hearing the opening tune of Angry Birds: Stalin's Show Trials or whatever the fuck version they have now. You lie back in your seat and stare out the window as you go through the town. Eventually, you arrive at some shitty, greasy pizza joint, and get out of the car. You walk inside, and find yourself in a Chucky Cheese knock-off. You walk up to the counter and find yourself faced with a girl your age with long brown hair and a massive zit that looks like a red dot sight in the middle of her forehead. "Hello, welcome to Pizza Corner, can I take your order?" she asks. "Yeah, can we have a large Pepperoni Pizza and three Cokes?" "Sure thing. Small, Medium or Large?" "Medium." The girl begins pouring the drinks as another, far prettier blond girl appears from the kitchen, holding a large piece of dough. She glances briefly at you, before grabbing a cloth with her spare hand and disappearing back again. "So, are you new here?" the cashier asks. "Yeah, I just moved in." "I'm Lucy." "I'm Hazel." “Oh, really? Well, it’s a good town. You can’t find much work except in a dull pizza joint, but there ain’t much here to even spend the money on. Some old clothes stores and a cinema, and that’s about it.” “Do you work here full time?” “Jesus no. If I got to the point where I was working here full time I’d dip my head in the deep fat… well, I wouldn’t be happy. Im still in school.” “What grade?” “10th.” “Oh, I’m starting there tomorrow. I guess I’ll see you there.” “”Sure. If you want, I can always get you a job here. Becca, the blond girl, has literally done shit all since we started. She’s only working so her daddy an think she’s learning real-life experience and still feel justified buying whatever she…” “I can hear you!” a voice calls out from the kitchen. “I know, Becca, I’m getting a point across!” Dad appears standing next to you, grinning. "Look who's already making friends!" he smiles. You roll your eyes. "Yeah, sure. Let's just sit down," you say, pulling Dad towards a booth to sit in. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>An hour later, you pull into Dawnbrook, and find you were far too optimistic. The town is a shitty series of low buildings. Hunter looks up from his Kindle briefly, before shrugging and looking back down. You pull up to one of the many, generic looking houses pulling into the driveway.You can already see faces peeking out from windows at the new arrivals. Dad opens the car door and lugs two suitcases up to the door and fishes through his pocket for his keys and opens the door. "Here we are! Home!" he says cheerfully, obviously trying to raise his children's spirits. You follow Dad inside, dropping your backpack on the floor. "I'll begin unpacking, you guys can get settled in or go meet the neighbors or explore," Dad says. > You go outside You walk outside, and two snot-nosed, dirty kids with long, uncombed brown hair appear, staring blankly at you. They both have shoulder-length hair and wear mud-stained clothes, a boy and a girl. "Who are you?" one asks as she begins to pick her nose. "Hazel. I'm new here." "Where you from?" "New York." "My dad says New York's only full of greedy Jews and angry Negroes." "Jesus Christ, kid, maybe your dad's a prick," you say aghast, staring at the pair. A tall boy who seems to be your age jogs over, grabbing the two children. He has short brown hair and wears shorts and a t-shirt, both of which are far too small for him, as well as an awkward smile that stares at you. "Hi. S-S-Sorry if these t-two were bothering y-you. TJ, Emma, go b-b-back inside," the boy stutters. The pair of kids shrug and run off. The boy extends a hand, which you grasp and shake. "I'm Carter," he says, smiling. "I'm Hazel." "So, d-did you just-m-m-move in?" "Yeah, I did." "Cool. What g-grade are you i-in?" "10th." "Oh! Me too! W-when are you star... starting?" "Day after tomorrow." "Cool. I guess I'll s-see you then. It was a... a pleasure to meet you," he smiles. Carter rushes after his siblings, and you watch as he jogs off. You hear Dad yell from your house, and turn to see him. "Hey, sweetie. The house is pretty barren, so we're going to go out to eat and I'll pick up groceries in the morning. I saw a pizza place in town. Do you want to go?"<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Hello, adventurer! It seems that some random village has been beset by that big ol' beastie pictured over there. Cute, isn't he? Of course, being the hero that you are, it's obviously your duty to fight it. So, what are you waiting for? First off, you'll have to select your job. Your job affects what abilities you have. > You warrior (Physical attacker) Excellent choice! You charge off to beat up the Behemoth...<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|> > You spy Mission "Another day, another dollar," you think as you trudge out the door from your job. You really don't like working there, but at least they pay you...a little. Finally you've made it to the weekend, so you at least get to look forward to a couple days off from work. You get in your car and drive out of the parking lot at work only to come to an almost immediate stop as you hit the traffic. It is like this every day, but Fridays are always the worst. You reach to turn the radio on, but then remember that you still haven't had time (or money) to get that fixed. You look out the window and just see the line of cars moving slowly... Finally you get home, and you're hungry. You should have stopped for something on the way home, but you just wanted to get out of that traffic and out of the car. When you arrive at the apartment parking lot, you sigh when you realize that you're late, so everyone else will be parked in the good spots. You circle the building once before you give up and park in the "remote" lot. Hey, at least you're home and work is over. As you trudge towards your apartment building, you see a small brown box sitting on the edge of the sidewalk, right near where you parked. Looking around, you don't see anyone else at the moment. You can't tell if the box was left there on purpose, or if someone accidentally left it behind. > You ignore it and head home... You walk across the sidewalks and towards your apartment. You can feel the heat coming off all the cars that got to park closer to the building than you did because of that traffic. Most of the cars here are older cars, some with dents and cracked windows, just like yours. You'll earn enough one day to get a better car, you're sure of it, just not any time soon. You start up the stairs to your apartment. When you rented this place, the $200 discount for taking the fourth floor apartment seemed like a good idea. Of course, that was before you found out the apartment above you had kids, and you still had to walk up all these stairs because the elevator was at the other end of the building. Maybe you would win the lottery, then you could build your own house where you wanted it to be: and you weren't going to have any stairs in the entire house! You unlock your apartment and step inside. The air is pretty stale, since the management makes you pay if you leave the A/C on all day. You know without looking that the refrigerator has nothing but some old catchup. But hey, you did get paid today, so you're going to order some take-out! Just before you get to the phone to place an order, the phone starts ringing. > You ignore the phone... You make it through the regular take-out for your dinner and realize that you ended up spending way more of your paycheck than you should have. Now you're full, so maybe you won't go out tonight...well, at least not yet. Sitting around for a bit, it's Friday night, so you're sure something good will be on TV. Later on you can worry about going out. You flip the channels and start to realize that even though you have something like 1,000 channels, there's really nothing on...nothing at all. You finally stop on some supposed reality show that's just made for laughs and embarrassing people. It's pretty bad, but you watch it all the same because it's better than watching re-runs of a game show from 20 years ago. As you zone out, suddenly you hear a tapping on your window. Yes, you're on the fourth floor, but one of your living room windows faces the walkway/balcony that loops around the outside of one side of the apartment building. You figure it was probably just the kids from upstairs messing with you, but then you hear the tapping once again. You could just turn the TV up, but you could go see who it is. > You ignore It... Your eyes blink open and you look at the ceiling. It is a boring white, like all these apartments, but you're pretty sure it hasn't been painted in 10 or more years. You blink and sit up. At least you don't have to go to work today. Instead, today is relaxation day. First you need to head to the store to stock up on some food, then all bets are off! You open the door to head downstairs. The day does not match your mood: it is cloudy, cool, and windy outside. In fact, the clouds are getting darker and rolling across the sky as you watch them. You better hurry and get your supplies and get back, or you're sure this storm will catch you. You trot down the stairs and head into the back lot to your car. You start to pull out and slam on your brakes when another car starts to back out in front of you. That was close. This is a big apartment building, but you recognize that giant car as that of the old lady who lives on the first floor and does everything slow. You slowly follow her out of the parking lot and are glad when she turns the other way. You are headed towards the grocery store, but when you take a right in the middle of town, you hear a loud "pop" and feel the car slide underneath you. You limp the car over to the sidewalk and get out to see that yes, you now have a flat tire. That's the second one this year, and you just remembered that you didn't replace your spare since the last time. Fortunately, you have AAA, and you can call them to help you. The overly nice AAA guy on the phone tells you that it will take about an hour, but they'll be there. You sigh and lean against the hood, thinking about all the food you were going to buy, but will now have to wait. As you're sitting there, a black four-door car slams it's brakes on next to you in a squeal of tires. The back door pops open and you can see a skinny man inside in a dark suit and dark glasses on the far side. He calls out to you, "Get in." > You get in the car... You get in the vehicle and take a seat. Before you have time to put on your seat belt, the vehicle starts moving quickly. As you are pressed back into your seat, you get a whiff of the car: it smells new. It looks completely new, like the plastic had just been taken off the seats this morning. You start to sit up and look out the windows, but then you realize the rear windows are not just blacked out from the outside, you cannot see out them from the inside. You look towards the windshield as a large panel appears from the floor, sliding up to completely obscure your vision. You cannot see out the front window at all. Instead, you sit back, slightly disoriented, as the vehicle bounces through traffic and along the roads. You have no idea where you are going, or even what direction you are traveling. Suddenly you start to get sleepy and find that you are having trouble keeping your eyes open...<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You can't remember when the world first started shaking, this little fragile patch of reality with so many cracks and such little support to keep it from breaking apart, but something was always going to give. It was just a matter of time. Nobody knew what really triggered the fall. Was it the breaking of the chains which kept your little quiet island floating in the sky all this time, imbued with the energy which kept it going for so long? Was it the final earthquake that split the lands of the humans, far below your precious little civilisation? Or was it something else? It's easy to blame the humans who live beneath you, blame them for every little thing that goes wrong in the world. You're high enough to avoid the worst of the toxic gases that they leak into the atmosphere; you're smart enough to know not to drain the planet of what few resources remain to be cultivated; you're fast enough to hide yourself when they create a multitude of new dangers, unleashing terrors into the wild. There is no war here, no government, no violence, no weapons or need to do anything but survive on your own and help each other out. The air is thinner here. Humans find it hard to breathe at this altitude without special equipment of their own. You pity them, but at the same time you admire them for being resourceful enough to create tools enabling them to come all the way up here. Then you remember what had to be sacrificed for such tools to be made, and you no longer admire them so much. The island you've lived on for your entire life, along with your family and friends...is beginning to fall. > You proceed The wind howls in your ear as the island plummets towards the ground far, far below. No chains to keep you secure. No energy or power to keep you airborne, not anymore. Everything has been used up. This is where your home is, your village, your life; clusters of little grassy huts assembled in neat little circles, built to resist the strong winds of this height. Your people have long grown used to the lack of oxygen up here. It isn't your home anymore. You clutch onto the beautiful green grass covering the ground, grass which comes off in clumps in your hands. The air pressure is affecting the land and you watch in mounting horror as pieces of your home are savagely torn away from one another. You're not the only one, either; dozens of people are desperately trying to keep their houses secure before they too are ripped asunder. A doomed effort, because the gravitational pull is tremendous. You do not see your parents anywhere. You fear they may have been dragged over the edge to their deaths, like so many others. This settlement is not equipped with appropriate equipment to land upon the human-inhabited grounds, thousands of metres below. Nobody would think to do anything like that. The roar of the wind grows louder and louder in your ears, and the pressure on your body forces you into a narrow crawl. You cannot even raise your head, at the speed you are falling. Cracks appear in the ground around you, and you realise that this is no longer a case of keeping the island secure. The settlement is already done for. It will not survive. > You crawl towards the ruins of your house nearby You claw your way towards what used to be your personal residence. The roof has been torn off, the front door is hanging on by mere threads, and the interior has been devastated beyond recovery. Only pieces of shattered wood remain here now. The wind picks up, and for a second you almost lose your grip, but you somehow manage to make it inside. What remains of the wall here serves as a temporary shelter. Even so, the feeling in your gut tells you that the entire island is picking up more speed than before. The chains will not be repaired: it is not going to stop. Your chances of survival are slim at best. > You keep your head down and seek shelter within the wall You crouch against the inside of the wall, covering your head as the deafening noise continues all around you. Earlier on, you could hear the cries of the other people as they sought shelter within their fragile little huts, but now there is nothing to be heard but the endless howling of the wind. A chill seeps into your bones, but that is the least of your worries right now. This wall will not hold for long. You may as well be stranded in the middle of the ocean, clinging to a broken piece of driftwood as the storm rages on. As if eager to give you confirmation of this, small cracks begin to spread out across the wall where you are hiding. The entire island is shaking, causing the cracks to widen. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>These are dark and dreadful days. A group of evil wizards, The Black Veil, or as the people call them: The Sourge, hold the land of Azrya in an iron grip. Hordes of undead and bands of barbaric orcs are the least of the evils that roam the land freely. The people, poor and neglected, live in constant fear. Some people dare to stand up against their oppressors, but they are at great disadvantage. But slowly tales begin to spread across the land of a hero that has been born. One of the last remaining sages says that he saw a message of great importance written in the stars. Whatever the message meant, people are realising that big is going to happen in the land. > You continue You are born at a small farm at the outskirts of the kingdom. Your life on the farm is miserable, the crops often fail, your father drinks to forget his troubles and often hits you and your mother ran away, leaving you with your brutish father. To escape the misery of your life, you often leave for the nearby city of Gree, pickpocketing citizens and stealing food from the market stalls. You do all this without remorse, you don't care what happens to the people if they lost all their money, you are poor, so why should others be not? After another succesful day of stealing, you return home, only to find that your farm has burned to the ground. While you walk through the rubble that was once your home, you find the half burned remains of your father, or rather ex-father. Unsuprisingly, you don't let a single tear and leave the ruins of your farm, taking some coins and a knife that survived the fire with you, while you decide where to head next.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Lilly is going for a walk in the forest. As she walks along she hears something crying behind the trees. (make sound of baby bear crying) > You find what is crying She looks behind the trees and sees a crying baby bear with his foot in a metal trap that looks like it has pointy teeth. Lilly can see that the trap really hurts the baby bear's foot. > You try to open the trap Lilly tries to open the trap, but it's so tight! She keeps trying and trying.... .... until finally the baby bear's foot is free. It looks at Lilly and then runs away into the forest.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>This story takes place long ago, in the kingdom of Mystigar. The King has recently passed, leaving his daughter, the beautiful winged-princess Marmalade, as the only heir. The Princess is not yet of age, so she is left under the guardianship of the the unscrupulous Marques Jacques Pierre. Unsatisfied with being a mere Marques, he has conspired to marry her and seize the throne. It is declared that a great fair and a tournament of archery shall be held in Marmalade's name. The victor will win her hand in marriage. The tourney is open to all, but the game is fixed, for everyone knows that the Marques is the greatest archer in the land. The day of the fair is upon us! You play the part of a humble baker's apprentice who, unbeknown to all, is destined to be king! > You act I Act I: The Fair > The baker's apprentice Today is the day of the fair! The sun is not even fully up, but already your chores are done. The oven is lit, the dough kneaded, the bread pricked, the floor swept, and the pots scrubbed. You even had a chance to chop a little morning-wood, if you know what I mean. Surely now your master will let you spend the rest of the day at the fair. You have thought of nothing else since it was first announced. You are busy day dreaming about Princess Marmalade, again, when a shout comes down from the loft; "Boy!" Your cantankerous master is finally awake. The ladder strains under his bulk as he climbs down to the kitchen. "Get off your ass, boy, and warm the ovens," he says. "Master, the ovens are already warm. All of my chores are done. I thought perhaps I could go to the fair?" you reply. A meaty hand strikes your face. "The fair! The fair's for minstrels and dandies. Which one are you, boy? Or did you fancy you'd win the tourney and marry the Princess?" he says, doubling over with laughter. "Long live King Baker's Boy! Forget that lot and go fetch me some milk." He hands you a copper and sends you out the door with another smack. "And if I find out you've gone to the fair, boy, I'll chain your face to the oven!" "Bastard," you curse under your breath while rubbing your swollen lip. One of these days you will chain his fat face to the oven. You head towards the Milkman's stand. He always has a bottle of spirits to share with the young apprentice boys, and his daughter Bessa has the biggest milk jugs you've ever seen. You reach his stand but no one's there. > You go to the Milkman's house "Hello?" you call as you knock on the Milkman's door. There is no reply but the door is open, so you step inside. "Great Gods put out that light and stop all this hollerrin'. Can't a man rest his achin' head?" the Milkman says from his bed. He pulls the covers over his head, spilling several clays jars to the floor. He has had a long night of drinking with the thatcher's boys. "If you want milk you'll have to get it yourself. Bessa's gone to the fair and I sure as hell ain't doing it in my condition." Just your luck, both the spirits and Bessa are gone. You can hear the cow lowing from the shed, begging to be milked. You grab a pail and sit down on the milking bench. > You milk the cow You milk the cow while dreaming of Bessa's heaving udders. You are in the shed for much longer than it takes to milk a cow. You heft the pail and walk back to the house. The Milkman has slipped back into his stupor. You can hear him mumble something about the thatcher's boy and soft hands. There is really no need to pay him. He probably won't even remember you've been here. Screw the Milkman and screw the Baker! It's the day of the fair, you have a copper in your pocket, and you're going to enjoy yourself! You drink deep from the milk bucket before casting it away. You are the master of your own destiny! -- The fair is everything you had hoped. Highborn ladies and goodly knights recite poetry outside of colorful silk pavilions. Naked urchins chase each other about playing tag and brown-fingers, while drunken minstrels belt green sleeves at the top of their lungs. Vendors call their wares from various carts and stands. A fat pastry chef with a pox-marked face yells "Hot pies! Two coppers!" while a dwarf cries her ale. You are hungry but cannot afford a pie. The Dwarf, however, will let you drink yourself stupid for a copper. You look around the crowd hoping to catch a glimpse of the Princess. You spy her in the royal box above the tourney field, framed by a pair of guards who look more jailor than escorts. For one moment your eyes meet and she smiles. A herald cries out below her. "Gather all yee who would compete in the tourney of archery" he proclaims. "To the winner shall be awarded a golden bow and the hand of the beautiful Princess Marmalade. Any man of Mystigar may enter for a single copper." A copper for a chance to marry the Princess? What luck! > You enter the tourney "Each of ye shall havith three arrows" says the herald. "If one of these touchith the bulls eye, you shall advancith to the next round." Only one? Piece of cake. A trumpet blows, signaling the start of the round. You nock your arrow, take careful aim, and release. The arrow soars into the air well above the target. Undismayed, you nock your second arrow. This one buries itself in the dirt halfway to the target. Archery is harder than it looks. This is your one chance to be more than a baker's apprentice. Everything rides on this last arrow. You close your eyes, and imagine your life with the Princess. You see yourself perched between her magnificent wings, your face hidden amongst her golden locks as you soar above the castle. You fly higher and higher, throwing rocks down upon the screaming peasants below. You release the arrow. A perfect bulls eye! Round after round your arrows strike the mark as other contestants are eliminated. The Princess takes notice of your success. Eventually, only you and a single opponent are left; The Marques Jacques Pierre. "My hat is off to you, good sir" he says cordially between rounds. "Tell me, who are you and where did you learn to shoot so well?" "I'm just a baker's boy," You mumble to him. "Surely you jest. Never have I heard of a baker's boy with such skill, a true prodigy. You must come hunting with me sometime, I fear the beasts won't stand a chance! But lo, look at this string! it is worn thin and ready to snap. Please change it out for one of mine. it is of the finest make. I won't have it said I took advantage of a poor baker's boy." What a fine fellow is the Marques. You change out your string and promise to take him up on his hunting offer. You are summoned to the Princess's private box. "Baker's boy, you have given me hope for the first time since my father passed," the Princess says. "Defeat the Marques and you will have my heart as well as my hand." Wow, no pressure there. The trumpet sounds to signal the final round. "For the last and final round, each man shall shootith a single arrow, and the better mark shall win the hand of Princess Marmalade!" announces the herald. The targets are moved back one hundred feet. The Marques offers to shoot first. He makes a good shot with his golden arrow just touching the edge of the bulls eye. You approach the mark and prepare to draw, conscious that the Princess is watching you. > You draw your bow Snap! The new string breaks under the strain, slashing open your cheek. Your arrow does a lazy summersault before landing at your feet. "The Marques is the winner!" declares the herald. That filthy cad, he tricked you! He knew the string would break. You brandish your bow like a club and charge the Marques, but by now the tourney field is overrun with spectators and you cannot reach him through the press. For a moment your eyes catch those of the Princess and she gives you a plaintive look before her and the Marques are carried away. Some hours later you sit at the Dwarf's stall, attempting to drink away your sorrows. You rub the fresh scar on your face, swearing revenge. There is a tap on your shoulder. You turn to find a mysterious hooded figure behind you. "A gift," she says, "from the Princess, for her true champion. Please help her before she is forced to marry." She hands you a bundle, and disappears into the night. Could it be true? Does the Princess really need your help? A small bone harp without any strings is wrapped with in the bundle. What the hell are you supposed to do with this? Sing your sorrows? You ask the dwarf how much beer the harp will buy, hopefully enough to give you alcohol poisoning. "You drunk fool! That's no ordinary harp," she shouts, "it's the Harp of Dreams! If you string this harp with the mane of a unicorn and sing the Song of Wishes your greatest wish will come true." That makes sense. "Take this seed" says the dwarf, handing you a small pearl. "The tree which grows from it is the Unicorn's favorite food. Plant it in the Enchanted Forest and he will come to feast upon it." > You travel to the Enchanted Forest Act II: The Song of Wishes > You now things start to get weird... The story resumes with you hopelessly lost in the enchanted forest. Hungry and tired, you sit on a log to rest and get your bearings. A delicious looking mushroom is growing from the end of the log. You recognize its shiny white cap and blue spots as an edible Dwarf's Finger, then again, it could be a clown egg for all you know, you're not a doctor. > You eat the mushroom Delicious! A single bite and you feel completely refreshed. You set off through the Enchanted Forest with an extra swing in your step. Some while later you come upon a dappled glen. A waterfall throws a thin cloud of mist across the clearing and fireflies dance among the rich green leaves. This spot looks as good as any to plant the magic seed. You dig a shallow hole and gently cover the seed with rich brown earth. A magnificent tree shoots forth from the soil. Higher and higher it twists, growing upward. Hundreds of white flowers sprout from its tender shoots, filling the air with their nubile fragrance. Somewhere off in the distance, you hear a horse's neigh. > The unicorn appears A majestic white stead gallops out of the mist in slow motion, and stops at your side. You reach for its opalescent mane when your sphincter suddenly loosens. The unmistakable smell of diarrhea fills the air. Your back arches in agony, and your stomach fills with fire. The unicorn screams and runs back into the mist, while blood and puss pours from your belly button... -- The clown looks down at your shredded body for a moment before slithering after the unicorn. I guess it was a clown egg after all. You've Died<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The story resumes with you hopelessly lost in the enchanted forest. Hungry and tired, you sit on a log to rest and get your bearings. A delicious looking mushroom is growing from the end of the log. You recognize its shiny white cap and blue spots as an edible Dwarf's Finger, then again, it could be a clown egg for all you know, you're not a doctor. > No way, that's obviously going to kill me You sensibly leave the mushroom alone. Better to be hungry than dead, you always say. Some while later you come upon a dappled glen. A waterfall throws a thin cloud of mist across the clearing, and fireflies dance among the rich green leaves. This spot looks as good as any to plant the magic seed. You dig a shallow hole and gently cover the seed with rich brown earth. An enormous tree shoots forth from the soil. Higher and higher it twists, growing upward. Hundreds of white flowers sprout from its tender shoots, filling the air with their nubile fragrance. A magnificent opalescent unicorn gallops out of the mist and kneels at your feet. "Long ago it was foretold that the true king of Mystigar would plant the sacred tree of the unicorn in this glade," says the unicorn. "Take the hair of my mane as a token of-" A golden arrow sprouts from his neck before he can finish his sentence. "Capital shot sir!" comes a shout from behind you. The Marques and his lackey, Wendell, come riding across the glade, bows in hand. "Great gods, if it isn't the baker's boy. I thought I had seen the last of you," says the Marques. "Now stand aside. That unicorn's horn will make the perfect wedding gift for the Princess." > You run and hide You run blindly into the forest, tears streaming down your face and urine streaming down your leg. What a fool you were to think you could help the Princess. Hours pass and you are hopelessly lost. You notice a melodic humming in the distance, like the muffled song of a beautiful maiden. Perhaps it will lead you to safety. The song enchants you, and you follow it deeper into the forest. Eventually you find the song's source. The humming emanates from a small clay jar perched upon a toadstool. The melody changes, as if to say "open me," and you are unable to resist. You raise the lid and hundreds of angry siren wasps swarm from the jar. Their relentless stings paralyze you, and you lie helplessly while they lay their eggs in your swollen tongue. You've Died<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You sensibly leave the mushroom alone. Better to be hungry than dead, you always say. Some while later you come upon a dappled glen. A waterfall throws a thin cloud of mist across the clearing, and fireflies dance among the rich green leaves. This spot looks as good as any to plant the magic seed. You dig a shallow hole and gently cover the seed with rich brown earth. An enormous tree shoots forth from the soil. Higher and higher it twists, growing upward. Hundreds of white flowers sprout from its tender shoots, filling the air with their nubile fragrance. A magnificent opalescent unicorn gallops out of the mist and kneels at your feet. "Long ago it was foretold that the true king of Mystigar would plant the sacred tree of the unicorn in this glade," says the unicorn. "Take the hair of my mane as a token of-" A golden arrow sprouts from his neck before he can finish his sentence. "Capital shot sir!" comes a shout from behind you. The Marques and his lackey, Wendell, come riding across the glade, bows in hand. "Great gods, if it isn't the baker's boy. I thought I had seen the last of you," says the Marques. "Now stand aside. That unicorn's horn will make the perfect wedding gift for the Princess." > You stand and fight You plant yourself in front of the unicorn, fists bared. You've had enough of this pompous Marques. The Marques shrugs and then draws his golden sword. He charges. You duck the blow and kick his horse squarely in the taint. The horse reels, throwing the Marques to the ground. The Marques is quickly back on his feet and after you again. Defenseless, you are driven backwards. You stumble and the Marques's sword bites deep into your side. "Sorry it kneads to end like this, baker's boy" he laughs. He raises his sword for the final blow. The unicorn, seeing your peril, summons his last bit of strength. A magnificent light radiates from his horn. Blinded, the Marques drops his sword and falls to his knees. You seize the moment and grab the sword. The time has come for your revenge. The light goes out. Wendell stands over the dying unicorn, triumphantly holding the severed horn. Blood loss overcomes you. The sword slips from you hands and you collapse. "It seems your plan has gone a-rye, baker's boy," the Marques quips. He retrieves his sword and picks up the harp. "Look, Wendell, I'm a little baking minstrel singing songs about pastries on my ugly little harp," he sings, capering around you before tossing the harp away derisively. "Too bad you won't have time to compose a song for my wedding. Come, Wendell, we must get back in time to pick out invitations." You catch one last piece of their conversation as they ride off: "Explain how this works again, Wendell. Where do I strap the horn?" "Your Majesty," the unicorn says softly. You crawl to his side as the life flows from your body. "You must drink of my blood, it is the only way to heal your wounds." There is probably another way, maybe a bandage or some salve. Not one to argue with a mythical being, you cup a handful of turquoise blood and bring it to your lips. It tastes like rainbows and dreams. The blood courses through your body, healing you. "You are the true king of Mystigar. Take the hair of my mane and string the harp. Now, you must go to the crossroads and seek the wise sage. Only he can teach you the Song of Wishes." The unicorn begins to fade. "Don't let the harp fall into the wrong hands. Its powers can be used for great good, or great evil. I must depart from this world, but do not fret for you and I are now one. My spirit will always watch over you. Always..." The unicorn disappears. From that day on you get the uncomfortable feeling he's watching you whenever you go to the bathroom. You resume your journey with a heavy heart. > The journey continues... The forest path eventually leads you to a quaint cottage. A centaur stands out front, raking leaves. The centaur stops raking as you approach. "Good morning traveler, will you help me tend my garden?" asks the centaur. "In exchange I shall give you my daughter's hand in marriage." A deal like that is too good to pass up, but how would that even work, you wonder. Perhaps there a special stool or something. You are struggling for a polite way to ask when his daughter trots from the cottage. Her beauty rivals that of Princes Marmalade. She bashfully plays with her long golden braid, and paws the ground playfully with her silver hoof. It would be impolite to turn down his offer, but you are on a quest. The centaur knows much about quests and the Enchanted Forest, perhaps he can help with your journey. > You tend the centaur's garden That night you find yourself in the cottage, alone with the centaur's daughter. She throws you to the ground with incredible centaur strength. She tears off her leather vest, and towers over you in a dominating fashion. "Tickle my udders, human!" You fall hopelessly in love and are married at once. You spend your days raking the centaur's garden and your evenings serenading the centaur's daughter with your harp. At night you lie in her stall, curled up as little spoon, wondering how many legs your children will have. The End Sure, things worked out fine for you, but how could you abandon the Princess? And seriously, how does that work? You've found an N. Discover more letters to solve the Legendary Riddle.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The forest path eventually leads you to a quaint cottage. A centaur stands out front, raking leaves. The centaur stops raking as you approach. "Good morning traveler, will you help me tend my garden?" asks the centaur. "In exchange I shall give you my daughter's hand in marriage." A deal like that is too good to pass up, but how would that even work, you wonder. Perhaps there a special stool or something. You are struggling for a polite way to ask when his daughter trots from the cottage. Her beauty rivals that of Princes Marmalade. She bashfully plays with her long golden braid, and paws the ground playfully with her silver hoof. It would be impolite to turn down his offer, but you are on a quest. The centaur knows much about quests and the Enchanted Forest, perhaps he can help with your journey. > You ask about the sage "They say the sage is a thousand years old and can see another thousand years into the future. Of course, they also say us centaurs can't wipe our own asses," the centaur says. "Anyway, no one has ever seen the sage, or if they have, they didn't live long enough to talk about it. Travel east across the river to the Crossroads. A spirit guide will appear there and guide you to the sage." "But beware of the Haunted Castle!" he cautions. "It is ruled by an evil demon and she is not to be trusted." You take one last look at the centaur's daughter before heading east down the forest path. The centaur calls after you: "It's not true you know! We can wipe our asses just fine!" -- The sun is high overhead when you reach the river. The river is too wide and too strong to ford. If you had a wagon, you might be able to caulk it and float across. The Haunted Castle stands ominously on the river's edge, guarding the only bridge across. It exudes an evil aura. Luckily, there is also a ferry docked on the near shore. > You take the ferry The ferry is manned by an old leper, draped in shapeless brown rags. His skin is hard and gray, giving him a reptilian appearance. The right side of his body is a misshapen mess of boils and warts. He seems friendly, despite his appearance. You climb aboard and he begins to pole you across. "What soft, pink skin you have," the ferryman says. "I bet your worm wiggles like a fish on a string when you walk around. My poor gray balls look like a blueberry stuck to a grapefruit. I can't hardly fit them in my britches, let alone a woman." A scaly hand shoots from the water and grabs your arm, interrupting the leper's graphic description of his genitals. The ferryman smacks the arm away with his pole before it can drag you from the boat. Hundreds more rise from the depths. They grab at the boat, churning the river water in a feeding frenzy. "The River Hags are hungry today." The ferryman says. He rises and corners you in the bow of the boat. "Now, hand over that harp or I will toss you overboard." > You give him the harp The ferryman rips the Harp from your grasp. "Long ago I foresaw this day. How patiently I have waited here for you!" he exclaims. "Now all the world shall know my suffering." He strums the Harp and sings the Song of Wishes. His leprous boils fade as he sings, and his skin becomes supple and pink. Your skin erupts with gray boils as his curse is transferred to you. Your foreskin twists up like a balloon animal and warts fill your throat. You start to choke... You've Died<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The ferry is manned by an old leper, draped in shapeless brown rags. His skin is hard and gray, giving him a reptilian appearance. The right side of his body is a misshapen mess of boils and warts. He seems friendly, despite his appearance. You climb aboard and he begins to pole you across. "What soft, pink skin you have," the ferryman says. "I bet your worm wiggles like a fish on a string when you walk around. My poor gray balls look like a blueberry stuck to a grapefruit. I can't hardly fit them in my britches, let alone a woman." A scaly hand shoots from the water and grabs your arm, interrupting the leper's graphic description of his genitals. The ferryman smacks the arm away with his pole before it can drag you from the boat. Hundreds more rise from the depths. They grab at the boat, churning the river water in a feeding frenzy. "The River Hags are hungry today." The ferryman says. He rises and corners you in the bow of the boat. "Now, hand over that harp or I will toss you overboard." > You leap from the boat Your leap causes the small boat to capsize and the ferryman is thrown into the water with you. The leper has been working this river since before you were a stain on your mother's thigh, and the River Hags have been waiting patiently to get their hands on him. They converge upon him and you are momentarily forgotten while they satiate their blood lust. His gargled screams are barely audible over the sound of tearing flesh. You quickly swim to shore while they are distracted and resume your journey. -- The forest path gradually becomes a lane, and the lane becomes a road. Eventually, it leads you to your destination. A stone pillar rises phallicly from the Crossroads, marking the spot were a dozen paths meet like spokes on a wheel. Three animals step from behind the pillar: a frog, a raven, and a fox. "Welcome your majesty," says the fox. "We are the spirit guides," says the frog. "We have waited long for you," says the crow. You can tell this is going to get annoying really quickly. "I am the regrets of man," says the frog. "And I am the sorrows of man," says the raven. "And I am the wiles of man," says the fox. You have no idea what they're talking about. All you care about is which one can lead you to the sage. "Maybe all of us" says the crow. "Maybe none of us," says the frog. "You'll have to trust your heart," says the fox. > You follow the Fox You follow the fox for some distance through the forest when he stumbles. "Ah I've stubbed my toe. You're going to have to carry me," says the fox. "Please, it really, really, hurts. Carry me and I can tell you where to go. Pretty please." His toe looks fine, but you reluctantly pick up the spirit fox. "Oh you have such strong arms," he says. You travel many miles and the forest becomes dark and ominous. The trees are decorated with shrunken heads and human bones which dangle from their branches like wind chimes. You enter a rocky clearing and deep voice booms from the forest, "Who dares seek the great sage?" "That's my cue," says the terrified fox. He hops from your arms and quickly scampers away. It seems his toe has been miraculous healed. A massive lion leaps onto the rocky outcrop ahead of you. He is so large a horse could ride down his gullet. Skulls and bones are tied in his mane like trophies. "If you wish to see the sage you must answer my riddle. Answer wrong, and I will add you to my decorations "What rises tall and hard in the morning, showers its golden rays down upon the children, and then, exhausted, hangs its head between the stones?" > The sun "Hmm that's not what I was thinking, but now that you mention it, it could be the sun. You have proven your worth. You may enter." The lion opens his enormous mouth and beckons you inside. Inside the lion is quite spacious. His ribs form an elegant vaulted ceiling. Goblin skulls, troll bladders, and other magical odds and ends line the wall. A unicorn horn lies discarded next to a pile of furs which serve as the sage's bed. The sage is a bent old man cloaked in a rat-skin robe. He is balding and barefoot, and a single tooth protrudes from his bottom jaw. "I've been waiting for you," he says. "You are the chosen one who will learn the Song of Wishes. But first you must be cleansed by a bath in witch's blood." You undress and climb into a large stone tube. The sage pours buckets of thick witch's blood over your head. It runs down your face and into your mouth. "Hard to believe that witch fills one of these buckets every month. Now about that song. Close your eyes." The sage sheds his robe and slips into the tub with you. His tooth cuts sharply into your nipple. A melody fills your mind as he sucks away your life force. It is the Song of Wishes. "Well that's the song," the sage says, wiping his lip. "You can only sing it once, so use it wisely. Now enough business, lets play tub fountains!" You leap from the tub and hastily dress. "Suit yourself, I'll play a solo match. If you're gonna leave you'll have to use the backdoor. Should put you just outside of town." As you crawl out through the lion's colon, your thoughts turn to the Princess. > You return to town The town is quiet now, the pomp of the fair forgotten. You swagger down the empty street like a cockerel. You found the unicorn, fought the Marques, met the wise sage, learned The Song of Wishes, and you still have time before the wedding. But what are you waiting for? You could sing the song right now and be probing the Princess by nightfall. You pluck the silky strings of the harp and clear your throat. Before the words can leave your lips a meaty hand falls on your shoulder. "Hello boy." It's the Baker! He grabs the harp from your hands and gives it a derisive pluck before throwing it over his shoulder. "I knew you'd run away and become a dandy minstrel. But you're still my apprentice, boy, and I warned you what would happen if you went to the fair..." > You act III Act III: The Wedding > You meanwhile back at the castle... Wendell walks down the muddy street with a list of errands in his hand. He stops in front of the florist's shop when a small bone harp lands at his feet. There is a commotion out in the street; the town baker has just thrown a portly little boy over his shoulder. "The baker's boy is still alive," Wendell says to no one in particular. "I must warn the Marques!" He tucks the harp under his arm and races back to the castle. -- The Marques slams closed the tower door. A red, hand-shaped welt mars his face. The Princess hasn't taken the news well. "The Princess and I are to be married immediately," he tells Wendell. "See that everything is ready. Arrange a special welcome for the Baker's Boy in case he decides to join us. Come to my chambers when you've finished. I need to be fluffed for my wedding night," the Marques says, loosening his belt. -- Inside the tower cell the Princess weeps. She runs to the window, as if to throw her self from the tower, but iron bars prevent her. A small white dove comes to rest on the sill. "My faithful servant," sobs the Princess. "The Marques has the harp and now I fear the Baker's Boy shan't save me in time. Please, you must find him. I will die before I marry that wicked Marques!" The dove flies away with the Princess's last hopes. > The denouement The Baker makes good on his threat and chains your face to the oven. "I'm going to the castle to delivery some pastries for the wedding. You'll be nice and crispy by the time a get back." The door slams as he leaves. The oven is already warm against your skin. Your face grows hotter every second. Sweat rolls down your body, basting your coin purse in your own grease. You struggle to escape, but the chains are too tight. You cry out for help, but the only one around to hear you is a tiny white dove perched on the window sill. In response to your cry, the dove transformers into a beautiful cloaked woman. You recognize her as the mysterious woman from the fair, though now her belly is swollen with pregnancy. "Come Baker's Boy, you must hurry, the wedding is taking place as we speak," she says. Lightning bolts fly from her fingertips, shattering the chains. "But what can I do without the harp? How can I even get into the castle in the first place?" you ask. "The castle is expecting food delivered for the wedding," she says. "You can bake a cake and hide inside. The guards will wheel you right up to the chapel." What a clever idea. You roll up your sleeves and start to bake. When the cake is finished, you hollow it out and climb inside. "I have a final gift for you," the cloaked woman says. She spreads her legs wide and squats down. An egg falls heavily to the floor. "This egg contains the last of my power. Cracking it shall grant you immense strength." Bloody afterbirth trickles down her leg. She begins to fade. "My dearest Marmalade," she says softly. "How I will miss the sweet taste of your nectar." There is a flutter of wings and the woman is gone. Surrounded by confection, you realize you haven't eaten anything in a while and this cake looks almost as tasty as that mushroom back in the forest. Surely a tiny taste won't hurt. > You try a tiny bite The cake is delicious, perhaps the best you've ever made, but it is too rich for your empty stomach. Your bowels turn, rejecting the sweet frosting. Clench as you might, you cannot prevent the inevitable and your bowels release like a spouting whale. The stench is overwhelming in the confines of the cake. You are both proud and disgusted. Arrangements had been made for the thatcher's boys to deliver the cake to the castle. There, a portly guard runs his greasy finger through the frosting to sample the cake. "What the hell?" he shouts, spitting out the cake. "What'd you put in this? It tastes like sewage. Take it away." You and the cake are unceremoniously thrown onto the garbage heap. The foul, garbage-air is refreshing after hotboxing in your own stink. Your arrival has startled a filthy beggar picking through the refuse. He squints at you with one good eye before cracking open a pigeon bone and sucking out the marrow. The heap offers you a commanding view of the castle. The chapel bells are tolling across the courtyard, but the chapel door is heavily guarded. How will you get in? > You change clothes with the beggar and sneak in The beggar is happy to take your clean clothes in exchange for his rags, even if your pants are a bit crusty. The guard stops you as you approach the chapel. "What do we have here? A dirty scrounger at the royal wedding?" laughs the guard. "Wait a minute, I recognize you. You're that thrice-damned Baker's Boy!" he shouts, drawing his sword. "Wait, no, my mistake. He's a chubby, pimply fella' who smells like onions. You smell like sewage and garbage. Go on inside." You are about to step inside when he grabs your collar. "I recognize you now. You're One-Eyed Dan. You're that rascal who broke into the smithy and stole the blacksmith's shoes. And then you set fire to the orphanage and raped all those innocent children while they burned alive." The laws of Mystigar take shoe thievery very seriously. The guards seize you, and drag you to the dungeon. -- Rows of cells line the dungeon walls. They are all empty except for one. In the last cell a diminutive man sits hunched over a pale, eating greedily. He turns to you as the guards march you passed. Excrement stains his face like brown clown makeup. He is clearly mad. The guards escort you to the torture chamber at the end of the hall for execution, but it seems you will have to wait your turn. A screaming prisoner is strapped upright on a board with a funnel in his mouth. A powerful lodestone hangs before him. The gaoler stands on a stool with his back to you, pouring nails down the funnel. He then pulls the lodestone close to the prisoner's stomach. The iron nails are drawn upwards by the stone's attractive power. The prisoner screams. The gaoler is none other than Wendell, the Marques's lackey! You must pay him back for what he did to the unicorn. You slap your apron pocket, breaking the magic egg within. The cool yolk runs down your thigh. A tingle of electric energy races across your skin, standing all of your hairs on end while your scrotum fills with arcane energy. The power is overwhelming. Lightning flies from your fingers, striking the guards. Their armor glows red hot, cooking them alive inside. Wendell is no match for your powers. He tries to run but the bolts catch him. His skin sizzles and cracks like a hot dog too long on the fire. You strike him with bolt after bolt until their is nothing left but ash. The spell fades and your scrotum retreats into your body like a scared snail. You pull the funnel from the prisoner's mouth. "Thank the gods! I am Sebastian, Prince of Cecum, betrothed of Princess Marmalade," he says. "I know a way into the chapel, release me and together we shall save the Princess." > You free Prince Sebastian "Thank you. I'm not looking forward to using the privy tonight, that's for sure," Sebastian says. The Prince presses on a false stone in the dungeon wall, revealing a hidden passage. "They brought me in this way. The tunnels are like a maze. Stay close so you don't get lost," he says. He leads you through a tunnel carved in the back of the dungeon. Your path twists and turns through the maze-like tunnels. "The Princess and I have been promised since birth. When the king passed, I received a letter from the Marques inviting me to the castle to choose wedding invitations, but it was a trap. He had me locked away so I couldn't interfere with his plans." You come to a fork in the tunnel. The sound of distant music fills the left-hand tunnel, a septic odor emanates from the right-hand one. "Say chap, why exactly do you want to save Princess Marmalade?" > You say "Because I love her, and I'm going to marry her!" The right-hand path leads deep below the dungeons. You move cautiously through the darkness with Sebastian following close behind. The tunnel ends abruptly at the edge of a wide chasm and Sebastian maliciously shoves you over the edge. You land waste deep in the castle septic pit. The chasm is one hundred feet across and hundreds deep. Pipes stick out from the walls at various angels, delivering waste from all over the castle. A thin film of urine and peanuts coat the pit's surface. It smells awful. "Sorry chap, but that slut Marmalade drips like a sink, and I won't be a cuckold king," Sebastian shouts down to you. The echoes of his parting words are interrupted by the pitter-patter of fresh feces falling into the pit. Something stirs in the depths. The filth bubbles as the segmented body of a giant tapeworm rises before you. "A thousand yearsss I have waited here for you, baker'sss boy," the tapeworm hisses. "Once I have consumed you, the curssse will be broken and I shall be free of thisss pit." The parasite's square maw distends impossibly wide. The last thing you see is a kernel of corn stuck between its pointed teeth. You've Died <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Thank you. I'm not looking forward to using the privy tonight, that's for sure," Sebastian says. The Prince presses on a false stone in the dungeon wall, revealing a hidden passage. "They brought me in this way. The tunnels are like a maze. Stay close so you don't get lost," he says. He leads you through a tunnel carved in the back of the dungeon. Your path twists and turns through the maze-like tunnels. "The Princess and I have been promised since birth. When the king passed, I received a letter from the Marques inviting me to the castle to choose wedding invitations, but it was a trap. He had me locked away so I couldn't interfere with his plans." You come to a fork in the tunnel. The sound of distant music fills the left-hand tunnel, a septic odor emanates from the right-hand one. "Say chap, why exactly do you want to save Princess Marmalade?" > You say "I don't know, some chick gave me a magic harp." You and Sebastian rush up the left-hand tunnel, and soon burst out into the light of the chapel. Princess Marmalade stands upon the altar, her hands and wings tightly bound. "Jacques Pierre! You have Marmalade's hand," shouts Sebastian. "I will die before that day comes!" He snatches a decorative sword from the wall and charges the Marques. The Marques draws his golden sword. "Then we duel," he says. They rush together and the sound of clashing steel fills the chapel. You untie the Princess while your betters are preoccupied. "I knew you would save me," she cries, throwing her arms around you. "You're such a good friend." Sebastian delivers the Marques a fatal blow and then struts up and grabs the Princess about the waist. They kiss furiously, while the Marques bleeds out. When Sebastian finally dislodges his tongue from Marmalades' throat, he slaps her ass and gives you a knowing wink. They are married immediately and the Princess names you both royal baker and maid of honor. The End If you're a really, really good friend it could eventually turn into something more, right? You're pathetic. You've found an O. Discover more letters to solve the Legendary Riddle.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The beggar is happy to take your clean clothes in exchange for his rags, even if your pants are a bit crusty. The guard stops you as you approach the chapel. "What do we have here? A dirty scrounger at the royal wedding?" laughs the guard. "Wait a minute, I recognize you. You're that thrice-damned Baker's Boy!" he shouts, drawing his sword. "Wait, no, my mistake. He's a chubby, pimply fella' who smells like onions. You smell like sewage and garbage. Go on inside." You are about to step inside when he grabs your collar. "I recognize you now. You're One-Eyed Dan. You're that rascal who broke into the smithy and stole the blacksmith's shoes. And then you set fire to the orphanage and raped all those innocent children while they burned alive." The laws of Mystigar take shoe thievery very seriously. The guards seize you, and drag you to the dungeon. -- Rows of cells line the dungeon walls. They are all empty except for one. In the last cell a diminutive man sits hunched over a pale, eating greedily. He turns to you as the guards march you passed. Excrement stains his face like brown clown makeup. He is clearly mad. The guards escort you to the torture chamber at the end of the hall for execution, but it seems you will have to wait your turn. A screaming prisoner is strapped upright on a board with a funnel in his mouth. A powerful lodestone hangs before him. The gaoler stands on a stool with his back to you, pouring nails down the funnel. He then pulls the lodestone close to the prisoner's stomach. The iron nails are drawn upwards by the stone's attractive power. The prisoner screams. The gaoler is none other than Wendell, the Marques's lackey! You must pay him back for what he did to the unicorn. You slap your apron pocket, breaking the magic egg within. The cool yolk runs down your thigh. A tingle of electric energy races across your skin, standing all of your hairs on end while your scrotum fills with arcane energy. The power is overwhelming. Lightning flies from your fingers, striking the guards. Their armor glows red hot, cooking them alive inside. Wendell is no match for your powers. He tries to run but the bolts catch him. His skin sizzles and cracks like a hot dog too long on the fire. You strike him with bolt after bolt until their is nothing left but ash. The spell fades and your scrotum retreats into your body like a scared snail. You pull the funnel from the prisoner's mouth. "Thank the gods! I am Sebastian, Prince of Cecum, betrothed of Princess Marmalade," he says. "I know a way into the chapel, release me and together we shall save the Princess." > You screw him, he's your rival A faint sound catches your ear. It is the muffled, but unmistakable sound of organ music coming through the walls. There must be a hidden passage. You search the dungeon walls, looking for the source of the sound. The Prince, afraid of losing his only leverage, sings at the top of his lungs. "There's no room here for you, the Innkeeper said, but I know the Innkeeper's daughter, and there's always room in her bed!" His efforts are in vain. Your search uncovers a false stone in the wall, and pressing it reveals a hidden tunnel. You can follow the music all the way to the chapel. Looks like you will not be needing the Prince's help after all. "Wait! You can't just leave me like this," the Prince pleads. He's right. You casually kick the lodestone to him. Its attractive force tears the nails through his bloated stomach. His corpse reminds you of a blowfish on its period. You race down the tunnel towards the wedding chapel. -- A magnificent stained glass window bathes the chapel in rainbow light. Guests fill every pew and more stand in the balcony above. Gifts are piled high on a table in the center of the room. Among them is the gold bow the Marques won at the fair. The Princess and the Marques stand on an altar with their backs to you. He is about to place a ring on her finger. You shout Marmalade's name and are immediately surrounded by guards. Crossbowmen emerge from the balcony. The organist stops playing. It is an ambush. "Well well, the guest of honor has finally arrived," says the Marques, laughing. He reveals the harp of dreams from beneath his cloak. "I want to play you a tune our mutual friend, the Sage, taught me." He plays the Song of Wishes more deftly than you ever could. Your heart sinks when he reaches the final line: "Harp of Dreams, punish this knave. Turn the Princess into my slave." The harp shatters and the Princess falls to her knees screaming. When she stands again she has changed; she has lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll's eyes. "Give me a kiss, darling," the Marques commands. She gives him a long, passionate kiss. "Now, kill the baker's boy." The Princess takes flight with a piercing shriek. She circles the chapel once and then dives down and attacks. The guards and guests scatter in fear. You dash under the gift table, narrowly avoiding her wrath. The Princess circles again, building up speed for a second dive. You grab the golden bow, knowing you will only have one shot. You nock an arrow, close your eyes, and draw the bow. > You shoot the Princess Snap! The string breaks and your arrow falls impotently to the floor. The Marques doubles over with laughter. You have fallen for the same trick twice. The Princess swoops down and seizes you in a raptorial embrace. Slowly she climbs, struggling to lift your bulk. She will drop you to your death once she gains enough altitude. That magic egg sure would have been handy right about now. There must be another way out. It cannot end like this. True love. Of course! The Harps's curse can be broken by true love's kiss. You plant a big wet one on the Princess's pulsating cold soar. She bites through your lip in reciprocation and spits it out to the floor below. Blood fills your mouth. Or not. The Princess reaches the ceiling and releases her grip... You've Died <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>A faint sound catches your ear. It is the muffled, but unmistakable sound of organ music coming through the walls. There must be a hidden passage. You search the dungeon walls, looking for the source of the sound. The Prince, afraid of losing his only leverage, sings at the top of his lungs. "There's no room here for you, the Innkeeper said, but I know the Innkeeper's daughter, and there's always room in her bed!" His efforts are in vain. Your search uncovers a false stone in the wall, and pressing it reveals a hidden tunnel. You can follow the music all the way to the chapel. Looks like you will not be needing the Prince's help after all. "Wait! You can't just leave me like this," the Prince pleads. He's right. You casually kick the lodestone to him. Its attractive force tears the nails through his bloated stomach. His corpse reminds you of a blowfish on its period. You race down the tunnel towards the wedding chapel. -- A magnificent stained glass window bathes the chapel in rainbow light. Guests fill every pew and more stand in the balcony above. Gifts are piled high on a table in the center of the room. Among them is the gold bow the Marques won at the fair. The Princess and the Marques stand on an altar with their backs to you. He is about to place a ring on her finger. You shout Marmalade's name and are immediately surrounded by guards. Crossbowmen emerge from the balcony. The organist stops playing. It is an ambush. "Well well, the guest of honor has finally arrived," says the Marques, laughing. He reveals the harp of dreams from beneath his cloak. "I want to play you a tune our mutual friend, the Sage, taught me." He plays the Song of Wishes more deftly than you ever could. Your heart sinks when he reaches the final line: "Harp of Dreams, punish this knave. Turn the Princess into my slave." The harp shatters and the Princess falls to her knees screaming. When she stands again she has changed; she has lifeless eyes, black eyes, like a doll's eyes. "Give me a kiss, darling," the Marques commands. She gives him a long, passionate kiss. "Now, kill the baker's boy." The Princess takes flight with a piercing shriek. She circles the chapel once and then dives down and attacks. The guards and guests scatter in fear. You dash under the gift table, narrowly avoiding her wrath. The Princess circles again, building up speed for a second dive. You grab the golden bow, knowing you will only have one shot. You nock an arrow, close your eyes, and draw the bow. > You shoot the Marques The arrow strikes the Marques in the heart. He stumbles once, like a roofied school girl, and then falls from the altar. The spell controlling the Princess is broken with his death. She drops from the sky like a bird striking a plate glass window. "What have I done!" she exclaims. "I have attacked my own subjects whom I am sworn to protect. I am not fit to be Queen, so I must leave Mystigar tonight in penance. You will rule in my stead baker's boy." -- Your reign is consumed by a single thought: the Baker. He disappeared on the day of the wedding, and was never seen again. You pour all of the resources of Mystigar into searching for him but the trail is cold. You are unyielding. Bakeries are destroyed, bakers hanged, and ovens outlawed. All other duties are forgotten and the kingdom withers, bankrupted by your single-minded quest. Paranoia eats away at you. You know he is out there somewhere, plotting against you. You will find him. The End You really went off the deep end there. Who knew you were so high strung? Better try again, but this time don't leave any loose ends. You've found a G. Discover more letters to solve the Legendary Riddle. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The beggar is happy to take your clean clothes in exchange for his rags, even if your pants are a bit crusty. The guard stops you as you approach the chapel. "What do we have here? A dirty scrounger at the royal wedding?" laughs the guard. "Wait a minute, I recognize you. You're that thrice-damned Baker's Boy!" he shouts, drawing his sword. "Wait, no, my mistake. He's a chubby, pimply fella' who smells like onions. You smell like sewage and garbage. Go on inside." You are about to step inside when he grabs your collar. "I recognize you now. You're One-Eyed Dan. You're that rascal who broke into the smithy and stole the blacksmith's shoes. And then you set fire to the orphanage and raped all those innocent children while they burned alive." The laws of Mystigar take shoe thievery very seriously. The guards seize you, and drag you to the dungeon. -- Rows of cells line the dungeon walls. They are all empty except for one. In the last cell a diminutive man sits hunched over a pale, eating greedily. He turns to you as the guards march you passed. Excrement stains his face like brown clown makeup. He is clearly mad. The guards escort you to the torture chamber at the end of the hall for execution, but it seems you will have to wait your turn. A screaming prisoner is strapped upright on a board with a funnel in his mouth. A powerful lodestone hangs before him. The gaoler stands on a stool with his back to you, pouring nails down the funnel. He then pulls the lodestone close to the prisoner's stomach. The iron nails are drawn upwards by the stone's attractive power. The prisoner screams. The gaoler is none other than Wendell, the Marques's lackey! You must pay him back for what he did to the unicorn. You slap your apron pocket, breaking the magic egg within. The cool yolk runs down your thigh. A tingle of electric energy races across your skin, standing all of your hairs on end while your scrotum fills with arcane energy. The power is overwhelming. Lightning flies from your fingers, striking the guards. Their armor glows red hot, cooking them alive inside. Wendell is no match for your powers. He tries to run but the bolts catch him. His skin sizzles and cracks like a hot dog too long on the fire. You strike him with bolt after bolt until their is nothing left but ash. The spell fades and your scrotum retreats into your body like a scared snail. You pull the funnel from the prisoner's mouth. "Thank the gods! I am Sebastian, Prince of Cecum, betrothed of Princess Marmalade," he says. "I know a way into the chapel, release me and together we shall save the Princess." > You free the mad man instead You open the prisoner's cell. "Thanks mate," the mad man says. He shoves a bone shank between your ribs when your back is turned. "You have such pretty skin my sweet angel, and plenty of it too. I think I'll sew it into a new raincoat, perhaps a hat and a nice pair of slippers too. But first, I need to finish my lunch." You've Died <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The cake is delicious, perhaps the best you've ever made, but it is too rich for your empty stomach. Your bowels turn, rejecting the sweet frosting. Clench as you might, you cannot prevent the inevitable and your bowels release like a spouting whale. The stench is overwhelming in the confines of the cake. You are both proud and disgusted. Arrangements had been made for the thatcher's boys to deliver the cake to the castle. There, a portly guard runs his greasy finger through the frosting to sample the cake. "What the hell?" he shouts, spitting out the cake. "What'd you put in this? It tastes like sewage. Take it away." You and the cake are unceremoniously thrown onto the garbage heap. The foul, garbage-air is refreshing after hotboxing in your own stink. Your arrival has startled a filthy beggar picking through the refuse. He squints at you with one good eye before cracking open a pigeon bone and sucking out the marrow. The heap offers you a commanding view of the castle. The chapel bells are tolling across the courtyard, but the chapel door is heavily guarded. How will you get in? > You use the egg and storm the gates You draw the magic egg from your pocket and crack it over your head. Power surges through your limbs. Your manhood swells to thrice its size and curly black hair sprouts from your chest. The guards are no match for your immense strength. You crash through the chapel door in a shower of splinters. A magnificent stained glass window bathes the chapel in rainbow light. Guests fill every pew and more stand in the balcony above. The Princess and the Marques stand on an altar at the head of the chapel with their backs to you. He is about to place a ring on her finger. You shout Marmalade's name and are immediately surrounded by guards. Crossbowmen emerge from the balcony. It is an ambush. The guards take one look at your pendulous manhood and flee screaming. The Marques, equally impressed, grabs the Princess by her shoulders and throws her through the stained glass window and then runs for the exit. You chase him up a twisting staircase and onto the chapel roof. Cornered at the edge of the roof, the cowering Marques cries out for mercy, but you have none. You raise a gargantuan fist and... the power suddenly fades. Your manhood shrivels back to its normal size. The Marques is quick to capitalize. He draws his golden swords and takes the offensive. "The tables have turned, baker's boy. Too bad you couldn't rise to the occasion," he quips. He drives you back to edge of the roof. Your foot slips and you tumble down the angle of the roof. You catch the gutter, and dangle between the buttresses like the last anal bead. The ground is a long ways below. Your sweaty hand cannot hold on for long. You lose your grip and fall. -- The Marques sheaths his sword and turns away. "Perhaps I was a bit hasty with the Princess. I can't marry her now if her face is all cut up." The sound of wings fills the air and you rise above the roof, riding on Princess Marmalade's back, triumphantly hold the Harp of Dreams. "Impossible!" the Marques shouts in surprise. Harp strings resonate with energy as you play the Song of Wishes. "Jacques Pierre shall reap what he's sown. Harp of Dreams, turn him to stone!" you sing. The Marques tries to run but, but no one can out run magic. The spell catches him at the edge of the roof, where he still stands today, a gargoyle frozen in mid stride. They say you can hear him cry out on stormy nights when the rain runs from his mouth. -- You and the Princess are married at once, and at long last you find yourselves alone in bed. Your stare into her disfigured face, trembling, searching for the right words. She breaks the silence first. "Say, could you do that thing were your grow huge again?" she asks. "Pretty please?" The End Boy is she going to be disappointed. You did well for a mere baker's apprentice, but some of the bad guys got away. You've found an S. Discover more letters to solve the Legendary Riddle.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The Baker makes good on his threat and chains your face to the oven. "I'm going to the castle to delivery some pastries for the wedding. You'll be nice and crispy by the time a get back." The door slams as he leaves. The oven is already warm against your skin. Your face grows hotter every second. Sweat rolls down your body, basting your coin purse in your own grease. You struggle to escape, but the chains are too tight. You cry out for help, but the only one around to hear you is a tiny white dove perched on the window sill. In response to your cry, the dove transformers into a beautiful cloaked woman. You recognize her as the mysterious woman from the fair, though now her belly is swollen with pregnancy. "Come Baker's Boy, you must hurry, the wedding is taking place as we speak," she says. Lightning bolts fly from her fingertips, shattering the chains. "But what can I do without the harp? How can I even get into the castle in the first place?" you ask. "The castle is expecting food delivered for the wedding," she says. "You can bake a cake and hide inside. The guards will wheel you right up to the chapel." What a clever idea. You roll up your sleeves and start to bake. When the cake is finished, you hollow it out and climb inside. "I have a final gift for you," the cloaked woman says. She spreads her legs wide and squats down. An egg falls heavily to the floor. "This egg contains the last of my power. Cracking it shall grant you immense strength." Bloody afterbirth trickles down her leg. She begins to fade. "My dearest Marmalade," she says softly. "How I will miss the sweet taste of your nectar." There is a flutter of wings and the woman is gone. Surrounded by confection, you realize you haven't eaten anything in a while and this cake looks almost as tasty as that mushroom back in the forest. Surely a tiny taste won't hurt. > You stop trying to get you killed! You wisely decide not to eat your disguise. Arrangements had been made for the thatcher's boys to deliver the cake to the castle. There, a portly guard runs his greasy finger through the frosting to sample the cake. "Delicious!" he exclaims. "Take it to the kitchens at once." You are deposited in the kitchen where you hear a familiar voice: "Careful with those pastries, boy! Drop one and you'll feel the back of my hand." Even though the voice is muffled by the cake, there is no mistaking the Baker. The urge for revenge is almost as strong as your desire to save the Princess. You fondle the magic egg in your apron pocket. > You kill the Baker You crack the egg over your head. Power surges through your limbs. Your manhood swells to thrice its size and curly black hair sprouts from your chest and back. You explode from the cake and smash a giant fist into the Baker's face, shattering bone and rupturing white heads. The spit boys and scullery maids run screaming. You ram the Baker's broken face into the side of the oven again and again, searing his flesh. When there is nothing left but the empty rind, you fold him in half and stuff him into the oven. The magic fades and with it your blood lust. You run for the chapel. A magnificent stained glass window bathes the chapel in rainbow light. Guests fill every pew and more stand in the balcony above. Gifts are piled high on a table in the center of the room. Among them is the opalescent horn of the unicorn. The Princess and the Marques stand on an altar at the head of the chapel with their backs to you. He is about to place a ring on her finger. You shout Marmalade's name and are immediately surrounded by guards. Crossbowmen emerge from the balcony. It is an ambush. "Well well, the guest of honor has finally arrived," says the Marques, laughing. He reveals the harp of dreams from beneath his cloak. "Your meddling has gotten stale baker's boy. It ends here." He strums the strings and a tremor runs through the hall. The power of the harp should not be taken lightly. The room shakes violently. Columns crack and the floor twists beneath your feet. The guests panic and stampede for the exit. In the confusion you are able to break free from the guards. The Marques must be stopped before he brings down the entire chapel. You dash towards the alter but Wendell blocks your way. The stained glass window explodes, showering the hall with colorful razors. You must act quickly. Wendell draws his sword. You back pedal, narrowly avoiding his thrusts, until you hit the gift pile and can retreat no more. You desperately grope for a weapon and your hand finds the unicorn horn. You drive the horn upward, penetrating Wendell like a tavern-whore. His expression changes from triumph to bewilderment. The sword falls from his grasp and he collapses. You hear the unicorn's voice whisper "my spirit will always watch over you." The Marques, sensing defeat, leaps through the window to his steed below. You rush to the Princess and throw your arms around her. "There is no time!" she shouts. "We must retrieve the harp before it brings down the whole castle. Climb on." You climb onto her back. She spreads her wings and flies through the window in pursuit. > The chase is on Flying with the Princess is every bit as thrilling as you had imagined. You cannot conceal your excitement. "Quit poking me, I'm trying to fly," she complains. The fairgrounds appear below you. They are empty and quiet now. You chase the Marques to the archery grounds. The Princess folds her wings and begins her attack dive. "Hold on we're-" A golden arrow sprouts from her throat. The Marques has retrieved his bow and arrows from the tourney and loosed a fateful shaft. The Princess cartwheels uncontrollably and you tumble form the sky. You barrel into the Marques, breaking your fall. He is knocked out cold. You crawl to the Princess and cradle her lifeless body. Tears stream from you eyes. How could this happen? Everything has been in vain. She loved you, she needed you, and you failed her. A ragged scream tears from your throat, and then you see the harp. Of course! The power of the harp can revive her. You play like you have never played before. You put everything you have into the song. You reach the last line: "Powers of magic, hear my cry. Harp of Dreams..." > You don't let the Princess die! The Princess is revived by the power of the harp. The harp shatters, its purpose fulfilled. The Marques is quickly apprehended and thrown into the dungeons for treason. You and the Princess are married at once. Your coronation follows all of the boring traditions and ceremonies like the vigil, the rites, and the human sacrifice. At long last the moment you have been waiting for arrives; you find yourself alone with the Princess. She sits naked upon the bed, her delicate wings covering everything but her blushing face. Her violet eyes say everything her mouth is afraid to. > You kiss her After a brief and dutiful consummation you lie in bed with your arms around the Princess. You tell yourself "it happens to every man" but you know it's a lie. "I can't wait to spend the rest of our lives together, but will you still love me when I'm old?" The Princess asks. "Of course," you reply. "Would you still love me if I was fat? Would you love me if I went bald? Would you love me if I was in a wheelchair? Would you still love me if all of my skin fell off and my bones had chickenpox..." Great gods, what have you done? The End Such womanly nonsense. Quickly, go back and tickle her udders! You've found a D. Discover more letters to solve the Legendary Riddle. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The Princess is revived by the power of the harp. The harp shatters, its purpose fulfilled. The Marques is quickly apprehended and thrown into the dungeons for treason. You and the Princess are married at once. Your coronation follows all of the boring traditions and ceremonies like the vigil, the rites, and the human sacrifice. At long last the moment you have been waiting for arrives; you find yourself alone with the Princess. She sits naked upon the bed, her delicate wings covering everything but her blushing face. Her violet eyes say everything her mouth is afraid to. > You tickle her udders The sun is high in the sky when you awake. The Princess still sleeps beside you amidst the satin sheets, bowlegged with a fresh black eye purpling her pretty features. You rise and fill the basin on your nightstand and wash the urine from your hair. What a night! A Princess for your first time, where do you go from here? All hail the king of Mystigar! Congratulations! You win! My favorite part was when you rode the minotaur-hydra. What was yours? You've found a U. Can you solve the Legendary Riddle: "What did the baker's boy give the Princess on their wedding night?"<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Flying with the Princess is every bit as thrilling as you had imagined. You cannot conceal your excitement. "Quit poking me, I'm trying to fly," she complains. The fairgrounds appear below you. They are empty and quiet now. You chase the Marques to the archery grounds. The Princess folds her wings and begins her attack dive. "Hold on we're-" A golden arrow sprouts from her throat. The Marques has retrieved his bow and arrows from the tourney and loosed a fateful shaft. The Princess cartwheels uncontrollably and you tumble form the sky. You barrel into the Marques, breaking your fall. He is knocked out cold. You crawl to the Princess and cradle her lifeless body. Tears stream from you eyes. How could this happen? Everything has been in vain. She loved you, she needed you, and you failed her. A ragged scream tears from your throat, and then you see the harp. Of course! The power of the harp can revive her. You play like you have never played before. You put everything you have into the song. You reach the last line: "Powers of magic, hear my cry. Harp of Dreams..." > You kiss the Marques good bye! The harp transforms into a wickedly twisted knife; its power fills you with unimaginable strength. With one hand you lift the broken Marques by his blonde locks. His eyes are filled with fear. He whispers "please," but there is no mercy left in your heart. You drive the blade into his eye socket so hard the hilt breaks his nose and the tip protrudes from the back of his skull. You hurl his dead body into the gutter where the rats and the hobos can take turns defiling it. -- The rain pours down as you turn to take one last look at the castle. The people of Mystigar had begged you to stay and be their king, but only sorrow remains for you there. With a heavy heart you leave Mystigar behind and head into the unknown. Someday, you will have your own kingdom, your own queen. But that is another story... The End? Killing the Marques won't bring Princess Marmalade back, but it sure felt good, didn't it? You've found an H. Discover more letters to solve the Legendary Riddle.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Flying with the Princess is every bit as thrilling as you had imagined. You cannot conceal your excitement. "Quit poking me, I'm trying to fly," she complains. The fairgrounds appear below you. They are empty and quiet now. You chase the Marques to the archery grounds. The Princess folds her wings and begins her attack dive. "Hold on we're-" A golden arrow sprouts from her throat. The Marques has retrieved his bow and arrows from the tourney and loosed a fateful shaft. The Princess cartwheels uncontrollably and you tumble form the sky. You barrel into the Marques, breaking your fall. He is knocked out cold. You crawl to the Princess and cradle her lifeless body. Tears stream from you eyes. How could this happen? Everything has been in vain. She loved you, she needed you, and you failed her. A ragged scream tears from your throat, and then you see the harp. Of course! The power of the harp can revive her. You play like you have never played before. You put everything you have into the song. You reach the last line: "Powers of magic, hear my cry. Harp of Dreams..." > You send you a delicious pie! The pie is delicious. The End There is nothing like a freshly baked pie. You've found a T. Discover more letters to solve the Legendary Riddle.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You wisely decide not to eat your disguise. Arrangements had been made for the thatcher's boys to deliver the cake to the castle. There, a portly guard runs his greasy finger through the frosting to sample the cake. "Delicious!" he exclaims. "Take it to the kitchens at once." You are deposited in the kitchen where you hear a familiar voice: "Careful with those pastries, boy! Drop one and you'll feel the back of my hand." Even though the voice is muffled by the cake, there is no mistaking the Baker. The urge for revenge is almost as strong as your desire to save the Princess. You fondle the magic egg in your apron pocket. > You stay hidden and wait for the ceremony Inside the cake is dark, and stiflingly hot. The thick confection muffles all sound from the outside world. It only takes a few minutes for you to fall asleep. The wedding ceremony concludes and the guests gather around the Marques and his crying bride. He draws his golden sword and slices the cake into pieces with a flurry of swordsmanship. The guests gorge themselves, remarking on the cake's delicious filling. Even the Princess smiles as she takes a bite. "This is the best cake I've ever had," she says. You've Died<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You follow the fox for some distance through the forest when he stumbles. "Ah I've stubbed my toe. You're going to have to carry me," says the fox. "Please, it really, really, hurts. Carry me and I can tell you where to go. Pretty please." His toe looks fine, but you reluctantly pick up the spirit fox. "Oh you have such strong arms," he says. You travel many miles and the forest becomes dark and ominous. The trees are decorated with shrunken heads and human bones which dangle from their branches like wind chimes. You enter a rocky clearing and deep voice booms from the forest, "Who dares seek the great sage?" "That's my cue," says the terrified fox. He hops from your arms and quickly scampers away. It seems his toe has been miraculous healed. A massive lion leaps onto the rocky outcrop ahead of you. He is so large a horse could ride down his gullet. Skulls and bones are tied in his mane like trophies. "If you wish to see the sage you must answer my riddle. Answer wrong, and I will add you to my decorations "What rises tall and hard in the morning, showers its golden rays down upon the children, and then, exhausted, hangs its head between the stones?" > You it's your, um you know, manhood... "I don't understand," the lion says. You know, the ole sword and stones. Your little wizard. Your widow-splitter. Ham-weasel. Stink-diver. Turkey neck? "Enough! You are not worthy, so you must perish," roars the lion. You try to run, but you are a fat little apprentice boy and he's a one hundred foot magic lion. You've Died<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Your leap causes the small boat to capsize and the ferryman is thrown into the water with you. The leper has been working this river since before you were a stain on your mother's thigh, and the River Hags have been waiting patiently to get their hands on him. They converge upon him and you are momentarily forgotten while they satiate their blood lust. His gargled screams are barely audible over the sound of tearing flesh. You quickly swim to shore while they are distracted and resume your journey. -- The forest path gradually becomes a lane, and the lane becomes a road. Eventually, it leads you to your destination. A stone pillar rises phallicly from the Crossroads, marking the spot were a dozen paths meet like spokes on a wheel. Three animals step from behind the pillar: a frog, a raven, and a fox. "Welcome your majesty," says the fox. "We are the spirit guides," says the frog. "We have waited long for you," says the crow. You can tell this is going to get annoying really quickly. "I am the regrets of man," says the frog. "And I am the sorrows of man," says the raven. "And I am the wiles of man," says the fox. You have no idea what they're talking about. All you care about is which one can lead you to the sage. "Maybe all of us" says the crow. "Maybe none of us," says the frog. "You'll have to trust your heart," says the fox. > You follow the Crow The crow leads you to a land of mountains and fire. A single round hill lies amongst the jagged peaks. Thousands of clamorous birds flock around its crown. It is to there that you must climb. The crow leaves you to join the flock. When you finally crest the hill you find it is not a hill at all. You have mounted the belly of an enormous cyclops. Her horned head towers five hundred feet above you, where the birds nest as if she was a seaside cliff. They take turns diving down into the crevices of her nether regions to fill their gullet before returning to feed their young. Her ancient breasts roll listlessly from her belly, resting on the ground one thousand feet below. "What gift have you brought me in exchange for my knowledge?" the cyclops booms. No one told you anything about a gift. You have nothing with you except your clothes and the harp. The harp! What a brilliant idea you could serenade her. Then again, honesty is the best policy. > You have brought you the gift of music You clear your throat and strum the harp to find the key. "Oh I know the innkeeper's daughter..." Your song is interrupted by a tremor running through the Cyclops's gut. Geysers of sulfur erupt from beneath her prodigious bulk, scattering the flock of screaming birds. "Enough!" the cyclops thunders. "You are not worthy of my knowledge!" Her belly fat ripples and ungulates, tossing you about like waves on the ocean. You lose your footing and slide down the curvature of her belly towards certain death. At the last moment you grab hold of a pubic hair as thick as a ship's cable, but it is slick with sweat. Her huge crevice gapes open below you, waiting to swallow you whole. The hair slides from your hand and you fall into the darkness. You've Died<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The crow leads you to a land of mountains and fire. A single round hill lies amongst the jagged peaks. Thousands of clamorous birds flock around its crown. It is to there that you must climb. The crow leaves you to join the flock. When you finally crest the hill you find it is not a hill at all. You have mounted the belly of an enormous cyclops. Her horned head towers five hundred feet above you, where the birds nest as if she was a seaside cliff. They take turns diving down into the crevices of her nether regions to fill their gullet before returning to feed their young. Her ancient breasts roll listlessly from her belly, resting on the ground one thousand feet below. "What gift have you brought me in exchange for my knowledge?" the cyclops booms. No one told you anything about a gift. You have nothing with you except your clothes and the harp. The harp! What a brilliant idea you could serenade her. Then again, honesty is the best policy. > You have no gift "Nothing!" Booms the cyclops. She fixes her gaze on you, but her eye drifts lazily down and to the left. "Then you must do something for me." Several birds separate from the flock carrying a fluffy pink dress... -- "Dance prettier! 1 2 3, 1 2 3, and turn. Yes!" the cyclops giggles. Her clapping hands sound like thunder. "Now tell me who's a precious little baker's girl? Uh oh, I see something poking out from under that skirt." Enough is enough. You stop dancing and cross your arms defiantly. It's time you learned the song. "Very well." One by one screeching birds descend from the flock. They peck and claw at the cyclops's nipple, tearing it to bloody ribbons. Her single eye rolls back in her head as a quiver of ecstasy runs through her flesh. The birds draw an ancient scroll from the ruin of her nipple. The scroll is made from tanned griffin foreskin and covered in mysterious runes. A song fills your mind as you read it. "Now you know the Song of Wishes. The song can only be sung once, so sing it wisely, my pretty girl." A sudden wave of exhaustion overcomes you. You curl up in the cyclops's naval and fall asleep. You awake alone, on the road just outside of town.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Your leap causes the small boat to capsize and the ferryman is thrown into the water with you. The leper has been working this river since before you were a stain on your mother's thigh, and the River Hags have been waiting patiently to get their hands on him. They converge upon him and you are momentarily forgotten while they satiate their blood lust. His gargled screams are barely audible over the sound of tearing flesh. You quickly swim to shore while they are distracted and resume your journey. -- The forest path gradually becomes a lane, and the lane becomes a road. Eventually, it leads you to your destination. A stone pillar rises phallicly from the Crossroads, marking the spot were a dozen paths meet like spokes on a wheel. Three animals step from behind the pillar: a frog, a raven, and a fox. "Welcome your majesty," says the fox. "We are the spirit guides," says the frog. "We have waited long for you," says the crow. You can tell this is going to get annoying really quickly. "I am the regrets of man," says the frog. "And I am the sorrows of man," says the raven. "And I am the wiles of man," says the fox. You have no idea what they're talking about. All you care about is which one can lead you to the sage. "Maybe all of us" says the crow. "Maybe none of us," says the frog. "You'll have to trust your heart," says the fox. > You follow the Frog For a day and a night you follow the frog. At long last you come to the edge of a vast morass. The water is filled with a churning mass of thick, red eels. This is the swamp of the ancient sage. You wade for miles, waste deep in eels, before reaching a reed hut hidden in the mist. After a prolonged farewell, the frog dives beneath the eels and disappears. You timidly knock on the hut door. "Come in!" comes the reply from within. The sage sits in the center of the hut, her prodigious bulk resting on a nest of reeds. Her skin is blue and hairless. A pair of tiny flippers twitch with delight as dragonfly servants drop spotted mushrooms down her enormous gullet. An endless stream of red eels pours from her backside, falling through a hole in the floor, to the swamp below. "I have been expecting you, baker's boy," she says. "You have come to learn the Song of Wishes. I will teach it to you in exchange for a kiss." > No thank you You politely decline. The sage makes a face of such hideous dejection you almost feel sorry. Almost. "Very well. Give me the harp and I shall teach you the song." Her fins move deftly along the strings as she plays. The song is oddly soothing until she reaches the final line. "This song was merely a ploy, to receive a kiss from the tender baker's boy." A strange desire takes hold of you. You're lips are drawn to her slimy skin. "I will have my kiss one way or another, baker's boy," she laughs. You kiss her turgid lips, her smooth scalp, the dark place beneath her flippers. Eels slither down your throat as you give her the most sensual kiss of all. If you still had a gag reflex, you might have been saved. Instead, the eels fill your lungs and you slip into darkness. "Kissy kissy!" squeals the sage. You've Died<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>For a day and a night you follow the frog. At long last you come to the edge of a vast morass. The water is filled with a churning mass of thick, red eels. This is the swamp of the ancient sage. You wade for miles, waste deep in eels, before reaching a reed hut hidden in the mist. After a prolonged farewell, the frog dives beneath the eels and disappears. You timidly knock on the hut door. "Come in!" comes the reply from within. The sage sits in the center of the hut, her prodigious bulk resting on a nest of reeds. Her skin is blue and hairless. A pair of tiny flippers twitch with delight as dragonfly servants drop spotted mushrooms down her enormous gullet. An endless stream of red eels pours from her backside, falling through a hole in the floor, to the swamp below. "I have been expecting you, baker's boy," she says. "You have come to learn the Song of Wishes. I will teach it to you in exchange for a kiss." > You kiss the sage You close your eyes and plant an openmouthed kiss on her turgid lips. Her tongue tastes like violation. "Mmmm choke me," coos the sage. It takes two hands to squeeze her blubbery throat. "Ahhh, now I will teach you the song you desire." "Slaves! bring me the box," she shouts. A dragonfly delivers her a small, intricately carved box. She raises the lid and a tiny beetle flies out. It lands on your shoulder and crawls into your ear. You feel a wriggle, a pinch, and then an electric shock. A song grows in your mind like the threads of a chrysalis. "Now you know the Song of Dreams, but be warned, the song can only be sung once, so sing it wisely. And don't worry about the beetle, he'll find his way out eventually," says the sage. "The path north of this hut leads back to town. Now, they say a parting kiss is sweetest." You quickly thank the sage and head down the path before she can kiss you again.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"They say the sage is a thousand years old and can see another thousand years into the future. Of course, they also say us centaurs can't wipe our own asses," the centaur says. "Anyway, no one has ever seen the sage, or if they have, they didn't live long enough to talk about it. Travel east across the river to the Crossroads. A spirit guide will appear there and guide you to the sage." "But beware of the Haunted Castle!" he cautions. "It is ruled by an evil demon and she is not to be trusted." You take one last look at the centaur's daughter before heading east down the forest path. The centaur calls after you: "It's not true you know! We can wipe our asses just fine!" -- The sun is high overhead when you reach the river. The river is too wide and too strong to ford. If you had a wagon, you might be able to caulk it and float across. The Haunted Castle stands ominously on the river's edge, guarding the only bridge across. It exudes an evil aura. Luckily, there is also a ferry docked on the near shore. > You take the bridge The castle door swings open before you can knock. An old woman greets you. Her skin is wrinkled like that of a dried apple. Her curled blue hair is tucked up under a bonnet, and her time-ravaged breasts are tucked into the belt of a robe. She squints at you through thick spectacles. "Oh a visitor! How exciting. Come in. Come in," she says. "You smell like a centaur's stable. I never cared for centaurs. Lying sluts." Inside the castle is unremarkable, except for the pervasive old person smell and the abundance of decorative plates. You feel none of the evil presence you experienced before. "You youngsters are always in such a rush. I insist you stay and rest for the night. It gets so lonely here. I would appreciate the company. Would you care to join me for dinner before turning in?" > You join her for dinner A long table spread with wondrous food and drink fills the dining room. The old woman takes a seat at the head of the table, and you saddle up at the far end, fill your goblet with wine, and slice off a thick piece of foot-meat from the nearest roast. "Everyone, I would like you to meet our guest, the Baker's Boy," the old woman says. You look around, but the remaining seats are all empty. "Gerald, sit up straight. Isabelle dear, don't smell your fingers at the table. Its rude," she says to no one. "I'm sorry. Ghosts have the worst table manners. Tell me, what are you doing way out here?" You excitedly tell her and the ghosts all about your adventures so far. "Oh, my poor child," the old woman says. "That strumpet has already forgotten all about you." She draws a crystal ball from beneath the table and waves her hand over it. A picture forms inside. You see the Princess in bed with the Marques and the Baker. Impossible! She would never... Would she? "I've always wanted a son like you. Why don't you forget about that tart Marmalade and stay here with me?" > You stay and be her son "You are mine now," the old woman says. Your body starts to tingle and your vision changes. The room grows darker and one by one the ghosts come in to view. Isabelle waves her sticky fingers at you in greeting. Hundreds of ghosts fill the hall, each a weary traveler like yourself. You can see the old woman's true form now. She is a benevolent demon with blue skin and four arms. "Come feed, my children," she beckons, opening her robe and revealing a dozen swollen teats. You nestle in beside Gerald and fill yourself with mother's love. You are home. The End The bottled stuff just doesn't compare to the real thing. You've found an I. Discover more letters to solve the Legendary Riddle.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>A long table spread with wondrous food and drink fills the dining room. The old woman takes a seat at the head of the table, and you saddle up at the far end, fill your goblet with wine, and slice off a thick piece of foot-meat from the nearest roast. "Everyone, I would like you to meet our guest, the Baker's Boy," the old woman says. You look around, but the remaining seats are all empty. "Gerald, sit up straight. Isabelle dear, don't smell your fingers at the table. Its rude," she says to no one. "I'm sorry. Ghosts have the worst table manners. Tell me, what are you doing way out here?" You excitedly tell her and the ghosts all about your adventures so far. "Oh, my poor child," the old woman says. "That strumpet has already forgotten all about you." She draws a crystal ball from beneath the table and waves her hand over it. A picture forms inside. You see the Princess in bed with the Marques and the Baker. Impossible! She would never... Would she? "I've always wanted a son like you. Why don't you forget about that tart Marmalade and stay here with me?" > You decline her offer "How dare you refuse me!" the old woman screams. Her skin sloughs away revealing a matte of dirty black fur, a long naked tail, and a pointed snout with curving incisors. Her true form is that of a rat-succubus which feeds on the souls of lost travelers. Black blood pours from his beady, red eyes. "I will have you one way or another!" You run from the table, one step ahead of the demon. Angry ghosts follow her like wisps of smoke. She is almost upon you when you step out onto the bridge and she slams into a magical barrier like a bird hitting a picture window. Ghosts and demons are unable to leave the castle. The demon's frustration is palpable as she paces the barrier, staring at you and salivating. She hurls herself against it repeatedly, checking it for weaknesses. You hurriedly resume your journey before she can break through. -- The forest path gradually becomes a lane, and the lane becomes a road. Eventually, it leads you to your destination. A stone pillar rises phallicly from the Crossroads, marking the spot were a dozen paths meet like spokes on a wheel. Three animals step from behind the pillar: a frog, a raven, and a fox. "Welcome your majesty," says the fox. "We are the spirit guides," says the frog. "We have waited long for you," says the crow. You can tell this is going to get annoying really quickly. "I am the regrets of man," says the frog. "And I am the sorrows of man," says the raven. "And I am the wiles of man," says the fox. You have no idea what they're talking about. All you care about is which one can lead you to the sage. "Maybe all of us" says the crow. "Maybe none of us," says the frog. "You'll have to trust your heart," says the fox.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The castle door swings open before you can knock. An old woman greets you. Her skin is wrinkled like that of a dried apple. Her curled blue hair is tucked up under a bonnet, and her time-ravaged breasts are tucked into the belt of a robe. She squints at you through thick spectacles. "Oh a visitor! How exciting. Come in. Come in," she says. "You smell like a centaur's stable. I never cared for centaurs. Lying sluts." Inside the castle is unremarkable, except for the pervasive old person smell and the abundance of decorative plates. You feel none of the evil presence you experienced before. "You youngsters are always in such a rush. I insist you stay and rest for the night. It gets so lonely here. I would appreciate the company. Would you care to join me for dinner before turning in?" > You go to bed early The old woman leads you to a small tower bedroom, helps you out of your apron, and tucks you into bed. There is a strange black candle on your nightstand. "The castle can be a spooky place at night," the old woman says. "This candle will keep the ghosts away, but be careful it doesn't go out." She kisses you on the forehead and takes her leave. No sooner has she closed the door, than you hear the ghosts. Terrifying wailing and moaning fill the hall outside your room. There must be hundreds haunting the castle. It is impossible to sleep with a ghost orgy going on in the next room, so you slip under the covers for some fun of your own. You are so deep in your geriatric fantasies, that you fail to notice a small draft extinguish the candle. The bedroom door bursts open. You throw off the covers expecting a ghost, but it is only the kind old woman. "I warned you not to let it go out," she cackles. Her mouth opens wide, and then wider, and wider still, like a snake deep-throating a rat. Smoke like apparitions crawl from her gullet and float towards you. They envelop you and drag you towards her waiting jaws... You've Died<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The forest path eventually leads you to a quaint cottage. A centaur stands out front, raking leaves. The centaur stops raking as you approach. "Good morning traveler, will you help me tend my garden?" asks the centaur. "In exchange I shall give you my daughter's hand in marriage." A deal like that is too good to pass up, but how would that even work, you wonder. Perhaps there a special stool or something. You are struggling for a polite way to ask when his daughter trots from the cottage. Her beauty rivals that of Princes Marmalade. She bashfully plays with her long golden braid, and paws the ground playfully with her silver hoof. It would be impolite to turn down his offer, but you are on a quest. The centaur knows much about quests and the Enchanted Forest, perhaps he can help with your journey. > You ask about unicorn blood "Gross! I can't believe you drank that!" laughs the centaur. "Classic Unicorn. A joker until the end. That reminds me of the time he and I snuck into the waterfall and stole the mermaids' Swallow Stone. We said we wouldn't give it back until they had each... well this isn't a story to tell in front of my daughter. You should probably go brush your teeth. Any other questions?"<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Snap! The new string breaks under the strain, slashing open your cheek. Your arrow does a lazy summersault before landing at your feet. "The Marques is the winner!" declares the herald. That filthy cad, he tricked you! He knew the string would break. You brandish your bow like a club and charge the Marques, but by now the tourney field is overrun with spectators and you cannot reach him through the press. For a moment your eyes catch those of the Princess and she gives you a plaintive look before her and the Marques are carried away. Some hours later you sit at the Dwarf's stall, attempting to drink away your sorrows. You rub the fresh scar on your face, swearing revenge. There is a tap on your shoulder. You turn to find a mysterious hooded figure behind you. "A gift," she says, "from the Princess, for her true champion. Please help her before she is forced to marry." She hands you a bundle, and disappears into the night. Could it be true? Does the Princess really need your help? A small bone harp without any strings is wrapped with in the bundle. What the hell are you supposed to do with this? Sing your sorrows? You ask the dwarf how much beer the harp will buy, hopefully enough to give you alcohol poisoning. "You drunk fool! That's no ordinary harp," she shouts, "it's the Harp of Dreams! If you string this harp with the mane of a unicorn and sing the Song of Wishes your greatest wish will come true." That makes sense. "Take this seed" says the dwarf, handing you a small pearl. "The tree which grows from it is the Unicorn's favorite food. Plant it in the Enchanted Forest and he will come to feast upon it." > You said give you more ale! You awaken in a pool of vomit on the floor of a dark cave. Your head hurts so badly that even the faint light is unbearable. Where are you? What did you do last night? Why is it so cold? You search yourself and your surroundings for clues. You find a severed horse leg tied around your neck, your apron pocket is stuffed with birdseed, your pants are missing and you might be wearing lipstick, but you can't be sure. If you ever find your way out of this cave you're going to find that dwarf and shake her hand, she makes damn good beer. Your thoughts are interrupted by a voice echoing from the far reaches of the cave: "Finger puppets. Finger puppets." Although it is faint, it is clearly not human. "Finger puppets. Finger puppets!" The voice grows louder. Something is coming and you need to escape. "Finger puppets!" In the distance you can see a dim light. "Finger puppets!" > You run for the light The light grows as you run towards it. Behind you the shouts have become a frantic wale; "Finger puppets! Finger puppets!" It is not just a light at the end of the tunnel, it's a hole! You can see the sky beyond, but the voice is right behind you now. You leap for the opening, but it is too small, and you get stuck halfway through. Something grabs you. You kick and struggle but you feel yourself slipping backwards... "FINGER PUPPETS!" The ground gives way beneath you and you tumble out into the open sky. You land with a splash in a bog. High above, a giant hand retracts into the gaping cave mouth, holding the severed horse leg. The world around you is not the one you left. You are at the base of a mountain surrounded by an endless jungle. Bone spires reach thousands of feet into a blood red sky. You have come to the land of dragons. Just how much did you drink last night? The End I'm sorry, did you want to battle dragons? When I was a kid I wanted a puppy, but I didn't get it. Life is disappointment. Learn to handle your ale. You've found an H. Discover more letters to solve the Legendary Riddle.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You awaken in a pool of vomit on the floor of a dark cave. Your head hurts so badly that even the faint light is unbearable. Where are you? What did you do last night? Why is it so cold? You search yourself and your surroundings for clues. You find a severed horse leg tied around your neck, your apron pocket is stuffed with birdseed, your pants are missing and you might be wearing lipstick, but you can't be sure. If you ever find your way out of this cave you're going to find that dwarf and shake her hand, she makes damn good beer. Your thoughts are interrupted by a voice echoing from the far reaches of the cave: "Finger puppets. Finger puppets." Although it is faint, it is clearly not human. "Finger puppets. Finger puppets!" The voice grows louder. Something is coming and you need to escape. "Finger puppets!" In the distance you can see a dim light. "Finger puppets!" > You stand and fight Bravely you brandish the severed horse leg. "Finger puppets!" The voice is so close now that you can hear the shuffling of giant feet. A shadow falls across you... A hideous giant stands in the mouth of the tunnel. Its shrunken, rotting, head scrapes the ceiling high above you. Its immense belly drags along the floor between his legs like a field plow. Most terrifying of all, a corpse covers each of its grotesquely long fingers; every finger but one. The corpse arms dances about as it reaches for you... "FINGER PUPPETS!" You've Died<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You milk the cow while dreaming of Bessa's heaving udders. You are in the shed for much longer than it takes to milk a cow. You heft the pail and walk back to the house. The Milkman has slipped back into his stupor. You can hear him mumble something about the thatcher's boy and soft hands. There is really no need to pay him. He probably won't even remember you've been here. Screw the Milkman and screw the Baker! It's the day of the fair, you have a copper in your pocket, and you're going to enjoy yourself! You drink deep from the milk bucket before casting it away. You are the master of your own destiny! -- The fair is everything you had hoped. Highborn ladies and goodly knights recite poetry outside of colorful silk pavilions. Naked urchins chase each other about playing tag and brown-fingers, while drunken minstrels belt green sleeves at the top of their lungs. Vendors call their wares from various carts and stands. A fat pastry chef with a pox-marked face yells "Hot pies! Two coppers!" while a dwarf cries her ale. You are hungry but cannot afford a pie. The Dwarf, however, will let you drink yourself stupid for a copper. You look around the crowd hoping to catch a glimpse of the Princess. You spy her in the royal box above the tourney field, framed by a pair of guards who look more jailor than escorts. For one moment your eyes meet and she smiles. A herald cries out below her. "Gather all yee who would compete in the tourney of archery" he proclaims. "To the winner shall be awarded a golden bow and the hand of the beautiful Princess Marmalade. Any man of Mystigar may enter for a single copper." A copper for a chance to marry the Princess? What luck! > You steal a pie The pie is delicious.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|> "Hello?" you call as you knock on the Milkman's door. There is no reply but the door is open, so you step inside. "Great Gods put out that light and stop all this hollerrin'. Can't a man rest his achin' head?" the Milkman says from his bed. He pulls the covers over his head, spilling several clays jars to the floor. He has had a long night of drinking with the thatcher's boys. "If you want milk you'll have to get it yourself. Bessa's gone to the fair and I sure as hell ain't doing it in my condition." Just your luck, both the spirits and Bessa are gone. You can hear the cow lowing from the shed, begging to be milked. You grab a pail and sit down on the milking bench. > You tickle her udder The cow is not amused. The last thing you ever see is cloven hoof flying towards your face with surprising speed. Bessa eventually finds your broken body sprawled in a heap of cow dung. Never tickle the udder. You've Died... Hold on! Wait a minute. Mystigar is a dangerous place. You need to be more careful. You can't go around grabbing whatever you please. This is your only warning. Now, go be a good boy and milk the cow.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Today is the day of the fair! The sun is not even fully up, but already your chores are done. The oven is lit, the dough kneaded, the bread pricked, the floor swept, and the pots scrubbed. You even had a chance to chop a little morning-wood, if you know what I mean. Surely now your master will let you spend the rest of the day at the fair. You have thought of nothing else since it was first announced. You are busy day dreaming about Princess Marmalade, again, when a shout comes down from the loft; "Boy!" Your cantankerous master is finally awake. The ladder strains under his bulk as he climbs down to the kitchen. "Get off your ass, boy, and warm the ovens," he says. "Master, the ovens are already warm. All of my chores are done. I thought perhaps I could go to the fair?" you reply. A meaty hand strikes your face. "The fair! The fair's for minstrels and dandies. Which one are you, boy? Or did you fancy you'd win the tourney and marry the Princess?" he says, doubling over with laughter. "Long live King Baker's Boy! Forget that lot and go fetch me some milk." He hands you a copper and sends you out the door with another smack. "And if I find out you've gone to the fair, boy, I'll chain your face to the oven!" "Bastard," you curse under your breath while rubbing your swollen lip. One of these days you will chain his fat face to the oven. You head towards the Milkman's stand. He always has a bottle of spirits to share with the young apprentice boys, and his daughter Bessa has the biggest milk jugs you've ever seen. You reach his stand but no one's there. > You screw this, go to the fair Screw the Milkman and screw the Baker! It's the day of the fair. You have a copper in your pocket, and you're going to enjoy yourself! You head off down the street with a jump in your step. Main Street is unusually crowded this morning. It seems you were not the only one who got an early start. You push your way into the throng and fall in step behind three farmers, who appear well past drunk despite the hour. They sing ribald songs like "Two Old Dogs" and "The Wobbly Widow" as they stumble down the street together. You are about to join in on the chorus of "The Innkeeper's Daughter" when a sign catches your eye. It reads: "The Broken Bodice." A woman with a generous supply of cleavage calls to you from the doorway. "Hey there baker's boy, got time for a tumble?" > You go to the brothel The inside of The Broken Bodice is dim and moist. The decor is a garish mixture of red velvet, gold tassels, and over sized pillows. An overwhelming aura of perfume chokes your nostrils, but it cannot cover the stench of wet crackers. Beautiful women lounge about the room in various stages of undress, doting on eager patrons. Most of the patrons are wealthy old men, some so ancient they probably jizz dust. The woman with the rolling hills stuffed into her corset is the madame of this fine establishment. "Oooh I bet this is your first time" she coos. "Leave it to my girls to make a man of a baker's boy." You hand her your copper and ask for one of the pretty girls. She tucks the penny into her cleavage and scoffs. "A copper ain't gonna buy you no princess, but I think we can find some dough for you to prick." > You sleep with Grizzela The madame escorts you to a dark room in the farthest recesses of the brothel. "Good luck" she says, closing the door behind you. You hear a bolt slam down. A baritone voice calls to you from the shadows, "Ooo I love me a young one." A light stubble covers Grizzela's square jaw, and a velvet scarf hides the lump in 'her' neck. "Don't be scared sugar. I'm gonna show you things you've only dreamed of." Her embrace is like iron. > You tickle her udder You grab something that looks like an udder and tug with all your might. Grizzela's bald spot glows bright red as she lets out a guttural moan. Your efforts are rewarded by a serving of heavy cream. She collapses on the straw, gasping for breath. In her fifty-five years as a whore no one has ever given her so much pleasure. When the madame finds out what you've done, she hands you a bag of silver and insists that you work for her. You try to decline, but Grizzela's iron grip brooks no arguments. It's not the life you imagined, but the money is good. Men travel from the far corners of the kingdom to lie with the supple Baker's Boy. The End This is not what I had in mind. When I said you were destined to be a king, I didn't mean king of the whores. Perhaps you should try again... You've found a U. Discover more letters to solve the Legendary Riddle.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The madame escorts you to a dark room in the farthest recesses of the brothel. "Good luck" she says, closing the door behind you. You hear a bolt slam down. A baritone voice calls to you from the shadows, "Ooo I love me a young one." A light stubble covers Grizzela's square jaw, and a velvet scarf hides the lump in 'her' neck. "Don't be scared sugar. I'm gonna show you things you've only dreamed of." Her embrace is like iron. > You let her try something called the "Iron Unicorn" With trepid anticipation you give yourself up to her. At first the iron is cold, and the leather chafes your skin, but soon you are overcome with unbridled pleasure. You cry out in delight, but the ecstasy of your first prostate orgasm is cut short by an awful tearing sound. "Not again," Grizella says in despair, "I just can't stand the sight of so much blood." You've Died<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The inside of The Broken Bodice is dim and moist. The decor is a garish mixture of red velvet, gold tassels, and over sized pillows. An overwhelming aura of perfume chokes your nostrils, but it cannot cover the stench of wet crackers. Beautiful women lounge about the room in various stages of undress, doting on eager patrons. Most of the patrons are wealthy old men, some so ancient they probably jizz dust. The woman with the rolling hills stuffed into her corset is the madame of this fine establishment. "Oooh I bet this is your first time" she coos. "Leave it to my girls to make a man of a baker's boy." You hand her your copper and ask for one of the pretty girls. She tucks the penny into her cleavage and scoffs. "A copper ain't gonna buy you no princess, but I think we can find some dough for you to prick." > You sleep with Satin Jane The madame escorts you to a dark room filled with scented candles. "Have fun," she says before closing the door. You find Satin Jane laying seductively on a straw mattress, wrapped in a red blanket. Her skin is like the palest milk and her hair is a brilliant cinnamon. She spreads her chalk white legs revealing that the rushes match the tapestries. Her beautifully wide face spreads in a gap tooth smile. The Princess and Bessa are forgotten. You burry your face in her pillowy breasts and knead her like the bread dough. Three minutes later you're back on the street, grinning like a fool. Huzzah! A copper well spent. You step into an alley to relieve yourself, but a horrible burning sensation tears across your shriveled member. Black spots spread from your crotch and crawl up your chest. The pain is blinding and you collapse into the filthy gutter. If only you had put a helm on your soldier! You've Died<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The inside of The Broken Bodice is dim and moist. The decor is a garish mixture of red velvet, gold tassels, and over sized pillows. An overwhelming aura of perfume chokes your nostrils, but it cannot cover the stench of wet crackers. Beautiful women lounge about the room in various stages of undress, doting on eager patrons. Most of the patrons are wealthy old men, some so ancient they probably jizz dust. The woman with the rolling hills stuffed into her corset is the madame of this fine establishment. "Oooh I bet this is your first time" she coos. "Leave it to my girls to make a man of a baker's boy." You hand her your copper and ask for one of the pretty girls. She tucks the penny into her cleavage and scoffs. "A copper ain't gonna buy you no princess, but I think we can find some dough for you to prick." > You sleep with Bessa You excitedly follow her down the back hall and out into the yard behind the building. Could it really be Bessa, the Milkman's daughter? The same Bessa you have spent years drooling over at the market each morning? Bessa with the thunderous skin bags, so wondrous the gods cried they day they made them? "No refunds," the Madame says as she closes the door and locks it behind you. There, chained in the middle of the yard, stands Bessa. This Bessa is not the Milkman's daughter, but an old she goat who looks a little worse for ware. The goat wiggles her backside at you and flexes her mutton-button flirtatiously. You are tempted, but no. There is a line even you will not cross. That dirty old swamp-donkey swindled you out of your copper, but you have an idea to pay the Madame back. A talented goat like this is worth a pretty penny and you know just where to sell her. You untie Bessa and lead her through the gate and out of the yard. -- The wharf is bustling with crusty old sailors loading cargo onto a galley. Bessa bleats to the men and excitedly dribbles a few drops of milk. You find the ship's steward and offer to sell him the goat. "Isn't she a site t' raise your mizzenmast," he says. "She'll keep the men happy on a long voyage. I'll give ya one copper for her." > You take the copper and go to the fair The fair is everything you had hoped. Highborn ladies and goodly knights recite poetry outside of colorful silk pavilions. Naked urchins chase each other about, playing tag and brown-fingers, while drunken minstrels belt green sleeves at the top of their lungs. Vendors call their wares from various carts and stands. A fat pastry chef with a pox-marked face yells "Hot pies! Two coppers!" while a dwarf cries her ale. You are hungry, but cannot afford a pie. The dwarf, however, will let you drink yourself stupid for a copper. You spy the princess in the royal box above the tourney field. She is framed by a pair of guards who look more jailor than escorts. For one moment your eyes meet and she smiles. Below her a herald speaks. "Gather all yee who would compete in the tourney of archery" he proclaims. "To the winner shall be awarded a golden bow and the hand of the beautiful Princess Marmalade. Any man of Mystigar may enter for a single copper." A copper for a chance to marry the princess? What luck!<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You excitedly follow her down the back hall and out into the yard behind the building. Could it really be Bessa, the Milkman's daughter? The same Bessa you have spent years drooling over at the market each morning? Bessa with the thunderous skin bags, so wondrous the gods cried they day they made them? "No refunds," the Madame says as she closes the door and locks it behind you. There, chained in the middle of the yard, stands Bessa. This Bessa is not the Milkman's daughter, but an old she goat who looks a little worse for ware. The goat wiggles her backside at you and flexes her mutton-button flirtatiously. You are tempted, but no. There is a line even you will not cross. That dirty old swamp-donkey swindled you out of your copper, but you have an idea to pay the Madame back. A talented goat like this is worth a pretty penny and you know just where to sell her. You untie Bessa and lead her through the gate and out of the yard. -- The wharf is bustling with crusty old sailors loading cargo onto a galley. Bessa bleats to the men and excitedly dribbles a few drops of milk. You find the ship's steward and offer to sell him the goat. "Isn't she a site t' raise your mizzenmast," he says. "She'll keep the men happy on a long voyage. I'll give ya one copper for her." > You demand more money "Ya drive a hard bargain, but a gal like that is worth more'n a copper. Climb aboard and I'll fetch ya a silver piece," the Steward says. You turn to mount the gangplank when something heavy strikes the back of your head and the world goes dark. -- You awaken in the depths of the galley, far out to sea. You are chained to an oar between two large, swarthy galley slaves. They have been here a long time. "Middle seat is bad luck, little boy. You row twice as much," the slave to your left laughs in broken English. The slave to you right smiles and spits in your hair. Drums pound and you begin to row. All day you pull the galley oar without rest, and all night you row your bench mates while they take turns spitting on you. In the brief moments before dawn when you are allowed to sleep, you dream of storms and shipwrecks. The End It seems it is the Steward who drives a hard bargain. Throw your back into it, land lubber, or you'll end up with the goat. You've found an S. Discover more letters to solve the Legendary Riddle.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Cold. That is the general impression this trip has made on you so far. To be fair, a strenuous and difficult hike was what you were searching for, but the whole idea sounded much better at home, in front of the merrily burning fireplace. Your life was never easy, but the last few months were really no fun at all. You lost your sweetheart, your job and the last member of your family, all in a scant few months. To cars, disease and the thrice-damned suspicion of your boss: the disease wasting your sisters life away is one that runs in the family, hereditary. Once your boss heard of that – curse you, Google Analytics – he immediately used a sub-clause in your contract to burn the thing and fire your sorry ass. Once your girlfriend heard of your sudden case of impending brokeness – curse you, rumor mill – she thought about it, and that “It would be best for you if this relationship would take a break. I´m only thinking about you here, darling.” Once your mother heard about this string of … bad things … that were happening to you, she decided that you needed some reassurances that your life was still good, and that you still had family and people loving you. That is, she planned to visit you, because while crossing the street that separated the local tram-station from your cottage, she got run over. Dying instantly. After that, you sought solace in the only thing that always comforted you: snowy, frozen mountains. Seeking a change from the “boring” Alps that were usually your destination, you traveled to the snowy peaks of the Urals, sometime in November. Now, it was January and you, you are lost. Regardless of why you are here, what is important right now is a) finding your way back to civilization, and b) staying alive. You have a tent and some food left, but although the sky is clear, the literally freezing temperatures make you wish for a fire. Thank God this isn´t your first night out in the cold, alone and freezing. Also, you know how to make a fire, you just need some kindling. > You go and forage While staying in your tent might keep you alive, you really don´t want to risk it. A snowstorm of something similar is always a possibility, and you did´t buy a tent with integrated fire-place for nothing. You have, however, run out of coals. Dry kindling and wood is required, as much as you can comfortably carry. You know that the natives have a store of timber at the peak of the mountain, but below, in the actual forest, you might have better chances of actually finding a large amount of wood. > You decend into the dark forest This forest is seriously dark and dank. This is, actually, one of the reasons you came here. You sought to find happyness in your old memories of hiking in the countryside, following you dear old dad. This is the real reason you went here. He vanished in these very mountains. Well, somewhere in the Urals. They are quite big. And you have been lost. But this is where he vanished. As you gather the (slightly wet) kindling, you notice a rather peculiar clearing. It seems to be one of those witch-circles, where mushrooms grow in a circle. These mushrooms might be edible, but might also be extremely poisonous. Or somewhere in-between. > You go to the circle and look at the mushrooms You know what you´re doing. You survived these mountains for months now, and know which mushrooms are safe for eating and which leave you sick in bed, heaving. As you approach the circle and crouch directly in front of it, intent on identifying the mushrooms, you hear a lone wolf howl. You jump a bit, startled, and find yourself within the circle. > You leave the circle You look around, nervously, but that howl sounded like it was very far away. You crouch down again, and hit your head. On thin air. You reach out and make an impression of a mime: there seems to be an invisible wall, trapping you. You slowly walk the peremiter of the wall, attempting to find a way out, but you find no gap. It´s a seemless wall, reaching out from the mushrooms to the sky. You slowly begin to panic, and look for something sturdy. As your pile of wood is not in this circle, and your knife stayed in the tent, the only thing you have are your arms. You hammer against this invisible wall, but it is in vain. "That won´t work, dearie." suddenly, a voice behind you. You turn around to see a woman floating in the air. She is small, only a few inches high, but practicaly radiates wisdom and power. "What are you?" you blurt out. "And why can´t I leave the circle?" She smiles, a smile that seems nearly human, and floats out of the circle. You try to follow, but walk face-first into the wall again. A suspicion bubbles up. "Have you trapped me here?" you ask pointedly. She smiles again. "Why, obviously. That is a faery-trap after all. My design. Used to trap foolish mortals." She giggles. "Works every time." You begin to suspect that there is more to your fathers stories of the Fae after all. He did say that he went to these mountains to search for fearys ... and never returned ... Another suspicion bubbles up. and it is confirmed a moment later. "I am sooo exited. I never had a set before. Your father is a wonderful pet, and I´m sure his spawn will be as well." She is spinning in excitement. If she weren´t a evil faery holding you prisoner (and, apparently your father) she´d be kind of cute. But she is, so she isn´t. "What have you done to my father!" you scream at her, beating at your invisible prison. She giggles ominously. "You will soon find out!" She then pulls a wand out of somewhere and starts to swing it. You can feel the air within the circle start to spin, at first slowly, then faster and faster. Slowly, in the center of the vortex, a portal is opening. This is your last chance. > You plead for mercy "PLEASE! DON`T!" you desperately beg. "DON`T DO THIS!" The faery just smiles and waves her wand one last time. The portal widens, and you fall ... fall fall fall and land on a soft surface. A lap. You look up to see a face you haven´t seen in years. Your father. "Papa?" you ask with a small voice. He looks down at you, his eyes full of love, and answers: "Son? How lovely. HER power is great indeed, if she could bring us both together again." He looks up for a moment, a glazed look in his eyes. "How fare your mother and sister?" he then asks. "Dead!" you sob. "They are all dead. Why didn´t you come back?" He looks at you and seems to start an answer, but abruptly his eyes close. As he opens them again, his pupils are literal hearts. He is gazing up into the sky. You follow his gaze, and find the faery that had trapped you. "That evil witch." you grumble to yourself. Unfortunately, both the faery and your father hear you say it. And your father reacts immediately by choking you. "HOW DARE YOU CALL MISTRESS AN EVIL WITCH!" he screams into your ear. "I WILL KILL YOU FOR THIS INSULT!" The faery watches your strangulation for a while, and then motions with her wand. One moment your father is trying to kill you, the next he is fast asleep. You fall to the mossy ground, and stare up at the faery. "What ... have you ... done to him?" you ask. "The same that will happen to you, dearie. You might fight me in the first few years, but I found that with enough time, any mortal breaks. And in my personal grove, you mortals don´t actually age. One day, you will be just like your father: a devoted pet."<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You look around, nervously, but that howl sounded like it was very far away. You crouch down again, and hit your head. On thin air. You reach out and make an impression of a mime: there seems to be an invisible wall, trapping you. You slowly walk the peremiter of the wall, attempting to find a way out, but you find no gap. It´s a seemless wall, reaching out from the mushrooms to the sky. You slowly begin to panic, and look for something sturdy. As your pile of wood is not in this circle, and your knife stayed in the tent, the only thing you have are your arms. You hammer against this invisible wall, but it is in vain. "That won´t work, dearie." suddenly, a voice behind you. You turn around to see a woman floating in the air. She is small, only a few inches high, but practicaly radiates wisdom and power. "What are you?" you blurt out. "And why can´t I leave the circle?" She smiles, a smile that seems nearly human, and floats out of the circle. You try to follow, but walk face-first into the wall again. A suspicion bubbles up. "Have you trapped me here?" you ask pointedly. She smiles again. "Why, obviously. That is a faery-trap after all. My design. Used to trap foolish mortals." She giggles. "Works every time." You begin to suspect that there is more to your fathers stories of the Fae after all. He did say that he went to these mountains to search for fearys ... and never returned ... Another suspicion bubbles up. and it is confirmed a moment later. "I am sooo exited. I never had a set before. Your father is a wonderful pet, and I´m sure his spawn will be as well." She is spinning in excitement. If she weren´t a evil faery holding you prisoner (and, apparently your father) she´d be kind of cute. But she is, so she isn´t. "What have you done to my father!" you scream at her, beating at your invisible prison. She giggles ominously. "You will soon find out!" She then pulls a wand out of somewhere and starts to swing it. You can feel the air within the circle start to spin, at first slowly, then faster and faster. Slowly, in the center of the vortex, a portal is opening. This is your last chance. > You attempt to make a deal "LETS MAKE A DEAL!" you shout desperately. With everything you know about the Fae, mercy will never be given to a mortal, while deals will always be made. It seems to be working. The vortex is slowing down, and the Portal is shrinking. She floats into the circle and looks deep into your eyes. "And what, pray tell, would you give me to buy your freedom?" she asks with a glint in her eyes. You are not sure. "There must be something you want?" you are fishing for clues, and she knows it. "Well, she says... > You ... You could recieve a stole treasure of mine..." "It is a jewel, stolen from me by a being called the Toller-of-Bells." she explains. As she says its title, her voice rumbles with power, and a shadow seems to cross the evening sun. "Where can I find this Toller?" you inquire. She winces at the shortened form and tells you: "I will transport you to the Rusty Door. The Toller-of-Bells lives in a dead realm, once powered by the seemingly infinite trust in metal, technology and innovation. Now, that this trust is broken and refashioned into pure greed, the realm broke and lost its life. An ideal environment for a being like the Toller-of-Bells." "Why don´t you travel there and take back what is yours?" you wonder. "Because a entire existence made up of metal is toxic to my very soul, fool! And the mortals I catch and play with always break to fast. I could anyway never trust a mortal without immense leverage." An epiphany. "Which, in my father, you have." She smiles once again. "Indeed. I will trensport you to the Rusty Door, you will enter it, find my jewel, and come back with it. Otherwise, you will never see you father again." > You agree to her proposal "You agree? Very well. It is dangerous in there, and I do want that jewel back. Have this. It is a vial of water, stolen from the waters of Mímirsbrunnr, at the base of the world tree, Yggdrasill. It will give you valuable insight, but only for a few seconds. If you do not know what to do, drink it. It will make everything clear." Then she giggles, and waves her wand one last time, before sending you away. The Vortex grows again, as does the portal, but this time it is blue, and not green. You take a deep breath, and jump into it. You land on a snow-drift. Looking down, you can see a door. "Weird." you say to yourself as you inspect the rusty door. It´s just standing there, for no good reason you can see. There are two chests on either side of the door. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"It is a jewel, stolen from me by a being called the Toller-of-Bells." she explains. As she says its title, her voice rumbles with power, and a shadow seems to cross the evening sun. "Where can I find this Toller?" you inquire. She winces at the shortened form and tells you: "I will transport you to the Rusty Door. The Toller-of-Bells lives in a dead realm, once powered by the seemingly infinite trust in metal, technology and innovation. Now, that this trust is broken and refashioned into pure greed, the realm broke and lost its life. An ideal environment for a being like the Toller-of-Bells." "Why don´t you travel there and take back what is yours?" you wonder. "Because a entire existence made up of metal is toxic to my very soul, fool! And the mortals I catch and play with always break to fast. I could anyway never trust a mortal without immense leverage." An epiphany. "Which, in my father, you have." She smiles once again. "Indeed. I will trensport you to the Rusty Door, you will enter it, find my jewel, and come back with it. Otherwise, you will never see you father again." > You decline her proposal She snarls. "You should have taken my offer! Well, now you´ll see him sooner, rather than later!" The faery smiles and waves her wand one last time. The portal widens, and you fall ... fall fall fall and land on a soft surface. A lap. You look up to see a face you haven´t seen in years. Your father. "Papa?" you ask with a small voice. He looks down at you, his eyes full of love, and answers: "Son? How lovely. HER power is great indeed, if she could bring us both together again." He looks up for a moment, a glazed look in his eyes. "How fare your mother and sister?" he then asks. "Dead!" you sob. "They are all dead. Why didn´t you come back?" He looks at you and seems to start an answer, but abruptly his eyes close. As he opens them again, his pupils are literal hearts. He is gazing up into the sky. You follow his gaze, and find the faery that had trapped you. "That evil witch." you grumble to yourself. Unfortunately, both the faery and your father hear you say it. And your father reacts immediately by choking you. "HOW DARE YOU CALL MISTRESS AN EVIL WITCH!" he screams into your ear. "I WILL KILL YOU FOR THIS INSULT!" The faery watches your strangulation for a while, and then motions with her wand. One moment your father is trying to kill you, the next he is fast asleep. You fall to the mossy ground, and stare up at the faery. "What ... have you ... done to him?" you ask. "The same that will happen to you, dearie. You might fight me in the first few years, but I found that with enough time, any mortal breaks. And in my personal grove, you mortals don´t actually age. One day, you will be just like your father: a devoted pet."<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"LETS MAKE A DEAL!" you shout desperately. With everything you know about the Fae, mercy will never be given to a mortal, while deals will always be made. It seems to be working. The vortex is slowing down, and the Portal is shrinking. She floats into the circle and looks deep into your eyes. "And what, pray tell, would you give me to buy your freedom?" she asks with a glint in her eyes. You are not sure. "There must be something you want?" you are fishing for clues, and she knows it. "Well, she says... > You ... Do you have a suggestion? You can only think of two things: <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You know what you´re doing. You survived these mountains for months now, and know which mushrooms are safe for eating and which leave you sick in bed, heaving. As you approach the circle and crouch directly in front of it, intent on identifying the mushrooms, you hear a lone wolf howl. You jump a bit, startled, and find yourself within the circle. > You pick a mushroom You pick one of the rainbow-coloured mushrooms. It might come in handy later.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>This forest is seriously dark and dank. This is, actually, one of the reasons you came here. You sought to find happyness in your old memories of hiking in the countryside, following you dear old dad. This is the real reason you went here. He vanished in these very mountains. Well, somewhere in the Urals. They are quite big. And you have been lost. But this is where he vanished. As you gather the (slightly wet) kindling, you notice a rather peculiar clearing. It seems to be one of those witch-circles, where mushrooms grow in a circle. These mushrooms might be edible, but might also be extremely poisonous. Or somewhere in-between. > You go back to the tent; you have your kindling You decide not to risk it. You still have some just-add-water soup left, that some friendly natives gave you just a week ago. You fire up your trusty fireplace, and make yourself some soup. After venting some of the smoke, you use the light of the dying embers to read a bit from your fathers journal. He speaks of many mysterious things in this area, for example the tale of the Sorya, a faery of the snowy woods, tanking the form of animals and using her magics to defend her territory from intruders that do not do her bidding. You shiver, that tale was always a bit creepy, and decide to sleep. "Good night" you whisper to yourself, as you seek solace in your dreams. ... Four hours later, you are fast asleep, a white wolf creeps up on you. It opens your Silent!(tm) tent-zipper with his teeth. It looks at your face for a while seemingly coming to a decision. It leaves the tent again. Once outside, It lets loose a piercing howl. At the top of the mountain, a bit of snow shakes loose. ... The next morning, one of the natives wakes up to a great rumbling. She climbs up a nearby tree to observe, and is rewarded with the magnificent sight of a great avalanche ripping its way down the slope on a nearby mountain. She remembers the weird man that came by a few days ago, and remembers his route. She decides to tell the scavengers that something might very well be found along the path of that avalanche. ... You, however, will never wake up.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>While staying in your tent might keep you alive, you really don´t want to risk it. A snowstorm of something similar is always a possibility, and you did´t buy a tent with integrated fire-place for nothing. You have, however, run out of coals. Dry kindling and wood is required, as much as you can comfortably carry. You know that the natives have a store of timber at the peak of the mountain, but below, in the actual forest, you might have better chances of actually finding a large amount of wood. > You ascend to the icy peaks It´s best to look at places where you know for sure if you´ll find what you´re looking for. This of course means taking the scenic route to the peak, where the natives regularly store their timber. After a three-hour walk to the mountaintop, you are beginning to regret your decision. The sun is starting to set,and you´ll never find your way to the tent in the dark. You will have to find a cave or something comparable if you wish to survive, and that secret store of timber you heard about? Not. In. Sight. Just as the sun sets, you reach the mountain-peak. Although you know that this setting sun heralds your pathetic frozen death atop this godforsaken mountain, it has a certain beauty to it. You fight your tired muscles over every step, but finally you reach the marker. Looking down, you can see a door. "Wierd." you say to yourself as you insect the rusty door. It´s just standing there, for no good reason you can see. There are two chests on either side of the door.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Cold. That is the general impression this trip has made on you so far. To be fair, a strenuous and difficult hike was what you were searching for, but the whole idea sounded much better at home, in front of the merrily burning fireplace. Your life was never easy, but the last few months were really no fun at all. You lost your sweetheart, your job and the last member of your family, all in a scant few months. To cars, disease and the thrice-damned suspicion of your boss: the disease wasting your sisters life away is one that runs in the family, hereditary. Once your boss heard of that – curse you, Google Analytics – he immediately used a sub-clause in your contract to burn the thing and fire your sorry ass. Once your girlfriend heard of your sudden case of impending brokeness – curse you, rumor mill – she thought about it, and that “It would be best for you if this relationship would take a break. I´m only thinking about you here, darling.” Once your mother heard about this string of … bad things … that were happening to you, she decided that you needed some reassurances that your life was still good, and that you still had family and people loving you. That is, she planned to visit you, because while crossing the street that separated the local tram-station from your cottage, she got run over. Dying instantly. After that, you sought solace in the only thing that always comforted you: snowy, frozen mountains. Seeking a change from the “boring” Alps that were usually your destination, you traveled to the snowy peaks of the Urals, sometime in November. Now, it was January and you, you are lost. Regardless of why you are here, what is important right now is a) finding your way back to civilization, and b) staying alive. You have a tent and some food left, but although the sky is clear, the literally freezing temperatures make you wish for a fire. Thank God this isn´t your first night out in the cold, alone and freezing. Also, you know how to make a fire, you just need some kindling. > You stay in the tent, wrapped up in your sleeping bag On the other hand, foraging out in these kinds of temperatures always carries the risk of getting yourself even more lost, even more cold, and suffering from the unfortunate condition called "mauled-by-wolfes". No, you came here to forget your worries, not increase them. You put on your trusty gas stove, and make yourself some of the just-add-water soup some friendly natives gave you a week ago. Sadly, they did not speak English, nor Gaelic, so asking them for a way out of these mountains was an exercise in futility. "Good night" you whisper to yourself, as you seek solace in your dreams. ... Four hours later, you are fast asleep, a white wolf creeps up on you. It opens your Silent!(tm) tent-zipper with his teeth. It looks at your face for a while seemingly coming to a decision. It leaves the tent again. Once outside, It lets loose a piercing howl. At the top of the mountain, a bit of snow shakes loose. ... The next morning, one of the natives wakes up to a great rumbling. She climbs up a nearby tree to observe, and is rewarded with the magnificent sight of a great avalanche ripping its way down the slope on a nearby mountain. She remembers the weird man that came by a few days ago, and remembers his route. She decides to tell the scavengers that something might very well be found along the path of that avalanche. ... You, however, will never wake up.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You wake up, but keep your eyes closed. After some time, you realize you are on the ground, on carpet. You roll over on your stomach, and reach a hand out and put it on the carpet. You slowly open your eyes and blink. Why am I on the ground? You think, and suddenly realize your not in your room at all. you sit up. You're in a small room with four walls and a door on your left and right. There are no windows. On your left is a black wall with a black door, and on your right is a wall with pictures of fish and clouds in the background. You suddenly realize the piece of paper right in front of you, and you pick it up and read it: Dear adventurer: you have been put on an unknown planet to find any source of life. Don't worry about loneliness; we have sent out three others nearby that you might find. You are probably thinking, "Why am I in a room?." The answer is this world is made mostly of buildings, we think. Don't try and contact us because we are no longer in reach of you. Morgan Barker > You open the Black door You open the black door. You are in a graveyard. Fog drifts over the graves. There is a metal black fence that has a small gate towards the center. There is no sign of any life-- only dead. The door slams shut behind you and you start to panic, but calm yourself down. You see a man in a black cloak near the fence. What's a man doing here? > You say "Hello?!" After yelling at the creepy man in the black cloak, he opens the steel gate and comes toward you. In his hand is a dagger; shucks!<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>“Look at the birds, Mommy!” a child’s voice exclaims. You snap awake, checking for your weapons automatically before you remember you’re on a civilian transport. “Bout time, Zee. We left underspace half an hour ago,” Hinsman says from beside you. “Smooth as butter. They have stabilizers set up here now, I didn’t know that. This system’s really had some work put into it since I was here last.” In his fifties but not yet looking his age, he’s supposed to be dressed as an asteroid speculator out on holiday and is struggling in the narrow confines of his seat to tug his coat on. Hinsman’s on the short side, and the garment is a couple of sizes too big. All around you others, tourists, businessmen, and families, are starting to collect their things as well. “Anyway, just waiting on our transfer now.” You unsnap your safety belt. “Okay.” Hinsman’s got the aisle seat, just one more factor in his unspoken role in keeping you from too much direct contact with the public. Fine by you. Your job has always been to protect these people, not make conversation. Gazing out the window, you have a good view of the green planet. Camarov IV. It’s supposed to be beautiful, but it’s not like you’re here to sightsee. This is just your fastest route back to work. The Order cruiser you’d been using got enough of a beating on your last mission it needed to be taken to a real shipyard for repairs, and meanwhile this transport was headed directly for Camarov and had two vacancies. There’s another Order ship en route to here which you’ll transfer to to be taken back to the Outer Rim. You’ll never even set foot on this planet. There is a gentle thud as the landing ship locks on and the crew starts shepherding passengers towards the exit. Hinsman combs his dark hair and tends to the mustache he’s been cultivating. You just sit and wait. Both of your wrist comms beep at the same time, and you see the Order ship has left underspace. There’s a little flurry among the crew when it requests to lock on, but Hinsman flashes a badge and his signature smile and the two of you transfer over without incident. Once aboard, the ship unlocks and moves to a safe distance for a jump. Then there’s a delay as the pilot seems to have no intention of leaving until he downloads whatever media Camarov IV has to offer. Images of green hills and misty lakes and crystal spires and dancers on a stage and some sort of historical reimagining of Old Earth tumble across the viewscreen. The pilot, Karoff, is middle aged, tall and with thinning blond hair just starting to shade to grey. His mustache however is much more impressive than Hinsman’s. You’ve worked with him before. You don't always get his sense of humor, but he's okay. The next stop will be The Last Outpost for refueling, then you'll be taken along a scenic tour alternating between the most boring and dangerous parts of the Outer Rim as you go down the list fulfilling your various obligations there and being available to lend assistance in emergencies. You lean against the wall and mentally check out until it’s time to strap in for the jump to underspace. Hinsman was right, the in system stabilizers do improve the experience quite a bit. ***** The Last Outpost is dark when you approach. “Well that’s not a good sign,” Karoff mutters. The station floats in place like a fat black spider against the pale backdrop of the system’s single barren planetoid. Karoff makes a few adjustments to make your approach less obvious and then starts running scans from a distance. It took you nearly a week to get out this far from Camarov and you’re all aware that if there’s trouble it’ll be just as long before you can find any backup. The Last Outpost was once a research hospital on the edge of protected space. Now it’s a ways past the official line, although after the rollback it persisted as a stopover and fueling station for both the military and any junker the colony worlds could put together to evacuate in. Officially out of service and abandoned now as far as anyone outside the Order is supposed to know, it’s still got enough automated defenses that any scavengers looking for scrap will be sent packing in a hurry. Or it used to, anyway. Hinsman is frowning over the console now too. “That’s a lot of damage.” “Pirates?” Hinsman shakes his head. “I don’t think so. The way some of the plating is buckled, this looks like a string of explosions from the inside. Mostly just in that one arm, but the defenses are offline and there’s no more than basic life support anywhere on the station.” There’s a soft beep as a scan is completed. “One life sign,” Karoff grunts. “Even if they pulled out everyone on mission, there should’ve be at least three here for maintenance still.” Hinsman joins you at the window as he finishes speaking and stares across the distance. “But...I’ll hail them I suppose.” “You sure?” “Might as well. Doesn’t look like they have much left to shoot at us anyway.” “Let’s hope appearances aren’t deceiving.” > You inquiry Karoff looks tense as Hinsman tries to contact the station. There’s a long wait with no reply. He frowns and tries once again using Order passcodes. A green light blinks on, and then a moment later a haggard-looking blonde woman with high cheekbones and thin lips appears on the viewscreen with a crackling of static. “So someone finally did show up.” The woman’s voice is flat and blank. She’s young and might have been pretty under other circumstances, but her eyes have dark rings under them, her face is sallow and her hair hasn’t seen a brush in awhile. She dips a spoon in a tub of drippy, melting ice cream while staring at the screen indifferently. Karoff pulls up her ID while Hinsman coughs and clears his throat. “Ah...you’re Matti Oswen, correct?” “Yeah.” “I’m Agent Hinsman. We were just stopping over on our way into the Rim, but it looks like you’ve had a bit of trouble here. Do you need assistance?” He keeps his tone light and injects a note of friendly concern. She blinks at him owlishly a moment, then sets the ice cream aside and scratches lightly at the side of her neck. “I sent out a call, but the computer lost power and I’m not sure it went through. That was...almost a week ago, I think.” “You’re a maintenance worker, correct? What happened here, Matti? And where are the others?” “Inea and Markov? Oh, they’re dead.” Her voice is still flat and strangely disinterested. Karoff dutifully pulls up their IDs as well. Their new status as deceased hasn’t been updated in the Order database yet, anyhow, and as the three of you have heard nothing regarding the damage to the station or a rescue attempt you can only assume her distress signal never did make it out. Oswen continues only after Hinsman prompts her again. “Inea had an accident while doing repairs and Markov killed himself and tried to take the rest of the station with him a couple of days later. I rerouted the power to redirect the blast just in time, but most of the generators still blew. I’ve been sitting around in the dark and trying to eat everything in the freezers before it all spoils, and then figuring I’d inject myself with something before the oxygen fails.” Hinsmans voice is soothing. “Well I’m sorry you had to go through that Matti, but you’ll be safe now. We’re going to send out a request for help and then lock on to see what we can do about repairs in the meantime. We can route enough power over to make sure life support holds up, anyway. “Whatever.” Once the call is cut, a distress signal is sent back to headquarters along with a short recorded message. The three of you briefly go over the situation. Hinsman sums it all up. “It’ll be a few days before anyone can arrive to help, and we can’t leave until then. Even if no survivors were here, the station itself is vulnerable and hell, it’s probably more necessary to the Order than any of us, if we’re being honest. Although this Oswen woman...she might be in shock, or there might be something else going on there. Not sure we can trust her.” Karoff spits out the end of his mustache. “We’re gonna get in there and find out the bitch slit their throats and made bikini tops out of their skin. Seen it happen before.” You look at him. “Really?” “Ahh, well not the skinning for bikinis part, but people get assigned to an out of the way place like this too long, they can just snap and start killing each other. Or there maybe was some kind of love triangle going on that turned nasty. And not the good kind of nasty,” he adds, apparently feeling the need to clarify. “Well I guess we’re just going to have to risk our skins then,” Hinsman says with a slight roll of his eyes. “Or you and I anyway, Karoff. But Zee, you were always going to be working alone anyhow. You won’t have us standing by in orbit if you go on by yourself, but there’s nothing stopping you from suiting up and taking a spare shuttle, if the job is urgent enough.” “Still may be awhile before we know exactly how bad the damage is to the Outpost,” Karoff points out. “She could be needed here.” “True, but...Zee, I guess this one is going to be your call. I don’t have details on the mission you’ve been requested for, so what’s protocol here?” This would all be simpler if you could directly contact a commander, of course, but out here that’s rarely possible and having to make decisions like this on the fly is part of the job. ORDER when it started out stood for Outer Rim Defense, Evaluation and Research. The joke everyone likes to make is how when the Hunger virus appeared on the scene the E stood for Evacuation, and then finally Eradication. Of course that’s the part you’re all still working on. And it’s not actually all that funny. The Order is the peacekeeping force out past the edge of protected space, although not in any kind of official capacity anymore. A little over twenty years ago when the Hunger virus was at its peak and blazing from planet to planet, the border was rolled back and then rolled back again. Colonies and mining facilities, trading stations and outposts were cut off in the midst of the chaos and anyone who wouldn’t or couldn’t evacuate was left to fend for themselves. Some of the Order agents were recalled back to New Terra, but for many more this was their home, this was just what they did. Momentum and habit went a long way and the organization already had enough ships, stations and equipment out here to continue operating much as they always had. If anything they were more effective now that the bureaucracy and red tape had been stripped away, although that sometimes birthed its own kind of controversy. Independent, isolated colonies and small time miners and traders had no one to protect them from piracy, not to mention the trade consortiums that amounted to a more organized version of the same thing. They welcomed the Order’s presence on one hand while resenting anything they perceived as meddling in their own affairs on another. In areas where the line between New Terra and frontier authorities blurred, certain parties also never failed to point out that the Order had no more jurisdiction than any other private organization; outside of the ancient one of might making right and the bit about possession and how it related to law, anyhow. And although on paper the organization kept to the same laws and standards they had from the beginning, they were just as on their own out here as anyone and had to see to their own people’s interests and protection as well. New blood could be hard enough to find as it was without asking it to spill itself simply because it was the right thing to do. About the only thing anyone could agree on was that the Order were the only ones equipped to really do anything about the Hunger virus and so they should be left to it, no questions asked. So thankfully, politics and the rest of that nonsense aren’t anything you ever have to concern yourself with. All you do is your job, and all you worry about is doing it well. Right now that means making a judgment call on where you’ll be the most effective. And right now, that does seem to be here. Nothing you were given indicated anyone was in direct danger, and the Last Outpost is as valuable to the Order as any of the other facilities you were asked to check on, and far more strategically important. The refueling station is what makes these little forays out in this area of Rim possible in the first place. > You secure the station. You indicate to the others that you’ll stay for now and Karoff directs the ship on a route toward the station. It makes sense to at least do a cursory inspection of the damage and make sure that at least life support will hold up. And of course there’s the other issue of the alleged sabotage and personnel having been lost under circumstances still waiting to be confirmed. Leaving just two operatives to handle it all isn’t ideal. Of the station’s eight arms, the docking bay is luckily on the side that’s suffered the least damage. Karoff locks on without incident and the panels of the reinforced portal retract with a gentle whirring. Beyond, the station is dark and cold. You all file out and make your way out of the landing bay and down a hallway with the aid of flashlights. With what little power remains rerouted to life support, the portal to the central complex refuse to open. Attempts to contact Oswen on a short range channel fail, and so Hinsman finally gets the door moving with the aid of his gun; wiring the energy cell to the panel next to it, that is. At the jolt of power it snaps open with sudden speed, then begins to close again in slow motion and grinds to a halt about a third of the way. The three of you squeeze past and before long find yourselves in an open area, a kind of joint dining hall and exercise room with dead video screens lining the walls. The kitchen area behind the dining hall is a disaster zone of empty plastic trays, overflowing trash bins and spoiled food. There’s no sign of Matti although you do find her abandoned ice cream bucket. The three of you begin to search area by area. Although reluctant to split up, you do move a bit faster than the others and take to checking into rooms and around corners ahead of them. A pool of vivid crimson against the polished grey tile is your first confirmation that something has gone wrong. You race forward to Matti Oswen’s crumpled form and check her pulse, clamping another hand down on the stub of her severed arm. Lifting the woman from the ground and calling out to the others, you splash your way through the blood, tracking it behind you while more soaks into your uniform. A medical station was one of the places the three of you had already searched, so you hasten to it and deposit her on a steel table, keeping your grip just above the wound while Hinsman activates the computer. “This nursing AI was obsolete fifteen years ago,” he grumbles, taking a protective suit from a persistently dinging open door and yanking it on over his clothes. “Isn’t that a bit of overkill?” Karoff asks, watching him. Hinsman’s response is muffled through the breathing filter. “It won’t let me even proceed without it. This place was last used to quarantine evacuees exposed to Hunger, there’s no such thing as overkill as far as the computer is concerned. Just be glad the whole station isn’t set to self destruct the moment someone gets a paper cut.” He pauses a moment to apply a tourniquet. “Now...Zee, you step back, it hates you too.” Karoff looks at you and snorts. “I imagine so. You look like you just left the scene of an axe murder.” You’d already moved away at Hinsman’s order, and now you ruefully wipe you face, hoping to achieve a clean spot. Karoff’s ensuing guffaw informs you you probably just made the situation worse. “I’ll go clean up the mess in the hall...and myself,” you say, turning to go. “Zee, wait, wait, Miss Oswen is going to need an arm transplant, don’t you think?” You blink at Karoff. “Are you serious?” This just provokes more laughter. Hinsman, who has been preoccupied with the soothing voice of the medical AI and the use of instruments taken out of little drawers that have been popping open in sequence, now shakes his head at the two of you as he changes to clean gloves. “I’m not that good a doctor, I’m afraid. Zee, you go on.” He snaps his fingers at Karoff and in the other hand produces an oversized needle, like a magician’s trick. “But I will need a blood donor, and guess who’s compatible?” Already on your way out, you turn and get a glimpse of the pilot’s grimace as the door slides shut between you. Cleaning up is a tedious but straightforward affair. You scrub yourself down and change into a plain grey jumpsuit you find before returning to the scene of the accident and getting to work. > You dispose of the severed arm It seems Oswen had been trying to unjam a door that leads to one of the station’s storage arms, in much the same way Hinsman had gotten you all into the central complex earlier. It was her misfortune that upon receiving a jolt from a maintenance tool the door had snapped shut, meaning it had been open to begin with. There’s enough juice left to get it back to where it was and you carefully retrieve the severed limb on the other side, slipping it into a biohazard bag. Taking a moment to confirm with Hinsman there’s nothing he can do as far as reattaching it, you consider your options for disposal. An incinerator would the most straightforward, but those require an amount of energy that seems wasteful if not impossible to produce given the station’s current reliance on emergency backup power for life support. You remember then the walk in freezer in the kitchen behind the dining hall. At least that would keep it from rotting if it takes longer that expected to get the power on full. The room isn’t able to maintain freezing temps anymore but it’s still noticeably colder than the rest of the station, and the rest of the station is cold enough. Placing the bagged arm on a shelf, you halt a moment as your gaze fixes on the two bundled forms in the back. So you weren’t the first one to have the idea to use the place as an impromptu morgue. These must be the bodies of the other two maintenance workers, Inea and Markov. > You inspect the bodies Opening the largest body bag first, you briefly examine Markov. Evidence of cuts, burns, and some bits of broken glass still embedded in the skin seem consistent with him having been in the vicinity of an explosion, although there were a lot of unanswered questions in Matti’s brief explanation. Further details will have to wait till she’s conscious again, you suppose. You zip the bag back up and turn your attention to Inea. The dark haired woman’s cause of death is immediately obvious, her skull on the left side having been caved in just above and behind the ear. ‘An accident while doing repairs’ was how Matti had described her death. While you can’t yet find anything to contradict that, as you probe along the edges of the splintered bits of skull and cold globs of brain matter it seems to you it would’ve taken an awful lot of force concentrated in that one spot all at once to do that kind of damage. Then again, Matti had nearly managed to kill herself as well. You wonder what sort of accident it was supposed to have been. It’s almost incredible to you that three people so incompetent had been left in charge of such an important Outpost. It’s true that space is a big place and Order agents and personnel are stretched thin, but in your experience it’s rare for things to go this spectacularly wrong without someone being at fault. Finding nothing more of note, you close up that body bag too and then exit the freezer. Grabbing a mop from the corner of the kitchen and filling up a bucket, you make your way back to where you’d found Matti and go to work on the rapidly drying blood. The blood has begun to dry and it’s obvious this will take awhile so you clear out your mind and focus on the task.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The smell of water clouded Gabri's mind. The vast painting of blue was beautiful. Forget the immense fog. Forget the millions of trees closing him in. All that was there was the pool of water. He began touching his feet inside. Its crisp freshness made him shiver with joy. Soon, he was wading, all of him, in the water. He swam around rapidly and then just let the water carry him. It felt good. Oh, how it felt good. "Gabri!" shouted a voice from outside his own world. There, clothed in a brown and apricot robe, stood Ka Kamikaze, Jedi Master. His black hair, silver at the sides, clung to his scalp, refusing to let any wind pass through. His ashy black beard did the same. Ka was stocky, broad-shouldered. His blue lightsaber stayed tucked away deep in his robe. Gabri had never seen him withdraw it, but he had heard great tales in which he fought with it. Oh, if he could see him wield it, see all those tales come true, he would love it. "No more tomfoolery!" Ka ordered in his bold voice, "Do you come or do you stay? I must search this area." > You stay "I think I shall stay." Gabri told Ka, and began drifting off into the water's hypnotizing ripples. "Very well. If you must. I shall meet you back here soon." Ka said, a touch of bitterness in his voice, and was off. But Gabri didn't listen to him. He was already immersed in the water. The quiet tranquility calmed him. It was a calm quiet. A peaceful quiet. An eerie quiet. A menacing quiet. He felt the sensation of being watched. He reluctantly emerged from the water and draped his robe around him. He then went to explore the region around the pool. The only sounds were his footsteps squishing on the damp grass and his breathing. But, as he quieted himself, he heard another breathing noise. He whipped his head around, scouring for another being. He saw nothing. He looked to the north and, suddenly, he heard the hum of a lightsaber. He lashed his own out. The crrsshh of their lightsabers clashing echoed around them. The bright hues of green and red lit up their faces. Gabri could not see the other's face, for it was covered by a sooty, black hood. He knocked the lightsaber out of the other's hand and pinned him to the ground. The other was not, however, a he at all. She was a woman, with musty red hair all ablaze and fawn's eyes. They were timid pools of blue-green water and they were glistening. Her hood was now down and her arms bent up against her head. With flaring nostrils, Gabri shouted at her,<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You're a murderer. Running head first into that place and blasting everything to hell. Raiding the detention center just to get a few kills on those who raped and pushed your crush to suicide doesn't seem like a good idea after all. You're not even her type to bother, you should just have left them rotting in jail instead. Now you got yourself rows and rows of police forces chasing after you and there is no such thing like a way back. You're brown bread to the eyes of your loved ones now, and you gotta make a run for it. Whenever you see a turn, you can only hope that it doesn't lead to a dead end. That phone call should have never reached you. Crazy love, you blame all the things you've done to it. It forced you to flee your office, turned your mind into a madman and put that thing on your hand. After that, it was only chaos. You were gonna going to end your life when the flame inside died out...but didn't...and you still can't find the courage. "PULL OVER!!! PULL OVER NOW!!! DO YOU HEAR ME?!! I'M GOING TO SHOOT YOU!!!" They finally talk with bullets huh? Maybe you should focus on stepping on the gas instead of having random flashbacks. > You shoot them, it's self-defense! You're not surrounded so it'll be a real pain in the ass for them to even get a clear shot on you unless you stick your head out like a sore thumb. The tires though, immediately get your fingers fondling over to the stockpile of mass bloodshed you got straight from market. Unlocking the safety, you sprayed a barricade of piercing bullets with the friendly-user Uzi towards them. You don't dare to look, too nerve-retching and you can't afford to waste your focus on the road. "THEY'RE FIRING AT US!!! CALLING FOR SUPPORT!! CALLING FOR SUPPORT!! HOLD THEM UP!!!" So they think there are accomplices involved? Man, that would have been very comforting at a time like this. This stuff is the thing that you can only see on movies, not experiencing it in real life and you can't have the fortune to share it with anyone...at least you'll have everyone wanting you in custody till death after this, a nice bonus for a loner like you. It looks like your firepower struck them as the deadly stuffs, they pull over and start to station in one place, aiming solely at your buggy and throwing rounds as you speed up to oblivion. You're safe...at least for now. From a runaway, you've became a wanderer. The future ain't going to got any lights for you but you'll have to bear with that, you just have to. You don't want to die. No matter how much the world spy on your fear or judge you, you will not die on this small world. ... Looking through the door and feeling all the wonderful sensations the wind let you enjoy, you seize your mind back in its origin, a calm and successful mind. "Ha...Haah hah hahh! A hahahahaHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!" You fake the laugh of a psychopath to let all the tears built up inside fly along, waving your brows in every fit. "...hahaha...damn..." You had sat there, laughing exactly like this just 2 hours ago, it more likely was belonged to a maniac, the one who put a bullet through a helpless person and cracked up in awe as his lover guided him towards the next targets. Revenge is never meant to be sweet, but it sure feels great afterward! Rocking the flow of blood in your veins, you drive through the clearing, followed by rains of falling leaves marking your exit. > You need a smoke after all of that first... You are John Namour, 28 years old, a normal secretary from some wealthy company which tries so hard to maintain its image that you have to question if all of your hard works really paid off working there. It's only thanks to Laura that you could enjoy your days signing sheets. A real beauty, she was...she was so naive, the things she could do sometimes. The opportunity of you getting to hold a conversation with her was like the Solar System lining up straightly. 21 vs 28, you thought you'd had your chance someday, assuming you could improve yourself into a braver, better man to give her the ring. You tried your best to understand her mind, her standing, her habits...by yourself. Hell! You even bought and gave expensive jewelries to her mother and her sister. Winning your soon-to-be-lovely-wife's family is your first...and your last affection. Your boss just couldn't allow it, could he? What a friendly bunch of meatdrops he had in store for young women. You knew something was wrong when you saw that fucker's smug sweep at her. Just when things could have gotten any worse, Laura hung herself in her room. The moment her mother read the first word of her suicidal note to you over the phone, you were downright demonic. Instead of assuaging her, you scared her and everyone off with your sudden loud tone, demanding a clear explanation. The rest of the writing was about you, how you've cared for her and her family. You drew your first blood afterward. "...hahhhh..." You blow a few smoke off your lungs, a burning nicotine stick between your fingers. "Useless...doesn't do a damn thing..." You are not made to love her, you're a hot-headed psychopath and you cringe at the thought of you abusing her. Before, you were writing paper and now, those fingers nearly mark you as a dangerous crackshot, an inspirational killer to the news and an idea living target practice for weapon maniacs. 'Now is a good time to quit.' You think, looking at the remains of the cigarette before throwing the entire pack down to the road. '...I-I can't...I don't want to die.' A place where you can temperately settle down for a bit and hide from the eyes of media is crucial to you. Speaking of media, you have a thought of buying a mini TV to keep an eye on your case. You can bet your life on the police shooting you on sight right now. Mass shootout at the local and getting out alive, how much luck can you have? One thing for sure, a trip to another country even though it seems like a good idea, you're not sure about the possibility of you getting on one without asking for an arrest. You don't even know if it's safe to buy some breads from a mere bakery. The more you think about it, the more you realize how deep the grave you have dug for yourself. Killing some rapists bastards...You should never expect society to forgive them or you. What a terrible crime you've committed!...You miss your home, your family. But you can't contact them, the cops will track your location, too risky and certainly isn't worth it. They probably are cursing themselves for having raised a murderer right now. ...Besides, you can't even call for anyone if you want anyway. > You drive to another town TV...checked. Sunglasses...checked. Trench coat...Unnecessary but you couldn't just leave your skinny bones out, it has doubled your luck and your appearance to be unique...Also checked. Good thing your face hasn't really hit the mark of any media type out there yet, but your time is running out. Lying low will have to be in another place, a safe and secure one far away from here. You check the plate covering your gas meter and see that it still got 2/3 left. You have to stock on some large litters to cross the border. The nearest place to refill would be...about 15 miles from here, not really hard to come by and if they try something funny, your guns will do the job. You decide to go there. ...Hmm? It's nearly night time. Anytime now... You have arrived at a gas station. There are only a few local houses and shops nearby, an empty place and probably not in any urban business. > You buy it legally You carefully stopped your car in an isolated place and quickly wrap your firearms inside a bag, not forgetting to cover it with a large blanket and hide it in the corner of you before driving straight into the yard. The lights are starting to shine the area. "A full refill! And I'd like to have 5 cans of fuel please." You speak to the one who is cleaning the equipment from your seat, a middle age man comes to you. "Wow, you are a big spender, aren't you?!" He says, opening the cover. "May I ask where ya going?" "That..depends." You response, already prepared for a conversation. "I'm heading to a friend and I heard that there are many byways so I think I'll stock some before I depart. "Yeah, that's about right." He says, pumping your gasoline. "You'd better step it up if rocks on the road found yer." "Rocks on the road?" "You haven't heard? Apparently there has been a bunch of fools riding their bikes and hijacking any car they find around these places. Drop a few prices at Black Market I bet." What kind of joke is this? Escaping the police chase and having a biker gang waiting for you in your next run, your life can't never be anymore playful than now. "It's nearly dark too." The man snaps you out of your thinking. "Maybe ya should stay the night here, it's too dangerous to travel at this hour." "Has there been anyone dealing with this gang?" You ask in hope for a safe route. "Anyone at all?" "Nope. Bastards got busted a few times but another just raises and repeats like generating task. That's that then, they will never be done." Well, aren't that just the thing you need? Turn back now and the cops might not let you go again, advance and take the risk of losing four wheels may cost you your life also. You cannot afford to wait here either, the news is going to spread and letting your guard down at a time this...So much mayhem for you to take. Challenge the law enforcer or the nasty gang? You're in deep trouble, a really, really deep trouble. > You stay the night Tick...tick...tick... You've been staring at your watch for nearly an hour and there isn't any sign of stopping. Normally you'd take a shot to calm your nerve since you deciding to enter the bar but the mood here failed to meet your taste. It's too quiet, too eerie at the time. Maybe it has something to do with the place itself as the bartender doesn't particularly enjoy any conversation with visitors just like you. Who designed this place? No wonder why there are so few people setting their boots here. You cannot find any positive point except for the waitress, a hot brunette who unfortunately doesn't appear to be working properly, she nearly spilled the entire claret on another customer without apologizing. Good thing kindness is still among some people these day. "Oh, Laura..." You sigh at yourself, pulling your forehead. "Why did you have to leave?" > You get out of here You're slowly deteriorating and you need a fresh bite to eat. Without any hesitation, you make your way towards the food stall across the street. It will take more than a cheap meal to satisfy your hunger. ... Hmm, the inside is not so bad, better than the shitty bar for sure. They got clean table clothes, beautiful decoration and most importantly, more people. You'd give it an above average rating if it wasn't for the space in here, a bit too narrow to move. You quickly come to the counter and order your dinner. A pancetta with fried eggs covered in hot sauce and an applepie as dessert seem like a great stomach filler for you. You find a seat and make yourself comfortable as you wait for your meal. You silently hope that this wouldn't become your last time eating outside. "Wah HAH!!" That sudden loud and squeaky yell from behind nearly scares you to death. How can you be so defenseless at a time like this? You turn around to see a school-grader boy who is focusing on your mini device. "A mini TV! It's just like in the game!!" Very enthusiastic and eager, he says while searching inside her bag and then shoves a small looking object to you. Upon looking, you see that it's a Nintendo DS. "Are you a Pokemon instructor?" "...Wa-what? What the...?" You start to sprout nonsense at the flashing screen before you as it changes to a different one with each button the boy is pressing. It's one of those Pokemon games for the DS, been selling high among youngsters and does not have any sign to stop. "Mr?" "Uhh..." You have put up with a lot of things today but for the first time, you're actually speechless at this. "Pip! Pip! You found someone?" And now it's the girl, who is also a school grader, to join the little trainer pestering around your coat. Goodness! Now you've realized that the light giving off by the portable TV inside the coat is attracting their curiosity, you have been hearing it constantly to check the news. And from what you can see from the boy's 2 screens machine, you can see what has grabbed his attention. > You pokemon...sounds nice You are not particularly into video games nowaday but it sure doesn't hurt to relax and play with them for a bit. You haven't played any of their Pokemon games but you still remember the show you were always watching as a kid. "What's this game, little fellow?" You get your glasses out and casually ask the game's name from the boy, interested. "Poom!" He spat an unnecessary but delightful slang before speaking. "It's Pokemon FireRed! My favorite of any kind!!" "Everyday you just want to play it all the time!" The girl adds to his statement, making a quality prospectus for this game. They seem so happy when it comes to this subject, you have the thought that you might be the only person in this town who has ever spoken openly to them. Considering how empty it is, not a surprise. "Do you want to see my collection?" She says sitting down right next to you, not bothered by the fact that she's with a stranger, a creepy stranger you might add. "Come on Pip! You too." "So, what's all about, your collection?" You say, eager to know about them. "Hold on...Here!" The girl put a bunch of colorful cards from that orange bag of hers on your table and continues. "Straight from the show and the game, I got them all!" The cards are all fully organized and you can almost see the light reflecting on the surfaces, a nice deck of Pokemon cards. "It's a nice deck. May I see them?" "Please, mister!!!" Aww! How could someone not wanting to talk with these little darlings? They're so full of life and adorable. Having the owner agreement, you reach for the deck and...Wow! you can still recognize most of them! You actually feel something warm inside you when you pick one by one and tell them the name of each Pokemon, the feeling from your innocent days, the love you've had for what you enjoyed. You are still a normal human being like everyone else. ...You've just realised something. You, a shade-wearing man cloaked in trentcoat, are catching most of the few attentions and you clearly do not want that to happen. A friendly stranger who wants to have a little chat with some random kids, that'll raise some eyes. You'd better have to act like a Pokemon maniac in this situation. Man, how you really want to have your food be right here for you, the sooner the better. "Hey mister, do you collect Pokemon cards?" The boy, Pip is what she called, asks you out of the blue while you are trying to drive yourself completely into those Pocket Monsters. "No...Not right now at least." You mumble, not really knowing what to say. "Eh?! Why not?" Both of them speak up, they have caught you red-handed. Ok...What can you tell them? You cannot tell them that it's just for kids, that's ridiculous but hey! Maybe that will give them the sign to stop now. > You tell them it's for kid "Young master!...And miss Jenny! What are you two doing??!" Just when you're about to say something, a grumpy yet elegant voice comes to you across the dining place. You turn around to see a huge guy tucked in a classy black tuxedo dragging himself towards your table. "Please stay away from that man!" Finally, someone with common sense and willingness to act in this forsaken town...and he doesn't seem to be the type you want to mess with. "Eww! Manny the Orge, what??" The girl who now known as Jennifer nearly gives a shriek at the sight of him. "Let's go to another room!" Alongside with her, Pip is already fleeing. "Who are you?! You didn't do anything to them, did you???" Wow! This guy is fast, completely contradicted to his mountainous figure. And his voice has gone into a raging fit waiting to release on you. He grabs your collar and shouts directly at your face, nearly giving you a heart attack. "You prick!!! What did you do???" Then without waiting for an answer, he throws a punch at you! > You block with your hands You try your best to get your butt off the chair as quick as possible to stand but the blow is still making contact when you raise both of your palms! You manage to drive his punch to your forehead by just an inch. The force is somehow absorbed but still knock your balance. Your body pulls along the chair with you and you fall to the floor with an unbearable pain and crazy tingles. Seem like you grab the table cloth with you too, flying cards are flickering around between you and the dangling light bulb on the ceiling. You also hear a loud thump falling after you are on the ground...Look like your legs trip this monster down too, good thing he didn't fall on you. "Manny!! What did you just do??!!" This is your chance to get up! You only heard a little bit of the girl yelling before your legs carry you out of the diner. ... Well, that went quite bad but at least it's not worse than ending up on the hospital bed. You put on your shade and the earplugs on and hit the street, waiting to hear your wanted public display. After that event on the diner, you have to resort to feeding on street food. Applepies, pancakes, disgustingly sweet desserts...You'll just have to endure those if you don't want to sleep with a growling stomach. > You later that night The mini TV says in its demonic sound, you can actually feel the devil's tongue making out with your ears passionately as you sit inside your vehicle. The doom train has came and it is waiting for you. As fearless as you can get, it only takes 1 second before your head starts making up shit and panic settles in. You hitch the blanket which has been covering your weapons and throw it on top of the trunk to cover the number plate. After that, it's the car seat that will make you comfortable for the night. You lock the handle tight and lie down, making sure there is no light remain while you tune up the TV and cover your face with the trentcoat, watching your case. To be alone and surrounded by silent cars and motorbikes under the darkening night, it's not a good feeling...not a good feeling at all. Good thing that the weather is nice, you could never hope to sleep inside a car like this in your hometown...Such a hot and busy place. Hiding, living on the run and evading attentions from people, what a fantastic life you've gotten yourself into! Throwing your humanity away to fade and becoming a criminal. Oh well, shit happens. You only did the right thing. You set everything you've bought from the shops to the front seats. Mostly basic things like medical stuffs, sweet toasts and water bottles,...but right now, they are packs of gold to you. Who know how much magic that could happen in your travel? It's always better to be careful. You decide to switch channel to something else, something that can cheer you up in this gloomy moment, a TV or music shows. You turn down the volume and close your eyes, trying to sleep and listening to the entertainment that tonight might provide. It doesn't take long for the snooze to hit you, you are so tired from all that running and you need the most of full sleep. You have to wake up early and leave this awful place before anyone can get a bite out of you. > You midnight Oh! something is dropping on the car. Rain? How appropriate, you really need some lullaby right now. It's kind of cool to be free and alone for once, taking up shelter by yourself and sleeping in piece. You must enjoy it while it still lasts. ...Hmm, it has became a little cold in here. You begin to shiver as you get yourself up and look through the glasses. Everything seems to be quiet around here. Man, you would kill to have a smoke right now. You suddenly think of the metal brick which has been hiding in the compartment the whole time. You head to the dashboard and hold the broken cell phone to your view. 'It has been out since the hit, what a waste...' This thing has taken 3 bullets for you and still, it refuses to die. But it has to be gone now, such a tragedy...You throw the phone away, finding it unbelievable that you forgot to get rid of it earlier. No use in keeping the potential tracking device for the police. The rain is falling quite heavily. That biker gang would have to be the most hard-working thugs of the Earth if they still wanted to run their business in this state. You start the engine and get out of the parking line- And the first sight that greets you after you turned on the light is a bloody cloth which looks like it is wrapping something inside too, lovely! You step on the gas and speed up like a madman, driving towards the exit of the garage. Watch out!!! ... It never turns out well for you, isn't it? Hell of bullets are unleashing directly on the street, right under this heavy rain! What is going on with this place?? You can't drive through the danger zone out there that's for sure, you can't even see clearly what's ahead. Uh oh! Bad turn!!! Someone has noticed your light and they don't waste any second to get rid of you. "Get the hell out of here, shithead! OFGG!" You shoot him dead before he could do anymore damage to your car and drive its tail back to the parking section while trading fire with the attackers who are on his side. Your day now has officially gone further beyond the worst. There is some serious conflict going on between these punks and they are powering their own dominance through the use of lethal firearms. You have to avoid getting nabbed in these. > You break through the rear You decide to bust through the rear entrance with your car and drive as fast as you can out of the harm way. With excellent handling reflexes, you manage to hit the road and onto the escape. To stay inside your precious vehicle over night was indeed a good choice. You blend into the rainfall and drive under the darkness...And a giant mosquito get splashed by your windshield in the process. Peaceful time has ended and the Dark Lord is coming to spread chaos on humanity, starting with you. "What the..." You have to yell out word of confusion at the brownish liquid remained on your sight before attempting to wash it away. It's just then, you notice something is scratching on the top of your car. You are surrounded!!! It doesn't take long for them to show their abomination form to you, gigantic mutated bloodsuckers. Why so many of them??? Just when things can't get any more cute, your car now is totally decorated in black and you hit straight to a tree, breaking your cheap windshield and allowing several tubes of death inside to harass your veins. Y.O.U F.A.I.L "What has killed them?" You, now have became a spooky skeleton, fold your bones into the Thinker pose and sit on the pile of dead mosquitoes. "Hmmm...They looked completely zoned out around me, like they were possessed by something."<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Oh! something is dropping on the car. Rain? How appropriate, you really need some lullaby right now. It's kind of cool to be free and alone for once, taking up shelter by yourself and sleeping in piece. You must enjoy it while it still lasts. ...Hmm, it has became a little cold in here. You begin to shiver as you get yourself up and look through the glasses. Everything seems to be quiet around here. Man, you would kill to have a smoke right now. You suddenly think of the metal brick which has been hiding in the compartment the whole time. You head to the dashboard and hold the broken cell phone to your view. 'It has been out since the hit, what a waste...' This thing has taken 3 bullets for you and still, it refuses to die. But it has to be gone now, such a tragedy...You throw the phone away, finding it unbelievable that you forgot to get rid of it earlier. No use in keeping the potential tracking device for the police. The rain is falling quite heavily. That biker gang would have to be the most hard-working thugs of the Earth if they still wanted to run their business in this state. You start the engine and get out of the parking line- And the first sight that greets you after you turned on the light is a bloody cloth which looks like it is wrapping something inside too, lovely! You step on the gas and speed up like a madman, driving towards the exit of the garage. Watch out!!! ... It never turns out well for you, isn't it? Hell of bullets are unleashing directly on the street, right under this heavy rain! What is going on with this place?? You can't drive through the danger zone out there that's for sure, you can't even see clearly what's ahead. Uh oh! Bad turn!!! Someone has noticed your light and they don't waste any second to get rid of you. "Get the hell out of here, shithead! OFGG!" You shoot him dead before he could do anymore damage to your car and drive its tail back to the parking section while trading fire with the attackers who are on his side. Your day now has officially gone further beyond the worst. There is some serious conflict going on between these punks and they are powering their own dominance through the use of lethal firearms. You have to avoid getting nabbed in these. > You wait until it's clear A Shotgun, an Uzi and a mere shitty handgun are the only things capable of fending them off you have and you don't want to waste them. The stupidest thing is that you don't have a freaking clue on how to reload the Uzi and the Shotgun so you just bought them off without any ammo...It's gonna go to shit if you have to resort to them. Weapons of mass destruction at its finest state right here, what a load of shit your head must have been. On the bright side, you got yourself a huge piles of clips for the pistol so at least you won't have to worry about running out of option in a gunfire...which is happening right now. "Kill him!" It's not a good idea to stay in one place. You quickly get out of your car and crawl to another with bullets flying directly above your head and drilling noises of them to your side. It's a total death zone out there and you can only hope that they didn't intend on flaring the place up. Peaking from the bottom park of a brown car, your eyes set on their sexy legs and with them flapping around, you can easily mark your route to avoid any crossfire coming for you. You begin to wait... ... ... Too far away or has it ended? You realise that you have been backing yourself to the corner, isolated from any opening fire. They don't aim at you anymore. No sounds of yelling or projectiles ejecting can be heard anymore, just your breath and the drop of rain water. With caution, you slowly move to the front and the sight before you is...quite a gory piece to add to your nightmare. The rain has created a stream of red blood along with guts and organs. You can almost see a healthy beating heart flowing by. It's too dark to make out anything else so you can't be too sure about this but...Is that a pair of cockroach's legs that is stuck inside someone's neck? And it's moving, slightly but it's still making a scene of itself. > You investigate You find it unbelievable that even in this scenario, you can still find excitement over something like this. What can you say? Danger is scary yet so alluring at the same time. You carefully step over to the scene with a gun in hands, never manage hold it properly but still. Let's see here...The thing is jerking in and out the neck of the corpse as if it was trying to get itself out of the meatload. You can safely assume that it is stuck and there is nothing around resembling it. > You shoot it "A mosquito, what the hell??!" You burst a drop of water aside while taking aim at the abomination before you. A big black winged creature with a redish tumor sticking out of its groin area, it's a giant mosquito! Is this some kind of illusion trick your brain is playing with you? The thing is sucking his blood through its tube and thanks to your welcoming speech, it has now been aware of another human being, you. You blast it open instantly with your pistol, not a really threatening creature to be scared of. It's screaming in pain and that hellish reaction just want you to end it. Oops, overshot!! Now it's just a big giant mess dripping yellow liquid to the bloody stream. You can't make out any of its original shape anymore. You stare blankly at a random corpse before you as the rain starts beating it harder. He was so twisted and dried up that you almost consider it is a thick rag that you're seeing if it weren't for the clothes and the hair. Something has seriously gone wrong...You suddenly remember the bloody cloth that was right under your car before this madness started and the mere thought of it overflows your mind. You-you have to get out of here as fast as possible! Every wrong decision right now might turn out to be your last. > You go check it out You decide to go back into that place to check it out yourself. It's no use standing in the rain and you have this weird hunch that something would go horribly wrong if you escaped. But it's mostly curiosity that guide your legs to find the thing which had scared you nearly to death. You unreval the fabric mess to reveal a badly beaten up human being that you cannot recognise anymore, just a few drops of dried blood and ichor remained on the body, probably having been put under your vehicle before it started raining. A victim of those monster too? You put away your shade to have a clear look at the corpse. Damn! The smell is messed up, you have to keep a distance from it to stand the stench. From what you can tell. This one had pretty much been clubbed to death before those things slurped their fluid. So aside from the risk of those violent thugs and the police, you got yourself a nice threat from obscenity of hell too. Why he or she was beaten to death before they got fed to those, that you don't know. What you do know is, this terror will soon end your life if you don't get out of here. 'Is there more?' You start to wonder. 'I can't be alone in this.' Before long, you find another poor soul being stuffed under another vehicle, this one...has undergone some heavy decaying and yet strangely clean at the same time. From what you can tell, the corpse was reserved pretty well and no one would have any trouble identifying the owner. There is one another thing that now you have noticed .There are a large rows of motorcycles parking in here. You didn't recall seeing that many when you were hiding in the car. And they have those crazy marks and decoratings that make no sense, almost look like one of the symbol you usually came across in a bar or something. 'Rock on the road?...Nah, a biker gang can not be this polite.' You quickly discard the thought of them storming this place. 'Unless the roads were blocked, they would never do something like this...Or could this awful place be their hideout and I've been fooled the whole time???' You take a quick look at the parking lot under the rainy night. !!! You should have realised this sooner, this area has been nearly surrounded by cruisers and baggers, those types that you never want to ride on. That's it! You don't care if it's even true or not, you're getting out of here! "Helllpppp mmee!!! Help!!" Just when you're about to start the engine, a mixed screams of both men and women get through the glasses and into your hearing. With this heavy drop of rain water, it must have taken a lot of people to pull that off.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Young master!...And miss Jenny! What are you two doing??!" Just when you're about to say something, a grumpy yet elegant voice comes to you across the dining place. You turn around to see a huge guy tucked in a classy black tuxedo dragging himself towards your table. "Please stay away from that man!" Finally, someone with common sense and willingness to act in this forsaken town...and he doesn't seem to be the type you want to mess with. "Eww! Manny the Orge, what??" The girl who now known as Jennifer nearly gives a shriek at the sight of him. "Let's go to another room!" Alongside with her, Pip is already fleeing. "Who are you?! You didn't do anything to them, did you???" Wow! This guy is fast, completely contradicted to his mountainous figure. And his voice has gone into a raging fit waiting to release on you. He grabs your collar and shouts directly at your face, nearly giving you a heart attack. "You prick!!! What did you do???" Then without waiting for an answer, he throws a punch at you! > You try to get out of the way You pull you head backward and OW!!! Right at the sweet cheek! This dude must have been participated in some serious boxing championships, that fist would make a double KO in one swift swing. Your teeth is certainly doomed and your new look is going to make a useful disguise against the police. Unfortunately, you don't have the mind to think about all of that as you are in for a deep slumber. Y.O.U F.A.I.L ... You wake up to see a ceiling fan spinning far away from your view. Damn, this place sucks! Even the thing looks like it came from the last century, not a pleasant sight to see after having a good sleep. But soon you're greeted with the face of an angel so that's not so bad. Your eyeballs snap open at the presence of a beautiful woman looking down on you. "Hold on..." She gloomily speak as you try to sit up. "You are still in a daze, it's better if you lie down for a bit more." Her tone suggests she is in between 25 and 30, the voice is so serene. You have a feeling that this woman was the one who has been taking care of you. > You her name "Who are you?" You ask, eyes opened on the comfortable sheet. "And where am I?" "You are inside the dispensary and I'm your doctor, Rudy Hills." She says, emotionless while carefully adjusting the bandage to your cheekbone. "You got quite a blunt injury from a fight but you should be fine. Although your jaw will need more time to heal back to normal, you still are able to eat. Just don't crush fast food." "How long was I out?" "...About half a quarter, I think?" That's relieved, you weren't busted while unconscious. The news hasn't broadcasted anything about you yet, your face is still remained unknown to the country. But for how long though? You need to get your gear back before anything bad happen. You feel a little disappointed that you have to say goodbye to another gorgeous babe. "I have to go. How much is the treatment?" You say, sitting up despite her warning earlier. "...Fine." Surprisingly easy enough, she frowns a little bit but agrees. "Your fee is already covered by your friend so don't worry about it." Wait...what? You have friends in this god forsaken place? "Friend? Who is he?" "A fellow tucked in a fine suit called himself Manny. You and him are good friends, right?" "...Yeah, whatever. Where is my coat?" You quickly get your trentcoat back and everything inside is still in place, even the damn gun! Are they too lazy or just too kind to do a quick search on a patient? Hey! Where did this cash come from? You find a thick bulge of money lying in one of the pockets, that amount could give someone a heavy dinner. It might have came from some poor sucker who mistook your coat for their own. Smirking, you shamefully hide it before they could come and find you. Well, lady luck sure has fell for your charm in the previous life. "Oh that's right!! Do you have any good medical supplies here that I can get?" With the newfound cash, your greed has triumphed over you. You put on your shade and the earplugs on and walk out to the street, waiting to hear your wanted public display. After that event on the diner, you have to resort to feeding on street food. Applepies, pancakes, disgustingly sweet desserts...You'll just have to endure those if you don't want to sleep with a growling stomach. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Young master!...And miss Jenny! What are you two doing??!" Just when you're about to say something, a grumpy yet elegant voice comes to you across the dining place. You turn around to see a huge guy tucked in a classy black tuxedo dragging himself towards your table. "Please stay away from that man!" Finally, someone with common sense and willingness to act in this forsaken town...and he doesn't seem to be the type you want to mess with. "Eww! Manny the Orge, what??" The girl who now known as Jennifer nearly gives a shriek at the sight of him. "Let's go to another room!" Alongside with her, Pip is already fleeing. "Who are you?! You didn't do anything to them, did you???" Wow! This guy is fast, completely contradicted to his mountainous figure. And his voice has gone into a raging fit waiting to release on you. He grabs your collar and shouts directly at your face, nearly giving you a heart attack. "You prick!!! What did you do???" Then without waiting for an answer, he throws a punch at you! > The Hundred Crack Fists!! ATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATA!!! ATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATA!!! ATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATATA!!!!!! WACCHAAAA!!!!!! ... Darkness, the only thing that you can only feel...can't you? You try to open your eyes but couldn't...In fact, you don't have any sensational feeling at all! Come on! Wake up! Damn IT! Finally after struggling with your brain, you manage to get a feel of your skin contact and snap your eyes opened. !!! You're being chained to a plastic surgery table, naked with only the boxer! The cold from it is killing your back. Numberous cords and tubes are sticked into your arms and your legs! To add up the creepy formation, 2 large sized needles are injecting some weird-colored liquid into your body. With each and each of those flowing before your eyes, your skin sensation slowly fades away. What the fuck is going on??! "Oh!...You can still be alive?" You turn your neck to the speaker and see a beautiful, gorgeous blondie looking at you. "Admirable...Stay still! Let's chat for a bit, shall we?" You try to open your vocal cord but find no strengths or air to do so, you can only glare at the beauty in front of your face, grinning slyly at your misery. "Can't talk? That's too bad." She is teasing you, and she is enjoying the look you're giving. "Umm, yes! You'd make a fine work out of this. Let's see..." She checks your chest for a bit and then speaks the murderous words on your decaying breath. "It's a bother but I guess you need another method. Be ready for it." Rudy Hills, her nameplate inprints itself into your brain after she has left. Well, her C-cups were quite a feast to the eyes at least. Y.O.U A.R.E A.L.R.E.A.D.Y D.E.A.D 'Is this it?' You ponder, looking at the dead bodies hanging on top of you. 'I wish I could chill out, this is so surreal. Maybe next time I should consider what world I'm living in before doing something stupid again.'<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You're slowly deteriorating and you need a fresh bite to eat. Without any hesitation, you make your way towards the food stall across the street. It will take more than a cheap meal to satisfy your hunger. ... Hmm, the inside is not so bad, better than the shitty bar for sure. They got clean table clothes, beautiful decoration and most importantly, more people. You'd give it an above average rating if it wasn't for the space in here, a bit too narrow to move. You quickly come to the counter and order your dinner. A pancetta with fried eggs covered in hot sauce and an applepie as dessert seem like a great stomach filler for you. You find a seat and make yourself comfortable as you wait for your meal. You silently hope that this wouldn't become your last time eating outside. "Wah HAH!!" That sudden loud and squeaky yell from behind nearly scares you to death. How can you be so defenseless at a time like this? You turn around to see a school-grader boy who is focusing on your mini device. "A mini TV! It's just like in the game!!" Very enthusiastic and eager, he says while searching inside her bag and then shoves a small looking object to you. Upon looking, you see that it's a Nintendo DS. "Are you a Pokemon instructor?" "...Wa-what? What the...?" You start to sprout nonsense at the flashing screen before you as it changes to a different one with each button the boy is pressing. It's one of those Pokemon games for the DS, been selling high among youngsters and does not have any sign to stop. "Mr?" "Uhh..." You have put up with a lot of things today but for the first time, you're actually speechless at this. "Pip! Pip! You found someone?" And now it's the girl, who is also a school grader, to join the little trainer pestering around your coat. Goodness! Now you've realized that the light giving off by the portable TV inside the coat is attracting their curiosity, you have been hearing it constantly to check the news. And from what you can see from the boy's 2 screens machine, you can see what has grabbed his attention. > You ignore them No, nope, nope! Not the kind you want to be involved. Ignorance is pure bliss in this situation, you continue to listen to the TV. No matter how much they try to pester you into this Pokemon stuff, you stand...you sit on your chair without giving them even a glance. Perhaps because of your hardcore coolness, they leave you as fast as they arrive. Kids, adorable but so simple sometimes. You have to crack a smile at the sight of them asking another customer. A gameshow is on and it is blasting your eardrums, killing your rare happy mood instantly. You turn down the volume and lazily get back to the waiting game. Before long, your lovely meal has arrived. You're starving so even if the quality is shit, the quantity will fix it. You pick up the fork and start with the eggs first. "Hello sir! Where are you going?" Hmm, sunny today sure is hot and delicious, not bad for a small size, the hens here are healthy you can tell. And now bacon...with extra steak sauce too?! You grab a slice and shove it in your mouth. "Do you like this?" Ehh!!! What is this? Where does this stuff come from?? You swear you can almost taste the bitter ashes in this, did they put them on the stove? Not to mention the sauce is terrible, you find no traces of the sweet and fat juice of the meat. They're pretty soft and easy to swallow though so you can forgive that. After spending time savouring the eggs while cringing at the main meal, you move onto the applepie. "Uuu...He's so mean!" ...Uggrr! Sugar rush has no brake in this one. Sweet, soft and creamy pie, pretty good! Not the best but certainly not the worst, you can enjoy this one more time if you have to. You leave the cash down onto the table and prepare to walk out. When you are nearing the exit, you see a mountainous man in a black tux turning his back to you. Just as you're about to head for the door... "Oh, excuse me." The man turns to you and speaks up, looking at you with quite a non-friendly manner. "I'm looking for a boy and a girl going together, they are both in grade schools. Have you seen them?" > You ignore him "No, I haven't." You say, fixing the earplugs as if to show him that all you have done is just listening to music. These types are something you do not want to stay with for too long. "..." A disdainful look towards you, he clearly doesn't take a trentcoat wearing man's words. He and you have unintentionally started a stare battle against each others. With a tired sigh, you shove him out of the way before he could beat you. "What are you, some kind of their guardian?" You spat without wanting an answer, annoyed by this man's action. Some people these days...If it wasn't for your safety right now, you'd never need to hesitate pointing the gun at this orge. You step out of the diner with the man's hateful glare following behind.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>No, nope, nope! Not the kind you want to be involved. Ignorance is pure bliss in this situation, you continue to listen to the TV. No matter how much they try to pester you into this Pokemon stuff, you stand...you sit on your chair without giving them even a glance. Perhaps because of your hardcore coolness, they leave you as fast as they arrive. Kids, adorable but so simple sometimes. You have to crack a smile at the sight of them asking another customer. A gameshow is on and it is blasting your eardrums, killing your rare happy mood instantly. You turn down the volume and lazily get back to the waiting game. Before long, your lovely meal has arrived. You're starving so even if the quality is shit, the quantity will fix it. You pick up the fork and start with the eggs first. "Hello sir! Where are you going?" Hmm, sunny today sure is hot and delicious, not bad for a small size, the hens here are healthy you can tell. And now bacon...with extra steak sauce too?! You grab a slice and shove it in your mouth. "Do you like this?" Ehh!!! What is this? Where does this stuff come from?? You swear you can almost taste the bitter ashes in this, did they put them on the stove? Not to mention the sauce is terrible, you find no traces of the sweet and fat juice of the meat. They're pretty soft and easy to swallow though so you can forgive that. After spending time savouring the eggs while cringing at the main meal, you move onto the applepie. "Uuu...He's so mean!" ...Uggrr! Sugar rush has no brake in this one. Sweet, soft and creamy pie, pretty good! Not the best but certainly not the worst, you can enjoy this one more time if you have to. You leave the cash down onto the table and prepare to walk out. When you are nearing the exit, you see a mountainous man in a black tux turning his back to you. Just as you're about to head for the door... "Oh, excuse me." The man turns to you and speaks up, looking at you with quite a non-friendly manner. "I'm looking for a boy and a girl going together, they are both in grade schools. Have you seen them?" > You say yes "Yeah. They were just here pestering people about Pokemon or something." You respond with an uncomfortable frown, you feel an annoying feeling around you that they and this man have created. "Oh!...Do you know where they've gone to?" "Don't know." "..." A disdainful look towards you, he clearly doesn't take a trentcoat wearing man's words. He and you have unintentionally started a stare battle against each others...And you're slowly losing. But then suddenly, he bows his head to you. "Please pardon me." With that said, he runs ahead of you and leaves the diner. You've not ever met anyone weirder than that these days. What the hell was that? That was completely out of nowhere. With nothing else to ruin your day, you hit the street outside.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Tick...tick...tick... You've been staring at your watch for nearly an hour and there isn't any sign of stopping. Normally you'd take a shot to calm your nerve since you deciding to enter the bar but the mood here failed to meet your taste. It's too quiet, too eerie at the time. Maybe it has something to do with the place itself as the bartender doesn't particularly enjoy any conversation with visitors just like you. Who designed this place? No wonder why there are so few people setting their boots here. You cannot find any positive point except for the waitress, a hot brunette who unfortunately doesn't appear to be working properly, she nearly spilled the entire claret on another customer without apologizing. Good thing kindness is still among some people these day. "Oh, Laura..." You sigh at yourself, pulling your forehead. "Why did you have to leave?" > You finish your drink Might as well do what you were going to do. Even though the taste is so horrible, you gulp it down in one goes, hoping for your stomach to hold up any retching urge. You feel sober as you carelessly put the glass and a bill down. Then immediately...Frowning at the sourness, you run out of the bar and vomit everything inside out like a loosen water hose. Yuck! Maybe you should find something to eat, you feel absolutely terrible.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Tick...tick...tick... You've been staring at your watch for nearly an hour and there isn't any sign of stopping. Normally you'd take a shot to calm your nerve since you deciding to enter the bar but the mood here failed to meet your taste. It's too quiet, too eerie at the time. Maybe it has something to do with the place itself as the bartender doesn't particularly enjoy any conversation with visitors just like you. Who designed this place? No wonder why there are so few people setting their boots here. You cannot find any positive point except for the waitress, a hot brunette who unfortunately doesn't appear to be working properly, she nearly spilled the entire claret on another customer without apologizing. Good thing kindness is still among some people these day. "Oh, Laura..." You sigh at yourself, pulling your forehead. "Why did you have to leave?" > You flirt The alcohol in your blood is kind of getting out of control right now. You need to sto- "Hey there, ~hotness!" You say, trying to force yourself not sounding like a manwhore. "...You called me, sir?" She looks at you expectantly...no, confused is more likely to describe her stunning expression right now. Maybe you're being too forward! > You slow down, no ladies are gonna run away You straight up your sitting and then...a dreamy glance escapes your eyes through the thickly shade to enters her own. "Sir? Do you want something?" It doesn't work. What?!! You should get a blush and an embarassing bow to the side from her, not a speech line! You try your best to come up with an answer. Maybe you shouldn't have thought so highly about yourself, that would be a start. "Can you help me find a name to put on the angelic painting before me? I'm helpless just by looking." You do your dirty tongue smoothly, making it sound like a sore one. "Hmmm." She smirks, such a pair of delicious lips she got. "Sir? Are you trying to ask me out?" This is some seriously sticky situation you've gotten yourself into, you just can sit there hopingly. A mature woman might not be very easy but at least you can live with that. No big trouble. "Obvious flirting like that will get you no where, that's all I can say, big boy." ... Shameful...Too shameful. A grown man being looked down by a lady, younger than him no less. Y.O.U F.A.I.L "Too much stimulation to try and not a single one worked out, guess I am not fit to be with another." You wailfully groan, stepping out of the bar.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The alcohol in your blood is kind of getting out of control right now. You need to sto- "Hey there, ~hotness!" You say, trying to force yourself not sounding like a manwhore. "...You called me, sir?" She looks at you expectantly...no, confused is more likely to describe her stunning expression right now. Maybe you're being too forward! > You charge right in, she is in your hand "You want to hang out?" You put so much confidence in yourself that you can't help but flash a dirty grin at her. "...Please, I'm working sir." She says, glaring at you hatefully. Uh oh! You hit the wrong desk this time. This girl was well-educated alright, you've been fooled! But the rat has been out of the bag, you have no choice but to go with the flow. "Whatever you want will be yours, sweet cheeks. The only thing I can ever hope to see is the shimmering body under those garment." Being a giant pervert, you nearly lick your mouth at the sight of hers. "No." Ohhkaa...Wait what? What? "You will not get anything from me, you dirty bastard!" Her looks she's giving can pass for a hard slap right now. "I'm not a whore!!" You are...not gonna walk out of here without receiving a few bruises from her, you freak. You sprint out of the bar before some pretty remarks could be thrown at you. Y.O.U F.A.I.L "I'm...Why am I such an idiot? Damn!" You blame yourself and your forcefulness with a scratch to your block head...and a feel to your empty stomach. "Stay away from good-looking woman when you are drinking I guess...If I run into her again, better be prepared for the pain."<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You carefully stopped your car in an isolated place and quickly wrap your firearms inside a bag, not forgetting to cover it with a large blanket and hide it in the corner of you before driving straight into the yard. The lights are starting to shine the area. "A full refill! And I'd like to have 5 cans of fuel please." You speak to the one who is cleaning the equipment from your seat, a middle age man comes to you. "Wow, you are a big spender, aren't you?!" He says, opening the cover. "May I ask where ya going?" "That..depends." You response, already prepared for a conversation. "I'm heading to a friend and I heard that there are many byways so I think I'll stock some before I depart. "Yeah, that's about right." He says, pumping your gasoline. "You'd better step it up if rocks on the road found yer." "Rocks on the road?" "You haven't heard? Apparently there has been a bunch of fools riding their bikes and hijacking any car they find around these places. Drop a few prices at Black Market I bet." What kind of joke is this? Escaping the police chase and having a biker gang waiting for you in your next run, your life can't never be anymore playful than now. "It's nearly dark too." The man snaps you out of your thinking. "Maybe ya should stay the night here, it's too dangerous to travel at this hour." "Has there been anyone dealing with this gang?" You ask in hope for a safe route. "Anyone at all?" "Nope. Bastards got busted a few times but another just raises and repeats like generating task. That's that then, they will never be done." Well, aren't that just the thing you need? Turn back now and the cops might not let you go again, advance and take the risk of losing four wheels may cost you your life also. You cannot afford to wait here either, the news is going to spread and letting your guard down at a time this...So much mayhem for you to take. Challenge the law enforcer or the nasty gang? You're in deep trouble, a really, really deep trouble. > You risk your life You should never have chosen this road, it's the worst possible trail you've ever seen in your life. Roadkilled animals, full of dead ends leading to the falling death or harsh mud slowing you down and it's dark like your unlit office. But those are nothing compare to what you're avoiding right now. There is a biker gang risking their pitiful lives to steal your goods and might even kill you in the process. Due to the condition of the road, you can't seem to find a way to lose these experienced robbers who are familiar with this area. You pull out your repeater and start to spread deadly painful yelps and fresh blood among them. They're criminals, right? Wiping a few scums is just the same work you've done. "Fuck! A gun, he got a gun! AGGHRRR! "A fat loot! Fire away, boys!" Your opening fire has started a shootout between a lone car and packs of bikers. Each shot traded equals a body part of someone rendered useless and you can only pray that you're not the next one. "Let's see if you like THIS!!!" "AGGGGGRRR!!!" "GET OUT OF THE WAY, FOOLS! ROCK ON THE ROAD!" A rounds of bullets start to fly towards you and shriek their destruction power into your ears. A gatling gun! And they're not afraid of using rapid-fires even with the front row being in the way, they want your life! You have to think of a way! > You use one of the cans To be suggestive, that's one suicidal way to use the fuel. You grab one of the cans and wait for the fires to clear. Your car will have to endure for just one round and you'll have to be precise with the timing too. This is probably the stupidest idea that you can imagine but in the nick of time, no one can really blame your failure on this. When biker gang hit, they really hit profusely. There seems to be no signs of that gun and the screams from their own men stopping, it's so brutal just to hear this while trying to make your way through this. Aren't they aware of how many poor squirrels and vixens they just squashed?...It's unbelievable that you're thinking about that while being chased to death! "LOCK AND RELOAD! BABY WHHHooooooSSSSEEE!!!" There! 1...2...3! You throw the gas can through the windows. If you miss, there is a good chance they might slip on those. It takes about a mere second before an entire area is suddenly beaming with light. Old-schooled blue flame of death caused by gasoline...so beautiful, so serene yet so traumatic with their bodies being burned and their bikes getting imploded. As wonderful as it sounds like, you cannot bear to watch. You just set the forest on fire, man...You have to get out of here quickly. You know...Getting away with murders is really becoming more like something belonged to you. Was it luck, or your actual skill that you had in store that has given you the state of a cold-blooded killer? > You alright! Enough daydreaming! You are dead if you think you could escape from the infamous biker gang. Y.O.U F.A.I.L "I don't know if risking my life or being a criminal led me into this." You say directly to the scattering and burnt corpses lying in your way. "But know. I will take any life to ensure my own...even THIS!" You put the gun inside your mouth and pull the trigger, ending the pain from numberous bleeding holes in your body. ...If it has to be taken, then let's just do it like you has intended to right in the beginning.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You should never have chosen this road, it's the worst possible trail you've ever seen in your life. Roadkilled animals, full of dead ends leading to the falling death or harsh mud slowing you down and it's dark like your unlit office. But those are nothing compare to what you're avoiding right now. There is a biker gang risking their pitiful lives to steal your goods and might even kill you in the process. Due to the condition of the road, you can't seem to find a way to lose these experienced robbers who are familiar with this area. You pull out your repeater and start to spread deadly painful yelps and fresh blood among them. They're criminals, right? Wiping a few scums is just the same work you've done. "Fuck! A gun, he got a gun! AGGHRRR! "A fat loot! Fire away, boys!" Your opening fire has started a shootout between a lone car and packs of bikers. Each shot traded equals a body part of someone rendered useless and you can only pray that you're not the next one. "Let's see if you like THIS!!!" "AGGGGGRRR!!!" "GET OUT OF THE WAY, FOOLS! ROCK ON THE ROAD!" A rounds of bullets start to fly towards you and shriek their destruction power into your ears. A gatling gun! And they're not afraid of using rapid-fires even with the front row being in the way, they want your life! You have to think of a way! > You aim for the holder You suddenly has this urge just to stick your head out and aim for one who is firing at you. Hearing all those screams from their fellows being used as targets practice by the shooter slowly boil the anger inside your heart, you're always despite these kind of scumbags, coward and lack any responsiblity whatsoever. Strange...you of all people should be thankful by this. After all, is the fact that they're literally decreasing their own numbers down a good thing to you? "LOCK AND RELOAD, BABY!!!" Making use of their obvious free shot giveaway, you decide to risk your life. What's a better way to protect yourself other than being a badass while at it too? Oh hoh, you're cute...a batshit crazy type of endearing actually. You seriously need some help when you go to hell. Taking a good look at the shooters thanks to the motorcycle's light reflecting on them, you quickly pinpoint the huge crank-driven bastard. Without wasting any precious second, your tongue jingles by itself 3 times and both your hands join in the harmony. "He is there! Bastard's sticking out!" The bullet comes out flying and...It would be a real wrench for you if this missed. "AHGHGGGGG!!!" ...It seems like you hit your target's...jaw or something, you can hear him screaming and some of motor's engines dying down, the gunfire has been ceased too. "BOSS! Boss got shot!! Holy...What the... "Shut the hell up! Chase after that son of a bitch!" "BOss! Boss!...Boss??!!! Don't scare the group like that!" A gentle and pleasant feeling sweeps over your inside, to think you actually did it, you, a normal average Joe who hasn't received any training on how to operate or shoot a gun. You have cleaned another despicable piece of shit off the world! You drive far away with terrific handling skill, your car is like aviating through the roughness of the terrain. The odds of you surviving yet another chase wasn't very much but you have actually passed it with flying colors!<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>TV...checked. Sunglasses...checked. Trench coat...Unnecessary but you couldn't just leave your skinny bones out, it has doubled your luck and your appearance to be unique...Also checked. Good thing your face hasn't really hit the mark of any media type out there yet, but your time is running out. Lying low will have to be in another place, a safe and secure one far away from here. You check the plate covering your gas meter and see that it still got 2/3 left. You have to stock on some large litters to cross the border. The nearest place to refill would be...about 15 miles from here, not really hard to come by and if they try something funny, your guns will do the job. You decide to go there. ...Hmm? It's nearly night time. Anytime now... You have arrived at a gas station. There are only a few local houses and shops nearby, an empty place and probably not in any urban business. > You sophisticated stealing At least you know how to reload a basic handgun while totally clueless about anything else. What is there to blame besides yourself? You were nuts, and you still are right now. You load the inside the barrel of your pistol with a fresh clip and proceed to approach the gas station slowly. You park the car just behind the wall surrounding the place and sneak into the yard on foot. Before the employer, a man in mid 40 can sense you, his hands have already raised behind his head as you hold him up at gunpoint. "Sorry for this." You say, looking frantically side by side. "Get me 6 litters of gasoline. Try anything funny and I will torch this place down in an instant." "A-Alright." He answers your order by slowly walking towards the container to grab the cans. "Here...just chill out, okay?" "Good. Grab those and go forward." You demand, wanting to be sure of your position to the eyes of any people outside. "Turn around now." You lead him back to your vehicle, the poor man is struggling to carry the fuel one by one. "Open all of the covers, I want to see them." He does so and backs away to the wall, allowing you to have a look at the containers...Yep! It seems like all of them are pure gasoline alright. "Good. Now go back to your place and I swear if I see the cops hogging the horn anytime now, I'll mark all flammable stuffs inside that place my practicing target. Are we clear on that?" "Yeah...I see your point." He says, throwing a dirty look behind you as you get in your car. "Nice doing business with you, mate." You crack a smile at your victim. "Good bye." Yeah, screw all of that moral bullshit. You got the gun, you are the winner.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You're a murderer. Running head first into that place and blasting everything to hell. Raiding the detention center just to get a few kills on those who raped and pushed your crush to suicide doesn't seem like a good idea after all. You're not even her type to bother, you should just have left them rotting in jail instead. Now you got yourself rows and rows of police forces chasing after you and there is no such thing like a way back. You're brown bread to the eyes of your loved ones now, and you gotta make a run for it. Whenever you see a turn, you can only hope that it doesn't lead to a dead end. That phone call should have never reached you. Crazy love, you blame all the things you've done to it. It forced you to flee your office, turned your mind into a madman and put that thing on your hand. After that, it was only chaos. You were gonna going to end your life when the flame inside died out...but didn't...and you still can't find the courage. "PULL OVER!!! PULL OVER NOW!!! DO YOU HEAR ME?!! I'M GOING TO SHOOT YOU!!!" They finally talk with bullets huh? Maybe you should focus on stepping on the gas instead of having random flashbacks. > You okay, turn on the gas. No need to get touchy now. The pedal is being extremely abused by you as your vehicle blows off blindful storms of broken leaves and dirt back to your pursuers. Every turn you make equals a nightmare, your eyes cannot keep up with what in front of you anymore. You pray for the safety of the tires as well as yours. Nothing but speed and gunshot keep you stay intact with the world. Shreeekkkk!!! The glass door from behind has gone down! 'These cops!...This some kind of game to you???' You think, making a zic-zac move to dodge another straight shot. You can't afford to panic, anything but that. Hot and cold sweats mixed together run along your forehead and down to your lip, a salty taste quickly dominate your saliva. *Gulp* The tires are still normal, that was just a lucky shot...but a warning that you should step up pass the limitation!!<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Its another day and you feel nothing... You're 18 years old and very socially inept. Naturally you're not popular in high school, you're not even worthy to be routinely picked on. This isn't to say you aren't at all, but most people just find you very creepy and stay away from you. You're mom's strict upbringing has made you very emotionally detached and repressed. At this point you barely feel any kind of emotions at all. Maybe that changes today. Your Mom is calling you down to eat. > You go downstairs You head downstairs, like you always do. No point in breaking tradition. When you get downstairs your Mom is arguing with your 17 year old sister as usual. She isn't like you at all, she's popular for one thing, but then again being a very pretty and extroverted will do that for a person. She's a bit of a wild child though which your domineering mother can't stand. You wonder why your sister acts the way she does, Mom's just trying to look out for her. They're really arguing today.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>All around you is the smell of warfare. Acrid smoke from the campfires, piss and refuse from the latrines, sweat from the men. And fear. You smell that too. These men have reason to be afraid. You have spent the last few months fighting King Harold's enemies, only to march double-time to confront his most dangerous yet; William of Normandy. His army is camped below, twelve thousand men strong, in comparison to your eight thousand. There is reason to be afraid. Are you afraid? No, you affirm decisively in your mind. You are not afraid. You are Lord Aethelwulf, The Lord In The North, King Harold's most trusted advisor, and the veteran of a hundred battles. Why should you be afraid of an army of ragtag Normans who come to die on your sword? Shaking such doubts from your mind, you stride purposefully through the bustle of the camp, intent on checking on the forward defenses. A pair of giggling urchins weave nimbly around you and a staggering drunk lurches out in front of you, notices your sparkling chainmail armor and backs away, apologizing profusely. Striding onward towards the edge of the English camp you pass the watchful gaze of the sentries unchallenged and stand at the upper slope of the hill. You are not alone. Another man sits on the hill, wreathed in the shadow of the setting sun. Drawing closer you recognize him as Acwellen, a minor lord, but stalwart fighter. His face is stone, his jaw grimly set and his eyes staring out at the horizon. Looking over his shoulder you see the black smoke smearing the red evening sky. In the distance the town of Hastings burns. In the blurry uncertainty of the setting sun, you cannot tell if the glisten at his eyes is tears or just the sparkle of dying sunlight. Acwellen's son, you remember, was put in command of Hasting's garrison. Above the treeline you can just make out the crackle of flames. Hastings burns. > You offer your condolences Gently, you place your hand on his shoulder and speak softly "I'm sorry for your loss. I cannot imagine the pain of losing a son, but I am sure he looks down on you from heaven." Acwellen's gaze remains fixed on the burning town, and his face is still set in a mask of stone, but his cheeks are streaked. "Thank you" He exhales shakily, opens his mouth to say something else, then closes it and remains silent, yet the words are plainly on his mind, trying to slip free like hounds on a leash. At last he speaks, grim and quiet, little more than a whisper. "Can we win this battle?" The question hangs there for an eternity, all the fear and anxiety of the English army expressed in the musings of one broken man. > Yes "Yes!" You bark, with a sudden harshness that surprises both Acwellen and yourself. "Yes" You continue in a softer tone. "We can win. This is not the end." In your mind there is no room for doubt. You cannot afford it. Behind the screen of trees the town of Hastings roils with flames and the Norman William's horde assembles. > You leave Acwellen continues to stare into the flickering glow of the burning town. His face is stony, unfathomable. You turn to leave, picking your way through a patch of muck gingerly. Pressing down with your foot, you assess the ground. Certain patches are dry, but the soil is perilously loose. All it will take is a night of rain to turn the battlefield into a muddy hell. Well, you think to yourself, at least the mud will hurt the Normans worse than us. "Aethelwulf!" A voice interrupts your musings. A very familiar voice, deep and booming. It is the voice of Harold, your king. At just under six feet, he stands a head taller than most, and is just on par with yourself. Both his beard and hair are a fiery orange, and both are thick and wild. His chest is broad and his body muscular, but you notice a distinct bulge in the leather jerkin around his midriff; his infamous love of revelry has not gone unpunished. "Aethelwulf, you canny bastard!" He bellows, grinning and thumping you on the back.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Gently, you place your hand on his shoulder and speak softly "I'm sorry for your loss. I cannot imagine the pain of losing a son, but I am sure he looks down on you from heaven." Acwellen's gaze remains fixed on the burning town, and his face is still set in a mask of stone, but his cheeks are streaked. "Thank you" He exhales shakily, opens his mouth to say something else, then closes it and remains silent, yet the words are plainly on his mind, trying to slip free like hounds on a leash. At last he speaks, grim and quiet, little more than a whisper. "Can we win this battle?" The question hangs there for an eternity, all the fear and anxiety of the English army expressed in the musings of one broken man. > No Adamantly, you grip him by the shoulder and turn him to face you. Kneeling, you look him in the eyes, grasping his shoulders with sudden ferocity. "Listen to me Acwellen! Your son may not be dead. Every hour men from the garrison at Hastings enter our camp. There are survivors. Do not give up hope so soon" Acwellen sighs raggedly, and seems about to disagree, but instead nods fiercely. "Yes. You're right. I cannot give up hope, my son... my son could still be out there" His conviction appears slight, but at least you have gotten his attention away from the blaze of Hastings' buildings. Acwellen exhales shakily, opens his mouth to say something else, then closes it and remains silent, yet the words are plainly on his mind, trying to slip free like hounds on a leash. At last he speaks, grim and quiet, little more than a whisper. "Can we win this battle?" The question hangs there for an eternity, all the fear and anxiety of the English army expressed in the musings of one broken man.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Gently, you place your hand on his shoulder and speak softly "I'm sorry for your loss. I cannot imagine the pain of losing a son, but I am sure he looks down on you from heaven." Acwellen's gaze remains fixed on the burning town, and his face is still set in a mask of stone, but his cheeks are streaked. "Thank you" He exhales shakily, opens his mouth to say something else, then closes it and remains silent, yet the words are plainly on his mind, trying to slip free like hounds on a leash. At last he speaks, grim and quiet, little more than a whisper. "Can we win this battle?" The question hangs there for an eternity, all the fear and anxiety of the English army expressed in the musings of one broken man. > You don't know You have no words. Perhaps Acwellen's son is alive, even now rallying survivors and waiting for the cover of night to slip into the safety of the English camp, yet more likely he is dead, cleaved open by a Norman axe, or gutted by a Norman blade, or shot by a Norman arrow. Lying there, consumed by the inferno that lights the evening sky in the distance. You cannot offer false consolation. Instead you stand by him, silently sharing in his grief. Acwellen exhales shakily, opens his mouth to say something, then closes it and remains silent, yet the words are plainly on his mind, trying to slip free like hounds on a leash. At last he speaks, grim and quiet, little more than a whisper. "Can we win this battle?" The question hangs there for an eternity, all the fear and anxiety of the English army expressed in the musings of one broken man.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>All around you is the smell of warfare. Acrid smoke from the campfires, piss and refuse from the latrines, sweat from the men. And fear. You smell that too. These men have reason to be afraid. You have spent the last few months fighting King Harold's enemies, only to march double-time to confront his most dangerous yet; William of Normandy. His army is camped below, twelve thousand men strong, in comparison to your eight thousand. There is reason to be afraid. Are you afraid? No, you affirm decisively in your mind. You are not afraid. You are Lord Aethelwulf, The Lord In The North, King Harold's most trusted advisor, and the veteran of a hundred battles. Why should you be afraid of an army of ragtag Normans who come to die on your sword? Shaking such doubts from your mind, you stride purposefully through the bustle of the camp, intent on checking on the forward defenses. A pair of giggling urchins weave nimbly around you and a staggering drunk lurches out in front of you, notices your sparkling chainmail armor and backs away, apologizing profusely. Striding onward towards the edge of the English camp you pass the watchful gaze of the sentries unchallenged and stand at the upper slope of the hill. You are not alone. Another man sits on the hill, wreathed in the shadow of the setting sun. Drawing closer you recognize him as Acwellen, a minor lord, but stalwart fighter. His face is stone, his jaw grimly set and his eyes staring out at the horizon. Looking over his shoulder you see the black smoke smearing the red evening sky. In the distance the town of Hastings burns. In the blurry uncertainty of the setting sun, you cannot tell if the glisten at his eyes is tears or just the sparkle of dying sunlight. Acwellen's son, you remember, was put in command of Hasting's garrison. Above the treeline you can just make out the crackle of flames. Hastings burns. > You remind him his son could be alive Lifto might mean well, but you’d rather stick with your original plan. “No, I’m not going to feel safe in my trailer until we leave the damn area, so I still want to sleep in your trailer.” “Well, okay but I’m telling you it’s going to be crowded and like I said that floor isn’t something you want to sleep on.” Klepto says. You assure the rest that you’ll be fine and head back with them to the trailer and that’s when you truly begin to appreciate Klepto’s warnings. The floor of their trailer is filthier than Ranko’s. A lot of food leavings, wrappers and some dirty clothing. You imagine that Fatty is probably the biggest contributor to the trash. Oddly the smell isn’t that bad, but you’re not sure about sleeping on the floor anymore. “Uh, I see what you mean. I think you’re right. If I slept on the floor, I’d wake up stuck to it.” You say. “I told you, so what did you want to do?” Klepto asks. “My offer still stands Suzy and I swear I’m not going to try anything. The alleviation of your worries is my foremost concern.” Lifto remarks. “And that’s sweet, but I’m still sleeping here and not on the floor. I’m taking one of those beds.” At this point the rest of the clowns are a little surprised by your demand. “Uh look Suzy, I know you’re concerned about sleeping in your trailer tonight even if I think there isn’t anything to worry about and I know we’ve all gotten a little closer and we all like each other, but come on you don’t seriously think one of us is going to give up our bed for a disgusting floor!” Klepto remarks. “You don’t have to I’m taking Shrimpy’s bed.” “I’m not sleeping on the floor either!” Shrimpy remarks. “You don’t have to, I’ll share it with you.” “WAIT WHAT?!” all of them say. “Look, it’s like this. I’m not going to take up that much room in your beds, which means Fatty and Lifto’s beds are out since they themselves can barely fit in them. That leaves Klepto and Shrimpy. Personally I want as much room as I can get and with no offense to Shrimpy due to his size, he’s got more room to spare.” Shrimpy smugly smiles at the others. “Makes sense to me! Okay let’s get to bed everyone!” Shrimpy says excitedly. “Hey wait a minute! We didn’t agree to this!” Klepto remarks. “Yeah, it seems like you were worried about me trying something yet you’re going to sleep in Shrimpy’s bed? You might be waking up sticky anyway with that little perv next to you.” Lifto says. “Oh no I won’t because Shrimpy is going to not only sleep with his back towards me, we’re also going to sleep head to toe…well toe to waist anyway. And if I so much feel any sort of unwanted grope, fondle or bad touch during the night there will be severe consequences to his man parts. I might be a little nervous about sleeping by myself tonight, but I’m not nervous about punching a dwarf in the balls because he’s perving on me. Understood?” “I get it.” Shrimpy remarks, but he doesn’t seem any less disappointed in this arrangement though. “And if anyone doesn’t like it, well my trailer is currently empty for anyone. Lots of room to get a good night’s sleep.” You add. Nobody takes you up on your trailer offer or says anything else though you hear some grumbling from Fatty who says he just wants to get off his feet and sleep and on that note you all head for dreamland. You get in Shrimpy’s bed first and get into a comfortable position, and then Shrimpy does likewise at the opposite end of the bed. You’re semi-awake for a while wondering if Shrimpy is going to ignore your warning, but he’s asleep pretty fast. Honestly its Fatty’s snoring that’s more bothersome. You guess the others are used to it. As you start to get sleepy you can’t believe you’re not only sharing a bed with a midget clown, but that you’re going to leave everything behind tomorrow. The funny thing is you’re getting a lot more comfortable with that idea now. You think this is the longest you’ve gone without constant Internet or TV stimulation and you don’t mind at all. Eventually you do fall asleep feeling almost as safe as you did in your basement. > Next day… WEDNESDAY “Hey Suzy get up, time to start packing up.” Klepto says tapping your shoulder. “Okay…” you reply groggily. You don’t feel a small figure near the bottom your legs so you assume Shrimpy must’ve already gotten up. “Well that wasn’t that bad, Shrimpy even honored the agreement.” You say sitting up. “Or maybe you’re just a really sound sleeper.” Klepto remarks. “Hrm, well if that’s the case he better at least have the sense to not brag about it. Anyway, I suppose I’ll take my leave to wash up a bit and change clothes.” “Wish I could come with you.” Klepto says. “Excuse me?” you say. “Ha ha ha no not that, I meant it sucks having to share the small ass bathroom we have in this trailer. Fatty’s in there right now and well you can figure out how it’s going to be after he leaves.” “Yeah, I’d rather not have that mental image right now. See you around.” You say and start to leave. “Wait, uh Suzy…I…” Klepto calls out. “Yes?” “(Sigh) Look I know I probably haven’t been showing exactly prince charming behavior, but I just want to say, I really like you. I mean REALLY like you.” “Yeah I got that impression a long time ago.” You respond. “Yeah, but I’m trying to say it’s not just physical.” “I find that a little harder to believe…however I’m not really going to fault you for it, but I’m going to need a lot more proof that you want something deeper than just sex.” “Well what? Like a ring or something?” “Heh, I don’t think you’re exactly in a financial position for all that. Look, I like you too, but this probably isn’t the best time to expect anything more from me than just friendship. I’m still trying to get used to the fact of this being my new life now not to mention I’m just getting over breaking up with what was my first and only boyfriend. So I might prefer my own company for a while. However that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t TRY to gain my affection. But only IF you REALLY want something meaningful with me. If not, then I’d suggest that you not waste either of our time and you go find a less discerning mate. I don’t need prince charming either, I just need someone I can count on and isn’t going to be a complete jerk. And if it helps, so far you’re doing a little bit better in that department than anyone else here.” “Okay.” Klepto says with a nod and brief smile before you leave. Well there it is, someone has openly professed a desire to be your boyfriend. You knew it was going to be one of them eventually though. You can only imagine the others will be attempting to woo you as well just like in your routine with them. Funny how life starts to imitate art. You don’t know how sincere Klepto is even if he has been pleasant for the most part. (Can you really ever trust a guy with the name Klepto?) Attractiveness wise, Klepto probably is the best of the lot. Lifto would probably provide the best protection, but the guy is tough to look at even with clown make up on and as far as Fatty is concerned, the only thing that runs through your mind is potential sexual positions and only one of which doesn’t result in you being crushed. Part of you wonders if you’re bad for being shallow, but then you remember they’re all attracted to you mostly due to your looks in the first place. Though for some reason you find Shrimpy’s size adorable… in fact you might find some of the others dwarves that work here adorable as well if they weren’t quite so vulgar with you. Maybe you’ve got a hidden dwarf fetish you didn’t know about before. Oh well, you’re not going to worry about any of this right now. As you head back to your own trailer, you see most of the dwarves doing all the labor of packing down the carnival; others are helping, but most are just packing down their own respective stages and such. “Hey clown slut, if you’re not actually going to be sleeping in your own trailer and just going to be playing cum dumpster to your painted freak friends, the least you can do is give it to one of us!” a tattooed lady with big black Mohawk and several piercings in her face remarks catching you off guard. A couple of other tattooed women stand behind her agreeing with her statement. You briefly remember her calling you names from yesterday. Her name’s Razor and she does a human pincushion type act. “I didn’t use my trailer last night, because I didn’t feel safe by myself.” You say. “Oh? Just a scared little babe in the woods huh? Well you’re by yourself now. What’re you going to do without your clown crew to protect you?” Razor remarks and pokes you in the chest with her finger. You look around and while there are a couple of people standing by, none of them are helping you. While Razor isn’t much bigger than you, she definitely looks tougher. Combine that with the fact she has two friends that also look like they’ll join in and you don’t think you’ll stand a chance if it actually came down to a fight. > You run Running was always a tried and true tactic when you had to deal with Kelly’s bullying, no reason to change now… You turn immediately to run to your trailer, but predictably Razor and her lot aren’t going to just let you get away. “Get that fuckin’ clown bitch!” Razor shouts. As you rush past the other carnies you can’t help but notice none of them are trying to stop this. You start to think that maybe travelling with this fucked up carnival might not be in your future. When you get to your trailer the door is slightly ajar. You also notice a couple things out of place from last time, not to mention it looks like someone spent some time in your bed and soiled it with their “essence”. You don’t have time to notice anything else, but its apparent that someone was here last night and you dodged a bullet, unfortunately you aren’t ducking twice. As you attempt to lock your door, Razor smashes it open causing it to hit you in the face. While you reeling back from this, Razor has already picked you up and punched you in the face. The rest of her goons are right behind her. “Lock that door, I wanna enjoy this!” Razor orders one of her crew and pulls out a straight razor. “Now, I’m do you a favor. I’m gonna cut your mouth so wide that you’ll be able to chug three cocks at the same time. You’ll be able to make it part of your act, Sucko the clown!” Razor says and lunges at you. Naturally you’re not going to just let her give you a Glasglow smile, so you try to defend yourself. You manage to throw a few nearby items at her, but it isn’t enough to stop her. In fact, your struggling makes her “accidently” stab you in throat and cutting an artery. You fall to the bed clutching your neck, which is bleeding profusely. “SHIT!” Razor shouts. “Fuck! I didn’t think we were going to kill her!” one of her goons says. “I wasn’t trying to, but the bitch kept struggling. Let’s get outta here!” she shouts and soon all of them have left your trailer. You on the other hand continue to bleed out and soon die from your wound.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>WEDNESDAY “Hey Suzy get up, time to start packing up.” Klepto says tapping your shoulder. “Okay…” you reply groggily. You don’t feel a small figure near the bottom your legs so you assume Shrimpy must’ve already gotten up. “Well that wasn’t that bad, Shrimpy even honored the agreement.” You say sitting up. “Or maybe you’re just a really sound sleeper.” Klepto remarks. “Hrm, well if that’s the case he better at least have the sense to not brag about it. Anyway, I suppose I’ll take my leave to wash up a bit and change clothes.” “Wish I could come with you.” Klepto says. “Excuse me?” you say. “Ha ha ha no not that, I meant it sucks having to share the small ass bathroom we have in this trailer. Fatty’s in there right now and well you can figure out how it’s going to be after he leaves.” “Yeah, I’d rather not have that mental image right now. See you around.” You say and start to leave. “Wait, uh Suzy…I…” Klepto calls out. “Yes?” “(Sigh) Look I know I probably haven’t been showing exactly prince charming behavior, but I just want to say, I really like you. I mean REALLY like you.” “Yeah I got that impression a long time ago.” You respond. “Yeah, but I’m trying to say it’s not just physical.” “I find that a little harder to believe…however I’m not really going to fault you for it, but I’m going to need a lot more proof that you want something deeper than just sex.” “Well what? Like a ring or something?” “Heh, I don’t think you’re exactly in a financial position for all that. Look, I like you too, but this probably isn’t the best time to expect anything more from me than just friendship. I’m still trying to get used to the fact of this being my new life now not to mention I’m just getting over breaking up with what was my first and only boyfriend. So I might prefer my own company for a while. However that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t TRY to gain my affection. But only IF you REALLY want something meaningful with me. If not, then I’d suggest that you not waste either of our time and you go find a less discerning mate. I don’t need prince charming either, I just need someone I can count on and isn’t going to be a complete jerk. And if it helps, so far you’re doing a little bit better in that department than anyone else here.” “Okay.” Klepto says with a nod and brief smile before you leave. Well there it is, someone has openly professed a desire to be your boyfriend. You knew it was going to be one of them eventually though. You can only imagine the others will be attempting to woo you as well just like in your routine with them. Funny how life starts to imitate art. You don’t know how sincere Klepto is even if he has been pleasant for the most part. (Can you really ever trust a guy with the name Klepto?) Attractiveness wise, Klepto probably is the best of the lot. Lifto would probably provide the best protection, but the guy is tough to look at even with clown make up on and as far as Fatty is concerned, the only thing that runs through your mind is potential sexual positions and only one of which doesn’t result in you being crushed. Part of you wonders if you’re bad for being shallow, but then you remember they’re all attracted to you mostly due to your looks in the first place. Though for some reason you find Shrimpy’s size adorable… in fact you might find some of the others dwarves that work here adorable as well if they weren’t quite so vulgar with you. Maybe you’ve got a hidden dwarf fetish you didn’t know about before. Oh well, you’re not going to worry about any of this right now. As you head back to your own trailer, you see most of the dwarves doing all the labor of packing down the carnival; others are helping, but most are just packing down their own respective stages and such. “Hey clown slut, if you’re not actually going to be sleeping in your own trailer and just going to be playing cum dumpster to your painted freak friends, the least you can do is give it to one of us!” a tattooed lady with big black Mohawk and several piercings in her face remarks catching you off guard. A couple of other tattooed women stand behind her agreeing with her statement. You briefly remember her calling you names from yesterday. Her name’s Razor and she does a human pincushion type act. “I didn’t use my trailer last night, because I didn’t feel safe by myself.” You say. “Oh? Just a scared little babe in the woods huh? Well you’re by yourself now. What’re you going to do without your clown crew to protect you?” Razor remarks and pokes you in the chest with her finger. You look around and while there are a couple of people standing by, none of them are helping you. While Razor isn’t much bigger than you, she definitely looks tougher. Combine that with the fact she has two friends that also look like they’ll join in and you don’t think you’ll stand a chance if it actually came down to a fight. > You stand your ground Maybe this isn’t the best idea you’ve ever had, but after all those years of dealing with your sister Kelly, you aren’t going to put up with bullying anymore. You’ve never really been a fighter before (Trying to protect your face from Kelly’s couple attempts to disfigure you don’t count) so it isn’t surprising that when you throw a punch at Razor she easily dodges and catches your arm. “Oh ho! Harley Quinn has some fight in her! Good, didn’t want this to be too easy!” Razor says and throws you to the ground. Before you can get up you feel a kick to your ribs. Lacking any other tactics you lunge at one of Razor’s legs and sink your teeth into it hard enough to draw blood. “AH SHIT! WHAT THE FUCK!” Razor yells trying to get you off of her leg, at this point her friends step in to help pull you off. You’re dragged off and restrained while Razor takes a moment to examine her wound. “Goddamn it! Shit!” Razor exclaims looking at the fairly deep bite wound you’ve left. “I thought you were a human pincushion, what’s the matter can’t handle a few little teeth?” you ask spitting blood in Razor’s direction. “Hope you enjoyed yourself, because that’s the last time you’re going to be using those pearly whites. Say hello to eating through a straw from now on, but look on the bright side, the next time you engage in your favorite past time of sucking clown dick, they won’t have to worry about getting scraped.” Razor says and starts to walk toward you, but suddenly Roofie stops her. “Alright that will do Razor, I saw what happened and I’ll not have unnecessary strife in this carnival! Go back to packing down your stage!” Roofie scolds. Razor looks at him a moment and then you and then waves to her friends to let you go. “One day you aren’t going to be running this show Roofie.” Razor says as she leaves with her friends. “Maybe not, but that day isn’t today.” Roofie says. As you get up and try to brush yourself off, Roofie slowly walks over to you. He already smells like alcohol. “Well Suzy, first Ranko, now Razor, looks like you’re just making friends all over.” “It’s not my fault! I didn’t do anything to her!” “I know you didn’t, you alright?” “Yeah, but now I probably got a target on my back, one of many probably since Razor isn’t the only one who hates me around here.” “Yeah I’ve noticed. Just because I’m half drunk most of the time doesn’t mean I’m not aware of what goes on around here. Listen some of the negative feelings that some have for you will die down in time. You seem to be getting along with your new clown co-workers very well though. You spent the night over in their trailer despite the fact you have your own.” “I only did that because I didn’t feel safe sleeping alone last night. There was a really creepy big guy staring at me all day yesterday, I dunno maybe I was just being paranoid.” “Hmm, did you wish to bunk with them or even someone else then? I mean I can make arrangements if you feel uncomfortable sleeping alone.” “No, I appreciate the fact you gave me my own trailer. Besides, given all the new friends I’m making, I’d be safer sleeping alone and bunking with Klepto and the rest, well I get the impression that would cause other problems.” You say. “Okay then. Well, I’ll let you get back to your trailer. We’ll probably be ready to go just before nightfall so I’m sure Lifto will be around then to hook this thing up to one of our trucks. So until then just enjoy the downtime.” “Wait, aren’t I supposed to be helping pack up the carnival?” “You? Nah, the rest of the guys can handle it. Really I get the impression they wouldn’t let you do much work anyway what with them all being enamored with you and all. And the dwarves got the overall pack up covered. Always have, it’s what they do. Backbone of the carnival and all…and all a bit of a waste of time given what’s to come, but hey we do what we know.” Roofie says and leaves. A little more cryptic future doom prediction by Roofie, you get the impression that’s his general personality, but at least he’s always pleasant with you. With no more distractions you arrive at your trailer and that’s when you begin to feel nervous again. First of all the door is slightly ajar. You also notice a couple things out of place from last time, not to mention it looks like someone spent some time in your bed and soiled it with their “essence”. Your cell phone that you left here is also gone, but given that its batteries were starting to die and you wouldn’t have Bobby to pay for it much longer it isn’t much of a loss. Someone was definitely here last night. You don’t know if it was Ranko, that big creepy retard staring at you or someone else, but either way you dodged a bullet. You half expect the person to jump out at you from some hidden spot, but that doesn’t happen. Whoever was here, probably left before the morning, and probably when they realized you weren’t coming here. You re-check all the trailer’s locations (even if it isn’t the biggest place) and block the door with a chair before feeling safe enough to shower and get changed. Afterwards you go through the mundane process of actually cleaning up the trailer. You figure if you don’t need to help pack up the carnival, you can at least spend your time clean up your living area. (First thing is throwing out the befouled bed sheet) By the time you’re finished it’s the afternoon and you’re tired again. You’re still not used to being awake so early and you didn’t get much sleep last night so you lie down in your now cleaner bed and shut your eyes for just a bit… You don’t know how much time passes while you’re asleep again, but when you do wake up it’s to a loud thumping at the door. “OPEN UP BY ORDER OF THE U.S. NATIONAL GUARD!” National Guard? What the hell is going on? “Hold on, hold on, I’m getting up!” you shout. “Open the door miss or we’ll be forced to bash it open!” a voice calls back. Not wishing to potentially get shot you comply and upon opening the door several national guardsmen stand outside. “Come with us miss, we need you all together for your safety.” A young soldier says guiding you out. “Where are we going?” you ask. “Just to that big tent over there. Don’t worry, this is all for your protection.” Somehow you don’t quite believe that, but when you scan your surroundings, you see that the carnival appears to be under control by the National Guard so there isn’t much choice but to comply. You don’t know why or how this came to be, but from some of the military radios you overhear it sounds like riots have broken out in your town. Is this some sort of martial law? When you arrive in the big tent, most of carnival is there. Most are sitting at tables and complaining about this fate. You see Roofie actively arguing with one of the higher ranking soldiers who looks utterly unmoved by what he has to say. “Goddamnit, just because people are rioting in the town doesn’t mean any bullshit is going on here! We’re not even locals! We’re just passing through and were about to leave!” Roofie says. “Yeah I heard you the first time, but my orders are to secure this entire area and will be under watch until further notice. Now I suggest you get out of my face before I stomp a mud hole in your ass clown!” the officer remarks and walks out of the tent. You go over to Roofie. “What’s going on exactly?” you ask. “End times like I always knew would come Suzy. Just didn’t figure I’d have to spend my last days stuck under the gun by a bunch of fascists! These government dickheads think they can control what’s coming soon, when they really can’t control shit. These fools don’t even know they’re all really just puppets for that fucking Ground Zero corporation that’s been shilling bomb shelters ads all over the damn place.” This is definitely a new side you’ve seen of Roofie, he’s really mad. He’s also really drunk even if he’s pretty coherent. You see Klepto and the rest waving you over. “Why don’t we just go over there and…” “Y’know what Suzy? There aren’t even that many of these fuckers. It’s a skeleton crew at best. I bet we can take them. I mean we certainly outnumber them.” “What?! Are you nuts? They’re armed with machine guns!” you say. “And? So a few of us die? We’re ALL gonna be dead soon anyway, why wait? Better to die on your feet than live on your knees. Seriously, all we gotta do is get a couple of those guns away from them and it already evens up the playing field. Seriously you think they’re probably going to let us live anyway? They’re probably going to line us up like baby seals and blow our brains out by tomorrow. I’m telling you I’m getting our own troops in order to rebel tonight.” Roofie seems pretty intent on going through with this plan, the only thing you can think of to do is either try to help or try to prevent the violence. > You help Roofie “Okay well maybe you’ve got a point, but can you really stir this lot up to swarm attack people with machine guns?” you ask. “One way to find out!” Roofie says and without another word he runs over to the nearest guard and smashes a bottle over his head. It might’ve been more effective had the guardsman not had a helmet on. The guardsman that was assaulted bashes Roofie to the ground and fires several shots into him. This causes shock from everyone and in your case you even freeze up for a moment. Nobody is bum rushing the guardsmen though. Roofie won’t be getting up again, but at this point the guardsmen continue to panic and believe they’re under a greater attack. (Despite that everyone is too scared to do so) “SHIT! WE NEED BACK UP! WE’RE UNDER ATTACK!” the other guardsman exclaims and begins firing randomly at carnies, which includes you. Unfortunately, you were close enough that you fatally get hit by some of these bullets despite trying to get out of the way.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Maybe this isn’t the best idea you’ve ever had, but after all those years of dealing with your sister Kelly, you aren’t going to put up with bullying anymore. You’ve never really been a fighter before (Trying to protect your face from Kelly’s couple attempts to disfigure you don’t count) so it isn’t surprising that when you throw a punch at Razor she easily dodges and catches your arm. “Oh ho! Harley Quinn has some fight in her! Good, didn’t want this to be too easy!” Razor says and throws you to the ground. Before you can get up you feel a kick to your ribs. Lacking any other tactics you lunge at one of Razor’s legs and sink your teeth into it hard enough to draw blood. “AH SHIT! WHAT THE FUCK!” Razor yells trying to get you off of her leg, at this point her friends step in to help pull you off. You’re dragged off and restrained while Razor takes a moment to examine her wound. “Goddamn it! Shit!” Razor exclaims looking at the fairly deep bite wound you’ve left. “I thought you were a human pincushion, what’s the matter can’t handle a few little teeth?” you ask spitting blood in Razor’s direction. “Hope you enjoyed yourself, because that’s the last time you’re going to be using those pearly whites. Say hello to eating through a straw from now on, but look on the bright side, the next time you engage in your favorite past time of sucking clown dick, they won’t have to worry about getting scraped.” Razor says and starts to walk toward you, but suddenly Roofie stops her. “Alright that will do Razor, I saw what happened and I’ll not have unnecessary strife in this carnival! Go back to packing down your stage!” Roofie scolds. Razor looks at him a moment and then you and then waves to her friends to let you go. “One day you aren’t going to be running this show Roofie.” Razor says as she leaves with her friends. “Maybe not, but that day isn’t today.” Roofie says. As you get up and try to brush yourself off, Roofie slowly walks over to you. He already smells like alcohol. “Well Suzy, first Ranko, now Razor, looks like you’re just making friends all over.” “It’s not my fault! I didn’t do anything to her!” “I know you didn’t, you alright?” “Yeah, but now I probably got a target on my back, one of many probably since Razor isn’t the only one who hates me around here.” “Yeah I’ve noticed. Just because I’m half drunk most of the time doesn’t mean I’m not aware of what goes on around here. Listen some of the negative feelings that some have for you will die down in time. You seem to be getting along with your new clown co-workers very well though. You spent the night over in their trailer despite the fact you have your own.” “I only did that because I didn’t feel safe sleeping alone last night. There was a really creepy big guy staring at me all day yesterday, I dunno maybe I was just being paranoid.” “Hmm, did you wish to bunk with them or even someone else then? I mean I can make arrangements if you feel uncomfortable sleeping alone.” “No, I appreciate the fact you gave me my own trailer. Besides, given all the new friends I’m making, I’d be safer sleeping alone and bunking with Klepto and the rest, well I get the impression that would cause other problems.” You say. “Okay then. Well, I’ll let you get back to your trailer. We’ll probably be ready to go just before nightfall so I’m sure Lifto will be around then to hook this thing up to one of our trucks. So until then just enjoy the downtime.” “Wait, aren’t I supposed to be helping pack up the carnival?” “You? Nah, the rest of the guys can handle it. Really I get the impression they wouldn’t let you do much work anyway what with them all being enamored with you and all. And the dwarves got the overall pack up covered. Always have, it’s what they do. Backbone of the carnival and all…and all a bit of a waste of time given what’s to come, but hey we do what we know.” Roofie says and leaves. A little more cryptic future doom prediction by Roofie, you get the impression that’s his general personality, but at least he’s always pleasant with you. With no more distractions you arrive at your trailer and that’s when you begin to feel nervous again. First of all the door is slightly ajar. You also notice a couple things out of place from last time, not to mention it looks like someone spent some time in your bed and soiled it with their “essence”. Your cell phone that you left here is also gone, but given that its batteries were starting to die and you wouldn’t have Bobby to pay for it much longer it isn’t much of a loss. Someone was definitely here last night. You don’t know if it was Ranko, that big creepy retard staring at you or someone else, but either way you dodged a bullet. You half expect the person to jump out at you from some hidden spot, but that doesn’t happen. Whoever was here, probably left before the morning, and probably when they realized you weren’t coming here. You re-check all the trailer’s locations (even if it isn’t the biggest place) and block the door with a chair before feeling safe enough to shower and get changed. Afterwards you go through the mundane process of actually cleaning up the trailer. You figure if you don’t need to help pack up the carnival, you can at least spend your time clean up your living area. (First thing is throwing out the befouled bed sheet) By the time you’re finished it’s the afternoon and you’re tired again. You’re still not used to being awake so early and you didn’t get much sleep last night so you lie down in your now cleaner bed and shut your eyes for just a bit… You don’t know how much time passes while you’re asleep again, but when you do wake up it’s to a loud thumping at the door. “OPEN UP BY ORDER OF THE U.S. NATIONAL GUARD!” National Guard? What the hell is going on? “Hold on, hold on, I’m getting up!” you shout. “Open the door miss or we’ll be forced to bash it open!” a voice calls back. Not wishing to potentially get shot you comply and upon opening the door several national guardsmen stand outside. “Come with us miss, we need you all together for your safety.” A young soldier says guiding you out. “Where are we going?” you ask. “Just to that big tent over there. Don’t worry, this is all for your protection.” Somehow you don’t quite believe that, but when you scan your surroundings, you see that the carnival appears to be under control by the National Guard so there isn’t much choice but to comply. You don’t know why or how this came to be, but from some of the military radios you overhear it sounds like riots have broken out in your town. Is this some sort of martial law? When you arrive in the big tent, most of carnival is there. Most are sitting at tables and complaining about this fate. You see Roofie actively arguing with one of the higher ranking soldiers who looks utterly unmoved by what he has to say. “Goddamnit, just because people are rioting in the town doesn’t mean any bullshit is going on here! We’re not even locals! We’re just passing through and were about to leave!” Roofie says. “Yeah I heard you the first time, but my orders are to secure this entire area and will be under watch until further notice. Now I suggest you get out of my face before I stomp a mud hole in your ass clown!” the officer remarks and walks out of the tent. You go over to Roofie. “What’s going on exactly?” you ask. “End times like I always knew would come Suzy. Just didn’t figure I’d have to spend my last days stuck under the gun by a bunch of fascists! These government dickheads think they can control what’s coming soon, when they really can’t control shit. These fools don’t even know they’re all really just puppets for that fucking Ground Zero corporation that’s been shilling bomb shelters ads all over the damn place.” This is definitely a new side you’ve seen of Roofie, he’s really mad. He’s also really drunk even if he’s pretty coherent. You see Klepto and the rest waving you over. “Why don’t we just go over there and…” “Y’know what Suzy? There aren’t even that many of these fuckers. It’s a skeleton crew at best. I bet we can take them. I mean we certainly outnumber them.” “What?! Are you nuts? They’re armed with machine guns!” you say. “And? So a few of us die? We’re ALL gonna be dead soon anyway, why wait? Better to die on your feet than live on your knees. Seriously, all we gotta do is get a couple of those guns away from them and it already evens up the playing field. Seriously you think they’re probably going to let us live anyway? They’re probably going to line us up like baby seals and blow our brains out by tomorrow. I’m telling you I’m getting our own troops in order to rebel tonight.” Roofie seems pretty intent on going through with this plan, the only thing you can think of to do is either try to help or try to prevent the violence. > You prevent the violence Roofie’s plan isn’t going to accomplish anything except get a bunch of people killed, and you could be one of them! You think fast. “Uh, okay Roofie, let’s just go over here and get the battle plan together first okay? I’m sure Klepto and the rest are going to want to hear this first.” “Hrgh, okay. You don’t need to guide me damn it, I’m not that drunk!” Roofie says and pulls his arm away from your hand. When you get to Klepto’s table he and the rest know something is wrong when Roofie starts going on about “bum rushing those government puppet bastards.” Shrimpy and Fatty both attempt to calm him down, but he’s not having any of it. “What the hell is going on Suzy? Roofie’s talkin’ crazier than usual.” Klepto asks. “He wants to have the entire carnival attack the National Guard, do something before he causes too much of a scene.” You say. “Do something like what? You don’t mean kill him do you?!” Klepto asks. “No! But I dunno maybe knock him out to buy us time and he can sober up or something. Lifto, knock him out.” You say. “Me?! Why me?” Lifto asks. “Because you’re the strongest of all of us and I’m guessing you could do it in one hit. Just do it, before he gets all of us killed!” Lifto’s a little reluctant and probably wouldn’t do it normally, but it the situation does seem dire enough so while Roofie is continuing to rant at Shrimpy and Fatty he punches Roofie in the back of the head, knocking the older man completely out and falling into Fatty’s arms. Some of the other carnies have witnessed this, but they don’t seem to do anything about it. In fact it just goes to show how little most of them respect Roofie in the scheme of the things. Sort of a shame. “Holy shit, did you have to punch him so hard? He’s an old guy! You might’ve put him in a coma!” Shrimpy remarks. “I just did what Suzy told me!” “Alright look, I didn’t want harm to come to Roofie either, but the guy needed to be silenced for at least a moment. I think the bigger problem we’ve got is the other carnies. I get the sense that they think Roofie is no longer a factor in the leadership role, so expect a power play. We all need to stick together for protection.” “What about the National Guard? I mean shouldn’t we be worrying about them?” Lifto asks. “The National Guard is what’s keeping this carnival from exploding into an orgy of violence right now. Nobody’s going to risk pissing them off by causing problems, well not now at least without Roofie’s plan of stirring them all up.” You reply. “Well what the hell do we do now?” Klepto asks. “I don’t know! I mean I’m just thinking on my feet here! You all told me that we’re the most hated group in the carnival, so we should make friends somehow? Shrimpy, do you have ANY pull with the dwarves?” “Pull? I suppose I have enough for me, I mean even as a clown deep down I’ll always be a dwarf. But as I’ve mentioned before I can’t promise anything for the rest of you.” “Well I dunno, do some diplomacy or something. As for the rest of us, we need to just stick to our table and look after Roofie, and make sure he’s doing okay throughout the night. Maybe I’ll try to charm one of the soldiers or something. The key thing to remember is we need to survive this together.” You never thought you’d start sounding like your older brother Ben with the whole survivalist shtick, but if it helps thinking like a paranoid person then you aren’t going to dismiss such thoughts. As night starts to fall the mood in the large army “quarantine” tent grows more restless. Two guardsmen remain on duty at all times though they’re not exactly happy about the situation either. You do manage to get friendly with one of them by the name of Roger and extract a bit more info. Roger tells you that you and the rest of your carny friends shouldn’t worry too much since this is just a formality. He says that things are much worse in the town and expects his unit will be transferred to support his fellow guardsmen there in a day or two. At which point you’ll all be free to go. Hearing about the mass riots in town makes you wonder how things are going for your family. You’re almost sort of worried about them, even Kelly, but there isn’t much that can be done now. Hopefully they’ve found some sort of safety. “Is this going on everywhere?” you ask. “Well I don’t know a lot of detail, I’m just a grunt in the scheme of things, but things are getting pretty bad, I mean haven’t you heard the news lately?” Roger says. “Not really, sort of disconnected from the rest of the world lately.” You say. “Well world tensions have been really high, it’s like every country is gearing up for world war three and domestically people have seemingly gone batshit insane with regards to the rules of common decency and morality. I guess a lot of people are just scared and I can’t blame them on some level, but we still need law and order. Surely you can understand that right?” “Sure.” You say in agreement since you’d rather not make any potential enemies of the military even if it is just one grunt. In any case Roger smiles when you agree, you get the impression he’s just as concerned being out here. After a few more pleasantries, Roger says he really needs to get back to “standing guard” and not talking to you as his superior is a real hard ass and he doesn’t want to get into trouble or you for that matter. You thank him for the talk and head back to your colleagues. Of course some of the carnies seeing you get “cozy” with one of the guardsmen makes them even dislike you even more and you occasionally hear mutterings and name calling by others. Razor hasn’t taken her eyes off of you the whole time you’ve been here. She’s obviously got her sights set on you, regardless of what goes down, she’s just waiting for opportunity. On the plus side when Shrimpy returns he says that while the dwarves are going to make their own play when the time is right, he’s managed to convince them not to attack the clowns as long as you stay out of their way. (And apparently they’re ONLY extending that courtesy because of Shrimpy’s ties as well you being…well you, though the female dwarves predictably don’t like you too much) The night goes on and while everyone is in a heightened state of readiness nobody can stay awake forever, so eventually people start falling asleep though its mostly in shifts for most groups and you are no exception. Eventually though when it’s your turn to sleep, you try to find some sort of comfort on one of the many sleeping mats provided. It’s pretty much impossible, but exhaustion helps you along. Eventually you drift off… > Next day… THURSDAY Several gunshots cause you to wake up. “What the?!” you say still staying on the floor. “Shhhh! Quiet!” Klepto remarks and points over to the one in charge of the guardsmen. He and five others stand near the tent entrance with weapons out. “I don’t give a shit WHO started the fight or even why! You carny freaks can tear each other apart after we leave, but until then we’re here to maintain order and by god that’s what the fuck we’re going to do! If I have to break up another fight for any reason, next time the shots aren’t going in the air!” the officer remarks and leaves. The other guardsmen continue to stand near the entrance watching everyone who eventually all sit back down. “What the hell happened?” you ask. “Razor and some of the others got into an argument with Phil and his friends.” Klepto says. “Who’s Phil?” you say. “He does that fire eating stuff. Anyway, they kicked his ass and just as things were going to get worse, the guardsmen came in and put a stop to it like you just saw. Looks like the battle for control over the carnival is already starting.” “Surprised we didn’t get attacked then.” “Well like Shrimpy said yesterday, we’ve got dwarf protection for now, but who knows how long that arrangement is going to last.” “Can’t believe I slept through a fight, where’s Roofie?” “Oh him? He’s still over there out of it, even the gunshots didn’t wake him up.” Klepto says pointing to Roofie, who then surprises everyone. “I’m quite awake Klepto, I’m just resting with my eyes closed No point in getting up at this point anyway. It’s obvious this carnival has lost respect in me; I’d blame you all for smashing me in the back of the head last night, but that was really just a catalyst. (Sigh) Doesn’t matter, I predict that we’ll all be dead in two days at best.” Roofie says. “Roofie, we really didn’t want to do it, but you were talking crazy with your idea of attacking the military. Your plan would’ve gotten everyone killed.” You say. “And that may still happen if recent events are any indication. At least with my plan I would’ve died with the carnival intact rather than seeing it splitting up before my eyes.” Nobody else really knows what to say at this point, so you all just get silent and continue to converse with each other. “So what’s the next move?” Klepto asks. “I dunno, escape I guess? Can we get to one of the vehicles quickly and drive off?” you say. “Good luck with that given all the guardsmen on high alert now.” Fatty points out. “Yeah I don’t think we’re getting very far.” Lifto adds. You sit down and exhale wondering what to do next, but you can’t really think right now. It would seem that due to your more proactive suggestions and Roofie’s apathy you’ve somehow become the “leader” of your little group now. You hadn’t really planned on that. “For right now, we’re just going to stay put, I’ll try to think of something.” You remark. The rest of your group lack any ideas of their own, so they comply with your plan (or lack there of). Time passes and you mostly do a lot of casual conversation and mental speculation of what might happen “if you do X.” You half expect someone else to try to escape, particularly when they say they need to use the bathroom, but given that they always return under the same guard they left with it would seem nobody has the guts to really try it, not even Razor. Nobody else in your group comes up with any plans either, but you do notice Shrimpy occasionally heads over to the group of dwarves. He claims he’s just securing the “alliance” but you’re more inclined to believe he’s just trying to secure his own safety. So far though the dwarves are still supposed to be on your side. Roofie has continued to lie on the sleeping mat not saying anything to anyone. You still feel a little bad about betraying him especially given that he not only brought you into this carnival and liked you enough to give you a personal trailer, but also that he potentially saved you a lot of pain when Razor was going to kick your ass. You go over to talk to him. “Hey Roofie.” You say. “Hrm, hey Suzy.” He grunts. “Are you okay?” “Me? Well other than not having a drink all day, I’m fine. Just been making peace with my life I suppose.” Roofie says. “Roofie, I’m still very sorry about…” “What? Having Lifto wack me over the head? I’ve forgotten about that or rather I’ve rethought my own stance on that. You probably were right, I mean sure I would’ve rather died like that, but that was sort of selfish of me to want to use my last bit of dwindling influence to get everyone to follow me. Would’ve especially been a shame if you’d gotten killed in the crossfire. You’re actually very talented.” “You’re just saying that.” “No it’s true. I didn’t make my decision to hire you based on looks or on a whim. In the brief moment you’ve performed as a clown you were good. I mean it’s obvious you’re even a leader with how you got the other clowns hanging on your decisions. (Sigh) If only you had come across this carnival sooner. Things might’ve been much different.” “Well I’m not sure how much of a leader I am, because I can’t think of what comes next.” You say. “You’ll figure out something I’m sure. One thing though and while I don’t hold out much hope, if you can somehow keep this carnival together…do it. I know the current situation isn’t the best and I know you haven’t exactly been welcomed by everyone, but I see something in you that would feel fulfilled if you could experience the carnival like it once was. Like a family.” “A family?” you say with a smirk. “Hey like I said, you came in during the family fight. And that’s what happens in families sometimes. Family fights are always the most vicious, but after it dies down, sometimes the family unit can be stronger than ever. And I think you could be happy if you can keep this family from tearing itself apart completely. But you’ll have to be the one to do it. I don’t have it in me anymore.” At this point Roofie touches your hand and you pat his before leaving him be again. You wonder if this is more of a last request by a “dying” man rather than looking out for your personal fulfillment. Still, you think he’s genuine and sure it would be nice if the entire carnival became the happy family you never had, but you just don’t think that’s going to be possible. You look around and see nothing much has changed except a changing of the guards. One of them happens to be Roger, which makes you think of a possible way you could escape. The only problem is it’s going to rely on being more “charming” than you already have been with Roger and that could potentially get you into a situation you don’t want to be in. > You go to Roger While you hope you don’t have to go too far, if it means getting the hell out of this place, then maybe that’s what you’ll have to do because whether the National Guard leaves or stays the fact remains, you’re not the one to lead this carnival like Roofie thinks you are and you feel your life is in danger. You start to walk over to Roger. “Hey where are you going?” Klepto asks. “Not sure yet, but don’t wait up.” You reply and continue walking to Roger. When you get to Roger you’re all smiles, poses and charm. “Hello Roger are you doing well today?” You say in a friendly tone. “Hey, Suzy. I’m okay I guess, but I really wish your friends wouldn’t cause so much trouble. Somebody is libel to get hurt. My commanding officer isn’t exactly the tolerant type and I think you saw that earlier.” “Yes, I did. I was so scared. In fact I’m scared of the whole aura this place is giving now. It’s becoming very violent, but I feel so much safer being near you.” You say and start to touch Roger. At this point Roger is smiling back at you, but his buddy nearby is a little less approving, though you imagine its jealousy more than anything else. “Roger, we’re supposed to be keeping an eye on these carnie freaks, not fraternizing with them.” “What’s the harm Ernie? I mean she says she’s scared. What, you think she’s going to clobber me in the head and take my weapon? Come on, stop being so paranoid. We shouldn’t even be here anyway.” “Orders are orders…ugh. Whatever, I’m not going to watch you make goo goo eyes at some carnie whore. I’ll be outside this tent, try to keep your eyes on the detainees and not on her ass the whole time.” Ernie says and steps outside the tent. “What a rude person. I’m glad you’re not like that.” You say now with your arms wrapped around Roger. “Well you know, I treat people the way they want to be treated.” Roger replies. As distracted as Roger is, he’s actually keeping it together better than one would think. He keeps a tight grip on his rifle and an eye on if you’re going to attempt to grab his pistol. He also periodically looks away from you to make sure nobody is taking advantage of this situation. (Which Klepto and the rest look like they were going to do, but realize they’re still too far away to rush at Roger before he could shove you aside and open fire) Though your plan wasn’t necessarily to save everyone, but rather yourself. “So Roger, what’s a girl gotta do to get out of here?” you say seductively. “Well, like I said we should be gone later today or tomorrow at the latest.” “Too long and anything could happen within that time! Can’t you do something? I mean I could make it worth your while.” You say and run your finger across Roger’s chest. “Suzy, look, I’d really like to help, but…hey!” Roger is interrupted when you grab his hand. You bring his hand to your face and closing your eyes, you insert his index finger in your mouth and slowly suck on it making “mmmmm” sounds. This scene hasn’t gone unnoticed by more than a few carnies watching you. In fact the predictable calls of “whore”, “slut” and worse are uttered your way. Roger on the other hand is practically speechless. “I…uh…shit…” he says and then pulls his hand away staring at his finger for a moment. “Awww….but I wasn’t done sucking on you…” you say and flutter your eyes a bit, trying to look as cute as possible then you whisper in his ear: “Take me back to my trailer and I’ll show you the REAL greatest show on earth.” then you lick his ear. Roger immediately calls in Ernie loudly. Ernie rushes in with his weapon ready to kill something. “What?! What?! Are they rioting again?!” he exclaims. “No. But I REALLY need a favor! You need to watch these people and if the commander checks in on us, tell him I had a to take a shit really bad.” “What…wait… Oh fuck no! You’re gonna go fuck this little carnie whore aren’t you? Goddamnit Roger!” “Come on Ernie, you can’t help me out?” “Motherfucker, I’m always helping you out! I don’t understand why you can’t just fuck the bitch right here. Not like these people are shy and from the looks of her, she looks like it wouldn’t be the first time she’s gotten fucked in front of a live audience.” Ernie remarks. You know, while you’ve gotten used to the baseless comments about you being a woman of loose morals, it still hurts sometimes. In any case, Roger is not a man to be deterred from his lust for you right now. “Alright, fine. I didn’t want to hold this over your head, but you leave me no choice…” Roger starts to say, but whatever the threat is, Ernie doesn’t even let him finish it. “Oh fuck. (Sigh) Don’t even say it. Fine. Go. Go. Go! And don’t take too long, though I imagine in your case that won’t be a problem.” Ernie says defeated. “Thanks man! Seriously I really will remember this favor!” “Hrm. That you only got through blackmail.” As you and Roger leave, Ernie says one more thing. “Hope you’ve got condoms, because lord knows what diseases she’s got being a carnie. Her kootch might turn your dick into a fucking Siamese Twin or some shit.” “How the hell does that even make sense? Fucking asshole…” you say and start to get angry at Ernie’s comments, but Roger just take you by the hand to go back to your trailer. “Don’t mind him. Let’ hurry though, because we don’t want to bump into anyone else. It isn’t like I got leverage over everyone like I do with Ernie. So where is your trailer?” You tell him the location and the pair of you are heading over in that direction fluctuating between being “stealthy” and running. While you’re doing this, it occurs to you that you have to think up your next move. Are you really going to let him fuck you? Roger is distracted enough that you probably could grab his side arm to give you enough time to make a run for it, but while Roger might not shoot you immediately (And that’s rolling dice there) there’s nothing to say the other nearby Guardsmen won’t and you know they’ll be alerted as soon as you try to run away from Roger. Of course if you really are willing to make that ultimate “sacrifice” for freedom, Roger might even help you out a lot more in your escape attempt. Of course he could turn out to be a complete asshole and march you back to the tent after he’s had his way with you. > You make a break for it Roger is so busy keeping a look out for running into his buddies and getting to your trailer he’s now suitably distracted and while you’re so close to him, you easily grab his pistol. “HEY WHAT…” he exclaims as you back away quickly and hold the gun on him. “Drop the rifle!” you shout. He doesn’t though. “Shit. I should’ve known better. Ernie’s going to have a field day.” Roger says. “Sorry Roger, but I really need you to drop that rifle!” you say. “…nah…if you had it in you to shoot me, you would’ve by now. You’ve never shot a person and this whole situation is scary to you. You’re hoping your sex appeal will be enough to carry you through this and that I’ll be weak willed enough that I won’t call your bluff and just shoot you dead right now.” That’s an incredible amount insight for someone you thought was nothing more than just a horny grunt. Unfortunately he’s pretty much on target. For a moment there is a pause and you look at him hopefully, you even manage to start tearing up a bit. “(Sigh) Look, I told you we were going to leave soon, I dunno why you feel the need to go through this elaborate escape plan when it really isn’t necessary. Just hand the pistol over and we’ll head back to the tent.” You’re too scared of what might happen if you just surrender, so all you can do is continue to aim it at Roger. “Suzy, I’m not fucking around now give me the…” Roger begins to say and moves towards you. With his rifle slightly lowered and his hand outstretched, you nervously fire two shots at him. At this range you don’t miss even though you’re in a heightened state of anxiety. Roger falls to the ground with two in his chest and doesn’t move, you’ve killed him. “Oh my…oh god I’m sorry…(Sniff)” you say. The shots of course have drawn the attention of the other guardsmen. You hear shouting which is getting closer to your location, so you run. You hear more shouting followed by gunfire. At first you think they’ve seen you and are shooting at you, but that isn’t the case when you start to hear a few screams. Now you’re even more scared as you have no idea what’s going on. Did the carnies take advantage of this situation and start to fight back? You have no idea, but you don’t intend on sticking around. You duck and hide the best you can through the small maze of trailers and vehicles. The screams, shouting and gunfire are now accompanied by unnatural growing. Like animals of some sort. Unfortunately as you reach the far end of the carnival limits you are ambushed by something skulking behind the corner of the last trailer you were passing and the pistol goes sprawling out of your hand. You don’t even know what it is, except that you’re on the ground and it’s on your back breathing heavily and making that growling sound you heard. You then feel teeth sink deep into your shoulder. Pain and fear both rise up in you for a moment as you struggle to get free, but this thing what ever it is has a strong grip and with one of its hands it smashes your face repeatedly into the ground into your struggling becomes less, then it breaks your neck before feasting on the rest of your dead body.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>While you hope you don’t have to go too far, if it means getting the hell out of this place, then maybe that’s what you’ll have to do because whether the National Guard leaves or stays the fact remains, you’re not the one to lead this carnival like Roofie thinks you are and you feel your life is in danger. You start to walk over to Roger. “Hey where are you going?” Klepto asks. “Not sure yet, but don’t wait up.” You reply and continue walking to Roger. When you get to Roger you’re all smiles, poses and charm. “Hello Roger are you doing well today?” You say in a friendly tone. “Hey, Suzy. I’m okay I guess, but I really wish your friends wouldn’t cause so much trouble. Somebody is libel to get hurt. My commanding officer isn’t exactly the tolerant type and I think you saw that earlier.” “Yes, I did. I was so scared. In fact I’m scared of the whole aura this place is giving now. It’s becoming very violent, but I feel so much safer being near you.” You say and start to touch Roger. At this point Roger is smiling back at you, but his buddy nearby is a little less approving, though you imagine its jealousy more than anything else. “Roger, we’re supposed to be keeping an eye on these carnie freaks, not fraternizing with them.” “What’s the harm Ernie? I mean she says she’s scared. What, you think she’s going to clobber me in the head and take my weapon? Come on, stop being so paranoid. We shouldn’t even be here anyway.” “Orders are orders…ugh. Whatever, I’m not going to watch you make goo goo eyes at some carnie whore. I’ll be outside this tent, try to keep your eyes on the detainees and not on her ass the whole time.” Ernie says and steps outside the tent. “What a rude person. I’m glad you’re not like that.” You say now with your arms wrapped around Roger. “Well you know, I treat people the way they want to be treated.” Roger replies. As distracted as Roger is, he’s actually keeping it together better than one would think. He keeps a tight grip on his rifle and an eye on if you’re going to attempt to grab his pistol. He also periodically looks away from you to make sure nobody is taking advantage of this situation. (Which Klepto and the rest look like they were going to do, but realize they’re still too far away to rush at Roger before he could shove you aside and open fire) Though your plan wasn’t necessarily to save everyone, but rather yourself. “So Roger, what’s a girl gotta do to get out of here?” you say seductively. “Well, like I said we should be gone later today or tomorrow at the latest.” “Too long and anything could happen within that time! Can’t you do something? I mean I could make it worth your while.” You say and run your finger across Roger’s chest. “Suzy, look, I’d really like to help, but…hey!” Roger is interrupted when you grab his hand. You bring his hand to your face and closing your eyes, you insert his index finger in your mouth and slowly suck on it making “mmmmm” sounds. This scene hasn’t gone unnoticed by more than a few carnies watching you. In fact the predictable calls of “whore”, “slut” and worse are uttered your way. Roger on the other hand is practically speechless. “I…uh…shit…” he says and then pulls his hand away staring at his finger for a moment. “Awww….but I wasn’t done sucking on you…” you say and flutter your eyes a bit, trying to look as cute as possible then you whisper in his ear: “Take me back to my trailer and I’ll show you the REAL greatest show on earth.” then you lick his ear. Roger immediately calls in Ernie loudly. Ernie rushes in with his weapon ready to kill something. “What?! What?! Are they rioting again?!” he exclaims. “No. But I REALLY need a favor! You need to watch these people and if the commander checks in on us, tell him I had a to take a shit really bad.” “What…wait… Oh fuck no! You’re gonna go fuck this little carnie whore aren’t you? Goddamnit Roger!” “Come on Ernie, you can’t help me out?” “Motherfucker, I’m always helping you out! I don’t understand why you can’t just fuck the bitch right here. Not like these people are shy and from the looks of her, she looks like it wouldn’t be the first time she’s gotten fucked in front of a live audience.” Ernie remarks. You know, while you’ve gotten used to the baseless comments about you being a woman of loose morals, it still hurts sometimes. In any case, Roger is not a man to be deterred from his lust for you right now. “Alright, fine. I didn’t want to hold this over your head, but you leave me no choice…” Roger starts to say, but whatever the threat is, Ernie doesn’t even let him finish it. “Oh fuck. (Sigh) Don’t even say it. Fine. Go. Go. Go! And don’t take too long, though I imagine in your case that won’t be a problem.” Ernie says defeated. “Thanks man! Seriously I really will remember this favor!” “Hrm. That you only got through blackmail.” As you and Roger leave, Ernie says one more thing. “Hope you’ve got condoms, because lord knows what diseases she’s got being a carnie. Her kootch might turn your dick into a fucking Siamese Twin or some shit.” “How the hell does that even make sense? Fucking asshole…” you say and start to get angry at Ernie’s comments, but Roger just take you by the hand to go back to your trailer. “Don’t mind him. Let’ hurry though, because we don’t want to bump into anyone else. It isn’t like I got leverage over everyone like I do with Ernie. So where is your trailer?” You tell him the location and the pair of you are heading over in that direction fluctuating between being “stealthy” and running. While you’re doing this, it occurs to you that you have to think up your next move. Are you really going to let him fuck you? Roger is distracted enough that you probably could grab his side arm to give you enough time to make a run for it, but while Roger might not shoot you immediately (And that’s rolling dice there) there’s nothing to say the other nearby Guardsmen won’t and you know they’ll be alerted as soon as you try to run away from Roger. Of course if you really are willing to make that ultimate “sacrifice” for freedom, Roger might even help you out a lot more in your escape attempt. Of course he could turn out to be a complete asshole and march you back to the tent after he’s had his way with you. > You go through with it You aren’t confident that you’d make it with trying to ambush Roger. While it’s possible you’ll get some sort of better opportunity while in the trailer, at this point you’re going to hope that Roger isn’t an asshole and this will actually get him to help you escape. That’s a lot to place on hope, but it’s going to have to do. Soon you get to your trailer and you enter it with Roger still looking around before going in himself. You stand by your bed and look at it and then look at Roger. “So here we are.” He says. “Yeah…so here we are…” you reply. “Well? Come on, we don’t have much time.” Roger says and puts his weapons down though of course he puts them out your reach and starts guiding you to lay down on the bed. This is going to happen. It isn’t that Roger isn’t unattractive to you and this isn’t exactly like he’s coercing you to do anything (though you’re afraid he might if you resist at this point) its just…well directly using your pussy to get yourself out of a jam isn’t exactly how you do things. Indirectly by teasing and flirting? Sure you’ve gotten used to doing that, but this is a step you don’t think you’re ready to take and it’s too late at this point. Roger is already stripping his clothes off and you’re slowly doing likewise. Soon the pair of you are naked and his dick’s coming at you like a monster. As he moves in to kiss and embrace you, you stop him. “Um…could we not look at each other while we do this?” you say. “Huh?” he asks, almost looking a bit wounded by that comment. “Uh, I just mean can we do it doggy style? I just prefer it that way.” You ask. “Oh. Well yeah! Sure, however you want it. I’m cool with that.” Roger says and you get into position. Well at least now you can close your eyes and pretend its Bobby. Hopefully Roger isn’t much of a talker and just gets on with it. While you prepare yourself for this “experience”, gunshots are suddenly heard outside. Several of them in fact. This is followed by a lot of shouting. “Oh fuck! What the hell?!” Roger exclaims and no longer do you feel his hands at your haunches, he’s gotten off the bed. You turn over and see him starting to get dressed, periodically looking out the narrow windows. “What’s going on out there?!” you ask. “I have no idea, but whatever it is, YOU stay inside and keep down. I don’t want you getting hurt.” You start to get dressed as well, wondering what calamity has happened now. Did the carnies finally decide to rush the guardsmen? Roger, with his clothes back on, grabs his rifle and pistol and prepares to head out. “Suzy, remember what I said, stay inside…OH SHIT!” Roger shouts as he opens the door. Something humanoid runs into Roger who drops his rifle and is pinned against the wall. It’s growling and snarling and Roger is holding its neck in an attempt to not let it bite him. Fear grips you, but not so much that you can’t grab a nearby knife from the kitchen area in an effort to stab it. “Suzy stay back! I got it!” Roger shouts and manages to shove the thing off of him and out the door. He then pulls out his pistol and presumably fires at the thing several times. He then slams the door shut and attempts to lock and barricade it. “Did you kill it?” you ask. “I dunno. I think I did.” Roger answers. “You think? Don’t you think you better know?!” “Yes! Yes! I killed it! I mean I put two it’s head and three in its chest. Jesus Christ, gimme a moment here! One moment I was nearly in paradise and the next I’m fending off a fucking…zombie…or something…shit I dunno what the hell…” Roger says trying to wrap his head around this unexpected turn of events. Zombie. Did he just say that thing was a zombie? It was humanoid and trying to bite him, while making snarling and growling sounds. Then again it didn’t look exactly rotten, could’ve been new dead though. Maybe just a rabid human? Seems silly that you’re actually considering that you’re getting attacked by zombies. Never the less, the gunfire and chaos you’re hearing outside seems to suggest you’re being attacked by SOMETHING. Meanwhile Roger is sitting and mumbling to himself. Suddenly he stands up. “Fuck it. Suzy, you still wanna get out of here right?” Roger says. “Well of course.” You say. “Come on, we’re taking one of those trucks. I got the keys.” “Okay? But what about your friends?” “Hah, most of those guys I serve with are assholes. I mean you saw my commanding officer and Ernie. Can’t say any of them are my friends. What about you and your carnie family?” “Well… the clowns were cool with me and the owner…but well it’s complicated and let’s just say I wasn’t fitting in there, so while I do feel slightly guilty just abandoning the ones that I was getting along with, I can’t stay someplace where I don’t feel entirely welcome or safe.” “Okay, then its settled, we’ll leave now.” “But what about those things out there?” “Well we’re going to have to grab the truck now because either one or two things is going to happen. One, the rest of my squad is going to put these things down and both of us are going to be up shit’s creek or those things are going to kill everyone and we’ll have to brave through them while they’re not distracted by others.” Roger unblocks the door and kicks it open, ready to shoot anything that might be lurking outside, fortunately that isn’t the case right now. “Alright let’s do this and stick close to me.” he says and the pair of you run out the trailer. The sounds of creatures and gunfire are all around you and you haven’t stepped out of the trailer a few seconds when Roger has to shoot two more of the things. He doesn’t hit them in the head and they still stay down, so you’re guessing maybe the zombie thing isn’t the case. Still don’t want to get bit though, who knows if this is contagious? You see a few dead bodies of guardsmen on the ground and in one case one of those cannibals eating it and not paying any attention to anything else. The fact that the sounds of gunfire dying down and an increase in the screaming and yelling signals to you that things are getting grim. You wonder if they’ve gotten to the carnies yet. Is this going on everywhere? Is this local? You’ll have to figure that out later. Right now you’re just happy to get inside a heavy-duty military truck. Roger gets in the driver’s seat and with more snarling creatures banging on the doors and trying to get in, Roger starts up the truck and promptly runs over three of them on your way out this place. Soon you’re on the road, but what next? “Where are we going?” you ask. “I dunno. If this is some sort of plague or invasion or something I’m wondering if we shouldn’t head to Fort Timons, it’s the closest military facility around here and where I was stationed before I got sent here. Still quite a drive though.” Roger says. “What? Are you nuts? Didn’t you just go AWOL and now you’re thinking about going to an military base?” “Well… I mean yeah technically I just deserted my post…but considering it didn’t seem like anyone else is going to live through that attack I doubt if anyone is going to call me out on it. We could just tell them we were the only survivors.” “But if this is some sort of disease will a military base even be safe? I mean don’t these sorts of thing originate from them what with all the secret experiments and bioweapons?” “What? You watch too many horror movies or science fiction! Unless its some secret base with top level government security, the average ordinary military base isn’t going to have a lab where they’re making bioweapons! In any case I know that stuff isn’t at Fort Timons.” “I dunno…just doesn’t seem the safest place.” “Well where do you propose then?” You don’t have an answer. “See? Look, it’s still a long drive there, maybe I can get something on the radio and we can find out more. Too bad this one doesn’t have a two-way radio, we’d actually be able to communicate with someone and I lost my fucking cell phone. In fact I probably left it in your trailer.” As Roger attempts to get a signal on the radio, you think about how you’ve now run away from two “families” and who knows what’s become of both of them. Are they dead? Are they alive? Has you hometown been overrun by those things? Is it under marshal law? You feel a little sad about it all, but what can you really do? As the day eventually turns into night, Roger continues to try to get something on the radio, but its just static on the military channel he’s using. He doesn’t understand it. Switching over to the normal radio just gets music, which is broken up by the periodic Ground Zero advert. Absolutely nothing about the creatures though, not even regular news. It’s very frustrating. Your aren’t encountering too much traffic on the road either, granted this isn’t the busiest of roads, but it feels fairly isolated. Still, at least you’re not seeing a horde of those things roaming about. Roger talks a little about his past to break up the long periods of silence, most of it fairly mundane. You just mainly listen although you’re only really half listening and re-direct questions about yourself to something superficial. You’re not in the mood to talk about yourself. Eventually you start to get sleepy and Roger does as well. He pulls over and the both of you go to sleep and thankfully he never once suggests picking up where you left off in your trailer. Nothing like a bunch of cannibal creatures to break up the mood. You drift off to sleep… > Next day... FRIDAY “…this was a paid announcement by the Ground Zero Corporation…” “Agh! Shut the fuck up already. What the hell did GZ buy up all the goddamn stations?!” you hear Roger shout as he angrily turns the radio off, waking you up. It would seem you’re in motion again and you slept through it. “What’s going on?” you ask. “Huh? Oh you’re up. Nothing’s going on, just dumb ass Ground Zero commercials warning about an impending nuclear holocaust as usual. Never mind the fact we got a very real threat that I can’t seem to get any information on. Anyway I didn’t sleep that much so I just started driving again. Figured you could still sleep though so I didn’t bother waking you” Roger says. “So how long have we been on the road?” “More than a few hours definitely. Starting to by pass all this farmland area now, we’ll probably be hitting a more populated area soon. I also started to see a few more moving vehicles, though I’ve also been seeing a lot of abandoned vehicles as well. Oddly no military. Saw a few people even trying to hitch a ride, but I’m not playing good Samaritan right now.” “You see any of those things?” you ask. “Hrm, I thought I might’ve seen a few while I was driving, but from the distance I could quite tell. Wasn’t like I was going to check.” So far it looks like the plan is still going to Fort Timons, but if you didn’t think that was a dubious idea before, you’re really uncertain now. He can’t get any signal from the radio, for all you know the base might be overrun by those things. Which is exactly what you bring up to Roger, but he seems confident that wouldn’t be the case and he’s determined to head to Fort Timons. Funny thing considering he abandoned all his comrades at the carnival and said they were all assholes. Guess he’s still military at heart. He senses that you still aren’t comfortable with his plan though. “Suzy, you don’t need to come with me you know. I mean I can drop you off at the next town we go through.” Roger says. “And what exactly am I going to do there? I don’t have anything except the clothes on my back and with the way things are going, I can imagine I’d be resorting to taking those off a lot just to survive.” You say. There’s a moment of silence before Roger replies. “I’m guessing that’s what you were doing with me back at the carnival. It’s fine, I sort of knew that’s what was going on. I knew you didn’t actually like me.” “If you knew all that, why did you risk your career and possibly your life?” “You’re kidding right? I mean I know I’m not hideous, but you’re a little out of my league. When the hell am I going to get a chance to be with someone that looks like you? I mean sure I knew it was all an act, but in MY mind I could pretend you were being genuine. Though I admit when you stopped me from kissing you and didn’t want to look at my face, that sort of hurt.” “It wasn’t personal. I just don’t know you that well and I wasn’t ready for that level of intimacy. I was going to pretend you were my ex-boyfriend. (Sigh) I can’t believe I even went that far and was going to go through with it. I mean contrary to whatever you may have heard shouted at me, I don’t do stuff like that like…ever.” “Really? Because you’re pretty good at the whole seduction thing, even if you are a bit obvious with it.” “I’m obvious with it because it’s only just a new skill I developed within the last few days I joined a goddamn carnival just to get out of my goddamn shitty life at home…What the hell was I even thinking?! I’m not cut out to take care of myself! I should’ve just stayed home and let cannibals eat me in the comfort of my basement!” you say, tearing up a bit. The stress of the week is starting to get to you. “Whoa! You don’t mean that. Things aren’t totally horrible. Hey if it make you feel any better, I felt a little bad knowing that I was going to take advantage of what was obviously the act of a desperate woman.” Roger says. Now you stop sniffling and start to chuckle at the absurdity of that statement. “But of course that wasn’t going to stop you.” You say. “Well no of course not, but I assure you I would’ve felt guilty about it.” “No you wouldn’t have.” “Okay you’re right, I wouldn’t have, but I would have still gotten you out of that carnival if you had asked afterwards.” “Well at least it wouldn’t have been for nothing. (Sigh) Guess it all worked out anyway. I mean we’re both still alive due to our choices and I am thankful I’m not dead and that you probably saved my life back there.” “And I’m thankful I at least got to see you naked.” “We’ll always have the trailer I suppose.” You don’t exactly feel good about your situation, but Roger’s attempt to lighten up the mood at least has you feeling slightly better. “So…why don’t you tell me about this ex-boyfriend of yours? I’m guessing he must’ve been some sort of handsome stud if you’re still thinking about him.” Roger says. “Heh. Not especially. He was a normal looking guy. Not too much different from you in that department. He’s just the only guy I’ve ever been with, so, it was more comfortable to think about him instead. Anyway it was sort of complicated with him. Long story that I don’t want to get into right now.” “I understand. Well I’ll just say this, he was lucky to have you as a girlfriend and was a damn fool to let you get away.” “Hrm…actually you know what? You’re exactly right. He WAS lucky to have me and a damn fool to let me get away!” you say with a bit of pride. You know Roger is half saying this just in the hopes to get you into a compromising position again, but what the hell, it’s an ego booster and it keeps you in a positive mindset at least. “Shit.” Roger suddenly says. “What now?” you ask. “I just looked at the gas gauge, we’re practically out. Goddamn it I thought Ernie gassed this thing up recently.” “We can’t make it to Timons?” “Well we could risk it on fumes to Fort Timons, but I’d rather not chance that during these circumstances. I don’t even have a rubber hose that we could use to suck out the gas from one these abandoned vehicles we’ve been passing.” “Well I guess we’re stopping at the next gas station then.” “Assuming they got any. I get the impression just popping into the next gas station isn’t going to be that simple.” You and Roger continue to drive for about a half hour before you see something of interest in the distance. Namely a truck stop, which apparently has been converted into a minor fortress. “Hey look at that!” you point out. “I see it. It’s a truck stop and it looks like whoever is there is trying to block the place off by putting trucks around it. They even got people standing on top of the trucks with rifles as look outs. They probably got gas.” Roger says. “I dunno. Whoever is there probably isn’t going to be too trustful of anyone, especially someone from the military. They might just try to rob us.” “We gotta try. I mean we need gas, and given how well this place is defended, we at least know they probably got some. Who knows if we’ll get lucky some place else.” You and Roger drive to the truck stop, which immediately causes the lookouts to point and raise their rifles in your direction. When you stop in front of it there are a lot of shouts for you to stay in the truck. “We don’t need any government assistance here, we’re doing just fine as you can see. I highly suggest that y’all just continue on your way.” One of them shouts. “I’m not here for trouble. I just need some gas. We get that and we’ll be on our way to Fort Timons.” Roger shouts back. “Gas? Don’t fucking think so soldier boy. With the way society is collapsing that shit’s gonna be valuable and money is gonna be worthless.” “Well, would you accept a trade of supplies for gas?” “Hrmmm, well whatta you got?” “Got some military rations in the back of this thing. Those things last for years you know.” “We got tons of food, what else? Any weapons?” “Uh…there might be a couple…oh we got some medical supplies in here!” There is a long pause and he tells you to wait before climbing down the truck and disappearing from sight. Eventually you hear his voice again which is now coming from behind the truck barricade. “Okay, we’re gonna move this truck, but one funny thing happens and you’re the first one getting a bullet to the head. Alright, we’re letting this one in, everyone keep extra look out for those rabid bastards!” “You still think this is a good idea?” you ask. “Well it’s like I said, our options for gas are limited.” Roger answers. As soon as the truck is moved out your way, the man who was barking orders at you waves you in and motions you over to the gas pumps. As soon as you drive in they put the truck back. Either they’re really safety conscience or they don’t want to risk having you get away. From this distance you see several more people in the building part of the truck stop. Looks like it’s a general store/diner combo. Most of them are watching you from the windows, though a few of them come out, one of them is an older man with a cane who walks directly to the pumps. “Okay, I want the two you in that truck to exit it slowly. I don’t care if you got weapons, but don’t point them at me or anyone else in a threatening manner.” The old man shouts. Roger takes his rifle over his shoulder and exits the truck. You do like wise, though being unarmed you exit from Roger’s side just so you don’t feel quite as vulnerable. Naturally rifles are pointed at the pair of you, but the old man with the cane shouts telling them to calm down. “You lot, stop pointing your guns and start unloading this truck. Sorry about that, everyone’s a little on edge. Name’s Henry. I own this place.” He says. “Roger and it’s understandable.” “Well, a military man eh? Thought all the National Guard were off fighting those rabid things in the city. From what I’ve heard the place is completely overrun now.” “The city? You mean Security is overrun?” you ask. “Yep. Heard it on the radio. Not the regular one of course. Those GZ bastards seem to be clogging those up, but on my Ham Radio. Been trying to communicate with Fort Timons, but my radio isn’t exactly in the best condition…” “Hold on! You’ve been in communication with Fort Timons?!” Roger exclaims. “Well, somewhat. More like my old buddy I served with back in the day who still works there as an inventory clerk. Haven’t heard anything from him since yesterday. All I know is the last thing he told me was the fort was on high alert and further communication was going to be limited to a need to know basis and only to those with the proper clearance. Typical military bullshit I suppose, well I don’t need to tell you.” “Uh, we were on our way to Fort Timons. Do you think it’s safe?” You say. “Heh, well I couldn’t tell you if the fort is safe, but I can tell you that those rabid fuckers have been making their way out of the city en mass and given how far the city is, they apparently don’t get tired and can cover a lot of ground. We just repelled a bunch of them yesterday. Hence the make shift fortress here. Fort Timons is even closer to the city, so at best I’d wager that you’re going to have to wade through a bunch of those things before getting there. Not something I’d want to do to be sure.” Henry remarks. “Shit, those things are in the city and they were in my town! This means this can’t just be a local thing! It’s probably a nationwide epidemic! We can’t go to Fort Timons now!” you exclaim. “We don’t know if the place has fallen to those things.” Roger replies. “Exactly! We don’t know!” you say. At this point Henry interjects. “If I may, the both of you can stay here. We’ve got the room and your truck full of supplies as far as I’m concerned buys your way in. And I’m sure as a military man, you’d pull your weight here to defend this place if need be. So you and your girlfriend can stay here if you wish.” Henry says and then walks over to oversee his people unloading the truck. It’s an incredibly tempting offer and one you’d jump at the chance for, but Roger still seems sure that Fort Timons will better in the long run. You wonder if he feels a little obligated to go back to Fort Timons because deep down he feels like he abandoned his post even if hasn’t admitted it. The only downside is if Roger doesn’t stick around and you do, you’ll be left in the company of a bunch of strangers again and that didn’t go so well last time. You can only imagine all the leers, grope attempts and possibly worse from a bunch of horny trucker types. > You insist on staying here Something in your heart is telling you that going to Fort Timons would be a huge mistake. The length of the trip and the possibility that it’s going to be swarming with those things just doesn’t seem safe. This place might not be safe either, but at least it’s a secure place that you don’t need to travel any further to. “Suzy, I still think going to Timons is a better idea than staying here. I’m going, so if you want to stay…” Roger says before you interrupt him. You grip Roger by the head with both hands and move it downwards so you can kiss him on the lips. The kiss is then followed your arms moving downward in a tighter hugging motion. He returns in kind as the pair of you continue to embrace. “Don’t go. Please don’t go to Fort Timons. It won’t be safe and I need you here with me.” You say stopping your kiss to speak. “Suzy…” “Please. Stay with me.” “(Sigh) Suzy… do you really mean this? I mean I really need to know where we stand…because…you can’t just flutter your eyes and kiss me without meaning it now. I’m really starting to have feelings for you, but if you’re just doing this out of survival again…” You stare him directly in his eyes. “Yes, Roger. I mean it. Not just for me, but for you. I don’t want you to put yourself in any danger anymore than I want myself to be in danger. And Fort Timons is just going to be unnecessary danger. I know we haven’t known each other long, but we have been through a lot together and if this is the way this shitty world is going to be, then I want to at least spend the rest of that time with you.” Well if you didn’t mean any of that, it sure was enough to convince Roger because he resumes kissing and hugging you immediately. Of course you did mean it since you have grown attached to him. Just a sucker for men who save your life you guess. You both don’t even notice Henry walking up to you. “Hrm, looks like I interrupted something. So did you two decide on what you’re going to do…besides suck on each others faces?” he asks. “Well…” Roger says and then smiles at you before turning his attention to Henry. “I think we’ll be staying.” “Great. Glad to hear it. Need more people to help defend this place. Think you could help with look out for awhile with that rifle of yours?” Henry says. “Sure. For how long?” Roger asks. “Hmm, probably until midnight. Earl needs to get some sleep, that’s why he’s so irritable right now. As for you little lady, why don’t you head on inside and get acquainted with everyone. You and your boyfriend can pick up where you left off later.” Henry goes to wander over to Earl to give him the news that he’ll be relieved soon and you and Roger are left alone again. “Okay, well I guess I’ll see you later tonight then.” Roger says. “Yes, though I wonder where we’re supposed to sleep.” You answer. “Well presumably together now.” “Ha ha, of course but that wasn’t what I meant.” “Hrm, I’m sure someone will tell you inside what the sleeping arrangements are, well anyway I probably should get over to my new job. See you later.” Roger says. As he leaves, you shout to him to be careful which he just smiles and waves as a reassurance that you don’t need to worry about him. And now you turn towards the truck stop building which no longer has the small crowd outside it anymore and people have gone back inside. People which you now have to be social with… “Okay, Suzy. You can do this. It won’t be like the carnival.” You mumble to yourself as you walk to the building. As soon as you walk in you see a mixture of people. Mostly older men, but women as well and even a couple children. Most of them look up when you enter. “Hi everyone. I’m Suzy and my boyfriend Roger are going to be staying here, but we brought in a whole bunch of medical supplies and food with us to help pull our weight around here.” Your introduction is met with apathy. Half of them grunt in acknowledgement and the other half just go back to doing whatever it is they were doing. Well it’s better than most of what you got at the carnival. Seeing that nobody is speaking to you, you decide to sit quietly by yourself in a booth far away from everyone else. You mainly spend your time in introspection and listening to the random conversations. Most of them naturally are talking about the situation at hand, but it’s broken up by periods of “normalcy” of just joking around. Nobody here seems to be overly worried about rabid people running around and the breaking down of society, then again most of the people here are truckers so they’re probably used to roaming about and the employees of the place seem like they spend so much time here it’s a second home. Eventually enough time passes and you get tired of being a wall flower, or more specifically you’re tired of wearing the same clothes for the past few days along with no shower. You walk up to the group of waitresses in the hopes to ask them that perhaps there is some sort of wash up facility here. The oldest waitress, a red head with hard features and a name tag that says Anne looks you up and down as you approach and her friends do likewise. “Excuse me, but is there a wash room or shower or something I could use? I just feel so dirty what with the sweating and running from those things outside.” You expect catty remarks or a few insults or some sort of hostility, but you’re met with a surprise. “Why sure blondie. You can use the small shower we have for us in the back. You need a change of clothes too?” Anne says. “You have some?” “Well they’re extra waitress uniforms. If that’s okay.” “Sure, if it’s clean it’ll be a welcome change.” “Okay, hmm you’re a bit on the small side, Jasmine, go get Trudy’s old uniform. That should fit…Suzy wasn’t it?” “Yes, and thank you.” Soon, Jasmine returns to give you a uniform and you’re on your way to get washed up. The waitresses’ private bathroom isn’t much but the fact it has a shower that you can use to get clean is enough for you. You feel a little odd wearing the uniform, which was obviously designed to attract a lot of male attention, but again you’re just glad to be out of those old dirty clothes. By the time you get out of the shower, the waitresses are cooking up dinner for everyone. You ask if they need any help, but they say they got it. You sit down and eat, a couple people make a bit of small talk, but nothing of importance. You mostly are left alone, but it’s a promising start at least. In any event the re-invigorated feeling you had after the shower is wearing off and you start to get tired which is when you ask Anne where the sleeping area is. “Well some people are flopping right out here in these booths. A few really brave souls are sleeping out in their trucks out there. Henry’s got his own private office as you might expect. The wait staff has that small lounge area near our bathroom…though Jasmine is using one of the storerooms since she’s got her kids with her. I guess you could take one these booths or share the storeroom with Jasmine. Of course you’ve got that boyfriend…hmmm could give you the second storeroom. Doesn’t really have a lot of space though.” “That’s fine, I just want some where to rest.” And once again you succeed in a simple task with no major problems. Things have been going so well for you since you got here that you almost forget about the problems of the outside world going on. You don’t of course, but you honestly can say this is the safest you’ve felt since you left your basement. Giving you a spare blanket, Anne directs you to the second storeroom, which is indeed lacking in space but it’s enough for you. You waste no time in laying down your blanket and falling asleep on the floor. > The next day… SATURDAY You wake up to a body grinding up against you, an arm holding you tightly around your mid-section and warm breath blowing in your ear in between the kissing. Not exactly what you expected, but it beats those Ground Zero advertisements. “Well, looks like someone is feeling friendly this morning. When did you get here?” You ask. “A little after midnight. It was boring and I would’ve rather been with you, but at least I didn’t see any of those things. You of course were already asleep so I just slept besides you the whole night. You’re a pretty sound sleeper, you didn’t even wake up.” Roger says. “Hrm. Surprised you didn’t take advantage of my vulnerable situation.” “I thought about it, but honestly by that time I was pretty tired myself. I actually haven’t been awake long. So they make you a waitress to help out around here?” “Oh. This? No. They were just good enough to let me borrow some clean clothes. I won’t say everyone here has been social with me, but at least nobody has been hostile.” “Hm. Well you look hot in that uniform.” Roger says and resumes groping you. “Oh? You like this? Got a role play fetish eh?” “Sure, and its short so I’ll be able to hike the skirt up for easy access.” “Well that definitely is the practical side to it.” You chuckle. Your laughter is turned to semi-surprise when Roger moves one of his hands under your skirt. You didn’t quite expect him to go there so quickly, but it isn’t unwelcome. “Mmm yeah…” It’s been like a whole week that you’ve gone without pleasuring yourself (let alone had anyone else do it) so as far as you’re concerned you’re about due. You quickly start to undo Roger’s pants and few moments later your legs are wrapped around him and he’s thrusting into you. “Oh shit this feels so fucking good…” you exclaim. Honestly that’s not all you say. You say quite a few things fairly loudly and you don’t really care if anyone hears you. (Roger on the other hand is a bit more on the quiet side) You don’t know how much time passes because you’re enjoying yourself so much and then you feel it. “Oh my God! I’m almost there! Keep doing that! Harder! Faster! Oh yessss…” you exclaim and then the explosion. Though not that one. There’s a loud noise and a faint rumble, but you don’t really pay it any mind because you and Roger are more focused on the task involving each other’s fun parts. A few moments later and someone starts banging on the door. At first you think its someone that’s complaining about you being too noisy, but they start yelling you two need to come out now. “There’s a fucking nuke going off in distance!” the voice yells. “What the fuck?!” Roger exclaims. “What?!” You say. “I said there’s a…” “Yeah I heard! (Sigh) Hold on.” Roger interrupts. That must’ve been the rumble and noise from earlier. Talk about a mood breaker. “So…they finally went and did it.” You say. “I guess so. Shit…I hope it wasn’t too close.” Roger says. “We’d be all vaporized if it was a big one, so maybe it was just a little one?” “The one they dropped on Hiroshima was a little one too.” “Well I suppose there’s not much for it now. Our building is still intact so that’s a good sign.” You say trying not to wonder if you’re still going to be in the range of a fatal dose of radiation. Roger starts to slowly get his pants back on and you pull your skirt back down. When you both leave the room, you see Jasmine trying to calm her children down. A couple people are arguing. A few are just sitting in a silent state of shock. Henry is actually outside the diner looking in the direction of where the bomb must’ve gone off. You can see the lingering remnants of a mushroom cloud in the far distance even from inside the diner. You can’t help but hold on the Roger a bit tightly. “I don’t exactly know how far or how big the bomb was, but I do know it went off in the direction of Fort Timons. Hell, that might’ve even been the target. Well either that or the city. Either way both of those places are probably radioactive ruins now and it looks like you saved my life too.” Roger says squeezing you around the waist. “You think maybe this was just a way to get rid of those infected people? Maybe this is only occurring on a small scale?” you ask. “I dunno. Maybe, but I get the impression this bomb was just one of many to the nuclear end of the big war that the Ground Zero ads kept going on about. Guess it doesn’t matter because I imagine things are going to be severely changing and the world as we once knew it is going to be much different. Harder for one thing.” Surprisingly as frightening as this event is, you aren’t as filled with dread as you normally would be. Maybe its because after all the other craziness you went through this week, you could’ve ended up a lot worse off. Maybe you’re finally trying to find the silver lining for once in your life. “We’ll handle it…together.” You say with certainty. Roger looks at you and nods. “We will.” At this point Henry steps back in the diner and after calming some of the arguing truckers. He begins addressing the situation and stating that nothing has changed and that the situation is still the same, namely if people help, then they are welcome to stay. If not or if they don’t want to stay then they are free to go. A couple of the truckers who apparently have families elsewhere do leave. Everyone else stays and the work towards creating a permanent new “home” is begun. While you’re pitching in by doing inventory on the medical supplies you have you briefly wonder what would’ve happened had you not abandoned the carnival when you did. Could you have made a difference had you stayed like Roofie wanted you to? You shake your head. You don’t mind helping out, but you know you’re no leader. Better to be safe and be around a group that you at least feel more comfortable around and so far that’s what you’ve encountered here at this truck stop. Most people here despite the highly stressful situation have still been pleasant with you. Funny where one finds a place to belong. > … Nice and Safe The Future… “Take it or leave it. Don’t have all day to haggle with you.” You say to the scavenger. He looks at the plastic bag of 9mm ammo for a moment. “Alright I’ll take it.” He says and hands over two damaged rifles and takes the ammo without another word and leaves. You look at the rifles again and think how glad you are to have someone who has a natural affinity to fixing thing. “Daniel! Come out here, got a project for you.” You son comes out from his work area to see what you’re yelling at him about this time. “Mom, what is it now?” Daniel replies. “Here. Got more rifles you can fix and we can sell for better profit later on.” You say and pass the rifles to him. “These need new bolts. I’m not sure if I have any spare ones. At least not for two rifles.” “Well do what you can. I’m sure you’ll think of something. You usually do. Besides you know how everyone that comes through this place is always interested in weapons. If you get just one of them fixed, it’ll still be a profit for what we got them for.” “Don’t most people buy their weapons from Earl on the far side of the bazaar?” “Yeah, but he specializes in that, the beauty of what we do is sell and buy a little bit of everything. So someone who might be looking for medicine might also end up buying a gun too. Besides, he’s getting a reputation of ripping people off, so we need to be prepared for the possible day for when people start coming to us to buy their guns instead.” Daniel nods and says nothing else. He isn’t really much of a talker or a thinker for that matter. Not that the boy is stupid, its just he focuses on other things. Like fixing. Sometimes he reminds you a bit of your older brother’s son from the old days. That boy was definitely a savant. Daniel head back to his workstation. You’re so glad you’ve never had problems with him, though Roger thinks he should mix more with people…but then you remember your own isolationist days in a certain basement and laugh to yourself. Compared to you back then, Daniel is a social butterfly and has an actual trade. He’ll be fine. Really its odd to you sometimes that you basically run the equivalent of a post apocalyptic general store, but as this place got bigger and better fortified, the original people began to rise in status and responsibility and here you are. It certainly is better than being a wanderer out there. You’ve heard the tales and have no desire to leave the walls of New Security. Its safe here and you have everything you’d ever want. It’s your new basement. You remember Roger wanting to lead the New Security recon team when it was formed, but you managed to talk him out of that nonsense. You didn’t talk him into staying here in the first place and avoid getting nuked to atoms just so he could go play wasteland warrior and get his head blown off that way. His job as lead protector of New Security holds more than enough danger and a test of his skills. “Hey mom, how’s business?” Cindy asks walking in. “Fine. I’m guessing you went with your father today?” “Yep. It was really cool. I got to learn how to shoot. I even killed something!” “What?” you ask. At this point Roger walks in and has heard the end of the conversation. “It wasn’t a person and she wasn’t in any danger. It was just a large rat that had wandered on the range. She got it in right in the head on one shot. She’s a natural.” Roger says in an effort to reassure you. You know it’s a harsh new world now, and you know your daughter learning how to shoot is probably one of the best things for her, but you can’t help worry. “Well, glad to hear you had fun.” You say. “Yeah! I even got to see the New Security Scout Team coming in from a mission! They said they had to fight a mutant! Sounded exciting! I can’t wait to be able to become one of them one day!” Well now you’re worried and Roger already knows it. “Uh, Cindy why don’t you go into the back, I’m sure we’ll all be eating soon.” Roger says. Cindy complies, but she knows all too well an argument is going to be occurring soon. You give Roger that “look” that he knows all to well is one of displeasure. “Suzy, before you even start I really did not put that idea into her head! I didn’t even know the scout team was coming back today! Let alone that she was going to bump into them.” “You’re the head protector! How would you not know that?!” you say. “Hey, I take care of internal safety first. Besides, sometimes the scouts come back early if they don’t find anything out there.” “A mutant sounds like something to me. Look I know Cindy’s a teenager and I know she finds all this military type stuff exciting, but I’d at least rather not encourage her desire to want to go traipsing about the wasteland.” “Well I’d rather her be safe too, I mean that’s why I’m trying to teach her how to shoot and other skills. I mean we can only guide so much and eventually she’s going to be an adult and we won’t have any control over what she does. You know that.” This is an old argument and Roger is right, but you really wish he wasn’t. “I know. I know. Just…(sigh) could you at least next time emphasize that being a scout isn’t as glamorous as it sounds?” “That I can do. Can’t promise you it’ll work, but I’ll definitely do that.” “Well that’s the best I can hope for.” Roger moves in to kiss you and you return it. “Besides, I don’t see why SHE gets to be in the scout team when I’m not a allowed to.” Roger says with a smile. You laugh and you close up the store so that you can spend time with your family. It’s not the easiest life, but it’s more than you ever had before.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>FRIDAY “…this was a paid announcement by the Ground Zero Corporation…” “Agh! Shut the fuck up already. What the hell did GZ buy up all the goddamn stations?!” you hear Roger shout as he angrily turns the radio off, waking you up. It would seem you’re in motion again and you slept through it. “What’s going on?” you ask. “Huh? Oh you’re up. Nothing’s going on, just dumb ass Ground Zero commercials warning about an impending nuclear holocaust as usual. Never mind the fact we got a very real threat that I can’t seem to get any information on. Anyway I didn’t sleep that much so I just started driving again. Figured you could still sleep though so I didn’t bother waking you” Roger says. “So how long have we been on the road?” “More than a few hours definitely. Starting to by pass all this farmland area now, we’ll probably be hitting a more populated area soon. I also started to see a few more moving vehicles, though I’ve also been seeing a lot of abandoned vehicles as well. Oddly no military. Saw a few people even trying to hitch a ride, but I’m not playing good Samaritan right now.” “You see any of those things?” you ask. “Hrm, I thought I might’ve seen a few while I was driving, but from the distance I could quite tell. Wasn’t like I was going to check.” So far it looks like the plan is still going to Fort Timons, but if you didn’t think that was a dubious idea before, you’re really uncertain now. He can’t get any signal from the radio, for all you know the base might be overrun by those things. Which is exactly what you bring up to Roger, but he seems confident that wouldn’t be the case and he’s determined to head to Fort Timons. Funny thing considering he abandoned all his comrades at the carnival and said they were all assholes. Guess he’s still military at heart. He senses that you still aren’t comfortable with his plan though. “Suzy, you don’t need to come with me you know. I mean I can drop you off at the next town we go through.” Roger says. “And what exactly am I going to do there? I don’t have anything except the clothes on my back and with the way things are going, I can imagine I’d be resorting to taking those off a lot just to survive.” You say. There’s a moment of silence before Roger replies. “I’m guessing that’s what you were doing with me back at the carnival. It’s fine, I sort of knew that’s what was going on. I knew you didn’t actually like me.” “If you knew all that, why did you risk your career and possibly your life?” “You’re kidding right? I mean I know I’m not hideous, but you’re a little out of my league. When the hell am I going to get a chance to be with someone that looks like you? I mean sure I knew it was all an act, but in MY mind I could pretend you were being genuine. Though I admit when you stopped me from kissing you and didn’t want to look at my face, that sort of hurt.” “It wasn’t personal. I just don’t know you that well and I wasn’t ready for that level of intimacy. I was going to pretend you were my ex-boyfriend. (Sigh) I can’t believe I even went that far and was going to go through with it. I mean contrary to whatever you may have heard shouted at me, I don’t do stuff like that like…ever.” “Really? Because you’re pretty good at the whole seduction thing, even if you are a bit obvious with it.” “I’m obvious with it because it’s only just a new skill I developed within the last few days I joined a goddamn carnival just to get out of my goddamn shitty life at home…What the hell was I even thinking?! I’m not cut out to take care of myself! I should’ve just stayed home and let cannibals eat me in the comfort of my basement!” you say, tearing up a bit. The stress of the week is starting to get to you. “Whoa! You don’t mean that. Things aren’t totally horrible. Hey if it make you feel any better, I felt a little bad knowing that I was going to take advantage of what was obviously the act of a desperate woman.” Roger says. Now you stop sniffling and start to chuckle at the absurdity of that statement. “But of course that wasn’t going to stop you.” You say. “Well no of course not, but I assure you I would’ve felt guilty about it.” “No you wouldn’t have.” “Okay you’re right, I wouldn’t have, but I would have still gotten you out of that carnival if you had asked afterwards.” “Well at least it wouldn’t have been for nothing. (Sigh) Guess it all worked out anyway. I mean we’re both still alive due to our choices and I am thankful I’m not dead and that you probably saved my life back there.” “And I’m thankful I at least got to see you naked.” “We’ll always have the trailer I suppose.” You don’t exactly feel good about your situation, but Roger’s attempt to lighten up the mood at least has you feeling slightly better. “So…why don’t you tell me about this ex-boyfriend of yours? I’m guessing he must’ve been some sort of handsome stud if you’re still thinking about him.” Roger says. “Heh. Not especially. He was a normal looking guy. Not too much different from you in that department. He’s just the only guy I’ve ever been with, so, it was more comfortable to think about him instead. Anyway it was sort of complicated with him. Long story that I don’t want to get into right now.” “I understand. Well I’ll just say this, he was lucky to have you as a girlfriend and was a damn fool to let you get away.” “Hrm…actually you know what? You’re exactly right. He WAS lucky to have me and a damn fool to let me get away!” you say with a bit of pride. You know Roger is half saying this just in the hopes to get you into a compromising position again, but what the hell, it’s an ego booster and it keeps you in a positive mindset at least. “Shit.” Roger suddenly says. “What now?” you ask. “I just looked at the gas gauge, we’re practically out. Goddamn it I thought Ernie gassed this thing up recently.” “We can’t make it to Timons?” “Well we could risk it on fumes to Fort Timons, but I’d rather not chance that during these circumstances. I don’t even have a rubber hose that we could use to suck out the gas from one these abandoned vehicles we’ve been passing.” “Well I guess we’re stopping at the next gas station then.” “Assuming they got any. I get the impression just popping into the next gas station isn’t going to be that simple.” You and Roger continue to drive for about a half hour before you see something of interest in the distance. Namely a truck stop, which apparently has been converted into a minor fortress. “Hey look at that!” you point out. “I see it. It’s a truck stop and it looks like whoever is there is trying to block the place off by putting trucks around it. They even got people standing on top of the trucks with rifles as look outs. They probably got gas.” Roger says. “I dunno. Whoever is there probably isn’t going to be too trustful of anyone, especially someone from the military. They might just try to rob us.” “We gotta try. I mean we need gas, and given how well this place is defended, we at least know they probably got some. Who knows if we’ll get lucky some place else.” You and Roger drive to the truck stop, which immediately causes the lookouts to point and raise their rifles in your direction. When you stop in front of it there are a lot of shouts for you to stay in the truck. “We don’t need any government assistance here, we’re doing just fine as you can see. I highly suggest that y’all just continue on your way.” One of them shouts. “I’m not here for trouble. I just need some gas. We get that and we’ll be on our way to Fort Timons.” Roger shouts back. “Gas? Don’t fucking think so soldier boy. With the way society is collapsing that shit’s gonna be valuable and money is gonna be worthless.” “Well, would you accept a trade of supplies for gas?” “Hrmmm, well whatta you got?” “Got some military rations in the back of this thing. Those things last for years you know.” “We got tons of food, what else? Any weapons?” “Uh…there might be a couple…oh we got some medical supplies in here!” There is a long pause and he tells you to wait before climbing down the truck and disappearing from sight. Eventually you hear his voice again which is now coming from behind the truck barricade. “Okay, we’re gonna move this truck, but one funny thing happens and you’re the first one getting a bullet to the head. Alright, we’re letting this one in, everyone keep extra look out for those rabid bastards!” “You still think this is a good idea?” you ask. “Well it’s like I said, our options for gas are limited.” Roger answers. As soon as the truck is moved out your way, the man who was barking orders at you waves you in and motions you over to the gas pumps. As soon as you drive in they put the truck back. Either they’re really safety conscience or they don’t want to risk having you get away. From this distance you see several more people in the building part of the truck stop. Looks like it’s a general store/diner combo. Most of them are watching you from the windows, though a few of them come out, one of them is an older man with a cane who walks directly to the pumps. “Okay, I want the two you in that truck to exit it slowly. I don’t care if you got weapons, but don’t point them at me or anyone else in a threatening manner.” The old man shouts. Roger takes his rifle over his shoulder and exits the truck. You do like wise, though being unarmed you exit from Roger’s side just so you don’t feel quite as vulnerable. Naturally rifles are pointed at the pair of you, but the old man with the cane shouts telling them to calm down. “You lot, stop pointing your guns and start unloading this truck. Sorry about that, everyone’s a little on edge. Name’s Henry. I own this place.” He says. “Roger and it’s understandable.” “Well, a military man eh? Thought all the National Guard were off fighting those rabid things in the city. From what I’ve heard the place is completely overrun now.” “The city? You mean Security is overrun?” you ask. “Yep. Heard it on the radio. Not the regular one of course. Those GZ bastards seem to be clogging those up, but on my Ham Radio. Been trying to communicate with Fort Timons, but my radio isn’t exactly in the best condition…” “Hold on! You’ve been in communication with Fort Timons?!” Roger exclaims. “Well, somewhat. More like my old buddy I served with back in the day who still works there as an inventory clerk. Haven’t heard anything from him since yesterday. All I know is the last thing he told me was the fort was on high alert and further communication was going to be limited to a need to know basis and only to those with the proper clearance. Typical military bullshit I suppose, well I don’t need to tell you.” “Uh, we were on our way to Fort Timons. Do you think it’s safe?” You say. “Heh, well I couldn’t tell you if the fort is safe, but I can tell you that those rabid fuckers have been making their way out of the city en mass and given how far the city is, they apparently don’t get tired and can cover a lot of ground. We just repelled a bunch of them yesterday. Hence the make shift fortress here. Fort Timons is even closer to the city, so at best I’d wager that you’re going to have to wade through a bunch of those things before getting there. Not something I’d want to do to be sure.” Henry remarks. “Shit, those things are in the city and they were in my town! This means this can’t just be a local thing! It’s probably a nationwide epidemic! We can’t go to Fort Timons now!” you exclaim. “We don’t know if the place has fallen to those things.” Roger replies. “Exactly! We don’t know!” you say. At this point Henry interjects. “If I may, the both of you can stay here. We’ve got the room and your truck full of supplies as far as I’m concerned buys your way in. And I’m sure as a military man, you’d pull your weight here to defend this place if need be. So you and your girlfriend can stay here if you wish.” Henry says and then walks over to oversee his people unloading the truck. It’s an incredibly tempting offer and one you’d jump at the chance for, but Roger still seems sure that Fort Timons will better in the long run. You wonder if he feels a little obligated to go back to Fort Timons because deep down he feels like he abandoned his post even if hasn’t admitted it. The only downside is if Roger doesn’t stick around and you do, you’ll be left in the company of a bunch of strangers again and that didn’t go so well last time. You can only imagine all the leers, grope attempts and possibly worse from a bunch of horny trucker types. > You continue to Fort Timons While you probably could talk Roger into staying if you turned on the charm again, you’ve done enough of that for quite some time and honestly he might be right as far as safety is concerned. Despite the best efforts of the people here, this truck stop is still open enough that those things could get in. (Crawl under the trucks for one thing) Also while the owner seems cool, you don’t know everyone else and the last time you encountered a cool owner was the carnival and you know how that turned out. You also imagine that a military base might indeed survive an extended siege a lot better than this place. “Suzy, I still think going to Timons is a better idea than staying here. I’m going, so if you want to stay…” Roger says before you interrupt him. “No, I’ll go with you.” “But I thought you thought it was a bad idea.” “Well, I still sort of do, but I guess if this is a major crisis and the end of civilization, I’d rather be with you. So if you believe we’ll be safe there, then I believe we’ll be safe there.” Roger smiles at that remark. He immediately goes to hug you, which you weren’t quite expecting, but you hug back. You suppose you are getting attached to him. Just a sucker for men who save your life you guess. After this happy experience Roger goes over to gas up the truck and you wait nearby. You don’t even notice Henry come up to you. “So you two decide on what to do yet?” “Huh? Oh, yeah we’re going to try to make it to Timons.” “Hm. Well I wish you luck on that. Too bad you’re not staying though, could use a few more people to guard this place and help out around here.” “Yeah, well I wish we were staying too, but well he wants to go to Fort Timons so that means we’re both going.” “Heh, well love for another always has a way of making you act out of character.” “Y…eah something like that I guess.” You say reluctantly. Henry still hasn’t caught on that you aren’t really “with” Roger, but you don’t bother correcting him. “Don’t worry, you got this big truck, so you should be safe as long as you don’t get out of the thing or stop for a long period of time to let those things swarm you. And despite my doom and gloom earlier, don’t take that as truth. I mean what do I know. I’m stuck here with a Ham Radio that I can barely get to work right at the best of times. Things might not be as bad as they seem. Who knows? Maybe this will all be over in a day or two.” “Heh, one can only hope.” You say. “Remember though, if Timons doesn’t work out, you’re welcome to come back here.” “Thanks Henry that’s very generous of you.” After your short talk with Henry, Roger is ready to get going again and you’ve got the fuel to get to your destination. “We left you those MREs and the water. No need to leave you without the basics. Anyway, like I told your pretty girlfriend here, I wish you luck and if it doesn’t work out, you’re welcome to come back here.” Henry tells Roger “Thank you and we’ll keep that in mind.” Roger replies and drives off towards the “truck gate” which is now opening up. And with that you’re on the road again. “Hey I just want you to know, I’m really glad you’re coming with me. I mean I know you didn’t want to and…look I think you know I really like you and it’s not just because you flirted with me and I saw you naked and all that. I really enjoy your company. Probably not the best time to be addressing all this shit, but I think its better I just tell you where I stand right now. Especially with everything that’s going on. Anyway that’s all I want to say and I’ll drop the subject.” Roger says. You’re having a déjà vu moment like when Klepto admitted all his feelings for you, though with Roger it feels a little different. You get a little more sincerity with him. Klepto was always a little too sycophantic as far you were concerned. Hell, maybe you didn’t just decide to go off with Roger out of survival. Here or even back at the carnival. Maybe somewhere you did have an attraction to him and you just denied it for some reason. It’s that damn “good girl” trait you never shook off from your mother drilling it into your head when you were growing up. “I…I like and feel close to you too Roger.” You say and smile back at Roger. With this acknowledgement of your feelings for each other, a good period of your drive is in silence, but not an awkward silence, a comfortable one. The silence isn’t just going on in the truck, it’s also going on outside or least relatively speaking. Despite what Henry said, so far you haven’t encountered any hordes of those rabid things and you’re driving through suburbs by this point. You also haven’t seen many people walking about, but you assume most people are taking shelter somewhere. Happily the streets aren’t clogged with abandoned vehicles. That was one thing that Roger was more worried about. A line of vehicles is a little harder to drive over even with a big truck. Night comes and the rabid are a little bit more active though nothing that can’t be handled. Most of the time Roger just drives past them and they give chase for a while, but sometimes he runs them over. “Sheesh, they are getting thicker. Glad we don’t actually have to go INTO Security. Pftt, Security. Now that’s an ironic name for the city. Anyway we should actually get to Fort Timons around two or three in the morning.” Roger says. “Glad to hear it. I’m getting tired, but I’m too on edge to sleep.” You say. “Eh, go ahead and close your eyes at least. I’ll try to keep the zombie smashing to a minimum.” “They aren’t zombies, I think we established that they’re living right?” ‘Yeah, pretty sure they’re all alive, just rabid. Or whatever is wrong with them. Dunno if they infect anyone though, don’t want to ever find that out.” “I agree.” You reply and then try to take Roger’s advice by closing your eyes. You don’t really sleep so much as you rest and sort of drift in and out. You aren’t fully awake again until Roger calls your attention to your destination which isn’t far now. “Ha ha! Suzy wake up! We’re here! We made it and look they even got the towers lit up! The fort still stands!” he exclaims in joy. “Huh, yeah. That’s really…” before you can finish your groggy words Roger has stopped the truck, grabbed you and kisses you full on the lips. You’re too tired to resist, though you wouldn’t have bother anyway. “Well was it everything you expected?” you ask after he’s done. “Even better!” Roger says and then tries to kiss you again. “Whoa, hold on there, let’s save the victory kissing until AFTER we get in this place. I mean how do we even know they’ll let us in?” “Oh we’ll get in, I know we will.” Roger says and starts up the truck again. You get within range and suddenly spotlights move in your direction and a loud speaker calls out for you slow your speed to a crawl and to stop at the gates and to prepare to be inspected. Roger complies and soon you’re sitting before the gates of Fort Timons. You can imagine snipers from the towers are pointing their weapons on you and when the gates open a whole damn squad of soldiers comes out. A young man with glasses comes up to the driver’s side. “Riley? Is that you? Holy shit, we thought your squad was dead.” “It’s me Keller and I’m the only survivor. You’ll never believe what the hell happened.” “Riley?” you think, but then you realize that must be his last name. In fact it’s right on his shirt. Funny how you never noticed before. Never noticed he was a corporal either. “Well there’s been a lot going on here too, so probably won’t be too surprised. Anyway Captain Higgins will want to see you. Uh, he’s in charge now.” Keller says. “Shit, I guess a lot has changed.” “Yeah, who’s this in your passenger side?” “This is Suzy. She actually saved my life out there. Don’t worry she’s not bit or infected or anything.” “Guess you never had to suffer it first hand, but if you’re referring to those rabid, they don’t infect you if they bite. One good thing about all this I suppose. Saved your life eh? How’d that happen?” “Oh I got something surprised when I first encountered one of those things and it was on top of me snarling and growling. Suzy here got a knife and stabbed it in the face. Just enough for me to put it down permanently with a few rounds to its head and body.” “I’m also his girlfriend!” you add, hoping that by having a closer tie to Roger that they’ll let you in. “Girlfriend? Hrm. I guess stressful situations really do cause close bonds. Well under normal circumstances we wouldn’t let a civvie in that isn’t blood related or your spouse, but I guess we can make an exception. All right come on in. Don’t want to risk having this gate open any longer than it needs to be.” As you drive in you at last feel safer than you have been in a long while. Roger and you both exit the vehicle and Roger tells you that some people will probably take you to the barracks or some place with a bed. He says he’ll meet up with you later as he has to go report in. “Okay, I’ll see you then.” You say and you move in to kiss him goodbye. Well if you weren’t his girlfriend before, you certainly cemented it now. You are escorted to a barracks area just as Roger said you would be, but it’s mostly empty. The two soldiers that escort you mention that most of people stationed here never came back after being sent to the city, so there’s a lot of room now. They don’t say much else and soon leave you to your own devices. And for the first time in a long time during this hellish week, you’re alone. It’s almost a bit scary, but in a way you’ve missed it. You’re too tired though to really appreciate it and you collapse on one of the beds and start to drift off… > The next day… SATURDAY You wake up to a body grinding up against you, an arm holding you tightly around your mid-section and warm breath blowing in your ear in between the kissing. Not exactly what you expected, but it beats those Ground Zero advertisements. “Wha the…Roger that better be you.” You say. “Of course its me. Who else would it be? Bobby?” Roger answers. “Well I couldn’t tell, your erection pressing into me feels to be about the same size.” “Wow… way to make a guy feel special.” Roger says. “Oh don’t be sensitive, I could’ve said it was smaller. Anyway, isn’t there some sort of protocol against this in the barracks?” you say turning you head. “Pfft, protocol isn’t what it used to be. If you haven’t noticed there isn’t even anyone using this one, except you and barring an assault on this place, the captain was good enough to give me a day to rest up before going back on duty full time. Higgins always was cool about things, glad he’s in charge now.” “Hmm, so what’s going on?” you ask. “Nothing important, just holding out until we re-establish contact with the government I guess. Higgins might be cool about certain things, but he said he really couldn’t give out any more information other than the infected humans are not going to be a threat to us as long as we stay in the base. All the units that were sent out into the city were long since asked to pull back here though obviously not a lot made it back and there has been no contact with any of the units sent to your town.” “Shit.” You say. “Yeah, guess we both got really lucky. I spoke with some of the guys and a lot are still shaken up about stuff that went down in the city. It’s times like this that make you really glad to be alive.” “Yeah, I guess we are survivors.” You say and for a moment you lie with Roger finally feeling totally safe from the horrors that are occurring outside right now. You haven’t felt this way since you left your basement. Your moment is then broken by Roger resuming his groping and kissing on you. “Mmm, you smell so good right now…” Roger says. “Smell good? I haven’t had a proper shower in days! Nevermind the fact I’ve been running and sweating in the same clothes. I’m disgusting, I’d ask how you’re even getting turned on by me right now, but I probably do smell like roses compared to you.” You say. “Well, come on let’s go use the shower together.” “…NOW? I mean those things are open, what if someone walks in on us?” “Nobody will. I told you, there isn’t even anyone here in this area. Besides we can make it quick.” “Quick. Just what every girl wants to hear…(snort) don’t you think this is all a little presumptuous of you anyway? I said I liked and felt close to you, when did I say I was going to fuck you?” “When I helped you escape.” Roger says continuing to kiss on you. “Oh, that’s low…” you chuckle. “So is this more about me owing you something? Is that the way you want it?” “Hey, I’ll take it.” “Fuck it, I was tired of playing hard to get anyway. It’s been several days since I’ve even managed to pleasure myself so I’m about due. Come on let’s go hit the showers.” You say and get off the bed. You and Roger go to the nearby shower room. The pair of you are stripping your clothes off on your way there. By the time you’ve turned on the water, the both of you are naked. You enjoy both the force of the cleansing water hitting the front of your body as well as the force of Roger hitting your girl parts from the back. One of his hands starts to grope your breasts while his other remains gripped at your side. Every thrust feels like a great release from the stress you’ve endured this week. You scream out in ecstasy for more and you don’t give a shit how loud you are and who might hear you. You just hope Roger’s got that military stamina to go the distance. You don’t know how much time passes because you’re enjoying yourself so much and then you feel it. “Oh my God! I’m almost there! Keep doing that! Harder! Faster! Oh yessss…” you exclaim and then the explosion. Namely the nuclear bomb that explodes over the base. Whether this seemingly insignificant military base was a legitimate target or a misalignment from hitting the city of Security (Which probably still got hit too) is irrelevant. Who launched the nuke is irrelevant. Why it was launched is irrelevant. What is relevant is that you, Roger and many others with the large radius of this blast are instantly vaporized. At least you went out with a bang.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>THURSDAY Several gunshots cause you to wake up. “What the?!” you say still staying on the floor. “Shhhh! Quiet!” Klepto remarks and points over to the one in charge of the guardsmen. He and five others stand near the tent entrance with weapons out. “I don’t give a shit WHO started the fight or even why! You carny freaks can tear each other apart after we leave, but until then we’re here to maintain order and by god that’s what the fuck we’re going to do! If I have to break up another fight for any reason, next time the shots aren’t going in the air!” the officer remarks and leaves. The other guardsmen continue to stand near the entrance watching everyone who eventually all sit back down. “What the hell happened?” you ask. “Razor and some of the others got into an argument with Phil and his friends.” Klepto says. “Who’s Phil?” you say. “He does that fire eating stuff. Anyway, they kicked his ass and just as things were going to get worse, the guardsmen came in and put a stop to it like you just saw. Looks like the battle for control over the carnival is already starting.” “Surprised we didn’t get attacked then.” “Well like Shrimpy said yesterday, we’ve got dwarf protection for now, but who knows how long that arrangement is going to last.” “Can’t believe I slept through a fight, where’s Roofie?” “Oh him? He’s still over there out of it, even the gunshots didn’t wake him up.” Klepto says pointing to Roofie, who then surprises everyone. “I’m quite awake Klepto, I’m just resting with my eyes closed No point in getting up at this point anyway. It’s obvious this carnival has lost respect in me; I’d blame you all for smashing me in the back of the head last night, but that was really just a catalyst. (Sigh) Doesn’t matter, I predict that we’ll all be dead in two days at best.” Roofie says. “Roofie, we really didn’t want to do it, but you were talking crazy with your idea of attacking the military. Your plan would’ve gotten everyone killed.” You say. “And that may still happen if recent events are any indication. At least with my plan I would’ve died with the carnival intact rather than seeing it splitting up before my eyes.” Nobody else really knows what to say at this point, so you all just get silent and continue to converse with each other. “So what’s the next move?” Klepto asks. “I dunno, escape I guess? Can we get to one of the vehicles quickly and drive off?” you say. “Good luck with that given all the guardsmen on high alert now.” Fatty points out. “Yeah I don’t think we’re getting very far.” Lifto adds. You sit down and exhale wondering what to do next, but you can’t really think right now. It would seem that due to your more proactive suggestions and Roofie’s apathy you’ve somehow become the “leader” of your little group now. You hadn’t really planned on that. “For right now, we’re just going to stay put, I’ll try to think of something.” You remark. The rest of your group lack any ideas of their own, so they comply with your plan (or lack there of). Time passes and you mostly do a lot of casual conversation and mental speculation of what might happen “if you do X.” You half expect someone else to try to escape, particularly when they say they need to use the bathroom, but given that they always return under the same guard they left with it would seem nobody has the guts to really try it, not even Razor. Nobody else in your group comes up with any plans either, but you do notice Shrimpy occasionally heads over to the group of dwarves. He claims he’s just securing the “alliance” but you’re more inclined to believe he’s just trying to secure his own safety. So far though the dwarves are still supposed to be on your side. Roofie has continued to lie on the sleeping mat not saying anything to anyone. You still feel a little bad about betraying him especially given that he not only brought you into this carnival and liked you enough to give you a personal trailer, but also that he potentially saved you a lot of pain when Razor was going to kick your ass. You go over to talk to him. “Hey Roofie.” You say. “Hrm, hey Suzy.” He grunts. “Are you okay?” “Me? Well other than not having a drink all day, I’m fine. Just been making peace with my life I suppose.” Roofie says. “Roofie, I’m still very sorry about…” “What? Having Lifto wack me over the head? I’ve forgotten about that or rather I’ve rethought my own stance on that. You probably were right, I mean sure I would’ve rather died like that, but that was sort of selfish of me to want to use my last bit of dwindling influence to get everyone to follow me. Would’ve especially been a shame if you’d gotten killed in the crossfire. You’re actually very talented.” “You’re just saying that.” “No it’s true. I didn’t make my decision to hire you based on looks or on a whim. In the brief moment you’ve performed as a clown you were good. I mean it’s obvious you’re even a leader with how you got the other clowns hanging on your decisions. (Sigh) If only you had come across this carnival sooner. Things might’ve been much different.” “Well I’m not sure how much of a leader I am, because I can’t think of what comes next.” You say. “You’ll figure out something I’m sure. One thing though and while I don’t hold out much hope, if you can somehow keep this carnival together…do it. I know the current situation isn’t the best and I know you haven’t exactly been welcomed by everyone, but I see something in you that would feel fulfilled if you could experience the carnival like it once was. Like a family.” “A family?” you say with a smirk. “Hey like I said, you came in during the family fight. And that’s what happens in families sometimes. Family fights are always the most vicious, but after it dies down, sometimes the family unit can be stronger than ever. And I think you could be happy if you can keep this family from tearing itself apart completely. But you’ll have to be the one to do it. I don’t have it in me anymore.” At this point Roofie touches your hand and you pat his before leaving him be again. You wonder if this is more of a last request by a “dying” man rather than looking out for your personal fulfillment. Still, you think he’s genuine and sure it would be nice if the entire carnival became the happy family you never had, but you just don’t think that’s going to be possible. You look around and see nothing much has changed except a changing of the guards. One of them happens to be Roger, which makes you think of a possible way you could escape. The only problem is it’s going to rely on being more “charming” than you already have been with Roger and that could potentially get you into a situation you don’t want to be in. > You stay in the tent While it might be an opportunity to escape, you’re not going to risk it. Roger might be a little smitten with you, but he’s athletic enough looking that you don’t think you could easily fight him off if something went wrong. Given that there is a state of martial law right now, you’re likely to get yourself shot or worse. Better to stay in the tent and come up with a plan where you at least might have some back up. So you’re currently back to square one, sitting around doing much of nothing until the National Guard decides to leave (whenever if and when that happens). You spend most of your time thinking on what Roofie said and your current position at the carnival. The only way you’re ever going to have safety and have a family is if you take direct action towards those goals. “Lifto, Shrimpy, you’re with me.” You suddenly say and say you going to see the head of the dwarf faction. “Uh, I dunno if that’s a good idea, he’s been doing a lot of preparation lately.” Shrimpy says. “I’m sure he has, and its in our best interest to find out exactly what that is. Maybe YOU can afford to play both sides, but I’m not taking that chance.” You say and start walking over to the crowd of little people. As you approach, the dwarves instantly start closing ranks and their demeanor changes to a defensive one. “Back again Shrimpy? I didn’t anticipate your sycophantic antics for another hour or so. And you must be Suzy, the new clown girl that’s been pissing off all the ladies and turning on all the guys. Hrm. Upon a closer look, I understand the appeal, but you’re still no dwarf woman.” an older dwarf says, though many of his fellows probably don’t share that opinion. “I take it you’re the leader of your group?” “Yep, though I don’t suppose Shrimpy’s bothered to mention my name is Billy. If you’re here about our current alliance, you needn’t worry since I’ve reassured Shrimpy so many times about it that it’s getting to the point of annoyance. Glad to you at least changed it up by appearing yourself, could’ve done without the big ugly clown behind you though, but I’m guessing he’s a poor attempt at intimidation.” “A girl likes to have a big strong man to watch her back sometimes.” “Heh, and that’s why you’ve practically begged a bunch of little men to do it to eh? Let’s cut to the chase, what do you really want? I already know that you’re the new leader of the clowns given what you did to old Roofie over there. Bet he didn’t see that coming.” You don’t know how else to put it so you just say it, which comes to a surprise to Shrimpy and Lifto as well. “I’m going to be the new leader of this carnival and YOU’RE going to support me in this endeavor.” Billy smiles at this remark and then chuckles. Several of the other dwarves do likewise. “You? Really? And you think we’re just going to support you in this? I hope you had a better plan than preparing to fuck every munchkin in munchkin land Dorothy, because at this juncture I guarantee that would be the ONLY way that you MIGHT come close to your dreams of being in charge. And if that was your plan, you can forget it, because I’m happily married. However, it might gain you favor with some of my friends. Could ensure that your group will have a place in the new carnival order that will be coming soon, but that’s a choice you’ll have to make on your own.” “You really think the rest of the carnival is going to follow you?” “They won’t have a choice, we dwarves have always been the backbone of it and it’s about time we just took the spotlight. Just like my Great Uncle Charley always wanted to do so long ago.” “Yeah and apparently that didn’t work out so well given your current situation. You know why? Nobody truly respects you. They’re content to let you do the grunt work, but they don’t want you to be in the spotlight, unless you’re making a fool of yourself like Shrimpy here.” You say. “HEY!” Shrimpy remarks. “Watch your tone there blondie, you’re starting to tread on very dangerous ground.” Billy warns. “Yes, I know and I’m also trying to explain that you’re ALREADY in control by being the backbone of the carnival. You might very well be able to win this internal struggle, but would there be anything left? This place has languished under Roofie, obviously, but it could be great again if it had the right ring master. Someone who could bring in the people. You said it yourself, I’ve got most of the guys here salivating over me just by my presence. You know how advertising works, I bring ‘em in with a wink, a smile and some sweet talk, the other performers get the money out of them and someone has to keep the infrastructure together and that’s you. We could work together as a more than just co-workers we could be like…a family. Like how carnies are supposed to really stick together.” Your words give a moment of pause for Billy who ponders them for a moment, but then shakes his head. “Y’know, that’s a really good speech, the problem is you haven’t been here but a few days and you’re already trying to take over. In family terms, you’re like the hot twenty year old nurse that married great grandpa on his death bed in the hopes of inheriting everything despite the fact he’s got a multitude of family members that are far more deserving since they had to put up with his shit a lot longer. Now that doesn’t mean I don’t think you’re sincere or even that your idea isn’t a worthy one, its just I don’t see YOU as that potential leader. If this carnival does split apart after the dust clears, well maybe it was meant to be, but I’m not spending the remainder of my life following another half-assed leader again. So to sum up, if you want to be on our side then great, if not, then I highly suggest you all get in your clown car and all get jobs at a rodeo or something.” At this point Billy’s done talking and waves you all away. Well that could’ve went better. “Are you nuts?! Why the hell did you do that for? You’re lucky he isn’t cancelling our protection!” Shrimpy says. “Well I can’t say it was the best of moves, but I guess you had to try.” Lifto says. Between Shrimpy’s concern for his own self-preservation and Lifto’s impotent comment, you’re wondering if you shouldn’t re-consider trying to escape again. Ultimately you all head back to the table where upon Shrimpy and Lifto explain what happened. Fatty and Klepto are both surprised by your actions, but Klepto again makes the usual attempt at being more “understanding” than the others. Christ, he never quits. “I don’t need this right now, I’m going to be by myself.” You say grabbing the small radio that they were listening to and head to where Roofie is still lying on his mat with his eyes closed. You don’t know if he’s still awake or genuinely asleep now, but he at least doesn’t appear to be in any mood to bother you right now. You spend a few more hours listening to one of the radios while the others play cards and try to talk about mundane things. You’re not getting the best reception and it’s no Internet, but it’s better than nothing. You mostly listen to a lot of special breaking news talking about how bad things are getting in various parts of the world. You hear about the riots going on and think about your own town and how your “real” family is doing. Ben’s hidden personal bomb shelter was somewhere in the backyard, you wonder if you shouldn’t have just tried to look for it and moved in there, it probably was stocked. Then as the sun starts setting, you hear a bunch of shooting and shouting outside. You see the other guardsmen near the tent entrance rush off, leaving everyone unsupervised. Naturally no longer being supervised means chaos within the tent begins to erupt though you have no idea why people aren’t more concerned about why the National Guardsmen are shooting and yelling at something outside. Lacking any better idea, you try to wake up Roofie, but he doesn’t stir. “Oh shit…” you say to yourself. Apparently his last words to you WERE his dying request literally. While you’re the only one aware of poor Roofie’s unexpected passing, a full on fight in the tent breaks out. Predictably, it’s Razor and her faction vs. Billy and his faction. Some of the smaller factions join in while others just run out of the tent altogether. It’s very lucky that your group is nowhere near the center of the tent where the fighting is and more or less in a corner. “Suzy! It’s begun!” Lifto shouts. “Yeah! We need to get in and help Billy or we’re going to be next!” Shrimpy adds. > You help Billy With all the gunfire going on outside, you don’t exactly feel as if that would be any safer. Better help Billy for now. You all approach the massive brawl, but none of you save for Lifto has any real desire or ability to fight. Shrimpy finds a place to hide and occasionally throws something at someone, Klepto gets knocked out by one of Phil’s crew and its only with the help of Lifto that he doesn’t get his face stomped in. Fatty does a little better due to his size, but he’s not much in the endurance area and has to stop to catch his breath every few minutes (which results in someone inevitably trying to attack him) You try to stay out of it and maintain a close distance to either the dwarves or Lifto. You occasionally point out potential dangers and sometimes even manage to club someone in the head with a juggling pin you found on the ground, but you’re nowhere near in the thick of it. While all this is going on, you notice a decrease in the gunfire from outside and a lot more screaming and groaning. Through the chaos you see Roger staggering just outside the tent and collapsing near the entrance of it. Seeing that you’re not really affecting the “power struggle” you rush over to Roger to see what the hell happened out side the tent. When you get to Roger, you notice he’s badly wounded and bleeding a lot. You don’t know if he’s going to make it. “Roger! What the hell…what happened?!” “(Gasp) They…just…came out of nowhere…(gasp) a bunch of them.” “What?! What came out?” you ask. “I dunno. Ugggh…hurts…(gasp) they were insane looking…snarling, biting…” You notice that most of Roger’s wounds do look like bite marks. You can’t believe that you’re even pondering this, but… “Shit, Roger, are you telling me you just got attacked by…fucking zombies?” At this point Roger doesn’t respond he’s falling unconscious and his breathing is getting short. You attempt to sit him up and smack him awake, but nothing is working. He’s going to die and if your vast knowledge of zombie movies is any indication he’s going to soon become on as well. That’s the least of your concerns however since while you’re holding on to Roger, one the “zombies” that Roger alluded to suddenly comes out from behind one of the parked military vehicles. It doesn’t see you immediately, but it will if you hang around out here. Standing up and backing away from Roger’s soon to be lifeless body and trying to get back in the tent, you bump into another equally unpleasant individual and no less dangerous. Her face is bloody and several of her piercings have been pulled out, but if she’s out here that can only mean she won. “There you are, clown bitch. I was hoping to get the pleasure to beat your blonde ass myself, too bad Wanda the Red caught a knife to the throat because it might’ve been fun to watch her anally rape you with her twelve inch strap on before I kicked the shit out of you.” Razor remarks. “Razor, there are zom…there are some insane people that just…” you start to say and then Razor punches you across the face, knocking you to the ground. While you’re holding the side of your face, Razor pulls out a bloody straight razor. “Don’t worry, I don’t plan on killing you, I just plan on making you the first in our brand new freakshow!” Razor says and is about to get on top of you to carry out her promise, but all your survival instincts kick in and you scream and kick at her. If she were a man, you would’ve gotten in a couple good ball kicks. Eventually she grabs one of your legs with one arm. “Good! Struggle bitch, this is just making it more fun for me. Ain’t nobody gonna save you anyway. Everyone else is licking their wounds or dead! The carnival is under my control now!” “I wasn’t screaming for someone in carnival to save me.” You say. Razor is confused by your remark only because she’s been so focused on doing harm to you that she’s completely ignored her surroundings. Not only did the zombie hear your scream, but so did several of his fellows and unfortunately for Razor they’re the fast variety. The one that was near the military vehicle is already upon Razor by the time she does look up and two more are loping quickly behind. You quickly scramble into the tent hoping that the dead that Razor mentioned inside aren’t turning and this is a “bite style” infection. Razor wasn’t kidding when she mentioned people either being wounded or dead. Granted there are more than a few people in fair condition, but resting from the past brawl is more of a priority right now. Too bad for them that isn’t an option. “Oh god! Hel… AGGGGGH!” “You hear that? That’s the sound of your short-lived leader getting ripped to shreds by cannibal freaks. So if you idiots are done killing each other over power, you better get ready to kill for survival!” you shout and grab the nearest blunt object as you hear the screams of Razor being presumably eaten alive outside. No sooner have you grabbed a piece of chair leg, one of the zombies rushes in. You manage to bash it once across the head and then again before it goes down. It grabs at your feet and you’re about to smash your improvised club on it, when Shrimpy suddenly has run up and done it for you with a juggling pin. You both at that point keep hitting the thing until its brains are mush and it isn’t moving anymore. “(Whew) Thanks Shrimpy. Glad to see you survived.” “You as well, what the hell are…” “Later, Shrimp. Concentrate!” you say as the other two zombies come lurching in. Fortunately at this point you and Shrimpy get a little more back up from some of the other carnies and luckily nobody else gets hurt. After killing the pair of them, you’re suddenly bombarded by questions about what the hell they are. The only thing you can think of is zombies, but after a bit of cautious investigation by some of you, you start to wonder if that’s even accurate. You come to several fortunate conclusions and discoveries. First of all it looks like there aren’t anymore of those things alive anymore and the National Guard are all dead as well. So those dangers are out of the way. Second, nobody dead has come back to life, (bitten or not) so at least this isn’t contagious whatever it is. In fact you see one of the “zombies” laying dead with several bullet wounds to the chest and no head wound, so you don’t think these things are undead at least. But the fact that you’ve got crazed cannibal people running loose is still cause for concern! As you, Shrimpy and several others continue to cautiously investigate outside the tent, Shrimpy mentions some bad news while you two are away from the group. Namely Lifto, Fatty, Billy and Roofie were all dead, though you mention you already knew about Roofie. “Yeah, the old guy died peacefully in his sleep I guess. Probably best that he did just before what happened. So what about Klepto?” you ask. “Oh he’s still alive. He’s still unconscious, from that first hit, but he’s still alive. Hey, I meant to say I’m sorry about being so self-serving like I was, before all this went down Suzy. I guess I just got scared.” “Well…it’s in the past now. Besides you came through for me when I really needed it. So you said Billy’s dead?” “Yeah, that bitch Razor got him just as he was finishing off Wanda the Red. As you might expect the remaining dwarves are pretty broken up about it. But then I guess Razor’s dead too, so I’m not sure where that leaves us.” “A possible opportunity I’d say. Looks like the National Guard left a lot of supplies that could be useful in the near future. Come on let’s head back.” You say and pick up one of the rifles. Laying on the ground nearby. When you get back to the tent, people haven’t moved much from their original positions though the medical supplies taken from one of the military trucks should help patch up the wounded. You stand in front of everyone and give a speech. You know it probably won’t go over well, but this is as good of time as any. “Okay people as a great man who recently passed away once said, a carnival can be like a family. Now we’ve just gotten over a major in house feud and an external threat and guess what, we’re all still here and alive to talk about it. That means we can move on and grow stronger from this because I get the impression that we’re REALLY going to need to have that unbreakable bond of family in the near future. A strong family also needs a strong leader and that’s why seeing as I’m currently the only one more or less in good physical condition at this time, I nominate myself as ringmaster.” You expect some verbal outbursts at this point, but everyone is still too exhausted or unwilling to get into more conflict, but you are getting a lot of frowning looks. “Now I already know what you’re thinking, this bitch hasn’t been here but for a few days so who does she think she is telling us all what to do? Well let’s answer that. You’re right, I’m new here, but I know A LOT about dysfunctional families. And every dysfunctional family ALSO needs a scapegoat to place the blame on. Now as ringmaster all the major decisions and such would fall to me and as such if I fuck up severely, well who gets the blame? Me of course. It’s my hope of course that as a leader I can change everyone’s perspective of me through successes. However, most of the females here already hate me based solely on how I look, and most of you guys just see me as a living sex doll, so really what have you got to lose? If it turns out that I’m a total failure as a leader then you all can easily throw me out on my ass and choose someone else.” Nobody says anything. Just an awkward pause, which you decide to fill in with more talking. “And if someone is worried that one group is going to get preferential treatment like say the clowns well you can stop worrying since most of them are currently dead and I’m probably going to be too busy with being ring master than clowning.” “Fuck it, let the cute clown slut run this place. Her mouth looks like it’s a highway for oral sex, but she can’t be any worse than what that mean ass cunt Razor had planned. At least she’s got a positive attitude.” Some dwarf woman says in the back holding a bloody rag over her forehead. And with that “sterling” endorsement several others just agree as well. Looks like you’re the new leader of this carnival and all it took was a complete bloodbath and the apathy of the survivors to do it. The remainder of the night is spent building a small barricade around the big tent and clearing out the dead. Nobody knows if more of those geeks (Which is the new name for the “zombies” and appropriate considering the history of what a carnival geek does for a living) are going to show up and where they came from so for safety reasons everyone stays close for the night. Some are in no condition to move anyway. Eventually you fall asleep realizing that tomorrow is going to be a busy day for you. > Next day... FRIDAY “Hey fearless leader, wake up, your people demand it.” Shrimpy says tapping you on the shoulder. Groggily you sit up, you swear you feel like you’ve barely gotten any sleep at all. Shrimpy stands nearby along with Klepto, the dwarf woman who “endorsed” you yesterday and a wiry scraggily looking man. You think he runs one of those carny games…specifically the one where you shoot a water gun at a clown’s mouth. “What’s going on?” you ask. “What’s going on is a bunch of shit, that’s what darling. After the midgets here…” “Fuck you Jack, we’re DWARVES.” The dwarf woman interrupts. “Whatever Dolores. Anyway after the…little people rounded up all the military supplies last night I got one of their radios tuned in to other military frequencies. Turns out that the nearby town has been overrun with those things we killed yesterday. The poor bastard that I spoke to just before it sounded like he got his guts ripped out said they don’t know whether it was a virus or not., just that there were a shitload of them. Either way I say we got lucky that only a few wandered out this far. We need to get the fuck outta here.” “My town…wow…uh…” you say being surprised by this revelation. You really are at a loss for words right now. You start to think about your real family and even Bobby. Are they okay? Are they already dead? Are they one of those things? “Suzy? You okay? You’re spacing out.” Klepto says. “Huh, yeah, I’m just…okay yeah we obviously need to get out of here. Start packing up the rest of our stuff and…” “Sweetheart didn’t you hear what I said? I said there’s probably fucking crazed cannibals on their way here right fucking now! We ain’t got time for that shit! We need to just load up as much supplies we can and take off in our vehicles. This is the fucking end times man!” Jack says. “It’s not going to take that much longer to pack down, we had most of the stuff ready to go before the National Guard arrived. Some of our people are still wounded badly and need the rest as well. Besides, living in our trailers is going to be a lot more desirable than living in just a regular vehicle if there is a complete collapse of society going on right now.” Shrimpy remarks. “Okay then Tom Thumb YOU and the rest of the lollipop kids do it. Me and some of the others? We’re taking supplies and leaving. Not stayin’ around here waiting to be cannibal chow.” You’ve been in charge for less than one full day and already someone is threatening to break away and worse, not even taking any notice of you. You just bludgeoned crazed freaks to death yesterday, you’re tired of not being taken seriously. “Jack, if you or others want to leave you’re free to do so, but what you’re not doing is taking any of those military supplies from here. Those belong to the carnival and as such belong to all of us. Now if you don’t want any part of that any longer, lots of luck, but you and anyone else that wants to leave you go with what personal items you came with.” “Pfft, whatever. I didn’t elect you as leader. I’m only telling you as a courtesy, you can stay here and get eaten or come along and I can keep you safe. In fact to pass the time we can play shoot the clown in the mouth, except it won’t be water going in your mouth, it’ll be my…” Jack isn’t expecting you to kick him in the balls. The moment you do he winces and crumples. You follow up with a knee to his face. He’s down and you have everyone’s attention in the tent. “That’s the last fucking blow job reference I’m going to hear from you or ANYONE else for that matter. Now listen up, as I remember most of you were fine with me being in charge yesterday and goddamn it that’s what I’m going to do, be in fucking charge. This is STILL our carnival, that hasn’t changed and I’m not going to let it fall apart just because the rest of society seems to be. Now this is what we’re going to do, we’re going to finish packing up our shit, get our trailers and such in order, we’re going to also take the military trucks and then we’re going to move on. Now if some of those geeks show up well we’ve got some brand new rifles and pistols to try them out on. Anyone who doesn’t like this plan can leave with the shirts on their back and nothing else! Now let’s stop fighting and get some of this damn shit done!” At this point those that are in condition to work, proceed to do so. “What about him?” Shrimpy asks pointing at Jack who is still on the ground. “Throw his ass out, he made his decision.” You remark and then notice Dolores smiling. “What’re you smiling about?” you demand. “Nothing, but I’m beginning to like you, blondie.” Dolores says and then whistles over several dwarves who promptly pick up Jack and haul him away. Dolores then leaves to go tend to other matters. Shrimpy says he’s going to go help and leaves as well, leaving you alone with Klepto. “Well, looks like you underwent quite a change while I was knocked out yesterday. I like it. Assertiveness is an attractive trait on you.” “Klepto, I’ve got a lot on my mind and I’m in no mood for your nice guy trying to get into my pants routine right now.” You say. “Okay, okay, sheesh, I’m just…nevermind…fuck I’ll just leave you alone ringmaster.” Klepto says and walks off. You can’t worry about Klepto’s fragile ego right now, you’ve got bigger concerns and that’s on top of still thinking about your “old” family. You know you made the decision to leave them all, but that was still just a few days ago and you still never wanted any of them to suffer at the hands of whatever the hell those things are. Speaking of which you still have to worry about those geeks. Jack might’ve been out of line, but he still might’ve been correct about some wandering towards the carnival like those yesterday did. Considering the dwarves still seem to be the largest faction and friendliest toward you, you have some of them armed with the rifles to stand on top of the trailers and keep a look out. You keep yourself busy by helping with the clean up. Hours pass and that’s when your lookouts see something approaching. Not the geeks, but rather a few pick up trucks which look like they’re holding several men carrying shotguns and rifles. You call everyone to immediately take a defensive position and to fall back. You aren’t sure what to expect, but a bunch of heavily armed men can’t ever be a good thing. Unfortunately as leader, you’re going to have to be the one to handle this visit, hopefully peacefully if you can. As the pick up trucks stop, you stand several feet away with your “snipers” keep a bead on your visitors. You hang on to your own rifle and several other carnies do likewise. One of the men gets out one of the trucks with his hands up. Looks like a redneck, in fact you imagine this lot are from the trailer park a few miles down the road. “It’s okay, it’s okay li’l lady, I see yer guys up there. Ain’t nobody lookin’ for a fight.” He says. “Doesn’t look that way, given that you’ve come with three trucks full of armed men and don’t tell me its hunting season.” You say. “Heh, well I’m sure given your own heightened state of awareness, you know things are getting’ dangerous nowadays. Anyway my name’s Mel, I’m guessin’ since you’re the one talkin’ you’re in charge here. Ringmaster or something like that?” “Something exactly like that.” you say. “Okay. You…uh…got some military gear here too I see. That truck over there.” “Yeah, what of it?” “Oh nothing, but that brings about the question of where are the guardsmen…heh yeah they tried to tell us what to do too. Didn’t work out so well. The second amendment says you got the right to pack it after all. Government can’t just do what they want.” At this point more of Mel’s men get out of their trucks as well. Your people and Mel’s people are both starting to eye each other waiting for someone to fire a shot. “Look let me cut to the chase honey. I’m assumin’ you might know by now what’s been happenin’ back in town. Besides the government tryin’ to pull their shit, there’s a bunch of freaks runnin’ around tryin’ to eat people. A bunch of them attacked us last night and while we fought them off, some of us got badly hurt and are in need of medical supplies. Now of course we did try goin’ into town first, but was just too fucked up there an’ we didn’t make much head way what with the freaks AND the guard all over the damn place. Then it occurred to me today that your circus might still be around and the National Guard probably would’ve been here as well so we decided to investigate. Now the group of weekend warriors at the trailer park had shit for medical supplies. So I’m hoping your detachment had more in that department.” Mel looks up at your dwarves upon the trailers. “Now you might get a few of us, but I’m bettin, most of us are better shots than y’all, so if you give us what medicine supplies you do have we’ll leave here in peace, if not well…” At this point things could get very violent very quickly. > You open fire You let these assholes come in and take medical supplies and they won’t stop there. After all you’ve been through you’re not putting up with MORE people not taking you seriously. “FIRE!” you shout and run back for cover as your people do just that. Naturally the trailer park crew do the same as their own leader runs for cover too. You’ve never shot at a human before, but you do remember when your brother Ben tried to show you how to shoot once. You weren’t very good at it then, and you’re not very good at it now, and sadly neither are a lot of your people. Several carnies get killed in the ensuing gun battle and many more get hit. While your own side does score a few hits of its own, Mel wasn’t bluffing when he said his people were better shots. It’s actually amazing that you come through unscathed, though that might be because Klepto in his foolish attempt to play hero gets fatality shot when trying to shield you. The only thing that prevents the rednecks from completely overrunning you is one of the jugglers lobs one of the few grenades that were acquired from the military with fairly good accuracy, blowing up two of their trucks (and some of them) and giving the survivors enough pause to understand that a continued attack is not in their best interest. Mel and the rest quickly pile into the surviving truck and drive away. You’ve won, but at a high cost. The carnies have already suffered losses and wounded with the recent internal struggle. Those that aren’t wounded or dead are now experiencing a mixture of sorrow, rage and loss of hope. “Well what now fearless leader?! We got even more dead and wounded thanks to your leadership!” Dolores exclaims. “Would it have been better if I just let them come in a take all our shit?!” you snap. “It would’ve been better had we not got all our asses shot off! If it hadn’t been for Zackary throwing a grenade we’d probably all be worm food!” “And how the hell is that my fault?! I was shooting at those hillbillies right along the rest of you! I didn’t see YOU hitting any of them!” While you and Dolores continue to argue Shrimpy steps in to try to mediate. “Hey we don’t have time for all this infighting! Haven’t we had enough of that shit? Now we survived and that’s the most important thing. I say we continue with our original plan and get the fuck outta here, in fact I think we should just pack up and go RIGHT NOW. Those rednecks aren’t going to just take this loss, they’re going to come back in force.” “Are you kidding me? You want us to just turn tail and run after this? We need to get revenge!” “Dolores, we already got several wounded people who are in no condition to fight! Never mind the amount of dead! We have no idea how many of those gun toting rednecks there are or even how much weaponry they have!” Shrimpy says. “Most likely a lot and that’s not even counting whatever they got from the military.” You add. Dolores isn’t deterred however, she’s just angrier specifically at you. “Are you…(Sigh) can’t believe I supported you as a leader, must’ve been the goddamn blood loss from my head wound after the carnival fight. Look, now maybe this gunfight was a cluster fuck and that’s why I’m pissed, but I suppose in the scheme of things you at least stood up to these bastards. If we hit them now, they probably won’t even expect it, and you heard their leader, he said they had a lot of wounded of their own, so how many of them could there really be?” Dolores exhales and now gives you an even more glaring look, which you didn’t think was possible. “However, your plan is to just run off and not avenge our fallen then maybe you need to get the fuck outta the way and hit the road like you told us to do with Jack not too long ago. Suzy, if YOU want to continue running this carnival YOU better do the right thing. ” Dolores’ intentions are obvious and clear. She’s going to go take revenge no matter what. What isn’t quite obvious is if she’s going to have the support. There are probably some that will support her, but several more are likely to not want to do any more fighting. > You leave now “Dolores, you’re not going to intimidate me any more than those stupid rednecks, if you want to go get your head blown off in a futile task then be my guest, but the rest of us are leaving…” Without another word, Dolores points her weapon at you. This action causes the few that are still in fighting condition to raise their own weapons as well. Some of them at Dolores and some at you. “Don’t think so blondie. I’m running this show now.” “Dolores have you lost your mind?!” Shrimpy exclaims. “Shrimpy, you better pick a fucking side, because your days of riding the fucking fence are soon coming to an end, now you either support the carnival or you can get the fuck out too!” Dolores says. While having a rifle pointed straight at you, would’ve been terrifying at one time for you, it’s not anymore. “Dolores, if you think this is going to make me back down, you’re sorely mistaken.” “And if you think that I won’t shoot you, you’re sorely stupid.” “Dolores look around you, I don’t see a united front against me. All you’re doing is going to cripple your own cause by opening fire and that’s assuming you even survive this. If you really want to get revenge on those rednecks then you’re going to need everyone you can get. And THIS is not the way to do it.” Dolores might be angry, but she’s not stupid and knows you’ve got a point. “All right then, you got a suggestion blondie? And don’t say just to follow you, because that’s not happening.” “No, I can see that. (Sigh) I can see that this carnival is doomed to tear itself apart so the way I see it, anyone who wants to come with me, leaves right now. This means we’re going to leave with most of our personal possessions and some supplies, half of that stuff is still ours, but we’ll just take what we need. We’re also going to be travelling lighter, so we’re just going to take some of the smaller vehicles. You can have all the trailers and the bigger trucks. Since I imagine most of the wounded won’t be in any condition to travel so you’ll need those if only to give them comfortable transport when the time comes.” “What about weapons?” Dolores asks. “Well everyone keeps their personal ones along with some ammo and YOU make due with whatever is left. Hopefully for you, most people that are armed stay with you. As a gesture of good will though, you can keep the few grenades we have. While I get the impression they would come in useful, I also think if you have any chance of beating those rednecks, you’re going to need them more than we will.” At this point you hold out your hand to solidify the deal, which Dolores gives you a sideways glance before returning the gesture. “Fine, but I better not catch any of you cowards taking more than you need!” Afterwards she starts calling everyone and anyone who’ll listen of why they should stay with her and take revenge on the trailer park. You on the other hand aren’t going to try to convince any more people, you’re done with speeches for a while, as far as you’re concerned it’s been a bit of a waste of time. If they want to come, then good, if not, then oh well. On your way back to your trailer to pick up your personal belonging, you notice that it must’ve caught a few stray bullets during the gunfire. When you open up the door, you’re met with an even bigger surprise. On the floor you see Ranko with several bullet holes in him and bleeding out. Nearby is a straight razor close to his hand. He sees you and struggles to speak. “Suz…zy…you gotta (cough) help…me…” he says. “Oh this is rich, you want ME to help you? What the hell were you doing in my trailer in the first place? Going to attack me? Maybe rape me perhaps?” you say picking up the straight razor. “I…was…goi…pologize…(gasp) (gurgle)…” “Yeah, excuse me if I don’t believe you. You deserve to die and with the day I’ve had, I think I’ll take the opportunity to enjoy watching it.” “(gurgle) Fuck…you…(gasp)…” Ranko utters. Those words are his last as he slowly finishes bleeding to death. Well he certainly left a mess, but considering this isn’t going to be your trailer anymore at least you don’t need to worry about cleaning up. As you’re packing up, someone enters the trailer, you’re a little paranoid, so you immediately draw your weapon only to see Shrimpy. “Whoa! It’s just me! I was just wondering which…holy shit, is that Ranko?” “Yeah, the asshole apparently was hiding in here waiting to ambush me. Caught some stray bullets as you can see. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. So what did you want?” You say. “Oh well, I was just coming to ask which vehicle did you want? I mean considering Lifto and Klepto are both dead, I figure we got more right to those two before anyone else might at least.” “So you’re coming with me?” “Of course. I was against attacking the trailer park remember? In fact there are several people ready to leave. Dunno how Dolores’ raid on the trailer park is going to go, but that’s hardly our problem right?” You pause a bit before addressing Shrimpy’s rhetorical question. “Do you think I’m doing the right thing, abandoning the carnival like this? I mean Dolores had a point when she said I just threw out Jack without supplies because he wanted to leave. I feel like sort of a hypocrite.” You say. “Well…I think you’re doing the best with the cards that were dealt and that’s all you can do sometimes. I mean there are people here that have been with the carnival longer and they’re ready to leave without hesitation, so you certainly shouldn’t feel bad about it. I mean with the way the world is going nowadays, does something like a carnival even have a future anymore?” Shrimpy says. “Maybe not, we probably should stick to rural areas for at least a few days until some of this shit dies down, but I’m just wondering what we’re going to do with ourselves for the future in general.” “Well I’m sure we’ll figure something out. But just know that I’ll stand by your decision whatever it is.” “Thanks Shrimpy…hey what is your real name anyway?” “Heh, oh that. Well haven’t been called it in year, but its Lance.” “Really?” “Yeah, I know I look far from being a Lance though. You probably picture a big tall heroic guy with a square jaw or something.” “Eh, those guys don’t exist in real life anyway, well at least they’ve never existed in my life, but you’ve been all right.” Lance smiles and waits for you to finish packing and the pair of you head to Lifto’s vehicle, which to your surprise has been fitted to accommodate a “shorter” driver. You, Lance and several others leave the carnival which is now in the process of gearing up for the raid on the trailer park (or housing the very wounded) you can’t imagine how that’s going to go, but you hope Dolores is successful even if you didn’t see eye to eye with her. Lance and you drive along with several other vehicles in an odd caravan like fashion. Really there is no reason why everyone needs to stay together, since everyone is free to go their own separate way, but perhaps leaving the carnival is too much of a change and at least there is a little bit of a familiarity by sticking with the same people. You and Lance converse the entire time you drive, though eventually at one point you start to get sleepy and Lance takes over with the driving. Feeling the safest you’ve been in days, you drift off to sleep… > Next day... SATURDAY A loud noise in the distance wakes you up and you also notice you’re no longer moving. “HOLY SHIT SUZY WAKE UP! LOOK!” Lance yells and you feel a rough shake to your arm. You instantly open your eyes and with a brief head swivel, you see something that is going to change your life more than anything else in the world. A mushroom cloud in the far distance. You’re not feeling any tremors or aftershocks, a wave of fire hasn’t engulfed you, so you’re guessing that it wasn’t excessively close, maybe it was even a small one. Still, you can’t help but wonder if you’re in some sort of deadly radiation radius though. If so there isn’t much that can done about it. “That’s it then…the world finally went and did it…” you say to yourself. You’re much calmer than Lance is, who is obviously distressed. In fact given that most of the vehicles haves stopped, you can only guess that he’s not the only one. Some are getting out to look and that’s soon followed by a few breaking down into tears or arguements. “Lance, we’re going to be okay. Just like you said, we’ll figure something out.” You say and start unlocking the door. “Where are you going? I think we should stay inside, I mean there might be radiation or something.” “Lance, if we are within the fallout blast, then we’ve probably already acquired enough rads to kill us anyway. I’m going to go try to calm everyone down because if this is it, then we’ll actually do a lot better in the survival aspect if we all work together.” It takes a moment and you stand on top of your vehicle to do it, but you soon get everyone’s attention. “Hey! Listen up! This might be the end of civilization as we know it, but it isn’t the end of the world! Sure life is going to be harder now, but when hasn’t it been for us carnies? Why just this damn week we suffered through a military occupation, an internal civil war, an attack by freaks, and an attack by a bunch of rednecks. We’ve already splintered apart enough already. No way are we going to descend any further. We’ve come too far.” You think you’re getting better at making speeches because this time you’re seeing less frowning faces and general attentiveness. “We used to drift from place to place providing entertainment as a source of our survival well what has really changed? We’ll still be drifters because that’s how we’ll survive. This world just got a whole lot shittier and we ARE nomads and vagabonds by nature. Surely we’ll be picking up, collecting, and scavenging useful material, items and the like to trade in our travels. I know we all have useful skills, surely with those, our ability to learn and adapt and a team effort we’ll be able to keep this FAMILY together a very long time.” “Yeah. Suzy’s right. We can survive this.” someone says and several others agree. While you don’t get a feeling of enthusiasm, at least this time you are not met with apathy. In any case, you and some of the others get together to decide where to head next and what to do about food, and fuel. This isn’t going to be easy, but then this whole week has been a trial for you. No longer are you the shy “good” girl who hid away in the basement, harassed by your family and living as one day blurred into the next. You are part of something bigger and not just that, but a leader. It’s a brand new day and this is just the beginning of your brand new life. > … Nomad The Future… “Mom, why can’t we just head to Rebirth, it’s closer and we can get better deals there.” Lucy asks you. “Because last time we stopped through, they were beginning to go through a power struggle and while I know it’s over now, the new ruling head of that town is an asshole.” You reply. “And how exactly does that make him any different than the last guy?” “The last ruler of Rebirth at least tried to curb the amount of wanton violence and rape in the community. This guy encourages it. The place is little more than a glorified wasteland thug haven now. We walk in there and at best we’re going to come out of a firefight alive and poor. At worst, well I think you know what will happen.” Lucy doesn’t say anything. She’s fully aware of the dangers of being female, let alone a teenage girl that looks like her in this new harsh world. Still, she can’t help arguing the point. “But don’t we risk death and worse just by roaming from place to place all the time anyway? Wouldn’t it be better if we found some place to settle down?” “Heh, I guess you don’t remember because you were so young, but your father and I tried that once. Didn’t work out very well when the little town that we THOUGHT was secure got overrun by raiders. That was probably one of the scariest days of my life. After years of previously being drifters, we let ourselves get unprepared. It was a mistake on my part since I thought a more stable environment would be better to raise you in, as it turned out, should’ve stayed a nomad and I’d say that’s worked out a lot better.” “How? We’re always living a hand to mouth existence. Our group still loses people to violence and other causes. I mean dad died because we don’t have proper medical treatment available.” “Lucy, your father might’ve died anyway even if we hadn’t been living a nomadic existence. I know they say civilization is rebuilding, but most of the places we’ve been to aren’t exactly stellar in their medical facilities themselves. The exceptions might be those fucked up Ground Zero communities and I doubt if you’d want to live some place like that.” “No, I guess not.” Lucy says. You look at Lucy and understand she’s just being a little rebellious due to her being a teenager right now. She’s at the age where she doesn’t want you to be so close all the time. It’s funny because you went through no such rebellious period yourself and your lifestyle was the exact opposite right now. You never went anywhere; you never really did anything save for staying in your basement. Now? You’ve seen more and done more than you ever could’ve imagined. In fact you’ve lived a nomadic existence long enough that you think you prefer it, even when you temporarily settled down years ago. You (and her father) have taught Lucy how to take care of herself in this harsh world. Still, you do wonder if you’re probably a little overprotective of your daughter, you won’t be around forever and she should have the opportunity to live her own life and if that means she wants to live in a permanent residence then perhaps she should be given that chance. “Lucy, the world is still pretty fucked up now, but despite my previous cynicism, I suppose parts of it are getting better. Maybe one day you can find a nice place to settle down that won’t be run by a bloodthirsty warlord or in danger of being raided by mutant cannibals. And if that’s your choice, then you’re free to do it. I know you’ll have to live your own life eventually.” You say. Lucy smiles at the permission, but reassures you that she had no intention of leaving you yet. It’s comforting, since it shows that she still wants you around. She’s still your child. You, Lucy and the rest of your ragtag band of traders, tinkerers and scavengers make your way to the town of Blivop. Not exactly the best for trade, but at least the people there aren’t complete amoral rapists and murderers. Later that night when your caravan sets down for the night, you drift off to sleep with an old worn clown nose in your hand. You squeeze it a couple times, remembering happy times with your now departed husband. “Goddnight Lance.” You say and slowly drift off with the round red foam ball in your hand.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You let these assholes come in and take medical supplies and they won’t stop there. After all you’ve been through you’re not putting up with MORE people not taking you seriously. “FIRE!” you shout and run back for cover as your people do just that. Naturally the trailer park crew do the same as their own leader runs for cover too. You’ve never shot at a human before, but you do remember when your brother Ben tried to show you how to shoot once. You weren’t very good at it then, and you’re not very good at it now, and sadly neither are a lot of your people. Several carnies get killed in the ensuing gun battle and many more get hit. While your own side does score a few hits of its own, Mel wasn’t bluffing when he said his people were better shots. It’s actually amazing that you come through unscathed, though that might be because Klepto in his foolish attempt to play hero gets fatality shot when trying to shield you. The only thing that prevents the rednecks from completely overrunning you is one of the jugglers lobs one of the few grenades that were acquired from the military with fairly good accuracy, blowing up two of their trucks (and some of them) and giving the survivors enough pause to understand that a continued attack is not in their best interest. Mel and the rest quickly pile into the surviving truck and drive away. You’ve won, but at a high cost. The carnies have already suffered losses and wounded with the recent internal struggle. Those that aren’t wounded or dead are now experiencing a mixture of sorrow, rage and loss of hope. “Well what now fearless leader?! We got even more dead and wounded thanks to your leadership!” Dolores exclaims. “Would it have been better if I just let them come in a take all our shit?!” you snap. “It would’ve been better had we not got all our asses shot off! If it hadn’t been for Zackary throwing a grenade we’d probably all be worm food!” “And how the hell is that my fault?! I was shooting at those hillbillies right along the rest of you! I didn’t see YOU hitting any of them!” While you and Dolores continue to argue Shrimpy steps in to try to mediate. “Hey we don’t have time for all this infighting! Haven’t we had enough of that shit? Now we survived and that’s the most important thing. I say we continue with our original plan and get the fuck outta here, in fact I think we should just pack up and go RIGHT NOW. Those rednecks aren’t going to just take this loss, they’re going to come back in force.” “Are you kidding me? You want us to just turn tail and run after this? We need to get revenge!” “Dolores, we already got several wounded people who are in no condition to fight! Never mind the amount of dead! We have no idea how many of those gun toting rednecks there are or even how much weaponry they have!” Shrimpy says. “Most likely a lot and that’s not even counting whatever they got from the military.” You add. Dolores isn’t deterred however, she’s just angrier specifically at you. “Are you…(Sigh) can’t believe I supported you as a leader, must’ve been the goddamn blood loss from my head wound after the carnival fight. Look, now maybe this gunfight was a cluster fuck and that’s why I’m pissed, but I suppose in the scheme of things you at least stood up to these bastards. If we hit them now, they probably won’t even expect it, and you heard their leader, he said they had a lot of wounded of their own, so how many of them could there really be?” Dolores exhales and now gives you an even more glaring look, which you didn’t think was possible. “However, your plan is to just run off and not avenge our fallen then maybe you need to get the fuck outta the way and hit the road like you told us to do with Jack not too long ago. Suzy, if YOU want to continue running this carnival YOU better do the right thing. ” Dolores’ intentions are obvious and clear. She’s going to go take revenge no matter what. What isn’t quite obvious is if she’s going to have the support. There are probably some that will support her, but several more are likely to not want to do any more fighting. > You get revenge If you’re going to have any hope and future of keeping this carnival together with you as leader, you’re going to have to get revenge on those rednecks. Maybe Dolores is correct in that there won’t be too many of them in fighting condition. “Okay, okay, we’ll do something about those hicks. Just gotta get organized first…” you say before Shrimpy interrupts. “Suzy are you serious? Haven’t you noticed all of the wounded and dead we have?” “Yes, and that’s exactly why we’re going to hit those bastards back hard! Look Shrimpy, if this is the way the world is going to work now, we need to always stand up to bullies or else they’ll just walk all over you. Trust me, I know what the hell I’m talking about. Now you can either get with the program or hit the road.” You say. Shrimpy is taken aback by your harsh tone. He doesn’t reply, he just nods and leaves. He doesn’t leave, so he’s willing to fall in line despite believing that this is a bad idea. Dolores and yourself both gather those still in fighting condition and convince them that an attack is in order. You manage to convince most, but there are a few that leave. Dolores is nearly ready to blow their heads off for wanting to take some supplies with them, but not wishing to cause another potential internal firefight you allow them to leave with minimal of supplies. Within an hour and a half everyone that is willing to come with you is loaded up and ready to go. Shrimpy, in perhaps an effort to show his dedication says he’ll come too, but you tell him to stay behind with the wounded just so there is someone that can help them in case they have to be moved immediately. “I’m not exactly how much I’m going to be able to help in that regard. My name isn’t Lifto.” Shrimpy says. “Well, not all of them are down for the count. I’m sure you’d be able to help a few at least.” You say. “Suzy, you don’t need to do this, we could just leave. This attack is a suicide mission. It’s obvious from the last firefight with those good ol’ boys we can’t hit for shit.” “Well, fortunately we’ve got some automatic weapons in that regard, more bullets, more likely to hit the targets. Hey it happens.” You say. Sensing he isn’t going to talk you out of this, Shrimpy wishes you good luck and you’re on your way to a path of rip roarin’ revenge, though there is a part of you that would just like to run. You lead the drive to the trailer park since you actually know where it is exactly. When you arrive, it’s hard to tell if the place is in shambles from when their leader said they were attacked or if it always looked this way. No sooner have all your vehicles stopped, when Dolores has already gotten out of the military truck you took and started lobbing the remaining grenades at the trailer homes. “Come on out you inbred sister fuckers!” she shouts and begins firing randomly at the rest of the homes. “Dolores, get back in the…” you begin to say and then suddenly Dolores actions have attracted return fire. “Over there! Fire over there!” Dolores shouts and takes cover. At this point Dolores is giving out orders and you’re not being listened to at all. Despite Dolores’ enthusiasm for revenge it doesn’t suddenly make her a better “commander.” You at least try to remember all those times you played video games on your computer and know that wading straight forward into battle is traditionally a shit strategy so you attempt to try the classic pincer maneuver. Unfortunately given that you’re the only one using any sort of critical thinking and nobody is actually listening to you, you’re mainly stuck by yourself, trying to pick off the hillbillies when you see them pop up. If you were actually a good shot, you might’ve actually turned this attack into a successful one. As it stands, the trailer park crew even with the wounded they have and catching them off guard with the grenades, still outnumber you severely and STILL have better shots. They also have explosives of their own perhaps not military grade like you had, but when you’ve got a lot of half empty liquor bottles lying around and people with too much time on their hands well sometimes even the lower born get creative. Your vehicles and your people are suddenly bombarded by several Molotov cocktails and someone even has a homemade “launcher.” The explosions are big, loud and fatal to most of your people who were still taking cover behind them. The others who weren’t have already gotten cut down by the gunfire. Dolores herself is lying dead with a bullet hole in her head and you’re suddenly hearing hillbillies whoopin’ it up and seriously worried about your physical safety. “Whoo hoo! Somebody keep the pretty blonde one alive! We can have a good time wit her!” you hear one of them shout. “Goddamnit Ray, stop thinkin’ with yer dick for one minute, she’s still armed ya dumb shit!” you hear Mel shout back. Seeing as none of the vehicles you came in are usable anymore you attempt to run. You just hope you’ve got more endurance than a bunch of overweight beer swillin’ hicks. They aren’t going to be able to follow immediately by any working vehicles they might have due to the flaming scrap heap blocking the trailer park entrance created by their homemade bombs. You MIGHT have made it, if they weren’t lead by a more pragmatic leader type. Just goes to show that you can’t judge people just by where they come from… As soon as you make it to the road, a single shot rings out and you feel a burning sensation run through your upper back and up your spine. You then feel numb and collapse instantly. You’re paralyzed, not just from the waist down, but from the neck down. You panic and the tears start when you know this is it. Mel arrives before the rest of his crew who are now complaining loudly about Mel shooting you. “(Sigh) Well darlin’ you asked fer this. I get why you attacked, but that doesn’t fuckin’ mean we’re gonna sit and take it in the ass any more than you did. Just be glad, I’m puttin’ you outa yer misery rather than lettin’ the rest have their way with you.” Mel says. You don’t reply and just close your eyes waiting to hear the final shot.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>FRIDAY “Hey fearless leader, wake up, your people demand it.” Shrimpy says tapping you on the shoulder. Groggily you sit up, you swear you feel like you’ve barely gotten any sleep at all. Shrimpy stands nearby along with Klepto, the dwarf woman who “endorsed” you yesterday and a wiry scraggily looking man. You think he runs one of those carny games…specifically the one where you shoot a water gun at a clown’s mouth. “What’s going on?” you ask. “What’s going on is a bunch of shit, that’s what darling. After the midgets here…” “Fuck you Jack, we’re DWARVES.” The dwarf woman interrupts. “Whatever Dolores. Anyway after the…little people rounded up all the military supplies last night I got one of their radios tuned in to other military frequencies. Turns out that the nearby town has been overrun with those things we killed yesterday. The poor bastard that I spoke to just before it sounded like he got his guts ripped out said they don’t know whether it was a virus or not., just that there were a shitload of them. Either way I say we got lucky that only a few wandered out this far. We need to get the fuck outta here.” “My town…wow…uh…” you say being surprised by this revelation. You really are at a loss for words right now. You start to think about your real family and even Bobby. Are they okay? Are they already dead? Are they one of those things? “Suzy? You okay? You’re spacing out.” Klepto says. “Huh, yeah, I’m just…okay yeah we obviously need to get out of here. Start packing up the rest of our stuff and…” “Sweetheart didn’t you hear what I said? I said there’s probably fucking crazed cannibals on their way here right fucking now! We ain’t got time for that shit! We need to just load up as much supplies we can and take off in our vehicles. This is the fucking end times man!” Jack says. “It’s not going to take that much longer to pack down, we had most of the stuff ready to go before the National Guard arrived. Some of our people are still wounded badly and need the rest as well. Besides, living in our trailers is going to be a lot more desirable than living in just a regular vehicle if there is a complete collapse of society going on right now.” Shrimpy remarks. “Okay then Tom Thumb YOU and the rest of the lollipop kids do it. Me and some of the others? We’re taking supplies and leaving. Not stayin’ around here waiting to be cannibal chow.” You’ve been in charge for less than one full day and already someone is threatening to break away and worse, not even taking any notice of you. You just bludgeoned crazed freaks to death yesterday, you’re tired of not being taken seriously. “Jack, if you or others want to leave you’re free to do so, but what you’re not doing is taking any of those military supplies from here. Those belong to the carnival and as such belong to all of us. Now if you don’t want any part of that any longer, lots of luck, but you and anyone else that wants to leave you go with what personal items you came with.” “Pfft, whatever. I didn’t elect you as leader. I’m only telling you as a courtesy, you can stay here and get eaten or come along and I can keep you safe. In fact to pass the time we can play shoot the clown in the mouth, except it won’t be water going in your mouth, it’ll be my…” Jack isn’t expecting you to kick him in the balls. The moment you do he winces and crumples. You follow up with a knee to his face. He’s down and you have everyone’s attention in the tent. “That’s the last fucking blow job reference I’m going to hear from you or ANYONE else for that matter. Now listen up, as I remember most of you were fine with me being in charge yesterday and goddamn it that’s what I’m going to do, be in fucking charge. This is STILL our carnival, that hasn’t changed and I’m not going to let it fall apart just because the rest of society seems to be. Now this is what we’re going to do, we’re going to finish packing up our shit, get our trailers and such in order, we’re going to also take the military trucks and then we’re going to move on. Now if some of those geeks show up well we’ve got some brand new rifles and pistols to try them out on. Anyone who doesn’t like this plan can leave with the shirts on their back and nothing else! Now let’s stop fighting and get some of this damn shit done!” At this point those that are in condition to work, proceed to do so. “What about him?” Shrimpy asks pointing at Jack who is still on the ground. “Throw his ass out, he made his decision.” You remark and then notice Dolores smiling. “What’re you smiling about?” you demand. “Nothing, but I’m beginning to like you, blondie.” Dolores says and then whistles over several dwarves who promptly pick up Jack and haul him away. Dolores then leaves to go tend to other matters. Shrimpy says he’s going to go help and leaves as well, leaving you alone with Klepto. “Well, looks like you underwent quite a change while I was knocked out yesterday. I like it. Assertiveness is an attractive trait on you.” “Klepto, I’ve got a lot on my mind and I’m in no mood for your nice guy trying to get into my pants routine right now.” You say. “Okay, okay, sheesh, I’m just…nevermind…fuck I’ll just leave you alone ringmaster.” Klepto says and walks off. You can’t worry about Klepto’s fragile ego right now, you’ve got bigger concerns and that’s on top of still thinking about your “old” family. You know you made the decision to leave them all, but that was still just a few days ago and you still never wanted any of them to suffer at the hands of whatever the hell those things are. Speaking of which you still have to worry about those geeks. Jack might’ve been out of line, but he still might’ve been correct about some wandering towards the carnival like those yesterday did. Considering the dwarves still seem to be the largest faction and friendliest toward you, you have some of them armed with the rifles to stand on top of the trailers and keep a look out. You keep yourself busy by helping with the clean up. Hours pass and that’s when your lookouts see something approaching. Not the geeks, but rather a few pick up trucks which look like they’re holding several men carrying shotguns and rifles. You call everyone to immediately take a defensive position and to fall back. You aren’t sure what to expect, but a bunch of heavily armed men can’t ever be a good thing. Unfortunately as leader, you’re going to have to be the one to handle this visit, hopefully peacefully if you can. As the pick up trucks stop, you stand several feet away with your “snipers” keep a bead on your visitors. You hang on to your own rifle and several other carnies do likewise. One of the men gets out one of the trucks with his hands up. Looks like a redneck, in fact you imagine this lot are from the trailer park a few miles down the road. “It’s okay, it’s okay li’l lady, I see yer guys up there. Ain’t nobody lookin’ for a fight.” He says. “Doesn’t look that way, given that you’ve come with three trucks full of armed men and don’t tell me its hunting season.” You say. “Heh, well I’m sure given your own heightened state of awareness, you know things are getting’ dangerous nowadays. Anyway my name’s Mel, I’m guessin’ since you’re the one talkin’ you’re in charge here. Ringmaster or something like that?” “Something exactly like that.” you say. “Okay. You…uh…got some military gear here too I see. That truck over there.” “Yeah, what of it?” “Oh nothing, but that brings about the question of where are the guardsmen…heh yeah they tried to tell us what to do too. Didn’t work out so well. The second amendment says you got the right to pack it after all. Government can’t just do what they want.” At this point more of Mel’s men get out of their trucks as well. Your people and Mel’s people are both starting to eye each other waiting for someone to fire a shot. “Look let me cut to the chase honey. I’m assumin’ you might know by now what’s been happenin’ back in town. Besides the government tryin’ to pull their shit, there’s a bunch of freaks runnin’ around tryin’ to eat people. A bunch of them attacked us last night and while we fought them off, some of us got badly hurt and are in need of medical supplies. Now of course we did try goin’ into town first, but was just too fucked up there an’ we didn’t make much head way what with the freaks AND the guard all over the damn place. Then it occurred to me today that your circus might still be around and the National Guard probably would’ve been here as well so we decided to investigate. Now the group of weekend warriors at the trailer park had shit for medical supplies. So I’m hoping your detachment had more in that department.” Mel looks up at your dwarves upon the trailers. “Now you might get a few of us, but I’m bettin, most of us are better shots than y’all, so if you give us what medicine supplies you do have we’ll leave here in peace, if not well…” At this point things could get very violent very quickly. > You continue to negotiate Being a “native” of the area, you do know something of the types that do live in the trailer park. Most of them probably do nothing else except practice-shooting beer cans all damn day. Mel, is most likely right in that his people are going to be better shots and a gun battle is going to result in a lot of dead on your side. However you can’t just let them take your stuff, especially since you’re using a lot of it and there isn’t much to begin with. “Well, if we had the extra supplies we might be inclined to share, the fact is we don’t have much and what little we have, well we need. You start a shooting match here and you’re likely to wind up with more dead and wounded than what was worth the effort.” You reply. “You’ll forgive me if I don’t believe you darlin’.” Mel replies. “It’s true, seriously come on in and take a look yourself. We got a shitload of wounded ourselves in that big tent back there. Just you though, the rest of your people can stand out here and look fearsome.” Mel chuckles. “Oh just me huh? And as soon as I go in I’m at your fuckin’ mercy. Nah, I don’t think so.” “Fine so take me as hostage. Here…” you say and drop your rifle and walk over to Mel. A couple people shout at you, but you just wave a hand at them as if to tell them to calm down. Meanwhile Mel stands watching you approach. When you’re before him, he’s definitely staring you up and down. “You got a pistol I presume?” you ask Mel. “Yeah.” “Well pull it out and put it to my head.” You say turning around and putting your body against Mel’s and then putting one of his arms around your waist. “Well… shit girl, you’re just somethin’ else ain’t cha?” Mel says barely keeping his composure as he pulls out his pistol. “If you say so. In any case you now have a little insurance that should be good enough for you shouldn’t it? I mean…I’m putting my complete trust in you. You’re in complete control” you say and grind up against Mel’s body a little more while turning your head a bit to flutter your eyes at him. Mel is at a loss for words, but his buddies aren’t. “Woo Hoo, looks like the li’l blonde number is sweet on ya Mel!” “I say we take her back, instead of medical supplies. I never liked Bobby Ray to begin with. Motherfucker can bleed out fer all I care!” “You plannin’ on tradin’ Tina up fer her? “Why’s Mel get all the pretty ones? He’s already got Tina, I say one of us should get the blonde!” At this point some arguing breaks out, followed by Mel shouting at them to shut the fuck up. He then turns his attention back to you. “Heh… you …you are trouble girlie. If I took you back to the trailer park, you’d probably have every man ripping each other apart over you. I can barely keep these dumb fuckers from doing that now. In any case, let’s go look at the medical supply situation. Come on.” Mel says motioning you to move. “As you wish.” You say. Mel and you head back towards the carnival where upon you give him the “grand tour” showing him that it is indeed true that you don’t really have much in the way of medical supplies. He also sees all the people that are wounded too. “Hmm, well I suppose y’all COULD still be hidin’ such things somewhere, but honestly I’m inclined to believe ya. This place has even less military vehicles than the ones that were at the trailer park and it sounds like from what you told me there weren’t even that many guardsmen here. From the amount of wounded I see, you probably did use up most of the pittance that the military brought with them…how did you get all these wounded though? Nobody looks like they’re suffering from gunshot wounds. The cannibal creeps?” “Nope. All these wounded are from each other. Long story, let’s just say carny politics is complicated and I came out on top.” You reply confidently. “I see…well you have certainly displayed a certain amount of balls putting yourself in the vulnerable position you did. (Sigh) All right, you dealt straight with me, so I’ll deal straight with you. Guess we’ll try the town again.” At this point you and Mel head back to the “neutral zone” where upon Mel releases you (reluctantly) and waves at his people to get ready to go. As they drive away, you breathe a heavy sigh of relief and rush back to the others. Dolores approaches you when you arrive. “Well that was an interesting way to handle things, but it worked. Those good ol’ boys woulda probably killed and wounded a lot more of us.” “Yeah, an’ now we need to get the hell out of here. I don’t trust them to not come back with a bigger group and attack us anyway.” “Well, we probably could’ve done with a bit more of a rest, but I can’t argue with that logic, they weren’t the most reputable lookin’ an’ you’re the boss. One good thing about having some recently departed, is that the trailers have a lot more room in them now. Speaking of which, your own trailer is already hooked up to a truck. We should be ready to roll in about an hour.” Feeling like you deserve a rest after recent events, you head back to your trailer to relax. As soon as you enter though, you are suddenly grabbed and tackled to the floor and the stench of bad body odor fills your nostrils. “Don’t scream bitch.” A familiar voice whispers. You get a good look at your assailant and see a man with half worn clown make up on his face. It’s Ranko and he smells even worse now that he’s laying right on top of you. “I see a lot of fuckin’ changes to this here carnival have happened since I’ve been gone. Saw some of it from afar while hiding and waiting for the best time to strike. Nearly got eaten by those geeks in the process, but heh heh heh, I got away…” Ranko begins to press his weight on you so you can’t wiggle away while keeping one hand on your mouth and holding a straight razor in his other. His whole outfit is filthy presumably from lurking about in the wilderness for days, but you also notice that he’s sporting a couple wounds of his own in the form of bite marks. “Nothing smart to say now bitch? Thought you were the ringmaster now. Head cunt in charge and all that. Fuck you, I SHOULD be in fuckin’ charge!” At this point you manage to bite Ranko’s hand, which tastes foul, but it’s enough to cause him to take it off your mouth, giving you a chance to scream for help, before he backhands you across the face. “Bitch! Maybe if I raped you, you’d KNOW who’s in fuckin’ charge!” he exclaims and fumbles with pulling down his pants, and keeps the straight razor to your throat with his other hand. (Carnies must love straight razors) All Ranko has to do is make a quick swipe and your throat is going to be opened if you struggle. If you do nothing he may very well rape you assuming nobody heard you scream. Of course he’ll probably kill you anyway after he’s finished. > You give in Maybe it’s because of everything you’ve been through within the past week, (not to mention the incident with your uncle) but the oddest thing about this situation is that you’re more revolted than scared. That isn’t to say you’re not scared though, you don’t want to be raped and you certainly don’t want to die, especially given everything you’ve just survived. The thought sickens you, but you realize there might still be a way to avoid your current horrible situation without resisting. “You gonna treat me like a whore? Come on then do it!” you say. “What?” Ranko asks. “Come on, stick it in me daddy. I want to feel…” you start to say when Ranko pushes the razor against your throat that it feels like its going to break the skin. “You playin’ with me bitch?” Ranko says with his face so close to yours that you have to prevent yourself from pulling away due to his bad breath. “Not at all, you’re doin’ it the way I like it. Daddy used to come into my room late at night and get rough sometimes, but I knew he only did it because he loved me…” “You…are one twisted…” Before Ranko can finish his sentence you muster up the courage and put aside the revulsion long enough to move your head forward to kiss Ranko’s lips and even shove your tongue in his mouth. It’s the worst thing you’ve ever tasted, and it’s only due to your strong gag reflex (Yes, if most people knew that about you they’d have a field day with the jokes due to that knowledge) that you don’t puke. Ranko’s blade has cut your neck superficially due to moving your head forward, but your action has had the desired effect of him relaxing a bit. Not enough that you’d trust being able to escape or successfully get the straight razor away, but it bought you some time. “Hah, I KNEW you were into me! No bitch can resist a man who takes charge! You want me to do you like daddy did huh? Well did he ever do this?” Ranko says and then flips you over. “I’m gonna ride your ASS so hard, you’re not gonna shit right for a long time!” he says and starts pulling your pants down. “Oh no! I’m a virgin back there!” you say in the most innocent way possible, which of course makes Ranko only laugh like the rapist creep he is and rips your panties off. Meanwhile the blood must’ve completely left his brain and gone all to his dick, because the idiot dropped his straight razor in his desire to fuck you in the ass. You grab the straight razor, which is now near your hand. Before Ranko can get his dick into the “promised land” you turn your head and swipe backwards with the razor. He’s close enough that you catch him across the face. “AGH! GODDAMNIT! FUCKING BITCH!” he shouts and falls backwards holding the side of his face. You scramble forward and grab a couple of nearby items before turning around to throw them at him. He blocks and screams a bunch of obscenities, but before he can advance towards you, someone has at last heard the commotion going on. “Motherfucker…” Shrimpy says opening up the door and rushes to punch Ranko in the small of the back. Ranko back kicks Shrimpy causing the little guy to fall. Sensing he’s no longer in control of the situation, Ranko tries to escape out the door, only to trip and fall awkwardly on his face due to his pants and underwear still being around his ankles. You aren’t about to let Ranko get away with shit, so you plunge the razor into Ranko’s ass and twist. His screams are predictable. “Was it good for you?” you say and then slam his face into the door twice, breaking his nose and causing him to gurgle a bit on his own blood. And for the finisher, you pull the bloody, shitty razor out of his ass and slit his throat with it. You then fall back and sit on a nearby chair breathing heavily after your ordeal. Shrimpy at this point recovers as well. “Shit, I know this is a silly question, but are you all right?” he asks. “ (Pant) Well, I’m alright in that at least this fucktard didn’t ass rape me, but this wasn’t a pleasant experience (pant). Fuck. “ “Well at least its over now…” Shrimpy starts to say before he’s interrupted. (Knock knock) “Hey what’s going on in there, heard all this…holy fuck…” Dolores says as she opens up the door revealing Ranko’s bloody face as the first thing she sees. “Nothin’ Dolores, just an ex-disgruntled employee. It’s been taken care of.” You shout. “SUZY! What happened?! Are you all right?!” you hear Klepto remark from outside. “Uh, she’s fine Klepto, she just needs some time by herself. Why don’t you help pull this asshole out of the trailer?” Shrimpy says and gets Ranko’s body by the feet while presumably Dolores and Klepto pull the rest of him out of the trailer. “What the hell happened to his ass? It’s all bloody…ugh, this guy smells worse than when he was alive.” You hear Dolores say, as the door slams shut. You grab something to cover your naked lower half with while Shrimpy continues to stand in the doorway, just in case Klepto wants to play “white knight” and come see you. “Thanks Shrimpy.” You say. “For what, I barely did anything.” He replies. “It was enough that you got here when you did.” “Well I was initially on my way to ask where are next destination was going to be, but I guess that can wait for now. And don’t worry I won’t be telling Klepto or anyone else about seeing you…well less than fully clothed.” “Well I appreciate that too. As for our next destination, I dunno, with as crazy as things seem to be getting maybe we should just stick to rural areas for awhile.” “Yeah, probably for the best. Well I’ll leave now, but remember we’re all here when you need to talk.” “Shrimpy?” you call out once more. “Yes, Suzy?” “What is your real name?” “Heh, oh that. Been awhile since anyone used it, but it’s Lance.” “Really?” “Really. I know I don’t look like a Lance. You tend to think of a big tall guy with a square jaw. A real hero type.” “Well like I said, you were a hero today.” Lance smiles at this comment and nods before walking out the door. And you’re all by yourself again. You look around the trailer and the new blood stains you’re going to have to clean. You immediately lock the door, go wash up and allow yourself to break down a bit in the shower. Still through the tears, you realize that you’re a lot stronger than you could’ve ever believed. You’re also glad you’ve got a “family” of sorts now, there is some comfort in that. The rest of your day is spent staying alone in your trailer though given that the whole carnival is soon on the move it isn’t like anyone is going to just walk up and knock on your door now. The motion of the trailer combined with the stress of the day causes you to collapse on your bed and close your eyes as you eventually fall asleep… > Next day… SATURDAY A loud noise in the distance wakes you up and you also notice you’re no longer moving. A quick look out one of the window and you see something that is going to change your life more than anything else in the world. A mushroom cloud. You’re not feeling any tremors or aftershocks, a wave of fire hasn’t engulfed you, so you’re guessing that it wasn’t excessively close, maybe it was even a small one. Still, you can’t help but wonder if you’re in some sort of deadly radiation radius though. If so there isn’t much that can done about it. “That’s it then…the world finally went and did it…” you say to yourself. You hear some commotion going on outside, presumably several of the carnies are freaking out, arguing, and generally concerned on what to do next. It’s a reasonable reaction to a doomsday situation. You calmly get dressed and make your appearance. It takes a moment, but you soon get everyone’s attention. “Hey! Listen up! This might be the end of civilization as we know it, but it isn’t the end of the world! Sure life is going to be harder now, but when hasn’t it been for us carnies? Why just this damn week we suffered through a military occupation, an internal civil war, an attack by freaks, and avoided another possible attack by a bunch of rednecks. And hell, I had the extra struggle of trying to fit in here and fight off a rape attempt. No way are we going to descend into anarchy again. We’ve come too far.” You think you’re getting better at making speeches because this time you’re seeing less frowning faces and general attentiveness. “We already drift from place to place providing entertainment as a source of our survival well what has really changed? We can still do that. We WILL still do that. This world just got a whole lot shittier and if we can bring a little joy to some people, well they just might be grateful. And if our entertainment value isn’t appreciated, well we ARE nomads and vagabonds by nature. Surely we’ll be picking up, collecting, and scavenging useful material, items and the like to trade in our travels. I know we all have useful skills, surely with those, our ability to learn and adapt and a team effort we’ll be able to keep this carnival…no this FAMILY together a very long time.” “Yeah! Suzy’s right! We can survive this!” someone shouts and several others agree enthusiastically. This time you are not met with apathy, but with applause. At last you have truly been accepted. You half expect them to all shout “One of us.” Over and over, but perhaps that might be a bit too obvious. In any case, you and some of the others get together to decide where to head next and what to do about food, and fuel. This isn’t going to be easy, but then this whole week has been a trial for you. No longer are you the shy “good” girl who hid away in the basement, harassed by your family and living as one day blurred into the next. You are part of something bigger and not just that, but a leader. It’s a brand new day and this is just the beginning of your brand new life. > … Greatest Show On Scorched Earth The Future… After yet another successful show, the performers of the Cataclysm Carnival begin to pack down for the night and engage in their usual banter. “Well that was certainly fun. It’s been a long time since we got to actually perform an entire show like that.” Sparkle remarks while putting away her chainsaws. “Ha ha ha ha, yeah I wouldn’t exacty call General Hellstorm’s totalitarian city state civilization, but it was a nice change from the usual shanty towns or worse, those Ground Zero owned shelter communities. God, I sometimes wonder what the fuck happened in some of those places after the bombs hit. I swear most of those folks are more fucked up than the people who got caught on the surface.” Randy adds. Hector and Lucy step inside the trailer. “I imagine being stuck in close quarters with a bunch of people for long periods of time is bound to make a lot of people weird. I mean you don’t have to look too far to see that.” Bruno says after hearing part of the conversation. “I hope you remembered to lock up those cat-rat things, this time. Last time they got out and chewed several holes in one of the trailers.” Sparkle says. “They’re called Nibblers and yes, I made sure they’re all locked up. I threw in some meat too so they should be good.” Hector remarks. “Hrm, I still dunno how you can work with those things. I saw a wild one take off an arm in one bite before.” Randy says. “Just gotta show the little bitey bastards whose boss.” Hector says proudly displaying how he still has all ten of his fingers. Lucy says nothing and just walks to the nearest mirror to take her clown make up off. Randy and Sparkle sense something amiss. “You okay?” Sparkle asks. “Shes’s pissed because apparently General Hellstorm was flirting a lot with her hot mom at the end of the night. In fact I’d wager that’s how we landed this job in the first place.” “Hector, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t call my mom hot. I told you that before. And I’d REALLY appreciate it if you didn’t imply my mother was a whore!” Lucy says. “For fuck’s sake Lucy, I didn’t say she was! I just meant ol’ Hellstorm probably went all soppy when he first saw your mother. She turned on the charm and just reeled in the rube. Shit, we ALL should have such talent when we get to be that age. IF we get to be that age in this shitty world.” “Ever the flatterer I see, Hector. Glad to know that a woman in their forties still has a place in this rotten world.” You say stepping into the trailer. Hector isn’t quite sure how to react. “Um, apologies Ringmistress Suzy.” “Relax, you don’t ever have to worry about not being charming Hector, you’ll always have your Nibblers to keep you warm. Your father Klepto would’ve been so proud.” You say patting Hector on the head in a condescending manner. Sparkle and Randy both greet you, but your daughter continues to focus on the mirror. “Anyway, I’m just making the rounds to everyone and I just wanted to say it was a good show tonight and I’m proud of all of you. In fact we might be coming here to perform again in a few more months. Mr. Hellstorm really enjoyed the show. You’d think a guy that goes by the name General Hellstorm would be all WAR DEATH RAGH! But the guy actually is pretty even tempered, well as far as wasteland warlords go anyway.” “Hey which act did he like the most? Did he like my chainsaw bit?” Sparkle asks enthusiastically. “Heh, well to be honest he wouldn’t stop going on about the freakshow portion. The guy really liked that bit. If there’s one good thing about living in a radiated post apocalyptic landscape, it has got this carnival’s freakshow up and running again. On the pragmatic side of things we also exchanged some of those weird laser weapons we found. We’d never use the damn things, but Hellstorm seemed to really like the idea of them and thought he could get them working so we’ve got food and medical supplies for months. I think Dolores is making a count now…” While you’re explaining the upbeat news, you notice that your daughter is still looking into the mirror and scowling the entire time as she finishes taking off her make up. “Could the rest of you leave for a moment, I have to speak to Lucy.” You say. Nobody argues and one by one they exit the trailer leaving you alone with Lucy. “All right, what are you pissed about this time?” you ask. “Nothing. Don’t you have some guy to go lick your lips at?” Lucy replies. “Not at the moment no, but I’m glad you continue to have such a high opinion of me.” “Flirting with power mad warlords, great reason to have a high opinion…” Lucy at this point turns to you with anger in her face. “Goddamn it, Dad hasn’t been dead a month and you’re already fawning all over some other man! It was bad enough that you did it when he was alive, but can’t you even respect the dead?!” “We’ve been over this MANY times Lucy. I loved your father and I never once was unfaithful to him, but your father would’ve actually understood better than anyone. Show must go on Lucy. Besides I’m not actually doing anything with Hellstorm, except a tease and most likely giving him something to dream about. I’ve always done that to the rubes to get their attention, it’s part of being a ringmaster. Even that idiot Hector gets that, don’t know why you never did.” “Because it’s fucking embarrassing to constantly hear the sexual innuendo about your mother from passing rubes about how they’d like to master YOUR ring.” “Hmm, hadn’t heard that one before, sort of an obvious pun when you think about it though…” you remark. “Stop being so fucking calm about this! I mean…sorry…I just…I mean I KNOW it’s all an act, but I just wish you’d tone it down sometimes.” Lucy says. “Believe me, I do. You’ve never seen me in full-blown seductress mode. Look, I’m a big girl and not doing anything that I’m forced to do. (sigh) I know you’re a worldly girl and all, but there’s still a small part of you that’s a bit naïve. Must be a genetic trait passed down from me.” “Naïve?” “Yes my wonderfully oblivious darling daughter. You seriously believe that nobody is making comments about you? You walk around in a pink and purple skintight outfit with fishnets stockings blowing luminescent bubbles during your act. How do you know that all those lewd remarks are about me? Half of them are probably about you, but you’re so concerned with my actions that you’re too blind to see that you’re just as much of a tease as I am. You’re just unaware of it. Much like I was at your age.” Lucy is suddenly silent at this realization. It’s sort of funny how on the mark you actually were with that statement. You and her father both taught her about this bad new world and she isn’t unintelligent, but for some reason the girl has never really caught on to what a real knock out she is. Perhaps in some way you did shield her a bit from having to be really subjected to the “curse of beauty” since the carnival is a “safe zone” of sorts. “Back before the world turned to complete shit I pretty much squandered my natural gifts. Now? I’ve used them to my fullest advantage, but not just for myself, but for you AND this carnival that we all call a family. You’re really lucky Lucy, most people nowadays don’t even have a family to look out for them. Shit, even BEFORE the nukes hit, I didn’t have such a luxury, so if I have to give a little peck on the cheek to some petty tyrant to help us survive, then so be it. Better that I do it than YOU having to do it.” Lucy doesn’t reply, she just looks at you. She knows she wouldn’t have the stomach to go through the act that you go through at times. This might be the first time she realizes the sacrifices you’ve made to make her own life easier. Lucy nods a few times before speaking. “Okay, mom. I get it. And I appreciate it.” “Good, that’s all I ask. Okay I’m going back to my own trailer now. We’re heading out tomorrow morning. Get some rest, you deserve it anyway after the wonderful show you put on.” “I will mom. Thanks.” Lucy replies. As you walk away you see Sparkle, Randy and Hector all slowly sneak back into the trailer. You enter your own trailer and lay down on the bed thinking about how far you’ve come in life. It isn’t the life you ever expected, but it isn’t a bad one all things considering. Before you fall asleep you look at the old worn clown nose by the nightstand. You grab and squeeze it a couple times, remembering happy times with your now departed husband. “Goodnight Lance.” You say and slowly drift off with the round red foam ball in your hand.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Being a “native” of the area, you do know something of the types that do live in the trailer park. Most of them probably do nothing else except practice-shooting beer cans all damn day. Mel, is most likely right in that his people are going to be better shots and a gun battle is going to result in a lot of dead on your side. However you can’t just let them take your stuff, especially since you’re using a lot of it and there isn’t much to begin with. “Well, if we had the extra supplies we might be inclined to share, the fact is we don’t have much and what little we have, well we need. You start a shooting match here and you’re likely to wind up with more dead and wounded than what was worth the effort.” You reply. “You’ll forgive me if I don’t believe you darlin’.” Mel replies. “It’s true, seriously come on in and take a look yourself. We got a shitload of wounded ourselves in that big tent back there. Just you though, the rest of your people can stand out here and look fearsome.” Mel chuckles. “Oh just me huh? And as soon as I go in I’m at your fuckin’ mercy. Nah, I don’t think so.” “Fine so take me as hostage. Here…” you say and drop your rifle and walk over to Mel. A couple people shout at you, but you just wave a hand at them as if to tell them to calm down. Meanwhile Mel stands watching you approach. When you’re before him, he’s definitely staring you up and down. “You got a pistol I presume?” you ask Mel. “Yeah.” “Well pull it out and put it to my head.” You say turning around and putting your body against Mel’s and then putting one of his arms around your waist. “Well… shit girl, you’re just somethin’ else ain’t cha?” Mel says barely keeping his composure as he pulls out his pistol. “If you say so. In any case you now have a little insurance that should be good enough for you shouldn’t it? I mean…I’m putting my complete trust in you. You’re in complete control” you say and grind up against Mel’s body a little more while turning your head a bit to flutter your eyes at him. Mel is at a loss for words, but his buddies aren’t. “Woo Hoo, looks like the li’l blonde number is sweet on ya Mel!” “I say we take her back, instead of medical supplies. I never liked Bobby Ray to begin with. Motherfucker can bleed out fer all I care!” “You plannin’ on tradin’ Tina up fer her? “Why’s Mel get all the pretty ones? He’s already got Tina, I say one of us should get the blonde!” At this point some arguing breaks out, followed by Mel shouting at them to shut the fuck up. He then turns his attention back to you. “Heh… you …you are trouble girlie. If I took you back to the trailer park, you’d probably have every man ripping each other apart over you. I can barely keep these dumb fuckers from doing that now. In any case, let’s go look at the medical supply situation. Come on.” Mel says motioning you to move. “As you wish.” You say. Mel and you head back towards the carnival where upon you give him the “grand tour” showing him that it is indeed true that you don’t really have much in the way of medical supplies. He also sees all the people that are wounded too. “Hmm, well I suppose y’all COULD still be hidin’ such things somewhere, but honestly I’m inclined to believe ya. This place has even less military vehicles than the ones that were at the trailer park and it sounds like from what you told me there weren’t even that many guardsmen here. From the amount of wounded I see, you probably did use up most of the pittance that the military brought with them…how did you get all these wounded though? Nobody looks like they’re suffering from gunshot wounds. The cannibal creeps?” “Nope. All these wounded are from each other. Long story, let’s just say carny politics is complicated and I came out on top.” You reply confidently. “I see…well you have certainly displayed a certain amount of balls putting yourself in the vulnerable position you did. (Sigh) All right, you dealt straight with me, so I’ll deal straight with you. Guess we’ll try the town again.” At this point you and Mel head back to the “neutral zone” where upon Mel releases you (reluctantly) and waves at his people to get ready to go. As they drive away, you breathe a heavy sigh of relief and rush back to the others. Dolores approaches you when you arrive. “Well that was an interesting way to handle things, but it worked. Those good ol’ boys woulda probably killed and wounded a lot more of us.” “Yeah, an’ now we need to get the hell out of here. I don’t trust them to not come back with a bigger group and attack us anyway.” “Well, we probably could’ve done with a bit more of a rest, but I can’t argue with that logic, they weren’t the most reputable lookin’ an’ you’re the boss. One good thing about having some recently departed, is that the trailers have a lot more room in them now. Speaking of which, your own trailer is already hooked up to a truck. We should be ready to roll in about an hour.” Feeling like you deserve a rest after recent events, you head back to your trailer to relax. As soon as you enter though, you are suddenly grabbed and tackled to the floor and the stench of bad body odor fills your nostrils. “Don’t scream bitch.” A familiar voice whispers. You get a good look at your assailant and see a man with half worn clown make up on his face. It’s Ranko and he smells even worse now that he’s laying right on top of you. “I see a lot of fuckin’ changes to this here carnival have happened since I’ve been gone. Saw some of it from afar while hiding and waiting for the best time to strike. Nearly got eaten by those geeks in the process, but heh heh heh, I got away…” Ranko begins to press his weight on you so you can’t wiggle away while keeping one hand on your mouth and holding a straight razor in his other. His whole outfit is filthy presumably from lurking about in the wilderness for days, but you also notice that he’s sporting a couple wounds of his own in the form of bite marks. “Nothing smart to say now bitch? Thought you were the ringmaster now. Head cunt in charge and all that. Fuck you, I SHOULD be in fuckin’ charge!” At this point you manage to bite Ranko’s hand, which tastes foul, but it’s enough to cause him to take it off your mouth, giving you a chance to scream for help, before he backhands you across the face. “Bitch! Maybe if I raped you, you’d KNOW who’s in fuckin’ charge!” he exclaims and fumbles with pulling down his pants, and keeps the straight razor to your throat with his other hand. (Carnies must love straight razors) All Ranko has to do is make a quick swipe and your throat is going to be opened if you struggle. If you do nothing he may very well rape you assuming nobody heard you scream. Of course he’ll probably kill you anyway after he’s finished. > You try to struggle He might very kill you, but you’re definitely not going to let him rape you. You continue to yell for help and with all your strength you begin to fight back, moving your legs and arms. You even get a couple good hits to his face, but it doesn’t deter him, all it does is anger him. After he recovers from your assault outburst he punches you in the face several times and swipes wildly with his razor muttering obscenities the entire time. Your throat is slashed open and your body isn’t even cold before he starts violating anyway.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>While it might be an opportunity to escape, you’re not going to risk it. Roger might be a little smitten with you, but he’s athletic enough looking that you don’t think you could easily fight him off if something went wrong. Given that there is a state of martial law right now, you’re likely to get yourself shot or worse. Better to stay in the tent and come up with a plan where you at least might have some back up. So you’re currently back to square one, sitting around doing much of nothing until the National Guard decides to leave (whenever if and when that happens). You spend most of your time thinking on what Roofie said and your current position at the carnival. The only way you’re ever going to have safety and have a family is if you take direct action towards those goals. “Lifto, Shrimpy, you’re with me.” You suddenly say and say you going to see the head of the dwarf faction. “Uh, I dunno if that’s a good idea, he’s been doing a lot of preparation lately.” Shrimpy says. “I’m sure he has, and its in our best interest to find out exactly what that is. Maybe YOU can afford to play both sides, but I’m not taking that chance.” You say and start walking over to the crowd of little people. As you approach, the dwarves instantly start closing ranks and their demeanor changes to a defensive one. “Back again Shrimpy? I didn’t anticipate your sycophantic antics for another hour or so. And you must be Suzy, the new clown girl that’s been pissing off all the ladies and turning on all the guys. Hrm. Upon a closer look, I understand the appeal, but you’re still no dwarf woman.” an older dwarf says, though many of his fellows probably don’t share that opinion. “I take it you’re the leader of your group?” “Yep, though I don’t suppose Shrimpy’s bothered to mention my name is Billy. If you’re here about our current alliance, you needn’t worry since I’ve reassured Shrimpy so many times about it that it’s getting to the point of annoyance. Glad to you at least changed it up by appearing yourself, could’ve done without the big ugly clown behind you though, but I’m guessing he’s a poor attempt at intimidation.” “A girl likes to have a big strong man to watch her back sometimes.” “Heh, and that’s why you’ve practically begged a bunch of little men to do it to eh? Let’s cut to the chase, what do you really want? I already know that you’re the new leader of the clowns given what you did to old Roofie over there. Bet he didn’t see that coming.” You don’t know how else to put it so you just say it, which comes to a surprise to Shrimpy and Lifto as well. “I’m going to be the new leader of this carnival and YOU’RE going to support me in this endeavor.” Billy smiles at this remark and then chuckles. Several of the other dwarves do likewise. “You? Really? And you think we’re just going to support you in this? I hope you had a better plan than preparing to fuck every munchkin in munchkin land Dorothy, because at this juncture I guarantee that would be the ONLY way that you MIGHT come close to your dreams of being in charge. And if that was your plan, you can forget it, because I’m happily married. However, it might gain you favor with some of my friends. Could ensure that your group will have a place in the new carnival order that will be coming soon, but that’s a choice you’ll have to make on your own.” “You really think the rest of the carnival is going to follow you?” “They won’t have a choice, we dwarves have always been the backbone of it and it’s about time we just took the spotlight. Just like my Great Uncle Charley always wanted to do so long ago.” “Yeah and apparently that didn’t work out so well given your current situation. You know why? Nobody truly respects you. They’re content to let you do the grunt work, but they don’t want you to be in the spotlight, unless you’re making a fool of yourself like Shrimpy here.” You say. “HEY!” Shrimpy remarks. “Watch your tone there blondie, you’re starting to tread on very dangerous ground.” Billy warns. “Yes, I know and I’m also trying to explain that you’re ALREADY in control by being the backbone of the carnival. You might very well be able to win this internal struggle, but would there be anything left? This place has languished under Roofie, obviously, but it could be great again if it had the right ring master. Someone who could bring in the people. You said it yourself, I’ve got most of the guys here salivating over me just by my presence. You know how advertising works, I bring ‘em in with a wink, a smile and some sweet talk, the other performers get the money out of them and someone has to keep the infrastructure together and that’s you. We could work together as a more than just co-workers we could be like…a family. Like how carnies are supposed to really stick together.” Your words give a moment of pause for Billy who ponders them for a moment, but then shakes his head. “Y’know, that’s a really good speech, the problem is you haven’t been here but a few days and you’re already trying to take over. In family terms, you’re like the hot twenty year old nurse that married great grandpa on his death bed in the hopes of inheriting everything despite the fact he’s got a multitude of family members that are far more deserving since they had to put up with his shit a lot longer. Now that doesn’t mean I don’t think you’re sincere or even that your idea isn’t a worthy one, its just I don’t see YOU as that potential leader. If this carnival does split apart after the dust clears, well maybe it was meant to be, but I’m not spending the remainder of my life following another half-assed leader again. So to sum up, if you want to be on our side then great, if not, then I highly suggest you all get in your clown car and all get jobs at a rodeo or something.” At this point Billy’s done talking and waves you all away. Well that could’ve went better. “Are you nuts?! Why the hell did you do that for? You’re lucky he isn’t cancelling our protection!” Shrimpy says. “Well I can’t say it was the best of moves, but I guess you had to try.” Lifto says. Between Shrimpy’s concern for his own self-preservation and Lifto’s impotent comment, you’re wondering if you shouldn’t re-consider trying to escape again. Ultimately you all head back to the table where upon Shrimpy and Lifto explain what happened. Fatty and Klepto are both surprised by your actions, but Klepto again makes the usual attempt at being more “understanding” than the others. Christ, he never quits. “I don’t need this right now, I’m going to be by myself.” You say grabbing the small radio that they were listening to and head to where Roofie is still lying on his mat with his eyes closed. You don’t know if he’s still awake or genuinely asleep now, but he at least doesn’t appear to be in any mood to bother you right now. You spend a few more hours listening to one of the radios while the others play cards and try to talk about mundane things. You’re not getting the best reception and it’s no Internet, but it’s better than nothing. You mostly listen to a lot of special breaking news talking about how bad things are getting in various parts of the world. You hear about the riots going on and think about your own town and how your “real” family is doing. Ben’s hidden personal bomb shelter was somewhere in the backyard, you wonder if you shouldn’t have just tried to look for it and moved in there, it probably was stocked. Then as the sun starts setting, you hear a bunch of shooting and shouting outside. You see the other guardsmen near the tent entrance rush off, leaving everyone unsupervised. Naturally no longer being supervised means chaos within the tent begins to erupt though you have no idea why people aren’t more concerned about why the National Guardsmen are shooting and yelling at something outside. Lacking any better idea, you try to wake up Roofie, but he doesn’t stir. “Oh shit…” you say to yourself. Apparently his last words to you WERE his dying request literally. While you’re the only one aware of poor Roofie’s unexpected passing, a full on fight in the tent breaks out. Predictably, it’s Razor and her faction vs. Billy and his faction. Some of the smaller factions join in while others just run out of the tent altogether. It’s very lucky that your group is nowhere near the center of the tent where the fighting is and more or less in a corner. “Suzy! It’s begun!” Lifto shouts. “Yeah! We need to get in and help Billy or we’re going to be next!” Shrimpy adds. > You escape this place Billy has made it quite clear that no matter what happens you’re going to be on the bottom rung of any sort of restructuring so why should you even bother? This whole area is going to shit and it would be best if you just got the hell out of here. “Do any of you have keys to your vehicles?” you ask. “I got my truck keys.” Lifto remarks. “Good, we’re getting the hell out of here while everyone is distracted.” “What?! We’re just going to leave Billy?” Shrimpy asks. “Look, if YOU want to help Billy then go right ahead, but he’s basically said that I’m the low girl on the totem pole, and I am NOT going to go through a bunch of verbal and possible physical abuse for the rest of my time here. I left home to get away from that shit. Quite frankly given how disliked clowns are around here, I’d suggest the rest of you follow me because no matter who wins, you’re going to lose.” You say and turn to leave Lifto, Klepto and Fatty don’t even think twice, they’re following you out the tent and leaving the chaos of the carnival clash behind. Shrimpy however is unsure, his loyalty to his “kind” is still holding him back, but you’re not waiting around. When you exit the tent, things aren’t much better. There aren’t any guardsmen in the immediate area, but you still hear the shooting and their yelling. You also hear odd growling sounds and a couple of screams. “I don’t know what’s going on, but we need to get to your truck NOW!” you exclaim where upon Lifto takes the lead. You don’t get too far when you see Roger staggering from between two other tents. He’s wounded heavily and bleeding profusely. He sees you and desperately calls for your help. “Suzy…hel…” is about all he gets out before collapsing a few feet from you. He tries to crawl towards you and you nearly head towards him to help, but given all the gunfire going on and the big brawl still going on, you focus on your goal of placing as much distance as possible from this place. “Sorry, Roger.” You say quietly and continue moving. Lifto points towards a pick up truck in the area where you first parked your own vehicle. “Shh, you hear that?” Klepto remarks. “No.” you remark. “Exactly. All the gunfire stopped.” “Well we need to hurry up because that either means the guardsmen killed whoever was attacking and they’ll be returning to us soon or…” And then from behind one of the army vehicles you’re passing something leaps onto Lifto. It’s human but its snarling and growling unnaturally. If you didn’t know any better you’d almost think it was a…. “ARGH! ZOMBIE!” Lifto shouts and struggles to get it off of him. Fatty moves in to help immediately and between the two of them they easily knock it to the ground. Lifto then proceeds to stomp on its head repeatedly with his brightly colored clown boots. While Lifto is determined to smash its head into mush, another one of these creatures pop out of nowhere and nearly grab you. You scream and manage to pull away before Klepto steps in and tries to help. Unfortunately the creatures manage to bite him in the process. He cries out in pain, but manages to get the creatures off of him thanks to someone else helping by blowing the thing’s head off. Blood, bone and brains splatter all over Klepto. “Come on! I don’t know how many more of these things there are!” Shrimpy shouts with one of the guardsmen’s assault rifles in both hands. Looks like he’s made his choice. Lifto finishes destroying the one that was attacking him and soon all of you are off and running again. You look around as you run thinking more are going to be jumping out at you, but that doesn’t happen. You are slightly concerned about Fatty getting bit though. You don’t think anyone else has noticed it yet except you and of course him. When you get to the truck, Lifto quickly opens up the driver side and opens up the passenger door. You get in, followed by Klepto, meanwhile Fatty gets in the bed of the truck along with Shrimpy. “Where the hell are we going?” Lifto says as he drives from the carnival. “I don’t know yet, but we probably should stay away from large areas of population if those…things are any indication. Just head further away from the town for now.” You say. Honestly you don’t know what comes next, but you’re seriously starting to believe Roofie’s comments about the end coming soon. Were those creatures zombies? Crazed humans? Alive? Undead? Does it matter? How many are there? Have they overrun civilization already? Has any of your old family survived? Is this the beginning of the end? And most importantly…do their bites work like they do in the movies? Klepto sits next to you nervously still clutching his arm where he was bit. Lifto hasn’t noticed yet because he’s been paying attention to the road and while you haven’t said anything yet Klepto’s not subtle enough about keeping his wound secret… “Why do you keep rubbing your arm?” Lifto remarks. “Uh, that thing grabbed me and its grip hurt a lot and uh…” “Klepto, I’ve known you long enough to know when you’re lying! Did that thing bite you?!” Klepto doesn’t answer so you try to unsuccessfully help. “It was just a little bite, we don’t even know if…” you start to say before you’re interrupted. “Oh fuck! That’s it man! Game over!” Lifto shouts and suddenly stops the truck. Fatty and Shrimpy both knock on the window shouting what’s going on. “Klepto, I know we’ve known each other a long time, but you need to get out of this truck right now.” “Lifto, I…” “I don’t wanna hear it. Get out before I make you get out or worse.” “Lifto, we don’t even know if this is infectious! This isn’t a movie you know!” you exclaim. “And you willing to take that chance? You’re sitting right next to him! Not to mention he’s covered in that thing’s blood when Shrimpy blew its head off. Who knows what the hell he’s caught.” As paranoid as Lifto is right now, you have been feeling a little nervous sitting next to Klepto this whole time. Without another word Lifto shifts towards you and reaches over towards the glove compartment. He opens it up revealing a pistol, though Klepto already figured out what he was doing and tries to grab it before Lifto can. Despite Lifto being in an awkward position and you being in his way, he’s strong enough to get the grip on the gun first. Klepto grabs his hand and the struggle ensues. At this point Fatty opens up the driver side door and Shrimpy opens up the passenger side. “What the fuck is going on here!?” Shrimpy asks. “ARGH! Sonofabitch!” Lifto suddenly shouts, Klepto has bitten his hand causing him to drop the pistol on the truck floor. “Shrimpy keep that rifle on Klepto!” Lifto shouts. You’re stuck in the middle with Lifto’s body half on you. All you know is you’re scared and desperate to get out. You manage to wiggle down a bit and grab the pistol on the floor. Klepto hasn’t proceeded with an attack and doesn’t look any different. “I’m not a zombie! Or whatever you think I am! I’m fine! And if you kill me, you’re going to have to kill Lifto too!” Klepto exclaims to everyone. Klepto may or may not be right, but he was pretty quick to bite Lifto. Whether that was a desperate attempt to ensure his own safety or a possible glimpse of what’s to come, you don’t know. With the pistol in your hand you don’t know if you shouldn’t just shoot them both. > You shoot the pair of them You really don’t want to do this, but you don’t see any choice. “Sorry.” You say and point the gun at Lifto who has just gotten off of you. “Wait.” he says which is just enough give you pause due to your nervousness and give Lifto time to grab the gun from you, or at least attempt to grab it because you actually manage to struggle for half a minute before he accidently shoots you with it. The gun goes off, you catch a bullet in your throat and you fall backwards into Klepto. “Holy shit! I didn’t mean…” Lifto shouts. “SUZY! NO!” Klepto screams. “What the fuck did you do Lifto!?” Fatty yells. “Goddamn it!” Shrimpy exclaims. At this point the rest of the shouting becomes one loud noise to your dying ears. As your vision starts to blur, Klepto cradles you in his arms trying to tell you to fight off your impending death. It doesn’t work.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Billy has made it quite clear that no matter what happens you’re going to be on the bottom rung of any sort of restructuring so why should you even bother? This whole area is going to shit and it would be best if you just got the hell out of here. “Do any of you have keys to your vehicles?” you ask. “I got my truck keys.” Lifto remarks. “Good, we’re getting the hell out of here while everyone is distracted.” “What?! We’re just going to leave Billy?” Shrimpy asks. “Look, if YOU want to help Billy then go right ahead, but he’s basically said that I’m the low girl on the totem pole, and I am NOT going to go through a bunch of verbal and possible physical abuse for the rest of my time here. I left home to get away from that shit. Quite frankly given how disliked clowns are around here, I’d suggest the rest of you follow me because no matter who wins, you’re going to lose.” You say and turn to leave Lifto, Klepto and Fatty don’t even think twice, they’re following you out the tent and leaving the chaos of the carnival clash behind. Shrimpy however is unsure, his loyalty to his “kind” is still holding him back, but you’re not waiting around. When you exit the tent, things aren’t much better. There aren’t any guardsmen in the immediate area, but you still hear the shooting and their yelling. You also hear odd growling sounds and a couple of screams. “I don’t know what’s going on, but we need to get to your truck NOW!” you exclaim where upon Lifto takes the lead. You don’t get too far when you see Roger staggering from between two other tents. He’s wounded heavily and bleeding profusely. He sees you and desperately calls for your help. “Suzy…hel…” is about all he gets out before collapsing a few feet from you. He tries to crawl towards you and you nearly head towards him to help, but given all the gunfire going on and the big brawl still going on, you focus on your goal of placing as much distance as possible from this place. “Sorry, Roger.” You say quietly and continue moving. Lifto points towards a pick up truck in the area where you first parked your own vehicle. “Shh, you hear that?” Klepto remarks. “No.” you remark. “Exactly. All the gunfire stopped.” “Well we need to hurry up because that either means the guardsmen killed whoever was attacking and they’ll be returning to us soon or…” And then from behind one of the army vehicles you’re passing something leaps onto Lifto. It’s human but its snarling and growling unnaturally. If you didn’t know any better you’d almost think it was a…. “ARGH! ZOMBIE!” Lifto shouts and struggles to get it off of him. Fatty moves in to help immediately and between the two of them they easily knock it to the ground. Lifto then proceeds to stomp on its head repeatedly with his brightly colored clown boots. While Lifto is determined to smash its head into mush, another one of these creatures pop out of nowhere and nearly grab you. You scream and manage to pull away before Klepto steps in and tries to help. Unfortunately the creatures manage to bite him in the process. He cries out in pain, but manages to get the creatures off of him thanks to someone else helping by blowing the thing’s head off. Blood, bone and brains splatter all over Klepto. “Come on! I don’t know how many more of these things there are!” Shrimpy shouts with one of the guardsmen’s assault rifles in both hands. Looks like he’s made his choice. Lifto finishes destroying the one that was attacking him and soon all of you are off and running again. You look around as you run thinking more are going to be jumping out at you, but that doesn’t happen. You are slightly concerned about Fatty getting bit though. You don’t think anyone else has noticed it yet except you and of course him. When you get to the truck, Lifto quickly opens up the driver side and opens up the passenger door. You get in, followed by Klepto, meanwhile Fatty gets in the bed of the truck along with Shrimpy. “Where the hell are we going?” Lifto says as he drives from the carnival. “I don’t know yet, but we probably should stay away from large areas of population if those…things are any indication. Just head further away from the town for now.” You say. Honestly you don’t know what comes next, but you’re seriously starting to believe Roofie’s comments about the end coming soon. Were those creatures zombies? Crazed humans? Alive? Undead? Does it matter? How many are there? Have they overrun civilization already? Has any of your old family survived? Is this the beginning of the end? And most importantly…do their bites work like they do in the movies? Klepto sits next to you nervously still clutching his arm where he was bit. Lifto hasn’t noticed yet because he’s been paying attention to the road and while you haven’t said anything yet Klepto’s not subtle enough about keeping his wound secret… “Why do you keep rubbing your arm?” Lifto remarks. “Uh, that thing grabbed me and its grip hurt a lot and uh…” “Klepto, I’ve known you long enough to know when you’re lying! Did that thing bite you?!” Klepto doesn’t answer so you try to unsuccessfully help. “It was just a little bite, we don’t even know if…” you start to say before you’re interrupted. “Oh fuck! That’s it man! Game over!” Lifto shouts and suddenly stops the truck. Fatty and Shrimpy both knock on the window shouting what’s going on. “Klepto, I know we’ve known each other a long time, but you need to get out of this truck right now.” “Lifto, I…” “I don’t wanna hear it. Get out before I make you get out or worse.” “Lifto, we don’t even know if this is infectious! This isn’t a movie you know!” you exclaim. “And you willing to take that chance? You’re sitting right next to him! Not to mention he’s covered in that thing’s blood when Shrimpy blew its head off. Who knows what the hell he’s caught.” As paranoid as Lifto is right now, you have been feeling a little nervous sitting next to Klepto this whole time. Without another word Lifto shifts towards you and reaches over towards the glove compartment. He opens it up revealing a pistol, though Klepto already figured out what he was doing and tries to grab it before Lifto can. Despite Lifto being in an awkward position and you being in his way, he’s strong enough to get the grip on the gun first. Klepto grabs his hand and the struggle ensues. At this point Fatty opens up the driver side door and Shrimpy opens up the passenger side. “What the fuck is going on here!?” Shrimpy asks. “ARGH! Sonofabitch!” Lifto suddenly shouts, Klepto has bitten his hand causing him to drop the pistol on the truck floor. “Shrimpy keep that rifle on Klepto!” Lifto shouts. You’re stuck in the middle with Lifto’s body half on you. All you know is you’re scared and desperate to get out. You manage to wiggle down a bit and grab the pistol on the floor. Klepto hasn’t proceeded with an attack and doesn’t look any different. “I’m not a zombie! Or whatever you think I am! I’m fine! And if you kill me, you’re going to have to kill Lifto too!” Klepto exclaims to everyone. Klepto may or may not be right, but he was pretty quick to bite Lifto. Whether that was a desperate attempt to ensure his own safety or a possible glimpse of what’s to come, you don’t know. With the pistol in your hand you don’t know if you shouldn’t just shoot them both. > You try to save the situation You didn’t leave the carnival just for MORE in fighting. If the end days are coming you NEED all the people who you are actually on good terms you can get because you don’t fancy your chances on going it alone. So you’ll be damned if you’re not going to try to keep this little group together. “ALRIGHT GODDAMN IT! STOP IT! JUST FUCKING STOP IT!” you shout pointing the gun towards the truck ceiling. Lifto at this point has returned to his driver’s seat position. “NOW EVERYONE OUT OF THE TRUCK AND JUST LISTEN!” you say looking at Lifto and briefly glancing back at Klepto. Lifto steps out looks at you as if he is thinking about taking the pistol away from you. He probably could without any problems because as close as you are to shooting someone, you aren’t exactly “there” yet. Thankfully Lifto doesn’t try anything. When everyone exits the truck, you follow and Shrimpy now stands by you as back up (Fatty doesn’t have a weapon, but he stands near you anyway) “Okay, Suzy what next?” Lifto calmly says. You’ve got an idea, but it would go better if rope was involved. You take a quick look in the truck bed and see some locks and chains sitting there, which will work just as well. “Look everyone, we don’t have all the information on what this creature situation is, killing someone who got bit, might be jumping the gun. I mean this isn’t a movie!” you say. “Yeah!” Klepto says. “Shut up, I haven’t finished! Of course that doesn’t mean we need to be foolish about this because Lifto could be right. Now Lifto we don’t know if a bite causes infection, but if it does then you’re already doomed unless we cut your hand off, but I’m guessing you don’t want that. Do you want that?” Lifto gives a dirty look at Klepto before answering. “Look if you’re going to shoot me, at least shoot Klepto first so I can watch.” Lifto says. “ What the…I thought you two were supposed to be friends! (Sigh) I’m trying to give you another option here! Like I said, we don’t know if this sort of thing is contagious. I don’t want any of us to die, do you get that? I’m proposing that the pair of you stay in the bed of the truck until we get to a destination where we can get some medical attention. I mean if the pair of you start not feeling well or different in any way, then we can consider shooting you.” Lifto doesn’t say anything, but Klepto is certainly agreeable. “Sure Suzy, whatever you say! I mean that sounds reasonable to me!” he remarks, though you get the impression he’d go along with what you’d say even if he wasn’t bitten. “We’re going to have to tie you up you know.” You say. “That’s fine. I totally get it.” Klepto remarks. “Lifto?” He exhales and doesn’t say anything while looking at his hand. Then he looks back at you. “You really don’t want any of us to die?” Lifto asks. “No. Why the hell would I want that? I mean if these are the end days coming then we’re all we have left! We need to stick together as much as possible. And in any case you lot are the closest I’ve had to family for years, well other than the fact that most of you are undressing me with your eyes half the time…but I’m getting off track my point is that despite all the fucked up shit that’s occurred this week, I know I want you guys in my corner. All of you.” At first you wonder if you’ve laid it on a bit too much, but you hear a couple of sniffles in Fatty’s direction and Klepto is obviously showing signs of emotion. He probably thinks you just professed your love for him or something. “Okay. Okay. We’ll do it your way, but if I start to turn or if I think I’m going to become something other than I am, then I want YOU to be the one to shoot me.” Lifto says. “Well let’s hope it doesn’t come to that, but I promise.” You say. With those words Lifto and Klepto both submit to being chained up and to sit in the truck bed. Lifto is still giving Klepto angry looks, but hopefully they can work out their differences during the ride. Fatty takes the wheel, Shrimpy gets in the middle and you sit near the passenger’s side. You’ve never exactly been the best with directions, so you just tell Fatty to stay on the main road and hopefully you’ll reach a place that is in better shape than your own home town which probably is a warzone by now. You can’t help but wonder how your real family is doing, but really you’d rather not dwell on it. Fatty turns on the radio in the hopes of finding out something, but he doesn’t get much other than a few random religious stations talking about salvation and end times, but those things are ALWAYS talking about the end times so its hard to tell if they’re even referring to what’s currently going on. You’d think something like the news or an emergency broadcast might pop up, but nothing. Oddly you do get some stations just playing nothing but those infernal Ground Zero advertisements. Hours pass of driving through farm country and Klepto and Lifto aren’t moaning or even arguing so you’re guessing that they’re feeling okay. Still, even though you don’t want any of them to die, you do know it still might be a possibility. As it begins to turn to night you’re already tired from the events of the day. Feeling somewhat safe you allow yourself to close your eyes and drift off as the truck drives onward. > Next day… FRIDAY “…don’t delay, buy a Ground Zero shelter today!” “Fatty turn that radio off, there hasn’t been anything on it of importance for hours. It’s just those damn Ground Zero ads. Christ, you’d think someone would be reporting about oh you know a zombie apocalypse?” Shrimpy says. “I still say those things are still alive. The ones we saw didn’t look like they came back from the dead or anything.” Fatty remarks. “Well whatever, still seems like reporting SOME sort of outbreak would be of importance.” “Maybe its local and not happening anywhere else?” At this point your eyes open and you completely rouse from your sleep. “(Yawn) What’s going on?” you ask. “So you’re finally awake.” Shrimpy says. “We’ve been driving all night?” you ask. “Somewhat. Fatty here pulled over at one point and we both slept a little. If you’re wondering about the gruesome twosome back there, we checked on them and from what I can tell both of them feel fine. In fact I think they’re both still sleeping. Guess all that bite drama yesterday really exhausted them. Dunno if that means they’re okay or not, but right now we do have another problem.” Shrimpy says. “What’s that?” you ask. “Well Fatty here managed to get us fucking lost.” “Hey it’s not my fault, I couldn’t see shit in the night and I thought we were on a main road. Damn GPS.” Fatty says. “Told you that it was broken and hasn’t worked correctly for years. Anyway, I know you’re native to this area so I’m hoping you know your way around.” Shrimpy says. A brief glance of the practically non-descript landscape to the left and right of you leaves you at a loss. “Sorry, but like I said, I never was a big traveller. Never left the basement if I could help it.” You say. “Oh yeah, that’s right. Well any suggestion regardless of that fact?” Shrimpy asks. You don’t really have any, though you probably should be near some sort of farmhouse as you do know there are some out this way. You could get your bearing by stopping at one and asking for directions. You also remember Fatty’s comment about supplies. “There should be some sort of farmhouse nearby. Just keep driving along this road and we’ll probably hit one where we can ask for directions and possibly get supplies.” “Sounds like as good of an idea as any.” You really don’t know if that will be the case, you’re just hoping at this point. Fortunately, your hopes come true this time. “Well, there’s a house. Can’t tell if anyone is home or not though.” Fatty says pulling up to a large traditional looking farmhouse. “Okay, so how are we doing this?” “Well…I suppose I’ll go up to the front door and see if anyone’s home and the rest of you guys stay in the truck.” You say. “You nuts? This place looks like it’s out of a horror movie! Might be a bunch of psycho rednecks living in there! They see a pretty young thing like you and they’d grab you before we could even do anything.” Shrimpy remarks. “Right like arriving at a door with a group of clowns isn’t straight out of a horror movie. I’m currently the only one dressed in regular clothing and not covered in blood, I think it would be best if I just asked for help at first.” “Hey what are we going to do with Klepto and Lifto?” Fatty asks. “Well check on them again and if they seem to be well unchain them I guess. I mean they could use a stretch. Anyway like I said I’m going to the door. I’m taking the pistol with me and I’m confident that if something does happen you’ll be able to react in time to save me from getting chopped up or whatever you think is going to happen. We need help getting back on track and looking at the gauge we might even need gas so hopefully they got that here too. Don’t worry I’ll be fine.” You say and get out of the truck. You make your way towards the front porch looking around the entire time. This place is creepily quiet. Seems like you should at least hear the sounds of animals or something. Shrimpy’s got you totally paranoid now. You really weren’t worried until he mentioned psycho hillbillies. You look back at the truck. “Goddamn it Suzy, you need to brave through some of this shit yourself. You survived your serial killer uncle for Christsake. Nothing is going to happen, probably just some kindly old farm couple that lives here.” You mutter to yourself and walk up the stairs and knock on the door. You knock several times with no answer, but just when you’re about to give up it opens. “WHO YOU!?” a large disfigured man exclaims completely scaring the shit out of you and causing you to fall backwards. You’re in a state of utter fear as this large freak approaches you with his hand outstretched towards you… Even in your fearful condition, you’re still able to react to a dangerous situation. You pull the pistol that you had on you and shoot the disfigured man. You hit him twice in the body and he reels backwards bellowing loudly as his body hits the front door and then the house’s front room floor. “WHHHHHHY!? GOING TO HELP YOU!” the man shouts. “Junior? What in tarnation is goin’ on down there? I hope you didn’t shoot yourself in the foot carrying your father’s rifles again, you know how he hates a waste of ammo.” An older female voice shouts from inside. “MAMA! MAMA! HURT A LOT! BAD GIRL HURT ME!” the man cries. “If you’ve been fightin’ with you’re sister again…oh my god…JUNIOR! CLEM SOMEONE SHOT JUNIOR!” you hear the older female voice scream. By this time you’re running back to the truck, which Shrimpy has gotten out of. Lifto and Klepto are also both awake and shouting at this point. “Get back in the fucking truck! We gotta…” you start yelling and then a shot from one of the farmhouse windows rings out. You hear it whiz by your ear causing you to drop to the ground immediately. You continue to crawl towards the truck where you hear more gunfire behind you and the sounds of an assault rifle returning fire. You hear someone trying to start the truck, but a few more shots hitting metal seem to put an end to that causing the engine to make a less than operational sound. “Fatty get out of the front seat!” Shrimpy shouts. You hear more gunshots followed by Fatty crying out, though you don’t know if he’s actually gotten hit severely since you just hear “OW MY ASS!” The whole time you’re praying that you don’t get shot in the back, but you’re the lucky one… Ever the white knight, Klepto attempts to go “rescue” you. “Klepto get out of the open!” you hear Lifto shout. “Suzy’s out there I can’t…” Klepto’s words are cut short when a bullet to his skull drops him. In fact he drops about a few feet in front of you. You try to put the sight of his death out of your mind as you continue to crawl towards the truck. “YOU FUCKERS AREN’T TAKING THIS FARM! THIS FARM IS MINE! ALL OF YOU SONSOFBITCHES ARE GONNA PAY FOR WHAT YOU DID TO MY BOY!” a male voice shouts. You finally reach your destination where the rest are hiding behind the back of the truck, though Fatty’s having a hard time of it due to his size and the fact he’s got a bullet in his ass. The shooting on both sides for now has stopped though. “Shit, shit, shit, Klepto’s dead! That redneck bastard says that we’re going to pay, no fucking way, HE’S gonna fuckin’ pay!” Lifto says which is a bit surprising considering that he was ready to kill Klepto himself just yesterday. “Fuck, my ass…ah! Shit…wish I had a gun, I’d shoot that fucker in the ass. Not the cheek either, the fucking HOLE!” Fatty says who is normally calm, but given he got shot his anger is a bit understandable. “Well luckily I picked up a few extra clips back at the carnival and Suzy’s probably still got a few shots left. I say we can probably take out the shooter with a bit of strategy. Just as soon as we come up with one of course.” Shrimpy remarks. You don’t know how to feel about all this. Maybe it’s all the increased violence over the past few days along with losing Klepto, but your clown crew is starting to become a lot more vicious, though events haven’t exactly been encouraging a peaceful life lately. You can’t help but feel a little responsible for this current situation though. The retard was just trying to help you up from your fall, but you couldn’t have known that…you just reacted to your fear. You were the one who harmed the farm inhabitants first even if the rest of your clown friends think you were being attacked. Part of you wants to just run from this place, but where would you go? Staying of course means doing more things you don’t necessarily want to do…but then you think if you can put yourself in the “right” frame of mind you’ll be able to do it. The farmer HAS tried to kill all of you and did succeed in killing Klepto who attempted to save you, surely revenge for that isn’t totally wrong? > You get revenge If you ran, you doubt if the rest of them would follow and despite the feeling that this isn’t the greatest idea, you’re tired of running. You’ve got nothing to run to anyway, if you can deal with the inhabitants inside, you’ll at least have a place to catch a breather from the ever-growing chaos in your life. You hope at least. “Shrimpy can you get inside the truck without getting hit and put it in neutral?” “Yeah I think I could.” Shrimpy says. “Good, give me the rifle and the clips, get in the truck and when it’s in neutral Lifto and Fatty I want you to start pushing it forward. We should be able to get close enough to the house using this thing as a large shield.” “What are you going to be doing?” Fatty asks. “I’m going to be crawling around in the truck bed taking shots at that bastard firing at us when I can. Hopefully the closer we get the more likely I’ll be able to hit him. Now you want to avenge Klepto or what?” This statement gets a nod from everyone. “Let’s do this.” Lifto says and all of you enact your plan. It goes well, or about as well as a plan can when someone is shooting at you. Another person soon joins the farmer the closer the truck gets to the front of the house. Presumably the farmer’s wife. The pair of them unleash a torrent of curses at you, but nobody is hitting each other yet. Bullets tear into the truck and while you’re all safe, when the two front tires get blown out, it makes Lifto and Fatty’s pushing a lot harder. “Goddamn it. (Wheeze)” Fatty gasps. “Fuck.” Lifto grunts. Still crawling around in the truck bed, you head over towards the back and speak to Lifto and Fatty. “Okay, stop pushing, no point in straining yourself, because you’re going to need to save your energy. I don’t think the shooter on the left is quite as skilled so run to the left and around the back of the house, there’s got to be a back door. I’ll provide cover, I still got a half a clip left in this thing and one more full one, so when I go full auto, start running. Here take the pistol.” You say tossing the pistol over the back end of the truck. Honestly you’d rather have Shrimpy do this since he’s a much smaller target, but the little guy is probably hiding in the leg area of either the driver or passenger’s side of the truck hoping not to get hit. You take a deep breath as more bullets tear into the sides of the truck. You grip the rifle and exposing only a bit of your hands, you blindly fire and spray the left area of the house where the second shooter is. Luckily through the gunfire a small cry is heard, you think you’ve hit someone again. In any case it allows time for Lifto and Fatty to crouch run towards the house, hug the wall and then crawl around the corner. Fatty sure is fast when he wants to be, you just hope he doesn’t suffer a heart attack. Meanwhile you hear shouting within the house. “Clem! I’m hit! Ohhhhh…(sob)” “Honeypie?! Honeypie? No no no…” With the gunfire completely stopped Shrimpy takes the opportunity to get out of the truck and run behind it. “Suzy? You still here?” you hear him ask. “Yeah, I’m still here. Just stay behind the truck I’m gonna…” you start to say before you’re interrupted “NO! GODAMNIT! NOOOO! FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU ALL!” Clem the farmer shouts and now the sounds of gunfire start up again, except this time he’s not firing a rifle anymore, the booming sound indicates a shotgun of some kind. As you try to reload your last assault rifle clip, the truck continues to suffer the impact of shotgun rounds. In fact they are starting to damage the truck enough that one of them going through and hitting you is a very real possibility. You roll over to the other side of the truck in an attempt not to get hit. “I’LL KILL ALL OF YOU!” you hear him bellow. You’re too busy keeping down and redloading. And then you hear nothing, followed by a pistol shot and then another. You take the opportunity to quickly climb out of the truck bed altogether. “Suzy, did they get him?” Shrimpy asks “I don’t know…” you say and peek your head out hoping that this isn’t a mistake. You soon see Lifto standing in the front doorway with the pistol in hand. “We got all of these bastards. It’s safe.” He says. You and Shrimpy both step out from the cover of the truck and make your way to the house. First thing you notice is the first man you shot near the entryway, apparently he tried to crawl away soon after the shoot out started and died shortly afterwards. Given his disfigurement and from what you could tell of his voice, he might’ve been mentally retarded. You remember hearing “junior” being said, so you’re guessing he was the son. You don’t exactly feel great about shooting him. It really was an accident. Seeing the other two bodies don’t exactly make you feel any better. The farmer’s wife lies dead in the dining room area. She’s actually bigger than Fatty which means she’s indeed quite on the large side. She has several gunshot wounds to her upper body. You knew you hit her, but you just didn’t know where. Your stomach begins to feel slightly bad when you think about it. Finally you see the farmer himself, or Clem as you heard being shouted. Lifto mentions that Clem was so focused on you that he realized too late that someone was sneaking up on him. Lifto mentions that he shot him in the back and then while Clem was still flopping about on the floor trying to turn over with his shotgun, Clem put one in his skull. You didn’t even kill Clem and you still feel weird about it. You don’t understand why you’re feeling slightly sick about all this. Or rather you’ve got an idea why, but considering the little creature rampage at the carnival it isn’t like you haven’t seen gruesome death before, but this is somehow different. The adrenaline and survivalist mindset you put yourself into has disappeared now that the danger has passed so you are left with the grim aftermath of your actions. The realization that you’ve killed an entire family that was really just defending their home is what is getting to you. That and the fact that you feel like this whole incident is your fault. Adding Klepto’s death to the mix and you’re directly and indirectly responsible for four people’s deaths. “Toilet.” You say in a daze. “What?” Shrimpy asks. “I’m gonna be sick…” “I think I saw one over towards the back of the house, it’s…” You don’t wait for Lifto to finish you just run in the direction. Trying to keep from throwing up and you just manage to make it to the toilet where upon you promptly vomit your guts out. Your fellows come to see how you’re doing. “Suzy, are you alright?” Shrimpy asks. “Yeah, you aren’t sick are you?” Lifto asks. It takes you awhile to answer, but eventually you manage it. “Uh…(pant)…I just…I dunno…yeah I’ll be fine. I think the stress of all this just got to me. Uh…” You say. “Well, it’s understandable. Look, why don’t you go lie down somewhere? You’ve done enough for today. The rest of us are gonna drag these bodies out of here. It’ll take all of us, lord knows what the hell they were eating on this farm, but everyone here seems to be Fatty’s size or bigger. Probably should look around the rest of the farm as well. Make sure nobody is hiding in the barns or something.” Lifto remarks. “Yeah…okay…” you say walking past Shrimpy and Lifto. As you slowly walk back towards the front of the house, Fatty comes down the stairs. “Well the upstairs is clear from what I can tell. Nobody up there. Hey Suzy, you okay? Could hear you retching from up there.” Fatty asks. “Yeah, just need to lie down.” You say. “You and me both, but I suppose Lifto is going to need me to help him move out these bodies. Anyway, there are some nice beds upstairs, probably should take one of them.” At this point you feel so wobbly that you wonder if you can even make it up the stairs. > You use the upstairs bedrooms Given that everyone is going to be making a bunch of noise, moving bodies and such downstairs, you decide to head upstairs. You think you could really use the solitude anyway. You think you’ve spent more time in the close company of people this week than you have in your entire life and that includes when you had a boyfriend. With everyone else doing a bit of cleaning up, your mind goes a bit numb as you go up the creaky stairs. You put everything that you’ve experienced this week out of your head. All you want to think about right now is resting from this ordeal. You reach the landing and look to your left and see a room which is fairly messy to the point of being disgusting. You hear flies buzzing in there and it smells like something died in there, which doesn’t improve how you’re already feeling. You guess that this was probably the son’s room. You close the door so as to keep the odor in and move on. Across the hall you find a much better room with a big bed. You guess that Clem and his wife slept here, or maybe just his wife, given her size. Unfortunately that smell from Junior’s room is still strong enough for this room to catch a bit of the fallout. You can’t rest here either so you move on again. You pass another bathroom and then at the far end you find another bedroom. This one is free of a bad smell and has a comfortable looking bed so you immediately go to it. You collapse on the bed, with a deep exhale. You lie there in silence for a moment trying to wrap your mind around the situation. “(Sigh) Ohhhh…shit…never should’ve left the basement.” You say. You think about what might’ve happened had you actually stayed home earlier this week rather than going with the idea to go join the circus. You also wonder what would’ve happened had you gone to live with your younger sister or even made up with Bobby. You then remember of how the National Guard were stationed in your town and then there were those creatures (Still don’t know what that was all about or if Lifto is out of the woods as far as that’s concerned) so chances are things might’ve still turned out hectic. “I was fucked no matter what.” You laugh as your eyes start to close a bit. In fact you laugh quite a bit. You laugh at this entire hell week. It may be your mind trying to cope and a combination of being tired, or you may have snapped a little but in any event you can’t stop quietly giggling to yourself. And then as you’re in your minor giggling fit, your eyes stay open longer when you begin to realize your surroundings. This room. This is the room of a young female. There is a whole area dedicated to make up and such. The walls have a flowery print. You even see a few feminine undergarments sitting on top of a dresser. You then remember back when you first shot Junior, his mother telling him that he had better not be fighting with his sister again. Funny what you remember during intense situations. There were only three dead bodies, which means the daughter of this family is still alive and possibly hiding somewhere. Fatty said he searched upstairs, but he could’ve missed something. And a quick glance to your left you see a closet door slightly askew, which then begins to open further. Feeling a sudden burst of energy brought on by danger, you manage to sit up and get off the bed just in time for the owner of this room to reveal herself. Apparently she thought you were going to be easier pickings than Fatty, she finds out how dreadfully wrong she is. You immediately rush at the woman who holds a large knife in one hand. It’s enough to catch her off guard and she fails to hit you with the knife or rather fails to hit you in a meaningful way since the blade does slice your upper arm. The pair of you fall to the closet floor where she slams her head against the wall. You grab the hand holding the knife and smash it on the doorway until she drops it. You feel a punch to your face by her other hand, but you ignore the pain and with all your weight you slam your elbow into her nose. You stop her from crying out by following that up with a punch to her mouth. You repeatedly punch her in the face to a point where she temporarily stops resisting entirely. Clothing is falling on the pair of you and you grab a shirt and wrap it around her throat and pull tightly. Your mind goes into a very dark place. “Shhhh…it’ll all be over soon, just let the darkness take you” you whisper. The woman gasps for air and tries to punch and scratch at you, but you manage to pull your head back just enough for her to miss. She tries to wiggle and squirm away, but you’re sitting right on her stomach and there’s nowhere for her to go. The woman continues to choke and tries to pry your hands away, but she’s unable to do so and her struggle becomes less intense. “…there we go…now you’ll be with your family forever…” you say and watch her face turn unhealthy shade due to lack of oxygen and her eyes roll up into her head. The woman stops breathing and the deed is done. You don’t even feel tired anymore, it’s like killing her energized you or something. You don’t have the sick feeling either. You just went into a kind of trance. Like this woman was garbage that needed to be disposed of. You wonder if this is what your Uncle Ed felt when he killed whores. If you were in your old frame of mind, you’d know how fucked up that is. In your current state of mind you still know how fucked up that is, however you no longer care. Something may very well have snapped within you, whether it was a combination of the entire week, or just this one bad day, the damage has been done and you’re not quite the same person that you were anymore. She was going to kill you and you stopped her from doing so, that’s the important thing. Nothing else. You survived. There are no limits to what you’re capable of, you realize that now. “Suzy!? Hey are you okay up there?! I heard some noise!” you hear Lifto shout. “Yeah, I’m fine, just looking through a closet before I get some rest. Some shit fell, no worries!” you shout back. “Okay then.” With that interruption out of the way you turn your attention back to your situation. You start looking around the room and find lots of make up. You also go through her clothing and notice a lot of it is about your size though a bit on the slutty side. Oddly enough after going through some more personal belongings you find out her name was Susie too. Or Susie Mae to be precise. After pulling out some of the clothing from the closet you shove the rest of Susie Mae's body into it and shut the door. “Hmm, yeah I think I could make a new outfit out of this stuff.” You remark. You then grab the scissors and sewing material that lies nearby. It’s been awhile since you’ve done any seamstress type stuff, but you remember when your mother taught you to do it when you were in your elementary school plays. Hopefully you’ve retained enough of the knowledge. You spend the rest of the day in Susie Mae’s room on your own personal project. It’s the most solitude you’ve had in a long time and you happily enjoy it. The rest of your compatriots are busy searching the rest of the farm for the most part though at one point Shrimpy comes up and asks if you’re okay. “Suzy? Hey thought you’d be asleep…what are you doing?” “Well I don’t exactly have any extra clothes anymore. Even my clown stuff was left back at the carnival, so I’m making a new wardrobe, what’s up?” you ask not looking up from what you’re doing. “Um, well just wanted to let you know that we’ve checked out this entire farm and the place seems all clear and well stocked too.” Shrimpy remarks. “Are Fatty and Lifto okay?” you ask. “Heh, yeah Fatty’s fine, wasn’t fun digging that bullet out of his ass though. As for Lifto he seems fine too. Don’t think Klepto biting him did anything and he’s cleaned out the wound at this point so I guess he’s in the clear. Speaking of Klepto, we uh…were thinking we should at least bury him. We already dug the hole in a nice spot. Maybe we should have a small funeral tomorrow?” “I think that sounds like a fine idea…guess I better finish this thing if I’m attending a funeral.” You reply. Shrimpy pauses for a moment. “Suzy are you really okay? You seem different somehow.” “I’m just fine Shrimpy. Just fine. I really need to focus on this though.” “Um, okay sure. We’ll let you know if anything important pops up.” Shrimpy says and leaves you. You aren’t disturbed for the rest of the day or night; in fact they all must sleep downstairs which gives you free reign of the upstairs bathroom to wash up a bit. After washing up you try on your now finished project. Your outfit is a patchwork of colorful chaos since you just cut up lots of clothing and sewed bits of them together, but you’re pleased with your work. In fact you’re so pleased with it, you fall asleep in it figuring that it’ll save you a bit of time to get ready for Klepto’s funeral tomorrow. > Next day… SATURDAY “Suzy? You up?” Shrimpy asks and knocks on your door. Normally you wouldn’t be this early, but in this rare instance you actually are. “Yeah, I’m awake. I’ll be ready in a moment.” You say applying make up on your face. “Okay, we’re all about as ready as we’re going to be, Lifto and Fatty have already put Klepto’s body in the hole we dug, so we’re all about as ready for this thing as we’re going to be. See you downstairs.” “Hey Shrimpy can I say a few things at this event?” you ask before he walks away from the door. “You mean like a eulogy? Sure I mean if you’ve got something to say then by all means go for it. Really we were all trying to come up with something formal, but I think we’re all still a little exhausted. Lifto actually broke down in tears yesterday about Klepto’s death. I think he’s upset that he tried to kill him just the day before and wishes their last moments were on friendlier terms.” “Well, tell Lifto that the time for tears and regrets will soon be a thing of the past. I’m almost done, see you downstairs.” “All right.” You look at yourself in the mirror and finish applying lipstick. Not the exact shade of red you wanted, but it was the only lipstick that the previous owner hadn’t used yet. You’re just glad the girl had as much make up as she did so you could paint up your face proper. Satisfied with your face, you stand up and look at yourself in the nearby full length mirror. “Well it’s not my old carnival outfit, but yeah… this is definitely me now. Now and forever.” you say and walk towards the door. Before leaving you stop and look towards the closet. “Thank you for letting me borrow your make up and clothing.” You say and then giggle a bit. You skip down the stairs and meet up with the rest. They’re all a bit more somber than you and are quite surprised to see your slightly energetic temperament. “Suzy? That’s a uh interesting outfit.” Fatty remarks. “Isn’t it though? Made it myself. Nothing like a new set of clothes to put you in a different mindset! In fact given that all of you have been running around in the same clothes for day on end, I’d say that all of you could use new clothes too. Those rags must be really filthy by now; you’ll all probably feel a lot more positive about things once you change. I’m sure we can gather up enough of this family of deadnecks’ clothing and I can make you all something. Anyway, we can talk about this later let us be on our way.” Everyone is a unsure of how to react to your new chipperish behavior especially given the circumstances, but they all just lead the way to Klepto’s open grave which has been dug out in the backyard of the house. Klepto still looks about as dead as he did that last time you saw him, though someone has arranged his body in a respectful way. He even has some freshly pulled flowers in his hand. “The flowers are a nice touch.” You remark not knowing who did it. “Thank you.” Lifto says wiping away a tear. “Shrimpy probably told you all that I was going to do a bit of a eulogy, but does anyone have anything else to say?” “No, we were all trading Klepto stories last night. We’ll probably be doing it for a while. None of us are really good for formal speeches though, probably best if you do it. Besides, it means a lot that you want to do it despite not knowing any of us that long.” Shrimpy says. “Glad you feel that way because what I’m going to say is going to be towards all of you…” And before you can finish that thought. Your eyes (and everyone else’s) catch sight of something quite spectacular in the distance. A mushroom cloud. You’re not feeling any tremors or aftershocks, a wave of fire hasn’t engulfed you, so you’re guessing that it wasn’t excessively close, maybe it was even a small one. Still, you can’t help but wonder if you’re in some sort of deadly radiation radius though. If so there isn’t much that can done about it. “Well I’ll be damned, the world finally went and did it…” you say to yourself. Lifto, Fatty and Shrimpy all at the same time begin to swear and react to the situation as most people would, namely panic, fear and hysteria. You think in the old days you probably would have too, but not anymore. If anything this is excellent timing for your new outlook on life. You quickly call everyone to attention. “Hey! Listen up! This might be the end of civilization as we know it, but it isn’t the end of the world! Sure life is going to be harder now, but look at we’ve already survived. Just this damn week we suffered through a military occupation, an internal civil war, an attack by freaks, and took down a bunch of rednecks trying to murder us.” At this point they’re all listening to you intently. “We’ll survive this and as long as we stick together there isn’t anything we can’t do. This is a new beginning and it’ll be us against the world if necessary. We are a family and I love you guys.” You say. These words are met with a pause and then of course positive approval by all and everyone goes in for a bit of a group hug. Feelings run a bit high and some more tears are shed. While your words are genuine and do have feeling behind them, but your mind is still in a dark place. You do see them all as family, but you also can’t help see them as useful “tools” in the chaos that’s going to come. Even now you’re sizing them all up on their weaknesses and strengths. In any case, you and everyone finish up by completing the burial of Klepto and gathering all the supplies from the farm that will be needed. You all know you’ll run out eventually, but for now you’ve got enough supplies to ponder a long range plan of your future. No longer are you the shy “good” girl who hid away in the basement, harassed by your family and living as one day blurred into the next. Far from it. Very far from it. It’s a brand new day and this is just the beginning of your brand new life. > Karnival of Karnage The Future… You sit comfortably in your modified jeep watching yet another small settlement burn before you. Not the first time, and certainly won’t be the last. The screams and gunfire are starting to die down which means today’s raid is nearly over. Still, it isn’t completely over yet and there’s always something fun to see. “Woo hoo! Looks like that new recruit has got the right attitude!” you say watching a young man wearing an outlandish green wig and novelty nose glasses swing his machete into the skull of another young man who was previously begging for his life. “Hrm. Wasn’t too sure about him at first, but I guess he’s proven himself on this raid. Speaking of which, looks like we’ve made a good haul. Lots of food, water, even medical supplies.” Lifto remarks sitting next to you. “Wheeee! Gimme that map, I want to see where we should hit next.” You say. “I believe Captain Howdy has it.” “Well, call that pierced freak over here then.” You say. Lifto nods and calls for Captain Howdy via bullhorn. Eventually a heavily pierced man wearing a beat up pilot’s cap, black face make up and carrying an assault rifle over his shoulder appears. “Black face today? Isn’t that a bit unPC?” you say with a smirk. “Eh, fuck’em if they can’t take a joke.” Howdy says apathetically. “Truer words my friend. Lifto says you’ve got the map of this area.” You say. “Oh yeah, I do. Here let me get it out of my pack.” Howdy takes off a small backpack and opens it up to give you a well-worn map of the area. “Let’s see…okay…we hit that place…and that one…” you start to say looking for a new target. “How about Redemption? I hate those religious types.” Howdy says. “While I have no doubt that town of pious zealots is well stocked, they’re also very well armed. In fact I’ve been hearing rumors that they’ve been launching their own little crusade against neighboring settlements.” You say. “I heard that they went complete Spanish Inquisition on one town. Crucified most of them and burned the rest alive. That was of course after they already had tortured the shit out of all of them.” Lifto adds. “So? We could take those assholes.” Howdy remarks. “That may be, but not in the near future. It would be a very dangerous undertaking and we are not doing this for the risks and to prove how badass we are. We’re doing this for survival…well that and to have a little fun in the process.” You say with a smile, though Howdy is still one of your more “macho” members and still wants to prove he’s got a dick by killing something. You reach out to his face with a gentle touch and soothing voice. “I know you like to kill things, but I don’t want you to get killed in the process. Just because we tend to pick easier targets just means I really don’t want you or any one of us to get killed. We’re all family and I don’t want to see any one of you die, you understand? That’s why our mode of operation is to go for low risk, high reward and I’d say its work for all these years wouldn’t you?” “Yes, I suppose it has.” Howdy says. “That’s right. Anyway it’s looking like we have hit every place that’s worthwhile around here. We should start heading east and raid merchant caravans coming out of those city-states. They’re all fucked up after that big war they had with the Ground Zero Corporation so they’re lacking in the defense department now. Okay, let’s start shutting down this circus and move on.” You say and take the bullhorn from Lifto. “Alright you clowns gather up all the shit we’ve looted, pile it in the vehicles and let’s get this freak show on the road! We’re heading east! Flammo! HEY! That doesn’t mean start another goddamn fire, it means let’s go!” you shout shaking your head and throw the bullhorn in the back seat. Lifto starts up the jeep and you stretch a bit waiting for your family to finish packing up. Lifto waits in silence, but you feel like talking. “A Pennywise for your thoughts.” You say which causes a snort from Lifto. “Oh nothing, I suppose I was just thinking about how much things have changed. The past. Sometimes I miss it.” “Oh that. Well I don’t miss it. Glad that part of my life is over.” “Not just the old days, but people as well like Fatty, Shrimpy… Klepto.” “Well that’s different. I do miss them. They were family and I’ll never forget them. We sure had some fun times back at that farmhouse remember?” “Heh, yeah. Shame what happened; maybe we could’ve made a more stable life there rather than doing this raider thing.” “Perhaps, but we can’t dwell on what if in the past. Just have to focus on today and if possible, the future. That’s what’s kept us alive and allowed us to build our new family.” You say and touch Lifto’s hand. Lifto looks and smiles at you. You aren’t sure if he’s ever completely agreed with how you’ve gone about things, but he loves you enough that he’ll stand by your side no matter what and that’s enough for you. To be honest you did latch on to Lifto a bit in the beginning because he was obviously a big guy that could definitely protect you in a time of trouble, but it’s a bit more than that now. Given that you’re both the only two left from the original group, your ties have naturally grown quite a bit. You’ve done a lot of bad things since your new life began, but it’s a harsh world and you’re just living in it. Sometimes you have bouts where you wonder if you should feel bad about doing the things you do, but then you just laugh and remember to not dwell on the past. “I love you Kenneth.” You say using Lifto’s real name, looking at him and touching his hand. “I love you Suzy.” He replies back and leans over to kiss you. With this exchange of affection, you, Lifto and your gang of clowns drive off in search of new prey.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>If you ran, you doubt if the rest of them would follow and despite the feeling that this isn’t the greatest idea, you’re tired of running. You’ve got nothing to run to anyway, if you can deal with the inhabitants inside, you’ll at least have a place to catch a breather from the ever-growing chaos in your life. You hope at least. “Shrimpy can you get inside the truck without getting hit and put it in neutral?” “Yeah I think I could.” Shrimpy says. “Good, give me the rifle and the clips, get in the truck and when it’s in neutral Lifto and Fatty I want you to start pushing it forward. We should be able to get close enough to the house using this thing as a large shield.” “What are you going to be doing?” Fatty asks. “I’m going to be crawling around in the truck bed taking shots at that bastard firing at us when I can. Hopefully the closer we get the more likely I’ll be able to hit him. Now you want to avenge Klepto or what?” This statement gets a nod from everyone. “Let’s do this.” Lifto says and all of you enact your plan. It goes well, or about as well as a plan can when someone is shooting at you. Another person soon joins the farmer the closer the truck gets to the front of the house. Presumably the farmer’s wife. The pair of them unleash a torrent of curses at you, but nobody is hitting each other yet. Bullets tear into the truck and while you’re all safe, when the two front tires get blown out, it makes Lifto and Fatty’s pushing a lot harder. “Goddamn it. (Wheeze)” Fatty gasps. “Fuck.” Lifto grunts. Still crawling around in the truck bed, you head over towards the back and speak to Lifto and Fatty. “Okay, stop pushing, no point in straining yourself, because you’re going to need to save your energy. I don’t think the shooter on the left is quite as skilled so run to the left and around the back of the house, there’s got to be a back door. I’ll provide cover, I still got a half a clip left in this thing and one more full one, so when I go full auto, start running. Here take the pistol.” You say tossing the pistol over the back end of the truck. Honestly you’d rather have Shrimpy do this since he’s a much smaller target, but the little guy is probably hiding in the leg area of either the driver or passenger’s side of the truck hoping not to get hit. You take a deep breath as more bullets tear into the sides of the truck. You grip the rifle and exposing only a bit of your hands, you blindly fire and spray the left area of the house where the second shooter is. Luckily through the gunfire a small cry is heard, you think you’ve hit someone again. In any case it allows time for Lifto and Fatty to crouch run towards the house, hug the wall and then crawl around the corner. Fatty sure is fast when he wants to be, you just hope he doesn’t suffer a heart attack. Meanwhile you hear shouting within the house. “Clem! I’m hit! Ohhhhh…(sob)” “Honeypie?! Honeypie? No no no…” With the gunfire completely stopped Shrimpy takes the opportunity to get out of the truck and run behind it. “Suzy? You still here?” you hear him ask. “Yeah, I’m still here. Just stay behind the truck I’m gonna…” you start to say before you’re interrupted “NO! GODAMNIT! NOOOO! FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU ALL!” Clem the farmer shouts and now the sounds of gunfire start up again, except this time he’s not firing a rifle anymore, the booming sound indicates a shotgun of some kind. As you try to reload your last assault rifle clip, the truck continues to suffer the impact of shotgun rounds. In fact they are starting to damage the truck enough that one of them going through and hitting you is a very real possibility. You roll over to the other side of the truck in an attempt not to get hit. “I’LL KILL ALL OF YOU!” you hear him bellow. You’re too busy keeping down and redloading. And then you hear nothing, followed by a pistol shot and then another. You take the opportunity to quickly climb out of the truck bed altogether. “Suzy, did they get him?” Shrimpy asks “I don’t know…” you say and peek your head out hoping that this isn’t a mistake. You soon see Lifto standing in the front doorway with the pistol in hand. “We got all of these bastards. It’s safe.” He says. You and Shrimpy both step out from the cover of the truck and make your way to the house. First thing you notice is the first man you shot near the entryway, apparently he tried to crawl away soon after the shoot out started and died shortly afterwards. Given his disfigurement and from what you could tell of his voice, he might’ve been mentally retarded. You remember hearing “junior” being said, so you’re guessing he was the son. You don’t exactly feel great about shooting him. It really was an accident. Seeing the other two bodies don’t exactly make you feel any better. The farmer’s wife lies dead in the dining room area. She’s actually bigger than Fatty which means she’s indeed quite on the large side. She has several gunshot wounds to her upper body. You knew you hit her, but you just didn’t know where. Your stomach begins to feel slightly bad when you think about it. Finally you see the farmer himself, or Clem as you heard being shouted. Lifto mentions that Clem was so focused on you that he realized too late that someone was sneaking up on him. Lifto mentions that he shot him in the back and then while Clem was still flopping about on the floor trying to turn over with his shotgun, Clem put one in his skull. You didn’t even kill Clem and you still feel weird about it. You don’t understand why you’re feeling slightly sick about all this. Or rather you’ve got an idea why, but considering the little creature rampage at the carnival it isn’t like you haven’t seen gruesome death before, but this is somehow different. The adrenaline and survivalist mindset you put yourself into has disappeared now that the danger has passed so you are left with the grim aftermath of your actions. The realization that you’ve killed an entire family that was really just defending their home is what is getting to you. That and the fact that you feel like this whole incident is your fault. Adding Klepto’s death to the mix and you’re directly and indirectly responsible for four people’s deaths. “Toilet.” You say in a daze. “What?” Shrimpy asks. “I’m gonna be sick…” “I think I saw one over towards the back of the house, it’s…” You don’t wait for Lifto to finish you just run in the direction. Trying to keep from throwing up and you just manage to make it to the toilet where upon you promptly vomit your guts out. Your fellows come to see how you’re doing. “Suzy, are you alright?” Shrimpy asks. “Yeah, you aren’t sick are you?” Lifto asks. It takes you awhile to answer, but eventually you manage it. “Uh…(pant)…I just…I dunno…yeah I’ll be fine. I think the stress of all this just got to me. Uh…” You say. “Well, it’s understandable. Look, why don’t you go lie down somewhere? You’ve done enough for today. The rest of us are gonna drag these bodies out of here. It’ll take all of us, lord knows what the hell they were eating on this farm, but everyone here seems to be Fatty’s size or bigger. Probably should look around the rest of the farm as well. Make sure nobody is hiding in the barns or something.” Lifto remarks. “Yeah…okay…” you say walking past Shrimpy and Lifto. As you slowly walk back towards the front of the house, Fatty comes down the stairs. “Well the upstairs is clear from what I can tell. Nobody up there. Hey Suzy, you okay? Could hear you retching from up there.” Fatty asks. “Yeah, just need to lie down.” You say. “You and me both, but I suppose Lifto is going to need me to help him move out these bodies. Anyway, there are some nice beds upstairs, probably should take one of them.” At this point you feel so wobbly that you wonder if you can even make it up the stairs. > You use the downstairs couch You’re so tired, you don’t want to be bothered with stairs right now. You collapse on the nearby sofa and close your eyes. “Try to keep it down please.” You say. Everyone agrees, but the act of moving bodies out isn’t exactly quiet work. Especially when they try to move the farmer’s wife, which even with Lifto helping, isn’t an easy task. “Damnit Fatty get her fucking leg, I’m losing my grip.” Lifto says. “This bitch is bigger than me! I’m having a coronary just trying to move her.” Fatty replies. “Don’t look at me, I’m doing the best I can with this leg, we should just drag her out.” Shrimpy adds. “Okay, okay, drop her.” A loud thud of a dead body hitting the floor fills your ears. Them trying to drag her doesn’t go too much quieter, Fatty ends up knocking over a table lamp and at this point you know trying to sleep on the sofa is a losing proposition. You don’t get mad since it really isn’t their fault, but you do get up in silence and make your way up the stairs. Really you’re still a bit wobbly from your tiredness and your eyes are half sleepy, but thanks to the railings, you’re able to maneuver yourself to the top without falling. Unfortunately, that isn’t the danger. When you get to the top of the stairs, you see a young woman standing before you holding a knife. It looks like she was sneaking to one of the other rooms when you appeared. The woman is a bit surprised when she sees you and you’re just barely awake enough to realize that you’re in danger, you’re not quite awake enough to react in time. With a short rush towards you she stabs you in the right tit, causing you to fall backwards. The knife wound wouldn’t have killed you since it didn’t hit vital organs, but breaking your neck falling down the stairs sure does. The rest of your friends come running back inside from the noise and will probably avenge your death, but obviously you won’t be alive to thank them.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>FRIDAY “…don’t delay, buy a Ground Zero shelter today!” “Fatty turn that radio off, there hasn’t been anything on it of importance for hours. It’s just those damn Ground Zero ads. Christ, you’d think someone would be reporting about oh you know a zombie apocalypse?” Shrimpy says. “I still say those things are still alive. The ones we saw didn’t look like they came back from the dead or anything.” Fatty remarks. “Well whatever, still seems like reporting SOME sort of outbreak would be of importance.” “Maybe its local and not happening anywhere else?” At this point your eyes open and you completely rouse from your sleep. “(Yawn) What’s going on?” you ask. “So you’re finally awake.” Shrimpy says. “We’ve been driving all night?” you ask. “Somewhat. Fatty here pulled over at one point and we both slept a little. If you’re wondering about the gruesome twosome back there, we checked on them and from what I can tell both of them feel fine. In fact I think they’re both still sleeping. Guess all that bite drama yesterday really exhausted them. Dunno if that means they’re okay or not, but right now we do have another problem.” Shrimpy says. “What’s that?” you ask. “Well Fatty here managed to get us fucking lost.” “Hey it’s not my fault, I couldn’t see shit in the night and I thought we were on a main road. Damn GPS.” Fatty says. “Told you that it was broken and hasn’t worked correctly for years. Anyway, I know you’re native to this area so I’m hoping you know your way around.” Shrimpy says. A brief glance of the practically non-descript landscape to the left and right of you leaves you at a loss. “Sorry, but like I said, I never was a big traveller. Never left the basement if I could help it.” You say. “Oh yeah, that’s right. Well any suggestion regardless of that fact?” Shrimpy asks. You don’t really have any, though you probably should be near some sort of farmhouse as you do know there are some out this way. You could get your bearing by stopping at one and asking for directions. You also remember Fatty’s comment about supplies. “There should be some sort of farmhouse nearby. Just keep driving along this road and we’ll probably hit one where we can ask for directions and possibly get supplies.” “Sounds like as good of an idea as any.” You really don’t know if that will be the case, you’re just hoping at this point. Fortunately, your hopes come true this time. “Well, there’s a house. Can’t tell if anyone is home or not though.” Fatty says pulling up to a large traditional looking farmhouse. “Okay, so how are we doing this?” “Well…I suppose I’ll go up to the front door and see if anyone’s home and the rest of you guys stay in the truck.” You say. “You nuts? This place looks like it’s out of a horror movie! Might be a bunch of psycho rednecks living in there! They see a pretty young thing like you and they’d grab you before we could even do anything.” Shrimpy remarks. “Right like arriving at a door with a group of clowns isn’t straight out of a horror movie. I’m currently the only one dressed in regular clothing and not covered in blood, I think it would be best if I just asked for help at first.” “Hey what are we going to do with Klepto and Lifto?” Fatty asks. “Well check on them again and if they seem to be well unchain them I guess. I mean they could use a stretch. Anyway like I said I’m going to the door. I’m taking the pistol with me and I’m confident that if something does happen you’ll be able to react in time to save me from getting chopped up or whatever you think is going to happen. We need help getting back on track and looking at the gauge we might even need gas so hopefully they got that here too. Don’t worry I’ll be fine.” You say and get out of the truck. You make your way towards the front porch looking around the entire time. This place is creepily quiet. Seems like you should at least hear the sounds of animals or something. Shrimpy’s got you totally paranoid now. You really weren’t worried until he mentioned psycho hillbillies. You look back at the truck. “Goddamn it Suzy, you need to brave through some of this shit yourself. You survived your serial killer uncle for Christsake. Nothing is going to happen, probably just some kindly old farm couple that lives here.” You mutter to yourself and walk up the stairs and knock on the door. You knock several times with no answer, but just when you’re about to give up it opens. “WHO YOU!?” a large disfigured man exclaims completely scaring the shit out of you and causing you to fall backwards. You’re in a state of utter fear as this large freak approaches you with his hand outstretched towards you… Even in your fearful condition, you’re still able to react to a dangerous situation. You pull the pistol that you had on you and shoot the disfigured man. You hit him twice in the body and he reels backwards bellowing loudly as his body hits the front door and then the house’s front room floor. “WHHHHHHY!? GOING TO HELP YOU!” the man shouts. “Junior? What in tarnation is goin’ on down there? I hope you didn’t shoot yourself in the foot carrying your father’s rifles again, you know how he hates a waste of ammo.” An older female voice shouts from inside. “MAMA! MAMA! HURT A LOT! BAD GIRL HURT ME!” the man cries. “If you’ve been fightin’ with you’re sister again…oh my god…JUNIOR! CLEM SOMEONE SHOT JUNIOR!” you hear the older female voice scream. By this time you’re running back to the truck, which Shrimpy has gotten out of. Lifto and Klepto are also both awake and shouting at this point. “Get back in the fucking truck! We gotta…” you start yelling and then a shot from one of the farmhouse windows rings out. You hear it whiz by your ear causing you to drop to the ground immediately. You continue to crawl towards the truck where you hear more gunfire behind you and the sounds of an assault rifle returning fire. You hear someone trying to start the truck, but a few more shots hitting metal seem to put an end to that causing the engine to make a less than operational sound. “Fatty get out of the front seat!” Shrimpy shouts. You hear more gunshots followed by Fatty crying out, though you don’t know if he’s actually gotten hit severely since you just hear “OW MY ASS!” The whole time you’re praying that you don’t get shot in the back, but you’re the lucky one… Ever the white knight, Klepto attempts to go “rescue” you. “Klepto get out of the open!” you hear Lifto shout. “Suzy’s out there I can’t…” Klepto’s words are cut short when a bullet to his skull drops him. In fact he drops about a few feet in front of you. You try to put the sight of his death out of your mind as you continue to crawl towards the truck. “YOU FUCKERS AREN’T TAKING THIS FARM! THIS FARM IS MINE! ALL OF YOU SONSOFBITCHES ARE GONNA PAY FOR WHAT YOU DID TO MY BOY!” a male voice shouts. You finally reach your destination where the rest are hiding behind the back of the truck, though Fatty’s having a hard time of it due to his size and the fact he’s got a bullet in his ass. The shooting on both sides for now has stopped though. “Shit, shit, shit, Klepto’s dead! That redneck bastard says that we’re going to pay, no fucking way, HE’S gonna fuckin’ pay!” Lifto says which is a bit surprising considering that he was ready to kill Klepto himself just yesterday. “Fuck, my ass…ah! Shit…wish I had a gun, I’d shoot that fucker in the ass. Not the cheek either, the fucking HOLE!” Fatty says who is normally calm, but given he got shot his anger is a bit understandable. “Well luckily I picked up a few extra clips back at the carnival and Suzy’s probably still got a few shots left. I say we can probably take out the shooter with a bit of strategy. Just as soon as we come up with one of course.” Shrimpy remarks. You don’t know how to feel about all this. Maybe it’s all the increased violence over the past few days along with losing Klepto, but your clown crew is starting to become a lot more vicious, though events haven’t exactly been encouraging a peaceful life lately. You can’t help but feel a little responsible for this current situation though. The retard was just trying to help you up from your fall, but you couldn’t have known that…you just reacted to your fear. You were the one who harmed the farm inhabitants first even if the rest of your clown friends think you were being attacked. Part of you wants to just run from this place, but where would you go? Staying of course means doing more things you don’t necessarily want to do…but then you think if you can put yourself in the “right” frame of mind you’ll be able to do it. The farmer HAS tried to kill all of you and did succeed in killing Klepto who attempted to save you, surely revenge for that isn’t totally wrong? > You run away You might not know where you’re going to go, but staying around here seems like it will definitely lead to more death, namely yours. “Guys, I’m making a run for it. I can’t do this.” “Suzy, that asshole killed Klepto! We can’t just let these rednecks get away with that!” Lifto says. “And they shot me in the ass!” Fatty adds. “And I killed one of them, granted it was an accident, but that’s probably why they’re shooting at us! They aren’t completely at fault for thinking we’re here to hurt them. In fact they’re completely correct in that assessment given that you all want to get revenge. Look, I’m getting the hell out of here, and I hope the rest of you are with me on this. It sucks what happened to Klepto, but if we stay here, we’re going to end up like he did!” you exclaim. Lifto and Fatty are both unmoved by your words and tell you quite colorfully how disappointed they are in you. Shrimpy however is silent, and then passes his assault rifle to Lifto. “Here. At least lay down a bit of covering fire while we run for it.” Shrimpy says. “You’re… you’re leaving? Wow…Shrimpy. I could’ve understood if you had stuck with the rest of the dwarves back at the carnival, but looks like you were just following Suzy’s ass the whole time.” Lifto remarks. “Think whatever you want. Just cover us.” “Fine. But given everything we’ve been through, I’m starting to think this girl is a fucking jinx and following her is just going to get you killed.” Lifto remarks. “Well then you should be successful in blasting those farmers then, you ready or not?” Lifto reloads the rifle and without another word begins firing on the farmhouse. You and Shrimpy both sprint away from the truck as fast as you can hoping that you don’t get hit. Fortunately it seems that the farmer is focusing on the immediate threat, which is Lifto. You don’t look back you just continue running and try to keep as low as possible. Eventually you get yourself lost in some high grass. You hear someone still running close behind. “Shrimpy?” “Yeah, its me. (Whew) I think we’re far enough now. Hold on, (pant) let me catch up to you. Damn grass is too high for me.” you hear him say. “Follow my voice. Wait, I can hear you, let me just…” you begin to say and turn around to walk in the direction of his voice. Unfortunately you don’t notice the bear trap on the ground. You must’ve just missed it when you ran this way before, but you don’t miss it this time. The device springs and your left leg is suddenly crushed by a forty pound snapping jaw made of metal. Your leg is most certainly broken, and you are most certainly in more pain than you could ever imagine. Before you start to go into shock from the pain, you scream loud enough that Shrimpy definitely hears you and runs in your direction. “Oh my god, oh Suzy, oh shit!” he exclaims. “I…I…(sob) I…(sob)” you can’t even form a coherent sentence; you’re on the verge of passing out and crying uncontrollably. Shrimpy attempts to pull the trap open, but he isn’t quite strong enough and just causes you more agony. “NO! (sob) Just…(sob) I…(sob)” you cry out. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’ll get help! Just hang on!” Shrimpy says and runs back in the direction of the farmhouse. You don’t stop him and between the crying and wishing that you never left the basement you soon fall unconscious from shock and pain. You don’t know how long you’re out for, but when you come to, you wish you hadn’t. “Knew it would be a good idea to lay dem traps out here. Never know who might be sneakin’ through this tall grass.” You see a large man in overalls carrying a shotgun say as he prods you with the barrel of the weapon. “Please…help…” is all you can utter. “Help? Like you and your evil clown friends helped each other in killing my boy and tryin’ to kill the rest of my family? I dunno what sort of fucked up psychos y’all are, but you messed with the wrong family this day. Say hi to your friends in clown hell, bitch.” You weakly put your hands in front of your face and then the farmer pulls the trigger.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Chapter 1: Dark Beginnings Well, you did it again. You slacked off all semester and didn’t study for your finals. There’s no way you’re going to pass your nature magic test tomorrow. Those things are always killers. You don’t even know why you enrolled in that class; you aren’t even interested in being a nature mage. You don’t even like the damn outdoors! Oh wait, you know why, it’s because you saw a cute witch taking the class, so like a dumb ass, you signed up for it. Naturally the moment you tried to impress her with some sort of cantrip, she laughed at you and said even if she was straight, she wouldn’t go for a half assed hedge wizard like you! You really should’ve known better, half of those witches are lesbians anyway. That whole Mother Earth Goddess worship caters to the rug munching. (And no, there aren’t any MALE witches, any self respecting man would call himself a WARLOCK, not a damn witch!) (Sigh) Like your little sister’s B’ar’b Dolly once said “Magic is hard!” Indeed. Sometimes you curse the day your mother passed her magical elven blood on to you. Still, you’re here now, so you need to make the best out of your life. You’re already going to hear it from both of your parents of how you’ve been nothing but a disappointment to the both of them. Your Dad will probably do a little more than say that, he’ll probably personally ride up to the University and beat the hell out of you for wasting his hard earned pillaging money to send you there in the first place. Arrgh! You just wish you were good at SOME kind of magic! You have the ability; you just don’t have the focus! That’s always been the problem with you. Your sister has it easy, she took after Dad. Narrow minded focus on killing someone with a blunt instrument doesn’t take too much effort. Of course you had to be the one that greater things were expected of. You’ve tried all the schools, evocation, conjuration, illusion, divination; all of them. You can’t excel in any of it. You can only get so far and then the words and gestures and well all of it just becomes too fucking confusing for you. However, you haven’t tried the “darker arts”, but your Mom would definitely never approve. (Your Dad probably wouldn’t care, but if you upset your Mom, it’s a warhammer upside the head) In fact it’s illegal to study any of them. They caused too much trouble in the past and nearly destroyed the world at one time. All who are known to even dabble in such arts are immediately taken into custody and executed. You don’t think you’d want to be summoning demons anyway; even the few “friendly ones” that work on campus are fucking assholes to the Nth degree. You can only imagine how bad the ones who haven’t been living among mortals are. However there is another dark art which you have to admit you’ve always had a bit of curiosity about. The art in question is necromancy. At this point you’re willing to at least see if you’re good at ANYTHING, so for shits and giggles you decide to blow off your test which you’re going to fail anyway and go see if you can find out more about this outlawed dark art. Though being a lazy sort you decide to try the library first. > You go make a trip to the library Even though you’re supposed to be a wizard in training, you spend as little time as possible in library if you can help it. Normally you just check out whatever you need to read for a class and leave. You have little faith in finding anything substantial on Necromancy in there, but maybe you can find something that will at least quell this thirst for knowledge on it. You realize you’re treading on dangerous ground, but you have to try to learn more. The library is huge however, and you’re unsure of where to look, it’s not like there’s a section on Necromancy or Outlawed Magic, but you figure you’ll look in the History section first. You glance and browse through the stacks until you pick up a few choice books that look like they might contain something, sit down in a quiet corner and begin to read. Naturally you don’t learn too much. The history books mainly go on about how bad the Dead War was, important battles, the atrocities of the Lich Lord, the typical stuff you’ve read time and time again. Still, you’re determined to find something new. You spend hours reading until you realize you’ve spent the day in the library and that it’s now night time. Oddly the library is mostly empty, and that’s probably because finals are now over, one of which you’ve now undoubtedly failed. You think of how stupid you’ve been to obsess over an outlawed art that you probably wouldn’t be any good at anyway! You’ve only been dwelling on the subject to ignore your own problems that you could’ve tried to solve yourself, instead of fantasizing about being some Necromancer. Raising the dead…what good would that do you? Delusions of grandeur. You wouldn’t have enough motivation to try to take over the world anyway. There was only one person who truly motivated you, and she’s gone. You begin to think about Serena and begin to feel sorrow like when you first lost her. You’ve had enough of death. You leave the library in a daze and head back home to sleep off this miserable day. You can’t escape though; even your dreams bring death. You dream about Serena. At first she’s alive and vibrant, and then suddenly she dies before your eyes. Then you see her grave with you sobbing over it and shouting how you demand that she not leave you. Then she rises from her grave…and you wake up only to come face to face with her! She is a ghost floating near your bed. “HOLY SHIT!” you shout and back up against your headboard. “Shhhh! Hush my love, I’m risking a lot just by being here.” She says looking around as if someone is going to bust down your door any minute. “Serena, what’s going on? This isn’t a dream is it?” “No, my dear I assure you that I am very real. And I have a message for you.” “A message?” “Yes, embrace death and all the beauty it has to offer.” “You want me to kill myself, to join you?” Serena laughs a bit. “No silly, you are to become a necromancer and bring the purity of death to the world.” “…yeah right. With my aptitude of magic, I doubt if I could raise a mouse skeleton.” “You always did lack confidence in yourself. I suppose that’s why they sent me to motivate you one last time. Though I admit, I would’ve come to see you anyway.” “They?” Serena side steps your question and continues. “Look we haven’t much time, but you HAVE the ability to become the greatest Necromancer since the Great Lich Lord who brought the world near the brink of extinction centuries ago, but you cannot do it alone…at least not yet. You must have allies. There are others like you on this campus who long to practice the dark arts. Seek them out and take over this college as your first step to your destiny.” “What? Hold on! What makes you think I want to do all this?” Serena floats closer to you and touches your face with a ghostly hand. You feel completely calm. “Because deep down it IS what you want. You know your thoughts are dominated by death. You even think of me rather than living girls and I’ve been dead for years. The very fact that your mind played a part in summoning me here is also proof of your desire.” “I miss you…” “I know you do, but my point is, even before I died I remember you having an interest in the dark arts. Indeed it’s part of what attracted me to you. But now I must return and you must fulfill your part in this world, whether you succeed or fail at this endeavor will ultimately be up to you, but I believe you will succeed.” Serena then floats a little closer to kiss you. “Farewell, my love.” She says and then disappears. You’re now wide awake and pacing the floor. You’ve been ambivalent about pursuing this path before, but the more you think about it and with this visit from Serena, this is the path you’re going to choose. And why not? It’s not like you have any better options in your life at this point. You’re going to do it, and though Serena mentioned others like you being on campus, you’re damned if you have a clue to as of knowing who they are since you don’t really socialize. Still, you can think of two people that could get you started. (Or at least not rat on you, when you start inquiring about Necromancy) The next day you take your first steps towards darkness… > You go talk to your creepy conjuration professor, Mr. Demar Chapter 2: Death Awaits Serena’s right, you’re going to need the help of others and you head to Mr. Demar’s office. Mr. Demar’s class was probably the only one you didn’t struggle in too much. It’s not really a popular field given that conjuration can lead to summoning demons. Still, there is use for it on a minor level, though of course it’s strictly regulated by most governments. Mr. Demar was a good professor, but the general agreement by everyone in your class, was that he was REALLY creepy. Plus there were always rumors about him. You always got the impression he was interested in doing a lot more with his area of expertise, but had to settle for teaching. He always seemed to be alright with you though. When you get to his office, surprisingly it’s open and he’s busily shuffling some papers around. “Mr. Demar?” “Huh? What? Damn it, I thought I locked that door! Oh it’s you, what do you want? And lock that door.” “Well uh…I had some questions…” “Okay, what are they? Out with it.” He says continuing to look at some strange parchments. “Well, uh…I guess it’s about magic, and I guess um…” Mr. Demar looks up at you like he’s going to slap you for stuttering so much. You finally speak up. “I want to know more about Necromancy.” Mr. Demar steps back and gives you a few inspecting stares. “I dunno what you’re talking about, in fact if you don’t get out of here I’m going report you to the dean for asking such questions.” He warns, but you get the impression that he’s not telling the truth. He probably thinks you were sent to spy on him by the dean or something. It’s not like he hasn’t been held under close scrutiny before. “Mr. Demar, I’m not trying to get you into trouble, it’s me! I really want to learn Necromancy, and you’re about the only one I think can help me! I actually was worried about coming to you and I was nervous about the whole thing!” “Hmm, well I guess I always did think you were inclined towards the dark arts and given your annoying stuttering a moment ago, you do sound like you were nervous. Okay, you want to learn? I’ll teach you. I’ll teach you like I’m currently teaching so many others right now. Surprised? Yes, the time is coming to pass that we who are inclined to REAL power begin to make our place in this world…permanently. Though I still have concerns about you, I mean while you did about average in my class, I’m well aware that you’re not exactly the best student in other fields. I question whether you can handle the power of the dark arts, let alone become a Necromancer.” You stand up straight and reply. “I’m confident that this is my path.” “Good, I’m glad you said that, because there’s no going back and this path is not for the weak. We also must maintain secrecy at all times until the day that we may take what is rightfully ours. Now come with me, we’re going to see exactly what kind of potential you have.” Mr. Demar casts a spell and opens up a portal. He then prepares to enter it and beckons you to follow him, which you do. Suddenly you’re whisked away into a place of near darkness. Given your immediate surroundings you’d guess that you’re underground somewhere. You can hear the clinking of chains though nearby and moans. “Where are we?” “Your testing area, this where we’re going to find out what exactly you’re made of. In the next room, you’ll find some undead friends. They’re currently chained up, but they won’t be for long. Now, you can kill them, but as a Necromancer you’re supposed to be controlling them, so obviously you should try to do that.” “But I don’t know how! You haven’t taught me any spells!” “And I’m not going to, you’re going to have to figure this out yourself, but I will say this, it’s all about the strength of willpower. Tap into your magical energy and if you have what it takes, you’ll succeed. I’ll leave you to it.” Demar disappears back into the portal and leaves you all by yourself. You’ve really gotten yourself into it and now there really isn’t any going back, and you can hear the chains from the next room dropping to the ground and the moans getting louder and closer. There’s a large bone on the ground and not much else in the room, and you can’t run either as there are no other exits. > You pick up the bone and defend yourself You pick up the large bone and prepare for whatever is coming at you. A couple of zombies enter and as soon as they see you they shamble over. You’re a little shaken, and you attempt to do exactly what Demar said, but you’re not having any effect. Soon one of the zombies is almost upon you and you lash out with the bone. You give a few good whacks to the first one’s skull causing it to collapse lifeless once again. You do the same to the second one. You’re breathing hard and thank the fact that they were slow enough not to easily catch you. However, your victory is short lived, when Demar appears again. “(Sigh) you killed them, after I told you that was not the purpose. Plus you gave a poor showing in even attempting to control them. I don’t see a future for you, if you cave under pressure like that.” You’re a little dejected, but the worse is yet to come, when you find you won’t be leaving this place. Mr. Demar can’t risk you knowing about this place yet not being a disciple of his. He didn’t last this long being undetected by taking chances. With a few quick mumblings and you feel your body ravaged by rot. It’s a horrible death, but one that results in you rising to take the place of the “test” zombies you just ruined. You spend your remaining undead life shambling around underground until eventually when Demar feels it’s time to attack, you’re one of the first cannon fodder troops to be destroyed in the attempted take over.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Chapter 2: Death Awaits Serena’s right, you’re going to need the help of others and you head to Mr. Demar’s office. Mr. Demar’s class was probably the only one you didn’t struggle in too much. It’s not really a popular field given that conjuration can lead to summoning demons. Still, there is use for it on a minor level, though of course it’s strictly regulated by most governments. Mr. Demar was a good professor, but the general agreement by everyone in your class, was that he was REALLY creepy. Plus there were always rumors about him. You always got the impression he was interested in doing a lot more with his area of expertise, but had to settle for teaching. He always seemed to be alright with you though. When you get to his office, surprisingly it’s open and he’s busily shuffling some papers around. “Mr. Demar?” “Huh? What? Damn it, I thought I locked that door! Oh it’s you, what do you want? And lock that door.” “Well uh…I had some questions…” “Okay, what are they? Out with it.” He says continuing to look at some strange parchments. “Well, uh…I guess it’s about magic, and I guess um…” Mr. Demar looks up at you like he’s going to slap you for stuttering so much. You finally speak up. “I want to know more about Necromancy.” Mr. Demar steps back and gives you a few inspecting stares. “I dunno what you’re talking about, in fact if you don’t get out of here I’m going report you to the dean for asking such questions.” He warns, but you get the impression that he’s not telling the truth. He probably thinks you were sent to spy on him by the dean or something. It’s not like he hasn’t been held under close scrutiny before. “Mr. Demar, I’m not trying to get you into trouble, it’s me! I really want to learn Necromancy, and you’re about the only one I think can help me! I actually was worried about coming to you and I was nervous about the whole thing!” “Hmm, well I guess I always did think you were inclined towards the dark arts and given your annoying stuttering a moment ago, you do sound like you were nervous. Okay, you want to learn? I’ll teach you. I’ll teach you like I’m currently teaching so many others right now. Surprised? Yes, the time is coming to pass that we who are inclined to REAL power begin to make our place in this world…permanently. Though I still have concerns about you, I mean while you did about average in my class, I’m well aware that you’re not exactly the best student in other fields. I question whether you can handle the power of the dark arts, let alone become a Necromancer.” You stand up straight and reply. “I’m confident that this is my path.” “Good, I’m glad you said that, because there’s no going back and this path is not for the weak. We also must maintain secrecy at all times until the day that we may take what is rightfully ours. Now come with me, we’re going to see exactly what kind of potential you have.” Mr. Demar casts a spell and opens up a portal. He then prepares to enter it and beckons you to follow him, which you do. Suddenly you’re whisked away into a place of near darkness. Given your immediate surroundings you’d guess that you’re underground somewhere. You can hear the clinking of chains though nearby and moans. “Where are we?” “Your testing area, this where we’re going to find out what exactly you’re made of. In the next room, you’ll find some undead friends. They’re currently chained up, but they won’t be for long. Now, you can kill them, but as a Necromancer you’re supposed to be controlling them, so obviously you should try to do that.” “But I don’t know how! You haven’t taught me any spells!” “And I’m not going to, you’re going to have to figure this out yourself, but I will say this, it’s all about the strength of willpower. Tap into your magical energy and if you have what it takes, you’ll succeed. I’ll leave you to it.” Demar disappears back into the portal and leaves you all by yourself. You’ve really gotten yourself into it and now there really isn’t any going back, and you can hear the chains from the next room dropping to the ground and the moans getting louder and closer. There’s a large bone on the ground and not much else in the room, and you can’t run either as there are no other exits. > You try to prepare and concentrate You begin to concentrate and prepare for whatever is coming at you. A couple of zombies enter and as soon as they see you they shamble over. You maintain your calmness and focus, backing up only to get out their reach. It’s not work though, but you refuse to give up so you do something that you never thought you’d ever use. You’re underground and there are a lot of roots where you’re at, you remember a minor spell you learned in you nature magic class. You cast the spell, and the roots entwine the zombies’ feet causing them to be unable to move at you anymore. You then concentrate on controlling them, which now comes a lot easier to you because you don’t feel in danger anymore. When you’re sure you have a hold on them, you release the roots and then practice telling the zombies what to do. Sort of fun, like having a pet. Your fun is cut short when Mr. Demar reappears. “Well, that was an interesting way of handling things. Don’t think I’ve ever seen combining nature magic with necromancy before. Usually the student kills one of the zombies with a fireball or something and then focuses all their attention to control the other one. Still, whatever works, and you are one of the few that’s managed to control the both of them with no training in necromancy at all, so you have natural talent. And natural talent will serve you better for this path.” “I understand why you gave me the test, but I have to say I thought you’d start me off on raising the dead rather than controlling them first.” You say. “Ah! Yes, that’s a common misconception. You want to know why most necromancers fail even before they get started? Because they lack the control. Raising the dead is relatively easy; controlling them takes a great deal more focus and power. Most of the time a neophyte necromancer will go to the local graveyard and end up getting himself killed by the very bodies he raised because he can’t control them. Okay, I think it’s time we introduce you to the rest of the class. We’ll have lots of time to practice while most of the so called regular students are away for vacation.” “Uh, I’m ready, but I was supposed to go visit my family for vacation…and well also I don’t think I’ve passed all my classes either, specifically the nature magic class.” “What? (Sigh) Very well I shall take care of your grade; I know exactly how to handle the situation and I have a lot more pull in this school than most could ever dream of. As for your family members, I’ll leave that up to you. Surely you can think up something to tell them, right?” “Yeah.” “Very well then, it’s all settled. Time to meet the rest of your kind.” Once again Mr. Demar takes you through another portal. You’re still underground, but now you’re in a more structured setting with actual bricks rather than a cave like setting. You’re soon introduced to the rest of Mr. Demar’s “class” known as the Dark Order. Some of whom you’ve actually seen on campus or even in your other classes. Those that know you are surprised. “You’re letting THAT guy in here? I remember him back in Illusion class, and he ended up creating clones that punched the professor in the face!” “That’s nothing, back in Evocation class; he ended up setting the professor on fire.” “Okay that’s enough class! I can assure you that he has the potential to master the dark arts. He wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think so. Now Trelik and Felsa, you’re coming with me, the rest of you practice your lessons and one of you help our newest associate here get started, we’re all in this together you know.” After Demar leaves with two of his students, you’re left to your own devices as it seems nobody wants to help you. You look around the study area a bit and you start to pick up one of the many tomes lying around until someone comes up to you. “Hey, do you even know what those are for?” an ugly student asks you. “Well, they have a skull on the front, and from the looks of them they contain descriptions of various types of undead creature. My guess necromancy.” “Yeah, so what do you know of it?” “Not much, that’s why I’m here obviously, isn’t that why everyone else is?” “Not at all, in fact you’re only the fifth necromancer-to-be here. Most of the students are into studying how to control the infernal planes. You know Demonology. There’s even a guy studying on the lost art of temporal magic.” “Temporal? You mean time?” “Yep, a lot of people forget about that one being outlawed as well. Good reason, considering it could really fuck up something if not used properly. I’d actually stay away from Quayle, I think all that studying on time has made him a little loopy. He tends to talk backwards, and sideways a lot. Even Mr. Demar has a hard time keeping him on track.” “Interesting, so what’s your name, are you a demonologist?” “Me, nope I’m one of the disciples of death as they say. My name’s Sebastian. You might as well meet the others, you’ll be working with.” Sebastian takes you over to two other students. Catalina and Irwin. They nod at you and go back to their training which involves creating a some sort of bone golem. Catalina looks somewhat familiar. Sebastian tells you the other is Trelik who just left with Mr. Demar. “He’s the most skilled, besides Mr. Demar of course.” Sebastian says. “So what exactly do I start on first?” you ask. “I’d start out with raising and controlling some skeletons. I know you probably did the zombie thing, but you’ll need to hone your skill a lot and skeletons are easier to practice with. Take this book, and get started. You’ll find the bone pits down the corridor and to the right, don’t go left though; the demonologists got some bad ass demon locked in a circle down there. He’s really pissed off too. Best stay away.” You take one of the necromantic tomes and head down the corridor. On your way there, you begin to hear a voice penetrating your head. “You, come here. I know you. You seek power. I can give you that power; you need not waste your time studying anymore. I can grant it to you instantly. You want to be a master of death? Come to me…” This voice is very tempting. > You head down the left corridor You feel compelled to follow the voice and you head down the left corridor where eventually you come across a demon sitting in a couched position in a circle. He’s looking at the chalk that creates the circle around him, before looking up at you. He’s a lot bigger and meaner looking than even the demons you’ve met on campus. He certainly doesn’t seem happy to be trapped. You suspect that they summoned this guy up from hell recently. “Who are you?” “My real name is unimportant, but you can call me Velzix…and you are the new disciple of Demar’s delusional bunch of would be shit starters. They believe that they will be able to take over this school by using the dark arts. And perhaps they may, but such a victory will be fleeting. Mortals lack long term vision. They will not be prepared when the entire world unites against them…but you can be spared that fate. Free me, and I promise you that you will become a powerful force in the struggle ahead.” “While that sound tempting, demons are known for their deceitful nature and infamous for getting around loopholes in so called deals they make.” You say. “Yes, it is something we pride ourselves on…very well I will not harm you when you free me. That is what you worried about isn’t it?” “It had crossed my mind.” “Okay, now you may free me.” > You free Velzix You easily remove the chalk around Velzix. “Ah yes, another lack of vision, if they had been smarter they would’ve also placed a magical barrier around the chalk circle and bound me in magic chains. Well, now they shall pay for their arrogance!” Velzix now free from his prison lets out an unearthly roar and pushes you aside to take revenge on his captors. As you recover and get off the floor, you can already hear the sounds of battle, followed by screams. You hesitantly head towards the study area, and there you see carnage. The demon has easily killed everyone and is now casting some sort of spell. “Now that I’m free, this world is going to suffer. That puny mortal Demar’s petty plans pale in comparison in what I have in mind. He’ll be first on the list that I’ll track down. Shouldn’t take long.” He says and opens a portal to the infernal realm where upon several smaller demons come pouring out eager for blood. In fact they see you and begin to step towards you. “H…hey! You said no harm would come to me!” “I said that I would not harm you. I never said anything about them! Ha ha! Like I said you mortals lack such vision!” You don’t even have time to run before the demons jump on top of you and begin to rip you to pieces, the only good thing is you were spared the horrors that Velzix unleashed upon the world.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You lie on the ground, defeated. Your body is drained of every last ounce of energy, and are completely unable to to move. Your bones are splintered and cracked. Despite your desperate attempts to convince your body to respond, your pleas are left unanswered. You give up all hope, accepting your fate. You look up to see a figure in full-plate armor that gleams in the sunlight. It's that damned paladin again... He glows with a holy aura as he readies his blade to finish the deal. You see his lips move, but your senses have long since stopped serving you, so you can only guess what he's saying. He slams his sword down towards your skull and everything goes black..... > You wake up... You wake up. The sun is shining is shining glorious rays of light into the room. The birds are singing a song that could put the most brutal of tyrants into a state of calmness. Everything is at peace. And you absolutely HATE IT. You are Zurigul, the most powerful, talented, and incredibly-handsome lich to ever exist in the kingdom of Ragholme. It helps that you are the only recorded lich in the history of Ragholme. It is your goal in un-life to conquer this land full and turn it into a pit of darkness and misery that your wizard-school bullies totally deserve. You look at your phylactery, the beautiful crystal orb that you spent 40 years of your life perfecting. In death it serves as a beacon of power that makes you immortal; constantly regenerating your physical form a couple of days after your "death" unless it is destroyed. > You time to complain about your defeat Your most-recent defeat was at the hands of Chadley McBravenheart, the most reknown paladin across the land. As a holy warrior it is his sworn duty to defend the people against you, the most talented and powerful lich in the kingdom. Unfortunately at this point he was destroyed your physical form 94 times in a row without taking a scratch because he's cheating! He uses holy magic to protect himself, as well as to smite you because apparently wanting to take over the kingdom is "evil" and that makes some magical entities in the sky not like you. You think up a plan in order to exact your revenge on Chadley, as surely he will be outmatched with your next plan, even more brilliant than the last! You decide that this time you will.... . > You .....create a alchemical concoction to assist you in battle You approach your alchemy table which is covered in dust due to months of neglect. Lately you've been rather low on funding for your brilliant research, and alchemy can be expensive, so you'd been looking for alternative methods to defeat Chadley, but this time you know it's going to be worth it. You spend some time cleaning the area up and before you know it, all of your beakers and flasks look good as new, give or take a few scratches, cracks, and holes. You also scavenged some basic materials you found in various pots, pans, and shelves throughout the house. You to heat various beakers before realizing that you're completely out of alchemical components for poisons, so unless you go buy some more you'll have to stick with some sort of potion to enhance your strength. You decide to.... > You ....go shopping! You exit your house and look back. The tiny, eroded stone structure looks like it could collapse in on itself at any moment.... home sweet home. You make the long, arduous journey of walking to the captial city, and after a grueling thirty-second-long hike you've finally made it to the gates. Chadley sits atop his valiant steed and interrupts your pleasant stroll. "What do you think you're doing here? I told you last time--" You interrupt the fool, stating that you are simply here to buy alchemical components to destroy him. "Oh alright then." Chadley replies as he allows you to pass. Clearly the pure ingenuity of your plan has silenced him due to the fear coursing throughout his body. > You walk to the alchemy shop. You enter the shop and the man at the counter grins with delight. "Oh Zurigul, it's nice to see you again. It's been months since you last made a potion to defeat that mean-old Chadley." You explain to the man at the counter your poor financial situation, leading to your attempts at alternative forms of combat. "Oh don't worry, I understand, I'll even give you a discount this time, only 5 gold pieces for your usual package of ingredients." Delighted to encounter such fantastic savings you gleefully slam your five gold "pieces" down on the table. The statuettes sparkle in the sunlight coming through the windows of the building. Usually he asks for ten. Who has enough golden statues to pay that much for some plants and fungus? You head home, the shopkeeper strangely delighted despite giving you such a huge discount. You then spend the rest of the day concocting the most delightly-deadly potion you've ever seen. The next day comes and you go to > You confront Chadley with your powerful poison. Yet again you make the arduous journey to the capital and Chadley asks what you're doing. You tell him that you've come here to finally defeat him using the incredibly deadly poison you spent so much time brewing last night. Chadley dismounts his steed and is ready to fight; his sword glows with that disgusting yellow-white color that precedes each of his smitings. You decide to take the first move and > You throw the poison at him! With all of your might you throw the vial of poison at Chadley and with a furious shatter it.... completely misses him, landing on the ground 3 feet in front of you. You forgot that because you are a skeletal lich with no muscles you aren't really good at throwing things anymore, not that you ever really were that good of an athlete in life. Chadley immediately charges forward and smashes you to pieces. > You maybe you'll get him next time........ So now that you finished Zurigul the Incompetent, how would you rate it? Note that the author will not see your individual rating; you will have a chance to leave a personal comment once you select a rating. 1 - stay away. far, far away 2 - good ... for you to poop on 3 - choose your own boredom 4 - slightly more fun than homework 5 - not the best, certainly not the worst 6 - it's worth every cent 7 - even better than Reeses' Cups® 8 - it will bring you enlightenment If you really don't feel like leaving a rating, you can always click here to continue to the comments screen. Not sure what to rate? Check out the tips for Rating And Leaving Comments.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." A good quote, you think to yourself. It'd have had to be written by an Irishman, of course. The English would never speak of themselves being in the gutter with the common muck,, they'd claim to be of the stars themselves if they could. No, an Irishman would have to have written it, because only an Irishman would understand subjugation. You stand under a gray sky, a field of barley and oats surrounding you. Thanks to it being August, there's relatively little to do, so you're given time to think. Of course, without working to keep you going, the thinking usually goes downhill. Either your evenings end with you grabbing the bottle, or staring at those stars as dreams of freedom fill your mind. Eireann is truly in the gutter, you think to yourself. The British boot sits on her throat, keeping her down, like it has for hundreds of years. It will continue to, until the people can rise up and fix that problem. Of course, Britain weakens, its empire collapsing inwards. It's only a matter of time before you finish what the proud Fenians of old had started, what Wolfe Tone continued, and what your generation will finish: the fight for independence. "Michael! Michael, get in here!" a shrill voice screams from the farmhouse. You turn, sighing, as you work towards the farmhouse, your boots plodding through the mud. It's always something with that woman, you think to yourself. You reach the door, pushing it inwards as you walk into your cramped kitchen. "Ma, what's wrong?" you say, leaning in the doorway. Ma sits in the kitchen at the table, a newspaper in her hands. Joseph stands next to her, his tall, sturdy frame filling a long overcoat. Mary is staring around Joseph, a frail, timid creature in comparison to your burly brother, like a delicate flower growing next to a great Oak. Ma motions for you to see the paper, and you shrug, leaning in to see the pages. You lean over, looking at the crinkled paper. "BRITAIN AT WAR: GERMANY IGNORES FINAL ULTIMATUM" reads the title. "Jesus Christ," you say. You're struck in the face by Ma, who doesn't miss a beat in doing so. While the age has certainly taken much from the woman, it sure hasn't sapped her strength by how much it stings. Still, your mind is too focused on the looming war to even register the pain. "Michael, don't take the Lord's name in vain!" the old woman croaks. "We're at war, Ma, don't blame him. He's shocked," Mary says, rubbing your arm. "We're at war?" Joseph says indignantly. "When did Ireland declare war?! This is their doing, not ours!" "You can't be saying that, Joseph. It's our empire too!" Mary says. "Like bloody hell it is!" Joseph says, stepping back to avoid the incoming slap from Ma. "I'd sooner bow downs to the King of Holland than the King of England." "They gave us a parliament!" "They didn't give us a parliament! They promised us a parliament, which we haven't gotten! Now that'll be postponed because of the war, and when that's finished, we'll be feeling the British boot pressed against our throats yet again! There's a short silence, as you all think about the repercussions this new war will have. "Will you be signing up? They're recruiting," Mary says softly. Joseph lets out a barking laugh, shaking his head in disgust. "Are you joking? Unless the Kaiser's recruiting Irishmen to take out the crown, you can count me out!" Joseph spits on the ground, turning and heading out of the room. Ma immediately darts up as quick as a bullet, far faster than any old woman has a right to do, heading after him to give him another smack. You chuckle as the two rush out of the room. This leaves you and your sister standing alone around the table. "We're in dark times, Michael," Mary says to you. "I'm worried about Joseph. He's been hanging around too many hotheads, violent thugs and brutes the lot of them!" "Joseph's fine," you say dismissively. "How do you think he'd react when you asked him if he'd sign up?" "I suppose," she says. "But, Michael, you understand, right? Why we need to serve the Empire, to prove the Irish are a loyal, hard-working people." "To prove that to who?" you say, annoyed. "The British? They saw how loyal we are many a time, they just don't like what we're loyal to. We're Irish, Mary, not British. Don't forget it." Mary turns in a huff, moving out of the room. Thankfully, this leaves you alone to think, and you let out a quiet sigh of contentment, sitting down at the table. You grab the newspaper, flicking through it. Might as well read up while you're alone. > You read "Hundred year anniversary of the foundation of the Apprentice Boys of Derry Club" (General History) The nation of Ireland has had a long and varied history. From the Mesolithic hunter-gatherers who walked there via land bridge, the Neolithic Men behind the ancient and amazing Newgrange, the Celts who soon popularized the country when it was known as Hibernia and from the Christians who spread after the return of Saint Patrick, who was enslaved by Irish pirates in his youth and endless Viking attacks, there's been a long history of pioneers and innovators creating a proud and noble nation. Irish history first has serious Anglo involvement in the Norman invasion of Ireland. Before then Ireland was simply a series of kingdoms and warring clans. The larger and more advanced Norman forces soon managed to conquer considerable sections of Ireland. However, rather than push for a full takeover, English focuses soon shifted, leaving a fortified area known as the Pale around Dublin under British control, with the rest mostly being allowed to survive under local rule. After this, there was a divide in power between the Gaelic Lords who could trace their origins back to the Celts who popularized the lands, and the Norman lords descended from those who sought to conquer the island. However, in 1536, Henry VII led an invasion of Ireland. Although there was brutal fighting as the Irish appealed to Catholic Spain for help, Ireland was soon conquered. Then, with a religious divide forming due to the birth of Protestantism, the issues first began arising. Using a system of land confiscation and colonization known as Plantation, English and Scottish Protestants were given Irish land to run, using the Irish Catholics as slaves. Although there were many brutal Irish rebellions such as the War of the Three Kings, which succeeded temporarily before the re-conquest of Ireland by Oliver Cromwell, the Rebellion of 1641, which was fought over the division between Catholics and Protestants, and many more bloody and brutal rebellions, Ireland failed ot successfully regain control of its lands, and were treated as second class citizens by the Protestants who ruled over the country.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>I don't know what it is with me and zombie games, I just love them. A while back, I wrote a story called No Man's Land. It did a lot better than I expected, prompting me to try again. So here it is: Ultraoverlord Strikes Again, Zombie Style. A NOTE ABOUT THE GAME: The structure of this story is kind of a new one I'm experimenting with. There is only one 'win' scenario, the rest are deaths. Now, given that, there a few different ways to get there. Different choices can get you there in different states of health, with different supplies, and different people. I made this with as much replayability as possible, and there are references to characters in each storyline sprinkled throughout other storylines. See if you can find them all! > You start You watch as the coffee slowly filters out of the machine, and into your mug. After it's finished, you pick it up and take a sip. Perfect. Life in the apartment isn't easy. You and your wife don't have enough money for a house yet, and you don't have any kids, so an apartment seemed like the best choice. You have a few commodities; a microwave, a TV, and a coffee maker. You do your own dishes and drive to the laundromat to wash clothes, but you're still content. You sit on your beater couch and drink more coffee. Your wife isn't even awake yet. You wake up an hour before her every morning. The quiet is nice. It gives you time to think. You think about what you'll have to do today. Today is Sunday, chore day. You're pretty sure it's your turn to wash the dishes. You put your mug down and get up. Better to get the dishes done now than put it off. Just before you start the disposal, a sharp beeping noise startles you. It came from the TV, but nobody turned it on. You peek into the living room, and see the TV screen. It has flashing images and warnings on it. There's a national security threat. Worried, you turn up the TV's volume and listen in. Your wife, woken up by the beeping, slowly wanders in. "What's going on?" she sleepily asks. Before you can answer, a robotic voice blasts through the speakers. "ATTENTION U.S. CITIZENS. AN ACT OF TERRORISM HAS RESULTED IN A DEADLY INFECTION IN THE FOLLOWING STATES: TEXAS, TENNESSEE, OKLAHOMA, KANSAS..." the list goes on. You don't hear California, your state. You're still safe, for now. You and your wife watch as the TV cuts to live news footage. A woman stands in a demilitarized zone, with heavy fencing, and military personnel everywhere. The newslady announces that unaffected states have set up border guards to prevent the spread of disease. Forces from other parts of the world are also rushing in, with Mexican and Canadian soldiers struggling to keep the infection inside the U.S. The TV then cuts to a live shot of sick people. They aren't slow, or drowsy, like when you have the flu. No, they're the exact opposite. They're ravenous. They stumble around a a speedwalk pace, and they look dead. Bloods soaks their clothes. Their eyes are glazed over. Suddenly, a deer bounds into view. You watch in horror as the infected surround and kill the deer. The footage immediately cuts away. You wife begins to panic. You try to console her, reminding her that the whole world is fighting to keep the monsters at bay, and that you two will be just fine. Sacramento is a long ways away from California's border. Perfectly safe. Perfectly safe. You're perfectly safe. Suddenly, the TV makes an announcement: "ALL MALES OVER THE AGE OF 18 ARE REQUIRED TO LOCATE THE NEAREST OUTPOST AND CONTRIBUTE TO HOLDING THE LINE." > You go to the border Panic sets in for you. You're supposed to stay, to help your wife, to be safe. You can't accept this. But you have to. You pack everything you can think of: Clothes, food, water, towels, a book. Everything you have room for. You don't own any guns, and the knives in the kitchen seem useless against these predators. Even after loading up, your backpack still feels light. You say goodbye to your wife, once, twice, three times, and it still hurts to leave. It feels unreal, like a dream, riding the elevator down, hailing a cab, and telling the driver to take you to your own funeral. The trip takes about three hours. There are a lot of males over the age of 18 in California. When you get out of your cab, you are greeted by a steely man wearing a full set of bulletbroof armor. He orders you to follow him, and shows you to a barrack. "This is your new home for the time being," he says in a gruff voice. The room is full of hammocks. Each one has a table and a storage unit next to it. You select the cleanest-looking one and put your stuff down. "How long is the time being?" you ask. The man looks at you. "Until this all blows over." The next thing you know, you are kneeling in front of a human-shaped target, with an assault rifle in your hands. "The first rule of operating a weapon is to never have your finger on the trigger unless the barrel is aimed at your target," the instructor says. All these military people look so similar, you could swear this was the same guy who showed you to your hammock. After you're shown the proper way to fire the monster in your hands, you are ordered to take a shot. You aim directly for the target's chest, and open fire. You are successful only in breaking the cardboard hand off the target. Your shoulder aches from the recoil. "Don't get discouraged, you'll get the hang of it." the man doesn't really seem to care about you in particular. You pause to look down the row of trainees. They are all just random people with expressions of fear or pain on their faces. As you look at their weapons, you conclude there must somehow be a gun shortage. Three of the trainees are using BB guns. After three rigorous days of training, you're almost dead. Your shoulder is in immense pain. You want desperately to call your wife, but any and all electronic devices were confiscated, 'for security reasons.' You hate this. You just want to be back home. You just want things to go back to how they were... You are suddenly called up, along with all the other recruits, to grab your guns and march to the battlefield. > The Battlefield You are down on one knee, behind a metal wall. There is a hole, just big enough for you to see and shoot out of in front of you. Ahead is a grassy field. The trees were cleared in anticipation of the dead. All to your left and right, a line of hardened soldiers mixed with scared civilians stands ready to fire, as soon as the signal is given. Your heart is pounding in your chest. Suddenly, the line of trees is broken by a small pack of the dead. Before you can react, a machine gun takes out the whole horde. After that, it's a steady stream. The infected march through the trees, only to get shot down once in full view. All around you, gunshots ring, commands are yelled, and the groans of the dead get louder and louder. You succeed in taking down a few zombies. Most of the time, as soon as you set your sights on one, someone else kills it. You try to calm your nerves and pretend it's just a game or something. Point and shoot. Simple as that. After about an hour, the undead conga line shows no signs of stopping. The commander is just about to give the order to pause and reload when his walkie-talkie begins to crackle. He answers, and proceeds to shout to his colleagues that a large section of the blockade down south just broke. Hundreds are already dead and the zombies have made it to civilian territory. Instantly, your mind flashes to your wife. You can't let her die. You pull away from your post and address the commander. "I have to go," you say. "Absolutely not," the man responds. "Please," you beg. "My wife, I have to-" the man cuts you off. "Teams have already been sent out to round up women and children. They're being taken up to Washington. It's more safe there. Don't worry about your wife," he says. You catch a tone of uncertainty in his voice. Suddenly, another soldier shouts. You look over the wall and see that you won't make it. The zombies and advancing faster than they're being taken down. You look back at the soldier. He can see it too. "RETREAT! RETREAT!" you hear as you run for your life. Behind you, you can hear screaming. You drop your gun, it's only weighing you down, and you aren't very good at using it anyway. Retreat, you hear as you run up to the gates. Retreat, you hear as you hastily get in an abandoned car. Retreat, you hear over the deafening sound of the metal walls collapsing. > You retreat... You speed away from the military zone. The terrain slowly morphs back into city. But it's all empty. Nobody is around, and it seems like the power grid is gone. But that doesn't matter. If everyone's gone, that means the military evacuated them, and that means your wife is safe. Now you just need to worry about you. As you drive on, you see a sign declaring that you have 80 miles until you reach Sacramento. That's no problem. You have a head start on the dead, and a car. Just as you pass under a bridge, you hear a loud pop noise. Just as you feared, your tire popped on shards of glass. You look around. Actually, this whole road is covered with an even layer of glass shards. Thank goodness you're wearing shoes. The car is useless now, as all four tires are popped. You couldn't even push it forward, because the traffic up ahead is deadly. The streets are full of abandoned cars, some with their lights on, some with doors still open. You don't know how long you have before the dead catch up with you. You look around and hastily make a choice. > You get food Food is always the top priority. If you're going to survive, you'll need food. Period. You look around. Nothing is in the immediate vicinity, so you'll have to do some exploring. You head toward the traffic jam up ahead. As you weave your way through the cars, you notice something odd. A lot of the windows are smashed, and there's blood on the inside and outside of most of the cars. The military wouldn't do something like that. A thought crosses your mind: You left a while after hearing that a southern wall fell. The zed could have already been here, which means you're already too late. You pick up the pace, dodging cars and debris. As you pass an SUV, a zombie pops out of one of the windows and swipes at you. They were definitely here. You break into a run past all the cars. After finding clear roads again, you spot a road sign. It advertises hotels and shops, and tells where they are. You see a supermarket that's very close. You set off to find it, and hope that it wasn't picked clean. After navigating the roads, you see the supermarket. Unfortunately, a fair amount of zombies surround it. You watch to see if there's any way to slip through, but the zombies all wander aimlessly and block the entrances. Besides, even if you got in, you wouldn't be able to get out. Just as you are about to give up, a boy, no older than sixteen, goes running into the market. He must have been watching, just like you. But unlike you, he found a way in. He dodges the zombies and makes it to the doors without ever touching one of them. A minute goes by, and the boy comes up onto the roof with a bag of food in his hand. You and the boy realize at the same time that getting out won't be so easy. There's nothing to jump on top of, and the zombies were drawn by the noise. They've surrounded the building, and are starting to climb the dumpsters and cars onto the roof. > You help the boy You decide that the boy is worth saving. If he can run like that, he'll be useful to you as a partner. The only question is, how do you go about saving him? You know they're distracted by noise, so you start there. You see a truck on the opposite side of the road. It could work. You run over and see if the truck is operational. To your surprise, it's in almost perfect condition. However, when you try the door, you find out it's locked. You look back at the store. The boy is running out of time. In a moment of panic, you slam the car window with your elbow. This shatters the window and sets off the car alarm. The boy is as startled as you are. As for the zombies, you delayed them. About half the group splits away from the store and targets you. You realize this is a big mistake. You didn't stop the zombies on the roof, and now you have a sizable herd following you. You turn to run an abandon the boy, when you see that he made it. The small lapse in attention for the zombies let the boy jump off the roof. He hits the ground and sprints off into the trees. Instinctively, you follow him. > You follow him You can barely maneuver around the horde. You manage to escape and follow the boy. He's definitely a better runner than you, but you can keep him in your sights. He doesn't go far before entering a large storage warehouse from the back door. You know the boy saw you, so you continue forward. When you reach the warehouse, you peek through one of the industrial windows. To your surprise, there are three people in the warehouse. The boy, a girl roughly his age, and another woman, presumably their mother. You watch as the boy unpacks the food bag. He was able to fit a surprising amount of food into the bag. The girl picks it up and adds it to a large pile of canned goods in the corner. The three begin to talk, and then the boy turns and looks directly at you. You panic and duck. They probably think you're a creep now, or worse. Your best bet is to get away from the warehouse. You get down on all fours, and make it a few feet before you hear the boy behind you. "What are you doing?" he demands. You turn around. The boy has a Glock pointed right at your forehead. As soon as you turn, the boy's expression changes. "Oh. You're the guy the broke that truck window, aren't you? You want a reward or something?"<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Your name is Leo Trapa and your achievements as Vice Admiral of your ship Adventurer have made you legendary throughout your world of Magellan. The Adventurer is a tough little ship and veteran of several battles, large enough to hold a Crew of 30 Sailors and 30 days worth of Supplies for them. Although you are only twenty-one years old you have already received the rank of Vice Admiral in recognition of your superb ability and seamanship. The World of Magellan on which you live is mostly ocean occupied by a scattering of islands:many of these islands are uninhabited but those that are populated are occupied by one of three cultures: native Lapau and more technologically advanced Elixi and Navar, the latter your own people. Though exiled under pain of death from your homeland, the Kingdom of the Three Islands, you have inherited your people's rich naval traditions: the Adventurer carries four cannons and all of your crew are armed with muskets, though these are slow to load making the sword your secondary weapon. Recently war has broken out on Magellan with the Elixi and Navar on one side and you on the other with your allies, the Lapau. Your biggest problem on long voyages is that your ship can only carry enough Supplies for 30 days which will make finding and obtaining fresh sources of Supplies your top priority. If you ever run out of Supplies (your Supply number falls to 0) then you and your Crew will starve to death and die. You will almost certainly lose Crew members during your voyage and you must be careful that your Crew number never falls to 0 either: that will mean that you and all your Crew are dead. Frequently there is a time element involved during your voyages and you will want to complete them in the smallest number of Days possible. Successfully completing a Voyage ahead of your Competitors will result in a Score Point which will show if you leave a Comment after the game that you have completed this story with a very high degree of skill. As in previous adventures you will find it useful to make a map of the waters you sail as you may return this way again and the information may benefit you... So good luck reader, make wise and strategically sound choices and with a little luck, a good course and a fair wind you might live to see your homeland again! > You click here to begin your adventure (pick up the List of Noted Sailors first!) It is before dawn the day after Anne-Marie and her allies burned the Lapau Capital of Matan and slaughtered the most of the it's defenders. Lying on your side in bed you watch Naomi sleep, her bare chest rising and falling slowly with every breath. Her head bandage has slipped down her face revealing the shattered ruins of what was once her eyes. Gently you re-adjust it and stroke her hair as someone taps softly on your cabin door. Rising as quietly as you can so as not to wake Naomi you slip on a robe and open the door. Saphia Dancer, Anne-Marie's chief servant and loyal follower stands before you, white teeth flashing in a mischevious smile and she laughs at your expression. "Close your mouth Admiral, you look like a fish," she says quickly, to your surprise you realize it is the first time you have heard her speak and she speaks so rapidly it is difficult to understand her, a clear sign of a quick mind. In the gloom behind her you are surprised to see Ann Lovett and Prince Al-Balu standing by looking strained and nervous. Wondering what on earth is happening you step out of your cabin and close the door quietly. "We need to be quick as I do not have much time," Saphia says swiftly. "It is better if you let me do the talking as you'll waste too much time with pointless questions if you interject. The situation currently is thus: Anne-Marie considers this War already won. She intends to return to Golden Sands immediately to marry King Shingen and cement her alliance with the Elixi. Prince Kenshin is going back to Revel to make sure all is well and rule the Elixi in Shingen's absence. Prince Ieyasu and I have been given the task of slaughtering you and all that remains of your pathetic and demoralized, not to mention physically unattractive, followers." Saphia sighs. "Now I can think of literally a dozen things I'd rather be doing that killing you and your friends but Ieyasu is a tedious and unimaginative fellow who will take the hunt rather more seriously than he should. Fortunately during our time together at court Ann and I had a little project. It is now ready, or should be nearly so. If you can sail to the island where it is hidden I will try to give Ieyasu the slip and meet you there. I suggest you move off fast because come the morning Ieyasu will be after you like a bloodhound after a fox. I'll try to mislead him all I can but he's not as simple-minded as his brothers and might be harder to trick. Oh and Leo, congratulations on improving your working relationship with Admiral Swift. Lets hope she doesn't go displaying her expertise to the rest of us." With a wink and a short laugh of derision Saphia turns and hurries out to the deck of the Adventurer. You are shocked and glare at Ann expecting an explanation, you are slightly relieved to see Prince Al-Balu looks similarly baffled. "Saphia and I have an... understanding," Ann says awkwardly. "She's on our side: she knows that Anne-Marie is a tyrant and that it was only a matter of time before she declared war on the Lapau again. For months now we have been secretly sending men, materials and money to an island near the Great Reef which Saphia discovered during her voyage around Magellan. We're building a special kind of ship there... they are standard wooden ships but they have sheets of iron secured around them and tests have shown they are practically impregnable to cannon and gunfire." It takes a few moments for Ann's words to sink in. "Are you saying these ships are bullet proof?" you ask finally. "Essentially," Ann replies. "It was Saphia's idea, she's quite brilliant in her own way. She knows that if Anne-Marie is not stopped she will plunge our world into war and these ships might be the only thing that can stop her. If she's right these ships can defeat Anne-Marie's Monarch of the Sea or any other ship she might have to send against us. With these ships we could capture Golden Sands or Revel or any other port where our enemies might take refuge. "This is fantastic," Al-Balu says in his accented version of your language. "Wait until my father hears about this." Finally feeling that you all have a chance again in your fight against Anne-Marie you return to your bed and snuggle down close to Naomi's warm body. She stirs, smiles and kisses you. Finding a way to pass the last few hours until dawn you go to your first Conference of War with your new allies in high spirits. > You al-Capu is worried At the morning's meeting it takes a little while to explain the situation to King Al-Capu, his knowledge of your language not being as good as his son's. Rather than be cheered by Ann's revelations he is rather depressed and cautious. "Can we trust this woman Saphia?" he asks. "She is one of Anne-Marie's closest followers. This sounds like we are being invited into a trap." "I can vouch for her," Ann says firmly. "We have been preparing this secret project for months. The island lies to the Southeast of here, not more than a few weeks voyage." "Well these ships may be a good thing but we have other problems right now," Al-Capu says and gestures to the hundred or so canoes all around you where the remnants of his people are huddled, most still sleeping after the difficult night. "My people must be taken to safety and those on my other islands must also be taken to safety before Anne-Marie finds them. How we will feed them I don't know... it has been hard enough finding food for our people these last six months." "Well father why don't we split up?" Al-Balu suggests. "We can sail north with our people and Ann can go Southeast to find this island. If these ships are ready she can continue east, attack Revel and then sail through the Western Passage to take Golden Sands. If we continue going north we can meet her there and reunite. After destroying Matan I expect the last thing Anne-Marie and Shingen will be expecting will be an attack on their own Capitals." "It sounds a difficult and risky plan," Al-Capu says hesitantly but then sighs. "It is the only one we have though. We will need a rendezvous point then if we are to attack Golden Sands from the south while Ann Lovett and this Dancer person attack from the west." "I know a convenient place," you tell the King. "West of Golden Sands and south of Amethyst, it is the only point in the Kingdom of The Three Islands that is equal distance from the Southern Passage, Western Passage and Golden Sands. It should take between thirty and forty days of sailing to reach." "This is a very risky plan," Al-Capu says heavily. "If something goes wrong with one of our two forces then the other will arrive in the Waters of the Navar totally unsupported and will be destroyed by Anne-Marie's larger force... we must all make sure we get to this rendezvous point within forty days at the latest and then we can attack Golden Sands together. Very well, Commodore Lovett will go Southeast to find this island while you and I will go north to rescue our people. Admiral Trapa, who will you and Admiral Swift sail with? Which of us will you join?" You glance at Naomi who senses your gaze and shrugs. You consider your response carefully. > You sail Southeast with Ann Lovett in search of this island of the iron-clad ships That morning the two enemy Fleets disperse in different directions: you and Lovett take the Adventurer and Grand Alliance Southeast while Al-Capu and Al-Balu turn north in the Matan Afloat and King's Canoe. Your enemies disperse too: the Monarch of the Sea, Sea Ghost and Esme's Joy turn off to the Southwest but Ieyasu pursues the Lapau north in the Explorer and you are pleased to see Dancer is pursuing you Southeast in the Shadow. As the various ships vanish from sight you and Naomi talk over the idea of you and Lovett halting so Dancer can catch up with you. Before you can make a decision nature intervenes: thick clouds begin to blow in from the North and it is clear there is a storm on the way. You can either hold your course and keep going Southeast through the storm into the unknown or you can drop anchor and together with Lovett try to wait the storm out. > You keep sailing Southeast through the storm The gale descends upon the ships of you and your companion like a hurricane and soon the Adventurer and Grand Alliance are plunging up and down the trough of truly mighty waves. A sudden change in the wind turns your ship broadside and before you can right her a great wave sweeps across the deck of the Adventurer, carrying three men overboard. The storm rages for free days and by it's end you have lost sight of both the Grand Alliance and the Shadow and your ship finds itself alone in the ocean, battered but seaworthy. You have no choice but to continue Southeast towards the island Lovett described. > You alone You are making good progress Southeast in the vague direction that you know the island must lie when you sight a low tropical island. Initially you hope this is your target but you are disappointed: there are no signs of human habitation on the island but numerous monkeys can be seen swinging from the island's palm trees. "The monkeys could make good eating if you want to stop," Naomi tells you when you describe the island to her. "It might be better if we press on and try to find our companions though." > You anchor at the island to hunt Monkeys You drop anchor offshore and lead two boatloads of sailors onto the beach. The quiet chatter of the monkeys falls silent as you walk up the sounds then dozens of terrible shrieks fill the air as the monkeys begin hurling coconuts and rocks down at your sailors with a savage force. Your sailors fire up into the trees, hitting many monkeys but by now hundreds of monkeys are swinging through the trees and your men are forced to flee back to their boats. Some of your men have been knocked down by the savage primates who jump down to bite them through the throat, killing them. Losing three of your men you hastily put the island to your stern and keep going Southeast. > The Turtle Ships You continue Southeast and by a great piece of luck the very island you are looking for comes into sight. You know it must be the right island because the Grand Alliance and Shadow are both anchored offshore. Four other vessels are in sight, a partially dismantled Elixi vessel called the Fortune and three of the strangest vessels you have ever seen in your life. Initially you think they are big round silver balloons floating in the water. The three vessels do indeed look like big round pots bobbing in the water, though built of wood they are entirely encased in sheets of iron which have been lashed to their sides and also to their decks. One small sail juts out above the metal sheeting. Up close you can see rows of cannons sticking out on both sides. Dropping anchor you and Naomi go ashore to meet with Ann Lovett, Saphia Dancer and a third, wholly unexpected, figure. Ann is striding up and down excitedly on the beach while Saphia is sitting on a log, as always looking amused by life. An Elixi man is standing by, cheerful and middle-aged he is dressed in fine clothes and has a long brown beard. As you lead Naomi towards them Ann strides towards you. "Aren't they fantastic?" she says, indicating the three ships. "Lapau workmen, Elixi wood and Navar metal: a teamwork Anne-Marie could never be capable of has built these ships. Each is crewed with loyal sailors from each Kingdom who have risked their very lives to build these ships and lead them against Anne-Marie's tyranny. With these three ships, the Vengeance, Retribution and Justice nothing can stop us." Saphia just smiles and says nothing but your attention is drawn by the strange Elixi man who steps forward with a smile. "My name is Captain Drake," he announces. "I saw you at Haven Island Admiral but I doubt you'll remember me, I was the second-in-command of Captain Sogo's ship, the Fortune. Well during our voyage to Matan we were attacked by that dog Kenshin and my Captain was killed. We fled south and came upon this island three weeks ago. Learning what was going on here me and my men immediately began dismantling our ship, which was badly damaged, to furnish sails and complete the construction of these vessels. Me and my Crew and entirely under your command sir." You are surprised but pleased to meet this new ally but Saphia suddenly stands up. "Well this is all fantastic conversation but speed is crucial," she declares. "Revel is our closest target and both myself, Drake and Naomi have all sailed these waters and can guide you to Revel. If we can attack and capture it we can press on through the Western Passage and rendezvous with Al-Capu and Al-Balu off Golden Sands, capture that island, defeat Queen Anne-Marie and bring all our efforts to a happy conclusion that will be celebrated with much joy and happiness all round." "Why don't we just sail west and attack Golden Sands first?" Naomi asks. "Because we need to give the Lapau time to get there," Saphia declares as one might explain to a child that 2 and 2 make 4. "No, together me and Ann have made all the plans and they are excellent. All you and your Crews need to do is follow them." Slightly startled at being addressed this way and feeling that Saphia has more than a few qualities in common with Anne-Marie you nevertheless prepare your ship and your unusual fleet sets sail the next day each ship towing one of the new war ships, which Saphia calls "Turtle Ships". The mostly-dismantled Fortune is left behind and your Adventurer tows the Vengeance (with Captain Drake aboard), the Shadow tows the Retribution and the Grand Alliance tows the Justice. > You going to War Initially the Fleet's voyage goes well: Saphia has already sailed these waters twice and Naomi once and together they guide the Fleet southeast. Unfortunately the sea is unpredictable and one morning you awake to find a thick sea fog has completely enveloped your fleet and when you call out to your companions only your own voice echoes back. Indeed the only ship that is still in sight is the iron-clad Vengeance which the Adventurer is still towing. Her Captain Drake comes aboard to talk with you and Naomi "Well we lost them," he says with indecent cheerfulness. "Not to worry: we aren't more than a week from Elixi waters and less than two from Revel so as long as we keep heading in a generally easterly direction we should run into them sooner or later. Once we start sighting a few islands I'll know where we are." You ask Naomi's opinion but she just shrugs, apart from generally east you don't have a clear heading to Revel. > You sail Northeast Turning the Adventurer Northeast so the Vengeance must follow you make good speed for a few days you come upon a worrying sight: dozens and dozens of rocks jutting out of the ocean straight ahead of you like teeth. Scanning them carefully with a telescope you can see one gap which might be wide enough to sail the Adventurer through: the alternative is a long detour to the south to get around them. When you ask Naomi's opinion she is firmly in favor of you taking the detour to the south rather than risking your ships. > You try sailing through the rocks anyway You decide to navigate the rocks and are initially doing quite well when the Adventurer strikes a submerged rock that you did not see. Your ship lists alarmingly and three of your men fall into the sea before your ship is able to slide off the rock and continue. You hurry below deck but fortunately your ship is not badly damaged: the same cannot be said of your three crew who are unable to swim and quickly drown. You are lucky enough to make it through the rock bank without further mishap and guide the Vengeance safely through. > You sail East You have entered Elixi waters now and one morning a small island/port comes into sight. Drake breathes a sigh of relief when he sees it because he knows where you are now. "That is Ferryland," he tells you and Naomi. "It is a minor Elixi port or island. Captain Sogo sacked it during our voyage to Matan, if we want to raid it I doubt they have had time to increase it's defenses since we were last here." "You can raid it if you like," Naomi tells you. "Don't forget our main mission is to reach Revel though." > You raid Ferryland You sail the Adventurer and Vengeance directly into the harbor of Ferrytown, the colonists are so surprised by the sight of the strange iron-clad that they offer no resistance when you demand food and promptly deliver three barrels of apples into your hands. Drake is amused. "It was that easy last time too," he tells you as you order your ships to resume their journey. > You sail East The Adventurer and Vengeance are sailing along peacefully when an eagle-eyed crewman spots something interesting in the ocean. Fishing it out two of your Sailors show you a bottle they have found and inside the waterproof bottle is a message. Taking it out you read the scrawly message to your Crew. "Today Fatber fell asleep and didn't wake up. Captain Azai tells me I now to be the Queen of the Elixi. I hope I will be a good Queen but I worry I might not be. I am going to follow my teacher's advice, put these worries in a bottle and cast them into the sea to banish them forever. Renewel." With a start you realize these words must have been written many years ago by Queen Renewel, the mother of Shingen, Kenshin and Ieyasu. Drake is extremely moved when he learns of the message and asks if he can keep it, which you allow him to do. Drake is also confident you are approaching Revel and with supplies running low you alter course to the Southeast so that you can approach the Elixi Capital. > You revel Finally after a difficult voyage and low on food the port/island of Revel appears before you in the distance. Anchored a short way off and clearly waiting for you is the Shadow with the Retribution in tow and you steer the Adventurer and Vengeance alongside them. Drake and Saphia come aboard, the latter humming a tune to herself as though she had not a care in the world. You and Naomi are more concerned however as there is no sign of Lovett and her two ships. "Have you seen any trace of Commodore Lovett?" you ask Saphia who shakes her head without even breaking her tune. You and Drake exchange glances, none of you trust your new ally but Saphia finally stops whistling. "I have already scouted out Revel Port," she tells you. "Prince Kenshin is there with the Esme's Joy. You need not tax your obviously considerable mental powers because I already have a plan. Kenshin still believes I am his ally. If I sail in towing both iron-clad ships he will be puzzled but should not suspect anything until we open fire on him at point blank range. I would rather tow the Iron-Clads in than the Adventurer because they are more heavily-armed." "You want to take our two iron clads into the heart of the enemy Port while we wait some distance away?" Naomi asks suspiciously. "Why anyone would think you don't trust me Admiral," Saphia says to Naomi with a laugh. "By all means if you prefer I could tow the Adventurer into the harbor and attack Kenshin with our two ships. It'll just mean the iron-clads probably won't get to fight and the victory will be harder to win, though probably still possibly. I am only a lowly Commander though so in such exalted company as two Admirals I must let my superiors make their battle plans." You frown at Saphia, there is logic in what she is saying about towing the two iron-clads into the harbor but you wonder how much you can trust her not to hand those ships straight over to the Elixi. There is still also the mystery of the missing Lovett and her two ships... > You allow Saphia's Dancer to tow the iron-clads Retribution and Vengeance into Revel Harbor You make your decision and decide to trust your new ally. That afternoon you keep the Adventurer a long distance away as the Shadow sails directly towards Revel, towing the two iron-clads behind her. You and Naomi wait with baited breath as the Esme's Joy sails out to meet the Shadow. As the two ships pull alongside each other a series of cannon flashes ring out down the side of the Shadow as she fires a point-blank volley into the side of the Esme's Joy. Moments later both the Retribution and Vengeance are able to turn and fire close-range volleys as well. A cheer goes up as the Esme's Joy rapidly sinks. It seems strangely fitting that the thug who blinded in a treacherous ambush should himself fall victim to an ambush but you feel a pang inside as you watch the ship sink. Under her previous Captains Esme Hale and Eva Freer, both close friends of yours, she achieved many great deeds and it is not without regret that you see her sinking. Even in death she is defiant, firing a return volley at the Shadow which brings down it's main mast. As the Esme's Joy finally vanishes beneath the waves her crew swim for their lives back towards the island of Revel. Most make it but Kenshin is not among them; you later learn he was recognized and shot in the head by a sailor aboard the Shadow. When Naomi learns the news that the man who blinded her is dead she falls silent and you can tell she herself is unsure how she feels about it. Regardless the battle is won and the town of Revel is yours! > You making Plans That night the four ships of your little Fleet gather in Revel Harbor and their Crews disembark while a crowd of Elixi watch silently. You remember vividly that the last time you stood on this quay you and Naomi were fighting for your lives, now after a long journey you have returned as the victors. The Crowd seem uncertain how to react but no resistance is offered as you, Naomi, Saphia and Drake lead your Crews up to the Royal Palace. "Now we have won this victory our first priority should be to sail through the Western Passage, rendezvous with the Lapau and attack Golden Sands," Saphia declares. "The Shadow has lost her main mast and cannot sail so I will remain here, repair my ship and set up some sort of interim government. Once you have won victory in Golden Sands send word to me and I will try to join you there. Together with the two iron-clads and the Lapau the Adventurer should be strong enough to defeat the combined powers of Anne-Marie, Shingen and Ieyasu." "What will you do if any of our enemies sail into Revel while we are gone?" you ask Saphia. "I'll have to flee won't I?" Saphia says with a patiently irritating smile. "Perhaps it's better if Drake stays here with one of the turtle ships...?" Naomi suggests but Drake shakes his head. "I think we will need all the strength we've got to defeat our enemies," he says. "Also I swore that when Captain Sogo died I would not rest until that cur usurper Shingen is dead. I'm a man who keeps my promises." "That's settled then," Saphia says brightly. "I'll arrange for your ships to be resupplied from the plentiful stores in town and I wish you good luck in the coming Battle." Feeling oddly like you are being played for a fool you spend the night over-seeing the resupply of your ships and set off eastwards with the Adventurer towing the Retribution and Vengeance. The Shadow remains behind, riding gently at anchor in Revel Harbor. > You bound for home You sail East towards the Western Passage with your two Iron-Clads bobbing merrily behind the Adventurer. The Great Reef has just come into sight when the lookout spots something else in the water ahead: it is a small boat containing several men who are lying motionless within. You would guess they are a boat of castaways and though they are a little out of your way and would take a full day to rescue Drake insists that you pick them up as he believes they are Elixi sailors. > You spend a day rescuing the Castaways You steer towards the boat and glide the Adventurer up alongside. Of the seven men in the boat only three are still alive and they are in a terrible state, each having to be hauled aboard your ship in a net. After water and food one recovers enough to tell you his story: the three men were sailors aboard Captain Azai's ship Mourning Glory which sank off the Great Reef during a storm two months ago: these seven sailors managed to make it to one of the ship's boats but for the last fifty days or so they have been drifting hopelessly lost with nothing to eat and nothing to drink except rain water. That these men survive at all is a miracle and you order them to join your Crew before resuming your journey East. > The Western Passage Finally a familiar sight reaches your eyes: The Great Reef stretching across the horizon with the narrow breach of the Western Passage cut through it. It was through that Passage that you, Naomi and your friend Eva Freer sailed through three months ago and since then your entire world has changed but now you are back and after revenge. There are watchtowers either side of the Passage where sailors can stop off to get more food but Naomi is cautious of doing this. "We don't need food to get to Golden Sands and we're not sure what orders the guards have received from Queen Anne-Marie," she warns you. > You anchor anyway and seek food You drop anchor and lead a group of your sailors towards the watchtowers. As you get nearer several musket shots suddenly ring out, cutting down three of your men. The rest of you promptly return and retreat back to the boats while Drake, who is aboard the Vengeance instructs his Crew to fire at the watchtower with their cannon. You order him to stop, which he reluctantly does and when you meet him back aboard the Adventurer he looks puzzled. "They don't know what they're doing," you tell him, indicating the soldiers in the watch tower. "Anne-Marie has probably declared me and Naomi outlaws by now. I want to avoid shedding as much innocent blood as possible." Sobered by being fired at by your own countrymen you resume your journey East. > You coming Home As you sail through your country's waters towards your home in Golden Sands you wonder what will happen next. After a few days you order the Adventurer, Retribution and Vengeance to drop anchor and wait. You are now west of Golden Sands and south of Amethyst, the agreed rendezvous point with your Lapau allies. Now all you can do is wait and hope that you have been fast enough to arrive before Anne-Marie has learnt of their presence and defeated them already. > The Moment of Truth You have been fast enough and the two halves of your fleet of allies is able to rejoin west of Golden Sands without Anne-Marie discovering and destroying one half of it before the other is ready. The Adventurer, King's Canoe, a host of Lapau canoes and two strange round metal-clad ships that seem to bob rather than sail in the sea and are called the Retribution and Vengeance all come together, though there is no sign of Al-Balu's Matan Afloat, Lovett's Grand Alliance or Dancer's Shadow. You, Naomi and the other Captains all gather in your cabin aboard the Adventurer. > You battle Plans Aboard the Adventurer four of you gather. You sit at the head of the table while Naomi sits next to you, staring sightlessly ahead as she listens to the proceedings. King Al-Capu looks greatly aged as he sits motionless in his tribal clothes. A fourth man, a young cheerful Elixi Captain called Drake who has unexpectedly joined your cause is the last person at the table. There is no Al-Balu, no Ann Lovett and no Saphia Dancer. Rapidly you all share details of your voyage. Drake was in Captain Sogo's crew until the latter was killed in a fight with Shingen. Escaping on board Sogo's ship the Fortune with his surviving crew Drake made it to the island where Ann and Saphia have secretly been building their iron-clad Turtle Ships. Dismantling his own ship to help finish the construction of the ships Drake joined forces with Ann and Saphia when they arrived, commanding the three iron-clads, the Justice, Retribution and Vengeance. The iron-clads sailed to Revel but during the voyage Lovett's Grand Alliance and the Justice both mysteriously vanished. The remaining ships attacked Revel, killing Kenshin and sinking the Esme's Joy. Saphia's Shadow was badly damaged in the fighting and she has been forced to remain in Revel repairing it and re-establishing authority. Drake led the two remaining iron-clads Retribution and Vengeance to this rendezvous. King Al-Capu and the Lapau have also had a difficult voyage, carrying out the systematic evacuation of all the Lapau's islands so every single Lapau is among the hundreds of war canoes that accompany Al-Capu's great Royal Canoe. This voyage too has had it's mishaps: Prince Al-Balu and the Matan Afloat vanished during a storm and is feared lost. The loss of his son and the suffering of his people have hit the old King hard and he is depressed and despondent throughout the Council. Despite your various losses four large ships, including two iron-clads, and the hundreds of Lapau war canoes have succeeded in making it to the rendezvous and Revel has been captured and secured. It is hoped now that Golden Sands will follow and despite Al-Capu's depression the rest of you are confident as you give the orders to sail east and your small fleet presses on towards Golden Sands and the decisive battle of this War... > You golden Sands One morning the beautiful port of Golden Sands comes into sight: your home which you have not seen for many long months. Riding gently at anchor are the Monarch of the Sea and the Sea Ghost, the two strongest ships your people have ever built unless your iron-clads prove stronger. You lead your strange Fleet straight towards them, the Adventurer leading the way towing the Retribution and Vengeance behind while the King's Canoe sails behind you leading it's armada or war canoes filled with vengeful Lapau warriors determined to have their revenge. As you approach the island you see a great bustle aboard the enemy ships and both put to sea and sail straight towards your fleet, the rails of the ships lined with men and cannons. As the distance between you and your enemies shrinks the bow cannons on both sides begins firing as the event that will be forever known to your people as the Battle of Golden Sands begins. Within minutes all ships are launching cannon balls, musket balls or throwing spears into the ships and men alike in a determined effort to destroy the other. The King's Canoe is an early casualty: within minutes of fighting the largest Lapau canoe begins to sink suddenly. You are standing on the quarterdeck of the Adventurer with Naomi at your side and scanning the sinking vessel with your telescope you notice something strange: numerous little wooden tubes are sticking out of the water. With a jolt you realize Anne-Marie has cunningly employed divers armed with swords and hollow breathing tubes to stab holes in your ships, an imitation of tactics the Lapau themselves used during your war with them. The Lapau are also recognizing the threat and are trying to cut the breathing tubes below sea level wherever they find them. If Anne-Marie has her underwater divers you have your turtle ships and both the Retribution and Vengeance perform excellently, cannonballs and musket balls bouncing off them with metallic clangs as they pour their own gunfire into your enemies. Indeed Shingen's Sea Ghost is suffering so badly he deliberately steers it prow-first into the side of the Retribution in a desperate attempt to sink it. Swordsmen pour from the decks of the Sea Ghost onto the Retribution and begin slaughtering the outnumbered crew of the iron-clad. Your Fleet is suffering badly: the King's Canoe has already sunk and many Lapau are being killed in the sea and in their canoes by musket fire. The Sea Ghost and Retribution have become entangled together and both appear to be sinking. Keeping clear of the general melee Anne-Marie's Monarch of the Sea is trading volleys of cannon fire with the Vengeance but here at least your comrade Drake is having the best of the exchange. Aboard the Adventurer you have already lost three men to cannonfire and must choose who you help now. > You go to the aid of the stricken Retribution You steer the Adventurer alongside the Sea Ghost and fire a volley of cannon shots at point blank range into her side. The enemy ship lists alarmingly and dragging the Retribution down with her the ship that was once the greatest ship of all your people sinks below the sea. The Monarch of the Sea turns to fire a volley of cannon shots at you which kills three of your sailors and finally admitting defeat she turns away from the Vengeance and sails away from the battle towards the west. Both your Adventurer and the Vengeance are too battered to immediately pursue. You have won the Battle but have lost too much for it to feel much like a victory: King Al-Capu is among the dead and his warriors scream their laments to the sky. King Shingen is still alive when he is rescued from the sea along with the other survivors of the Retribution and Sea Ghost but he has been shot through the stomach during the Battle and by the time he is hauled aboard the deck of the Adventurer he is nearly dead. As you pull Naomi towards him he recognizes you and laughs. "Well you got me this time Leo," he tells you with a weak smile. "You'll never get Anne-Marie though. She's the best of all of us..." He falls back with a sigh and dies moments later. That evening you guide the Adventurer, Vengeance and the last of the Lapau into the harbor of Golden Sands. > A Strange Homecoming You and Drake assist Naomi ashore followed by a silent procession of Lapau Warriors carrying King Al-Capu's body. An equally silent crowd of townsfolk stand looking shocked as you walk past them and up towards the city's Royal Palace. In the distance you can see Anne-Marie's ship fleeing west, doubtless seeking help from Revel. Today the three realms of the Elixi, Lapau and Navar have all lost their rulers and you have no idea what will happen next. You, Drake and Naomi sit down in the Palace's Throne Room and discuss what to do now. The Adventurer and the Vengeance are still sea-worthy and tomorrow you could take on fresh crew and supplies and pursue Anne-Marie. Your main concern is whether Saphia Dancer will keep her promise and assist you. Prince Ieyasu is still a factor: he will reach Revel before you do and if he joins forces with Anne-Marie your problems will begin all over again. While you are discussing this a group of prominent citizens of the town approach cautiously. Nervously they tell you at times like this when the Monarch is unable to rule it is tradition to appoint a Regent to rule in their place. After some discussion they have decided to appoint Vice Admiral Naomi Swift as Regent until such time as the Monarch returns or the townspeople decide otherwise. They awkwardly ask what your future plans are and when they learn you intend to pursue Anne-Marie the next day and bring her to justice for her crimes they promise that in your absence a vote will be arranged so that the people of The Three Islands can choose who they wish to rule them. You thank the Navar who leave. Minutes later a group of Lapau arrive, many proud warriors still with tears in their eyes following the death of their King. In broken English they inform you that they are leaving Golden Sands tomorrow and returning to Matan to try to rebuild their communities and lives. You somberly promise them that as long as you live there will be no more war between the Navar and Lapau if you can help it. The Lapau Warriors shake their heads wearily. "Just please help us find our Prince Al-Balu," one warrior tells you. "He is our ruler now and the only man who can lead us out of this darkness. Please try to find Lady Lovett as well. Together they might be able to rebuild our broken nation." The next morning your resupplied and reinforced ship Adventurer towing Drake's Vengeance sails out of Golden Sands heading west after your fugitive Queen. The Lapau Fleet head north and as you part ways you order your crew to fire your cannons in salute of your brave allies who despite everything fought at your side and gave the life of their King to save your kingdom from the rule of a Tyrant Queen who you are determined to bring to justice, even if you have to hunt her to the ends of the earth. > The Chase Begins Heading due west from Golden Sands towards The Western Passage you can no longer see the Monarch of the Sea but there is a strong feeling among your Crew that the Battle of Golden Sands was a major turning point: for the first time in many months you are the hunter and not the hunted and as you approach the Western Passage your one great fear is that Saphia Dancer will betray your alliance or Anne-Marie will join forces with Ieyasu, who will presumably inherit the throne of the Elixi once news of his brother Shingen's death becomes known... > The Western Passage When you reach the Western Passage you discover signs that Anne-Marie has indeed passed this way: the watchtowers that guard the Passage are empty and all the wooden buildings burnt down. All the men and supplies that were once here have been evacuated, doubtlessly helping to replace the damage the Monarch of the Sea suffered in battle. Still hoping to catch up with Anne-Marie before she reaches Revel you drive your two ships through the Passage and on westwards. > You restless Nights Entering Elixi waters and with no sign of you catching up with Anne-Marie you and Naomi begin to endure restless nights of no sleep as you debate endlessly whether Saphia will stay loyal or not. One night Naomi suddenly turns to you. "Why do you think they chose me to be Regent of Golden Sands?" she asks. "I can't see. I have no experience of ruling. What on earth made them pick me over you?" "Maybe they think you are the better person," you say grinning but Naomi looks serious. "I don't know. Maybe it is because you are everything that Anne-Marie is not: you are kind while she is cruel, you are content while she is full of cold ambition. You are opposite to her in every way. I don't think we could have come as far as we have if I didn't have you to help me..." "You have Drake as well," Naomi says teasingly. "Yes but you're almost as attractive," you tell her with a laugh and with your companion at your side you finally get to sleep before you finally reach Revel. > You saphia's Stange Choices As soon as the island-port of Revel comes into sight you scan the harbor with a telescope. "Well Saphia's Shadow is still there," you tell Naomi. "Ieyasu's Explorer is anchored there too though... no sign of the Monarch of the Sea. I guess that's something." "The Explorer is there?" Naomi asks. "This doesn't look good..." As you cautiously approach the harbor you find a small crowd is gathering at the dock. Standing side by side on the jetty Saphia, Ieyasu and a slim attractive woman with dark skin and a lithe build who you don't recognize are waiting for you. Very cautiously, remembering past ambushes, you, Drake and Naomi disembark to meet them. Saphia strides forward to meet you with a broad grin, she looks positively thrilled to see you but something about seeing her so happy makes you feel instinctively worried. "You're not going to like this at all Leo," Saphia tells you, looking positively delighted. "You'll probably laugh when I tell you, maybe not though. Ieyasu showed up here about a week ago and my feeble brain managed to generate a bright idea. To enable us to restore peace between the Navar and the Elixi I made the remarkable self-sacrifice of agreeing to marry him! Now just a few days ago, and here's the really funny thing, we found out Ieyasu is the last surviving member of the ruling house of Elixi and therefore, by default, the King of the Elixi. For some strange reason that makes us both King and Queen but you can rest assured Ieyasu has seen the error of his ways and we both intend to live in complete peace with the Lapau and Navar for all time and all that stuff." You are absolutely staggered by the news and it is no wonder that Ieyasu looks so smug, or the crowd at the harbor so resentful but at your side Naomi strides forward angrily towards Saphia. "This was your plan from the beginning," she snaps at Saphia. "When you and Ieyasu separated off Matan this was your plan all along: you to help capture Revel and Ieyasu to journey here and marry you! You get your own kingdom and Ieyasu gets off the hook! You think we'll just forget he killed Eva Freer and did his best to kill all of us time and again?" Naomi's rage only seems to make Saphia happier. "I think you're being rather unkind Naomi," she says brightly. "I'm sure Ieyasu has been a bit naughty in the past but you are forgetting something: without my designs and my ideas Lovett could never have built those iron-clads which we used to capture Revel and which I have just heard you have used to re-take Golden Sands. Without mine and Ieyasu's intervention you and your Lapau allies would have been hunted to your destruction by Anne-Marie's supporters, instead it is you who now have the upper hand." "That may be true but times are changing Saphia," you tell the new Elixi Queen angrily. "Naomi is the new Regent of the Navar and if war does break out again the Elixi will be outnumbered by the Navar and their Lapau allies." "I would have thought the Lapau would be rather busy trying to find their missing ruler Al-Balu or his girlfriend Ann Lovett..." Saphia says thoughtfully. "Or did you not realize they had become a couple in secret? I thought it was rather obvious. Also shouldn't you and your friends get busy hunting after Anne-Marie? She stopped here two days ago incidentally and she's awfully mad at you. Seemed to want me and Ieyasu to help her, well you'll be happy to know we think the best thing for the Elixi right now is a period of peace to rebuild their strength. To help ensure this peace it might be best if you find and defeat Anne-Marie as quickly as possible, naturally in the interests of friendships you can resupply your ships here or at any Elixi port you encounter: we've sent word to them all to assist you but refuse Anne-Marie any safe harbor." You raise your gaze to Ieyasu and the attractive woman standing at his side. Ieyasu nods coldly at you while the woman at his side winks and blows a kiss. "Who's that?" Drake asks with more than casual interest. "That is an Elixi lady called Nohime who I'm rather fond of," Saphia comments eyes twinkling and you notice Ieyasu doesn't seem too thrilled by her presence. At the sight of the cunning black-clothed Prince your anger rises again. "We won't forget that he killed Eva Freer," you promise Saphia. "One day he will have to pay for that crime." "Don't wait too long," Saphia says quietly and leans closer, lowering her voice. "It seems to me that the person who finds King Al-Capu or his missing girlfriend Commodore Lovett might be in a rather good position, no? It might be useful if you keep an eye out for them during your hunt of Anne-Marie, if my wonderful new husband finds them first... well, let's just say I'm not sure I can ensure their safety. I'm actually telling you something honest here Leo: I'm rather fond of Ann and would hate for any harm to come to her." With that warning the meeting ends and you spend an uneasy night aboard the Adventurer in Revel Harbor while Saphia's new Elixi subjects re-supply your two ships. > The chase turns south The next morning you set sail from Revel. Queen Saphia and her lady companion Nohime come down to the dock to see you off but there is no sign of Ieyasu. You are rather glad he is not there and you, Naomi and Drake pause to talk to the new Queen of the Elixi. "I really do hope you catch Anne-Marie," Saphia tells you cheerfully. "She has no further use now. I might even make a voyage or two to help your efforts... as you can see we are getting the Shadow ready for a voyage." "Wouldn't it be a nice surprise for you if you happened to find King Al-Balu or Queen Lovett," Naomi says icily. "It would, wouldn't it," Saphia says with a smile and suddenly laughs. "You know I've always been a bit of a fan of you two Leo and Naomi. You have that self-righteous thing which is absolutely lovely. You must both get a lot of... satisfaction from your adventures together." "Goodbye Saphia," you tell her coldly. "I hope you and Ieyasu are very happy together here." As you turn away Saphia pauses and seems to be debating something with herself. Suddenly she calls after you and when you turn around she walks closer and talks quietly to you so that only you can hear. "If I were you Leo I'd keep going south until it starts to get cold and then turn east because I think that is what Anne-Marie will do..." she says quickly. "Do you remember during the Great Race when she tried to sail around the world she and my brother John Dancer became ship wrecked but she managed to return with just two companions? I've carefully investigated this and I believe she left most of her crew there because the boat she managed to build was only big enough for a few people. My belief is that, if her crew and my brother's survived, they formed a secret colony on that island or in that area. They may be the last hope she has to find a safe place to rebuild her strength, I have a feeling that if you find them you'll find her." Without another word Saphia turns away from you, walks back to Nohime and they head back towards the town; you are slightly puzzled to see they are holding hands as they walk. Shrugging you turn back to the Adventurer and go aboard while Drake goes aboard the Vengeance and makes sure the iron-clad is ready to sail. Once more you will be towing your ally and as you scan the horizon you consider which direction to travel in order to pursue your fugitive Queen. > You sail Southeast Sailing Southeast you soon sight a small tropical island. There is not sign of human habitation but near the water's edge are many large objects that you take to be rocks until two of them suddenly swim together. With a telescope you recognize them as giant tortoises. They don't look especially dangerous and in fact if you wanted to spend a day picking up fresh food they'd probably be easy to hunt if you think you can spare a day from your pursuit of Anne-Marie. > You pause to hunt the Tortoises The next morning you and your Crew begin hunting tortoises in your ship's boats. The animals are not fast or aggressive so that hardest part of the hunt is dragging the heavy carcasses, shells and all, out of the water and preparing the meat for storage. It is messy work but by the end of the day you have obtained a good supply of fresh meat and feeling confident about the voyage ahead you sail on. > You sail South You are sailing across the rolling waves until one afternoon your lookout sights land in the distance. It is a small island with a little Elici fishing village on it. "That is Nassa Port," Drake tells you when he joins you on deck. "She is the last Elixi settlement in these waters. Perhaps if we go ashore and ask the colonists they might be able to sell us some fish if Saphia really has told them to help us." You ask Naomi what she thinks and she shrugs. "It sounds like a good idea to me," she agrees. > You land at Nassa and try to buy fresh fish Dropping anchor at Nassa you and Drake lead a party of trusted seamen ashore. You are worried about how you will be received and though the Colonists are silent and cautious the colony's leader agrees to supply you. "We have received orders from our new King and Queen to resupply your ships," he says slowly. "Though it seems that perhaps the world is changing a bit too quickly for my liking. My brother died above the Esme's Joy in the Battle of Revel and now it seems within weeks of the death of his own brother our King Ieyasu is making peace with his enemies and turning upon his former allies. It does not seem unlikely that in the future things will change again and perhaps the next time we meet it might be on opposite sides of a line of guns? Regardless for now my orders are to assist you so assist you we shall." Not wanting to push your luck too far you sail onwards as soon as the supplies are loaded aboard your ships. > You sail on South Continuing southward you soon sight another island. This is a hilly grass covered island with few trees but you do see goats roaming freely over the island and a number of caves visible in the hills. Drake is enthusiastic to land and hunt but Naomi is more cautious when you describe the caves to her. “There could be anything in those caves," she points out to you. > You land and hunt As you and your companions go ashore and begin making your way up through the hills towards a herd of goats you pass a cave entrance. As you pass the dark tunnel mouth a blood-chilling roar scares all of you and a giant brown shape even bigger than a man comes hurtling out of the cave towards you. You catch sight of a giant mouth of sharp yellow teeth before the bear has knocked one of your men to the ground and taken a massive bite out of his face. Muskets explode into life but as the balls hit the bear they only seem to make it more angry. Running for your lives you and your crew flee back to the coast as the enraged bear pursues and kills two more of your men before you make your escape. You are still shaking when you get back aboard the Adventurer and resume your voyage south less three of your Crew who went ashore with you. > You sail South The strange seas you sail through are always interesting but they are rarely more beautiful than they are today when a silver mass of fish seem to engulf your two ships and your men rush to the rail to investigate this strange phenomena. A giant shoal of fish, seemingly endless, has surrounded your ship and using nets, rodes and even buckets your men are able to haul dozens of these fish aboard. You dine very well that night on the fresh fish and have enough supplies to make good a few days worth of supplies. > You sail South A low lightly wooded island is soon sighted on the horizon and as you sail nearer you see a strange sight: several men, all Navar judging by their clothing, have run down to the beach and are frantically waving at you. They seem desperate for you to stop and pick them up and you, Drake and Naomi gather on the quarterdeck of the Adventurer to discuss this strange sight. "They must be Navar from Anne-Marie's ship," Drake comments. "Why would she abandon them here?" "It might be her idea of a trap or an ambush," Naomi points out. "If we do pick them up we should be careful." You glance at the distant, desperate sailors wondering what to do. > You stop and pick up the men Cautiously you and Drake lead a party of armed sailors aboard and the marooned Navar sailors stumble towards you. "Thank God you have come Admiral Trapa," one of them says. "We were abandoned here two days ago by that villain Anne-Marie and have had no food to eat since then." "Why did she abandon you?" you ask surprised. "Well things are getting very bad aboard the Monarch of the Sea," the sailor tells you. "Food supplies are getting low and many of the Crew are unhappy. The Queen keeps to her cabin much of the time and we rarely see her. Me and my friends were discussing a mutiny to seize control of the ship and word got back to the Queen. She personally killed two of my friends and abanoned the rest of us here before sailing due South of here." You believe the man's tale and take him and his two of his companions aboard the Adventurer while the rest join the Crew of the Vengeance. Having been told which direction Anne-Marie went in you sail your two ships directly south after her. > You free Town Your voyage brings you to one of the more remarkable islands you have seen: small and tropical it contains a small village of huts next to a small jetty where a few small boats bob lightly in the water. It is unusual enough to discover civilization in these waters but even more surprising is that the dozen or so people gathering at the jetty are holding muskets and judging by their tattered and makeshift clothes they are Navar. You, Drake and Naomi anchor your ships cautiously at the jetty and go ashore to meet with these people, who seem to regard you with an equal amount of caution until one man, a tall bearded character with a natural air of authority, steps forward. "My name is John Adams and I am the President of the Free People," he declares. "We remember your name Leo Trapa and now we rejoice to learn that you are an enemy of Anne-Marie which make you a friend of ours. You and your companions are welcome here and I will tell you the story of how me and my seventeen companions came to make this island our home. Many months ago me and my companions were Crewmen aboard the Vixen and Dancer's Pride, ships commanded by John Dancer and Anne-Marie who were attempting to sail around our world of Magellan from north to south as part of the Great Race." "Well as you surely know we were wrecked on a cursed island of fog that lies east of here and our ships were destroyed. Many of our company including John Dancer died there. We helped Anne-Marie build a small boat out of the wreckage from our vessels but it was not big enough for all of us: one night she slipped away with two companions in the boat leaving us abandoned. We were close to despair for a while but in time we were able to build boats to get us off the island. We knew if we returned to The Kingdom of The Three Islands Anne-Marie would likely have us killed to ensure our silence so we chose to sail west in search of habitable lands. We settled on this island and also tried to establish a colony on an island west of here but there was not enough food so we settled back here." "We are happy here, far happier than we were at home," Adams tells you with a smile. "Fresh fruit and fish are plentiful, we get fresh water frequently when it rains and we have much time to rest and enjoy life. Our happy existence ended just yesterday when that cursed creator of all our troubles, Anne-Marie herself, landed here in a great ship. She spoke of suffering misfortune at your hands Admiral Trapa, professed she was sorry for abandoning us, insisted she had sent help but that her rescue ships could not find us and urged us to join her Crew as she was planning to sail back to Golden Sands and try to regain her throne. Adams pauses and smiles. "Well all our suffering and all our problems were due to her. I drew my musket and shot at her but alas I was excited and my aim was off so I only grazed her right hip. After that she and her sailors fled back to their ship and sailed away rapidly to the Southeast. That yesterday evening: if you sail fast you can still capture her, I'm sorry to say I don't think my musket ball did her much harm. As you are her enemies we will help you however we can and can give you some fish and fruit to help you on your voyage: we hope you will kill her or failing that take her back to Golden Sands and throw her into the prison she so richly deserves." You and your companions are silent, regarding your own countrymen that have been marooned here for several months as the latest evidence of Anne-Marie's treachery and indifference to the suffering her actions cause. "We owe you and your companions a great deal Captain Adams," Naomi says finally. "If you like we have enough room on our ships to take you and all your people off this island." Adams shakes his head firmly and his people do likewise. "No, this is our home and we are very happy here... if you could just send a few women to join us our lives would be perfect! Just please follow Anne-Marie and make sure she does not regain power in Golden Sands, that would be the worst thing of all." "We will not let that happen," you promise the brave sailors. You and your Crew spend the evening with the Free People who are indeed very happy in their new home and the next morning they load a few barrels of supplies onto your ships and promising eternal friendship between yourselves you resume your pursuit Southeast after your villainous Queen. > The End of the Chase Sailing Southeast from Free Town you finally sight your adversary for the last time the third morning out. The Monarch of the Sea has anchored waiting for you alongside a small sandy island, completely bare except for a single palm tree. Anne-Marie seems to have finally halted and decided to do battle and you, Drake and Naomi assemble for a quick conference of war aboard the Adventurer. "Keep the Vengeance close to us and use her well," you order Drake who grins. "This is where we'll get her Leo," Drake declares. "We'll sink her boat or die trying!" Your two ships sail closer to Anne-Marie's ship which waits at anchor. Dressed in newly-made blue Admiral uniforms you and Naomi stand side-by-side on the quarterdeck of the Adventurer as the three ships converge together, you and Drake firing your bow guns as you close in. The Monarch of the Sea turns sideways, fires a cannon volley and her sailors also open fire with muskets at the same time engulfing your two ships in a storm of cannon and musket balls. The shots merely bounce off the iron plating of the Vengeance but the Adventurer is hit harder, the shots killing three of your Crew. One cannonball passes close by your left arm while a musket ball takes Naomi's hat clean off her head. You retrieve it for her and resuming your places at the rail you continue to shout orders while Naomi echoes them and adds her own encouragements. Seeing her gunfire is having no effect on the Vengeance Anne-Marie steers the great Monarch of the Sea towards and directly into the side of the iron-clad, a repeat of Shingen's tactics at the Battle of Golden Sands. Scores of armed sailors pour onto the deck of the Vengeance and begin massacring the outnumbered Crew. Fearing that Anne-Marie will capture Drake's ship you order the Adventurer to steer alongside and help but before you can arrive a sudden explosion blasts both the Vengeance and the Monarch of the Sea clean in two. Before your stunned eyes both rapidly sink beneath the blood-stained and body-covered waves of the sea. It is only later from the very few survivors that you learn what happened: fearing his ship was about to be captured Drake grabbed a tinderbox and vanished below decks declaring he intended to blow his ship up. Moments later the gunpowder supply of the Vengeance exploded, tearing a huge hole in the side of the iron-clad and also in the side of the Monarch of the Sea which was directly alongside. Drake is not among the survivors and the death of your friend grieves you and Naomi deeply but his sacrifice finally destroyed Anne-Marie's great ship which she used to kill so many people and commit so many atrocities. You manage to rescue three of the Crew of the Vengeance but none from the Monarch of the Sea as the sharks are very active in the sea around the battlefield. There is no sign of Anne-Marie and you initially think she has drowned but you finally catch sight of her: she is sitting on a small raft scarcely bigger than a table rowing steadily towards the small island with the tree on. Resolutely you turn the Adventurer towards the island and as Anne-Marie reaches it you train your ships's cannons on it and together with Naomi you lead a dozen of your Crew into the ship's boat and row ashore to finally bring your fugitive Queen to justice. > The Capture of the Queen The island is a small one and when you land you can clearly see Anne-Marie sitting under the shadow of the palm tree, her strange little raft lying at her side. You guide Naomi out of the boat and up the beach and advance together with your sailors, all keeping loaded muskets trainged on the sitting figure. Anne-Marie is sitting at the base of the tree with a pistol in each hand, her right arm pressed rightly to her hip where you can see her clothes are red with blood. As you get closer you see the Queen looks pale and thinner than you remember, having shed most of her clothes in her swim she is wearing a plain white shirt and black trousers and possesses her old look of animal cunning. "Well Leo, I guess this is it," she tells you with a smile as you approach. "I would have kept sailing only we ran out of food and I would have kept running only my legs gave out." Her hands shake slightly as she holds her pistols and then with a sigh she lays them both down in the sand either side of her. "Well Leo you can either shoot me or you can carry me back aboard the Adventurer," she says wearily. "I'm so tired I can hardly walk." Your sailors surround Anne-Marie and do indeed find her leg is soaked with blood. You take her two pistols and examine them, they are loaded and are clearly fine weapons. You keep one yourself and pass the other to Naomi who slips it in her pocket. Anne-Marie notices what you are doing and laughs. "Be careful with those you two," she warns. "They have claimed many lives before now." You all return to the Adventurer with Anne-Marie and her miniature raft. Once on board your ship the former Queen has her feet shackled and is imprisoned in the ship's hold where she is guarded by a musket-armed sailor. Your Ship's surgeon examines her hip wound but as you and Naomi stand by as he proclaims the wound is non-serious. "So where are we sailing to now Admirals?" Anne-Marie asks with a mocking smile. "Back to Revel to see my old friend Saphia? Or onto Golden Sands to restore me to my throne?" You've had enough of this crap. "We are taking you Northeast back to Golden Sands to put you on trial for the murders of Tobias Cuthrew, Thomas Finch, Eva Freer, the Elixi Captains Azai, Amako, Ryuzoji, Miura, Rokkaku, Sanada, Sogo, my friend Drake and the Lapau King Al-Capu as well as for thousands of Lapau, Navar and Elixi sailors, warriors, women and children," you tell her. "We will put you on public trial so the world can see what a heartless monster you are and then execute you before a cheering crowd in Golden Sands." Anne-Marie's smile slips slightly. "I have about as much chance of seeing Golden Sands again as Naomi has," she says cruelly. "You think I'm finished? Well I will tell you two I have barely even begun! If you thought me bad before I will show you what bad is once I get free of this ship!" You turn to Naomi. "Do you think we should kill her now?" you ask her. Naomi considers. "No," she says finally. "We should take her back to Golden Sands and let the people decide her fate." That night as the waves continue to wash the bodies of the fallen out to sea you set the Adventurer on a Northeasterly course and then go to your cabin, get undressed and join Naomi in bed. You kiss her and snuggle close to her but straight away you can tell that something isn't right. You ask her what's up and for a moment Naomi doesn't reply but just strokes your back thoughtfully. Finally she confesses what is worrying her. "You know we have been in dozens of fights now," she tells you. "You have been in more dangerous situations than anyone else in all Magellan and every time you have come through without a scratch. I am worried that eventually your luck will run out and that you will get badly hurt or even killed. I don't trust Anne-Marie, even all alone without her ship and her crew she is still extremely dangerous. I am nervous she might escape before we can get her back safely to Golden Sands." You have the same fear but both of you know you can't just execute your defenseless prisoner. Neither of you sleep well that night, despite some vigorous love making that leaves you both gasping for breath and soaked in sweat as you hold each other close, trying to banish your fears with your overwhelming love for one another. > The End of Anne-Marie...? The Adventurer is making good progress as she continues Northeast, heading for Navar Colonies in the waters up ahead from which you will sail on through the Southern Passage towards Golden Sands. Three days after the capture of Anne-Marie sandbanks are sighted and you spend an exhausting day guiding your ship safely through them before retiring to bed. That night Naomi gets up to go out and use the bathroom and you remain in bed resting when you hear the door open. Thinking it is Naomi returning you think nothing of it but you receive the shock of your life when you hear Anne-Marie's cold, triumphant voice. "How stupid do you think I would have to be not to keep a picklock about my person?" she demands and you sit bolt upright to find the former Queen standing before you smiling, a musket trained straight at your head. "Next time you put a guard on me don't make it some simple-minded sailor who forgets his duty at the first flash of bare skin and gets himself into a position where I can overpower him and take his weapon." Anne-Marie advances into the room and stops when the cold metal of the musket barrel is pressing directly into your forehead. The pistol you took from Anne-Marie lies two feet away on the bedside table, just beyond your reach. "You know Leo, you have opposed me at every turn," Anne-Marie declares, her expression turning ugly. "If it weren't for you I would be sitting in my Palace of Golden Sands and if you, Naomi, Eva and those other idiots hadn't opposed me during the Lapau War I might be Mistress of the World by now! I had such grand plans but because of you they've been torn apart and scattered to the wind! Well once you are dead do you think anyone can seriously stand in the way of my power? That faggot Saphia? That tool Ieyasu? What about your blind bedmate Naomi? No? I'm going to kill you now Leo, I want you to know that." Anne-Marie takes a deep breath. "Goodbye Leo Trapa," she says softly. A gunshot rings out. You are not dead. You open your eyes and look up. Anne-Marie's mouth has opened slightly and she looks amazed. Swaying slightly her eyes meet yours and you catch a glimpse of her look of pure astonishment before she collapses backwards onto the floor and lies there motionless in a spreading pool of blood. Naomi stands in your cabin doorway, a smoking pistol in her hand which you recognize as the weapon you took off Anne-Marie and gave to her. Slowly she lowers the weapon and feels her way into the cabin. "I heard you talking," she says awkwardly. "I tried to judge where she stood in the dark... did I do it? Is she dead?" "Yes," you say simply. You step over the fallen body of the Queen, take Naomi in your arms and kiss her. She drops the pistol to the floor and with tears running down her face you hold her close. You go out on deck and alert your Crew to what has happened. Your Crew are stunned but after a few minutes you have gathered together several of your sailors and return to your cabin. When you open the door you stop dead in your tracks. Anne-Marie's body has vanished. At that moment you hear a splashing in the water. Rushing back out onto deck you scan the sea and catch sight of Anne-Marie: despite her wound she is still alive and has escaped your cabin, made it to deck where her small table-sized raft was stowed and is paddling for all she's worth aboard it towards the nearest sand bank. Many of your sailors fire their muskets at her but despite everything her incredible luck holds and she is not hit. Angrily you turn the Adventurer to follow her. Anne-Marie makes it to the nearest sand bank and dragging her raft up the shingle she crosses over to the other side and drops it back in the ocean. Your ship is too big to follow her and you can only watch furiously as your greatest enemy vanishes among the twisting maze of the sandbanks. You return to your cabin with Naomi and stare at the pool of blood on the floor. Whatever else Anne-Marie is seriously injured and it might be that without medical care she won't survive for long. Naomi sits next to you on the bed and takes your hands in hers. "Look at it this way," she tells you. "That woman now has no ship, no crew, no supplies and no friends. She is badly wounded and lost in waters she does not know and a long way from any civilization, all of which have outlawed her. We have done all we can. I think now it is best if we continue north and sail back to Golden Sands before we run out of supplies and see how things now stand in our homeland. Don't forget we still have Ieyasu to deal with." Bowing to your partner's advice you order the Adventurer to resume it's Northeast course. > A Miracle Though bitter at the memory of Anne-Marie's latest escape you are comforted by the knowledge that you are going home. For three days you continue sailing through increasingly warm waters towards the Navar Colonies and ultimately towards your home. After a few days at sea on a beautiful sunny day you have reached a point where you decide it is best to turn north in order to approach the Southern Passage and give the necessary orders. Naomi is standing next to you on the deck and as the bandage that covers her shattered eyes is slipping down she raises her hand to adjust it. Suddenly she gives an unexpected yell followed by a gasp that makes you turn. Suddenly she slumps against you, passed out into a dead faint and panicked you lower her to the deck. Several of your sailors run up with cold water and sponges to revive her and as she wakes up you ask her urgently what the matter is. "I can see," Naomi says in a tone of wonderment. Ripping her bandages off you reveal the remnants of her shattered eyes open for the first time. The left eye socket is completely empty but in the right a red angry looking bloodshot eyeball glares out from beneath a savage cut. The eyeball glances all around before closing rapidly and opening again slowly. "I can see... blue," Naomi declares as her remaining eye looks up at the sky. "I can see... oh my god Leo, I can see you!" It seems a miracle has happened and the love of your life is regaining partial sight! Filled with joy you hug Naomi tight after months of living in endless darkness color finally begins to return to her life and for the rest of the day she can't stop shaking from a combination of relief and happiness. > You going Home (again) The further north you go the better Naomi's sight becomes. An eye patch is made to cover the destruction of her left eye but as time passes her right eye becomes whiter, stronger and clearer as it stares out in wonderment at a world that was hidden from it for so long. It becomes so strong in fact that using your telescope Naomi is the first to spot a jungle-covered island on the horizon as you consider steadily north. As food shortages are becoming a growing concern you may wish to land here, though there is no sign of human habitation. > You land and hunt for food You lead a group of sailors ashore including Naomi who insists on joining you. There are many small animals in the jungle and for an hour or so you have good hunting, shooting several out of the trees. Just as you are thinking of going back to the ship you hear a savage roar and an orange and black streak of movement bursts from the trees and sharp claws rend open the chest of one of your men. Muskets explode into life but the tiger attacks two more men before Naomi strides towards it, raises Anne-Marie's pistol and shoots it from short-range in the head. The beast falls to the ground, twitches and then lies still. You are stunned both by the savage attack and by Naomi's new-found accuracy but fearing future attack you hastily gather your supplies together and leave the island, taking your three dead crewmen with you. By evening the sailors have been buried at sea and you are sailing on to the north. > You sailing on North Sailing north you pass a Burnt wreck of an island. You are puzzled: there used to be a colony here and indeed the buildings are still standing but it looks absolutely deserted here. There is no sign of any life anywhere on the island and unless people are hiding in the buildings you are unsure what this means. Naomi is puzzled too but points out there is no sign of any violence or looting here. It is almost like the Navar packed up the colony and went home. > You spend a day landing on the island and investigating You and Naomi lead a party of sailors ashore to explore the island. It seems strange that you do not have to guide Naomi any more but she strides ahead of the rest of you confidently. The island is indeed absolutely abandoned, the only trace of the colonists you can find are the words GONE TO GOLDEN SANDS scratched in the same handwriting style on several trees and cabin walls. Everything of value has been taken so feeling uneasy you have no choice but to keep sailing north. > You north to Castaway Island As the Adventurer glides every closer to your home you have cause for both happiness and concern as Naomi's sight steadily returns to almost as good as it used to be but you are becoming increasingly concerned about your supply situation. Coming upon another of your people's colonies you again look through your telescope at the image of abandoned and empty huts, cabins and an abandoned jetty. Once more there is no sign of any life or that anything of value has been behind. > You spend a day landing and investigate anyway You and Naomi lead a party ashore and explore the island. In one of the larger cabins you find a brief letter written by the leader of the colony and left on the table. It states that due to the uncertain and dangerous times and fear about attacks from either Lapau, Elixi or one side or the other in the Navar Civil War all the colonists on islands north and south of the Great Reef have withdrawn back behind the safety of the Great Reef to The Three Islands of Amethyst, Onyx and Golden Sands. It states that friends are welcome to enter the Kingdom through one of the four Passages but warns enemies to stay away... Mulling over this message thoughtfully you and your Crew return to the Adventurer and sail on. > The Southern Passage Finally the welcome sight of the Great Reef and the Southern Passage carved into it come into sight and beyond it you know awaits your home. But the watchtowers that guard the Southern Passage have changed a great deal: more cabins have been built and the garrison of usually a few soldiers has been strengthened to about thirty. You are a little nervous about sailing through the Passage as you don't know if the guards are friendly or hostile but you have to. Naomi points out the guards don't appear to be particularly threatening but are just standing outside their cabins in a group watching you and she suggests you land to try and replenish your diminishing supplies. > You land and try to pick up fresh supplies Uncertain of your reception you and Naomi land on the corral near the watchtowers. There is an excited chatter among the guards but most of them break from the group, come forward and greet you warmly. One particularly enthusiastic individual speaks for the rest. "Welcome back Admiral Trapa and Admiral Swift," he exclaims. "You are welcome to resupply your vessels here. You are heading on to Golden Sands I suppose? Well right now the whole nation is voting on who to accept as their future leaders, whether we should become a republic, whether Anne-Marie should retain the throne or whether several candidates including both of you, Saphia Dancer or some other should be appointed ruler in her place. By the time you get there the results should be in." You are amazed that you and Naomi are even being considered as possible replacements for Anne-Marie and are so surprised you hardly react as most of the guards begin loading some supplies onto your boat, each assuring you that they voted for you. In fact, judging from the reaction of the guards on the reef it seems that over three quarters of them voted for you and Naomi to be elected as King and Queen of the Navar! Unsure how to react to this news you thank the guards sincerely and continue on home to Golden Sands. > You golden Sands The wonderful island of Golden Sands finally comes into sight and any doubts you might have had about your reception are immediately dispelled as you see cheering crowds lining the qauyside. The Adventurer sails in, drops anchor and when the people see that Naomi is recovering her sight the cheers double in volume. Silence falls as a group of the town's most respected citizens approach you, one old lady carrying the Crown of the Kingdom in her hands. "On behalf of the Navar people we would like to elect you Leo Trapa and you Naomi Swift King and Queen of The Three Islands, the Navar people and all their colonies. A nationwide referendum has been held and by a majority of 92% you have both been elected to rule over our people as a Constitutional Monarchy. You and your descends shall reign indefinitely unless removed by popular vote, the former Queen Anne-Marie has been outlawed for treason against her own people and forfeits all her former titles." With a strangely dry throat you and Naomi accept this great honor and as the lady places the Crown first upon your head and then Naomi's the crowd becomes hysterical, people cheering and even crying. Overwhelmed by the reaction and events you and Naomi thank the crowd and are hurried up to the Palace. Inside the Palace you find an unexpected figure waiting for you: it is Saphia Dancer's attractive friend, the Elixi lady Nohime. She looks relieved to see you and Naomi. "Congratulations on our Coronation King and Queen but Saphia and I urgently need your help," she tells you in a surprisingly musical voice. "All is not well in Revel. King Ieyasu has found and captured Commodore Lovett and he is holding her prisoner. There has been a great deal of unrest in Revel and Saphia has publicly separated from Ieyasu, who stays aboard his ship Explorer with his prisoner. Saphia has empowered me to tell you that if you come to Revel at once she will aid you in overthrowing Ieyasu, defeating him once and for all and rescuing Lovett. You and Naomi glance at each other and give a deep sigh. You hoped that after everything you might have time to rest, to begin your rule over your people and to help the Navar peacefully co-exist with their neighbors but Saphia's message is an important one, Lovett is your friend and Ieyasu is unfinished business so once more you must set sail. The Adventurer is resupplied and re-crewed and despite the disappointment of your new subjects you sail west the next day, Nohime's own ship the Sea Maiden sailing alongside yours. > You west once more to battle The journey west to Revel in an easy one through very familiar waters, open sea all the way except for the Western Passage where you are in such a hurry you do not stop to pick up supplies. Nohime is an interesting companion, flirtatious and clever it is clear why Saphia likes her but you sense she is genuinely deeply worried for her friend and for her people. At least with three ships you will have Ieyasu outnumbered and should be able to force him to surrender Admiral Lovett. All of you agree he should be over-thrown as King of the Elixi, though this would leave Saphia as their Queen and sole ruler. Revel Harbor soon comes into sight and as the Adventurer and Sea Maiden sail closer you can see Saphia's Shadow and Ieyasu's Explorer are sitting at anchor in the harbor. As you get nearer the Explorer suddenly gets undersail and glides out of the harbor. Clearly Ieyasu has no intention of being trapped and clearly Saphia has no intention of letting him get away, the Shadow turns and fires a volley at the retreating Explorer which fires back with its stern guns but rapidly sails out of the harbor and turns northwest, speeding ahead of the Shadow which turns back. You, Naomi and Nohime all meet Saphia at the dock when you arrive, Saphia hasn't changed at all and looks pleased to see you all. "Leo, Naomi, how good of you to return, Nohime, always a pleasure," Saphia says looking excited. "It seems my now ex-husband has no great desire to meet with you and has departed. During your absence we both searched the area where Lovett was last seen but unfortunately he found her first. It seems that her ship was wrecked by a storm and she was stranded on an island west of here until Ieyasu found her. He has been using the threat of killing her as a way of maintaining his power as King when for some bizarre and totally inexplicable reason the people are in favor of overthrowing him and appointing me as sole ruler of the Elixi in his place! Imagine!" Saphia's eyes twinkle with amusement, an amusement Naomi doesn't share. "Well naturally you will want to form a peaceful alliance with your neighbors, King Leo and Queen Naomi of the Navar," Naomi tells her. "Naturally that also means you will want to join us in our pursuit of the former tyrant of your people and not rest until he is dead or captured." "I have never shirked my share of the fighting," Saphia says happily. "Nohime, you'll look after Revel while I'm away won't you? Make sure the people remain happy and hopeful about the great celebration of my official coronation when I return. Meanwhile I think it is best that you and me Naomi together with Leo get after my former husband, kill that scoundrel and rescue Commander Lovett, who if Al-Balu cannot be found, has a very good chance of being chosen as the next leader of the Lapau. I'll have our ships re-supplied and we'll get after Ieyasu tonight." Sure enough, leaving Nohime and the Sea Maiden behind you, Naomi and your slippery companion Saphia sail northwest that evening in your resupplied ships after Ieyasu's distant target, sincerely hoping this chase won't be as long as the one after Anne-Marie was. > You saphia's Misfortune It seems that Ieyasu does not intend to run far as three days after sailing northwest of Revel he halts and turns his ship, waiting for you and your companions to get nearer. You are Naomi are worried about the possibility of killing Ann Lovett if your gunfire hits or sinks the Explorer so together with Saphia you both agree to sail directly up to your enemy, pull alongside and board her. It's a risky plan but if successful it will ensure the defeat of your enemy. Unfortunately misfortune strikes early on: the Explorer is sideways to you and fires her first volley of cannon shots while you are still sailing towards her and unable to return fire. Most of the cannonballs strike the Shadow and suddenly she veers away from the Explorer, turns and begins sailing away from the battle! The Explorer gets under sail at the same time and rapidly glides away from the battle. She is faster than the Adventurer and annoyed at your prey escaping you turn back towards the Shadow to find out why Saphia broke off her attack. As it happens Saphia had very good reason too: when you go aboard you find her lying on the quarterdeck in a pool of blood while two men urgently remove wooden shards from her legs. It seemed the rail she was leaning against was struck by a cannonball and her legs were mangled by dozens of pieces of wooden shrapnel. She is barely conscious and trembling uncontrollably and you order your own ship's surgeon to help the men trying to staunch the bleeding and pick the shards, some longer and thicker than your finger, out of her mangled legs. Today has not gone well. Later that evening you and Nami go back aboard the Shadow to see how Saphia is faring. She is lying on her bed in her cabin, her legs swathed in clean bandages and drinking large amounts of rum to cope with the pain. "How embarrassing," she tells you with a painful wince as you sit next to her. "To get cut down like that just a few moments into the fight. I'm pulling out though Leo. I'm too worried about getting an infection if I stay at sea and I'm going back to Revel. You and Naomi are the best at tracking Ieyasu, better sailors than any I've ever met including Anne-Marie. Keep on after him and I know you'll get him but be careful! He's as clever and cunning as a snake in his own way and he must have some purpose for going in the direction he is. My guess is he has some intelligence of Al-Balu and means to have both him and Lovett in his power." Promising Saphia you won't break off the chase until Ieyasu is taken you and Naomi leave her to rest. > You continuing on alone The next morning you part ways, the Shadow conveys its wounded patient back Southeast towards Revel while you and Naomi keep going alone in the Adventurer after Ieyasu's Explorer still going Northwest. After three days of pursuing him you are slowly gaining on him and one afternoon it is clear that you will catch up with him. You have been in so many sea battles and always emerged without a scratch while others have been wounded or killed so you have no concerns about what promises to be a small, and probably inconclusive, ship-to-ship action. But today will be different: today Lady Luck finally turns her back on you. > You your Luck runs out. As the Adventurer approaches the Explorer turns to battle your ship, her full broadside pointing at you. You have no choice but to sail straight towards it and turn once you come into range. Your Crew are waiting at the cannons and your musket-armed men are in the rigging. You and Naomi stand side by side on the Quarterdeck in your blue Admiral uniforms yelling orders. "Now's our chance to take her boys," you shout to your Crew. "Make ready." As the cannons aboard the Explorer explode into life you shout an order to the helmsman to turn the Adventurer hard to starboard so you can bring your own cannons to bear. You raise your arm to point the direction he should take the ship when something big and black whistles straight ahead of you, snaps your arm like a twig and spins you on the spot, knocking you to the deck. It feels like someone has jabbed a knife straight into your arm and is still twisting it about mercilessly. Lying on the deck you glance at your right shoulder and are shocked to see nothing but a broken white bone and mess of ragged and town flesh sticking out a few inches below your shoulder. Naomi is above you shouting something but you can't hear her over a fierce pounding in your ears which seems to rise in intensity like a steam whistle. You can't speak but manage to shake your head as more of your Crew surround you. You feel strong arms lift you off the deck, dimly through the darkness you ask someone to pick up your arm. You are carried down to your cabin where your uniform and shirt are quickly cut away. As the darkness presses in you see your ship's surgeon enter your cabin carrying a saw. As he sets to work you sink down into the mercifully endless blackness as you sleep the sleep of those in the place between life and death. > You delirium Faces and images rush past you. Esme Hale's fleeting face appears before you laughing and you see once more Anne-Marie telling Cuthrew, Finch and Eva Freer that they have been very bad subjects and must now swim to the bottom of the sea and bring her back the sunken iron-clads Justice, Retribution and Vengeance for her new fleet. Freer tells her to do it herself and as you reach towards her a gunshot rings out and her head explodes, behind her Shingen, Kenshin and Ieyasu stand laughing. Ieyasu approaches you with a smoking pistol and as you stand there motionless he snaps off your right arm and tosses it away, still laughing. The darkness rises again. Sometimes Naomi is among the images. You feel her kisses against your fevered skin and reach out your right arm to hug her but there is nothing there. It is strange, you can still feel your fingers and your elbow and all your arm moving but you can't see it. Someone must have put it somewhere. For some reason you feel certain that Ieyasu has snuck into your cabin and run off with your arm. "Ieyasu," you say many times. "Where is Ieyasu." "We're after him," voices insist to you. "We're still following him." Another time crying wakes you from the darkness and you listen to voice somewhere talking about someone who doesn't look very good and who's condition shows no sign of improvement. You feel a bit sorry for whoever they're talking about and then Naomi's face appears above you, a tear running down her cheek from her good eye. "Come back to me Leo," she says quietly. "Please God come back to me." You try to reach up your right hand to brush the tear away but nothing happens. You sink back down into darkness, lulled by the familiar, comfortable motion of the Adventurer. > You journey's End One morning for no apparent reason your fever breaks. You come back to yourself to find yourself lying in your bed, damp with sweat and feeling very thirsty but entirely aware of yourself. The boom of cannons and muskets can be heard outside your cabin and was presumably what woke you up: the bangs and explosions are dulled and distance. A glance to your right reveals a bloodied bandaged stump where you arm used to be. It aches dully and you sigh as you regard your missing limb before climbing to your fight and using your left hand you awkwardly pour yourself a glass of water from a pitcher beside your bed and drink it. Feeling better you awkwardly pull on your blood-soaked Admiral's uniform which you find lying at the foot of your bed. Because you are only using your left hand and are still feeling slightly numbed it takes you nearly thirty minutes to dress and you go out on deck. By the time you are dressed the sounds of battle have ceased leaving a silence which seems somehow more threatening than the sounds of battle. For some reason your Crew are not at their normal stations but are instead all lining the rail staring fixedly at a distant sight. Intrigued you join them unseen and see what they are looking at. The Explorer is ablaze and sinking rapidly a short way from a rocky island. A single boat crowded with people is rowing rapidly towards the shore of the rocky island, which is lined with spear-armed Lapau warriors. You can make out the distinctive figure of Ieyasu standing in the prow. He is holding a small figure to him and is pressing a pistol against the figure's blond head. Squinting you recognize the figure as Ann Lovett, none of your own Crew are firing at the boat for fear she will be harmed. As the boat nears the shore you see one particular Lapau warrior stride towards the boat, surf up to his knees and a spear in his hand. All at once there is a tussle between Ieyasu and Lovett which ends with Lovett pushing him off and diving into the sea alongside the boat. As she swims away Ieyasu straightens up, points his pistol at her and the next moment he is falling back as the Lapau warrior lets fly with his spear which passes straight through Ieyasu's throat and stays there, half sticking out the front of his throat and half sticking out the back. Ieyasu sways and then falls backwards into his boat, clearly dead. Lovett splashes through the water towards her rescuer and as they meet at the shores edge they embrace and kiss passionately. As the Adventurer gets closer you finally recognise the warrior as Prince Al-Balu and guess the men around him must be his Crew. Like Lovett he must have been wrecked on this island and remained here until now. You realise the Adventurer must sail in and give them all passage off the island back to Matan and look for someone to give the order to. You spot Naomi standing at the railing a short way off, a telescope clasped to her good eye as she surveys the scene. Quietly you walk up behind her and tap her on the shoulder. "I'm feeling better," you tell her quietly. Naomi turns and when she sees you her whole face lights up. With a yell she throws herself at you and in seconds you are passionately kissing, embracing and touching every part of each other you can get to. You don't get to enjoy each other's company for more than a few moments: your entire Crew engulf you and entirely forgetting your duties you all cry tears of joy and shout with delight. After so much struggle, so many dangers and so much loss it is finally all over: Lovett and Al-Balu are rescued, Ieyasu is dead and peace has finally returned to Matan. A long period of prosperity lies ahead for all of you. > The Success of Magellan You and your Crew swiftly rescue Ann Lovett and Al-Balu, the latter not King Al-Balu of the Lapau, from their island. Neither seem the worse for their experiences which in both cases involved the wrecking of their ships and in Lovett's case more than a month of captivity at Ieyasu's hands. His body is thrown overboard to be devoured by the creatues of the sea and his surviving Crew, together with Lovett, Al-Balu and his Lapau are brought aboard the Adventurer. You sail southwest for three days and then turn south, passing the Corral Mountain until you return to Matan. The joy of the Lapau nation upon the safe return of their King is indescribable. You have a pleasant surprise waiting for you when you return: the Shadow and Sea Maiden are anchored at Matan and both Nohime and Saphia Dancer, the latter still limping but otherwise recovered from her injuries. In a moving ceremony Al-Balu is officially crowned King of the Lapau, you also take the oppurtunity to confirm Saphia's position as Queen of the Elixi. That night you ask Naomi to marry you and she accepts, Al-Balu follows suit two days later by asking Ann Lovett to marry him and she too accepts. A double ceremony is planned to take place in one week here on Matan and finally having something to celebrate the whole Lapau nation turns out to provide a bountiful feast to follow the wedding. Saphia still hasn't lost her ability to shock you and on the day of the double wedding she pulls one of her bigger surprises: she and Nohime appear in beautiful white bridal dresses and with a grin Saphia explains the situation to you. "That's the fun thing about being Queen," she tells you cheerfully. "I can pass laws about whatever I want. I happen to believe people should be allowed to do exactly whatever they want to do as long as they don't hurt anyone else. So this morning I passed laws allowing marriage between men and men and women and women. As I've always rather liked Nohime I think she would make a rather good wife. I don't see that the Elixi should mind much: they now get two Queens instead of one. Admittedly we might be a bit short on Kings but in the past Kings haven't been very good for them so perhaps it might be time for them to have a few ladies in charge?" She says it so innocently you can't help but laugh. That afternoon you and Naomi, Al-Balu and Ann and Saphia and Nohime all marry amidst great celebrations and an agreement is signed promising lasting peace between the Elixi, Lapau and Navar as long as you and your families shall rule. A few days later you, Naomi, Saphia and Nohime take your leave of the Lapau amidst much well-wishing. The two Queens of the Elixi sail southeast aboard the Shadow and Sea Maiden heading back to Revel while you turn the Adventurer southwest on one last journey back to Golden Sands so you and Naomi can take up your role as King and Queen of the Navar. During the voyage there is only one thing that troubles you and you and Naomi discuss it together in bed late one night. "What about Anne-Marie?" you ask Naomi. "Do you think she will come back?" "If she does I don't see what she can do except cause trouble in a small, mean way," Naomi replies. "Her hopes of conquering Magellan by force under her control are finished, the Kingdoms are united in a peaceful alliance. All her allies are dead and all the people against her. I don't see what she can do. Anyway, there is something more important than Anne-Marie that I wanted to talk to you about tonight." “What is that my love?" you ask her. Naomi takes a deep breath. "I'm pregnant." Eyes wide you embrace Naomi and cover her naked body in hundreds of kisses as the pair of you laugh with delight about your coming parenthood. This is the happiest day of your life > The End ... On a small sandy island far away a dozen sailors steer their small ship towards a sand bank under the light of a full moon. A single figure sits upon the beach brooding next to a smoking fire above which a few small fish are cooking. A bucket half-full of rain water sitting in the sand nearby and a few scraps of wood, all that remains of a small dismantled raft, are the only other objects on the sandbank. The figure barely looks up as the boat beaches and the sailors inside jump out into the surf and hurry up the beach. Their leader takes off his hat and drops to one knee in the sand before the silent brooding figure. "My Majesty, thank God we have found you," he declares. "We have been searching for many days. We will take you where you wish to go." The figure at last raises her head and stands up. She is a tall but emaciated young woman with a face twisted by anger and hate. "Golden Sands," she declares in a quiet voice full of cold venom. "Disguise me as a man and take me back to Golden Sands. We have work to do." As the sailors hurry to obey her orders Anne-Marie walks towards the waiting boat, her mind full of dark plots and schemes for the future of you, Naomi and your unborn child. ... The Magellan Series will be concluded in Magellan 5: Travel in New Ways.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Finally the welcome sight of the Great Reef and the Southern Passage carved into it come into sight and beyond it you know awaits your home. But the watchtowers that guard the Southern Passage have changed a great deal: more cabins have been built and the garrison of usually a few soldiers has been strengthened to about thirty. You are a little nervous about sailing through the Passage as you don't know if the guards are friendly or hostile but you have to. Naomi points out the guards don't appear to be particularly threatening but are just standing outside their cabins in a group watching you and she suggests you land to try and replenish your diminishing supplies. > You sail on through to Golden Sands It is well known that the best way to survive a shark attack is not to go in the sea. In the same way if you had never gone to sea you wouldn't now be lying on the deck of your ship surrounded by your dead and dying Crew with empty barrels and water casks littered all around you. Things could be better. But fear not thirsty wanderer: thanks to the miracle of reincarnation and a benign narrator you can try this story again from the beginning armed with the benefit of hindsight and wisdom! Or you can call it a day and go and do something else. > You try again from the beginning Your name is Leo Trapa and your achievements as Vice Admiral of your ship Adventurer have made you legendary throughout your world of Magellan. The Adventurer is a tough little ship and veteran of several battles, large enough to hold a Crew of 30 Sailors and 30 days worth of Supplies for them. Although you are only twenty-one years old you have already received the rank of Vice Admiral in recognition of your superb ability and seamanship. The World of Magellan on which you live is mostly ocean occupied by a scattering of islands:many of these islands are uninhabited but those that are populated are occupied by one of three cultures: native Lapau and more technologically advanced Elixi and Navar, the latter your own people. Though exiled under pain of death from your homeland, the Kingdom of the Three Islands, you have inherited your people's rich naval traditions: the Adventurer carries four cannons and all of your crew are armed with muskets, though these are slow to load making the sword your secondary weapon. Recently war has broken out on Magellan with the Elixi and Navar on one side and you on the other with your allies, the Lapau. Your biggest problem on long voyages is that your ship can only carry enough Supplies for 30 days which will make finding and obtaining fresh sources of Supplies your top priority. If you ever run out of Supplies (your Supply number falls to 0) then you and your Crew will starve to death and die. You will almost certainly lose Crew members during your voyage and you must be careful that your Crew number never falls to 0 either: that will mean that you and all your Crew are dead. Frequently there is a time element involved during your voyages and you will want to complete them in the smallest number of Days possible. Successfully completing a Voyage ahead of your Competitors will result in a Score Point which will show if you leave a Comment after the game that you have completed this story with a very high degree of skill. As in previous adventures you will find it useful to make a map of the waters you sail as you may return this way again and the information may benefit you... So good luck reader, make wise and strategically sound choices and with a little luck, a good course and a fair wind you might live to see your homeland again!<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>A low lightly wooded island is soon sighted on the horizon and as you sail nearer you see a strange sight: several men, all Navar judging by their clothing, have run down to the beach and are frantically waving at you. They seem desperate for you to stop and pick them up and you, Drake and Naomi gather on the quarterdeck of the Adventurer to discuss this strange sight. "They must be Navar from Anne-Marie's ship," Drake comments. "Why would she abandon them here?" "It might be her idea of a trap or an ambush," Naomi points out. "If we do pick them up we should be careful." You glance at the distant, desperate sailors wondering what to do. > You sail on to the Southwest You are sailing along when you come upon a remarkable sight: a small grassy island comes into sight upon which stands nothing but the collapsed remains of a few old huts and some sawn trunks of trees. A large wooden sight has been erected that reads TO MEET WITH THE FREE PEOPLE SAIL EAST TO FREE TOWN. You, Drake and Naomi are all so impressed by this strange discover you unanimously decide to travel east and meet with these people.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The strange seas you sail through are always interesting but they are rarely more beautiful than they are today when a silver mass of fish seem to engulf your two ships and your men rush to the rail to investigate this strange phenomena. A giant shoal of fish, seemingly endless, has surrounded your ship and using nets, rodes and even buckets your men are able to haul dozens of these fish aboard. You dine very well that night on the fresh fish and have enough supplies to make good a few days worth of supplies. > You sail Southwest You continue south and one night a strange thing occurs. In the middle of the night you are woken by the sound of shouting on deck and the bang of musket shots. You spring from your bed, pull on trousers and rush out onto deck, arriving at the same time as several of your Crew. You see two of your men lying dead or dying on the deck, swords and muskets in their hands and on the deck alongside them. Even as you watch a third member of your Crew jumps from the side of your ship, a cannonball held in his hands and swiftly vanishes from sight down into the sea below. You go back to your cabin to retrieve Naomi and together the two of you uncover the story of what was happening. It seems that one of the sailors, a teenage boy, was depressed and suicidal. He had also developed an unrequitted romance for an older man who was already in a relationship with another member of the Crew. Though homosexual relationships are hardly uncommon aboard the Adventurer or other ships when sailors spend months at sea without female company this is the first time to your knowledge it has resulted in bloodshed. In this case it seems the youth confronted the man he loved and his rival for that love and a fight ensured during which the youth killed them both in the fray and then committed suicide by jumping overboard with a cannonball in his hands. It's a sad tragedy that has weakened your Crew and with a hasty sea burial of the dead men you hope to put the unfortunate matter into the past and focus on the voyage ahead.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>As you and your companions go ashore and begin making your way up through the hills towards a herd of goats you pass a cave entrance. As you pass the dark tunnel mouth a blood-chilling roar scares all of you and a giant brown shape even bigger than a man comes hurtling out of the cave towards you. You catch sight of a giant mouth of sharp yellow teeth before the bear has knocked one of your men to the ground and taken a massive bite out of his face. Muskets explode into life but as the balls hit the bear they only seem to make it more angry. Running for your lives you and your crew flee back to the coast as the enraged bear pursues and kills two more of your men before you make your escape. You are still shaking when you get back aboard the Adventurer and resume your voyage south less three of your Crew who went ashore with you. > You sail Southwest An island is soon sighted that contains an amazing sight: though thickly wooded it contains open spaces and crossing one of these open spaces it he biggest land animal you have ever seen: a giant grey elephant with white tusks and a long trunk. Many of your Crew are excited and Drake points out that if you could manage to kill one you'd have enough food for the rest of the voyage but Naomi is dead-set against the idea, pointing out they are much bigger than you, that there are surely more on the island and hunting them could be extremely dangerous. > You land and hunt the elephants anyway You and your companions land and soon locate a small herd of six or seven elephants grazing in a clearing. You order your men to raise their rifles and on the word of command they all fire at one elephant. The animal falls down but with a mighty trumpet the other elephants rear up and charge straight at you and your men, mad eyes wide and tusks lowered. It is a terrifying sight and you and your companions run for their lives. One of your men is crushed underfoot, trampled into the ground like a bug, while another is gored clean through and another is thrown fifty feet into the air by one elephant and lands on his head. By the time you and your companions get back to your ships you have lost three men and learned a valuable lesson about hunting elephants, namely don't do it.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Dropping anchor at Nassa you and Drake lead a party of trusted seamen ashore. You are worried about how you will be received and though the Colonists are silent and cautious the colony's leader agrees to supply you. "We have received orders from our new King and Queen to resupply your ships," he says slowly. "Though it seems that perhaps the world is changing a bit too quickly for my liking. My brother died above the Esme's Joy in the Battle of Revel and now it seems within weeks of the death of his own brother our King Ieyasu is making peace with his enemies and turning upon his former allies. It does not seem unlikely that in the future things will change again and perhaps the next time we meet it might be on opposite sides of a line of guns? Regardless for now my orders are to assist you so assist you we shall." Not wanting to push your luck too far you sail onwards as soon as the supplies are loaded aboard your ships. > You sail on Southwest The Adventurer and Vengeance continue to roll steadily south over the ocean's waves but you encounter an unexpected problem when an alarming sickness suddenly breaks out among your Crew when several begin to vomit and shake uncontrollably. The source of this malady is eventually traced to some freshly-caught fish the Crew have been eating which turn out to be deadly poisenous. The remainder of them are hastily dumped overboard but this knowledge comes too late for three of your Crew who, having eaten more than the rest, succumb to the poison in the fish and die. They are buried at sea after a somber service as you continue onwards.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The next morning you and your Crew begin hunting tortoises in your ship's boats. The animals are not fast or aggressive so that hardest part of the hunt is dragging the heavy carcasses, shells and all, out of the water and preparing the meat for storage. It is messy work but by the end of the day you have obtained a good supply of fresh meat and feeling confident about the voyage ahead you sail on. > You sail Southwest Sailing onwards your lookout soon sights another island: a large thickly forrested island with trees growing right up to the shoreline. Here and there among the trees you can see deers grazing. The trees hide most of the island from sight but Drake is confident there is some good hunting to be had there. Naomi is more cautious and reminds you that you aren't sure what else apart from deer might be in those trees. > You land and Hunt You and Drake lead a party of sailors into the forest the next day. An uneasy feeling soon descends on you and your companions as soon as you enter the trees, lose sight of the sea and realise you can''t hear any sounds of animals. Suddenly a fierce animal snarl breaks the silence and several dark shapes launch themselves out of the trees, knocking many of your men down. Your crew are under attack from a large pack of wolves and muskets explode in response. Several wolves are wounded, a few are killed, and the rest retreat but not before three of your crew have had their throats torn out by viciously sharp teeth. Not wishing to stay you and Drake lead your Crew back to the boats at a run and hastily return to the Adventurer and Vengeance, putting this terrible island behind you.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The next morning you set sail from Revel. Queen Saphia and her lady companion Nohime come down to the dock to see you off but there is no sign of Ieyasu. You are rather glad he is not there and you, Naomi and Drake pause to talk to the new Queen of the Elixi. "I really do hope you catch Anne-Marie," Saphia tells you cheerfully. "She has no further use now. I might even make a voyage or two to help your efforts... as you can see we are getting the Shadow ready for a voyage." "Wouldn't it be a nice surprise for you if you happened to find King Al-Balu or Queen Lovett," Naomi says icily. "It would, wouldn't it," Saphia says with a smile and suddenly laughs. "You know I've always been a bit of a fan of you two Leo and Naomi. You have that self-righteous thing which is absolutely lovely. You must both get a lot of... satisfaction from your adventures together." "Goodbye Saphia," you tell her coldly. "I hope you and Ieyasu are very happy together here." As you turn away Saphia pauses and seems to be debating something with herself. Suddenly she calls after you and when you turn around she walks closer and talks quietly to you so that only you can hear. "If I were you Leo I'd keep going south until it starts to get cold and then turn east because I think that is what Anne-Marie will do..." she says quickly. "Do you remember during the Great Race when she tried to sail around the world she and my brother John Dancer became ship wrecked but she managed to return with just two companions? I've carefully investigated this and I believe she left most of her crew there because the boat she managed to build was only big enough for a few people. My belief is that, if her crew and my brother's survived, they formed a secret colony on that island or in that area. They may be the last hope she has to find a safe place to rebuild her strength, I have a feeling that if you find them you'll find her." Without another word Saphia turns away from you, walks back to Nohime and they head back towards the town; you are slightly puzzled to see they are holding hands as they walk. Shrugging you turn back to the Adventurer and go aboard while Drake goes aboard the Vengeance and makes sure the iron-clad is ready to sail. Once more you will be towing your ally and as you scan the horizon you consider which direction to travel in order to pursue your fugitive Queen. > You sail South Sailing South you soon sight a small uninhabited rocky island which you recognize from an earlier voyage: it was here that those Captains who resisted the tyranny of Shingen, Kenshin and Ieyasu and where your countryman Thomas Finch died and was buried. Naomi is keen to go ashore and visit his grave. "He was always decent towards us," she reminds you. "I think it is only right as we are here that we go ashore and visit his final resting place." > You go ashore and visit Finch's Grave Landing on the island you and Naomi go ashore together and you lead her a short way up from the shore to a flat plateau where a simple stone bears the words THOMAS FINCH - MURDERED ON THE ORDERS OF THE QUEEN HE LOYALLY SERVED. You read the translation to Naomi and stand at that lonely spot for a time lost in thought. Finally Naomi's voice breaks your thoughts. "You know we can't leave Ieyasu to rule the Elixi," she tells you. "One day we will have to deal with him." "Well we have finished off his brothers," you tell her. "After we have dealt with Anne-Marie his time will come." With such comforting thoughts you take Naomi by the hand, kiss her and lead her back down to the shore to the boat and back aboard the Adventurer.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The next morning you set sail from Revel. Queen Saphia and her lady companion Nohime come down to the dock to see you off but there is no sign of Ieyasu. You are rather glad he is not there and you, Naomi and Drake pause to talk to the new Queen of the Elixi. "I really do hope you catch Anne-Marie," Saphia tells you cheerfully. "She has no further use now. I might even make a voyage or two to help your efforts... as you can see we are getting the Shadow ready for a voyage." "Wouldn't it be a nice surprise for you if you happened to find King Al-Balu or Queen Lovett," Naomi says icily. "It would, wouldn't it," Saphia says with a smile and suddenly laughs. "You know I've always been a bit of a fan of you two Leo and Naomi. You have that self-righteous thing which is absolutely lovely. You must both get a lot of... satisfaction from your adventures together." "Goodbye Saphia," you tell her coldly. "I hope you and Ieyasu are very happy together here." As you turn away Saphia pauses and seems to be debating something with herself. Suddenly she calls after you and when you turn around she walks closer and talks quietly to you so that only you can hear. "If I were you Leo I'd keep going south until it starts to get cold and then turn east because I think that is what Anne-Marie will do..." she says quickly. "Do you remember during the Great Race when she tried to sail around the world she and my brother John Dancer became ship wrecked but she managed to return with just two companions? I've carefully investigated this and I believe she left most of her crew there because the boat she managed to build was only big enough for a few people. My belief is that, if her crew and my brother's survived, they formed a secret colony on that island or in that area. They may be the last hope she has to find a safe place to rebuild her strength, I have a feeling that if you find them you'll find her." Without another word Saphia turns away from you, walks back to Nohime and they head back towards the town; you are slightly puzzled to see they are holding hands as they walk. Shrugging you turn back to the Adventurer and go aboard while Drake goes aboard the Vengeance and makes sure the iron-clad is ready to sail. Once more you will be towing your ally and as you scan the horizon you consider which direction to travel in order to pursue your fugitive Queen. > You sail Southwest You are sailing across the ocean through a thin sea mist one day when without warning you hear several booms and several flashes light up the horizon. Almost before you know what is happening several cannonballs are flying over the Adventurer or splashing into the water nearby and the Monarch of the Sea smoothly sails out of the mist ahead of you, turning to deliver another broadside across your bows. You and your Crew are totally unprepared, the Vengeance even less so, and once the situation is explained to her Naomi urges you to take evasive action. > You stand and Fight You spin the helm so the Adventurer can get into a position so she can return fire and your Crew rush to man the cannons but before you can fire a volley in return the Monarch of the Sea completes her turn and fires a volley that kills three of your men. By the time you have got off a return volley your enemy has already vanished into the fog leaving nothing but casualties and damage behind her. Drake's Vengeance didn't even manage to join the short skirmish at all but her Captain is confident because at least it means you are traveling in the right direction.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You are sailing across the ocean through a thin sea mist one day when without warning you hear several booms and several flashes light up the horizon. Almost before you know what is happening several cannonballs are flying over the Adventurer or splashing into the water nearby and the Monarch of the Sea smoothly sails out of the mist ahead of you, turning to deliver another broadside across your bows. You and your Crew are totally unprepared, the Vengeance even less so, and once the situation is explained to her Naomi urges you to take evasive action. > You take evasive action You turn swiftly and before the Monarch of the Sea has a chance to fire again you sail the Adventurer back into the mist: this allows the Vengeance to go past you and move into a position to fire back at your enemy. Anne-Marie quickly retreats into the mist and vanishes. It is obvious she has been waiting to ambush you but the fact you have encountered her at all is encouraging because it means you are on the right trail: in a few hours you resume your pursuit.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>One morning the beautiful port of Golden Sands comes into sight: your home which you have not seen for many long months. Riding gently at anchor are the Monarch of the Sea and the Sea Ghost, the two strongest ships your people have ever built unless your iron-clads prove stronger. You lead your strange Fleet straight towards them, the Adventurer leading the way towing the Retribution and Vengeance behind while the King's Canoe sails behind you leading it's armada or war canoes filled with vengeful Lapau warriors determined to have their revenge. As you approach the island you see a great bustle aboard the enemy ships and both put to sea and sail straight towards your fleet, the rails of the ships lined with men and cannons. As the distance between you and your enemies shrinks the bow cannons on both sides begins firing as the event that will be forever known to your people as the Battle of Golden Sands begins. Within minutes all ships are launching cannon balls, musket balls or throwing spears into the ships and men alike in a determined effort to destroy the other. The King's Canoe is an early casualty: within minutes of fighting the largest Lapau canoe begins to sink suddenly. You are standing on the quarterdeck of the Adventurer with Naomi at your side and scanning the sinking vessel with your telescope you notice something strange: numerous little wooden tubes are sticking out of the water. With a jolt you realize Anne-Marie has cunningly employed divers armed with swords and hollow breathing tubes to stab holes in your ships, an imitation of tactics the Lapau themselves used during your war with them. The Lapau are also recognizing the threat and are trying to cut the breathing tubes below sea level wherever they find them. If Anne-Marie has her underwater divers you have your turtle ships and both the Retribution and Vengeance perform excellently, cannonballs and musket balls bouncing off them with metallic clangs as they pour their own gunfire into your enemies. Indeed Shingen's Sea Ghost is suffering so badly he deliberately steers it prow-first into the side of the Retribution in a desperate attempt to sink it. Swordsmen pour from the decks of the Sea Ghost onto the Retribution and begin slaughtering the outnumbered crew of the iron-clad. Your Fleet is suffering badly: the King's Canoe has already sunk and many Lapau are being killed in the sea and in their canoes by musket fire. The Sea Ghost and Retribution have become entangled together and both appear to be sinking. Keeping clear of the general melee Anne-Marie's Monarch of the Sea is trading volleys of cannon fire with the Vengeance but here at least your comrade Drake is having the best of the exchange. Aboard the Adventurer you have already lost three men to cannonfire and must choose who you help now. > You help rescue the Lapau survivors of the King's Canoe Determined to help your Lapau allies you steer clear of the confusion around the Sea Ghost and Retribution and fire a volley of cannon shots at the Monarch of the Sea to try to drive her off. Anne-Marie does indeed break off her outnumbered struggle and steers her ship clear of the Vengeance and westwards away from the Battle towards the open sea. As you try to rescue as many Lapau as you can the Retribution and the Sea Ghost, the latter once the most famous ship among your people, sink below the waves. You have won the Battle but have lost too much for it to feel much like a victory. King Al-Capu is among the dead and his warriors scream their laments to the sky. King Shingen is still alive when he is rescued from the sea along with the other survivors of the Retribution and Sea Ghost but he has been shot through the stomach during the Battle and by the time he is haulted aboard the deck of the Adventurer he is nearly dead. As you pull Naomi towards him he recognizes you and laughs. "Well you got me this time Leo," he tells you with a weak smile. "You'll never get Anne-Marie though. She's the best of all of us..." He falls back with a sigh and dies moments later. That evening you guide the Adventurer, Vengeance and the last of the Lapau canoes into the harbor of Golden Sands.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Finally after a difficult voyage and low on food the port/island of Revel appears before you in the distance. Anchored a short way off and clearly waiting for you is the Shadow with the Retribution in tow and you steer the Adventurer and Vengeance alongside them. Drake and Saphia come aboard, the latter humming a tune to herself as though she had not a care in the world. You and Naomi are more concerned however as there is no sign of Lovett and her two ships. "Have you seen any trace of Commodore Lovett?" you ask Saphia who shakes her head without even breaking her tune. You and Drake exchange glances, none of you trust your new ally but Saphia finally stops whistling. "I have already scouted out Revel Port," she tells you. "Prince Kenshin is there with the Esme's Joy. You need not tax your obviously considerable mental powers because I already have a plan. Kenshin still believes I am his ally. If I sail in towing both iron-clad ships he will be puzzled but should not suspect anything until we open fire on him at point blank range. I would rather tow the Iron-Clads in than the Adventurer because they are more heavily-armed." "You want to take our two iron clads into the heart of the enemy Port while we wait some distance away?" Naomi asks suspiciously. "Why anyone would think you don't trust me Admiral," Saphia says to Naomi with a laugh. "By all means if you prefer I could tow the Adventurer into the harbor and attack Kenshin with our two ships. It'll just mean the iron-clads probably won't get to fight and the victory will be harder to win, though probably still possibly. I am only a lowly Commander though so in such exalted company as two Admirals I must let my superiors make their battle plans." You frown at Saphia, there is logic in what she is saying about towing the two iron-clads into the harbor but you wonder how much you can trust her not to hand those ships straight over to the Elixi. There is still also the mystery of the missing Lovett and her two ships... > You insist that Saphia's Dancer tow the Adventurer into Revel Harbor instead You decide that you would rather keep a close on Saphia so hiding your men below decks you arrange for the Shadow to tow the Adventurer into the harbor, leaving the two iron-clads behind. Watching through a small window you see the Esme's Joy approaching rapidly and coming alongside the Shadow. To your enormous relief the Shadow fires a volley of cannon shots directly into the side of the Esme's Joy. You shout the order and rushing up onto deck your own Crew add the guns of the Adventurer to the ensuing battle. Caught by surprise the Esme's Joy tries to fight back, firing it's own volley of cannon shots at the Shadow, bringing down it's main mast and exchanging musket shots with your own Crew, killing three. Saphia's Crew rapidly reload and fire another round of cannon shots into the side of the Esme's Joy which seals it's fate: sinking rapidly it's Crew dive from the deck into the sea. Standing by the rail with Naomi at your side you keep up a running commentary of what is happening in the battle for her benefit. You feel a strange sense of sadness as you see the Esme's Joy vanish beneath the waves. Though in enemy hands now under her previous two Captains, Esme Hale and Eva Freer, both friends of yours, she performed great deeds and sailed around the world twice, the second time as part of the War Fleet. Most of her Crew survive to swim to Revel but Kenshin is not among them: recognized by one of your sailors he is shot through the head and killed by a musket ball. You report to Naomi that the man who blinded her has been killed and she takes the news in silence. By dusk the iron-clads have been brought into the harbor and Revel is yours!<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Your name is Leo Trapa and your achievements as Commodore of your ship Adventurer have already made you one of the most famous sailors in your world of Magellan. The Adventurer is a tough little ship and veteran of several battles, large enough to hold a Crew of 30 Sailors and 30 days worth of Supplies for them. Although you are only twenty-one years old you have already received the rank of Commodore from your Queen in recognition of your superb ability and seamanship. The World of Magellan on which you live is mostly ocean occupied by a scattering of islands: twenty-five have already been discovered and there are almost certainly many more waiting out there. The people of your homeland, the Kingdom of the Three Islands, have a rich naval tradition and are technologically advanced: the Adventurer carries four cannons and all of your crew are armed with muskets, though these are slow to load making the sword your secondary weapon. A dozen Colonies have been established beyond the Great Reef which rings your three home islands but these range from thriving settlements to tiny outposts of civilization. Your biggest problem on long voyages is that your ship can only carry enough Supplies for 30 days which will make finding and obtaining fresh sources of Supplies your top priority. If you ever run out of Supplies (your Supply number falls to 0) then you and your Crew will starve to death and die. You will almost certainly lose Crew members during your voyage and you must be careful that your Crew number never falls to 0 either: that will mean that you and all your Crew are dead. Frequently there is a time element involved during your voyages and you will want to complete them in the smallest number of Days possible. Successfully completing a Voyage ahead of your Competitors will result in a Score Point which will show if you leave a Comment after the game that you have completed this story with a very high degree of skill. As in previous adventures you will find it useful to make a map of the waters you sail as you may return this way again and the information may benefit you... So good luck reader, make wise and strategically sound choices and with a little luck, a good course and a fair wind you might live to see your homeland again! > You click here to begin your adventure (remember to pick up the List of Noted Sailors first) You stand in the familiar anteroom of the Royal Palace in Golden Sands, the Capital of The Three Islands, your homeland. Either side of you stand your fellow officers Naomi Swift and Eva Freer, both as experienced on the high seas as you are yourself. Pale and slender with long fair hair Naomi's delicate appearance hides a spirit of iron and determination. Eva on the other hand looks every bit as tough as she is with tomboyish short purple-black hair from beneath which her eyes seem to glare in a challenging way at everything she sees. They are your two best friends for different reasons: for Eva you feel something approaching devotion while at the same time awkwardly aware you inspire similar feelings in Naomi. The Throne Room's doors open and Richard Quarrel, a slimy snake of a man whose marriage to your Queen has done little to improve his popularity with anyone, smiles at you all. "The Queen will see you now," he announces. Going inside you find more familiar faces waiting for you. Queen Anne-Marie, cold and imperious sits on her Throne while at her side sits the young foreigner Prince Al-Balu who as always looks completely baffled by what is going on around him. On his other side sits Ann Lovett, his fair-haired interpreter who gives you all a quick smile as you enter. On Anne-Marie's other side is a lady you don't recognize, an attractive dark-haired woman with a mocking smile that gives off the disconcerting impression that she knows something the rest of you don't. As you halt Anne-Marie speaks. "I have summoned you three here because I have need of your services once more," she declares. "I know recently you have been extremely loud in voicing your criticisms of my rule. I also cannot forget that at the moment the Lapau War was approaching it's climactic battle you all rebelled and refused to follow my orders... However in my great and gracious mercy I will forgive you three as I have a task for you to perform. As you are aware neither Commodore Cuthrew or Finch have returned from their voyage of exploration beyond the Western Passage and it has been nearly three months since they left. Obviously the disapearrences of such experienced officers is troubling to say the least... Commodore Trapa. I want you to lead an expedition to find our lost countrymen and see what has befallen them. This is a difficult challenge but it's success will only increase your already great reputation and lead to generous rewards." Anne-Marie flickers her eyes over your companions and her expressions darkens as she meets Eva's defiant stare. "Commodores Freer and Swift will accompany you with their own vessels and will be under your command, you may consider Commodore Swift your deputy. I have arranged for fresh supplies to be cached at the Western Passage and after a suitable interval I will send my friend Captain Dancer through the Eastern Passage with fresh supplies to assist you upon your return." You glance at Captain Dancer's whose smile widens as she meets your eyes. If you didn't know better you could be sure she is trying to tell you something... you cast your gaze across to Quarrel, who is also smiling at you in a way you don't like, and onto Al-Balu and Lovett who are politely listening to Anne-Marie speak and are not looking at you. Anne-Marie is watching you intently and you promise her you will do all you can to find the missing sailors. "Oh Commodore Trapa," Anne-Marie says as you turn to leave and you glance back. "I expect you to return with Commodores Cuthrew and Finch or not at all. Have a safe voyage." There is something about the way she says those last four words that chills you. "Do you get the feeling there's something that bitch isn't telling us?" Eva whispers to you as the three of you leave the Palace and descend down to the quay to prepare your ships for your next voyage. > You beginning your journey The next morning you and your companions sail your ships out of Golden Sands with the rising sun at your backs. Anne-Marie hasn't notified the people of your voyage so there are no cheering crowds to see you off as on previous voyages which feels oddly unsettling. As always you glance back at your homeland and wonder if you'll ever see her beautiful shores again.Your first objective is the Western Passage which lies about a week's voyage to the west through waters you know well. You can either sail straight there or you can swing Northwest to visit Amethyst, the heavily forested island where your people's ships are built. > You swing Northwest to visit Amethyst After a short voyage you reach Amethyst to witness another troubling sight.Queen Anne-Marie's enormous flagship Monarch of the Sea is anchored in the harbor and as you watch you can see several new cannons are being loaded aboard to fill the deck with guns. The ship was already heavily armed but now it looks like it contains around twenty cannons, with more being loaded. Deeply unnerved by the sight and puzzled as to why Anne-Marie is so heavily arming her ship you don't land but instead guide your companions away Southwest towards the Western Passage. > The Western Passage After six days at sea the Western Passage comes into sight, visible from a long way off as looking like a tear in the endless line that is the Great Reef. You have never sailed this way before but both Naomi and Eva have and their ships lead the way, guiding your Adventurer through the narrow Passage. As at all Passages a small camp has been established to keep watch on all ships traveling in and out of the Passage. Both Naomi and Eva strongly below you should stop here for a day and pick up the supplies Anne-Marie has promised she has cached here. > You stop to take on fresh supplies Knowing it makes sense you order your fellow Captains to drop anchor in the Western Passage and row ashore to meet the men garrisoning the towers. There are two: a young man and an old man and they are happy to help you load some of their spare crates of fish onto your ships. While the old man is showing your sailors where the crates are located you ask the younger man what ships he has seen pass through the Western Passage in recent months. "Not many since the Second Race to tell you the truth," he says scratching his head. "I suppose the first ship we saw since then was Captain Dancer's Shadow come in from the west with just a dozen sailors on board. She stopped here, picked up supplies and then sailed on to Golden Sands." That is news to you and you frown. "How long after that did Cuthrew and Finch sail through?" "Oh the Sea Ghost and the Royal Escort sailed through about a month after that but it wasn't just them," the talkative youth tells you. "The Shadow and the Indefatigable were with them. They were all gone out west about one month and then the Shadow and the Indefatigable sailed back through from the west without stopping. There was no sign of the Sea Ghost or Royal Escort, I suppose they must have traveled on." You are astounded but before you can ask any more questions the older of the two guards rejoins you. "Not talking about anything you shouldn't are you?" he asks looking at his young companion in an unfriendly way. Taking the hint the young man agrees he'd better get on with his duties. That evening after the fresh supplies are loaded aboard your three ships you report the conversation to Naomi and Eva and the three of you agree it looks suspicious. "Why didn't Anne-Marie tell us that Quarrel and Dancer were with Cuthrew and Finch?" Naomi asks you. "And why did they come back without them?" "Both of you were in the Second Race," you tell Naomi and Eva. "When you sailed from east to west around Magellan did you see anything suspicious?" "I didn't but me and my cousin stuck to the Northwest as much as possible and rarely landed," Naomi admits. "It wasn't just me and Eva who made that voyage either: Finch and Quarrel did as well." "Well I stuck to the Southwest and didn't land much either..." Eva says frowning. "Do you reckon someone else found something in these waters?" You all glance uncertainly at each other and with a lot on your mind resume your voyage to the west. > You an Unexpected Encounter After sailing through the Western Passage and entering the unknown you order the Adventurer, Explorer and Esme's Joy to hold a steady westerly heading for now. The Great Reef fades from sight behind you but a wholly unexpected object is sighted to the west: a ship! You have soon approached nearer and find the ship is a similar size but a wholly different design to your own, sitting lower in the water and with black sails instead of white. The ship's name, emblazoned across the prow is Morning Glory. As you sail by you are astounded to see men in strange clothes shouting in your own language for you to come aboard! > You order your fleet to drop anchor and meet with this strange visitation Cautiously you sail towards the strange ship and anchoring the Adventurer alongside you go aboard the Morning Glory with Eva and Naomi who have also anchored their ships nearby. The sailors aboard this strange ship have colorful clothes which are emblazoned with animals and they look at you with as much interest as you look at them. Their commander is a big, strong man with a long grey beard who looks oddly unhappy to see you. He walks forward and greets you in your own language, though with a strong and unusual accent. "My name is Azai and I am Captain of this ship," he tells you. "What are your names?" "I am Commodore Leo Trapa and these are my companions Commodores Eva Freer and Naomi Swift," you tell him. Azai looks surprised. "Indeed?" he asks thoughtfully. "It may surprise you to learn that we know of your kingdom already Commodore Trapa though I do not think you know of ours. You are now entering the waters of the Elixi nation. Until recently we were ruled by our Queen Renewal but she... died a few months ago and her son Shingen now rules as King. I and six of my fellow Captains refuse to serve Shingen and his brothers Kenshin and Ieyasu and now we sail under pain of death, outlawed by our own countrymen. If you sail on to the west you will come to the island of Revel, the Capital of our nation. There you will meet with Shingen and his brothers but I would suggest that you be on your guard." Having shared these sentiments Captain Azai refuses to answer any of your further questions and shows absolutely no interest in your homeland. "We know of your Three Islands already," he tells you. "My people call you the Navar, the Barrier-Folk.I think it is now time we part ways." Azai seems keen to be on his way so feeling completely baffled you and your companions return to your ships and weigh anchor. The Morning Glory swiftly sails away to the Southwest and pondering your odd encounter you and your expedition continue west. > The Land of the Elixi Keeping to your westward course you soon come upon a land unlike any you have seen before: it is a thriving port-island similar in size to Golden Sands but unlike it in every way with vastly different architecture and ships. People in fantastically-dressed clothes soon throng the quays and as you approach the harbor an unexpected sight makes you freeze: the Sea Ghost is riding gently at anchor in the harbor. There is no sign of Finch's ship, the Royal Escort. Entering the harbor cautiously you, Eva and Naomi all anchor your ships alongside the quay and leading your sailors ashore armed and ready you meet with these people. The crowd draws back as you approach but three tall and strong-looking men who are so alike they can only be brothers stride forward to meet you. Their leader is a handsome man with flowing black hair bound in ringlets and a jovial air. "Hello, hello," he cries out taking your hand and pumping it in a massive fist. He speaks your own language with a strange accent. "My name is Shingen and I am King of the Elixi Nation! This is our Capital Island which we call Revel. These are my brothers, Kenshin and Ieyasu." Kenshin is a broad man who smells strongly of alcohol as he shakes your hand with a yellow-toothed grin. Ieyasu looks the youngest and is also the slimmest, dressed simply in black. He doesn't smile at you as you shake hands but instead surveys you with narrow snake-like eyes. "As you can see we have already been visited by your countrymen," Shingen goes on, gesturing at the Sea Ghost. "Hence how we know your language. Your great Captains Thomas Finch and Tobias Cuthrew landed here some months ago. I am afraid I have sad news for you. Your great sailor Tobias Cuthrew was very ill when he landed and his sickness grew worse. I am sorry to say he has since died and is buried here in our town's cemetery. After his death his companion Captain Finch sailed away. That was two months ago and we have not heard news of him since." You, Eva and Naomi exchange horrified glances. The news that the greatest sailor of your kingdom is dead shakes you all to the core. "What about Cuthrew's crew?" Eva demands. "What became of them?" "Many of them went on with Commodore Finch," Shingen says cheerfully. "Many still reside in this town and have become good friends of my people. For some reason none felt an urge to return to the kingdom ruled by your Queen Anne-Marie... now I have an interest in forming an alliance with your Queen so me and my people will give you all the assistance you require. I assume you intend to journey on to find your missing comrade Finch? If you return here tomorrow I will arrange for enough Supplies to re-provision your ships to be assembled on the quay and we will also provide you with a map of our islands to help you safely navigate them." "We must also visit Commodore Cuthrew's grave," you tell King Shingen who nods sympathetically. "Tomorrow, tomorrow," he tells you. "Return tomorrow morning." You, Eva and Naomi return aboard the Adventurer where you hastily confer. Eva is suspicious. "I saw Cuthrew before he left on his voyage," she tells you both. "He was ill but he wasn't that ill. I don't trust any of those three." "If we sail away they'll be after us in the Sea Ghost and those other little ships in the harbor," Naomi points out. "I think for the time being it's better that we work with these people. Tomorrow we can go ashore and see if Cuthrew really is buried on the island." "I agree," you tell her. "Tomorrow we'll go ashore as planned. This turns out to be the worst decision of your life. > A Fateful Day The next morning you, Naomi and Eva lead your sailors ashore onto the quay of Revel. As before there is an expectant crowd waiting for you but the crowd is oddly silent today and looks tense. Glancing round them you notice something strange: there is a ship approaching the island rapidly from the South. Squinting at it you recognize it with a start: it is Thomas Finch's Royal Escort! Eva and Naomi recognize it too and freeze halfway down the quay, your sailors all stop behind you as well. Eva grips your arm, sending a thrill of excitement through you. "I don't like this," she says quietly and for the first time in all the time you have known her she sounds scared. The crowd parts in Shingen, Kenshin and Ieyasu come striding towards you. Unlike yesterday they are armed: Shingen and Kenshin are carrying drawn swords in their hands while Ieyasu is holding an extremely short-barreled musket which is more like a pistol. As they advance within a few feet of you the crowd behind them edges forward and more weapons appear. With a feeling of horror you realize that you have led your whole expedition into a trap. "Eva! Naomi! Get back!" you shout. Shingen lunges towards you with his sword but you spring back just in time, drawing your own sword as you do. At the same moment Kenshin gives a mighty sweep of his sword that cuts through both of Naomi Swift's eyes, with a scream she clutches her bleeding face. Ieyasu steps forward, cocks his pistol with a click, raises it and shoots Eva point blank in the chest. She is thrown backwards, landing on her back on the jetty where she lies staring open-eyed at the sky, her face still wearing a last expression of surprise. With a roar of rage you slash your sword wildly at Shingen, forcing him back. Steel grates as swords clang against each other and muskets bang on both sides. A musket ball whistles past your head and as Shingen retreats you grab the blinded Naomi wand holding her body close to yours with your free arm you drag her back to safety. Your ninety sailors are trapped at the end of the quay facing a crowd several times their own number and death seems inevitable. Your countrymen sell their lives dearly. While you drag Naomi back across the gangplank leading to the Adventurer, musket balls flying so thickly all about you that it seems a miracle you are not hit, your sailors fight the crowd on the quay. They are cut down and butchered mercilessly, a few dozen manage to flee across the gangplank to the Adventurer but most are cut down. You manage to get the Adventurer's anchor raised, the sails raised and manage to steer away from the quay, forced to abandon both the Explorer and Esme's Joy, not to mention the bodies of your countrymen including Eva. Even as the Adventurer moves out into the harbor with the surviving sailors from all three ships on board, about thirty altogether while twice that amount lie dead on Revel's jetties, the Sea Ghost explodes into life, firing a row of six cannons. One of the shot decapitates two of your sailors and another hits a third sailor plumb in the chest, blasting him into several pieces. Gathering speed the Sea Ghost moves forward to cut off your escape. Help is finally at hand however. The approaching Royal Escort fires two cannons and a volley of musket shots, forcing the Sea Ghost to veer away. This gives you a chance to slip the Adventurer out of the harbor and you sail straight towards the Royal Escort, unaware of who is in command but only knowing that they are on your side. As the Royal Escort turns back towards the South you follow her, putting as much space between you and the murderous tyrants of Revel as possible. > You shock Eva Freer is dead. It seems impossible but it is true. Naomi Swift has been blinded and will never see again. You carry her into your cabin where your ship's surgeon attends to her injuries night and day. So many have died: altogether you have lost more than sixty sailors and two of your expedition's ships: only the Adventurer and her small Crew remains. For three days you follow the Royal Escort, unaware of where you are going and not particularly caring until you come to a small rocky island. Seven ships, similar in size to the Adventurer but of a different design are anchored offshore. Sailing in among them you meet your new allies. Seven Elixi Captains come aboard the Adventurer. Their leader is Azai, a grey-bearded old man with a permanently worried look who you may have met before. His six companions are Amako, a tall and cold-natured man who stands in sharp contrast to his brother Ryuzoji, a young cheerful man dressed in clothes of bright red. Miura is a big man with a long flowing black beard while his brother Rokkaku is a bit of a dandy, elegantly dressed in fine clothes. Sanada is a tall and handsome man while his companion Sogo has dark skin and unlike the others drinks tea in your cabin while the others accept wine from you. You find all their names a little difficult to remember and in your depressed state can't raise the interest to care much about any of them. Your thoughts are dwelling on Eva and you are only half-listening as Azai talks. "You are not the first to come to our land, the first visitors were two of your Captains called Finch and Quarrel who came to Revel from the west some six months ago," Azau tells you. "Later a woman called Sapphira Dancer also visited from the west. This was when Renewel was still Queen and kept her evil sons Shingen, Kenshin and Ieyasu in check. A few months after Dancer came four more ships, this time from the east. Dancer, Quarrel, Finch and Tobias Cuthrew were their four Captains." "They stayed at Revel for several weeks. By day your countrymen spoke to Queen Renewel but by night they plotted with Shingen and his brothers in the darkness. One night there was a bloody coup: Shingen cut his mother's throat while she slept and his supporters took control of the Palace. During the coup Cuthrew and Finch tried to intervene on the Queen's side. Cuthrew was shot and killed in the fighting while Finch was stabbed through the chest. He and a few of his sailors managed to get back to their ship and escape." "Me and my six fellow Captains are loyal supporters of Queen Renewel. When Shingen took power and named himself King we fled here with our ships and Commodore Finch. We did our best to help him but Finch's wound was mortal. Knowing he was dying he told us the names of you and your companions as people who could be trusted. After he died we buried him at sea. Since then we have been patrolling the waters between the Western Passage and Revel in hope of meeting you. I saw your ship a week ago and rushed here to alert the other Captains. We sent Finch's remaining Crew aboard the Royal Escort to Revel to meet you. We guessed you would not trust us but you would not doubt the word of your own countrymen... we never expected Shingen would try to murder you all before we could get there. According to Finch, Quarrel and Dancer told him Shingen and Anne-Marie have formed an alliance and together they would kill all who criticized or spoke out against their tyrranical rule..." "We are grateful for your help," you say wearily and lying in her sickbed in your cabin Naomi nods sightlessly. "But what can we do now? Eva is dead. Naomi cannot see. We have lost the Explorer and Esme's Joy and most of our Crews. You have seven ships and a few hundred sailors here but there are thousands of armed men in Revel and many more in Golden Sands under Anne-Marie's control... what can we do?" you stare at the table while the Elixi Captains glance among themselves. "We have an idea," Azai says finally. > A slim chance "There appear to be three great nations on this world your people call Magellan," Azai tells you. "There are my people, the Elixi, there are your people who we call the Navar, the Barrier Folk and there are also the Lapau, the spear-armed canoe-warriors who we have learned your people fought a War against. We know that Anne-Marie and Shingen have formed an alliance. Finch told us that Quarrel had claimed to him that the purpose of this alliance was to attack the Lapau on two fronts and crush them as your people failed to do alone. The slaughtered Lapau's lands would be divided between Anne-Marie and Shingen. Me and my companions believe the Lapau are our only possible allies." "King Al-Capu agreed to a peace treaty with Queen Anne-Marie," you tell Azai. "His son is a hostage in Queen Anne-Marie's court. Even if we sail to Matan and even if he believes us, which is unlikely, what can the Lapau do against the combined navies of my people and yours? The Navar as you call us nearly destroyed the Lapau in our War with them, they certainly don't have a chance against both the Navar and Elixi." "We must try," Azai insists. "With your people the Navar and my people the Elixi deceived into this evil alliance by their rulers the Lapau are our only chance for help." "Matan is on the other side of the world," you remind Azai. "To get there we either have to sail through territory ruled by Queen Anne-Marie or territory ruled by your Shingen or through completely uncharted waters. Shingen now has the Sea Ghost, Explorer and Esme's Joy. I am pretty sure that he and his brothers will come after us with everything they've got. You've got a strong little navy here but I don't think it will be a match for the full might of Anne-Marie and Shingen. "We have thought of that," Azai tells you. "We will all sail to Matan in four different directions. I will go Northeast, skirting the Great Reef and traveling through your kingdom's colonies to reach Matan. Amako and Ryuzoji will sail Southeast, skirting the Great Reef and also pass through your kingdom's colonies to Matan. Miura and Rokkaku will sail Southwest through uncharted waters to Matan and finally Sanada and Sogo will sail Northwest through the islands of the Elixi to Matan. You must choose which of us you think has the best chance of getting through." Your mind is still full of memories of Eva's expression of surprise when she was killed. With a deep sigh you cross to where Naomi is lying in her sickbed with a bloodied bandage over her eyes and take her hand in yours. You lower your head and shut your eyes tight and after a few moments of silence you hear the seven Elixi Captains quietly stand up and go outside to prepare their ships for their voyages and await your decision. > You reluctant Decisions That night while you sit with your agony-ridden companion wondering how your world could possibly have got turned so upside down so quickly the Elixi Captains begin to put their plans into action. The Royal Escort is abandoned and sunk and it's remaining Crew distributed among the other ships: Azai in the Morning Glory, Amako in the Relentless, Ryuzoji in the Lady Luck, Miura in the Royal Avenger, Rokkaku in the Warrior, Sanada in the Charmer, Sogo in the Fortune and of course you and Naomi in the Adventurer. To help you keep track of your new friends Azai thoughtfully provides you with a List of Loyal Elixi Captains. When Naomi finally slips into a troubled sleep you go up onto deck for a breath of fresh air and to think about things. The sun is just rising pink in the east and reveals three ships approaching from the north: the Sea Ghost, Esme's Joy and Explorer. With your telescope you can see all three ship's decks are absolutely packed with cannons and sailors. You hear a quiet cough behind you and turn to see Azai standing nearby. "It is Shingen, Kenshin and Ieyasu," he says pointing at the three distant ships. "They mean to destroy us once and for all I think. We're not strong enough to defeat all three wwith the two hundred sailors we have here so we must leave at once to seek help from the Lapau. I have had your ship resupplied and re-manned but now you must choose which of the four routes to Matan you take. You have sailed much further around Magellan than I have and must use your own knowledge and maps to choose your route. We must move quickly though: once Shingen and Anne-Marie know what they are doing they and their Captains will try to get to Matan ahead of us to warn King Al-Capu not to listen to us! We must be swift." Promising to tell Azai your decision within an hour you go down to your cabin to find Naomi has woken up. "We are going to sail to Matan then?" she asks you weakly and you tell her that it looks like you'll have to. Naomi hesitates and then slowly tears trickle down from the bloodied bandage around her eyes. "I want to thank you for what you did for me back there... I know you loved Eva and now she is gone all you have left is me and what help am I now? Nothing but a burden." "You will never be that," you assure Naomi. "If we are to survive this voyage I will need all your help and advice." Holding Naomi in a painful hug you mull over which route to take. (Please Pick up and use the List of Loyal Elixi Captains to help you make this important decision).<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The next morning you and your companions sail your ships out of Golden Sands with the rising sun at your backs. Anne-Marie hasn't notified the people of your voyage so there are no cheering crowds to see you off as on previous voyages which feels oddly unsettling. As always you glance back at your homeland and wonder if you'll ever see her beautiful shores again.Your first objective is the Western Passage which lies about a week's voyage to the west through waters you know well. You can either sail straight there or you can swing Northwest to visit Amethyst, the heavily forested island where your people's ships are built. > You sail Due West across the open sea towards the Western Passage You sail the Adventurer across the rolling waves, the Explorer and Esme's Joy easily keeping speed with you. You are glad to have your two friends either side of you and can think of no one you'd rather sail with. Every evening Naomi and Eva come aboard for dinner and most evening you speculate on what could have happened to Cuthrew and Finch. "Cuthrew was the best sailor we've got and Finch was no fool," Eva opinions one evening. "Whatever happened to them it must have been something neither of them have ever encountered before or even suspected they would encounter..." "We must be careful Leo," Naomi tells you. "Keep a close eye out for any dangers." You nod, uncomfortably aware that the lives of your fellow officers and the ninety sailors under your command rest on your decisions.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Few sights are as cheery as the warm light of an inn on a moonless night, especially when the winds are coming strong from the north and biting at your skin with icy teeth. You plod straight through the muck and dirty puddles, eager to rest before another day of wearying travel. The oaken door is heavy, but a mountain could not stop you, this close to warmth. You are not disappointed. The inn is crowded with people of every shape and size. Farmers from the nearby village mix with black-robed monks from the abbey. Children dart here and there, laughing at the drunk and sodden men that lie senseless in their ale. A handful of scraggly travelers warm themselves by the enormous fire, swapping rumors and tearing into black bread. You take a seat alongside them, nodding a welcome but with eyes only for the flames. Only after you can once again feel your hands and feet does your hunger return. The barman is a squat fellow, red bearded and seemingly fond of shouting. He takes your coins and shoves a bowl of thick stew towards you. "Welcome," he shouts, "to the Red Lion!" The man to your left strikes up a conversation about your destination, and soon the two of you are chatting away while you forget the miles ahead tomorrow. Suddenly the room goes silent, no small feat. Even the barman has ceased bellowing to his sons. All eyes are fixed upon the bard who has just stood, lute in hand, on a central table. He is a curious, almost comical figure, with arms and legs just slightly too long for his body and a shock of white hair that cascades down his shoulders like a waterfall. His voice, however, is low and clear, and it is not hard to see why all await the performance so eagerly. The bard strums a few notes, coughs twice, and begins his tale. A hundred years ago or more When good king Freolaf did rule The realm knew peace and never war. His son, the Prince, was never cruel The worthy son, Prince Reginald. He had a daughter, too, a jewel The Lady Jane, but twelve years old. Our Prince did love his sister sweet Their bond was joyous to behold. But danger came on swiftest feet From that old fiend, that devilish man Cantaphrax, the Lord of Heat Whose crimes, if I the list began Would stretch from here right to the Moon! The demons of the fiery clan All paid him homage, danced his tune. He summoned flames with just a wink Brighter than the Sun at noon. Upon a plan the Mage did think To win the power he'd long sought From spells in books with fading ink. The scheme was this: send demons hot To steal the Lady Jane away ... > You and bind her with a fiendish knot Then Cantaphrax would raise his knife Of purest silver 'oer the maid To cut away her royal life. Then with the blood spilled from the blade He'd call upon a Fiend most great And make a most unholy trade. The Lady's soul he'd give with hate And in return dominion gain. He would rule- 'twould be his fate! And so the Wizard sought poor Jane By sending out a demon slave A Minotaur, who with a chain Did drag her to a far-off cave. Next morn when Reginald awoke He knew his sister he must save. The Prince picked up his sword and cloak And rode off from his castle home But coming to a dead old oak He knew he could no longer roam Must choose to go to left or right Down dusty roads found in no tome If for his sister he would fight. Prince Reginald then chose the path ... > You that led to mountains of great height The Prince rode on along the road As ever taller grew the heights And in his earnest never slowed. Through darkness fell still shone the lights Of moon and stars arrayed above Our guardians atop all nights. So driven on by heart-felt love Prince Reginald did spy a cave And fearless of danger thereof Made for this dark and gloomy grave. Dear listener, you've guessed it true The Lady Jane and Mage's slave Lay waiting in this cavern too! The Prince approached the hellish maw And rode in, crying "Hew!" The Minotaur struck forth a claw And bellowed out his fearful rage. ... > You but Reginald did charge and draw His sword to slay the Demon-Bull! And Lady Jane bound fast with chains Against her wretched bonds did pull. The Minotaur with bulging veins That ran across fleshy form Let swing his axe of bloody stains As merciless as Hell's own storm. The silver-footed Prince cried out As blood began to bubble warm From out the hole where once did sprout His ear, and turning to his foe He charged and swung with one long shout! Prince Reginald aimed his blade low And so the tragedy occurred. He missed the beast but fierce did flow His sister's blood, he hadn't heard Her scream of terror at the sword. Now at her corpse with vision blurred He stared in shock then turned toward The beast, but too late to react His head, once severed joined the hoard The filthy creature kept and stacked. As did that of the Lady Jane But soon enough the beast was tracked And killed in anger and in pain By Cantaphrax, whose plan had failed. So ends my tale, and are all slain. > You and so the bard ends his tale. A few moments of silence follow the bard's last note. You can almost feel the sorrow on the back of your neck, forcing you into a shallow grave. The other patrons begin to clap and you do likewise, marveling at this magician who can summon fear and death with mere words. Soon the ordinary talk of life begins again, idle chatter about the road ahead or memories of years long gone. You drink more than is good for you, enough to regret tomorrow morning. After a couple hours you make your way upstairs and collapse on the small and flea-infested bed. Sleep comes almost immediately, but it is not a peaceful rest. Phantoms with horns and axes dripping blood hunt after you, eager to add your rotting head to the pile. As the days go by you forget about the dreams and, after a while, even the bard and his story. But every so often they return, the nameless terror only words can bring forth in the night, a testament to that chilling tale.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The Prince rode on along the road As ever taller grew the heights And in his earnest never slowed. Through darkness fell still shone the lights Of moon and stars arrayed above Our guardians atop all nights. So driven on by heart-felt love Prince Reginald did spy a cave And fearless of danger thereof Made for this dark and gloomy grave. Dear listener, you've guessed it true The Lady Jane and Mage's slave Lay waiting in this cavern too! The Prince approached the hellish maw And rode in, crying "Hew!" The Minotaur struck forth a claw And bellowed out his fearful rage. ... > The Prince sought to exploit this flaw So while the beast roared loud as Hell He dove between its filthy feet And just beside the Princess fell. He cut her chains, no easy treat While Minotaur is looming near Preparing to cut you to meat. With Jane set free he felt no fear And turned to face the hairy thing That stared straight with a manic leer. Their blades connected with a ding Resounding to the farthest shore. But neither foe had strength to bring His enemy to Hades' door Until the Lady Jane stepped in And, picking up the chain she'd wore In desperation helped her kin By throwing it against the beast A steely bolt to end his grin. Now seeing that his foe had ceased To fight because the chain had struck Prince Reginald's attacks increased! The Minotaur had lost his luck The Prince loped off his ugly head And tossed it down to join the muck. Then Prince and Princess both embraced. They wept to see themselves alive ... > You and made for home with utmost haste Prince Reginald and Lady Jane Rode swiftly down the mountain way And his poor horse the Prince did strain While Lady Jane did naught but pray. They did not fear old Cantaphrax For they knew not 'twas all his scheme But still could neither one relax Both haunted by a waking dream Of terrors coming in the night Beneath the frigid stars agleam. Though he had won a mighty fight The Prince longed just to make it back And end the misadventure right. They wandered down the misty track But lacking light to guide the course Were quickly lost in inky black. The Prince, the Princess and the horse Still wander in the wilderness A hundred years of ghostly force Has kept them lost with no redress. So if you ride by night and see The ghostly royals, feel no distress 'Tis just their phantoms, never free.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Her eyes dart from Fire Sage to Fire Sage. Of course, they will all betray her too just as everyone else has, but she can’t banish them yet. They must crown her first, but it’s a meaningless title now anyway. Fire Lord. Bah, what nonsense. Go back a few hours and it’d be the most powerful position in the world. The Fire Nation rules almost the entire world now, but with her father deciding to make himself the Phoenix King, not the most creative title, it makes her nothing but an honorary… something. Honorary vassal? Oh, I’m letting my mind wander again. How foolish of me. I’m raving like a madwoman. She’ll banish the Fire Sages in a few moments before they could betray her. It all started with Mother. No, it started when Zuko betrayed her, stole all their mother’s affection by simply being born. At least Father pretended to like her. Too bad he just dumped her off here when he no longer had a use for her. Helping him commit genocide against the Earth Kingdom would’ve made some fun bonding moments. What’s taking them so long anyway? Put the crown on my head! It’ll make her the youngest, fifteen, and the first female Fire Lord ever. She blows a strand of her hair that’s been dangling in front of her left eye. She should’ve hacked that one off too like all the other untrustworthy hairs. Maybe she doesn’t look perfect right now. She can’t tell. She destroyed her mirror after Mother wouldn’t stop talking to her, from the other side of the reflection of course. She had the gall to not age for over half a decade and not even speak to her in person! What little remains of the logical part of her brain screams at her, telling her that she’s not well in the head. That was a hallucination, not her mother. All her servants, bodyguards, and teachers weren’t trying to kill her. Azula ignores that little voice in her head. Just as the fools were about to put that crown on her head, she sees him. Him! There he is, returning at the most inopportune moment! He’s been a traitor to her and their nation for how long? Weeks? He’s been hiding somewhere with this glorious nation’s most hated enemy, but he arrives to fight- No! He comes to betray her again, like everyone has done to her and like everyone will always do to her. Azula stands up and faces him, grinning like a madwoman. She says one word to him. “Zuzu.” > You 1 The baby reaches for the bright ball, but she can never grasp it. Why? Other balls come to her hands. That one doesn’t. It makes her angry, but it makes her want that bright ball even more. It warms her, lets her feel alive. She stretches her arms out to seize the ball again. She fails again. The tall person says words to her. Of course, Azula doesn’t understand any of them, but the words seem harsh. She has a distant memory of those words once sounding nice, but not any longer. The being she will one day know as Mother doesn’t say nice things to her. Instead, she moves the baby under the shade of a tree. She decides not to cry. It never does much good anyway. The bright ball disappeared under the green stuff above her now. The tall person and the short person sit by the water. Azula understands water. Once a day, she is put in water even though she doesn’t like the feeling. The water feels bad. The bright ball feels good and warm even though she never reached it. The two people throw something into the pond. Little fury things swim up and eat whatever the two of them toss into the water. Azula watches them until they run out of stuff to throw. She later learns it’s called bread. While the tall person stays by the water, the short one walks over to her. She doesn’t understand what he’s saying, but his tone is happy. He stresses one word over and over to her. She watches his lip movements and listens to that sound her makes. Why not copy it? It’s how she learns many things after all. “Z…” He looks happier with that sounds, so he repeats that word over and over again. Perhaps he’s broken? Maybe he’ll be fixed by making that sound again. “Zuzu!” It’s the first word she ever spoke. > You 2 Azula giggles. It amuses her to see so many metal men run around. They always stand still or walk behind her, but now they seem frantic. They bend away the fire from the stupid, ugly painting. fears their red armor and spiky helmets, but not Azula. No, she’s a big girl who doesn’t feel scared. “Azula!” The girl feels scared as her mother stands in front of the… What was the word? Tapestry! It’s a tapestry. Mommy trembles. A tear falls down her face. Why is Mommy sad? I bended fire! “What did you do, Azula?” Azula lowers her gaze. How come Mommy gets so angry at her and only her? She smiles at everyone else, well, except for Daddy. “I…” Why am I in trouble? “I bended fire, like Daddy and Zuzu.” “Tell me the truth. You’re two. No one bends fire at two. It was rare for Zuko to bend fire at only four.” “But I am tellin’ the truth.” She crosses her arms. “Did you hide the candles? Please tell me the fire you burned this with isn’t still burning.” “I burned it with my fire!” “You burned my only reminder of my family. Stop lying.” “I am not lying. I am your family!” She stomps her foot on the ground. The rug catches on fire where her foot made contact. Unlike before, pure joy, now she feels afraid. Will Mommy be angry about this too? Instead of saying anything else, Mommy walks away in a hurry. The metal men, maybe they are called guards, bend that fire away too. She watches. They do it so easily. Why doesn’t Mommy yell at them? They bend, but she doesn’t mind. Why doesn’t Mommy love her? “A… Azula?” She turns her head. Zuzu stands in the doorway, eyes wide. Zuzu burned something too when he first bended. It was part of Mommy’s dress, a pretty and black one. Mommy was so happy when that happened even though the fire made her skin look a little red on her hand. She loves Zuzu. “What did you do, Azula?” he asks, echoing their mother’s words. Again, Azula lowers her gaze. > You show Him She shoots some fire. It catches Zuzu’s shirt on fire. He screams like a girl before throwing his shirt off. “Why did you do that, Azula?” He has tears in his eyes. Did I hurt Zuzu? “I…” She looks at the ground. “I wanted to show you.” He glances at his arm again. “Fire can hurt. It can kill. It’s why we’re so good at conquering the world.” Azula nods at the last part. “Don’t do that anymore. I… I have practice coming up about control. Um…” He sighs, or maybe that was a groan. “You can come with me for that.” She tilts her head to the side. “Really?” “Yeah, really.” Zuzu will help her. She never got to do big kid things with him before. He did all of this after she burned him? Her big brother is either the nicest person ever or a giant dum-dum. They hear a new set of footsteps. She turns and sees someone she only remembers seeing twice before besides their nightly, tense dinners. Mommy stands behind him. She looks angry and confused. Maybe she’s wondering why Zuzu’s shirt is smoldering on the ground. “Daddy?” she asks. Zuzu takes three steps backwards. “Azula, you bent fire.” “Yes.” She clenches her tiny fists. Will he be angry like Mommy? “Good job.” He smirks. At this time in her life, it scared her. Eventually, she will learn to desire such approval.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Droplets of water strike the steel floor with a ringing. You glance nervously around the enormous dungeon. It is an enormous room, made entirely of steel, with a large round dome for a roof, and three huge doors evenly spaced apart. You are alone, and in this enormous, dimly lit room, you start to feel uneasy. You are a knight in the army of a great country. You and your fellows have been at war with another country for the past several months. This other country, Tyrannica, is ruled by an oppressive monarch who recently had 1,000 people from your country kidnapped to serve as slaves in his capital city. Since then, the knights of your country have been attacking Tyrannica in order to free the slaves. In the last battle, you were captured. You were imprisoned in this sewer deep below the city. It is said that a large variety of monsters lurk in these depths, but you are skeptical. In your hands you hold your sword and shield. They are both made of steel, very durable but very heavy. Your shield defends well, and your sword cuts well, but both are difficult to wield quickly, or to run with. You would do well to remember that. The three large doors are too heavy for you to open, but are operated by pulleys. Which will you choose? > You middle Door You walk slowly up to the middle door. It is nearly 30 feet tall, made of solid iron. You grab the chain and pull with all your might. Suddenly, as if by magic, the chain slips out of your hand and the door opens by itself. As it opens, you wish you had chosen another door. Standing in the doorway is an enormous monster. It has the head of a man, with white skin, blank eyes and long flowing white hair that reaches down to the ground. Its body, however, is that of an enormous lion, with claws as long as your arm. But its tail is easily the most frightening part of the creature. It looms over the creature's body, ending in a curled stinger dripping with venom. You know the name of this beast: MANTICORE!!! It rears back its head and its mouth starts to glow. And then, with a roar, it spits a huge cloud of fire in your direction. You have only seconds to take action! > You try to dodge the fiery blast You run as quickly as possible to escape the range of the fireball, but you forgot something very important. Your shield and sword are so heavy, you can't run fast with them. With your shield down, the flames envelop you and there's only one thing left for you to do: Scream as you slowly burn to death.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>THE ELF-GOBLIN WAR Commander Morden stands at the head of the ship, yelling orders to everyone on board. A year ago, you had enlisted to join the Elvish Army of Arcria Locroium to fight in The Elf-Goblin War. For 6 months, you had trained with the common weapon used by Elvish soldiers, the falchion. You learned rudimentary magic in Combat, Defense, and Healing. Besides that, you're not much to look at, besides being the son of the Elvish Lord, Aaron Lightson. Your twin brother, Naric, was made the Dragon Rider 2 years ago, and given the Sword of the Sky. The front bow door begins to open, chains creaking as they slowly open up. Light pours in, and you see the desolate lands of the Goblin Deserts, beyond which lies the Goblin Jungles. But in your way is a horde of Goblins, green in color and wearing black leather tunics and leggings. Every single one of them seems to snarl at you. Commander Morden tells to the platoon, "Charge!" Everyone runs out of the boat, swords and shields raised. Immediately, the fighting begins. > You continue All around you, you see your friends die from black arrows shot from the Goblin armies. You see your friends fall, your rivals, and others you never got the chance to really know. Within minutes, the sandy grounds are covered in the blood of Elves and Goblins alike. You see a lone Goblin in the center of the fighting, his torso protected by a metal chestplate, unlike the leather armour worn by most Goblin soldiers. He bears a great sword with serrated edges. > You challenge the Goblin You walk up to the Goblin and yell to him, "I challenge you, you yellow-bellied bastard!" The Goblin looks in your direction and laughs at you. "You, challenge me? You don't look any older than a boy!" he snarls at you, pointed teeth flashing in the sunlight. He's bigger than most Goblins, too, almost 7ft tall. Lifting up your falchion, your charge the Goblin, shield held out in front of your body. You pray that you'll survive. > You try to Decapitate Him You rush him, your blade already swinging through the air. However, he already seems it coming, and bringing his sword down upon you, cleaves through your shield and armour. Blood pours from your wounds, and the Goblin kicks you backwards, but not before he chops your head in half. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You walk up to the Goblin and yell to him, "I challenge you, you yellow-bellied bastard!" The Goblin looks in your direction and laughs at you. "You, challenge me? You don't look any older than a boy!" he snarls at you, pointed teeth flashing in the sunlight. He's bigger than most Goblins, too, almost 7ft tall. Lifting up your falchion, your charge the Goblin, shield held out in front of your body. You pray that you'll survive. > You get Behind Him You leap into the air, tucking into a ball and flipping over the Goblin. You land softly on your feet, and turn around to slash your opponent's back open, black bloood spurting forth and staining your face. Before he can react, you swipe your falchion at his legs, and then bring it up to remove his sword arm. The Goblin crashes to the ground, screaming in pain. He looks at you with a fearful expression upon his face. "Mercy, please," the Goblin begs. > You give The Goblin Mercy You let your falchion drift to your side, feeling sorry for your enemy. The Goblin looks at you with a wicked grin. Only now do you realise that he still has an arm. He takes a throwing dagger from his side and flicks it towards your head. With a thud, the dagger's point lodges itself into your skull.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You leap into the air, tucking into a ball and flipping over the Goblin. You land softly on your feet, and turn around to slash your opponent's back open, black bloood spurting forth and staining your face. Before he can react, you swipe your falchion at his legs, and then bring it up to remove his sword arm. The Goblin crashes to the ground, screaming in pain. He looks at you with a fearful expression upon his face. "Mercy, please," the Goblin begs. > You kill Him You lift your falchion above your head and drive it's point into the Goblin's head. Just before you yank it back out, flames engulf the Goblin's body, burning it to cinders. You let go of your sword out of fright and back away from the pile of ash that was a Goblin moments ago. "Pick up your sword, Aric!" Com. Morden screams at you. "We still have a battle to win!" You pick up your weapon numbly, and turn towards the remaining Goblin forces. There aren't very many left. You raise your falchion above your head, and yell, "Attack!!!!!" You charge the Goblins, with the rest of the Elvish Army behind you. For the next few months, the Goblins are continually driven back into their jungles, and are soon defeated. > You chapter 2 6 Months Later..... That day, the Elf-Goblin War ended. The Elvish Empire established rule over Kyora, in order to ensure that it the Goblins never hurt anyone again. Currently, you're sitting in your bunk at the barracks, waiting for your father to arrive. While he loves you and your brother equally, you've always felt that you've been outclassed by Naric. Com. Morden comes inside your room, not even bothering to knock. "Aric, your father's here," he says blankly. "I suggest that you go to greet him." You never really liked Morden, but you can see that he's sad. The reason why he joined the war was because he Goblin division that had started the war had wiped out his village. He wouldn't have a home to go back to. Gathering up your few possessions, you leave your room and Com. Morden behind, and head to the courtyard. An Elvish man is exiting a beautifully crafted carriage, the images of a blue dragon and red phoenix dancing across the surface. He is wearing a silver headband and golden cape. His clothes are finely tailored, though his eyes have a hint of sadness in their depths. You rush over to embrace him, grabbing at his shoulders, trying to make sure that he's really there. "Aric, son, it's me," your father says to you, chuckling at your enthusiasm. "We have much to talk about. Now, let's get into the carriage." > You follow your father into the carriage. As soon as your situated inside the carriage, you turn to your father. "What is it that you need to talk to me about?" You ask him as the carriage begins to pull forward. "Aercaena misses you," he says. You're thoughts automatically turn to your betrothed and beloved, the princess Aercaena Nornien, whom you loathed to leave. You loved her with all your heart. You'd known each other since you were children. The night before you had left, you both had finally made the decision to spend the night together in her bed at the Imperial Palace. "The princess? Does she have anything else to say?" You ask eagerly. "Nothing except this message: 'Dear Aric, I cannot wait to see you again. Please be careful until then. I've made plans for your arrival.'" For a few moments, all you can think of is Aercaena's deliciously soft kiss. "Aric, are you there?" your father asks, a small smile forming on his face. "Yes." "Alright then. As you know, in order for there to be balance between the Dragon and Phoenix Races, there must be both a Dragon and Phoenix Rider. The Dragon Rider inherits the Sword of the Sky, while the Phoenix Rider is given the Sword of Light. Your brother, Naric, was made Dragon Rider 2 years ago, as you well know. The Sword of Light, which is the blade wielded by every Phoenix Rider, has been stolen by none other than the Warlock Redinor." You know of Warlock Redinor, the spellcasting scum who had tried to kill King Vorinar about 15 years ago. After his failure, he had gone into hiding, and he hadn't been heard from since; at least, not until now. "Why would he do that?" You ask. "I mean, I know that he's a psychotic Warlock and everything, but stealing "Redinor is planning revenge against the Elvish Empire. He plans on creating a new Sword of Power, the Sword of Shadows. Currently, as far as we know, there are only 3 Swords of Power in existence, all of which are wielded by the Elvish Empire: The Sword of Light, which is wielded by the Phoenix Rider; the Sword of the Sky, which is wielded by the Dragon Rider; and the Sword of Unity, which wielded by the Elvish King. "If Redinor creates a new Sword of Power to oppose the Sword of Light, then terrible sacrifices will have to be made. What is the opposite to Light, Aric? What consumes Light?" Your father finishes and gives you an expectant look. > You continue "Darkness," you answer uncertainly, not wanting to disappoint your father. "Darkness consumes Light. But why do I have to retrieve it? Can't we send the Elvish Army to defeat Redinor and strip the Sword of Light from his possession?" "Alas," your father says, "It is not that easy. We've no idea where he is; only Naric knows, and he will not disclose this information to anyone but you. The reason why it has to be you is because you must be the Phoenix Rider if you wish to marry Aercaena. If you do not regain the Sword of Light, then you will no longer be eligible to marry Aercaena. Also, I will be forced to exclude you from your inheritance and banish you from the Elvish Empire. So, what do you say? Will you accept the quest, or will you refuse the possibility of marrying Aercaena?" > You accept the Quest "I'll accept the Quest," you say with finality, determined to marry Aercaena. "Good. If you had said no, I would have been forced to banish you," your father says, a brief smile tinged with sadness moving across his face. "When do I leave?" you ask eagerly. "As soon as you are properly prepared. Currently, we are headed home to Firestone Manor," your father responds. "There, we will give you will all manner of equipment, ranging from weapons to armour to medicine to poison. However, your primary weapon in this ordeal will the falchion that you used to kill the Goblin Chieftain." You look down at the hilt of your sword and nod. "How long until we reach home?" you ask. "3 hours," your father answers. It's up to you on how to spend the next 3 hours > You read a Book for the Next 3 Hours For the next 3 hours, you read your worn-out copy of "The History of Anaria: a Complicated and Rich Record of Our World." You've just reach the chapter on the war between the Fairies and Demons when the carriage stops at Firestone Manor, your childhood home. Firestone Manor is a sprawling complex of buildings and homes for everyone who resides on the property. The buildings are made of red brick, and the crown jewel of the entire estate, Firestone Manor, seems to glow red, day and night. Somehow, you never seem to get tired of it. > You getting Equipped, and A Goodbye from the Love of Your Life You're immediately taken to the estate's armoury, where you are given the best armour, weapons, and equipment.The Imperial Druid, Karinettory herself, comes to bestow upon you a copy of her personal spell book, "A Guide to the 7 Magics". You are also given a dragonhorn bow that would be able to withstand even the most harshest of environments, along with a quiver that never runs out of arrows, which range from the usual sort to those that are tipped with various poisons, to arrows that turn into elemental projectiles. Karinettory also strengthens your falchion to protect it against blades that have been empowered with Magic. Your father gives you his blessing that you might have safety and will return from your Quest, then your mother says that they'll be having a farewell feast in your honor before your scheduled departure the following day. > You staying until the Next Day For the next few hours, Karinettory gives you an advanced lesson in the 7 Magics, that you might understand the new powers that you wield. You learn to call down lightning by combining Speed, a combination of Earth and Air, and Light. You also learn to call upon the Living Fire, the source of all life, and with it, you can control life, being able to either killing, healing, or truly resurrecting someone. You also learn how to utilize Time Fields, which either stop or accelerate Time, and will give you a chance to heal yourself should you ever be injured. By using Space Magic, you can travel faster and farther across the face of Anaria, the only downside being that you can only create Gateways to locations that you've been; no shortcuts to Redinor's lair for you. You've never had much affinity for Water Magic, and your father gave up trying to teach it to you long ago, so Kerinettory doesn't even bother mentioning it. Before the feast begins, you put on your favorite tunic, leggings, and strap your falchion to your belt. Leaving your room, you make your way down the stairs to the dining hall. Upon entering, you find your entire family, except Naric, and all of your friends gathered together around the vast tables, every delicacy known to you and more upon the tables. Soon you notice that not only are your family and friends here, but so is the Imperial Family. Among them, you see Aercaena. You smile and wave as the congregation cheers upon seeing you, smiles spreading across their faces. Above all, you seek Aercaena's approval, and tonight, you spot a wide grin upon her face. Taking the only available seat, which just happens be next to Aercaena, your father stands up and begins to speak. "Today," he says, "We have a feast in the honor of my son, Aric, before he leaves upon his Quest tomorrow. But let us not think about that tonight......" Your father drones on, and you try to pay attention, but all you can think about is Aercaena. You just can't resist making small talk during your father's speech. "Hello, my beautiful one, " you say. "Hello, darling," Aercaena says, her voice like music. All you want to do is just leave with her and go to your room. But you just can't disrespect your father. Perhaps, after the feast, you can share the night. Finally, your father finishes by saying, "Let the feast begin!" Instantly, everyone begins to pile food upon their plates, silverware and dishware clinking together as they eat. After being being gone for over a year, you feel awkward sitting next to Aercaena. Instead of you, Aercaena starts the conversation. "So, Aric, what have you been thinking about ever since the war ended?" she asks innocently. > You why don't you Show You Afterwards? "Why don't I show you afterwards?" you say mischievously. Aercaena returns the same mischievous grin, a small laugh rising in her throat. "It's been too long since we were..... alone together," she returns. "Why don't we..... have some quality time together after we're done here?" "I think that would be an excellent idea," you say eagerly. For the remaining duration of the feast, the only thing that you can think of spending the night with Aercaena. After all, she is the love of your life. You can't help feeling happy when you're around her; she's simply a beacon of light and relief, one that you love above all other things. > A Night Spent Together After the feast, you and Aercaena run to your room, giggling like children. You're nearly there when you hear voices around the corner. "My son is in love with your daughter," says one. You immediatley recognize it as your father's. "Surely you can't tear them apart, not after the long ordeal that he has just gone through recently." A look of fear spreads across Aercaena's face, one to match your own. You glance her, and she immediatley thrusts her lips against your's, not knowing if this will be the last time you are together. "My daughter Mariannai may have the same feelings for Naric, Lord Aaron, but I don't know if they are right for each other," says a voice that sounds like a harp. You know it as the voice of the Fairy King, Erroniki. "Ties between the Dwarf and Fairy kingdoms are becoming vulnerable. Their king, Warrenfreid, has demanded the hand of one of my daughters. I don't want to have another war damage Anaria, not after you just went through one with the Goblins. I am running out of options here." You remember learning that the Fairy race shares a unique connection with Anaria, being able to feel the pain inflicted by wars and pollution. This ability is their greatest strength and weakness. If Anaria was engaged in a war that engulfed the entire planet, then it would drive the Fairies to extinction. You breathe out a sigh of relief, glad that the discussion isn't about you and Aercaena. However, you fear for Naric and Mariannai. Their relationship is like your's and Aercaena's. You don't want to see them torn apart. "You have a multitude of daughters, Erroniki," your father says angrily. "Why not marry off another one?" You and Aercaena peer around the corner and realize that the argument is more serious than you thought. Your father is holding Erroniki within a Time Field, preventing the Fairy King from moving, but not restricting him from conversing. "Because Warrenfreid wants one of my eldest," Erroniki exclaims. "Almost all of them are gone. The Fairy-Demon War resulted in, as you well know, the assassination of almost all of them." "Then give him your last one," your father demands. "Mariannai has bonded with Naric. The Dwarf race constantly wants new goods. If he was to see her, he would know that she is no longer a maiden; he would see her as used, not by him, but by an Elf. Dwarves are insensitive; Erroniki, if you feel any anger towards me, you should know that I speak the truth. You are aware of the civil war that resulted from a Dwarf princess coming to meet her betrothed, only for him to see that she had unwillingly violated. He turned her away, while he felt no anger towards her, and turned on her brother. The bloodshed that followed nearly destroyed the Dwarves. Such an occurence would have ruined Anaria. If the Fairies were destroyed, then the Demons would be allowed to run rampant across Anaria, killing everything in their wake. Don't take my son's happiness away, or you will have a war on both fronts. Do not underestimate the power of the Elvish Empire, and do not think that you can break the friendship between Vorinar and Warrenfreid. Should you declare war upon us, there will be an alliance between Dwarves and Elves of such Anaria has never seen." Erroniki's angry expression fades away. "You are right, Aaron, as you have been so many times before," he says calmly. Deciding that you've intruded long enough, you and Aercaena slip away. > You continue Finally, you and Aercaena arrive at your room. Both of you are unable to contain your excitement. You haven't felt this way since the time you and the princess had this level of intimacy the night before you left to fight in the war. > You flashback You're at the Imperial Palace, with Aercaena in her room. Your both upon her bed, a small depression causing you to sink where you both lie. Small whimpering sounds are coming from her throat, but you can feel her smile as you kiss her without relentless affection. Suddenly, she grips your hand and guides them to her chest, and then, without warning, she flips you underneath her and herself above you. Time passes, and you both shed your clothes and partake of a pure ecstasy that neither of you has ever sampled before. You continue until the morning arrives and you have to leave for the war. > You keep Moving You both step inside the door. "Just give me a second," you say, locking the door and shutting drawing the curtains closed. Your family knows better than to come into your room, but you also know that you can never be too careful. Aercaena has shed her footwear and clothes, clad only in her white lace undergarments. You do likewise, eager to join her in bed.You both lie together, and begin to kiss each other's lips and bodies. You both hunt for the delicious ecstasy that you'd experience over a year ago.Soon, you're both unable to do anything but surrender to pure basic instinct as you both tear away each other's remaining clothes. "I love you, Aercaena," you whisper in her ear before kissing her chest, unable to resist her any longer. "I love you, too, Aric, " she says in between kisses, a whimper rising from her throat. You have to return to her, you couldn't even think about life without her, not now, not after thinking about getting back to her after the war. "I'll be back," you whisper. "I promise. But let us not think of such things, and let us enjoy tonight." Nodding, Aercaena pulls you against her, and asks in a faint voice, "Then make me happy for a night, before you have to go, won't you, my love?" "I'd be more than happy to oblige," you say, smiling. > You chapter 3 You awake the next morning to find yourself and Aercaena in each others arms, your naked bodies pressed together. You can see a strand of hair in her face, and place it behind her ear. A smile spreads across her face as you do so. Sunlight pours from a gap in between the curtains. "Awake, are we?" she asks mischievously, a small giggle bursting from her mouth as she pulls you closer to her. "It would seem so," you say, kissing her. "Oh, how I'll miss you, Aercaena, when I leave you today." "And I will miss you all the same," she says, her fingers running across the surface of your back. You both make love for the next hour, all the way till there's a knock on your door, and you can hear your mother's voice coming through. "Aric," she says, "You must make preparations to leave. The staff has already equipped your horse, and King Vorinar wishes to speak with Aercaena soon." You and Aercaena get off the bed and dress for the day, and soon emerge from your room hand in hand. You're wearing your falchion across your back, and your chestplate over your tunic. > The Courtyard You leave Aercaena at the guest house reserved exclusively for the Imperial Family, and head to the Courtyard. You find an assembly of people there, and among them is Aercaena, a worried look upon her face. Your horse nickers impatiently, one of the stableboys holding the reins. You begin embrace everyone dear to you, the last person you come to being Aercaena. Instead of just hugging her, you kiss. Before you pull away, she whispers into your ear, "Good luck. I'll be waiting for you." Your father comes to you as you make your way to the horse, and hands you a money bag. "Use it well, Aric," he says. "There's a fortune in there large enough to ransom a King. Don't let anyone see it." You walk away, your father's and Aercaena's words echoing in your mind. Mounting your horse, you take the reins and thank the stableboy, handing him a ruby the size of your fist. He grins back at your smile, slipping the gem into his pocket. You wave to the crowd and then nudge the heels of your boots against the horses sides. He gallops out the Courtyard, a faint cloud of dust erupting from his hooves. You ride until you've reached an inn named the Golden Fox. Dismounting, you hand the reins to one of the stableboys stationed at the entrance and pay him with a silver coin. You enter the inn, looking for a particular Elf. > You continue You find your brother in one of the booths, drinking from a goblet. Making your way over to him, Naric notices you, and puts the goblet on the table, a smile spreading across his face. He rises from his seat to embrace you. "Hello, Aric," Naric says. He claps you on the back and then sits back down. "What is it that you need?" "I need to find Redinor," you say simply. "That traitorous Warlock?" Naric asks skeptically. "Why?" "Redinor has stolen the Sword of Light," you explain. "He plans on making a companion sword for it. If he does so, then the Sword of Light will lose its power. If that happens, then, according to what Father told me, the Empire will be left without a Phoenix Rider, and I will be unable to marry Aercaena. Please, Naric, I'm asking for your help as a brother and a friend." "I'll help you," Naric says. "Redinor retreated to his tower in the forest-" "Dyor Kranick," you finish for him. "Yes," Naric confirms. "It's his most defensible position, as creating a Sword of Power is long and tiring work. You know where Dyor Kranick is, of course." "The Isle of Dragons." "That's right. I know a way into the forest that will take you to Redinor's tower," Naric says, leaning in closer. "You must ride to the other side of the Isle using the Dragon Road. DO NOT allow yourself to be tempted by the 'shortcuts' on either side of the Road. You've heard the stories. Hardly anyone who enters therein ever comes back out again. "After you've reach the other side, turn around and take the first entrance into the forest that you see. Follow the red stones ONLY, and no other color, understand? The red path will take you to Redinor's tower. I'd help you, but the terms of the Quest state that you must do this alone. I can, however, give you this." Naric reaches into his pocket and extracts a small bag. "What is that?" you ask, curious. "Fireweed," Naric explains. "Very valuable, very rare. Feed it to a horse, and it will be able to run at a full gallop for days on end without rest. One leaf is enough to sustain this state for a week. Don't loose it, and use it sparingly. Understand?" "I understand," you say, rising from your seat and taking the bag of fireweed. "Say hello to Silver Fang for me, won't you?" "That Dragon is starting to become quite a handful," Naric says, chuckling. "She misses you." "I know," you say, leaving the inn and making your way to the stables. > You to the Isle of Dragons For the next few days, you ride to the docks at the edge of the Elvish Empire. Every night, you've opted to sleep on the side of the road, out of sight, thinking it safer than sleeping at an inn. Along your journey, the passerby stop what they're doing and point at you, whispering to each other excitedly. Soon, you reach the docks and pay for a one way trip to the Isle of Dragons, thinking that once you have retrieved the Sword of Light that you'll be able to summon your Phoenix. That's what you're hoping for, at least. It takes the ferryman less than a day to reach your destination, as you aid him by increasing the winds and calming the waves. When you make landfall upon the Isle, you can see mountains the size of the Imperial Palace, trees that seem to be as tall as the sky, and the Dragon Road, a roadway made entirely of white marble that spans the entire length of the Isle of Dragons and is surrounded by the forest of Dyor Kranick. Thanking the ferryman and unloading your horse from the livestock hold, you begin the 3 day trek to the other side of the Isle. > You continue You feed your horse a leaf of fireweed and immediately sense his sudden restlessness. You mount him, jab him in the sides with your heels, and urge him to a full gallop. With a burst of speed, your horse seems to fly, his hooves rarely touching the surface of the Road, but pounding loudly when they do. The wind whips at your face and hair, and takes all that you have to hold on. Ahead of you, you hear screams, and see a maiden being attacked by a group of men. The men see you and dash for the forest, but not before you cut them down with your falchion. You finish the last one off, then nudge your horse over to the maiden. "Are you alright?" you ask, slightly worried. "I thought that I was dead," the girl says, who happens to be very beautiful, "But then, you came." She beams at you, twirling her hair innocently. A small giggle comes from her throat, and suddenly you feel slightly unsafe. "Well, I must be off," you say, relieved that she wasn't hurt. You nudge your horse away. "Wait!" she says before your horse begins to gallop away. > You listen to Her You turn around and stop in front of her. "What?" you ask impatiently. "I need to get to the end of the Road. Whatever it is, please be quick about it." "I was going to ask you if you could get me to the Eastern Docks," the maiden says. "Well, that's where I'm headed anyways," you say uncertainly. "Thanks," she says as she climbs onto the saddle behind you, wrapping her arms gently around your waist. Your horse gallops away, and your new companion suddenly tightens her grip. "How does he move so fast?" she shouts over the rushing wind. "I fed him some fireweed when I arrived here upon the Isle of Dragons," you explain to her. You both get to know each other over the next two days, and you soon part ways, her with enough money to pay for a trip to the Fairy Kingdom, and you with a kiss on the cheek and an endless length of silver rope that can bind your enemies upon command. > You into Dyor Kranick You enter into Dyor Kranick, and immediately find 2 paths before you: a path made from red stone, and a path made of white crystal. Knowing that your brother said to follow the path of red stones, you begin your new journey. Along the red path, you hear strange sounds: the cries of unseen birds, the growls of large creatures, and the voices of unseen beings. As tempting as it is, you refuse to leave the path. Soon, you see a great tower between the gaps of the leaves, whose top disappears into the clouds themselves. > You chapter 4 You arrive at the tower and see Redinor's family seal, a burning tree, emblazoned on a black flag. Dismounting from your horse, you draw your falchion and cut through the tower's doors. Inside, you find an assortment of strange and mysterious objects, all glowing with Magical enegry. You climb the stairs to the next level to find a group of rogue Goblins, each armed with a sword and shield. They all snarl at you and prepare to attack. > You place Them All in a Time Field You place your enemies within a Time Field, causing them to age at alarming rates, until there nothing left of them, not even the dust of their bones. You climb the next set of stairs to find nothing but a ladder leading upwards. You can hear various machines above you, and, choosing to be cautious, take out a small piece of enchanted metal that you grabbed from the level below. Stripping it of all Magical property, you toss the metal into the climbing shaft above you and wait. It takes less that a second for the metal to come back down. It lands at your feet, and without having to look too closely, you can see an arrowhead imbedded within it. You hear a hissing, and the metal appears to be dissintegrating, and you make the deduction that the arrowhead was coated in acid. You have only one choice. > You speed Climb Drawing upon the Magic within your chest plate, you combine Air and Earth to allow yourself to move faster. Taking the first rung, you begin the climb up the remainder of the tower, all the while arrows firing from the machines which Redinor has designed and built. You find it exhausting to move faster than the arrows being fired. Wanting to stay protected rather than just having greater speed, you find a space between floors where no projectiles are being targeted at you. Terminating the Speed Magic, you cause the Air behind you to become denser, therefore creating an invisible shield. Resuming the climb, you hear arrows thudding upon the Air shield, but don't dare look back for fear of allowing an arrow to get a lethal shot at your face. Being able to move slower also allows you to conserve energy, and for this, you are thankful. Soon, you reach the top of the tower. At the climbing shaft's exist, you find a laboratory composed of a forge and Magic transmuter. You can see the Sword of Light in the center of the room, steel cables attached to the blade and hilt. Carefully navigating through the tables of equipment in an effort to not alert anyone to your presence, you reach down to take the Sword of Power from its prison. However, just before you make contact, a piece of parchment resting upon a table catches your eye. You examine it, and find that he isn't only planning to steal the Sword of Light's power, but also transmute it into Dark Magic and place it into a Sword of Power that already has considerable power. You hear the sound of machines that had once lain dormant roaring to life, and you can see energy flowing from the Sword of Light flowing through the steel cables and into the Magic transmuter. "Found out what my plan was, didn't you, Aric?" says a sickly voice behind you. Drawing your falchion, you wheel around to find a bald man holding a Warlock Staff and sword whose blade is made of black metal. You know it's Redinor. "Why?" you ask. "Why would you do this?" "Because I made a deal with the Demon King and Witch Queen," Redinor says, an evil grin spreading across his face. "Take the Sword of Light's power and give it to a new Sword of Power, then offer it as a gift to the Demon King so that he might conquer the Elvish Empire of Arcria Locroium, then eradicate the Fairies. After that, I would be given a harem to do with as I please. "But my plans aside, are you familiar with a Magicians' Duel?" "Not really," you reply, "But I'll have a lot more experience when I destroy your ass!" Lifting his staff, Redinor utters an incantation and an orb of Dark Magic erupts from the staff and flies towards you. Jumping out of the way, you direct your falchion at him and summon a vortex of Light Magic. "Clever boy," Redinor comments. "Light counteracts Dark, and Dark consumes Light." "As long as Darkness is not around you," you reply, "Then your vulnerable to my greatest weapon." Your vortex of Light makes contact with Redinor's staff, snapping it in half and throwing him through the air against the wall. Redinor falls to the floor, but he doesn't gasp in discomfort. Rather, he simply rises to his feet and switches his sword to the hand that had previously held his staff. "Do you know what this is, Aric?" he asks, gesturing to the black blade. "It is the instrument of your destruction, the Sword of Shadows!" > The Magicians' Duel Part 2 He charges you, blade point directed towards your heart. You immediately prepare to jump above him, but before you can, you notice that his blade is charged with Dark Magic. Instead of jumping over Redinor, you lunge to the side, and the tip of his sword thuds into a work table. Redinor turns his blade to you and fires a second orb of Dark Magic, this one bigger and more powerful than the first. Unable to dodge it this time, you raise your falchion to block the Dark orb, charging it with Light. As soon as your blade makes contact with the evil Magic, it shatters. "Noooo!" you cry. While your sword was able to bear the brunt of the attack, it was not able to shield you entirely. You're thrown through the air, and before you can recover, Redinor is upon you. Seeing that you are undefended, he brings the Sword of Shadows down upon your right arm, cutting it at the elbow. A scream of agony escapes from your lips as you feel the connection between your mind and arm severed forever. No Magic can heal such a wound, not even the power of the Living Fire could reverse it. Clutching your stump, you roll out of the way of Redinor's next attack, his blade striking the stone floor. You find yourself up against the pedestal where the Sword of Light rests. Your bow snapped when you were hit by the Dark orb, though it wouldn't be of any use to you now, not with the loss of your arm. Rising to your feet, you yank the cables away from the Sword of Light and grasp it in your remaining hand. You turn to the Magic transmuter and swing your blade, carving a deep gash in its Magic container and releasing all of the Sword of Light's power. The Light Magic flies back to your new weapon, and its blade shines once more with a new intensity. You watch as a small ball of black energy flies black to Redinor flies through the air, his sword raised over his head. Raising your own, you block his downward slash and send him flying back. Tearing a strip of cloth from your tunic with your mouth, you do your best to staunch the flow of blood. Redinor stands back up, unwilling to give in. Instead of allowing him to recover and attack once more, you charge him, refusing to relent from your blows. Each time you bring the Sword of Light down upon Redinor, he barely has enough time to react and bring his own blade to meet your own. He's tiring, and he won't be able to make another minute. The final blow is yours. Instead of charging your sword with Light Magic, you choose to summon Fire. Leaping backwards, you point your blade at Redinor, and from it erupts a tornado of Fire, surrounding him. His screams from within the Fire mean nothing to you, for he had threatened all of Anaria. Once Redinor's screams have ceased, you cause the cyclone of flames to die. Nothing but ashes and the smell of burning human flesh remains of your enemy. You collapse to your knees, unable stand any longer. Then, you drag the Sword of Light into your lap and remember the last time one of your family had held the blade. > You flashback It was 15 years ago, when you were only 5 years old. Your father had returned from the 6th Fairy-Demon War, his Phoenix killed in the final battle. Plastered on his face was a look of sadness that would never leave. You were the first to greet him, but it was then that you noticed something was wrong. Your uncle, Therin, wasn't with him, but his sword, the Sword of the Sky, was laid across your father's lap. Dismounting from his horse, your father set you on his shoulder, a pained smile spreading across his face. Your mother and Naric were the next. Your father asked your mother where Therin's wife was, she told him that she was inside the Manor. Taking you with him, he went inside to find her in the parlor. Therin's wife, Gerwin, was from the Human Kingdom. Her son was Quentin, the first Half-Elf in centuries. Setting you upon the parlor floor, your father held out the Sword of the Sky. "It's yours," he said to Gerwin. "You were his wife. It's only right that you take it and give it to Quentin when he comes of age." "No," Gerwin said, pushing the Sword of the Sky away. "The Creator clearly stated to the Elves at the beginning of the Riders that the Sword of the Sky and the Sword of Light were to remain only in the House of the Phoenix and Dragon." The hopeful expression on Quentin's face disappeared. You knew that he wanted to be the next Dragon Rider, but it was not meant to be. After Therin's funeral was over, King Vorinar took the Swords of Light and the Sky for safekeeping. Soon afterwards, you and Aercaena had begun to spend more and more time together. Your betrothal had not been sealed from birth, but when you were both 15, long after you had confessed feelings for each other. > You hope You look down at the Sword of Light, admiring the broadsword and the Gem of Living Fire set into the golden hilt's center. Then you remember Aercaena. You had promised her that you would return.Summoning your remaining strength, you cause yourself and the Sword of Light to move from the Isle of Dragons to the Imperial Palace, specifically inside Aercaena's room. You fall to the floor, exhausted. Aercaena screams when she sees you. A broad smile spreads over her face, but then she notices your arm. "Get me to an infirmary," you say in a haggard voice. She drapes your stump across her back, while lifting you to your feet. Half-dragging you, half-carrying you, she brings you to an infirmary, where you promptly collapse upon a bed. Before you fall in unconsciousness, you can hear Aercaena talking to a group of stunned medics. They take your chest plate and tunic from you, as well as the Sword of Light. Then, nothing but black. > You chapter 5 You awake to find yourself still in the bed that you'd collapsed into, only far more comfortable. You take a moment to survey your surroundings, and find your father in a chair beside your bed, fast asleep. "Father," you say, grasping his arm and gently shaking it. He awakes with a gasp, then looks at you with a smile. "You're awake," he says. "I must say that we were worried while the Dwarves were operating on you, but they assured us that you'd make it. I've seen their work succeed far too many times to doubt them." "What do you mean?" you ask. Your father reaches across to pull back the blankets to reveal something wrapped in bandages, something that appears to be in the shape of a hand. "Th-th-they fixed it?" you stutter. You look at your father, a massive grin spreading across your face. He doesn't answer. You scratch your head with your new hand, when the sound of whirring gears and pistons fills the air. You stop, and so does the sound of machinery. "What was that?" you ask. "How long was I asleep?" "Two weeks." "Answer my first question." "They couldn't fix everything," your father begins. "No Magic can truly heal the wound that you suffered. But after the medics healed you, a group of Dwarves sent by King Vorinar came here, claiming to have found a new type of Magic, Metal. "They brought with them.... well, maybe you should see for yourself," your father finishes. > You reveal You tear away the bandages to find a mechanical hand attached to your arm. Everytime you flex it, the gentle and oddly relaxing sound of delicate machinery fills the air from within the Magically reinforced steel plating. "What powers it?" you ask, gazing at the shining appendage. "What do you mean?" your father asks curiously. "What makes it move the way it does right now?" "Your mind, and the power of Metal Magic," your father explains. "This new type of technology, it's the first of its kind. You're lucky that you were given this gift." "Lucky?!" you say, suddenly angry with your father. "Because of my own stupidity, I allowed Redinor to cut my hand from my arm. Because of my foolishness, I am less than I was before!" Hot tears of shame begin to stream down your face, staining the white fabric of your shirt. "You're lucky because those Dwarves contructed this hand specifically for you," your father says, seemingly unfazed, if not upset, by your unexcpected outburst. "They could have chosen to have built you a simple, non-mechanical substitute from wood, but no, they tailored this for you. And already, you have proven yourself to be twice the Elf that I'll ever be, Aric. You subdued the Darkness, a feat that many don't have claim to. You should be honored, not angry." Reluctantly, you reply, saying, "I guess so." > You later..... 1 week later...... You're with Aercaena in her room, the first place where you both had made love together. You look deeply into her green eyes, and are unable to look away. You kiss her gently, and then she takes your hand in her own. "Aric......," she sighs when you pull away. "Yes?" you ask tentatively. "It's just that the day after tomorrow, when you're made the Phoenix Rider, we're supposed to be married. I just can't believe that it's been 6 years since.... it was made certain that we were meant for each other." Your wedding was announced to take place several days ago, and you haven't been able to spend a single night away from Aercaena. "Well, would you like to celebrate?" you ask, that same mischievous smile spreading over your face. "For the love of heaven, do you even have to ask?" Aercaena says, lacing her arms around your neck and kissing you so deeply that your breath is stolen from you. "I just thought I might," you say, taking off your clothes. > A New Phoenix Rider The next day, you find yourself kneeling before King Vorinar, his sword gently tapping your shoulders as he says, "Through courage and pure determination, and as your birthright, I, King Vorinar of the Elvish Empire, do name you, Aric Lightson, the new Phoenix Rider. Serve Anaria well, and you and your house will be rewarded by the Creator." Cheers erupt as you rise to your feet to receive your new weapon, the Sword of Light. A pageboy hands it to Vorinar, who then gives it to you. It's leather sheath decorated with fire, you take hold of the hilt and draw the sacred blade out, it's light filling the air. You are then presented with a Phoenix egg, almost ready to hatch. You turn to face the audience, and raise both the Sword of Light and the Phoenix egg above your head, and then the feast begins. Soon afterwards, you and Aercaena escape to her room to spend one last night together before you become husband and wife. > The Wedding The next day, you're dressed in a white suit, standing at the end of the aisle with Naric beside you and Mariannai on the other side. Then, Aercaena appears, clothed in a pure white dress. She walks down the aisle towards you, a bouquet of white lilies in her hands and the biggest smile you've ever seen on her face. When she reaches you, Kerinettory performs the necessary rituals, and, after tying your hands together with a silver ribbon, she pronounces you husband and wife. The celebrations that follow last for an entire week, just enough time for the Dwarves to give you one last gift. They return, and present to you a set of armour whose helmet is styled like that of a Phoenix head. Thanking them, you examine the rest of the armour more closely, and find the right gauntlet is missing. You smile to yourself, and flex your mechanical fingers, listening to the machinery ticking. > The End Vorinar pulls you aside and asks you to recount your tale for him. You do so, and when you finish, he asks you one important question. "Where is the Sword of Shadows now, Aric?" You hadn't searched for the cursed blade after killing Redinor, and the realization strikes fear into your heart. "It must still be in Redinor's tower," you answer fearfully. "Then let us pray that you are ready when it is found," Vorinar says grimly. "I see war brewing on the horizon, and this one will change life as we know it forever. Light defeats Shadow, and Shadow devours Light. You know what I mean, Aric." He disappears into the crowd, and, in an effort to forget his warning for a time, you turn to Aercaena and dance with her for hours on end, until you disappear yourselves into her room once again. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You arrive at the tower and see Redinor's family seal, a burning tree, emblazoned on a black flag. Dismounting from your horse, you draw your falchion and cut through the tower's doors. Inside, you find an assortment of strange and mysterious objects, all glowing with Magical enegry. You climb the stairs to the next level to find a group of rogue Goblins, each armed with a sword and shield. They all snarl at you and prepare to attack. > You attack Them Head On Even though you know that you're at a disadvantage in both armament and numbers, you attack the Goblins, hacking away at their limbs and heads, until none of them are left alive. You climb the next set of stairs to find nothing but a ladder leading upwards. You can hear various machines above you, and, choosing to be cautious, take out a small piece of enchanted metal that you grabbed from the level below. Stripping it of all Magical property, you toss the metal into the climbing shaft above you and wait. It takes less that a second for the metal to come back down. It lands at your feet, and without having to look too closely, you can see an arrowhead imbedded within it. You hear a hissing, and the metal appears to be dissintegrating, and you make the deduction that the arrowhead was coated in acid. You only have one choice.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You feed your horse a leaf of fireweed and immediately sense his sudden restlessness. You mount him, jab him in the sides with your heels, and urge him to a full gallop. With a burst of speed, your horse seems to fly, his hooves rarely touching the surface of the Road, but pounding loudly when they do. The wind whips at your face and hair, and takes all that you have to hold on. Ahead of you, you hear screams, and see a maiden being attacked by a group of men. The men see you and dash for the forest, but not before you cut them down with your falchion. You finish the last one off, then nudge your horse over to the maiden. "Are you alright?" you ask, slightly worried. "I thought that I was dead," the girl says, who happens to be very beautiful, "But then, you came." She beams at you, twirling her hair innocently. A small giggle comes from her throat, and suddenly you feel slightly unsafe. "Well, I must be off," you say, relieved that she wasn't hurt. You nudge your horse away. "Wait!" she says before your horse begins to gallop away. > You ignore Her Your horse gallops away, and soon, the cries of the maiden are lost in the distance. You come to the Eastern Docks, only to find them razed and burning, screams echoing through the air. Upon closer inspection, you see the black forms of Demons wielding flaming swords, axes, and hammers. Drawing your falchion, you slay many Demons, taking black arrows and cuts from poisoned blades all the while. Soon, however, you succumb to the poison infecting your wounds. Before you die, you see the maiden, tears running down her face, and you realize that it was Marriannai the whole time, the one whom your brother loves. "Naric sent me to help you, Aric," she says. "You saved me, but did not help me when I asked. You failed, and now, in order to ensure that the Elvish Empire doesn't fall into ruin, Naric must marry Aercaena, and I will never be with him." Marriannai's face fades away, and you simply give up the will to live, unable to believe that you have ruined your brother's life.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"I'll accept the Quest," you say with finality, determined to marry Aercaena. "Good. If you had said no, I would have been forced to banish you," your father says, a brief smile tinged with sadness moving across his face. "When do I leave?" you ask eagerly. "As soon as you are properly prepared. Currently, we are headed home to Firestone Manor," your father responds. "There, we will give you will all manner of equipment, ranging from weapons to armour to medicine to poison. However, your primary weapon in this ordeal will the falchion that you used to kill the Goblin Chieftain." You look down at the hilt of your sword and nod. "How long until we reach home?" you ask. "3 hours," your father answers. It's up to you on how to spend the next 3 hours > You talk About what Has been Happening at Home Since You Left You and your father talk about polotics and supply trains for the rest of the time, waiting for the carriage to stop. Suddenly, the carriage stops, and you exit find yourself at your childhood home, Firestone Manor. Firestone Manor is a sprawling complex of buildings and homes for everyone who resides on the property. The buildings are made of red brick, and the crown jewel of the entire estate, Firestone Manor, seems to glow red, day and night. Somehow, you never seem to get tired of it. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"I'll accept the Quest," you say with finality, determined to marry Aercaena. "Good. If you had said no, I would have been forced to banish you," your father says, a brief smile tinged with sadness moving across his face. "When do I leave?" you ask eagerly. "As soon as you are properly prepared. Currently, we are headed home to Firestone Manor," your father responds. "There, we will give you will all manner of equipment, ranging from weapons to armour to medicine to poison. However, your primary weapon in this ordeal will the falchion that you used to kill the Goblin Chieftain." You look down at the hilt of your sword and nod. "How long until we reach home?" you ask. "3 hours," your father answers. It's up to you on how to spend the next 3 hours > You take a Nap Propping yourself up, you fall asleep, dreaming of the beautiful Aercaena, not being able to take your eyes off her, then experience pure surprise and horror as the dream shifts to a wedding. Aercaena is standing at the altar, but for some strange reason, you're sitting in the audience. Standing next to her is another Elvish youth, oddly familiar, and when the Priest pronounces them husband and wife, the youth turns toward you, a sad smile on his face. It's Naric, your brother. As you spring to your feet to scream in anguish, an explosion tears through the wedding hall, killing everyone. Before Aercaena dissappears in the fire, she looks at you, tears streaming down her face, and says, "I love you, Aric!" You jolt awake, shooting up to your feet and out of the cushioned carriage seat, yanking your falchion from it's scabbard and looking wildly around, searching for the one who set off the explosion and killed your beloved. Your father looks at you, bewildered at your actions. "Is everything alright, son?" he asks worriedly. "I had a dream," you simply state, not wanting to relive the horror that you've just experienced. "And what was it about?" Unable to keep the fear inside any longer, you tell your father everything. "Ahhhh...." your father says. "That dream was a vision of a possible future, one that would have occured had you refused the Quest. But Naric will have to remain betrothed to the Fairy Princess Mariannai, now that you have accepted the Quest. But get ready, home is only a few minutes away." Soon, you arrive at your childhood home, Firestone Manor. Firestone Manor is a sprawling complex of buildings and homes for everyone who resides on the property. The buildings are made of red brick, and the crown jewel of the entire estate, Firestone Manor, seems to glow red, day and night. Somehow, you never seem to get tired of it.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Darkness," you answer uncertainly, not wanting to disappoint your father. "Darkness consumes Light. But why do I have to retrieve it? Can't we send the Elvish Army to defeat Redinor and strip the Sword of Light from his possession?" "Alas," your father says, "It is not that easy. We've no idea where he is; only Naric knows, and he will not disclose this information to anyone but you. The reason why it has to be you is because you must be the Phoenix Rider if you wish to marry Aercaena. If you do not regain the Sword of Light, then you will no longer be eligible to marry Aercaena. Also, I will be forced to exclude you from your inheritance and banish you from the Elvish Empire. So, what do you say? Will you accept the quest, or will you refuse the possibility of marrying Aercaena?" > You refuse the Quest "I'm not going," you say to your father. "Haven't I earned enough glory to be worthy to marry Aercaena?" Your father looks upon you with a disappointed look. "If you don't go, then I will be forced to banish you. The Sword of Light must be recovered. You should choose your next words carefully, son." <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>All around you, you see your friends die from black arrows shot from the Goblin armies. You see your friends fall, your rivals, and others you never got the chance to really know. Within minutes, the sandy grounds are covered in the blood of Elves and Goblins alike. You see a lone Goblin in the center of the fighting, his torso protected by a metal chestplate, unlike the leather armour worn by most Goblin soldiers. He bears a great sword with serrated edges. > You choose to Attack Another Opponent You turn to attack a Goblin who is preparing to shoot his bow. Before you can react, several arrows find their way into your back, poison immediately beginning to course through your veins. You drop to the sandy ground, as the Goblin whom you were about to attack dashes over to your convulsing body, drawing a wicked knife, and then placing it against your throat. He rips it across your throat, separating your head from your body.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|> You wake up and grin. You did it. Your friends bet three cars that you wouldn't sleep in the haunted house and make it out alive. You're definitely alive. You look around and see the haunted store's giant lizard monsters. Wait a second! The haunted Radio Shack has no giant lizard monsters! It doesn't even have that weird whispering noise! "Attack the kitten! Yes go ahead and attack it! King Iwan Napee! It is your job to eat it! We will be invincible You push yourself back into a corner. This is definitely a room, but this is definitely not the haunted Radio Shack. You start to bite your fingernails, a bad habit. But that's when you realize that your fingernails are claws! Wait, what! You look at your hands, uh.. paws... You also have an urge to itch your ears with your feet! You've turned into a kitten! You look down to your belly. You're a kitten yes, a fat one. Too bad for you! for another year! Yes! Yes! Yes! Take it, take the fat thing! It doesn't know anything about us! The less curious One of the lizard beasts says to you, "Kitten! We are the Beasts! I am King Iwan and all twenty-eight of our endangered species will split you up and eat you!" They all lunge at you, but you jump up and hide behind them. the better! No! Don't let it get away! It might learn our secrets! Eat it so that we can all be invincible for a year! You look around again and spot a few other kittens camouflaged with the walls. You can smell them out, too. They're watching you. What the?! You think to yourself and think of a way to escape. Hmm... Do not let it know that our weakness is tomato sauce! Do not let it know! Don't let it think! Don't!" You spot three things. There are three knives stuck in a piece of sausage on a table, a miniature rocket ship fit for two small kittens in the corner, and a large frying pan hanging on the wall. What do you do? > You get into the rocket! You immediately rush into the rocket just before the teeth of the Beasts snap your neck. To your surprise, there is a kitten with sunglasses dancing inside the rocket. Seeing as he's distracted, you rush to the control pad. You can feel the beasts shaking the rocket. There's only one thing to do. You flip switches and push buttons and pound on the control pad. Pounding on the pad, you accidentally punch the DO NOT PUNCH button. Uh-oh. The dancing kitten drops his sunglasses and his donuts and stares at you. "Did you just-" Before you can even shrug, the rocket explodes, one of the large pieces stabbing Beast King Iwan in the left eye. Uh-oh! That's not good. You are launched out of the window, but thankfully you have a parachute! You dive through the sky and breathe in fresh air. Aaaaaahhh, that's good. However, your parachute is ripped to pieces by a small piece of the rocket. Oh no! You look around frantically. Where do you want to try to land? > You land in the forest close by You bounce around on the leaves of a tree. You decide to bounce on it some more. Then you realize that leaves aren't bouncy. Who cares? You think and you jump up and down on the leaves. Then some grumpy voice shouts, "HEY! This is private property! These leaves are for the Mitten Factory! Wait a second! Stop right there!" You bounce off of the leaves and run as fast as you can. The police kitten runs at you and notices something on your shoulder. "Oh... If you're FAT, then you can stay around. Wait a second, all Feline Agent Troop members have the scale of a lizard on their shoulders!" "Tell me the truth!" The police kitten points a cane at you. > You tell the truth no matter how crazy it is! You decide to tell the truth. You tell him everything from the day of your birth to the time you ate cheese on a dare and to the present time. The police kitten's eyes widen. "Wow, that's a story, kid! That's absolutely true! Only the most high ranking police know about all this mess. You're lucky kid. I'm a rebel who's against all that sacrifice mess." The police kitten rants about the FAT, an acronym for Feline Agent Troop. They are kittens who protect Earth from giant lizard monsters called Beasts. He also tells you that every year, the kittens take a human and turn them into a kitten as a sacrifice to the Beasts. He tells you that the sacrifice is just something to stall the Beasts for a bit while the FAT are trying to figure out all their secrets. "My name's Waldo, kid. If you need the police, just dial my number on the phone. The thing is, the only pay phone that can call me is at the Beast Tower, where you were." He gives you a phone number. Great! Waldo goes ahead and drives you to Mitten Village.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Childhood A fist thuds into your face, knocking you to the ground. Gruzub stands over you, laughing. "Mazkil! You are as weak as a Shepard!" He laughs, as you leap to you feet. > You punch him You swing your fist, but Gruzub quickly ducks and elbows you in the stomach, knocking the wind from your lungs. He gets two more punches in before you manage to roll away and get back into a fighting stance. As you prepare to charge him, you hear a deep voice. "CHILDREN! Your mother struggles to soothe the little one while your brother hunts sheep. This is no time for playing. There is work to be done! Inside!" Your father bellows. > You go inside You quickly hurry inside, followed by your twin brother. You live in a small village of small huts. Luckily enough, you father is Chieftain Magrash, which entitles you to sleep in the Chieftain's Hut, the largest hut. As you enter, you see your father sitting in a rough woolen tunic, sharpening his greatsword. In front of him is his heavy steel plate armor, as well as several trophies from his battles. "Mazkil, Gruzub, you fight too much. Mama is trying to put Dagden to sleep." "Yes, papa." You both reply. "Who won the fight?" He asks. "I did!" You both say, before glaring at each other. "You don't know? Perhaps you're not fighting enough. Gruzub, go down to the river and fetch water for the stew. Mazkil, sharpen my sword. I need light the hearth." You go over to the sword, and begin to sharpen it against the whet stone, while looking over your father's trophies: An Elven Dagger, a Shrunken head, a battered golden shield, a shattered battleaxe, a studded mace, a series of Tribal Necklaces and a Dragon Skull. "Papa?" "Yes?" "Can you tell me about your trophies?" You ask. "I've told you many times about my trophies." "Tell me again." Papa chuckles, a harsh sound you've come to love. "Which would you like to know about?" > You elven Dagger (Elves) "Ah, the dagger. One of my favorite. The Elves are a race of "beautiful" and "perfect" creatures who don't know a battleaxe from a wood-axe. Death to them all. They're stupid in things like how to start a fire and how to hunt, yet seem to love philosophy and reading. Death should take them. Still, they're fast with a blade and good with a bow, which I found out while hunting a party of them that came into my territory. That knife nearly went into my throat before I impaled the little bastard wielding it."<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You quickly hurry inside, followed by your twin brother. You live in a small village of small huts. Luckily enough, you father is Chieftain Magrash, which entitles you to sleep in the Chieftain's Hut, the largest hut. As you enter, you see your father sitting in a rough woolen tunic, sharpening his greatsword. In front of him is his heavy steel plate armor, as well as several trophies from his battles. "Mazkil, Gruzub, you fight too much. Mama is trying to put Dagden to sleep." "Yes, papa." You both reply. "Who won the fight?" He asks. "I did!" You both say, before glaring at each other. "You don't know? Perhaps you're not fighting enough. Gruzub, go down to the river and fetch water for the stew. Mazkil, sharpen my sword. I need light the hearth." You go over to the sword, and begin to sharpen it against the whet stone, while looking over your father's trophies: An Elven Dagger, a Shrunken head, a battered golden shield, a shattered battleaxe, a studded mace, a series of Tribal Necklaces and a Dragon Skull. "Papa?" "Yes?" "Can you tell me about your trophies?" You ask. "I've told you many times about my trophies." "Tell me again." Papa chuckles, a harsh sound you've come to love. "Which would you like to know about?" > You shrunken Head (Necromancer's Army) "Ah, that! I took that off a large bastard with a sword twice as large as you.That damn Necromancer, I can't remember his name, rose Zombies Ghouls, Skeletons, Wights, Death Knights, Specters, Ghosts and who knows what else in his quest for power. He led a small group of Death Knights up here to add some Ork Zombies to his collection. He ran faster than a deer when he saw what a true Orc can do! Ha!"<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You quickly hurry inside, followed by your twin brother. You live in a small village of small huts. Luckily enough, you father is Chieftain Magrash, which entitles you to sleep in the Chieftain's Hut, the largest hut. As you enter, you see your father sitting in a rough woolen tunic, sharpening his greatsword. In front of him is his heavy steel plate armor, as well as several trophies from his battles. "Mazkil, Gruzub, you fight too much. Mama is trying to put Dagden to sleep." "Yes, papa." You both reply. "Who won the fight?" He asks. "I did!" You both say, before glaring at each other. "You don't know? Perhaps you're not fighting enough. Gruzub, go down to the river and fetch water for the stew. Mazkil, sharpen my sword. I need light the hearth." You go over to the sword, and begin to sharpen it against the whet stone, while looking over your father's trophies: An Elven Dagger, a Shrunken head, a battered golden shield, a shattered battleaxe, a studded mace, a series of Tribal Necklaces and a Dragon Skull. "Papa?" "Yes?" "Can you tell me about your trophies?" You ask. "I've told you many times about my trophies." "Tell me again." Papa chuckles, a harsh sound you've come to love. "Which would you like to know about?" > You battered Golden Shield (Empire of Man) "The Shield? The Shield... Ah, yes! The shield! I took it off some fancy knight who drank too much and fought too little. Let me tell you about men, little one, there's a lot of them, but they're weak, stupid and cowardly. They break easily. They're the biggest threat to our little old home, but they're too busy fighting the elves to come fuck with my tribe."<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You quickly hurry inside, followed by your twin brother. You live in a small village of small huts. Luckily enough, you father is Chieftain Magrash, which entitles you to sleep in the Chieftain's Hut, the largest hut. As you enter, you see your father sitting in a rough woolen tunic, sharpening his greatsword. In front of him is his heavy steel plate armor, as well as several trophies from his battles. "Mazkil, Gruzub, you fight too much. Mama is trying to put Dagden to sleep." "Yes, papa." You both reply. "Who won the fight?" He asks. "I did!" You both say, before glaring at each other. "You don't know? Perhaps you're not fighting enough. Gruzub, go down to the river and fetch water for the stew. Mazkil, sharpen my sword. I need light the hearth." You go over to the sword, and begin to sharpen it against the whet stone, while looking over your father's trophies: An Elven Dagger, a Shrunken head, a battered golden shield, a shattered battleaxe, a studded mace, a series of Tribal Necklaces and a Dragon Skull. "Papa?" "Yes?" "Can you tell me about your trophies?" You ask. "I've told you many times about my trophies." "Tell me again." Papa chuckles, a harsh sound you've come to love. "Which would you like to know about?" > You shattered Battleaxe (Dwarves) "Ah, this one! I fought the dwarves when I was young, back when my name was Youngblood like you. I earned the name Magrash Shatteraxe that day! The Dwarves are small bastards and the sight of one will make you chuckle, but I love 'em! The Gods made them jesters to amuse, and the Dwarves became angry, stubborn, heavy-drinkers who can wield an axe! They hide in their tunnels and mine too much, but I respect them anyway."<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You quickly hurry inside, followed by your twin brother. You live in a small village of small huts. Luckily enough, you father is Chieftain Magrash, which entitles you to sleep in the Chieftain's Hut, the largest hut. As you enter, you see your father sitting in a rough woolen tunic, sharpening his greatsword. In front of him is his heavy steel plate armor, as well as several trophies from his battles. "Mazkil, Gruzub, you fight too much. Mama is trying to put Dagden to sleep." "Yes, papa." You both reply. "Who won the fight?" He asks. "I did!" You both say, before glaring at each other. "You don't know? Perhaps you're not fighting enough. Gruzub, go down to the river and fetch water for the stew. Mazkil, sharpen my sword. I need light the hearth." You go over to the sword, and begin to sharpen it against the whet stone, while looking over your father's trophies: An Elven Dagger, a Shrunken head, a battered golden shield, a shattered battleaxe, a studded mace, a series of Tribal Necklaces and a Dragon Skull. "Papa?" "Yes?" "Can you tell me about your trophies?" You ask. "I've told you many times about my trophies." "Tell me again." Papa chuckles, a harsh sound you've come to love. "Which would you like to know about?" > You studded Mace (Rebel Orcs) "Ah... the mace. Boy, some Orcs stick to their tribe. Some wander as mercenaries, or sign up as soldiers. Some become Rebels, raiders targeting every humans, elves, dwarves and anyone else that gets in their way. They're mad, stubborn, bloodthirsty fools. I took that weapon off on of them trying to convince Old Klaim to join up. I also took a few of his teeth, but I don't have those anymore."<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You quickly hurry inside, followed by your twin brother. You live in a small village of small huts. Luckily enough, you father is Chieftain Magrash, which entitles you to sleep in the Chieftain's Hut, the largest hut. As you enter, you see your father sitting in a rough woolen tunic, sharpening his greatsword. In front of him is his heavy steel plate armor, as well as several trophies from his battles. "Mazkil, Gruzub, you fight too much. Mama is trying to put Dagden to sleep." "Yes, papa." You both reply. "Who won the fight?" He asks. "I did!" You both say, before glaring at each other. "You don't know? Perhaps you're not fighting enough. Gruzub, go down to the river and fetch water for the stew. Mazkil, sharpen my sword. I need light the hearth." You go over to the sword, and begin to sharpen it against the whet stone, while looking over your father's trophies: An Elven Dagger, a Shrunken head, a battered golden shield, a shattered battleaxe, a studded mace, a series of Tribal Necklaces and a Dragon Skull. "Papa?" "Yes?" "Can you tell me about your trophies?" You ask. "I've told you many times about my trophies." "Tell me again." Papa chuckles, a harsh sound you've come to love. "Which would you like to know about?" > You tribal Necklaces (Tribal Orks) "The tribal necklaces? Boy, show some respect! Those are the Chieftain's necklaces, that show who's the boss of this tribe! Us Orcs have always been a hot-headed folk. Lots of fighting, drinking, eating, fucking and some more fighting when you're finished. We stick to the tribes, each led by the great Chieftain. It's a good life, boy."<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You quickly hurry inside, followed by your twin brother. You live in a small village of small huts. Luckily enough, you father is Chieftain Magrash, which entitles you to sleep in the Chieftain's Hut, the largest hut. As you enter, you see your father sitting in a rough woolen tunic, sharpening his greatsword. In front of him is his heavy steel plate armor, as well as several trophies from his battles. "Mazkil, Gruzub, you fight too much. Mama is trying to put Dagden to sleep." "Yes, papa." You both reply. "Who won the fight?" He asks. "I did!" You both say, before glaring at each other. "You don't know? Perhaps you're not fighting enough. Gruzub, go down to the river and fetch water for the stew. Mazkil, sharpen my sword. I need light the hearth." You go over to the sword, and begin to sharpen it against the whet stone, while looking over your father's trophies: An Elven Dagger, a Shrunken head, a battered golden shield, a shattered battleaxe, a studded mace, a series of Tribal Necklaces and a Dragon Skull. "Papa?" "Yes?" "Can you tell me about your trophies?" You ask. "I've told you many times about my trophies." "Tell me again." Papa chuckles, a harsh sound you've come to love. "Which would you like to know about?" > You ask about the Dragon Skull (Dragons) "Ah, the skull. Dragons are fearsome creatures. They come in many colors, all with powerful skills. They speak Dragontongue, and many speak our language. Some are intelligent, while some are incredibly feral and wild from years of isolation. Their flames tend to be tinted the same color as their scales, with an afinity for hoarding treasure and waging war and destruction. They're solitary creatures, Dragons. If you ever slay one, Gorgok will look upon you with joy."<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You quickly hurry inside, followed by your twin brother. You live in a small village of small huts. Luckily enough, you father is Chieftain Magrash, which entitles you to sleep in the Chieftain's Hut, the largest hut. As you enter, you see your father sitting in a rough woolen tunic, sharpening his greatsword. In front of him is his heavy steel plate armor, as well as several trophies from his battles. "Mazkil, Gruzub, you fight too much. Mama is trying to put Dagden to sleep." "Yes, papa." You both reply. "Who won the fight?" He asks. "I did!" You both say, before glaring at each other. "You don't know? Perhaps you're not fighting enough. Gruzub, go down to the river and fetch water for the stew. Mazkil, sharpen my sword. I need light the hearth." You go over to the sword, and begin to sharpen it against the whet stone, while looking over your father's trophies: An Elven Dagger, a Shrunken head, a battered golden shield, a shattered battleaxe, a studded mace, a series of Tribal Necklaces and a Dragon Skull. "Papa?" "Yes?" "Can you tell me about your trophies?" You ask. "I've told you many times about my trophies." "Tell me again." Papa chuckles, a harsh sound you've come to love. "Which would you like to know about?" > You stop asking about Trophies "I'm finished, Papa!" Papa picks up the blade, and licks the edge. "Yes... Sharp enough to shed dragon blood. Well done, Mazkil. Now, go fetch gather fruit." > Four years later... "You've been on this planet fourteen years, and you haven't learned a thing, boys, unless you've seen me and Dendar take out a boar!" You walk with Gruzub, your older brother Bagig and his friend Dendar, out in the woods. You have a small iron knife at your belt and a bow clutched in your hands. So far in your short life, you've only subsided on deer, goat and chicken, but after today you'll be able to feast on the boar you've helped kill. "On your first hunt, it's tradition to eat a deer's dropping to gain it's scent." Dendar remarks. "Everybody knows that." Dendar and Bagig pause, dropping to one knee, pointing to some small droppings. "Go on, Gruzub, Mazkill. Dig in." > You eat the droppings You drop to your knees, close your eyes, and quickly swallow a small piece of dropping. Bagig pats you on the head, and nods to Gruzub. Gruzub does the same, and with that, Dendar bursts out laughing. "You two are idiots!" Mazkil and Gruzub Youngblood, eating deer droppings." They chuckle as your face reddens. You open your mouth to yell at them, but then freeze. You spot a beautiful deer just at the edge of a small creek out of sight. You grab your brother, and point to it. "Ah, well spotted, Mazkil Shiteater. Let's catch it, Dendar." "We can't get distracted. We came here to hunt boar." "We'll catch the deer and the boar!" Bagig cries, charging off after the deer. The Deer bursts off running, with Bagig and Dendar quickly following. "Stay there!" Bagig yells at you as he leaves. > You stay there You stand patiently with Gruzub, who looks at you. "Just so you know, Oraal is mine." He says quietly. You ponder this for a second. Oraal is a fat, lazy girl who's the daughter of a swordsmaker. "Oraal? Has her father promised you a fine blade if you crawl between her legs?" You giggle. "Hey! She has proclaimed her...!" He begins, before his eyes widen. > You ask what's wrong You open your mouth to speak, but you're hit in the back and sent flying through the air. You hit the ground, your head knocking against a tree root and drawing blood. You shakily stand, drawing your knife, as you're faced with a large boar preparing to charge again. "Watch out!" Gruzub yells, running to help, but it's clear he's far too slow. The Boar charges at you, it's tusks looking deadly sharp at they near you... > You roll to the side You roll to the side, narrowly dodging a goring from the beast's tusks. As it runs past, you leap forward with your knife, cutting through thick fur and drawing a fair amount of blood. It squeals, before running forward and turning around once more for another charge. > You dodge again As the boar charges, you try to roll to the side, but it's prepared this time. You yell as it's tusks slash your side, causing a massive wound. > You continue Gruzub charges over and stabs the boar in the side with his dagger, giving you ample time to leap up. You charge at the boar, stabbing it repeatedly in the neck. It squeals, but it's easily killed before it can resist. It falls dead at your feat. > You rejoice, for the enemy is vanquished! You rest your foot on the boar's tusks, laughing. "Ha! I've slain the boar!" "Hey!" Gruzub yells. "I helped." Dendar and Bagig burst trough the trees, a deer straddled between them. "We caught the deer. I bet..." They pause, noticing the boar. "Cursed Reaper, is that a boar?" You nod proudly. "Death's Head, Mazkil, you've impressed me. No longer will you be called Mazkil Youngblood, now you'll be Mazkil Boarsbane!" Bagig laughs. You smile proudly, knowing you will feast on boar meat tonight. > One year later... "Mazkil Boarsbane! Gruzub Fastfoot! Let's go." Papa yells. You quickly follow your father out of your small home and onto the small dirt road that interconnects the village. "Boys, you've done well. I was so proud when I saw you best Harkor Clawfist in a fight, I got you a present." You smile fondly. Harkor had insulted your brother Bagig and Dendar. They had only been recently killed by a Death Knight from the remnants of the Necromancer's Army, and you made sure that Harkor suffered for his insult. By the time you and Gruzub were finished, his face was half-caved in. Your father hands you each a small amount of gold coins. "Dendar Arroweye is heading down to Riverton today. He's taking the cart to pick up some goods to help us get through the winter. Take the cart, go enjoy yourself." You thank him, and eagerly count your coins. 25 Gold Coins, all shining proudly at you. "Go now, boys. Enjoy yourselves." > You head down to Riverton After a long ride to Riverton with Dendar who mostly insults you and Gruzub, you eventually arrive at the small town. You eyes immediately find multiple ways to spend your precious coins. There's a brothel in the poorer section of town, a large shop full of delicious foods you wish to sample, a small gambling ring and a tavern. > You leave Riverton Once you've spent your gold coins, you make your way back to Dendar's cart. Unfortunately, you find yourself in the poorer part of town, clearly having taken a wrong turn. As you make your way through a side street, a voice cries out. "Hello! A little lost, are we?" A voice cries. You turn, and are faced with a trio of men holding knives. "Fuck off." You grunt angrily. "'Fuck off', he says. What an angry orc." A voice from behind you says. You turn, to see two more men wielding knives. "Listen, sir. Give us your coins, and we'll see you find your way to where you're going." > You charge the men You run forward, swinging your blade. You slash the throat of one of the men and he topples backwards. The second man cuts your shoulder deeply, and you grab his head and smash it repeatedly against a wall, crushing it into a pulp. You feel another knife slash your back and you yell, twisting around to jab another man through the eye and kill him. The two remaining men seem nervous, but one runs forward in a burst of courage. He dives forward, sticking his knife through your arm, causing you to drop your knife. With your other hand you grab him, and push your thumb through his eye as he screams, before stomping on his head until he's a smear on the floor. By then, the final man had left, running as fast as he could. > You collapse You fall to the ground with a thud, and lose consciousness. When you wake up, you're in the back of Dendar's cart, with Gruzub next to you. "What happened?" "You killed a lot of people, collapsed, and I dragged you here." "Ah. I'm still alive, then. Good." "We'll get you medical help when we get back to the village." "Good." You grunt. "Well done with the thieves, Mazkil. You've proven yourself a true Orc." > One year later... Orc Tribal Customs are simple. The Chieftain's sons fight, and the winner takes over for him when the Chieftain is killed or reaches forty. Papa has just hit forty, so something you've been preparing for all your life. You sit next to Gruzub in front of the Shrine of Gorgok, the Warrior God, praying silently. "I'll try not to kill you, you know." Gruzub says quietly. "I'll try not to kill you." You reply. "Papa killed his brother." Gruzub notes. "Death is quiet likely for one of us." "Grandpapa didn't kill his brother." You add. "Fair point. Whatever it comes down to, I love you. You are my brother, and I would be proud to be killed by you." "Well, I'm great and mighty. Everyone I kill should be proud of it." You chuckle. "I take it back, I'm killing you, you prick." You both laugh, as Papa arrives. He quietly removes his tribal beads, and drapes them around the Shrine. "Ah. My neck feels bare." He sighs. "Boys, tomorrow is going to be the most important day of your life. One of you will become the victor and chieftain, the other will fall and may die. I just want you to both know I feel nothing but pride towards you." You struggle not to tear up, and by the way Gruzub is tensing, you know he's also struggling. "I've always treated you as my father treated me, stern but loving. Whatever you become, be it Chieftain, Warrior, Mercenary or even a whining baker, you will be the greatest at it there's ever been." Your father nods, and lays his great sword in front of the Shrine. "It's late. Go, sleep, rest up." You nod, and stand and begin heading to the hut. As you walk, Gruzub begins to chuckle. "What?" You ask. "Do you remember the time when we were boys when we tried to make a glider out of chicken feathers?" You laugh. "And we were standing on top of the mountain, with you about to jump." You add. Gruzub nods, smiling. "And you yanked me back when you realized chickens can't fly." Gruzub smiles. "Ha! You would've died! Remember when we caught our first boar?" You smile. "Yeah. I ate so much boar that night I almost puked." "That was the mead, Gruzub." "I miss those days."Gruzub nods. You arrive at the hut, and you grab Gruzub in a hug. "Good luck tommorow." You say. "Good luck." You both go to bed, scared and nervous about tomorrow. > The next day... You stand, fully armored in plated steel, next to Gruzub and the Shrine of Gorgok. Priest Jinser stands by the shrine, holding two short swords. "Gorgok! Watch over this fight and please bless these warriors. Watch over this fight and see that the greatest Chieftain is chosen!" The Priest wails. He holds the two swords out, and you grab one. Gruzub grabs the other. "Let the fight commence! First to render the other unable to stand wins!" You take up a fighting stance, as does Gruzub. You slowly move forward, before you both swing your blades. Sparks fly as they collide, and the battle commences. You land the first blow, smacking into Gruzub's chest as he stumbles backwards. He draws blood first, slashing open a small bit of unprotected arm. It's obvious that you're the far superior fighter, with Gruzub struggling to avoid your attacks. Then, the Fates pluck your string. > You pluck An eagle, far above you, drops a small turtle from a great height, hoping it's shell will shatter on the ground. The turtle smacks into your head, knocking you backwords. Gruzub takes advantage of your confusion, stepping forward and thrusting his blade. The blade enters you chest, Gruzub carefully avoiding your organs but thrusting deep enough to cause you to scream. When he withdraws, blood spurts out, and you struggle to stand. "The Fates seem to dislike Mazkil." The Priest notes loudly, though you barely listen. Gruzub continues to attack, and you barely manage to defend yourself. Eventually, he kicks your leg and you fall backwards. This leaves your throat exposed, for Gruzub to easily slash your throat and make sure you fall and never get up. > You try to regain a fighting stance To your surprise, Gruzub hesitates, before taking up fighting stance again, allowing you to gain a defensive position to defend your open throat and stop your demise. Your energy waning, you decide to take one final effort to defeat Gruzub. He swings his sword at your legs, attempting to floor you, but you block the shot and head butt him. He falls backwards, and you swing your blade, smacking into his head. His helmet flies into the air, leaving his head and neck unguarded. You know you don't have enough energy to continue fighting. > You behead Gruzub You swing your blade down with a roar. You sword connects with his neck, and his head falls to the ground. You drop to your knees, looking at your dead brother. You barely comprehend the Priest grabbing your hand and holding it up, loudly proclaiming you the victor. Papa walks over, draping the Tribal Chieftain beads and necklaces around your neck. Mama walks out and gently kisses your head, before closing Gruzub's eyes on his decapitated head. The Priest has the body taken away to be burned to ensure it makes it to the afterlife. You struggle not to weep for your brother, while Papa kneels down to talk to you. "You are Chieftain now, Mazkil. Chieftain Mazkil Redblade, leader of the Red Blades. You will lead the tribe to greatness. Tonight, we celebrate. We celebrate your ascension to chieftain, we celebrate the great fight, we celebrate your brother's journey to the Afterlife. He fought so well I'm sure Gorgok himself is Gruzub's cup-bearer." You nod. The path you're going down is set. Gone are dreams of becoming a mercenary or a raider. Now, you are a Chieftain. > You continue The Path of the Chieftain You sit on the small wooden Chief's Throne in the Main Hall. Tribal Necklaces and Beads are around your neck, feeling a lot heavier than they are thanks to the guilt and grief from Gruzub's death. Papa has vacated his role as chief completely and given all his responsibilities to you, taking Mama and leaving to a small farm up the mountain, leaving you in charge. Still, he's left you with two lieutenants and advisors, Elder Doct and Thraka Flameborn. Elder Doct is an aging Orc, the oldest in your village. She is a traditionalist, who had fond memories of the old days when warriors fought duels for honor and farms were farmed by hand with hoes rather than with mules and donkeys. She values older values like honor, isolationism and keeping the village moral and traditional. Thraka Flameborn is the polar opposite of Doct. He is one of the few Orc Mages, specialized in pyromatics and flame-based magics. He is a very modern and progressive orc, who wants for the industrialization and modernization of the village as well as a better relationships with the outside world. The pair enter the Main Hall, and begin approaching you. Elder Doct is in ancient, dusty armor from his days as a warrior, and has a face like a wrinkled, rotting prune, while Thraka Flameborn is a younger, smaller Orc who looks like a child playing dress up with his father's red Mage Robes. Huh. Perhaps you are still bitter and angry at the world because of your brother's death. "Congratulations at you ascension to Chieftain, Chieftain Mazkil." Elder Doct says happily. "My brother just died." "Oh... Yes, sorry, Chieftain." Doct apologizes. "What's the issue?" You ask. "Raiders have been spotted at the Eastern Woods, by Jagik Longstride. She says they've been camped there for at least three days, raiding surrounding farms and market caravans." Thraka says. "What am I to do, then?" You ask. "You should grab your sword and lead our warriors to wipe them out." Elder Doct says. You grab your father's long sword, or your long sword now. It's a massive steel blade, the blade inscribed with Orc Runes. It's been handed down your family for four generations, when your great grandfather shattered his family sword on an Elven Shield. "Where are the men?" "Down at the armoury." Thraka adds. > You head to the armory You sling the sword over you shoulder, and begin marching towards the armory. The Orcs are all standing around, wearing plate armor and chainmail, wielding swords, axes and maces. They respond to your arrival with eagerness and bloodthirstiness. "Ah! The Chieftain's here! Time for battle!" One of them says gleefully. Because of your age, you know you quickly need to take charge and show your dominence. "Alright men! We had killing to do! On my lead!" You shout. You begin marching towards the Eastern Woods, followed by the the Orcs. With that, you begin leading your War Party towards bloodshed. > Two Hours Later... You spot smoke just in the distance, where the raiders are presumably camped. "Orcs!" You loudly whisper. "To arms! We'll wipe out the fiends to the last man." You move forward slowly, further through the woods. You arrive at the edge of a small glade. There is a large opening where there's several dozen tents. A group of around thirty Orcs wearing chainmail armor and wielding axes, short swords and maces. You give a few hushed orders to various Orcs to target the various flanks to make sure not a single raider survives. Then, you raise your sword. "CHARGE!" You roar, sprinting forward. The Raiders are quickly taken by surprise, grabbing any nearby weapons and raising them in defense. You swing your sword, which bites into one of their necks and beheads him in one clean sweep. You kick a second to the floor with one swift kick to the head, knocking him to the floor. You raise your sword and stab downwards, going through the raider's stomach. Within a few seconds, the fighting is over. The raiders have been quickly wiped out to the last orc, leaving none alive. "This was quicker than I had hoped." One of the Orcs remarks. "Orders, Chieftain?" Another asks, turning to you. "Burn the tents, the bodies and take anything worth taking." You reply. "Yes, Chieftain Mazkil." Your men quickly begin removing armor, weapons and jewelry from the dead Orcs, and wrapping their corpses in tents. Once this is finished with all the corpses, they set the wrapped corpses alight, which quickly begin burning. You sniff the air, and smell the delicious smell of sizzling flesh. "Chieftain! I counted the amount of beds versus corpses. Twenty dead raiders, but there's over eighty beds." "There's more! We believe there's at least sixty more raiders off on a mission at the moment. Orders, Chieftain?" One of the Orcs, one of the very few archers you've brought, Kanim Darkwit, steps forward. "Sir. The Raiders will be hungry and tired. They'll be here soon. We can lay an ambush. There's a good vantage point in one of the trees..." "Coward! Where's your honor, boy?" Another Orc, Jakku Bearsbane, roars. "We're not abandoning all honor and reason in favor of hiding like does! We find the raiders, and wipe them out to the last man." > You return to the village "Curse the Gods, I'm not wasting my time out here in a freezing, empty forest waiting for what could be days, weeks even, for the raiders to return, all while subsiding on nuts and berries like a fucking chipmunk. We head back to the village for a warm meal and a large drink." "Yes, Chieftain." The Orcs all bark back. You wipe the blood off your longsword on the wet grass, and turn to begin the long walk home. > You head back to the village The next day, you walk along the street, Thraka and Doct off managing your work for a while. You survey your village. Children are brawling in the streets, the elders are drinking and the adults are working. Everything's good. You think to yourself. You notice a young Orc woman who's name you haven't learnt, and feel a pang in your heart as you notice how beautiful she is. You feel a pang in another place, but that's neither here nor there. You realize that one of, and perhaps the best, duty of the Chieftain is to have a heir to the throne and get married. You'll try find someone soon enough. Not today, though. You continue strolling around the village, before you notice at the edge of town, a trail of caravans approaching. You raise an eyebrow, as there are no scheduled caravans set to arrive over the next few days. You walk up, and to your surprise, notice the caravaneers are not the Orcs you're used to seeing. They're all men. Usually there's a few men mixed in with the Orcs that run the caravans. You walk over to the caravan. "Hey! Who are you, then?" You ask loudly. The Humans on board are wearing red cloth with gold Eagle symbols embroidered on them. "Greetings! I am Giorgio Lates. I am a merchant from the Kingdom of Mankind." "I recognize the sigil. What do you want?" "I am a merchant, kind sir. Orcs are famous for their steelwork, and I had the pleasure of working with some Orc Mercenaries. They're blades, axes and maces are unrivaled, except for Elvish blades, which are as easy to find as an honest merchant. Which, you so happen to have found." Giorgio says, winking. "You wish to buy blades?" "Buy? Not exactly. I doubt you have much use for my gold. I wish to swap, to barter, to trade." "For what?" "We have much to trade. Food, Drink, Steel, Iron, Wool, Jewelry, Gold, Silver and much, much more. We wish to open up a trade route between here and the Empire." Giorgio grins. You frown. Traders are prone to take advantage of humble villages like yours. The Village is also dedicated to crops, farm work and general self-sufficiency. To increase your smithing and weapons production, you'd need to sacrifice your self-sufficiency. Still, it could increase your village's profit and the standard of living. > You agree to trade with the Kingdom of Man "Yes. Yes... I like this plan. I will expand the blacksmith's, and begin producing weapons for the Kingdom of Man." "Ah! Fantastic, Sir!" Giorgio replies happily. "I promise, you won't regret this. I'll increase the amount of caravans coming up here, and have the first few stuffed with a little... gift, a show of appreciation. I've you've never had Elk, or Trout, or Lamb, you'll enjoy the caravans." "It'll take us some time to begin producing weapons, but once we're started we'll be able to produce quite a bit." "Ah, good, good." Giorgio grins. You negotiate the smaller details and offer the merchants each a bed and mead, but they politely refuse to head back down the mountain. Despite Giorgio's friendliness, it's quite obvious most of the other merchants and guards were unnerved by being so deep in Orc territory. Still, you think this trade deal with greatly benefit the Red Blades. > Three Days Later... You sit on your throne in the Main Hall, in the midst of a feast to celebrate the death of Chieftain Dadic, your Great-Great-Great-Grandfather, who was brutally stabbed to death by Elven Assassins. Despite being unarmed, surprised and quite old, he put up a grand fight. Twenty Elves entered this very great hall to assassinate him, three went out. Thraka and Dokt stand on either side of you. For once, they both agree on what you should do, although Thraka's much more brutally honest. "Find a girl to fuck." He says. "What Thraka Flameborn means is..." "To get your dick inside a girl." Thraka laughs, to Dokt's embarrassment and frustration. "Chieftain, every Chieftain needs one to share their soul with. You need a mate." Dokt says. You survey the room. You spot a young Orc girl dancing in the crowd. She's small and cute, and you briefly make eye contact. She gives you a flirty wink. A pretty girl would do good to help you survive the cold winter nights. Making use of the drink and food is a tall warrior. Her head is cut short and she has a large, impressive blade on her side. A warrior is someone you could relate to and respect as a mate. One the opposite side (both of the room and orientation), a youngish Orc stands quietly, a leatherbound book in his hands. He looks intelligent, but also has soft features and a nice smile, which he quickly flashes at you. Finally, there's a massive beat of an Orc holding a blade that could cleave horses in half with one blow leans against a wall. You recognize him as Ironsoul, a fantastic warrior notorious for spending large amounts of time in brothels in the company of Orcs who choose to have an adventurous life working in the brothel rather than on the battlefield. > You talk to the dancing Orc You walk over to the dancing orc, and smile. "Hello." "Hi." She replies cheerfully. "I am Chieftain Mazkil." She giggles. "Obviously. I make sure I know the name of the Chieftain." "Ah. Good." You reply, awkwardly. You realize while you're very skilled and courageous in the art of warfare, you suck at flirting. Thankfully, she's better and very interested. "I am Sarunt. So, do you want to get a drink, Mazkil?" You nod eagerly, and head over to the drink stand. > You continue spending time with Sarunt You spend the next few hours talking with your newfound mate. Sarunt is quite intelligent and flirty, almost your exact opposite. You'll make sure that your relationship continues and develops into what could be a prosperous marriage. > Four Weeks Later... You sit on your throne, resting your head on your blade as Thraka Flameborn and Elder Dokt tell you about the village's state of affairs. "There's been a change in the management of the College of Alexandria. They've begun to accept Orc students." Thraka says to you. "Well, this is very good for racial relations, but what do the Red Blades care?" "There are many more profitable jobs that can be found if you work in the College. We could greatly improve their lives." "These jobs would take these people away from profiting the Red Blades, cost massive amounts of money, and mots likely they wouldn't receive these jobs for being Orcs. These students wouldn't be able to get the jobs, and they wouldn't be taught how to farm or fight, so when they came back here without jobs, they couldn't work here." "The Elder exaggerates greatly. There's plenty of work ot be found, especially with Orcs. Learning at the College of Alexandria would mean that our children would have better lives." You briefly consider the thought. Perhaps the Young Orcs would have better lives in and after the College, but it would definitely take away from the tribe's size, and perhaps the Orcs would be left untrained in manual labor or the ability to find actual work after discrimination stops them from finding educated work. > You send young Orcs to the College You decide to send these young Orcs to the College. You want them to have a better life than you and your ancestors have had, and make sure the Orcs aren't left out in the education world. > Five Weeks Later... You sit on the Throne, looking over hunting cycles. Gemin's Point is good hunting ground, but it could lead to fighting between the Dead Bone Tribe, who also uses the area. You could send hunters there, not send hunters there, or the third and by far the greatest option, fall on your own sword and end the painful trial worse than any other Orc has endured of doing crop rotations or hunting areas. You hear yells outside, and the doors to the town hall is kicked open. A group of six Orcs appear, dragging a brutally beaten man with them. "Chieftain! We have found a man in our territory, the goat fucker." One of the Orcs yells, tossing the man in front of you. "He's been hunting our deer and boar for weeks, it seems." "Explain yourself, human, before I release my warriors to tear you apart." "Sir, please." He says, begging. "I'm from the village of Eckleglade. It was destroyed by an Elvish Assault Party, and we were forced to flee. Many of us headed to the hills and mountains, to hide from Elvish attacks, and formed small camps up there. I was only trying to hunt to feed my family." "Sir, orders?" One of the Orcs asks you. "Shall I take his head?" > You have the Trespasser executed "Hmmm... Where are the camps, trespasser?" "Sir, if I tell you..." "Don't preside to know who I am or what I'll do, trespasser." "They're at the Morinspeck Mines, sir." "Good." You stand, and swing your blade. The Man doesn't have time to blink before his head falls to the ground, rolling onto the floor. You turn to your men. "Send warriors up to Morinspeck Miens. Force them out, and kill anyone who resists or refuses to go." "Yes, Chieftain." They say cheerily, running off to find armor and weapons. "Well, that takes care of that problem." You think, kicking the head aside. > Five Weeks Later... "Chieftain! Chieftain!" "Yes?" You ask. You're met with a young Orc, a cousin of yours, who reminds you of Gruzub. You feel a twang of guilt, before deciding that in honor of Gruzub, you're going to kill this Orc if he brings up something like the placement of the new well or whether to build the new stable of stone or wood. "There's a disaster up at the Kes Nests." "Disaster? That's a strong word." "It's accurate. A group of Zombies have engaged a Red Dragon perched on the mountain." "If Death and Destruction met on a Road." You quote, remembering one of the few books you read as a child. "What?" The Orc grunts. "The Poem, where the Grim Reaper meets the Mother of Dragons on a road. They debate their roles, with the Grim Reaper saying how his job is necessary ot prevent overpopulation, while the Mother of Dragons says that she prevents empires from wiping out all... What the fuck am I doing? I'm not explaining a children's poem to you." "Sorry Chieftain. The Warriors are suggesting you lead a party up there." "To do what?" The Orc shrugs. > You lead an army up to the Kes Nests "Assemble the warriors." You say. "Get me a group of sixty warriors who are hungry for blood." You have the group assembled, and quickly begin making your way up the mountain. About halfway up, you begin to regret it. "It's cold, my feet hurt and I'm fucking tired." You grunt as you trudge up the mountain. "Damn right, Mazkil." Urug Eaglebow says. You look further up the mountain, and hear the howls and rasps of the dead as well as the roars and screeches of the dragon. There's few dragons up here, so you presume this Red Dragon fighting is Mont Pre'Igni Rubrum, a near unpronounceable name, or the Volcano of Gargarum. The Undead are no doubt deserters from the Necromancer's Army. You reach the top of mountain, at the edge of a crater. At the center, a large group of two dozen undead soldiers armed with spears and swords are attempting to kill the dragon. It seems the undead are very unmatched. > You fight both the Dragon and the Undead You charge forward, your blade swinging. "Go! Send the dead back to their graves and the dragon to Gorgok's Trophy Room!" You behead one of the undead, its rotting skull flying through the air. You feel a blade slash your back, before a jet of flame sets you alight, melting your skull. > You death You let out a pitiful scream as your life is taken from you.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Assemble the warriors." You say. "Get me a group of sixty warriors who are hungry for blood." You have the group assembled, and quickly begin making your way up the mountain. About halfway up, you begin to regret it. "It's cold, my feet hurt and I'm fucking tired." You grunt as you trudge up the mountain. "Damn right, Mazkil." Urug Eaglebow says. You look further up the mountain, and hear the howls and rasps of the dead as well as the roars and screeches of the dragon. There's few dragons up here, so you presume this Red Dragon fighting is Mont Pre'Igni Rubrum, a near unpronounceable name, or the Volcano of Gargarum. The Undead are no doubt deserters from the Necromancer's Army. You reach the top of mountain, at the edge of a crater. At the center, a large group of two dozen undead soldiers armed with spears and swords are attempting to kill the dragon. It seems the undead are very unmatched. > You attack the Undead "Send the dead back to their graves!" You roar, charging into battle. You swing your blade, beheading a rotting head and sending it through the air. You stab another through the heart, killing him instantly. You headbutt another, with such strength that the spine breaks and the zombie collapses on the ground. The undead are so unmatched that they're wiped out within seconds. You turn, to the snarling face of a dragon. It's voice, a low growl, shakes your very core. "Orcs... Why have you come to my home?" "I... I came to help." You say nervously. "I wanted to make sure this fight doesn't move into my territory." "A wise move, mortal. Your assistance was unnecessary, but polite. Please, let me give you a gift." The Dragon turns and stomps away into a cave. A few minutes later, it comes back. It opens its mouth, letting golden coins and gems fall out. Not a massive amount, but enough to fund the building of a new well and to get new bows for the hunters. "Thank you, mighty dragon." You say. "Of course." You bow, and begin trudging down the mountain. > One Month Later... You walk up a mountain, trudging through the harsh snow. You're cold despite being wrapped in furs and leathers, and you really need to piss, but you know that if you tried, your dick would freeze off. You lost three farmers and a dozen goats to a Frost Troll wandering down from the mountain in the cold, icy winter that's just started. You're taking a five war parties of twenty warriors each to wipe out any trolls up in the mountains. You lead the main war party of the best warriors who wish to target the cave system most likely to hold sheltering trolls. Wind and snow begins to block your view. You know you need to find shelter soon. > You hunker down in the cold You drop down, putting up whatever tents you have. You crawl inside, wrapping furs and leathers around you. You hope the storm clears up soon. Within an hour and a half, the cold is so brutal that you lose all feeling. The snow's bad you have no idea where you're going. After four hours of waiting, you feel a sudden sensation of warmth. You begin unstrapping your armor to cool down. You're hot and tired. A quick nap in the snow would be nice...<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You walk up a mountain, trudging through the harsh snow. You're cold despite being wrapped in furs and leathers, and you really need to piss, but you know that if you tried, your dick would freeze off. You lost three farmers and a dozen goats to a Frost Troll wandering down from the mountain in the cold, icy winter that's just started. You're taking a five war parties of twenty warriors each to wipe out any trolls up in the mountains. You lead the main war party of the best warriors who wish to target the cave system most likely to hold sheltering trolls. Wind and snow begins to block your view. You know you need to find shelter soon. > You move to the nearest Cave system to escape the cold You quickly speed up, heading towards a cave. You manage to find it within ten minutes, managing to take shelter. You rush inside, heading quickly deeper into the cave. You eventually find a point where you're sheltered for the most part from the freezing winds and snow. You feel warm air behind you, and you turn. A massive bear stands in front of you. It swings its paw, smacking you into a wall, leaving massive scratches across your chest plate. The bear is quickly beheaded by the warriors, stabbed repeatedly through the body. It's fur is quickly removed and the Orcs wrap it around themselves. > You search the cave for the Trolls You stand, brushing snow and some blood off your chest plate, and begin heading down one of the tunnels. The Orcs light torches, brightening up the tunnel walls. You raise your longsword, watching the walls. Shadows dance, but you see no trolls. Eventually, you come to an opening, where it opens into a massive chamber. Inside are four massive humanoid figures wrapped in bear furs. "Trolls!" You loudly whisper. The Trolls are eating several dead goats which have been brutally town apart. You slowly approach, your sword raised. When you get close enough, you swing. Your blade swings, slashing through the ankles of one of them. You stab the falling troll through the side, slicing open its organs. You pull out your blade and block a swing of a stone cudgel from a troll. The Orcs quickly attack, stabbing through the legs and groin of them, killing them quickly. The Trolls collapse on the ground, where they're hacked apart by the Orcs. "Good job, Orcs. Somebody start a fire. We'll take shelter from the cold, here." > Three Months Later... The Red Blades have survived another winter. Once again, Thraka Flameborn and Elder Dokt stand to give you an endless stream of tasks to sort out. The main three are the Farok Mines, the problem of excess warriors and the growing worship of Ka. "Chieftain! We have unearthed a massive iron and coal mine down the mountain, the Farok Mines. It was used by men to supply the war machine, but was abandoned because it was left undefended and abandoned by man. Still, you have excess Orc Workers who could head down to the mines to work, with only a small amount of the profits taken being given to the Kingdom of Man in payment for using the mine. It would mean working for the Kingdom of Man, but could prove very profitable for the village." Thraka says. "We still have mines up the mountain, Orc mines. We don't need to come crawling to the Kingdom of Man in order for a pittance of iron and coal. They'll be able to make more profit in the Orc Mines." Elder Dokt says. > You send Workers to work in the Farok Mines You decide that sending the workers to work in the Farok Mines is the best idea. These Workers make a small profit, but this strengthens your relationship with the industrialization complex and the Kingdom of Man. > You continue The next issue is the issue of excess warriors. The Red Blades are producing excess warriors, all young, bloodthirsty warriors who wish to fight. You can send them to fight with the Raiders, the Orcs who fight against the Kingdom of Man's expansion into Orc territory and their taking advantage of Orc Tribes and Villages. You could also send them to work as Mercenaries for the Kingdom of Man in the Man-Elf War. > You send them to work as Raiders You send your excess warriors to join the raiders. They'll fight for Orc honor and to defend the Orcs from exploitation and expansion by the Kingdom of Man. > You continue The next and final issue is the spread of a new religion. The worship of Ka, a monotheistic Creator God, has grown popular among young Orcs for reasons you're not sure. This is leading people away from the worship of the many Gods, especially Gorgok. > You ban the religion of Ka You ban the religion of Ka quickly. Its spread is stopped, and although some villagers worship him in private, most abandon him in favor of Gorgok and many. > One Month Later... You walk through the village, watching the villagers. You're tired of fighting and making decisions, so you're heading home. You reach the large chieftain's hut. > You go inside You walk inside, and are met by a small, thin figure in a dress that is far too fancy for an Orc. "Ah! Mazkil! You're home." "Sarunt! Good to see you!" You pull him into an embrace, almost crushing the figure. "So? How goes work? Did you sort out the crop rotations for spring..." "If you mention crop rotations I kill you." Sarunt laughs. "OK then. What about the Kingdom of Man?" "What about them?" "Do we fear invasion?" "Perhaps." "Well, enough sad news. I have some news of my own." "Go on." You raise an eyebrow, beckoning for her to continue. "Mazkil, I'm pregnant." A rush of emotions hits you immediately. Confusion, annoyance, fear, joy, exhileration, and many more. You realize she's staring at you, so you pick to express the emotion that won't make her start crying. "That's fantastic!" You say. "This is great! Have you visited the Shaman?" "Yes, Mazkil." "What do they think, boy or girl?" "The Shamans don't know shit, Mazkil. They just guess and get it right half the time." "Ah, well this is..." You hear screams outside. Fuck. You grab your blade, and raise it. > You head outside to investigate. You walk outside, and are met with an Orc child lying on the road, his face bloodied. A large Orc stands above him, who spits. "Pickpockets. I fucking hate them." He mutters loudly. "Who the fuck are you and why shouldn't I kill you?" "I am Grung Deatheater. I am part of the honor guard for Chieftain Pike." "Chieftain Pike? Why the fuck is...?" "Chieftain, we have a visitor. Or visitors, I should say." A voice cries. "Yes? Who is it?" You ask, turning to Elder Dokt. The old man brushes dust off his armor, and struggles to stay standing under the weight of it. Perhaps you should suggest he replace his heavy armor with some nice silk robes. "Chieftain Pike of the Vengeful Wolves is here, with Chieftain Sozin of the Burning Rage and Chieftain Gorgutz of the Evil Suns." You look back at the massive honor guard member. and shrug and head quickly back to the Main Hall. A group of twenty Orcs, with three massive figures at the front, are waiting for you. "Ah! Chieftain Mazkil! We're preparing a war party to launch a raid on the Kingdom of Man's army stationed at Rubgard. They recently launched a raid against three nearby Orc Villages to take any weapons of war. They're castrating our people. We need to wipe them out to the last man. End their stranglehold on our people. We would like you and your warriors to join us." "Sir, this is the perfect chance to fight and fend off the brutal grasp of the Kingdom of Man and free our people." Elder Dokt says, with more bloodlust than you'd expect from the ageing man. You wonder if you should enter the war that's about to begin on the side of the Orcs. Perhaps you've already integrated into the Kingdom of Man far too much to allow yourself to attack them. Perhaps it's best you don't attack. > You don't join the Orcs in rising up against the Empire of Mankind A week later, a regiment of soldiers for the Kingdom of Man arrive, led by a large man in plate armor with a red cloak with a golden dragon on it. He enters the Main Hall, bowing as he approaches your throne. "Greetings, Chieftain Mazkil. I am Sir Ignate. I was chosen by our Royal King Alexander to thank you for your refusal to attack the Kingdom's towns, cities and men. I am happy to offer you a proposal, that if you give troops and support to the Kingdom's counter-attack to wipe out the aggressors. If you accept this proposal you shall be taken on as a vassal for the Kingdom and receive our full financial and military support to allow for your expansion into aggressor territory. Will you accept our proposal, Chieftain Mazkil?" > You join the Kingdom of Mankind in repelling the Orcs The March of Progress "Yes. Yes, I will join the Kingdom of Man in their fight against the aggressors." "Good. Fantastic, even. I'll bring this message to King Alexander. I'll make sure you''re rewarded for this, Sir. I promise you, this will help your people. Our first military action is to lead an attack on the village of the main aggressor, the Vengeful Wolves. I assume you'll help us wipe out the Vengeful Wolves' miitaryforces?" "Yes, of course." "Good, I look forward to fighting with you on the battlefield." > The next night... Your stand at the edge of the Vengeful Wolves' Village, next to Sir Ignate. "Storm the camp. Don't kill children at any cost, nor the non-combatants." You say loudly to your allies. "Sir Ignate, what's the plan for the village when the fighting has finished? Long term, I mean." "The village and its surrounding territory will become a conquered territory for the Kingdom. We'll have a small fort built here to maintain control, but otherwise we'll try to make sure the transition of power is as smooth as possible." You nod. "Alright. Everyone ready?" "Yes, Chieftain." The chorus of voices come back from your Orc, while the Men exclude the chieftain part of the reply. "Alright. Let's do this. CHARGE!" You roar. You begin moving as fast as you can, your longsword raised. The Warriors of the Vengeful Wolves are clearly unprepared, having spent the previous night drinking and feasting to celebrate their recent victories in the spate of ambushes and assaults of the Kingdom. Still, Orcs are Orcs, and Orcs are always ready to fight. There's a rush of Orcs, some missing armor or only fighting with daggers or even fists, from the buildings. You swing your blade, catching one in the head and tearing his helmet off. You stab, going straight through the throat. You headbutt another Orc, sending him sprawling to the ground, where you quickly hack him apart. You thrust your blade, going though the belly of one of the Orcs. You swing, hack, slash, stab, thrust, parry block and behead for a good few minutes. The Orcs are aggressive fighters, which only means they're prone to more mistakes and leaving themselves more open to blows. You and your forces and allies use this to your advantage, quickly wiping out the militant population there. After the fighting has ceased, the Men begin searching from house to house for any soldiers to capture and weapons to be confiscated, as well as presumably anything to be looted. You see a bloodstained Sir Ignate walking among the carnage, laughing. "Well done, Chieftain Mazkil. You warriors preformed admirably. We'll have this war finished in no time and I'll be able to head back to the Elves. I'm sure they miss me, and they definitely miss my blade." He laughs. You nod, barely listening. You feel a pang of guilt for killing your fellow Orcs, not even in self defense. "We have a few fights left, Chieftain Mazkil. After that, you can settle down to your village. Then, we'll be finished our work together." > You continue Over the next few weeks, the Orc Aggressors begin raiding and striking against the Kingdom's Forces. As Orcs, your forces are used to counter these raids and ambushes, with mixed success. Eventually, one of your scouts succeeds. "Chieftain! I've found where the main Orc force is staying." He says proudly. "Where?" "The Fields of Gorgok." "The Fields of Gorgok? Ha! A fitting place for our final battle to take place. Send a message to Sir Ignates. We're going to war." > You wage War! You march forward accompanied by a massive force of Men and Orcs. The Royal Army, Red Blades Tribe, River-born Tribe, Dusk Hunters Tribe and various Orc, Human, Dark Elf and Dwarven Mercenaries heading forward to wage war. You have the main force of footmen accompanied by your best warriors and the Knights from the Kingdom of Mankind. There are also large groups of archers and a calvary of horse units, moving forward towards the enemy. After a few hours of marching, you see them. Hundreds of massive tents dot the field. You hear their lookouts blow their horns, waking the Orcs in time to prepare for the upcoming assault. Their will be no surprise assault today, you know. You raise your longsword. The blade is freshly sharpened. "Charge!" You roar, in unison with Sir Ignate and several other leaders of the army. You rush forward, moving forward with immense speed. The force of military wrath that you and leading storms forward as the Orcs appear, weapons drawn and enshrined in their armor. You charge into them, an unstoppable force smashing into an unmovable object. "DIE!" You roar, swinging your blade. You swing your sword, hacking off a limb that goes flying. You knee another figure and smash your hilt repeatedly into his face until it's nothing but pulp. You swing again, cutting open an Orc's stomach after it breaks through the chain mail armor. You swing again, opening a massive gash in the side of an Orc's face. You parry a strike and block another, before charging into battle with ferocity. You elbow an Orc in the face, smashing open bone and gristle with the force of your strike. You block an axe swing and remove the arm of the Orc holding the axe. You swing again, hacking off a leg and dropping an orc to one knee, allowing you to behead the Orc. You hack and swing, roaring with anger. "Chieftain! Orders?" One of your Orcs screams. Time to take command. > You attempt to regroup and target the Chieftains You blow a bone horn, and the Red Blades regroup around you. "Target the Chieftains!" You roar, charging forward. You sprint forward, dodging spears and arrows. Eventually, you find the Chieftains, clustered together defending against an advance of enemies approaching. You roar as you and the Red Blades strike. You find the leader of this entire army, Chieftain Pike. Chieftain Pike roars, swinging his blade at you. You block the blow, ducking under another swing. You get in under Pike's reach, and headbutt him, before leaning in. You bite his throat, tearing it out. Blood flows from him as he groans, falling backwards. You roar, turning and stabbing the next chieftain through the throat. You swing again, beheading another Chieftain. Within a few seconds, the entire group of Chieftains are dead. You pick up Chieftain Pike's horn, and blow it. A loud noise erupts from the horn, and you begin to roar. "Orcs! Your Chieftains are dead! Flee now or be wiped out!" The Orcs begin to panic, turning and rushing off. They drop weapons and armor in favor of the much needed speed to flee the area. The Orcs armies are routed and quickly leave. The few that remain are quickly struck down by the soldiers. "Victory!" You roar. > The enemy is vanquished! You stand on the field of battle, the bodies of Orcs and Men all around you. You wipe sweat from your brow. Sir Ignates rides up on horseback. "We've done it!" Sir Ignates laughs. "This land is all now King Alexander's! No one can oppose him! Hail the King! Don't worry, Mazkil. I'll make sure you're rewarded. Your village will benefit from this, I swear that to you." You look upon the corpses of your former allies, a feeling of betrayal in your mouth that you haven't tasted since Gruzub's death. You spit and shake your head. No, you did the right thing. You fought to give your tribe a future. You have succeeded. > Five Years Later... The Village has grown in the past ten years. Sir Ignates and King Alexander kept their word. The village is three times as large, although it has quite a large human population. It's the capital of the massive territory of Orc land, and is the Centre for a massive trade empire. The Red Blades have taken massive amounts of power, being essential components of the Kingdom of Man. The village is prosperous. You've done some great work for the Empire. You're now Lord Mazkil, Sir Mazkil, Chieftain Mazkil and Mazkil the Light-Bringer in response to the massive round of innovation you've brought about. That makes you laugh. You've only been on this Earth twenty five years, and look at all you've done. The World is good. You've heard rumors of a Necromancer rising and Orc rebellions that could occur, but those are small annoyances. Hell, you're glad for them, for it'll keep you busy. You sit on your throne, and the door is pushed open by a small figure cradling two tiny figures. "Sarunt!" You cry. Sarunt, your wife, carries two small children towards you; A five year old human and a three year old Orc. "Mazkil! Gruzub and Durzul miss you." You smile as you pick up your children. You look out through the open Main Hall and smile. You've saved the Red Blades and made your own future. The World is in your hands.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You march forward accompanied by a massive force of Men and Orcs. The Royal Army, Red Blades Tribe, River-born Tribe, Dusk Hunters Tribe and various Orc, Human, Dark Elf and Dwarven Mercenaries heading forward to wage war. You have the main force of footmen accompanied by your best warriors and the Knights from the Kingdom of Mankind. There are also large groups of archers and a calvary of horse units, moving forward towards the enemy. After a few hours of marching, you see them. Hundreds of massive tents dot the field. You hear their lookouts blow their horns, waking the Orcs in time to prepare for the upcoming assault. Their will be no surprise assault today, you know. You raise your longsword. The blade is freshly sharpened. "Charge!" You roar, in unison with Sir Ignate and several other leaders of the army. You rush forward, moving forward with immense speed. The force of military wrath that you and leading storms forward as the Orcs appear, weapons drawn and enshrined in their armor. You charge into them, an unstoppable force smashing into an unmovable object. "DIE!" You roar, swinging your blade. You swing your sword, hacking off a limb that goes flying. You knee another figure and smash your hilt repeatedly into his face until it's nothing but pulp. You swing again, cutting open an Orc's stomach after it breaks through the chain mail armor. You swing again, opening a massive gash in the side of an Orc's face. You parry a strike and block another, before charging into battle with ferocity. You elbow an Orc in the face, smashing open bone and gristle with the force of your strike. You block an axe swing and remove the arm of the Orc holding the axe. You swing again, hacking off a leg and dropping an orc to one knee, allowing you to behead the Orc. You hack and swing, roaring with anger. "Chieftain! Orders?" One of your Orcs screams. Time to take command. > You regroup and charge the enemy You quickly regroup, blowing a bone horn to bring the Red Blades together. "Come on! There is blood to be spilt! Ha!" You break into a charge, moving quickly forward. You swing your sword, sending a head through the air. After about a minute, you've pushed your way past the Orc lines and got yourself surrounded. You take an arrow to the shoulder and fall backwards, before you take a spear through the throat.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You march forward accompanied by a massive force of Men and Orcs. The Royal Army, Red Blades Tribe, River-born Tribe, Dusk Hunters Tribe and various Orc, Human, Dark Elf and Dwarven Mercenaries heading forward to wage war. You have the main force of footmen accompanied by your best warriors and the Knights from the Kingdom of Mankind. There are also large groups of archers and a calvary of horse units, moving forward towards the enemy. After a few hours of marching, you see them. Hundreds of massive tents dot the field. You hear their lookouts blow their horns, waking the Orcs in time to prepare for the upcoming assault. Their will be no surprise assault today, you know. You raise your longsword. The blade is freshly sharpened. "Charge!" You roar, in unison with Sir Ignate and several other leaders of the army. You rush forward, moving forward with immense speed. The force of military wrath that you and leading storms forward as the Orcs appear, weapons drawn and enshrined in their armor. You charge into them, an unstoppable force smashing into an unmovable object. "DIE!" You roar, swinging your blade. You swing your sword, hacking off a limb that goes flying. You knee another figure and smash your hilt repeatedly into his face until it's nothing but pulp. You swing again, cutting open an Orc's stomach after it breaks through the chain mail armor. You swing again, opening a massive gash in the side of an Orc's face. You parry a strike and block another, before charging into battle with ferocity. You elbow an Orc in the face, smashing open bone and gristle with the force of your strike. You block an axe swing and remove the arm of the Orc holding the axe. You swing again, hacking off a leg and dropping an orc to one knee, allowing you to behead the Orc. You hack and swing, roaring with anger. "Chieftain! Orders?" One of your Orcs screams. Time to take command. > You pull back and allow the Kingdom of Man to do the brunt of the fighting You blow a bone horn, and the Red Blades retreat. You pull back from the fighting, allowing the soldiers to move forward. You do some light support work, defending flanks and archers, which allows your forces to conquer over the Orcs. The Orc Tribes are slowly beaten back through a battle of attrition. Eventually, the Soldiers of the Kingdom of Man have begun to cease their aggression in their attacking. The Orcs are clearly beaten and bruised, unable to fight on for much longer. > You charge! "Charge! Strike them down!" You scream, charging forward. You rush forward. You swing your blade, and your forces crash into the Orcs. The Orcs begin to break away, dropping weapons and swords to retreat from the battle. Some stay behind, but you make very short work of them. You roar as you swing your blade, slicing through flesh and shattering armor to wipe out all those who are left. "Victory!" You roar.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>A week later, a regiment of soldiers for the Kingdom of Man arrive, led by a large man in plate armor with a red cloak with a golden dragon on it. He enters the Main Hall, bowing as he approaches your throne. "Greetings, Chieftain Mazkil. I am Sir Ignate. I was chosen by our Royal King Alexander to thank you for your refusal to attack the Kingdom's towns, cities and men. I am happy to offer you a proposal, that if you give troops and support to the Kingdom's counter-attack to wipe out the aggressors. If you accept this proposal you shall be taken on as a vassal for the Kingdom and receive our full financial and military support to allow for your expansion into aggressor territory. Will you accept our proposal, Chieftain Mazkil?" > You don't join the Kingdom of Mankind in repelling the Orcs You decide against joining the Kingdom of Mankind. You don't wish to take up sides in this war. This proves to be one of your worse ideas, as both Orcs and Men have no issues raiding your village for supplies whenever they wish. Battles spill into your territory and any hunters or gatherers you send out are struck down by both sides. Your tribe begins to fall apart. Your men begin to flee, either signing up on either side of the war to take up arms against their enemies, becoming mercenaries or simply fleeing to escape the territory. This leads to the death of the Red Blades. You've failed as Chieftain.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The next and final issue is the spread of a new religion. The worship of Ka, a monotheistic Creator God, has grown popular among young Orcs for reasons you're not sure. This is leading people away from the worship of the many Gods, especially Gorgok. > You don't ban the religion of Ka You decide against banning the religion of Ka. The religion spreads slightly throughout the village, but fails to gain a significant foot hole among the Red Blades.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The next issue is the issue of excess warriors. The Red Blades are producing excess warriors, all young, bloodthirsty warriors who wish to fight. You can send them to fight with the Raiders, the Orcs who fight against the Kingdom of Man's expansion into Orc territory and their taking advantage of Orc Tribes and Villages. You could also send them to work as Mercenaries for the Kingdom of Man in the Man-Elf War. > You send them to work as Mercenaries You send your excess warriors to fight as Mercenaries, fighting against the Elvish Kingdom for the Kingdom of Man, sending their profits home to the Red Blades.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The Red Blades have survived another winter. Once again, Thraka Flameborn and Elder Dokt stand to give you an endless stream of tasks to sort out. The main three are the Farok Mines, the problem of excess warriors and the growing worship of Ka. "Chieftain! We have unearthed a massive iron and coal mine down the mountain, the Farok Mines. It was used by men to supply the war machine, but was abandoned because it was left undefended and abandoned by man. Still, you have excess Orc Workers who could head down to the mines to work, with only a small amount of the profits taken being given to the Kingdom of Man in payment for using the mine. It would mean working for the Kingdom of Man, but could prove very profitable for the village." Thraka says. "We still have mines up the mountain, Orc mines. We don't need to come crawling to the Kingdom of Man in order for a pittance of iron and coal. They'll be able to make more profit in the Orc Mines." Elder Dokt says. > You don't send Workers to work in the Farok Mines You decide to send your workers to the Orc Mines instead of the Farok Mines. They make more profit than they would've in the Farok Mines, strengthening and improving the village and Red Blades as a whole.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You walk up a mountain, trudging through the harsh snow. You're cold despite being wrapped in furs and leathers, and you really need to piss, but you know that if you tried, your dick would freeze off. You lost three farmers and a dozen goats to a Frost Troll wandering down from the mountain in the cold, icy winter that's just started. You're taking a five war parties of twenty warriors each to wipe out any trolls up in the mountains. You lead the main war party of the best warriors who wish to target the cave system most likely to hold sheltering trolls. Wind and snow begins to block your view. You know you need to find shelter soon. > You begin the long trek back to the village You turn around, and begin trekking back to the village. Within a half hour, the cold is so brutal that you lose all feeling. The snow's bad you have no idea where you're going. After two hours of walking, you feel a sudden sensation of warmth. You begin unstrapping your armor to cool down. You're hot and tired. A quick nap in the snow would be nice...<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Assemble the warriors." You say. "Get me a group of sixty warriors who are hungry for blood." You have the group assembled, and quickly begin making your way up the mountain. About halfway up, you begin to regret it. "It's cold, my feet hurt and I'm fucking tired." You grunt as you trudge up the mountain. "Damn right, Mazkil." Urug Eaglebow says. You look further up the mountain, and hear the howls and rasps of the dead as well as the roars and screeches of the dragon. There's few dragons up here, so you presume this Red Dragon fighting is Mont Pre'Igni Rubrum, a near unpronounceable name, or the Volcano of Gargarum. The Undead are no doubt deserters from the Necromancer's Army. You reach the top of mountain, at the edge of a crater. At the center, a large group of two dozen undead soldiers armed with spears and swords are attempting to kill the dragon. It seems the undead are very unmatched. > You attack the Dragon "I want the Dragon's head in Gorgok's treasure room!" You roar. You charge forward, towards the dragon, ducking under a jet of flames. You stab forward, and with Gorgok's aim, your sword slides in between a missing scale and stabs the dragon through the side. You pull out your blade and slice, making a small cut in the leathery wing. You wing your blade, knocking into the neck of the Dragon. With the combined army of Orcs and Undead behind you begin to slay the dragon. It's fire incinerates three zombies, and several weapons begin thrusting at the dragon's softer belly and face, cutting gouges and wounds. The dragon only lasts a few minutes of fighting, only killing three Orcs before its killed instantly, killing the beast. It's head thumps against the cold stone floor. "Ha! Have the dragon's skull taken and dragged down back to the village. I want it put above my throne." You turn to talk to the undead, but they've already began trudging further up the mountain. You wonder why they're leaving, but decide not to bother them. The dead have enough issues to be bothered by the living.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Chieftain! Chieftain!" "Yes?" You ask. You're met with a young Orc, a cousin of yours, who reminds you of Gruzub. You feel a twang of guilt, before deciding that in honor of Gruzub, you're going to kill this Orc if he brings up something like the placement of the new well or whether to build the new stable of stone or wood. "There's a disaster up at the Kes Nests." "Disaster? That's a strong word." "It's accurate. A group of Zombies have engaged a Red Dragon perched on the mountain." "If Death and Destruction met on a Road." You quote, remembering one of the few books you read as a child. "What?" The Orc grunts. "The Poem, where the Grim Reaper meets the Mother of Dragons on a road. They debate their roles, with the Grim Reaper saying how his job is necessary ot prevent overpopulation, while the Mother of Dragons says that she prevents empires from wiping out all... What the fuck am I doing? I'm not explaining a children's poem to you." "Sorry Chieftain. The Warriors are suggesting you lead a party up there." "To do what?" The Orc shrugs. > You do nothing "I'm not going to deal with that, Orc. I want you to go, and I genuinely mean this, fuck your mother and stop bothering me." The young orc runs off. Perhaps you were too mean to him. He reminds you of Gruzub, who you loved to degrade, insult and bully. You miss him so much. You sigh. Time to find a drink. Then, many, many more drinks.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You sit on the Throne, looking over hunting cycles. Gemin's Point is good hunting ground, but it could lead to fighting between the Dead Bone Tribe, who also uses the area. You could send hunters there, not send hunters there, or the third and by far the greatest option, fall on your own sword and end the painful trial worse than any other Orc has endured of doing crop rotations or hunting areas. You hear yells outside, and the doors to the town hall is kicked open. A group of six Orcs appear, dragging a brutally beaten man with them. "Chieftain! We have found a man in our territory, the goat fucker." One of the Orcs yells, tossing the man in front of you. "He's been hunting our deer and boar for weeks, it seems." "Explain yourself, human, before I release my warriors to tear you apart." "Sir, please." He says, begging. "I'm from the village of Eckleglade. It was destroyed by an Elvish Assault Party, and we were forced to flee. Many of us headed to the hills and mountains, to hide from Elvish attacks, and formed small camps up there. I was only trying to hunt to feed my family." "Sir, orders?" One of the Orcs asks you. "Shall I take his head?" > You have the Trespasser exiled "Hmmm... Where are the camps, trespasser?" "Sir, if I tell you..." "Don't preside to know who I am or what I'll do, trespasser." "They're at the Morinspeck Mines, sir." "Good. Go back there, and tell them to leave. I'll send warriors up there in a week. Anyone left there will be wiped out to the last man." "Yes, sir." "Go. If you're found in my land again, I'll make you beg I had killed you here." "Yes, sir." He nods, standing and quickly running out of the room." You watch him as he runs off. Well, that takes care of that issue.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You sit on the Throne, looking over hunting cycles. Gemin's Point is good hunting ground, but it could lead to fighting between the Dead Bone Tribe, who also uses the area. You could send hunters there, not send hunters there, or the third and by far the greatest option, fall on your own sword and end the painful trial worse than any other Orc has endured of doing crop rotations or hunting areas. You hear yells outside, and the doors to the town hall is kicked open. A group of six Orcs appear, dragging a brutally beaten man with them. "Chieftain! We have found a man in our territory, the goat fucker." One of the Orcs yells, tossing the man in front of you. "He's been hunting our deer and boar for weeks, it seems." "Explain yourself, human, before I release my warriors to tear you apart." "Sir, please." He says, begging. "I'm from the village of Eckleglade. It was destroyed by an Elvish Assault Party, and we were forced to flee. Many of us headed to the hills and mountains, to hide from Elvish attacks, and formed small camps up there. I was only trying to hunt to feed my family." "Sir, orders?" One of the Orcs asks you. "Shall I take his head?" > You leave the Trespasser go "Hmmm... Where are the camps, trespasser?" "Sir, if I tell you..." "Don't preside to know who I am or what I'll do, trespasser." "They're at the Morinspeck Mines, sir." "Good. Head back to your camps. I'm not going to harm a man for trying to feed his family." "Thank you! Thank you, sir!" The Man says, cupping his hands in praise. "I'm confused why you're still here." You say, and the man jumps to his feet and quickly runs off, out of the Great Hall.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You sit on the Throne, looking over hunting cycles. Gemin's Point is good hunting ground, but it could lead to fighting between the Dead Bone Tribe, who also uses the area. You could send hunters there, not send hunters there, or the third and by far the greatest option, fall on your own sword and end the painful trial worse than any other Orc has endured of doing crop rotations or hunting areas. You hear yells outside, and the doors to the town hall is kicked open. A group of six Orcs appear, dragging a brutally beaten man with them. "Chieftain! We have found a man in our territory, the goat fucker." One of the Orcs yells, tossing the man in front of you. "He's been hunting our deer and boar for weeks, it seems." "Explain yourself, human, before I release my warriors to tear you apart." "Sir, please." He says, begging. "I'm from the village of Eckleglade. It was destroyed by an Elvish Assault Party, and we were forced to flee. Many of us headed to the hills and mountains, to hide from Elvish attacks, and formed small camps up there. I was only trying to hunt to feed my family." "Sir, orders?" One of the Orcs asks you. "Shall I take his head?" > You welcome the Trespasser to join the village "Hmmm... Where are the camps, trespasser?" "Sir, if I tell you..." "Don't preside to know who I am or what I'll do, trespasser." "They're at the Morinspeck Mines, sir." "Good. Well, I'll give you a choice, trespasser. You leave my lands with the threat of death if you return, or you join the Red Blade Tribe as a Free Worker with no blood or legal connections to the tribe." "Sir?" "We have hunting grounds and farmlands that go unused. If you wish to work, I'll give you the chance to do so." "Yes, sir! Thank you, sir!" Over the next few days, the refugees from Morinspeck Mine arrive, and are given jobs so they can get food, water and beds in the village. > Two Weeks Later... Due to your choice in accepting the refugees from Morinspeck Mine, there are more refugees arriving. Most are humans from destroyed or attacked villages looking for a safe place to work, though a few are Wood or Dark Elves who do not wish to partake in the war. They're all requesting to take up work as Hunters, Farmers or Craftsmen in your village. > You allow them to join You welcome these refugees into your village, both for ethical and economic reasons. This allows your village to expand as your population experiences a boom.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Due to your choice in accepting the refugees from Morinspeck Mine, there are more refugees arriving. Most are humans from destroyed or attacked villages looking for a safe place to work, though a few are Wood or Dark Elves who do not wish to partake in the war. They're all requesting to take up work as Hunters, Farmers or Craftsmen in your village. > You don't allow them to join You decide enough is enough. You're not a safe haven for every coward and weakling who cowers from war.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You sit on your throne, resting your head on your blade as Thraka Flameborn and Elder Dokt tell you about the village's state of affairs. "There's been a change in the management of the College of Alexandria. They've begun to accept Orc students." Thraka says to you. "Well, this is very good for racial relations, but what do the Red Blades care?" "There are many more profitable jobs that can be found if you work in the College. We could greatly improve their lives." "These jobs would take these people away from profiting the Red Blades, cost massive amounts of money, and mots likely they wouldn't receive these jobs for being Orcs. These students wouldn't be able to get the jobs, and they wouldn't be taught how to farm or fight, so when they came back here without jobs, they couldn't work here." "The Elder exaggerates greatly. There's plenty of work ot be found, especially with Orcs. Learning at the College of Alexandria would mean that our children would have better lives." You briefly consider the thought. Perhaps the Young Orcs would have better lives in and after the College, but it would definitely take away from the tribe's size, and perhaps the Orcs would be left untrained in manual labor or the ability to find actual work after discrimination stops them from finding educated work. > You don't send young Orcs to the College You decide against sending away the Orcs. They wouldn't be able to learn important skills such as farming, fighting, hunting and cooking, only to be left with skills in money-handling or Magics that don't help them in their life.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You sit on your throne in the Main Hall, in the midst of a feast to celebrate the death of Chieftain Dadic, your Great-Great-Great-Grandfather, who was brutally stabbed to death by Elven Assassins. Despite being unarmed, surprised and quite old, he put up a grand fight. Twenty Elves entered this very great hall to assassinate him, three went out. Thraka and Dokt stand on either side of you. For once, they both agree on what you should do, although Thraka's much more brutally honest. "Find a girl to fuck." He says. "What Thraka Flameborn means is..." "To get your dick inside a girl." Thraka laughs, to Dokt's embarrassment and frustration. "Chieftain, every Chieftain needs one to share their soul with. You need a mate." Dokt says. You survey the room. You spot a young Orc girl dancing in the crowd. She's small and cute, and you briefly make eye contact. She gives you a flirty wink. A pretty girl would do good to help you survive the cold winter nights. Making use of the drink and food is a tall warrior. Her head is cut short and she has a large, impressive blade on her side. A warrior is someone you could relate to and respect as a mate. One the opposite side (both of the room and orientation), a youngish Orc stands quietly, a leatherbound book in his hands. He looks intelligent, but also has soft features and a nice smile, which he quickly flashes at you. Finally, there's a massive beat of an Orc holding a blade that could cleave horses in half with one blow leans against a wall. You recognize him as Ironsoul, a fantastic warrior notorious for spending large amounts of time in brothels in the company of Orcs who choose to have an adventurous life working in the brothel rather than on the battlefield. > You talk to the feasting Orc You walk over to the feasting Orc and sit next to her. "Hello. Are you enjoying the food?" The Orc raises an eyebrow, decides you're not joking, and nods. "Yes, Chieftain." "I don't recognize you. What's your name?" "Dag. Dag Unbroken." "Unbroken? How do you get a title like that?" "I've broken every bone inside my body besides my right shin." "Fuck me." You say, obviously impressed. "I'm not opposed to the idea." Dag says. At that moment, you realize picking up warriors is a lot easier than you thought. > You continue spending time with Dag You spend the next few hours talking with your newfound mate. Dag is strong, though, aggressive and violent, which reminds you of a more "you" you. You'll make sure that your relationship continues and develops into what could be a prosperous marriage.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You sit on your throne in the Main Hall, in the midst of a feast to celebrate the death of Chieftain Dadic, your Great-Great-Great-Grandfather, who was brutally stabbed to death by Elven Assassins. Despite being unarmed, surprised and quite old, he put up a grand fight. Twenty Elves entered this very great hall to assassinate him, three went out. Thraka and Dokt stand on either side of you. For once, they both agree on what you should do, although Thraka's much more brutally honest. "Find a girl to fuck." He says. "What Thraka Flameborn means is..." "To get your dick inside a girl." Thraka laughs, to Dokt's embarrassment and frustration. "Chieftain, every Chieftain needs one to share their soul with. You need a mate." Dokt says. You survey the room. You spot a young Orc girl dancing in the crowd. She's small and cute, and you briefly make eye contact. She gives you a flirty wink. A pretty girl would do good to help you survive the cold winter nights. Making use of the drink and food is a tall warrior. Her head is cut short and she has a large, impressive blade on her side. A warrior is someone you could relate to and respect as a mate. One the opposite side (both of the room and orientation), a youngish Orc stands quietly, a leatherbound book in his hands. He looks intelligent, but also has soft features and a nice smile, which he quickly flashes at you. Finally, there's a massive beat of an Orc holding a blade that could cleave horses in half with one blow leans against a wall. You recognize him as Ironsoul, a fantastic warrior notorious for spending large amounts of time in brothels in the company of Orcs who choose to have an adventurous life working in the brothel rather than on the battlefield. > You talk to the reading Orc "I like him." You say, pointing to the reading Orc. "What, Sarunt? He's a male, he can't bear your children." Dokt says, annoyed. "Many Chieftains were adopted. Dadic, for fuck's sake." Dokt rolls his eyes, but nods. You stand from the throne, and walk down to Sarunt. You walk over to the reading Orc, and smile. "Hello." "Hello." He replies, looking up from his book. "I am Chieftain Mazkil." He chuckles. "I might spend far too much time in a book, but I still know enough to know who the Chieftain is." "Ah. Good." You reply, awkwardly. You realize while you're very skilled and courageous in the art of warfare, you suck at flirting. Thankfully, he's better and very interested. "So, do you want to get a drink, Mazkil?" You nod eagerly, and head over to the drink stand.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You sit on your throne in the Main Hall, in the midst of a feast to celebrate the death of Chieftain Dadic, your Great-Great-Great-Grandfather, who was brutally stabbed to death by Elven Assassins. Despite being unarmed, surprised and quite old, he put up a grand fight. Twenty Elves entered this very great hall to assassinate him, three went out. Thraka and Dokt stand on either side of you. For once, they both agree on what you should do, although Thraka's much more brutally honest. "Find a girl to fuck." He says. "What Thraka Flameborn means is..." "To get your dick inside a girl." Thraka laughs, to Dokt's embarrassment and frustration. "Chieftain, every Chieftain needs one to share their soul with. You need a mate." Dokt says. You survey the room. You spot a young Orc girl dancing in the crowd. She's small and cute, and you briefly make eye contact. She gives you a flirty wink. A pretty girl would do good to help you survive the cold winter nights. Making use of the drink and food is a tall warrior. Her head is cut short and she has a large, impressive blade on her side. A warrior is someone you could relate to and respect as a mate. One the opposite side (both of the room and orientation), a youngish Orc stands quietly, a leatherbound book in his hands. He looks intelligent, but also has soft features and a nice smile, which he quickly flashes at you. Finally, there's a massive beat of an Orc holding a blade that could cleave horses in half with one blow leans against a wall. You recognize him as Ironsoul, a fantastic warrior notorious for spending large amounts of time in brothels in the company of Orcs who choose to have an adventurous life working in the brothel rather than on the battlefield. > You talk to Ironsoul "I like him." You say, pointing to Ironsoul. "What, Ironsoul? He's a male, he can't bear your children." Dokt says, annoyed. "Many Chieftains were adopted. Dadic, for fuck's sake." Dokt rolls his eyes, but nods. You stand from the throne, and walk down to Ironsoul. "Hello. Ironsoul, is it?" You ask. "Dag. Dag Ironsoul. It's Dag to you, 'less I gotta call you Chieftain, Mazkil." "How are you, Dag?" You ask. Somehow, despite your ability to show courage in any fight, you abilities to get chicks aren't particularly good. Thankfully, Dag's just as crude. "Do you want something, Mazkil?" "I was just asking about you as a person. We don't get to talk much." Dag raises an eyebrow. "Are you trying to fuck me?" He asks indignantly. "Because I won't refuse a piece of ass, but I'm not going to whine about my day like a Man's wife." You smile. "That simplifies things."<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The next day, you walk along the street, Thraka and Doct off managing your work for a while. You survey your village. Children are brawling in the streets, the elders are drinking and the adults are working. Everything's good. You think to yourself. You notice a young Orc woman who's name you haven't learnt, and feel a pang in your heart as you notice how beautiful she is. You feel a pang in another place, but that's neither here nor there. You realize that one of, and perhaps the best, duty of the Chieftain is to have a heir to the throne and get married. You'll try find someone soon enough. Not today, though. You continue strolling around the village, before you notice at the edge of town, a trail of caravans approaching. You raise an eyebrow, as there are no scheduled caravans set to arrive over the next few days. You walk up, and to your surprise, notice the caravaneers are not the Orcs you're used to seeing. They're all men. Usually there's a few men mixed in with the Orcs that run the caravans. You walk over to the caravan. "Hey! Who are you, then?" You ask loudly. The Humans on board are wearing red cloth with gold Eagle symbols embroidered on them. "Greetings! I am Giorgio Lates. I am a merchant from the Kingdom of Mankind." "I recognize the sigil. What do you want?" "I am a merchant, kind sir. Orcs are famous for their steelwork, and I had the pleasure of working with some Orc Mercenaries. They're blades, axes and maces are unrivaled, except for Elvish blades, which are as easy to find as an honest merchant. Which, you so happen to have found." Giorgio says, winking. "You wish to buy blades?" "Buy? Not exactly. I doubt you have much use for my gold. I wish to swap, to barter, to trade." "For what?" "We have much to trade. Food, Drink, Steel, Iron, Wool, Jewelry, Gold, Silver and much, much more. We wish to open up a trade route between here and the Empire." Giorgio grins. You frown. Traders are prone to take advantage of humble villages like yours. The Village is also dedicated to crops, farm work and general self-sufficiency. To increase your smithing and weapons production, you'd need to sacrifice your self-sufficiency. Still, it could increase your village's profit and the standard of living. > You don't agree to trade with the Kingdom of Man "No. I will not sell the honor and heart of this village to some merchants only to be ripped off later." The Merchant's face falls and he immediately turns ratty. "Fine. Let this village become an abandoned ghost town in the hills that your children will be dying to get out off. Let's go!" The Merchant Caravans begins to turn around and leave. You know that you've saved your little town from being steam rolled by the massive trade machine of the Kingdom of Man.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You spot smoke just in the distance, where the raiders are presumably camped. "Orcs!" You loudly whisper. "To arms! We'll wipe out the fiends to the last man." You move forward slowly, further through the woods. You arrive at the edge of a small glade. There is a large opening where there's several dozen tents. A group of around thirty Orcs wearing chainmail armor and wielding axes, short swords and maces. You give a few hushed orders to various Orcs to target the various flanks to make sure not a single raider survives. Then, you raise your sword. "CHARGE!" You roar, sprinting forward. The Raiders are quickly taken by surprise, grabbing any nearby weapons and raising them in defense. You swing your sword, which bites into one of their necks and beheads him in one clean sweep. You kick a second to the floor with one swift kick to the head, knocking him to the floor. You raise your sword and stab downwards, going through the raider's stomach. Within a few seconds, the fighting is over. The raiders have been quickly wiped out to the last orc, leaving none alive. "This was quicker than I had hoped." One of the Orcs remarks. "Orders, Chieftain?" Another asks, turning to you. "Burn the tents, the bodies and take anything worth taking." You reply. "Yes, Chieftain Mazkil." Your men quickly begin removing armor, weapons and jewelry from the dead Orcs, and wrapping their corpses in tents. Once this is finished with all the corpses, they set the wrapped corpses alight, which quickly begin burning. You sniff the air, and smell the delicious smell of sizzling flesh. "Chieftain! I counted the amount of beds versus corpses. Twenty dead raiders, but there's over eighty beds." "There's more! We believe there's at least sixty more raiders off on a mission at the moment. Orders, Chieftain?" One of the Orcs, one of the very few archers you've brought, Kanim Darkwit, steps forward. "Sir. The Raiders will be hungry and tired. They'll be here soon. We can lay an ambush. There's a good vantage point in one of the trees..." "Coward! Where's your honor, boy?" Another Orc, Jakku Bearsbane, roars. "We're not abandoning all honor and reason in favor of hiding like does! We find the raiders, and wipe them out to the last man." > You lay an ambush "Darkwit. Your plan is good. Jakku, I'm not leading my men into a charge when we have the perfect trap right here." "Yes, Chieftain." Jakku nods. You have Darkwit hide in a vantage point in the trees, the bodies stacked into defensive walls to block enemy escape once they've entered the killzone. You have warriors hide at various points to be able to charge the killzone once the raiders have arrived. You patiently wait, hidden in bushes and undergrowth. One hour passes quickly, the second takes long, but after two and a half hours, the raiders are here. They march, three Caravans in tow, no doubt from a recent raid. They break into a jog when they sight the camp, heading straight into the killzone while confused and unprepared. "STRIKE!" You roar. You break into a run, swinging your blade. The Raiders are surrounded, and they're simply unprepared to face you. You swing your blade downwards, hacking off an arm, and headbutt a raider before running him through with your sword. You dodge an axe swing and cleave the Orc in half. You launch yourself into the fray, and hack a raider to death. The Raiders are beginning to turn and run now, but you slice the back of the legs of one of them and stab them through the chest, breaking through their armor and into the soft flesh beneath. The rest manage to make it past the junk walls you've set up and head off to find safety. "Chieftain! We are victorious!" Darkwit laughs happily. "Losses? Kills?" You ask. One of the scouts quickly begins tallying the dead, and turns to you. "Sir! We lost six men. They lost forty nine." Darkwit grins. "Yes! I told you my plan would work. We almost wiped them out and lost very few." "Yes. Have the scouts find our dead and bring them back to the village for the funeral pyre. Orcs, let's head home."<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You spot smoke just in the distance, where the raiders are presumably camped. "Orcs!" You loudly whisper. "To arms! We'll wipe out the fiends to the last man." You move forward slowly, further through the woods. You arrive at the edge of a small glade. There is a large opening where there's several dozen tents. A group of around thirty Orcs wearing chainmail armor and wielding axes, short swords and maces. You give a few hushed orders to various Orcs to target the various flanks to make sure not a single raider survives. Then, you raise your sword. "CHARGE!" You roar, sprinting forward. The Raiders are quickly taken by surprise, grabbing any nearby weapons and raising them in defense. You swing your sword, which bites into one of their necks and beheads him in one clean sweep. You kick a second to the floor with one swift kick to the head, knocking him to the floor. You raise your sword and stab downwards, going through the raider's stomach. Within a few seconds, the fighting is over. The raiders have been quickly wiped out to the last orc, leaving none alive. "This was quicker than I had hoped." One of the Orcs remarks. "Orders, Chieftain?" Another asks, turning to you. "Burn the tents, the bodies and take anything worth taking." You reply. "Yes, Chieftain Mazkil." Your men quickly begin removing armor, weapons and jewelry from the dead Orcs, and wrapping their corpses in tents. Once this is finished with all the corpses, they set the wrapped corpses alight, which quickly begin burning. You sniff the air, and smell the delicious smell of sizzling flesh. "Chieftain! I counted the amount of beds versus corpses. Twenty dead raiders, but there's over eighty beds." "There's more! We believe there's at least sixty more raiders off on a mission at the moment. Orders, Chieftain?" One of the Orcs, one of the very few archers you've brought, Kanim Darkwit, steps forward. "Sir. The Raiders will be hungry and tired. They'll be here soon. We can lay an ambush. There's a good vantage point in one of the trees..." "Coward! Where's your honor, boy?" Another Orc, Jakku Bearsbane, roars. "We're not abandoning all honor and reason in favor of hiding like does! We find the raiders, and wipe them out to the last man." > You search out and lead a charge against the Raiders "Darkwit, go, take who you need and scout ahead for the raiders. Jakku, make sure the men are ready. We''re going to charge the raiders and wipe them out to the last orc." "Yes, Chieftain." Jakku barks, before running away. The Orcs quickly regroup as the scouts sprint off in search of the raiders. You wait with your allies for two hours, before one of the scouts breaks through the treeline. "Chieftain! They're coming! They were about an hours march away last I saw, but at the pace they were moving they're only half an hour away." "Good. Let's move. Orcs! Get ready to fight. In fifteen minutes, our swords'll be deep in Raider blood." The Orcs all bark responses in the affirmative, and you begin moving forward towards the raiders. It seems the scout under-exaggerated the raiders speed, because it takes twenty minute to finally meet the raiders. A massive group of Orcs, with three Merchant Caravans in tow, no doubt from a recent raid. "Orcs! Now is the time to spill blood! CHARGE!" You scream. You raise your sword, charging forward with your Orcs. The Raiders aren't prepared to fight, but they're still armed from their previous raid and they're still Orcs. You swing your blade downwards, hacking off an arm, and headbutt a raider before running him through with your sword. You dodge an axe swing and cleave the Orc in half. A Warhammer smacks you in the chest, launching you backwards. Your head bangs against a tree, and you stand and charge forward again. You launch yourself into the fray, and hack a raider to death. The Raiders are beginning to turn and run now, but you slice the back of the legs of one of them and stab them through the chest, breaking through their armor and into the soft flesh beneath. "Chieftain! We are victorious!" Jakku roars happily. "Losses? Kills?" You ask. One of the scouts quickly begins tallying the dead, and turns to you. "Sir! We lost thirteen men. They lost thirty seven." Jakku roars victoriously. "Yes! I told you we didn't need cowards tactics. We wiped them out and sent the rest running." "Yes. Have the scouts find our dead and bring them back to the village for the funeral pyre. Orcs, let's head home."<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>To your surprise, Gruzub hesitates, before taking up fighting stance again, allowing you to gain a defensive position to defend your open throat and stop your demise. Your energy waning, you decide to take one final effort to defeat Gruzub. He swings his sword at your legs, attempting to floor you, but you block the shot and head butt him. He falls backwards, and you swing your blade, smacking into his head. His helmet flies into the air, leaving his head and neck unguarded. You know you don't have enough energy to continue fighting. > You let him regain his fighting stance He quickly regains his fighting stance, raising his weapon. The fight only lasts another minute, with you barely blocking the next few of his attacks. Eventually, he sweeps your legs and he falls to the ground. Gruzub raises his sword and swings it, smashing into your chest. You attempt to rise to Gruzub's surprise, so he quickly kicks you in the head, and you fall into unconsciousness... > You awaken You awaken in the Shaman's hut. You wounds are bandaged and you're covered in various ointments, creams and bandages meant to speed up healing. You groan, and get out of the bed. The Shaman walks over to you, checking your temperature. "You shouldn't be walking around." The Shaman says. "Fuck you." You grunt.e way." "I couldn't kill you. You deserve a much longer, slower death at the hand of someone not as strong and good-lucking as me." "Fuck you, Gruzub." You laugh. You grab the softest woolen tunic you can find and put it on. You walk outside, and wince at the bright son. You spot Gruzub, wearing freshly acquired beads and necklaces to indicate that he is the new chief. He grins when he sees you. "Mazkil!" He rushes over to you, and hugs you. You wince as his hug tightens, but manage to show no pain. "How's your new promotion?" You ask. "It's boring. Papa always made being a Chieftain out to be fighting, fucking, eating and drinking. I've just been given the job of organizing crop rotations." You laugh, and pat him on the back. "Sorry to hear. Thanks for not killing me, by th "Seriously, you should've won that fight." "Maybe." You shrug. "Tell me somebody at least shot that goddamn eagle." "It left before anyone could. And I was talking about when I lost my helmet." "I considered it, but decided that I'd prefer to let you organize the... what did you call it? Crop rotations?" "Yeah." You stand in silence for a few minutes, staring at the rising sun. "What do you plan to do, Mazkil? Will you stay here and help the tribe?" "No, the tribe is your place. I want to travel. The Kingdom of Man are desperate for new soldiers to help them fight the Elves." "Hmmm... When are you leaving?" "Soon. Very soon. I don't want to have to go through the whole goodbye deal with the tribe." "I understand." Once again, you brother pulls you in for a hug. "I'll miss you." > Three Days Later... You walk on the road, the village behind you. Your sword is one your back with a bag of some food, water and goods. The Kingdom of Man is recruiting soldiers for the Royal Army. They're planning to attack the Elves again, and want as many men as they can. You could receive good pay, free weapons and equipment and possibly make a name for yourself there. You've always hated the Elves, anyway. Time to become a Soldier. > You join the Royal Army The Path of the Soldier It takes three days to find the nearest Royal Army Fort, a large stone castle surrounded by a village and a large series of tents where the men stationed here are staying. When you arrive and say you wish to join up, you’re given a new steel sword, a large shield, some polished plate armor with the symbol of the king on the chest plate and a small starter’s wage. You’re told as an orc, they assume you’ve already trained in warfare; a racist, yet accurate assumption, so you’ll need no new training. You’re given a bed in Beast Regiment, which you’re told is the only regiment that can afford to take extra men. You quickly realize this is bullshit, as Beast Regiment is the only regiment to hold Orcs. You recognize Black Horn, Gold Tusk, Dead Eye, Iron Flame, God Killer, Hardclaw and Bearfoot Orcs all there,sitting around a hearth in a small stone barracks. One of the larger orcs, who wears a shiny helm with the Gold Dragon, the symbol of the King, on it. “Greetings, recruit. I am Captain Darruk. Name and tribe.” “Mazkil Boarsbane, Red Blade.” “Ah, the Red Blades are still alive, are they? Had a Red Blade a couple years back, who managed to behead a dragon. He just ran up, jabbed it in the eye a few times and took a swing. Darkin Dragaonskull. Hell of a sooldier. Perhaps you’ll be as good if you do what I say and don’t cause any fights, but make sure to end any we get in.” “Sure thing, sir.” You struggle with the sir part, but you assume it’ll get easy over time. “Sir? Ha, you’re already using sir. I think you’ll impress me, Mazkil.” You notice a massive Orc that towers over the rest of you, his armor covered with what you assume are kill notches. You make sure to keep an eye on him. You find your bed, and collapse on it. It only takes a few minutes before you're allowed to fall into a dull, dreamless sleep. > Two Weeks Later... You march through Elf territory with a little over 50 other Orcs, marching through a hilly area with some trees. You've been sent with Karn Deathreaper, the massive orc with the notched armor, to investigate a small Elf War Party. You've yet to experience any real combat, with your previous time here simply being maneuvering into flanking positions to force the enemy to retreat and moving forward. Still, the sun is particularly red, so you there'll be a battle today with Gorgok watching. "Orcs! Halt!" Karn screams, and you stop moving. Karn Deathreaper truly earned his name. The amount of enemies he's slain is among the hundreds if not thousands. He's a fearsome creature, and you can't wait to see him do battle. "The sun wishes us good luck. We'll do well in the battle." One of the Orcs near you says happily. "Cease your superstitions, Nagrak. We might not even fight today." Another replies. "One can hope." Nagrak eagerly replies. In the blink of an eye, a dozen Orcs are dead. You see six Elves standing on top of the hills, light golden armor and long blond hair holding bows. > You raise your shield in defense You raise your shield, and three arrows thuds into it. "Orcs! Regroup, and keep those shields up!" Karn screams. You huddle together, and as a group begin rushing uphill rapidly towards the Elves. The Elves fire a few more arrows at you both, but quickly turn heel and run. You reach the summit of the hill and watch as the Elves disappear into a small woods down the hill. "Come on, Orcs! We follow them and make sure the worms can feast on Elf Flesh tonight!" Karn yells. > You follow Karn into the woods Karn lets out a war cry and breaks into a full sprint towards the woods. You follow, your shield covering your chest and your sword raised. As you burst through the trees and run through the undergrowth, you hear a yell. "Fire!" Arrows fire down from the trees. After ten seconds which you spend huddled together with your allies, arrows thudding into your shield, half of your group is dead. Then, Elves Warriors with short swords heavier armor than the archers, though still a lot lighter than yours, coming to wipe out the unprepared, cowering Orcs that remain. > You act defensively to protect yourself You bring up your shield and raise your sword. The warriors quickly take advantage of the situation, attacking the unprepared Orcs attempting to take shelter from the arrows. One of them goes towards you, and swings. You block his sword with your shield and repeatedly jab him through the stomach, the third stab penetrating his armor and going through his stomach, which after a few more stabs kill him.By the time the Orcs manage to fend off the Elven Warriors, they're barely a dozen men, including Khan. The Elves outnumber you, but only slightly, and they clearly either don't like their odds, or figure they've killed enough of your allies today. The warriors quickly turn and go sprinting off into the woods. > You follow the Warriors You quickly follow the warriors, breaking into a sprint. You refuse to let them escape. After a few minutes, the warriors pause and turn. You realize none of the other Orcs have followed and you're on your own. You raise your sword to fight, but the warriors charge. You swing your sword and manage to decapitate one, before receiving over a dozen stabs to the chest.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You bring up your shield and raise your sword. The warriors quickly take advantage of the situation, attacking the unprepared Orcs attempting to take shelter from the arrows. One of them goes towards you, and swings. You block his sword with your shield and repeatedly jab him through the stomach, the third stab penetrating his armor and going through his stomach, which after a few more stabs kill him.By the time the Orcs manage to fend off the Elven Warriors, they're barely a dozen men, including Khan. The Elves outnumber you, but only slightly, and they clearly either don't like their odds, or figure they've killed enough of your allies today. The warriors quickly turn and go sprinting off into the woods. > You attack the Archers in the trees You roar, running forward and jumping in the air. You grab an archer perched on one of the branches who screams, flinging her to the ground. You quickly end her miserable existence, thrusting your sword through her neck. You see another archer leap from the trees in order to escape, but slash his legs, causing him to fall to the ground. You stand above him and stab downward, stabbing him through the chest, killing him. An archer leaps onto you with a hunting knife and slices you across the back of the neck in a failed attempt to murder you. You fling him off your back and to the ground and slice open his stomach. You look up, to see the rest of the archers sprinting incredibly fast away from the battle. "Don't bother chasing. You can't catch an Elf. They've ran their entire lives, the cowards." Karn says. "Come on men. Let's get back to camp." > One Day Later... You sit at the camp, at the edge with a campfire, a pig roasting on a spit. You wait eagerly for your meal, before Captain Darruk arrives. "Mazkil, come with me for a moment." You struggle not to snarl in annoyance, knowing you'll miss the best cuts of pork, but nod and follow Darruk anyway. You follow him out of ear range of the camp, before he starts speaking. "You were with Karn on the mission yesterday, correct?" "Yes, sir." "We lost a massive amount of men for a mission that important. I need to know: Was it Karn's fault as a leader?" > You say "Yes." "Ah. I thought so. The other men's testimony said as much. Thank you. Now go, eat." You nod, and quickly return to eat. You have to punch one of the smaller Orcs, but you manage to grab a large, juicy piece of meat and eagerly chew into it. > One Week Later... You stand around a massive map, showing the Glenin Plains. Captain Durrak begins explaining the situation. "Captain Rhian is leading the Royal Calvary forward to engage the Elvish Calvary at multiple locations. We're positioned here to launch attacks on the calvary as the rearguard crosses Jacob's Bridge and the small unnamed brick bridge here. I'll lead the main patrol on Jacob's Bridge. Karn, lead a force of your chosen orcs." "Yes, sir." Karn chooses two dozen Orcs, to your surprise he hasn't chosen you, for reason's you don't know. You then follow Captain Durrak as you head towards Jacob's Bridge. Thankfully, the Elvish Calvary haven't arrived, so you take up positions. "Alright, stay low, and don't attack until I say so. Got it?" "Yes, sir." You all reply in unison. The Bridge is a large wooden bridge over a massive muddy creek. You take position at the edge of the bridge so you can storm on and wipe out the calvary's rearguard. A large group of Elves aboard beautiful white horses begin galloping past. They gallop past for a good thirty seconds, before there's a small break in the amount of horses galloping past. "Now! Take them all out!" Captain Durrak roars. You leap out of the muddy river bank and onto the bridge. The small Elvish Calvary's Rearguard, meant to defend their flanks and make sure they have the option to retreat, is only about three dozen Calvary units, and you have as many Orcs with you. You see the the lead of the rearguard, a golden armored Elvish Warrior, is on a horse which rears up in terror. > You charge forward to target the leader You sprint forward with your sword raised, roaring. You slash the horse's chest open, and the horse whinnies in terror. The leader falls from the horse, and you quickly stand over him, raising your blade. Suddenly, a spear flies through your chest, tossed by one of the Calvary Units. You groan as the spear embeds itself in you.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You stand around a massive map, showing the Glenin Plains. Captain Durrak begins explaining the situation. "Captain Rhian is leading the Royal Calvary forward to engage the Elvish Calvary at multiple locations. We're positioned here to launch attacks on the calvary as the rearguard crosses Jacob's Bridge and the small unnamed brick bridge here. I'll lead the main patrol on Jacob's Bridge. Karn, lead a force of your chosen orcs." "Yes, sir." Karn chooses two dozen Orcs, to your surprise he hasn't chosen you, for reason's you don't know. You then follow Captain Durrak as you head towards Jacob's Bridge. Thankfully, the Elvish Calvary haven't arrived, so you take up positions. "Alright, stay low, and don't attack until I say so. Got it?" "Yes, sir." You all reply in unison. The Bridge is a large wooden bridge over a massive muddy creek. You take position at the edge of the bridge so you can storm on and wipe out the calvary's rearguard. A large group of Elves aboard beautiful white horses begin galloping past. They gallop past for a good thirty seconds, before there's a small break in the amount of horses galloping past. "Now! Take them all out!" Captain Durrak roars. You leap out of the muddy river bank and onto the bridge. The small Elvish Calvary's Rearguard, meant to defend their flanks and make sure they have the option to retreat, is only about three dozen Calvary units, and you have as many Orcs with you. You see the the lead of the rearguard, a golden armored Elvish Warrior, is on a horse which rears up in terror. > You stick with the group and raise your shield You stick with the group, deflecting spears off your shield. You move forward, stabbing your blade forward as your shield stays raised to deflect any blows. You stab a Elf Rider through the thigh and he screams, falling off the horse, where you stomp repeatedly on his face. You swing your blade again, slashing a horse's chest and causing it to rear up in terror. The Elf falls off and hits the ground, allowing for an Orc to stand over it and stab it through the chest. The melee only lasts a few seconds, as the Calvary Units are desperately massacred as they're clearly surprised and unprepared for fighting, struggling to find their weapons and prepare to fight. Several Orcs armed with crossbows contribute to the massacre. "Alright. Losses?" Captain Durrak asks, as you survery the battlefield. "Twelve Orcs fallen. Three wounded." "Two. I can still fight." One of the Orcs grunts, pulling a spear from her side. "Alright, begin stacking the horse carcasses into a barricade." You grab one of the dead horses, and begins dragging it into place, placing it on top of another dead horse. After a few minutes, you take position on the bridge. You hear screams from the main battle, as you watch the calvary battle take place in the form of jousts and sword-fights from horseback. You grab a spear from one of the dead Calvary Units, smiling. "This could be useful. Sir, if we use the Elvish Spears, we could assist in the battle." You point out to Captain Durrak. "This would be risky. We need to stay here to defend the bridge." Captain Durrak says. > You offer to go ahead alone "I'll go ahead and assist our men. Alone." "Ha! You're a mad man, Mazkil. If you want to play with the horses, go straight ahead." You creep forward quickly, your new spear raised. The battle is going brutally. You move quickly, first going towards a Elf jousting with a human knight, with the knight heavily injured and bleeding from a stab wound in the side. You stab your weapon while the Elf is distracted by the knight, killing the Elf with a quick impalement through the side. You take your spear out, and move forward to the next target, an Elf engaged in sword fighting. You keep low to avoid being seen, and quickly jab the elf through the neck and pull him off the horse and withdraw your spear again. You repeat this, using your spear and stealth to repeatedly stab the various elf riders and Calvary Units to allow for your own calvary to beat back the Elves. Your contribution is minor, but as your own forces are already winning, the few Elves who survive quickly head to the bridges, where they're presumably wiped out. You wipe Elf and Horse blood off your face, and begin wandering towards the bridge. You arrive to find dozens of dead Elves and horses, with Captain Darruk laughing victoriously. "Mazkil, you're alive. This is good. The Elves have been wiped out." "I took out as many as I could, sir. I did my part." "Good. Now, we have work to be done. With the advance of our calvary, we can finally begin to invade and launch attacks on the Elvish Villages." Captain Darruk says. "The Elvish empire is crumbling, boys. Take what you want off the dead, kill the wounded, and we'll head back to the Fort and find something to drink." > One Week Later... You walk along the woods with a small group. Twenty Orcs, thirty Men and a dozen War Hounds. You're led by Captain Darruk, who stands proudly at the lead. "Recent Elves have attacked our forces, and taken heavy losses. We believe they've retreated to the village of Abhaile to resupply and have their wounded taken care of. I want this threat dealt with." You gently pat one of the war-hounds on the head, amused by the cheerful dog. Suddenly, the war-hounds burst forward, barking. "Here we are. Orcs! No looting, killing or anything of the sort! Once the village's secure, we stay here for the night." "Yes, sir." You all respond. You march forward past the trees, and see the village. It's a large village, with many homes, all wooden and natural looking, reminding you of several rich men's summer homes you passed on the march to Elf Territory. Many of the civilians notice, and begin to yell and hurry inside. "HOLD IT! This village is under control of King Alexander and the Royal Army!" Captain Darruk barks. "Search house to house! Confiscate any weapons. Kill any soldiers or those trying to resist." You nod, and quickly hurry towards the houses. Inside the first you enter is a small girl holding desperately to a stuffed toy, with her mother standing defensively in front of her, a dagger clutched in her hands. "Stay out!" She cries. You look at her briefly, before ignoring her. You quickly search the upper floor and confiscate a bow, some arrows and three hunting knives, before returning downstairs. The house is empty except for the mother and daughter. "Give me the blade." You ask. "Get out of my house!" She shrieks, and you wince. > You kill her You swing your blade, slashing her chest. She falls backwards, hitting the floor with a thud as the daughter screams. You grab her knife, and look to the daughter. You feel a brief wave of pity, but quickly suppress it. > You move onto the next house You walk into the next house. A young Elf, as young as you, stands behind the door holding it closed. You smash the door open and he rolls to his knee, his bow readied with an arrow notch. "Drop the bow." You say, raising your shield. He fires, and you easily knock the arrow aside. One quick swipe, and his head is lying on the floor. You search the bottom floors, finding nothing, but upstairs you find another barricaded room. Using your impressive strength, you smash open the door with brute force. Four Elf Warriors are in the room, covered in bandages and with visible wounds. You quickly slash your sword killing one, kicking another in the head and stomping on his throat repeatedly, crushing it. You stab another one through the chest to kill him, and stab the final one through the eye. As his body hits the ground, you notice a backroom. You open it, to find a small stack of Elvish Jewelry. Golden bracelets studded with golden gems, eloquently designed necklaces and a golden ring with a large ruby. Your orders are to leave all valuable items to be taken at a later time by Captain Darruk to be used to buy supplies and food, but... shiny. > You take the valuables You smile as you sweep the valuables into your satchel. You've fought for the Royal Army for tiny wages, you deserve these valuables. Time for the next house, you still have an important job to do. > You search the next house You walk into the next house, to find an Orc already in there. A beheaded elf lies across the floor, a pool of blood spreading across the floor. The Orc, a short but tough man you recognize as Kannish. He's holding a half undressed Elven Woman, forcing her against the wall. "Shut up!" He roars, before noticing you. "Mazkil? I'm busy here, my friend. There's another one upstairs if you want a go. Otherwise, you should probably get out there while the looting's good." You look at the woman, tears streaming down her face, and wonder what to do. > You stop Kannish "Kannish! Release her!" Kannish stops smiling, and snarls. "What, have you fallen in love, Mazkil? Fuck off, or this shit gets bloody." > You leave the building You walk outside, and continue searching door to door, although you wince as you hear her cries for help behind you. > You search the next house You walk outside, and as you go to the next house, you hear a scream. You turn to see a large house has erupted into flames that are quickly growing. Captain Darruk sprints over, followed by you. "What's going on?" Captain Darruk asks. "We were putting the civilians in this house when they resisted, so we torched the place." One of the Orcs explains. You see civilians; men, women and children rushing out of the building as it rapidly erupts into flames. You hear crying coming from the top floor, a high pitched noise that could only come from an infant. "Captain! There's a baby in there!" "There's nothing we could do. The flames would kill anyone who tries to enter." You watch the building, flames licking the sky. You see a small gap in the flames that someone could easily use to get inside. > You attempt to save the baby You charge into the building despite the protests of your team-mates. You dive into a flaming inferno, the heat causing you to sweat profusely and groan in pain. You look around, but smoke obscures your view. You begin to cough and splutter, dropping low. You reach around looking for the stairs. You manage to find it, and begin to clamber up the staircase, following the cries and screams of the babies. The flames begin to sear and burn your flesh as you wince in pain, groaning loudly. You reach the top of the staircase, looking around desperately for the baby. You find a small cradle covered in ash and embers, which you brush off and pick up a bundled up, ugly and loud creature you recognize as a baby. You pick it up, and look for a way out. By now, the room's full of smokes and the fire's spread everywhere. You go to leave, but a roof beam collapses down and smacks you in the back and you fall to the knees as the flames begin to sear your flesh. You scream, and roll out of the way, curling around the baby to protect it. You find your way through the smoke and flames while doing your best to protect the infant. You charge through the door and find your way outside, and fall onto the cool grass. Your flesh is burned and scorched, and you struggle to stay conscious. An Elf picks the baby up and says something, presumably thanks. > You fall unconscious You awaken a few hours later, lying on a bed. You're heavily bandaged, lying next to several dozen sleeping Orcs and Men. Captain Darruk had the Medic take care of you, it seems, and you've been dumped to heal next to the sleeping soldiers. You assume you'll be taken back to the nearest fort to be taken care of until you've healed up enough to head out to war again. You lie in the silence, trying to fall back to sleep. Then, you hear a window shatter. You look around, and struggle to get up. Thankfully, the Medic's left your knife on you. You look around, before a fist smashes into the side of your head, knocking you backwards. You try to scream, before you feel the cold steel of a blade on your throat. You look up, to see a short Elven sword being held by a tall elf. "Say your prayers, Orc." He says. You grab at his throat, but he quickly deflects your hand. As he goes to slice open your throat, you see a hand stop him. You notice another Elf stop him. "Wait. Don't." "Why shouldn't I?" "He helped us earlier. He saved Gwendilyn's child." The Elf with the sword shrugs. "Fine." You look around. The room's filled with a group of Elves, all armed for war. It appears you're the first to awaken. With the serious burns covering your body, you'd struggle to do anything physical. You could still warn your team-mates, though. > You scream for help "We're...!" You begin to yell. The flat of the blade smashes into your face, knocking you unconscious. > You awaken You scream as you awaken and are hit with a fresh wave of pain. You look around. You're surrounded by slaughtered Orcs and Men, many killed in their sleep, but it's clear some awoke in time to resist. You attempt to stand, before collapsing on the floor. The pain is all-consuming, and you consider allowing death to overtake you and end your struggle to survive. > You search the surrounding area You look around for something to help you out of this predicament, and you find a small bottle of a blue liquid. > You drink it You down the drink, and shiver as the pain begins to cease. You notice not only is your pain ending, but all your feelings are. Shortly after, your body begins to enter paralysis. You wince and shiver as you chest begins to slow, ending your breathing. You struggle to continue breathing, but you only manage a few more painful seconds of existence before you pitiful existence ends.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You look around for something to help you out of this predicament, and you find a small bottle of a blue liquid. > You don't drink it You decide not to drink it. You know that you need to get moving soon, to escape before nightfall, but hold on to the fact their still might be something useful nearby. > You drag yourself outside You drag yourself outside. The village is packed with dead Orcs, Men and War Dogs, interspersed with the golden armored Elves who your allies managed to strike down. You continue dragging yourself forward, passing the dead. Vultures land around you and begin pecking at the corpses. One lands in front of you and pecking at your face. > You grab the Vulture You grab the Vulture, tearing the vulture's head off its neck and tossing it aside. You begin dragging yourself forward once more. > Four Hours Later... You move your hands forward and find something to drag yourself another few inches forward. Thankfully, the leaves grant you some shade from the hot sun, but the pain's beginning to become unbearable. Then, as if the Gods have all agreed to fuck up your life, you hear wolves. "Fuck you!" You scream, as three wolves begin prowling towards you. > You fling your knife at one You throw your knife, impaling one of the wolves' in the head, killing it instantly. It falls backwards, and you feel pride briefly, before another one of the wolves leaps at you, landing on your chest. It bites down on your chest, tearing through flesh at you let out a scream.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You move your hands forward and find something to drag yourself another few inches forward. Thankfully, the leaves grant you some shade from the hot sun, but the pain's beginning to become unbearable. Then, as if the Gods have all agreed to fuck up your life, you hear wolves. "Fuck you!" You scream, as three wolves begin prowling towards you. > You try defend yourself with your blade You swing your blade, slashing open one of their eyes. You stab again, killing the wolf, but get your knife lodged in it's head. Another one leaps forward, and bites your arm.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You decide not to drink it. You know that you need to get moving soon, to escape before nightfall, but hold on to the fact their still might be something useful nearby. > You continue searching After another few minutes of searching, you find a small silver flask with a red cross on the front strapped to a medic's belt, which you recognize as a healing potion, and eagerly drink down. As you feel the warm liquid go down your throat, it warms your soul and ends, or at least lessens your pain. Your energy renewed and strength revitalized, you begin dragging yourself yourself out of the building and off in search of help.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You scream as you awaken and are hit with a fresh wave of pain. You look around. You're surrounded by slaughtered Orcs and Men, many killed in their sleep, but it's clear some awoke in time to resist. You attempt to stand, before collapsing on the floor. The pain is all-consuming, and you consider allowing death to overtake you and end your struggle to survive. > You embrace the sweet release of death You stop fighting, and allow the sweet painlessness of death to release you from the constant pain.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You awaken a few hours later, lying on a bed. You're heavily bandaged, lying next to several dozen sleeping Orcs and Men. Captain Darruk had the Medic take care of you, it seems, and you've been dumped to heal next to the sleeping soldiers. You assume you'll be taken back to the nearest fort to be taken care of until you've healed up enough to head out to war again. You lie in the silence, trying to fall back to sleep. Then, you hear a window shatter. You look around, and struggle to get up. Thankfully, the Medic's left your knife on you. You look around, before a fist smashes into the side of your head, knocking you backwards. You try to scream, before you feel the cold steel of a blade on your throat. You look up, to see a short Elven sword being held by a tall elf. "Say your prayers, Orc." He says. You grab at his throat, but he quickly deflects your hand. As he goes to slice open your throat, you see a hand stop him. You notice another Elf stop him. "Wait. Don't." "Why shouldn't I?" "He helped us earlier. He saved Gwendilyn's child." The Elf with the sword shrugs. "Fine." You look around. The room's filled with a group of Elves, all armed for war. It appears you're the first to awaken. With the serious burns covering your body, you'd struggle to do anything physical. You could still warn your team-mates, though. > You stay silent You stay silent, and the Elves quickly make their way through the room, slaughtering all those across the room, slicing open their throats and stabbing them through the hearts. Eventually, everyone in the room lies dead across the floor. The Elf who had held his blade to your throat takes a final look at you, before leaving you alone in an empty room. After a few minutes, pain begins to sear from your burns as your medicine wears off, and you lie their, struggling to stay conscious through the pain, which you eventually fail at doing.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You walk outside, and as you go to the next house, you hear a scream. You turn to see a large house has erupted into flames that are quickly growing. Captain Darruk sprints over, followed by you. "What's going on?" Captain Darruk asks. "We were putting the civilians in this house when they resisted, so we torched the place." One of the Orcs explains. You see civilians; men, women and children rushing out of the building as it rapidly erupts into flames. You hear crying coming from the top floor, a high pitched noise that could only come from an infant. "Captain! There's a baby in there!" "There's nothing we could do. The flames would kill anyone who tries to enter." You watch the building, flames licking the sky. You see a small gap in the flames that someone could easily use to get inside. > You do nothing You stand, watching the building burn with a few uneasy soldiers and sobbing civilians being kept from entering the building for fear of their brutal death.`Thankfully, the baby's cries only last another few minutes as smoke spreads throughout the house. Once it ceases, Captain Darruk nods. "Alright, everyone. Back to work. Continue searching." You search the next few houses, but the populace is either dead or cowering, allowing for you to find a few small weapons stockpiles. Eventually, you finish up and find an empty house to sleep in. Captain Darruk assigns a few Orcs on guard, but thankfully you're not one of them. > You rest You awaken a few hours later, lying in a bed. You've woken up again. You lie in the silence, trying to fall back to sleep. Then, you hear a window shatter. You look around, and struggle to get up. You draw your knife slowly. You look around, before a fist smashes into the side of your head, knocking you backwards. You try to scream, before you feel the cold steel of a blade on your throat. You look up, to see a short Elven sword being held by a tall elf. "Say your prayers, Orc." He says. > You lunge at him You lunge forward, grabbing his wrist and flinging the sword away. You grab his head and bring your knife up, repeatedly stabbing him through the eye. Another Elf runs forward and slashes your chest open, and you smash his head across the room, and fling him repeatedly against a wall unless his body's shattered. You slash another Elf's throat open, before the Elves surround you. You roar as every single Elf begins slashing at you. Blood begins down to streak down your chest as thousands of cuts and slashes open all over your body. You only last a few seconds of brutal pain before you collapse on the floor.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You awaken a few hours later, lying in a bed. You've woken up again. You lie in the silence, trying to fall back to sleep. Then, you hear a window shatter. You look around, and struggle to get up. You draw your knife slowly. You look around, before a fist smashes into the side of your head, knocking you backwards. You try to scream, before you feel the cold steel of a blade on your throat. You look up, to see a short Elven sword being held by a tall elf. "Say your prayers, Orc." He says. > You beg for mercy "Please. I won't say a word, just..." You begin. The Elf sneers in disgust, and swings his blade. He slashes a deep wound in your stomach, and you scream. The Elf slashes at you repeatedly, opening endless red lines of blood and pain across your chest. After over a dozen cuts, you collapse into unconsciousness.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Kannish! Release her!" Kannish stops smiling, and snarls. "What, have you fallen in love, Mazkil? Fuck off, or this shit gets bloody." > You continue trying to stop Kannish "I'll tear off your head and give it to the crows, Kannish! Let her go!" Kannish lets go of the girl, who quickly turns and scurries off. Kannish draws his blade. "Are you willing to die for that bitch? Die just so she can spread her legs to some Elven cunt who killed our friends?" "Drop the weapon, Kannish!" Kannish clumsily lunges at you, rage in his eyes. > You behead him You swing your blade, killing Kannish. You drag his head outside to Captain Darruk, who growls at the sight. "Who did this? Elves?" "I did. Sir." You add. Captain Darruk's eyes narrow. "Why?" "He refused to follow orders. I found him trying to have his way with one of the elves." Captain Darruk's eyes widen in surprise. "Mazkill, I don't have time to deal with this. Karn and I are returning to the Fort. We need to be gone by nightfall. We don't have time to deal with you killing our men." "He was doing shitty things, sir." "This is war, shitty things happen." "Our jobs are to minimize the amount of shitty things happening." Darruk opens his mouth to say something, before you hear a scream. You turn to see a large house has erupted into flames that are quickly growing. Captain Darruk sprints over, followed by you. "What's going on?" Captain Darruk asks. "We were putting the civilians in this house when they resisted, so we torched the place." One of the Orcs explains. You see civilians; men, women and children rushing out of the building as it rapidly erupts into flames. You hear crying coming from the top floor, a high pitched noise that could only come from an infant. "Captain! There's a baby in there!" "There's nothing we could do. The flames would kill anyone who tries to enter." You watch the building, flames licking the sky. You see a small gap in the flames that someone could easily use to get inside.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"I'll tear off your head and give it to the crows, Kannish! Let her go!" Kannish lets go of the girl, who quickly turns and scurries off. Kannish draws his blade. "Are you willing to die for that bitch? Die just so she can spread her legs to some Elven cunt who killed our friends?" "Drop the weapon, Kannish!" Kannish clumsily lunges at you, rage in his eyes. > You dodge him You dodge him, and he smashes past, managing to slash your arm open. He rises up again, ready to strike.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You walk into the next house. A young Elf, as young as you, stands behind the door holding it closed. You smash the door open and he rolls to his knee, his bow readied with an arrow notch. "Drop the bow." You say, raising your shield. He fires, and you easily knock the arrow aside. One quick swipe, and his head is lying on the floor. You search the bottom floors, finding nothing, but upstairs you find another barricaded room. Using your impressive strength, you smash open the door with brute force. Four Elf Warriors are in the room, covered in bandages and with visible wounds. You quickly slash your sword killing one, kicking another in the head and stomping on his throat repeatedly, crushing it. You stab another one through the chest to kill him, and stab the final one through the eye. As his body hits the ground, you notice a backroom. You open it, to find a small stack of Elvish Jewelry. Golden bracelets studded with golden gems, eloquently designed necklaces and a golden ring with a large ruby. Your orders are to leave all valuable items to be taken at a later time by Captain Darruk to be used to buy supplies and food, but... shiny. > You leave the valuables You leave the valuables. You're a soldier with a mission, not a thief.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You walk along the woods with a small group. Twenty Orcs, thirty Men and a dozen War Hounds. You're led by Captain Darruk, who stands proudly at the lead. "Recent Elves have attacked our forces, and taken heavy losses. We believe they've retreated to the village of Abhaile to resupply and have their wounded taken care of. I want this threat dealt with." You gently pat one of the war-hounds on the head, amused by the cheerful dog. Suddenly, the war-hounds burst forward, barking. "Here we are. Orcs! No looting, killing or anything of the sort! Once the village's secure, we stay here for the night." "Yes, sir." You all respond. You march forward past the trees, and see the village. It's a large village, with many homes, all wooden and natural looking, reminding you of several rich men's summer homes you passed on the march to Elf Territory. Many of the civilians notice, and begin to yell and hurry inside. "HOLD IT! This village is under control of King Alexander and the Royal Army!" Captain Darruk barks. "Search house to house! Confiscate any weapons. Kill any soldiers or those trying to resist." You nod, and quickly hurry towards the houses. Inside the first you enter is a small girl holding desperately to a stuffed toy, with her mother standing defensively in front of her, a dagger clutched in her hands. "Stay out!" She cries. You look at her briefly, before ignoring her. You quickly search the upper floor and confiscate a bow, some arrows and three hunting knives, before returning downstairs. The house is empty except for the mother and daughter. "Give me the blade." You ask. "Get out of my house!" She shrieks, and you wince. > You force her to give you the knife You move forward, knocking her back with a punch. She cries out and you grab her wrist, twisting it. She drops the knife, which you catch. "Here's some advice. Don't fuck with an Orc. You're lucky you're not dead." You growl.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You walk along the woods with a small group. Twenty Orcs, thirty Men and a dozen War Hounds. You're led by Captain Darruk, who stands proudly at the lead. "Recent Elves have attacked our forces, and taken heavy losses. We believe they've retreated to the village of Abhaile to resupply and have their wounded taken care of. I want this threat dealt with." You gently pat one of the war-hounds on the head, amused by the cheerful dog. Suddenly, the war-hounds burst forward, barking. "Here we are. Orcs! No looting, killing or anything of the sort! Once the village's secure, we stay here for the night." "Yes, sir." You all respond. You march forward past the trees, and see the village. It's a large village, with many homes, all wooden and natural looking, reminding you of several rich men's summer homes you passed on the march to Elf Territory. Many of the civilians notice, and begin to yell and hurry inside. "HOLD IT! This village is under control of King Alexander and the Royal Army!" Captain Darruk barks. "Search house to house! Confiscate any weapons. Kill any soldiers or those trying to resist." You nod, and quickly hurry towards the houses. Inside the first you enter is a small girl holding desperately to a stuffed toy, with her mother standing defensively in front of her, a dagger clutched in her hands. "Stay out!" She cries. You look at her briefly, before ignoring her. You quickly search the upper floor and confiscate a bow, some arrows and three hunting knives, before returning downstairs. The house is empty except for the mother and daughter. "Give me the blade." You ask. "Get out of my house!" She shrieks, and you wince. > You try reason with her "Listen: You have no power here. I could very easily kill you, and my allies would storm in here and kill you and your daughter if I was harmed. Give me the knife and you life." She looks terrified, but she hands over the knife. You grab it, and nod. "Good choice."<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The arrows never stop flying. Crawling through the mud, you watch as unlucky comrades around you are caught in the volleys. A grunt and a thud, in the trench in front of you one falls, reaching his hand out to you. Crawling over to him you rip off his armor, trying to stop the bleeding. Almost impossible with the arrow lodged in his chest, ripping it out would only kill him faster. You sit there cradling him, trying to offer some small comfort in his final moments. He tries to speak, but only a gurgling sound emerges as crimson red trickles out of the side of his mouth. One final sigh and his whole body relaxes, his head falls back. His glassy eyes stare at you, only seeing emptiness. Placing him down, you continue to trudge through the mud. Around you more have fallen, and will continue to fall. A dark purple blast of energy flies overhead, frying some unfortunate. You make a run for the trees. Never running in a straight line, you start right, then dart left as you dive behind a tree. A few arrows lodge themselves in the ground beside you. Damn elves. You think back to how the elves had first come peacefully. Offering promises of power and strength. The orcs didn't want anything to do with them and their magic. The next time the elves showed up; however, it was in force. Looking to capture conscripts for their fight against the Empire. The orcs wanted nothing to do with their war, but since the elves brought it to our doorstep, we had now come to retaliate. The elves, unable to fight a war on two fronts, were sure to crumble. But this all started four years ago. Turns out elves have incredible resolve... which you intended to break. > You advance Only a few miles ahead, you see the castle stronghold of the Wister Elves' king. King Harribor, intent on delaying his final stand, hides behind his people. Coward. He would let his enemies lay waste to his nation, rather than meeting his fate out on the battlefield. By now, you've made your way to a ridge, behind which many orcs wait. Across is another ridge, with orcs similarly stationed. In between, dozens and dozens of orcs slowly advance: hiding in trenches, behind rocks, and amidst piles of dead comrades. They will never make it through unless you buy them time. Ahead, the elves had constructed wooden walls and towers. Each had slits and ramparts to shoot their arrows and blast their magic. Scanning the area, you see that the elve's defenses are strongest on their right flank. Perfect. All you need to do is charge down the ridge and straight towards that tower. You grab an orc by the shoulder, he looks back grunting. "See how strong their defenses are on the right?" He peers out, grunting in acknowledgment. "I need you all to string up, focus all of your fire in that region." "Why? Their left is weakest." "I know, I'm going to use that to our advantage." You're about to leave when you pat his shoulder again. "Try not to shoot me." You backtrack down into the forest and see some lights coming from the trees. The elves are watching their line closely. Seeing multiple orcs in the darkness, you stop them. They look at you inquisitively until you explain your plan. They are eager to follow. You move back behind the ridge, close to the front lines, careful to stay in the darkness. Peering over the top you notice something new: a system of hidden trenches filled with elves. They must be expecting the orcs to charge at any minute and are planning a surprise in the trenches. You inspect the trench immediately below you. It leads directly to the door of a tower. You see an officer using a dimly glowing spyglass. Near him, and scattered throughout the trenches, are wounded elves. Some fit to fight, some are not, and yet they'll do it regardless. You have to respect that at least. You ready your bow, and sight an elf slumped against the trench wall. Bloody bandages wrapped around his head, he holds his dagger and appears to be praying. He looks almost like a child, several years younger than yourself. As you let loose, the rest do as well. The elf gasps in surprise as the arrow pierces his chest. You all fire several arrows, until each elf in front of you is pin-cushioned. No one is walking away from this. No one sounds an alarm. Making your way through the trench to the nearest battlement, you ready your axe, short enough to be used with one hand but long enough for two. You stand next to the tower door, inhaling deeply. > You tower Thrusting your foot forward, the door bursts open, splinters hitting the wall directly behind. You storm in as a bloodied elf staggers towards you. His eyes widen in surprise as you plant the axe into his forehead. Thick streaks of blood creep down his face as other orcs pour past you. You pull the axe from the fallen foe with a satisfied grunt. As you enter the narrow hall, you see the wide eyes of many elves, their dead faces contorted in shock. They... almost didn't see what hit them. Leading the way once more, you rise up the stairs to the next landing, your movements hidden by the sounds of battle. You recognize the twanging of arrows. "I hit one," one of the elves says, "Ha! Look at him squirming!" Your face contorts in rage. Raising your axe, you step out, and embed it into their officer's neck. You've left your axe in another's shoulder and jammed an arrow into the eye of a third before they realize what's happened. In an instant, the other orcs are upon them. You ascend to the top of the tower. Almost immediately, an elf with bandaged hands sees you and shouts a warning to his companions. You charge them, dodging arrows and bowling into them, knocking two over the edge, screaming. The wounded one tries to bring down his sword, but you catch it between your hands. Wrenching it away you toss the sword off the edge. Snarling, you prowl towards the elf; he backs up, desperately swinging as you do so. You duck a punch and wrap an arm around his neck as you slip behind him. His hands bat and pull at your arms ineffectually. You squeeze tighter. With a snap, his hands go limp. You drop him. Fucking stick, so damn weak. > You continuing You duck down and go to the ledge, peering up and over a low wall. Arrows are still flying; chaos everywhere. "Come on, we have more towers to take out," you say. You go to the other edge and wave to get the attention of the orcs at the ridge you left. You signal them to storm the trenches from your side. By the time you've made your way down, the orcs have already flooded into the trenches. As the enemy loses focus in the confusion, the rest of your comrades rush in from the center to surround them. The elves fight valiantly, refusing to surrender, which surprises you. What is more surprising is that you are only able to kill a few before the orcs have completely decimated the rest. You run forward to the walls watching over the trenches, where the elves are far up but their fear is visible. All the trenches seem to lead to an underground tunnel system, with side rooms dug out for wounded and extra supplies. As you enter one of them you see a wounded elf on a cot. His chest wrapped in bloody bandages, his breathing labored. He might not even make it, although killing defenseless people is for the weak as far as you're concerned. > You mercy Kill You approach the elf, stepping lightly. As you draw your blade from you sheath he looks up at you. His eyes widen and his breathing become faster. He feebly tries to raise his arms, probably to ask for mercy. Driving the sword through his recent wound, you press as the blood pours out and trickles down his side. A short gasp escapes from his lips as his back and neck arches, his eyes widening before closing about halfway. You pull your blade out and move forward. > Back to the tunnel As you are about to run back into the tunnel, a loud sound erupts, shaking the ground. You have to catch yourself against the wall. After exchanging glances with the other orcs, you make your way forward through the tunnel, ever vigilant. You reach an opening engulfed in flames. Orcs scream burning or already lay still, flesh roasting. You cringe as the putrid smell reaches your nostrils. You get low to try to get a better view up a dirt ramp. The explosive must have come from the wall. You dart to the side of the hall, thinking about what you should do. You see some other orcs about to through the fiery opening. > You wait You hold up your hand. "Wait," you say. "They could have more." The room is deadly silent as everyone waits. You hear more of those explosions, and orcs storming through the other trench tunnels. By now, it sounds like full on chaos out there. At some point, you hear a scream and an elven body crunch against the ground just outside of the opening. They must have taken the walls, or at least part of them by now. You slowly approach the opening, axe in hand. As you step out, you notice there are elves and orcs engaged in deadly combat everywhere. Several elves run straight towards you. They're probably trying to seek refuge. One of their face twists as they raise their arm. A bright red bolt flies from his hand. You barely have time to drop to the ground as the bolt slams into the wooden fixture right above the tunnel. As small wood pieces shower your back, you notch an arrow to your bow. You only stand up high enough for your arrow to be raised just above the ramp. You exhale as you align the arrow with the closest of the elves, who are significantly closer now. You release the arrow, the elf who blasted at you staggering as it lands in his hip. But he still runs forward, although now they all start blasting bolts of energy at you. An orc to your right goes down, smoke rising from the wound on his chest. You notch another arrow, a bolt passing right by you, and you shoot the next elf as another orc already finished off the first one you hit. Within moments, the group of elves are all dead, along with a few orcs around you. It seems that the orcs have gained the upper hand once again, superior strength and numbers. You move out into the open with your group, quick to find somewhere less vulnerable. > You push Many of the orcs loot the treasures, weapons, and trophies from the elf bodies. You cross your arms and lean against some supply shed. A horse gallops over to a group of orcs, in the middle of them is an orc chief. The orc scout on horseback frantically starts speaking. "The elves! They're closing in on us, we're right in the middle of their line, we'll be surrounded," he yells. It would only be a matter of time before they cut off the opening to their king. Sifting through the orcs, you eventually find the orc chief in charge of the battle, who seemed to have dismissed the scout. "Chief," you say, "we need to push further." "Yes, yes, I'm aware." He sort of shrugs you off, while some other kiss ass orcs hand him some trinkets. "You heard him, we're in the middle of their line, we could easily get caught in a pincer movement. Probably surrounded too." The orc chief laughs. "Let them come, they won't stand a chance." Your eyes widen, this fool would let your brethren die rather than end this it seems. Grunting, you rip the horn fastened to his belt. He glares at you, stepping forward. You see his hand lightly resting on his sword handle. > You reason with him Looking at the horn in your hands, you realize you may have made a mistake. "I'm not gonna sit here while you get them all killed," you say. "We need to move now, while we have an opening to their king." The chieftain's eyes dart to the side as he considers what you have said. He chuckles. "You are a bold one, and you're right." He says this as he walks up to you, and he pushes you to the side as he grabs the horn from your hand. "But I can't let this disrespect stand." He keeps walking as he blows the horn, rallying the orc armies. As he calls for them to push forward, you hear something sliding behind you. Whipping around, you are just in time to sidestep a sword blow, which would have cleaved your head apart. You grab the orcs forearm, quick to twist his arm and steal his sword. He falls to one knee grunting in pain, and you kick him in the face, knocking him over. The other four orcs in the chieftains entourage all draw their weapons as they try to surround you. All the while you are moving, back, left, right, where ever you have to go to keep the foremost ones in front of you and keep the others from surrounding you. One finally lurches forward, slicing open your shin. Ignoring the searing hot pain, you leap forward, your sword biting into his neck. His body relaxes and he slumps forward, not quite dead yet but on his way there. Another orc rushes forward, trying to bury his axe into your head. You simply pull the dying orc in front of you, the axe burying into his back. You let the orc fall, as the weight of him doesn't allow the other orc to pull his axe out. It instead slips from his fingers. His hand goes for his dagger, but before he can do anything else, your stolen sword is buried in his chest. With a grunt you push it the rest of the way through, all the way to the hilt, specks of his warm blood spattering your arms and chest. The orc's mouth gapes and quivers as his arms flail in his death throes, patting your arms as his hands slide off your forearms. The remaining two orcs have already started charging. One leaps over the dying orc, almost hacking into your shoulder. You get a lucky dodge, this time drawing your real sword. The other one comes from your side, intent on plunging his spear into your side. You knock the spearhead away, sliding the blade along the shaft, until you reach his hand. You simply pull your blade back real quick, then with a quick chop severing his fingers. He cries out in pain, turning into a gurgling as you slash your sword across his throat. The last orc, and probably the most resourceful. Pulls up a small shield from his side, frisbee whipping it at you. It hits your raised forearm, leaving a stinging mark on your arm. As you step back, the other orc tucks and rolls, grabbing the spear. As he raises into a kneel, he lurches the spear forward. It buries into your waist, burning hot pain shoots through. You roar in pain as he rips it out. This time he aims right below your throat, but you manage to knock it aside. In the same motion, you pull up your axe, throwing it with surprising dexterity. The orcs head kicks back, then slowly slumps forward. One of his eyes stares at you, the other looks off at a weird angle. He falls, the axe handle stopping his face from hitting the ground. Sighing, you limp over, pulling your axe out of his forehead. As you look around, you realize some orcs had gathered to cheer you on. They didn't seem to want to get involved in case you deserved it, and they didn't know what you were even fighting about but seemed entertained nonetheless. They pat you on the back for wrecking four orcs, and one even offers to help you clean and bandage your wound. Which you gladly accept... Some hard alcohol and stitches later, your leg and stab wound are securely patched up. You just have to be careful not to reopen or aggravate the wound. Having missed the initial rush, you are stuck moving with the supply wagons, with all the old, lame, or wounded orcs. You do manage to hitch a ride, also being offered some fresh cooked beef. A delicatessen you haven't had since months ago. You decide to get some shut-eye on your way to the front...<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>It's a dark night, with even the moon itself dim in the sky, its light incapable of piercing the veil of darkness that hangs over you. Your heavy boots trudge along stones as you stroll up the path to the old log cabin ahead of you. A pump-action shotgun sits in your hand, a solid determination clear in each of your steps. You survey the cabin, eyes watching for any movements ahead of you. The cabin looks run-down, and you'd have guessed it'd be abandoned if you didn't know better. The cold air prickles your face, so you grab your balaclava, pulling it up over your mouth and nose. You reach the old wooden door at the front of the lodge. Quickly checking your safety and checking you have everything for the third time, you loosen your shoulders and take a deep breath. Raising your hand, you rap your knuckles against the door. A few moments later, you hear a raspy voice call out through the door, as an eye peers through the eye hole at you. "Minski Kuzkin?" you ask. "Hello?" a thick Russian voice answers. You step back, raising your shotgun and blasting it through the door. You hear a horrified scream, and have to actively suppress any trace of empathy that peaks through. You pump your shotgun, the shell flying to the ground as you blow away the door hinges, before booting the door. You step through the door, finding a pathetic looking figure in tattered, filthy rags, blood soaking through them and pooling on the floor around him. The stench hits you then, the air so heavy with rot and pestilence that you have to gag. The man seems to be in his mid-to-late forties, although you know he's barely in his thirties. His ogre-like frame, no doubt intimidating normally, is now huddled up as he desperately tries to stem the bleeding. You stroll forward, pressing your boot against the man's neck as you aim your shotgun at his chest. "If you have any weapons on you, it'll be a lot easier if you tell me now." "You twisted fuck! You goddamn...!" You pump the shotgun, a shell flying to the ground. The noise quietens Minski's complaints to a pained whimpering. "I don't," he answers, his voice a mere whimper. "Good," you answer, grabbing a pair of silver handcuffs from your belt. You grab Minski's arm, forcing them behind his back as you cuff him. He screams again as you roll him onto his stomach, but a quick knee to the head quietens him again. You stand, taking a deep breath, your resolve in your duty strengthening. "Wh-who are y-you?" Minski asks. "I hunt monsters, Mr Kuzkin. Vampires, banshees, werewolves, wraiths, changelings, demons... you get the drift." Minski lets out a cold, cruel laugh, his demeanor changing. "Aah... I see. You've finally found me, after all these years. You've sensed my presence. You're after the demon that burns inside my soul. I've been waiting for someone like you." You don't even bother to look at the man, instead taking a step into the lounge kitchen, your fears confirmed. At that moment, you're glad you're wearing a balaclava. A badly burned body lies on the kitchen table, its face mutilated beyond recognition. The body's small, the victim not much older than fourteen. The smell is unbearable, filling the house. You look away, the sight burning into your retinas even after your years of doing this. "You twisted fuck," you mutter, gritting your teeth. You blink long and hard, trying to regain a semblance of your cold, methodical, professional demeanor, before looking down at Minksi. "The demons tear at me, scream at me to do it! It's how you make them stop!" You sigh, fingers dancing on the trigger as you aim it at the man's head. "Demons are real, Mr Kuzkin, but they're rare, and they don't plague you. I thought they might've. It's why I investigated you. But you're not one of the poor souls cursed to deal with them. You're an animal. A pathetic creature so wracked with insanity and hatred that you take it out on the world. You're a mental case, an animal that needs to be put down, a... a..." you pause, looking to find the right words. "A monster." "No, no, they're here! They talk to me, they tell me things, they...!" "Quiet," you say, your voice barely above a whisper, but still controlling the room. The man's lost in his deluded fantasies, he's not worth talking to. Even though you doubted you would, you'd hoped that you could find some traces of demonic possession here, so you could help the poor man, but no, unfortunately you've only found yourself on the trail of another psychopath rather than any real supernatural presence. "I... I didn't want to! I tried to fight them, but they wouldn't let me stop! I couldn't sleep, couldn't... couldn't eat, couldn't... I... I just..." The pathetic figure breaks into sobbing, as you decide what to do. A quick call to the police station, and an officer could come out here to find their job done for them, the evidence lying around the house with their suspect neatly tied up. Minski would no doubt escape with the insanity plea, where he'd be taken to an institution to see if his shattered mind could be pieced together over days and months and years and decades.... of course, with your rifle belies an easier, more just answer. > You kill Minski Kuzkin You tilt your head, staring down the sights of your shotgun as you still your breath. With that, you pull the trigger. The shotgun bucks, Minski's head shattering as gray brain matter and bits of skull flies across the room. You don't flinch, simply wiping off what bits of skull land upon you. The sight of death and sound of gunfire are both as familiar as old friends to you, and you shan't be spooked by their visit. "And so ends the tale of Minski the Muscovite," you remark. You turn, walking to the nearest bedroom, searching for the cleanest sheets you could find. Taking a pair of brown sheets from the bed, you walk back into the kitchen, where the flies are having a feast. Your eyes water, and even you can't tell if it's from the smell or the sight. Carefully laying the sheet across the body, you step back, bowing your head as a matter of respect. "It's OK, boy. The horrors are over," you whisper. Your job finished, you turn, heading out to your truck outside. You walk out to the old, beaten gray pick-up, your eyes peering to the back where a pair of red diesel cannisters lie. It's a struggle to know whether to use them. This deep in the woods, you could burn this whole fucking place to the ground, and destroy any evidence of what happened here. Part of you thinks that no one should have to know what happened here. The dull city of Bergen should just continue in its sweet, sweet bliss. You'd happily burn away any memory of Minski the Muscovite, but the boy leaves a pressing question. Perhaps he deserves a right to have his tale told, to be returned home for a proper burial. And of course, his parents deserve a right to know, don't they? But, then again... perhaps it's better they don't know. Perhaps they live in eternal hope that their boy was just another runaway, or suffered an accidental death rather than the awful fate he held. No parent deserves to see their beautiful boy in the state that that boy is now. > You inform the police of the grizzly scene You decide it's best his parents learn what happened, no matter what. It's not use hiding the world in shadows and keeping them from knowledge. They deserve to know the cold truth. With more certainty than before, you turn to the old gray pick-up, clambering into the front seat as you start your engine. The high beams illuminate the dark track ahead of you, as you quickly do a U-turn, heading back down the path back towards the city. Halfway through the drive back, you put in the call to the police, quickly telling them the address and telling them to send police and medical assistance. Hanging up when they ask for your name, you continue driving, trying to forget the memories of tonight. The night's still young, and you have work to do. It's not the time for weakness. It's a long and lonely drive, with only the darkness for company. Once you've gotten far enough from the death of the night and that chained up lunatic, you switch on your iTunes, listening to a podcast on cooking. You don't cook, nor do you ever aspire to, but something about it tends to calm you, to normalize your situation. You can almost imagine you're just a normal man for a while. You follow the back roads until you're long gone from the woods, at which point you can safely head back to the lodge. The current lodge is situated at an old, secluded country house, dating back to the Victorian manor. You've actually heard rumors of the manor being haunted before, and when you see it illuminated by the pale moon that's broken through the dark sky, you'd almost believe it. Of course, as a hunting lodge, it's probably about the safest place there could be in regards to the supernatural. With two dozen residents armed to the teeth and trained in fighting the creatures of the night, blessed by the holy men of more religions than you could name and with enough silver than the Queen herself had, it was as safe as could be. You speed up the long drive of the old house. A flashlight beam illuminates the road ahead of you and a voice yells at you to halt. You slow down, holding your hand out the window as the car stops besides a fresh-faced boy holding a hunting shotgun. He smiles when he recognizes you, a goofy looking face on a man you know to be a cold-blooded hunter. "Good hunting, Willy?" Sven asks in his thick Swedish accent. "Just a fucking slasher," you say. "Bastard cut up a wee boy." The superstitious man blesses himself, before nodding. "Poor boy. Well done to you anyway, Willy. You righted a wrong tonight. Boss is looking for you anyway." "The hunt never ends," you shrug. You drive up the long path, parking alongside the collection of pick-ups, vans, sedans and "heftier" vehicles parked outside. Pulling into your space, you step out of the car, walking into the Lodge. Walking through the front door, you're hit by the wave of heat and light coming from the roaring fire in the fireplace, illuminating the old sitting room. You walk up to it, removing your gloves and stuffing them in your pocket, holding them out into the fire's heat to try get some warmth into your bones. Wherever the Lodge is set up, be it an old country house, a farmhouse, an apartment block, an ancient Celtic castle, a former military base or anything else there could be, there's always a fireplace there. The fireplace is the heart of the lodge, giving heat, warmth and a sense of safety to the every lodge member. There's something primordial about it, the brightness of the fire acting as a beacon of hope in the dark night of horrors. You pause, memories flooding into your mind. You remember sitting here as a wee boy, hearing your father tell you tales and stories. The memories take hold of your mind, as you remember sitting there as clearly as you feel the heat on your face now. > You remember your father's lessons on the history of the lodge You embrace the memory, taking refuge in the past for a moment's rest from the laboring of the present. Your father was a good man. A hard man, but a good one. When you sat by the fire with him, his already large, muscular frame seemed almost akin to a giant's at that early age. His thick bushy black beard was like solidified smoke drooping down from his chin. He rarely smiled, but he was far from a stern man. No, Dad smiled with his eyes. Whenever he was in a good mood, the man's eyes would shimmer with joy, a sight that could've brought joy to the most fatigued and broken of Hunters. You rarely saw him in your younger days, with his "job" taking him all around the world while you stayed in the miserably wondrous city that was Glasgow with your mother. She gave you your fiery mane, your manners, your demeanor and your think Scottish brogue, and life was easy. When your father visited, the world seemed to change. He'd always told you that he knew you'd be a hunter from when you first stated kicking in Mum's belly. He taught you how to hunt rabbit and deer, how to fish, how to track... he taught you everything you knew. When you were a wee teen, barely hitting fourteen, Dad took you on a trip to an old manor hidden away in the Scottish hills. The men there were hard-faced and stern, but Dad told you to pay them no mind. He simply sat in front of the roaring fire, and put you on his knee, something the giant man could still do with his size even then, and told you about the Hunters. The Hunters were born in a time where darkness, horror and superstition reigned over the land. They were simple men with no knowledge of what prowled the nights. They were plagued with mysterious killings from things beyond understanding, and they set out to stop them They soon formed groups to help fight the supernatural, and these groups grew larger and larger, establishing alliances to fight back against the greater threats, be they Vampire Covenants, Werewolf packs, Witch Covens or worse. These groups survived via funding from rich and powerful patrons who knew the threat that dwelt in the shadows as well as heavy support from the Catholic Church, who saw these creatures as demonic enemies of God. Nowadays, things are far different from the days of men venturing into the darkest woods with torches and pitchforks. Nowadays, the Hunter Lodges had established funding from government grants, private assets controlled by the Lodges and of course, still a considerable helping hand from the Vatican, who had never stiffed in their duty against the demonic. With a flexible support network including suppliers, equipment experts, silversmiths, occultists and the ever-needed "cleaners" who made sure that no trace of this fight was revealed to the public for fear of mass panic, as well as dozens of other roles needed to ensure the survival of the Hunting Lodges, Dad inspired you, and when you hit sixteen, you dropped out of school and took to the Hunting Lodge. For the first two years, you worked on simple jobs, doing house work and maintenance, and doing what investigation work makes up most of a Hunter's life, tracking for traces of the supernatural. Eventually, however, you got your chance to go on a hunt when you hit eighteen, and went out with your father. A maddened Vampire Thrall, a Wight and an actual wolf with a taste for flesh all found their bodies burning on the bonfire by the next morning. With your job started, it's been your work ever since. Dad didn't last too much longer after that. While tracking a Wendigo in the Rocky Mountains, he found out that the beast was stealthier than him, and a better hunter. His remains were found weeks after when a Hunter relief team came to find him. The Wendigo was caught and eliminated, but it had managed to kill a Hunter of twenty seven years experience and dealt your Lodge a serious blow. At thirty four years, you've given sixteen years of your life to the cause. In that time, you've completed a dozen hunts, with this being your thirteenth. The others have pointed out that the unlucky thirteen might not be the best omen for your odds tonight, but you're not a man of superstition. You're a Hunter. With that, you're reminded of your duty to the Lodge, and remember it's time to get going. You have a job to do. For the cause. For the Lodge. For Dad. > You get back to work You quickly get to work, preparing your truck for the night's next hunt. You get a few more shells for your shotgun, knowing by now what a necessity it is to carry all the ammo you can on the hunt. You fill up your truck's gas tank from the diesel cannister you've left in the truck, before getting two replacement cannisters from the house's shed. You double and triple check every detail you've got on your next target. For him, your regular shotgun shells won't do, so you replace a few shells for incendiary rounds. The beautiful thing about fire is it doesn't distinguish between psychopath or demon, monster or beast. As you prepare for the next target to hunt, you watch the other grim-faced, stern Hunters arrive and leave off, silently preparing for their missions. Few Hunters can deal with the horrors of mutilated corpses and brutal beasts without hiding inward, losing any joviality and become stern and determined stoics, although black humor is common among your types. A few men manage to survive their time with grins and jokes to cover up their pains, but they're few and far between. Most of the Hunters you pass just give you a nod and continue on their way, a single, thread-bare sign of support and brotherhood. It would seem cold and dark to outsiders, but to you, you know the respect that these men hold for you, and you hold for them. Your next target of the night is a traditional Lodge target, a young vampire. The target, to your knowledge, is barely thirty years old, with only nine of those years plagued by the red thirst. That young, he should barely have a grasp of his powers, and should be easy prey. In addition, the vampire has a single Thrall, a human either so mad, so desperate for something, so lustful for power that they're willing to sell out their humanity and their very soul to a Vampire, serving them as a servant to be used for day-time work and tasks beneath their Vampiric master. With your target set out, you head back to your truck, ready to head out and kill what's already dead. > You head off to the take out the target After clambering into your pick-up, you head off down the road, speeding along the streets as you head towards your target. The target house, due to the nature of what happens there, is very secluded. This means that it'll be all the easier for you to hit, as you won't have to worry about avoiding witnesses or police detection. You sure as shit don't want another police officer walking in on you mid-execution. You've dealt with it before, and things got... well, best not to let the mind dwell in the shadows. It's a long drive to your target, so you take the time to mentally prepare yourself, running through the plan again and again. The Vampire's secluded nature means he wakens to feed every two to three nights, before retiring to sleep. It seems the creature still struggles with fatigue, meaning he's particularly untrained in his power. He fed last night, so he should be easy prey. Kill the Thrall, and simply kill the beast in it's coffin. You pull up far enough away from the target house so not even an awakened vampire could hear its engine rumbling or see the flickers of its light. You kill the lights and leave the engine running, just in case you need a quick get away, before stepping out of your car, grabbing your weapon and making your way up the road. The veil of darkness that hung over the early night sky has been pulled from the sky, revealing the beauty of the stars. The moon shines bright, big and round like a light, surrounded by a billion shining stars that dot the heaves. It's stunningly beautiful, you must admit. The moon almost seems full, but you know it's not. The full moon has a tendency to alight some passion into the hearts of beasts, so the Lodge never has a hunt on those nights. However, nights lit by the moon are often the safest and brightest, so you tend to pick nights close to it. Best to have a bright sky watching over you when venturing into the shadows. Heading towards the house, you keep the shotgun tight in your hands, ready to fire at a moment's notice, the dragon's breath rounds in the chamber. You see the lights . The thrall should be asleep, as should his master. It's nearly two, and the man's frantic work last night in capturing prey for his master should've left the exhausted bastard craving sleep. Never mind. Him being awake only heightens the challenge. As long as his master's asleep, this should be doable. Although, if he's awake, it's out of schedule. Perhaps something's afoot, and perhaps his master is too. If that's the case, perhaps you should lean on the safer side of things. Then again, it is the night of the hunt. Calling on back-up means depriving a Hunter from somewhere else, and that could have lasting consequences. Perhaps another team is short a member, and a Necromancer's flesh hounds get the drop on them. Perhaps a Skinwalker manages to escape the trap set for him, and hunt fresh prey in the safety of the far north, away from your reach. Either way, your actions, as always in this field, have consequences. > You call for back-up You retreat to the car, calling into the Lodge. They report back that they've a spare Hunter to send out, one who is only acting on stand-by. Father Paul Féval. You know the man well, and have worked with him before. The man's a representative from the Vatican, a priest even, and as adamant in following the laws of the Bible as you are in never leaving the Lodge without a spare, but the man's a professional and an experienced Hunter. The man's permanent cold, professional demeanor means you'd be hesitant to call him a "friend", but you feel it'd be disrespectful to like anything. You get in your car, driving back a minute away from the house just for some extra space. Once you're out there, you wait outside your car, your weapons ready in case the vampire or his thrall emerge. The wait is long, but after fifteen minutes, you see a pair of dazzling head beams approaching you. A blackened sedan seems to almost form from the shadows, pulling in behind you. The sedan's driver door opens, as a tall, gaunt figure with spectacles and a black jacket and pants steps out. His long, bizarrely slender fingers tap against his side as his lips turn upwards very slightly in the barest facsimile of a smile. You know it's simply a polite sign, the man's professional nature means he takes no joy in this, instead simply seeing it as his religious duty. "William," Father Féval nods. "The Lodge informs me we're dealing with a thrall and a youth, correct?" "Correct, Father," you nod. "But they might be up." "Best not to take risks, William. We have enough risks inherent to our job, don't we?" Father Féval leans into the car, pulling out a vile of holy water. He dribbles it into his hands, blessing himself, before leaning back in and grabbing a silver crucifix. He affixes it to his belt, before flipping his jacket tails back, pulling out a pair of shining pistols. He looks at them both, examining them for a moment, before nodding. "I'm ready and willing, William." "Let's go." The pair of you begin walking down the street, ready to strike. You soon come up again to the house once more, walking up the path towards the house. You know from surveillance that the house has the main entrance as well as a back door. The lounge, dining room and basement are located near the front door. The sitting positions would give anyone in there the sight of the door, but it would allow for the quickest contact. If the vampires awake, eliminating the thrall would give you far better chances against the Vampire shortly afterwards. "You did the ground work. Suggestions?" Father Féval says unemotionally, seeming entirely focused on the situation with no fear, dread or anticipation. > You go in together, through the front "We both go through the front, take the fucker out quickly so we'll have time to get the drop on the main target. The longer we take with the thrall, the more likely that the night haunt will wake up and get the drop on one of us." "I understand. Best of luck, William." "And to you, Father." The two of you walk towards the house, weapons at the ready. Surprisingly for a vampire's lair, your surveillance has said that the house is completely lacking in any serious security measures. Locked doors and windows, sure, but they're lacking the reinforced doors, security cameras. It's a young vampire, so you're not expecting legions of Thralls protecting him or runic blood magic protecting the house, but clearly the power's gone to this creature's head. Striding forward to the house's wooden door, you raise your shotgun, pointing it at the lock and firing. Booting the door open with a solid kick as you pump the shotgun, the door collapses to the ground as you quickly step through, making contact with the Thrall. The Thrall stands in the kitchen, a short, bearded man with crazed eyes and grime and dirt stuck in his beard and on his face. He shakes his head repeatedly, growling and swearing as he divides a pile of crushed and broken white crystals, no doubt a substitute between his feedings on the vampiric blood he's heavily addicted to. His eyes dart up to you as he growls, an animalistic sound that could only come from a beast. His blood-shot eyes bulge, as he kicks the table with incredible strength, flipping it onto its side as he dives behind it. You immediately open fire, bullets and shotgun blasts easily tearing through the table, but it was a simply distraction, and the Thrall's already ducked behind the kitchen counter. Suddenly, you see the barrel of a gun emerge from behind the kitchen counter, as the Thrall attempts to fight back. Father Féval, however, fails to spot it, as he rushes forward. The gun's muzzle flashes and screams with the crackling of gunfire, as Father Féval collapses with a scream, smacking into the floor. "Zut! Mes jambes!" Father Féval screams. You look over to the man, whose right leg is now heavily bleeding and torn apart, his right thigh bleeding heavily as well as dark red blood quickly pools around the floor. "I'm coming over!" you shout to Féval, who breathes heavily in trying to control his pain. "Non! Stay there, you fool! He'll get us both!" You nod, knowing he's right. Going over to try assist Father Féval right now would be suicide, and you'd just end up with a blast of bullets to the chest. The priest's pinned down, and you need to decide what your course of action is. Retreating, as always, seems promising. The racket you're causing has no doubt awoken the vile monster you've come here to kill, and you're going to be hard-fought keeping Féval alive and yourself facing these two foes. Of course, if you can rush the Thrall from his flank and take him out quickly, you'll be able to face the Vampire one-on-one and have some chance. > You fall back to the truck Knowing that staying there is a slaughter and every second you spend fighting is only going to make it more likely the sound of death and smell of flesh blood is going to awaken the thrall's master, you turn, looking at Father Féval one last time as he lies there, bleeding heavily. His eyes meet yours, and he knows what you're going to do. "God be with you, William," he says. The man struggles to raise his arms, the strength clearly sapped for them, but nevertheless the priest opens fire with a burst of gunfire towards the Thrall, giving you your chance. You break for the door, sprinting low and fast as your shotgun swings in your hands. You leap forward with every step, quickly bursting out the front door as you sprint towards your truck. You're running as fast as you're able, when suddenly, you get hit from the side with the strength of a truck. You're sent flying through the air before you can even realize what happens, as you skid along the cold earth and roll to a halt, feeling your now broken jaw smack into the frozen tundra. You lie there, broken and hurt, as you try to pull yourself to your feet. As soon as you put weight on your knee you're put through incredible pain and forced to do nothing but grit your teeth and bear it. "You seem tired, Hunter," a voice says. Your voice chills when you hear the voice, but you know it's not the time for tears. Turning your head, you find yourself staring up at a tall, deathly pale figure. It's skin seems almost entirely hairless except for the thick black hair that hangs down from its head. Its eyes, however... its blood red eyes betray an inhumanity that you'll never be able to comprehend. "Hello," the Vampire smiles, revealing a fanged mouth stretching from ear to ear. "And of course, goodbye." "Fucking... blood thirsty... prick," you say, struggling to keep from collapsing to the ground. The Vampire strolls forward, savoring this moment, as his smile stretches further and further across his face, almost seeming to cut it in half. He lifts a polished boot into the air, placing it on your broken leg. He applies pressure, and you grit your teeth and try not to give him the satisfaction of screaming. "A strong one. Your lodge will weep tonight. You can die quick, Hunter." The Vampire slowly drops down to his knees, as you struggle to reach for your revolver at your side. You're far too late, though, as she grabs your head gently. You breath carefully, before he snaps your neck in a single motion. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"We both go through the front, take the fucker out quickly so we'll have time to get the drop on the main target. The longer we take with the thrall, the more likely that the night haunt will wake up and get the drop on one of us." "I understand. Best of luck, William." "And to you, Father." The two of you walk towards the house, weapons at the ready. Surprisingly for a vampire's lair, your surveillance has said that the house is completely lacking in any serious security measures. Locked doors and windows, sure, but they're lacking the reinforced doors, security cameras. It's a young vampire, so you're not expecting legions of Thralls protecting him or runic blood magic protecting the house, but clearly the power's gone to this creature's head. Striding forward to the house's wooden door, you raise your shotgun, pointing it at the lock and firing. Booting the door open with a solid kick as you pump the shotgun, the door collapses to the ground as you quickly step through, making contact with the Thrall. The Thrall stands in the kitchen, a short, bearded man with crazed eyes and grime and dirt stuck in his beard and on his face. He shakes his head repeatedly, growling and swearing as he divides a pile of crushed and broken white crystals, no doubt a substitute between his feedings on the vampiric blood he's heavily addicted to. His eyes dart up to you as he growls, an animalistic sound that could only come from a beast. His blood-shot eyes bulge, as he kicks the table with incredible strength, flipping it onto its side as he dives behind it. You immediately open fire, bullets and shotgun blasts easily tearing through the table, but it was a simply distraction, and the Thrall's already ducked behind the kitchen counter. Suddenly, you see the barrel of a gun emerge from behind the kitchen counter, as the Thrall attempts to fight back. Father Féval, however, fails to spot it, as he rushes forward. The gun's muzzle flashes and screams with the crackling of gunfire, as Father Féval collapses with a scream, smacking into the floor. "Zut! Mes jambes!" Father Féval screams. You look over to the man, whose right leg is now heavily bleeding and torn apart, his right thigh bleeding heavily as well as dark red blood quickly pools around the floor. "I'm coming over!" you shout to Féval, who breathes heavily in trying to control his pain. "Non! Stay there, you fool! He'll get us both!" You nod, knowing he's right. Going over to try assist Father Féval right now would be suicide, and you'd just end up with a blast of bullets to the chest. The priest's pinned down, and you need to decide what your course of action is. Retreating, as always, seems promising. The racket you're causing has no doubt awoken the vile monster you've come here to kill, and you're going to be hard-fought keeping Féval alive and yourself facing these two foes. Of course, if you can rush the Thrall from his flank and take him out quickly, you'll be able to face the Vampire one-on-one and have some chance. > You push forward and take down the Thrall You charge forward, rushing past a bleeding Father Féval and raising your shotgun into the air as you run low and fast, fingers ready on the trigger. You emerge from behind your choice of cover, rushing forward as you raise your shotgun, firing through the thrall's chest. He screams, his clothes lighting into flames as he screams, catapulted into the wall. He lets lose with his rifle, either as his twitching body pulls the trigger or in one last burst of dying energy, and bullets slam into your chest. You feel the air knocked out of your lungs as you bounce against the wall and collapse to your knees. For a moment, you just feel a cold swelling through you as you're left unable to breathe, before the pain begins to burn its way through your chest. Gasping for breath that won't fill your lungs as you find them filling with warm, wet, blood instead, and you're left drowning in it. You manage to pull a few strangled breaths from the air, as you stay on your knee, knowing that if you collapse you'll end up letting the darkness taken. Then, somewhere in your struggle, you hear loud footsteps to your right. Turning your head, you find yourself staring up at a tall, deathly pale figure. It's skin seems almost entirely hairless except for the thick black hair that hangs down from its head. Its eyes, however... its blood red eyes betray an inhumanity that you'll never be able to comprehend. "Hello," the Vampire smiles, revealing a fanged mouth stretching from ear to ear. "And of course, goodbye." "Fucking... blood thirsty... prick," you say, struggling to keep from collapsing to the ground. The Vampire slowly walks forward, it's grin stretching further and further until it seems like it should be tearing its face in two. You know he could strike far faster, but the vampire seems to be savoring his kill. You go to your revolver, hidden at your side, grabbing the ivory handle as you attempt to draw your gun. You fumble to pull it from the safety of its holster, before the Vampire grabs his wrist, bending your arm behind your back as you scream. His jaw snaps forward, a fanged mouth tearing into your neck. You let out a scream, teeth bursting through flesh and slicing into veins. Your body weakens in the creature's grasp as it begins to drain you of your blood, and the world rapidly goes dark as blood loss takes you.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You retreat to the car, calling into the Lodge. They report back that they've a spare Hunter to send out, one who is only acting on stand-by. Father Paul Féval. You know the man well, and have worked with him before. The man's a representative from the Vatican, a priest even, and as adamant in following the laws of the Bible as you are in never leaving the Lodge without a spare, but the man's a professional and an experienced Hunter. The man's permanent cold, professional demeanor means you'd be hesitant to call him a "friend", but you feel it'd be disrespectful to like anything. You get in your car, driving back a minute away from the house just for some extra space. Once you're out there, you wait outside your car, your weapons ready in case the vampire or his thrall emerge. The wait is long, but after fifteen minutes, you see a pair of dazzling head beams approaching you. A blackened sedan seems to almost form from the shadows, pulling in behind you. The sedan's driver door opens, as a tall, gaunt figure with spectacles and a black jacket and pants steps out. His long, bizarrely slender fingers tap against his side as his lips turn upwards very slightly in the barest facsimile of a smile. You know it's simply a polite sign, the man's professional nature means he takes no joy in this, instead simply seeing it as his religious duty. "William," Father Féval nods. "The Lodge informs me we're dealing with a thrall and a youth, correct?" "Correct, Father," you nod. "But they might be up." "Best not to take risks, William. We have enough risks inherent to our job, don't we?" Father Féval leans into the car, pulling out a vile of holy water. He dribbles it into his hands, blessing himself, before leaning back in and grabbing a silver crucifix. He affixes it to his belt, before flipping his jacket tails back, pulling out a pair of shining pistols. He looks at them both, examining them for a moment, before nodding. "I'm ready and willing, William." "Let's go." The pair of you begin walking down the street, ready to strike. You soon come up again to the house once more, walking up the path towards the house. You know from surveillance that the house has the main entrance as well as a back door. The lounge, dining room and basement are located near the front door. The sitting positions would give anyone in there the sight of the door, but it would allow for the quickest contact. If the vampires awake, eliminating the thrall would give you far better chances against the Vampire shortly afterwards. "You did the ground work. Suggestions?" Father Féval says unemotionally, seeming entirely focused on the situation with no fear, dread or anticipation. > You go in together, through the back "We both go through the back, take the fucker out quickly so we'll have time to get the drop on the main target. Get the drop on the Thrall, finish him, The longer we take with the thrall, the more likely that the night haunt will wake up and get the drop on one of us." "I understand. Best of luck, William." "And to you, Father." The two of you walk towards the house, weapons at the ready. Surprisingly for a vampire's lair, your surveillance has said that the house is completely lacking in any serious security measures. Locked doors and windows, sure, but they're lacking the reinforced doors, security cameras. It's a young vampire, so you're not expecting legions of Thralls protecting him or runic blood magic protecting the house, but clearly the power's gone to this creature's head. Moving slowly and softly through the garden around to the back, you still your breaths and do your best to be as soundless as the shadows. You creep through the rose bushes, whose petals look almost eerily beautiful in the moonlight. The sky's light brightens your path, but also makes it harder to sneak, and you just stay low and hope that if the Thrall happens to be looking out the window, he isn't looking too hard. Edging around to the back, you draw close to the wooden door. You look to Father Féval, who nods to you almost imperceptibly slowly. You move to the door, standing ready, before striking. You raise your shotgun, firing through the door's lock as you boot it open, quickly stepping through the now opened doorway and into the house. The Thrall stands in the kitchen, his back turned to you.The Thrall is a short, bearded man, growling and shaking his head repeatedly as he divides a pile of crushed and broken white crystals, no doubt a substitute between his feedings on the vampiric blood he's heavily addicted to. The man quickly turns, his crazed, blood-shot eyes bulging at you as he sees you. His eyes dart up to you as he growls, an animalistic sound that could only come from a beast. With a roar, he charges for you, as you pump your shotgun and put a round into him, firing straight through the thrall's chest. He screams, his clothes lighting into flames as he screams, catapulted into the wall. He slides down the wall, screaming out in anger and pain, a noise of such intense rage that it chills you. Father Féval walks in quickly, his guns raised. He stands over the bleeding, burning man, raising his pistols to aim at his heads. "Les flammes les plus méritées brûlent le plus chaud, pécheur. Que Dieu ait pitié de ce qui reste de votre âme misérable et trouve la miséricorde sur votre âme," Father Féval says calmly. The two pistols fire, the Thrall's face exploding as blood and gore coats his wild hair and thick beard, his head caving in as the bullets carve their way through. "Let's kill this Vampire and be done with this place," Father Féval says to you. "Let's," you say, pumping your shotgun as your next shell enters the chamber. > You take out the coffin You quickly head down the staircase of the basement, descending into the dark basement, lit by a dim candle. You slow down as you notice the counters piled with jars filled to the brim with red liquid. A bloody metal table sits there with unopened leather straps, a series of tubing and IV's connected to it. You're certain that it's equipment to drain the blood of victims the Thrall captures, to feed his master when he doesn't wish to hunt for himself. However, the highlight of the room is a large, ornate coffin, leaning against a concrete wall. You've seen enough coffins in your life for any man, but this one is a fairly nice one. It's solid wood, cherry, with brass handles, sitting up on its side so its resident can sleep standing up. The face on the front of the coffin shows a grinning, gargoyle-like face made of brass, its eyes shining at you. You flinch at the sight of it, nervous about what lies behind it. "Let's do it," Father Féval says. You hurry up to the coffin, readying your shotgun as Father Féval takes the other side. "I take the chest, you take the head," you say, as Father Féval nods. Quickly, the two of you perform the breaching mechanism. Swinging around and standing back, you quickly measure the size of the coffin and roughly calculate where the center of its heart is. You aim, your fingers tightening on the trigger as you fire the weapon, as does Father Féval. Your shotgun bucks, firing lead and magnesium shards directly through the heavy wood of the coffin. You fire three times as the wood splinters and explodes away, your shells bursting through them as they tear through the coffin. Father Féval's rounds tear through where the head of the vampire should lie, bursting through the wood and hitting through inside. After a few seconds, the sound of gunfire calms as you look at Father Féval. "Let us confirm the kill," Father Féval says. Stepping forward, you grab the handle of the coffin and wretch it open, tearing open the splintered and almost destroyed door. Staring inside, you find splintered wood and torn apart coffin... but no vampire, or no ash to show a clean kill. "That was expensive," a dark, chilling voice says. "You'll pay for that." Your voice chills when you hear the voice, but you know it's not the time for tears. Turning your head, you find yourself staring up at a tall, deathly pale figure standing behind Father Féval, its arms wrapped around him, baring a pair of ivory daggers that descend from its upper jaw, fangs so sharp and long they could tear out Father Féval's throat in an instant. It's skin seems almost entirely hairless except for the thick black hair that hangs down from its head. Its eyes, however... its blood red eyes betray an inhumanity that you'll never be able to comprehend. "Don't move, or your friend gets it," the Vampire says. "Drop your weapons. Slowly." "Shoot it!" Father Féval gasps, as the Vampire steps almost perfectly behind the priest, obscuring your shot. Surrender isn't an option. This creature needs to die, or neither you nor Father Féval will ever get out of here. > You shoot through Father Féval You fire your shotgun straight through Father Féval's chest without a moment's pause, knowing the way of the Hunter. You're going to do what's right, not what's empathetic, and you'd expect Father Féval to blow you away in a moment in order to fight the good fight. However, the blast fails to completely burst through Father Féval's chest, the burning magnesium shards lacking the penetration power you require, and the few lead balls tearing their way through his flesh are simply incapable of killing a Vampire. Father Féval's dying corpse is tossed into you, and you shove the body aside with a yell. However, it's far too late, and the vampire rams you against the wall. His fangs tear through the air and into your throat, biting down and tearing it out of your neck with a burst of blood. You gasp for air, but only blood fills your throat and lungs as you find yourself incapable of breathing. You paw desperately at the Vampire's face as he laughs again, before dipping his face into your bleeding neck and beginning to drain your blood. Soon, the blood loss and shock snuffs the light in your eyes, and your body goes numb.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You quickly head down the staircase of the basement, descending into the dark basement, lit by a dim candle. You slow down as you notice the counters piled with jars filled to the brim with red liquid. A bloody metal table sits there with unopened leather straps, a series of tubing and IV's connected to it. You're certain that it's equipment to drain the blood of victims the Thrall captures, to feed his master when he doesn't wish to hunt for himself. However, the highlight of the room is a large, ornate coffin, leaning against a concrete wall. You've seen enough coffins in your life for any man, but this one is a fairly nice one. It's solid wood, cherry, with brass handles, sitting up on its side so its resident can sleep standing up. The face on the front of the coffin shows a grinning, gargoyle-like face made of brass, its eyes shining at you. You flinch at the sight of it, nervous about what lies behind it. "Let's do it," Father Féval says. You hurry up to the coffin, readying your shotgun as Father Féval takes the other side. "I take the chest, you take the head," you say, as Father Féval nods. Quickly, the two of you perform the breaching mechanism. Swinging around and standing back, you quickly measure the size of the coffin and roughly calculate where the center of its heart is. You aim, your fingers tightening on the trigger as you fire the weapon, as does Father Féval. Your shotgun bucks, firing lead and magnesium shards directly through the heavy wood of the coffin. You fire three times as the wood splinters and explodes away, your shells bursting through them as they tear through the coffin. Father Féval's rounds tear through where the head of the vampire should lie, bursting through the wood and hitting through inside. After a few seconds, the sound of gunfire calms as you look at Father Féval. "Let us confirm the kill," Father Féval says. Stepping forward, you grab the handle of the coffin and wretch it open, tearing open the splintered and almost destroyed door. Staring inside, you find splintered wood and torn apart coffin... but no vampire, or no ash to show a clean kill. "That was expensive," a dark, chilling voice says. "You'll pay for that." Your voice chills when you hear the voice, but you know it's not the time for tears. Turning your head, you find yourself staring up at a tall, deathly pale figure standing behind Father Féval, its arms wrapped around him, baring a pair of ivory daggers that descend from its upper jaw, fangs so sharp and long they could tear out Father Féval's throat in an instant. It's skin seems almost entirely hairless except for the thick black hair that hangs down from its head. Its eyes, however... its blood red eyes betray an inhumanity that you'll never be able to comprehend. "Don't move, or your friend gets it," the Vampire says. "Drop your weapons. Slowly." "Shoot it!" Father Féval gasps, as the Vampire steps almost perfectly behind the priest, obscuring your shot. Surrender isn't an option. This creature needs to die, or neither you nor Father Féval will ever get out of here. > You wait for a better opportunity You stand, stern and waiting with your shotgun raised. The Vampire laughs, his fangs bared as he holds them above Father Féval's neck. Father Féval simply stands perfectly still, slowing his breathing as he stares blankly ahead, slowly mouthing "Do it". "Come on!" the Vampire laughs, reaching his arm down and tapping on exactly where Father Féval's heart is. "Right here. Blow out your friend's heart and maybe you'll get me. You'll get rid of my shield, either way." With the Vampire's arm having moved around to Father Féval's chest, Father Féval's hand has been released. Father Féval slowly reaches his hand down to his belt, staring ahead. He slowly lifts up his jacket, reaching under to grab the silver crucifix affixed to his belt. He slides the cross free, holding it tightly in his hands. He looks at you, nodding ever so slightly in an almost imperceptible gesture. Father Féval swings his arm back in one solid gesture, jamming the crucifix into the Vampire's eye. The Vampire screams, a horrible rasping noise of anger and pain beyond what should come out of any human lungs, like the scraping of concrete on concrete. It grabs at the crucifix jamming into it's eye, hissing as Father Féval ducks out of his grasp, rolling to the side, giving you the perfect open target. You raise your shotgun, aiming it at the vampire's heart. You squeeze the trigger, doing what you should. The blast of lead and burning Magnesium shards tear through the air, bursting forward and exploding through his heart, and causing his flesh and clothes to catch up in flames. He screams out in pain, forced backwards from the sheer force of impact. You pump your shotgun, firing another blast as it hits the Vampire in the head, which snaps back as his head erupts through melting flesh. You pump another, and another, and another round into him, as his inhuman body erupts into fire, flesh turning into ash as he collapses backwards against the wall, the force of the shells leaving the Vampire stumbling back as it gasps. It's flesh continues burning away to ash as the creature collapses to the ground, and soon there's nothing but an ash pile left. "Thanks," Father Féval nods, looking down at the ash pile that was previously about to tear out his throat. "We should burn this wretched place to the ground and get out of here. Too much of a story here if they find the blood extraction equipment." A bright ringing noise startles you from behind, and you almost open fire in that direction as you redraw your revolver. You find yourself staring at a simple cellphone sitting on a table, vibrating and ringing away. You pause, looking at it with confusion. "What is it?" Father Féval asks you. "A phone," you answer, as you walk over slowly, reaching down and flipping open the phone, lifting it to your ear. "Hello?" "Hello, Mr Matasan." Your blood chills for a moment, as you take a deep breath, terror ringing through you. "And who may I be speaking to?" "My name is Hrólfr Gaange. It's a pleasure to meet you." "Is there something I can help you with?" you ask. "You don't seem particularly afraid, Mr Matasan." "Should I be, Mr Gaange?" you ask, trying to keep your calm. "Of course not. It's just refreshing to speak to a new person without them being so terrified. Now, let's be quite frank, Mr Matasan. You killed one of my agents, and their thrall, did you not?" "I did," you say, not wanting to waste the time that would've come from lying, since you know the creature's certain about these facts. "Interesting. Good. He was a weak, impulsive creature. He wasn't useful. Quite frankly, he was a threat to our existence. But you... you could be of assistance to me. You have potential. I want you to work for me." "No," you reply, almost instantly, prompting a dark chuckle from the bastard. "I understand. You've dedicated your life to protecting the innocent. But, so have I, Mr Matasan. I may be a vampire, but I do what's necessary for this world. I don't stalk through the streets at night attacking helpless women hiding in their beds. I'm not one of these crass specimens that wants to blot out the sun, or who wants to enslave mankind, or raise a legion of damned souls. I like the world the way it is. And I'm going to keep it safe from darker creatures of the night. I keep the world of darkness under wraps, as you do. I keep my dark brethren in check. I protect society. You could help me with that, and do a far better job than you do as a mortal." "No," you say again. "Think about what I'm offering you. Immortality, riches, power, strength, speed, intelligence. Everything you could want." "I can't do that, Mr Gaange. I think you already knew that, though." "Oh, I did. But I'm not looking to recruit you right now. I'm offering you a favor. You types never take the power offer. You don't join my side out of power-lust. You join out of desperation. A day will come when you need me. Perhaps you need some arcane knowledge. Perhaps you need money. Perhaps a cure for some unknown disease. Anything you ever need. Just... keep this phone. My number is under Mr Black. Generic, i know. When you need me, call. I can give you anything you want. And what do you lose for that? Your finite mortality, your weakness, your diseases, your poverty... a fair bargain, no." "I'm not going to..." you begin to see, before a dark voice interupts you. "Keep the phone. I know you don't think you'll need it, but you might. I'll talk to you sooner or later, Mr Matasan. Best of luck to you tonight. I've heard it'll be a big one." The phone beeps as Mr Gaange hangs up on you. "What was it?" Father Féval asks. "The target's vampiric master." "What did he say?" You pause, looking down at your phone as you try to think through what to do. You know Féval wouldn't support you taking the phone, but he doesn't have to know what was discussed. > You take the phone Thinking long and hard, you decide to take the phone. Perhaps it could be of some use. Maybe. Hopefully, you never have to use it, but you didn't survive this long in the field by turning away potential gifts, and you're not going to start now. Everything you can use in the fight against darkness, you will use.You slide the phone into one of your secure pockets, buttoning it up and patting it to make sure it's secure. "Nothing important," you say. "Just threats and bullshit. I'll take the phone back to the techs and see if they can trace the call, find us a master." "It won't work," Father Féval says. "It'll be untraceable. Vampires, especially masters, are far too clever to do things like this. Far too clever." "I want to try," you lie. "So be it," Father Féval answers. "Let us begin the clean-up, William. We have a lot of work to do. The techs can wait." You nod, and the two of you quickly set apart eradicating the evidence this place ever existed. The two of you pack up the jars of blood into the truck, for disposal somewhere that won't be investigated. You also take the IV and tubing, before grabbing your fuel cans. You quickly perform the same patterns, spreading it through the house evenly enough, focusing on that you need destroyed and that which is most flammable. With the two of you, the clean-up is surprisingly quickly the two of you working quickly in silence neither one of you wants to break. Once that's done, you head out of the house and set the home alight, watching as the flames run through the house and engulf it in an inferno. "A job well done," Father Féval nods. "One more soul sent to its judgment. We should get back. There is more work to be done. Unless you would like to watch the house burn? Pyromania is a common turn for many a man in this line of duty, no?" You don't feel like watching the house burn, not feeling the usual satisfaction of watching a lair of darkness light the shadows as a beacon of warmth and light. You just feel tired, even more so knowing that you're not finished your work tonight. "No, I'm fine. Let's go," you answer. Father Féval nods, shaking your hand before returning to his sedan, and heading off into the night. You head back to your truck as well, climbing in and heading off down the road again. The drive goes by quickly, as you turn your radio up until it's almost blaring some inane Norwegian pop song, and continue off down the road. It's not long before you pull up to the old country house again. The signs of the night's lateness are more obvious, now. A few of the vehicles parked outside are dented or have blood smears or bullet holes, and the Hunters that walk about them seem more exhausted. You head into the house, taking a moment to appreciate the light of the fireplace. But, the night is still young, and you have targets to hit. You walk towards the sitting room, one of the old house's converted into a "base of operations" of sorts. Although as Hunters, you tend to work independently, only using the Lodge for resources, resupplying and rest, as well as letting them know every so often you're not dead in the long periods of investigation and tracking in trying to find the lairs and dens of beasts, and trying to distinguish psychos and fools from men tainted by the demonic, or worse. However, it's the night of the Hunt, that beautiful night of the year where you wipe out the monsters that dwell in the shadows in one quick sweep, not even giving the bastards time to flee or figure out what's going on. And on the night of the Hunt, sometimes you need to work together. While maddened werewolves and loner vampires are easy prey with modern technology, hard-work, training and of course the element of surprise, when the creatures of darkness work together, so must you. When that happens, you plan and prepare in the lounge. You walk into the lodge, finding a large table with a map stretched across it. A half dozen men stand around it, all of whom you recognize as veteran Hunters. The leader of the group is the head of the Lodge, a man known as Ernest Collier. The old man's scarred, wrinkled face smiles at you as you enter. Ernest's too old at his age to still hunt, having since lost the physical peak that Hunters are required to be at, but his mind is strong and he's well experienced. Thus, he serves the cause through leading the lodge. Everything from supplying Hunters to recruiting to planning the larger hunts falls under his purview. "William. I heard your hunt with Father Féval went well. I'm glad. How did your earlier target go?" "Successfully," you say simply. The next man in the room you see is Father Féval, who nods at you once more. As always, cold and calculated. After him stands former-Unteroffizer Hans Hirsch. The tall man has dark black hair and light eyes, his face decorated with a long scar that goes vertically just left of his left eye. He leans over the table, scanning the map. His finger gently runs across hunting paths through the thick forest as he whispers to himself. Hans is a strange man, with a taste for drink, cigars, cigarettes, whores, gambling... anything he can get his hands on. But, he's a good hunter, having served in the military of his home country and having a great record on all his previous hunts. The final man is an Alaskan by the name of Russel Sloane. Time has taken the black from his thick beard and the hair from his head, but left the man's strength, speed and cunning, and only given him experience and wisdom for the trade. He's a powerful Hunter, and took the shift from bears and wolves to Kushtaka and Tupilaq with ease. He smiles at you grimly when you enter, his face showing a hint of more worry than usual. "Are we ready to start?" you ask. "We're waiting on someone," Russel says. As you raise an eyebrow, the door swings open and you find yourself staring down at a young boy, barely in his mid teens. "This is my boy Wyatt. Now that's he's a full man, we'll be taking him on tonight's hunt, showing him how we fight. I filled him in on the details." "Pleasure to meet y'all," he smiles nervously, as you look him up and down. He's young, short, weak and skinny. You don't think he should be coming out, but he's a man more than you would normally have for this mission, and you're not going to be telling his father how to raise his own child. "Take a seat, Wyatt," Ernest smiles. "We're going to go over tonight's details." Ernest takes a seat, as you stare down at the map ahead of you, which shows you a massive woods, with several hunting paths, potential lairs and scenes of incidents highlighted. "Let's recap for those who didn't get to hear it directly from me!" Ernest says. "There's been several mauling's in these areas, and we've had reports a werewolf pack is responsible. Not just one werewolf, but an entire pack of about six to twelve creatures. We're taking a small team in their to set up an ambush, draw them out and kill them all. The plans' simple. Take a truck into the woods with a mutilated deer carcass, slathered in human blood. The scent should draw the werewolves into your area, where you'll have set up an overview to take them out. Simple." You all nod, the review of your plan unnecessary for everyone but Wyatt. "We're heading off in an hour and a half. I want all of you prepared and by the truck for then, understood?" There's a chorus of affirmatives, as Ernest smiles. "Good to know. Best of luck, men." > You prepare for the night's final hunt You head to the old house's dining room, where a large wooden table sits. It's empty, the rest of the Hunters out and about in the world. The kitchen is brimming with the light and heat that activity tends to bring. A scarred Hunter is busy working in it, cooking an extensive meal. You vaguely know her, a young Spaniard by the name of Lola Garcia. The hunter's missing three fingers on her right hand and her right eye from a Gargoyle attack, so she's on recovery and acting as the Lodge chef for the time being. Tonight's meal, as with most Lodge meals, is very garlic heavy. Traditionally, Hunters have lots of garlic. In the old days, when the Hunters first rose up, garlic was an invaluable tool. Many monsters of the night could easily track a human via smell, so the first Hunters used garlic to disguise their scent and confuse their prey. Of course, it wasn't long before the smell of garlic became associated with Hunters, and they had to change tactic. Still, garlic is still popular among the Hunters as a meal, both to keep up the tradition and for a good luck charm. Tonight, the meal is potatoes, lamb and gravy, flavored with garlic. You take a bowl, returning to your seat with the rest of your squad of Hunters. While you didn't feel hungry during the night's exploits, now that the food is in front of you and you get to smell it, you feel just how hungry you are. You quickly grab your knife and fork, and begin wolfing it down. Within a minute flat, your bowl is empty, and you have to weigh up having any bit of respect from your peers against the joy you'd get from licking the bowl clean. Afterwards, you head to the main bathroom. You shower yourself, a nice treat, washing off the dirt, sweat, blood and grime that's coated you over the night's events. Having the hot water stream over your skin has a cleansing, almost purifying effect on you. You make sure to scrub extensively, trying to wipe off any scent of your "human side" that might be lingering. Afterwards, you get dressed in your best hiking boots and what clothing you have that's warm, tough and flexible, which is admittedly pretty much everything you have. You pack up your shotgun with its shells filled with silver shards as well as a hunting dagger with a silver edge and your revolver. Making sure you have all the survival gear you need, you head out to the truck. With twenty minutes left in the day, you move to your desk. It's laid out with your papers, your grinder, your filters and a large bag of your personal supply of Marijuana that helps you get through the darkest nights with the worst nightmares, pulling out your record player. You quickly flick through what few Vinyl you have, before going back to the one you most often return to. With (What's the Story) Morning Glory? emblazoned proudly across the top, you smile as you remember your father giving it to you for your eighteenth. Dad actually had a taste for music, and always liked them, as did you. You flip on the vinyl, setting your alarm for fifteen minutes, and sink into your desk chair as the songs play. The next fifteen minutes is a thoughtless bliss of unforming memories, but soon, your alarm bleeps you awake, and you head out to the others. The group is assembling outside, taking a worn out pick-up. Russel and Wyatt are loading a moose carcass into the back of the truck, while Hans, Father Féval are already getting into the truck. You quickly hurry up, as Russel looks at you. "Willy! You ready for this?" "Always am," you nod, as Russel hands you a jar of golden liquid. You uncap the jar, gently sprinkling the deer piss over your coat. Thanks to werewolves' naturally keen sense of smell, it's best to coat yourself in this disguise, despite how disgusting it is to you. "Ha! Perfect! Let's go! I'm driving up front with Frenchie and the German. You can come up front with us or sit up with Wyatt and the bait." You look at Wyatt, who looks pale and nervous, a hunting rifle in his hands. His father is either indifferent to his son's fears or ignorant of them. Part of you wants to sit in the front where it's warm, but another part of you feels like you should comfort Wyatt. > You take the front seat "I'll go in the front. It's cold tonight," you say, swinging your shotgun into the front of the pick-up and clambering in next to Hans. He looks at you, a cigarette sitting between his lips. "William," he says. "You look tired, my friend. How's hunting been?" "Been better. Been worse," you say. "Confirmed kills, no injuries, no escapes. I've had worse days," you say. "I hear that. Had to track down this fucking "werewolf" for two months. Found out it was nothing but a very cunning wolf. I was playing the role of a normal human hunter for two months." The truck pulls off, barreling down the road. You lean back in your seat, the car heading deep into the woods. You rest your shotgun against your shoulder, staring out the window. It's a silent journey, with all of the veterans of the hunt being far too quiet for any inane chatter, especially before the hunt. It's a long, boring drive, as you watch the tress pass by, shrouded by shadow. It's a waiting game until the drop zone, as you focus on nothing at all and let your mind drift to avoid getting yourself psyched out. "We're about fifteen minutes out from the drop soon. We debark in ten, then we hike into the target spot and set up," Russel says. "This'll be a good one, boy, don't you worry." You stare out the window at the darkened trees, waiting patiently. Russel Sloane, perhaps nervous bringing his boy out, tries to start a conversation. "The moon's out pretty bright tonight, isn't it, b... Shit, shit, shit!" Suddenly, the car swerves, as you hear the recognizable sound of car tires bursting. The car slams off the road, hitting the embarkment as you find yourself momentarily free-falling. You panic, reaching for your rifle, before the world goes black. > You consciousness fades... You open your eyes as blurry vision returns to you. You're covered in broken glass and enveloped in darkness, but your eyes slowly begin to make sense of your surroundings. You're sitting in the truck, looking around as you hear the nearby howls of nearing werewolves. You blink, feeling a rush of pain go through your numb body. Your skin is grazed and cut up, blood running down your skin as your bruised flesh and broken bones scream out to you in pain. Turning your head to the side, you see that the side door is open, with Hans leaning against the door with an assault rifle in his hands. He looks around rapidly, blood dripping down his face from a large cut on his forehead. "Guys! We have to get out of here!" he yells. "Let's go." You look to the front of the car, where Father Féval is either dead or unconscious, while Russel is stirring from unconscious the same as you. Gunfire erupts out as Hans begins opening fire at the shadows. You watch as he sprays the woods with gunfire. "We need to go! Come on!" he screams. You reach down, trying to unbuckle your seatbelt, before you see Hans smashed from the side, a wall of fur and teeth tearing him off into the darkness as he screams. You unbuckle your seatbelt, deciding what to do. You're in a confusing situation, heavily injured, being attacked by an unknown force of werewolves. You're practically out of options. > You grab your shotgun and open fire You fumble for your shotgun, grabbing your weapon and sliding out of the car. You grab the car’s broken door frame, lowering yourself onto your better leg. Wincing as you prop yourself up, you raise your shotgun and aim it at the night. The darkness is alive, with figures darting in and out of the threes. You only get terrifying glimpses of blood-coated teeth glistening, fur matted with gore or claws that could rend your flesh from your bone in an instance. As the shadows grow closer, the light of the moon seems to retreat, letting the darkness consume the trees and what dwells with in them. You hear Hans' screaming off to the side, before it's cut silent with a sickening crunch of tearing sinew and snapping bones. Your breath catches in your throat, but it's not the time for whimpering or weakness. You raise your shotgun, firing into the night at the creatures. You blast at the trees, and one of your shots rewards you with a pained yelp from one of the creatures, causing you to grin. You continue firing, before you hear the sound of crushed glass and the thud of something heavy landing on metal behind you, shortly replaced by the low, bestial ground of your night's "prey". You pause, hearing the noise behind you. Slowing your breathing, you know what's going to happen, and take solace knowing your time has come. Hoping you give the bastard something to remember you by, you drop to your knee, rolling to the side and firing your shotgun directly at the werewolf. Silver back burns through its fur and flesh, and it lets out a howl of pain and anger, swiping its claw as you. The blade-like claws tear through your throat, killing you instantly, but as your body collapses to the ground, you know you at least made the monster suffer.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You open your eyes as blurry vision returns to you. You're covered in broken glass and enveloped in darkness, but your eyes slowly begin to make sense of your surroundings. You're sitting in the truck, looking around as you hear the nearby howls of nearing werewolves. You blink, feeling a rush of pain go through your numb body. Your skin is grazed and cut up, blood running down your skin as your bruised flesh and broken bones scream out to you in pain. Turning your head to the side, you see that the side door is open, with Hans leaning against the door with an assault rifle in his hands. He looks around rapidly, blood dripping down his face from a large cut on his forehead. "Guys! We have to get out of here!" he yells. "Let's go." You look to the front of the car, where Father Féval is either dead or unconscious, while Russel is stirring from unconscious the same as you. Gunfire erupts out as Hans begins opening fire at the shadows. You watch as he sprays the woods with gunfire. "We need to go! Come on!" he screams. You reach down, trying to unbuckle your seatbelt, before you see Hans smashed from the side, a wall of fur and teeth tearing him off into the darkness as he screams. You unbuckle your seatbelt, deciding what to do. You're in a confusing situation, heavily injured, being attacked by an unknown force of werewolves. You're practically out of options. > You play dead You go limp, lying still as you feign death. You wait, gently sniffing and listening intently to try get a sense of the situation now that you're lacking a sense. You hear the howls of werewolves as they prowl among the wreckage. You stay quiet, hoping that they'll be leaving soon. The top of the car crunches as a werewolf clambers atop it, climbing down as it sniffs in at the car. You hear a groan, before its replaced by a horrified scream as Russel is torn apart. Then, you hear the crunch of glass as the werewolf clambers through the car's front window. There's a moment of silence, before you hear the quiet sniffing of a werewolf just inches from your face. > You grab your blade You reach down, grabbing your blade and drawing it, before the werewolf's claw smashes into your shoulder, breaking your bone and crushing your flesh. The werewolf raises his claw, slashing down as he tears through your chest, rending flesh from bone in an instance. You scream as your skin is exposed to reveal flesh, which is soon shredded off to reveal ribs and internal organs. You scream, before the shock and blood loss quickly tear you off into the eternal darkness. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You go limp, lying still as you feign death. You wait, gently sniffing and listening intently to try get a sense of the situation now that you're lacking a sense. You hear the howls of werewolves as they prowl among the wreckage. You stay quiet, hoping that they'll be leaving soon. The top of the car crunches as a werewolf clambers atop it, climbing down as it sniffs in at the car. You hear a groan, before its replaced by a horrified scream as Russel is torn apart. Then, you hear the crunch of glass as the werewolf clambers through the car's front window. There's a moment of silence, before you hear the quiet sniffing of a werewolf just inches from your face. > You continue playing dead Staying limp, you keep your muscles from making any spasms or movements whatsoever, as the creature's massive snout keeps sniffing. It lets out a low growl, before its jaws snap forward, tearing into your throat. You try to scream, but your throat is torn out and you find yourself drowning in your own blood. You can faintly hear a howl as darkness sucks you away, before you're gone.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You head to the old house's dining room, where a large wooden table sits. It's empty, the rest of the Hunters out and about in the world. The kitchen is brimming with the light and heat that activity tends to bring. A scarred Hunter is busy working in it, cooking an extensive meal. You vaguely know her, a young Spaniard by the name of Lola Garcia. The hunter's missing three fingers on her right hand and her right eye from a Gargoyle attack, so she's on recovery and acting as the Lodge chef for the time being. Tonight's meal, as with most Lodge meals, is very garlic heavy. Traditionally, Hunters have lots of garlic. In the old days, when the Hunters first rose up, garlic was an invaluable tool. Many monsters of the night could easily track a human via smell, so the first Hunters used garlic to disguise their scent and confuse their prey. Of course, it wasn't long before the smell of garlic became associated with Hunters, and they had to change tactic. Still, garlic is still popular among the Hunters as a meal, both to keep up the tradition and for a good luck charm. Tonight, the meal is potatoes, lamb and gravy, flavored with garlic. You take a bowl, returning to your seat with the rest of your squad of Hunters. While you didn't feel hungry during the night's exploits, now that the food is in front of you and you get to smell it, you feel just how hungry you are. You quickly grab your knife and fork, and begin wolfing it down. Within a minute flat, your bowl is empty, and you have to weigh up having any bit of respect from your peers against the joy you'd get from licking the bowl clean. Afterwards, you head to the main bathroom. You shower yourself, a nice treat, washing off the dirt, sweat, blood and grime that's coated you over the night's events. Having the hot water stream over your skin has a cleansing, almost purifying effect on you. You make sure to scrub extensively, trying to wipe off any scent of your "human side" that might be lingering. Afterwards, you get dressed in your best hiking boots and what clothing you have that's warm, tough and flexible, which is admittedly pretty much everything you have. You pack up your shotgun with its shells filled with silver shards as well as a hunting dagger with a silver edge and your revolver. Making sure you have all the survival gear you need, you head out to the truck. With twenty minutes left in the day, you move to your desk. It's laid out with your papers, your grinder, your filters and a large bag of your personal supply of Marijuana that helps you get through the darkest nights with the worst nightmares, pulling out your record player. You quickly flick through what few Vinyl you have, before going back to the one you most often return to. With (What's the Story) Morning Glory? emblazoned proudly across the top, you smile as you remember your father giving it to you for your eighteenth. Dad actually had a taste for music, and always liked them, as did you. You flip on the vinyl, setting your alarm for fifteen minutes, and sink into your desk chair as the songs play. The next fifteen minutes is a thoughtless bliss of unforming memories, but soon, your alarm bleeps you awake, and you head out to the others. The group is assembling outside, taking a worn out pick-up. Russel and Wyatt are loading a moose carcass into the back of the truck, while Hans, Father Féval are already getting into the truck. You quickly hurry up, as Russel looks at you. "Willy! You ready for this?" "Always am," you nod, as Russel hands you a jar of golden liquid. You uncap the jar, gently sprinkling the deer piss over your coat. Thanks to werewolves' naturally keen sense of smell, it's best to coat yourself in this disguise, despite how disgusting it is to you. "Ha! Perfect! Let's go! I'm driving up front with Frenchie and the German. You can come up front with us or sit up with Wyatt and the bait." You look at Wyatt, who looks pale and nervous, a hunting rifle in his hands. His father is either indifferent to his son's fears or ignorant of them. Part of you wants to sit in the front where it's warm, but another part of you feels like you should comfort Wyatt. > You get in the back with Wyatt and the bait "I'll take the back," you say. "Cabin's just going to stink of deer piss anyway." "Suit yourself," Russel says. You walk over to the boot of the truck, clambering in. You step over the deer carcass, sitting down next to the young boy, who stares at you. "Hello," the boy says, extending a hand to you. "My name's Wyatt." "William," you say, shaking his hands. "Alright, moving off! Let's go!" Russel shouts, the truck heading off the road. You relax, leaning back and resting your head against the metal back of the truck. You lean your head over, looking at Wyat.. "Scared?" you ask. Wyatt quickly shakes his head. "No. No, I'm not." "I was. My first hunt, I nearly shit myself. Threw up in the bushes from worry, sharpened my knives so much they were almost useless and, if I'm honest, nearly blew off my dad's head when he came to get me. You feel a bit like that?" Wyatt smiles weakly at you. "I'm a little scared," the boy admits. "I've hunted deer, wolves, even, but this is a whole different level." "You should be scared. Fear keeps us alive. Fear is what holds us together." Wyatt nods as if you've said something profound, but you're half sure he's barely listening as he tries not to piss himself. The truck pulls off, barreling down the road. You lean back, the truck heading deep into the woods. Your shotgun feels heavy on your shoulder, shaking your head to free it of any sleepiness. It's a silent journey, you not being the type for any inane chatter, especially before the hunt and since Wyatt's trying to keep from puking, a chat seems unlikely. It's a long, boring drive. You watch the trees pass by, shrouded by shadow. It's a waiting game until the drop zone, as always. You focus on nothing at all and let your mind drift to avoid getting yourself psyched out. Suddenly, you feel yourself slam against the side of the truck as the car swerves. There's the sound of tires bursting as you're catapulted up, hands grabbing for your shotgun. The car slams off the road, hitting the embarkment as you find yourself momentarily free-falling, flying out of the back of the truck. You let out a terrified scream, flying through the air, before the world goes black. > You consciousness fades... You open your eyes as blurry vision returns to you. You're surrounded by dirt and darkness, but your eyes slowly begin to make sense of your surroundings. You're lying on the cold dirt, next to the road you were just driving along. You blink, feeling a rush of pain go through your numb body. Your skin is grazed and cut up and your flesh bruised, but you don't seem to be in too bad a condition. Certainly capable of walking and fighting. You force yourself to one knee, your eyes quickly adjusting to the darkness. Your is shotgun lying close by you, and feel a breath of relief. You stand cautiously, checking to make sure nothing's broken one more time, before grabbing your shotgun. After making sure it's still loaded, before surveying the situation. The trees to the side of the road are broken and crushed indicating where the truck must've gone off the road and down into the ravine below. Your eyes are slow to notice it due to it's black paint, but you see a pair of spike strips lying across the road. You stare at them in amazement for a moment, fingers clenched on your weapon. This doesn't make sense. Werewolves never take human servants, and they're not tool users when transformed. They wouldn't put the spike strips down... unless they knew you were coming... and prepared beforehand. FUCK! This shitshow's about to get a lot worse. You're dealing with a worse enemy than a pack of maddened werewolves. Struggling to the edge of the road, you stare down the steep ravine to where the truck lies. It's heavily crushed and damaged, beyond repair. You can hear screams down there, indicating that there's survivors. You doubt any of them are in any condition to defend yourself. But looking down at your current condition, you stand a chance. > You head down and rescue your team mates You have to protect your companions, and get them out of there. You can't leave them behind. You hold your shotgun tightly in your hands, before moving forward and darting down the decline. You slide down on your boots, hurrying down as fast as you can. You almost fall into a tumble, but manage to steady yourself, finding yourself on the ground near the wreckage. You look to the truck, and you can see a mutilated corpse strapped into the driver's seat, and realize Russel didn't even get out of the car. The screams off deeper into the woods don't give you hope for the fate of the others. "Stay back! Stay back!" a young, terrified voice screams from behind the wreckage. Swearing, you burst forward, your gun held tightly in your hands. Rushing around the roasting bonfire, you find Wyatt, collapsed on his back, desperately trying to shuffle backwards. Standing in front of him is a bestial creature you've faced many times before. A werewolf. The creature stands with black and gray fur matted with the gore of a previous kill. The creature growls, revealing a row of vicious teeth that could easily tear through a man. Your instincts kick in, and you drop to your knee, raising your gun and opening fire. The gun bucks, silver bursting forward and tearing through the werewolf's flesh. The creature howls, as you fire another shot, blowing the creature's head off as its body crumples. You watch as the lupine body begins to morph, shedding air and twisting as it turns into a naked, bloody human corpse, its head completely missing. "Oh Jesus, oh Jesus! William, they got my dad. They tore him up, and they took Hans off into the woods! Shit, we have to go help him! We have to go save them!" You hear a loud howl, looking over to see a trio of werewolves appearing out of the woods. At the front, a large creature with frost white hair and pink eyes. The creature begins prowling towards you, its jaws open as it licks its lips. The creature lets out a growl, as the other two werewolves pause, holding back as the creature approaches you. Clearly this one's a leader of some sort, and it wants to take you down by itself as some fucked up pursuit of honor or to show its pack mates its prowess. You don't have time to think. It's time to act. > You hold the beast off while Wyatt escapes You raise your shotgun, firing at the Albino as it charges towards you. The silver shards fly forward, but the creature rolls to the side to avoid the shot, before leaping forward. The Albino tackles you, knocking your weapon aside as it flies through the air. The beast slams into you, tackling you and sending you smashing into the earth. The werewolf's weight lands atop you. Its jaws snap down, tearing through your flesh as it bites into your shoulder. You scream, the Albino gulping down your hot blood and flesh. The Albino pulls its head up, releasing your torn flesh from its jaws, before looking down at you, your own blood dripping from its jaws onto your chest. It looks at you for a moment with an almost curious expression, tilting its head. "Come on! Fucking kill me! Kill me, you fucking bastard!" you growl. "Finish me off!" The Albino looks down at you for a second more, before turning. The Albino looks to its two pack-mates, before howling into the moon. As if answering the creature's call, the two werewolves burst off into the woods after Wyatt. The creature stares back at you for a moment with its blood red eyes, its tooth-filled mouth almost seeming to grin at you for a moment, before the creature bounds off into the woods. You lie there, bleeding onto the earth as you try to think. The werewolves are acting with high intelligence, even for werewolves. They laid an ambush. They figured out when he hunt was happening, what your paths were and when you'd be coming. They laid out spike strips, so this isn't just the bestial monsters within coming out, they were planning this in their human forms as well. You don't know what's happening, but you know that this is just the start. These monsters have a terrible plan that you can't just let happen. A wave of darkness hits you, and for a moment, you feel like sinking into the ground. You try to fight it, but part of you wants to lie there and embrace the peaceful darkness. > You wait for death You lie across the dirt, blood wetting the soil as it turns to mud. The darkness slowly grows at the edge of your vision, moving forward as it engulfs your sight, and you find yourself pulled into the darkness. Suddenly, the pain bursts through you as you begin shuddering in pain. You begin to scream, a sound which shifts into a pained howl of anguish. You can feel your body twisting and breaking, bones snapping and reforming as your limbs are stretched out longer and harder, your body shifting and reforming rapidly. Your face tears apart as it grows and reforms into a snout, as your teeth begin breaking and reforming. The hair rapidly bursts through your skin as it rapidly grows, coating your broken and reforged body into that of a werewolf. The pain tears at your mind and soul, and you're unable to focus on anything other than your instinct to escape it. Slowly, the pain begins to subside, but you find your mind incapable of reforming, still incapable of focusing in any regard. You shake your head with a growl, feeling the air blow through your fur, the smell of nearby prey, the crunching of soil under your paws. But most importantly, you feel the powerful call of the moon above you. Yes... that's it. It calls. Suddenly, instinct takes over, and you find yourself sprinting through the woods, howling into the sky. An array of howls answer back, and you follow the call. > The Call of the Moon The Call of the Moon You find yourself standing with your brothers, two dozen werewolves standing around the Alpha, howling towards the sky. The energy is ecstatic, running through the group as the Alpha answers your calls with a roar so ferocious and powerful that you're left in awe. This is your time! Fenrir calls! It is hunting time! War. Victory. Power. Blood. Hate. Anger! Hunger! Feed! HUNT! KILL! EAT! The Alpha pauses for a moment, as a still runs across the pack. Its eyes lower from the bright, powerful moon, and towards the direction of the humans. You look towards that direction, and can sense what lies that way. Noise. Smell. Smoke. Lights. Humans! Flesh! HUNT! KILL! EAT! The Alpha howls, tearing off into the forest to lead the nights hunt. Answering his call with an answer of your own, you follow after. Now, it is the time of the beast.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You raise your shotgun, firing at the Albino as it charges towards you. The silver shards fly forward, but the creature rolls to the side to avoid the shot, before leaping forward. The Albino tackles you, knocking your weapon aside as it flies through the air. The beast slams into you, tackling you and sending you smashing into the earth. The werewolf's weight lands atop you. Its jaws snap down, tearing through your flesh as it bites into your shoulder. You scream, the Albino gulping down your hot blood and flesh. The Albino pulls its head up, releasing your torn flesh from its jaws, before looking down at you, your own blood dripping from its jaws onto your chest. It looks at you for a moment with an almost curious expression, tilting its head. "Come on! Fucking kill me! Kill me, you fucking bastard!" you growl. "Finish me off!" The Albino looks down at you for a second more, before turning. The Albino looks to its two pack-mates, before howling into the moon. As if answering the creature's call, the two werewolves burst off into the woods after Wyatt. The creature stares back at you for a moment with its blood red eyes, its tooth-filled mouth almost seeming to grin at you for a moment, before the creature bounds off into the woods. You lie there, bleeding onto the earth as you try to think. The werewolves are acting with high intelligence, even for werewolves. They laid an ambush. They figured out when he hunt was happening, what your paths were and when you'd be coming. They laid out spike strips, so this isn't just the bestial monsters within coming out, they were planning this in their human forms as well. You don't know what's happening, but you know that this is just the start. These monsters have a terrible plan that you can't just let happen. A wave of darkness hits you, and for a moment, you feel like sinking into the ground. You try to fight it, but part of you wants to lie there and embrace the peaceful darkness. > You crawl over to the radio to call the Lodge You find yourself crawling desperately towards the smashed up car wreck, reaching forward and dragging yourself along the ground. You manage to pull yourself to a kneeling position, before standing cautiously. You take a step forward, trying not to focus on the brutal pain in your shoulder. You slowly move towards the truck before stumbling, leaning against it as you groan in pain. Resting on the cold metal bonnet, you gasp for breath. "William. You made it," a voice groans from the wreckage. You pause, grabbing your shotgun, before finding yourself staring at Father Féval's broken but still living body. The man is still buckled into the car wreckage, his face bloody from a cut on his forehead, his side looking like it's been completely chewed up by the werewolves. His expression is as emotionless as always, but there's a trace of weariness in his eyes. "Father Féval!" you say, exuberant to know you're not alone in these dark woods. "They ate you up pretty well, William" Father Féval says, his accent thickening as his eyes grow weary. "We've both been bit, it seems. If we survive much longer, we're going to become just like them. The beast is within us, and it will take over soon. We should embrace the end and go into it peacefully." "No! We need to radio the lodge!" Father Féval nods down to where the radio sat, and you see it's been smashed up. The radio's been torn out, its plastic case shattered and its internal wiring shredded. Clearly, the werewolves knew what they were looking for, and targeted this specifically. "I'm sorry, William. That's not really an option anymore. It's time to face our end." "We can't let them get away with this! This werewolf pack isn't a group of psychopathic killers, they're worse. They're a planning, thinking, growing group. We can't just give up and off ourselves!" "William, your adrenaline's pumping and your mind is desperate, but we're not escaping here. Either we die here, or the beast within takes over!" "Fuck that! We have to do something! We have time before we turn! We can get help, contact the others and tell them what happened, and then we can off ourselves! But we can't do it yet!" Father Féval raises his pistols, pointing them at you. "We live by a code, William. If you're not going to go peacefully into the night, I am going to take you into it," the Catholic Priest says coldly. > You defend yourself and open fire You raise your shotgun as Father Féval fires his two pistols. The shotgun fire hits Father Féval, his chest exploding in a burst of blood and guts, his body going limp. Father Féval's bullets slam into your chest as the air is knocked out of your lungs. You collapse onto your back, blood spurting onto the ground around you as you gasp for breath. For a moment, you just feel a cold swelling through you as you're left unable to breathe, before the pain begins to burn its way through your chest. The pain rapidly begins to fade, as the world starts going dark, the pain being replaced by a brutal numbness. Suddenly, the pain bursts through you as you begin shuddering in pain. You begin to scream, a sound which shifts into a pained howl of anguish. You can feel your body twisting and breaking, bones snapping and reforming as your limbs are stretched out longer and harder, your body shifting rapidly. Your face tears apart as it grows and twists into a snout, as your teeth begin breaking and mending. The hair rapidly bursts through your skin as it rapidly grows, coating your broken and reforged body into that of a werewolf. The pain tears at your mind and soul, and you're unable to focus on anything other than your instinct to escape it. Slowly, the pain begins to subside, but you find your mind incapable of reforming, still incapable of focusing in any regard. You feel the air blow through your fur, the smell of nearby prey, the crunching of soil under your paws. However, you feel your chest burning in pain. You feel like you have bits of burning hot coal inside your chest, but you ignore the pain. With a snarl and a shake of your head, you focus on the moment and endure it. Your ears flick as you hear a group of howls deep in the woods. Yes... that's it. Your brethren. Find them. Instinct takes over, and you find yourself sprinting through the woods, howling into the sky. > The Hunt! You sprint through the woods, eyes scanning the trees. The smell of blood fills your nostrils as the hunger in your stomach threatens to grow so large that it'll consume you. Your ears perk as you hear the sound of branches cracking nearby, and you quickly find the source. Prey. Food. Flesh! Hunger! KILL! FEED! You ignore the pain running through your belly that screams at you to feed, and you ignore the burning pain that erupts from your chest, the same burning pain that you can't quench, the hot coals seeming to burn without ever cooling. The hunger fills your belly, as you roar and scream towards the sky, instinct causing you to focus in on the prey ahead of you. Its eyes swivel as it notices you, and it darts off into the forest. > You kILL! You burst forward, sprinting ahead as you hurry through the forest after the creature. You're far faster than that, and you find yourself on its tail, growing closer and closer. You rapidly follow the animal, growling with hunger as you get closer and closer to your meal. Its sprint is wonky, at least one of its four legs seems to be hurt, which means that it doesn't have a chance to escape you. You keep close on its tail, though it manages to keep slightly ahead of you. It doesn't matter. All you need is one mistake. The creature stumbles, giving you the chance you need. You pounce forward, tackling the animal as you send it slamming into the earth, pinning it to the ground. You bare your teeth, jaws darting forward as you land your jaws on the its neck, tearing through it with ease. You pull back, tearing out the its throat as a wave of blood flows free. The creature spasms in its death throes, before going still. BLOOD! HUNGER! FEED! > You fEED! You jam your head into the corpse of your prey, tearing off mouthfuls of flesh as you lift your head and gulp down the flesh. You begin drinking down warm blood, feeling the thick liquid coating the inside of your mouth and throat as you enjoy the delicious meal. You tear through the prey's chest, pulling ribs aside to get to the delicious insides, allowing you to scoff down as much meat as you can fit in your mouth with every bite. However, pain distracts you from your meal for a moment, as you feel the burning in your chest rapidly get worse. Your blood is beginning to feel like its boiling as your nerves are set alight. However, this pain does nothing to distract you from the terrible hunger that runs through your body. > You ignore the pain! FEED! You ignore the burning pain, jamming your body further into the corpse as you feed, wolfing down mouthfuls of flesh and steaming blood. You continue devouring, flesh, intestines, lungs and other organs. You soon find yourself chewing at little more than bloody bones, having devoured the entire carcass with ease. You lick your lips, tasting the blood of your kill on your tongue, your nostrils filled with the pungent and delectable smell of your last meal. Your belly full, you lift your head into the hair and howl. Soon, an array of howls answer you, deeper into the forest. With a bestial smile, you burst off into the forest, ready to meet your brothers.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You jam your head into the corpse of your prey, tearing off mouthfuls of flesh as you lift your head and gulp down the flesh. You begin drinking down warm blood, feeling the thick liquid coating the inside of your mouth and throat as you enjoy the delicious meal. You tear through the prey's chest, pulling ribs aside to get to the delicious insides, allowing you to scoff down as much meat as you can fit in your mouth with every bite. However, pain distracts you from your meal for a moment, as you feel the burning in your chest rapidly get worse. Your blood is beginning to feel like its boiling as your nerves are set alight. However, this pain does nothing to distract you from the terrible hunger that runs through your body. > You focus on the pain You focus on the pain, feeling the burning sensation as your blood boils, your fur burns, your bones melt. It begins consuming you, letting out a pitiful howl that turns into a scream of horror. Your body starts shaking, tufts of fur start peeling off with strips of skin as you spasm. You smack your head against the cold ground as bones break and reform, as your body shifts and buckles and pain races through your flesh. You scream for help, a pitiful, desperate noise, as your fingernails begin to tear at your skin in a desperate attempt to stop your body from aching. Soon, you find yourself naked and sobbing, lying there in your human form once more. For a second, you're dazed, the only sense that you can feel being the feeling of the cold of the night on your numb, bare skin. Then, the waves of sensation begin hitting you. First, the pungent smell of freshly carved up meat lying in front of you. Then, the soft gurgling of a dying creature. Then, the taste of flesh and blood that sits in your mouth, and the feeling of warm blood coating your face and throat, backed with the burning in your chest. You look down, and find yourself staring at what, minutes ago, was your prey. The creature underneath you, your "prey", is a young fawn, barely a month or two old. It's stomach has been torn open, half its intestines torn clean out and the remaining half hanging out of its wound. The creature looks up at you with a pair of large brown eyes, staring at you innocently for a moment, as if confused as what's happening, the cold reality of its situation not yet dawning upon it. You vomit, chunks of raw meat and blood-tinged puke spewing out onto the ground. You begin sobbing, staring down at the dying deer, its mouth moving slowly, almost as if its trying to say something. The creature gives you one final look, before lowering its head against the cold earth as the light behind its eye is snuffed out. You stare at the fawn, trying to comprehend what happened. Its flesh is torn apart... looking so delicious. You feel the hunger returning for a moment. No! Fuck, it's raw flesh, and you're looking at it like it's a steak dinner! Jesus, what is wrong with you? The burning in your chest intensifies, as you find yourself curled up in the fetal position. You're stuck between weeping and growling aggressively, your mind racing and shifting. You find your skin rapidly growing and losing hair, your muscles tearing and reforming rapidly as your body shakes and spasms violently. You lie there for what feels like hours, trying to contemplate how you're feeling. Your body is wracked with pain, your mind struggling to find focus as you're filled with endless, ever-conflicting urges to run, to stay, to live, to die, to feed, to puke... it's hellish. You lie there, shivering. Your skin feels cold while you still sweat like a pig. Then, you hear a growl. You pull yourself up, looking around to find yourself staring at a dozen werewolves, prowling out of the trees to approach you, with the large Albino from earlier at the head of them. It slowly approaches, looking at you. The creatures seem to be lacking the usual aggressiveness werewolves have. They approach slowly, staring at you with inquisitive eyes. "You! You fucking bastard!" you yell at the Albino. The Albino lets out a rumbling growl, before a loud bark quietens him. The Albino steps aside, as a new werewolf emerges from the trees and takes the lead. The creature has long black fur, its left eye a ragged mess of scars, its right eye focused on you. The creature growls slowly, its eye fixed on you, its facial muscles moving, its ears twitching, its body moving... its almost as if its speaking to you, in some bestial language of body language, rumblings and something supernatural. The beast within you seems to understand, and somewhere in the back of your subconscious you understand him, a deep, beast-like voice talking in your head. "The transformation isn't complete," the one-eyed werewolf "says". "You... I can understand you," you say. "You must have an incredibly strong will to resist the change, little one." One-Eye moves closer, prowling forward slowly, before sniffing. The creature winces, snarling. "No... not willpower. Silver. You have silver in your veins. In your chest. Burning the beast within. Subduing it. It's going to take you a little longer for the transformation to be complete. Just fight the pain. Ignore it. Embrace the beast. Then, you can join our ranks." "Fuck you," you say, letting out a moan of pain as your body contorts yet again. "You're very lucky, human. Most of my brothers and sisters would've killed you. You've only been bit. You'll have the chance to join us. The time of the beast is coming, little one. Your kind destroy the forests we dwell in, drive our prey extinct, poison the air and waters, and walk around as lords of the land, not remembering that you... are a prey creature." The other werewolves let out an array of angry growls. "Tomorrow night, in the light of the full moon, we strike. We hit the humans, converting those we can to our cause. We will hit the power stations, the cell towers, the Hunter's Lodges... we will drive your kin back to being the prey animals you are." "We won't let you bastards win," you snarl. "You'll be one of us bastards soon enough. Come on, brothers and sisters, let's leave this poor fool to turn in his own times." You watch as the werewolves retreat into the forest once more, leaving you alone. You lie there, trying to regain enough of your mind to get up. You need to stop these creatures. Their plan is going to kill massive amounts of people, and do immeasurable harm. They're unlike other Werewolves, who are poor men plagued to be psychopathic killers. These creatures have a plan, and are determined to follow it as both humans and wolves. You need to take them down while you have the chance. > You try to focus... You slow your breathing, focusing on the pain in your chest. You raise your head, wiping the puke and blood from your face as you try to ignore the hunger in your belly. You wince, trying to ignore the desires of the beast within, telling you to run, to hunt, to feed, to howl. You shake your head violently, trying to focus, as you take up a kneeling position. The cold wind chills your bones and gives you goosebumps, and "You look to be in a bad state, friend," a voice says. You look up, finding yourself staring up at a a young, grinning man with curly black hair and a thick beard. His eyes are red and puffing, and seem to be somewhat burned. His jacket is patch-work, made of many stitched up patches of various colors, with the rest of his outfit being suitably gauche in its coloring to accentuate the man's weird look. He looks down at you, smiling. "You're either very hungover, or old Fenrir got his claws into you." "Who are you?" you ask weakly. "I'm getting really shit sick of having people walk up to me." "Oh, a fool, little else," the man smiles. "You look cold. I have a spare set of clothes, if you want." Cautious, you nod slowly, as the man pulls of his backpack, opening it. You pause, noticing the stock of your shotgun sticking out of the bag. The Fool tosses you a set of boots, underwear, an undershirt, socks, pants, t-shirt and a coat. Staring at him, you hurry to get dressed, as the Fool hums a song to himself. When you're finished, you look to the bag. The Fool notices what you're looking at, smiling. "That's my weapon." "Finders keepers, losers weepers, old Willy, old boy," the man shrugs. You pause, trying to calculate the chances of you grabbing your weapon before he can. "I didn't tell you my name," you say softly. "You didn't tell me my name either, but I know that," the Fool shrugs. The Fool grabs the shotgun, pulling it out and holding it in his hands, running his hands along the barrel. He pauses, digging through his pockets for a moment, before pulling out a golden coin. "Tell you what. I'll flip you for it. You call it, you get your gun back. You don't, I'll put you out of your misery and stop you from completely turning. Agreed?" You consider lunging at the man, but he lowers the barrel of the shotgun, anticipating your move. His grin widens, revealing more and more shiny teeth. "Agreed", you say. "Perfect!" the Fool grins. "Call it in the air, Willy." The man flips the coin, watching it spin in the air. > You heads "Heads!" The coin flips through the air ahead of you, as you step back, looking at the coin with interest. He steps back, leveling your own shotgun at you as he the coin lands in the dirt. The Fool peers down at it, tilting his head, before flipping the shotgun in his hands, grabbing the barrel and offering the stock to you. "It's your lucky day, Hunter. Good luck to you." You grab the shotgun, holding it in your hands and aiming it at the suspicious, patch coat man. "Who the fuck are you?" "An interesting question! Do you like riddles?" "No." The Fool frowns. "So dull. You're a dull old fellow, aren't you? Perhaps I should be helping the wolves." "Just tell me who you are, dammit! I'm a dying man, I don't have time for this." The Fool opens his mouth to complain, before pausing, then shrugging. "A slave I have been and shall remain To a golden mistress I'm tied with invisible chains Yet always I put on the same brave face She keeps me her prisoner, but leaves me some space." The Fool smiles at you for a moment, before raising an eyebrow. "So... who am I?" > A Hunter "You're... you're a Hunter, right? You must be." "Unfortunately, no. You're out alone in these woods tonight. Well, I best be off. Good luck dealing with my boy tonight, Willy. Best of luck." "Wait!" you growl, aiming your shotgun at him. "You move and I blow your brains out!" The Fool sighs, shaking his head. "I don't think you really know how this game works, do you?" the Fool says. The Fool leans forward, placing his thumb against the shotgun barrel. He scratches at his puffy, burned eyes, sighing. "You're not going to shoot that gun," he says simply. With that, the Fool turns, strolling off into the woods. You try to aim your shotgun, but find your arms are incapable of moving, the numb, cold muscles refusing to work. All you can do is watch as the Fool disappears into the darkness. When he's out of view, you snarl. You sniff the air, smelling the scent of prey, and... you try to focus on the pain for a moment, ignoring your bestial senses, before you smell something else. The smell of smoke, in the distance. You pause, raising an eye. Smoke means fire. Fire means activity. There needs to be something in that direction. > You head off towards the smoke You slowly begin walking in the direction of the smoke, keeping your mind on the burning pain in your chest. Your bullet holes and bite mark have already scabbed and scarred over, no doubt from the healing abilities the beast within has granted you. Still, the silver burns just as harshly, like flames trapped in your chest. It's a struggle trying to focus on the pain, to let it consume you and drive you into a violent psychosis, but you have no alternative. Whenever you try to ignore the pain, you can feel the monstrous urges return. The unending hunger, the desire to break free, the need to howl up at the sky, the lust for the power of the wild... you keep focused, and the burning pain continues. As you walk, you notice just how tight your clothes feel on you. No, not tight. Surprisingly, they seem to fit you perfectly, by whatever abilities of the Patchwork Man. They're not tight. They're constrictive. You want to tear them off, to feel the wind on your fur and to tear off into the night. You want to taste flesh and blood, to feel the dirt shift under your paws. You want to answer the call of the moon. You shake your head roughly, growling as you tighten your grip on the shotgun. The cool metal reminds you of who you are. A Hunter. It's a long distance of angered, confused walking, but you soon see lights emerge from the darkness. Not the passionate burning of flames, but the synthetic light of bulbs. You take up a crouching position, slowly sneaking up to where the trees give way to a clearing. A large wooden cabin sits in the center of the clearing, surrounded by bright lights that give light to the cabin. Standing at the edge of the lights, holding a semi-automatic rifle, is a human. The man has a thick beard reaching his chest and long, tangled hair. His arms are covered with tattoos, depicting old Nordic runes and wolf symbols. Interesting. He must be the werewolf-equivalent of a Thrall. You've never heard of such a thing, seeing as werewolves are usually too stupid and bestial to have human servants, but the werewolves you've seen tonight are definitely smart enough to have them. The Wolf Servant seems to be guarding the cabin, which has light plumes of smoke drifting up from its chimney. He hasn't noticed you, and seems to the only guard in sight. You need to take him out to get inside. > You sneak up on him You slowly edge towards the figure, moving slow and low through the darkness as you come up behind the guard. You feet move softly over the dirt and grass, as you rapidly approach the figure. As you near him, you see the servant's head twitch as he hears you, before you swing your shotgun, smashing the butt of the weapon into the man's head. He sinks to the ground with a grunt, before you raise your shotgun, smashing it into his head again, and again, and again, and again! KILL! BREAK! SHATTER! SLAUGHTER! FEED! EAT...! You stop yourself, looking down on the shattered skull beneath you, completely crushed. Gray brain matter and blood have spilled onto the ground, and you find yourself feeling sick as you look at what you've done. "Come on, come on, you can do this," you growl to yourself. You stand up, and jog ahead at a steady pace, shotgun in your hands. Staring through the shadows with unnatural sight, you spot another guard on the opposite side of the cabin, dressed in denim jeans and little else. He notices you as he raises his submachine gun, but you're faster, aiming your shotgun and firing your weapon. The scattering pellets smash into the guard and knock him from his feet, smacking into the ground. Shit. Two guards down, but you've been forced to go loud. Quickly scanning the surroundings and seeing no other guards, it's time to quickly take over the cabin. > You charge in through the door You move to the door of the cabin, ready to perform the door breaching actions you've done countless times before. Raising your shotgun, you fire twice, blowing out the door's hinges, before booting the door open. As you rush in, weapon raised, you find a hatchet blade swinging at you far faster than you can dodge. The weapon slices into your throat, knocking you off your feet as you hit the ground with a thud, blood tearing out of the tear in your throat. A gun barrel is pointed at your chest, and in a quick few seconds there's a short flash and a long, long darkness.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You slowly edge towards the figure, moving slow and low through the darkness as you come up behind the guard. You feet move softly over the dirt and grass, as you rapidly approach the figure. As you near him, you see the servant's head twitch as he hears you, before you swing your shotgun, smashing the butt of the weapon into the man's head. He sinks to the ground with a grunt, before you raise your shotgun, smashing it into his head again, and again, and again, and again! KILL! BREAK! SHATTER! SLAUGHTER! FEED! EAT...! You stop yourself, looking down on the shattered skull beneath you, completely crushed. Gray brain matter and blood have spilled onto the ground, and you find yourself feeling sick as you look at what you've done. "Come on, come on, you can do this," you growl to yourself. You stand up, and jog ahead at a steady pace, shotgun in your hands. Staring through the shadows with unnatural sight, you spot another guard on the opposite side of the cabin, dressed in denim jeans and little else. He notices you as he raises his submachine gun, but you're faster, aiming your shotgun and firing your weapon. The scattering pellets smash into the guard and knock him from his feet, smacking into the ground. Shit. Two guards down, but you've been forced to go loud. Quickly scanning the surroundings and seeing no other guards, it's time to quickly take over the cabin. > You break the window and open fire on those inside You move to the cabin's window, feeling yourself swell with an animalistic energy. You swing your shotgun like a club, smashing through the window frame as it flies inwards with a shower of glass. Rather than firing in as planned, you find yourself leaping through the window with a roar, your shotgun in hand. You land in the small cabin, finding yourself in the glow of a series of monitors, in front of a roar of a set of iron bars. Your eyes focus on the two guards by the door, clearly standing up against it, waiting for you to enter. You raise your gun, firing as the first one takes a blast of silver through his chest, shredding the man's internal organs as he slumps against the wall. The other guard, wielding a hatchet, charges you with a roar. Rather than firing, the animalistic urges consume you, and you toss the weapon aside, roaring. KILL! FLESH! FEED! HUNT! You tackle the man, ramming him against the wall as the hatchet drops from his hand. You grab his face, driving your long nails into his eyes as you attempt to tear them out of your skull, as you drive your jaws forward and clamp them on his neck, tearing a mouthful of flesh clean off. You find yourself tearing and stabbing and biting, as the man's screams are quickly replaced by a dying gargle. The silver burns in your chest, and you step back, wiping the blood from your mouth. You look at the dead creature ahead of you, sighing. "Fuck," you swear, wiping the blood from your lips. All of a sudden, the blood on your lips begins stale and wretched and you find yourself spitting out what flesh remains in your mouth. You being retching, spitting blood onto the ground as you focus on your pain until a calm comes over you again, and you find focus. > You investigate the cabin The cabin is a bizarre room, a mismatch of an old cabin and a security office. A large map is spread over a large table, as you look down at it. You quickly scan the map. It appears to be an image of the forest, highlighting several points. The first one you notice seems to be the cabin you're in now, which is identified as a "SURVEILLANCE POINT". You look to the center of the map, which shows a large, abandoned mine. "HQ" is written across it in red marker, with several access points to the mine. It seems that the werewolves are using it as their central lair. That's where Alpha will be, alongside the rest of the werewolves. If you want to defeat these werewolves before you turn tonight, you'll want to head here. You continue searching the cabin for anything of value, finding only a rack of weapons and supplies. The weapons rack actually has a large amount of explosives, C4, plastic explosives and other timed explosive weapons. They're of little use as weapons of battle, but they could no doubt do some damage. There's very little of value here, but you now know where you need to go to take out this werewolf pack and finish it. If you can wipe out the wolves there, this pack of beasts won't survive the night. A burst of howls breaks through the silence of the night, and you have to fight the urge to howl back, biting your tongue. You reach for your gun, hoping to quench the bestial spirit inside you. Running your fingers along the iron barrel, you try to remind yourself who you are. You're a tool user, a human, a Hunter. You rush through the window, staring out past the frame of broken glass, spotting grey fur streaked with black emerging from the woods, howling towards the sky. Fuck! The creatures have found you! You rush over to the other window, only to see more beasts prowling out from the bushes. Swearing, you ready your gun, taking deep breaths as you try to figure a way out, the beast within desperately pushing to howl and answer the call. You can hear the howling creatures surround the cabin, no doubt alerted by one of the guards in the cabin before you blew them away. You need to get out of here fast, and you don't have many solutions. You don't have the ammo to kill them all, and there's no silver in the cabin to use. > You try to sneak out past the Werewolves You cautiously move out to the broken window, pulling yourself through and landing on your chest outside in the short grass. You slowly crawl along the ground, trying to stay in the darkness and the shadow to stay out of their gaze. However, there's little that the werewolves' incredible sight can't notice, and fewer still they can't smell. You soon find yourself with a half a dozen beasts of claws, fur and teeth charging towards you, howling and screaming. You raise your shotgun, before its torn from your hands and you face the fury of a dozen claws and far more teeth. You barely last seconds before you're torn apart. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The cabin is a bizarre room, a mismatch of an old cabin and a security office. A large map is spread over a large table, as you look down at it. You quickly scan the map. It appears to be an image of the forest, highlighting several points. The first one you notice seems to be the cabin you're in now, which is identified as a "SURVEILLANCE POINT". You look to the center of the map, which shows a large, abandoned mine. "HQ" is written across it in red marker, with several access points to the mine. It seems that the werewolves are using it as their central lair. That's where Alpha will be, alongside the rest of the werewolves. If you want to defeat these werewolves before you turn tonight, you'll want to head here. You continue searching the cabin for anything of value, finding only a rack of weapons and supplies. The weapons rack actually has a large amount of explosives, C4, plastic explosives and other timed explosive weapons. They're of little use as weapons of battle, but they could no doubt do some damage. There's very little of value here, but you now know where you need to go to take out this werewolf pack and finish it. If you can wipe out the wolves there, this pack of beasts won't survive the night. A burst of howls breaks through the silence of the night, and you have to fight the urge to howl back, biting your tongue. You reach for your gun, hoping to quench the bestial spirit inside you. Running your fingers along the iron barrel, you try to remind yourself who you are. You're a tool user, a human, a Hunter. You rush through the window, staring out past the frame of broken glass, spotting grey fur streaked with black emerging from the woods, howling towards the sky. Fuck! The creatures have found you! You rush over to the other window, only to see more beasts prowling out from the bushes. Swearing, you ready your gun, taking deep breaths as you try to figure a way out, the beast within desperately pushing to howl and answer the call. You can hear the howling creatures surround the cabin, no doubt alerted by one of the guards in the cabin before you blew them away. You need to get out of here fast, and you don't have many solutions. You don't have the ammo to kill them all, and there's no silver in the cabin to use. > You let the beast within take over You know you have to get out of here, and you only have one option. The beast inside you knows that's true as well, as you find yourself growling and shaking. The scent of blood and fresh flesh drives you wild, and you're reminded that you haven't eaten in a while. Your stomach rumbles, as you think back to the taste of flesh earlier, the warm, wet meat sliding down your throat. You need to turn. You have no other option. You grip your nails into your wrist, tearing at your flesh as blood begins to trickle down your wrist. Your roar of pain turns into a growl, as you find hair beginning to sprout from your skin. The scent of your own blood sends your muscles into spasms, as you collapse onto the floor. Your clothes tear from your body as you grow, falling in tatters as your shotgun slips from your fingers, which tear into knife-like claws. Flesh tears and knits, your teeth shattering and growing in your mouth as you rake your claws through your mouth, pieces of broken teeth and torn apart gums toppling out as you spit blood onto the ground with a maniacal laugh. You retract onto your hind-legs, standing tall as you scream... no, not scream. Howl, howl at the sky. Feeling enclosed in the man-made structure, you tear forward, smashing your claw against the lock in the door, tearing it free from the wooden frame as you leap outwards, hurrying into the darkness. Through your bestial eyes, you can make out the distant shapes of fur-covered beasts. The wolves' scents are easy to catch, and you mentally mark their locations. The desire to feast, to fight, to hunt and to kill burns through your heart and soul, as adrenaline surges through you. These other creatures are far weaker than you, with duller, more bestial, not even taking into account the fact that Fenrir only had weak, slow humans to transform unlike the man you once were, a Hunter. In short, you are strong. They are weak, and your belly is empty. However, a nagging voice, one last ounce of broken, disregarded sanity screams at you to run. The scent of coal and ash is ever so faint on the trail, but you have an urge to follow it, however small. > You fight! You let out a fearsome roar towards the moon, feeling its power surge through you as its light shines upon your fur. Leaping out into the darkness, you narrow in on the closest, weakest prey, wanting to kill the animal as quickly as you can to lower their numbers. The first werewolf races towards you with a roar, but its a skinny whelp. You tackle the creature, knocking it to the side as you land upon it, raising your claws and you jab your claws into the creature's neck, tearing out its throat. Another werewolf is upon you, but as it lunges towards you, you rend your claw across its face, blinding the creature as it collapses to the ground with a pained yelp. By now, the rest of the pack has arrived on you. A mouthful of razor teeth tears into your foreleg, as the weight of a werewolf smashes into your side, flipping you onto your back. Claws and teeth begin to tear at you, more than you can defend even with powerful claw strikes and your strong jaws, and you howl in pain as your fur is soon left wet with your own blood, your roar becoming little louder than a whisper shortly afterwards. You slowly grow weaker, before the werewolf you blinded stands above with a growl, before finishing you off by tearing out your stomach and letting blood loss send you off.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You know you have to get out of here, and you only have one option. The beast inside you knows that's true as well, as you find yourself growling and shaking. The scent of blood and fresh flesh drives you wild, and you're reminded that you haven't eaten in a while. Your stomach rumbles, as you think back to the taste of flesh earlier, the warm, wet meat sliding down your throat. You need to turn. You have no other option. You grip your nails into your wrist, tearing at your flesh as blood begins to trickle down your wrist. Your roar of pain turns into a growl, as you find hair beginning to sprout from your skin. The scent of your own blood sends your muscles into spasms, as you collapse onto the floor. Your clothes tear from your body as you grow, falling in tatters as your shotgun slips from your fingers, which tear into knife-like claws. Flesh tears and knits, your teeth shattering and growing in your mouth as you rake your claws through your mouth, pieces of broken teeth and torn apart gums toppling out as you spit blood onto the ground with a maniacal laugh. You retract onto your hind-legs, standing tall as you scream... no, not scream. Howl, howl at the sky. Feeling enclosed in the man-made structure, you tear forward, smashing your claw against the lock in the door, tearing it free from the wooden frame as you leap outwards, hurrying into the darkness. Through your bestial eyes, you can make out the distant shapes of fur-covered beasts. The wolves' scents are easy to catch, and you mentally mark their locations. The desire to feast, to fight, to hunt and to kill burns through your heart and soul, as adrenaline surges through you. These other creatures are far weaker than you, with duller, more bestial, not even taking into account the fact that Fenrir only had weak, slow humans to transform unlike the man you once were, a Hunter. In short, you are strong. They are weak, and your belly is empty. However, a nagging voice, one last ounce of broken, disregarded sanity screams at you to run. The scent of coal and ash is ever so faint on the trail, but you have an urge to follow it, however small. > You flee For some strange reason beyond instinct nor desperation, you decide to retreat into the darkness of the woods, breaking off towards the woods. Adrenaline fuels your movements as you race into the shadows. One of the beasts attempts to stop you, planting down its feet as it howls at you, but its easy prey. You swipe the werewolf's forelegs away, sending it collapsing forward. You grab its skull, smacking it into the earth with every ounce of strength you can muster, crushing its skull beneath your claw. Another werewolf leaps at you, jaws open, so you swing your claw, slashing through its eyes and blinding him instantly, leaving it yelping and whimpering. You growl, ready to leap forward and finish off the beast, before the voice in the back of your head stops you. Sniffing, you focus past the smell of fresh blood and of the beast's pure terror, smelling the faint, almost impossible to detect scent of coal. Your mind feels a second of focus and clarity, as you swivel on your legs and disappear into the forest. Sprinting through the trees, you feel free. The smells and scents of the woods give you a clear image of your surroundings, and your lungs fill with the cool air. The coal dust's bare scent guiding your path, you draw towards it, eager to reach the... Your mind draws a blank on your goal, before a new, far more pungent smell fills your nostrils. Prey. The easily recognizable scent of a prey animal catches you. The sweat and scent of fear and terror. The fresh blood from a recently injured animal. The guarantee of a kill, and more importantly, food. Your stomach rumbles, pangs of hunger hitting you like a knife, drawing your attention away from the coal, as your eyes fix on the direction of your prey. > You hunt! Your legs kick off the dirt, as you hurry after your prey. Rushing through the trees, you fly forward with a speed beyond what any natural creature of flesh and blood could keep up, diving over roots and ducking under branches. The prey pops into your vision, the pale outline of the predator making your mouth water. It's injured, slow and weak, and an easy kill. It's barely had time to notice you, before you're upon it. HUNT! KILL! FEED! You hit the creature with all the force of over hundreds of pounds of muscle and fur. You smash into the creature, knocking it into the dirt as its bones shatter and break beneath you. Pinning the creature to the ground, you slide a claw across it, tearing through its thick, blackened hide and releasing a burst of blood and guts, fluid filling the creature's collapsing lungs. You raise your head towards the sky, howling towards the moon in victory, the burning pain in your chest having dissipated. For the first time since Fenrir first called, you feel truly strong! Powerful! WILD! Victory. Power. Blood. Hate. Anger! Hunger! Feed! HUNT! KILL! EAT! You look down to your prey, grinning from ear to ear. Time to feast! > You kILL! Suddenly, pain, burning, all-consuming pain surges through your flesh, turning your blood to fire as you scream out in pain, howling upwards to the moon, wishing its light could wash you clean from this fiery hell. You collapse off your prey, your once mighty stature shrinking to that of a tiny, weak, terrified human. Lying in your warm blood, you gasp for air, feeling your body set alight, your pain barely dulled by the moon's light. "W-w... William?" a voice gasps. Your head rolls to the side, as you find yourself staring at Wyatt. The boy's chest has been torn to shreds. He's barely breathing, his face looking at you with a torn expression. "T-they... they got you," he manages to gasp through horrible, wet breaths. Breathing heavily, you paw at the burning, stabbing pain in your side, your fingers wrapping around a polished wooden handle. Realizing what's happened, you slowly slide the long blade out of your side, groaning in pain as blood pours down your skin. You slide out the silver knife, tossing the weapon across the dirt as you scream. You groan, feeling your muscles tighten and contract. Rolling onto your back, you slide over to Wyatt, ignoring your own pain. The knife hit has quietened the beast within, quashing the monster's howls. As far as wounds go, yours is fairly non-lethal, barely two or three inches in a non-lethal place. You doubt it would kill you normally, but with the beast within you, it's almost certainly non-lethal. You grit your teeth, rolling onto your knees as you stare down at the victim. His body's decimated, a barely surviving hulk. You lean down, pressing your hands against his bleeding chest wound as you try to stem the bleeding. Wyatt weakly bats at your arms, the occasional fear-wracked sob breaking out of him. "P-please... ple... please..." Wyatt begs, before his words disappear into a jumble of gurgling and dying chokes. The light in Wyatt's eyes goes dull, as the heat begins to drain from his pale skin. Blood runs down his chalk white skin, as you slowly let go of him. You hear a faint screaming that, somewhere in the back of your mind, you recognize as your own. You bash your fists into the earth, screaming as you feel the wolf howl inside you. Tears well up in your eyes, as you bash your head into the dirt, hoping to quash the wolf inside you. If you'd only been a man... if you'd only went out with Féval... You take a deep breath, calming yourself. You wait for several minutes, before you stand slowly, looking down at Wyatt's body. The boy lies there, limp and cold. You stare to the side, looking at the rifle that lies alongside him. You reach down, picking up the gun by the wooden stock, lifting it into the air. You pull back the bolt, loading a silver round into the chamber. For a moment, you stand there, feeling the cold air on your naked skin as you stare at Wyatt's gun. > You end it The Silver Doorway You raise the rifle to your head, taking it in your arms as you press the bottom of your chin against the gun barrel. You prop the gun upwards, aiming it so that it should go through your skull and out the top of your head. You reach down, pressing your finger against the trigger. You take a deep breath, closing your eyes. You've done enough tonight. You're tired, and you want to rest. You feel the pangs of hunger tear through you again as the beast awakens, roaring through your entire essence. You grit your teeth, trying to hold back the urge to scream. You slowly release your breath, before pressing down on the trigger. The gun fires, and the silver bullets tear through your chin, bursting up through your skull, blowing apart your brain and shooting out the top of your skull. Darkness shrouds over you, and you can feel the desperate, clawing, howling beast within you get pulled down into the depths of darkness with you. Now, the eternal rest is all that's left for you.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Suddenly, pain, burning, all-consuming pain surges through your flesh, turning your blood to fire as you scream out in pain, howling upwards to the moon, wishing its light could wash you clean from this fiery hell. You collapse off your prey, your once mighty stature shrinking to that of a tiny, weak, terrified human. Lying in your warm blood, you gasp for air, feeling your body set alight, your pain barely dulled by the moon's light. "W-w... William?" a voice gasps. Your head rolls to the side, as you find yourself staring at Wyatt. The boy's chest has been torn to shreds. He's barely breathing, his face looking at you with a torn expression. "T-they... they got you," he manages to gasp through horrible, wet breaths. Breathing heavily, you paw at the burning, stabbing pain in your side, your fingers wrapping around a polished wooden handle. Realizing what's happened, you slowly slide the long blade out of your side, groaning in pain as blood pours down your skin. You slide out the silver knife, tossing the weapon across the dirt as you scream. You groan, feeling your muscles tighten and contract. Rolling onto your back, you slide over to Wyatt, ignoring your own pain. The knife hit has quietened the beast within, quashing the monster's howls. As far as wounds go, yours is fairly non-lethal, barely two or three inches in a non-lethal place. You doubt it would kill you normally, but with the beast within you, it's almost certainly non-lethal. You grit your teeth, rolling onto your knees as you stare down at the victim. His body's decimated, a barely surviving hulk. You lean down, pressing your hands against his bleeding chest wound as you try to stem the bleeding. Wyatt weakly bats at your arms, the occasional fear-wracked sob breaking out of him. "P-please... ple... please..." Wyatt begs, before his words disappear into a jumble of gurgling and dying chokes. The light in Wyatt's eyes goes dull, as the heat begins to drain from his pale skin. Blood runs down his chalk white skin, as you slowly let go of him. You hear a faint screaming that, somewhere in the back of your mind, you recognize as your own. You bash your fists into the earth, screaming as you feel the wolf howl inside you. Tears well up in your eyes, as you bash your head into the dirt, hoping to quash the wolf inside you. If you'd only been a man... if you'd only went out with Féval... You take a deep breath, calming yourself. You wait for several minutes, before you stand slowly, looking down at Wyatt's body. The boy lies there, limp and cold. You stare to the side, looking at the rifle that lies alongside him. You reach down, picking up the gun by the wooden stock, lifting it into the air. You pull back the bolt, loading a silver round into the chamber. For a moment, you stand there, feeling the cold air on your naked skin as you stare at Wyatt's gun. > You finish what you started It's time to do what needs to be done. You can't let the deaths of tonight be for nothing. A chill runs through you, as you realize you need new clothes, and there's only one place you can get them. You lean down, unbutton Wyatt's jacket as you try not to look at the body. Slowly, The underwear are soiled and the inside two layers of Wyatt's clothes are soaked with blood, but you manage to scavenge the boots, socks, pants and jacket, pulling them on. Once you've bundled yourself up in clothes, you raise your rifle to your shoulder and begin walking, leaving the corpse behind you. You don't have the time to bury it, and being around the corpse is only sending pangs of hunger through your body. You try not to shed a tear, heading off into the woods. Your senses quickly detect the faint smell of smoke and coal, and you begin heading towards it. The beast within you is quiet for now from the stabbing, but thankfully the beast seems to almost be absorbing the pain, and it's little more than a dull ache to you now. You walk in silence, and for a moment, it seems almost unnatural. Everything about you seems wrong now. You can tell you're walking loudly, almost falling and stumbling about. Your movements are as stealthy as ever thanks to your abilities as a hunter, but compared to your lupine form, it's clumsy. Your senses are dulled without the powers of the beast, your entire body weakening from exhaustion and blood loss. Your eyes are still bright, and you find yourself staring through the darkness at a trio of werewolves prowling through the undergrowth. The creatures are streaked with gray and black fur, growling as they slowly move forward, muscles moving under furry hides, their teeth glowing in the moonlight. They must be following your scent, and if they are, they have it now. The beast within you is quiet now, but the rage in your heart is burning. Time to do your duty as a Hunter. > You open fire from a range You raise your rifle, shouldering it as you quickly take the target in your sights. You aim at the lead werewolf, targeting the creature's head. It takes a moment for you to aim, unused to Wyatt's hunting rifle and preferring the pure blast power of your shotgun, but you quickly adjust. You've used pretty much every weapon under the sun over the years, and a simple hunting rifle is in every Hunter's arsenal. You see the bright of the wolf's eyes glinting in the moonlight, and pull the trigger. You pull the trigger, the werewolf's skull exploding as a silver bullet bursts through its brains. The other two werewolves burst off into the trees, trying to take cover. You scan the underbrush, looking for the signature fur of the creatures, but they race through the leaves, in opposite directions. Shit. Hitting both seems unlikely, and they're faster than you on foot. Perhaps retreating up a tree and climbing to the top to take shelter would be your best bet. Or perhaps that'll leave you as the perfect prey. > You retreat up the tree Your eyes scan the trees around you, as you pick one tall enough to escape up into and with thick enough branches that you can climb in. You jump into the air, your hands wrapping around a branch as you pull your body up on it. Your boots find another branch, as you quickly begin to scale the tree as quickly as you can. However, the werewolves and soon upon you, and leap into the air, claws digging into tree bark as they burst up the tree. A claw slashes at your ankle and you scream, blood bursting out and pouring down. Another claw slices into your thigh, sending you falling from the tree. You fall through the air, smacking into branches as you scream, before you slam into the dirt beneath you with a painful thud. You scream, as the werewolves around you howl in victory, leaping forward as they tear you limb from limb, devouring mouthfuls of flesh as soon, nothing is left.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You raise your rifle, shouldering it as you quickly take the target in your sights. You aim at the lead werewolf, targeting the creature's head. It takes a moment for you to aim, unused to Wyatt's hunting rifle and preferring the pure blast power of your shotgun, but you quickly adjust. You've used pretty much every weapon under the sun over the years, and a simple hunting rifle is in every Hunter's arsenal. You see the bright of the wolf's eyes glinting in the moonlight, and pull the trigger. You pull the trigger, the werewolf's skull exploding as a silver bullet bursts through its brains. The other two werewolves burst off into the trees, trying to take cover. You scan the underbrush, looking for the signature fur of the creatures, but they race through the leaves, in opposite directions. Shit. Hitting both seems unlikely, and they're faster than you on foot. Perhaps retreating up a tree and climbing to the top to take shelter would be your best bet. Or perhaps that'll leave you as the perfect prey. > You open fire on the creatures You need to kill them while you're down here. Retreating to the trees will just leave you open and get you slaughtered like a lamb. You begin backpedaling slowly, taking a better shooting stance as you rapidly switch your sights from either of your flanks. Suddenly, a howl from your left distracts you, as you turn. You swing your rifle around, finding the werewolf charging towards you, it's jaws open. You aim your weapon down its maw, finger pressing on the trigger as you snarl. Suddenly, a force like a truck smashes into you from behind, knocking the gun from your hands and sending you crumpling to the ground. You scream as you find yourself crippled between a pair of werewolves, as one bites down on your neck and the other tears out your stomach. You try to scream, but find yourself gurgling on blood as you're torn apart.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>It's time to do what needs to be done. You can't let the deaths of tonight be for nothing. A chill runs through you, as you realize you need new clothes, and there's only one place you can get them. You lean down, unbutton Wyatt's jacket as you try not to look at the body. Slowly, The underwear are soiled and the inside two layers of Wyatt's clothes are soaked with blood, but you manage to scavenge the boots, socks, pants and jacket, pulling them on. Once you've bundled yourself up in clothes, you raise your rifle to your shoulder and begin walking, leaving the corpse behind you. You don't have the time to bury it, and being around the corpse is only sending pangs of hunger through your body. You try not to shed a tear, heading off into the woods. Your senses quickly detect the faint smell of smoke and coal, and you begin heading towards it. The beast within you is quiet for now from the stabbing, but thankfully the beast seems to almost be absorbing the pain, and it's little more than a dull ache to you now. You walk in silence, and for a moment, it seems almost unnatural. Everything about you seems wrong now. You can tell you're walking loudly, almost falling and stumbling about. Your movements are as stealthy as ever thanks to your abilities as a hunter, but compared to your lupine form, it's clumsy. Your senses are dulled without the powers of the beast, your entire body weakening from exhaustion and blood loss. Your eyes are still bright, and you find yourself staring through the darkness at a trio of werewolves prowling through the undergrowth. The creatures are streaked with gray and black fur, growling as they slowly move forward, muscles moving under furry hides, their teeth glowing in the moonlight. They must be following your scent, and if they are, they have it now. The beast within you is quiet now, but the rage in your heart is burning. Time to do your duty as a Hunter. > You climb a tree and snipe the werewolves Your eyes scan the trees around you, as you pick one tall enough to escape up into and with thick enough branches that you can climb in. You jump into the air, your hands wrapping around a branch as you pull your body up on it. Your boots find another branch, as you quickly begin to scale the tree as quickly as you can. It's not long before you find a thick, stable branch high enough to take a shooting position in, protected by the cover of the leaves but with a clear sight on the werewolves. You raise your rifle, shouldering it as you quickly take the target in your sights. You aim at the lead werewolf, targeting the creature's head. It takes a moment for you to aim, unused to Wyatt's hunting rifle and preferring the pure blast power of your shotgun, but you quickly adjust. You've used pretty much every weapon under the sun over the years, and a simple hunting rifle is in every Hunter's arsenal. You see the bright of the wolf's eyes glinting in the moonlight, and pull the trigger. You find yourself staring at a second werewolf, one racing towards the tree. You aim your rifle as it leaps towards the tree, firing. The creature takes the shot to the side, crumpling to the ground, as you quickly reload and aim. The tree shakes as a werewolf begins clambering up the branches behind you. You quickly put another round in the wounded werewolf, blowing out its heart and killing it instantly. You swivel around, before you find a werewolf clambering up the branches, its maw wide open as it snaps at your leg. You yelp, realizing the beast is upon you, mere seconds away from devouring you. > You kick the bastard down You lash out at the werewolf with your boot, knocking at its jaws with all your force. The creature's jaws widen, biting down on your foot as it screams, its jaws cutting into your ankle and tearing tearing it off in one bite. You scream, pain tearing through you as blood spurts out, and you find yourself losing your position on the branch. You fall through the air, collapsing to the ground as you scream. You hit the ground with a thud, your back breaking as you scream, collapsing onto the ground. Your mind goes hazy, darkness beginning to take you as you hear the werewolf growl, leaping from branch to branch down to you. You hope you pass out before the creature reaches the ground, and you.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Your eyes scan the trees around you, as you pick one tall enough to escape up into and with thick enough branches that you can climb in. You jump into the air, your hands wrapping around a branch as you pull your body up on it. Your boots find another branch, as you quickly begin to scale the tree as quickly as you can. It's not long before you find a thick, stable branch high enough to take a shooting position in, protected by the cover of the leaves but with a clear sight on the werewolves. You raise your rifle, shouldering it as you quickly take the target in your sights. You aim at the lead werewolf, targeting the creature's head. It takes a moment for you to aim, unused to Wyatt's hunting rifle and preferring the pure blast power of your shotgun, but you quickly adjust. You've used pretty much every weapon under the sun over the years, and a simple hunting rifle is in every Hunter's arsenal. You see the bright of the wolf's eyes glinting in the moonlight, and pull the trigger. You find yourself staring at a second werewolf, one racing towards the tree. You aim your rifle as it leaps towards the tree, firing. The creature takes the shot to the side, crumpling to the ground, as you quickly reload and aim. The tree shakes as a werewolf begins clambering up the branches behind you. You quickly put another round in the wounded werewolf, blowing out its heart and killing it instantly. You swivel around, before you find a werewolf clambering up the branches, its maw wide open as it snaps at your leg. You yelp, realizing the beast is upon you, mere seconds away from devouring you. > You leap to another tree Bursting up, you push your boots against the branch as you stand for a second, before kicking off from the branches, leaping through the air towards the nearest tree. You fly through the air, hands reaching out for the next branch as you yell, only to find you're too far away and won't reach it. You fall through the air, collapsing to the ground as you scream. You hit the ground with a thud, your back breaking as you scream, collapsing onto the ground. Your mind goes hazy, darkness beginning to take you as you hear the werewolf growl, leaping from branch to branch down to you. You hope you pass out before the creature reaches the ground, and you.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Your eyes scan the trees around you, as you pick one tall enough to escape up into and with thick enough branches that you can climb in. You jump into the air, your hands wrapping around a branch as you pull your body up on it. Your boots find another branch, as you quickly begin to scale the tree as quickly as you can. It's not long before you find a thick, stable branch high enough to take a shooting position in, protected by the cover of the leaves but with a clear sight on the werewolves. You raise your rifle, shouldering it as you quickly take the target in your sights. You aim at the lead werewolf, targeting the creature's head. It takes a moment for you to aim, unused to Wyatt's hunting rifle and preferring the pure blast power of your shotgun, but you quickly adjust. You've used pretty much every weapon under the sun over the years, and a simple hunting rifle is in every Hunter's arsenal. You see the bright of the wolf's eyes glinting in the moonlight, and pull the trigger. You find yourself staring at a second werewolf, one racing towards the tree. You aim your rifle as it leaps towards the tree, firing. The creature takes the shot to the side, crumpling to the ground, as you quickly reload and aim. The tree shakes as a werewolf begins clambering up the branches behind you. You quickly put another round in the wounded werewolf, blowing out its heart and killing it instantly. You swivel around, before you find a werewolf clambering up the branches, its maw wide open as it snaps at your leg. You yelp, realizing the beast is upon you, mere seconds away from devouring you. > You fire with your rifle You grab your rifle, loading back the bolt in an instant, before lowering your gun. The werewolf's jaw bites down on your ankle, tearing through leather as it bites into your flesh. You scream, but stay focused, jamming your gun barrel against the werewolf's head, before pulling the trigger. The gun bucks, a bullet bursting through the werewolf's skull. The creature collapses from the tree, it's bloody body collapsing to the ground with a thud. You sigh, wiping the sweat from your brow, before checking your foot. It's cut, but other than that fine, and you should be able to walk, run, jump and everything else you'll need for the rest of night... and of course, you'll be able to climb down, which is quite helpful now. You slowly move down the tree, checking the two bodies of the werewolves, now naked, pale corpses covered in their own blood. You don't shed a tear for them. Normal werewolves are creatures cursed by the beast, like you. These creatures have embraced the beast. Human form or lupine form, they're beasts all the same. You look up towards the scent of the smoke, now a bare trace, but begin walking nonetheless. > You continue towards the smell of smoke You walk through the woods slowly, heading towards the scent. It draws nearer, the smell of smoke and coal becoming clear. It's a long, painful walk, and you find yourself scratching at your limbs, growling and shaking your head. The beast within is awakening again, as you run your tongue along your sharpened teeth, the taste of your own blood filling your own mouth. Your stomach growls, and the veil of darkness lifts as your supernatural eyes adjust to the darkness. Still, you focus on the burning pain in your chest and now, your stab wound, allowing the pain to consume you, bringing you just to the point where walking becomes impossible, all to stave off the wolf spirit howling to get out. It's not long, however, before you find your way to the mines. The earth begins to widen, revealing a huge, cavernous maw sticking out of the earth, a huge hole in the ground leading to darkness. The opening of the mineshaft. A light plume of smoke billows out from the mineshaft, as you can smell the scent of fresh meat and blood down below, the smell of wolves prowling and... strangely enough, diesel drifting out with its stink. You stare into the darkness, gun in your hands, as you prepare to go in. "Going in?" You turn your head, finding the patchwork fool standing in front of you. His eyes are still badly burned, although from this close, it seems more like its from a caustic chemical or animal venom rather than heat or fire. He grins at you, winking. "I was planning to," you say. "Going to tell me who you are yet?" "Maybe. Fancy another riddle?" "What the fuck is it with you and riddles?" "I like them," the Fool shrugs. "I used to be more of a pranks guy, but it's no use drawing attention to myself when I manage to get unbound, so riddles will have to do." "Unbound? Are you a ghost? A trapped spirit? It would explain some things," you say quietly, not wanting to risk dealing with them. "Nothing of the sort! I'm far more powerful," the Fool says. "I'd make the threat you're dealing with look like chump change, you know." "Glad you're not my enemy, then," you say, before pausing. "Are you?" "Of course not! Just a friendly visitor, curious to see what'll happen. I know a lot about werewolves. I remember watching the first one change. God, the terror he felt." "You saw the first change?" you ask cautiously. "I did indeed," the Fool smiles. "I saw when they chained up my dear old Fenrir, for nothing more than being scary. That's what they tend to do, you know," the Fool says, pointing to his eyes. "But, every so often, Fenrir would get just a bit lose, and some brave mortal would need to toss a new chain on him. One brave soul got too close, and Fenrir managed to bite him. That was the first of their kind. Now, they've spread throughout the world, all from that one mortal who felt it was fair to lock up a creature that had done nothing wrong. Cruel bastards the lot of them," the Fool mutters. You pause, trying to discern whether this is the fool's insane ramblings, a metaphor, a literal truth or something else entirely. For as long as you stare at the grinning bastard, you can't tell. "Anything else you wanted to tell me?" you say dismissively, not willing to play the Fool's games. "Nothing to tell, but something to ask. Care for another riddle?" "Fuck's sake," you mutter. "What the hell does this matter?" The Fool smiles, before grinning. "So! A lost shepard met two hunters, the first of who had three loaves and the second who had five loaves. All the loaves were the same size. The three men agreed to share the eight loaves equally between them. After they had eaten, the hunter gave the shepherds eight bronze coins as payment for his meal. How should the two shepherds fairly divide this money?" > You nothing to the first hunter, give it all to the second "You give all the pieces to the second hunter," you say. "Yes, another answer! Gods, I really like you!" "Is it right?" The Fool shrugs, smiling at you. "Who knows? I'll be off, anyway, my eyes are beginning to burn," he says, scratching at his burned up eyes. "Good luck in there. Shame it's not a silver mine, am I right?" He smiles, grinning, as you snarl. He raises his hands defensively, shrugging. "Fine, fine, I'll be on my way. Best of luck in there, Willy." You don't even try to stop him, your gun feeling unnaturally heavy in your hands as you know the patchwork man's magic is at work here. As soon as the Fool disappears into the trees, your gun lightens in your hands, and you heave to stare off into the mineshaft, smiling. > You head into the mineshaft You stare down the cavernous maw that sticks out of the earth. The darkness almost solidifies around you, attempting to consume your sanity. You focus your senses, as when the suffocating darkness steals your sight, your smell and hearing amplify. You can hear the near silent wind blow through the tunnel, nostrils flaring as you take as you smell the scent of coal dust and dirt. The scents begin to shift, as you detect a new smell. Fresh blood and the smell of a wild beast traveling through the tunnel. The sound of paws creeping along iron mine tracks and soft dirt begins just detectable. Your eyes narrow, as down the tunnel, a form cuts through the darkness. The creature's thin body is covered with a thick layer of white fur, a pair of red, blood-filled eyes becoming clear, shining in the dark. A maw of sharpened daggers becomes clear, as the Albino arrives. You recognize the creature from earlier. The one who bit you. The one who cursed you like this. You snarl, your gun tightening in your hands. The Albino's eyes flicker and you wonder if it recognizes you. There's an intellect there beyond what you've seen, in animals, or even in other werewolves. The creature growls, and you know it recognizes you. Your body shakes, the Albino's growl sending the beast into overdrive. Your hairy arms tense as your muscles bulge, your tongue flickering along your sharpened teeth. You let out a growl, eyes narrowing as you ready yourself to kill. You let out a loud roar which echoes down the tunnel, your fingernails toughening and sharpening to pre-transformation claws that dig into the wood of your rifle. > You let out the beast within You find yourself howling, your body transforming in a mere moment, incapable of holding off the change for any longer. The fur bursts from your skin as it toughens and tears, your body stretching in an instant. Your teeth, a mouthful of ivory blades, are revealed as you open your jaw. You smash into the Albino, tearing it through the air and smashing it off the tunnel wall. The creature bounces off the wall, before rolling to its feet and leaping forward with one pounce, lunging for you. You snarl, batting it aside with a pair of claws, slashing as its face at the creature pins you to the ground. The other beast is strong, fast and deadly, the creature being far more used to its bestial body than you are. The creature wields its fangs like daggers, its claws like swords, its weight a crushing wrecking ball, every feature of it turned into a weapon of death and slaughter. However, it's no doubt transformed from poorer stock than you, once having been a normal human rather than a Hunter like yourself, who dedicated their life to the craft of hunting. By how you reckon, the Albino has the advantage, but you won't be going down without a fight. You struggle against his grip, pinned against the stone, struggling to get out from it's weight, as its gnashing teeth comes towards your throat, its mouth caught in a fearsome howl. > You get your legs under the beast and force it off You roll your legs under the bulk of the Albino's weight, breathing heavily as you try to find your strength. You snarl, forcing your legs forwards as you force the creature back. You pause, building your strength for one moment, before using your legs to launch the beast at the wall. The Albino is launched against the wall, knocking against the earthen mine wall as it collapses to the ground with a thud. The creature growls, standing up as it moves forward, raising its clawed hands as it attempts to ram you against the wall, catching you in the bestial version of a rugby scrum. You raise your arms, grabbing them and trying to keep it from biting out your throat in a rage, standing on your hindlegs as you're ready to retreat. > You sTRENGTH! Ram it into the wall! You double down, catching in the Albino in a deadly embrace, forcing it back. Your reflexes, your speed and your abilities are far outpaced by the creature, who has had far more time to get used to its body. However, strength might be something you have. You're a tough, hardy man and far stronger than the average man, so perhaps in your lupine form you'll the stronger of this pair. You dig your hind legs in, ramming forward as you force the beast back. The Albino yelps, attempting to shove you aside, but you've caught it now, and you're able to twist it around as you launch it against the wall. The Albino smacks up against the wall, sliding down it as its covered in a thick layer of dirt, before you burst forward, raking your claws across the Albino's chest. You slash your claws forward, tearing out the creature's stomach as you hack into its ribs. The creature howls out in pain, weakly jabbing its claws at you as you step back in one quick dodge. You growl, watching the dying creature in front of you. Your stomach begs you to give up any semblance of weakness, to tear into this meal and feast, but some small, weak little voice reminds you that you have a mission to do. You could leave the beast here to bleed to death, with no hope of it surviving the lethal wounds you've caused, or you could crush its skull and end its life now. > You fEED! The hunger too strong and the desperate rumbling in your stomach meaning you're incapable of focusing, your eyes narrow as you stare at the bleeding corpse of the beast. You could use its strength. You move your head forward, wetting your nose in the creature's warm blood, gently lapping at that which streams out before the hunger overtakes you, and you can't hold back. You find yourself devouring mouthfuls of flesh, swallowing it desperately in an attempt to fill your stomach, drinking down warm blood, feeling the thick liquid coating the inside of your mouth and throat as you enjoy the delicious meal. You lick your lips, tasting the blood of your kill on your tongue, your nostrils filled with the pungent and delectable smell of your last meal. The meal is filling, and you find your predatory instinct howling in your mind as your body is filled with the strength of your fallen foe. Your body now fully fuelled, you look down the dark tunnel, a new sensation filling you. You hear the howls down further in, answering with a bark. You break into a bark, heading towards the barking. Your mind races, all pain ignored, all quiet voices in the back of your mind ignored, all remaining traces of your humanity ignored. Your brothers are calling, and the beast within you gives you no choice but to answer, and answer you will.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You double down, catching in the Albino in a deadly embrace, forcing it back. Your reflexes, your speed and your abilities are far outpaced by the creature, who has had far more time to get used to its body. However, strength might be something you have. You're a tough, hardy man and far stronger than the average man, so perhaps in your lupine form you'll the stronger of this pair. You dig your hind legs in, ramming forward as you force the beast back. The Albino yelps, attempting to shove you aside, but you've caught it now, and you're able to twist it around as you launch it against the wall. The Albino smacks up against the wall, sliding down it as its covered in a thick layer of dirt, before you burst forward, raking your claws across the Albino's chest. You slash your claws forward, tearing out the creature's stomach as you hack into its ribs. The creature howls out in pain, weakly jabbing its claws at you as you step back in one quick dodge. You growl, watching the dying creature in front of you. Your stomach begs you to give up any semblance of weakness, to tear into this meal and feast, but some small, weak little voice reminds you that you have a mission to do. You could leave the beast here to bleed to death, with no hope of it surviving the lethal wounds you've caused, or you could crush its skull and end its life now. > You finish off the dying cur With a low, rumbling snarl, you slowly approach the dying creature with almost disinterest in the creature. You raise your claw, striking with all your force as you smash the creature's skull against the wall, crushing its head against the stone wall and killing it instantly. You stare at the creature's limp, dead corpse, ignoring the dying creature. You move away from the creature, heading deep into the darkness once more. You spend several minutes walking through the darkness, before you find yourself prowling through a new plethora of senses. You find yourself in a large, cavernous room, glowing with golden light. A bonfire sits in the center of the cavern, warming your tired bones. Three corpses of cooked meat hang from the ceiling, blood dripping down in an appetizing fashion. You stare at them, licking your lips for a moment, before changing focus. There's a row of strange, bright glowing lights to the side, showing bizarre tiny forests in the distance. A metal table sits to the side, covered with strange objects, alongside a wall where many more things hang. Light. Heat. Warm. Fire! Bright! EAT! Meat! Flesh! Kill! FEED! NOISES! HUMANS! KILL! SLAUGHTER! You shake your head, your mind awash with new sensations, trying to let your instincts take over. You calm yourself, and your eyes flicker open as you examine the room. You find yourself smelling what looks to be dried blood, encrusted on one of the bizarre objects. You dip your snout forward, examining it cautiously. It seems to be covered in burning metal and cold metal, a bizarre combination of the two strange materials. You pause, hearing the sound of distant howling down the tunnels. It doesn't seem to be drawing closer, instead drawing fainter and fainter as the pack of werewolves screaming goes further and further a way. You feel drawn to it, curious as to what it could be, but a small mind deep in your head seems to recognize the object with a strange familiarity. > You follow the howls Your ears flicker as you hear the sound of barking and howling deep in the mineshaft, as you answer with a cautious bark. Another howl answers back, and instinct overwhelms the quiet voice in your head, and you find yourself running into the darkness, desperate to your brothers. Your mind races, all pain ignored, all quiet voices in the back of your mind ignored, all remaining traces of your humanity ignored. Your family, your true family of blood and instinct, are calling. The beast within you gives you no choice but to answer, and answer you will.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>With a low, rumbling snarl, you slowly approach the dying creature with almost disinterest in the creature. You raise your claw, striking with all your force as you smash the creature's skull against the wall, crushing its head against the stone wall and killing it instantly. You stare at the creature's limp, dead corpse, ignoring the dying creature. You move away from the creature, heading deep into the darkness once more. You spend several minutes walking through the darkness, before you find yourself prowling through a new plethora of senses. You find yourself in a large, cavernous room, glowing with golden light. A bonfire sits in the center of the cavern, warming your tired bones. Three corpses of cooked meat hang from the ceiling, blood dripping down in an appetizing fashion. You stare at them, licking your lips for a moment, before changing focus. There's a row of strange, bright glowing lights to the side, showing bizarre tiny forests in the distance. A metal table sits to the side, covered with strange objects, alongside a wall where many more things hang. Light. Heat. Warm. Fire! Bright! EAT! Meat! Flesh! Kill! FEED! NOISES! HUMANS! KILL! SLAUGHTER! You shake your head, your mind awash with new sensations, trying to let your instincts take over. You calm yourself, and your eyes flicker open as you examine the room. You find yourself smelling what looks to be dried blood, encrusted on one of the bizarre objects. You dip your snout forward, examining it cautiously. It seems to be covered in burning metal and cold metal, a bizarre combination of the two strange materials. You pause, hearing the sound of distant howling down the tunnels. It doesn't seem to be drawing closer, instead drawing fainter and fainter as the pack of werewolves screaming goes further and further a way. You feel drawn to it, curious as to what it could be, but a small mind deep in your head seems to recognize the object with a strange familiarity. > You investigate the object You push your head up to the bizarre object, sniffing. The outside seems to be made of burning metal, its very aura unnerving you, but the inside is made of colder metal, and you gently press your nose against it, smelling it. It smells ever so faintly of blood, and... Suddenly, the device snaps shut, slicing through your nose as you scream out in pain, collapsing back. The object traps your face in its burning saws, sending waves of burning pain through you. Blood pours down your snout as you scream, the tip of your nose messily hacked off, beginning to burn. You yank your face back, breaking free of the device and spraying the area with a light mist of blood as you find yourself collapsing to the ground, darkness hitting you in waves which contrast with the waves of burning pain, as you're left lying there, your body breaking and burning with pain once again. You don't know whether it's hours, minutes or seconds later, but soon, you find sanity once again. You slowly take breath through your lips, which are torn up, cut and bleeding, your upper lip barely hanging on. Thankfully, the healing factor of the werewolves has left your upper lip scabbing up in a mismatched mess of colors. You nose is heavily damaged, smell somewhat obscured in your left nostril from the dried blood and pus clogging it. You scratch at it, a thin stream of warm blood running down your face. You groan, before finding the strength left in you. Knowing that it's too late for you to just lay down and die, you take a deep breath, focusing your remaining strength of what you can find inside you. You roll to your knees, resting a hand against the cold earth as you relax your tired muscles, looking around the room. The room must've been a mineshaft intersection at one point. It's been rigged up with lights and electricity, with a large desk stacked with television screens in the corner of the room. You peer over at them, watching the various scenes of the forest. It must be another bunch of cameras connected to the screens. Your eyes flicker to the hung up "meat" ahead of you, hanging from the ceiling, as you begin to feel sick. The mutilated, bleeding corpses of Hans Hirsch, Russel Sloane and Father Charles Féval hang from the ceiling, blood dripping down and pooling underneath them. Russel Sloane's been hacked apart, his face a crushed mess, his body missing dozens of chunks of flesh all over him from the pickings the werewolves chewed off him. Hans Hirsh is even less so, his upper body entirely missing, only a pair of legs in gray trousers with black, polished boots. You recognize him from his boots, and his boots alone. Father Féval's body still bares the marks of your shotgun blast, his chest blown apart, ribs hanging down to the ground. He's the most intact corpse there, yet the most gruesome. His face is stuck forever in an expression of fear and pain, his eyes dead and hollow, completely lifeless. You reach for your knife to cut them down, sighing as you realize its not there, and you're several outfits from the one you dressed yourself in this morning. Hell, maybe you should leave them up there anyway. At least the rats won't get there. You feel a pang of hunger, and draw your eyes away from your comrades. You won't disgrace them like that. Scanning the room, you find yourself staring at the table propped up against the wall, stacked with various items. Cellphones, guns, knives, ammo, equipment and an assortment of other items. At the Then, there's the tunnel. A long, dark cavern going in the other direction that you've went down. The howls you heard came from down there. That's where the wolves are. That's where you'll need to go to finish this. You look down at the map ahead of you, a sprawled out blueprints of the mine. Scanning it quickly, your old eyes take in the information you need. Though you're weak in Norway, you manage to make out the notes sprawled across the page. There's a dozen designations across the various areas in the mine. Judging by where you came in, you're in the "Security Room". There's also the "Sleeping Chambers", "(HUMAN) Sleeping Chambers", "Feeding Area", and... You pause, tapping your finger. The "Mine Equipment Storage Area (Armory)". Given the impressive arsenal of explosives that was at the scout house, there'd be even more explosives there at the armory. Enough to take down a mine. If there's even a fraction more explosives there, there might be enough to collapse the mine on itself and to kill all the beasts that prowl these mines. Perhaps you might find some use there. It's as good a place to start as any, given you won't be able to take down the horde with firearms alone. You turn your head, hearing a low growl nearby, only to find yourself staring at the blank stone walls. You squint your eyes, making out murals among them. Blood red images crudely painted, depicting fearsome creatures and other scenes. Interesting. > You investigate the table You walk over to the table, examining the items. Revolvers, pistols, blades, a shotgun, a rifle, an assault weapon... you pause, realizing what you're looking at. These are the weapons, gear and general items taken from the corpses at the crash site. You see your own silver dagger lying there, realizing they must've gathered up your weapons and what fell from the tatters of your clothes. You trace your fingers alongside your personal shotgun which lies there on the table, staring at the silver shells that lie alongside it. You notice Hans' dog tags, Father Féval's silver cross, the items that remind you of the others. However, just as you're about to turn away, you notice another object lying on the table. You lean over it, slowly examining it. The cell phone from earlier. The one given to you by Mr Gaange. You look at it, flipping it open, revealing its at half charge, its screen brightly chirping at you with a beep as it turns on. The phone starts up on the CONTACTS page, with a single number, with the contact name Mr Black. You pause for a moment, wondering whether to call. Perhaps he has the ability to deal with the threat here. To avenge your comrades. Of course... a deal with the dark isn't your ideal choice. > You call Mr Gaange You sigh, pressing the number. It rings for a few second, a bright, electronic noise, before it stops. "Hello," a deep voice answers. "I'm looking for Mr Gaange. I need that favor." A light chuckle comes through the phone. "Already? My, my, someone's been having fun. What do you need?" "I'm here in the mineshaft just North of that fucking country house your lieutenant was holed up in. There's a werewolf pack based here, with servants helping them and large numbers. I need them wiped out." "Yes, that does seem like an issue. Well, it's a serious favor, but it is in my interest to deal with these whelps and mongrels either way, they'll be a threat. You do know this means you agree to serve me, don't you?" You pause for a moment, the room silent. "I do." "Good. Then let's get down to it." You tell Mr Gaange everything you know about the pack and your location, before he stops you. "That's enough. I have all I need. You're lucky, I have a team nearby covering what happened with my lieutenant. See if you can last another fifteen minutes, and I'll do the rest." "OK," you answer heavily. "OK." "Good. Best of luck, Mr Matasan." The phone line goes dead, as you slowly move to the table ahead of you, picking up your shotgun, loading it carefully. You grab Father Féval's silver crucifix, leaning against the wall and sliding down it into a sitting position. You prop the shotgun up in your hands, aiming it at the tunnel ahead of you, and wait. The waiting is long and hard. Blood loss and exhaustion is an issue, and you focus to stay alert now that the night's adrenaline has calmed. In addition to that, the beast within is howling and roaring, and at several points you have to harshly dig your silver crucifix into your bullet wound, the roar of burning pain and the cross' silver driving the wolf back for a while. Suddenly, you see a figure entering the room, clad all in black. The figure wears black combat armor with a black gas mask, an assault rifle in his hands. The figure immediately swivels his gun to aim at you, dropping to a knee. "Drop your weapons!" he yells, his voice muffled by his gas mask. > You open fire! You grab your shotgun, swinging it off the table and aiming it at the trooper. He's faster, however, unnaturally fast, raising his gun and dropping to his knees. He raises his assault rifle, firing with a blast as bullets thud into your chest. The silver rounds tear through your heart, as you collapse backwards, sliding down the wall and leaving a trail of blood. You gasp, as the world begins to go black, the strength pouring out of your body. "Enemy combatant down, move in!" he says in a deep voice, motioning to the rest of his squad. You watch as a squad of the soldiers enter the room, clad in black and wielding the same guns. Feeling the silver bullets burn in your chest as he fades black, you feel a glimmer of hope. You're dying tonight, but so are the werewolves. Tonight, Fenrir's put down. Minutes later, when Mr Gaange's men move your body from the mineshaft, they wonder why you're smiling.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You sigh, pressing the number. It rings for a few second, a bright, electronic noise, before it stops. "Hello," a deep voice answers. "I'm looking for Mr Gaange. I need that favor." A light chuckle comes through the phone. "Already? My, my, someone's been having fun. What do you need?" "I'm here in the mineshaft just North of that fucking country house your lieutenant was holed up in. There's a werewolf pack based here, with servants helping them and large numbers. I need them wiped out." "Yes, that does seem like an issue. Well, it's a serious favor, but it is in my interest to deal with these whelps and mongrels either way, they'll be a threat. You do know this means you agree to serve me, don't you?" You pause for a moment, the room silent. "I do." "Good. Then let's get down to it." You tell Mr Gaange everything you know about the pack and your location, before he stops you. "That's enough. I have all I need. You're lucky, I have a team nearby covering what happened with my lieutenant. See if you can last another fifteen minutes, and I'll do the rest." "OK," you answer heavily. "OK." "Good. Best of luck, Mr Matasan." The phone line goes dead, as you slowly move to the table ahead of you, picking up your shotgun, loading it carefully. You grab Father Féval's silver crucifix, leaning against the wall and sliding down it into a sitting position. You prop the shotgun up in your hands, aiming it at the tunnel ahead of you, and wait. The waiting is long and hard. Blood loss and exhaustion is an issue, and you focus to stay alert now that the night's adrenaline has calmed. In addition to that, the beast within is howling and roaring, and at several points you have to harshly dig your silver crucifix into your bullet wound, the roar of burning pain and the cross' silver driving the wolf back for a while. Suddenly, you see a figure entering the room, clad all in black. The figure wears black combat armor with a black gas mask, an assault rifle in his hands. The figure immediately swivels his gun to aim at you, dropping to a knee. "Drop your weapons!" he yells, his voice muffled by his gas mask. > You embrace the beast within You dig your nails into your skin, roaring as you burst forward. The soldier swings his gun around, dropping to his need with incredible speed and pulling the trigger, a blast of silver bullets spraying out and hitting you square in the chest. You collapse to the ground mid transformation, the silver in your chest stopping your heart and transformation instantly. You hit the ground with a thud, gasping for bloody breath, before going still. "Enemy combatant down, move in!" he says in a deep voice, motioning to the rest of his squad. You watch as a squad of the soldiers enter the room, clad in black and wielding the same guns. Feeling the silver bullets burn in your chest as he fades black, you feel a glimmer of hope. You're dying tonight, but so are the werewolves. Tonignt, Fenrir's put down. Minutes later, when Mr Gaange's men move your body from the mineshaft, they wonder why you're smiling.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You sigh, pressing the number. It rings for a few second, a bright, electronic noise, before it stops. "Hello," a deep voice answers. "I'm looking for Mr Gaange. I need that favor." A light chuckle comes through the phone. "Already? My, my, someone's been having fun. What do you need?" "I'm here in the mineshaft just North of that fucking country house your lieutenant was holed up in. There's a werewolf pack based here, with servants helping them and large numbers. I need them wiped out." "Yes, that does seem like an issue. Well, it's a serious favor, but it is in my interest to deal with these whelps and mongrels either way, they'll be a threat. You do know this means you agree to serve me, don't you?" You pause for a moment, the room silent. "I do." "Good. Then let's get down to it." You tell Mr Gaange everything you know about the pack and your location, before he stops you. "That's enough. I have all I need. You're lucky, I have a team nearby covering what happened with my lieutenant. See if you can last another fifteen minutes, and I'll do the rest." "OK," you answer heavily. "OK." "Good. Best of luck, Mr Matasan." The phone line goes dead, as you slowly move to the table ahead of you, picking up your shotgun, loading it carefully. You grab Father Féval's silver crucifix, leaning against the wall and sliding down it into a sitting position. You prop the shotgun up in your hands, aiming it at the tunnel ahead of you, and wait. The waiting is long and hard. Blood loss and exhaustion is an issue, and you focus to stay alert now that the night's adrenaline has calmed. In addition to that, the beast within is howling and roaring, and at several points you have to harshly dig your silver crucifix into your bullet wound, the roar of burning pain and the cross' silver driving the wolf back for a while. Suddenly, you see a figure entering the room, clad all in black. The figure wears black combat armor with a black gas mask, an assault rifle in his hands. The figure immediately swivels his gun to aim at you, dropping to a knee. "Drop your weapons!" he yells, his voice muffled by his gas mask. > You surrender You drop your weapon, smiling grimly at the man. He moves forward, as more of his squad mates move into the room, sweeping their guns around it as they enter. The soldier in front of you kicks your gun away, before motioning to someone down the tunnel. "We're clear, we're clear, move in!" he shouts. The squad disappears off down the tunnel, leaving only two members guarding the way they came in. Then, a figure like a shadow enters the room. A tall, gaunt man, wear a black suit, black tie and bowler hat walks into the room. His pallor is unnaturally pale, his eyes cold and icy. He smiles at you as he enters, a polite smile with a small pair of fangs becoming clear when he does. "Mr Matasan, I presume?" he asks, extending his long arm to you. You grab it, shaking his hand weakly. "A pleasure, Mr Gaange." Mr Gaange sniffs, pulling a disgusted look. "You'll have to forgive my lack of manners, Mr Matasan, but by god, you smell terrible! Your blood reeks with the bestial stink of Fenrir." You nod, motioning to the scabbed mess that shows your werewolf bite. "Aah... unfortunate," Mr Gaange pauses. "I suppose in turning you I'll need to be draining you of your wolf blood before this conversion can take place. Are you ready to join the long night?" "You can still convert me?" you say, frowning. "Of course," the Vampire smiles. You nod, unsure how you feel about that, before nodding. "Let's do it," you nod grimly. Mr Gaange offers you his hand, and you take it. He lowers down, raising your wrist to his fanged mouth. Then, he bites down, two fangs disappearing into your arm with an slight stabbing pain. The vampire begins to suck, as you can feel your arm go weak, then your body, then your entire essence, your blood being drained from your body. You go woozy, eyes fluttering, before you find a new feeling in your body. A new, unholy strength of darkness building in your core. You groan, as your body grows cold, the warmth and energy drained from it, but replaced with something darker. Moments later, the new you emerges as Mr Gaange pulls his mouth away, dabbing his face with a napkin. You look down to your wrist, two puncture holes in your skin, but no blood trickles out, for none remains. Your body is cold, your skin pale. You feel your teeth twist in your jaw, a pair of fangs emerging down, but compared to the transformations of the night, it's heaven. Instead of endless burning pain, you just feel numb and cold. However, you feel a newfound power in you. A strength you've never felt before. You smile, nodding your head slowly. "Yes... this feels good," you smile. "I feel powerful." "Good. You take to it well, little one." You frown realizing how parched your throat is. The beast within you is dead, but your stomach is empty. You don't want food, though. The desperate desire to fill your stomach with flesh is gone. However... you thirst. Terribly so. A deep thirst runs through your body. "The thirst will be dealt with soon, don't worry," Mr Gaange smiles. "Sergeant Lund, have one of the captured wolf worshippers brought to me." The sergeant nods, before saying something in Norwegian into his walkie-talkie. Mere moments later, two of the black-clad soldiers arrive in, dragging a bare-chested, heavily tattooed man with long hair and covered with scars; one of the wolf servants from earlier. He's handcuffed and gagged, but snarls and fights with every step. "Target here, sir!" one says, bowing his head slightly. "Offer him to my new associate, if you please, gentlemen. He's growing thirsty," Mr Gaange says. The two soldiers nod, moving the prisoner in front of you. They grab his head, pulling it aside to reveal his bare neck. "Enjoy the meal, my good man," Mr Gaange says, grinning. With that, you're unable to resist the thirst, feeling so desperate for a think that you'll do anything. You dart your head forward, sinking your fangs into the man with predatory instinct. The man screams into his gag as his artery bursts, as you press your mouth up against the wound and begin to drain him of his blood. You gulp down the blood as quickly as you can, the warm blood filling you and sating your thirst as you sigh in joy. You drink for as long as you can, each gulp bringing you strength and power. Eventually, you pull your head back, your mouth covered with blood as you smile, filled with strength once more. The two soldiers lift the drained corpse onto their shoulders, looking to Mr Gaange. "Thank you, gentlemen, thank you," Mr Gaange smiles. You drop to your knees once more, feeling truly powerful and in control, and full. Strength ebbs through your body, as you grin from ear to ear, power filling your very core. You look up at Mr Gaange, as he offers you his hand. "Take my hand, Mr Matasan. Tonight, your new life begins." You feel the power course through your veins, wondering if you could strike and take him down. You'd be breaking your deal, but you have the element of surprise. > You take Mr Gaange's hand In Service of the Night The rest of the night is a hunt of the truest order. With the Hunters, you had limited support, limited training and only whatever equipment you could find. These men are an entirely different order. With unnatural speed, unnatural perception and unnatural strength, they move quickly through the mineshaft, their high-tech gear and weapons giving them the edge. Soon, the pack's been wiped out, every one of the kind dead. You're led out of the mineshaft to where a trio of black helicopters await you, and you're taken off to serve Mr Gaange in your new life. Life serving Mr Gaange is good. You're given a comfortable, secluded country house in your home country, a small place in Glasgow, although you spend most of your time in hotels and apartments abroad. You serve Mr Gaange as his primary hunter, tasked with targeting the same supernatural threats you hunted in life, investigating them and leading the elimination with Mr Gaange's security force. The types you normally go after are those who cross Mr Gaange, those that threaten to expose the existence of the supernatural to the mortal realm, or those who stand as a threat to man itself, like the werewolf pack you dealt with the night of your first vampiric feeding. Mr Gaange takes good care of you, like he said. You earn a six figure salary with plenty of perks, and whenever you can't secure some scumbag to feed off in your investigations or hunting, you simply have to call Mr Gaange. Days or even hours later, a bound and gagged man is delivered to you. Mr Gaange assures you that these men are the worst of the worst; traitors, rapists, murderers and those who conspired to help the creatures of the night spill innocent blood. You're never sure, though. That's a common theme with Mr Gaange. Uncertainty. Through and through it all, you're never sure what his motives are. He sure seems interested in helping humanity, but it could all be to get good publicity and keep the loyalty of his more moral minded servants. You're never sure what his true goals are, or what he really wants. Of course, you know not to look into it. You have a lot of freedom in doing your work, but that privilege is not within your reach. Still, life is good under Mr Gaange. Sure, you miss the sunlight, and the certainty that what you were doing was right with the Lodge, but overall, you're more effectively hunting your foe and you're living at a far higher standard of living. You were once weak and mortal. But now, you are a true hunter. A Vampire. And the night, which was once ruled by the monsters, now belongs to you.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You drop your weapon, smiling grimly at the man. He moves forward, as more of his squad mates move into the room, sweeping their guns around it as they enter. The soldier in front of you kicks your gun away, before motioning to someone down the tunnel. "We're clear, we're clear, move in!" he shouts. The squad disappears off down the tunnel, leaving only two members guarding the way they came in. Then, a figure like a shadow enters the room. A tall, gaunt man, wear a black suit, black tie and bowler hat walks into the room. His pallor is unnaturally pale, his eyes cold and icy. He smiles at you as he enters, a polite smile with a small pair of fangs becoming clear when he does. "Mr Matasan, I presume?" he asks, extending his long arm to you. You grab it, shaking his hand weakly. "A pleasure, Mr Gaange." Mr Gaange sniffs, pulling a disgusted look. "You'll have to forgive my lack of manners, Mr Matasan, but by god, you smell terrible! Your blood reeks with the bestial stink of Fenrir." You nod, motioning to the scabbed mess that shows your werewolf bite. "Aah... unfortunate," Mr Gaange pauses. "I suppose in turning you I'll need to be draining you of your wolf blood before this conversion can take place. Are you ready to join the long night?" "You can still convert me?" you say, frowning. "Of course," the Vampire smiles. You nod, unsure how you feel about that, before nodding. "Let's do it," you nod grimly. Mr Gaange offers you his hand, and you take it. He lowers down, raising your wrist to his fanged mouth. Then, he bites down, two fangs disappearing into your arm with an slight stabbing pain. The vampire begins to suck, as you can feel your arm go weak, then your body, then your entire essence, your blood being drained from your body. You go woozy, eyes fluttering, before you find a new feeling in your body. A new, unholy strength of darkness building in your core. You groan, as your body grows cold, the warmth and energy drained from it, but replaced with something darker. Moments later, the new you emerges as Mr Gaange pulls his mouth away, dabbing his face with a napkin. You look down to your wrist, two puncture holes in your skin, but no blood trickles out, for none remains. Your body is cold, your skin pale. You feel your teeth twist in your jaw, a pair of fangs emerging down, but compared to the transformations of the night, it's heaven. Instead of endless burning pain, you just feel numb and cold. However, you feel a newfound power in you. A strength you've never felt before. You smile, nodding your head slowly. "Yes... this feels good," you smile. "I feel powerful." "Good. You take to it well, little one." You frown realizing how parched your throat is. The beast within you is dead, but your stomach is empty. You don't want food, though. The desperate desire to fill your stomach with flesh is gone. However... you thirst. Terribly so. A deep thirst runs through your body. "The thirst will be dealt with soon, don't worry," Mr Gaange smiles. "Sergeant Lund, have one of the captured wolf worshippers brought to me." The sergeant nods, before saying something in Norwegian into his walkie-talkie. Mere moments later, two of the black-clad soldiers arrive in, dragging a bare-chested, heavily tattooed man with long hair and covered with scars; one of the wolf servants from earlier. He's handcuffed and gagged, but snarls and fights with every step. "Target here, sir!" one says, bowing his head slightly. "Offer him to my new associate, if you please, gentlemen. He's growing thirsty," Mr Gaange says. The two soldiers nod, moving the prisoner in front of you. They grab his head, pulling it aside to reveal his bare neck. "Enjoy the meal, my good man," Mr Gaange says, grinning. With that, you're unable to resist the thirst, feeling so desperate for a think that you'll do anything. You dart your head forward, sinking your fangs into the man with predatory instinct. The man screams into his gag as his artery bursts, as you press your mouth up against the wound and begin to drain him of his blood. You gulp down the blood as quickly as you can, the warm blood filling you and sating your thirst as you sigh in joy. You drink for as long as you can, each gulp bringing you strength and power. Eventually, you pull your head back, your mouth covered with blood as you smile, filled with strength once more. The two soldiers lift the drained corpse onto their shoulders, looking to Mr Gaange. "Thank you, gentlemen, thank you," Mr Gaange smiles. You drop to your knees once more, feeling truly powerful and in control, and full. Strength ebbs through your body, as you grin from ear to ear, power filling your very core. You look up at Mr Gaange, as he offers you his hand. "Take my hand, Mr Matasan. Tonight, your new life begins." You feel the power course through your veins, wondering if you could strike and take him down. You'd be breaking your deal, but you have the element of surprise. > You strike with your newfound power! You take a deep breath, focusing on the feeling of your power in your chest, building it through your body before striking. You stab with your sharpened claws, jabbing them for his neck with a snarl. Mr Gaange sidesteps your strike, letting the nail fly past you as he grabs your wrist. He twists your arm around, sending you to your knees as you howl out in pain. Mr Gaange slams you forward, knocking your head into the ground with a thud. Mr Gaange drops down, keeping an unnaturally strong grip on your neck as he smashes your head into the ground again, and again, and again, as your nose breaks, blood spurting out onto the ground as your mind quickly goes dark. > The Darkness consumes you The Black Coffin Your hazy mind regains conscious, as you find yourself breathing heavily. There's a throbbing pain in your head as you groan, wondering where you are. Your eyes can see nothing but endless darkness, the rest of your senses just as dull. You reach out into the darkness, finding your fingers brushing against cold metal. You knock your hands against them, trying to move, finding yourself stuck by six tight metal walls. A light flickers on, as you find yourself staring at a TV screen. The screen depicts the smiling face of Mr Gaange, who is sitting in an armchair in front of a roaring fire. A whiskey glass, filled with dark, crimson liquid, sits in his hands, his face a dim smile. "Hell, Mr Matasan. It seems that you've betrayed me. I offered you the world, and you accepted. Then, you betrayed me seconds after our agreement. Mere... seconds. Do you remember?" "Fuck you!" you growl, struggling against the iron coffin. "And you had such politeness not too long ago," Mr Gaange sighs. "I'm watching you through a camera in this monitor, in case you were wondering. I'll be watching you, and I will have a delightful time doing so. You see, there are two interesting facts about vampires. The first is that we are immortal. Age cannot take us. Disease cannot take us. Starvation cannot take us. The only way we can die is through sunlight, and through being killed by stake, bullet, knife or whatever method. The second thing is that vampires need to drink blood to survive with their sanity intact. Without it, they grow thirsty. At first, simply a dry throat. Then, a deep thirst. A predatory need to feed. And it gets worse, and worse, and worse. Imagine lying in the hottest, driest desert in the world, without the chance to drop to drink. Imagine lying there, desperate, so maddened by thirst you'd do anything for a drop of water... for minutes... hours... days... weeks... months... years... decades... centuries..." The man laughs deeply. "Hard to imagine? Don't worry. There's no need to. You'll understand that pain soon. Here you are, buried in an iron coffin trapped deep underground. Down there, you are incapable of finding a way out. You are trapped. You are never going to escape. And I am going to watch as the thirst grows... as sanity and loneliness set in and tear your soul to shreds... as you suffer for betraying my generous offer. Good night, Mr Matasan." The screen flicks off, and you scream as you're consumed by total darkness. You scream, and scream, and scream, howling at the darkness, begging and pleading for mercy, pounding at the coffin as the thirst in your soul grows, as you become more and more desperate. Welcome to eternity.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You walk over to the table, examining the items. Revolvers, pistols, blades, a shotgun, a rifle, an assault weapon... you pause, realizing what you're looking at. These are the weapons, gear and general items taken from the corpses at the crash site. You see your own silver dagger lying there, realizing they must've gathered up your weapons and what fell from the tatters of your clothes. You trace your fingers alongside your personal shotgun which lies there on the table, staring at the silver shells that lie alongside it. You notice Hans' dog tags, Father Féval's silver cross, the items that remind you of the others. However, just as you're about to turn away, you notice another object lying on the table. You lean over it, slowly examining it. The cell phone from earlier. The one given to you by Mr Gaange. You look at it, flipping it open, revealing its at half charge, its screen brightly chirping at you with a beep as it turns on. The phone starts up on the CONTACTS page, with a single number, with the contact name Mr Black. You pause for a moment, wondering whether to call. Perhaps he has the ability to deal with the threat here. To avenge your comrades. Of course... a deal with the dark isn't your ideal choice. > You destroy the phone You draw a revolver from the table, checking to make sure its loaded, before aiming at the table. You fire, the phone exploding in a burst of wires and plastic. "Hope I don't leave you waiting for the call, vampire," you say grimly, before shaking your head. You drop the revolver to the table with a loud clatter, looking around the rest of the room.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You push your head up to the bizarre object, sniffing. The outside seems to be made of burning metal, its very aura unnerving you, but the inside is made of colder metal, and you gently press your nose against it, smelling it. It smells ever so faintly of blood, and... Suddenly, the device snaps shut, slicing through your nose as you scream out in pain, collapsing back. The object traps your face in its burning saws, sending waves of burning pain through you. Blood pours down your snout as you scream, the tip of your nose messily hacked off, beginning to burn. You yank your face back, breaking free of the device and spraying the area with a light mist of blood as you find yourself collapsing to the ground, darkness hitting you in waves which contrast with the waves of burning pain, as you're left lying there, your body breaking and burning with pain once again. You don't know whether it's hours, minutes or seconds later, but soon, you find sanity once again. You slowly take breath through your lips, which are torn up, cut and bleeding, your upper lip barely hanging on. Thankfully, the healing factor of the werewolves has left your upper lip scabbing up in a mismatched mess of colors. You nose is heavily damaged, smell somewhat obscured in your left nostril from the dried blood and pus clogging it. You scratch at it, a thin stream of warm blood running down your face. You groan, before finding the strength left in you. Knowing that it's too late for you to just lay down and die, you take a deep breath, focusing your remaining strength of what you can find inside you. You roll to your knees, resting a hand against the cold earth as you relax your tired muscles, looking around the room. The room must've been a mineshaft intersection at one point. It's been rigged up with lights and electricity, with a large desk stacked with television screens in the corner of the room. You peer over at them, watching the various scenes of the forest. It must be another bunch of cameras connected to the screens. Your eyes flicker to the hung up "meat" ahead of you, hanging from the ceiling, as you begin to feel sick. The mutilated, bleeding corpses of Hans Hirsch, Russel Sloane and Father Charles Féval hang from the ceiling, blood dripping down and pooling underneath them. Russel Sloane's been hacked apart, his face a crushed mess, his body missing dozens of chunks of flesh all over him from the pickings the werewolves chewed off him. Hans Hirsh is even less so, his upper body entirely missing, only a pair of legs in gray trousers with black, polished boots. You recognize him from his boots, and his boots alone. Father Féval's body still bares the marks of your shotgun blast, his chest blown apart, ribs hanging down to the ground. He's the most intact corpse there, yet the most gruesome. His face is stuck forever in an expression of fear and pain, his eyes dead and hollow, completely lifeless. You reach for your knife to cut them down, sighing as you realize its not there, and you're several outfits from the one you dressed yourself in this morning. Hell, maybe you should leave them up there anyway. At least the rats won't get there. You feel a pang of hunger, and draw your eyes away from your comrades. You won't disgrace them like that. Scanning the room, you find yourself staring at the table propped up against the wall, stacked with various items. Cellphones, guns, knives, ammo, equipment and an assortment of other items. At the Then, there's the tunnel. A long, dark cavern going in the other direction that you've went down. The howls you heard came from down there. That's where the wolves are. That's where you'll need to go to finish this. You look down at the map ahead of you, a sprawled out blueprints of the mine. Scanning it quickly, your old eyes take in the information you need. Though you're weak in Norway, you manage to make out the notes sprawled across the page. There's a dozen designations across the various areas in the mine. Judging by where you came in, you're in the "Security Room". There's also the "Sleeping Chambers", "(HUMAN) Sleeping Chambers", "Feeding Area", and... You pause, tapping your finger. The "Mine Equipment Storage Area (Armory)". Given the impressive arsenal of explosives that was at the scout house, there'd be even more explosives there at the armory. Enough to take down a mine. If there's even a fraction more explosives there, there might be enough to collapse the mine on itself and to kill all the beasts that prowl these mines. Perhaps you might find some use there. It's as good a place to start as any, given you won't be able to take down the horde with firearms alone. You turn your head, hearing a low growl nearby, only to find yourself staring at the blank stone walls. You squint your eyes, making out murals among them. Blood red images crudely painted, depicting fearsome creatures and other scenes. Interesting. > You investigate the murals You walk forward, staring at the wall in front of you. The scenes are in red paint, depicting fearsome werewolves prowling across the wall, chasing simple outlines of human figures. You follow it from right to left, seeing a massive chained wolf howling at the sky at the very left. Despite the brutal simplicity of the drawings, they reflect a certain life, certain realism, a certain bestial energy that's beyond you. You stare inherently, slowly moving your hands towards them. Your hands slowly edge towards the murals, fingers tracing the outlines of shapes and scenes. The first one depicts a wolf, bound and chained, surrounded by vague outlines of spear-wielding humans. The next depicts a spear wielding human holding a chain in the beasts maw. The next seems to depict a half-man, half-wolf. No doubt the first werewolf, frozen mid transformation in a scream. You pause, staring at the scene in front of you. Despite the simplistic nature of the drawing, being little more than a stick man with a wolf head and claw, most other duties vague and confusing to you, but it holds impact to you. You can almost hear the faint screams of the man as they turn to howls, feel the familiar pain he went through in your heart. You truly understand him. As you look on, the pictures seem to beat and hum with an animalistic energy. The next scene shows the werewolf hunting down packs of warriors, catching one by the leg. The next shows the werewolf watching him transform, as once again his painful transformation feels all too familiar to you. Then, you see an image of a pack of werewolves running against the tunnel walls. The final image shows you the glowing image of the moon, surrounded by a pack of werewolves tearing around Mother Luna. You stare at the moon, watching as the symbol drawing hums and haws with power, glowing in your eyes with a tremendous power beyond human comprehension. You watch, your eyes shining in the reflection. Bright. Moon. Power! Beast! FENRIR! FENRIR CALLS! You heard the world shake and shiver around you, as a booming growl fills the tunnels. "Little one... look at how far you've fallen. Once a proud mortal hunter, now a slave to your bestial urges... my bestial urges," a booming voice growls, tearing through your mind as you feel the urge to howl back at it. You drop to your knees, clutching your hands to your head, you try to focus on the burn of the silver inside you or your wounds, trying not to let your urges consume you. "I am Fenrir, God of Beasts, Hróðvitnir, Hound of Ragnarök, Vánagandr, son of Loki, father of Sköll and Hati Hróðvitnisson, the prophesied killer of Odin, the creator of the werewolves and the Great Maw That Will Consume The World." Focusing on your pain, you manage to hold back the beast within, but only barely. Focusing on the burning hot silver coals in your chest, the pain of your torn up face and the stab wound in your side that's been jabbed in your side, you hold onto your sanity, your humanity, yourself. "You've proven yourself strong. Courageous. Violent. Powerful. I wish to make you my champion. I will sharpen your bestial instinct, I will lengthen your claws, broaden your form, strengthen your flesh, harden your bones. I will make you far more powerful than you have been tonight, a true avatar of my form." You stare ahead at the mural, as the confusing red lines seem to draw together in the growling face of a wolf for a moment, before it becomes too painful to look at. "Simply... embrace the change. Embrace the beast within. Embrace yourself. I'll even leave you with enough of a mind that you can finish what you started here. All you have to do is to release the beast within, and answer my call!" > You aNSWER FENRIR'S CALL! RELEASE THE BEAST! The fear, the anger, the hate, the sadness and the pain inside you are consumed by the beast within, as you release your pent up emotions in a roar. Fenrir answers your roar with one of his own, as you collapse to your knees, hair sprouting rapidly to coat your body in a thick coating. Pain courses through you, but unlike before, its a good pain, like the burn of exercising. Your muscles grow and thicken in large coils beyond anything you've grown tonight, skin stretching to cover it. Your teeth sharpen, allowing you to form a malevolent grin that stretches across your face as it twists into a snout. Your ears flicker, listening carefully to the noises of the mineshaft, hearing a chorus of howls further down. Your lean back on your hind legs, your arms broken and reformed into forelegs topped with beautifully sharp claws that stretch from your fingernails, blood pouring forth from your hand, running down your fur-covered fingers as you laugh, your lupine vocal cords morphing the noise into a deep, guttural noise. Losing all traces of humanity, all you feel is a bloodlust beyond that of any man's mind, with a hunger filling you. You lick your lips greedily, ready to strike. You stand, tall and strong, much larger than you ever have, snarling and running your tongue along your sharpened teeth, like dozens of ivory daggers. You feel strength course through your blood, feeling the true power of Fenrir. No longer are you bound by your weak, wretched human form. Now you have the body of a true predator, gifted to you by the God of Beasts. You are a hunter. Those werewolves that are foolish enough to remain in this mine shaft are you prey. "Good... good, little one," the voice of Fenrir whispers. "Now... hunt." Time to answer his call. > You carve your way to the Alpha Fenrir's call having strengthened your soul and sharpened your abilities, your lupine hunting form solidified, your claws sharpened and a true feeling of power in your heart, you're ready to strike. You hurry through the mine shafts and tunnels, nostrils filled with the pungent odor of the other werewolves hiding in the tunnels. The werewolves are easy to hunt down through the tunnels, as you slaughter them like lambs. With your abilities, you've found that you're faster, stronger and better than any you come across. They're lambs, and you're a wolf. Any werewolves caught by themselves are torn apart, clawed up or eaten, none able to escape your fury. However, these are just simple targets to take down, not the main threat. The main threat's scent is on your nose, and you're hunting him down. You enter a large, open room of the mine shaft, and you find it emerging from the darkness. The Alpha. The creature stares at you with its one working eye, an eye that seems twisted by malice. It slowly prowls ahead, thin, angular body emerging from the darkness. It lets out a bark, as the other werewolves in the mine shaft slowly part, moving back to allow you two to fight. It's a challenge. The Alpha is challenging you for dominance, clearly aware that its position is tenuous, and that if it doesn't take down the new threat, it'll lose the respect of its pack. It's lost Fenrir's favor, and needs to regain it. You won't let it. Kill! Slaughter! TEAR! BITE! CLAW! HACK! EAT! BLOOD! FLESH! EVISCERATE" The werewolf lunges forward towards you, as you're left ready to take down the beast. > You rend the creatures face open with your claws You slash your claws forward, tearing through the Alpha's face and carving through its snout, but the full weight of hundreds of pounds are still barreling on top of you, as they slam into you, knocking you to the ground with a thud. The weight smashes you against the ground with a pained yell, as you're pinned to the ground. The Alpha howls, blood spraying down from its face, but its still got the instinct to keep you pinned down. The creature keeps you forced against the ground, pressing its claws against you as you only barely manage to force it back. It's snapping maw nears your face, as you attempt to keep the creature off you. You find yourself stuck and unable to react. > You throw the beast off you You roll your legs under the Alpha's weight, forcing your legs forwards under the creature's weight as you ram your claws against its chest, trying to push it off. You push with all your might, and the Alpha begins to budge, before taking its chance to strike. With your four legs pressed up against the creature's body in your attempt to throw it off, its claws are free, and burst forward, slashing at you. Two pairs of claws hack across your face, cutting through your snout and tearing it off, before cutting through your skull as you howl in pain. The claws tear through your face, leaving you broken and bleeding, before your head drops to the ground, blood staining your fur.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You slash your claws forward, tearing through the Alpha's face and carving through its snout, but the full weight of hundreds of pounds are still barreling on top of you, as they slam into you, knocking you to the ground with a thud. The weight smashes you against the ground with a pained yell, as you're pinned to the ground. The Alpha howls, blood spraying down from its face, but its still got the instinct to keep you pinned down. The creature keeps you forced against the ground, pressing its claws against you as you only barely manage to force it back. It's snapping maw nears your face, as you attempt to keep the creature off you. You find yourself stuck and unable to react. > You scratch at the creature's eyes You move your claw under the creature's weight, before slashing your furs towards the Alpha's bloody face. However, the creature's just had to feel the pain of your claws slashing through your face, as it strains to raise its head and keep your claws away from it. It manages to keep your claws from cutting through little but fur, as you wear out your strength. Soon, your strength is sapped, and you go weak under its weight. With your strength sapped, the Alpha smashes its claws down and bashes past your weak arms, hacking through your chest and busting through your ribcage. You howl, pain wracking through you as you go weak, body shuddering as your heart is crushed under the Alpha's blows.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You slash your claws forward, tearing through the Alpha's face and carving through its snout, but the full weight of hundreds of pounds are still barreling on top of you, as they slam into you, knocking you to the ground with a thud. The weight smashes you against the ground with a pained yell, as you're pinned to the ground. The Alpha howls, blood spraying down from its face, but its still got the instinct to keep you pinned down. The creature keeps you forced against the ground, pressing its claws against you as you only barely manage to force it back. It's snapping maw nears your face, as you attempt to keep the creature off you. You find yourself stuck and unable to react. > You hack open the creature's arm You hack your claws at the creature's arm, or leg, or whatever it could be called, cutting through its flesh and muscles, tearing through hide and fur to the point where your claw is scraping against bone. The creature howls in pain, rolling off you as it retreats with its torn up limb. You pounce forward, unready to give it's a moment respite from the bloodshed. You grab the Alpha in an embrace, forcing the creature back as its claws and arms wrap around. The two of you force your strengths against each other, each trying to push other down to tear your foe apart, but its an equal battle. Even with your gifts from Fenrir, the Alpha is an old being with a fearsome strength, and far beyond what you've dealt with before. The two of you fight, claw and tooth, howling and roaring in the mineshaft, as you try to find everything within you you can find to win this battle. > You kill! KILL! Call upon Fenrir's strength and kill! You roar, feeling Fenrir's might rush through your body. You ram the creature backwards, roaring and howling as you push the creature backwards. STRENGTH! POWER! RAGE! KILL! DIE! You force the Alpha back again, releasing a burst of laughing as you realize the creature isn't an Alpha. Its a weak, fragile creature to be torn apart. Roaring once more, you ram the creature against the mine shaft, before knocking it to the ground to bash your claw against the creature's skull. You knock it over onto its back with a swipe, before diving atop it, tearing your jaws into it. You tear out its throat, lifting your head into the air and swallowing it with a wave of blood and flesh. It tries to whimper, but its only a wet squelch. You stare at the other wolves, seeing them bow their heads, low and submissive of you. They're no longer your enemy. They're weak, and they see someone strong. You're their inspiration. You're their leader. Any traces of humanity is gone, as your howl joins Fenrir's. You are one of these creatures. You are their leader. This is your destiny. You lift your head towards the sky, and howl, as your call is answered by the rest of your pack. > You take control of your new pack The New Alpha You sprint through the forest, the glow of the moon above you, lighting your path and filling you with strength. Your companions follow you, prowling through the shadows, their every sound and movement a communication to you. Run. Lead. Track! Sprint! HUNT! You keep running, your ears flickering as you hear the sounds of the forest, your nose smelling the scents that fill the forest. Your body is perfect for sprinting through the forest, designed for running, for leaping and pouncing. Your claws are weapons designed to kill, your teeth knives to pierce and cut. You are a killing machine, a predator designed from millions of years. You are Fenrir's champion, blessed with his abilities, his form, his instincts, his nature, his power! You are a hunter. You reach the ridge at the edge of the forest, staring down at the moonlit suburbs. The suburbs seem strange, bizarre and confusing, but your instincts and the barest remains of your humanity know that they're filled with people. Lights. Noise. Humans! Prey! HUNT! KILL! The buzz of the suburbs, the strange, unnatural lights from the buildings and the strange sounds of humans activity. The suburbs are filled with the weak, pathetic prey animals. They're down there, little more than easy meals to be torn apart or devoured, with the worthiest given Fenrir's gift. They're down there, unaware to what owns the night. They are your prey. You let out your howl, as you watch as dozens upon dozens of werewolves emerge from the trees, staring down greedily towards the town. Those you're created, those you're recruited, those who have answered your call. The werewolves begin to descend upon the suburbs, racing towards the buildings. You howl again, a fierce noise as you howl towards the bright moon that hangs low in the sky. Tonight, you hunt in the pale moonlight. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You hack your claws at the creature's arm, or leg, or whatever it could be called, cutting through its flesh and muscles, tearing through hide and fur to the point where your claw is scraping against bone. The creature howls in pain, rolling off you as it retreats with its torn up limb. You pounce forward, unready to give it's a moment respite from the bloodshed. You grab the Alpha in an embrace, forcing the creature back as its claws and arms wrap around. The two of you force your strengths against each other, each trying to push other down to tear your foe apart, but its an equal battle. Even with your gifts from Fenrir, the Alpha is an old being with a fearsome strength, and far beyond what you've dealt with before. The two of you fight, claw and tooth, howling and roaring in the mineshaft, as you try to find everything within you you can find to win this battle. > You focus and use all of your might! You focus, focusing on the pain in your chest, the wound in your side, your carved up nose. You growl, finding the strength rise up inside of you, focusing on your task. You need one more drop of strength tonight. One more victory! You dig your heels in, roaring as you toss the werewolf backwards, overcoming its strength and flipping it onto its back. As the creature collapses onto the ground, you lead forward, landing atop the creature. It howls out in pain, before you slam your claws against the creature's head with all your strength, crushing the creature's skull with one solid motion, killing it instantly. You howl towards the moon, a noise which soon turns to laughter. You turn other werewolves, finding them either fleeing into the woods again or whimpering at you. You laugh, ready to hunt down the mongrels that flee from your sight. Over the next few hours before sunrise, you hunt down the remaining the werewolves. They flee into the night, but your senses mean they're incapable of escaping and your claws and teeth mean that they're never going to escape from you. Soon, your belly is full with flesh, your hair streaked with blood, and the remaining survivors of the pack finished off or having fled. You sprint along the ground, instinct running through you as you sprint through the forest, following one of the last werewolves to have fled the scene. You're tight on her tail, ready to finish her off, before you hear a barrage of gunfire. Looking ahead, you hear a burst of gunfire, as you slide to a halt. You slam your claws into a tree and skid to a halt, your eyes staring through the trees as you find yourself staring at a werewolf being gunned down. You quickly disappear into the bushes and undergrowth, staring through as a squad of Hunters appears, no doubt looking for what happened to the rest of you. You pause, wondering whether to try talk to them, or retreat into the woods and leave the world alone. > You make contact with the Hunters You slowly approach the group of hunters, head down. You take One of the Hunters lets out a yell, as they group quickly turn around to aim at you. "It's trying to communicate," one of the Hunters says incredulously. "It's non-hostile." "It's must have some dregs of humanity left. Keep aim, lads!" Ernest shouts. You pause, eyes flickering over the leader of the Hunters, wondering where you recognize him from. Some distant memory that's rapidly fading from your mind. Soon, you no longer remember his name, only recognizing his status as leader through his physical cues. The Hunters faces twist into ones of confusion and malice, but they hold fire. "Listen to me, beast," Ernest says sternly, sighing his face. "If you can hear me, it's OK. We need to put you down. I think that we both know that. I know you did, somewhere it what remains of your soul. It's OK. It'll be OK. May God have mercy on your soul." Feeling pain run through you, you lower your face, not able to meet his gaze as you try to decide your future. > You let them kill you A Well-Deserved Rest You look down at the Hunters, your head lowering as you rest it against the cold soil, breathing heavily. The adrenaline fading from your blood, you just feel tired. Broken. Exhausted. Above all, you're ready to rest. You don't want violence. Only sleep. The Hunters raise their weapons, aiming it at your skull as they prepare to fire. You stare at them, letting go of the hatred, anger, worry, fear and terror of the night, calming the beast within, and wait. The werewolf pack is dead. Your mission is finished. Humanity is safe. There's nothing more for you left. The guns fire, and the silver bullets tear lupine skull and flesh, blowing apart your brain and shooting out the top of your skull. Darkness shrouds over you, and you can feel the desperate, clawing, howling beast within you get pulled down into the depths of darkness with you. Now, the eternal rest is all that's left for you.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You slowly approach the group of hunters, head down. You take One of the Hunters lets out a yell, as they group quickly turn around to aim at you. "It's trying to communicate," one of the Hunters says incredulously. "It's non-hostile." "It's must have some dregs of humanity left. Keep aim, lads!" Ernest shouts. You pause, eyes flickering over the leader of the Hunters, wondering where you recognize him from. Some distant memory that's rapidly fading from your mind. Soon, you no longer remember his name, only recognizing his status as leader through his physical cues. The Hunters faces twist into ones of confusion and malice, but they hold fire. "Listen to me, beast," Ernest says sternly, sighing his face. "If you can hear me, it's OK. We need to put you down. I think that we both know that. I know you did, somewhere it what remains of your soul. It's OK. It'll be OK. May God have mercy on your soul." Feeling pain run through you, you lower your face, not able to meet his gaze as you try to decide your future. > You flee deeper into the woods You twist around on your legs, bursting off them in a single leap as you find yourself flying through the air, finding yourself in a sprint. The Hunters raise their weapons, a burst of bullets firing out as you leap from side to side, rushing behind the trees as bullets hit the dirt around you, splintering wood and narrowly missing you. Still, you're faster than they could be, and with your blessings, you manage to avoid the bullets with ease. Soon, you're out of range of the gunfire, hurrying along the woods as the sound of gunfire becomes more and more distant, as you head deeper and deeper into the endless forest. As you run, your worries, your hate, your anger burns away, as you just find yourself running, any traces of humanity being shed with each step. Mankind has rejected you. Fenrir has taken you in. You're no longer human. You are a beast. You are a predator. You are a hunter. You hear a few scattered howls through the forest, the answer of the surviving werewolves to your call. You howl once more, calling them to you. You have no need for Hunters anymore. You have your own predators now. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You slowly approach the group of hunters, head down. You take One of the Hunters lets out a yell, as they group quickly turn around to aim at you. "It's trying to communicate," one of the Hunters says incredulously. "It's non-hostile." "It's must have some dregs of humanity left. Keep aim, lads!" Ernest shouts. You pause, eyes flickering over the leader of the Hunters, wondering where you recognize him from. Some distant memory that's rapidly fading from your mind. Soon, you no longer remember his name, only recognizing his status as leader through his physical cues. The Hunters faces twist into ones of confusion and malice, but they hold fire. "Listen to me, beast," Ernest says sternly, sighing his face. "If you can hear me, it's OK. We need to put you down. I think that we both know that. I know you did, somewhere it what remains of your soul. It's OK. It'll be OK. May God have mercy on your soul." Feeling pain run through you, you lower your face, not able to meet his gaze as you try to decide your future. > You slaughter them all You let out a fearsome roar, bursting forward with a roar. The Hunters balk at the sound, as you dive forward, claws raised and teeth bared. The Hunters are used to dealing with werewolves, but you're no mere werewolf. You are the champion of Fenrir. You have his strength, his speed, his abilities, his ferocity. They don't have a chance. You swing your claw, tearing through a Hunter's neck and nearly beheading him with a spurt of blood, sending them flying aside. Your maw snaps onto a Hunter's arm and tearing it off with one motion, throwing it across the earth. You dive aside, dodging a barrage of bullets. You lunge forward, tackling a Hunter and crushing her under your weight and crushing her lungs. You reach your jaws down, tearing out her throat with ease, as you stare over towards the survivors, blood dripping from your maw as you let out a low growl. The last two Hunters turn, fleeing back towards their truck, running desperately as if they have some hope of escape. You easily race down to catch them, knocking away one of their legs and crushing his skull, before tackling the last one and slashing through her neck with your claws. Victorious, you howl towards the moon, laughter racing through you. You look at the scene around of you, slaughtered Hunters lying dead on the ground, blood sinking into the ground. There's no place for you hear. Prey, all slaughtered like lambs.Too weak for you. You hear a few scattered howls through the forest, the answer of the surviving werewolves to your call. You howl once more, calling them to you. You have no need for Hunters anymore. You have your own predators now. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You focus, focusing on the pain in your chest, the wound in your side, your carved up nose. You growl, finding the strength rise up inside of you, focusing on your task. You need one more drop of strength tonight. One more victory! You dig your heels in, roaring as you toss the werewolf backwards, overcoming its strength and flipping it onto its back. As the creature collapses onto the ground, you lead forward, landing atop the creature. It howls out in pain, before you slam your claws against the creature's head with all your strength, crushing the creature's skull with one solid motion, killing it instantly. You howl towards the moon, a noise which soon turns to laughter. You turn other werewolves, finding them either fleeing into the woods again or whimpering at you. You laugh, ready to hunt down the mongrels that flee from your sight. Over the next few hours before sunrise, you hunt down the remaining the werewolves. They flee into the night, but your senses mean they're incapable of escaping and your claws and teeth mean that they're never going to escape from you. Soon, your belly is full with flesh, your hair streaked with blood, and the remaining survivors of the pack finished off or having fled. You sprint along the ground, instinct running through you as you sprint through the forest, following one of the last werewolves to have fled the scene. You're tight on her tail, ready to finish her off, before you hear a barrage of gunfire. Looking ahead, you hear a burst of gunfire, as you slide to a halt. You slam your claws into a tree and skid to a halt, your eyes staring through the trees as you find yourself staring at a werewolf being gunned down. You quickly disappear into the bushes and undergrowth, staring through as a squad of Hunters appears, no doubt looking for what happened to the rest of you. You pause, wondering whether to try talk to them, or retreat into the woods and leave the world alone. > You retreat deeper into the woods The Hunters wouldn't understand you. They'd never understand what you are, never trust you. They'd simply see you as a different form of beast entirely, but still something to be hunted down and killed. You are no longer one of their kind. You are one of Fenrir's children now, not Adam's. You sprint as fast as you can, paws feeling the cold soil underneath you as the trees fly past. As you run, your worries, your hate, your anger burns away, as you just find yourself running, any traces of humanity being shed with each step. Mankind has rejected you. Fenrir has taken you in. You're no longer human. You are a beast. You are a predator. You are a hunter. You hear a few scattered howls through the forest, the answer of the surviving werewolves to your call. You howl once more, calling them to you. You have no need for Hunters anymore. You have your own predators now. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You focus, focusing on the pain in your chest, the wound in your side, your carved up nose. You growl, finding the strength rise up inside of you, focusing on your task. You need one more drop of strength tonight. One more victory! You dig your heels in, roaring as you toss the werewolf backwards, overcoming its strength and flipping it onto its back. As the creature collapses onto the ground, you lead forward, landing atop the creature. It howls out in pain, before you slam your claws against the creature's head with all your strength, crushing the creature's skull with one solid motion, killing it instantly. You howl towards the moon, a noise which soon turns to laughter. You turn other werewolves, finding them either fleeing into the woods again or whimpering at you. You laugh, ready to hunt down the mongrels that flee from your sight. Over the next few hours before sunrise, you hunt down the remaining the werewolves. They flee into the night, but your senses mean they're incapable of escaping and your claws and teeth mean that they're never going to escape from you. Soon, your belly is full with flesh, your hair streaked with blood, and the remaining survivors of the pack finished off or having fled. You sprint along the ground, instinct running through you as you sprint through the forest, following one of the last werewolves to have fled the scene. You're tight on her tail, ready to finish her off, before you hear a barrage of gunfire. Looking ahead, you hear a burst of gunfire, as you slide to a halt. You slam your claws into a tree and skid to a halt, your eyes staring through the trees as you find yourself staring at a werewolf being gunned down. You quickly disappear into the bushes and undergrowth, staring through as a squad of Hunters appears, no doubt looking for what happened to the rest of you. You pause, wondering whether to try talk to them, or retreat into the woods and leave the world alone. > You hunt! Kill! FEED! You let out a fearsome roar, bursting forward with a roar. The human prey animals balk at the sound, as you dive forward, claws raised and teeth bared. The Hunters are used to dealing with werewolves, but you're no mere werewolf. You are the champion of Fenrir. You have his strength, his speed, his abilities, his ferocity. They don't have a chance. You swing your claw, tearing through a Hunter's neck and nearly beheading him with a spurt of blood, sending them flying aside. Your maw snaps onto a Hunter's arm and tearing it off with one motion, throwing it across the earth. You dive aside, dodging a barrage of bullets. You lunge forward, tackling a Hunter and crushing her under your weight and crushing her lungs. You reach your jaws down, tearing out her throat with ease, as you stare over towards the survivors, blood dripping from your maw as you let out a low growl. The last two Hunters turn, fleeing back towards their truck, running desperately as if they have some hope of escape. You easily race down to catch them, knocking away one of their legs and crushing his skull, before tackling the last one and slashing through her neck with your claws. Victorious, you howl towards the moon, laughter racing through you. You look at the scene around of you, slaughtered Hunters lying dead on the ground, blood sinking into the ground. There's no place for you hear. Prey, all slaughtered like lambs.Too weak for you. You hear a few scattered howls through the forest, the answer of the surviving werewolves to your call. You howl once more, calling them to you. You have no need for Hunters anymore. You have your own predators now. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You hack your claws at the creature's arm, or leg, or whatever it could be called, cutting through its flesh and muscles, tearing through hide and fur to the point where your claw is scraping against bone. The creature howls in pain, rolling off you as it retreats with its torn up limb. You pounce forward, unready to give it's a moment respite from the bloodshed. You grab the Alpha in an embrace, forcing the creature back as its claws and arms wrap around. The two of you force your strengths against each other, each trying to push other down to tear your foe apart, but its an equal battle. Even with your gifts from Fenrir, the Alpha is an old being with a fearsome strength, and far beyond what you've dealt with before. The two of you fight, claw and tooth, howling and roaring in the mineshaft, as you try to find everything within you you can find to win this battle. > You escape from the embrace and retreat to a safer distance You knock the beast back quickly, before scampering backwards to escape your foe. However, the Alpha manages to catch your snout with a powerful claw strike as you fumble back, nearly tearing your snout in two. You continue retreating backwards, but the creature lunges forward, tackling you. As you're left undefended and scampering backwards, you're practically unable to defend yourself as the creature slams you against the ground, snapping your neck with ease.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Fenrir's call having strengthened your soul and sharpened your abilities, your lupine hunting form solidified, your claws sharpened and a true feeling of power in your heart, you're ready to strike. You hurry through the mine shafts and tunnels, nostrils filled with the pungent odor of the other werewolves hiding in the tunnels. The werewolves are easy to hunt down through the tunnels, as you slaughter them like lambs. With your abilities, you've found that you're faster, stronger and better than any you come across. They're lambs, and you're a wolf. Any werewolves caught by themselves are torn apart, clawed up or eaten, none able to escape your fury. However, these are just simple targets to take down, not the main threat. The main threat's scent is on your nose, and you're hunting him down. You enter a large, open room of the mine shaft, and you find it emerging from the darkness. The Alpha. The creature stares at you with its one working eye, an eye that seems twisted by malice. It slowly prowls ahead, thin, angular body emerging from the darkness. It lets out a bark, as the other werewolves in the mine shaft slowly part, moving back to allow you two to fight. It's a challenge. The Alpha is challenging you for dominance, clearly aware that its position is tenuous, and that if it doesn't take down the new threat, it'll lose the respect of its pack. It's lost Fenrir's favor, and needs to regain it. You won't let it. Kill! Slaughter! TEAR! BITE! CLAW! HACK! EAT! BLOOD! FLESH! EVISCERATE" The werewolf lunges forward towards you, as you're left ready to take down the beast. > You leap forward and tackle the beast You leap forward with a howl, your full weight smashing into the Alpha as the two of you roll to the side and smack into the dirt. You grab the Alpha in an embrace, forcing the creature back as its claws and arms wrap around. The two of you force your strengths against each other, each trying to push other down to tear your foe apart, but its an equal battle. Even with your gifts from Fenrir, the Alpha is an old being with a fearsome strength, and far beyond what you've dealt with before. The two of you fight, claw and tooth, howling and roaring in the mineshaft, as you try to find everything within you you can find to win this battle.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Fenrir's call having strengthened your soul and sharpened your abilities, your lupine hunting form solidified, your claws sharpened and a true feeling of power in your heart, you're ready to strike. You hurry through the mine shafts and tunnels, nostrils filled with the pungent odor of the other werewolves hiding in the tunnels. The werewolves are easy to hunt down through the tunnels, as you slaughter them like lambs. With your abilities, you've found that you're faster, stronger and better than any you come across. They're lambs, and you're a wolf. Any werewolves caught by themselves are torn apart, clawed up or eaten, none able to escape your fury. However, these are just simple targets to take down, not the main threat. The main threat's scent is on your nose, and you're hunting him down. You enter a large, open room of the mine shaft, and you find it emerging from the darkness. The Alpha. The creature stares at you with its one working eye, an eye that seems twisted by malice. It slowly prowls ahead, thin, angular body emerging from the darkness. It lets out a bark, as the other werewolves in the mine shaft slowly part, moving back to allow you two to fight. It's a challenge. The Alpha is challenging you for dominance, clearly aware that its position is tenuous, and that if it doesn't take down the new threat, it'll lose the respect of its pack. It's lost Fenrir's favor, and needs to regain it. You won't let it. Kill! Slaughter! TEAR! BITE! CLAW! HACK! EAT! BLOOD! FLESH! EVISCERATE" The werewolf lunges forward towards you, as you're left ready to take down the beast. > You roll to the side and avoid its strike You roll to the side, dashing past as the Alpha slams into the tunnel wall behind you, unable to stop the weight and speed of its lunge and instead crashing upon itself. It collapses to the ground. It falls upon itself as it scrambles to find its position. You wonder whether its time to strike, to tear the creature limb for limb while its off-balance, or whether to keep your distance, letting the creature make a few more lunges so the creature can tire itself out, before finishing it off with a few quick and heavy strikes. > You tear through it with tooth and claw! You lunge forward, hitting the Alpha by the side and knocking the creature on its side. You bite down on a mouthful of flesh, tearing through fur and hide to chew into human flesh, devouring it as the warm, wet beat slides down your throat. You slash your claws, cutting and carving through the creature's side as it tries to escape from your grip, but finds itself unable. It manages to press its claws against your own, stopping you from striking as it uses its leg to push your body away from its own, to keep its jaw away. The creature's dazed and wounded, semi-pinned under your weight, but its powerful maw is still lunging out at you, desperately trying to tear out your throat. If you're going to finish it before it gets a lucky blow or manages to turn the situation around, you need to do it quickly. > You crush its skull! You swing your claw down towards the creature's skull with all your might. The Alpha snaps its jaw forward, its maw tearing into your swinging arm. The strength of your swing only drives your flesh upon their teeth, as you find your arm locked in the Alpha's jaw as it tears through your flesh. The Alpha bites down with all its strength, tearing through your arm. The force of the bite breaks through bone and tears through muscle, as your arm is torn in two. You howl, your bleeding limb screaming with pain. You try to scamper away, but lacking one leg, you simply collapse to the ground, leaving the Alpha with the chance to strike. The Alpha tackles you, pinning you to the ground as its maw once again strikes, sinking into your neck and tearing out your throat. A torrential wave of blood bursts forward, staining your blood red and leaving you sinking to the ground, dead before your head hits the soil.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You lunge forward, hitting the Alpha by the side and knocking the creature on its side. You bite down on a mouthful of flesh, tearing through fur and hide to chew into human flesh, devouring it as the warm, wet beat slides down your throat. You slash your claws, cutting and carving through the creature's side as it tries to escape from your grip, but finds itself unable. It manages to press its claws against your own, stopping you from striking as it uses its leg to push your body away from its own, to keep its jaw away. The creature's dazed and wounded, semi-pinned under your weight, but its powerful maw is still lunging out at you, desperately trying to tear out your throat. If you're going to finish it before it gets a lucky blow or manages to turn the situation around, you need to do it quickly. > You tear through its underside! You burst forward, slashing with your claws as you toss the creature onto its back, revealing its bare, undefended stomach. You stab your claws forward, clawing and tearing through flesh as you eviscerate the creatures heart, stomach and intestines. The creatures whines as its devastated, but its body goes limp, collapsing to the ground. You howl towards the moon, a noise which soon turns to laughter. You turn other werewolves, finding them either fleeing into the woods again or whimpering at you. You laugh, ready to hunt down the mongrels that flee from your sight. Over the next few hours before sunrise, you hunt down the remaining the werewolves. They flee into the night, but your senses mean they're incapable of escaping and your claws and teeth mean that they're never going to escape from you. Soon, your belly is full with flesh, your hair streaked with blood, and the remaining survivors of the pack finished off or having fled. You sprint along the ground, instinct running through you as you sprint through the forest, following one of the last werewolves to have fled the scene. You're tight on her tail, ready to finish her off, before you hear a barrage of gunfire. Looking ahead, you hear a burst of gunfire, as you slide to a halt. You slam your claws into a tree and skid to a halt, your eyes staring through the trees as you find yourself staring at a werewolf being gunned down. You quickly disappear into the bushes and undergrowth, staring through as a squad of Hunters appears, no doubt looking for what happened to the rest of you. You pause, wondering whether to try talk to them, or retreat into the woods and leave the world alone.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You roll to the side, dashing past as the Alpha slams into the tunnel wall behind you, unable to stop the weight and speed of its lunge and instead crashing upon itself. It collapses to the ground. It falls upon itself as it scrambles to find its position. You wonder whether its time to strike, to tear the creature limb for limb while its off-balance, or whether to keep your distance, letting the creature make a few more lunges so the creature can tire itself out, before finishing it off with a few quick and heavy strikes. > You wait and let the Alpha tire itself out lunging You wait patiently, prowling around at the corner of their view. You move slowly around the Alpha, watching intently as you wait for your chance to strike and tear it apart. It doesn't lunge again, perhaps realizing you have the speed to dodge. However, as you soon learn, they're not your only enemy. You hear a growl from the side, as one of the many werewolves of the pack charges out, leaping through the air as it finds courage. You twist around, slashing with your claws as you roar, the creature retreating with a new set of wounds. However, this opens up the chance for the Alpha to strike, and he darts out, tackling you. You try to twist, but the creature stands above you, launching its claws against your head and killing you instantly as they impale through your skull.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You walk forward, staring at the wall in front of you. The scenes are in red paint, depicting fearsome werewolves prowling across the wall, chasing simple outlines of human figures. You follow it from right to left, seeing a massive chained wolf howling at the sky at the very left. Despite the brutal simplicity of the drawings, they reflect a certain life, certain realism, a certain bestial energy that's beyond you. You stare inherently, slowly moving your hands towards them. Your hands slowly edge towards the murals, fingers tracing the outlines of shapes and scenes. The first one depicts a wolf, bound and chained, surrounded by vague outlines of spear-wielding humans. The next depicts a spear wielding human holding a chain in the beasts maw. The next seems to depict a half-man, half-wolf. No doubt the first werewolf, frozen mid transformation in a scream. You pause, staring at the scene in front of you. Despite the simplistic nature of the drawing, being little more than a stick man with a wolf head and claw, most other duties vague and confusing to you, but it holds impact to you. You can almost hear the faint screams of the man as they turn to howls, feel the familiar pain he went through in your heart. You truly understand him. As you look on, the pictures seem to beat and hum with an animalistic energy. The next scene shows the werewolf hunting down packs of warriors, catching one by the leg. The next shows the werewolf watching him transform, as once again his painful transformation feels all too familiar to you. Then, you see an image of a pack of werewolves running against the tunnel walls. The final image shows you the glowing image of the moon, surrounded by a pack of werewolves tearing around Mother Luna. You stare at the moon, watching as the symbol drawing hums and haws with power, glowing in your eyes with a tremendous power beyond human comprehension. You watch, your eyes shining in the reflection. Bright. Moon. Power! Beast! FENRIR! FENRIR CALLS! You heard the world shake and shiver around you, as a booming growl fills the tunnels. "Little one... look at how far you've fallen. Once a proud mortal hunter, now a slave to your bestial urges... my bestial urges," a booming voice growls, tearing through your mind as you feel the urge to howl back at it. You drop to your knees, clutching your hands to your head, you try to focus on the burn of the silver inside you or your wounds, trying not to let your urges consume you. "I am Fenrir, God of Beasts, Hróðvitnir, Hound of Ragnarök, Vánagandr, son of Loki, father of Sköll and Hati Hróðvitnisson, the prophesied killer of Odin, the creator of the werewolves and the Great Maw That Will Consume The World." Focusing on your pain, you manage to hold back the beast within, but only barely. Focusing on the burning hot silver coals in your chest, the pain of your torn up face and the stab wound in your side that's been jabbed in your side, you hold onto your sanity, your humanity, yourself. "You've proven yourself strong. Courageous. Violent. Powerful. I wish to make you my champion. I will sharpen your bestial instinct, I will lengthen your claws, broaden your form, strengthen your flesh, harden your bones. I will make you far more powerful than you have been tonight, a true avatar of my form." You stare ahead at the mural, as the confusing red lines seem to draw together in the growling face of a wolf for a moment, before it becomes too painful to look at. "Simply... embrace the change. Embrace the beast within. Embrace yourself. I'll even leave you with enough of a mind that you can finish what you started here. All you have to do is to release the beast within, and answer my call!" > You fIGHT THE CHANGE! You growl, squeezing your head between your hands as you take a deep breath, focusing on your pain. You focus on the human shape of your hands as they burn with pain, and the feeling of your skin glow with red hot pain, and your humanoid face which burns from silver. You focus on who you are, as you fight off the transformation. "No," you say. "I won't be doing that." "So be it," Fenrir grumbles. "I'll leave you to your fate. Rot in it, mortal one. Soon, your mind will be mine anyway." The roaring noise begins to fade, as the glow of the shifting murals calms, the mural solidifying in front of you. The magical glow that hangs over you fades, and you're left alone in the darkness. You sigh, turning away from the scene in front of you, not wanting to look at the animalistic mural ahead of you, as all it does it draw out the beast within. You shan't be making any deals with Fenrir, the father of beasts. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You push your head up to the bizarre object, sniffing. The outside seems to be made of burning metal, its very aura unnerving you, but the inside is made of colder metal, and you gently press your nose against it, smelling it. It smells ever so faintly of blood, and... Suddenly, the device snaps shut, slicing through your nose as you scream out in pain, collapsing back. The object traps your face in its burning saws, sending waves of burning pain through you. Blood pours down your snout as you scream, the tip of your nose messily hacked off, beginning to burn. You yank your face back, breaking free of the device and spraying the area with a light mist of blood as you find yourself collapsing to the ground, darkness hitting you in waves which contrast with the waves of burning pain, as you're left lying there, your body breaking and burning with pain once again. You don't know whether it's hours, minutes or seconds later, but soon, you find sanity once again. You slowly take breath through your lips, which are torn up, cut and bleeding, your upper lip barely hanging on. Thankfully, the healing factor of the werewolves has left your upper lip scabbing up in a mismatched mess of colors. You nose is heavily damaged, smell somewhat obscured in your left nostril from the dried blood and pus clogging it. You scratch at it, a thin stream of warm blood running down your face. You groan, before finding the strength left in you. Knowing that it's too late for you to just lay down and die, you take a deep breath, focusing your remaining strength of what you can find inside you. You roll to your knees, resting a hand against the cold earth as you relax your tired muscles, looking around the room. The room must've been a mineshaft intersection at one point. It's been rigged up with lights and electricity, with a large desk stacked with television screens in the corner of the room. You peer over at them, watching the various scenes of the forest. It must be another bunch of cameras connected to the screens. Your eyes flicker to the hung up "meat" ahead of you, hanging from the ceiling, as you begin to feel sick. The mutilated, bleeding corpses of Hans Hirsch, Russel Sloane and Father Charles Féval hang from the ceiling, blood dripping down and pooling underneath them. Russel Sloane's been hacked apart, his face a crushed mess, his body missing dozens of chunks of flesh all over him from the pickings the werewolves chewed off him. Hans Hirsh is even less so, his upper body entirely missing, only a pair of legs in gray trousers with black, polished boots. You recognize him from his boots, and his boots alone. Father Féval's body still bares the marks of your shotgun blast, his chest blown apart, ribs hanging down to the ground. He's the most intact corpse there, yet the most gruesome. His face is stuck forever in an expression of fear and pain, his eyes dead and hollow, completely lifeless. You reach for your knife to cut them down, sighing as you realize its not there, and you're several outfits from the one you dressed yourself in this morning. Hell, maybe you should leave them up there anyway. At least the rats won't get there. You feel a pang of hunger, and draw your eyes away from your comrades. You won't disgrace them like that. Scanning the room, you find yourself staring at the table propped up against the wall, stacked with various items. Cellphones, guns, knives, ammo, equipment and an assortment of other items. At the Then, there's the tunnel. A long, dark cavern going in the other direction that you've went down. The howls you heard came from down there. That's where the wolves are. That's where you'll need to go to finish this. You look down at the map ahead of you, a sprawled out blueprints of the mine. Scanning it quickly, your old eyes take in the information you need. Though you're weak in Norway, you manage to make out the notes sprawled across the page. There's a dozen designations across the various areas in the mine. Judging by where you came in, you're in the "Security Room". There's also the "Sleeping Chambers", "(HUMAN) Sleeping Chambers", "Feeding Area", and... You pause, tapping your finger. The "Mine Equipment Storage Area (Armory)". Given the impressive arsenal of explosives that was at the scout house, there'd be even more explosives there at the armory. Enough to take down a mine. If there's even a fraction more explosives there, there might be enough to collapse the mine on itself and to kill all the beasts that prowl these mines. Perhaps you might find some use there. It's as good a place to start as any, given you won't be able to take down the horde with firearms alone. You turn your head, hearing a low growl nearby, only to find yourself staring at the blank stone walls. You squint your eyes, making out murals among them. Blood red images crudely painted, depicting fearsome creatures and other scenes. Interesting. > You gather up the gear you need and take down the pack You limp over to the table, breathing heavily. You slowly go up to the corpses of your friends, too tired and exhausted to even feel sick or disgusted. You're just a professional doing one more job, you don't have time for disgust. You strip yourself a mismatched outfit from the corpses to at least afford you some protection from the cold, before grabbing a revolver and holstering it by your side. You grab a knife and sheath, attaching it to your belt, before looking to your shotgun. Running your hands along its familiar contours, you smile, feeling a sense of finality come over you. "Just one more push," you say to yourself, loading the shells into the cold metal chamber. Your gear ready and costume on, you look to the map one more time, scanning the paths you can take to get to the equipment area. Once you're sure of the way to go, you head off through the tunnels. Marching through the mine shafts at a reasonable, you keep your shotgun raised and your ears twitching. At this point, the beast is raging again inside of you, its sense allowing you to hear ever creak through the caverns and smell every scent. Its only through focusing on the painful silver throughout your body and fighting the beast every step of the way, but exhaustion is meaning that's getting harder and harder. Stumbling down the hallway, you hear the distant growls of a werewolf pack echoing off the walls. You flinch, as your ears perk up and you realize that the sounds are growing louder. A group of werewolves, more than one but no more than four or five, are coming. You swear under your breath, ready to fight them off. > You hide and let them pass You find a hiding spot along the mineshaft, a collapsing crook in the wall that you can clamber down into the hole. You tighten your body, moving into the cramped place and dusting dirt across onto you, to cover yourself up. You begin waiting, as the growls grow closer and closer. Soon, the werewolves appear, prowling along the dirt path. They creep forward, heads low as they sniff the air, slowly stumbling The lead wolf stops, nose flickering as its ears perk up. It sniffs the air, its head turning as its bright eyes zero in on you. It growls, as you realize it's caught your scent. Lying on your back, undefended and incapable of fighting, the werewolves tear you apart before you can even reach for your weapon.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You limp over to the table, breathing heavily. You slowly go up to the corpses of your friends, too tired and exhausted to even feel sick or disgusted. You're just a professional doing one more job, you don't have time for disgust. You strip yourself a mismatched outfit from the corpses to at least afford you some protection from the cold, before grabbing a revolver and holstering it by your side. You grab a knife and sheath, attaching it to your belt, before looking to your shotgun. Running your hands along its familiar contours, you smile, feeling a sense of finality come over you. "Just one more push," you say to yourself, loading the shells into the cold metal chamber. Your gear ready and costume on, you look to the map one more time, scanning the paths you can take to get to the equipment area. Once you're sure of the way to go, you head off through the tunnels. Marching through the mine shafts at a reasonable, you keep your shotgun raised and your ears twitching. At this point, the beast is raging again inside of you, its sense allowing you to hear ever creak through the caverns and smell every scent. Its only through focusing on the painful silver throughout your body and fighting the beast every step of the way, but exhaustion is meaning that's getting harder and harder. Stumbling down the hallway, you hear the distant growls of a werewolf pack echoing off the walls. You flinch, as your ears perk up and you realize that the sounds are growing louder. A group of werewolves, more than one but no more than four or five, are coming. You swear under your breath, ready to fight them off. > You set an ambush An ambush, if done well enough, could wipe out the werewolves that prowl through the corridors, which would mean you're able to continue your planned route to the storage area. You hold up, prying yourself in cover with your weapon ready. You see them in the dark mineshaft, a group of four prowling werewolves walking at a slow trot through the tunnels. If you open fire from the distance, you have more time before they reach you to take them all down, but if you open fire from closer, you'll preserve ammo, something you're running short on. > You wait unitl they're close to make the most of your limited shotgun ammo You wait for them them to move closer, and closer, watching intently as they come within the definite kill range. Moving out of cover, you fire, and your first blast blows away a werewolf, sending it slamming into the wall. You swivel, pumping out the used shell and firing again as you take off another werewolf's head, but at this point, they're upon you. A claw swipe bursts forward, hitting you in the side of head with the force of a baseball bat covered with knives. You hit the mineshaft all with a thud, the world going black and fuzzy as you can feel the warm, wet blood run down your face. You look up, seeing a vague shape lunging towards you. You don't survive the next strike.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>An ambush, if done well enough, could wipe out the werewolves that prowl through the corridors, which would mean you're able to continue your planned route to the storage area. You hold up, prying yourself in cover with your weapon ready. You see them in the dark mineshaft, a group of four prowling werewolves walking at a slow trot through the tunnels. If you open fire from the distance, you have more time before they reach you to take them all down, but if you open fire from closer, you'll preserve ammo, something you're running short on. > You open fire as soon as you see them, giving you distance from them You open fire, the first blast of shards of silver and magnesium tearing through the werewolves side, causing it to stumble, but at this distance and with your weakened aiming stance, you don't take it down. You pump your shotgun, the pack of werewolves nearing as you fire again. This round slams directly into a lupine head, killing it in one blast as its body rolls to a halt. You reload, firing again as you blow away a werewolf's front leg, causing it to fall and stumble, smacking into the ground with a spray of blood. You reload again, but by this time they're upon you. You raise your rifle, as a werewolf leaps forward, tackling you with a howl. You hit the ground with a thud, ramming your shotgun barrel against the underside of the creature's chest. Its jaws clamp down on your face, tearing through flesh, skin and cartilage. You fire, the werewolf hit straight through its chest, blowing the werewolf off you and killing it instantly. You roll to the side to try stand, as the other werewolf hits you from the side, knocking you down with a swipe of its claw, cutting through your side and carving open ribs. You scream out, as the werewolf lunges forward, landing on your neck and crushing your windpipe with a stomp and killing you instantly. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You limp over to the table, breathing heavily. You slowly go up to the corpses of your friends, too tired and exhausted to even feel sick or disgusted. You're just a professional doing one more job, you don't have time for disgust. You strip yourself a mismatched outfit from the corpses to at least afford you some protection from the cold, before grabbing a revolver and holstering it by your side. You grab a knife and sheath, attaching it to your belt, before looking to your shotgun. Running your hands along its familiar contours, you smile, feeling a sense of finality come over you. "Just one more push," you say to yourself, loading the shells into the cold metal chamber. Your gear ready and costume on, you look to the map one more time, scanning the paths you can take to get to the equipment area. Once you're sure of the way to go, you head off through the tunnels. Marching through the mine shafts at a reasonable, you keep your shotgun raised and your ears twitching. At this point, the beast is raging again inside of you, its sense allowing you to hear ever creak through the caverns and smell every scent. Its only through focusing on the painful silver throughout your body and fighting the beast every step of the way, but exhaustion is meaning that's getting harder and harder. Stumbling down the hallway, you hear the distant growls of a werewolf pack echoing off the walls. You flinch, as your ears perk up and you realize that the sounds are growing louder. A group of werewolves, more than one but no more than four or five, are coming. You swear under your breath, ready to fight them off. > You fall back and find another way You turn, quickly hurrying back along the mineshaft at a light job. You try move at a reasonable speed, dealing with your exhaustion as best as you can. You struggle to remember the map's various roots to your destination, and manage to turn off where you're supposed to, heading through the halls at a light jog. You have to move quick to avoid the prowling werewolves, but your senses mean that by time they hear you, you hear them, and you manage to move quickly to avoid the bastards. It takes some time, but you manage to come across the heavy wooden door to the armory, a dusty "Equipment Storage Area" sign above the door. You breathe a sigh of relief. Your journey's nearly over now. > You fire through the door! You raise your shotgun, aiming through the door as you try to target where a sitting man's head would be or a standing man's heart. You take a deep breath, before squeezing the trigger. The shotgun bucks, the blast tearing through the door and carving a hole, wood breaking, cracking and splintering from the blast. You hear a grunt from inside, quickly reloading as you stare through the hole, seeing a limp man lying in a chair, blood running down his chest. You wince as you hear the shot echoing off the wall, realizing just how loud it was. That'll no doubt draw the attention of the werewolves, so you need to act fast. You reach through the newly formed hole in the door, unlatching the door lock and opening the door. You move into the room, staring around it at the racks of equipment. Most of it is useless to you, picks, shovels and other mining tools. Most importantly, however, are your targets. Racks of C4, plastic explosives, dynamite and timed explosives are stacked haphazardly in crates in the corner, no doubt to be used for sabotage and destruction by the werewolves' servants, and the werewolves in their human forms. You smile, seeing nothing but potential there. There's definitely enough to wipe out these sons of bitches and bring this mine down on its... A growl interrupts you from your planning, as you turn to see a group of werewolves racing down the mineshaft towards the armory, no doubt attracted by the gunshot. You swear, seeing how close they are, and that you've already damaged the door beyond repair, leaving you with little defenses against them. "Fuck!" you snarl, seeing the werewolves quickly approach, a large, black creature with streaks of gray in its fur taking lead, as you hurry with the explosives, trying to arm them in time as you fumble with triggers. The werewolf claw tears through the bullet hole from the shotgun, claws tearing through splintering wood and breaking past it as it quickly carves its path through the door. It lunges through the hole, barreling on top of you as you scream, shaking desperately to get the beast off you, before it finishes you off with a weak claw strike that tears through your neck and carves open your spinal cord. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You turn, quickly hurrying back along the mineshaft at a light job. You try move at a reasonable speed, dealing with your exhaustion as best as you can. You struggle to remember the map's various roots to your destination, and manage to turn off where you're supposed to, heading through the halls at a light jog. You have to move quick to avoid the prowling werewolves, but your senses mean that by time they hear you, you hear them, and you manage to move quickly to avoid the bastards. It takes some time, but you manage to come across the heavy wooden door to the armory, a dusty "Equipment Storage Area" sign above the door. You breathe a sigh of relief. Your journey's nearly over now. > You knock on the door You knock on the heavy wooden door, a loud knocking noise ringing through the mineshaft. You wait for a moment, as the noise echoes off before being replaced by silence. For a moment, you worry no one's actually inside, before you're answered. "What is it?" a gruff, manic voice comes through the door. "What?" Time to think of a lie to get him to open the door. Quick! > You say "I'm here to relieve you from guard duty!" "I'm here to relieve you from guard duty." "Thank fuck," the voice answers. "I haven't eaten in hours. Those fucking Hunters need to learn their place, god dammit. Two secs." The door clicks unlocked, before swinging open. A weak, skinny figure stumbles out, his height only further stretching his gaunt frame becoming almost skeletal. His manic eyes spot you as he realizes he's been tricked, but you're far faster and better prepared than he is, moving forward swiftly with your knife drawn. You slice your blade into his stomach, moving up through the ribs and killing him instantly. He gasps as you continue to slice through his flesh. He goes weak, as you push his limp body to the ground. You grab him under his armpit, dragging him into the room and closing the door behind you. You move into the room, staring around it at the racks of equipment. Most of it is useless to you, picks, shovels and other mining tools. Most importantly, however, are your targets. Racks of C4, plastic explosives, dynamite and timed explosives are stacked haphazardly in crates in the corner, no doubt to be used for sabotage and destruction by the werewolves' servants, and the werewolves in their human forms. You smile, seeing nothing but potential there. There's definitely enough to wipe out these sons of bitches and bring this mine down on itself. > You rig this place up Your work with explosives isn't exemplary, but as a Hunter, you've worked with it before. You've done basic training in using them in the field, and even used them in hunting before. Triggering an avalanche to take out a pack of starved ghouls born from starved, lost, cannibalistic campers, a demolition of a ghost-ridden house and even using a grenade to take out a cultist's van. So, while this is a step up, it's not beyond you. You work quickly in setting up the explosives piling dynamite and fire-ignition based explosives as a base for the stacks of plastic explosives, all linked to the trigger of a simple timer. The work is hard, focusing being near impossible due to the ravenous hunger of the beast within, but you focus on your task and keep working, focusing on your pain when needs be. You set it for three minutes, adding an additional back-up timer hidden away under the stack so that if the first one is found and disabled, the disarmer is in for a serious surprise. Your job finished, you lean back, sighing as you stare ahead of you. As the ticking slowly continues, you wonder what's left to do. > You wait for death Ash and Silver You stare at the explosives, watching as it slowly ticks away. You breathe slowly, feeling the beast within howl and roar. Just a few minutes now. Soon, this hellish night will come to an end. You breathe slowly, a smile on your face as you weakly watch the clicking counter. It's time for this all to end. As the timer clicks to the last few seconds, you laugh, a freeing sound as you shake off all your worries and stress, your terrors and your nightmares, and just lets you feel free for the first time tonight. You expect a flash and a bang, but it doesn't come. Instead, the world just suddenly goes dark as the desperate, clawing, howling beast within you get pulled down into the depths of darkness with you. The mine erupt in a wave of ash and fire, the mines collapsing down itself and burying the entire mine shaft in a pile of rubble and earth, nothing but a mass grave now. The mine collapsed upon the werewolves' lair, everything inside is killed almost instantly, you included. As the sun rises on a new morning, chasing the moon from the sky, there's an air of hope left. The werewolf menace is defeated, the pack wiped out, the few survivors fleeing through the forest to where they'll be mopped up by the Hunters come to figure out what's happened you. The werewolf menace is wiped out, and the creatures that threatened to rule the night are left as nothing. The hold of the moon broken, nothing's left of the world. Although your thirteenth hunt has come to an end, as has you, you've done your duty. The dark things that plague the night, creatures made from darkness and nightmares that feed upon the blood and flesh of the innocent and that rule the night and loathe the living, are slaughtered like lambs, and it is safe to walk the night once more.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Your work with explosives isn't exemplary, but as a Hunter, you've worked with it before. You've done basic training in using them in the field, and even used them in hunting before. Triggering an avalanche to take out a pack of starved ghouls born from starved, lost, cannibalistic campers, a demolition of a ghost-ridden house and even using a grenade to take out a cultist's van. So, while this is a step up, it's not beyond you. You work quickly in setting up the explosives piling dynamite and fire-ignition based explosives as a base for the stacks of plastic explosives, all linked to the trigger of a simple timer. The work is hard, focusing being near impossible due to the ravenous hunger of the beast within, but you focus on your task and keep working, focusing on your pain when needs be. You set it for three minutes, adding an additional back-up timer hidden away under the stack so that if the first one is found and disabled, the disarmer is in for a serious surprise. Your job finished, you lean back, sighing as you stare ahead of you. As the ticking slowly continues, you wonder what's left to do. > You try find your way out of the yours shaft before the timer goes off You stand up, weakly standing. You find what little strength remains in you, and decide to get out of there. You want to see the moon one last time. You take up a jog, hurrying as quickly as you can. The armory's located relatively close to a way out of the mineshaft, so you break into a run, hurrying through the mine shaft. You run as fast as you can, hurrying along the pathways. A werewolf appears in front of you, and you fire your shotgun, blowing a gaping hole in the beasts neck and putting it down. You keep running forward, leaping over the dying beast as it falls quickly. You keep heading with as much speed as you can, using your senses to avoid werewolf patrols as you hurry ahead. Suddenly, you see it. The beams of pale moonlight descending from the sky, beaming into the edge of the mineshaft. Seeing it so close, you continue running, quickly, making You stumble out of the mineshaft, heading out into the moonlight once again. You hurl yourself forward, scampering out into the light as you collapse on the ground, breathing heavily. You turn your head, staring back to the mineshaft. About twenty seconds later, the ground shakes as the mineshaft erupts, flames bursting along the mine shaft as the mine shaft collapses in on itself, earth collapsing in to fill the tunnel. The ground shakes as the sky roars, ash and smoke billowing up towards the sky. You laugh, a freeing sound as you shake off all your worries and stress, your terrors and your nightmares, and just lets you feel free for the first time tonight. You feel the beast prowling in your heart, tearing at your body as it tries to get free. Your shotgun is heavy as your hands, as you stare at the smoke pour from the collapsed mineshaft, billowing up into the sky. The howls that have permeated the night are over, and the moon's power wanes in the sky. It'll be an hour or two before the sun rises, but you're finished here. Your mission is complete, your allies avenged. With the werewolf pack defeated, you feel nothing but relief. You rest your tired head on your shotgun, staring ahead. > You take your own life Ash and Silver You raise the rifle to your head, taking it in your arms as you press the bottom of your chin against the gun barrel. You prop the gun upwards, aiming it so that it should go through your skull and out the top of your head. You reach down, pressing your finger against the trigger. You take a deep breath, closing your eyes. You're finished your work tonight. You've avenged your comrades, and defeated the threat. You feel the pangs of hunger tear through you again as the beast awakens, roaring through your entire essence. You grit your teeth, trying to hold back the urge to scream. You slowly release your breath, before pressing down on the trigger. The gun fires, and the silver bullets tear through your chin, bursting up through your skull, blowing apart your brain and shooting out the top of your skull. Darkness shrouds over you, and you can feel the desperate, clawing, howling beast within you get pulled down into the depths of darkness with you. The mist of your red blood mixes with the ash-filled air and the silver shards that hit the dust. As the sun rises, chasing the moon from the sky. The mine collapsed upon the werewolves' lair, no survivors are left. The werewolf menace is defeated, the pack wiped out, the few survivors fleeing through the forest to where they'll be mopped up by the Hunters come to figure out what's happened you. The werewolf menace is wiped out, and the creatures that threatened to rule the night are left as nothing. The hold of the moon broken, nothing's left of the world. Although your thirteenth hunt has come to an end, as has you, you've done your duty. The dark things that plague the night, creatures made from darkness and nightmares that feed upon the blood and flesh of the innocent and that rule the night and loathe the living, are slaughtered like lambs, and it is safe to walk the night once more.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You stand up, weakly standing. You find what little strength remains in you, and decide to get out of there. You want to see the moon one last time. You take up a jog, hurrying as quickly as you can. The armory's located relatively close to a way out of the mineshaft, so you break into a run, hurrying through the mine shaft. You run as fast as you can, hurrying along the pathways. A werewolf appears in front of you, and you fire your shotgun, blowing a gaping hole in the beasts neck and putting it down. You keep running forward, leaping over the dying beast as it falls quickly. You keep heading with as much speed as you can, using your senses to avoid werewolf patrols as you hurry ahead. Suddenly, you see it. The beams of pale moonlight descending from the sky, beaming into the edge of the mineshaft. Seeing it so close, you continue running, quickly, making You stumble out of the mineshaft, heading out into the moonlight once again. You hurl yourself forward, scampering out into the light as you collapse on the ground, breathing heavily. You turn your head, staring back to the mineshaft. About twenty seconds later, the ground shakes as the mineshaft erupts, flames bursting along the mine shaft as the mine shaft collapses in on itself, earth collapsing in to fill the tunnel. The ground shakes as the sky roars, ash and smoke billowing up towards the sky. You laugh, a freeing sound as you shake off all your worries and stress, your terrors and your nightmares, and just lets you feel free for the first time tonight. You feel the beast prowling in your heart, tearing at your body as it tries to get free. Your shotgun is heavy as your hands, as you stare at the smoke pour from the collapsed mineshaft, billowing up into the sky. The howls that have permeated the night are over, and the moon's power wanes in the sky. It'll be an hour or two before the sun rises, but you're finished here. Your mission is complete, your allies avenged. With the werewolf pack defeated, you feel nothing but relief. You rest your tired head on your shotgun, staring ahead. > You watch the smoke billow up You stare at the rising plumes of smoke as they ascend into the sky, the brightness of the moon struggling to shine through the smoke. You watch as the sky slowly grows dark, as darkness crowds around the corner of your vision, slowly moving inward as you grow weak. Soon, you find yourself being pulled into the darkness as your vision goes dark, your body growing still. Suddenly, the pain bursts through you as you begin shuddering in pain. You grit your teeth, trying to hold in your urge to scream as you feel the change one more time. You struggle to defeat the beast inside your soul, but you're too weak and exhausted to do so, as the beast consumes your broken spirit with ease. You growl, your body twisting and breaking as you're torn apart and reformed into your lupine form. The pain is almost familiar to you now, as you quickly turn to the predator body that your instincts are familiar with. As you shake and shudder with pain, you find turned back to the brutal beast that has been residing in your heart this entire time. Slowly, the pain begins to subside, but you find your mind incapable of reforming, still incapable of focusing in any regard. You shake your head with a growl, feeling the air blow through your fur, the smell of nearby prey, the crunching of soil under your paws. With your human form broken and exhausted, the beast is able to shake off any remaining onces of anger. You feel the powerful call of the moon above you, feeling relieved and stronger than ever. Yes... that's it. It calls. Survivors of the pack, out hunting when the mines collapsed. They're scared, terrified, looking for a leader. You are that leader. Suddenly, instinct takes over, and you find yourself sprinting through the woods, howling into the sky. An array of howls answer back, and you follow the call, answering with your own powerful howl. Wolves. Pack. Call! Strong! POWER! HUNT! Now is your moment to gather the wolves, the beast within finally coming to howl in the light of the moon.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You knock on the heavy wooden door, a loud knocking noise ringing through the mineshaft. You wait for a moment, as the noise echoes off before being replaced by silence. For a moment, you worry no one's actually inside, before you're answered. "What is it?" a gruff, manic voice comes through the door. "What?" Time to think of a lie to get him to open the door. Quick! > You say "We need reinforcements! The Hunters are nearby!" "We need reinforcements! The Hunters are nearby!" "I know, dammit! They're all over these fucking woods, that's why they put me on guard duty! Make sure they can't take control of our weapons and blow this fucking place up! Just go search through the tunnels, try find them, do something useful, fucker!" Well shit, that didn't work. You suppose there's only one way in left. > You just shoot through the door "Oh for fuck's sake," you mutter. You raise your shotgun, aiming through the door as you try to target where a sitting man's head would be or a standing man's heart. You take a deep breath, before squeezing the trigger. The shotgun bucks, the blast tearing through the door and carving a hole, wood breaking, cracking and splintering from the blast. You hear a grunt from inside, quickly reloading as you stare through the hole, seeing a limp man lying in a chair, blood running down his chest. You wince as you hear the shot echoing off the wall, realizing just how loud it was. That'll no doubt draw the attention of the werewolves, so you need to act fast. You reach through the newly formed hole in the door, unlatching the door lock and opening the door. You move into the room, staring around it at the racks of equipment. Most of it is useless to you, picks, shovels and other mining tools. Most importantly, however, are your targets. Racks of C4, plastic explosives, dynamite and timed explosives are stacked haphazardly in crates in the corner, no doubt to be used for sabotage and destruction by the werewolves' servants, and the werewolves in their human forms. You smile, seeing nothing but potential there. There's definitely enough to wipe out these sons of bitches and bring this mine down on its... A growl interrupts you from your planning, as you turn to see a group of werewolves racing down the mineshaft towards the armory, no doubt attracted by the gunshot. You swear, seeing how close they are, and that you've already damaged the door beyond repair, leaving you with little defenses against them. "Fuck!" you snarl, seeing the werewolves quickly approach, a large, black creature with streaks of gray in its fur taking lead, as you hurry with the explosives, trying to arm them in time as you fumble with triggers. The werewolf claw tears through the bullet hole from the shotgun, claws tearing through splintering wood and breaking past it as it quickly carves its path through the door. It lunges through the hole, barreling on top of you as you scream, shaking desperately to get the beast off you, before it finishes you off with a weak claw strike that tears through your neck and carves open your spinal cord. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You knock on the heavy wooden door, a loud knocking noise ringing through the mineshaft. You wait for a moment, as the noise echoes off before being replaced by silence. For a moment, you worry no one's actually inside, before you're answered. "What is it?" a gruff, manic voice comes through the door. "What?" Time to think of a lie to get him to open the door. Quick! > You say "Open up! NOW!" "Open up! NOW!" you snarl, smacking your fist heavily against the heavy wooden door. "I've orders t...!" a worried voice comes back, seeming put off by the anger evident in your voice. I swear to fuck, i will tear out your throat myself and tear you apart, motherfucker!" you roar. "Shit, shit, OK!" the voice answers, as you hear the door hastily be unlocked. It seems the bestial, pack-based hierarchal nature of the wolf pack and its servants means that acting aggressively shows dominance and scares the weaker members into following you. The door clicks unlocked, before swinging open. A weak, skinny figure stumbles out, his height only further stretching his gaunt frame becoming almost skeletal. His manic eyes spot you as he realizes he's been tricked, but you're far faster and better prepared than he is, moving forward swiftly with your knife drawn. You slice your blade into his stomach, moving up through the ribs and killing him instantly. He gasps as you continue to slice through his flesh. He goes weak, as you push his limp body to the ground. You grab him under his armpit, dragging him into the room and closing the door behind you. Now alone in the room, you stare around it at the racks of equipment. Most of it is useless to you, picks, shovels and other mining tools. Most importantly, however, are your targets. Racks of C4, plastic explosives, dynamite and timed explosives are stacked haphazardly in crates in the corner, no doubt to be used for sabotage and destruction by the werewolves' servants, and the werewolves in their human forms. You smile, seeing nothing but potential there. There's definitely enough to wipe out these sons of bitches and bring this mine down on itself. "Perfect," you chuckle weakly, barely any strength left in you. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You double down, catching in the Albino in a deadly embrace, forcing it back. Your reflexes, your speed and your abilities are far outpaced by the creature, who has had far more time to get used to its body. However, strength might be something you have. You're a tough, hardy man and far stronger than the average man, so perhaps in your lupine form you'll the stronger of this pair. You dig your hind legs in, ramming forward as you force the beast back. The Albino yelps, attempting to shove you aside, but you've caught it now, and you're able to twist it around as you launch it against the wall. The Albino smacks up against the wall, sliding down it as its covered in a thick layer of dirt, before you burst forward, raking your claws across the Albino's chest. You slash your claws forward, tearing out the creature's stomach as you hack into its ribs. The creature howls out in pain, weakly jabbing its claws at you as you step back in one quick dodge. You growl, watching the dying creature in front of you. Your stomach begs you to give up any semblance of weakness, to tear into this meal and feast, but some small, weak little voice reminds you that you have a mission to do. You could leave the beast here to bleed to death, with no hope of it surviving the lethal wounds you've caused, or you could crush its skull and end its life now. > You leave the beast bleed The creature deserves to suffer like you have for what it's done to you. You snarl, shaking your head as you look down at the broken creature. It whines, looking up at you with a desperate, broken expression. The pain of its lethal wounds mean that it's simply so pain-wracked that it's lost all sentience or intelligence, now simply left as a pain-filled beast trying to find respite. You grin viciously down at it, before turning, heading deep into the darkness of the tunnel and leaving its desperate whines behind you. You spend several minutes walking through the darkness, before you find yourself prowling through a new plethora of senses. You find yourself in a large, cavernous room, glowing with golden light. A bonfire sits in the center of the cavern, warming your tired bones. Three corpses of cooked meat hang from the ceiling, blood dripping down in an appetizing fashion. You stare at them, licking your lips for a moment, before changing focus. There's a row of strange, bright glowing lights to the side, showing bizarre tiny forests in the distance. A metal table sits to the side, covered with strange objects, alongside a wall where many more things hang. Light. Heat. Warm. Fire! Bright! EAT! Meat! Flesh! Kill! FEED! NOISES! HUMANS! KILL! SLAUGHTER! You shake your head, your mind awash with new sensations, trying to let your instincts take over. You calm yourself, and your eyes flicker open as you examine the room. You find yourself smelling what looks to be dried blood, encrusted on one of the bizarre objects. You dip your snout forward, examining it cautiously. It seems to be covered in burning metal and cold metal, a bizarre combination of the two strange materials. You pause, hearing the sound of distant howling down the tunnels. It doesn't seem to be drawing closer, instead drawing fainter and fainter as the pack of werewolves screaming goes further and further a way. You feel drawn to it, curious as to what it could be, but a small mind deep in your head seems to recognize the object with a strange familiarity. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You roll your legs under the bulk of the Albino's weight, breathing heavily as you try to find your strength. You snarl, forcing your legs forwards as you force the creature back. You pause, building your strength for one moment, before using your legs to launch the beast at the wall. The Albino is launched against the wall, knocking against the earthen mine wall as it collapses to the ground with a thud. The creature growls, standing up as it moves forward, raising its clawed hands as it attempts to ram you against the wall, catching you in the bestial version of a rugby scrum. You raise your arms, grabbing them and trying to keep it from biting out your throat in a rage, standing on your hindlegs as you're ready to retreat. > You dODGE! Dart back, let it strike and hit its flank! You dodge back, retreating to avoid a fearsome bite, before sliding to the side, quickly retreating as your paws pounce along the mine cart tracks. You roll to avoid the Albino's lunge, before it manages to hit you from the side, grabbing your head and bouncing it against the wall. You shake off any potential concussion just in time to roll under a claw. The Albino's faster than you, its reflexes sharper, its abilities far greater as its hunted with its lupine body many a time, while you're entirely new to it. The Albino catches you with a claw, knocking away your hindleg. You stumble forward, before the Albino grabs your head with a pair of clawed paws, smashing your head against the ground with a pained scream, before the werewolf lands the full force of its strength on your skull, splitting it in two.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You find yourself howling, your body transforming in a mere moment, incapable of holding off the change for any longer. The fur bursts from your skin as it toughens and tears, your body stretching in an instant. Your teeth, a mouthful of ivory blades, are revealed as you open your jaw. You smash into the Albino, tearing it through the air and smashing it off the tunnel wall. The creature bounces off the wall, before rolling to its feet and leaping forward with one pounce, lunging for you. You snarl, batting it aside with a pair of claws, slashing as its face at the creature pins you to the ground. The other beast is strong, fast and deadly, the creature being far more used to its bestial body than you are. The creature wields its fangs like daggers, its claws like swords, its weight a crushing wrecking ball, every feature of it turned into a weapon of death and slaughter. However, it's no doubt transformed from poorer stock than you, once having been a normal human rather than a Hunter like yourself, who dedicated their life to the craft of hunting. By how you reckon, the Albino has the advantage, but you won't be going down without a fight. You struggle against his grip, pinned against the stone, struggling to get out from it's weight, as its gnashing teeth comes towards your throat, its mouth caught in a fearsome howl. > You slash your claws at the werewolf's eyes You move your claw under the creature's weight, before jabbing your claws forward in an attempt to hack out the creature's eyes. Your long, sharp claws razor along the Albino's face, carving off chunks of pale white hair and bits of flesh. You miss the eyes, carving out the top of its brow with a deep gouge. The werewolf snarls, throwing itself off you in an attempt to escape another claw attack. Blood rushes down its face, staining its pale fur and filling its eyes with its own blood. The Albino shakes its head as it tries to see, stumbling into the wall of the mineshaft as you manage to roll to your feet, ready to kill. The creature yelps, desperately trying to back up, shaking its head to get the blood out of its eyes to let it see again. You have a moment where the creature is confused, scared and on the back foot, but hurrying to recover, leaving you wondering whether it's time to land the killing blow. > You tear out their throat! With the creature weakened, you burst forward, pouncing with a solid leap as you grab the creature in your claws, pushing it against the wall in one solid move, revealing its throat, completely open to you and available to your tooth-filled jaws. You jab forward, landing a bite on the jaw. You dig your teeth in as hard as you can, feeling a burst of joy as a wave of blood hits you, tearing free of the creature's flesh and fresh, warm blood runs down your throat. You gulp it down eagerly, before tearing out the chunk of flesh with one solid motion. The creature's throat is left as a bloody hole. You watch as the creature begins to choke and drown on its blood, the Albino spasming pathetically in front of you as it weakly paws at your neck and trying to breathe as the light fades from its eyes. You growl, watching the dying creature in front of you. Your stomach begs you to give up any semblance of weakness, to tear into this meal and feast, but some small, weak little voice reminds you that you have a mission to do. You could leave the beast here to bleed to death, with no hope of it surviving the lethal wounds you've caused, or you could crush its skull and end its life now.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You move your claw under the creature's weight, before jabbing your claws forward in an attempt to hack out the creature's eyes. Your long, sharp claws razor along the Albino's face, carving off chunks of pale white hair and bits of flesh. You miss the eyes, carving out the top of its brow with a deep gouge. The werewolf snarls, throwing itself off you in an attempt to escape another claw attack. Blood rushes down its face, staining its pale fur and filling its eyes with its own blood. The Albino shakes its head as it tries to see, stumbling into the wall of the mineshaft as you manage to roll to your feet, ready to kill. The creature yelps, desperately trying to back up, shaking its head to get the blood out of its eyes to let it see again. You have a moment where the creature is confused, scared and on the back foot, but hurrying to recover, leaving you wondering whether it's time to land the killing blow. > You wait; bide your time You wait, standing back and waiting for a better chance to land the killing blow. The Albino repositions itself, growling cautiously as it retreats a few meters down the dark tunnel, refusing to near you in its snarl. The Albino repositions itself, now more cautious, the cunning glow in its eyes brightening as it stares at you. With a growl, it steps forward, ready to strike again. It moves forward with a quick few steps, as you find yourself trying to dodge strike after strike. The creature knocks away your foreleg, moving with quick speed. You hop up, trying to leap over the beast, but it catches your underside with a rake of its claw, tearing open your chest. You fly through the air, hitting the wall and sliding to the ground, your belly messily hacked open, your ribs broken. You try to stand, before the werewolf leaps forward, smashing its claw down. The creature buries its claw into your throat, severing your windpipe and spurting blood out and pooling it around you. You try to let out a terrified, pathetic howl, only to find your gurgling on your own blood. Unable to find the strength to keep your head up, you lower it into the warm pool of blood, letting the darkness take you.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You find yourself howling, your body transforming in a mere moment, incapable of holding off the change for any longer. The fur bursts from your skin as it toughens and tears, your body stretching in an instant. Your teeth, a mouthful of ivory blades, are revealed as you open your jaw. You smash into the Albino, tearing it through the air and smashing it off the tunnel wall. The creature bounces off the wall, before rolling to its feet and leaping forward with one pounce, lunging for you. You snarl, batting it aside with a pair of claws, slashing as its face at the creature pins you to the ground. The other beast is strong, fast and deadly, the creature being far more used to its bestial body than you are. The creature wields its fangs like daggers, its claws like swords, its weight a crushing wrecking ball, every feature of it turned into a weapon of death and slaughter. However, it's no doubt transformed from poorer stock than you, once having been a normal human rather than a Hunter like yourself, who dedicated their life to the craft of hunting. By how you reckon, the Albino has the advantage, but you won't be going down without a fight. You struggle against his grip, pinned against the stone, struggling to get out from it's weight, as its gnashing teeth comes towards your throat, its mouth caught in a fearsome howl. > You swing the creature to the side and roll on top of it to take the advantage You begin rocking side to side, moving back and forth with several quick motions attempting to rock the creature's body with what little strength you have, before rolling to the side. You twist your body around, attempting to knock the creature off you, only to find the werewolf's weight and strength far outnumbers you ability to kick the creature off. You find your body twisted, your legs off to the side as you're left stuck under the Albino. With your body trapped and incapable of moving, the Albino lets out a low, rumbling noise with satisfaction, knowing its kill is assured. The creature raises a clawed hand, slowly slicing it across your snout and leaving deep gouges across your face as you howl out in pain. You attempt to burst free, but the creature places a heavy paw on your head, before sending it forward with crushing speed and snapping your neck in an instant.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You stare down the cavernous maw that sticks out of the earth. The darkness almost solidifies around you, attempting to consume your sanity. You focus your senses, as when the suffocating darkness steals your sight, your smell and hearing amplify. You can hear the near silent wind blow through the tunnel, nostrils flaring as you take as you smell the scent of coal dust and dirt. The scents begin to shift, as you detect a new smell. Fresh blood and the smell of a wild beast traveling through the tunnel. The sound of paws creeping along iron mine tracks and soft dirt begins just detectable. Your eyes narrow, as down the tunnel, a form cuts through the darkness. The creature's thin body is covered with a thick layer of white fur, a pair of red, blood-filled eyes becoming clear, shining in the dark. A maw of sharpened daggers becomes clear, as the Albino arrives. You recognize the creature from earlier. The one who bit you. The one who cursed you like this. You snarl, your gun tightening in your hands. The Albino's eyes flicker and you wonder if it recognizes you. There's an intellect there beyond what you've seen, in animals, or even in other werewolves. The creature growls, and you know it recognizes you. Your body shakes, the Albino's growl sending the beast into overdrive. Your hairy arms tense as your muscles bulge, your tongue flickering along your sharpened teeth. You let out a growl, eyes narrowing as you ready yourself to kill. You let out a loud roar which echoes down the tunnel, your fingernails toughening and sharpening to pre-transformation claws that dig into the wood of your rifle. > You open fire! You raise your rifle, shouldering it in one quick motion as you aim as the approaching werewolf, targeting it directly in your sights, but the creature's too fast. It bounces off the wall, sprinting along the ground as it leaps from wall to wall, digging its claws into the wall as it clambers about the tunnel. You swing your rifle from side to side, trying to get sights on it, but the creature's faster, roaring down the tunnel. You begin to backpedal, but you're not even close to the speed of the wolf, and it quickly catches up. The werewolf leaps down from the wall, swiping a claw at you. The claw catches your arm, slicing through your flesh as you scream and sending your gun flying from your arm and bouncing against the wall. You scream, toppling over, as the werewolf lands its clawed foot on your head, crushing it instantly. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You walk through the woods slowly, heading towards the scent. It draws nearer, the smell of smoke and coal becoming clear. It's a long, painful walk, and you find yourself scratching at your limbs, growling and shaking your head. The beast within is awakening again, as you run your tongue along your sharpened teeth, the taste of your own blood filling your own mouth. Your stomach growls, and the veil of darkness lifts as your supernatural eyes adjust to the darkness. Still, you focus on the burning pain in your chest and now, your stab wound, allowing the pain to consume you, bringing you just to the point where walking becomes impossible, all to stave off the wolf spirit howling to get out. It's not long, however, before you find your way to the mines. The earth begins to widen, revealing a huge, cavernous maw sticking out of the earth, a huge hole in the ground leading to darkness. The opening of the mineshaft. A light plume of smoke billows out from the mineshaft, as you can smell the scent of fresh meat and blood down below, the smell of wolves prowling and... strangely enough, diesel drifting out with its stink. You stare into the darkness, gun in your hands, as you prepare to go in. "Going in?" You turn your head, finding the patchwork fool standing in front of you. His eyes are still badly burned, although from this close, it seems more like its from a caustic chemical or animal venom rather than heat or fire. He grins at you, winking. "I was planning to," you say. "Going to tell me who you are yet?" "Maybe. Fancy another riddle?" "What the fuck is it with you and riddles?" "I like them," the Fool shrugs. "I used to be more of a pranks guy, but it's no use drawing attention to myself when I manage to get unbound, so riddles will have to do." "Unbound? Are you a ghost? A trapped spirit? It would explain some things," you say quietly, not wanting to risk dealing with them. "Nothing of the sort! I'm far more powerful," the Fool says. "I'd make the threat you're dealing with look like chump change, you know." "Glad you're not my enemy, then," you say, before pausing. "Are you?" "Of course not! Just a friendly visitor, curious to see what'll happen. I know a lot about werewolves. I remember watching the first one change. God, the terror he felt." "You saw the first change?" you ask cautiously. "I did indeed," the Fool smiles. "I saw when they chained up my dear old Fenrir, for nothing more than being scary. That's what they tend to do, you know," the Fool says, pointing to his eyes. "But, every so often, Fenrir would get just a bit lose, and some brave mortal would need to toss a new chain on him. One brave soul got too close, and Fenrir managed to bite him. That was the first of their kind. Now, they've spread throughout the world, all from that one mortal who felt it was fair to lock up a creature that had done nothing wrong. Cruel bastards the lot of them," the Fool mutters. You pause, trying to discern whether this is the fool's insane ramblings, a metaphor, a literal truth or something else entirely. For as long as you stare at the grinning bastard, you can't tell. "Anything else you wanted to tell me?" you say dismissively, not willing to play the Fool's games. "Nothing to tell, but something to ask. Care for another riddle?" "Fuck's sake," you mutter. "What the hell does this matter?" The Fool smiles, before grinning. "So! A lost shepard met two hunters, the first of who had three loaves and the second who had five loaves. All the loaves were the same size. The three men agreed to share the eight loaves equally between them. After they had eaten, the hunter gave the shepherds eight bronze coins as payment for his meal. How should the two shepherds fairly divide this money?" > One piece to the first hunter, seven to the second "You give one piece to the first hunter, and the other seven to the second." "Yes, another answer! Gods, I really like you!" "Is it right?" The Fool shrugs, smiling at you. "Who knows? I'll be off, anyway, my eyes are beginning to burn," he says, scratching at his burned up eyes. "Good luck in there. Shame it's not a silver mine, am I right?" He smiles, grinning, as you snarl. He raises his hands defensively, shrugging. "Fine, fine, I'll be on my way. Best of luck in there, Willy." You don't even try to stop him, your gun feeling unnaturally heavy in your hands as you know the patchwork man's magic is at work here. As soon as the Fool disappears into the trees, your gun lightens in your hands, and you heave to stare off into the mineshaft, smiling. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You walk through the woods slowly, heading towards the scent. It draws nearer, the smell of smoke and coal becoming clear. It's a long, painful walk, and you find yourself scratching at your limbs, growling and shaking your head. The beast within is awakening again, as you run your tongue along your sharpened teeth, the taste of your own blood filling your own mouth. Your stomach growls, and the veil of darkness lifts as your supernatural eyes adjust to the darkness. Still, you focus on the burning pain in your chest and now, your stab wound, allowing the pain to consume you, bringing you just to the point where walking becomes impossible, all to stave off the wolf spirit howling to get out. It's not long, however, before you find your way to the mines. The earth begins to widen, revealing a huge, cavernous maw sticking out of the earth, a huge hole in the ground leading to darkness. The opening of the mineshaft. A light plume of smoke billows out from the mineshaft, as you can smell the scent of fresh meat and blood down below, the smell of wolves prowling and... strangely enough, diesel drifting out with its stink. You stare into the darkness, gun in your hands, as you prepare to go in. "Going in?" You turn your head, finding the patchwork fool standing in front of you. His eyes are still badly burned, although from this close, it seems more like its from a caustic chemical or animal venom rather than heat or fire. He grins at you, winking. "I was planning to," you say. "Going to tell me who you are yet?" "Maybe. Fancy another riddle?" "What the fuck is it with you and riddles?" "I like them," the Fool shrugs. "I used to be more of a pranks guy, but it's no use drawing attention to myself when I manage to get unbound, so riddles will have to do." "Unbound? Are you a ghost? A trapped spirit? It would explain some things," you say quietly, not wanting to risk dealing with them. "Nothing of the sort! I'm far more powerful," the Fool says. "I'd make the threat you're dealing with look like chump change, you know." "Glad you're not my enemy, then," you say, before pausing. "Are you?" "Of course not! Just a friendly visitor, curious to see what'll happen. I know a lot about werewolves. I remember watching the first one change. God, the terror he felt." "You saw the first change?" you ask cautiously. "I did indeed," the Fool smiles. "I saw when they chained up my dear old Fenrir, for nothing more than being scary. That's what they tend to do, you know," the Fool says, pointing to his eyes. "But, every so often, Fenrir would get just a bit lose, and some brave mortal would need to toss a new chain on him. One brave soul got too close, and Fenrir managed to bite him. That was the first of their kind. Now, they've spread throughout the world, all from that one mortal who felt it was fair to lock up a creature that had done nothing wrong. Cruel bastards the lot of them," the Fool mutters. You pause, trying to discern whether this is the fool's insane ramblings, a metaphor, a literal truth or something else entirely. For as long as you stare at the grinning bastard, you can't tell. "Anything else you wanted to tell me?" you say dismissively, not willing to play the Fool's games. "Nothing to tell, but something to ask. Care for another riddle?" "Fuck's sake," you mutter. "What the hell does this matter?" The Fool smiles, before grinning. "So! A lost shepard met two hunters, the first of who had three loaves and the second who had five loaves. All the loaves were the same size. The three men agreed to share the eight loaves equally between them. After they had eaten, the hunter gave the shepherds eight bronze coins as payment for his meal. How should the two shepherds fairly divide this money?" > Two pieces to the first hunter, six to the second "You give two pieces to the first hunter, six to the second." "Yes, another answer! Gods, I really like you!" "Is it right?" The Fool shrugs, smiling at you. "Who knows? I'll be off, anyway, my eyes are beginning to burn," he says, scratching at his burned up eyes. "Good luck in there. Shame it's not a silver mine, am I right?" He smiles, grinning, as you snarl. He raises his hands defensively, shrugging. "Fine, fine, I'll be on my way. Best of luck in there, Willy." You don't even try to stop him, your gun feeling unnaturally heavy in your hands as you know the patchwork man's magic is at work here. As soon as the Fool disappears into the trees, your gun lightens in your hands, and you heave to stare off into the mineshaft, smiling. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You walk through the woods slowly, heading towards the scent. It draws nearer, the smell of smoke and coal becoming clear. It's a long, painful walk, and you find yourself scratching at your limbs, growling and shaking your head. The beast within is awakening again, as you run your tongue along your sharpened teeth, the taste of your own blood filling your own mouth. Your stomach growls, and the veil of darkness lifts as your supernatural eyes adjust to the darkness. Still, you focus on the burning pain in your chest and now, your stab wound, allowing the pain to consume you, bringing you just to the point where walking becomes impossible, all to stave off the wolf spirit howling to get out. It's not long, however, before you find your way to the mines. The earth begins to widen, revealing a huge, cavernous maw sticking out of the earth, a huge hole in the ground leading to darkness. The opening of the mineshaft. A light plume of smoke billows out from the mineshaft, as you can smell the scent of fresh meat and blood down below, the smell of wolves prowling and... strangely enough, diesel drifting out with its stink. You stare into the darkness, gun in your hands, as you prepare to go in. "Going in?" You turn your head, finding the patchwork fool standing in front of you. His eyes are still badly burned, although from this close, it seems more like its from a caustic chemical or animal venom rather than heat or fire. He grins at you, winking. "I was planning to," you say. "Going to tell me who you are yet?" "Maybe. Fancy another riddle?" "What the fuck is it with you and riddles?" "I like them," the Fool shrugs. "I used to be more of a pranks guy, but it's no use drawing attention to myself when I manage to get unbound, so riddles will have to do." "Unbound? Are you a ghost? A trapped spirit? It would explain some things," you say quietly, not wanting to risk dealing with them. "Nothing of the sort! I'm far more powerful," the Fool says. "I'd make the threat you're dealing with look like chump change, you know." "Glad you're not my enemy, then," you say, before pausing. "Are you?" "Of course not! Just a friendly visitor, curious to see what'll happen. I know a lot about werewolves. I remember watching the first one change. God, the terror he felt." "You saw the first change?" you ask cautiously. "I did indeed," the Fool smiles. "I saw when they chained up my dear old Fenrir, for nothing more than being scary. That's what they tend to do, you know," the Fool says, pointing to his eyes. "But, every so often, Fenrir would get just a bit lose, and some brave mortal would need to toss a new chain on him. One brave soul got too close, and Fenrir managed to bite him. That was the first of their kind. Now, they've spread throughout the world, all from that one mortal who felt it was fair to lock up a creature that had done nothing wrong. Cruel bastards the lot of them," the Fool mutters. You pause, trying to discern whether this is the fool's insane ramblings, a metaphor, a literal truth or something else entirely. For as long as you stare at the grinning bastard, you can't tell. "Anything else you wanted to tell me?" you say dismissively, not willing to play the Fool's games. "Nothing to tell, but something to ask. Care for another riddle?" "Fuck's sake," you mutter. "What the hell does this matter?" The Fool smiles, before grinning. "So! A lost shepard met two hunters, the first of who had three loaves and the second who had five loaves. All the loaves were the same size. The three men agreed to share the eight loaves equally between them. After they had eaten, the hunter gave the shepherds eight bronze coins as payment for his meal. How should the two shepherds fairly divide this money?" > Three pieces to the first hunter, five to the second "You give three pieces to the first hunter, five to the second." "Yes, another answer! Gods, I really like you!" "Is it right?" The Fool shrugs, smiling at you. "Who knows? I'll be off, anyway, my eyes are beginning to burn," he says, scratching at his burned up eyes. "Good luck in there. Shame it's not a silver mine, am I right?" He smiles, grinning, as you snarl. He raises his hands defensively, shrugging. "Fine, fine, I'll be on my way. Best of luck in there, Willy." You don't even try to stop him, your gun feeling unnaturally heavy in your hands as you know the patchwork man's magic is at work here. As soon as the Fool disappears into the trees, your gun lightens in your hands, and you heave to stare off into the mineshaft, smiling. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You walk through the woods slowly, heading towards the scent. It draws nearer, the smell of smoke and coal becoming clear. It's a long, painful walk, and you find yourself scratching at your limbs, growling and shaking your head. The beast within is awakening again, as you run your tongue along your sharpened teeth, the taste of your own blood filling your own mouth. Your stomach growls, and the veil of darkness lifts as your supernatural eyes adjust to the darkness. Still, you focus on the burning pain in your chest and now, your stab wound, allowing the pain to consume you, bringing you just to the point where walking becomes impossible, all to stave off the wolf spirit howling to get out. It's not long, however, before you find your way to the mines. The earth begins to widen, revealing a huge, cavernous maw sticking out of the earth, a huge hole in the ground leading to darkness. The opening of the mineshaft. A light plume of smoke billows out from the mineshaft, as you can smell the scent of fresh meat and blood down below, the smell of wolves prowling and... strangely enough, diesel drifting out with its stink. You stare into the darkness, gun in your hands, as you prepare to go in. "Going in?" You turn your head, finding the patchwork fool standing in front of you. His eyes are still badly burned, although from this close, it seems more like its from a caustic chemical or animal venom rather than heat or fire. He grins at you, winking. "I was planning to," you say. "Going to tell me who you are yet?" "Maybe. Fancy another riddle?" "What the fuck is it with you and riddles?" "I like them," the Fool shrugs. "I used to be more of a pranks guy, but it's no use drawing attention to myself when I manage to get unbound, so riddles will have to do." "Unbound? Are you a ghost? A trapped spirit? It would explain some things," you say quietly, not wanting to risk dealing with them. "Nothing of the sort! I'm far more powerful," the Fool says. "I'd make the threat you're dealing with look like chump change, you know." "Glad you're not my enemy, then," you say, before pausing. "Are you?" "Of course not! Just a friendly visitor, curious to see what'll happen. I know a lot about werewolves. I remember watching the first one change. God, the terror he felt." "You saw the first change?" you ask cautiously. "I did indeed," the Fool smiles. "I saw when they chained up my dear old Fenrir, for nothing more than being scary. That's what they tend to do, you know," the Fool says, pointing to his eyes. "But, every so often, Fenrir would get just a bit lose, and some brave mortal would need to toss a new chain on him. One brave soul got too close, and Fenrir managed to bite him. That was the first of their kind. Now, they've spread throughout the world, all from that one mortal who felt it was fair to lock up a creature that had done nothing wrong. Cruel bastards the lot of them," the Fool mutters. You pause, trying to discern whether this is the fool's insane ramblings, a metaphor, a literal truth or something else entirely. For as long as you stare at the grinning bastard, you can't tell. "Anything else you wanted to tell me?" you say dismissively, not willing to play the Fool's games. "Nothing to tell, but something to ask. Care for another riddle?" "Fuck's sake," you mutter. "What the hell does this matter?" The Fool smiles, before grinning. "So! A lost shepard met two hunters, the first of who had three loaves and the second who had five loaves. All the loaves were the same size. The three men agreed to share the eight loaves equally between them. After they had eaten, the hunter gave the shepherds eight bronze coins as payment for his meal. How should the two shepherds fairly divide this money?" > You split it equally between the two hunters "You split it equally between the two hunters, because they're sharing it all equally, right?" "Yes, another answer! Gods, I really like you!" "Is it right?" The Fool shrugs, smiling at you. "Who knows? I'll be off, anyway, my eyes are beginning to burn," he says, scratching at his burned up eyes. "Good luck in there. Shame it's not a silver mine, am I right?" He smiles, grinning, as you snarl. He raises his hands defensively, shrugging. "Fine, fine, I'll be on my way. Best of luck in there, Willy." You don't even try to stop him, your gun feeling unnaturally heavy in your hands as you know the patchwork man's magic is at work here. As soon as the Fool disappears into the trees, your gun lightens in your hands, and you heave to stare off into the mineshaft, smiling. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You walk through the woods slowly, heading towards the scent. It draws nearer, the smell of smoke and coal becoming clear. It's a long, painful walk, and you find yourself scratching at your limbs, growling and shaking your head. The beast within is awakening again, as you run your tongue along your sharpened teeth, the taste of your own blood filling your own mouth. Your stomach growls, and the veil of darkness lifts as your supernatural eyes adjust to the darkness. Still, you focus on the burning pain in your chest and now, your stab wound, allowing the pain to consume you, bringing you just to the point where walking becomes impossible, all to stave off the wolf spirit howling to get out. It's not long, however, before you find your way to the mines. The earth begins to widen, revealing a huge, cavernous maw sticking out of the earth, a huge hole in the ground leading to darkness. The opening of the mineshaft. A light plume of smoke billows out from the mineshaft, as you can smell the scent of fresh meat and blood down below, the smell of wolves prowling and... strangely enough, diesel drifting out with its stink. You stare into the darkness, gun in your hands, as you prepare to go in. "Going in?" You turn your head, finding the patchwork fool standing in front of you. His eyes are still badly burned, although from this close, it seems more like its from a caustic chemical or animal venom rather than heat or fire. He grins at you, winking. "I was planning to," you say. "Going to tell me who you are yet?" "Maybe. Fancy another riddle?" "What the fuck is it with you and riddles?" "I like them," the Fool shrugs. "I used to be more of a pranks guy, but it's no use drawing attention to myself when I manage to get unbound, so riddles will have to do." "Unbound? Are you a ghost? A trapped spirit? It would explain some things," you say quietly, not wanting to risk dealing with them. "Nothing of the sort! I'm far more powerful," the Fool says. "I'd make the threat you're dealing with look like chump change, you know." "Glad you're not my enemy, then," you say, before pausing. "Are you?" "Of course not! Just a friendly visitor, curious to see what'll happen. I know a lot about werewolves. I remember watching the first one change. God, the terror he felt." "You saw the first change?" you ask cautiously. "I did indeed," the Fool smiles. "I saw when they chained up my dear old Fenrir, for nothing more than being scary. That's what they tend to do, you know," the Fool says, pointing to his eyes. "But, every so often, Fenrir would get just a bit lose, and some brave mortal would need to toss a new chain on him. One brave soul got too close, and Fenrir managed to bite him. That was the first of their kind. Now, they've spread throughout the world, all from that one mortal who felt it was fair to lock up a creature that had done nothing wrong. Cruel bastards the lot of them," the Fool mutters. You pause, trying to discern whether this is the fool's insane ramblings, a metaphor, a literal truth or something else entirely. For as long as you stare at the grinning bastard, you can't tell. "Anything else you wanted to tell me?" you say dismissively, not willing to play the Fool's games. "Nothing to tell, but something to ask. Care for another riddle?" "Fuck's sake," you mutter. "What the hell does this matter?" The Fool smiles, before grinning. "So! A lost shepard met two hunters, the first of who had three loaves and the second who had five loaves. All the loaves were the same size. The three men agreed to share the eight loaves equally between them. After they had eaten, the hunter gave the shepherds eight bronze coins as payment for his meal. How should the two shepherds fairly divide this money?" > Five pieces to the first hunter, three to the second "You give five pieces to the first hunter, three to the second." "Yes, another answer! Gods, I really like you!" "Is it right?" The Fool shrugs, smiling at you. "Who knows? I'll be off, anyway, my eyes are beginning to burn," he says, scratching at his burned up eyes. "Good luck in there. Shame it's not a silver mine, am I right?" He smiles, grinning, as you snarl. He raises his hands defensively, shrugging. "Fine, fine, I'll be on my way. Best of luck in there, Willy." You don't even try to stop him, your gun feeling unnaturally heavy in your hands as you know the patchwork man's magic is at work here. As soon as the Fool disappears into the trees, your gun lightens in your hands, and you heave to stare off into the mineshaft, smiling. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You walk through the woods slowly, heading towards the scent. It draws nearer, the smell of smoke and coal becoming clear. It's a long, painful walk, and you find yourself scratching at your limbs, growling and shaking your head. The beast within is awakening again, as you run your tongue along your sharpened teeth, the taste of your own blood filling your own mouth. Your stomach growls, and the veil of darkness lifts as your supernatural eyes adjust to the darkness. Still, you focus on the burning pain in your chest and now, your stab wound, allowing the pain to consume you, bringing you just to the point where walking becomes impossible, all to stave off the wolf spirit howling to get out. It's not long, however, before you find your way to the mines. The earth begins to widen, revealing a huge, cavernous maw sticking out of the earth, a huge hole in the ground leading to darkness. The opening of the mineshaft. A light plume of smoke billows out from the mineshaft, as you can smell the scent of fresh meat and blood down below, the smell of wolves prowling and... strangely enough, diesel drifting out with its stink. You stare into the darkness, gun in your hands, as you prepare to go in. "Going in?" You turn your head, finding the patchwork fool standing in front of you. His eyes are still badly burned, although from this close, it seems more like its from a caustic chemical or animal venom rather than heat or fire. He grins at you, winking. "I was planning to," you say. "Going to tell me who you are yet?" "Maybe. Fancy another riddle?" "What the fuck is it with you and riddles?" "I like them," the Fool shrugs. "I used to be more of a pranks guy, but it's no use drawing attention to myself when I manage to get unbound, so riddles will have to do." "Unbound? Are you a ghost? A trapped spirit? It would explain some things," you say quietly, not wanting to risk dealing with them. "Nothing of the sort! I'm far more powerful," the Fool says. "I'd make the threat you're dealing with look like chump change, you know." "Glad you're not my enemy, then," you say, before pausing. "Are you?" "Of course not! Just a friendly visitor, curious to see what'll happen. I know a lot about werewolves. I remember watching the first one change. God, the terror he felt." "You saw the first change?" you ask cautiously. "I did indeed," the Fool smiles. "I saw when they chained up my dear old Fenrir, for nothing more than being scary. That's what they tend to do, you know," the Fool says, pointing to his eyes. "But, every so often, Fenrir would get just a bit lose, and some brave mortal would need to toss a new chain on him. One brave soul got too close, and Fenrir managed to bite him. That was the first of their kind. Now, they've spread throughout the world, all from that one mortal who felt it was fair to lock up a creature that had done nothing wrong. Cruel bastards the lot of them," the Fool mutters. You pause, trying to discern whether this is the fool's insane ramblings, a metaphor, a literal truth or something else entirely. For as long as you stare at the grinning bastard, you can't tell. "Anything else you wanted to tell me?" you say dismissively, not willing to play the Fool's games. "Nothing to tell, but something to ask. Care for another riddle?" "Fuck's sake," you mutter. "What the hell does this matter?" The Fool smiles, before grinning. "So! A lost shepard met two hunters, the first of who had three loaves and the second who had five loaves. All the loaves were the same size. The three men agreed to share the eight loaves equally between them. After they had eaten, the hunter gave the shepherds eight bronze coins as payment for his meal. How should the two shepherds fairly divide this money?" > Six pieces to the first hunter, two to the second "You give six pieces to the first hunter, two to the second." "Yes, another answer! Gods, I really like you!" "Is it right?" The Fool shrugs, smiling at you. "Who knows? I'll be off, anyway, my eyes are beginning to burn," he says, scratching at his burned up eyes. "Good luck in there. Shame it's not a silver mine, am I right?" He smiles, grinning, as you snarl. He raises his hands defensively, shrugging. "Fine, fine, I'll be on my way. Best of luck in there, Willy." You don't even try to stop him, your gun feeling unnaturally heavy in your hands as you know the patchwork man's magic is at work here. As soon as the Fool disappears into the trees, your gun lightens in your hands, and you heave to stare off into the mineshaft, smiling. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You walk through the woods slowly, heading towards the scent. It draws nearer, the smell of smoke and coal becoming clear. It's a long, painful walk, and you find yourself scratching at your limbs, growling and shaking your head. The beast within is awakening again, as you run your tongue along your sharpened teeth, the taste of your own blood filling your own mouth. Your stomach growls, and the veil of darkness lifts as your supernatural eyes adjust to the darkness. Still, you focus on the burning pain in your chest and now, your stab wound, allowing the pain to consume you, bringing you just to the point where walking becomes impossible, all to stave off the wolf spirit howling to get out. It's not long, however, before you find your way to the mines. The earth begins to widen, revealing a huge, cavernous maw sticking out of the earth, a huge hole in the ground leading to darkness. The opening of the mineshaft. A light plume of smoke billows out from the mineshaft, as you can smell the scent of fresh meat and blood down below, the smell of wolves prowling and... strangely enough, diesel drifting out with its stink. You stare into the darkness, gun in your hands, as you prepare to go in. "Going in?" You turn your head, finding the patchwork fool standing in front of you. His eyes are still badly burned, although from this close, it seems more like its from a caustic chemical or animal venom rather than heat or fire. He grins at you, winking. "I was planning to," you say. "Going to tell me who you are yet?" "Maybe. Fancy another riddle?" "What the fuck is it with you and riddles?" "I like them," the Fool shrugs. "I used to be more of a pranks guy, but it's no use drawing attention to myself when I manage to get unbound, so riddles will have to do." "Unbound? Are you a ghost? A trapped spirit? It would explain some things," you say quietly, not wanting to risk dealing with them. "Nothing of the sort! I'm far more powerful," the Fool says. "I'd make the threat you're dealing with look like chump change, you know." "Glad you're not my enemy, then," you say, before pausing. "Are you?" "Of course not! Just a friendly visitor, curious to see what'll happen. I know a lot about werewolves. I remember watching the first one change. God, the terror he felt." "You saw the first change?" you ask cautiously. "I did indeed," the Fool smiles. "I saw when they chained up my dear old Fenrir, for nothing more than being scary. That's what they tend to do, you know," the Fool says, pointing to his eyes. "But, every so often, Fenrir would get just a bit lose, and some brave mortal would need to toss a new chain on him. One brave soul got too close, and Fenrir managed to bite him. That was the first of their kind. Now, they've spread throughout the world, all from that one mortal who felt it was fair to lock up a creature that had done nothing wrong. Cruel bastards the lot of them," the Fool mutters. You pause, trying to discern whether this is the fool's insane ramblings, a metaphor, a literal truth or something else entirely. For as long as you stare at the grinning bastard, you can't tell. "Anything else you wanted to tell me?" you say dismissively, not willing to play the Fool's games. "Nothing to tell, but something to ask. Care for another riddle?" "Fuck's sake," you mutter. "What the hell does this matter?" The Fool smiles, before grinning. "So! A lost shepard met two hunters, the first of who had three loaves and the second who had five loaves. All the loaves were the same size. The three men agreed to share the eight loaves equally between them. After they had eaten, the hunter gave the shepherds eight bronze coins as payment for his meal. How should the two shepherds fairly divide this money?" > Seven pieces to the first hunter, one to the second "Seven coins to the first hunter, and give the last one to the second," you say. "Yes, another answer! Gods, I really like you!" "Is it right?" The Fool shrugs, smiling at you. "Who knows? I'll be off, anyway, my eyes are beginning to burn," he says, scratching at his burned up eyes. "Good luck in there. Shame it's not a silver mine, am I right?" He smiles, grinning, as you snarl. He raises his hands defensively, shrugging. "Fine, fine, I'll be on my way. Best of luck in there, Willy." You don't even try to stop him, your gun feeling unnaturally heavy in your hands as you know the patchwork man's magic is at work here. As soon as the Fool disappears into the trees, your gun lightens in your hands, and you heave to stare off into the mineshaft, smiling. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You walk through the woods slowly, heading towards the scent. It draws nearer, the smell of smoke and coal becoming clear. It's a long, painful walk, and you find yourself scratching at your limbs, growling and shaking your head. The beast within is awakening again, as you run your tongue along your sharpened teeth, the taste of your own blood filling your own mouth. Your stomach growls, and the veil of darkness lifts as your supernatural eyes adjust to the darkness. Still, you focus on the burning pain in your chest and now, your stab wound, allowing the pain to consume you, bringing you just to the point where walking becomes impossible, all to stave off the wolf spirit howling to get out. It's not long, however, before you find your way to the mines. The earth begins to widen, revealing a huge, cavernous maw sticking out of the earth, a huge hole in the ground leading to darkness. The opening of the mineshaft. A light plume of smoke billows out from the mineshaft, as you can smell the scent of fresh meat and blood down below, the smell of wolves prowling and... strangely enough, diesel drifting out with its stink. You stare into the darkness, gun in your hands, as you prepare to go in. "Going in?" You turn your head, finding the patchwork fool standing in front of you. His eyes are still badly burned, although from this close, it seems more like its from a caustic chemical or animal venom rather than heat or fire. He grins at you, winking. "I was planning to," you say. "Going to tell me who you are yet?" "Maybe. Fancy another riddle?" "What the fuck is it with you and riddles?" "I like them," the Fool shrugs. "I used to be more of a pranks guy, but it's no use drawing attention to myself when I manage to get unbound, so riddles will have to do." "Unbound? Are you a ghost? A trapped spirit? It would explain some things," you say quietly, not wanting to risk dealing with them. "Nothing of the sort! I'm far more powerful," the Fool says. "I'd make the threat you're dealing with look like chump change, you know." "Glad you're not my enemy, then," you say, before pausing. "Are you?" "Of course not! Just a friendly visitor, curious to see what'll happen. I know a lot about werewolves. I remember watching the first one change. God, the terror he felt." "You saw the first change?" you ask cautiously. "I did indeed," the Fool smiles. "I saw when they chained up my dear old Fenrir, for nothing more than being scary. That's what they tend to do, you know," the Fool says, pointing to his eyes. "But, every so often, Fenrir would get just a bit lose, and some brave mortal would need to toss a new chain on him. One brave soul got too close, and Fenrir managed to bite him. That was the first of their kind. Now, they've spread throughout the world, all from that one mortal who felt it was fair to lock up a creature that had done nothing wrong. Cruel bastards the lot of them," the Fool mutters. You pause, trying to discern whether this is the fool's insane ramblings, a metaphor, a literal truth or something else entirely. For as long as you stare at the grinning bastard, you can't tell. "Anything else you wanted to tell me?" you say dismissively, not willing to play the Fool's games. "Nothing to tell, but something to ask. Care for another riddle?" "Fuck's sake," you mutter. "What the hell does this matter?" The Fool smiles, before grinning. "So! A lost shepard met two hunters, the first of who had three loaves and the second who had five loaves. All the loaves were the same size. The three men agreed to share the eight loaves equally between them. After they had eaten, the hunter gave the shepherds eight bronze coins as payment for his meal. How should the two shepherds fairly divide this money?" > You give it all to the first hunter "You give all the coins to the first hunter," you say. "Yes, another answer! Gods, I really like you!" "Is it right?" The Fool shrugs, smiling at you. "Who knows? I'll be off, anyway, my eyes are beginning to burn," he says, scratching at his burned up eyes. "Good luck in there. Shame it's not a silver mine, am I right?" He smiles, grinning, as you snarl. He raises his hands defensively, shrugging. "Fine, fine, I'll be on my way. Best of luck in there, Willy." You don't even try to stop him, your gun feeling unnaturally heavy in your hands as you know the patchwork man's magic is at work here. As soon as the Fool disappears into the trees, your gun lightens in your hands, and you heave to stare off into the mineshaft, smiling. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You walk through the woods slowly, heading towards the scent. It draws nearer, the smell of smoke and coal becoming clear. It's a long, painful walk, and you find yourself scratching at your limbs, growling and shaking your head. The beast within is awakening again, as you run your tongue along your sharpened teeth, the taste of your own blood filling your own mouth. Your stomach growls, and the veil of darkness lifts as your supernatural eyes adjust to the darkness. Still, you focus on the burning pain in your chest and now, your stab wound, allowing the pain to consume you, bringing you just to the point where walking becomes impossible, all to stave off the wolf spirit howling to get out. It's not long, however, before you find your way to the mines. The earth begins to widen, revealing a huge, cavernous maw sticking out of the earth, a huge hole in the ground leading to darkness. The opening of the mineshaft. A light plume of smoke billows out from the mineshaft, as you can smell the scent of fresh meat and blood down below, the smell of wolves prowling and... strangely enough, diesel drifting out with its stink. You stare into the darkness, gun in your hands, as you prepare to go in. "Going in?" You turn your head, finding the patchwork fool standing in front of you. His eyes are still badly burned, although from this close, it seems more like its from a caustic chemical or animal venom rather than heat or fire. He grins at you, winking. "I was planning to," you say. "Going to tell me who you are yet?" "Maybe. Fancy another riddle?" "What the fuck is it with you and riddles?" "I like them," the Fool shrugs. "I used to be more of a pranks guy, but it's no use drawing attention to myself when I manage to get unbound, so riddles will have to do." "Unbound? Are you a ghost? A trapped spirit? It would explain some things," you say quietly, not wanting to risk dealing with them. "Nothing of the sort! I'm far more powerful," the Fool says. "I'd make the threat you're dealing with look like chump change, you know." "Glad you're not my enemy, then," you say, before pausing. "Are you?" "Of course not! Just a friendly visitor, curious to see what'll happen. I know a lot about werewolves. I remember watching the first one change. God, the terror he felt." "You saw the first change?" you ask cautiously. "I did indeed," the Fool smiles. "I saw when they chained up my dear old Fenrir, for nothing more than being scary. That's what they tend to do, you know," the Fool says, pointing to his eyes. "But, every so often, Fenrir would get just a bit lose, and some brave mortal would need to toss a new chain on him. One brave soul got too close, and Fenrir managed to bite him. That was the first of their kind. Now, they've spread throughout the world, all from that one mortal who felt it was fair to lock up a creature that had done nothing wrong. Cruel bastards the lot of them," the Fool mutters. You pause, trying to discern whether this is the fool's insane ramblings, a metaphor, a literal truth or something else entirely. For as long as you stare at the grinning bastard, you can't tell. "Anything else you wanted to tell me?" you say dismissively, not willing to play the Fool's games. "Nothing to tell, but something to ask. Care for another riddle?" "Fuck's sake," you mutter. "What the hell does this matter?" The Fool smiles, before grinning. "So! A lost shepard met two hunters, the first of who had three loaves and the second who had five loaves. All the loaves were the same size. The three men agreed to share the eight loaves equally between them. After they had eaten, the hunter gave the shepherds eight bronze coins as payment for his meal. How should the two shepherds fairly divide this money?" > You fuck your damned riddles, fool! "Fuck you damned riddles! Fuck all of this shit! You better goddamn tell me who you are before I pump you full of lead, fucker!" "How dull," the Fool frowns. "Well, I guess you're just not going to answer, then. Good luck in there. Shame it's not a silver mine, am I right?" He smiles, grinning, as you snarl. He raises his hands defensively, shrugging. "Fine, fine, I'll be on my way. Best of luck in there, Willy." You don't even try to stop him, your gun feeling unnaturally heavy in your hands as you know the patchwork man's magic is at work here. As soon as the Fool disappears into the trees, your gun lightens in your hands, and you heave to stare off into the mineshaft. Into the darkness you go.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>It's time to do what needs to be done. You can't let the deaths of tonight be for nothing. A chill runs through you, as you realize you need new clothes, and there's only one place you can get them. You lean down, unbutton Wyatt's jacket as you try not to look at the body. Slowly, The underwear are soiled and the inside two layers of Wyatt's clothes are soaked with blood, but you manage to scavenge the boots, socks, pants and jacket, pulling them on. Once you've bundled yourself up in clothes, you raise your rifle to your shoulder and begin walking, leaving the corpse behind you. You don't have the time to bury it, and being around the corpse is only sending pangs of hunger through your body. You try not to shed a tear, heading off into the woods. Your senses quickly detect the faint smell of smoke and coal, and you begin heading towards it. The beast within you is quiet for now from the stabbing, but thankfully the beast seems to almost be absorbing the pain, and it's little more than a dull ache to you now. You walk in silence, and for a moment, it seems almost unnatural. Everything about you seems wrong now. You can tell you're walking loudly, almost falling and stumbling about. Your movements are as stealthy as ever thanks to your abilities as a hunter, but compared to your lupine form, it's clumsy. Your senses are dulled without the powers of the beast, your entire body weakening from exhaustion and blood loss. Your eyes are still bright, and you find yourself staring through the darkness at a trio of werewolves prowling through the undergrowth. The creatures are streaked with gray and black fur, growling as they slowly move forward, muscles moving under furry hides, their teeth glowing in the moonlight. They must be following your scent, and if they are, they have it now. The beast within you is quiet now, but the rage in your heart is burning. Time to do your duty as a Hunter. > You release the wolf within and tear them apart! You growl, snarling as you draw on the beast deep inside you as you draw your fingernails against your wrists, causing blood to run down your arms in a thin trickle as you howl, staring up towards the moon as its glow shines upon your skin. However, the silver wound still burns your flesh, and the wolf within is far from your abilities. It's quiet now, sleeping and recovering from the wound, and you're left just shouting to the skies as the beast draws near. "Fuck... now it's silent. Now, the transformation that's plagued me all night is beyond me," you swear. It's a somber thought, but as the werewolves near you, now too close for you to be able to gun them down or run, you're grateful that you can die a man. You put up your chin, taking a deep breath, and face death with a grimace. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You slowly begin walking in the direction of the smoke, keeping your mind on the burning pain in your chest. Your bullet holes and bite mark have already scabbed and scarred over, no doubt from the healing abilities the beast within has granted you. Still, the silver burns just as harshly, like flames trapped in your chest. It's a struggle trying to focus on the pain, to let it consume you and drive you into a violent psychosis, but you have no alternative. Whenever you try to ignore the pain, you can feel the monstrous urges return. The unending hunger, the desire to break free, the need to howl up at the sky, the lust for the power of the wild... you keep focused, and the burning pain continues. As you walk, you notice just how tight your clothes feel on you. No, not tight. Surprisingly, they seem to fit you perfectly, by whatever abilities of the Patchwork Man. They're not tight. They're constrictive. You want to tear them off, to feel the wind on your fur and to tear off into the night. You want to taste flesh and blood, to feel the dirt shift under your paws. You want to answer the call of the moon. You shake your head roughly, growling as you tighten your grip on the shotgun. The cool metal reminds you of who you are. A Hunter. It's a long distance of angered, confused walking, but you soon see lights emerge from the darkness. Not the passionate burning of flames, but the synthetic light of bulbs. You take up a crouching position, slowly sneaking up to where the trees give way to a clearing. A large wooden cabin sits in the center of the clearing, surrounded by bright lights that give light to the cabin. Standing at the edge of the lights, holding a semi-automatic rifle, is a human. The man has a thick beard reaching his chest and long, tangled hair. His arms are covered with tattoos, depicting old Nordic runes and wolf symbols. Interesting. He must be the werewolf-equivalent of a Thrall. You've never heard of such a thing, seeing as werewolves are usually too stupid and bestial to have human servants, but the werewolves you've seen tonight are definitely smart enough to have them. The Wolf Servant seems to be guarding the cabin, which has light plumes of smoke drifting up from its chimney. He hasn't noticed you, and seems to the only guard in sight. You need to take him out to get inside. > You open fire from afar You aim your shotgun carefully, staring down the iron sights at the man. You still your breath, pulling the trigger as the gun bucks The scattering pellets smash into the guard and knock him from his feet. The man smacks into the ground with a burst of blood, as you rush towards the cabin. The smell of fresh blood drives you forward with a newfound, bestial energy. Your eyes spot a shift in the darkness, as you make out another guard on the opposite side of the cabin to you, a weapon in his hands. The guard raises his rifle, opening fire at you, as you dive to the ground. You roll behind the cabin, putting the wooden building between you and the guard. You slide up against the corner of the cabin, keeping in tight as the bullets fly past you from the other guard. You try to focus on the burning pain in your chest, so you stay calm and collected rather than letting your bestial rage consume you. > You charge the second guard quickly You ready your shotgun, before turning the corner and sprinting forward, your gun leveled. The guard aims his rifle, but you simply fire your shotgun, firing a spray of silver. You knock the man off his feet as he collapses to the ground with a scream. You fire again, hitting the man in the side and killing him. You turn to the cabin, pumping your shotgun. Now it's time to move inside and secure the cabin. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You aim your shotgun carefully, staring down the iron sights at the man. You still your breath, pulling the trigger as the gun bucks The scattering pellets smash into the guard and knock him from his feet. The man smacks into the ground with a burst of blood, as you rush towards the cabin. The smell of fresh blood drives you forward with a newfound, bestial energy. Your eyes spot a shift in the darkness, as you make out another guard on the opposite side of the cabin to you, a weapon in his hands. The guard raises his rifle, opening fire at you, as you dive to the ground. You roll behind the cabin, putting the wooden building between you and the guard. You slide up against the corner of the cabin, keeping in tight as the bullets fly past you from the other guard. You try to focus on the burning pain in your chest, so you stay calm and collected rather than letting your bestial rage consume you. > You circle the cabin and hit him from the side Running your tongue along your sharpening teeth, you move swiftly, your nostrils filling with the scent of the man's sweat, blood and stink. Your feet move swiftly from instinct, knowing exactly where to step as you swing around the cabin, spotting the man's flank. Kill! Kill! KILL! The voices in your head, get stronger, as you find your grip on your weapon tightening. You raise your shotgun, firing as the blast almost takes off the man's head, sending blood spraying onto the ground as you laugh. You head turns as you let out a low, rumbling growl, staring at the cabin. Time to break inside and kill!<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"You're... you're a Hunter, right? You must be." "Unfortunately, no. You're out alone in these woods tonight. Well, I best be off. Good luck dealing with my boy tonight, Willy. Best of luck." "Wait!" you growl, aiming your shotgun at him. "You move and I blow your brains out!" The Fool sighs, shaking his head. "I don't think you really know how this game works, do you?" the Fool says. The Fool leans forward, placing his thumb against the shotgun barrel. He scratches at his puffy, burned eyes, sighing. "You're not going to shoot that gun," he says simply. With that, the Fool turns, strolling off into the woods. You try to aim your shotgun, but find your arms are incapable of moving, the numb, cold muscles refusing to work. All you can do is watch as the Fool disappears into the darkness. When he's out of view, you snarl. You sniff the air, smelling the scent of prey, and... you try to focus on the pain for a moment, ignoring your bestial senses, before you smell something else. The smell of smoke, in the distance. You pause, raising an eye. Smoke means fire. Fire means activity. There needs to be something in that direction. > You go examine the coin You walk over to where the Fool dropped the golden coin, finding it lying, shining in the dirt. You drop to your knees, picking it up and examining it. The coin depicts an old image of two snakes, circling one another to form an 'S' shape. The snakes are biting each other's tails in a bizarre version of an ouroboros. You flip the coin over, finding yourself staring at the same image. Huh. You suppose in a strange way, each face of the coin depicts the both "Heads" and "Tails". It seems the strange, patchwork man was fucking with you. For a moment, you raise an eyebrow, wondering if "A coin" was the answer to that riddle. Either way, too late to ask. You pocket the coin, before standing and staring off towards where the smell of smoke came from.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Heads!" The coin flips through the air ahead of you, as you step back, looking at the coin with interest. He steps back, leveling your own shotgun at you as he the coin lands in the dirt. The Fool peers down at it, tilting his head, before flipping the shotgun in his hands, grabbing the barrel and offering the stock to you. "It's your lucky day, Hunter. Good luck to you." You grab the shotgun, holding it in your hands and aiming it at the suspicious, patch coat man. "Who the fuck are you?" "An interesting question! Do you like riddles?" "No." The Fool frowns. "So dull. You're a dull old fellow, aren't you? Perhaps I should be helping the wolves." "Just tell me who you are, dammit! I'm a dying man, I don't have time for this." The Fool opens his mouth to complain, before pausing, then shrugging. "A slave I have been and shall remain To a golden mistress I'm tied with invisible chains Yet always I put on the same brave face She keeps me her prisoner, but leaves me some space." The Fool smiles at you for a moment, before raising an eyebrow. "So... who am I?" > A Werewolf "You're a werewolf, aren't you? You're one of those fucked up beasts." "No, I'm far older than even werewolves, I'm afraid. Well, I best be off. Good luck dealing with my boy tonight, Willy." "Wait!" you growl, aiming your shotgun at him. "You move and I blow your brains out!" The Fool sighs, shaking his head. "I don't think you really know how this game works, do you?" the Fool says. The Fool leans forward, placing his thumb against the shotgun barrel. He scratches at his puffy, burned eyes, sighing. "You're not going to shoot that gun," he says simply. With that, the Fool turns, strolling off into the woods. You try to aim your shotgun, but find your arms are incapable of moving, the numb, cold muscles refusing to work. All you can do is watch as the Fool disappears into the darkness. When he's out of view, you snarl. You sniff the air, smelling the scent of prey, and... you try to focus on the pain for a moment, ignoring your bestial senses, before you smell something else. The smell of smoke, in the distance. You pause, raising an eye. Smoke means fire. Fire means activity. There needs to be something in that direction.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Heads!" The coin flips through the air ahead of you, as you step back, looking at the coin with interest. He steps back, leveling your own shotgun at you as he the coin lands in the dirt. The Fool peers down at it, tilting his head, before flipping the shotgun in his hands, grabbing the barrel and offering the stock to you. "It's your lucky day, Hunter. Good luck to you." You grab the shotgun, holding it in your hands and aiming it at the suspicious, patch coat man. "Who the fuck are you?" "An interesting question! Do you like riddles?" "No." The Fool frowns. "So dull. You're a dull old fellow, aren't you? Perhaps I should be helping the wolves." "Just tell me who you are, dammit! I'm a dying man, I don't have time for this." The Fool opens his mouth to complain, before pausing, then shrugging. "A slave I have been and shall remain To a golden mistress I'm tied with invisible chains Yet always I put on the same brave face She keeps me her prisoner, but leaves me some space." The Fool smiles at you for a moment, before raising an eyebrow. "So... who am I?" > A Lunatic "You're a goddamn lunatic," you growl. "Ouch! Just because something's true doesn't mean you should say it, Willy! Didn't your father ever teach you manners?" "Don't fucking talk about my father," you growl, raising your shotgun. "Ah, yes. My apologies. I didn't wish to bring up old memories. If it helps, I had a bad relationship with old Fárbauti. We never really... oh, never mind. It's late, I best be off. Good luck dealing with my boy tonight, Willy. Best of luck." "Wait!" you growl, aiming your shotgun at him. "You move and I blow your brains out!" The Fool sighs, shaking his head. "I don't think you really know how this game works, do you?" the Fool says. The Fool leans forward, placing his thumb against the shotgun barrel. He scratches at his puffy, burned eyes, sighing. "You're not going to shoot that gun," he says simply. With that, the Fool turns, strolling off into the woods. You try to aim your shotgun, but find your arms are incapable of moving, the numb, cold muscles refusing to work. All you can do is watch as the Fool disappears into the darkness. When he's out of view, you snarl. You sniff the air, smelling the scent of prey, and... you try to focus on the pain for a moment, ignoring your bestial senses, before you smell something else. The smell of smoke, in the distance. You pause, raising an eye. Smoke means fire. Fire means activity. There needs to be something in that direction.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Heads!" The coin flips through the air ahead of you, as you step back, looking at the coin with interest. He steps back, leveling your own shotgun at you as he the coin lands in the dirt. The Fool peers down at it, tilting his head, before flipping the shotgun in his hands, grabbing the barrel and offering the stock to you. "It's your lucky day, Hunter. Good luck to you." You grab the shotgun, holding it in your hands and aiming it at the suspicious, patch coat man. "Who the fuck are you?" "An interesting question! Do you like riddles?" "No." The Fool frowns. "So dull. You're a dull old fellow, aren't you? Perhaps I should be helping the wolves." "Just tell me who you are, dammit! I'm a dying man, I don't have time for this." The Fool opens his mouth to complain, before pausing, then shrugging. "A slave I have been and shall remain To a golden mistress I'm tied with invisible chains Yet always I put on the same brave face She keeps me her prisoner, but leaves me some space." The Fool smiles at you for a moment, before raising an eyebrow. "So... who am I?" > A Puppet "A puppet," you say softly. "Oh, you're actually answering the riddle? How delightful! Maybe I misjudged you!" "Am I right, then?" "Oh well, we're all puppets in a way, aren't we?" the Fool grins. "Well, I best be off. Good luck dealing with my boy tonight, Willy." "Wait!" you growl, aiming your shotgun at him. "You move and I blow your brains out!" The Fool sighs, shaking his head. "I don't think you really know how this game works, do you?" the Fool says. The Fool leans forward, placing his thumb against the shotgun barrel. He scratches at his puffy, burned eyes, sighing. "You're not going to shoot that gun," he says simply. With that, the Fool turns, strolling off into the woods. You try to aim your shotgun, but find your arms are incapable of moving, the numb, cold muscles refusing to work. All you can do is watch as the Fool disappears into the darkness. When he's out of view, you snarl. You sniff the air, smelling the scent of prey, and... you try to focus on the pain for a moment, ignoring your bestial senses, before you smell something else. The smell of smoke, in the distance. You pause, raising an eye. Smoke means fire. Fire means activity. There needs to be something in that direction.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Heads!" The coin flips through the air ahead of you, as you step back, looking at the coin with interest. He steps back, leveling your own shotgun at you as he the coin lands in the dirt. The Fool peers down at it, tilting his head, before flipping the shotgun in his hands, grabbing the barrel and offering the stock to you. "It's your lucky day, Hunter. Good luck to you." You grab the shotgun, holding it in your hands and aiming it at the suspicious, patch coat man. "Who the fuck are you?" "An interesting question! Do you like riddles?" "No." The Fool frowns. "So dull. You're a dull old fellow, aren't you? Perhaps I should be helping the wolves." "Just tell me who you are, dammit! I'm a dying man, I don't have time for this." The Fool opens his mouth to complain, before pausing, then shrugging. "A slave I have been and shall remain To a golden mistress I'm tied with invisible chains Yet always I put on the same brave face She keeps me her prisoner, but leaves me some space." The Fool smiles at you for a moment, before raising an eyebrow. "So... who am I?" > A Clock "A clock," you say softly. "Oh, you're actually answering the riddle? How delightful! Maybe I misjudged you!" "Am I right, then?" "Oh well, tick tock, tick tock, Willy," the Fool grins. "Do you hear that? That's the sound of our time together running out for now. I best be on my way. Good luck dealing with my boy tonight, Willy." "Wait!" you growl, aiming your shotgun at him. "You move and I blow your brains out!" The Fool sighs, shaking his head. "I don't think you really know how this game works, do you?" the Fool says. The Fool leans forward, placing his thumb against the shotgun barrel. He scratches at his puffy, burned eyes, sighing. "You're not going to shoot that gun," he says simply. With that, the Fool turns, strolling off into the woods. You try to aim your shotgun, but find your arms are incapable of moving, the numb, cold muscles refusing to work. All you can do is watch as the Fool disappears into the darkness. When he's out of view, you snarl. You sniff the air, smelling the scent of prey, and... you try to focus on the pain for a moment, ignoring your bestial senses, before you smell something else. The smell of smoke, in the distance. You pause, raising an eye. Smoke means fire. Fire means activity. There needs to be something in that direction.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Heads!" The coin flips through the air ahead of you, as you step back, looking at the coin with interest. He steps back, leveling your own shotgun at you as he the coin lands in the dirt. The Fool peers down at it, tilting his head, before flipping the shotgun in his hands, grabbing the barrel and offering the stock to you. "It's your lucky day, Hunter. Good luck to you." You grab the shotgun, holding it in your hands and aiming it at the suspicious, patch coat man. "Who the fuck are you?" "An interesting question! Do you like riddles?" "No." The Fool frowns. "So dull. You're a dull old fellow, aren't you? Perhaps I should be helping the wolves." "Just tell me who you are, dammit! I'm a dying man, I don't have time for this." The Fool opens his mouth to complain, before pausing, then shrugging. "A slave I have been and shall remain To a golden mistress I'm tied with invisible chains Yet always I put on the same brave face She keeps me her prisoner, but leaves me some space." The Fool smiles at you for a moment, before raising an eyebrow. "So... who am I?" > The Moon "The moon," you say softly. "Oh, you're actually answering the riddle? How delightful! Maybe I misjudged you!" "Am I right, then?" "Oh well, it is a very moonlit night" the Fool grins. "I like your answer either way. Well, I best be off. Good luck dealing with my boy tonight, Willy." "Wait!" you growl, aiming your shotgun at him. "You move and I blow your brains out!" The Fool sighs, shaking his head. "I don't think you really know how this game works, do you?" the Fool says. The Fool leans forward, placing his thumb against the shotgun barrel. He scratches at his puffy, burned eyes, sighing. "You're not going to shoot that gun," he says simply. With that, the Fool turns, strolling off into the woods. You try to aim your shotgun, but find your arms are incapable of moving, the numb, cold muscles refusing to work. All you can do is watch as the Fool disappears into the darkness. When he's out of view, you snarl. You sniff the air, smelling the scent of prey, and... you try to focus on the pain for a moment, ignoring your bestial senses, before you smell something else. The smell of smoke, in the distance. You pause, raising an eye. Smoke means fire. Fire means activity. There needs to be something in that direction.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Heads!" The coin flips through the air ahead of you, as you step back, looking at the coin with interest. He steps back, leveling your own shotgun at you as he the coin lands in the dirt. The Fool peers down at it, tilting his head, before flipping the shotgun in his hands, grabbing the barrel and offering the stock to you. "It's your lucky day, Hunter. Good luck to you." You grab the shotgun, holding it in your hands and aiming it at the suspicious, patch coat man. "Who the fuck are you?" "An interesting question! Do you like riddles?" "No." The Fool frowns. "So dull. You're a dull old fellow, aren't you? Perhaps I should be helping the wolves." "Just tell me who you are, dammit! I'm a dying man, I don't have time for this." The Fool opens his mouth to complain, before pausing, then shrugging. "A slave I have been and shall remain To a golden mistress I'm tied with invisible chains Yet always I put on the same brave face She keeps me her prisoner, but leaves me some space." The Fool smiles at you for a moment, before raising an eyebrow. "So... who am I?" > The Tide "The tide," you say softly. "Oh, you're actually answering the riddle? How delightful! Maybe I misjudged you!" "Am I right, then?" "Oh, I wouldn't want to spoil the answer by telling you," the Fool grins. "Well, I best be off. Good luck dealing with my boy tonight, Willy." "Wait!" you growl, aiming your shotgun at him. "You move and I blow your brains out!" The Fool sighs, shaking his head. "I don't think you really know how this game works, do you?" the Fool says. The Fool leans forward, placing his thumb against the shotgun barrel. He scratches at his puffy, burned eyes, sighing. "You're not going to shoot that gun," he says simply. With that, the Fool turns, strolling off into the woods. You try to aim your shotgun, but find your arms are incapable of moving, the numb, cold muscles refusing to work. All you can do is watch as the Fool disappears into the darkness. When he's out of view, you snarl. You sniff the air, smelling the scent of prey, and... you try to focus on the pain for a moment, ignoring your bestial senses, before you smell something else. The smell of smoke, in the distance. You pause, raising an eye. Smoke means fire. Fire means activity. There needs to be something in that direction.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Heads!" The coin flips through the air ahead of you, as you step back, looking at the coin with interest. He steps back, leveling your own shotgun at you as he the coin lands in the dirt. The Fool peers down at it, tilting his head, before flipping the shotgun in his hands, grabbing the barrel and offering the stock to you. "It's your lucky day, Hunter. Good luck to you." You grab the shotgun, holding it in your hands and aiming it at the suspicious, patch coat man. "Who the fuck are you?" "An interesting question! Do you like riddles?" "No." The Fool frowns. "So dull. You're a dull old fellow, aren't you? Perhaps I should be helping the wolves." "Just tell me who you are, dammit! I'm a dying man, I don't have time for this." The Fool opens his mouth to complain, before pausing, then shrugging. "A slave I have been and shall remain To a golden mistress I'm tied with invisible chains Yet always I put on the same brave face She keeps me her prisoner, but leaves me some space." The Fool smiles at you for a moment, before raising an eyebrow. "So... who am I?" > You man "Man," you say softly. "Oh, you're actually answering the riddle? How delightful! Maybe I misjudged you!" "Am I right, then?" "Oh well, I mean, it's clear you've heard the Sphinx Riddle. And you said you didn't like riddles, you fibber!" the Fool grins. "Well, I best be off. Good luck dealing with my boy tonight, Willy." "Wait!" you growl, aiming your shotgun at him. "You move and I blow your brains out!" The Fool sighs, shaking his head. "I don't think you really know how this game works, do you?" the Fool says. The Fool leans forward, placing his thumb against the shotgun barrel. He scratches at his puffy, burned eyes, sighing. "You're not going to shoot that gun," he says simply. With that, the Fool turns, strolling off into the woods. You try to aim your shotgun, but find your arms are incapable of moving, the numb, cold muscles refusing to work. All you can do is watch as the Fool disappears into the darkness. When he's out of view, you snarl. You sniff the air, smelling the scent of prey, and... you try to focus on the pain for a moment, ignoring your bestial senses, before you smell something else. The smell of smoke, in the distance. You pause, raising an eye. Smoke means fire. Fire means activity. There needs to be something in that direction.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Heads!" The coin flips through the air ahead of you, as you step back, looking at the coin with interest. He steps back, leveling your own shotgun at you as he the coin lands in the dirt. The Fool peers down at it, tilting his head, before flipping the shotgun in his hands, grabbing the barrel and offering the stock to you. "It's your lucky day, Hunter. Good luck to you." You grab the shotgun, holding it in your hands and aiming it at the suspicious, patch coat man. "Who the fuck are you?" "An interesting question! Do you like riddles?" "No." The Fool frowns. "So dull. You're a dull old fellow, aren't you? Perhaps I should be helping the wolves." "Just tell me who you are, dammit! I'm a dying man, I don't have time for this." The Fool opens his mouth to complain, before pausing, then shrugging. "A slave I have been and shall remain To a golden mistress I'm tied with invisible chains Yet always I put on the same brave face She keeps me her prisoner, but leaves me some space." The Fool smiles at you for a moment, before raising an eyebrow. "So... who am I?" > You an Oak Tree "An Oak Tree," you say softly. "Oh, you're actually answering the riddle? How delightful! Maybe I misjudged you!" "Am I right, then?" "Well, I am in a forest, so maybe," the Fool grins. "Well, I best be off. Good luck dealing with my boy tonight, Willy." "Wait!" you growl, aiming your shotgun at him. "You move and I blow your brains out!" The Fool sighs, shaking his head. "I don't think you really know how this game works, do you?" the Fool says. The Fool leans forward, placing his thumb against the shotgun barrel. He scratches at his puffy, burned eyes, sighing. "You're not going to shoot that gun," he says simply. With that, the Fool turns, strolling off into the woods. You try to aim your shotgun, but find your arms are incapable of moving, the numb, cold muscles refusing to work. All you can do is watch as the Fool disappears into the darkness. When he's out of view, you snarl. You sniff the air, smelling the scent of prey, and... you try to focus on the pain for a moment, ignoring your bestial senses, before you smell something else. The smell of smoke, in the distance. You pause, raising an eye. Smoke means fire. Fire means activity. There needs to be something in that direction.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Heads!" The coin flips through the air ahead of you, as you step back, looking at the coin with interest. He steps back, leveling your own shotgun at you as he the coin lands in the dirt. The Fool peers down at it, tilting his head, before flipping the shotgun in his hands, grabbing the barrel and offering the stock to you. "It's your lucky day, Hunter. Good luck to you." You grab the shotgun, holding it in your hands and aiming it at the suspicious, patch coat man. "Who the fuck are you?" "An interesting question! Do you like riddles?" "No." The Fool frowns. "So dull. You're a dull old fellow, aren't you? Perhaps I should be helping the wolves." "Just tell me who you are, dammit! I'm a dying man, I don't have time for this." The Fool opens his mouth to complain, before pausing, then shrugging. "A slave I have been and shall remain To a golden mistress I'm tied with invisible chains Yet always I put on the same brave face She keeps me her prisoner, but leaves me some space." The Fool smiles at you for a moment, before raising an eyebrow. "So... who am I?" > You fuck your riddles, you're not playing your games! "Fuck your riddles, I'm not playing your games!" you yell. "Ugh, how dull then. You're very angry, aren't you?" "Watch it, fucker. Don't think I won't kill you." "God, if you're going to be like this, I best go off and leave you alone with your anger. Good luck dealing with my boy tonight, Willy." "Wait!" you growl, aiming your shotgun at him. "You move and I blow your brains out!" The Fool sighs, shaking his head. "I don't think you really know how this game works, do you?" the Fool says. The Fool leans forward, placing his thumb against the shotgun barrel. He scratches at his puffy, burned eyes, sighing. "You're not going to shoot that gun," he says simply. With that, the Fool turns, strolling off into the woods. You try to aim your shotgun, but find your arms are incapable of moving, the numb, cold muscles refusing to work. All you can do is watch as the Fool disappears into the darkness. When he's out of view, you snarl. You sniff the air, smelling the scent of prey, and... you try to focus on the pain for a moment, ignoring your bestial senses, before you smell something else. The smell of smoke, in the distance. You pause, raising an eye. Smoke means fire. Fire means activity. There needs to be something in that direction.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You slow your breathing, focusing on the pain in your chest. You raise your head, wiping the puke and blood from your face as you try to ignore the hunger in your belly. You wince, trying to ignore the desires of the beast within, telling you to run, to hunt, to feed, to howl. You shake your head violently, trying to focus, as you take up a kneeling position. The cold wind chills your bones and gives you goosebumps, and "You look to be in a bad state, friend," a voice says. You look up, finding yourself staring up at a a young, grinning man with curly black hair and a thick beard. His eyes are red and puffing, and seem to be somewhat burned. His jacket is patch-work, made of many stitched up patches of various colors, with the rest of his outfit being suitably gauche in its coloring to accentuate the man's weird look. He looks down at you, smiling. "You're either very hungover, or old Fenrir got his claws into you." "Who are you?" you ask weakly. "I'm getting really shit sick of having people walk up to me." "Oh, a fool, little else," the man smiles. "You look cold. I have a spare set of clothes, if you want." Cautious, you nod slowly, as the man pulls of his backpack, opening it. You pause, noticing the stock of your shotgun sticking out of the bag. The Fool tosses you a set of boots, underwear, an undershirt, socks, pants, t-shirt and a coat. Staring at him, you hurry to get dressed, as the Fool hums a song to himself. When you're finished, you look to the bag. The Fool notices what you're looking at, smiling. "That's my weapon." "Finders keepers, losers weepers, old Willy, old boy," the man shrugs. You pause, trying to calculate the chances of you grabbing your weapon before he can. "I didn't tell you my name," you say softly. "You didn't tell me my name either, but I know that," the Fool shrugs. The Fool grabs the shotgun, pulling it out and holding it in his hands, running his hands along the barrel. He pauses, digging through his pockets for a moment, before pulling out a golden coin. "Tell you what. I'll flip you for it. You call it, you get your gun back. You don't, I'll put you out of your misery and stop you from completely turning. Agreed?" You consider lunging at the man, but he lowers the barrel of the shotgun, anticipating your move. His grin widens, revealing more and more shiny teeth. "Agreed", you say. "Perfect!" the Fool grins. "Call it in the air, Willy." The man flips the coin, watching it spin in the air. > You tails "Tails!" The coin flips through the air ahead of you, as you step back, looking at the coin with interest. He steps back, leveling your own shotgun at you as he the coin lands in the dirt. The Fool peers down at it, tilting his head, before flipping the shotgun in his hands, grabbing the barrel and offering the stock to you. "It's your lucky day, Hunter. Good luck to you." You grab the shotgun, holding it in your hands and aiming it at the suspicious, patch coat man. "Who the fuck are you?" "An interesting question! Do you like riddles?" "No." The Fool frowns. "So dull. You're a dull old fellow, aren't you? Perhaps I should be helping the wolves." "Just tell me who you are, dammit! I'm a dying man, I don't have time for this." The Fool opens his mouth to complain, before pausing, then shrugging. "A slave I have been and shall remain To a golden mistress I'm tied with invisible chains Yet always I put on the same brave face She keeps me her prisoner, but leaves me some space." The Fool smiles at you for a moment, before raising an eyebrow. "So... who am I?"<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You find yourself crawling desperately towards the smashed up car wreck, reaching forward and dragging yourself along the ground. You manage to pull yourself to a kneeling position, before standing cautiously. You take a step forward, trying not to focus on the brutal pain in your shoulder. You slowly move towards the truck before stumbling, leaning against it as you groan in pain. Resting on the cold metal bonnet, you gasp for breath. "William. You made it," a voice groans from the wreckage. You pause, grabbing your shotgun, before finding yourself staring at Father Féval's broken but still living body. The man is still buckled into the car wreckage, his face bloody from a cut on his forehead, his side looking like it's been completely chewed up by the werewolves. His expression is as emotionless as always, but there's a trace of weariness in his eyes. "Father Féval!" you say, exuberant to know you're not alone in these dark woods. "They ate you up pretty well, William" Father Féval says, his accent thickening as his eyes grow weary. "We've both been bit, it seems. If we survive much longer, we're going to become just like them. The beast is within us, and it will take over soon. We should embrace the end and go into it peacefully." "No! We need to radio the lodge!" Father Féval nods down to where the radio sat, and you see it's been smashed up. The radio's been torn out, its plastic case shattered and its internal wiring shredded. Clearly, the werewolves knew what they were looking for, and targeted this specifically. "I'm sorry, William. That's not really an option anymore. It's time to face our end." "We can't let them get away with this! This werewolf pack isn't a group of psychopathic killers, they're worse. They're a planning, thinking, growing group. We can't just give up and off ourselves!" "William, your adrenaline's pumping and your mind is desperate, but we're not escaping here. Either we die here, or the beast within takes over!" "Fuck that! We have to do something! We have time before we turn! We can get help, contact the others and tell them what happened, and then we can off ourselves! But we can't do it yet!" Father Féval raises his pistols, pointing them at you. "We live by a code, William. If you're not going to go peacefully into the night, I am going to take you into it," the Catholic Priest says coldly. > You let Father Féval kill you Putting down a Wolf You raise your hands slowly, nodding. "I understand. We can't give these fuckers reinforcements. We need to end this quickly. Go ahead and kill me, then. I'm ready." Father Féval raises his pistols, aiming them at your chest. You smile at him weakly, before nodding. "Do it." "You know," Father Féval suggests. "These is a chance for you to confess your sins before you die, and to accept Jesus Christ as your lord and saviour." "With all due respect, I'm in no mood for your preaching. Let me die in peace." "So be it. May God have mercy on your soul, William." "Bleed quickly and die quicker, my friend." The guns fire, and the silver bullets tear through your chest, and you collapse backwards, blood bursting onto the ground. Darkness shrouds over you, and you can feel the desperate, clawing, howling beast within you get pulled down into the depths of darkness with you. Now, the eternal rest is all that's left for you.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You have to protect your companions, and get them out of there. You can't leave them behind. You hold your shotgun tightly in your hands, before moving forward and darting down the decline. You slide down on your boots, hurrying down as fast as you can. You almost fall into a tumble, but manage to steady yourself, finding yourself on the ground near the wreckage. You look to the truck, and you can see a mutilated corpse strapped into the driver's seat, and realize Russel didn't even get out of the car. The screams off deeper into the woods don't give you hope for the fate of the others. "Stay back! Stay back!" a young, terrified voice screams from behind the wreckage. Swearing, you burst forward, your gun held tightly in your hands. Rushing around the roasting bonfire, you find Wyatt, collapsed on his back, desperately trying to shuffle backwards. Standing in front of him is a bestial creature you've faced many times before. A werewolf. The creature stands with black and gray fur matted with the gore of a previous kill. The creature growls, revealing a row of vicious teeth that could easily tear through a man. Your instincts kick in, and you drop to your knee, raising your gun and opening fire. The gun bucks, silver bursting forward and tearing through the werewolf's flesh. The creature howls, as you fire another shot, blowing the creature's head off as its body crumples. You watch as the lupine body begins to morph, shedding air and twisting as it turns into a naked, bloody human corpse, its head completely missing. "Oh Jesus, oh Jesus! William, they got my dad. They tore him up, and they took Hans off into the woods! Shit, we have to go help him! We have to go save them!" You hear a loud howl, looking over to see a trio of werewolves appearing out of the woods. At the front, a large creature with frost white hair and pink eyes. The creature begins prowling towards you, its jaws open as it licks its lips. The creature lets out a growl, as the other two werewolves pause, holding back as the creature approaches you. Clearly this one's a leader of some sort, and it wants to take you down by itself as some fucked up pursuit of honor or to show its pack mates its prowess. You don't have time to think. It's time to act. > You break off into the woods with Wyatt "Run! Run now, Wyatt!" you scream, You sprint, running as fast as you can, your lungs burning, but it's not enough. Seconds later, a force like a truck smashes into your back, sending you crumpling to the floor with your legs shattering from the impact. You scream as the Albino lands atop your legs, sending pain racing through your body as you spasm. The creature looks down at you, growling. "Fuck you," you spit, hoping some part of the Albino understands you. The Albino's head snaps down, tearing out your throat, before binding off after Wyatt. You lie there on the ground, drowning in your own blood, as death slowly takes you.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You open your eyes as blurry vision returns to you. You're surrounded by dirt and darkness, but your eyes slowly begin to make sense of your surroundings. You're lying on the cold dirt, next to the road you were just driving along. You blink, feeling a rush of pain go through your numb body. Your skin is grazed and cut up and your flesh bruised, but you don't seem to be in too bad a condition. Certainly capable of walking and fighting. You force yourself to one knee, your eyes quickly adjusting to the darkness. Your is shotgun lying close by you, and feel a breath of relief. You stand cautiously, checking to make sure nothing's broken one more time, before grabbing your shotgun. After making sure it's still loaded, before surveying the situation. The trees to the side of the road are broken and crushed indicating where the truck must've gone off the road and down into the ravine below. Your eyes are slow to notice it due to it's black paint, but you see a pair of spike strips lying across the road. You stare at them in amazement for a moment, fingers clenched on your weapon. This doesn't make sense. Werewolves never take human servants, and they're not tool users when transformed. They wouldn't put the spike strips down... unless they knew you were coming... and prepared beforehand. FUCK! This shitshow's about to get a lot worse. You're dealing with a worse enemy than a pack of maddened werewolves. Struggling to the edge of the road, you stare down the steep ravine to where the truck lies. It's heavily crushed and damaged, beyond repair. You can hear screams down there, indicating that there's survivors. You doubt any of them are in any condition to defend yourself. But looking down at your current condition, you stand a chance. > You fall back and get out of this damned woods You need to get out of here. There's no use risking your own life to try save your comrades when they're already most likely dead. Your shotgun ready in your hands, you head off down the road. Your body burns and pain shoots through your body, plus the energy sapped in your night's other hunts and surviving the crash means that exhaustion is quickly becoming an issue. You hurry along the road, taking up a steady jog along the road so you don't tire yourself out, but don't spend too long in these wretched woods. You keep your grip tight, as your eyes watch the shadows of the woods around you and struggle to hear the sounds of the surrounding woods over the sound of your tired, slightly panicked breathing. Several long minutes of jogging, as you try to get out of these woods again. You begin to hear nearby howls, bursting from the nearby forests and nearby undergrowth. Your breath catches in your throat, before you shake your head and continue jogging, speeding up your pace slightly. There's no use panicking. You hear the howls of the werewolves grow nearer, and you know that they're on your trail. No doubt, they know you'd be following the road back to the Lodge where you came from. You wonder whether it'd be safer to try to lose the pack in the forest around you, or whether you should stay on the road and hope you come across something soon. > You stay on the road, shotgun at the ready You continue sprinting down the road, staying on your path and refusing to yield. You run for a long time, hearing the howls of the werewolf pack growing louder and closer. Each time one howls, it seems like they're at the edge of the road or right behind you, but they're not, not just yet. Keeping a steady pace, you ignore the burning of your muscles and the horrible pain of your cuts and bruises, your body wanting nothing more than to collapse. Still, you keep your mind focused, keeping to a steady jog rather than an all out sprint that would leave you exhausted in no time at all. Just keep running and you'll make it out of there. Hopefully. Suddenly, you hear the howl of a werewolf, and it's so close, so clear, so loud that you know that you need to do something. Glimpses of gray fur and white teeth begin appearing on the edge of the forest. It's time to act. > You break to a sprint and get out of there You sprint, running as fast as you can, your lungs burning. Your feet burst along the tarmac, as you refuse to slow down. Your strides are now more akin to leaps as you fly through the air, charging forward. You hear the growls grow closer, the howls almost being roared right in your ears. You can practically feel the flicks of spit and blood landing on your ear from how close the werewolves' maws are when they howl into you, causing you to shiver with fright. Seconds later, a force like a truck smashes into your back, sending you smacking into the tarmac of the road. You bounce along the road, before skidding to a stop as the rough tarmac strips off a layer of skin, blood bursting forth. The werewolf's not far behind, its claw slashing at your unprotected neck. The claw tears through flesh and slices through your spinal cord with ease, as your head is ripped off from your broken and bleeding body, bouncing along the road as it comes to a stop, a pained, terrified expression now forever frozen on its face. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You continue sprinting down the road, staying on your path and refusing to yield. You run for a long time, hearing the howls of the werewolf pack growing louder and closer. Each time one howls, it seems like they're at the edge of the road or right behind you, but they're not, not just yet. Keeping a steady pace, you ignore the burning of your muscles and the horrible pain of your cuts and bruises, your body wanting nothing more than to collapse. Still, you keep your mind focused, keeping to a steady jog rather than an all out sprint that would leave you exhausted in no time at all. Just keep running and you'll make it out of there. Hopefully. Suddenly, you hear the howl of a werewolf, and it's so close, so clear, so loud that you know that you need to do something. Glimpses of gray fur and white teeth begin appearing on the edge of the forest. It's time to act. > You open fire on the beasts You raise your shotgun, taking up a shooting position as you open fire at the approaching werewolves. You aim down the iron sights of your shotgun, quickly targeting an approaching werewolf that appears from out of the trees. You fire your gun, silver shards tearing through the werewolf's open maw as you blow open its jaw, killing it instantly and sending it collapsing in a shower of gore and blood. You swivel around, quickly targeting another creature that's appearing from the bushes. You fire again, the shot hitting the creature's foreleg and leading it to stumble, hitting the ground, before quickly leaping off into the bushes again. By now, the creatures now to avoid your direct line of fire, so you simply stand there, sweeping your gaze around you, shotgun at the ready. Ever few seconds, you spot one emerging from the bushes, attempting to flank you and tear the gun from your hands, or your arm from your body, but the creatures dives back upon being noticed, and if it doesn't your shotgun easily sends them running. Still, you're far outnumbered, and your ammo is rapidly running out. You swear, wondering how you're going to get out of there, before you see a faint light in the distance. Your eyes widen as you see a pair of bright yellow lights, slowly growing larger and brighter. Adrenaline coursing through you, you double your efforts, firing at every flash of fur or teeth that you see in the bushes, hoping to give yourself some space. Soon, the source of the lights comes into view. A massive, eighteen wheeler truck comes into view, roaring along the road. The werewolves howl at you, but you continue firing upon them, until the truck "What the fuck are you doing?!" the driver yells, as you struggle to understand his thick Norwegian accent with your basic understanding of the language. "Please!, Please help me!" you yell, not giving him a second to respond as you race up to the truck, pulling the door open and clambering inside. "Drive!" Seeing the terror on your face, the trucker does as requested, slamming his foot on the accelerator. The truck speeds off down the road. You wince for a second, when the truck's still slow enough for a werewolf to leap through the windscreen, but thankfully the truck soon picks up speed, and the howls of angry werewolves are left in the distance. "What the hell happened you?" "Wolves," you reply simply. "A starved wolf pack attacked me while I was hunting. Thank you so much." "You look like you've been chewed up, boy." "Almost," you smile, before laughing, as the night's fear and tension break. "Just keep driving, sir. Get me out of here." The truck barrels down the road, as you head out from those moonlit woods. > You lucky Thirteen... Lucky Thirteen You soon return to the Lodge, informing them of what happened. The Lodge quickly recalls its Hunters, and prepares a defense that could hold off an army. Thankfully, the werewolves do not attack that night, or the following one. However, the next night, they do make their move. Under the night of the full moon, they strike. Power grids are knocked off, cell towers are taken down, and vast sections of suburbia are hit, their inhabitants slaughtered. The werewolves kill scores of humans, damaging critical infrastructure. From that night forward, the attacks only intensify, as their plan continues, their numbers growing far beyond what you can contain. The media doesn't know what to call it. A massive population of rabies-inflicted Wolves beyond what anyone had ever knew of. You're unsure what's to happen now, with the last news you remember being that the National Guard are being localized to deal with the threat. You don't fancy their odds. Either way, you survived another hunt. Your Lodge has requested support from dozens of other Lodges, trying to find the numbers to help deal with this threat. You don't know if they'll be able. All you do know is that you need to serve as you can. You survived your thirteenth. Your fourteenth hunt is tomorrow night, and your fifteenth after that. You are no longer a Hunter, you are a soldier in the war against this new threat. The night is long, and some say that this is the time of Beasts now, and that the time of man is over. You hope they're wrong.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You need to get out of here. There's no use risking your own life to try save your comrades when they're already most likely dead. Your shotgun ready in your hands, you head off down the road. Your body burns and pain shoots through your body, plus the energy sapped in your night's other hunts and surviving the crash means that exhaustion is quickly becoming an issue. You hurry along the road, taking up a steady jog along the road so you don't tire yourself out, but don't spend too long in these wretched woods. You keep your grip tight, as your eyes watch the shadows of the woods around you and struggle to hear the sounds of the surrounding woods over the sound of your tired, slightly panicked breathing. Several long minutes of jogging, as you try to get out of these woods again. You begin to hear nearby howls, bursting from the nearby forests and nearby undergrowth. Your breath catches in your throat, before you shake your head and continue jogging, speeding up your pace slightly. There's no use panicking. You hear the howls of the werewolves grow nearer, and you know that they're on your trail. No doubt, they know you'd be following the road back to the Lodge where you came from. You wonder whether it'd be safer to try to lose the pack in the forest around you, or whether you should stay on the road and hope you come across something soon. > You try to lose them in the undergrowth of the forest You turn, rushing off the road as you leap off the tarmac onto the dirt of the forest floor. You keep your run fast and steady, boots crushing leaves and twigs underfoot as you maneuver through the trees, trying to keep at least somewhat parallel to the road so you don't end up lost in here. You push your way through the thin branches as quickly as you can, as they gently slap and snag at your clothes. You ignore the pain, barreling forward. However, it's not long before the other creatures are left on your tail, having caught the scent of your blood and the sound of you trampling over branches and leaves. It's not long before the howls are almost behind you again, and you need to act. > You keep running You sprint, running as fast as you can, your lungs burning. Your strides are now more akin to leaps as you fly through the air, charging forward. You hear the growls grow closer, the howls almost being roared right in your ears. You can practically feel the flicks of spit and blood landing on your ear from how close the werewolves' maws are when they howl into you, causing you to shiver with fright. Seconds later, a force like a truck smashes into your back, sending you crumpling to the floor with your legs shattering from the impact. You scream as the creature lands atop your legs, sending pain racing through your body as you spasm. The creature looks down at you, growling. "My comrades are going to wipe your kind out," you spit, hoping some part of the creature understands you. The creature's head snaps down, tearing out your throat. He begins digging into your neck, feeding on your blood and flesh as you screams become gargles.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You turn, rushing off the road as you leap off the tarmac onto the dirt of the forest floor. You keep your run fast and steady, boots crushing leaves and twigs underfoot as you maneuver through the trees, trying to keep at least somewhat parallel to the road so you don't end up lost in here. You push your way through the thin branches as quickly as you can, as they gently slap and snag at your clothes. You ignore the pain, barreling forward. However, it's not long before the other creatures are left on your tail, having caught the scent of your blood and the sound of you trampling over branches and leaves. It's not long before the howls are almost behind you again, and you need to act. > You hide and wait for them to pass You quickly scamper into the thickest underbrush, staying low and disappearing into the bushes. You know how to hide well, so you quickly begin covering yourself with dirt and immersing yourself in the leaves, keeping low and quiet. You still your tired breathing, and wait. You wait for several minutes, as the howls become louder, and louder, before going quiet. You wait carefully, your breath caught in your lungs, as you wait for several minutes. Suddenly, a lupine maw emerges from the bush in front of you, followed by a pair of blood-red eyes. The werewolf stares at you, growling in a low voice, as you realize the creatures have followed your scent, and surrounding you. The albino wolf that's come across you looks at you with almost sadistic glee, licking its lips. Almost an hour later, the screams filling the moonlit night finally end, the last few sounds little more than a dying, gargling whimper from a creature so broken and exhausted that they're incapable of even moving, the voice so red raw from screaming that it can barely make a noise. The torn apart, bloody body that is left there is never found, with what remains being food for the worms.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You stand, stern and waiting with your shotgun raised. The Vampire laughs, his fangs bared as he holds them above Father Féval's neck. Father Féval simply stands perfectly still, slowing his breathing as he stares blankly ahead, slowly mouthing "Do it". "Come on!" the Vampire laughs, reaching his arm down and tapping on exactly where Father Féval's heart is. "Right here. Blow out your friend's heart and maybe you'll get me. You'll get rid of my shield, either way." With the Vampire's arm having moved around to Father Féval's chest, Father Féval's hand has been released. Father Féval slowly reaches his hand down to his belt, staring ahead. He slowly lifts up his jacket, reaching under to grab the silver crucifix affixed to his belt. He slides the cross free, holding it tightly in his hands. He looks at you, nodding ever so slightly in an almost imperceptible gesture. Father Féval swings his arm back in one solid gesture, jamming the crucifix into the Vampire's eye. The Vampire screams, a horrible rasping noise of anger and pain beyond what should come out of any human lungs, like the scraping of concrete on concrete. It grabs at the crucifix jamming into it's eye, hissing as Father Féval ducks out of his grasp, rolling to the side, giving you the perfect open target. You raise your shotgun, aiming it at the vampire's heart. You squeeze the trigger, doing what you should. The blast of lead and burning Magnesium shards tear through the air, bursting forward and exploding through his heart, and causing his flesh and clothes to catch up in flames. He screams out in pain, forced backwards from the sheer force of impact. You pump your shotgun, firing another blast as it hits the Vampire in the head, which snaps back as his head erupts through melting flesh. You pump another, and another, and another round into him, as his inhuman body erupts into fire, flesh turning into ash as he collapses backwards against the wall, the force of the shells leaving the Vampire stumbling back as it gasps. It's flesh continues burning away to ash as the creature collapses to the ground, and soon there's nothing but an ash pile left. "Thanks," Father Féval nods, looking down at the ash pile that was previously about to tear out his throat. "We should burn this wretched place to the ground and get out of here. Too much of a story here if they find the blood extraction equipment." A bright ringing noise startles you from behind, and you almost open fire in that direction as you redraw your revolver. You find yourself staring at a simple cellphone sitting on a table, vibrating and ringing away. You pause, looking at it with confusion. "What is it?" Father Féval asks you. "A phone," you answer, as you walk over slowly, reaching down and flipping open the phone, lifting it to your ear. "Hello?" "Hello, Mr Matasan." Your blood chills for a moment, as you take a deep breath, terror ringing through you. "And who may I be speaking to?" "My name is Hrólfr Gaange. It's a pleasure to meet you." "Is there something I can help you with?" you ask. "You don't seem particularly afraid, Mr Matasan." "Should I be, Mr Gaange?" you ask, trying to keep your calm. "Of course not. It's just refreshing to speak to a new person without them being so terrified. Now, let's be quite frank, Mr Matasan. You killed one of my agents, and their thrall, did you not?" "I did," you say, not wanting to waste the time that would've come from lying, since you know the creature's certain about these facts. "Interesting. Good. He was a weak, impulsive creature. He wasn't useful. Quite frankly, he was a threat to our existence. But you... you could be of assistance to me. You have potential. I want you to work for me." "No," you reply, almost instantly, prompting a dark chuckle from the bastard. "I understand. You've dedicated your life to protecting the innocent. But, so have I, Mr Matasan. I may be a vampire, but I do what's necessary for this world. I don't stalk through the streets at night attacking helpless women hiding in their beds. I'm not one of these crass specimens that wants to blot out the sun, or who wants to enslave mankind, or raise a legion of damned souls. I like the world the way it is. And I'm going to keep it safe from darker creatures of the night. I keep the world of darkness under wraps, as you do. I keep my dark brethren in check. I protect society. You could help me with that, and do a far better job than you do as a mortal." "No," you say again. "Think about what I'm offering you. Immortality, riches, power, strength, speed, intelligence. Everything you could want." "I can't do that, Mr Gaange. I think you already knew that, though." "Oh, I did. But I'm not looking to recruit you right now. I'm offering you a favor. You types never take the power offer. You don't join my side out of power-lust. You join out of desperation. A day will come when you need me. Perhaps you need some arcane knowledge. Perhaps you need money. Perhaps a cure for some unknown disease. Anything you ever need. Just... keep this phone. My number is under Mr Black. Generic, i know. When you need me, call. I can give you anything you want. And what do you lose for that? Your finite mortality, your weakness, your diseases, your poverty... a fair bargain, no." "I'm not going to..." you begin to see, before a dark voice interupts you. "Keep the phone. I know you don't think you'll need it, but you might. I'll talk to you sooner or later, Mr Matasan. Best of luck to you tonight. I've heard it'll be a big one." The phone beeps as Mr Gaange hangs up on you. "What was it?" Father Féval asks. "The target's vampiric master." "What did he say?" You pause, looking down at your phone as you try to think through what to do. You know Féval wouldn't support you taking the phone, but he doesn't have to know what was discussed. > You leave the phone Refusing to make any deals with the enemies you hunt, you drop the phone onto the group, watching it bounce along the hard concrete as it breaks, plastic splintering. You raise your shotgun, firing at it as it explodes in a shower of lead, magnesium and plastic. You step back, shaking your head. No use leaving any potential evidence for the fire department investigating this place. "Nothing important," you say. "Just threats and bullshit." "As always," Father Féval says. "Let's get out of here, William. There's nothing left for us here." Your job done, you quickly set apart eradicating the evidence this place ever existed. The two of you pack up the jars of blood into the truck, for disposal somewhere that won't be investigated. You also take the IV and tubing, before grabbing your fuel cans. You quickly perform the same patterns, spreading it through the house evenly enough, focusing on that you need destroyed and that which is most flammable. With the two of you, the clean-up is surprisingly quickly the two of you working quickly in silence neither one of you wants to break. Once that's done, you head out of the house and set the home alight, watching as the flames run through the house and engulf it in an inferno. "A job well done," Father Féval nods. "One more soul sent to its judgment. We should get back. There is more work to be done. Unless you would like to watch the house burn? Pyromania is a common turn for many a man in this line of duty, no?" You don't feel like watching the house burn, not feeling the usual satisfaction of watching a lair of darkness light the shadows as a beacon of warmth and light. You just feel tired, even more so knowing that you're not finished your work tonight. "No, I'm fine. Let's go," you answer. Father Féval nods, shaking your hand before returning to his sedan, and heading off into the night. You head back to your truck as well, climbing in and heading off down the road again. The drive goes by quickly, as you turn your radio up until it's almost blaring some inane Norwegian pop song, and continue off down the road. It's not long before you pull up to the old country house again. The signs of the night's lateness are more obvious, now. A few of the vehicles parked outside are dented or have blood smears or bullet holes, and the Hunters that walk about them seem more exhausted. You head into the house, taking a moment to appreciate the light of the fireplace. But, the night is still young, and you have targets to hit. You walk towards the sitting room, one of the old house's converted into a "base of operations" of sorts. Although as Hunters, you tend to work independently, only using the Lodge for resources, resupplying and rest, as well as letting them know every so often you're not dead in the long periods of investigation and tracking in trying to find the lairs and dens of beasts, and trying to distinguish psychos and fools from men tainted by the demonic, or worse. However, it's the night of the Hunt, that beautiful night of the year where you wipe out the monsters that dwell in the shadows in one quick sweep, not even giving the bastards time to flee or figure out what's going on. And on the night of the Hunt, sometimes you need to work together. While maddened werewolves and loner vampires are easy prey with modern technology, hard-work, training and of course the element of surprise, when the creatures of darkness work together, so must you. When that happens, you plan and prepare in the lounge. You walk into the lodge, finding a large table with a map stretched across it. A half dozen men stand around it, all of whom you recognize as veteran Hunters. The leader of the group is the head of the Lodge, a man known as Ernest Collier. The old man's scarred, wrinkled face smiles at you as you enter. Ernest's too old at his age to still hunt, having since lost the physical peak that Hunters are required to be at, but his mind is strong and he's well experienced. Thus, he serves the cause through leading the lodge. Everything from supplying Hunters to recruiting to planning the larger hunts falls under his purview. "William. I heard your hunt with Father Féval went well. I'm glad. How did your earlier target go?" "Successfully," you say simply. The next man in the room you see is Father Féval, who nods at you once more. As always, cold and calculated. After him stands former-Unteroffizer Hans Hirsch. The tall man has dark black hair and light eyes, his face decorated with a long scar that goes vertically just left of his left eye. He leans over the table, scanning the map. His finger gently runs across hunting paths through the thick forest as he whispers to himself. Hans is a strange man, with a taste for drink, cigars, cigarettes, whores, gambling... anything he can get his hands on. But, he's a good hunter, having served in the military of his home country and having a great record on all his previous hunts. The final man is an Alaskan by the name of Russel Sloane. Time has taken the black from his thick beard and the hair from his head, but left the man's strength, speed and cunning, and only given him experience and wisdom for the trade. He's a powerful Hunter, and took the shift from bears and wolves to Kushtaka and Tupilaq with ease. He smiles at you grimly when you enter, his face showing a hint of more worry than usual. "Are we ready to start?" you ask. "We're waiting on someone," Russel says. As you raise an eyebrow, the door swings open and you find yourself staring down at a young boy, barely in his mid teens. "This is my boy Wyatt. Now that's he's a full man, we'll be taking him on tonight's hunt, showing him how we fight. I filled him in on the details." "Pleasure to meet y'all," he smiles nervously, as you look him up and down. He's young, short, weak and skinny. You don't think he should be coming out, but he's a man more than you would normally have for this mission, and you're not going to be telling his father how to raise his own child. "Take a seat, Wyatt," Ernest smiles. "We're going to go over tonight's details." Ernest takes a seat, as you stare down at the map ahead of you, which shows you a massive woods, with several hunting paths, potential lairs and scenes of incidents highlighted. "Let's recap for those who didn't get to hear it directly from me!" Ernest says. "There's been several mauling's in these areas, and we've had reports a werewolf pack is responsible. Not just one werewolf, but an entire pack of about six to twelve creatures. We're taking a small team in their to set up an ambush, draw them out and kill them all. The plans' simple. Take a truck into the woods with a mutilated deer carcass, slathered in human blood. The scent should draw the werewolves into your area, where you'll have set up an overview to take them out. Simple." You all nod, the review of your plan unnecessary for everyone but Wyatt. "We're heading off in an hour and a half. I want all of you prepared and by the truck for then, understood?" There's a chorus of affirmatives, as Ernest smiles. "Good to know. Best of luck, men."<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You retreat to the car, calling into the Lodge. They report back that they've a spare Hunter to send out, one who is only acting on stand-by. Father Paul Féval. You know the man well, and have worked with him before. The man's a representative from the Vatican, a priest even, and as adamant in following the laws of the Bible as you are in never leaving the Lodge without a spare, but the man's a professional and an experienced Hunter. The man's permanent cold, professional demeanor means you'd be hesitant to call him a "friend", but you feel it'd be disrespectful to like anything. You get in your car, driving back a minute away from the house just for some extra space. Once you're out there, you wait outside your car, your weapons ready in case the vampire or his thrall emerge. The wait is long, but after fifteen minutes, you see a pair of dazzling head beams approaching you. A blackened sedan seems to almost form from the shadows, pulling in behind you. The sedan's driver door opens, as a tall, gaunt figure with spectacles and a black jacket and pants steps out. His long, bizarrely slender fingers tap against his side as his lips turn upwards very slightly in the barest facsimile of a smile. You know it's simply a polite sign, the man's professional nature means he takes no joy in this, instead simply seeing it as his religious duty. "William," Father Féval nods. "The Lodge informs me we're dealing with a thrall and a youth, correct?" "Correct, Father," you nod. "But they might be up." "Best not to take risks, William. We have enough risks inherent to our job, don't we?" Father Féval leans into the car, pulling out a vile of holy water. He dribbles it into his hands, blessing himself, before leaning back in and grabbing a silver crucifix. He affixes it to his belt, before flipping his jacket tails back, pulling out a pair of shining pistols. He looks at them both, examining them for a moment, before nodding. "I'm ready and willing, William." "Let's go." The pair of you begin walking down the street, ready to strike. You soon come up again to the house once more, walking up the path towards the house. You know from surveillance that the house has the main entrance as well as a back door. The lounge, dining room and basement are located near the front door. The sitting positions would give anyone in there the sight of the door, but it would allow for the quickest contact. If the vampires awake, eliminating the thrall would give you far better chances against the Vampire shortly afterwards. "You did the ground work. Suggestions?" Father Féval says unemotionally, seeming entirely focused on the situation with no fear, dread or anticipation. > You split up and take both entrances "We split up. Take each side, catch the Thrall in a pincer movement, and get this done." "Good. I understand. I'll take the back, your weapon is more of a..." Father Féval pauses, looking for the word. "Breaching weapon, no?" "Fair point. Let's do it." "Best of luck, my friend. Give me thirty seconds. I'll wait for the gunshot. You walk towards the house, shotgun held tightly in your hands. Surprisingly for a vampire's lair, your surveillance has said that the house is completely lacking in any serious security measures. Locked doors and windows, sure, but they're lacking the reinforced doors, security cameras. It's a young vampire, so you're not expecting legions of Thralls protecting him or runic blood magic protecting the house, but clearly the power's gone to this creature's head. Striding forward to the house's wooden door, you raise your shotgun, pointing it at the lock and firing. Booting the door open with a solid kick as you pump the shotgun, the door collapses to the ground as you quickly step through, making contact with the Thrall. The Thrall stands in the kitchen, a short, bearded man with crazed eyes and grime and dirt stuck in his beard and on his face. He shakes his head repeatedly, growling and swearing as he divides a pile of crushed and broken white crystals, no doubt a substitute between his feedings on the vampiric blood he's heavily addicted to. His eyes dart up to you as he growls, an animalistic sound that could only come from a beast. His blood-shot eyes bulge, as he kicks the table with incredible strength, flipping it onto its side as he dives behind it. You watch as Father Féval walks into the room, having broken through the back door. He raises his rifles, pointing it as the Thrall's head. "Hands up," he says. "You goddamn bastard! We'll take the night back! We'll steal the fucking sun for you! We will rule the darkness, and we will fucking make blood bags of your loved o...!" "Silencieux," Father Féval says calmly, as the man groans in pain, gritting his teeth. "Les flammes les plus méritées brûlent le plus chaud, pécheur. Que Dieu ait pitié de ce qui reste de votre âme misérable et trouve la miséricorde sur votre âme." The two pistols fire, the Thrall's face exploding as blood and gore coats his wild hair and thick beard, his head caving in as the bullets carve their way through. "Let's kill this Vampire and be done with this place," Father Féval says to you. "Let's," you say, pumping your shotgun as your next shell enters the chamber. > You take out the coffin You quickly head down the staircase of the basement, descending into the dark basement, lit by a dim candle. You slow down as you notice the counters piled with jars filled to the brim with red liquid. A bloody metal table sits there with unopened leather straps, a series of tubing and IV's connected to it. You're certain that it's equipment to drain the blood of victims the Thrall captures, to feed his master when he doesn't wish to hunt for himself. However, the highlight of the room is a large, ornate coffin, leaning against a concrete wall. You've seen enough coffins in your life for any man, but this one is a fairly nice one. It's solid wood, cherry, with brass handles, sitting up on its side so its resident can sleep standing up. The face on the front of the coffin shows a grinning, gargoyle-like face made of brass, its eyes shining at you. You flinch at the sight of it, nervous about what lies behind it. "Let's do it," Father Féval says. You hurry up to the coffin, readying your shotgun as Father Féval takes the other side. "I take the chest, you take the head," you say, as Father Féval nods. Quickly, the two of you perform the breaching mechanism. Swinging around and standing back, you quickly measure the size of the coffin and roughly calculate where the center of its heart is. You aim, your fingers tightening on the trigger as you fire the weapon, as does Father Féval. Your shotgun bucks, firing lead and magnesium shards directly through the heavy wood of the coffin. You fire three times as the wood splinters and explodes away, your shells bursting through them as they tear through the coffin. Father Féval's rounds tear through where the head of the vampire should lie, bursting through the wood and hitting through inside. After a few seconds, the sound of gunfire calms as you look at Father Féval. "Let us confirm the kill," Father Féval says. Stepping forward, you grab the handle of the coffin and wretch it open, tearing open the splintered and almost destroyed door. Staring inside, you find splintered wood and torn apart coffin, and thankfully, the piles of ash that would indicate a clean kill. The vampire is dead, his body ash, and your task completed. "Confirmed," you say. "Thank God above," Father Féval says, showing the slightest traces of a smile. "We should burn this place to the ground and get out of here." A bright ringing noise startles you from behind, and you almost open fire in that direction as you redraw your revolver. You find yourself staring at a simple cellphone sitting on a table, vibrating and ringing away. You pause, looking at it with confusion. "What is it?" Father Féval asks you. "A phone," you answer, as you walk over slowly, reaching down and flipping open the phone, lifting it to your ear. "Hello?" "Hello, Mr Matasan." Your blood chills for a moment, as you take a deep breath, terror ringing through you. "And who may I be speaking to?" "My name is Hrólfr Gaange. It's a pleasure to meet you." "Is there something I can help you with?" you ask. "You don't seem particularly afraid, Mr Matasan." "Should I be, Mr Gaange?" you ask, trying to keep your calm. "Of course not. It's just refreshing to speak to a new person without them being so terrified. Now, let's be quite frank, Mr Matasan. You killed one of my agents, and their thrall, did you not?" "I did," you say, not wanting to waste the time that would've come from lying, since you know the creature's certain about these facts. "Interesting. Good. He was a weak, impulsive creature. He wasn't useful. Quite frankly, he was a threat to our existence. But you... you could be of assistance to me. You have potential. I want you to work for me." "No," you reply, almost instantly, prompting a dark chuckle from the bastard. "I understand. You've dedicated your life to protecting the innocent. But, so have I, Mr Matasan. I may be a vampire, but I do what's necessary for this world. I don't stalk through the streets at night attacking helpless women hiding in their beds. I'm not one of these crass specimens that wants to blot out the sun, or who wants to enslave mankind, or raise a legion of damned souls. I like the world the way it is. And I'm going to keep it safe from darker creatures of the night. I keep the world of darkness under wraps, as you do. I keep my dark brethren in check. I protect society. You could help me with that, and do a far better job than you do as a mortal." "No," you say again. "Think about what I'm offering you. Immortality, riches, power, strength, speed, intelligence. Everything you could want." "I can't do that, Mr Gaange. I think you already knew that, though." "Oh, I did. But I'm not looking to recruit you right now. I'm offering you a favor. You types never take the power offer. You don't join my side out of power-lust. You join out of desperation. A day will come when you need me. Perhaps you need some arcane knowledge. Perhaps you need money. Perhaps a cure for some unknown disease. Anything you ever need. Just... keep this phone. My number is under Mr Black. Generic, i know. When you need me, call. I can give you anything you want. And what do you lose for that? Your finite mortality, your weakness, your diseases, your poverty... a fair bargain, no." "I'm not going to..." you begin to see, before a dark voice interupts you. "Keep the phone. I know you don't think you'll need it, but you might. I'll talk to you sooner or later, Mr Matasan. Best of luck to you tonight. I've heard it'll be a big one." The phone beeps as Mr Gaange hangs up on you. "What was it?" Father Féval asks. "The target's vampiric master." "What did he say?" You pause, looking down at your phone as you try to think through what to do. You know Féval wouldn't support you taking the phone, but he doesn't have to know what was discussed.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>After clambering into your pick-up, you head off down the road, speeding along the streets as you head towards your target. The target house, due to the nature of what happens there, is very secluded. This means that it'll be all the easier for you to hit, as you won't have to worry about avoiding witnesses or police detection. You sure as shit don't want another police officer walking in on you mid-execution. You've dealt with it before, and things got... well, best not to let the mind dwell in the shadows. It's a long drive to your target, so you take the time to mentally prepare yourself, running through the plan again and again. The Vampire's secluded nature means he wakens to feed every two to three nights, before retiring to sleep. It seems the creature still struggles with fatigue, meaning he's particularly untrained in his power. He fed last night, so he should be easy prey. Kill the Thrall, and simply kill the beast in it's coffin. You pull up far enough away from the target house so not even an awakened vampire could hear its engine rumbling or see the flickers of its light. You kill the lights and leave the engine running, just in case you need a quick get away, before stepping out of your car, grabbing your weapon and making your way up the road. The veil of darkness that hung over the early night sky has been pulled from the sky, revealing the beauty of the stars. The moon shines bright, big and round like a light, surrounded by a billion shining stars that dot the heaves. It's stunningly beautiful, you must admit. The moon almost seems full, but you know it's not. The full moon has a tendency to alight some passion into the hearts of beasts, so the Lodge never has a hunt on those nights. However, nights lit by the moon are often the safest and brightest, so you tend to pick nights close to it. Best to have a bright sky watching over you when venturing into the shadows. Heading towards the house, you keep the shotgun tight in your hands, ready to fire at a moment's notice, the dragon's breath rounds in the chamber. You see the lights . The thrall should be asleep, as should his master. It's nearly two, and the man's frantic work last night in capturing prey for his master should've left the exhausted bastard craving sleep. Never mind. Him being awake only heightens the challenge. As long as his master's asleep, this should be doable. Although, if he's awake, it's out of schedule. Perhaps something's afoot, and perhaps his master is too. If that's the case, perhaps you should lean on the safer side of things. Then again, it is the night of the hunt. Calling on back-up means depriving a Hunter from somewhere else, and that could have lasting consequences. Perhaps another team is short a member, and a Necromancer's flesh hounds get the drop on them. Perhaps a Skinwalker manages to escape the trap set for him, and hunt fresh prey in the safety of the far north, away from your reach. Either way, your actions, as always in this field, have consequences. > You head in alone You frown, deciding that you can't take away reinforcements on such an important night. You still have the drop on the Thrall, and despite his vampiric favor, he's a simple mortal with a beating heart that can be stop and fresh blood that can be spilled. You're going to take him out ,and remind his master of how much mortality stings. With fresh-faced determination, you walk forward towards the house. You walk with steady, certain steps up towards the house. You know from surveillance that the house has the main entrance as well as a back door. The lounge, dining room and basement are located near the front door. The sitting positions would give anyone in there the sight of the door, but it would allow for the quickest contact. If the vampire's awake, eliminating the thrall would give you far better chances against the Vampire shortly afterwards. So, the only question left before you dive in the throes of nightmarish battle is whether you're going in through the front door or the back door. > You head in the front door You decide the front's the easiest option. You don't want to waste time messing about while the Vampire can be awoken at any point, because even with your skill and the element of surprise, a Thrall and his Vampire master are a serious threat. You need to do this quick and clean, and make sure you get the drop on the Vampire before's he's out of his coffin. You walk towards the house, shotgun held tightly in your hands. Surprisingly for a vampire's lair, your surveillance has said that the house is completely lacking in any serious security measures. Locked doors and windows, sure, but they're lacking the reinforced doors, security cameras. It's a young vampire, so you're not expecting legions of Thralls protecting him or runic blood magic protecting the house, but clearly the power's gone to this creature's head. Striding forward to the house's wooden door, you raise your shotgun, pointing it at the lock and firing. Booting the door open with a solid kick as you pump the shotgun, the door collapses to the ground as you quickly step through, making contact with the Thrall. The Thrall stands in the kitchen, a short, bearded man with crazed eyes and grime and dirt stuck in his beard and on his face. He shakes his head repeatedly, growling and swearing as he divides a pile of crushed and broken white crystals, no doubt a substitute between his feedings on the vampiric blood he's heavily addicted to. His eyes dart up to you as he growls, an animalistic sound that could only come from a beast. His blood-shot eyes bulge, as he kicks the table with incredible strength, flipping it onto its side as he dives behind it. You immediately open fire, bullets and shotgun blasts easily tearing through the table, but it was a simply distraction, and the Thrall's already ducked behind the kitchen counter. Suddenly, you see the barrel of a gun emerge from behind the kitchen counter, as the Thrall attempts to fight back. The gun's muzzle flashes and screams with the crackling of gunfire, and you dive behind cover, scrambling behind the corner of a wall, ready to fend off your opponent. You exchange fire with the Thrall, but he's hidden in cover and just firing her with potshots, and thus you don't really have a shot at him. It's clear he's trying to wait out the awakening of his master, so it's Retreating, as always, seems promising. The racket you're causing has no doubt awoken the vile monster you've come here to kill, and there's no use dying for no reason. You can also hold out patiently, wait for the Thrall to peek his head out and take him down, so you can secure the chance to fight the Vampire one-on-one. Of course, if you can rush the Thrall from his flank and take him out quickly, you'll be able to take down the Vampire while he's still slumbering in his coffin. > You retreat to the truck Knowing that staying there is a slaughter and every second you spend fighting is only going to make it more likely the sound of death and smell of flesh blood is going to awaken the thrall's master, you know you don't have a chance here. You break for the door, sprinting low and fast as your shotgun swings in your hands. Bullets land all around you, splintering the wooden door frame and embedding themselves in the wall around you as the Thrall tries to cut you down before you can escape, but you speed past and out of his line of fire. You leap forward with every step, quickly bursting out the front door as you sprint towards your truck. You're running as fast as you're able, when suddenly, you get hit from the side with the strength of a truck. You're sent flying through the air before you can even realize what happens, as you skid along the cold earth and roll to a halt, feeling your now broken jaw smack into the frozen tundra. You lie there, broken and hurt, as you try to pull yourself to your feet. As soon as you put weight on your knee you're put through incredible pain and forced to do nothing but grit your teeth and bear it. "You seem tired, Hunter," a voice says. Your voice chills when you hear the voice, but you know it's not the time for tears. Turning your head, you find yourself staring up at a tall, deathly pale figure. It's skin seems almost entirely hairless except for the thick black hair that hangs down from its head. Its eyes, however... its blood red eyes betray an inhumanity that you'll never be able to comprehend. "Hello," the Vampire smiles, revealing a fanged mouth stretching from ear to ear. "And of course, goodbye." "Fucking... blood thirsty... prick," you say, struggling to keep from collapsing to the ground. The Vampire strolls forward, savoring this moment, as his smile stretches further and further across his face, almost seeming to cut it in half. He lifts a polished boot into the air, placing it on your broken leg. He applies pressure, and you grit your teeth and try not to give him the satisfaction of screaming. "A strong one. Your lodge will weep tonight. You can die quick, Hunter." The Vampire slowly drops down to his knees, as you struggle to reach for your revolver at your side. You're far too late, though, as she grabs your head gently. You breath carefully, before he snaps your neck in a single motion. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You decide the front's the easiest option. You don't want to waste time messing about while the Vampire can be awoken at any point, because even with your skill and the element of surprise, a Thrall and his Vampire master are a serious threat. You need to do this quick and clean, and make sure you get the drop on the Vampire before's he's out of his coffin. You walk towards the house, shotgun held tightly in your hands. Surprisingly for a vampire's lair, your surveillance has said that the house is completely lacking in any serious security measures. Locked doors and windows, sure, but they're lacking the reinforced doors, security cameras. It's a young vampire, so you're not expecting legions of Thralls protecting him or runic blood magic protecting the house, but clearly the power's gone to this creature's head. Striding forward to the house's wooden door, you raise your shotgun, pointing it at the lock and firing. Booting the door open with a solid kick as you pump the shotgun, the door collapses to the ground as you quickly step through, making contact with the Thrall. The Thrall stands in the kitchen, a short, bearded man with crazed eyes and grime and dirt stuck in his beard and on his face. He shakes his head repeatedly, growling and swearing as he divides a pile of crushed and broken white crystals, no doubt a substitute between his feedings on the vampiric blood he's heavily addicted to. His eyes dart up to you as he growls, an animalistic sound that could only come from a beast. His blood-shot eyes bulge, as he kicks the table with incredible strength, flipping it onto its side as he dives behind it. You immediately open fire, bullets and shotgun blasts easily tearing through the table, but it was a simply distraction, and the Thrall's already ducked behind the kitchen counter. Suddenly, you see the barrel of a gun emerge from behind the kitchen counter, as the Thrall attempts to fight back. The gun's muzzle flashes and screams with the crackling of gunfire, and you dive behind cover, scrambling behind the corner of a wall, ready to fend off your opponent. You exchange fire with the Thrall, but he's hidden in cover and just firing her with potshots, and thus you don't really have a shot at him. It's clear he's trying to wait out the awakening of his master, so it's Retreating, as always, seems promising. The racket you're causing has no doubt awoken the vile monster you've come here to kill, and there's no use dying for no reason. You can also hold out patiently, wait for the Thrall to peek his head out and take him down, so you can secure the chance to fight the Vampire one-on-one. Of course, if you can rush the Thrall from his flank and take him out quickly, you'll be able to take down the Vampire while he's still slumbering in his coffin. > You hold out and wait for the Thrall to peek his head out for your shot You keep your position, taking pot shots at the Thrall as he fires back at you, but neither one of you is able to get anywhere close. You wait patiently, ready for the Thrall to peek his head out. The crazed, drug-addled man is well trained by his master, but he's still lacking in any real training or discipline, so you just need your chance. The seconds you wait feel like an eternity, the sound of gunfire bursting out and tearing away the veil of silence. "Playing with the slave, Hunter?" a voice says. Your voice chills when you hear the voice. Turning your head, you find yourself staring up at a tall, deathly pale figure. It's skin seems almost entirely hairless except for the thick black hair that hangs down from its head. Its eyes, however... its blood red eyes betray an inhumanity that you'll never be able to comprehend. "Hello," the Vampire smiles, revealing a fanged mouth stretching from ear to ear. The Vampire is nearly upon you, and you need to decide whether to open fire and hope you have a chance, even with him at the edge of tearing you apart, or you can try make a break for the back door. > You open fire on the Vampire You raise your shotgun through the air, but the Vampire's reflexes are faster. He bursts forward, grabbing the shotgun by it's barrel and flinging it across the room. "And of course, goodbye, little Hunter." The Vampire bursts forward, grabbing you by the neck and pinning you against the counter, his knee smashing into your chest and pinning you down against the counter. You groan in pain as ribs break, as the Vampire's smile stretches further and further across his face, almost seeming to cut it in half. He jams his knee further into your chest as you scream, pain burning and shooting through your chest, and you grit your teeth and try not to give him the satisfaction of screaming. "A strong one. Your lodge will weep tonight. You can die quick, Hunter." The Vampire pulls his knee back, before ramming it through your chest with all his strength with a laugh. You feel your organs crushed as they explode through, and you go limp, the eyes rolling to the back of your head.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You keep your position, taking pot shots at the Thrall as he fires back at you, but neither one of you is able to get anywhere close. You wait patiently, ready for the Thrall to peek his head out. The crazed, drug-addled man is well trained by his master, but he's still lacking in any real training or discipline, so you just need your chance. The seconds you wait feel like an eternity, the sound of gunfire bursting out and tearing away the veil of silence. "Playing with the slave, Hunter?" a voice says. Your voice chills when you hear the voice. Turning your head, you find yourself staring up at a tall, deathly pale figure. It's skin seems almost entirely hairless except for the thick black hair that hangs down from its head. Its eyes, however... its blood red eyes betray an inhumanity that you'll never be able to comprehend. "Hello," the Vampire smiles, revealing a fanged mouth stretching from ear to ear. The Vampire is nearly upon you, and you need to decide whether to open fire and hope you have a chance, even with him at the edge of tearing you apart, or you can try make a break for the back door. > You charge the Thrall to fight your way out You turn, barreling around the corner as fast as you can while you fire a shotgun blast. The Vampire laughs watching you run. You speed out from the counter, hurrying forward, as the Thrall lets out a burst of manic laughter, copying his master. The assault rifle's barrel bursts out in a scream of gunfire, and your scream soon answers it. After facing tooth, claw, demonic possession and worse, it's a simple bullet that takes you down. You collapse to the ground, your body shaking as blood pools around you. You feel the air knocked out of your lungs as you bounce against the wall and collapse to your knees. For a moment, you just feel a cold swelling through you as you're left unable to breathe, before the pain begins to burn its way through your chest. Gasping for breath that won't fill your lungs as you find them filling with warm, wet, blood instead, and you're left drowning in it. You manage to pull a few strangled breaths from the air, as you stay on your knee, knowing that if you collapse you'll end up letting the darkness taken. "Aah... you look appetizing, don't you?" the Vampire smiles. "Fucking... blood thirsty... prick," you say, struggling to keep from collapsing to the ground. The Vampire slowly walks forward. You know he could strike far faster, but the vampire seems to be savoring his kill. You go to your revolver, hidden at your side, grabbing the ivory handle as you attempt to draw your gun. You fumble to pull it from the safety of its holster, before the Vampire grabs his wrist, bending your arm behind your back as you scream. His jaw snaps forward, a fanged mouth tearing into your neck. You let out a scream, teeth bursting through flesh and slicing into veins. Your body weakens in the creature's grasp as it begins to drain you of your blood, and the world rapidly goes dark as blood loss takes you. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You decide the front's the easiest option. You don't want to waste time messing about while the Vampire can be awoken at any point, because even with your skill and the element of surprise, a Thrall and his Vampire master are a serious threat. You need to do this quick and clean, and make sure you get the drop on the Vampire before's he's out of his coffin. You walk towards the house, shotgun held tightly in your hands. Surprisingly for a vampire's lair, your surveillance has said that the house is completely lacking in any serious security measures. Locked doors and windows, sure, but they're lacking the reinforced doors, security cameras. It's a young vampire, so you're not expecting legions of Thralls protecting him or runic blood magic protecting the house, but clearly the power's gone to this creature's head. Striding forward to the house's wooden door, you raise your shotgun, pointing it at the lock and firing. Booting the door open with a solid kick as you pump the shotgun, the door collapses to the ground as you quickly step through, making contact with the Thrall. The Thrall stands in the kitchen, a short, bearded man with crazed eyes and grime and dirt stuck in his beard and on his face. He shakes his head repeatedly, growling and swearing as he divides a pile of crushed and broken white crystals, no doubt a substitute between his feedings on the vampiric blood he's heavily addicted to. His eyes dart up to you as he growls, an animalistic sound that could only come from a beast. His blood-shot eyes bulge, as he kicks the table with incredible strength, flipping it onto its side as he dives behind it. You immediately open fire, bullets and shotgun blasts easily tearing through the table, but it was a simply distraction, and the Thrall's already ducked behind the kitchen counter. Suddenly, you see the barrel of a gun emerge from behind the kitchen counter, as the Thrall attempts to fight back. The gun's muzzle flashes and screams with the crackling of gunfire, and you dive behind cover, scrambling behind the corner of a wall, ready to fend off your opponent. You exchange fire with the Thrall, but he's hidden in cover and just firing her with potshots, and thus you don't really have a shot at him. It's clear he's trying to wait out the awakening of his master, so it's Retreating, as always, seems promising. The racket you're causing has no doubt awoken the vile monster you've come here to kill, and there's no use dying for no reason. You can also hold out patiently, wait for the Thrall to peek his head out and take him down, so you can secure the chance to fight the Vampire one-on-one. Of course, if you can rush the Thrall from his flank and take him out quickly, you'll be able to take down the Vampire while he's still slumbering in his coffin. > You charge the Thrall from his flank You charge forward, raising your shotgun into the air as you run low and fast, fingers ready on the trigger. You emerge from behind your choice of cover, rushing forward as you raise your shotgun, firing through the thrall's chest. He screams, his clothes lighting into flames as he screams, catapulted into the wall. He lets lose with his rifle, either as his twitching body pulls the trigger or in one last burst of dying energy, and bullets slam into your chest. You feel the air knocked out of your lungs as you bounce against the wall and collapse to your knees. For a moment, you just feel a cold swelling through you as you're left unable to breathe, before the pain begins to burn its way through your chest. Gasping for breath that won't fill your lungs as you find them filling with warm, wet, blood instead, and you're left drowning in it. You manage to pull a few strangled breaths from the air, as you stay on your knee, knowing that if you collapse you'll end up letting the darkness taken. All you can think is that you can't fall out, and you should've clalled for fucking back-up. Then, somewhere in your struggle, you hear loud footsteps to your right. Turning your head, you find yourself staring up at a tall, deathly pale figure. It's skin seems almost entirely hairless except for the thick black hair that hangs down from its head. Its eyes, however... its blood red eyes betray an inhumanity that you'll never be able to comprehend. "Hello," the Vampire smiles, revealing a fanged mouth stretching from ear to ear. "And of course, goodbye." "Fucking... blood thirsty... prick," you say, struggling to keep from collapsing to the ground. The Vampire slowly walks forward, it's grin stretching further and further until it seems like it should be tearing its face in two. You know he could strike far faster, but the vampire seems to be savoring his kill. You go to your revolver, hidden at your side, grabbing the ivory handle as you attempt to draw your gun. You fumble to pull it from the safety of its holster, before the Vampire grabs his wrist, bending your arm behind your back as you scream. His jaw snaps forward, a fanged mouth tearing into your neck. You let out a scream, teeth bursting through flesh and slicing into veins. Your body weakens in the creature's grasp as it begins to drain you of your blood, and the world rapidly goes dark as blood loss takes you.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You frown, deciding that you can't take away reinforcements on such an important night. You still have the drop on the Thrall, and despite his vampiric favor, he's a simple mortal with a beating heart that can be stop and fresh blood that can be spilled. You're going to take him out ,and remind his master of how much mortality stings. With fresh-faced determination, you walk forward towards the house. You walk with steady, certain steps up towards the house. You know from surveillance that the house has the main entrance as well as a back door. The lounge, dining room and basement are located near the front door. The sitting positions would give anyone in there the sight of the door, but it would allow for the quickest contact. If the vampire's awake, eliminating the thrall would give you far better chances against the Vampire shortly afterwards. So, the only question left before you dive in the throes of nightmarish battle is whether you're going in through the front door or the back door. > You head in the back door The back door, you decide. You want to ensure you get the drop on the Thrall, and don't end up in a firefight with the man, or else the vampire will have time to awaken from his internal, dreamless slumber, and then you don't have a chance in hell. With that decided, you walk towards the house, shotgun gripped tightly in your hand. Surprisingly for a vampire's lair, your surveillance has said that the house is completely lacking in any serious security measures. Locked doors and windows, sure, but they're lacking the reinforced doors, security cameras. It's a young vampire, so you're not expecting legions of Thralls protecting him or runic blood magic protecting the house, but clearly the power's gone to this creature's head. Moving slowly and softly through the garden around to the back, you still your breathing and do your best to be as soundless as the shadows. You creep through the rose bushes, whose petals look almost eerily beautiful in the moonlight. The sky's light brightens your path, but also makes it harder to sneak, and you just stay low and hope that if the Thrall happens to be looking out the window, he isn't looking too hard. Edging around to the back, you draw close to the wooden door. You move to the door, standing ready, before striking. Taking a deep breath, you growl, ready to act. You raise your shotgun, firing through the door's lock as you boot it open, quickly stepping through the now opened doorway and into the house. The Thrall stands in the kitchen, his back turned to you.The Thrall is a short, bearded man, growling and shaking his head repeatedly as he divides a pile of crushed and broken white crystals, no doubt a substitute between his feedings on the vampiric blood he's heavily addicted to. The man quickly turns, his crazed, blood-shot eyes bulging at you as he sees you. His eyes dart up to you as he growls, an animalistic sound that could only come from a beast. With a roar, he charges for you. > You reload and fire You pump your shotgun, as the crazed man leaps through the air towards you. Rolling back, your hands clench and pull the trigger, firing a burst of flames and metal through the air in a noise like a dragon's roar firing straight through the thrall's chest. He gasps, his clothes lighting into flames as he's catapulted into the wall. He slides down the wall, screaming out in anger and pain, a noise of such intense rage that it chills you. Marching forward, you aim your shotgun to his head. "You goddamn bastard! We'll take the night back! We'll steal the fucking sun for you! We will rule the darkness, and we will fucking make blood bags of your loved o...!" You fire the round, the man's head exploding. You've listened to enough insane ramblings in your day, so you're not bothering with the man. With him dead, you've one target left. > You take out the coffin You quickly head down the staircase of the basement, descending into the dark basement, lit by a dim candle. You slow down as you notice the counters piled with jars filled to the brim with red liquid. A bloody metal table sits there with unopened leather straps, a series of tubing and IV's connected to it. You're certain that it's equipment to drain the blood of victims the Thrall captures, to feed his master when he doesn't wish to hunt for himself. However, the highlight of the room is a large, ornate coffin, leaning against a concrete wall. You've seen enough coffins in your life for any man, but this one is a fairly nice one. It's solid wood, cherry, with brass handles, sitting up on its side so its resident can sleep standing up. The face on the front of the coffin shows a grinning, gargoyle-like face made of brass, its eyes shining at you. You flinch at the sight of it, nervous about what lies behind it. You hurry up to the coffin, readying your shotgun to perform the breaching actions. Swinging around and standing back, you quickly measure the size of the coffin and roughly calculate where the center of its heart is. You aim, your fingers tightening on the trigger as you fire the weapon. Your shotgun bucks, firing lead and magnesium shards directly through the heavy wood of the coffin. You fire four times as the wood splinters and explodes away, your shells bursting through them as they tear through the coffin, swiveling your aim between where the head and heart should lie. After a few seconds, you pause, quickly reloading your shotgun as you step back, hoping the creature lies dead inside there. Stepping forward, you grab the handle of the coffin and wretch it open, tearing open the splintered and almost destroyed door. Staring inside, you find splintered wood and torn apart coffin... but no vampire, or no ash to show a clean kill. "That was expensive," a dark, chilling voice says. "You'll pay for that." Your voice chills when you hear the voice, but you know it's not the time for tears. Turning your head, you find yourself staring up at a tall, deathly pale figure, baring a pair of ivory daggers that descend from its upper jaw. It's skin seems almost entirely hairless except for the thick black hair that hangs down from its head. Its eyes, however... its blood red eyes betray an inhumanity that you'll never be able to comprehend. The creature dashes forward, grabbing your shotgun by the handle and punching you in the stomach. He quickly begins to wrest the shotgun out of your hands as you use all your strength to stop it, fighting for control of your weapon while using your knees to keep the vampire far enough away from you so that it's fangs can't sink into your flesh and drain you of your blood. > You fight for control of the shotgun You grab the shotgun with both hands, tightening your grip and trying your best to wrestle it out of the Vampire's hand, but he's far stronger than you. The Vampire grabs your wrist, pulling it behind your back and forcing you to the ground. There's a painful snap as you feel your arm break in half, and you let out a horrified scream. The Vampire pulls the shotgun from your broken grip, laughing. "I thought you Hunters were supposed to be threats," he laughs. "You're never going to feel the sun on your face, you monster," you groan. The Vampire lifts the shotgun into the air, smashing it against your head as you scream. The creature repeatedly smashes the butt of your shotgun against your skull, hitting you again and again and again as your skull is crushed into the concrete floor, blood and brains leaking in a puddle around your shattered form.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You quickly head down the staircase of the basement, descending into the dark basement, lit by a dim candle. You slow down as you notice the counters piled with jars filled to the brim with red liquid. A bloody metal table sits there with unopened leather straps, a series of tubing and IV's connected to it. You're certain that it's equipment to drain the blood of victims the Thrall captures, to feed his master when he doesn't wish to hunt for himself. However, the highlight of the room is a large, ornate coffin, leaning against a concrete wall. You've seen enough coffins in your life for any man, but this one is a fairly nice one. It's solid wood, cherry, with brass handles, sitting up on its side so its resident can sleep standing up. The face on the front of the coffin shows a grinning, gargoyle-like face made of brass, its eyes shining at you. You flinch at the sight of it, nervous about what lies behind it. You hurry up to the coffin, readying your shotgun to perform the breaching actions. Swinging around and standing back, you quickly measure the size of the coffin and roughly calculate where the center of its heart is. You aim, your fingers tightening on the trigger as you fire the weapon. Your shotgun bucks, firing lead and magnesium shards directly through the heavy wood of the coffin. You fire four times as the wood splinters and explodes away, your shells bursting through them as they tear through the coffin, swiveling your aim between where the head and heart should lie. After a few seconds, you pause, quickly reloading your shotgun as you step back, hoping the creature lies dead inside there. Stepping forward, you grab the handle of the coffin and wretch it open, tearing open the splintered and almost destroyed door. Staring inside, you find splintered wood and torn apart coffin... but no vampire, or no ash to show a clean kill. "That was expensive," a dark, chilling voice says. "You'll pay for that." Your voice chills when you hear the voice, but you know it's not the time for tears. Turning your head, you find yourself staring up at a tall, deathly pale figure, baring a pair of ivory daggers that descend from its upper jaw. It's skin seems almost entirely hairless except for the thick black hair that hangs down from its head. Its eyes, however... its blood red eyes betray an inhumanity that you'll never be able to comprehend. The creature dashes forward, grabbing your shotgun by the handle and punching you in the stomach. He quickly begins to wrest the shotgun out of your hands as you use all your strength to stop it, fighting for control of your weapon while using your knees to keep the vampire far enough away from you so that it's fangs can't sink into your flesh and drain you of your blood. > You release your grip on the shotgun and draw your revolver You release your grip on the shotgun, allowing the Vampire to tear it free from himself as you rapidly backpedal, grabbing the revolver at your side and drawing it in one smooth motion. You aim the revolver at the vampire's chest. For a moment, you see the smile drop from the vampire's face as you open fire, releasing a burst of silver bullets from your gun. The silver bullets embed themselves directly in the Vampire's heart as it topples back, the force of the bullets leaving the Vampire stumbling back as it gasps. It's flesh begins burning away to ash as the creature collapses to the ground, and soon there's nothing but an ash pile left. You gasp, leaning back as you sigh, putting away your revolver. You look down at the pile of ash, walking forward as you drop to your knees, searching through the ash to recover your spent bullets. You pull them out, stuffing them into your pocket to be reforged into fresh bullets later. With that, you stand. A bright ringing noise startles you from behind, and you almost open fire in that direction as you redraw your revolver. You find yourself staring at a simple cellphone sitting on a table, vibrating and ringing away. You pause, looking at it with confusion. You walk over slowly, reaching down and flipping open the phone, lifting it to your ear. "Hello?" "Hello, Mr Matasan." Your blood chills for a moment, as you take a deep breath, terror ringing through you. "And who may I be speaking to?" "My name is Hrólfr Gaange. It's a pleasure to meet you." "Is there something I can help you with?" you ask. "You don't seem particularly afraid, Mr Matasan." "Should I be, Mr Gaange?" you ask, trying to keep your calm. "Of course not. It's just refreshing to speak to a new person without them being so terrified. Now, let's be quite frank, Mr Matasan. You killed one of my agents, and their thrall, did you not?" "I did," you say, not wanting to waste the time that would've come from lying, since you know the creature's certain about these facts. "Interesting. Good. He was a weak, impulsive creature. He wasn't useful. Quite frankly, he was a threat to our existence. But you... you could be of assistance to me. You have potential. I want you to work for me." "No," you reply, almost instantly, prompting a dark chuckle from the bastard. "I understand. You've dedicated your life to protecting the innocent. But, so have I, Mr Matasan. I may be a vampire, but I do what's necessary for this world. I don't stalk through the streets at night attacking helpless women hiding in their beds. I'm not one of these crass specimens that wants to blot out the sun, or who wants to enslave mankind, or raise a legion of damned souls. I like the world the way it is. And I'm going to keep it safe from darker creatures of the night. I keep the world of darkness under wraps, as you do. I keep my dark brethren in check. I protect society. You could help me with that, and do a far better job than you do as a mortal." "No," you say again. "Think about what I'm offering you. Immortality, riches, power, strength, speed, intelligence. Everything you could want." "I can't do that, Mr Gaange. I think you already knew that, though." "Oh, I did. But I'm not looking to recruit you right now. I'm offering you a favor. You types never take the power offer. You don't join my side out of power-lust. You join out of desperation. A day will come when you need me. Perhaps you need some arcane knowledge. Perhaps you need money. Perhaps a cure for some unknown disease. Anything you ever need. Just... keep this phone. My number is under Mr Black. Generic, i know. When you need me, call. I can give you anything you want. And what do you lose for that? Your finite mortality, your weakness, your diseases, your poverty... a fair bargain, no." "I'm not going to..." you begin to see, before a dark voice interrupts you. "Keep the phone. I know you don't think you'll need it, but you might. I'll talk to you sooner or later, Mr Matasan. Best of luck to you tonight. I've heard it'll be a big one." The phone beeps as Mr Gaange hangs up on you. You pause, looking down at your phone as you try to think through what to do. > You take the phone Thinking long and hard, you decide to take the phone. Perhaps it could be of some use. Maybe. Hopefully, you never have to use it, but you didn't survive this long in the field by turning away potential gifts, and you're not going to start now. Everything you can use in the fight against darkness, you will use. You slide the phone into one of your secure pockets, buttoning it up and patting it to make sure it's secure. Your job done, you quickly set apart eradicating the evidence this place ever existed. You pack up the jars of blood into the truck, for disposal somewhere that won't be investigated. You also take the IV and tubing, before grabbing your fuel cans. You quickly perform the same patterns, spreading it through the house evenly enough, focusing on that you need destroyed and that which is most flammable. Once that's done, you head out of the house and set the home alight, watching as the flames run through the house and engulf it in an inferno. You don't feel like watching it, not feeling the usual satisfaction of watching a lair of darkness light the shadows as a beacon of warmth and light. You just feel tired, even more so knowing that you're not finished your work tonight. You head back to your truck, climbing in and heading off down the road again. The drive goes by quickly, as you turn your radio up until it's almost blaring some inane Norwegian pop song, and continue off down the road. It's not long before you pull up to the old country house again. The signs of the night's lateness are more obvious, now. A few of the vehicles parked outside are dented or have blood smears or bullet holes, and the Hunters that walk about them seem more exhausted. You head into the house, taking a moment to appreciate the light of the fireplace. But, the night is still young, and you have targets to hit. You walk towards the sitting room, one of the old house's converted into a "base of operations" of sorts. Although as Hunters, you tend to work independently, only using the Lodge for resources, resupplying and rest, as well as letting them know every so often you're not dead in the long periods of investigation and tracking in trying to find the lairs and dens of beasts, and trying to distinguish psychos and fools from men tainted by the demonic, or worse. However, it's the night of the Hunt, that beautiful night of the year where you wipe out the monsters that dwell in the shadows in one quick sweep, not even giving the bastards time to flee or figure out what's going on. And on the night of the Hunt, sometimes you need to work together. While maddened werewolves and loner vampires are easy prey with modern technology, hard-work, training and of course the element of surprise, when the creatures of darkness work together, so must you. When that happens, you plan and prepare in the lounge. You walk into the lodge, finding a large table with a map stretched across it. A half dozen men stand around it, all of whom you recognize as veteran Hunters. The leader of the group is the head of the Lodge, a man known as Ernest Collier. The old man's scarred, wrinkled face smiles at you as you enter. Ernest's too old at his age to still hunt, having since lost the physical peak that Hunters are required to be at, but his mind is strong and he's well experienced. Thus, he serves the cause through leading the lodge. Everything from supplying Hunters to recruiting to planning the larger hunts falls under his purview. "William. How have your two hunts been?" he asks. "Successfully," you say simply. The next man is Father Féval, a tall, gaunt figure with spectacles dressed in black. His lips turn upwards in the barest facsimile of a smile as he looks at you. You know he's only trying to be polite, his professional, cold nature means he rarely takes joy, and lives of a live of abstinence and religious duty. You retreat to the car, calling into the Lodge. They report back that they've a spare Hunter to send out, one who is only acting on stand-by. Father Paul Féval. You know the man well, and have worked with him before. The man's a representative from the Vatican, a priest even, and as adamant in following the laws of the Bible as you are in never leaving the Lodge without a spare, but the man's a professional and an experienced Hunter. The man's permanent cold, professional demeanor means you'd be hesitant to call him a "friend", but you feel it'd be disrespectful to like anything. After him stands former-Unteroffizer Hans Hirsch. The tall man has dark black hair and light eyes, his face decorated with a long scar that goes vertically just left of his left eye. He leans over the table, scanning the map. His finger gently runs across hunting paths through the thick forest as he whispers to himself. Hans is a strange man, with a taste for drink, cigars, cigarettes, whores, gambling... anything he can get his hands on. But, he's a good hunter, having served in the military of his home country and having a great record on all his previous hunts. The final man is an Alaskan by the name of Russel Sloane. Time has taken the black from his thick beard and the hair from his head, but left the man's strength, speed and cunning, and only given him experience and wisdom for the trade. He's a powerful Hunter, and took the shift from bears and wolves to Kushtaka and Tupilaq with ease. He smiles at you grimly when you enter, his face showing a hint of more worry than usual. "Are we ready to start?" you ask. "We're waiting on someone," Russel says. As you raise an eyebrow, the door swings open and you find yourself staring down at a young boy, barely in his mid teens. "This is my boy Wyatt. Now that's he's a full man, we'll be taking him on tonight's hunt, showing him how we fight. I filled him in on the details." "Pleasure to meet y'all," he smiles nervously, as you look him up and down. He's young, short, weak and skinny. You don't think he should be coming out, but he's a man more than you would normally have for this mission, and you're not going to be telling his father how to raise his own child. "Take a seat, Wyatt," Ernest smiles. "We're going to go over tonight's details." Ernest takes a seat, as you stare down at the map ahead of you, which shows you a massive woods, with several hunting paths, potential lairs and scenes of incidents highlighted. "Let's recap for those who didn't get to hear it directly from me!" Ernest says. "There's been several mauling's in these areas, and we've had reports a werewolf pack is responsible. Not just one werewolf, but an entire pack of about six to twelve creatures. We're taking a small team in their to set up an ambush, draw them out and kill them all. The plans' simple. Take a truck into the woods with a mutilated deer carcass, slathered in human blood. The scent should draw the werewolves into your area, where you'll have set up an overview to take them out. Simple." You all nod, the review of your plan unnecessary for everyone but Wyatt. "We're heading off in an hour and a half. I want all of you prepared and by the truck for then, understood?" There's a chorus of affirmatives, as Ernest smiles. "Good to know. Best of luck, men."<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You release your grip on the shotgun, allowing the Vampire to tear it free from himself as you rapidly backpedal, grabbing the revolver at your side and drawing it in one smooth motion. You aim the revolver at the vampire's chest. For a moment, you see the smile drop from the vampire's face as you open fire, releasing a burst of silver bullets from your gun. The silver bullets embed themselves directly in the Vampire's heart as it topples back, the force of the bullets leaving the Vampire stumbling back as it gasps. It's flesh begins burning away to ash as the creature collapses to the ground, and soon there's nothing but an ash pile left. You gasp, leaning back as you sigh, putting away your revolver. You look down at the pile of ash, walking forward as you drop to your knees, searching through the ash to recover your spent bullets. You pull them out, stuffing them into your pocket to be reforged into fresh bullets later. With that, you stand. A bright ringing noise startles you from behind, and you almost open fire in that direction as you redraw your revolver. You find yourself staring at a simple cellphone sitting on a table, vibrating and ringing away. You pause, looking at it with confusion. You walk over slowly, reaching down and flipping open the phone, lifting it to your ear. "Hello?" "Hello, Mr Matasan." Your blood chills for a moment, as you take a deep breath, terror ringing through you. "And who may I be speaking to?" "My name is Hrólfr Gaange. It's a pleasure to meet you." "Is there something I can help you with?" you ask. "You don't seem particularly afraid, Mr Matasan." "Should I be, Mr Gaange?" you ask, trying to keep your calm. "Of course not. It's just refreshing to speak to a new person without them being so terrified. Now, let's be quite frank, Mr Matasan. You killed one of my agents, and their thrall, did you not?" "I did," you say, not wanting to waste the time that would've come from lying, since you know the creature's certain about these facts. "Interesting. Good. He was a weak, impulsive creature. He wasn't useful. Quite frankly, he was a threat to our existence. But you... you could be of assistance to me. You have potential. I want you to work for me." "No," you reply, almost instantly, prompting a dark chuckle from the bastard. "I understand. You've dedicated your life to protecting the innocent. But, so have I, Mr Matasan. I may be a vampire, but I do what's necessary for this world. I don't stalk through the streets at night attacking helpless women hiding in their beds. I'm not one of these crass specimens that wants to blot out the sun, or who wants to enslave mankind, or raise a legion of damned souls. I like the world the way it is. And I'm going to keep it safe from darker creatures of the night. I keep the world of darkness under wraps, as you do. I keep my dark brethren in check. I protect society. You could help me with that, and do a far better job than you do as a mortal." "No," you say again. "Think about what I'm offering you. Immortality, riches, power, strength, speed, intelligence. Everything you could want." "I can't do that, Mr Gaange. I think you already knew that, though." "Oh, I did. But I'm not looking to recruit you right now. I'm offering you a favor. You types never take the power offer. You don't join my side out of power-lust. You join out of desperation. A day will come when you need me. Perhaps you need some arcane knowledge. Perhaps you need money. Perhaps a cure for some unknown disease. Anything you ever need. Just... keep this phone. My number is under Mr Black. Generic, i know. When you need me, call. I can give you anything you want. And what do you lose for that? Your finite mortality, your weakness, your diseases, your poverty... a fair bargain, no." "I'm not going to..." you begin to see, before a dark voice interrupts you. "Keep the phone. I know you don't think you'll need it, but you might. I'll talk to you sooner or later, Mr Matasan. Best of luck to you tonight. I've heard it'll be a big one." The phone beeps as Mr Gaange hangs up on you. You pause, looking down at your phone as you try to think through what to do. > You destroy the phone Refusing to make any deals with the enemies you hunt, you drop the phone onto the group, watching it bounce along the hard concrete as it breaks, plastic splintering. You raise your shotgun, firing at it as it explodes in a shower of lead, magnesium and plastic. You step back, shaking your head. No use leaving any potential evidence for the fire department investigating this place. Your job done, you quickly set apart eradicating the evidence this place ever existed. You pack up the jars of blood into the truck, for disposal somewhere that won't be investigated. You also take the IV and tubing, before grabbing your fuel cans. You quickly perform the same patterns, spreading it through the house evenly enough, focusing on that you need destroyed and that which is most flammable. Once that's done, you head out of the house and set the home alight, watching as the flames run through the house and engulf it in an inferno. You don't feel like watching it, not feeling the usual satisfaction of watching a lair of darkness light the shadows as a beacon of warmth and light. You just feel tired, even more so knowing that you're not finished your work tonight. You head back to your truck, climbing in and heading off down the road again. The drive goes by quickly, as you turn your radio up until it's almost blaring some inane Norwegian pop song, and continue off down the road. It's not long before you pull up to the old country house again. The signs of the night's lateness are more obvious, now. A few of the vehicles parked outside are dented or have blood smears or bullet holes, and the Hunters that walk about them seem more exhausted. You head into the house, taking a moment to appreciate the light of the fireplace. But, the night is still young, and you have targets to hit. You walk towards the sitting room, one of the old house's converted into a "base of operations" of sorts. Although as Hunters, you tend to work independently, only using the Lodge for resources, resupplying and rest, as well as letting them know every so often you're not dead in the long periods of investigation and tracking in trying to find the lairs and dens of beasts, and trying to distinguish psychos and fools from men tainted by the demonic, or worse. However, it's the night of the Hunt, that beautiful night of the year where you wipe out the monsters that dwell in the shadows in one quick sweep, not even giving the bastards time to flee or figure out what's going on. And on the night of the Hunt, sometimes you need to work together. While maddened werewolves and loner vampires are easy prey with modern technology, hard-work, training and of course the element of surprise, when the creatures of darkness work together, so must you. When that happens, you plan and prepare in the lounge. You walk into the lodge, finding a large table with a map stretched across it. A half dozen men stand around it, all of whom you recognize as veteran Hunters. The leader of the group is the head of the Lodge, a man known as Ernest Collier. The old man's scarred, wrinkled face smiles at you as you enter. Ernest's too old at his age to still hunt, having since lost the physical peak that Hunters are required to be at, but his mind is strong and he's well experienced. Thus, he serves the cause through leading the lodge. Everything from supplying Hunters to recruiting to planning the larger hunts falls under his purview. "William. How have your two hunts been?" he asks. "Successfully," you say simply. The next man is Father Féval, a tall, gaunt figure with spectacles dressed in black. His lips turn upwards in the barest facsimile of a smile as he looks at you. You know he's only trying to be polite, his professional, cold nature means he rarely takes joy, and lives of a live of abstinence and religious duty. You retreat to the car, calling into the Lodge. They report back that they've a spare Hunter to send out, one who is only acting on stand-by. Father Paul Féval. You know the man well, and have worked with him before. The man's a representative from the Vatican, a priest even, and as adamant in following the laws of the Bible as you are in never leaving the Lodge without a spare, but the man's a professional and an experienced Hunter. The man's permanent cold, professional demeanor means you'd be hesitant to call him a "friend", but you feel it'd be disrespectful to like anything. After him stands former-Unteroffizer Hans Hirsch. The tall man has dark black hair and light eyes, his face decorated with a long scar that goes vertically just left of his left eye. He leans over the table, scanning the map. His finger gently runs across hunting paths through the thick forest as he whispers to himself. Hans is a strange man, with a taste for drink, cigars, cigarettes, whores, gambling... anything he can get his hands on. But, he's a good hunter, having served in the military of his home country and having a great record on all his previous hunts. The final man is an Alaskan by the name of Russel Sloane. Time has taken the black from his thick beard and the hair from his head, but left the man's strength, speed and cunning, and only given him experience and wisdom for the trade. He's a powerful Hunter, and took the shift from bears and wolves to Kushtaka and Tupilaq with ease. He smiles at you grimly when you enter, his face showing a hint of more worry than usual. "Are we ready to start?" you ask. "We're waiting on someone," Russel says. As you raise an eyebrow, the door swings open and you find yourself staring down at a young boy, barely in his mid teens. "This is my boy Wyatt. Now that's he's a full man, we'll be taking him on tonight's hunt, showing him how we fight. I filled him in on the details." "Pleasure to meet y'all," he smiles nervously, as you look him up and down. He's young, short, weak and skinny. You don't think he should be coming out, but he's a man more than you would normally have for this mission, and you're not going to be telling his father how to raise his own child. "Take a seat, Wyatt," Ernest smiles. "We're going to go over tonight's details." Ernest takes a seat, as you stare down at the map ahead of you, which shows you a massive woods, with several hunting paths, potential lairs and scenes of incidents highlighted. "Let's recap for those who didn't get to hear it directly from me!" Ernest says. "There's been several mauling's in these areas, and we've had reports a werewolf pack is responsible. Not just one werewolf, but an entire pack of about six to twelve creatures. We're taking a small team in their to set up an ambush, draw them out and kill them all. The plans' simple. Take a truck into the woods with a mutilated deer carcass, slathered in human blood. The scent should draw the werewolves into your area, where you'll have set up an overview to take them out. Simple." You all nod, the review of your plan unnecessary for everyone but Wyatt. "We're heading off in an hour and a half. I want all of you prepared and by the truck for then, understood?" There's a chorus of affirmatives, as Ernest smiles. "Good to know. Best of luck, men."<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The back door, you decide. You want to ensure you get the drop on the Thrall, and don't end up in a firefight with the man, or else the vampire will have time to awaken from his internal, dreamless slumber, and then you don't have a chance in hell. With that decided, you walk towards the house, shotgun gripped tightly in your hand. Surprisingly for a vampire's lair, your surveillance has said that the house is completely lacking in any serious security measures. Locked doors and windows, sure, but they're lacking the reinforced doors, security cameras. It's a young vampire, so you're not expecting legions of Thralls protecting him or runic blood magic protecting the house, but clearly the power's gone to this creature's head. Moving slowly and softly through the garden around to the back, you still your breathing and do your best to be as soundless as the shadows. You creep through the rose bushes, whose petals look almost eerily beautiful in the moonlight. The sky's light brightens your path, but also makes it harder to sneak, and you just stay low and hope that if the Thrall happens to be looking out the window, he isn't looking too hard. Edging around to the back, you draw close to the wooden door. You move to the door, standing ready, before striking. Taking a deep breath, you growl, ready to act. You raise your shotgun, firing through the door's lock as you boot it open, quickly stepping through the now opened doorway and into the house. The Thrall stands in the kitchen, his back turned to you.The Thrall is a short, bearded man, growling and shaking his head repeatedly as he divides a pile of crushed and broken white crystals, no doubt a substitute between his feedings on the vampiric blood he's heavily addicted to. The man quickly turns, his crazed, blood-shot eyes bulging at you as he sees you. His eyes dart up to you as he growls, an animalistic sound that could only come from a beast. With a roar, he charges for you. > You smash him aside with the butt of your shotgun You swing your shotgun as hard as you can, the stock of your shotgun flying into his face. The shotgun butt smacks into his face, shattering the bridge of his nose and sending teeth and blood flying and spewing across the floor. The man stands there, with a broken nose and blood streaming down his face, skin torn and fleshed bruised, but still standing there. He roars, grabbing you and flinging you into the wall. You smack into the wall, sliding down it onto the ground as you groan in pain. The Thrall rushes forward, drawing a knife as he rams it into your stomach. You gasp, as the steel pierces and cuts through flesh and guts, and the Thrall precedes to repeatedly and aggressively penetrate your stomach. Blood, stomach acid and the remains of food begin pouring out of your open wound and running down your stomach as death quickly drags you into the endless darkness.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You survey the battlefield that you’ve created. All sides have been at war for a long time, and also evenly matched. Who will win? It will all be decided on tonight. “Hey! Its time to go to bed!” you Mom says coming into your room. Or at least it would be, if you didn’t have to go to bed! “Aw Mom! I was just about to do something!” you protest. “Well you can do something tomorrow, right now its bedtime, you know the rules. But before you do remember to brush your teeth and put these toys away.” “But…but can’t I leave them out? I got everything set up and like everything! The final battle for the universe is going to take place!” Your Mom surveys everything you’ve set up. You have a myriad of unusual toys and figures standing next to each other. You have plastic knights standing next to space men defending a castle made of blocks on one side while across from them has a combination of green army guys in vehicles and some metal robots. And yet on the far side of your room is another army set up consisting of dinosaurs and some other monsters. She just smiles at your creativeness. “Very well, it looks like you went to a lot of trouble, so okay. You certainly do have a vivid imagination to come up with some of the games you do.” Happily you go brush your teeth, and think about the battle that’s going to take place tomorrow! General Razor will try to storm the castle and Lord Justice will defend it! And then the Dino Demons will try to destroy everything! It’s going to be so cool! After brushing your teeth, you head back to your room where you carefully step around the figures you’ve set up with care and get into bed. Of course as usual, you don’t fall asleep right away; you read a couple pages of your favorite comic book first. Man you wish real life wasn’t as boring as it is. There’s no magic, no super heroes, no giant robots, no nothing! You often wished you lived in a world with all of those things. You turn off the lights in your room when your Mom checks on you again and demands you go to sleep. You’re still a little to wound up to fall asleep though, so you just lie in your bed thinking how tomorrow’s battle is going to play out. Of course one bad thing about having an overactive imagination is letting it run away with you. Your room is dark, with only the dim moonlight shining in and creating creepy shadows on your walls. You begin to think the shadows are moving, begin to get a little scared and hide under the covers. Then you think back to something your mom told you the last time you got scared like this: “Monsters aren’t real. Nothing like that exists in this world.” Of course she’s right, after all you just thought the world you lived in was boring by not having those types of things in it. You slowly peer out from under your covers, but unfortunately this isn’t the work of your imagination. These shadows ARE moving and now they’re right by the side of your bed. Red dots form their eyes and a bluish light form their grinning maws. Before you can cry out, one of them puts its hand over your mouth and puts its other hand to its own with its index finger to its lips. (Or rather where its lips would be if it had any) “Shhhhhhh, the master wants to see you…there will be plenty of time to cry then, little one. Open up the portal.” The shadow says Suddenly a purple portal opens up where your closet is, and two of the shadow creatures grab and carry you into it. The shadows run around you as you’re carried down the green tunnel which the portal has lead into. They excitedly talk about how their master will be pleased for getting you. Of course all you’re doing right now is panicking, and you start to struggle to get away, surprisingly, you manage to break free of their grip and start trying to run back to where they entered this thing. “Get him! He’s trying to run away!” “Do it quickly before the portal starts collapsing!” As you hear the shadows giving orders to each other, the portal tunnel that you’re in is indeed starting to flash and blink a lot, when you look down at your running feet, the purple light “supporting” you disappears every now and then revealing only blackness. You can see your room just up ahead and you ALMOST reach it, before the green tunnel disappears completely. You yell and scream about how you wish you back home as you fall through the endless void, and while that doesn’t happen, you do suddenly appear someplace else… You land roughly, scraping your legs and knees and getting your pajamas all dusty. After brushing yourself off and rubbing your hurting legs, you get a better look at your surroundings. You’re in what looks to be the middle of nowhere, though there is a small group of rickety looking houses nearby, probably a small village. One thing is for certain, you know you aren’t on Earth, because, a small multi-colored lizard like creature with three eyes scurries by your feet and into the wilderness beyond. You’re still scared, but also fascinated by this place; however, you realize you need to figure out how to get back home and what exactly is going on. > You head to the village Upon entering you see many of the villagers just sitting outside their houses doing nothing, though a couple of them are lazily plucking some sort of stringed instruments. They barely pay any attention to you at all. You know you’re not supposed to talk to strangers, but in this situation you don’t really feel like you have a choice, so you ask one of them for help. “Hey, I need some help, these shadow things attacked me…” “Wazzat? Shadows? Shadows don’t come ‘round here boy, we’s got ourselves a wizard to protect us! If you got shadow problems, maybe you should talk to him. He’s a pretty smart guy. He’s in that nice lookin’ house over there, the one with the roof! Careful though, he’s usually in a bad mood. Argues with his wife constantly too.” The fat villager says going back to drinking whatever it is he’s drinking. Not knowing what else to do you head over to the wizard’s house. As you approach you can hear arguing from the inside. You knock on the door which is opened by a young woman dressed in a waitress like outfit. She’s pretty, but looks very tired, behind her appears an older man who doesn’t look much like a wizard at all. “Whadda you want kid? We ain’t buyin’ anything!” he scowls. “Are you really a wizard? You don’t look like one.” You remark. “That’s because he isn’t a real wizard. He’s a lazy charlatan!” the woman answers. “Shut up Talia, I was good enough to get YOU.” “Yeah, that’s because I was too young and naïve to know any better! I knew I should’ve married a knight!” “Hah! And what knight would marry a serving wench like you?” “Melcar, I don’t have time for your nonsense today, I have to go to work. Can you at least TRY to do something productive while I’m gone, like casting some cantrips to cut down the overgrowth in the backyard? Sheesh, I think I saw a nest of Furms making their homes in there and you know much I hate those little purple things! They infest everything and then you can’t get rid of them! So can you DO that one thing, if nothing else?” “Yeah, yeah.” The woman throws her hands up in dismay and leaves the house, leaving Melcar and you alone. “So, what’s your deal kid? I know you ain’t from this backwoods village because I know everyone here and you actually look like you bathe every once in awhile. You lost or something?” You explain your situation to Melcar, somehow he doesn’t look surprised, but he does look a little more interested in you. “Hmm, sounds like the Nightmare Tyrant. He has a habit of snatching people from other dimensions and draining them to harness his power. Those shadows you encountered are what’s left of his victims. I’m not entirely sure of his methods for choosing, but I do know he only takes those with strong imaginations though. It’s probably why he prefers children since they tend to be more inclined to think up fantastic things.” You were lucky to escape from him.” “Well how do I get back home?” Melcar looks at you a moment before replying. “You interested in doing a little yard work?” “Uh…” “I’m really busy with an experiment, and I just don’t have time to mess around with clearing the overgrowth in my backyard. If you do it, I think that’ll give me time to complete my experiment, as well as giving me time to look up the spell that can take you back home.” “Well okay…” “Good, there’s a scythe in the back. You shouldn’t have too much trouble.” Melcar closes his door and you walk around the back, which literally looks like a jungle. The grass is almost as high as you are and the scythe is a little too unwieldy and large for you to use properly. Soon tiny purple people appear and angrily throw small stones at you and squeak some sort of jibberish. They apparently don’t like you trying to tear up their home. You don’t see how you’re ever going to finish this task. > You try to scare away the purple people You try to scare the little purple people much like you’ve ran after pigeons in the park, however the purple folks won’t be chased away so easily, this is their home after all, they just nimbly get out of your way and continue to pelt you with stones, which are really starting to hurt at this point, and a particularly large stone smacks you in the head knocking you out. When you wake up you’re nowhere near the Wizard’s house anymore, in fact you’re quite a ways outside of the village! The purple people must’ve dragged you here. As you groggily get up, you wish that someone would help you. Just then a shadow looms over you, at first you get scared again, but fortunately this one is attached to someone. You look up and see a woman dressed in leather armor, she carries a bow on her back and a sword by her side. She gives you a serious look while she grabs your hand to pick you up. You notice she has pointy ears. “Boy, what’re you doing out here? Don’t you know it can be dangerous out here? Do you live in that village?” she asks. “No, I was trying to look for help there. There was a wizard who said he could help me get back home if…” “Wizard? There wasn’t any strong magic activity detected around here boy. Where are you from?” You explain your story, as the woman listens intently. Much like the wizard you ran into earlier, she doesn’t seem surprised. “Mm, yes you are a lucky boy indeed to escape from the Nightmare Tyrant, most never even have a chance. I think you better come with me, my name’s Lyssia” “But the wizard…” “Trust me, you’ll be safer with me, than that so called wizard you mentioned. Sounded like a hedge wizard that was just getting you to do some grunt work that he didn’t want to do. He couldn’t help you against the shadows, let alone get you back home. I might be able to though, well the Captain might anyway. We’ll head back to my platoon’s camp.” You feel somewhat safer with Lyssia, not to mention she seems like she’s more readily going to help you, so you follow her. Eventually you arrive at a fairly large camp with armored knights, horses, and tents. Most of them look like they’ve been doing a lot of fighting recently and are still recovering from their wounds. When you enter the Captain’s tent, you see him looking over some maps before he looks up at you. He’s a man of average build, but his weathered and tired face shows the signs of having been in battle several times. His armor displays likewise. “Lyssia, you better have a good reason for why you’re bringing this boy into my presence. This is a mobile military unit; you know we can’t be coddling civilians, let alone children.” Lyssia explains the situation and the Captain’s attitude towards you changes to a more sympathetic one. “Escaping from the Nightmare Tyrant’s minions is no small feat, especially for one unprepared for such an encounter. The terror they radiate is normally enough to paralyze most with fear. You’re obviously not a battle hardened soldier to such horrors, and there’s no evidence of any magic about you. You must have an innate strong will, boy. Which is good since you’ll most likely have to deal with them again.” He says grimly. “Again?!” you exclaim. “Yes, unfortunately the Nightmare Tyrant isn’t fond of losing those he marks for capture. He has no doubt sent his Shadow minions to look for you. Fortunately you have us to help you now. We are a recon team for the Parran Empire, we’ve been fighting the Nightmare Tyrant for years, trying to find a weakness with little success. Though after some searching we think there may be a powerful weapon that can help us. It’s in some ruins a few days from here, or should be. One can never know for certain with old legends. Now, I have a duty to defend innocents from evil, but I also have a duty to the Empire. I simply cannot take this team all the way back to the Empire just to drop you off there where our wizards can send you back home, I have a mission to complete first. You can either stay with us and then after the mission we shall all go back together, or I shall send a couple of my men with you back to the Empire. Keep in mind the Shadows are probably looking for you and they tend to hunt in swarms, so the more people defending you, the better.” You really want to go back home, but you’re a little worried about not having all the protection you can. “Well can’t Lyssia go with me?” you ask hopefully. Lyssia smiles a bit at your request, but the Captain shakes his head. “Sadly no. While I can certainly understand and admire your judgment of wanting her to go with you, I cannot allow her to do so, as my mission will undoubtedly require her skills. As I said, I will send to two of my men, but that is all I can spare if you decide to head back to the Empire.” > You head back to the Empire The sooner you’re out of this place the better, so you request to be escorted back to the Empire where their wizards can send you back home. “Very well, I’ll send Paladins Salzat and Lakri with you, along with an official letter explaining your situation. Good luck and may you return home without any ill-fated encounters.” The Captain says handing you the letter for safe keeping. You are presented to Salzat and Lakri who are explained their mission. Salzat doesn’t look pleased; in fact he gets angry and exclaims his skills would be better put to use fighting the Nightmare Tyrant and other evil creatures, not looking after a child. Lakri on the other hand looks relieved. After the Captain shouts him down and tells him to obey orders, Salzat grumbles and gets on his horse. Lyssia puts you on your own horse, you’ve never ridden one before, but she assures you that these are the best trained horses in the Empire and will serve you well. You’re told you should reach the Empire in a few days. Soon you’re off with your new travel companions They couldn’t be more opposite. Salzat is a mean looking man with scars all over his face who barely speaks to you, but his armor is impeccably clean and well taken care of. It even has a shine to it, almost as if it was brand new. (He doesn’t seem to wear a helmet though, perhaps that might explain all the scars) Lakri on the other hand is much kinder and talkative to you. His armor looks like its seen better days though. It’s metal that looks hastily welded together, badly dented and even showing signs of rust! Unlike Salzat his suit of armor has a full face helmet which he’s wearing right now and Salzat has chosen to taunt him about. “Lakri, why are you wearing that thing? We aren’t even going into battle you coward! I swear I don’t know how any of you can see in those things anyway. I need to be able to swivel my head as quick as possible so I can see the next enemy I have to slay!” “Leave me alone Salzat! I like to make sure I’m protected! I don’t want to end up all scarred and ugly like you! I intend on getting married one day!” Lakri sputters. “Feh! I don’t need to look pretty; my DEEDS will win the hearts of damsels!” “How did you guys become Paladins?” you ask. Surprisingly Salzat answers your question right away. “Well unlike Lakri here, I didn’t have royal family connections. I worked my way up through the ranks and went through special training so that I could become a weapon against evil and serve the Empire. If I could wipe out all the evil in this world myself, I would not hesitate to do so. There is no greater deed than to serve the cause of good and righteousness and right now my talents are going to waste escorting you!” “Yes, well I for one am glad for the break from battle. This is a nice change of pace than fighting trolls, shadows and other such nastiness. I wasn’t really looking forward to going to those ruins the Captain mentioned either. Sounded dangerous.” Lakri says. “Yeah, well we know you’re a coward anyway, and a disgrace to the Paladin name.” “I’m not a coward! I…just want to live alright? I mean is it so wrong that I prefer my life to not be at risk every five minutes?” “Why did you become a Paladin, if you don’t like to fight?” you ask. “Oh, that’s a long story…let’s just say my Dad wanted me to.” “But you’re a grown up, shouldn’t you just be able to do what you want now?” “Ha ha! You think just because one grows up, you aren’t subjected to being told what to do by your parents? Guess again. Ah well, perhaps you have less demanding parents. You must certainly like them, if you wanted to get home so quickly to see them again.” Before you can answer, Salzat suddenly looks up in the sky and draws his sword. “Shut up! I sense something…” Suddenly the sky grows considerably darker within only a few seconds and screeching can be heard from above. Dark winged creatures begin to descend from the sky “SHADOWS!” Lakri shouts. “Alright! And here I thought I wasn’t going to get to vanquish evil today! Come on and be destroyed foul creatures!” Salzat laughs. At this point Lakri and Salzat show their differences again. Lakri panics to the point that he fumbles and drops his weapon before yelling that you all should make haste to escape. Salzat on the other hand turns to face the winged Shadows. You don’t see how he can possibly fight them all himself though. > You follow Lakri You’re in no position to fight a bunch of flying Shadows, you’re not armed with anything, and nowhere near being a warrior. You take you horse in the direction that Lakri headed, leaving Salzat behind to fight the Shadows, though you aren’t safe yet as a few of them are still in pursuit of you. “That’s the one the Master wants! The little one! Get him! Get him!” you hear raspy voices shout behind you. Soon your horse has almost caught up to Lakri’s. Lakri seems to have forgotten that he’s supposed to be DEFENDING you! “Hey! Aren’t you supposed to be protecting me?” you shout at him, while briefly looking behind you to see how close the Shadows are. “I…I’m sorry…I just…ARGH! Shadows! Gotta get away! Don’t follow me, they’re after you!” Lakri must be so frightened for his own life that he’s gone half mad! Seeing that he’s not going to lose you, he ends up jumping off of his horse and running off into the wilderness in an effort to ditch the Shadows. It works for him since they were never after him and they continue to follow you and are starting to close in… Soon one is close enough to grab at you, in an attempt to rip you from the back of the horse.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You wake up to a loud crack of thunder. Eyes shoot open revealing a room washed by rays on moonlight piercing through dark cloud. You sit up and reach for your sword. Callous hands grip the massive behemoth but you alone carry that weight. It's a 2-handed heavy piece of work. The steel stretches 2 feet wide and 6 feet long, a truly menacing blade. You step towards the window as your hand brushes the curtain. A heavy rain falls in torrents across the land. Your brown eyes narrow as you search for them. In the darkness you see their form. They walk aimlessly unprovoked, unhindered, unchallenged. Just then you hear three knocks at the door. Who would be out here on a night like this with such a violent tempest? You suit up your armor. A tough titanium platemail rests across your chest and back. Worn from extensive battle to a grey dull color, nicks and scrapes litter its surface. Black pants tucked into steel boots stained with blood upon your feet. Many unlucky bastards head has been crushed under your heel. You go down the stair as it creaks to meet the stranger.... > You gavin You open the door as the wind beads the rain across your face. You recognize this man by the name of Gavin. He's a wizard you've heard about before. His dark cloak rustles in the wind as he stands in the door way. His eyes, they're milky white, skin cold and pale. The wrinkles upon his face show the wear of time, ever ticking, ever lingering... "What do you want, wizard?" you ask. "All of those who took the rode before you, they were possessed..... by the dark power!" "Whoa, hold on. What are you talking about?!" "But you, you shall do this alone... As you walk through valley of the Gorgonian Tempest The tri-elemental black darkness was engulfing the sovereign lands!!! Defeat the Demon of Rathcor.... and you will restore peace to the land.... and lineage of your blood" And just like that the man turned and walked out into the darkness, as if possessed himself. You hear the dark things... scraping and clawing at the dirt. A moment later the tearing of a cloak and flesh. Goodbye, Old Wizard. What evil drove you to such madness? > You journey to Rathcor You head for the stable to grab the horse. A fine black steed thats followed you into many battles. This journey will take 2 days if you ride now. Before the horde can surround you, a swift kick to the ribs sends you galloping off into the night toward the mountain. > The Forest As you approach the mountain the trees begin to shield your view as you make your way closer. The woods sing sweet melody, wind coursing through the thick. A wide oak bears a message, scratched into the grain: East: I believe there's meaning West: no I believe there's nothing This should be interesting. You leave the horse, the brush is too thick to maneuver with her. Two paths lie before you... > You cut East along the Ridge You decide East is the best route to go to make it to the top of the mountain. You go up and down the trail through the wood. Before you know it you stumble upon a woman making her way toward you. She doesn't carry any weapon, at least none in plain view. Red hair falls across her cheeks from under the cowl. Her face is hooded and you can barely make out green eyes staring back at you... "Stop right there, what are you doing out in these woods." you ask her. "I came from the top of the mountain. I live not too far from here if you wish to relax for the night?" > You go with the Woman Seeing her to be no threat, you decide to take her up on the offer. She takes you up the mountain through a trail. You both soon arrive at a stone cottage, the roof bails of hay. "Nice place." She opens the door as you wring the water from your cloak. Good to be inside and out of the pouring rain. She starts a fire and beckons you to sit and let yourself dry. As you relax on the floor she comes back with some bread and a cup of wine. "Thanks, I wasn't expecting all this" you say "It's nothing, Gavin mentioned you'd be coming this way" "What?! How do you know Gavin?" "The old wizard was my father. He left this morning to tell you of the danger in these mountains. The dark force that resides...Where is he? I thought he would be coming back with you?" "Sorry... He didn't make it." You say as you look into the embers of the fire. Her face becomes downcast with the news. You push to change the subject. "What's your name? I'm Dorian." "Elyssa." "Look, whatever is up the mountain, I'll take care of it. You're going to be okay." "How can you say that?! You know nothing of the Demon of Rathcorf. You couldn't protect my father!" Clearly she's become quite upset "Alright, take it easy. I'll rest up for the night here and at first light, I'll take him on. Okay?" Elyssa gets up and heads to her room without a word. "Well, looks like it's just you and me tonight..." you say into the cup of wine in hand. Hours pass and you finally lay down next to the fire to sleep. You wonder how this demon will fight. Can the might of your sword bring him to justice? The wine finally hits you like a battering ram as you slip into your dreams. > You dream The moon is bright and full in the sky. A purple hue covers the earth and you stand alone in a grassy plain, sword in hand. The wind brings the smell of blood to your nose. A dark figure appears before you, clutching Elyssa's corpse in it's arms. " Wake up, boy. Come to me now so I may devour your flesh!" The beast rips the girls head from body and begins to drink the blood. A sick and foul creature. Seven feet high, legs like horse, arms the width of barrels. A horn protrudes from it's skull, a menacing twist of bone. The very sight of the creature brings a madness deep into your heart. "I will bury this sword into your skull and take that fucking horn as a trophy you bastard!!!!!!" > You wake up You wake up with your sword clenched in hand. The cup of wine you were drinking is spilled on the floor. Is she alright? You rush to Elyssa's room. Her bed is empty. You call out: "Elyssa!!, Elyssa!!" No answer. "Damn, where did she go...." You break through the front door out into the light. Your hand shields your face from the bright morning sun. You look left and right, noticing a blood stained cloak up the trail headed towards the mountain. Rushing in a dead sprint, you take it in your hands to try and catch a scent. It's hers alright, you couldn't forget the fresh smell of rose petals. > You continue up the mountain She must have been taken up the mountain last night while you slept! The rain makes tracking hard as it washed away any sign of movement. That or whoever took her was very careful. You hike the trail up and up till you reach the summit. The top of the mountain is cold. Snow falls as your breath billows out in clouds before your eyes. He must have taken her here, I know it! Your eyes dart this way and that. Where is he??? Just then a sharp pain hits your body. Your vision blurred by the agonizing pain...you look down to see an arrow stuck in your abdomen. "Fuuuckk..." you curse, breaking the arrow in half in attempt to pull it out. You roll behind a boulder for cover. Sword drawn ready to fight. "Alright, bastard! Nice try, but i'm still here. How about we settle this Steel to Steel!!" you call out, goading him to fight you. "I think I have you right where I want you as it is, Dorian!" a familiar female voice calls out. "Elyssa?! This can't be right..." you say to yourself Looking down the mountain, you see a group of the dark ones coming your way. Perfect timing, now your enemy is at your front and your back! > You head back down to Kill the Dark ones You feel you have a better chance if these mindless zombies go first. Besides, you don't know how comfortable you are with taking Elyssa's life. Maybe she's come under the same darkness that overtook Gavin? "Bitch!" , Taking one last glance towards Elyssa, you rush down the mountain. The downward momentum sends you flying. You swing your sword and heads roll. Bodies go limp as they fly into the air. The dark ones keep coming. Wave after wave. How long can you keep this up? A slash of your sword clears a way leading back up the mountain. The twang of a bowstring sends another arrow through your chest. "Arrrragghh!" you cry out in pain. There's no use. You're suffering from a bleeding gut and sucking chest wound. Your vision blurs as the dark ones surround you. "Damn you, Rathcor!" you exclaim Your hands shake as they reach into your platemail. You draw flint and dynamite. The dark ones are knawing at your limbs. "Somehow I knew it'd end like this!" you laugh maniacally. "BOOM!" <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>She must have been taken up the mountain last night while you slept! The rain makes tracking hard as it washed away any sign of movement. That or whoever took her was very careful. You hike the trail up and up till you reach the summit. The top of the mountain is cold. Snow falls as your breath billows out in clouds before your eyes. He must have taken her here, I know it! Your eyes dart this way and that. Where is he??? Just then a sharp pain hits your body. Your vision blurred by the agonizing pain...you look down to see an arrow stuck in your abdomen. "Fuuuckk..." you curse, breaking the arrow in half in attempt to pull it out. You roll behind a boulder for cover. Sword drawn ready to fight. "Alright, bastard! Nice try, but i'm still here. How about we settle this Steel to Steel!!" you call out, goading him to fight you. "I think I have you right where I want you as it is, Dorian!" a familiar female voice calls out. "Elyssa?! This can't be right..." you say to yourself Looking down the mountain, you see a group of the dark ones coming your way. Perfect timing, now your enemy is at your front and your back! > You face Elyssa Fuck this, I'm going after her. You place one hand on the boulder as you throw your weight over. In a mad dash, you rush for the location where the arrow set course. The twang of bowstring alerts you to a shot that you swat away with your sword. Another grazes your brow as you lunge forward. Closer, you see Elyssa now, her eyes white just like Gavin's were. You grab her wrist and bow and rush in close. "Stop this, Elyssa!" "You can't stop the coming evil. It is already here..." "I can and I will, now snap out of it! Please!" > You take the Demon into yourself You draw Elyssa close to yourself in a warm embrace. The darkness is already clawing at you, you can feel it deep inside. Your eyes go Milky White as the demon slowly takes over. "Come on.... Fight this!!" you cry out. Elyssa's eyes fade back to green and she looks up at you in deep concern. "Dorian, what's happening!?" "You're going to live... I don't know what's going to happen to me..." you say as the full force of the darkness finally hits you. You get up, shaking the snow from your cloak. You draw the hood over your face and turn to go back down the mountain. "Dorian! Wait!" she calls out. "I've been waiting my whole life" you mutter under your breath, to quiet for her to hear. Hero's End <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Fuck this, I'm going after her. You place one hand on the boulder as you throw your weight over. In a mad dash, you rush for the location where the arrow set course. The twang of bowstring alerts you to a shot that you swat away with your sword. Another grazes your brow as you lunge forward. Closer, you see Elyssa now, her eyes white just like Gavin's were. You grab her wrist and bow and rush in close. "Stop this, Elyssa!" "You can't stop the coming evil. It is already here..." "I can and I will, now snap out of it! Please!" > You cut her down You press your blade into her neck, draining the life from her as blood turns snow to crimson. She was gone, nothing you could do to help her. > You after You recover from your wound in the mountain, finally getting that arrow out of your gut. You stare out over the cliffs to see the valley below. Maybe now the land can return to peace. You think how boring that would be, though. "Maybe I'll finally retire this sword afterall." you say Smoke begins to billow from one of the villages below. Must be a bon fire or something. You realize the dark cloud rises up and shields the sun as the whole earth goes dark. You bring ths sword and point it towards the town bellow. "Guess I'm not finished yet!" Coward's End<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You wake up with your sword clenched in hand. The cup of wine you were drinking is spilled on the floor. Is she alright? You rush to Elyssa's room. Her bed is empty. You call out: "Elyssa!!, Elyssa!!" No answer. "Damn, where did she go...." You break through the front door out into the light. Your hand shields your face from the bright morning sun. You look left and right, noticing a blood stained cloak up the trail headed towards the mountain. Rushing in a dead sprint, you take it in your hands to try and catch a scent. It's hers alright, you couldn't forget the fresh smell of rose petals. > You cut through the woods to the Ravine You cut through the woods, hoping to find her on the other side of the mountain. As you travel West, dark figures seem to follow you in the forest. You can hear their footsteps as twigs and branches break in their wake. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. Here they can surround you on all sides. Before you had the cliffs to the east blocking their passage... The Horde... They close in on you now. You are indeed surrounded. You draw your blade ready for action. The fight rages on for hours. A bloody mess follows in your wake. They've got you a couple of times but you sure as hell gave them some too. The darkness begins to take over. You begin to change into one of them.... Your journey ends. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You decide East is the best route to go to make it to the top of the mountain. You go up and down the trail through the wood. Before you know it you stumble upon a woman making her way toward you. She doesn't carry any weapon, at least none in plain view. Red hair falls across her cheeks from under the cowl. Her face is hooded and you can barely make out green eyes staring back at you... "Stop right there, what are you doing out in these woods." you ask her. "I came from the top of the mountain. I live not too far from here if you wish to relax for the night?" > You continue your journey, you can rest later Can't stop now... "No, I have quite a distance till I reach my objective." She removes her hood revealing a beauty like nothing you've seen before. "My father, did he come to you this night?" "Father? You mean Gavin, the old wizard?" "Yes, he left this morning on foot to see you. Said he had an urgent message. Where is he?" You think back to the wizards last moments... > You lie You gaze hard at the ground, counting drops of rain as they make ripples in the puddles. "He didn't make it. There were too many of those things... he died trying to give me an escape..." You see the despair in her eyes as she begins to walk towards you. "Hey, it's alright" you begin to say as she approaches. She walks right past you, tears running down her face, and down to the valley you just left. Just like that, she was gone forever. Liar's End<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Can't stop now... "No, I have quite a distance till I reach my objective." She removes her hood revealing a beauty like nothing you've seen before. "My father, did he come to you this night?" "Father? You mean Gavin, the old wizard?" "Yes, he left this morning on foot to see you. Said he had an urgent message. Where is he?" You think back to the wizards last moments... > You tell the Truth You approach her putting your left hand firm upon her shoulder. "Listen...by the time your father reached me...something changed in him." "What?... What do you mean?" "You should have seen his eyes, the way he spoke, his cryptic message.... I believe he was possessed." You finish telling her the story of what happened and how you made it here. "Let me go with you!!!" she exclaims, "I can help!" "Whoa, listen here little lady. I don't think it's a good idea to have you travel this dark path. You should return home and let me handle this." > You send her on her way home You urge her to go back home and wait there till you deal with this demon. Her father's blood is already on your hands, do you really want to risk her's? That night you travel a ways further down the road until you find a spot to set camp. A dark cave should shield you from the cold storm for the rest of the night, and allow you time to regain your strength. You hope She will be fine back home...<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You approach her putting your left hand firm upon her shoulder. "Listen...by the time your father reached me...something changed in him." "What?... What do you mean?" "You should have seen his eyes, the way he spoke, his cryptic message.... I believe he was possessed." You finish telling her the story of what happened and how you made it here. "Let me go with you!!!" she exclaims, "I can help!" "Whoa, listen here little lady. I don't think it's a good idea to have you travel this dark path. You should return home and let me handle this." > You allow her to join your party "Alright, you can come with me" you say. "By the way, the name is Dorian" "I'm Elyssa. Don't worry, I won't be a burden. I too am a wizard like my father was, I believe I can help you." "Deal. Well let's get out of this rain and set forth at first light tomorrow." > You stay the Night You arrive after some time to the stone cottage. The roof is lined with hail bails. Not the most cozy place but you've slept in worse. Elyssa pours you a cup of red wine and you dry off by the fire. She bids you goodnight as you ponder the situation and plan of action for tomorrow morning. Staring deep into the cup, you question yourself. How will I defeat this demon? I've never seen his power first hand. Will my sword be strong enough, my resolve grant me victory? The wine sets in as you feel sleep overcome next to the warm fire. Your breathing becomes heavier with the smell of pine crackling in the fire. > You morning Sunlight pierces your eyelids as you wake to the bird's morning song. You grab your sword and ready your gear for the trip. You approach Elyssa's room to wake her but realize she is no longer in bed. Fear sets in, "I should have guarded her through the night!!" You burst through the front door to see her already outside with cloak and staff in hand. "Oh, good morning.." you say. Slightly embarrassed. "What woke you with such a start? I could hear you clammer all through the house!" Elyssa says with a smile. "No...Nothing. Let's get moving." You set off the trail towards the mountain. As you walk you take in this beautiful day. The sun is out for a change and the rain has finally stopped. Still, you can't shake the feeling of evil in these hills. Want to continue the journey, Look forward to The Finisher after Beta Testing.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>As you approach the mountain the trees begin to shield your view as you make your way closer. The woods sing sweet melody, wind coursing through the thick. A wide oak bears a message, scratched into the grain: East: I believe there's meaning West: no I believe there's nothing This should be interesting. You leave the horse, the brush is too thick to maneuver with her. Two paths lie before you... > You go West through the Ravine Going West. Traveling across the path you see a figure off into the distance. Hesitant, you grip your sword firmly. As you draw closer, you see a man. Black hair with blue eyes. He appears to be in his mid thirties, not a fresh sprout but neither an old veteran. He carries a spear in his arm, a dark blue tunic and pants. "Hey!" you call out to the man. "Hey yourself, what brings you here? Heading up the mountain?" "I've got a score to settle with this Demon of Rathcorf, you seen the Bastard?" "No, actually I haven't. I was just heading down to the valley." "You don't want to go that way... unless you have a death wish, friend" "The names Vern, and i'm no friend of yours" he says back cooly "Alright, be that as it may. I'm Dorian." "Well, it's settled then, I'll join you in this fight?" "Wait, who said I needed your help? I can kill a demon just fine myself, thank you." "Listen, Dorian. I live on this mountain and have just as much dog in this fight as you do." "Fine, just try not to get in my way when I unleash a true hell on this foe" You now journey together up the mountain. Eyes peeled not knowing when you'll see this demon... > Onward As you make your way up the mountain the rain falls harder and harder. Maybe you can see if Vern wouldn't mind stopping for the night. You see an ample cave a ways down the road. > The Cave The cave cut deeps into the mountain. You carry logs in to build a fire. Time to dry off from this constant rain. As the fire rages, you decide nows a good time to ask some questions. "So, what have you been doing in these mountains all this time?" you ask. "I'm a hunter." Vern replies "I hunt rabbit, deer, and sometimes.....bigger game comes my way." "Hm. Not a bad trade. I'm something of a hunter myself." you say. "Is that right?" "After the war ended I never stopped fighting. I guess old habits die hard." "A mercenary then?" Vern presses "That's right. Sword for hire. But the money...ehh... never really in it for that." Vern stares into the flames, his blue eyes glow like the embers. You decide it's time to rest. We'll see what comes in the morning. > The next Day You wake up cold. The fire has long died out, sending smoke out of the cave. Vern is gone, maybe out for a hunt? You step out into the daylight and stretch your arms. "So this is how Dorian meets his demise, ay?" You turn to see Vern's spear point inches from your face. "I wouldn't count on it, Maggot!" Your strong hands grasp the polearm to wrestle it from Verns grip. He thrusts his spear as it rips through your side. You push through and level with his eyes. "You Bastard." You say coughing up blood "Told you I'll hunt Big Game when it comes along, friend" he laughs cooly "Hope this was worth it for you, Vern" "Haha, what?!" he gargles as your hands grip his throat. You watch as his face turns pale then a dark blue as he breathes his last. You fall to the ground as you rip the spear from your body. "Alright, Old Man. Find someone else to kill this demon!" Your eyes begin to close and the world fades into darkness. Better luck next time. Fool's End<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You open the door as the wind beads the rain across your face. You recognize this man by the name of Gavin. He's a wizard you've heard about before. His dark cloak rustles in the wind as he stands in the door way. His eyes, they're milky white, skin cold and pale. The wrinkles upon his face show the wear of time, ever ticking, ever lingering... "What do you want, wizard?" you ask. "All of those who took the rode before you, they were possessed..... by the dark power!" "Whoa, hold on. What are you talking about?!" "But you, you shall do this alone... As you walk through valley of the Gorgonian Tempest The tri-elemental black darkness was engulfing the sovereign lands!!! Defeat the Demon of Rathcor.... and you will restore peace to the land.... and lineage of your blood" And just like that the man turned and walked out into the darkness, as if possessed himself. You hear the dark things... scraping and clawing at the dirt. A moment later the tearing of a cloak and flesh. Goodbye, Old Wizard. What evil drove you to such madness? > You go back inside and hold out on your own You're no servant boy. Though the wizard ultimately gave his life delivering his message you owe the world nothing. What has it ever done for you anyhow? On the battlefield you were the only one watching your back. You shut the door behind you and head back to your room to return to your slumber, but not before you hear the scraping of nails against the wrought wood... "Alright, you fuckers. Come and get me!!" The door breaks open with splinters flying every which way. Lifeless hands reach to draw you in and devour! > You dash headlong in the fray Sword firm in hand, you swing violently as the dark ones stumble into the home. One after the other, they keep coming, on and on. Your weapon is thick and bold, more like a heavy slab of steel. Each swing sends bodies flying and breaking under the sheer power. > You take the fight outside Holding the blade firm with your left hand and your right hand poised on the handle, you push the beasts back as they fall into the mud. The rain pours, dripping across your stone-cold face. "Determined, having the spirit to break through to the other side..." you mutter to yourself. > You saddle up You dash toward the stable to grab your horse. Guess you will leave this place to the dead. Home is where the hurt is, and you plan on bringing a lot of fucking hurt to this Demon guy. You swing yourself onto the horses back. Left hand grips the reins as your right tenses with the weight of the sword. You dash forth toward the mountains. Knocking the dead this way and that, as skulls break beneath the hooves. You begin to ride, hard towards the mountain. Rathcorf is about a 2 days ride South. If you can make it, you might have the chance to rid the world of this evil. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Holding the blade firm with your left hand and your right hand poised on the handle, you push the beasts back as they fall into the mud. The rain pours, dripping across your stone-cold face. "Determined, having the spirit to break through to the other side..." you mutter to yourself. > You release Soul Searcher "Soul Searcher, Come to me!!" Lightning strikes the ground before you revealing a heavy cross bow. You lift up the weapon and aim at the dead around you. A truly clumsy weapon, not exactly a sharp shooter. "Hope you've made peace with your maker..." You draw back, pull the trigger, releasing a volley of one hundred arrows. This repeating crossbow has made short work of much worse. The dead begin to pile, one atop the other, as each arrow hits its mark.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You're no servant boy. Though the wizard ultimately gave his life delivering his message you owe the world nothing. What has it ever done for you anyhow? On the battlefield you were the only one watching your back. You shut the door behind you and head back to your room to return to your slumber, but not before you hear the scraping of nails against the wrought wood... "Alright, you fuckers. Come and get me!!" The door breaks open with splinters flying every which way. Lifeless hands reach to draw you in and devour! > You make your stand upstairs The best offense is a good defense, right? You run for the stairs as the horde rips through the house. The clatter of tables and chairs fill the house. You turn around at the top step to send them crashing back down with a hard swing. Back in your room you reach for good Ol' Soul Searcher. You call your repeating crossbow this name because of the fear of God it puts into men who see it brandished. You unleash a flurry of arrows, each penetrating the mangled corpses. You can't keep up this onslaught for long though. The arrows run out and they begin to surround you. "Should've ran when you hand the chance..." you reach into your platemail to take out a flint and dynamite. "BURN!!!'<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The wintry winds howl a horrible wail, whipping white watery snow against the weathered watchtower’s westernmost wall. Yes, it is indeed a dark and stormy night, but darker and stormier and maybe just a tad more purple than your run-of-the-mill dark and stormy night. Somewhere deep in the forest a unicorn frolics in a magical glade, as elves watch and scamper amongst the trees, polishing their bows with the blood of dwarves. “Killed a big fat one today, Elfrond,” says Elfmoor. “Bastard was trying to chop down a cherry tree. Can you believe it, a fucking cherry tree? Sacrilege.” “Have you ever wondered why we hate the dwarves so much?” asks Elfrond. “What do you mean? They’re fucking dwarves! And this one chopped down a tree. A cherry tree. Only thing that rivals my love of trees are cherries. And music. And song. And like five other things.” “Yeah, I’ve just been thinking lately. How did we get these sweet bows, if we didn’t chop down a tree to shape them. And how do we burn fires without firewood? And why exactly do we hate the dwarves?” “It’s canon. Don’t ask questions.” “What’s a cannon?” Suddenly, the elves quit bickering. Something that only happens once in a thousand years occurs. The glade explodes with magical aura as the unicorn releases its legendary rainbow fart. Magical anomalies, such as this, signal only one thing: the birth of a hero. Elfmoor takes a big whiff of the magical aroma. “B. E. A. Utiful. Times like this make life worth living.” Elfrond shakes his head. “Elfmoor, we’re immortal. I’ve seen this like ten times already. And every time this happens, it means something evil is about to come afoot." “But the hero always wins.” “Have you ever heard the term collateral damage?” “Is that a sword?” And there you have it. The magical unicorn fart that marks your birth. How exciting! I wonder what type of hero you will grow up to be. > You heroic knight, heroic knight! Ah, the noble knight in shining armor. And they say chivalry is dead. You are born into a loving but stern peasant family in the hamlet of Forest Hill. Your formative years are a medley of hardship, merriment, and hard work. While most of the other children in the hamlet are content to play ragamuffin children’s games and live out their lives in this quaint corner of the woods, you aspire to greatness, spending every evening selling turnips and every night mucking shit from the stables. With all this (paltry sum of) loot, you are able to afford sword and shield lessons from the guardsmen. One fine autumn evening, you and your sword master Jon are finishing a sparring session. Jon is bigger and faster than you are, but you have taken his lessons to heart. Training swords are blunted, but they hurt all the same when they whack you. Jon’s sword arcs toward your shoulder. You raise your shield, and the wood splinters. With a quick twist of the wrist, you yank the shield downwards, catching Jon’s sword in the process. He is open; here is your chance. You swing your sword… “Dodge!” you shout, dropping to the ground. Jon’s fist sails an inch above your head. You toss your shield and lurch from your knees into Jon. The pair of you grapple on the ground. Dust flies. Both of your swords are lost in the ruckus. A fist catches you square in the gut. Once, twice, three times. You spit in Jon’s eyes and roll to the side, and stagger to your feet. A leg comes sweeping toward you. “Dodge!” you shout, jumping back. You avoid the leg, but tumble onto your ass. Before you can regain your feet, a boot hits your chest, shoving you back into the ground. Jon stands above you and smirks. “You know what you forgot to do?” You nod, knowing. “You forgot to DODGE!” You share a hearty laugh. At first, Jon would shout ‘dodge’ to train you to avoid taking hits, now it is your job to shout it when you train. He even sends kids around to throw shit at you randomly during the day. That really sends the message home. You have come so far that the art of dodging has almost become a sixth sense. ‘If they can’t hit you, they can’t kill you,’ Jon had reasoned. The pair of you head to the watch house to clean up. The building is small and reeks of sweat and mildew. The hamlet only has three guards, so upgrading their housing has not been a top concern of the local Baron. You are just thrilled the hamlet has guards at all. “You’re getting good, kid. Real good,” says Jon, stripping his leather armor. “I think you’re ready for some real patrol work. We just got a report the other night about some disappearances on the Baron’s Road. It’s probably just some bandits, but we need to take care of it. You in?” > You hell yeah you're in. “Hell yeah I’m in.” Jon nods. “Glad to hear it.” This could be your big chance to finally prove yourself. You need to get your name out there if you want to have any chance of receiving a knighthood someday. They do not just hand those things out like… well, nobody has ever actually handed you anything except a nice big steaming pile of shit. Peasantry blows. Under cover of darkness, you and the three guards head out along the Baron’s Road in the back of a covered wagon. No one has ever thought of ambushing bandits in a covered wagon while guised as merchants. Surely, the plan will go off without a hitch. Samwellington the Fat jitters in his seat. You are not sure if it is because he is scared or hungry. How Sam became a member of the guard is beyond your imagination. Jon trusts him for some reason, and that is good enough for you. “Nervous kid?” he asks. That you might eat me. “No. If Jon says I’m ready, then I’m ready.” Bowie bobs his head. “It’s best to trust Jon. I didn’t once and then my world went to shit. That draugr attack during the winter of ’69 was brutal… I still have nightmares.” Jon rolls his eyes. “If you hadn’t st-” “Hey, let’s let bygones be bygones,” says Bowie. “Hey do you hear that?” you ask. “Sorry, my stomach rumbles when I travel,” says Samwellington. “No, not-” The horses whinny and bolt. One of the wheels catches a snag in the road and topples over. Luckily, you land on Samwellington’s gut. Jon cuts a hole in the wagon covering and climbs out into the night, and you and Bowie follow. “Oh, fuck…” Jon clutches his sword in both hands and rushes. Two trolls tower over the corpses of the horses and the wagon driver, tearing chunks of bloody flesh with the effort you would rip apart a boiled chicken. > You help Jon. In your eagerness to fight at Jon’s side, you forget the most important lesson of your training: always dodge. A troll whips a horse leg in your direction. Off balance and off guard, you cannot avoid the hurling limb as the hoof nails you in the shoulder, severing your sword arm. Blood spouts like a geyser from your body as you crumple to the road. “Bowie, help Jon!” Samwellington shrieks. “I’ve got the kid.” Samwellington stumbles to your side and rolls you onto your back. “Hang in there little buddy. It’s going to be alright.” Blood loss is making you delusional. It is the only way to explain what is happening. Samwellington draws his dagger and sticks himself in the gut. He drags the blade across his stomach, slips his hand into the incision, and pulls out a chunk of his own fat. He smacks the lard on your wound and it sticks in place, stemming the blood flow. “Can you walk?” asks Samwellington. “Can I walk? Can I walk! I just had my fucking arm cleaved off. What the fuck do you think?” “Yeah, an arm, not a leg. Don’t be a baby.” “Sam we could really use your fat ass over here,” shouts Bowie. “Any motherfucking time!” You hear a gurgle and a gasp just before Bowie’s head goes sailing through the air. Samwellington gulps and scurries away to hide behind the wreckage of the wagon. What a coward. Oh well, at least he saved your life. Leaning against your sword, you stagger to your feet. One of the trolls ravages Bowie’s headless corpse. The crunching and snapping of bones sickens you, and you fight the urge to hurl as bile tickles your throat. Jon appears to be holding his ground against the other troll, but once his friend finishes devouring Bowie’s corpse, even Jon won’t be able to fend off their combined savagery. You have to do something quick or all of your worthless lives will be over. > You throw your severed arm as a distraction. You doubt you will be of much use as a combatant, so you may as well make yourself useful in some other fashion. You grab your severed arm and wing it as hard you can toward the trolls. The troll feasting on Bowie ignores the bloody mess of flesh, but Jon’s troll clambers after it on all fours. A deep sadness seeps into your bones as you hear the troll crunch your arm in its jaws. Heroes are not supposed to be eaten. Jon slices the back of the trolls’ knees, and the troll howls in agony as its legs buckle. Jon leaps onto its back and cleaves the head clean off with one swipe with your arm still clenched between its teeth. “Go Jon,” Samwellington cheers. The fat coward is still cowering behind wreckage from the wagon. “Why don’t you try and help?” you snarl. “I am helping. I’m providing emotional support.” You roll your eyes and look back in time to see Jon finish off the second troll. “Wow, that was fast,” you say. Jon shrugs. “A little emotional support can go a long way. Nice job yourself. You didn’t even need to have your sword arm attached to the rest of your body for it to be useful. Try dodging next time though.” “I don’t know if there will be a next time. How can I fight without a sword arm?” Jon winks. “I know a guy: magic fellow and what not. He should be able to do something for you.” Jon raises his hand. “Hold on one second. I’ll be right back.” Jon darts into the forest and you hear the lovely sound of steel biting into flesh and the accompanying screams. “Sam, why don’t you go back to the hamlet and draft the report,” says Jon, emerging from the forest, “add five dead bandits to it. I’ll take our buddy here to the hedge wizard.” With that, you and Jon part ways with Samwellington and enjoy a relatively droll venture to the hedge wizard’s hut. You understand why he is only a hedge wizard. The hut is a ramshackle smattering of twigs and leaves that appear to be held together by nothing but mud and bird poop. The entire place smells worse than a popcorn fart. This may not have been the best idea, but before you can raise your concerns with Jon, he hollers out. “Hey, Osprey, get out here. I need a favor.” “Is that you Jon?” You hear weird pops and bangs from inside the bird poop hut. “Just a second.” “Take your time,” says Jon. “No hurry.” After a few minutes, a bent white-bearded man with smoldering eyebrows and a staff teeters out of the hut amidst a cloud of smoke. The smoke shrouds Osprey and follows him around. It smells of rancid cheese and burning bird shit. “Whew,” Jon attempts to wave the stink away, “what were you doing in there?” Osprey’s eyes light up. His lips twist into a smirk as he cackles. “Wizard things.” “Oh, Dear God.” Osprey’s smile vanishes as he notices you and totters over. He grabs your head in both hands, lifts your chin, peers into your eyes, and prods your chest with a bony finger. A chill courses through your bones. He proceeds to violate your personal space for several minutes while you do your best to avoid suffocating in the smoke. “Mmhmmm,” he says to himself. “Just as I thought. The boy is missing an arm.” You roll your eyes. “How observant.” Osprey whacks you upside the head with the staff. “Mind your manners, boy, or I’ll turn you into a leprechaun.” He shakes his head. “Ain’t nothing sadder than a leprechaun.” “Not even a smelly old man living in a bird shit hut?” Osprey clobbers you with the staff again. “I’ll have respect from you boy. This is no joking matter. You ever see a leprechaun you give that poor bastard nothing but your sincerest sympathies.” He smacks you with the staff one more time for good measure. “Now about that arm. I can fix you right up. Get you a brand new ethereal arm. Those things are sweet: impervious to physical damage. Magic will fuck you up though.” Osprey begins nodding his head and drawing weird symbols in the ground with his staff while mumbling to himself. “Jon,” you whisper, “I really don’t think this is a good idea. This guy is cracked.” Jon scoffs. “Posh. You want to be a knight, right? Well, a knight needs both arms.” > You bring on the magic. Truer words have never been said. Well, they probably have, but you cannot think of any at the moment. “Alright,” you nod, “bring on the magic.” “That’s the spirit.” Osprey bumbles around finishing his runes. He mutters some incantations, bops you on top of the head a few times with his staff and bursts into poetry. A wizard did it, a wizard bid it. An arm grew, fresh and new. Ethereal, but not imperial. As we live in a realm, surrounded by elm. Nature’s magic, is never tragic. My rhymes are bad, but I’m not mad. This spell worked, ‘cause Cyrus twerked. Just like that, a sprite and shiny ethereal arm appears from your shoulder. You clench your fist and feel the power pulsing through your… veins? Jon claps politely as Osprey bows. The hedge wizard slaps you across the back, smiling. “Now don’t go committing sins of self-pleasure with that thing. You might rip something important off.” You gulp. Osprey cackles and slaps you some more. He seems to like hitting you. “You can shoot magic energy blasts out of that thing too. I thought that might be useful for a hero.” Jon shakes his head. “If you want to be a heroic knight, don’t do that. Knights aren’t magic. Only trouble can come of it. This isn’t a wizard’s tale.” Osprey shrugs and wanders back into his hut. The door creaks shut and you soon hear the calamity snap back to life. He pokes his head out to offer one last piece of advice. “You treat them leprechauns with respect, boy, you hear me?” He slams the door shut and that is that. “What do we do now?” you ask Jon. “Well, I’m going to go back to the hamlet and make sure everything’s in order. You should go try out your new arm and get used to it.” You consider that a smashing idea and head off to the neighboring kingdom of Irelandshire to seek out one of these mystical leprechauns. With the help of several drunken and boisterous natives, you learn the not-so-secret location of the Valley of Rainbows where the leprechauns supposedly abound. They warn you not to go though because it is a sad and wretched place. Obviously, you ignore them. Hundreds of rainbows dot the easy to access valley, and you have little difficulty tracking one down to its end. Naturally, a great pot of gold sits next to it, but no leprechaun. You try calling for them, taunting them, begging them, praising them, but none appear. “Well at least I’m rich.” You pack as much gold as you can onto your horse (which isn’t anywhere near the entire pot since gold is heavy, yet it’s still enough to buy a castle or two) and prepare to return home. As you approach the precipice with the cave that leads out of the valley, a shrill cry booms from deep in the heart of the valley. > You you're rich. You're going home. Where is your sense of adventure? Heroes aren’t supposed to be in the game just for the money! What about for princess bosom? Princess bosom is nice, but even with that you are still only a cheap imitation of a true hero. Besides, I do not see any princess bosom in the area, and no, you cannot buy princess bosom. You must earn such luxuries. Are you telling me I don’t actually get to go home? No, you can go home if you want. I’m merely giving you an opportunity to reconsider because I am a kind and kindred spirit. Eh, who am I kidding? I’m kind of a dick, but my offer still stands. > You piss off, you're going home with your booty. You elect to go home with your wealthy horde of treasure, as you have every right to do so. I applaud your resolution. That takes cajones. Even divine intervention cannot derail you from your path. With your newfound riches, you decide to take a luxury cruise on the C.Y.S. Generic Heroine. She is truly a gallant vessel. You dine on raw oysters and baked clams, which you eat off the bare breasts of dashing dames. At night, mermaids sing scandalous songs as they swim along with the ship, attempting to lure foolish sailors and passengers into their clutches, but not you, no, you are too wise. You simply listen and enjoy the sweet melodies. The seas stay smooth and calm and you enjoy a pleasurable sailing experience. Pirates only attack once, and with your bitchin’ ethereal arm, you smash and bash them to bits, claiming their brig as your own. You even remembered to heed Jon’s warning and not use the magical energy blasts to preserve your status as a heroic knight. “How was your trip?” Jon asks as you arrive in port. “Profitable.” Samwellington’s mouth waters as he sniffs the seafood on your breath. “Do you have any more clams?” “I hope so,” says Jon, ignoring Samwellington. “You missed the king’s tournament. Sooooooo much shit went down.” “Jon found a fire-crotch.” Samwellington beams gaily. “And killed a no good dirty evil wizard.” Jon nods. “The future looks bright. That’s for damn certain.” The three of you leave the docks and head into the city, ready to raise hell and fuck bitches make sweet tender love to beautiful maidens. What, did you think I would be spiteful and have you die of the Great Pox or be devoured by the kracken? <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Where is your sense of adventure? Heroes aren’t supposed to be in the game just for the money! What about for princess bosom? Princess bosom is nice, but even with that you are still only a cheap imitation of a true hero. Besides, I do not see any princess bosom in the area, and no, you cannot buy princess bosom. You must earn such luxuries. Are you telling me I don’t actually get to go home? No, you can go home if you want. I’m merely giving you an opportunity to reconsider because I am a kind and kindred spirit. Eh, who am I kidding? I’m kind of a dick, but my offer still stands. > You convinced you, oh benevolent and mighty guardian angel. No one likes a kiss ass. I'm more akin to a god than an angel anyway. Taking a deep whiff of air you can smell the magic. This place has more to it than abandoned pots of gold and rainbows after all. You order your horse to stay and guard your gold as you dart towards the disturbance, and he obeys, because that is what good horseys do. You storm through the trees, snapping branches and scaring furry little forest critters. In your haste, you trample a chipmunk. The little fellow’s bones make a nice crunching noise. “Hey what’s the big idea!” You whirl around but do not see anyone. You inspect the bottom of your boot, but the chipmunk is not the speaker. He is squashed like a rotten pumpkin all juicy and splattered. “Over here you idiot.” A giant of a man posing as a tree rumbles toward you. He has moss and vines for a beard and hair. His green eyes glimmer with malice. A bear and a wolf lumber along at his sides. “Why are you destroying my forest?” “Sorry, I was looking for whatever made that awful cry.” “That was a leprechaun bemoaning his sorry fate of being a leprechaun.” “Cool, can you show me where they are?” “You murder my friend and harm my trees and you ask me for help? Give me one reason why I shouldn’t bring you home to my wife and tickle you to death for her amusement while my children eat your toes!” What in the name of Pegasus is this thing? Oh, if only you had brought that book on mythical creatures Samwellington bought you for your birthday. At any rate, something tells you he does not belong in Irelandshire. You do not think you will be able to reason with him. If the chipmunk was his friend, honor would dictate that he avenge the cute little guy’s mushy corpse. How do you want to play this? > You tell him, 'Everything you say is a lie.' A smug smirk crosses your lips as you proudly declare, “Everything I say is a lie.” The weird tree man thing stares at you then shakes his head in pity. “What did you think a paradox would do? Make my brain melt into soup?” “Yes, actually.” “I am a leshy. Not an imbecile.” “I have no idea what that is. Do you sing songs?” “You’ll see what I do.” The leshy’s animal friends attack and pin you to the ground before you can react. You manage to strangle the bear to death with your ethereal arm, but this only enrages the leshy further. He plucks you from the ground as a princess would an eyelash and carries you off to his shanty with the wolf nipping at your feet. Once inside his home, he binds you with vines and hangs you from the ceiling. His wife and children enter from kitchen. “Oh, wonderful,” his wife cries with glee, “you found a wanderer! We get so few in the Valley of Rainbows.” “The stupid leprechauns keep everyone away,” says one of the children. “No one wants to be near a leprechaun.” The leshy’s wife smacks the child upside the head. “You treat the leprechauns with respect young man. They have enough misfortune without your drivel.” “That’s right. Behave yourself, or I won’t let you eat his toes,” says the leshy. “Yes Pa.” The leshy begins tickling you as the children nibble on your toes. The wife shoves a hand down her dress and begins to moan and giggle. You shut your eyes and vomit between fits of laughter and screams of agony. Piss runs down your leg. “You evil bastard!” you scream. “I’m not evil. You’re just a failure and a murderer,” says the leshy as he proceeds to tickle you to death. “Chipper was one of my best friends. He will not be forgotten.”<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>No one likes a kiss ass. I'm more akin to a god than an angel anyway. Taking a deep whiff of air you can smell the magic. This place has more to it than abandoned pots of gold and rainbows after all. You order your horse to stay and guard your gold as you dart towards the disturbance, and he obeys, because that is what good horseys do. You storm through the trees, snapping branches and scaring furry little forest critters. In your haste, you trample a chipmunk. The little fellow’s bones make a nice crunching noise. “Hey what’s the big idea!” You whirl around but do not see anyone. You inspect the bottom of your boot, but the chipmunk is not the speaker. He is squashed like a rotten pumpkin all juicy and splattered. “Over here you idiot.” A giant of a man posing as a tree rumbles toward you. He has moss and vines for a beard and hair. His green eyes glimmer with malice. A bear and a wolf lumber along at his sides. “Why are you destroying my forest?” “Sorry, I was looking for whatever made that awful cry.” “That was a leprechaun bemoaning his sorry fate of being a leprechaun.” “Cool, can you show me where they are?” “You murder my friend and harm my trees and you ask me for help? Give me one reason why I shouldn’t bring you home to my wife and tickle you to death for her amusement while my children eat your toes!” What in the name of Pegasus is this thing? Oh, if only you had brought that book on mythical creatures Samwellington bought you for your birthday. At any rate, something tells you he does not belong in Irelandshire. You do not think you will be able to reason with him. If the chipmunk was his friend, honor would dictate that he avenge the cute little guy’s mushy corpse. How do you want to play this? > You turn your clothes inside out and put your shoes on the wrong feet. You remember now! This creature is a leshy, and there is only one sure fire way to stop a leshy. You whip off your clothes, put them on inside out, kick off your shoes and slip them onto the opposite feet. The leshy grimaces and his animal companions slink away. “I guess I have to show you the way out now.” “I know the way out. Can you take me to the leprechauns?” “You want to see the leprechauns? Are you dull in the head?” “I like bacon, yes.” The leshy’s eyes twinkle with fear. “Clearly, you’re mentally unhinged. Just like those poor leprechauns. If I take you to them, promise you’ll leave me and my family alone.” “Sure.” You follow the leshy into a glade, within a glen, within a gorge, within a holler, within a hollow, within a dell, within a dale, within a dingle, within a canyon, within a vale within the Valley of Rainbows. The trip is quite, shall I say, trippy. The leshy points to a pool of water where all the rainbows spring forth. “I’m not getting any closer. Give the leprechauns my condolences, and please don’t murder rape my family. Good day.” The leshy leaves in a hurry without another word. You approach the pool with eager enthusiasm and the leprechauns begin to appear from the surrounding trees… ... Why are you stopping? I’m sorry. It’s too depressing. Give the leprechauns my condolences as well, poor sorry bastards.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Truer words have never been said. Well, they probably have, but you cannot think of any at the moment. “Alright,” you nod, “bring on the magic.” “That’s the spirit.” Osprey bumbles around finishing his runes. He mutters some incantations, bops you on top of the head a few times with his staff and bursts into poetry. A wizard did it, a wizard bid it. An arm grew, fresh and new. Ethereal, but not imperial. As we live in a realm, surrounded by elm. Nature’s magic, is never tragic. My rhymes are bad, but I’m not mad. This spell worked, ‘cause Cyrus twerked. Just like that, a sprite and shiny ethereal arm appears from your shoulder. You clench your fist and feel the power pulsing through your… veins? Jon claps politely as Osprey bows. The hedge wizard slaps you across the back, smiling. “Now don’t go committing sins of self-pleasure with that thing. You might rip something important off.” You gulp. Osprey cackles and slaps you some more. He seems to like hitting you. “You can shoot magic energy blasts out of that thing too. I thought that might be useful for a hero.” Jon shakes his head. “If you want to be a heroic knight, don’t do that. Knights aren’t magic. Only trouble can come of it. This isn’t a wizard’s tale.” Osprey shrugs and wanders back into his hut. The door creaks shut and you soon hear the calamity snap back to life. He pokes his head out to offer one last piece of advice. “You treat them leprechauns with respect, boy, you hear me?” He slams the door shut and that is that. “What do we do now?” you ask Jon. “Well, I’m going to go back to the hamlet and make sure everything’s in order. You should go try out your new arm and get used to it.” You consider that a smashing idea and head off to the neighboring kingdom of Irelandshire to seek out one of these mystical leprechauns. With the help of several drunken and boisterous natives, you learn the not-so-secret location of the Valley of Rainbows where the leprechauns supposedly abound. They warn you not to go though because it is a sad and wretched place. Obviously, you ignore them. Hundreds of rainbows dot the easy to access valley, and you have little difficulty tracking one down to its end. Naturally, a great pot of gold sits next to it, but no leprechaun. You try calling for them, taunting them, begging them, praising them, but none appear. “Well at least I’m rich.” You pack as much gold as you can onto your horse (which isn’t anywhere near the entire pot since gold is heavy, yet it’s still enough to buy a castle or two) and prepare to return home. As you approach the precipice with the cave that leads out of the valley, a shrill cry booms from deep in the heart of the valley. > You investigate the cry. Taking a deep whiff of air you can smell the magic. This place has more to it than abandoned pots of gold and rainbows after all. You order your horse to stay and guard your gold as you dart towards the disturbance, and he obeys, because that is what good horseys do. You storm through the trees, snapping branches and scaring furry little forest critters. In your haste, you trample a chipmunk. The little fellow’s bones make a nice crunching noise. “Hey what’s the big idea!” You whirl around but do not see anyone. You inspect the bottom of your boot, but the chipmunk is not the speaker. He is squashed like a rotten pumpkin all juicy and splattered. “Over here you idiot.” A giant of a man posing as a tree rumbles toward you. He has moss and vines for a beard and hair. His green eyes glimmer with malice. A bear and a wolf lumber along at his sides. “Why are you destroying my forest?” “Sorry, I was looking for whatever made that awful cry.” “That was a leprechaun bemoaning his sorry fate of being a leprechaun.” “Cool, can you show me where they are?” “You murder my friend and harm my trees and you ask me for help? Give me one reason why I shouldn’t bring you home to my wife and tickle you to death for her amusement while my children eat your toes!” What in the name of Pegasus is this thing? Oh, if only you had brought that book on mythical creatures Samwellington bought you for your birthday. At any rate, something tells you he does not belong in Irelandshire. You also doubt you will be able to reason with him. If the chipmunk was his friend, honor would dictate that he avenge the cute little guy’s mushy corpse. How do you want to play this?<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You doubt you will be of much use as a combatant, so you may as well make yourself useful in some other fashion. You grab your severed arm and wing it as hard you can toward the trolls. The troll feasting on Bowie ignores the bloody mess of flesh, but Jon’s troll clambers after it on all fours. A deep sadness seeps into your bones as you hear the troll crunch your arm in its jaws. Heroes are not supposed to be eaten. Jon slices the back of the trolls’ knees, and the troll howls in agony as its legs buckle. Jon leaps onto its back and cleaves the head clean off with one swipe with your arm still clenched between its teeth. “Go Jon,” Samwellington cheers. The fat coward is still cowering behind wreckage from the wagon. “Why don’t you try and help?” you snarl. “I am helping. I’m providing emotional support.” You roll your eyes and look back in time to see Jon finish off the second troll. “Wow, that was fast,” you say. Jon shrugs. “A little emotional support can go a long way. Nice job yourself. You didn’t even need to have your sword arm attached to the rest of your body for it to be useful. Try dodging next time though.” “I don’t know if there will be a next time. How can I fight without a sword arm?” Jon winks. “I know a guy: magic fellow and what not. He should be able to do something for you.” Jon raises his hand. “Hold on one second. I’ll be right back.” Jon darts into the forest and you hear the lovely sound of steel biting into flesh and the accompanying screams. “Sam, why don’t you go back to the hamlet and draft the report,” says Jon, emerging from the forest, “add five dead bandits to it. I’ll take our buddy here to the hedge wizard.” With that, you and Jon part ways with Samwellington and enjoy a relatively droll venture to the hedge wizard’s hut. You understand why he is only a hedge wizard. The hut is a ramshackle smattering of twigs and leaves that appear to be held together by nothing but mud and bird poop. The entire place smells worse than a popcorn fart. This may not have been the best idea, but before you can raise your concerns with Jon, he hollers out. “Hey, Osprey, get out here. I need a favor.” “Is that you Jon?” You hear weird pops and bangs from inside the bird poop hut. “Just a second.” “Take your time,” says Jon. “No hurry.” After a few minutes, a bent white-bearded man with smoldering eyebrows and a staff teeters out of the hut amidst a cloud of smoke. The smoke shrouds Osprey and follows him around. It smells of rancid cheese and burning bird shit. “Whew,” Jon attempts to wave the stink away, “what were you doing in there?” Osprey’s eyes light up. His lips twist into a smirk as he cackles. “Wizard things.” “Oh, Dear God.” Osprey’s smile vanishes as he notices you and totters over. He grabs your head in both hands, lifts your chin, peers into your eyes, and prods your chest with a bony finger. A chill courses through your bones. He proceeds to violate your personal space for several minutes while you do your best to avoid suffocating in the smoke. “Mmhmmm,” he says to himself. “Just as I thought. The boy is missing an arm.” You roll your eyes. “How observant.” Osprey whacks you upside the head with the staff. “Mind your manners, boy, or I’ll turn you into a leprechaun.” He shakes his head. “Ain’t nothing sadder than a leprechaun.” “Not even a smelly old man living in a bird shit hut?” Osprey clobbers you with the staff again. “I’ll have respect from you boy. This is no joking matter. You ever see a leprechaun you give that poor bastard nothing but your sincerest sympathies.” He smacks you with the staff one more time for good measure. “Now about that arm. I can fix you right up. Get you a brand new ethereal arm. Those things are sweet: impervious to physical damage. Magic will fuck you up though.” Osprey begins nodding his head and drawing weird symbols in the ground with his staff while mumbling to himself. “Jon,” you whisper, “I really don’t think this is a good idea. This guy is cracked.” Jon scoffs. “Posh. You want to be a knight, right? Well, a knight needs both arms.” > You continue as a cripple. There is no way you are about to let this bird-brained lunatic work any form of magic on you. Somehow, someway, you will adapt to your crippled state. “It’s just not happening, Jon,” you say and walk away. “Hey, get back here, kid!” “Let him go, Jon,” you hear Osprey say. “He’ll come back. They always do.” You ignore them and keep walking. Left, right, left, you allow your mind to wander and just let your feet carry you where they will. How could this have happened? You are supposed to be a hero! A young knight in training, you had such a promising future… Time passes and the sky darkens as you continue to roam without purpose. Self-wallowing will certainly help you in your quest for glory. You meander deeper into the forest, down into a dell. A coyote’s howl jars you back to reality. You slump against a rock beside a bubbling stream and bury your head into your hand. “Everything I ever dreamed,” you scream, “ripped apart and devoured by some beast from hell.” “Oh, do tell,” whispers a soft voice from behind. “I love stories about fallen heroes.” The voice giggles. “Or, would-be heroes.” Slippery wet fingers trace your cheeks and run through your hair. A veil of mist seeps into the dell. Queer sensations stir in the pit of your gut. You think you are being enchanted, and you are not sure if that is necessarily a bad thing. “Who are you?” “I have many names,” sings the sweet voice. Her fingers caress your body. You feel at ease in her arms, as if all the aches in your body and pains in your mind wash away at her command. “But you may call me Organa Mel Fy.” “What are you?” “Ah, now that is a better question, but still not the right one.” You feel her teeth nibble at your neck. “I am an angel to some: demon to others. Last question my sweetness, make it count.” > You say "What happens next?" “What happens next?” “Now that, that is the question of the hour, isn’t it?” sings the sweet voice. The mysterious creature’s slick fingers trace their way into your breeches and tickle your Johnson. An overwhelming sensation of euphoria courses through your veins. Blood surges through your body. You feel… invigorated, as if you have more energy than the sun itself. “I get ever so lonely here by myself,” the voice sings. “Won’t you… play with me?” > You sexytime! You have never felt so amazing in your life. How could you possibly let this sensation escape? You make sweet tender love to the mysterious creature. She looks human enough, except for the fact she can transform into water at will, which only serves to enhance the awesomeness of the experience. It just feels soooo damn good. A little too good. Blinded by euphoria, ecstasy, magic, hormones, and a fatal condition I like to call “being a goddamned idiot,” you fail to notice your lover drag you down into the deceptively deep depths of the stream where you drown in the throes of love-making. Oh, those pesky water sprites!<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>“What happens next?” “Now that, that is the question of the hour, isn’t it?” sings the sweet voice. The mysterious creature’s slick fingers trace their way into your breeches and tickle your Johnson. An overwhelming sensation of euphoria courses through your veins. Blood surges through your body. You feel… invigorated, as if you have more energy than the sun itself. “I get ever so lonely here by myself,” the voice sings. “Won’t you… play with me?” > You it's a trap! Shit, it’s a trap! Jon once gave you a book about just this situation. This magical sexy creature is none other than a water sprite, posing as the evil sorceress, Organa Mel Fy, probably one of her sultry minions. She’ll sex you up then drown you in the stream and feast on your corpse. “I want you to want me.” The water sprite moans and works magic on your body with her fingers. Try as you might you cannot resist her allure as she toys with you in her lap. The magical enchantment and sexual tension corrode the fibers of your mind, breaking the mental barriers you constructed for just such a situation. Saggy old nuns. Saggy old nuns. Saggy old nuns. Sally David. Mom. Oh shit, I’m still getting hard. Hard as a brick in fact. Help me! Do you have a sister? Yes, but that won’t work. You whacked it while watching her bathe in the river didn’t you, perv. Maybe… I suppose there is always self-castration. Go to hell. “Don’t be shy, baby,” sings the water sprite, “I just want to rock you like a hurricane, shake you all night long, twist and shout, scream a rebel yell, make you walk on water, take you down to the paradise city, administer rough justice, and get your rocks off.” Losing the battle of self-control your johnson twitches wildly. “Oh, sweet merciful God, that sounds orgasmic.” The water sprite leans in close and whispers in your ear, “Let me take you home tonight so I can keep on loving you.” The sultry songs of the water sprite prove too much for your feeble constitution. Your johnson explodes into a fountain of blood from a colossal aneurysm brought on by an overload of magical sexual tension. Since I’m not completely depraved, I’ll spare you the grisly details. Short agonizing story in brief: you bleed out.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>There is no way you are about to let this bird-brained lunatic work any form of magic on you. Somehow, someway, you will adapt to your crippled state. “It’s just not happening, Jon,” you say and walk away. “Hey, get back here, kid!” “Let him go, Jon,” you hear Osprey say. “He’ll come back. They always do.” You ignore them and keep walking. Left, right, left, you allow your mind to wander and just let your feet carry you where they will. How could this have happened? You are supposed to be a hero! A young knight in training, you had such a promising future… Time passes and the sky darkens as you continue to roam without purpose. Self-wallowing will certainly help you in your quest for glory. You meander deeper into the forest, down into a dell. A coyote’s howl jars you back to reality. You slump against a rock beside a bubbling stream and bury your head into your hand. “Everything I ever dreamed,” you scream, “ripped apart and devoured by some beast from hell.” “Oh, do tell,” whispers a soft voice from behind. “I love stories about fallen heroes.” The voice giggles. “Or, would-be heroes.” Slippery wet fingers trace your cheeks and run through your hair. A veil of mist seeps into the dell. Queer sensations stir in the pit of your gut. You think you are being enchanted, and you are not sure if that is necessarily a bad thing. “Who are you?” “I have many names,” sings the sweet voice. Her fingers caress your body. You feel at ease in her arms, as if all the aches in your body and pains in your mind wash away at her command. “But you may call me Organa Mel Fy.” “What are you?” “Ah, now that is a better question, but still not the right one.” You feel her teeth nibble at your neck. “I am an angel to some: demon to others. Last question my sweetness, make it count.” > You kill it When in doubt, flay ‘em like a trout. Swift as a cat hopped up on methamphetamines you draw your sword, spin around, and hack off Organa Mel Fy’s head. Magic may not be dope, but you sure are. What didn’t you know? Magic is a stimulating drug. That’s why even the best wizards are twitchy and half-cracked in the head. Shit’s addictive, man. Whoa, what the hell is going on? Organa Mel Fy’s body and freshly decapitated head melt into what appears to be water and seeps into the ground. That is not normal. Perhaps now would be a good time to get out of here. You are still feeling funny from the magic and can swear you are being watched as you clamber up out of the dell. In fact, your feet are moving in a flurry, but it does not seem like you are getting anywhere. You definitely passed that big ass maple like five times already. You whirl around and brandish your sword. “Ok, what the fuck gives? Will the mysterious magic bitch or bastard please stand up?” “If you insist.” A mysterious magic bitch with bountiful breasts appears before you out of thin air wearing low-cut red robes. She reeks of magic and virility. “Listen, err, lady, my day’s been one odious load of shit, so unless you want me to wrap you up in the stink, I suggest you bugger off.” The woman’s lips curl into a seductive smirk. “Aren’t you curious as to whom I am, or what I am going to offer you?” “At this point, I really don’t give a damn.” “Perhaps you should.” “Perhaps you should suck my dick.” “If that is what you truly desire, that may be arranged. But for now, you will listen to my proposal like a good puppy.” The woman raises her hand, immobilizing your body with her magic. “Now then-“ > You hear her out. “If you agree to be my obedient and ever loyal servant, I will allow you to be my second in command and we shall rule the world with a magical fist! I’ll even fix up your arm for you, much better than that crackpot Osprey could do for you too.” “Can I be a Knight in Shining Armor?” “You can be a Black Knight.” “Awww, that’s not heroic at all.” “Well, you could just be my Dragon.” “You’ll turn me into a dragon! That’s awesome!” “No. A Dragon is a trope. Don’t you have the internet?” “What’s a trope? Or the internet? Is it like a cliché?” Organa Mel Fy face palms. “Go here and waste countless hours of your life and educate yourself. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HomePage” “I don’t speak foreign. Just Common.” “I think I’ll just kill you.” And so she does. Now you are free to lose your soul in the vast voids of the internet.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>When in doubt, flay ‘em like a trout. Swift as a cat hopped up on methamphetamines you draw your sword, spin around, and hack off Organa Mel Fy’s head. Magic may not be dope, but you sure are. What didn’t you know? Magic is a stimulating drug. That’s why even the best wizards are twitchy and half-cracked in the head. Shit’s addictive, man. Whoa, what the hell is going on? Organa Mel Fy’s body and freshly decapitated head melt into what appears to be water and seeps into the ground. That is not normal. Perhaps now would be a good time to get out of here. You are still feeling funny from the magic and can swear you are being watched as you clamber up out of the dell. In fact, your feet are moving in a flurry, but it does not seem like you are getting anywhere. You definitely passed that big ass maple like five times already. You whirl around and brandish your sword. “Ok, what the fuck gives? Will the mysterious magic bitch or bastard please stand up?” “If you insist.” A mysterious magic bitch with bountiful breasts appears before you out of thin air wearing low-cut red robes. She reeks of magic and virility. “Listen, err, lady, my day’s been one odious load of shit, so unless you want me to wrap you up in the stink, I suggest you bugger off.” The woman’s lips curl into a seductive smirk. “Aren’t you curious as to whom I am, or what I am going to offer you?” “At this point, I really don’t give a damn.” “Perhaps you should.” “Perhaps you should suck my dick.” “If that is what you truly desire, that may be arranged. But for now, you will listen to my proposal like a good puppy.” The woman raises her hand, immobilizing your body with her magic. “Now then-“ > You spit in her face. Spitting isn’t exactly heroic, unless you’re a cowboy. Unfortunately for you, you are not a cowboy. You hack a glob of spittle onto the woman’s face. “I’ll cut your fucking heart out. Bitch.” “Interesting, I’d love to see you try.” The woman wipes your saliva from her face, as you remain helplessly immobilized. “Yes, that’s what I thought. Though I imagined you had a little more sense in you than that. You are not the vessel I am looking for. That is clear to me now. Still, I can use your corpse as a fine minion. And you gave me such a wonderful idea of how to kill you.” The mysterious magic bitch magics up a dagger and proceeds to cut out your heart, which she then consumes. You watch in horror as the last moments of your life fade away. Perhaps, antagonizing your captor was not the best of ideas. Sadly, you cannot even enjoy peace in death, as the mysterious magic bitch reanimates your corpse to do her bidding, trapping your soul within your decaying body. The tasks she orders you to perform are humiliating and degrading, but there is nothing you can do. You are hers, now and forever.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>When in doubt, flay ‘em like a trout. Swift as a cat hopped up on methamphetamines you draw your sword, spin around, and hack off Organa Mel Fy’s head. Magic may not be dope, but you sure are. What didn’t you know? Magic is a stimulating drug. That’s why even the best wizards are twitchy and half-cracked in the head. Shit’s addictive, man. Whoa, what the hell is going on? Organa Mel Fy’s body and freshly decapitated head melt into what appears to be water and seeps into the ground. That is not normal. Perhaps now would be a good time to get out of here. You are still feeling funny from the magic and can swear you are being watched as you clamber up out of the dell. In fact, your feet are moving in a flurry, but it does not seem like you are getting anywhere. You definitely passed that big ass maple like five times already. You whirl around and brandish your sword. “Ok, what the fuck gives? Will the mysterious magic bitch or bastard please stand up?” “If you insist.” A mysterious magic bitch with bountiful breasts appears before you out of thin air wearing low-cut red robes. She reeks of magic and virility. “Listen, err, lady, my day’s been one odious load of shit, so unless you want me to wrap you up in the stink, I suggest you bugger off.” The woman’s lips curl into a seductive smirk. “Aren’t you curious as to whom I am, or what I am going to offer you?” “At this point, I really don’t give a damn.” “Perhaps you should.” “Perhaps you should suck my dick.” “If that is what you truly desire, that may be arranged. But for now, you will listen to my proposal like a good puppy.” The woman raises her hand, immobilizing your body with her magic. “Now then-“ > You struggle to break the spell with sheer willpower. Ah, yes, the only thing more powerful than the human spirit is the spirit of a hero. You dig deep inside yourself, channeling your energy into an explosion of heroism. Eww, gross, it smells… sticky. “- hey wait, what are you doing?” shrieks the mysterious magic bitch as you take a step forward. She doubles her efforts to paralyze you, but you are fixated on your goal and nothing is going to stand in your way. You cock your arm and deliver a vicious left hook. Crack. “Foolish mortal,” she screams as blood dribbles down into her frock, “that was most unwise.” It really was, you think as you massage your broken hand against your thigh. Why didn’t I just hack off her head? Good question hero, how do you plan to kill her now with one arm and a broken hand? I dunno, but it was worth it. The blood glistens gorgeously on her bosom. Maybe. If you are into that kind of stuff. But the time for internal dialogue and wall shattering is over, you have a situation here. The mysterious magic bitch hurls a poorly aimed fireball in your direction. “I bet you don’t even have it in you to kill a woman!” “Didn’t I just kill that water creature thingy? What was her name, Morgan Le Fay?” “Organa Mel Fy, you fool!” The mysterious magic bitch hurls another fireball, but once again, her aim is so dreadful you do not even have to dodge. “Oh, whatever.” “Did you really think that half-witted harpy was the real Organa Mel Fy, sorceress supreme?” “Kind of.” “Well she wasn’t! I am!” Organa Mel Fy whips up a magic firestorm, igniting the forest in a blaze of light and charred forest critters. You have to respect her strategy. When you cannot hit the broad side of a barn, just fire a broadside and blow everything to hell. “I could have given you power beyond your wildest dreams! Sex the likes of which you have never known possible! We could have ruled the world together and ascended into the divine! Now DIE!” Flames lick at you from all angles while smoldering branches and roasted birds tumble around you. Your stomach rumbles and mouth waters. Too bad you do not have time for a snack; a nice greasy roasted duck would really hit the spot right about now. One problem at a time though. You think you see a small avenue of escape, but you will have to bolt for it now. Of course, running away admits defeat. > You fight I didn’t know you were courting Death. I’m not. What the hell are you talking about? Oh dear, this is awkward. What!? I just assumed you had a date with Death, how else to explain such an absolute act of pure, unadulterated retardation. Crashing through the inferno, you barrel toward Organa Mel Fy as the flames sear your skin. One armed and broken handed, I’m certain the fight would have been worthy to watch. Sadly, you collapse before you close even half the gap where the dancing fires consume your corpse. It is a shame really. You came so close to discovering Organa Mel Fy’s secret. I actually thought you were going to make it. Instead, Organa Mel Fy did the world a service by culling a hero that just wasn’t cut out for the job.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Ah, yes, the only thing more powerful than the human spirit is the spirit of a hero. You dig deep inside yourself, channeling your energy into an explosion of heroism. Eww, gross, it smells… sticky. “- hey wait, what are you doing?” shrieks the mysterious magic bitch as you take a step forward. She doubles her efforts to paralyze you, but you are fixated on your goal and nothing is going to stand in your way. You cock your arm and deliver a vicious left hook. Crack. “Foolish mortal,” she screams as blood dribbles down into her frock, “that was most unwise.” It really was, you think as you massage your broken hand against your thigh. Why didn’t I just hack off her head? Good question hero, how do you plan to kill her now with one arm and a broken hand? I dunno, but it was worth it. The blood glistens gorgeously on her bosom. Maybe. If you are into that kind of stuff. But the time for internal dialogue and wall shattering is over, you have a situation here. The mysterious magic bitch hurls a poorly aimed fireball in your direction. “I bet you don’t even have it in you to kill a woman!” “Didn’t I just kill that water creature thingy? What was her name, Morgan Le Fay?” “Organa Mel Fy, you fool!” The mysterious magic bitch hurls another fireball, but once again, her aim is so dreadful you do not even have to dodge. “Oh, whatever.” “Did you really think that half-witted harpy was the real Organa Mel Fy, sorceress supreme?” “Kind of.” “Well she wasn’t! I am!” Organa Mel Fy whips up a magic firestorm, igniting the forest in a blaze of light and charred forest critters. You have to respect her strategy. When you cannot hit the broad side of a barn, just fire a broadside and blow everything to hell. “I could have given you power beyond your wildest dreams! Sex the likes of which you have never known possible! We could have ruled the world together and ascended into the divine! Now DIE!” Flames lick at you from all angles while smoldering branches and roasted birds tumble around you. Your stomach rumbles and mouth waters. Too bad you do not have time for a snack; a nice greasy roasted duck would really hit the spot right about now. One problem at a time though. You think you see a small avenue of escape, but you will have to bolt for it now. Of course, running away admits defeat. > You flee Sometimes you have to lose the battle to win the war. You seize your opportunity to escape and disappear in the smoky haze. That crazy loon must have set half the forest on fire. Things cannot get much worse at least, right? A gale pummels you from behind and knocks you down. Coals soar through the air. The force of the wind uproots entire trees, filling the air with splintering missiles of fire and death. Shit just got worse. “Oh come on,” you mutter, “the bitch has to have some limit to her magic.” You stagger onto your feet and proceed to dodge the incredible amount of bullshit and debris flying through the air all the way back to Osprey’s ramshackle birdshit hut. Osprey and Jon are sitting on stumps around a bonfire drinking tea, completely ignoring the magic fire engulfing the forest. Osprey nudges Jon with his elbow. “See, I told ya he’d come back. They always come back.” “Never doubted you for a second Osprey. The boy is young. He’ll learn.” You throw up your arms in exasperation. “In case you two didn’t notice, we have a situation here.” “You heroes today, always in such a hurry.” Osprey bops you on the head with his staff. “Never taking any time to stop and smell the pteguonias.” Osprey takes a deep whiff. “Putrid.” “That’s your birdshit hut burning up.” Osprey’s eyebrows shoot up, nearly off his forehead. “Damnit, Organa, you’ve gone too far this time. Show yourself! It ends now!” Organa Mel Fy once again materializes out of thin air. She blasts an ice spike through Osprey’s heart without so much as a howdy-do. The cooky old hedge wizard voids his bowels and leaves this world once and for all. So much for getting a new arm. Jon draws his sword. This battle may rest entirely on his blade now because you certainly do not appear to be in any condition to help. “Heartless harpy,” he growls. Organa Mel Fy shrugs, which causes her bountiful breasts to bounce beautifully. “Well aren’t you a luscious lug. The world is a better place without the old fart stinking up half the forest. And I assure you, while I may be tart, I do have a heart. I know I just met you, and this may seem a tad crazy. But I’m ovulating, so would you like to make a baby?” “Well, I am a sucker for gingers.” “Power, sex, and divinity, we could have it all.” Jon lowers his sword. “That is tempting.” “Jon, what the hell!” You make a fist and drop to your knees in pain. Yep, still broke. Jon stares at you with puppy dog eyes. “But she’s a ginger! I love gingers. Besides, heroes aren’t supposed to hit girls let alone kill them. That’s villainy right there.” The man makes a strong argument. Are you really willing to begin the long dark descent down the path of debauchery and villainy just to stop one lone psychotic bitch with a magic addiction? Maybe it is not too late for you to get in on the action too. Organa Mel Fy does have a pretty sweet body and has a serious sexual appetite. There are probably some fantastic adventures awaiting the three of you in your potential sexcapades. > You grope Organa Mel Fy Something has been off about Organa Mel Fy ever since you first took a whiff of her presence. Eureka, that’s it! You just have to get close enough to check and make sure. “Organa, I think I made a terrible mistake. Just think of all the sexy good times the three of us could have.” “Hmmm, maybe.” Organa’s eyes fall to your junk, judging you. You saunter over to Organa Mel Fy, trying your best to look charming and horny. Yeah, she wants some of that. When you get in close, you shove your hand down her robes and clutch onto her naughty bits. Son of a peasant, you were right! “She’s packing heat Jon,” you shout as you simultaneously twist Organa Mel Fy’s genitals and headbutt her in the temple. “I knew I smelled the unmistakable musk of virility on you when we first met.” Jon gawks stupidly. “You mean Organa Mel Fy is a transsexual?” You mercilessly curb stomp Organa Mel Fy into the forest floor, not feeling the least bit bad about it. “Nope, she’s a hermaphrodite.” “Oh, wow. That could have got… kinky?” “Not the word I would have used, but you’re probably right.” “You’re still kind of beating up a woman you know.” “Eh, it’s got a penis. I think my hero’s soul is safe.” “You son of a whore!” Tears pour down Organa’s cheeks. “We could have achieved great things, the three of us, united as a triumvirate of power, glory, and sexual ecstasy.” This is true. Do you want to give all of that up? I know it requires a new perspective on life and an open mind, but that sounds interesting if nothing else. You could shatter boundaries and usher in a new age of sexual exploration and understanding. Then again, she does want to take over the known world, so it is not like she’s a nice lady… gentleman... person. Or is (s)he just misunderstood? > You heroes kill evil things. She's evil. You don’t make the rules; you just follow them. Canon dictates you kill all evil things that cross your path. Open-mindedness is not canon. Therefore, it must be evil. When was the last time you read a cliché story about two homoerotic knights swordfighting their way through the kingdom, never. A few curb stomps later, Organa Mel Fy is dead. Congratulations, you rid the world of a great evil. Jon shoots a passing red herring. Ain’t nobody got time for that. Jon slaps you on the back. “Well kid, turns out you had it in you to be a hero after all. You’ll earn a knighthood for this beautiful handiwork, no doubt. How do you feel?” “Dirty.” “Nothing a good bath won’t fix.” “So what happens next?” “Oh, I imagine you’ll have some titillating adventures over the years and wind up marrying a big bosomed princess with blond hair and blue eyes. She’ll give birth to a brood of little prince-lings and you’ll grow old in a nice big ass castle. Doubt you’ll ever get your arm fixed though. You proved today you don’t need it.” “That sounds fine by me.” “Amen. A cliché life is a happy life.”<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Something has been off about Organa Mel Fy ever since you first took a whiff of her presence. Eureka, that’s it! You just have to get close enough to check and make sure. “Organa, I think I made a terrible mistake. Just think of all the sexy good times the three of us could have.” “Hmmm, maybe.” Organa’s eyes fall to your junk, judging you. You saunter over to Organa Mel Fy, trying your best to look charming and horny. Yeah, she wants some of that. When you get in close, you shove your hand down her robes and clutch onto her naughty bits. Son of a peasant, you were right! “She’s packing heat Jon,” you shout as you simultaneously twist Organa Mel Fy’s genitals and headbutt her in the temple. “I knew I smelled the unmistakable musk of virility on you when we first met.” Jon gawks stupidly. “You mean Organa Mel Fy is a transsexual?” You mercilessly curb stomp Organa Mel Fy into the forest floor, not feeling the least bit bad about it. “Nope, she’s a hermaphrodite.” “Oh, wow. That could have got… kinky?” “Not the word I would have used, but you’re probably right.” “You’re still kind of beating up a woman you know.” “Eh, it’s got a penis. I think my hero’s soul is safe.” “You son of a whore!” Tears pour down Organa’s cheeks. “We could have achieved great things, the three of us, united as a triumvirate of power, glory, and sexual ecstasy.” This is true. Do you want to give all of that up? I know it requires a new perspective on life and an open mind, but that sounds interesting if nothing else. You could shatter boundaries and usher in a new age of sexual exploration and understanding. Then again, she does want to take over the known world, so it is not like she’s a nice lady… gentleman... person. Or is (s)he just misunderstood? > You heroes show compassion and understanding. With time and love, you are convinced that Organa Mel Fy can be converted into a peaceful member of society. Perhaps she will even redeem herself and become a hero. As much as you would like to tell yourself that your actions are purely heroic, deep down you know what you really wanted. Don’t worry, I won’t judge you. After all, you are at that age of sexual hyperactivity where the only thing on your mind is sex, and sex, and sex, and sex. You offer Organa Mel Fy an awkward hand of love and friendship, which she accepts, not that (s)he has much of a choice at this point. You, Jon and Organa Mel Fy consummate your union in the smoldering ruins of a once proud forest and Osprey’s birdshit hut. The sensations you experience are… unique. The divine overseer in the eternal heavens is rather displeased with your choice. Canon dictates Organa Mel Fy is evil and deserving of a gruesome death. You cannot just spit in the face of canon and expect to come out unharmed. Consequently, the titles of knight and hero are beyond your grasp. Naturally, you turn to a life of villainy in retaliation. and your unholy union is on the verge of kingdom-wide conquest and savagery. The bedroom antics are as fierce and wild as ever. Organa Mel Fy didn’t lie about the sexual ecstasy. It’s amazing what a little magic can do in the bedroom. By the screams, one would swear the dead are cumming. But kingdom-wide devastation is not all sex games. Castles lay in ruin, cities burn, and famine and plague ravage the land. You personally hunted down and rape murdered every last unicorn to prevent the birth of another hero who may one day end your reign of terror. Fortunately, villains always get their comeuppance in the end. One day while enjoying your depravity a rouge dragon from the nearby kingdom of Irelandshire flies overhead and roasts the three of you in a blast of dragonfire. The wyrm proceeds to eat you and utilize your energy as an aphrodisiac. The dragon is celebrated as a hero and he and his mate are pronounced king and queen of the kingdom. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Sometimes you have to lose the battle to win the war. You seize your opportunity to escape and disappear in the smoky haze. That crazy loon must have set half the forest on fire. Things cannot get much worse at least, right? A gale pummels you from behind and knocks you down. Coals soar through the air. The force of the wind uproots entire trees, filling the air with splintering missiles of fire and death. Shit just got worse. “Oh come on,” you mutter, “the bitch has to have some limit to her magic.” You stagger onto your feet and proceed to dodge the incredible amount of bullshit and debris flying through the air all the way back to Osprey’s ramshackle birdshit hut. Osprey and Jon are sitting on stumps around a bonfire drinking tea, completely ignoring the magic fire engulfing the forest. Osprey nudges Jon with his elbow. “See, I told ya he’d come back. They always come back.” “Never doubted you for a second Osprey. The boy is young. He’ll learn.” You throw up your arms in exasperation. “In case you two didn’t notice, we have a situation here.” “You heroes today, always in such a hurry.” Osprey bops you on the head with his staff. “Never taking any time to stop and smell the pteguonias.” Osprey takes a deep whiff. “Putrid.” “That’s your birdshit hut burning up.” Osprey’s eyebrows shoot up, nearly off his forehead. “Damnit, Organa, you’ve gone too far this time. Show yourself! It ends now!” Organa Mel Fy once again materializes out of thin air. She blasts an ice spike through Osprey’s heart without so much as a howdy-do. The cooky old hedge wizard voids his bowels and leaves this world once and for all. So much for getting a new arm. Jon draws his sword. This battle may rest entirely on his blade now because you certainly do not appear to be in any condition to help. “Heartless harpy,” he growls. Organa Mel Fy shrugs, which causes her bountiful breasts to bounce beautifully. “Well aren’t you a luscious lug. The world is a better place without the old fart stinking up half the forest. And I assure you, while I may be tart, I do have a heart. I know I just met you, and this may seem a tad crazy. But I’m ovulating, so would you like to make a baby?” “Well, I am a sucker for gingers.” “Power, sex, and divinity, we could have it all.” Jon lowers his sword. “That is tempting.” “Jon, what the hell!” You make a fist and drop to your knees in pain. Yep, still broke. Jon stares at you with puppy dog eyes. “But she’s a ginger! I love gingers. Besides, heroes aren’t supposed to hit girls let alone kill them. That’s villainy right there.” The man makes a strong argument. Are you really willing to begin the long dark descent down the path of debauchery and villainy just to stop one lone psychotic bitch with a magic addiction? Maybe it is not too late for you to get in on the action too. Organa Mel Fy does have a pretty sweet body and has a serious sexual appetite. There are probably some fantastic adventures awaiting the three of you in your potential sexcapades. > You villain Smillain, you're saving the day. “I don’t give a damn if she is a woman, I’m kicking her ass.” Jon sighs. “Fine, but you owe me a red-headed whore.” “Dude, Jon, man, you need therapy.” “No, I need a fire-crotch to melt the icy walls of my soul.” Organa Mel Fy claps her hands together. “What a wonderful idea. Ice and fire! And in song form.” She claps her hands once more, and a snowstorm blizzards into existence. Ice, fire, and steam clash together while small mutant dwarf elves dance and sing in circles. A song and storm of ice and fire, while we strum on our lyre. Hit the bong and throw ‘em in the fryer, while we drum by the funeral pyre. Dum dee dee dum dum dum dum ho, dum dee dee dum dum dum dum wo, Magic in the morning. Watch them suffer hear them scream, while we make love by the bubbling stream. Botch the murder we die as a team, while we fuck in a collective dream. Dum dee dee dum dum dum dum ho, dum dee dee dum dum dum dum wo, Magic in the morning. Drink blood red wine at a wedding on the river, hope we get to dine on someone’s liver. The bread is fine honey don’t you shiver, hope we bet on the cruelest sinner. Dum dee dee dum dum dum dum ho, dum dee dee dum dum dum dum wo, Magic in the morning. If you suckle too long on Organa’s teat, we hope you find an extra treat. We may chuckle ‘cause she’s packing heat, pray we don’t die for this beat. Dum dee dee dum dum dum dum ho, dum dee dee dum dum dum dum wo, Magic in the morning. You blink and rub your eyes. “Jon, I think I’m tripping. I inhaled a lot of smoke; there must be some wicked shrooms growing in the forest.” “Either that or the narrator isn’t even trying anymore.” A flaming chunk of ice crashes into the back of Jon’s skull. The poor bastard never saw it coming. He topples to the ground like a turd. You feel your emotions building up, too surreal to touch. They boil over and burst. You feel yourself nut, but it doesn’t matter it’s time to get rough. “Bam! Pow!” you shout. Organa Mel Fy cocks her head and gawks at you. “Uhm, excuse me?” “Those are the sound effects about to go off upside your head, bitch.” Bam. Pow. Your headbutt kick to the jaw combo work perfectly. Organa Mel Fy hits the ground, and the magical maladies plaguing the forest vanish. Tears well in her eyes as you end her miserable existence by stomping on her face. “Too bad so sad,” you say. “By choosing villainy over heroism you brought this on yourself.” With one final stomp, the light in Organa Mel Fy’s eyes go out, hopefully for good. You never know with these magic types. They come back like cockroaches or supposedly dead G.R.R.M characters. Just playing homie, we love you. Jon picks himself off the ground and massages the back of his head. “Eh, I’ve had worse.” You nod. “Good to hear.” Well congratulations my noble crippled hero. You killed the evil Organa Mel Fy. Now go find Jon a fire-crotch like you owe him.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The King looked out the window. He was hungry, and craving something new. But what? He'd already tried chicken, duck, goose, turkey, unicorn, lamb, leg of dragon (which had been quite filling), veal, griffon drumsticks, frog legs, and walrus (which the King did not care for at all). Suddenly, a flash of red outside the window caught his eye. A firebird! The King decided what he would like to have for lunch today... "William!" he bellows. "Yes, sir?" you reply. "Bring me a firebird!" > You yes, your Majesty "Yes, your Majesty," you answer, and scurry off to find the King's lunch. Of course, you're going to need some equipment to hunt with. You already have your trusty shortsword, but since the firebird is, well, a bird, it would be advisable to bring a bow and arrows as well. You could bring a regular bow, of average strength. The greatbow is more powerful, but you have fewer arrows for it. Either way, you have a limited amount of arrows, so whichever you choose, use them wisely. > The Regular Bow You choose to bring your regular bow. You take it and set off on your hunt.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Heyya all! Do you like this game yet? What? Yeah, I know the background story, fine....jeez, you don't have to ruin everything! Okay, here's the story. You are a completly normal kid, not destined to be great or anything... no-one in your family went missing, and you are a not on a mission to save the world... Bet you didn't expect that? This game isn't about some great warrior, prophecy thingy... It's just about a man on a journey. What? You actually wanted that old cliche? Fine I'll think of something while you...do what you do. Sorry for any spelling mistakes... my native language isn't english... The autocorrector says that I didn't even write "english" correctly... Also, this is my first time using the advanced editor...yeah... > The REAL start Age 7 Old doors slowly open, with sunlight slowly creepin' it's way in the cabin. You quickly exit and see the whole village up on it's feet. on one side, people are collecting wood for the upcoming winter. On the other you see miners happily exiting the mines. From the moment your dad told you the stories of his adventures, you wanted to Learn how to fight, and beat the forces of darkness (that will of course not happen). There is a stick lying on the ground...if you're going to become a great warrior (and you're not), it's time to start practicing.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Amidst a calm and lazy day, In earliest of spring, The lull is interrupted by A sudden clamoring. A knocking dins upon your door And calls you from your rest. Uneagerly, you open it, And find many a guest. A crowd of townsfolk gathers ’round, Their faces of dismay. This can’t be good. Whatever could Bring them to you this day? “A dragon!” many of them cry. “A large and deadly beast Has made its lair not far, within The forest to the east!” “It must be slain!” the farmer shouts, “Or it’ll torch our crops, Or make us all into its slaves, Or gobble up our stock!” “I hear they kidnap children,” Says the baker, babe in tow. “We cannot have this beast about. Yes, hunter, you must go!” The crowd grows hushed with bated breath For what you have to say. You pause to think, then heave a sigh And answer with: > You say "Okay." You nod and say, “I’ll do it then; I’ll go and slay the thing. Rest easy, all, for I’ll make sure Our doom it shall not bring.” The crowd’s relief is palpable; A many of them cheer And offer you their heartfelt thanks, Enthusiasm clear. You step inside to find your sword And pull it from its pell, Then march to-ward the forest path Where you are bid farewell. The butcher pats you on the back, Saying, “take care!” in shout. “This ain’t no easy pickin’s, but I know that you’ve the clout! “We’re countin’ on you, kid, y’hear! Go on and make us proud!” Then nods to you in confidence And reenters the crowd. You know by now you’ve surely passed The point of turning back. You head into the forest, then, A dragon now to track. The forest’s shade grows thicker as You leave the town behind And travel ever deeper with The scaly beast in mind. It takes an hour—maybe two— Of fruitless searching, ’til Your senses pick up something off; A sign of omen ill. A rustling, or a metal sound, As far as you can tell. More troubling still, a pungent stench, But what of does it smell? > You blood The air is ripe with tangs of blood, Its patent, potent bite. And as you pass the undergrowth, You spy a gruesome sight. A corpse, unrecognizable, A mess of fur and flesh, Arrays the earth in pieces torn, Soaked through with cruor fresh. The thing was riven just like that? So easily ’twas maimed? There’s no denying such a beast Could rend a man the same. Amidst the shambles, there it lies Not fifteen feet away. A dragon, dwarfing you in size; The culprit, and your prey. The crimson beast sits oddly still, Its body wrapped in chains, Its nostrils smoking, posture lax, Its head held down in shame. Your presence snaps it from this trance, Perhaps your movement heard. It cranes its neck to face you, yet It still says not a word. It watches all the while you step As closely as you dare, And holds you tightly in its gaze, A never-blinking stare. > You say "What has happened here?" The beast’s a little different from The notion that you had. You had assumed it fearsome, but Instead it seems more... sad? Seeing no harm in asking, then, These are the words you speak: “What’s happened, dragon, to you here To bid you act so bleak?” The dragon turns its head and sighs. “I’m such a foolish drake. Embarrassing to say it, but I’ve made a grave mistake. “While hunting for my little ones, A gleam had caught my eye. The ruins of a cart, wherein A tiny jewel lie. “And so I thought to make it mine And grabbed the shining scrap. I’d figured it a pretty gem, But no. It was a trap. “Chains suddenly surrounded me And drug me to the ground. Flightless, I couldn’t do a thing Except hope to be found. “My hatchlings must be worried sick About where I could be. I beg you, human, break these chains; I need to be set free!”<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The air is ripe with tangs of blood, Its patent, potent bite. And as you pass the undergrowth, You spy a gruesome sight. A corpse, unrecognizable, A mess of fur and flesh, Arrays the earth in pieces torn, Soaked through with cruor fresh. The thing was riven just like that? So easily ’twas maimed? There’s no denying such a beast Could rend a man the same. Amidst the shambles, there it lies Not fifteen feet away. A dragon, dwarfing you in size; The culprit, and your prey. The crimson beast sits oddly still, Its body wrapped in chains, Its nostrils smoking, posture lax, Its head held down in shame. Your presence snaps it from this trance, Perhaps your movement heard. It cranes its neck to face you, yet It still says not a word. It watches all the while you step As closely as you dare, And holds you tightly in its gaze, A never-blinking stare. > You say "Foul beast..." You draw your sword and point it toward Its now contracting glare. “Foul beast,” you boast, “you wingèd snake, A fool to fly your lair.” “You seek to make this your domain, And terrorize my town, But you’ve misjudged severely, beast; I’ll not let that go down. “This forest here shall be your grave; Your plots will prove miscast. Impart your prayers, O dragon, for You soon shall breathe your last!” The dragon huffs. “Oh, save the shtick,” It says in bold retort. “I’m hunting for my hatchlings, ‘ser’, Not dominance or sport. “Free me, and I’ll be on my way; There’s no need to compete. I’d like to see my little ones, And they’d just like to eat.” > You say "Free you how?" “Supposing I’m inclined to help, How would I, then?” you ask. “If you yourself can’t break those chains, ’Tmust be no simple task.” The dragon shakes its head and says, “That simply isn’t true. A spell on them’s what keeps me bound; It doesn’t affect you. “If you would only hack at them I’m sure that you’d break through That thing you thrust before my face, The sword, would prob’ly do.” It motions at the blade you wield And beckons you to near, A pleading credence in its eye, At least, so it appears. > You slay the dragon You look upon the beast and know Your intentions unlike. The dragon’s far too trusting; it’s The perfect time to strike. You near it swiftly with your sword, And more ready than not, You charge its underbelly, oft A dragon’s weakest spot. The dragon, though, seems to have been Expecting your assails, And dodges, leaning sideways, so The sword just strikes its scales. The dragon scoffs, “Did I not ask That you just break the chains?” And shifts to a protective stance. “Do not try that again. “I won’t go down so easily; Your foray’s of no use. I ask that you free me once more. I swear you’ve naught to lose.” > You free the dragon Ultimately, the dragon shows No malice, you decide. You take your sword and swing it toward Its spellbound chains in stride. The link you strike lets off a spark And with a crack, splits twain. And choosing a few other ones, You do to them the same. The chains’ integrity collapsed, They now begin to slack, And with metallic clamoring, They slide off from its back. The dragon heaves a heavy groan, Free from the magic’s clings, And stands itself upright and tall, And stretches out its wings. > You say "Farewell." It’s clear the beast’s no vile fiend, As hearsay might have sung, But a being much more benign, That dotes upon its young. Given it isn’t much a threat, As far as you can tell, You give the beast a little nod And say to it, “farewell.” The dragon bows its head and says, “You have my gratitude. I hope you will excuse me now; My hatchlings need their food. “I promise I shall never seek To bring you harm, my friend. I wish you safest travels back, And thank you once again!” The dragon flaps its wings and flies, Returning to its home. You wave it on, and once it’s gone, You find yourself alone. You trek back home, knowing you will Arrive with empty hands. At this point you can only hope The village understands.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Ultimately, the dragon shows No malice, you decide. You take your sword and swing it toward Its spellbound chains in stride. The link you strike lets off a spark And with a crack, splits twain. And choosing a few other ones, You do to them the same. The chains’ integrity collapsed, They now begin to slack, And with metallic clamoring, They slide off from its back. The dragon heaves a heavy groan, Free from the magic’s clings, And stands itself upright and tall, And stretches out its wings. > You say "Now let us fight!" You take the opportunity To hold your sword upright And take a stance, declaring then, “Now, dragon, let us fight!” Draconic laughter fills the air. “You wish to fight again, After a try to make it fair, By cutting off my chains?” It leans forth just to whisper, “no,” A disdainful behest, And then it turns and whips its tail Directly toward your chest. It knocks the wind straight out of you And sends you off your feet. With this, the beast departs and crows, “I’m glad we got to meet!” You sit upon the forest floor, Wearisome and remiss. Your mission scorned, success forlorn, How will you explain this?<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You look upon the beast and know Your intentions unlike. The dragon’s far too trusting; it’s The perfect time to strike. You near it swiftly with your sword, And more ready than not, You charge its underbelly, oft A dragon’s weakest spot. The dragon, though, seems to have been Expecting your assails, And dodges, leaning sideways, so The sword just strikes its scales. The dragon scoffs, “Did I not ask That you just break the chains?” And shifts to a protective stance. “Do not try that again. “I won’t go down so easily; Your foray’s of no use. I ask that you free me once more. I swear you’ve naught to lose.” > You leave The dragon’s difficult to slay, Though bound in charmèd weft. You get to thinking that it might Behoove you if you left. You turn around and start to leave, Provocatively slow. The beast is covered in those chains; It’s got nowhere to go. The dragon’s reaches out its claws, And through the soil they sieve. Its smoky breath pours hissing out; “Human, how dare you leave! “Don’t walk away!” you hear it say, And spew out fire bright. You carry on, and soon it’s gone From earshot and from sight. The question now is what to tell The town when you arrive. To either lie and say it’s died, Or bound but still alive? > You lie It’s better just to weave a tale— To let the people think The dragon dead, although instead It’s bound still in its links. Your shoes, speckled with blood and soot, Should aid you in your bluff. It proves you met the dragon, right? So that should be enough. You hike along to-ward your home, Complacent as you go. You didn’t slay the dragon, but They never need to know!<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The dragon’s difficult to slay, Though bound in charmèd weft. You get to thinking that it might Behoove you if you left. You turn around and start to leave, Provocatively slow. The beast is covered in those chains; It’s got nowhere to go. The dragon’s reaches out its claws, And through the soil they sieve. Its smoky breath pours hissing out; “Human, how dare you leave! “Don’t walk away!” you hear it say, And spew out fire bright. You carry on, and soon it’s gone From earshot and from sight. The question now is what to tell The town when you arrive. To either lie and say it’s died, Or bound but still alive? > You truth Returning to the villagers, You get yourself explained, Speaking of where you found the beast, And how it’s still there, chained. The reaction’s immediate; They go and form a mob, Amass what weapons they can find, And set out on this job. Hell-bent, they march and march their feet Upon the forest ground, And finally they reach their goal The dragon, as yet bound. They cry out “kill it!” and “attack!” And other some such shouts, And set upon the dragon, then, Intent to take it out. Their weapons pierce beneath its scales, Its armor thusly doffed. It writhes and howls in agony, Unfit to fight them off. The dragon falls, then, to the earth, Its eyes mortally blear, Blood oozing from its body, still. The villagers all cheer! In merriment they chant galore, Some speckled yet with red. What fun it is to laugh and sing Now that the beast is dead!<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You draw your sword and point it toward Its now contracting glare. “Foul beast,” you boast, “you wingèd snake, A fool to fly your lair.” “You seek to make this your domain, And terrorize my town, But you’ve misjudged severely, beast; I’ll not let that go down. “This forest here shall be your grave; Your plots will prove miscast. Impart your prayers, O dragon, for You soon shall breathe your last!” The dragon huffs. “Oh, save the shtick,” It says in bold retort. “I’m hunting for my hatchlings, ‘ser’, Not dominance or sport. “Free me, and I’ll be on my way; There’s no need to compete. I’d like to see my little ones, And they’d just like to eat.” > You say "I must slay you." “It matters not what tale you weave; I cannot shirk my quest, My mission most imperative, The villagers’ behest. “They came to me with grave concern Of an approaching bane, And sent me off to seek you out And make sure you are slain.” It shakes its head in disbelief. “I’ve said I mean no wrong. What more must I reveal until We lastly get along?” You say, “you needn’t speak a word; I’ve heard of dragons ere, Marauders, wicked, wingèd beasts That set our towns aflare; “Reptiles that speak with forkèd tongues, Whose wings blot out the sun, Make humans into chattel, slaves, And do it all for fun.” “How speciesist,” the dragon snorts. “I’m nothing of the sort. You think I lie and ravage and Seek humans to extort? “I hope you reconsider this; Your reasoning’s absurd. Nobody needs to die today, Much less on racist word. “I beg that you remove these chains, For my young if not me. Presume me cruel, but know that they Would never harm a flea.” > You slay the dragon You scorn the dragon’s hollow plea, Its words that reek of sin. The only action feasible Is do the dragon in. You heft your blade within your palm, And more ready than not, You charge its underbelly, the Most vulnerable spot. The dragon, though, seems to have been Expecting your assails, And moves o’er with a modest lean. The sword just strikes its scales. It bounces off; the dragon scoffs, “So that’s your answer, then?” And shifts to a protective stance. “Do not try that again.” > You slay the dragon! As though you’d e’er allow that beast To tell you what to do! You know you can’t give up just yet. This time you’ll run it through. You stretch your shoulders, flex your wrists, Undaunted in your sleight, And raise the sword up high once more, And swing with all your might. You strike a scale so hard it cracks, Your show of power apt. But something’s also gone awry. The chains, it seems they’ve snapped. The dragon then extends its arms, Its hind legs, and its flanks. It heaves a long and heavy groan And, huskily, says, “thanks.” It flashes you a toothy grin Of cocky, pompous mirth, And as it stands and spreads its wings, Its chains whip to the earth. It spews a prideful bout of flame, So glad to be unbound, And leaps up through its trail of smoke, And hovers o’er the ground. > You sLAY THE DRAGON! You hold the blade firm in your grip, And toward the beast you lance, Knowing full well that this could be Your one and final chance. The dragon dodges easily, Having seen through your plans, And with an agile blow, it cuffs The weapon from your hands. “I might have been amused,” it says, Completely thrill-devoid. “But now this act is overused, And I’m a bit annoyed. “Don’t worry, though; I’d never let Your honor go to waste. You’ll get a proper hero’s death. Now, let’s see how you taste!” It opens up its drooling maw And hoists you from the ground, And though you struggle, it’s no use. It swallows you right down. The dragon pats its stomach thrice And heaves a sigh of glee, At last unchained, and also gained A tasty meal for free! It lumbers home, as yet unsure If satisfied with you, And thinks, perhaps a visit to Those villagers is due?<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>As though you’d e’er allow that beast To tell you what to do! You know you can’t give up just yet. This time you’ll run it through. You stretch your shoulders, flex your wrists, Undaunted in your sleight, And raise the sword up high once more, And swing with all your might. You strike a scale so hard it cracks, Your show of power apt. But something’s also gone awry. The chains, it seems they’ve snapped. The dragon then extends its arms, Its hind legs, and its flanks. It heaves a long and heavy groan And, huskily, says, “thanks.” It flashes you a toothy grin Of cocky, pompous mirth, And as it stands and spreads its wings, Its chains whip to the earth. It spews a prideful bout of flame, So glad to be unbound, And leaps up through its trail of smoke, And hovers o’er the ground. > You rUN! It turns out dueling dragons when They’re airborne isn’t fun. You take the path most logical And turn around and run. The dragon’s laughter booms behind, But you don’t really care. Whatever jeers it throws your way, You remain unaware. You run ’til you can run no more, The beast now out of view, And breathe exhaustion and relief. It isn’t after you. You wipe the sweat from off your brow, Not feeling quite your best, And pick yourself up off the ground And bumble onward west. The villagers might not be pleased When lastly you arrive... At least it didn’t follow you! At least you’re still alive!<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You scorn the dragon’s hollow plea, Its words that reek of sin. The only action feasible Is do the dragon in. You heft your blade within your palm, And more ready than not, You charge its underbelly, the Most vulnerable spot. The dragon, though, seems to have been Expecting your assails, And moves o’er with a modest lean. The sword just strikes its scales. It bounces off; the dragon scoffs, “So that’s your answer, then?” And shifts to a protective stance. “Do not try that again.” > You leave The dragon’s being difficult, Though bound in metal weft. You get to thinking that it might Behoove you if you left. You turn around and start to leave, Provocatively slow. The beast is covered in those chains; It’s got nowhere to go. The dragon’s reaches out its claws, And through the soil they sieve. Its smoky breath pours hissing out; “Human, how dare you leave! “Don’t walk away!” you hear it say, And spew out fire bright. You carry on, and soon it’s gone From earshot and from sight. The question now is what to tell The town when you arrive. To either lie and say it’s died, Or bound but still alive?<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>“It matters not what tale you weave; I cannot shirk my quest, My mission most imperative, The villagers’ behest. “They came to me with grave concern Of an approaching bane, And sent me off to seek you out And make sure you are slain.” It shakes its head in disbelief. “I’ve said I mean no wrong. What more must I reveal until We lastly get along?” You say, “you needn’t speak a word; I’ve heard of dragons ere, Marauders, wicked, wingèd beasts That set our towns aflare; “Reptiles that speak with forkèd tongues, Whose wings blot out the sun, Make humans into chattel, slaves, And do it all for fun.” “How speciesist,” the dragon snorts. “I’m nothing of the sort. You think I lie and ravage and Seek humans to extort? “I hope you reconsider this; Your reasoning’s absurd. Nobody needs to die today, Much less on racist word. “I beg that you remove these chains, For my young if not me. Presume me cruel, but know that they Would never harm a flea.” > You say "Remove them how?" You take some time to think it out, And tighten up your fist, Then turn your head away and say, “Suppose I did assist. “How would I go about it, then? As far as I can tell, If I could break them easily, Then couldn’t you as well?” The dragon shakes its head and says, “Not all is as it seems. The spell on them that keeps me bound— It only affects me. “If you would only hack at them I’m sure that you’d break through. That thing you thrust before my face, The sword, would prob’ly do.” It motions at the blade you wield And beckons you to near, A desp’rate glimmer in its eye, At least, so it appears.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The air is ripe with tangs of blood, Its patent, potent bite. And as you pass the undergrowth, You spy a gruesome sight. A corpse, unrecognizable, A mess of fur and flesh, Arrays the earth in pieces torn, Soaked through with cruor fresh. The thing was riven just like that? So easily ’twas maimed? There’s no denying such a beast Could rend a man the same. Amidst the shambles, there it lies Not fifteen feet away. A dragon, dwarfing you in size; The culprit, and your prey. The crimson beast sits oddly still, Its body wrapped in chains, Its nostrils smoking, posture lax, Its head held down in shame. Your presence snaps it from this trance, Perhaps your movement heard. It cranes its neck to face you, yet It still says not a word. It watches all the while you step As closely as you dare, And holds you tightly in its gaze, A never-blinking stare. > You keep staring You stare the dragon down in turn, Its eyes a vivid green, And quelling, too, you quickly learn; Enticing and serene. Within them, shapes appear to swirl, Their smaragd hues astir, Spellbinding in their spiraling, And all else seems to blur. It isn’t long you realize that You can’t, try as you may, Command yourself to move at all Nor likewise look away. The dragon slowly cracks a smile, An amiable grin, While pleasant, implications vile As it yet draws you in. Your focus unable to drift, Your senses oddly numb, The dragon beckons you and says, In utmost clearness, “come.” > You say "Yes, master." You mutter affirmation as You shamble to its side. Your struggles to oppose are vain; The dragon is your guide. You do as it directs you to, And draw your sabre out, And slice the beast’s metallic binds That twine it all about. The chains undone, you tug them from Your overseer’s frame. It stretches out its body proud, Its freedom now reclaimed. The dragon says, “good human,” while Its claws ruffle your hair, Its would-be patronizing tone Yet comforting and fair. And while you sport a vacant grin, Indulging in its praise, It turns and spreads its scaly wings To leave you in your daze. It leaps itself into the air And as it flies away, “Farewell,” it laughs, “I pray our paths Shall cross again someday!” You turn around to leave as well, But something’s àwry, though. Your job is done... isn’t it? Oh... ...Where did the dragon go?<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You stare the dragon down in turn, Its eyes a vivid green, And quelling, too, you quickly learn; Enticing and serene. Within them, shapes appear to swirl, Their smaragd hues astir, Spellbinding in their spiraling, And all else seems to blur. It isn’t long you realize that You can’t, try as you may, Command yourself to move at all Nor likewise look away. The dragon slowly cracks a smile, An amiable grin, While pleasant, implications vile As it yet draws you in. Your focus unable to drift, Your senses oddly numb, The dragon beckons you and says, In utmost clearness, “come.” > You resist The dragon’s call compels you, yet You know you must refuse. You stumble back as oft you can, Feet struggling to move. The dragon cocks its head and says, “You’re trying to resist? Whyever still? I mean no ill. Come closer. I insist. “Look deep into my emerald eyes And listen to my words. And as they echo through your mind, Let all your will disperse.” Its drawling voice assails your ears And creeps along your skin— A venom, sickeningly sweet, That begs to be let in. You struggle still to fight its will And then, oh, finally, You feel its concentration slip. Its hold on you breaks free! You waste no time in turning ’round, And break into a run. The dragon roars, “return at once! Come back! I wasn’t done!” You run ’til you can run no more, The beast gone from your sight, Your stomach short of vomiting, Your thoughts still not quite right. You’re meant to fight a thing like that, And slay it all alone? Forget it, you’ve the mind to think, And bumble onward home.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You nod and say, “I’ll do it then; I’ll go and slay the thing. Rest easy, all, for I’ll make sure Our doom it shall not bring.” The crowd’s relief is palpable; A many of them cheer And offer you their heartfelt thanks, Enthusiasm clear. You step inside to find your sword And pull it from its pell, Then march to-ward the forest path Where you are bid farewell. The butcher pats you on the back, Saying, “take care!” in shout. “This ain’t no easy pickin’s, but I know that you’ve the clout! “We’re countin’ on you, kid, y’hear! Go on and make us proud!” Then nods to you in confidence And reenters the crowd. You know by now you’ve surely passed The point of turning back. You head into the forest, then, A dragon now to track. The forest’s shade grows thicker as You leave the town behind And travel ever deeper with The scaly beast in mind. It takes an hour—maybe two— Of fruitless searching, ’til Your senses pick up something off; A sign of omen ill. A rustling, or a metal sound, As far as you can tell. More troubling still, a pungent stench, But what of does it smell? > You fire The air is thick with smoke and ash That swirls about the light. And as you pass the undergrowth, You spy a dreary sight. A radius of grass and trees, Once vibrant, burnt to char, Stands ’fore you ineludible, A blackened, smoking scar. A monster’s will can mar a wood So easily in flame? There’s no denying such a beast Could raze a town the same. Amidst the shambles, there it lies Not fifteen feet away. A dragon, dwarfing you in size; The culprit, and your prey. The crimson beast sits oddly still, Its body wrapped in chains, Its nostrils smoking, posture lax, Its head held down in shame. Your presence snaps it from this trance, Perhaps your movement heard. It cranes its neck to face you, yet It still says not a word. It watches all the while you step As closely as you dare, And holds you tightly in its gaze, A never-blinking stare.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Amidst a calm and lazy day, In earliest of spring, The lull is interrupted by A sudden clamoring. A knocking dins upon your door And calls you from your rest. Uneagerly, you open it, And find many a guest. A crowd of townsfolk gathers ’round, Their faces of dismay. This can’t be good. Whatever could Bring them to you this day? “A dragon!” many of them cry. “A large and deadly beast Has made its lair not far, within The forest to the east!” “It must be slain!” the farmer shouts, “Or it’ll torch our crops, Or make us all into its slaves, Or gobble up our stock!” “I hear they kidnap children,” Says the baker, babe in tow. “We cannot have this beast about. Yes, hunter, you must go!” The crowd grows hushed with bated breath For what you have to say. You pause to think, then heave a sigh And answer with: > You say "No way." “Oh no... no way,” you slowly say, And softly shake your head. “A hunter I may be, but still, You want a dragon dead? “That neither sounds my busìness Nor in my line of trade. What say that we discuss this more And get a verdict made?” It’s clear soon as the silence breaks That your plan’s been impeached. They set upon you, obdurate, Verdict already reached. Some tug upon your arms, your shirt; Some tug upon your sleeves. All drag you to the forest path And beckon you to leave. The butcher steps inside your home To go and fetch your blade, Then drops it in your hands and laughs. “Now get that lizard slayed! “I’m truly sorry it was you, But I know you’ve the gall. You come back with its head, y’hear, Else don’t come back at all!” Expectant glares burn in your back. It’s clear you’ve little say. You head into the forest, then. Dear gods, oh what a day. The forest’s shade grows thicker as You leave the town behind And travel ever deeper with The scaly beast in mind. It takes an hour—maybe two— Of fruitless searching, ’til Your senses pick up something off; A sign of omen ill. A rustling, or a metal sound, As far as you can tell. More troubling still, a pungent stench, But what of does it smell?<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Alright, let me, ramerman/author, start this one with a few words. If you're reading this and haven't played the first part of Overthrown (which is really stupid), then I order you to read that one first. The story won't make any sense at all if you don't read the first one. And, like the first one, this won't be a game but more of a story. I try to make these stories so even if you know nothing about Greek Mythology, which this story is based on, you can still have fun with this. Please rate and comment about the positive and negative things you find after reading the story, so I could create a better part 3! Part 2 is a little bit inclined towards choosing your own decisions. In the first part you would choose a decision and it wouldn't make much difference, and I tried to change that here in part 2. Though the story is still linear, with only one ending, the choices you make would affect the story more. Because of this, you might want to replay the story because you might miss out on awesome battles! Again, please tell me what you think! So, without further ado, I present to you, Overthrown Part 2: A World Without a King. > You to Tartarus The winds felt good as they crash on my face. From someone else's sight, my body would've looked like a meteor hurtling towards the ocean. About six months ago, I was just a confused mortal. I didn't even know the purpose in my existance much less how to save mortal lives that are important to me. Now, I'm not a mere mortal anymore. I'm a God. I'm Gaius, the unknown God. My own father, Zeus, granted me powers in unheard of portions so that I was able to kill his enemies for him. Now, I know nothing else and follow nothing else except one purpose for my life: to avenge my mother, my home, and kill my father Zeus, Lord of the Skies and King of the Gods. He has given me everything that I wanted and has taken from me everything that I had. With all the power in the world and nothing else left for you, what would you have done? I spent a full month recovering from my battle with Typhon before setting off on my current journey. During those times, I wondered how to kill a God, possibly the most powerful God out of them all. I found the answer, hence my current descent towards the earth at inhuman speeds. I hardly felt the opposite force when my falling body hit the salty waters in the ocean. Though a normal human would've died in the collision, my speed didn't even slow down after the impact. As I went deeper, the colors of the water turned to a darker shade of blue until I can hardly see anything. Then, after minutes of blind descent, I swam through black waters, through nothing. Though blind by the darkness of the deep, I felt the ground below me and slowed down my speed. Where I'm at is not underwater at all; it's like an entirely new place. I stood on a dark surface of a rock floor. In front of me loomed a dark hole on the ground. The hole was an even darker shade of black which permitted my eyes to see it even when one wouldn't expect anything to be darker than its immediate surroundings. In front of me was the bottomless pit of Tartarus. > You what are you waiting for? Dive right in! Tartarus was dark. Even with my newfound powers, I actually felt a little hesitant "swimming" through it. Now, to be more precise, Tartarus is not like land on earth nor water in the ocean. In this place, darkness is an actual thing you can touch, like swimming through something solid. I feel the power that is so old and so ancient, I shuddered to think who or what could be the source of it. Here it comes, I'm losing it. Everyone, even the Gods, are afraid to even set foot in Tartarus because it's basically the Prison of the Gods. This is the place where the most powerful and the most evil villains in Greek history are kept. I knew one wrong move and it wouldn't even matter if I'm a God. . . I will die. I concentrated. I thought of my mother, dying in my arms. I thought of King Percix, whose body probably disintegrated along with the others in my village. I thought of the moment I told Zeus that I accept whatever sacrifice he asks. I collected all my anger and all my fear, and used it to create a wall of thirst and determination in my mind. With it, I was able to push through. With eyes closed, I swam through, knowing that opening them wouldn't even matter. I concentrated on one name inside my head, the one name that I was seeking for in the first place. That's when I felt a pulling force leading me towards a place with dim light. I followed the force, obediently, and I hated every second of it. Here I am, with almost unlimited powers, and yet I'm still not the one in control. My eyes had to adjust to the weak light that swallowed up the darkness. When my vision cleared, I was standing at a prison cell. There are no source of light anywhere. The pale light comes from the bronze walls that enclosed the cell. Looking up, I found out that the ceiling is too high to be seen. There's nothing else in the room except for the chained figure in front of me. With chains as thick as a whale's body, a giant, hunched-over humanoid figure stood in front of me. I've met Gods before, and this one was only slightly different. His presence sends out an old aura; an aura that was probably as ancient as the creation of the world. I tried to unsheathe my sword, which slung sheathed along my back, but I was forced to stop. A force was preventing me from moving. It was like time was being controlled to do someone's bidding. After some struggles, I came to find out that the force is not as solid as one would think. Imagine a group of men trying to hold your body down instead of invisible chains totally binding you from moving. You can fight the force, the changing with the time. I wasn't as nearly surprised because it would make sense. The whole time magic thing is a signature by none other than the legendary Titan Kronos, the Lord of Time. > You ask THE question, aggressively I flexed my muscles and felt the force break around me like glass shattering. In one fluid motion, my sword was pointed at Kronos. "You will answer my question, Kronos, or suffer the same fate as your brother, Typhon," I said staring at Kronos intently and studying him, in case I had no choice but to beat the answer out of him. He looked pathetic compared to Typhon. I would guess it's because Kronos was supposedly dismembered before being locked away here in Tartarus. I came to Tartarus to seek the help of Kronos on how to defeat the Gods. Who else would know more than Zeus's own father about killing his own son; the son who overthrew his own father to become the King of the World, sliced him to pieces, and locked him up here. I figured I have a good chance with completing this task easily because Zeus and Kronos's relationship is as good as me and my own father's. "How can I defeat your son, Zeus?" I asked. The figure didn't move a muscle. > You slash him with your sword I didn't expect the situation to turn out like this but I had no choice. As fast as a lightning bolt, I climbed up Krono's body, slashing at every bit of flesh that wasn't already covered in wounds. I hacked and slashed, down his legs, then up his shoulder, waiting for a response from him. Within minutes, Ichor, the golden blood of immortals, glistened and gushed out of all the wounds that scattered across Kronos's body. Though there was still no movement that escaped from the titan, I sensed a faint sound that is coming out of his lips. A low whimper. The powerful titan is quietly crying in pain. I almost felt bad but suddenly the low whimper turned to a loud, vicious growl. "Curse you, son of Zeus! You have successfully killed my brother and now you're here adding to my endless torment," Kronos said, with voice that probably sounded really horrifying before but is now reduced to nothing short of a weakened moan. All the pity that I felt for the titan turned to disgust and embarassment. "I can't believe Zeus has broken you!" I scolded, "In the old stories, you would device ingenious plans to try and get revenge from your son. Now, I'm here asking for your aid so that I can defeat that very same son and you do nothing but cry and whine." I ended my speech with a quick stab at his leg. Kronos howled in pain. I felt the same forces that I felt earlier trying to disable my movements again, but I broke through them like they're nothing. I concentrated then shot a powerful lightning bolt from my fingers which hit the titan square in the chest. This was the last that he would take from me. "Stop this madness! I'll tell you what you need to know," Kronos pleaded, "Just stop hurting me!" I obeyed and stopped, waiting for the answer I've been longing for. "Consider yourself lucky that these chains bind me and weaken my powers. If it weren't for them, you would be dead right now," Kronos sighed. For a moment, I felt curious and somewhat tempted to release him from his shackles. Surely, he couldn't be more powerful than Typhon and I handled Typhon easily. Then, I imagined the time control ability he had and blew it up ten times stronger. I saw myself standing like a statue while Kronos prepared to strike; his ability could give him a little edge when he's unleashed. I striked him again, with a sinister smile on my face. "Do not speak unless you speak of the answer I want. Refuse to tell me the answer and I would cut off your tounge so you will never speak again," I said. Gritting his teeth, he said, "There's a very rare creature called the Ophiotaurus. They say that killing it and burning its entrails would give its killer the power to kill the Gods. I have no further knowledge about it but the moment I break free, hunting the Ophiotaurus would be the first thing I'd do." I looked back towards the dark door I came from and started walking. I didn't listen to Kronos while he said, "Alone. . . you will. . . not. . ." the rest of his words were drowned out when darkness swallowed my form again. Then I made my way back to the surface. > You hunt for the Ophiotaurus The wind felt good on my skin as I took in my first breath of fresh air in a little while. I hovered about ten feet above the sea, and now wonders where to go now that I'm stuck in this crossroad. I have never heard of the Ophiotaurus in my life. My mother would tell me all the stories about the Greek Gods, and the heroes, and the monsters, but she never mentioned anything about a monster possessing the powers enough to defeat the Gods. And according to Kronos, I have to find a way to kill this all-powerful Ophiotaurus and sacrifice it to gain the power. In my head, I couldn't even picture anything that could have that power. To capture this beast, I will need some help. If this beast has the power to kill Gods, me alone, me a God, might not have a chance. I need to find the strongest warrior in the land to help me tame the elusive beast. Another problem popped in my head. Kronos didn't know where I could start looking for the monster. I remembered Chiron teaching me all I need to know about hunting even the monsters that no man would look for. But, one would think, the best of all the hunters would have looked for the Ophiotaurus already and no one found it. In this problem, I would need another person. I would have to find the greatest hunter in these lands and convince him or her to help me. I realized that I wouldn't be able to get my revenge without the help of others. Who should I look for first? > You without the hunter, you would never even find the Ophiotaurus. Find the greatest hunter in these lands! A couple months have passed since my journey to Tartarus, and now I went down on all fours once again trying to see the tracks of the monster that I'm hunting. There were scattered feathers, too, which means this could be the one that I need. I asked for information from a nearby town about my hunter right after I went out from Tartarus. They told of a hunter so powerful, sometimes one might mistake her for the Goddess of the Hunt herself, Artemis. She hunts in these parts of the forest but not many has seen her at all. I figured hunting the most powerful monsters in the forest might lead me to her, eventually. And, that I did. The forest ceiling didn't allow much sunlight to stream through it so the forest looked dark. Everywhere I turned there were shrubbery and plantlife. The place was quiet except for the soft breeze and the occasional insect calling out to each other. I inhaled the fresh wildlife air and was immediately filled with memories of training under Chiron, the centaur. Many times, he would thrust me inside an unfamiliar forest with nothing except the cloth in my back and tells me to survive off nature. He would leave me there for a full month at most and when he comes back, we continued to train, never stopping. The forest floor felt vaguely familiar in my feet, partly because I've probably stepped on forest floors longer than the floors of my own home. Concentrating back to what I was doing, I saw tracks that led northwards and followed them. Following the tracks, I saw some footprints but not human footprints. The footprints are not different from a bird's. Suddenly, I heard some faint rustling to my left. This noise could've been anything but the fact that whatever made it tried to hide it, held my attention. I can tell because Chiron had taught me how to hide my own noises inside a forest. Maybe another form of monster is hunting this same monster I'm hunting. . . Or if my luck improves, maybe it's the hunter that I'm looking for. I pretended not to hear the rustling so as not to startle whatever it is that's out there and continued following the tracks under me. The tracks led me to a small river where the ugliest creature I've ever seen drank. It was a bird which had a human head, a lady's head. The harpy stood at just about the same height as me. From where I was hiding, I guessed it had a wingspan of just the same length as its height. It drank carefully from the river. I sensed its natural alertness as it made no noise and seemed to listen to every other noise in the forest. Bewildered by what I was seeing, I didn't notice another figure sneaking her way beside me. I almost jumped but she held me down and put a hand over my mouth. "Don't make any noise," she whispered, "This might be my only chance of catching this thing." She had bright green eyes that jumped out off her dark tanned skin. Her eyes never left the harpy as if she's trying to subdue it by sheer willpower. Her brown hair was parted from her face almost concealing a long bow and a quiver full of arrows that hung across her back. She wore dirty green clothing like she's been inside a forest her whole life. Carefully and silently, she started to grab her bow. She succeeded in making no noise then she started notching an arrow and aiming right at the harpy. Then, out of nowhere, a twig broke underneath my feet. With the silence of the forest, it sounded like thunder. Startled, the harpy looked right at our direction and prepared to take flight. The brown-haired girl let loose her arrow but the harpy was already in the air. The arrow stuck to the bird's leg and the harpy let out a painful squawk. Looking more closely, I saw a thin string attached to the arrow. She hooked onto the harpy. "Curse you," she yelled at me. The string tugged and then dragged her off her feet in the air. They continued to rise towards the sunlit skies. > You fly after her! I took a deep breath and shot myself up towards the fleeing harpy and its "hunter." The brown-haired girl is now almost at the top of her string, within an arm's distance away from the harpy's body. I watched as she pulled out her knife. She tried to stab it but the jerky flying motions disabled her from moving. I saw what I needed to do and flew towards the harpy. I got on its back and held on for dear life. It tried to bite my skin but my godly powers prevented her from making any wounds. With me holding down its wings, our flight eased up. Seizing the opportunity, the hunter girl stabbed at the harpy multiple times. Dark red fountains gushed out from where she stabbed. When I felt no more movements coming from the harpy, I let go. Then, I realized my mistake. The fight became so insane that I didn't notice we were about 50 feet in the air. When I let go of the dead monster, the hunter girl screamed as she fell with the corpse. With a groan, I shot towards her flailing body and managed to catch her. We reached the ground before the corpse did and it landed with a thump! > You examine the damage I set the girl down beside me and dusted myself off. The harpy's corpse fell down just five steps to the right of us. "Well, you're welcome, I guess," I said calmly to the girl. The brown-haired hunter stopped her shaking, realizing the insult in my words. She stood up and dusted herself off. "You're welcome? If it hadn't been for you, I could've killed the beast without being 50 feet in the air!" she exclaimed with a clearly angered voice. I was going to argue but then she looked for the corpse and then made towards it. Trying to hide my anger, I followed her. "Why were you hunting the harpy anyway?" she asked me without looking up from skinning the corpse. "Who said I was trying to kill it?" I answered with a question, which was very unlike me, "Maybe, I was just trying to get close to it." I knelt right by her and watched what she was doing. She skinned the harpy expertly and within seconds had the pelt ready for tinning. I asked her why she was hunting the same monster and scolded myself for the stupidity of the question. She told me she was hungry and needed something to sell for food, gesturing for the harpy pelt. "What's your name?" I asked. "My mother called me Saria," she said, hesitantly. I felt a great burden being lifted off my shoulders. It was her. Saria, the legendary huntress who hunts the monster no man would dare hunt. "Well, Saria, seeing your prowess in battle, first hand, would you care to help me in my quest?" I asked her, unknowingly extending my hand towards her. "What quest?" she asked. I told her about my quest to hunt the Ophiotaurus. With clear interest about the infamous, elusive beast, she agreed with almost an excited voice. We shook hands and left the forest. > You look for your warrior Saria and I went to a village nearby and sold the harpy skin she acquired. It didn't sold much partly because Saria was a terrible haggler. Everytime one of our potential customers tried to haggle low, she would take out her knife and place it by the customer's throat. She was lucky I was there to stop her from killing almost everyone. Then I wondered, how did she survived living off hunting without me? Thought it didn't sold much, she was able to buy a good amount of food. Hesitantly, she allowed me to have some while we made our way out of the village. "First of all, I want to thank you," I said, munching on an apple, "For joining me on my quest." "It's been a long time since I've been with people," she answered, not looking at me, "Mostly, because they're boring. But, because you have a quest in mind, I hope going along with you won't be as boring. Your quest won't be boring will it?" A low chuckle escaped my mouth. If she only knew. . . "Before we could go on, we need another sword to help out. And, when I say sword, I don't mean just any warrior. I mean the greatest warrior there is. Don't get me wrong, as you saw in the forest, I possess a decent amount of power. But, this thing we're going to hunt is nothing like you've ever hunted or fought before," I said, changing the subject. Her eyes opened wide with surprise. She cleared her throat then said, "If we're looking for the greatest warrior there is, then you asked the right person. There's a village named Tedgora, just two days walk from here, where a young warrior was said to be unbeatable in combat." "An unbeatable warrior?" I asked, "Maybe I should give sparring with him a try." The thought of the most powerful fighter in the lands intrigued me, mostly because I want to find out how I would compare to him. "They said that he bathe in the River Styx and bear the Curse of Achilles," she continued, "And, he's a demigod. Maybe you know his father, the God of War, Ares." She looked at me and then a flash of surprise crossed her face. Then, I realized I was grinning like a mad man. I can't help myself. The thought of someone having this much power, almost just like me, I can't wait to fight him. "Well, what are we waiting for?" I asked, the grin still present in my face, "To Tedgora it is!" > You to Tedgora We completed the journey in one day because of my excitement over this warrior. I stood on a hill over looking Tedgora and what I saw made my blood boil. A giant two-headed dog was attacking the village. It had black fur and saliva pouring down its mouth. This monster was so big that he could pass as Kronos's dog. Smoke was billowing from a great number of buildings that were being destroyed by the dog. Everytime the dog turned into another direction, ten more building were destroyed. I steeled my nerves. This is the worst time to panic. I calculated everything that I should do. > You carry Saria with you and fly into the village "Quick, hand me one of those strings that you use," I said, holding out my hand to Saria. She saw what was happening to the village and quickly pulled out a string from her pocket. She handed the string to me and I flew. The plan is to get Saria closer to the beast, but not too close, so she can attack from a long distance. I flew about 20 feet upwards and, after making sure Saria was also safely above the ground, I hurled myself towards the village and the monster. It felt good to fly, feeling the winds buffeting my face. Looking back, I saw Saria already aiming an arrow straight at the giant dog. She fired and hit one of the monster's face in the nose. I gave her the signal, and threw her towards the tall walls of the village. Being a hunter, she expertly landed on her feet. She notched three arrows at once then fired at the giant dog again, this time hitting it by the other nose. Enraged, the dog started running towards Saria, whose too busy trying to notch arrows on her bow. Focusing on the winds, I blasted across the sky and hit the dog right between its heads. The mid-air tackle sent it flying about ten feet backwards. It didn't took long to recover though and was back on its feet in no time. Slowly then gaining more speed, it started to run towards us again. An arrow sprouted from one of its four eyes, effectively blinding it and slowing it for a moment. Then, suddenly, the dog stopped and roared in pain. It turned around and I saw why. Its tail was replaced by a cleanly-cut, bloody stub that sprouted behind it. I guessed, it was looking for the one responsible and turned its attention away from us. I was about to hurl a lightning bolt at it when a voice yelled, "WHO ARE YOU?" I looked around and saw a well-muscled young man clad in leather armor below me. He was about the same age as me though he looked a lot taller and darker. In his hands was the biggest two-handed sword I have ever seen. As I reach the ground, he ran towards me and said, "I would really appreciate it if you would help me vanquish this monstrosity away from my town." With a nod, we faced the monster whose now standing right in front of us. > The Two-Headed Dog I started concentrating at the winds while the warrior charged at it. Successfully, I was able to create a tornado that enveloped the giant dog. The winds buffeted and distracted it which allowed the warrior to create a huge gash right below its heads. Concentrating harder, my tornado started producing a hundred lightning bolts within it. The bolts hit the dog countless times and wherever they hit, deep wounds appeared around the dog's body. The effort this attack required started distinguishing most of my energy though. I couldn't run or even walk a step from where I was. I watched as arrows started raining down on the dog and said a silent thanks to Saria. The dog was completely disabled of any kind of movement or chances to counterattack. The warrior wielded his giant sword like I wield a small stick. Slash after slash, with the help of Saria and me, we forced the dog down. Both of its heads roared in the scorching pain and probably regretted choosing this village as its breakfast, which it should. The warrior finished it all off with a powerful stab right under the dog. With a last howl, the giant dog feel on the warrior, making him disappear from sight. Within the silence, I heard Saria making her way towards me, smiling. "That giant monster won't be bothering any villages anymore," she said. Her words were drowned out by the sudden noise that came from the dog's corpse. The warrior managed to get the giant corpse off of him with on powerful kick. After placing his unexpectedly clean giant sword on his back, he made his way towards us. Gasping for air he said, "Thank you. My name is Anasimos, Son of Ares and Protector of this village, Tedgora. Don't worry I already know who you are, Gaius, Son of Zeus and Slayer of Typhon, and Saria, the legendary hunter whose name is known by everyone in the lands. You prowess in combat are truly amazing." "It seems your village will be safe for a while," I said, "Why don't you and us talk for a while." > You Win Anasimos refused to join me and Saria on my quest. He reasoned that no one would protect Tedgora from further danger if he leaves. I asked him to spar with me just for the fun of it. The fight was one decisively by me. The most powerful demigod is just no match for a God, like myself. It ended with my sword inches away from the warrior's face. He was so dazed and tired from the previous battle that I didn't even have to hit him as much as I expected. Convinced that there was no way Anasimos would join us, Saria and I started to leave. Then, Anasimos decided to do the unexpected. He knelt right before me and asked, "Who taught you how to fight like that? Never you mind, would you teach me? Would you teach me how to further my knowledge in fighting under you wing?" I thought about the options and decided to accept him as my student. Mostly because that would mean he would come with us after all. He stood up, dusted himself off, and said, "Thank you, I will never let you down, Master!" "I will teach you everything I know, in one condition," I said, "Never call me Master." And with that, we continued my journey of revenge. > You hunt for the Ophiotaurus "The monster we'll be hunting is said to have the power to destroy the Gods," I said. Anasimos's and Saria's eyes turned scared for a moment then became anticipating. We have traveled a long way since I've met both of them. We stand on the sandy, wet floor of a beach. The sky is a black cloth strewn across the world with nothing on it but the brilliance of the silver moon, Artemis's chariot making its nightly journey across the night sky. The waves swept up our footprints as fast as we make them. My godly feet sink through the sand like the Earth is purposely trying to slow me down. Memories of my battle with a certain son of the Earth started flooding my mind. The air stunk of salty sea breeze and sea weed that it almost made my eyes tear up. It seemed like Poseidon is not being very friendly with me today. "The Ophiotaurus? The only monster that has never been found by anyone?" Saria asked, clearly she know a thing or two about the elusive beast. "You know of the beast?" I asked. "Well, it's only the most prominent monsters out there that every hunter I know would kill to find," Saria answered, "They said its as long as the smallest dragon and that it has the head of a cow and the body of a serpent. It makes its living in Poseidon's empire, deep under the ocean. For years, hunters have tried to find it but nothing is as harder it seemed." I took a moment to think. Probably the most powerful fishermen and hunters have already worked together to catch the Ophiotaurus. This just proves how difficulty the task could become. But, a small combination of powers between a God, the most powerful demigod, and the most powerful hunter might have a better chance of succeeding. I let a smile crawl across my face as I started to realize the inevitability of our quest. The inevitability that we will be the first once to catch the beast. > You execute your plan The salty winds were not a little bit less pleasant as they slam on to my face at a hundred miles per hour. I felt Saria's string tug a little from my hands and I looked back after making sure it was our signal. She was dangling from her string by her left arm. Her face had nothing else except determination and concentration. In her right arm, she had her bow and another string which held Anasimos. Out of the three of us, he looked the worst. It wasn't hard to figure that he has a distinct distaste for flights that scale about 5 feet above the ocean. Looking down at the salty waters, I saw why Saria gave her signal. The Ophiotaurus giant long body was swimming right under us. I sighed in relief. It has been two months of nonstop flying and searching over the waters like our current situation, and it hasn't gotten any easier the more we did it. With the extra weight trailing behind me, my powers over the winds as a God was greatly and continously tested. I raised my hand and pointed my thumb down, the signal to prepare for battle. With one powerful heave, I pulled both my passengers in front of me, almost like a slingshot. Anasimos, using some of the force from the push, dove straight for the Ophiotaurus. Now, that the weight was lighter, I was able to hurl Saria high up into the skies. With my godly speeds, I dove straight to the ocean, following Anasimos. I didn't have much time to see everything as this is all happening in manner of seconds. I saw Anasimos helding on for dear life on the Ophiotaurus's tail, slowing it down. I pulled out my sword and brought it down the struggling monster's long body. Quickly, I picked up the monster's dead corpse, caught Saria, and flew straight towards the land. > You sacrifice the entrails The sands of the beach exploded as my muscles finally gave up and let our combined weight crash down to the ground. The three of us were gasping for air, with me probably the one gasping the most. Both Anasimos and Saria were already standing up and examining the Ophiotaurus's corpse while I stayed down on the ground, too tired to even open my eyes. ... ... I woke up from the short nap and saw that the sky had already turned dark while I was sleeping. The familiar and warm glow of a campfire glowed at the center of our camp. Saria and Anasimos were enjoying a great-smelling dinner of cooked rabbits. Standing up, I said, "Where's the corpse?" Startled, Saria points towards the beach where the giant corpse of the Ophiotaurus laid. Now in plain sight, I was able to see the scales of the serpent body glistening in the moonlight. The whole length of the monster traversed the whole beach. The waves rocked the dead body back and forth like it was still trying to get back in the ocean. "Maybe you should have something to eat first," Anasimos advised, pushing towards me an uneaten cooked rabbit. "Make the fire bigger!" I ordered, my voice sounded stern with a slight exhaustion that was carefully hidden. I made my way towards the corpse and pulled out my sword. With it, I sliced open the Ophiotaurus's corpse and took out the insides. Blood covered my hand and the air stunk of decaying flesh. The campfire was turned into a sacrificial fire which burned a bigger flame. With a silent gasp, I threw the innards into the scorching fire. I waited for something to happen. Nothing did. ... ... A full half hour passed and still nothing happened. Enraged, I felt my anger being passed on to the skies and the clouds started turning dark gray. In minutes, a series of tornadoes were dancing around the beach. The sea water was swept up by the tornadoes and created salty rain that hurts when it hits your eyes. Amazingly, the sacrificial flame didn't extinguish under the heavy rain. "STOP IT!" Saria yelled over the screaming winds, "STOP IT, GAIUS, PLEASE!" Her voice seemed to calm me down a bit. The tornadoes subsided and the rain stopped but the clouds remained gray. "Don't you realize what happened?" I asked Saria, with anger in my voice, anger that didn't apply to her. "Kronos has lied to me! I don't feel any different, do you? I should have the power to kill all the Gods but I do not feel anything! Kronos-" "Kronos? The Titan of Time?" Anasimos interrupted, "What are you talking about?" With heavy hesitation, I told them my story. I told them about my journey to kill Typhon in the name of my father. I told them about me becoming a God. I had tears in my eyes, as I told them walking and seeing Mene and my Mother killed.I told them about my oath to avenge my mother from Zeus. I told them about my journey to Tartarus and my conversation with Kronos. I told them how I've been using them all along. They were silent the whole time. After I told my tale, Saria and Anasimos wouldn't meet my eyes. I couldn't blame them, if I were in their position, I'd kill the lying traitor right on the spot. Anasimos broke the silence, "So, you do not intend to train me at all? Master?" He had a smile on his face. "My Master has been wronged by the Lord of the Gods. I think it's time we make our way to Olympus." He held out his hand towards me. Speechless, I took it and even gave him a hug. A smile filled with gratitude and thank spread across my face. Then, it disappeared as fast as it came as I saw Saria, still looking down towards the campfire. I approached her and was surprised to find no words coming out from my mouth. "I-I'm--" I stuttered. I scolded myself silently, what happened to the natural speaker trait that I inherited from Zeus? What's happening to me? Saria saved me from myself. Her brown hair looked blood red with the brightness of the flames. The green eyes that always seemed to paralyze me looked full of grief. She sniffed back a tear and said, "Did you really kill Typhon without me?" The brightest smile I've ever seen showed in her face. We shook hands and I couldn't help but notice the silly grin that wouldn't leave my mouth. Stop it! "The Gods have done me wrong, I know it, and both of you know it," I said, "But the Gods are eternally more powerful than the Ophiotaurus. They have wronged me, not you. I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if you get killed because of me. This quest is suicide." Saria cracked her neck. "Well, then you'll probably need us Lord Gaius. A God needs help sometimes, too." With that, our conversation was over. I thought, maybe the hunt for the Ophiotaurus wasn't as much of a disappointment after all. > You time for revenge. Head to Olympus. The peak of Mount Olympus was breathtaking. From up here, you couldn't see the bottom of the mountain because it's all covered by clouds. The familiar breezes of the skies swirled around the mountain making me feel empowered and battle-ready. Looking behind me, I saw Saria staring right back at me with her dazzling green eyes. Her brown hair danced with the winds but she looked fine like she's entering heaven. Anasimos, on the other hand, had a face of a scared dog. He's looking only at the rocky ground as if making sure that it's not going to disappear right under him. We were almost at the peak but the Palace of the Gods were still nowhere to be seen. Discouraged and frustrated, I yelled, "ZEUS! WHERE ARE YOU? FACE ME AND THE CONSEQUENCES OF YOUR CRIMES!" The words echoed off the distance. "He shall not have to deal with your arrogance, Gaius!" a lady's voice said. A girl clothed in a golden dress and a golden battle helmet walked out from a clutter of rocks. Her black hair was straightly combed and in her left shoulder stood a white owl resting. A long double-edged sword rested in her right arm and a huge round shield slung across her back. Her eyes resonated with knowledge, knowledge about everything about me, knowledge about everything that I wouldn't want her to know about. The three of us stopped. I drew my sword and stood between her and my friends. "This does not concern you, Athena!" I said, with a voice full of contempt. "Do not make me kill you!" This was it. The moment I finally took my revenge from my father. All the months spent hunting and training was preparation for this moment. The mere Goddess of Knowledge shall not stop me. "My dear son, do you think waging war and threatening to kill my good King Zeus would allow me to let you live?" Athena said, lifting her sword making the white owl fly away from her arms. "You don't realize what you are doing, as usual. Gaius, if, by some sort of miracle, you do kill my Lord Zeus, do you know what would happen to your world? No, it would suffer, it would die. A world without a King is bound to fall. By killing Zeus, you will be killing the world!" Her words didn't even mean anything to me. For every syllable she uttered, the flames of my fury strengthened. Drawing powers from the clouds, I charged her. "FOOL! YOU WILL DARE CHALLENGE ME? THE GODDESS OF WAR?" Athena yelled in rage. She hefted her long sword and her round shield on both arms, preparing to strike. As if on cue, an arrow flew past my ear and forced Athena to deflect it. Saria has made the first move. Distracted, I saw an opportunity to strike at Athena. > You try to disarm her With perfect form and timing, I maneuvered my sword to disarm the Goddess. But when my sword hit the hilt of her sword, the force that came from her shook my whole body. It was like being hit by lightning, a phenomenon that I have yet to experience. Stunned, Athena was able to hit me with her shield, knocking me off my feet. I willed the winds to stop my fall and I was back on my feet in no time. Looking back, I saw Anasimos, fighting off Athena in a deadly sword dance. Saria was shooting arrows as fast as the winds. The combined forces was probably strong but the Goddess deflected every strike and every arrow with her sword and shield. I couldn't see her face behind the helmet but there was a moment when I saw a glimpse of a smile in her face. Enraged, I shot two lightning bolts at her body. She absorbed the bolts with her sword but it made her vulnerable to one of Saria's arrows which sunk itself in the Goddess's left shoulder. Golden ichor started to gush out. Seizing the opportunity, Anasimos tried to stab at the recovering Athena only to be blocked by her shield. The force stunned Anasimos and Athena was able to place a powerful kick on his chest, making him fly and hit a rock wall. > You try to help him I took one step and realized I didn't have to. From where Anasimos fell, a red glow of burning fury emanated. The rocks were coated in a dark red shade and the grass caught on fire. Anasimos stood, his form coated by the burning cloth of the blessing of Ares. Looking at her, I saw a flash of fear that showed in Athena's face as she saw the full extent of Anasimos's power being charged up. With a flash of light, she hurled herself into Anasimos. Before, the warrior would've been crushed by the Goddess's sheer power. But, after embracing the mighty power of fury, he was able to keep on his feet. Again, Anasimos and Athena was locked on a dangerous sword fight. Everytime both of the fighters's blades meet, a surge of bright light explodes from the connection. Anasimos's Apodosi moved with a reddish glow as if the fury was corrupting the blade too, not just the wielder. Amazed, I watched the ferocious battle. Saria's words woke me up from my daze. "WE CAN HANDLE ATHENA! YOU FIND YOU FATHER AND END THIS!" she shouted. The thoughts of battle and tactics refilled my brain, and I nodded. I shot off from the ground and flew towards the top of the mountain. When I looked back, I saw Athena trying to chase me, her golden glow left a trail of bright light behind her as she flew. Saria, with expert accuracy, shot a stringed arrow, which tied right by the Goddess's foot. The flaming Anasimos, then, grabbed the string and pulled the Goddess back towards him. Within seconds, Athena was locked in a duel with Anasimos once again. I sighed in relief and continued my flight towards Mount Olympus. > You look for Zeus! My flight didn't last long as a wall of impenetrable force knocked me off the air. "Now, where do you think your going?" a man's voice said. Just then, a middle-aged man jumped on a huge rock and showed himself to me. Like Athena, he had a helmet on, but this helmet was different. I have seen it before worn by the legendary warriors of Sparta, whom I had the honor to train with. In his hand was a spear, a deadly five foot long weapon with a sharp bronze point. He was also wearing bronze battle armor. I guessed it was enchanted as it glowed like the embers of a dying fire even if there was no fire within sight. I saw some of the resemblance in his mostly hidden face and realized that this man is Anasimos's father, Ares, the God of War. He had trained Anasimos before as a child and I had the feeling he's much more stronger than his son. "Your son has decided to join my cause," I told him, "Maybe, you should too so that I won't have to kill you." Ares smile was full of anger and hate, "That is no son of mine! He couldn't even beat me with his own sword. He will die along with you even if I have to kill him myself." His voice had no remorse nor doubt on it, the voice of a true killer. Naturally, I drew my sword. > You shoot lightning bolts at him "Not anyone can beat the God of War, Gaius!" Ares roared. I'm not just anyone! I raised my hand towards the skies and channeled a lightning bolt that shot straight towards Ares. The God of War simply dodged to his side proving that he's faster than lightning. After getting up, he charged me. I almost wasn't able to block his spear but I did. Sparks flew as bronze blade met the bronze head of his spear. I tried to hit him with my sword but he blocked, too, using the wooden handle. He countered with a powerful stab which I dodged low. Seeing the opportunity, he kicked me right when I ducked his stab. The force sent me sprawling to the ground. Amazingly, I kept my hand on my sword. Towering above me, he prepared to stab my fallen form. With a single swift move, I deflected his strike and kicked him, sending him flying straight up. > You fly after him I willed the winds to push me straight to Ares. Our weapons met in mid-air and sparks flew everywhere as we danced the deadly sword dance. Unfortunately for Ares, the sky was my domain. I felt the clouds giving me additional strength and power. I felt my strikes hit harder and my movements faster, the longer I stayed in the skies. Ares must've noticed this too and he tried to take the fight back to the ground. The moment he turned his back on me, I attacked. I slashed at his back, my sword cutting away the flesh and producing a wound that ran the length of Ares's shoulder. The God of War roared in pain, but the sounds were drowned by thunder. The skies are reflecting my emotions yet again and now they looked threatening, with almost-black clouds and scattered lightning bolts thundering to the grounds. Golden ichor came out of Ares's wound. "The God of War is running away from me?" I said, just loud enough so Ares can hear. "How pathetic. To think that many, including you, thought that you're unbeatable!" A look of murder and hatred showed in his eyes. The God's body glowed with red fury, much like his own son's, but also much different. Ares's fury was the real thing. The father of all the fury that's naturally in any mortal's heart. I felt the warmth of its flames from way up here. With a battlecry, Ares flew straight towards me. I deflected his strike drawing more power from the clouds. Strike after strike, the fight went on. I threw lightning bolts at Ares but they just bounced off his red coat of flames. If I'm going to kill him, it's going to go down to my sword. Slash against stab, strength against speed, wrath against revenge. This fight is the best fight I have ever been in, even better than Typhon's. I noticed that Ares was becoming slower and his strikes becoming weaker. The powerful aura must be taking a lot of his godly energy and he's weakening. With that thought, I drew more power from the infinite reserves of the sky and tried to finish this fight now. "I see you're drawing more breath, Ares," I said, in mid slash. "Is the God of War tiring?" Ares just grunted and continued his frenzy. The fight went on and I noticed Ares making more mistakes the longer I tried to keep the fight going. His trademark savagery is becoming his weakness while I feel like the fight hasn't even started. Time to end this! I parried one of his strikes and used his shoulder to kick up and go higher among the clouds. The higher I got, the more sky power channeled through my veins, and I felt it reinvigorating my whole body. "Come, God of War!" I shouted, with newly filled power. "IT'S TIME TO END THIS DUEL!" Ares started flying upwards toward me. I concentrated on the dark clouds above me, drawing forth a summon of lightning. Then, I ended it. The moment Ares reached me, I released the concentrated powers of the skies. As my fist hit his face, so did the lightning enveloped his whole body. The combined force extinguished his red coat and he free fell towards the ground. I have defeated the God of War. > You examine the Damage Ares's body fell right by the place where I left Anasimos and Saria to fend off Athena by themselves. To my surprise, there were no battle noises raging and it was quiet. Deathly afraid, I hasten my descent. Was the battle ended? How badly hurt was my friends? I went so fast that the rocks cracked and sent a shockwave of dust in a circle as I connected with the ground. Anasimos and Saria stood over two laying bodies. Ares lay right beside another figure in golden garment. . . Athena? I rushed over to my friends and was relieved to see that my assumption was confirmed. Anasimos's body was covered in bruises, battle wounds, and blood. Saria had almost just the same amount of damage. Though they succeeded in defeating the Goddess, they did so with great difficulty, I assumed. At the sight of me, Saria ran and gave me a weak hug. Afraid that I might actually hurt her, I didn't move. We walked back towards the fallen Gods. They were still alive but I felt their energies weakening drastically. I looked up towards the peak of the mountain and I knew that my father was waiting for me, in this moment. Then, I looked at my friends and felt disappointed. With their scarred bodies, there's no way I can drag them all the way to Olympus and not expect them to get killed. "You defeated her," I said. "I didn't believe that you would and you still did." Anasimos didn't even answer and just sat down on the ground. "This is a sad day," Saria said. "Without the Gods, our world will be forever changed." I didn't answer. Mostly because I do not care. Did Zeus thought about how killing my Mother and destroying my village is going to affect me? "Y-Y-You will d-d-die, Gaius!" Athena managed to whisper. "Y-Your. . .N-NO-not powerful e-enough. . . Y-you will l-lo-lose." Then, she let out a deep exhale and died. The Goddess Athena has fallen. Realizing the truth in her warning, I yelled and consumed the remaining energy left in me. The sound was made louder by the synchronized thunders that echoed through the skies. I can't kill my father. My power is not even close enough. I need more power. I turned my back from the peak and started to walk down the mountain. With the silence, my steps sounded like the roars of a lion whose being forced inside a cage. "Where are you going?" Anasimos asked, finally finding his voice once again. "Your father is in the other direction." Though his words say fight, his eyes looked actually relieved with me going down instead of up. "The Goddess is right," I said. "We need more power. I'm going down to Tartarus, once again, to create an army to mow down Olympus. You coming?"<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Not anyone can beat the God of War, Gaius!" Ares roared. I'm not just anyone! I raised my hand towards the skies and channeled a lightning bolt that shot straight towards Ares. The God of War simply dodged to his side proving that he's faster than lightning. After getting up, he charged me. I almost wasn't able to block his spear but I did. Sparks flew as bronze blade met the bronze head of his spear. I tried to hit him with my sword but he blocked, too, using the wooden handle. He countered with a powerful stab which I dodged low. Seeing the opportunity, he kicked me right when I ducked his stab. The force sent me sprawling to the ground. Amazingly, I kept my hand on my sword. Towering above me, he prepared to stab my fallen form. With a single swift move, I deflected his strike and kicked him, sending him flying straight up. > You wait for him to come down I stood there waiting. The God of War steadied himself in mid-air and looked at my direction. "Hmm, and I thought you could fly too," he taunted. I felt his power trespassing in my mind and made me feel unprecedented wrath. The clouds above us started thundering the more I felt the anger coursing through my veins. The God of War might be powerful but, I figured, he's not that smart. The sky is my domain and this fight will be over soon, if we enter. So, for the first time in my life, I felt good about obeying.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>My flight didn't last long as a wall of impenetrable force knocked me off the air. "Now, where do you think your going?" a man's voice said. Just then, a middle-aged man jumped on a huge rock and showed himself to me. Like Athena, he had a helmet on, but this helmet was different. I have seen it before worn by the legendary warriors of Sparta, whom I had the honor to train with. In his hand was a spear, a deadly five foot long weapon with a sharp bronze point. He was also wearing bronze battle armor. I guessed it was enchanted as it glowed like the embers of a dying fire even if there was no fire within sight. I saw some of the resemblance in his mostly hidden face and realized that this man is Anasimos's father, Ares, the God of War. He had trained Anasimos before as a child and I had the feeling he's much more stronger than his son. "Your son has decided to join my cause," I told him, "Maybe, you should too so that I won't have to kill you." Ares smile was full of anger and hate, "That is no son of mine! He couldn't even beat me with his own sword. He will die along with you even if I have to kill him myself." His voice had no remorse nor doubt on it, the voice of a true killer. Naturally, I drew my sword. > You try to kill him with your sword I charged at Ares. As I ran, I saw him throw his spear straight at me. The throw grazed my arm and my wound started oozing golden blood. But, I pushed on. The spear, by magic, flew right back to Ares's hand and he blocked my initial sword slash with the wooden handle. He countered with a stab that hit nothing but the air as I sidestepped to my left. I countered with a stab of my own but Ares just grabbed my sword and hit my face with the blunt end of his spear. We paused and I felt more blood coming out of my nose. I tried to touch it but the pain became unbearable at the time of contact. I steeled myself and prepared another attack. "What is the matter, Gaius?" Ares asked. "Let me guess, you have never seen someone who fights as great as yours truly?" He finished his speech with a dumb grin. With a grunt, I pushed off the rock that I was standing on and hurled myself towards the God. Our weapons met and sparks flew as my blade hit his armor. A surprised look came over Ares's face, then he kicked me right in the gut sending me sprawling in the ground. This fight is not going well. I need to get this fight somewhere to my advantage. > You lure him into the sky where your powers are greater "Did Zeus taught you how to fly, too?" I taunted. Then, I willed the air to push me off the ground and straight to the clouds. "You will run but you can never hide from me!" Ares yelled, flying off as well and started to chase me. The plan worked. I willed the winds to push me straight to Ares. Our weapons met in mid-air and sparks flew everywhere as we danced the deadly sword dance. Unfortunately for Ares, the sky was my domain. I felt the clouds giving me additional strength and power. I felt my strikes hit harder and my movements faster, the longer I stayed in the skies. Ares must've noticed this too and he tried to take the fight back to the ground. The moment he turned his back on me, I attacked. I slashed at his back, my sword cutting away the flesh and producing a wound that ran the length of Ares's shoulder. The God of War roared in pain, but the sounds were drowned by thunder. The skies are reflecting my emotions yet again and now they looked threatening, with almost-black clouds and scattered lightning bolts thundering to the grounds. Golden ichor came out of Ares's wound. "The God of War is running away from me?" I said, just loud enough so Ares can hear. "How pathetic. To think that many, including you, thought that you're unbeatable!" A look of murder and hatred showed in his eyes. The God's body glowed with red fury, much like his own son's, but also much different. Ares's fury was the real thing. The father of all the fury that's naturally in any mortal's heart. I felt the warmth of its flames from way up here. With a battlecry, Ares flew straight towards me. I deflected his strike drawing more power from the clouds. Strike after strike, the fight went on. I threw lightning bolts at Ares but they just bounced off his red coat of flames. If I'm going to kill him, it's going to go down to my sword. Slash against stab, strength against speed, wrath against revenge. This fight is the best fight I have ever been in, even better than Typhon's. I noticed that Ares was becoming slower and his strikes becoming weaker. The powerful aura must be taking a lot of his godly energy and he's weakening. With that thought, I drew more power from the infinite reserves of the sky and tried to finish this fight now. "I see you're drawing more breath, Ares," I said, in mid slash. "Is the God of War tiring?" Ares just grunted and continued his frenzy. The fight went on and I noticed Ares making more mistakes the longer I tried to keep the fight going. His trademark savagery is becoming his weakness while I feel like the fight hasn't even started. Time to end this! I parried one of his strikes and used his shoulder to kick up and go higher among the clouds. The higher I got, the more sky power channeled through my veins, and I felt it reinvigorating my whole body. "Come, God of War!" I shouted, with newly filled power. "IT'S TIME TO END THIS DUEL!" Ares started flying upwards toward me. I concentrated on the dark clouds above me, drawing forth a summon of lightning. Then, I ended it. The moment Ares reached me, I released the concentrated powers of the skies. As my fist hit his face, so did the lightning enveloped his whole body. The combined force extinguished his red coat and he free fell towards the ground. I have defeated the God of War.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The peak of Mount Olympus was breathtaking. From up here, you couldn't see the bottom of the mountain because it's all covered by clouds. The familiar breezes of the skies swirled around the mountain making me feel empowered and battle-ready. Looking behind me, I saw Saria staring right back at me with her dazzling green eyes. Her brown hair danced with the winds but she looked fine like she's entering heaven. Anasimos, on the other hand, had a face of a scared dog. He's looking only at the rocky ground as if making sure that it's not going to disappear right under him. We were almost at the peak but the Palace of the Gods were still nowhere to be seen. Discouraged and frustrated, I yelled, "ZEUS! WHERE ARE YOU? FACE ME AND THE CONSEQUENCES OF YOUR CRIMES!" The words echoed off the distance. "He shall not have to deal with your arrogance, Gaius!" a lady's voice said. A girl clothed in a golden dress and a golden battle helmet walked out from a clutter of rocks. Her black hair was straightly combed and in her left shoulder stood a white owl resting. A long double-edged sword rested in her right arm and a huge round shield slung across her back. Her eyes resonated with knowledge, knowledge about everything about me, knowledge about everything that I wouldn't want her to know about. The three of us stopped. I drew my sword and stood between her and my friends. "This does not concern you, Athena!" I said, with a voice full of contempt. "Do not make me kill you!" This was it. The moment I finally took my revenge from my father. All the months spent hunting and training was preparation for this moment. The mere Goddess of Knowledge shall not stop me. "My dear son, do you think waging war and threatening to kill my good King Zeus would allow me to let you live?" Athena said, lifting her sword making the white owl fly away from her arms. "You don't realize what you are doing, as usual. Gaius, if, by some sort of miracle, you do kill my Lord Zeus, do you know what would happen to your world? No, it would suffer, it would die. A world without a King is bound to fall. By killing Zeus, you will be killing the world!" Her words didn't even mean anything to me. For every syllable she uttered, the flames of my fury strengthened. Drawing powers from the clouds, I charged her. "FOOL! YOU WILL DARE CHALLENGE ME? THE GODDESS OF WAR?" Athena yelled in rage. She hefted her long sword and her round shield on both arms, preparing to strike. As if on cue, an arrow flew past my ear and forced Athena to deflect it. Saria has made the first move. Distracted, I saw an opportunity to strike at Athena. > You tackle her while flying I willed the winds and hurled myself at the Goddess. My skills saved my life as Athena tried to stab my flying form in mid-air as I reach her. With a quick flip, I was in the ground right beside her, and slashed with my sword. The Goddess blocked my strike and punched me in the gut. The punch was so powerful that I flew ten feet away from her. I willed the winds to stop my fall and I was back on my feet in no time. Looking back, I saw Anasimos, fighting off Athena in a deadly sword dance. Saria was shooting arrows as fast as the winds. The combined forces was probably strong but the Goddess deflected every strike and every arrow with her sword and shield. I couldn't see her face behind the helmet but there was a moment when I saw a glimpse of a smile in her face. Enraged, I shot two lightning bolts at her body. She absorbed the bolts with her sword but it made her vulnerable to one of Saria's arrows which sunk itself in the Goddess's left shoulder. Golden ichor started to gush out. Seizing the opportunity, Anasimos tried to stab at the recovering Athena only to be blocked by her shield. The force stunned Anasimos and Athena was able to place a powerful kick on his chest, making him fly and hit a rock wall.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>We completed the journey in one day because of my excitement over this warrior. I stood on a hill over looking Tedgora and what I saw made my blood boil. A giant two-headed dog was attacking the village. It had black fur and saliva pouring down its mouth. This monster was so big that he could pass as Kronos's dog. Smoke was billowing from a great number of buildings that were being destroyed by the dog. Everytime the dog turned into another direction, ten more building were destroyed. I steeled my nerves. This is the worst time to panic. I calculated everything that I should do. > You have Saria stay here and attack from a distance "Stay here," I ordered, "Attack cautiously and allow a great distance between you and the battle." Saria, just noticing what's happening to the village, nodded. And with that, I plunged into the sky. The morning winds around Tedgora would've been cool and good if it wasn't for the smoke that's stinking up the air. I drew my sword in mid-air and positioned myself right by the eye level of the giant dog and concentrated. I focused on the skies and within seconds, the clouds turned dangerously gray. With the darkness, the dog looked up for a moment, amazed by what it's seeing. Then, a great lightning bolt came down from the heavens and hit one of its head straight on. The giant was thrown back and started shaking off the hit. One of its face was gushing out blood like a waterfall, proving that the hit wasn't as bad. It didn't took long to recover though and was back on its feet in no time. Slowly then gaining more speed, it started to run towards me. An arrow sprouted from one of its four eyes, effectively blinding it and slowing it for a moment. Then, suddenly, the dog stopped and roared in pain. It turned around and I saw why. Its tail was replaced by a cleanly-cut, bloody stub that sprouted behind it. I guessed, it was looking for the one responsible and turned its attention away from me. I was about to hurl another lightning bolt at it when a voice yelled, "WHO ARE YOU?" I looked around and saw a well-muscled young man clad in leather armor below me. He was about the same age as me though he looked a lot taller and darker. In his hands was the biggest two-handed sword I have ever seen. As I reached the ground, he ran towards me and said, "I would really appreciate it if you would help me vanquish this monstrosity away from my town." With a nod, we faced the monster whose now standing right in front of us.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>A couple months have passed since my journey to Tartarus, and now I went down on all fours once again trying to see the tracks of the monster that I'm hunting. There were scattered feathers, too, which means this could be the one that I need. I asked for information from a nearby town about my hunter right after I went out from Tartarus. They told of a hunter so powerful, sometimes one might mistake her for the Goddess of the Hunt herself, Artemis. She hunts in these parts of the forest but not many has seen her at all. I figured hunting the most powerful monsters in the forest might lead me to her, eventually. And, that I did. The forest ceiling didn't allow much sunlight to stream through it so the forest looked dark. Everywhere I turned there were shrubbery and plantlife. The place was quiet except for the soft breeze and the occasional insect calling out to each other. I inhaled the fresh wildlife air and was immediately filled with memories of training under Chiron, the centaur. Many times, he would thrust me inside an unfamiliar forest with nothing except the cloth in my back and tells me to survive off nature. He would leave me there for a full month at most and when he comes back, we continued to train, never stopping. The forest floor felt vaguely familiar in my feet, partly because I've probably stepped on forest floors longer than the floors of my own home. Concentrating back to what I was doing, I saw tracks that led northwards and followed them. Following the tracks, I saw some footprints but not human footprints. The footprints are not different from a bird's. Suddenly, I heard some faint rustling to my left. This noise could've been anything but the fact that whatever made it tried to hide it, held my attention. I can tell because Chiron had taught me how to hide my own noises inside a forest. Maybe another form of monster is hunting this same monster I'm hunting. . . Or if my luck improves, maybe it's the hunter that I'm looking for. I pretended not to hear the rustling so as not to startle whatever it is that's out there and continued following the tracks under me. The tracks led me to a small river where the ugliest creature I've ever seen drank. It was a bird which had a human head, a lady's head. The harpy stood at just about the same height as me. From where I was hiding, I guessed it had a wingspan of just the same length as its height. It drank carefully from the river. I sensed its natural alertness as it made no noise and seemed to listen to every other noise in the forest. Bewildered by what I was seeing, I didn't notice another figure sneaking her way beside me. I almost jumped but she held me down and put a hand over my mouth. "Don't make any noise," she whispered, "This might be my only chance of catching this thing." She had bright green eyes that jumped out off her dark tanned skin. Her eyes never left the harpy as if she's trying to subdue it by sheer willpower. Her brown hair was parted from her face almost concealing a long bow and a quiver full of arrows that hung across her back. She wore dirty green clothing like she's been inside a forest her whole life. Carefully and silently, she started to grab her bow. She succeeded in making no noise then she started notching an arrow and aiming right at the harpy. Then, out of nowhere, a twig broke underneath my feet. With the silence of the forest, it sounded like thunder. Startled, the harpy looked right at our direction and prepared to take flight. The brown-haired girl let loose her arrow but the harpy was already in the air. The arrow stuck to the bird's leg and the harpy let out a painful squawk. Looking more closely, I saw a thin string attached to the arrow. She hooked onto the harpy. "Curse you," she yelled at me. The string tugged and then dragged her off her feet in the air. They continued to rise towards the sunlit skies. > You throw a rock at the harpy I looked around and tried to find a rock that's big enough to hurt and small enough to actually cover the huge distance. There it is! I picked it up and looked up. The harpy is struggling to keep itself in midair because of the added weight the brown-haired girl gave. She's slowly trying to climb up her string but the harpy's sudden movements made it almost impossible to hang on tight. With expert precision, I threw the rock which sailed the distance beautifully. It was about to hit the flying harpy when the brown-haired girl actually deflected it with her hand. The rock fell down and created a huge splash in the river. How dare she block my attack? "DON'T HURT IT!" the girl yelled, "IF IT GETS HURT, I MIGHT GO DOWN WITH IT!" "That's the idea!" I thought to myself, but, apparently that idea won't sit well with the foolish girl hanging helplessly for her life. I have to do something!<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The wind felt good on my skin as I took in my first breath of fresh air in a little while. I hovered about ten feet above the sea, and now wonders where to go now that I'm stuck in this crossroad. I have never heard of the Ophiotaurus in my life. My mother would tell me all the stories about the Greek Gods, and the heroes, and the monsters, but she never mentioned anything about a monster possessing the powers enough to defeat the Gods. And according to Kronos, I have to find a way to kill this all-powerful Ophiotaurus and sacrifice it to gain the power. In my head, I couldn't even picture anything that could have that power. To capture this beast, I will need some help. If this beast has the power to kill Gods, me alone, me a God, might not have a chance. I need to find the strongest warrior in the land to help me tame the elusive beast. Another problem popped in my head. Kronos didn't know where I could start looking for the monster. I remembered Chiron teaching me all I need to know about hunting even the monsters that no man would look for. But, one would think, the best of all the hunters would have looked for the Ophiotaurus already and no one found it. In this problem, I would need another person. I would have to find the greatest hunter in these lands and convince him or her to help me. I realized that I wouldn't be able to get my revenge without the help of others. Who should I look for first? > You without an extra sword at your side, facing the Ophiotaurus might be suicide. Find the greatest warrior in the lands! I decided to look for an extra sword to fight for my side. Standing at this tavern, where many warriors would spend their time, I thought, my search would be easy. The humid air filled with the disgusting stench of whatever poisonous drink the customers are devouring. With this number of warriors drunk over their heads, it's almost impossible for me not to find a lead about the strongest warrior here. I looked around the room examining every warrior present. No one looked even remotely promising. Most of them are laughing and having a great time, a quality which, Chiron told me, is a quality that a great fighter would never have. A great warrior is always at the top of his condition; never purposely clouding his judgement in case an unexpected danger or fight comes. He will always be ready and his decisions always intelligent. Who I seek is not here with me. But I can still find out where to look for him. > You ask around the room quietly and without being seen Looking around, I saw a hooded cloak hanging on a wall by the door. I took it and wore the hood around my head so no one would remember my face. I walked around the room and asked everyone who has a sword by him. Most of their answers were slurred so I hardly recognized the word they were saying. Some of the drunks didn't even want to talk and just shooed me away, lucky they don't even know who I am. I was afraid that a shady figure asking questions around a tavern might have been pretty suspicious but apparently this is almost a tradition in this tavern. A lot of the men even offered me drinks before slurring, "I have n-no i-idea. . . " It took me all night to ask everyone that could have the information I sought. My body was tired from the useless conversations that I've had. Examining my surroundings, I saw a woman staring right at me. I wondered why she would be looking at me in a tavern and didn't like the idea that passed through my head, so I just stayed where I was sitting, and pretended to not see her. I rested for hours on a bench. I figured I will need to search for my warrior in another village. The tavern was quieter now. Some of the people already left and most of them didn't even bother to head home and just slept on the chairs and the tables. I was one of the two that was still awake. The lady was still there, still gazing right at me. I admit I'm not a very patient man so I grabbed my sword and pointed it straight at her. "Who are you?" I asked, "What do you want?" She calmly walked towards my direction and let me see her face for the first time. She was beautiful, with blue eyes and perfectly combed dark hair. I figured she was royalty of some sort. I froze, couldn't believe I faced dangerous Titans yet I froze at the presence of a girl. "You better stop or else my sword would close the remaining distance," I threatened, half-heartedly knowing that I would never be able to harm her. "The man you seek is in the village of Tedgora," she said and ran straight out the door. I was surprised to find the effort it took for me to keep my voice from shouting out to her, asking her to wait. I scolded myself and cleared my thoughts. My mother would've been laughing if she saw me like this. I stood up, angrier than I ever felt and went out the door. I didn't even expect my good luck enough to even look for the girl. Knowing where I should go, I flew up and started in the direction of Tedgora. > You to Tedgora Tedgora reminded me of Mene back in the days when it wasn't destroyed. Both were farming villages which worried me. If there's a warrior here then he might be just like me, a demigod. Men in farming villages do not usually go for fighting lifestyles unless they're bound to be good. And, as tradition, every half-human, half-gods are supposed to be powerful in combat. I stood at the center of the town, drawing some attention to myself. I concentrated knowing that if this warrior was powerful enough, I would be able to sense him. The winds smelled of produce that's almost ripe, which brings back bad memories. Almost a minute passed, and then I felt him. The powerful aura was coming from the direction of the blacksmith. Looking there, I saw a young man, probably the same age as me, working on a sword. In one look, I could tell he was a warrior. What gave it away? Maybe, it was the two-handed sword strapped to his back with a length almost the same height as him. Or maybe it was the familiar aura that I feel whenever something powerful stands by me. You choose. I approached the man and said, "I've never seen a sword like that before. Did you make it?" "You've never seen someone make a sword before? Yes, I made it, it only took me about half an hour to get it to its current state," he said, holding up the sword he was working on, which glowed a shade of orange and yellow. I had to suppress a smile for the misunderstanding because his voice sounded like he would kill me if I smiled. His words had a careful yet arrogant tone to it, much like mine's if I'm talking to strangers. I felt a connection with this boy already. "I meant that giant bronze weapon strapped to your back," I said, pointing at his sword. A flash of irritation spread through his face, "Do you think I'm an idiot? Of course, I knew you were talking about this sword. My father, Ares, gave it to me when I completed my training with him." "You trained with the God of War himself?" I asked, hoping to get the reaction I wanted, "Did you defeat him?" The reaction was right on the mark. His face turned redder than the fires behind him and I could swear I saw smoke billowing from his nostrils. "I'm busy! Get away already before I use this sword to make you go away," he said, threateningly. "Maybe that's exactly what I want you to do," I said, pulling out my sword and pointing it straight at him, "If what you say is true then I would expect you're strong. My name is Gaius, an adventurer, and I need your help for my quest." I said the words loud enough so that people around the town would hear. Realizing I cornered him, the blacksmith had no choice but to stop his work and hope his reputation won't get anymore damaged. > You step into the center of the town "That's a dirty trick you played there, son of Zeus," he said, brandishing the giant sword that he held with surprising ease. "I'm guessing you felt my presence long before I felt yours," I said, quite amazed, "How about we introduce ourselves before we kill each other?" Without waiting for anything, he said, "My name is Anasimos, son of Ares and bearer of the Curse of Achilles!" pointing his giant sword at me, "My Apodosi and I will tear you to shreds and teach you a lesson your father never knew." I smiled. A giant sword named yield is not something to be serious about. Furthermore, he bathe in the River Styx which makes him almost indestructible. I would enjoy this fight. Then, I stopped the crazy man's attitude and became serious again. "My name is Gaius, son of the Lord Zeus and slayer of the mighty Typhon!" I shouted. The skies started turning dark and terrifying. I hoped to see even a small look of worry in Anasimos's face, but was surprised to see nothing. This man has seen things a lot more sinister than me. Excellent. > You charge him I held my breath then charged at Anasimos. I quickly learned that he was waiting for this as he stepped inside my charge with impossible speeds. In a blink of an eye, Anasimos delivered a painful elbow on my gut and has his giant sword pointed at my face. He's fast for an average mortal but he has to know that I'm not just an average mortal. I flipped my body backwards and kicked his sword away from my face. Using the momentum of the flip, I hurled straight at him with my sword pointing right at his chest. I could tell he was a little surprised at my sudden burst of speed but it didn't stop him from reacting correctly. Proving he's one of the rare warrior who never flinch, Anasimos sidestepped my attack with great ease. Now that I had my back turned, Anasimos seized the opportunity and tried to slash me. I could just feel all the anger and the hate being welled up in the strike. Quick as a lightning, I blocked his attack. He staggered with my inhuman strength. Finally, a flash of surprise and fear showed in his face. I was smiling again, I noticed. This fight is turning to be one of the hardest I've fought on for a long time. Mustering all my strength, I placed a powerful kick right on his chest. He didn't have time to react and was sent flying about ten feet in the other direction. I was surprised to see what happened next. It wasn't the fact that Anasimos stood back up like nothing. It was because his skin glowed a bloody shade of red. What stood before me now looked nothing like a mortal being, it was a monster. > The Blessing of Ares "The blessing of Ares," I said, carefully masking the fear in my voice, "No one has ever seen any sons of War use it in battle, most likely because no one was powerful enough to live through the battle when someone used that blessing." The dangerous figure walked slowly towards me. "You should've just ran when I told you," Anasimos growled. And with that, the glow engulfed his whole body. Now, it looked like flames are eating away on his limbs, like he was burning alive. But, I knew the truth. He has developed enough anger and hate towards me that his most powerful ally, fury, has made itself physically seen. A fury that's so strong you could see it with your naked eyes. I was facing a different opponent. An opponent that has its sights on killing not just winning. In a blink of an eye, the blood-red figure was in front of me. I had no time to react as he hit me with the blunt of his sword, sending me soaring upwards to the sky. The clouds seemed to revitalize me as I step in my domain, the sky. I willed the winds to help me float, an ability that now seemed like second nature to me. After being healed of fatigue and damage from the fight, I controlled the winds to take me lower. I hovered above the ground in a height slightly above Anasimos's reach. "What they say is true," I called to Anasimos, "You are the most powerful warrior in the lands. Now, this fight has clearly gotten out of hand. We shall stop and prevent putting these innocent people in harm's way." Pictures of fleeing villagers scattered about as I see the whole village from up here. "Let's not do anything rash now!" I said. With my luck, I thought, Anasimos would be so consumed with anger that he won't even understand what I'm saying, much more, obey them. And, that's exactly what happened. The glowing figure that was once Anasimos roared so loud I bet Kronos heard it down in Tartarus. He then leaped out off the ground and left a crater where he once stood. The leap closed the distance between me and him in mere seconds. He gave me no choice, I thought. Unleashing all the power inside me, I punched him straight in the nose. He was too distracted on trying kill me to even react, and was sent plunging straight down towards the earth. > You observe the damage After the dust settled, I made my way back to the ground. A huge crater, about five feet deep, opened up before me. On the center of the crater was Anasimos. Fortunately, the strike made him pass out which saved me from having to keep hitting the poor man. An old lady, who looked almost exactly like my mother, approached the unconscious form of Anasimos. She knelt and attended to his wounds. I saw a trickle of tear drops streaming down her face. I felt bad. "Help me bring him inside the house," she said to me, "He's still alive, do not worry." I was about to argue that he went crazy on me but decided to keep my mouth closed. She tried to lift the body and I refused to let her. I did the carrying on my own as she led me to her house. > A few weeks later. . . The weeks was restful and calm inside the Anasimos's house. During the time, I found out that the old was, in fact, Anasimos's mother and that she asked me to stay in the house until her son wakes. I wasn't going to argue, it's been a long time since I laid on a real comfortable bed. The old lady's cooking was nothing to be ashamed of, too. She cooked food like how my own mother used to. I was enjoying my stay at this paradise when of course the inevitable end of it all comes. When Anasimos woke, he didn't saw me the way his mother did. He grabbed his sword and pointed it straight at me. Meanwhile, I stood there with my hands up, weaponless. I was already checking the million fighting tactics that Chiron drilled into my head, when Anasimos did the unexpected. He lowered his Apodosi, looked down, and knelt before me. "Please, you must teach me how to fight like that," he said, with a voice still hoarse with fatigue, "You say I'm the greatest warrior in the lands, yet you beat me like I was nothing. My father and I had dueled 57 times and I lost to him in all of them. Teach me, Master Gaius! Teach me, so the next time I faced my father, he shall be the one begging for mercy." I was taken back by the sudden change of heart. Then, I realized this is just what I needed. If I promise to train Anasimos, I will surely be able to get him to follow me. "Fine, I will pass on to you what I know," I said, confidently knowing that this relationship would benefit me a lot more than him. "Thank you, Master!" he exclaimed. Anasimos then stood up and put out his hand. I shook it tightly and said, "I'll train you in one condition, never call me Master." > You found your extra sword, plan the next move The forest around us were dense and beautiful. The natural ceiling above lets just the right amount of sunlight so it was never too hot and also not too cold. My nose lets in the familiar forest smells, a mixture of plant-life and naturally fertile soil. Shiny butterflies flew here and there. The forest was a sight to behold. Naturally, I steeled my senses. A forest with this beauty could only mean one thing: a trap. I expected a monster that can put on a disguise or something that is entire invisible. But, what we look for might be a little bit more dangerous than a monster. It's been a few months since Anasimos and I left Tedgora. I thought I would have to ask around nearby villages for the whereabouts of my hunter but all I had to do was ask the young warrior. "There are rumors about an incredible hunter who hunts monsters, no man would even dare hunt," he said, "They said that this hunter's so good, no one is better except only Lady Artemis herself." With that in mind, obviously, we hunt for the monsters that no man would hunt, and hope that we run into the elusive hunter. Thus, we are currently trekking this forest, a forest which homes a powerful monster that has been terrorizing another village nearby. Finding this monster shouldn't be too difficult. What shall we do?" > You split up, so you can search more grounds "Anasimos, search the left side of the forest while I go right," I ordered Anasimos, "Give signal if you see anything." Anasimos nods and disappeared into the the thick shrubbery. Alone, I reveled in the silence. My thoughts became so loud and clear, I thought there was another person right beside me, speaking. The thought only made me doubt my surroundings more so I banished it from my head. Remembering all the hunting training that I went through with Chiron, I surveyed the ground for tracks. I had to walk about ten more steps until I found them. Faint tracks leading to the north. They weren't from humans beings, I was sure. Suddenly, a loud, feminine shout echoed through the forest. "HELP!" the voice yelled, "THE LION'S OVER HERE!" I looked up and barely saw the source of the shouts, a figure with long brown hair running northwards. She was wearing a hunter's garment, a long bow slung across her back along with a full quiver of arrows. In one glimpse, I knew this was the hunter we're looking for. But, if the stories about her was true, why is she asking for our help? Without further thinking, I followed her. > You follow the hunter I followed and followed until the destination I'm heading for entered my sights. The lady's voice led me to a clearing in the forest. There was a pile of rocks the size of a small hill, right in the middle. At the top of the pile, one huge rock was angled at just the right amount to create a dark, gaping mouth which led to what seemed to be a dark, gaping cave. I unsheathed my sword and decided to plan my next move. If the stories from the nearby villages were right, this monster is strong. Even the mighty Hercules had a difficult time killing one of them. This made the monster so terrifying that no sane man would try to hunt it. Anasimos and I had an agreement to face this monster at the same time so as not to put ourselves in more danger than we are already in. But, in my head, I was thinking, I fought Titans and giants more dangerous than any monsters in the lands. What should I do? > You go in alone, you can take care of a single lion Sure enough, Anasimos was hiding behind a huge rock just inside the dark cave. "Where have you been?" he whispered, "I was waiting for you. Now, look over there." He pointed towards the kneeling figure right in front of us. The cave was as big as Kronos's cell in Tartarus, except for its height. The rocky ceiling was just an average height, about ten feet above my head. The rock formation opened up in one part of the cave roof which let in a stream of bright light in the middle of the dark cave. As if by tradition, the light illuminated the girl in the hunter's garment who shouted for help. She was kneeling on the largest rock in the cave and she seemed to be sobbing. Her brown hair along with her body shook in time with the gasps of air. "Well, what are you waiting for?" I asked Anasimos in whispers, "The cave seems clear yet you wait here doing nothing while a damsel in distress is over there crying to herself." I scolded him like this lesson should be obvious to him but I thought what would Chiron say? He would say it's a trap, but then again, Chiron saw everything as a trap. Once, Chiron and I went to a nearby village to get some food. A little kid, suddenly, offered him a slice of bread that the kid was eating. I had never seen Chiron so scared in my life. He froze and I had to take the bread and then give it to my master. He finally unfroze and said It could've been a trap. I never laughed so hard in my life. Back to the current situation, what should I do? > You approach carefully I looked up and started to walk towards the crying lady. I was halfway to her when another voice shouted out, "GET AWAY FROM IT!" With reflexes trained never to flinch, I jumped away from the crying girl. The girl being startled by the loud noise looked up and I was surprised to see her face, or rather its face. She had huge fangs protruding from her mouth, and golden eyes with pupils like a cat's. The roar that came out from her wasn't human in any way. Confused, I searched where the loud warning came from. I looked back towards the entrance of the cave and saw an amazing sight. Another girl was standing there casting a huge shadow over my face. She looked almost identical to the monster behind me but she was clearly a mortal, probably the same age as me. Her long brown hair was parted away from her face and her green eyes focused on the monster behind me. She expertly notched and shot it behind me. I shook myself awake from being dazed and refocused my attention to the monster in front of me. The arrow that the other girl shot bounced off her skin like it was nothing. The skin then became hairy until her whole body was covered in golden fur. Her brown hair grew longer and covered the circumference of her face. Also, she grew about ten feet high then went down on all fours. Within a minute, the crying girl has transformed into a giant, bloodthirsty lion. My sword grew heavier in my hands then Anasimos and the brown-haired girl appeared by my side. "The Nemean Lion is infamous for its ability to disguise itself as a beautiful maiden to lure heroes to its trap," the girl said, "But, of course, most heroes are men. Who else would be stupid enough to be caught into such an obvious trap?" I didn't have time to become annoyed by the insult because the lion appeared to mimic a cat's actions when its about to pounce. The brown-haired girl doesn't seem to notice this and was continuing her rant about how stupid men can be. Typical. > You push her out of the way! The lion pounced. A giant form hurling itself towards us with unbelievable strength. I barely had time to reach so I pushed the brown-haired girl out of the way and took the blunt of the attack. The lion's mouth was right in front of my face, I was lucky to be able to use my arms to keep the mouth in just a safe distance. The lion bared its teeth and snapped at my face, I might not be able to keep this up longer. I have to do something fast! > You grab on to its fangs then kick the lion off of you Using my inhuman strength, I grabbed on to two of fangs. Before the lion could close its mouth while my hands were in there, I mustered all my power and unleashed it all in one kick. The well-placed kick sent the lion flying off of me. It landed on the giant rocks at the center of the cave, unconscious. I looked around for my sword and replaced it along my back. In my hands were two of the lion's fangs. Suddenly, I remembered all of the stories about Hercules killing the Nemean Lion. We're about to win this fight. > You call to Anasimos With one word, Anasimos appeared by my side along with the brown-haired girl. They looked at what I had in my hands with wide eyes. "That's the lion's fangs," the girl said, with clear amazement. "With a powerful hide, no other weapon would be able to wound the lion, making it almost invulnerable," I said, remembering the old stories, "Hercules was the only one to succeed because he was the only one to use its own fangs against it." The storytelling had to stop because I heard the noises of the lion waking up behind us. I gave one of the fangs to Anasimos and asked, "You know what to do, right?" He nodded and that's all I needed to see. "What about me?" the girl asked. "You get to kill your monster some other time," I answered, "Now, you just stay behind me." I know she would have argued more but then the lion pounced on us once again. The three of us dodged in different directions, confusing the giant lion. As if by silent communication, the three of us knew the plan. The brown-haired girl shot three arrows to the lion's open mouth. Because it wasn't covered with its hide, the arrows sunk deep into its jaws and blood gushed out. While the lion was distracted, Anasimos and I charged at the beast. Even with lesser time to react, the lion was able to whip its tail just in time to knock Anasimos off his feet and hit the rocky cave walls. Me, however, was able to deliver the decisive stab on the lion's side. The lion roared in pain as I push its fang deeper into its body. Then, leaving the fang in, I dragged it across its torso creating a wound about a meter long. The lion fell on the ground, started to convulse, and then froze like a statue. A dark red ocean started forming underneath its corpse. > You examine the damage I examined the large room to assess the damage. The girl was kneeling by Anasimos's unconscious body. Leaving the lion's fang right by its corpse, I started for them. "He's unconscious, but didn't suffer any fatal wounds," the girl said, "What were you doing here anyway?" With the amount of pride of I have with my medical knowledge, I decided to trust the girl's word. Anasimos is important for my quest, I can't have him dying before fulfilling his purpose. Getting back to the girl's question, I raked my brain for the answer. "Isn't it obvious?," I answered, with a question which is very unlike me, "We're here to vanquish the monster that was terrorizing the village nearby. We could've handled the situation better if you didn't show up." I was surprised by the sudden hostility I felt towards the girl. "When I came here, you were walking towards the monster completely oblivious of the trap," she argued, with hostility just as much as I did. I was going to argue more but Anasimos started moving and suddenly stood up, like nothing happened. "Fair lady, forgive my master's words," he said, "We're only tired from the previous fight, that's all. We have another mission just as important as the one we just finished." I looked down in guilt as my own student apologized for my own actions. "We're looking for a hunter that could help us with our quest," Anasimos continued, "Would you tell us your name?" "My mother named me Saria," the hunter answered. I felt a great burden being lifted off my shoulders. It was her. Saria, the legendary huntress who hunts the monster no man would dare hunt. "Well, Saria, seeing your prowess in battle, first hand, would you care to help me in my quest?" I asked her, unknowingly extending my hand towards her. She shrugged then answered, "You still owe me one kill, anyway. I will go with you but I have to do something first." Just what I wanted to hear. We shall be on our way, hunting the Ophiotaurus in no time. Gratified, I said, "As you wish, take all the time you need." She picked up the other fang that Anasimos had and walked towards the corpse of the lion. With clear experience and skill, she skinned the Nemean Lion. Within seconds, she held up the golden lion's pelt for all to see. "Great, this shall help us on our quest definitely," I said, eyeing the pelt. Saria just smiled and said, "You're mistaken, this shall aid only my pockets and nothing more. Count this as your payment for me saving your life." I decided it's no use to argue and the three of us made our way out of the cave.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The lion pounced. A giant form hurling itself towards us with unbelievable strength. I barely had time to reach so I pushed the brown-haired girl out of the way and took the blunt of the attack. The lion's mouth was right in front of my face, I was lucky to be able to use my arms to keep the mouth in just a safe distance. The lion bared its teeth and snapped at my face, I might not be able to keep this up longer. I have to do something fast! > You punch the lion in the face The lion was jerking my body like crazy. Almost dizzy, I mustered all my power and punched the lion right at its snout. My punch must've been so powerful because it sent the lion flying off of me. It landed on the large rocks in the middle of the cave, unconscious. I was gasping for air as I try to stand up. Looking down by my feet, I saw two bloody fangs. It must've come off when I punched the lion. I picked up the fangs. Then, suddenly, all the stories about Hercules killing the Nemean Lion came rushing through my head. We're about to win this fight.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>I looked up and started to walk towards the crying lady. I was halfway to her when another voice shouted out, "GET AWAY FROM IT!" With reflexes trained never to flinch, I jumped away from the crying girl. The girl being startled by the loud noise looked up and I was surprised to see her face, or rather its face. She had huge fangs protruding from her mouth, and golden eyes with pupils like a cat's. The roar that came out from her wasn't human in any way. Confused, I searched where the loud warning came from. I looked back towards the entrance of the cave and saw an amazing sight. Another girl was standing there casting a huge shadow over my face. She looked almost identical to the monster behind me but she was clearly a mortal, probably the same age as me. Her long brown hair was parted away from her face and her green eyes focused on the monster behind me. She expertly notched and shot it behind me. I shook myself awake from being dazed and refocused my attention to the monster in front of me. The arrow that the other girl shot bounced off her skin like it was nothing. The skin then became hairy until her whole body was covered in golden fur. Her brown hair grew longer and covered the circumference of her face. Also, she grew about ten feet high then went down on all fours. Within a minute, the crying girl has transformed into a giant, bloodthirsty lion. My sword grew heavier in my hands then Anasimos and the brown-haired girl appeared by my side. "The Nemean Lion is infamous for its ability to disguise itself as a beautiful maiden to lure heroes to its trap," the girl said, "But, of course, most heroes are men. Who else would be stupid enough to be caught into such an obvious trap?" I didn't have time to become annoyed by the insult because the lion appeared to mimic a cat's actions when its about to pounce. The brown-haired girl doesn't seem to notice this and was continuing her rant about how stupid men can be. Typical. > You dodge the attack and let the lion shut her mouth I jumped away from her, hoping to avoid the attack. The brown-haired girl noticed what happened and reacted as such. The lion pounced on her and she dodged it with such grace, one might mistake her maneuver as a dance move. She shot three arrows at the lion as a counter attack but they bounced off harmlessly on its hide. The girl was in trouble, I had to help. Using my godly speed, I ran in front of the lion, hoping I could distract it from killing her. Unfortunately, my plan worked. As I ran around the cave, the lion followed me with its gaze. I was breathing in gasps, then the lion maneuvered its body so it stood right in front of me. With a quick pounce, it was right on top of me. The lion snapped its jaws just inches away from my face. Anasimos, realizing that I was in trouble, appeared underneath the lion and kicked the giant off me. It landed on the giant rocks at the center of the cave, unconscious. The kick must've been really powerful because I saw something come out of the lion's open mouth. Two of its fangs was knocked off after the kick. Suddenly, I remembered all of the stories about Hercules killing the Nemean Lion. We can win this fight.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>I followed and followed until the destination I'm heading for entered my sights. The lady's voice led me to a clearing in the forest. There was a pile of rocks the size of a small hill, right in the middle. At the top of the pile, one huge rock was angled at just the right amount to create a dark, gaping mouth which led to what seemed to be a dark, gaping cave. I unsheathed my sword and decided to plan my next move. If the stories from the nearby villages were right, this monster is strong. Even the mighty Hercules had a difficult time killing one of them. This made the monster so terrifying that no sane man would try to hunt it. Anasimos and I had an agreement to face this monster at the same time so as not to put ourselves in more danger than we are already in. But, in my head, I was thinking, I fought Titans and giants more dangerous than any monsters in the lands. What should I do? > You wait for Anasimos, there's no way you'll win if this monster gave even Hercules a hard time I decided to wait for my new-found ally. With this decision, the cave mouth seemed to become more and more tempting and alluring. Like it was asking to come in and just finish the hunt. But, Anasimos treated me like his master and I should treat him like my student. Loyalty and trustworthiness are some traits that a student should always learn from his teacher. My wait seemed like hours and my sword grew heavy in my arms. I never took my eyes off the cave at the fear of the monster making a surprise attack. I was reduced to playing with the rocks to pass the time when I heard a familiar noise. Tweet, Tweet it went. A bird call. I knew it was Anasimos calling for me right away because his bird call doesn't sound like any bird that lives in this lands at all. I almost smiled at this thought but another thought was processed in my head. The sound was coming from inside the cave itself. Anasimos has been waiting for me, all this time, inside the cave while I waste my time out here.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The forest around us were dense and beautiful. The natural ceiling above lets just the right amount of sunlight so it was never too hot and also not too cold. My nose lets in the familiar forest smells, a mixture of plant-life and naturally fertile soil. Shiny butterflies flew here and there. The forest was a sight to behold. Naturally, I steeled my senses. A forest with this beauty could only mean one thing: a trap. I expected a monster that can put on a disguise or something that is entire invisible. But, what we look for might be a little bit more dangerous than a monster. It's been a few months since Anasimos and I left Tedgora. I thought I would have to ask around nearby villages for the whereabouts of my hunter but all I had to do was ask the young warrior. "There are rumors about an incredible hunter who hunts monsters, no man would even dare hunt," he said, "They said that this hunter's so good, no one is better except only Lady Artemis herself." With that in mind, obviously, we hunt for the monsters that no man would hunt, and hope that we run into the elusive hunter. Thus, we are currently trekking this forest, a forest which homes a powerful monster that has been terrorizing another village nearby. Finding this monster shouldn't be too difficult. What shall we do?" > You just stay together, unless the monster finds you first "We shall stick together, for now," I said to Anasimos. "We shall," Anasimos replied, "This monster we seek would be harder to kill than it is find, I would expect." And with that, silence enveloped my make-shift party. Both Anasimos and I, both with proper training for hunting, searched the forest for signs left by a monster infestation. I knew he was as focused as I am so there was no time for chatter. After making ten steps from where we were, I stopped. "Listen," I whispered, so softly I didn't think Anasimos heard it. Anasimos stopped in his tracks and turned to stone. We listened and heard what I heard before. Footsteps, from a human, most likely. In a silent agreement, both of us headed straight to the footsteps's direction. We almost made it when a loud cry echoed through the forest, stopping us once again. "HELP!" the voice said, "THE LION'S OVER HERE!" Torn, I told Anasimos to follow the footsteps, while I head towards the voice. I didn't like splitting up inside an obvious trap but I had no choice. With a nod, Anasimos disappeared in the thick shrubbery. Alone, I went to the direction of the cry.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"That's a dirty trick you played there, son of Zeus," he said, brandishing the giant sword that he held with surprising ease. "I'm guessing you felt my presence long before I felt yours," I said, quite amazed, "How about we introduce ourselves before we kill each other?" Without waiting for anything, he said, "My name is Anasimos, son of Ares and bearer of the Curse of Achilles!" pointing his giant sword at me, "My Apodosi and I will tear you to shreds and teach you a lesson your father never knew." I smiled. A giant sword named yield is not something to be serious about. Furthermore, he bathe in the River Styx which makes him almost indestructible. I would enjoy this fight. Then, I stopped the crazy man's attitude and became serious again. "My name is Gaius, son of the Lord Zeus and slayer of the mighty Typhon!" I shouted. The skies started turning dark and terrifying. I hoped to see even a small look of worry in Anasimos's face, but was surprised to see nothing. This man has seen things a lot more sinister than me. Excellent. > You summon lightning bolts and shoot at him I concentrated with all my might on the dark clouds that loomed threateningly above Tedgora. I raised my hand and lightning erupted from the gray skies. The bolt directly hit me and I felt the energy flowing through my nerves. I carefully led it towards my arms and shot them out through my fingers, straight at Anasimos's body. The young warrior expertly dodged the first lightning bolt but was surprised to see another one. The second bolt hit him square in the chest and made him take a knee. I thought the battle was over but Anasimos, suddenly, looked up and had a different expression in his face. A look of pure anger and hatred resonated in his eyes that made me almost terrified. From his kneel, he pounced at me. He covered the distance in one leap, a leap that's impossible for any mortal. I blocked his strike which sent an invisible shockwave of pure power around the village. With impossible speeds, Anasimos and I were locked in a deadly sword dance. A smile spread across my face, it has been a long time since I fought such a worthy opponent. We were locked in a furious battle for a long time and I sensed fatigue overcoming Anasimos's mortal body. Using this advantage, I was able to place a powerful kick straight at his chest. He didn't have enough time to react and was sent about ten feet backwards. I was surprised to see what happened next. It wasn't the fact that Anasimos stood back up like nothing. It was because his skin glowed a bloody shade of red. What stood before me now looked nothing like a mortal being, it was a monster.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"That's a dirty trick you played there, son of Zeus," he said, brandishing the giant sword that he held with surprising ease. "I'm guessing you felt my presence long before I felt yours," I said, quite amazed, "How about we introduce ourselves before we kill each other?" Without waiting for anything, he said, "My name is Anasimos, son of Ares and bearer of the Curse of Achilles!" pointing his giant sword at me, "My Apodosi and I will tear you to shreds and teach you a lesson your father never knew." I smiled. A giant sword named yield is not something to be serious about. Furthermore, he bathe in the River Styx which makes him almost indestructible. I would enjoy this fight. Then, I stopped the crazy man's attitude and became serious again. "My name is Gaius, son of the Lord Zeus and slayer of the mighty Typhon!" I shouted. The skies started turning dark and terrifying. I hoped to see even a small look of worry in Anasimos's face, but was surprised to see nothing. This man has seen things a lot more sinister than me. Excellent. > You kick dirt into Anasimos's eyes With all my might, I kicked the dirt under my feet straight onto Anasimos's eyes. I was surprised to see that he didn't even try to dodge it. The young warrior stood there and accepted the dirty trick as it hits his eyes. He shook his head mightily and reopened his eyes, like nothing happened. A worthy opponent indeed. . .<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>I decided to look for an extra sword to fight for my side. Standing at this tavern, where many warriors would spend their time, I thought, my search would be easy. The humid air filled with the disgusting stench of whatever poisonous drink the customers are devouring. With this number of warriors drunk over their heads, it's almost impossible for me not to find a lead about the strongest warrior here. I looked around the room examining every warrior present. No one looked even remotely promising. Most of them are laughing and having a great time, a quality which, Chiron told me, is a quality that a great fighter would never have. A great warrior is always at the top of his condition; never purposely clouding his judgement in case an unexpected danger or fight comes. He will always be ready and his decisions always intelligent. Who I seek is not here with me. But I can still find out where to look for him. > You shout out the question "I'M LOOKING FOR THE STRONGEST WARRIOR THERE IS!" I shouted at the center of the room. Suddenly, all the talking stopped and I felt all the eyes in the room staring at me. The loud bustling around the tavern that brought the place a lively and carefree atmosphere had vanished. The seconds seemed like hours as I look at the eyes of each and everyone of them as if trying to gain information from them just by staring. I unsheathed then raised my sword and said, in a softer voice, "I'm a rich adventurer whose on a quest. Now, my quest requires me an extra sword by my side. And I don't need just the average warrior either, I need the best of the best." I felt the gaze of the others becoming more intense, probably asking if I could actually pay them with enough money. One of the warriors finally got the courage to speak and said, with words slurred, "I'm th-the best w-wwa-rrior in this village." A sudden clamor erupted from the crowd. Scattered "I'm the best there is!" and "Pick me, I need the money!" came from almost everyone in the room. I raised my hand and everyone quieted down again. "If the greatest warrior is one of you," I said, "then I challenge all of you in a duel. The first one to touch my sword, wins!" I, then, carefully replaced my sword back to its holster along my back. The room was deadly silent now, I knew because everyone was silent for a different reason than before. Everyone's carefully considering and planning how they can touch my sword. I thank human greed for this one! I heard poorly hidden footsteps coming from my back, idiot. With a quick kick, the drunk man flew out the entrance door. Seeing that touching the sword might not be too easy, the others charged me in a big group. They were no match for my godly speed and expert focus. My body moved almost automatically, kicking and punching anyone whose unfortunate enough to get close. I smiled the whole time but not a crazy madman smile. It was like the old times, sparring with my trainer and this brought back good memories. In minutes, every warrior was down. The chairs and the tables were scattered everywhere, broken bottle shards littered the floor. Around me, there was a circle of unconscious bodies. I wiped my forehead, didn't even broke a sweat. There was only one man left whose standing. An old man with a sword in his hand. I figured he was a retired soldier and seeing the way he stood, I doubt he was really going to attack me. I held up my hand before he gets any ideas. "Do you know where I can search for the real warrior that I'm looking for?" I asked the man, with utmost seriousness in my voice. The man dropped his stance and sagged his shoulders. I knew the promise of wealth to anyone is really promising but a great warrior wouldn't do anything just to gain money. The man shifted from toe to toe then said, "In the village, Tedgora, east of here, there's a man. . . " I didn't hear the rest because I was already out the door, heading east.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>I flexed my muscles and felt the force break around me like glass shattering. In one fluid motion, my sword was pointed at Kronos. "You will answer my question, Kronos, or suffer the same fate as your brother, Typhon," I said staring at Kronos intently and studying him, in case I had no choice but to beat the answer out of him. He looked pathetic compared to Typhon. I would guess it's because Kronos was supposedly dismembered before being locked away here in Tartarus. I came to Tartarus to seek the help of Kronos on how to defeat the Gods. Who else would know more than Zeus's own father about killing his own son; the son who overthrew his own father to become the King of the World, sliced him to pieces, and locked him up here. I figured I have a good chance with completing this task easily because Zeus and Kronos's relationship is as good as me and my own father's. "How can I defeat your son, Zeus?" I asked. The figure didn't move a muscle. > You throw a lightning bolt at him I concentrated and looked for the heavenly powers that are inside me. I pointed two fingers at Kronos and from them shot off a lightning bolt straight at his chest. To my surprise, the bolt didn't even seem to faze him though the air parted at the ferocity of the released power. This lack of reaction annoyed me so I fired off nine more lightning bolts at Kronos. After the ninth bolt, I felt for my energy and was surprised to find out that it's not there. My breath started to come out in gasps. Looking at Kronos, I was a little glad to see that at least I did cause some damage. Golden ichor, the blood of the immortals, gushed out of the wounds that I caused. "Speak, Titan!" I yelled. A dark laughter echoed through the bronze cage. "My body is used to getting hit by lightning bolts," he said, "And with weak lightning bolts like that, there's no way you will defeat my son!" Obviously, I was annoyed. This titan has bronze shackles around his arms and he dares insult me? I turned my anger into concentration. Then as fast as a lightning bolt, I climbed up Krono's body, slashing at every bit of flesh that wasn't already covered in wounds. I hacked and slashed, down his legs, then up his shoulder, waiting for a different response from him. Kronos howled in pain. I had to suppress a dark smile from showing on my lips. I felt the same forces that I felt earlier trying to disable my movements again, but I broke through them like they're nothing. I concentrated then shot a powerful lightning bolt from my fingers which hit the titan square in the chest. This was the last that he would take from me. "Stop this madness! I'll tell you what you need to know," Kronos pleaded, "Just stop hurting me!" I obeyed and stopped, waiting for the answer I've been longing for. "Consider yourself lucky that these chains bind me and weaken my powers. If it weren't for them, you would be dead right now," Kronos sighed. For a moment, I felt curious and somewhat tempted to release him from his shackles. Surely, he couldn't be more powerful than Typhon and I handled Typhon easily. Then, I imagined the time control ability he had and blew it up ten times stronger. I saw myself standing like a statue while Kronos prepared to strike; his ability could give him a little edge when he's unleashed. I striked him again, with a sinister smile on my face. "Do not speak unless you speak of the answer I want. Refuse to tell me the answer and I would cut off your tounge so you will never speak again," I said. Gritting his teeth, he said, "There's a very rare creature called the Ophiotaurus. They say that killing it and burning its entrails would give its killer the power to kill the Gods. I have no further knowledge about it but the moment I break free, hunting the Ophiotaurus would be the first thing I'd do." I looked back towards the dark door I came from and started walking. I didn't listen to Kronos while he said, "Alone. . . you will. . . not. . ." the rest of his words were drowned out when darkness swallowed my form again. Then I made my way back to the surface.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Tartarus was dark. Even with my newfound powers, I actually felt a little hesitant "swimming" through it. Now, to be more precise, Tartarus is not like land on earth nor water in the ocean. In this place, darkness is an actual thing you can touch, like swimming through something solid. I feel the power that is so old and so ancient, I shuddered to think who or what could be the source of it. Here it comes, I'm losing it. Everyone, even the Gods, are afraid to even set foot in Tartarus because it's basically the Prison of the Gods. This is the place where the most powerful and the most evil villains in Greek history are kept. I knew one wrong move and it wouldn't even matter if I'm a God. . . I will die. I concentrated. I thought of my mother, dying in my arms. I thought of King Percix, whose body probably disintegrated along with the others in my village. I thought of the moment I told Zeus that I accept whatever sacrifice he asks. I collected all my anger and all my fear, and used it to create a wall of thirst and determination in my mind. With it, I was able to push through. With eyes closed, I swam through, knowing that opening them wouldn't even matter. I concentrated on one name inside my head, the one name that I was seeking for in the first place. That's when I felt a pulling force leading me towards a place with dim light. I followed the force, obediently, and I hated every second of it. Here I am, with almost unlimited powers, and yet I'm still not the one in control. My eyes had to adjust to the weak light that swallowed up the darkness. When my vision cleared, I was standing at a prison cell. There are no source of light anywhere. The pale light comes from the bronze walls that enclosed the cell. Looking up, I found out that the ceiling is too high to be seen. There's nothing else in the room except for the chained figure in front of me. With chains as thick as a whale's body, a giant, hunched-over humanoid figure stood in front of me. I've met Gods before, and this one was only slightly different. His presence sends out an old aura; an aura that was probably as ancient as the creation of the world. I tried to unsheathe my sword, which slung sheathed along my back, but I was forced to stop. A force was preventing me from moving. It was like time was being controlled to do someone's bidding. After some struggles, I came to find out that the force is not as solid as one would think. Imagine a group of men trying to hold your body down instead of invisible chains totally binding you from moving. You can fight the force, the changing with the time. I wasn't as nearly surprised because it would make sense. The whole time magic thing is a signature by none other than the legendary Titan Kronos, the Lord of Time. > You ask THE question, leniently I stepped forward so I can get a better view of the Titan. The same force earlier stopped me in mid-stride. His face looked powerful and dangerous yet it also looked old and frail. He stands with his eyes closed almost like he's meditating or sleeping while standing. I convinced myself that there is no reason to take out my weapon or act aggressively because I knew for a fact that we're on the same side. "Kronos, the all-mighty Lord of Time, I've come to ask you a question you would surely know the answer to," I said, trying hard not to add malice or sarcasm in my words, "What is the best way to defeat your son, Zeus?" At the sound of the compliment, Kronos opened his eyes and looked at me. There was nothing in them, only blackness, like the darkness has swallowed his eyes, too. "You thought that you would just walk in here and ask for that secret?" Kronos said with a voice that might've been powerful before, but right now sounds weak and defeated, "You thought I would give you the answer that easily?" Answer: > You yes, you hate Zeus as much as you do "Maybe you didn't know before, but your son has wronged the both of us," I said, "You thirst for revenge as much as I do." It would make sense. In the old legends, Zeus overthrew Kronos for the throne in the heavens and sliced him up. The sky god then shackled the dismembered Kronos here at Tartarus. If I was him, I would use all my time in here plotting for revenge. "Surely with all the time you spent down here, you already deviced a plan for revenge!" I said, unsure where the sudden certainty that filled my voice came from. Kronos smiled, but there was no joy nor happiness in them, only pain. "You want to kill my son?" he asked, "Well the best weapon to do it is right here chained up. Free me and together we will defeat Zeus and take back my Kingdom!" I pondered the severity of this choice. Freeing Kronos would be a great help if I was to kill Zeus. But, I thought, what would he do if I do give him the throne in Olympus? I have no desire to sit on the throne myself because surely I am powerful but I am not a leader. I remembered the legends of the Golden Age of Greece; when Titans ruled the lands. When humans never have to suffer death. No one has to suffer losing people they love. "Are you brave or strong enough to even break my chains?" Kronos asked, ending my thinking, "We shall see Olympus destroyed with you and me in the middle of the flames!" > You break the chains and unleash Kronos! "You better not make me regret this," I said. I mustered all the powers within me and broke the chains that imprisoned the titan. The bronze chains hit the ground with a loud boom. Kronos didn't move at first. Then, his face changed. He looked dark and sinister, I thought again why I freed him in the first place. The promise of a better world and no one dying, but how can I forget that with Olympus destroyed, all the world as I know it would be destroyed and changed also. I steeled myself preparing to correct the huge mistake that I just made. The sword in my hand felt heavy and I feel my chest pumping in fear that was not showing at all in my face. I decided to charge the titan. I took a step and suddenly time started slowing down and finally stopping everything. I tried to break through the force like before but it's much more stronger now. I stood there paralyzed while Kronos straightened his stance. From down here, I could tell that Typhon was taller and much scarier, physically. The difference is that Kronos now wields his signature scythe; the very scythe that was used by Zeus to kill him. It stands at twent feet tall almost as tall as Kronos who stands at probably twice that height. There was an aura of ancient bloodthirst and determination that surrounded Kronos. "One touch from the blade of this scythe and your soul will be severed from your body," Kronos bragged, lifting up his weapon. I tried to break free from the force with all my might but it wouldn't budge. In fear, I was forced to step back. To my surprise, I found it easier to step back from the Titan. I had a ridiculous theory. Using all my willpower, I was able to back up fast enough to dodge Kronos's strike. With the scythe only inches away from my body, I felt my soul being tugged towards it, which didn't help me at all. Kronos's power over time weakens the farther away from him I get. I imagined a sort of magical field surrounding Kronos's body that would paralyze anyone who would cross it. Outside his magical field, I was able to move around and think of a way to stop him. > You look around the room I tried my best not to get close to Kronos. There must be something I could do to stop this monster. My eyes scanned the empty room and was attracted by a dim shine coming from something. That could work! I made my way to the thing, careful not to get in Kronos's magic field. It's bronze color made it almost invisible on the bronze floor but because I knew it was there I wasn't fooled. I knew that this idea would be my death if it fails but at the top of my lungs I shouted, "Kronos! I can see that you've gotten slower over the years! Would you like to take a reprieve?" Kronos's reaction surprised me, but I was ready for it. He smiled the same evil smile and apparently bent the time around him to make him almost appear out of thin air in front of me. "I can be as fast or as slow as I want," he said, lifting his scythe once again getting ready to strike me down, "Why would I rush through killing you when I can enjoy it as long as I can?" I started to feel time being bent around me again, slowing my movements. But, this time I was a little faster than time. As Kronos lowered his weapon for the kill, I picked up the chains that used to bind him from the ground and tied his arm with it. The enchanted bronze drained his power once again and made Kronos drop his scythe. I felt the magical field starting to weaken again and I used my speed to fasten the other chain around his other arm. "NO!" was the only word Kronos could shout as I tied the chains back to the ground and imprison the mighty Lord of Time once again. My breath came in gasps. I didn't notice how much energy it took me to work around Kronos's ability to bend time until the fight was done. I shuddered after imagining what would've happened if the chains weren't there. > You squeeze an answer out of Kronos! Holding the scythe in my own hands felt even better than being turned into a God. I noticed that after the battle, Kronos's scythe dropped to the ground right by him. Thankfully, the hilt doesn't have the same curse that its blade has, of reaping the soul of anyone who touches it, so it was alright for me to wield the scythe. Maybe I could use this to my advantage. I slashed at the weakened Kronos. The slash took a huge chunk off of his thigh and when I say "took it", I was not exaggerating. The blade "ate" at Kronos's flesh completely devouring the missing part of Kronos's legs. Kronos howled in pain then seemed to chuckle from his current situation. "Another God using my own weapon against me," he whispered almost to himself. I gave him another hit, this time only with the blunt of the scythe. I knew I won't get any answers from Kronos if he passed out from being "eaten" by his own weapon. The hit closed his mouth for him. "You will not speak," I told the titan, "Unless you speak of another way to defeat Zeus." I knew it would've been pleasurable to torture him but I refuse to become like my father. The titan kept quiet. I feinted another strike and that broke him. "Enough! Stop this madness! I'll tell you what you need to know!" he shouted, "There's a rare beast which, if stories are right, would give anyone the power to kill the Gods." A beast with enough power to defeat all the Gods? I shuddered at the thought of something having that kind of power. "What is it called?" I asked, "How do I find it?" "They called it the Ophiotaurus. They said if you sacrifice its entrails, it would grant you unlimited power," Kronos answered obediently, "But, like I told you, the Ophiotaurus is rare, I do not know where you can find it." Finally, we're done. I dropped the scythe and walked towards the door. I didn't listen to Kronos while he said, "Alone. . . you will. . . not. . ." the rest of his words were drowned out when darkness swallowed my form again. Then I made my way back to the surface.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"You better not make me regret this," I said. I mustered all the powers within me and broke the chains that imprisoned the titan. The bronze chains hit the ground with a loud boom. Kronos didn't move at first. Then, his face changed. He looked dark and sinister, I thought again why I freed him in the first place. The promise of a better world and no one dying, but how can I forget that with Olympus destroyed, all the world as I know it would be destroyed and changed also. I steeled myself preparing to correct the huge mistake that I just made. The sword in my hand felt heavy and I feel my chest pumping in fear that was not showing at all in my face. I decided to charge the titan. I took a step and suddenly time started slowing down and finally stopping everything. I tried to break through the force like before but it's much more stronger now. I stood there paralyzed while Kronos straightened his stance. From down here, I could tell that Typhon was taller and much scarier, physically. The difference is that Kronos now wields his signature scythe; the very scythe that was used by Zeus to kill him. It stands at twent feet tall almost as tall as Kronos who stands at probably twice that height. There was an aura of ancient bloodthirst and determination that surrounded Kronos. "One touch from the blade of this scythe and your soul will be severed from your body," Kronos bragged, lifting up his weapon. I tried to break free from the force with all my might but it wouldn't budge. In fear, I was forced to step back. To my surprise, I found it easier to step back from the Titan. I had a ridiculous theory. Using all my willpower, I was able to back up fast enough to dodge Kronos's strike. With the scythe only inches away from my body, I felt my soul being tugged towards it, which didn't help me at all. Kronos's power over time weakens the farther away from him I get. I imagined a sort of magical field surrounding Kronos's body that would paralyze anyone who would cross it. Outside his magical field, I was able to move around and think of a way to stop him. > You shoot lightning bolts at him I concentrated trying to find the power within me. Right there, where it always is. I felt the current coming from my gut and gushing through my arms. I pointed two fingers at the advancing titan and, from them, three powerful lightning bolts erupted. The giant staggered back but stood right up again and continued his way towards me. "Zeus's master bolt wasn't as weak as those petty lightning bolts yet Zeus still had trouble stopping me," Kronos said, his voice now sounded dark and powerful like his brother, Typhon's," Do you really think you can kill me?" An idea sprang to life in my brain. There's no way I can kill Kronos as long as I'm cornered in this room. I'm not trying to kill him, I'm just trying to stop him.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Maybe you didn't know before, but your son has wronged the both of us," I said, "You thirst for revenge as much as I do." It would make sense. In the old legends, Zeus overthrew Kronos for the throne in the heavens and sliced him up. The sky god then shackled the dismembered Kronos here at Tartarus. If I was him, I would use all my time in here plotting for revenge. "Surely with all the time you spent down here, you already deviced a plan for revenge!" I said, unsure where the sudden certainty that filled my voice came from. Kronos smiled, but there was no joy nor happiness in them, only pain. "You want to kill my son?" he asked, "Well the best weapon to do it is right here chained up. Free me and together we will defeat Zeus and take back my Kingdom!" I pondered the severity of this choice. Freeing Kronos would be a great help if I was to kill Zeus. But, I thought, what would he do if I do give him the throne in Olympus? I have no desire to sit on the throne myself because surely I am powerful but I am not a leader. I remembered the legends of the Golden Age of Greece; when Titans ruled the lands. When humans never have to suffer death. No one has to suffer losing people they love. "Are you brave or strong enough to even break my chains?" Kronos asked, ending my thinking, "We shall see Olympus destroyed with you and me in the middle of the flames!" > You this is definitely a trick, beat the right answer out of him. "YOU DARE TRY TO TRICK ME?" I shouted, angrily. Then, as fast as a lightning bolt, I climbed up Krono's body, slashing at every bit of flesh that wasn't already covered in wounds. I hacked and slashed, down his legs, then up his shoulder, waiting for a response from him. Within minutes, Ichor, the golden blood of immortals, glistened and gushed out of all the wounds that scattered across Kronos's body. Though there was still no movement that escaped from the titan, I sensed a faint sound that is coming out of his lips. A low whimper. The powerful titan is quietly crying in pain. I almost felt bad but suddenly the low whimper turned to a loud, vicious growl. "Curse you, son of Zeus! You have successfully killed my brother and now you're here adding to my endless torment," Kronos said, with voice that probably sounded really horrifying before but is now reduced to nothing short of a weakened moan. All the pity that I felt for the titan turned to disgust and embarassment. "I can't believe Zeus has broken you!" I scolded, "In the old stories, you would device ingenious plans to try and get revenge from your son. Now, I'm here asking for your aid so that I can defeat that very same son and you do nothing but cry and whine." I ended my speech with a quick stab at his leg. Kronos howled in pain. I felt the same forces that I felt earlier trying to disable my movements again, but I broke through them like they're nothing. I concentrated then shot a powerful lightning bolt from my fingers which hit the titan square in the chest. This was the last that he would take from me. "Stop this madness! I'll tell you what you need to know," Kronos pleaded, "Just stop hurting me!" I obeyed and stopped, waiting for the answer I've been longing for. "Consider yourself lucky that these chains bind me and weaken my powers. If it weren't for them, you would be dead right now," Kronos sighed. For a moment, I felt curious and somewhat tempted to release him from his shackles. Surely, he couldn't be more powerful than Typhon and I handled Typhon easily. Then, I imagined the time control ability he had and blew it up ten times stronger. I saw myself standing like a statue while Kronos prepared to strike; his ability could give him a little edge when he's unleashed. I striked him again, with a sinister smile on my face. "Do not speak unless you speak of the answer I want. Refuse to tell me the answer and I would cut off your tounge so you will never speak again," I said. Gritting his teeth, he said, "There's a very rare creature called the Ophiotaurus. They say that killing it and burning its entrails would give its killer the power to kill the Gods. I have no further knowledge about it but the moment I break free, hunting the Ophiotaurus would be the first thing I'd do." I looked back towards the dark door I came from and started walking. I didn't listen to Kronos while he said, "Alone. . . you will. . . not. . ." the rest of his words were drowned out when darkness swallowed my form again. Then I made my way back to the surface.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>On Saturday, December 17th, 2005, I proposed to Katrina, my girlfriend of five years. This storygame is based off of my actual proposal to Katrina. I've tried to keep thisas close to how it happened / was planned as possible. Since this is a choose-your-story, you will probably have a slightly different experience, but all paths will lead to the same place, since it was planned that way. You will be reading this story from the perspective of Katrina. > You oK, you've got it! It's Thursday night, a little after 9:00PM, and you just returned home from a twelve-hour workday. But it's all good -- this is the start of a long weekend -- your Birthday weekend -- and you've got five days before you have to return to the daily grind. You see that Alex's friends are over, feasting on Chinese food, and have ordered your favorite dish: General Tso's Chicken. You chow down while they finish up judging some $100 make-a-game contest for their website. They wrap things up after an hour or so, leaving just you, Alex, and a quiet house. You're a bit tired, but are a bit anxious about tomorrow. It's your birthday, and you're dying to know what Alex got for you. He's been talking about it for a few weeks and seems to have been having some shady dealings with some strange people. You have a good idea of what it is (an artifact of some sort) but really want to know what it is ...<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|> Another day home from school… “I’m telling you Ms. Zelamoyer is a witch, there’s no way she could know what we did unless she read our minds!” David says. “Yeah maybe she’s even a demon in human disguise!” Tom adds “Or maybe you two looked guilty as hell and laughed the loudest when she sat on the thumbtacks you put in her seat.” You say. “I told you guys that was a bad idea. I’m surprised she only paddled you and didn’t have you kicked out of the school permanently.” “Yeah well it didn’t even hurt. My dad beats me harder than that. Though I guess Tom thought it hurt with the way he cried! Hahahaha!” David taunts. “Shut up David!” Tom exclaims. “So are you playing Smash Sphere over in the park today?” David asks you. “I hope so, but my dad’s been on my case about me studying harder. Says he wants me to make something of myself when I grow up.” “That sucks. My dad is always either at the mines or drinking at your dad’s place. The only time I have to worry about him is when my mom tells him about something I did, then I get a beating. I don’t think I’d survive it if he was always around.” David replies. “My mom doesn’t beat me, but she’ll yell and throw me into a small dark closet without food if I do something bad.” Tom says. “Your mom is one scary ass dyke, Tom. My dad said he saw her scare away a mountain troll in the mines once.” “Shut up David! My mom’s not a dyke!” “Yes she is! What about that other lady that lives with you then?” “That’s just mom’s roommate! She needs a place to stay so she helps around the house, like cook dinner or clean up. Mom is at the mines all day, so she can’t do that stuff, so it works out. She’s kind of like a live in maid!” “Sounds more like a second mom…” As much as you enjoy Tom’s naïve defense of his lesbian mother and David’s taunting of it, you arrive at the Inn where you say goodbye to your friends and tell them you might see them later. As soon as you get in, you dad calls you over to the bar. “So do you have any homework?” he asks. “Yeah, but it’s not due until next week.” “Hmm, well if it’s not due until next week it must need a lot of attention, better get started on it.” “It’s really not that much dad, I can do it over the weekend. I’m going to go out and play smash sphere with David and Tom.” “Is that what you think? Better cancel that idea. You’re hitting the books, besides I vaguely remember you mentioning you were also going to have test next week too.” “But dad!” “Don’t dad me! You’ve been letting your school work slide lately and getting into trouble at school with those two little hoodlums you hang out with.” “They’re not hoodlums, and I didn’t get into trouble today!” “You aren’t supposed to be getting into trouble in the first place! Look son, I know you think I’m being hard on you, but this really is for your own good. Your little friends don’t have fathers that give shit about them, I should know because David’s dad is in here all the time and as for Tom, well the less said about his situation the better.” Doesn’t look like you’re getting out of here today, but you make one last attempt. “But I really don’t have that much homework, I really can do it quick over the weekend!” “Well if that is the case, you can help me out here instead.” “What?” “One of my barmaids is sick and I’m expecting a full house here tonight due to it being one of the miner’s birthdays today, so you can carry food and drinks.” You certainly weren’t expecting that. “What? Can’t mom do it?” “Your mother is going to have her hands full attempting to cook the giant cloudspeak ram in the kitchen for the celebration, in fact you can start off by helping her chop up the beast.” As usual your dad has given you no "choice" at all. > You resign yourself to doing your homework Well, you’d rather not do any real work and lying and sneaking out is probably just going to get you into more trouble. “Alright, I’ll do my homework!” you say. “Good choice son. Make sure you lock the door to the private quarters as usual.” You head upstairs to the third floor where your family has their own living space and lock the door. You get started on your homework to get it out of the way so you’ll at least have the weekend to enjoy. As you go through it, it’s a little more difficult than you thought it would be and it was probably good that you have given yourself a lot of time to work on it. A few hours pass and you’re finally finished. Your dad might be right; if you’d paid more attention in class your homework wouldn’t have taken as long. It’s too late now to go out and play even if you were allowed, but that still doesn’t mean you have to do anymore studying tonight. You spend the rest of the night playing with some of your toy soldiers and reading a few of your copper dreadfuls. You sometimes can hear some of the louder drunk miners using a bunch of curse words in an amusing way. Eventually you fall asleep. The next day you wake up early, your parents are still asleep so you grab some cookies before you go out to play. You run into Quincy on the way to David’s house. “Hey, where were you yesterday? You missed all the excitement!” Quincy says. “Yeah, I had to go my homework. Damn, I knew I was going to miss a good game of smash ball!” “No, not that! David and Tom got arrested!” “What!?” “Yeah! After we played a few games, we all went to the sweet shop. Well David and Tom tried to steal some of the candy and when Mr. Blek saw them, they ran off with it! They didn’t get far though. From what I know they spent the night in Juvie Hall!” This is surreal to you. Your dad was right again. You wonder if you would’ve went along with them and gotten in trouble as well if you’d snuck out yesterday. You can always say now that you wouldn’t have, but who knows at that moment? One thing is for sure; you’re not going to hang out with those two on a regular basis anymore. … The day is finally here and you’re heading off to Klyton University. All your hard work has finally paid off and your parents couldn’t be happier. “Now remember, I’ve been saving for your tuition since you were born, but remember why you’re there. To learn! I don’t want you getting caught up in wild parties and failing your classes. Maybe the upper class kids with super rich parents can afford to, but you can’t.” “I know dad.” “Oh, don’t mind your father, have some fun when you can. We know you’ll do the right thing.” For the most part you do, accomplish the right things in your days at Klyton University. You study, you make contacts, you make friends, and in your free time you have fun. You initially thought you might be “looked down on” due to your working class background. While there are a few like you here, a university education is still expensive and generally only the rich can afford to send their children there. Still, you managed to get here, you (and your family) must have earned it, and so you’re treated with respect. Your years at Klyton University are busy but happy ones. You can only imagine that when you just started you pre-med courses that more of the same would’ve come about, however that’s not to be… You’re in your dorm when you get the message from a courier. Your father has died of a heart attack. Happened suddenly last night while he was working and by the time a physician arrived nothing could be done to save him. You sit down in shock for a brief moment and when you finally gather your strength, you catch the next coach to the Miner’s Mug Inn. When you arrive the Inn is closed, so you let yourself in to find your mother who is unsurprisingly upset. You console her as best you can for the time being and help make the funeral arrangements. Your father didn’t want an expensive funeral, so it’s a small one. The Inn’s staff is invited along with a few of the miners that were genuinely friends with your dad. Everyone pays their respects before dear old dad is put into the ground. On your way home with your mother, you suddenly realize you’ve missed a couple classes during all this. You then start to wonder about your future college plans and while it’s still a fragile time for your mother, you need to ask her about it when you get home. You don’t know it yet, but you’re in for more shocking news… > The long talk “You’re selling the inn?!” “I have to! I can’t run this place myself.” “Well that’s what you have staff for!” “Oh son…(sniff) I don’t think you know the entire situation. You haven’t been around as much over the years.” “Mom, I always meant to visit more, but…” “No, it’s not that. In fact I’m glad you had fun at college. You at least had some enjoyment. I’m just sorry you won’t get to have any more.” “Mom, I don’t like where this is going.” You mom at this point begins cry again until you eventually get her to calm down. What comes next almost makes you cry though. While your father did indeed save for you, it wasn’t enough to put you through college completely. Costs were higher than he thought and even though business was okay, he had unexpected expenses such as making fixes to the inn and price hikes in his alcohol supplier. Your father was determined to not pull you out of college though, so he found another way. He borrowed money from a moneylender. “WHAT?! Why didn’t you tell me? I could’ve taken less classes or gotten a part time job at the university!” “No, he didn’t want you to worry or get distracted.” “Well I guess that’s good since all that worry can go to this now! By the gods, why didn’t he at least go to a bank to get the loan!?” “He tried, but didn’t get approved. They wouldn’t even take the inn as collateral. I pleaded with him not to borrow money from criminals, but he claimed it would be fine as long as he opened the tavern earlier, found a cheaper supplier and made a few cuts here and there. And for a while things were running a little smoother, but I could see the stress taking a toll on him. It’s what ultimately killed him. I’m just so sorry that we failed you. We wanted so much better for you. Now I’ll have to sell the inn off to pay off the moneylender and hopefully I’ll be able to find a job as a cook elsewhere.” You just sit in silence and try to wrap your head around all of this. Your bright future in medicine as you know is gone. You still have quite a bit of education, and you’re fairly certain you could still find a job to support yourself, but it’s going to be hard initially and you probably won’t be satisfied with it. You’re also worried about your mom, what if she can’t find a job? You won’t be able to help her much. You can only think of one solution. “Would it help if I ran the inn?” you ask. “What?” your mother replies. “Would it help if I helped you run this place. I mean granted I don’t have excessive experience, I have watched you guys do it while I grew up here. I think I can manage the basics. If we managed to keep this place running at least long enough to pay off the loan, maybe then I can save enough to finish my education.” “I don’t know son, I mean…I would love to see you finish your education, but it’s a lot to take on. Would you have time? I don’t want you getting burned out and suffering a pre-mature heart attack like your father because of the stress!” “Well, I’m going to have nothing but time now, if I drop out and focus on this place. I think the main concern is getting us out of debt…just how much do you owe?” “Uh…about ten thousand gold coins.” You really hoped it would be significantly less than that. “Okay, well I’m guessing he takes smaller payments to buy you time but then charges more interest with each passage of time. We’ll have to get this place whipped into shape so it’s making enough profit that we’ll be able to pay the entire sum as soon as possible. After that, we’ll have some breathing room.” Your mom looks apprehensive about all this and then shakes her head claiming she can’t let you shoulder this responsibility especially with the risk of physical danger involved if you anger the moneylender in some way. She says that you should go on with your life and forget about the inn, she’ll be able to sell it and pay off the debt with no problem. And as for her, she also tells you not to worry about her either, but she hopes that you’ll forgive her and your father for failing in giving you the life you deserve. It is true you could walk away from all this. You don’t really have any great desire to run the inn. It was just a solution you came up with to help your mom and possibly help yourself. But there’s no guarantee it’s going to work, just like there’s no guarantee that you can’t still achieve your goals on your own. > You take over the inn You shake your head; you can’t walk away from this. Your mom might be in serious trouble because this loan. Selling the inn might not even be enough to cover it and even if it is, she probably won’t have enough to fall back on. You aren’t angry with her, but you do feel a little anger towards your dad for getting her in this position (and you indirectly). You realize he still had the best intentions for you, but those don’t really help right now. “Alright first things first, who is the name of this loanshark?” you ask your mother. “Mr. Reynolds. He’ll be coming next week to pick up a collection. He’s not a member of the Crimson Talons, but he does have a couple of their goons working for him.” “The Crimson Talons? Oh geez, this just get better…okay how is this place doing for business?” “It’s doing about as well as it always has.” “That won’t be enough, we’ll need to get more people in here, or cut costs somehow.” “Well your father was going to have more work done on the rooms in the hopes that it would keep adventurers and maybe even merchants to come back whenever they travel through here. I’m not sure if it’s worth it though. Adventures don’t care where they sleep half the time and it’s not always a sure thing that they’re going to live long enough for repeat business. As for merchants, I think this place is a little too blue collar for them most of the time.” “You said something about getting a new liquor supplier?” “Yeah, the one here raised their prices, it would actually be cheaper to get the stuff shipped in from Hessla. Your father was supposed to meet with the new potential distributor in a couple days, so I’m not sure how that’s going to go through, if at all.” “How about the staff?” “The staff is working on minimum wage as it is, we’ve got three barmaids, Rita, Eliza and Wendy and they’re all disgruntled about their jobs, but they all still work well.. We can barely pay them though, and we might have to fire one of them. Grim stuff, but you’re determined to see this through. Since the liquor supplier from Hessla won’t arrive in two days you’re just going to focus on what you can do now. Fixing the rooms is still a good idea to keep potential returning wandering adventurers happy. Spending a little money now could increase potential profits later. Who knows, maybe even a merchant will show up and spread the word that this place isn’t just some place where miners get drunk. Firing people sounds like it might save you money, but all it’s really going to do is create more work for the rest of you, so you decide to hold off on firing anyone for now. Your mother doesn’t agree with your idea of fixing the rooms, but seems relieved that you’re not firing anyone. Things go as normal at the inn. Several of the miners still offer their condolences about your father and are surprised to see that you’re taking up his mantle as it were, but other than that they don’t say to much to you. They probably don’t know what to say since while some of them might know you since you were little, but you’re not really “one of them” in terms of education level. Not to say they’re all a bunch of grunting idiots, but they probably figure you’re used to talking about things of a more cerebral nature. You don’t mind though, after all your main concern is getting your mom out of debt. Two days pass and the supplier from Hessla arrives. He’s a grungy shady looking individual, but considering he’s from Hessla that’s hardly surprising. He immediately says his name is Calwin asks for your father at which point you tell him he died recently. Calwin shows no sympathy and merely complains that he’s made a trip up here for no reason. You show a little restraint and call your mother to speak with him, but after five minutes with him she’s ready to throw him out the door for hitting on her, and you’re not exactly thrilled with him either at this point. “Look folks, if you want good quality alcohol at a low price I’m willing to deal wit ya, but I’m gonna need some incentive for my troubles because y’all seem like a buncha uptight prigs. Now I was invited here by the man who ran this establishment, so you called me here, if my help ain’t wanted, I’ll be on my way…” Calwin says. While you’re tempted to just have him leave, you decide it would be best to at least see if his stuff is any good. “Alright prove it. Surely you’ve brought some of your alcohol here so we can test to see if it’s any good.” “Well I do have some with me, but I can’t just be givin’ this stuff away for free.” “Don’t worry, you’ll be compensated.” You call attention to the miners in the room and ask them if they’d like to try some new beer, naturally they’re all for it. A few of the miners take their fill of Calwin’s beer and they say that it’s different from what they usually drink, but it’s just as good. Calwin looks a little put off that they claimed his alcohol is “just as good”, but still maintains that it’s better than what you already have. He states his price, and also mentions that he wants a free room whenever he comes here since he’s apparently got a harpy of a wife at home and he likes to stay away for a couple days before having to go back to Hessla. Your mother obviously isn’t thrilled with having to deal with him, and in the short time he’s been here; he’s also hit on every one of the barmaids. Granted they’re used to such behavior, he’s particularly revolting. (Plus he’s from Hessla) > You deal with him and agree to the free room If it’s only for a couple days, what can it hurt and you’re getting a good deal on his alcohol, so you figure it’s a good idea. This does not go well with your mother who says you’re going to get the pair of you further into debt. It takes some time, but eventually you manage to convince her that the money you’re saving will be worth the couple days out of the month that he actually comes up here. Meanwhile Calwin calls his lackeys to unload his cart and take the stuff down to your cellar. Calwin then states he’s going to retire to his room and that if any of your barmaids want to join him his door will be open. The next couple days aren’t exactly pleasant, Calwin is a complete lecherous slob and leaves not only his room a disgusting mess, but hangs around the bar all day trying to grope the barmaids. (Rita in particular) You have to warn him several times to leave them alone, and eventually one of the miners who has a crush on Rita punches him in the face resulting in a minor scuffle in which Calwin is not the winner. You fully expect Calwin to claim that he’s never dealing with you again, but as it turns out he doesn’t think anything of it. Indeed he claims if it had been a bar in Hessla he probably would’ve gotten a knife in the eye instead, so he considers himself lucky. Eventually he leaves and everyone is glad, but there’s the sickening feeling that you know you’re going to have to put up with him a few times every month. By the end of the week you haven’t saved any money. In fact you’ve barely broke even. While you’re sweeping up the inn early morning, a non-descript man of medium height enters with two bigger figures. One of them is unmistakably an ogre while the other guy is just a tall muscular human. Either one could break you in half. “Are you are Mr. Reynolds?” you ask, knowing that it has to be him. “That would be me. I take it you’re the son of my late debtor? I do hope you realize that the debt doesn’t end with him dying…” Mr. Reynolds says “No, no of course not. I’ve got some of what my father owed.” You hand over the most you can under the circumstances, but Mr. Reynolds looks insulted. “My boy do you take me for an asshole? Your father used to pay me much more than this pittance!” “It was a rough week…” “No, no, I don’t give a shit about your excuses, you’ve chosen to take on your father’s debt so you are expected to fucking pay up like he did! (Sigh) Look, since you’re obviously new to this, I’ll let you off with a warning. Olaf.” Suddenly the ogre steps forward with a smile and punches you the stomach. You temporarily lose the ability to breath and collapse on the floor. When you finally do catch your breath, you promptly vomit. “That was my warning, let’s hope I don’t need to do it again. Be seeing you again in a few weeks kid. Let’s get out of here.” As Mr. Reynolds leaves, your mother comes running up from the cellar wondering what’s going on. She helps you up when she sees you. “Oh no son I can’t let this go on. We’re selling the inn right now!” “No, no mom, it’s alright, you’ll see. We’re going to make this place profitable and payback the loan and after that we’ll be able to take the next step.” “Son, I love you, but you’ve made a lot of questionable decisions as far as business is concerned. I mean if this keeps up, I’m stepping in before this place goes to hell so I can actually make money selling it to the city.” “You won’t get enough for it!” “Well I’ll get enough to pay off the debt, and if worst comes to worst, I’ll leave Klyton and live with my sister in Teckleville” “You can’t live with aunt Enora, you always said she’s crazy.” “She is, but that still doesn’t mean she wouldn’t help me out.” “Look, we’ve still got time, I know my ideas are going to help us out soon.” “Well, I hope all your fancy schooling you gained some sort of insight that I’m not privy to. Alright we’ll give it until the next time Mr. Reynolds comes around for payment.” You agree and start wiping up the floor before customers come in. The next few days are uneventful; the miners seem to be enjoying the new Hessla ale though so that’s a relief. They even seem to be talking to you a little more, one in particular Ular has been chewing your ear quite frequently. He’s the one that has an obvious crush on Rita, but you’ve never seen him actually talk to her on any serious level. Strange that a big tough miner would be too shy to speak to a girl, but there it is. “So how long have you known Rita?” Ular asks. “Me? Well she started working here just before I left for college so I didn’t speak to her too much back then, and I haven’t really spoken to her too much other than about duties around the inn since I’ve got back here.” “She’s so beautiful, you know? I always wonder if she isn’t a Delantium Princess hiding out or something.” “Yeah, she’s a pretty girl.” You reply. “Can you speak to her for me?” “What?” “Just speak to her for me. I try, but I…dunno I don’t have the words! I get all tongue tied an’ shit. I mean you’re a smart guy, you went to college an’ shit. Maybe you can tell her better how I feel than I can.” “I dunno if should get involved in this…” “Please man, just do it…oh shit here she comes!” At this point Ular stumbles over his own feet trying to get to a dark corner before Rita arrives for more ale. Feeling a little sorry for the guy, you talk to Rita. “Hey Rita, this is going to be strange question, but…” “Oh gods, you’re not going to start hitting on me too are you?” “What? Uh no! But well, there’s a miner named Ular who’s sort of nuts about you.” “Yeah, he’s nuts over me like every other miner here trying to get under my skirt.” “Heh, I don’t think so, he’s so damn shy he’s practically afraid to speak to you, and surely you’ve noticed.” “Yeah I suppose I have. I will admit he’s a little different than the rest of these ale swilling pigs.” “So are you interested in him?” “Eh…I dunno. I mean from what I know of him he seems respectful and he did punch out that fucker Calwin when he groped me, but that’s not really enough. I need a man that’s going places. I mean he’s a miner; where’s that going to lead me? Not in fine Selkie furs and a big house, I’ll just be barefoot and pregnant and still living here.” Same old Rita. Still, you can certainly understand her desire to move up in the world. However, a miner still makes a decent living. A lot better than her that’s for sure. She’d still be “moving up.” > You tell Ular she's not interested There’s no point in trying to convince Rita, she’s obviously looking to marry into money, though there’s a lot better ways she could go about it. Ular seems like a cool guy and probably should know the type of girl she is anyway. As Rita walks off, you look for Ular and see him slowly coming out of his dark corner. You explain to him how the conversation went, he’s obviously upset about it, but thanks you nonetheless. “Well, I guess it’s true about that old saying. You can’t judge a book by its cover. Give everyone a round for the house on me, everyone else might as well be happy even if I’m not. Just don’t have Rita serve my drinks anymore okay?” You understand and carry on with your duties. The remaining days until the next payment go as normal and Mr. Reynolds is satisfied with the payment he receives, and you still have a little saved over. You have hope that in time you’ll get out of this debt eventually. However, trouble rears its ugly head when Calwin shows up on his monthly delivery. He says that he’s decided to bump the price up on his alcohol. You furiously ask why, and he says that the last time he was here he noticed how nice the rooms were and that if you can afford to fix them up, you must be able to afford to pay him more for his product. It doesn’t need to be said that your mother does not want to deal with him at all at this point. > You comply with his demands He’s got you over a barrel, you agree to his price. Your mother throws up her hands and rolls her eyes in disgust. Calwin smirks and calls his lackeys to take his alcohol into the cellar, while he “retires” to his room again. Like last time, Calwin is a lecherous slob and Rita doesn’t have Ular defending her “honor” anymore. This time she quits when Calwin practically molests her when she takes food up to his room. Deal or not, your mother isn’t going to put up with his shit any longer, grabs your dad’s Troll Gun from behind the bar and kicks him out of his room. He screams at you saying that you’ll regret reneging on the deal like this before leaving. Now you’re a barmaid short and you’ll have to go back to the old Klyton supplier. While it’s true you don’t have to pay Rita anymore, you end up losing a couple of customers that liked looking at her. That’s not even counting the extra work that Eliza and Wendy have to do now who are now miserable to the point of wanting to seriously quit. You and your mother take up some of the slack, but it’s a drain on the pair of you. And while you have enough to pay Mr. Reynolds this month, you’re not optimistic about the future. The problem is you won’t be saving money like you were going to while Calwin was your supplier. Your nice rooms haven’t really been helping like you thought they might and while you can keep on this way, you’re never really going to get ahead. The thought of continuing to work here any longer is disheartening to you. Maybe you’re just being impatient, but after all the problems and headaches you’ve encountered you really don’t feel like dealing with this job anymore, especially not when there is potential danger constantly looming overhead. You’re ready to tell your mother to just sell the place. So you do. You fought the good fight for as long as you could, but maybe it just wasn’t meant to be. You’re not going to finish this one, which is a familiar theme to you since you dropped out of college. You tell your mother what you think and she seems just as eager to sell the place off too since the past few months have been pretty stressful. During the remaining week the inn stays open to make a last bit of change before closing for good and selling to the city. Some of the miners seem a little sad by it, but there were so many changes within such a short period of time that most seemed content on finding a new place since the old one wasn’t like how it used to be anymore. When the inn is sold off, you barely make enough to cover the debt, but at least you and your mother aren’t in any immediate danger now. Your mother finds work as a cook for a short time, but eventually decides she can’t really stand living in the city without your father anymore. She leaves to go live with your aunt Enora in Teckleville, which is to the east on the outskirts of the Delantium Kingdom. After a long time of the inn just sitting untended and forgotten due to the council having more pressing matters and red tape, it’s broken into by several homeless people who use it as a place to sleep. The homeless are soon ousted by a local gang who use it as a safe house. Eventually though they cause enough trouble that the Klyton Militia has to take severe action and storm the place, resulting in a small fire. At this point someone in the council finally notices it, decides that the place isn’t worth salvaging and proposes that it be knocked down to build a medical clinic in its place to try to uplift the area. The motion passes. As for you, you find a job thanks to your education level, but it isn’t anywhere in the field that you would’ve liked. You’re a clerk in tax office, filing away items, straightening out reports and such. You never really move up and you never make enough money to save away to get ahead either. You don’t really have a bad life so much as a mind numbingly mundane one. You do have your good days, but ultimately you never really achieve your goals and always have a sense of dissatisfaction with your life. Sometimes you look back and wonder where you exactly went wrong with the inn and how you could’ve done things differently. You’ll never know.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>There’s no point in trying to convince Rita, she’s obviously looking to marry into money, though there’s a lot better ways she could go about it. Ular seems like a cool guy and probably should know the type of girl she is anyway. As Rita walks off, you look for Ular and see him slowly coming out of his dark corner. You explain to him how the conversation went, he’s obviously upset about it, but thanks you nonetheless. “Well, I guess it’s true about that old saying. You can’t judge a book by its cover. Give everyone a round for the house on me, everyone else might as well be happy even if I’m not. Just don’t have Rita serve my drinks anymore okay?” You understand and carry on with your duties. The remaining days until the next payment go as normal and Mr. Reynolds is satisfied with the payment he receives, and you still have a little saved over. You have hope that in time you’ll get out of this debt eventually. However, trouble rears its ugly head when Calwin shows up on his monthly delivery. He says that he’s decided to bump the price up on his alcohol. You furiously ask why, and he says that the last time he was here he noticed how nice the rooms were and that if you can afford to fix them up, you must be able to afford to pay him more for his product. It doesn’t need to be said that your mother does not want to deal with him at all at this point. > You don't comply with his demands You tell Calwin you’re not paying him anything more than he’s getting and that it’s complete bullshit that he’s jacking up his prices like this. Calwin goes on a rant about supply and demand and how he’s doing you a favor. The argument heats up, but ultimately ends when your mother grabs your dad’s Troll Gun from under the bar counter and points it at him, telling him to get the hell out before she blows his head off. He and his lackeys leave, which means you’ll have no alcohol supply this month. “I told you we shouldn’t have dealt with him at all now we’ll have to go back to the Klyton supplier and they probably won’t even get around to delivering a shipment to us until near the end of the month! We’ll have to make due with what we have left and given how much those miners drinks, we won’t have enough!” “Well maybe we could water down the drinks or something…” you say trying to think of a solution. “Water down the drinks? Are you serious? That’s not going to work and we’re going to lose people doing that! Those miners are some serious drinkers, they’re going to know the difference.” “If you hadn’t chased Calwin out with a gun, I might’ve been able to reason with him. Okay fine, the only other solution I can think of is we’ll have to make our own ale.” “And how do we do that? I don’t have any experience in doing that and we don’t have license to do it either!” “I took some chemistry classes, I’m fairly certain I could try to build a still and…” “And that’s even worse than watering down the drinks. Look, I’m tired just thinking about all this and I’m going to rest before the business hours start.” > You start watering down the drinks You figure you’ll be able to stretch out your alcohol supply just long enough to get your next shipment and you’ll just have to hope for the best. That very night you’re already getting comments that the ale doesn’t taste quite as strong, this results in the miners ordering MORE ale since they aren’t getting drunk on what you’re currently giving them. This means you end up having less alcohol to stretch things out. By the end of the week, you’re getting loud verbal complaints about the ale, and outright accusations that it tastes like water. Several miners are insulted and leave the inn claiming that they’ve been loyal patrons here for so long and that they don’t need to be treated like this. You attempt to explain, but they shove you out of the way and tell you to go back to your fancy college. “I wish I could.” You quietly say to yourself. You aren’t optimistic about the rest of the month. Sure there’s still adventurers and the odd wanderer, but not enough to turn a profit before you get in the next shipment. This still wouldn’t be so bad except it’s going to be time to pay Mr. Reynolds soon and you’re going to fall short again. Your mother can’t bare to see you get hurt again and suggests forgetting all about the inn and just taking off with all the remaining money you have and going to live with your crazy aunt Enora. > You leave Klyton You agree with your mother, you don’t want to take another beating and that was only a punch in the stomach from an ogre. Who knows what they’ll do to you next? You and your mother pack as quickly as you can and catch a late coach heading west. It feels weird leaving Klyton, in fact now that you think about it, you’ve never been out of city before. Eventually after a couple days the coach stops in Teckleville where your aunt lives. Teckleville is just one of the many small villages on the borders of the Dalantium Kingdom. Probably in time it’ll get absorbed like so many others do, but that’s not really a concern of yours right now. Your aunt Enora is happy to see you both, and while this whole living with her thing was sprung on her at the last moment it doesn’t seem to bother her. She says there’s plenty of room and you can stay as long as you like. While the house is certainly nice and you’re happy to live there rather than in the street, it’s sort of on the small side and you feel like you have no privacy. Teckleville isn’t anything like you’re used to either. The whole small town thing just doesn’t appeal to you, and you feel trapped with a bunch of boring backwards people. It’s even worse than when you were stuck serving the miners. You were supposed to do greater things! Your were going to be a doctor! You did everything right and studied hard and what do you have to show for it? Nothing! You’re stuck in some cow town where the best job you can hope to get is probably shoveling shit. Some future. “Thanks dad, you fucking idiot.” You say throwing a rock against a barn door. In time, your mother works at the local tavern where she serves as a cook. It’s not much, but it is something she’s used to doing. You manage to get a job working as an assistant to the mean old bastard who runs the general store. It’s a thankless job, but he’s about the only one who’ll hire you since nobody else will work for him and everyone else thinks you have a superiority complex (Which is sort of true) and won’t hire you. The only upside is since you live at your aunt’s house you manage to save what little money you do make. You have a plan to head to the Delantium Kingdom and start fresh again, because staying here isn’t in your future. Unfortunately neither is the Delantium Kingdom. One night while you’re sleeping an oversized hand covers your mouth and two more grab your arms. You open your eyes to see Olaf grinning at you in the darkness. “What? Did you really think we’d forget about you? Don’t worry about the debt anymore kid, consider it paid with your family’s life.” You hear Mr. Reynolds whisper before he shoves a knife into your stomach and rips it up to your chest. The next day your aunt’s friend finds the bloody bodies of you, your mother and your aunt. The incident becomes known as the Teckleville Massacre.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You figure you’ll be able to stretch out your alcohol supply just long enough to get your next shipment and you’ll just have to hope for the best. That very night you’re already getting comments that the ale doesn’t taste quite as strong, this results in the miners ordering MORE ale since they aren’t getting drunk on what you’re currently giving them. This means you end up having less alcohol to stretch things out. By the end of the week, you’re getting loud verbal complaints about the ale, and outright accusations that it tastes like water. Several miners are insulted and leave the inn claiming that they’ve been loyal patrons here for so long and that they don’t need to be treated like this. You attempt to explain, but they shove you out of the way and tell you to go back to your fancy college. “I wish I could.” You quietly say to yourself. You aren’t optimistic about the rest of the month. Sure there’s still adventurers and the odd wanderer, but not enough to turn a profit before you get in the next shipment. This still wouldn’t be so bad except it’s going to be time to pay Mr. Reynolds soon and you’re going to fall short again. Your mother can’t bare to see you get hurt again and suggests forgetting all about the inn and just taking off with all the remaining money you have and going to live with your crazy aunt Enora. > You stick around “Do you think you’d still be able to get a good price for this place?” you ask your mother. “Yeah, but not before next payment! That’s why we just need to get out of the city now!” You grab what payment you can afford and start heading for the door. “What’re you doing?!” “I’m going to see Mr. Reynolds early.” “What?! You can’t! He’ll kill you!” “No, he’ll have me beaten. Look, if we leave he’s just going to track us down and he probably will kill us by that time. If I pay him this now, I’ll take a beating, but he’s going to figure I’m still a source of income for him. We can then pay it off completely when you sell this place. Afterwards, well we’ll see what happens.” Your mother still doesn’t want you to go, but you’re determined so she doesn’t stand in your way. You walk several blocks into bad neighborhoods half expecting to get mugged on your way to see him, but for once luck is on your side. Mr. Reynolds sits at his desk counting coins with both of his goons beside him as usual. “Well this is unexpected, what can I do for you today m’boy?” “This is all we can afford for this payment. I guarantee the next one will be much bigger.” You say plopping the bag of coins on his desk. He lifts the bag and frowns at its weight. “Feels a little light kid. You do realize what’s going to happen next right?” “Yes, that’s why I came early to get it over with.” You say trying to sound brave. “Heh, you’re trying your best to be brave, but I know deep down inside you’re terrified. It’s okay, you should be. (Sigh) Olaf. Reggie. Just beat him up, don’t break any bones, I’m in a good mood today.” Olaf approaches you with a little disappointment that he doesn’t get to break any bones today, but he still takes glee in punching you in the face. Reggie picks you up and holds you while Olaf beats on you some more. You try not to think about the pain, but instead try to think about how it’s absolutely amazing that Olaf manages to pull his punches enough that he doesn’t break anything. It’s the odd ogre that can show restraint during violence. Olaf does fail eventually though, when everyone hears an awful crunch sound and blood flies everywhere from your nose which is now completely broken. “Oh Olaf, I told you not to break anything! All right he’s had enough, drop him Reggie.” Mr. Reynolds orders and steps from his behind his desk to speak to you. “That’s two times I’ve been lenient kid. Next time, well for your sake there better not be a fucking next time because you’re not exactly the hardy type to take beatings like this. Olaf carry this kid back to his inn, he can’t make it home in his condition.” You don’t even remember what happens in the next few moments since you’re drifting in and out of consciousness. When Olaf arrives at the inn he dumps your limp body inside and walks off. Your mother makes sure you’re still alive and somehow manages to get you to crawl to the bed of one of the empty rooms. During the remaining week the inn stays open to make a last bit of change before closing for good and selling to the city. Some of the miners seem a little sad by it, but there were so many changes within such a short period of time that most seemed content on finding a new place since the old one wasn’t like how it used to be anymore. When the inn is sold off, you barely make enough to cover the debt, but at least you and your mother aren’t in any immediate danger now. Your mother finds work as a cook for a short time, but eventually decides she can’t really stand living in the city without your father anymore. She leaves to go live with your aunt Enora in Teckleville, which is to the east on the outskirts of the Delantium Kingdom. After a long time of the inn just sitting untended and forgotten due to the council having more pressing matters and red tape, it’s broken into by several homeless people who use it as a place to sleep. The homeless are soon ousted by a local gang who use it as a safe house. Eventually though they cause enough trouble that the Klyton Militia has to take severe action and storm the place, resulting in a small fire. At this point someone in the council finally notices it, decides that the place isn’t worth salvaging and proposes that it be knocked down to build a medical clinic in its place to try to uplift the area. The motion passes. As for you, you find a job thanks to your education level, but it isn’t anywhere in the field that you would’ve liked. You’re a clerk in tax office, filing away items, straightening out reports and such. You never really move up and you never make enough money to save away to get ahead either. You don’t really have a bad life so much as a mind numbingly mundane one. You do have your good days, but ultimately you never really achieve your goals and always have a sense of dissatisfaction with your life. Sometimes you look back and wonder where you exactly went wrong with the inn and how you could’ve done things differently. You’ll never know.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You tell Calwin you’re not paying him anything more than he’s getting and that it’s complete bullshit that he’s jacking up his prices like this. Calwin goes on a rant about supply and demand and how he’s doing you a favor. The argument heats up, but ultimately ends when your mother grabs your dad’s Troll Gun from under the bar counter and points it at him, telling him to get the hell out before she blows his head off. He and his lackeys leave, which means you’ll have no alcohol supply this month. “I told you we shouldn’t have dealt with him at all now we’ll have to go back to the Klyton supplier and they probably won’t even get around to delivering a shipment to us until near the end of the month! We’ll have to make due with what we have left and given how much those miners drinks, we won’t have enough!” “Well maybe we could water down the drinks or something…” you say trying to think of a solution. “Water down the drinks? Are you serious? That’s not going to work and we’re going to lose people doing that! Those miners are some serious drinkers, they’re going to know the difference.” “If you hadn’t chased Calwin out with a gun, I might’ve been able to reason with him. Okay fine, the only other solution I can think of is we’ll have to make our own ale.” “And how do we do that? I don’t have any experience in doing that and we don’t have license to do it either!” “I took some chemistry classes, I’m fairly certain I could try to build a still and…” “And that’s even worse than watering down the drinks. Look, I’m tired just thinking about all this and I’m going to rest before the business hours start.” > You start building a still You head down to the cellar and start constructing your still while trying to remember everything you learned in those chemistry classes. The main thing is to make something strong that isn’t going to make folks go blind. You work on it over the course of several days during your spare time as the real alcohol supply dwindles down. Eventually after a mixture of sugar, yeast, potatoes and bunch of other stuff you’ve taken from the garbage, you’re fairly confident you’ve made enough of this stuff to last you by the time you get the proper shipment. You haven’t exactly been telling your mother what you’ve been doing, but the smell has been getting to the point that it’s starting to invade the kitchen. “Ugh! It smells awful down here, and I hope you aren’t doing what I think you’re doing.” “I had to, besides it’s finished now and I think this batch has come out pretty good.” “Smells like rotting garbage!” “Well some of it is, but trust me I think this will tide us over.” Hoping for the best, you and your mother release this new brew to the clientele. You do have the decency to warn them that it’s new, but they’re always willing to try anything once. The moonshine brew goes over well, more or less. A few think it’s a lot more bitter, but it’s not enough to drive anyone away since they’re all getting drunk at a quicker rate. Mr. Reynolds receives his payment and by the end of the month you’ve got your usual shipment. The problem is you won’t be saving money like you were going to while Calwin was your supplier. Your nice rooms haven’t really been helping like you thought they might and while you can keep on this way, you’re never really going to get ahead. The thought of continuing to work here any longer is disheartening to you. Maybe you’re just being impatient, but after all the problems and headaches you’ve encountered you really don’t feel like dealing with this job anymore, especially not when there is potential danger constantly looming overhead. You’re ready to tell your mother to just sell the place. The only other thing you can think of to cut costs to a degree that will speed up the process is to continue using the still and not bother with buying from the Klyton supplier in the future. > You sell the inn You fought the good fight for as long as you could, but maybe it just wasn’t meant to be. You’re not going to finish this one, which is a familiar theme to you since you dropped out of college. You tell your mother what you think and she seems just as eager to sell the place off too since the past few months have been pretty stressful. During the remaining week the inn stays open to make a last bit of change before closing for good and selling to the city. Some of the miners seem a little sad by it, but there were so many changes within such a short period of time that most seemed content on finding a new place since the old one wasn’t like how it used to be anymore. When the inn is sold off, you barely make enough to cover the debt, but at least you and your mother aren’t in any immediate danger now. Your mother finds work as a cook for a short time, but eventually decides she can’t really stand living in the city without your father anymore. She leaves to go live with your aunt Enora in Teckleville, which is to the east on the outskirts of the Delantium Kingdom. After a long time of the inn just sitting untended and forgotten due to the council having more pressing matters and red tape, it’s broken into by several homeless people who use it as a place to sleep. The homeless are soon ousted by a local gang who use it as a safe house. Eventually though they cause enough trouble that the Klyton Militia has to take severe action and storm the place, resulting in a small fire. At this point someone in the council finally notices it, decides that the place isn’t worth salvaging and proposes that it be knocked down to build a medical clinic in its place to try to uplift the area. The motion passes. As for you, you find a job thanks to your education level, but it isn’t anywhere in the field that you would’ve liked. You’re a clerk in tax office, filing away items, straightening out reports and such. You never really move up and you never make enough money to save away to get ahead either. You don’t really have a bad life so much as a mind numbingly mundane one. You do have your good days, but ultimately you never really achieve your goals and always have a sense of dissatisfaction with your life. Sometimes you look back and wonder where you exactly went wrong with the inn and how you could’ve done things differently. You’ll never know.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You head down to the cellar and start constructing your still while trying to remember everything you learned in those chemistry classes. The main thing is to make something strong that isn’t going to make folks go blind. You work on it over the course of several days during your spare time as the real alcohol supply dwindles down. Eventually after a mixture of sugar, yeast, potatoes and bunch of other stuff you’ve taken from the garbage, you’re fairly confident you’ve made enough of this stuff to last you by the time you get the proper shipment. You haven’t exactly been telling your mother what you’ve been doing, but the smell has been getting to the point that it’s starting to invade the kitchen. “Ugh! It smells awful down here, and I hope you aren’t doing what I think you’re doing.” “I had to, besides it’s finished now and I think this batch has come out pretty good.” “Smells like rotting garbage!” “Well some of it is, but trust me I think this will tide us over.” Hoping for the best, you and your mother release this new brew to the clientele. You do have the decency to warn them that it’s new, but they’re always willing to try anything once. The moonshine brew goes over well, more or less. A few think it’s a lot more bitter, but it’s not enough to drive anyone away since they’re all getting drunk at a quicker rate. Mr. Reynolds receives his payment and by the end of the month you’ve got your usual shipment. The problem is you won’t be saving money like you were going to while Calwin was your supplier. Your nice rooms haven’t really been helping like you thought they might and while you can keep on this way, you’re never really going to get ahead. The thought of continuing to work here any longer is disheartening to you. Maybe you’re just being impatient, but after all the problems and headaches you’ve encountered you really don’t feel like dealing with this job anymore, especially not when there is potential danger constantly looming overhead. You’re ready to tell your mother to just sell the place. The only other thing you can think of to cut costs to a degree that will speed up the process is to continue using the still and not bother with buying from the Klyton supplier in the future. > You use the still You’re willing to stick it out a little longer, but you really need to use a few short cuts now. The brew from the still is good enough for the miners and you won’t have to deal with a middleman anymore. Your mother isn’t happy with this idea. She wasn’t thrilled with it before, but realized it was necessary at the time. You argue with her for hours about the moral and legal ramifications of it all until she finally gets tired and capitulates under stress. Over the months you manage to save tons of money, are able to pay Mr. Reynolds off larger amounts and you believe in a few more months you’ll completely be free of him. The problem now is with your mother who still insists on bitching at you day in day out despite the fact that you’re basically saving her ass from the problems that her and your dumb ass dad got you involved into in the first place. “For fuck’s sake, will get off my fucking back? I’ve been the main one coming up with solutions on how to save this fucking place and I’m getting shit for it? Why the hell am I getting punished for something you and dad did? I was supposed to be taking classes right now to become a doctor! Y’know, like YOU all wanted me to? I’m trying to make the best of this situation and still find a damn way of achieving my goals yet all I’m getting is kicked in the fucking face for it!” you yell while throwing a potato against the wall. Your mother shakes her head. “I don’t know what’s happened to you, but the son I knew wouldn’t be engaging in criminal activities and yelling at me like this. This isn’t worth it; I’m not dealing with this anymore. You want to be mad at me and your father, you can go right ahead, you might even be right in some way but I’m still not going to put up with it. You think you can turn this place around and still achieve your goals? Go right ahead, but you’re doing it without my help. I quit, and I’m handing this place over to you. Have fun, and I hope you make all your dreams come true.” You’re a little shocked by this. You run after her asking what she’s going to do and that you’re sorry about the stuff you said, but she won’t hear it. She just says she’s leaving the deed with you and she’s going to go live with your aunt Enora in Teckleville. After some last words are exchanged she’s gone. You aren’t quite sure how to feel and you’re still trying to wrap your head around it when your barmaids come in. “Hey which one of you is the best cook?” “Uh, I guess that would be me.” Wendy says. “Good, you’re upgrade to cook, you’ll get a small raise too.” “What seriously?” “Yeah, mom quit and gave me this place, so we’re making some changes around here.” Wendy looks a little pleased with getting a small promotion, but Rita isn’t so happy. “Hey what about us? You can’t just expect us to shoulder all the extra work! You’re going to have to hire someone else to help!” Rita says “Settle down Rita, I’ll be getting some new help soon don’t worry about it. All I need from the rest of you is to do your jobs.” A few weeks pass and you’re doing okay even if you’re getting some grumbles from your staff every once in awhile. You do end up hiring a new person, but it’s not another barmaid. It’s a janitor so the barmaids don’t need to worry about cleaning up as much anymore. The great thing is he’s simple minded and you don’t need to pay him since apparently his mother wanted him out of the house and dragged him by the ear to you when she saw your Help Wanted sign. You agreed to let him sleep in your cellar and he could eat all the rats he catches down there. (Though Eliza gives him real food from time to time) Your still is perfected a bit better, but the brew from that stuff does take it’s toll on your usual patrons. While none of the miners go blind, a lot of them are starting to feel several side effects from drinking the stuff on a regular basis. This causes some to stop coming in altogether, but on the “plus side” you do get a few more lowly types that don’t give a shit what poison they put into their system. You end up changing the name of the place to the Bottomless Mug Inn. Despite your decrease in clientele you still manage to cut enough corners and exploit enough drunks that you pay off Mr. Reynolds. He’s a little surprised considering how run down the inn has gotten. He suspects (quite rightly) that you’re probably doing something illegal and tells you if you ever need another loan in the future you know where to find him. You vow that you’re not going to let that happen. Well the inn is profitable again (barely) and you’ve effectively saved the place and your mother from potential danger (mainly yourself) but taking over your father’s inn wasn’t your dream and it wasn’t your parents’ dream either. You figure you’ve got two choices, you could either sell this place now and hope you get enough money for it to finish your education, or you could continue to run it as a ongoing source of income and somehow manage to save enough as well as find the time to study while running this dump. > You sell the inn You can’t stand running this increasingly run down piss hole anymore; you’re selling the place. You figure you should be able to get enough money to finish your schooling. Unfortunately “piss hole” is too correct of a word for what it goes for. Sure it’s a business, and it’s in adequate shape, but the city generally doesn’t give out that much money for “adequate”. You get just enough money to probably cover a couple semesters, not nearly enough. That’s when you get the idea to improvise. Learning the lesson in cutting corners at the inn, you enroll back at Klyton University and set up a small lab like you did with the still but this time you decide to make drugs instead. Cloud rock is easy to make and you figure you’ll be able to support yourself and if you get a part time job on campus, you should be able to swing it. The inn money will help you in the beginning months while you get settled. Things initially go good for you, just like you thought, but when the inn money runs out that’s when crunch time starts and you’re not quite as prepared for it as you thought. Classes get increasingly harder, which means you need to study a lot more, combining that with your two jobs is rough and eventually you’re not getting enough rest and one of them has to go. Not surprisingly you quit your regular job as the university’s bookstore assistant since it pays less and you figure you can easily make up the money just by selling more drugs which you’ve become frighteningly good at. After one more semester, you figure why bother with college at all? You could just sell Cloud Rock all day make as much money as a low level physician might and not bother with studying, because really what has this college business gotten you? A lot of wasted time that’s what. So that’s what you do. It doesn’t need to be said that such a path rarely leads to a good end, but you do have your fun while it lasts which is probably a little longer than you thought it might be. As you lay dying because you pissed off some other criminal for whatever wrong or perceived wrong you might’ve done to him, you think back to where it all went wrong and all you can think about is: “That damn inn.”<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You’re willing to stick it out a little longer, but you really need to use a few short cuts now. The brew from the still is good enough for the miners and you won’t have to deal with a middleman anymore. Your mother isn’t happy with this idea. She wasn’t thrilled with it before, but realized it was necessary at the time. You argue with her for hours about the moral and legal ramifications of it all until she finally gets tired and capitulates under stress. Over the months you manage to save tons of money, are able to pay Mr. Reynolds off larger amounts and you believe in a few more months you’ll completely be free of him. The problem now is with your mother who still insists on bitching at you day in day out despite the fact that you’re basically saving her ass from the problems that her and your dumb ass dad got you involved into in the first place. “For fuck’s sake, will get off my fucking back? I’ve been the main one coming up with solutions on how to save this fucking place and I’m getting shit for it? Why the hell am I getting punished for something you and dad did? I was supposed to be taking classes right now to become a doctor! Y’know, like YOU all wanted me to? I’m trying to make the best of this situation and still find a damn way of achieving my goals yet all I’m getting is kicked in the fucking face for it!” you yell while throwing a potato against the wall. Your mother shakes her head. “I don’t know what’s happened to you, but the son I knew wouldn’t be engaging in criminal activities and yelling at me like this. This isn’t worth it; I’m not dealing with this anymore. You want to be mad at me and your father, you can go right ahead, you might even be right in some way but I’m still not going to put up with it. You think you can turn this place around and still achieve your goals? Go right ahead, but you’re doing it without my help. I quit, and I’m handing this place over to you. Have fun, and I hope you make all your dreams come true.” You’re a little shocked by this. You run after her asking what she’s going to do and that you’re sorry about the stuff you said, but she won’t hear it. She just says she’s leaving the deed with you and she’s going to go live with your aunt Enora in Teckleville. After some last words are exchanged she’s gone. You aren’t quite sure how to feel and you’re still trying to wrap your head around it when your barmaids come in. “Hey which one of you is the best cook?” “Uh, I guess that would be me.” Wendy says. “Good, you’re upgrade to cook, you’ll get a small raise too.” “What seriously?” “Yeah, mom quit and gave me this place, so we’re making some changes around here.” Wendy looks a little pleased with getting a small promotion, but Rita isn’t so happy. “Hey what about us? You can’t just expect us to shoulder all the extra work! You’re going to have to hire someone else to help!” Rita says “Settle down Rita, I’ll be getting some new help soon don’t worry about it. All I need from the rest of you is to do your jobs.” A few weeks pass and you’re doing okay even if you’re getting some grumbles from your staff every once in awhile. You do end up hiring a new person, but it’s not another barmaid. It’s a janitor so the barmaids don’t need to worry about cleaning up as much anymore. The great thing is he’s simple minded and you don’t need to pay him since apparently his mother wanted him out of the house and dragged him by the ear to you when she saw your Help Wanted sign. You agreed to let him sleep in your cellar and he could eat all the rats he catches down there. (Though Eliza gives him real food from time to time) Your still is perfected a bit better, but the brew from that stuff does take it’s toll on your usual patrons. While none of the miners go blind, a lot of them are starting to feel several side effects from drinking the stuff on a regular basis. This causes some to stop coming in altogether, but on the “plus side” you do get a few more lowly types that don’t give a shit what poison they put into their system. You end up changing the name of the place to the Bottomless Mug Inn. Despite your decrease in clientele you still manage to cut enough corners and exploit enough drunks that you pay off Mr. Reynolds. He’s a little surprised considering how run down the inn has gotten. He suspects (quite rightly) that you’re probably doing something illegal and tells you if you ever need another loan in the future you know where to find him. You vow that you’re not going to let that happen. Well the inn is profitable again (barely) and you’ve effectively saved the place and your mother from potential danger (mainly yourself) but taking over your father’s inn wasn’t your dream and it wasn’t your parents’ dream either. You figure you’ve got two choices, you could either sell this place now and hope you get enough money for it to finish your education, or you could continue to run it as a ongoing source of income and somehow manage to save enough as well as find the time to study while running this dump. > You continue to run it You know it isn’t going to be easy, but selling the inn would be folly. You’re not going to get as much for the inn anymore and you know that you’ll need a steady source of income and this place also serves as your home. You’ve already managed to cut a few corners to save money, so perhaps you’ll be able to figure out how to cut some more to achieve your goal. One idea has crossed your mind already, but you’d rather see if any other opportunities arise before resorting to it. The inn is a little shadier now, and that’s partly because of you. Still, you aren’t really a bad person, you’ve just been put in a rough situation and you’re trying to make the best of it. You figure the ends will justify the means after all is said and done. You hope. > Back to school... A year has passed and you’re back in college, though it’s not as much fun as it was when you didn’t need to worry about where your tuition was coming from or having something like a job. Finding time to study while running the inn is difficult, but fortunately Wendy picks up the slack when you’re not around. You’ve also managed to re-establish some old contacts with people you were “friends” with before your “break”. Most of them are ahead of you and some are getting ready to graduate. While none of them bothered to stay in contact with you (so much for education breaking down class distinctions) a few of them are still willing to help you out by selling you books for cheap or giving you some of their old notes. Every little bit helps. As for the inn, it’s doing well, but you constantly worry about its future profitability. Your regular patrons aren’t the upstanding working class anymore, most of them are petty criminals, broke losers and other ne’er-do-wells. You also have to do something about your overworked/underpaid staff. So far Wendy has been doing far more than she anticipated and is demanding more pay. Rita on the other hand is just plain threatening to quit. All of which is cutting into your study and school time. A few bright spots are you’re getting adventurers coming in since those nice rooms you got awhile back started to pay off. You’re also saving money with your stills (You have multiple ones in the basement now) and your retarded janitor Alan who seems to be just happy to work and follow your orders. If only all your employees were so agreeable. Today’s the day you make a change to the status quo. > You fire Rita and hire some pretty girls Rita is already threatening to quit anyway so you might as well get rid of her, besides you figure you can hire some prettier faces that will complain less and probably work for less as well. The first thing you do is advertise for new barmaids. You get a few takers. Most of them don’t seem much better than Rita though, coming in and demanding more stuff immediately. You’re about to give up when a mother comes in with her two half elven daughters practically begging you to hire them. Sort of what you’re looking for, young, pretty “exotic” even given that they’re half-elven. Their bloodline is what sort of concerns you though. Elves aren’t exactly known for their hard work ethic. “Pfft! You think I don’t know that? Their no good father left to go prance around in the forest again while I have to raise these little leeches!” the mother says. “Look you don’t even have to pay ‘em that much, at this point I just want them to earn their keep around the house!” “Well, I’ll see what we can do.” You hire Sunshine and Flameflower and explain how things work and what is expected of them. Their mother periodically interrupts to tell them to pay attention and how if they end up getting fired that she’ll be kicking them out of the house. The pair of them seem rather unworried about the situation and do a lot of eye rolling, sighing and even some minor giggling. After all is said and done you tell them to arrive on time tomorrow and go back to work. “It’s about time you hired some more help.” Wendy remarks. “Well, I’m also getting rid of some too, where’s Rita at?” “She’s out front serving drunks as usual, wait you’re going to fire Rita?” “Yeah, I can’t afford them and her. Besides I’m getting two pretty faces for the price of one and hopefully less bitching.” “Sheesh, I know Rita’s a pain in the ass and all, but you really think you should get rid of her? Who’s going to train the new girls? I noticed the pointy ears, I’m guessing they’re half-breeds. Elves have terrible work ethics.” “I already told them what to do, but I figured you’d be keeping an eye on them most of the time, so you can make sure if they’re working and not goofing off” “What?! As if I don’t have enough to do around here? Look, I’ll do what I can, but really between the cooking and other shit I do, you expect me to play mother hen to them you’re going to be sorely disappointed.” “I can’t give you a raise if that’s what you’re angling for.” “Huh, I wouldn’t dream of being that optimistic, but quite simply I’m stretched thin as it is, I can’t do it all and I think you know that.” “Yeah, I suppose you’re right, well I guess Eliza will have to do it.” “HER? Eliza’s a nice girl and all, but I dunno if she’s up to supervising.” “Well she’s gonna have to, now if you’ll excuse me, I have to speak to her and Rita about the changes around here.” Wendy shakes her head as you call Rita and Eliza over to speak to them in the kitchen “WHAT?! You’re fucking firing me?! After all the shit I’ve done around here?!” Rita predictably reacts. “Rita, all you do is complain and you’ve been threatening to quit for months! Is this really all that surprising? Hell, I would’ve thought you wouldn’t even give a shit given your attitude.” “…y’know what? You’re right. I don’t give a shit. I should’ve quit a long time ago. I could get a better job just like that! (snap) Thanks for freeing me from this slave wage shithole, but I’ll just say one thing, without me, this place is gonna fail! You think you can replace me with those little half-breed sluts I saw you with earlier? Yeah right! I’m outta here!” Rita says and makes a dramatic exit by shouting to the various patrons of how they should take a good look at her ass as she walks out the door, because it’ll be the last time they see it around the inn. “Oh my!” Eliza exclaims. “Whatever. Okay, now I have to talk to you too…and don’t worry I’m not firing you.” You say before Eliza jumps to that conclusion. You explain to Eliza that it’ll be part of her job to train the new girls. She’s surprised and nervous as you’d expect, but you try to reassure her that she’ll be fine. Initially things are shaky. Eliza isn’t very authoritative and often Wendy or you have to step in to lay down more discipline in the half elven sisters. A couple more months pass and it’s obvious things are not working out. Sunshine and Flameflower work, but in a very half-assed way. Even Rita did her job. The sisters are prone to flirt a lot to the patrons, which is good…but not so great when they tend to disappear with said patrons for a few hours. This wouldn’t be a problem if you were running a brothel and making money on this, but you aren’t and it’s too late to start now. You get angry with Eliza and tell her that she needs to get a leash on them, but all this does is make Eliza more nervous and cry that you’re yelling at her. You try to get Wendy to help more, but she complains about how she told you in advance that she can’t do anymore than what she’s doing now. Ultimately she quits because she’s getting burned out. This is soon followed by Eliza who is so stressed out that she can’t take it anymore. As for Flameflower and Sunshine, you don’t even bother firing them since they just stop coming in one day. At this point your school work is taking a small dive due to your only source of income crumbling. You see the writing on the wall and decide to sell the place hoping that you can finish up at least the year. You aren’t going to be able to become a doctor, but MAYBE you’ll be able to get a good job with your education level. You feel slightly bad about Alan who you have to run off because he doesn’t completely understand why he has to leave. You don’t get quite as much money as you’d like for the inn, mainly because the place had gone down hill quite a bit during the time your father ran it, but you finish out the year. As for getting a job, you manage to get one, but it’s working as an office clerk in the city. Maintaining records, filling out shit, etc. It’s tediously dull work, but to a certain extent you’re just glad to not have to worry about that damn inn anymore. Over the years, you settle into your mundane life. You’re always a little bitter about your situation, but you try to make the best of it. It isn’t a terrible life, but you always wonder what you could’ve done differently. You’ll never know.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>A year has passed and you’re back in college, though it’s not as much fun as it was when you didn’t need to worry about where your tuition was coming from or having something like a job. Finding time to study while running the inn is difficult, but fortunately Wendy picks up the slack when you’re not around. You’ve also managed to re-establish some old contacts with people you were “friends” with before your “break”. Most of them are ahead of you and some are getting ready to graduate. While none of them bothered to stay in contact with you (so much for education breaking down class distinctions) a few of them are still willing to help you out by selling you books for cheap or giving you some of their old notes. Every little bit helps. As for the inn, it’s doing well, but you constantly worry about its future profitability. Your regular patrons aren’t the upstanding working class anymore, most of them are petty criminals, broke losers and other ne’er-do-wells. You also have to do something about your overworked/underpaid staff. So far Wendy has been doing far more than she anticipated and is demanding more pay. Rita on the other hand is just plain threatening to quit. All of which is cutting into your study and school time. A few bright spots are you’re getting adventurers coming in since those nice rooms you got awhile back started to pay off. You’re also saving money with your stills (You have multiple ones in the basement now) and your retarded janitor Alan who seems to be just happy to work and follow your orders. If only all your employees were so agreeable. Today’s the day you make a change to the status quo. > You cut back on food and promote Wendy Again, the inn isn’t really like how it used to be where you’d get miners coming in wanting some food with their ale. Nowadays you just get plain ol’ drunks coming in. Even the adventurers don’t normally order anything fancy. You figure you’ll just cut down on food shipments and jack the price up so only adventurers or perhaps the odd merchant will be willing to pay for a hot meal. You also decide that Wendy is a pretty vital part of running this place, so you offer her the only thing you can think of that would keep her happy… “Less kitchen work and a free permanent room? Are you serious?” Wendy says in disbelief. “If you want it. The catch is though, you’d be living here and need to make sure things are running smoothly on a regular basis, this means opening up the inn early, closing it down late, or whatever else is required.” “Pfft, I basically do that now.” “Perhaps, but now you’d get to live at a place rent free, not to mention you don’t need to walk that far to work anymore. Now that should certainly alleviate some of your problems I trust?” “Yeah, that would help a lot.” “Good, oh one more thing, I know you have kids, I really hope they won’t be running all over the place bothering patrons.” “No, it won’t be a problem. Y’know I had my doubts about you running this place and while I know me living here is going to make it more convenient for your own goals, thanks all the same.” “You’re welcome.” You say and feel positive that this decision is going to work out just fine. A few months pass and your inn is making a little more money and you have a little more time for your academic goals. Things are nice for a little while, but as usual a problem crops up to make you life a lot more difficult. Wendy’s kids are little monsters. Not to you, but to just about everyone else. Wendy tries to keep them in line through screaming and beatings, but it doesn’t work for long. Her youngest Carl is a dirty little boy who is constantly trying to look up Eliza and Rita’s dresses or touch them in some inappropriate way. If he can’t get to them, the local trashy women who frequent the bar will do. Most of the time he tries to play it off like he doesn’t mean anything, but he knows damn well what he’s doing. Wendy’s daughter Annie is obviously taking after her with the same grasp of verbal swears. She swears so much you initially thought she had Rosette’s Syndrome. Her mouth wouldn’t really be a problem except she’s loud and is always asking the inn guests strange questions (swearing the whole time of course). Finally her oldest son, Henry is well on his way to be a future sociopath. The kid will sit in a corner watching everything and everyone with this creepy look like he’d murder everyone if he could. You’ve noticed that knives from the kitchen have been going missing and you never used to come across so many bloody cat heads in the alley before Wendy moved in. While you can’t prove the animal killing or knife theft, you know for a fact that he’s been fucking with Alan. For the past week you’ve noticed Alan limping, when you questioned him, he stated it was nothing, but on closer inspection you saw that his shoe was in a burned condition and he had a bruise on his neck. You question it further and Alan finally breaks down and tells you it was Wendy’s son, but states that Wendy’s son was just “playing” that it wasn’t a big deal and he didn’t want him getting into trouble. That’s the last straw for you. You and Wendy need to have another talk about this arrangement. “Wendy I need to talk to you now.” “Can it wait…HEY GET BACK HERE YOU LITTLE BASTARD!” Wendy says shouting at one her little demons. “That’s exactly what we need to talk about.” “Wha…oh fine.” You and Wendy step into the kitchen and you waste no time in expressing your concerns. “Wendy you’ve been a great help her since you moved in, but it was my understanding that you were going to have your kids under better control than you have been.” “Hey this is the best all of them have been in ages! Besides they haven’t been bothering you and business has been doing okay.” “Yeah, but at this rate I’m not sure how long that’s going to last with how your kids have been acting lately. Your youngest is sexually harassing Eliza and Rita more than the lowest scum that drinks here. Your daughter is causing some the most hardcore adventurers feel uncomfortable. And your oldest son, hoo boy, you NEED to get that kid on a leash quick and instill some discipline into him because he’s one twisted little pup.” “Who the fuck do you think you’re talking to fuckhead? You think you can tell me how to raise my goddamn kids? You think it’s fucking easy? You don’t have any, so fuck you! Shit, you ain’t even got a woman, so I’m guessing you ain’t gonna have to worry about it ever. Faggot.” “And who the hell do you think YOU’RE talking to? I’m your boss and I’m telling you need to get your kids in line! Alan just told me that your oldest son snuck down into basement and gave him a hotfoot while he was sleeping. When Alan predictably woke up, he nearly choked himself because your little psycho set up a wire noose around his neck tied to the table nearby.” “And you believed Alan?” “Alan’s a lot of things, but he’s not a liar. If anything I had to drag the info out of him. He was afraid of getting your son in trouble, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he was just afraid of your son period.” “(Sigh) Even if it is true. So what? That’s just how boys play.” “That’s how future murderers play. Look, I’m not arguing with you anymore. Your kids are a problem and you said they wouldn’t be. So get your shit together or face the consequences.” “Fuck you, you gonna fire me? Pfft! Yeah right. Without me, you couldn’t run this place and pursue your precious education at the same time. Hell, I doubt if you could run it period.” > You keep trying to reason with her You can’t afford to fire her and you don’t even want to risk threatening her with it lest she call your bluff and leave. “Will you listen to yourself for one moment? All I’m saying is to get your kids in line because they’re not just fucking up MY business, but they’re actually fucking up yours by proxy! If you won’t do it for me, at least do it for your own self-preservation!” “Sounds like you’re threatening to fire me again. If you’re going to do it, do it and stop beating around the fucking fairy bush shithead!” You shake your head at Wendy’s insults. It’s obvious she isn’t going to listen to reason this way, so you try another tactic. “Look, I’m not going to fire you, but you’re going to have to find another place to live. I can’t have your kids screwing up my business like this. If this is unacceptable to you, well I suppose I can’t stop you from quitting, but seriously I think you know I have a point here.” Wendy is a little caught of guard since she figured you might back down from this completely. “Wha… shit. You do have a point. I know they’re little monsters. Look I’ll talk to them, I’ll get them in line.” “I’m glad you see it my way, but the time for that has passed. I think it would be best for our future working relationship if you didn’t live here anymore.” “But come on you can’t fucking throw us out like this! I at least need time to find a new place!” “I’m not throwing you out right now, but you need to find a new place by the end of next month.” “Okay…okay. But hey, if I manage to get my kids to behave within that time can we stay?” Wendy asks hopefully, which is odd to you considering how she was just behaving. You’ve never seen her act in such a desperate fashion before. In fact you’re pretty surprised she hasn’t called you a bunch of names again, though she might’ve realized now that isn’t going to work. > You give her time You figure you’ve made your point and she’s still vital to the inn, so you can give her this chance. Besides if she doesn’t get her kids in line then she’s out. “Alright Wendy, but don’t stop looking for other places to move to, because I’m not optimistic about your chances.” “Don’t worry about it, I can handle it.” “Okay then I hope you prove me wrong.” After this exchange you and Wendy go back to work. A few weeks pass and you notice a decrease in the bad behavior from her kids. Carl’s not grabbing Rita’s ass, Annie’s not cussing out the adventurers and Henry…well he’s still creepy, but he isn’t setting any of your employees on fire and you haven’t tripped over any new cat heads in the alley. By the last week it actually looks like Wendy has succeeded. You’re a little impressed considering how horrible her kids were; still you don’t want a setback. “Okay Wendy you can stay, but I hope you know that they better continue acting like how they are now. If there’s a relapse, it’s back to finding a new place again.” Wendy of course tells you that she has everything under control with her kids now. Unfortunately after a month you find that she doesn’t. Even worse, she isn’t the only person looking for a new place. Apparently Henry couldn’t contain himself any longer and one night decided to finish what he started with poor Alan by setting more than just his foot on fire. Alan’s flailing soon set portions of the basement on fire, and your stills just make things explosively worse. The first explosion wakes you up immediately. The smell of smoke and the sounds of your inn collapsing on itself gets your ass out of bed and running to the nearest exit. You don’t even have time to check on Wendy before the floor suddenly collapses on you and plunge to a fiery death.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You can’t afford to fire her and you don’t even want to risk threatening her with it lest she call your bluff and leave. “Will you listen to yourself for one moment? All I’m saying is to get your kids in line because they’re not just fucking up MY business, but they’re actually fucking up yours by proxy! If you won’t do it for me, at least do it for your own self-preservation!” “Sounds like you’re threatening to fire me again. If you’re going to do it, do it and stop beating around the fucking fairy bush shithead!” You shake your head at Wendy’s insults. It’s obvious she isn’t going to listen to reason this way, so you try another tactic. “Look, I’m not going to fire you, but you’re going to have to find another place to live. I can’t have your kids screwing up my business like this. If this is unacceptable to you, well I suppose I can’t stop you from quitting, but seriously I think you know I have a point here.” Wendy is a little caught of guard since she figured you might back down from this completely. “Wha… shit. You do have a point. I know they’re little monsters. Look I’ll talk to them, I’ll get them in line.” “I’m glad you see it my way, but the time for that has passed. I think it would be best for our future working relationship if you didn’t live here anymore.” “But come on you can’t fucking throw us out like this! I at least need time to find a new place!” “I’m not throwing you out right now, but you need to find a new place by the end of next month.” “Okay…okay. But hey, if I manage to get my kids to behave within that time can we stay?” Wendy asks hopefully, which is odd to you considering how she was just behaving. You’ve never seen her act in such a desperate fashion before. In fact you’re pretty surprised she hasn’t called you a bunch of names again, though she might’ve realized now that isn’t going to work. > You stand firm While you hate to be uncompromising dick, you need to stand your ground on this situation. Even if Wendy does get her kids in line, who is to say they won’t relapse later. Really you’ve got more important things to worry about than some little brats that aren’t even yours. “Sorry Wendy, it’ll just be better in the long run if you don’t live here anymore.” Once again Wendy is a little shocked that you wouldn’t budge. She quickly gets over it though. “Yeah, whatever. Since we’re done here, I’ve got work to do.” She says pushing you aside. A week passes and Wendy has already found a new place and moved out. You half expect her to also quit since you know she’s still pissed at you, but she doesn’t. Perhaps she might know this is for the best even if she isn’t going to let you know about it. In the meantime you’re worried more about your future schooling. Even with cutting back on the food, you’re still understaffed and thanks to recent events, Wendy isn’t quite as “enthusiastic” about her job anymore. You just need to hold out a little longer. You figure if you can pass the remainder of your classes this year, you should be able to get a job working as an intern at the hospital while you finish your medical schooling. While that won’t pay that well, you can sell the inn and live off that for quite awhile especially if you get a cheap apartment, maybe even a roommate. All great plans, but it would help if you could get the backing from one of your professors. It’s possible that one of them could really help you out if you explained your situation. You can think of two that might help you. You advanced microbiology teacher, professor Gossey has always been a friendly sort and you know for a fact that she hasn’t had a problem helping out her students in the past. Your advanced anatomy & physiology teacher, professor Kovas isn’t as friendly, but he’s always made a point of praising the work you turn in. > You professor Gossey After her class you approach Dr. Gossey about your situation, she of course is sympathetic. “Yes, yes, I understand. It must be hard for you, running a business like that and attending school, let alone paying for it all. I’m not exactly sure how I can help though, I have hired all the student assistants I need and I doubt if you would have the time for it anyway.” “Isn’t there something I could help with, I dunno like an experimental project I could participate in or something?” “Ha ha! No, I’m not Dr. Kovas…but now that I’m thinking about it I may have something. You are aware that my other specialty is zoology right?” “Yes, I know, you’ve even discovered some new species in the past.” “Ah back when I was younger and more adventurous. Nowadays I tend to hire adventurers to explore for me to find strange and new beasts.” “Wait, you don’t want me to go seeking new creatures do you?” “Oh no, again you wouldn’t have the time and you could get killed without the right equipment and proper training for such a thing. However, you do own that inn of yours do you not?” “Yes, I own it.” “Good, now I’m going to let you know something that few other do and you must swear that you will NOT mention this to anyone else on campus especially staff!” “I won’t.” I have funded an expedition to the Sotakan swamps south of here. Naturally this was incredibly dangerous for several reasons, but most of which is the capture of the elusive daquala. I’m sure you’ve heard the stories of the beast.” “Stories, I’ve heard it’s more legendary than anything. Don’t the Sotakans revere it as the living embodiment of one of their gods?” “Something like that, anyway the university wasn’t too keen on this expedition and refused to help, so I had to use my own funds. I’ve gotten word that the adventurers I hired have succeeded in their quest, but I just need some place to keep the beast for awhile before I can clear everything with the university like potentially dangerous wildlife, rogue funding, ignoring safety measures, and the rest of usual red tape shit. Your inn would be a good safe place to keep it I think and I’d certainly pay you well for your trouble, plus you’d make money on the adventurers I hired who will stay there.” This information is a little overwhelming and you have several questions. “Okay, first of all how dangerous is this creature? I mean how do you know they got it? I thought it was more of a scary myth than anything else.” “I know they got it, because after I received a message from the adventurers that they had succeeded, I took a trip last week just outside the Elven-Sotakan warzone to see it for myself and the creature in question fits all the common descriptions of a daquala, as well as some of the more fantastic descriptions. The only reason why I didn’t bring it with me is because I’m trying to keep this as quiet as possible and I can’t be seen with this creature until I clear it with the university first. Plus I knew I was going to have to figure out a way to indirectly bribe the Klyton Milita not to ask any questions when this group brings the beast through. As for how dangerous the daquala is, well apparently it killed one of them, but if you’re worried that this is some hulking monster, it isn’t. It’s about the size of a small dog. It isn’t even that noisy and spends most of its time camouflaged and sleeping. The adventurers I hired will still be looking after it while they stay at the inn, so you shouldn’t worry at all.” This all still sounds a bit dangerous to you, but after asking exactly how much money Dr. Gossey is going to offer you for this task, you really can’t refuse. You agree and Dr. Gossey thanks you and gives you the names and descriptions of the adventurers who will be arriving to your inn in a few days. You spend the time in between preparing your best rooms and keeping them unoccupied in preparation for the adventurers. This causes a few questions from your staff who notice you’re turning people away from staying here, but you just tell them that you’ve got some special guests coming who are going to be spending a lot more money. Eventually one of the adventurers arrives. He’s a wiry man with a goatee and wearing leather armor with a couple of flintlock pistols strapped to his sides. “You must be Hanon.” “And you must be the inn keeper. I trust you have our rooms ready?” “Yes, four of you right?” “Two actually, used to be six at one time, but more loot for the rest of us I suppose. I’m guessing you have a cellar where we can keep the beast?” “I have a cellar, but I was told you’d be keeping with you.” “Oh no, we’re not spending anymore time with that fucking thing! It might not live up to the legends, but it’s dangerous enough.” You’re more than a little worried now. “Uh…should I even be keeping it here?” “Probably not, but I’m guessing that Gossey’s paying a lot so you’re willing to risk it. (Sigh) Look, we’ve got the creature locked up in a mithril cage with three spell wards on it, it’s not going anywhere, but we’re just sick of damn thing and all the trouble we’ve had to go through to capture it ALIVE. The little bastard seems calmer in the darkness, so I figure your cellar will be a good place to keep it while we wait. I’ll check on it twice a day, it’ll be fine.” This is all starting to sound a little more complicated, but again you don’t have much choice. You’re going to have to get Alan out of the cellar though and you’ll have to make sure none of the girls get any drinks from there. “Okay, I guess bring it on in then, go around the back though, it’ll attract less attention.” Hanon nods and heads outside, and you quickly go get Alan to explain to him that you need him to sleep in one of the rooms you originally set aside for the adventurers. He doesn’t quite understand why, but he obeys your orders to not go into the cellar for a while. You open up the backdoor and see Hanon and a very large man carrying a cage with a black cloth over it. He must be Benjamin. After a walk short walk, you pick an unused part of the cellar to place the daquala. No sounds have come from the cage at all. “Is it alive?” you ask. “Yeah, it’s alive, it just sleeps a lot. Good thing too, because it’s quite vicious when awake. I’ll have to feed it in a few hours though…hey I see you got your own brewery here.” Hanon says looking over at your stills. You didn’t even think about that when you brought them down here. “Oh yeah, that…uh I trust you won’t tell anyone.” “Bah, if we’re keeping this daquala situation quiet, you certainly don’t have anything to worry about. Okay I think Ben and I are heading up to our rooms, it’s been a damn long trip and actually sleeping in a bed instead of the fucking wilderness for once will make a nice change.” As Hanon and Benjamin head up to their rooms you immediately call the rest of your staff to tell them to not go into the cellar for awhile and if they need to refill the alcohol, you’ll do it. While this creates less work for them, they’re getting curious about what is going on. After all they’re seeing adventurers come out of the cellar, Wendy already noticed the cage being brought into the back of the inn, and the various other changes you’ve been making lately. At this point you figure there might be fewer potential complications if they know what’s going on, so you explain everything. “Oh that’s fucking wonderful. You’re using this place as a zoo for dangerous animals now?” Rita says. “Shhhh! Keep your fucking voice down!” you say. “How dangerous is this thing? I mean could it get out? I heard stories about the daquala when I was a little girl and they still scare me to this day!” Eliza mentions. “It won’t get out. Precautions have been taken. Trust me.” “I sure hope so, because if that thing gets out and attacks one of us…well I don’t think I need to mention how much shit you’ll be in. Did you tell Alan to get the hell out of the cellar yet?” Wendy says. “Yes, he’ll be staying in one of the rooms upstairs and I told him to not go into the cellar.” “Hmmm well I guess I’m glad you threw me out of this place when you did, because there’s no way I’d live here with a killer monster in the cellar. Still, you’re putting us all in potential danger so I’d say that entitles us to some hazard pay doesn’t it?” “Yeah! What Wendy said! Hazard pay!” Rita agrees. You almost wish that they’d just refuse to work at all, but you just sigh heavily and come to a fair agreement on “danger” pay while the daquala is at the inn. You just hope it isn’t too long of a stay since that money that Dr. Gossey is paying you is supposed to go to finishing up your tuition. The next few days go by relatively uneventfully and it’s business as usual. Hanon checks on the daquala periodically to feed and sedate it somehow. You wonder how he’s doing it and he says with magic of course. You have to say that by his look you didn’t think he was a wizard. He and Benjamin spend a fair amount of money in the tavern so it sort of offsets the danger pay you have to give your staff. Everyone stays away from the cellar, except Alan who forgot he wasn’t supposed to go down there, but fortunately Eliza stops him before he got down the stairs. After a week goes by you ask Dr. Gossey when she’s going to take the thing, but she says she’s still working on the university faculty, as compensation for your patience she gives half of your money now. That’s great and all, but your concern is more of a safety issue now. The magical meat or whatever hell Hanon has been feeding the daquala isn’t keeping it appeased anymore and it’s been more “vocal” lately. Hanon’s also been keeping the magical wards on it for about a month now, and he’s feeling tired all the time now due to the constant drain. Another couple of days and Hanon’s ready to dump the daquala on Dr. Gossey’s doorstep and be done with it. He says he and Ben have gone way beyond what they were paid to do. You sympathize and you want the daquala gone as much as everyone else, but you’re concerned that if he does this, it’s going to fuck up things between you and your professor, not to mention the rest of your money. > You let Hanon go to the university You don’t think you could stop him if you tried, but you do try to minimize the damage by insisting on going with him and trying to talk to your professor first. You suggest going tomorrow night when you know she’ll be working late in her lab and there won’t be a lot of other people around. “Alright, but whether or not you manage to talk any sense into this bitch, she’s getting her monster tomorrow and forking over the rest of our pay!” The trip to the university is an awkward coach ride. The daquala is growling loud enough for people to know Benjamin is carrying something alive in the covered cage, but fortunately you get to Dr. Gossey’s lab without incident. She of course is surprised to see the three of you. “Uh hello, I wasn’t expecting to see you three… wait did you bring the daquala with you?!” “Damn straight! We’ve completed your task for you and then some! Time for you to take this fucking thing and pay us the rest of our money!” Hanon yells. “I’ll do no such thing, I haven’t managed to clear things up with the dean yet and I still have some…look I don’t have time for this, you tell them!” Dr. Gossey says to you in an exasperated tone. “Uh, I don’t think that’s going to help professor. Look surely there’s a good strong container to hold this thing in here at the university and I’m pretty sure it can just be fed any sort of meat. Can’t it be held here for now? Just keep it here in your private lab until you clear things up.” “NO! If anyone found out I’d be ruined! I’ve risked everything to get the beast, and I won’t lose it all by keeping it on campus because of stupid rules! Now get it out of here now!” You’ve never known professor Gossey to be so irrational, but she’s going into overkill with this daquala business. You don’t really understand why she can’t keep it here. It would probably be better anyway since she could study it while she tries to do whatever “red tape clearing” she says she needs to do. “Alright fuck this stupid shit, Ben drop the cage over there, we’re getting out of here…but we’re also getting our money. I suggest you pay up, before things get ugly.” Hanon warns. “I’m not paying you anything else! I told you when the job is done I will and not before! What? What will you do, kill me? You’d never get away with it and I assure you I am not as defenseless as you might think! And as for YOU, if you don’t stop siding with these glorified mercs you won’t only not get the rest of your money, but you also won’t be passing your class!” After a couple more threats back and forth, and you trying to make peace between your professor and the adventurers, Hanon pulls out one of his pistols, Benjamin draws his axe and Dr. Gossey runs to a panel nearby which slams a adamantium shutter on the lab door sealing everyone in, she then produces a vial with a stopper on top. “Hold it right there! One more move and I fill this place with the black pox plague!” “Oh fuck! Come on everyone stop fighting!” you say backing away from everyone and looking for someway of getting out of the lab. “Yeah right! Like you’d infect yourself!” “Fool! Don’t you think I’ve take the antidote already?” “Bitch we just spent a month in the Sotakan swamps getting bit, stung and exposed to several diseases they probably don’t even have names for yet. I’m pretty sure my magic can cure black pox!” “Well let’s find out then!” Dr. Gossey says and shatters the vial to the floor! You can only look on in horror and sink to the floor in hopelessness. You don’t even pay attention to the events that happen next. Benjamin chases Dr. Gossey around the lab with his axe and while he’s doing that, Hanon casts some sort of spell. Of course with Hanon no longer bothering with up keeping the spell wards on the cage, the daquala manages to finally bust out of its imprisonment due to ravenous hunger. The daquala leaps on Hanon and tears into his neck releasing an arterial spray all over the surrounding area. “NO!” Benjamin bellows and charges at the darquala who jumps away from eating Hanon’s body and camouflages itself. It doesn’t help it much though, the lab isn’t like the dark expansive swamp and Ben is a big man with a big axe, he just starts chopping at everything and sure enough he eventually manages to graze the creature. The daquala and Benjamin engage in a short battle, but ultimately Ben proves to be stronger and better armored. He manages to grab it in mid leap, throws it to the floor, stomps on its body with one of his heavy boots and finally brings his axe down on its head, killing it for good. “Fuck, I told you bastards to just wait a little while! Now look what you’ve done! Eat lead asshole!” Dr. Gossey yells and shoots Benjamin in the head twice. He teeters a moment and then falls in a heap near the darquala. Meanwhile you’re still rocking back and forth and babbling about how all you wanted to be was a doctor and how you’re going to die. “If you’re worried about black pox, you needn’t be, there wasn’t anything in the damn vial. I’m not crazy enough to release a plague. Now I’m sure Hanon and Ben coming here was probably out of your hands and you were just trying to play diplomat, but I suggest if you still want to be that doctor you always wanted to be, then you need to do what I say right now…” Dr. Gossey orders you to help her clean up this mess. The corpse of the daquala is placed in a new container. She says she can probably present a dead one without as many problems. She really was hoping for a live one though. You ask her about the bodies of the adventurers, and she tells you grab that axe and start chopping them up. She then opens up another panel, presses a few buttons to reveal a secret passage. She enters the passage and comes back out with a big dumpster on wheels. “When you hack them into small enough pieces, put them into this dumpster and feed the wazia in the next room. Don’t worry he’s quite tame; just make sure you throw the parts at him from a safe distance. You snap out of your shock. A wazia? Those huge things live in the Cloudspeak Mountains and they’ve been known to even prey on trolls and small manticores! You’re almost about to question Dr. Gossey about how she got one of those things, but you stop yourself. The why’s and how’s aren’t even important right now, what matters is getting out of this mess. After stopping yourself from vomiting several times during your dismemberment of Ben and Hanon, you proceed to nervously feed the wazia, which isn’t even chained up. You half expect it to gobble you up in one gulp or even Dr. Gossey shutting you in, neither happens. You toss limbs near the beast and it eats a few, and ignores the rest. You presume it will eat them later and you get the hell out of there. “You see why I couldn’t have yet another illegal creature on campus? I’m already running a risk with that wazia. If you think what happened here was bad, you should’ve seen what happened when the adventurers I hired were demanding payment for that thing! Speaking of which I suppose I should pay you the rest of your money. Sorry about the threats before. It was sort of a tense moment you know. I’m sure you understand.” You just nod and don’t argue. It’s unspoken that you won’t be saying anything to anyone about this. What could you say anyway? After Dr. Gossey gives you some new lab clothes to change into, you head home exhausted. The next day you don’t even bother going to class, you sleep in late and spend a majority of the afternoon sitting in your room thinking about some of the shit you’ve done to achieve your goals. Serving homemade alcohol without a license seems to be the least of your crimes now. “Okay, okay, I just did what I had to do. It’s all for a good cause, I’m just trying to better myself.” You say and try to wipe your concerns about the morality of it all. You then head downstairs to the surprise of Wendy who figured you were at school. “Stayed home today eh? How come you didn’t come down when I opened this place up?” “I was busy.” “Hmm, okay then. I know you left with those two adventurers and that monster last night. I’m guessing that business is settled then?” “Yeah, it’s all settled.” True words in many ways. You have enough money to continue your education and with this financial pressure off, you easily pass the rest of your classes with no worries. You later sell off the inn (Which pisses off Rita and Wendy who now have to find new jobs, Eliza and Alan are a bit upset as well), get a cheap apartment near the campus and given your close relationship with Dr. Gossey you get a good job working at the hospital while you complete medical school. It isn’t easy of course, but given what you’ve already been through you’re able to handle it. Eventually you do fulfill your goals of becoming a doctor. You don’t stay in Klyton though. You have too many bad memories and reminders of “bad things” going on there in general. So you move to the Delantium Kingdom, specifically a border city called Sivak, which has great demand for doctors at their new hospital. The rest of your life is a relatively good one. Still, you do have your bouts of guilt every now and then with some of your choices that got you to where you are, sometimes wondering if you could’ve handled a few things better at the inn. Who can say, but in any case your days as an innkeeper are long over.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|> After her class you approach Dr. Gossey about your situation, she of course is sympathetic. “Yes, yes, I understand. It must be hard for you, running a business like that and attending school, let alone paying for it all. I’m not exactly sure how I can help though, I have hired all the student assistants I need and I doubt if you would have the time for it anyway.” “Isn’t there something I could help with, I dunno like an experimental project I could participate in or something?” “Ha ha! No, I’m not Dr. Kovas…but now that I’m thinking about it I may have something. You are aware that my other specialty is zoology right?” “Yes, I know, you’ve even discovered some new species in the past.” “Ah back when I was younger and more adventurous. Nowadays I tend to hire adventurers to explore for me to find strange and new beasts.” “Wait, you don’t want me to go seeking new creatures do you?” “Oh no, again you wouldn’t have the time and you could get killed without the right equipment and proper training for such a thing. However, you do own that inn of yours do you not?” “Yes, I own it.” “Good, now I’m going to let you know something that few other do and you must swear that you will NOT mention this to anyone else on campus especially staff!” “I won’t.” I have funded an expedition to the Sotakan swamps south of here. Naturally this was incredibly dangerous for several reasons, but most of which is the capture of the elusive daquala. I’m sure you’ve heard the stories of the beast.” “Stories, I’ve heard it’s more legendary than anything. Don’t the Sotakans revere it as the living embodiment of one of their gods?” “Something like that, anyway the university wasn’t too keen on this expedition and refused to help, so I had to use my own funds. I’ve gotten word that the adventurers I hired have succeeded in their quest, but I just need some place to keep the beast for awhile before I can clear everything with the university like potentially dangerous wildlife, rogue funding, ignoring safety measures, and the rest of usual red tape shit. Your inn would be a good safe place to keep it I think and I’d certainly pay you well for your trouble, plus you’d make money on the adventurers I hired who will stay there.” This information is a little overwhelming and you have several questions. “Okay, first of all how dangerous is this creature? I mean how do you know they got it? I thought it was more of a scary myth than anything else.” “I know they got it, because after I received a message from the adventurers that they had succeeded, I took a trip last week just outside the Elven-Sotakan warzone to see it for myself and the creature in question fits all the common descriptions of a daquala, as well as some of the more fantastic descriptions. The only reason why I didn’t bring it with me is because I’m trying to keep this as quiet as possible and I can’t be seen with this creature until I clear it with the university first. Plus I knew I was going to have to figure out a way to indirectly bribe the Klyton Milita not to ask any questions when this group brings the beast through. As for how dangerous the daquala is, well apparently it killed one of them, but if you’re worried that this is some hulking monster, it isn’t. It’s about the size of a small dog. It isn’t even that noisy and spends most of its time camouflaged and sleeping. The adventurers I hired will still be looking after it while they stay at the inn, so you shouldn’t worry at all.” This all still sounds a bit dangerous to you, but after asking exactly how much money Dr. Gossey is going to offer you for this task, you really can’t refuse. You agree and Dr. Gossey thanks you and gives you the names and descriptions of the adventurers who will be arriving to your inn in a few days. You spend the time in between preparing your best rooms and keeping them unoccupied in preparation for the adventurers. This causes a few questions from your staff who notice you’re turning people away from staying here, but you just tell them that you’ve got some special guests coming who are going to be spending a lot more money. Eventually one of the adventurers arrives. He’s a wiry man with a goatee and wearing leather armor with a couple of flintlock pistols strapped to his sides. “You must be Hanon.” “And you must be the inn keeper. I trust you have our rooms ready?” “Yes, four of you right?” “Two actually, used to be six at one time, but more loot for the rest of us I suppose. I’m guessing you have a cellar where we can keep the beast?” “I have a cellar, but I was told you’d be keeping with you.” “Oh no, we’re not spending anymore time with that fucking thing! It might not live up to the legends, but it’s dangerous enough.” You’re more than a little worried now. “Uh…should I even be keeping it here?” “Probably not, but I’m guessing that Gossey’s paying a lot so you’re willing to risk it. (Sigh) Look, we’ve got the creature locked up in a mithril cage with three spell wards on it, it’s not going anywhere, but we’re just sick of damn thing and all the trouble we’ve had to go through to capture it ALIVE. The little bastard seems calmer in the darkness, so I figure your cellar will be a good place to keep it while we wait. I’ll check on it twice a day, it’ll be fine.” This is all starting to sound a little more complicated, but again you don’t have much choice. You’re going to have to get Alan out of the cellar though and you’ll have to make sure none of the girls get any drinks from there. “Okay, I guess bring it on in then, go around the back though, it’ll attract less attention.” Hanon nods and heads outside, and you quickly go get Alan to explain to him that you need him to sleep in one of the rooms you originally set aside for the adventurers. He doesn’t quite understand why, but he obeys your orders to not go into the cellar for a while. You open up the backdoor and see Hanon and a very large man carrying a cage with a black cloth over it. He must be Benjamin. After a walk short walk, you pick an unused part of the cellar to place the daquala. No sounds have come from the cage at all. “Is it alive?” you ask. “Yeah, it’s alive, it just sleeps a lot. Good thing too, because it’s quite vicious when awake. I’ll have to feed it in a few hours though…hey I see you got your own brewery here.” Hanon says looking over at your stills. You didn’t even think about that when you brought them down here. “Oh yeah, that…uh I trust you won’t tell anyone.” “Bah, if we’re keeping this daquala situation quiet, you certainly don’t have anything to worry about. Okay I think Ben and I are heading up to our rooms, it’s been a damn long trip and actually sleeping in a bed instead of the fucking wilderness for once will make a nice change.” As Hanon and Benjamin head up to their rooms you immediately call the rest of your staff to tell them to not go into the cellar for awhile and if they need to refill the alcohol, you’ll do it. While this creates less work for them, they’re getting curious about what is going on. After all they’re seeing adventurers come out of the cellar, Wendy already noticed the cage being brought into the back of the inn, and the various other changes you’ve been making lately. At this point you figure there might be fewer potential complications if they know what’s going on, so you explain everything. “Oh that’s fucking wonderful. You’re using this place as a zoo for dangerous animals now?” Rita says. “Shhhh! Keep your fucking voice down!” you say. “How dangerous is this thing? I mean could it get out? I heard stories about the daquala when I was a little girl and they still scare me to this day!” Eliza mentions. “It won’t get out. Precautions have been taken. Trust me.” “I sure hope so, because if that thing gets out and attacks one of us…well I don’t think I need to mention how much shit you’ll be in. Did you tell Alan to get the hell out of the cellar yet?” Wendy says. “Yes, he’ll be staying in one of the rooms upstairs and I told him to not go into the cellar.” “Hmmm well I guess I’m glad you threw me out of this place when you did, because there’s no way I’d live here with a killer monster in the cellar. Still, you’re putting us all in potential danger so I’d say that entitles us to some hazard pay doesn’t it?” “Yeah! What Wendy said! Hazard pay!” Rita agrees. You almost wish that they’d just refuse to work at all, but you just sigh heavily and come to a fair agreement on “danger” pay while the daquala is at the inn. You just hope it isn’t too long of a stay since that money that Dr. Gossey is paying you is supposed to go to finishing up your tuition. The next few days go by relatively uneventfully and it’s business as usual. Hanon checks on the daquala periodically to feed and sedate it somehow. You wonder how he’s doing it and he says with magic of course. You have to say that by his look you didn’t think he was a wizard. He and Benjamin spend a fair amount of money in the tavern so it sort of offsets the danger pay you have to give your staff. Everyone stays away from the cellar, except Alan who forgot he wasn’t supposed to go down there, but fortunately Eliza stops him before he got down the stairs. After a week goes by you ask Dr. Gossey when she’s going to take the thing, but she says she’s still working on the university faculty, as compensation for your patience she gives half of your money now. That’s great and all, but your concern is more of a safety issue now. The magical meat or whatever hell Hanon has been feeding the daquala isn’t keeping it appeased anymore and it’s been more “vocal” lately. Hanon’s also been keeping the magical wards on it for about a month now, and he’s feeling tired all the time now due to the constant drain. Another couple of days and Hanon’s ready to dump the daquala on Dr. Gossey’s doorstep and be done with it. He says he and Ben have gone way beyond what they were paid to do. You sympathize and you want the daquala gone as much as everyone else, but you’re concerned that if he does this, it’s going to fuck up things between you and your professor, not to mention the rest of your money. > You talk him out of it You can’t let him fuck this up for you, Dr. Gossey just needs a little more time. You rush to talk to Hanon. “Outta my way, me and Ben are getting that monster!” Hanon says pushing you aside. “No! No! Hold on! Wait! Just give her more time!” “More time? I’m getting fucking exhausted up keeping the wards! Not to mention it’s getting more and more agitated in that cage. Also we’ve been spending most of our money here, if this keeps up we’re going to be broke!” “Okay how about for the remainder of your stay here, everything is free for you and Ben? That should certainly take the stress off shouldn’t it?” “Hmm, free huh? (Sigh) Alright, you’ve bought yourself some more time and ain’t sayin’ how much, but YOU better go talk to your teacher and tell her she needs to get her shit together soon or I will be coming to drop this fucker on her doorstep!” Hanon and his buddy at this point proceed to the bar to indulge in their free booze. A few more days pass and Hanon and Ben are getting drunk every night. Didn’t used to be a problem before mainly because they were holding back due to funds, but now with free reign they’re becoming the lives of the party on a regular basis. In addition to drinking they’re picking fights with your other paying customers which results in broken furniture. Combine this with the higher wages you have to pay your staff and you’re hemorrhaging money. You see Dr. Gossey everyday about taking the daquala, but she just says the same thing all the time “still clearing through the red tape.” It’s getting really old, and you begin to get pissed at her, to which her response is if you want to a career in medicine you’ll do what the hell you’re told and shut up about it. You head back to the inn cursing the fact you ever asked her for help. “HEY ITS DA (HIC!) INNKEEPER! GO MAKE YERSELF USEFUL FOR ONCE AND GET US NOTHER DRINK! HAR HAR HAR!” Benjamin bellows as you enter the inn. Seems that he and Hanon are getting an early start. You storm over to the bar and begin ranting at your staff which is doing nothing. “Wendy why the fuck are all of you standing around not doing your fucking jobs?” “Because they drank all the fucking booze and you told us to not go downstairs to get refill casks. Not that we’d go down there in the first place, you don’t give us nearly enough danger pay for that.” You grumble and swear as you head down the cellar steps. “I don’t fucking deserve this shit! I was supposed to be finishing up medical school by now, not cleaning up shit around this place! Thanks a lot dad! You ever think when you started borrowing from a fucking loan shark? Fucking…” You cut your rant short when you suddenly hear a low growl. At first you figure it’s just the daquala again and you’re right except he’s not in his cage anymore. Ever since the free booze policy Hanon’s been taking advantage of, he’s also been getting lax in checking on the daquala. The constant alcoholic haze hasn’t really been helping on his concentration for keeping up the wards on the cage either. All of which contributed to the daquala finally breaking out of his confinement. Still thinking it’s still in its cage, you go get a cask of booze. You’ve barely managed to pick one up and you feel a sharp pain in your leg. You fall to the floor, dropping the cask and yelling for help when you see the amount of blood leaking from the sizable hole in your leg. It’s the last thing you do, before the daquala’s next attack is on your throat.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>While you hate to be uncompromising dick, you need to stand your ground on this situation. Even if Wendy does get her kids in line, who is to say they won’t relapse later. Really you’ve got more important things to worry about than some little brats that aren’t even yours. “Sorry Wendy, it’ll just be better in the long run if you don’t live here anymore.” Once again Wendy is a little shocked that you wouldn’t budge. She quickly gets over it though. “Yeah, whatever. Since we’re done here, I’ve got work to do.” She says pushing you aside. A week passes and Wendy has already found a new place and moved out. You half expect her to also quit since you know she’s still pissed at you, but she doesn’t. Perhaps she might know this is for the best even if she isn’t going to let you know about it. In the meantime you’re worried more about your future schooling. Even with cutting back on the food, you’re still understaffed and thanks to recent events, Wendy isn’t quite as “enthusiastic” about her job anymore. You just need to hold out a little longer. You figure if you can pass the remainder of your classes this year, you should be able to get a job working as an intern at the hospital while you finish your medical schooling. While that won’t pay that well, you can sell the inn and live off that for quite awhile especially if you get a cheap apartment, maybe even a roommate. All great plans, but it would help if you could get the backing from one of your professors. It’s possible that one of them could really help you out if you explained your situation. You can think of two that might help you. You advanced microbiology teacher, professor Gossey has always been a friendly sort and you know for a fact that she hasn’t had a problem helping out her students in the past. Your advanced anatomy & physiology teacher, professor Kovas isn’t as friendly, but he’s always made a point of praising the work you turn in. > You professor Kovas Given that Dr. Kovas rarely compliments anyone, he has to like you a lot. You decide it might be best to take advantage of that fact. After his class you approach him about your situation, but he doesn’t seem very sympathetic. “Yes, yes, I’m sure your problems are very important to you, but my question is why are you telling me?” “Well that’s what I was getting at, I wanted to know if there was something I could do to help you out. Some way of maybe earning more money…” “Money? Hah! What do you think this is a factory employment line? If you want to help me, you shouldn’t be doing it for cash m’boy. You should be doing it for the love of science!” He starts to make his way out of the classroom, but you follow. “Dr. Kovas, I’d love to help for the love of science, but I’m not exactly in a position to do so! I mean I’ve got so many expenses and responsibilities and…” “Stop right there m’boy. Again you’re telling me these things as if I can do something about them…or that I WANT to do something about them.” “(sputter)…because I thought that given how much you praise my work in class you’d want to help out a potential fellow future doctor.” You say getting exasperated. “YOU? A fellow doctor? Ha ha ha ha! Granted you may have the ability to be a doctor one day, but if you think you’d ever approach someone of my caliber, I’ve sorely underestimated your capacity for logical thinking.” Dr. Kovas laughs. At this point you’re angry, you came to get help, not be insulted by this asshole. You’re hesitant to outright insult him back though since you still need to finish his class, so you just decide to leave. “Alright fine, don’t help me then. I just thought you were different from the other rich elitist bastards that look their noses down at me just because of my working class background. I’ll just leave…” “Wait, wait, you think I’m looking down on you because of your humble roots? My, my someone has an inferiority complex. M’boy I’m looking down on you because you’re whining about your problems to me. You have much potential and despite your pathetic tales of woe it is obvious that you’ve overcome much and are determined in your goals to become a doctor. I think however you could do something more, but unless you’re willing to help me for the love of science, not because of money, or what I might be able to do for you then I think you will languish in mediocrity like most that pass through my class.” At this point you don’t know what the hell kind of head game Dr. Kovas is playing with you, but if there is some sort of possibility that he might help you, then you might need to play along. “I don’t believe you. Or rather I don’t believe you’ll help me for the right reasons. You’re going to help, because you still believe that I’m going to help you.” “Yes.” You blurt out. “Heh, well at least you’re honest now. All right I’m going to roll the dice with you and allow you to help me on a project I’ve been working on. I’ll even assure you that you will profit from this because I know you seem to be concerned about such things.” “”I’m really not, I just need extra money to…” “Don’t interrupt!” Dr. Kovas snaps. “As I was saying, you will profit from this, but it is my hope that you will come to do this for science more than anything. Because if you aren’t then you’re in the wrong field.” “I thought the field of medicine was primarily to help the sick.” You say. “Bah! Helping people? Nonsense! Most so called doctors aren’t in it to help people, they’re in it for the money! They’re all a bunch of soulless greed automatons that have no real passion for the mysteries of the human body and all this field has to offer!” Dr. Kovas has a reputation for misanthropy and cynicism, but you weren’t aware how much until just now, still he says he’s willing to help you and that’s good enough for you. “Now then, if you are going to help me, you need to meet me at my lab tonight and whatever you do, don’t tell anyone about it. When you get inside you are NOT to discuss what you see with anyone, do you understand?” “Um, what exactly are we going to be doing?” you ask a little concerned. “You’ll see soon enough, but it’s a secret project that will change the way modern medicine works! I can’t afford to have anyone stealing my ideas! So I need you to be all the way in on this! If you’re going to hesitate, then get out of my sight right now.” “Okay, okay, I’ll help you.” “Good. See you tonight.” Dr. Kovas says and walks away. You put in some time at the inn, but later leave Wendy in charge and tell her to close it down if you aren’t back by closing time. You remind Alan to lock everything up. Wendy of course isn’t very pleased with this idea and reminds you once again of how she’s overworked. You just apologize and leave. When you get to Dr. Kovas’ lab he doesn’t immediately open the door, and you have to wait about five minutes before he comes out to scold you that you’re five minutes late! You don’t argue though, you just enter only for Dr. Kovas to immediately ask you a disturbing question. “Can you kill a man?” “WHAT?!” “Or woman, in fact a woman might be better. Yes, I need you to kill a woman.” You’re literally speechless for a few moments before sputtering your protests. “Dr. Kovas, I didn’t sign up to kill people!” “Yes you did, the moment you said you’d help me. (Sigh) Look, progress in medical science has always required sacrifices. Sometimes that sacrifice has involved the lives of others. What is one life compared to the wonders that scientific break through can do?” Dr. Kovas isn’t just misanthropic, he’s sociopathic and you’re out of here. “I’m not a killer and I’m not capable of this. So I’m just going to leave. You needn’t worry I won’t tell anyone.” “Sorry son, I can’t take that chance, nighty night!” Dr Kovas suddenly produces a needle filled with something and injects you with it. You push him away and try the door handle only to find it locked. You don’t struggle with it for long though before you pass out. When you wake up you’re strapped to a table, with Dr. Kovas shaking his head at you. “What am I going to do with you? I placed what little faith I have in humanity in you and this is how you act? It’s my own fault I suppose.” You try to talk, but most of your body is still paralyzed. “Now then, I’m going to give you ONE last chance because I still see potential in you. After this wears off I want you to go out and get a girl. I don’t care how, just do it and bring her here. You don’t even need to kill her, just bring her here and I’ll do the deed. Do you think you can handle that?” You still can’t talk, but you know damn well if you don’t agree he’s certainly going to kill you, so you strain yourself to nod “yes”. “Good, I’ll release you. Oh and just to let you know, you only have until dawn. I’ve injected you with a toxin to ensure you don’t go running off or something silly like that. Don’t bother with trying to get an antidote either, it’s a special toxic mix that only I have the cure to.” You get up, very wobbly and still a little dizzy. By the time you start regaining all your faculties Dr. Kovas has shoved you out his lab door and locked it. You feel like you’re living a nightmare, but you don’t have much of a choice, you need to bring a woman back to the lab before dawn or you’re going to die. This isn’t going to be easy not just due to the immorality of the situation, but also because you haven’t exactly been a ladies man. What with all the studying and work at the inn, you don’t have much of a social life. You figure your best bet might be to go to one of the many college parties near campus and hope to get a drunk girl, though you could just go get a regular whore. > You go to a party No shortage of parties going on right now and getting a drunk co-ed will be just like getting a whore except you won’t have to travel as far. You head down to the popular night club near campus called the Wild Princess. After standing in line for an hour, you’re told by the bouncer that they don’t need people like you in there. You don’t bother arguing; you know you’re too “uncool” to get in, so you move on. Your next stop is going to a guild house party. You manage to sneak in thanks to a lot of people more concerned with having fun rather than crashers. Unfortunately a lot of the girls there aren’t remotely interested in the likes of you, but you sort of anticipated that would happen. Your plan is going to be to hang out here a few more hours then try to isolate a girl that should well be drunk at that point and offer to take her home. You pass the time basically being a creepy stalker and watching which of the ladies are getting loaded, which of them have boyfriends, which of them are here by themselves, etc. Eventually you set your sights on a cute redhead who doesn’t seem to have any attachments and is definitely wobbly. You breathe in deeply, exhale and walk towards the girl…only to get cock blocked by some guild member. Looks like he’s part of the university’s gladiator team too, so he’d easily crush you. “Hey babe, come on let’s get you some place where you can lie down.” He says and begins to guide her towards one the bedrooms while you curse your luck. You could try to find another girl here, but you’re quite frankly sick of waiting around, you don’t have all night. It occurs to you that you’re a medical student while that guild guy is a muscle headed gladiator. Surely you should be able to out smart him. You see the back of his big head stand out in the crowd and follow him. He gets the redhead to a private bedroom just like you anticipated, places her body on the bed and just as he goes to close the door you stop him. “Whoa shit dude! You’re not actually going to fuck that bitch are ya?” you say. “Huh? Well yeah! And who the fuck are you?” “You can’t fuck her man, she’s got Rotties!” “What?! Really? Nah, she doesn’t look like she does.” “Trust me dude, she does! My cousin’s in medical school and he said they had to do an assignment involving volunteers who had various non-life threatening diseases and she was one of them!” “Wait, wait, wouldn’t something like that be anonymous to protect the identities or some shit? And who are you again?” the gladiator asks proving he isn’t quite as dumb as you thought. “It was supposed to be anonymous, but my cousin’s a inconsiderate fucktard who told me all this shit anyway. Besides isn’t it good I did know and I was here to warn you?” “Yeah I suppose it was. Whew. Oh shit I touched her tits, I might have caught some shit!” “Nah, don’t worry about it, my cousin said unless you stick your dick in her, you’ll be fine.” “Fuck that! They don’t know all the shit about that disease yet! We need to get that bitch outta here before she infects everyone…and burn that bed too!” You almost smile at how well this is working for you. You tell the gladiator that you’ll get her out of here. He says better you than him and heads to the bathroom. The redhead is still sort of conscious, but definitely not aware of her surroundings. “Whozz you…I…(giggle) think I…(hic) drank too mush…” she says as you pick her up. The walk back to Dr. Kovas’ lab is slow at first since the girl is still conscious, but eventually her incoherent babbling stops and she’s completely out of it, at which point you just pick her up and carry her. Of course you’re sweating being seen and questioned by campus security. Last thing you need is to get accused of date rape especially since you just saved this girl from getting date raped…of course you’re also taking her to her death. It’s just a fucked up situation no matter how you look at it! Luckily you get to the lab with no problems. You bang on the door and Dr. Kovas pulls you both inside. He looks at the girl and frowns a bit. “Well I suppose she’ll do. I’m guessing you got her from one of the party’s near campus.” “Is that a problem?” “No, not at all, young girls go to wild parties and go missing around here all the time, and I certainly don’t have anything to do with all of those incidents. Anyway get her to the table and strap her down. I need to get some stuff from the back. You follow Kovas’ orders and hope that one of the things he’s getting is your antidote. He comes out with much more than your antidote, he comes out with a rolling cart filled with several medical instruments that look more like torture devices and tosses you a small vial of clear liquid. “Here, take this and put on some gloves. We’re about make history!” he says and injects the redhead on the table with some sort of liquid. It doesn’t take her long to stop breathing. You swallow the contents of the vial which you hope is the antidote. You don’t feel any different after taking it though. You half wonder if he was bluffing about poisoning you at all. If that’s the case then you just brought a girl to her death for no reason, though it hardly matters at this point, as annoyed as you are at Dr. Kovas you might as well go through with this all the way. You stand there for a moment just watching Dr. Kovas enthusiastically cutting into the girl and injecting more strange fluid directly into her vital organs. He suddenly stops when the girl comes back to life! “Ragh! Gargh! Argh!” she growls. It suddenly occurs to you what exactly Dr. Kovas is experimenting with, Incitahol. It’s a banned concoction that was supposed to bring the dead back to life and it does, but only to create them as zombies. Lazy wannabe necromancers and mad scientists love the stuff, and would seem you’re working with the latter right now. “You’re experimenting with incitahol? This is your big project? I thought you’d be aware that this shit’s only good for creating zombies and not even controllable ones!” you say. “Ah, not yet anyway! I’ve made some changes to it. If you’ll notice the subject is not as aggressive as it would be under regular incitahol. Unfortunately it still seems quite hostile. I can’t be sure if this due to my changes in the drug, or the alcohol in her system screwing things up. I probably should’ve waited until she was sober and then proceeded (sigh) I’ll need a new subject.” You’re hardly surprised at this request; you just say you’ll get on it tomorrow. “Hmm, very well. And try to get a sober one this time!” Over the course of a month you manage to get several “subjects” for Dr. Kovas and while he does eventually start contributing to your “college fund” you aren’t exactly overjoyed with what you’re doing especially since he’s insulting you at every given opportunity. While it’s true you are learning quite a bit about the human brain and other things about the human body he doesn’t seem like he’s getting anywhere with his own experiments. As far as you can tell he’s just cutting up girls and making them into zombies. On another front, your inn staff has pretty much had it with you, specifically Wendy. She ends up quitting because she’s sick of having to look after the inn all day AND night while you secretly go disappearing to kidnap young girls. Rita certainly has no intention taking up the slack so she quits as well. This pretty much leaves you no option other than selling the inn and get a cheap apartment. Between the money you get from the sale and Dr. Kovas’ payment you have enough to finish up the rest of your classes, but the expenses of medical school are still going to be a struggle. Dr. Kovas assures you that he can easily get you a good job at the hospital while you go through the rest of your schooling, but he’ll still need you to work for him as well. On the plus side he’s also offered you a free place to stay at his private lab. This would be convenient financially. The downside to all this is of course you’d still be working for Dr. Kovas and all that entails. Even if you’ve managed to mostly shed yourself the moral implications of what you’ve been doing, there’s always the legal ones to worry about. Never mind the verbal abuse you’ll have to endure. You could just say fuck it and go do something else, which has been crossing your mind at this point. You aren’t exactly sure what that might be, but after all the shit you’ve been through you are a little hesitant to put yourself through more. It’s ultimately your choice on whether you still want to achieve your medical profession goals or not, but in any case your days as an innkeeper are over. > You continue with medicine You’ve come this far; you might as well go for the gold. You agree to help Dr. Kovas, and continue to “aquire” subjects for him, which you’ve become frighteningly good at. Time goes by and you even indulge in some of the actual killing. You certainly learn just as much from him as you do in “regular class.” In your spare time you do a few experiments of your own on victims you capture. Dr. Kovas doesn’t really approve since its taking time away from what he wants you to be helping him with, and he feels you’re just bumbling around and engaging in sadistic torture for your own twisted pleasure. (To be fair he’s partially right at this point) As for his experiments, you still don’t see him making any more progress. He has managed to get the zombies to be relatively docile with training, but they’re still relatively mindless. He’s a scientifically minded necromancer at this point, but he’s not even doing anything that useful with it. He keeps saying that he WILL succeed in bringing a being back to life fully intact without the zombification element, but it doesn’t seem possible. Not even the old school magicians of legend could do that. Once the brain is completely dead, it’s dead! Even through his verbal abuse you still used to respect Dr. Kovas for his dedication and his knowledge, but lately he’s just been looking like a crazy old fool. “Argh grah!" “Well that’s another one for the cages, or are we going to dispose of this one?” you ask in a bored tone as Dr. Kovas fails to completely “resurrect” another one. “Damn! I strengthened the dose to compensate for her vegetarian diet! She shouldn’t be trying to bite me!” “Y’know we’ve been doing this for about a year now and we’ve still made a lot of progress.” “I’VE made a lot of progress, but what is your point?” “My point is, maybe this just isn’t in the cards. Maybe we can’t bring someone back, well not in a good way at least.” “Hmmm, what is this? A moment of conscience? Some sort of introspective that we’re not supposed to play diety? You losing your passion for this work?” Dr. Kovas says with a sneer. “Ha ha ha ha! No, perish the thought.” You laugh “Oh? Then what is it?” “Well I’ve been thinking…” “Ha ha ha ha! Oh this SHOULD be amusing.” You make a slight facial tic at this insult, but then continue hoping that your “mentor” will listen to you. “What I was going to say is we’ve got the medical knowledge and equipment to run a good body legging business. Lots of demand for body parts on the black market. And with the advances we have made with incitathol we could even sell some of the tamer zombies to wannabe necromancers or even for pit fights. It certainly would put our skills to better use.” Dr. Kovas sighs and shakes his head at you. “Oh my dear boy, you have learned NOTHING while serving under me! First of all, what’s this we business? I’M the only real doctor here; you haven’t even finished medical school yet! You think you can dare put yourself on my level just because I’ve allowed you to aid me and you cut up a few bubble headed co-eds? Hah! Not bloody likely! Second, you still don’t get it do you? Science is not supposed to be for profit! It’s about the challenges and over coming them! You want to make money why don’t you go reopen that little inn you used to have and serve swill to the other low lives? Now grab that mallet over there, smash this zombie’s head in and dispose of it. Menial labor is about all you’re good for anyway.” You grab the mallet, but you don’t smash the zombie’s head in, you smash Dr. Kovas head in instead. His arrogance and complacency allows you to get in a good shot without him expecting it and he falls to the floor bleeding profusely from the head. You kneel down to finish him off. “YOU (WHAM!) FUCKING (WHAM!) PIECE OF (WHAM!) FUCKING (WHAM!) SHIT!” you shout at the top of your lungs while you beat the good doctor’s brains into pulp. After you’ve satisfied your bloodlust, you sit back and think about your next move. The tied up zombie girl on the table is disturbing your concentration with her growling so you shove some of Kovas’ brains in her mouth while you plan… Your major obstacle is explaining Doctor Kovas’ disappearance. This actually isn’t that much of a problem though. The man wasn’t well liked at all by his peers so nobody really goes looking for him. You are eventually asked questions by the Klyton militia, but you simply say one day you showed up to assist him and he was gone with no warning. They also ask if you know much about any of the disappearance of young girls around the university, but you say you don’t know much except that it’s pretty horrible. Again there is some suspicion, but not really on you and more on him. It probably helped that the first thing you did was completely clean his lab, and left vague incriminating evidence pointing to him if suspicion should ever come up about anything. The second thing you did was clean out his savings (Lucky for you the old bastard didn’t believe in keeping it at a bank) but live frugally in a cheap apartment again. By the time you finish up medical school you’re in the clear and Dr. Kovas’ disappearance is chalked up to him doing something illegal and then fleeing the city. You on the other hand are now a fully-fledged doctor with access to all that entails… It doesn’t need to be said that your time with Dr. Kovas warped you and while you managed to lay low when necessary, you now feel more freedom to engage in all those ideas you tried to suggest to Kovas a few years ago. The rest of your life is basically a mask of sanity hiding a very immoral person. Your crimes are vast, routine and you could care less. Your parents failed you, the inn failed you, even your “mentor” failed you and as far as you’re concerned you only managed to achieve your goals because YOU took charge of the situations that presented themselves and thrived. This outlook on life never changes. You take what you want and you use people as you see fit. You never regret your decisions and feel only a weak fool would suffer any sort of guilt or remorse. And thanks to your intelligence, you mange to avoid punishment and you experience a death not granted to any of your many victims: Namely, you die as an old man peacefully in your bed.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|> No shortage of parties going on right now and getting a drunk co-ed will be just like getting a whore except you won’t have to travel as far. You head down to the popular night club near campus called the Wild Princess. After standing in line for an hour, you’re told by the bouncer that they don’t need people like you in there. You don’t bother arguing; you know you’re too “uncool” to get in, so you move on. Your next stop is going to a guild house party. You manage to sneak in thanks to a lot of people more concerned with having fun rather than crashers. Unfortunately a lot of the girls there aren’t remotely interested in the likes of you, but you sort of anticipated that would happen. Your plan is going to be to hang out here a few more hours then try to isolate a girl that should well be drunk at that point and offer to take her home. You pass the time basically being a creepy stalker and watching which of the ladies are getting loaded, which of them have boyfriends, which of them are here by themselves, etc. Eventually you set your sights on a cute redhead who doesn’t seem to have any attachments and is definitely wobbly. You breathe in deeply, exhale and walk towards the girl…only to get cock blocked by some guild member. Looks like he’s part of the university’s gladiator team too, so he’d easily crush you. “Hey babe, come on let’s get you some place where you can lie down.” He says and begins to guide her towards one the bedrooms while you curse your luck. You could try to find another girl here, but you’re quite frankly sick of waiting around, you don’t have all night. It occurs to you that you’re a medical student while that guild guy is a muscle headed gladiator. Surely you should be able to out smart him. You see the back of his big head stand out in the crowd and follow him. He gets the redhead to a private bedroom just like you anticipated, places her body on the bed and just as he goes to close the door you stop him. “Whoa shit dude! You’re not actually going to fuck that bitch are ya?” you say. “Huh? Well yeah! And who the fuck are you?” “You can’t fuck her man, she’s got Rotties!” “What?! Really? Nah, she doesn’t look like she does.” “Trust me dude, she does! My cousin’s in medical school and he said they had to do an assignment involving volunteers who had various non-life threatening diseases and she was one of them!” “Wait, wait, wouldn’t something like that be anonymous to protect the identities or some shit? And who are you again?” the gladiator asks proving he isn’t quite as dumb as you thought. “It was supposed to be anonymous, but my cousin’s a inconsiderate fucktard who told me all this shit anyway. Besides isn’t it good I did know and I was here to warn you?” “Yeah I suppose it was. Whew. Oh shit I touched her tits, I might have caught some shit!” “Nah, don’t worry about it, my cousin said unless you stick your dick in her, you’ll be fine.” “Fuck that! They don’t know all the shit about that disease yet! We need to get that bitch outta here before she infects everyone…and burn that bed too!” You almost smile at how well this is working for you. You tell the gladiator that you’ll get her out of here. He says better you than him and heads to the bathroom. The redhead is still sort of conscious, but definitely not aware of her surroundings. “Whozz you…I…(giggle) think I…(hic) drank too mush…” she says as you pick her up. The walk back to Dr. Kovas’ lab is slow at first since the girl is still conscious, but eventually her incoherent babbling stops and she’s completely out of it, at which point you just pick her up and carry her. Of course you’re sweating being seen and questioned by campus security. Last thing you need is to get accused of date rape especially since you just saved this girl from getting date raped…of course you’re also taking her to her death. It’s just a fucked up situation no matter how you look at it! Luckily you get to the lab with no problems. You bang on the door and Dr. Kovas pulls you both inside. He looks at the girl and frowns a bit. “Well I suppose she’ll do. I’m guessing you got her from one of the party’s near campus.” “Is that a problem?” “No, not at all, young girls go to wild parties and go missing around here all the time, and I certainly don’t have anything to do with all of those incidents. Anyway get her to the table and strap her down. I need to get some stuff from the back. You follow Kovas’ orders and hope that one of the things he’s getting is your antidote. He comes out with much more than your antidote, he comes out with a rolling cart filled with several medical instruments that look more like torture devices and tosses you a small vial of clear liquid. “Here, take this and put on some gloves. We’re about make history!” he says and injects the redhead on the table with some sort of liquid. It doesn’t take her long to stop breathing. You swallow the contents of the vial which you hope is the antidote. You don’t feel any different after taking it though. You half wonder if he was bluffing about poisoning you at all. If that’s the case then you just brought a girl to her death for no reason, though it hardly matters at this point, as annoyed as you are at Dr. Kovas you might as well go through with this all the way. You stand there for a moment just watching Dr. Kovas enthusiastically cutting into the girl and injecting more strange fluid directly into her vital organs. He suddenly stops when the girl comes back to life! “Ragh! Gargh! Argh!” she growls. It suddenly occurs to you what exactly Dr. Kovas is experimenting with, Incitahol. It’s a banned concoction that was supposed to bring the dead back to life and it does, but only to create them as zombies. Lazy wannabe necromancers and mad scientists love the stuff, and would seem you’re working with the latter right now. “You’re experimenting with incitahol? This is your big project? I thought you’d be aware that this shit’s only good for creating zombies and not even controllable ones!” you say. “Ah, not yet anyway! I’ve made some changes to it. If you’ll notice the subject is not as aggressive as it would be under regular incitahol. Unfortunately it still seems quite hostile. I can’t be sure if this due to my changes in the drug, or the alcohol in her system screwing things up. I probably should’ve waited until she was sober and then proceeded (sigh) I’ll need a new subject.” You’re hardly surprised at this request; you just say you’ll get on it tomorrow. “Hmm, very well. And try to get a sober one this time!” Over the course of a month you manage to get several “subjects” for Dr. Kovas and while he does eventually start contributing to your “college fund” you aren’t exactly overjoyed with what you’re doing especially since he’s insulting you at every given opportunity. While it’s true you are learning quite a bit about the human brain and other things about the human body he doesn’t seem like he’s getting anywhere with his own experiments. As far as you can tell he’s just cutting up girls and making them into zombies. On another front, your inn staff has pretty much had it with you, specifically Wendy. She ends up quitting because she’s sick of having to look after the inn all day AND night while you secretly go disappearing to kidnap young girls. Rita certainly has no intention taking up the slack so she quits as well. This pretty much leaves you no option other than selling the inn and get a cheap apartment. Between the money you get from the sale and Dr. Kovas’ payment you have enough to finish up the rest of your classes, but the expenses of medical school are still going to be a struggle. Dr. Kovas assures you that he can easily get you a good job at the hospital while you go through the rest of your schooling, but he’ll still need you to work for him as well. On the plus side he’s also offered you a free place to stay at his private lab. This would be convenient financially. The downside to all this is of course you’d still be working for Dr. Kovas and all that entails. Even if you’ve managed to mostly shed yourself the moral implications of what you’ve been doing, there’s always the legal ones to worry about. Never mind the verbal abuse you’ll have to endure. You could just say fuck it and go do something else, which has been crossing your mind at this point. You aren’t exactly sure what that might be, but after all the shit you’ve been through you are a little hesitant to put yourself through more. It’s ultimately your choice on whether you still want to achieve your medical profession goals or not, but in any case your days as an innkeeper are over. > You quit After a long period of introspection, you realize your choices haven’t really gotten you anywhere good. You’ve alienated your mother by breaking the law. You continued to break the law while in possession of the inn and your staff grew to dislike you and you don’t even own the place anymore. You moved on to being an accessory to murder in illegal experiments for monetary gain and your own obsession to go to medical school. You’ve managed to get away with it all so far, but for how much longer? Are you going to end up like Dr. Kovas and be a misanthropic asshole hated by your colleagues by day and be a completely batshit insane madman by night? You know you aren’t a “good guy” after all the shit you’ve been doing, but you figure you can do something to at least keep from getting worse. So it’s decided, you leave Klyton with no fanfare. You aren’t particularly worried about Dr. Kovas. Most likely he’ll just curse you for being a “weakling bound by pangs of morality” but that’s about it. You end up going to Teckleville where your mom is surprised to see you. You make up with her and apologize for what happened between the both of you. You of course don’t let her know about all the stuff you did while assisting Dr. Kovas. You live with her for a while and try to figure out what you’re going to do with your life and eventually you get a job as a teacher at the high school in town where your extensive knowledge on the sciences comes in quite handy and greatly appreciated. For several years you live a fairly mundane life. It’s even a little boring at times, but you don’t mind it. You may have lived out the rest of your days in Teckleville if things had gone right, but as they say, there ain’t no rest for the wicked. While you were building a new life in Teckleville, Dr. Kovas was still continuing his illegal experiments; he also eventually got caught and was arrested for his crimes. He wasn’t in custody for long since he was killed trying to escape. Unfortunately for you, he kept detailed journals about his experiments and your name was mentioned several times in them. (Mostly in hate filled rants after you left) One day while you’re teaching a class, the Klyton militia shows up and you already know what they’re there for. “Um, okay class just take out your books and read chapters twelve and thirteen until the bell rings, I have to speak to these men for a moment.” You say and leave with the militia. You are shackled and taken away in a coach. It’s quite the spectacle to the folks witnessing the event. You don’t ask to say goodbye to your mother, you wouldn’t know how to explain this and it would just break her heart again. Granted she’s going to find out eventually anyway, but you don’t have to be the one to face her. Your return to Klyton is a short one since you immediately plead guilty to the judge. No sense in drawing it out you think. You spend your last few days in a cell waiting to be hanged, thinking about the mistakes you made and how you’re finally sorry that you didn’t make better choice when you had the chance. When you’re at the gallows you are asked if you have any last words, but you have none. The lever is pulled, you fall through the hole and the rope snaps your neck instantly.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Given that Dr. Kovas rarely compliments anyone, he has to like you a lot. You decide it might be best to take advantage of that fact. After his class you approach him about your situation, but he doesn’t seem very sympathetic. “Yes, yes, I’m sure your problems are very important to you, but my question is why are you telling me?” “Well that’s what I was getting at, I wanted to know if there was something I could do to help you out. Some way of maybe earning more money…” “Money? Hah! What do you think this is a factory employment line? If you want to help me, you shouldn’t be doing it for cash m’boy. You should be doing it for the love of science!” He starts to make his way out of the classroom, but you follow. “Dr. Kovas, I’d love to help for the love of science, but I’m not exactly in a position to do so! I mean I’ve got so many expenses and responsibilities and…” “Stop right there m’boy. Again you’re telling me these things as if I can do something about them…or that I WANT to do something about them.” “(sputter)…because I thought that given how much you praise my work in class you’d want to help out a potential fellow future doctor.” You say getting exasperated. “YOU? A fellow doctor? Ha ha ha ha! Granted you may have the ability to be a doctor one day, but if you think you’d ever approach someone of my caliber, I’ve sorely underestimated your capacity for logical thinking.” Dr. Kovas laughs. At this point you’re angry, you came to get help, not be insulted by this asshole. You’re hesitant to outright insult him back though since you still need to finish his class, so you just decide to leave. “Alright fine, don’t help me then. I just thought you were different from the other rich elitist bastards that look their noses down at me just because of my working class background. I’ll just leave…” “Wait, wait, you think I’m looking down on you because of your humble roots? My, my someone has an inferiority complex. M’boy I’m looking down on you because you’re whining about your problems to me. You have much potential and despite your pathetic tales of woe it is obvious that you’ve overcome much and are determined in your goals to become a doctor. I think however you could do something more, but unless you’re willing to help me for the love of science, not because of money, or what I might be able to do for you then I think you will languish in mediocrity like most that pass through my class.” At this point you don’t know what the hell kind of head game Dr. Kovas is playing with you, but if there is some sort of possibility that he might help you, then you might need to play along. “I don’t believe you. Or rather I don’t believe you’ll help me for the right reasons. You’re going to help, because you still believe that I’m going to help you.” “Yes.” You blurt out. “Heh, well at least you’re honest now. All right I’m going to roll the dice with you and allow you to help me on a project I’ve been working on. I’ll even assure you that you will profit from this because I know you seem to be concerned about such things.” “”I’m really not, I just need extra money to…” “Don’t interrupt!” Dr. Kovas snaps. “As I was saying, you will profit from this, but it is my hope that you will come to do this for science more than anything. Because if you aren’t then you’re in the wrong field.” “I thought the field of medicine was primarily to help the sick.” You say. “Bah! Helping people? Nonsense! Most so called doctors aren’t in it to help people, they’re in it for the money! They’re all a bunch of soulless greed automatons that have no real passion for the mysteries of the human body and all this field has to offer!” Dr. Kovas has a reputation for misanthropy and cynicism, but you weren’t aware how much until just now, still he says he’s willing to help you and that’s good enough for you. “Now then, if you are going to help me, you need to meet me at my lab tonight and whatever you do, don’t tell anyone about it. When you get inside you are NOT to discuss what you see with anyone, do you understand?” “Um, what exactly are we going to be doing?” you ask a little concerned. “You’ll see soon enough, but it’s a secret project that will change the way modern medicine works! I can’t afford to have anyone stealing my ideas! So I need you to be all the way in on this! If you’re going to hesitate, then get out of my sight right now.” “Okay, okay, I’ll help you.” “Good. See you tonight.” Dr. Kovas says and walks away. You put in some time at the inn, but later leave Wendy in charge and tell her to close it down if you aren’t back by closing time. You remind Alan to lock everything up. Wendy of course isn’t very pleased with this idea and reminds you once again of how she’s overworked. You just apologize and leave. When you get to Dr. Kovas’ lab he doesn’t immediately open the door, and you have to wait about five minutes before he comes out to scold you that you’re five minutes late! You don’t argue though, you just enter only for Dr. Kovas to immediately ask you a disturbing question. “Can you kill a man?” “WHAT?!” “Or woman, in fact a woman might be better. Yes, I need you to kill a woman.” You’re literally speechless for a few moments before sputtering your protests. “Dr. Kovas, I didn’t sign up to kill people!” “Yes you did, the moment you said you’d help me. (Sigh) Look, progress in medical science has always required sacrifices. Sometimes that sacrifice has involved the lives of others. What is one life compared to the wonders that scientific break through can do?” Dr. Kovas isn’t just misanthropic, he’s sociopathic and you’re out of here. “I’m not a killer and I’m not capable of this. So I’m just going to leave. You needn’t worry I won’t tell anyone.” “Sorry son, I can’t take that chance, nighty night!” Dr Kovas suddenly produces a needle filled with something and injects you with it. You push him away and try the door handle only to find it locked. You don’t struggle with it for long though before you pass out. When you wake up you’re strapped to a table, with Dr. Kovas shaking his head at you. “What am I going to do with you? I placed what little faith I have in humanity in you and this is how you act? It’s my own fault I suppose.” You try to talk, but most of your body is still paralyzed. “Now then, I’m going to give you ONE last chance because I still see potential in you. After this wears off I want you to go out and get a girl. I don’t care how, just do it and bring her here. You don’t even need to kill her, just bring her here and I’ll do the deed. Do you think you can handle that?” You still can’t talk, but you know damn well if you don’t agree he’s certainly going to kill you, so you strain yourself to nod “yes”. “Good, I’ll release you. Oh and just to let you know, you only have until dawn. I’ve injected you with a toxin to ensure you don’t go running off or something silly like that. Don’t bother with trying to get an antidote either, it’s a special toxic mix that only I have the cure to.” You get up, very wobbly and still a little dizzy. By the time you start regaining all your faculties Dr. Kovas has shoved you out his lab door and locked it. You feel like you’re living a nightmare, but you don’t have much of a choice, you need to bring a woman back to the lab before dawn or you’re going to die. This isn’t going to be easy not just due to the immorality of the situation, but also because you haven’t exactly been a ladies man. What with all the studying and work at the inn, you don’t have much of a social life. You figure your best bet might be to go to one of the many college parties near campus and hope to get a drunk girl, though you could just go get a regular whore. > You seek out a whore It certainly will be the easiest for you to do emotionally and less likely to get you into trouble with the law. Who’s going to miss a whore right? The only thing you really need to worry about is getting mugged while you’re looking for one. You take a deep breath and catch a coach to the slums of Klyton. It doesn’t take you long to get propositioned several times when you arrive. “Hey baby, you like what you see?” “Mmmm, come put your dick in this slice of paradise!” “You see these lips? They could be wrapped around your cock.” “Come over here honey, you ain’t never had goblin ass before!” While you wince at that last one. A big man approaches you. “Hey you, you gonna just look or you actually gonna buy some pussy?” “Are you their pimp?” “I’m their manager! Now enough with the questions, you buying or what?” You can’t get a prostitute that has a pimp. If she turns up missing, he’s likely to seek you out and take the loss out on your hide or even blackmail you. You excuse yourself and continue to wander the streets. You travel into an even more destitute area of the slums looking for a whore, which is proving to be a lot harder than you thought it would be. You eventually find what you’re looking for and they’re revolting. The drug whores are certainly out in force tonight. “You got some green lotus or yellow devil? I’ll suck your dick!” is what most of the drug whores say to you. You almost figure you’d be doing them a favor by getting them killed. You pick the one who looks least likely to infect you just by breathing on you. (The irony that you’re already infected by a killer toxin isn’t lost on you.) You hand her several gold coins, probably the most money she’s seen in a long time and is ready to take you around the corner and blow you, but you have to explain that you’re heading to some place nicer and warm, with lots of drugs! She seems to like that idea, so she agrees to follow you. Fortunately you manage to catch another coach relatively quickly and your trip back to the campus is uneventful other than the ramblings and awful coughing of your “lady friend.” You arrive to the lab with your whore in tow and Dr. Kovas pulls you both in all the while not looking impressed. “Are you fucking kidding me? You got a whore? I could’ve got a whore!” “Well why didn’t you?” “I’d watch your tongue boy if you want that antidote.” “Look I did what you said! Just cure me now!” “Not yet, I need you to do one more thing, here.” Dr. Kovas points you to a syringe on a table filled with something. Something not good no doubt. It’s obvious he wants you to inject the whore with it. “No, no, you said all I had to do is bring her here.” “Yes, well I think under the circumstances you’re ready to take the next step for science.” “Hey wait, am I doing both of you? That’s okay I guess, but this is extra.” The whore says still not grasping the situation. As for you, you shake your head, knowing it’s useless to argue. You almost feel like grabbing the syringe and running over to stab him with it, but you still need the antidote and then you’d probably have to still kill the whore too. “Alright honey, I’m gonna take care of you.” you say holding the syringe and approaching the whore. “Oooh now that’s what I’m talkin’ about. Shoot me up.” You inject the eager whore with the needle and she soon falls unconscious. “Quickly, bring her to the table!” While you do so, Dr. Kovas disappears to the back of his lab. You check the girl and realize she’s stopped breathing. You’ve killed her, though you’re not really surprised, you’re just hoping that Kovas is coming out with your antidote. He comes out with much more than your antidote, he comes out with a rolling cart filled with several medical instruments that look more like torture devices and tosses you a small vial of clear liquid. “Here, take this and put on some gloves. We’re about make history!” You swallow the contents of the vial which you hope is the antidote. You don’t feel any different after taking it though. You half wonder if he was bluffing about poisoning you at all. If that’s the case then you just killed a girl for no reason, though it hardly matters at this point, as mad as you are at Dr. Kovas you might as well go through with this all the way. You stand there for a moment just watching Dr. Kovas enthusiastically cutting into the girl and injecting more strange fluid directly into her vital organs. He doesn’t seem to be paying attention to anything else, until he suddenly stops. “Hold on wait, did you strap her down? Shit you didn’t strap her down! Quick, tie her up!” “What?!” you say not really understanding why you’d need to do it, but you find out when she suddenly comes to life! “Tie her feet! Tie her feet!” Dr. Kovas yells as he shackles her arms to the table. You grab the rope on the cart and begin tying her feet, which are twitching as much as she’s making some no longer human noises. “Raagh. Gargah! Arrgh!” It suddenly occurs to you what exactly Dr. Kovas is experimenting with, Incitahol. It’s a banned concoction that was supposed to bring the dead back to life and it does, but only to create them as zombies. Lazy wannabe necromancers and mad scientists love the stuff, and would seem you’re working with the latter right now. “You’re experimenting with incitahol? This is your big project? I thought you’d be aware that this shit’s only good for creating zombies and not even controllable ones!” you say. “Ah, not yet anyway! I’ve made some changes to it. If you’ll notice the subject is not as aggressive as it would be under regular incitahol. Unfortunately it was still quite hostile and nearly bit my ear when I was trying to strap it down. I can’t be sure if this due to my changes in the drug, or the fact that this subject’s organs were heavily damaged due to her own major drug use and life style. Probably had several sexual diseases too, who knows what those factors might’ve played. This is why I didn’t want a drug addled whore (sigh) I’ll need a new subject.” You’re a little put off, considering he did say he didn’t care what kind of girl you got. You’re hardly surprised though; you just say you’ll get on it tomorrow. “You? No I don’t think so. I think I’m misjudged your abilities considering you’ve been argumentative and an utter failure in bringing me a good test subject. No I do not think there will be anymore chances. You may leave, I’m done with you.” NOW you’re surprised and more than a little pissed. This dick has been insulting you, poisoned you, made you kill a girl and now he’s just dismissing you like some flunky without even paying you for your time? “Oh is that how it is? Well you still owe me money for this!” “Owe? I don’t owe you anything. You did this for science m’boy. You should be happy you’re alive so that you can live out the rest of your boring existence.” It’s the last straw, you aren’t going to take it anymore and you snap. You immediately attack Dr. Kovas who anticipates your attack by dodging it. You crash straight into the zombie whore’s table and are unfortunately bit in the arm. “Arrrrgh! My arm!” you scream struggling to get your arm out of the zombie whore’s mouth. “Nargh Gabrah Raagh!” “Well, I guess you still might have your uses…” You feel a crushing blow to the back of your head and that’s the last thing you experience in your life. Your short undead “life” isn’t even worth mentioning.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Given that Dr. Kovas rarely compliments anyone, he has to like you a lot. You decide it might be best to take advantage of that fact. After his class you approach him about your situation, but he doesn’t seem very sympathetic. “Yes, yes, I’m sure your problems are very important to you, but my question is why are you telling me?” “Well that’s what I was getting at, I wanted to know if there was something I could do to help you out. Some way of maybe earning more money…” “Money? Hah! What do you think this is a factory employment line? If you want to help me, you shouldn’t be doing it for cash m’boy. You should be doing it for the love of science!” He starts to make his way out of the classroom, but you follow. “Dr. Kovas, I’d love to help for the love of science, but I’m not exactly in a position to do so! I mean I’ve got so many expenses and responsibilities and…” “Stop right there m’boy. Again you’re telling me these things as if I can do something about them…or that I WANT to do something about them.” “(sputter)…because I thought that given how much you praise my work in class you’d want to help out a potential fellow future doctor.” You say getting exasperated. “YOU? A fellow doctor? Ha ha ha ha! Granted you may have the ability to be a doctor one day, but if you think you’d ever approach someone of my caliber, I’ve sorely underestimated your capacity for logical thinking.” Dr. Kovas laughs. At this point you’re angry, you came to get help, not be insulted by this asshole. You’re hesitant to outright insult him back though since you still need to finish his class, so you just decide to leave. “Alright fine, don’t help me then. I just thought you were different from the other rich elitist bastards that look their noses down at me just because of my working class background. I’ll just leave…” “Wait, wait, you think I’m looking down on you because of your humble roots? My, my someone has an inferiority complex. M’boy I’m looking down on you because you’re whining about your problems to me. You have much potential and despite your pathetic tales of woe it is obvious that you’ve overcome much and are determined in your goals to become a doctor. I think however you could do something more, but unless you’re willing to help me for the love of science, not because of money, or what I might be able to do for you then I think you will languish in mediocrity like most that pass through my class.” At this point you don’t know what the hell kind of head game Dr. Kovas is playing with you, but if there is some sort of possibility that he might help you, then you might need to play along. “I don’t believe you. Or rather I don’t believe you’ll help me for the right reasons. You’re going to help, because you still believe that I’m going to help you.” “Yes.” You blurt out. “Heh, well at least you’re honest now. All right I’m going to roll the dice with you and allow you to help me on a project I’ve been working on. I’ll even assure you that you will profit from this because I know you seem to be concerned about such things.” “”I’m really not, I just need extra money to…” “Don’t interrupt!” Dr. Kovas snaps. “As I was saying, you will profit from this, but it is my hope that you will come to do this for science more than anything. Because if you aren’t then you’re in the wrong field.” “I thought the field of medicine was primarily to help the sick.” You say. “Bah! Helping people? Nonsense! Most so called doctors aren’t in it to help people, they’re in it for the money! They’re all a bunch of soulless greed automatons that have no real passion for the mysteries of the human body and all this field has to offer!” Dr. Kovas has a reputation for misanthropy and cynicism, but you weren’t aware how much until just now, still he says he’s willing to help you and that’s good enough for you. “Now then, if you are going to help me, you need to meet me at my lab tonight and whatever you do, don’t tell anyone about it. When you get inside you are NOT to discuss what you see with anyone, do you understand?” “Um, what exactly are we going to be doing?” you ask a little concerned. “You’ll see soon enough, but it’s a secret project that will change the way modern medicine works! I can’t afford to have anyone stealing my ideas! So I need you to be all the way in on this! If you’re going to hesitate, then get out of my sight right now.” “Okay, okay, I’ll help you.” “Good. See you tonight.” Dr. Kovas says and walks away. You put in some time at the inn, but later leave Wendy in charge and tell her to close it down if you aren’t back by closing time. You remind Alan to lock everything up. Wendy of course isn’t very pleased with this idea and reminds you once again of how she’s overworked. You just apologize and leave. When you get to Dr. Kovas’ lab he doesn’t immediately open the door, and you have to wait about five minutes before he comes out to scold you that you’re five minutes late! You don’t argue though, you just enter only for Dr. Kovas to immediately ask you a disturbing question. “Can you kill a man?” “WHAT?!” “Or woman, in fact a woman might be better. Yes, I need you to kill a woman.” You’re literally speechless for a few moments before sputtering your protests. “Dr. Kovas, I didn’t sign up to kill people!” “Yes you did, the moment you said you’d help me. (Sigh) Look, progress in medical science has always required sacrifices. Sometimes that sacrifice has involved the lives of others. What is one life compared to the wonders that scientific break through can do?” Dr. Kovas isn’t just misanthropic, he’s sociopathic and you’re out of here. “I’m not a killer and I’m not capable of this. So I’m just going to leave. You needn’t worry I won’t tell anyone.” “Sorry son, I can’t take that chance, nighty night!” Dr Kovas suddenly produces a needle filled with something and injects you with it. You push him away and try the door handle only to find it locked. You don’t struggle with it for long though before you pass out. When you wake up you’re strapped to a table, with Dr. Kovas shaking his head at you. “What am I going to do with you? I placed what little faith I have in humanity in you and this is how you act? It’s my own fault I suppose.” You try to talk, but most of your body is still paralyzed. “Now then, I’m going to give you ONE last chance because I still see potential in you. After this wears off I want you to go out and get a girl. I don’t care how, just do it and bring her here. You don’t even need to kill her, just bring her here and I’ll do the deed. Do you think you can handle that?” You still can’t talk, but you know damn well if you don’t agree he’s certainly going to kill you, so you strain yourself to nod “yes”. “Good, I’ll release you. Oh and just to let you know, you only have until dawn. I’ve injected you with a toxin to ensure you don’t go running off or something silly like that. Don’t bother with trying to get an antidote either, it’s a special toxic mix that only I have the cure to.” You get up, very wobbly and still a little dizzy. By the time you start regaining all your faculties Dr. Kovas has shoved you out his lab door and locked it. You feel like you’re living a nightmare, but you don’t have much of a choice, you need to bring a woman back to the lab before dawn or you’re going to die. This isn’t going to be easy not just due to the immorality of the situation, but also because you haven’t exactly been a ladies man. What with all the studying and work at the inn, you don’t have much of a social life. You figure your best bet might be to go to one of the many college parties near campus and hope to get a drunk girl, though you could just go get a regular whore. > You go to the Klyton Militia You won’t do it, you won’t kill anyone and you’re not going to bring someone to Dr. Kovas for him to murder either. Maybe you’ll die, but you’re going to make sure Kovas pays as well. You head to the nearest Klyton militia station and tell them everything. The sergeant in charge asks if you’ve been to the hospital yet to which you say no. He says they need to get you there immediately and if you do indeed have some sort of poison in your system they’ll obviously be able to arrest Dr. Kovas with no problems. You’re rushed to the hospital and thanks to the militia you’re seen to immediately. The physicians run all sorts of tests on you. They don’t find anything, but given the situation they put you on observation. The militia still goes to check out Dr. Kovas since there are several doctors they speak with at the hospital who don’t particularly like him and don’t put it past him to pull something like this. You wait in your bed, getting more nervous by the hour. You don’t feel sick at all, maybe he was bluffing? You sure hope so. In any case, you realize that maybe you need to give up on the whole medical profession thing. You tried your best, but it seems that events have constantly conspired against you. You’ve even broken laws of your own to achieve your goals and all you’ve managed to succeed in is alienating your mom, earning the loathing of your staff and getting yourself poisoned. After thinking about this for a while, you begin to get sleepy. It isn’t dawn yet, but you can’t be sure if it isn’t the poison or not, of course it could just be the stress of the night finally getting to you. In any case you close your eyes to darkness. When you wake up you’re surprised to see your mom sitting there. “Oh by the gods, thanks to them you’re alive!” “Mom? How the? How’d you get here so fast? How did you find out?” “Son, I think the first thing you should know is that you’ve been in a coma for about a month!” “Whaaaa…” You mother explains everything that she knows that has happened. You did have a deadly toxin in your body, but fortunately the hospital was able to keep you alive until the militia found the antidote in Kovas’ lab. Dr. Kovas himself was killed while resisting arrest. They injected the antidote into your unconscious body, but they assume it didn’t work like it should have due to the toxin already running through your body and in the process of shutting everything down. When the militia informed Wendy of your condition, she immediately contacted your mother by messenger. Being your only immediate family, she also regained possession of the inn while you were incapacitated and possibly on your deathbed. As a result she sold it to help pay for your medical treatment and she’s been by your side ever since. You can’t believe that your mom has helped you like this after how you parted a year ago. Needless to say you and her make up in an emotional way. You spend another week in the hospital still getting tested by doctors. They tell you you’ll be able to go home, but your body has been severely weakened by the toxin and how it is unlikely that you’ll ever be fully healthy again. No more inn and no more college and somehow it all just seems like a great relief to you. Your mother takes you to her home in Teckleville, you have no idea what you’re going to do there, but for a while you just take it easy. Just like the doctors said, you don’t make a complete recovery. You feel tired all the time and sometimes you don’t feel well at all. You mother and your aunt Enora make sure to look after you, but as the months go on you begin to get frustrated and depressed. You try to occupy your time with hobbies, but nothing really works. You almost consider suicide, but that would probably devastate your mom more than anything, so you take the same determined mindset that you once had for college and place it towards finding a job you’ll be able to handle. Eventually you succeed and get a position at the small library in town where your extensive knowledge on the sciences comes in quite handy and greatly appreciated. The rest of your life is fairly mundane, perhaps even a little boring, but you do come to appreciate the life you managed to carve out in light of everything that happened to you.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Again, the inn isn’t really like how it used to be where you’d get miners coming in wanting some food with their ale. Nowadays you just get plain ol’ drunks coming in. Even the adventurers don’t normally order anything fancy. You figure you’ll just cut down on food shipments and jack the price up so only adventurers or perhaps the odd merchant will be willing to pay for a hot meal. You also decide that Wendy is a pretty vital part of running this place, so you offer her the only thing you can think of that would keep her happy… “Less kitchen work and a free permanent room? Are you serious?” Wendy says in disbelief. “If you want it. The catch is though, you’d be living here and need to make sure things are running smoothly on a regular basis, this means opening up the inn early, closing it down late, or whatever else is required.” “Pfft, I basically do that now.” “Perhaps, but now you’d get to live at a place rent free, not to mention you don’t need to walk that far to work anymore. Now that should certainly alleviate some of your problems I trust?” “Yeah, that would help a lot.” “Good, oh one more thing, I know you have kids, I really hope they won’t be running all over the place bothering patrons.” “No, it won’t be a problem. Y’know I had my doubts about you running this place and while I know me living here is going to make it more convenient for your own goals, thanks all the same.” “You’re welcome.” You say and feel positive that this decision is going to work out just fine. A few months pass and your inn is making a little more money and you have a little more time for your academic goals. Things are nice for a little while, but as usual a problem crops up to make you life a lot more difficult. Wendy’s kids are little monsters. Not to you, but to just about everyone else. Wendy tries to keep them in line through screaming and beatings, but it doesn’t work for long. Her youngest Carl is a dirty little boy who is constantly trying to look up Eliza and Rita’s dresses or touch them in some inappropriate way. If he can’t get to them, the local trashy women who frequent the bar will do. Most of the time he tries to play it off like he doesn’t mean anything, but he knows damn well what he’s doing. Wendy’s daughter Annie is obviously taking after her with the same grasp of verbal swears. She swears so much you initially thought she had Rosette’s Syndrome. Her mouth wouldn’t really be a problem except she’s loud and is always asking the inn guests strange questions (swearing the whole time of course). Finally her oldest son, Henry is well on his way to be a future sociopath. The kid will sit in a corner watching everything and everyone with this creepy look like he’d murder everyone if he could. You’ve noticed that knives from the kitchen have been going missing and you never used to come across so many bloody cat heads in the alley before Wendy moved in. While you can’t prove the animal killing or knife theft, you know for a fact that he’s been fucking with Alan. For the past week you’ve noticed Alan limping, when you questioned him, he stated it was nothing, but on closer inspection you saw that his shoe was in a burned condition and he had a bruise on his neck. You question it further and Alan finally breaks down and tells you it was Wendy’s son, but states that Wendy’s son was just “playing” that it wasn’t a big deal and he didn’t want him getting into trouble. That’s the last straw for you. You and Wendy need to have another talk about this arrangement. “Wendy I need to talk to you now.” “Can it wait…HEY GET BACK HERE YOU LITTLE BASTARD!” Wendy says shouting at one her little demons. “That’s exactly what we need to talk about.” “Wha…oh fine.” You and Wendy step into the kitchen and you waste no time in expressing your concerns. “Wendy you’ve been a great help her since you moved in, but it was my understanding that you were going to have your kids under better control than you have been.” “Hey this is the best all of them have been in ages! Besides they haven’t been bothering you and business has been doing okay.” “Yeah, but at this rate I’m not sure how long that’s going to last with how your kids have been acting lately. Your youngest is sexually harassing Eliza and Rita more than the lowest scum that drinks here. Your daughter is causing some the most hardcore adventurers feel uncomfortable. And your oldest son, hoo boy, you NEED to get that kid on a leash quick and instill some discipline into him because he’s one twisted little pup.” “Who the fuck do you think you’re talking to fuckhead? You think you can tell me how to raise my goddamn kids? You think it’s fucking easy? You don’t have any, so fuck you! Shit, you ain’t even got a woman, so I’m guessing you ain’t gonna have to worry about it ever. Faggot.” “And who the hell do you think YOU’RE talking to? I’m your boss and I’m telling you need to get your kids in line! Alan just told me that your oldest son snuck down into basement and gave him a hotfoot while he was sleeping. When Alan predictably woke up, he nearly choked himself because your little psycho set up a wire noose around his neck tied to the table nearby.” “And you believed Alan?” “Alan’s a lot of things, but he’s not a liar. If anything I had to drag the info out of him. He was afraid of getting your son in trouble, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he was just afraid of your son period.” “(Sigh) Even if it is true. So what? That’s just how boys play.” “That’s how future murderers play. Look, I’m not arguing with you anymore. Your kids are a problem and you said they wouldn’t be. So get your shit together or face the consequences.” “Fuck you, you gonna fire me? Pfft! Yeah right. Without me, you couldn’t run this place and pursue your precious education at the same time. Hell, I doubt if you could run it period.” > You fire Wendy It’s a risky gamble, but you feel you have no choice. “Alright fine, you’re fired.” You say after taking a deep breath. “Ha ha ha ha! Yeah right.” Wendy laughs. “I’m not joking, you’re fired and you can pack your bags and get the hell out of my inn too.” “Wait a minute!” “No, you’ve made it quite clear you don’t respect my generosity and are just taking advantage of it. I’d expect this sort of behavior from Rita, but I thought better of you.” “…you can’t fire me! You need me! “ Wendy sputters. “It’s done. You’re gone. And while you may be right that I do need you, I don’t need your bratty kids. Especially one that’s setting my other employees on fucking fire.” You begin to leave the kitchen and Wendy grabs your arm. “Alright, alright! Shit. You win. I can’t afford to lose my job and a free place on top of everything right now. I’ll do something about my kids. (Sigh) I just hope I can do something about Henry. I’m not sure anything is going to help. I have to admit, I’m not looking forward to him when he becomes a teenager.” “Well, have you thought about sending him away?” “I wish. I don’t have that sort of money to send him to some boys school, besides he’d probably get kicked out within a week.” “No, there’s a program that the city militia has been trying to promote lately. It’s basically like boot camp for juvenile delinquents. They say it has good results in turning them around.” You suggest. “Well I’d try anything I suppose, but doesn’t that cost money as well?” “No, basically you go down to the local militia guard station and sign your kid up, then at sometime in the middle of the night they take him away for a year.” “Wow, sounds pretty extreme, but if it’s free hell I’ll try it.” The next few days are slightly quieter. Wendy has obviously laid down the law once again to them, but it won’t last. You really hope she goes through with your suggestion because as much as you are perfectly willing to go through with your threat, you also know it would ruin your own goals. Later that night, heavy banging on your inn’s front door and yelling wakes you up. “This is the Klyton Militia open up at once! We have important business here!” You smile and head downstairs to open the door, but you find that Wendy has already done it. When they take him away, he doesn’t cry or even protest. He allows himself to go quietly, which makes you believe that you made the right decision in pushing Wendy in this direction. You have your doubts if the militia program will help him, but he’s out of your life now and that’s what is important. The best thing is, this event scared Wendy’s other two kids so much that they straighten up so as not to suffer the same fate. Time passes and everything seems to be going well until one day when you get another visit from the Klyton militia who storm in the same way they did when they took away Henry. “You the owner of this establishment?” the sergeant asks. “Yeah?” you answer groggily “You’re under arrest for serving illegal substances.” “What?! I don’t sell drugs here!” “You’re selling homemade booze ain’t cha? Clearly you’re violating alcohol law 3.6721. Gibbs! Check the basement, that’s where it’s supposed to be!” You’re put into manacles and sputter in disbelief at all this. You were careful! Who could’ve ratted you out? None of you patrons would’ve cared given that they drink here. Even your ex-patrons just left due to the alcohol not tasting as good to them, they would’ve have bothered. Your staff? If this place goes down, then they all lose their jobs and if anything you’ve made strides in making things easier for them…shit. You know now. It’s Henry. That little bastard must’ve told all about this place. Whether he did it out of spite for you or his mom or if they really rehabilitated him and he felt it was his “duty” to rat you out hardly matters, you’re fucked. “Found them sir. There’s a whole bunch of stills in the basement, along with some retard who seemed confused.” Gibbs reports. “Ugh, you keep retarded sex slaves in this place too? What the hell are you running here?!” the sergeant says jumping to conclusions. “Sex slaves? He’s the fucking janitor!” you protest. “Save it you sicko! You’re coming with us!” As you’re taken away you shout to Wendy who is standing by watching all this, to get the money from the safe to bail you out. Eventually you’re brought up on charges of distribution of illegal substances, posing a health risk to the populous, exploitation of the mentally incompetent and tax evasion. Guess which one you got in the most trouble? You spend almost all your money on a lawyer, and your inn is taken away by the city, along with your dreams of going into medicine. After all is said and done you’ve lost everything and are completely broke. The only good thing is the city decided that your inn would cover the cost of all the alcohol taxes you weren’t paying due to making your own so you didn’t serve any jail time. It’s of minor consolation though, you’re still left with nothing and don’t have much future prospects. You wish you’d listened to your mother and you think about going to Teckleville to apologize to her in person, but you can’t bring yourself to even face her. You do eventually get another job as a boring assistant clerk. It’s a mind numbing tedious job that does nothing for your mental well-being. After years of this drudge you hang yourself still lamenting about where you went wrong with the inn.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>A year has passed and you’re back in college, though it’s not as much fun as it was when you didn’t need to worry about where your tuition was coming from or having something like a job. Finding time to study while running the inn is difficult, but fortunately Wendy picks up the slack when you’re not around. You’ve also managed to re-establish some old contacts with people you were “friends” with before your “break”. Most of them are ahead of you and some are getting ready to graduate. While none of them bothered to stay in contact with you (so much for education breaking down class distinctions) a few of them are still willing to help you out by selling you books for cheap or giving you some of their old notes. Every little bit helps. As for the inn, it’s doing well, but you constantly worry about its future profitability. Your regular patrons aren’t the upstanding working class anymore, most of them are petty criminals, broke losers and other ne’er-do-wells. You also have to do something about your overworked/underpaid staff. So far Wendy has been doing far more than she anticipated and is demanding more pay. Rita on the other hand is just plain threatening to quit. All of which is cutting into your study and school time. A few bright spots are you’re getting adventurers coming in since those nice rooms you got awhile back started to pay off. You’re also saving money with your stills (You have multiple ones in the basement now) and your retarded janitor Alan who seems to be just happy to work and follow your orders. If only all your employees were so agreeable. Today’s the day you make a change to the status quo. > You keep things as they are and start cheating at school Making any changes might make things worse than they are and you’re already got enough problems as it is. The only thing you can reliably control is yourself so you decide to cut a few corners in your studies. It’s not like you won’t completely know the information, it’s just between studying and managing the inn to make money for school, the money aspect is more important to your future in medicine… This twisted logic doesn’t work so well. First of all your inn isn’t really doing any better with you around more often. You’re still breaking even and your staff is still unhappy for the most part. Second of all, you spend nearly as much time scamming and scheming for your tests that you probably could’ve better spent it studying. Lastly, you’re going into the medicine, it’s not like law where you can just bullshit your way through and by it’s very nature you can’t really “cheat” at least not for very long. Some tests just can’t be cheated on and this becomes apparent during your advanced anatomy and physiology final where you’re presented with a real dead body and you get several parts of it laughably wrong. YOU FAIL BASIC HUMAN BIOLOGY FOREVER is what is actually posted on your paper by your professor. You don’t do too much better in the rest of your classes. What this all means is you have to repeat most of your classes which means more money, or at least that’s what it would mean if you were rich. Since you aren’t, the university just throws you out since you failed to meet the academic standard. Well all your short cuts, the home brewed hooch, the overworked staff, the cheating, it has all amounted to nothing. Sure you still have the inn, and if you made some cuts you could keep it running, but why bother? You never wanted to run this damn thing in the first place. This is all your parents fault, they pushed you in one direction and then they fuck up and you have to go into another direction. A direction which ended up leading to ruin. At this point you’re so fed up with busting your ass to get shit done, you decide to not do anything at all. Basically, you don’t learn your lesson from all this. First thing you do is sell the inn for as much as you can. Not as much as you like, but it’s enough to keep you from having to do anything for a while. You spend the next few months mainly picking up loose co-eds at the university. It’s a lot of fun, but as the money starts running out, you realize you’re going to have to get a job again. You wind up getting a job as a lowly clerk doing boring file keeping, but you pretty much slack off on that job quite a bit. You mostly get away with it for a long time, but eventually much like your cheating you don’t get away with it forever and you’re fired. After a couple more failed attempts at keeping a job in the city, you’ve got no choice, but to either become a beggar or apologize to your mom in Teckleville and hope she takes you in for a while. You take the remaining amount of your money and take a one-way trip to Teckleville and mentally prepare yourself for a lot of apologizing, even if you don’t really mean it. When you arrive you meet up with your mother (who now has her own place as opposed to living with your aunt Enora). She’s surprised to see you and isn’t immediately hostile. You explain your situation though omit some of the information (like cheating) and replace it with a hard luck story instead. This of course is followed by a lot of apologies and stating how she was right all along. It works and she takes you in. Of course the problem is now you’re living with your mom and while she’s forgiven you, she doesn’t expect you to sit around doing nothing which you’ve decided to continue doing. This willful sloth, leads to a cycle of several never-ending arguments, but the result is always the same. You either get a odd job around the town to get your mom off your back for awhile or she throws you out and you live with your crazy aunt Enora for awhile until you can’t put up with her quirkiness anymore and you get an odd job around town anyway and beg to move back in with your mom (who always accepts mainly because she still has a lingering feeling of guilt that maybe her and your dad really are responsible for your decline). The rest of your life is a rather miserable one and not very interesting in the scheme of things. You always remain bitter about “what you could’ve been” and this of course results in you thinking about that damn inn a lot and what you could’ve done differently. You’ll never know.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>A year has passed and you’re back in college, though it’s not as much fun as it was when you didn’t need to worry about where your tuition was coming from or having something like a job. Finding time to study while running the inn is difficult, but fortunately Wendy picks up the slack when you’re not around. You’ve also managed to re-establish some old contacts with people you were “friends” with before your “break”. Most of them are ahead of you and some are getting ready to graduate. While none of them bothered to stay in contact with you (so much for education breaking down class distinctions) a few of them are still willing to help you out by selling you books for cheap or giving you some of their old notes. Every little bit helps. As for the inn, it’s doing well, but you constantly worry about its future profitability. Your regular patrons aren’t the upstanding working class anymore, most of them are petty criminals, broke losers and other ne’er-do-wells. You also have to do something about your overworked/underpaid staff. So far Wendy has been doing far more than she anticipated and is demanding more pay. Rita on the other hand is just plain threatening to quit. All of which is cutting into your study and school time. A few bright spots are you’re getting adventurers coming in since those nice rooms you got awhile back started to pay off. You’re also saving money with your stills (You have multiple ones in the basement now) and your retarded janitor Alan who seems to be just happy to work and follow your orders. If only all your employees were so agreeable. Today’s the day you make a change to the status quo. > You your staff (Current status) Wendy: Head barmaid/cook She has more responsibility and has higher pay, but she’s steadily not feeling like it’s worth it. The fact that you’re not there for most of the day means she has to oversee most things. Same is true if you have important school work you need to do. She’s basically doing most of the work your mother used to do, but the major exception is she is NOT your mother and has her own kids to worry about. This fact has been brought to your attention directly several times during one of her many rants at you due to her dissatisfaction. Rita: Barmaid Rita doesn’t have it nearly as bad as Wendy, but she complains just as much if not more. It is true she’s overworked more than she used to be however. Rita is always arguing with Wendy or you. If she isn’t then she’s taking out her frustration on Eliza or Alan if he gets in the way. She’s still trying to find that “sugar daddy” type to take her away from all of this, but the inn doesn’t get many merchants anymore and those it does aren’t interested in an obnoxious serving wench as a trophy wife. Her threats of quitting are a daily routine. Eliza: Barmaid Eliza is more or less her usual quiet self, though it is evident that even she feels overworked since every once in awhile she’ll make a couple of minor grumbles about things. Alan: Janitor/Handyman This is your prized employee. He never complains and follows orders. The best thing is he has managed to save you money in repairs since he’s good at that sort of thing. You don’t really know what you’d do without him. Part of you feels a little guilty about making him sleep in the basement and generally treating him like a second-class citizen, but he doesn’t seem to mind. The only problem you have with him is due to his slow mindedness in most things you get frustrated in explaining more complex stuff to him. However you usually tell Wendy to tell him so you can avoid all of that trouble.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>If it’s only for a couple days, what can it hurt and you’re getting a good deal on his alcohol, so you figure it’s a good idea. This does not go well with your mother who says you’re going to get the pair of you further into debt. It takes some time, but eventually you manage to convince her that the money you’re saving will be worth the couple days out of the month that he actually comes up here. Meanwhile Calwin calls his lackeys to unload his cart and take the stuff down to your cellar. Calwin then states he’s going to retire to his room and that if any of your barmaids want to join him his door will be open. The next couple days aren’t exactly pleasant, Calwin is a complete lecherous slob and leaves not only his room a disgusting mess, but hangs around the bar all day trying to grope the barmaids. (Rita in particular) You have to warn him several times to leave them alone, and eventually one of the miners who has a crush on Rita punches him in the face resulting in a minor scuffle in which Calwin is not the winner. You fully expect Calwin to claim that he’s never dealing with you again, but as it turns out he doesn’t think anything of it. Indeed he claims if it had been a bar in Hessla he probably would’ve gotten a knife in the eye instead, so he considers himself lucky. Eventually he leaves and everyone is glad, but there’s the sickening feeling that you know you’re going to have to put up with him a few times every month. By the end of the week you haven’t saved any money. In fact you’ve barely broke even. While you’re sweeping up the inn early morning, a non-descript man of medium height enters with two bigger figures. One of them is unmistakably an ogre while the other guy is just a tall muscular human. Either one could break you in half. “Are you are Mr. Reynolds?” you ask, knowing that it has to be him. “That would be me. I take it you’re the son of my late debtor? I do hope you realize that the debt doesn’t end with him dying…” Mr. Reynolds says “No, no of course not. I’ve got some of what my father owed.” You hand over the most you can under the circumstances, but Mr. Reynolds looks insulted. “My boy do you take me for an asshole? Your father used to pay me much more than this pittance!” “It was a rough week…” “No, no, I don’t give a shit about your excuses, you’ve chosen to take on your father’s debt so you are expected to fucking pay up like he did! (Sigh) Look, since you’re obviously new to this, I’ll let you off with a warning. Olaf.” Suddenly the ogre steps forward with a smile and punches you the stomach. You temporarily lose the ability to breath and collapse on the floor. When you finally do catch your breath, you promptly vomit. “That was my warning, let’s hope I don’t need to do it again. Be seeing you again in a few weeks kid. Let’s get out of here.” As Mr. Reynolds leaves, your mother comes running up from the cellar wondering what’s going on. She helps you up when she sees you. “Oh no son I can’t let this go on. We’re selling the inn right now!” “No, no mom, it’s alright, you’ll see. We’re going to make this place profitable and payback the loan and after that we’ll be able to take the next step.” “Son, I love you, but you’ve made a lot of questionable decisions as far as business is concerned. I mean if this keeps up, I’m stepping in before this place goes to hell so I can actually make money selling it to the city.” “You won’t get enough for it!” “Well I’ll get enough to pay off the debt, and if worst comes to worst, I’ll leave Klyton and live with my sister in Teckleville” “You can’t live with aunt Enora, you always said she’s crazy.” “She is, but that still doesn’t mean she wouldn’t help me out.” “Look, we’ve still got time, I know my ideas are going to help us out soon.” “Well, I hope all your fancy schooling you gained some sort of insight that I’m not privy to. Alright we’ll give it until the next time Mr. Reynolds comes around for payment.” You agree and start wiping up the floor before customers come in. The next few days are uneventful; the miners seem to be enjoying the new Hessla ale though so that’s a relief. They even seem to be talking to you a little more, one in particular Ular has been chewing your ear quite frequently. He’s the one that has an obvious crush on Rita, but you’ve never seen him actually talk to her on any serious level. Strange that a big tough miner would be too shy to speak to a girl, but there it is. “So how long have you known Rita?” Ular asks. “Me? Well she started working here just before I left for college so I didn’t speak to her too much back then, and I haven’t really spoken to her too much other than about duties around the inn since I’ve got back here.” “She’s so beautiful, you know? I always wonder if she isn’t a Delantium Princess hiding out or something.” “Yeah, she’s a pretty girl.” You reply. “Can you speak to her for me?” “What?” “Just speak to her for me. I try, but I…dunno I don’t have the words! I get all tongue tied an’ shit. I mean you’re a smart guy, you went to college an’ shit. Maybe you can tell her better how I feel than I can.” “I dunno if should get involved in this…” “Please man, just do it…oh shit here she comes!” At this point Ular stumbles over his own feet trying to get to a dark corner before Rita arrives for more ale. Feeling a little sorry for the guy, you talk to Rita. “Hey Rita, this is going to be strange question, but…” “Oh gods, you’re not going to start hitting on me too are you?” “What? Uh no! But well, there’s a miner named Ular who’s sort of nuts about you.” “Yeah, he’s nuts over me like every other miner here trying to get under my skirt.” “Heh, I don’t think so, he’s so damn shy he’s practically afraid to speak to you, and surely you’ve noticed.” “Yeah I suppose I have. I will admit he’s a little different than the rest of these ale swilling pigs.” “So are you interested in him?” “Eh…I dunno. I mean from what I know of him he seems respectful and he did punch out that fucker Calwin when he groped me, but that’s not really enough. I need a man that’s going places. I mean he’s a miner; where’s that going to lead me? Not in fine Selkie furs and a big house, I’ll just be barefoot and pregnant and still living here.” Same old Rita. Still, you can certainly understand her desire to move up in the world. However, a miner still makes a decent living. A lot better than her that’s for sure. She’d still be “moving up.” > You convince Rita that money isn't everything Ular seems like a good guy and Rita could certainly do worse, so you decide to play matchmaker. “I understand Rita, I mean I was supposed to become a doctor, but now I’m back here.” “Yeah, suck to be you.” Rita says. “Indeed, but my point is, you need to grab the good times when you can. I mean you think you’re going to find any of the type of men you’re interested in here?” “So you’re saying I should just settle?” “No, I’m saying Ular’s a nice guy who’s going to probably try to do everything within his means to make you happy. Now doesn’t that at least sound worthwhile?” “Yeah I suppose it does…I haven’t really been happy in a long time. Okay, tell him to meet me after work.” “Okay, and what the hell, you can get off an hour earlier.” You add. Rita walks off with a slight spring in her step. You look for Ular and see him slowly coming out of his dark corner. You tell him that she’s interested and that she’ll talk with him in greater length after work. He’s ecstatic. He immediately orders a round of drinks for everyone along with giving you a large tip. “Who says good deeds go unrewarded?” You say to yourself. The remaining days until the next payment go well. Rita hits it off pretty well with Ular. She’s actually happy enough to the point now where her job performance increases. Ular is so happy with her that he routinely buys rounds for the house to celebrate his good fortune. Mr. Reynolds is satisfied with the payment he receives, and you still have a little saved over. You have high hopes that in time you’ll get out of this debt. However, unexpected troubles arise in the next month. Ular stops coming in altogether. Rita has had a great affect on him, namely she doesn’t want him wasting all his money at the inn anymore; she wants him wasting it on her. This might not be too bad, except Rita also quits her job to move into Ular’s home seeing as he makes enough for the pair of them. While it’s true you don’t have to pay her anymore, you lose a couple of other customers that must’ve liked looking at her. That’s not even counting the extra work that Eliza and Wendy have to do now who are now miserable to the point of wanting to seriously quit. You and your mother take up some of the slack, but it’s a drain on the pair of you. The kicker is when Calwin shows up on his monthly delivery. He says that he’s decided to bump the price up on his alcohol. You furiously ask why, and he says that the last time he was here he noticed how nice the rooms were and that if you can afford to fix them up, you must be able to afford to pay him more for his product. Your mother who is already stressed out from overwork, is so disgusted with him that she grabs your dad’s Troll Gun from under the bar counter and points it at him, telling him to get the hell out before she blows his head off. He and his lackeys leave, which means you’ll have no alcohol supply this month. You’ll have to make due with what you have left and go back to the old expensive one. The bigger immediate problem is Mr. Reynold’s payment, which you won’t have enough to give him this time around and it’s going to be that time again in a few more days. Your mother can’t bare to see you get hurt again and suggests forgetting all about the inn and just taking off with all the remaining money you have and going to live with your crazy aunt Enora.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You shake your head; you can’t walk away from this. Your mom might be in serious trouble because this loan. Selling the inn might not even be enough to cover it and even if it is, she probably won’t have enough to fall back on. You aren’t angry with her, but you do feel a little anger towards your dad for getting her in this position (and you indirectly). You realize he still had the best intentions for you, but those don’t really help right now. “Alright first things first, who is the name of this loanshark?” you ask your mother. “Mr. Reynolds. He’ll be coming next week to pick up a collection. He’s not a member of the Crimson Talons, but he does have a couple of their goons working for him.” “The Crimson Talons? Oh geez, this just get better…okay how is this place doing for business?” “It’s doing about as well as it always has.” “That won’t be enough, we’ll need to get more people in here, or cut costs somehow.” “Well your father was going to have more work done on the rooms in the hopes that it would keep adventurers and maybe even merchants to come back whenever they travel through here. I’m not sure if it’s worth it though. Adventures don’t care where they sleep half the time and it’s not always a sure thing that they’re going to live long enough for repeat business. As for merchants, I think this place is a little too blue collar for them most of the time.” “You said something about getting a new liquor supplier?” “Yeah, the one here raised their prices, it would actually be cheaper to get the stuff shipped in from Hessla. Your father was supposed to meet with the new potential distributor in a couple days, so I’m not sure how that’s going to go through, if at all.” “How about the staff?” “The staff is working on minimum wage as it is, we’ve got three barmaids, Rita, Eliza and Wendy and they’re all disgruntled about their jobs, but they all still work well.. We can barely pay them though, and we might have to fire one of them. Grim stuff, but you’re determined to see this through. Since the liquor supplier from Hessla won’t arrive in two days you’re just going to focus on what you can do now. Fixing the rooms is still a good idea to keep potential returning wandering adventurers happy. Spending a little money now could increase potential profits later. Who knows, maybe even a merchant will show up and spread the word that this place isn’t just some place where miners get drunk. Firing people sounds like it might save you money, but all it’s really going to do is create more work for the rest of you, so you decide to hold off on firing anyone for now. Your mother doesn’t agree with your idea of fixing the rooms, but seems relieved that you’re not firing anyone. Things go as normal at the inn. Several of the miners still offer their condolences about your father and are surprised to see that you’re taking up his mantle as it were, but other than that they don’t say to much to you. They probably don’t know what to say since while some of them might know you since you were little, but you’re not really “one of them” in terms of education level. Not to say they’re all a bunch of grunting idiots, but they probably figure you’re used to talking about things of a more cerebral nature. You don’t mind though, after all your main concern is getting your mom out of debt. Two days pass and the supplier from Hessla arrives. He’s a grungy shady looking individual, but considering he’s from Hessla that’s hardly surprising. He immediately says his name is Calwin asks for your father at which point you tell him he died recently. Calwin shows no sympathy and merely complains that he’s made a trip up here for no reason. You show a little restraint and call your mother to speak with him, but after five minutes with him she’s ready to throw him out the door for hitting on her, and you’re not exactly thrilled with him either at this point. “Look folks, if you want good quality alcohol at a low price I’m willing to deal wit ya, but I’m gonna need some incentive for my troubles because y’all seem like a buncha uptight prigs. Now I was invited here by the man who ran this establishment, so you called me here, if my help ain’t wanted, I’ll be on my way…” Calwin says. While you’re tempted to just have him leave, you decide it would be best to at least see if his stuff is any good. “Alright prove it. Surely you’ve brought some of your alcohol here so we can test to see if it’s any good.” “Well I do have some with me, but I can’t just be givin’ this stuff away for free.” “Don’t worry, you’ll be compensated.” You call attention to the miners in the room and ask them if they’d like to try some new beer, naturally they’re all for it. A few of the miners take their fill of Calwin’s beer and they say that it’s different from what they usually drink, but it’s just as good. Calwin looks a little put off that they claimed his alcohol is “just as good”, but still maintains that it’s better than what you already have. He states his price, and also mentions that he wants a free room whenever he comes here since he’s apparently got a harpy of a wife at home and he likes to stay away for a couple days before having to go back to Hessla. Your mother obviously isn’t thrilled with having to deal with him, and in the short time he’s been here; he’s also hit on every one of the barmaids. Granted they’re used to such behavior, he’s particularly revolting. (Plus he’s from Hessla) > You deal with him, but no free room You tell him if he wants to spend a few days here that’s fine, but he’s paying like everyone else, either that he can lower the price of his alcohol to cover the cost. Calwin protests saying that he should be put up for free, but you’re unmoved. Eventually he tells you to forget it and tells his lackeys to just carry his booze down to your cellar and he’ll be on his way. “Glad you stood your ground on that one. Don’t really want his type hanging around anyway.” Your mother says. The next few days are blessed ones. Some successful adventurers walk in with a whole lot of loot. They rest up in your nice rooms and tip generously. By the end of the week you’ve managed to save bit of money. While you’re sweeping up the inn early morning, a non-descript man of medium height enters with two bigger figures. One of them is unmistakably an ogre while the other guy is just a tall muscular human. Either one could break you in half. “Are you are Mr. Reynolds?” you ask, knowing that it has to be him. “That would be me. I take it you’re the son of my late debtor? I do hope you realize that the debt doesn’t end with him dying…” Mr. Reynolds says “No, no of course not. I’ve got your payment.” Mr. Reynolds looks pleased that you’ve handed him a weighty bag of coins. “Nice. Glad to see we’re getting off on the right foot, kid. Wouldn’t want to have to sic Olaf here on you.” Mr. Reynolds says while patting his ogre goon on the arm. “Be seein’ ya in a few weeks kid.” As Mr. Reynolds leaves, your mother comes running up from the cellar wondering what’s going on. “Was that Reynolds? Why didn’t you call me up here?!” “I had it under control, besides it all went well. We’re saving money, and hopefully those nice rooms we have will pay off still.” The next few days are uneventful; the miners seem to be enjoying the new Hessla ale though so that’s a relief. They even seem to be talking to you a little more, one of the older miners Aglim, remarks about the adventurers that spent a few nights here awhile back. “Y’know that’s something I should’ve went into, instead of mining. You travel all over the damn place, killin things and take their shit. Sounds a hell of a lot more fun than spendin’ your time hittin’ the same damn piece of mountain over and over again.” “They didn’t speak too much to me, but they said they were coming back from the Cloudpeak Mountains. Said they found some old crypt filled with treasure.” You say. “Yeah, I’ll bet it was some old Dwarven tomb too. For their sake, they better hope the dwarves don’t find out about it. They aren’t too fond of outsiders desecrating their dead like that. Still, there’s been an increase in those types lately in the mountains and a lot of them have been passing back and forth through Klyton. You might want to do some advertising for your inn or something.” Aglim says before walking back to his table with his friends. He does bring up an interesting point. You obviously have some nice rooms now, why not be a little pro-active and get more of these adventuring types to spend their ill gotten loot here? You figure the best way to do this is appealing to the lowest common denominator. Sex appeal… “What?! Son I certainly hope you aren’t suggesting that…” “NO! I was thinking about someone a lot younger like one of the barmaids.” “Hmm, I’m not sure if that’s more or less insulting…very well I agree that getting those adventuring type in here would help out a lot. We used to have more, but ever since the Flying Griffon Inn opened up in the merchant district we get less of their business.” “Do you know anything about this other inn?” “Not much except it doesn’t really offer anything more than ours, it just happens to be in a better location, what with all the shops around it and all.” You weren’t aware of this other inn, then again you’ve just been focusing on your immediate problems. Maybe you should actively try to discredit this other inn while you’re advertising. The one thing you need to do is speak to your barmaids about this. “Huh, well I can tell you right now I’m not parading around the streets trying to seduce passing adventurers like some harlot.” Wendy says. “I’ll do it, but I’m not sucking anyone’s cock!” Rita exclaims. “We…we have to suck someone’s cock?” Eliza asks looking a little worried. “ Argh! Nobody is going to have to suck anyone’s cock!” you yell. “Look I only need one of you to go out on the street, find adventurers and try to entice them into coming to our Inn. I don’t really care how you do it, just try your best, and that will most likely involve you looking as pretty as you can.” “Oh, well I suppose I could try to do that if I have to.” Eliza says. > You pick Rita You get the impression Eliza might be a little too shy for this sort of thing, so Rita seems like a better choice. Rita’s also the most extroverted and will most likely prefer doing this than having to work at the inn. “Alright Rita, starting tomorrow, you’re working the streets…er so to speak. Don’t think you still won’t be working around here though; I’ll still need you during the late shift. Besides I don’t want you wandering around at night, people might get the wrong idea or something.” “Fine, as long as it gets me out of this place for a little while I’m game.” “Okay, also I’d like you to try to throw around some insults about the Flying Griffon Inn while you’re making your sales pitch.” “Got it.” The next day, Rita comes in and while she’s always been a pretty girl, she now looks like a succubus that you’ve heard about from old tales. You try to contain your own desire to shamelessly flirt with her. “By the gods Rita, you’re going to have every guy within this area after you.” “Meh, wouldn’t be the first time. Okay, I’m off, try not to fantasize about me too much while I’m gone.” You’re not exactly sure how to take that, but you are wondering how this will play out for you. Over the course of a few days you definitely see a drastic increase in customers, and not just adventurers either. You’ve got Klyton Milita (who usually just drink at their barracks) coming in and even a few humble storeowners. You’re making a lot more money, but it’s a lot of extra work for the rest of you. Mr. Reynolds receives sizable amounts of money and he continues to be satisfied with your payments. At this rate you’ll probably be able to get out of debt by the end of the year. The only major problems are how overworked the rest of you are getting and how arrogant Rita is getting. Rita states that she should even have to work as a barmaid anymore because it interferes with her “advertising.” “Advertising? You wiggle your ass at horny men! You’re basically a harlot that doesn’t put out…or is there another reason why everyone comes here?” Wendy accuses. “Figures that you’d be jealous of my popularity. Face it; I do more around here than ANYONE to keep this place successful, and I deserve some credit for it!” Rita demands. “Hey we all know Rita, but…” “But nothing, if you expect me to keep working here, I want a raise and I don’t want to be working as some lowly barmaid anymore! I’m above serving food and drinks!” “So you basically want to be paid to stand around and look pretty? What the hell kind of job title would we even call that?” you ask. “I dunno, hostess maybe? Yeah, I’d be the hostess!” “By the gods, this is ridiculous! You can’t seriously be considering this!” Wendy exclaims. The only people who are silent in all this are Eliza who is being her usual quiet self, and your mother who just shrugs and says it’s your call since this was mainly your idea. You get the impression she doesn’t care for Rita’s attitude though. > You make Rita a hostess Sometimes you have to take risks to get ahead. “Alright fine, if that’s the way this is going, then we don’t have much of a choice. Rita, you’re the Miner’s Mug hostess.” You say. “WHAT!? “As it should be.” “Fuck this, I’m not working myself to death while she gets a raise to just stand around.” Wendy says. “That’s good because you’ll be getting a raise as well since I’m promoting you to head barmaid and we’re hiring a new one. Now that should make you feel a little bit better now shouldn’t it?” Before Wendy can reply, your mother speaks up. “What are you doing? We can’t afford all this or have you forgotten that we still have to pay off Mr. Reynolds?” “And we are, and we will. But this place has finally gotten the kind of business it should be getting and we need to broaden our base. We’re getting more than just miners and low ranking adventurers; we’re starting to get a slightly higher class of patrons. I think these changes will be good in the long run, so are we all in agreement?” Everyone seems to nod and be fine with their new job titles/promotions and the idea of making the inn into a better moneymaker. Just then Eliza speaks up after being quiet the whole time. “I have a suggestion. If we’re branching out past our usual miner customers shouldn’t we change the name of the inn to something slightly more inclusive?” Eliza has a point, after thinking about it, you come up with “The Traveler’s Inn” which seems to be as good as name as any to signify people other than miners come here. The changes are made… Months pass and everything goes as well as expected. Everyone is a little busier, but the inn is finally making a lot more profit and you were right, eventually you get out of Mr. Reynolds’ debt. You half expect him to try to pull a fast one to get more money out of you, but with the increase in Klyton Militia hanging around, he doesn’t and just says if you ever need another loan in the future you know where to find him. You’re definitely not going to let that happen. You also re-establish your alcohol supplier with Klyton again. You’re making enough money to afford it and you won’t have to deal with Calwin anymore. The inn is profitable again and you’ve effectively saved the place and your mother from potential danger (as well as yourself) but taking over your father’s inn wasn’t your dream and it wasn’t your parents’ dreams either. They pushed you to make something better of yourself and it stuck. You’re not going to give up now, you have to find out a way of raising enough money to put yourself through school again AND finding the time to study while running the inn. You try to think about how you’re going to accomplish this, and you know you've got quite the challenge ahead of you. > Back to school... A year has passed and you’re back in college, though it’s not as much fun as it was when you didn’t need to worry about where your tuition was coming from or having something like a job. Finding time to study while running the inn is difficult, but fortunately your mother picks up some of the slack when you really need time. You’ve also managed to re-establish some old contacts with people you were “friends” with before your “break”. Most of them are ahead of you and some are getting ready to graduate. While none of them bothered to stay in contact with you (so much for education breaking down class distinctions) a few of them are still willing to help you out by selling you books for cheap or giving you some of their old notes. Every little bit helps. As for the inn, it’s doing well, but you constantly worry about its future profitability. You’ve got a much broader customer base and even classed the place up a bit, but this isn’t without its drawbacks. Namely the Flying Griffon Inn has stepped up its efforts to get back its customers. This has so far involved an aggressive advertising campaign, hiring a bunch of sexy barmaids and special deals. So far it has helped them a lot and if they continue to succeed, your inn is going to start losing money and you can’t have that. It doesn’t help that your place isn’t in as good of a location as the Flying Griffon So first things first, you need to figure out how to deal with Flying Griffon and you call a staff meeting in the hopes of getting some other ideas on how to deal with them. “Why don’t you just hire someone to cut up their slutty barmaids? I mean that’s what’s mainly getting the main draw right? Seems like you could easily solve the problem by getting rid of them.” Rita says. Naturally this doesn’t go over well with the others. “That’s horrible!” Eliza says “ What? I didn’t say kill them, they’d still be able to work and shit. They just wouldn’t be pretty anymore.” “Have you gotten so jealous that you’ve gone completely barmy? By the gods, we’re not doing that, we’re not the Crimson Talons!” Wendy shouts. As much as disfiguring Flying Griffon’s staff would solve some problems, you hesitate to resort to such measures. “Maybe we could offer deals to traveling merchants like Flying Griffon does, like they get a discount on their rooms?” your mom suggests. “Not sure if that’s going to help us a lot, unless we make an addition to the inn. It’s not like our rooms aren’t being used. If we start giving discount to merchants we might attract them, but we might not have enough rooms to accommodate them or we’ll be accommodating them, but won’t be accommodating adventurer types who are paying full price.” Wendy says. “Well if you’re so knowledgeable Wendy, what’s YOUR solution?” Rita sneers. “We have a lot of Klyton Milita that come here to drink now don’t we? Why don’t we get some of them to help us? Seems like some very public investigation during heavy business hours would help out a lot and ruin the reputation of Flying Griffon. Hell, maybe they’ll even find something and we’ll really get lucky.” You take all these suggestions into consideration, but you can’t help notice that Eliza looks like she wants to say something. “Eliza, do you have a suggestion?” “Huh? Oh. Um…yes…but I... Just forget it. It’s silly anyway. The rest of your ideas sound better.” “Eliza, just spit it out!” Wendy demands. “It’s okay, just tell us.” You say with a lot less intimidation. “Well okay, but it’s silly. I was going to suggest getting someone on the inside to spy on the place and finding something to use against them. It seems odd that they are managing to attract that much attention with just pretty barmaids when we have our own. I think maybe something else is going on there, like an illegal brothel or something.” Most of you are surprised that Eliza came up with something so complex. “Well, that’s a very elaborate plan Eliza, but I think we could accomplish the same thing just by sending in our militia buddies to harass them. Like I said, if they do find anything actually incriminating, then its even better.” “Yes, of course. That sounds like a more efficient idea.” Eliza says. > You go with Rita's idea While all the rest of the ideas seem okay, you really think you need to act quickly on this. It’ll be ugly and ruthless, but unfortunately necessary. Since everyone is against Rita’s idea though, you decide not to say anything about it and say you’re going to have to think everything over later. When everyone’s away you decide to talk to Rita privately. “Rita, can I speak to you for a moment?” “I knew this was coming eventually…look you’re alright looking and if you do manage to become a doctor then maybe I’ll be interested, but until then…” “What? No! I wanted to speak to you about your plan.” “Oh.” Rita says looking a little disappointed that you weren’t suggesting what she thought you were. “Anyway, who did you have in mind to do this deed?” “Well, I don’t know really. I figured you might know, I mean didn’t you have Crimson Talon connections or something?” “Connections? Those were thugs that were going to break my legs if I didn’t pay a loanshark on time. I don’t have any connections. I mean with all the guys you go out with…” “Hey! I don’t like what you’re implying! Contrary to popular belief I’m not some whore like those two half breed sluts you saw fit to hire recently. I’m a lot more selective and I’m certainly not going out with criminal types!” “Hmmm, if you say so.” “Why don’t you just go back to that Reynolds guy? I mean he’s sort of a connection right?” “You must be joking!” “Not at all, I mean surely for a fee he could lend you that ogre for a little while right?” “I dunno if it works that way…(Sigh) alright I suppose I could try since I don’t have any other contacts.” “Okay. Oh! Here take this.” Rita says handing you a small notebook. “What’s this?” “It’s the name of every whore that works for the Flying Griffon and their physical description. I have where some of them live too, but not all of them.” You stare at Rita in disbelief “What? Eliza’s not the only one who can think up spying you know.” Rita remarks. “Yeah, but Eliza’s not the one who was stalking the competition out of jealousy either. Nevermind, I guess this will help since I never kept up on who worked there anyway.” The next day after class, you don’t go to the inn, but instead head to where you know Mr. Reynold’s “office” is. It’s not in a good part of the city, but you make it without any problems. Mr. Reynold’s is currently alone and smiles when he sees you. “Somehow I just knew we’d meet each other again soon, so how much you need this time?” “I don’t need money, I need something else and you’re about the only person I can think of who might be able to help.” “Oh? Well this is interesting. What is it?” “I need that ogre that works for you or whoever that other big guy was.” “Olaf and Silence? They’re not freelancing for me anymore sadly. The Crimson Talons have them doing something more directly important for them. I believe they fight at one of those underground gladiator matches now.” “Well, can I get in contact with them some how?” “Ha ha ha! Well I suppose I could tell you, but I don’t think they’d necessarily let you in, I guess you’d have to speak to whoever’s in charge and well it would be a big hassle really…what did you need them for anyway?” “Is it any of your business?” “Well if Olaf and Silence had still been freelancing for me it would’ve been, but I guess not now. I’m assuming you need some sort of muscle though, and if that is the case I DO have two new employees that might work out for you. David! Tom! Get in here, we might have some business!” “Yeah, boss what’s up…hey! I know you!” David says looking at you. “Hey! How’s it been? Didn’t you go to college?” Tom adds. Now here’s a blast from the past, your two old school buddies all grown up and obviously full blown criminals now. Funny to think back how your life turned out so different…then again maybe not considering you’re here to have several women horribly disfigured. “Well, it seems you gentlemen all know each other, maybe now you’re ready to tell us what you need doing?” You take a deep breath and state what you need done. “Wow, didn’t expect that one.” Mr. Reynolds says. David and Tom are also surprised. “Shit, what the hell did they do to you, cheat on you?” David asks. “Fuck man, that’s some serial killer shit!” Tom adds. “Look, I don’t need them killed! I just need them disfigured so they aren’t pretty anymore.” “Yeah, I got that. Okay, so how much you willing to pay?” Mr. Reynolds asks. You and Mr. Reynolds negotiate a price, which is agreeable, but Tom begins to speak up. “Uh…I dunno Mr. Reynolds. I don’t think I can do this…” “Tom, stop being a pussy! We’re just gonna cut up some bitches and get out, shit ain’t that hard.” David says “But I dunno. I just feel weird about doing this. It’s not like beating up people who don’t pay on time.” “You’ll do what I tell you to do! David, you better keep your little sidekick in line before I replace the pair of you!” Mr. Reynolds snaps. You think back to your old childhood involving your former friends. Tom always was the weakest of you three, but he always went along despite protests. You have no doubt David’s capable of committing the act, you just wonder if he’s gotten any brighter since then. The last thing you need is for them to fuck this up for you and get all of you in trouble. Getting the “real professionals” might be tough though. Might even cost more money. > You hire David and Tom Getting Olaf and Silence seems unlikely now, you’re sure you could probably travel the seedy underbelly of Klyton and hire some other Crimson Talon thugs, but you’d really rather not. Besides, you actually “know” David and Tom to a degree so you feel slightly more comfortable with them. “Splendid! Now David and Tom, you go back with your old friend here and I’m sure he can fill you in on more details. I expect to see the pair of you soon with the money.” Mr. Reynolds before he goes back writing in a ledger. You, David and Tom all walk back your inn. This whole thing feels a little surreal, like you’re all back in primary school again. “So. What brings you back to the old neighborhood? Thought you were gonna be a rich doctor or some shit.” David asks. “Ehh, long story. I’ve actually been back for awhile running my dad’s inn. Still taking classes, just not living on campus anymore.” “Yeah heard about your dad dying. Wish mine was dead; mean old fucker’s still alive. Never talk or see him anymore though after he kicked me out of the house.” “…huh….uh so Tom what’s been going on with you?” you ask changing the subject. “Me? Um, nothing. Me and David just work for Mr. Reynolds beating people up who don’t pay. So you owed him money before we worked for him?” “Well, not me, but my family borrowed some. It’s all in the past though.” “That’s good. It would’ve been weird seeing each other again under those circumstances. I don’t think I could intimidate your mom. She was always so nice, not like my mom.” “That’s because your mom’s still a big ass scary dyke that’s why!” David taunts. “Shut up David! My mom’s not a dyke! She just has a roommate!” Some things never change… Speaking of moms, it occurs to you that actually taking them to the inn to talk probably isn’t a good idea as your mom will probably start asking you all sorts of question on why you’re hanging out with your old hoodlum friends. Instead you go into an alley. “Okay, here’s a list of the girls you need to confront, their names, descriptions, and even addresses for most of them.” “Shit, what the hell did you stalk ‘em or something? Sounds like you could’ve done this yourself.” David remarks. “I didn’t stalk them, I just have an overly enthusiastic employee motivated greatly by jealousy. Now I’m depending on you guys to do this right.” “Relax, we’re professionals now. None of this getting caught in the candy store for us anymore.” “Okay, so how long do you think this will take you?” “Ehhh, we can probably get this done in a few days if we hurry. Quite a few targets, but it really shouldn’t take long. Probably get most of them after they leave work or going to work. I assume we’ll meet at your inn when the job’s done?” “Uh no, we’ll meet over in the park around five, where we used to play Smash Sphere in a couple days. If you haven’t finished the job by then, we’ll meet again there in two more days and that should hopefully give you enough time.” “I told you we’ll be done before then, but fine we’ll do it this way since you think your inn is obviously too good for us…” “That’s not…” “Bullshit! The very fact that we’re talking in this alley is an indication that you don’t want us in your place.” “Is that true? I thought we were friends?” Tom asks being slow on the uptake as usual. “David, I have certain patrons and I can’t have known criminals walking around the place, not to mention my mom…” “Fuck you, mama’s boy. All that fancy learnin’ and you still live with your mom. We may be lowly thugs but at least we’re not still livin’ at home. Rather be a goon for hire than a hypocrite like you. Too good to have us at your fancy ass inn, but not too good to hire us to wipe out the competition eh?” You’re silent for a moment after David’s accurate statement, but you’re not going to let him get away with talking like that to you even if it does mean a possible beating. “…Alright, fine David. You got me, I’m a fucking hypocrite, is that what you want to hear? At least I tried to do something with my fucking life rather than just rot in juvie for most of my youth and live a hand to mouth existence as some dumb ass goon. So are you gonna do the fucking job or what?” David starts laughing. “Sheesh, I was just fucking with you. You always did take shit so seriously. Anyway yeah we’ll get right on this. See ya in a couple days mama’s boy. Heh.” You part company with David and Tom hoping that you’ve made the right decision. A few days pass and you wait at the park at the time you mentioned. Time passes and neither has shown up yet and you start feel anxious. “I have to say, I’m surprised at the lengths you went through to compete with me. I never expected you to pull something like this. You might’ve succeeded in this clumsy attempt, but a couple of my employees were a little more skilled than your thugs.” It’s Frank, the owner of The Flying Griffon. You’re so shocked that you can’t even come up with an excuse. It doesn’t matter though since Frank isn’t done talking. “Don’t bother with excuses, I know everything. Your little friends proved quite talkative when questioned. On the brighter side for you, you won’t have to pay them now.” “They’re dead?” “Oh I wouldn’t know about such things, but I do know they won’t be troubling anyone else any longer. Now the question is what to do about you?” “…you don’t need to do anything about me…in fact I suggest you don’t. I’m friends with several Klyton militia and an investigation would certainly follow if I were to suddenly disappear.” Frank smirks and your attempt to intimidate him. “Truly? Might I also tell these same militia friends of your of how you hired two thugs to cut up my employees? But let’s get to the point, you’ve done a lot of damage to my business and I think some reparations are in order. I want your inn. Or rather your mother’s inn.” “What?” “You heard me. That’s the only thing that’s going to get you out of this mess you’ve dug yourself into. I’ll of course give you a few days to make preparations. Don’t bother asking if you can still live or work there, I‘m afraid I just couldn’t trust someone who has shady dealings.” “And if I say no?” “I’d advise against it. That’s all I’m going to say. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to get back, we’re a little understaffed lately.” You quickly make your way back to the inn lamenting the mess you’ve gotten yourself into. You glare at Rita on your way in while everyone else asks you where you’ve been. You’re distracted all night and your mother notices it the most. At the end of the workday she asks if there’s anything wrong. > You tell her everything You can’t hide something like this, so you just confess everything. Your mother says nothing for a moment and then you feel a slap to your face. “I can’t believe you would do such a thing. That is not how you were raised! Those poor women! They were just trying to earn a living and you had them disfigured just to hamper the competition? We were doing just fine!” “No, we weren’t! Frank’s inn was starting to beat the hell out of us in everyway! With the way things were going we wouldn’t have had enough business to support this place let alone me trying to finish up my schooling!” “Is your schooling more important than basic humanity or even the confines of the law? (Sigh) Nevermind, I suppose some of this is our fault. We pushed so hard for your education that now you’re willing to do anything to achieve it…well there’s only one thing left to do I suppose. Sell this place to Frank.” “What?! He’s not going to do anything, he’s just bluffing!” ‘And what if he isn’t? What if he decides to do the same thing you did, or worse? No, I’m not living my life like that; I had enough of it with Mr. Reynolds who YOU just recently brought into our lives again by hiring your old hoodlum friends of yours. So first thing I want you to do in the morning is to pay whatever you agreed to Mr. Reynolds, I’m sure we can cover it or else you wouldn’t have made the deal. Meanwhile I’ll talk to Frank to hammer out the agreement.” “So that’s it then? We’re just giving up?” “Nobody’s giving up son. I stayed to help you as much as I could, but I can’t stand by and help you anymore if you’re going to engage in criminal activity. I’m selling this place and saving you from yourself. Now if you decide to continue being involved in criminal activity, well…I suppose I can’t stop you, but in any case I’m moving back to Teckleville.” You protest, yell and accuse at your mother for a good half hour, but her mind is made up and eventually she just closes her door and goes to sleep. The next few days go according to your mother’s wishes. Mr. Reynolds is paid, though he does wonder about where David and Tom are, you tell him that maybe he should take that up with Frank. The Traveller’s Inn is sold to Frank and your mother doesn’t give you any of the money from the sale. She just wishes you well and knows that with your intelligence you’ll be able to find work before she moves back to Teckleville. It doesn’t need to be said that you’re very angry about all this, at your mother, at Rita, at David and Tom, at Frank, at everyone really, but you’re mainly mad at yourself. You should’ve shown better judgment and now you’ve lost everything. You do manage to find work, but it’s only as a lowly clerk filing away insignificant papers and other dull material. You never really get ahead and your former goals are discarded anyway since you wonder why you wasted all that time studying only for it to all fall apart so spectacularly. As the years pass you only grow more bitter and angry until one day you snap and arrive at work, killing your boss with your dad’s old Troll Gun. The Klyton Militia soon arrive and as you lay dying from several sword blows and a few gunshot wounds all you do is laugh. “Thanks dad…you heh heh heh finally came through heh heh heh (sputter) for me…”<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Getting Olaf and Silence seems unlikely now, you’re sure you could probably travel the seedy underbelly of Klyton and hire some other Crimson Talon thugs, but you’d really rather not. Besides, you actually “know” David and Tom to a degree so you feel slightly more comfortable with them. “Splendid! Now David and Tom, you go back with your old friend here and I’m sure he can fill you in on more details. I expect to see the pair of you soon with the money.” Mr. Reynolds before he goes back writing in a ledger. You, David and Tom all walk back your inn. This whole thing feels a little surreal, like you’re all back in primary school again. “So. What brings you back to the old neighborhood? Thought you were gonna be a rich doctor or some shit.” David asks. “Ehh, long story. I’ve actually been back for awhile running my dad’s inn. Still taking classes, just not living on campus anymore.” “Yeah heard about your dad dying. Wish mine was dead; mean old fucker’s still alive. Never talk or see him anymore though after he kicked me out of the house.” “…huh….uh so Tom what’s been going on with you?” you ask changing the subject. “Me? Um, nothing. Me and David just work for Mr. Reynolds beating people up who don’t pay. So you owed him money before we worked for him?” “Well, not me, but my family borrowed some. It’s all in the past though.” “That’s good. It would’ve been weird seeing each other again under those circumstances. I don’t think I could intimidate your mom. She was always so nice, not like my mom.” “That’s because your mom’s still a big ass scary dyke that’s why!” David taunts. “Shut up David! My mom’s not a dyke! She just has a roommate!” Some things never change… Speaking of moms, it occurs to you that actually taking them to the inn to talk probably isn’t a good idea as your mom will probably start asking you all sorts of question on why you’re hanging out with your old hoodlum friends. Instead you go into an alley. “Okay, here’s a list of the girls you need to confront, their names, descriptions, and even addresses for most of them.” “Shit, what the hell did you stalk ‘em or something? Sounds like you could’ve done this yourself.” David remarks. “I didn’t stalk them, I just have an overly enthusiastic employee motivated greatly by jealousy. Now I’m depending on you guys to do this right.” “Relax, we’re professionals now. None of this getting caught in the candy store for us anymore.” “Okay, so how long do you think this will take you?” “Ehhh, we can probably get this done in a few days if we hurry. Quite a few targets, but it really shouldn’t take long. Probably get most of them after they leave work or going to work. I assume we’ll meet at your inn when the job’s done?” “Uh no, we’ll meet over in the park around five, where we used to play Smash Sphere in a couple days. If you haven’t finished the job by then, we’ll meet again there in two more days and that should hopefully give you enough time.” “I told you we’ll be done before then, but fine we’ll do it this way since you think your inn is obviously too good for us…” “That’s not…” “Bullshit! The very fact that we’re talking in this alley is an indication that you don’t want us in your place.” “Is that true? I thought we were friends?” Tom asks being slow on the uptake as usual. “David, I have certain patrons and I can’t have known criminals walking around the place, not to mention my mom…” “Fuck you, mama’s boy. All that fancy learnin’ and you still live with your mom. We may be lowly thugs but at least we’re not still livin’ at home. Rather be a goon for hire than a hypocrite like you. Too good to have us at your fancy ass inn, but not too good to hire us to wipe out the competition eh?” You’re silent for a moment after David’s accurate statement, but you’re not going to let him get away with talking like that to you even if it does mean a possible beating. “…Alright, fine David. You got me, I’m a fucking hypocrite, is that what you want to hear? At least I tried to do something with my fucking life rather than just rot in juvie for most of my youth and live a hand to mouth existence as some dumb ass goon. So are you gonna do the fucking job or what?” David starts laughing. “Sheesh, I was just fucking with you. You always did take shit so seriously. Anyway yeah we’ll get right on this. See ya in a couple days mama’s boy. Heh.” You part company with David and Tom hoping that you’ve made the right decision. A few days pass and you wait at the park at the time you mentioned. Time passes and neither has shown up yet and you start feel anxious. “I have to say, I’m surprised at the lengths you went through to compete with me. I never expected you to pull something like this. You might’ve succeeded in this clumsy attempt, but a couple of my employees were a little more skilled than your thugs.” It’s Frank, the owner of The Flying Griffon. You’re so shocked that you can’t even come up with an excuse. It doesn’t matter though since Frank isn’t done talking. “Don’t bother with excuses, I know everything. Your little friends proved quite talkative when questioned. On the brighter side for you, you won’t have to pay them now.” “They’re dead?” “Oh I wouldn’t know about such things, but I do know they won’t be troubling anyone else any longer. Now the question is what to do about you?” “…you don’t need to do anything about me…in fact I suggest you don’t. I’m friends with several Klyton militia and an investigation would certainly follow if I were to suddenly disappear.” Frank smirks and your attempt to intimidate him. “Truly? Might I also tell these same militia friends of your of how you hired two thugs to cut up my employees? But let’s get to the point, you’ve done a lot of damage to my business and I think some reparations are in order. I want your inn. Or rather your mother’s inn.” “What?” “You heard me. That’s the only thing that’s going to get you out of this mess you’ve dug yourself into. I’ll of course give you a few days to make preparations. Don’t bother asking if you can still live or work there, I‘m afraid I just couldn’t trust someone who has shady dealings.” “And if I say no?” “I’d advise against it. That’s all I’m going to say. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to get back, we’re a little understaffed lately.” You quickly make your way back to the inn lamenting the mess you’ve gotten yourself into. You glare at Rita on your way in while everyone else asks you where you’ve been. You’re distracted all night and your mother notices it the most. At the end of the workday she asks if there’s anything wrong. > You keep it to yourself You can’t tell your mother what you did; she’d never forgive you. Frank is probably just bluffing. Even if he did say something to the Klyton Militia there’s no evidence and they probably wouldn’t believe him anyway. Besides he pretty much suggested that Tom and David are dead. Of course that makes you worry that he might try to do the same thing to you, your mother or one of your employees. Maybe he wasn’t bluffing. For the next few weeks you become increasingly paranoid asking your employees if they noticed anyone strange following them. You can’t concentrate in class and your grades start to suffer. The stress gets so much that you end up pulling your dad’s Troll Gun on a patron you don’t recognize. Fortunately nothing bad happens, unless you count several people questioning your sanity and no longer entering your inn. Several of your staff grumble about leaving, but it doesn’t quite get to that point. You’ve been so stressed out that you haven’t been able to sleep properly for weeks, you constantly wake up and double check all the locks on the doors and sleep with the Troll Gun next to you. Eventually a wave of exhaustion causes you to collapse and fall into a deep sleep for once. You begin to dream that you’re sitting near a tree studying. A pretty girl in a red dress sits next to you saying that you should come with her instead of putting your nose in a book. “I have to study! I have to become a doctor! That’s my goal!” you answer. “Is it? Or is it some high aspiration that your parents put into your head when you were young? Do you really know what you want? How hard have you pushed yourself only to be thwarted at every turn? Don’t you think you should take time to rest? Come with me.” “I would like to rest, but I can’t. I have to continue.” “No, you don’t. You can allow yourself time to take break. You’ve done as much as you can…perhaps more than you should have. But none of that matters now; it’s time to rest. Come with me.” The words of this word are so soothing and she speaks in a way that you find alluring and truthful. Still, you can’t but think you know her from somewhere. “…who are you? Do I know you? It seems like I’ve seen you before…” you ask. “Does it matter? You must come with me now. You may not get another chance.” The woman says in a firm, but gentle tone. You get the impression that she sincerely is looking out for your best interest, so you put down your book and hold her hand as you go walking into the fields with her… “I can’t believe he just died in his sleep! He was too young! (sob)” your mother cries. “I’m sorry for your loss, but he did seem like he was under a lot of stress lately. Dunno what would’ve caused that. Maybe his classes were getting harder and he just couldn’t take it any longer?” Wendy says not really knowing what to say. “Well, at least he looked peaceful.” Eliza says, tearing up a little. Rita stays quiet the whole time, looking a little nervous about whether or not her “idea” had anything to do with this. After burying you next to your father, you mother has no more reason to stay in Klyton and sells the inn to Frank before moving back to Teckleville to live with her sister Enora. Meanwhile... “So sister, did Frank yell at you for disposing of his competition in such a gentle manner?” “Hah, that little mage knows not to overstep his bounds. Oh I long for the day when we can figure out how to break his little contract over us. Honestly using us as mere barmaids, it’s degrading.” “I agree sister, but I will never under stand why you choose to take the delicious life force in the manner you do.” “Oh sister, you are truly a product of our race. Seduction and then a horrifying end to the victim. It needn’t always be so vulgar. Besides, I sensed so much stress, worry and guilt in him, I figured he could use a peaceful end.”<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>While all the rest of the ideas seem okay, you really think you need to act quickly on this. It’ll be ugly and ruthless, but unfortunately necessary. Since everyone is against Rita’s idea though, you decide not to say anything about it and say you’re going to have to think everything over later. When everyone’s away you decide to talk to Rita privately. “Rita, can I speak to you for a moment?” “I knew this was coming eventually…look you’re alright looking and if you do manage to become a doctor then maybe I’ll be interested, but until then…” “What? No! I wanted to speak to you about your plan.” “Oh.” Rita says looking a little disappointed that you weren’t suggesting what she thought you were. “Anyway, who did you have in mind to do this deed?” “Well, I don’t know really. I figured you might know, I mean didn’t you have Crimson Talon connections or something?” “Connections? Those were thugs that were going to break my legs if I didn’t pay a loanshark on time. I don’t have any connections. I mean with all the guys you go out with…” “Hey! I don’t like what you’re implying! Contrary to popular belief I’m not some whore like those two half breed sluts you saw fit to hire recently. I’m a lot more selective and I’m certainly not going out with criminal types!” “Hmmm, if you say so.” “Why don’t you just go back to that Reynolds guy? I mean he’s sort of a connection right?” “You must be joking!” “Not at all, I mean surely for a fee he could lend you that ogre for a little while right?” “I dunno if it works that way…(Sigh) alright I suppose I could try since I don’t have any other contacts.” “Okay. Oh! Here take this.” Rita says handing you a small notebook. “What’s this?” “It’s the name of every whore that works for the Flying Griffon and their physical description. I have where some of them live too, but not all of them.” You stare at Rita in disbelief “What? Eliza’s not the only one who can think up spying you know.” Rita remarks. “Yeah, but Eliza’s not the one who was stalking the competition out of jealousy either. Nevermind, I guess this will help since I never kept up on who worked there anyway.” The next day after class, you don’t go to the inn, but instead head to where you know Mr. Reynold’s “office” is. It’s not in a good part of the city, but you make it without any problems. Mr. Reynold’s is currently alone and smiles when he sees you. “Somehow I just knew we’d meet each other again soon, so how much you need this time?” “I don’t need money, I need something else and you’re about the only person I can think of who might be able to help.” “Oh? Well this is interesting. What is it?” “I need that ogre that works for you or whoever that other big guy was.” “Olaf and Silence? They’re not freelancing for me anymore sadly. The Crimson Talons have them doing something more directly important for them. I believe they fight at one of those underground gladiator matches now.” “Well, can I get in contact with them some how?” “Ha ha ha! Well I suppose I could tell you, but I don’t think they’d necessarily let you in, I guess you’d have to speak to whoever’s in charge and well it would be a big hassle really…what did you need them for anyway?” “Is it any of your business?” “Well if Olaf and Silence had still been freelancing for me it would’ve been, but I guess not now. I’m assuming you need some sort of muscle though, and if that is the case I DO have two new employees that might work out for you. David! Tom! Get in here, we might have some business!” “Yeah, boss what’s up…hey! I know you!” David says looking at you. “Hey! How’s it been? Didn’t you go to college?” Tom adds. Now here’s a blast from the past, your two old school buddies all grown up and obviously full blown criminals now. Funny to think back how your life turned out so different…then again maybe not considering you’re here to have several women horribly disfigured. “Well, it seems you gentlemen all know each other, maybe now you’re ready to tell us what you need doing?” You take a deep breath and state what you need done. “Wow, didn’t expect that one.” Mr. Reynolds says. David and Tom are also surprised. “Shit, what the hell did they do to you, cheat on you?” David asks. “Fuck man, that’s some serial killer shit!” Tom adds. “Look, I don’t need them killed! I just need them disfigured so they aren’t pretty anymore.” “Yeah, I got that. Okay, so how much you willing to pay?” Mr. Reynolds asks. You and Mr. Reynolds negotiate a price, which is agreeable, but Tom begins to speak up. “Uh…I dunno Mr. Reynolds. I don’t think I can do this…” “Tom, stop being a pussy! We’re just gonna cut up some bitches and get out, shit ain’t that hard.” David says “But I dunno. I just feel weird about doing this. It’s not like beating up people who don’t pay on time.” “You’ll do what I tell you to do! David, you better keep your little sidekick in line before I replace the pair of you!” Mr. Reynolds snaps. You think back to your old childhood involving your former friends. Tom always was the weakest of you three, but he always went along despite protests. You have no doubt David’s capable of committing the act, you just wonder if he’s gotten any brighter since then. The last thing you need is for them to fuck this up for you and get all of you in trouble. Getting the “real professionals” might be tough though. Might even cost more money. > You get Olaf and Silence You need professionals for this and David and Tom don’t qualify. You ask for directions to the underground gladiator matches, but Mr. Reynolds still insists on a bit of money for that information, so you have no choice but to pay him. After running back and forth to his office and the inn, (And incurring some questions by your mom and staff where you’re going) you pay him and he tells you that it’s located in a tavern called the Troll’s Breath on the edge of the warehouse district. He tells you to that can let the bartender know that he sent you. You feel like you’re going to get mugged around every corner on your way to the place, but fortunately that doesn’t happen. You are approached by several prostitutes and offered Cloud Rock a lot though. When you walk in the place, it’s filled with a rowdy bunch as you’d expect. You try not to make eye contact and walk straight to the bar. “Yeah?” the bald bartender asks gruffly. “Mr. Reynolds sent me because of my interest in games.” “Did he now? Alright, but the next time you see that dick, tell him his time as an independent loanshark are coming to an end soon. He needs to join up with the Crimson Talon or get the fuck outta Kyton. Door’s around the back.” “Thanks, oh uh one more thing.” “What!?” “Is there anyway to speak to Olaf or Silence after their fights?” “What the hell do you wanna be talkin’ to those two idiots for? The pair of them together barely have enough intelligence to put on their own boots.” “It’s a business proposition.” At this point the bartender’s eye narrow. “Wait a fucking minute. You’re sent here by Reynolds and you wanna talk to Olaf and Silence about a business proposition? This sounds like Reynolds trying weasely shit as usual. Fuck you, they don’t freelance anymore. They’re pit fighters for the Crimson Talons until I say otherwise! Now get the fuck outta here!” “Okay, I’ll talk with you then, how much do you want for their services temporarily?” “I said they ain’t for fuckin’ hire you dumbfuck! If you wanna meet them so bad though, I can oblige and throw your ass in the ring with them!” At this point the bartender snaps his fingers and two thugs grab your arms ready to carry you off. You make one desperate plea. “Alright! Alright! I’ll hire whomever else you got then! These two guys holding me will do, I just need some people fucked up and I got money to give to whoever will do it!” The bartender nods and you’re released. “Alright in my office and start talkin’ fast. Reg, you’re at the bar.” You follow the bartender upstairs to a room that is much nicer than the rest of place. He sits down at a fancy desk and pours himself a drink, but doesn’t offer you anything. You look around the office at the various items he has on the wall until you’re interrupted. “Well? Are we just wasting my time here while you admire my office, because the fight pit is another place you can admire from the inside.” You quickly explain everything and your situation and give him the information that Rita wrote down for you. The bartender nods a bit while playing with his ring. When you’re done, he speaks. “Is that it? You wanted to hire two bruisers like that to cut up some barmaids? You’re sort of new at this I take it. Those two would’ve probably raped and broke all their necks right in the middle of the fucking Flying Griffon. Subtlety is not their strong point.” “Okay so do you have someone else in mind?” “Sure, got a mean ass Sotakan assassin that could easily do the job.” “A Sotakan? One of those lizard people? But they avoid cities.” You say. “That they do, but let’s just say I acquired this one from an egg. The great thing about him, is he’s completely loyal and doesn’t require much. Just does what he’s told.” “How’s he sneak around though? I mean seems like he’d stick out.” “Hah, those lizard bastards have natural camouflage abilities. As they grow up they adapt to whatever sort of environment they grow up in. Now a regular swamp dwelling Sotakan would stick out, but not my boy. He’s lived here in the city his whole life, took him out in the night to get acquainted with the surroundings while he grew up and now he’s practically invisible when he wants to be.” “Okay well that’s great, but I don’t need them killed.” “Heh, maybe not all of them, but a couple may come back to kill you. I think I may have a little more information on the Flying Griffon than your barmaid found out. Frank’s an unregistered wizard. Well wizard’s giving him a little too much credit perhaps, but he’s managed to snag himself a couple of succubae as barmaids.” “What?! He can’t summon demons into the city! That’s illegal!” “Oh and I suppose what we’re doing is?” “Alright, but it’s not only illegal, but it’s a potential danger to the city.” “No, I agree. Demons tend to fuck up business and their chaotic ways are too much of a risk to deal with, but then again I don’t have to tell you that.” “So…how do you know all this?” “Because it’s my fucking job to know shit that might interfere with business that’s why. I kept wondering why some of my merchant contacts weren’t stopping by here anymore. Frank might have some control over his ladies, but I know he can’t completely stop their appetites. Rather short sighted of him really, it’s not like they’re going to be able to stop themselves from completely draining victims forever. They’re going to eventually get out of hand and he’s going to start having to explain to the Klyton militia why people are always last seen going into his place before mysteriously disappearing. You must’ve really pissed him off for him to resort to this.” “Yeah, I guess so…so where does that leave us?” The bartender (who mentions his name is Edmond and is definitely more than just bartender) says that he was keeping an eye on the Flying Griffon and if he lost anymore of his merchant contact to it, he was going to act. He didn’t before since as skilled as his lizard is, he’s not sure if he can take two succubae by himself, in fact it would be easier to just try and kill Frank. But of course then there would be two unleashed succubae running around in Klyton and nobody really wants that. Still, if you’re willing to pay then Edmond will readily accept your money, and he’ll have the mortal barmaids disfigured and the demonic ones killed. He assures you that unlike Mr. Reynolds this will be a straight up agreement and that the Crimson Talons will not seek to extort your inn in some way. Mainly due to all the Klyton militia and adventurers going there it wouldn’t be worth the trouble. He doesn’t need to risk some do gooder or gung-ho orderly type sniffing around. Of course you’ve been overwhelmed by all this information. Part of you wonders if all this is worth it. You could wait it out, Edmond did claim that Frank probably won’t be able to control them forever; the problem with this is in the meantime it’ll still be cutting into your business. With this new information you could also report Frank to your militia buddies, though this might be difficult without evidence. Still, you’re on good terms with most of the ones that frequent your place and they’ll probably investigate. > You hire the assassin You don’t have any proof to give to the militia other than Edmond’s information and you can’t afford to wait around and hope things get better. You need to act now, so you tell Edmond that you’ll pay for the assassin. “Okay, but this is going to be expensive AND once we do this I don’t want to hear any shit about you having second thoughts because you feel guilty. Are you absolutely sure you want to do this? Edmond asks. “…I’d be lying if I said yes, but this is something that has to be done. You won’t get any complaints from me. I just hope your lizard can do the job.” “Well I hope so too, because if not, we’re both going to be in for a fight if we have angry succubae after us. I want five hundred gold by tomorrow.” “Five…that’s a lot.” “That’s fuckin’ cheap to hire the best! You’re only getting a discount due to the fact that this is something I was thinking about doing anyway! Now if you don’t like the price…” “No, I can get it. When’s the job going to be done?” “Tonight if possible, but I suspect it might take my boy into the wee hours of the morning since he’s dealing with other worldly beings and all. If he hasn’t done it by the time you come by with the money tomorrow, then he’s failed and you can keep half of your money because I’m a nice guy. How’s that sound?” “Erm…good I guess, but I’d rather he succeed.” “I’m sure he will. So is our business done or did you still want to see the fight pits? I’m sure Olaf’s eating his competitior right about now.” “Eh, that’s okay I should be getting back.” “Suit yourself.” You’re able to get a coach back to inn, naturally it’s a lot later now and everyone is asking you where you’ve been. You explain that you forgot to do something at campus for a class, which seems to satisfy as an excuse. For the remainder of the night, you’re preoccupied with your decision. Wondering if it’s going to fail or not. You barely get any sleep and the next day at your classes you can barely concentrate. You basically wander the day in a haze until it’s time for you to go pay Edmond. When you enter the Troll’s Breath, Edmond points to his office and you follow. “Told you my boy could do it. Now aren’t you glad you made this decision? You got my money?” Edmond asks in a friendly tone. “Yeah…you mean that’s it? It succeeded?” “Of course it did! I figured you already knew it did given that you’re closer to the Flying Griffon and are friends with all those Klyton militia folks…I mean it’s pretty big news! Flying Griffon Massacre they’re calling it! ” You’ve been so caught up in your own worry you haven’t been paying much attention to outside discussion or events. You feel a sense of relief, but then you question the word… “Massacre?” “Yeah the demons are dead and Frank is going to jail. Seems that the militia think he was making human sacrifices to summon up the demons and it all got out of hand.” “Wait, why would they think all that? “Eh, well apparently my boy had some problems understanding the differences in the terms disfigure and dismember, so he killed those human barmaids in a rather gruesome fashion, but on the bright side it completely puts all the blame on Frank. They figured he or the succubae killed the barmaids and then the succubae tried to rebel against their master he was forced to kill them. Being an unlicensed mage certainly doesn’t help him. In any case the heat doesn’t even trace back to us as long you don’t start acting suspicious around your militia buddies, which I trust you won’t.” “Yeah…” You’re a little in shock as the realization that you’ve just participated in murder. Granted you weren’t doing a good thing anyway, but disfiguring is still a lot different than murder. You don’t say anything since you promised that you wouldn’t whine about having a guilty conscious afterwards. Edmond takes your money and makes you stay until it is all counted. When it is, he says you can leave. “Oh one more thing. I hear you’re going into medicine. Very useful profession, I could use a competent doctor every once in awhile; gods know that drunk that I currently have on my payroll is barely useful. I hope I can call upon you in the future if I need to.” And there it is, the “catch” for doing business with a criminal. You could kick yourself in the head for actually believing that this was going to be a straight up transaction. He may not be extorting your inn; he’s just hanging a “favor” over your head in the future. Somehow that’s almost worse. There’s little you can do about it now though, you head back to the inn where your patrons and staff are all talking about what happened at the Flying Griffon. Rita in particular speaks to you about it. “Sheesh, I didn’t know you were going to go to that extreme, but can’t say those bitches didn’t deserve it. That’s what happens when you work with demons right? Who knew Frank was a mage? Well at least we don’t have any competition anymore.” Rita’s callous talk about the Griffon barmaids makes you angry. In fact all of this was Rita’s initial suggestion and while you listened to it, that doesn’t mean she shouldn’t suffer the negative consequences for it too. You snap and grab Rita by the arm roughly and pull her into the cellar. Flameflower and Sunshine are down there drinking your wine supply. “Erm…uh…(giggle)” is all Sunshine can utter when getting busted, “If you two halfbreed bitches don’t get upstairs and start doing some actual work for a change you’re gonna get some of what Rita’s about to get! MOVE!” You don’t need to say it twice, your tone is enough to sober them up and get them moving. “What the fuck is wrong with you? You better let me go, and what the hell do you mean I’m getting something? You better not be implying what I think you’re implying. You so much as start grabbing my tits and I’ll scr…” You don’t let Rita finish; you just slam her up against the wall as hard as you can with your hand over her mouth. “Bitch I wouldn’t touch your gold digging fuckhole with a ten pole. You think those girls deserved to die? Oh no, you just felt that they needed to be disfigured; well maybe you need to be mutilated. Take your ass down a few notches.” At this point you grab a nearby candle and start holding it need Rita’s face. She pulls away and tears start. “Oh what’s the matter? Don’t like being a victim? Well how do you think those girls felt in their final moments?!” you say and throw Rita to the floor. “I fucking caused that to happen! And guess what? So did you. So if you’re not going to feel bad about it, you’re at least going to feel bad in other ways. I’m lowering your pay and if you don’t like it, tough shit, you can quit. I can get some other shallow whore to do your job, you’re not special. And if you’re getting some sort of bright ideas about reporting me to the militia or some shit, remember what happened at the Flying Griffon? Well I can make that happen to you too.” You leave on that threatening note, while Rita tries to compose herself. You’re a little surprised that Rita’s “tough girl” act was broken so easily, you’re also surprised at your own actions. The scary part to you is that it was easy and how you feel a lot better now. You exit the cellar and a few moments later Rita follows. This leads to a few whispers amongst your staff. Everyone assumes that you and Rita must’ve had some rough sex. Your mother even approaches you about it. “Far be it from me to interfere with your personal life, but if you’re going to insist on having sex with the help, I’d appreciate it if you at least took Rita up to your room and NOT anywhere on the business premises!” “…okay mom.” “(Sigh) I mean…(Sigh) Rita? You could do so much better! Sure she’s pretty, but the girl is a shallow gold digger and not even a very good one! Couldn’t you at least picked Eliza? I could’ve understood that, she’s sweet. Or how about a nice girl at your college? You know like one with a bright future ahead of her? (Sigh) I just hope for your sake you didn’t get that little tart pregnant!” You just nod and agree with your mother the whole time. It’s better if everyone thinks that you were fucking Rita rather than the truth anyway. With the Flying Griffon closed down, business picks up and you don’t have as many financial worries any longer. You’re not out of the woods yet though since now you’re in your final stages of your education, which means medical school as well as having to get a job actually working at a hospital. The only problem with that is being an intern doesn’t pay all that well and you certainly can’t do that AND work at the bar. Your mother reassures you that you shouldn’t worry about it as she’ll be able to hire a couple extra people as well as being able to help with the rest of your tuition. In any case it looks like your days as an innkeeper are over. > You future Prospects A few years have passed and your medical schooling is complete and you now work at the Klyton hospital as a real doctor. You haven’t been able to really enjoy your success though. Sure, you have your own apartment and you make a decent living to afford the things you want, but you’re always waiting for the other shoe to drop and Edmond is going to call in that favor. It’s prevented you from even having a serious relationship for fear that whomever you’re with could possibly be hurt if things get…complex. Of course there’s also your mother to worry about still, but from what you know she’s planning on selling the old inn and moving to Teckleville. Hopefully soon, so it’ll at least keep her somewhat out of potential harm. Ultimately you try to keep yourself busy with work hoping it will keep your mind off things, but it doesn’t help. Eventually you do come up with something that does help a bit. Alcohol. It’s amazing that you grew up in a place that sells the stuff and never had a drink until now. You have to say, it’s not bad and it seems to calm you a bit when you’re feeling anxious. Through this crutch you finally manage to cope. Well at least until the fateful day does arrive… One night when you’re coming home from the hospital and carriage pulls up next to you. “Hey doc, I think we have a friend in common.” A voice says from the inside of the carriage. “Let me guess, Edmond. Right?” you reply. “Correct. I think you know what comes next doc.” “Yeah, I do.” You say and get into the carriage. You sit down on one side while sitting opposite of you is one man dressed in a cheap suit smoking pipe weed. The other one is dressed more casually and openly playing with a dagger. The pipe man lights up and speaks. “Before we get started, my name’s Hans and this is my brother Wallace. Now that that’s over with, Edmond is personally in need of your medical services.” “I figured it was something like that. What happened to him? “Oh what usually happens to our kind in this business. There was a disagreement, some words were exchanged and before you know it, some people get hurt while others aren’t so lucky.” “I…see. So I take it we’re heading to him right now?” “Yes. He’s a little paranoid about going to hospitals especially with the attempt on his life and all.” “Hey, doesn’t he already have a doctor?” “He did, but unfortunately his over indulgence of the spirits made his skills useless and he was…sent away a long time ago.” “Oh…” The rest of the trip is mostly in silence. Hans asks a few superficial things about you which you give quick answer to, but your mind is focused more on what you’re going to encounter when you get to Edmond. How bad is he going to be? What happens if you can’t help him? By the gods you could use a drink right now. You then think to yourself. “Maybe this is why his old doctor was a drunk.” Eventually you arrive at the Troll’s Breath Tavern. When you enter the place it’s completely empty save for a few rough looking sorts who look like they’re focused on cleaning up the place. You notice broken glass and a few blood spots here and there. “Is that the doc?” one of them asks Hans. “Yeah, is Ed still in his office?” “Yeah, and his pet lizard is guarding him like a fucking dragon. Ed’s not letting anyone in there except the doctor.” “Hm, well I guess you better get in there then. Don’t worry. You’re probably safer than the rest of us right now.” You don’t share that sentiment, but you have little choice in the matter. You head to Edmond’s office and knock on the door. “Who the fuck is it? That better be the doc!” “Yeah, it’s me. I’m coming in.” You cautiously enter and see a great deal of blood on the floor. Edmond is clutching on to his left side and his Sotakan assassin is standing close by staring directly at you. A bottle whiskey is also nearby probably being used to dull his pain and as a disinfectant. “Well, don’t just stand there, I gotta fucking hole in my side!” You quickly inspect the wound and see that Edmond’s been shot most likely by a blunderbuss and he’s still got fragments of the shot in his body. “Okay, keep the pressure on it like you’ve been doing. I can fix this, but I need to act fast and I’m gonna need some stuff from the hospital.” You say. “What?! You mean those idiots didn’t have you pick up any supplies?” “No, they told me to just get into the carriage.” “Fucking morons. It’s like they want me to die! Okay look, we got access to some hospital supplies in a warehouse much closer than the hospital. Just tell Reg outside what you need and he’ll get them for you. Go, go.” You leave the office and ask for Reg, who comes up immediately. “What’s up? Will he live?” “Yeah, but I’ll need some medical supplies. He said you can get them from one of your warehouses. Now I need…” Before you can finish Hans interjects. “Reg, you realize we sold most of those supplies to that bodylegger a few weeks ago? We don’t have much left.” “We don’t? Well what do we have left?” Reg asks. “I dunno, I don’t have the supply list in front of me now do I? But what if you get there and find that what the doc asked for isn’t there? We’ve wasted valuable time fucking around while the boss bleeds to death! Look why don’t we just take the doctor back to the hospital, I’m sure we can get everything there right?” “Well yeah, but Edmond said…” “I’m sure Edmond won’t mind if disobey his orders if it’s going to save his life.” Well this certainly stressful. If the warehouse is lacking supplies, you might not be able to help Edmond. If you go back to the hospital you might take too much time since it’s not just the trip back and forth but it’s the sneaking around stealing medical supplies. > You tell Reg to get the supplies at the warehouse You decide it would be best to do this quickly as possible. You’re sure that you can improvise if needed. “Better go to the warehouse, I don’t want to leave Edmond in the state he’s in any longer than necessary.” “Sounds good, but you’re coming with me, it’ll go even faster if you’re there to point out stuff you need.” Reg says. “Uh… okay.” You reply not expecting to leave with Reg. You and Reg take the carriage and soon you’re at the warehouse where a couple of goons let you in. “Okay, the medical shit is over here, let’s get it and go.” You tell Reg to find the obvious things like syringes and bandages while you try to look for the pharmaceuticals. You’re having a hard time though and look for a good twenty minutes before Reg gets impatient. “Come on, what’s taking so fucking long?” “I can’t find any antibiotics or anything like that. I need that stuff to make sure he doesn’t die of an infection even after I sew him back up. The fact that this place has really bad lighting doesn’t make it any easier.” “Look, worry about that later. Grab some of that stuff when you’re at work tomorrow and come back here. Right now though the primary concern is stopping the bleeding and getting him patched up! He’s tough he’s not going to die overnight of some infection.” Not necessarily true, as you’ve seen it happen before, but there’s little you can do about it now. You just hope Edmond’s constitution is as good as Reg claims. Just as you’re about to leave a couple of gunshots are heard followed by the death yelps of several men. “Oh shit! It’s a hit!” Reg shouts scrambling for his flintlock pistol, while the sounds of several footsteps enter the building. You start to panic and look for another exit, but it’s hard to see in this darkness, so you fumble around trying to stay hidden. A couple more gunshots are heard followed by the slumping of a couple of bodies. “Argh shit!!” you hear Reg shout. This is followed by a set of running footsteps and the sound of a sword hitting something. You don’t hear Reg anymore. You creep behind a bunch of boxes hoping that you’re not found, but it doesn’t work. A hand suddenly grabs you and turns you around. “There you are doc. I really wish this could’ve been different, I really do. But it’s time for a change in this organization and you’re just another casualty of war, nothing personal.” Hans says and stabs you repeatedly in the chest until you’re no longer breathing.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>A few years have passed and your medical schooling is complete and you now work at the Klyton hospital as a real doctor. You haven’t been able to really enjoy your success though. Sure, you have your own apartment and you make a decent living to afford the things you want, but you’re always waiting for the other shoe to drop and Edmond is going to call in that favor. It’s prevented you from even having a serious relationship for fear that whomever you’re with could possibly be hurt if things get…complex. Of course there’s also your mother to worry about still, but from what you know she’s planning on selling the old inn and moving to Teckleville. Hopefully soon, so it’ll at least keep her somewhat out of potential harm. Ultimately you try to keep yourself busy with work hoping it will keep your mind off things, but it doesn’t help. Eventually you do come up with something that does help a bit. Alcohol. It’s amazing that you grew up in a place that sells the stuff and never had a drink until now. You have to say, it’s not bad and it seems to calm you a bit when you’re feeling anxious. Through this crutch you finally manage to cope. Well at least until the fateful day does arrive… One night when you’re coming home from the hospital and carriage pulls up next to you. “Hey doc, I think we have a friend in common.” A voice says from the inside of the carriage. “Let me guess, Edmond. Right?” you reply. “Correct. I think you know what comes next doc.” “Yeah, I do.” You say and get into the carriage. You sit down on one side while sitting opposite of you is one man dressed in a cheap suit smoking pipe weed. The other one is dressed more casually and openly playing with a dagger. The pipe man lights up and speaks. “Before we get started, my name’s Hans and this is my brother Wallace. Now that that’s over with, Edmond is personally in need of your medical services.” “I figured it was something like that. What happened to him? “Oh what usually happens to our kind in this business. There was a disagreement, some words were exchanged and before you know it, some people get hurt while others aren’t so lucky.” “I…see. So I take it we’re heading to him right now?” “Yes. He’s a little paranoid about going to hospitals especially with the attempt on his life and all.” “Hey, doesn’t he already have a doctor?” “He did, but unfortunately his over indulgence of the spirits made his skills useless and he was…sent away a long time ago.” “Oh…” The rest of the trip is mostly in silence. Hans asks a few superficial things about you which you give quick answer to, but your mind is focused more on what you’re going to encounter when you get to Edmond. How bad is he going to be? What happens if you can’t help him? By the gods you could use a drink right now. You then think to yourself. “Maybe this is why his old doctor was a drunk.” Eventually you arrive at the Troll’s Breath Tavern. When you enter the place it’s completely empty save for a few rough looking sorts who look like they’re focused on cleaning up the place. You notice broken glass and a few blood spots here and there. “Is that the doc?” one of them asks Hans. “Yeah, is Ed still in his office?” “Yeah, and his pet lizard is guarding him like a fucking dragon. Ed’s not letting anyone in there except the doctor.” “Hm, well I guess you better get in there then. Don’t worry. You’re probably safer than the rest of us right now.” You don’t share that sentiment, but you have little choice in the matter. You head to Edmond’s office and knock on the door. “Who the fuck is it? That better be the doc!” “Yeah, it’s me. I’m coming in.” You cautiously enter and see a great deal of blood on the floor. Edmond is clutching on to his left side and his Sotakan assassin is standing close by staring directly at you. A bottle whiskey is also nearby probably being used to dull his pain and as a disinfectant. “Well, don’t just stand there, I gotta fucking hole in my side!” You quickly inspect the wound and see that Edmond’s been shot most likely by a blunderbuss and he’s still got fragments of the shot in his body. “Okay, keep the pressure on it like you’ve been doing. I can fix this, but I need to act fast and I’m gonna need some stuff from the hospital.” You say. “What?! You mean those idiots didn’t have you pick up any supplies?” “No, they told me to just get into the carriage.” “Fucking morons. It’s like they want me to die! Okay look, we got access to some hospital supplies in a warehouse much closer than the hospital. Just tell Reg outside what you need and he’ll get them for you. Go, go.” You leave the office and ask for Reg, who comes up immediately. “What’s up? Will he live?” “Yeah, but I’ll need some medical supplies. He said you can get them from one of your warehouses. Now I need…” Before you can finish Hans interjects. “Reg, you realize we sold most of those supplies to that bodylegger a few weeks ago? We don’t have much left.” “We don’t? Well what do we have left?” Reg asks. “I dunno, I don’t have the supply list in front of me now do I? But what if you get there and find that what the doc asked for isn’t there? We’ve wasted valuable time fucking around while the boss bleeds to death! Look why don’t we just take the doctor back to the hospital, I’m sure we can get everything there right?” “Well yeah, but Edmond said…” “I’m sure Edmond won’t mind if disobey his orders if it’s going to save his life.” Well this certainly stressful. If the warehouse is lacking supplies, you might not be able to help Edmond. If you go back to the hospital you might take too much time since it’s not just the trip back and forth but it’s the sneaking around stealing medical supplies. > You go back to the hospital The hospital is probably a better bet. Besides you can get the higher quality stuff there. You doubt if you’ll have that much of a problem getting the supplies too, it isn’t an uncommon thing for a few things to go missing here and there. “We better go back to the hospital, I’d rather be on the safe side.” “Good man, come on we’ll take the carriage back to the hospital, my brother will drive it, he knows all the short cuts in this city and isn’t squeamish about running over dumb fuckers that get in the way.” “Erm, okay then.” You reply. “Just be quick about this shit, if you take too fucking long and Edmond dies, you three are going to be joining him!” Reg reminds all of you. You, Hans and Wallace leave the Troll’s Breath Tavern and set out for the hospital. On the way there you make a mental note of what to say if anyone at the hospital asks you any questions and where else in the hospital to search just in case you don’t find what you need right away. “Tell me, do you think Edmond is a fair man?” Hans suddenly asks you. “Huh?” “I said, do you think Edmond is a fair man? Tis not a hard question.” “Uh, well sure. I mean I had a deal with him in the past and he lived up to it.” “Yeah, I know all about that so called deal. If it were truly a deal, you and me wouldn’t be having this conversation. I hope you realize this isn’t going to be the last time he calls on you again.” You don’t say anything. You were trying not to dwell on the possibility of such depressing matters. “Look friend, I know you. You’d rather not have to live your life being connected to the underworld, but you were in a tight spot, so you resorted to desperate measures. Sort of like your father no?” “Yeah…I guess so…” you answer not really thinking of that parallel before. “Well, I sympathize. Trust me I do. I mean I know what it’s like to get so far deep into something that you don’t know how you’re ever going to get out. Hell, I never intended to be part of the Crimson Talons, but I had to do it not just for my survival but my brother’s as well.” You say nothing and wait for Hans to get to the point he’s going to make. “What I’m saying is, you don’t NEED to have this hanging over your head forever. You could end it tonight.” “Hold on, if we’re talking about what I think we are, you heard Reg, he said if we took too long he’d have us all killed.” “I didn’t suggest that. I mean that hospital surely has a bunch of things that shouldn’t be used in excessive dosages.” “You want me to kill him? I can’t do that, I’d get killed by that Sotakan! If not immediately then certainly soon after he suspected that I had something to do with his death!” “Well I figured that you’d be a little creative in that area. Perhaps give him something for the pain. Something that creates a plausible tale that the man just died in his sleep. It’s not like that lizard is really going to put two and two together. It’s not the brightest thing; it’s just really good at following orders and killing people. I wouldn’t worry about it anyway. The lizard will be taken care of soon. And you needn’t worry about anyone else potentially retaliating either, Edmond’s never been too popular and what few loyal cronies he has other than the lizard will also be dealt with.” You bury your hands in your head at the thought of all this and how you got here in the first place. If you go through with this, you won’t just be an accomplice the murder anymore, but a full blown one. You think about the irony of being a doctor. You’re supposed to be keeping people alive not killing them. “Look, I know this is all a lot to take in, but just think. If you do this, you’re free. Free to go about the rest of your life as you see fit. And getting rid of Edmond would be a favor to everyone; he’s an evil bastard. Now I’m not saying I’m a saint, but the man is unnecessarily brutal. I’d at least try to put an end to some of the random violence that goes on in the organization and get back to focusing on business. Hell, I’ve got even a long-term plan of trying to make the organization legit one day. Like I said, I didn’t really want this life, but it was survival at the time.” If Hans is trying to identify with you on some level to get you to help him, it’s working, because you’re starting to seriously consider going through with this plan. Eventually you get to the hospital and you tell Hans you’ll be out as soon as possible. It’s the graveyard shift so you don’t run into too many people you know that ask questions. In fact nobody really pays too much attention to you at all, but you decide to play it safe and head down to the supply room in the basement to take what you need. After grabbing a few syringes, disinfectants, bandages and the like, you break the lock of the cabinet with the pharmaceutical supplies. You grab the pain killers immediately, but then you look for something that might help you with the other problem. “Incitahol? What the hell?” you say to yourself, picking up the small vial. This stuff shouldn’t even be mixed in with the regular drugs. It’s a powerful experimental concoction! It was supposed to be a “miracle” drug that increased the body’s natural healing ability even greater than that of mountain trolls and was first used on dying patients. Unfortunately what the drug really did was the speed up the death process and bring them back as zombies. It was banned by most civilized places and is highly sought out by lazy necromancers who don’t have the natural ability to raise hordes of undead. You’d worry more about finding this if you didn’t have your own drama going on right now. In fact this would probably be the perfect thing to take with you. Incitahol doesn’t cause pain and quickly puts the patient into a coma and death follows soon after. (And then it’s zombie time) You’ll have to explain some of this to Hans though so he’s prepared. Part of you wonders if you should really go through with all this though. There’s no guarantee that Hans is telling you the truth and you might be just trading one master for another. In fact he might just blame you for everything and have you killed when he takes power. Of course another way to handle this is to inject this stuff into Edmond and not tell him what’s going to happen. Chances are undead Ed might kill everyone nearby. Incitahol does increase the reflexes and strength after death making for a rather lively zombie. The problem is this is a very risky endeavor not to mention severely irresponsible. > You don't kill Edmond You don’t know if you’ll forever be indebted to Edmond, but at least you know his character a little bit better than Hans. Telling Hans you’re not going to go through with his plan though would be foolish, the only way to do this is to act like you are and then rat him out when you get to Edmond. Not the noblest of plans, but you see that you have little choice. When you leave the hospital you enter the carriage, which is waiting for you across the street. “I trust you got everything you need?” “Yeah, I found something perfect to take care of our problem.” “Excellent! I knew you’d see things my way.” Hans says. He doesn’t seem to think you’re going to double cross him, which is good news for you. Hans goes on a little more about how you’re doing the right thing and to make sure to stay calm throughout the whole procedure You get back to the tavern where Reg and several other Talon members are waiting. “What the fuck took you so damn long? Edmond could’ve died already!” “Sorry.” You reply and head to his office. You enter the office and the Sotakan assassin is holding a dagger to your throat already. “Down boy, it’s the doc...ugh…what the fuck took you so long? I’m dying over here!” The Sotakan releases you and you run over to Edmond who is now lying on the floor still clutching his side. You begin working on Edmond immediately. “Argh, fuck! That hurt!” Edmond winces as you take out a few pieces of shrapnel before sewing him up. “Yeah I imagine it would. I got some bad news to tell you.” “What worse than getting shot? “Well maybe not as bad as that, but how close are you to Hans and his brother?” “We’re business associates though they’ve been working for me since they were snot nosed kids. So I suppose I’m like a father figure to them. Heh heh.” “Then they’re ready to commit patricide, because they tried to get me to kill you.” “What!?” You explain to Edmond what Hans told you as you’re working on him. He’s mad, but not at you. In fact he doesn’t even accuse you of making it up. He says it’s hardly surprising given the business he’s in. He calls over his Sotakan and tells him “Hans, Wallace, dead.” With this simple instruction, the lizard assassin finally leaves the room to do his mission. Doesn’t take long for the Sotakan to come back. “Wow. I guess that’s the end of that then.” You say still working on Edmond. “Looks like. Hey doc, that was a real standup thing ya did. You probably could’ve easily injected me with some shit that could’ve killed me without even my lizard boy even realizing it before it was too late.” “I’m not a killer, despite my unfortunate lapse of judgment concerning how to deal with those waitresses a few years ago.” “Hmm, well I’m sure it probably still passed through your mind. Especially how that deal went down with Frank’s place. Anyway, Hans was probably right about one thing, I was going to hang that incident over your head for the rest of your life, but given these recent events let’s call it even.” “Thanks Edmond.” You say politely. Sure you could get self-righteous and point out that you’ve saved his life TWICE. But really, why piss off a crime boss? After patching up Edmond and making sure he’s not going to get an infection, you mention that he should be fine as long as he takes it easy for a couple months. He thanks you again and says if you ever need another favor you know where to find him. You assure him that you won’t. You get on with your life after this last bit of dabbling with the underworld. Part of you for a while worries that Edmond is going to go back on his word, but that doesn’t happen thankfully. You definitely feel a great weight has been lifted off of you. You also properly dispose of the Incitahol. You’d normally report something like this, but you’d rather not have to explain why you were breaking into the pharmaceutical cabinet in the first place. You just hope whoever was dumb enough to put the stuff there doesn’t have any more of it. As for your family’s inn, your mother eventually sells it in a few years and moves back to Teckleville. You aren’t unhappy to see it sold off; you didn’t have too many great memories of the place in the last years you were there. Still, if it weren’t for the inn you wouldn’t have been able to become a doctor either. While the rest of your life generally plays out in a positive way, you never do lose your minor alcohol problem because every once in awhile you still feel guilt about some of the things you were involved in. Drinking helps ease the pain a bit, but you never talk to anyone else about it of course. Sometimes you wonder what you could’ve done different when you worked at the inn, a better way perhaps. You’ll never know.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The hospital is probably a better bet. Besides you can get the higher quality stuff there. You doubt if you’ll have that much of a problem getting the supplies too, it isn’t an uncommon thing for a few things to go missing here and there. “We better go back to the hospital, I’d rather be on the safe side.” “Good man, come on we’ll take the carriage back to the hospital, my brother will drive it, he knows all the short cuts in this city and isn’t squeamish about running over dumb fuckers that get in the way.” “Erm, okay then.” You reply. “Just be quick about this shit, if you take too fucking long and Edmond dies, you three are going to be joining him!” Reg reminds all of you. You, Hans and Wallace leave the Troll’s Breath Tavern and set out for the hospital. On the way there you make a mental note of what to say if anyone at the hospital asks you any questions and where else in the hospital to search just in case you don’t find what you need right away. “Tell me, do you think Edmond is a fair man?” Hans suddenly asks you. “Huh?” “I said, do you think Edmond is a fair man? Tis not a hard question.” “Uh, well sure. I mean I had a deal with him in the past and he lived up to it.” “Yeah, I know all about that so called deal. If it were truly a deal, you and me wouldn’t be having this conversation. I hope you realize this isn’t going to be the last time he calls on you again.” You don’t say anything. You were trying not to dwell on the possibility of such depressing matters. “Look friend, I know you. You’d rather not have to live your life being connected to the underworld, but you were in a tight spot, so you resorted to desperate measures. Sort of like your father no?” “Yeah…I guess so…” you answer not really thinking of that parallel before. “Well, I sympathize. Trust me I do. I mean I know what it’s like to get so far deep into something that you don’t know how you’re ever going to get out. Hell, I never intended to be part of the Crimson Talons, but I had to do it not just for my survival but my brother’s as well.” You say nothing and wait for Hans to get to the point he’s going to make. “What I’m saying is, you don’t NEED to have this hanging over your head forever. You could end it tonight.” “Hold on, if we’re talking about what I think we are, you heard Reg, he said if we took too long he’d have us all killed.” “I didn’t suggest that. I mean that hospital surely has a bunch of things that shouldn’t be used in excessive dosages.” “You want me to kill him? I can’t do that, I’d get killed by that Sotakan! If not immediately then certainly soon after he suspected that I had something to do with his death!” “Well I figured that you’d be a little creative in that area. Perhaps give him something for the pain. Something that creates a plausible tale that the man just died in his sleep. It’s not like that lizard is really going to put two and two together. It’s not the brightest thing; it’s just really good at following orders and killing people. I wouldn’t worry about it anyway. The lizard will be taken care of soon. And you needn’t worry about anyone else potentially retaliating either, Edmond’s never been too popular and what few loyal cronies he has other than the lizard will also be dealt with.” You bury your hands in your head at the thought of all this and how you got here in the first place. If you go through with this, you won’t just be an accomplice the murder anymore, but a full blown one. You think about the irony of being a doctor. You’re supposed to be keeping people alive not killing them. “Look, I know this is all a lot to take in, but just think. If you do this, you’re free. Free to go about the rest of your life as you see fit. And getting rid of Edmond would be a favor to everyone; he’s an evil bastard. Now I’m not saying I’m a saint, but the man is unnecessarily brutal. I’d at least try to put an end to some of the random violence that goes on in the organization and get back to focusing on business. Hell, I’ve got even a long-term plan of trying to make the organization legit one day. Like I said, I didn’t really want this life, but it was survival at the time.” If Hans is trying to identify with you on some level to get you to help him, it’s working, because you’re starting to seriously consider going through with this plan. Eventually you get to the hospital and you tell Hans you’ll be out as soon as possible. It’s the graveyard shift so you don’t run into too many people you know that ask questions. In fact nobody really pays too much attention to you at all, but you decide to play it safe and head down to the supply room in the basement to take what you need. After grabbing a few syringes, disinfectants, bandages and the like, you break the lock of the cabinet with the pharmaceutical supplies. You grab the pain killers immediately, but then you look for something that might help you with the other problem. “Incitahol? What the hell?” you say to yourself, picking up the small vial. This stuff shouldn’t even be mixed in with the regular drugs. It’s a powerful experimental concoction! It was supposed to be a “miracle” drug that increased the body’s natural healing ability even greater than that of mountain trolls and was first used on dying patients. Unfortunately what the drug really did was the speed up the death process and bring them back as zombies. It was banned by most civilized places and is highly sought out by lazy necromancers who don’t have the natural ability to raise hordes of undead. You’d worry more about finding this if you didn’t have your own drama going on right now. In fact this would probably be the perfect thing to take with you. Incitahol doesn’t cause pain and quickly puts the patient into a coma and death follows soon after. (And then it’s zombie time) You’ll have to explain some of this to Hans though so he’s prepared. Part of you wonders if you should really go through with all this though. There’s no guarantee that Hans is telling you the truth and you might be just trading one master for another. In fact he might just blame you for everything and have you killed when he takes power. Of course another way to handle this is to inject this stuff into Edmond and not tell him what’s going to happen. Chances are undead Ed might kill everyone nearby. Incitahol does increase the reflexes and strength after death making for a rather lively zombie. The problem is this is a very risky endeavor not to mention severely irresponsible. > You kill Edmond and inform Hans of the plan Hans is probably right about Edmond, he’s going to keep you around indefinitely. If you help Hans he’ll most likely have his hands full trying to root out all the people still loyal to Edmond and solidifying his power base to worry about you. When you leave the hospital you enter the carriage, which is waiting for you across the street. “I trust you got everything you need?” “Yeah, I found something perfect to take care of our problem, but I need to warn you about it first.” “Oh? Well, out with it then.” Hans says. You explain to Hans about the Incitahol and he seems intrigued. “So this stuff will kill him and then bring him back to life?” “In a manner of speaking. He’ll slowly lapse into a coma and then die. Then he’ll come back as a zombie and most likely a very lively and hostile one.” “Interesting. Okay. Good. That lizard will probably be by his side the whole time. When Edmond comes back he’ll probably try to attack his lizard who will defend himself and then the rest takes care of itself.” You’re glad Hans sounds pleased with this plan, the only thing you have to do now is pull off the deception. Eventually you get back to the tavern where Reg and several other Talon members are waiting. “What the fuck took you so damn long? Edmond could’ve died already!” “Sorry.” You reply and head to his office. You enter the office and the Sotakan assassin is holding a dagger to your throat already. “Down boy, it’s the doc...ugh…what the fuck took you so long? I’m dying over here!” The Sotakan releases you and you run over to Edmond who is now lying on the floor still clutching his side. “I’m going to give you this shot first, it’ll help as an anti-biotic and to ease the pain. You might start getting sleepy though, do you someplace more comfortable to lay?” “Yeah, I guess the sofa.” You Help Edmond to the sofa and give him the shot of Incitahol. You then begin sewing him up as quickly as possible. Normally you’d do a better job and extract the shrapnel in his body, but you figure he’s going to be dead soon anyway and you need to get out of here before he starts turning. “There you go. You should be good now, but you’ll need to rest and not move too much for a few days.” “(Yawn) Not a problem. I’ll probably just take care of business from here for the time being. As long I got my Sotakan whatchin’ my back, I’ll be fine. Damn, that shit kicks in really quick. I don’t feel anything….(Yawn) Glad you could help out doc…be sure to stick around…(Yawn) might have some work for you in the…zzzzzzzzzz…” You stand away from Edmond, give a nod to the Sotakan and then leave quickly. “So is he asleep?” Edmond asks walking up to you. “Yeah, won’t be long…hey where’s that Reg guy?” you say noticing a difference in some of the personnel hanging around the bar now. “Don’t worry about him, you just take a seat at that table over there. If need anything just let Wallace know.” “But you know what’s going to happen and I’m not a fighter. I don’t think you’ll need me here.” “Don’t be so sure. Given what’s going to go down, we might still need a doctor soon. Besides having a doctor around in the future might be useful. Sit down, you’ll be fine.” You get the impression you don’t have any choice in the matter, so you do what Hans says. You curse yourself for believing him. You have indeed traded one master for another. “Could I have a drink?” you ask Wallace, who looks less than pleased about you barking orders at him, but he gets you a bottle of strong whiskey before going to talk to his brother. Time passes and as you slowly get more drunk a loud noise is heard from Edmond’s office. It’s a mixture of hissing, moaning and loud crashing. “Hah! Sounds like he’s (hic!) up!” you slur while taking another drink. At this point Hans, Wallace and several other thugs rush into the office. You hear a bunch of yelling, fighting, and gunshots, but you just continue to drink the whole time. “Dis is yer fate mr. smart ass doctor, now you gotta (hic!) get yoost to it.” You say to your self while looking at the bottle. “Was it worth it?” At this point Hans exits Edmond’s office looking a bit winded. He’s followed by Wallace and one of the other thugs that lived. “Shit, it’s a good thing that lizard had been preoccupied with Edmond. I can say with all honesty he put up a damn good fight even with a couple of bites in him.” “You chopped his head off I (hic!) hope!” you exclaim. “Yeah, of course I know the stories of the dead infection. Sheesh doc, I think you’ve had enough for the night.” Hans remarks. “I haven’t begun to drink!” you shout and then promptly pass out in the tavern. While this would be the first time you passed out in the Troll’s Breath Tavern, it wouldn’t be the last. After this night, your life takes a drastic turn. Your hospital career begins to take a slow but sure nosedive, though your “career” as a Crimson doc begins to pick up a lot. Hans has a lot more trouble establishing order over the Crimson Talons than he thought he would. You end up doing a lot of after hours surgery. To Hans’ credit he pays you well and you get free drinks whenever you can. Eventually your mother knows something is going on with you, she isn’t sure what (and doesn’t really want to either), but she knows it isn’t good. Having no real reason to stay any longer, she finally sells the inn to the city and moves back to Teckleville. She mentions when you get your life together you can visit her, until that time, stay away. You never see her again. From there your life becomes a downward spiral and your drinking increases to cope with your situation. As the years go on, the hospital can’t tolerate your sub par work due to a combination of drink and lack of proper sleep. Getting fired is bad enough, but you also lose your license and are lucky not to go to jail for malpractice. Doesn’t really matter to you at this point, you just embrace the whole criminal lifestyle and work for Hans full time. The only problem is, he’s getting sick of your sub-par work as well. Your situation becomes very much like the doctor who once worked Edmond. It doesn’t really need to be said that your fate is very similar to his as well. One night during a poker game you’re on a rare winning streak and drinking heavily as usual. Your obnoxious bragging gets on the nerves of several Crimson Talon members who have already been told on several occasions by Hans that your usefulness is soon coming to an end. They decide that tonight is the night. As you try to stumble your way home in the dark, a crushing blow knocks you to the street followed by several sharp piecing to your body. Fortunately you’re so damn drunk that the pain is somewhat nonexistent. You mumble something incoherent and then pass out forever. Your winnings are taken back and your body sold to a bodylegger for spare parts. (Your liver is useless though)<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The hospital is probably a better bet. Besides you can get the higher quality stuff there. You doubt if you’ll have that much of a problem getting the supplies too, it isn’t an uncommon thing for a few things to go missing here and there. “We better go back to the hospital, I’d rather be on the safe side.” “Good man, come on we’ll take the carriage back to the hospital, my brother will drive it, he knows all the short cuts in this city and isn’t squeamish about running over dumb fuckers that get in the way.” “Erm, okay then.” You reply. “Just be quick about this shit, if you take too fucking long and Edmond dies, you three are going to be joining him!” Reg reminds all of you. You, Hans and Wallace leave the Troll’s Breath Tavern and set out for the hospital. On the way there you make a mental note of what to say if anyone at the hospital asks you any questions and where else in the hospital to search just in case you don’t find what you need right away. “Tell me, do you think Edmond is a fair man?” Hans suddenly asks you. “Huh?” “I said, do you think Edmond is a fair man? Tis not a hard question.” “Uh, well sure. I mean I had a deal with him in the past and he lived up to it.” “Yeah, I know all about that so called deal. If it were truly a deal, you and me wouldn’t be having this conversation. I hope you realize this isn’t going to be the last time he calls on you again.” You don’t say anything. You were trying not to dwell on the possibility of such depressing matters. “Look friend, I know you. You’d rather not have to live your life being connected to the underworld, but you were in a tight spot, so you resorted to desperate measures. Sort of like your father no?” “Yeah…I guess so…” you answer not really thinking of that parallel before. “Well, I sympathize. Trust me I do. I mean I know what it’s like to get so far deep into something that you don’t know how you’re ever going to get out. Hell, I never intended to be part of the Crimson Talons, but I had to do it not just for my survival but my brother’s as well.” You say nothing and wait for Hans to get to the point he’s going to make. “What I’m saying is, you don’t NEED to have this hanging over your head forever. You could end it tonight.” “Hold on, if we’re talking about what I think we are, you heard Reg, he said if we took too long he’d have us all killed.” “I didn’t suggest that. I mean that hospital surely has a bunch of things that shouldn’t be used in excessive dosages.” “You want me to kill him? I can’t do that, I’d get killed by that Sotakan! If not immediately then certainly soon after he suspected that I had something to do with his death!” “Well I figured that you’d be a little creative in that area. Perhaps give him something for the pain. Something that creates a plausible tale that the man just died in his sleep. It’s not like that lizard is really going to put two and two together. It’s not the brightest thing; it’s just really good at following orders and killing people. I wouldn’t worry about it anyway. The lizard will be taken care of soon. And you needn’t worry about anyone else potentially retaliating either, Edmond’s never been too popular and what few loyal cronies he has other than the lizard will also be dealt with.” You bury your hands in your head at the thought of all this and how you got here in the first place. If you go through with this, you won’t just be an accomplice the murder anymore, but a full blown one. You think about the irony of being a doctor. You’re supposed to be keeping people alive not killing them. “Look, I know this is all a lot to take in, but just think. If you do this, you’re free. Free to go about the rest of your life as you see fit. And getting rid of Edmond would be a favor to everyone; he’s an evil bastard. Now I’m not saying I’m a saint, but the man is unnecessarily brutal. I’d at least try to put an end to some of the random violence that goes on in the organization and get back to focusing on business. Hell, I’ve got even a long-term plan of trying to make the organization legit one day. Like I said, I didn’t really want this life, but it was survival at the time.” If Hans is trying to identify with you on some level to get you to help him, it’s working, because you’re starting to seriously consider going through with this plan. Eventually you get to the hospital and you tell Hans you’ll be out as soon as possible. It’s the graveyard shift so you don’t run into too many people you know that ask questions. In fact nobody really pays too much attention to you at all, but you decide to play it safe and head down to the supply room in the basement to take what you need. After grabbing a few syringes, disinfectants, bandages and the like, you break the lock of the cabinet with the pharmaceutical supplies. You grab the pain killers immediately, but then you look for something that might help you with the other problem. “Incitahol? What the hell?” you say to yourself, picking up the small vial. This stuff shouldn’t even be mixed in with the regular drugs. It’s a powerful experimental concoction! It was supposed to be a “miracle” drug that increased the body’s natural healing ability even greater than that of mountain trolls and was first used on dying patients. Unfortunately what the drug really did was the speed up the death process and bring them back as zombies. It was banned by most civilized places and is highly sought out by lazy necromancers who don’t have the natural ability to raise hordes of undead. You’d worry more about finding this if you didn’t have your own drama going on right now. In fact this would probably be the perfect thing to take with you. Incitahol doesn’t cause pain and quickly puts the patient into a coma and death follows soon after. (And then it’s zombie time) You’ll have to explain some of this to Hans though so he’s prepared. Part of you wonders if you should really go through with all this though. There’s no guarantee that Hans is telling you the truth and you might be just trading one master for another. In fact he might just blame you for everything and have you killed when he takes power. Of course another way to handle this is to inject this stuff into Edmond and not tell him what’s going to happen. Chances are undead Ed might kill everyone nearby. Incitahol does increase the reflexes and strength after death making for a rather lively zombie. The problem is this is a very risky endeavor not to mention severely irresponsible. > You kill Edmond and don't inform Hans of the plan Hans is probably right about Edmond, he’s going to keep you around indefinitely. On the other hand Hans probably isn’t any better. It’s always possible Hans will get killed by “normal” dangers when he gets in power, but he seems pretty savvy. He’s likely to stay in power long enough for you to get trapped in this life and his successor is just going to insist on your services. That’s even assuming you live that long, being connected to organized crime isn’t necessarily a safe way to live if you don’t have the street cred and stomach for it. You need to get rid of Hans as well and hopefully not telling him what you’re exactly going to do will create that opportunity. When you leave the hospital you enter the carriage, which is waiting for you across the street. “I trust you got everything you need?” “Yeah, I found something perfect to take care of our problem. He’ll slowly fall asleep, then lapse into a coma then finally die.” “Perfect, I can even say his lizard killed him. I better have a crew ready to bum rush him though. He’s not going to be an easy kill though.” You’re glad Hans sounds pleased with this plan, the only thing you have to do now is pull off the deception. Eventually you get back to the tavern where Reg and several other Talon members are waiting. “What the fuck took you so damn long? Edmond could’ve died already!” “Sorry.” You reply and head to his office. You enter the office and the Sotakan assassin is holding a dagger to your throat already. “Down boy, it’s the doc...ugh…what the fuck took you so long? I’m dying over here!” The Sotakan releases you and you run over to Edmond who is now lying on the floor still clutching his side. “I’m going to give you this shot first, it’ll help as an anti-biotic and to ease the pain. You might start getting sleepy though, do you someplace more comfortable to lay?” “Yeah, I guess the sofa.” You Help Edmond to the sofa and give him the shot of Incitahol. You then begin sewing him up as quickly as possible. Normally you’d do a better job and extract the shrapnel in his body, but you figure he’s going to be dead soon anyway and you need to get out of here before he starts turning. “There you go. You should be good now, but you’ll need to rest and not move too much for a few days.” “(Yawn) Not a problem. I’ll probably just take care of business from here for the time being. As long I got my Sotakan whatchin’ my back, I’ll be fine. Damn, that shit kicks in really quick. I don’t feel anything….(Yawn) Glad you could help out doc…be sure to stick around…(Yawn) might have some work for you in the…zzzzzzzzzz…” You stand away from Edmond, give a nod to the Sotakan and then leave quickly. “So is he asleep?” Edmond asks walking up to you. “Yeah, won’t be long…hey where’s that Reg guy?” you say noticing a difference in some of the personnel hanging around the bar now. “Don’t worry about him, you just take a seat at that table over there. If need anything just let Wallace know.” “Uh, I don’t think you really need me around any longer.” “Nonsense! Given what’s going to go down, we might still need a doctor soon. Besides having a doctor around in the future might be useful. Sit down, you’ll be fine.” You get the impression you don’t have much choice in the matter so you do as Hans says. You try not to make your panic too noticeable, but you really scared about what’s going to happen. What happens if Hans finds out what you did? What if something gets out of hand and you suddenly got a bunch of zombies hungry for flesh? Normally you’d probably have a drink to calm your nerves, but you’re so worried about what might happen, you feel your only hope is to have all your wits about you. Eventually Wallace gets sick of watching you and goes to talk with his brother who is currently sitting at a table with a group of other thugs telling them how they need to attack the Sotakan assassin as quickly as possible when they rush the room. You think about making a break for it, but you’d never make it. Time passes and eventually noise is heard from Edmond’s office. It’s a mixture of hissing, moaning and loud crashing. “What the fuck?” Hans says pulling out his flintlock and then looks over in your direction, you shrug your shoulders replying “I dunno.” “Come on, let’s just do it!” Wallace says picking up a nearby blunderbuss. At this point Wallace and the rest of the thugs rush into Edmond’s office. Hans stays outside watching you and the both of you hear a bunch of yelling, fighting, and gunshots. Then there’s silence. “Wallace?” Hans calls out while heading towards the office. “…ugh…yeah…I’m hurt…get the doc…” Wallace’s voice calls back. “Come on, get yer ass over here, my brother’s hurt!” Wallace says. You gulp nervously and slowly make your way to Wallace “Shit, it looks like a fucking slaughterhouse in here.” Hans remarks as you both enter the room. Hans is quite correct, the office is splattered with blood and gore with several dead bodies everywhere. Edmond, the Sotakan, and the Crimson thugs they’re all dead. You notice Edmond has a head wound, the Sotakan does too, you can’t tell with some of the other though until… “OH SHIT! WALLACE!” Hans shouts as two of those bodies suddenly sit up and attack! Hans shoots one of them in the chest, dropping it to the floor temporarily, but the other one begins munching on Wallace. His screams are enough to finally cause you to run. “HEY YOU COWARDLY FUCK, HELP ME! AGH! MY FOOT!” Hans yells as you try to open the tavern door. Unfortunately Hans wasn’t taking any chances of you attempting to escape and the door is firmly locked. In desperation you grab a nearby chair to bust out a small window you might be able to squeeze through. You attempts are cut short when one of the zombies tackles you to the floor and take a bite out of your arm. You cries of pain are cut short when the next bite rips out your throat. Your death is just one of the first in the zombie plague you thoughtlessly unleashed on Klyton.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You get the impression Eliza might be a little too shy for this sort of thing, so Rita seems like a better choice. Rita’s also the most extroverted and will most likely prefer doing this than having to work at the inn. “Alright Rita, starting tomorrow, you’re working the streets…er so to speak. Don’t think you still won’t be working around here though; I’ll still need you during the late shift. Besides I don’t want you wandering around at night, people might get the wrong idea or something.” “Fine, as long as it gets me out of this place for a little while I’m game.” “Okay, also I’d like you to try to throw around some insults about the Flying Griffon Inn while you’re making your sales pitch.” “Got it.” The next day, Rita comes in and while she’s always been a pretty girl, she now looks like a succubus that you’ve heard about from old tales. You try to contain your own desire to shamelessly flirt with her. “By the gods Rita, you’re going to have every guy within this area after you.” “Meh, wouldn’t be the first time. Okay, I’m off, try not to fantasize about me too much while I’m gone.” You’re not exactly sure how to take that, but you are wondering how this will play out for you. Over the course of a few days you definitely see a drastic increase in customers, and not just adventurers either. You’ve got Klyton Milita (who usually just drink at their barracks) coming in and even a few humble storeowners. You’re making a lot more money, but it’s a lot of extra work for the rest of you. Mr. Reynolds receives sizable amounts of money and he continues to be satisfied with your payments. At this rate you’ll probably be able to get out of debt by the end of the year. The only major problems are how overworked the rest of you are getting and how arrogant Rita is getting. Rita states that she should even have to work as a barmaid anymore because it interferes with her “advertising.” “Advertising? You wiggle your ass at horny men! You’re basically a harlot that doesn’t put out…or is there another reason why everyone comes here?” Wendy accuses. “Figures that you’d be jealous of my popularity. Face it; I do more around here than ANYONE to keep this place successful, and I deserve some credit for it!” Rita demands. “Hey we all know Rita, but…” “But nothing, if you expect me to keep working here, I want a raise and I don’t want to be working as some lowly barmaid anymore! I’m above serving food and drinks!” “So you basically want to be paid to stand around and look pretty? What the hell kind of job title would we even call that?” you ask. “I dunno, hostess maybe? Yeah, I’d be the hostess!” “By the gods, this is ridiculous! You can’t seriously be considering this!” Wendy exclaims. The only people who are silent in all this are Eliza who is being her usual quiet self, and your mother who just shrugs and says it’s your call since this was mainly your idea. You get the impression she doesn’t care for Rita’s attitude though. > You put Rita in her place Rita’s libel to ask for more money and all sorts of special favors if you give her any more work so you pick Eliza instead. She’s a little younger than Rita and if she fixes herself up a bit more she could easily bit just as attractive as her. Eliza’s a bit surprised that you even picked her, but accepts. Rita on the other hand is insulted that you didn’t and leaves the table claiming she has to prepare for her rounds. (As if she ever does that!) “Alright Eliza, starting tomorrow, you’re working the streets…er so to speak. You’ll still be working around here though since I need you during the late shift. Besides I don’t want you wandering around at night, people might get the wrong idea or something.” “Okay.” “I’d like you to try to throw around some insults about the Flying Griffon Inn while you’re making your sales pitch.” “Got it.” The next day, Eliza comes in and while she’s always been pretty in a subtle way, when you see her all “dolled up” she almost looks like a different girl. You can’t help but to comment on her appearance. “Wow Eliza, you look really good.” “Thanks, but I don’t look like a whore do I?” “Eh, I doubt if anyone’s going to mistake you for a whore, you’re not sleazy looking enough to qualify. Don’t worry, you’ll be fine.” “I’m really nervous.” “Relax, like I said you’ll do fine.” Over the next few weeks, not much happens. Eliza really does try her best, but she’s just not outgoing enough. She also gets a little worried when some lowlifes begin stalking her which distracts her from her job. Eventually you decide to take Eliza off advertisement duty, she apologizes for failing. You tell her it’s all right, but the reality is, that you’re not getting ahead, you’re just breaking even and that’s not what you’re aiming for if you want to finish paying off the inn’s debt and get your school plans back on track. Still convinced that you had a good idea, you tell Rita to do it. She agrees, but immediately demands a pay raise and less work in the bar. Her demands are only partially met since you refuse to be pushed around by someone that’s just mad because she’s got a big ego. Rita does her job grudgingly and for awhile she succeeds in bringing in a few more people, unfortunately The Flying Griffon Inn noticed your attempts of gaining new customers when Eliza was bumbling around. They up the ante and hire their own girl to advertise. The other girl is slightly classier and manages to attract more people, this of course only pisses Rita off who is already is a borderline explosive case now. Things go from bad to worse when she allows it to interfere with her work at the inn resulting in a few incidents of yelling at patrons. Things really get bad when the Flying Griffon girl runs into Rita on the street. An argument ensues and an old-fashioned catfight soon follows. You weren’t there of course, but one of your regulars runs in to tell you that Rita got herself arrested when she nearly killed the girl and then smashed a militiaman in the face with a broken bottle. Rita faces jail time and refuses to speak to you, claiming that you’re to blame for all this anyway. The publicity isn’t the best for the inn and while you’re still breaking even, it’s not because you’re getting a higher-class customers, it’s because you start attracting the lower dregs of society. Eventually even the miners don’t want to drink at the place anymore. Your mother refuses to see the inn become a hang out for criminals and decides to sell the place, and you agree since you’re tired of the headache at this point. During the remaining week the inn stays open to make a last bit of change before closing for good and selling to the city. Some of the miners seem a little sad by it, but there were so many changes within such a short period of time that most seemed content on finding a new place since the old one wasn’t like how it used to be anymore. When the inn is sold off, you barely make enough to cover the debt, but at least you and your mother aren’t in any immediate danger now. Your mother finds work as a cook for a short time, but eventually decides she can’t really stand living in the city without your father anymore. She leaves to go live with your aunt Enora in Teckleville, which is to the east on the outskirts of the Delantium Kingdom. After a long time of the inn just sitting untended and forgotten due to the council having more pressing matters and red tape, it’s broken into by several homeless people who use it as a place to sleep. The homeless are soon ousted by a local gang who use it as a safe house. Eventually though they cause enough trouble that the Klyton Militia has to take severe action and storm the place, resulting in a small fire. At this point someone in the council finally notices it, decides that the place isn’t worth salvaging and proposes that it be knocked down to build a medical clinic in its place to try to uplift the area. The motion passes. As for you, you find a job thanks to your education level, but it isn’t anywhere in the field that you would’ve liked. You’re a clerk in tax office, filing away items, straightening out reports and such. You never really move up and you never make enough money to save away to get ahead either. You don’t really have a bad life so much as a mind numbingly mundane one. You do have your good days, but ultimately you never really achieve your goals and always have a sense of dissatisfaction with your life. Sometimes you look back and wonder where you exactly went wrong with the inn and how you could’ve done things differently. You’ll never know.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You shake your head; you can’t walk away from this. Your mom might be in serious trouble because this loan. Selling the inn might not even be enough to cover it and even if it is, she probably won’t have enough to fall back on. You aren’t angry with her, but you do feel a little anger towards your dad for getting her in this position (and you indirectly). You realize he still had the best intentions for you, but those don’t really help right now. “Alright first things first, who is the name of this loanshark?” you ask your mother. “Mr. Reynolds. He’ll be coming next week to pick up a collection. He’s not a member of the Crimson Talons, but he does have a couple of their goons working for him.” “The Crimson Talons? Oh geez, this just get better…okay how is this place doing for business?” “It’s doing about as well as it always has.” “That won’t be enough, we’ll need to get more people in here, or cut costs somehow.” “Well your father was going to have more work done on the rooms in the hopes that it would keep adventurers and maybe even merchants to come back whenever they travel through here. I’m not sure if it’s worth it though. Adventures don’t care where they sleep half the time and it’s not always a sure thing that they’re going to live long enough for repeat business. As for merchants, I think this place is a little too blue collar for them most of the time.” “You said something about getting a new liquor supplier?” “Yeah, the one here raised their prices, it would actually be cheaper to get the stuff shipped in from Hessla. Your father was supposed to meet with the new potential distributor in a couple days, so I’m not sure how that’s going to go through, if at all.” “How about the staff?” “The staff is working on minimum wage as it is, we’ve got three barmaids, Rita, Eliza and Wendy and they’re all disgruntled about their jobs, but they all still work well.. We can barely pay them though, and we might have to fire one of them. Grim stuff, but you’re determined to see this through. Since the liquor supplier from Hessla won’t arrive in two days you’re just going to focus on what you can do now. Fixing the rooms is still a good idea to keep potential returning wandering adventurers happy. Spending a little money now could increase potential profits later. Who knows, maybe even a merchant will show up and spread the word that this place isn’t just some place where miners get drunk. Firing people sounds like it might save you money, but all it’s really going to do is create more work for the rest of you, so you decide to hold off on firing anyone for now. Your mother doesn’t agree with your idea of fixing the rooms, but seems relieved that you’re not firing anyone. Things go as normal at the inn. Several of the miners still offer their condolences about your father and are surprised to see that you’re taking up his mantle as it were, but other than that they don’t say to much to you. They probably don’t know what to say since while some of them might know you since you were little, but you’re not really “one of them” in terms of education level. Not to say they’re all a bunch of grunting idiots, but they probably figure you’re used to talking about things of a more cerebral nature. You don’t mind though, after all your main concern is getting your mom out of debt. Two days pass and the supplier from Hessla arrives. He’s a grungy shady looking individual, but considering he’s from Hessla that’s hardly surprising. He immediately says his name is Calwin asks for your father at which point you tell him he died recently. Calwin shows no sympathy and merely complains that he’s made a trip up here for no reason. You show a little restraint and call your mother to speak with him, but after five minutes with him she’s ready to throw him out the door for hitting on her, and you’re not exactly thrilled with him either at this point. “Look folks, if you want good quality alcohol at a low price I’m willing to deal wit ya, but I’m gonna need some incentive for my troubles because y’all seem like a buncha uptight prigs. Now I was invited here by the man who ran this establishment, so you called me here, if my help ain’t wanted, I’ll be on my way…” Calwin says. While you’re tempted to just have him leave, you decide it would be best to at least see if his stuff is any good. “Alright prove it. Surely you’ve brought some of your alcohol here so we can test to see if it’s any good.” “Well I do have some with me, but I can’t just be givin’ this stuff away for free.” “Don’t worry, you’ll be compensated.” You call attention to the miners in the room and ask them if they’d like to try some new beer, naturally they’re all for it. A few of the miners take their fill of Calwin’s beer and they say that it’s different from what they usually drink, but it’s just as good. Calwin looks a little put off that they claimed his alcohol is “just as good”, but still maintains that it’s better than what you already have. He states his price, and also mentions that he wants a free room whenever he comes here since he’s apparently got a harpy of a wife at home and he likes to stay away for a couple days before having to go back to Hessla. Your mother obviously isn’t thrilled with having to deal with him, and in the short time he’s been here; he’s also hit on every one of the barmaids. Granted they’re used to such behavior, he’s particularly revolting. (Plus he’s from Hessla) > You don't deal with him at all Mom: Owner/Cook Mom is still trying to get over dad’s death. At this point she’d rather sell the place and move back to Teckleville where her sister Enora lives. Rita: Barmaid Rita’s about your age and started working at the inn a few years before you went off to the university. You remember thinking she was hot when you first saw her and you tried to speak to her a few times to test the waters so to speak, but it was pretty obvious that she didn’t have any sort of interest in you since were more of a bookworm. A bookworm without much money. Not a good combination for getting her affection. Wendy: Barmaid Wendy’s been working here since you were in primary school. She’s unofficially the “head barmaid” but the inn has never had that big of a staff to assign fancy titles. Still, she’s the one that gets the others moving faster if it calls for it. As for you, she’s never really paid any major attention mainly because she’s got kids of her own she has to deal with and you never had any reason to talk to her on any meaningful level. She probably was just relieved that you weren’t some “bratty boss’ kid” that she had to put up with along with being a minimum wage slave. Eliza: Barmaid Eliza’s a little younger than you. In fact you were already at Klyton University when she started working at the inn. In the past during your visits to the inn, she seemed to be nice to you, but you don’t know much about other than she’s a pretty girl and on the shy side.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|> Another day home from school… “I’m telling you Ms. Zelamoyer is a witch, there’s no way she could know what we did unless she read our minds!” David says. “Yeah maybe she’s even a demon in human disguise!” Tom adds “Or maybe you two looked guilty as hell and laughed the loudest when she sat on the thumbtacks you put in her seat.” You say. “I told you guys that was a bad idea. I’m surprised she only paddled you and didn’t have you kicked out of the school permanently.” “Yeah well it didn’t even hurt. My dad beats me harder than that. Though I guess Tom thought it hurt with the way he cried! Hahahaha!” David taunts. “Shut up David!” Tom exclaims. “So are you playing Smash Sphere over in the park today?” David asks you. “I hope so, but my dad’s been on my case about me studying harder. Says he wants me to make something of myself when I grow up.” “That sucks. My dad is always either at the mines or drinking at your dad’s place. The only time I have to worry about him is when my mom tells him about something I did, then I get a beating. I don’t think I’d survive it if he was always around.” David replies. “My mom doesn’t beat me, but she’ll yell and throw me into a small dark closet without food if I do something bad.” Tom says. “Your mom is one scary ass dyke, Tom. My dad said he saw her scare away a mountain troll in the mines once.” “Shut up David! My mom’s not a dyke!” “Yes she is! What about that other lady that lives with you then?” “That’s just mom’s roommate! She needs a place to stay so she helps around the house, like cook dinner or clean up. Mom is at the mines all day, so she can’t do that stuff, so it works out. She’s kind of like a live in maid!” “Sounds more like a second mom…” As much as you enjoy Tom’s naïve defense of his lesbian mother and David’s taunting of it, you arrive at the Inn where you say goodbye to your friends and tell them you might see them later. As soon as you get in, you dad calls you over to the bar. “So do you have any homework?” he asks. “Yeah, but it’s not due until next week.” “Hmm, well if it’s not due until next week it must need a lot of attention, better get started on it.” “It’s really not that much dad, I can do it over the weekend. I’m going to go out and play smash sphere with David and Tom.” “Is that what you think? Better cancel that idea. You’re hitting the books, besides I vaguely remember you mentioning you were also going to have test next week too.” “But dad!” “Don’t dad me! You’ve been letting your school work slide lately and getting into trouble at school with those two little hoodlums you hang out with.” “They’re not hoodlums, and I didn’t get into trouble today!” “You aren’t supposed to be getting into trouble in the first place! Look son, I know you think I’m being hard on you, but this really is for your own good. Your little friends don’t have fathers that give shit about them, I should know because David’s dad is in here all the time and as for Tom, well the less said about his situation the better.” Doesn’t look like you’re getting out of here today, but you make one last attempt. “But I really don’t have that much homework, I really can do it quick over the weekend!” “Well if that is the case, you can help me out here instead.” “What?” “One of my barmaids is sick and I’m expecting a full house here tonight due to it being one of the miner’s birthdays today, so you can carry food and drinks.” You certainly weren’t expecting that. “What? Can’t mom do it?” “Your mother is going to have her hands full attempting to cook the giant cloudspeak ram in the kitchen for the celebration, in fact you can start off by helping her chop up the beast.” As usual your dad has given you no "choice" at all. > The city of Klyton and the surrounding area (History lesson) The four of you arrive at the Shepherd Farm where you hide out for a time until, less than two weeks after the Russellville Robbery John returns to the Farm with a bombshell: all four of you have been identified as participants in the Russellville Robbery and warrants have been issued for your arrests. "We need to split up again," John declares. "I'm going back to my farm, you stay here Ol. George, you go and hide out at the Miller Farm. Who do you want to go with Bill?" You consider who would be best to hide out with and where you consider safest. > You go with John to the Jarette Farm You and John go to his Farmhouse where you are the only residents and for a few days you live in peace. One night you are woken by an alarming crackling sound and springing from your bed you see smoke filling the house. A glance through the windows shows dozens of men outside armed with all sorts of weapons from guns to pitchforks. Grabbing your pistol you rush out of your room in your underclothes to encounter John similarly prepared. "The house is on fire and we're surrounded by vigilantes," John declares. "We'll have to make a break for it." There is only one door into the farmhouse and no windows so John approaches it carefully, a pistol in each hand and prepares to charge out guns blazing. As he does so you glance at the chimney and the thought strikes you that if you can somehow squirm up there you might be able to drop down from the roof and escape, though if you get stuck you'll probably be burnt alive. > You follow John out the main entrance The pair of you throw open the front door and race out into the night as flames engulf the house. As you start running a voice shouts "Death to the bank robbers" and gunshots ring out. John jerks like a marionette as bullet after bullet tears through his body and he topples to the ground. You make it a few more feet until a shotgun explodes into life directly in front of you, hitting you in the centre of the chest and hurling you back onto the ground. As you struggle to rise more pistol and rifle bullets hit you and like John you die in a rain of bullets, killed by vigilantes on this bloody night. > You your Outlaw Career is at an end This is the Performance Table where you can compare your Gunfights, Injured, Killed, Robberies, Score and Fate with those of your fellow members of the James Gang to see who is the greatest Outlaw! 1: Jesse James: Gunfights: 11, Killed: 7, Injured: 1, Robberies: 21, Score: $19,900 - Killed. 2: Frank James: Gunfights: 11, Killed: 2, Injured: 1, Robberies: 17, Score: $26,900 - Surrendered. 3: Cole Younger: Gunfights: 6, Killed: 1, Injured: 2, Robberies: 15, Score: $26,800 - Imprisoned. 4: John Younger: Gunfights: 4, Killed: 4, Injured: 0, Robberies: 7, Score: $3,300 - Killed. 5: Bob Younger: Gunfights: 3, Killed: 0, Injured: 2, Robberies: 8, Score: $12,100 - Imprisoned. 6: Clell Miller: Gunfights: 4, Killed: 0, Injured: 0, Robberies: 8, Score: $12,500 - Killed. 7: Jim Younger: Gunfights: 3, Killed: 1, Injured: 1, Robberies: 5, Score: $2,200 - Imprisoned. 8: John Jarette: Gunfights: 3, Killed: 0, Injured: 1, Robberies: 3, Score: $10,600 - Killed. 9: Charlie Pitts: Gunfights: 2, Killed: 0, Injured: 1, Robberies: 5, Score: $3,400 - Killed. 10: Wood Hite: Gunfights: 2, Killed: 0, Injured: 1, Robberies: 4, Score: $2,400 - Killed. 11: Bill Chadwell: Gunfights: 1, Killed: 0, Injured: 0, Robberies: 5, Stolen: $3,400 - Killed. 12: Dick Liddil: Gunfights: 2, Killed: 0, Injured: 0, Robberies: 4, Stolen: $1,200 - Surrendered. 13: Ol Shepherd: Gunfights: 3, Killed: 0, Injured: 0, Robberies: 2, Stolen: $10,200 - Killed. 14: Little Archie Clement: Gunfights: 2, Killed: 1, Injured: 0, Robberies: 1, Stolen: $8,500 - Killed. 15: George Shepherd: Gunfights: 2, Killed: 0, Injured: 0, Robberies: 2, Stolen: $102,00 - Imprisoned. 16: Bill Ryan: Gunfights: 0, Killed: 0, Injured: 0, Robberies: 4, Stolen: $2,800 - Imprisoned. 17: Charlie Ford: Gunfights: 2, Killed: 0, Injured: 0, Robberies: 1, Stolen: $100 - Surrendered. 18: Clarence Hite: Gunfights: 1, Killed: 0, Injured: 0, Robberies: 2, Stolen: $200 - Imprisoned. 19: Bud McDaniels: Gunfights: 1, Killed: 0, Injured: 0, Robberies: 1, Stolen: $7,800 - Killed. 20: Tom McDaniels: Gunfights: 2, Killed: 0, Injured: 0, Robberies: 1, Stolen: $2,000 - Killed. 21: Tom Webb: Gunfights: 1, Killed: 0, Injured: 0, Robberies: 1, Stolen: $2,000 - Imprisoned. 22: Ed Miller: Gunfights: 1, Killed: 0, Injured: 0, Robberies: 1, Stolen: $1,000 - Killed. 23: Tucker Bassham: Gunfights: 0, Killed: 0, Injured: 0, Robberies: 1, Stolen: $1,000 - Imprisoned. 24: Hoobs Kerry: Gunfights: 0, Killed: 0, Injured: 0, Robberies: 1, Stolen: $1,600 - Imprisoned. 25: Robert Ford: Gunfights: 3, Killed: 2, Injured: 0, Robberies: 0, Stolen: $0 - Killed. Most Prolific Gunfighter: 1: Frank James / Jesse James (11 Gunfights), 2: Cole Younger (6 Gunfights). Most Lethal Hurter: 1: Bob Younger / Cole Younger (2 Injured). Most Deadly Killer: 1: Jesse James (7 Killed), 2: John Younger (4 Killed), 3: Frank James (2 Killed). Most Enthusiastic Robber: 1: Jesse James (21 Robberies), 2: Frank James (17 Robberies), 3: Cole Younger (15 Robberies). Most Successful Bandit: 1: Frank James ($26,900), 2: Cole Younger ($26,800), 3: Jesse James ($19,900). Overall Best Outlaw: 1: Jesse James, 2: Frank James, 3: Cole Younger, 4: John Younger, 5: Bob Younger. As always thank you for taking the time to read my story, please rate and if you would like others to see your score please leave a comment. Have a good day!<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You and John go to his Farmhouse where you are the only residents and for a few days you live in peace. One night you are woken by an alarming crackling sound and springing from your bed you see smoke filling the house. A glance through the windows shows dozens of men outside armed with all sorts of weapons from guns to pitchforks. Grabbing your pistol you rush out of your room in your underclothes to encounter John similarly prepared. "The house is on fire and we're surrounded by vigilantes," John declares. "We'll have to make a break for it." There is only one door into the farmhouse and no windows so John approaches it carefully, a pistol in each hand and prepares to charge out guns blazing. As he does so you glance at the chimney and the thought strikes you that if you can somehow squirm up there you might be able to drop down from the roof and escape, though if you get stuck you'll probably be burnt alive. > You risk the chimney Squirming awkwardly up the chimney you shimmy yourself up the narrow chimney shaft. Outside you hear shouts and dozens of gunshots but focus on ignoring the intense heat and making it up the chimney. Finally you burst out into the cold night air of the roof. Approaching the edge of the roof cautiously you glance down to see John lying dead in a pool of blood just in front of his house. There is a shout as a vigilante spots you and points at you. Turning you race across the roof as vigilantes fire at the spot where you were seen and with a flying leap you jump off the back of the roof, fortunately landing on one of the few snow mounds to have escaped destruction from the spring sun. Scrambling up you race through the trees that surround John's farmhouse and make your escape through the forest. After an all-night journey you manage to make it to a friend's house and safety. In the morning you buy a newspaper and read about a series of raids carried out against you and your companions. Ol Shepherd is dead too, killed by lawmen while resisting arrest. George has been arrested and charged with bank robbery. After a short trial he is found guilty and given a short prison sentence. For the next three years you move around Missouri, never staying in one place for too long until finally in the spring of 1871 you re-establish contact with Cole Younger and Frank and Jesse James and arrange to meet at the farm of your mutual friend Clell Miller. Though the gang has lost three of its members you are determined to continue your bank-robbing career. > A new Gang By the time you, Frank, Jesse and Cole meet in the summer of 1871 you have all been identified as bank robbers and probably killers or would-be killers. Frank, stern and silent sits thoughtfully to one side, fingering a bible lying in his lap. Jesse, grinning and cheerful sits next to him while Cole, balding but as tough as any man you know sits alone in the corner. You sit next to Clell Miller, a light-hearted friend of Jesse's who as a teenager served briefly as a Guerrilla during the War. You all chat over things and despite the deaths of Little Archie, John and Ol and George's retirement from crime following his release from prison the five of you resolve to form a new Gang and continue robbing Northern banks as revenge for their treatment of Southerners since the War ended. Jesse has been looking as possible targets and has chosen a bank in the pro-Union town of Corydon in Iowa, a place in which bank robbers are unheard of. One summer day the five of you ride into town, dismount, tie up your horses and walk into the bank. It's Sunday and everyone is at church except a lone teller who is quickly captured. You and Frank empty the contents of the vault rapidly into a sack and then locking the teller inside you stroll outside, mount your horses and begin riding off. The robbery has been so easy that when you pass an open-air church service Jesse got resist shouting out to them gleefully "Hey there, we've just robbed the bank!" Frank frowns but the congregation just ignore you and whooping and laughing you all ride out of town. You all ride back to the James Farm in Missouri where you count the haul and find you have made off with $8,000, making your share $1,600. When the papers report the crime you, Frank, Jesse and Cole are all identified again and the newspapers begin calling you the James-Younger Gang. Jesse is delighted with his newfound fame while Cole prevails upon the rest of you to let his younger brother John Younger join the Gang. John, who has already killed three men including two Texan lawmen, is an angel-faced but deadly young man and Jesse especially seems pleased to have him in the Gang. You plan your next bank robbery to take place in Kentucky. > You 29 April 1872: Columbia, Kentucky As you have done so many times you and your companions ride into a small town early one morning. While Frank, Clell and John hold the horses outside you lead Jesse and Cole into the bank. Inside four customers are sitting at a table talking while one smiling cashier waits behind the counter. The three of you walk up to the counter and draw your pistols. "Consider yourself under arrest," Cole says cheerfully. To your amazement the cashier begins shouting "Bank Robbers! Bank Robbers!" at the top of his voice. "Shut up man or I'll kill you," you yell at him but the cashier keeps shouting warnings at the top of his voice. > You shoot him You shoot the cashier in the chest and he staggers back, blood spreading across his shirt front. Jesse and Cole shoot him as well and the cashier falls dead to the ground. Instantly the four customers spring to their feet and start running for the door. "Stop them," Jesse yells. > You fire a shot at them to try to stop them running You fire a shot that hits one of the men in the hand. He yells in pain but a moment later the four customers have scrambled out the door leaving the three of you alone in the bank with the dead teller on the floor behind the counter. "Quickly, grab the money" you tell the others and moving fast you snatch up all the money you can find on the counter. In less than a minute you are back outside to find Frank, Clell and John firing their pistols into the air as you, Jesse and Cole scramble back onto your horses. A man runs out onto the street and fires a pistol at you, Jesse fires back. Both miss but Jesse's shot prompts the man to take cover and the six of you are able to spur your horses out of town and escape. Riding hard you do not stop until you are a long way from Columbia. When you pause to count the money you find you have escaped with less than $1,000, which makes your share $200. Frank is especially unhappy. "We're killing too many bank tellers Jesse," he tells his brother. "This will bring the law down on us." "Maybe we should lay off banks for a while," Jesse says thoughtfully and grins. "I have a mind to rob a ticket office at the Kansas City Exposition." After a quick discussion Cole and John both offer to join Jesse but Frank and Clell decide it is better to lay low - Frank is going back to the James Farm while Clell is going back to his own family's farm. You consider what is best to do. > You join Frank at the James Farm You and Frank hide out at the James Farm and the surrounding area for a while, relying on newspapers for your information. You read about how Jesse and his companions succeeded in robbing the Kansas City Exposition. You also get a scare when you learn that Clell has been arrested for the Columbia Bank Robbery but is released after the shaken witnesses failed to correctly identify him. After a year when you feel the heat has warn off you and the gang reunite to plan your next robbery. > Another Robbery By now you and your companions have become famous across America as the James-Younger Gang and Southern newspapers laud you as Robin Hood type figures continuing the fight for Southern Rights while Northern newspapers focus on the amounts you have stolen and the men you have killed, a number which altogether has reached six slain. Jesse loves all this attention and John and Clell enjoy it too but Frank is quick to point out that you haven't made much money from your recent robberies. That is why on a lazy summer afternoon you and your fellow Outlaws ride into the little town of St Genevieve. While Frank, Clell and John look after your horses you, Jesse and Cole enter the bank. There is just one cashier inside and following your usual procedure you take him prisoner, empty the vault of money and then lock the cashier inside. As you are riding out of town Jesse again throws caution to the wind and begins firing his pistol into the air and cheering. Clell and John soon join in, much to Frank and Cole's disapproval. Returning to the Younger Farm this time you count the money and find you have stolen $4,000, making your share $600. All the robberies seem so easy that Jesse decides it is time to increase the stakes. He lays out a plan for you all to rob a train in the state of Iowa, a extremely rare crime that is sure to gain the attention of all America. Though Clell and John readily agree to the plan Frank and Cole are more reluctant and only agree on the condition that more men can be brought in to join the Gang. You all agree to meet in the town of Adair, Iowa in two months. > You from Banks to Trains... In the pre-dawn morning light you and the rest of the James-Younger Gang assemble outside the busy little town of Adair. Cole and John have brought along their brothers Jim and Bob to join in the robbery. Jim is a steady veteran who you fought alongside during the Civil War, though he seems reluctant to be involved in this robbery, Bob is a likable and reliable young man. You and Clell turn up with Charlie Pitts, a quiet but tough man who is another former Guerrilla. Frank and Jesse arrive with an extremely tall and chatty man called Bill Chadwell. Altogether there are ten of you, including the two James brothers and the four Younger brothers. Though you held up trains during the War you are all new to peacetime train robbery and you study the railroad trying to think of the best way to get the train to stop near your place of concealment. Predictably it is Jesse who has the idea of using a mental bar and a hammer to tear up the track, reasoning that the driver will see the broken line and halt the train alongside where you will be waiting with the horse. You all agree to the plan. "Who will tear up the track?" Cole asks and you all glance among yourselves. > You volunteer to tear up the track Taking the hammer and the bar you pry up several rails and toss them to one side. You and the rest of the Gang then take cover in the trees near the track and wait for the train. When the train comes down the line you are astonished by how fast it is going. The driver sees the damage to the track and slams on the brakes but the train is going too fast: to your astonishment the locomotive shoots off the end of the broken line and crashes down onto it's side with an ear-splitting crash, as does the first passenger carriage. The noise is indescribable. The train has come to a complete halt with the front two carriages on their side and you and your deafened companions emerge stunned from the trees. While Bill, Charlie, Bob and Jim hold the horses and Jesse leads most of the rest towards the Express Carriage at the rear of the train you and Frank jog to the crashed locomotive and peer inside. The sight sickens you, the driver has been literally crushed to death and the fireman has been badly hurt, bleeding freely from his head. You are still shaken by the time you return to the woods and are rejoined by Jesse and the others. Mounting up you ride away from the train you have just wrecked and ride nonstop for several hours to get to safety. When you count the money you are disappointed to find the train was not carrying a lot, just $3,000 which is divided between the ten of you to make your share $300. Despite the small profits from this you know this brazen robbery will increase your already great fame and notoriety. Bill, Clell and Charlie are all a bit unnerved by the attention this crime will bring and decide they will all go and hide out at Charlie's farm in Missouri. Jesse, as usual, is delighted and indifferent to the fact the robbery has led to another death. He intends for himself, Frank, Bob, Cole, Jim and John (all the James and Younger brothers) to ride south into Arkansas to rob a stagecoach, another type of crime the Gang haven't committed before which Jesse hopes will lead to more fame. It is up to you whether or not you want to go into hiding or join in the crime spree. > You join Bill, Charlie and Clell in hiding out at the Pitts's Farm Hiding out at the Pitts Farm you feel confident of avoiding detection because though both you and Clell are well-known outlaws Bill Chadwell and Charlie Pitts have never been connected with any crime and you rely on those two to go into town for all your supplies and newspapers. You read how the James and Younger boys continue to pull robberies in Arkansas and Missouri but there are consequences: the Pinkerton Detective Agency is hired to bring you and your companions to justice. Frank and Jesse kill one Pinkerton Agent near their Farm but a second gunfight claims the lives of two more lawmen and John Younger near the Younger Farm, Jim Younger being the sole survivor. A letter arrives from Jesse telling you all to meet the rest of the gang in Texas and when you reunite the Gang is a grim bunch. All the remaining Younger Brothers are saddened by John's death with Jim openly blaming Frank and Jesse for getting him mixed up in robberies and swearing he wants nothing more to do with either of them and that he's going to California. Frank and Cole also think it's better that you all lie low for a time at the farm of their friend Bud McDaniels but not Jesse: he sees it as the best way to avenge John is to pull another robbery and the newer members of the gang, Clell, Charlie, Bill and Bob Younger all agree to join him in robbing a stagecoach here in Texas. You need to choose who you join. > You help Jesse, Clell, Bill, Charlie and Bob rob a stagecoach in Texas Riding into the town of Austin you and your companions make inquiries about the local stagecoach routes before heading south and hiding in some trees to waylay a coach on its route. The hold-up goes smoothly, the coach is stopped and the passengers forced to dismount before being stripped of their valuables. Mounting up your ride cross-country before catching a train and rejoining Frank and Cole at the McDaniels Farm. During the ride you count the loot to find you have stolen $3,000, making your share $500. The success of the robbery has encouraged Frank and Cole to join in fresh robberies and you soon have a new gang member in the form of Bud McDaniels, the cheerful life-long friend of the Younger family. Together you all plan a daring train robbery in Kansas but Bill and Charlie prefer to lay low this time and return to their hiding place at Charlie's farm as they are both enjoying the fact they haven't been identified as outlaws yet and have safety in their anonymity. You need to choose which group you join. > You join Frank, Jesse, Cole, Bob, Clell and Bud in robbing the Kansas train One winter's day you and your companions ride out to the train tracks near the town of Muncie. You start a fire right next to the tracks and hide in the trees: sure enough when the train comes down the line the driver sees the fire and stops the train. While Bob and Cole take the driver hostage you, Frank and Jesse board the Express Carriage and capture the messenger at gunpoint. Quickly emptying the contents of the safe into a sack you leave the train, all of you running back to where Bud and Clell are holding your horses. You ride a long distance from Muncie before you stop to count the money and when you do you discover you have really hit the jackpot big time: you have stolen $55,000 from the train, making your share a whopping $7,800. Everyone, especially Bud, are very happy but you know it is time to split up again. Frank, Jesse and Clell decide to hide out with friends near St Joseph, Missouri, Bud McDaniels declares he intends to rent a hotel room in Kansas City while Bob and Cole decide they are going down to Texas to stay with their old friend Bud's brother Tom McDaniels. You need to choose who to join. > You go with Frank, Jesse and Clell to St Joseph You go with the James boys and Clell to hide out near St Joseph where you read in newspapers that Bud was identified as one of the Muncie train robbers and shot while trying to escape prison in Kansas City. His death saddens you all and drives you into hiding but in January 1875 you read even more incredible news in the newspapers. Suspecting that you and the others are in the area a small army of Pinkerton Agents surrounded the James Farm and blew it up with some kind of explosive. The explosion killed Frank and Jesse's eight year old brother Archie and tore their elderly mother Zerelda's right arm off. Frank and especially Jesse are overwhelmed with rage when they learn of the cowardly attack and Jesse's first reaction is to kill every single Pinkerton Detective involved in the raid. After calming a little he decides to settle for killing his neighbor Dan Askew who is wildly known to have allowed the Pinkertons to use his Farm as a base from which to launch the raid. One night the four of you approach the Askew Farm and knock on the door. When the old farmer opens his front door Jesse shoots him in the chest. > You shoot him as well Raising your pistol you shoot the old farmer in the head killing him. Fleeing the scene rapidly you and your companions take to the woods where you live in hiding. Reading newspapers you learn that the Pinkerton Detective Agency are sending one of their Agents, Jack Ladd, to investigate Dan Askew's murder. As Ladd also took part in the attack on the James Family Farm Frank and Jesse see more opportunity for revenge and decide to kill the Pinkerton as well. Returning to the Askew Property armed with rifles you and your companions sneak through the trees and get yourself into a position from which you can see the farm house. You watch it for several hours until finally a man in a smart suit who you recognize as Ladd from the newspaper photographs emerges from the front door. "Now," Jesse murmurs and all of you raise your rifles. You consider whether or not to fire at the unsuspecting man. > You shoot the Pinkerton Your aim is perfect and Ladd jerks as four bullets slam into his chest, knocking him to the ground. Fleeing the property you decide it is better to get out of Missouri and heading south to join Bob and Cole. Most of the newspapers, which were initially supportive of the James brothers after the attack on their family, are outraged by the two murders and urge people everywhere to shoot any member of the James-Younger Gang on sight. Going down to the McDaniels Farm you meet up with Bob, Cole and their host Tom McDaniels, brother of the slain Bud. Together with another friend and war veteran called Tom Webb the group are planning to rob a bank in West Virginia, far from your usual raiding areas. Frank likes the idea but uncharacteristically Bob, Clell and Jesse think it is better to lay low for a spell until the attention of the Pinkertons has worn off. You will have to choose who to join. > You join Frank, Cole and the two Tom's in robbing the bank in West Virginia On the morning chosen for the robbery you and your four companions ride into Huntingdon and dismount outside the town bank. While the two Tom's guard the horses you, Frank and Cole walk into the bank, draw your weapons, take the teller hostage, empty all the money in the vault into a sack and lock him inside the vault. Going outside you re-mount your horses and ride out of town. Once more it seems like you have pulled off another straight-forward robbery. You haven't got far from Huntingdon when suddenly you spot a dozen horsemen riding out of the town straight after you. "Now boys, ride for it," Cole calls out and all of you spur your horses into a gallop. You hear bangs behind you as the posse begin shooting their rifles and pistols at you all, the bullets whistling overhead and between you all. Suddenly Tom McDaniels reins his horse in and turns it about. "Fuck this," he calls out as he pulls his rifle from his saddle scabbard and begins firing back at the posse. > You join Tom in returning fire Like Tom you turn your horse and fire back at the approaching riders. The posse fires a volley of shots at the pair of you and both of you are hit, Tom in the chest and you in the throat. Gasping wetly through the blood you turn your horse to try to ride away but the wound is fatal. You topple from your horse to the ground, Tom is also lying nearby. As your pursuers get closer and closer you stare up at the clear blue sky above you and silently expire.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>On the morning chosen for the robbery you and your four companions ride into Huntingdon and dismount outside the town bank. While the two Tom's guard the horses you, Frank and Cole walk into the bank, draw your weapons, take the teller hostage, empty all the money in the vault into a sack and lock him inside the vault. Going outside you re-mount your horses and ride out of town. Once more it seems like you have pulled off another straight-forward robbery. You haven't got far from Huntingdon when suddenly you spot a dozen horsemen riding out of the town straight after you. "Now boys, ride for it," Cole calls out and all of you spur your horses into a gallop. You hear bangs behind you as the posse begin shooting their rifles and pistols at you all, the bullets whistling overhead and between you all. Suddenly Tom McDaniels reins his horse in and turns it about. "Fuck this," he calls out as he pulls his rifle from his saddle scabbard and begins firing back at the posse. > You keep riding after your companions You keep riding but a yell behind you makes you glance back: Tom McDaniels has been shot in the chest and he slowly falls from his horse to the ground. You and your surviving companions concentrate on outracing your pursuers across the prairie and though they follow you all day at nightfall they finally break off the pursuit. Weary and exhausted you stop to count the money you have stolen: though you made off with $10,000 from the bank Tom was carrying some of it when he was shot so your share of the robbery is only $2,000. "We need to split up in case they keep coming after us," Cole says wearily. "Frank and I will keep going west into Kentucky, Tom you turn south and head into Tennessee. Keep a low profile and we will all meet up together again back in Missouri. This could be desperate work." You consider who you will go with. > You go west into Kentucky with Frank and Cole You continue west with Frank and Cole across Kentucky and into Missouri. On the way you read in the newspapers that Tom Webb has been captured in Tennessee. He is put on trial, found guilty and sentenced to eight years for armed robbery. You and your veteran companions are exhausted by the time you get back to Missouri: this has been your most difficult escape from a bank robbery yet and you spent the winter and spring lying low until the gang reunites in the summer of 1876 in the small Missouri town of Otterville. > The Gang reunites You and the other nine members of the James-Younger Gang who gather in an empty cabin on the edge of Otterville are the most wanted men in America. Jesse, grinning and carefree sits next to a dour and frowning Frank. Cole, tough and capable sits between his handsome, young brother Bob and his other brother Jim who looks like he is wishing he could be somewhere else. The joker Clell Miller and the tall Bill Chadwell are gazing at Jesse with something like adoration while the silent Charlie Pitts sits with them. Finally you are sitting next to the newest member of the Gang, another former Guerrilla but a bit of a weak link called Hoobs Kerry. "Boys, we've had a turbulent couple of years but we sure are taking the fight to the Yankees, America's never known bandits like us before," Jesse declares. "My idea for this year is that we rob a train here in Missouri first and then go all the way up to Minnesota and rob one of those fat Northern banks up there. Bill here is from Minnesota and knows the area well and together the ten of us are unbeatable! We'll pull off a crime so audacious all of America will be talking about it!" "I'm only here to try and stop you from getting my brothers Cole and Bob killed the way you got John killed," Jim Younger says dourly. "You can rob your train here without me." "Well I'm sorry you feel that way Jim," Jesse says, his smile not even flickering. "What do the rest of you say? You're all in aren't you?" Everyone else agrees and then it's your turn. > You join Frank, Jesse, Cole, Bob, Clell, Bill, Charlie and Hoobs in robbing a train in Missouri Leaving Jim behind you join the rest of the gang in holding up the train outside Otterville. As usual the robbery goes smoothly: after forcing the train to halt you and the James brothers empty the Express Safe while the Youngers guard the train staff and the others hold the horses. Mounting up you ride cross-country, easily eluding pursuit, and once you are well clear of Otterville. You have got away with a good haul: $15,000, which makes your share $1,600. You are all ready now to make the trip up to Minnesota and even Jim joins you to help protect his brothers. At the last moment Hoobs gets cold feet, he has been nervous ever since the train robbery and he insists on staying behind at his farm in Missouri. You and the other outlaws are not impressed but since you can't force him to go with you if he doesn't want to you all agree to let him back out of the planned robbery and make preparations to head up to Minnesota without him. > You join Frank, Jesse, Cole, Jim, Bob, Clell, Bill and Charlie in robbing the bank in Minnesota You and your eight companions begin scouting towns in Minnesota for good banks to rob and settle on one in the town of Northfield. While you are in Minnesota you learn that Hoobs Kerry has been identified and arrested and has promptly identified each of the Gang including those who took part in the Otterville Train Robbery in exchange for a reduced sentence of two years imprisonment. You are all furious at Hoobs's betrayal but decide to go ahead with your plans anyway. As usual it's Jesse who makes the plans. "Folk in Minnesota will be on the lookout for nine men acting suspiciously so we won't all go in at once tomorrow," he declares. "Frank, Bob and myself will go into the bank while Cole and Clell hold the horses outside. Bill, Charlie and Jim, I want you to wait on the edge of town and if you hear any shooting come riding in like hell firing your pistols into the air to get those Yankee townsfolk off the streets. I know it's a big town boys but this is a rich bank and the money we should get is worth the risk. Bill, which group do you want to join?" > You join Frank, Jesse and Bob in entering the bank You and your friends ride up to the bank, leave your horses tied up outside and go in. There are three tellers but no customers inside the bank and drawing your pistols you approach the tellers. "We're robbing this bank," Jesse declares. "Don't any of you holler, we've got forty men outside." The tellers raise their hands and Frank wanders inside the vault to look at the safe inside. As he does one of the tellers suddenly grabs the vault door and starts pulling it shut. Frank darts back and jams his arm forward as the teller slams the door on it, running forward Bob hits the teller with his pistol and knocks him to the floor. You all approach the fallen man, Frank angrily rubbing his crushed arm, and drawing a small knife from his pocket Jesse holds it to the injured teller's neck. "Open the safe or I'll cut your damn throat from ear to ear," Jesse snarls. "You'll have to cut my throat because I can't open the safe," the man replies bravely. A shot from outside makes you all glance at the door. As you do another of the tellers springs into action, and dashes away, through a back door and out into the street. "Get him," Jesse shouts. > You chase after the fleeing teller and shoot him Racing to the backdoor you point your pistol at the fleeing man and fire. The bullet hits the teller in the back of his shoulder, though the man stumbles he makes it to the edge of the street and vanishes round a corner. As you shut the door and go back inside the bank you can hear shots outside and suddenly Cole's voice yelling "Hurry up, they've given the alarm!" "God damn you, open the safe," Jesse barks at the teller on the floor and fires his pistol at the floor next to the man's head. You and Bob quickly scoop all the loose notes you can find off the counter while Frank and Jesse continue to threaten the fallen teller who bravely refuses to help them in any way. Dozens of gunshots are ringing out on the streets outside now and again you hear Cole's voice shouting "They're killing our men! Get out here!" "Fuck you," Jesse snarls, hitting the teller in the face again with his gun and then he and Bob give up and run out of the bank. As you are about to follow them you notice Frank massaging his wounded arm and eyeing the teller. "We should kill that son of a bitch," Frank says to you. > You shoot the man in the head Going up to the teller you place your pistol against his head and squeeze the trigger, killing him instantly. You and Frank run outside to be greeted by a scene of utter pandemonium. Clell, Bill and a third man who looks like a citizen of the town are lying dead in the street; the rest of your Gang are riding their horses up and down firing their pistols up at the buildings where several men seemed to have armed themselves and are firing back. Bob's horse has been killed and Bob himself has taken shelter under a wooden staircase near the bank. You and Frank make it to your horses and scramble on top of them, as you do someone starts shooting at both of you, hitting Frank in the leg and you in the left forearm, both fairly minor wounds. "It's no use boys, lets clear out," you shout and spurring your horses into a gallop you concentrate on riding your horse out of time, quickly catching up with Charlie and Cole, the latter bleeding from several gunshot wounds. As you reach the edge of town you hear a scream behind you "Don't leave me boys, I've been shot!" Glancing back you realize you have all forgotten Bob who has sprung out of his hiding place and is sprinting down the street after you. "Shit," Cole mutters and glances at you and Charlie. "Cover me boys," he orders. Cole then does the most incredible thing you have ever seen someone do in real life: he spurs his horse directly back down the street towards his injured brother. Several men are shooting at them and though you and Charlie are firing your pistols at the buildings you might as well be throwing stones at them for all the good it does. Cole and Bob seem to be moving through a virtual rain of bullets. Bob stumbles as one shot hits his leg. Two more graze Cole's horse making it scream and rear but he keeps it under control. Reaching down he helps Bob climb onto his horse. As he does three more bullets hit Cole, the dust exploding from his clothes in small puffs as each bullet hits him. Gritting his teeth he turns his horse around and gallops straight back towards you and Charlie. The gunfire is directed at you two now: one bullet grazes Charlie's arm and another bullet whizzes right past your right ear. As Bob and Cole reach you both you turn horses around and gallop out of town after Frank, Jesse and Jim. Behind you leave the dead bodies of your two fellow outlaws and the shattered myth of the invincibility of the James-Younger Gang. > You flight By the time you and your surviving companions make it out of Northfield you are in a pretty bad way: Bill Chadwell and Clell Miller are dead and everyone except Jesse (and possibly you) has been wounded: Charlie and Frank have both been shot once, Bob twice, Jim three times and Cole a remarkable five times, though all his wounds are minor. The most serious wounds are Jim's and Bob's the latter of whom has had his right elbow completely shattered. Altogether you have managed to steal less than $27 dollars from the bank in Northfield. Perhaps worst of all your only guide to Minnesota, Bill Chadwell, is dead leaving all of you stranded in a hostile state with only the knowledge that you have to head in a generally southern direction to reach safety. You don't have a single friend in Northfield and within days thousands of men in hundreds of posses are combing Minnesota for you. The first week after your escape from Northfield requires all the knowledge that all of you (except Bob) gained during your four years as Guerrillas during the Civil War and your eleven years as outlaws since. Performing basic medical care for your injured and stealing a horse for Bob you manage to get the drop on one posse of several men who are hunting you, swiftly disarm them and ride off with their guns. Exchanging shots with another posse you escape during a rainstorm you pass yourselves off as a posse hunting the Northfield Robbers which goes well until one night when you camp on a small island and wake to find the island surrounded by hundreds of men. You only escape by unleashing your horses in one direction and swimming off in another, somehow escaping in the fog and the storm. After this narrow escape you spend a few days resting in an abandoned farmhouse before continuing, stealing horses along the way. By the 14th things are serious. Both Bob and Jim have become feverish from their untreated wounds and can only travel very slowly. Finally Cole turns to you and the others. "It's no good, we'll never get out of Minnesota going at this speed," he admits to you all. "Bill, it's better that you, Frank and Jesse ride ahead. You'll be moving faster, attracting more attention from the posses and meanwhile me, Jim and Bob can keep going in our own slow way and hopefully slip out of Minnesota unnoticed while all the posses are busy chasing you." You all consider the idea but Charlie shakes his head and declares that he wouldn't feel right abandoning the badly injured Younger Brothers. The James brothers have no problem with the plan and take all the Youngers money and personal possessions to give to their family in case the worst happens. Frank and Jesse decide to ride directly west towards the Dakotas and try to draw posses after them while the Youngers and Charlie continue south towards Iowa. You need to choose which group you will join. > You accompany the James Brothers west You decide to split off with Frank and Jesse and after a week of riding you have covered a lot of distance. That night you approach a bridge over a lake and unfortunately a posse of men are sleeping on the bridge. Dismounting you all try to lead your horses quietly across the bridge but something wakes up one of the posse members. Sitting up he fires a rifle shot which passes through Jesse's thigh to hit Frank in the leg. A moment later he fires another shot which hits your left leg just below the knee. Yelling in pain the three of you throw yourselves onto the backs of your horses and spur them into a gallop, rapidly escaping as the posse fire at you. Riding west non-stop for more than forty-eight hours you finally cross into South Dakota and safety three days after your injury. Turning south you escape back to Missouri. En-route you learn that a week after you parted with them your companions were discovered and surrounded by a posse in Minnesota. Cole, Jim and Bob were all wounded again and captured while Charlie Pitts was killed. All three of the Younger Brothers later draw a twenty-five year sentence in the state penitentiary, refusing to the last to name who took part in the Northfield Robbery with them. Your incredibly narrow escape and the complete destruction of the James-Younger Gang have persuaded you, Frank and Jesse that it is time to retire from crime. While Frank and Jesse go into hiding with their wives and children while you travel east all the way to New York and live anonymously for a long time. Finally three years after your escape from Minnesota a letter arrives from Jesse James. He has formed a new gang and would like you to join him in returning to the outlaw life. After a long internal struggle for reasons you don't, and perhaps never fully will, understand you find yourself on a train heading back to Missouri and your old outlaw life. > The James Gang Returning to Missouri you meet your old friend for the first time in many years. Jesse hasn't changed at all, though he is now in his thirties and has grown a beard he maintains all his old enthusiasm, high-spirits and carefree attitude. Apparently Frank wants nothing more to do with crime and is enjoying his retirement in Tennessee but Jesse has formed a new gang of five men, making you the seventh member of the new James Gang. The new recruits don't impress you and are nowhere near as high quality as the Youngers or the other former members of the James-Younger Gang. The most reliable of the lot seems to be Wood Hite, Jesse's cousin and a former Guerrilla. Dick Liddil, a clever young man seems reliable enough while Bill Ryan, a hard-drinking admirer of Jesse also seems fairly dependable. The last two members of the Gang, Clell Miller's younger brother Ed Miller and a farmer called Tucker Bassham strike you as idiots and the absence of Frank James concerns you. Despite your worries your first robbery in three years goes very well: Jesse has decided to concentrate on trains rather than banks after his experience at Northfield and one winter's night you hold a train outside Glendale, using a red light to stop the train. You and Jesse quickly empty the Express Safe while the others guard the driver and passengers before you all mount your horses and escape cross-county. After several hours you pause to count the money, you have stolen $6,000 which makes your share $800. Jesse is pleased with the success of the robbery but cautions his new recruits. "This will get the law on our trail and when the papers learn I am behind it the whole state will be looking for us. It's best if we split up, Tucker you back to your farm at Jackson. Wood, Dick and Bill, you head up to Wood's family's place in Kentucky. Ed, you come with me, we'll go and hole up at your farm outside Norborne. Where you going to go Bill?" > You join Tucker at the Bassham Farm You go with Tucker back to his farm, all the while having to endure his inane conversation conveying how excited he is by the amount of money you have made. He takes a shopping trip into Jackson and apparently brags loudly about taking part in the Glendale train robbery because the next morning there is a knock on his cabin door. When Tucker answers it you hear a man declare "Tucker Bassham, you are under arrest for train robbery." You spring to your feet and glance around, you are in your bedrrom a short way away and though there is only one door that leads into the kitchen where Tucker is there is a window. You could try jumping through the window to escape but it would make a loud noise and could be dangerous. > You try jumping through the window You start running and crash through the window, glass shards raining down as you hit the grass below. You hear a shout of alarm in the building behind you but you are on your feet in a moment and don't stop running, reaching the safety of nearby trees in an instant and sprinting through them as you hear more shouts behind you. You make it to Jackson, steal a horse and keep going until you reach the Hite Farm in Kentucky where you join up with Dick, Bill and Wood. There you read that after his arrest Tucker promptly named all of you who helped rob the Glendale train. Soon after this you read that fellow gang member Ed Miller’s body has been found in Missouri, allegedly killed by Jesse James. Soon after Jesse himself turns up at the Hite Farm. > You more Robberies The new James Gang has not had a good start with Tucker Bassham arrested and Ed Miller killed by Jesse for threatening to betray the Gang, that just leaves you, Jesse, Jesse's cousin Wood Hite, the cunning Dick Liddil and the alcoholic Bill Ryan. The murder of his old friend Clell's brother seems to weigh heavily on Jesse's conscience and the usual energy and cheerfulness of his younger years seems to be fading from your friend as Jesse enters his thirties. He remains as decisive as ever though. "There are lots of stagecoaches in Kentucky and the authorities won't be expecting one of them to be robbed," he declares. "Bill Ryan, you and I will ride out and hold up a stagecoach over by Mammoth Caves, they are always packed full of rich tourists. Dick and Wood, I want you to stay here in case I need you. Bill Grey, you can join us if you want or you can stay here and lie low with the boys." > You help Jesse and Bill rob a stagecoach in Kentucky You and your two companions ride out to Mammoth Cave, a popular tourist destination. You all wait by the side of the road and when a stagecoach full of tourist approaches you all surround it, pistols in hands. Forcing the unarmed driver and passengers to disembark you relieve them of their money and valuables before riding cross-country back to the Hite Farm. Counting your loot there you find you have made off with $2,000, making your share $600. Back at the Hite Farm Jesse is not content with your takings and having learned there is a large sum of money held in a store in the nearby town of Mercer he decides to rob that as well. Again he chooses to take Bill with him and also Dick while Wood will remain at the Farm making sure the place remains safe and keeping a watch out for lawmen. Again Jesse offers you the choice of whether to join him and the others in the robbery or remain at the Farm. > You join Jesse, Bill and Dick in robbing the payroll Riding into Mercer with the others you leave Dick and Bill outside with the horses and enter the store with Jesse. The pair of you draw your pistols and demand that the lone storekeeper hand over the payroll. "My son has taken it to the bank already," the nervous man tells you with his hands in the air and sure enough the safe is almost completely empty. Jesse is very annoyed but there is nothing you can do except leave the store, mount your horses and ride away. Jesse is very put out but after a winter spent exploring various states he learns that a similar payroll is being transported to the town of Muscle Shoals in far-off Alabama, a long way from your usual operating places. Jesse is determined to get the money and decides to take the ever-loyal Bill and Wood Hite with him this time, leaving Dick Liddil at the Hite Farm. Again he offers you the choice of accompanying him or staying at the Hite Farm. > You join Jesse, Bill and Wood in robbing the payroll Traveling south to Alabama with your friends you make your way to Muscle Shoals and learn what route the man carrying the payroll usually takes into town. Making your way to a lonely part of the road you all hide in some trees until the paymaster comes into sight. Emerging with pistols in your hands you all relieve him of the sack of money he is carrying before riding off across the countryside. When you stop to count the money you find you have stolen $5,000, making your share $1,200. You and your companions are pleased by the easy job, especially Bill. "I think I'll go back to Adairville in Kentucky to celebrate with some of my old friends," he says. "Don't be there too long," Jesse says. "I think I'm going to go and talk to Frank and some other boys to get them to join the boy. This summer I think we should start hitting trains in Missouri." Agreeing to meet up at the Hite Farm Jesse and Wood part ways with Bill leaving you free to choose who to join. > You go with Jesse and Wood to talk to Frank That summer you accompany Jesse and Wood to Tennessee where Frank is living a peaceful life in retirement as a farmer. Jesse manages to persuade his brother to return to the outlaw life while Wood also recruits his younger brother Clarence Hite. As you are all traveling back to the Hite Farm you learn that Bill Ryan has been arrested in Adairville after being recognized as a wanted outlaw. Despite this setback the five of you rejoin Dick Liddil at the Hite Farm where Jesse discusses his latest plans. > The James Gang return to Missouri The loss of Bill Ryan, his favorite gang member, has hit Jesse hard but despite looking more tired than ever Jesse's ambition remains as boundless as always. As well as you, Dick Liddil and Wood Hite Jesse has persuaded his brother Frank to rejoin the gang and also his cousin Clarence Hite, Wood's younger brother who is dying of tuberculosis and is so emaciated you are not certain he'll be up to the rigors of outlaw life. Jesse remains confident though. "It is time we went back to Missouri and reminded the governor there that are fifteen years the James boys are still going strong," he declares, grinning at Frank. "The Civil War may be over but we haven't stopped fighting it! We'll hold up a few trains and then clear out of the state." On the chosen day Dick, Wood and Clarence camp outside the town of Winston while you, Frank and Jesse ride into town. Boarding the noon train you make your way to the driver's carriage where you take him hostage and have him stop the train close to where your friends are waiting. After the train stops you, Frank and Jesse make your way down the passenger carriages towards the express carriage, Jesse leading the way. "This is a hold up," he barks to the passengers. "Remain in your seats." Without warning a uniformed conductor suddenly springs forward and grabs at Jesse's pistol. Startled the two men wrestle over the weapon while you and Frank stand by startled. "Shoot him," Jesse yells. > You shoot the conductor You raise your pistol and shoot the conductor in the head. As the man falls to the ground Jesse regains control of his pistol and shoots him again in the chest. While the conductor lies on the floor bleeding and gun smoke rises in the carriage another passenger springs to his feet, gun in hand. "Jesse," Frank yells out in warning as he aims his pistol at the man. > You shoot the armed passenger The man staggers as your bullet hits him in the chest and dropping his pistol he falls to the ground. "Quickly boys," Frank calls out and the three of you hurry down the passenger carriage, leaving the two dead men behind you. Reaching the Express Carriage you find the safe contains very little money but you throw what little it does contain into a sack before making your escape from the train. Running to where you left your horses you escape cross country and count the money, finding you have made it away with $700, making your share $100. The robbery and it's accompanying double-killing make national news and the reward for, you, Frank or Jesse reaches a record $5,000 each to be brought in dead or alive, making the three of you worth $15,000 altogether. Jesse is completely unperturbed and recruits another gang member, a young friend of Dick Liddil's called Charley Ford. Together the seven of you plan your next train robbery to take place on the fifth anniversary of the disastrous Northfield Bank Robbery. > The Blue Cut Train Robbery Five years to the day since the James-Younger Gang was destroyed at Northfield you and the rest of the James Gang rob a train at Blue Cut, Missouri. Together with the wary Frank and gregarious Jesse you halt the train with lanterns and climb aboard. "I'm Jesse James," Jesse declares to the frightened passengers. "You might have read about me in the papers. Stay calm and no one will get hurt." Making your way to the Express Carriage you empty the safe of a small amount of money and hastily disembark. Escaping on horses you find that you have made away with $1,000, which split seven ways makes your share $100. "We need to split up boys," Jesse declares. "Wood, Dick and Charley, you go and hide out at Charley's sister's place near Kansas City. Clarence, I want you to hole up in Adairville and get some medical treatment. I'm going to rent my own place in Kansas City. What are you going to do Frank?" "I reckon anywhere near Missouri is too dangerous at the moment," Frank says. "I'm going back to my farm in Tennessee." Jesse glances at you. "What are you going to do Bill?" > You go with Wood, Dick and Charley to the Ford Farm You accompany Dick, Wood and Charley back to Charley's Farm where you meet his sister Martha and his brother Bob, a nervous young man who seems to regard you all with awe. Your stay at the Farm isn't a happy one: Dick and Wood both like Martha and become increasingly hostile towards each other. The argument escalates one evening when you, Dick, Wood, Charley and Bob are all sitting upstairs. Screaming insults at each other Dick and Wood promptly pull out their pistols, spring to their feet and start shooting at each other. > You join in the gunfight Drawing your pistol you take Wood's side in the argument and fire a shot, hitting Dick in the leg. Dick returns fire, hitting Wood in the arm and suddenly Charley's kid brother Bob unexpectedly joins the gunfight, shooting Wood in the head. As you turn towards him Bob fires a second shot, hitting you in the throat. Gasping and choking you sink to the floor, your life's blood pouring from you as Bob coldly steps closer to you and executes you with a final shot. The same man who will kill Jesse James has just killed you.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You accompany Dick, Wood and Charley back to Charley's Farm where you meet his sister Martha and his brother Bob, a nervous young man who seems to regard you all with awe. Your stay at the Farm isn't a happy one: Dick and Wood both like Martha and become increasingly hostile towards each other. The argument escalates one evening when you, Dick, Wood, Charley and Bob are all sitting upstairs. Screaming insults at each other Dick and Wood promptly pull out their pistols, spring to their feet and start shooting at each other. > You get the hell out of there You haven't survived this long by being stupid and springing to your feet you race through the door out of the room. The shots continue to ring out behind you ending in the sound of a body hitting the floor - later you will learn that Charley's brother Bob has killed Wood Hite. Making it to your horse in the Farm's stable you hastily mount up and ride away. For the rest of the winter you live in hiding in Missouri, not emerging until the winter. In the meantime the James Gang is destroyed. First Dick and Charley, fearful of Jesse's revenge after killing his cousin Wood, surrender to the law. They tell them where they can find Clarence Hite who is arrested in his hotel in Adairville. Finally Bob Ford murders Jesse James, shooting him in the back of the head while your friend hangs a picture on the wall. Stunned to hear the legendary outlaw is dead you make your way to Tennessee where the other remaining survivor of the gang, Frank James is still living. > The end of the James Gang Frank is in shock when you join him in Tennessee: like you he finds it impossible to believe that Jesse James, America's greatest bank robber and survivor of so many gunfights and robberies, is dead. As you spend the summer hiding out in Tennessee Frank grows increasingly pessimistic. "They'll kill us next you know Bill," he tells you one day. "I'm going back to Missouri to surrender. I figure if I surrender myself they might go easy on me, it's either that or keep running until they catch or kill me. I've got no choice. What are you going to do Bill? I suppose you could make a run down to Mexico or up to Canada or some place where the law ain't got no jurisdiction. But I reckon they'll still get you in the end, just like they got Jesse." You carefully mull over what to do. > You go with Frank to Missouri to surrender You and Frank make your way to Jefferson City, Missouri where friends of Frank have arranged both of your surrenders to Governor Crittenden of Missouri himself. When you meet the Governor you both hand your guns over to him, Frank commenting that it is the first time in twenty-one years since the start of the American Civil War that he has surrendered his gun to anyone. "We have spent our last twenty-one years on the run," you tell him. "We have been hunted day and night, never able to rest in case every sound is an approaching posse or some lawman on our trail. It will be a massive relief to finally be able to rest." The two of you are placed in custody and the next three years and taken over by a long series of trials in which Clarence Hite, Charley Ford and Dick Liddil all testify. Despite the many charges laid against you and the mound of testimony by some miracle you and Frank manage to argue your way into acquittal on all the charges and in the spring of 1885 you are finally pardoned of all your crimes and allowed to go free, a truly incredible result! > One last enemy By the 1890's as you enter your fifties it seems that you have put your outlaw past behind you and become a respectable citizen. You have little touch with your former fellow Outlaws: Jesse James, John Younger, Clell Miller, John Jarette, Charlie Pitts, Wood Hite, Bill Chadwell, Oll Shepherd, Little Arch Clement, Bud McDaniels and Tom McDaniels are all dead. Bob Younger and Clarence Hite are dead too, claimed by tuberculosis while Charley Ford has shot himself, overwhelmed by guilt for his role in Jesse's death. Tom Webb, Bill Ryan, Tucker Bassham and Hoobs Kerry all vanished after their release from prison while Cole Younger and Jim Younger are still incarcerated. That leaves just yourself, Frank James, George Shepherd and Dick Liddil alive on the outside, and naturally you have little contact with the last two. You do see the face of an enemy one summer day when you are in a little town called Creede in Colorado to transact some business. Bob Ford, the man who murdered your friend Jesse, owns a saloon in town and you recognize him in the street. Hatred fills you and you strongly consider killing the man who killed your friend. Doing so would of course put you back outside the law again but it would be a fitting revenge after he betrayed and murdered Jesse James. You carefully consider what to do. > You buy a gun and kill Bob Ford Making your way to a nearby gun store you buy a shotgun. After loading and cocking the gun you enter Bob Ford's saloon to find the man you are looking for standing at the bar with his back to you. "Hello Bob," you call out and the young man turns around. Raising the shotgun you fire both barrels directly into his throat, nearly blowing his head off. As Bob Ford is blasted to the floor everyone in the saloon stares at you in stunned silence as you slowly lower the shotgun. "That's for Jesse James," you declare. You surrender without a struggle and after a short trial you are naturally found guilty of murder. The Judge takes a very lenient view of the killing and you are sentenced to just nine years imprisonment, being released in 1901. You never regret the killing of Bob Ford. > The end of the story The year of 1901 brings two pieces of good news for you: first the traitor Dick Liddil dies of a heart attack and then finally Cole and Jim Younger are released from prison after serving the full term of their twenty-five year sentences. Jim struggles to adjust and when his parole conditions don't allow him to marry the woman he loves he commits suicide a year after his release from prison, a tragic end to a life beset by tragedies. Cole does better, reuniting with you and Frank James. For several years the three of you travel around the Old West in various exhibitions and shows, earning a bit of money from your notoriety. The days of the horseback outlaw are truly over now with fictional accounts of your crimes told in awful Dime Novels, songs and in the revolutionary new moving picture films. Your infamy is never far away and one day when the three of you have some business to transact in a bank Cole suddenly stops you. "If the tellers see Frank James, Cole Younger and Bill Grey walk into their bank they are liable to start shooting," he points out. The years pass and the last actors leave the stage: Frank dies in 1915 and Cole in 1916. The death of one time gang member George Shepherd in 1917 leaves you the last surviving member of the James Gang, now well into your seventies you continue to live in your native Missouri which is peaceful now. The young folks don't believe you when you tell them tales of whizzing bullets, thrilling horseback rides and the screams of dying men in the dust. They don't believe you when you say you rode with the best: the daring Younger Brothers and the best bandits of them all, the legendary outlaws Frank and Jesse James. CONGRATULATIONS, YOU HAVE EARNED THE HIDDEN SURVIVOR BONUS OF 100,000 WHICH WILL BE ADDED TO YOUR SCORE AND VISIBLE TO OTHERS IF YOU LEAVE A COMMENT. THANK YOU FOR TAKING THE TIME TO PLAY MY GAME. > You click here if you are interested in how you wrote this Jesse James stands alongside Billy the Kid and John Wesley Hardin as one of the foremost outlaws of the Old West thanks in part to his actions and in part to his legend, which Jesse actively worked on and promoted during his lifetime. Jesse was genuinely a bank robber of outstanding ability, the James-Younger Gang's successful record would not be beaten until the rise of Butch Cassidy's Hole in the Wall Gang in the 1890's. Jesse had a reputation as a Southern Robin Hood and a deadly gunfighter of outstanding ability. In truth most of the men Jesse and his gang shot and killed were unarmed and you certainly wouldn't have wanted to be in a bank when he and his pals came through the door. Many of their killings were random and pointless and Jesse rarely had much stomach for a fight once people started shooting back at him. Far from being a Robin Hood Jesse and his friends never shared their money with anyone except their immediate friends and family, in fact most of the banks and trains he robbed contained the money of his fellow Southern men in Missouri and other states. But Jesse has been kind to Jesse in part because of the fun alliteration of his name and in part because of his legend. Jesse promoted himself in a way his somber brother Frank or the cautious Cole Younger never did and he couldn't care less about the people he hurt along the way. As one historian pointed out people tended to look at this legendary figure of Jesse James, they rarely spent time looking into the details of all the killings and robberies that put him on this pedestal. Researching outlaws is always fun and easy, building up a timeline of their activities provides a natural framework to build the story up around, all that really needs to be fleshed out are the characters of the outlaws themselves and the details of the gunfights which were genuinely dramatic and exciting. I think Cole Younger riding back into Northfield towards a dozen people shooting at him to rescue his wounded brother Bob show that the historic truth can sometimes be more amazing than fiction, even great works of fiction like True Grit. As I have timelines for every gang of American criminals including the Doolin-Dalton Gang, the Hole in the Wall Gang, John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, Baby Face Nelson, Al Karpis and the Barkers, Pretty Boy Floyd and every other major outlaw gang of bank robbers between the years 1865 and 2015 I may write more sequels depending on how this story is received, though the slightly repetitive nature of the story (robbery, possible gunfight, hide out for a time with another possible gunfight or arrest attempt, robbery again etc etc) does concern me as does the fact the reader is encouraged to kill defenseless people to improve his or her score. Still those people who really lived and really did so many incredible things may prove just too fascinating for me not to write about!<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>By the 1890's as you enter your fifties it seems that you have put your outlaw past behind you and become a respectable citizen. You have little touch with your former fellow Outlaws: Jesse James, John Younger, Clell Miller, John Jarette, Charlie Pitts, Wood Hite, Bill Chadwell, Oll Shepherd, Little Arch Clement, Bud McDaniels and Tom McDaniels are all dead. Bob Younger and Clarence Hite are dead too, claimed by tuberculosis while Charley Ford has shot himself, overwhelmed by guilt for his role in Jesse's death. Tom Webb, Bill Ryan, Tucker Bassham and Hoobs Kerry all vanished after their release from prison while Cole Younger and Jim Younger are still incarcerated. That leaves just yourself, Frank James, George Shepherd and Dick Liddil alive on the outside, and naturally you have little contact with the last two. You do see the face of an enemy one summer day when you are in a little town called Creede in Colorado to transact some business. Bob Ford, the man who murdered your friend Jesse, owns a saloon in town and you recognize him in the street. Hatred fills you and you strongly consider killing the man who killed your friend. Doing so would of course put you back outside the law again but it would be a fitting revenge after he betrayed and murdered Jesse James. You carefully consider what to do. > You let him be You manage to control yourself and turn your back on your outlaw life once and for all, riding out of Creede without exacting any vengeance. It doesn't matter: soon after you read in the newspapers that Bob Ford has been killed by a man called Ed O'Kelley who had a general dislike of him. Growing old gracefully you move into the Twentieth Century.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Frank is in shock when you join him in Tennessee: like you he finds it impossible to believe that Jesse James, America's greatest bank robber and survivor of so many gunfights and robberies, is dead. As you spend the summer hiding out in Tennessee Frank grows increasingly pessimistic. "They'll kill us next you know Bill," he tells you one day. "I'm going back to Missouri to surrender. I figure if I surrender myself they might go easy on me, it's either that or keep running until they catch or kill me. I've got no choice. What are you going to do Bill? I suppose you could make a run down to Mexico or up to Canada or some place where the law ain't got no jurisdiction. But I reckon they'll still get you in the end, just like they got Jesse." You carefully mull over what to do. > You try your chances in fleeing south to Mexico Parting ways with Frank you head south, cross the Rio Grande and join numerous American fugitives from justice in hiding out in Mexico. You spend three years living in Mexico, reading in papers as Frank is miraculously acquitted in trial after trial despite the mountain of evidence against him. Finally in 1885 all charges against him are dismissed and you receive word that all charges against you have been dismissed as well. A free and safe man for the first time in nearly twenty-five years, since the start of the American Civil War, you finally return to America.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Five years to the day since the James-Younger Gang was destroyed at Northfield you and the rest of the James Gang rob a train at Blue Cut, Missouri. Together with the wary Frank and gregarious Jesse you halt the train with lanterns and climb aboard. "I'm Jesse James," Jesse declares to the frightened passengers. "You might have read about me in the papers. Stay calm and no one will get hurt." Making your way to the Express Carriage you empty the safe of a small amount of money and hastily disembark. Escaping on horses you find that you have made away with $1,000, which split seven ways makes your share $100. "We need to split up boys," Jesse declares. "Wood, Dick and Charley, you go and hide out at Charley's sister's place near Kansas City. Clarence, I want you to hole up in Adairville and get some medical treatment. I'm going to rent my own place in Kansas City. What are you going to do Frank?" "I reckon anywhere near Missouri is too dangerous at the moment," Frank says. "I'm going back to my farm in Tennessee." Jesse glances at you. "What are you going to do Bill?" > You go with Clarence to Adairville You accompany Clarence to Adairville but your companion is so sick with his terminal tuberculosis that mostly he keeps to his room. One afternoon you are both eating dinner in the hotel's restaurant when several Deputy Sheriffs enter the room and immediately walk towards you. Immediately you know they are here to arrest you and a quick glance around reveals a door to the kitchen just a few feet from you. You could try to make a break for it but as all the Deputies are armed with guns it could be dangerous. > You make a break for it Springing to your feet you race towards the door, shoulder-barge through it and hurtle through the kitchen, past the stunned cooks and kitchen staff. The lawmen are in hot pursuit but bursting through a backed door you make it out into the street and spring onto the back of a nearby horse. Spurring it into life you gallop out of town as the Deputies fire their pistols at you. One bullet whizzes past your left ear, another knocks your hat from your head but miraculously you make it out of town unhurt and ride hard for Missouri where you spend the spring in hiding. During your time hiding the James Gang is destroyed. After killing Wood Hite in Missouri Dick Liddil and Charley Ford surrender to the law. Clarence Hite is imprisoned. Soon after Charley's younger brother Bob Ford shoots Jesse James in the back of the head while your friend hangs a picture on the wall. Stunned to hear of your legendary friend's death you ride for Tennessee where the other remaining survivor of the James Gang, Frank James, is living in hiding.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You accompany Clarence to Adairville but your companion is so sick with his terminal tuberculosis that mostly he keeps to his room. One afternoon you are both eating dinner in the hotel's restaurant when several Deputy Sheriffs enter the room and immediately walk towards you. Immediately you know they are here to arrest you and a quick glance around reveals a door to the kitchen just a few feet from you. You could try to make a break for it but as all the Deputies are armed with guns it could be dangerous. > You surrender Like Clarence you raise your hands in surrender and allow the lawmen to take you into custody. Imprisoned in Adairville you soon learn that Dick Liddil and Charley Ford have surrendered to the law after killing Wood Hite in a gunfight. Soon after Charley's younger brother Bob shoots Jesse James in the back of the head while your friend has a picture on the wall. In order to avoid his brother's fate Frank James surrenders to the law in Missouri, finally bringing the James Gang to an end. You and Frank go to court together in a remarkable series of trials that see Dick, Charley and Clarence all testify against you. In a remarkable series of trials that go on for three years you defeat all the charges against you both through lack of evidence, aggressive cross-examination and outright perjury. Finally in the spring of 1885 you are both released and for the first time in nearly twenty years you finally succeed in putting your outlaw life behind you.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Five years to the day since the James-Younger Gang was destroyed at Northfield you and the rest of the James Gang rob a train at Blue Cut, Missouri. Together with the wary Frank and gregarious Jesse you halt the train with lanterns and climb aboard. "I'm Jesse James," Jesse declares to the frightened passengers. "You might have read about me in the papers. Stay calm and no one will get hurt." Making your way to the Express Carriage you empty the safe of a small amount of money and hastily disembark. Escaping on horses you find that you have made away with $1,000, which split seven ways makes your share $100. "We need to split up boys," Jesse declares. "Wood, Dick and Charley, you go and hide out at Charley's sister's place near Kansas City. Clarence, I want you to hole up in Adairville and get some medical treatment. I'm going to rent my own place in Kansas City. What are you going to do Frank?" "I reckon anywhere near Missouri is too dangerous at the moment," Frank says. "I'm going back to my farm in Tennessee." Jesse glances at you. "What are you going to do Bill?" > You go with Jesse to Kansas City You and Jesse take a small house in Kansas City where you hide out for a time. In the spring of 1882 you learn that Clarence Hite has been arrested in Kentucky and Jesse invites the gang's newest recruit Charley Ford and his younger brother, a nervous youth called Bob Ford, to live with the pair of you. He is planning another bank robbery in Platte City, Missouri and wants you and the Ford brothers to take part in it. One spring morning you are all sitting to breakfast while Jesse reads the day's newspaper and gives a cry of surprise. "It says here that Dick Liddil has been arrested," he announces and you all glance at each other. "Well, I suppose they'll get all of us in the end," Jesse says thoughtfully. Rising from the table he goes into the living room and later when you follow him you find he has taken off his gun belt and is standing on a chair, straightening a picture on the wall. Suddenly a deafening gunshot next to you makes you jump. The bullet hits Jesse in the back of the head, slamming his face into the picture and he falls off the chair. Turning you find Charley Ford's kid brother Bob standing next to you, a smoking pistol in his hand. As you glance at each other he hastily re-cocks his pistol. > You draw your own pistol and shoot the man who murdered your friend You draw your own pistol but you are too slow: Bob Ford finishes re-cocking his pistol and shoots you in the right eye. Without a sound you fall to the ground dead, slain just feet from your famous friend, the cold hand of justice having finally extinguished your criminal life at last.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The loss of Bill Ryan, his favorite gang member, has hit Jesse hard but despite looking more tired than ever Jesse's ambition remains as boundless as always. As well as you, Dick Liddil and Wood Hite Jesse has persuaded his brother Frank to rejoin the gang and also his cousin Clarence Hite, Wood's younger brother who is dying of tuberculosis and is so emaciated you are not certain he'll be up to the rigors of outlaw life. Jesse remains confident though. "It is time we went back to Missouri and reminded the governor there that are fifteen years the James boys are still going strong," he declares, grinning at Frank. "The Civil War may be over but we haven't stopped fighting it! We'll hold up a few trains and then clear out of the state." On the chosen day Dick, Wood and Clarence camp outside the town of Winston while you, Frank and Jesse ride into town. Boarding the noon train you make your way to the driver's carriage where you take him hostage and have him stop the train close to where your friends are waiting. After the train stops you, Frank and Jesse make your way down the passenger carriages towards the express carriage, Jesse leading the way. "This is a hold up," he barks to the passengers. "Remain in your seats." Without warning a uniformed conductor suddenly springs forward and grabs at Jesse's pistol. Startled the two men wrestle over the weapon while you and Frank stand by startled. "Shoot him," Jesse yells. > You let the James Brothers take care of the situation The man staggers as Frank shoots hits him in the chest and dropping his pistol he falls to the ground. "Quickly boys," Frank calls out and the three of you hurry down the passenger carriage, leaving the two dead men behind you. Reaching the Express Carriage you find the safe contains very little money but you throw what little it does contain into a sack before making your escape from the train. Running to where you left your horses you escape cross country and count the money, finding you have made it away with $700, making your share $100. The robbery and it's accompanying double-killing make national news and the reward for, you, Frank or Jesse reaches a record $5,000 each to be brought in dead or alive, making the three of you worth $15,000 altogether. Jesse is completely unperturbed and recruits another gang member, a young friend of Dick Liddil's called Charley Ford. Together the seven of you plan your next train robbery to take place on the fifth anniversary of the disastrous Northfield Bank Robbery.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Riding into Mercer with the others you leave Dick and Bill outside with the horses and enter the store with Jesse. The pair of you draw your pistols and demand that the lone storekeeper hand over the payroll. "My son has taken it to the bank already," the nervous man tells you with his hands in the air and sure enough the safe is almost completely empty. Jesse is very annoyed but there is nothing you can do except leave the store, mount your horses and ride away. Jesse is very put out but after a winter spent exploring various states he learns that a similar payroll is being transported to the town of Muscle Shoals in far-off Alabama, a long way from your usual operating places. Jesse is determined to get the money and decides to take the ever-loyal Bill and Wood Hite with him this time, leaving Dick Liddil at the Hite Farm. Again he offers you the choice of accompanying him or staying at the Hite Farm. > You stay with Dick at the Hite Farm Parting from the others you and Bill make your way to Adairville where you spend several days drinking in saloons and generally having a fun time. The fun ends abruptly one night when Bill gets into a drunken argument with someone and boasts that he is friends with Jesse James. Lawmen quickly arrive on the scene and before Bill knows what is happening he is under arrest. You are standing by the bar at the time a few feet from a side door and as lawmen advance on you with pistols in their hands you consider making a break for it, though it could be dangerous. > You try escaping out a side door As the lawmen approach you suddenly make dart to the right, throw the door open and rush through. As the lawmen shout out you run down the alley outside, make it to a horse and mount up. You ride hard out of town and don't stop riding for 24 hours until you make it back to the safety of the Hite Farm: there you learn that Bill has been imprisoned for several years for his role in the Muscle Shoals payroll robbery but he has refused to name his companions. Soon after you arrive at the Hite Farm Jesse and Wood show up with their brothers Frank and Clarence Hite in tow, recruits for Jesse's latest plans.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Parting from the others you and Bill make your way to Adairville where you spend several days drinking in saloons and generally having a fun time. The fun ends abruptly one night when Bill gets into a drunken argument with someone and boasts that he is friends with Jesse James. Lawmen quickly arrive on the scene and before Bill knows what is happening he is under arrest. You are standing by the bar at the time a few feet from a side door and as lawmen advance on you with pistols in their hands you consider making a break for it, though it could be dangerous. > You surrender You meekly raise your hands in the air and surrender, together with Bill you are taken into custody. Put on trial in Adairville you are testified against by none other than Tucker Bassham and convicted not only of the Muscle Shoals payroll robbery but also of the Glendale train robbery: you are both sentenced to eight years imprisonment. While you are in prison the James Gang is destroyed: Wood Hite and your friend Jesse James are killed while Dick Liddil and Frank James surrender to the authorities, both are later acquitted of the charges against them. By the time you are eventually released your outlaw days are long gone by and the world seems a very different place as you enter into a peaceful retirement from your outlaw life.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You and your two companions ride out to Mammoth Cave, a popular tourist destination. You all wait by the side of the road and when a stagecoach full of tourist approaches you all surround it, pistols in hands. Forcing the unarmed driver and passengers to disembark you relieve them of their money and valuables before riding cross-country back to the Hite Farm. Counting your loot there you find you have made off with $2,000, making your share $600. Back at the Hite Farm Jesse is not content with your takings and having learned there is a large sum of money held in a store in the nearby town of Mercer he decides to rob that as well. Again he chooses to take Bill with him and also Dick while Wood will remain at the Farm making sure the place remains safe and keeping a watch out for lawmen. Again Jesse offers you the choice of whether to join him and the others in the robbery or remain at the Farm. > You wait with Wood at the Hite Farm You remain with Dick at the Hite Farm while your companions head south to rob the payroll in Alabama. The robbery goes off well but afterwards Bill Ryan is arrested in Adairville after he draws too much attention to himself. The news is bad but Bill refuses to talk and soon after Jesse and Wood Hite return to the Hite Farm with Wood's younger brother Clarence Hite and Jesse's brother Frank who has been lured out of his retirement as a farmer in Tennessee by his enthusiastic younger brother. Jesse has a summer of crime planned for his native Missouri.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The new James Gang has not had a good start with Tucker Bassham arrested and Ed Miller killed by Jesse for threatening to betray the Gang, that just leaves you, Jesse, Jesse's cousin Wood Hite, the cunning Dick Liddil and the alcoholic Bill Ryan. The murder of his old friend Clell's brother seems to weigh heavily on Jesse's conscience and the usual energy and cheerfulness of his younger years seems to be fading from your friend as Jesse enters his thirties. He remains as decisive as ever though. "There are lots of stagecoaches in Kentucky and the authorities won't be expecting one of them to be robbed," he declares. "Bill Ryan, you and I will ride out and hold up a stagecoach over by Mammoth Caves, they are always packed full of rich tourists. Dick and Wood, I want you to stay here in case I need you. Bill Grey, you can join us if you want or you can stay here and lie low with the boys." > You stay with Wood and Dick at the Hite Farm You stay with Wood at the Hite Farm while the others ride into Mercer to commit their robbery, only succeeding in robbing an already empty safe. Jesse is very put out but after a winter spent exploring various states he learns that a similar payroll is being transported to the town of Muscle Shoals in far-off Alabama, a long way from your usual operating places. Jesse is determined to get the money and decides to take the ever-loyal Bill and Wood Hite with him this time, leaving Dick Liddil at the Hite Farm. Again he offers you the choice of accompanying him or staying at the Hite Farm.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Returning to Missouri you meet your old friend for the first time in many years. Jesse hasn't changed at all, though he is now in his thirties and has grown a beard he maintains all his old enthusiasm, high-spirits and carefree attitude. Apparently Frank wants nothing more to do with crime and is enjoying his retirement in Tennessee but Jesse has formed a new gang of five men, making you the seventh member of the new James Gang. The new recruits don't impress you and are nowhere near as high quality as the Youngers or the other former members of the James-Younger Gang. The most reliable of the lot seems to be Wood Hite, Jesse's cousin and a former Guerrilla. Dick Liddil, a clever young man seems reliable enough while Bill Ryan, a hard-drinking admirer of Jesse also seems fairly dependable. The last two members of the Gang, Clell Miller's younger brother Ed Miller and a farmer called Tucker Bassham strike you as idiots and the absence of Frank James concerns you. Despite your worries your first robbery in three years goes very well: Jesse has decided to concentrate on trains rather than banks after his experience at Northfield and one winter's night you hold a train outside Glendale, using a red light to stop the train. You and Jesse quickly empty the Express Safe while the others guard the driver and passengers before you all mount your horses and escape cross-county. After several hours you pause to count the money, you have stolen $6,000 which makes your share $800. Jesse is pleased with the success of the robbery but cautions his new recruits. "This will get the law on our trail and when the papers learn I am behind it the whole state will be looking for us. It's best if we split up, Tucker you back to your farm at Jackson. Wood, Dick and Bill, you head up to Wood's family's place in Kentucky. Ed, you come with me, we'll go and hole up at your farm outside Norborne. Where you going to go Bill?" > You join Wood, Dick and Bill at the Hite Farm You meekly surrender to the lawmen and together with Tucker you are both conveyed to Jackson for your trial. The trial itself is a short affair thanks largely to Tucker's testimony which names you and every other participant in the Glendale train robbery. You are found guilty and sentenced to an incredibly lenient two years imprisonment as the Glendale robbery is the only crime you are charged with and found guilty of. During your imprisonment you read that Ed Miller's body was discovered in Missouri, apparently killed by Jesse James. Bill Ryan is arrested a year after you but the other gang members are still at large by the time you and Tucker are released in the winter of 1881. Tucker immmediately goes into hiding while you go to Missouri to join up with Jesse, Wood Hite and Dick Liddil. By this time Jesse has managed to expand his gang, persuading his brother Frank to join him, his cousin Clarence Hite (Wood's younger brother) and a friend of Dick Liddil's called Charley Ford have also joined the gang. Jesse is delighted to see you again and it doesn't take him long to persuade you to join him and the others in his latest train robbery planned in Missouri on the fifth anniversary of the disastrous Northfield Raid...<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You and your friends ride up to the bank, leave your horses tied up outside and go in. There are three tellers but no customers inside the bank and drawing your pistols you approach the tellers. "We're robbing this bank," Jesse declares. "Don't any of you holler, we've got forty men outside." The tellers raise their hands and Frank wanders inside the vault to look at the safe inside. As he does one of the tellers suddenly grabs the vault door and starts pulling it shut. Frank darts back and jams his arm forward as the teller slams the door on it, running forward Bob hits the teller with his pistol and knocks him to the floor. You all approach the fallen man, Frank angrily rubbing his crushed arm, and drawing a small knife from his pocket Jesse holds it to the injured teller's neck. "Open the safe or I'll cut your damn throat from ear to ear," Jesse snarls. "You'll have to cut my throat because I can't open the safe," the man replies bravely. A shot from outside makes you all glance at the door. As you do another of the tellers springs into action, and dashes away, through a back door and out into the street. "Get him," Jesse shouts. > You concentrate on getting all the money you can You turn and run out of the bank, as you do you hear a gunshot behind you as Frank coldly executes the brave teller. Outside the bank you are greeted by a scene of utter pandemonium. Clell, Bill and a third man who looks like a citizen of the town are lying dead in the street; the rest of your Gang are riding their horses up and down firing their pistols up at the buildings where several men seemed to have armed themselves and are firing back. Bob's horse is lying dead and Bob himself runs off to find cover but your horse and Jesse's are still alive and you pull yourself onto your horse's back as Jesse does likewise with his. As Frank emerges from the bank and the gunfire intensifies you see that you have to get out of town fast or you will all be killed. "It's no use boys, lets clear out," you shout and spurring your horses into a gallop you concentrate on riding your horse out of time, quickly catching up with Charlie and Cole, the latter bleeding from several gunshot wounds. As you reach the edge of town you hear a scream behind you "Don't leave me boys, I've been shot!" Glancing back you realize you have all forgotten Bob who has sprung out of his hiding place and is sprinting down the street after you. "Shit," Cole mutters and glances at you and Charlie. "Cover me boys," he orders. Cole then does the most incredible thing you have ever seen someone do in real life: he spurs his horse directly back down the street towards his injured brother. Several men are shooting at them and though you and Charlie are firing your pistols at the buildings you might as well be throwing stones at them for all the good it does. Cole and Bob seem to be moving through a virtual rain of bullets. Bob stumbles as one shot hits his leg. Two more graze Cole's horse making it scream and rear but he keeps it under control. Reaching down he helps Bob climb onto his horse. As he does three more bullets hit Cole, the dust exploding from his clothes in small puffs as each bullet hits him. Gritting his teeth he turns his horse around and gallops straight back towards you and Charlie. The gunfire is directed at you two now: one bullet grazes Charlie's arm and another bullet whizzes right past your right ear. As Bob and Cole reach you both you turn horses around and gallop out of town after Frank, Jesse and Jim. Behind you leave the dead bodies of your two fellow outlaws and the shattered myth of the invincibility of the James-Younger Gang.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You and your eight companions begin scouting towns in Minnesota for good banks to rob and settle on one in the town of Northfield. While you are in Minnesota you learn that Hoobs Kerry has been identified and arrested and has promptly identified each of the Gang including those who took part in the Otterville Train Robbery in exchange for a reduced sentence of two years imprisonment. You are all furious at Hoobs's betrayal but decide to go ahead with your plans anyway. As usual it's Jesse who makes the plans. "Folk in Minnesota will be on the lookout for nine men acting suspiciously so we won't all go in at once tomorrow," he declares. "Frank, Bob and myself will go into the bank while Cole and Clell hold the horses outside. Bill, Charlie and Jim, I want you to wait on the edge of town and if you hear any shooting come riding in like hell firing your pistols into the air to get those Yankee townsfolk off the streets. I know it's a big town boys but this is a rich bank and the money we should get is worth the risk. Bill, which group do you want to join?" > You join Cole and Clell in guarding the horses outside You ignore the fleeing man and begin scooping all the loose change you can find on the counter into a sack but Bob runs after him, stands in the back door of the bank and fires a shot at the fleeing man. Coming back inside the bank he slams the door. As he does you can hear shots outside and suddenly Cole's voice yelling "Hurry up, they've given the alarm!" "God damn you, open the safe," Jesse barks at the teller on the floor and fires his pistol at the floor next to the man's head. You and Bob quickly scoop all the loose notes you can find off the counter while Frank and Jesse continue to threaten the fallen teller who bravely refuses to help them in any way. Dozens of gunshots are ringing out on the streets outside now and again you hear Cole's voice shouting "They're killing our men! Get out here!" "Fuck you," Jesse snarls, hitting the teller in the face again with his gun and then he and Bob give up and run out of the bank. As you are about to follow them you notice Frank massaging his wounded arm and eyeing the teller. "We should kill that son of a bitch," Frank says to you.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Leaving Jim behind you join the rest of the gang in holding up the train outside Otterville. As usual the robbery goes smoothly: after forcing the train to halt you and the James brothers empty the Express Safe while the Youngers guard the train staff and the others hold the horses. Mounting up you ride cross-country, easily eluding pursuit, and once you are well clear of Otterville. You have got away with a good haul: $15,000, which makes your share $1,600. You are all ready now to make the trip up to Minnesota and even Jim joins you to help protect his brothers. At the last moment Hoobs gets cold feet, he has been nervous ever since the train robbery and he insists on staying behind at his farm in Missouri. You and the other outlaws are not impressed but since you can't force him to go with you if he doesn't want to you all agree to let him back out of the planned robbery and make preparations to head up to Minnesota without him. > You stay behind with Hoobs in Missouri That morning you ride up to the bank and while your companions enter you, Clell and Cole wait outside. After a few moments two men approach the bank and though you and Clell move to intercept them the men are walking too fast and suddenly freeze as they witness your friends holding up the bank at gunpoint through the bank's glass windows. "Keep your damned mouths shut," Clell hisses and the men nod and start walking away when suddenly one of them starts shouting "Get your guns boys! They're robbing the bank!" Swearing Clell draws his pistol and fires a shot one of the men's head which misses. You, Cole and Clell quickly mount your horses and begin galloping up and dozen the street firing your pistols into the air and shouting "Get in, get in!" Alerted by the shot, Jim, Bill and Charlie gallop into town and begin imitating your tactics. Unfortunately for you and your friends the townsfolk quickly find their weapons and begin returning fire at you all from the safety of windows, doorways and store fronts. As he rides past the bank Cole shouts to the men inside "hurry up! They've given the alarm!" As you ride along the front of the bank you see a young man standing absolutely motionless nearby staring round in confusion. "Get off the damn street," Cole yells at him as he rides past but the man just steps at him before suddenly putting his hand into his pocket. > You shoot the man in the head Your shot hits the man in the head and he falls to the ground fatally wounded. You turn away just in time to see Clell get shot off his horse by a bullet fired from somewhere high. As you and Cole ride towards him and dismount Clell is in a bad way, lying on the ground with blood pouring from his face and shoulder. A quick check reveals he is indeed dead. Cole snatched up Clell's pistol and cartridge belt but as he does so a bullet hits his left leg. Glancing up you think you can see the man who shot and killed Clell. He is standing at an upper-story window rapidly reloading a rifle in his hands. Though it is a very difficult shot with a pistol you could try to shoot and kill him. > You fire up at the sniper You fire up at the man, missing, and a moment later he fires back, hitting you in the throat. You fall backwards to the ground, your pistol flying from your grasp. You are dimly aware of Cole at your side shouting something in your ear but you can't hear him. You quickly bleed to death as the gun battle rages on, one of five men killed on this bloody day.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Your shot hits the man in the head and he falls to the ground fatally wounded. You turn away just in time to see Clell get shot off his horse by a bullet fired from somewhere high. As you and Cole ride towards him and dismount Clell is in a bad way, lying on the ground with blood pouring from his face and shoulder. A quick check reveals he is indeed dead. Cole snatched up Clell's pistol and cartridge belt but as he does so a bullet hits his left leg. Glancing up you think you can see the man who shot and killed Clell. He is standing at an upper-story window rapidly reloading a rifle in his hands. Though it is a very difficult shot with a pistol you could try to shoot and kill him. > You concentrate on finding cover You duck down behind your horse to avoid the sniper but behind you another of the townsfolk fires a shot that hits you in the right arm. Swearing you risk remounting your horse and gallop after Cole, who has also been hit again in the shoulder. Riding past the bank he shouts "They're killing our men! Get out here!" Continuing down the street, still firing your pistol, you pass the dead body of Bill Chadwell who is lying dead in the dirt and Jim Younger, still mounted on his horse but bleeding from multiple wounds. Finally Frank, Jesse and Bob emerge from the bank at a run and make it to their horses. "It's no use boys, let's go," you shout at them and turning your horse you spur it down the street leading out of town. You are soon joined by Charlie and Cole, the latter bleeding from several gunshot wounds. As you reach the edge of town you hear a scream behind you "Don't leave me boys, I've been shot!" Glancing back you realize you have all forgotten Bob who has sprung out of his hiding place and is sprinting down the street after you. "Shit," Cole mutters and glances at you and Charlie. "Cover me boys," he orders. Cole then does the most incredible thing you have ever seen someone do in real life: he spurs his horse directly back down the street towards his injured brother. Several men are shooting at them and though you and Charlie are firing your pistols at the buildings you might as well be throwing stones at them for all the good it does. Cole and Bob seem to be moving through a virtual rain of bullets. Bob stumbles as one shot hits his leg. Two more graze Cole's horse making it scream and rear but he keeps it under control. Reaching down he helps Bob climb onto his horse. As he does three more bullets hit Cole, the dust exploding from his clothes in small puffs as each bullet hits him. Gritting his teeth he turns his horse around and gallops straight back towards you and Charlie. The gunfire is directed at you two now: one bullet grazes Charlie's arm and another bullet whizzes right past your right ear. As Bob and Cole reach you both you turn horses around and gallop out of town after Frank, Jesse and Jim. Behind you leave the dead bodies of your two fellow outlaws and the shattered myth of the invincibility of the James-Younger Gang.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>That morning you ride up to the bank and while your companions enter you, Clell and Cole wait outside. After a few moments two men approach the bank and though you and Clell move to intercept them the men are walking too fast and suddenly freeze as they witness your friends holding up the bank at gunpoint through the bank's glass windows. "Keep your damned mouths shut," Clell hisses and the men nod and start walking away when suddenly one of them starts shouting "Get your guns boys! They're robbing the bank!" Swearing Clell draws his pistol and fires a shot one of the men's head which misses. You, Cole and Clell quickly mount your horses and begin galloping up and dozen the street firing your pistols into the air and shouting "Get in, get in!" Alerted by the shot, Jim, Bill and Charlie gallop into town and begin imitating your tactics. Unfortunately for you and your friends the townsfolk quickly find their weapons and begin returning fire at you all from the safety of windows, doorways and store fronts. As he rides past the bank Cole shouts to the men inside "hurry up! They've given the alarm!" As you ride along the front of the bank you see a young man standing absolutely motionless nearby staring round in confusion. "Get off the damn street," Cole yells at him as he rides past but the man just steps at him before suddenly putting his hand into his pocket. > You ignore him You turn away but seconds later you hear a gunshot and glancing back you find the young man shot through the head and lying motionless on the street. You turn away, this time just in time to see Clell get shot off his horse by a bullet fired from somewhere high. As you and Cole ride towards him and dismount Clell is in a bad way, lying on the ground with blood pouring from his face and shoulder. A quick check reveals he is indeed dead. Cole snatched up Clell's pistol and cartridge belt but as he does so a bullet hits his left leg. Glancing up you think you can see the man who shot and killed Clell. He is standing at an upper-story window rapidly reloading a rifle in his hands. Though it is a very difficult shot you could try to kill him.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You and the other nine members of the James-Younger Gang who gather in an empty cabin on the edge of Otterville are the most wanted men in America. Jesse, grinning and carefree sits next to a dour and frowning Frank. Cole, tough and capable sits between his handsome, young brother Bob and his other brother Jim who looks like he is wishing he could be somewhere else. The joker Clell Miller and the tall Bill Chadwell are gazing at Jesse with something like adoration while the silent Charlie Pitts sits with them. Finally you are sitting next to the newest member of the Gang, another former Guerrilla but a bit of a weak link called Hoobs Kerry. "Boys, we've had a turbulent couple of years but we sure are taking the fight to the Yankees, America's never known bandits like us before," Jesse declares. "My idea for this year is that we rob a train here in Missouri first and then go all the way up to Minnesota and rob one of those fat Northern banks up there. Bill here is from Minnesota and knows the area well and together the ten of us are unbeatable! We'll pull off a crime so audacious all of America will be talking about it!" "I'm only here to try and stop you from getting my brothers Cole and Bob killed the way you got John killed," Jim Younger says dourly. "You can rob your train here without me." "Well I'm sorry you feel that way Jim," Jesse says, his smile not even flickering. "What do the rest of you say? You're all in aren't you?" Everyone else agrees and then it's your turn. > You join Jim in sitting this robbery out The others are disappointed by your decision but accept it and you choose to stay behind at the Kerry Farm with Hoobs. One morning you are in the kitchen when there is a knock on the front door. When Hoobs goes to answer it you hear a voice cry out "Hoobs Kerry, you are under arrest!" Springing quietly to your feet you quickly consider your options. There are two doors out of the kitchen, one to a pantry and one leading outside, you can either hide in the pantry or run out the back door and make for the nearby woods. > You hide in the pantry Quickly and quietly you cross the room, slip inside the pantry and close the door behind you. Unfortunately for you the lawmen search the house to see if anyone is hiding there and soon discover your hiding place. Dragged out you are taken into custody with Hoobs Kerry who soon starts singing like a canary, identifying all the members of the James-Younger Gang including you and claiming you took part in the Otterville Train Robbery, whether you did or not. Your trial is a foregone conclusion so you plead guilty to armed robbery of a train and escape with the incredibly light sentence of two years imprisonment. While you are in prison the rest of the gang tries to rob a bank in Northfield, Minnesota but the alarm is raised and an epic gunfight breaks out. Bill and Clell are killed and soon after Charlie is killed and Cole, Bob and Jim are all wounded and captured in a second major gunfight. Only Frank and Jesse James succeed in escaping Minnesota and when you are released in 1878 you immediately return to Missouri to rejoin them, Hoobs has already been released and gone into hiding. By the following year Jesse has formed a new Gang and he invites you to join them.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The others are disappointed by your decision but accept it and you choose to stay behind at the Kerry Farm with Hoobs. One morning you are in the kitchen when there is a knock on the front door. When Hoobs goes to answer it you hear a voice cry out "Hoobs Kerry, you are under arrest!" Springing quietly to your feet you quickly consider your options. There are two doors out of the kitchen, one to a pantry and one leading outside, you can either hide in the pantry or run out the back door and make for the nearby woods. > You run out the back door Opening the back door silently you slip outside, shut the door and run for the safety of some nearby woodland. You escape completely and stealing a horse you set off up to Minnesota after your companions. You manage to catch up with them and breathlessly tell them the story of Hoobs's capture. You all decide to go ahead with your robbery plans anyway and continue on up to Minnesota and begin looking for banks to rob.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Raising your pistol you shoot the old farmer in the head killing him. Fleeing the scene rapidly you and your companions take to the woods where you live in hiding. Reading newspapers you learn that the Pinkerton Detective Agency are sending one of their Agents, Jack Ladd, to investigate Dan Askew's murder. As Ladd also took part in the attack on the James Family Farm Frank and Jesse see more opportunity for revenge and decide to kill the Pinkerton as well. Returning to the Askew Property armed with rifles you and your companions sneak through the trees and get yourself into a position from which you can see the farm house. You watch it for several hours until finally a man in a smart suit who you recognize as Ladd from the newspaper photographs emerges from the front door. "Now," Jesse murmurs and all of you raise your rifles. You consider whether or not to fire at the unsuspecting man. > You let the others kill him You decide to stay in Missouri with your friends and hide out at the Farm of Hoobs Kerry, another former Guerrilla but a bit of a flake. The others travel to West Virginia and pull off their robbery but during their escape Tom McDaniels is shot and killed by a posse and Tom Webb is captured: only Frank and Cole make it back to Missouri. You spend the rest of the year and the first half of 1876 resting until Jesse summons all the Gang together for a meeting to plan your next robberies in the small Missouri town of Otterville.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You go with the James boys and Clell to hide out near St Joseph where you read in newspapers that Bud was identified as one of the Muncie train robbers and shot while trying to escape prison in Kansas City. His death saddens you all and drives you into hiding but in January 1875 you read even more incredible news in the newspapers. Suspecting that you and the others are in the area a small army of Pinkerton Agents surrounded the James Farm and blew it up with some kind of explosive. The explosion killed Frank and Jesse's eight year old brother Archie and tore their elderly mother Zerelda's right arm off. Frank and especially Jesse are overwhelmed with rage when they learn of the cowardly attack and Jesse's first reaction is to kill every single Pinkerton Detective involved in the raid. After calming a little he decides to settle for killing his neighbor Dan Askew who is wildly known to have allowed the Pinkertons to use his Farm as a base from which to launch the raid. One night the four of you approach the Askew Farm and knock on the door. When the old farmer opens his front door Jesse shoots him in the chest. > You let Jesse finish him off You hold back from firing but the others don't and Ladd jerks as three bullets slam into his chest, knocking him to the ground. Fleeing the property you decide it is better to get out of Missouri and heading south to join Bob and Cole. Most of the newspapers, which were initially supportive of the James brothers after the attack on their family, are outraged by the two murders and urge people everywhere to shoot any member of the James-Younger Gang on sight. Going down to the McDaniels Farm you meet up with Bob, Cole and their host Tom McDaniels, brother of the slain Bud. Together with another friend and war veteran called Tom Webb the group are planning to rob a bank in West Virginia, far from your usual raiding areas. Frank likes the idea but uncharacteristically Bob, Clell and Jesse think it is better to lay low for a spell until the attention of the Pinkertons has worn off. You will have to choose who to join.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>One winter's day you and your companions ride out to the train tracks near the town of Muncie. You start a fire right next to the tracks and hide in the trees: sure enough when the train comes down the line the driver sees the fire and stops the train. While Bob and Cole take the driver hostage you, Frank and Jesse board the Express Carriage and capture the messenger at gunpoint. Quickly emptying the contents of the safe into a sack you leave the train, all of you running back to where Bud and Clell are holding your horses. You ride a long distance from Muncie before you stop to count the money and when you do you discover you have really hit the jackpot big time: you have stolen $55,000 from the train, making your share a whopping $7,800. Everyone, especially Bud, are very happy but you know it is time to split up again. Frank, Jesse and Clell decide to hide out with friends near St Joseph, Missouri, Bud McDaniels declares he intends to rent a hotel room in Kansas City while Bob and Cole decide they are going down to Texas to stay with their old friend Bud's brother Tom McDaniels. You need to choose who to join. > You go with Bud to Kansas City Jesse shoots the old man twice more in the chest and he falls dead to the ground. Fleeing the scene rapidly you and your companions take to the woods where you live in hiding. Reading newspapers you learn that the Pinkerton Detective Agency are sending one of their Agents, Jack Ladd, to investigate Dan Askew's murder. As Ladd also took part in the attack on the James Family Farm Frank and Jesse see more opportunity for revenge and decide to kill the Pinkerton as well. Returning to the Askew Property armed with rifles you and your companions sneak through the trees and get yourself into a position from which you can see the farm house. You watch it for several hours until finally a man in a smart suit who you recognize as Ladd from the newspaper photographs emerges from the front door. "Now," Jesse murmurs and all of you raise your rifles. You consider whether or not to fire at the unsuspecting man.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Riding into the town of Austin you and your companions make inquiries about the local stagecoach routes before heading south and hiding in some trees to waylay a coach on its route. The hold-up goes smoothly, the coach is stopped and the passengers forced to dismount before being stripped of their valuables. Mounting up your ride cross-country before catching a train and rejoining Frank and Cole at the McDaniels Farm. During the ride you count the loot to find you have stolen $3,000, making your share $500. The success of the robbery has encouraged Frank and Cole to join in fresh robberies and you soon have a new gang member in the form of Bud McDaniels, the cheerful life-long friend of the Younger family. Together you all plan a daring train robbery in Kansas but Bill and Charlie prefer to lay low this time and return to their hiding place at Charlie's farm as they are both enjoying the fact they haven't been identified as outlaws yet and have safety in their anonymity. You need to choose which group you join. > You join Bill and Charlie in hiding out at the Pitts's Farm You join Bud in going to Kansas City where you both check into a hotel and begin celebrating your success at the train robbery by frequenting local bars. Unfortunately one night Bud drinks too much and brags to some girls that he helped rob the Muncie Train, they promptly tell some local lawmen. That night you are woken by a fist slamming against your hotel door and a voice calls out "This is the law Bill Grey, come out with your hands up in ten seconds or we start shooting!" You spring from your bed and glance around the room, the only exit apart from the door is the window but you are on the first floor and could hurt yourself quite badly if you try jumping out. > You surrender to the lawmen "Ok, I'm coming out," you call wearily and open the hotel door to find a pistol pointing at your face. You and Bud are promptly taken to the Kansas City Jail but as you are taken to a cell a commotion breaks out a few cells away as a prisoner grabs a policeman who has got too close to the cells. The two lawmen escorting you and Bud promptly abandon you both to go and deal with the situation. Though handcuffed you both immediately take advantage of the situation and make a break for the unlocked front door of the Jail. Seeing what you are doing the lawmen shout in alarm and as you race down the street a shotgun blast suddenly fires behind you. The charge hits Bud in the back, nearly cutting him in half as he flies to the ground dead. You glance back and see a Deputy standing in the Jail doorway re-cocking his shotgun for another shot. An alleyway opens to your left and you could dart down that or you could keep going towards a horse tied to a hitching post a short way further down the street. > You dart down the alley You reach the alley and dart down it just as the lawman fires again, the shotgun pellets whistling harmlessly across the mouth of the alley behind you. Racing down the alley and then through a tangle of streets you manage to find an unguarded horse, steal it and ride out of Kansas City. You find a blacksmith who can remove your handcuffs and unnerved by your narrow escape you spend the next year in hiding in Kansas until in the summer of 1876 you get a letter from Jesse telling you the Gang is gathering in Otterville, Missouri. Reluctantly you return to your outlaw life.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Ok, I'm coming out," you call wearily and open the hotel door to find a pistol pointing at your face. You and Bud are promptly taken to the Kansas City Jail but as you are taken to a cell a commotion breaks out a few cells away as a prisoner grabs a policeman who has got too close to the cells. The two lawmen escorting you and Bud promptly abandon you both to go and deal with the situation. Though handcuffed you both immediately take advantage of the situation and make a break for the unlocked front door of the Jail. Seeing what you are doing the lawmen shout in alarm and as you race down the street a shotgun blast suddenly fires behind you. The charge hits Bud in the back, nearly cutting him in half as he flies to the ground dead. You glance back and see a Deputy standing in the Jail doorway re-cocking his shotgun for another shot. An alleyway opens to your left and you could dart down that or you could keep going towards a horse tied to a hitching post a short way further down the street. > You make for the horse You keep running down the street but the shotgun explodes into life behind you. Dozens of tiny razor-sharp pellets tear through your back and emerge out your chest, shredding your heart and other organs. The blast throws you down onto the street and kills you in an instant of oblivion, conclusively ending your attempt to escape justice.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You join Bud in going to Kansas City where you both check into a hotel and begin celebrating your success at the train robbery by frequenting local bars. Unfortunately one night Bud drinks too much and brags to some girls that he helped rob the Muncie Train, they promptly tell some local lawmen. That night you are woken by a fist slamming against your hotel door and a voice calls out "This is the law Bill Grey, come out with your hands up in ten seconds or we start shooting!" You spring from your bed and glance around the room, the only exit apart from the door is the window but you are on the first floor and could hurt yourself quite badly if you try jumping out. > You risk the jump Opening the window wide you slip your legs over the sill, brace yourself and slide down. You fall straight down fifteen feet and land in a crouching position, badly spraining your right wrist. Hissing in pain you spring to your feet as you hear your hotel door burst open above you and slip down an alleyway. Racing through the streets you find and steal a horse before riding out of town. A few days later when you are in another town you learn that Bud McDaniels was arrested and killed trying to escape. Your latest narrow escape has made you wary of fresh crimes for a while and you spend a year drifting around Kansas while your fellow gang members pull off more robberies and crimes. Finally in the summer of 1876 Jesse summons the whole gang together to meet in the little town of Otterville, Missouri to plan your most daring crimes yet.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Hiding out at the Pitts Farm you feel confident of avoiding detection because though both you and Clell are well-known outlaws Bill Chadwell and Charlie Pitts have never been connected with any crime and you rely on those two to go into town for all your supplies and newspapers. You read how the James and Younger boys continue to pull robberies in Arkansas and Missouri but there are consequences: the Pinkerton Detective Agency is hired to bring you and your companions to justice. Frank and Jesse kill one Pinkerton Agent near their Farm but a second gunfight claims the lives of two more lawmen and John Younger near the Younger Farm, Jim Younger being the sole survivor. A letter arrives from Jesse telling you all to meet the rest of the gang in Texas and when you reunite the Gang is a grim bunch. All the remaining Younger Brothers are saddened by John's death with Jim openly blaming Frank and Jesse for getting him mixed up in robberies and swearing he wants nothing more to do with either of them and that he's going to California. Frank and Cole also think it's better that you all lie low for a time at the farm of their friend Bud McDaniels but not Jesse: he sees it as the best way to avenge John is to pull another robbery and the newer members of the gang, Clell, Charlie, Bill and Bob Younger all agree to join him in robbing a stagecoach here in Texas. You need to choose who you join. > You join Frank and Cole at the McDaniels Farm You hide out with Bill Chadwell and Charlie Pitts at Charlie's farm, mostly staying in and around the property while the others do the chores of going into town for supplies and newspapers. You become reliant on the newspapers, reading avidly about the rest of the gang's crimes but rarely seeing your fellow outlaws until after two years you are starting to go stir-crazy. You persuade Bill and Charlie to join you in robbing a bank in the little town of Baxter Springs, Kansas. One spring morning you lead your companions into the little town of Baxter Springs and dismount outside the town bank. While Bill holds the horses you and Charlie walk into the bank, draw your pistols, take the lone teller hostage and loot the safe. After locking the teller inside you all ride out of town, traveling cross-country until you get to a safe place where you can count the money. You find that you have stolen $3,000, making your share $1,000 - not bad for a morning's work! You return to the Pitts Farm for a few months until a letter arrives from Jesse telling you that the Gang is gathering in Otterville, Missouri to plan it's most daring robberies yet!<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Taking the hammer and the bar you pry up several rails and toss them to one side. You and the rest of the Gang then take cover in the trees near the track and wait for the train. When the train comes down the line you are astonished by how fast it is going. The driver sees the damage to the track and slams on the brakes but the train is going too fast: to your astonishment the locomotive shoots off the end of the broken line and crashes down onto it's side with an ear-splitting crash, as does the first passenger carriage. The noise is indescribable. The train has come to a complete halt with the front two carriages on their side and you and your deafened companions emerge stunned from the trees. While Bill, Charlie, Bob and Jim hold the horses and Jesse leads most of the rest towards the Express Carriage at the rear of the train you and Frank jog to the crashed locomotive and peer inside. The sight sickens you, the driver has been literally crushed to death and the fireman has been badly hurt, bleeding freely from his head. You are still shaken by the time you return to the woods and are rejoined by Jesse and the others. Mounting up you ride away from the train you have just wrecked and ride nonstop for several hours to get to safety. When you count the money you are disappointed to find the train was not carrying a lot, just $3,000 which is divided between the ten of you to make your share $300. Despite the small profits from this you know this brazen robbery will increase your already great fame and notoriety. Bill, Clell and Charlie are all a bit unnerved by the attention this crime will bring and decide they will all go and hide out at Charlie's farm in Missouri. Jesse, as usual, is delighted and indifferent to the fact the robbery has led to another death. He intends for himself, Frank, Bob, Cole, Jim and John (all the James and Younger brothers) to ride south into Arkansas to rob a stagecoach, another type of crime the Gang haven't committed before which Jesse hopes will lead to more fame. It is up to you whether or not you want to go into hiding or join in the crime spree. > You join Frank, Jesse, Bob, Cole, Jim and John in robbing a stagecoach in Arkansas You stay at the McDaniels Farm and soon learn that the robbery of a stagecoach in Texas went off without a hitch when the rest of the gang (bar Jim Younger who is still in California) rejoin you at the McDaniels Farm. The success of the robbery has encouraged Frank and Cole to join in fresh robberies and you soon have a new gang member in the form of Bud McDaniels, the cheerful life-long friend of the Younger family. Together you all plan a daring train robbery in Kansas but Bill and Charlie prefer to lay low this time and return to their hiding place at Charlie's farm as they are both enjoying the fact they haven't been identified as outlaws yet and have safety in their anonymity. You need to choose which group you join.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>In the pre-dawn morning light you and the rest of the James-Younger Gang assemble outside the busy little town of Adair. Cole and John have brought along their brothers Jim and Bob to join in the robbery. Jim is a steady veteran who you fought alongside during the Civil War, though he seems reluctant to be involved in this robbery, Bob is a likable and reliable young man. You and Clell turn up with Charlie Pitts, a quiet but tough man who is another former Guerrilla. Frank and Jesse arrive with an extremely tall and chatty man called Bill Chadwell. Altogether there are ten of you, including the two James brothers and the four Younger brothers. Though you held up trains during the War you are all new to peacetime train robbery and you study the railroad trying to think of the best way to get the train to stop near your place of concealment. Predictably it is Jesse who has the idea of using a mental bar and a hammer to tear up the track, reasoning that the driver will see the broken line and halt the train alongside where you will be waiting with the horse. You all agree to the plan. "Who will tear up the track?" Cole asks and you all glance among yourselves. > You let someone else do it Crossing the border into Arkansas you and your companions continue your crime spree by holding up a stagecoach one night outside the town of Hot Springs. After stopping the coach you all force the passengers to disembark at gunpoint and relieve them of their money and valuables. Escaping back across the border to Missouri you count the loot and find you have gotten away with $2,000, which split seven ways makes your share $200. Jesse now has plans to rob another train. > Another Train Job At a little community called Gad's Hill you, Frank and Jesse board the night train, having come up with a new way to stop the train. Making your way to the locomotive you draw your pistols, take the driver hostage and order him to stop the train where the four Younger brothers are waiting next to a fire. They board too and while you and Frank guard the driver Jesse leads them to the back of the train to rob the Express Carriage. This safe is quite full and when you have finished the robbery you all mount your horses and ride off, back across the Arkansas border knowing state law forces can't pursue you across state lines. Counting the money you find you have stolen an impressive $12,000, $1,700 of which is yours. But your crime spree is not finished yet. > Another Arkansas Hold-Up Keen to expand into new areas of criminal achievement Jesse has heard of a wealthy store owner in the little Arkansas town of Bentonville. Sure enough one evening you all ride into town and dismount outside, while the others hold the horses you and Cole enter the store and at gunpoint force the solitary owner to hand over the contents of the till. He might be wealthy by Bentonville standards but not by your standards, he hands over a paltry $200 which isn't large enough to warrant you getting a sizable share. Your unprecedented crime wave in Arkansas and Missouri has got the attention of the National Press and in Missouri you all read how the Pinkerton Detective Agency has been hired specifically to bring each and every member of the James-Younger Gang to justice. Though Jesse and Bob want to continue the crime spree the rest of you persuade them it is better that you all split up. Frank and Jesse decide to go back to the James Farm, Jim and John will go back to the Younger Farm while Cole and Bob decide to go and hide out at the Farm of their friend Bud McDaniels. You will have to pick one of these pairs to accompany. > You hide out with Frank and Jesse at the James Farm Riding with the James boys you soon get back to their Farm where you hide out for a time until one night there is a knock on the door. Frank and Jesse's mother Zerelda opens it and a young man steps in. He claims he is a worker looking for work in the area and heard there might be a place in the James Farm. Zerelda leads him into the kitchen where you and your companions are waiting. You can tell just by looking at him he isn't a common worker and has the look of an educated man. Frank draws his pistol, cocks it and points it at the man. "You are a Pinkerton Detective," he declares. "I would bet my life on it." The man vigorously denies this but a quick search of him reveals a pistol in his pocket and incriminating papers. The three of you march him out of the Farmhouse and across several fields, interrogating him the whole way. Finally when Jesse holds a knife to his throat the man breaks down and admits he is a Pinkerton Detective called Joseph Whicher. You and Jesse glance at each other. "What do you want to do with him?" you ask. "Shoot him," Jesse replies. You silently glance among yourselves deciding who will do it. > You take out your pistol and execute Whicher You walk up behind Whicher and shoot him in the back of the head. As he falls to the ground Jesse draws his pistol and shoots him twice more in the back. Frank kneels down to check that he is dead before nodding. "Let's go," Jesse mutters and returning to the Farm the three of you mount your horses and ride south to Texas. A week later you are shocked to read of another gunfight in the area: two more lawmen caught up with Jim and John and in a raging gun battle both lawmen and John Younger were killed. As Pinkerton Agents pour into Missouri to avenge their slain Detectives Jesse fires off a series of letters summoning the whole Gang to Texas. Cole, Bob and Jim are devastated by the death of their brother, particularly Jim who blames Frank and Jesse for getting John involved in robberies in the first place, swearing he wants nothing more to do with them and declaring he's going to California. Frank and Cole think it's better to lie low at their friend Bud McDaniels's farm but Jesse is certain the best way to avenge John's death is to rob a stagecoach here in Texas and the newer gang members, Clell, Bill Chadwell, Charlie Pitts and Bob Younger all agree to join him. You have to choose who to go with.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Riding with the James boys you soon get back to their Farm where you hide out for a time until one night there is a knock on the door. Frank and Jesse's mother Zerelda opens it and a young man steps in. He claims he is a worker looking for work in the area and heard there might be a place in the James Farm. Zerelda leads him into the kitchen where you and your companions are waiting. You can tell just by looking at him he isn't a common worker and has the look of an educated man. Frank draws his pistol, cocks it and points it at the man. "You are a Pinkerton Detective," he declares. "I would bet my life on it." The man vigorously denies this but a quick search of him reveals a pistol in his pocket and incriminating papers. The three of you march him out of the Farmhouse and across several fields, interrogating him the whole way. Finally when Jesse holds a knife to his throat the man breaks down and admits he is a Pinkerton Detective called Joseph Whicher. You and Jesse glance at each other. "What do you want to do with him?" you ask. "Shoot him," Jesse replies. You silently glance among yourselves deciding who will do it. > You leave it to Frank or Jesse to kill Whicher You are all silent for a moment and then Jesse walks up behind Whicher and shoots him in the back of the head. As he falls to the ground Jesse shoots him twice more in the back. Frank kneels down to check that he is dead before nodding. "Let's go," Jesse mutters and returning to the Farm the three of you mount your horses and ride south to Texas. A week later you are shocked to read of another gunfight in the area: two more lawmen caught up with Jim and John and in a raging gun battle both lawmen and John Younger were killed. As Pinkerton Agents pour into Missouri to avenge their slain Detectives Jesse fires off a series of letters summoning the whole Gang to Texas. Cole, Bob and Jim are devastated by the death of their brother, particularly Jim who blames Frank and Jesse for getting John involved in robberies in the first place, swearing he wants nothing more to do with them and declaring he's going to California. Frank and Cole think it's better to lie low at their friend Bud McDaniels's farm but Jesse is certain the best way to avenge John's death is to rob a stagecoach here in Texas and the newer gang members, Clell, Bill Chadwell, Charlie Pitts and Bob Younger all agree to join him. You have to choose who to go with.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Keen to expand into new areas of criminal achievement Jesse has heard of a wealthy store owner in the little Arkansas town of Bentonville. Sure enough one evening you all ride into town and dismount outside, while the others hold the horses you and Cole enter the store and at gunpoint force the solitary owner to hand over the contents of the till. He might be wealthy by Bentonville standards but not by your standards, he hands over a paltry $200 which isn't large enough to warrant you getting a sizable share. Your unprecedented crime wave in Arkansas and Missouri has got the attention of the National Press and in Missouri you all read how the Pinkerton Detective Agency has been hired specifically to bring each and every member of the James-Younger Gang to justice. Though Jesse and Bob want to continue the crime spree the rest of you persuade them it is better that you all split up. Frank and Jesse decide to go back to the James Farm, Jim and John will go back to the Younger Farm while Cole and Bob decide to go and hide out at the Farm of their friend Bud McDaniels. You will have to pick one of these pairs to accompany. > You hide out with Jim and John at the Younger Farm You and your two friends go into hiding at the Younger Farm for a time but one morning you read in the papers that Frank and Jesse have killed a Pinkerton Detective near their Farm and you decide you'd better leave. After traveling all night you are hiding out at a friend's farm where you hear men making inquiries about you to the farm's owner. After they leave John is keen to get after those men and find out who they are and you and Jim reluctantly agree. Riding down the road you see three men riding ahead of you. You and Jim draw your pistols and John pulls a shotgun from his saddle scabbard and all three of you shout for the men to halt. One reins in but the third gallops away for his life, with casual accuracy Jim fires a shot that knocks the hat off his head but leaves the man beneath it untouched. As he vanishes down the road the rest of you close in on the two that remain and order them to throw their guns onto the road which they do. While Jim dismounts and begins collecting up the pistols you and John start questioning the two men. They insist they are cattle buyers but when you accuse them of being Pinkerton Agents one of the men suddenly pulls a small pistol from his pocket and shoots John in the throat. Knocked backwards by the force of the shot John instinctively shoots the man in the chest with his shotgun. The wounded lawman turns his horse away from you all and Jim fires a shot at him, missing. The second, unhurt lawman, also turns his horse away as you raise your weapon. > You shoot him in the back of the head Your shot hits the man in the back of the head and he falls from his horse. While Jim runs over to check if he is alive John spurs his horse after the wounded lawmen and chases him straight across a field towards a copse of trees, dropping his shotgun as he goes and drawing a pistol which he fires at the man. You spur your horse after John and watch as he shoots the wounded lawman a second time knocking him from his horse. Exhausted and weakened from his injury Jim turns away without checking to see if the lawman is dead or not. > You spur your horse into the thicket to check if the lawman is dead You gallop your horse straight towards the thicket and as you do the lawman shakily rises from cover and fires a pistol shot at you. The bullet hits you squarely in the right eye, toppling you from your saddle and you lie insensible on the ground. You are the fourth victim of a gunfight that claimed the lives of the two lawmen and your fellow outlaw John Younger. Your famous last gunfight will become the stuff of Western Legend, though this is no consolation to you as you lie dead on the green fields of Missouri.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Your shot hits the man in the back of the head and he falls from his horse. While Jim runs over to check if he is alive John spurs his horse after the wounded lawmen and chases him straight across a field towards a copse of trees, dropping his shotgun as he goes and drawing a pistol which he fires at the man. You spur your horse after John and watch as he shoots the wounded lawman a second time knocking him from his horse. Exhausted and weakened from his injury Jim turns away without checking to see if the lawman is dead or not. > You approach cautiously with pistol ready You approach cautiously and as you do the badly-wounded lawman rises from cover to fire a shot at you. You fire first, hitting him in the chest for the third time and knocking him down, fatally wounded. Turning you spot your friend John reeling in his saddle nearby, blood pouring down his chest from his neck. As you ride towards him he suddenly topples to the ground. Reaching him you dismount and drop to your knees alongside him as his brother Jim runs up but it is too late. Your friend John is dead. Two farmer working in a nearby field witnessed the gunfight and run up. "See that my brother is buried right," Jim tells them, tears in his eyes, as he takes John's pistol from his motionless hand and you both run back to where you left your horses. Remounting you leave the two lawmen and John lying dead on the bloody field. Riding south you escape Missouri and eventually make it to Texas where you rejoin the rest of the Gang. Jim is inconsolable and blames Frank and Jesse for his brother's death, claiming they lured John into taking part in their robberies. Swearing he never wants to see them again he declares he is going to California. Frank and Cole also think it is a good idea to lie low at their friend Bud McDaniels's farm but not Jesse: he thinks the best way to avenge John is to rob a stagecoach here in Texas and the newer members of the gang, Clell, Bill Chadwell, Charlie Pitts and Bob Younger, agree with him. You have to choose who you will accompany.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You and your two friends go into hiding at the Younger Farm for a time but one morning you read in the papers that Frank and Jesse have killed a Pinkerton Detective near their Farm and you decide you'd better leave. After traveling all night you are hiding out at a friend's farm where you hear men making inquiries about you to the farm's owner. After they leave John is keen to get after those men and find out who they are and you and Jim reluctantly agree. Riding down the road you see three men riding ahead of you. You and Jim draw your pistols and John pulls a shotgun from his saddle scabbard and all three of you shout for the men to halt. One reins in but the third gallops away for his life, with casual accuracy Jim fires a shot that knocks the hat off his head but leaves the man beneath it untouched. As he vanishes down the road the rest of you close in on the two that remain and order them to throw their guns onto the road which they do. While Jim dismounts and begins collecting up the pistols you and John start questioning the two men. They insist they are cattle buyers but when you accuse them of being Pinkerton Agents one of the men suddenly pulls a small pistol from his pocket and shoots John in the throat. Knocked backwards by the force of the shot John instinctively shoots the man in the chest with his shotgun. The wounded lawman turns his horse away from you all and Jim fires a shot at him, missing. The second, unhurt lawman, also turns his horse away as you raise your weapon. > You check to see if John is alright You glance at John who seems to have recovered, as you do Jim raises his pistol and shoots the fleeing uninjured lawman in the back of the head. While Jim runs over to check if he is alive John spurs his horse after the wounded lawmen and chases him straight across a field towards a copse of trees, dropping his shotgun as he goes and drawing a pistol which he fires at the man. You spur your horse after John and watch as he shoots the wounded lawman a second time knocking him from his horse. Exhausted and weakened from his injury Jim turns away without checking to see if the lawman is dead or not.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Keen to expand into new areas of criminal achievement Jesse has heard of a wealthy store owner in the little Arkansas town of Bentonville. Sure enough one evening you all ride into town and dismount outside, while the others hold the horses you and Cole enter the store and at gunpoint force the solitary owner to hand over the contents of the till. He might be wealthy by Bentonville standards but not by your standards, he hands over a paltry $200 which isn't large enough to warrant you getting a sizable share. Your unprecedented crime wave in Arkansas and Missouri has got the attention of the National Press and in Missouri you all read how the Pinkerton Detective Agency has been hired specifically to bring each and every member of the James-Younger Gang to justice. Though Jesse and Bob want to continue the crime spree the rest of you persuade them it is better that you all split up. Frank and Jesse decide to go back to the James Farm, Jim and John will go back to the Younger Farm while Cole and Bob decide to go and hide out at the Farm of their friend Bud McDaniels. You will have to pick one of these pairs to accompany. > You hide out with Bob and Cole at the McDaniels Farm You and your friends hide out at the home of Bud McDaniels, who along with his brother Tom is a good friend of the Younger Family. There you read about the Pinkerton Detectives flooding into Missouri in search of you all. Frank and Jesse confront and kill one near their Farm, prompting you, Cole and Bob to flee south to Texas. You are still en route when you learn that two more lawmen have caught up with Jim and John and in a bloody gunfight both lawmen and John Younger are killed. Bob and Cole are devastated when you grimly report their brothers death to them. Reaching Texas you are soon joined by Frank and Jesse with the rest of the gang following soon after. Jim in particular is angry, blaming Frank and Jesse for John's death because they got him involved in robberies in the first place and he angrily swears he is going to California and wants nothing more to do with them. Frank and Cole also think it is better to lie low and hide out at Bud McDaniels's Farm but Jesse persuade the newer gang members Clell, Bill Chadwell, Charlie Pitts and Bob Younger that the best way to avenge John is to rob a stagecoach in Texas. Again you have to choose who to join.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You shoot the cashier in the chest and he staggers back, blood spreading across his shirt front. Jesse and Cole shoot him as well and the cashier falls dead to the ground. Instantly the four customers spring to their feet and start running for the door. "Stop them," Jesse yells. > You let someone else deal with them and focus on getting all the money you can After a few months hiding out you and your companions ride into Kansas City on the day of the Exposition and approach the ticket office. "Hand over the money box," Jesse tells the cashier and you all draw your pistols. The man obediently obeys and quickly the four of you start to ride away. The alarm is quickly raised and as the guards of the Exposition are alerted you and your friends start firing your guns into the air to clear the crowd. It works well and you are quickly clear and riding to safety. Jesse is delighted with the ease of the robbery and opening the cashier's money box you find you have made off with $1,000, which split between the four of you makes your share $200. The event is widely reported and to make sure the reports are correct Jesse sends his own letter to the newspapers describing the robbery. You are slightly worried when you learn that Clell has been arrested for the Columbia Bank Robbery but he is soon released when witnesses of the robbery fail to identify him, in high spirits you and the rest of the Gang gather in the spring of 1873 to plan your next robbery.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>As you have done so many times you and your companions ride into a small town early one morning. While Frank, Clell and John hold the horses outside you lead Jesse and Cole into the bank. Inside four customers are sitting at a table talking while one smiling cashier waits behind the counter. The three of you walk up to the counter and draw your pistols. "Consider yourself under arrest," Cole says cheerfully. To your amazement the cashier begins shouting "Bank Robbers! Bank Robbers!" at the top of his voice. "Shut up man or I'll kill you," you yell at him but the cashier keeps shouting warnings at the top of his voice. > You keep yelling at him to be quiet You move towards the counter and as you do Cole fires a shot that hits one of the men in the hand. He yells in pain but a moment later the four customers have scrambled out the door leaving the three of you alone in the bank with the dead teller on the floor behind the counter. "Quickly, grab the money" you tell the others and moving fast you snatch up all the money you can find on the counter. In less than a minute you are back outside to find Frank, Clell and John firing their pistols into the air as you, Jesse and Cole scramble back onto your horses. A man runs out onto the street and fires a pistol at you, Jesse fires back. Both miss but Jesse's shot prompts the man to take cover and the six of you are able to spur your horses out of town and escape. Riding hard you do not stop until you are a long way from Columbia. When you pause to count the money you find you have escaped with less than $1,000, which makes your share $200. Frank is especially unhappy. "We're killing too many bank tellers Jesse," he tells his brother. "This will bring the law down on us." "Maybe we should lay off banks for a while," Jesse says thoughtfully and grins. "I have a mind to rob a ticket office at the Kansas City Exposition." After a quick discussion Cole and John both offer to join Jesse but Frank and Clell decide it is better to lay low - Frank is going back to the James Farm while Clell is going back to his own family's farm. You consider what is best to do.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|> Another day home from school… “I’m telling you Ms. Zelamoyer is a witch, there’s no way she could know what we did unless she read our minds!” David says. “Yeah maybe she’s even a demon in human disguise!” Tom adds “Or maybe you two looked guilty as hell and laughed the loudest when she sat on the thumbtacks you put in her seat.” You say. “I told you guys that was a bad idea. I’m surprised she only paddled you and didn’t have you kicked out of the school permanently.” “Yeah well it didn’t even hurt. My dad beats me harder than that. Though I guess Tom thought it hurt with the way he cried! Hahahaha!” David taunts. “Shut up David!” Tom exclaims. “So are you playing Smash Sphere over in the park today?” David asks you. “I hope so, but my dad’s been on my case about me studying harder. Says he wants me to make something of myself when I grow up.” “That sucks. My dad is always either at the mines or drinking at your dad’s place. The only time I have to worry about him is when my mom tells him about something I did, then I get a beating. I don’t think I’d survive it if he was always around.” David replies. “My mom doesn’t beat me, but she’ll yell and throw me into a small dark closet without food if I do something bad.” Tom says. “Your mom is one scary ass dyke, Tom. My dad said he saw her scare away a mountain troll in the mines once.” “Shut up David! My mom’s not a dyke!” “Yes she is! What about that other lady that lives with you then?” “That’s just mom’s roommate! She needs a place to stay so she helps around the house, like cook dinner or clean up. Mom is at the mines all day, so she can’t do that stuff, so it works out. She’s kind of like a live in maid!” “Sounds more like a second mom…” As much as you enjoy Tom’s naïve defense of his lesbian mother and David’s taunting of it, you arrive at the Inn where you say goodbye to your friends and tell them you might see them later. As soon as you get in, you dad calls you over to the bar. “So do you have any homework?” he asks. “Yeah, but it’s not due until next week.” “Hmm, well if it’s not due until next week it must need a lot of attention, better get started on it.” “It’s really not that much dad, I can do it over the weekend. I’m going to go out and play smash sphere with David and Tom.” “Is that what you think? Better cancel that idea. You’re hitting the books, besides I vaguely remember you mentioning you were also going to have test next week too.” “But dad!” “Don’t dad me! You’ve been letting your school work slide lately and getting into trouble at school with those two little hoodlums you hang out with.” “They’re not hoodlums, and I didn’t get into trouble today!” “You aren’t supposed to be getting into trouble in the first place! Look son, I know you think I’m being hard on you, but this really is for your own good. Your little friends don’t have fathers that give shit about them, I should know because David’s dad is in here all the time and as for Tom, well the less said about his situation the better.” Doesn’t look like you’re getting out of here today, but you make one last attempt. “But I really don’t have that much homework, I really can do it quick over the weekend!” “Well if that is the case, you can help me out here instead.” “What?” “One of my barmaids is sick and I’m expecting a full house here tonight due to it being one of the miner’s birthdays today, so you can carry food and drinks.” You certainly weren’t expecting that. “What? Can’t mom do it?” “Your mother is going to have her hands full attempting to cook the giant cloudspeak ram in the kitchen for the celebration, in fact you can start off by helping her chop up the beast.” As usual your dad has given you no "choice" at all. > The Inn (History Lesson) You stay with Ol hiding out at the Shepherd Ranch while the other two clear out and for three days all is peaceful. One morning you hear a knock on the front door and you hear Ol go and open it. "Hello Ol," a voice says. "I am Detective Bligh, this is Detective Gallagher and you are under arrest." There is a bang and a yell that sounds very much as though Ol has just hit someone with the door and then Ol bolts into the kitchen and races for the back door, pulling a pistol from his pocket as he goes. You have two swift choices to make, you can either follow Ol out the back door or run through a door that leads to a bedroom. From the bedroom a second door opens into the hall and you might be able to slip back through the front door as the Detectives run through, though the plan is a risky one. > You follow Ol out the back door You follow Ol out the back door and spring across the yard outside towards the safety of some trees, pulling your pistol from your pocket as you run. The two Detectives follow you both outside and begin shooting, Ol goes down first with a bullet in his back. A second later you are hit in the back of your head and your world ends in an explosion of light followed by endless darkness. Both you and Ol are cut down and killed in a series of raids that also bring John and George's careers in banditry to an end.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You stay with Ol hiding out at the Shepherd Ranch while the other two clear out and for three days all is peaceful. One morning you hear a knock on the front door and you hear Ol go and open it. "Hello Ol," a voice says. "I am Detective Bligh, this is Detective Gallagher and you are under arrest." There is a bang and a yell that sounds very much as though Ol has just hit someone with the door and then Ol bolts into the kitchen and races for the back door, pulling a pistol from his pocket as he goes. You have two swift choices to make, you can either follow Ol out the back door or run through a door that leads to a bedroom. From the bedroom a second door opens into the hall and you might be able to slip back through the front door as the Detectives run through, though the plan is a risky one. > You run into the bedroom and try to circle round to slip out the front door You dart through into the bedroom and moving as swiftly and silently as you can you circle round to the hall door. As you expected both Detectives run straight through the kitchen and out the back door where they begin shooting at the fleeing Ol. You take your chance, dart out the front door and immediately make a left to the safety of some nearby trees. Fleeing through the thickets on foot you make it to the farm of a friend several hours later. Over the next few days you learn what has happened: Ol was indeed shot dead while trying to run away while John was also killed and George arrested in a series of raids (George later receives a short jail sentence for armed robbery). Shaken by your narrow escape you spend the next three years moving around Missouri and generally lying low until you finally get back in touch with Frank and Jesse James and Cole Younger and arrange a meeting at the home of your mutual friend Clell Miller to return to your chosen profession of robbing banks.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Raised in the Wildlands on your family's lands, you learned long before your days as a ninja that strength alone protects. The Wildlands are several days away from the central province covered by your feudal lord, and you have learned in this time not to put faith in the protection offered by others. This unusual distance fostered an independent spirit in which the nobility of the Wildlands held mostly to their own laws and customs despite legally being the property of the local feudal lord, Lord Brajenak. One day, your strength was not enough. You awoke one morning to a large army that bore neither markings nor devices at the edge of your lands, and you ordered the men while giving the order to evacuate for all who could not fight. In the craggy hills behind the nameless army you saw houses burn and farmland scattered with something... likely salt, so as to destroy your fields. Such raids were common to the Wildlands, but never in this number and never this well-equipped. With their long experience in these lands, most of your people escaped as the armies clashed around you. You lifted your weapon to charge forward into the throes of war and take back your homeland... and can remember no more. You awoke to see your people scattered and your lands either ablaze or a smoldering ruin. Without your direction, the Wildlands have finally fallen to their invaders. Overcoming the seriousness of your wounds, starvation, and the harsh Wildlands, you made your way to Lord Brajenak's estate in the central province of Sethir and beseeched him for action on your behalf. Impressed by your resolve and strength, he agreed and asked only that you continue to serve him to the best of your abilities until you were more fully reestablished. You had little choice and accepted his invitation, and after a large meal and treatment for your wounds you were quickly ushered into your new home: A secluded training area several days from the Sethir Province where you learned the ways of ninja and became strong once again. > You now for the rules As a Ninja, your goal is to operate in the shadows unbeknownst to your enemies. However, this does not make you invisible to their eyes. ENEMY AWARENESS is a scale from 1 to 20 that indicates how perceptive the enemy is of your exact location and actions. Although you start the game with 0 ENEMY AWARENESS, take care to keep it low. Should it ever reach 20, your enemies will find you and the game will end. Keep in mind also that a higher ENEMY AWARENESS will make it more difficult for you to evade enemy patrols or detection and may make some actions more challenging or even impossible. May the shadows guide you.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>A world on the cusp of disaster. Two sides on the verge of destroying each other, but there is hope. In the form of a hero. Now this will hero..., will they be able to rise into the mantle of hero? > Yes As the son of your father, the Grand Priest of the Holy Kingdom, you've always had a lot on your plate. The moment you could speak, your father put you in lessons of every type. At first they were purely academic, only ranging from basic history to simple math, but as time progressed your lessons became more difficult. You were required to memorize religious texts of every manner, and you were even taught some philosophy. This routine was all there was to your life at twelve years of age. You were content with it too, until two major things happened. A breeze shakes the trees around you and cools your face. Your take a moment and close your eyes allowing the feeling to move across your entire body. It relaxes you, and coupled with the silence of the forest you imagine this is what Paradise must feel like. You open your eyes and are momentarily blinded by the sun. It'd been like this every day this season. Blistering hot, but with a breeze that you always make sure to thank the Creator for. Without it your training would be nearly unbearable. Of course, you'd much rather have to deal with your Knight training every day than have to do extra academic lessons. Maybe if you hadn't started the training to become a knight of the Holy Order you wouldn't hate lessons so much. Then again, you also wouldn't know the bliss of resting after a good workout. Besides, even if you hadn't begun your training there was always the second thing. Even as the thought enters the mind, the figure appears before you. Platinum blonde hair frame an angelic face that seems to hold your attention much longer than normal. You bring your eyes to her emerald ones for a moment then look away. “Hey Erron. Have you been waiting long?” Her voice is rich with authority and familiarity, You turn back at the sound of your name to see a wide smile atop her face. “Yes I have. If you kept me waiting much longer, then some bird might've started using me for a nest.” You allow yourself a small smile when she rolls her eyes. “Are you ready for this, Alessandra?” Her name rolls off your tongue with ease. “Excuse me. I meant your Majesty.” You bow slightly, and her smile stays for a few more moments before disappearing from her face entirely. It's replaced with an expression of apprehension. “I’m nervous. I don't want him to keep us from going back there.” She runs her fingers through her hair. The young princess was authoritative, but often times, you find her to lack a lot of confidence. Or maybe that was just with you. “It’s fine. He's never been mean to us before. Remember? The only thing he asked us not to do was to bring anyone else when we visit him.” You cast your thoughts back to your memories of the man… > You background: The World The continent of Dellandia is a large one. It is famous for the wars and constant strife that inhabits its lands. Well, was famous for. You cast you mind and thoughts back to your history lessons. You were born in the new era of Dellandia where the entire continent has finally been united under the rule of the current royal family. The Dellandins were just figureheads a short hundred years ago, but with the support of the Holy Kingdom they were finally able to latch onto some real power. As time passed the Dellandins grew more and more powerful until they were able to start conquering the lands of Dellandia. They stretched themselves too thin, and were about to collapse, but yet again the Holy Kingdom supported them. This pattern continued until the Holy Kingdom itself rose to power in a way that wasn’t just religious. Support of the people grew until the Grand Priest of that time revived the lost order of knights. The Grand Priest declared this order to be a Holy Order of Knights created under the direction of their God. The Creator. However, the Grand Priest didn’t do all that his people wanted him to do. Instead of going to war with the Dellandins, the Grand Priest entered into an uneasy alliance with them. Although wary of the Holy Order’s knights, the Dellandins accepted and together they managed to bring the continent of Dellandia to their knees. After several heated arguments, it was decided that the Holy Kingdom (and their religion) were to be just that. A religion. No standing armies, but against their better judgement, they allowed for the Holy Order to exist. It was a heavily regulated existence with a limit on how many people could be trained as well as where the Holy Order could be “stationed.” That is the situation to this day with only a few differences. The Dellandins are constantly pushing for more and more regulations on not just the Holy Order of Knights, but the Holy Kingdom itself. The King and the Grand Priest spend much of their time arguing, and recently you notice that tensions are getting much more strained. You just hope it won’t ruin your relationship with Alessandra. You don’t really worry much about it though. You trust your father after all.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>As the son of your father, the Grand Priest of the Holy Kingdom, you've always had a lot on your plate. The moment you could speak, your father put you in lessons of every type. At first they were purely academic, only ranging from basic history to simple math, but as time progressed your lessons became more difficult. You were required to memorize religious texts of every manner, and you were even taught some philosophy. This routine was all there was to your life at twelve years of age. You were content with it too, until two major things happened. A breeze shakes the trees around you and cools your face. Your take a moment and close your eyes allowing the feeling to move across your entire body. It relaxes you, and coupled with the silence of the forest you imagine this is what Paradise must feel like. You open your eyes and are momentarily blinded by the sun. It'd been like this every day this season. Blistering hot, but with a breeze that you always make sure to thank the Creator for. Without it your training would be nearly unbearable. Of course, you'd much rather have to deal with your Knight training every day than have to do extra academic lessons. Maybe if you hadn't started the training to become a knight of the Holy Order you wouldn't hate lessons so much. Then again, you also wouldn't know the bliss of resting after a good workout. Besides, even if you hadn't begun your training there was always the second thing. Even as the thought enters the mind, the figure appears before you. Platinum blonde hair frame an angelic face that seems to hold your attention much longer than normal. You bring your eyes to her emerald ones for a moment then look away. “Hey Erron. Have you been waiting long?” Her voice is rich with authority and familiarity, You turn back at the sound of your name to see a wide smile atop her face. “Yes I have. If you kept me waiting much longer, then some bird might've started using me for a nest.” You allow yourself a small smile when she rolls her eyes. “Are you ready for this, Alessandra?” Her name rolls off your tongue with ease. “Excuse me. I meant your Majesty.” You bow slightly, and her smile stays for a few more moments before disappearing from her face entirely. It's replaced with an expression of apprehension. “I’m nervous. I don't want him to keep us from going back there.” She runs her fingers through her hair. The young princess was authoritative, but often times, you find her to lack a lot of confidence. Or maybe that was just with you. “It’s fine. He's never been mean to us before. Remember? The only thing he asked us not to do was to bring anyone else when we visit him.” You cast your thoughts back to your memories of the man… > The Man You think about the first time you saw the guy. Two years ago, at age ten, you were fearing for your life. You and Alessandra had only met minutes before at yours and her parents' insistence. They allowed you to both go into the royal forest on the castle grounds. It was a large preserve with plenty of animals to hunt whenever the King wanted to, but to you and Alessa, it was a place that needed exploration. And so, you obliged. Neither of you were certain of each other, but you both had a childish taste for adventure, so when you saw the alluring cabin…well there was only one thing you could do. Casting caution aside, the two of you walked inside and began exploring. It had everything a person needed to survive, but oddly enough it also contained a well stocked book case. This didn’t quite catch your attention, but Alessa was enamored. She made you stay with her to look at the books. Time passed on, and eventually you found yourself reading too. It was only a little after that that he showed up. Leather clothes fit around him, and his rugged beard made him look like a wild man. A barbarian of some sort. You hurriedly yanked Alessa to her feet and the both of you ran for your lives. He didn’t follow, and neither of you turned back. When you told your father about some strange man trying to kill you, he raised his eyebrows in disbelief. Alessa corroborated your claim, however, and the King formed a search party to find the stranger. You and Alessa stayed out of the forest with your mothers while your fathers led the search party. They took the better part of an hour searching, before they came back empty handed. They told you to stay out of the forest, but another meeting between you two was planned for the next day. This time your parents weren’t present, and a guard was assigned to you two. One from the King’s royal guard and one from the Holy Order were always stationed with you. It was a week before you got the courage up to suggest going into the forest. When you finally did suggest it, Alessa agreed and the both of you snuck away from your guards. The old cabin was there just like last time, but instead of marching into the cabin blindly, you and Alessa waited for the man to come back. When he finally came back you and Alessa spied on him nearly the rest of the day. Eventually the you returned to the guards and found them wondering where you were. Each day you and Alessa met, and this turned into a game. First, you would escape from your guard, and then you would spy on the enigmatic man. Back at the castle you and Alessa told no one of this, for fear of them ruining your fun. A couple weeks later the man finally caught you. You were in the middle of climbing your favorite tree when a spider of an absurd size climbed onto your hand and stung you. With a loud yelp you fell to the ground and passed out. Just thinking about it made your face red from embarrassment. Alessa later told you that the man took you inside and helped the bite on your hand heal, and even gave you medicine for the bruise that would soon surface on your head. You'd ruined the fun times of spying because you couldn’t stay calm around a spider. You shake your head at your younger self, and then you shake your head at your current self. You shouldn’t criticize his past self too much, for it was because of that that you and Alessa were able to gain a friend. You glance over at her and find that she looks like she’s reminiscing as well. You nudge her elbow before speaking, “We should get going.” Alessa nods, and you both start heading in the direction of that familiar cabin. > You continue During all of the fun times you and Alessa spent in the man's cabin, neither one of you asked why he was there. The thought certainly crossed your mind, but you and Alessa entered into a bliss of sorts. You were afraid to ruin the friendly relationship you had with the man by getting on his bad side. After all, (well, at least in your experience) adults tended to anger quickly when questioned too often. Thus you and Alessa enjoyed a period of unadulterated happiness...that you were sure was going to end today. As you grew older you began to question the man and his purpose even more. You mentioned it to Alessa, and while she was slow to agree, she eventually came around. She must have finally thought about the situation from someone else's perspective. Anyone else would have the guard chase down this stranger. Worst case scenario, the man could turn out to be some kind of serial killer. You doubted that he was, but there was always the possibility. You hoped for the best, but feared the worst. That's most of the reason you carried the sword at your waist even though your Holy Order training was already over for the day. The cabin came into your field of vision, and nostalgia cascaded over you. You stopped walking, and Alessa turned back to gaze at you. "Are you ready? We don't really have to do this if you don't want to." Her voice was muddled with nervousness, and concern. You could tell that she was hoping you'd turn back, and that you two could hang out without having to worry. You almost agreed with her, but you decided to do this. You were going to follow through with it. Some moments are seared in people's memories forever. Every one of your senses seemed to be extra sensitive. The sun was shining brightly through the trees above casting light that made you squint your eyes. Alessa stood half turned back to you with a question in her eyes. She was obviously waiting for you to continue moving. You look to the cabin ahead, and all of the warmth that you felt in the past dwindled away. In its place were ominous feelings of forbidding, but you gathered your courage and approached the cabin. Alessa knocks on the door, and you only have to wait a few moments before a muffled voice calls you inside. If the outside of the cabin looked ominous, the inside was a picture of abnormality. Something was wrong. You could tell it from the moment you stepped into the cabin. You didn't need the door slamming shut behind you, or the crazed look in the man's eyes to tell you that much. He sat in a chair against the wall on opposite side of the room. His wild brown hair was even more disorganized than usual. It fell across his face as he looked at the floor. A silent moment passed and the man began to speak. "I know why you're here. I knew this day would come, but I didn't want to believe it." That part was directed at you and Alessa, but the part that followed seemed more like a crazed man's mutterings. And he never seemed crazed before. "I wish I didn't have have to do this. I was content. Happy even. We were almost like a family. I felt needed, and not abused. Not like the people who use my name for evil purposes..." His mutterings continue, but you've had enough. Enough of being here, that is. While you were prepared to deal with bad reactions, frankly you didn't think it would be this bad. You were getting really creeped out, and a quick glance at Alessa told you you weren't the only one. You reached back to try the knob, but it didn't turn. You put more force into it, but still nothing. The man doesn't react, so you lose all pretenses of sneaking out. You throw your shoulder into the door, and it doesn't even quiver. Just as you begin to pull your sword from its sheathe, the man finally speaks to you two again. "I'm sorry, but this has to be done. Alessa, Erron I hope you'll forgive me." He begins walking towards you two, and you decide that you don't want to know why he's sorry. You go ballistic and start hacking at the door, but after the first few swings you realize that it's not going to work. There was something otherworldly going on here and it was preventing you from leaving. Instead you turn back around and hold your sword the way you were taught. The man nears the both of you, and you take the time to shout to Alessa, "Get behind me!" When you don't hear an immediate shuffling of feet, you turn and see her frozen with fear. At the same time you notice the man walking towards her instead of you. You figure that somewhere inside each man there is a primitive instinct that overrides all self control. That instinct sends you rushing between the disaster that was surely about to occur. A couple things happen at once. Without your meaning to, your sword strikes the man's outstretched hand. And your body hits Alessa onto the ground behind you. Before you can check to see if Alessa is okay you notice the cut on the man's hand bleeding. But not just bleeding. Bleeding gold. You barely have time to send up a prayer to the Creator before he speaks again. This time he seems to have some semblance of intelligence instead of his ranting. "Alessa would have made a better choice I think, but I guess you'll do fine. I'll let you carry the blame for what's to come next." The man takes a deep breath and holds his hands out in front of him. This time that instinct doesn't come just in time. Your frozen in place, but to your surprise he doesn't touch you, or kill you or anything of the sort. Instead, two lights appear. With his palms facing up to the ceiling a bright white light appears in his right hand. A dark black light appears in his left hand. They both glimmer and shine alluringly, but for different reasons. You feel yourself drawn to the dark light, because of an eerie feeling of power. A power that you feel could bring you anything you ever wanted. The white light gives you a feeling of happiness. The power to endure and make it through anything that could ever come in your way. The power to obtain versus the power endure. You're enthralled. "Now. Choose. Will you take this blessing," he moves his right hand forward, "or this curse?" He moves his left hand forward to punctuate the question. You barely hear what he's saying, and you don't really get what he's saying about that dark light being a curse. How could it be a curse when it offers you so much power. Then again, the white light offers you security. You feel that you could protect anything, and get through everything that dared challenge you. You think of Alessa at that, whom is still sitting on the floor behind you dumbfounded. You know you don't really have much of a choice here. Who knows what the man would do if you were to refuse? You have to choose one. > You say "The Blessing." "Blessing." You whisper the words, and immediately the blinding light flies from the man's hand and into you. You don't feel any different at first, but as the seconds go by you feel yourself getting really tired. The fatigue spreads throughout your body and you know that at any moment you may pass out. The feeling reminds you of a story your dad once told you about him treading water for hours at a time. He said afterwards that he knew he wouldn't be able to keep it up forever, but he would continue for as long as he could. You sympathize with that thought as your body and mind betray you to their tiredness. When you finally feel as if you could not hold on any longer, you collapse to the floor beside Alessa. The last thing you see is the black light, the curse, flying from the man and into Alessa, and the man's face; a picture of sadness. ~ You wake up hours later in the cabin. You peel your face of of the wooden floor and groggily rub your eyes. It takes you a moment to remember what happened, but when you do you leap to your feet confused. There isn't a single thing out of place in the cabin. You look all around for evidence of what you could've sworn happened here only moments ago, but you find nothing. Even your sword is back inside your sheathe. Nothing was amiss. Perhaps it was all a dream, you think relieved. With a sigh and a shrug you brush the dust off of your clothes and open the cabin door. You remember the struggle you had with the man moments before, and you laugh to yourself. Leave it to your subconscious to turn one of your favorite people into a scary curse giving man with emotional problems. Although... you do wonder why Alessa isn't with you. You were supposed to meet with her in this cabin after all. Your don't think to much of it, for you finally realize the time. In the distance the sun begins to dip down into the gray blue clouds. It was sundown, the time time your parents require you to be home. You immediately break into a jog. You Father could be quite strict when it came to you. If he caught you coming back late, then he would surely punish you. You jog into a relatively silent castle, although you hear sounds of eating and merriment coming from the main dining hall. As if to punctuate the point, your stomach rumbles in anticipation for dinner. Thankfully you only have to go up one staircase on the way to your room. You're careful to look through each hallway before entering in order to avoid a potential disaster with your dad, so in not too long you come to a solid oak door. Engraved on the wall beside it reads the name, 'Lucentia,' your family name. Without wasting any time you throw the door open and slam the door shut behind you. "Erron? What are you doing back so late?" You turn around to see your Father seated on at your desk with a grave look on his face. His deep authoritative voice is riddled with anxiety and subtle undertones of sadness. Something your dad rarely displays. You begin to mumble an excuse about knight training, but your Father interrupts you. "Never mind that. I need you to pack your things. We're going away for a while." The persona of a strong confident man your Father usually portrayed was gone. When you don't respond immediately, he raises his voice. "Quickly now. We must be going!" You don't question him and immediately begin to pack your travel bags with necessities. You're at it for a couple minutes when you realize your Father had no bags with him. "Did you already have your bags packed? you ask curiously. Any information you could glean from him would be useful. He looks around for a moment confused. "I must've forgotten to grab them. I'll be back, son. Stay here and pack. If I'm not back in fifteen minutes then go find Morden." He rushes out of the room leaving you even more confused than when you woke up in the cabin. You shrug and obey him. Even at his worst he still knows more than you do. It doesn't take you long to pack, and soon enough you're left waiting on your bed. A few long moments later you begin to hear shuffling outside, and shouting. You try to ignore it, but it soon grows to a point where you can't ignore it very well. That, and you're starting to get curious. The royal guards don't usually act so panicked, so maybe you should check it out. > You sate your curiosity Tossing your fathers wishes out the window, you crack the door open. If you come back in five minutes, then that should leave you plenty of time to find out what's going on. You walk out of the door and into the stone walled hallways. You listen for a moment, then follow the sounds of shouting. As you near the source, other sounds enter the mix. The sounds of swords ringing and armor being torn fill your ears, and before you can turn yourself back you walk into the scene of the noise. Bodies of the knights of the Holy Order llitter the hallway floor. Royal guards stand amidst the corpses, while others drive their swords through the fallen bodies. Some dark liquid covers the cobblestone floor, and that same liquid is splattered across the walls. Blood. The thought sickens you and you begin to retch despite not having had dinner yet. The sound draws some attention, and as you bring your head up from the ground your eyes meets with a dying Knight on the floor not to far from you. That knight mouths the word "Run," just before his eyes lose the life in them. Before you can really react to that you hear someone yell, "There's the Assassin's son! Get him!" You look up to find every royal guard with their eyes trained on you. Your instincts take over and you begin to run back the way you came. The sounds of metal boots hitting the floor echo throughout the hall behind you. Fear courses throughout your body, and you run faster than you ever have before. However, it's not enough. After only a few moments of running you hear a voice behind you yell, "I've got him!" You're only left wondering what he means for a moment, for right afterwards a javelin hits your shoulder. The force of it doesn't kill you, but it certainly sends you toppling to the floor. The pain is horrible, but luckily you don't have to endure it for long. A royal guard comes up moments later to finish the job.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Blessing." You whisper the words, and immediately the blinding light flies from the man's hand and into you. You don't feel any different at first, but as the seconds go by you feel yourself getting really tired. The fatigue spreads throughout your body and you know that at any moment you may pass out. The feeling reminds you of a story your dad once told you about him treading water for hours at a time. He said afterwards that he knew he wouldn't be able to keep it up forever, but he would continue for as long as he could. You sympathize with that thought as your body and mind betray you to their tiredness. When you finally feel as if you could not hold on any longer, you collapse to the floor beside Alessa. The last thing you see is the black light, the curse, flying from the man and into Alessa, and the man's face; a picture of sadness. ~ You wake up hours later in the cabin. You peel your face of of the wooden floor and groggily rub your eyes. It takes you a moment to remember what happened, but when you do you leap to your feet confused. There isn't a single thing out of place in the cabin. You look all around for evidence of what you could've sworn happened here only moments ago, but you find nothing. Even your sword is back inside your sheathe. Nothing was amiss. Perhaps it was all a dream, you think relieved. With a sigh and a shrug you brush the dust off of your clothes and open the cabin door. You remember the struggle you had with the man moments before, and you laugh to yourself. Leave it to your subconscious to turn one of your favorite people into a scary curse giving man with emotional problems. Although... you do wonder why Alessa isn't with you. You were supposed to meet with her in this cabin after all. Your don't think to much of it, for you finally realize the time. In the distance the sun begins to dip down into the gray blue clouds. It was sundown, the time time your parents require you to be home. You immediately break into a jog. You Father could be quite strict when it came to you. If he caught you coming back late, then he would surely punish you. You jog into a relatively silent castle, although you hear sounds of eating and merriment coming from the main dining hall. As if to punctuate the point, your stomach rumbles in anticipation for dinner. Thankfully you only have to go up one staircase on the way to your room. You're careful to look through each hallway before entering in order to avoid a potential disaster with your dad, so in not too long you come to a solid oak door. Engraved on the wall beside it reads the name, 'Lucentia,' your family name. Without wasting any time you throw the door open and slam the door shut behind you. "Erron? What are you doing back so late?" You turn around to see your Father seated on at your desk with a grave look on his face. His deep authoritative voice is riddled with anxiety and subtle undertones of sadness. Something your dad rarely displays. You begin to mumble an excuse about knight training, but your Father interrupts you. "Never mind that. I need you to pack your things. We're going away for a while." The persona of a strong confident man your Father usually portrayed was gone. When you don't respond immediately, he raises his voice. "Quickly now. We must be going!" You don't question him and immediately begin to pack your travel bags with necessities. You're at it for a couple minutes when you realize your Father had no bags with him. "Did you already have your bags packed? you ask curiously. Any information you could glean from him would be useful. He looks around for a moment confused. "I must've forgotten to grab them. I'll be back, son. Stay here and pack. If I'm not back in fifteen minutes then go find Morden." He rushes out of the room leaving you even more confused than when you woke up in the cabin. You shrug and obey him. Even at his worst he still knows more than you do. It doesn't take you long to pack, and soon enough you're left waiting on your bed. A few long moments later you begin to hear shuffling outside, and shouting. You try to ignore it, but it soon grows to a point where you can't ignore it very well. That, and you're starting to get curious. The royal guards don't usually act so panicked, so maybe you should check it out. > You stay in your room While you're certainly curious about what all of the commotion is about, you trust your father's orders. He wouldn't tell you to do something without a reason, so you wait. Around fifteen minutes later your door is opened, but not by your father. Rather, it's opened by the General of the Knights of the Holy Order, Morden. His presence is intimidating, but from your experience he's always been more or less kind. At least when he's not giving you knight lessons. Then he becomes strict and commanding. You might be the Grand Priest's son, but that certainly won't stop him from going easy on you in lessons. "Where's Father?" You ask, but Morden ignores you and walks straight to the window on the opposite side of the room. You take the hint and stay quiet while he looks around. When he's satisfied he closes the windows quietly, then turns around to face you. He speaks quietly, almost whispering, but his face tells you that the words he says mean just as much as when he would be yelling. "Your father is outside. There was an assassination attempt on his life when he left your room, ands he's asked me to accompany you to meet with him." While he speaks, he gathers a quill with ink and scratches a message on a piece of parchment on your desk. It reads, "There are people outside the door. Say out loud that you need time to pack. In the meantime, gather these sheets and start tying them together. Don't be conspicuous." You nod suddenly grateful for all of the lessons on reading you were taught. "Give me a few minutes to pack my things, and then we can go." You say this and hope to the Creator that that your voice won't betray you. You don't say anything and Morden doesn't offer anymore information, so you both work quietly to construct a makeshift rope. Beneath the surface, however, your mind is racing to try and comprehend the situation. From the things that have been said, and the way your father has been acting you take it that there was, in fact an assassination attempt on your father. That would explain his nervousness, as well as all of the commotion outside. You briefly wonder why they haven't already barged into the room if they were waiting outside, but before you can come to a conclusion your thoughts go to you mother. Your heart skips a beat, and you quickly turn to face Morden. "Where's Mother?" You mouth, and Morden immediately looks away from you obviously avoiding the question. You stop working for a brief moment, for the severity of the situation suddenly hits you. That's why Father was hiding in his room. He was hiding from the guards whilst waiting for you to return from the cabin. They must have already gotten Mother. With that sobering thought tears come to your eyes, and you resume tyirng the sheets together. When you and Morden finally finish, he turns back to you and says aloud, "Hurry up boy. We don't have time to waste." Then he immediately mouths to you, "Your father will explain everything later." He better, you think to yourself. Morden takes the newly made sheet rope and quietly opens the window. After a moment of securing the rope to one of your bed posts, he motions for you to climb down it. You hesitate for a brief moment, but remembering that your father is waiting you cast away your doubts and climb down the rope. For the first time since you've lived at the castle, you've decided that you hate your room. As son of the Grand Priest, you were given one of the 'best' with a view worthy of kings. So they gave you a room on the second floor. You always just took for granted the view, and it never occurred to you that you might have to use this as an escape route someday. You remind yourself to have a room on the first floor next time you live in a castle. The makeshift rope is sturdy enough, so despite your doubts you manage to climb down the rope without too much difficulty. Morden is different. He gets about halfway down the rope when you start to here the rope tear. The combined weight of his armor and a extremely muscled fully grown man were apparently too much for 'rope' to handle. It tears in half and send the armor clad General tumbling to the ground with a chorus of clanking armor. Morden is quick to get back on his feet, however, so he grabs you by the arm and starts to rush you off the castle grounds. It was luck that you had a window that led directly outside the castle. Once you and Morden have made it a fair distance away form the castle, you and Morden break into a run. The familiar features of the castle grounds blur together in a seamless picture of grey and green. You really hope Morden knows where he's going, because you start to feel faint. Fatigue starts to hit you again in an all too familiar way. You remember your dream about the cabin, and have a brief hope that if this fatigue is the same, then perhaps this nightmare of escape is a dream as well. The last thing you hear before you pass out is Morden's voice urging you to push on. > You dreams You're back in the cabin. Sunlight once again pours through the window, and once again the man stands before you. The choice is the same. Light is held in his right hand, and darkness is in his left. "Which will you choose? Protection or power?" Unlike the last time you saw him, the man seems to have regained his senses. His normally calm demeanor has returned, but his appearance is still that of an unkempt barbarian. Your gaze turns back to the balls of light, and you begin to reach for the man's right hand when you hear a voice. "Give me the curse." Her voice is melodic and terrible at the same time. Melodic because her voice cleared your mind of the fog that made you think this dream was reality. Terrible, because you remembered what happened when you were last awake. Your Father was nearly assassinated, and you believe your mother was. You climbed out of your window... but you can't remember anything after that. Perhaps the feel of armor against your skin, or the faces hovering above you, but nothing definite. You stop reaching for the blessing, and instead wipe the tears from your eyes. Out of the corner of your eyes you see the curse and blessing fly to whom they belong. You knew that yours and Alessa's fathers never really quite got along, but you didn't think the King would go so far as to assassinate the Grand Priest. Personal matters aside, this was an affront to the major religion of the entire continent. It was sure to cause an uproar. You turn around to face the speaker at your back. Standing in the doorway is Alessa. Sunlight seeps in through the door and glances off of her hair giving her the appearance of having a halo. Her face is a mix of despair, and her posture reminds you of what yours must've been when you realized the chances of your mother being alive were low. Under normal circumstances you would've been delighted to see her, but all her face reminds you of is the gall the King had to take your family away from you. "Why did he do it? Why did your father kill my mother?" You ask the question with your face a mask of sadness. Alessa looks shocked to say the least, but before she can respond, you continue. "I don't know why I'm asking you. You're just some mirage my mind must've made up, and you're probably only here because whenever I'm at this cabin, you're usually with me." You start rambling, and although she certainly tries to say something several times, you ignore her. Apparently it becomes too much for the dream Alessa, and instead of trying to overpower your voice with her own, she slaps you. You figured that since this is a dream it wouldn't hurt, but to your chagrin you are wrong. The force of the blow is more than enough to shake you from your rant, and you decide that this dream Alessa must have something important to say. You weren't paying to much attention to her until now, but now that she's much closer you can see the tears in her eyes and the frustrated expression etched onto her face. "First off, I'm the real Alessa." It has to be a lie. "Secondly, even if I was just a figment of your imagination..." A sob interrupts her sentence, "...are you seriously saying that you'd be this insensitive?" You flinch at that and look away. Surprisingly enough, Alessa reaches up, grips your chin, and faces you back towards her. As soon as she lets go, you turn your head back away from her. However you do take note of that. The real Alessa would've never done something so bold. You hear a sigh of defeat, and the pat of footsteps on the floor. "I'll be back when you're ready to believe me," Alessa says, but mutters immediately afterwards, "i can't believe my Father thought I could trust you." It's only when you hear the sound of the door close that you turn back around. You fall to your knees, and put your face in your hands. Too much was going on for you to think straight. If that really was Alessa, then you could already feel heavy guilt setting on your heart. But there was too much else going on. her father saying that she could trust you? as far as you knew her father didn't like you anymore than he like your dad. You hear a sigh behind you. "You two should really work together." It's obviously the man's voice, but when you turn around there's no one there. you sit there alone in the cabin, wallowing in your despair. It is then you decide that whoever took your family away from you...that person would recieve pain by your hands. No one harms your family and gets away with it. ~ "He has to be blessed Cassius. There's no other explanation. You should be proud. Your son is the chosen of the Creator." "I understand, But why now of all times, and why someone as young as him?" "I've heard rumors. They say that the princess is cursed. Perhaps the Creator gave us a Blessed One to combat her, A cursed One." The voice you don't recognize manages to fill as much contempt for Alessa as possible in that last phrase. "Shush, I think he's waking." You figured you could fake sleep to hear more, but your father knows you better than you thought. You open your eyes to the room beyond. White walls, and sheets cover every inch of the room. The only colorful spots are the two men at the foot of your bed. Your father on your right, and the stranger on the left. While they both have dark hair with a streaks of grey, the similarities end there. The stranger Is much more heavyset than your father. He looks like he spent a few too many times at the dinner table instead of exercising. Your father is slimmer than him, but doesn't quite have the muscular body he had in his younger days. "Erron?" Your father asks as your eye open fully. "Father?" You respond, or at least try to. Your throat is dry beyond belief. You feel you haven't had water in days. "Get him some water,' your father commands the stranger before embracing you and smiling. "What happened?" you manage to croak out. Your father's joy at seeing you wake is replaced with a grim expression. "Wait until you've had some water son. Then we can talk." It isn't long before the one man walks back in with a goblet filled with water. You drink it greedily as your father begins telling you what happened. "Things had been getting bad for a long time. You know the King and I didn't agree on a lot of things, but it goes beyond that. He was passing more and more restrictions upon the Holy Kingdom. I resisted as much as possible, but in the end my resistance only served as an excuse to get rid of me. As you can see, he failed." Sadness fills his eyes. "Instead of killing me, he settled for getting your mother." So it was true. However, your guesses did nothing to stop the tears from flowing down your face. "When you were passed out for this past week, I was sure your mother wasn't the only loved one I'd lost." A week? There's no way. You only remember having the one dream, and even that dream didn't last that long. "A week?" you respond slowly before enjoying the last bit of water from the goblet. Your father nods. "Yes, You were out for an entire week." A pained smile reaches tour father's face. "But when i saw the mark, I knew you'd be okay." "What mark?" As soon as you ask the question you regret it. The stranger immediately goes on about how the Creator chooses people to serve him, and about the great honor it is. Your eyes start to glaze over, but your father manages to get the stranger to stop his lengthy explanation. "That's the significance of the mark, but to answer your question, 'What mark?' I'm going to have to have you stand up son." Your legs are a little shaky from a week of no use, but you manage to stand up and go over to where your father is standing. He turns you around so that you are facing away from him, and he tells the other man to go get a pair of mirrors before addressing you. "This is what the Creator has blessed you with." Your Father's hands brush the skin from your left shoulder to your right seemingly tracing lines onto your back. "where I've touched is where the mark spans. You'll see in a moment what the Creator has given you. As if on cue, the man from before comes into the room with the hand mirrors. Your father thanks him then takes them. With his help you position the mirrors at the best angles to allow you to glimpse at your back. Glittering lines of gold shine all across the top of your back. If you try to look at a single line you lose the picture, but when you try to focus on the elegant gold lines as a whole you see what it is meant to depict. "The saving wings of the Creator," the man remarks. "Said to only show when his followers are in grave danger." You continue to stare at the markings and marvel at how similar the wings on your back are to that of those of the Creator. You begin to hear your father's friend launch into another lengthy description of the "Blessed Ones" but your father stops him short. "Let's leave him be. He needs more rest. He's only just now woken up." Your father makes a move to leave, but you stop him one last time. "Father, can I go with you? You are going to fight back, right?" Your father turns back around to face you, and examines you for a good few seconds before the stranger interjects. "You can't possibly be considering this. Can you Cassius?" Your father responds, "Of course I can be. He's a Blessed One. Surely that fact will give our knights someone advantage on the battlefield. even if he is a mile away from the battlefield. And we can train him on the spot." You smile and start to agree, but your father continues. "But you might be of more use to us if you train here first, and then come help when you're ready. Here, as in the Academy of the Holy Order. It's a perfect opportunity to have you learn how to use your power as well. But, I'll leave the choice up to you. I believe the Creator will back any of your choices." You aren't sure about all of 'Blessed One' stuff, but you do know that you don't want to be away from your father if he might need your help. You couldn't stand to lose another one of your parents. Then again, you also see the wisdom in waiting here and training before you go out onto the battlefield. You wouldn't be very useful if you died after all. > You go with your father While you're sure the Knight Academy would increase your usefulness, you decide that you're more useful now than later. What if everyone you wish to protect is already dead by the time your prepared? Besides, your father did say that they could teach you on the way there. "I'd like to go with you father." "Alright son. Rest up. We leave at first light tomorrow." He pats you on your back, then leaves the room with the stranger. You pack up your belongings, or at least what's left of them then leave to take a bath. You can't imagine that a week in bed does wonders for your hygiene. After that, you take a stroll around the Knight Academy. It is quite magnificent, and you're sure you would have had everything you needed had you stayed, but you've already made your choice. your place is at your father's side. The rest of the day goes fast, and before you know it you're already back in bed. One might think that a week sleeping would make it harder for you to fall back asleep, but soon enough you drift back into your dreams. Your dream is the same as it has been the last few times, except this time you're actually alone. No Alessa, and no shaggy haired man. Instead you go through your recent dreams, and a thought you shoved to the back of your mind finally resurfaces. When your father and his friend were talking you connected the dots, but you didn't want to believe it. That yours and Alessa's friend was the Creator himself. It didn't seem likely, but neither didn't being hunted down until today. You keep in in your head for when the piece of information might come in handy, and the next morning comes quickly. You and your father are allotted a wagon and several soldiers to ensure that you get to your forward camp safely. While waiting your father takes to teaching you the history behind 'Blessed Ones.' You learn that there role was to create peace on this world, and that often times they did so by focusing an evil foe. Most saw them as heroes, but you don't really understand why. The only thing people saw that was special about you was the golden mark on your back in the shape of angelic wings. Beyond that there was nothing else. These lessons continued for about a week before the unexpected happened. While gazing out the wagon window you see a glimmer out in the forest. you don't think much of it until you hear someone yell, "Attack!" All at once Dellandian soldiers start pouring out from the trees and to the wagon. Your own knights are heavily outnumbered, so you're father makes a split second executive decision. You both decide to run. You make it around twenty steps before several arrows stick into your back killing you. you only hope that your father made it farther than you did.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You're back in the cabin. Sunlight once again pours through the window, and once again the man stands before you. The choice is the same. Light is held in his right hand, and darkness is in his left. "Which will you choose? Protection or power?" Unlike the last time you saw him, the man seems to have regained his senses. His normally calm demeanor has returned, but his appearance is still that of an unkempt barbarian. Your gaze turns back to the balls of light, and you begin to reach for the man's right hand when you hear a voice. "Give me the curse." Her voice is melodic and terrible at the same time. Melodic because her voice cleared your mind of the fog that made you think this dream was reality. Terrible, because you remembered what happened when you were last awake. Your Father was nearly assassinated, and you believe your mother was. You climbed out of your window... but you can't remember anything after that. Perhaps the feel of armor against your skin, or the faces hovering above you, but nothing definite. You stop reaching for the blessing, and instead wipe the tears from your eyes. Out of the corner of your eyes you see the curse and blessing fly to whom they belong. You knew that yours and Alessa's fathers never really quite got along, but you didn't think the King would go so far as to assassinate the Grand Priest. Personal matters aside, this was an affront to the major religion of the entire continent. It was sure to cause an uproar. You turn around to face the speaker at your back. Standing in the doorway is Alessa. Sunlight seeps in through the door and glances off of her hair giving her the appearance of having a halo. Her face is a mix of despair, and her posture reminds you of what yours must've been when you realized the chances of your mother being alive were low. Under normal circumstances you would've been delighted to see her, but all her face reminds you of is the gall the King had to take your family away from you. "Why did he do it? Why did your father kill my mother?" You ask the question with your face a mask of sadness. Alessa looks shocked to say the least, but before she can respond, you continue. "I don't know why I'm asking you. You're just some mirage my mind must've made up, and you're probably only here because whenever I'm at this cabin, you're usually with me." You start rambling, and although she certainly tries to say something several times, you ignore her. Apparently it becomes too much for the dream Alessa, and instead of trying to overpower your voice with her own, she slaps you. You figured that since this is a dream it wouldn't hurt, but to your chagrin you are wrong. The force of the blow is more than enough to shake you from your rant, and you decide that this dream Alessa must have something important to say. You weren't paying to much attention to her until now, but now that she's much closer you can see the tears in her eyes and the frustrated expression etched onto her face. "First off, I'm the real Alessa." It has to be a lie. "Secondly, even if I was just a figment of your imagination..." A sob interrupts her sentence, "...are you seriously saying that you'd be this insensitive?" You flinch at that and look away. Surprisingly enough, Alessa reaches up, grips your chin, and faces you back towards her. As soon as she lets go, you turn your head back away from her. However you do take note of that. The real Alessa would've never done something so bold. You hear a sigh of defeat, and the pat of footsteps on the floor. "I'll be back when you're ready to believe me," Alessa says, but mutters immediately afterwards, "i can't believe my Father thought I could trust you." It's only when you hear the sound of the door close that you turn back around. You fall to your knees, and put your face in your hands. Too much was going on for you to think straight. If that really was Alessa, then you could already feel heavy guilt setting on your heart. But there was too much else going on. her father saying that she could trust you? as far as you knew her father didn't like you anymore than he like your dad. You hear a sigh behind you. "You two should really work together." It's obviously the man's voice, but when you turn around there's no one there. you sit there alone in the cabin, wallowing in your despair. It is then you decide that whoever took your family away from you...that person would recieve pain by your hands. No one harms your family and gets away with it. ~ "He has to be blessed Cassius. There's no other explanation. You should be proud. Your son is the chosen of the Creator." "I understand, But why now of all times, and why someone as young as him?" "I've heard rumors. They say that the princess is cursed. Perhaps the Creator gave us a Blessed One to combat her, A cursed One." The voice you don't recognize manages to fill as much contempt for Alessa as possible in that last phrase. "Shush, I think he's waking." You figured you could fake sleep to hear more, but your father knows you better than you thought. You open your eyes to the room beyond. White walls, and sheets cover every inch of the room. The only colorful spots are the two men at the foot of your bed. Your father on your right, and the stranger on the left. While they both have dark hair with a streaks of grey, the similarities end there. The stranger Is much more heavyset than your father. He looks like he spent a few too many times at the dinner table instead of exercising. Your father is slimmer than him, but doesn't quite have the muscular body he had in his younger days. "Erron?" Your father asks as your eye open fully. "Father?" You respond, or at least try to. Your throat is dry beyond belief. You feel you haven't had water in days. "Get him some water,' your father commands the stranger before embracing you and smiling. "What happened?" you manage to croak out. Your father's joy at seeing you wake is replaced with a grim expression. "Wait until you've had some water son. Then we can talk." It isn't long before the one man walks back in with a goblet filled with water. You drink it greedily as your father begins telling you what happened. "Things had been getting bad for a long time. You know the King and I didn't agree on a lot of things, but it goes beyond that. He was passing more and more restrictions upon the Holy Kingdom. I resisted as much as possible, but in the end my resistance only served as an excuse to get rid of me. As you can see, he failed." Sadness fills his eyes. "Instead of killing me, he settled for getting your mother." So it was true. However, your guesses did nothing to stop the tears from flowing down your face. "When you were passed out for this past week, I was sure your mother wasn't the only loved one I'd lost." A week? There's no way. You only remember having the one dream, and even that dream didn't last that long. "A week?" you respond slowly before enjoying the last bit of water from the goblet. Your father nods. "Yes, You were out for an entire week." A pained smile reaches tour father's face. "But when i saw the mark, I knew you'd be okay." "What mark?" As soon as you ask the question you regret it. The stranger immediately goes on about how the Creator chooses people to serve him, and about the great honor it is. Your eyes start to glaze over, but your father manages to get the stranger to stop his lengthy explanation. "That's the significance of the mark, but to answer your question, 'What mark?' I'm going to have to have you stand up son." Your legs are a little shaky from a week of no use, but you manage to stand up and go over to where your father is standing. He turns you around so that you are facing away from him, and he tells the other man to go get a pair of mirrors before addressing you. "This is what the Creator has blessed you with." Your Father's hands brush the skin from your left shoulder to your right seemingly tracing lines onto your back. "where I've touched is where the mark spans. You'll see in a moment what the Creator has given you. As if on cue, the man from before comes into the room with the hand mirrors. Your father thanks him then takes them. With his help you position the mirrors at the best angles to allow you to glimpse at your back. Glittering lines of gold shine all across the top of your back. If you try to look at a single line you lose the picture, but when you try to focus on the elegant gold lines as a whole you see what it is meant to depict. "The saving wings of the Creator," the man remarks. "Said to only show when his followers are in grave danger." You continue to stare at the markings and marvel at how similar the wings on your back are to that of those of the Creator. You begin to hear your father's friend launch into another lengthy description of the "Blessed Ones" but your father stops him short. "Let's leave him be. He needs more rest. He's only just now woken up." Your father makes a move to leave, but you stop him one last time. "Father, can I go with you? You are going to fight back, right?" Your father turns back around to face you, and examines you for a good few seconds before the stranger interjects. "You can't possibly be considering this. Can you Cassius?" Your father responds, "Of course I can be. He's a Blessed One. Surely that fact will give our knights someone advantage on the battlefield. even if he is a mile away from the battlefield. And we can train him on the spot." You smile and start to agree, but your father continues. "But you might be of more use to us if you train here first, and then come help when you're ready. Here, as in the Academy of the Holy Order. It's a perfect opportunity to have you learn how to use your power as well. But, I'll leave the choice up to you. I believe the Creator will back any of your choices." You aren't sure about all of 'Blessed One' stuff, but you do know that you don't want to be away from your father if he might need your help. You couldn't stand to lose another one of your parents. Then again, you also see the wisdom in waiting here and training before you go out onto the battlefield. You wouldn't be very useful if you died after all. > You enroll in Knight Academy You hesitate while you think, but you answer before long. "I'll stay here." Your father smiles, and it's obvious that he's very relieved at your choice. You imagine that a heavy burden must've been taken off of his shoulders. Here you would be safe. Here you wouldn't have to worry. Your father nods before turning to the heavy set man on his left. "This is the Headmaster here at the academy. Headmaster Rallas. He's taught at this academy for years now," a slight smile breaks across your father's face, "and despite his looks, he used to quite capable." Headmaster Rallas scoffed at that. "I'm still more than capable," he remarks before your father continues speaking. "I'll be leaving in the morning, so it may be some time before i see you again, son. When I next see you, I expect to see a man grown and ready for anything. The Creator has blessed you as his champion, so you must prepare yourself to fulfill that demanding role. I'll see you again in the morning, but for now Headmaster Rallas will give you a tour." Your father embraces you, then walks out of the room leaving you alone in the room with Headmaster Rallas. He regards you for a silent moment. "You carry a great burden. If you're well enough I'll show you around." Despite the sleepy haze you've retained since you awoke, you nod and get up from your bed. You look around the room, and wonder why you're the only one here. This was obviously the Academy's infirmary and this was a fighting school, so surely there must be more people injured. You express these thoughts aloud to the Headmaster, and he smiles then throws an arm around you. "You've got a good head on you. The academy is on break for another week, so until then, it'll be you, me, the staff, and a rare few other students." You nod and the Headmaster leads you out of the room. The halls remind you of the Castle back in Valium except that these were newer and more obviously centered around academics. The Headmaster leads you around, and before long you find yourself increasingly impressed with the facility. It's every bit as big as the castle, and the rumors you've heard about it do not nearly do it justice. The Headmaster explains that aside from basic academics, everyone in the academy is taught how to wield a sword. Once a student finishes their schooling here, they begin their long noble service to the Grand Priest wherever it may take them. If even to death. You feel a sense of foreboding and briefly wonder how many knights died to help you escape Valium. The Grand Priest finishes his explanation by telling you that at age sixteen every student is sorted into two more facilities depending on their aptitude for fighting. One is simply called Advanced Combat where the inhabitants focus solely on honing their skills in combat, tactics, and other such needs for war. The other school is called Support, which is more or less self explanatory. This school includes those training in the healing arts, organizational matters, but everyone one of them still is constantly trained in fighting. If the need ever arises, then those in both schools can form a force of a couple thousand, that is when all of the knights on missions are gathered in. Aside from the knights at the school, there are bases scattered around the continent each with a minimum number of five thousand strong. that is where the majority of your numbers reside. Apparently your father had been prepared for this, for you cannot imagine that the King would have allowed such an amassing of numbers to occur under his nose. Once the introductions are over, the Headmaster leaves you to explore the facility whilst he claims that his work needs his utmost attention. You shrug and simply head off of in the direction of the armory. You didn't have much time to grab your sword when you left, so hopefully they could supply you with one. On your way there you run into another student. You don't quite feel the want (or need) to converse with him, so you barely give him a glance. Despite your wishes, he moves in front of you effectively stopping you in your tracks. This was most inconvenient, because a staircase was not the best place to meet someone new. If it was someone younger, or even smaller than you then you may have pushed passed him. However, he was neither. He was taller than you by a couple inches, making him around six foot, but that wasn't what stopped you. For someone who can't have been more than two years older than you, his frame filled his clothing and his muscles stretched the grey and black leather. He reminded you of Morden. He stood on the stair step right above you making his presence just that more imposing. Although you originally didn't want to meet him, you found yourself mildly interested. What did this oversized adolescent want with you? "Are you Erron?" his face was expressionless, but when you answer "Yes," his face changes to that of contempt. "You're the person that the teachers keep going on about? You barely have any muscle on you, and you look like you haven't ever seen a battle. The Creator should've chosen me, but instead he chose a scrawny piece of trash like you. I bet you didn't even have the guts to screw the princess while you were in that castle." His voice is filled with mocking arrogance, and his insults, quite frankly annoy you. He had just barely met you, yet he acted as if he knew your whole story. His insults weren't even that good, but his attitude was certainly more abrasive than you could otherwise stand. You normally wouldn't even consider physical retaliation as a viable option, but his mention of Alessa tipped your judgment. She might be the daughter of a treacherous King, but she wasn't some cheap prostitute. > You ignore him and move on While feeling tempted to show this peasant his place, you aren't that rash. If put to the test you figure you would have a high chance of winning in this fight. However, you don't think he got that muscular from sitting around doing nothing, and since this is an academy where people are being taught how to fight, so you assume he has more experience than you as well. Of course you were taught by the General himself, Morden, so despite the person's goading you push past him and continue up the stairs. On your way past him he grips your forearm and speaks, "Hey, don't leave when I'm talking to you!" He has a strong grip, but since you know how to get out of such a simple hold, you easily twist out and continue up the stairs. You hear a string of profanity and calls for you to come back, but for whatever reason he doesn't come after you, so you continue to ignore him. It hadn't really occurred to you that there might some people that are jealous of you. Especially since you have no idea why they think you're blessed by the Creator. Certainly the mark on your back is indicative to the Creator's wings, but you're fairly certain that the Creator didn't just come down from paradise and bestow upon you the powers to govern his people on this world. No, you're fairly certain that this isn't the Creator's doing, and even more so when you remember your dream. In the back of your mind things were already starting to make sense, but you didn't want to believe it. Somehow that man in the King's Forest was able to obtain power beyond your comprehension. Maybe he got it from the Creator, but regardless of where you are fairly certain that those years spent in the King's Forest were not normal. You thought it was odd when the guards couldn't relocate the cabin, but you always chalked it up to your superior tracking skills. Well at least until you learned enough to know that you were no where near as good at tracking as the royal guards. You cast your thoughts to the very first 'dream.' If you recall correctly then you were actually confronting the man about his purpose in being in those woods. He'd mentioned about how he knew that day would come, and how sad he was. You reach the Academy's armory, and you resolve to figure out what happened later. soon enough they find you a sword that's suited to your size and fighting style, and you leave with your mind still centered on weapons. You get the vague feeling that you were meaning to do something, but before you realize what it was, Headmaster Rallas shows up at the end of the hallway. He's wearing the same grey and black material from before, but this time he has more of the stuff gathered together in his arms. You remember the other student you met, and realize that the Headmaster was holding some kind of student uniform. "I'm sorry. I meant to give this to you before, but my attention was elsewhere." He shoves the grey and black uniform into your arms before reaching into a pocket and pulling out a key. "This is for your room. We made sure to give you the best of the best." "That's une-" you begin, but the headmaster interrupts you. "Nonsense. The son of the Grand Priest deserves the very best." You hesitate before grasping the Gold plated key. Despite the unfortunate meeting in the hallway, you decide that you might very well get used to living here. "Yes sir." ~ A few weeks pass, and the first battle happens. A messenger leaves you a letter from your father detailing what happened. It was mostly just the Knights testing the Dellandian army. It wasn't some crazy battle of massive proportions, but rather, it was a skirmish that didn't even contain a hundred men in total. While it wasn't the greatest battle, the Knights managed to beat the army with a combination of skill (from the individuals), and strategy. (from the different leaders) You find out that Morden is leading the charge against the corrupt royalty, and that in terms of skill, the Knights heavily outclass the army of Dellandia. You hope that superior strategy and skill will be enough, for the Dellandian army has the advantage in numbers. Aside from that, the only important thing happening is the new term start for the Academy. No new dreams of the Man and Alessa happen leaving you with a relatively bored few weeks. You don't see the pretentious student from before, so you ended up spending most of your time staying fit and practicing your swordplay. You're in an almost feverish state, and your father and your friends only serve to make that fever go. Whether the mark you received was from the Creator or not, you feel your place is beside your father championing the cause of the Holy Kingdom. Occasionally you go to the library hoping to find information regarding this mark, and while there are a lot of history about what the Blessed Ones are, the texts never go into the differences between the Blessed Ones and other people. You're always left wondering if the mark is simply there to notify your enemies of whom to kill. Thus, your thoughts are everywhere when you attend your first class at the Academy. The Headmaster had your schedule delivered to you earlier week with a note attached. It read, "Erron, enclosed is your schedule of the coming term. Seeing as how you were taught by the best while in Vailum, we've decided to put you in classes closer to your skill level. You will be surrounded by peer s who are older than you, and may even be jealous of you and your position. Heed them not, for your position demands that you be above everyone else. You are held in a higher regard because of your blessing, so do not stoop down to the level of those who oppose you. Sincerely, Headmaster Rallas. You take a deep breath and clear your head. The open doorway seems almost ominous in nature, but when you finally step through it, the classroom beyond leaves you astounded. Mostly because you've never really seen so many kids in the same location. The majority of the students are male, but you do see several girls around the room too. You do not see the teacher, so when you enter the room you try to sneak along the wall to an empty wooden desk. Alas, Your endeavor fails. It only takes a few seconds for someone to recognize you as the Grand Priest's son, so a fairly large group forms around you. "Are you Erron?" "Can I see your mark?" and "Where'd you get that jawline?" are only a few of the questions you hear. You do your best to answer the questions, but luckily for you, the teacher steps into the room and tells everyone to go to their seats. The teacher Introduces himself as Sir Kakanos, and he barely takes anytime before diving into the lesson. Your first class is history, and it ends up going fairly smoothly. Well at least for you. The rest of the class seem distracted by your presence, as if you're some kind of exotic animal. It's only when the student you met before walks through the doorway that the classes' attention turns away from you. Sir Kakanos looks away from the class when he walks in, and gestures for the guy to sit. "It's nice of you to join us Mr. Rallas." The Headmaster's son, you take note of that. 'Mr. Rallas' walks to the seat designated, but takes a specific moment to look at you and stare you down. He doesn't have the same astonished and contempt filled expression as he did before. Rather it's blank, and you realize, with a start, that this guy wasn't just some brute filled with anger. No, if he had that much control over his emotions to begin with, then he was much smarter than you previously thought. If you allowed yourself to be angered back when you first met you might have been outclassed. The class ends soon after that interruption, and you head to your next class. It turns out similarly, with the exception of the Headmaster's son actually being to his class on time. Science, Numbers, Battle Tactics, and Reading pass by fairly quickly and before long you're standing in a field outside the academy. Of all the classes you have, this is probably the one you look forward to the most. Advanced Combat. The teacher is a female Knight by the name of Sarrin. She's quite young. If you weren't her student, you might consider her beautiful. She quickly pairs off each the students there to "see what each of you can do." You're paired with a stocky fellow named David, and you start to spar with the wooden practice swords. It doesn't take you very long at all to best him, but David decides that he wants more. You happily oblige, for you haven't had a real opponent in a while. However, it soon becomes very clear that despite his two year advantage of age, you are the better fighter. "Erron. Pair up Ashyr." You hear Miss Sarrin tell you, and before you can ask who she means, you see her pointing at the Headmaster's son. You mutter a quick "Yes ma'am" and head over to your new opponent. Unlike your previous opponent, Ashyr stands a few inches taller than you. His hazel eyes regard you calmly, and he holds his practice sword carefully, lightly, as if the sword was his lover. The thought amused you, and you allowed a small smile to light up your features. You ready your practice sword for battle. The space between you is filled with tension, and you start circling each other. For a fraction of a second you see his eyes shift to the contempt filled ones you first saw, but you don't have time to think about it, for Ashyr lunges. You react immediately by parrying, then you follow up with a counterattack of your own. He defends against just as easily as you did against him, and the both of you enter into a trance of sorts. Neither of you gain ground against each other, and each and every one of your strikes is parried or otherwise defended against. Soon enough you realize that this battle will be decided through endurance. The first person to slack off in their attacks, the first person to make a mistake, they will be the one to lose. You continue the fighting for a few moments longer before you realize that it would be you to make the mistake. While Ashyr showed hints of strain, he didn't look anywhere close to as tired as you were. You have to strike now while you still have the energy to do so. Throughout the fight, many different tactics have been employed. Given this, there are only a few things you think work. You haven't tried overwhelming him with power, so you might be able to take your opponent by surprise. The same principle applies to forcing him to grapple with you. If you get close enough you may be able to catch him off guard by tackling him to the ground. Of course, you could always wait for Ashyr to mess up. Maybe he feels more tired than he looks. In any case you feel yourself beginning to tire, so you need to make a decision now. > You overwhelm him with attack Ashyr is stronger, taller, and every bit as skilled as you. You don't think you'll be able to last for too long if you stay on defense. Tackling him might also have detrimental consequences. If you timed it bad then you could take a sword to the head. No, among the choices you figure your best one is to overwhelm him with attacks. With a sudden turn of luck you parry a blow, and Ashyr decides not to pursue attacking you. Instead you start circling each other again. You're grateful for the time to rest before you begin your attack, but Ashyr doesn't seem to be thinking at all about his energy. Instead his eyes are focused on you with a puzzled look in his eyes. You guess no one has ever lasted this long against him. By now the sun's heat has your body beginning to wear down, and your fatigue must show, for Ashyr smiles a triumphant smile. Immediately afterwards, he surges forward with an overhead slash. But you're ready for it. You surge forward as well and parry his attack on your way. You leave him no time to counterattack, but instead press the advantage created by surprising him with your ferocity. For the first time since the fight started, you seem to have a clear advantage. Every attack Ashyr blocks is a step he is forced backwards, and before long the smile he had disappears from his face. Replacing it is a face contorted in concentration, and Ashyr finally seems like he the exertion is getting to him. However, you also feel your fatigue. You begin to slow down in your attacks whilst Ashyr's blocks pick up in their efficacy. Instead of barely being able to keep up, Ashyr is now blocking each attack with an attack of his own. It isn't long before you realize that you're going to fail. One of these moments you won't have enough energy to meet his attack with your own. One of these attacks you simply won't be able to raise your sword to block his. The moment comes in the form of another overhead slash. Ashyr uses his height and superior strength to increase the attack's power, and you realize that he means to end the fight with this attack. You have no time to dodge and you feel like you don't have nearly enough energy to raise your sword, let alone enough to block the monstrous attack. Nevertheless, You push your arms with all your remaining strength to meet his attack with your own. Your thoughts aren't even centered upon winning the fight in that moment, rather, they're centered on making sure that that attack doesn't hit you. They're centered on protecting yourself. As you bring your sword up, you feel a surge of energy resonating from your shoulders. It strengthens your body and fills your arms with power. Your sword clashes with Ashyr's, and the power behind your hit was so powerful that it knocks the wooden sword clear out of his hand. There's a moment of stunned silence all around, and in the back of your mind you realize that the other students must've stopped their sparring to watch, but your mind isn't on that. Instead the power you feel brings a grin to your face. It contrasts greatly with Ashyr's expression when you bring your sword to rest beneath his chin. The changes in Ashyr's face come quickly, so if your weren't already looking at him then, you're not sure you would've noticed. Astonishment first, but rage soon followed with mixes of despair and vengeance coloring his eyes. You even thought that there was some respect there, but the moment of conflicting emotions passed. Back was his calm facade; the mask he wore was impressive, and if you hadn't seen it off when you first met, then you might really think that this calm demeanor was really him. You hear hushed conversations among the remainder of the students, and soon enough Miss Sarrin shouts at everyone. "Get back to sparring everyone!" You lower you sword and Ashyr takes a hesitant step. Then another. Before long Ashyr is heading off the field, and not much more time passes until he's out of sight. You take this opportunity to rest. The fight was certainly much more difficult than you anticipated. You're sure you would've lost if you had not found that reserve of energy. Heat still resonated from your shoulders, although it certainly was much less noticeable than it was a few moments ago. Your rest only last for a few minutes before Miss Sarrin approaches you. "You're one lucky kid. Without that blessing you would have spent the next few days in the infirmary. Ashyr put enough force into that last attack to give you a concussion." What blessing? Your tired mind thinks before realizing the importance of what just happened. It makes sense to you all of the sudden, for you recall the moment of the last attack. You were only seeking to protect yourself. It couldn't be a coincidence that The Man told you the blessing would give you the power to protect yourself. You'd been wondering what all the fuss about the blessing was for. After all, it wasn't until now that the so called "blessing" did anything except give you a cool mark. You only nod in response. You don't really have anything to say, and besides, you'd rather take this moment to think upon the implications of what you just discovered. Unfortunately Miss Sarrin doesn't allow you to sit while everyone else spars, so she tells you to stand up and ready yourself. She spars with you for most of the remainder of class, but try as you might, you aren't able to beat her and you aren't able to activate your blessing. Class ends and Miss Sarrin pulls you aside. The rest of the students file off the sparring field until it's just the two of you standing there. She speaks first. "Do you want to know how to control your power?" The question surprises you to say the least. "Yes, of course." You reply immediately. While you've been able to keep your emotions in check for most of your stay at the academy, you still feel the smoldering of anger and sadness at your mother's death. If there's any way you could learn to use the power to help you become stronger, then your answer will always be certain. "It will take a lot of training. Not to mention a change in your mindset. any more questions?" she asks. You raise an eyebrow at the 'mindset' comment. "Only one. How are you qualified to teach me?" You figure the question is necessary. You don't want to commit to learning if you're being taught by a teacher who doesn't know what they're doing. "That's not something I am willing to tell. Go get some rest. From tomorrow onward, you'll be learning about this gift you have." You're about to insist upon her giving you a straight answer when you realize that she's right. You do need rest, and tomorrow is another day. > You continue At age sixteen you are the youngest person to attain knighthood from the Academy for Advanced Combat. The AAC. When you were at the Knight Academy, you were placed two years above your age group to compensate for the learning you received while in the castle at Valium. Because of this, you graduated to the AAC at a record age of fourteen years old. Which was even more prodigious then Miss Sarrin's feat of graduating at age fifteen. (You like to remind her of that whenever you get the chance to) The AAC didn't pose much of a problem to you in regards to practically anything. Many classified you as a prodigy beyond all others, and as such you excelled at everything the AAC had to offer. You have a natural mind for strategy, tactics, and fighting; so much in fact, that many believe you will surpass Morden before you reach the age of twenty five. Rumors of you spread at an alarmingly rate, and just before you graduated from the AAC, people came to know you as the Chosen Hero. A man of great regard that surpasses all who contend against him, and a man that would come and tip the war in the favor of the Holy Kingdom. (For the death of the King barely tipped the scales at all. In fact, some think that it only served to enrage the Dellandians and their supporters.) You had no control over the rumors, and they ended up being blown out of proportion. Ever the opportunist, your Father had Headmaster Rallas directed the rumors into propaganda of sorts. Essentially, they used your image as a rallying point for those eager to fight in support of the Holy Kingdom. And the Creator knows that the Holy Kingdom needs all the help it can get. You tolerated the increase in attention towards, but when it got to the point where Academy students simply stopped in the hallway to stare at you, well it was a little too much. You mentally shrug as you make your way to Headmaster Rallas' office. Raven walks beside you, who you can tell is enjoying the attention garnered from being beside you. As for why you were even back at the Academy... you weren't told much. The Headmaster at the AAC, Headmaster Farid, only told you that Headmaster Rallas needed you and Raven immediately. To quote, "Headmaster Rallas needs to see you immediately. Besides, your fan club deserves to see you every once in a while." You had rolled your eyes at that one. It was interesting thing. The kids at the Academy admired you, and went to great lengths to make sure you were always welcome there. It was a nice gesture, but all too often you felt turned off from all of the attention. Especially since you think that you wouldn't be getting nearly as much attention had you not been blessed by the Creator. (Ironically enough, you still weren't sure if that man was the Creator. Specifically because you know he was also the one that cursed Alessa. You don't mention this to anyone though. It would cause an uproar that's altogether unecessary.) The only other times you come back here are when you want to see Miss Sarrin. You ended your lessons with her when you graduated, and the both of you left on good terms. You still don't know how she knew what she knew, but you're eternally grateful regardless. "What do you think he wants us for?" Raven says to you, as the pair of you make your way up a flight of stairs. After that first year of solitude at the Academy, Raven and you became fast friends. You ended up gaining other friends too, but none were as close as Raven, or Miss Sarrin for that matter. You crush on her faded off sometime last year, around when you and Alessa met in a dream for the second time. Ironically you think that your lack of interest in her caused her to be more interested in you. Of course it could just be your dazzling fame. "I have no idea. I haven't talked to him in ages. My first guess was that he'd be giving us a mission, but Headmaster Farid is usually in charge of those, especially since we haven't had our first mission yet." Headmaster Farid had a longstanding tradition of presenting each new graduate with their first mission. Graduation was after the first two years in the AAC, but each student stayed enrolled until two more years passed of just missions and other tasks. After that, AAC students finally became true "Knights," and were assigned to an area somewhere in the continent of Dellandia. This being war time, however, caused most of the knights to be on the warfront instead. Raven nods in response, but doesn't say anything. The both of you walk in silence the rest of the way whilst attempting to ignore the occasional gawping student. Eventually the two of you come before two oak wood double doors. They were stained black with the handles grey, the colors of the Knights, and you don't even hesitate before knocking on the door. Almost immediately you hear Headmaster Rallas' muffled response telling you to come in. You and Raven walk in the room and take in the surroundings. The Headmaster's desk sits as the centerpiece of the room with papers messily scattered all atop it. A bookshelf stands to your left, and maps stretch across the wall to your right. You've always heard about the Headmaster being very capable in his younger days, but you can't help but think he looks more scholarly then anything else. He sits behind his desk facing the two of you. The only oddity in the room takes the form of a tall man. You immediately recognize the uniform and armor as being that of a tru knight. It's quite similar to what you have on with the exception of an extra insignia signifying that he had gone through his full four years of the AAC. A messy mop of golden blonde hair frames his roguish face, and his stubble accentuates this. Your first impression of him makes you want to keep your coin purse tied much tighter to your belt. Your second impression, however, leaves you certain that this is a good man. His roguish persona is all but gone when he smiles and extends his hand towards you. It's an honest smile that reaches his eyes. You immediately feel like you can trust this man. "I'm Vitre," he tells you and Raven and you all exchange greetings before the Headmaster has you sit down. "Time is of the essence. I've already briefed Vitre on the situation, but let me catch you two up as well." "Catch us up as well?" you ask. "Yes," he waves the question aside as if you should already know what he's talking about. "I need you two to go on a mission with Vitre." He pauses for the slightest moment to make sure no one else was going to interrupt him before he continues. "You two are here because I've received direct orders from the Grand Priest to include you in on this mission. Specifically you Raven, because the Grand Priest asked that someone Erron knew well be included on this." Headmaster Rallas shifts his gaze to you. "You'll find out why you're here soon enough." "A little less than a week ago your father caught a group of royal guards on patrol. He managed to capture them and take them prisoner, which, you all know, is not an easy feat." You nod readily. Of all the people in the Dellandian royal army, the royal guards are the most skilled. It's been speculated that though miniscule in number, the royal guards are even more skilled in battle than true knights. "But your father managed to do it. The odd thing was trying to figure out why they were so far from Valium. It took a few days, but your father and his aides managed to pry some information out of them. The princess has gone missing." You register that thought for a solid moment. Alessa is missing... "After a bit more prying, he managed to find out the date she was gone as well as the likely place she's headed. Long story short, we need you three to find the princess and bring her in alive. Or dead if she struggles." Your heart nearly stops in your chest. You figure that something like this might eventaully happen, but certainly not so soon. "Erron. Your father realizes that two of you were friends in the past, and that you may be liable to sparing her." You make it a point to raise your eyebrows in disdain. You don't want them thinking thst this was true. "Therefore your father has offered you an alternate choice. If you feel you can't complete this mission, then your father has requested that you join him on the battlefield." Ever since that fateful day nearly four years ago, you've wanted to join your father in taking the battle to the Dellandians. Now the opportunity was in front of you, and you find yourself not sure what to do. If what they say is true, then your closest friend is in trouble perhaps even in a life threatening situation. You find yourself worrying about Alessa probably more than you should. If you do go on this mission, and find her, then the other will expect you to kill her. On the flip side, if you don't go, then you won't be able to help her. On the off chance that you find her, and the two of you are alone, then you think you could do wonders for helping her. Of course that would also mean betraying your father to a degree, but you don't really think that Alessa is much of a threat to the Holy Kingdom. Deeper down, however, you have a selfish need that wants her to stay alive. You don't want the person that understands you best to fall prey to your allies. Then again, Alessa does have that curse, and if you're anything to go by, it is quite the power. And that's leaving out the fact that Alessa might not even be there in the first place. Any number of factors could contibute to her not being at the expected place, and you aren't particularly inclined to waste the next few months chasing someone that might not even be where you're looking. Of course, your father may also need you on the battlefield. You could list off several ways that you'd be of service. A moment of silence passes and the three others in the room look at you expectantly. You nearly laugh out loud. While your father is important to you, you know he can wait a month or two more for you to get back. There's only one real choice. > You accept the mission You'd rather be safe than sorry. What if you decided not to go, and they end up capturing her? You'd probably want to help her, but at the same time, you wouldn't want to betray your allies. A situation like that could only end in disaster. Instead you would go to the designated location and hope to find her by yourself before anyone else is able to get to her. "I'll accept the mission." The Headmaster raises his eyebrows in surprise. "You're braver than me. I'm not sure I would have been able to make the choice you just did had i been in your position. Alright then. Vitre, I'll leave the details to you. Just know that you need to leave within the next few days." With that the Headmaster dismisses you. Vitre walks ahead of you two and motions for you to follow after him. Luckily, the Academy students are all in classes, so there's no one left to gawk at you. Vitre leads you and Raven down a few hallways, and before long you can guess where he's taking you. "Are we headed to the library?" Vitre nods. "There are maps there." His deep voice speaks quietly as if afraid that speaking in a tone larger than a whisper would interrupt classes. "I wonder if Headmaster Farid is upset. I'm sure he was looking forward to assigning the chosen hero his first mission," Raven comments to you whilst giving you a slight push with her arm. "I'm sure he'll be fine." You don't continue the line of conversation she tries to start. Your thoughts are pretty much exclusively centered on how in the name of the Creator you're supposed to find Alessa. Well, not only find her, but also make sure everyone else doesn't find her. Vitre, however, speaks again effectively ruining your train of thought. "Does he really still insist on giving every new grad their first mission?" Raven answers, "Yes, he does. Honestly, I'm not sure how he does it. Ever since the war started there's been way too many people waiting to receive their first mission." "He probably just sends most of them of to the warfront for their first mission," you comment. "You could consider us lucky that we don't have a mission like that." You aren't too sure you consider yourself lucky, but if you were Raven, then you don't doubt that she'd rather be finding a lost princess than fighting a war. "I'm not so sure about that." Vitre responds. "If this princess really is a Cursed One, then we could be in some serious trouble. That's probably one of the main reasons your father wants you here with me." "Why you?" Raven asks almost immediately. You have to admit that you were curious as well. You know why you and Raven were chosen, but you had only just met Vitre. He shrugs. "There isn't really some grand reason for it. I just happen to have a lot of experience in hunting people down. It makes me the ideal person to lead you two. Especially since we don't need some insanely good fighter. We are only hunting a princess. She probably hasn't even touched a sword in her life." You knew this was false, but you didn't really want to comment. Let him think that Alessa is incapable. It'll be easier for her to avoid capture that way. The three of you reach the library to find it mostly empty. A few academy students sat at desks doing classwork, but fortunate for you, no one is anyone near the map section. The area isn't particularly large, but it's more than enough to suit your needs. Perhaps the most notable feature of the area is the massive wall map. It's position on the wall allows for many people to look at it without crowding it. The map itself is double your height and is about the same length from side to side. After a quick once over you realize it to be a map of the continent. It was fairly recent, and someone even updated it to show which cities are under Dellandian control, and which are in control of the Holy Kingdom. It's this map that Vitre stops in front of. "This is where we'll be going." He points to the very bottom of the map, specifically at the city of Aeors. You remember the city from your history classes. Back before the Dellandians and the Holy Kingdom conquered the continent, this was the largest city, and the last one to fall before the Dellandians might. This was largely due to the fact that an army the size of the Dellandians was very difficult to provide food and drink for, but even harder when attempting to take a city in the middle of the desert. When you and Raven don't say anything, Vitre continues speaking. "Aeors has always been fairly removed from the events on the continent, and even now they don't offer support to the Holy Kingdom or Dellandia. This makes it a nearly perfect place for people to want nothing to do with the war to move to. We surmise that the princess noticed this, and headed south so she could reap the benefits of relative neutrality." You're about to interrupt him to tell him that that isn't much to go off of, but he raises his hand to stop you. "We also have reports telling us that she was last sighted heading in a southward direction." Raven speaks this time. "If others saw and recognized her, then why didn't they already bring her in?" "I mentioned it briefly before, but there is a strong possibility that this princess is a cursed one. Every time one of our own went to apprehend her, they only remember speaking to her as if they were old friends. Apparently, whenever someone enters her presence they forget why they approached her, and she uses her cursed powers to confound them." You nod in agreement. You do remember how easily you were swayed in your dream. Vitre continues to speak about the mission detailing how we would recognize her, which you already knew, how long it would they were to stay in Aeors, and other such information. Before too long, he finishes his debrief of the mission and everyone returns to the temporary rooms at the academy. With your thoughts a mix of worry, determination, and fatigue you go to sleep. ~ The next few days go by fairly quickly, and you find yourself on the road for the first time in while. Years in fact. You weren't really permitted to take lengthy trips during your years of schooling, so your last trip of moderate length was when you left Valium. The first few days of the trip go by almost quickly, but with each passing day thereafter, you begin to feel like it's taking forever. You tend to stay silent for most of the trip, but Raven decides talking is much more preferable to silence. After the first few attempts at talking to you either fail, or end in uninteresting conversations, she decides to talk to Vitre. It goes fairly well for her, and the both of them get along famously for the remainder of the trip. You think you see Raven making eyes at Vitre, but you chalk it up to motion sickness. As the days go by, the terrain changes and you begin to see progress being made in your trip. The surroundings go from green to brownish yellow, and you start seeing more and more sand replacing the trees. Eventually you get to the point where the three of you are wandering through the southern deserts of Dellandia. They're the only real obstacle that lies between you and Alessa. The desert is hot, arid, and leaves you wishing for water often. Luckily for you, Vitre planned the trip well enough to take a route following a river. Several more days pass, and Vitre finally talks about strategy. "How do you two think we should go about finding this lost princess?" You'd been waiting for this. This conversation was the key to achieving your goal of helping Alessa. Had you brought it up yourself, and then mentioned your plan, Vitre might've gotten suspicious. "Well, we know her appearance. Her hair is supposed to be pretty distinct in Aeors. If we patrol the area, and can just find her, then I think I can apprehend her." "What do you mean by 'I can apprehend her?' You don't seriously think that you're going to take her on alone, do you?" Raven questions you with a surprised look on her face. "Of course I do," you respond cheerfully. When you see Raven about to object again, you continue. "I'm the only one who can do it. I am blessed by the Creator himself. I probably won't be affected by her black magic." You sound silly to yourself, but Raven takes your words completely seriously. "But she's a cursed one!" "That's even more of a reason for me to do it alone. What if she takes one of you hostage through her powers? That'd complicate things considerably. I'm not sure I'd even be able to rescue you if it came to that." Throughout this back and forth, Vitre stayed silent, but takes the momentary lull in conversation to interject. "He's got a point Raven." You allow yourself a small smile. If Vitre liked your plan, then you're quite certain that the two of you could convince Raven. However, your smile disappears when you hear what he has to say next. "That being said, Aeors is not the kind of city we need to wander alone in. You're liable to get stabbed, robbed, and you're body desecrated if you wander alone. While I'm sure you're quite capable of defending yourself, I'm not convinced wandering around alone is the best idea." You think he's probably exagerating, but you do see his point. Regardless of that, however, this was Alessa you were trying to save. You doubt that you'd get an opportunity to talk with her alone if you all patrolled as a group together, and you sure didn't want to find her when you're with the two of them. You still wonder if Vitre is right though... > You concede the point A heavy sigh escapes you. "I guess you guys are right. Even if I had you two trailing behind me, it would still only take a moment to stab someone, so I could be dead before you guys come to my aid." You say that, but you still wish that you were going at it alone. You'd just have to find some other way to contact Alessa. Vitre nods his agreement. "We'll find clothes there to disguise ourselves with, and then we'll patrol the city several times. If we still can't find her, then we can consider another option. Any questions?" Raven and you shake your heads, and your trio continues onward. It's a few days later when you finally come upon the city of Aeors. Walls of hardened sand surround the entirety of the city, and towers line either side of the main entrance. As you arrive, the sun dips beyond the walls and casts a welcome shadow over you and your companions. You continue to follow the river until you three approach the gate, then Vitre surges ahead of you and Raven. He approaches one of the two guards standing beneath the gate. After a muted conversation and a few coins exchanged, Vitre motions for you two to follow him into the city. You glance around and are surprised to see that the river flows under a section of the wall and into the city beyond. This sparks a memory from your history class back at the academy. It was in your first year that you remember learning about the city of the lake. A city that was founded entirely around a lake and the resources that came from it. Supposedly the city was able to sustain itself entirely of the agriculture, water, and meat that came from it. You and Raven pass through the gate and form up beside Vitre. If the view from the outside was impressive, then the view from the inside was magnificent. Sunlight falls over the tops of the sandstone buildings creating a dynamic contrast between sunlight and shadow. You continue to follow Vitre through a maze of roads until you come upon a tavern. Raucous laughter emanates from the inside, and for the first time since you went on this trip, you find yourself in a somewhat familiar atmosphere. Vitre casts sidelong glances at the two of you that seem to say "here we go." With that encouraging look, Vitre pushes open the worn door open and steps into the tavern. You and Raven follow moments afterward. The interior of the tavern is lined with torches, and the walls, floors, and ceilings are all made of polished sandstone. It's looks kind of odd to you, but everyone else seems to not care. Wooden tables are strewn about the room along with people of every type. You examine the room carefully, first to see if by some crazy chance Alessa was there. Second, to see if there was any danger in the immediate area. Aside from a few shady people in corners, no one pays the newcomers much attention. "Wait here, I'll go fetch us rooms." Vitre goes off to the bar to secure lodging leaving you and Raven alone. You sneak a glance at her. Her skin has started to tan, and there's a tired look in her eyes, but other than that (and of course her getting more... developed) nothing has really changed since you first met her. Despite your expert glancing, she catches you looking at her and raises an eyebrow. "Staring at me at a time like this?" A smirk follows the comment and you scowl. "I wasn't staring," you object. She laughs lightly, and you find yourself suddenly embarrassed. "I'm glad you decided forget about that crazy idea you had," she refers back to you wanting to look for Alessa alone. "It wasn't that bad of an idea," you point out. "It was a bad idea to me." She sees you with a confused expression on your face, then she hesitates. She seems to be debating on whether or not to say something "Erron, I'm sure you know that I've liked you for some time now..." she trails off leaving you with a surprised expression on your face. Not surprised about her feelings, but about the fact that she had the courage to say anything. Especially since you hadn't given her any signs her feelings were mutual. Raven then looks you in the eyes. You are a few inches taller than her despite the two year age difference, so your eyes lock onto her deep brown eyes fairly easily. "I'm not sure what I'd have done if you'd gotten killed because of your plan, but I do know one thing. My heart would be broken without you." The sudden confession leaves you slightly flushed, but you maintain your cool. While she was confessing she inched closer to you, and now she gazes at you expectantly. Her lips are parted, and her face is even more red than yours. You can tell what she wants. > You kiss her You are happy to oblige, for her confession sparked the old crush you used to have on her. Those old feelings resurface, and you realize that they were never really gone on the first place.You lean down and press your lips to hers. You haven't really had much experience in the past with kissing. None if you don't count the dream kiss with Alessa, so you aren't quite sure what to expect. Her lips are almost deliciously soft. Almost because her lips are a little cracked, but you don't really blame her. After all, your lips are probably in worse condition. The kiss keeps going for another five seconds or so before the denizens of the tavern start to take notice. When they do start to take notice, many laugh it off and chalk it up young people's hormones. Others look longingly at the two of you wishing they were entrapped in such an enthralling relationship. You don't take note of either, however, for you happen to be occupied at the moment. "As much as I'd like to stand here all night, and have people take bets on which of you would run out of breath first... I'm sure you can continue this after we've put our things in our rooms." Vitre looks around the room somewhat worried. You break away from Raven and take a couple of deep breaths. Raven does the same, and the both of you follow Vitre up the stairs to the living floor of the tavern. "I'm glad I got separate rooms. I'd hate to have to bunk in the same room as two sexually heated teens," Vitre comments idly. The way he put it leaves you more self conscious than you normally are. You're sure Raven feels the same way. Vitre stops in front of a room, and hands you a key. "I'm in the next room over. I don't care what you two do tonight. Just be ready in the morning to begin our mission." You and Raven nod absently. You hear Vitre mutter something about sex being the weakness of Knights just before he leaves the two of you to go to his own room. You put the key in the keyhole and fumble with the lock for a few seconds longer than normal before you get the door open. You barely manage to pull the key out when, Raven tugs on your other hand to pull you into the room. You hadn't given too much credence to Vitre's comment of sex, but when you look into raven's eyes again, you know that there's only one thing that such fevered feelings could lead to tonight. You find yourself kissing again, but for much longer. Actually you delay ending the kissing for as long as possible, for you aren't really quite sure what to do. If you didn't really have much experience with kissing, then you had absolutely no experience with this kind of intimacy, and you really didn't fancy asking Raven what to do. Despite your best efforts, when Raven breaks away you find yourself more than ready to be embarrassed. After a few moments of shedding clothes, you find yourself wondering what to do next. Luckily, (or maybe unluckily?) Raven knows what she's doing, and helps you get to where you both want to be. The whole process is pure ecstasy for you, but you find that it ends all too quickly for you. Raven doesn't seem to mind though, so you shrug it off. You both lay under the covers breathing heavily. Your arm holds her close to you, and she uses the position to lean in and whisper into your ear. "I love you." Maybe it's because of the heat of the moment phenomena , but you respond in kind, "I love you too." Silence ensues and Raven falls asleep. Soon afterwards you find yourself drifting off, and your last thoughts before you go to sleep are you hoping that this relationship won't change between you two. Fortunately your wishes come true. Unfortunately, this is because you are so tired that you don't realize the intruder enter the room. You and Raven die in your sleep from slit open throats. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>A heavy sigh escapes you. "I guess you guys are right. Even if I had you two trailing behind me, it would still only take a moment to stab someone, so I could be dead before you guys come to my aid." You say that, but you still wish that you were going at it alone. You'd just have to find some other way to contact Alessa. Vitre nods his agreement. "We'll find clothes there to disguise ourselves with, and then we'll patrol the city several times. If we still can't find her, then we can consider another option. Any questions?" Raven and you shake your heads, and your trio continues onward. It's a few days later when you finally come upon the city of Aeors. Walls of hardened sand surround the entirety of the city, and towers line either side of the main entrance. As you arrive, the sun dips beyond the walls and casts a welcome shadow over you and your companions. You continue to follow the river until you three approach the gate, then Vitre surges ahead of you and Raven. He approaches one of the two guards standing beneath the gate. After a muted conversation and a few coins exchanged, Vitre motions for you two to follow him into the city. You glance around and are surprised to see that the river flows under a section of the wall and into the city beyond. This sparks a memory from your history class back at the academy. It was in your first year that you remember learning about the city of the lake. A city that was founded entirely around a lake and the resources that came from it. Supposedly the city was able to sustain itself entirely of the agriculture, water, and meat that came from it. You and Raven pass through the gate and form up beside Vitre. If the view from the outside was impressive, then the view from the inside was magnificent. Sunlight falls over the tops of the sandstone buildings creating a dynamic contrast between sunlight and shadow. You continue to follow Vitre through a maze of roads until you come upon a tavern. Raucous laughter emanates from the inside, and for the first time since you went on this trip, you find yourself in a somewhat familiar atmosphere. Vitre casts sidelong glances at the two of you that seem to say "here we go." With that encouraging look, Vitre pushes open the worn door open and steps into the tavern. You and Raven follow moments afterward. The interior of the tavern is lined with torches, and the walls, floors, and ceilings are all made of polished sandstone. It's looks kind of odd to you, but everyone else seems to not care. Wooden tables are strewn about the room along with people of every type. You examine the room carefully, first to see if by some crazy chance Alessa was there. Second, to see if there was any danger in the immediate area. Aside from a few shady people in corners, no one pays the newcomers much attention. "Wait here, I'll go fetch us rooms." Vitre goes off to the bar to secure lodging leaving you and Raven alone. You sneak a glance at her. Her skin has started to tan, and there's a tired look in her eyes, but other than that (and of course her getting more... developed) nothing has really changed since you first met her. Despite your expert glancing, she catches you looking at her and raises an eyebrow. "Staring at me at a time like this?" A smirk follows the comment and you scowl. "I wasn't staring," you object. She laughs lightly, and you find yourself suddenly embarrassed. "I'm glad you decided forget about that crazy idea you had," she refers back to you wanting to look for Alessa alone. "It wasn't that bad of an idea," you point out. "It was a bad idea to me." She sees you with a confused expression on your face, then she hesitates. She seems to be debating on whether or not to say something "Erron, I'm sure you know that I've liked you for some time now..." she trails off leaving you with a surprised expression on your face. Not surprised about her feelings, but about the fact that she had the courage to say anything. Especially since you hadn't given her any signs her feelings were mutual. Raven then looks you in the eyes. You are a few inches taller than her despite the two year age difference, so your eyes lock onto her deep brown eyes fairly easily. "I'm not sure what I'd have done if you'd gotten killed because of your plan, but I do know one thing. My heart would be broken without you." The sudden confession leaves you slightly flushed, but you maintain your cool. While she was confessing she inched closer to you, and now she gazes at you expectantly. Her lips are parted, and her face is even more red than yours. You can tell what she wants. > You don't kiss her Despite having cracked lips, you want to kiss her. You feel an inkling of the crush you used to have start to her come back, and then you nearly kiss her regardless, but you manage to stop yourself. "Raven. Whatever you feel for me, see if you still feel it for me later. When we aren't on the cusp of life or death situations. Maybe then I can see how I feel about you." Disappointment flashes across her features. "Until then, I don't want to be distracted by you." You feel that you didn't really choose the best set of words to say, for now disappointment and hurt color her features. You mentally wince at the awkward tension you feel building up, but thankfully Vitre saves you from braving it alone. "We'll have two rooms here for a week. If we haven't found her by then, then we can pay for longer. Agreed?" Raven nods slowly. Certainly not in her usual jovial manner. You nod as well, and Vitre looks back and forth between the two of you with a knowing look on his face. "Alright then. Follow me." You both follow him as he leads you up the stairs. "Erron and I will share a room. Raven, you'll take this room." He gestures to a door on his left. "We're in the next room over. If you need us, just pound on the wall. Okay?" You watch as Raven nods numbly, and you feel a brief stab of regret. Maybe you should've kissed her if it meant that you were to keep your previous relationship. Raven walks into her room and the door slams shut. Vitre gives you a brief judgemental glance. "What did you do to her?" You stay quiet until you are safe from being heard in your room. "She confessed to me." You try to leave it at that, but he motions for you to continue. You look away from him, "I told her that, uh, I didn't want to be distracted by her." Your usual articulate self is long gone, and replaced by a less convenient embarrassed version of yourself. Vitre shakes his head back and forth. "You should've let her down more easily. I expected more from the Chosen Hero." He says that last part because he knows it'll get to you the most. "I can't have something like this ruining the mission. You're going to have to make up with her before long, or the rest of this trip is going to be very unpleasant." You nod your assent, and he gives you one last disappointing look before he goes off to take a bath. Somehow being left alone with your thoughts is even worse than having someone chastise you. You run the situation over and over again in your head trying to find a way that you could've rejected her without having left her so dejected. Vitre comes back before you can fathom a way to do so, and you go ahead to take a bath as well. The water feels heavenly, but you don't feel as if you're really enjoying it quite as much as you could. Even before the incident today, you had quite a lot on your mind. With the addition of a sad friend on your mind, you find yourself starting to get mentally taxed. Sleep would do you good. You come back to the room minutes later to find Vitre already asleep. Asleep on the only bed in the room at that. You sigh and tell yourself that you deserve it when you sink into a very uncomfortable wooden chair. You manage to get a few winks of sleep, but you often wake up due to aches on your body from sleeping in such an uncomfortable position. You wake up again, and you automatically start to rub your back, when you see a figure begin to creep through the window. You immediately close your eyes most of the way, and hope he didn't see you moving. Luckily for you, it appears he didn't. He wears a black cloak, so you can't see who he is, but that isn't what catches your attention the most. Instead of a typical rope coming across his chest to connect the two sides of the cloak together, there is an insignia. In the dark it's hard to see, but you think it's a symbol of the sun. You think it has a reddish hue, but you don't know for sure. He walks silently and leans over the bed to stare at Vitre. You ready yourself to spring at the intruder at the first signs of aggression, but there's no need. Apparently Vitre wasn't who he was looking for. Instead the man turns his attention to you. You make sure your breathing is even as he makes his way over to you, and that your eyes are so close to being closed that it's nearly impossible to tell. He examines your face, and gives slight nod to himself. You assume that you are his target, and ready yourself for the opportunity to strike. The man pulls a dagger out of his cloak, and starts the motions to stab you. It's what you were waiting for. You twist out of the way at the last second, and his dagger lodges into the back of the chair instead. You take the opportunity to punch him in the stomach and shove him to the floor. He lets go of the knife, and you quickly pull that from the chair's back. The man recovers fairly quickly and attempts to tackle you to the ground, but the attempt only goes so far. You knee him in the face and throw him across the room. Coincidentally, that place you throw him happens to be the bed Vitre lays on. You see Vitre start to stir out of the corner of your eye. You decide that you needed this guy immobilized as soon as possible, so you follow up your throwing him with another throw. This time, however, you're throwing the guy's dagger. Your aim is true, and the dagger hits the guys upper thigh. He yells out in pain causing Vitre to wake up fully. You think of why someone would be targeting you, but then realize you have your priorities skewed. You needed to make sure that the danger was gone. You rush to the window and gaze out across the city that you can see. At first you see nothing, but a glint of silver shines in the distance and you duck down. An arrow embeds itself in the wall directly behind you. Your heart pound in your chest as you realize that you could've been dead if you hadn't been so fast. You glance to Vitre who has the first attacker subdued on the floor of the room. Whoever these people were, they obviously wanted you dead, and you doubt they'd stop after one attempt. You figure you should take them out now before they have a chance to regroup and attempt another assassination attempt. "Make sure Raven is okay!" You call out to Vitre as you vault the window sill out onto the street below. You hear what may have been Vitre telling you to wait, but you ignore that. Better to ask forgiveness than permission. Another arrow whizzes pased you on the way down to the street. The fall is two stories high, but you use the momentum from gravity and roll to reduce any damage you might take from it. As fast as possible, you spring up from your roll to get behind cover. You glance from behind the wall you took cover at. Almost immediately you hear the twang of a bow, and, consequently, you move your head back behind cover. Thoughts roil in your head as you try to figure out how to get to the enemy without getting hit by an arrow. A few different ideas come into your head, but when you examine and reexamine them you are only left with two plausible ideas. You could use your blessing to speed up your reflexes in hopes that it'll allow you to dodge any arrows come at you. The other idea you have much less confidence in working. You could dash from cover to cover, and hope he doesn't hit you. You don't really like this idea, because it puts your fate into the air. Instead of relying on your reflexes, you'd simply be hoping that he'd miss. > You dodge from cover to cover The silence of the night seems to accentuate the risks your about to take. You breathe deeply and launch yourself from your position, across the alley, and behind a wall on the other side An arrow hisses past you, but you manage to avoid being hit. You take another discreet glance down the alley, but this time your able to make out a figure about sixty feet farther down. You take another deep breath and launch yourself across the alley once more. Once more an arrow launches past you, but once again, it misses. You feel the first two successful passes fill you with positive energy. You move once again across the alley. Unfortunately you forgot to take into account that you got closer to him with every pass that you made. If he was any less good of a shot, then your plan may have worked, but an arrow pierces your side and you feel your energy leave you. Breathing heavily, you attempt to call for help, but your voice is silenced by an arrow protruding through your throat. If only you were faster.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Despite having cracked lips, you want to kiss her. You feel an inkling of the crush you used to have start to her come back, and then you nearly kiss her regardless, but you manage to stop yourself. "Raven. Whatever you feel for me, see if you still feel it for me later. When we aren't on the cusp of life or death situations. Maybe then I can see how I feel about you." Disappointment flashes across her features. "Until then, I don't want to be distracted by you." You feel that you didn't really choose the best set of words to say, for now disappointment and hurt color her features. You mentally wince at the awkward tension you feel building up, but thankfully Vitre saves you from braving it alone. "We'll have two rooms here for a week. If we haven't found her by then, then we can pay for longer. Agreed?" Raven nods slowly. Certainly not in her usual jovial manner. You nod as well, and Vitre looks back and forth between the two of you with a knowing look on his face. "Alright then. Follow me." You both follow him as he leads you up the stairs. "Erron and I will share a room. Raven, you'll take this room." He gestures to a door on his left. "We're in the next room over. If you need us, just pound on the wall. Okay?" You watch as Raven nods numbly, and you feel a brief stab of regret. Maybe you should've kissed her if it meant that you were to keep your previous relationship. Raven walks into her room and the door slams shut. Vitre gives you a brief judgemental glance. "What did you do to her?" You stay quiet until you are safe from being heard in your room. "She confessed to me." You try to leave it at that, but he motions for you to continue. You look away from him, "I told her that, uh, I didn't want to be distracted by her." Your usual articulate self is long gone, and replaced by a less convenient embarrassed version of yourself. Vitre shakes his head back and forth. "You should've let her down more easily. I expected more from the Chosen Hero." He says that last part because he knows it'll get to you the most. "I can't have something like this ruining the mission. You're going to have to make up with her before long, or the rest of this trip is going to be very unpleasant." You nod your assent, and he gives you one last disappointing look before he goes off to take a bath. Somehow being left alone with your thoughts is even worse than having someone chastise you. You run the situation over and over again in your head trying to find a way that you could've rejected her without having left her so dejected. Vitre comes back before you can fathom a way to do so, and you go ahead to take a bath as well. The water feels heavenly, but you don't feel as if you're really enjoying it quite as much as you could. Even before the incident today, you had quite a lot on your mind. With the addition of a sad friend on your mind, you find yourself starting to get mentally taxed. Sleep would do you good. You come back to the room minutes later to find Vitre already asleep. Asleep on the only bed in the room at that. You sigh and tell yourself that you deserve it when you sink into a very uncomfortable wooden chair. You manage to get a few winks of sleep, but you often wake up due to aches on your body from sleeping in such an uncomfortable position. You wake up again, and you automatically start to rub your back, when you see a figure begin to creep through the window. You immediately close your eyes most of the way, and hope he didn't see you moving. Luckily for you, it appears he didn't. He wears a black cloak, so you can't see who he is, but that isn't what catches your attention the most. Instead of a typical rope coming across his chest to connect the two sides of the cloak together, there is an insignia. In the dark it's hard to see, but you think it's a symbol of the sun. You think it has a reddish hue, but you don't know for sure. He walks silently and leans over the bed to stare at Vitre. You ready yourself to spring at the intruder at the first signs of aggression, but there's no need. Apparently Vitre wasn't who he was looking for. Instead the man turns his attention to you. You make sure your breathing is even as he makes his way over to you, and that your eyes are so close to being closed that it's nearly impossible to tell. He examines your face, and gives slight nod to himself. You assume that you are his target, and ready yourself for the opportunity to strike. The man pulls a dagger out of his cloak, and starts the motions to stab you. It's what you were waiting for. You twist out of the way at the last second, and his dagger lodges into the back of the chair instead. You take the opportunity to punch him in the stomach and shove him to the floor. He lets go of the knife, and you quickly pull that from the chair's back. The man recovers fairly quickly and attempts to tackle you to the ground, but the attempt only goes so far. You knee him in the face and throw him across the room. Coincidentally, that place you throw him happens to be the bed Vitre lays on. You see Vitre start to stir out of the corner of your eye. You decide that you needed this guy immobilized as soon as possible, so you follow up your throwing him with another throw. This time, however, you're throwing the guy's dagger. Your aim is true, and the dagger hits the guys upper thigh. He yells out in pain causing Vitre to wake up fully. You think of why someone would be targeting you, but then realize you have your priorities skewed. You needed to make sure that the danger was gone. You rush to the window and gaze out across the city that you can see. At first you see nothing, but a glint of silver shines in the distance and you duck down. An arrow embeds itself in the wall directly behind you. Your heart pound in your chest as you realize that you could've been dead if you hadn't been so fast. You glance to Vitre who has the first attacker subdued on the floor of the room. Whoever these people were, they obviously wanted you dead, and you doubt they'd stop after one attempt. You figure you should take them out now before they have a chance to regroup and attempt another assassination attempt. "Make sure Raven is okay!" You call out to Vitre as you vault the window sill out onto the street below. You hear what may have been Vitre telling you to wait, but you ignore that. Better to ask forgiveness than permission. Another arrow whizzes pased you on the way down to the street. The fall is two stories high, but you use the momentum from gravity and roll to reduce any damage you might take from it. As fast as possible, you spring up from your roll to get behind cover. You glance from behind the wall you took cover at. Almost immediately you hear the twang of a bow, and, consequently, you move your head back behind cover. Thoughts roil in your head as you try to figure out how to get to the enemy without getting hit by an arrow. A few different ideas come into your head, but when you examine and reexamine them you are only left with two plausible ideas. You could use your blessing to speed up your reflexes in hopes that it'll allow you to dodge any arrows come at you. The other idea you have much less confidence in working. You could dash from cover to cover, and hope he doesn't hit you. You don't really like this idea, because it puts your fate into the air. Instead of relying on your reflexes, you'd simply be hoping that he'd miss. > You use your blessing In the past years you've become fairly efficient at tricking your body into thinking it needed to be protected. That way you'd be able to use your power whenever you wanted. Now, however, you realize you do not need to trick yourself at all. You breathe in deeply, and then let that deep breath out. If anyone wa paying attention, then they might've thought an angel had appeared in the street. The mark on your back glows through your clothes and that familiar heat radiates across your shoulders. You prepare to rush the man, and at the last second pull your sword from you belt. You rush out into the alley, and head in the direction of the archer. Almost immediately an arrow flies toward your head. You twist your head out of the way, and manage to get out of the way before it can touch you. It was close, but you were still fast enough to dodge it. You feel a surge of success, but you make sure you don't allow it to go to your head as you barrel down the alleyway. Just before the next arrow flies at you, you manage to make out the outline of your second attacker. The next arrow flies toward your chest, but the feeling of protecting yourself grows even stronger. Thus you feel like the arrow is moving slower. You bring up your left hand (the hand that isn't holding the sword) up and your timing is perfect. You grab the arrow just before it hits you. Somewhere in the back of your mind you feel pain from splinters entering your hand, but that doesn't;t bother you anymore. You've given yourself into the adrenaline that comes from such a life threatening situation. You gauge the distance between you and the shadowed figure, and realize, with relief, that he wouldn't have enough time to draw another arrow before you reached him. Unfortunately, he notices this as well, and instead of bothering to fight, he runs. You continue running after him determined to find out who exactly wanted you dead this bad. The would be assassin is much faster than you expected, so even with your blessing, you're barely gaining on him. He leads you down a maze of alleys and streets until he finally makes a wrong turn an hits a dead end. You cease your running, and the man turns around with a panicked expression on his face. Time seems to slow down as you wait for him to try and dodge past you. He stays eerily still as you walk towards him, and if you didn't have your blessing activated you might not have caught the signs. The signs that you were led into a trap. The man your facing made the mistake of glancing behind you. That mistake alone might not have given it away, but you hear the light fall of a single footstep behind you. The hair on your neck stands, and you roll out of the way to dodge whatever was behind you. While your roll saved you from that initial attack, you're left on the defensive when you look behind you. Several cloaked figures stand between you and the exit of the dead end. You quickly count them up. Five. Including the archer from before, there were five more cloaked figures cornering you. All with that symbol of the red sun on their cloak. As you stand up from the roll, you see that the guy who tried to decapitate you looking suitably surprised at your reflexes. You use half a moment to examine the surroundings. The blessing helps marvelously with this. You take note of each important thing in the form of fragmented thoughts. Only one archer. Everyone else has swords. They arrived at different times. Must be why only one person attacked you a moment ago. One of the five stands alone in the back. The archer from before looks ready to draw another arrow. Take him out first...situation has changed. Don't try to disable. Go for the kill. All of these thoughts run through your mind just as that guy (whom attacked you seconds ago) steps forward for a second try. It would be his last mistake. You've always been great at fighting, even without your blessing, but with it you're pretty much unstoppable. You were even able to surpass Miss Sarrin before you graduated. So when assassin number three (Assassin number one being the one back at the tavern) decides he wants another try, you parry his thrust and slash his throat before he could understand what just happened. Assassin number two managed to string an arrow while you dealt with his friend, and is now in the process of aiming it at you. Assassin's number four and five decide that advancing at the same time might be better alternative to going at you separately. Assassin number six, oddly enough, doesn't do anything else but watch things go down. He seems to be the leader of numbers one through five. You're left with two viable options. (short of giving up that is) > You attack numbers four and five Your original line of thought made you want to take out the archer first, but then a brilliant idea comes to mind. You glance at the archer, and sure enough he's starting to aim at you. You're tempted to smile, but you think better of it. You don't want to tip your hand. You charge Assassins four and five, and take a brief, seemingly unnoticeable action, moment to position yourself between the archer and his friends. While surprised the Assassins react quickly enough. You slash and stab in a whirl of different tricks, and despite the fact that there are two people against you, you manage to put them on the defensive. during this, however, you use your blessing to the fullest. Your urge to protect yourself is so strong that time seems to slow down. It's certainly potent enough for your plan to work. The first step being to place yourself, and therefore assassins four and five, in the archer's line of fire. Second step is to exploit your power so much that you're reflexes will be fast enough to dodge the arrow as soon as you here the twang of the bow. After that dispatching someone one on one would be easy, then the archer would go down leaving one final person to take care of. He's the only person you're truly wary of, for when placed against a blessed one, all he does is watch. A cool confidence that you find a little disheartening. Of course, that's still only a little. There's no doubt in your mind that you'll be able take care of him. So you wait. You wait for the twang of the bow whilst attempting to break through the defense of two people at once. Not just two people at that. Two people that happened to be quite skilled with a blade. you might have been more well aware of this if you hadn't taken the other two out via surprise. Still it isn't long before you do manage to find a whole in their defenses. Your assault of attacks must have become very taxing for them, and especially for assassin number five, for the next feint you throw at him proves to be his downfall. Your fake thrust to his left side opens his right side up, and you take that opportunity to deal a lightning speed thrust straight into his heart. If you hadn't used your power to such an extent, then your sense of time may not have been so skewed. For that reason, you don't seem to realize that the archer didn't take his first opportunity to fire at you. No, he'd already seen the insane reflexes you'd exhibited prior to being cornered. He would wait for the perfect opportunity to shoot at you. Stabbing your enemy through the heart was one such opportunity. Your blessing not only gave you increased speed, but also increased strength. When slashing it didn't particularly matter, but with a stab, it's easier to use to much strength. Therefore, when you finally do hear the twang, it takes you much too long to yank the sword out of your opponents body. Even so, you manage to let go of the sword to try and dodge away. The arrow still hits you however, albeit barely missing your heart. It is a tiny success in the grand scheme of things, for assassin number four takes the opportunity to avenge his comrade. If only you had been more self aware. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>In the past years you've become fairly efficient at tricking your body into thinking it needed to be protected. That way you'd be able to use your power whenever you wanted. Now, however, you realize you do not need to trick yourself at all. You breathe in deeply, and then let that deep breath out. If anyone wa paying attention, then they might've thought an angel had appeared in the street. The mark on your back glows through your clothes and that familiar heat radiates across your shoulders. You prepare to rush the man, and at the last second pull your sword from you belt. You rush out into the alley, and head in the direction of the archer. Almost immediately an arrow flies toward your head. You twist your head out of the way, and manage to get out of the way before it can touch you. It was close, but you were still fast enough to dodge it. You feel a surge of success, but you make sure you don't allow it to go to your head as you barrel down the alleyway. Just before the next arrow flies at you, you manage to make out the outline of your second attacker. The next arrow flies toward your chest, but the feeling of protecting yourself grows even stronger. Thus you feel like the arrow is moving slower. You bring up your left hand (the hand that isn't holding the sword) up and your timing is perfect. You grab the arrow just before it hits you. Somewhere in the back of your mind you feel pain from splinters entering your hand, but that doesn't;t bother you anymore. You've given yourself into the adrenaline that comes from such a life threatening situation. You gauge the distance between you and the shadowed figure, and realize, with relief, that he wouldn't have enough time to draw another arrow before you reached him. Unfortunately, he notices this as well, and instead of bothering to fight, he runs. You continue running after him determined to find out who exactly wanted you dead this bad. The would be assassin is much faster than you expected, so even with your blessing, you're barely gaining on him. He leads you down a maze of alleys and streets until he finally makes a wrong turn an hits a dead end. You cease your running, and the man turns around with a panicked expression on his face. Time seems to slow down as you wait for him to try and dodge past you. He stays eerily still as you walk towards him, and if you didn't have your blessing activated you might not have caught the signs. The signs that you were led into a trap. The man your facing made the mistake of glancing behind you. That mistake alone might not have given it away, but you hear the light fall of a single footstep behind you. The hair on your neck stands, and you roll out of the way to dodge whatever was behind you. While your roll saved you from that initial attack, you're left on the defensive when you look behind you. Several cloaked figures stand between you and the exit of the dead end. You quickly count them up. Five. Including the archer from before, there were five more cloaked figures cornering you. All with that symbol of the red sun on their cloak. As you stand up from the roll, you see that the guy who tried to decapitate you looking suitably surprised at your reflexes. You use half a moment to examine the surroundings. The blessing helps marvelously with this. You take note of each important thing in the form of fragmented thoughts. Only one archer. Everyone else has swords. They arrived at different times. Must be why only one person attacked you a moment ago. One of the five stands alone in the back. The archer from before looks ready to draw another arrow. Take him out first...situation has changed. Don't try to disable. Go for the kill. All of these thoughts run through your mind just as that guy (whom attacked you seconds ago) steps forward for a second try. It would be his last mistake. You've always been great at fighting, even without your blessing, but with it you're pretty much unstoppable. You were even able to surpass Miss Sarrin before you graduated. So when assassin number three (Assassin number one being the one back at the tavern) decides he wants another try, you parry his thrust and slash his throat before he could understand what just happened. Assassin number two managed to string an arrow while you dealt with his friend, and is now in the process of aiming it at you. Assassin's number four and five decide that advancing at the same time might be better alternative to going at you separately. Assassin number six, oddly enough, doesn't do anything else but watch things go down. He seems to be the leader of numbers one through five. You're left with two viable options. (short of giving up that is) > You attack number two It doesn't matter that two guys are advancing toward you from your right, you don't at all feel comfortable with someone aiming an arrow at your back. It would only take one mistake on your part, and you would be lying dead on the cold hard stones of Aeors. You rush archer number two with incredible speed, and the other two rush after you. The archer brings his bow up just as you get to him, and at the same time assassin number four closes in on you from behind. A truly un-ideal situation. Well at least if you hadn't expected it. You twist out of the way the moment your heightened senses see the archer begin to release his arrow. Unfortunately for number four, he is nowhere near as fast as you. The arrow slams into his chest silencing him immediately. Astonishment colors the eyes of the archer as he kills his comrade, but you don't allow him any time for regret. You immediately advance and stab him through the stomach. Your blade sinks far into his stomach, certainly farther than normal, and you note that if you were any stronger, thn you very well could have your hand wrist deep into his body. Luckily for you, assassin number five isn't fast enough to hit you before you withdraw your sword from the archer's stomach. Unluckily for you, it seems that assassin number six finally decided to contribute to the fight. He makes his way towards the both of you just as you swing your first slash at number five. He barely manages to block it, and is put on the defensive immediately. You only manage to get a few swings out before number six joins the fight. A fast thrust is immediately dealt towards you, and as you parry it away, you realized that it was thrown with immense strength. You simultaneously kick out at number five, catching him in the leg, and slash from the bottom up at the newcomer. Your slash, although extremely fast, doesn't hit him. Instead, he's fast enough to avoid the deadly attack. Well he is. Your sword does manage to catch the edge of his cloak hood thoug, and the cloak material is thick enough that your sword takes just longer than a moment to slice through it. That moment is more than enough to send his hood flying off of his head. You're so surprised that you nearly drop your sword. Ashyr stand before you. Obviously older, and with a scar on his chin, but Ashyr nonetheless. You remember back when you first clashed swords years ago. For a brief moment you feel nostalgia, but that moment passes very quickly when you remember that he's trying to kill you. Number five recovers from the kick and swings his sword in a deadly arc over his head at you, which you block, then Ashyr follows up with an attack of his own, which you parry. The three of you soon enter a dance of sorts. Blades ring throughout the alley and echo into the night. There's a brief moment where you wonder if anyone will here the commotion, but you shrug it off quickly enough. Your opponents had the luxury of choosing the sight for this fight. You doubt they would choose a place where someone would impede their killing you. Without your blessing you're sure you would already be dead, for Ashyr certainly kept honing his swordplay since the Academy, and number five is no push over either. You hate to admit it, but you doubt if you could beat Ashyr without your blessing. Someone of his caliber fighting against you would require you to use your blessing to win, and with someone else helping him... it turns the fight into a near stalemate. It is only a near stalemate though, because your increased prowess with your blessing, let alone that Ashyr no longer has strength and height advantage over you, allow you the edge in this fight. That being said, you aren't really fighting offensively, so you don't get very far in your attempts to take them out. You decide that in order to effectively protect yourself, and stay alive, you need to focus your attack on one of your opponents. While assassin five is certainly weaker, you briefly think that it might better suit you if you take out Ashyr first. Of course, there's also the flip side. If you take number five out quickly enough, then Ashyr won't be able to stand alone against you. > You focus your attacks on number five Maybe it' a greater sense of strategy. or perhaps you just want to save Ashyr for last. Whatever the reason, you focus all of your strength on number five. To the untrained eye, the fight will have stayed the same, but to the trained eye everything changed in the span of a second. Before you were attacking and defending from both sides, but with your new strategy you only attack against number five, and only ever defend against Ashyr. so long as you sufficiently defend yourself from Ashyr, and constantly press the attack on number five, then you don't get harmed. To your surprise, it not only works, but it works famously. Number five turns out to be less suitable to defending than to attacking. He practically stumbles several times in his attempts to stay alive. What surprises you even more is Ashyr's performance on offense. He doesn't attack quite as skillfully as you might imagine he would have, so his attacks end up having loads of power, yet not quite enough skill to use it effectively. You catch a glimpse of his face during the encounter, and his face is a mix of true rage and hate. You knew he didn't like you, but you didn't think it would be quite so extensive. You press the attack on number five even more urging him to cease his impotent defense. Every swing of yours brings a weaker block from him. Eventually this becomes too much for him and one of his blocks fails to have nearly enough power to stop your blow. Your over head strike knocks his sword clear out of his hand, but your sword continues and bites down into his neck. Halfway decapitated, number five falls to the ground amongst the bodies of the other assassins. Despite your moment of victory, Ashyr is undeterred. He launches a powerful strike in a deadly arc at your shoulder. Probably in hopes of making you lose the ability to use your arm. It was a smart move, but you do manage to bring your sword back in time for you to block it. To your chagrin, his attack was plentifully powerful. Enough to push your block down, and even make a slight cut in your arm. The pain isn't too great, and with the addition of of your adrenaline pumping you barely feel it at all. This must've been a last ditch effort to defeat you, for he immediately goes back on the defensive. With your focus solely on Asher, you are able to to put all of your effort into attack. The eerie similarity of the situation astonishes you for a moment. You pushing him back with a sudden ferocity akin to a demon. Him, defending as if his life depended on it. You continuing to press him with attacks despite fatigue starting to come to you. Him, realizing your fatigue and desperately trying to hold out until your attacks weaken. You, finally failing in your attacks, and on the defensive. Him, pushing you back with attacks that you are barely able to defend against. You start gasping for air, and it seems that you can never gulp down enough. Your eyes blur for a moment and Ashyr nearly takes your head off. Wait, this isn't right. You think this as you barely manage to stay alive against his onslaught of attacks. Your blessing should be giving you much greater energy than this. You try to activate it again, but realize that it is already activated. Still, you don't have the energy that you know you should have. Then everything connects in your head. The red suns...they were a symbol for an ancient assassin group. Your mind goes all the way back to when you were with Alessa in the Man's cabin. It was one of the books he had on the shelf. So these people weren't just assassins against you, they were regular assassins. And as with most assassins, Ashyr probably had his sword poisoned. It would explain the sudden loss of energy, as well as why he was so intent on simply hitting you. You grow weaker and weaker. You realize that there's only one way this can end. You clumsily block Ashyr's next attack then immediately back up against the end of the alley. Apparently he had been pressing you hard enough to push you into a literal corner. Your back slides against the alley wall, and you sink into a sitting position on the ground. The strength gives out in your arms and your sword clatters to the ground beside you. Ashyr stands above you with a triumphant expression on his face. He slowly brings his sword over his head and prepares to bring it down in a deadly stab. You close your eyes and await the inevitable. It doesn't come. you hear a whirring sound in the air and then the sound of metal striking the alley wall. You open your eyes tiredly. Alessa stands at the end of the alley. The moonlight shines across her hair making her shine in the darkness. In her hands is a gleaming silver sword, and at her shoulders you can see a darkish aura rising from her persona. Ashyr stares in astonishment at the newcomer, but his true goal doesn't leave his mind. He brings his sword down again at you. You blink and Alessa is already beside you stopping his sword from killing you. She was extremely close now, and you could see the outline of dark wings through her leather armor. Despite that you dearly wish to fall asleep... "Stay with me Erron!" Her voice commands you, and you reopen your eyes. Ashyr attack aat you again, and Alessa manages to defend you again. You want to tell her to leave you, but you don't have the strength to say anything. Alessa pushes Ashyr back with her sword, and a fight ensues. Alessa is clearly no match for him in terms of skill, but her curse gives her enough power to stay toe to toe with him. Alessa manages to push him back a few feet, but she is nowhere near as good at you at fighting. Moments later, you hear a pained cry as Ashyr's sword slashes across her upper arm. You lose all hope then. Alessa's power would soon be depleted, and you would both die. The thought of Alessa dying starts to motivate you, and you look for ways to help her. You see your sword lying on the ground beside you, and you wonder if you can pick it up. Maybe you have enough energy for one last thrust... > You pick up the sword and stab Ashyr You muster all of your remaining strength and reach for the sword. For a moment your fingers fumble, but you manage to pick the sword up. You roll forward onto one knee, and for a brief satisfying moment, you think you'll be able to do it. Turns out the extra movement only accelerated the poison. You collapse to the ground in a fit of coughs. You die, knowing that you fail in saving Alessa. Some "Chosen Hero" you are.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Maybe it' a greater sense of strategy. or perhaps you just want to save Ashyr for last. Whatever the reason, you focus all of your strength on number five. To the untrained eye, the fight will have stayed the same, but to the trained eye everything changed in the span of a second. Before you were attacking and defending from both sides, but with your new strategy you only attack against number five, and only ever defend against Ashyr. so long as you sufficiently defend yourself from Ashyr, and constantly press the attack on number five, then you don't get harmed. To your surprise, it not only works, but it works famously. Number five turns out to be less suitable to defending than to attacking. He practically stumbles several times in his attempts to stay alive. What surprises you even more is Ashyr's performance on offense. He doesn't attack quite as skillfully as you might imagine he would have, so his attacks end up having loads of power, yet not quite enough skill to use it effectively. You catch a glimpse of his face during the encounter, and his face is a mix of true rage and hate. You knew he didn't like you, but you didn't think it would be quite so extensive. You press the attack on number five even more urging him to cease his impotent defense. Every swing of yours brings a weaker block from him. Eventually this becomes too much for him and one of his blocks fails to have nearly enough power to stop your blow. Your over head strike knocks his sword clear out of his hand, but your sword continues and bites down into his neck. Halfway decapitated, number five falls to the ground amongst the bodies of the other assassins. Despite your moment of victory, Ashyr is undeterred. He launches a powerful strike in a deadly arc at your shoulder. Probably in hopes of making you lose the ability to use your arm. It was a smart move, but you do manage to bring your sword back in time for you to block it. To your chagrin, his attack was plentifully powerful. Enough to push your block down, and even make a slight cut in your arm. The pain isn't too great, and with the addition of of your adrenaline pumping you barely feel it at all. This must've been a last ditch effort to defeat you, for he immediately goes back on the defensive. With your focus solely on Asher, you are able to to put all of your effort into attack. The eerie similarity of the situation astonishes you for a moment. You pushing him back with a sudden ferocity akin to a demon. Him, defending as if his life depended on it. You continuing to press him with attacks despite fatigue starting to come to you. Him, realizing your fatigue and desperately trying to hold out until your attacks weaken. You, finally failing in your attacks, and on the defensive. Him, pushing you back with attacks that you are barely able to defend against. You start gasping for air, and it seems that you can never gulp down enough. Your eyes blur for a moment and Ashyr nearly takes your head off. Wait, this isn't right. You think this as you barely manage to stay alive against his onslaught of attacks. Your blessing should be giving you much greater energy than this. You try to activate it again, but realize that it is already activated. Still, you don't have the energy that you know you should have. Then everything connects in your head. The red suns...they were a symbol for an ancient assassin group. Your mind goes all the way back to when you were with Alessa in the Man's cabin. It was one of the books he had on the shelf. So these people weren't just assassins against you, they were regular assassins. And as with most assassins, Ashyr probably had his sword poisoned. It would explain the sudden loss of energy, as well as why he was so intent on simply hitting you. You grow weaker and weaker. You realize that there's only one way this can end. You clumsily block Ashyr's next attack then immediately back up against the end of the alley. Apparently he had been pressing you hard enough to push you into a literal corner. Your back slides against the alley wall, and you sink into a sitting position on the ground. The strength gives out in your arms and your sword clatters to the ground beside you. Ashyr stands above you with a triumphant expression on his face. He slowly brings his sword over his head and prepares to bring it down in a deadly stab. You close your eyes and await the inevitable. It doesn't come. you hear a whirring sound in the air and then the sound of metal striking the alley wall. You open your eyes tiredly. Alessa stands at the end of the alley. The moonlight shines across her hair making her shine in the darkness. In her hands is a gleaming silver sword, and at her shoulders you can see a darkish aura rising from her persona. Ashyr stares in astonishment at the newcomer, but his true goal doesn't leave his mind. He brings his sword down again at you. You blink and Alessa is already beside you stopping his sword from killing you. She was extremely close now, and you could see the outline of dark wings through her leather armor. Despite that you dearly wish to fall asleep... "Stay with me Erron!" Her voice commands you, and you reopen your eyes. Ashyr attack aat you again, and Alessa manages to defend you again. You want to tell her to leave you, but you don't have the strength to say anything. Alessa pushes Ashyr back with her sword, and a fight ensues. Alessa is clearly no match for him in terms of skill, but her curse gives her enough power to stay toe to toe with him. Alessa manages to push him back a few feet, but she is nowhere near as good at you at fighting. Moments later, you hear a pained cry as Ashyr's sword slashes across her upper arm. You lose all hope then. Alessa's power would soon be depleted, and you would both die. The thought of Alessa dying starts to motivate you, and you look for ways to help her. You see your sword lying on the ground beside you, and you wonder if you can pick it up. Maybe you have enough energy for one last thrust... > You see if your blessing works Your thoughts go once again to the cabin. The last time you saw Alessa in person. The choice was offered to you, but no words were said. You felt that one would give you power, while the other would give you the power to protect. You assumed that the power to protect meant only yourself, but as you see Alessa fighting for her life, you realize that being able to protect means that you protect more than just yourself. And if there was anyone that you wanted to protect more than yourself, it was her. Power surges from your shoulders and throughout your body. More power than you have ever felt before. You feel your blessing fighting off the poison and expelling it from your system. Much of the power you felt moments before, leave you body with the poison. You guess the blessing wasn't meant to heal such a detrimental poison. You reach over to your side and confidently grab your sword. Alessa looks like she's starting to feel the debilitating effects of the poison now, but the Creator must be on your side, for she sees you stand up. You meet her eyes, and she seems to understand exactly what you mean to do. She maneuvers the fight so that she is facing directly towards you whilst Ashyr's back is right in front of you. You move as fast as possible but your fatigue hasn't entirely gone away, so the going is much slower than you'd wish it to be. A few feet away from Ashyr, he hears something and starts to look behind him. But it's too late. You force your sword through his back, and into his heart. His body falls limply to the ground dead. Alessa falls moments after, and you rush to her side. The poison looks like its affecting her much more quickly than it affected you, so you know you don't have much time. Her eys open, and she smiles weakly at you. "I'm glad I got to save you." Your thoughts are frantic, as you try and think of a way to save her. You weren't nearly strong enough to carry her anywhere, so you start to panic. Alessa's eyes start to close. "Stay with me, Alessa!" You shout frantically at her repeating the words she said to you minutes before. You start losing all hop, and then an odd thought occurs to you. You've never really known if you received this power from the Creator or not, but if you did, then surely he didn't want you to die. You start to pray. You ask him to help you, and you promise that you'll forever be in his debt. You go on, and at the same to you start using your power to see if you can heal Alessa. You feel power going through you and into her, but her eyes don't open. You pull and pull as much power as you can from your body in order to heal her. When you exhaust all of your energy, you pass out. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>It doesn't matter that two guys are advancing toward you from your right, you don't at all feel comfortable with someone aiming an arrow at your back. It would only take one mistake on your part, and you would be lying dead on the cold hard stones of Aeors. You rush archer number two with incredible speed, and the other two rush after you. The archer brings his bow up just as you get to him, and at the same time assassin number four closes in on you from behind. A truly un-ideal situation. Well at least if you hadn't expected it. You twist out of the way the moment your heightened senses see the archer begin to release his arrow. Unfortunately for number four, he is nowhere near as fast as you. The arrow slams into his chest silencing him immediately. Astonishment colors the eyes of the archer as he kills his comrade, but you don't allow him any time for regret. You immediately advance and stab him through the stomach. Your blade sinks far into his stomach, certainly farther than normal, and you note that if you were any stronger, thn you very well could have your hand wrist deep into his body. Luckily for you, assassin number five isn't fast enough to hit you before you withdraw your sword from the archer's stomach. Unluckily for you, it seems that assassin number six finally decided to contribute to the fight. He makes his way towards the both of you just as you swing your first slash at number five. He barely manages to block it, and is put on the defensive immediately. You only manage to get a few swings out before number six joins the fight. A fast thrust is immediately dealt towards you, and as you parry it away, you realized that it was thrown with immense strength. You simultaneously kick out at number five, catching him in the leg, and slash from the bottom up at the newcomer. Your slash, although extremely fast, doesn't hit him. Instead, he's fast enough to avoid the deadly attack. Well he is. Your sword does manage to catch the edge of his cloak hood thoug, and the cloak material is thick enough that your sword takes just longer than a moment to slice through it. That moment is more than enough to send his hood flying off of his head. You're so surprised that you nearly drop your sword. Ashyr stand before you. Obviously older, and with a scar on his chin, but Ashyr nonetheless. You remember back when you first clashed swords years ago. For a brief moment you feel nostalgia, but that moment passes very quickly when you remember that he's trying to kill you. Number five recovers from the kick and swings his sword in a deadly arc over his head at you, which you block, then Ashyr follows up with an attack of his own, which you parry. The three of you soon enter a dance of sorts. Blades ring throughout the alley and echo into the night. There's a brief moment where you wonder if anyone will here the commotion, but you shrug it off quickly enough. Your opponents had the luxury of choosing the sight for this fight. You doubt they would choose a place where someone would impede their killing you. Without your blessing you're sure you would already be dead, for Ashyr certainly kept honing his swordplay since the Academy, and number five is no push over either. You hate to admit it, but you doubt if you could beat Ashyr without your blessing. Someone of his caliber fighting against you would require you to use your blessing to win, and with someone else helping him... it turns the fight into a near stalemate. It is only a near stalemate though, because your increased prowess with your blessing, let alone that Ashyr no longer has strength and height advantage over you, allow you the edge in this fight. That being said, you aren't really fighting offensively, so you don't get very far in your attempts to take them out. You decide that in order to effectively protect yourself, and stay alive, you need to focus your attack on one of your opponents. While assassin five is certainly weaker, you briefly think that it might better suit you if you take out Ashyr first. Of course, there's also the flip side. If you take number five out quickly enough, then Ashyr won't be able to stand alone against you. > You focus your attacks on Ashyr You decide that taking out the greater threat will prove to be more advantageous to you in the long run. To the untrained eye, the fight will have stayed the same, but to the trained eye everything changed in the span of a second. Before you were attacking and defending from both sides, but with your new strategy you only attack against Ashyr, and only ever defend against number five. so long as you sufficiently defend yourself from number five, and constantly press the attack on Ashyr, then you don't get harmed. Well that's the idea. While it works at the beginning, you soon realize that you've made a huge mistake. On the outside Ashyr has always seemed like he would be an aggressor in a fight, but it is actually the contrary. You remember your first fight. You won after pressing him with a series of attacks, but never once did he truly falter in his defenses. Maybe if you had time you could wear him down, but you don't have that kind of time. You only managed to defeat him before, because of the overwhelming power from the blessing, and because you bested him while he was attacking. This time is barely different. Except that number five is smarter than he looks, and has begun finding patterns in your defenses. Your deadly speed, strength, and skill are being analyzed and holes are starting to be exploited. Every swing presses you, and soon enough you're having to spend more and more time/energy defending than attacking. Eventually Ashyr finds a hole in your attacks and manages to put you on the defensive. Despite your vast reserves of energy, you find yourself starting to tire. Your focus begins to wear thin as well, and it's all you can do to stay alive. You attempt to trick yourself into thinking that you need to be protected. It proves that you aren't in the best shape mentally, because you're already trying to protect yourself to the maximum. Suddenly you lose your grip on your sword, and, consequently, you make an awkward block against Ashyr. It proves to be a fatal mistake. After that clumsy block, number five surges forward and horizontally slashes at you. The blade cuts deep into your right side dealing you immense pain. Fortunately for you, Ashyr ends the pain with a well placed stab through your heart. Your body falls limply into pools of blood on the ground. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Despite having cracked lips, you want to kiss her. You feel an inkling of the crush you used to have start to her come back, and then you nearly kiss her regardless, but you manage to stop yourself. "Raven. Whatever you feel for me, see if you still feel it for me later. When we aren't on the cusp of life or death situations. Maybe then I can see how I feel about you." Disappointment flashes across her features. "Until then, I don't want to be distracted by you." You feel that you didn't really choose the best set of words to say, for now disappointment and hurt color her features. You mentally wince at the awkward tension you feel building up, but thankfully Vitre saves you from braving it alone. "We'll have two rooms here for a week. If we haven't found her by then, then we can pay for longer. Agreed?" Raven nods slowly. Certainly not in her usual jovial manner. You nod as well, and Vitre looks back and forth between the two of you with a knowing look on his face. "Alright then. Follow me." You both follow him as he leads you up the stairs. "Erron and I will share a room. Raven, you'll take this room." He gestures to a door on his left. "We're in the next room over. If you need us, just pound on the wall. Okay?" You watch as Raven nods numbly, and you feel a brief stab of regret. Maybe you should've kissed her if it meant that you were to keep your previous relationship. Raven walks into her room and the door slams shut. Vitre gives you a brief judgemental glance. "What did you do to her?" You stay quiet until you are safe from being heard in your room. "She confessed to me." You try to leave it at that, but he motions for you to continue. You look away from him, "I told her that, uh, I didn't want to be distracted by her." Your usual articulate self is long gone, and replaced by a less convenient embarrassed version of yourself. Vitre shakes his head back and forth. "You should've let her down more easily. I expected more from the Chosen Hero." He says that last part because he knows it'll get to you the most. "I can't have something like this ruining the mission. You're going to have to make up with her before long, or the rest of this trip is going to be very unpleasant." You nod your assent, and he gives you one last disappointing look before he goes off to take a bath. Somehow being left alone with your thoughts is even worse than having someone chastise you. You run the situation over and over again in your head trying to find a way that you could've rejected her without having left her so dejected. Vitre comes back before you can fathom a way to do so, and you go ahead to take a bath as well. The water feels heavenly, but you don't feel as if you're really enjoying it quite as much as you could. Even before the incident today, you had quite a lot on your mind. With the addition of a sad friend on your mind, you find yourself starting to get mentally taxed. Sleep would do you good. You come back to the room minutes later to find Vitre already asleep. Asleep on the only bed in the room at that. You sigh and tell yourself that you deserve it when you sink into a very uncomfortable wooden chair. You manage to get a few winks of sleep, but you often wake up due to aches on your body from sleeping in such an uncomfortable position. You wake up again, and you automatically start to rub your back, when you see a figure begin to creep through the window. You immediately close your eyes most of the way, and hope he didn't see you moving. Luckily for you, it appears he didn't. He wears a black cloak, so you can't see who he is, but that isn't what catches your attention the most. Instead of a typical rope coming across his chest to connect the two sides of the cloak together, there is an insignia. In the dark it's hard to see, but you think it's a symbol of the sun. You think it has a reddish hue, but you don't know for sure. He walks silently and leans over the bed to stare at Vitre. You ready yourself to spring at the intruder at the first signs of aggression, but there's no need. Apparently Vitre wasn't who he was looking for. Instead the man turns his attention to you. You make sure your breathing is even as he makes his way over to you, and that your eyes are so close to being closed that it's nearly impossible to tell. He examines your face, and gives slight nod to himself. You assume that you are his target, and ready yourself for the opportunity to strike. The man pulls a dagger out of his cloak, and starts the motions to stab you. It's what you were waiting for. You twist out of the way at the last second, and his dagger lodges into the back of the chair instead. You take the opportunity to punch him in the stomach and shove him to the floor. He lets go of the knife, and you quickly pull that from the chair's back. The man recovers fairly quickly and attempts to tackle you to the ground, but the attempt only goes so far. You knee him in the face and throw him across the room. Coincidentally, that place you throw him happens to be the bed Vitre lays on. You see Vitre start to stir out of the corner of your eye. You decide that you needed this guy immobilized as soon as possible, so you follow up your throwing him with another throw. This time, however, you're throwing the guy's dagger. Your aim is true, and the dagger hits the guys upper thigh. He yells out in pain causing Vitre to wake up fully. You think of why someone would be targeting you, but then realize you have your priorities skewed. You needed to make sure that the danger was gone. You rush to the window and gaze out across the city that you can see. At first you see nothing, but a glint of silver shines in the distance and you duck down. An arrow embeds itself in the wall directly behind you. Your heart pound in your chest as you realize that you could've been dead if you hadn't been so fast. You glance to Vitre who has the first attacker subdued on the floor of the room. Whoever these people were, they obviously wanted you dead, and you doubt they'd stop after one attempt. You figure you should take them out now before they have a chance to regroup and attempt another assassination attempt. "Make sure Raven is okay!" You call out to Vitre as you vault the window sill out onto the street below. You hear what may have been Vitre telling you to wait, but you ignore that. Better to ask forgiveness than permission. Another arrow whizzes pased you on the way down to the street. The fall is two stories high, but you use the momentum from gravity and roll to reduce any damage you might take from it. As fast as possible, you spring up from your roll to get behind cover. You glance from behind the wall you took cover at. Almost immediately you hear the twang of a bow, and, consequently, you move your head back behind cover. Thoughts roil in your head as you try to figure out how to get to the enemy without getting hit by an arrow. A few different ideas come into your head, but when you examine and reexamine them you are only left with two plausible ideas. You could use your blessing to speed up your reflexes in hopes that it'll allow you to dodge any arrows come at you. The other idea you have much less confidence in working. You could dash from cover to cover, and hope he doesn't hit you. You don't really like this idea, because it puts your fate into the air. Instead of relying on your reflexes, you'd simply be hoping that he'd miss. > You put your hands up and hope he doesn't shoot A thought briefly crosses your mind. What if I just pretend to give up? It doesn't seem like it'll work at first, but you hope that he'll be so surprised that he won't know what to do. Maybe even see if he can take you hostage. Then you would make your move. You step out from behind the wall with your hands up above your head. A brief moment of silence passes, and you feel triumphant for a brief second. Then an arrow flies from the alleyway the archer is staked out in. You are no where near fast enough to dodge it, and it pierces through your chest. You don't know why you thought this plan would work, but one thing is for certain. You're failed the Holy Kingdom in your role as the Chosen Hero. The last thing you think is that the Creator must be face palming at your stupidity. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You'd rather be safe than sorry. What if you decided not to go, and they end up capturing her? You'd probably want to help her, but at the same time, you wouldn't want to betray your allies. A situation like that could only end in disaster. Instead you would go to the designated location and hope to find her by yourself before anyone else is able to get to her. "I'll accept the mission." The Headmaster raises his eyebrows in surprise. "You're braver than me. I'm not sure I would have been able to make the choice you just did had i been in your position. Alright then. Vitre, I'll leave the details to you. Just know that you need to leave within the next few days." With that the Headmaster dismisses you. Vitre walks ahead of you two and motions for you to follow after him. Luckily, the Academy students are all in classes, so there's no one left to gawk at you. Vitre leads you and Raven down a few hallways, and before long you can guess where he's taking you. "Are we headed to the library?" Vitre nods. "There are maps there." His deep voice speaks quietly as if afraid that speaking in a tone larger than a whisper would interrupt classes. "I wonder if Headmaster Farid is upset. I'm sure he was looking forward to assigning the chosen hero his first mission," Raven comments to you whilst giving you a slight push with her arm. "I'm sure he'll be fine." You don't continue the line of conversation she tries to start. Your thoughts are pretty much exclusively centered on how in the name of the Creator you're supposed to find Alessa. Well, not only find her, but also make sure everyone else doesn't find her. Vitre, however, speaks again effectively ruining your train of thought. "Does he really still insist on giving every new grad their first mission?" Raven answers, "Yes, he does. Honestly, I'm not sure how he does it. Ever since the war started there's been way too many people waiting to receive their first mission." "He probably just sends most of them of to the warfront for their first mission," you comment. "You could consider us lucky that we don't have a mission like that." You aren't too sure you consider yourself lucky, but if you were Raven, then you don't doubt that she'd rather be finding a lost princess than fighting a war. "I'm not so sure about that." Vitre responds. "If this princess really is a Cursed One, then we could be in some serious trouble. That's probably one of the main reasons your father wants you here with me." "Why you?" Raven asks almost immediately. You have to admit that you were curious as well. You know why you and Raven were chosen, but you had only just met Vitre. He shrugs. "There isn't really some grand reason for it. I just happen to have a lot of experience in hunting people down. It makes me the ideal person to lead you two. Especially since we don't need some insanely good fighter. We are only hunting a princess. She probably hasn't even touched a sword in her life." You knew this was false, but you didn't really want to comment. Let him think that Alessa is incapable. It'll be easier for her to avoid capture that way. The three of you reach the library to find it mostly empty. A few academy students sat at desks doing classwork, but fortunate for you, no one is anyone near the map section. The area isn't particularly large, but it's more than enough to suit your needs. Perhaps the most notable feature of the area is the massive wall map. It's position on the wall allows for many people to look at it without crowding it. The map itself is double your height and is about the same length from side to side. After a quick once over you realize it to be a map of the continent. It was fairly recent, and someone even updated it to show which cities are under Dellandian control, and which are in control of the Holy Kingdom. It's this map that Vitre stops in front of. "This is where we'll be going." He points to the very bottom of the map, specifically at the city of Aeors. You remember the city from your history classes. Back before the Dellandians and the Holy Kingdom conquered the continent, this was the largest city, and the last one to fall before the Dellandians might. This was largely due to the fact that an army the size of the Dellandians was very difficult to provide food and drink for, but even harder when attempting to take a city in the middle of the desert. When you and Raven don't say anything, Vitre continues speaking. "Aeors has always been fairly removed from the events on the continent, and even now they don't offer support to the Holy Kingdom or Dellandia. This makes it a nearly perfect place for people to want nothing to do with the war to move to. We surmise that the princess noticed this, and headed south so she could reap the benefits of relative neutrality." You're about to interrupt him to tell him that that isn't much to go off of, but he raises his hand to stop you. "We also have reports telling us that she was last sighted heading in a southward direction." Raven speaks this time. "If others saw and recognized her, then why didn't they already bring her in?" "I mentioned it briefly before, but there is a strong possibility that this princess is a cursed one. Every time one of our own went to apprehend her, they only remember speaking to her as if they were old friends. Apparently, whenever someone enters her presence they forget why they approached her, and she uses her cursed powers to confound them." You nod in agreement. You do remember how easily you were swayed in your dream. Vitre continues to speak about the mission detailing how we would recognize her, which you already knew, how long it would they were to stay in Aeors, and other such information. Before too long, he finishes his debrief of the mission and everyone returns to the temporary rooms at the academy. With your thoughts a mix of worry, determination, and fatigue you go to sleep. ~ The next few days go by fairly quickly, and you find yourself on the road for the first time in while. Years in fact. You weren't really permitted to take lengthy trips during your years of schooling, so your last trip of moderate length was when you left Valium. The first few days of the trip go by almost quickly, but with each passing day thereafter, you begin to feel like it's taking forever. You tend to stay silent for most of the trip, but Raven decides talking is much more preferable to silence. After the first few attempts at talking to you either fail, or end in uninteresting conversations, she decides to talk to Vitre. It goes fairly well for her, and the both of them get along famously for the remainder of the trip. You think you see Raven making eyes at Vitre, but you chalk it up to motion sickness. As the days go by, the terrain changes and you begin to see progress being made in your trip. The surroundings go from green to brownish yellow, and you start seeing more and more sand replacing the trees. Eventually you get to the point where the three of you are wandering through the southern deserts of Dellandia. They're the only real obstacle that lies between you and Alessa. The desert is hot, arid, and leaves you wishing for water often. Luckily for you, Vitre planned the trip well enough to take a route following a river. Several more days pass, and Vitre finally talks about strategy. "How do you two think we should go about finding this lost princess?" You'd been waiting for this. This conversation was the key to achieving your goal of helping Alessa. Had you brought it up yourself, and then mentioned your plan, Vitre might've gotten suspicious. "Well, we know her appearance. Her hair is supposed to be pretty distinct in Aeors. If we patrol the area, and can just find her, then I think I can apprehend her." "What do you mean by 'I can apprehend her?' You don't seriously think that you're going to take her on alone, do you?" Raven questions you with a surprised look on her face. "Of course I do," you respond cheerfully. When you see Raven about to object again, you continue. "I'm the only one who can do it. I am blessed by the Creator himself. I probably won't be affected by her black magic." You sound silly to yourself, but Raven takes your words completely seriously. "But she's a cursed one!" "That's even more of a reason for me to do it alone. What if she takes one of you hostage through her powers? That'd complicate things considerably. I'm not sure I'd even be able to rescue you if it came to that." Throughout this back and forth, Vitre stayed silent, but takes the momentary lull in conversation to interject. "He's got a point Raven." You allow yourself a small smile. If Vitre liked your plan, then you're quite certain that the two of you could convince Raven. However, your smile disappears when you hear what he has to say next. "That being said, Aeors is not the kind of city we need to wander alone in. You're liable to get stabbed, robbed, and you're body desecrated if you wander alone. While I'm sure you're quite capable of defending yourself, I'm not convinced wandering around alone is the best idea." You think he's probably exagerating, but you do see his point. Regardless of that, however, this was Alessa you were trying to save. You doubt that you'd get an opportunity to talk with her alone if you all patrolled as a group together, and you sure didn't want to find her when you're with the two of them. You still wonder if Vitre is right though... > You keep trying to convince him "You said it yourself Vitre. There's a reason my father wanted me to be on this mission. If we all just travel together, then we'd draw too much attention, and an encounter with her could end catastrophically." Seeing that Vitre and Raven still weren't convinced, you continue. "If you're that worried about me, then just follow behind me at a distance. That way you can rush to my aid if I ever need it." You make sure the emphasis on the 'if' is very clear. Vitre starts nodding. "That could work," Raven throws her hands up in exasperation. "You too Vitre? I can't believe you really think this is a good idea." Raven continues to to express her dislike of the plan, but now that you have Vitre agreeing with you, everything goes much smoother. Even so, it takes most the rest of the trip to convince her. When she is finally convinced, everything returns to normal, or at least as normal as it can get when traveling. It's a few days later when you finally come upon the city of Aeors. Walls of hardened sand surround the entirety of the city, and towers line either side of the main entrance. As you arrive, the sun dips beyond the walls and casts a welcome shadow over you and your companions. You continue to follow the river until you three approach the gate, then Vitre surges ahead of you and Raven. He approaches one of the two guards standing beneath the gate. After a muted conversation and a few coins exchanged, Vitre motions for you two to follow him into the city. You glance around and are surprised to see that the river flows under a section of the wall and into the city beyond. This sparks a memory from your history class back at the academy. It was in your first year that you remember learning about the city of the lake. A city that was founded entirely around a lake and the resources that came from it. Supposedly the city was able to sustain itself entirely of the agriculture, water, and meat that came from it. You and Raven pass through the gate and form up beside Vitre. If the view from the outside was impressive, then the view from the inside was magnificent. Sunlight falls over the tops of the sandstone buildings creating a dynamic contrast between sunlight and shadow. You continue to follow Vitre through a maze of roads until you come upon a tavern. You can tell this because of the raucous laughter coming the inside. Vitre casts sidelong glances at the two of you that seem to say "here we go." With that encouraging look, Vitre pushes open the worn door open and steps into the tavern. You and Raven follow moments afterward. The interior of the tavern is lined with torches, and the walls, floors, and ceilings are all made of polished sandstone. It's looks kind of odd to you, but everyone else seems to not care. Wooden tables are strewn about the room along with people of every type. You examine the room carefully, first to see if by some crazy chance Alessa was there. Second, to see if there was any danger in the immediate danger. Aside from a few shady people in corners, no one pays the newcomers much attention. "Wait here, I'll go fetch us rooms." Vitre goes off to the bar to secure lodging leaving you and Raven alone. You sneak a glance at her. Her skin has started to tan, and there's a tired look in her eyes, but other than that (and of course her growing) nothing has really changed about her since you first met her. Despite your expert glancing, she catches you looking at her and raises an eyebrow. "Staring at me at a time like this?" A smirk follows the comment and you scowl. "I wasn't staring," you object. She laughs lightly, and you find yourself suddenly embarrassed. Luckily, Vitre comes walking back to you giving you a welcome distraction. "We'll have two rooms here for a week. If we haven't found her by then, then we can pay for longer. Sound good?" You and Raven nod your assent, and Raven and Vitre start to go up the stairs to the rooms. You pull Vitre back for a moment. "Where's the privy?" You ask him quietly. He keeps his face straight apparently catching on that you would prefer Raven to not hear about your endeavor to expel waste from your bowels. Even so, amusement twinkles in his eyes. "The Innkeeper told me it was out behind the building." You whisper a thanks to him, and head outside to relieve yourself. You find the privy easily enough, and you step inside eagerly. It's what comes after you finish, however, that complicates things. When you open the door to go back outside, you find a cloaked figure waiting for you. From the physique type, you can tell it's a man. a man with a sinister kind of presence. Before you can ask him what he wants, he reaches into his cloak and pulls out a dagger. He then lunges at you. He's fast, but not nearly fast enough to hit you. You easily sidestep, and as his hand passes your body, you pull on it and shove him past you and into the privy. You are just about to turn around and reenter the privy to question the guy, when you see something glint in the corner of your eye. You step entirely out of the privy and roll away just in time to dodge an arrow. You heart pounds in your chest, but doesn't stay that way for long. When you rolled out of the way of the arrow, you happened to roll in to a third enemy. This time you don't have time to react. The third guy had a sword waiting, and he plunges it through your heart. The last thing you see is the face of Ashyr standing over you, and the word "Payback" mouthed on his lips. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Ashyr is stronger, taller, and every bit as skilled as you. You don't think you'll be able to last for too long if you stay on defense. Tackling him might also have detrimental consequences. If you timed it bad then you could take a sword to the head. No, among the choices you figure your best one is to overwhelm him with attacks. With a sudden turn of luck you parry a blow, and Ashyr decides not to pursue attacking you. Instead you start circling each other again. You're grateful for the time to rest before you begin your attack, but Ashyr doesn't seem to be thinking at all about his energy. Instead his eyes are focused on you with a puzzled look in his eyes. You guess no one has ever lasted this long against him. By now the sun's heat has your body beginning to wear down, and your fatigue must show, for Ashyr smiles a triumphant smile. Immediately afterwards, he surges forward with an overhead slash. But you're ready for it. You surge forward as well and parry his attack on your way. You leave him no time to counterattack, but instead press the advantage created by surprising him with your ferocity. For the first time since the fight started, you seem to have a clear advantage. Every attack Ashyr blocks is a step he is forced backwards, and before long the smile he had disappears from his face. Replacing it is a face contorted in concentration, and Ashyr finally seems like he the exertion is getting to him. However, you also feel your fatigue. You begin to slow down in your attacks whilst Ashyr's blocks pick up in their efficacy. Instead of barely being able to keep up, Ashyr is now blocking each attack with an attack of his own. It isn't long before you realize that you're going to fail. One of these moments you won't have enough energy to meet his attack with your own. One of these attacks you simply won't be able to raise your sword to block his. The moment comes in the form of another overhead slash. Ashyr uses his height and superior strength to increase the attack's power, and you realize that he means to end the fight with this attack. You have no time to dodge and you feel like you don't have nearly enough energy to raise your sword, let alone enough to block the monstrous attack. Nevertheless, You push your arms with all your remaining strength to meet his attack with your own. Your thoughts aren't even centered upon winning the fight in that moment, rather, they're centered on making sure that that attack doesn't hit you. They're centered on protecting yourself. As you bring your sword up, you feel a surge of energy resonating from your shoulders. It strengthens your body and fills your arms with power. Your sword clashes with Ashyr's, and the power behind your hit was so powerful that it knocks the wooden sword clear out of his hand. There's a moment of stunned silence all around, and in the back of your mind you realize that the other students must've stopped their sparring to watch, but your mind isn't on that. Instead the power you feel brings a grin to your face. It contrasts greatly with Ashyr's expression when you bring your sword to rest beneath his chin. The changes in Ashyr's face come quickly, so if your weren't already looking at him then, you're not sure you would've noticed. Astonishment first, but rage soon followed with mixes of despair and vengeance coloring his eyes. You even thought that there was some respect there, but the moment of conflicting emotions passed. Back was his calm facade; the mask he wore was impressive, and if you hadn't seen it off when you first met, then you might really think that this calm demeanor was really him. You hear hushed conversations among the remainder of the students, and soon enough Miss Sarrin shouts at everyone. "Get back to sparring everyone!" You lower you sword and Ashyr takes a hesitant step. Then another. Before long Ashyr is heading off the field, and not much more time passes until he's out of sight. You take this opportunity to rest. The fight was certainly much more difficult than you anticipated. You're sure you would've lost if you had not found that reserve of energy. Heat still resonated from your shoulders, although it certainly was much less noticeable than it was a few moments ago. Your rest only last for a few minutes before Miss Sarrin approaches you. "You're one lucky kid. Without that blessing you would have spent the next few days in the infirmary. Ashyr put enough force into that last attack to give you a concussion." What blessing? Your tired mind thinks before realizing the importance of what just happened. It makes sense to you all of the sudden, for you recall the moment of the last attack. You were only seeking to protect yourself. It couldn't be a coincidence that The Man told you the blessing would give you the power to protect yourself. You'd been wondering what all the fuss about the blessing was for. After all, it wasn't until now that the so called "blessing" did anything except give you a cool mark. You only nod in response. You don't really have anything to say, and besides, you'd rather take this moment to think upon the implications of what you just discovered. Unfortunately Miss Sarrin doesn't allow you to sit while everyone else spars, so she tells you to stand up and ready yourself. She spars with you for most of the remainder of class, but try as you might, you aren't able to beat her and you aren't able to activate your blessing. Class ends and Miss Sarrin pulls you aside. The rest of the students file off the sparring field until it's just the two of you standing there. She speaks first. "Do you want to know how to control your power?" The question surprises you to say the least. "Yes, of course." You reply immediately. While you've been able to keep your emotions in check for most of your stay at the academy, you still feel the smoldering of anger and sadness at your mother's death. If there's any way you could learn to use the power to help you become stronger, then your answer will always be certain. "It will take a lot of training. Not to mention a change in your mindset. any more questions?" she asks. You raise an eyebrow at the 'mindset' comment. "Only one. How are you qualified to teach me?" You figure the question is necessary. You don't want to commit to learning if you're being taught by a teacher who doesn't know what they're doing. "That's not something I am willing to tell. Go get some rest. From tomorrow onward, you'll be learning about this gift you have." You're about to insist upon her giving you a straight answer when you realize that she's right. You do need rest, and tomorrow is another day. > You new friends (Background) The first of your new friends came in a most unexpected way. Following the day of your victory against Ashyr. You appeared to be something of a legend among the underclassmen. Even the upperclassmen showed respect for you. Ashyr must have been something of a symbol for the school. The Headmaster's son. No one particularly had a problem with him, and everyone respected him. Your victory sparked a transition phase from Ashyr being the symbol of the school, to you eclipsing him. Oddly enough, Ashyr went missing. Searches were conducted, but it was to no avail. It was when Ashyr was finally confirmed as a missing person, that this new friend came to see you. You'd seen her in the hallways prior to your meeting, but she wasn't in any of your classes, so you didn't really pay her much attention. That is, until she slapped you. It happened on your way back to the academy building after a training session with Miss Sarrin. You saw her coming towards you, but didn't pay her much attention. Why would a girl as pretty as her be storming toward you with an expression filled with ill intent? Well, apparently Ashyr had a girlfriend. The slap she gave you probably surprised you more than it hurt. You were left confounded for a solid moment before she continued her assault on you in the form of words. "What did you do to Asher?" You half expected her to be screaming her question given that she slapped you moments before, but to your surprise her voice is relatively quiet. You shake your head. "No. I've only ever met him twice. The last time I saw him was the first day school was open," you explain carefully. You'd rather not have her explode and slap you again. You don't think your honor could take another blow like that. Her angry demeanor changes in the blink of an eye. Tears start pouring from her eyes, and she sits down on the grass beside you. You aren't really sure how to react to all of this, for you've only been slapped like that once before, and the way you reacted to that left you feeling guilty beyond belief. You decide that you can't just leave her there, but in the same thought you decide that it isn't really your place to comfort her either. Instead you stand still and wait for her to cry it out. you didn't really have any plan for the rest of the day anyway. Minutes pass, and you feel your legs begin to tire. You cast your thoughts back to the lesson with Miss Sarrin you had today. It was mostly just stuff you already knew, but you found yourself interested in it nonetheless. You start thinking about how you ended up in this situation in the first place. About your mother's death, and your's and Alessa's falling out. If the girl slapping you didn't sully your carefree mood earlier, then this certainly did. You're in the middle of that depressing train of thought when you notice the girl staring at you. Her tear stained face and eyes bore into you, but it has neither the anger nor sadness from before. Instead curiosity burns in her in her deep brown eyes. "Why are you still here?" she asks. "I couldn't just leave you here," you respond. You realize in the back of you're mind that she might think you are more caring than you really are. You only couldn't leave her because that would be cowardly. Certainly not because you cared about some random girl crying. Hesitantly, she stands and offers her hand for you to shake. "I'm sorry about earlier. I was just frustrated with Ashyr disappearing on me." You take her hand, albeit warily. If your life were more ordinary, then you might consider this an odd day, but you figure that it could've gone worse. She releases your hand and fakes a smile. "I hope we can start over. My name is Raven. Pleased to meet you." While you aren't sure if you really want to be acquaintances with her, you decide that it she can't always be this emotionally unstable. "I'm Erron." <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Ashyr is stronger, taller, and every bit as skilled as you. You don't think you'll be able to last for too long if you stay on defense. Tackling him might also have detrimental consequences. If you timed it bad then you could take a sword to the head. No, among the choices you figure your best one is to overwhelm him with attacks. With a sudden turn of luck you parry a blow, and Ashyr decides not to pursue attacking you. Instead you start circling each other again. You're grateful for the time to rest before you begin your attack, but Ashyr doesn't seem to be thinking at all about his energy. Instead his eyes are focused on you with a puzzled look in his eyes. You guess no one has ever lasted this long against him. By now the sun's heat has your body beginning to wear down, and your fatigue must show, for Ashyr smiles a triumphant smile. Immediately afterwards, he surges forward with an overhead slash. But you're ready for it. You surge forward as well and parry his attack on your way. You leave him no time to counterattack, but instead press the advantage created by surprising him with your ferocity. For the first time since the fight started, you seem to have a clear advantage. Every attack Ashyr blocks is a step he is forced backwards, and before long the smile he had disappears from his face. Replacing it is a face contorted in concentration, and Ashyr finally seems like he the exertion is getting to him. However, you also feel your fatigue. You begin to slow down in your attacks whilst Ashyr's blocks pick up in their efficacy. Instead of barely being able to keep up, Ashyr is now blocking each attack with an attack of his own. It isn't long before you realize that you're going to fail. One of these moments you won't have enough energy to meet his attack with your own. One of these attacks you simply won't be able to raise your sword to block his. The moment comes in the form of another overhead slash. Ashyr uses his height and superior strength to increase the attack's power, and you realize that he means to end the fight with this attack. You have no time to dodge and you feel like you don't have nearly enough energy to raise your sword, let alone enough to block the monstrous attack. Nevertheless, You push your arms with all your remaining strength to meet his attack with your own. Your thoughts aren't even centered upon winning the fight in that moment, rather, they're centered on making sure that that attack doesn't hit you. They're centered on protecting yourself. As you bring your sword up, you feel a surge of energy resonating from your shoulders. It strengthens your body and fills your arms with power. Your sword clashes with Ashyr's, and the power behind your hit was so powerful that it knocks the wooden sword clear out of his hand. There's a moment of stunned silence all around, and in the back of your mind you realize that the other students must've stopped their sparring to watch, but your mind isn't on that. Instead the power you feel brings a grin to your face. It contrasts greatly with Ashyr's expression when you bring your sword to rest beneath his chin. The changes in Ashyr's face come quickly, so if your weren't already looking at him then, you're not sure you would've noticed. Astonishment first, but rage soon followed with mixes of despair and vengeance coloring his eyes. You even thought that there was some respect there, but the moment of conflicting emotions passed. Back was his calm facade; the mask he wore was impressive, and if you hadn't seen it off when you first met, then you might really think that this calm demeanor was really him. You hear hushed conversations among the remainder of the students, and soon enough Miss Sarrin shouts at everyone. "Get back to sparring everyone!" You lower you sword and Ashyr takes a hesitant step. Then another. Before long Ashyr is heading off the field, and not much more time passes until he's out of sight. You take this opportunity to rest. The fight was certainly much more difficult than you anticipated. You're sure you would've lost if you had not found that reserve of energy. Heat still resonated from your shoulders, although it certainly was much less noticeable than it was a few moments ago. Your rest only last for a few minutes before Miss Sarrin approaches you. "You're one lucky kid. Without that blessing you would have spent the next few days in the infirmary. Ashyr put enough force into that last attack to give you a concussion." What blessing? Your tired mind thinks before realizing the importance of what just happened. It makes sense to you all of the sudden, for you recall the moment of the last attack. You were only seeking to protect yourself. It couldn't be a coincidence that The Man told you the blessing would give you the power to protect yourself. You'd been wondering what all the fuss about the blessing was for. After all, it wasn't until now that the so called "blessing" did anything except give you a cool mark. You only nod in response. You don't really have anything to say, and besides, you'd rather take this moment to think upon the implications of what you just discovered. Unfortunately Miss Sarrin doesn't allow you to sit while everyone else spars, so she tells you to stand up and ready yourself. She spars with you for most of the remainder of class, but try as you might, you aren't able to beat her and you aren't able to activate your blessing. Class ends and Miss Sarrin pulls you aside. The rest of the students file off the sparring field until it's just the two of you standing there. She speaks first. "Do you want to know how to control your power?" The question surprises you to say the least. "Yes, of course." You reply immediately. While you've been able to keep your emotions in check for most of your stay at the academy, you still feel the smoldering of anger and sadness at your mother's death. If there's any way you could learn to use the power to help you become stronger, then your answer will always be certain. "It will take a lot of training. Not to mention a change in your mindset. any more questions?" she asks. You raise an eyebrow at the 'mindset' comment. "Only one. How are you qualified to teach me?" You figure the question is necessary. You don't want to commit to learning if you're being taught by a teacher who doesn't know what they're doing. "That's not something I am willing to tell. Go get some rest. From tomorrow onward, you'll be learning about this gift you have." You're about to insist upon her giving you a straight answer when you realize that she's right. You do need rest, and tomorrow is another day. > You lessons with Miss Sarrin (Background) Your first year at the academy goes by fairly quickly. You turn out to be a less studious person than you'd ever realized. While you were at the castle, every lesson was tailored specifically to you, so you picked things up pretty easily. In this new environment you find yourself playing catch up more than you should be. Having decided that you're her new favorite friend, Raven helps you with your schoolwork. Her friends tease her about hitting on a younger guy, which you and her ignore, but at the same time you can't help but notice that she is very pretty. Of course, you don't let that get in the way of your learning. Much. You look forward to those lessons more than the lessons the classes offers. How can they even compete with being privately tutored by a pretty older girl. You have to remind yourself that she is older more than you'd like admit, but that doesn't prevent you from developing a bit of a crush on her. There are times when that crush causes you to think of Alessa, but you cast those thoughts away. You are at war now. If it came down to it, then you would be expected to fight her and her family. While those lessons keep you occupied, the lessons that really enamor you are the ones that Miss Sarrin teaches you. Learning about this 'blessing' you have is much more fun than you realize. Her lessons began with basic history lessons on the relevance of the 'Blessed Ones,' and how they ruled the continent at the word from the Creator. You already knew about most of it, so that didn't quite truly catch your interest. Instead what really interested you was what Miss Sarrin was able to learn about your power. This particular instance occurred a few months after you started your training with Miss Sarrin... ~ The wooden sword fell to the ground beside you with a resounding thud. It was the third time that day that you lost against Miss Sarrin. She never went easy against you, and, consequently, this led to many bruises. It wasn't that she was looking to hurt you, but rather she was only trying to help you activate your power again. Your fight with Ashyr months earlier was the first and only time you succeeded in activating that blessing of yours. Try as you and Miss Sarrin did, you still weren't able find away to reactivate it. You dropped the ground with your sweat stained tunic plastered to your chest. Your were frustrated with Miss Sarrin, the Creator, but most of all, yourself for not being able to activate this faulty power of yours. No matter how hard you tried you couldn't get it to adhere to your will. "Get back up. Let's go one more time," Miss Sarrin insisted. You were tired, and quite frankly, sick of losing over and over again. "I'm sorry. I think I'm done with losing for the day. Let's just get with the academic stu-" You interrupt yourself mid-sentence when you see Miss Sarrin's practice sword come flying towards your head at an alarming speed. Even though you are tired, you're still able to dodge the sudden attack. Almost instinctively, you roll out of the way and grab your practice sword. You barely have to to raise it before Miss Sarrin is attacking you again. Several times you try to speak to get her to stop, but each time you speak Miss Sarrin rushes into another attack. Her ferocity surprises you, for you hadn't seen her like this before. While you've known her to be blunt these past months of lessons, she's never been this close to hurting you. She's always held herself back so she wouldn't hurt you, but this time is much different. You manage to block each attack she throws, but you constantly lose ground, and soon enough you figure she'll get threw your defenses. Usually when she wins, Miss Sarrin stops herself from dealing any kind of finishing blow to you. This time, however, will be different. Her eyes are focused purely on the task at hand, and her face is devoid of emotion. She isn't thinking about your safety at all. You begin to increase the effort you put into each block and parry. It wouldn't do to spend the next week in the hospital from a concussion. It's all in vain. Aside from Morden, She's the best fighter you've ever fought. Ashyr was easy compared to her, but unlike Ashyr, you don't think you have any chance of winning. Therefore your goal changes. Instead of winning, you only want to prevent irreparable brain damage. It's unnoticeable at first. It's only a little heat on your shoulders, so you chalk it up to the sun, but as the heat appears you find yourself blocking each attack more easily. Miss Sarrin starts to move slower, and you feel yourself moving faster. Each swipe of your sword is a another step Miss Sarrin has to take back. It's like your fight with Ashyr. You feel victory within your grasp, so you close in on it with a thrust carrying your full force behind it. However, Miss Sarrin uses that force against you. She sidesteps the thrust and with a quick yank of your wrist pulls you farther than you intended. You're sent sprawling to the grassy ground before you. The burning in your shoulders disappears, and you're left lying fatigued in the grass. To your surprise Miss Sarrin doesn't continue her attack, and even more surprising is when you look over to her and find her grinning. "What are you smiling at?" You question unable to hide the bitterness in your voice. Miss Sarrin starts to laugh a bit, and you feel even more slighted. Well at least until the reality of the situation hits you. Miss Sarrin rarely ever smiles, or even laughs, so this is a treat. Especially since it makes her face even prettier. Your offense is forgotten, and you briefly wish that Miss Sarrin was your age instead of ten years older than you. That way you might actually have a chance with her, but you chastise yourself. Even if she was your age, then she wouldn't be in your class. Apparently Miss Sarrin is the youngest prodigy to have ever graduated from the academy, and the Advanced Combat school that followed. That's why she'd been able to be an instructor here so quickly. You turn your head away from her hoping that your blushing would be covered by the scowl you put on your face. "Erron. Do you realize what just happened?" Her voice is filled with excitement. "What do you mean?" Your brief thoughts from earlier completely disappear from your head. "I figured out what triggers your power!" She continues to speak before you can answer. "I was looking through the Blessed Ones histories the other day, and every account of them talks about their purpose being to protect." "And what's that got t-" You stop when it hits you. That's what the Man (you still weren't really sure he was the Creator yet) was talking about in the dream you had. He said that the blessing gave you protection. You think back to when you fought Ashyr, and just a few moments when the power was triggered again. Both times you were focused on protecting yourself. Miss Sarrin nods when she sees the realization come over you. "It activates whenever you feel the need to truly protect yourself. That's why it wasn't working when were sparred previously. I was never actually putting you in danger, so you didn't feel the need to really protect yourself. You only wanted to win." "Wait, does that mean you were planning on hurting me?" you ask curiously. Miss Sarrin makes a small gesture with a hand as if she could brush the question aside. "That's aside the point." Before you can pursue that point, she continues. "Now we just need to make you better at using this blessing of yours. After all, you managed to use it this past fight, and still ended up losing. Of course that's probably because you aren't quite as good as me yet, but we'll work on that too." You nod and get back to your feet. Your loss and fatigue replaced by a newfound sense of purpose. You were actually making progress. You ready your sword and Miss Sarrin readies hers. You really do like these lessons. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Ashyr is stronger, taller, and every bit as skilled as you. You don't think you'll be able to last for too long if you stay on defense. Tackling him might also have detrimental consequences. If you timed it bad then you could take a sword to the head. No, among the choices you figure your best one is to overwhelm him with attacks. With a sudden turn of luck you parry a blow, and Ashyr decides not to pursue attacking you. Instead you start circling each other again. You're grateful for the time to rest before you begin your attack, but Ashyr doesn't seem to be thinking at all about his energy. Instead his eyes are focused on you with a puzzled look in his eyes. You guess no one has ever lasted this long against him. By now the sun's heat has your body beginning to wear down, and your fatigue must show, for Ashyr smiles a triumphant smile. Immediately afterwards, he surges forward with an overhead slash. But you're ready for it. You surge forward as well and parry his attack on your way. You leave him no time to counterattack, but instead press the advantage created by surprising him with your ferocity. For the first time since the fight started, you seem to have a clear advantage. Every attack Ashyr blocks is a step he is forced backwards, and before long the smile he had disappears from his face. Replacing it is a face contorted in concentration, and Ashyr finally seems like he the exertion is getting to him. However, you also feel your fatigue. You begin to slow down in your attacks whilst Ashyr's blocks pick up in their efficacy. Instead of barely being able to keep up, Ashyr is now blocking each attack with an attack of his own. It isn't long before you realize that you're going to fail. One of these moments you won't have enough energy to meet his attack with your own. One of these attacks you simply won't be able to raise your sword to block his. The moment comes in the form of another overhead slash. Ashyr uses his height and superior strength to increase the attack's power, and you realize that he means to end the fight with this attack. You have no time to dodge and you feel like you don't have nearly enough energy to raise your sword, let alone enough to block the monstrous attack. Nevertheless, You push your arms with all your remaining strength to meet his attack with your own. Your thoughts aren't even centered upon winning the fight in that moment, rather, they're centered on making sure that that attack doesn't hit you. They're centered on protecting yourself. As you bring your sword up, you feel a surge of energy resonating from your shoulders. It strengthens your body and fills your arms with power. Your sword clashes with Ashyr's, and the power behind your hit was so powerful that it knocks the wooden sword clear out of his hand. There's a moment of stunned silence all around, and in the back of your mind you realize that the other students must've stopped their sparring to watch, but your mind isn't on that. Instead the power you feel brings a grin to your face. It contrasts greatly with Ashyr's expression when you bring your sword to rest beneath his chin. The changes in Ashyr's face come quickly, so if your weren't already looking at him then, you're not sure you would've noticed. Astonishment first, but rage soon followed with mixes of despair and vengeance coloring his eyes. You even thought that there was some respect there, but the moment of conflicting emotions passed. Back was his calm facade; the mask he wore was impressive, and if you hadn't seen it off when you first met, then you might really think that this calm demeanor was really him. You hear hushed conversations among the remainder of the students, and soon enough Miss Sarrin shouts at everyone. "Get back to sparring everyone!" You lower you sword and Ashyr takes a hesitant step. Then another. Before long Ashyr is heading off the field, and not much more time passes until he's out of sight. You take this opportunity to rest. The fight was certainly much more difficult than you anticipated. You're sure you would've lost if you had not found that reserve of energy. Heat still resonated from your shoulders, although it certainly was much less noticeable than it was a few moments ago. Your rest only last for a few minutes before Miss Sarrin approaches you. "You're one lucky kid. Without that blessing you would have spent the next few days in the infirmary. Ashyr put enough force into that last attack to give you a concussion." What blessing? Your tired mind thinks before realizing the importance of what just happened. It makes sense to you all of the sudden, for you recall the moment of the last attack. You were only seeking to protect yourself. It couldn't be a coincidence that The Man told you the blessing would give you the power to protect yourself. You'd been wondering what all the fuss about the blessing was for. After all, it wasn't until now that the so called "blessing" did anything except give you a cool mark. You only nod in response. You don't really have anything to say, and besides, you'd rather take this moment to think upon the implications of what you just discovered. Unfortunately Miss Sarrin doesn't allow you to sit while everyone else spars, so she tells you to stand up and ready yourself. She spars with you for most of the remainder of class, but try as you might, you aren't able to beat her and you aren't able to activate your blessing. Class ends and Miss Sarrin pulls you aside. The rest of the students file off the sparring field until it's just the two of you standing there. She speaks first. "Do you want to know how to control your power?" The question surprises you to say the least. "Yes, of course." You reply immediately. While you've been able to keep your emotions in check for most of your stay at the academy, you still feel the smoldering of anger and sadness at your mother's death. If there's any way you could learn to use the power to help you become stronger, then your answer will always be certain. "It will take a lot of training. Not to mention a change in your mindset. any more questions?" she asks. You raise an eyebrow at the 'mindset' comment. "Only one. How are you qualified to teach me?" You figure the question is necessary. You don't want to commit to learning if you're being taught by a teacher who doesn't know what they're doing. "That's not something I am willing to tell. Go get some rest. From tomorrow onward, you'll be learning about this gift you have." You're about to insist upon her giving you a straight answer when you realize that she's right. You do need rest, and tomorrow is another day. > You your Allegiance (Background) Three years have passed since the unfortunate events that sparked the civil war occurred. They say time heals everything, but you aren't so sure. You can still feel the pains of your mother's death weighing on your heart, and your thirst for revenge still leaves you parched from time to time. Fortunately, today your thirst was quenched. The war has been going on for some time now, and neither side has really taken much of an advantage. That is, until this past week. The Dellandians must've decided that they wanted the war to be over already, so the King led the next attack against the Knights. That was a major mistake. As soon as your father realized the King would be there, the goal of that battle changed. Instead of an all out battle, your father focused on taking out the King. An army without it's leader isn't very efficient after all, but you know that the driving reason for such a tactic was the revenge you and your father shared. With a mixture of luck, strategy, and skill, the King was killed and the head for the army cut off. You feel a morbid sense of peace as you go to sleep that night. One that is promptly destroyed when you dream about that cabin for the first time in three years. The scene is always the same. It's always afternoon, and without the context of the cabin, it would be a very peaceful place. However, the beautiful figure in front of you dispels all of that in the blink of an eye. In the three years that you haven't seen her, Alessa seems to have grown exponentially more beautiful. Her long silvery blonde hair frames an angelic face. Her emerald green eyes train in on you, and it's all you can do to breathe. She's much more beautiful than both Miss Sarrin and Raven. Despite this beauty, her persona is accentuated by a sadness and tiredness that makes you feel inordinately sympathetic. When she speaks your eyes are drawn to her lips and your heart sinks with guilt. Your years of schooling have been preparing for the eventual situation wherein you would face the Dellandian army, and perhaps even the Dellandians themselves. Ever since the war started there's been a large emphasis on the corruption of the royal family, and the hate for the royal family is evident in your peers eyes. You'd be lying if you said you didn't feel hate for them either. Despite all of this, you can't help but remember that Alessa was a kid when all of this happened. None of it was her fault. "Erron," she begins, and you find yourself desperately wanting to know what she has to say. "Are you happy now?" Her voice is bitter and accusatory. "One parent for another, right? It's finally even. Are you happy now?" she repeats. Somewhere in the back of your mind you realize that you aren't acting like your usual self. "No, I didn't want this to happen." You start to say that, but then stop confused. You remember going to sleep happy that her father had been killed, and that you did, in fact, want this to happen. Alessa sees your confused expression and sighs. "Don't you know how to use your blessing?" Her tone is less bitter, and the question is something that doesn't confuse you (much), so you respond. "Yes, but I have to feel the need to protect myself in order to use it." You tell her this without the slightest qualm, but her question triggers something in the back of your mind. In the past few years you've learned to use your power fairly easily by tricking yourself into thinking you need to protect yourself. You do this now, and that familiar feeling radiates from your shoulders. With the power activating your mind becomes clear. It's like a fog you didn't even know was there, was lifted. Alessa must've been able to tell a difference because she speaks again. "You didn't answer my question. Are you happy now?" Now that you're able to think clearly you register two things. The first, Alessa is much less captivating than before. Still gorgeous, but you aren't left speechless anymore. The second thing is you realize that your decreased mental state was most likely caused by the curse she bears. She probably didn't even do it on purpose, hence why she only noticed you were affected after she battered you with questions. Still you hesitate. You aren't at all torn up by the King's death, and you're certainly more happy about it than not. Of course, that doesn't mean you want to tell her that you like her father better when he's dead. > You tell the truth "I wouldn't call it being happy," you start, "but I can't say I'm sad that the person who killed my mother is dead." You realize that this is kinda harsh, but you don't want to lie to your childhood friend. You expect her to be angry, but her face is blank. "I thought you were going to lie to me." The sentence barely escapes her lips. You shake your head. "I thought about it, but I felt you deserved to hear the truth." She nods in return, and a moment of silence descends upon the cabin. The both of you are left staring at one another. Eventually she walks toward you and wraps her arms around you. You hesitate before returning the gesture. Her face rests in your chest, and you feel tears leaking through your tunic. She starts speaking again, but this time everything she says runs together. You do manage to catch a few things though. "I'm sorry all of this happened, I wish we could go back to the way things were," and "I miss you," were just some of the few things you heard her say. The sudden expression of emotion nearly overwhelms you, for you realize that she's voicing many things that you've felt for the past three years. Perhaps one of the most prominent of those feelings being a sad loneliness. After all, the only person that might understand you is your sworn enemy. The pair of you stay like that for a while, but soon enough, and to your disappointment, Alessa lets go of you. She takes a step away from you, and starts to walk out of the cabin. The sudden absence of her presence leaves you cold, and as you stare at her leaving, you realize that this could be the last time you are able to be with her alone. Even if this 'being alone' was in a dream state. You catch her hand and pull her back. Your heart feels like it's going to pound out of your chest when her eyes meet yours. Her face was a mask of surprise when you lean down toward her with your lips parted. You close your eyes half expecting to be slapped, but instead you feel the soft texture of her lips against yours. The kiss only continues for a few seconds, but you feel happier in those seconds than you have in a long time. As you two separate, you feel your real self begin awake. She says, "Bye Erron" at the same time you say "Stay safe." You lay in your bed with the image of her seared into your memory. You feel elated, but only for a few moments. Any feelings you might still feel for her make you feel guilty. Regardless of whether or not it was a dream, you did just kiss an enemy. You lie in bed torn between the people you're meant to protect, and the person who understands you better than anyone else. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Three years have passed since the unfortunate events that sparked the civil war occurred. They say time heals everything, but you aren't so sure. You can still feel the pains of your mother's death weighing on your heart, and your thirst for revenge still leaves you parched from time to time. Fortunately, today your thirst was quenched. The war has been going on for some time now, and neither side has really taken much of an advantage. That is, until this past week. The Dellandians must've decided that they wanted the war to be over already, so the King led the next attack against the Knights. That was a major mistake. As soon as your father realized the King would be there, the goal of that battle changed. Instead of an all out battle, your father focused on taking out the King. An army without it's leader isn't very efficient after all, but you know that the driving reason for such a tactic was the revenge you and your father shared. With a mixture of luck, strategy, and skill, the King was killed and the head for the army cut off. You feel a morbid sense of peace as you go to sleep that night. One that is promptly destroyed when you dream about that cabin for the first time in three years. The scene is always the same. It's always afternoon, and without the context of the cabin, it would be a very peaceful place. However, the beautiful figure in front of you dispels all of that in the blink of an eye. In the three years that you haven't seen her, Alessa seems to have grown exponentially more beautiful. Her long silvery blonde hair frames an angelic face. Her emerald green eyes train in on you, and it's all you can do to breathe. She's much more beautiful than both Miss Sarrin and Raven. Despite this beauty, her persona is accentuated by a sadness and tiredness that makes you feel inordinately sympathetic. When she speaks your eyes are drawn to her lips and your heart sinks with guilt. Your years of schooling have been preparing for the eventual situation wherein you would face the Dellandian army, and perhaps even the Dellandians themselves. Ever since the war started there's been a large emphasis on the corruption of the royal family, and the hate for the royal family is evident in your peers eyes. You'd be lying if you said you didn't feel hate for them either. Despite all of this, you can't help but remember that Alessa was a kid when all of this happened. None of it was her fault. "Erron," she begins, and you find yourself desperately wanting to know what she has to say. "Are you happy now?" Her voice is bitter and accusatory. "One parent for another, right? It's finally even. Are you happy now?" she repeats. Somewhere in the back of your mind you realize that you aren't acting like your usual self. "No, I didn't want this to happen." You start to say that, but then stop confused. You remember going to sleep happy that her father had been killed, and that you did, in fact, want this to happen. Alessa sees your confused expression and sighs. "Don't you know how to use your blessing?" Her tone is less bitter, and the question is something that doesn't confuse you (much), so you respond. "Yes, but I have to feel the need to protect myself in order to use it." You tell her this without the slightest qualm, but her question triggers something in the back of your mind. In the past few years you've learned to use your power fairly easily by tricking yourself into thinking you need to protect yourself. You do this now, and that familiar feeling radiates from your shoulders. With the power activating your mind becomes clear. It's like a fog you didn't even know was there, was lifted. Alessa must've been able to tell a difference because she speaks again. "You didn't answer my question. Are you happy now?" Now that you're able to think clearly you register two things. The first, Alessa is much less captivating than before. Still gorgeous, but you aren't left speechless anymore. The second thing is you realize that your decreased mental state was most likely caused by the curse she bears. She probably didn't even do it on purpose, hence why she only noticed you were affected after she battered you with questions. Still you hesitate. You aren't at all torn up by the King's death, and you're certainly more happy about it than not. Of course, that doesn't mean you want to tell her that you like her father better when he's dead. > You lie "I'm not happy, no." You start with this, but the next thing you say slowly turns what you're saying from a lie, into a bitter sarcastic truth. "How couldn't I be happy that the man who had my mother killed died?" With your mother's death on your mind, Your demeanor quickly becomes sour. You gaze at Alessa expecting her to be upset, but her face remains blank. "I thought you were going to lie to me." The sentence barely escapes her lips. You shake your head. "I started to, but I felt you deserved to hear the truth." She nods in return, and a moment of silence descends upon the cabin. The both of you are left staring at one another. Eventually she walks toward you and wraps her arms around you. You hesitate before returning the gesture. Her face rests in your chest, and you feel tears leaking through your tunic. She starts speaking again, but this time everything she says runs together. You do manage to catch a few things though. "I'm sorry all of this happened, I wish we could go back to the way things were," and "I miss you," were just some of the few things you heard her say. The sudden expression of emotion nearly overwhelms you, for you realize that she's voicing many things that you've felt for the past three years. Perhaps one of the most prominent of those feelings being a sad loneliness. After all, the only person that might understand you is your sworn enemy. The pair of you stay like that for a while, but soon enough, and to your disappointment, Alessa lets go of you. She takes a step away from you, and starts to walk out of the cabin. The sudden absence of her presence leaves you cold, and as you stare at her leaving, you realize that this could be the last time you are able to be with her alone. Even if this 'being alone' was in a dream state. You catch her hand and pull her back. Your heart feels like it's going to pound out of your chest when her eyes meet yours. Her face was a mask of surprise when you lean down toward her with your lips parted. You close your eyes half expecting to be slapped, but instead you feel the soft texture of her lips against yours. The kiss only continues for a few seconds, but you feel happier in those seconds than you have in a long time. As you two separate, you feel your real self begin awake. She says, "Bye Erron" at the same time you say "Stay safe." You lay in your bed with the image of her seared into your memory. You feel elated, but only for a few moments. Any feelings you might still feel for her make you feel guilty. Regardless of whether or not it was a dream, you did just kiss an enemy. You lie in bed torn between the people you're meant to protect, and the person who understands you better than anyone else. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>While feeling tempted to show this peasant his place, you aren't that rash. If put to the test you figure you would have a high chance of winning in this fight. However, you don't think he got that muscular from sitting around doing nothing, and since this is an academy where people are being taught how to fight, so you assume he has more experience than you as well. Of course you were taught by the General himself, Morden, so despite the person's goading you push past him and continue up the stairs. On your way past him he grips your forearm and speaks, "Hey, don't leave when I'm talking to you!" He has a strong grip, but since you know how to get out of such a simple hold, you easily twist out and continue up the stairs. You hear a string of profanity and calls for you to come back, but for whatever reason he doesn't come after you, so you continue to ignore him. It hadn't really occurred to you that there might some people that are jealous of you. Especially since you have no idea why they think you're blessed by the Creator. Certainly the mark on your back is indicative to the Creator's wings, but you're fairly certain that the Creator didn't just come down from paradise and bestow upon you the powers to govern his people on this world. No, you're fairly certain that this isn't the Creator's doing, and even more so when you remember your dream. In the back of your mind things were already starting to make sense, but you didn't want to believe it. Somehow that man in the King's Forest was able to obtain power beyond your comprehension. Maybe he got it from the Creator, but regardless of where you are fairly certain that those years spent in the King's Forest were not normal. You thought it was odd when the guards couldn't relocate the cabin, but you always chalked it up to your superior tracking skills. Well at least until you learned enough to know that you were no where near as good at tracking as the royal guards. You cast your thoughts to the very first 'dream.' If you recall correctly then you were actually confronting the man about his purpose in being in those woods. He'd mentioned about how he knew that day would come, and how sad he was. You reach the Academy's armory, and you resolve to figure out what happened later. soon enough they find you a sword that's suited to your size and fighting style, and you leave with your mind still centered on weapons. You get the vague feeling that you were meaning to do something, but before you realize what it was, Headmaster Rallas shows up at the end of the hallway. He's wearing the same grey and black material from before, but this time he has more of the stuff gathered together in his arms. You remember the other student you met, and realize that the Headmaster was holding some kind of student uniform. "I'm sorry. I meant to give this to you before, but my attention was elsewhere." He shoves the grey and black uniform into your arms before reaching into a pocket and pulling out a key. "This is for your room. We made sure to give you the best of the best." "That's une-" you begin, but the headmaster interrupts you. "Nonsense. The son of the Grand Priest deserves the very best." You hesitate before grasping the Gold plated key. Despite the unfortunate meeting in the hallway, you decide that you might very well get used to living here. "Yes sir." ~ A few weeks pass, and the first battle happens. A messenger leaves you a letter from your father detailing what happened. It was mostly just the Knights testing the Dellandian army. It wasn't some crazy battle of massive proportions, but rather, it was a skirmish that didn't even contain a hundred men in total. While it wasn't the greatest battle, the Knights managed to beat the army with a combination of skill (from the individuals), and strategy. (from the different leaders) You find out that Morden is leading the charge against the corrupt royalty, and that in terms of skill, the Knights heavily outclass the army of Dellandia. You hope that superior strategy and skill will be enough, for the Dellandian army has the advantage in numbers. Aside from that, the only important thing happening is the new term start for the Academy. No new dreams of the Man and Alessa happen leaving you with a relatively bored few weeks. You don't see the pretentious student from before, so you ended up spending most of your time staying fit and practicing your swordplay. You're in an almost feverish state, and your father and your friends only serve to make that fever go. Whether the mark you received was from the Creator or not, you feel your place is beside your father championing the cause of the Holy Kingdom. Occasionally you go to the library hoping to find information regarding this mark, and while there are a lot of history about what the Blessed Ones are, the texts never go into the differences between the Blessed Ones and other people. You're always left wondering if the mark is simply there to notify your enemies of whom to kill. Thus, your thoughts are everywhere when you attend your first class at the Academy. The Headmaster had your schedule delivered to you earlier week with a note attached. It read, "Erron, enclosed is your schedule of the coming term. Seeing as how you were taught by the best while in Vailum, we've decided to put you in classes closer to your skill level. You will be surrounded by peer s who are older than you, and may even be jealous of you and your position. Heed them not, for your position demands that you be above everyone else. You are held in a higher regard because of your blessing, so do not stoop down to the level of those who oppose you. Sincerely, Headmaster Rallas. You take a deep breath and clear your head. The open doorway seems almost ominous in nature, but when you finally step through it, the classroom beyond leaves you astounded. Mostly because you've never really seen so many kids in the same location. The majority of the students are male, but you do see several girls around the room too. You do not see the teacher, so when you enter the room you try to sneak along the wall to an empty wooden desk. Alas, Your endeavor fails. It only takes a few seconds for someone to recognize you as the Grand Priest's son, so a fairly large group forms around you. "Are you Erron?" "Can I see your mark?" and "Where'd you get that jawline?" are only a few of the questions you hear. You do your best to answer the questions, but luckily for you, the teacher steps into the room and tells everyone to go to their seats. The teacher Introduces himself as Sir Kakanos, and he barely takes anytime before diving into the lesson. Your first class is history, and it ends up going fairly smoothly. Well at least for you. The rest of the class seem distracted by your presence, as if you're some kind of exotic animal. It's only when the student you met before walks through the doorway that the classes' attention turns away from you. Sir Kakanos looks away from the class when he walks in, and gestures for the guy to sit. "It's nice of you to join us Mr. Rallas." The Headmaster's son, you take note of that. 'Mr. Rallas' walks to the seat designated, but takes a specific moment to look at you and stare you down. He doesn't have the same astonished and contempt filled expression as he did before. Rather it's blank, and you realize, with a start, that this guy wasn't just some brute filled with anger. No, if he had that much control over his emotions to begin with, then he was much smarter than you previously thought. If you allowed yourself to be angered back when you first met you might have been outclassed. The class ends soon after that interruption, and you head to your next class. It turns out similarly, with the exception of the Headmaster's son actually being to his class on time. Science, Numbers, Battle Tactics, and Reading pass by fairly quickly and before long you're standing in a field outside the academy. Of all the classes you have, this is probably the one you look forward to the most. Advanced Combat. The teacher is a female Knight by the name of Sarrin. She's quite young. If you weren't her student, you might consider her beautiful. She quickly pairs off each the students there to "see what each of you can do." You're paired with a stocky fellow named David, and you start to spar with the wooden practice swords. It doesn't take you very long at all to best him, but David decides that he wants more. You happily oblige, for you haven't had a real opponent in a while. However, it soon becomes very clear that despite his two year advantage of age, you are the better fighter. "Erron. Pair up Ashyr." You hear Miss Sarrin tell you, and before you can ask who she means, you see her pointing at the Headmaster's son. You mutter a quick "Yes ma'am" and head over to your new opponent. Unlike your previous opponent, Ashyr stands a few inches taller than you. His hazel eyes regard you calmly, and he holds his practice sword carefully, lightly, as if the sword was his lover. The thought amused you, and you allowed a small smile to light up your features. You ready your practice sword for battle. The space between you is filled with tension, and you start circling each other. For a fraction of a second you see his eyes shift to the contempt filled ones you first saw, but you don't have time to think about it, for Ashyr lunges. You react immediately by parrying, then you follow up with a counterattack of your own. He defends against just as easily as you did against him, and the both of you enter into a trance of sorts. Neither of you gain ground against each other, and each and every one of your strikes is parried or otherwise defended against. Soon enough you realize that this battle will be decided through endurance. The first person to slack off in their attacks, the first person to make a mistake, they will be the one to lose. You continue the fighting for a few moments longer before you realize that it would be you to make the mistake. While Ashyr showed hints of strain, he didn't look anywhere close to as tired as you were. You have to strike now while you still have the energy to do so. Throughout the fight, many different tactics have been employed. Given this, there are only a few things you think work. You haven't tried overwhelming him with power, so you might be able to take your opponent by surprise. The same principle applies to forcing him to grapple with you. If you get close enough you may be able to catch him off guard by tackling him to the ground. Of course, you could always wait for Ashyr to mess up. Maybe he feels more tired than he looks. In any case you feel yourself beginning to tire, so you need to make a decision now. > You defense is the best offense You're willing to bet that you can defend longer than he can attack. After all, you only have to get one good hit in in order to win. With that plan in mind, you begin carefully watching for an opportunity to end tis fight. With a sudden turn of luck you parry a blow, and Ashyr decides not to pursue attacking you. Instead you start circling each other again. You're grateful for the time to rest before you begin your attack, but Ashyr doesn't seem to be thinking at all about his energy. Instead his eyes are focused on you with a puzzled look in his eyes. You guess no one has ever lasted this long against him. By now the sun's heat has your body beginning to wear down, and your fatigue must show, for Ashyr smiles a triumphant smile. Immediately afterwards, he surges forward with an overhead slash. Having switched your mindset, you easily block the blow. Ashyr frowns and attacks again. He meets with no success, but he isn't one to give up. He continues his predictable strategy of continuous attack. You are grateful you decided that defense was the best option. You aren't sure you would last very long in a strategy of continuous attack similar to what Ashyr was trying. The fight goes on with little change and you continue to tire, but, on the bright side, Ashyr is as well. All you need to do is wait for the moment where he falters in his attack. Almost as soon as you think that, the moment comes. It's eerie that it came so quickly, but you don't question it. His lunge was sloppy leaving you plenty of time and skill to exploit in your next attack. You bring your wooden sword above your head to bear down on him, but when you look at him you don't see fear, or any other emotions indicative of defeat. In fact you see the exact opposite. Triumph rests in his eyes as if he never had a doubt he would win. You hesitate in order to figure out what he could possibly be triumphant about. Then you realize it. It was odd that he got tired this quickly. He had shown tremendous endurance throughout the fight, and for all of that to suddenly disappear...it was too easy. With a panicked thought you realize what is about to happen. The lunge you blocked easily from moments before was still beside your body, and unlike the moments before the hold on his sword isn't sloppy at all. Ashyr swings his sword from under and to the side of you in an upward slash. You turn to face it at the last moment in hopes of blocking it, but that proves to be a fatal mistake. You're no where near fast enough to do that, and instead of blocking the attack, you only give Ashyr a better target. Unfortunately, the angle at which Ashyr swings his sword and the angle that your facing it combine to create the worst possible outcome. The blow hits you just under your nose, but Ashyr doesn't stop the hit there. No, you realize he must've been fed up with the fighting. The blow is strong enough to hit your nose cartilage straight up and into your brain. The result in a quick, unlucky, and untimely death.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>While feeling tempted to show this peasant his place, you aren't that rash. If put to the test you figure you would have a high chance of winning in this fight. However, you don't think he got that muscular from sitting around doing nothing, and since this is an academy where people are being taught how to fight, so you assume he has more experience than you as well. Of course you were taught by the General himself, Morden, so despite the person's goading you push past him and continue up the stairs. On your way past him he grips your forearm and speaks, "Hey, don't leave when I'm talking to you!" He has a strong grip, but since you know how to get out of such a simple hold, you easily twist out and continue up the stairs. You hear a string of profanity and calls for you to come back, but for whatever reason he doesn't come after you, so you continue to ignore him. It hadn't really occurred to you that there might some people that are jealous of you. Especially since you have no idea why they think you're blessed by the Creator. Certainly the mark on your back is indicative to the Creator's wings, but you're fairly certain that the Creator didn't just come down from paradise and bestow upon you the powers to govern his people on this world. No, you're fairly certain that this isn't the Creator's doing, and even more so when you remember your dream. In the back of your mind things were already starting to make sense, but you didn't want to believe it. Somehow that man in the King's Forest was able to obtain power beyond your comprehension. Maybe he got it from the Creator, but regardless of where you are fairly certain that those years spent in the King's Forest were not normal. You thought it was odd when the guards couldn't relocate the cabin, but you always chalked it up to your superior tracking skills. Well at least until you learned enough to know that you were no where near as good at tracking as the royal guards. You cast your thoughts to the very first 'dream.' If you recall correctly then you were actually confronting the man about his purpose in being in those woods. He'd mentioned about how he knew that day would come, and how sad he was. You reach the Academy's armory, and you resolve to figure out what happened later. soon enough they find you a sword that's suited to your size and fighting style, and you leave with your mind still centered on weapons. You get the vague feeling that you were meaning to do something, but before you realize what it was, Headmaster Rallas shows up at the end of the hallway. He's wearing the same grey and black material from before, but this time he has more of the stuff gathered together in his arms. You remember the other student you met, and realize that the Headmaster was holding some kind of student uniform. "I'm sorry. I meant to give this to you before, but my attention was elsewhere." He shoves the grey and black uniform into your arms before reaching into a pocket and pulling out a key. "This is for your room. We made sure to give you the best of the best." "That's une-" you begin, but the headmaster interrupts you. "Nonsense. The son of the Grand Priest deserves the very best." You hesitate before grasping the Gold plated key. Despite the unfortunate meeting in the hallway, you decide that you might very well get used to living here. "Yes sir." ~ A few weeks pass, and the first battle happens. A messenger leaves you a letter from your father detailing what happened. It was mostly just the Knights testing the Dellandian army. It wasn't some crazy battle of massive proportions, but rather, it was a skirmish that didn't even contain a hundred men in total. While it wasn't the greatest battle, the Knights managed to beat the army with a combination of skill (from the individuals), and strategy. (from the different leaders) You find out that Morden is leading the charge against the corrupt royalty, and that in terms of skill, the Knights heavily outclass the army of Dellandia. You hope that superior strategy and skill will be enough, for the Dellandian army has the advantage in numbers. Aside from that, the only important thing happening is the new term start for the Academy. No new dreams of the Man and Alessa happen leaving you with a relatively bored few weeks. You don't see the pretentious student from before, so you ended up spending most of your time staying fit and practicing your swordplay. You're in an almost feverish state, and your father and your friends only serve to make that fever go. Whether the mark you received was from the Creator or not, you feel your place is beside your father championing the cause of the Holy Kingdom. Occasionally you go to the library hoping to find information regarding this mark, and while there are a lot of history about what the Blessed Ones are, the texts never go into the differences between the Blessed Ones and other people. You're always left wondering if the mark is simply there to notify your enemies of whom to kill. Thus, your thoughts are everywhere when you attend your first class at the Academy. The Headmaster had your schedule delivered to you earlier week with a note attached. It read, "Erron, enclosed is your schedule of the coming term. Seeing as how you were taught by the best while in Vailum, we've decided to put you in classes closer to your skill level. You will be surrounded by peer s who are older than you, and may even be jealous of you and your position. Heed them not, for your position demands that you be above everyone else. You are held in a higher regard because of your blessing, so do not stoop down to the level of those who oppose you. Sincerely, Headmaster Rallas. You take a deep breath and clear your head. The open doorway seems almost ominous in nature, but when you finally step through it, the classroom beyond leaves you astounded. Mostly because you've never really seen so many kids in the same location. The majority of the students are male, but you do see several girls around the room too. You do not see the teacher, so when you enter the room you try to sneak along the wall to an empty wooden desk. Alas, Your endeavor fails. It only takes a few seconds for someone to recognize you as the Grand Priest's son, so a fairly large group forms around you. "Are you Erron?" "Can I see your mark?" and "Where'd you get that jawline?" are only a few of the questions you hear. You do your best to answer the questions, but luckily for you, the teacher steps into the room and tells everyone to go to their seats. The teacher Introduces himself as Sir Kakanos, and he barely takes anytime before diving into the lesson. Your first class is history, and it ends up going fairly smoothly. Well at least for you. The rest of the class seem distracted by your presence, as if you're some kind of exotic animal. It's only when the student you met before walks through the doorway that the classes' attention turns away from you. Sir Kakanos looks away from the class when he walks in, and gestures for the guy to sit. "It's nice of you to join us Mr. Rallas." The Headmaster's son, you take note of that. 'Mr. Rallas' walks to the seat designated, but takes a specific moment to look at you and stare you down. He doesn't have the same astonished and contempt filled expression as he did before. Rather it's blank, and you realize, with a start, that this guy wasn't just some brute filled with anger. No, if he had that much control over his emotions to begin with, then he was much smarter than you previously thought. If you allowed yourself to be angered back when you first met you might have been outclassed. The class ends soon after that interruption, and you head to your next class. It turns out similarly, with the exception of the Headmaster's son actually being to his class on time. Science, Numbers, Battle Tactics, and Reading pass by fairly quickly and before long you're standing in a field outside the academy. Of all the classes you have, this is probably the one you look forward to the most. Advanced Combat. The teacher is a female Knight by the name of Sarrin. She's quite young. If you weren't her student, you might consider her beautiful. She quickly pairs off each the students there to "see what each of you can do." You're paired with a stocky fellow named David, and you start to spar with the wooden practice swords. It doesn't take you very long at all to best him, but David decides that he wants more. You happily oblige, for you haven't had a real opponent in a while. However, it soon becomes very clear that despite his two year advantage of age, you are the better fighter. "Erron. Pair up Ashyr." You hear Miss Sarrin tell you, and before you can ask who she means, you see her pointing at the Headmaster's son. You mutter a quick "Yes ma'am" and head over to your new opponent. Unlike your previous opponent, Ashyr stands a few inches taller than you. His hazel eyes regard you calmly, and he holds his practice sword carefully, lightly, as if the sword was his lover. The thought amused you, and you allowed a small smile to light up your features. You ready your practice sword for battle. The space between you is filled with tension, and you start circling each other. For a fraction of a second you see his eyes shift to the contempt filled ones you first saw, but you don't have time to think about it, for Ashyr lunges. You react immediately by parrying, then you follow up with a counterattack of your own. He defends against just as easily as you did against him, and the both of you enter into a trance of sorts. Neither of you gain ground against each other, and each and every one of your strikes is parried or otherwise defended against. Soon enough you realize that this battle will be decided through endurance. The first person to slack off in their attacks, the first person to make a mistake, they will be the one to lose. You continue the fighting for a few moments longer before you realize that it would be you to make the mistake. While Ashyr showed hints of strain, he didn't look anywhere close to as tired as you were. You have to strike now while you still have the energy to do so. Throughout the fight, many different tactics have been employed. Given this, there are only a few things you think work. You haven't tried overwhelming him with power, so you might be able to take your opponent by surprise. The same principle applies to forcing him to grapple with you. If you get close enough you may be able to catch him off guard by tackling him to the ground. Of course, you could always wait for Ashyr to mess up. Maybe he feels more tired than he looks. In any case you feel yourself beginning to tire, so you need to make a decision now. > You tackle him Going on either pure attack or pure defense would be expected, you decide. You need something entirely unprecedented. Something that''ll surprise him so thoroughly he won't know what to do. With a sudden turn of luck you parry a blow, and Ashyr decides not to pursue attacking you. Instead you start circling each other again. You're grateful for the time to rest before you begin your attack, but Ashyr doesn't seem to be thinking at all about his energy. Instead his eyes are focused on you with a puzzled look in his eyes. You guess no one has ever lasted this long against him. By now the sun's heat has your body beginning to wear down, and your fatigue must show, for Ashyr smiles a triumphant smile. Immediately afterwards, he surges forward with an overhead slash. But you're ready for it. When he gets close enough you get low and charge him. The impact of you hitting him stops him from continuing his swing downward, however, you aren't able to fully tackle him. The result of your attempt leaves you bear hugging his stomach. Ashyr reacts quickly and switches the hold on his sword so he can stab downward. You see what he's doing out of your peripheral vision, and you realize what's about to happen. You disentangle yourself from him just as he starts to bring his sword down at you. The hit, originally aimed at your back, hits the top of your spinal cord due to your attempt to dodge, and you black out. You wake up approximately a day later. The white of the infirmary hurts your eyes, but not as much as your pride hurts. You could accept losing, but losing in such a pathetic way was disappointing. You reach you hand to cover a sudden yawn, but your hand doesn't move. You try to bring it up once again, but still, it doesn't move. You start attempting to move every possible limb, but your body doesn't obey you. The only things that you can move are your facial appendages. You start shouting for someone, and soon enough a nurse comes to see you followed by Headmaster Rallas. They go into a lengthy explanation of what happened to you. That explanation ends with them saying that you are paralyzed from neck up. You end up going into shock, and you realize that you won't ever be able to do anything you want ever again. You enter a limbo like state where nothing really matters to you. Even letters from your father seem to have lost their meaning. Months pass and your thoughts are filled with regret and despair. If only you had gone with your father, or if only you had won that fight...if only. Those thoughts consume your entire being until there's nothing you can do, but think about what ifs. Life in this state leaves you wishing to be dead. You push those thoughts off, but when there's nothing else to do but think, then that becomes a burden too. One day you finally decide to do it. Maybe the Creator will forgive you for being a failure as a Blessed One. Well, if that's all I could do in a fight, then maybe I am a hero. I saved everyone from watching me fail as the Chosen Hero of the Holy Kingdom. With that thought you end your existence in Dellandia.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You hesitate while you think, but you answer before long. "I'll stay here." Your father smiles, and it's obvious that he's very relieved at your choice. You imagine that a heavy burden must've been taken off of his shoulders. Here you would be safe. Here you wouldn't have to worry. Your father nods before turning to the heavy set man on his left. "This is the Headmaster here at the academy. Headmaster Rallas. He's taught at this academy for years now," a slight smile breaks across your father's face, "and despite his looks, he used to quite capable." Headmaster Rallas scoffed at that. "I'm still more than capable," he remarks before your father continues speaking. "I'll be leaving in the morning, so it may be some time before i see you again, son. When I next see you, I expect to see a man grown and ready for anything. The Creator has blessed you as his champion, so you must prepare yourself to fulfill that demanding role. I'll see you again in the morning, but for now Headmaster Rallas will give you a tour." Your father embraces you, then walks out of the room leaving you alone in the room with Headmaster Rallas. He regards you for a silent moment. "You carry a great burden. If you're well enough I'll show you around." Despite the sleepy haze you've retained since you awoke, you nod and get up from your bed. You look around the room, and wonder why you're the only one here. This was obviously the Academy's infirmary and this was a fighting school, so surely there must be more people injured. You express these thoughts aloud to the Headmaster, and he smiles then throws an arm around you. "You've got a good head on you. The academy is on break for another week, so until then, it'll be you, me, the staff, and a rare few other students." You nod and the Headmaster leads you out of the room. The halls remind you of the Castle back in Valium except that these were newer and more obviously centered around academics. The Headmaster leads you around, and before long you find yourself increasingly impressed with the facility. It's every bit as big as the castle, and the rumors you've heard about it do not nearly do it justice. The Headmaster explains that aside from basic academics, everyone in the academy is taught how to wield a sword. Once a student finishes their schooling here, they begin their long noble service to the Grand Priest wherever it may take them. If even to death. You feel a sense of foreboding and briefly wonder how many knights died to help you escape Valium. The Grand Priest finishes his explanation by telling you that at age sixteen every student is sorted into two more facilities depending on their aptitude for fighting. One is simply called Advanced Combat where the inhabitants focus solely on honing their skills in combat, tactics, and other such needs for war. The other school is called Support, which is more or less self explanatory. This school includes those training in the healing arts, organizational matters, but everyone one of them still is constantly trained in fighting. If the need ever arises, then those in both schools can form a force of a couple thousand, that is when all of the knights on missions are gathered in. Aside from the knights at the school, there are bases scattered around the continent each with a minimum number of five thousand strong. that is where the majority of your numbers reside. Apparently your father had been prepared for this, for you cannot imagine that the King would have allowed such an amassing of numbers to occur under his nose. Once the introductions are over, the Headmaster leaves you to explore the facility whilst he claims that his work needs his utmost attention. You shrug and simply head off of in the direction of the armory. You didn't have much time to grab your sword when you left, so hopefully they could supply you with one. On your way there you run into another student. You don't quite feel the want (or need) to converse with him, so you barely give him a glance. Despite your wishes, he moves in front of you effectively stopping you in your tracks. This was most inconvenient, because a staircase was not the best place to meet someone new. If it was someone younger, or even smaller than you then you may have pushed passed him. However, he was neither. He was taller than you by a couple inches, making him around six foot, but that wasn't what stopped you. For someone who can't have been more than two years older than you, his frame filled his clothing and his muscles stretched the grey and black leather. He reminded you of Morden. He stood on the stair step right above you making his presence just that more imposing. Although you originally didn't want to meet him, you found yourself mildly interested. What did this oversized adolescent want with you? "Are you Erron?" his face was expressionless, but when you answer "Yes," his face changes to that of contempt. "You're the person that the teachers keep going on about? You barely have any muscle on you, and you look like you haven't ever seen a battle. The Creator should've chosen me, but instead he chose a scrawny piece of trash like you. I bet you didn't even have the guts to screw the princess while you were in that castle." His voice is filled with mocking arrogance, and his insults, quite frankly annoy you. He had just barely met you, yet he acted as if he knew your whole story. His insults weren't even that good, but his attitude was certainly more abrasive than you could otherwise stand. You normally wouldn't even consider physical retaliation as a viable option, but his mention of Alessa tipped your judgment. She might be the daughter of a treacherous King, but she wasn't some cheap prostitute. > You stay and retaliate While on the inside you're starting to seethe, on the outside you manage to keep you're cool. You step to the side and start walking up the stairs past him, as if you're making a move ot ignore him. In reality you just want to have to high ground when you punch him. As you place your foot on the step above this oversized boy, he grips your forearm saying, "Hey, Don't walk away from m- Hey!" He interrupts his own sentence with "Hey" when instead of yanking your arm away from him, you use his grip and push him forward and hopefully, down the stairs. But this guy is smarter than he looks. Instead of being surprised like you hoped, it appears he was more or less ready for it. he uses the momentum from your push to pull himself up and pull you past him down the stairs. Unlike him, you are completely surprised. You figured he was like a dog. Lots of barking, but no bite. You were wrong. You attempt to twist your head away from the floor, but you were propelled at too fast of a rate. With a sickening crack, your head splits open on the white granite stairs. You pass out, and never wake up. Your last thought is that maybe the guy was right. The creator chose the wrong person. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>During all of the fun times you and Alessa spent in the man's cabin, neither one of you asked why he was there. The thought certainly crossed your mind, but you and Alessa entered into a bliss of sorts. You were afraid to ruin the friendly relationship you had with the man by getting on his bad side. After all, (well, at least in your experience) adults tended to anger quickly when questioned too often. Thus you and Alessa enjoyed a period of unadulterated happiness...that you were sure was going to end today. As you grew older you began to question the man and his purpose even more. You mentioned it to Alessa, and while she was slow to agree, she eventually came around. She must have finally thought about the situation from someone else's perspective. Anyone else would have the guard chase down this stranger. Worst case scenario, the man could turn out to be some kind of serial killer. You doubted that he was, but there was always the possibility. You hoped for the best, but feared the worst. That's most of the reason you carried the sword at your waist even though your Holy Order training was already over for the day. The cabin came into your field of vision, and nostalgia cascaded over you. You stopped walking, and Alessa turned back to gaze at you. "Are you ready? We don't really have to do this if you don't want to." Her voice was muddled with nervousness, and concern. You could tell that she was hoping you'd turn back, and that you two could hang out without having to worry. You almost agreed with her, but you decided to do this. You were going to follow through with it. Some moments are seared in people's memories forever. Every one of your senses seemed to be extra sensitive. The sun was shining brightly through the trees above casting light that made you squint your eyes. Alessa stood half turned back to you with a question in her eyes. She was obviously waiting for you to continue moving. You look to the cabin ahead, and all of the warmth that you felt in the past dwindled away. In its place were ominous feelings of forbidding, but you gathered your courage and approached the cabin. Alessa knocks on the door, and you only have to wait a few moments before a muffled voice calls you inside. If the outside of the cabin looked ominous, the inside was a picture of abnormality. Something was wrong. You could tell it from the moment you stepped into the cabin. You didn't need the door slamming shut behind you, or the crazed look in the man's eyes to tell you that much. He sat in a chair against the wall on opposite side of the room. His wild brown hair was even more disorganized than usual. It fell across his face as he looked at the floor. A silent moment passed and the man began to speak. "I know why you're here. I knew this day would come, but I didn't want to believe it." That part was directed at you and Alessa, but the part that followed seemed more like a crazed man's mutterings. And he never seemed crazed before. "I wish I didn't have have to do this. I was content. Happy even. We were almost like a family. I felt needed, and not abused. Not like the people who use my name for evil purposes..." His mutterings continue, but you've had enough. Enough of being here, that is. While you were prepared to deal with bad reactions, frankly you didn't think it would be this bad. You were getting really creeped out, and a quick glance at Alessa told you you weren't the only one. You reached back to try the knob, but it didn't turn. You put more force into it, but still nothing. The man doesn't react, so you lose all pretenses of sneaking out. You throw your shoulder into the door, and it doesn't even quiver. Just as you begin to pull your sword from its sheathe, the man finally speaks to you two again. "I'm sorry, but this has to be done. Alessa, Erron I hope you'll forgive me." He begins walking towards you two, and you decide that you don't want to know why he's sorry. You go ballistic and start hacking at the door, but after the first few swings you realize that it's not going to work. There was something otherworldly going on here and it was preventing you from leaving. Instead you turn back around and hold your sword the way you were taught. The man nears the both of you, and you take the time to shout to Alessa, "Get behind me!" When you don't hear an immediate shuffling of feet, you turn and see her frozen with fear. At the same time you notice the man walking towards her instead of you. You figure that somewhere inside each man there is a primitive instinct that overrides all self control. That instinct sends you rushing between the disaster that was surely about to occur. A couple things happen at once. Without your meaning to, your sword strikes the man's outstretched hand. And your body hits Alessa onto the ground behind you. Before you can check to see if Alessa is okay you notice the cut on the man's hand bleeding. But not just bleeding. Bleeding gold. You barely have time to send up a prayer to the Creator before he speaks again. This time he seems to have some semblance of intelligence instead of his ranting. "Alessa would have made a better choice I think, but I guess you'll do fine. I'll let you carry the blame for what's to come next." The man takes a deep breath and holds his hands out in front of him. This time that instinct doesn't come just in time. Your frozen in place, but to your surprise he doesn't touch you, or kill you or anything of the sort. Instead, two lights appear. With his palms facing up to the ceiling a bright white light appears in his right hand. A dark black light appears in his left hand. They both glimmer and shine alluringly, but for different reasons. You feel yourself drawn to the dark light, because of an eerie feeling of power. A power that you feel could bring you anything you ever wanted. The white light gives you a feeling of happiness. The power to endure and make it through anything that could ever come in your way. The power to obtain versus the power endure. You're enthralled. "Now. Choose. Will you take this blessing," he moves his right hand forward, "or this curse?" He moves his left hand forward to punctuate the question. You barely hear what he's saying, and you don't really get what he's saying about that dark light being a curse. How could it be a curse when it offers you so much power. Then again, the white light offers you security. You feel that you could protect anything, and get through everything that dared challenge you. You think of Alessa at that, whom is still sitting on the floor behind you dumbfounded. You know you don't really have much of a choice here. Who knows what the man would do if you were to refuse? You have to choose one. > You say "The 'Curse.' " "Curse." You whisper the words, and immediately the dark light flies from the man's hand and into you. You don't feel any different at first, but as the seconds go by you feel yourself getting really tired. The fatigue spreads throughout your body and you know that at any moment you may pass out. The feeling reminds you of a story your dad once told you about him treading water for hours at a time. He said afterwards that he knew he wouldn't be able to keep it up forever, but he would continue for as long as he could. You sympathize with that thought as your body and mind betray you to their tiredness. When you finally feel as if you could not hold on any longer, you collapse to the floor beside Alessa. The last thing you see is the bright light, the blessing, flying from the man and into Alessa, and the man's face; a picture of sadness. ~ You wake up hours later in the cabin. You peel your face of of the wooden floor and groggily rub your eyes. It takes you a moment to remember what happened, but when you do you leap to your feet confused. There isn't a single thing out of place in the cabin. You look all around for evidence of what you could've sworn happened here only moments ago, but you find nothing. Even your sword is back inside your sheathe. Nothing was amiss. Perhaps it was all a dream, you think relieved. With a sigh and a shrug you brush the dust off of your clothes and open the cabin door. You remember the struggle you had with the man moments before, and you laugh to yourself. Leave it to your subconscious to turn one of your favorite people into a scary curse giving man with emotional problems. Although... you do wonder why Alessa isn't with you. You were supposed to meet with her in this cabin after all. Your don't think to much of it, for you finally realize the time. In the distance the sun begins to dip down into the gray blue clouds. It was sundown, the time time your parents require you to be home. You immediately break into a jog. You Father could be quite strict when it came to you. If he caught you coming back late, then he would surely punish you. You jog into a relatively silent castle, although you hear sounds of eating and merriment coming from the main dining hall. As if to punctuate the point, your stomach rumbles in anticipation for dinner. Thankfully you only have to go up one staircase on the way to your room. You're careful to look through each hallway before entering in order to avoid a potential disaster with your dad, so in not too long you come to a solid oak door. Engraved on the wall beside it reads the name, 'Lucentia,' your family name. Without wasting any time you throw the door open and slam the door shut behind you. "Erron? What are you doing back so late?" You turn around to see your Father seated on at your desk with a grave look on his face. His deep authoritative voice is riddled with anxiety and subtle undertones of sadness. Something your dad rarely displays. You begin to mumble an excuse about knight training, but your Father interrupts you. "Never mind that. I need you to pack your things. We're going away for a while." The persona of a strong confident man your Father usually portrayed was gone. When you don't respond immediately, he raises his voice. "Quickly now. We must be going!" You don't question him and immediately begin to pack your travel bags with necessities. You're at it for a couple minutes when you realize your Father had no bags with him. "Did you already have your bags packed? you ask curiously. Any information you could glean from him would be useful. He looks around for a moment confused. "I must've forgotten to grab them. I'll be back, son. Stay here and pack. If I'm not back in fifteen minutes then go find Morden." He rushes out of the room leaving you even more confused than when you woke up in the cabin. You shrug and obey him. Even at his worst he still knows more than you do. It doesn't take you long to pack, and soon enough you're left waiting on your bed. A few long moments later you begin to hear shuffling outside, and shouting. You try to ignore it, but it soon grows to a point where you can't ignore it very well. That, and you're starting to get curious. The royal guards don't usually act so panicked, so maybe you should check it out. > You sate your curiosity Tossing your fathers wishes out the window, you crack the door open. If you come back in five minutes, then that should leave you plenty of time to find out what's going on. You walk out of the door and into the stone walled hallways. You listen for a moment, then follow the sounds of shouting. As you near the source, other sounds enter the mix. The sounds of swords ringing and armor being torn fill your ears, and before you can turn yourself back you walk into the scene of the noise. Bodies of the knights of the Holy Order llitter the hallway floor. Royal guards stand amidst the corpses, while others drive their swords through the fallen bodies. Some dark liquid covers the cobblestone floor, and that same liquid is splattered across the walls. Blood. The thought sickens you and you begin to retch despite not having had dinner yet. The sound draws some attention, and as you bring your head up from the ground your eyes meets with a dying Knight on the floor not to far from you. That knight mouths the word "Run," just before his eyes lose the life in them. Before you can really react to that you hear someone yell, "There's the Assassin's son! Get him!" You look up to find every royal guard with their eyes trained on you. Your instincts take over and you begin to run back the way you came. The sounds of metal boots hitting the floor echo throughout the hall behind you. Fear courses throughout your body, and you run faster than you ever have before. However, it's not enough. After only a few moments of running you hear a voice behind you yell, "I've got him!" You're only left wondering what he means for a moment, for right afterwards a javelin pierces your shoulder. The force of it doesn't kill you, but it certainly sends you toppling to the floor. The pain is horrible, but luckily you don't have to endure it for long. A royal guard comes up moments later to finish the job.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Elliot was reading when he heard a knock at his door. Despite being drawn in to the biography of a knight who fought in the war with the gnomes, he put a leather bookmark on page 93, stood up, and answered the door. He exchanged small talk with the postman and took the singular letter delivered to him. For a moment, he was excited. He rarely got letters because he lived so far away from his family and it was expensive to send mail. The man quickly opened the letter and read the short, upsetting letter. Dearest Elliot, I regret to inform you that your aunt Rosy is gravely ill. The physician has informed me that she has about one week to live. Please get here as soon as possible. Much love, Uncle Mark Elliot couldn’t believe what he was reading. Aunt Rosy had practically raised him; she was the only mother he ever knew. He imagined her, sick in bed, waiting to see her nephew one last time. He quickly did mental math. Letters are delivered once a week and if she had a week to live, he had no idea how long it had been. “For all I know, she could be dead by now.” Elliot made the decision to head out that day, he didn’t have a minute to waste. He wanted to take the boat across the lake to the city his aunt lived in, but it only ran on Wednesdays and it just so happened to be a Thursday. She’d be dead before he even left his town if he waited for the boat. Elliot only had one choice: take a three day walk through the forest of past voices. He shuddered at the idea, the forest was known for being haunted and had taken more lives than it had spared. Despite his fear, he quickly grabbed his coat, two loaves of bread, a jar of jam, a few bits of cheese, a pack of matches, a compass, a small bundle of gold coins, and was out the door. Elliot entered the dense forest with only mild terror and great reluctance. He walked ten minutes, jumping at every small noise. When nothing came out and ate him alive, he started to calm down, continuously telling himself, “it’s going to be okay. Think of Aunt Rosy; everything is going to be okay.” He walked for a few hours, stopping periodically to rest or eat. After a while, he noticed the sun was going down and he didn’t have long before sunset. “I need to find somewhere to rest for the night.” > You find a cave to sleep in Elliot spotted a wide opening on the side of the cliff. Luckily, the opening was just low enough for him to jump and grab the ledge with his hands and pull himself up. He entered the cave, wishing he had something for light. He silently prayed that no bear lived in the cave. He didn't go far in, just far enough for him to be protected from the elements and hopefully any supernatural beings presiding in the forest. The tired man placed his head on a smooth rock, using it as a pillow and let himself fall into a stressed sleep. He woke up not long after, warmer than he had been since summer. Not opening his eyes, he attempted to roll over and bask in the warmth but that was when he realized, he couldn't move. His eyes snapped open. He was tightly wrapped in a womb of feathers. He let out a bloodcurdling scream, thinking he'd been tar and feathered. Elliot had seen people being tar and feathered, and it was something he hoped he would never have to endure. A deep, raspy voice replied, "what's wrong with you, human?" "Huh? Who said that?! Who's there?!" "You don't know who I am?" The voice sounded offended. Suddenly, the feathers left the man and he saw what had been happening. He saw the most vile monster he'd ever seen in front of him. "You...you're a...you...you're...YOU'RE A GIANT DUCK" Elliot yelled at the beast. "I am no duck!" Said the giant duck, "I am a fire drake." The offended beast was a pure feathered mallard and was as big as a dragon. "Oh please, a fire drake is just an old timey name for a dragon and you my friend, are no dragon." "How dare you?! I am not a dragon, I am a fire drake. Those damn dragons have all but destroyed my beautiful image and memory." "What? I'm just," Elliot gasped for breath, "what do you want from me? Also, were you...sitting on me?" "How else was I supposed to keep you warm? I like my food nice and toasty before I eat it. I also like to play with my food before I eat it, but you're annoying." "Aren't ducks vegetarians?" "I already said I'm not a duck! I'm a fire drake!" The mallard roared, or uhh quacked.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|> > You start Story You were no stranger to Gotham. Early in your career as the Question your journalist job occasionally took you to the city of the damned, and you were sure to go out on nightly excursions to fight crime. What can you say? Old habits. Once you had a run in with the Dark Knight, though vigilantes don't operate in Gotham without doing so. Helped him take down Killer Croc, though he berated you. Called you hot-headed. Childish. Said you were only in it for the thrills. Being the young hotshot you were, you mouthed off at him, then parted ways. But you digress. What brought you to Gotham wasn't your job this time, it was a woman. The Huntress. Word on the street has it that she's in a bit of a bind concerning multiple murders seemingly committed by her. All the victims were reporters calling her a madwoman, a loose cannon, criticizing her. The one time you met her you didn't get the impression that she was the type to kill people for saying bad things about her; only criminals. Then again that one time you met her she nearly put an arrow right between your eyes. Either way, you're going to give her some help, clear her name... And maybe tell her about the fact that you have a little crush on her. She'd probably laugh in your face, but you're going to try. Hey, maybe helping her out will get you somewhere with that. ... And now you realize you've been mulling over what's happened and why you're here while staring at her apartment window. It wasn't hard to uncover her identity, Batman had deduced who she was a long time ago and kept it in his database. Once you broke into Nightwing's apartment and did a little digging into his computer (he should really consider changing his password to something other than his girlfriend's name), things were smooth sailing. She was Helena Bertinelli. Sole survivor of the Bertinelli family, once Gotham's top crime family before her entire family, save her, were wiped out in a series of hits. From what you can gather it influenced her to become the Huntress. Since then she's lived a normal life, away from her criminal roots, working as a teacher at Gotham Academy. None would suspect a mild-mannered middle school teacher in a bum apartment to be one of the deadliest vigilantes in Gotham City. It's the perfect facade. It's too early for her to head out as Huntress, no doubt she's still home. You hope she doesn't mind an unexpected visitor. > You continue The fire escape proves to be a useful thing. Slowly, you open her window, slipping in and shutting it quietly. You shove your hands into your pockets as you look around, pictures of various achievements in her life decorate the walls. Her graduating high school, then college, the latest a class photo from last year... Then you notice one picture that stands out. A picture of a man and a woman with a young girl and boy. You look closer at it. The girl and boy smile brightly at the camera, their brown eyes both full of life. The man and the woman smile as well, but they look... Strained. The woman's smile is forced. The man's grip on the woman's shoulder is too tight. This is a picture of Huntress with her family. Very clearly, her parents' marriage wasn't a happy one. Behind you comes the click of a loaded crossbow. "Who the hell ar- oh you've got to be kidding me..." You recognize her voice. "Huntress. Good to see you," you say, turning around to face her. She's just dressed in a tank top and shorts, and her skin is damp, evidence she just got out of the shower. You gulp slightly, imperceptibly. "Can't say the feeling's mutual," she replies, a scowl distorting her face, "what do you want?" "Heard you were having trouble. Framed for multiple murders," you say, walking into her living room and plopping down on the couch. Propping one leg up on top of the other, you open up your arms as if to show yourself off, "I'm here to help." "As if," she chuckles, "I don't need your help." "You don't have many friends left in town. None, if I hear correctly. Except for me. Try as you might to clear your name on your own, without help it'll all fall apart. That's where I come in. With my investigative talents and your combat training, we'll be able to clear your name in no time." She opens her mouth to protest, then sighs. "... Whatever. Let's get to work. I've got two leads." As she heads into the next room, she gestures for you to follow. You do. The room seems to be her bedroom. You're confused for a moment, until she presses a button hidden behind a layer of clothes in her closet, at which point a hidden room opens up. It's no Batcave or Fortress of Solitude, but it's what it needs to be: spare costume in one corner, monitoring station in another, punching bag in the third, and weapon rack in the last. To top it off, a table is set dead center, piles of notes on it. She grabs two folders crammed with papers and hands them to you. You read them over. All the papers inside are notebook papers, yanked out and on them sloppily written cryptic statements on her theories. One folder contains notes on the Penguin. She had put the villain away recently, no doubt he would want to frame her now that he's escaped once more. You look at her for her reasoning. "Penguin's a maniac. Anyone puts him away, he tries paying them back tenfold." Good point. The other folder contains notes on Gotham crime lord Santo Cassamento. This one seems a bit harder to pinpoint. You look up from the folder to her. She shrugs, "I've made an enemy out of the mob as Huntress, and as myself Cassamento holds a grudge against me for whatever reason. If he found out I was Huntress, he'd want to frame me, have me arrested and my identity revealed to the public. I'd be mince meat." She's smarter than you give her credit. "So what lead do we follow up on?" you ask. "Your choice. Both sound likely to me." Time to choose.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Merlin! Hey, Merlin! Get your ass over here!" an archeologist named Dave calls to you from across the worksite. Dave hired you to do lighting for the archeological uncovering of the home of Merlin the Magician, but you are pretty sure he only hired you because your name matches that of the previous homeowner. Since you first started he has been complaining about everything you do. "Good morning mate," you respond turning to face the short, balding man wearing a scowl. "Something I can help with?" "Yeah, there is actually. You know how I told you to keep things lit and not leave anything laying around?" "Sure, I have been doing a bloody good job of that over here too." "Oh, well, that's good because on the other side of the worksite you are doing the opposite of what I asked you to do." "Over there? You mean the corner of the site no one is working in?" "Yes, that would be the one." "Dave, I haven't been over there yet; that's why it's dark!" "You haven't been over there?" "No, not yet. I am only lighting this area, running the wires above the site, and cleaning up all of my tools as I go, just like you asked." "And all of your tools and wires are labeled, right?" "Yeah, every one of them," you say, pulling a spool of wire out of your pocket. You show Dave a label across the back that reads 'Merlin Ambrosius'. A devilish smile spreads across Dave's face. He holds out his hand to reveal a battered, rusty spool with a matching label on the back and asks, "What does this say, Merlin?" "That is not mine, Dave." "It has your name on it!" "It also looks like it has been here for a thousand years! If this is your idea of a joke, it isn't funny." Dave looks like he is about to explode with anger when another archeologist runs up to him. The two of them whisper back and forth a few times; Dave seems to get angrier with every word either of them utter. Eventually, the second man hands something to Dave and runs off. Dave looks at the object given to him and scowls. "Come here, Merlin," he demands, without looking at you. You take a few steps forward and look at what he is holding: in his hands are a pair of rusty pliers with a label that reads 'Merlin Ambrosius'. Your jaw drops and you stammer, "I...I don't know where those came from; they can't be mine." "I don't care about your excuses, just go over there and make sure we don't find anything else that belongs to you!" With that, he storms off and blends in with the dozens of archeologists digging through the Paimpont Forest floor in the dimming sunlight. The floodlights are already on so that they can see anything unearthed under the dense canopy. Nothing too exciting has been unearthed, but a cottage in the Broceliande--the legendary enchanted forest near Camelot--has to belong to the famous Merlin the Magician, according to these experts. Grumbling to yourself, you carefully make your way across the large zone marked with wooden stakes. When it gets too dark to continue, you pull a flashlight from your bag and charge it with the attached hand-generator; traditional battery-powered flashlights have a bad habit of dying on you when you need them most. Light illuminates the forest floor once you're done cranking and you continue to the far end of the worksite. In the back corner, along the edge of a large clearing, you find a shallow hole with more of your tools in it. Each one is rusty and broken, but the label with your name is visible. You pull out several items that look like broken replicas of the tools you currently are carrying: a stun gun, several rechargeable batteries, pliers, insulated and non-insulated wire, and even a hand charged flashlight are recovered from the hole, amidst a few other tools and supplies. Removing them reveals a taut wire in the bottom of the hole that looks like it is connected to something. You grab the wire since it couldn't possibly be connected to a power source in the middle of the forest. Dave requires you to hang wires on stands or low tree branches to not contaminate the worksite so none were buried by you. Sparks fly when your hand touches the loose wire and electricity flows through your entire body, making it feel numb. After the shock, you pass out facedown in the dirt. > You wake Up Throbbing, your head is throbbing as you open your eyes. Everything is dark and quiet; Dave and his crew must have gone home and left you in the dirt, you think. They aren't exactly the friendliest people you have ever worked with; however, this was low, even for them. "You could of at least have left the lights on," you grumble to yourself. Sitting up is difficult, but you force yourself to do it and look around anyway. It is too dark to see the tip of your nose until you click your flashlight back on. The beam cuts through the night and reveals a much more overgrown forest than you remember. There are no paths, lights, wooden stakes, or tools like there were when you passed out. Everything looks like it did before the excavation started, except the trees are not trimmed. “There it is again! The strange lights!” someone says from behind you. Hastening to turn off the flashlight, you turn to face the voice. “I did not see anything, Sir Galeran,” a second knight replies. He is carrying a torch and wearing chainmail with a sheathed sword on his hip. Terror spreads across his face as he strokes his long brown beard. The first knight is wielding his sword and a large heater shield walking in your direction, a serious, determined look in his dark eyes. “Sir Huon, have I ever led you astray?” “No, but we are walking through the Broceliande at night; you are asking for a confrontation with the sorcerer that plagues this forest.” You stare at the odd pair for a moment in silence. Their armor looks real--nothing like the paperclip replicas the kids that are into LARPing make--and they move in it easily despite the weight. Sir Galeran’s sword is also the real deal; it is sharpened to a point on both sides and gives no impression of being a toy. All their gear has a crest marked on it, something that looks like it is out of a storybook about Camelot you read as a child. They slowly approach you. “Uther’s orders were clear, Huon: we are to investigate the source of the light and return only after we make every attempt to identify what caused it.” “It is good to hear that you are still loyal to a fault, Galeran.” Breathing quietly becomes difficult as you start to realize something isn't right. Why are these knights here? Who are they? What happened to me? These questions and more swirl in your head, making you dizzy. Your hyperventilation draws the attention of the two knights, who turn and peer directly at you. "What was that?" Huon whispers frantically. "I don't know, I can't see anything in this darkness, but be ready and stay close," Galeran answers. Huon draws his sword, and the two knights head straight towards you. The glow from their torch flickers menacingly, searching for you in the darkness of the forest floor. Their cautious steps give you time; however, they are probably close enough to hear you if you try to run. If these two are real knights, letting them find you might be a bad idea. If they are assuming it is a sorcerer producing the light you might be able to fool them. You already have your flashlight in one hand and a small stun gun you typically carry in your bag in the other. You take a deep breath and make up your mind on what to do. > You use the stun gun to incapacitate them. Waiting until the knights are close, you step out from behind a tree and click on the stun gun. Huon is closer, so you jam the stun gun into his side; he stiffens and drops his torch and sword, making the arc of electricity shocking him the only light source as the torch self extinguishes. Sir Galeran holds up his shield and crouches like he expects to be hit head-on with a fireball while Huon collapses on the ground “Who dares enter my forest?” you yell, clicking on the flashlight to disorient Galeran. “We are knights of Camelot, we mean you no harm, mighty sorcerer," Sir Galeran says. "Then take your friend back to Camelot, before I decide to kill you both, Sir Galeran." "How... how did you know my name?" "I know many things, but you are trying my patience." You click on the stun gun again to make electricity arc between the two diodes; Galeran looks at the controlled thunderstorm you are holding, throws Huon over his shoulder, and runs as if under the impression that you could shoot lightning from your hands. When the knights disappear into the darkness of the woods, you sigh and sit on a fallen log. Strange days were an occupational hazard for you, but today was the worst by far; focusing on what you can do to improve the situation is the only distraction you have thought. You need to find a place to eat, sleep, and not be killed if more knights showed up. Fortunately, sweeping the flashlight in a quick circle reveals that there is a cottage in a clearing nearby. Approaching the quaint cobblestone cottage, you look up at the straw roof and single chimney that rises in the back of the otherwise circular building with a wooden door and a small round window on one side. There is even a well on the other end of the clearing. Hesitantly you step inside the open door, knowing you do not own the place. Inside there is one room with modest furnishings: a straw mattress curved along the wall opposite the window, a wooden table and chair are set beneath the window, and the fireplace is across from the door. Other than the furniture there are logs in the fireplace, sacks of flour and other common food staples, and a barrel with three swords and a small anvil inside. Everything looks as if someone is living in the cottage, but no one is there. Feeling the exhaustion from the long day you light the fireplace with a small lighter from your bag, sit on the bed, and wonder where the cottage's owner could be. Many other questions swirl around in your mind, making you tired. You drift to sleep before long; however, your slumber is not restful as your mind continues to try to analyze what has happened, leaving you with haunting nightmares about Dave hiring LARPers to kill you. Waking in a cold sweat, you sit up as someone pounds on the door. "Please open the door in the name of King Uther of Camelot!" a vaguely familiar voice calls. "Who is there?" you ask nervously. "I am Sir Galeran, a knight of Camelot, we have come here seeking the sorcerer residing in the Broceliande by order of the king." "What does the king want with me?" you say, jumping gout of bed and readying your stun gun. "It is him, we should flee while we can," a second voice you recognize as Huon's says. "The king's orders were clear, Huon," Galeran responds. "The last time you said that the sorcerer struck me with lightning!" "What did the king send you here for?" you interrupt. "Of course, we were sent to find you; King Uther recognizes your unique talents and wants your help!" Galeran says. "He wants my help?" "Yes, Camelot faces several plights. If you could help us with just one of them, we could surely reward you for your troubles." "What if I refuse?" There is a long pause before Galeran answers. "Should you turn your back on the king's request, he will assume you are a danger to Camelot. We would rather rely on you as an ally." "May I ask what plights Uther needed my help with?" you ask. "Camelot has grown under King Uther's rules, but the growth gave rise to famine and disease. If we do not have an exceptional harvest this year, people will starve; of course, letting the plague go unchecked will be just as devastating..." > You tell you more about the famine "Tell me more about the famine," you say, opening the door to face the knights. Magically curing diseases does not seem like something an electrician can do; admittedly, feeding the masses is not your favorite miracle, but you have to try one. "There is no famine, yet, but our fields can not support the population if we continue to grow at this rate," Huon responds. "We can take you to the fields. King Uther wants to know if our harvest could be increased with your magic," Galeran adds. Without delay, the pair of knights lead you through the woods towards Camelot. After walking for several minutes, the trees give way to a large field with a majestic stone castle standing at the center surrounded by two cobblestone walls and a small city. The outer wall surrounds the city, and farmland stretches out from the wall to the woods. Half of each field is planted while half remains fallow. "What is planted here?" you ask. "Our main crops are wheat and oats in the two larger fields, but we also grow rye and beans from time to time in the smaller fields," Huon says. "We use a two-field system, so the soil can rest in the fallow field to recover for the next year." "Can your magic help us increase our harvest?" Galeran asks. "I guess you could use a three-field system..." you say. "What is a three-field system?" Huon asks. "It's a... err... magic planting system where you can leave one-third of the field fallow, rather than half." "Fascinating! How does it work?" "Simple, you plant two different crops in the other two-thirds of the field and rotate them like you have been." "Why two different crops?" "Because the different crops take different nutri--I mean... that is how the magic works." "Well, what crops need to be planted in each field?" > You say "First, plant wheat." "And?" Huon asks, prodding you to continue. > You say "Second, plant wheat." "That's all? We can certainly do that!" Huon says. "That alone will solve our problems! With more of the field planted, we will be able to feed everyone." "There's one more thing that you need to do," you respond. "Your fields will not sustain the crops unless you complete the magic ritual." "Magic ritual?" Galeran repeats. "Just something to ensure that the magical planting doesn't wear off and make the soil barren." "What sort of ritual must we do?" > You must have beautiful young maidens ride cows in the fallow field "You must find several beautiful young maidens and make them ride cows in the fallow fields; this will start after you plant and continue until the harvest," you say. "Maidens riding cows in a fallow field?" Galeran says as he scratches his chin. "How exactly will that make the fields produce?" "Well, the cows will fertilize the field, and the girls are just eye-candy--I mean... Are you questioning my magic? Do you want my spell to work or not?" "Fertilize? Eye what? Err, never mind, we can talk to the king and see what we can do..." With that, Huon and Galeran scamper back to Camelot to inform the king of your assessment of the field. They mutter to each other as they walk away; all you can hear are the words "dinner," "eye-candy," and "three-field." You can't be sure how they feel about your advice, but Huon seems excited about it. All that remains for you to do is go home and wait. Back at the cottage, you make yourself at home. Whoever owns the place still has yet to show up, so you figure you can claim it; there isn't much to do, though. You fetch water, start a fire, and try to figure out how people took a bath in medieval times. After that, you gather some of the supplies and attempt to make dinner. Fortunately, the cottage doesn't burn down; however, your efforts do not produce anything edible. Newfound appreciation for pre-made loaves of bread doesn't fill your stomach as a knock on your door causes you to jump. "Who is there?" you ask nervously, hoping the owner of the cottage wasn't back and angry. "It is I, Huon," the knight says, to your relief. You open the door and reply, "Huon, have you come to tell me that King Uther accepts my proposal?" "Yes! That is correct, of course, I wouldn't expect anything else from a sorcerer as powerful as you." "Great! I will make sure the fields produce as long as your most beautiful maidens are in the field every day." "Thank you, Merlin! I also have a gift for you from The King." Huon steps aside as two other knights carry in a cooked boar on a roasting spit. "Oh, how generous of him!" You eye the boar excitedly, confident you will not starve for at least a few days with that. "It is nothing compared to the help you have given us! We already have plans to plant the fields, and the maidens will start riding through the fallow fields tomorrow." After that, Huon leaves in a hurry; he seems more excited about your three-field system than any sane person should be. You waste no time gorging yourself on the roasted meat. Once you have eaten your fill, you get ready for bed. Your final thoughts of the day are about what beautiful maidens will be on display a short walk from your new cottage; tomorrow you will go and get an answer to that question. Day-old boar for breakfast isn't ideal, but it is all that you have. Eating is just something you have to do before you make the short walk through the woods to Camelot's farms. Your day immediately improves once you arrive; roughly a dozen of the most beautiful women you have ever seen are begrudgingly riding around on cows in the section of the field closest to you. One of the maidens catches your eye as the most gorgeous among them. She is a blonde your age with blonde hair and timid blue eyes that dart around the field like she expects to be attacked. You stare at her for long enough that she glances at you and makes eye contact before both of you blush and look away. Her petite figure and soft features, combined with her apparent nervousness, make her seem cute beyond measure. You sigh, watch her blonde hair dance in the wind, and wonder if there is a way to talk to her. Without so much as her name, it seems unlikely; however, daydreaming of having dinner with her becomes one of your favorite pastimes in Camelot very quickly. You're thankful to discover that she is always on "magic ritual duty," which is what you name their job. > One year later Roughly a year passes, though you can't be sure of the time since your calendar app isn't working, and the first harvest yielded more food than Camelot needed. King Uther showed up at your cottage to thank you in person over the winter; something you imagine does not happen often. Still, your reputation around Camelot is barely positive. Villagers started calling you Merlin the Magician, but they also started a rumor that you eat children. One farmer even claims that you ate his daughter, who went missing some time ago; of course, he won't formally accuse you of a crime since you are fueling the magical fields. You put a questionable loaf of bread on the table and take the chicken off the fire; your cooking skills have improved somewhat over the year. Sitting down to eat your loneliness reminds you that the girls will be starting magic ritual duty soon since the fields have been planted. All you have for entertainment is watching the maidens in the field and daydreaming about talking to the beautiful blonde; winter is particularly boring without this luxury. Eating alone in the woods causes a certain paranoia, so when you first hear the yelling and cheering outside, you chalk it up to imagination. When it gets louder, you look out the window and notice that your cottage is being surrounded by pitchforks and torches; panic quickly overtakes you as there is a knock at your door. You open it slowly and see Huon standing on the other side. "Come out, Merlin," he says menacingly. "What is the meaning of this?" you ask nervously. "These people want answers," Huon gestures towards the crowd as he speaks. "Answers? I haven't done anything!" "Is that so? Well, you were supposed to be tending to the magical fields!" "What?" "Don't play dumb: you know the fields are not producing this year. The sprouts are sickly because the soil is no longer fertile; this problem was prevalent before we switched to the two-field system. Your magic isn't working, Merlin!" Thinking for a moment, you respond, "It's the crops! We planted too many of a similar type in each field!" "We will not listen to your excuses! King Uther turned a blind eye to your foul deeds because of your magic, but if your magic will not help us, then you will not be pardoned for your crimes!" "I haven't committed any crimes!" "We shall see about that." Huon nods to another man who steps forward and says, "This sorcerer ate my daughter! She was in the field riding cows at his request, he was watching her with hunger in his eyes, and she never came home." "What proof do you have?" you ask desperately. Huon motions to someone else in the crowd and says, "Viviane, tell them." You gasp as the beautiful blue-eyed blonde from the field steps forward. She looks at her shoes and says, "Umm... The sorcerer watches me..." "How does he watch you?" Huon asks. "He is creepy like he wants to eat me." "Thank you, Viviane, you can return home now. I think that is proof enough; we will kill you before you eat anyone else's child." "No, I didn't eat anyone!" you yell. "Burn him at the stake," Huon says. Your door swings open to reveal a pile of logs the villagers set up during your conversation; it's a platform built from large logs, with gallows on top to hold someone in place. Several hands grab you and drag you to the gallows. Horrified, you are forced to attend the worst bonfire anyone has invited you to.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"That's all? We can certainly do that!" Huon says. "That alone will solve our problems! With more of the field planted, we will be able to feed everyone." "There's one more thing that you need to do," you respond. "Your fields will not sustain the crops unless you complete the magic ritual." "Magic ritual?" Galeran repeats. "Just something to ensure that the magical planting doesn't wear off and make the soil barren." "What sort of ritual must we do?" > You must have a beautiful young maiden cook you dinner every night "You must find a beautiful young maiden to make me dinner every night; this will start tonight and continue year-round," you say. "Dinner from a young maiden?" Galeran says as he scratches his chin. "How exactly will that make the fields produce?" "Are you questioning my magic? I am casting a spell on the field; do you want me keeping the fields fruitful or cooking my dinners?" "We can talk to the king and see what we can do..." With that, Huon and Galeran scamper back to Camelot to inform the king of your assessment of the field. They mutter to each other as they walk away; all you can hear are the words "dinner," "fair maiden," and "three-field." You can't be sure how they feel about your advice, but Huon seems excited about it. All that remains for you to do is go home and wait. Back at the cottage, you make yourself at home. Whoever owns the place still has yet to show up, so you figure you can claim it; there isn't much to do, though. You fetch water, start a fire, and try to figure out how people took a bath in medieval times. Fortunately, before you can attempt to cook anything, a blonde girl your age with blonde hair and timid blue eyes shuffles into your cottage. She glances at you nervously from the doorway holding a woven-wicker basket. You stare back at her for a moment before both of you blush and look away. Her petite figure and soft features, combined with her apparent nervousness, make her seem cute beyond measure. "Don't just walk in, Viviane, that is rude," Huon says nervously appearing in the doorway. "Ah, Merlin, there you are! I have returned with great news!" "Let me guess, King Uther agreed to my proposal?" you ask without taking your eyes off of Viviane. "Yes! That is correct, of course, I wouldn't expect anything else from a sorcerer as powerful as you." "Great! I will make sure the fields produce as long as Viviane brings me dinner at this time every day." "That is excellent news! I will return and tell The King at once; Viviane, leave The Sorcerer his dinner and let's be off." "Hold on now, can't she stay and join me for dinner?" "Oh, I didn't think you would want her bothering you..." "She is no bother to me. Won't you stay, Viviane?" You turn to the beautiful blonde as you speak and lock eyes with her. Viviane looks down at her shoes and says, "As long as you promise not to eat me and to make the fields grow more food, I can stay." "Eat you? Why would I want to do that?" you ask, horrified that Viviane's first impression of you is that you are a cannibal. "My father says that anyone who does magic is wicked..." "Well, I am going to eat the dinner you made me... and I have never ate a person." "Do you promise?" "I promise." "Then I'll stay, but only because you said you would make the food grow..." After that, Huon leaves in a hurry; it seems like he might also believe you eat people and doesn't want to stick around to find out if it is true. Once you are alone, Viviane doesn't leave the door frame for a long time. She continues to stare at her feet but occasionally glances at you or out the door. Several minutes pass with you eating roasted boar before she gets comfortable enough to even sit down. Wanting to make a good impression, you do not rush her. You invite her to eat with you, but she politely refuses as if you asked her to be to entree. Praying for her to calm down and talk to you doesn't work; however, she does look more comfortable being there over time. Eventually, you finish eating and send her home with the empty basket. On her way out the door, Viviane asks if she will be staying for dinner again tomorrow; you tell her that she can if she wishes but doesn't have to. Disappointment over your first date haunts you even in your dreams. Your only solace is that she will be back again the next day. > You 365 Dinners Later Roughly a year passes, though you can't be sure of the time since your calendar app isn't working, and the first harvest yielded more food than Camelot needed. King Uther showed up at your cottage to thank you in person over the winter; Viviane told you that it was the first time he had ever done that. She remained nervous for a few months; later, she admitted it was because of her uncertainty over the whole cannibal thing, but eventually, the two of you started to talk. Now she cooks you dinner and eats with you every day, today included. "Did you hear what they are starting to say about you around town?" Viviane asks as she sets the table for two. "That I ate that farmer's daughter who went missing?" you guess. "No, well, yes... but I mean besides that!" "I have no clue... you do know that I didn't eat the girl, right?" "Merlin! I thought we already sorted that out." You laugh and wink at her, a gesture that she has come to understand means you are kidding. She continues while you sit down to eat, "They have started calling you 'Merlin the Magician,' which is more fitting than 'The Sorcerer.'" "True, anything is better than that, now let's eat!" Digging into the bread and chicken that Viviane made, you continue to banter with her while she tells you the latest Camelot gossip; apparently, medieval kingdoms are just like highschool. Several scandals and a few good laughs later, it is time for Viviane to leave. Her departure is the worst part of any day, so you always go straight to sleep. Straw mattresses are not comfortable, but you have grown accustomed to yours. Drifting to sleep is easier now than it was when you first arrived; however, your rest is short-lived. The instant your eyes close, your door flies open. Viviane rushes inside with a pained expression in her blue eyes. "Merlin! Get up!" she shouts. Sitting straight up and rubbing your eyes, you respond, "Viviane? What are you doing; what is wrong?" Tears stream down her face, and she avoids eye contact with you while speaking frantically, "You need to leave Merlin. It's the fields; they aren't producing like they did last year." "What are you talking about?" "Huon said the sprouts are sickly because the soil is no longer fertile; this problem was prevalent before we switched to the two-field system. Your magic isn't working, Merlin; they are coming here for you!" Jumping out of bed, you gather your few possessions. Viviane packs provisions into a leather bag and hands it to you. She can't look into your eyes without sobbing. "What about you?" you ask. "They aren't after me, and you don't have time to worry." "No, I can't just leave without you, Viviane, come with me." "I... I wish I could..." "Why can't you? We can run away together!" "Please, Merlin, go!" Yells and cheers indicative of an angry mob prevent you from arguing further. Stepping outside, you can see a conglomeration of torches and pitchforks marching through the woods. Without Viviane's warning, they may have cornered you inside the tiny hut. Thankfully, they are all approaching from the same direction. Running in the opposite direction is your only choice; a flashlight guides your way through the dark and unfamiliar forest of the Broceliande. Your flashlight cuts through the darkness like a knife, illuminating your path with a narrow beam. Looking back, you can no longer see the torchlight of the angry mob through the trees. Unfortunately, taking your eyes off where you are going turns out to be your downfall. In that mere moment, you trip and fall. You expect to hit the ground quickly, but the fall continues for far longer than it should; eventually, over-rotation causes you to slam into the ground on your back. Laying there unable to move, you look up at a twenty-foot ledge. A large rock marks the top of the pit you are in. It is the only thing you can see besides dirt as the sounds of an angry mob start to grow louder. You wonder what would be better, to be found and killed by the mob, or left in this hole to die. Turning your mind to the field to distract yourself, all you can think of is that the fields may not have received enough fertilizer. Footsteps break your train of thoughts; they sound like they are separated from the mob. Without thinking, you yell, "Viviane is that you? Come help me!" "It is him, over here!" someone you don't recognize calls after peeking into the hole. Soon the top of the hole you fell into is filled with torchlight and pitchforks. People mutter to each other, but no one attempts to help you out of the pit. Nothing happens until Huon's face peers over the edge. "Well, I guess she took care of the punishment for us," Huon says. "What?" you croak. "Don't play dumb with me; we know everything. You stopped using magic on the field and taught Viviane witchcraft." "No, I--" "It backfired though. I was afraid that Viviane would try to help you escape us, but she used magic to trap you in this pit; otherwise, you would use magic to escape it!" "Viviane wouldn't..." "Yet here you are. Leave him and find the witch, she couldn't have gotten far." Huon turns and walks away, dispersing the crowd to find Viviane. You cant move, so climbing out of the pit is out of the question. Even if you were to recover, the walls are too steep to make it to the top. All you can do is lay there and hope Viviane isn't found.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Waiting until the knights are close, you step out from behind a tree and click on the stun gun. Huon is closer, so you jam the stun gun into his side; he stiffens and drops his torch and sword, making the arc of electricity shocking him the only light source as the torch self extinguishes. Sir Galeran holds up his shield and crouches like he expects to be hit head-on with a fireball while Huon collapses on the ground “Who dares enter my forest?” you yell, clicking on the flashlight to disorient Galeran. “We are knights of Camelot, we mean you no harm, mighty sorcerer," Sir Galeran says. "Then take your friend back to Camelot, before I decide to kill you both, Sir Galeran." "How... how did you know my name?" "I know many things, but you are trying my patience." You click on the stun gun again to make electricity arc between the two diodes; Galeran looks at the controlled thunderstorm you are holding, throws Huon over his shoulder, and runs as if under the impression that you could shoot lightning from your hands. When the knights disappear into the darkness of the woods, you sigh and sit on a fallen log. Strange days were an occupational hazard for you, but today was the worst by far; focusing on what you can do to improve the situation is the only distraction you have thought. You need to find a place to eat, sleep, and not be killed if more knights showed up. Fortunately, sweeping the flashlight in a quick circle reveals that there is a cottage in a clearing nearby. Approaching the quaint cobblestone cottage, you look up at the straw roof and single chimney that rises in the back of the otherwise circular building with a wooden door and a small round window on one side. There is even a well on the other end of the clearing. Hesitantly you step inside the open door, knowing you do not own the place. Inside there is one room with modest furnishings: a straw mattress curved along the wall opposite the window, a wooden table and chair are set beneath the window, and the fireplace is across from the door. Other than the furniture there are logs in the fireplace, sacks of flour and other common food staples, and a barrel with three swords and a small anvil inside. Everything looks as if someone is living in the cottage, but no one is there. Feeling the exhaustion from the long day you light the fireplace with a small lighter from your bag, sit on the bed, and wonder where the cottage's owner could be. Many other questions swirl around in your mind, making you tired. You drift to sleep before long; however, your slumber is not restful as your mind continues to try to analyze what has happened, leaving you with haunting nightmares about Dave hiring LARPers to kill you. Waking in a cold sweat, you sit up as someone pounds on the door. "Please open the door in the name of King Uther of Camelot!" a vaguely familiar voice calls. "Who is there?" you ask nervously. "I am Sir Galeran, a knight of Camelot, we have come here seeking the sorcerer residing in the Broceliande by order of the king." "What does the king want with me?" you say, jumping gout of bed and readying your stun gun. "It is him, we should flee while we can," a second voice you recognize as Huon's says. "The king's orders were clear, Huon," Galeran responds. "The last time you said that the sorcerer struck me with lightning!" "What did the king send you here for?" you interrupt. "Of course, we were sent to find you; King Uther recognizes your unique talents and wants your help!" Galeran says. "He wants my help?" "Yes, Camelot faces several plights. If you could help us with just one of them, we could surely reward you for your troubles." "What if I refuse?" There is a long pause before Galeran answers. "Should you turn your back on the king's request, he will assume you are a danger to Camelot. We would rather rely on you as an ally." "May I ask what plights Uther needed my help with?" you ask. "Camelot has grown under King Uther's rules, but the growth gave rise to famine and disease. If we do not have an exceptional harvest this year, people will starve; of course, letting the plague go unchecked will be just as devastating..." > You tell you more about the plague "Tell me more about the plage," you say, opening the door to face the knights. Magically multiplying food does not seem like something you should promise them; you are no doctor, but you know medical knowledge is limited in this era. "Our population continues to grow, but as it does, more people get sick," Huon responds. "We can take you to the afflicted. King Uther wants to know if the sick can be cured with your magic," Galeran adds. Without delay, the pair of knights lead you through the woods towards Camelot. After walking for several minutes, the trees give way to a large field with a majestic stone castle standing at the center surrounded by two cobblestone walls and a small city. The outer wall surrounds the city, which is a collection of buildings that look like bigger versions of your cottage. Closer inspection reveals that the streets are teeming with people bustling about. When you arrive in town, the smell hits you like a semi-truck carrying a septic tank. It is like the streets are paved with shit and urine. Cobblestone buildings packed close together shade the dirt paths between them, which are damp despite the lack of rain. "What is that?" you ask, unable to stand the pungent odor. "That is God's House," Huon says, gesturing towards a large building at the end of the street. It takes you a minute to remember that God's House is what they called medieval hospitals. They are little more than a large room with cots and a chapel. "Oh, right, I meant the smell." Just as you finish talking, a woman opens the door of the building next to you and dumps a bucket of shit directly in front of you. "This is how it always smells in the town," Galeran says. "Tell me, what symptoms are people showing?" you ask. "Symptoms?" "How are they dying." "Oh, they usually get hot to the touch and start sweating. Sometimes they complain about stiffness, but they always get thirsty then ill." Huon cuts Galeran off and adds, "Once they start vomiting, there is little we can do for them; very few have lived." "I think you need a latrine," you say with a sigh. "A what?" Huon asks. "It's a... err... magical protection spell that protects an entire town from disease and foul odors." "Brilliant! Can you cast the spell now?" "No, I need the proper preparations!" "What would those entail?" Galeran asks skeptically. "Someone will need to dig a pit three meters deep and one meter wide, and there will be a... ritual that needs to be performed on it every day to make sure it works," you answer. "Is that all there is to it?" Huon asks excitedly. "Firstly, it will only work if everyone dumps their shit buckets into the pit as a sacrifice," you say, thinking of lies on the spot. "That is strange... but we can get everyone to do it if you spell works. Where do we need to dig this pit? What is the ritual?" > You say "Dig the pit upstream of Camelot." "We can certainly do that! I know a perfect spot, but what is this magic ritual?" Huon asks. "It isn't a big deal," you respond. "My spell just needs you to do something every day for it to continue to work." "I don't like the sound of that," Galeran says. "Just something to ensure that the magical barrier traps the disease in the pit and doesn't release it into the town." "What sort of ritual must we do?" > You cover the latrine with dirt and dig a new one every week "You must cover the latrine with dirt and dig a new one every week," you say. "That seems like a lot of work for such a useless task," Huon responds, scratching his chin. "Do you want the magic to work or not?" "Of course we do! I will make sure it happens." Huon and Galeran escort you back to the woods, then scamper back to Camelot to inform the king of your assessment of the plague. They mutter to each other as they walk away; all you can hear are the words "hole," "every week," and "magical protection." You can't be sure how they feel about your advice, but Huon seems excited about it. All that remains for you to do is go home and wait. Back at the cottage, you make yourself at home. Whoever owns the place still has yet to show up, so you figure you can claim it; there isn't much to do, though. You fetch water, start a fire, and try to figure out how people took a bath in medieval times. This last task is of particular importance since you smell like Camelot's streets. After that, you gather some of the supplies and attempt to make dinner. Fortunately, the cottage doesn't burn down; however, your efforts do not produce anything edible. Newfound appreciation for pre-made loaves of bread doesn't fill your stomach as a knock on your door causes you to jump. "Who is there?" you ask nervously, hoping the owner of the cottage wasn't back and angry. "It is I, Huon," the knight says, to your relief. You open the door and reply, "Huon, have you come to tell me that King Uther accepts my proposal?" "Yes! That is correct, of course, I wouldn't expect anything else from a sorcerer as powerful as you." "Great! I will make sure Camelot is protected from the plague once you dig the hole; this will continue for a long as you keep covering the holes and making new ones weekly." "Thank you, Merlin! I also have a gift for you from The King." Huon steps aside as two other knights carry in a cooked boar on a roasting spit. "Oh, how generous of him!" You eye the boar excitedly, confident you will not starve for at least a few days with that. "It is nothing compared to the help you have given us! We already have plans to dig the first hole, and The King's groundskeeper will be in charge of digging a new one each week." After that, Huon leaves in a hurry; he seems more excited about your three-field system than any sane person should be. You waste no time gorging yourself on the roasted meat. Once you have eaten your fill, you get ready for bed. Your final thoughts of the day are about how terrible you still smell, despite your best efforts to bathe. Day-old boar for breakfast isn't ideal, but it is all that you have. Eating is just something you have to do before you make the short walk through the woods to Camelot's new latrine. You're surprised to find that the hole is already dug and that women are already lined up to dump yesterdays crap into it. One of the maidens catches your eye as the most gorgeous among them. She is a blonde your age with blonde hair and timid blue eyes that dart around the woods like she expects to be attacked. You stare at her for long enough that she glances at you and makes eye contact before both of you blush and look away. Her petite figure and soft features, combined with her apparent nervousness, make her seem cute beyond measure. You sigh, ignore the bucket of shit in her hands, and wonder if there is a way to talk to her somewhere else. Without so much as her name, it seems unlikely; however, daydreaming of having dinner with her is your best experience in Camelot so far. > One year later Roughly a year passes, though you can't be sure of the time since your calendar app isn't working, and the plague no longer afflicts Camelot. King Uther showed up at your cottage to thank you in person over the winter; something you imagine does not happen often. Still, your reputation around Camelot is barely positive. Villagers started calling you Merlin the Magician, but they also started a rumor that you eat children. One farmer even claims that you ate his daughter, who went missing some time ago; of course, he won't formally accuse you of a crime since you are fueling the magical plague-barrier. You put a questionable loaf of bread on the table and take the chicken off the fire; your cooking skills have improved somewhat over the year. Sitting down to eat reminds you of how lonely you are; cannibal magicians are not popular around Camelot. Your only pastime over the last year was to see the cute blue-eyed blonde at the latrine. Eating your dried out attempt at bread makes you thirsty, so you head outside and draw water from the well. As you drink directly from the bucket in the well, you notice the faint smell of urine. A funny taste in your mouth confirms that it is from the well-water; unfortunately, you only notice that after you swallow the water. All of the water downstream of a latrine can be contaminated, and you asked them to dig the well upstream of the entire city. Your head spins as you stumble through the woods towards Camelot. Thirst makes your mouth feel it is filled with cotton balls; however, there is nothing safe to drink until a half-mile past the city. Yelling and cheering becomes audible in the night; you look ahead and notice that pitchforks and torches are heading down the trail towards you in the hands of the villagers. They seem to be an angry mob, and they are headed towards your cottage. Your instincts lead you to hide from them in the bushes as they pass. When a few collapse on the trail coughing, you think you know why they are mad. The plague is back, and if it is in the water supply, it is much worse now. Passing by Camelot allows you to see many more sick people; they are roaming the streets and collecting at God's House. Disgusted with the entire situation, you shuffle through the city and continue upriver. You hope to clear the latrine and make camp; resting where there is clean water is the only smart plan. After that, there is no plan. Perhaps you can survive in the woods, but to do so knowing all of Camelot died because of you seems unlikely; talking down an angry mob seems more so. All you can do is stumble through the Broceliande, getting lost in the morning mist, and hope that you survive.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"We can certainly do that! I know a perfect spot, but what is this magic ritual?" Huon asks. "It isn't a big deal," you respond. "My spell just needs you to do something every day for it to continue to work." "I don't like the sound of that," Galeran says. "Just something to ensure that the magical barrier traps the disease in the pit and doesn't release it into the town." "What sort of ritual must we do?" > You have a beautiful girl cook you dinner every night "You must find a beautiful young maiden to make me dinner every night; this will start tonight and continue year-round," you say. "Dinner from a young maiden?" Galeran says as he scratches his chin. "How exactly will that detur the plague?" "Are you questioning my magic? I am casting a spell on the hole; do you want me keeping the plague at bay or cooking my dinners?" "We can talk to the king and see what we can do..." Huon and Galeran escort you back to the woods, then scamper back to Camelot to inform the king of your assessment of the plague. They mutter to each other as they walk away; all you can hear are the words "hole," "dinner," and "magical protection." You can't be sure how they feel about your advice, but Huon seems excited about it. All that remains for you to do is go home and wait. Back at the cottage, you make yourself at home. Whoever owns the place still has yet to show up, so you figure you can claim it; there isn't much to do, though. You fetch water, start a fire, and try to figure out how people took a bath in medieval times. This last task is of particular importance since you smell like Camelot's streets. Fortunately, before you can attempt to cook anything, a blonde girl your age with blonde hair and timid blue eyes shuffles into your cottage. She glances at you nervously from the doorway holding a woven-wicker basket. You stare back at her for a moment before both of you blush and look away. Her petite figure and soft features, combined with her apparent nervousness, make her seem cute beyond measure. "Don't just walk in, Viviane, that is rude," Huon says nervously appearing in the doorway. "Ah, Merlin, there you are! I have returned with great news!" "Let me guess, King Uther agreed to my proposal?" you ask without taking your eyes off of Viviane. "Yes! That is correct, of course, I wouldn't expect anything else from a sorcerer as powerful as you." "Great! I will make sure Camelot is protected from the plague once you dig the hole." "That is excellent news! I will return and tell The King at once; Viviane, leave The Sorcerer his dinner and let's be off." "Hold on now, can't she stay and join me for dinner?" "Oh, I didn't think you would want her bothering you..." "She is no bother to me. Won't you stay, Viviane?" You turn to the beautiful blonde as you speak and lock eyes with her. Viviane looks down at her shoes and says, "As long as you promise not to eat me and to make the plague stop, I can stay." "Eat you? Why would I want to do that?" you ask, horrified that Viviane's first impression of you is that you are a cannibal. "My father says that anyone who does magic is wicked..." "Well, I am going to eat the dinner you made me... and I have never ate a person." "Do you promise?" "I promise." "Then I'll stay, but only because you said you would get rid of the plague..." After that, Huon leaves in a hurry; it seems like he might also believe you eat people and doesn't want to stick around to find out if it is true. Once you are alone, Viviane doesn't leave the door frame for a long time. She continues to stare at her feet but occasionally glances at you or out the door. Several minutes pass with you eating roasted boar before she gets comfortable enough to even sit down. Wanting to make a good impression, you do not rush her. You invite her to eat with you, but she politely refuses as if you asked her to be to entree. Praying for her to calm down and talk to you doesn't work; however, she does look more comfortable being there over time. Eventually, you finish eating and send her home with the empty basket. On her way out the door, Viviane asks if she will be staying for dinner again tomorrow; you tell her that she can if she wishes but doesn't have to. Disappointment over your first date haunts you even in your dreams. Your only solace is that she will be back again the next day. > You 365 meals later Roughly a year passes, though you can't be sure of the time since your calendar app isn't working, and the plague no longer afflicts Camelot. King Uther showed up at your cottage to thank you in person over the winter; Viviane told you that it was the first time he had ever done that. She remained nervous for a few months; later, she admitted it was because of her uncertainty over the whole cannibal thing, but eventually, the two of you started to talk. Now she cooks you dinner and eats with you every day, today included. "Did you hear what they are starting to say about you around town?" Viviane asks as she sets the table for two. "That I ate that farmer's daughter who went missing?" you guess. "No, well, yes... but I mean besides that!" "I have no clue... you do know that I didn't eat the girl, right?" "Merlin! I thought we already sorted that out." You laugh and wink at her, a gesture that she has come to understand means you are kidding. She continues while you sit down to eat, "They have started calling you 'Merlin the Magician,' which is more fitting than 'The Sorcerer.'" "True, anything is better than that, now let's eat!" Digging into the bread and chicken that Viviane made, you continue to banter with her while she tells you the latest Camelot gossip; apparently, medieval kingdoms are just like highschool. Several scandals and a few good laughs later, it is time for Viviane to leave. Her departure is the worst part of any day, so you always go straight to sleep. Straw mattresses are not comfortable, but you have grown accustomed to yours. Drifting to sleep is easier now than it was when you first arrived; however, your rest is short-lived. The instant your eyes close, your door flies open. Viviane rushes inside with a pained expression in her blue eyes. "Merlin! Get up!" she shouts. Sitting straight up and rubbing your eyes, you respond, "Viviane? What are you doing; what is wrong?" Tears stream down her face, and she avoids eye contact with you while speaking frantically, "You need to leave Merlin. It's the plague; it is back worse than last year." "What are you talking about?" "Huon said that the smell and plague are related; the smell returned worse than ever today, and people are already sick. Your magic isn't working, Merlin; they are coming here for you!" Jumping out of bed, you gather your few possessions. Viviane packs provisions into a leather bag and hands it to you. She can't look into your eyes without sobbing. "What about you?" you ask. "They aren't after me, and you don't have time to worry." "No, I can't just leave without you, Viviane, come with me." "I... I wish I could..." "Why can't you? We can run away together!" "Please, Merlin, go!" Yells and cheers indicative of an angry mob prevent you from arguing further. Stepping outside, you can see a conglomeration of torches and pitchforks marching through the woods. Without Viviane's warning, they may have cornered you inside the tiny hut. Thankfully, they are all approaching from the same direction. Running in the opposite direction is your only choice; a flashlight guides your way through the dark and unfamiliar forest of the Broceliande. Your flashlight cuts through the darkness like a knife, illuminating your path with a narrow beam. Looking back, you can no longer see the torchlight of the angry mob through the trees. Unfortunately, taking your eyes off where you are going turns out to be your downfall. In that mere moment, you trip and fall. You expect to hit the ground quickly, but the fall continues for far longer than it should; eventually, over-rotation causes you to slam into the ground on your back. Laying there unable to move, you look up at a twenty-foot ledge. A large rock marks the top of the pit you are in. It is the only thing you can see besides dirt as the sounds of an angry mob start to grow louder. You wonder what would be better, to be found and killed by the mob, or left in this hole to die. Turning your mind to the field to distract yourself, all you can think of is that the fields may not have received enough fertilizer. Footsteps break your train of thoughts; they sound like they are separated from the mob. Without thinking, you yell, "Viviane is that you? Come help me!" "It is him, over here!" someone you don't recognize calls after peeking into the hole. Soon the top of the hole you fell into is filled with torchlight and pitchforks. People mutter to each other, but no one attempts to help you out of the pit. Nothing happens until Huon's face peers over the edge. "Well, I guess she took care of the punishment for us," Huon says. "What?" you croak. "Don't play dumb with me; we know everything. You stopped using magic to stop the plague and taught Viviane witchcraft." "No, I--" "It backfired though. I was afraid that Viviane would try to help you escape us, but she used magic to trap you in this pit; otherwise, you would use magic to escape it!" "Viviane wouldn't..." "Yet here you are. Leave him and find the witch, she couldn't have gotten far." Huon turns and walks away, dispersing the crowd to find Viviane. You cant move, so climbing out of the pit is out of the question. Even if you were to recover, the walls are too steep to make it to the top. All you can do is lay there and hope Viviane isn't found.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Throbbing, your head is throbbing as you open your eyes. Everything is dark and quiet; Dave and his crew must have gone home and left you in the dirt, you think. They aren't exactly the friendliest people you have ever worked with; however, this was low, even for them. "You could of at least have left the lights on," you grumble to yourself. Sitting up is difficult, but you force yourself to do it and look around anyway. It is too dark to see the tip of your nose until you click your flashlight back on. The beam cuts through the night and reveals a much more overgrown forest than you remember. There are no paths, lights, wooden stakes, or tools like there were when you passed out. Everything looks like it did before the excavation started, except the trees are not trimmed. “There it is again! The strange lights!” someone says from behind you. Hastening to turn off the flashlight, you turn to face the voice. “I did not see anything, Sir Galeran,” a second knight replies. He is carrying a torch and wearing chainmail with a sheathed sword on his hip. Terror spreads across his face as he strokes his long brown beard. The first knight is wielding his sword and a large heater shield walking in your direction, a serious, determined look in his dark eyes. “Sir Huon, have I ever led you astray?” “No, but we are walking through the Broceliande at night; you are asking for a confrontation with the sorcerer that plagues this forest.” You stare at the odd pair for a moment in silence. Their armor looks real--nothing like the paperclip replicas the kids that are into LARPing make--and they move in it easily despite the weight. Sir Galeran’s sword is also the real deal; it is sharpened to a point on both sides and gives no impression of being a toy. All their gear has a crest marked on it, something that looks like it is out of a storybook about Camelot you read as a child. They slowly approach you. “Uther’s orders were clear, Huon: we are to investigate the source of the light and return only after we make every attempt to identify what caused it.” “It is good to hear that you are still loyal to a fault, Galeran.” Breathing quietly becomes difficult as you start to realize something isn't right. Why are these knights here? Who are they? What happened to me? These questions and more swirl in your head, making you dizzy. Your hyperventilation draws the attention of the two knights, who turn and peer directly at you. "What was that?" Huon whispers frantically. "I don't know, I can't see anything in this darkness, but be ready and stay close," Galeran answers. Huon draws his sword, and the two knights head straight towards you. The glow from their torch flickers menacingly, searching for you in the darkness of the forest floor. Their cautious steps give you time; however, they are probably close enough to hear you if you try to run. If these two are real knights, letting them find you might be a bad idea. If they are assuming it is a sorcerer producing the light you might be able to fool them. You already have your flashlight in one hand and a small stun gun you typically carry in your bag in the other. You take a deep breath and make up your mind on what to do. > You use the flashlight to convince them you are a sorcerer. Waiting until the knights are close, you step out from behind a tree and click on the flashlight. Huon stumbles and drops his sword and torch, rendering both useless. Sir Galeran holds up his shield and crouches like he expects to be hit head-on with a fireball. “Halt! Who dares enter my forest?” you yell. "We are--" Sir Galeran starts, but he is interrupted by his companion. “Don’t tell him our names; he will steal our souls!” Huon yells. “We are knights from Camelot. What name do you go by, great sorcerer?” Galeran replies. “You may call me Merlin the Magician, Sir Galeran.” “How do you know my name?” “I know many things. Your companion is Sir Huon, and you come here in the name of King Uther Pendragon. I have prophesied many things about Camelot.” “I see, but why have you come here to the Broceliande, Merlin the Magician?” “I have traveled here from… faraway lands to reside in the enchanted forest.” “But why? What does the future hold for Camelot?” Caught off guard by his question you pause to think. Nothing comes to mind and the knights begin to recover their composure. “Tell me, Sir Galeran, are you not loyal to the King of Camelot?” “I am King Uther’s loyal vassal; do you mean to imply otherwise?” Galeran grips his sword and glares at you while Huon manages to find his weapon in the underbrush. “Not at all, but the burden of Camelot’s future is not yours to bear.” "You are right, good magician." Galeran sheaths his sword and furrows his brow; Huon finally stands to face you, but he stands down after looking at his partner’s stance. “If you mean to prophesize about Camelot, you must do so in the presence of King Uther. Come with us, he will want to meet with you immediately; he was most curious when he saw your magic illuminating the forest.” “Galeran, you can’t be serious! You would bring a sorcerer directly to our King?” Huon cries. “A friendly magician could be an asset to the court, Sir Huon.” “Yes, but can we trust him?” “If we wanted us dead, he could have done away with us.” Sir Galeran turns to face you. “Will you give us your word that you will not harm King Uther, should he grant you an audience tonight?” Too stunned to talk you simply nod. Galeran and Huon turn to lead the way to Camelot; you offer to light the path with your ‘magic’ which seems to impress them. As the two knights shuffle through the woods in their armor, you follow and focus on not tripping on the uneven forest floor. After walking for several minutes, the trees give way to a large field with a majestic stone castle standing at the center surrounded by two cobblestone walls and a small city. The outer wall surrounds the city, which is visible under the full moon and brilliant starlight. Camelot castle and its grounds are enclosed by the second, larger wall. You are led through both by your two new friends. The front double doors of the castle are large enough to drive a car through just one of them, although the only transportation you have seen on your trek are a few horses and donkeys pulling carts. Castle guards speak with Galeran briefly before opening the doors to reveal a wide entrance hall. A regal throne sits at the far end with a narrow red carpet leading up to it. “This is where King Uther will greet you, as he does with everyone,” Galeran informs you before disappearing through a door behind the throne. Huon stands with you, as the other knights glare in your direction and whisper among themselves. You notice you stand out sorely due to your unusual clothing; no one else is wearing khaki pants. Due to the lateness of your arrival, the streets had been empty, so you avoided the questioning glances until now. Fortunately, Galeran returns before long and announces that King Uther will be entering to speak with you. Moments later, an elderly man with a crown steps through the door. He slowly makes his way to the throne and sits down. Behind him follows a younger man who bears a striking resemblance to the King; both stare at you with piercing blue eyes, and the room holds its breath. “So, you are the Magician from the woods?” the old king asks. “Yes, Your Majesty,” you respond while bowing. A bead of sweat forms on your brow as you pray that you sound normal and believable. “You may call me King Uther. What is your name, Magician?” “My name is Merlin Ambrosius.” “Merlin the Magician, I like the sound of that. Tell me, Merlin, what brings you to Camelot?” “I came to reside in the Broceliande.” “He has prophesied Camelot’s future, my lord,” Galeran adds, making the hairs on your neck stand on end. “I see… So, you have seen that I am nearing the end of my time here as the king.” “I--I… have seen many things, King Uther.” “It is okay, Merlin, you may speak the truth. My reign can’t last forever; I only ask what your prophecies say about my successor. I fear my son, Arthur, is not yet ready to rule over Camelot.” “Father, I am more than ready!” the young man standing next to the throne says. He looks annoyed as if they had this same argument every day. Standing a head taller than you with wavy blonde hair and a well-built frame, he looks like a king. “If that is true, Arthur, then you have nothing to fear from the Magician’s visions. Good Magician, tell us how we can know my son is ready to inherit the throne.” Both the King and the Prince lock eyes with you. Their eyes bore into you as if they can see into your soul. The room grows hotter as you try to think of an acceptable answer to Uther’s question. > You there is a powerful sword that is locked within an anvil atop a magic stone. Only the true King of Camelot can pull the sword from the stone! "There is a powerful sword that is locked within an anvil atop a magic stone. Only the true King of Camelot can pull the sword from the stone!" you say, remembering the old legend. "Interesting, I have never heard of such a sword. Where can we find this sword in the stone?" King Uther responds. "Oh, it's..." You pause when you realize you were about to suggest that they ask Merlin the Magician. "I can show you where it is tomorrow, King Uther." Your mind reels when the reality of what you have become hits you. "Very well. I shall have my knights escort you back to your home in the Broceliande for the night, and collect you in the morning." Huon and Galeran appear next to you and take you out of the castle. The walk back through town and into the woods seems longer than your trip to Camelot. Your mind races the entire time, haunted by the thought of having to produce a magic sword and rock before the morning. You are so preoccupied you do not notice as the two knights march right up to a cottage in the clearing you passed out next to. "We will see you in the morning, good magician," Galeran says in a cheerful tone. "Right, yeah...night," you mumble in response. After they leave, you look up at the quaint cobblestone cottage with a straw roof. A single chimney rises in the back of the otherwise circular building, with a wooden door and a small round window on one side. There is even a well on the other end of the clearing. Hesitantly, you step inside the open door, knowing you do not own the place. Inside, there is one room with modest furnishings: a straw mattress is curved along the wall, a wooden table and chair are set beneath the window, and the fireplace is across from the door. Other than the furniture, there are logs in the fireplace, sacks of flour and other common food staples, and a barrel with a blacksmith's tools and three unfinished weapons. It looks like someone is living in the cottage, but no one is there. Feeling the exhaustion from the long day you start a fire in the hearth with a lighter from your bag, sit in the chair, and wonder where the cottage's owner could be. Your eyes drift to the barrel and the three swords within. Inspiration strikes you as the firelight reflects off the polished blades; you could make a magic sword and plant it in an anvil. Rushing to the barrel, you pull the contents out one by one. There is a plain arming sword, a larger claymore, and an ordinate arming sword with a red gemstone on the end of the pommel. No longer feeling tired, and picking up the last blade, you examine it more closely to see that the hilt is loose and the tang is slotted to save weight. Placing the ordinate weapon on the table, you grab your tools and sit down. Removing the wooden hilt is easy, since it is already split, and you examine the exposed handle. A slot in the center is just big enough to fit a small electronic device. Both the pommel and blade are magnetic, most likely made from steel. > You get to work! From your bag, you produce your small stun gun. While a portable, battery-operated, long-lasting electric weapon has its uses, a magic sword is more important right now. Arthur needs to be able to use the final product safely and believe that it has supernatural powers. Removing the casing allows you to fit the electronics inside the slot and reconfigure them to always electrify the blade. You solder the leads to the tang of the sword; the device is held in place with electrical tape. Once you turn the power on, it will zap anything the blade strikes. All you need to do is add a hilt since the wooden one will no longer fit. You start by soldering a metal conduit to the pommel and crossguard to make a sturdy grip that hides the electronic components. Now you just need something to cover the conduit with. > You cover the conduit in rubber shrink wrap. Fortunately, you have tubes of bright red rubber shrink wrap in your bag. Rubber is a great insulator, even though it is not a material that would be used at this time. You dismiss any concern of drawing suspicion from an exotic material. You are making a magic sword; they shouldn’t be too surprised if it has magic materials on it. The rubber tube slides over the tang and pommel easily. You can make a complete seal from the guard to the gem on the bottom by heating it over the fire. To finish it off, you also cover the guard so anything the wielder might touch is insulated from the electric blade. Your finished product is a stylish, red rubber handle that looks like something from a renaissance fair. Turning on the device is as simple as lifting the shrink wrap and pressing the button with a few flathead screwdrivers. Picking up the sword, you swing it awkwardly to test it: the hilt feels larger than the other swords, but not so much larger that is unreasonable. With a satisfied nod, you put Excalibur aside until you are ready for it; there is still a lot to do before the morning. > You making the Stone Retrieving the anvil is no small task due to its incredible weight. You place it on the table and take your seat. There is already a slot through the center that the sword will fit in; it just needs a rock to sit on and a means to keep everything in place. This can be done with something that is magic: magnets. There are no natural magnets in your bag; however, there is enough equipment to make electromagnets. You place your largest battery aside for the power source. Looping insulated wire around the anvil and claymore before hooking them up to the batteries will let you make two: one to hold Excalibur, and one to anchor the anvil. Wrapping the wire is the most crucial part. You must do it correctly to make sure each magnet is strong enough to hold everything in place. > You wrap the wire in small, tight loops to fit as many as possible. You wrap the insulated wire around the thinnest part of the anvil, careful to make tight loops that do not overlap and run down the sides. This alone takes an entire spool of wire, so you splice another length of wire to each side to connect it to the battery. Everything is held in place with grey electrical tape, making the circuit hardly noticeable. Repeating this process along the claymore takes the better part of the rest of the night; thankfully, the sword is old and dull, so it doesn’t cut the insulation. Nothing will make this look normal to the king, prince, or knights; you need to find a way to hide the sword and batteries from their sight. > You setting the Sword in the Stone Before you lug everything outside, you search around for a suitable rock. A boulder in the woods not too far from your clearing is the perfect candidate. Its long flat top hangs over the side of a steep slope, with a crack straight through the middle, like it is about to split in half. Carrying everything to the rock is excruciating, especially the anvil. This takes you an hour to move by itself, leaving very little time to set up before the sun rises. Thankfully, there is not much left to do. Placing the anvil on top of the rock, you run the wires down through the crack to the battery below. You wedge the claymore inside the crack so that it is stuck below the anvil. The wires from the blade also connect to the battery, but they lead to opposite terminals--this should cause your two electromagnets to attract each other. When powered, the electromagnets should hold things in place well enough that no man can move the sword. One issue remains: Arthur must be able to pull it out. Running back to the cottage for a simple switch, you wire the positive terminal of the battery to it. This switch is hidden near the rock in a tree hollow. Both electromagnets are connected so they can be turned on simultaneously. Back at the cottage, you lie down on the straw mattress while you wait for the royal entourage to show up. Restless sleep overcomes you, but it is short-lived. King Uther's arrival is not quiet. Several war horses gallop through the woods and neigh loudly when prompted to stop, startling you awake. They restlessly fuss while several knights dismount; Galeran and Huon are among them. “Merlin, are you there?” Galeran calls from outside your door. “I am coming out," you reply realizing that you left several tools lying around the cottage in plain sight. No one enters or bothers you until you rush out the door into the misty morning air. King Uther and Arthur sit atop their horses with the knights gathered around them; as you approach, they stand at the ready and look at you nervously. Uther, Galeran, and Huon are the only ones that do not seem suspicious of you. They also seem to be carrying a lot of supplies, as if they intend to travel for days. "Good magician, are you prepared to take the King to this magic sword in the stone?" Galeran asks you. "Yes, but it is not far from here. You will not need your horses." "We have scouted these woods many times; there is no sword matching your description this close to Camelot." "Not one that you found, but these woods hold many secrets. This mist hides many things which can only be revealed by magic." "What other secrets does the Broceliande hide?" King Uther asks. "For now, all you need to know is that the sword is close." "Very well." Uther nods to Arthur, and they dismount their steads. With everyone on foot, you lead them across the field towards the rock that holds the anvil. Thinking quickly, you wave your hands in the air and mumble, "Donde esta el bano." Not remembering any other broken Spanish, you repeat that phrase, attempting to sound like you are dispelling the mist. By some stroke of luck, the morning fog dissipates as you walk up to the stone. King Uther and his crew stop behind you the moment it comes into view and stare at the precariously placed sword. "There it is!" Arthur shouts. You get the sense that he expected the sword to be a hoax. "Indeed, it is. So what do we do, Merlin?" King Uther asks. "Only one man may try to pull the sword from the stone at a time," you lie. "Only the true King of Camelot will be able to take it." Arthur steps forward and says, "I will take the sword and the throne that is rightfully mine." "Hold on son," Uther responds. "For all we know, that blade was merely placed there as a trap. Surely even Merlin will admit that the world is filled with evil sorcerers who revel at such trickery with magic." "Yeah, you can never be too cautious," you agree. This was something you counted on. "But father, how do we know if we can trust this magician, then?" Arthur asks. "Simple. Galeran shall try to pull the sword from the stone first. He has no claim to the thrown but is one of my strongest and most loyal knights. If he can not pull the sword out, and returns from the rock safely, then you can try as well. Should you be successful after Galeran fails, we know it is true," King Uther explains. "Great! Galeran, please try to take the sword. I should warn you that the anvil is enchanted; trying to move it or even touch it would not be wise," you say as Galeran steps forward. He approaches the flat rock trepidly, giving you the perfect opportunity to flip the switch in the hollow. Everything is set up and ready; all you can do is watch. Galeran takes a deep breath before stretching a shaking hand towards the sword. > You continue Galeran grips the rubber hilt with one hand. Nothing happens, but he can’t get enough leverage to even attempt to lift the sword. His face relaxes, and the tension leaves his body when he touches the sword without consequence. With a deep breath, he plants his feet and places his other hand on its pommel. He bends his knees and adjusts his grip, as if he is about to lift a heavy box off the floor. When he does pull upwards, the sword doesn’t move. Galeran doesn't give up, he pulls upwards from a squating position, looking like he is constipated. Only after several minutes of strenuous effort does he let go, backing away from the sword while panting, and wiping the sweat from his brow. "It is stuck sire; no man could move that sword," Galeran says. "Interesting, the magician might be speaking the truth!" King Uther replies. "I will have a go then," Arthur announces stepping forward. Like Galeran, he approaches the anvil cautiously. Peering at it, he sticks out one hand to grasp the hilt, then wraps his other hand around the first. He breathes deeply and plants his feet, which is when you flip the switch that turns off the magnets. With a grunt, Arthur bends down then extends his body, pulling the sword out of the anvil quickly. He leaves the ground from the force he exerts with his legs. Uther and his men cheer as the young prince falls on his back and raises the sword in triumph. Getting caught in the moment, you can't help but yell with them as they start chanting, "Arthur is worthy! Long live King Arthur!" You are cheering more for the fact that your plan worked, but everyone else's excitement about the new King is contagious. "Let us return to Camelot for Arthur's coronation!" King Uther announces. "Merlin, show us the way out of this fog and back to your hut." Following the King's orders, you lead the way back to where the day started. Once there Uther, Arthur, and the knights of Camelot prepare to ride back to the castle. Galeran and Huon offer to escort you there, but you assure them that you can find your way alone. Before the King mounts his horse, he turns to Arthur and asks to see his new weapon. You caution the pair that the blade of Excalibur is imbued with magic and should not be touched, lest they turn the shockly powerful blade on themselves. They heed your warning and fit the sword into Arthur's scabbard which is, to your relief, made from leather. Examining the blade, Uther comments that it looks like one he had commissioned a local blacksmith to make for the prince. According to the King, the Smith left his forge in Camelot to live in the Broceliande and focus on his work, but they hadn't heard from him since. Thinking quickly, you suggest that Excalibur took the form that its master desired. This seems to satisfy the King and his men. Once they ride off, you pack up your tools and materials, not knowing when the blacksmith will return to his cottage. Your eyelids feel heavy; sleep was not a priority until now. With everything else finished, you manage to drift into a well-deserved nap. > You later that night Walking into Arthur's coronation, you are in awe of the scale of the event. The massive front doors of the castle are held open by two knights so that the commoners can watch. Thousands of people crowd the castle grounds dressed in simple tunics and dresses. Inside the entrance hall are hundreds of lords and nobles, who are more elegantly dressed. They are packed into the entrance hall that seemed large when it was empty last night; today it is like a small tin packed with sardines. It smells like one too. After telling a guard your name, he takes you to Huon and Galeran who usher you to a reserved area near the throne. Uther nods to you from his seat upon it and motions to the Bishop. Seconds later, the ceremony starts. Arthur emerges from the door behind the throne after a speech given in Latin, which you don't understand at all, and kneels before his father. Latin continues to pour out of the Bishop's mouth louder than you thought possible without a microphone. Looking around, you realize that the entrance hall is built like a reverberation chamber so the King can address large crowds, but you have to stop and pay attention when the Latin finally stops. Uther stands and smiles down at his son, who is dressed in a regal cape and fancy tunic. "Arthur Pendragon, my son, do you vow to rule over all of Camelot fairly and justly?" Uther asks. "I do, father," Arthur responds. "Do you promise to show mercy and compassion, as well as strength?" "I do." "Do you swear to maintain the authority of the church and exercise the will of God?" "I do." "Then I shall abdicate the throne and pass it on to you." Uther places his crown on Arthur's head and steps aside so that his son can sit on the throne. Roars erupt from the crowd, then the Latin resumes. Holy water is sprinkled onto the new King and flung into the crowd. An unusual amount lands on your head and torso. You glance up at the Bishop long enough to notice that he is glaring back at you, confirming that the dousing is intentional. Fortunately, he stops before you are soaked to your underwear. When the crowd settles from their second outburst of cheers, Arthur addresses them. His speech is elegant, but the ending draws your attention more than anything else. He says, "To lead Camelot into an era of unprecedented success, I will appoint the first court magician of Camelot. From now on Merlin the Magician will be my chief advisor; his magic will end the food shortages and plagues that threaten our kingdom!" As the crowd cheers again, you wave awkwardly and wonder what you got yourself into.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Retrieving the anvil is no small task due to its incredible weight. You place it on the table and take your seat. There is already a slot through the center that the sword will fit in; it just needs a rock to sit on and a means to keep everything in place. This can be done with something that is magic: magnets. There are no natural magnets in your bag; however, there is enough equipment to make electromagnets. You place your largest battery aside for the power source. Looping insulated wire around the anvil and claymore before hooking them up to the batteries will let you make two: one to hold Excalibur, and one to anchor the anvil. Wrapping the wire is the most crucial part. You must do it correctly to make sure each magnet is strong enough to hold everything in place. > You wrap the wire in a few large, loose loops to increase the size of each loop. You wrap the insulated wire around the thinnest part of the anvil, careful to make two large loops that do not overlap and run down the anvil. This does not take much wire, so you have a length of wire on each side to connect it to the battery. Everything is held in place with dark grey electrical tape, making the wires hardly noticeable. Repeating this process along the claymore is easy; thankfully, the sword is old and dull, so it doesn’t cut the insulation. Nothing will make this look normal to the king, prince, or knights; you decide to find a way to hide the sword and batteries from their sight.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Retrieving the anvil is no small task due to its incredible weight. You place it on the table and take your seat. There is already a slot through the center that the sword will fit in; it just needs a rock to sit on and a means to keep everything in place. This can be done with something that is magic: magnets. There are no natural magnets in your bag; however, there is enough equipment to make electromagnets. You place your largest battery aside for the power source. Looping insulated wire around the anvil and claymore before hooking them up to the batteries will let you make two: one to hold Excalibur, and one to anchor the anvil. Wrapping the wire is the most crucial part. You must do it correctly to make sure each magnet is strong enough to hold everything in place. > You electricity for Morons Vol. 1 (answer guide) You pull out your trusty pocket guide titled “Electricity for Morons Vol. 1” out of your work bag. This book has saved your life several times, like when you thought you could cut live power lines without getting shocked if you cut one at a time. Turns out it wasn’t recommended, and there is probably some info that will help you here as well. Scanning the pages, you see several bits of information that might help you: Page 10 - Shrink wrap is easy to use and shape. Simply slip it over the target area and apply heat until the rubber seals. For best results, cut away excess rubber. Page 31 - Note: Leather is a great insulator but is difficult to form into complex shapes. Always consult a tanner before using in electric circuits. See Appendix T for the proper forms to apply for a Tanner’s License. Page 52 - Electromagnets - Making electromagnets is as simple as wrapping wire around any ferrous material. Electromagnets can be strengthened by increasing the current in the wire, or by adding more loops of wire around the ferrous material. Note: the size of the loops is insignificant in determining the strength of the electromagnet. Page 112 - Magnetic Fields in Parallel Wires - When wiring multiple circuits in parallel, take care that they are not close enough that the magnetic fields created around them attract or repel each other. Should wires of parallel circuits be near each other, it is recommended that they carry current in the same direction so that they will be attracted to each other. If the current runs in opposite directions, then these wires will repel each other, potentially causing damage to the circuit.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>From your bag, you produce your small stun gun. While a portable, battery-operated, long-lasting electric weapon has its uses, a magic sword is more important right now. Arthur needs to be able to use the final product safely and believe that it has supernatural powers. Removing the casing allows you to fit the electronics inside the slot and reconfigure them to always electrify the blade. You solder the leads to the tang of the sword; the device is held in place with electrical tape. Once you turn the power on, it will zap anything the blade strikes. All you need to do is add a hilt since the wooden one will no longer fit. You start by soldering a metal conduit to the pommel and crossguard to make a sturdy grip that hides the electronic components. Now you just need something to cover the conduit with. > You wrap the conduit in leather. Unfortunately, you do not have any leather in your bag. It is a great insulator and is commonly used at this time. You look around, noticing the sacks of flour again; those could easily be repurposed. Finding enough leather to cover the tang is easy after you empty a bag of flour outside; cutting it into strips and sewing them together is harder. Eventually, you manage to cut and punch through the leather with cutting pliers. Once it is the right size, you wrap the leather around the tang and tie them together with string. When you are finished, the tang is insulated from the electric blade. Turning on the device is as simple as lifting the leather and pressing the button with a few flathead screwdrivers. Picking up the sword carefully, you swing it awkwardly to test it: the hilt feels larger than the other swords, but not so much larger that is unreasonable. With a satisfied nod, you put Excalibur aside until you are ready for it; there is still a lot to do before the morning. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>From your bag, you produce your small stun gun. While a portable, battery-operated, long-lasting electric weapon has its uses, a magic sword is more important right now. Arthur needs to be able to use the final product safely and believe that it has supernatural powers. Removing the casing allows you to fit the electronics inside the slot and reconfigure them to always electrify the blade. You solder the leads to the tang of the sword; the device is held in place with electrical tape. Once you turn the power on, it will zap anything the blade strikes. All you need to do is add a hilt since the wooden one will no longer fit. You start by soldering a metal conduit to the pommel and crossguard to make a sturdy grip that hides the electronic components. Now you just need something to cover the conduit with. > You solder golden wire around the conduit for a more regal appearance. You only have one spool of golden wire in your bag. Gold is invaluable because of its high conductivity; unfortunately, it is also expensive. Making a hilt from the golden wire takes all of the wire and careful soldering, but you manage to get it just right. Your handle shimmers in the firelight and fits in perfectly with the rest of the ordinate decorations on the sword. All that remains is the tricky part tricky, but you manage to turn the device on without destroying the hilt you just created. Standing back to admire your work leaves you with a sense of pride; however, there is still a lot to do before the morning. Retrieving the anvil is no small task due to its incredible weight. You place it on the table and go to move Excalibur until you are ready for it; Electricity shoots through your body the moment you touch the highly conductive handle. Everything goes numb. Your limp body collapses against the table and falls to the floor; you stare upward as it wobbles dangerously above your head. Moments later, the heavy iron cube slides off the edge and crushes your skull.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Waiting until the knights are close, you step out from behind a tree and click on the flashlight. Huon stumbles and drops his sword and torch, rendering both useless. Sir Galeran holds up his shield and crouches like he expects to be hit head-on with a fireball. “Halt! Who dares enter my forest?” you yell. "We are--" Sir Galeran starts, but he is interrupted by his companion. “Don’t tell him our names; he will steal our souls!” Huon yells. “We are knights from Camelot. What name do you go by, great sorcerer?” Galeran replies. “You may call me Merlin the Magician, Sir Galeran.” “How do you know my name?” “I know many things. Your companion is Sir Huon, and you come here in the name of King Uther Pendragon. I have prophesied many things about Camelot.” “I see, but why have you come here to the Broceliande, Merlin the Magician?” “I have traveled here from… faraway lands to reside in the enchanted forest.” “But why? What does the future hold for Camelot?” Caught off guard by his question you pause to think. Nothing comes to mind and the knights begin to recover their composure. “Tell me, Sir Galeran, are you not loyal to the King of Camelot?” “I am King Uther’s loyal vassal; do you mean to imply otherwise?” Galeran grips his sword and glares at you while Huon manages to find his weapon in the underbrush. “Not at all, but the burden of Camelot’s future is not yours to bear.” "You are right, good magician." Galeran sheaths his sword and furrows his brow; Huon finally stands to face you, but he stands down after looking at his partner’s stance. “If you mean to prophesize about Camelot, you must do so in the presence of King Uther. Come with us, he will want to meet with you immediately; he was most curious when he saw your magic illuminating the forest.” “Galeran, you can’t be serious! You would bring a sorcerer directly to our King?” Huon cries. “A friendly magician could be an asset to the court, Sir Huon.” “Yes, but can we trust him?” “If we wanted us dead, he could have done away with us.” Sir Galeran turns to face you. “Will you give us your word that you will not harm King Uther, should he grant you an audience tonight?” Too stunned to talk you simply nod. Galeran and Huon turn to lead the way to Camelot; you offer to light the path with your ‘magic’ which seems to impress them. As the two knights shuffle through the woods in their armor, you follow and focus on not tripping on the uneven forest floor. After walking for several minutes, the trees give way to a large field with a majestic stone castle standing at the center surrounded by two cobblestone walls and a small city. The outer wall surrounds the city, which is visible under the full moon and brilliant starlight. Camelot castle and its grounds are enclosed by the second, larger wall. You are led through both by your two new friends. The front double doors of the castle are large enough to drive a car through just one of them, although the only transportation you have seen on your trek are a few horses and donkeys pulling carts. Castle guards speak with Galeran briefly before opening the doors to reveal a wide entrance hall. A regal throne sits at the far end with a narrow red carpet leading up to it. “This is where King Uther will greet you, as he does with everyone,” Galeran informs you before disappearing through a door behind the throne. Huon stands with you, as the other knights glare in your direction and whisper among themselves. You notice you stand out sorely due to your unusual clothing; no one else is wearing khaki pants. Due to the lateness of your arrival, the streets had been empty, so you avoided the questioning glances until now. Fortunately, Galeran returns before long and announces that King Uther will be entering to speak with you. Moments later, an elderly man with a crown steps through the door. He slowly makes his way to the throne and sits down. Behind him follows a younger man who bears a striking resemblance to the King; both stare at you with piercing blue eyes, and the room holds its breath. “So, you are the Magician from the woods?” the old king asks. “Yes, Your Majesty,” you respond while bowing. A bead of sweat forms on your brow as you pray that you sound normal and believable. “You may call me King Uther. What is your name, Magician?” “My name is Merlin Ambrosius.” “Merlin the Magician, I like the sound of that. Tell me, Merlin, what brings you to Camelot?” “I came to reside in the Broceliande.” “He has prophesied Camelot’s future, my lord,” Galeran adds, making the hairs on your neck stand on end. “I see… So, you have seen that I am nearing the end of my time here as the king.” “I--I… have seen many things, King Uther.” “It is okay, Merlin, you may speak the truth. My reign can’t last forever; I only ask what your prophecies say about my successor. I fear my son, Arthur, is not yet ready to rule over Camelot.” “Father, I am more than ready!” the young man standing next to the throne says. He looks annoyed as if they had this same argument every day. Standing a head taller than you with wavy blonde hair and a well-built frame, he looks like a king. “If that is true, Arthur, then you have nothing to fear from the Magician’s visions. Good Magician, tell us how we can know my son is ready to inherit the throne.” Both the King and the Prince lock eyes with you. Their eyes bore into you as if they can see into your soul. The room grows hotter as you try to think of an acceptable answer to Uther’s question. > You there is a magic sword guarded by the Lady of the Lake. It will only be given to the true King of Camelot! "There is a magic sword guarded by the Lady of the Lake. It will only be given to the true King of Camelot!" you say, remembering the old legend. "Interesting, I have never heard of this sorceress. Where can we find this Lady of the Lake?" King Uther responds. "Oh, she's..." You pause when you realize you were about to suggest that they ask Merlin the Magician. "I can show you where she lives tomorrow, King Uther, but she will not reveal herself to just anyone." Your mind reels when the reality of what you have become hits you. "Who will she meet?" "She will merely provide the sword, and only to the true King." "Very well. I shall have my knights escort you back to your home in the Broceliande for the night, and collect you in the morning." Huon and Galeran appear next to you and take you out of the castle. The walk back through town and into the woods seems longer than your trip to Camelot. Your mind races the entire time, haunted by the thought of having to produce a magic sword and rock before the morning. You are so preoccupied you do not notice as the two knights march right up to a cottage in the clearing you passed out next to. "We will see you in the morning, good magician," Galeran says in a cheerful tone. "Right, yeah...night," you mumble in response. After they leave, you look up at the quaint cobblestone cottage with a straw roof. A single chimney rises in the back of the otherwise circular building, with a wooden door and a small round window on one side. There is even a well on the other end of the clearing. Hesitantly, you step inside the open door, knowing you do not own the place. Inside, there is one room with modest furnishings: a straw mattress is curved along the wall, a wooden table and chair are set beneath the window, and the fireplace is across from the door. Other than the furniture, there are logs in the fireplace, sacks of flour and other common food staples, and a barrel with a blacksmith's tools and three unfinished weapons. It looks like someone is living in the cottage, but no one is there. Feeling the exhaustion from the long day you start a fire in the hearth with a lighter from your bag, sit in the chair, and wonder where the cottage's owner could be. Your eyes drift to the barrel and the three swords within. Inspiration strikes you as the firelight reflects off the polished blades; you could make a magic sword and plant it in an anvil. Rushing to the barrel, you pull the contents out one by one. There is a plain arming sword, a larger claymore, and an ordinate arming sword with a red gemstone on the end of the pommel. No longer feeling tired, and picking up the last blade, you examine it more closely to see that the hilt is loose and the tang is slotted to save weight. Placing the ordinate weapon on the table, you grab your tools and sit down. Removing the wooden hilt is easy, since it is already split, and you examine the exposed handle. A slot in the center is just big enough to fit a small electronic device. Both the pommel and blade are magnetic, most likely made from steel.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The messenger, a tall dwarf of about five feet, stumbles into King Hrongeir II's Throne Room, clasping tightly a piece of rolled up parchment in his left hand. There are three arrows, one in his stomach, one in his forearm, and one in his thigh. He does not seem to mind, and gives the parchment to your King. The Throne Room is the size of a large house in itself. It has dark brick walls, with fancy red curtains and banners depicting dragons, as are the symbol of Thragnazil. The Bladefury Throne is at the center of the room, on a large raised platform. There are entrances leading into the room from all directions. Ten heavily-armored guards protect this room alone. There is a fancy red carpet covering the floor. Standing beside him, you, the Royal General of Thragnazil, do not attempt to read the letter, as the penalty for that could be death. You instead wait until he finishes reading and ask if all is well. He shakes his head solemnly, resting his head on his hand like he always does when he is upset. "This is a letter from Lord Eofrain Northblade of Throfakin," Hrongeir sighs. "Throfakin was besieged by a powerful army, dressed in twisted black armor. Korling believes they were Witheron Knights, but that would be absurd. That would suggest... The end." You nod, worrying greatly about the situation. If there is a powerful army on the loose, especially if they are Witheron Knights, than you will have trouble dealing with them. Hrongeir will definitely want to defend his kingdom. You look to the messenger to ask for more information, but he see that he lays dead on the floor, the blood from his wounds pouring out onto the luxurious carpet of the room. The King hands you the letter. > The Letter To King Hrongeir II, The situation in your city of Throfakin grows worse and worse as the days go by. I have been trapped in the walls for a week now, and have lost hundreds of men trying to drive the enemy back. If they haven't attacked your city yet, then consider this a warning. I beg of you, do not try to send aid to Throfakin. You need as many men as you can muster to protect the capital, and Throfakin is doomed anyways. It has been a pleasure serving you, my lord, but I fear that I will serve you for not much longer. With respects, Eofrain Northblade, Lord of Throfakin.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You were on the floor before you even knew what happened. The sky was brighter, clearer… But so was Gyrd and his band. Your senses slowly return to you. You familiarize yourself with the cold, stone floor once again. The smell of bread, and other wheatly products comes back to you. The ring in your ears slowly stops, and you can hear Gyrd’s laughter once again. You are quickly and harshly picked from the ground by one of the Todlichers. They carry you in front of Gyrd, with your head stooped. You’re senses are fully regained now, and you quickly realize that the Todlichers have kicked your ass once again. You sum up courage to act tough and raise your head towards Gyrd. His smug smile, and amazing hair are not unnoticeable. He’s chewing his tongue and waving at you: “Hey buddy, how you doing?” He smiles, and only now do you notice that all of the kinds from the neighborhood are here. He loses his smile for a second: “I’m sorry that you had to be the example Byll, I really am.” His smile is back, and turns towards the neighborhood: “Ladies and Gentleman, Byll here gladly volunteered to show you what will happen if you mess with me and the Todlichers. I hope you all understand, so there will be no need for more ‘unnecessary’ violence, yes?” Just now you realize that you have a giant wound on your head “Alright now scram.” He calmly orders he neighborhood, which politely listens: “Come on guys let’s go!” He orders his gang, and the just drop you. With great pain you manage to lift yourself to the back. You also curse a thing or two at him. Spoiled rich kids. He think that he’s the best, just because his dad’s the mother freaking lord. You slowly try to pick yourself up, but luckily, Atham, your best friend, rushes to rescue: “You okay buddy?” He asks you with his surprisingly deep voice. “I’m fine!” You gust out between all of the curses: “Why would you do that?” “He almost killed Buttonforks!”You ,again, gust out between all of the curses. Atham takes your hand around his neck and starts carrying you home: “Buttonfork is a goat! More importantly, you could have died. I mean look at you, he broke every bone in your body.” “Pshht, that’s nothing. I needed to help Buttonfork.” You try to be humorous. “Every hero’s trait.” Atham uses his comedic skills as well. After a few short minutes of walking, you arrive at your mediocre home. Atham lowers you on your porch: “Be steady I got some supplies in the bag.” He starts rummaging through his inventory. You hear voices from the abandoned house next to you. You freeze and your face turns white. Could that be Gisbst’s ghost. You turn your head to the right, prepared to see the old man’s lifeless body coming at you. But, looks like someone finally moved there. You let out a sigh of relief, when Atham smacks a big paper on your head with some potion in it. It hurts you… a lot: “Aaaaahh!!!” You let out a small scream and start pushing away Atham’s hand: “Stop whimpering, this’ll help your wound” Atham scolds you: “I’m pretty sure that more pain is bad.” You try to use your comedic skills once more, but with no avail. After Atham does his best ant fixing your empty head, he sits to have a rest: “Who do you think the new neighbors are?” You ask. “Gyrd did talk about his father inviting ‘future allies’ here.” He takes a better look at old man’s former mansion, and steals the words from your mouth: “How’s he going to get an alliance? He already married Melissa and…” You look at the neighboring house: “… He’s going to bethrode Gyrd!?” You surprisingly ask Atham, who got up and found a cane for you to walk: “Seems like that, doesn’t it…” He hands you the cane and helps you up. You immediately notice the rich carriage. As you walk to your home, the pain in the head and the leg subsides… Luckily, your mother is not home: “Thanks, Atham… Buttonforks is at your place, right?” “Safe as ever.” “Good… Thanks, see ya tomorrow… If I come out at all.” “Oh please, there’s no school tomorrow… There’s nothing to be sad about, the wound is nothing… How would you do in the arena you big wuss?” “Haha… See ya tomorrow!” You close the doors of your home. With ease, you take off your shirt and pants, and get ready to sleep. It’s been a long day, It’s time for rest > The Following Morning! You are awoken by a hit in the head… Literaly. You open your eyes. And see Atham throw little rocks at you. You curse a few times before Atham relizes you're awake. You are poured by cold water. You start to scream, but Atham shuts your mouth. You follow him, and get out the window of your room: “You better have a good reason for this!” You say with your pretty good voice (followed by a lot of cursing). “The good ol’ neighbors are taking a stroll to the castle.” “Well, good for them!” You start to get angry. “We need to get on their carriage.” “May I ask why!?” You follow (with cursing, cursing and cursing… That’s a really bad habit!). “They… They got Buttonforks!” Your eyes light up. Atham notice, and is genuinely scared for his life… This guy looks like a pissed off Leacher! You could just kill him right there… But somehow you do manage to calm down. You grab the poor kid by his collar, easily lift him from the ground and make him piss himself: “Look, I’m sorry, but I tried, I chased him all morning, he ran for some reason! But they took him… I’m sorry, please don’ kill me!” You drop him on the ground, and grab him and pull him towards the big rich carriage. You manage to sneak on it just before the ‘royal’ family comes on… Oh, how you hate that name… “Royal” like it’s something special! Anyway, equalism aside, after a few dozen minutes, the… uhhh, “Royal” family arrives to the castle. You wait until they leave, and two very clumsy spies go after them. As it’s if the world hates you, the family splits. You agree to split and look for Buttonforks. You still haven’t devised a plan on how to catch him when (if) you get to him. You’ve seen the castle from outside many times, so the gothic style of building is nothing new. The inside, however, is a totally new world for you. You’ve seen it described in Choose-your-story’s books, but to see the richness in person. You can probably imagine how a castle looks like, so we won’t spend much time here. After a long tail, you are stuck at a locked door. You try using everything, even your humble lockpicking skill: “Isn’t it Byll!?” You hear a familiar voice behind you… It’s Gyrd’s BFF(For you that stands for Best Fu**ing F**ker {sorry I had to use language there}) You've been pushed around long enough, it's time to little asshole who's the boss... Start by acting tough. You put in your head the idea that (god forbid) Buttonforks is dead, and that this dude killed him. You easily use that anger, your eyes light up again. You swear a thing or two at him. He grabs a wooden stick (convinietly) placed there: „Let's dance baby boy!“ Alright, you are PISSED… It’s now that you start feeling like a Leacher. You try to look strong and slowly approach the little asshole. He securely takes a swing at you. You grab the stick, put it underneath your armpit, and smash it in half! That felt good! The little asshole is now terrified. You drop your part of the stick and start ‘manly’ walking to him! He backs up until he sums up enough courage to strike you from the side. You repel the attack with your hand, and punch the stick out of his hand. You then hit him in the, errrm, “family heritage”, and then right in the jaw. The poor kid collapses on the ground, moaning in pain. He grabs the nearby table and starts to get up. It’s time to hit him in the stomach, and teach him a lesson once and for all. Is that right? Sure, he’s a first grade asshole, but still? Damned be it, your going to kick him, and teach him a lesson… Oh, please everyone would do that in real life, they just say they would spare him! > You kick to oblivion… Well, maybe just in the stomach, that will teach him a lesson, too! You KICK HIM TO OBLIVION! He falls on the ground and starts moaning, but you didn’t hit anything critical… Probably…. In that moment the door you were trying to unlock opens, and a few guards pour in together with a man which looks to be of high position. He grabs you by the collar and pulls you. You could easily break free, but with all of guards about, you don’t think it’s a very smart idea… You are dragged through several hallways before being brought to the throne room. The man drags you, and you use your bad habit of swearing, again. You are dropped on the floor: “Is this what I can expect!? Normal folk walking around the castle!? He attacked my son! MY SON! I demand you hang him right now.” The man who was dragging you (He’s one of the people who moved in next to you.) says to the lord of the city. The one only, the merciful, Dragys. Dragys has always been of kind heart to you… Whenever you got bullied by Gyrd, Dragys (being his father) would always punish him and apologize for his behavior. When something needed to be overlooked, Dragys would make sure it WAS overlooked. But, also whenever he needed to accomplish something ‘unnoficialy’ you were always there to help him. You two developed kind of a ‘uncle-nephew’ relationship… Though you never had an uncle. He’s always cheered up, unlike many lords, he’s ready to give. When he saw you walk in that room his heart became heavy: “Didn’t you hear me!? I want him publicly executed!” The other lord proclaims! You greatly offended by this: “Listen, you little-“ Your outburst in rage in interrupted by Dragys… Fortunately he’s aware of your little swearing issue: “I’ll have him in the arena by tomorrow.” Even though his voice is very very confident, you can notice the saddnes in there. You can also feel the saddnes within you, the arena is owned by ‘Zerena fig.’ Owners of other notorious fighting centers… Their regime? Brutal and strict. What the hell I wrong with him!? You’re going to die: “Very well… It is your court after all… But I want to be there when he fights.” The other lord makes it his point. He wants to see you to die: “Guards!” Dragys proclaims “Escort him to the arena.” There’s that saddnes in the voice again. Luckily, the other noble doesn’t notice, and leaves. The guards grab you, and you try being perfectly calm: “What is wrong with you!?” Dragys losses the saddnes in his voice, but gains anger: “I didn’t start it! His son came up to me and attacked me!” He looks into your eyes as you descend down stairs. He sighs: “I believe you.” “Well then get me out!” “You very well know that I can’t do that!“ He angers once again. „Couldn't you just throw me in jail!“ „Look, that is a very powerful man.“ The guards open your cell and put you in there. „I couldn't just let you go.“ The guards close your cell, and you grab the rusty bars: „I am going to do my best to get you out as soon as I can... until then, survive, alright?“ He seems serious. Do you want to tell him that Atham is still in the castle? > You yes! He will make sure to get him out safely! "Hey, Dragys... Atham's still in here. You got to help him get out." He lets out a sigh: "Fine... I'll see if I can help." He says before leaving with his guards. The day goes by uneventfully, with rarely who coming by your cell... It's usually just the guard, bringing you food and drink. You curse this day again and again and again, like it's going to change something. Tomorrow you are getting trasnfered to your 'premenant' living quarters... Oh, if only you didn't fight that boy! You wouldn't be in such a mess... Good thing you kicked his ass afterwards. You awake the following morning, do some exercises, you don't want to look like weak when you go to the arena. Suddenly, Atham arrives at your cell window: "Hey, buddy!" You are filled with joy... You rush towards the window: "It's the first time in my life I was actually glad to see you!" You proclaim whilst using your comedic skills. "Man, I heard what happened... At least you kicked that kid's face in... Asshole... Thanks for telling Dragys about me... He saved my life." "Where's Buttonforks?" "Don't worry about him, I got him out... But I gotta get you out now." Footsteps are heard in the hallway: "They're coming to take me to the arena... GO! Before they catch you!" "I'm going to get you out, I promise!" Atham promises while running away. The door opens, and two guards walk in. You can see that they're sad... You guess that the reason is sending a 13-year-old boy to death. They grab you (gently) by the shoulders and walk with you to the arena. The path is long, at least that's what it seems like to you. You slowly descend out of the cold, totaly un-cosy dungeon into the rich castle. You didn't stay there for a long time... Quickly you exited in the courtyard, it was as beautiful as ever. You didn't spend much time there as you exited on the streets and you were on your way to the arena. Ahhh, the arena. It looks so magnificent. The jewel of Redhand, second largest city in Regnum. People from all across the world come to see fighting in this arena, as much as did the old Sythyns. From outside it was impressive, tower full three stories over the largest house in the city... Sythyns were careful not to make anything over the are, easily making it the biggest (and baddest) building in this city. All of the awe quickly faded as you entered the arena. You didn't get to see the main fighting grounds, but you can imagine that they are as impressive as the outside. You were lowered by the guards into the giant building complex next to the arena, the training grounds and the living quarters of all of the fighters living here. Suprisingly to you, the inside is rich providing the best commodoties to the fighters... It's then when you relise that this is where the, as everyone calls them, "Legendary" fighters live. You are instead dropped into the lowest of them all, "Child Slicer", a very scary name. Fighters don't have any rights. The Dale Council, ever sence they gained power from that Regnumiese-Savandry imperialist war, has been trying their best to give at least some rights to the fighters... And all they were able to do is you can't starve to death... real noble. The guards untie you and leave you in front of an elderly man. His wrinkeled face is smiling: "Hello, there son. Welcome to the arena... Now, you've probably done something very bad to get here, but as long as you behave here, we'll forget it." He good-naturely says, like he's welcoming you to a kindergarten: "I'm master Roghas, and I will do my best to teach you how not to die in the arena... You've must have done something really bad if lord Orchitas wants you fighting next week... Hmm, we got to teach you how to fight by then... Do you know anything about swordfighting? Comon don' be shy now." He asks. You nod your head: "Yes... I've fought with other kids in the neighborhood with wooden swords." You answer Roghas' question: "Marvelous then! Kyth, get out here!" His voice raises a bit. Quickly out of the nearby quarters, a child filled with brusies comes out: "Yes master?" He asks. "We got a new recruit. I would like to see if he knows how to fight, but go easy on him." Now he turns to you: "We wouldn't want you getting bruises the first day, would we? The other boy picks up two swords. He throws one at your feet and he grabs one (Don't worry, they're wooden). You grab your sword. > You get Ready to fight Kyth Kyth gets ready... He raises his sword and tries his best not to intimidate you... He even smiles a bit. Alright you can do this, remember all of those tournaments and epic historical battles you and your friends played with... This is going to be easy... right? The two of you close in on eachother... He's the first to strike! Pick up the fighting styles, and do your best at figuring out which is the best one to use! <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Vampire. Indeed, that is what Kelso called you. You can still hear his cold, baritone voice explaining it to you. Vampires in the tales of Fantasy are glamorized; nigh-immortal, sexually desirable, powerful. But, while you suppose you are some of those things, in truth, you are not much more than an albino with a lot of health issues. The sun, he said, will damage your skin more than anything else. Any sort of foodstuff can't be digested anymore by your barely functioning bodily systems. He claims to have an idea of what the 'Professor' was trying to do to us, but for whatever reason, he has dodged the questions anytime you ask. Any information other than that, Kelso hasn't revealed. The irking thing is that it is obvious he knows what's going on, but he consistently acts as if it is in your own good you don't know what went on. The nights have been hard since your escape from the Facility. Most nights you wake up shivering, after all the nightmares you've been dealing with. It's terrifying, and it only makes you wonder what horrible things were done to you at the Facility. You do know that they must have affected your ability to feel. No, not the wishy washy 'emotional' garbage you'd usually expect, but your sense of touch was dulled. While a lot of your senses have been heightened, that one stands out. You feel very little pain from your feet, which is odd; considering how you spent your time running over cracked glass just two days ago, but it seems to have healed recently. --- Waiting. It should be sunrise by now. Kelso said you shouldn't get out, as you are a creature of the darkness now. He, on the other hand, has been out for the entire night and then some. You're not sure what Kelso is hunting for, but you know that you're beginning to get thirsty. More and more questions begin to build up, and no doubt the bastard won't answer half of them. Even while you ran with him through the night, running across various landscapes. Most are just a barren dessert, though every once in while you'd pass a half-buried house like this. "Bright lights up ahead." He said. A city only several miles down. Kelso must have gone there for the clothes he mentioned, but you hope he's safe.... > You continue waiting inside for Kelso A sigh leaves your lips as you ruffle your hair with your hand. Now scratching, several hairs fall off. Perhaps not too unusal; trivial, even. But things like this interest people in boredom. That, and the twitching of a certain fly beside the table. Twitch. Twitch. Twitch. It's annoying. Your nose flares as you continue to sit. Sleep isn't what it used to be either, more like an odd sort of meditating. Besides that, your senses continue to ring as the fly takes to the air around you. It lands, and you feel a faint tickle on your cheek-- And you catch the damned bugger. Nothing but your hand moved, a small action was all it took to take the flies life. You didn't even mean to kill it immediately, though you don't mind it's yellow ooze. Without feeling it, you squished it. Threat destroyed, you put your fingers to your temples and try to meditate. Almost immediately, your mind begins to drift... --- Come on, wake up! "Wuh? What's going on? Who are you?" We can formally reintroduce ourselves later damnit, the lab is falling apart! The lab? What lab? Why the hell am I in a lab? I'll explain everything once we're safe. But we need to go. Now. It is then when your eyes adjust enough that you can actually view the chaos that surrounds you. The red, flashing lights give you just enough light to make out cracked capsules with smelly liquid pouring out from them and flooding the floor. Looking even slightly up, you can see your own smashed container, as well as the pillars supporting the ceiling riddled with cracks. An odd assortment of humanoids seem to be sprawled out on the floor, with several still writhing and creeping sluggishly. But besides all this, you don't really feel much, considering. A numbing liquid surrounding and licking at your sides, but not much else. You can't even recognize your own heart beat. Then again, that's quite possibly due to the tension and commotion. Perhaps you were numbed while in that storage container. The man beside you seems to still shaking you, though it takes you several seconds to notice. Grabbing you by the hand, he begins to force you up and drag you along until your legs begin to feel enough to move. Although still sluggish, your motor controls seem to be working better than whatever you could remember. Finally, you feel like you can resume mumbling out questions, even while hurtling around breaking pillars and stumbling on broken glass. Where... where are we going? Out. The Zealots of the Church may come in any moment, so we need to evacuate. The Church? I... Can you at least tell me your name? Stop talking. Just run. How do you expect me to trust you if I don't even know who you are? I'm not sure you know who you are either, right now it's best you trust me and shut the hell up. And you do. Thinking about it, you really don't remember who you are. Who you were? It's... blank. The man's hand is outstretched, motioning you to hold on and follow. --- A sudden crashing noise awakes you from your revelation. > A uniformed man appears. Out of nowhere, a humanoid with flashy armor leaps at you. Fearful, you quickly send out a powerful jab, lamely clunking on his armor as he topples on top of you. You expect him to attack, or continue the assault, but he appears to be as dazed you are. Although the metal armor is heavy, you're able to throw him off of yourself, hearing a splintering in the wooden floor as he lands. "I'm here." It's Kelso. His striking features resemble an older gentleman. Whitish blonde hair and a gruff voice, though perhaps with a slight German accent-- almost grandfather-like. "Master, where were you? What... is this man doing here?" "C.E. Agent, member of the Church and Special-Forces Unit for taking care of our kind. You need to kill this filth." You raise an eyebrow, "What? I dunno... Ugh. No, Kelso. He's just, like, doing his job. I think? No, it doesn't matter! What's going on?" "His job is to murder Creations, government is after us and the rest of the-- the Professor's creations. We're not safe. Which, is why you need to kill this officer. You need to get used to this before it becomes more common to handle." The soldier slowly looks up at you, scrambling to get up. "You two... speak? Lord in heaven, the damned speak!" You can imagine his eyes would be widening right about now, but his entire body is covered in the metal suit, flashing with electric blue lining, his helmet with a black visor. The figure, now up, begins to scramble for a rifle-like object, but Kelso gives a heavy slap to the back of his head, sending the man flying forward, his helmet flying off in a different direction. "Kelso, Creations? What the hell is going on? Tell me!" "First, kill him." "I'm really not sure about this..." "Kid, I know you're hungry." It's true. "This is the only thing you can feast on." You just stare in disbelief, shaking your head. Kelso stares at you for a moment before turning around and kicking the operative in the side. You hear a dent and a crack, likely his ribs were smashed along with his armor. "Let's get your questions over with. Now. You need to decide what you'll do with him." You take a deep breath, just shocked at everything that's transpiring. After mumbling and scratching your head, you think you know what to ask. > You say "Why the hell do I need to eat this man?" Kelso sighs with an apparent annoyance. "You're not eating him. You're going to drink his blood. I've explained this before." He sort of did, but it doesn't exactly make it better. He told you that you couldn't digest any food, but he never mentioned you'd have to digest blood! "I... I drink his blood... from the neck?" Your knowledge about supernatural creatures is more or less non-existent, give or take whatever nerdy things you might have dabbled in high-school. Unless you were some sort of jock before then. You don't remember... "Not necessarily. The wrist works too-- as long as you get a stream of blood in your mouth you'll be satiated. This should be easier as things go along though, since any sort of infirmary should have some blood packs for transfusions, and those are easily broken into. And you can always drink non-human blood... But this is necessary. Oh, and do remember to watch out for the diseased, bad blood isn't good for yor system." "Ugh... Do we really have to kill him?" You ask with a frown. "Unless you want him to call upon the rest of the C.E. Crew on our asses, then yes. Either way, you need to be full before we leave this shit hole. We have work to do."<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Out of nowhere, a humanoid with flashy armor leaps at you. Fearful, you quickly send out a powerful jab, lamely clunking on his armor as he topples on top of you. You expect him to attack, or continue the assault, but he appears to be as dazed you are. Although the metal armor is heavy, you're able to throw him off of yourself, hearing a splintering in the wooden floor as he lands. "I'm here." It's Kelso. His striking features resemble an older gentleman. Whitish blonde hair and a gruff voice, though perhaps with a slight German accent-- almost grandfather-like. "Master, where were you? What... is this man doing here?" "C.E. Agent, member of the Church and Special-Forces Unit for taking care of our kind. You need to kill this filth." You raise an eyebrow, "What? I dunno... Ugh. No, Kelso. He's just, like, doing his job. I think? No, it doesn't matter! What's going on?" "His job is to murder Creations, government is after us and the rest of the-- the Professor's creations. We're not safe. Which, is why you need to kill this officer. You need to get used to this before it becomes more common to handle." The soldier slowly looks up at you, scrambling to get up. "You two... speak? Lord in heaven, the damned speak!" You can imagine his eyes would be widening right about now, but his entire body is covered in the metal suit, flashing with electric blue lining, his helmet with a black visor. The figure, now up, begins to scramble for a rifle-like object, but Kelso gives a heavy slap to the back of his head, sending the man flying forward, his helmet flying off in a different direction. "Kelso, Creations? What the hell is going on? Tell me!" "First, kill him." "I'm really not sure about this..." "Kid, I know you're hungry." It's true. "This is the only thing you can feast on." You just stare in disbelief, shaking your head. Kelso stares at you for a moment before turning around and kicking the operative in the side. You hear a dent and a crack, likely his ribs were smashed along with his armor. "Let's get your questions over with. Now. You need to decide what you'll do with him." You take a deep breath, just shocked at everything that's transpiring. After mumbling and scratching your head, you think you know what to ask. > You say "Creations? What did the Professor do to us?" "You and me both. The Professor was a nasty sort, creating freaks of nature to..." His face seems to strain, though for reasons you may or may not realize, "To... for a program, you see. The Government shut the facility down early enough, but he kept the creations up and running for a while longer. When the soldiers came to burn the place down, well, that's where you and I come in. Possibly others." "There are more like me and you?" You ask, trying to absorb as much as you can before Kelso shuts up again. "Maybe. I'd be surprised if that much survived the raid. But there are certainly other experiments that the Professor did. Chimera, Were-beasts, you name it. And, of course, 'vampires', like you." "What about yourself? I thought you were a vampire as well? "I'm a lot of things." A pause in the conversation occurs, before you shake your head and continue the questionnaire, "Right... And why are the soldiers trying to kill us?" "I told you already, the Church, lead by a certain priest named 'Tomas', believes we're demonic mutants created by the Professor. They think they're cleaning the world from us. That's what they've been doing for years, hunting down Creations on some sort of religious-killing spree. The facility which you woke up from was the last one before they destroyed it. Even though we live virtually forever, this is a curse, kid, and they realize that. As Creations, we're biologically forced to do things. We have to drink blood-- it's a necessity. The sunlight burns us, for our skin is too fair. What they don't realize is that we're also sentient beings. We were humans, once. ''And yet, the bastard that made us still lives somewhere out there. And I want you to help me find him. Furthermore, if we make a good enough team, we may even be able to overthrow the Church, for it's reach is strong. They're more or less the only ruling bodies the world has currently... Both of them, the Professor and the Church, are evils that need to be eradicated. We'll stop them both, just stick with me, kid."<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Out of nowhere, a humanoid with flashy armor leaps at you. Fearful, you quickly send out a powerful jab, lamely clunking on his armor as he topples on top of you. You expect him to attack, or continue the assault, but he appears to be as dazed you are. Although the metal armor is heavy, you're able to throw him off of yourself, hearing a splintering in the wooden floor as he lands. "I'm here." It's Kelso. His striking features resemble an older gentleman. Whitish blonde hair and a gruff voice, though perhaps with a slight German accent-- almost grandfather-like. "Master, where were you? What... is this man doing here?" "C.E. Agent, member of the Church and Special-Forces Unit for taking care of our kind. You need to kill this filth." You raise an eyebrow, "What? I dunno... Ugh. No, Kelso. He's just, like, doing his job. I think? No, it doesn't matter! What's going on?" "His job is to murder Creations, government is after us and the rest of the-- the Professor's creations. We're not safe. Which, is why you need to kill this officer. You need to get used to this before it becomes more common to handle." The soldier slowly looks up at you, scrambling to get up. "You two... speak? Lord in heaven, the damned speak!" You can imagine his eyes would be widening right about now, but his entire body is covered in the metal suit, flashing with electric blue lining, his helmet with a black visor. The figure, now up, begins to scramble for a rifle-like object, but Kelso gives a heavy slap to the back of his head, sending the man flying forward, his helmet flying off in a different direction. "Kelso, Creations? What the hell is going on? Tell me!" "First, kill him." "I'm really not sure about this..." "Kid, I know you're hungry." It's true. "This is the only thing you can feast on." You just stare in disbelief, shaking your head. Kelso stares at you for a moment before turning around and kicking the operative in the side. You hear a dent and a crack, likely his ribs were smashed along with his armor. "Let's get your questions over with. Now. You need to decide what you'll do with him." You take a deep breath, just shocked at everything that's transpiring. After mumbling and scratching your head, you think you know what to ask. > You say "Who am-- was I?" Kelso stares at you, obviously contemplating how to answer. "Don't know, don't care. Your new life begins now." Damn. Well, okay, doesn't seem like he's going to reveal anything...<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Out of nowhere, a humanoid with flashy armor leaps at you. Fearful, you quickly send out a powerful jab, lamely clunking on his armor as he topples on top of you. You expect him to attack, or continue the assault, but he appears to be as dazed you are. Although the metal armor is heavy, you're able to throw him off of yourself, hearing a splintering in the wooden floor as he lands. "I'm here." It's Kelso. His striking features resemble an older gentleman. Whitish blonde hair and a gruff voice, though perhaps with a slight German accent-- almost grandfather-like. "Master, where were you? What... is this man doing here?" "C.E. Agent, member of the Church and Special-Forces Unit for taking care of our kind. You need to kill this filth." You raise an eyebrow, "What? I dunno... Ugh. No, Kelso. He's just, like, doing his job. I think? No, it doesn't matter! What's going on?" "His job is to murder Creations, government is after us and the rest of the-- the Professor's creations. We're not safe. Which, is why you need to kill this officer. You need to get used to this before it becomes more common to handle." The soldier slowly looks up at you, scrambling to get up. "You two... speak? Lord in heaven, the damned speak!" You can imagine his eyes would be widening right about now, but his entire body is covered in the metal suit, flashing with electric blue lining, his helmet with a black visor. The figure, now up, begins to scramble for a rifle-like object, but Kelso gives a heavy slap to the back of his head, sending the man flying forward, his helmet flying off in a different direction. "Kelso, Creations? What the hell is going on? Tell me!" "First, kill him." "I'm really not sure about this..." "Kid, I know you're hungry." It's true. "This is the only thing you can feast on." You just stare in disbelief, shaking your head. Kelso stares at you for a moment before turning around and kicking the operative in the side. You hear a dent and a crack, likely his ribs were smashed along with his armor. "Let's get your questions over with. Now. You need to decide what you'll do with him." You take a deep breath, just shocked at everything that's transpiring. After mumbling and scratching your head, you think you know what to ask. > You continue. After asking all the questions you can think of, you watch the pained man writhe and groan. The domineering Kelso looks at his pitiful state, bends down and puts his index finger to right above where his carotid artery is, obviously sensing for the pulse. "Here, sink your teeth in and drink." Although you are hesitant, your instincts take over as your mouth begins to water slightly, making it slightly less dry for the first time. As you bend down, you begin to feel... fangs protrude from your upper jaw. Sharp, powerful teeth, ready to satiate your hunger. Hoping to get it over with, instinct and lust takes over as you bring your head down and get your teeth stuck on top of his neck. Rich, red blood squirts with an ugly squishing sound. "God damnit, on the artery!" Kelso grabs your neck and, pulling your fangs out of the man, forces it back on the right place. You moan, half in pleasure and the other half in disgust. It tastes... salty, filling. It tasted good, and you don't mind choking on this stuff. It's the first time you've felt such a rush, it's like a drug... But, on the other hand... This isn't human. This man... He's screaming, begging. Something about children and the forces of evil... As Kelso let's you have control of your own neck again, the sudden rush ends, and you cough out the other man's blood. "You didn't have to kill him, but he's dead now. Which is actually a good thing, but you really should be less sloppy. You missed." He continues to smile. Kelso begins to strip the Zealot's armor off, and hands it to you. A walkie-talkie falls to the floor and clatters, though it remains undamaged. "Now we can begin." He tosses you the armor, a hoodie, and some sort of... lotion? You catch, it reflexively, "Begin what?" "Our vengeance. Tying up loose ends. Give meaning to your un-life." "I... I just killed a man!" "Who was going to kill you. Plus, it was an accident." You stand there, with bloody hands and a mouth dripping with delectable blood. Kelso... What's he up to? He... You think he's a good person, he saved you. But, this isn't right. Maybe you should get away... "Snap out of it kid, we have a duty to fulfill. This isn't a blessing what happened to you and me, and that's why we need to kill the man who did this to us, so he can't do this to others." > You lacking a healthy alternative, join Kelso for your new life. It's like the first time you remember Kelso. His hand outstretched, asking him to join you... You shake it firmly. It's crazy, but you trust him. Like a baby chick to the first thing it sees... It's funny. He's become of a master and more like a father. While he may not have the most moral methods, he still knows way more than you and will help you through it. Besides, the Professor no doubt know your origins, before you kill him you might even get that from him. If you stick with Kelso, that is. As silence consumes the conversation, you attempt at conversing, "So, the lotion..." "Sun-tan lotion. It wears off after a small while, but it'll protect you when it counts. Spread it on your face, wouldn't want that to peel all the way off. The hoodie and that is the best things I was able to take." "So you stole it?" He shrugs. "Took it. We need to hide, remember? Can't have people know about us and our condition. The soldiers are much stronger when they are in control. Also: the Zealot's armor. It's worth equipping, just need to turn off the flashy-light part." "And now what?" "You stop asking questions and let me finish." He eyes you with seeming annoyance. "We'll be finding his stronger Creations that no doubt survived this long. They're a violent lot though, which is why having you will be a big help. I figure one of them will know where the Professor is." As if reading your mind, he continues, "And we find them by trailing the C.E. Division, which have specific DNA trackers on some of us. Not you or myself, thankfully, but a good deal of the Creations were registered to the government. Government program and all... But anyhow, we're going to town soon. I say we wait at the police station, they should have an outpost there. After hearing where they are, we hitch a ride in one of their vans. Not a very elaborate plan, but it'll probably work." He stares at you, as if expecting resistance. "Unless you have a better idea?" "Actually... > No. It seems solid enough. Let's do it." "It seems solid enough, let's do it." He nods in return, as if pondering about something. "Then let's go." "Now? Are you sure I'm ready?" "Yes now. You're ready." Kelso smiles. --- Suffice to say, you're pretty confident. You're in full control of your new body, and the armor you looted off the zealot may be bulky, but you'd be damned if you didn't look awesome with it. All this gave your self-esteem a much needed boost before setting off to the City. Kel, as you've come to call him, probably realized that when he offered it to you. Admittedly, it's probably why you haven't pressed him for questions on the plan; he just seems to have everything under control. Now, on the night of the full moon, Kelso's ambiguous plan will be enacted. Perhaps the full moon was completely planned, or perhaps not. Regardless, the tension can be felt in the air. Regardless, the journey to the flashy city several miles down is uneventful, save for the fascinating landscape and occasional howls that Kelso doesn't seem to hear (you've mentioned this to him; and he took interest but told you to save it for later, as it may be important). But yes, the landscape changed dramatically from the collection of half-buried houses that you were holed up in with Kelso. From complete, uninhabited desert, to a flashy, futuristic town with strobe lights and a somewhat dense population considering the size of the premises. It's not even that big, but it's... Out of place. Surrounded by desert, it stands as a beacon of light. Your mentor is garbed with the hoodie he gave you earlier, his older, but surly exterior showing out in the twilight. As he leads you through the sand to the City, he suddenly stops to speak; and you stand at attention. "So, you're probably all ears to hear what my plan was." You nod. "Err, yes." "Then why didn't you ask? Didn't my plan sound ridiculous" The wind stops blowing. "I know you have everything under control. I trust in you, master." Kelso turns to face you, his face solemn and grim. "Then you're not what I need. I want to tame a lion, not a goat." He spits, and before you know it your face has hit the rough sand. You quickly turn to see Kelso jumping up, the moon behind him and his silver claws in front, his eyes now turned red and gleaming. You jump from the ground to the side, but his hand catches your chest. You breathe; it doesn't regenerate. Another breath. More blood squirts out. His other hand now clawing at your eyes. Aching pain... it's all black, but you're still alive! You can feel your body spasming, and you turn all your confusion into rage and power, but to no avail... You have been killed by your mentor.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>It's like the first time you remember Kelso. His hand outstretched, asking him to join you... You shake it firmly. It's crazy, but you trust him. Like a baby chick to the first thing it sees... It's funny. He's become of a master and more like a father. While he may not have the most moral methods, he still knows way more than you and will help you through it. Besides, the Professor no doubt know your origins, before you kill him you might even get that from him. If you stick with Kelso, that is. As silence consumes the conversation, you attempt at conversing, "So, the lotion..." "Sun-tan lotion. It wears off after a small while, but it'll protect you when it counts. Spread it on your face, wouldn't want that to peel all the way off. The hoodie and that is the best things I was able to take." "So you stole it?" He shrugs. "Took it. We need to hide, remember? Can't have people know about us and our condition. The soldiers are much stronger when they are in control. Also: the Zealot's armor. It's worth equipping, just need to turn off the flashy-light part." "And now what?" "You stop asking questions and let me finish." He eyes you with seeming annoyance. "We'll be finding his stronger Creations that no doubt survived this long. They're a violent lot though, which is why having you will be a big help. I figure one of them will know where the Professor is." As if reading your mind, he continues, "And we find them by trailing the C.E. Division, which have specific DNA trackers on some of us. Not you or myself, thankfully, but a good deal of the Creations were registered to the government. Government program and all... But anyhow, we're going to town soon. I say we wait at the police station, they should have an outpost there. After hearing where they are, we hitch a ride in one of their vans. Not a very elaborate plan, but it'll probably work." He stares at you, as if expecting resistance. "Unless you have a better idea?" "Actually... > You why don't we just signal them?" Kelso rubs at his clean chin. "Elaborate." You hold up the walky-talkie, "If they know where the Professor is, then that means they're either working for him, like you're assuming, or are just planning their vengeance; If we can get a message to them, get their attention--" "Then the C.E. Soldiers will get to us and them." "Not unless our signal is obscure, something only a Creation would know. Can I assume that we're the only one who refer to the Professor, as, well, a professor?" Your mentor smiles, "Yes... That's what the greater Creations called him. Myself, the Werewolf, Stein, and several others. We all were forced under the bastard to look over Lessers, like yourself. One of them are bound to be in this town, has the smallest C.E. division in the East. We just have to hope we'll be able to handle them in the case that they're still loyal. So you want us to send a wide broadcast, maybe even a flare labeled 'Professor', and hope we catch some of our brethren?" "That," you continue, "or we lure the church to us by contacting them with the Walkie, and just beat the information out of them. By the sounds of it, they'd be expecting a trap, so they wouldn't bring all their operatives to this location. Hopefully they have an idea where the other Creations are. It's not a perfect plan, but it's uh, better than yours. Don't think you can just nab one like you did with the last one, now that they're probably on guard." Kelso nods, considering both of your plans, "Much better. Regardless, Mr. Plans, we need to train." "Train, for what?" Crossing your arms as a child would, you question Kelso. "I feel like you're not telling me everything. Even if the plan is solid, but we need to be solid, with, umm, each-other." With a chuckle, Kelso replies, "What do you think we're doing? We're fighting against an elite military operation, as well as bio-genetically advanced Creations. We're not playing here, son, there's going to be blood. I'm pretty certain that you'll be able to be very powerful if we train accordingly. This may be surprising, but I think you should cherish your undeath while it lasts. Not to mention that I'd rather not jeopardize myself." "... So the Creations are going to be very hostile?" He shrugs in return, "Maybe, more likely than not anyhow. We're betting on whether they're still loyal or not to their Creator." "Why would they still be loyal to that... that bastard?" "Well, he did save our lives." You stand in silence with a confused frown. Kelso continues. "Mind you, he also treated us like lab rats and played with our genetic-material. That's why we're going to find him and his Creations, to put an end to it once and for all, so no one else is 'saved' by that man." You nod in understanding. Kelso and yourself... You're going to help the world together. Clean it. A hero... "The valley of dunes at night is the best place and time. We'll train today and tomorrow, and by then you should be ready. Now, more about that plan of yours..." > You contact the other Creations in any way possible. You spend the next several nights preparing for action, training with Kelso. Over the course of your tutoring, you've begun to really fit into your new, adaptable body. You're able to fight, and you're able to think, strategize. Be efficient, be in control. You know you're ready, and you don't need Kelso to convince you of that anymore. You feel like you're ready to pull off one of your plans. It's night once again, with the Moon full and bright. Kelso is clad in your hoodie, his aged but intimidating features showing out from under it. It didn't seem like his ideal clothes (you could see him rocking a cloak) but when at night a hoodie is probably more practical. You're still garbed in the bulky, but inspiring armor of the Zealot, just with the lights on the outside turned off. You look to your Mentor, who's sitting beside you in the half-buried house. You begin to explain your simplistic, though wishful plan to your mentor. "This is obviously just an assumption, but if we were able to nick a talkie pretty quick, then any other Creation in the area would probably have one." You begin, eyeing Kelso's facial expression. Blank. "Sound logic." You cough, and then continue, "But they wouldn't use the same channel that the Church uses to communicate, I'd assume. So if we fiddle with the channel, go through each one very thoroughly, then-" "We may find a fellow, nearby Creation. Interesting, though it may not work." "And if it doesn't work then we can try my other plan." You say arguing for your plans. "Well, we should get this done quick then. You're likely going to get hungry if you don't drink soon. Couple of days, I think." You shudder; drinking like you did last time wasn't fun. Even if it was tasty. "So, you think it's worth a shot?" He nods, "Provided you know what to say to them if they reply." Thoughts begin to form, though you can admit to yourself that you're not a hundred percent certain on what you could say. Hello, we're looking for the Professor? ... Um, want to tell us where you are? Thanks, please don't kill us when we meet. You laugh, the situation playing out in your head. "Let's do it then, no reason not to." You grab around and find the Zealot's walkie-talkie, and switch it on... Click You immediately memorize where the current dial is set at and then begin to move the dial all the way to the left. You wait for a moment, only hearing static. The dial moves about a millimeter to the right-- just static. One centimeter at a time... To say the least, it gets aggravating. More static, keeps going, and going, and no dice. > You trudge along... Every time the dial moves slightly less than a centimeter, you pause for thirty seconds, push the button and recite in monotone, "Hello, are you knowledgeable about the Professor?" Hoping you catch something or get a response. Kelso's eventual chuckles are disconcerting, to say the least, but you focus on the problem at hand. You continue pushing the dial to the right, passing it's original point and beyond. Meanwhile, you're praying to no deity in particular that your plan succeeds. You want to impress Kelso. He's like a father-figure, the first person you saw when your hatched out of your tube. On the other hand, he's a teacher who's withholding information, which gets frustrating at times. You remain conflicted about the only person you have met in your vampiric form. Suddenly, you hear a response. Short and you can't make out what it's saying, but it's something. You push the button and repeat, "Hello?" You stop pressing. Lots of static, probably bad reception on their end. A gruff, snarling voice speaks out, "Who's there? What's this about a professor?" "You know who I'm talking about." You reply, hoping. "The Professor, the one who Created us." "Then who are you?" "A fellow Creation, and I want to join forces. The Zealots are too many in number for my liking." "Do you really... Who's with you?" You look to Kelso, who brings a finger to his lips. "Just... Just me. Why?" "Because you're lying." The voice coughs, sending over a truly ugly sound over the transceiver, "But no matter. You wish to join the Wolves then, right?" "Assuming your group can take care of itself. How many are your group and where are you?" "Five and growing. You won't find it, it's under the ground." And growing? "So can you lead me to where you guys are?" You wait a couple of moments, and then he answers, "Hmm... Nah. We don't need more nutbars in this camp. I'd rather not bring attention to our hideout from the Zealots." Son of a bitch. "Well, you're missing out, Wolfie." "I'm sure I am, haha." You click it off. "Sorry, Kelso, that was pretty pointless." "Though interesting. It doesn't sound like they're too interested in finding the Professor, rather just survival. Perhaps with a little arm twisting we can get in there..." "If we find out where they are." "Well, that's what Plan B is for, right?" > You try to lure a Zealot here, in hopes one of them know where the Wolf hideout is. "Err, uh, yeah. Let's try my other plan." Kelso laughs. "Of course." "Hey, both of my plans were better than your's." You argue, setting the dial back to where it was. Now that you think about it, you wonder why the Church never went out looking for the Zealot which your mentor killed, and you killed. Perhaps they did, just you and Kelso never noticed it. Or perhaps the Zealots often went out in long journeys without communication. No matter now, You realize, they'll pick up at the signal. Somebody will. Excitedly, you fidget for the WT, and grasp it firmly. You clear your throat to speak, but Kelso briefs you. "Remember, just put the channel on. Listen in and wait for a while, and if nothing turns up then try speaking. But only then." "Does it matter?" "It might." You cough again, then breathe in. Out. In. You put the dial back to where it was in the first place. Out. Nothing but static, for now. Minutes go by. You stand at the ready. But all is static. Ten minutes turns to half an hour, though your body doesn't stop tensing. Something is coming. > You try to communicate. You push the button on the walkie-talkie, and speak into it. "Hello?" Moments pass. After several more crackles you get a response. A cool female voice speaks out, "Sebastian? Seargent, is everything alright?" British? Kelso shoots you a sideways glance. You can almost feel him sending you a message with his eyes. Be creative, you call the shots for now. You blink. Ahem, "I have spotted some of the err, creations." "Well of course you have." Matter of fact tone. "We've known where the devils that are the Wolves have been for a while now. We just need to strike them. Which reminds me, we should get back to base." Perfect. Ish. "No! The, uh, lord helped me and I found others." "Others? What do you mean?" "There are other Creations that have escaped aside from the, uh, wolves, and-" The woman on the other side is excited, "More?" "Um, only one. That I found, at least. But one is one too many. I uh, need backup." "Stop stuttering, Sebastian. This is important. Where are you? Now searching it up..." Pause. "Your GPS tracker hasn't been functioning for a couple of days. That's probably why security has tightened around the City. Where the hell are you?" Shit. "Well, uh, the battery died and, uh, things happened." "Things? Sebastian, I... Did it take you hostage?" You've decided you like her voice. "It?" She lowers her voice, "What is your general location, Sebastian? We'll find you. You'll be safe." You pause, looking to Kelso for help. To tell the truth, you have no idea where you are. Kelso looks the other way. You sigh, annoyed at him. Maybe he's just a bit offended that your plan was better. Or not. "I..." > You force the reciever into Kelso's hand. Scared to risk stuttering more and screwing things up, you take the WT and make sure Kelso holds it. He looks at you with contempt before speaking into it. "Indeed." He seethes, his voice threatening and just... Cold. Kelso doesn't even need to try to get his voice that way, it just is, even if it sounds grandfather-like when he scolds you, "I have him. It's amazing how the Church has destroyed what's left of this Earth. Only desert left aside from your little colony and houses buried in sand. But believe me, this 'Sebastian' isn't the first human who I've caught." Kelso pauses, and releases the button to see if she responds. She doesn't. He finishes. "And he won't be the last." Click And it's off. "Master, wasn't that too dramatic? We don't want them to send more than we can handle..." "Kid, you never force a person into a conversation he didn't start. You'd think you'd still remember proper manners. Let's just hope to heaven they don't bring every damn one of the king's men." --- Kelso and yourself find several mounds to hide behind. There are only several clusters of areas around the big City that have the half-buried houses, which means that the religious troupe will likely find them there, at some point. You keep your sights on the city. Every once in a while you'll see moving lights across the landscape, which are subsequently turned off. Then on. And off again... "Those are the soldiers." Kelso points out to you. A good deal of them too, and approaching quickly on more than one side. The lights seem to travel in groups. You count... Eight groups of five. You wonder how many you can take, and in turn how much more Kelso could. "So, what's the plan?" "We capture one and hightail it out of here. This... Is going to be challenging." Your mentor stands up, watching the approaching mob of Zealots. Two or three are way off, lighting up the opposite direction, but the rest are surrounding your vicinity, though you're uncertain if that's on purpose or not. Kelso motions you to come closer to him, to listen. "This is where we split up. They're trying to flank us, but that won't work when they're spread out like this. We're, funnily enough, a straight, though long line away from the city. The lights are moving toward us, and with other groups closing in from the two sides; a circle. I go one way, you go the other." "Like we trained, I hit hared and fast." He nods. "Let's get to it then. Good luck, kid." He begins jogging to the left. It's when he breaks out into a run when you only begin moving leftwards. For the first time since you escaped the Facility, you're scared. You sprint across the sand with your head down, maintaining balance and stealth even with your heavy armor. You ready yourself, the lights shining brighter and brighter until... You see them. Tall, thick, dark; the words that come to mind. Shining Crosses on ebony metal that covers the entire body, down to the legs. His helmet's visor is like a medieval knight's, only more techy. Not only that, but their rifles are huge, with tusks at the end. You wonder what caliber that behemoth could hold... Still, you have the element of surprise, if only because you aren't a lightbulb shaped a like freaking cross. You leap up, letting a gust of wind propel you, making a cross of your own in the night-sky, Your body finds itself right above the ringleader, who dumbly looks up when your feet, disguised as sneakers, land on his helmet. A heavy clunking sound is made before you hear a snap (his neck), which you use for momentum, jumping at another, this time with your fists. Refined rage, like Kelso taught you. It was going fine until bullets came into the picture. After the second clunk the last three of the group turn and point their bayonets-on-crack rifles at you. What comes out isn't a bullet, more like... Lightning? It bursts out at you with a mighty roar, and you feel your skin ripping, only to regenerate. Three more blasts, you make another swipe, hitting viciously through the armor of one, finishing him off with blood. Three (who were shooting at you) to go. They reload, which thankfully takes enough time. One of them doesn't bother, however, and stick the tusks of his rifle into you. Some of your blood spills, and even more of his bursts out when you push his rifle from inside you to inside of him, his armor nothing when your rage takes over. With blood squirting into your eyes, the rest are easy work. You claw at the armored figures, their lightning-shots hurting you but not overcoming you until... You're done. Five of them were killed, and you don't even remember how the last one went down. You lay on the sand, too stunned to move. More of the Crosses come over to belt you over the head with what must be a bible, because damn was it heavy. --- Even more bright lights (a recurring theme, you tell yourself), and you find yourself strapped onto a chair. The room is all blue, but your chair is white. For whatever reason, the colors seem pleasant, and calming to you. You wonder what happened to Kelso... A powerful voice speaks out, "Who are you?" > You reply truthfully. "I honestly don't know." You reply to the voice, "But who are you?" The blue room begins to make funny, scratching noises. Then, the sound of clinking; gears shifting, and a part of the room turns backwards, revealing an opening. Out of it, and elderly man with a flowing white beard, skullcap and robe comes out. "My apologies," His gravely, but strong voice speaks out, "I am the founder of the Church and retired Zealot." As he says this, a hatch in the floor is cranked open, allowing space for an odd chair to form out. "May I take a seat?" You lick your lips. Still some blood on them, you would have thought the assholes be kind enough to wash you, but apparently not. Seeing you not respond, the Father takes a seat. "So," He begins, "You don't remember... Anything? How have you been surviving alone? You're young." You nod. "No. I woke up when your 'Zealots' destroyed teh Facility. I'm lucky I made it out alive, with your dogs burning it down. I had a mentor, though you likely got him as well..." "There are two unlisted Creations? Fascinating." He strokes his beard, "The burning of the facility was necessary. Not that you'd know, you're in the dark, I believe." You find this funny, though not untrue. "And you're about to enlighten me?" Tomas nods, "Then end your suffering, through any means necessary." "So I'm going to die by the end of this?" "Of course. Though there's always the option of cooperating. Even the saints needed the devils to do their bidding. Sometimes." He smiles. "I'm not some sort of 'devil'." You reply, bewildered, "Why do you suppose that?" "You like stories, yes? Because there is a necessary one here, one that you probably never heard of." Head shaking, you motion for him to carry on. "For being such a good sport, I'll cut out the dramatic parts and just get to the real 'beef'" He states, his eyes trained on yours. He coughs, spewing out dots of mucus in your direction, then does it again. WIth his throat now cleared, Father Tomas begins his tale. "The world two decades ago was a much different place. Lush greens were the equivalent of sand today; everywhere you looked, there was grass. Huge cities, several miles in circumference, were common place. Buildings reaching the clouds and mods of transport like griffons, soaring high above. Religion, ironically, was considerably less widespread, and it continued to dwindle as so-called 'science' led many astray. As evil was legalized, sodomy and murder-rates soon became more and more consistent and the government fell to anarchy as horrible diseases began to spread. Militant radicals spread throughout the globe, raping and pillaging. At the time, to those who were looking, it was obvious that this was God's Reckoning; his flood to bring about a New Age. That's where Simon Kurschner's Creations came into play. With government support, he tried to find a way to get out of the apocalypse, not realizing it was God's will, it couldn't be stopped. But he tried, and he received the funding to do whatever he wanted, with hopes of stopping the plague, and creating beings who could stop the barbarians. He took the dead and dying, experimenting on them and trying to create slaves. There is no doubt in my mind he did things that weren't legal, but that didn't matter to them. As long as he saved us, he could go against the Lord's will, using humans as guinea pigs, and secretly trying to make for himself perfect slaves. Kurschner created many different sorts of entities, and for the next several years he was a beacon of hope for the non-believers. But we, the Church, we knew what was coming. The Creations were immune to disease, and had a fighting prowess unmatched by the strongest armies in the world. One Creation could destroy hundreds of Radicals with minimal effort, and it seemed like this would fix everything, but hell on Earth stayed. Even after the threats were stopped, the Creations and their Leader wanted more. They began to kill indiscriminately, with an attempt to rule the world." He takes a deep breath, trying to remember, "As God decreed, the Earth began to decay in the demons' wake. While Doctor Kurschner ruled his legions from hell, a few of us banded together. The Church was the new Ark; we banded together to maintain what's left of humanity. IT was hard, but we suceeded, with several towns in the Northern United States. But the demons still linger, and it is our duty to destroy what God intended to not let live. "Because that's is what you are!" He raises his voice, shaking his fists angrily at your helpless self on the chair, "You were supposed to stay dead, like the rest of the infected. But you were given life, and now are doomed to live a cursed life because of that Doctor. That is why the Church will destroy all the Creations that are still roaming the Earth." "But they're still human!" You interrupt, pointing to yourself, "I'm still human." The Priest continues, as if not hearing you, "However... It isn't your fault. Perhaps that's why I'm giving you this chance, a chance at a redemption, of sorts. After the men you've killed, there is nothing I can do to save your unlife, but perhaps you can still find favor with the Lord... Undercover." > You hear him out. His story is... Interesting, to say the least. So Simon Kurschner is the Professor's actual name. "So what do you want from me?" You ask, uncertain of yourself. Who is my main enemy? The Professor or the Church? Both? Is the Professor even still alive? The Father nods, "We need you to lead us to the other Creations, so we can finish them once and for all. You are the last of the Vampires, and you can most likely help our charge on the Wolves. As I said, the Creations are very powerful. Having one on our side could be a huge help." You smirk back at him, "Why though? It's not like you've given me any sort of ambition to help you wackos." "Well, I thought life was good objective." He shrugs, bringing his hand close to the opening of his robes. "You think I'd sell out my fellow Creations just for myself?" "I'd be surprised if you cared for them-- you don't even remember them! You have no connection to this world anymore." He grimaces, taking a knobby finger and waving it at your chest. "The only thing that may be left is your heart, and even that is subject to debate. Will you side with us, the humans, or die here. The choice is yours. Light and Darkness, that is your only option here!" Light and Darkness, but is it really that simple? > You redeem yourself in the eyes of God. "Very good." The old man grins, "Your training shall commence soon enough. Now, you will be fed every once in a while, we have some animals out back that you can feast from, if you want. But you certainly won't be getting human blood, haha." Regardless of your reasons for accepting the devil's bargain, you can't help but find him horribly irritating currently. You sigh, realizing that the only thing you can look forward to this week is the blandly colored room and the sneering priest. "Goodbye, then, Vampire of the Light." The priest happily shuffles away into the clinking gear-based doors, and your mind wanders... Days pass, and you'd be lying if you said that you weren't surprised that the withered old geezer wasn't mentoring you himself. Of course, this makes sense-- the rest of the Church would probably lynch him if he declared you 'AOK', but it's more surprising how spry the man is. He spends the next few days teaching you boring protocol, not-as-boring use of standardized C.E. weaponry, and a quick, refined crash-course through some-sort of martial art. Surprisingly, he doesn't bother you with the gospel of the Zealots, but you're too busy working on yourself in order to reflect on that. Within a week, he manages to transform you into what he thinks is a Creation killing machine. And it's then when he reveals the plan you were already somewhat familiar with. "It is necessary that we raid the Wolf hideout, and completely eliminate the Wolf threat once and for all, when they least expect it. We have found their coordinates, finally," he hands you a tablet, showing a mapping of the surrounding desert, "And can now make sure they can no longer harm themselves or anyone else anymore. So, Vampire-Of-Light, do you think you're ready to take on the Demons, as is your holy mission?" "Sir, yes sir!" He grins, then outfits you with standard Zealot equipment; armor, rifle, and various gadgets used for communication. "Now just wait here while I get the rest of the Zealots ready. Tonight, you will banish the evil in our own backyards! Godspeed, soldier." With that, he leaves, finally leaving you alone. Ah, the open air and the cold night sky. Beautiful in many ways, and-- wait, I'm outside! I can run away from this place! I can't believe they're letting me out unsupervised like this... > You run away, you must inform your brethren of the Church's plans before you're too late! You slowly begin making your way up and to the right-side, in the direction of the Wolves' actual hideout. What starts off as a slow walk turns into full-blown running on the cool desert sand. You breathe in the air, and then out. Despite the recent turn of events, you feel absolutely wonderful; though that feeling is soon changed into a horrific one. You suddenly sense your body being pulled back by some sort of shocking force, and then your bleary eyes only make out another cool-blue room. Difference is, there are several others in the room, all in masks. You try to move, but your entire body seems to be restrained by a cold metal, and your face is covered by some sort of hazy mask and... Is that a scalpel!?!? The Father's voice rings out, "See, the funny thing is, you never really had a choice in helping us. In the end, God always opens up ways for his sheep to wander, and always closes the gates on the bad wolves. I had plans to make use of you regardless of whether you actually meant repentance." Though it's a slow and dull process, you feel your life-energy slowly being sucked out. Even if you could probably survive much longer, you slowly realize that survival is what they want, so they could continue examining your body and organs for whatever purposes and rituals the Zealots want. Soon, your spirit leaves your body, and you feel yourself die on the hospital bed. You have been killed by the hands of the Church.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Very good." The old man grins, "Your training shall commence soon enough. Now, you will be fed every once in a while, we have some animals out back that you can feast from, if you want. But you certainly won't be getting human blood, haha." Regardless of your reasons for accepting the devil's bargain, you can't help but find him horribly irritating currently. You sigh, realizing that the only thing you can look forward to this week is the blandly colored room and the sneering priest. "Goodbye, then, Vampire of the Light." The priest happily shuffles away into the clinking gear-based doors, and your mind wanders... Days pass, and you'd be lying if you said that you weren't surprised that the withered old geezer wasn't mentoring you himself. Of course, this makes sense-- the rest of the Church would probably lynch him if he declared you 'AOK', but it's more surprising how spry the man is. He spends the next few days teaching you boring protocol, not-as-boring use of standardized C.E. weaponry, and a quick, refined crash-course through some-sort of martial art. Surprisingly, he doesn't bother you with the gospel of the Zealots, but you're too busy working on yourself in order to reflect on that. Within a week, he manages to transform you into what he thinks is a Creation killing machine. And it's then when he reveals the plan you were already somewhat familiar with. "It is necessary that we raid the Wolf hideout, and completely eliminate the Wolf threat once and for all, when they least expect it. We have found their coordinates, finally," he hands you a tablet, showing a mapping of the surrounding desert, "And can now make sure they can no longer harm themselves or anyone else anymore. So, Vampire-Of-Light, do you think you're ready to take on the Demons, as is your holy mission?" "Sir, yes sir!" He grins, then outfits you with standard Zealot equipment; armor, rifle, and various gadgets used for communication. "Now just wait here while I get the rest of the Zealots ready. Tonight, you will banish the evil in our own backyards! Godspeed, soldier." With that, he leaves, finally leaving you alone. Ah, the open air and the cold night sky. Beautiful in many ways, and-- wait, I'm outside! I can run away from this place! I can't believe they're letting me out unsupervised like this... > You proceed with the facade of a loyal Zealot, only to turn when the time is right. You remain compliant, for now. You think about everything you've been through so far-- not much, though it's felt like a lot. The main 'highlights' was Kelso, where the hell is that bastard? and the constant torment you've endured from Father Tomas. At least, regardless of today's outcome, you'll have you revenge against the Church, at least. You turn your head to find at least fifty armored Zealots in formation, marching along with their flashing chests and a surprisingly optimistic attitude, as described by their songs. "Soldier, what are you doing out here so early? What's your name and rank?" Crap, I just got called out, "Err, Father Tomas knows. Where is he? I thought he was, uh, coming." "Nope, he's staying back for morale reasons." The person who called for you gets out of the formation, and runs to catch up with you. The man, especially shown through the armor, is huge-- probably the biggest Zealot you've seen thus far. His voice is pretty heavy, but he sounds surprisingly intelligent for one of his size, "Wait, are you new? You look young..." "You could say that." He laughs, misunderstanding, "Right then, I'm Chief. If you need anything just ask, young one. This'll be much easier than you think. We'll steam-roll the hell out of those Demons with our newly refined weapons." "Oh?" "All silver, baby. It cost a lot to build, and we're the only Zealots aside from Karat- you know, they guy who persists to wear white armor," Who or what the hell is he talking about? "Who have this new design. The Father says this stops them from healing, so we have no chance of losing. Don't be scared, now. I'll get you a seat in formation, give me a sec." Your stupid grin at the cockiness of the head-Zealot is thankfully concealed by your helmet. He stuffs you in his position-- the front line, while he leads out in front. Just as well, you think, I don't think this will be as easy as he says, so my being in the front should help. I think. The march is treacherously long, and if you're admitting to that then you can't imagine how the Zealots are with all the excess armor. Thankfully, your so-called curse comes with its blessings, and if you were to add it all up, you'd probably count the curses in the blessing pile. Everything would be good if only the damn Church wasn't involved. Eventually, you reach the end of of the journey, and you find nothing but more desert. "Uh, Chief? Where is the Wolf hideout?" "Literally, underground." He laughs. He takes out his rifle and screws off the tusk, and from his armor he withdraws a crafty little shovel-head. "Samuel, Zadok, do the same. We need to open this up quickly." Two of the larger Zealots come up from behind you to help shovel the certain mound of sand, and while you find it amusing at first, it soon becomes apparent that this is the place when you hear a metal clanging sound. "This is it!" You look into the ditch, and find an odd metal disk embedded into a round concrete tube, large in diameter. Maybe a well? Te man labeled 'Zadok' changes his rifle's end again, back to the tusks, then hollers for everybody to get back. Everybody complies. With a large grunt, he prepares his rifle to shoot at the plate, then a large sonic-boom erupts, and the green lightning sets the plate to turn red, in heat. Samuel sends a heavy kick, which is just enough to send the disk out of its place, opening up the well. "For God's glory!" Chief yells, and they repeat after him with enthusiasm. "FOR GOD'S GLORY!" The three head-Zealots jump down the well, landing with a loud cracking sound. Impatient at this point, you decide to reveal your true, brutal colors while the Zealots line up for going down the well. Slowly, you wait your turn to follow the first half down the well, but as your turn is right about to come up, you grab the man in front of you, and turn him over and drop-- having him fall head-first into the concrete below. The other Zealots stop their chanting and look at you, confused. You take advantage of their shock by ramming the silver tusks of your rifle through the man behind you, and following through the bum rush, pushing over several more people. You let leave of your gun, and begin angrily clawing and punching any Zealot in your way, easily piercing their various armors. Occasionally, a larger one would manage to grab you during your rampage, but the built-up rage inside of you gives you the ability to flip them from over you, then continue your massacre. The state of chaos and cluttered set of armors running frantically around, trying to hit you with their weapons make it all the better, until, from what you can make out with blurred eyesight, comes back up from well, only to blast you with his rifle. What happens after that, you cannot tell. You have been killed by Zealots... But at least you took out about half of them with you!<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Very good." The old man grins, "Your training shall commence soon enough. Now, you will be fed every once in a while, we have some animals out back that you can feast from, if you want. But you certainly won't be getting human blood, haha." Regardless of your reasons for accepting the devil's bargain, you can't help but find him horribly irritating currently. You sigh, realizing that the only thing you can look forward to this week is the blandly colored room and the sneering priest. "Goodbye, then, Vampire of the Light." The priest happily shuffles away into the clinking gear-based doors, and your mind wanders... Days pass, and you'd be lying if you said that you weren't surprised that the withered old geezer wasn't mentoring you himself. Of course, this makes sense-- the rest of the Church would probably lynch him if he declared you 'AOK', but it's more surprising how spry the man is. He spends the next few days teaching you boring protocol, not-as-boring use of standardized C.E. weaponry, and a quick, refined crash-course through some-sort of martial art. Surprisingly, he doesn't bother you with the gospel of the Zealots, but you're too busy working on yourself in order to reflect on that. Within a week, he manages to transform you into what he thinks is a Creation killing machine. And it's then when he reveals the plan you were already somewhat familiar with. "It is necessary that we raid the Wolf hideout, and completely eliminate the Wolf threat once and for all, when they least expect it. We have found their coordinates, finally," he hands you a tablet, showing a mapping of the surrounding desert, "And can now make sure they can no longer harm themselves or anyone else anymore. So, Vampire-Of-Light, do you think you're ready to take on the Demons, as is your holy mission?" "Sir, yes sir!" He grins, then outfits you with standard Zealot equipment; armor, rifle, and various gadgets used for communication. "Now just wait here while I get the rest of the Zealots ready. Tonight, you will banish the evil in our own backyards! Godspeed, soldier." With that, he leaves, finally leaving you alone. Ah, the open air and the cold night sky. Beautiful in many ways, and-- wait, I'm outside! I can run away from this place! I can't believe they're letting me out unsupervised like this... > You fulfill your duty as a Zealot of God. Indeed, you stand in the cold more stalwart than you've ever been, an entire outlook changed. While the Church may have its faults, blaming it for the world's destruction isn't true. It all boils down to the Professor and his deviants, like myself. Unless they wish to repent, then they have no stake in this world. Suddenly, you begin to hear an odd sort of chant or jingle being sung from behind you. You turn your head to find at least fifty armored Zealots in formation, marching along with their flashing chests and a surprisingly optimistic attitude, as described by their songs. "Soldier, what are you doing out here so early? What's your name and rank?" Crap, I just got called out, "Err, Father Tomas knows. Where is he? I thought he was, uh, coming." "Nope, he's staying back for morale reasons." The person who called for you gets out of the formation, and runs to catch up with you. The man, espeically shown through the armor, is huge-- probably the biggest Zealot you've seen thus far. His voice is pretty heavy, but he sounds surprisingly intelligent for one of his size, "Wait, are you new? You look young..." "You could say that." He laughs, misunderstanding, "Right then, I'm Chief. If you need anything just ask young one. This'll be much easier than you think. We'll steam-roll the hell out of those Demons with our newly refined weapons." "Oh?" "All silver, baby. It cost a lot to build, and we're the only Zealots aside from Karat- you know, they guy who persists to wear white armor," Who or what the hell is he talking about? "Who have this new design. The Father says this stops them from healing, so we have no chance of losing. Don't be scared, now. I'll get you a seat in formation, give me a sec." Your stupid grin at the kindness of the head-Zealot is thankfully concealed by your helmet. He stuffs you in his position-- the front line, while he leads out in front. Just as well, you think, I don't think this will be as easy as he says, so my being in the front should help. I think. And this begins you ascent into God's plan, whatever it may be. The march is treacherously long, and if you're admitting to that then you can't imagine how the others are with all the heavy armor. Thankfully, the curse comes with its blessings, and those blessings are obviously a reason why God's plan for you involved this. That, or we're all doomed. You shove that thought away for the moment, though. Eventually, you reach the end of of the journey, and you find nothing but more desert. "Uh, Chief? Where is the Wolf hideout?" "Literally, underground." He laughs. He takes out his rifle and screws off the tusk, and from his armor he withdraws a crafty little shovel-head. "Samuel, Zadok, do the same. We need to open this up quickly." Two of the larger Zealots come up from behind you to help shovel the certain mound of sand, and while you find it amusing at first, it soon becomes apparent that this is the place when you hear a metal clanging sound. "This is it!" You look into the ditch, and find an odd metal disk embedded into a round concrete tube, large in diameter. Maybe a well? Te man labeled 'Zadok' changes his rifle's end again, back to the tusks, then hollers for everybody to get back. Everybody complies. With a large grunt, he prepares his rifle to shoot at the plate, then a large sonic-boom erupts, and the green lightning sets the plate to turn red, in heat. Samuel sends a heavy kick, which is just enough to send the disk out of its place, opening up the well. "For God's glory!" Chief yells, and they repeat after him with enthusiasm. "FOR GOD'S GLORY!" The big-three Zealots jump in one after each-other, and after that it's a beeline to get into the concrete sewer below. Finally, when it's your turn, you manage to find foot-holds to climb down, rather than just jumping down aimlessly and without stealth. Of course, stealth is thrown out of the window whenever these lovable tools are in the equation. They're still chanting, and the light from their armor is the only thing lighting up the cavern! Your squadron of fifty or more begins a march through it, still as loud and boisterous as ever. But, suddenly, the mood changes. Something's not right... Where are the Wolves? Slowly, as the Zealots move inside the maze of hell, you notice more and more of them disappearing. "Chief! We're losing men as we speak!" The Chief looks around, his armor working as a flashlight, "Huh? But I don't see any of the Wolves?" More and more Zealots disappear, with barely anything but a gasp at best. What the hell is happening? After a small while of Zealots pleading for the Chief to turn back, you get the horrible feeling that you're next... "Nobody touches my Creations." You have been killed by an unknown player...<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>His story is... Interesting, to say the least. So Simon Kurschner is the Professor's actual name. "So what do you want from me?" You ask, uncertain of yourself. Who is my main enemy? The Professor or the Church? Both? Is the Professor even still alive? The Father nods, "We need you to lead us to the other Creations, so we can finish them once and for all. You are the last of the Vampires, and you can most likely help our charge on the Wolves. As I said, the Creations are very powerful. Having one on our side could be a huge help." You smirk back at him, "Why though? It's not like you've given me any sort of ambition to help you wackos." "Well, I thought life was good objective." He shrugs, bringing his hand close to the opening of his robes. "You think I'd sell out my fellow Creations just for myself?" "I'd be surprised if you cared for them-- you don't even remember them! You have no connection to this world anymore." He grimaces, taking a knobby finger and waving it at your chest. "The only thing that may be left is your heart, and even that is subject to debate. Will you side with us, the humans, or die here. The choice is yours. Light and Darkness, that is your only option here!" Light and Darkness, but is it really that simple? > You say "I won't be your bitch, Tomas." The wrinkled old man frowns, "So, you're throwing your one chance for redemption?" "I don't need redemption from the likes of you." You seethe back, channeling your undead cajones. "You want me to fight for you, but you're too worried about the decision that you wouldn't let any of the other Zealots. "I won't tell you your wrong, but I will tell you that you're a fool to choose a unredeemed death over a redeemed life. But I cannot pretend to comprehend the demons." You tilt your head, "You don't really believe I'm a demon, do you?" He continues to frown. "This... You wouldn't give me any sort of chance if you actually backed your beliefs. By now you must be just fear-mongering. But why?" "Humanity needs a common-enemy, something to band us together to fight and destroy. That, and only that, will keep us alive." The priest turns his back to you, and begins to slowly creep away. You struggle, and you yell out to try and kill him, to get out of this room. Yet, the UV-lights seem to hold you down, and when you realize what is happening. Flames emit from the bottom of your chair and begin to lick at your skin... You have been killed by the hands of the Church.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Scared to risk stuttering more and screwing things up, you take the WT and make sure Kelso holds it. He looks at you with contempt before speaking into it. "Indeed." He seethes, his voice threatening and just... Cold. Kelso doesn't even need to try to get his voice that way, it just is, even if it sounds grandfather-like when he scolds you, "I have him. It's amazing how the Church has destroyed what's left of this Earth. Only desert left aside from your little colony and houses buried in sand. But believe me, this 'Sebastian' isn't the first human who I've caught." Kelso pauses, and releases the button to see if she responds. She doesn't. He finishes. "And he won't be the last." Click And it's off. "Master, wasn't that too dramatic? We don't want them to send more than we can handle..." "Kid, you never force a person into a conversation he didn't start. You'd think you'd still remember proper manners. Let's just hope to heaven they don't bring every damn one of the king's men." --- Kelso and yourself find several mounds to hide behind. There are only several clusters of areas around the big City that have the half-buried houses, which means that the religious troupe will likely find them there, at some point. You keep your sights on the city. Every once in a while you'll see moving lights across the landscape, which are subsequently turned off. Then on. And off again... "Those are the soldiers." Kelso points out to you. A good deal of them too, and approaching quickly on more than one side. The lights seem to travel in groups. You count... Eight groups of five. You wonder how many you can take, and in turn how much more Kelso could. "So, what's the plan?" "We capture one and hightail it out of here. This... Is going to be challenging." Your mentor stands up, watching the approaching mob of Zealots. Two or three are way off, lighting up the opposite direction, but the rest are surrounding your vicinity, though you're uncertain if that's on purpose or not. Kelso motions you to come closer to him, to listen. "This is where we split up. They're trying to flank us, but that won't work when they're spread out like this. We're, funnily enough, a straight, though long line away from the city. The lights are moving toward us, and with other groups closing in from the two sides; a circle. I go one way, you go the other." "Like we trained, I hit hared and fast." He nods. "Let's get to it then. Good luck, kid." He begins jogging to the left. It's when he breaks out into a run when you only begin moving leftwards. For the first time since you escaped the Facility, you're scared. You sprint across the sand with your head down, maintaining balance and stealth even with your heavy armor. You ready yourself, the lights shining brighter and brighter until... You see them. Tall, thick, dark; the words that come to mind. Shining Crosses on ebony metal that covers the entire body, down to the legs. His helmet's visor is like a medieval knight's, only more techy. Not only that, but their rifles are huge, with tusks at the end. You wonder what caliber that behemoth could hold... Still, you have the element of surprise, if only because you aren't a lightbulb shaped a like freaking cross. You leap up, letting a gust of wind propel you, making a cross of your own in the night-sky, Your body finds itself right above the ringleader, who dumbly looks up when your feet, disguised as sneakers, land on his helmet. A heavy clunking sound is made before you hear a snap (his neck), which you use for momentum, jumping at another, this time with your fists. Refined rage, like Kelso taught you. It was going fine until bullets came into the picture. After the second clunk the last three of the group turn and point their bayonets-on-crack rifles at you. What comes out isn't a bullet, more like... Lightning? It bursts out at you with a mighty roar, and you feel your skin ripping, only to regenerate. Three more blasts, you make another swipe, hitting viciously through the armor of one, finishing him off with blood. Three (who were shooting at you) to go. They reload, which thankfully takes enough time. One of them doesn't bother, however, and stick the tusks of his rifle into you. Some of your blood spills, and even more of his bursts out when you push his rifle from inside you to inside of him, his armor nothing when your rage takes over. With blood squirting into your eyes, the rest are easy work. You claw at the armored figures, their lightning-shots hurting you but not overcoming you until... You're done. Five of them were killed, and you don't even remember how the last one went down. You lay on the sand, too stunned to move. More of the Crosses come over to belt you over the head with what must be a bible, because damn was it heavy. --- Even more bright lights (a recurring theme, you tell yourself), and you find yourself strapped onto a chair. The room is all blue, but your chair is white. For whatever reason, the colors seem pleasant, and calming to you. You wonder what happened to Kelso... A powerful voice speaks out, "Who are you?" > You reply sarcastically. "A heathen, no doubt." You manage to spit out, angrily. "Not a heathen, an abomination. There is a difference." The voice is male, and older. "But I don't wish to quell your anger, as you are no doubt misguided. Worry not, we shall end your suffering." "Thanks, I wouldn't want to be a burden." He laughs. "You are a funny devil alright, but one who deserves an explanation, if he wants one." Gears grind, causing your ears to sting while a shaft opens up in the blue room. An old man in a priestly garb and a skullcap comes out, an inviting though intimidating aura around him. "Do you wish to know why you're here? What the Church's mission is?" You stare at the man. "What's the point if you're just going to kill me right after?" "Us antagonists like our monologs, do we not? You'd know, for I am only part of the lesser evil. So, if you please, allow me to explain why the verdict is so grim for one with such oratory abilities, like yourself." You nod to the bizarre old man, "Sure... But not before you tell me where my mentor is." "Hmm?" "Kelso." "Doesn't ring any bells. Can we go on?" He says, looking at his watch. He's not even wearing a watch! You sigh, "You really want to tell me the story then, huh." The pruned holy-man beams, "Why yes!" A long pause erupts. And you wait for the priest to tell you. He begins to cough, and cough... By now you're just irked, stuck in a room with a senile wackjob. It's surprising that he's your interrogator. "So." "Ah yes. On the first day," His large dark eyes twinkle, "of the new Era, the world began to sink. Horrible diseases and militant radicals swept through different parts of the globe. Coincidentally, this all began after marriage became void and immorality was embraced." He shakes his head, "Regardless, Simon Kurschner created his Program, with the government's support, and using the dead and dying as test subjects, he claimed that he wished to stop disease and create perfect soldiers as well. At the time, it sounded ludicrous; like a comic book. But the world governments were desperate, and he received the funding. The second day was much darker, with the disease spreading rapidly before Kurschner's lab was even finished. By the time it was done, he petitioned for less regulation, and that's when it began. There would be no stopping what he began to create. Worse than the viruses which wiped out humanity; a God's flood. This... you, are different, unnatural. Third day came and Simon sent a crew of his deathless zombies, which survived the disease under his care, to deal with military conflicts all over the world. The fact that it succeeded so well was a curse, as he gained more support. By the 4rth day he had thousands of Creations under his disposal. And who didn't trust him? The religious, the so-called 'supersticious' Church." He spits, getting emotional during his obviously summarized tale, "5th Day, his Creations began fighting against the world, rather than with them against evil. One experiment could take on hundreds of regular soldiers alone, and so they laid waste, all while Simon was living the good life. Then, what do you know, the diseases evolved, went airborn, killed everyone but the faithful, those who stayed in the First Chapel. The Earth was dying, as God didn't want it to continue as it did, and only two groups survived; the Zealots, and the Creations. The next day involved war. W wanting to e slowly began building society back up, getting stronger technology and a bigger community. But it was not enough, and the Creations spread us weak and thin. But we're growing, and the Creations are now on the run, no doubt split between wanting to kill us or the Professor, who got them into this mess. Everything with them is 'kill', for they are demon-spawn.'' He notices your eyese rolling and then bends down to your level, "Look at you, boy, blood on his lips and unrelenting anger. This is mercy, to end your cursed life. As now, on the 7th day, we shall put all of the cursed to rest. They may resist, but we will go out of our way to end them." You take a deep breath, taking all of this in. There isn't that much to say, and you realize how much fragments you still don't know. There has to be more to this, though you're not sure why... "Dramatic, no?" He nods, continuing. "Which makes me wonder where you fit into all of this. You don't have a name do you?" "Uh, no, I can't remember anything from before my awakening." The Father frowned, "Hmm, you must have been one of the last experiments if you're so young. Very well then, good night, I'm afraid. May God have mercy on your soul..." He turns to leave. "Wait, you're killing me after all that?!? Come back here! I'm sentient, I'm human, just like YOU!" You yell, struggling at the immobile chair. He doesn't answer. A quick, firey death unexpectedly follows, your seat spewing out bursts of flame, charring through your body and burning your soul to a crisp. Red, then all black. You have died by the hands of the Church.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You push the button on the walkie-talkie, and speak into it. "Hello?" Moments pass. After several more crackles you get a response. A cool female voice speaks out, "Sebastian? Seargent, is everything alright?" British? Kelso shoots you a sideways glance. You can almost feel him sending you a message with his eyes. Be creative, you call the shots for now. You blink. Ahem, "I have spotted some of the err, creations." "Well of course you have." Matter of fact tone. "We've known where the devils that are the Wolves have been for a while now. We just need to strike them. Which reminds me, we should get back to base." Perfect. Ish. "No! The, uh, lord helped me and I found others." "Others? What do you mean?" "There are other Creations that have escaped aside from the, uh, wolves, and-" The woman on the other side is excited, "More?" "Um, only one. That I found, at least. But one is one too many. I uh, need backup." "Stop stuttering, Sebastian. This is important. Where are you? Now searching it up..." Pause. "Your GPS tracker hasn't been functioning for a couple of days. That's probably why security has tightened around the City. Where the hell are you?" Shit. "Well, uh, the battery died and, uh, things happened." "Things? Sebastian, I... Did it take you hostage?" You've decided you like her voice. "It?" She lowers her voice, "What is your general location, Sebastian? We'll find you. You'll be safe." You pause, looking to Kelso for help. To tell the truth, you have no idea where you are. Kelso looks the other way. You sigh, annoyed at him. Maybe he's just a bit offended that your plan was better. Or not. "I..." > You continue on, yourself. You lower your voice, "I... not sure. We're in some sort of house. Lots of sand." No reply. You click it off. Kelso nods in seeming approval. "It'll do. Let's just hope they underestimate one Creation and send only a couple soldiers. They are tasked to deal with the unknown. I got lucky with 'Sebastian'; the foolish Zealot wandered out alone." --- Your mentor and youself make your way to a particularly large sand-dune near the house, watching for incoming Zealots from the city ahead. It doesn't too long-- after several minutes you begin to notice flashing armors marching in the moonlight. Your house is a surprisingly straight line to the city, and you notice some lights, formed in clusters, moving straight in your direction. Others seem to be coming in on a flank, moving to the left and right of the city before circling in, near your location. None are too close though, which gives time for Kelso to count them all. "Five groups of five in all, with the Church having only a slight notion where we are and us having the element of surprise." "You think that's good odds? From what it seems, they likely no more about what we can do then what we know they can." "Not we, you. I fought Zealots before the facility was destroyed, you know. Even if they've grown considerably, they're still the fear-mongering, symbolic fools as ever. With enough force their armor can be clawed through, only thing you have to worry about is silver and their lightning rifles." "Sounds fun." You chuckles out nervously, "Silver bullets and lightning rifles?" "Ah yes, silver is specifically harmful to us, for whatever reason. It is very pure... and the only thing that will stop us from regenerating, thankfully though, I don't think they've caught on to that just yet. The shock-troops they send in are equipped with monstrous bayonets that shoot out streams of electrons at high velocity, which are scarily painful..." He notices your frown, and smiles in return, "But it's healable. And I think we can do it." You nod, "Not if their flanks succeeds. We need to either split up and fight the ones coming on the side or take the clusters on together." "No question, we should fight together. Splitting up may make this go faster and more efficiently, but it's dangerous enough that it won't be worth it. Together, we can capture one of them as well as efficiently annihilate the groups one by one." You nod back, assured. Kelso may retain information, but he's never lied to you. You think. This brings your mind back to the incoming horde of Zealots, which are less than a mile away by now, marching tirelessly, not exactly in your direction, but close enough... "So, who do you think we should take on first?" > You zealots on a side. "Let's start on a side and move on from there. We can't let their flank be affective." Your mentor nods. "There was a reason why I saved you, even if I didn't realize it at the time." "Which is...?" "You're smart." You'd blush if could, you like compliments, "No, the reason why you got me in the first place." "You'll find out at some point." You both laugh. Kelso drops information every once in a while, and at some point you want to just have several hours with him to discuss everything. Was the world always like this? What happened to it? What is my purpose? And on and on. By now the collection of lights are nearing, so you stop chatting with your master and turn your attention to them. Keeping your head close to the ground and sneaking to the right, you prepare to overtake the group of five on that side. Your mind flashes back to your training in the training you did with Kelso in the dunes. You try your best to channel your anger while you run, Kelso behind, at the Zealots. Why should I hate the Church? Your mind answers. Because they hate me for what I am. The man called Sebastian called me a 'demon'; I'm not that. I know I'm not that. But they will crucify me if they can. And I won't let them do that to myself or Kelso. With your mind settled on some sort rage, you vent it with your sprinting, reaching the Zealots quick enough. They're big people, the C.E. Soldiers. Stygian black metal overlays their entire bodies, with an obvious group leader with a different helmet (with horns, like a medieval knight's would have.) The rest have a simplistic SWAT-team-like helmet with a visor. The most notable part of their ensemble is their heavily tusked rifles, which take up both of their arms, if only to carry the heavy block of metal. You assume that that's the thing that Kelso mentioned; the lightning bayonets. 'That, and their lit cross on the chest, flashing on and off. Thankfully, they don't seem to notice you, yet. Their heavy metal probably restricts them of that. You pay little attention to where Kelso is, and you angrily lash out on the leader, leaping from over eight meters away from the ground. While in the air, you let your claws grow out and you come onto the huge black being's chest, and sink your claws into him, through the weak parts of his armor. Wet, sticky blood pours out, and you messily continue to clutch onto him while he tries to shoot you off with his tusked-bayonet. He manages to shoot up wards once or twice before slumping to the ground, the Other Zealots probably pissing their pants at this point. You roar at them, jumping off the corps of their leader and sending a heavy-fisted slash at a close one that is unbashfully trying to use hiw walkie-talkie. The hand you send clunks off of his helmet, but the heavy crunch you feel from it obviously means you broke his neck. While you were busy with two, Kelso (still unseen) has done fine work with the remaining three, his body half-transformed into something... Animalistic. With hairy, muscular arms and sharp teeth he overpowers them easily, ripping heads off at insane speeds, to the point that you're convinced that you imagined part of it. After several lightning flashes from the last one, Kelso's new body soaks up the energy from it and grabs the Zealot, throwing him to the floor. Now, all that remains are you and your mentor. You hungrily sink your teeth into a nearby combatant, reinvigorating yourself. Kelso morphs back, seeming tired, and takes a helping from one of them. After only ten seconds, he grabs you to stop with him. "That's one group down. There are three more groups to annihilate, two to the left (what used to be the middle) and the third which is standing back, way over to the left. I'll assume we're moving on to the middle?" > You continue to the middle. "Indeed, the middle-men are next." Two groups of hulking Zealots stand between you and the other. They know you're there, and the element of surprise isn't yours anymore. Worse yet, Kelso seems to have used up whatever the hell that transformation was. Still, you're confident that Kelso and you can tackle on the fifteen Zealots left over, You see them aiming their blockish weapons at you, and charge. Two leaders... You look to Kelso, and he nods. You take one, and he takes the other. As they move forward with their tusks, streaks of bright green at you. You quickly move to the side, allowing for some to take mercy and miss, but one or two manage to land on your armor, causing it to heat up... Kelso manages to dodge every single one shot at him, and runs up ahead of you to disarm the Zealots shooting at you. While your metallic armor sizzles, you do your best to throw it off you and follow-up with Kelso before they reload and shoot again. Kelso jumps into the air, swinging his foot down on one of the head-Zealots-head. It doesn't take him out, but it stuns him long enough for Kelso to throw him at the other line of Zealots, and proceed to restlessly break their weapons by punching it. The Zealots try to fight him, but your mentor doesn't give up. Meanwhile, you quickly sweep the other Head's feet from under him during the confusion of Kelso's utter... coolness and fluidity in combat. You stomp your sneakers on it's neck; the crack is all you needed to hear. More bright streaks. You see the remaining six Soldiers trying to surround him and put him down, not paying as much attention to you. In return for their disrespect, you bring both of your hands to your sides, and begin a large tackle at the horde surrounding your master. Your rage-fueled push causes you to bleed (you're slamming your arms onto cold metal, remember) but pushes them all on top of eachother, all scarmbling to get up. Kelso manages to get out of the huddle of Zealots, and picks up one of the bayonets, and begins spiking the clunky radicals. More, deliciously red blood squirts out, and you follow suit by taking your own bayonet. Now, only one group left. Five fearful Zealots pitifully trying to snipe at both of you. But it's obvious who will win this fight, in your eyes. > You finish off the bastards on the left. You continue to finish the ones trying to attack you. It is a quick fight, considering. Kelso rushes ahead, jumping up and using the butt of his new bayonet to whack the head-Zealot of this group over the head, not snapping his eck but at the very least knocking him out. With blood-lust, you manage to bring up the hulking weapons to shoot lightning at one the group at point-blank, causing him to scream as his own armor boiled him. The others, no doubt bewildered by many things at the current moment, try their best to survive in various ways. One continues struggling, actually managing to spear Kelso and shoot at the same time, only to find Kelso laugh, bring his arms back and snap the man's neck before getting out of the tusks. One calls out to his god. In turn you gutted him with your rifle, piercing his armor like a can-opener. And one from the other side of the battle-field, that you obviously didn't kill correctly, gets up to flee back to the city. Even he didn't get a break. Kelso, with uncanny familiarity with the rifle, shoots him in the back. The flashing Zealot slumps over, dead. The fight ends there, and Kelso puts his hand on your back as you walk to the unconscious head-Zealot of the Left-group. "So, what do we do with him?" You ask, warily, "The Church will probably send more of it's operatives to subdue us." "Doubt it. The head-honchos in the Church are probably terrified right now. More Creations in addition to 'The Wolves' are definitely not what they wanted. Still, you're right. We need to find a new place, but only after we find out where the Wolves are, and subdue them." "You still think they know where the Professor is?" He looks at you, pondering, "Unsure. If they do, then we'll have to fight them. Which is doable, with your newfound talents." He points to bloody undergarments, "But if they hate the Professor as much as we do then we can join forces. Well, you might. I might have to leave soon." You frown. "Why?" "Ha, don't worry kid. I might not have to, but if I do I'll make sure you're ready to fend for your self." > You loot the bodies and proceed to interrogate the Zealot. Shrugging the thought of not having Kelso around, you collect the armors of the Zealots, turning the flash off and equipping them. They won't save you from everything, but they will certainly make you physical attacks stronger, if only because they're reinforced by cold metal. You wear everything but the helmet, since you like having your vision unrestricted. Kelso does similarly, putting on the armor, leggings, and boots. You also decide to take one of the undamaged rifles; good weapons, and more effective on humans than on Creations, ironically. After the slight diversion, you bring your attention to the rousing Zealot. Kelso points him out to you to deal with. With a cruel smile, you walk over to him, bringing your gauntleted hand to his armored helmet, and begin to squeeze. That wakes him up. He cries in agony, as his helmet soon becomes a 'custom-fit' of sorts. With your one hand, you pick him up by his face, and just hold him in mid-air. "Kelso, are we just interrogating him here or somewhere else?" "Here's fine." You shrug, and drop the Zealot on the floor. He groans in pain, bringing hands to his face to try to take off his helmet; he couldn't do it. "Tell you what, if I take off your new skullcap if you tell me where the other Creations are." He looks up pitifully, nodding. Carefully... You peel off the horned helmet from his visage. "You killed Sebastian, didn't you!" Is the first thing that erupts from his lips. That, and some spit. You back hand him, bloodying his face further and causing him to fall back onto the sand. "Location, now. Or you end up having a worse fate than Sebastian." The dark haired Zealots looks at you with menacing eyes, "I don't consort with demons. I will die with honor." "That's not what you were saying when your face was in a can." You laugh, and Kelso gets on one knee, beckoning closer to him. "You can become one of us, if you like. Be one of the damned, and survive the hell that is God's world. Just lead us to where the so-called 'Wolves' are." "I won't sell out that easy, demon. Sebastian was a brother before you bastards killed him!" The agitated cripple would be somewhat intimidating if he wasn't in such a pathetic situation. "Then it's time you became family." Kelso looks at you. "Try ghouling him." Your eyes widen, "What do you mean, 'ghoul'?" "Drink from him until he has only the minimum amount of blood he needs. He'll become one of us. Well, half. He'll also follow our commands in that state. For the first couple of days. An eternal slave." Your mentor grins. The Zealot, however, is horrified. "No, don't! Don't drink from me, I'll get you to the Wolves, I promise! I'll even tell you when the Church is to attack their base. Everything, just don't turn me into one of you! Stop!" Oh, so very tempting. But kind of... Evil, is it? Is there even a line anymore, after what I've done? Kindness will only hurt you at this point, and a side-kick if Kelso ever leaves is tempting... > You ghoul him. Curious, and perhaps a wee bit thirsty, you motion to the Zealot. "What's your name?" "David." He spits, "Why?" "Because your new name is... Slave." His eyes widen in horror as you sink your teeth into his soft and milky flesh, this time getting it on the artery. The blood squirts down your throat, and the high that you get is unimaginable. Sweet and slightly sour blood, like apple-juice. The euphoria you get is uplifting, and you feel... Happy. Power surges through your veins, and your stomach does happy somersaults as it absorbs all the nutrients from the Zealot's warrior-blood, and you continue chewing on his neck, trying to get as much as you can from this man before he falters. Just sublime... "Goddammit kid, your mother must have been some sort of an abuser." Kelso says with a chuckle, pulling you away. "But I think that' enough drinking, your new slave is deathly pale, but still breathing, albeit very slowly and inconsistently-- a sign that you've drunk just enough." He points out, "But hats off to you kid, you've got yourself a ghoul." You both stand, waiting for your slave to wake. The pale Zealot opens his eyes back up, a glossy look to them. He doesn't speak, but instead lazily lets saliva and a red substance that likely is blood ooze out from the side of his mouth. Nervously, you command him, "Lead us to the Wolves hideout." He lazily tries to get up, only to fall back down again. "Now." Firm. He gets up, straight this time. With uncoordinated steps he begins to march, stumbling through the sand and skin beginning to redden from the sun. You shrug, and follow your new ghoul. By the time you pass the City the trek is already nearly over. You take another left from there, then a turn to the right... And soon Kelso directs you and your new slave to stop. "This," he begins, "is where I take my leave." "What?" You exclaim, "Why now? Didn't you say that the other Creations might be on the Professor's side?" Kelso tilts his head to the side, "The longer I think about it, the less it makes sense. But I've been worried about something, and I'm nigh certain I'm correct on this." "What do you mean?" Your mentor walks to your ghoul, tugging at his armor's sleeve to get attention, "You, David, what does the Church know about Simon Kurschner?" Who? The slave replies in monotone, "Can't be found or traced. Not among Creations, unknown if even still alive." You raise an eyebrow, "Who's this Kurschner?" "The Professor." Comes the reply from Kelso. "But I thought our plan was to see if the other Creations know where the Professor is? Which could mean that they still serve him. Or not." "Exactly. If the Church has no idea of his whereabouts, then it's unlikely the Wolves have something definite either. Even though the Wolf and I have had our arguments, I still trust him enough to give you vacancy while I search for the Professor." "So where are you going?" "Anywhere. The world left is just a desert, and traveling by night only will waste time, which is why we have t split for the moment." Kelso frowns, and holds out his hand to shake. You firmly grasp it, "Then stay safe, Master. I trust you will return soon?" He stares at you blankly, "I have no idea how long it will take. But I believe in you just as well. You can make it on your own, especially with how you proved yourself today. Strong decision making and vast knowledge on how survival works have made you to what you are. There is very little that I can teach you that I even know. You shall grow past what I can even guess you can do." He begins to let go of the hand shake, but you hold on. Tightly. "There's one thing that you still haven't told me." "And what's that?" "How the World came to this pitiful state." > The Wolf Underground Your mentor, the Ghoul, and yourself make your way through the remnants of the past world. Suddenly, it all makes sense to you. The world went to hell, and it was the Professor's abuse of his Creations that furthered it. Now, the Church hunts you all down for no reason other than to to give hope to 'real' humans. It's despicable, but it's the world you're in right now. The hot sun beats down upon you, while your slave suddenly comes to a halt. "This is it." He blandly calls out, reaching down to the sandy flooring, and makes hand motions as to move some of the sand away. You turn to wish your master a farewell, but he is already gone. Only a hazy version of him can be seen through squinting in the distance. So, it's just me and my Ghoul. Let's just hope it doesn't get bloody... You follow David's beckoning, and bend down to see what he was unclearing. As your slave digs, more and more sand seems to pile in. "What are we looking for?" "They're underground, sir." With a nod, you decide to help out with the digging. As you lay your hands on the sand, you thank fortune that you hadn't done this in the middle of the day, rather than just an hour or so after sun-rise. The sand would no doubt have burnt your fingers otherwise! Even though you and your ghoul are digging barehanded, it doesn't take too much time before you begin to feel the sand getting thicker, more doughy. With quick powerful stroke, you continue ripping through the sand, throwing it out of your radius, soon creating a little pit, low enough that you could stand up in it. After clawing at the earth with your servant for a while, you accidentally scratch at something... Hard, metallic. Underneath the sand lay a metal disk, with evenly-spaced holes around it's edge and the middle. Even as it is right now, it's fairly obvious that the disk is heavily embedded into the ground, and prying it out would no doubt prove to be a challenge. At first, you try just digging around and under it, but your efforts seemed to have been in vain; the plate appeared to be a part of both the earth and some sort of brick-well that goes much further down. "You sure this is the place? You ask, making sure that this was the opening to the Wolf Stronghold. It'd make sense, as this is extremely safe from the Zealots, considering. "Yes." Comes the monotone reply, "The few remaining GPS satellites pin-pointed this exact spot. We caught several monsters disappearing from under the sand here." Now, how should we try to open this? > You try to pry it open. The Ghoul's combined strength with yours should be more than enough. "C'mon Slave, you and I together can probably take this out of it's place." As usual, he complies. With a flick of your wrist, you bring out one of your signature claws, and draw your index finger along the bottom edge of the metal plate, taking as much sand out of it as possible. After thousands of sand pellets fall out, you both position yourselves opposite one another, and firmly grasp the end of the disc, clawing in anywhere possible to gain enough leverage to pull it upwards, out of it's fixed place. David and yourself glance at each other, and meet at the red-eyes. 1, 2, 3! Forming an odd sort of mental connection with your ghoul, you both bring all the strength you can muster to pull the rough, grainy plate out of the stop of the well. As you pull at the disc, you can feel yourself pulling your muscles as well, the first feeling you've had of strain for a while. This would be a good thing any other time (sort of), but now it's just not a good time to go back to human-like limitations. Your ghoul on the other hand, glumly shows little exertion, even though he seems to be attempting to carry out your will. "David," You encourage, using his actual name this time, "Put your back into it. All your body, we can do this!" You continue trying to pry open the hatch, but it just doesn't budge... Until a sudden movement. Feeling it shift slightly to the side, your ghoul instinctively follow you there, and you both pull at it in a close space, together. After exerting yourself greatly, you manage to take it out of it's wedge in a very sudden throw, flinging it out of your own pit with a clatter. You shrug, and smile at your Ghoul, and then proceed to look down the brick-well... It's dark, for one thing, but you can barely make out the sound of feet pattering on cold concrete. Overcome with nervousness, you loudly blurt out, "We come in peace!" Several dark figures appear from the bottom of the well, after several glances upwards at you and whispering, one of them waves you down. Shivering, you jump down the well, using the cylindrical bricks surrounding you to position yourself as to not fall on them. Still, you fall with a heavy thud. Yeah, I'm gonna need new sneakers. Unlike yourself, David just goes down it normally, using the short metal bars protruding one of the sides, climbing downwards. The dark figures eye you carefully, taking a while to speak. One with dark gray hair and scruffy facial hair as well as a slouching hunchback of a surprisingly muscular body, points at your armor, "If you're a Zealot, I'd turn back right now." His voice isn't too threatening, but his body language and thick-eyebrows suggest otherwise. He's clad in tight cloth shirt and pants, bulging with muscles, and is surrounded in an intimidating aura. The other one is completely cloaked, though watches your Ghoul with suspicion. "I'm not of the Church," you start, trying to make a good first impression, "and neither is he. Not anymore at least." "Then what are you?" The gruff man calls out, his eyes narrowing. "Well, I'm glad you asked. I'm a... A Creation, just like you. This is my Ghou--" By the time you uttered the word, 'Creation' he had already put you in a headlock. The cloaked one has already put your ghoul to sleep, though hopefully not forever... The man continues, "What do you want from us, fangs-boy? I thought the rest of your clan died." Clans? "No!" You exclaim, struggling out of his hold. You actually manage to surprise him with your strength and are able to push him off of you. "I honestly have no idea what you're talking about. But you're part of the Wolves, right? My associate and I want to join your strong hold." He spits back at you, "We don't need any joiners." "Why not?" You argue, your body tensing. "The Zealots are planning to raid this place soon, and I figure you could use as much help as possible." The old man growls back you, "What are you, some sort of message-boy for the Professor?" Well, at least that means they aren't working for him. Probably. "The Church means no harm to us at this point. It'd be stupid for them to attack us. If you're trying to make a powerful group do something out of desperation, then oh boy, have you come to a bad place, vampy. I'd go back to the sun, where the pain is relatively quick." He cracks his knuckles. If you weren't so confident in your abilities, you might have been intimidated by this Neanderthal. "Then perhaps you should ask my Ghoul, David. He was a Zealot before I brought him to the darkness." You point at the slumped body on the floor. "He's dead now, too late." The brute says with a cruel grin, "Snapped his neck, Ragnor did." You laugh, "I don't think he'd die from that." You take several steps toward your slave, waving the cloaked man aside, you grab David by the cuff of his armor and pick him up, then bring your hand to his neck and snap it back. David glumly states, "Hi." The Wolf grits his teeth, "Didn't know Vampires could use their powers like that." "Then you'll be learning a whole lot more during my stay here. What was that you were saying about being the last of my clan?" He smiles back, surprisingly, "Oh? So you don't know. You're the last of the Vampire Creations, as the rest died in this desert planet. I'm surprised you made it this long since the last Facility was destroyed. But if you don't remember that, then do you even remember your name?" "I'm afraid not. Can you at least tell me yours?" The Wolf laughs, "Call me Gideon. The cloaked figure on the side is Ragnor, our residential assassin, even if fighting has little place anymore." He brings out a hairy, clawed hand to shakes yours. You accept it. "So I'm in?" "I'm still suspicious of your reasons for coming here, and your story about the Zealots needs some checking." "Is it really that surprising?" "Less that and more that we don't want to fight them." What? Seeing your confused expression, Gideon continues, "Listen here Vampy, I'd rather die and let humanity survive than not. And most of us here are ready for that. If the Zealots come to our turf then we'll wipe them out easy, but we're definitely not going to seek conflict, even if me and the boys can take those choir-boys out in an instant." "Why not? They want to kill us all?" He shakes his head, his face now grim, "The Church may believe that we're demons, but they also value the sanctity of life, so I doubt they'd come here. Regardless, they aren't all that wrong about us. The things we've done... The innocents we've massacred in our wake. It doesn't mean that we're bad now, per se, but what we've done is inexcusable. The World has gone to waste, and I'm alright if we don't survive to see it rebuild itself. You stand in silence for a little while, realizing that you've joined ranks with the modern equivalent of the hippies. Gideon grins again, "But don't worry about that now, let's close the lid on top of our well and then introduce you to the rest of the gang." > The rest of the Wolves. "Ragnor, use those climbing skills of yours and find a way to seal the top of the well better. Can't have one of them dust storms filling the place, nor let any traveler find us like these two rugrats." Gideon says, waving for you to follow him and his goofy walking pattern. While the cloaked man begins to climb, you and David follow the hunchback though the stronghold of the wolves. It's a dark tunnel path, but several well-placed torches along the concrete walls give you enough light to make out peculiar drawings on the walls. Not exactly professional artwork or anything, just passionate claw-markings. But still... “Hey Gideon,” you ask, examining one specifically for it's graphic nature, “What's up with the markings?” The hunchback turns his head, but continues moving, “The writing? It's a code language we formed, mixture of all the languages the folks here are familiar with. It's more or less a system of simplified pictures, but you'll be able to read it if you stay here long enough.” “Can you read this one out to me?” You make sure to stop and point it out; the writing here is different than the rest, even more picturesque than the rest. You can't hope to read it, but you do notice a recurring theme-- a cross and a pentagram. Not only that, but they're much less refined than the others, as if written with anger. “That one is rather basic, I think I even went over it before. It basically boils to, eh...” He shuffles closer to you, and brings his large eye to the writing, “Peace is what keeps our humanity, for the Professor, cursed be he, uses strife to tear us apart. The cursed Creator wishes that we destroy our brothers in battle so he reaps the reward when it's over.” Gideon tilts his head back and continues forward, “I'd keep this in mind, vampy. I'm not sure why you're here, whether to warn us or to do devil's bidding, but I trust you enough to see you have no idea what's going on, so I'll be giving you the chance to give a little presentation for the guys here. By vote, we'll either agree or not. After that, it's up to you whether you stay or not. Got it?” “That's all I could have asked for, sir.” You reply, hoping you can prepare them for the Church's onslaught next week. If not, then, well, you and your brothers are done for, regardless of non-violent intentions. After several minutes of treading through the passages of the tunnel, Gideon stops to look up, even if his head doesn't lift that far. You catch up to where he is, noticing what he's looking at: an opening, light. “That's our hideout.” The Wolf jumps up, grabbing onto some sort of ledge to bring his deformed body up. You watch his body struggle up it, land on solid ground (and then a lot of murmuring from above), then jump up yourself, making it up with ease. The hideout is surprisingly low-key for the most powerful beings on the planet, but considering how they're just trying to survive a dimly lit room filled with sleeping bags and animal-carcasses strewn about is to be expected. The ragtag group that are the Wolves are surprising though; a thin man with dark hair, only to have a visible streak of white in the front; a rather hairy, though otherwise attractive female with dirty blonde hair who's around your age (early twenties?); several scruffy teenagers; a dark-skinned, mustached, and barrel-chested man; at least three of obvious Asian descent; and, of course, Gideon, pointing you out to everybody. Most of them getting out of there bags, they begin gawking at you. You wince as the female eye you with interest, while the men seem to just want to know what you want so they could sleep. You motion to Gideon, and you get close to him and ask, "These are the Wolves? Not as... Impressive, as I thought they'd be." "You're not exactly super-hero material either, child. Kinda stock; dark, straight hair and pale skin. Lean physique." Noticing you're confusion he just pokes at your chest, "What matters is what's on the inside. That's where power comes from. Remember that." He begins to raise his voice, "Now, this here is a Vampire. He has no name, so call him whatever you like, but he has some 'opinions' he'd like to share. As your ghoul struggles up the hatch, you wonder how you want to persuade this group of lazy Wolves to prepare. > You describe it with urgency, they need to realize how serious this is. It's time to get these sleepy assholes up and running. You nod to the crowd as they gather around you, staring with glossy eyes and gaping mouths. "I'm not going to sugarcoat anything," you snarl, starting off with a very loud, though clear voice, "The Church has plans to raid our little stronghold here by next week." Gasps from the Wolves, and men exit their bags. Seems to have worked, for now. "And while that may be hard to believe, I'm sure we all know how ruthless the Zealots are. I escaped from the last Facility-- Facility 13, soon before it came tumbling down with C.E. Troopers, who burned down the laboratory. Since then, I have fought many of them, some purposely in order to find my brethren here, to join you as well as to warn you of the incoming second apocalypse. We are blessed Creations, gifted in our own right. We aren't innately evil, like the Church believes. Rather, we are capable of great things, but only if we survive our genocide." "Then what do you want us to do?" One of them shouts out, interrupting you. "I want you to fight back, and prepare for when they come next week. We need to take the initiative; I know how powerful Creations can be, so I have no doubt in my mind that we can beat them. But only if we get ready." "Why should we trust you?" One of the younger ones ask. You bare your teeth; fear is a big factor of your speech, "Because if I'm right then we all die." You seethe out, staring intently at your brethren. "We have three options the way I see it; defend the stronghold and prepare for when they come; try to take control of the city with our combined strengths before the attack; or just get slaughtered when the time comes." Most of the Wolves continue gaping, though Gideon cracks his knuckles. "Nice speech, Vampire" A voice declares, and the red-cloaked figure pops out of the hatch. Ragnor's hood fall down, and the profile is of a middle-aged, balding man. Terribly tall, and lean; powerful and domineering. "Do you really think we can overtake the Church?" "If we do it carefully, yes." He smiles, "Then I like what I'm hearing; I'm in." While it's amusing how enthusiastic he is, it also seems to win over more of the Wolves. Perhaps Ragnor is a big figure in the Wolf Underground. "It is likely to work, too. While some of us are inexperienced, we can easily beat them while their forces are divided into attacking our stronghold. We just need to be clever." Gideon continues to grimly frown, "I think the 'hold the fort' idea will work better. It's safer, and more suited to our abilities." It's odd, but you feel like it's completely your decision. Maybe they just really trust in you? > You side with Ragnor on this one. "I... Think Ragnor has a solid point. We can definitely beat the Zealots as long as we have the element of surprise. And if this goes well, then we won't have to worry about extinction ever again." The blonde vixen looks up to you, as do most of the Wolves. Ragnor laughs, and pats you on the back. Gideon, on the other hand, merely frowns, closes his eyes, and announces, "Right. Welcome to the family, Vampy. I'd rest, we're all practically nocturnal here anyhow. The cloaked Ragnor frowns, "Are you sure? I was just about to bring out the alcohol..." "No alcohol, Ragnor. We have a long night tonight, lots of training we need to go through. I don't think some of us here have actually fought Zealots." Ragnor nods, and the rest of the Wolves shuffle back to their blankets. Gideon shuts the lantern off, and heads down the hatch, disappearing after a thud. Meanwhile, you find a piece of concrete that is comfortable enough to meditate on, and begin to close your eyes... Only to realize that all the Wolves are watching you for some reason. They're all smiling, and the pretty one in particular seems to watch you in the dark of day. At some point during the night, she leans towards you to whispers, "Hi, I'm Cecilia." She giggles. "Uh, hi." You whisper back lamely. The next couple of days fly by, and you manage to go over the histories of your new friends, as well as prepare them for the fight. > You assault on Church City. The week passes by too soon for for your liking, but you and your compatriots can all agree that you got work done. You spent the week teaching the lesser-experienced Creations how to use their powers in battle, emphasizing team-work and effort. Like Kelso taught you, you passed on the knowledge of the power of emotion-- something you can vouch works in a fight. As the training went on it became rather obvious that in their human form, you can easily take on the strongest werewolf. In the real, bestial for, however, you have to use your wits. For that, you are forever thankful you are on the Wolves' good side. Heck, you're leading them to possible suicide. Other things you've focused on is appealing to both Gideon and Ragnor, both people whom you know you can trust to some sort of degree. The one thing you feel somewhat apologetic about is that you haven't been able to spend as much time with Cecilia as you wanted to, but you manage to remind yourself that if you succeed in taking over the City, you'll have all the time in the world. Perhaps, with enough time, you'll even learn the wolven-lingo, though it's the least of your worries currently. You focus on the plan: it's basic espionage, like how a movie would set it out (though you can't remember any one in particular). They send a one-man army to the middle of the battlefield, while they storm the castle-walls. You're confident that you can take care of yourself, especially in the night-time, assuming that's when you're sent in. The Creations stand together in a circle, well below the surface, waiting for the the scouting team (Ragnor's group) to tell you whether today is the day. While the Zealots begin their march to the Stronghold, the Creations will quickly get away, and run toward the city, attacking it while half of it's forces are trying to find the nonexistent. Time passes; you do this twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening, to see if they're preparing for a night-attack or not. You hope it's at night, as the Creations would have an advantage, probably. Additionally, you wouldn't have to worry about sun-tan lotion, the tube Kelso gave you will run out sooner or later. And so you wait, everybody around you waiting in silence. You hear the codified knock: Clunk-clunk-clunk. That's three times. Today isn't the day after all. You go out to train once more, reviewing everything, and then turning back to refill on blood. Gideon gives you a broken plastic-cup with maybe an ounce of his blood. You drink it slowly, savoring the taste. It reinvigorates you, like usual, and you set down to meditate, waiting for nightfall. That night... Clunk-clunk-clunk-clunk That's 4... Is tonight the night? Ragnor's hooded head pokes out of the hatch, "Come on, wake everybody. Now!" Getting out of your trance, you begin repeatedly whispering, "Now!" as you went along, pulling off blankets from the Wolves. As with procedure, the Wolves spring into action, readying their clothes and going down, dividing themselves into the groups. Soon, the only Creations left are you (after ushering everybody out) and Gideon. "Gideon, are you coming?" You ask, concerned. You don't want to be late, after all. The hunchback stares back at you solemnly, not speaking. "Goddammit Gideon, let's go!" You begin edging out of the room. He opens his mouth to speak, then closes it again. "Gideon, if you don't come with us, you'll die. We want you with us, so just... Come, man." "You may have been right about the Church, Vamp. But it doesn't change a thing. The real monster is the Professor, not humanity. Hurting them is hurting us..." You shake your head in disbelief, before angrily waving him off. That hippie won't bring me down. With haste, you make it to the well's opening, jumping off the walls to speedily catch up with Ragnor and the others. You were lucky they chose night-time, but that doesn't mean they didn't take advantage of it either. No flashes from miles ahead, just darkness, and maybe some slow movement here or there... But you only notice it if you squint. Crafty of them. "Ragnor, you see them?" "Yeah." He says, calling out from ahead, "But where's Gideon? He's supposed to be leading his group!" "I don't think that fool is coming." You spit out, finally catching up. "But it's unimportant. David can lead them." "David isn't exactly a leading-personality." "He knows what he's doing." "Which is why he should come with you! He'd be much more useful by you than by us. We're just giving you time. We can have one of the other Wolves lead, but for now you will no doubt need help, and a former Zealot is just perfect." > You urge for David to head a group. "Ragnor," you hold your hand out defiantly, "I can do just fine alone. I trust in David enough to know that he will aid you a lot in holding the fort than helping me on a stealth mission. Now come on." Ragnor grunts in protest, but shrugs it off. You and the the rest of the Wolves, keeping your heads low, move around the incoming horde of Zealots, attacking the City on its other side, almost opposite from where the Zealots marched from. After an hour of movement, you're eyes manage to detect the sentries watching the City. There are only perhaps 6 in total, evenly spaced out in hexagonal circumference around the City, but they each handle a fierce strobe-light that will bring light to the actual situation. Thankfully, the group is just far enough away that you aren't spotted. "So, do we have any good ideas on how I'm getting in?" You ask, your mind flipping through several theoretical simulations of getting into the City: most of them, you die. "You see the narrow dark passage-way in between the strobe lights?" "Yeah?" "You have to slip through that, then quickly kill the sentry on this side before he can get to the other, and then climb the barb-wire fence. You'll have to figure out what to do from then, but I'd focus on finding the actual Chapel, and killing the Elders there. We'll be rushing the City on this entire side while you're inside, confusing the Zealots and buying you time. Got it? Why the long face?" You hand him your rifle, "Guess I can't exactly bring this with me, haha." He takes it, smiles, and then salutes; this may be the last time you see him or several members of the group. You don't bother saying goodbye, and leave it to the hands of fate. "Just take care of Cecilia and David." You say, turning around to slowly creep forward... First taking it slow, you almost crawl on the ground as to not be seen by the sentry, and move forward. You position yourself perfectly so the lights miss you, and the cloudy sky allows you to remain concealed. As you crawl onward, you notice that the Zealot Sentry is practically sleeping; he must have been here all day, waiting. Seizing the opportunity, you make easy work of him by bite. The defenseless man is quickly drained, to the point of being unconscious for reasons other than tiredness. You don't even bother checking whether his pulse is still there, whether he's dead or not doesn't matter right now. Finding the big Chapel does. You keep the strobe-light on as to not raise attention to anything, and continue on inside of the City. You leap over the fence, still clad in the Zealot armor. What you see in the City is amazing. Nothing, almost a ghost-town. While the City has flashing banners all over, only two large buildings seem occupied: one with a giant cross, the other with an upside-down cross, like a sword. As you enter the former, obviously the Chapel, you see an elderly man open the door in front of you. His squinty eyes stare at you for a moment before he asks in a gravely voice, "Has my time come already?" Wordlessly, you grab at his throat, and begin to unintentionally rip at it, blood trickling down your wrist. "You are the reason for my brethren's suffering." you start, your pupils widening in anger, "You and your Zealots made us have to resort to living in fucking burrows. This is where God's plans for you ends, Tomas." "Then so be it." He dies there and then, and you find several monks staring at you in horror from the Chapel's door. Noticing them, you enter the Chapel to kill them as well. The balding priests hold out their necklaces, yelling, "We shall fear no evil for there is God." Over and over again. Thankfully, you aren't evil; you're just looking out for your race. Protecting it from those who want to cut down on it. The blood of the zealots tastes better than ever, but it gets cut short by the sudden blaring of sirens-- the assault has begun. Yet, oddly, enough, over ten Zealots rush in from all sides come to gawk at your bloody attire. While you cackle evilly when jumping and clawing at them, they still manage to have you surrounded by numbers if nothing else, breathlessly ending your unlife with their bayonets, all in the name of their God. You have been killed by the hands of the Church.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The week passes by too soon for for your liking, but you and your compatriots can all agree that you got work done. You spent the week teaching the lesser-experienced Creations how to use their powers in battle, emphasizing team-work and effort. Like Kelso taught you, you passed on the knowledge of the power of emotion-- something you can vouch works in a fight. As the training went on it became rather obvious that in their human form, you can easily take on the strongest werewolf. In the real, bestial for, however, you have to use your wits. For that, you are forever thankful you are on the Wolves' good side. Heck, you're leading them to possible suicide. Other things you've focused on is appealing to both Gideon and Ragnor, both people whom you know you can trust to some sort of degree. The one thing you feel somewhat apologetic about is that you haven't been able to spend as much time with Cecilia as you wanted to, but you manage to remind yourself that if you succeed in taking over the City, you'll have all the time in the world. Perhaps, with enough time, you'll even learn the wolven-lingo, though it's the least of your worries currently. You focus on the plan: it's basic espionage, like how a movie would set it out (though you can't remember any one in particular). They send a one-man army to the middle of the battlefield, while they storm the castle-walls. You're confident that you can take care of yourself, especially in the night-time, assuming that's when you're sent in. The Creations stand together in a circle, well below the surface, waiting for the the scouting team (Ragnor's group) to tell you whether today is the day. While the Zealots begin their march to the Stronghold, the Creations will quickly get away, and run toward the city, attacking it while half of it's forces are trying to find the nonexistent. Time passes; you do this twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening, to see if they're preparing for a night-attack or not. You hope it's at night, as the Creations would have an advantage, probably. Additionally, you wouldn't have to worry about sun-tan lotion, the tube Kelso gave you will run out sooner or later. And so you wait, everybody around you waiting in silence. You hear the codified knock: Clunk-clunk-clunk. That's three times. Today isn't the day after all. You go out to train once more, reviewing everything, and then turning back to refill on blood. Gideon gives you a broken plastic-cup with maybe an ounce of his blood. You drink it slowly, savoring the taste. It reinvigorates you, like usual, and you set down to meditate, waiting for nightfall. That night... Clunk-clunk-clunk-clunk That's 4... Is tonight the night? Ragnor's hooded head pokes out of the hatch, "Come on, wake everybody. Now!" Getting out of your trance, you begin repeatedly whispering, "Now!" as you went along, pulling off blankets from the Wolves. As with procedure, the Wolves spring into action, readying their clothes and going down, dividing themselves into the groups. Soon, the only Creations left are you (after ushering everybody out) and Gideon. "Gideon, are you coming?" You ask, concerned. You don't want to be late, after all. The hunchback stares back at you solemnly, not speaking. "Goddammit Gideon, let's go!" You begin edging out of the room. He opens his mouth to speak, then closes it again. "Gideon, if you don't come with us, you'll die. We want you with us, so just... Come, man." "You may have been right about the Church, Vamp. But it doesn't change a thing. The real monster is the Professor, not humanity. Hurting them is hurting us..." You shake your head in disbelief, before angrily waving him off. That hippie won't bring me down. With haste, you make it to the well's opening, jumping off the walls to speedily catch up with Ragnor and the others. You were lucky they chose night-time, but that doesn't mean they didn't take advantage of it either. No flashes from miles ahead, just darkness, and maybe some slow movement here or there... But you only notice it if you squint. Crafty of them. "Ragnor, you see them?" "Yeah." He says, calling out from ahead, "But where's Gideon? He's supposed to be leading his group!" "I don't think that fool is coming." You spit out, finally catching up. "But it's unimportant. David can lead them." "David isn't exactly a leading-personality." "He knows what he's doing." "Which is why he should come with you! He'd be much more useful by you than by us. We're just giving you time. We can have one of the other Wolves lead, but for now you will no doubt need help, and a former Zealot is just perfect." > You agree; David can help you take on the city from the inside. "Alright," you reply with a nod, "David will definitely be a huge help, considering that he's familiar with the area, but..." "But?" You frown, "I hope you guys'll be safe. The Zealots, especially in number, aren't pushovers." Ragnor smiles, and gives you a brotherly hug, "Don't worry Vamp, we'll manage. The Wolves aren't exactly pushovers either haha." "I know." You grin, returning the hug. You imagine, that after all this ends-- the fighting, you can retire, and just live your unlife with your new family. A dream, perhaps, but it's something to hope for. Soon after Ragnor turns to leave, he suddenly looks back at you, pupils dilated. "Wait a sec, David was a Zealot before you ghouled him, right?" "Err, yeah." "And he's still wearing his armor?" "Everything but the helmet." "You think they'd recognize him?" A pause begins, and ends with laughter. Ragnor snaps at you and puts on a silly grin, and jogs ahead back to his groups. You don't know who will head the second group, but you hope that it won't matter. All you need to do is wreak havoc in the city, and stay alive. The assault groups will do the rest, hopefully without harm as well. With David silently in tow, you continue on, analyzing the strong hold. Even from afar, the sleepless City is easily seen, and as you march on around the incoming Zealots, you can see how they set up the City's defense. Six sentries, commandeering strobe lights in a hexagonal circumference around the city, obviously looking out for unidentified enemies. Thankfully, flashing-Zealot armor is pretty identifiable, and so is David's face, assumably. "David?" You call, looking to make sure he's listening. He nods in return, but doesn't speak. "You think the Zealots will recognize you if they see you?" "Definitely, why?" "Since that means that you can draw attention due to your disappearance while I kill the head-honchos." "That's smart." He says, succinct as usual. You quit trying to make conversation and, once you get close enough to the City, point at the Zealot commandeering the strobe light in front of you. "Can you kill him before he turns to a radio?" David nods, and clicks on his blinking Cross-armor (you figure that it's to ward off friendly-fire) before he begins the march through the strobe light, waving his hands in the air and running to the Sentry. After several moments, you can see a wordless discussion taking place, starting with the sentry saluting and ending with him unconscious on the floor. When David turns the light a bit to the right, it gives you dark-space to walk through, unnoticed. The two groups are not too far away, and you manage to wave to Cecilia and Ragnor before following David into the urban Church City. You pat David's back and consider your good decision making. But, once again, you just hope the others will be alright... > You church City The strobe light aimed back to its original place and the Zealot downed by his own, you and David make your way to the barb-wire fence, and easily leap above it, too lazy to get the key from the Zealot. After David turns off his blinkers, you begin to pay more attention to the City only to realize that, from the inside at least, it isn't nearly as bustling as you thought it was. Perhaps that's because most of them went to raid the hideout. Gideon is still there... You shake your head; you tried your best with that fool, now it's time to take what's yours; what the Creations deserve regardless of what the Church or the Professor think of them. Not weapons, not demons: just people. David waits for you to start walking again, tapping his foot eagerly. He doesn't speak much, but you can tell he enjoyed his time with the Wolves. Still, you'll always wonder what's inside his head, now as a ghoul. You continue through the ghost-town, which for whatever reason has all of it's buildings rigged with neon lights, flashing. David leads you through the ugly urban landscape, and you keep a lookout for humans. Suddenly, you spot one, walking out of some sort of pub, walking unsteadily. You grab David by the cuff of his armor and quickly hide in the shadow of some sort of looming dumpster. With a finger to your lips, you wait until the man's back is turned before you sneak up on him, digging claws into his neck for a quick and silent death. The man falls to the ground dead, and you lick your bloody nails. David, unfazed, comes out of the shadows only to pick up the man, and silently position him into the trash. "That pub holds a great deal of Zealots. We need to move out before they see me." You nod in return. At first you considered just going in and slaughtering the gathering of Zealots, but then realized that the light-weights Ragnor and his crew could handle, but the higher-ups are going to be an issue. David once again takes lead, and you prowl the streets, silently killing anything in your way, passing by buildings of all shapes and sizes, though most not even occupied. Two buildings in particular stand out, however: one mansion with a giant blue Cross above the door; the other large and rectangular with an upside-down Cross, for whatever reason.You'd look through the windows to see what's going on inside, but the windows of both buildings seem to just reflect your own image, though you can only really discern your armor since your pale profile doesn't come out well in the reflection. "The one with the holy-sword is Zealot-headquarters, the other one is the Chapel." David answers your thoughts, smiling at you. "I think it's in our best interest to enter and clear out both." "Which do you suggest to do first?" "Either one, sir. We need to kill Father Tomas and the Chief, both in their respective buildings. The Zealots who aren't on their way to the stronghold will be in both, though. But whichever we pick, we need to do it quick; Ragnor and the others will be making their move any moment now." > You enter the Chapel. Not wasting any time, you turn to face the Chapel. Metallic and looming over you, with a large neon cross, still flashing. The door is a harsh steel, too old to cast a discernable reflection but maintained enough not to rust nor weaken. "How should we enter, then?" "No backdoors to the Church. Only one direction if you follow God." David recites from behind you. With a shrug, you continue onwards, going up a flight of concrete stairs, leading up to the looming steel door. You consider trying to bash the door in, but decide that knocking it and waiting for the door to be opened by whoever's inside would be an easier solution for getting in. Clang Your gauntlet taps at the metal. After a pause, you can hear noises on the inside of the Chapel, mostly worried murmuring. You quickly motion for David to go in front, right before a bald young man in ceremonial blue robe opens the door. In response to your ghoul's profile, the man just gapes for several moments before opening his mouth to speak. "Dave?!?" "No... Not anymore." He states, walking into the Church. The man doesn't seem to even notice you, engrossed in seeing a living ghost instead. Inside, several other monks are gathered, all of them staring at David with awe. You take the opportunity to slink into the shadow, and wait. "Behold! The blessed Lord brought our child back!" They cry, waving their hands in the air in synchronization. Up and down their hands go, until one with a cowl speaks up, "Brother David, where were you?" Your ghoul stares at them with disdain, "I got lost, but was found by a group of humans." They continue to gape. The cowled-one continues his interrogation, "Hmm? More humans, you say? "Crazy enough, the humans were in our backyard this entire time. We just didn't recognize them." "Whatever do you mean?" "The Wolves, Vadim. They're good people." Gasps erupt, and David's only looks down to his feet, and his hands ball up to fists. "They changed you, didn't they?" The one with the cowl points, and begins to chant in some sort of language which you are unfamiliar with. Bored of their religious, antics, you make your presence known by jumping out of the shadows, and decking 'Vadim' with a right hook, sending him to the middle of the crowd of twelve-or-so Monks. David nods, and sends a sharp kick to the nearest Zealot surrounding him. Before you know it, it becomes a rowdy brawl of fists. The monks may be very agile, but without any weapons nor armor you figure you or even David could take them out alone. Something tells you the alarms around the buildings weren't for show either-- you need to find the Father, quick! > You abandon David to search the Church. "David, finish off these grunts as I find the big man upstairs." You call out, examining the building for the Father's Quarters. David nods, "Up the stairs, to the left!" Your head turns from right to left, looking for the set of stairs that will lead you to the Father. Finding the red-carpeted stairs, you begin your ascent, only to be stopped by a heavy-set Monk, who angrily shoves you backwards. "Get away, foul demon!" He continues pushing, but you catch his left arm, and end squeeze-- Crack. He yells out in pain, and you manage to grab him by the cuff of his robe, only to throw him out of the way and into a wall. You run up the staircase, skipping steps to maintain speed. After reaching the end of the first staircase, you deftly,turn your body, not wasting any time by getting to the adjacent continuation of the stairs. Several leaps later, you reach the end of the stair case, only to be confronted by a terribly old man in a ceremonial blue robe, with a skullcap covering his no doubt balding head. His face is withered, and his frail eyes only compliment an extremely happy demeanor. This, you presume, is Father Tomas. He stares at you, silent, and raises a large metallic cross from an opening of his robe, though he seems to be holding it the wrong way... Wary of his silver weapon, you take a step to the side-- giving you room. "Father Tomas, it seems that I have finally had the honor to meet you." "No, the pleasure is mine, Vampire. Fate has brought it that it is my responsibility to put you down, as well as your canine friends." You glare at him in anger, and flick at your wrist; claws out, you get into a battle-stance. He, in turn, raises his shimmering Cross, wielding it as a sword. "I wouldn't put up a fight, if I were you. I know for a fact that you Creations can't heal from a wound of silver, and as such you have no otherworldly advantage over me." You laugh, "Except perhaps the age part." The priest stops smiling and instead eyes you angrily, "I suppose you'll learn the hard way." He slowly begins to approach you, his sword, pulsating with some sort of unrecognizable energy, held high. You make a quick examination of your surroundings: the stair case from behind you, doors and other hallways to your right, though several meters forward and to your left is a ledge, where there's an at least three-story drop down to the first floor, where you can see David slowly whittling off the Monks. Perhaps you can use the ledge to your advantage... You continue to parallel the insane priest, your claws at your side and your wits still intact. You need to make the first move, but how should you go about it? The man looks old, but something about him tells you that he's more than capable of wielding his weapon masterfully. Still, you're probably quicker than him, and a quick fight is all you need. Then again, you need to watch out for the silver sword, because if he gets a solid hit on you then you're done. > You fight Aggressively. You continue to stand parallel to the Head-Zealot, slowly beckoning him closer to the side with a ledge. While you know you have to end the fight soon, you also know that this won't be an easy fight. The cackling priest advances, holding his heavy Cross out like a rapier, poking it at you, trying to get you to move back. Deciding that staying on the defensive won't save you from this mad man, you take action by leaping in his direction-- he grins, preparing to simply swing upwards to hit you, but manage to somersault out of the old man's swipe, and land a heavy kick to his face. He staggers backwards, his hand on his eye in a mixture of pain and anger. Tomas angrily sends another swipe with his sword at you, but you're already charging for him, pushing the old to the ledge that is now to your right with your forearm. The priest coughs, but quickly recovers. Relentless, you send another barrage of jabs at him, moving close enough to him that his long-range won't be an advantage for him. A mixture of punches and claws manage to cut his robe to shreds, and he struggles to get you off of him-- to no avail. After a silly, pointless scuffle you manage to hold him right by the ledge, where a fall to the death would await him. Tomas holds up his silver cross, creating a pseudo-barrier between the two of you, but you just grab hold of it with your gauntlets, and shove him at the wooden slabs, and slowly increase pressure, slowly increase it. Several seconds more of pushing, and he won't have a choice of how his body breaks, as you'll secure his death in the fall. You shove once more... Snap. "There we go... See you in hell, bastard!" The wooden splinters open, and you find the two of you tumbling down at several meters, both grasping for eachothers' throats. Unfortunately for you, the old man barely manages to grab hold of your hair and uses it as leverage to be just slightly above you... You both fall with a heavy thud, your armored body crashing through the floor. You struggle to get out of it, as you find your armor almost embedded in to the rubble. Still, you manage to get up, and the sharp pang you feel in your head slowly begins to disappear. As the dust clears, you find a bleeding Tomas with a bloody eye holding an unconscious David to the wall, his silver sword still gripped in his hands. His remaining useable eye stares right at you, and the priest begins to cackle further, "If you take even one more step towards me, I swear I will slay your disciple right now. But, if you leave me here to die in peace, not of a sinners hand, then I can promise that I will not kill him. Hmm, you like this deal?" Your loyal ghoul stares at you blankly, and his shaking head can either be interpreted as a plea to let him live or to kill the priest. Or perhaps something else? Stunned and still recovering, you try to make a decision with a clear head... > You kill the Priest where he stands, because damn the consequences. "I'm sorry, David." You state, realizing that Tomas will be killing your ghoul regardless of your choices. With that in mind, you rush the bleeding geezer, hoping to catch him before he can finish off your ghoul. As you thrust your clawed hand at his head, he just barely manages to skewer David. Never has a killing felt more rewarding. Your hand pierces the fleshy skin-- leaving a flayed face and a collapsed priest. With a grunt, you rush over to David's side, horrified by the gruesome hole in his chest. You don't really say anything to him, as there is nothing more to say. He fulfilled his duty to you well, and his job, once the City will be taken over, will be easily replaced. But, for now, his death shall allow others of your kind to live. David smiles, and holds your hand firmly. Memories flash of your brief but powerful connection, Oh, and we just were getting close, too... As David closes his eyes, you stand up, ready to continue your mission-- now, to Zealot HQ. You make your way through the piles of corpses to the front door of the Church, more angry than anything else at this point. By now you recognize that the sirens are still blaring, which means that Zealots should be piling up in the streets-- but the street you see has nobody walking. Though you do hear voices from somewhere far to the left, you can't help but notice that Zealot HQ has its door open. Am I too late? You wonder, as you make haste by running into the building, looking around for someone to waste your adrenaline on. Inside, you see perhaps three half-dressed Zealots yawning and loitering about, seemingly confident that this is a false alarm. This means nothing to you, and you rush one-- kick him into a nearby table, deck the other one with a heavy punch, and angrily bite into the last one's hand when he tries to strangle you from behind. It's over in a matter of minutes, but you suddenly feel like you're being... Watched. "Bravo, Demon." Comes the voice. From across the room you can see a white-armored Zealot, taller and more sizeable than most you've seen. He carries with him a silver sword, less blunt than Tomas's though it doesn't seem to resonate with the same energy. "I see you were able to butcher my friends quickly enough, but somehow I doubt you'll manage to take someone like myself as easily." "Who're you?" You roar, setting yourself in front of him. "Zealot Karat, Chief of the Zealots." He grins, "At least, until the real Chief comes home from your clever diversion. "If." You state, bluffing. I have no idea what happened with Gideon and the other Zealots... "If, he comes back." Katar doesn't bother answering, and instead positions himself with his silver katana in an aggressive fighting position. Once again, you find yourself in a tactical situation that you need to decide how to approach. You need to be careful about his silver sword and make sure to finish the fight quickly, but he's probably more spry than that bastard, Tomas. > You play it defensively, make sure that sword doesn't come near your body. Fueling your rage into reserve energy, to be used when necessary, you plant your feet to the ground, readying yourself for the Zealot. Karat laughs, lazily letting his sword's tip fall to the ground. The man's bravery (or is it bravado?) astonishes you, "So, you fear God's might?" "Maybe, but not your's." Comes your sharp answer. "Then how come you haven't readied yourself to attack? Are you worried you won't make the cut?" "I'm simply more confident in your ability to leave yourself open, thanks." Karat shrugs, "Suit yourself, Vampire. Perhaps you shall find fear of God's servant instaed." With that, he raises his silver katana, it gleaming in the neon lights of the building. His stance confirmed, aggressive, he poises to attack. The white Zealot advances, giving a wide and open slash in the air to test you. Of course, you pass with barely any effort-- just a turn of the neck. Karat laughs once again, and attempts to bum-rush you-- but your defensive stance gives you an advantage, and with clever foot work you grip his wrist, pull, and flip him onto a nearby table. It cracks under the pressure of an armored giant slammed onto it, but the Zealot gets back up and, still gripping his katana, sends a swift vertical cut down at you. You attempt to dodge, but you'd admit that you didn't expect him to get back up so fast, and the slash sticks into your shoulder-armor, just barely missing your skin. As lucky as you were back there, now Karat has the initiative. He pulls the sword back, grabbing you with it and sending a heavy boot at your stomach. You begin to tip over, but you're sent backwards by a heavy, gauntleted punch to your nose-- which sends you back several feet and onto the ground. Your vision blurs slightly though you manage to get up before Karat manages to land a more accurate cut at your forehead, and manage to grapple him, using the core of your body to push him back. Your nose for some reason still bloodied, you continue to prefer close quarters, where your pinging head won't hamper your vision. Using the anger built up, you manage to grab hold of his helmet with both hands, and squeeze. The man screams, much like your ghoul did not so long ago. They all do, the humans scream in pain, struggle and kick in their last moments. And as the helmet crumples up and the man goes limp, you embrace your inner demon and drink him dry. The blood is refreshing and your vision clears, but then you notice why his armor is so bright. Must be inlaid with silver... You shrug. Does it really matter if the Zealots have been inlaying their weapons with silver? The Wolves can take care of themselves... Regardless, realizing that there aren't any Zealots left in the building, you leave to see how the war is going. Mission Accomplished. > You look for Ragnor and the others. You make your way outside of the building shaken but undeterred. The streets are empty, but you know that there are more humans in the houses, hiding. While the fighting itself may be dying down, you feel the need to go out and meet your courageous brethren, rather than have them come for you. You run down the steps and onto the concrete street, continuing back from where you came from, meanwhile trying to shove away distracting thoughts of your deceased friend. When this is done, we will honor you properly... Eventually, you begin to notice armored corpses strewn about in awkward positions. Alternatively, you find a brown Wolf, whom you recognize as the Middle-eastern man, white-eyed and bloody by a curb. How many of us were lost this day? You continue on in solemn silence when you reach the fence, and from beyond it you can see several more Wolven corpses. Frantically, you search for Cecilia-- Phew, none of them are blonde like she was. But still... This leaves perhaps eight of us left... Most likely the last of our kind. "Vamp!" Comes a cry behind you. You turn around quickly to be hugged by an especially warm Cecilia, with Ragnor smiling with glee. You return the embrace, happiness overcoming the previous thoughts of dread. "I'm glad to see your alright, man. We had a tough fight, but we fended the hordes of Zealots off. How did your fights go?" You nod, "We... We killed Tomas and- and a man named Karat, called himself 'Chief'. Either way, the place was deserted from Zealots by the time I came looking for you." "Zealots? What about civilians?" Cecilia joins the interrogation with the question you least wish to answer at this moment, "And where's David?" "The Father killed him." You answer succinctly, still trying to get your mind off of it-- you don't want anymore nightmares. "I'm going to deal with the civilians soon, Ragnor. I have a plan for them." Ragnor nods in turn, "Unfortunate, though he died a warrior's death. What shall you do with the civilians?" "Ghoul them, use them to help rebuild this city. Once this works, we can make an entire civilization of Zealots, and then... Find the Professor and kill the bastard." "Solid thinking. But what precisely is the next move?" "Well, where are the surviving Creations?" "Rampaging. Cecilia here was the only one of the virgins to be able to control their forms." "Rampaging?" "Err, yeah." Ragnor replies, confused, "What's the problem?" "For the plan to work we need as many live humans as possible to rebuild. Ghouls, remember?" Without wasting anymore time, you begin to move back in search of the Wolves when you feel a heavy hand on your shoulder, holding you back. "Woah there, Vamp. Are you sure you want to stop them? This is the first time they're in actual control of their lives. Plus, they're probably too tired to do any real damage. Just let 'em have their fun, alright?" > You give in. You stop in your tracks and turn around. "Alright, Ragnor. But we need to go see where they are if only to get things up and running before the rest of the Zealots come back from the hideout." Ragnor's eyes seem to pop out, "Shit! I forgot about them!" Moving as quickly as possible, you follow your ears to and alley-way, where seven Wolves lay, peacefully licking the blood off their coats. You let out a loud sigh of relief after this, thankful that they didn't cause too much havoc after the fight was won and that they're all in one place. Several of them snarl at you but remain reserved enough so Ragnor can give them a fatherly rub on the head, making them relax. And, as they collectively relax, they slowly morph out of their animal-forms and back to their naked, wonderful selves. This, your family, will be the parents of a new nation of Creations. A new beginning for your race. > You counting from A.D. For both the humans and Creations of Church-City, now simply referred to as 'Home', everything changed after the Night of First-Blood. Twelve moons past and the event simply became what everybody began counting from. Today marks the first year since it happened, and the Ghouls, in all of this time, have slowly warmed up to the 7 apostles and yourself, dubbed the Messiah of Creation. You care little for the title, but the energy spent creating a hierarchy and stable society would be all for naught without a leader, and you-- decorated 'war' hero and leader of the Wolves was the unanimously voted candidate. Ragnor wasn't interested in the position-- the way he put it was, "I'd much rather lead others to fight than lead them to work." As such, he mostly leads reconnaissance and other various missions while you worry about the boring stuff, such as feeding the hundreds of blood-thirsty ghouls, setting up scouting teams and doing fluffy 'moral support' meetings with your apostles. The scouting teams come with information about the surrounding areas and the status of the wildlife and animals in the desert, but you make sure they don't go too far out-- several scouts have been known to just disappear mysteriously. Your methods can't be called 'moral' by any means, though they are efficient. Perhaps thirty of the least fit humans were spared from being ghoul, and instead were tasked with giving of their blood monthly. The ghouls didn't need more than an ounce per month in addition to other foods, though you found yourself needing much more. The humans gave to the point that they practically were ghouls themselves, but not quite. Too tired to revolt, but too useful to just kill. Furthermore, you spent time looking through old files in the Zealot-labs, searching for more information on the Professor. What you found wasn't as much as you'd hope, just his name and several of his affiliations. No physical description or photo, just names, affiliations, and several of his experiments. Still, you're hoping that when you finally crack the computer you'll be able to find more on him. Ragnor thinks it's a long-shot and stopped helping you sort through the files to figure it out, deeming it 'hopeless' and a 'waste of time'. Truth be told, he might have a point-- for all you know, the Professor could have died a while ago. But there was one conundrum that among the time elapsed that you're all struggling to answer: what happened to the other Zealots? And Gideon? The desert was periodically searched for any traces of them, but nothing turned up. Several times you've set out to search for Kelso As much work as you had, you managed to do some more enjoyable things in your 'down time'. > The Wolves. (Optional) Even though the Creations are now in control of their lives and aren't persecuted for existing, you've heard several reports from the younger ones about nightmares and need for emotional support. After a small discussion about it with Ragnor, you decided that it may be best to have weekly group sessions where everybody can 'talk'. It's silly and tacky but you go along with it. Morale is important. One of the more memorable meetings was when you discussed the trauma induced from the Professor himself. "He used to stick a needle in me!" the young Allen blurts out, breaking the ice. "He'd continually poke and pull out my blood until there was nothing left..." Darla scoffs, "That's nothing, kiddo. The Professor-- he, he used to check if I could become..." We all watched her closely, intrigued by what she may say, until, suddenly, Doria begins to tear up and bury her head in her arms. Ragnor awkwardly puts his hand around her in an attempt to comfort her, but to no avail. "The Professor... He was a character." Ragnor begins, "I was brought to consciousness for several days, as he used to take me to spar-- no, fight to the death with his other mutants. Consistently the blonde bastard would take a mortally wounded Creation and perform more experiments on them, to check if he did it right. Still, there was something charismatic about the monster, charismatic; fatherly. Those who survived the fights were sent to far-off places to fight humans, and when we returned we'd be treated like kings until he stuffed us back into tubes." Nordim remains silent, but perks his head up. His head shakes, but he says nothing. Shamino starts to speak, only to be shut down by Cecilia, who tightly grips Nordim's hand. "Speak, young one." She whispers. Nordim nods, then opens his mouth. Nothing comes out, but eventually sounds can be made out. "Professor Kurschner was like.... Like what Ragnor s-said, fatherly. Like, like a f-father to me. And, and... He used to give me treats... If I only hurt someone-- someone for him. I..." He stops, and proceeds to 'do the Darla' and buries his head. Several gulps later, you begin to realize your displacement in the conversation. Why exactly is it that you are some sort of amnesiac? Everybody else seemed to remember something of the lab, but you know very little about anything. Only thing you know about yourself is that you're the only vampire left and that you somehow led 15 people to lead a rebellion against hundreds, only to win. Quite the accomplishment. You shake your head out of the otherwise uninteresting memory. If only Ragnor had a better memory then we could track the Professor down... Other notes you've gathered on your 'apostles': Ragnor, your second in command and easily the strongest fighter in Home. At least, in his beast-form. He couldn't care less for this garbage, but goes through it for the team. Cecilia isn't bashful about expressing herself to you, though it's obvious she'd rather do it in private rather than discuss it with everybody else. Still, she realizes the importance of this for the younger of the group, so that's good. Shamino is large and dopey, but he's really enthusiastic, which is great since something as silly as this needs the support. Simon is probably around sixteen years old and has been expressing discontent up until now. He seems to have warmed up after a couple of sessions of whining. Darla is still heartbroken over your ghoul's death. It's odd, but you never noticed that she and David were close. Then again, it's only now that you've really been acquainted with the Wolves. More personally, at least. Either way, she appears to be benefiting from the sessions. Nordim remains passive throughout all the sessions. Seems to share a resentment of any sort of authority and shudders when the Professor is discussed. Allen is extremely young, adolescent. He appears to idolize you and Ragnor, which gives you an impetus not to disappoint. As for you yourself, well, you try your best to act like a leader, though you've come to get bored of the place. The workload builds up and you don't want to bother anybody with your troubles. Somehow, you get the feeling that the Demon is somewhere out there-- the Professor lives. While you can't be certain of this, you simply feel the likelihood of something big happening any day now. And so you wait, praying for the day where you can take revenge on him for what he did to you: manipulating you and your brethren to hurt others-- without even knowing it! He used us as vessels for his own crimes, then left us out in the desert to be hunted down by the Zealots. The bastard will pay for what he did to us...<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>For both the humans and Creations of Church-City, now simply referred to as 'Home', everything changed after the Night of First-Blood. Twelve moons past and the event simply became what everybody began counting from. Today marks the first year since it happened, and the Ghouls, in all of this time, have slowly warmed up to the 7 apostles and yourself, dubbed the Messiah of Creation. You care little for the title, but the energy spent creating a hierarchy and stable society would be all for naught without a leader, and you-- decorated 'war' hero and leader of the Wolves was the unanimously voted candidate. Ragnor wasn't interested in the position-- the way he put it was, "I'd much rather lead others to fight than lead them to work." As such, he mostly leads reconnaissance and other various missions while you worry about the boring stuff, such as feeding the hundreds of blood-thirsty ghouls, setting up scouting teams and doing fluffy 'moral support' meetings with your apostles. The scouting teams come with information about the surrounding areas and the status of the wildlife and animals in the desert, but you make sure they don't go too far out-- several scouts have been known to just disappear mysteriously. Your methods can't be called 'moral' by any means, though they are efficient. Perhaps thirty of the least fit humans were spared from being ghoul, and instead were tasked with giving of their blood monthly. The ghouls didn't need more than an ounce per month in addition to other foods, though you found yourself needing much more. The humans gave to the point that they practically were ghouls themselves, but not quite. Too tired to revolt, but too useful to just kill. Furthermore, you spent time looking through old files in the Zealot-labs, searching for more information on the Professor. What you found wasn't as much as you'd hope, just his name and several of his affiliations. No physical description or photo, just names, affiliations, and several of his experiments. Still, you're hoping that when you finally crack the computer you'll be able to find more on him. Ragnor thinks it's a long-shot and stopped helping you sort through the files to figure it out, deeming it 'hopeless' and a 'waste of time'. Truth be told, he might have a point-- for all you know, the Professor could have died a while ago. But there was one conundrum that among the time elapsed that you're all struggling to answer: what happened to the other Zealots? And Gideon? The desert was periodically searched for any traces of them, but nothing turned up. Several times you've set out to search for Kelso As much work as you had, you managed to do some more enjoyable things in your 'down time'. > The Ghouls. (Optional) The Ghouls are, to put it simply, unhappy. From devout followers of God to what they believe are demons. If you weren't the leader of the City, you'd perhaps find it amusing when a Ghoul would attempt at suicide, only to find themselves un-killable by normal means. It's a sick kind of amusement which you don't take part it, though you can certainly see the appeal. They mostly live wherever they used to anyhow, only now they depend on your monthly visits when you give them vials of blood which the parents hide from their children. Almost every-time you appear an enraged male tries to fight you, but they're quite simply no match. It takes a while, but it's relaxed, for the most part. You have more or less recognized that only time can repair the fences torn down. Perhaps one day they'll understand. What you do realize, however, is that you'll need lots of blood to maintain this, and as such you have to make monthly visits to the old Zealot-HQ, where the twenty humans left serve as 'blood-donors'. You stop off at the old Zealot-HQ, where the twenty-or-so remaining humans are still kept. You open the metal doors, where what used to be a cafeteria for Zealots now holds Ghouls, carefully placing vials of blood into specific containers, storing them in an unused cupboard. As you enter, the Ghouls rise at attention and salute, before scurrying out of the building. They know why you're here. Once a month you have to extract more blood out of the humans, as well as make sure they're scared enough of you so they won't turn on each other. It's happened before, and you have to make sure it doesn't happen again-- after all, your society is defendant on feed. You move forward and to the right, opening another door which leads to a hallway, which leads in to another door whom's staircase leads to the basement, where the humans are kept. You go down the steps, flipping a light-switch as you do so. The lights are dim and buzz a lot, but the Zealots installed a powerful generator can probably work for several more years. The humans, shackled, pale, and grim, peer at you in the dim lighting. Their faces express nothing but disgust mixed with fear, and they say no words to you. You reach for a flask with one hand, and the other grasps the wrist of a young girl. She must have been ten before you took the City over, and now she is... Developed. Mature in physical, and probably would be attractive if she wasn't as pale as the undead themselves. You bend down and look at her straight in the eye as your claws rip into her wrist, and as blood pours out into the flask below she doesn't even cry out in pain-- none of them do, they just watch. When the flask is several centimeters full you patch her wrist with a large band-aid filled with alcohol. At this she winces when you place it on, her slender frame shivering. You stand back up, and stare at the others, watching you as you get ready to leave, placing a cork in the flask. You turn back around, finished with only one of your tasks concerning them. "Where is your god?" You question the humans. None of them answer, they just stare blankly at you, soulless. You point to one of them, one that has the soiled garb of a minister, "Where is your god now, human? Where has he gone to protect you in your time of need? In case you didn't know, an entire year has passed since your holding, and behold nothing has succeeded in saving you. You are hopeless." They maintain their silence. "Your only possible hope is to become one of the fallen, one of the so-called 'Demons' you once told your children to fear. Today I give you that option, to live eternal unlife, not the death that awaits you." One or two look up to you, some in fear, some in disgust, and some of interest. "Those who wish to join me can. Stand up, throw away your principles, and you shall join the magnificent civilization that has been created in God's absence." The girl you just cut speaks, "If- if I join you... will, will my child be safe?" You raise an eyebrow, only to see one of the young men, close to her, holding her hand tightly. You notice a slight bulge in her stomach. You rub your chin, "Aha..." Perhaps that would be a better method to keep the City living. Use the thirty here to reproduce more children to feed off of... "Yes, he would. You and your mate may stand, for we will take care of you." With a weak smile, the girl trembles to get up, while the male solemnly helps her up. "Indeed, I didn't expect for you to be able to... Be intimate here, but this is for the best. Whomever wishes to be fruitful, and to multiply, will be granted access to the World above. The rest will continue to stay here." Several more haggard men and women stand up, just barely able to with their shackles. With a powerful strike, you break the metal holding them, and the thirteen men and women stand behind you. The rest of them-- a truly hopeless pair of twins who still believe in their deity just wait there, watching as you take several of the men and ghoul them in front of the emotionally scarred group, the blood spraying over them. They stare blankly as you grab at the oldest human, and swipe at his neck-- revealing all of his ruby red blood before he could even react. The boy of the pair stares at you angrily; and knowingly, that he couldn't possibly fight you. The other of the two-- an odd looking girl with a bizarre paper-hat on her head-- one shaped like some sort of boat-- doesn't even react, truly mortified by your actions. As the youth glare at you, you deftly snatch the hat from her head, unfolding it slightly to read what the blotches of ink read. The brother breaks out of his phase just to push at you, trying to get the hat back only for you to easily push him back several meters with but a flick of your wrist. Just glancing at the paper, you recognize the format to realize that it is not recent-- pictures of gardens and open-houses primarily being the subject of the paper. Boring. You drop the newspaper on the floor before motioning to your new workers to follow you. Soon enough, you place the mates into their own 'cells', houses under lock and key. Every several days you watch to see how things are, and whether their efforts to make children for you is working. Unfortunately, it seems like it will take years before you can harvest the fruits of this brilliant plan, but at the very least it seems like a good investment...<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>For both the humans and Creations of Church-City, now simply referred to as 'Home', everything changed after the Night of First-Blood. Twelve moons past and the event simply became what everybody began counting from. Today marks the first year since it happened, and the Ghouls, in all of this time, have slowly warmed up to the 7 apostles and yourself, dubbed the Messiah of Creation. You care little for the title, but the energy spent creating a hierarchy and stable society would be all for naught without a leader, and you-- decorated 'war' hero and leader of the Wolves was the unanimously voted candidate. Ragnor wasn't interested in the position-- the way he put it was, "I'd much rather lead others to fight than lead them to work." As such, he mostly leads reconnaissance and other various missions while you worry about the boring stuff, such as feeding the hundreds of blood-thirsty ghouls, setting up scouting teams and doing fluffy 'moral support' meetings with your apostles. The scouting teams come with information about the surrounding areas and the status of the wildlife and animals in the desert, but you make sure they don't go too far out-- several scouts have been known to just disappear mysteriously. Your methods can't be called 'moral' by any means, though they are efficient. Perhaps thirty of the least fit humans were spared from being ghoul, and instead were tasked with giving of their blood monthly. The ghouls didn't need more than an ounce per month in addition to other foods, though you found yourself needing much more. The humans gave to the point that they practically were ghouls themselves, but not quite. Too tired to revolt, but too useful to just kill. Furthermore, you spent time looking through old files in the Zealot-labs, searching for more information on the Professor. What you found wasn't as much as you'd hope, just his name and several of his affiliations. No physical description or photo, just names, affiliations, and several of his experiments. Still, you're hoping that when you finally crack the computer you'll be able to find more on him. Ragnor thinks it's a long-shot and stopped helping you sort through the files to figure it out, deeming it 'hopeless' and a 'waste of time'. Truth be told, he might have a point-- for all you know, the Professor could have died a while ago. But there was one conundrum that among the time elapsed that you're all struggling to answer: what happened to the other Zealots? And Gideon? The desert was periodically searched for any traces of them, but nothing turned up. Several times you've set out to search for Kelso As much work as you had, you managed to do some more enjoyable things in your 'down time'. > The Wolven tongue. (Optional) The lupine language is an annoyingly complex one. Even though the alphabet is blocky and primitive, it's amazingly complicated. If you were to guess, the language was probably formed from several other ones-- particularly English, German, and Latin. Or perhaps not-- it's just that foreign to you. Over the months of relative tranquility you've picked up most of it, though the constant use of prefixes, suffixes and roots still mess you up greatly. As Ragnor puts it, "It's a beautiful language, simple but elegant. It's confusing to learn though, I'll give you that." You were given chalk and were set in some sort of rundown school, where they still used blackboards. Shamino-- who's just slightly younger than yourself, pretty much takes advantage of the opportunity to finally teach you something. He forces you to draw the assortment of curved lines in specific orders, with seemingly random dots in order to emphasize expression. Probably the most interesting part of the alphabet is that some letters are simply not used in the English language. Fittingly, they require use of the back of the throat to pronounce, almost like a choked howl. They say that they formed it to spite the Professor, but you're not really sure how it would accomplish that. It seems that it would be more useful as a secret-code language if needed. That's probably what it was at first though, assuming the Wolves were always this close in their Facility. It's fascinating to you, though, that the Wolves were close enough to build this language together. Unfortunately, they seem to share a link together that you don't have, a connection that they all have. Even with the newly added benefit of speaking their tongue, most of them still find you aloof to them, simply a leader- but little else.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>For both the humans and Creations of Church-City, now simply referred to as 'Home', everything changed after the Night of First-Blood. Twelve moons past and the event simply became what everybody began counting from. Today marks the first year since it happened, and the Ghouls, in all of this time, have slowly warmed up to the 7 apostles and yourself, dubbed the Messiah of Creation. You care little for the title, but the energy spent creating a hierarchy and stable society would be all for naught without a leader, and you-- decorated 'war' hero and leader of the Wolves was the unanimously voted candidate. Ragnor wasn't interested in the position-- the way he put it was, "I'd much rather lead others to fight than lead them to work." As such, he mostly leads reconnaissance and other various missions while you worry about the boring stuff, such as feeding the hundreds of blood-thirsty ghouls, setting up scouting teams and doing fluffy 'moral support' meetings with your apostles. The scouting teams come with information about the surrounding areas and the status of the wildlife and animals in the desert, but you make sure they don't go too far out-- several scouts have been known to just disappear mysteriously. Your methods can't be called 'moral' by any means, though they are efficient. Perhaps thirty of the least fit humans were spared from being ghoul, and instead were tasked with giving of their blood monthly. The ghouls didn't need more than an ounce per month in addition to other foods, though you found yourself needing much more. The humans gave to the point that they practically were ghouls themselves, but not quite. Too tired to revolt, but too useful to just kill. Furthermore, you spent time looking through old files in the Zealot-labs, searching for more information on the Professor. What you found wasn't as much as you'd hope, just his name and several of his affiliations. No physical description or photo, just names, affiliations, and several of his experiments. Still, you're hoping that when you finally crack the computer you'll be able to find more on him. Ragnor thinks it's a long-shot and stopped helping you sort through the files to figure it out, deeming it 'hopeless' and a 'waste of time'. Truth be told, he might have a point-- for all you know, the Professor could have died a while ago. But there was one conundrum that among the time elapsed that you're all struggling to answer: what happened to the other Zealots? And Gideon? The desert was periodically searched for any traces of them, but nothing turned up. Several times you've set out to search for Kelso As much work as you had, you managed to do some more enjoyable things in your 'down time'. > You stargazing with Cecilia. "You're starting to lose your hair." With a loud chuckle, you sift your fingers through your once luxurious head of hair. As you take your hand out of it, white strands fall to the floor. "Ha, I suppose I am. I suppose that's what happens with stress." Cecilia giggles, snuggling up next to you. For a moment, the two of you marvel at the open sky, unpolluted by light. The stars shines from behind the slowly clearing clouds, a full-moon masked by the gray matter. "You think it was a good idea to sleep on top of a high roof top?" You ask. "Well, it's romantic." "Not really." More laughter. "You know, I still don't get you, Cess." She gets up, her long blonde hair falling into your face, "What is that supposed to mean, Vamp?" "You know I'm impotent." "... Yeah, so? Doesn't mean I can't like you." Now it's your turn to chuckle. "Of course, but that also means that you can't benefit our race if you stay the nights with me. Probably can't be too fun either." "Sometimes we don't have to sacrifice of ourselves for others. I like you and I can trust you, and that's all need, love." "Ah-huh." You slowly rise up, only for her to grab your hand to sit down with her again. You get closer to her once more, "Alright, so, you got me up here, finally, but as much as I like spending time with you, I think you need to tell me why you wanted to sleep on the roof tonight." Cecilia turns away, "I need to see something." "Like what?" "You'll see." In awkward silence you wait. As a powerful gust of wind passes, the night sky suddenly brightens slightly-- the full moon fully exposed. The Wolf gets up from the mattress, only to hop down from the roof and stare intently at the moon. "Cecilia?" You question, not wanting to upset her. All you know is that she wants to be in her animal-form, but you're not sure why. Suddenly, your lover begins to tremble, her shoulders jerking spontaneously and her chest rising with heavy breaths. Her body, barely concealed by a night-gown, grows-- thick blonde hair sprouting from every area, her legs becoming thick as tree trunks, claws protruding and her nose extending to a snout. Ugly fangs hang from her mouth and a vicious tongue hangs out as her maw becomes a weapon to be feared. The demonic beast stares at you and snarls in Cecilia's normal voice, "V-vamp?" "You can speak in that form?" You ask, shocked. "Yes." She replies, moving towards you, "I need you to do something for me." "What?" "Ghoul me." "What?" "I'm serious, my love. Else I wouldn't have already formed for you, rather than abruptly change in the middle of the process. I wish to live longer, like you shall!" You bring a hand to your brow, "Cecilia, my dear... This isn't necessary, really. You'll be living a long life anyway, as a Creation. "Cecilia, trust me, you do not want the curse of blood. The necessity eats at your very soul-- it justifies horrible things and--" "They're not horrible if they can be done with you." The poor girl... She doesn't get it, does she? She thinks she that being ghouled is a blessing, but it's a curse. The ghouls here, for example; they became sheep to be herded. Even I'd have a companian forever, it also means that my companion won't be herself anymore... > You become one with Cecilia. With a weak smile you cautiously approach Cecilia. "Alright, my love. Just remain quiet-- the others are still sleeping." You continue nearing the Wolf, who lowers her giant snout to clumsily lick your face. The slobber and sound gives you a distinct feeling of disgust, but you manage to nuzzle the liquid off your face on Cecilia's fur. "Are you sure you want this?" "Oh yes!" Cecilia whispers, her snout forming some sort of smile. On her command, you sink your teeth into her neck, getting your mouth full of hairs. It takes a while, but you finally manage to slurp enough blood that you feel the 'rush'. Power, energy, heat; everything connects you further in the moment. Despite her quirks, you've come to appreciate her more than anybody else. After all, she sacrificed most of her ability to feel just so you could savor her blood... No, she said she wished to live for eternity, like myself. To be with me, forever... You feel the sticky red goo splatter around your lips as the Wol struggles to not howl by pounding the ground around you. Your teeth maintain a strong hold on her neck, for you know that if you release prematurely the Ghouling process would have to be repeated from the beginning. The sweet and sour drink continues to flow down your throat, and before you know it-- Cecilia falls to the ground, naked and in her more human form. You fall upon her, and find yourself unconscious. You wake back in your quarters, a pale Cecilia in your bed and hugging you tightly. If it were anybody else this might have been an opportunity for debauchery or something naughty, but no-- you're still asleep downstairs. But that doesn't matter.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"You're starting to lose your hair." With a loud chuckle, you sift your fingers through your once luxurious head of hair. As you take your hand out of it, white strands fall to the floor. "Ha, I suppose I am. I suppose that's what happens with stress." Cecilia giggles, snuggling up next to you. For a moment, the two of you marvel at the open sky, unpolluted by light. The stars shines from behind the slowly clearing clouds, a full-moon masked by the gray matter. "You think it was a good idea to sleep on top of a high roof top?" You ask. "Well, it's romantic." "Not really." More laughter. "You know, I still don't get you, Cess." She gets up, her long blonde hair falling into your face, "What is that supposed to mean, Vamp?" "You know I'm impotent." "... Yeah, so? Doesn't mean I can't like you." Now it's your turn to chuckle. "Of course, but that also means that you can't benefit our race if you stay the nights with me. Probably can't be too fun either." "Sometimes we don't have to sacrifice of ourselves for others. I like you and I can trust you, and that's all need, love." "Ah-huh." You slowly rise up, only for her to grab your hand to sit down with her again. You get closer to her once more, "Alright, so, you got me up here, finally, but as much as I like spending time with you, I think you need to tell me why you wanted to sleep on the roof tonight." Cecilia turns away, "I need to see something." "Like what?" "You'll see." In awkward silence you wait. As a powerful gust of wind passes, the night sky suddenly brightens slightly-- the full moon fully exposed. The Wolf gets up from the mattress, only to hop down from the roof and stare intently at the moon. "Cecilia?" You question, not wanting to upset her. All you know is that she wants to be in her animal-form, but you're not sure why. Suddenly, your lover begins to tremble, her shoulders jerking spontaneously and her chest rising with heavy breaths. Her body, barely concealed by a night-gown, grows-- thick blonde hair sprouting from every area, her legs becoming thick as tree trunks, claws protruding and her nose extending to a snout. Ugly fangs hang from her mouth and a vicious tongue hangs out as her maw becomes a weapon to be feared. The demonic beast stares at you and snarls in Cecilia's normal voice, "V-vamp?" "You can speak in that form?" You ask, shocked. "Yes." She replies, moving towards you, "I need you to do something for me." "What?" "Ghoul me." "What?" "I'm serious, my love. Else I wouldn't have already formed for you, rather than abruptly change in the middle of the process. I wish to live longer, like you shall!" You bring a hand to your brow, "Cecilia, my dear... This isn't necessary, really. You'll be living a long life anyway, as a Creation. "Cecilia, trust me, you do not want the curse of blood. The necessity eats at your very soul-- it justifies horrible things and--" "They're not horrible if they can be done with you." The poor girl... She doesn't get it, does she? She thinks she that being ghouled is a blessing, but it's a curse. The ghouls here, for example; they became sheep to be herded. Even I'd have a companian forever, it also means that my companion won't be herself anymore... > You refuse. Slowly, you approach the vixen. "Cecilia... No, just no." It's as if you can see a frown in that huge snout of her's, "Why no? Vamp... I want this, for us. Why not?" "Because you shouldn't throw your life away for me!" You snap back, standing up to her bulking figure. "Ghoul's are inherently submissive and are forced to drink of other's blood to live. This is not a life for you-- I know you enough to know it isn't." "Only submissive to our sires," Cecilia murmurs, nuzzling her large cranium to your shoulder. "And I'd be okay with that." You push her away, slightly. "But I wouldn't be okay with it," you frown, petting her fuzzy chin, "Can you respect that?" Ugh, it's really hard to seem courteous when she looks like this... Cecilia backs down, "I suppose... I can't force you to do that. I'm sorry." "Don't be, it was a miscommunication on both sides. I think. Now, why don't we get some rest together? We have lots of time to look forward to." You smile and she smiles back.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>For both the humans and Creations of Church-City, now simply referred to as 'Home', everything changed after the Night of First-Blood. Twelve moons past and the event simply became what everybody began counting from. Today marks the first year since it happened, and the Ghouls, in all of this time, have slowly warmed up to the 7 apostles and yourself, dubbed the Messiah of Creation. You care little for the title, but the energy spent creating a hierarchy and stable society would be all for naught without a leader, and you-- decorated 'war' hero and leader of the Wolves was the unanimously voted candidate. Ragnor wasn't interested in the position-- the way he put it was, "I'd much rather lead others to fight than lead them to work." As such, he mostly leads reconnaissance and other various missions while you worry about the boring stuff, such as feeding the hundreds of blood-thirsty ghouls, setting up scouting teams and doing fluffy 'moral support' meetings with your apostles. The scouting teams come with information about the surrounding areas and the status of the wildlife and animals in the desert, but you make sure they don't go too far out-- several scouts have been known to just disappear mysteriously. Your methods can't be called 'moral' by any means, though they are efficient. Perhaps thirty of the least fit humans were spared from being ghoul, and instead were tasked with giving of their blood monthly. The ghouls didn't need more than an ounce per month in addition to other foods, though you found yourself needing much more. The humans gave to the point that they practically were ghouls themselves, but not quite. Too tired to revolt, but too useful to just kill. Furthermore, you spent time looking through old files in the Zealot-labs, searching for more information on the Professor. What you found wasn't as much as you'd hope, just his name and several of his affiliations. No physical description or photo, just names, affiliations, and several of his experiments. Still, you're hoping that when you finally crack the computer you'll be able to find more on him. Ragnor thinks it's a long-shot and stopped helping you sort through the files to figure it out, deeming it 'hopeless' and a 'waste of time'. Truth be told, he might have a point-- for all you know, the Professor could have died a while ago. But there was one conundrum that among the time elapsed that you're all struggling to answer: what happened to the other Zealots? And Gideon? The desert was periodically searched for any traces of them, but nothing turned up. Several times you've set out to search for Kelso As much work as you had, you managed to do some more enjoyable things in your 'down time'. > You researching about your Creator. "Alright Ragnor, check the bin in the back. I'll flip through the files in the cabinet." As Ragnor groans, dropping a metal safe he was trying to punch open and moves to the back. "You know, I still don't get why you're so fixated on it still. You've got quite a bit ahead of you, why not focus on that?" "Because he still holds the answers to my questions. Like, who I was, et cetera." "Why not just put it behind you and focus on the present?" "Because I also need to make sure he doesn't mess with our future." "You don't think he's dead?" You shake your head, "Doubt it. Some of the files have already discussed the other Facilities and how the Zealots destroyed all thirteen of them. But I don't think that a man as resourceful and well-funded as the Professor wouldn't set up a back-up Facility. I'd wager that he's trying to do something there too- and we can't have that, can we?" Ragnor shrugs, "If it makes you happy." He silently sorts through the bin. With a sigh, you try to remember everything you've collected thus far: the Professor seemed to have thirteen Higher-Creations which eac helped run their specific Facilities, each with their own 'specialty'. From what you can tell, the ones you know are probably Gideon, Kelso, and... God, what was his name, Stein? They must have been the only ones who survived the Facility raids. The rest likely died. The Professor-- Sion Kurschner, apparently was known to experiment on himself as well as others. No pictures detail him, though it notes that he was of Germanic background, though American-born and raised. A lot of things detailing him are ripped, so it's hard to get anything useful. You flip through the last folder-- and something catches your eye. Eureka! It's a last sighting report. Apparently he was seen by Zealot scouts about a year ago, before the Church-City raid you ran. They saw a man in a white lab coat circle around the desert, then disappear. They say he went south, where they occasionally heard reports from another City that (used?) to be there. No other reference to that city is made anywhere else, but... This is the best lead we've gotten. Ever. "Ragnor, take a look at this! In about a week we should be able to send a team in that direction in search of the lost City!" We'll find you, Simon Kurschner. It's just a matter of time now...<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You make your way outside of the building shaken but undeterred. The streets are empty, but you know that there are more humans in the houses, hiding. While the fighting itself may be dying down, you feel the need to go out and meet your courageous brethren, rather than have them come for you. You run down the steps and onto the concrete street, continuing back from where you came from, meanwhile trying to shove away distracting thoughts of your deceased friend. When this is done, we will honor you properly... Eventually, you begin to notice armored corpses strewn about in awkward positions. Alternatively, you find a brown Wolf, whom you recognize as the Middle-eastern man, white-eyed and bloody by a curb. How many of us were lost this day? You continue on in solemn silence when you reach the fence, and from beyond it you can see several more Wolven corpses. Frantically, you search for Cecilia-- Phew, none of them are blonde like she was. But still... This leaves perhaps eight of us left... Most likely the last of our kind. "Vamp!" Comes a cry behind you. You turn around quickly to be hugged by an especially warm Cecilia, with Ragnor smiling with glee. You return the embrace, happiness overcoming the previous thoughts of dread. "I'm glad to see your alright, man. We had a tough fight, but we fended the hordes of Zealots off. How did your fights go?" You nod, "We... We killed Tomas and- and a man named Karat, called himself 'Chief'. Either way, the place was deserted from Zealots by the time I came looking for you." "Zealots? What about civilians?" Cecilia joins the interrogation with the question you least wish to answer at this moment, "And where's David?" "The Father killed him." You answer succinctly, still trying to get your mind off of it-- you don't want anymore nightmares. "I'm going to deal with the civilians soon, Ragnor. I have a plan for them." Ragnor nods in turn, "Unfortunate, though he died a warrior's death. What shall you do with the civilians?" "Ghoul them, use them to help rebuild this city. Once this works, we can make an entire civilization of Zealots, and then... Find the Professor and kill the bastard." "Solid thinking. But what precisely is the next move?" "Well, where are the surviving Creations?" "Rampaging. Cecilia here was the only one of the virgins to be able to control their forms." "Rampaging?" "Err, yeah." Ragnor replies, confused, "What's the problem?" "For the plan to work we need as many live humans as possible to rebuild. Ghouls, remember?" Without wasting anymore time, you begin to move back in search of the Wolves when you feel a heavy hand on your shoulder, holding you back. "Woah there, Vamp. Are you sure you want to stop them? This is the first time they're in actual control of their lives. Plus, they're probably too tired to do any real damage. Just let 'em have their fun, alright?" > You shrug Ragnor off and run to make sure the chaos is controlled. With a heavy sigh, you continue on back to the streets of Church-City, Ragnor's hand not strong enough to keep you back. He and Cecilia follow you nonetheless, though in silence. The way back is uneventful, and the howls of the remaining Wolves are distinct enough to follow. Moving as quickly as possible, you follow your ears to and alley-way, where seven Wolves lay, peacefully licking the blood off their coats. You let out a loud sigh of relief after this, thankful that they didn't cause too much havoc after the fight was won and that they're all in one place. Several of them snarl at you but remain reserved enough so Ragnor can give them a fatherly rub on the head, making them relax. And, as they collectively relax, they slowly morph out of their animal-forms and back to their naked, wonderful selves. This, your family, will be the fathers of a new nation of Creations. A new beginning for your race.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"I'm sorry, David." You state, realizing that Tomas will be killing your ghoul regardless of your choices. With that in mind, you rush the bleeding geezer, hoping to catch him before he can finish off your ghoul. As you thrust your clawed hand at his head, he just barely manages to skewer David. Never has a killing felt more rewarding. Your hand pierces the fleshy skin-- leaving a flayed face and a collapsed priest. With a grunt, you rush over to David's side, horrified by the gruesome hole in his chest. You don't really say anything to him, as there is nothing more to say. He fulfilled his duty to you well, and his job, once the City will be taken over, will be easily replaced. But, for now, his death shall allow others of your kind to live. David smiles, and holds your hand firmly. Memories flash of your brief but powerful connection, Oh, and we just were getting close, too... As David closes his eyes, you stand up, ready to continue your mission-- now, to Zealot HQ. You make your way through the piles of corpses to the front door of the Church, more angry than anything else at this point. By now you recognize that the sirens are still blaring, which means that Zealots should be piling up in the streets-- but the street you see has nobody walking. Though you do hear voices from somewhere far to the left, you can't help but notice that Zealot HQ has its door open. Am I too late? You wonder, as you make haste by running into the building, looking around for someone to waste your adrenaline on. Inside, you see perhaps three half-dressed Zealots yawning and loitering about, seemingly confident that this is a false alarm. This means nothing to you, and you rush one-- kick him into a nearby table, deck the other one with a heavy punch, and angrily bite into the last one's hand when he tries to strangle you from behind. It's over in a matter of minutes, but you suddenly feel like you're being... Watched. "Bravo, Demon." Comes the voice. From across the room you can see a white-armored Zealot, taller and more sizeable than most you've seen. He carries with him a silver sword, less blunt than Tomas's though it doesn't seem to resonate with the same energy. "I see you were able to butcher my friends quickly enough, but somehow I doubt you'll manage to take someone like myself as easily." "Who're you?" You roar, setting yourself in front of him. "Zealot Karat, Chief of the Zealots." He grins, "At least, until the real Chief comes home from your clever diversion. "If." You state, bluffing. I have no idea what happened with Gideon and the other Zealots... "If, he comes back." Katar doesn't bother answering, and instead positions himself with his silver katana in an aggressive fighting position. Once again, you find yourself in a tactical situation that you need to decide how to approach. You need to be careful about his silver sword and make sure to finish the fight quickly, but he's probably more spry than that bastard, Tomas. > You fight aggressively, to make sure the fight is ended soon. Still angered by the death of your friend, you quickly lunge at the man, his mouth still moving. Karat moves out of the way, just in time. "You're a feisty little demon aren't you?" He laughs, readying his katana to slash. You don't waste a second when you swipe at him again, your claws forming from under the gauntlet. He dodges it again-- and counters, sending a flurry of swipes in your direction. Even though his advancing attacks barely give you enough time to dodge, you try to maintain being on the offensive. A horizontal slash causes you to crouch, and the next vertical one makes you have to move to the side. Again and again this cycle continues, and you feel as if he might be getting tired. When he begins to slow down even the slightest bit, you add a kick to your crouching, sweeping him off of his feet. He falls over, but not before a wild swing cuts at your cheek. While only a small amount of pus dribbles out of your cheek. you realize that this marks something worse. Still, you make an attempt to jump onto him, and strangle the bastard to death, but even on the floor Karat manages to use his sword at it's fullest, and this time, his sword is pushed with enough force to pierce your body armor. On the plus side, you did manage to end the fight relatively quickly. You have been killed by the hands of the Church.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You continue to stand parallel to the Head-Zealot, slowly beckoning him closer to the side with a ledge. While you know you have to end the fight soon, you also know that this won't be an easy fight. The cackling priest advances, holding his heavy Cross out like a rapier, poking it at you, trying to get you to move back. Deciding that staying on the defensive won't save you from this mad man, you take action by leaping in his direction-- he grins, preparing to simply swing upwards to hit you, but manage to somersault out of the old man's swipe, and land a heavy kick to his face. He staggers backwards, his hand on his eye in a mixture of pain and anger. Tomas angrily sends another swipe with his sword at you, but you're already charging for him, pushing the old to the ledge that is now to your right with your forearm. The priest coughs, but quickly recovers. Relentless, you send another barrage of jabs at him, moving close enough to him that his long-range won't be an advantage for him. A mixture of punches and claws manage to cut his robe to shreds, and he struggles to get you off of him-- to no avail. After a silly, pointless scuffle you manage to hold him right by the ledge, where a fall to the death would await him. Tomas holds up his silver cross, creating a pseudo-barrier between the two of you, but you just grab hold of it with your gauntlets, and shove him at the wooden slabs, and slowly increase pressure, slowly increase it. Several seconds more of pushing, and he won't have a choice of how his body breaks, as you'll secure his death in the fall. You shove once more... Snap. "There we go... See you in hell, bastard!" The wooden splinters open, and you find the two of you tumbling down at several meters, both grasping for eachothers' throats. Unfortunately for you, the old man barely manages to grab hold of your hair and uses it as leverage to be just slightly above you... You both fall with a heavy thud, your armored body crashing through the floor. You struggle to get out of it, as you find your armor almost embedded in to the rubble. Still, you manage to get up, and the sharp pang you feel in your head slowly begins to disappear. As the dust clears, you find a bleeding Tomas with a bloody eye holding an unconscious David to the wall, his silver sword still gripped in his hands. His remaining useable eye stares right at you, and the priest begins to cackle further, "If you take even one more step towards me, I swear I will slay your disciple right now. But, if you leave me here to die in peace, not of a sinners hand, then I can promise that I will not kill him. Hmm, you like this deal?" Your loyal ghoul stares at you blankly, and his shaking head can either be interpreted as a plea to let him live or to kill the priest. Or perhaps something else? Stunned and still recovering, you try to make a decision with a clear head... > You trust in the Priest and continue on to the other building. "You'll have your own choice of death today, Tomas. But I will honor the deal we made tonight, and I hope, for your sake, that you honor yours." Father Tomas stares at you with that crazy eye of his, nodding and cocking his head for you to move towards the door before he can release your friend. With an angry sigh, you move past the bloody corpses piled up in the room and hang by the front door. As David is dropped by the Father, you stand up, ready to continue your mission-- now, to Zealot HQ. David stares at you meekly, trying his best to grunt loudly. You wave to him, expecting him to follow, before opening the front door once again. By now you recognize that the sirens are still blaring, which means that Zealots should be piling up in the streets-- but the street you see has nobody walking. Though you do hear voices from somewhere far to the left, you can't help but notice that Zealot HQ has its door open. Am I too late? You wonder, as you make haste by running into the building, looking around for someone to waste your adrenaline on. Inside, you see perhaps three half-dressed Zealots yawning and loitering about, seemingly confident that this is a false alarm. This means nothing to you, and you rush one-- kick him into a nearby table, deck the other one with a heavy punch, and angrily bite into the last one's hand when he tries to strangle you from behind. It's over in a matter of minutes, but you suddenly feel like you're being... Watched. "Bravo, Demon." Comes the voice. From across the room you can see a white-armored Zealot, taller and more sizeable than most you've seen. He carries with him a silver sword, less blunt than Tomas's though it doesn't seem to resonate with the same energy. "I see you were able to butcher my friends quickly enough, but somehow I doubt you'll manage to take someone like myself as easily." "Who're you?" You roar, setting yourself in front of him. "Zealot Karat, Chief of the Zealots." He grins, "At least, until the real Chief comes home from your clever diversion. "If." You state, bluffing. I have no idea what happened with Gideon and the other Zealots... "If, he comes back." Katar doesn't bother answering, and instead positions himself with his silver katana in an aggressive fighting position. Once again, you find yourself in a tactical situation that you need to decide how to approach. You need to be careful about his silver sword and make sure to finish the fight quickly, but he's probably more spry than that bastard, Tomas. > You fight defensively, as to make sure that katana doesn't touch you. Fueling your rage into reserve energy, to be used when necessary, you plant your feet to the ground, readying yourself for the Zealot. Karat laughs, lazily letting his sword's tip fall to the ground. The man's bravery (or is it bravado?) astonishes you, "So, you fear God's might?" "Maybe, but not your's." Comes your sharp answer. "Then how come you haven't readied yourself to attack? Are you worried you won't make the cut?" "I'm simply more confident in your ability to leave yourself open, thanks." Karat shrugs, "Suit yourself, Vampire. Perhaps you shall find fear of God's servant instaed." With that, he raises his silver katana, it gleaming in the neon lights of the building. His stance confirmed, aggressive, he poises to attack. The white Zealot advances, giving a wide and open slash in the air to test you. Of course, you pass with barely any effort-- just a turn of the neck. Karat laughs once again, and attempts to bum-rush you-- but your defensive stance gives you an advantage, and with clever foot work you grip his wrist, pull, and flip him onto a nearby table. It cracks under the pressure of an armored giant slammed onto it, but the Zealot gets back up and, still gripping his katana, sends a swift vertical cut down at you. You attempt to dodge, but you'd admit that you didn't expect him to get back up so fast, and the slash sticks into your shoulder-armor, just barely missing your skin. As lucky as you were back there, now Karat has the initiative. He pulls the sword back, grabbing you with it and sending a heavy boot at your stomach. You begin to tip over, but you're sent backwards by a heavy, gauntleted punch to your nose-- which sends you back several feet and onto the ground. Your vision blurs slightly though you manage to get up before Karat manages to land a more accurate cut at your forehead, and manage to grapple him, using the core of your body to push him back. Your nose for some reason still bloodied, you continue to prefer close quarters, where your pinging head won't hamper your vision. Using the anger built up, you manage to grab hold of his helmet with both hands, and squeeze. The man screams, much like your ghoul did not so long ago. They all do, the humans scream in pain, struggle and kick in their last moments. And as the helmet crumples up and the man goes limp, you embrace your inner demon and drink him dry. The blood is refreshing and your vision clears, but then you notice why his armor is so bright. Must be inlaid with silver... You shrug. Does it really matter if the Zealots have been inlaying their weapons with silver? The Wolves can take care of themselves... Regardless, realizing that there aren't any Zealots left in the building, you leave to see how the war is going. Mission Successful. You get up, and stretch, getting ready to make your way to see how the Wolves fared. Suddenly... "DIE DEMON!" Comes the familiar thundering, though gravely voice. You hear and feel the heavy thud of a metal beam smashing into your skull. You double over, barely conscious, but you're able to make out the blue robe of the Father, now striped with rust-colored blood in front of you. "While it is saddening to think that you got this far, I am happy to relinquish you of your dark life-force, as I did to the man whom you corrupted. Good night." You have been killed by the hands of the Church.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"David, finish off these grunts as I find the big man upstairs." You call out, examining the building for the Father's Quarters. David nods, "Up the stairs, to the left!" Your head turns from right to left, looking for the set of stairs that will lead you to the Father. Finding the red-carpeted stairs, you begin your ascent, only to be stopped by a heavy-set Monk, who angrily shoves you backwards. "Get away, foul demon!" He continues pushing, but you catch his left arm, and end squeeze-- Crack. He yells out in pain, and you manage to grab him by the cuff of his robe, only to throw him out of the way and into a wall. You run up the staircase, skipping steps to maintain speed. After reaching the end of the first staircase, you deftly,turn your body, not wasting any time by getting to the adjacent continuation of the stairs. Several leaps later, you reach the end of the stair case, only to be confronted by a terribly old man in a ceremonial blue robe, with a skullcap covering his no doubt balding head. His face is withered, and his frail eyes only compliment an extremely happy demeanor. This, you presume, is Father Tomas. He stares at you, silent, and raises a large metallic cross from an opening of his robe, though he seems to be holding it the wrong way... Wary of his silver weapon, you take a step to the side-- giving you room. "Father Tomas, it seems that I have finally had the honor to meet you." "No, the pleasure is mine, Vampire. Fate has brought it that it is my responsibility to put you down, as well as your canine friends." You glare at him in anger, and flick at your wrist; claws out, you get into a battle-stance. He, in turn, raises his shimmering Cross, wielding it as a sword. "I wouldn't put up a fight, if I were you. I know for a fact that you Creations can't heal from a wound of silver, and as such you have no otherworldly advantage over me." You laugh, "Except perhaps the age part." The priest stops smiling and instead eyes you angrily, "I suppose you'll learn the hard way." He slowly begins to approach you, his sword, pulsating with some sort of unrecognizable energy, held high. You make a quick examination of your surroundings: the stair case from behind you, doors and other hallways to your right, though several meters forward and to your left is a ledge, where there's an at least three-story drop down to the first floor, where you can see David slowly whittling off the Monks. Perhaps you can use the ledge to your advantage... You continue to parallel the insane priest, your claws at your side and your wits still intact. You need to make the first move, but how should you go about it? The man looks old, but something about him tells you that he's more than capable of wielding his weapon masterfully. Still, you're probably quicker than him, and a quick fight is all you need. Then again, you need to watch out for the silver sword, because if he gets a solid hit on you then you're done. > You fight Defensively. You plant your feet sturdily into the flooring, watching his sword with caution. Whenever he moves closer, you move forward and around him, bringing him closer to the ledge and maintaining an important amount of distance between the two of you. Tomas chuckles, and finally begins swinging his heavy artifact. He does so not wildly, rather with strong, fluid motions; all of which your utmost concentration allow you to just barely dodge. His long strokes give him a lot of range, and you have a feeling that he's only just started. He picks up the pace, using his heavy sword more like a rapier, thrusting and swiping, attempting to corner you to the other side of the room; that isn't necessarily bad, as it's the side that has the ledge, but you need to quickly get back in control of the fight if you wish to get the old fool. Tomas advances, giving another quick thrust with his sword-- you try to take advantage of that by kicking his sword out of his hands, but his firm grip doesn't let go of it. Not wasting the opportunity, you leap at him while he rebalances the sword, and try to land a heavy claw at his neck. Seeing you, the old man, with bizarre agility, drops to the floor, and sweeps your legs from under you, knocking your head on the rails. You quickly get back up with a sharp twist, but he has enough time to give you a thwack on the back with his sword. The pain stings, and you feel your bones crack as he smacks you upside the head again with it, over an over again. Every time you attempt you get up, you are taken out again by Tomas's repetitive strikes. Can't... Get back up... Before you know it, You have been killed by the hands of the Church.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Not wasting any time, you turn to face the Chapel. Metallic and looming over you, with a large neon cross, still flashing. The door is a harsh steel, too old to cast a discernable reflection but maintained enough not to rust nor weaken. "How should we enter, then?" "No backdoors to the Church. Only one direction if you follow God." David recites from behind you. With a shrug, you continue onwards, going up a flight of concrete stairs, leading up to the looming steel door. You consider trying to bash the door in, but decide that knocking it and waiting for the door to be opened by whoever's inside would be an easier solution for getting in. Clang Your gauntlet taps at the metal. After a pause, you can hear noises on the inside of the Chapel, mostly worried murmuring. You quickly motion for David to go in front, right before a bald young man in ceremonial blue robe opens the door. In response to your ghoul's profile, the man just gapes for several moments before opening his mouth to speak. "Dave?!?" "No... Not anymore." He states, walking into the Church. The man doesn't seem to even notice you, engrossed in seeing a living ghost instead. Inside, several other monks are gathered, all of them staring at David with awe. You take the opportunity to slink into the shadow, and wait. "Behold! The blessed Lord brought our child back!" They cry, waving their hands in the air in synchronization. Up and down their hands go, until one with a cowl speaks up, "Brother David, where were you?" Your ghoul stares at them with disdain, "I got lost, but was found by a group of humans." They continue to gape. The cowled-one continues his interrogation, "Hmm? More humans, you say? "Crazy enough, the humans were in our backyard this entire time. We just didn't recognize them." "Whatever do you mean?" "The Wolves, Vadim. They're good people." Gasps erupt, and David's only looks down to his feet, and his hands ball up to fists. "They changed you, didn't they?" The one with the cowl points, and begins to chant in some sort of language which you are unfamiliar with. Bored of their religious, antics, you make your presence known by jumping out of the shadows, and decking 'Vadim' with a right hook, sending him to the middle of the crowd of twelve-or-so Monks. David nods, and sends a sharp kick to the nearest Zealot surrounding him. Before you know it, it becomes a rowdy brawl of fists. The monks may be very agile, but without any weapons nor armor you figure you or even David could take them out alone. Something tells you the alarms around the buildings weren't for show either-- you need to find the Father, quick! > You finish off the remaining monks, then worry about Father Tomas. Man, these bastards are quick. You may have gotten lucky with the Vadim fellow, but the rest, now pumping with adrenaline, are much harder to hit. The bald men may not be especially strong, but they're skilled enough that they can at least dodge and block your powerful claws and punches. Of course, they're bound to get tired after a minute or so of constant movement, but I need to get this done quickly. "Oof." One grunts as you land a knee into his groin, he stumbles to your side, where a heavy-set Monk elbows at your ribs-- only to miss and be targeted by David, who was unsuccessfully trying to down a midget of a Zealot. Your ghoul manages to leap atop of him and .wrap his arms around the man's neck. "What... happened.... to you... my.... friend..." Are his last words. The remaining monks still take up your time, giving quick jabs to your non-existent pressure points as you try to land a hit on them. The acrobats continue dodging, and you relentlessly continue, not hampered by mortal energy-consumption. They begin to slow, and your wild, badly-timed swings catch several of the surrounding monks, crushing their bones easily. Minutes passed, the only one standing is the sweating midget named, 'Miguel', who hopelessly kneels before you, "O how the lord has bested us, taught us a lesson in humility in dream-form, he did. Wake us from this nightmare, O merciful God!" You punt him across the room, cackling as you do so. Unfortunately for yourself and David, you can hear sirens-- Ragnor has begun his siege. You look from around you, and in front of you appears a pruned old man, wearing a ceremonial blue robe and a skullcap, wielding a shining... silver cross? Only, upside-down... As a sword... Father Tomas stares at you with a surprisingly serene smile, considering what you did with his disciples. "My monks did their part, do not worry, Vampire." Moments later, the old man throws his heavy rod with unreal accuracy and force, impaling your belly and opening it, spilling some gastric juices, but that's all. You feel your body convulsing as the holy metals sucks at your life force. You groan in pain, and kneel before the lord... If only you finished this man earlier. You have been killed by the hands of the Church.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The strobe light aimed back to its original place and the Zealot downed by his own, you and David make your way to the barb-wire fence, and easily leap above it, too lazy to get the key from the Zealot. After David turns off his blinkers, you begin to pay more attention to the City only to realize that, from the inside at least, it isn't nearly as bustling as you thought it was. Perhaps that's because most of them went to raid the hideout. Gideon is still there... You shake your head; you tried your best with that fool, now it's time to take what's yours; what the Creations deserve regardless of what the Church or the Professor think of them. Not weapons, not demons: just people. David waits for you to start walking again, tapping his foot eagerly. He doesn't speak much, but you can tell he enjoyed his time with the Wolves. Still, you'll always wonder what's inside his head, now as a ghoul. You continue through the ghost-town, which for whatever reason has all of it's buildings rigged with neon lights, flashing. David leads you through the ugly urban landscape, and you keep a lookout for humans. Suddenly, you spot one, walking out of some sort of pub, walking unsteadily. You grab David by the cuff of his armor and quickly hide in the shadow of some sort of looming dumpster. With a finger to your lips, you wait until the man's back is turned before you sneak up on him, digging claws into his neck for a quick and silent death. The man falls to the ground dead, and you lick your bloody nails. David, unfazed, comes out of the shadows only to pick up the man, and silently position him into the trash. "That pub holds a great deal of Zealots. We need to move out before they see me." You nod in return. At first you considered just going in and slaughtering the gathering of Zealots, but then realized that the light-weights Ragnor and his crew could handle, but the higher-ups are going to be an issue. David once again takes lead, and you prowl the streets, silently killing anything in your way, passing by buildings of all shapes and sizes, though most not even occupied. Two buildings in particular stand out, however: one mansion with a giant blue Cross above the door; the other large and rectangular with an upside-down Cross, for whatever reason.You'd look through the windows to see what's going on inside, but the windows of both buildings seem to just reflect your own image, though you can only really discern your armor since your pale profile doesn't come out well in the reflection. "The one with the holy-sword is Zealot-headquarters, the other one is the Chapel." David answers your thoughts, smiling at you. "I think it's in our best interest to enter and clear out both." "Which do you suggest to do first?" "Either one, sir. We need to kill Father Tomas and the Chief, both in their respective buildings. The Zealots who aren't on their way to the stronghold will be in both, though. But whichever we pick, we need to do it quick; Ragnor and the others will be making their move any moment now." > You enter the Zealot HQ. As you warily near the steel entrance to the Zealot headquarters, David taps on your shoulder, silently beckoning you to follow him. You comply, and follow your ghoul to around the building, where, after going up several flights of metal stairs (making as little noise as possible), you find a molding wooden door, a nice change from the ugly metal and concrete which make up the rest of the City. Of course, aside from giving you a vague feeling of deja vu, it's also gives you an easy opening. David motions toward it. Now let's make some noise. You remain careful in your last moments of anonymity, you try the golden knob- locked. Not wanting to jam it accidentally, you settle for setting up a roundhouse kick-- you twist your body, hold for a forceful kick, and push. The power of your kick rips at the wood, leaving a splintered hole in the door's midsection, big enough for you to swiftly roll under-- David following. Inside, you find several Zealots playing cards around a round table. They are visibly stunned, and gape at you and your ghoul. "David?" One asks, jumping up from their seat. Not cutting them any lack, you run at the Zealot, decking him to the floor with a solid punch. David takes on another, kicking him from the side, toppling him and his metal chair over. With only two left, you quickly claw at the one holding his hands up, splashing the table with his blood. With your claws entrenched in the Zealot neck, you fling him at the other the one. He flies, and with another clang the other one catches him, only to topple over as well. You quickly finish off any of them even barely conscious, clawing at their throats for edible parts. After grazing, you begin to hear footsteps. Can't waste time. "Where's the chief?" You roar, energized from the scuffle. David eyes bounce from each of the three doors connecting to other parts of the building, struggling to remember. "I'm the 'Chief', demonspawn." The door to the right opens, and there stands a tall, unusually garbed Zealot. Like most, he's tall, easily more than six feet and with navy blue armor with yellow lining, rather than the customary black and blue. He wears no mask, though his neck seems to be heavily guarded. Smart, but useless in my current state. "Vampire, we knew you'd come, but we didn't expect you to corrupt one of our own," he glares at David, and readies a gleaming silver sword, "Nor for you to attack us when we least expect it. But no matter, you both will die where you stand, for you deserve no mercy in this world." Your ghoul points at him, "Yes, that's Katar, we need to be careful with him though..." You nod, wondering how the best way to approach the enemy would be. > You angrily lash out at him as Kelso taught you; end the fight quickly. Barely letting him finish his speech, you lunge-- bringing the heel of your palm down near his jaw, only for him to deftly dodge out of the way. He shuffles several meters to the right, and raises his sword. He points at you, "By God's glory, the dead will stay dead tonight." Quickly, he swipes with his blade, you dodging it by as little as a hair. You continue to bend your spine in ways you never imagined you could, but remain on the offensive by clawing at him at every chance you have. You send a kick at his shin-- causing his knees to bend, and charge him with all your body force, screeching and yelling like a cat. You lay on top of him, and begin mercilessly pounding his bearded face, before he manages to separate you and him just by his sword-- which you angrily rip out of his grip, only for it to clumsily flip and cut into your forehead. He takes advantage of this and kicks you off, coughing out blood and quickly running for his sword. You try to reach for it, to no avail. David, now certain you need his help, jumps on Katar's back, trying to strangle the elite Zealot. Even with David on his back, he's able to stab you with his sword while you're still baffled as to why you're not regenerating your wounds properly. The cold steel hacks at your bones, and you begin crying out in pain while the holy man continues to mock you. Once you're incapacitated, the now ear-less Karat flings David off of him, and beheads him in front of you, the glum expression ever-present on your ghoul's head. He doesn't even need to finish you off, and you feel your energy being drained out. On the plus side, you did manage to end the fight relatively quickly. You have been killed by the hands of the Church.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>As you warily near the steel entrance to the Zealot headquarters, David taps on your shoulder, silently beckoning you to follow him. You comply, and follow your ghoul to around the building, where, after going up several flights of metal stairs (making as little noise as possible), you find a molding wooden door, a nice change from the ugly metal and concrete which make up the rest of the City. Of course, aside from giving you a vague feeling of deja vu, it's also gives you an easy opening. David motions toward it. Now let's make some noise. You remain careful in your last moments of anonymity, you try the golden knob- locked. Not wanting to jam it accidentally, you settle for setting up a roundhouse kick-- you twist your body, hold for a forceful kick, and push. The power of your kick rips at the wood, leaving a splintered hole in the door's midsection, big enough for you to swiftly roll under-- David following. Inside, you find several Zealots playing cards around a round table. They are visibly stunned, and gape at you and your ghoul. "David?" One asks, jumping up from their seat. Not cutting them any lack, you run at the Zealot, decking him to the floor with a solid punch. David takes on another, kicking him from the side, toppling him and his metal chair over. With only two left, you quickly claw at the one holding his hands up, splashing the table with his blood. With your claws entrenched in the Zealot neck, you fling him at the other the one. He flies, and with another clang the other one catches him, only to topple over as well. You quickly finish off any of them even barely conscious, clawing at their throats for edible parts. After grazing, you begin to hear footsteps. Can't waste time. "Where's the chief?" You roar, energized from the scuffle. David eyes bounce from each of the three doors connecting to other parts of the building, struggling to remember. "I'm the 'Chief', demonspawn." The door to the right opens, and there stands a tall, unusually garbed Zealot. Like most, he's tall, easily more than six feet and with navy blue armor with yellow lining, rather than the customary black and blue. He wears no mask, though his neck seems to be heavily guarded. Smart, but useless in my current state. "Vampire, we knew you'd come, but we didn't expect you to corrupt one of our own," he glares at David, and readies a gleaming silver sword, "Nor for you to attack us when we least expect it. But no matter, you both will die where you stand, for you deserve no mercy in this world." Your ghoul points at him, "Yes, that's Katar, we need to be careful with him though..." You nod, wondering how the best way to approach the enemy would be. > You might have to be defensive, that sword doesn't look too friendly. David watches, sure in your chances and not wanting to get in your way while you set up a defensive stance, planting your feet to the ground and readying your hands at the sides. Katar, parallel to you, closes the door behind him, and then raises his sword, pointing it at you. "So, you fear God?" "Not in yours." You laugh back, maintaining composure. He's trying to get me off-guard, that's what this mad-man wants. "Then perhaps you find fear in his servants instead, fool. Why else would you not attack me before I ready my blade? Katar slowly approaches you, his long sword only a quick-thrust away from your armored chest. You don't feel the need to respond, instead focusing on his blade. You remember Kelso mentioning to you that you won't regenerate from silver-caused cuts, making this the most dangerous fight you've been in, yet. You can only hope that after you survive this, you can make sure the Church doesn't have too much silver lying about. They probably have some idea of whether it works or not, otherwise Katar wouldn't have a silver katana. The aloof Zealot chuckles, "Then this will be an easy fight." He holds his sword with both hands, winds up, and swings it at your midsection, expecting you to duck and die. Thankfully, you saw through the ruse, and sidestep, only to slam the sword with your gauntlet out of Karat's hands. Angrily, he punches at you, sending a gauntleted fist at your nose. You get pushed back, but feel alright after rubbing it with your metal-covered wrist. You send a boot at the man's shins, making his knees bend, giving you perfect reach for swinging at his head. You feel his skull from under his skin after the blow, and the Zealot is pushed several meters away-- right next to his sword! Even though Karat is coughing blood, he gets up, using the sword as a cane. "COME AT ME, DEMON!" The bearded man yells, raising his word once more. You shake your head, not falling for it. He angrily charges for you, only to be sucker-punched and knocked out before he could swing. You stare at the man, then spit. "This pathetic being is the Chief?" "Second in command, actually. Chief is probably fighting Gideon right now. But really, I don't think you realize how close you were to dying back there." "Huh?" David touches at your nose, "I think his gauntlet is partly silver, so I don't think you're nose will fix itself." Both of you laugh. If the worst thing that happens to us is that we get broken noses, then we're doing pretty good. "So what now?" "Well, before the rest of the Zealots appear, we should probably try to kill Father Tomas, in the Church. Or, we could clear out this building while we--" "It's not a question, we finish the mission. Ragnor and the rest can take care of themselves." At that very moment, sirens begin to blare, and red lights beam on-and-off all over the HQ... > You continue to the Church. With the alarms already blaring you make sure not to waste time in getting out of the building and into the Church. Outside, swarms of Zealots are coming out of the Church's front doors, obviously en route to fight Ragnor and his Wolves. You and David mostly blend in enough to not be recognized as anything but Zealots and manage to swim past the incoming horde and through the next street, then up the concrete steps of the Church and right in front of the Chapel's gates.. "How should we enter, then?" "No backdoors to the Church. Only one direction if you follow God." David recites from behind you. You consider trying to bash the door in, but decide that knocking it and waiting for the door to be opened by whoever's inside would be an easier solution for getting in. Clang Your gauntlet taps at the metal. After a pause, you can hear noises on the inside of the Chapel, mostly worried murmuring. You quickly motion for David to go in front, right before a bald young man in ceremonial blue robe opens the door. In response to your ghoul's profile, the man just gapes for several moments before opening his mouth to speak. "Dave?!?" "No... Not anymore." He states, walking into the Church. The man doesn't seem to even notice you, engrossed in seeing a living ghost instead. Inside, several other monks are gathered, all of them staring at David with awe. You take the opportunity to slink into the shadow, and wait. "Behold! The blessed Lord brought our child back!" They cry, waving their hands in the air in synchronization. Up and down their hands go, until one with a cowl speaks up, "Brother David, where were you?" Your ghoul stares at them with disdain, "I got lost, but was found by a group of humans." They continue to gape. The cowled-one continues his interrogation, "Hmm? More humans, you say? "Crazy enough, the humans were in our backyard this entire time. We just didn't recognize them." "Whatever do you mean?" "The Wolves, Vadim. They're good people." Gasps erupt, and David's only looks down to his feet, and his hands ball up to fists. "They changed you, didn't they?" The one with the cowl points, and begins to chant in some sort of language which you are unfamiliar with. Bored of their religious, antics, you make your presence known by jumping out of the shadows, and decking 'Vadim' with a right hook, sending him to the middle of the crowd of twelve-or-so Monks. David nods, and sends a sharp kick to the nearest Zealot surrounding him. Before you know it, it becomes a rowdy brawl of fists. The monks may be very agile, but without any weapons nor armor you figure you or even David could take them out alone.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>As you warily near the steel entrance to the Zealot headquarters, David taps on your shoulder, silently beckoning you to follow him. You comply, and follow your ghoul to around the building, where, after going up several flights of metal stairs (making as little noise as possible), you find a molding wooden door, a nice change from the ugly metal and concrete which make up the rest of the City. Of course, aside from giving you a vague feeling of deja vu, it's also gives you an easy opening. David motions toward it. Now let's make some noise. You remain careful in your last moments of anonymity, you try the golden knob- locked. Not wanting to jam it accidentally, you settle for setting up a roundhouse kick-- you twist your body, hold for a forceful kick, and push. The power of your kick rips at the wood, leaving a splintered hole in the door's midsection, big enough for you to swiftly roll under-- David following. Inside, you find several Zealots playing cards around a round table. They are visibly stunned, and gape at you and your ghoul. "David?" One asks, jumping up from their seat. Not cutting them any lack, you run at the Zealot, decking him to the floor with a solid punch. David takes on another, kicking him from the side, toppling him and his metal chair over. With only two left, you quickly claw at the one holding his hands up, splashing the table with his blood. With your claws entrenched in the Zealot neck, you fling him at the other the one. He flies, and with another clang the other one catches him, only to topple over as well. You quickly finish off any of them even barely conscious, clawing at their throats for edible parts. After grazing, you begin to hear footsteps. Can't waste time. "Where's the chief?" You roar, energized from the scuffle. David eyes bounce from each of the three doors connecting to other parts of the building, struggling to remember. "I'm the 'Chief', demonspawn." The door to the right opens, and there stands a tall, unusually garbed Zealot. Like most, he's tall, easily more than six feet and with navy blue armor with yellow lining, rather than the customary black and blue. He wears no mask, though his neck seems to be heavily guarded. Smart, but useless in my current state. "Vampire, we knew you'd come, but we didn't expect you to corrupt one of our own," he glares at David, and readies a gleaming silver sword, "Nor for you to attack us when we least expect it. But no matter, you both will die where you stand, for you deserve no mercy in this world." Your ghoul points at him, "Yes, that's Katar, we need to be careful with him though..." You nod, wondering how the best way to approach the enemy would be. > You say "We come in, uh, peace?" You raise your hands in surrender, though still maintain a defensive composure. "Listen, Katar, I have no interest in fighting you. We can settle this dispute with less blood if you could listen to me." "I wonder if you gave them," he eyes the corpses in the room, "the same offer." "They have no authority in the Church, and the only way to make us stop peacefully is to comply with our demands." "We don't negotiate with terrorists," he smirks, though you feel as if he's telling you to continue. "You need to let us live alongside you and the other humans in this city, and we promise we won't hurt you unless you persecute us. Simple, right?" "There is no rest for the wicked." He states, drawing his sword. Well, that didn't help. David just watches, seemingly sure in your chances and not wanting to get in your way while you fight. You set up a defensive stance, planting your feet to the ground and readying your hands at the sides. He, parallel to you, closes the door behind him, and then raises his sword, pointing it at you. "So, you fear God?" "Not in yours." You laugh back, maintaining composure. He's trying to get me off-guard, that's what this mad-man wants. "Then perhaps you find fear in his servants instead, fool. Why else would you not attack me before I ready my blade? Katar slowly approaches you, his long sword only a lunge away from your armored chest. You don't feel the need to respond, instead focusing on his blade. You remember Kelso mentioning to you that you won't regenerate from silver-caused cuts, making this the most dangerous fight you've been in, yet. You can only hope that after you survive this, you can make sure the Church doesn't have too much silver lying about. They probably have some idea of whether it works or not, otherwise Katar wouldn't have a silver katana. The aloof Zealot chuckles, "Then this will be an easy fight." He holds his sword with both hands, winds up, and swings it at your midsection, expecting you to duck and die. Thankfully, you saw through the ruse, and sidestep, only to slam the sword with your gauntlet out of Karat's hands. Angrily, he punches at you, sending a gauntleted fist at your nose. You get pushed back, but feel alright after rubbing it with your metal-covered wrist. You send a boot at the man's shins, making his knees bend, giving you perfect reach for swinging at his head. You feel his skull from under his skin after the blow, and the Zealot is pushed several meters away-- right next to his sword! Even though Karat is coughing blood, he gets up, using the sword as a cane. "COME AT ME, DEMON!" The bearded man yells, raising his word once more. You shake your head, not falling for it. He angrily charges for you, only to be sucker-punched and knocked out before he could swing. You stare at the man, then spit. "This pathetic being is the Chief?" "Second in command, actually. Chief is probably fighting Gideon right now. But really, I don't think you realize how close you were to dying back there." "Huh?" David touches at your nose, "I think his gauntlet is partly silver, so I don't think you're nose will fix itself." Both of you laugh. If the worst thing that happens to us is that we get broken noses, then we're doing pretty good. "So what now?" "Well, before the rest of the Zealots appear, we should probably try to kill Father Tomas, in the Church. Or, we could clear out this building while we--" "No, we need to finish our mission. The others will be able to deal with the remaining Zealots, easy." At that very moment, sirens begin to blare, and red lights beam on-and-off all over the HQ...<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"I... Think Ragnor has a solid point. We can definitely beat the Zealots as long as we have the element of surprise. And if this goes well, then we won't have to worry about extinction ever again." The blonde vixen looks up to you, as do most of the Wolves. Ragnor laughs, and pats you on the back. Gideon, on the other hand, merely frowns, closes his eyes, and announces, "Right. Welcome to the family, Vampy. I'd rest, we're all practically nocturnal here anyhow. The cloaked Ragnor frowns, "Are you sure? I was just about to bring out the alcohol..." "No alcohol, Ragnor. We have a long night tonight, lots of training we need to go through. I don't think some of us here have actually fought Zealots." Ragnor nods, and the rest of the Wolves shuffle back to their blankets. Gideon shuts the lantern off, and heads down the hatch, disappearing after a thud. Meanwhile, you find a piece of concrete that is comfortable enough to meditate on, and begin to close your eyes... Only to realize that all the Wolves are watching you for some reason. They're all smiling, and the pretty one in particular seems to watch you in the dark of day. At some point during the night, she leans towards you to whispers, "Hi, I'm Cecilia." She giggles. "Uh, hi." You whisper back lamely. The next couple of days fly by, and you manage to go over the histories of your new friends, as well as prepare them for the fight. > You training (Optional) You have talked with Ragnor at length on how you'll be running your operation on the City. What you both want to do is extremely difficult, even with the combined power of all the Wolves. The only chance you have is if the less-experienced Wolves learn from the best-- Gideon, Ragnor, and you. Not necessarily in that order either, since you have no idea what a werewolf is capable in full-form, nor do you know how you rank between them or even how they rank between each-other. Gideon is terrifyingly muscular, but Ragnor seems to be much faster. Any sparring matches you've had with either seemed to be somewhat held-back, for whatever reason. Still, the main plan appears to be that, after some hand-picked scouts tell you three when the Zealots are coming, silently break through one of the cities defenses, and drop you in. While you cause mayhem inside the streets of the City, Gideon and Ragnor's two groups will be pushing through the City's walls, and fighting from in there. Supposedly the head of Church is an old man who runs the whole shebang, a certain, 'Father Tomas'. Once you kill him, the Church will be extremely vulnerable. After that? Well, you just hope the humans don't continue resisting, otherwise it'll be a slaughter. Although you're going in by yourself (and maybe David, for ironic reasons), you're still tasked to help train the other Creations with Ragnor and Gideon. Over the days, what was probably most exciting' (aside from the shock of lovely Cecilia turning into a hulking were-wolf) part was your sparring match with Gideon. You can't help but feel both of you held back, however slightly, but it was likely of great education value to the other Creations. "Alright Vampy, give it all you got." Ha, worry about yourself. You stand, parallel to Gideon, in a surprisingly flat part of the desert. The other Creations surround you both stripped down to nothing but basic shirt and pants, readying yourselves for an honest fight. As ugly of a creature Gideon is, he really is a mellow guy, which makes you almost not want to get into any scuffle with him, even if it's ust sparring. Still, you ready yourself to attack. You flick out your wrist, causing claws to edge out. The crescent moon lies above you both, and the hunchback chuckles as he slowly moves toward you, shuffling one foot through the sand at a time. You took your time as well, starting with a brisk walk, turning that momentum into a jog, then using that into all-out sprinting... Gideon suddenly stops, and holds his hands out to block your advancing. When you reach him, you bring a clawed hand down, hoping to catch his shoulder; you succeed, though he remains unfazed, grabbing at your ankles while you deftly try to flip over him; that doesn't work. His palms squeeze at your feet, and he slams you onto the sand, using his weight to force you down. Thankfully, the rush of adrenaline, allows you to overpower him, throwing him off you. Once again parallel, he decides it's hsi turn to claw at you and he aims a long-winded at your gut-- your body twists, barely letting it hit, though allowing you to bring your elbow down to his neck. He falls to the floor with a slump, though seems to quickly recover by holding you by his feet. You fall down as well, though you catch yourself with a roll, and get right back up. Gideon, however, gets up as Gideon no longer. It was the first time you saw Gideon in his were-form. Massive, with a snout longer than an arm, silvery fangs almost as large as the L-bayonet itself, and white fur overlaying his entire body. You've seen other werewolves turn, but it's obvious why Gideon is the alpha-wolf around here. While you marvel at the werewolf, he sends a massive fist to crash down on you-- but you quickly jump out of the way. Unsure what you can do, you turn to your own fangs; they aren't nearly as powerful as his, but they have other uses other than killing. Gideon continuously deals out attacks, and you manage to dodge nearly all of them, only a couple giving you scrapes. The Wolf leaps at you, waving all of it's bulking appendages in your direction. As it nears closer to you, you see an opening... You took a leap of faith, catching Gideon in the neck with your own fangs. It was only the next morning when you woke, moved to the hideout once more. "That was an epic fight." One of the teen-wolves say, glaring at you in awe. Gideon was to the side of your bed, sitting up and laughing. "Very good, Vampy. Nice use of your abilities, those fangs exhaust people way easy, even those pumped up on canine-adrenaline. Crazy effective. You hear that, Wolves? Someone who knows the full-outset of their abilities is a dangerous fellow." And that's how you remember it. Even though Gideon helped train the Wolves to fight, you worry about him. He doesn't seem too enthusiastic about taking over the city. Hopefully he changes his mind soon...<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"I... Think Ragnor has a solid point. We can definitely beat the Zealots as long as we have the element of surprise. And if this goes well, then we won't have to worry about extinction ever again." The blonde vixen looks up to you, as do most of the Wolves. Ragnor laughs, and pats you on the back. Gideon, on the other hand, merely frowns, closes his eyes, and announces, "Right. Welcome to the family, Vampy. I'd rest, we're all practically nocturnal here anyhow. The cloaked Ragnor frowns, "Are you sure? I was just about to bring out the alcohol..." "No alcohol, Ragnor. We have a long night tonight, lots of training we need to go through. I don't think some of us here have actually fought Zealots." Ragnor nods, and the rest of the Wolves shuffle back to their blankets. Gideon shuts the lantern off, and heads down the hatch, disappearing after a thud. Meanwhile, you find a piece of concrete that is comfortable enough to meditate on, and begin to close your eyes... Only to realize that all the Wolves are watching you for some reason. They're all smiling, and the pretty one in particular seems to watch you in the dark of day. At some point during the night, she leans towards you to whispers, "Hi, I'm Cecilia." She giggles. "Uh, hi." You whisper back lamely. The next couple of days fly by, and you manage to go over the histories of your new friends, as well as prepare them for the fight. > You ragnor's tale. "Hey Vamp, take a seat." Ragnor calls out, waving you over to the off-kilter wooden bench he's sitting on. You comply; after several days and nights with barely any breaks, even sitting down to converse with the balding man who broke your Ghoul's neck sounds appealing. Plus, he can't exactly complain about not getting work done if he's taking a breather as well. If there's one thing you know about Ragnor, it's that he hates the Church more than anything. Except maybe the Professor; you've never really talked with him that much, after all. The cloaked man smiles at you, and helps sit you down with a heavy hand clutching onto your shoulder. "Hey man, I'm really glad you joined us," he begins, taking his arm off of you and bringing it in front for a handshake; you respond in kind. "Not as glad as I am to have joined." You laugh, releasing. "Don't be so sure. It was getting rather stale, just hiding out in a bunker until we run out of food. You've given us something to strive for." "Fighting the Church?" "Yeah." He nods, pauses, then shows out his palms to you in a waving motion, "I know, I know. Gideon's not exactly fond of it, but if it comes down to us and them, I vote us." Ragnor laughs. "You know, the moment you said that the Church is planning to destroy us, I already was planning on trying to overthrow the city." "You seemed very confident about it." You nod, rubbing at your chin, "But why?" "So that we have a stronghold strong enough that we won't be able to be exterminated that easily. We're a small group, the Creations. And it's not exactly a growing population either, at best you can ghoul whatever, but we can't breed normally. It takes more time for it to work, you know..." You raise an eyebrow, amused, "You've tried?" "Ha, back when I was practically mind-controlled by the Professor, yeah. Heck, he probably tried things with you while you were unconscious, but who knows? Life before civilization fell was much different than now. The bastard wanted to create a new specie of man, and instead he got Hollywood monsters with bad skin conditions." He shrugs, "But in some ways he succeeded, and I think that the Church shouldn't be allowed to hunt us down for it's own sake. There are some good kids in our pack, you know. Just honest-to-god decent kids that the Church wants to put down. It's not right." "So what will you be doing if you suceed?" "Hunt down the Professor, definitely. The Church may be corrupt, but the root of the evil afflicted to the world spawned from that one man. After we end the Church in the nearby city, then we'll be able to be in charge." "You seem confident that a couple of Creations can take on hundreds of Zealots." Ragnor looks at you with a wry grin, "You seem to be under a false-impression-- there really aren't that many Zealots. Can't be. The city they have is large, but only in comparison to other strongholds. Zealots are almost always male, if only because armor-fitting females is different, and they're probably sparse on metal. Plus, only able-bodied men can wield those huge-ass rifles. I'd say they have 200 Zealots tops, and that's not including how many you've just killed. Furthermore, they'll be divided while they march to our hideout and..." "That's still a lot." He shrugs, "As Wolves, we can shift either at will or automatically when stimulated luminescent orbs for some reason, into huge were-beasts. With proficiency, we can prove to be the fastest and most lethal things left on the planet. If, this week, we can train the kids to use their powers well, then it's definitely doable." "You sure Gideon's okay with it?" You ask, wondering whether you'll be joining him for sure, "Regardless of what Gideon thinks about it, I won't be taking everybody with me, that's too much of a risk, and I doubt I could convince everybody, but..." You shrug, changing the subject, "How experienced are you at your abilities?" "Enough." "You think you can take me on?" You ask, leaning forward and balancing your body on your palms. "Maybe. I kind of figure the Vampire Creations were made in order to build foundations for the Professor. They can live forever, create progeny of sorts, etc. I have no idea how combat ready they are. Still, you're extremely resourceful, so I definitely hope you stick around. With your ghouling powers, we can create an entire civilization of Creations. Imagine how great that'd be!" "I'll be honest, Ragnor; you didn't seem so cheery when I first met you." "When you first met me I had to make a good impression." He laughs. "Now, come on, we need to get back to training the cubs."<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"I... Think Ragnor has a solid point. We can definitely beat the Zealots as long as we have the element of surprise. And if this goes well, then we won't have to worry about extinction ever again." The blonde vixen looks up to you, as do most of the Wolves. Ragnor laughs, and pats you on the back. Gideon, on the other hand, merely frowns, closes his eyes, and announces, "Right. Welcome to the family, Vampy. I'd rest, we're all practically nocturnal here anyhow. The cloaked Ragnor frowns, "Are you sure? I was just about to bring out the alcohol..." "No alcohol, Ragnor. We have a long night tonight, lots of training we need to go through. I don't think some of us here have actually fought Zealots." Ragnor nods, and the rest of the Wolves shuffle back to their blankets. Gideon shuts the lantern off, and heads down the hatch, disappearing after a thud. Meanwhile, you find a piece of concrete that is comfortable enough to meditate on, and begin to close your eyes... Only to realize that all the Wolves are watching you for some reason. They're all smiling, and the pretty one in particular seems to watch you in the dark of day. At some point during the night, she leans towards you to whispers, "Hi, I'm Cecilia." She giggles. "Uh, hi." You whisper back lamely. The next couple of days fly by, and you manage to go over the histories of your new friends, as well as prepare them for the fight. > You gideon's tale. Hours pass quicker than you'd want during the training sessions. You've realized that the Wolves are powerful, but undisciplined, almost childish at times. But at the end of the night, you got work done. Yet, even after the night passes, Gideon routinely goes under the hatch. You've tried to peek at him, in interest of what he does when alone, but it brings no more results than asking around; zilch. But on one of those times you spend upside down, silently hanging from the hatch, Gideon turns around to acknowledge you. The hunchbacked leader stares back at you with cold eyes, "What do you want, lad? You think it's possible I really do just like sitting down here, alone?" Shocked, you suddenly lose your grip; only to land upright, as a cat would. "I, uh, maybe. But I've asked around, and people wonder about you, as I do. You're very... Silent, for a leader." He laughs, "Leader? Hah, that's good, Vampire. I just do the heavy work, as always. Keeping watch is one of my duties." "Don't put yourself down, Gideon. You seem to know what you're doing." You say, unsure how to respond to his glumness. "Vamp, the camp here believes you-- and that's fine by me, I'll be honest and say I trust you too, but the fact that we'll be fighting the Church isn't a good thing, regardless of the rewards." "Like our lives?" "You're young and timeless, so it's not something you can really sympathize with." Gideon snorts, "No offense, Vamp." "None taken, but what do you mean?" You say, letting him continue. "I don't think you really get what the Church is. I mean, I don't think anybody here does. Even Ragnor, he's blinded by rage and fury. He believes that the Church needs to be destroyed for the betterment of everyone, especially us. But..." "But what?" By now you're getting a bit agitated at Gideon for being so ambiguous. He turns his face away, "But he's dead wrong about it. Almost all of us here remember the treatments the Professor gave us. To say the least, you're lucky to have forgotten most, if not all of them. That man just bred hatred, even more than the religious back in the day." A pause. "He hurt us all, in so many ways. But worse yet, he made us hurt others. It started with killing evil, but then came to killing innocents, the only food-source left for us. And we followed him through fire and water, that man. Kurschner represented our hopes and dreams, true power for a true purpose. But he lied to us, and used us for himself, experimented with us, made sure our past lives weren't there so that there was nothing for us to go back to. Even I don't remember too much of what was before I became a Wolf. The dreams stop after you get comfortable in your form." The older gentlemen continues, "By the way, are you still dreaming?" "Uh..." You begin to realize that you indeed have stopped dreaming since you joined, "No, I rest much better now." He frowns in return, "Best not get too comfortable here, then. Those dreams are your only way to know what is really going on." "Which also reminds me, did you have somebody help you get out of the Facility before it was burnt down?" "Err, yes." You nervously answer. "Did he have a name?" "Kelso." "Who?" "Ahem, uh, Kelso." You repeat, slower this time. "He said he knew you. Also mentioned a fellow named Stein." Gideon bites his lip, "Never met a fellow named Kelso. Did he say anything else?" "He mentioned being tasked with watching the Lesser Creations, along with several other elites." "That explains it, though I can't say I know who he is under his new pseudo-name. I wonder where he is now..." "I wish I knew, " you say, longingly, "he said he'd come back at some point, he was searching for the Professor." "As do we all." Gideon says, closing his eyes, "Simon Kurschner was one evil, however brilliant man. A lot of our older members ran out in hopes to hunt him down, though they never returned..."<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>It's time to get these sleepy assholes up and running. You nod to the crowd as they gather around you, staring with glossy eyes and gaping mouths. "I'm not going to sugarcoat anything," you snarl, starting off with a very loud, though clear voice, "The Church has plans to raid our little stronghold here by next week." Gasps from the Wolves, and men exit their bags. Seems to have worked, for now. "And while that may be hard to believe, I'm sure we all know how ruthless the Zealots are. I escaped from the last Facility-- Facility 13, soon before it came tumbling down with C.E. Troopers, who burned down the laboratory. Since then, I have fought many of them, some purposely in order to find my brethren here, to join you as well as to warn you of the incoming second apocalypse. We are blessed Creations, gifted in our own right. We aren't innately evil, like the Church believes. Rather, we are capable of great things, but only if we survive our genocide." "Then what do you want us to do?" One of them shouts out, interrupting you. "I want you to fight back, and prepare for when they come next week. We need to take the initiative; I know how powerful Creations can be, so I have no doubt in my mind that we can beat them. But only if we get ready." "Why should we trust you?" One of the younger ones ask. You bare your teeth; fear is a big factor of your speech, "Because if I'm right then we all die." You seethe out, staring intently at your brethren. "We have three options the way I see it; defend the stronghold and prepare for when they come; try to take control of the city with our combined strengths before the attack; or just get slaughtered when the time comes." Most of the Wolves continue gaping, though Gideon cracks his knuckles. "Nice speech, Vampire" A voice declares, and the red-cloaked figure pops out of the hatch. Ragnor's hood fall down, and the profile is of a middle-aged, balding man. Terribly tall, and lean; powerful and domineering. "Do you really think we can overtake the Church?" "If we do it carefully, yes." He smiles, "Then I like what I'm hearing; I'm in." While it's amusing how enthusiastic he is, it also seems to win over more of the Wolves. Perhaps Ragnor is a big figure in the Wolf Underground. "It is likely to work, too. While some of us are inexperienced, we can easily beat them while their forces are divided into attacking our stronghold. We just need to be clever." Gideon continues to grimly frown, "I think the 'hold the fort' idea will work better. It's safer, and more suited to our abilities." It's odd, but you feel like it's completely your decision. Maybe they just really trust in you? > You agree with Gideon. You sigh, somewhat content with the ability to choose for your group. "I agree with Gideon-- defending is probably the best option. After all, the humans... Even if they hate us, they aren't our real enemy right now." Gideon grins, and slaps you on the back. Ragnor shrugs, and heads to a splintered cabinet in the back of the room. He comes back with several cans, accurately labeled as 'beer'. With a grin, he begins handing them out to the 'adults' in the room and you. "Rest on the floor, Vamp. Today is a day of celebration, a joiner to our brood!" With some large chants, Ragnor clicks open the can, and begins handing it to you. As you reach to take it, he immediately withdraws it. He lays it on the floor in front of you, then proceeds to bring a clawed index finger to his wrist above the can, poking deeply into it and letting blood slowly drip into the can. "Hah, I forgot you can't really taste anything but blood. Don't worry though, this'll get you high on no one's expense, Vamp, enjoy yourself." You laugh, scratching at your head for forgetting. You accept the bloody beer; while it's nothing compared to full blood, it's the most happy you've been since you got out of the Facility. It's nice to be part of a family. You and the rest of the Creations laugh and discuss the 'happenings' of the current world. You can't add much, but the leaders of the Wolves' collective stories are fascinating in their own rights, though. On top of it all, you think you've really hit it off with Cecilia-- the blonde Wolf. The next couple of days fly by... > You defending the Stronghold. The next week involved quite a bit of socializing and preparation for the big day. Night by night you trained, and although the week didn't give you as much time as you wanted, it gave you enough to get a feel for the Wolves, make a start with the community, and most importantly, teach the young ones how to harness their frustration into power. Power, that will hopefully be enough to block the Zealots off, and beat them by matter of attrition. You feel as though you've gotten on pretty good terms with both Gideon and Ragnor, both of whom are simply great guys. You've noticed that, despite their differing ideologies, they have utmost respect for each-other, which is rather pleasant to see. Something that always lay at the back of your mind, though, was that Ragnor claimed that he was going to raid the City, regardless of what choice the group took, but you never understood that. How was he going to do that without support? Still, the only thing you really feel sad about is the lack of time you were able to have with Cecilia. Even though you've trained together, you really wish you could have talked to her more often, about things other than unleashing her concealed persona: the werewolf. But, you manage to keep yourself jovial enough knowing that if you succeed at stopping the Zealot onslaught, you'll have all the time in the world with your new love. Additionally, you might even be able to learn how to read the mysterious hieroglyphs when times of peace are near. Bright lights ahead, but you just have to reach it. As the week passes, you all begin sitting in a circle daily, discussing the plan thoroughly, and then send out scouts to see if the Zealots are sending their men to raid your headquarters. The plan is simple; when you are alerted of the Zealot present, you will block off the entrance with any object available, then hide in secluded corners in the dark maze that is the well, and slowly pick off the Zealots as they pass. Today is one of those days, and you are warily waiting for the knock from the scouts. Any day now, the Zealots should be coming. Time passes; you do this twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening, to see if they're preparing for a night-attack or not. You hope it's at night, as the Creations would have an advantage, probably. Additionally, you wouldn't have to worry about sun-tan lotion, the tube Kelso gave you will run out sooner or later. And so you wait, everybody around you waiting in silence. You hear the codified knock: Clunk-clunk-clunk. Someone lets out a sigh-- today isn't the day. You go out to train once more, reviewing everything, and then turning back to refill on blood. Gideon gives you a broken plastic-cup with maybe an ounce of his blood. You drink it slowly, savoring the taste. It reinvigorates you, like usual, and you set down to meditate, waiting for nightfall. That night... Clunk-clunk-clunk-clunk That's 4... Is tonight the night? Ragnor's head poking out of the hatch confirms it, "Everybody, wake up, now!" Hearing this everybody assembles, bringing out spare Zealot armors and weapons. Indeed, even you're surprised by their efficiency tonight. "Alright Wolves, tonight, we defend our home!" You announce, pumping your fist. However, unlike most of your announcements, nobody but Gideon roars in applause. Ragnor approaches you with a laugh, "Sorry bud, I think we're making ourselves a new home, tonight." "Huh?" You look around and it seems obvious that everybody but you and Gideon know what's going on. Cecilia turns to you with a frown, "Sorry, love... but I can't live in this shit-hole any longer. I just... think it's time we took a stand. You understand, right?" Gideon moves into the fray, sticking his finger into the taller man's chest, "What do you think you're doing, Ragnor? We, deh group, made a decision!" Ragnor stares back at the hunchback, "Yes, and I made a re-vote, without the peer pressure the group is used to. Turns out, they trust the Church much less than you do, and think that surviving well is better than just surviving, uncertain if they'll get a next meal. We can be the new Human-race: 'Homo-Creatio,' us, the Wolves, Gideon. Think about it!" Gideon just spits in disgust, "You fool! This is NOT how we're supposed to get continue! Ragnor, the humans "aren't much worse than we are, for there outlook is for survival as well. We can merge with them after showing how similar we are by not slaughtering them in their City!" "I don't think so, friend. But if I were either of you, I'd join us for survival's sake only, no way can you survive the oncoming Zealots. I saw them-- several groups of ten and covering ground right now. It's either join us or meet your doom." You look at Gideon, and his dark eyes just blink out, "Don't." What it comes to, in the end, is whether you wish to join Ragnor and the rest to assault the city or stay by Gideon, alone and at the mercy of the incoming horde. > You join Ragnor and the rest, to conquer the City as your own. "I'm glad you made the right choice, Vamp." Ragnor beams, and Cecilia gives you an excited thumbs-up. Gideon, on the other hand, simple glares at Ragnor, shakes his head, and takes a seat on a broken bench. "You sure you don't want to reconsider?" Ragnor asks, rubbing at his chin. Gideon makes no answer. "Forget it." He waves his hand, "Alright, guys, let's do this!" You all clamber out of the hatch and out of the well. The starry night opens up from above you and the darkness gives light to other matters. The Zealots, no doubt very ritualistic, are maintaining their flashing armor, which you vaguely make out from several miles away. You point them out to Ragnor, and he makes note of them. "That's a lot of Zealots on their way, I hope they don't have that much more fortifying the inside. Ragnor, do you have a plan for this?" "Yeah." The Wolf grunts, scratching at his head furiously. "God damnit! If Gideon came, he could have lead a group, and we'd have two solid teams, flanking the enemy fortress." "Can't I lead?" You ask, uncertain of his plan. "You could, but that'd be a waste of you're abilities. We're going to send you inside of it, where you'll be trying to assassinate the leaders of the Zealots. That way our assault can succeed in their confusion." "Okay..." You nod, trying to visualize your role in this plan, "So what about David?" "David isn't exactly a leading-personality." "He knows what he's doing." "Which is why he should come with you! He'd be much more useful by you than with us. We're just giving you time. We can have one of the other Wolves lead, but for now you will no doubt need help, and a former Zealot who knows the inner working of the compound is just perfect."<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The next week involved quite a bit of socializing and preparation for the big day. Night by night you trained, and although the week didn't give you as much time as you wanted, it gave you enough to get a feel for the Wolves, make a start with the community, and most importantly, teach the young ones how to harness their frustration into power. Power, that will hopefully be enough to block the Zealots off, and beat them by matter of attrition. You feel as though you've gotten on pretty good terms with both Gideon and Ragnor, both of whom are simply great guys. You've noticed that, despite their differing ideologies, they have utmost respect for each-other, which is rather pleasant to see. Something that always lay at the back of your mind, though, was that Ragnor claimed that he was going to raid the City, regardless of what choice the group took, but you never understood that. How was he going to do that without support? Still, the only thing you really feel sad about is the lack of time you were able to have with Cecilia. Even though you've trained together, you really wish you could have talked to her more often, about things other than unleashing her concealed persona: the werewolf. But, you manage to keep yourself jovial enough knowing that if you succeed at stopping the Zealot onslaught, you'll have all the time in the world with your new love. Additionally, you might even be able to learn how to read the mysterious hieroglyphs when times of peace are near. Bright lights ahead, but you just have to reach it. As the week passes, you all begin sitting in a circle daily, discussing the plan thoroughly, and then send out scouts to see if the Zealots are sending their men to raid your headquarters. The plan is simple; when you are alerted of the Zealot present, you will block off the entrance with any object available, then hide in secluded corners in the dark maze that is the well, and slowly pick off the Zealots as they pass. Today is one of those days, and you are warily waiting for the knock from the scouts. Any day now, the Zealots should be coming. Time passes; you do this twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening, to see if they're preparing for a night-attack or not. You hope it's at night, as the Creations would have an advantage, probably. Additionally, you wouldn't have to worry about sun-tan lotion, the tube Kelso gave you will run out sooner or later. And so you wait, everybody around you waiting in silence. You hear the codified knock: Clunk-clunk-clunk. Someone lets out a sigh-- today isn't the day. You go out to train once more, reviewing everything, and then turning back to refill on blood. Gideon gives you a broken plastic-cup with maybe an ounce of his blood. You drink it slowly, savoring the taste. It reinvigorates you, like usual, and you set down to meditate, waiting for nightfall. That night... Clunk-clunk-clunk-clunk That's 4... Is tonight the night? Ragnor's head poking out of the hatch confirms it, "Everybody, wake up, now!" Hearing this everybody assembles, bringing out spare Zealot armors and weapons. Indeed, even you're surprised by their efficiency tonight. "Alright Wolves, tonight, we defend our home!" You announce, pumping your fist. However, unlike most of your announcements, nobody but Gideon roars in applause. Ragnor approaches you with a laugh, "Sorry bud, I think we're making ourselves a new home, tonight." "Huh?" You look around and it seems obvious that everybody but you and Gideon know what's going on. Cecilia turns to you with a frown, "Sorry, love... but I can't live in this shit-hole any longer. I just... think it's time we took a stand. You understand, right?" Gideon moves into the fray, sticking his finger into the taller man's chest, "What do you think you're doing, Ragnor? We, deh group, made a decision!" Ragnor stares back at the hunchback, "Yes, and I made a re-vote, without the peer pressure the group is used to. Turns out, they trust the Church much less than you do, and think that surviving well is better than just surviving, uncertain if they'll get a next meal. We can be the new Human-race: 'Homo-Creatio,' us, the Wolves, Gideon. Think about it!" Gideon just spits in disgust, "You fool! This is NOT how we're supposed to get continue! Ragnor, the humans "aren't much worse than we are, for there outlook is for survival as well. We can merge with them after showing how similar we are by not slaughtering them in their City!" "I don't think so, friend. But if I were either of you, I'd join us for survival's sake only, no way can you survive the oncoming Zealots. I saw them-- several groups of ten and covering ground right now. It's either join us or meet your doom." You look at Gideon, and his dark eyes just blink out, "Don't." What it comes to, in the end, is whether you wish to join Ragnor and the rest to assault the city or stay by Gideon, alone and at the mercy of the incoming horde. > You stand by Gideon. You take a step back, standing by Gideon's side. "I'm sorry too, Ragnor. But I simply don't think think this is the way to go." Ragnor stares back at you intently, before shrugging, "Alright then, Vamp. I'm not going to force either of you. But what about your ghoul?" "David?" You look around, searching for him. He is currently standing stiff by Ragnor's side, parallel to you. You're surprised you didn't take note of this already. "Yeah. I've talked to him, and he seems to sympathize with our cause. But, since I still more than an iota of respect for you," Ragnor pauses, giving you time to understand, "I'd rather not cause strife from after death between us. So, may I ask for you to allow him to come with us?" With a deep breath, you firmly reply back, "If he really wants to go, then he can follow you to oblivion." "That is all I want from you, Vamp. See you in whatever hell we end up in, eh?" He smiles and takes a hand out to shake. You wave him goodbye, but don't shake, "See you on the flip side, man. Good luck." Ragnor suddenly stands with a more serious attitude, and turns to leave, the Wolf Encampment. Within minutes, Gideon and you are alone. Silence dominates the room for a long while before you speak up. "Gideon, the Zealots are on their way right now. What are we going to do?" The hunchback takes his time finding a nice seat to reply from on, "Convince them." "Convince them of what?" You ask, baffled. "Convince them that we're the least of their worries." "You mean sabotage the assault?" "Of course. You have a better idea?" "... I can't say, yet. But I can tell you one thing, none of my plans would ever include the possibility of leading the Zealots to kill our brothers!" You bring your palm to your brow, "Seriously, Gideon, what kind of idea is that?" "One that preserves the sanctity of life that doesn't leech off of others'." "And you don't think they'll turn right around to kill us?" "Hey, if you can convince them we aren't actually Demons from outer space, then we should try that out first, but for now I'm satisfied with dying with the knowledge that I helped save the human race." > You try to bring attention to Ragnor's groups. "So you think the only feasible plan would be to divert there attention for the moment?" You frown, uncertain. The other option wouldn't make too much sense, considering that you fought with the Zealot army not too long ago, but this plan seems... distasteful, unattractive. You're betraying your brethren for those who believe you to be nothing more than a monster, people who believe that anything you do is without reason; good or bad, all mindless mistakes carried out by the Devil himself. It's a scary thought to you-- people believe that about Gideon and me. While I'm not squeaky clean by any means, at least Gideon is willing to throw away everything just to save them! Gideon begins to shuffle towards the hatch, "Come on, Vampire. We need to get the message out any way we can." "Well, we still have a Walkie-Talkie that's probably useable." He turns back to face you, and his eyes widen, "What? We do?" "Y-yeah..." You reply, beginning to scavenge through the various in nicknacks the Wolves kept, and finding David's transceiver under the mess. "Nigh certain it still works, too." He throws his hands up in return, "Then let's do that, genius." You grasp the radio firmly in your hand and get a vague feeling déjà vu as you once again dial it to the Zealot-channel. Click. It's on, sounding out static. You interrupt it with an additional button push when Gideon swiftly grabs it out of your hands. "What the hell, man!" "I'm doing this." Gideon states, still pushing the button. "Zealots, do you hear this?" The cool, female voice is back, "Err, hello?" "This is Wolf-leader Gideon, Ma'am. I need you to call off the Zealots attacking our base, for your own sake." "Um, we don't negotiate with evil, sir." "No! God damnit Ma'am, I'm warning you because there are only two of us left in the hideout, the rest are on their way to attack your City right now!" A pause. "We will look into it, then. Thank you for notifying us, whatever you are." You aren't able to identify her tone that well, but you hope it isn't sarcasm. Either way, she doesn't respond to Gideon's next reply, "Thank you." The two of you sit down on a broken couch, unsure how to proceed further. "So, if they still raid our stronghold, it's over for us?" "... Yeah. The way I see it, the best case scenario is that all the Wolves are wiped out by the C.E. Strike Force on the way. I just hope they find Ragnor and the rest after they get us." "And you're okay with this?" You shout, baffled by this still. He doesn't answer. > You try to contact the incoming Zealots directly and try to get them to sympathize. With amazing agility, you turn around to send a powerful roundhouse kick to Gideon, making powerful impact-- just enough to have him on the floor, but not hurt too bad. Meanwhile, you grab the fallen transceiver and angrily scold him, "What is the hell is matter with you, Gideon?" He doesn't respond, though he sits cross-legged on the floor, staring at the floor as a child would. You sigh, and try your own plan at survival. Click You push the button in, too anxious to wait for the crackling static, "Quick, Ma'am, what's the Zealot's Combat Channel?" It's the cool female voice, again, "Channel 40, why? Who is this?" But you're already flipping the channels. Now, from 13 to 40... Gideon sits up groggily, and watches you in silence. "Incoming Zealots!" You announce, then release the button, and wait. A heavy, though articulate-sounding voice replies from the other end, "This is Chief. Who is this?" "Friends. Or, at least, those who want to be. We are the last Creations around, and we want to talk to you." "What do you wish to speak about, Demons?" "Mostly about your usage of that term. We want peace, nothing else." "Huh?" "We- we know you're coming for us and our hideout. But we don't want to fight." You wait several moments for him to answer. "Give me your name first." "Err, Vamp." Gideon chuckles nervously in the background. The man named 'Chief' gives a heavy sigh, "Right. And how do you want your meeting to be set up?" "Any sort of meeting that doesn't include me being shot or speared by your guns sounds good." "Funny. If you actually wish to do this then I'd wait outside for us to come." "I... Think you misunderstand." You reply, rather certain about Chief's false attempt to mislead you, "Trying to kill us will not work out well for you. There are other Creations, actual evil ones that are heading for your city right now. If you don't stop them then you're city will be lost." Static for a while. "Why do you not tell me this sooner?" "... Do you even believe me?" "Perhaps," he says, "We may send scout teams to check. But for now I'm interested in what you want to speak about. Are you a man of your word?" "I try." "Hmm..." Chief pauses, his low-voice ending awkwardly, "Give us ten minutes." While you wait for him, Gideon just laughs, "I swear, vamp, if you pull this off then I swear..." He gets up with a wry smile. "Let's just hope their scouts get good information." You reply, ironically trying to be as optimistic as possible. The chances are slim, but you think this could work out with your unlife intact. Time passes, and while you didn't count how much you still worry that they may have ditched messaging and are just continuing their march to this area. "Vamp, are you still there?" You get out of your day-dream and push the button back to reply, "Yes." "It... Seems you're right that at there are a band of unknown beings several miles behind us. But this doesn't mean as much as you would hope." "Oh?" "How many of you are there in all? What if there are actually much more Creations at your base?" A reasonable suspicion, "Then that's problematic for you. But I'd wager that your guys won't be able to take on the ten-or-so of the Creations on the way. So I think getting them first should be more important." "Ah, but that is a good diversion for ten others to bypass us, eh?" Ugh. You bring a palm to your brow, uncertain how to answer the perhaps rightfully paranoid commander. He continues, "Still, you bring a solid point. I think you underestimate our capabilities, however. We will deal with both problems, but for now, how do you wish to meet?" "I assume you know how to enter the well, correct?" "Yes, we have figured out your trick." "... Right, well, send yourself and several of your best man down there and we'll talk. There are only two Creations here, but I assure you we can defend ourselves from whatever harm you might wish to inflict on us." "We'll be there." And... Off. Gideon looks to you, "What now, Vampire?" > You prepare the meet-and-greet and hope for the best. "We prepare by meeting them at the bottom of the well, like good hosts," you reply with a laugh, "If they kill us then they kill us, if they don't then we have a chance at surviving." Gideon sighs, "You think they'll be able to stop Ragnor and his men, at least?" "The Zealot name, 'Chief' seemed confident, but I doubt it. In Wolf-form, the Wolves can easily rip apart anyone in seconds, regardless of armor. Unless they send more than half of their troops all the way back to fortify the city then they have an issue." "Let's hope they do." Gideon says with a frown. Well, you can go hope by yourself, Gideon. I'm hoping we both survive this ordeal. The two of you wait for a while, unsure how to proceed. Eventually, you both head down the hatch and into the concrete cavern that is under the well. You make your way past the claw-scratches and to the end, where you notice Ragnor thoughtfully closed the plate from on top, instead of leaving it open. "This is it, Gideon. Our moment of truth." You begin to say, trying to start a conversation. The hunchback just nods in return, staring upwards to the closed opening, waiting. Many minutes pass-by, and when something like an hour passes you wonder whether they abandoned raiding the base at all. You idly stand, shaking in place. Sand slowly begins to pour out of the holes the plate, the the miniscule dots sprinkling on top of both you and Gideon. Soon, a vague blue light begins to peek in, and you know that the Zealots are here. You hear a crackling thud, and soon the plate is kicked over and you notice several flashing figures hunching over the well. "You there, below. You are, 'Vamp'?" "One and the same." You call back, "The man beside me is Gideon. You wish to come inside?" You see some finger pointing from the three men surrounding the well, and one extremely built character jumps from the top of the well, using his armor as a brake by trying to grab onto the surrounding wall. You laugh inside, realizing that he obviously didn't notice the ledges on the other side of the cylindrical opening. The man takes off his helmet, and what you see surprising you, though you;re not sure why. "I am the Chief." The dark-skinned individual introduces himself, bowing slightly. "I have brought exactly 32 men here, and the rest to find and kill the Demons approaching the City. Now, what do you want, both of you?" Gideon stares at the man with a wide smile, though he doesn't speak. You sigh once again, "We want you to not kill us, to be frank." Chief laughs, and calls upwards, "Samuel, Zadok, come down and meet these two... Gentleman." Soon after he announces it, the two men watching from above the well jump in from behind Chief, crashing into the concrete with a loud crack. The dust settles, and the man continues, "The two of you don't seem too bad, but even the Devil can act gracious-- but that's acting. How can you prove to us that you're actually willing of redemption? How can I trust you?" The two men behind him near, and although they aren't quite up to his size, they don't seem nearly as friendly. "Well, for one, we warned you about the other Creations... Wait, how much men did you send to apprehend them?" "Truth." He nods, "30, why?" That's 13 Creations against 30 mortals; they'll be slaughtered... You consider how to answer, but Gideon interjects, "Chief, the Wolves on their way aren't pushovers." "And neither are our soldiers." "No," Gideon continues, "I've seen their leader in action. He is merciless and faster than anything you've ever seen. Your precious City won't hold up!" For the first time, Chief seems alarmed, "Wait... You are the only De-- Creations here?" "Yeah. We have no time to waste, then. If you want our support in saving the city, then we'll need your promise of being vouched for." You state firmly. Chief nods, while the others watch you both, silent. "You got it. Now let's get get back, before it's too late!" "Alright then," you say, "Let's get out of here while we can." To show them the way, you rush ahead, using the ledges to climb. Gideon and the Zealots follow you up, where you find a horde of patient Zealots, waiting for orders. Chief raises his hands and yells, "RETREAT BACK TO THE CITY, NOW!" The Zealots' formation quickly changes and you begin your march to the city, hoping you get there in time... > You epilogue. With silent haste, the troops march back to the City. The Chief's strict protocol helps bring the scattered clusters into more orderly groups walking in a rectangular form. You cover plenty of ground in a short amount of time, but the tension builds when a scout comes back with no report on where the Wolves are. By the time you all reach the City, it's darker than it seemed before... Chief motions over to you, "You see, there?" He points to a corner of the City's hexagonal circumference, "The Sentries would usually be commandeering a light. But I don't see them now." He pauses to think, then speaks out in his powerful voice, "Enter Church-City in five groups of six! Never lose sight of a team member and ALWAYS watch your back. Also, remember to turn off your armor's flash. Now move out!" Immediately, the Zealots begin to cluster together, forming the teams, and spreading out and marching into the City. Before his new team begins to enter the City, Chief brings you and Gideon over, "Now, how shall we stop the Creations inside?" Gideon replies, "Especially now in the darkness, it'll be hard to defend against them. But otherwise it's find and then kill. Hope for the best, I suppose." You don't have a much better answer. You can see that everybody on Chief's team is equipped with silver weapons, and that's the only weakness you know about. It all boils down to how much Wolves and Zealots are left inside. With a sigh, Chief begins to lead his crew into the City while you and Gideon follow. Even in the darkness the City looks spectacularly flashy-- almost everything made of a flashy metal, with neon lights flashing up every corner. The clanging of metal boots on the harsh concrete makes any attempt of stealth completely pointless, but that doesn't seem to be the Zealot-style anyway. If anything, it looks like your team is looking for a fight. But, after marching through the otherwise quiet streets with no conflict, the group begins to relax slightly. Chief takes out his transceiver, and you can hear some muffled sounds coming from him-- but no response. You look around to notice only another group in a parallel street, but you don't see anybody else. Several minutes pass, "Bizarre," Chief starts, "Only one out of the four other groups are responding. You think..." He trails off, but suddenly the world becomes more tense, and you all remain on high alert. Out of nowhere, a huge blonde beast smashes through the metal door of what you can only suppose is a Church. The massive hulking figure is leaves a literal rip in the opening, and appears to be bleeding from the mouth-- though you're pretty certain it's not from itself. The werewolf stares in your direction, hungrily, and slowly begins to advance. Terrified, the Zealots in your group begin to open-lightning on it-- though it doesn't appear to faze it in any way, aside from scorching its fur. "Cecilia?" You yell, trying to distract it by waving your arms in the air. The beast pauses, but then continues pouncing in your direction. You quickly run up to it, and bring all your might into an air-splitting punch at the wolf's protruding jaw. It doubles over, but not before, in an act of desperation, making a huge swipe for the Zealots trying to spear it; about three Zealots were flung several meters into the air and back to the floor, only not to wake up. Chief manages to sink the tusks of his rifle into the horrid beast before she turns back into your would-be lover-- Cecilia. You spit, trying to make sure your emotions don't meddle with this. We must take back the City, for humanity's sake. By now, even the other Group appears to not be responding... "Vampire... We aren't going to win this fight." Chief confesses, clutching at his healthy chest. "What do we do now?" "You don't know that, Chief. There can't be too many Wolves left..." You reply slowly. As expected, the heavy bounding of paws is heard, and a black Werewolf, standing on its hind legs stares at the remaining of your group with its ruby eyes-- Gideon, Chief, and yourself. The surviving Zealots fled, no doubt to be killed by Ragnor: the black Wolf. With a horrible shriek of a howl, the Wolf slams it's paw into Chief, hitting awkwardly as he tries to dodge though sending him back long enough for the Wolf to focus on you, grabbing you with its paws-- digging his claws into your skin, and throwing your bleeding corpse almost an entire street. Your body cuts itself on the concrete, and even though it heals itself you can feel the pain of a dislocated shoulder and a broken wrist and several ribs. You manage to get up, albeit slowly, only to witness an Albino Wolf wrestling with a darker one, both relatively similar mass but different in proportion. The white one (Gideon) seems to be shorter, though more muscular, while the stygian Wolf (Ragnor) manages to be taller and much more overbearing; much like how they are in their regular forms. You run towards Ragnor, hoping to help Gideon out in the fight, but the white monster eyes you while it struggles against the darker one, it barks in your direction, as if telling you to get the hell out of this while they duke it out. As Ragnor sinks his teeth into Gideon shoulder, a horrible howl is let out-- and it soon becomes apparent that Gideon it outmatched. Taken aback, you meekly help the Chief up-- who's mesmerized by the masochistic display going on by the two forces at work. Gideon grasps the younger wolf by its throat, and manages to get on top in the scuffle. The two continue to exchange blows, blood squirting out into the floor, until... Gideon slows down, and with a final, angry bark-- he is killed. Ragnor feasts on his killed with a hungry lust; ripping at his enemy's fleshy neck, and happily ripping out and crunching on whatever bones he finds. While Chief continues to blankly stare, you decide that its time you took action on Ragnor, and with the rage built inside of you, the death of Gideon; the one honestly good person you've met, manage to take the Wolf off-guard with a bull-rush. You sink your own claws into the wolf-man's throat, hacking into it. The heavier and stronger animal attempts to crush your midsection with its bare hands before you can kill it, but your swipes prove affective enough with the additional injuries Ragnor got from the White Wolf. As the fight comes to a close, you find yourself soaked in blood and on top of a dead, un-regenerating corpse. You find the Chief bowing down to the floor, praying in a language you don't understand. After several moments he stands, in shock. Unlike before, there are no sounds; just the deathly chill of the wind. "What-- what now?" Comes his pathetic voice. "We... We find the other Creations, and bring them to justice." You bring a bleeding hand to your brow, "Think about it; this can't be the only civilization left, and there are bound to be other Creations wishing to do harm to others. But you and I, we can stop them. We can find a way through the desert." Chief nods, "But I don't think I can carry on with you, for I just... My legs... they aren't moving!" With a grin, you sink your teeth into his neck, and suck-- but not too much, just enough to ghoul him. The salty blood isn't as enjoyable since after today's events, but you'd be lying if you weren't.... Thirsty. The former-Zealot stands erect, ready to be at your command. "Shall we be off then?" "We shall." You have managed to survive in your undeath and leave a possible legacy, but the questions remain! What happened to Kelso? What about the Professor? What could have happened if you had chosen a different path? > You restart Vampire. Indeed, that is what Kelso called you. You can still hear his cold, baritone voice explaining it to you. Vampires in the tales of Fantasy are glamorized; nigh-immortal, sexually desirable, powerful. But, while you suppose you are some of those things, in truth, you are not much more than an albino with a lot of health issues. The sun, he said, will damage your skin more than anything else. Any sort of foodstuff can't be digested anymore by your barely functioning bodily systems. He claims to have an idea of what the 'Professor' was trying to do to us, but for whatever reason, he has dodged the questions anytime you ask. Any information other than that, Kelso hasn't revealed. The irking thing is that it is obvious he knows what's going on, but he consistently acts as if it is in your own good you don't know what went on. The nights have been hard since your escape from the Facility. Most nights you wake up shivering, after all the nightmares you've been dealing with. It's terrifying, and it only makes you wonder what horrible things were done to you at the Facility. You do know that they must have affected your ability to feel. No, not the wishy washy 'emotional' garbage you'd usually expect, but your sense of touch was dulled. While a lot of your senses have been heightened, that one stands out. You feel very little pain from your feet, which is odd; considering how you spent your time running over cracked glass just two days ago, but it seems to have healed recently. --- Waiting. It should be sunrise by now. Kelso said you shouldn't get out, as you are a creature of the darkness now. He, on the other hand, has been out for the entire night and then some. You're not sure what Kelso is hunting for, but you know that you're beginning to get thirsty. More and more questions begin to build up, and no doubt the bastard won't answer half of them. Even while you ran with him through the night, running across various landscapes. Most are just a barren dessert, though every once in while you'd pass a half-buried house like this. "Bright lights up ahead." He said. A city only several miles down. Kelso must have gone there for the clothes he mentioned, but you hope he's safe....<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"So you think the only feasible plan would be to divert there attention for the moment?" You frown, uncertain. The other option wouldn't make too much sense, considering that you fought with the Zealot army not too long ago, but this plan seems... distasteful, unattractive. You're betraying your brethren for those who believe you to be nothing more than a monster, people who believe that anything you do is without reason; good or bad, all mindless mistakes carried out by the Devil himself. It's a scary thought to you-- people believe that about Gideon and me. While I'm not squeaky clean by any means, at least Gideon is willing to throw away everything just to save them! Gideon begins to shuffle towards the hatch, "Come on, Vampire. We need to get the message out any way we can." "Well, we still have a Walkie-Talkie that's probably useable." He turns back to face you, and his eyes widen, "What? We do?" "Y-yeah..." You reply, beginning to scavenge through the various in nicknacks the Wolves kept, and finding David's transceiver under the mess. "Nigh certain it still works, too." He throws his hands up in return, "Then let's do that, genius." You grasp the radio firmly in your hand and get a vague feeling déjà vu as you once again dial it to the Zealot-channel. Click. It's on, sounding out static. You interrupt it with an additional button push when Gideon swiftly grabs it out of your hands. "What the hell, man!" "I'm doing this." Gideon states, still pushing the button. "Zealots, do you hear this?" The cool, female voice is back, "Err, hello?" "This is Wolf-leader Gideon, Ma'am. I need you to call off the Zealots attacking our base, for your own sake." "Um, we don't negotiate with evil, sir." "No! God damnit Ma'am, I'm warning you because there are only two of us left in the hideout, the rest are on their way to attack your City right now!" A pause. "We will look into it, then. Thank you for notifying us, whatever you are." You aren't able to identify her tone that well, but you hope it isn't sarcasm. Either way, she doesn't respond to Gideon's next reply, "Thank you." The two of you sit down on a broken couch, unsure how to proceed further. "So, if they still raid our stronghold, it's over for us?" "... Yeah. The way I see it, the best case scenario is that all the Wolves are wiped out by the C.E. Strike Force on the way. I just hope they find Ragnor and the rest after they get us." "And you're okay with this?" You shout, baffled by this still. He doesn't answer. > You await death. Seeing your stunned silence, Gideon just closes his eyes, "Best get comfortable then. They'll find the hiding place soon, don't you worry." Hopeless, you take a seat beside Gideon, and wait. Minutes turn to hours as you wait. After a long while, you hear footsteps approaching. "They're here." You whisper to Gideon, who is unresponsive. Suddenly, a small ball is tossed from the hatch, and it rolls near your feet. The last thing you feel is heat, the last thing you see is a mixture of fire and shrapnel, and the last thing you hear is the heavy grunts of Churchmen and the crackling of flames. Death was actually quicker than you expected. You have been killed by the hands of the Church.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You take a step back, standing by Gideon's side. "I'm sorry too, Ragnor. But I simply don't think think this is the way to go." Ragnor stares back at you intently, before shrugging, "Alright then, Vamp. I'm not going to force either of you. But what about your ghoul?" "David?" You look around, searching for him. He is currently standing stiff by Ragnor's side, parallel to you. You're surprised you didn't take note of this already. "Yeah. I've talked to him, and he seems to sympathize with our cause. But, since I still more than an iota of respect for you," Ragnor pauses, giving you time to understand, "I'd rather not cause strife from after death between us. So, may I ask for you to allow him to come with us?" With a deep breath, you firmly reply back, "If he really wants to go, then he can follow you to oblivion." "That is all I want from you, Vamp. See you in whatever hell we end up in, eh?" He smiles and takes a hand out to shake. You wave him goodbye, but don't shake, "See you on the flip side, man. Good luck." Ragnor suddenly stands with a more serious attitude, and turns to leave, the Wolf Encampment. Within minutes, Gideon and you are alone. Silence dominates the room for a long while before you speak up. "Gideon, the Zealots are on their way right now. What are we going to do?" The hunchback takes his time finding a nice seat to reply from on, "Convince them." "Convince them of what?" You ask, baffled. "Convince them that we're the least of their worries." "You mean sabotage the assault?" "Of course. You have a better idea?" "... I can't say, yet. But I can tell you one thing, none of my plans would ever include the possibility of leading the Zealots to kill our brothers!" You bring your palm to your brow, "Seriously, Gideon, what kind of idea is that?" "One that preserves the sanctity of life that doesn't leech off of others'." "And you don't think they'll turn right around to kill us?" "Hey, if you can convince them we aren't actually Demons from outer space, then we should try that out first, but for now I'm satisfied with dying with the knowledge that I helped save the human race." > You try to find a way to convince the Zealots you and Gideon aren't evil. Regardless of the fights you've had with Zealots in the past month, despite the fact that you have brutally slaughtered dozens of Zealots before tonight, you realize that it is extremely important that now you finally attempt at settling the differences between you and the Church. "We're going to survive this, Gideon. We can do it." He lazily looks at you, and the yawns, beginning to recline on the broken bench. "So, you've hatched a plan?" "Yeah," you reply, remembering that David probably left his Walkie-Talkie somewhere... You begin to dive through various clothes and various knickknacks that the Wolves have stored. "Aha!" "Wuh?" "A Walkie-Talkie. If we can try to reason with the Zealots, don't you think we can maybe convince them to not kill us?" He gets up, "You never told me you had one of those!" You nervously scratched at your head, "I... Kinda forgot about it as well. But it's great use for now, Gideon." He waves you off, "Doesn't matter, you'll never reason with them." "It's worth a shot," you say, crossing your arms defiantly. You unfold your arms and turn on the radio-- then remember that this would be Zealot HQ. Now you just need to fake being a Zealot again and get the station of the incoming horde... Click You push the button in, too anxious to wait for the crackling static, "Quick, Ma'am, what's the Zealot's Combat Channel?" It's the cool female voice, again, "Channel 40, why? Who is this?" But you're already flipping the channels. Now, from 13 to 40... Gideon sits up groggily, and watches you in silence. "Incoming Zealots!" You release the button, and wait. A heavy, though articulate-sounding voice replies from the other end, "This is Chief. Who is this?" "Friends. Or, at least, those who want to be. We are the last Creations around, and we want to talk to you." "What do you wish to speak about, Demons?" "Mostly about your usage of that term. We want peace, nothing else." "Huh?" "We- we know you're coming for us and our hideout. But we don't want to fight." You wait several moments for him to answer. "Give me your name first." "Err, Vamp." Gideon chuckles in the background. The man named 'Chief' gives a heavy sigh, "Right. And how do you want your meeting to be set up?" "Any sort of meeting that doesn't include me being shot or speared by your guns sounds good." "Funny. If you actually wish to do this then I'd wait outside for us to come." "I... Think you misunderstand." You reply, rather certain about Chief's false attempt to mislead you, "Trying to kill us will not work out well for you. There are other Creations, actual evil ones that are heading for your city right now. If you don't stop them then you're city will be lost." Static for a while. "Why do you not tell me this sooner?" "... Do you even believe me?" "Perhaps," he says, "We may send scout teams to check. But for now I'm interested in what you want to speak about. Are you a man of your word?" "I try." "Hmm..." Chief pauses, his low-voice ending awkwardly, "Give us ten minutes." While you wait for him, Gideon just laughs, "I swear, vamp, if you pull this off then I swear..." He gets up with a wry smile. "Let's just hope their scouts get good information." You reply, ironically trying to be as optimistic as possible. The chances are slim, but you think this could work out with your unlife intact. Time passes, and while you didn't count how much you still worry that they may have ditched messaging and are just continuing their march to this area. "Vamp, are you still there?" You get out of your day-dream and push the button back to reply, "Yes." "It... Seems you're right that at there are a band of unknown beings several miles behind us. But this doesn't mean as much as you would hope." "Oh?" "How many of you are there in all? What if there are actually much more Creations at your base?" A reasonable suspicion, "Then that's problematic for you. But I'd wager that your guys won't be able to take on the ten-or-so of the Creations on the way. So I think getting them first should be more important." "Ah, but that is a good diversion for ten others to bypass us, eh?" Ugh. You bring a palm to your brow, uncertain how to answer the perhaps rightfully paranoid commander. He continues, "Still, you bring a solid point. I think you underestimate our capabilities, however. We will deal with both problems, but for now, how do you wish to meet?" "I assume you know how to enter the well, correct?" "Yes, we have figured out your trick." "... Right, well, send yourself and several of your best man down there and we'll talk. There are only two Creations here, but I assure you we can defend ourselves from whatever harm you might wish to inflict on us." "We'll be there." And... Off. Gideon looks to you, "What now, Vampire?"<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You sigh, somewhat content with the ability to choose for your group. "I agree with Gideon-- defending is probably the best option. After all, the humans... Even if they hate us, they aren't our real enemy right now." Gideon grins, and slaps you on the back. Ragnor shrugs, and heads to a splintered cabinet in the back of the room. He comes back with several cans, accurately labeled as 'beer'. With a grin, he begins handing them out to the 'adults' in the room and you. "Rest on the floor, Vamp. Today is a day of celebration, a joiner to our brood!" With some large chants, Ragnor clicks open the can, and begins handing it to you. As you reach to take it, he immediately withdraws it. He lays it on the floor in front of you, then proceeds to bring a clawed index finger to his wrist above the can, poking deeply into it and letting blood slowly drip into the can. "Hah, I forgot you can't really taste anything but blood. Don't worry though, this'll get you high on no one's expense, Vamp, enjoy yourself." You laugh, scratching at your head for forgetting. You accept the bloody beer; while it's nothing compared to full blood, it's the most happy you've been since you got out of the Facility. It's nice to be part of a family. You and the rest of the Creations laugh and discuss the 'happenings' of the current world. You can't add much, but the leaders of the Wolves' collective stories are fascinating in their own rights, though. On top of it all, you think you've really hit it off with Cecilia-- the blonde Wolf. The next couple of days fly by... > You training. (Optional) "Cecilia, please stop it." You say, pushing her off you. Thinking it through, it probably wasn't the best idea for you to personally trainer of the woman with mutual, though perhaps repressed for the moment, feelings for you. Regardless, she seems a bit too happy when she get close-and-personal with you during a sparring match. With a sigh, you look over to Ragnor and Gideon's respective groups-- it was a smart way the three of you ended up dividing the workload. Each of you would take 4 of the Wolves and personally trained them to defend themselves. Perhaps they gave you too much credit-- you're not a hundred percent sure what to do. Kelso was the one who taught you, but he seemed to recognize that berserking was the way you could unleash your full strength. You'll have to figure out how the Wolves were designed to fight, soon. On the plus side, you're very happy with you 'students', to the point that the names stick out in your mind. Shamino is a heavy-hitter, though surprisingly clumsy for one of his set stature; Haran is extremely agile, and almost vampire-like when it comes to fighting; and Cecilia, is, well, Cecilia. "So, group, have any of you ever shifted into your were-forms?" You ask, gathering your group outside the dunes. In the dark of night, the flat land of sand that you found might seem unimpressive, but the fact that's it's mostly flat is more rare than one would think here; the landscape is usually riddled with smaller hills evrywhere. "Not me." Haran says raising his hand, "Ragnor said that we'll turn only if our bodies deem it necessary. Or when there's a ball of light, but the moon isn't round tonight." As the rest of the Wolves nod, you rub your chin in thought. "David!" You call, waving to your ghoul, who is walking around, aimlessly for whatever reason. "Can you bring one of the L-Bayonets?" He nods in response, and wanders back the to Stronghold. "What do you want with the.. the guns?" The young Shamino asks, looking frightened. The other two Wolves seem to look disturbed as well, "Don't worry haha. We need to train your fortitude as well as make sure you master your abilities. From what it seems, you haven't done either." You watch them idly, waiting for David to bring the gun. As much as it may pain you, you'll need to see what the electronic bolt will do to them. If all goes well, they'll be forced to morph. And only then can you get started... "You want to force us to morph for you." Cecilia states, frowning. "Not for me, for you." You emphasize with a nod, "The way learned to fight was when I had to unleash my primal being, but still pay close attention to my abilities and skills. If you want to defend against the the Zealots, then we need to see you morph." They all gulp, but nod confidently. When David returns with the rifle, you firmly grasp it and prop it up, "This," you shake it as as to bring it at attention, "is the Zealots primary weapon. The tusks at the end are sharp, and will probably pierce nearly any type of hide. Still, assuming you have any sort of health-regeneration abilities, that shouldn't be a problem. What will be a problem, however, is what this rifle shoots out. Lightning." Silence. You clap, "So, who wants to see who can handle the 'holy' firepower?" To your surprise, both Cecilia and Shamino raise heir hands fairly quickly. Even though you're pretty sure Cecilia raised her hand first, you aim the gun in then big Asian's direction, "Shamino, you ready?" He nods, bracing himself as his team-mates slowly back away from him. You unleash the shot, it's force even taking you off guard as it erupts out of the rifle's end. The green-blue bolt reaches poor Shamino almost instantaneously, flinging him several feet in the air and into the sand, causing a small sand-mound of his own. You and the rest run to catch up to him, hoping he's alright. What you see isn't necessarily 'alright', per se, but it's what you wanted to see. What was a powerful Asian teenager is now a hulking, barely conscious furry monster. As it gets up, the snarling beast (about twice your height and thrice your width) begins sniffing around, it's eyes fully white. It's nose beckons in your direction before it lets out a horrible cry-- a howl. As your two students begin to run and David passively watches from afar, you find yourself at the mercy of Shamino the Werewolf. It starts towards you, walking on two feet and using it's other limbs to claw in your direction. While the beast begins it's charge, you take the initiative by jumping at it yourself,using the rifle's tusks as a range advantage. You stick the horns into the werewolf, though you're not surprised that it doesn't do much to slow it down. By now it has it's oversized arms around you, crushing your body... Click A bolt of lightning shoots out, straight into the werewolf's stomach. More sticky blood oozes from its stomach, and ith a growl the beast releases you, if only to take the gun out from between its ribs. Once again taking the initiative, you send a slamming claw to it's snout, and follow up with a kick to its already bleeding midsection. While it pushes it back, it doesn't seem to do as much as you'd hoped. It takes the bayonet and uses it like a bat to hit you, leaving you breathless as you are flung into the sky, the heavy gun landing on-top of you. You cough out blood, and get up to analyze the situation: Ragnor and Gideon's groups have stopped training just to watch while David, Haran and Cecilia finally get into action. You run to catch up with them, and the unfolding scene would make you tear if you could; the three of them coordinate with each-other beautifully, with Haran both dodging the werewolf's blows and throwing sand at its eyes in order to occupy it, while the other tackle at it's heavy feet, just managing to trip it, and keep it there. It's not the greatest way to end a fight, but it's good teamwork. By the time you reach them, Shamino is in his regular form, bleeding only slightly from his nose. He seems oblivious as to what happened, but you're excited team-mates are more than happy to fill him in. Several more lessons like this, and they'll be more than ready to fight the Zealots. After all, taking down a werewolf is much easier than a human.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Ragnor, use those climbing skills of yours and find a way to seal the top of the well better. Can't have one of them dust storms filling the place, nor let any traveler find us like these two rugrats." Gideon says, waving for you to follow him and his goofy walking pattern. While the cloaked man begins to climb, you and David follow the hunchback though the stronghold of the wolves. It's a dark tunnel path, but several well-placed torches along the concrete walls give you enough light to make out peculiar drawings on the walls. Not exactly professional artwork or anything, just passionate claw-markings. But still... “Hey Gideon,” you ask, examining one specifically for it's graphic nature, “What's up with the markings?” The hunchback turns his head, but continues moving, “The writing? It's a code language we formed, mixture of all the languages the folks here are familiar with. It's more or less a system of simplified pictures, but you'll be able to read it if you stay here long enough.” “Can you read this one out to me?” You make sure to stop and point it out; the writing here is different than the rest, even more picturesque than the rest. You can't hope to read it, but you do notice a recurring theme-- a cross and a pentagram. Not only that, but they're much less refined than the others, as if written with anger. “That one is rather basic, I think I even went over it before. It basically boils to, eh...” He shuffles closer to you, and brings his large eye to the writing, “Peace is what keeps our humanity, for the Professor, cursed be he, uses strife to tear us apart. The cursed Creator wishes that we destroy our brothers in battle so he reaps the reward when it's over.” Gideon tilts his head back and continues forward, “I'd keep this in mind, vampy. I'm not sure why you're here, whether to warn us or to do devil's bidding, but I trust you enough to see you have no idea what's going on, so I'll be giving you the chance to give a little presentation for the guys here. By vote, we'll either agree or not. After that, it's up to you whether you stay or not. Got it?” “That's all I could have asked for, sir.” You reply, hoping you can prepare them for the Church's onslaught next week. If not, then, well, you and your brothers are done for, regardless of non-violent intentions. After several minutes of treading through the passages of the tunnel, Gideon stops to look up, even if his head doesn't lift that far. You catch up to where he is, noticing what he's looking at: an opening, light. “That's our hideout.” The Wolf jumps up, grabbing onto some sort of ledge to bring his deformed body up. You watch his body struggle up it, land on solid ground (and then a lot of murmuring from above), then jump up yourself, making it up with ease. The hideout is surprisingly low-key for the most powerful beings on the planet, but considering how they're just trying to survive a dimly lit room filled with sleeping bags and animal-carcasses strewn about is to be expected. The ragtag group that are the Wolves are surprising though; a thin man with dark hair, only to have a visible streak of white in the front; a rather hairy, though otherwise attractive female with dirty blonde hair who's around your age (early twenties?); several scruffy teenagers; a dark-skinned, mustached, and barrel-chested man; at least three of obvious Asian descent; and, of course, Gideon, pointing you out to everybody. Most of them getting out of there bags, they begin gawking at you. You wince as the female eye you with interest, while the men seem to just want to know what you want so they could sleep. You motion to Gideon, and you get close to him and ask, "These are the Wolves? Not as... Impressive, as I thought they'd be." "You're not exactly super-hero material either, child. Kinda stock; dark, straight hair and pale skin. Lean physique." Noticing you're confusion he just pokes at your chest, "What matters is what's on the inside. That's where power comes from. Remember that." He begins to raise his voice, "Now, this here is a Vampire. He has no name, so call him whatever you like, but he has some 'opinions' he'd like to share. As your ghoul struggles up the hatch, you wonder how you want to persuade this group of lazy Wolves to prepare. > You start it light; they don't seem very prepared. Better not freak them out. Can't have them overreact or something. You nod to Gideon, who seems to be acting commander of the Wolves. They gather around you, staring with glossy eyes and gaping mouths. "Right," you announce, clapping your gauntleted hands together, "I am a fellow Creation, like, uh, you guys. And gals!" You add in quickly before pausing, "While I am the only Vampire left, I am a Creation just like you. I have been fighting the Church since I escaped from Facility 13-- the last one. As I understand it, the Church has been trying to kill us, even after the Professor is out of the picture." Nothing but silence from your audience as of yet. "Um, so after escaping the Facility, myself and a... A friend," It didn't sound like Kelso's on good terms with the Wolves, he probably knew Gideon from way back when, "we trained in the sand-dunes, and went out to find the only Creations left. While trying to find you, the Wolves, we had to fight the Zealots, who were more than happy to send their troops at us. As you all are powerful Creations, I will leave it up to you to realize how easy it was to defeat them. But, I kept one as a ghoul, and he had something very interesting to say about you all." You look to David, who nods back. "The Church has found out where your stockade is, and will send all their troops to finish the Creations here within a week." David says, blank-faced. Murmuring spreads throughout the encampment, and you can see several nodding their heads. Others seem more reluctant to believe it. "So what do you want us to do with your information?" One asks. "Well, there are multiple options. One; we can defend it, and train for when they attack. Two; we can go on the offensive and just attack the city, taking them by surprise. Or three; stay settled cozy here and get slaughtered by superstitious assholes. Up to you guys." "Can't we also flee?" Another question, obviously there's a split in the group; some seem to be especially vengeful against the Church, others just want to be left alone. But everyone here wants to survive, you're certain of that. "Possibly, though I doubt the Church wouldn't pursue you through the desert. "... Why should we trust you?" You consider the question for a moment, and realize that although you aren't lying, they have the right to be paranoid, "Because David was one of the Zealots, and he's just relaying what he knows. Heck, how do you think I found your hiding place? The Zealots know, and are getting ready to destroy everyone here. They believe us to be hellish creatures bound to Earth, and think that it's there obligation to banish us back to where we came from." Mostly done, you watch everyone surrounding you. Gideon remains stroking at his scruffy chin, and the rest are just... Thinking. Suddenly, the cloaked Ragnor makes a return, jumping up from the hatch. "So, what'd I miss?" He asks with a chuckle, taking his ruby-red hood off. Ragnor is a balding adult, probably middle-aged before he was reCreated. He's muscular, but not in the way Gideon is; he's extremely tall; lean and built. "Nothing much," Gideon answers, "It basically boils down to whether we defend, attack, or not believe Vampy and the Ghoul over here." With a sigh, he looks scans everyone in the room, "So, shall we put it to vote?" One of the younger wolves respond, "I believe the vampire. I don't see why he'd lie, and... The Church does plan to hurt us, no matter what colored lenses we put on. We are evil to them, aren't we?" Gideon cracks his neck, waits for any other response (there isn't), and then turns to you, "Well, it seems like you can decide for us. If you want my advice, I thinking attacking the entire city is a bit drastic, though defending well would get what's needed done: Survival." Ragnor glares at you as well, boldly standing parallel to the leader, "But going on the offensive will give us an advantage, for once. We just need to take the assault the City while the are on their way to our hideout. It'd be perfect timing to gain control of the city!"<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Your mentor, the Ghoul, and yourself make your way through the remnants of the past world. Suddenly, it all makes sense to you. The world went to hell, and it was the Professor's abuse of his Creations that furthered it. Now, the Church hunts you all down for no reason other than to to give hope to 'real' humans. It's despicable, but it's the world you're in right now. The hot sun beats down upon you, while your slave suddenly comes to a halt. "This is it." He blandly calls out, reaching down to the sandy flooring, and makes hand motions as to move some of the sand away. You turn to wish your master a farewell, but he is already gone. Only a hazy version of him can be seen through squinting in the distance. So, it's just me and my Ghoul. Let's just hope it doesn't get bloody... You follow David's beckoning, and bend down to see what he was unclearing. As your slave digs, more and more sand seems to pile in. "What are we looking for?" "They're underground, sir." With a nod, you decide to help out with the digging. As you lay your hands on the sand, you thank fortune that you hadn't done this in the middle of the day, rather than just an hour or so after sun-rise. The sand would no doubt have burnt your fingers otherwise! Even though you and your ghoul are digging barehanded, it doesn't take too much time before you begin to feel the sand getting thicker, more doughy. With quick powerful stroke, you continue ripping through the sand, throwing it out of your radius, soon creating a little pit, low enough that you could stand up in it. After clawing at the earth with your servant for a while, you accidentally scratch at something... Hard, metallic. Underneath the sand lay a metal disk, with evenly-spaced holes around it's edge and the middle. Even as it is right now, it's fairly obvious that the disk is heavily embedded into the ground, and prying it out would no doubt prove to be a challenge. At first, you try just digging around and under it, but your efforts seemed to have been in vain; the plate appeared to be a part of both the earth and some sort of brick-well that goes much further down. "You sure this is the place? You ask, making sure that this was the opening to the Wolf Stronghold. It'd make sense, as this is extremely safe from the Zealots, considering. "Yes." Comes the monotone reply, "The few remaining GPS satellites pin-pointed this exact spot. We caught several monsters disappearing from under the sand here." Now, how should we try to open this? > You blast it open with the L-Bayonet. "Move aside, Ghoul." You command, grabbing for the huge rifle you looted off of the Zealots you last killed. It truly is an amazing weapon, the bursts of lightning would be extremely affective against anything if caught off-guard. Of course, shooting at a metal lid may not be the most brilliant idea, but it's much cooler to try out than using your bare hands to pick up the metallic disk. With David the Ghoul backing away to the end of your pit, you aim and fire a blast of lightning at the plate. You hear a loud thundering emit from your weapon as you're flung several feet back from the recoil of this weapon. Through the cloudy smoke you can still make out the the green chain of lightning strike at the plate, creating a large hissing sound. Great, now the metal disk covering the well is visibly red hot, glowing a neon color and radiating heat from it. Your Ghoul sighs, though doesn't speak his thoughts, obviously as to not insult you. "Err," You stutter, realizing your blunder, "David," (you use his real name this time), "would you mind trying to kick off the plate? It should be weaker now that it's almost reached melting point. Maybe." Your ghoul shakes his head. He replies, "Can we try to use the bayonet's tusks to pry it open?" You nod awkwardly, and near the searing plate with your rifle. Swiftly, but carefully, you fit the tusks in a slight opening where sand must have been embedded, and use whatever leverage you can to push the lid up. Thankfully, you succeeded in loosening the disk, which means that your rifle manages to carry the lid off of the well. The bad part? Well, the end of your rifle seems to have melted a bit. Perhaps it wasn't made to deal with anything but short bursts of extreme-heat, rather than a prolonged carrying-session. Still, it could be worse. David has a back-up rifle as well, so little harm done, considering. After patting your Ghoul on the back for the idea, you begin to hear the sounds of running from inside of the well... You shrug, and smile at your Ghoul, and then proceed to look down the brick-well... It's dark, for one thing, and the sound of pattering foot-steps on concrete grows louder. Overcome with nervousness, you loudly blurt out, "We come in peace!" Several dark figures appear from the bottom of the well, after several glances upwards at you and whispering, one of them waves you down. Shivering, you jump down the well, using the cylindrical bricks surrounding you to position yourself as to not fall on them. Still, you fall with a heavy thud. Yeah, I'm gonna need new sneakers. Unlike yourself, David just goes down it normally, using the short metal bars protruding one of the sides, climbing downwards. The dark figures eye you carefully, taking a while to speak. One with dark gray hair and scruffy facial hair as well as a slouching hunchback of a surprisingly muscular body, points at your armor, "If you're a Zealot, I'd turn back right now. If you don't, then my friend here, the cloaked one, will happily snap your neck for making such a hideous racket." His voice isn't too threatening, but his body language and thick-eyebrows suggest otherwise. He's clad in tight cloth shirt and pants, bulging with muscles, and is surrounded with an intimidating aura. The other one is completely cloaked, though watches your Ghoul with suspicion. "I'm not of the Church," you start, trying to make a good first impression, "and neither is he. Not anymore at least." "Then what are you?" The gruff man calls out, his eyes narrowing. "Well, I'm glad you asked. I'm a... A Creation, just like you. This is my Ghou--" By the time you uttered the word, 'Creation' he had already put you in a headlock. The cloaked one has already put your ghoul to sleep, though hopefully not forever... The man continues, "What do you want from us, fangs-boy? I thought the rest of your clan died." Clans? "No!" You exclaim, struggling out of his hold. You actually manage to surprise him with your strength and are able to push him off of you. "I honestly have no idea what you're talking about. But you're part of the Wolves, right? My associate and I want to join your strong hold." After stabilizing, he spits back at you, "We don't need any joiners." "Why not?" You argue, your body tensing. "The Zealots are planning to raid this place soon, and I figure you could use as much help as possible." The old man continues growling at you, "What are you, some sort of message-boy for the Professor?" Well, at least that means they aren't working for him. "The Church means no harm to us at this point. It'd be stupid for them to attack us. If you're trying to make a powerful group do something out of desperation, then oh boy, have you come to a bad place, vampy. I'd go back to the sun, where the pain is relatively quick." He cracks his knuckles. If you weren't so confident in your abilities, you might have been intimidated by this Neanderthal. "Then perhaps you should ask my Ghoul, David. He was a Zealot before I brought him to the darkness." You point at the slumped body on the floor. "He's dead now, too late." The brute says with a cruel grin, "Snapped his neck, Ragnor did." You laugh, "I don't think he'd die from that." You take several steps toward your slave, waving the cloaked man aside, you grab David by the cuff of his armor and pick him up, then bring your hand to his neck and snap it back. David glumly states, "Hi." The Wolf grits his teeth, "Didn't know Vampires could use their powers like that." "Then you'll be learning a whole lot more during my stay here. What was that you were saying about being the last of my clan?" He smiles back, surprisingly, "Oh? So you don't know. You're the last of the Vampire Creations, as the rest died in this desert planet. I'm surprised you made it this long since the last Facility was destroyed. But if you don't remember that, then do you even remember your name?" "I'm afraid not. Can you at least tell me yours?" The Wolf laughs, "Call me Gideon. The cloaked figure on the side is Ragnor, our residential assassin, even if fighting has little place anymore." He brings out a hairy, clawed hand to shakes yours. You accept it. "So I'm in?" "I'm still suspicious of your reasons for coming here, and your story about the Zealots needs some checking." "Is it really that surprising?" "Less that and more that we don't want to fight them." What? Seeing your confused expression, Gideon continues, "Listen here Vampy, I'd rather die and let humanity survive than not. And most of us here are ready for that. If the Zealots come to our turf then we'll wipe them out easy, but we're definitely not going to seek conflict, even if me and the boys can take those choir-boys out in an instant." "Why not? They want to kill us all?" He shakes his head, his face now grim, "The Church may believe that we're demons, but they also value the sanctity of life, so I doubt they'd come here. Regardless, they aren't all that wrong about us. The things we've done... The innocents we've massacred in our wake. It doesn't mean that we're bad now, per se, but what we've done is inexcusable. The World has gone to waste, and I'm alright if we don't survive to see it rebuild itself. You stand in silence for a little while, realizing that you've joined ranks with the modern equivalent of the hippies. Gideon grins again, "But don't worry about that now, let's close the lid on top of our well and then introduce you to the rest of the gang."<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Your mentor, the Ghoul, and yourself make your way through the remnants of the past world. Suddenly, it all makes sense to you. The world went to hell, and it was the Professor's abuse of his Creations that furthered it. Now, the Church hunts you all down for no reason other than to to give hope to 'real' humans. It's despicable, but it's the world you're in right now. The hot sun beats down upon you, while your slave suddenly comes to a halt. "This is it." He blandly calls out, reaching down to the sandy flooring, and makes hand motions as to move some of the sand away. You turn to wish your master a farewell, but he is already gone. Only a hazy version of him can be seen through squinting in the distance. So, it's just me and my Ghoul. Let's just hope it doesn't get bloody... You follow David's beckoning, and bend down to see what he was unclearing. As your slave digs, more and more sand seems to pile in. "What are we looking for?" "They're underground, sir." With a nod, you decide to help out with the digging. As you lay your hands on the sand, you thank fortune that you hadn't done this in the middle of the day, rather than just an hour or so after sun-rise. The sand would no doubt have burnt your fingers otherwise! Even though you and your ghoul are digging barehanded, it doesn't take too much time before you begin to feel the sand getting thicker, more doughy. With quick powerful stroke, you continue ripping through the sand, throwing it out of your radius, soon creating a little pit, low enough that you could stand up in it. After clawing at the earth with your servant for a while, you accidentally scratch at something... Hard, metallic. Underneath the sand lay a metal disk, with evenly-spaced holes around it's edge and the middle. Even as it is right now, it's fairly obvious that the disk is heavily embedded into the ground, and prying it out would no doubt prove to be a challenge. At first, you try just digging around and under it, but your efforts seemed to have been in vain; the plate appeared to be a part of both the earth and some sort of brick-well that goes much further down. "You sure this is the place? You ask, making sure that this was the opening to the Wolf Stronghold. It'd make sense, as this is extremely safe from the Zealots, considering. "Yes." Comes the monotone reply, "The few remaining GPS satellites pin-pointed this exact spot. We caught several monsters disappearing from under the sand here." Now, how should we try to open this? > You just call through the disc's holes and hope to hear an answer. Using divine intuition, you lean in close to the holes on the lid and yell as loudly (and awkwardly) as you can, "HELLO THERE, WE'RE LOOKING FOR THE WOLVES." Your ghoul snickers. You vaguely hear the echo of your voice trail off into the buried well. Hopefully somebody down there heard your dopey exclamation, even if it came out dumb sounding. You certainly wouldn't want to go through it again. You hear some heavy foot-steps from the well, and try your best to peer through it. Alas, it is too dark. Still, you hear a voice in response. "Who are yeh?" The voice progressively gets closer. It's gruff, but calm. "Uh, I'm not a hundred-percent sure! But we're related." "Related eh? You'd have to explain that one to me." You can hear a sharp thud, and the lid on top of the well turn from a flat 180-degrees to a wedged 90. A hairy, clawed hand withdraws. You hear another thump, probably the Wolf down there falling back to the floor. You shrug, and smile at your Ghoul, and then proceed to look down the brick-well... It's dark, for one thing, and you can't make out anything but two figures looking up at you. Overcome with nervousness, you loudly blurt out, "We come in peace!" Several dark figures appear from the bottom of the well, after several glances upwards at you and whispering, one of them waves you down. Shivering, you make sure to slowly go down, using the metal foot-holds protruding from the side of the cylindrical, brick well. The dark figures eye you carefully, taking a while to speak. One with dark gray hair and scruffy facial hair as well as a slouching hunchback of a surprisingly muscular body, points at your armor, "If you're a Zealot, I'd turn back right now." His voice isn't too threatening, but his body language and thick-eyebrows suggest otherwise. He's clad in tight cloth shirt and pants, bulging with muscles, and is surrounded in an intimidating aura. The other one is completely cloaked, though watches your Ghoul with suspicion. "I'm not of the Church," you start, trying to make a good first impression, "and neither is he. Not anymore at least." "Then what are you?" The gruff man calls out, his eyes narrowing. "Well, I'm glad you asked. I'm a... A Creation, just like you. This is my Ghou--" By the time you uttered the word, 'Creation' he had already put you in a headlock. The cloaked one has already put your ghoul to sleep, though hopefully not forever... The man continues, "What do you want from us, fangs-boy? I thought the rest of your clan died." Clans? "No!" You exclaim, struggling out of his hold. You actually manage to surprise him with your strength and are able to push him off of you. "I honestly have no idea what you're talking about. But you're part of the Wolves, right? My associate and I want to join your strong hold." He spits back at you, "We don't need any joiners." "Why not?" You argue, your body tensing. "The Zealots are planning to raid this place soon, and I figure you could use as much help as possible." The old man growls back you, "What are you, some sort of message-boy for the Professor?" Well, at least that means they aren't working for him. Probably. "The Church means no harm to us at this point. It'd be stupid for them to attack us. If you're trying to make a powerful group do something out of desperation, then oh boy, have you come to a bad place, vampy. I'd go back to the sun, where the pain is relatively quick." He cracks his knuckles. If you weren't so confident in your abilities, you might have been intimidated by this Neanderthal. "Then perhaps you should ask my Ghoul, David. He was a Zealot before I brought him to the darkness." You point at the slumped body on the floor. "He's dead now, too late." The brute says with a cruel grin, "Snapped his neck, Ragnor did." You laugh, "I don't think he'd die from that." You take several steps toward your slave, waving the cloaked man aside, you grab David by the cuff of his armor and pick him up, then bring your hand to his neck and snap it back. David glumly states, "Hi." The Wolf grits his teeth, "Didn't know Vampires could use their powers like that." "Then you'll be learning a whole lot more during my stay here. What was that you were saying about being the last of my clan?" He smiles back, surprisingly, "Oh? So you don't know. You're the last of the Vampire Creations, as the rest died in this desert planet. I'm surprised you made it this long since the last Facility was destroyed. But if you don't remember that, then do you even remember your name?" "I'm afraid not. Can you at least tell me yours?" The Wolf laughs, "Call me Gideon. The cloaked figure on the side is Ragnor, our residential assassin, even if fighting has little place anymore." He brings out a hairy, clawed hand to shakes yours. You accept it. "So I'm in?" "I'm still suspicious of your reasons for coming here, and your story about the Zealots needs some checking." "Is it really that surprising?" "Less that and more that we don't want to fight them." What? Seeing your confused expression, Gideon continues, "Listen here Vampy, I'd rather die and let humanity survive than not. And most of us here are ready for that. If the Zealots come to our turf then we'll wipe them out easy, but we're definitely not going to seek conflict, even if me and the boys can take those choir-boys out in an instant." "Why not? They want to kill us all?" He shakes his head, his face now grim, "The Church may believe that we're demons, but they also value the sanctity of life, so I doubt they'd come here. Regardless, they aren't all that wrong about us. The things we've done... The innocents we've massacred in our wake. It doesn't mean that we're bad now, per se, but what we've done is inexcusable. The World has gone to waste, and I'm alright if we don't survive to see it rebuild itself. You stand in silence for a little while, realizing that you've joined ranks with the modern equivalent of the hippies. Gideon grins again, "But don't worry about that now, let's close the lid on top of our well and then introduce you to the rest of the gang."<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Curious, and perhaps a wee bit thirsty, you motion to the Zealot. "What's your name?" "David." He spits, "Why?" "Because your new name is... Slave." His eyes widen in horror as you sink your teeth into his soft and milky flesh, this time getting it on the artery. The blood squirts down your throat, and the high that you get is unimaginable. Sweet and slightly sour blood, like apple-juice. The euphoria you get is uplifting, and you feel... Happy. Power surges through your veins, and your stomach does happy somersaults as it absorbs all the nutrients from the Zealot's warrior-blood, and you continue chewing on his neck, trying to get as much as you can from this man before he falters. Just sublime... "Goddammit kid, your mother must have been some sort of an abuser." Kelso says with a chuckle, pulling you away. "But I think that' enough drinking, your new slave is deathly pale, but still breathing, albeit very slowly and inconsistently-- a sign that you've drunk just enough." He points out, "But hats off to you kid, you've got yourself a ghoul." You both stand, waiting for your slave to wake. The pale Zealot opens his eyes back up, a glossy look to them. He doesn't speak, but instead lazily lets saliva and a red substance that likely is blood ooze out from the side of his mouth. Nervously, you command him, "Lead us to the Wolves hideout." He lazily tries to get up, only to fall back down again. "Now." Firm. He gets up, straight this time. With uncoordinated steps he begins to march, stumbling through the sand and skin beginning to redden from the sun. You shrug, and follow your new ghoul. By the time you pass the City the trek is already nearly over. You take another left from there, then a turn to the right... And soon Kelso directs you and your new slave to stop. "This," he begins, "is where I take my leave." "What?" You exclaim, "Why now? Didn't you say that the other Creations might be on the Professor's side?" Kelso tilts his head to the side, "The longer I think about it, the less it makes sense. But I've been worried about something, and I'm nigh certain I'm correct on this." "What do you mean?" Your mentor walks to your ghoul, tugging at his armor's sleeve to get attention, "You, David, what does the Church know about Simon Kurschner?" Who? The slave replies in monotone, "Can't be found or traced. Not among Creations, unknown if even still alive." You raise an eyebrow, "Who's this Kurschner?" "The Professor." Comes the reply from Kelso. "But I thought our plan was to see if the other Creations know where the Professor is? Which could mean that they still serve him. Or not." "Exactly. If the Church has no idea of his whereabouts, then it's unlikely the Wolves have something definite either. Even though the Wolf and I have had our arguments, I still trust him enough to give you vacancy while I search for the Professor." "So where are you going?" "Anywhere. The world left is just a desert, and traveling by night only will waste time, which is why we have t split for the moment." Kelso frowns, and holds out his hand to shake. You firmly grasp it, "Then stay safe, Master. I trust you will return soon?" He stares at you blankly, "I have no idea how long it will take. But I believe in you just as well. You can make it on your own, especially with how you proved yourself today. Strong decision making and vast knowledge on how survival works have made you to what you are. There is very little that I can teach you that I even know. You shall grow past what I can even guess you can do." He begins to let go of the hand shake, but you hold on. Tightly. "There's one thing that you still haven't told me." "And what's that?" "How the World came to this pitiful state." > You kelso's tale (Optional) Kelso sighs, "Too true. It is about time I fill you in on the details, even if they're hard, even for me, to recall. It was a spread of about two decades. Surprisingly small for the whole world to collapse, but when shit hits the fan it has to either be cleaned or it'll spew out everywhere," he chuckles, motioning the Ghoul to continue the walk toward the Wolves. The story will probably take a while... You begin reanointing your sun-tan lotion while your mentor explains what happened. "Years before you awoke, the world was in complete order. Governments were somewhat conciliatory with each other, and liberty and justice was preserved. It didn't take too long before the peace was endangered, the militant Religious-- like the Zealots," he shoots your Ghoul a glance, "began rioting, terrorizing less fortunate countries and gaining power there. While the governments were large and powerful, they were inexcusably... lazy when all this happened. Soon, this spread to the more developed places on Earth, like this continent. For a little while, these religions were corner-stones of society, but this weakened it. People were scared, and fear makes the common man do things they wouldn't do otherwise. To say the least, the 21st century was not off to a good start. And it slowly, but sneakily, went downhill from there. "Amidst all this, the earth was a beautiful, natural place. Ecosystems filled with life and splendor were everywhere. Civilization was at its peak, human beings were able to do wondrous things like fly, and cure almost all illnesses and conditions using scientific means. The methods used, of course, bothered many 'men of God', like your slave. They wanted to stop progress in the name of a deity long dead. After years of struggle, they were quieted to close-knit communities, and had no impact on politics and scientific progress. During this struggle, the terrorists began gaining traction. Even worse, new viruses began infecting parts of the globe, and the irresponsible Governments continued doing nothing, until it was too late. Developed countries or not, many fell ill of the horrible new diseases, and the Old-Zealots started to control more and more land, becoming the dominant force in most places. That's why the world turned to desert and we've already found a lot of remnants of the Old World buried in it; they were pillaged by the hordes of humans, and as the population dwindled, plants weren't tilled. Soon later, there was drought, and the entire world as we know it has become a giant Dustbowl, just mixed in with disease and raiders. Simon Kurschner became the 'man with a plan' for years during this. He garnered enough support from the local governments with his experiments to get funding, as well as a whole Facility to save the human-race. His science was new, revolutionary even; and while many disapproved of what he was doing, the Professor was recognized as the last hope of humanity." "What'd he do?" You ask, with vague memories coming back. Tidbits of information allow you to remember, but not enough... "He created me and you. He found a way to create human beings with extraordinary powers, with abilities of legend. His Creations were disposable humans; ones who were going to die regardless. Even though he had no authorization to do so, he began using these dead bodies for his experiments. He gave the dead and dying new life, even with a price. The first experiments he made were immune to disease, and he said he hoped to save the human-race this way. But that wasn't true, he wished to rule what was left of the human-race with his new super-soldiers. Kurschner sent his Creations to fight the Militants, with each one as powerful as you or myself, ten of them made easy work of five hundred Zealots at a time. His new humans were invincible fighting machines, and all under his control. Similar to ghouls, only a step above that. Regardless, even after the Militia problem was solved, the Professor began to mass-produce his Creations, each of them ravaging wherever they went, unregulated. Under his command, they annihilated whatever was left of the World Governments, and soon came upon humanity. The bastard trapped us in capsules, letting my friends out just to go on psychotic rampages on the humans opposing the Professor. That's where the other Zealots, of the Church, come in. Even though they were smaller at the time, they managed to push the Professor back by exploiting the Creations' specific weaknesses, and silver. They managed to destroy most of his Facilities, fighting against what they thought, and still think as, the devil. They grew very large as well, and have taken part of what is rebuilding humanity, with religiously-suited technology and a brand new gospel. But absolute power corrupts absolutely, and they ordered their men to kill any Creations left, regardless of malevolent intent. Our Facility, Facility 13, was the last one standing. By then the Professor was on the run, but the New-Zealots were laying waste to any of his work, believing that they should reset the World, like God did in his bible. Fueled on fear-mongering, the only human societies left rely on fighting evil, us, even though they massacre us now, as if it's open season. But no, they believe we are the Devil's work, and as such our sentience means nothing to them. So we run, and we fight, but only in self-defense. Now we're back in the Dark Ages, all thanks to the Professor, and once again, the Church." He kicks at the sand with a frown, but continues marching with you through the beautiful, though dead landscape, reminiscing about the world that was. You barely speak throughout this, considering all of it.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Shrugging the thought of not having Kelso around, you collect the armors of the Zealots, turning the flash off and equipping them. They won't save you from everything, but they will certainly make you physical attacks stronger, if only because they're reinforced by cold metal. You wear everything but the helmet, since you like having your vision unrestricted. Kelso does similarly, putting on the armor, leggings, and boots. You also decide to take one of the undamaged rifles; good weapons, and more effective on humans than on Creations, ironically. After the slight diversion, you bring your attention to the rousing Zealot. Kelso points him out to you to deal with. With a cruel smile, you walk over to him, bringing your gauntleted hand to his armored helmet, and begin to squeeze. That wakes him up. He cries in agony, as his helmet soon becomes a 'custom-fit' of sorts. With your one hand, you pick him up by his face, and just hold him in mid-air. "Kelso, are we just interrogating him here or somewhere else?" "Here's fine." You shrug, and drop the Zealot on the floor. He groans in pain, bringing hands to his face to try to take off his helmet; he couldn't do it. "Tell you what, if I take off your new skullcap if you tell me where the other Creations are." He looks up pitifully, nodding. Carefully... You peel off the horned helmet from his visage. "You killed Sebastian, didn't you!" Is the first thing that erupts from his lips. That, and some spit. You back hand him, bloodying his face further and causing him to fall back onto the sand. "Location, now. Or you end up having a worse fate than Sebastian." The dark haired Zealots looks at you with menacing eyes, "I don't consort with demons. I will die with honor." "That's not what you were saying when your face was in a can." You laugh, and Kelso gets on one knee, beckoning closer to him. "You can become one of us, if you like. Be one of the damned, and survive the hell that is God's world. Just lead us to where the so-called 'Wolves' are." "I won't sell out that easy, demon. Sebastian was a brother before you bastards killed him!" The agitated cripple would be somewhat intimidating if he wasn't in such a pathetic situation. "Then it's time you became family." Kelso looks at you. "Try ghouling him." Your eyes widen, "What do you mean, 'ghoul'?" "Drink from him until he has only the minimum amount of blood he needs. He'll become one of us. Well, half. He'll also follow our commands in that state. For the first couple of days. An eternal slave." Your mentor grins. The Zealot, however, is horrified. "No, don't! Don't drink from me, I'll get you to the Wolves, I promise! I'll even tell you when the Church is to attack their base. Everything, just don't turn me into one of you! Stop!" Oh, so very tempting. But kind of... Evil, is it? Is there even a line anymore, after what I've done? Kindness will only hurt you at this point, and a side-kick if Kelso ever leaves is tempting... > You let him guide you willfully. "I'll have mercy on you now, Zealot. But don't even dare try to cross me." You state, giving him the evil eye. He noticeably gulps, then nods. Kelso rubs at his chin, probably thinking about the other Creations. Your mentor likely knows the head of the Wolves, but if you'd guess that there is some sort of bad-blood between them. God knows what. "So, what's your name?" You ask, trying to make communication easier. "David, sir." David starts, getting onto his own two feet. "David Crowe... Son of the Lord." You sigh, "Cut the bullshit, 'Dave'. Tell us all you know about the Wolves." The Zealot tenses, as if worried about something. "I... The Wolves are on the other side of the Dunes, from where we are, we need to just go straight past the City, go several miles down East, and then search for a burrow, of sorts." Kelso raises an eyebrow, "What is the Church planning to do? If they know such an exact location, they must be planning on doing something." David nods, "Yeah, the Church is planning on raiding the burrow, taking them by s confused.urprise and purifying them." "Purification?" You ask, confused. He rolls his swollen eye, "Death by burning. It is said that you abominations will be going to hell, but by burning your soul is destroyed, so you won't suffer. Unlike you two bastards, the Church keeps the World To Come in mind!" Kelso pushes him forward. "Lead then." He takes a deep breath, and leads you through the desert, passing the City that never stops flashing, and moving from there right. As you make the treacherously long walk, you notice the sun begin to rise. "Kelso! Do you still have the lotion?" He nods, looking like he's glad you remembered. David chuckles nervously while you lather the lotion on your face, the only uncovered part of your body. Even while the sun reflects it's light off of your creamy-white head, you feel your skin itch. The lotion is definitely something to get used to. MAybe you could get a hat later so this wouldn't be as much of a problem. You, Kelso, and David find the spot. At least, the spot David brought you to. "So, where's the pit?" You call out, beginning to search around the area for it with Kelso. David stays behind, "It should be there, somewhere." > You continue searching for it. Odd. "Alrighty then..." You mutter, searching the ground for any sort of opening. Several moments later you hear a boom as sand is pit at the back of your head, as well as the vague sound of someone screaming... Kelso? Son of a bitch... "IT'S A TRAP!" You manage to yell out before something horribly metal clamps on to your leg. "You're going to die for this, David!" You call out, though he's already limping away. Shit, he probably still has a transceiver... As you leg heals enough to get unstuck from the clamp, you begin to sprint through the field of traps, mines exploding as you trigger them. Several burn your feet, but others give you just enough momentum... You leap, easily catching up to the lying coward, and ruthlessly digging into the back of his skull with the momentum of the jump and the sharp ends of your gauntleted fingers, killing him almost instantly when you feel the mushy part inside (the brain?). Thirsty, again, you drink from the blood pouring from his head, barely realizing one of your feet were blown off in the explosion! Once you realize it, you begin to cough out all the blood you slurped in shock, unsure what to do. You see Kelso muttering in the distance, running away with more success than you are. It doesn't take too long before the Zealots arrive, catching you red-handed, and finishing you off with several bursts of lightning. You have died by the hands of the Church.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"I'll have mercy on you now, Zealot. But don't even dare try to cross me." You state, giving him the evil eye. He noticeably gulps, then nods. Kelso rubs at his chin, probably thinking about the other Creations. Your mentor likely knows the head of the Wolves, but if you'd guess that there is some sort of bad-blood between them. God knows what. "So, what's your name?" You ask, trying to make communication easier. "David, sir." David starts, getting onto his own two feet. "David Crowe... Son of the Lord." You sigh, "Cut the bullshit, 'Dave'. Tell us all you know about the Wolves." The Zealot tenses, as if worried about something. "I... The Wolves are on the other side of the Dunes, from where we are, we need to just go straight past the City, go several miles down East, and then search for a burrow, of sorts." Kelso raises an eyebrow, "What is the Church planning to do? If they know such an exact location, they must be planning on doing something." David nods, "Yeah, the Church is planning on raiding the burrow, taking them by s confused.urprise and purifying them." "Purification?" You ask, confused. He rolls his swollen eye, "Death by burning. It is said that you abominations will be going to hell, but by burning your soul is destroyed, so you won't suffer. Unlike you two bastards, the Church keeps the World To Come in mind!" Kelso pushes him forward. "Lead then." He takes a deep breath, and leads you through the desert, passing the City that never stops flashing, and moving from there right. As you make the treacherously long walk, you notice the sun begin to rise. "Kelso! Do you still have the lotion?" He nods, looking like he's glad you remembered. David chuckles nervously while you lather the lotion on your face, the only uncovered part of your body. Even while the sun reflects it's light off of your creamy-white head, you feel your skin itch. The lotion is definitely something to get used to. MAybe you could get a hat later so this wouldn't be as much of a problem. You, Kelso, and David find the spot. At least, the spot David brought you to. "So, where's the pit?" You call out, beginning to search around the area for it with Kelso. David stays behind, "It should be there, somewhere." > You wait a second... You hold pout your hand. "Kelso, wait up." He turns around, "Found something already?" You look at David with an hungry grin, "Not what we're looking for, but good enough." You raise your voice, "David why don't you join us?" The Zealot's eyes go wide, as he shakes his head and repeatedly says, "No." Over and over again. Kelso laughs, and slowly approaches the Zealot. "What trap have you attempted to lure us to, son of the lord?" The last bit dripping with sarcasm. You take an unfortunate step toward him, when it all goes black for a moment. You find your ears deafening as you tumble forwards, firey mines exploding from beneath your feet. You run across the landscape, fire erupting all around. You eye the Zealot, angry, and noticing him running away and talking to his... fist? Shit, why didn't I take away his reciever? It's too late now, and it doesn't take long to reach the coward, but among this you find yourself looking on the optimistic side; if you didn't catch it earlier, who knew what would happen? But you still fear what will happen now. You sprint behind him, barely overtaking him even with your flayed legs. You flick out your wrist, and throw your arm at him, your body almost falling with pain and missing him by an inch or so. Determined, you continue the arm motion, turning your arm around your body once again, twisting your body in a circle, gaining just enough momentum to slam your clawed hand at the back of his head. You feel his brain hitting the back of his head as he slumps to the sand, dead as can be. You look around; Kelso is nowhere to be found. Your body feeling heavy, you realize that Zealots are approaching from afar, and you suddenly black out again, probably due to the heat... > You wake up. An extremely... Blue, room is what you wake up to. Very bright, to the point you have to squint to make anything out. Worst of all, your skin begins to get irritated, and your efforts to get out of the chair seem to be futile. You scream, but your muscles seem to be neutralized. You simply can't get up. "UV-lightning, like it?" Says a robed figure, appearing out of an opening of the wall. You hear a clanking noise and steam rises when the opening is closed, making the opening close, the room is glows with the calming blue. The robe the priest is wearing is also blue, with white stripes. You notice, from a slight creak in his robes, that he has some sort of shiny sword in there. For whatever reason, you feel it from several meters away, your stomach hurting. "Don't worry, that just means that it's working. You demons can't afford to be in the sun, so the closest thing to it would logically bother you in some way." You notice that the bearded holyman, complete with a large blue skullcap, is terribly... Old. It's surprising he can move so much, with his crooked back and pruned face, the odd sort of shuffling he does to get closer to you is unnerving. Noticing you not retorting, he continues, "Ah, but where are my manners? I, am Father Tomas." It takes a couple of minutes, but he manages to get hand-distance away from you. You struggle to even spit at the man, the lights dominating your will. He takes your hand in his, and shakes it against your will. "So, what's your name?"<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Let's start on a side and move on from there. We can't let their flank be affective." Your mentor nods. "There was a reason why I saved you, even if I didn't realize it at the time." "Which is...?" "You're smart." You'd blush if could, you like compliments, "No, the reason why you got me in the first place." "You'll find out at some point." You both laugh. Kelso drops information every once in a while, and at some point you want to just have several hours with him to discuss everything. Was the world always like this? What happened to it? What is my purpose? And on and on. By now the collection of lights are nearing, so you stop chatting with your master and turn your attention to them. Keeping your head close to the ground and sneaking to the right, you prepare to overtake the group of five on that side. Your mind flashes back to your training in the training you did with Kelso in the dunes. You try your best to channel your anger while you run, Kelso behind, at the Zealots. Why should I hate the Church? Your mind answers. Because they hate me for what I am. The man called Sebastian called me a 'demon'; I'm not that. I know I'm not that. But they will crucify me if they can. And I won't let them do that to myself or Kelso. With your mind settled on some sort rage, you vent it with your sprinting, reaching the Zealots quick enough. They're big people, the C.E. Soldiers. Stygian black metal overlays their entire bodies, with an obvious group leader with a different helmet (with horns, like a medieval knight's would have.) The rest have a simplistic SWAT-team-like helmet with a visor. The most notable part of their ensemble is their heavily tusked rifles, which take up both of their arms, if only to carry the heavy block of metal. You assume that that's the thing that Kelso mentioned; the lightning bayonets. 'That, and their lit cross on the chest, flashing on and off. Thankfully, they don't seem to notice you, yet. Their heavy metal probably restricts them of that. You pay little attention to where Kelso is, and you angrily lash out on the leader, leaping from over eight meters away from the ground. While in the air, you let your claws grow out and you come onto the huge black being's chest, and sink your claws into him, through the weak parts of his armor. Wet, sticky blood pours out, and you messily continue to clutch onto him while he tries to shoot you off with his tusked-bayonet. He manages to shoot up wards once or twice before slumping to the ground, the Other Zealots probably pissing their pants at this point. You roar at them, jumping off the corps of their leader and sending a heavy-fisted slash at a close one that is unbashfully trying to use hiw walkie-talkie. The hand you send clunks off of his helmet, but the heavy crunch you feel from it obviously means you broke his neck. While you were busy with two, Kelso (still unseen) has done fine work with the remaining three, his body half-transformed into something... Animalistic. With hairy, muscular arms and sharp teeth he overpowers them easily, ripping heads off at insane speeds, to the point that you're convinced that you imagined part of it. After several lightning flashes from the last one, Kelso's new body soaks up the energy from it and grabs the Zealot, throwing him to the floor. Now, all that remains are you and your mentor. You hungrily sink your teeth into a nearby combatant, reinvigorating yourself. Kelso morphs back, seeming tired, and takes a helping from one of them. After only ten seconds, he grabs you to stop with him. "That's one group down. There are three more groups to annihilate, two to the left (what used to be the middle) and the third which is standing back, way over to the left. I'll assume we're moving on to the middle?" > You skip the middle and around to the other side. "Divide and conquer, Mentor. Let's take out the smaller groups first." With Kelso in tow, you make your way around to the other side. It takes longer, and you're certain the Zealots in the middle know you're there, but if you can finish off the five then the remaining ten are just more sheep coming to the slaughter. Running, and dodging bolts of lightning from your right, you find the group from the left, dangerously close to the middle ones. In fact, it's almost like just a large group of fifteen, ready to fight you. But there is a gap, if you and Kelso can make it... The green-lightning erupting from the rifles aren't very accurate, from what you've gathered, but when shot in large numbers you admittedly weren't surprised when one slammed into your armor. It stings, but the metal absorbs most of the impact. So much, in fact, that it begins to burn and boil your skin under it. You immediately throw it off, by then close enough to the group that you won't have to worry about dodging another shot from them. While they reload, you jump at them, kicking in mid-air and ruthlessly cutting through the weak spots in their armor, near the neckline. After killing one, the other spears your back, holding it up in the air while another charges at you with his bayonet, ready to pierce... Thankfully, Kelso was fast enough to jump, twist and turn so that his feet gained momentum-- and slam his foot on the incoming soldier, sending him several meters away. Not a problem for now. But the rest of the Zealots closing in are. Using your blind-fury, you manage to make a slight somersault while your back was tusked, releasing you from it's tearing grip and causing the soldier to flip over. Even with these successes, you realize that it is no use. Lightning is shot into the back of your head, causing you to fall on the ground, your head burning but regenerating. You can't find Kelso during this, but you realize one thing; bad strategizing did this one in for you. Your flesh didn't heal itself when shot multiple times in quick succession. You have died by the hands of the Church.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You lower your voice, "I... not sure. We're in some sort of house. Lots of sand." No reply. You click it off. Kelso nods in seeming approval. "It'll do. Let's just hope they underestimate one Creation and send only a couple soldiers. They are tasked to deal with the unknown. I got lucky with 'Sebastian'; the foolish Zealot wandered out alone." --- Your mentor and youself make your way to a particularly large sand-dune near the house, watching for incoming Zealots from the city ahead. It doesn't too long-- after several minutes you begin to notice flashing armors marching in the moonlight. Your house is a surprisingly straight line to the city, and you notice some lights, formed in clusters, moving straight in your direction. Others seem to be coming in on a flank, moving to the left and right of the city before circling in, near your location. None are too close though, which gives time for Kelso to count them all. "Five groups of five in all, with the Church having only a slight notion where we are and us having the element of surprise." "You think that's good odds? From what it seems, they likely no more about what we can do then what we know they can." "Not we, you. I fought Zealots before the facility was destroyed, you know. Even if they've grown considerably, they're still the fear-mongering, symbolic fools as ever. With enough force their armor can be clawed through, only thing you have to worry about is silver and their lightning rifles." "Sounds fun." You chuckles out nervously, "Silver bullets and lightning rifles?" "Ah yes, silver is specifically harmful to us, for whatever reason. It is very pure... and the only thing that will stop us from regenerating, thankfully though, I don't think they've caught on to that just yet. The shock-troops they send in are equipped with monstrous bayonets that shoot out streams of electrons at high velocity, which are scarily painful..." He notices your frown, and smiles in return, "But it's healable. And I think we can do it." You nod, "Not if their flanks succeeds. We need to either split up and fight the ones coming on the side or take the clusters on together." "No question, we should fight together. Splitting up may make this go faster and more efficiently, but it's dangerous enough that it won't be worth it. Together, we can capture one of them as well as efficiently annihilate the groups one by one." You nod back, assured. Kelso may retain information, but he's never lied to you. You think. This brings your mind back to the incoming horde of Zealots, which are less than a mile away by now, marching tirelessly, not exactly in your direction, but close enough... "So, who do you think we should take on first?" > You zealots in the middle. You point forwards. "Let us obliterate the ten in front first, then move on to the sides. That is their main strike force, after all." Your mentor shrugs in turn. "You're the boss, kid. Just make sure we both survive, alright?" Grin. You crack your knuckles, hearing more nitrogen bubbles pop than you expected. Still, the implication that you're more than ready for battle is caught by Kelso, who laughs. "Lead on, then." As the lights on the side continue their march, you silently sneak around the dune, starting to walk towards the lights ahead. Slowly... then you break out to a run, then a sprint; you can hear Kelso on your side, like a shadow. You can't even see him, but he's there, following you. You approach the groups, them not noticing your pale body, regardless that you're wearing one of their own armors. Even from afar, you notice their elite-uniforms. Stygian black suits with flashy lining, and an illuminating cross across their collective chests. Both of the groups have an obvious leader, with a horned helmet, reminiscent of the medieval ones knights used to wear. The rest just have simplistic, though futuristic, SWAT-team helmets with visors. The easily most intriguing thing is their tusked rifles, all huge and blocky. No doubt in your mind, those are the weapons you should watch out for most. You continue your run, and you're very thankful they aren't the most perceptive bunch. Once your only 15 meters away, you hear a voice in your ear. Make the first move A nod. The moment one of them notices you moving forward, you leap at him, body-slamming him with all the momentum you've been buidling up. Even though you think they're higher-ranking than Sebastian was, your armor seems to be strong enough to send one of the flying with a clank, and falling on the ground with a thud. He twitches, but doesn't get up. By now, the nine surviving look at you. The leader eyes you from behind his helmet, "God has delivered you into our hands. All troops, move in!" You here a crackle, no doubt from a walkie-talkie... Shit. Shit. Shit. With a quick turn you swing your arm, desperate and angry. Your claws rip at his metal face, and it thankfully looks like you hurt him more than you hurt yourself. Your hand may sting and bleed from bashing metal, but the one leader staggers backward, as the rest aim their rifles at you. Suddenly, a cold wind passes, and blood squirts out from the leader's neck, his head suddenly missing. "Kelso!" Shocked, the Zealots look around, and a storm of lightning shots are fired in many different directions. Eight of the Zealots are left, but... You pushed back as one of the shots hit you, the lightning burning your skin. You feel it growing back, but you're slowed. You jump at one of the closest ones, kicking at him with your ragged sneakers, and using that as leverage to leap at another one. After the push, you can feel him keel over with a gasp, but the other one stick his rifle right into you. You gasp, your mouth watering at the bloody sight. By now, the shadow that is Kelso has taken four or five of them, but even he was skewered by the other group-leader. More anger being built inside of you, you send a wicked, blood-felt punch at the Zealot who has you on the other side of his bayonet. The punch si probably the strongest one you've dealt, sending him and his rifle out of you. More blood squirts, and some even gets into your mouth (which feels good, gives you vigor). Kelso seems to disappear, no longer on the other C.E. Soldier's rifle, and in the confusion you forget that there are at least ten more Zealots coming in from all sides... A tingling feeling is felt and you find yourself on the sandy floor, bloody and beaten. The Zealots take turns shooting at you, making sure the demon has been destroyed. Your last thought is on why Kelso abandoned you... You have been killed by the hands of the Church.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Err, uh, yeah. Let's try my other plan." Kelso laughs. "Of course." "Hey, both of my plans were better than your's." You argue, setting the dial back to where it was. Now that you think about it, you wonder why the Church never went out looking for the Zealot which your mentor killed, and you killed. Perhaps they did, just you and Kelso never noticed it. Or perhaps the Zealots often went out in long journeys without communication. No matter now, You realize, they'll pick up at the signal. Somebody will. Excitedly, you fidget for the WT, and grasp it firmly. You clear your throat to speak, but Kelso briefs you. "Remember, just put the channel on. Listen in and wait for a while, and if nothing turns up then try speaking. But only then." "Does it matter?" "It might." You cough again, then breathe in. Out. In. You put the dial back to where it was in the first place. Out. Nothing but static, for now. Minutes go by. You stand at the ready. But all is static. Ten minutes turns to half an hour, though your body doesn't stop tensing. Something is coming. > You continue waiting for them to communicate. You continue waiting. Time turns to an entire hour forward, and Kelso is getting antsy... Crackling. "Sebastian? Sebastian, where are you?" The sudden noise surprises you and you let out a sharp, "Ahh!", which makes Kelso sigh loudly. Thankfully, they can't hear you unless you press the button to speak. The voice repeats itself. You recognize it as female, cool and British. "H-hello?" "Sebastian! Thank the lord you're safe! We haven't been able to contact you for days!" "Wh-why is that?" You stutter out, trying to mimic what you remember of the Zealot's voice best you can. "GPS-tracker stopped responding a couple of days ago. I only saw this now, but that's probably why security has tightened around the City. Where are you? Are you alright?" "I, uh, yes, I am." You try to think of a way to get some soldiers here. "I found another Creation." "Another one? Like, one that isn't part of the Wolves?" Her voice sounds nice, you decide. "Yeah, different." "Have you made contact with the demon yet?" "Um, no, but I need back-up." "Wait, what happened? Are you alright?" "Of course. I just... We need to catch these guys, don't we?" She seems agitated as well as worried, "We don't tackle on Creations alone, weren't you briefed?" You try your best to pull this off, "Listen I... Just need back-up." She pauses, "Are you... Captured? Sebastian, where the hell are you!" Nailed it.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Kelso rubs at his clean chin. "Elaborate." You hold up the walky-talkie, "If they know where the Professor is, then that means they're either working for him, like you're assuming, or are just planning their vengeance; If we can get a message to them, get their attention--" "Then the C.E. Soldiers will get to us and them." "Not unless our signal is obscure, something only a Creation would know. Can I assume that we're the only one who refer to the Professor, as, well, a professor?" Your mentor smiles, "Yes... That's what the greater Creations called him. Myself, the Werewolf, Stein, and several others. We all were forced under the bastard to look over Lessers, like yourself. One of them are bound to be in this town, has the smallest C.E. division in the East. We just have to hope we'll be able to handle them in the case that they're still loyal. So you want us to send a wide broadcast, maybe even a flare labeled 'Professor', and hope we catch some of our brethren?" "That," you continue, "or we lure the church to us by contacting them with the Walkie, and just beat the information out of them. By the sounds of it, they'd be expecting a trap, so they wouldn't bring all their operatives to this location. Hopefully they have an idea where the other Creations are. It's not a perfect plan, but it's uh, better than yours. Don't think you can just nab one like you did with the last one, now that they're probably on guard." Kelso nods, considering both of your plans, "Much better. Regardless, Mr. Plans, we need to train." "Train, for what?" Crossing your arms as a child would, you question Kelso. "I feel like you're not telling me everything. Even if the plan is solid, but we need to be solid, with, umm, each-other." With a chuckle, Kelso replies, "What do you think we're doing? We're fighting against an elite military operation, as well as bio-genetically advanced Creations. We're not playing here, son, there's going to be blood. I'm pretty certain that you'll be able to be very powerful if we train accordingly. This may be surprising, but I think you should cherish your undeath while it lasts. Not to mention that I'd rather not jeopardize myself." "... So the Creations are going to be very hostile?" He shrugs in return, "Maybe, more likely than not anyhow. We're betting on whether they're still loyal or not to their Creator." "Why would they still be loyal to that... that bastard?" "Well, he did save our lives." You stand in silence with a confused frown. Kelso continues. "Mind you, he also treated us like lab rats and played with our genetic-material. That's why we're going to find him and his Creations, to put an end to it once and for all, so no one else is 'saved' by that man." You nod in understanding. Kelso and yourself... You're going to help the world together. Clean it. A hero... "The valley of dunes at night is the best place and time. We'll train today and tomorrow, and by then you should be ready. Now, more about that plan of yours..." > You use the WTs to lure a Zealot and interrogate him. You spend the next couple of nights training with your mentor. Practically having a dead body is odd, and it took you a while to get the hang of using it, but with the tutoring you've become very adept at recognizing what abilities it grants you, it's limitations, and how to channel your inner strength. Kelso has noted to you that he thinks you're ready, and you agree. Mostly. It's nerve-wrecking; at least, it should be, even though you're just excited to spread your wings (metaphorically, of course.) Overall, you feel that you're ready for this. About time too, you want to see more of the outside world, the part that isn't just dust and desert. Finding the rest of the Creations will help with that, hopefully. Your plan isn't overly elaborate, but you're certain it'll work. You pick up the walkie-talkie, and you wonder why on the other-side, why the Church hasn't tried to reach their operative. Maybe they knew he was dead, or perhaps the Zealots would routinely go on missions that took days. Who knows? No matter now, You realize, they'll pick up at the signal. Somebody will. It's night once again, the Moon is luminous and round. Kelso, is clad in your hoodie, his aged but intimidating features showing out from under it. It didn't seem like his ideal clothes (you could see him rocking a cloak) but when at night a hoodie is probably more practical. You're still garbed in the bulky, but inspiring armor of the Zealot, just with the lights on the outside turned off. You look to your Mentor, who's sitting beside you in the half-buried house. He nods. Excitedly, you fidget for the WT, and grasp it firmly. You clear your throat to speak, but Kelso briefs you. "Remember, just put the channel on. Listen in and wait for a while, and if nothing turns up then try speaking. But only then." "Does it matter?" "It might." You cough again, then breathe in. Out. In. Click Out. Nothing but static, for now. Minutes go by. You stand at the ready. But all is static. Ten minutes turns to half an hour, though your body doesn't stop tensing. Something is coming.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Kelso rubs at his clean chin. "Elaborate." You hold up the walky-talkie, "If they know where the Professor is, then that means they're either working for him, like you're assuming, or are just planning their vengeance; If we can get a message to them, get their attention--" "Then the C.E. Soldiers will get to us and them." "Not unless our signal is obscure, something only a Creation would know. Can I assume that we're the only one who refer to the Professor, as, well, a professor?" Your mentor smiles, "Yes... That's what the greater Creations called him. Myself, the Werewolf, Stein, and several others. We all were forced under the bastard to look over Lessers, like yourself. One of them are bound to be in this town, has the smallest C.E. division in the East. We just have to hope we'll be able to handle them in the case that they're still loyal. So you want us to send a wide broadcast, maybe even a flare labeled 'Professor', and hope we catch some of our brethren?" "That," you continue, "or we lure the church to us by contacting them with the Walkie, and just beat the information out of them. By the sounds of it, they'd be expecting a trap, so they wouldn't bring all their operatives to this location. Hopefully they have an idea where the other Creations are. It's not a perfect plan, but it's uh, better than yours. Don't think you can just nab one like you did with the last one, now that they're probably on guard." Kelso nods, considering both of your plans, "Much better. Regardless, Mr. Plans, we need to train." "Train, for what?" Crossing your arms as a child would, you question Kelso. "I feel like you're not telling me everything. Even if the plan is solid, but we need to be solid, with, umm, each-other." With a chuckle, Kelso replies, "What do you think we're doing? We're fighting against an elite military operation, as well as bio-genetically advanced Creations. We're not playing here, son, there's going to be blood. I'm pretty certain that you'll be able to be very powerful if we train accordingly. This may be surprising, but I think you should cherish your undeath while it lasts. Not to mention that I'd rather not jeopardize myself." "... So the Creations are going to be very hostile?" He shrugs in return, "Maybe, more likely than not anyhow. We're betting on whether they're still loyal or not to their Creator." "Why would they still be loyal to that... that bastard?" "Well, he did save our lives." You stand in silence with a confused frown. Kelso continues. "Mind you, he also treated us like lab rats and played with our genetic-material. That's why we're going to find him and his Creations, to put an end to it once and for all, so no one else is 'saved' by that man." You nod in understanding. Kelso and yourself... You're going to help the world together. Clean it. A hero... "The valley of dunes at night is the best place and time. We'll train today and tomorrow, and by then you should be ready. Now, more about that plan of yours..." > You bestial Training With Kelso (Optional read) Hit hard and fast. Only then will you be able to puncture the stone. Ugh. I'm trying! Not hard enough! I know what you're capable of so this game won't work with me. Let's try again; watch me closely this time. From what you're able to tell, your mentor is just throwing his arm at the boulder with as much brute force as he could muster, causing a large splintering in it's the middle of it, with his hand now stuck inside the middle. He withdraws it, and you notice the horrible scrapes on his forearms soon heal. Notice how I hit it? Looks to me like you just attacked it with all your might and nothing else. But I don't think that's the way it's supposed to go... Whatever do you mean? Embrace the beast, boy. Our primal natures are what make us human. Savor that. It may seem unrefined, but you have power-- I know you do, power that can only be unleashed by your raw spirit. Now attack it again, unrestrained! I... Isn't this supposed to be where you tell me I'm supposed to find inner harmony before I can unlock all of my abilities? He squints at you, probably struggling to notice your humor. Kelso simply sighs, waiting for you to comply. Right... just ust need to find out how to stop restraining myself. It isn't a conscious thought process... I think? "Who or what do you hate more than anything?" "Uh..." Who, the Professor? Maybe? With blunt force to your head, you find yourself toppling over. "Get up!" Your mentor roars angrily. You groan, getting up slowly, allowing your body to heal itself, right before Kelso kicks at you again. "What the hell?" As if disregarding your cries for him to stop, he continues beating on you, up until the point you raggedly throw him off of yourself. Now that you're up, Kelso stares at you right in the eye, jumps in your direction, clawed hands out... And you move out of the way, just in time to land a solid, unrefined kick at him. He tumbles, though with an uncanny dexterity pops back up. You rush at him, with a hand held high ready to strike, and at the last moment he drops to the sand-covered ground and lets your hand land into the rock. Unfortunately, the tree remains intact and your hand has become horribly misshapen (though that'll no doubt heal soon), on the good side, however, the thick pillar has an obvious dent in addition to a new, more crooked position, leaning backwards from the force of your punch. Surprised by your success, you laugh even when Kelso trips you from the bottom. "Now we're getting somewhere."<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Kelso rubs at his clean chin. "Elaborate." You hold up the walky-talkie, "If they know where the Professor is, then that means they're either working for him, like you're assuming, or are just planning their vengeance; If we can get a message to them, get their attention--" "Then the C.E. Soldiers will get to us and them." "Not unless our signal is obscure, something only a Creation would know. Can I assume that we're the only one who refer to the Professor, as, well, a professor?" Your mentor smiles, "Yes... That's what the greater Creations called him. Myself, the Werewolf, Stein, and several others. We all were forced under the bastard to look over Lessers, like yourself. One of them are bound to be in this town, has the smallest C.E. division in the East. We just have to hope we'll be able to handle them in the case that they're still loyal. So you want us to send a wide broadcast, maybe even a flare labeled 'Professor', and hope we catch some of our brethren?" "That," you continue, "or we lure the church to us by contacting them with the Walkie, and just beat the information out of them. By the sounds of it, they'd be expecting a trap, so they wouldn't bring all their operatives to this location. Hopefully they have an idea where the other Creations are. It's not a perfect plan, but it's uh, better than yours. Don't think you can just nab one like you did with the last one, now that they're probably on guard." Kelso nods, considering both of your plans, "Much better. Regardless, Mr. Plans, we need to train." "Train, for what?" Crossing your arms as a child would, you question Kelso. "I feel like you're not telling me everything. Even if the plan is solid, but we need to be solid, with, umm, each-other." With a chuckle, Kelso replies, "What do you think we're doing? We're fighting against an elite military operation, as well as bio-genetically advanced Creations. We're not playing here, son, there's going to be blood. I'm pretty certain that you'll be able to be very powerful if we train accordingly. This may be surprising, but I think you should cherish your undeath while it lasts. Not to mention that I'd rather not jeopardize myself." "... So the Creations are going to be very hostile?" He shrugs in return, "Maybe, more likely than not anyhow. We're betting on whether they're still loyal or not to their Creator." "Why would they still be loyal to that... that bastard?" "Well, he did save our lives." You stand in silence with a confused frown. Kelso continues. "Mind you, he also treated us like lab rats and played with our genetic-material. That's why we're going to find him and his Creations, to put an end to it once and for all, so no one else is 'saved' by that man." You nod in understanding. Kelso and yourself... You're going to help the world together. Clean it. A hero... "The valley of dunes at night is the best place and time. We'll train today and tomorrow, and by then you should be ready. Now, more about that plan of yours..." > You refinement Training With Kelso (Optional read) It must be twilight by now... It's dark in the collection of sand-dunes, with several pillars of stone in the area, but the nearly full moon help your eyes adapt to the situation. You sit beside Kelso in a lotus position, waiting eagerly to here what he wants to say. While we may need to recognize our inner animal in order to fight, we need to also need to see what we actually are. Our limitations, our skills, both inherent and learnt. Okay. So, what are your main assets? My claws and fangs? Perhaps. What about your regeneration capabilities? Oh, uh, right. This is for you, not for me, kid. Use your newfound abilities wisely, and avoid situations where certain things won't help. Like, my regeneration won't save me after my head is blown off, right? Err, yes. But it will regenerate most limbs back, provided they hadn't been burnt to a stub. The body is interesting like that. So basically I should stay away from explosions. Indeed. We should tread carefully whenever dealing with the C.E. They no doubt have heavy-weaponry. But you should find out more about your abilities as time progresses, fairly certain your new genes are still stretching. I'm not really sure what that means... Neither do I, haha!<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Before you looms an enormous landscape, with a giant lake, a huge forest, and beyond that, an enormous mountain range. You gaze into the distance, uncertain, yet unafraid. After all, you have just escaped from the dreaded subterranean prisons of Tyrannica. However, the journey back to your beloved country will be long and arduous. You lost all your weapons in the dungeon, and now you have nothing but the clothes on your back. You will have to spend many days on foot. In addition, the land ahead is full of terrfiying, mysterious creatures. You've heard of many travellers who went through these lands and never came out. Still, the journey must be made. You must return to your country, where your friends and family live. And you must live to fight another day; so that you can topple the despotic ruler of Tyrannica and free his slaves. The sun is now high in the sky, and it's very hot. This may not be the best time for walking. > You start the journey now You start walking off in the direction of your country. You can't yet see it, but you know it isbehind those mountains. You've heard of many nasty creatures that live on the mountain, but perhaps the worst is the horned wolf. These predators travel in packs, and are completely fearless; not only will they try to attack and eat anything, but they are especially fond of attacking and eating unfamiliar things... WHAM! Suddenly, you trip and fall over. You were so deep in thought, that you didn't notice the large stick in your path until you fell over it. Hmmm... pretty nice stick. Long, thick and powerful. It would make a great club.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Chapter 1: Born to Kill Year 0 “Is this the one?” “Yeah I guess.” “What do you mean you guess? It either is or it isn’t.” “I dunno I lost the list.” “You what? That’s just great. You realize how much we’re going to get our asses chewed out because of your fuck up? I’m sick of paying for your mistakes.” “Will you calm down? How the hell are they gonna know anyway? You seen one ugly little baldy, you’ve seen ‘em all. All babies look the same.” “Not the elven ones.” “Enough with your elf fetish. These babies are all under the care of the Empire anyway, they’re here for the taking. “Yeah, the key word being the Empire. You know we need the proper paper work, which you just fucking lost!” “So what, I can forge it. You really worry too much, there’s so much red tape they ain’t gonna know the difference and what does it matter? The Empire’s getting a body for their purposes anyway.” “Yeah, but you know how they like the best.” ”How the fuck can they really tell at this age? They do all the real testing later. Look he’s got all his limbs, and he doesn’t display any signs of impurity. I’d say he’s a prime candidate for whatever they have in store for this poor little bastard.” “Yeah I guess…damn. I can’t imagine what it’s like being brought up like that.” “Me either, this program has only been going on a few years, but I’ve already heard some fucked up stories about it…y’know its things like this that sometimes make me question the logic of our glorious leaders.” “Shhhh! Are you mad? Don’t talk like that! It’s not our place to question anything, we’re just supposed to do our jobs! Besides, the logic is quite obvious. If they train people from birth they’ll have superior combat skills and utter loyalty to the Empire.” “That’s my point though. Is it really necessary? The Empire already produces so much propaganda that it does the job pretty well in producing loyal citizens and if that doesn’t work it also instills so much fear in most that even if someone wanted to start a rebellion; it’s highly unlikely they would.” “Don’t be so sure, it has happened in the past.” “The past? When? Like four hundred years ago when the Empire was still in its own infancy? Pfft. Wouldn’t happen anymore and as for having elite combat troops, again what’s the point? We’ve already got camps to train elite groups like the Shadow Guard who are not to be fucked with and we have more than enough resources to create an army of golems that would be just as loyal and kick the shit out of our enemies.” “Look, I don’t want to talk about this anymore! Our superiors have their reasons, as does the Emperor! Let us just take this baby and be done with this task!” The two clerks left the infirmary with you that day where upon you were accepted as a suitable candidate and put into The Eternal Program. You don’t remember too much during the time of your very young years, except that you are mostly confined to a room where all your basic needs are met. On a daily basis, a couple bigger people come in to check on you. They have you perform various physical tasks as well as spending time to teach you things like basic reading and writing. Sometimes they ask you various questions and write down your responses while other times they come in and stab you with painful needles with fluid in them. (You don’t like those times) You don’t really understand it all, except that you know that the Emperor is always watching you. He is everywhere even if you don’t see him. He is keeping an eye on your actions and you must always obey his will, lest you be punished. You know this to be true because you have this repeatedly told to you. Eventually your relative isolation would come to an end. > Years later... Year 5 You are sitting in a gray room at a desk with several other children your age. All of you glance at each other a lot and it is obvious that there is much curiosity, but nobody speaks. This is very unusual for you, up until now, you have only had minimal contact with others. Most of them are male like you, but a few of them are female. Soon the silence comes to an end when a dark skinned woman walks into the room. She has long hair and sharp features. One thing you notice is that despite her long hair covering her ears you can still see that the tips of them are pointed. She must be elven, but in the pictures you’ve seen in books, you’ve never seen one with dark skin before. “Hello children, and congratulations on maintaining dignified silence during your time by yourselves. It’s nice to see that your previous human minders aren’t totally incompetent. Still, if you were Svelk children you would’ve been much better trained by now. Ah, but it is not my place to dwell on the limitations of the lesser born. I am merely here to oversee your training into proper Eternals so that you may serve the Emperor to your fullest capabilities. Now before we begin, I suggest you all ask questions now, because this will probably be the only time I will be in the mood for your ignorance.” For a moment nobody speaks, but when the elven lady insists, one brave soul raises their hand. “Yes, you.” “Are you an elf?” “Yes, I am. While the ignorant would use the vulgar term dark elf to describe me, my kind are more properly known as the Svelk. In fact WE are the purest of the elven race. All others you may have the misfortune of meeting are merely diluted members of our bloodline. They are truly pitiful creatures really only fit for extermination. Remember this.” “Yes, you.” “What is your name?” “My name is unimportant, but you and the rest will always address me as Mistress. Failure to do so will earn my wrath, and more importantly the wrath of the Emperor. Remember this.” “Yes, you.” “What will you teach us?” A second passes after the question, when a small bolt of light from the Svelk’s finger tips and hits the child in the chest asking the question. He falls backwards out of his chair and on to the floor. The rest of you jump in your own chairs and look back at him. He is breathing very erratically. “I will teach you to OBEY my commands when I give them!” Mistress shouts, she then warns the rest of you. “Don’t you dare touch him, let alone help him! (Sigh) And here I thought you lot had been trained better! It occurs to me that I will have to be extra strict in my discipline. As to the question about what I will teach you… I will teach you to be warriors. I will teach you to be wizards if you display the talent. I will teach you to shed yourselves of weakness. I will teach you to serve the Emperor without question and kill without mercy and you will always obey for you will find strength in obedience. You will find joy in order. You will find love in murder. You shall be instruments of terror and genocide if he so wishes it. You will be Eternals…or you will die. Remember this.” After Mistress’ speech, the child she struck down eventually struggles back up and gets back in his seat, clutching his chest and still wheezing. “I trust you have learned your lesson?” “Y…yes…Mistress…” he gasps. “Good, now one more question before we begin…you there. What is your question? Speak up!” Mistress demands while pointing at you, though you have not raised your hand. You don’t wish to disagree with Mistress, so you stumble and try to think up a question. “Uh…er…I was just wondering when will you teach us to fight Mistress?” Mistress raises an eyebrow and gives a smirk as she approaches you. “Fight? And what makes you think that YOU are even ready to learn yet? Do you have even the slightest knowledge of combat tactics?” “No, Mis…” before you can even complete the sentence Mistress knocks you out of your chair with a quick jab with her hand, the pain from your face spreads to your chest when Mistress steps on it with her boot. She digs it into you and presses all her weight on it, while the rest of your class looks on. “Damn right, no you don’t. You weren’t even alert enough to anticipate my attack. You let me get in close and now look at you, you’re completely at my mercy. I am in a position to do whatever I like with you, while you are only in a position to beg or die. So what will it be worm? Are you going to beg for your miserable life, or should I save the Empire’s time and money by killing you now?” > You beg The pain is great and you want it to be over with as quickly as possible so you cry out and scream for mercy to Mistress. To this, she merely laughs cruelly and continues to step on your chest. “Ha ha ha ha! If this was a real fight do you think an enemy would should you mercy? You truly are pathetic, how did the Empire ever decide that YOU would be a worthy candidate to be an Eternal? Begging for your wretched life as if it was important. It isn’t. Your life is nothing! ALL of your lives are nothing! Your lives will never be anything more than warm bodies to serve the Emperor! The question is, will you even be able to live up to that honored status? The answer is no, if you do not learn mercy is for the weak. Remember this.” At this point Mistress finally takes her foot off of you and much like your other classmate hit by her magic bolt, you slowly get up and back in your seat, clutching your chest. You sniffle and try to keep yourself from crying, but the tears are still there. A glare from Mistress causes you to quickly wipe your eyes and try to compose yourself the best you can. Time passes by under the harsh guidance of Mistress. She teaches you all that she promised she would and then some. Your lessons are not only that of a combat nature, but of an academic one as well. You wouldn’t be aware of it, but you and your classmates are probably much better educated than other children your age. As for you, Mistress never lets you forget of how you begged for your life in front of everyone. While it is true that she sadistically taunts everyone at one time or another, it doesn’t make your emotional and psychological scars go away. This shame you experience causes you to become more insecure and you constantly feel the need to prove to everyone that you aren’t weak. When you are called upon to spar with your fellow classmates, you always fight aggressively. For the most part you usually win, and you typically break a few bones of some of your fellow classmates. The lessons of being humiliated by Mistress have not been forgotten. You can’t ever let yourself be put in a vulnerable position again and you must be brutal, it’s the only way you’ll be able to please the Emperor. Your personality doesn’t go unnoticed by your instructor and watchers, they make note of it and decide how you should be handled in the next step of your training. Year 12 You are in a room with a few of your fellow classmates standing in a row. Most of your class has been separated for reasons unknown to you. All you know right now is there is a scarred orc in worn battle armor arguing with a well dressed man who is human. They are speaking about you, but not actually speaking TO you… “What? I thought the whole point of this program was to create an elite fighting group like the Shadow Guard, why are you splitting them up and intending to put some of them in regular military units?” the orc questions. “Things have changed since the program’s inception. Besides, if the latest military reports are any indication I’d say you could use a better quality of recruits, or at least I hope that’s the problem and it isn’t due to a lack of proper training.” the man dressed in black formal wear calmly retorts. “Hey! I train every grunt I get to be the best killer they can be! I’ve conquered more territory for the Empire than anyone! My record speaks for itself and I could do a hell of a lot more if you put me on the front lines again, so don’t try to tell me I’m not doing my fucking job!” “Be that as it may, I’d say you still could benefit by having a few Eternals in your ranks, if nothing else than to be a good example.” “Good example? HAH! We haven’t even seen one of these so-called Eternals in action yet! It’s all been just speculation, and a waste of time and money if you ask me! The Empire should be providing better equipment and more of it, for soldiers on the Rask Frontier, it’s a fucking meat grinder out there and we’re constantly having to put down rebellions by the natives.” “Well nobody ASKED you, captain and your problems are not mine to deal with. This is the Emperor’s project and he has his reasons. If I were you I’d watch your tone. Victories or not, you are a servant of the Emperor and you will obey orders or you will be replaced.” The orc captain steps back from the well dressed man then he takes a deep breath, before speaking. “You are lucky that I do serve the Emperor, for that is the only thing keeping me from ripping out your throat, human…very well I shall take these so called Eternal whelps, but let it be known that I shall be testing them to the limit and then some. If they fail, they shall die like anyone else unable to keep up.” “As you wish commander, I leave it in your capable hands. You will keep me apprised of their progress on a weekly basis. Good day.” The well dressed man says and leaves the room, leaving you all alone with the orc commander. You’ve never seen a real orc in person before, but he looks every bit as intimidating from what you’ve read about them, even if he is much more articulate than you expected. He walks up and down the row sizing you all up before speaking. “I am Captain Gruz, and I will be in charge of the rest of your training until the Emperor deems otherwise. I imagine that your former instructor was that dark elven bitch, so I trust you all know by now that failure and weakness have no place here. Correct?” “Yes Captain!” you all shout in unison. “Heh, well glad to see her skills in teaching discipline are still as effective as ever. Good. Now let’s see how good your combat skills are…” At this point you and your fellow classmates instinctively start to pair up to spar with each other, but Gruz stops you. “What are you lot doing? I didn’t tell you to get out of formation!” “But captain, you said to prove our combat skills.” One boy speaks up. “I…oh wait I see. She had you fighting each other. Typical dark elven training. Create mistrust and loathing even when there is no need for it. (Sigh) I can see I’m going to have to undo some of the shit she instilled in you if I’m going to mold you into the proper killing tools.” Time goes by and Captain Gruz begins to train you in various forms of combat, though it’s different. He teaches you and your classmates to fight as a team. This usually involves various large beasts similar to what you have already fought or even small groups of goblinoids. It takes awhile for you to adapt, but after seeing the first couple of casualties, you and the rest manage to pull together to defeat your enemies. Academically speaking, you are not taught much. Captain Gruz figures that Mistress taught you enough math and literacy to get by in life. Besides not much need for all that fancy learnin’ stuff when you’re going to be chopping people’s heads off on the battlefield. Captain Gruz is just as uncompromising as Mistress in his training, but he seems less gleeful about it. His verbal abuse is more direct and to the point rather than gloating about your failures. He still reminds you all regularly about how it is your sworn duty to serve the Emperor, but you hardly need him to tell you that, to believe otherwise is unthinkable. As for you, you find yourself given a role of leadership. Captain Gruz noted your tendency to be one of the first to charge into battle. He however also has some advice for you. “I respect your desire for battle, but if you do not control your insecurities you will one day find yourself needlessly unprepared. I suspect that dark elven bitch did something humiliating to you that has resulted in your behavior. Effective in some ways I suppose, but if you truly want to be a leader of men and command respect, you need to master your emotions as you would your weapons. You must do away with insecurities and be fully confident in your abilities. You must walk into battle already KNOWING that you will win, not charging in with a chip on your shoulder with some misguided desire to prove yourself. That’s a quick way to get yourself killed. Contrary to popular belief, your goal is NOT to die for the Emperor. Your goal is to survive and make the other dumb bastards die so that you may continue to serve the Emperor. Think on this when you lead your fellows into your next training assignment.” The captain’s words carry much weight with you and in the years during your training you manage to purge most of your doubts about yourself as well as becoming an accomplished warrior. Your instructor and watchers once again note your growth and skills, and as usual they make decisions on how you will best serve the Emperor. > Year 16 You are called into Captain Gruz’s office, when you arrive you see the well dress man that you saw four years ago standing with him… and debating with him again. “I’m telling you Mr. Mol, I think they should work in the same unit. They’ve trained together and they’ve worked together so well at this point that splitting them up would be folly. Hell, these people have known each other since birth! You know that better than anyone!” Gruz says. “Yes, captain I’m well aware of the situation, and normally I might agree if their were more of them, but I think their expertise would better serve if we deployed them separately in problem areas of the Empire.” Mr. Mol replies. “You don’t break up a well oiled machine! I guarantee having them all in the same unit will be a better idea. I mean we still haven’t sent them into a real battle yet! Wouldn’t it be better to see if they can get the job done first before placing them in charge of others?” “And what a perfect opportunity to lose them all, if something unexpected should happen.” “Oh for…look that could’ve happened here! And if you’re so worried about them all getting killed in battle then what was the fucking point then? Besides, if they do prove to be useless in battle, better we find that out sooner rather than later when they’re in charge of others and getting them killed as well!” Mr. Mol thinks for a moment and then replies. “Hmmm, very well you do have a point captain. We’ll try it your way at first and go from there. Have them deployed in the Nalin province. Your services here have been useful as ever. Good day.” Mr. Mol, steps out and commander Gruz addresses you. “Well you heard all that, you and your fellow Eternal babies are being sent to the Nalin province. It’s not the Rask Frontier, but it’s a suitable first challenge for you guys. We’ve been trying to settle the conquest of that place for a few years now, and technically it is part of the Empire, but we’re still having problems with the Kobold population there. Little bastards are determined to resist and have been conducting a fairly effective guerilla war since we arrived. Though I blame that more on the incompetence of the commander in that region. If I was stationed there, this shit would’ve been taken care of a long time ago…but I’m not, so unfortunately you will have to report to Captain Pollo.” Captain Gruz approaches you closer before continuing. “Now I’m putting you in charge of your unit for reasons I’m sure you’re aware of. While I’m confident I’ve made the right choice, the burden will ultimately be on you to prove to be an effective leader. Remember, you’re not just a normal soldier, you’re supposed to be an Eternal. An instrument of destruction ordered by the Emperor himself. Failure is never an option for you. Even now there are rumors about your kind, and when you finally show yourselves you will be met by fear, awe, hatred and even distain. Prove yourselves and you will live up to the name that your were given. Anyway, the caravan picking you up will arrive tomorrow. Good luck and dismissed.” With this you leave and tell the rest of your people about where you’re going and the general nature of what to expect. They all seem pretty excited to prove themselves, and to be honest so are you. At last you will get the chance to prove yourself and can only imagine that the Emperor will be pleased by what he will see. The next day, you and your unit are picked up and the ride there is uneventful, but your unit spends a little time talking about things they see on the way. This is the first time all of you have probably been away from the training center you’ve spent all your lives in. Curiosity about some of the surroundings is natural, but it isn’t just the casual talk that’s different. Your comrades are different. They are less reserved than they once were. Captain Gruz might’ve been a strict instructor, but in addition to encouraging teamwork he was also prone to encourage you guys to have a few hours of free time. This loosening of the reigns a bit, allowed a certain amount of familiarity with each other that wasn’t just on a professional level anymore. Even you have felt yourself changing personality wise. Still you are all Eternals, and you are loyal to the Emperor. You will never forget that your duty comes first. Eventually you all arrive at Fort Glory in the Nalin province where you are stared at by several soldiers who whisper among themselves. None of you pay it any mind though, you simply report to Captain Pollo. He doesn’t look anything like Captain Gruz. He’s human for one thing and wears lighter armor which is impeccably clean. When he sees you, he almost looks bored, like you were interrupting him, but you when you came in he was reclined in his chair and not doing anything of importance. “So…you are the Eternals I’ve heard so much about. Humph. I don’t see anything special except that pretty one over there. Oh no, not you dear. That blonde muscular one in the back. Yes, delicious.” Captain Pollo says pointing to one of your men and not even getting out of his chair. “Captain Pollo, we are here for our assignments so that we may serve the Emperor.” You say. “(Sigh) I suppose you are this unit’s leader?” “ Yes, captain. I am currently their leader and holding the rank of sergeant due to my excellence in my training exercises.” “Sergeant? YOU? Why you’re a mere boy! All of you are just children! I ask them for more men and they send me children! The only thing you all would be good for is cleaning the fort! In fact that’s what you can go do right now, starting with the toilets!” This is exactly what Captain Gruz said would happen. This is your first test. “Captain, we have been trained in several forms of combat and fully ready to fight. Send us into battle and we will prove ourselves. We are here to perform our duty for the Emperor and all that entails.” “All that entails eh? Okay, you want a fight? A few miles east of here, you’ll find a town called Dalt. Its filled with ignorant peasants that constantly whine to us that there are a nest of kobolds lurking in the hills near them. We’re stretched out as it is and can’t spare anymore troops to waste on towns that are of no military importance in the grand scheme of things. Go there and take care of their problem, then maybe we’ll have more to talk about.” You nod and all of you leave, but before you are able to Pollo calls you back. “Oh one more thing sergeant. Order one of your men to stay here with me. I think you know by now which one I mean.” At this point you’re in genuine shock. You may be young, and even a little detached from normal ‘society” but you know exactly what Captain Pollo is implying. You can honestly feel more than surprised by this though. “Captain, I will need all of my team to have the best chance to succeed in this mission.” You say. “Oh? Well sorry, but you’ll have to make do like everyone else here does. Or you could clean the fort like I first ordered you to do, which you chose to ignore.” It’s a no win situation, though you try to figure out a loophole that takes the responsibility off of you. “Captain, you are of a higher rank than me, surely you could just order him yourself.” “Ha ha, nice try. No. You want to be a leader of men? You need to make this decision yourself. Tis quite easy I would think. Sacrifice one for the good of the rest. If anything I’d say he’s the lucky one. He gets to stay here enjoying the pleasures of the flesh, and won’t have to be mucking about with kobolds and dealing with idiotic peasants.” > You leave him behind Unfortunately Pollo is right, the only decision that makes sense is to leave Gerald behind. Still, you aren’t fond of the idea though not necessarily for the moral reasons that most would be. This is an unproductive use of your team’s talents and pointless in the scheme of things. You can’t believe the Empire would allow such a petty man to be in charge of the safety of a province and why isn’t the Emperor aware of such inefficiency? “Very well.” “I knew you’d see things my way. Have fun playing with the kobolds. You’re dismissed.” You leave Pollo’s office where your team is still waiting for you. “Gerald, I regret that you will not be coming with us on this mission. The Captain wants you to stay with him.” You say. “What?! But I’m ready to fight!” he protests. “There will be other missions, I promise you. We will prove ourselves so well on this one, that they will have no choice but to send us out on a regular basis. However, your orders are clear in this matter, you are to remain here with Captain Pollo.” “B…yes sir.” Just before Gerald goes into the captain’s office, you whisper into his ear. “Accidents happen.” He’s a little puzzled by this comment, but you and the rest of your team proceed to your assignment and nobody says anything more about it. When you finally get to the town, it’s a sorry sight. A lot of the buildings are damaged and the streets are filled with debris. There are a few people attempting to clean up the place, but it’s clear that they’re all very demoralized. ‘Oh, I see the Empire has finally decided to help us; well you’re too late! The kobolds raided this town last night and as you can see completely trashed the place!” says a disheveled man. “The Empire has many places it has to protect citizen. It is regrettable that your town was attacked, but we are here now to eliminate the problem.” “You’re here now? Where the fuck were you last night when my wife was killed by those ugly little bastards?” the man says getting in your face. “Calm yourself citizen, this will not help your situation.” “My situation? I just said my wife is fucking DEAD! I don’t give a shit about my situation anymore you fucking Empire dickhead! Fuck you and your fucking Emperor!” It is at this point the man unwisely pushes your chest with his hand and you instantly grab it and break his whole arm. He predictably crumples in excruciating pain, screaming as the bone juts out of the skin and blood runs out of his body into the mud. All the other towns people who have seen this back off or hide, as they are rightfully worried about what you’re going to do next. “Now listen up citizens of Dalt! I understand that you’ve all been through a lot, but that is not a reason to give in to insolence! You are all Empire subjects and you will show proper respect or what’s left of this town will suffer in such a manner that you’ll think what the kobolds did was a birthday party.” The man whose arm you broke begins to scream more obscenities at you in between his regular howls of pain. You look at Kane and nod. Kane finishes the man off by quickly decapitating him. You take his head and throw it before one of the crowd of peasants who look on in horror. “Remember this.” You say. You remain in the town of Dalt for the night and get rooms from an overly cooperative innkeeper. He also tells you a little information about the kobolds such what direction they came from, what sort of equipment they were using and how many there were during the attack. Before getting some rest you spend a little of the time discussing strategy with your team. You all don’t show it too much, but you are all a little excited about tomorrow. The next day you set off towards the wooded hills, it doesn’t take long before you see a kobold patrol wandering around. They look exactly like how you’ve seen them in books, sort of like scaly goblins, but from what you’ve heard, a lot more cunning. Your team attempts to be stealthy, but perhaps it’s due to the excitement of this first “real” battle. Edgar isn’t as silent as he should be and clumsily steps on a few twigs alerting the patrols. The kobold patrol sees all of you, yell excitedly in their language and run away. Edgar is about to chase them, but you knock him to the ground. “What the hell?” he says wondering why you stopped him. “Trap, Edgar. Look.” You say and point to a tripwire that would’ve triggered a spiked log that he almost stepped on. “Oh.” He says. “You were trained better than that Edgar and we went over this last night! This area is probably going to be filled with traps. Now come on, we don’t have the luxury of a surprise attack any more.” The remainder of this attack is a tedious exercise in cautiousness broken up by quick battles. The kobolds really have set up traps everywhere and take full advantage of your team’s slow movement to launch periodic ambushes themselves. Fortunately they are very poor warriors even in large numbers and you easily dispatch them. All your fighting eventually leads to a cave, which you sort of figured it would. You warn your team that this place is probably going to be a maze and heavily trapped as well. “Should we split up so we can cover more ground?” Brenda asks. “No, we’re going to be neck deep in them when we go into that cave. They may be poor warriors, but even enough of them could overwhelm one or two of us. If we stick together we’ll be fine. Besides, we’re going to be here awhile anyway.” There “awhile” isn’t an exaggeration. You spend the remainder of the day and night killing kobolds. Your team seems to enjoy it, but you eventually start to get bored of the monotony. You don’t even bat an eye when you come across what seems to be a breeding chamber and you exterminate all the female kobolds and their young. Eventually you reach a large cave clearing where you meet the leader. “Sssss! Defilersss! Murderersss!” a slightly larger kobold hisses at you from some sort of primitive throne and then orders his guards to attack. It’s rather pathetic, as they fare no better than the rest. A few quick sword and axe blows and this kobold chieftain is alone. While the rest of your team is eager to kill him like the rest, you have a slightly better idea for him. You engage him in singles combat, which is over pretty quickly. You then subdue him with some rope you have in your pack. “Why are we taking him as prisoner? We’re Eternals! We don’t take prisoners!” Edgar shouts. “Yeah, we also aren’t supposed to miss obviously placed traps either, so there’s a first time for everything. Besides I’ve got a good idea for this one.” You drag the kobold leader back to town who curses you the whole time in a mixture of his language and yours. When you arrive it is now dawn and the townspeople are surprised to see you back, let alone with a kobold in tow. You tie the kobold leader to a tree near the center of the town and address everyone. “Citizens of Dalt! The kobold nest has been completely destroyed. This…thing was the leader of this particular nest and most likely orchestrated the raid; do with him as you will. There of course are other kobold nests in this province, but the Eternals will be taking care of this long overdue problem. All the Empire needs in this matter is your continued obedience and loyalty.” After giving this speech you and your team take your leave and hear the screams of the kobold leader as the villagers torture and rip him apart. When you arrive back at Fort Glory, other soldiers are surprised to see all of you back alive. It was assumed that at best, half of you would be dead. There is a possible thought of whether you actually succeeded and didn’t just come back in failure, but given that Kane took it upon himself to take “trophies” his gruesome necklace of kobold ears makes it pretty clear that the job was done. When you report however, it seems the fort has undergone a change in leadership “I’m Lieutenant Anu and now in charge of Fort Glory until further notice. First things first, did you accomplish your mission? “Mission accomplished, we killed them all lieutenant. All of their warriors, all of their women, all of their babies, pets, their leader, all of them.” “Well always helps to be sure. Which brings me to the next point. Your man Gerald is currently in the stockade. In fact he may be facing execution.” “Might I inquire why, sir?” “I’d say you’d probably know as much about it as I do, but if I had to guess? Captain pervert put the moves on him and your man took exception to it and killed him. He claims it was an accident, but there’s no way the captain twisted his own head ALL THE WAY AROUND just by tripping and falling over.” “If Gerald says it was an accident, then I believe him sir.” “Okay look, I’m not going to sit here and say that the captain wasn’t complete scum. I should know I had to serve along side him for the past five years. I saw how he’d have teenage boys brought to his office. Now I know you guys are these Eternals that we’ve all heard about, but dammit man, we can’t just have murders within the ranks, we have to respect some sort of order here!” “We’re all about respecting order sir…I suppose if it is absolutely necessary to execute Gerald, then that will be regrettable. I would however say that Gerald’s actions actually contributed to more order here and will better for the Empire in general.” “How so?” “The removal of captain Pollo, has allowed you to move up in rank and judging by your feelings on this matter you are a person who respects military decorum. I have no doubt, the fort will be run more efficiently now.” Lieutenant Anu chuckles a bit. “I’d almost think you were trying to butter me up to save your guy, but I already know you genuinely believe what you’re saying and you’re right anyway. (Sigh) Well…I suppose accidents do happen. Nobody here is going to miss Pollo, so I’ll have Gerald released and write up a report.” “Sir, can I make a request?” “Don’t you think you’re pushing your luck?” “Not my intention sir, but I was going to ask if there’s anything my group could do here that’s a little more challenging than killing kobolds?” “Hmm, yes I imagine you would feel that way...well on the furthest southern edge of the province there have been bands of nomadic raiders and there have been rumors of them organizing under some sort of shaman. Dunno if it’s true or not. Of course we could also transfer you someplace where the battle is a little more suited to your violence level.” > You request transfer You don’t see much point in staying in this place anymore, you would most likely serve the Empire better elsewhere. Captain Anu grants the request, though he mentions he knows that a Mr. Mol is taking interest in your progress here, so it’ll have to go through him first. A couple days pass and it is all straightened out. Mr. Mol approves, but he goes with his original plan of separating you all. Brenda and Gerald remain in the Nalin province, Roldan and Warrick go to the Felkan border. You, Kane and Edgar all wind up at the Rask frontier, specifically Fort Defiance. The split is a little odd for all of you, considering you’ve all been together so long. You say your goodbyes to Brenda and Gerald first when the caravan comes for you. Next you say your goodbyes to Warrick and Roldan when they make their stop. The remainder of the trip is in relative silence, though sometimes Edgar remarks about how he can’t wait to display his true combat skills against better challenges. Eventually you arrive at the Rask frontier and make your stop at Fort Defiance. You haven’t gotten off the caravan five minutes when a man wearing battle armor approaches you. “Hey are you the Eternals?” “Yes we are.” “I’m Captain Ian, I’ve heard about you and while you don’t look like much, we’ll take anyone at this point. Though I would’ve preferred more battle mages or even orcs at this point. Captain Ian begins to give you a run down on the entire area. He mentions that the mortality rate here is high so morale isn’t the best. He goes on to mention that Shadow Guard detachments have been assigned here to help out, but between the ogres and the giants there’s only so much that even they can do. He mentions since you three have already worked together he’s just going to leave you together, but will be assigning you to a new unit where you will have others to command as well. With the caravan leaving, the three of you head to your new unit. When you see them, quite a few of them are predictably much older than you, but surprisingly you see that half of them are around your age. “So, you’re those Eternals huh?” one the older soldiers says almost dismissively. “Yes? Did you need something corporal?” you say sensing the hostility. “Nothing, sergeant. I just wondered if you were.” He says backing down from confrontation. The three of you settle in as you begin your assignment at Fort Defiance. Year 18 “Kane watch out!” you shout as the wind whips around you and the snowfall nearly blinds your vision. You can just make out the figure, which you know to be Kane roll out of the way of a club strike from an ogre attempting to attack him from behind. You look around and see the bloody dead bodies of several members of your team and the ogres that ambushed you. You knew that patrolling the Kragen Pass during a blizzard was a stupid idea, but Captain Ian insisted that you had to go and do it. It’s no wonder progress hasn’t been made up here with the captain making inept decisions at every turn. He’s not like Captain Pollo, but he’s not much better. You are starting to seriously wonder about how the Empire keeps allowing such incompetence to pass through. You run as fast as you can in the snow to help Kane battle the last two ogres. You cleave at the legs of one of the large monsters causing him to fall into the snow then finish him off with another strike through his head. Kane dispatches his own ogre opponent and the battle is finally over. “Looks like we’re the only two left again.” Kane says. “Yeah, I’m getting used to that scenario. Come on, let’s head back. This blizzard isn’t letting up and we’ve done all we can here.” You and Kane leave behind the bodies and make your way through the blizzard in silence. It’s times like this you half expect Edgar to start going on about how well he did in battle, of course he hasn’t done that ever since you lost him in that battle against some giants last year. You never exactly approved of his reckless ways and it’s ultimately what got him killed, but you still miss him sometimes. You are almost at the end of the pass when a large rumbling is heard. You look overhead and even in this blizzard you can see the large figures looming on the cliffs and it’s what you originally were concerned about when you had to patrol this path. “GIANTS! RUN!” you yell and the pair of you attempt to make it out of the pass. Large boulders crash down along side the cliffs with an equally large amount of ice and snow. Kane runs faster and makes it ahead of you, but this only results in you seeing him crushed completely by a falling boulder. You are engulfed in snow and swept up and buried in the stuff. You’re disorientated, tired, freezing and slowly suffocating, but with determination, you manage to dig yourself out. Unfortunately several giants face you when you do dig yourself out. You’re out numbered and trapped in the pass. You know that this is most likely going to be your last battle. You draw your sword and walk towards the giants. It will be a good death, but your only regret is that you will not survive to serve the Empire for longer than you would’ve liked.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Unfortunately Pollo is right, the only decision that makes sense is to leave Gerald behind. Still, you aren’t fond of the idea though not necessarily for the moral reasons that most would be. This is an unproductive use of your team’s talents and pointless in the scheme of things. You can’t believe the Empire would allow such a petty man to be in charge of the safety of a province and why isn’t the Emperor aware of such inefficiency? “Very well.” “I knew you’d see things my way. Have fun playing with the kobolds. You’re dismissed.” You leave Pollo’s office where your team is still waiting for you. “Gerald, I regret that you will not be coming with us on this mission. The Captain wants you to stay with him.” You say. “What?! But I’m ready to fight!” he protests. “There will be other missions, I promise you. We will prove ourselves so well on this one, that they will have no choice but to send us out on a regular basis. However, your orders are clear in this matter, you are to remain here with Captain Pollo.” “B…yes sir.” Just before Gerald goes into the captain’s office, you whisper into his ear. “Accidents happen.” He’s a little puzzled by this comment, but you and the rest of your team proceed to your assignment and nobody says anything more about it. When you finally get to the town, it’s a sorry sight. A lot of the buildings are damaged and the streets are filled with debris. There are a few people attempting to clean up the place, but it’s clear that they’re all very demoralized. ‘Oh, I see the Empire has finally decided to help us; well you’re too late! The kobolds raided this town last night and as you can see completely trashed the place!” says a disheveled man. “The Empire has many places it has to protect citizen. It is regrettable that your town was attacked, but we are here now to eliminate the problem.” “You’re here now? Where the fuck were you last night when my wife was killed by those ugly little bastards?” the man says getting in your face. “Calm yourself citizen, this will not help your situation.” “My situation? I just said my wife is fucking DEAD! I don’t give a shit about my situation anymore you fucking Empire dickhead! Fuck you and your fucking Emperor!” It is at this point the man unwisely pushes your chest with his hand and you instantly grab it and break his whole arm. He predictably crumples in excruciating pain, screaming as the bone juts out of the skin and blood runs out of his body into the mud. All the other towns people who have seen this back off or hide, as they are rightfully worried about what you’re going to do next. “Now listen up citizens of Dalt! I understand that you’ve all been through a lot, but that is not a reason to give in to insolence! You are all Empire subjects and you will show proper respect or what’s left of this town will suffer in such a manner that you’ll think what the kobolds did was a birthday party.” The man whose arm you broke begins to scream more obscenities at you in between his regular howls of pain. You look at Kane and nod. Kane finishes the man off by quickly decapitating him. You take his head and throw it before one of the crowd of peasants who look on in horror. “Remember this.” You say. You remain in the town of Dalt for the night and get rooms from an overly cooperative innkeeper. He also tells you a little information about the kobolds such what direction they came from, what sort of equipment they were using and how many there were during the attack. Before getting some rest you spend a little of the time discussing strategy with your team. You all don’t show it too much, but you are all a little excited about tomorrow. The next day you set off towards the wooded hills, it doesn’t take long before you see a kobold patrol wandering around. They look exactly like how you’ve seen them in books, sort of like scaly goblins, but from what you’ve heard, a lot more cunning. Your team attempts to be stealthy, but perhaps it’s due to the excitement of this first “real” battle. Edgar isn’t as silent as he should be and clumsily steps on a few twigs alerting the patrols. The kobold patrol sees all of you, yell excitedly in their language and run away. Edgar is about to chase them, but you knock him to the ground. “What the hell?” he says wondering why you stopped him. “Trap, Edgar. Look.” You say and point to a tripwire that would’ve triggered a spiked log that he almost stepped on. “Oh.” He says. “You were trained better than that Edgar and we went over this last night! This area is probably going to be filled with traps. Now come on, we don’t have the luxury of a surprise attack any more.” The remainder of this attack is a tedious exercise in cautiousness broken up by quick battles. The kobolds really have set up traps everywhere and take full advantage of your team’s slow movement to launch periodic ambushes themselves. Fortunately they are very poor warriors even in large numbers and you easily dispatch them. All your fighting eventually leads to a cave, which you sort of figured it would. You warn your team that this place is probably going to be a maze and heavily trapped as well. “Should we split up so we can cover more ground?” Brenda asks. “No, we’re going to be neck deep in them when we go into that cave. They may be poor warriors, but even enough of them could overwhelm one or two of us. If we stick together we’ll be fine. Besides, we’re going to be here awhile anyway.” There “awhile” isn’t an exaggeration. You spend the remainder of the day and night killing kobolds. Your team seems to enjoy it, but you eventually start to get bored of the monotony. You don’t even bat an eye when you come across what seems to be a breeding chamber and you exterminate all the female kobolds and their young. Eventually you reach a large cave clearing where you meet the leader. “Sssss! Defilersss! Murderersss!” a slightly larger kobold hisses at you from some sort of primitive throne and then orders his guards to attack. It’s rather pathetic, as they fare no better than the rest. A few quick sword and axe blows and this kobold chieftain is alone. While the rest of your team is eager to kill him like the rest, you have a slightly better idea for him. You engage him in singles combat, which is over pretty quickly. You then subdue him with some rope you have in your pack. “Why are we taking him as prisoner? We’re Eternals! We don’t take prisoners!” Edgar shouts. “Yeah, we also aren’t supposed to miss obviously placed traps either, so there’s a first time for everything. Besides I’ve got a good idea for this one.” You drag the kobold leader back to town who curses you the whole time in a mixture of his language and yours. When you arrive it is now dawn and the townspeople are surprised to see you back, let alone with a kobold in tow. You tie the kobold leader to a tree near the center of the town and address everyone. “Citizens of Dalt! The kobold nest has been completely destroyed. This…thing was the leader of this particular nest and most likely orchestrated the raid; do with him as you will. There of course are other kobold nests in this province, but the Eternals will be taking care of this long overdue problem. All the Empire needs in this matter is your continued obedience and loyalty.” After giving this speech you and your team take your leave and hear the screams of the kobold leader as the villagers torture and rip him apart. When you arrive back at Fort Glory, other soldiers are surprised to see all of you back alive. It was assumed that at best, half of you would be dead. There is a possible thought of whether you actually succeeded and didn’t just come back in failure, but given that Kane took it upon himself to take “trophies” his gruesome necklace of kobold ears makes it pretty clear that the job was done. When you report however, it seems the fort has undergone a change in leadership “I’m Lieutenant Anu and now in charge of Fort Glory until further notice. First things first, did you accomplish your mission? “Mission accomplished, we killed them all lieutenant. All of their warriors, all of their women, all of their babies, pets, their leader, all of them.” “Well always helps to be sure. Which brings me to the next point. Your man Gerald is currently in the stockade. In fact he may be facing execution.” “Might I inquire why, sir?” “I’d say you’d probably know as much about it as I do, but if I had to guess? Captain pervert put the moves on him and your man took exception to it and killed him. He claims it was an accident, but there’s no way the captain twisted his own head ALL THE WAY AROUND just by tripping and falling over.” “If Gerald says it was an accident, then I believe him sir.” “Okay look, I’m not going to sit here and say that the captain wasn’t complete scum. I should know I had to serve along side him for the past five years. I saw how he’d have teenage boys brought to his office. Now I know you guys are these Eternals that we’ve all heard about, but dammit man, we can’t just have murders within the ranks, we have to respect some sort of order here!” “We’re all about respecting order sir…I suppose if it is absolutely necessary to execute Gerald, then that will be regrettable. I would however say that Gerald’s actions actually contributed to more order here and will better for the Empire in general.” “How so?” “The removal of captain Pollo, has allowed you to move up in rank and judging by your feelings on this matter you are a person who respects military decorum. I have no doubt, the fort will be run more efficiently now.” Lieutenant Anu chuckles a bit. “I’d almost think you were trying to butter me up to save your guy, but I already know you genuinely believe what you’re saying and you’re right anyway. (Sigh) Well…I suppose accidents do happen. Nobody here is going to miss Pollo, so I’ll have Gerald released and write up a report.” “Sir, can I make a request?” “Don’t you think you’re pushing your luck?” “Not my intention sir, but I was going to ask if there’s anything my group could do here that’s a little more challenging than killing kobolds?” “Hmm, yes I imagine you would feel that way...well on the furthest southern edge of the province there have been bands of nomadic raiders and there have been rumors of them organizing under some sort of shaman. Dunno if it’s true or not. Of course we could also transfer you someplace where the battle is a little more suited to your violence level.” > You face the raiders You decide that it might be wise to maintain a presence here, after all there is still work to be done and you’re confident that things will be better at the fort now. Lieutenant Anu nods and says you can set out in a couple days to the town of Jekka. He mentions that the nomads have never been a problem like the kobold are, but lately they have been reaching that level. He also says they aren’t native to Nalin, but rather the desert land south of it. You spend the next couple of days at the fort are spent honing your weapon skills and telling your team to do likewise. Gerald joins you after being released from the stockade. He looks a little embarrassed and you reprimand him for his lack of finesse, but welcome him back. Eventually you set off for the southern Nalin border. The journey isn’t as uneventful as the first mission and you encounter a few kobolds attacking travelers along the roads. You easily dispatch them of course. The town of Jekka is in much better shape than Dalt, but its obvious the people here have been suffering from attacks. “Empire soldiers? Here? I thought you lot were chasing down kobolds to waste time with the likes of us.” A man says to you. He looks to be some sort of town sheriff. “All Empire towns are under our protection citizen. We have heard this one is suffering heavy raids from the desert nomads.” “ Well, we’ve been doing okay so far, but a few of the other border villages have gotten it pretty bad. One of them was totally destroyed. Those lizard riders have never been this bad or numerous before. The weird thing is, they just destroy and kill, they don’t actually do any proper raiding or looting, not that it really matters. but for the past few months.” “We heard rumors of a shaman uniting them.” “Yeah that’s the rumor, but really nobody knows what’s going on with them. They make quick attacks and then run back to their accursed desert. So when are more Empire soldiers coming?” “They aren’t.” “What?! We’ve been holding out for months with no hope in sight and now that you give us a little bit, you take it away again?” “Citizen, I advise you to calm yourself.” You warn, wondering if you’re going to have to make another point like you did in Dalt. You don’t since thought since the sheriff has more sense. “Alright, alright, but I’m telling you there are a lot of those lizard riders! I hope you’re more than just regular Empire soldiers. You guys Shadow Guard or something?” “We’re Eternals.” You set up your staging point in Jekka. The desert raiders will probably attack this town again as usual, so you might as well take advantage of the fact. The waiting is tedious, but eventually after few days it pays off. Several of the raiders appear in the distance and make no hesitation in their attack. The raiders are trying to rely on intimidation, because they sure aren’t relying on strategy and only attack the town from one direction. The lizard creatures that the raiders ride might be intimidating to the average citizen, but you’ve fought bigger creatures during training. They’re rather clumsy beasts actually and when you and your team begin to use your own hit and run tactics, they start to collide into each other causing problems for the raiders. As for the raiders themselves, they prove to be barely better fighters than the kobolds after dismounting several of them. Underneath the desert protection gear they wear, they don’t appear to be human or any other race you’re familiar with, but they bleed just like all them and that’s the important thing. As many battles often go, this one is over quicker than it felt. The remaining raiders run off and you order your people to mount up and chase them down which is fairly easy to do. Jekka suffered some damage and a few dead, but overall the townspeople couldn’t be happier with the outcome and most shower you with praise. However, you get the impression that you’re going to be facing more of these raiders in the near future and you’re right. A couple days pass and another raid on the town of Jekka occurs in the same exact manner, then again a few days after that. A week passes and there are no more raids, but that doesn’t mean they’ve stopped. You already know they’ve been attacking several settlements, so you tell Warrick and Roldan to scout out the closest ones to see what their situation is while you try to build some proper defenses for Jekka. A week passes and you learn more about your foes from a villager who survived the destruction of his home. The desert raiders (or the Usksha as you’ve come to find out their proper name) have indeed been united under one banner by a shaman of some sort. The villager says he saw this being with his own eyes and was spared for the sole purpose to warn all that the Usksha will no longer tolerate a foreign presence encroaching on their desert. This shaman said he has been chosen personally by their god Usk to destroy all those that do and that the town of Jekka will not be able to resist the inevitable destiny that it will fall. “So, he’s coming here then? Good, saves us the trouble of hunting him down.” You reply. “Combined with this information and based on what Warrick and I have scouted out, it sounds like there will be even more of them. Possibly a full blown army. We might need reinforcements from Fort Glory.” Roldan says. “Reinforcements? Hah! We’ve beaten them several times with ease!” “Would they even get here in time? We don’t exactly know when the attack will come.” Brenda asks. “They might or they might not, still we should try. Find out who the best runner is in this town and have them travel to Fort Glory with this news. We can continue to prepare in the meantime.” You say. The next morning several Uskshas appear in the distance like the other times you fought them. Then more show up, then even more. The town sheriff completely panics and says he’s never seen this many before. This of course causes most of the other townies to panic as well. You slap him and tell him if he and anyone else aren’t going to be helpful then they need to stay out of the way and find someplace to hide. They come at you screaming and yelling in their barbarian language and suddenly a huge worm thing comes out of the ground in the center of town. “Ha ha! At last a real fight!” Edgar yells and runs at it immediately as it destroys the nearby tavern. You order Kane to come with you to help Edgar while the rest try to delay the rest of the usksha. You just hope the barricades hold up long enough for them to greatly whittle the numbers down. You, Edgar and Kane approach the great worm, which bashes its great body into the side of another building, killing many townspeople hiding inside. “YOU! You think you can destroy me? I am an avatar of Usk! How can you destroy a god when you are, but a mere child of a corrupt empire?” you suddenly hear in your mind. It takes a split moment, but you realize that this beast is the shaman. He has used magic of some kind to transform himself into this thing. It doesn’t matter how much favor he has from his god though, he isn’t one and will die like the rest. Using his daggers like climbing gear, Kane jumps as high as he can and sink them into the shaman, while you and Edgar attempt to chop at his body like it was a tree. The shaman roars and attempts to smash you with his body, but you pull Edgar out of the way and Kane jumps off before being crushed. The shaman burrows back into the hole he came from and a few moments later he breaks through in another area of the town and begins destroying the barricades. You reach the shaman just in time for him to sink back into his hole again, while usksha pour in through the broken wall. “Shit!” Edgar shouts in exasperation. “Plug up that opening with their dead bodies!” you shout as you chop off the head of one their lizards before doing the same to the fallen rider. Holding the back the tide of usksha isn’t exactly what you want to be doing though, you want to take down that shaman, do that and this battle is over. When you hear him break through the ground again elsewhere in town, you tell Kane and Edgar to hold the line here, while you go see if you can get him. You see him near the center of town again trying to finish destroying the buildings there. You chop down a few usksha near him and resume attempting to bring him down. He uses his crushing attack like last time, but this time you anticipate and not only dodge, but you manage to run your sword into his eye when his head is at your level. He bellows in pain and attempts to escape again, but you won’t let go of your sword and pull it towards you as he pulls backwards. You fall to the ground as the sword finishes slicing through the shaman’s flesh leaving a gapping wound where his eye and part of his “face” would be. You then see the worm collapse to the ground and begin to glow. Some of the others nearby, human and usksha alike stop fighting to stand and watch in wonder. The shaman transforms back into his natural form, his head and body displaying heavy wounds. “No…can’t…you…why…we hate you…you aren’t…wanted…your empire will die…we will reclaim what is oursss…” are the scattered words you hear in your head as you approach the shaman’s broken body. “Stop talking.” You say and run your sword through his other eye. It is at this point you hear the howls of several usksha as their mental link with their leader has been severed. You, your team and even a few vengeful townspeople butcher the remaining usksha that don’t get away while attempting to retreat. Jekka is half in ruins and many are dead, but the battle has been won. The following day a detachment of troops arrive from Fort Glory. They look at the carnage and the platoon leader reports to you. “I’m Corporal Delan and I’m here to help you with…shit, what the hell happened here?” “Victory, corporal. Victory.” You say. “So…the threat is gone?” “I wouldn’t say it’s gone, but it won’t be rearing its head for a long time.” “I say we should march into that desert and wipe them out permanently, then we’d never have to worry about them ever again!” Edgar says. “Well, if you decide to do that, we’ll help. I know you’ve been busy down here so I don’t know if you’ve heard, but we’ve made great strides in eliminating the kobolds, so Captian Anu told us to help you with this problem as much as we can. > You march into the desert The usksha are broken and on the run, the opportunity to eliminate them as a future threat is certainly there, along with extending the Empire’s influence south of the Nalin province. Your recent victories have filled you with confidence and you agree you should mount an attack on the usksha. “You can’t be serious! Look I know you guys are Eternals, and I won’t deny that you’re the best warriors I’ve ever seen, but even you won’t be able to conquer the usksha in their desert! They’ve lived there for centuries, even before the Empire existed! They know it like nobody else, you’ll be outnumbered and fighting the elements themselves!” the Jekka sheriff exclaims. Somehow he survived the battle by hiding no doubt. Perhaps he is content on being a coward all his life, but you were meant for much more! You are an Eternal and the Emperor himself will reward you himself when you make the first steps in civilizing the desert. You slap him again and tell him that you’ll need as much water as everyone can carry. After a period of rest, you, your team and Delan’s men set off for the desert. You figure the best way to approach this is to follow the usksha’s tracks. This works out well at first as the lizard mounts are heavy footed creatures that leave deep prints, so you come across several small bands of fleeing usksha. When you begin to leave the Nalin province and enter the desert, the prints get harder to track. You follow tracks for two days before you find more usksha. Still, you aren’t finding any large settlements. By day four and Delan’s men are starting to complain. He tries to maintain order, but it’s obvious they can’t take the heat of the day and cold of the night. Your own team is fairing better, but even a couple of them are starting to make comments. On the seventh night, you’re ambushed by several usksha who spring up from the sands itself; they manage to kill several of Delan’s men before you dispatch them. “Sergeant, I think we need to get the hell out of this desert. There’s nothing here, but sand and death!” “Then leave weakling! We’re more than able to carry out this mission ourselves! We don’t need anybody! We’re Eternals!” Edgar shouts. “I don’t doubt our abilities sir, but I’m beginning to wonder if this isn’t a waste of time. We’ve defeated the usksha and chased them deep into their own land. Maybe we’ve made our point.” Roldan says. “I’m finding myself agreeing sir, we could better serve the Empire elsewhere.” Gerald adds. “Duly noted. We’re sticking with the original plan and as for you Delan, you’re under my command too, so you aren’t going anywhere either, now I advise you to find your guts and keep what men you have left in line, before I take away what little authority you still have left.” Corporal Delan obeys and silently slinks back to his men. Your own people obey as well, but you know that the voices of dissent are already there. Still, you’re convinced that you’ll find something of importance out here along with wiping out usksha. On day ten, a strange reptilian creature attacks you. The first instinct is to defend yourself of course, but when it turns Warrick and Gerald to stone instantly, even you find yourself worried. “Don’t look at it! It’s got some sort of magic attack!” you shout and put your shield to cover yourself. Delan and his couple remaining men don’t even stick around they turn and run completely. Edgar closes his eyes and swings wildly at the beast, but only manages to get himself mauled by the creature’s sharp teeth and claws. The distraction is enough for Brenda to shoot several arrows in the beast while its back is to her. The beast gives a final bellow and dies. You survey the damage and it’s pretty bad. You’ve lost two men, and looking at Edgar on the ground it’ll soon be three. He can’t even form any words, he just looks up at the sky gurgling and spitting up blood and trying to clutch at an arm which is no longer there. “I told you! I told you we should’ve gone back!” Roldan screams. “Silence! I’m in charge here and you won’t speak to me like that again!” you say. “Somebody needs to tell you something, because…” You lose your patience from a combination of the disrespect, the loss, the failure, the heat, all of it. You punch Roldan causing him to fall to the ground. He looks up in disbelief at first, but then begins to laugh. “Ha ha…ha ha ha ha ha! We…ha ha ha! Found more usksha!” he laughs and points. You all turn to see a sizable group of mounted usksha in the distance. They don’t move in either, instead they shoot at you with their bows. Brenda catches an arrow to her leg before you can sound a retreat. You and Kane run, but Roldan just sits there still laughing, the next time you turn your head to look back, he’s no longer sitting up. Brenda tries to keep up, but the arrow in her leg slows her down and eventually she catches two more arrows in her back, killing her much in the same way she killed that strange beast. Eventually you and Kane get away, but in all the excitement you don’t know where you are and you don’t even have the tracks you were following to go back to. Under better and less stressful conditions you might get your bearings again, but you never do. Your next few days involve wandering the desert being continually worn down by usksha ambushes and the sun. You leave Kane’s dehydrated body and continue alone, but not for long as you eventually also succumb to the heat. As you lay dying your thoughts of glory are gone and though dehydrated, you manage to shed a single tear for your failure to serve the Emperor.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You decide that it might be wise to maintain a presence here, after all there is still work to be done and you’re confident that things will be better at the fort now. Lieutenant Anu nods and says you can set out in a couple days to the town of Jekka. He mentions that the nomads have never been a problem like the kobold are, but lately they have been reaching that level. He also says they aren’t native to Nalin, but rather the desert land south of it. You spend the next couple of days at the fort are spent honing your weapon skills and telling your team to do likewise. Gerald joins you after being released from the stockade. He looks a little embarrassed and you reprimand him for his lack of finesse, but welcome him back. Eventually you set off for the southern Nalin border. The journey isn’t as uneventful as the first mission and you encounter a few kobolds attacking travelers along the roads. You easily dispatch them of course. The town of Jekka is in much better shape than Dalt, but its obvious the people here have been suffering from attacks. “Empire soldiers? Here? I thought you lot were chasing down kobolds to waste time with the likes of us.” A man says to you. He looks to be some sort of town sheriff. “All Empire towns are under our protection citizen. We have heard this one is suffering heavy raids from the desert nomads.” “ Well, we’ve been doing okay so far, but a few of the other border villages have gotten it pretty bad. One of them was totally destroyed. Those lizard riders have never been this bad or numerous before. The weird thing is, they just destroy and kill, they don’t actually do any proper raiding or looting, not that it really matters. but for the past few months.” “We heard rumors of a shaman uniting them.” “Yeah that’s the rumor, but really nobody knows what’s going on with them. They make quick attacks and then run back to their accursed desert. So when are more Empire soldiers coming?” “They aren’t.” “What?! We’ve been holding out for months with no hope in sight and now that you give us a little bit, you take it away again?” “Citizen, I advise you to calm yourself.” You warn, wondering if you’re going to have to make another point like you did in Dalt. You don’t since thought since the sheriff has more sense. “Alright, alright, but I’m telling you there are a lot of those lizard riders! I hope you’re more than just regular Empire soldiers. You guys Shadow Guard or something?” “We’re Eternals.” You set up your staging point in Jekka. The desert raiders will probably attack this town again as usual, so you might as well take advantage of the fact. The waiting is tedious, but eventually after few days it pays off. Several of the raiders appear in the distance and make no hesitation in their attack. The raiders are trying to rely on intimidation, because they sure aren’t relying on strategy and only attack the town from one direction. The lizard creatures that the raiders ride might be intimidating to the average citizen, but you’ve fought bigger creatures during training. They’re rather clumsy beasts actually and when you and your team begin to use your own hit and run tactics, they start to collide into each other causing problems for the raiders. As for the raiders themselves, they prove to be barely better fighters than the kobolds after dismounting several of them. Underneath the desert protection gear they wear, they don’t appear to be human or any other race you’re familiar with, but they bleed just like all them and that’s the important thing. As many battles often go, this one is over quicker than it felt. The remaining raiders run off and you order your people to mount up and chase them down which is fairly easy to do. Jekka suffered some damage and a few dead, but overall the townspeople couldn’t be happier with the outcome and most shower you with praise. However, you get the impression that you’re going to be facing more of these raiders in the near future and you’re right. A couple days pass and another raid on the town of Jekka occurs in the same exact manner, then again a few days after that. A week passes and there are no more raids, but that doesn’t mean they’ve stopped. You already know they’ve been attacking several settlements, so you tell Warrick and Roldan to scout out the closest ones to see what their situation is while you try to build some proper defenses for Jekka. A week passes and you learn more about your foes from a villager who survived the destruction of his home. The desert raiders (or the Usksha as you’ve come to find out their proper name) have indeed been united under one banner by a shaman of some sort. The villager says he saw this being with his own eyes and was spared for the sole purpose to warn all that the Usksha will no longer tolerate a foreign presence encroaching on their desert. This shaman said he has been chosen personally by their god Usk to destroy all those that do and that the town of Jekka will not be able to resist the inevitable destiny that it will fall. “So, he’s coming here then? Good, saves us the trouble of hunting him down.” You reply. “Combined with this information and based on what Warrick and I have scouted out, it sounds like there will be even more of them. Possibly a full blown army. We might need reinforcements from Fort Glory.” Roldan says. “Reinforcements? Hah! We’ve beaten them several times with ease!” “Would they even get here in time? We don’t exactly know when the attack will come.” Brenda asks. “They might or they might not, still we should try. Find out who the best runner is in this town and have them travel to Fort Glory with this news. We can continue to prepare in the meantime.” You say. The next morning several Uskshas appear in the distance like the other times you fought them. Then more show up, then even more. The town sheriff completely panics and says he’s never seen this many before. This of course causes most of the other townies to panic as well. You slap him and tell him if he and anyone else aren’t going to be helpful then they need to stay out of the way and find someplace to hide. They come at you screaming and yelling in their barbarian language and suddenly a huge worm thing comes out of the ground in the center of town. “Ha ha! At last a real fight!” Edgar yells and runs at it immediately as it destroys the nearby tavern. You order Kane to come with you to help Edgar while the rest try to delay the rest of the usksha. You just hope the barricades hold up long enough for them to greatly whittle the numbers down. You, Edgar and Kane approach the great worm, which bashes its great body into the side of another building, killing many townspeople hiding inside. “YOU! You think you can destroy me? I am an avatar of Usk! How can you destroy a god when you are, but a mere child of a corrupt empire?” you suddenly hear in your mind. It takes a split moment, but you realize that this beast is the shaman. He has used magic of some kind to transform himself into this thing. It doesn’t matter how much favor he has from his god though, he isn’t one and will die like the rest. Using his daggers like climbing gear, Kane jumps as high as he can and sink them into the shaman, while you and Edgar attempt to chop at his body like it was a tree. The shaman roars and attempts to smash you with his body, but you pull Edgar out of the way and Kane jumps off before being crushed. The shaman burrows back into the hole he came from and a few moments later he breaks through in another area of the town and begins destroying the barricades. You reach the shaman just in time for him to sink back into his hole again, while usksha pour in through the broken wall. “Shit!” Edgar shouts in exasperation. “Plug up that opening with their dead bodies!” you shout as you chop off the head of one their lizards before doing the same to the fallen rider. Holding the back the tide of usksha isn’t exactly what you want to be doing though, you want to take down that shaman, do that and this battle is over. When you hear him break through the ground again elsewhere in town, you tell Kane and Edgar to hold the line here, while you go see if you can get him. You see him near the center of town again trying to finish destroying the buildings there. You chop down a few usksha near him and resume attempting to bring him down. He uses his crushing attack like last time, but this time you anticipate and not only dodge, but you manage to run your sword into his eye when his head is at your level. He bellows in pain and attempts to escape again, but you won’t let go of your sword and pull it towards you as he pulls backwards. You fall to the ground as the sword finishes slicing through the shaman’s flesh leaving a gapping wound where his eye and part of his “face” would be. You then see the worm collapse to the ground and begin to glow. Some of the others nearby, human and usksha alike stop fighting to stand and watch in wonder. The shaman transforms back into his natural form, his head and body displaying heavy wounds. “No…can’t…you…why…we hate you…you aren’t…wanted…your empire will die…we will reclaim what is oursss…” are the scattered words you hear in your head as you approach the shaman’s broken body. “Stop talking.” You say and run your sword through his other eye. It is at this point you hear the howls of several usksha as their mental link with their leader has been severed. You, your team and even a few vengeful townspeople butcher the remaining usksha that don’t get away while attempting to retreat. Jekka is half in ruins and many are dead, but the battle has been won. The following day a detachment of troops arrive from Fort Glory. They look at the carnage and the platoon leader reports to you. “I’m Corporal Delan and I’m here to help you with…shit, what the hell happened here?” “Victory, corporal. Victory.” You say. “So…the threat is gone?” “I wouldn’t say it’s gone, but it won’t be rearing its head for a long time.” “I say we should march into that desert and wipe them out permanently, then we’d never have to worry about them ever again!” Edgar says. “Well, if you decide to do that, we’ll help. I know you’ve been busy down here so I don’t know if you’ve heard, but we’ve made great strides in eliminating the kobolds, so Captian Anu told us to help you with this problem as much as we can. > You leave it alone Marching into the desert without a grand plan other than simple slaughter isn’t much of a plan. The usksha are nomads anyway, you’d never be able to catch all of them in their home turf. “No, I believe we’ve taken care of the major problem, but I think you should stay here and oversee the safety of this town now. We’ll head back to Fort Glory and report the situation.” You tell Delan. As you pack up and start to leave, Edgar begins to complain. “What are we doing? We should be trying to hunt down the rest of the usksha!” “Our mission here is done, the usksha have been defeated. If we get ordered to mount an expedition into the desert then we shall do so.” “Bah! Anu is probably going to assign us to fight kobolds again! We should be taking the initiative!” “It seems every time you take the initiative, I end up having to help you in some way. I’d recommend that you worry less about fighting and more about your combat techniques.” At this point Edgar gets noticeably mad, but says nothing and walks off. You’re starting to get slightly concerned about him. You’d rather not have to teach him a lesson like you did when you were still training under Mistress. When you arrive at Fort Glory and report to Captain Anu he’s pleased with what you’ve accomplished and is impressed. He says he’d like to keep you here to finish up wiping out the kobold infestation, but he’s received word from the top that your team is to be transferred elsewhere. “Where are we going sir?” “The Rask frontier and I don’t mind saying I don’t envy you.” “I’ve heard of the place before. What is the situation there?” “Bad, worse and downright horrible. As far as I know the Empire has been trying to establish order there for decades and not making any progress.” “Captain, I certainly hope you don’t make it a habit of saying disparaging things about the Empire.” A man says walking into the room. It’s Mr. Mol. “Uh no sir. Sorry sir.” Captain Anu says sheepishly. Mr. Mol overlooks his comments and speaks to you directly. “Ignore the captain’s words, everyone exaggerates the situation at the Rask frontier. While the area is having some problems, the fact remains if it really was so bad there, we would’ve pulled out a long time ago. Anyway, congratulations on your latest mission. Couldn’t help overhearing your report in the next room, quite impressive. Which makes me believe it was a good idea to transfer you now.” “The Eternals are ready to serve the Emperor wherever he may need us sir.” You say. “And the Emperor will always appreciate your service. He has been watching you, you know. He always is. That is why he believes you would be most effective apart from each other.” “Sir?” “You are Eternals, m’boy. You were bred to lead as well as fight. You’ve already proven yourself to be able to do both, but your fellow Eternals will never reach their fullest potential if they live under your shadow. All of you will be separated and given your own commands in territories the Emperor needs you the most. I have no doubt you all will be successful and honor the Emperor with your future victories.” “W..we will sir, but you said territories. Are we not all being sent to the Rask frontier?” “Oh I think the captain misunderstood. A few of you are being sent there, but some of you are staying here, and others are yet being sent elsewhere. Here, here’s your orders, you can inform the rest of your team, I’m sure they’ll be excited to hear this news too, oh and consider yourself promoted to lieutenant. The rest of your team members will probably be promoted to sergeant rank when they officially get their assignments. I think that’s about it. A caravan will be here to transfer some of you to your new assignments in a few days. Good day.” As Mr. Mol goes walking out the office, you feel a little strange. Your team has been together so long, it feels weird to know that you’re going to be split apart. “Sorry for the wrong information, I thought all of you would be sent to the Rask frontier. Well I guess I’m glad to know some of your are staying, heh…are you okay?” Captain Anu asks. “Huh? Oh yes. I’m okay captain. If you’ll excuse me I have to inform my team of their new assignments.” “Certainly. Dismissed.” You inform your team of the news and there is a mixture of feelings. There is some excitement of gaining their own commands, but are still a little apprehensive about splitting up. Well all of them except Edgar who seems to be solely overjoyed that he’s getting his own command. “Okay, Roldan and Brenda, you’re staying here.” “Damn, I was hoping I’d at least get to go some place different.” Brenda says. “Make no mistake, this area still needs order established. I believe you and Roldan will do a fine job in continuing the reputation of excellence that we have built here.” You continue with the list. “Gerald and Warrick, you’re being assigned along the Felkan border. Apparently the non-aggression treaty the Empire had with the Felkan Kingdom has expired and tensions have been high. War with them may even break out.” “Interesting. Well if war does break out, we’ll be the first one to show the Felkans the error of defying the Emperor’s mercy.” Warrick says. “Yeah, yeah! Let’s get on with it, where am I going?” Edgar interrupts. You glare at Edgar and then continue. “You, Kane and I are all being sent to the Rask frontier.” “As it should be. My skills were going to waste here.” “Edgar, I’m going to say this while I’m still your superior. I certainly hope you realize that this isn’t a game and you’ll prove yourself to be a competent leader.” “Hey, I’m just as much of a leader as you are! The difference is I take risks and that will be a trait that will necessary in a place like the Rask frontier! I will rise up in the ranks and bring honor to the name Eternal and glory to the Emperor!” “You mean glory to yourself because you feel like you have something to prove.” You say. “And you don’t? You’re a hypocrite anyway! Always were ever since we trained under Mistress! I still recall you begging for your life to her as she crushed you under her boot. From that day on you were always trying to prove yourself and beating the bloody pulp out everyone.” “And as I recall you were on that end several times Edgar. Is that why you’re still trying to prove yourself?” “You wanna try that now?” Edgar says getting in your face and at this point all of your fellow Eternals intervene to break up a potential fight. “Hey come on you guys! We can’t be seen fighting each other like this! We’re Eternals, we put all that stuff behind us back in training. We’re professionals and supposed to be setting the example for the Empire!” Roldan says. Edgar brushes himself and backs off. “Tell you what Roldan. You set the example for the Empire. All of you set the example. In the meantime, I’ll be scoring victories and actually serving the Emperor by conquering land in his name.” And with these last words, he takes his leave all of you. The last few days together are a little awkward with what transpired between you and Edgar. Still you say your goodbyes to Roldan and Brenda when the caravan comes. A few days after that, you then say your goodbyes to Warrick and Gerald. You, Edgar and Kane sit in silence for the remainder of the trip. Eventually you arrive at the Rask frontier and make your stop at Fort Destiny. You haven’t gotten off the caravan five minutes when a woman wearing battle armor approaches you. “Hey are you the Eternals?” “Yes we are.” “I’m Captain Krozer, I’ve heard a lot about you and wanted to meet you personally. Welcome to hell.” Captain Krozer begins to give you a run down on the entire area. She mentions that the mortality rate here is high so morale isn’t the best, but she hopes that you and the other Eternals assigned here can rally some sort hope here again. Captain Krozer also goes on to tell you that there’s been a slight change of plans in your assignments. She says that you’re still staying here, but that Kane and Edgar are going to Fort Defiance, which is further north. Probably for the best considering what transpired between you and Edgar. Kane nods a dignified goodbye to you, and gets back on the caravan; Edgar of course isn’t as pleasant and gives you a hostile glare before leaving. With the caravan leaving, you head to your new unit. When you see them, quite a few of them are predictably much older than you, but surprisingly you see that half of them are around your age. “So, you’re one those Eternals huh?” one the older soldiers says almost dismissively. You’re in no mood to warn anyone this time, so you go straight to the point and throw him to the floor with his arm painfully twisted behind his back. “Correct, and you’ll address me as sir or lieutenant if you want to keep this arm, because it’ll be very hard to continue doing your duty for the Emperor with just a stump. Understand?” “Argh. Y..yes sir!” And so begins your assignment in the Rask frontier. > Chapter 2A: For The Empire! Year 20 “Watch it the last ones are coming from the left side!” you shout, pointing at the barbarian wolfmen breaking through the barricade. Two of your number go down before the might of the wolfmen. As always you find yourself having to do things yourself. Not that you’re adverse to placing yourself in the thick of battle, but sometimes you get a little tired of having to micromanage. One of the wolfmen goes down by your blade with ease, the other three however are shot full of bolts, though you were very nearly in the crossfire. “DAMMIT, watch where you’re shooting!” You shout at the dark elven mercenaries. “Oh stop being so dramatic, we’ve been shooting with these crossbows longer than you’ve even been alive I’d wager.” One of them replies, followed by a few snickers. You shake your head at the fact that you have to routinely work with them, let alone having to put up with their kind. Then again you’ve had to put up with a lot around here for the past four years. “Are we done fighting these dogs now? When are we going to get back to killing more sveld? That’s a lot more fun.” One of the mercenaries says. “You aren’t getting paid to have fun svelk! You’re getting paid to do your job. If you really want to go murder your tree loving cousins so bad, we’re not stopping you.” You say. “Whatever monkey, our job here is done, we’re heading back. Let us know when you need our help again.” The mercenary says and they leave. You survey the damage to the logging camp and it’s going to be awhile before this place is up and running to it’s full capabilities again. Still, today is a victory and despite everything, you’ve managed to eliminate more enemies even if it does seem like they are everywhere in this harsh cold land. Unfortunately nowadays the Rask frontier isn’t the only place where the Empire has been having problems. Open war broke out with the Felkan Kingdom a couple years ago. Sometimes you wonder how things are going with Warrick and Gerald, but you’ve never heard anything about them, or from them. In fact you rarely hear news from anywhere unless it directly concerns you defending mining towns, logging town, or outposts from barbarians or the forest elves. It’s never pretty here, but you can only imagine what they deal with up at Fort Defiance where they routinely face ogres and sometimes even giants. You have heard that Edgar has made quite a name for himself with some of his actions. In a way you’re glad, because he’s living up to the title of an Eternal and doing honor by serving with distinction…still, knowing him he’s doing it all to try to “beat” you. As for you, you’ve made quite a name for yourself as well. You have improved the mortality rate of the soldiers here a little (most notably the ones serving under you), but you’ve also managed to successfully defend several towns with low citizen casualties too. The greatest accomplishments of yours are the complete destruction of several hostile barbarian tribes. The Black Wolves, the Enclave of the Bear, the Blood Boars, and other minor shape changing tribes have all been exterminated thanks to your relentless nature. Indeed, you’ve become so infamous that the barbarian tribes in this land have come to call you the “The Bane of Rask.” This recent battle was a last desperate regroup attack by one of the tribes, the “Silver Fangs” after you wiped out all their women and children in an attack on their camp. Grim business to be sure, but it wasn’t first time and it certainly won’t be the last. These tribes must learn that they cannot stand against the might of the Empire or the Emperor. If they can only learn that with their extinction then so be it. You report your victory to Captain Krozer. “Excellent as always lieutenant. I know time after time I can count on you. Which leads me to the next major task. From what I can tell we’ve managed to eliminate the major threats in this particular area of the Rask frontier, but we have two left. The forest elves and the Wendigo tribe are the two in question and I’m wondering which one we should focus our attention on first.” “Well I can tell you that the Wendigo tribe will be a challenge. They’re the biggest, toughest and meanest of all the barbarian shape shifters. So far we haven’t had a large battle with them yet, but with our extermination of the other tribes, the time is getting closer. As for the elves, it will be more tedious than anything as they use a lot of guerilla tactics and such. We’ve still never found any sort of home, base or camp of theirs, but I suppose those dark elven mercs will be more than willing to help us with eliminating them. I’m sure their leader, Edolith will most likely demand a high price as usual though.” You say. “(Sigh) Yeah, I’m sure she will. Things are never easy here. Fuck it; we’re pushing forward on both groups right now and putting an end to it once and for all. The question is, would you prefer to lead a company against the Wendigo tribe or go on a seek and destroy mission on the forest elves.” > You attack the Wendigo tribe “While I have every desire to see both of these blights erased from the Empire’s lands, I believe my abilities would be best served in leading the attack against the Wendigo tribe, captain.” You say. “I had a feeling you’d be more drawn to that idea, and you are probably the best person for it, seeing how many victories you have against the barbarians tribes here. Very well, I shall send another officer to lead the mission against the elves and I hope those mercenaries lower their price in exchange for a chance to kill their tree loving kin. In fact I may go along on that mission.” Captain Krozer replies. “You are captain?” “Yes, someone needs to keep an eye on those shifty bastards. Besides I find that I’ve been getting stuck behind the desk too much lately. It’ll be good to be back out in the field. Don’t want to become like one of those fat self-important generals that do nothing except point to maps and make equally fat musings on tactics. A true leader should lead from the front, I’m sure you agree.” “It is preferable yes…but I do understand the need to keep those with keen military minds safe from major war zones. Such people have their place as all do in their service of the Emperor.” “Why lieutenant, are you complimenting me on my intelligence? It’s not like you to flirt.” Captain Krozer asks in a tone slightly friendlier than usual, it catches you a little off guard. “I…no! I mean yes, you are very intelligent, but…” “Relax lieutenant, just having a little fun, didn’t mean to put you on the spot. Anyway, we’ll pick this up later, you better get prepared for your mission, and good luck.” You do exactly that, get prepared. You know this will not be an easy battle. You fought a member of the wendigos by yourself before and it was one of your greatest fights. Fighting an entire tribe of them even with an entire company behind you will not make it easier. Most of the men while capable soldiers, they are still just recruits in some ways when facing the shear might and savagery of these barbarians, let alone a tribe like the wendigos. At this point you wish you had a few battle wizards or even orcs in your ranks, but most of those have been assigned either at Fort Defiance or on the frontlines of the Felkan War. You march through the ice and snow towards wendingo territory, along the way you come across a small village completely decimated. Looks like it was a fairly new one made up of some determined settlers. Still, no amount of determination could have possibly made it a good idea to start building a new settlement that was so close to wendigo territory without Empire protection. Houses have been burned, and the gory bodies of the dead are everywhere and in pieces. Some of the bodies have even been partially eaten. Not surprising, considering the wendigo tribe will cannibalize their own people if necessary. A couple of the newer recruits throw up at the grisly sight. The march eventually leads you a wooded hill area where they make their home. It’s there where you have your first major encounter with the wendigos. Their aren’t a lot of them, but they’re completely vicious and without fear. They think nothing of attacking you despite being outnumbered and bellow their terrible howl. A howl so dreadful it can affect the mind and causes a few of your men to lose their courage completely. “It’s all in your head! The Emperor’s Will protects us! Find your nerve or die!” you shout and clash with the nearest wendigo. It’s just the first of many such battles. The only good thing is the wendigos are pretty easy to find and make no attempts to hide from you, meaning you don’t really need to make a big effort at hunting them down. The bad thing of course is little by little your company is worn down by their attacks along with the land already being harsh and food being scarce. It’s not just that though, this land of theirs, it’s making you feel weird, to say nothing of your men. The howls of the wendingos seem to be on the very winds here. It’s constantly there sapping your mind and making yourself feel strange thoughts. “Lieutenant, I’m starting to feel really hungry. A lot of the men are.” Your second says to you. “We just stopped to eat.” “I know, but I dunno I’m still hungry.” “Well we’re not stopping again. We need to keep moving the quicker we do this, the quicker we can go back home and have a proper meal.” “Yes, a proper meal with meat. Lots of meat. Heh heh.” Your second says and walks away. By the fifth day, you finally come across a large wendigo encampment and it is there where you see some sort of leader. You knew they had to have one, these types always do. He’s predictably the largest of his kind and covered in pure white fur. When your company arrives, the wendigos make their howl, but more disturbingly some of your men make a rival howl of their own and charge into battle even before you give the command. The battle is a slaughter on both sides. You struggle against the wendigo leader striking several blows that would kill a normal man, but of course then you’re not fighting a man. He swipes you across the chest destroying your breast plate and lands another blow to your head which probably would’ve killed you had you not been wearing a helmet. It is enough to knock you down however. “Your combat skill is impressive, Bane of Rask. It will be an honor to add it my own when I devour your heart.” You suddenly hear in your head as you struggle to get up. You’ve heard this sort of talk before. Namely when you were fighting against the usksha shaman. You shake off the wendingo leader’s mental attempts to throw you off guard and narrowly avoid his foot stomping on your head. You grab your sword nearby and with all your might, you swing it at the very foot that just tried to crush your head and chop it clean off. The wendigo leader howls again, but this is one of pain as he tumbles to the ground. You waste no time and shove the blade down the beast’s gullet. While this would be enough to kill most, the leader manages punch you aside with all his thrashing and then tries to stand up on one foot with a sword still stuck through his mouth and coming out the other side of his head. It would be a darkly comical sight under different circumstances watching this beast hop around trying to pull a sword out of his head, but you’re in no mood to laugh. You charge into him as hard as you can to knock him down and grab the sword yanking it back and forth until you succeed in sawing off the top part of his head. To their credit, the remaining wendigos continue to fight and die with their leader. The battle is won and even you take a moment to rest. This rest is to be short lived. “Bane of Rask, you’ve just won a fierce battle wouldn’t it be nice to celebrate by filling your belly with meat? There is a lot in the pot over there.” “…what?” you say to yourself and hold your head in your hands. “The pot over there. Lots of tasty meat that this tribe was going to eat before you so rudely interrupted them. No sense in letting it go to waste.” “…no I just killed you.” “Did you? Of course if you wish you could just pick a body on the ground and start eating. Why not? You deserve it.” You know what’s going on here. The wendigos aren’t truly flesh and blood creatures! They’re some sort of spirits or something otherworldly. No wonder you’ve felt strange the entire time you’ve been here. You get up and call your men to leave immediately, only to see some of them have already fully succumbed to the wendigo curse. Eating the bodies laying on the ground and beginning to look less than human and more feral. > You run The longer you stay here, the more likely all of you are going to get possessed. This entire land is cursed and you need to get out of here. You and the rest of your unprocessed troops begin to back off while still keeping an eye on the new wendigos. Their preoccupation with fresh bodies is limited however and they soon begin to turn towards you. They howl that dreadful noise again and begin to transform. It is at this point some of your men run as fast as then can, others begin to hold their heads telling a voice to shut up. “Bane of Rask, join us or die here today!” you hear the voice hiss. Several wendigos run after the men who fled, while the others stay to attack you. For whatever reason, they’re not fighting with as much reckless abandon anymore, it’s almost as if they’ve absorbed the fighting skills of your soldiers. Despite this, you manage to pull out a victory, but you’re exhausted and wounded. You see some of your other men already beginning to transform having been possessed by the wendigos and you spare no time in killing them before they can transform as well. “Your skills for killing are misused, if you just embraced the primal instinct, you would be able to use your skills to the fullest extent and without the shackles of any higher authority.” “SHUT UP!” you shout. Between the constant assaults to your mind and your wounds, you struggle to make your way out of wendigo territory. It doesn’t help that you’re also still being periodically attacked by the wendigos that presumably finished off the rest of your men who ran away. You run your sword through the face of a wendigo and ignore his claws ripping through your own armor and your flesh. You’re tired, but a rage is growing within you due to these constant assaults. You grab the already mortally wounded wendigo and as hard as you can you summon all your strength to break its neck. It falls to the snow in a heavy heap and you do as well. “Do it…nobody is around…feed to sustain your strength…” you hear. You sink your teeth into the body of the wendigo and begin to feed…or rather the carcass of its former host as the wendigo itself has left its body and managed to weave itself into your mind. Your barrier against it finally shattered, your mind is truly not your own anymore. While you are “alive” you are merely a puppet now. You spend the remainder of your days seeking out fresh flesh, until ultimately your mind is completely absorbed and under control of the wendigo.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>“While I have every desire to see both of these blights erased from the Empire’s lands, I believe my abilities would be best served in leading the attack against the Wendigo tribe, captain.” You say. “I had a feeling you’d be more drawn to that idea, and you are probably the best person for it, seeing how many victories you have against the barbarians tribes here. Very well, I shall send another officer to lead the mission against the elves and I hope those mercenaries lower their price in exchange for a chance to kill their tree loving kin. In fact I may go along on that mission.” Captain Krozer replies. “You are captain?” “Yes, someone needs to keep an eye on those shifty bastards. Besides I find that I’ve been getting stuck behind the desk too much lately. It’ll be good to be back out in the field. Don’t want to become like one of those fat self-important generals that do nothing except point to maps and make equally fat musings on tactics. A true leader should lead from the front, I’m sure you agree.” “It is preferable yes…but I do understand the need to keep those with keen military minds safe from major war zones. Such people have their place as all do in their service of the Emperor.” “Why lieutenant, are you complimenting me on my intelligence? It’s not like you to flirt.” Captain Krozer asks in a tone slightly friendlier than usual, it catches you a little off guard. “I…no! I mean yes, you are very intelligent, but…” “Relax lieutenant, just having a little fun, didn’t mean to put you on the spot. Anyway, we’ll pick this up later, you better get prepared for your mission, and good luck.” You do exactly that, get prepared. You know this will not be an easy battle. You fought a member of the wendigos by yourself before and it was one of your greatest fights. Fighting an entire tribe of them even with an entire company behind you will not make it easier. Most of the men while capable soldiers, they are still just recruits in some ways when facing the shear might and savagery of these barbarians, let alone a tribe like the wendigos. At this point you wish you had a few battle wizards or even orcs in your ranks, but most of those have been assigned either at Fort Defiance or on the frontlines of the Felkan War. You march through the ice and snow towards wendingo territory, along the way you come across a small village completely decimated. Looks like it was a fairly new one made up of some determined settlers. Still, no amount of determination could have possibly made it a good idea to start building a new settlement that was so close to wendigo territory without Empire protection. Houses have been burned, and the gory bodies of the dead are everywhere and in pieces. Some of the bodies have even been partially eaten. Not surprising, considering the wendigo tribe will cannibalize their own people if necessary. A couple of the newer recruits throw up at the grisly sight. The march eventually leads you a wooded hill area where they make their home. It’s there where you have your first major encounter with the wendigos. Their aren’t a lot of them, but they’re completely vicious and without fear. They think nothing of attacking you despite being outnumbered and bellow their terrible howl. A howl so dreadful it can affect the mind and causes a few of your men to lose their courage completely. “It’s all in your head! The Emperor’s Will protects us! Find your nerve or die!” you shout and clash with the nearest wendigo. It’s just the first of many such battles. The only good thing is the wendigos are pretty easy to find and make no attempts to hide from you, meaning you don’t really need to make a big effort at hunting them down. The bad thing of course is little by little your company is worn down by their attacks along with the land already being harsh and food being scarce. It’s not just that though, this land of theirs, it’s making you feel weird, to say nothing of your men. The howls of the wendingos seem to be on the very winds here. It’s constantly there sapping your mind and making yourself feel strange thoughts. “Lieutenant, I’m starting to feel really hungry. A lot of the men are.” Your second says to you. “We just stopped to eat.” “I know, but I dunno I’m still hungry.” “Well we’re not stopping again. We need to keep moving the quicker we do this, the quicker we can go back home and have a proper meal.” “Yes, a proper meal with meat. Lots of meat. Heh heh.” Your second says and walks away. By the fifth day, you finally come across a large wendigo encampment and it is there where you see some sort of leader. You knew they had to have one, these types always do. He’s predictably the largest of his kind and covered in pure white fur. When your company arrives, the wendigos make their howl, but more disturbingly some of your men make a rival howl of their own and charge into battle even before you give the command. The battle is a slaughter on both sides. You struggle against the wendigo leader striking several blows that would kill a normal man, but of course then you’re not fighting a man. He swipes you across the chest destroying your breast plate and lands another blow to your head which probably would’ve killed you had you not been wearing a helmet. It is enough to knock you down however. “Your combat skill is impressive, Bane of Rask. It will be an honor to add it my own when I devour your heart.” You suddenly hear in your head as you struggle to get up. You’ve heard this sort of talk before. Namely when you were fighting against the usksha shaman. You shake off the wendingo leader’s mental attempts to throw you off guard and narrowly avoid his foot stomping on your head. You grab your sword nearby and with all your might, you swing it at the very foot that just tried to crush your head and chop it clean off. The wendigo leader howls again, but this is one of pain as he tumbles to the ground. You waste no time and shove the blade down the beast’s gullet. While this would be enough to kill most, the leader manages punch you aside with all his thrashing and then tries to stand up on one foot with a sword still stuck through his mouth and coming out the other side of his head. It would be a darkly comical sight under different circumstances watching this beast hop around trying to pull a sword out of his head, but you’re in no mood to laugh. You charge into him as hard as you can to knock him down and grab the sword yanking it back and forth until you succeed in sawing off the top part of his head. To their credit, the remaining wendigos continue to fight and die with their leader. The battle is won and even you take a moment to rest. This rest is to be short lived. “Bane of Rask, you’ve just won a fierce battle wouldn’t it be nice to celebrate by filling your belly with meat? There is a lot in the pot over there.” “…what?” you say to yourself and hold your head in your hands. “The pot over there. Lots of tasty meat that this tribe was going to eat before you so rudely interrupted them. No sense in letting it go to waste.” “…no I just killed you.” “Did you? Of course if you wish you could just pick a body on the ground and start eating. Why not? You deserve it.” You know what’s going on here. The wendigos aren’t truly flesh and blood creatures! They’re some sort of spirits or something otherworldly. No wonder you’ve felt strange the entire time you’ve been here. You get up and call your men to leave immediately, only to see some of them have already fully succumbed to the wendigo curse. Eating the bodies laying on the ground and beginning to look less than human and more feral. > You fight As grim as it might be and as tired as you are, you can’t just let the spirits infect your men. For one thing it isn’t any way for a soldier to go down. For another they’ll just become the “new tribe” you just cleared out. Maybe this land is cursed, but you’ll not let it be infested with hosts for the spirits that dwell here. You draw your sword and several of your men who haven’t been affected do likewise. Those that have been infected finally stop their gruesome feast and look at you. “So hungry, must have more flesh, must be fresh, must be YOU!” your second in command screams ghoulishly and attacks you. Another battle takes place, though not as long or nearly as hard as the first, but you and what’s left of your company make a full retreat as fast as possible when it’s over. It isn’t a smooth retreat though. The thoughts of hunger are filling your minds constantly and being tired just makes it easier for the spirits to infect your men. Several more times you have to put down members of your own company who have turned. It isn’t until you leave those accursed wooded hills that you start to feel more like yourself, but even then the journey back isn’t easy. The cold, the hunger, and the overall mental and physical exhaustion takes its toll on your last remaining men. By the time you reach the nearest friendly settlement you have six left. “Heh, just like the old days, you silently chuckle to yourself, briefly thinking of your six Eternal fellows. You don’t think you’ve ever been pushed to the limit like this before. Truly it is only by the Emperor’s strength that you managed to make it through. You only hope you have not shamed him too much with your failure. Eventually you arrive at Fort Destiny and report to Captain Krozer, who is celebrating with several others in the fort. You don’t know what’s causing this unorthodox behavior, but you’re certainly surprised by it. “Captain, I have my mission report.” “Hey! You’re back Bane of Rask! Isn’t that what they call you around here? Ha ha! I’m glad you’re back, I figured your mission would be as successful as mine! Have a drink!” “Uh maybe later captain, but I…did you say there was a victory?” “Well we wouldn’t be sitting here getting drunk if there wasn’t now would we? The campaign against the forest elves was completely successful. I have to give those svelk credit, they can sniff out their kin better than anyone. Was hardly even a fight, when we eventually did find their major home as it was filled mostly with non-combatant women and children. We’d killed most of the warriors trying to get there. Still, always grim business dealing with the enemy civvies. We managed to enslave most of the children at least without killing them, though if the svelk had it their way they would’ve raped and killed everyone. Uncivilized vicious bastards.” The general says taking another drink. “You enslaved them?” you ask being slightly confused by the idea. “Well sure…what you think I’d just kill them? I know that’s the way you do things lieutenant, and probably with those shape shifting barbarians its for the best, but let’s just say I’m a little more merciful than you. Hope it doesn’t ruin your perception of me.” “Uh… not at all. I’m sure you are right captain. The elven children can be indoctrinated to become productive citizens of the Empire. They will learn that our way of life is superior and the correct way.” “Ha ha, that’s why I like you lieutenant. You don’t know any better. Hey let’s take this conversation back to my office, it’s a little loud here.” You say okay and begin to follow her, but she grabs your hand in an effort to lead you. You aren’t sure of how to react, so you just let her. When you get there she sits on her desk and smiles at you. “Relax, lieutenant. I know you’re an Eternal, but you’re always so serious.” “It’s just I really need to report my mission to you captain.” “Oh very well, I know it’s important to you.” She says taking another drink. You tell her exactly what happened and she listens intently to your story. “Well lieutenant, looks like you managed to pull out a victory against all odds once again. I figured you would.” She says. “Victory? I don’t feel like it was a victory, captain. I lost most of the company.” You reply. “Normally I might agree, but from what you told me, it’s amazing you survived at all, let alone bring anyone back alive. Evil spirits, cursed lands, having to kill your own men turning into insane beasts…not something I’d want to face and I’ve seen my fair share of battles. Besides it sounds like the spirits can’t leave that area and you eliminated a majority of their hosts, as well as depriving them of more by doing what was necessary with our transformed soldiers. We’ll probably always have the odd wendigo running around due to idiotic adventurers exploring places where they shouldn’t, but the danger has been curtailed greatly thanks to you.” “The Emperor’s will guided me and his vigor gave me the endurance to succeed.” “Perhaps, but you really should’ve had a battle mage with you. I have no idea why central command has not sent us any despite my requests, things can’t be that bad with the Felkans! Sometimes I wonder what the hell they’re doing down there. Oh well at least I had you right?” she says and gets off her desk. “Of course, I’ll be here for as long I am needed here general.” “Good.” She says and puts her arms around you and kisses you on the lips. You’re taken completely off guard and are completely out of your element. You’re reminded of Captain Pollo’s advances on Gerald, but this is different since you feel a little something for Krozer even though you’ve tried to not think about it. As the time you’ve spent here has gone by, your thoughts of Captain Krozer have sometimes been more than a little “friendly”, but you’ve tried to suppress them. You don’t know how to react except you sort of back away. “Is something wrong lieutenant?” the general asks “I…uh…I don’t….should we be doing this?” “Oh the ranks? Forget about it. I just want sex, it’s not like I’m planning on falling in love. Unless you really feel uncomfortable about protocol, I’d respect it of course, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t disappointed.” “Well, no, I mean… I’ve been having these feelings of lust for you too captain.” You say untactfully. “Ha ha! Well that’s good to know I guess.” The captain laughs. “So what’s the problem then?” “…I just…I’ve never…” “Never…ohhhhh! Really? Though I guess it makes sense. You were trained to kill from birth; going from battlefield to battlefield quoting Empire doctrine (sigh)” the captain touches your face. “Sometimes I wonder if we go too far. Well don’t worry about it; we’ll have time to catch you up. And like I keep telling you, just relax… and call me Alison.” You and the cap…Alison have an interesting time. It certainly isn’t anything you’ve experienced before, but its possibly the most pleasurable thing you’ve ever experienced. You understand a little more to as why other soldiers hold it in such high regard. You know not to let it affect your duty and after a few days of down time, you are ready to serve the Emperor again. Everyone is, Captain Krozer is going to do it elsewhere though, namely the Arat province on the Felkan border. She calls you in to tell you that someone by the name of Mr. Mol has been impressed with your abilities and thinks you are able to handle the Rask frontier without any supervision. As of now you are in charge of Fort Destiny and been promoted to captain. You don’t know what to say. “Congratulations on your new command, though I will say I don’t envy it! After being here for six years myself, I’ll be glad to be sent to the Arat province. Those Felkans can’t possibly be any worse than the shit we’ve faced here.” “It was an honor to serve with you captain.” You say respectfully. “Oh come on, you don’t need to put up a tough front with me, I know you’ll miss me and cry in your pillows at night.” She says with a smirk. “I…won’t! I mean I’ll miss you, but…” “Keep working on developing that sense of humor, but it’s nice to know I’ll be missed.” She says and kisses you on the cheek “Good bye and remember to take a rest from all the killing sometimes and enjoy what you can okay?” With those last words, Alison walks out of her office…or rather your office. And so begins your command of Fort Destiny. > Year 25 “Another protest? What the hell is going on now?” you say. “I don’t know the exact details, just that the miners are protesting their work conditions in the town of Keplavisk.” Lieutenant Verant replies. “I’m getting sick of these protests, the Empire provides everything for these ungrateful wretches and they complain? They ought to be lucky we haven’t sent slaves to do their job! Alright send a detachment there and if they don’t break it up, kill a couple to make a point and remind them that it could be much worse.” “Yes sir.” You sit stuck at your desk wondering when something worthwhile is going to happen. When you were first assigned to this job, the frontier was still dangerous. Even with the elimination of the wendigos and the elven home, there were still minor hostile barbarian tribes running around and sometimes even tribes of ogres or the odd giant who had wandered down from further north. Eventually you eliminated all of those threats to a degree that they were no longer a factor. Then boredom set in as the area became peaceful. For a moment you tried to take Alison’s advice she once gave you, but the problem is, the peace lasted too long, at least for you. Lately though the boredom has become annoyance. There has been a shift in the average Empire citizen’s attitude, namely one of insolence. many have started to complain about their jobs, their food, their freedom, everything. At first you questioned if it wasn’t some sort of supernatural influence as that could at least be a rational explanation of this mass madness. When the first open protests started, you handled them in an efficient manner and they stopped for a while, but only for a while. It’s as if the citizens want you to kill them. And apparently the problem isn’t just here. If anything this sort of open disobedience has been rearing its ugly head in other parts of the Empire a lot more than it has here and a lot sooner. Don’t these people understand that the Empire protects them and gives them everything? If it were not for Emperor’s wisdom to expand, they wouldn’t even have their homes, jobs in whatever province they hail from, never mind the constant vigilance to protect them against monsters that would rip them apart. Sometimes you wish you had been transferred to the Arat province. At least there’s a war going on there. You can only imagine that Warrick and Gerald don’t have to put up with this nonsense. Assuming they are still alive, as you have heard nothing about them and despite your new ranking, you can’t seem to get any information on them either. No word about about Roldan or Brenda either, but you do know that the Nalin province is known to be one of the most orderly places in the Empire now. You would even settle for being transferred to Fort Defiance at this point, they at least have to still have to stem the tide of beasts and monsters from the north. You’ve also wondered about Kane and Edgar. They’re the only two you do have some updated information on, but while you’ve all been in this territory for years you haven’t seen them since the day you separated company. Oh you’ve heard a few stories about Edgar killing giants single handedly, but that’s about it. In fact you’re surprised that neither one of them has earned command of Fort Defiance like you have with Fort Destiny. Sometimes it’s funny how thinking about something causes it to happen. You get a message from Fort Defiance and it’s from Kane! He states that he’s just taken command of Fort Defiance and would like to speak with you in person about some possible joint military operations. You naturally leave for Fort Defiance immediately. A certain excitement and even happiness dwells within you, it’ll be good to see a fellow Eternal again, even if Edgar is probably going to still be combative with you. Who knows though? Maybe he’s changed, it’s been years after all. Your trip to Fort Defiance is uneventful and when you arrive at the fort it’s as large as you’ve heard, but then it would have to be to fend off giants. You are greeted by several heavily armored orc troops and what looks to be a battle mage. (You still never managed to get either assigned to your fort) “Welcome to Fort Defiance captain! I am to take you to General Kane. He is most eager to see you! Come this way!” the battle mage says and as you are escorted through a series of dimly lit corridors one thought goes through your mind: “General?” When you arrive at Kane’s office he looks a little different with his head completely shaved, but other than that he hasn’t changed. He also has another man in his office dressed in dark leather armor, with a cloak. You’ve heard of their reputation, but this is the first time you’ve seen a member of the Shadow Guard. You knew a few were stationed up here though. Kane stands up and greets you. “Well if it isn’t the Bane of Rask! Ha ha ha! How are you my brother?” Kane says in a jovial manner. “I’m fine…brother?” you reply being a little confused by Kane’s demeanor and him calling you brother. “Yes! Of course! We are brothers! We grew up together, we trained together, and we fought together, and we are Eternals! Would that not constitute a brotherly bond?” he says. “Heh, I suppose it would. Never thought about it before I guess.” You reply with a smile. “Hey I’d like you to meet another brother of ours, this is Cyrus. Remember him? He was in our class, but he got transferred to the Shadow Guard when they first separated us.” “Cyrus…oh yes, I do remember him. I have sometimes wondered what happened to some of during that first separation. I guess the rest went to the Shadow Guard then?” “Yes, but only a few of us survived Shadow Guard training. Very few.” “Sounds like us, a few of our class didn’t make it through our training either.” “No, it was nothing like what you went through. Trust me.” Cyrus says coldly. Kane quickly intervenes. “Don’t mind Cyrus, he’s a little on the serious side, sort of like you eh?” “As I recall I don’t remember you being so talkative or jolly either.” You say. “Hey what can I tell you, I’ve changed as the years went by! I’ve learned to take more joy in life and not worry so much about duty or about the Empire!” This last comment is cause for concern. “Not worry about the Empire? What kind of talk is that for an Eternal? And I have a few questions, how did you get promoted to general? I mean why would they need a general up here, this fort has been doing fine without one, the Rask frontier is as quiet as ever and there’s a war going on with the Felkan Kingdom. In fact, where is Edgar? I’ve heard so much about his deeds that I would’ve figured that he might get promoted to command here and certainly not to general.” At this point Kane and Cyrus look at each other and Kane looks back at you with a less cheery disposition. “Very well. It was only a matter of time before I was going to have to bring this up to you anyway. I’ve made myself general and as of recently this fort is no longer under Empire authority.” “You what?!” “I saw the light, with the help of Cyrus here I suppose. The Empire is crumbling, I give it a decade at best and we need to make sure we have a good position when the shit goes down. Don’t you see? That’s why I called you here. You’ve got the plebs further south of the Rask frontier under control and if we combined forces, nobody could stop us! You’re in shock for a moment. Nothing could have prepared you for something like this. “…Kane, you can’t believe that I would go along with something like this!” “But why not? Surely you have heard the reports of the mass civil unrest going on in the Empire, why even in your own area you have had to put civvies in their place.” “Yes, and that just means we have to work harder to preserve the Empire, not abandon it in its time of need!” “Bah! Why bother? It had its time in the sun and now its time for something new to take its place. What better than us? We’re Eternals after all. Just think we could even unite with some of our other siblings in this dying Empire to make ourselves even stronger!” You hold your head in your hands at Kane’s words of secession and treason. This is not the same man you knew, and he is certainly not your “brother.” You never thought the day would come when you’d have to kill a fellow Eternal. > You accept his offer It takes everything in you to not attack, but you’re hoping you can bide your time to gain a better advantage. You’re never really lied before though, so you take deep breath before speaking. “Kane… I think you’re right. Maybe I’ve always known on some level, but it just took someone close to me to point it out. I will join your cause… my brother.” Kane smiles and is certainly overjoyed at your response, but Cyrus looks less than enthusiastic, in fact he’s looking past you. “That’s great! I knew you’d join us! I told you Cyrus!” Kane says looking at Cyrus, but Cyrus is still looking past you, he makes a nod. “Cyrus…wait no!” Kane shouts “He’s lying Kane! Kill him!” You attempt to get up and attack the battle mage behind, but unfortunately he’s already anticipated that and stepped far enough way for you to not get to him in time before he’s already cast a lightning bolt straight in your face. If it had been your body, perhaps you would’ve survived, but a straight blast to your face fries not only your eyes so badly that they melt, but your brain as well. You drop down dead before you can hear Kane’s argument that you could’ve been “turned” to the cause.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Year 25 “Another protest? What the hell is going on now?” you say. “I don’t know the exact details, just that the miners are protesting their work conditions in the town of Keplavisk.” Lieutenant Verant replies. “I’m getting sick of these protests, the Empire provides everything for these ungrateful wretches and they complain? They ought to be lucky we haven’t sent slaves to do their job! Alright send a detachment there and if they don’t break it up, kill a couple to make a point and remind them that it could be much worse.” “Yes sir.” You sit stuck at your desk wondering when something worthwhile is going to happen. When you were first assigned to this job, the frontier was still dangerous. Even with the elimination of the wendigos and the elven home, there were still minor hostile barbarian tribes running around and sometimes even tribes of ogres or the odd giant who had wandered down from further north. Eventually you eliminated all of those threats to a degree that they were no longer a factor. Then boredom set in as the area became peaceful. For a moment you tried to take Alison’s advice she once gave you, but the problem is, the peace lasted too long, at least for you. Lately though the boredom has become annoyance. There has been a shift in the average Empire citizen’s attitude, namely one of insolence. many have started to complain about their jobs, their food, their freedom, everything. At first you questioned if it wasn’t some sort of supernatural influence as that could at least be a rational explanation of this mass madness. When the first open protests started, you handled them in an efficient manner and they stopped for a while, but only for a while. It’s as if the citizens want you to kill them. And apparently the problem isn’t just here. If anything this sort of open disobedience has been rearing its ugly head in other parts of the Empire a lot more than it has here and a lot sooner. Don’t these people understand that the Empire protects them and gives them everything? If it were not for Emperor’s wisdom to expand, they wouldn’t even have their homes, jobs in whatever province they hail from, never mind the constant vigilance to protect them against monsters that would rip them apart. Sometimes you wish you had been transferred to the Arat province. At least there’s a war going on there. You can only imagine that Warrick and Gerald don’t have to put up with this nonsense. Assuming they are still alive, as you have heard nothing about them and despite your new ranking, you can’t seem to get any information on them either. No word about about Roldan or Brenda either, but you do know that the Nalin province is known to be one of the most orderly places in the Empire now. You would even settle for being transferred to Fort Defiance at this point, they at least have to still have to stem the tide of beasts and monsters from the north. You’ve also wondered about Kane and Edgar. They’re the only two you do have some updated information on, but while you’ve all been in this territory for years you haven’t seen them since the day you separated company. Oh you’ve heard a few stories about Edgar killing giants single handedly, but that’s about it. In fact you’re surprised that neither one of them has earned command of Fort Defiance like you have with Fort Destiny. Sometimes it’s funny how thinking about something causes it to happen. You get a message from Fort Defiance and it’s from Kane! He states that he’s just taken command of Fort Defiance and would like to speak with you in person about some possible joint military operations. You naturally leave for Fort Defiance immediately. A certain excitement and even happiness dwells within you, it’ll be good to see a fellow Eternal again, even if Edgar is probably going to still be combative with you. Who knows though? Maybe he’s changed, it’s been years after all. Your trip to Fort Defiance is uneventful and when you arrive at the fort it’s as large as you’ve heard, but then it would have to be to fend off giants. You are greeted by several heavily armored orc troops and what looks to be a battle mage. (You still never managed to get either assigned to your fort) “Welcome to Fort Defiance captain! I am to take you to General Kane. He is most eager to see you! Come this way!” the battle mage says and as you are escorted through a series of dimly lit corridors one thought goes through your mind: “General?” When you arrive at Kane’s office he looks a little different with his head completely shaved, but other than that he hasn’t changed. He also has another man in his office dressed in dark leather armor, with a cloak. You’ve heard of their reputation, but this is the first time you’ve seen a member of the Shadow Guard. You knew a few were stationed up here though. Kane stands up and greets you. “Well if it isn’t the Bane of Rask! Ha ha ha! How are you my brother?” Kane says in a jovial manner. “I’m fine…brother?” you reply being a little confused by Kane’s demeanor and him calling you brother. “Yes! Of course! We are brothers! We grew up together, we trained together, and we fought together, and we are Eternals! Would that not constitute a brotherly bond?” he says. “Heh, I suppose it would. Never thought about it before I guess.” You reply with a smile. “Hey I’d like you to meet another brother of ours, this is Cyrus. Remember him? He was in our class, but he got transferred to the Shadow Guard when they first separated us.” “Cyrus…oh yes, I do remember him. I have sometimes wondered what happened to some of during that first separation. I guess the rest went to the Shadow Guard then?” “Yes, but only a few of us survived Shadow Guard training. Very few.” “Sounds like us, a few of our class didn’t make it through our training either.” “No, it was nothing like what you went through. Trust me.” Cyrus says coldly. Kane quickly intervenes. “Don’t mind Cyrus, he’s a little on the serious side, sort of like you eh?” “As I recall I don’t remember you being so talkative or jolly either.” You say. “Hey what can I tell you, I’ve changed as the years went by! I’ve learned to take more joy in life and not worry so much about duty or about the Empire!” This last comment is cause for concern. “Not worry about the Empire? What kind of talk is that for an Eternal? And I have a few questions, how did you get promoted to general? I mean why would they need a general up here, this fort has been doing fine without one, the Rask frontier is as quiet as ever and there’s a war going on with the Felkan Kingdom. In fact, where is Edgar? I’ve heard so much about his deeds that I would’ve figured that he might get promoted to command here and certainly not to general.” At this point Kane and Cyrus look at each other and Kane looks back at you with a less cheery disposition. “Very well. It was only a matter of time before I was going to have to bring this up to you anyway. I’ve made myself general and as of recently this fort is no longer under Empire authority.” “You what?!” “I saw the light, with the help of Cyrus here I suppose. The Empire is crumbling, I give it a decade at best and we need to make sure we have a good position when the shit goes down. Don’t you see? That’s why I called you here. You’ve got the plebs further south of the Rask frontier under control and if we combined forces, nobody could stop us! You’re in shock for a moment. Nothing could have prepared you for something like this. “…Kane, you can’t believe that I would go along with something like this!” “But why not? Surely you have heard the reports of the mass civil unrest going on in the Empire, why even in your own area you have had to put civvies in their place.” “Yes, and that just means we have to work harder to preserve the Empire, not abandon it in its time of need!” “Bah! Why bother? It had its time in the sun and now its time for something new to take its place. What better than us? We’re Eternals after all. Just think we could even unite with some of our other siblings in this dying Empire to make ourselves even stronger!” You hold your head in your hands at Kane’s words of secession and treason. This is not the same man you knew, and he is certainly not your “brother.” You never thought the day would come when you’d have to kill a fellow Eternal. > You decline his offer The idea is so repugnant to you that you can’t even bring yourself to even lie about joining him. It probably wouldn’t work anyway; you’ve never been a good liar. You breathe deeply before speaking again. “Kane, I am NOT going to help you. Now you do what you must, and I shall do what I must.” “Told you this was a waste of time, let us be done with this.” Cyrus says and points a small crossbow on his wrist and fires it at you, though Kane knocks his hand away causing the bolt to just hit your shoulder. You fall back in your chair and grab the battle mage who was still standing by. He falls to floor on top of you and you break his neck. You feel a little dizzy though; whatever was in that dart is putting you to sleep fast. You hear Kane and Cyrus arguing as large orcs stomp into the office and begin kicking you as you fall unconscious. When you wake up, you hear an unexpected familiar voice, though the most unexpected thing is that you woke up at all. “Hey, get up. Good thing that weak ass poison doesn’t work on us very well.” Edgar says helping you up. “Edgar? What’s happened here?” You ask looking around and finding yourself stripped of most of your clothing and in a cell. “I knew he wouldn’t be able to convince you. I told Kane that, but he kept going on about how you’d understand, just like how in time I would come to understand. He said that siblings may have their fights, but in the end they always make up.” “Is that how come he hasn’t killed us?” “I guess so, though I don’t think Cyrus would have such sentimental feelings and would have us killed if he had more say in the matter.” “Well, Cyrus at least seems to be thinking like an Eternal in that respect. Kane has apparently gone completely mad though…how the hell did this happen?!” “You got time for a story?” Edgar asks rhetorically before explaining from the beginning. Edgar says that when he and Kane first arrived they were met with a little hostility from everyone else and while their prowess in battle earned them respect, they still were never really “accepted” by anyone. Edgar says he didn’t care of course and was content with the respect that he had earned and getting accolades for slaying giants and such. Kane wasn’t handling the isolation as well and was becoming increasingly more withdrawn. He did his job, but he behaved in a manner that even the orc soldiers found a little unnerving. Nobody wanted to even eat with him, got to a point where the captain of the fort had to send him out primarily on scouting missions by himself. Edgar believes that Kane must’ve really taken the split of the team harder than any of you could’ve known. He suspects that might’ve first lead to his quirk of referring to other Eternals as siblings. He would often mention to Edgar sometimes about how much he missed spending time with you all and couldn’t wait for the day when you all would be together again. “(Sigh) All he needed was for me to interact with him on a regular basis, but I was too busy concerned with my own glory. Time in this cell has really given me time to reflect on a lot of bad choices I’ve made in the present and the past.” “What’s done is done now, but where does Cyrus come in?” you ask. Edgar explains that Cyrus was transferred here four years ago as part of a replacement Shadow Guard detachment to help with the latest giant incursion. He knows Kane was sent on a mission with the Shadow Guard during that time and that’s probably where they started to talk more to each other. Normally Shadow Guards don’t interact with anyone other than other Shadow Guards, but Kane hung around him to such a degree that Cyrus eventually began to talk with Kane on his own accord. “I don’t think Cyrus’ Shadow Guard buddies approved of it too much, but he was their leader so they didn’t say much.” Edgar says. “So how did they control over the whole fort?” Edgar explains again that Cyrus and Kane must’ve cooked up this plan in secret for years, as in time various changes began to occur. The only initial thing that Edgar began to notice was the increase in orc troops being sent here. Granted there was always some stationed here, but now they were starting to out number the human soldiers, and he thought they were mostly going to the front lines on the Felkan border. However, this area was still very dangerous, so ultimately more orc troops here didn’t raise any immediate alarms. The next thing he noticed was that there were less and less attacks by giants and ogres, but Edgar chalked that up to him killing so many of them that naturally they would probably have less members to spare now. Not to mention with all the orcs here now, the giants were having a tougher time of it. The third thing he noticed was Kane becoming less introverted and more aggressive towards the orcs. He witnessed several fights that Kane himself started with various orc leaders. He won with ease of course and it appeared as if he was just being combative out of boredom, but in retrospect there was very real purpose. To establish no doubt to as who is the “real leader.” Captain Ian wasn’t fond of this sort of behavior in any way though and reprimanded Kane several times, but it was obvious he didn’t care. “It was at this point I finally started to talk to Kane on a serious level, just to figure out what was going on with him. All he said to me, was you’ll see in another year brother, with a great big grin on his face. Of course when that year came I found out everything. His private orc army. his alliance with the neighboring giant and ogre tribes, his plans to unite this land completely under him and take on the Empire itself. As you can see I didn’t agree with his plans. I know I have my faults, but disloyalty isn’t one of them.” “He’s allied with ogres and giants? So wait, how long has Kane taken control of this place?” You ask. “We were still getting reports from here from Captain Ian up until last month.” “Hah! Captain Ian’s been dead for more than a few months now! Kane’s just been going through the motions of sending reports and messengers, probably to make sure you or nobody else sent anyone to investigate before he was ready to openly defy the Empire.” “By the Emperor I can’t believe I was so close and never suspected anything wrong going on up here, let alone treason!” you say. “If it’s any consolation, you weren’t the only one. Besides like I said, I was here and I should’ve been the one to do something before anyone. Instead I got myself captured. Tried to bust out a few times, I figured I’d either escape or die trying. There’s just too many of those tough orc bastards though. Even when I managed to get a weapon the blasted battle mage would cast some sort of spell and I’d go completely weak and groggy. Then I’d end up back here again. Heh, Kane’s so crazy now that he still believes that I’ll eventually side with him.” “Did you say battle mage? As in one?” “Yeah, used to have two and they probably would’ve liked to get more stationed here before unleashing their plan, but they had to make due with the ones that cooperated. I killed one of them before my first capture.” “Well they don’t have any now, because I killed the other one before I got sent here.” Edgar tries to contain his enthusiasm. “That’s great! I mean with you by my side and none of that magic shit to complicate things, you’ve given us a much improved chance to escape for good!” Never thought you’d hear Edgar to be so happy to fight along side you, and normally you might even be a little happy too, but right now you’re concerned with escape. The longer you’re gone, the more likely Lieutenant Verant will send someone up here to investigate. They’ll be killed of course and then Kane will undoubtedly push a full attack on to Fort Destiny ad you don’t have the highest hopes that they’d survive an attack by a combined army of orcs, ogres and giants without being prepared at least. You waste no time coming up with a plan. Simplest ones often work the best, Edgar tells you that it’ll be feeding time soon and that you should remain “unconscious” and he’ll do the rest. You get into position and eventually hear the footsteps of your orc jailer. “Here’s yer food, Ed!” one of them says carrying a bowl. “Hey! Why’d you dump a dead body into this cell with me?” Edgar says. “Wha? He ain’t dead he’s just knocked out! I should know I was one of guys that kicked him in da head! Har har har har!” “Well he died in his sleep then from your kick to his head. I recognize him as an Eternal and Kane’s gonna be pissed that you killed him!” “He ain’t dead! He sleep!” “I’m telling you he’s dead! Don’t believe me, you better check yourself.” “Oh no, I know you Ed. You gonna try bash my skull in as soon as I open door. If he really dead, then I just say you killed him.” “And you really think Kane’s gonna believe that? He knows Eternal don’t kill each other, that’s why he’s keeping me alive even though I escape!” The orc pauses for a moment and decides he can’t take the chance. “Bah, alright, I’ll check, but I’m tellin’ you he’s just still unconscious! That shadow guy hit ‘im with one of doze bolts of his. But YOU are gonna do something first.” The orc tells Edgar to turn his back and get close to the cell bars, at which point the orc shackles him so her is unable to attack him. Thank the Emperor that most orcs are still not the brightest lanterns. The orc approaches you and that’s when you spring into action. You struggle with the orc jailer until you manage to grab his dagger and repeatedly stab him in the throat with it to the point where you nearly decapitate him. After kicking the dead orc in the face you grab his keys and release Edgar. “Okay I know of a route we can try to escape through, nearly made it the last time, but again the mage showed up. That won’t be a problem this time and they probably won’t think I’ll try it again.” Edgar says. The obvious thing to do is to concentrate on escaping the fort, though another part of you wants to go back to find Kane and Cyrus to kill them. > You escape As much as you’d like to kill both Kane and Cyrus, you’re outnumbered and you can’t even be sure if you’d catch them together again in this big fort. Better to escape and come back later better prepared to punish them. Still you’re going to need some sort of gear to survive the cold outside of the fort. “We can’t just escape half naked like this. We’re going to need some sort of clothing or better yet armor and weapons.” You say “Yeah, there is a small supply room on the way. It isn’t the main one, but it shouldn’t have any guards by it either. We have to make our way to the kitchen area first, should be relatively empty right now.” It takes some sneaking around, but Edgar’s knowledge of the layout gets you there with relative ease. When you do get to the room you find some old battered armor and dull weapons. It will have to do. Edgar mentions that there is a garbage dump chute in the kitchen which leads underground, from there, there’s a long tunnel which eventually leads to a dead end with a hidden hatch. He says he’s knows it leads into a forest area, but not much more than that since the battle mage zapped him and he was dragged back by that time. You and Edgar sneak into the kitchen, but it isn’t completely empty. The cook and a couple of his assistants are there, you and Edgar make quick work of them before they notice you, though Edgar is a little sloppier than you and the assistant that he cuts down knocks over a bunch of pots as he body hits the floor. The clatter is quite loud and you waste no time in looking for the garbage chute. It’s foul and disgusting, but there’s no other option. You jump in and slide down quite easy due to the slimy remains of food greasing the chute. When you reach the bottom a giant pile of garbage cushions you. The smell is almost overpowering, but you have no time to worry about awful smells as you are attacked by larger than normal vermin feasting through the pile. Your boots squish through the disgusting muck as you swing your weapon to drive away or kill the aggressive rats. Edgar comes crashing down from the chute and helps you. “Ugh, forgot how bad this place smelled.” Edgar says kicking a rat. “Guess you forgot about the giant rats as well?” “No, but I figured it wouldn’t be that big of a surprise for you.” You and Edgar manage to fight your way down the small mountain of trash and make your way down the tunnel until you eventually get to a built in ladder leading up to a hatch. “Is this it? It seems like a terrible idea to have this at the fort. Anyone could sneak down here and infiltrate.” You mention. “Nah, it’s pretty well hidden from the outside, in fact it can only open from the inside. Not like any ogre is bright enough to notice it and a giant certainly couldn’t get down here. Plus it locks shut when you get outside. I think it was originally supposed to be an escape tunnel in the first place, but it looks like it got turned into a garbage pit instead. Come on.” Edgar opens up the hatch and holds it open for you as you make your way to the cold outside world. You look around and it is just as Edgar said, a forest area with no major distinguishing markers. You see that the sun is setting and use that as a guide for which general direction you need to go. You figure it’ll probably take a few days to get back to Fort Destiny, but you should be able to make it. You and Edgar walk a good half hour before you realize something is wrong. “Shhh. You hear that?” you ask. “Can’t be ogres, they would’ve attacked us by now.” “It probably isn’t…find cover!” you exclaim. Several bolts whiz past you as you duck down rolling around in the snow and run in a zig zag fashion getting behind several trees so as to not get hit. Edgar isn’t as quick as you and he is hit by two of the bolts. Not enough to kill him, but if they have that same toxin that you experienced on them he’s not going to stay conscious for long. The Shadow Guard assailants finally show themselves and jump out of the trees. Edgar is feeling the effects of the toxin, but he struggles to stay awake to defend himself. You find yourself fighting three of the shadows that circle around you. One of them attacks and you grab his arm breaking it in one quick move, when another attacks you, you shove his broken arm friend into his blade. They both fall to the ground. The third one lands a couple of hits on your back; cutting through the poor armor you’re wearing. You deliver a hefty back kick to his gut and follow up with a spinning swipe with your sword. Your sword’s edge is dull and not sharp enough to cleanly decapitate the shadow, instead it makes a large cruel gash in his neck which spurts blood like a small fountain. The result is still effective and he collapses into the snow. Your other adversary has gotten up off the ground and throws a dagger at you, which you just narrowly avoid. He tries to fight you fairly, but it’s clear he is no match for you and you easily dispatch him. You then finish off the shadow with the broken arm and wound in his belly. Edgar is still fighting the two shadows attacking him. Under normal circumstances, he’d probably easily dispatch them, but the toxin is having its effect and from the front and back their short swords stab him. He falls to the ground when the shadow behind him cuts at his tendons. You strike your blade into the skull of one of the shadows when he only crumples to his knees, you slam the dull blade on his head again splitting it open and revealing the gooey brains within. The last shadow tries to run away, and climb to a nearby tree in the hopes of escaping you, but you manage to jump up and grab hi dangling legs and pull him crashing to the ground. After a small scuffle you wrap your forearms around his neck and break it. You walk over to Edgar who is still struggling to stay awake, but he’s fighting more than just the toxin now, his wounds are quite severe. You kneel down beside him, it seems odd for you given your past history, but you feel a sense of sadness. “He…hey…did you get him?” “Yeah, Edgar, I got him.” “That’s… good. I’m sorr..” “It’s in the past Edgar. Don’t worry about it.” You tell him, as you know what he’s going to apologize for. He then quietly loses consciousness and stops breathing altogether. After a few moments of silence, you carry on to Fort Destiny without Edgar. You think about all the things you plan to do to Kane and Cyrus if you manage to get your hands on them the entire time you’re traveling back to Fort Destiny. Eventually you get to a town where you ride the rest of the way to Fort Destiny. Lieutenant Verant is relieved to see you. He says was just about to send someone up to Fort Defiance to see what happened to you. You’d really like to raise your entire force from the fort and march upon Fort Defiance immediately, but you question if you’d be able to take it. Other than the defenses being on full alert now, Kane may have already rallied his ogre and giant allies. It might be best if you report this back to the generals at home. Surely they’ll spare you some reinforcements for something like this, not to mention they’ll need to be warned anyway due to the Shadow Guard revolt that’s already been in planning for quite some time. Still, it could be awhile for you to wait, not to mention they may not send you any at all. All which would be wasted time you could’ve spent attacking Kane so he doesn’t get too dug in. > You wait for reinforcements With all the extra allies Kane has, you can’t possibly take the fort without heavy losses and with all the problems you’ve been having with peasants you’re still going to need enough troops to keep them in line afterwards. You need at least another army up here. You tell Verant to send a message to the generals back home about the situation and if they can provide reinforcements then to do so right away. In the meantime you’re going to build up the defenses on the fort and the towns in the surrounding area. A week or so passes before you get any sort of reply. You are given orders to hold the area, but that’s about it. With this new revelation of the Shadow Guard treachery and dissention within the orc ranks the generals are busily attempting to weed out any more within the home territories as well as having to redistribute regular soldiers where Shadow Guard were keeping the peasants in line. The war with the Felkans is also still going on, so any immediate reinforcements would go to that area first anyway. In short, you’re on your own as usual and reports are already coming in about ogre attacks on the outer villages. It’ll only be a matter of time before those are giants or Kane’s entire army of orcs. You curse your situation and prepare yourself for a long ongoing war. Year 26 “Shoot the bastards!” you shout at the catapult crews. They unleash another volley of rocks on the attacking giants. Several of the rocks hit their targets, but it’s not like you’re not taking a barrage of large boulders either, in fact the orcs have taken to lobbing large balls of dung over the walls and it’s already been starting to cause sickness among your troops. Especially after days of ongoing attack, a dwindling food supply and no relief in sight. The months of battling Kane’s traitor brigade has all lead up to this, completely surrounded by them. You did your best to hold them back, but ultimately Kane could replace his losses faster thanks to the brutality of his own troops. After ogres destroyed several of the smaller villages completely along with the mere threat of giants it wasn’t long that some of the peasant communities were willing to accept Kane’s “rule” more readily than the Empire’s, which they were already disgruntled with due to the lack of proper protection among other things. The Shadow Guard didn’t help matters as most of them that had been rooted out in the home territories fled up to the Rask under Cyrus’ leadership, along with some of the orcs that had heard about the rebellion. Any towns that hadn’t immediately fell under the sway of the direct fear from Kane’s army fell to the subversive and terror tactics of the Shadow Guard. “Get those orcs on the north side! They’re climbing up the fucking walls!” you shout. Boiling oil is thrown over the side of the wall, scalding the orcs on ladders. Some of them fall, others are tougher and maintain their grip. You shove the ladder back, making sure to get the ones that the oil failed to. You look around and see that the orcs have begun to break through the front door. You then have that familiar sense that you’ve had so many other times over the past few months. You duck down and roll while swinging your sword in front of you. You hit something and uncloak a Shadow Guard that has managed to infiltrate the fort. He isn’t the only one though. Several more appear nearby to kill the remaining men you have defending the walls. You continue to fight valiantly, cutting down many of the Shadow Guard that have managed to get inside the fort. A boulder crashes into the side of the wall destroying it and causing you to fall off the walkway and to the ground within the fort. You get back up as quickly as you can to see orcs pouring into the front gates and the remainder of your men slaughtered. Griping your sword one last time your only regret is not taking the opportunity to kill Kane and Cyrus a year ago when you were captured at Fort Defiance. Indeed you played everything a bit too cautiously. None of it matters now though, the only thing you can do is go out like a true warrior. If not victory, then you can take comfort in that at least. “For the Empire!” you shout and charge into the horde.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>As much as you’d like to kill both Kane and Cyrus, you’re outnumbered and you can’t even be sure if you’d catch them together again in this big fort. Better to escape and come back later better prepared to punish them. Still you’re going to need some sort of gear to survive the cold outside of the fort. “We can’t just escape half naked like this. We’re going to need some sort of clothing or better yet armor and weapons.” You say “Yeah, there is a small supply room on the way. It isn’t the main one, but it shouldn’t have any guards by it either. We have to make our way to the kitchen area first, should be relatively empty right now.” It takes some sneaking around, but Edgar’s knowledge of the layout gets you there with relative ease. When you do get to the room you find some old battered armor and dull weapons. It will have to do. Edgar mentions that there is a garbage dump chute in the kitchen which leads underground, from there, there’s a long tunnel which eventually leads to a dead end with a hidden hatch. He says he’s knows it leads into a forest area, but not much more than that since the battle mage zapped him and he was dragged back by that time. You and Edgar sneak into the kitchen, but it isn’t completely empty. The cook and a couple of his assistants are there, you and Edgar make quick work of them before they notice you, though Edgar is a little sloppier than you and the assistant that he cuts down knocks over a bunch of pots as he body hits the floor. The clatter is quite loud and you waste no time in looking for the garbage chute. It’s foul and disgusting, but there’s no other option. You jump in and slide down quite easy due to the slimy remains of food greasing the chute. When you reach the bottom a giant pile of garbage cushions you. The smell is almost overpowering, but you have no time to worry about awful smells as you are attacked by larger than normal vermin feasting through the pile. Your boots squish through the disgusting muck as you swing your weapon to drive away or kill the aggressive rats. Edgar comes crashing down from the chute and helps you. “Ugh, forgot how bad this place smelled.” Edgar says kicking a rat. “Guess you forgot about the giant rats as well?” “No, but I figured it wouldn’t be that big of a surprise for you.” You and Edgar manage to fight your way down the small mountain of trash and make your way down the tunnel until you eventually get to a built in ladder leading up to a hatch. “Is this it? It seems like a terrible idea to have this at the fort. Anyone could sneak down here and infiltrate.” You mention. “Nah, it’s pretty well hidden from the outside, in fact it can only open from the inside. Not like any ogre is bright enough to notice it and a giant certainly couldn’t get down here. Plus it locks shut when you get outside. I think it was originally supposed to be an escape tunnel in the first place, but it looks like it got turned into a garbage pit instead. Come on.” Edgar opens up the hatch and holds it open for you as you make your way to the cold outside world. You look around and it is just as Edgar said, a forest area with no major distinguishing markers. You see that the sun is setting and use that as a guide for which general direction you need to go. You figure it’ll probably take a few days to get back to Fort Destiny, but you should be able to make it. You and Edgar walk a good half hour before you realize something is wrong. “Shhh. You hear that?” you ask. “Can’t be ogres, they would’ve attacked us by now.” “It probably isn’t…find cover!” you exclaim. Several bolts whiz past you as you duck down rolling around in the snow and run in a zig zag fashion getting behind several trees so as to not get hit. Edgar isn’t as quick as you and he is hit by two of the bolts. Not enough to kill him, but if they have that same toxin that you experienced on them he’s not going to stay conscious for long. The Shadow Guard assailants finally show themselves and jump out of the trees. Edgar is feeling the effects of the toxin, but he struggles to stay awake to defend himself. You find yourself fighting three of the shadows that circle around you. One of them attacks and you grab his arm breaking it in one quick move, when another attacks you, you shove his broken arm friend into his blade. They both fall to the ground. The third one lands a couple of hits on your back; cutting through the poor armor you’re wearing. You deliver a hefty back kick to his gut and follow up with a spinning swipe with your sword. Your sword’s edge is dull and not sharp enough to cleanly decapitate the shadow, instead it makes a large cruel gash in his neck which spurts blood like a small fountain. The result is still effective and he collapses into the snow. Your other adversary has gotten up off the ground and throws a dagger at you, which you just narrowly avoid. He tries to fight you fairly, but it’s clear he is no match for you and you easily dispatch him. You then finish off the shadow with the broken arm and wound in his belly. Edgar is still fighting the two shadows attacking him. Under normal circumstances, he’d probably easily dispatch them, but the toxin is having its effect and from the front and back their short swords stab him. He falls to the ground when the shadow behind him cuts at his tendons. You strike your blade into the skull of one of the shadows when he only crumples to his knees, you slam the dull blade on his head again splitting it open and revealing the gooey brains within. The last shadow tries to run away, and climb to a nearby tree in the hopes of escaping you, but you manage to jump up and grab hi dangling legs and pull him crashing to the ground. After a small scuffle you wrap your forearms around his neck and break it. You walk over to Edgar who is still struggling to stay awake, but he’s fighting more than just the toxin now, his wounds are quite severe. You kneel down beside him, it seems odd for you given your past history, but you feel a sense of sadness. “He…hey…did you get him?” “Yeah, Edgar, I got him.” “That’s… good. I’m sorr..” “It’s in the past Edgar. Don’t worry about it.” You tell him, as you know what he’s going to apologize for. He then quietly loses consciousness and stops breathing altogether. After a few moments of silence, you carry on to Fort Destiny without Edgar. You think about all the things you plan to do to Kane and Cyrus if you manage to get your hands on them the entire time you’re traveling back to Fort Destiny. Eventually you get to a town where you ride the rest of the way to Fort Destiny. Lieutenant Verant is relieved to see you. He says was just about to send someone up to Fort Defiance to see what happened to you. You’d really like to raise your entire force from the fort and march upon Fort Defiance immediately, but you question if you’d be able to take it. Other than the defenses being on full alert now, Kane may have already rallied his ogre and giant allies. It might be best if you report this back to the generals at home. Surely they’ll spare you some reinforcements for something like this, not to mention they’ll need to be warned anyway due to the Shadow Guard revolt that’s already been in planning for quite some time. Still, it could be awhile for you to wait, not to mention they may not send you any at all. All which would be wasted time you could’ve spent attacking Kane so he doesn’t get too dug in. > You march upon the fort now You can’t wait. You may serve the Empire and be against Kane’s traitorous ways, but there is an unfortunate element in truth in what he says. If you need to get anything done around here, you’ll have to do it yourself, not rely on the Empire. You tell Verant to send a message to the generals back home about the situation and if they can provide reinforcements then to do so right away, but in any case you’re attacking Fort Defiance immediately. You muster up all your forces, troops, siege weapons, everything that could help you and leaving only a skeleton crew back to guard Fort Destiny. When you begin your march, you try to remain confident that you can take the fort. As soon as you start to enter the long stretches of snowy wilderness that precede Fort Defiance, tribes of ogres attack you. Kane’s already prepared. Within a mile of Fort Defiance and you can see large looming figures in the distance almost as big as the fort itself. You have to remind your troops to find their courage and that no overgrown abomination is going to best any soldier of the Empire. On the first day of the siege your catapults hurl their boulders at the fort and your ballistae fire at the giants. It’s an impressive volley, which damages the walls and critically wounds some of their giant allies, but the counter attack is just as brutal to your side. Multiple boulders comes crashing down on your men hurled by the giants. Fort Defiance’s own ballistae aim for your siege weapons, destroying several of them. By the third day, you pull your sword out of the last giant after stabbing him several times in the neck and jump several feet to the ground just before his falling body and crush you. Your men are still attempting to break down the doors of the fort which is heavily reinforced. Attempting to scale its walls results in them being scalded to death by boiling oil. The orcs have even resorted to catapulting their dung at you; it’s only going to be a matter of time before disease starts to take effect on your men. You would’ve tried the same thing, but orcs are notoriously resistant to such biological warfare. By the fourth day, your troops are dwindling and you’re still no closer to capturing the fort. Ogre tribes harass your people from the outside and you lead your best men to the hidden hatch you escaped from. Upon finding it again, you destroy the hatch door and descend. When you and your men arrive at the garbage pile though, you’re in for a minor surprise, as a troop of orcs are waiting for you. Apparently somebody figured you might try to get in this way. The battle with the orcs isn’t a pleasant one. Along with the smell, there is also the disgusting ichor that’s ankle deep as you fight the orcs. Through the filth and trash though you manage to maintain your composure and dispatch the orcs with the help of your men. After the fighting is over, your next plan is to climb up the chute and do damage from within. It takes a little exertion due to the chute being incredibly greasy, but eventually you manage to apply pressure to the sides of the chute and start climbing up it slowly. Your men do likewise. You’re about midway through this slimy tube when all of a sudden the top part opens up and your heart sinks when an orcish face appears. “Hah, boss waz right. Time to burn now!” he says and throws at torch at you. Normally this wouldn’t do much damage by itself, but with the combination of grease, oil and other flammable muck you’ve been rolling around it, you light up like a tinderbox along with the entire grease covered chute. You lose your grip and slide back down crashing into your men and setting them on fire as well. When you hit the pile of garbage below, you’re completely engulfed by the flames and the garbage pile goes up like an inferno. The screams of your men burning alive and your own skin crackling are the last sounds you hear.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The thrush and the castle alike welcomed the morning. It was one of those one rare and precious days of spring with neither rain nor snow, insect pests nor incessant clamor of a migratory flock, biting frost nor unbearable heat. No, it was none of these things. It was a thing of beauty and a sight to behold, and as usual, Sir Osis of the Liver hated it anyway. When most laborers had already been working for several hours, Sir Osis was just rolling out of his bed. As he spent the next hour eating breakfast and nursing his head in silence, he reflected on what he could do that day. He could go around the village and watch for criminals, old ladies whose cats insisted upon climbing trees they had no intention of descending, and such, or he could stay home and train or take care of some business…or perhaps lie in bed some more. > You go to the Village If Sir Osis got into the habit of never leaving his quarters, he might as well have been any worthless beggar. Sir Osis was a knight, and a knight had a job to do. He made himself presentable, put on his armor, and told the stable-boy to get his horse ready. Alphonse had been a gift from Queen Justinia years ago and was the finest horse Sir Osis had ever had the pleasure of riding, although, being only ten hands, Alphonse was only a horse in the sense that he was some sort of equine. After a few minutes of breathing in the fragrance of horse and kicking dandelions to make the seeds fly, the stable-boy came out leading a white pony which had a perpetual expression of stink-eye. Sir Osis thanked him before mounting the pony. “Come along, Alphonse! There is much work to be done!” he said with a kick to Alphonse’s sides. Alphonse began to lumber into the courtyard with all the speed of a drunken butterfly. The extra speed must have been due to Sir Osis’s naturally motivating voice. Eventually he came out of the gate and into the lower castle where the village was. Here was the blacksmith, the weaver, the tailor, the church, and any nice thing you would expect from a respectable village except for a brothel. As his lord did not allow that within his walls, the brothel was set up immediately in front of and to the left of the outermost gate. As he rode through the village, when he was not attempting to cut an imposing figure, he was noticing something strange. He saw no pickpocketing, witnessed no bar fights, and met no old ladies needing help with their cats. Heck, ol’ Jeremiah wasn’t even disturbing the peace with senile shouting today. Yet, Sir Osis had gone out today determined to protect the village, defend the honor of women, and all those knightly things, and that he would do. He decided to go to one of the merchant stalls and ask if there was trouble of any sort. Merchants had a tendency to learn about these things at a speed rivalled only by old women, after all. Sir Osis saw a merchant known as Andrew selling a carpet to the butcher’s wife and approached him, “I trust you’ve been having a good morning, Andrew.” “Wait your—oh. It’s you, sir,” Andrew said, stiffening. “Yes, I have decided to come out and see if there was any trouble brewing that I could put a stop to this fine morn.” “No, sir, but we would do well to keep it that way.” Sir Osis dismounted and leaned on the stall. “Are you certain of this?” “I am, and could you—Sarah! I’ll give you a special price for your—well, she’s gone now….” Andrew muttered something unintelligible, took a deep breath, and turned to look Sir Osis directly in the eye. “I have just recalled that the miller was experiencing some trouble with rats. Mayhap you could find it within your kind and merciful self to rid him of them.” “Andrew, rats are an important part of the natural world. To eliminate rats would be to starve the hawks and the snakes. You have to learn to think of consequences before you say such things.” Andrew looked as if he was going to say something, but he changed his mind and just nodded. “I shall try, sir. Now, I did think of something you may be interested in. There’s a merchant caravan passing through to the next town, and I hear they also have the daughter of some lord or another with them. Now, they are not going far, but in light of the recent increase in banditry on that road, I doubt they would object if you offered some extra protection.” He shrugged. “Maybe you could have a vacation afterwards too. You would certainly deserve one after all the hard work you have been putting in.” “Hmmm, you know. That is a worthy idea! I am indebted to you for your help today.” “Don’t even think of it. You should probably make haste. They shall not be here long.” Sir Osis mounted Alphonse and rode at a speed that would put a pregnant housefly to shame to go find the caravan master. Sir Osis found the caravan master buying some flour from the miller. He was a short, leather-sinned man dressed in simple but well-made clothing and carried himself as one who had spent his life learning of his own inferiority. “Are you the master of the caravan that is passing through?” he asked, dismounting. “Aye, good sir. The name’s John,” he answered with a polite bow. “Osis of the Liver. I heard you are in need of protection and have come to offer my services.” “I would be most grateful to you, Sir Osis. What measure of payment be ye expecting?” “I’ll accept no payment, goodman. It is my sworn duty to protect the innocent from such dangers as present themselves upon the road,” he said with a heroic pose. It helped that the innocent included a noble lady. Talk about brownie points. “Well then, can you leave at noon?” That gave him around an hour and a half to prepare. That would totally work. “I shall meet thee before noon!” he said, swinging his leg over the pony. “Come along, Alphonse.” John the caravan master watched bewildered as Alphonse plodded along majestically. > The Caravan Just as he promised, Sir Osis arrived a few minutes before noon with his sword sharpened and his bladder emptied. The caravan was on the smaller side, and, aside from the single covered carriage, lightly guarded. Evidently the bit about precious cargo was slightly exaggerated, unless the crown jewels were hidden in the saddlebag of one of the mules. Still, the caravan’s small size probably made for an even more enticing target for bandits. “Ten minutes, everyone!” the caravan master cried. One merchant who had decided to try to sell some of his stock here began hastily packing his things. Sir Osis decided this would be a good time to introduce himself to the lady who he had learned was Marian, daughter of Lord Feithid. He rode over to the carriage and bowed while atop his horse. Alphonse nearly fell over, but quickly recovered. He was a good horse. The lord’s daughter was a plump girl with a very bored expression and made no acknowledgement of Sir Osis, save a slight wave of the hand. “I trust your travels have gone well so far, Lady Feithid.” “Uh-huuuh.” He chose to take that as the affirmative and continued, “I shall be providing you with some extra protection for the remainder of your journey, as these roads can be very treacherous.” “Sure.” “If you need anything at all—” “Got it. Get you and that pony away from me. I’m trying to daydream about Scuzzi in peace.” He stared in shock a moment before hesitantly asking, “Scuzzi, milady?” “The Danish skald. Gosh, old people. He’s so ruggedly handsome, yet he smells so good….How could you not have heard of him?! Go stab some children or whatever ye uncultured brutes do!” “Forgive me, milady.” Sir Osis rode away from the carriage, attempting to determine whether that conversation could be called a success or a failure. After much contemplation, he determined it a success. After another hour, the caravan master finally got everyone ready to go, and they set off on their way. It was unfortunate that they had not left in the morning, but the days were long in spring. The smell of cool mud and the sounds of the carts and the birds were a lullaby to Sir Osis, and he had to make up a little story in his head about a robin fighting a war against a rattlesnake army to entertain himself. He should have been a skald or a bard himself, because the story was so entertaining that he did not notice a man walking out into the middle of the road in front of them and drawing a bow. The group came to a halt, and the guards drew closer to the carriage. Sir Osis readied his hand to draw his sword and looked into the trees. He couldn’t see anybody else, but if there were, things could get very bad. “Hand over the goods, and drop your weapons, and nobody will get hurt” the highwayman said. “I’ll drop them in Hell!” one of the guards screamed before charging him. His words proved prophesy when he was stopped with an arrow through his neck. With the bandit having to draw and aim again, this was perhaps a good opportunity to take him out, or there was the option to wait for another opportunity, perhaps while he was assisting in the handing over of goods. > You attack him He wasn’t about to let this bastard make a fool of him. Alphonse charged as Sir Osis drew his sword. The bandit was caught off guard by the site of a grown man in armor bouncing around on a pony, and he did not react in time to prevent being stabbed in the stomach. Sir Osis’s triumph ended when a chorus of shouts came from the forest, and bandits came pouring out. Bandits were a lot better at hiding than they used to be. Sir Osis immediately went on the defensive and began to cut down men left and right. He cut down two of them, you see—one on the left, and one on the right. Then a blow to his chest from a very large man knocked him off his horse. He hit the ground stunned and the large man immediately knocked him unconscious. When he woke up, the surrounding were tinged with grey. There was an intense, throbbing pain in his head and his face itched. A lot. He tried to get up, but he realized his arms and legs were bound and his armor was gone. A wave of nausea came over him, and he ended up making a mess all over his shirt. Then he remembered what had happened. He had been hit in the head, several times, and the resulting blood had dried on him. After a few more minutes of lying in a tired daze, he rolled onto his side to look around. Tied to a tree were a pair of the merchants, and Lady Feithid and another girl both sat on the ground with their hands and feet tied. Most of the bandits he could see were occupied with sorting the spoil, discussing things among themselves, or attending to various needs around the camp. There seemed to be only one man watching the prisoners, but that did not mean there were not more in the woods. If he waited for the man to not be paying attention, there was a chance he could escape. Otherwise, he would probably be held for either ransom or slavery, and who would pay the ransom of a knight who could not even avoid being captured by bandits? Escape was a big risk though, and he would never be free if he was dead. Perhaps it was better to wait until a time when there would be less focus on him, or even to be sold and catch a ship home. He continued to watch until someone called the man guarding the prisoners over to do something else. He knew that it may not be his best chance, but it could also be his only one. > You attempt Escape He had to take this opportunity. Slavery was dishonorable and would likely lead to a death both premature and inglorious. Not to mention the horrible diet he would have. Sir Osis leaned forward and grabbed the small knife he had concealed in his belt. Then he cut his hands and legs free. Then he realized there was a stinging sensation in one of his hands. Apparently, he had cut himself by accident, and quite deeply too. However, that was something to worry about later. It would not be long before someone returned to check on them. Alphonse was tied to another tree nearby. Now, what kind of a knight would leave his trusty steed behind? Not Sir Osis. He untied him and tried to lead him away. That endeavor was met with considerable resistance, but Alphonse soon gave in. They really had to hurry now. He turned his gaze over to the other prisoners and made a decision. > You leave Them This was not the most noble decision he had made, but he wisdom should trump nobility. Sir Osis didn’t look back as he led his horse away as quietly as possible. He had not gone far when he heard shouting from the camp. He reminded himself that he had made the best choice and that this was be better than none of them being freed. As he quickened his pace to make distance between himself and the camp, he even told himself that he would lead a rescue mission once he returned to the castle. The shouting grew continuously fainter, and Sir Osis gave a prayer of thanks that they did not have hounds. Now it was just him, alone in the forest. Well, his horse was there too. This wasn’t right. He was supposed to protect the caravan, and here he was abandoning them to save his own hide. “Ughhhh….” Then there was that feeling in his head that he decided was akin to that of his brain being juiced like a lemon. More than anything, he wanted to lie under a tree and close his eyes for a while, perhaps forever, but he knew he had to keep going. He didn’t escape to die in the forest. For what seemed an eon, he lumbered through the forest. Endless wandering. Nothing but trees and woodpeckers. Woodpeckers pounding at his brain. Endlessly pounding for hours and hours. All sounds were an indistinct drone in the presence of the woodpecker’s. Had he seen that tree before? No matter. They all looked the same anyway. Just a little farther, and he would be home. If only that cursed woodpecker would… Sir Osis fell onto the carpet of brush and weeds. He was lost. Nobody was going to expect him home tonight. Thoughts of his lord’s son finding his remains while on a hunt passed through his mind before he realized such thoughts were silly. Wild animals would surely tear him apart before then. He gripped his head and sat up. There was no way he could succumb to such dishonorable fate as that. Now if he only used the setting sun as a guidance, he could find his way home. If the sun sets in the east, and home lies northward, then I must go…this way. Course in mind, he hurried through the brush as quickly as he can while he still had light. Before long, he heard a familiar sound, and it was no blasted woodpecker. Sir Osis let go of Alphonse’s bridle and stumbled towards the sound of the running water. When he reached the source, he gave a shout in excitement. Just across this stream and through a few trees was the castle, or was it? After he had taken a moment to actually look around, he soon realized that this was a very different part of the creek than the one near the castle, if it was even the same one. This was fine. He could take this in stride. At least he would have some much-needed refreshment before he continued his journey tomorrow. Animals that he could hunt would probably come to drink too. Of course, that included animals of all sizes and levels of aggression, and he had neither sword nor bow, but that was fine. He was going to be just fine. “A lovely evening, is it not, milord?” a feminine voice called. “Huh?” Sir Osis turned to the source of the voice, a pale woman with what seemed to be the most striking blue eyes in the world. She was sitting on the bank of the stream with unbound, auburn hair joining her feet in the water. “Oh, uh, good evening to you too,” he stammered. His being unaware of her presence until did not speak well of his current state of mind. He would have to be more careful, or next time he may not get a chance to see them. “Thou seemest unwell. Did something happen to thee? Sir Osis walked over to his horse and grabbed the bridle again. “Many things.” The woman smiled and patted the rocky bank next to her. “Sit a while and tell me about it.” Sir Osis hesitated a moment before tying Alphonse to a tree and walking to the bank. “Go on. Sit,” she said pleasantly. He looked around before sitting a short distance back from the water. “Now, go on. What ails you, sir? Thy secrets are all safe with me.” “Well I…I abandoned my duty to protect myself.” The woman raised her eyebrows and smiled. “If thou hadn’t, would thee have been able to fulfill thy duty anyway?” “Yes. Well, I don’t know. Likely not, but maybe. There was a chance I could have helped everyone, but I won’t know now.” “I see. Well, what’s done is done. There is naught thou mayest do by dwelling on the past. Thou shouldst set thine eyes on what thou mayest do in the future that thou wouldst not have been able to do.” She moved closer to him and rested her head on her hands. “Thou must thirst. Wilt thou not take some water? Then stay a while and rest until the morning.” > You reject Her Offer Sir Osis slowly pulled away from the woman and stood up. “Thank you, but I must be going. If I am to make things right, I cannot tarry here.” “Art thou certain? The forest is a dangerous place at night,” she said with an incredibly worried look on her face. “I am sure I can manage to find my way safely.” He bowed and untied his horse. “At least have a drink! Here,” she beckoned him to come closer, but he turned away. “Fare well,” he called as he went back into the woods. The urge to change his mind and turn around was strong, but he resisted even looking back at her. Something had not been right about his conversation with her. Saying things like that to a woman whose name he didn’t even know was not something he did. He decided to chalk that up to is current physical condition. As the sun set, and Sir Osis walked along, unsure of where he was and even less sure of where he was going, he began to regret his decision to reject the woman’s offer. It wasn’t as if she was some witch intent on stealing his liver to make a hair-growth potion for his uncle. Even if she was, at least he would have been rested enough to defend himself. He had had nothing to eat nor to drink since the morning, and that only made the feeling of his brain being squeezed like a sponge even more intense. The crescent moon provided scant light, and Sir Osis realized he was going to have to spend a night in the forest. He did not trust himself to sleep in a tree in his state, and then he would have to worry about his horse. That meant his only option was to build a fire. He was starting to get cold anyway. He searched around for the driest kindling he could find and stripped the inner bark off a rotting log for tinder. The kindling was not dry enough and did nothing but smolder for some time. With much coaxing and relighting, Sir Osis finally established something that resembled a flame, fed it, and soon fell asleep on the damp ground. When morning came, he noticed what appeared to be the tracks of a man circling his camp--he noticed them after lying on the ground all stiff and unrefreshed for a half hour anyway. He panicked for a good fifteen seconds before seeing that his horse was still there. Then the next order of business was to find out who had left the tracks. He followed them all around the muddy area his fire had been in until he noticed to a spot where the unknown person must have had kneeled before the fire. Then he looked down and noticed his own muddy knees…and the size of the tracks… He hurriedly started doing elaborate leg stretches in an attempt to show any passer-byes that he had not been tracking his own movements and was only preparing for his morning cardio work-out. It must have worked, because nobody commented on his display. Sir Osis could think more clearly now, and he was hungry. He looked around the forest to see where he was and made sure to leave evidence that he had camped there, lest he only end up in the same place in his wanderings. Then he untied Alphonse and began his journey once more. It was only an hour before he heard the sound of a cart rolling down a dirt road. He followed the sound until he reached it and caught up to the wagon. “Might you spare me some water?” he asked the driver. “I ain’t carrying water on me,” the wrinkled woman replied. Where ever she was going could not have been far, in that case. “Whose land is this?” Against all odds, her already heavily hooded eyes narrowed. It was certainly not usual to have strange men on ponies come riding out of the forest unsure of where they were, well, not on a Wednesday, at least. “Lord Feithid’s for another half-day’s ride. Now just where are you venturing to? Nothing criminal, I hope.” What a pretty piece of information this was! You lose the daughter, and you end up on the father’s land. All he could do was slowly nod. Of course, this is how things would turn out. After a moment he managed to smile at the old woman. “Verily, I was meaning to go to his castle. I had lost my way after a misguided venture born from the desire to pursue the noble beast that is the most magnificent stag—er, beaver I had ever seen. Alas, in the process I lost both my way and my weapon, but Providence hath smiled upon me and brought me to you!” She gave him a hard stare before chuckling. “Calm yourself, lad. I wouldn’t turn you in for poaching. Whatever night you’ve had must have been rough all right…can’t tell if that’s blood or dirt on you. You’ll get cleaned up, and I’ll fix you something to eat when we get to my home, how’s that?” “That would be most excellent and appreciated, fair woman.” “Name’s Mary. You trying to sound like some sort of character in a pageant thing, lad?’ Sir Osis had no idea what she meant by that and could only answer with a low “No?” Mary shook her head and muttered something about the effect on modern entertainment on the younger generations. Her home was a small affair with a thatched roof. A few hogs had to be shooed away from the door, but they took the offense reasonably well. The interior smelled of boiled cabbage and honey mead, the latter of which Mary immediately poured a cupful of and gave to Sir Osis. The dehydrated knight downed it immediately. “Did you tell me your name? Tell me again anyway,” she asked, pouring him another cup. “O...Orthopt. I was named after my sire.” “I see. Well, you can stay and eat, Orthopt, but then you best be getting on with your business. My husband’ll be home for his dinner noon, and he won’t want you in his chair.” He stiffened, somewhat disappointed that he was being kicked out so early, but it was kind enough for her to be feeding him in the state she found him in. “Far be it from me to cause inconvenience for your husband. I cannot express my gratitude for your hospitality enough.” “You’re welcome to it. Now go rinse your face off, and food’ll be ready when you get back.” Sir Osis went outside obediently and looked around a bit until he had located a well. As he wiped the blood and grime from his face and arms, he thought about what he would do next. Would he return home as if nothing had happened? It would be suspicious if he were to be the only one who was safe, and that was not something he could hide when his lord and half the village knew what he had gone to do. If he went that route, he would be better off visiting Lord Feithid and making up something about being sent ahead with a message or something. That could be a good alibi. Maybe he should just come out and tell Lord Feithid what had happened. It was possible that it was not too late for a rescue mission. He did have another option. Disappearing for a while could be the best plan. Everyone would assume he had died or have been sold, and after all this had blown over, he could come back and say he had won his freedom in a duel against a two-headed Norse jarl or something along those lines. > You go to Lord Feithid Going into hiding was a ridiculous plan. Sure, this woman hadn’t seemed to have caught on, but somebody would eventually. With new resolution, he returned to the house. The cabbage stew Mary gave him had about as much substance to it as a shredded piece of paper in a hogshead barrel did, but it was food, and that was good enough. After thanking his hostess once more and ensuring Alphonse had had plenty to drink, Sir Osis set out to the castle. Lord Feithid’s castle made Sir Osis’s home look like a plague-ravaged mountain hamlet in comparison. Even with so many serfs tending the fields, navigating the crowds of the outer castle was like making his way through a herd of stampeding cattle. The sensory overload was too much for him, and he had to stop and just sit at the gate to the upper levels of the castle before he could continue onward. As he made his way, he grew more and more certain that he should have just turned around and gone right back into those woods. He didn’t even know Lord Feithid. How was he supposed to find him without being thrown out as some crazy man by the guards? Eventually he reminded himself that he was a knight and equal to or above any of these guards, even if they were in a bigger castle. He rode up to one of them who was leaning against a wagon. “Excuse me!” he bellowed, perhaps making his voice a little deeper than was natural. “Huuurrrrr, yes, sir!” The guard jumped up and pushed on the wagon wheel. “I was just testing how much lateral weight this could—hey, who are you!?” “I am Sir Osis of the Liver. As I was passing through on this journey that is my earthly life, I recalled that this is the habitation and domain of the good Lord Feithid. Might you direct me to where he is?” “Listen, impersonation of a knight or member of the gentry is a capital crime around here, and if you would like to keep your body attached to your limbs, I suggest you drop the act and keep passing through.” “Those base accusations pain my heart, but you must understand that I have had to struggle against all manner of evil along the road. Indeed, there are none who give the appearance appropriate to their stations, at all times. You, goodman, were in a state of rest unbefitting that of one sworn to protect and defend when I met you. Did I therefore assume you to be a leech, feasting off the labors of his fellow man?” “Yes, yes, I get it. I’ll bring you to him. Just be quiet.” Lord Feithid was training a hawk in one of the fields. A tall woman, presumably Lady Feithid stood facing him, although he did not face her. “If you spent half as much time training your men as you did training that hawk, we’d have the strongest army in—Are you listening to me, Harold!?” “Uh-huhhh…” “Oh. My. My father would never have—” The guard Sir Osis was with came to Lord Feithid’s rescue. “Pardon me, sir, but there is a Sir Osis of the…” “Liver.” “There is a Sir Osis of the Liver here to see you, sir.” Lady Feithid stepped forward and started to say something, but her husband beat her to it. “Well, where is he?” “I am Sir Osis of the Liver. It is indeed a greatest pleasure to have the opportunity to walk your lands and meet you and your wonderful wife, Lord Feithid.” “That’s nice. Why don’t you let this nice man show you where that patch where we are sowing wheat over past the hill there,” the lady said. “While it would indeed be a joy to see the full measure of your beautiful lands, I have matters of some importance to discuss about your daughter.” Lady Feithid’s false politeness turns into worry, and her and her husband glance at one another before turning back to the visitor. “She’s on her way here and will be here soon,” she said, reassuring herself. “Whatever you are going to say, sir, say it!” Lord Feithid barked. His expression towards had turned to fire in no more than three seconds. “I’ll have you know she won’t be marrying some old, third-rate stranger who says he’s a knight!” “No, it is most certainly none of that. You see…” > You lie to Lord Feithid “I decided to travel with the caravan for a distance, and, alas, there was an accident, and your daughter’s carriage was broken. There was no way we could make a lady have to ride in anything less. So, being a stranger and not a true member of the party, I offered to ride for assistance. Along the way, I was accosted by foul bandits, but I persevered and am here now, you see!” Lord Feithid drops the hostility and takes a step back. “My daughter sent you on ahead, by yourself, for a [i] carriage? [/i]” “…Yes.” “I knew we shouldn’t have spoiled her so much when she was little. Didn’t I tell you that, Harold?” “Oh, it was actually the caravan master who brought it up to me. He wanted to ensure that all his charges made their journey’s in the utmost comfort.” Lord Feithid shook his head and smiled. “I apologize for the trouble you went through, and I will be sending a patrol around the area to see if I can find any traces of those thugs that you ran into. For now, you are free to stay as long as you need.” Sir Osis nodded and forced himself to remain smiling. “A thousand thanks, but I am afraid I cannot tarry long. I fear I will be needed in the land of my own habitation to guard against such evil as long as it remains a blight upon our fair lands.” “Well. All right, then.” He stepped away from the knight and gestured towards the castle. “My table is open to you, if you change your mind. Else, Godspeed.” Sir Osis made his way back home safely, and all went back to normal. Evidence of the caravan robbery was found, and the dead were buried. It was assumed that they had been attacked after Sir Osis had left them, and Lord Feithid’s men scoured the country for Marian. Neither she nor any of those others who had been captured were found. Time passed, and although he still felt a heavy guilt whenever he heard of anything related to what had happened, Sir Osis no longer lost any sleep at night and went about his day as cheery as ever. Then a girl showed up saying she had been living as a slave and had escaped and made her way back home on a ship. It turned out she had been a servant in the house of Lord Feithid, and when he questioned her and learned that the true account of events had a few slight differences when compared to the one he had heard from the bedraggled knight on the pony, he was furious. Sir Osis’s lord tried to protect him, but nothing could convince Feithid that Sir Osis had been anything but a conspirator to profit off the life of his daughter. One day, as he was training in the yard, Sir Osis was shot in the neck with an arrow and died. The assassin was never caught. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Going into hiding was a ridiculous plan. Sure, this woman hadn’t seemed to have caught on, but somebody would eventually. With new resolution, he returned to the house. The cabbage stew Mary gave him had about as much substance to it as a shredded piece of paper in a hogshead barrel did, but it was food, and that was good enough. After thanking his hostess once more and ensuring Alphonse had had plenty to drink, Sir Osis set out to the castle. Lord Feithid’s castle made Sir Osis’s home look like a plague-ravaged mountain hamlet in comparison. Even with so many serfs tending the fields, navigating the crowds of the outer castle was like making his way through a herd of stampeding cattle. The sensory overload was too much for him, and he had to stop and just sit at the gate to the upper levels of the castle before he could continue onward. As he made his way, he grew more and more certain that he should have just turned around and gone right back into those woods. He didn’t even know Lord Feithid. How was he supposed to find him without being thrown out as some crazy man by the guards? Eventually he reminded himself that he was a knight and equal to or above any of these guards, even if they were in a bigger castle. He rode up to one of them who was leaning against a wagon. “Excuse me!” he bellowed, perhaps making his voice a little deeper than was natural. “Huuurrrrr, yes, sir!” The guard jumped up and pushed on the wagon wheel. “I was just testing how much lateral weight this could—hey, who are you!?” “I am Sir Osis of the Liver. As I was passing through on this journey that is my earthly life, I recalled that this is the habitation and domain of the good Lord Feithid. Might you direct me to where he is?” “Listen, impersonation of a knight or member of the gentry is a capital crime around here, and if you would like to keep your body attached to your limbs, I suggest you drop the act and keep passing through.” “Those base accusations pain my heart, but you must understand that I have had to struggle against all manner of evil along the road. Indeed, there are none who give the appearance appropriate to their stations, at all times. You, goodman, were in a state of rest unbefitting that of one sworn to protect and defend when I met you. Did I therefore assume you to be a leech, feasting off the labors of his fellow man?” “Yes, yes, I get it. I’ll bring you to him. Just be quiet.” Lord Feithid was training a hawk in one of the fields. A tall woman, presumably Lady Feithid stood facing him, although he did not face her. “If you spent half as much time training your men as you did training that hawk, we’d have the strongest army in—Are you listening to me, Harold!?” “Uh-huhhh…” “Oh. My. My father would never have—” The guard Sir Osis was with came to Lord Feithid’s rescue. “Pardon me, sir, but there is a Sir Osis of the…” “Liver.” “There is a Sir Osis of the Liver here to see you, sir.” Lady Feithid stepped forward and started to say something, but her husband beat her to it. “Well, where is he?” “I am Sir Osis of the Liver. It is indeed a greatest pleasure to have the opportunity to walk your lands and meet you and your wonderful wife, Lord Feithid.” “That’s nice. Why don’t you let this nice man show you where that patch where we are sowing wheat over past the hill there,” the lady said. “While it would indeed be a joy to see the full measure of your beautiful lands, I have matters of some importance to discuss about your daughter.” Lady Feithid’s false politeness turns into worry, and her and her husband glance at one another before turning back to the visitor. “She’s on her way here and will be here soon,” she said, reassuring herself. “Whatever you are going to say, sir, say it!” Lord Feithid barked. His expression towards had turned to fire in no more than three seconds. “I’ll have you know she won’t be marrying some old, third-rate stranger who says he’s a knight!” “No, it is most certainly none of that. You see…” > You tell the Truth “I made the decision to journey with the party your daughter was with, and it is with a heavy heart I must inform you that the caravan was attacked. I alone have escaped with life and freedom.” A spear ran through the hearts of Lord and Lady, and all Lord Feithid could do was mutter. “I can’t believe I let her do that. I should have…Is she alive?” “It is my belief, yes. We were attacked along the road, and those who were not killed were taken hostage.” “How long ago was that!? She could be halfway to Africa by now! Or Sweden!” Lady Feithid demanded. “It has been but a night, if you send a search in the area it was in, perhaps it will not be too late.” “Boy!” The guard looked around before coming to attention. “Have you no ears, boy! Organize a search team at once! If so much as a dandelion is not uprooted in that forest, I’ll have your hide as my cloak!” “Yes, my lady!” the guard high-tailed it back to the castle, and Lady Feithid turned to her husband. “We’ll send word to every house in the land and have men watching every port. The sun will freeze before gets away with a child of ours,” she assured he husband. “Lady—” “Sir Odin or whatever heathen name you have, thank you, but this cannot wait.” The both rushed past Sir Osis to get to the castle, and he was left with no company but the young grass. After some time, a servant came and told him that he may stay a night. The next day, Sir Osis took his horse and set forth along the road. This time, he was going home. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Sir Osis slowly pulled away from the woman and stood up. “Thank you, but I must be going. If I am to make things right, I cannot tarry here.” “Art thou certain? The forest is a dangerous place at night,” she said with an incredibly worried look on her face. “I am sure I can manage to find my way safely.” He bowed and untied his horse. “At least have a drink! Here,” she beckoned him to come closer, but he turned away. “Fare well,” he called as he went back into the woods. The urge to change his mind and turn around was strong, but he resisted even looking back at her. Something had not been right about his conversation with her. Saying things like that to a woman whose name he didn’t even know was not something he did. He decided to chalk that up to is current physical condition. As the sun set, and Sir Osis walked along, unsure of where he was and even less sure of where he was going, he began to regret his decision to reject the woman’s offer. It wasn’t as if she was some witch intent on stealing his liver to make a hair-growth potion for his uncle. Even if she was, at least he would have been rested enough to defend himself. He had had nothing to eat nor to drink since the morning, and that only made the feeling of his brain being squeezed like a sponge even more intense. The crescent moon provided scant light, and Sir Osis realized he was going to have to spend a night in the forest. He did not trust himself to sleep in a tree in his state, and then he would have to worry about his horse. That meant his only option was to build a fire. He was starting to get cold anyway. He searched around for the driest kindling he could find and stripped the inner bark off a rotting log for tinder. The kindling was not dry enough and did nothing but smolder for some time. With much coaxing and relighting, Sir Osis finally established something that resembled a flame, fed it, and soon fell asleep on the damp ground. When morning came, he noticed what appeared to be the tracks of a man circling his camp--he noticed them after lying on the ground all stiff and unrefreshed for a half hour anyway. He panicked for a good fifteen seconds before seeing that his horse was still there. Then the next order of business was to find out who had left the tracks. He followed them all around the muddy area his fire had been in until he noticed to a spot where the unknown person must have had kneeled before the fire. Then he looked down and noticed his own muddy knees…and the size of the tracks… He hurriedly started doing elaborate leg stretches in an attempt to show any passer-byes that he had not been tracking his own movements and was only preparing for his morning cardio work-out. It must have worked, because nobody commented on his display. Sir Osis could think more clearly now, and he was hungry. He looked around the forest to see where he was and made sure to leave evidence that he had camped there, lest he only end up in the same place in his wanderings. Then he untied Alphonse and began his journey once more. It was only an hour before he heard the sound of a cart rolling down a dirt road. He followed the sound until he reached it and caught up to the wagon. “Might you spare me some water?” he asked the driver. “I ain’t carrying water on me,” the wrinkled woman replied. Where ever she was going could not have been far, in that case. “Whose land is this?” Against all odds, her already heavily hooded eyes narrowed. It was certainly not usual to have strange men on ponies come riding out of the forest unsure of where they were, well, not on a Wednesday, at least. “Lord Feithid’s for another half-day’s ride. Now just where are you venturing to? Nothing criminal, I hope.” What a pretty piece of information this was! You lose the daughter, and you end up on the father’s land. All he could do was slowly nod. Of course, this is how things would turn out. After a moment he managed to smile at the old woman. “Verily, I was meaning to go to his castle. I had lost my way after a misguided venture born from the desire to pursue the noble beast that is the most magnificent stag—er, beaver I had ever seen. Alas, in the process I lost both my way and my weapon, but Providence hath smiled upon me and brought me to you!” She gave him a hard stare before chuckling. “Calm yourself, lad. I wouldn’t turn you in for poaching. Whatever night you’ve had must have been rough all right…can’t tell if that’s blood or dirt on you. You’ll get cleaned up, and I’ll fix you something to eat when we get to my home, how’s that?” “That would be most excellent and appreciated, fair woman.” “Name’s Mary. You trying to sound like some sort of character in a pageant thing, lad?’ Sir Osis had no idea what she meant by that and could only answer with a low “No?” Mary shook her head and muttered something about the effect on modern entertainment on the younger generations. Her home was a small affair with a thatched roof. A few hogs had to be shooed away from the door, but they took the offense reasonably well. The interior smelled of boiled cabbage and honey mead, the latter of which Mary immediately poured a cupful of and gave to Sir Osis. The dehydrated knight downed it immediately. “Did you tell me your name? Tell me again anyway,” she asked, pouring him another cup. “O...Orthopt. I was named after my sire.” “I see. Well, you can stay and eat, Orthopt, but then you best be getting on with your business. My husband’ll be home for his dinner noon, and he won’t want you in his chair.” He stiffened, somewhat disappointed that he was being kicked out so early, but it was kind enough for her to be feeding him in the state she found him in. “Far be it from me to cause inconvenience for your husband. I cannot express my gratitude for your hospitality enough.” “You’re welcome to it. Now go rinse your face off, and food’ll be ready when you get back.” Sir Osis went outside obediently and looked around a bit until he had located a well. As he wiped the blood and grime from his face and arms, he thought about what he would do next. Would he return home as if nothing had happened? It would be suspicious if he were to be the only one who was safe, and that was not something he could hide when his lord and half the village knew what he had gone to do. If he went that route, he would be better off visiting Lord Feithid and making up something about being sent ahead with a message or something. That could be a good alibi. Maybe he should just come out and tell Lord Feithid what had happened. It was possible that it was not too late for a rescue mission. He did have another option. Disappearing for a while could be the best plan. Everyone would assume he had died or have been sold, and after all this had blown over, he could come back and say he had won his freedom in a duel against a two-headed Norse jarl or something along those lines. > You screw It All He was not going to risk the consequences of an angry father finding out about any of this from him. This was probably not the most noble of choices, but his choices lately had been less than noble anyway. All he had to do was find work somewhere, and this entire situation would be avoided. He knew a little about farming. He was surrounded by farmers, and that had to count for something. Sailing was also an option. Whatever his choice, there was no way he was staying at Feithid’s or anywhere near home. Before he left the woman’s home that afternoon, he got directions to the next nearest settlement of size, a seaside town called Criogaid, which was just a day’s ride away. Then he set out along the road once more, somewhat more energized than before. Aside from when he was nearly frightened to death by a large beetle, the next day and night passed Sir Osis by with little to remember until he reached Criogaid. Criogaid was a good-sized settlement, but with an apparent atmosphere of drowsiness, aside from the area near the docks. While there were certainly farms and pasture in the area, it was saltwater that ran through the heart and veins of Criogaid. Sir Osis had been here once before some years ago and knew that an inn was certainly a wise investment here for those who did not wish to have their belongings stolen. Unfortunately, he had no money for a room. Fortunately, he had nothing to worry about being stolen, except his horse. A night not on a damp patch of mud and leaves was not unappealing either. This left only one real option. Sir Osis grabbed a drink from the well, rode down to the docks, and began to sing with all his might. “Women, women, love of women. Make bare purse with some men!” He had seen men doing this in the capital, and, truly, they were, in essence, minstrels. “What nobler occupation is there than bringing joy and entertainment to the world?” he asked himself before deciding that question was most powerful when left unanswered. “Some be brown, and some be white; some be tender as the tripe!” He sang his heart out for twenty minutes with no results save a few people coming to watch for a while before leaving. Apparently, the folks in Criogaid were not too keen on paying for something they could hear any night for free in a public house. Then a merchant came up to him and put a coin into his hand. “I cannot thank—” “You’re in our way.” Sir Osis reminded himself of his new station before opening his mouth. “I do apologize. I shall just…” The merchant shook his head and gestured behind his shoulder. “Thank you.” Sir Osis sheepishly skulked away from the dock. By the time he was back in the town square, he had forgotten the slight he had suffered at the hands of the merchant and was already scheming of how to get more money. He figured that the coin he had was perhaps enough to sleep in a stable or even a cheap room (you know how prices differ from place to place) for a day, but he needed more if he planned to eat anything that had neither come out of nor was meant to go into a horse. Then he saw something in the dirt below himself and smiled. Sir Osis stooped to pick up the coin, shoving aside some ragamuffin who had the same idea, and wiped the dust and manure off. Maybe he would be able to get some real food with this. He pocketed the coin and went to find the cheapest looking inn. Uncle Peter’s House was a dingy inn with a rotting roof, a strange smell Sir Osis could not name, and floor rushes that had not been changed in four months, by his estimate. However, it was a popular place for sailors, it had a very large and attentive female staff, and it was cheap. The two coins bought Sir Osis a bed and supper, and he quickly fell asleep before he could even finish praying that it would not rain that night. Nevertheless, it did not rain, and he woke up the next morning feeling more refreshed than he had that week. After getting Alphonse from the stable, he had a decision to make. What job should he have? He admitted that smithery was a skill far beyond him, but he could likely get work as a sailor or a farmhand quite easily. > You try Sailing The last thing he needed was for some random dude he knew to run unto him at the bakery and ask why he had abandoned his home. It was time for a change in scenery anyway. Endless water was not ideal, but it would do. He rode down to the docks and found the merchant captain who he had met the other day. “Oh. It’s you again. If you plan to be singing, I suggest you stay out of the way this time.” He paused for a moment before deciding to continue. “And sing something other than that rowdy drinking crap. That’s all I ever hear.” “In actuality, I did not come here to sing. I am here to inquire as to a job in your crew—or any crew, if you have the knowledge of one in need and have no need of your own.” He sighed and looked Sir Osis up and down. “Have you ever sailed before?” “No, I have never had that experience, if you make the exception of taking a fishing boat across a lake or river on rare occasions.” “There’s the owner of a boat by the name of Erik—the man, not the boat, and I believe he is short some crew after they had a bad case of the scurvy. If you tell him Joseph sent you, he will probably hire you.” “Thank you for your—” “Best catch him before he leaves,” he says, pointing at a man in blue clothing, leaning against some crates. Sir Osis rushed over to Erik and introduced himself. Erik was not thrilled about his lac of sailing experience, but appreciated that he was over the age of ten. He couldn’t handle any more scrawny mama’s boys than he had, he said. It was settled that Sir Osis could sleep on board the ship with the crew until they set sail again the next day, and Captain Erik left to take care of his own business over at Uncle Peter’s. Now there was the matter of Alphonse. He had been a gift and served him well, but he could hardly be brought onto a ship for months at a time. It wouldn’t be good for him anyway. Sir Osis dismounted and stroked Alphonse’s fur until he was ready. Then he led him to the market area and sold him to an old farmer. The last piece of his old life gone, Sir Osis of the Liver, or rather, just Osis now went back to the docks and found his ship. When he told the mate who he was, he briefly showed Osis around before going back to a nap, and Osis went below deck. Most of the crew was enjoying their time on land, but there was at least one man in the sleeping quarters, who seemed very happy to see him and immediately introduced himself as Edwin. “You can take this hammock next to me,” Edwin said with a grin. “I indeed appreciate how welcoming you are being toward me.” Edwin pressed his hand against Osis’s back. “Don’t even mention it. I’m sure we’ll be getting along very well from now on." <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>He was not going to risk the consequences of an angry father finding out about any of this from him. This was probably not the most noble of choices, but his choices lately had been less than noble anyway. All he had to do was find work somewhere, and this entire situation would be avoided. He knew a little about farming. He was surrounded by farmers, and that had to count for something. Sailing was also an option. Whatever his choice, there was no way he was staying at Feithid’s or anywhere near home. Before he left the woman’s home that afternoon, he got directions to the next nearest settlement of size, a seaside town called Criogaid, which was just a day’s ride away. Then he set out along the road once more, somewhat more energized than before. Aside from when he was nearly frightened to death by a large beetle, the next day and night passed Sir Osis by with little to remember until he reached Criogaid. Criogaid was a good-sized settlement, but with an apparent atmosphere of drowsiness, aside from the area near the docks. While there were certainly farms and pasture in the area, it was saltwater that ran through the heart and veins of Criogaid. Sir Osis had been here once before some years ago and knew that an inn was certainly a wise investment here for those who did not wish to have their belongings stolen. Unfortunately, he had no money for a room. Fortunately, he had nothing to worry about being stolen, except his horse. A night not on a damp patch of mud and leaves was not unappealing either. This left only one real option. Sir Osis grabbed a drink from the well, rode down to the docks, and began to sing with all his might. “Women, women, love of women. Make bare purse with some men!” He had seen men doing this in the capital, and, truly, they were, in essence, minstrels. “What nobler occupation is there than bringing joy and entertainment to the world?” he asked himself before deciding that question was most powerful when left unanswered. “Some be brown, and some be white; some be tender as the tripe!” He sang his heart out for twenty minutes with no results save a few people coming to watch for a while before leaving. Apparently, the folks in Criogaid were not too keen on paying for something they could hear any night for free in a public house. Then a merchant came up to him and put a coin into his hand. “I cannot thank—” “You’re in our way.” Sir Osis reminded himself of his new station before opening his mouth. “I do apologize. I shall just…” The merchant shook his head and gestured behind his shoulder. “Thank you.” Sir Osis sheepishly skulked away from the dock. By the time he was back in the town square, he had forgotten the slight he had suffered at the hands of the merchant and was already scheming of how to get more money. He figured that the coin he had was perhaps enough to sleep in a stable or even a cheap room (you know how prices differ from place to place) for a day, but he needed more if he planned to eat anything that had neither come out of nor was meant to go into a horse. Then he saw something in the dirt below himself and smiled. Sir Osis stooped to pick up the coin, shoving aside some ragamuffin who had the same idea, and wiped the dust and manure off. Maybe he would be able to get some real food with this. He pocketed the coin and went to find the cheapest looking inn. Uncle Peter’s House was a dingy inn with a rotting roof, a strange smell Sir Osis could not name, and floor rushes that had not been changed in four months, by his estimate. However, it was a popular place for sailors, it had a very large and attentive female staff, and it was cheap. The two coins bought Sir Osis a bed and supper, and he quickly fell asleep before he could even finish praying that it would not rain that night. Nevertheless, it did not rain, and he woke up the next morning feeling more refreshed than he had that week. After getting Alphonse from the stable, he had a decision to make. What job should he have? He admitted that smithery was a skill far beyond him, but he could likely get work as a sailor or a farmhand quite easily. > You try Farming There was no way Sir Osis had the skills to be a sailor. He had not even been on an ocean-going ship before. Farming, now that was something he could figure out. How many times had he seen the planting and harvest? Sure, he had never been highly involved in the process, but observation counted for something. He soon found a fief in need of extra hands, and although there was definitely more of a learning curve than he had expected, and his lack of knowledge frequently confounded his employer, it was only a few months before he felt as if he had farmed all his life. This new life lacked in many of the comforts he had once enjoyed, but the work itself was not unenjoyable. Now just Osis, he even began to befriend some of the other peasants. The main harvest season had just begun and Osis had spent the entire morning steaming in the heat. When noon came, he in the shade next to the road and watched a pair of squirrels dance in the boughs above him. Gradually, the rattle of a cart grew louder until it stopped and a voice called out. “Is the lord of this land at home?” “Huh, yes, I believe so.” Osis sat up and squinted at the bright light before seeing Andrew, who had so often stopped to sell his merchandise at the castle Osis had once lived in. He raised his straw hat briefly before placing it on his head, lower this time. Andrew paid little attention to Osis beyond the answer he was given eased back into his seat. “I’ll be selling goods from across the world for a few days, maybe a week. Be sure to stop buy and buy something for the goodwife.” Then he was off again, heading toward the castle. Osis sat a moment watching the cart drive away before standing up. He had work to do. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>This was not the most noble decision he had made, but he wisdom should trump nobility. Sir Osis didn’t look back as he led his horse away as quietly as possible. He had not gone far when he heard shouting from the camp. He reminded himself that he had made the best choice and that this was be better than none of them being freed. As he quickened his pace to make distance between himself and the camp, he even told himself that he would lead a rescue mission once he returned to the castle. The shouting grew continuously fainter, and Sir Osis gave a prayer of thanks that they did not have hounds. Now it was just him, alone in the forest. Well, his horse was there too. This wasn’t right. He was supposed to protect the caravan, and here he was abandoning them to save his own hide. “Ughhhh….” Then there was that feeling in his head that he decided was akin to that of his brain being juiced like a lemon. More than anything, he wanted to lie under a tree and close his eyes for a while, perhaps forever, but he knew he had to keep going. He didn’t escape to die in the forest. For what seemed an eon, he lumbered through the forest. Endless wandering. Nothing but trees and woodpeckers. Woodpeckers pounding at his brain. Endlessly pounding for hours and hours. All sounds were an indistinct drone in the presence of the woodpecker’s. Had he seen that tree before? No matter. They all looked the same anyway. Just a little farther, and he would be home. If only that cursed woodpecker would… Sir Osis fell onto the carpet of brush and weeds. He was lost. Nobody was going to expect him home tonight. Thoughts of his lord’s son finding his remains while on a hunt passed through his mind before he realized such thoughts were silly. Wild animals would surely tear him apart before then. He gripped his head and sat up. There was no way he could succumb to such dishonorable fate as that. Now if he only used the setting sun as a guidance, he could find his way home. If the sun sets in the east, and home lies northward, then I must go…this way. Course in mind, he hurried through the brush as quickly as he can while he still had light. Before long, he heard a familiar sound, and it was no blasted woodpecker. Sir Osis let go of Alphonse’s bridle and stumbled towards the sound of the running water. When he reached the source, he gave a shout in excitement. Just across this stream and through a few trees was the castle, or was it? After he had taken a moment to actually look around, he soon realized that this was a very different part of the creek than the one near the castle, if it was even the same one. This was fine. He could take this in stride. At least he would have some much-needed refreshment before he continued his journey tomorrow. Animals that he could hunt would probably come to drink too. Of course, that included animals of all sizes and levels of aggression, and he had neither sword nor bow, but that was fine. He was going to be just fine. “A lovely evening, is it not, milord?” a feminine voice called. “Huh?” Sir Osis turned to the source of the voice, a pale woman with what seemed to be the most striking blue eyes in the world. She was sitting on the bank of the stream with unbound, auburn hair joining her feet in the water. “Oh, uh, good evening to you too,” he stammered. His being unaware of her presence until did not speak well of his current state of mind. He would have to be more careful, or next time he may not get a chance to see them. “Thou seemest unwell. Did something happen to thee? Sir Osis walked over to his horse and grabbed the bridle again. “Many things.” The woman smiled and patted the rocky bank next to her. “Sit a while and tell me about it.” Sir Osis hesitated a moment before tying Alphonse to a tree and walking to the bank. “Go on. Sit,” she said pleasantly. He looked around before sitting a short distance back from the water. “Now, go on. What ails you, sir? Thy secrets are all safe with me.” “Well I…I abandoned my duty to protect myself.” The woman raised her eyebrows and smiled. “If thou hadn’t, would thee have been able to fulfill thy duty anyway?” “Yes. Well, I don’t know. Likely not, but maybe. There was a chance I could have helped everyone, but I won’t know now.” “I see. Well, what’s done is done. There is naught thou mayest do by dwelling on the past. Thou shouldst set thine eyes on what thou mayest do in the future that thou wouldst not have been able to do.” She moved closer to him and rested her head on her hands. “Thou must thirst. Wilt thou not take some water? Then stay a while and rest until the morning.” > You accept Her Offer He had nothing to eat or drink and had a head injury. Wandering the forest at this time was a horrible idea in general. “Thank you.” The woman took a cup from next to her and filled it from the stream. Then she took a sip before handing it to Sir Osis. “What be thy name, sir?” “Osis. Sir Osis of the Liver…” as he spoke, he felt himself feeling sleepy. “Just rest,” she cooed. “Thou art safe here.” She eased his head onto her lap, and Sir Osis fell into a deep and much-desired sleep, never to wake. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>He had to take this opportunity. Slavery was dishonorable and would likely lead to a death both premature and inglorious. Not to mention the horrible diet he would have. Sir Osis leaned forward and grabbed the small knife he had concealed in his belt. Then he cut his hands and legs free. Then he realized there was a stinging sensation in one of his hands. Apparently, he had cut himself by accident, and quite deeply too. However, that was something to worry about later. It would not be long before someone returned to check on them. Alphonse was tied to another tree nearby. Now, what kind of a knight would leave his trusty steed behind? Not Sir Osis. He untied him and tried to lead him away. That endeavor was met with considerable resistance, but Alphonse soon gave in. They really had to hurry now. He turned his gaze over to the other prisoners and made a decision. > You free Them There was only one right thing to do, and that was not abandoning everyone. He ran over to where the young Lady Feithid and the other girl were tied and began to cut them loose. As soon as they were free, they took off running, and Sir Osis turned to the tree where the merchants were tied and saw one of the bandits barreling towards him instead. “They’re escaped,” he shouted, drawing the attention of some of the others. Realizing there was no way he was going to escape if he took the time to try to free the others, Sir Osis turned to run in the other direction. He was dizzy, and the bandit was faster. He was knocked to the ground within a few seconds. The man’s boot pressed against his back, and his face was smashed into the mud. Sir Osis tried to get up, but the man only pushed down harder and held a spear to his neck. Then one of the other bandits came and started beating Sir Osis with the rod of his own spear. Too disoriented and weakened to fight back, Sir Osis could do nothing to stop him. “Just off him. If he’s going to be this much trouble, he isn’t worth it.” As the spear went through his back, the last thing Sir Osis saw was a centipede crawling next to his face.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>He wasn’t about to let this bastard make a fool of him. Alphonse charged as Sir Osis drew his sword. The bandit was caught off guard by the site of a grown man in armor bouncing around on a pony, and he did not react in time to prevent being stabbed in the stomach. Sir Osis’s triumph ended when a chorus of shouts came from the forest, and bandits came pouring out. Bandits were a lot better at hiding than they used to be. Sir Osis immediately went on the defensive and began to cut down men left and right. He cut down two of them, you see—one on the left, and one on the right. Then a blow to his chest from a very large man knocked him off his horse. He hit the ground stunned and the large man immediately knocked him unconscious. When he woke up, the surrounding were tinged with grey. There was an intense, throbbing pain in his head and his face itched. A lot. He tried to get up, but he realized his arms and legs were bound and his armor was gone. A wave of nausea came over him, and he ended up making a mess all over his shirt. Then he remembered what had happened. He had been hit in the head, several times, and the resulting blood had dried on him. After a few more minutes of lying in a tired daze, he rolled onto his side to look around. Tied to a tree were a pair of the merchants, and Lady Feithid and another girl both sat on the ground with their hands and feet tied. Most of the bandits he could see were occupied with sorting the spoil, discussing things among themselves, or attending to various needs around the camp. There seemed to be only one man watching the prisoners, but that did not mean there were not more in the woods. If he waited for the man to not be paying attention, there was a chance he could escape. Otherwise, he would probably be held for either ransom or slavery, and who would pay the ransom of a knight who could not even avoid being captured by bandits? Escape was a big risk though, and he would never be free if he was dead. Perhaps it was better to wait until a time when there would be less focus on him, or even to be sold and catch a ship home. He continued to watch until someone called the man guarding the prisoners over to do something else. He knew that it may not be his best chance, but it could also be his only one. > You wait for an Opportunity A better time would come. Sir Osis hoped that when it did he would be feeling more physically well too. For now, he was going to sleep some more--anything to get away from the pain in his head. The opportunity didn't come that night, nor did it come the next day as they continued their trec through the forest. That evening they came to the seaside where a small ship was waiting, and most of the captives were sold. As Sir Osis, who wondered if he could even be called Sir anymore, sat on the deck with his hands tied, he wondered what could have happened if he had tried to escape or avoided this whole excursion entirely. There was no point in dwelling on the past like this, but the alternative was to stare at the cargo and watch for rats. He would have his whole life to ponder those questions. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Just as he promised, Sir Osis arrived a few minutes before noon with his sword sharpened and his bladder emptied. The caravan was on the smaller side, and, aside from the single covered carriage, lightly guarded. Evidently the bit about precious cargo was slightly exaggerated, unless the crown jewels were hidden in the saddlebag of one of the mules. Still, the caravan’s small size probably made for an even more enticing target for bandits. “Ten minutes, everyone!” the caravan master cried. One merchant who had decided to try to sell some of his stock here began hastily packing his things. Sir Osis decided this would be a good time to introduce himself to the lady who he had learned was Marian, daughter of Lord Feithid. He rode over to the carriage and bowed while atop his horse. Alphonse nearly fell over, but quickly recovered. He was a good horse. The lord’s daughter was a plump girl with a very bored expression and made no acknowledgement of Sir Osis, save a slight wave of the hand. “I trust your travels have gone well so far, Lady Feithid.” “Uh-huuuh.” He chose to take that as the affirmative and continued, “I shall be providing you with some extra protection for the remainder of your journey, as these roads can be very treacherous.” “Sure.” “If you need anything at all—” “Got it. Get you and that pony away from me. I’m trying to daydream about Scuzzi in peace.” He stared in shock a moment before hesitantly asking, “Scuzzi, milady?” “The Danish skald. Gosh, old people. He’s so ruggedly handsome, yet he smells so good….How could you not have heard of him?! Go stab some children or whatever ye uncultured brutes do!” “Forgive me, milady.” Sir Osis rode away from the carriage, attempting to determine whether that conversation could be called a success or a failure. After much contemplation, he determined it a success. After another hour, the caravan master finally got everyone ready to go, and they set off on their way. It was unfortunate that they had not left in the morning, but the days were long in spring. The smell of cool mud and the sounds of the carts and the birds were a lullaby to Sir Osis, and he had to make up a little story in his head about a robin fighting a war against a rattlesnake army to entertain himself. He should have been a skald or a bard himself, because the story was so entertaining that he did not notice a man walking out into the middle of the road in front of them and drawing a bow. The group came to a halt, and the guards drew closer to the carriage. Sir Osis readied his hand to draw his sword and looked into the trees. He couldn’t see anybody else, but if there were, things could get very bad. “Hand over the goods, and drop your weapons, and nobody will get hurt” the highwayman said. “I’ll drop them in Hell!” one of the guards screamed before charging him. His words proved prophesy when he was stopped with an arrow through his neck. With the bandit having to draw and aim again, this was perhaps a good opportunity to take him out, or there was the option to wait for another opportunity, perhaps while he was assisting in the handing over of goods. > You wait Something was obviously up. Nobody was crazy enough to attack guarded travelers in broad daylight alone like this. Well, some people were, but they don’t count. Sir Osis decided that it would be better to wait to see who or what else appeared. “Why don’t you do something?” one of the merchants nagged. “I do not yet know what emboldens this man so and advice you to remain docile for now.” The merchant made some grumblings that he would likely not make in front of his grandmother, but soon complied. Sure enough, several more bandits, these armed with spears, came out of the forest. They ordered the contents of the carts shown to them, and after determining a few things they considered not worth carrying, they ordered the rest consolidated and given to them along with the animals. Sir Osis began to unharness one of the horses, and, like all the guards, had been made to set his weapon down. However, he could see the handle of something in the cart ahead of him. Further inspection revealed it to be a hammer—not an ideal weapon, but the thought came to his mind that perhaps he could create enough of a distraction that some of the others could get their weapons back. There were around eight bandits he could see, and it would certainly be easier to take them out now that they were visible. Then again, there was a very decent chance that he would only be run through with a spear the moment he made any sort of threatening gesture. > You do It! This was ranked among the dumbest ideas he had ever had, and considering what his youth had been like, that was saying a lot. There was no reasonable decision but to go through with it. Sir Osis grabbed the hammer and lunged to a bandit who had his back turned to him. He slammed the hammer against the bandit’s neck, and he dropped to the ground. If you wanted a high pay-off, sometimes you had to take risks. Seeing his efforts, one of the guards jumped on a bandit, and another ran to the weapon pile. The latter was shot before he was within fifteen feet of it, but it was admirable teamwork, nonetheless. If any of the others had taken his que, Sir Osis did not know, as he had started to go after one of the archers. He knew attacking one of the spearmen would have crossed the line from risky to suicidal, but there was little an archer could do to him if he could not draw his bow. Stunned, the archer attempted to draw a dagger, but when Sir Osis hit his arm with the hammer, the archer dropped it. Unable to do little else against the madman, the archer grabbed Sir Osis’s neck and gripped it with all his strength. Sir Osis continued to hit him repeatedly with the hammer until, finally, the chokehold around his neck loosened. Then Sir Osis felt something penetrate his body and had just enough time to look down to see a spear through his abdomen before he fell over. It felt to him as if he laid on the damp road for eons until sweet Death came for him.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Something was obviously up. Nobody was crazy enough to attack guarded travelers in broad daylight alone like this. Well, some people were, but they don’t count. Sir Osis decided that it would be better to wait to see who or what else appeared. “Why don’t you do something?” one of the merchants nagged. “I do not yet know what emboldens this man so and advice you to remain docile for now.” The merchant made some grumblings that he would likely not make in front of his grandmother, but soon complied. Sure enough, several more bandits, these armed with spears, came out of the forest. They ordered the contents of the carts shown to them, and after determining a few things they considered not worth carrying, they ordered the rest consolidated and given to them along with the animals. Sir Osis began to unharness one of the horses, and, like all the guards, had been made to set his weapon down. However, he could see the handle of something in the cart ahead of him. Further inspection revealed it to be a hammer—not an ideal weapon, but the thought came to his mind that perhaps he could create enough of a distraction that some of the others could get their weapons back. There were around eight bandits he could see, and it would certainly be easier to take them out now that they were visible. Then again, there was a very decent chance that he would only be run through with a spear the moment he made any sort of threatening gesture. > You that Plan is Stupid This was ranked among the dumbest ideas he had ever had, and considering what his youth had been like, that was saying a lot. There was no way he was going through with it. He remained compliant and followed all directions. Then the one of the bandits ordered everyone to stand in a group. Sir Osis tried to ignore the spear in his face and the angry mutterings one of the merchants behind him, for his attention was drawn to the bandit who had seemed to be giving most of the orders. He was speaking with another bandit armed with a sword, and they seemed to be having a debate over something. Sir Osis strained to hear what they were saying. “What’s the damned point, you yellow-bellied…” and there that merchant went cursing the tagalong knight again. While Sir Osis thought he understood his sentiments against the bandit leaders completely, he was trying to eavesdrop, dammit! He never did get to hear what they were saying, but the one who gave the orders soon turned away from the other and addressed the group. “Everyone line up. Quickly and quietly now.” The caravan stood still for a moment before John stepped forward. Then the others followed suit in lining up. The bandits tied their hands and feet before unharnessing the last of the livestock and disappearing into the forest. It took a while, but with some advanced circus flexibility techniques, Sir Osis was able to free himself before helping the others. About an hour after they had been left with nothing, the caravan was free to decide what would happen next. John spoke up first, “The best course of action, I figure, would be to go back to the last castle. If we be quick enough, we can get there before the dark.” “It took months to get that cargo to here!” one of the merchants protested. “I cannot simply give up after all I have gone through to get it.” A couple of the other merchants expressed verbal agreement; John sat on the ground and avoided eye contact with the others. Whether he was considering the other merchant's words or simply needed moment before he felt up for a debate was unknown to Sir Osis. Going after the bandits was just plain stupid, and Sir Osis knew it. There were only a handful of people arguing for that, and they would see reason once they calmed down. “If we make our way back the the castle, then it may be that we find someone with skills in the art of tracking who can find the base men who stole your work from you,” he said, standing in a commanding pose. “That’s all well and good, sir, but from what I understand, Lord save us, you would be the best candidate to help, unless there’s some master hunter you could be telling us about.” Right. Yes. That was an excellent point he made. This plan was still stupid, but that was an excellent point. “I understand you concern, but as for that,” Sir Osis shifted to regain his authoritarian pose. “While it is certainly true that, apart from our lord, hunting and tracking are not commonly known arts in our village, I cannot do a thing without…the Silver Arrow of Fortune.” The Silver Arrow of Fortune was an artifact Sir Osis had conjured up while remembering the brooch his lord’s wife commonly wore, but they didn’t need to know that. The merchant cocked his head. “And this Arrow of Fortune you need, why?” “It brings fortune, naturally.” “I’m not going back just for some superstition.” “It was blessed by the Pope.” “I have some medals blessed by the Pope which they didn’t take.” “It was used to stab the side of Christ.” “Wasn’t that a spear though?” “Well, you see, with translation—” Someone cleared his throat, and Sir Osis turned to see that John had been watching this exchange. “Thank you for ye help, sir, but I’ll be taking it from here.” He spoke up to address the group at large. “Now I understand that you are angry at the loss of what you spent so much of your life in the attaining of, yes, but all that will be worthless if you’re dead.” Most of the members of the caravan nodded in agreement, knowing that this was the only reasonable decision. “There won’t be any questioning of this now. We’re going back.” The trip back is very uneventful. Nobody witnessed the incident of Sir Osis thinking a rustling noise was another bandit and chasing after a squirrel for ten minutes. It did not happen and was therefore not an event. By the time they got to the castle, it was dark, and Sir Osis went to his room as soon as possible. “You received a message while you were out, sir,” a servant told him as he removed his boots. “Remove it from me. Good night,” Sir Osis responded as he threw his boots across the room and pulled his legs into bed. That was a concern for the morning—no, not the morning. That was a concern for a time of day when his brains were in place.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The thrush and the castle alike welcomed the morning. It was one of those one rare and precious days of spring with neither rain nor snow, insect pests nor incessant clamor of a migratory flock, biting frost nor unbearable heat. No, it was none of these things. It was a thing of beauty and a sight to behold, and as usual, Sir Osis of the Liver hated it anyway. When most laborers had already been working for several hours, Sir Osis was just rolling out of his bed. As he spent the next hour eating breakfast and nursing his head in silence, he reflected on what he could do that day. He could go around the village and watch for criminals, old ladies whose cats insisted upon climbing trees they had no intention of descending, and such, or he could stay home and train or take care of some business…or perhaps lie in bed some more. > You stay at Home Yeah, there was no way he was going to the village that day. He had so many important things to take care of, like how he couldn’t open his eyes longer than three seconds. There was only one thing to fix that. He brought his legs back up into the bed and closed his eyes again. When he woke up again, he has soaked with sweat under the blankets, and a tray of food had been left near his door. Still not feeling like leaving his room, he took a piss out of his narrow window, congratulated himself on getting most of it outside, and sat down to eat his breakfast. After eating, writing a letter, and giving some orders to the servants, he went outside. His steed, a white creature of around ten hands, was saddled and awaiting him. Named Alphonse, he had been a gift from Queen Justinia, and bore a resemblance to a horse in the sense that it was an equine. Together, they went out to an empty pasture. The ground was damp yet, but there was enough grass that what mud was there was not enough to cause any problems. About two thirds of the way to the far end of the pasture was a weighted bag on a beam. The beam was set up for practice with a spear and if struck incorrectly, would swivel and send the bag to strike the assailant. Until the sun started to lower in the sky after the noon, Sir Osis trained without interruption. Then a rider came up to the pasture before stopping at the gate. “Good afternoon.” “Good afternoon to, Sir Odin of the Liver?” “It is Sir Osis you are speaking to.” “I’ve a message from Queen Justinia to all unoccupied knights in the general vicinity, my lord. There is thought to be a beast living in a nearby portion of Her Majesty’s forest, and several people have gone missing within the past month—more than the usual I mean.” “So I am to be on a rescue mission!” Sir Osis exclaimed. “No, sir. More of an extermination, if you will. Her Majesty wants who or whatever is responsible for these disappearances neutralized—killed, if you will.” “Errrrr…I am not entirely certain that I am the correct man for this. Perhaps Sir Loin may be a better fit.” “He’s already searching in his area. It is necessary—imperative, one may say—that whatever this is be stopped. Her Majesty’s orders, sir.” Well there went any hope of staying home all day. All he could do was go out and hope that word reached him of the situation being resolved before he had spent his whole day out there. Within a half hour, he was in the forest fighting his way through brambles. He got to thinking; was there a reason whatever he was looking for would be voluntarily putting itself through this? Not really. Then he made the decision to go down and search along the river instead. Now that was a far more pleasant walk, and he could see much farther too. For some time, he rode along the riverbank, then he got to thinking again. This spot he could see up ahead looked like a spot he would like if he were some man-eating beast. Perhaps he should stop there and wait a while, he figured. So he did. As he sat by the river, something shiny caught his eye in the water. Perhaps it was some sort of treasure, he thought. To still be shiny like this, it could not have been here for long, unless it was gold perhaps. Naturally, he got on his knees and peered into the water. The outline of the object danced and warped with the motion of the water. Then his examination was cut off with the appearance of a brown object smoothly gliding through with the current. Thinking it was a beaver, he pulled back to see that something was very off about it. This beaver was swimming backwards? No, this beaver had a bill like a duck, or perhaps this duck had a body resembling a beaver. Determined to find out, Sir Osis prodded it with his sword in the hopes of getting it to turn over. It did not. It lunged out of the water and onto his face. Stunned, Sir Osis dropped his sword and rolled over on top of it. Then the beaver hit Sir Osis with his hindquarters, and Sir Osis felt an excruciating pain go through himself. All he could do was lie on his back and scream, while the beaver too one last glance at him before slipping back into the river to resume his journey. The sun was gone and the moon was high before Sir Osis was able to pull himself up again. Every move he made was difficult, and he cursed the beaver fay that had done this to him. However, he managed to gather some wood and build a fire to warm himself from lying on the cool ground for so long. As he sat there, shivering, he dwelt on his available options. He could turn back and go home, or he could continue on his journey. He was in need of medical attention and perhaps that of a priest, but those were things he might be able to find if he stopped in another nearby village. Whatever he decided would have to wait until morning, but it was good to have an idea of things now. > You go Home This little excursion was over. Monster hunting and demon beavers were not what he was getting paid for. He wouldn’t do any good if he died out here anyway. Mind made up, Sir Osis allowed sleep to come and take him from his pain. It didn’t come nearly soon enough. Then next morning, he willed himself to stand up again and called for his horse. After about ten minutes of that, Alphonse came lumbering to him. Then Sir Osis made sure nothing was left behind and put out the fire. The river’s cool water beckoned to him, but he was apprehensive about allowing his face anywhere near a place such a terrible creature allowed his. Thirst proved a stronger opponent than fear, however, and he carefully got a quick drink and some more water for later—swirling the water in front of him with a long branch every few seconds to scare anything off all the while, just in case. Then it was time to leave this cursed place. Every movement he made was difficult and there was pain with every breath—without breath too. He’d tried holding it to see if there was a difference. After a couple hours, he had returned to the highway and was enjoying the feeling of the warm sun against his back. When he had reached a point he recognized as being roughly three miles from his home, he saw a man as old as the sun and moon bent under the weight of a pack that must have weighed twice as much as him. “Good day, sir!” he called in a voice which surprised Sir Osis in its clarity. “I suppose one may call it that under certain circumstances. However, I shall be of the slight inclination to disagree with you. It is not yet a good day. Perhaps in a few hours, it will have sufficiently improved enough to be called middling, but for now it is a day that I would very much prefer to eliminate from my memory entirely.” “I’m sorry to hear that, sir,” the ancient one said flatly before regaining his enthusiasm and setting down his pack before Sir Osis and his horse. The weight may have appeared to have been removed from his back, yet he was bent at the same sharp angle as before. “Whatever it is that’s ailing you, I have a product that would make a fine solution to it. In fact,” he chuckled as if thinking of the perfect joke to tell his friend later, “I may have several! What is it you need?” “It is not a simple matter to—” The old peddler cut him off. “I understand perfectly, sir. Actually, I don’t, but I wouldn’t think ill of you for it,” he said while giving Sir Osis a reassuring pat on the back. “Have you laid eyes on the cursed beaver too?” “Oh, many. That’s the point in which I usually remember that I need to be hitting the road once more and bid my companion farewell though, sir. You’ll learn in time.” He brought out a couple of glass bottles. One was clear with a deep brown, viscous substance inside, and the other was a watery substance with a color impossible to determine from behind the tinted glass it was in. He opened the bottle of watery liquid and inhaled deeply before pulling back an shaking his head. “Now this will cure anything,” he said with a laugh before tucking it back into his pack and smelling the brown bottle. “This here is the one we’re looking for.” He held it out to Sir Osis before drawing his hand back. “I am correct in believing you do have some coin on you, sir.” > You ask How Much He Needs “What is the price you are asking?” Sir Osis figured that if he had the funds there was no point in continuing to suffer like he was. The man born before the mountains chuckled to himself before replying, “For what it is, a bargain. A copper coin should do you just nicely.” The transaction was made, and the peddler tipped his hat. “A pleasant journey to you, sir,” he said before hoisting his pack back onto his back. When Sir Osis received the bottle, he was surprised to see it engraved with some sort of markings. He was not sure what they were, but they looked to him almost like of some sort of script. “Allow me to inquire as to…” he started before trailing off when he realized that he could no longer see the man who had watched the rivers form in his youth. He questioned his sight for a moment before deciding that a ridge had hidden the peddler from view. Then his body ordered his mind to pay attention to the elixir before them. He removed the stopper, being sure to save it in his pocket for later, and held his breath before bringing the mouth of the bottle to his lips. It was to his surprise that the medicine tasted nothing of the wretched concoctions he had been forced to take when sick as a child. It had a strong smell that burned his nostrils slightly, but the flavor was sweet. He took three good draughts of the viscous substance before wiping his mouth. He was no longer in pain, but something else had happened. Overcome by dizziness, Sir Osis dismounted and curled up on the side of the road—feeling unable to go any farther. Then he felt consciousness slip away. Sir Osis awoke to an overwhelming floral smell. With no hesitation, he jumped up and drew his sword, fearing the worst. However, all he was greeted with was a woman in very strange dress making a rather pissed-off expression. She quickly backed away when he drew his sword but her demeaner became no more pleasant than before. In fact, she began to yell at him in a strange language he had never heard anything like before. Sir Osis sheathed his sword and bowed slightly. “I am afraid that I never did learn any of that Russian. You are Russian?” He had no idea what this strange woman was, but Russian was a very good guess, he thought. When Sir Osis had sheathed his sword, the woman calmed down considerably, yet she was not any more favorable to Sir Osis’s presence in her sight than before, and Sir Osis learned that “Get the hell out of my place” was the same in many languages that day. As relieved as he was that he did not appear to have been enslaved, he was not pleased in the least with this situation. Out on the street, he could here that everybody seemed to speak whatever that woman had been screaming, they all had the same strange look about them, and they all wore those strange clothes. Strangest of all however was that now and then someone would pass by who appeared to be blue. Now, the interplay of light and shadow can have strange effects on the visual perception of man, but no shadow followed around individuals throughout their days, the color of a sunny sky in September all the while. That’s right. There were no tricks being played. Some of those people were blue. Now, whether it was natural pigmentation or it was a paint was a mystery to the knight, but either way, it was quite visually shocking, and pondering it distracted him from the strange situation he was in…for a time. It was five minutes before Sir Osis looked around and came to the full realization that he was certainly not anywhere near home anymore, and he had no idea how he got there or by what transportation he should return. This was fine. He could handle this. He took a deep breath to calm himself and let it out along with a profane deluge. This did not make him feel any more cheerful, but now he could consider his situation with a clearer mind. The clearer mind told him to skedaddle before whatever had brought him to this place came back. As he wandered, he realized that the city he was in was much larger than anything he had been near before and not a single person was speaking his language. He tried to wake up or to change his surroundings, but If this was a dream, he had no control over it. As the sun hung low, he came to the edge of the city and looked out at the landscape before him. The fields and jungle before him were like nothing he had ever before seen. > You stay In the City Sir Osis knew that in the city there was shelter and work. He knew nothing of what was beyond. The choice was simple. Of course, he would have to get a new set of clothes to blend in more as soon as possible. Oddly enough, nobody had stolen his money, and he was able to find lodging quite easily, although it was far more expensive than he would have liked. Then he settled in to begin his new life. It took him some time, but he eventually managed to communicate in the new language. He found that nobody knew how he could get home, nor had they even heard of it. All he could really do was work at his new job guarding a large inn and brothel and hope some merchant passing through knew how he could get home. None of them did, and after years of waiting, Sir Osis gave up hope. He began to spend his nights smoking opium and enjoying the company of blue-skinned females—with which he was very popular. It wasn’t long before his habits caused him to be thrown out by the owner of the establishment—with which he was less popular. He died alone in the street behind where he once worked.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|> “What is the price you are asking?” Sir Osis figured that if he had the funds there was no point in continuing to suffer like he was. The man born before the mountains chuckled to himself before replying, “For what it is, a bargain. A copper coin should do you just nicely.” The transaction was made, and the peddler tipped his hat. “A pleasant journey to you, sir,” he said before hoisting his pack back onto his back. When Sir Osis received the bottle, he was surprised to see it engraved with some sort of markings. He was not sure what they were, but they looked to him almost like of some sort of script. “Allow me to inquire as to…” he started before trailing off when he realized that he could no longer see the man who had watched the rivers form in his youth. He questioned his sight for a moment before deciding that a ridge had hidden the peddler from view. Then his body ordered his mind to pay attention to the elixir before them. He removed the stopper, being sure to save it in his pocket for later, and held his breath before bringing the mouth of the bottle to his lips. It was to his surprise that the medicine tasted nothing of the wretched concoctions he had been forced to take when sick as a child. It had a strong smell that burned his nostrils slightly, but the flavor was sweet. He took three good draughts of the viscous substance before wiping his mouth. He was no longer in pain, but something else had happened. Overcome by dizziness, Sir Osis dismounted and curled up on the side of the road—feeling unable to go any farther. Then he felt consciousness slip away. Sir Osis awoke to an overwhelming floral smell. With no hesitation, he jumped up and drew his sword, fearing the worst. However, all he was greeted with was a woman in very strange dress making a rather pissed-off expression. She quickly backed away when he drew his sword but her demeaner became no more pleasant than before. In fact, she began to yell at him in a strange language he had never heard anything like before. Sir Osis sheathed his sword and bowed slightly. “I am afraid that I never did learn any of that Russian. You are Russian?” He had no idea what this strange woman was, but Russian was a very good guess, he thought. When Sir Osis had sheathed his sword, the woman calmed down considerably, yet she was not any more favorable to Sir Osis’s presence in her sight than before, and Sir Osis learned that “Get the hell out of my place” was the same in many languages that day. As relieved as he was that he did not appear to have been enslaved, he was not pleased in the least with this situation. Out on the street, he could here that everybody seemed to speak whatever that woman had been screaming, they all had the same strange look about them, and they all wore those strange clothes. Strangest of all however was that now and then someone would pass by who appeared to be blue. Now, the interplay of light and shadow can have strange effects on the visual perception of man, but no shadow followed around individuals throughout their days, the color of a sunny sky in September all the while. That’s right. There were no tricks being played. Some of those people were blue. Now, whether it was natural pigmentation or it was a paint was a mystery to the knight, but either way, it was quite visually shocking, and pondering it distracted him from the strange situation he was in…for a time. It was five minutes before Sir Osis looked around and came to the full realization that he was certainly not anywhere near home anymore, and he had no idea how he got there or by what transportation he should return. This was fine. He could handle this. He took a deep breath to calm himself and let it out along with a profane deluge. This did not make him feel any more cheerful, but now he could consider his situation with a clearer mind. The clearer mind told him to skedaddle before whatever had brought him to this place came back. As he wandered, he realized that the city he was in was much larger than anything he had been near before and not a single person was speaking his language. He tried to wake up or to change his surroundings, but If this was a dream, he had no control over it. As the sun hung low, he came to the edge of the city and looked out at the landscape before him. The fields and jungle before him were like nothing he had ever before seen. > You leave the City It would be stupid to stay in the same area where whoever had brought him here must be. He had no idea what was beyond the flooded field before him, but it was unlikely to be anything he couldn’t handle, he figured. He had vanquished a demon platypus just fine, after all. There was no more time for hesitation. He heard a shout before him and sprinted out into the night. He ran for about five minutes before doubling over and gasping for breath. Nobody was following him. Oh well. He needed the cardio exercise anyway. As Sir Osis caught his breath, the fact that he was in a strange place with no idea where home was hit him once again. What was he supposed to do now? Just walk until he found home? Who knew how far that was? Even the air smelled different here. After going through a few minutes of panic and catching his breath, Sir Osis too a good look at the path before him. It snaked through hills and fields before disappearing into forbidding darkness. Perhaps there was a settlement or a home he could stop at not far off. There was only one way to find out. He resumed his trek, this time at a much more manageable pace. In order to occupy his mind with something other than worries, Sir Osis started taking in every detail of the night around him. Some of the sounds of the night were familiar, others, nothing like anything he had ever heard. All sound was unresting, unceasing, endless. It was almost unnerving to hear so much which he could neither identify nor see. Actually, it was very unnerving. He decided he should probably stop concentrating on it, but that only made things worse. The thought crossed his mind that he may never hear a human voice again, and that thought scared him. Lowly, he even started singing to himself some old song his mother used to sing about a lady and her lover that turned into a horse—or was it a horse that was her lover? The details were unimportant. The song had the desired effect, and Sir Osis had hardly realized it before he had entered into the jungle itself. The moon was blocked here, making the surroundings difficult to see, and Sir Osis soon decided that he should stop for the night. First he would need firewood. He wasn’t about to go sleeping in some strange forest without a fire. There could be wolves there, after all, and perhaps the ground was colder than was the air. The leaf litter on the forest floor was damp, and Sir Osis worried that he would be unable to find anything dry enough to light. The intense darkness was not helping matters whatsoever. While he was kicking at the ground in front of him as he walked in search of a log large enough to be worth stripping the inner bark from, he ran into a fallen tree and fell onto his knees. Then he heard a hiss, and something struck him in the hand. Muttering something under his breath, he looked around to see what had bitten him but found nothing. Well this was worrying. Still, he felt no pain beyond the initial bite, which itched a bit, and he figured he would probably be fine. Then he built the fire and settled in for the night. It was only a few short hours before he woke up vomiting and with tightness in his chest. So that bite was something to worry about after all. He decided to wait things out a bit in case they got better. They didn’t. By the time he decided he needed to go back to the city to receive help, he was unable to walk. All he could do was lie on the ground until his own lungs refused to draw breath for him any longer. The jackals had a change from the usual fare that night. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>This little excursion was over. Monster hunting and demon beavers were not what he was getting paid for. He wouldn’t do any good if he died out here anyway. Mind made up, Sir Osis allowed sleep to come and take him from his pain. It didn’t come nearly soon enough. Then next morning, he willed himself to stand up again and called for his horse. After about ten minutes of that, Alphonse came lumbering to him. Then Sir Osis made sure nothing was left behind and put out the fire. The river’s cool water beckoned to him, but he was apprehensive about allowing his face anywhere near a place such a terrible creature allowed his. Thirst proved a stronger opponent than fear, however, and he carefully got a quick drink and some more water for later—swirling the water in front of him with a long branch every few seconds to scare anything off all the while, just in case. Then it was time to leave this cursed place. Every movement he made was difficult and there was pain with every breath—without breath too. He’d tried holding it to see if there was a difference. After a couple hours, he had returned to the highway and was enjoying the feeling of the warm sun against his back. When he had reached a point he recognized as being roughly three miles from his home, he saw a man as old as the sun and moon bent under the weight of a pack that must have weighed twice as much as him. “Good day, sir!” he called in a voice which surprised Sir Osis in its clarity. “I suppose one may call it that under certain circumstances. However, I shall be of the slight inclination to disagree with you. It is not yet a good day. Perhaps in a few hours, it will have sufficiently improved enough to be called middling, but for now it is a day that I would very much prefer to eliminate from my memory entirely.” “I’m sorry to hear that, sir,” the ancient one said flatly before regaining his enthusiasm and setting down his pack before Sir Osis and his horse. The weight may have appeared to have been removed from his back, yet he was bent at the same sharp angle as before. “Whatever it is that’s ailing you, I have a product that would make a fine solution to it. In fact,” he chuckled as if thinking of the perfect joke to tell his friend later, “I may have several! What is it you need?” “It is not a simple matter to—” The old peddler cut him off. “I understand perfectly, sir. Actually, I don’t, but I wouldn’t think ill of you for it,” he said while giving Sir Osis a reassuring pat on the back. “Have you laid eyes on the cursed beaver too?” “Oh, many. That’s the point in which I usually remember that I need to be hitting the road once more and bid my companion farewell though, sir. You’ll learn in time.” He brought out a couple of glass bottles. One was clear with a deep brown, viscous substance inside, and the other was a watery substance with a color impossible to determine from behind the tinted glass it was in. He opened the bottle of watery liquid and inhaled deeply before pulling back an shaking his head. “Now this will cure anything,” he said with a laugh before tucking it back into his pack and smelling the brown bottle. “This here is the one we’re looking for.” He held it out to Sir Osis before drawing his hand back. “I am correct in believing you do have some coin on you, sir.” > You refuse the Medicine The more he thought about it, the more it sounded as if this being was selling something suited for curing a gift most often received at the habitation of working women. That was assuming it could cure anything at all. No, he was well enough to get this far. He didn’t need some snake oil quackery. “You have my utmost gratitude for your time, but it has come to my memory that I have some fine concoction at home that should provide sufficient balm for my troubles.” The ancient one’s nostrils flared, and his eyes had a flash of anger like tinder burning, but he quickly hid his rage and gave Sir Osis a smile which seemed to cut his face in half. Then he started repacking his things. “Well then, sir. A swift journey to you.” The man who knew the sky in its youth hoisted his burden onto his back, and then it was as if he had never been there. Sir Osis walked around the road, but he could not even tell if the ancient one had left footprints among the endless sets. There was no trace of him he could see. He decided that he was either having lapses in memory of sorts or there was sorcery involved in this. He prayed it was the former and continued on his journey, a little shaken. It was not long before Sir Osis had made his way back home where he choked down some vile remedy, visited the priest, and went to bed. It was still dark when he woke up in complete agony. Never had he felt the way he did. The closest thing he could imagine to the feeling he was experiencing was being alive by thousands of salt-jawed ants while being burned alive with a flame set in his stomach. Servants and other members of the household came running into his room when they heard his screams, but all they found was a pile of soot on the sheets. The death of Sir Osis became a legend in that region, and they say his ghost still haunts the castle in which he met his bodily demise. Where his soul is, no man can say.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Yeah, there was no way he was going to the village that day. He had so many important things to take care of, like how he couldn’t open his eyes longer than three seconds. There was only one thing to fix that. He brought his legs back up into the bed and closed his eyes again. When he woke up again, he has soaked with sweat under the blankets, and a tray of food had been left near his door. Still not feeling like leaving his room, he took a piss out of his narrow window, congratulated himself on getting most of it outside, and sat down to eat his breakfast. After eating, writing a letter, and giving some orders to the servants, he went outside. His steed, a white creature of around ten hands, was saddled and awaiting him. Named Alphonse, he had been a gift from Queen Justinia, and bore a resemblance to a horse in the sense that it was an equine. Together, they went out to an empty pasture. The ground was damp yet, but there was enough grass that what mud was there was not enough to cause any problems. About two thirds of the way to the far end of the pasture was a weighted bag on a beam. The beam was set up for practice with a spear and if struck incorrectly, would swivel and send the bag to strike the assailant. Until the sun started to lower in the sky after the noon, Sir Osis trained without interruption. Then a rider came up to the pasture before stopping at the gate. “Good afternoon.” “Good afternoon to, Sir Odin of the Liver?” “It is Sir Osis you are speaking to.” “I’ve a message from Queen Justinia to all unoccupied knights in the general vicinity, my lord. There is thought to be a beast living in a nearby portion of Her Majesty’s forest, and several people have gone missing within the past month—more than the usual I mean.” “So I am to be on a rescue mission!” Sir Osis exclaimed. “No, sir. More of an extermination, if you will. Her Majesty wants who or whatever is responsible for these disappearances neutralized—killed, if you will.” “Errrrr…I am not entirely certain that I am the correct man for this. Perhaps Sir Loin may be a better fit.” “He’s already searching in his area. It is necessary—imperative, one may say—that whatever this is be stopped. Her Majesty’s orders, sir.” Well there went any hope of staying home all day. All he could do was go out and hope that word reached him of the situation being resolved before he had spent his whole day out there. Within a half hour, he was in the forest fighting his way through brambles. He got to thinking; was there a reason whatever he was looking for would be voluntarily putting itself through this? Not really. Then he made the decision to go down and search along the river instead. Now that was a far more pleasant walk, and he could see much farther too. For some time, he rode along the riverbank, then he got to thinking again. This spot he could see up ahead looked like a spot he would like if he were some man-eating beast. Perhaps he should stop there and wait a while, he figured. So he did. As he sat by the river, something shiny caught his eye in the water. Perhaps it was some sort of treasure, he thought. To still be shiny like this, it could not have been here for long, unless it was gold perhaps. Naturally, he got on his knees and peered into the water. The outline of the object danced and warped with the motion of the water. Then his examination was cut off with the appearance of a brown object smoothly gliding through with the current. Thinking it was a beaver, he pulled back to see that something was very off about it. This beaver was swimming backwards? No, this beaver had a bill like a duck, or perhaps this duck had a body resembling a beaver. Determined to find out, Sir Osis prodded it with his sword in the hopes of getting it to turn over. It did not. It lunged out of the water and onto his face. Stunned, Sir Osis dropped his sword and rolled over on top of it. Then the beaver hit Sir Osis with his hindquarters, and Sir Osis felt an excruciating pain go through himself. All he could do was lie on his back and scream, while the beaver too one last glance at him before slipping back into the river to resume his journey. The sun was gone and the moon was high before Sir Osis was able to pull himself up again. Every move he made was difficult, and he cursed the beaver fay that had done this to him. However, he managed to gather some wood and build a fire to warm himself from lying on the cool ground for so long. As he sat there, shivering, he dwelt on his available options. He could turn back and go home, or he could continue on his journey. He was in need of medical attention and perhaps that of a priest, but those were things he might be able to find if he stopped in another nearby village. Whatever he decided would have to wait until morning, but it was good to have an idea of things now. > You go to the Next Village If he remembered correctly, the next village was not too far from here. There was no point in turning back when he would likely only have to go out again, and he wasn’t about to explain to the people he had to see every day that the reason he was like this was an overgrown muskrat. It took a while but Sir Osis managed to fall asleep, and when morning came, he found Alphonse and struggled for a while to get him back to the camp. Then he looked longingly at the river. If he just had some water, he would surely feel much better, but he was apprehensive about actually drinking anyway. The way things were going, he figured some pike heron hybrid might come and eat his ear as he stooped to collect the water in his hands to lap up. However, by the time he was about to leave, the fear of passing out in the forest a quarter mile from a water source was stronger than that of any cursed animal. Once he was refreshed, they set off. It was just a few hours before he was back to the highway. When he got there, he was not sure which direction he was supposed to go. The area was hilly, so he climbed atop a high one near the road and looked out. In the distance he could see buildings. So that was the direction he went. The trip there was uneventful, and when he got there, he realized it was a much smaller settlement than he had hoped. After some roundabouts with one of the five people in the village between the ages of ten and ninety, he determined that the larger village was just short distance—unless that was Jacob’s aunt Milly’s, because from the sounds of the directions that had to be repeated multiple times, it could have been Jacob’s Aunt Milly’s. It was not Jacob’s aunt Milly’s. It was Jacob’s aunt Mary’s. Mary was a very nice woman, however, and she took good care of Sir Osis. She took such good care that Sir Osis became very fond of her indeed. That combined with the Florence Nightingale Effect led to them marrying and him becoming step-father to her seven young children. Beautiful blonde and emergency back-up to take on the family name? That trip wasn’t such a bad deal after all. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>I live in a huge world. Why do I exist in this world? Is there a greater reason that I exist than just having to exist? Considering all the beings in this world (Gods, Titans, monsters, Chaos) it's hard not to feel like a lowly ant living among giants. How can I make sure my existence here is not wasted? Many have tried, many have failed, but many have also succeeded. Hercules, Perseus, Theseus, these are just names of some who were challenged and were rewarded with the gift of immortality. Their names would be remembered forever. How did they do it? How can I be like them? "You need a purpose," a voice in my head said. I suppose that you're right! A fulfilled purpose is enough to suffice a confused heart, giving it the feeling like it fulfilled the reason for its existence, too. But what shall be my purpose? "Serve me..." the voice answered, "You must serve me, my son..." Of course, I knew that this voice belonged to my father even before he revealed it so. The natural superiority and hardness in his voice proved that. But is that really just what I'm good for? Just an unworthy servant...? I banished the thought. "Father, I only exist to serve you," I answered the voice. Though my world is unfortunately huge, so is the length of my mortal life. Who knows what feats I will be able to accomplish by the end of it? After all, it doesn't hurt that my Father, the one who answers my prayers every now and then, is Zeus, the Lord of the Gods and the Ruler of the Sky. My limit goes beyond the sky! > You continue... It took me a moment to realize that I had fallen asleep. Ever so slightly, I let some light pass my guarded eyes and look at my surroundings. I've been lying down in a field of grass and it's morning. Apollo has only begun his day-long trek in his golden, shining chariot from east to west. The sunlight is what interrupted my peaceful slumber. Curse it! Suddenly, with my trained senses, I heard grass being stepped on. In that moment, all my battle senses that I gained from training were turned on. The steps are scattered, possibly caused by multiple creatures or a single animosity with multiple legs. I froze my body thinking maybe the monster would lower its guard when it thinks that I'm still unaware of its presence. The smell of sweat and blood filled the air. Clearly, the creature just had its meal. Using expert caution, I unsheathed my sword very quietly while still on the floor. The blade emits a faint glow, the power of the sky, being in the blade, made its presence known. I felt nervous, my heart pounding and my blood rushing, but never afraid. My mind was calculating everything in sight but I still don't know what creature I'm dealing with. Could be an army of wolves or a giant Arachne, who knows? The steps grew closer, then stopped. I felt their eyes staring at my body. What should I do?<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Once upon a time... > You by a clear pool in the forest... The soft winds sigh through the blossoming trees overhead and caress your silken white fur as you approach the brim of the pool. The air is heavy with a scent of green herbs softened with sweet floral notes. Stepping with care so as not to let your silver hooves crush too much of the vibrant moss beside the water’s edge, you dip your head and begin to drink. The sweet, cold water trickling from the rocky hillside splashes across the tip of your spiraling silver horn. You were called by the name Edelweiss, long ago, when names still had meaning. Those who named you have gone elsewhere, to places you can’t yet follow, and after a time spent traveling in younger days, you’ve been alone in this pleasant portion of the wood for some years now. Aside from the occasional disturbance from the fae folk, or a human traveler. The sounds of rustling bushes and heavy breathing warn you a long time in advance of the approach of the latter. Humans always do make quite the event of the simple act of moving from one place to another. You have moved well out of sight by the time the man makes his way into the peaceful clearing, red-faced and huffing and puffing, a loaded crossbow clattering against his side. His eyes light up at the sight of the pool and his boots sink deep into the mud as he drinks deeply, then sloshes more of the crystal liquid into an empty waterskin until the goatskin vessel bulges. He then splashes his face and gazes all around before unrolling a greasy piece of parchment and peering at it awhile. The stranger is still a young man, with blue eyes and brown hair and a short, curly beard. He is tanned and sturdily built, appearing not unaccustomed to labor, though not as wild as the woodsmen and hermits and ruffians you have mostly encountered in the past. He seats himself beneath a tree, preparing to rest. “It has been a number of summers since one of the sons of men have left their footprints beside the water here.” You step from the dappled leafshadow, allowing him to see you now. The man startles and stares, jaw slack. “Well I’ll be...” He breathes out the words in an awed whisper, doffing his hat and rising to his feet. “You really are real.” His movements are slow and careful, as if he’s afraid you’ll spook like a doe. Arching your long neck, you tilt your head a bit to regard him, swiveling your ears this way and that. Curious. So this is no chance wanderer after all, but a man who seemed to know of you. “Indeed. But the children of men have short memories. I have been forgotten and rediscovered many times, since I first came to dwell in this wood. How came ye to be here, traveler?” “Now that...” He perches himself on a stone, idly rotating his hat in his hands. “...is a bit of a tale.”<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>This is a story about a boy named Long, who life will change with the coming of war. But first, let's focus on the Vietnam War itself. The Vietnam war happened after the French's failed attempt to gain control of the country. The United States then took over for them. In 1954, when the French left, Vietnam split into two after a conflict over who would control the country. It was the communist North, and the independent South. The United States sided with the South. > You numerical Facts -At the beginning of the 20th century, 90% of war casualties were soldiers, by the last decade of that century that 90% were of civilians instead. -Many of those 90% casualties were children. -More than a million South Vietnamese were orphaned by the war, and only a few thousand made it to adoptive families. (in the book Escape From Saigon) > Back to 'A Note to Readers.' This is a story about a boy named Long, who life will change with the coming of war. But first, let's focus on the Vietnam War itself. The Vietnam war happened after the French's failed attempt to gain control of the country. The United States then took over for them. In 1954, when the French left, Vietnam split into two after a conflict over who would control the country. It was the communist North, and the independent South. The United States sided with the South. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Your name is Bill Grey and you were born in Missouri in 1840. When the American Civil War broke out you sided with your friends and family and served on the Southern side, first in the Missouri State Guard and then with Quantrill's Raiders. After both your parents were shot dead by Union soldiers in the Camp Jackson Massacre your vengeance knew no bounds and you served as a guerrilla under such men as Captain Quantrill, Bloody Bill Anderson and Little Archie Clement. You were at the Lawrence Massacre in 1863 where Quantrill's Raiders killed some two hundred Yankee men and boys in Lawrence, Kansas. A year later you took part in the Centralia Massacre where, with the rest of Anderson's band, you helped stop a train, took two dozen unarmed Union soldiers off it and shot them dead - when soldiers were sent out a few hours later your band ambushed them as well and killed more than one hundred. Following Anderson's death in 1864 and Quantrill's in 1865 you and your surviving companions surrendered at the end of the Civil War. Returning to Missouri you try to rebuild your life as a farmer on your family's lands but it is impossible: though pardoned you and your fellow guerrillas have not been forgiven for your Civil War activities and are threatened and persecuted by pro-Unionist citizens and lawmen. The victorious North controls the banks, railroad and government and in fear of your life and unable to do business with any but your fellow impoverished Southerners by 1866 you have had enough. You learn that your last surviving war-time leader Archie Clement is secretly arranging a meeting of several former-Guerrillas and when he invites you to take part you readily accept. Clement's plan is to rob Yankee banks in Missouri to show the Federal Government that though the war may be over you and your companions are still fighting back. It is this fateful decision that will be your first step down the Outlaw path, a dangerous and lonely road... In this story your fate will be determined entirely by your choices. The number of Gunfights you take part in, the people you Injure and Kill, the number of Robberies you commit and your Score (your share of the amount of money you steal) will all be recorded. Your main aim is to survive, avoiding both prison and death in order to continue your Outlaw career with a long-term goal of eventually retiring. Be careful: one wrong decision, particularly in a gunfight where any moment can be your last, will signal a sudden and fatal end to your career, prison is less of a final ending but depending on the evidence against you can either be a short term delay to your career or a decisive end to it. Your secondary aim is to build up your Score by taking part in as many successful robberies as possible, if you are part of a ten-man team that rob a bank of $10,000 dollars for example your share will come to $1,000 and this will be added to your Score. When your career ends, whether through peaceful retirement or suddenly and violently, you will be sent to the Performance Table where you can compare your Gunfights, Injured, Killed, Robberies and Score to your fellow Outlaws as an indication of how well you performed - leaving a comment at the end of the story will also enable others to see your Score. Good luck Reader, your Outlaw story is about to begin. > The First Step You and your fellow Outlaws meet at the James Family Farm to plan your first bank robbery. There are seven of you: your youthful leader Little Archie Clement, calm and reserved Frank James, cunning Cole Younger and his reliable brother-in-law John Jarette, the Shepherd brothers George Shepherd and one-eyed Ol Shepherd and finally yourself. You fought alongside each other for years during the War and you know from experience they are all brave and daring. It is your 20 year old leader Little Archie, the youngest and deadliest man present, who arranged this meeting and plans the robbery. "It's time for us to ride again boys," he declares to you all. "Show those Yankee carpet-baggers that there is still some fight in the South! The town of Liberty, is our target boys, we'll all ride in together. Frank, you and Cole will go in the bank, take the tellers hostage and put all the money you find in the safe into this haversack. The rest of us will wait outside, hold the horses and keep anyone from entering the bank. When you two have finished lock the tellers in the vault, come outside and we'll mount up and ride off. If the alarm is raised boys pull out your pistols and fire them into the air like we used to do in the War when we raided a town - it works wonders for keeping those Yankee shop owners and stable boys off the street! If they start shooting back clear out fast, whether we have the money or not. We'll hit the bank on February 13th, an unlucky day for Yankees but a good day for us!" On the chosen day you and your companions ride into Liberty early in the morning when there are few people on the street. With winter snow still swirling through the air you and your companions rein in outside the bank while Frank and Cole dismount and enter the bank, giving their horses's reins to the Shepherd brothers to hold. The moments seem to drag by ponderously with no sound coming out of the plain stone building in front of you. A few townsfolk are glancing at you all curiously; you reach into your right pocket and nervously clench your heavy but loaded revolver which you have hidden inside. Suddenly Cole and Frank emerge from the bank, the latter holding a bulging haversack. They walk quickly back to their horses and begin to mount up. It all seems too easy. Suddenly a voice from inside the bank shouts out "Robbery! They're robbing the bank!" As a few nearby civilians start in alarm you and your companions promptly draw out your pistols and begin shooting them into the air, yelling at people to get off the street. Two youths are standing nearby when the alarm is raised and promptly turn and start running down the street in the direction of a Gun Store. Little Archie spurs his horse after them and fires a shot at them with his pistol, which misses. "Shoot them," he shouts at you, who are closest to him. "Shoot them, they're going for the guns!" Obediently you raise your pistol and point it at one of the fleeing teenager's backs but hesitate about pulling the trigger. > You shoot the boy Your shot hits one of the boys in the back, pitching him face-first down to the street with a cry. The other boy takes shelter in a doorway so turning your horse away you and your companions ride out of town. Using routes well-known to you all you ride your horses across the countryside for several hours, completely eluding any pursuit that might have been sent after you. Reaching a safe place you stop to count to your money and to your amazement you find that Frank and Cole have managed to steal $60,000, your share alone comes to $8,500. Little Archie is pleased but instinctively cautious. "There will be a big noise about this so it is best if we split up for a time," he declares. There is some discussion and then you all make your decisions: Little Archie is going to check into a hotel in the town of Lexington, Missouri and lie low for a while. Frank, John and Cole all decide to hide out at Cole's family farm near the town of Independence while George and Ol are going back to their own Farm near the town of St Joseph. All your companions invite you to go with them and you need to choose who to hide out with. > You go with Little Archie to Lexington You and Little Archie travel to Lexington where you rent rooms in a hotel and lie low for the rest of the year, spending your stolen money in bars, restaurants and with sporting ladies. One winter's night in December however Little Archie's notoriety leads to an arrest attempt. You and Archie are sitting in a saloon having a quiet drink when three blue-uniformed soldiers armed with rifles approach your table. "Gentlemen, you are both under arrest," one of the soldiers declares. You and Archie glance at each other and then Archie springs to his feet, pulling a pistol from his pocket as he does so, and starts firing. The soldiers scatter, one firing back and hitting Archie in the side. You are on your feet, pistol in hand and follow Archie as he dashes across the room, hand clasped to his bleeding side, and the pair of you use the pandemonium of fleeing bar customers to escape out a side door into an alley. Several horses are tied up nearby and untying two you mount up. Archie turns and spurs his horse down the alley towards the main street while in the other direction you can see the alley opens up into a side street. You have a choice of directions. > You follow Little Archie towards the main street As you both ride out of the alley into the main street a volley of gunshots ring out from a dozen soldiers waiting in a line. Both of you are hit several times and fall from your horses into the dust of the street. You are so badly hurt you are barely able to move, turning your head slightly you see Archie trying to re-cock his pistol with his teeth. As the soldiers approach cautiously, rifles raised, Archie rasps "I've done what I've always said I would do, die before I surrender." You are unable to speak and moments later you and your companion are both dead. > You your Outlaw Career is at an end This is the Performance Table where you can compare your Gunfights, Injured, Killed, Robberies, Score and Fate with those of your fellow members of the James Gang to see who is the greatest Outlaw! 1: Jesse James: Gunfights: 11, Killed: 7, Injured: 1, Robberies: 21, Score: $19,900 - Killed. 2: Frank James: Gunfights: 11, Killed: 2, Injured: 1, Robberies: 17, Score: $26,900 - Surrendered. 3: Cole Younger: Gunfights: 6, Killed: 1, Injured: 2, Robberies: 15, Score: $26,800 - Imprisoned. 4: John Younger: Gunfights: 4, Killed: 4, Injured: 0, Robberies: 7, Score: $3,300 - Killed. 5: Bob Younger: Gunfights: 3, Killed: 0, Injured: 2, Robberies: 8, Score: $12,100 - Imprisoned. 6: Clell Miller: Gunfights: 4, Killed: 0, Injured: 0, Robberies: 8, Score: $12,500 - Killed. 7: Jim Younger: Gunfights: 3, Killed: 1, Injured: 1, Robberies: 5, Score: $2,200 - Imprisoned. 8: John Jarette: Gunfights: 3, Killed: 0, Injured: 1, Robberies: 3, Score: $10,600 - Killed. 9: Charlie Pitts: Gunfights: 2, Killed: 0, Injured: 1, Robberies: 5, Score: $3,400 - Killed. 10: Wood Hite: Gunfights: 2, Killed: 0, Injured: 1, Robberies: 4, Score: $2,400 - Killed. 11: Bill Chadwell: Gunfights: 1, Killed: 0, Injured: 0, Robberies: 5, Stolen: $3,400 - Killed. 12: Dick Liddil: Gunfights: 2, Killed: 0, Injured: 0, Robberies: 4, Stolen: $1,200 - Surrendered. 13: Ol Shepherd: Gunfights: 3, Killed: 0, Injured: 0, Robberies: 2, Stolen: $10,200 - Killed. 14: Little Archie Clement: Gunfights: 2, Killed: 1, Injured: 0, Robberies: 1, Stolen: $8,500 - Killed. 15: George Shepherd: Gunfights: 2, Killed: 0, Injured: 0, Robberies: 2, Stolen: $102,00 - Imprisoned. 16: Bill Ryan: Gunfights: 0, Killed: 0, Injured: 0, Robberies: 4, Stolen: $2,800 - Imprisoned. 17: Charlie Ford: Gunfights: 2, Killed: 0, Injured: 0, Robberies: 1, Stolen: $100 - Surrendered. 18: Clarence Hite: Gunfights: 1, Killed: 0, Injured: 0, Robberies: 2, Stolen: $200 - Imprisoned. 19: Bud McDaniels: Gunfights: 1, Killed: 0, Injured: 0, Robberies: 1, Stolen: $7,800 - Killed. 20: Tom McDaniels: Gunfights: 2, Killed: 0, Injured: 0, Robberies: 1, Stolen: $2,000 - Killed. 21: Tom Webb: Gunfights: 1, Killed: 0, Injured: 0, Robberies: 1, Stolen: $2,000 - Imprisoned. 22: Ed Miller: Gunfights: 1, Killed: 0, Injured: 0, Robberies: 1, Stolen: $1,000 - Killed. 23: Tucker Bassham: Gunfights: 0, Killed: 0, Injured: 0, Robberies: 1, Stolen: $1,000 - Imprisoned. 24: Hoobs Kerry: Gunfights: 0, Killed: 0, Injured: 0, Robberies: 1, Stolen: $1,600 - Imprisoned. 25: Robert Ford: Gunfights: 3, Killed: 2, Injured: 0, Robberies: 0, Stolen: $0 - Killed. Most Prolific Gunfighter: 1: Frank James / Jesse James (11 Gunfights), 2: Cole Younger (6 Gunfights). Most Lethal Hurter: 1: Bob Younger / Cole Younger (2 Injured). Most Deadly Killer: 1: Jesse James (7 Killed), 2: John Younger (4 Killed), 3: Frank James (2 Killed). Most Enthusiastic Robber: 1: Jesse James (21 Robberies), 2: Frank James (17 Robberies), 3: Cole Younger (15 Robberies). Most Successful Bandit: 1: Frank James ($26,900), 2: Cole Younger ($26,800), 3: Jesse James ($19,900). Overall Best Outlaw: 1: Jesse James, 2: Frank James, 3: Cole Younger, 4: John Younger, 5: Bob Younger. As always thank you for taking the time to read my story, please rate and if you would like others to see your score please leave a comment. Have a good day!<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You and Little Archie travel to Lexington where you rent rooms in a hotel and lie low for the rest of the year, spending your stolen money in bars, restaurants and with sporting ladies. One winter's night in December however Little Archie's notoriety leads to an arrest attempt. You and Archie are sitting in a saloon having a quiet drink when three blue-uniformed soldiers armed with rifles approach your table. "Gentlemen, you are both under arrest," one of the soldiers declares. You and Archie glance at each other and then Archie springs to his feet, pulling a pistol from his pocket as he does so, and starts firing. The soldiers scatter, one firing back and hitting Archie in the side. You are on your feet, pistol in hand and follow Archie as he dashes across the room, hand clasped to his bleeding side, and the pair of you use the pandemonium of fleeing bar customers to escape out a side door into an alley. Several horses are tied up nearby and untying two you mount up. Archie turns and spurs his horse down the alley towards the main street while in the other direction you can see the alley opens up into a side street. You have a choice of directions. > You set off by yourself up the alley towards the side street You turn your horse away from Little Archie's and spur it down the alley into the side street. The side street is clear of people so you gallop down it towards the edge of town: as you do you hear a volley of gun shots, a horse screaming and then an ominous silence. Riding to a small knoll overlooking the town you look down and your worst fears are realized: your companion is lying dead in the dust of main street surrounded by silent soldiers. Anxious not to share your leader's fate you ride cross-country for twelve hours straight until you reach the safety of the Shepherd's Family Farm. George and Ol are shocked to hear of Little Archie's death and for all of 1867 you all lay low before a meeting is arranged and the gang re-convenes in the spring of 1868. > Another Robbery It is a somber group that gathers at the James Farm in the spring of 1868: you, Frank, John, George, Ol and Cole are all saddened by your leader's death. Also present at the gathering is Frank's younger brother Jesse James, a garrulous Civil War veteran who was shot three times in the war including one occasion when he blew half his right index finger off while cleaning a loaded pistol. You are all unanimous that you should continue robbing banks and stealing Yankee money, as the oldest and most experienced of the group John Jarette takes charge. "Missouri may be dangerous for us now," he says seriously. "We should cross the border into Kentucky, rob a bank in that Yankee state and then ride back here to hide out. I've been doing some investigating the bank in Russellville, Kentucky is wealthy. This should be our next target." On the chosen day the seven of you ride into town. While the Shepherd brothers guard your horses you, Frank, Jesse, John and Cole all dismount and walk into the bank. There are three tellers inside and as you approach the front counter you all draw your pistols. "This is a hold up," John barks. "Throw up your hands." Instantly one of the tellers springs to his feet and starts running towards a side door. You aim your pistol at the fleeing man's head but pause, wondering whether or not you should pull the trigger. > You shoot the fleeing man You fire a shot that grazes the teller's head and though the man stumbles he keeps running, makes it to the door, throws it open and dashes outside yelling "Robbery!" Moving quickly you and Frank ransack the vault, throwing all the money you can find into two haversacks while the others guard the tellers and rifle the counter. Shutting the remaining tellers inside the vault you all race outside. While you and your companions mount up the Shepherd brothers begin firing shots into the air to keep citizens off the street. You have just pulled yourself onto your horse's back when a young man comes running out of a store across from you with a pistol in his hands. As you and your companions begin spurring your horses down the street he fires a shot at you all, which whizzes overhead to shatter a window in the back behind you. "Get that bastard with the gun," someone shouts. You have your pistol in your hand and consider firing back. > You fire back Raising your pistol you fire back: your shot hits the man on the side, spins him on the spot and he falls to the ground. Turning your horse you spur after your companions and moments later you are out of town and riding across the countryside. You ride hard until you are back across the border in Missouri and there you pause in a copse of trees to count the money you have stolen: you are all pleased to discover it comes to $12,000, which split seven ways makes your share $1,700, which has been added to your Score. "We need to all split up now to make it harder for the Law to track us," John declares. "Jesse and I will go back to our Farm and hide out there," Frank declares. "I'll go with George and Ol back to their Farm to hide out," John decides. "My brother John has just got a job at his friend Tom McDaniel's Farm near the town of Scyene down in Texas," Cole says thoughtfully. "I'll go down there for a bit to lie low." You consider who to hide out with. > You go with Frank and Jesse to the James Farm You join the James brothers at their farm where you live quietly for a few weeks until one morning Frank returns from town with a newspaper and a grim expression. "Yankee lawmen killed John and Ol," he says tersely. "George is in prison charged with bank robbery." You and Jesse crowd round to read how your three companions were identified as participants in the Russellville robbery and were tracked to their homes by lawmen. George later receives a three year prison sentence for his part in the robbery. Despite the loss of three of your companions Jesse is eager for the three of you to rob a bank and after a year and a half when you feel it is safe you make a plan to rob the little bank in the town of Gallatin, Missouri. Riding into town one winter's morning you leave your horses tied up outside and walk inside to find a single teller talking to a customer. The teller looks oddly familiar to you and you can't figure out where you have seen him from until Jesse pulls you and Frank to one side. "Isn't that Colonel Cox?" Jesse asks quietly. "That Yankee Colonel who killed Bill Anderson during the War? I heard he lived in Gallatin." The three of you study the teller closely. You now remember Cox well from his picture in the newspapers, he led an ambush that killed several of your friends including your former leader Bloody Bill Anderson. The teller does indeed look exactly like him and Frank agrees quietly. "Let's kill him," he mutters. Approaching the bank counter the three of you draw your pistols from your pockets. The customer backs away and the teller looks up startled. > You shoot him in the head Your bullet hits the teller in the head, blasting a circle of red blood and gore onto the wall behind him. As the teller slumps dead in his chair Frank and Jesse fire more bullets into him. The customer screams "Murder!" and starts running past the three of you towards the door to the bank. "Shoot him," Jesse yells. > You shoot the customer as well Your shot hits the man in the back of the right arm but he keeps on running and makes it through the door and out onto the street. "Quickly boys, get the money," you call out and moving quickly you, Frank and Jesse scoop up all the money you can find from the counter, which comes to several hundred dollars. Unwilling to spend time pillaging the vault you all run outside and begin mounting your horses but the alarm has already been raised a a few citizens are taking pot shots at you with pistols from teh shelter of a gun store. When a bullet nicks it Jesse's horse rears up in terror, spilling it's rider to the ground before running off. "Get up behind me Jesse," Frank yells and while you fire your pistol at the gun store, trying to cover them, Jesse awkwardly scrambles up behind Frank. The three of you ride out of town on two horses, not stopping for several hours until you reach the safety of the James Farm. There you find you have escaped with less than $700, making your share a paltry $200. There is worse news to follow however. The next morning Frank returns to the Farm with a paper. "It wasn't Colonel Cox who we killed in Gallatin," he declares. "It was some bank clerk called John Sheets. They know it was us as well, we've all been identified by name. We'd better clear out." Leaving the James Farm the three of you go traveling for a year to wait for the attention to die down before returning to Missouri in the summer of 1871 and arranging a meeting with Cole Younger at the home of your mutual friend Clell Miller. Despite the loss of John, George and Ol you are all determined to continue your robberies. > A new Gang By the time you, Frank, Jesse and Cole meet in the summer of 1871 you have all been identified as bank robbers and probably killers or would-be killers. Frank, stern and silent sits thoughtfully to one side, fingering a bible lying in his lap. Jesse, grinning and cheerful sits next to him while Cole, balding but as tough as any man you know sits alone in the corner. You sit next to Clell Miller, a light-hearted friend of Jesse's who as a teenager served briefly as a Guerrilla during the War. You all chat over things and despite the deaths of Little Archie, John and Ol and George's retirement from crime following his release from prison the five of you resolve to form a new Gang and continue robbing Northern banks as revenge for their treatment of Southerners since the War ended. Jesse has been looking as possible targets and has chosen a bank in the pro-Union town of Corydon in Iowa, a place in which bank robbers are unheard of. One summer day the five of you ride into town, dismount, tie up your horses and walk into the bank. It's Sunday and everyone is at church except a lone teller who is quickly captured. You and Frank empty the contents of the vault rapidly into a sack and then locking the teller inside you stroll outside, mount your horses and begin riding off. The robbery has been so easy that when you pass an open-air church service Jesse got resist shouting out to them gleefully "Hey there, we've just robbed the bank!" Frank frowns but the congregation just ignore you and whooping and laughing you all ride out of town. You all ride back to the James Farm in Missouri where you count the haul and find you have made off with $8,000, making your share $1,600. When the papers report the crime you, Frank, Jesse and Cole are all identified again and the newspapers begin calling you the James-Younger Gang. Jesse is delighted with his newfound fame while Cole prevails upon the rest of you to let his younger brother John Younger join the Gang. John, who has already killed three men including two Texan lawmen, is an angel-faced but deadly young man and Jesse especially seems pleased to have him in the Gang. You plan your next bank robbery to take place in Kentucky. > You 29 April 1872: Columbia, Kentucky As you have done so many times you and your companions ride into a small town early one morning. While Frank, Clell and John hold the horses outside you lead Jesse and Cole into the bank. Inside four customers are sitting at a table talking while one smiling cashier waits behind the counter. The three of you walk up to the counter and draw your pistols. "Consider yourself under arrest," Cole says cheerfully. To your amazement the cashier begins shouting "Bank Robbers! Bank Robbers!" at the top of his voice. "Shut up man or I'll kill you," you yell at him but the cashier keeps shouting warnings at the top of his voice. > You shoot him You shoot the cashier in the chest and he staggers back, blood spreading across his shirt front. Jesse and Cole shoot him as well and the cashier falls dead to the ground. Instantly the four customers spring to their feet and start running for the door. "Stop them," Jesse yells. > You fire a shot at them to try to stop them running You fire a shot that hits one of the men in the hand. He yells in pain but a moment later the four customers have scrambled out the door leaving the three of you alone in the bank with the dead teller on the floor behind the counter. "Quickly, grab the money" you tell the others and moving fast you snatch up all the money you can find on the counter. In less than a minute you are back outside to find Frank, Clell and John firing their pistols into the air as you, Jesse and Cole scramble back onto your horses. A man runs out onto the street and fires a pistol at you, Jesse fires back. Both miss but Jesse's shot prompts the man to take cover and the six of you are able to spur your horses out of town and escape. Riding hard you do not stop until you are a long way from Columbia. When you pause to count the money you find you have escaped with less than $1,000, which makes your share $200. Frank is especially unhappy. "We're killing too many bank tellers Jesse," he tells his brother. "This will bring the law down on us." "Maybe we should lay off banks for a while," Jesse says thoughtfully and grins. "I have a mind to rob a ticket office at the Kansas City Exposition." After a quick discussion Cole and John both offer to join Jesse but Frank and Clell decide it is better to lay low - Frank is going back to the James Farm while Clell is going back to his own family's farm. You consider what is best to do. > You join Frank at the James Farm You and Frank hide out at the James Farm and the surrounding area for a while, relying on newspapers for your information. You read about how Jesse and his companions succeeded in robbing the Kansas City Exposition. You also get a scare when you learn that Clell has been arrested for the Columbia Bank Robbery but is released after the shaken witnesses failed to correctly identify him. After a year when you feel the heat has warn off you and the gang reunite to plan your next robbery. > Another Robbery By now you and your companions have become famous across America as the James-Younger Gang and Southern newspapers laud you as Robin Hood type figures continuing the fight for Southern Rights while Northern newspapers focus on the amounts you have stolen and the men you have killed, a number which altogether has reached six slain. Jesse loves all this attention and John and Clell enjoy it too but Frank is quick to point out that you haven't made much money from your recent robberies. That is why on a lazy summer afternoon you and your fellow Outlaws ride into the little town of St Genevieve. While Frank, Clell and John look after your horses you, Jesse and Cole enter the bank. There is just one cashier inside and following your usual procedure you take him prisoner, empty the vault of money and then lock the cashier inside. As you are riding out of town Jesse again throws caution to the wind and begins firing his pistol into the air and cheering. Clell and John soon join in, much to Frank and Cole's disapproval. Returning to the Younger Farm this time you count the money and find you have stolen $4,000, making your share $600. All the robberies seem so easy that Jesse decides it is time to increase the stakes. He lays out a plan for you all to rob a train in the state of Iowa, a extremely rare crime that is sure to gain the attention of all America. Though Clell and John readily agree to the plan Frank and Cole are more reluctant and only agree on the condition that more men can be brought in to join the Gang. You all agree to meet in the town of Adair, Iowa in two months. > You from Banks to Trains... In the pre-dawn morning light you and the rest of the James-Younger Gang assemble outside the busy little town of Adair. Cole and John have brought along their brothers Jim and Bob to join in the robbery. Jim is a steady veteran who you fought alongside during the Civil War, though he seems reluctant to be involved in this robbery, Bob is a likable and reliable young man. You and Clell turn up with Charlie Pitts, a quiet but tough man who is another former Guerrilla. Frank and Jesse arrive with an extremely tall and chatty man called Bill Chadwell. Altogether there are ten of you, including the two James brothers and the four Younger brothers. Though you held up trains during the War you are all new to peacetime train robbery and you study the railroad trying to think of the best way to get the train to stop near your place of concealment. Predictably it is Jesse who has the idea of using a mental bar and a hammer to tear up the track, reasoning that the driver will see the broken line and halt the train alongside where you will be waiting with the horse. You all agree to the plan. "Who will tear up the track?" Cole asks and you all glance among yourselves. > You volunteer to tear up the track Taking the hammer and the bar you pry up several rails and toss them to one side. You and the rest of the Gang then take cover in the trees near the track and wait for the train. When the train comes down the line you are astonished by how fast it is going. The driver sees the damage to the track and slams on the brakes but the train is going too fast: to your astonishment the locomotive shoots off the end of the broken line and crashes down onto it's side with an ear-splitting crash, as does the first passenger carriage. The noise is indescribable. The train has come to a complete halt with the front two carriages on their side and you and your deafened companions emerge stunned from the trees. While Bill, Charlie, Bob and Jim hold the horses and Jesse leads most of the rest towards the Express Carriage at the rear of the train you and Frank jog to the crashed locomotive and peer inside. The sight sickens you, the driver has been literally crushed to death and the fireman has been badly hurt, bleeding freely from his head. You are still shaken by the time you return to the woods and are rejoined by Jesse and the others. Mounting up you ride away from the train you have just wrecked and ride nonstop for several hours to get to safety. When you count the money you are disappointed to find the train was not carrying a lot, just $3,000 which is divided between the ten of you to make your share $300. Despite the small profits from this you know this brazen robbery will increase your already great fame and notoriety. Bill, Clell and Charlie are all a bit unnerved by the attention this crime will bring and decide they will all go and hide out at Charlie's farm in Missouri. Jesse, as usual, is delighted and indifferent to the fact the robbery has led to another death. He intends for himself, Frank, Bob, Cole, Jim and John (all the James and Younger brothers) to ride south into Arkansas to rob a stagecoach, another type of crime the Gang haven't committed before which Jesse hopes will lead to more fame. It is up to you whether or not you want to go into hiding or join in the crime spree. > You join Bill, Charlie and Clell in hiding out at the Pitts's Farm Hiding out at the Pitts Farm you feel confident of avoiding detection because though both you and Clell are well-known outlaws Bill Chadwell and Charlie Pitts have never been connected with any crime and you rely on those two to go into town for all your supplies and newspapers. You read how the James and Younger boys continue to pull robberies in Arkansas and Missouri but there are consequences: the Pinkerton Detective Agency is hired to bring you and your companions to justice. Frank and Jesse kill one Pinkerton Agent near their Farm but a second gunfight claims the lives of two more lawmen and John Younger near the Younger Farm, Jim Younger being the sole survivor. A letter arrives from Jesse telling you all to meet the rest of the gang in Texas and when you reunite the Gang is a grim bunch. All the remaining Younger Brothers are saddened by John's death with Jim openly blaming Frank and Jesse for getting him mixed up in robberies and swearing he wants nothing more to do with either of them and that he's going to California. Frank and Cole also think it's better that you all lie low for a time at the farm of their friend Bud McDaniels but not Jesse: he sees it as the best way to avenge John is to pull another robbery and the newer members of the gang, Clell, Charlie, Bill and Bob Younger all agree to join him in robbing a stagecoach here in Texas. You need to choose who you join. > You help Jesse, Clell, Bill, Charlie and Bob rob a stagecoach in Texas Riding into the town of Austin you and your companions make inquiries about the local stagecoach routes before heading south and hiding in some trees to waylay a coach on its route. The hold-up goes smoothly, the coach is stopped and the passengers forced to dismount before being stripped of their valuables. Mounting up your ride cross-country before catching a train and rejoining Frank and Cole at the McDaniels Farm. During the ride you count the loot to find you have stolen $3,000, making your share $500. The success of the robbery has encouraged Frank and Cole to join in fresh robberies and you soon have a new gang member in the form of Bud McDaniels, the cheerful life-long friend of the Younger family. Together you all plan a daring train robbery in Kansas but Bill and Charlie prefer to lay low this time and return to their hiding place at Charlie's farm as they are both enjoying the fact they haven't been identified as outlaws yet and have safety in their anonymity. You need to choose which group you join. > You join Frank, Jesse, Cole, Bob, Clell and Bud in robbing the Kansas train One winter's day you and your companions ride out to the train tracks near the town of Muncie. You start a fire right next to the tracks and hide in the trees: sure enough when the train comes down the line the driver sees the fire and stops the train. While Bob and Cole take the driver hostage you, Frank and Jesse board the Express Carriage and capture the messenger at gunpoint. Quickly emptying the contents of the safe into a sack you leave the train, all of you running back to where Bud and Clell are holding your horses. You ride a long distance from Muncie before you stop to count the money and when you do you discover you have really hit the jackpot big time: you have stolen $55,000 from the train, making your share a whopping $7,800. Everyone, especially Bud, are very happy but you know it is time to split up again. Frank, Jesse and Clell decide to hide out with friends near St Joseph, Missouri, Bud McDaniels declares he intends to rent a hotel room in Kansas City while Bob and Cole decide they are going down to Texas to stay with their old friend Bud's brother Tom McDaniels. You need to choose who to join. > You go with Frank, Jesse and Clell to St Joseph You go with the James boys and Clell to hide out near St Joseph where you read in newspapers that Bud was identified as one of the Muncie train robbers and shot while trying to escape prison in Kansas City. His death saddens you all and drives you into hiding but in January 1875 you read even more incredible news in the newspapers. Suspecting that you and the others are in the area a small army of Pinkerton Agents surrounded the James Farm and blew it up with some kind of explosive. The explosion killed Frank and Jesse's eight year old brother Archie and tore their elderly mother Zerelda's right arm off. Frank and especially Jesse are overwhelmed with rage when they learn of the cowardly attack and Jesse's first reaction is to kill every single Pinkerton Detective involved in the raid. After calming a little he decides to settle for killing his neighbor Dan Askew who is wildly known to have allowed the Pinkertons to use his Farm as a base from which to launch the raid. One night the four of you approach the Askew Farm and knock on the door. When the old farmer opens his front door Jesse shoots him in the chest. > You shoot him as well Raising your pistol you shoot the old farmer in the head killing him. Fleeing the scene rapidly you and your companions take to the woods where you live in hiding. Reading newspapers you learn that the Pinkerton Detective Agency are sending one of their Agents, Jack Ladd, to investigate Dan Askew's murder. As Ladd also took part in the attack on the James Family Farm Frank and Jesse see more opportunity for revenge and decide to kill the Pinkerton as well. Returning to the Askew Property armed with rifles you and your companions sneak through the trees and get yourself into a position from which you can see the farm house. You watch it for several hours until finally a man in a smart suit who you recognize as Ladd from the newspaper photographs emerges from the front door. "Now," Jesse murmurs and all of you raise your rifles. You consider whether or not to fire at the unsuspecting man. > You shoot the Pinkerton Your aim is perfect and Ladd jerks as four bullets slam into his chest, knocking him to the ground. Fleeing the property you decide it is better to get out of Missouri and heading south to join Bob and Cole. Most of the newspapers, which were initially supportive of the James brothers after the attack on their family, are outraged by the two murders and urge people everywhere to shoot any member of the James-Younger Gang on sight. Going down to the McDaniels Farm you meet up with Bob, Cole and their host Tom McDaniels, brother of the slain Bud. Together with another friend and war veteran called Tom Webb the group are planning to rob a bank in West Virginia, far from your usual raiding areas. Frank likes the idea but uncharacteristically Bob, Clell and Jesse think it is better to lay low for a spell until the attention of the Pinkertons has worn off. You will have to choose who to join. > You join Frank, Cole and the two Tom's in robbing the bank in West Virginia On the morning chosen for the robbery you and your four companions ride into Huntingdon and dismount outside the town bank. While the two Tom's guard the horses you, Frank and Cole walk into the bank, draw your weapons, take the teller hostage, empty all the money in the vault into a sack and lock him inside the vault. Going outside you re-mount your horses and ride out of town. Once more it seems like you have pulled off another straight-forward robbery. You haven't got far from Huntingdon when suddenly you spot a dozen horsemen riding out of the town straight after you. "Now boys, ride for it," Cole calls out and all of you spur your horses into a gallop. You hear bangs behind you as the posse begin shooting their rifles and pistols at you all, the bullets whistling overhead and between you all. Suddenly Tom McDaniels reins his horse in and turns it about. "Fuck this," he calls out as he pulls his rifle from his saddle scabbard and begins firing back at the posse. > You join Tom in returning fire Like Tom you turn your horse and fire back at the approaching riders. The posse fires a volley of shots at the pair of you and both of you are hit, Tom in the chest and you in the throat. Gasping wetly through the blood you turn your horse to try to ride away but the wound is fatal. You topple from your horse to the ground, Tom is also lying nearby. As your pursuers get closer and closer you stare up at the clear blue sky above you and silently expire.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>On the morning chosen for the robbery you and your four companions ride into Huntingdon and dismount outside the town bank. While the two Tom's guard the horses you, Frank and Cole walk into the bank, draw your weapons, take the teller hostage, empty all the money in the vault into a sack and lock him inside the vault. Going outside you re-mount your horses and ride out of town. Once more it seems like you have pulled off another straight-forward robbery. You haven't got far from Huntingdon when suddenly you spot a dozen horsemen riding out of the town straight after you. "Now boys, ride for it," Cole calls out and all of you spur your horses into a gallop. You hear bangs behind you as the posse begin shooting their rifles and pistols at you all, the bullets whistling overhead and between you all. Suddenly Tom McDaniels reins his horse in and turns it about. "Fuck this," he calls out as he pulls his rifle from his saddle scabbard and begins firing back at the posse. > You keep riding after your companions You keep riding but a yell behind you makes you glance back: Tom McDaniels has been shot in the chest and he slowly falls from his horse to the ground. You and your surviving companions concentrate on outracing your pursuers across the prairie and though they follow you all day at nightfall they finally break off the pursuit. Weary and exhausted you stop to count the money you have stolen: though you made off with $10,000 from the bank Tom was carrying some of it when he was shot so your share of the robbery is only $2,000. "We need to split up in case they keep coming after us," Cole says wearily. "Frank and I will keep going west into Kentucky, Tom you turn south and head into Tennessee. Keep a low profile and we will all meet up together again back in Missouri. This could be desperate work." You consider who you will go with. > You go west into Kentucky with Frank and Cole You continue west with Frank and Cole across Kentucky and into Missouri. On the way you read in the newspapers that Tom Webb has been captured in Tennessee. He is put on trial, found guilty and sentenced to eight years for armed robbery. You and your veteran companions are exhausted by the time you get back to Missouri: this has been your most difficult escape from a bank robbery yet and you spent the winter and spring lying low until the gang reunites in the summer of 1876 in the small Missouri town of Otterville. > The Gang reunites You and the other nine members of the James-Younger Gang who gather in an empty cabin on the edge of Otterville are the most wanted men in America. Jesse, grinning and carefree sits next to a dour and frowning Frank. Cole, tough and capable sits between his handsome, young brother Bob and his other brother Jim who looks like he is wishing he could be somewhere else. The joker Clell Miller and the tall Bill Chadwell are gazing at Jesse with something like adoration while the silent Charlie Pitts sits with them. Finally you are sitting next to the newest member of the Gang, another former Guerrilla but a bit of a weak link called Hoobs Kerry. "Boys, we've had a turbulent couple of years but we sure are taking the fight to the Yankees, America's never known bandits like us before," Jesse declares. "My idea for this year is that we rob a train here in Missouri first and then go all the way up to Minnesota and rob one of those fat Northern banks up there. Bill here is from Minnesota and knows the area well and together the ten of us are unbeatable! We'll pull off a crime so audacious all of America will be talking about it!" "I'm only here to try and stop you from getting my brothers Cole and Bob killed the way you got John killed," Jim Younger says dourly. "You can rob your train here without me." "Well I'm sorry you feel that way Jim," Jesse says, his smile not even flickering. "What do the rest of you say? You're all in aren't you?" Everyone else agrees and then it's your turn. > You join Frank, Jesse, Cole, Bob, Clell, Bill, Charlie and Hoobs in robbing a train in Missouri Leaving Jim behind you join the rest of the gang in holding up the train outside Otterville. As usual the robbery goes smoothly: after forcing the train to halt you and the James brothers empty the Express Safe while the Youngers guard the train staff and the others hold the horses. Mounting up you ride cross-country, easily eluding pursuit, and once you are well clear of Otterville. You have got away with a good haul: $15,000, which makes your share $1,600. You are all ready now to make the trip up to Minnesota and even Jim joins you to help protect his brothers. At the last moment Hoobs gets cold feet, he has been nervous ever since the train robbery and he insists on staying behind at his farm in Missouri. You and the other outlaws are not impressed but since you can't force him to go with you if he doesn't want to you all agree to let him back out of the planned robbery and make preparations to head up to Minnesota without him. > You join Frank, Jesse, Cole, Jim, Bob, Clell, Bill and Charlie in robbing the bank in Minnesota You and your eight companions begin scouting towns in Minnesota for good banks to rob and settle on one in the town of Northfield. While you are in Minnesota you learn that Hoobs Kerry has been identified and arrested and has promptly identified each of the Gang including those who took part in the Otterville Train Robbery in exchange for a reduced sentence of two years imprisonment. You are all furious at Hoobs's betrayal but decide to go ahead with your plans anyway. As usual it's Jesse who makes the plans. "Folk in Minnesota will be on the lookout for nine men acting suspiciously so we won't all go in at once tomorrow," he declares. "Frank, Bob and myself will go into the bank while Cole and Clell hold the horses outside. Bill, Charlie and Jim, I want you to wait on the edge of town and if you hear any shooting come riding in like hell firing your pistols into the air to get those Yankee townsfolk off the streets. I know it's a big town boys but this is a rich bank and the money we should get is worth the risk. Bill, which group do you want to join?" > You join Frank, Jesse and Bob in entering the bank You and your friends ride up to the bank, leave your horses tied up outside and go in. There are three tellers but no customers inside the bank and drawing your pistols you approach the tellers. "We're robbing this bank," Jesse declares. "Don't any of you holler, we've got forty men outside." The tellers raise their hands and Frank wanders inside the vault to look at the safe inside. As he does one of the tellers suddenly grabs the vault door and starts pulling it shut. Frank darts back and jams his arm forward as the teller slams the door on it, running forward Bob hits the teller with his pistol and knocks him to the floor. You all approach the fallen man, Frank angrily rubbing his crushed arm, and drawing a small knife from his pocket Jesse holds it to the injured teller's neck. "Open the safe or I'll cut your damn throat from ear to ear," Jesse snarls. "You'll have to cut my throat because I can't open the safe," the man replies bravely. A shot from outside makes you all glance at the door. As you do another of the tellers springs into action, and dashes away, through a back door and out into the street. "Get him," Jesse shouts. > You chase after the fleeing teller and shoot him Racing to the backdoor you point your pistol at the fleeing man and fire. The bullet hits the teller in the back of his shoulder, though the man stumbles he makes it to the edge of the street and vanishes round a corner. As you shut the door and go back inside the bank you can hear shots outside and suddenly Cole's voice yelling "Hurry up, they've given the alarm!" "God damn you, open the safe," Jesse barks at the teller on the floor and fires his pistol at the floor next to the man's head. You and Bob quickly scoop all the loose notes you can find off the counter while Frank and Jesse continue to threaten the fallen teller who bravely refuses to help them in any way. Dozens of gunshots are ringing out on the streets outside now and again you hear Cole's voice shouting "They're killing our men! Get out here!" "Fuck you," Jesse snarls, hitting the teller in the face again with his gun and then he and Bob give up and run out of the bank. As you are about to follow them you notice Frank massaging his wounded arm and eyeing the teller. "We should kill that son of a bitch," Frank says to you. > You shoot the man in the head Going up to the teller you place your pistol against his head and squeeze the trigger, killing him instantly. You and Frank run outside to be greeted by a scene of utter pandemonium. Clell, Bill and a third man who looks like a citizen of the town are lying dead in the street; the rest of your Gang are riding their horses up and down firing their pistols up at the buildings where several men seemed to have armed themselves and are firing back. Bob's horse has been killed and Bob himself has taken shelter under a wooden staircase near the bank. You and Frank make it to your horses and scramble on top of them, as you do someone starts shooting at both of you, hitting Frank in the leg and you in the left forearm, both fairly minor wounds. "It's no use boys, lets clear out," you shout and spurring your horses into a gallop you concentrate on riding your horse out of time, quickly catching up with Charlie and Cole, the latter bleeding from several gunshot wounds. As you reach the edge of town you hear a scream behind you "Don't leave me boys, I've been shot!" Glancing back you realize you have all forgotten Bob who has sprung out of his hiding place and is sprinting down the street after you. "Shit," Cole mutters and glances at you and Charlie. "Cover me boys," he orders. Cole then does the most incredible thing you have ever seen someone do in real life: he spurs his horse directly back down the street towards his injured brother. Several men are shooting at them and though you and Charlie are firing your pistols at the buildings you might as well be throwing stones at them for all the good it does. Cole and Bob seem to be moving through a virtual rain of bullets. Bob stumbles as one shot hits his leg. Two more graze Cole's horse making it scream and rear but he keeps it under control. Reaching down he helps Bob climb onto his horse. As he does three more bullets hit Cole, the dust exploding from his clothes in small puffs as each bullet hits him. Gritting his teeth he turns his horse around and gallops straight back towards you and Charlie. The gunfire is directed at you two now: one bullet grazes Charlie's arm and another bullet whizzes right past your right ear. As Bob and Cole reach you both you turn horses around and gallop out of town after Frank, Jesse and Jim. Behind you leave the dead bodies of your two fellow outlaws and the shattered myth of the invincibility of the James-Younger Gang. > You flight By the time you and your surviving companions make it out of Northfield you are in a pretty bad way: Bill Chadwell and Clell Miller are dead and everyone except Jesse (and possibly you) has been wounded: Charlie and Frank have both been shot once, Bob twice, Jim three times and Cole a remarkable five times, though all his wounds are minor. The most serious wounds are Jim's and Bob's the latter of whom has had his right elbow completely shattered. Altogether you have managed to steal less than $27 dollars from the bank in Northfield. Perhaps worst of all your only guide to Minnesota, Bill Chadwell, is dead leaving all of you stranded in a hostile state with only the knowledge that you have to head in a generally southern direction to reach safety. You don't have a single friend in Northfield and within days thousands of men in hundreds of posses are combing Minnesota for you. The first week after your escape from Northfield requires all the knowledge that all of you (except Bob) gained during your four years as Guerrillas during the Civil War and your eleven years as outlaws since. Performing basic medical care for your injured and stealing a horse for Bob you manage to get the drop on one posse of several men who are hunting you, swiftly disarm them and ride off with their guns. Exchanging shots with another posse you escape during a rainstorm you pass yourselves off as a posse hunting the Northfield Robbers which goes well until one night when you camp on a small island and wake to find the island surrounded by hundreds of men. You only escape by unleashing your horses in one direction and swimming off in another, somehow escaping in the fog and the storm. After this narrow escape you spend a few days resting in an abandoned farmhouse before continuing, stealing horses along the way. By the 14th things are serious. Both Bob and Jim have become feverish from their untreated wounds and can only travel very slowly. Finally Cole turns to you and the others. "It's no good, we'll never get out of Minnesota going at this speed," he admits to you all. "Bill, it's better that you, Frank and Jesse ride ahead. You'll be moving faster, attracting more attention from the posses and meanwhile me, Jim and Bob can keep going in our own slow way and hopefully slip out of Minnesota unnoticed while all the posses are busy chasing you." You all consider the idea but Charlie shakes his head and declares that he wouldn't feel right abandoning the badly injured Younger Brothers. The James brothers have no problem with the plan and take all the Youngers money and personal possessions to give to their family in case the worst happens. Frank and Jesse decide to ride directly west towards the Dakotas and try to draw posses after them while the Youngers and Charlie continue south towards Iowa. You need to choose which group you will join. > You accompany the James Brothers west You decide to split off with Frank and Jesse and after a week of riding you have covered a lot of distance. That night you approach a bridge over a lake and unfortunately a posse of men are sleeping on the bridge. Dismounting you all try to lead your horses quietly across the bridge but something wakes up one of the posse members. Sitting up he fires a rifle shot which passes through Jesse's thigh to hit Frank in the leg. A moment later he fires another shot which hits your left leg just below the knee. Yelling in pain the three of you throw yourselves onto the backs of your horses and spur them into a gallop, rapidly escaping as the posse fire at you. Riding west non-stop for more than forty-eight hours you finally cross into South Dakota and safety three days after your injury. Turning south you escape back to Missouri. En-route you learn that a week after you parted with them your companions were discovered and surrounded by a posse in Minnesota. Cole, Jim and Bob were all wounded again and captured while Charlie Pitts was killed. All three of the Younger Brothers later draw a twenty-five year sentence in the state penitentiary, refusing to the last to name who took part in the Northfield Robbery with them. Your incredibly narrow escape and the complete destruction of the James-Younger Gang have persuaded you, Frank and Jesse that it is time to retire from crime. While Frank and Jesse go into hiding with their wives and children while you travel east all the way to New York and live anonymously for a long time. Finally three years after your escape from Minnesota a letter arrives from Jesse James. He has formed a new gang and would like you to join him in returning to the outlaw life. After a long internal struggle for reasons you don't, and perhaps never fully will, understand you find yourself on a train heading back to Missouri and your old outlaw life. > The James Gang Returning to Missouri you meet your old friend for the first time in many years. Jesse hasn't changed at all, though he is now in his thirties and has grown a beard he maintains all his old enthusiasm, high-spirits and carefree attitude. Apparently Frank wants nothing more to do with crime and is enjoying his retirement in Tennessee but Jesse has formed a new gang of five men, making you the seventh member of the new James Gang. The new recruits don't impress you and are nowhere near as high quality as the Youngers or the other former members of the James-Younger Gang. The most reliable of the lot seems to be Wood Hite, Jesse's cousin and a former Guerrilla. Dick Liddil, a clever young man seems reliable enough while Bill Ryan, a hard-drinking admirer of Jesse also seems fairly dependable. The last two members of the Gang, Clell Miller's younger brother Ed Miller and a farmer called Tucker Bassham strike you as idiots and the absence of Frank James concerns you. Despite your worries your first robbery in three years goes very well: Jesse has decided to concentrate on trains rather than banks after his experience at Northfield and one winter's night you hold a train outside Glendale, using a red light to stop the train. You and Jesse quickly empty the Express Safe while the others guard the driver and passengers before you all mount your horses and escape cross-county. After several hours you pause to count the money, you have stolen $6,000 which makes your share $800. Jesse is pleased with the success of the robbery but cautions his new recruits. "This will get the law on our trail and when the papers learn I am behind it the whole state will be looking for us. It's best if we split up, Tucker you back to your farm at Jackson. Wood, Dick and Bill, you head up to Wood's family's place in Kentucky. Ed, you come with me, we'll go and hole up at your farm outside Norborne. Where you going to go Bill?" > You join Tucker at the Bassham Farm You go with Tucker back to his farm, all the while having to endure his inane conversation conveying how excited he is by the amount of money you have made. He takes a shopping trip into Jackson and apparently brags loudly about taking part in the Glendale train robbery because the next morning there is a knock on his cabin door. When Tucker answers it you hear a man declare "Tucker Bassham, you are under arrest for train robbery." You spring to your feet and glance around, you are in your bedrrom a short way away and though there is only one door that leads into the kitchen where Tucker is there is a window. You could try jumping through the window to escape but it would make a loud noise and could be dangerous. > You try jumping through the window You start running and crash through the window, glass shards raining down as you hit the grass below. You hear a shout of alarm in the building behind you but you are on your feet in a moment and don't stop running, reaching the safety of nearby trees in an instant and sprinting through them as you hear more shouts behind you. You make it to Jackson, steal a horse and keep going until you reach the Hite Farm in Kentucky where you join up with Dick, Bill and Wood. There you read that after his arrest Tucker promptly named all of you who helped rob the Glendale train. Soon after this you read that fellow gang member Ed Miller’s body has been found in Missouri, allegedly killed by Jesse James. Soon after Jesse himself turns up at the Hite Farm. > You more Robberies The new James Gang has not had a good start with Tucker Bassham arrested and Ed Miller killed by Jesse for threatening to betray the Gang, that just leaves you, Jesse, Jesse's cousin Wood Hite, the cunning Dick Liddil and the alcoholic Bill Ryan. The murder of his old friend Clell's brother seems to weigh heavily on Jesse's conscience and the usual energy and cheerfulness of his younger years seems to be fading from your friend as Jesse enters his thirties. He remains as decisive as ever though. "There are lots of stagecoaches in Kentucky and the authorities won't be expecting one of them to be robbed," he declares. "Bill Ryan, you and I will ride out and hold up a stagecoach over by Mammoth Caves, they are always packed full of rich tourists. Dick and Wood, I want you to stay here in case I need you. Bill Grey, you can join us if you want or you can stay here and lie low with the boys." > You help Jesse and Bill rob a stagecoach in Kentucky You and your two companions ride out to Mammoth Cave, a popular tourist destination. You all wait by the side of the road and when a stagecoach full of tourist approaches you all surround it, pistols in hands. Forcing the unarmed driver and passengers to disembark you relieve them of their money and valuables before riding cross-country back to the Hite Farm. Counting your loot there you find you have made off with $2,000, making your share $600. Back at the Hite Farm Jesse is not content with your takings and having learned there is a large sum of money held in a store in the nearby town of Mercer he decides to rob that as well. Again he chooses to take Bill with him and also Dick while Wood will remain at the Farm making sure the place remains safe and keeping a watch out for lawmen. Again Jesse offers you the choice of whether to join him and the others in the robbery or remain at the Farm. > You join Jesse, Bill and Dick in robbing the payroll Riding into Mercer with the others you leave Dick and Bill outside with the horses and enter the store with Jesse. The pair of you draw your pistols and demand that the lone storekeeper hand over the payroll. "My son has taken it to the bank already," the nervous man tells you with his hands in the air and sure enough the safe is almost completely empty. Jesse is very annoyed but there is nothing you can do except leave the store, mount your horses and ride away. Jesse is very put out but after a winter spent exploring various states he learns that a similar payroll is being transported to the town of Muscle Shoals in far-off Alabama, a long way from your usual operating places. Jesse is determined to get the money and decides to take the ever-loyal Bill and Wood Hite with him this time, leaving Dick Liddil at the Hite Farm. Again he offers you the choice of accompanying him or staying at the Hite Farm. > You join Jesse, Bill and Wood in robbing the payroll Traveling south to Alabama with your friends you make your way to Muscle Shoals and learn what route the man carrying the payroll usually takes into town. Making your way to a lonely part of the road you all hide in some trees until the paymaster comes into sight. Emerging with pistols in your hands you all relieve him of the sack of money he is carrying before riding off across the countryside. When you stop to count the money you find you have stolen $5,000, making your share $1,200. You and your companions are pleased by the easy job, especially Bill. "I think I'll go back to Adairville in Kentucky to celebrate with some of my old friends," he says. "Don't be there too long," Jesse says. "I think I'm going to go and talk to Frank and some other boys to get them to join the boy. This summer I think we should start hitting trains in Missouri." Agreeing to meet up at the Hite Farm Jesse and Wood part ways with Bill leaving you free to choose who to join. > You go with Jesse and Wood to talk to Frank That summer you accompany Jesse and Wood to Tennessee where Frank is living a peaceful life in retirement as a farmer. Jesse manages to persuade his brother to return to the outlaw life while Wood also recruits his younger brother Clarence Hite. As you are all traveling back to the Hite Farm you learn that Bill Ryan has been arrested in Adairville after being recognized as a wanted outlaw. Despite this setback the five of you rejoin Dick Liddil at the Hite Farm where Jesse discusses his latest plans. > The James Gang return to Missouri The loss of Bill Ryan, his favorite gang member, has hit Jesse hard but despite looking more tired than ever Jesse's ambition remains as boundless as always. As well as you, Dick Liddil and Wood Hite Jesse has persuaded his brother Frank to rejoin the gang and also his cousin Clarence Hite, Wood's younger brother who is dying of tuberculosis and is so emaciated you are not certain he'll be up to the rigors of outlaw life. Jesse remains confident though. "It is time we went back to Missouri and reminded the governor there that are fifteen years the James boys are still going strong," he declares, grinning at Frank. "The Civil War may be over but we haven't stopped fighting it! We'll hold up a few trains and then clear out of the state." On the chosen day Dick, Wood and Clarence camp outside the town of Winston while you, Frank and Jesse ride into town. Boarding the noon train you make your way to the driver's carriage where you take him hostage and have him stop the train close to where your friends are waiting. After the train stops you, Frank and Jesse make your way down the passenger carriages towards the express carriage, Jesse leading the way. "This is a hold up," he barks to the passengers. "Remain in your seats." Without warning a uniformed conductor suddenly springs forward and grabs at Jesse's pistol. Startled the two men wrestle over the weapon while you and Frank stand by startled. "Shoot him," Jesse yells. > You shoot the conductor You raise your pistol and shoot the conductor in the head. As the man falls to the ground Jesse regains control of his pistol and shoots him again in the chest. While the conductor lies on the floor bleeding and gun smoke rises in the carriage another passenger springs to his feet, gun in hand. "Jesse," Frank yells out in warning as he aims his pistol at the man. > You shoot the armed passenger The man staggers as your bullet hits him in the chest and dropping his pistol he falls to the ground. "Quickly boys," Frank calls out and the three of you hurry down the passenger carriage, leaving the two dead men behind you. Reaching the Express Carriage you find the safe contains very little money but you throw what little it does contain into a sack before making your escape from the train. Running to where you left your horses you escape cross country and count the money, finding you have made it away with $700, making your share $100. The robbery and it's accompanying double-killing make national news and the reward for, you, Frank or Jesse reaches a record $5,000 each to be brought in dead or alive, making the three of you worth $15,000 altogether. Jesse is completely unperturbed and recruits another gang member, a young friend of Dick Liddil's called Charley Ford. Together the seven of you plan your next train robbery to take place on the fifth anniversary of the disastrous Northfield Bank Robbery. > The Blue Cut Train Robbery Five years to the day since the James-Younger Gang was destroyed at Northfield you and the rest of the James Gang rob a train at Blue Cut, Missouri. Together with the wary Frank and gregarious Jesse you halt the train with lanterns and climb aboard. "I'm Jesse James," Jesse declares to the frightened passengers. "You might have read about me in the papers. Stay calm and no one will get hurt." Making your way to the Express Carriage you empty the safe of a small amount of money and hastily disembark. Escaping on horses you find that you have made away with $1,000, which split seven ways makes your share $100. "We need to split up boys," Jesse declares. "Wood, Dick and Charley, you go and hide out at Charley's sister's place near Kansas City. Clarence, I want you to hole up in Adairville and get some medical treatment. I'm going to rent my own place in Kansas City. What are you going to do Frank?" "I reckon anywhere near Missouri is too dangerous at the moment," Frank says. "I'm going back to my farm in Tennessee." Jesse glances at you. "What are you going to do Bill?" > You go with Wood, Dick and Charley to the Ford Farm You accompany Dick, Wood and Charley back to Charley's Farm where you meet his sister Martha and his brother Bob, a nervous young man who seems to regard you all with awe. Your stay at the Farm isn't a happy one: Dick and Wood both like Martha and become increasingly hostile towards each other. The argument escalates one evening when you, Dick, Wood, Charley and Bob are all sitting upstairs. Screaming insults at each other Dick and Wood promptly pull out their pistols, spring to their feet and start shooting at each other. > You join in the gunfight Drawing your pistol you take Wood's side in the argument and fire a shot, hitting Dick in the leg. Dick returns fire, hitting Wood in the arm and suddenly Charley's kid brother Bob unexpectedly joins the gunfight, shooting Wood in the head. As you turn towards him Bob fires a second shot, hitting you in the throat. Gasping and choking you sink to the floor, your life's blood pouring from you as Bob coldly steps closer to you and executes you with a final shot. The same man who will kill Jesse James has just killed you.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You accompany Dick, Wood and Charley back to Charley's Farm where you meet his sister Martha and his brother Bob, a nervous young man who seems to regard you all with awe. Your stay at the Farm isn't a happy one: Dick and Wood both like Martha and become increasingly hostile towards each other. The argument escalates one evening when you, Dick, Wood, Charley and Bob are all sitting upstairs. Screaming insults at each other Dick and Wood promptly pull out their pistols, spring to their feet and start shooting at each other. > You get the hell out of there You haven't survived this long by being stupid and springing to your feet you race through the door out of the room. The shots continue to ring out behind you ending in the sound of a body hitting the floor - later you will learn that Charley's brother Bob has killed Wood Hite. Making it to your horse in the Farm's stable you hastily mount up and ride away. For the rest of the winter you live in hiding in Missouri, not emerging until the winter. In the meantime the James Gang is destroyed. First Dick and Charley, fearful of Jesse's revenge after killing his cousin Wood, surrender to the law. They tell them where they can find Clarence Hite who is arrested in his hotel in Adairville. Finally Bob Ford murders Jesse James, shooting him in the back of the head while your friend hangs a picture on the wall. Stunned to hear the legendary outlaw is dead you make your way to Tennessee where the other remaining survivor of the gang, Frank James is still living. > The end of the James Gang Frank is in shock when you join him in Tennessee: like you he finds it impossible to believe that Jesse James, America's greatest bank robber and survivor of so many gunfights and robberies, is dead. As you spend the summer hiding out in Tennessee Frank grows increasingly pessimistic. "They'll kill us next you know Bill," he tells you one day. "I'm going back to Missouri to surrender. I figure if I surrender myself they might go easy on me, it's either that or keep running until they catch or kill me. I've got no choice. What are you going to do Bill? I suppose you could make a run down to Mexico or up to Canada or some place where the law ain't got no jurisdiction. But I reckon they'll still get you in the end, just like they got Jesse." You carefully mull over what to do. > You go with Frank to Missouri to surrender You and Frank make your way to Jefferson City, Missouri where friends of Frank have arranged both of your surrenders to Governor Crittenden of Missouri himself. When you meet the Governor you both hand your guns over to him, Frank commenting that it is the first time in twenty-one years since the start of the American Civil War that he has surrendered his gun to anyone. "We have spent our last twenty-one years on the run," you tell him. "We have been hunted day and night, never able to rest in case every sound is an approaching posse or some lawman on our trail. It will be a massive relief to finally be able to rest." The two of you are placed in custody and the next three years and taken over by a long series of trials in which Clarence Hite, Charley Ford and Dick Liddil all testify. Despite the many charges laid against you and the mound of testimony by some miracle you and Frank manage to argue your way into acquittal on all the charges and in the spring of 1885 you are finally pardoned of all your crimes and allowed to go free, a truly incredible result! > One last enemy By the 1890's as you enter your fifties it seems that you have put your outlaw past behind you and become a respectable citizen. You have little touch with your former fellow Outlaws: Jesse James, John Younger, Clell Miller, John Jarette, Charlie Pitts, Wood Hite, Bill Chadwell, Oll Shepherd, Little Arch Clement, Bud McDaniels and Tom McDaniels are all dead. Bob Younger and Clarence Hite are dead too, claimed by tuberculosis while Charley Ford has shot himself, overwhelmed by guilt for his role in Jesse's death. Tom Webb, Bill Ryan, Tucker Bassham and Hoobs Kerry all vanished after their release from prison while Cole Younger and Jim Younger are still incarcerated. That leaves just yourself, Frank James, George Shepherd and Dick Liddil alive on the outside, and naturally you have little contact with the last two. You do see the face of an enemy one summer day when you are in a little town called Creede in Colorado to transact some business. Bob Ford, the man who murdered your friend Jesse, owns a saloon in town and you recognize him in the street. Hatred fills you and you strongly consider killing the man who killed your friend. Doing so would of course put you back outside the law again but it would be a fitting revenge after he betrayed and murdered Jesse James. You carefully consider what to do. > You buy a gun and kill Bob Ford Making your way to a nearby gun store you buy a shotgun. After loading and cocking the gun you enter Bob Ford's saloon to find the man you are looking for standing at the bar with his back to you. "Hello Bob," you call out and the young man turns around. Raising the shotgun you fire both barrels directly into his throat, nearly blowing his head off. As Bob Ford is blasted to the floor everyone in the saloon stares at you in stunned silence as you slowly lower the shotgun. "That's for Jesse James," you declare. You surrender without a struggle and after a short trial you are naturally found guilty of murder. The Judge takes a very lenient view of the killing and you are sentenced to just nine years imprisonment, being released in 1901. You never regret the killing of Bob Ford. > The end of the story The year of 1901 brings two pieces of good news for you: first the traitor Dick Liddil dies of a heart attack and then finally Cole and Jim Younger are released from prison after serving the full term of their twenty-five year sentences. Jim struggles to adjust and when his parole conditions don't allow him to marry the woman he loves he commits suicide a year after his release from prison, a tragic end to a life beset by tragedies. Cole does better, reuniting with you and Frank James. For several years the three of you travel around the Old West in various exhibitions and shows, earning a bit of money from your notoriety. The days of the horseback outlaw are truly over now with fictional accounts of your crimes told in awful Dime Novels, songs and in the revolutionary new moving picture films. Your infamy is never far away and one day when the three of you have some business to transact in a bank Cole suddenly stops you. "If the tellers see Frank James, Cole Younger and Bill Grey walk into their bank they are liable to start shooting," he points out. The years pass and the last actors leave the stage: Frank dies in 1915 and Cole in 1916. The death of one time gang member George Shepherd in 1917 leaves you the last surviving member of the James Gang, now well into your seventies you continue to live in your native Missouri which is peaceful now. The young folks don't believe you when you tell them tales of whizzing bullets, thrilling horseback rides and the screams of dying men in the dust. They don't believe you when you say you rode with the best: the daring Younger Brothers and the best bandits of them all, the legendary outlaws Frank and Jesse James. CONGRATULATIONS, YOU HAVE EARNED THE HIDDEN SURVIVOR BONUS OF 100,000 WHICH WILL BE ADDED TO YOUR SCORE AND VISIBLE TO OTHERS IF YOU LEAVE A COMMENT. THANK YOU FOR TAKING THE TIME TO PLAY MY GAME. > You click here if you are interested in how you wrote this Jesse James stands alongside Billy the Kid and John Wesley Hardin as one of the foremost outlaws of the Old West thanks in part to his actions and in part to his legend, which Jesse actively worked on and promoted during his lifetime. Jesse was genuinely a bank robber of outstanding ability, the James-Younger Gang's successful record would not be beaten until the rise of Butch Cassidy's Hole in the Wall Gang in the 1890's. Jesse had a reputation as a Southern Robin Hood and a deadly gunfighter of outstanding ability. In truth most of the men Jesse and his gang shot and killed were unarmed and you certainly wouldn't have wanted to be in a bank when he and his pals came through the door. Many of their killings were random and pointless and Jesse rarely had much stomach for a fight once people started shooting back at him. Far from being a Robin Hood Jesse and his friends never shared their money with anyone except their immediate friends and family, in fact most of the banks and trains he robbed contained the money of his fellow Southern men in Missouri and other states. But Jesse has been kind to Jesse in part because of the fun alliteration of his name and in part because of his legend. Jesse promoted himself in a way his somber brother Frank or the cautious Cole Younger never did and he couldn't care less about the people he hurt along the way. As one historian pointed out people tended to look at this legendary figure of Jesse James, they rarely spent time looking into the details of all the killings and robberies that put him on this pedestal. Researching outlaws is always fun and easy, building up a timeline of their activities provides a natural framework to build the story up around, all that really needs to be fleshed out are the characters of the outlaws themselves and the details of the gunfights which were genuinely dramatic and exciting. I think Cole Younger riding back into Northfield towards a dozen people shooting at him to rescue his wounded brother Bob show that the historic truth can sometimes be more amazing than fiction, even great works of fiction like True Grit. As I have timelines for every gang of American criminals including the Doolin-Dalton Gang, the Hole in the Wall Gang, John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, Baby Face Nelson, Al Karpis and the Barkers, Pretty Boy Floyd and every other major outlaw gang of bank robbers between the years 1865 and 2015 I may write more sequels depending on how this story is received, though the slightly repetitive nature of the story (robbery, possible gunfight, hide out for a time with another possible gunfight or arrest attempt, robbery again etc etc) does concern me as does the fact the reader is encouraged to kill defenseless people to improve his or her score. Still those people who really lived and really did so many incredible things may prove just too fascinating for me not to write about!<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>By the 1890's as you enter your fifties it seems that you have put your outlaw past behind you and become a respectable citizen. You have little touch with your former fellow Outlaws: Jesse James, John Younger, Clell Miller, John Jarette, Charlie Pitts, Wood Hite, Bill Chadwell, Oll Shepherd, Little Arch Clement, Bud McDaniels and Tom McDaniels are all dead. Bob Younger and Clarence Hite are dead too, claimed by tuberculosis while Charley Ford has shot himself, overwhelmed by guilt for his role in Jesse's death. Tom Webb, Bill Ryan, Tucker Bassham and Hoobs Kerry all vanished after their release from prison while Cole Younger and Jim Younger are still incarcerated. That leaves just yourself, Frank James, George Shepherd and Dick Liddil alive on the outside, and naturally you have little contact with the last two. You do see the face of an enemy one summer day when you are in a little town called Creede in Colorado to transact some business. Bob Ford, the man who murdered your friend Jesse, owns a saloon in town and you recognize him in the street. Hatred fills you and you strongly consider killing the man who killed your friend. Doing so would of course put you back outside the law again but it would be a fitting revenge after he betrayed and murdered Jesse James. You carefully consider what to do. > You let him be You manage to control yourself and turn your back on your outlaw life once and for all, riding out of Creede without exacting any vengeance. It doesn't matter: soon after you read in the newspapers that Bob Ford has been killed by a man called Ed O'Kelley who had a general dislike of him. Growing old gracefully you move into the Twentieth Century.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Frank is in shock when you join him in Tennessee: like you he finds it impossible to believe that Jesse James, America's greatest bank robber and survivor of so many gunfights and robberies, is dead. As you spend the summer hiding out in Tennessee Frank grows increasingly pessimistic. "They'll kill us next you know Bill," he tells you one day. "I'm going back to Missouri to surrender. I figure if I surrender myself they might go easy on me, it's either that or keep running until they catch or kill me. I've got no choice. What are you going to do Bill? I suppose you could make a run down to Mexico or up to Canada or some place where the law ain't got no jurisdiction. But I reckon they'll still get you in the end, just like they got Jesse." You carefully mull over what to do. > You try your chances in fleeing south to Mexico Parting ways with Frank you head south, cross the Rio Grande and join numerous American fugitives from justice in hiding out in Mexico. You spend three years living in Mexico, reading in papers as Frank is miraculously acquitted in trial after trial despite the mountain of evidence against him. Finally in 1885 all charges against him are dismissed and you receive word that all charges against you have been dismissed as well. A free and safe man for the first time in nearly twenty-five years, since the start of the American Civil War, you finally return to America.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Five years to the day since the James-Younger Gang was destroyed at Northfield you and the rest of the James Gang rob a train at Blue Cut, Missouri. Together with the wary Frank and gregarious Jesse you halt the train with lanterns and climb aboard. "I'm Jesse James," Jesse declares to the frightened passengers. "You might have read about me in the papers. Stay calm and no one will get hurt." Making your way to the Express Carriage you empty the safe of a small amount of money and hastily disembark. Escaping on horses you find that you have made away with $1,000, which split seven ways makes your share $100. "We need to split up boys," Jesse declares. "Wood, Dick and Charley, you go and hide out at Charley's sister's place near Kansas City. Clarence, I want you to hole up in Adairville and get some medical treatment. I'm going to rent my own place in Kansas City. What are you going to do Frank?" "I reckon anywhere near Missouri is too dangerous at the moment," Frank says. "I'm going back to my farm in Tennessee." Jesse glances at you. "What are you going to do Bill?" > You go with Clarence to Adairville You accompany Clarence to Adairville but your companion is so sick with his terminal tuberculosis that mostly he keeps to his room. One afternoon you are both eating dinner in the hotel's restaurant when several Deputy Sheriffs enter the room and immediately walk towards you. Immediately you know they are here to arrest you and a quick glance around reveals a door to the kitchen just a few feet from you. You could try to make a break for it but as all the Deputies are armed with guns it could be dangerous. > You make a break for it Springing to your feet you race towards the door, shoulder-barge through it and hurtle through the kitchen, past the stunned cooks and kitchen staff. The lawmen are in hot pursuit but bursting through a backed door you make it out into the street and spring onto the back of a nearby horse. Spurring it into life you gallop out of town as the Deputies fire their pistols at you. One bullet whizzes past your left ear, another knocks your hat from your head but miraculously you make it out of town unhurt and ride hard for Missouri where you spend the spring in hiding. During your time hiding the James Gang is destroyed. After killing Wood Hite in Missouri Dick Liddil and Charley Ford surrender to the law. Clarence Hite is imprisoned. Soon after Charley's younger brother Bob Ford shoots Jesse James in the back of the head while your friend hangs a picture on the wall. Stunned to hear of your legendary friend's death you ride for Tennessee where the other remaining survivor of the James Gang, Frank James, is living in hiding.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You accompany Clarence to Adairville but your companion is so sick with his terminal tuberculosis that mostly he keeps to his room. One afternoon you are both eating dinner in the hotel's restaurant when several Deputy Sheriffs enter the room and immediately walk towards you. Immediately you know they are here to arrest you and a quick glance around reveals a door to the kitchen just a few feet from you. You could try to make a break for it but as all the Deputies are armed with guns it could be dangerous. > You surrender Like Clarence you raise your hands in surrender and allow the lawmen to take you into custody. Imprisoned in Adairville you soon learn that Dick Liddil and Charley Ford have surrendered to the law after killing Wood Hite in a gunfight. Soon after Charley's younger brother Bob shoots Jesse James in the back of the head while your friend has a picture on the wall. In order to avoid his brother's fate Frank James surrenders to the law in Missouri, finally bringing the James Gang to an end. You and Frank go to court together in a remarkable series of trials that see Dick, Charley and Clarence all testify against you. In a remarkable series of trials that go on for three years you defeat all the charges against you both through lack of evidence, aggressive cross-examination and outright perjury. Finally in the spring of 1885 you are both released and for the first time in nearly twenty years you finally succeed in putting your outlaw life behind you.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Five years to the day since the James-Younger Gang was destroyed at Northfield you and the rest of the James Gang rob a train at Blue Cut, Missouri. Together with the wary Frank and gregarious Jesse you halt the train with lanterns and climb aboard. "I'm Jesse James," Jesse declares to the frightened passengers. "You might have read about me in the papers. Stay calm and no one will get hurt." Making your way to the Express Carriage you empty the safe of a small amount of money and hastily disembark. Escaping on horses you find that you have made away with $1,000, which split seven ways makes your share $100. "We need to split up boys," Jesse declares. "Wood, Dick and Charley, you go and hide out at Charley's sister's place near Kansas City. Clarence, I want you to hole up in Adairville and get some medical treatment. I'm going to rent my own place in Kansas City. What are you going to do Frank?" "I reckon anywhere near Missouri is too dangerous at the moment," Frank says. "I'm going back to my farm in Tennessee." Jesse glances at you. "What are you going to do Bill?" > You go with Jesse to Kansas City You and Jesse take a small house in Kansas City where you hide out for a time. In the spring of 1882 you learn that Clarence Hite has been arrested in Kentucky and Jesse invites the gang's newest recruit Charley Ford and his younger brother, a nervous youth called Bob Ford, to live with the pair of you. He is planning another bank robbery in Platte City, Missouri and wants you and the Ford brothers to take part in it. One spring morning you are all sitting to breakfast while Jesse reads the day's newspaper and gives a cry of surprise. "It says here that Dick Liddil has been arrested," he announces and you all glance at each other. "Well, I suppose they'll get all of us in the end," Jesse says thoughtfully. Rising from the table he goes into the living room and later when you follow him you find he has taken off his gun belt and is standing on a chair, straightening a picture on the wall. Suddenly a deafening gunshot next to you makes you jump. The bullet hits Jesse in the back of the head, slamming his face into the picture and he falls off the chair. Turning you find Charley Ford's kid brother Bob standing next to you, a smoking pistol in his hand. As you glance at each other he hastily re-cocks his pistol. > You draw your own pistol and shoot the man who murdered your friend You draw your own pistol but you are too slow: Bob Ford finishes re-cocking his pistol and shoots you in the right eye. Without a sound you fall to the ground dead, slain just feet from your famous friend, the cold hand of justice having finally extinguished your criminal life at last.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You and Jesse take a small house in Kansas City where you hide out for a time. In the spring of 1882 you learn that Clarence Hite has been arrested in Kentucky and Jesse invites the gang's newest recruit Charley Ford and his younger brother, a nervous youth called Bob Ford, to live with the pair of you. He is planning another bank robbery in Platte City, Missouri and wants you and the Ford brothers to take part in it. One spring morning you are all sitting to breakfast while Jesse reads the day's newspaper and gives a cry of surprise. "It says here that Dick Liddil has been arrested," he announces and you all glance at each other. "Well, I suppose they'll get all of us in the end," Jesse says thoughtfully. Rising from the table he goes into the living room and later when you follow him you find he has taken off his gun belt and is standing on a chair, straightening a picture on the wall. Suddenly a deafening gunshot next to you makes you jump. The bullet hits Jesse in the back of the head, slamming his face into the picture and he falls off the chair. Turning you find Charley Ford's kid brother Bob standing next to you, a smoking pistol in his hand. As you glance at each other he hastily re-cocks his pistol. > You make a run for it Without hesitation you bolt from the room into the kitchen; Bob fires at you but narrowly misses. Passing Charley Ford you race out the back door of the house and make it across the yard and into the town. Rapidly escaping Kansas City, your mind numbed by the fact that Jesse James is dead, you make your way to Tennessee. In time you learn the truth: Dick Liddil and Charley Ford killed Wood Hite in a gunfight and then surrendered to the law, now Bob Ford has murdered your friend. Swiftly you make your way to the other remaining survivor of the James Gang, Jesse's brother Frank who is still hiding in Tennessee.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Five years to the day since the James-Younger Gang was destroyed at Northfield you and the rest of the James Gang rob a train at Blue Cut, Missouri. Together with the wary Frank and gregarious Jesse you halt the train with lanterns and climb aboard. "I'm Jesse James," Jesse declares to the frightened passengers. "You might have read about me in the papers. Stay calm and no one will get hurt." Making your way to the Express Carriage you empty the safe of a small amount of money and hastily disembark. Escaping on horses you find that you have made away with $1,000, which split seven ways makes your share $100. "We need to split up boys," Jesse declares. "Wood, Dick and Charley, you go and hide out at Charley's sister's place near Kansas City. Clarence, I want you to hole up in Adairville and get some medical treatment. I'm going to rent my own place in Kansas City. What are you going to do Frank?" "I reckon anywhere near Missouri is too dangerous at the moment," Frank says. "I'm going back to my farm in Tennessee." Jesse glances at you. "What are you going to do Bill?" > You go with Frank to Tennessee You travel with Frank to Tennessee and there you live quietly in hiding, reading in newspapers as the James Gang is destroyed. First Dick Liddil and Charley Ford surrender to the law after killing Wood Hite in a gunfight. Next Clarence Hite is arrested in his hotel in Kentucky. Finally Charley's younger brother Bob Ford goes up behind Jesse James as he is hanging a picture on the wall and shoots him in the back of the head. The murder of your friend shocks America and signals an end to your outlaw career.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You raise your pistol and shoot the conductor in the head. As the man falls to the ground Jesse regains control of his pistol and shoots him again in the chest. While the conductor lies on the floor bleeding and gun smoke rises in the carriage another passenger springs to his feet, gun in hand. "Jesse," Frank yells out in warning as he aims his pistol at the man. > You let Frank deal with him The man staggers as Frank shoots hits him in the chest and dropping his pistol he falls to the ground. "Quickly boys," Frank calls out and the three of you hurry down the passenger carriage, leaving the two dead men behind you. Reaching the Express Carriage you find the safe contains very little money but you throw what little it does contain into a sack before making your escape from the train. Running to where you left your horses you escape cross country and count the money, finding you have made it away with $700, making your share $100. The robbery and it's accompanying double-killing make national news and the reward for, you, Frank or Jesse reaches a record $5,000 each to be brought in dead or alive, making the three of you worth $15,000 altogether. Jesse is completely unperturbed and recruits another gang member, a young friend of Dick Liddil's called Charley Ford. Together the seven of you plan your next train robbery to take place on the fifth anniversary of the disastrous Northfield Bank Robbery.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The loss of Bill Ryan, his favorite gang member, has hit Jesse hard but despite looking more tired than ever Jesse's ambition remains as boundless as always. As well as you, Dick Liddil and Wood Hite Jesse has persuaded his brother Frank to rejoin the gang and also his cousin Clarence Hite, Wood's younger brother who is dying of tuberculosis and is so emaciated you are not certain he'll be up to the rigors of outlaw life. Jesse remains confident though. "It is time we went back to Missouri and reminded the governor there that are fifteen years the James boys are still going strong," he declares, grinning at Frank. "The Civil War may be over but we haven't stopped fighting it! We'll hold up a few trains and then clear out of the state." On the chosen day Dick, Wood and Clarence camp outside the town of Winston while you, Frank and Jesse ride into town. Boarding the noon train you make your way to the driver's carriage where you take him hostage and have him stop the train close to where your friends are waiting. After the train stops you, Frank and Jesse make your way down the passenger carriages towards the express carriage, Jesse leading the way. "This is a hold up," he barks to the passengers. "Remain in your seats." Without warning a uniformed conductor suddenly springs forward and grabs at Jesse's pistol. Startled the two men wrestle over the weapon while you and Frank stand by startled. "Shoot him," Jesse yells. > You let the James Brothers take care of the situation While you watch Jesse manages to pull the trigger of his pistol and shoot the conductor in the chest. As the man falls to the ground Jesse shoots him again in the head. While the man lies bleeding on the floor and gun smoke rises in the carriage a second passenger springs to his feet, gun in hand. "Jesse," Frank yells out in warning and raises his own gun.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Traveling south to Alabama with your friends you make your way to Muscle Shoals and learn what route the man carrying the payroll usually takes into town. Making your way to a lonely part of the road you all hide in some trees until the paymaster comes into sight. Emerging with pistols in your hands you all relieve him of the sack of money he is carrying before riding off across the countryside. When you stop to count the money you find you have stolen $5,000, making your share $1,200. You and your companions are pleased by the easy job, especially Bill. "I think I'll go back to Adairville in Kentucky to celebrate with some of my old friends," he says. "Don't be there too long," Jesse says. "I think I'm going to go and talk to Frank and some other boys to get them to join the boy. This summer I think we should start hitting trains in Missouri." Agreeing to meet up at the Hite Farm Jesse and Wood part ways with Bill leaving you free to choose who to join. > You go with Bill to Adairville Parting from the others you and Bill make your way to Adairville where you spend several days drinking in saloons and generally having a fun time. The fun ends abruptly one night when Bill gets into a drunken argument with someone and boasts that he is friends with Jesse James. Lawmen quickly arrive on the scene and before Bill knows what is happening he is under arrest. You are standing by the bar at the time a few feet from a side door and as lawmen advance on you with pistols in their hands you consider making a break for it, though it could be dangerous. > You try escaping out a side door As the lawmen approach you suddenly make dart to the right, throw the door open and rush through. As the lawmen shout out you run down the alley outside, make it to a horse and mount up. You ride hard out of town and don't stop riding for 24 hours until you make it back to the safety of the Hite Farm: there you learn that Bill has been imprisoned for several years for his role in the Muscle Shoals payroll robbery but he has refused to name his companions. Soon after you arrive at the Hite Farm Jesse and Wood show up with their brothers Frank and Clarence Hite in tow, recruits for Jesse's latest plans.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Parting from the others you and Bill make your way to Adairville where you spend several days drinking in saloons and generally having a fun time. The fun ends abruptly one night when Bill gets into a drunken argument with someone and boasts that he is friends with Jesse James. Lawmen quickly arrive on the scene and before Bill knows what is happening he is under arrest. You are standing by the bar at the time a few feet from a side door and as lawmen advance on you with pistols in their hands you consider making a break for it, though it could be dangerous. > You surrender You meekly raise your hands in the air and surrender, together with Bill you are taken into custody. Put on trial in Adairville you are testified against by none other than Tucker Bassham and convicted not only of the Muscle Shoals payroll robbery but also of the Glendale train robbery: you are both sentenced to eight years imprisonment. While you are in prison the James Gang is destroyed: Wood Hite and your friend Jesse James are killed while Dick Liddil and Frank James surrender to the authorities, both are later acquitted of the charges against them. By the time you are eventually released your outlaw days are long gone by and the world seems a very different place as you enter into a peaceful retirement from your outlaw life.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Riding into Mercer with the others you leave Dick and Bill outside with the horses and enter the store with Jesse. The pair of you draw your pistols and demand that the lone storekeeper hand over the payroll. "My son has taken it to the bank already," the nervous man tells you with his hands in the air and sure enough the safe is almost completely empty. Jesse is very annoyed but there is nothing you can do except leave the store, mount your horses and ride away. Jesse is very put out but after a winter spent exploring various states he learns that a similar payroll is being transported to the town of Muscle Shoals in far-off Alabama, a long way from your usual operating places. Jesse is determined to get the money and decides to take the ever-loyal Bill and Wood Hite with him this time, leaving Dick Liddil at the Hite Farm. Again he offers you the choice of accompanying him or staying at the Hite Farm. > You stay with Dick at the Hite Farm You remain with Dick at the Hite Farm while your companions head south to rob the payroll in Alabama. The robbery goes off well but afterwards Bill Ryan is arrested in Adairville after he draws too much attention to himself. The news is bad but Bill refuses to talk and soon after Jesse and Wood Hite return to the Hite Farm with Wood's younger brother Clarence Hite and Jesse's brother Frank who has been lured out of his retirement as a farmer in Tennessee by his enthusiastic younger brother. Jesse has a summer of crime planned for his native Missouri.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You and your two companions ride out to Mammoth Cave, a popular tourist destination. You all wait by the side of the road and when a stagecoach full of tourist approaches you all surround it, pistols in hands. Forcing the unarmed driver and passengers to disembark you relieve them of their money and valuables before riding cross-country back to the Hite Farm. Counting your loot there you find you have made off with $2,000, making your share $600. Back at the Hite Farm Jesse is not content with your takings and having learned there is a large sum of money held in a store in the nearby town of Mercer he decides to rob that as well. Again he chooses to take Bill with him and also Dick while Wood will remain at the Farm making sure the place remains safe and keeping a watch out for lawmen. Again Jesse offers you the choice of whether to join him and the others in the robbery or remain at the Farm. > You wait with Wood at the Hite Farm You stay with Wood at the Hite Farm while the others ride into Mercer to commit their robbery, only succeeding in robbing an already empty safe. Jesse is very put out but after a winter spent exploring various states he learns that a similar payroll is being transported to the town of Muscle Shoals in far-off Alabama, a long way from your usual operating places. Jesse is determined to get the money and decides to take the ever-loyal Bill and Wood Hite with him this time, leaving Dick Liddil at the Hite Farm. Again he offers you the choice of accompanying him or staying at the Hite Farm.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The new James Gang has not had a good start with Tucker Bassham arrested and Ed Miller killed by Jesse for threatening to betray the Gang, that just leaves you, Jesse, Jesse's cousin Wood Hite, the cunning Dick Liddil and the alcoholic Bill Ryan. The murder of his old friend Clell's brother seems to weigh heavily on Jesse's conscience and the usual energy and cheerfulness of his younger years seems to be fading from your friend as Jesse enters his thirties. He remains as decisive as ever though. "There are lots of stagecoaches in Kentucky and the authorities won't be expecting one of them to be robbed," he declares. "Bill Ryan, you and I will ride out and hold up a stagecoach over by Mammoth Caves, they are always packed full of rich tourists. Dick and Wood, I want you to stay here in case I need you. Bill Grey, you can join us if you want or you can stay here and lie low with the boys." > You stay with Wood and Dick at the Hite Farm You wait at the Hite Farm while Jesse and Bill pull off their robbery and rejoin you. Jesse has plans for another robbery and having learned there is a large sum of money held in a store in the nearby town of Mercer he decides to rob that as well. Again he chooses to take Bill with him and also Dick while Wood will remain at the Farm making sure the place remains safe and keeping a watch out for lawmen. Again Jesse offers you the choice of whether to join him and the others in the robbery or remain at the Farm.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You go with Tucker back to his farm, all the while having to endure his inane conversation conveying how excited he is by the amount of money you have made. He takes a shopping trip into Jackson and apparently brags loudly about taking part in the Glendale train robbery because the next morning there is a knock on his cabin door. When Tucker answers it you hear a man declare "Tucker Bassham, you are under arrest for train robbery." You spring to your feet and glance around, you are in your bedrrom a short way away and though there is only one door that leads into the kitchen where Tucker is there is a window. You could try jumping through the window to escape but it would make a loud noise and could be dangerous. > You surrender instead You meekly surrender to the lawmen and together with Tucker you are both conveyed to Jackson for your trial. The trial itself is a short affair thanks largely to Tucker's testimony which names you and every other participant in the Glendale train robbery. You are found guilty and sentenced to an incredibly lenient two years imprisonment as the Glendale robbery is the only crime you are charged with and found guilty of. During your imprisonment you read that Ed Miller's body was discovered in Missouri, apparently killed by Jesse James. Bill Ryan is arrested a year after you but the other gang members are still at large by the time you and Tucker are released in the winter of 1881. Tucker immmediately goes into hiding while you go to Missouri to join up with Jesse, Wood Hite and Dick Liddil. By this time Jesse has managed to expand his gang, persuading his brother Frank to join him, his cousin Clarence Hite (Wood's younger brother) and a friend of Dick Liddil's called Charley Ford have also joined the gang. Jesse is delighted to see you again and it doesn't take him long to persuade you to join him and the others in his latest train robbery planned in Missouri on the fifth anniversary of the disastrous Northfield Raid...<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Returning to Missouri you meet your old friend for the first time in many years. Jesse hasn't changed at all, though he is now in his thirties and has grown a beard he maintains all his old enthusiasm, high-spirits and carefree attitude. Apparently Frank wants nothing more to do with crime and is enjoying his retirement in Tennessee but Jesse has formed a new gang of five men, making you the seventh member of the new James Gang. The new recruits don't impress you and are nowhere near as high quality as the Youngers or the other former members of the James-Younger Gang. The most reliable of the lot seems to be Wood Hite, Jesse's cousin and a former Guerrilla. Dick Liddil, a clever young man seems reliable enough while Bill Ryan, a hard-drinking admirer of Jesse also seems fairly dependable. The last two members of the Gang, Clell Miller's younger brother Ed Miller and a farmer called Tucker Bassham strike you as idiots and the absence of Frank James concerns you. Despite your worries your first robbery in three years goes very well: Jesse has decided to concentrate on trains rather than banks after his experience at Northfield and one winter's night you hold a train outside Glendale, using a red light to stop the train. You and Jesse quickly empty the Express Safe while the others guard the driver and passengers before you all mount your horses and escape cross-county. After several hours you pause to count the money, you have stolen $6,000 which makes your share $800. Jesse is pleased with the success of the robbery but cautions his new recruits. "This will get the law on our trail and when the papers learn I am behind it the whole state will be looking for us. It's best if we split up, Tucker you back to your farm at Jackson. Wood, Dick and Bill, you head up to Wood's family's place in Kentucky. Ed, you come with me, we'll go and hole up at your farm outside Norborne. Where you going to go Bill?" > You join Wood, Dick and Bill at the Hite Farm You and your new friends go to Wood's farm and lie low for a few months. You are startled to read that Tucker Bassham has been arrested in Missouri and promptly named you and every other participant in the Glendale train robbery; soon after you read that Ed Miller’s body has also been discovered in Missouri, allegedly killed by Jesse James. A few months later Jesse himself turns up at the Farm looking grim and full of plans for your next robbery.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Returning to Missouri you meet your old friend for the first time in many years. Jesse hasn't changed at all, though he is now in his thirties and has grown a beard he maintains all his old enthusiasm, high-spirits and carefree attitude. Apparently Frank wants nothing more to do with crime and is enjoying his retirement in Tennessee but Jesse has formed a new gang of five men, making you the seventh member of the new James Gang. The new recruits don't impress you and are nowhere near as high quality as the Youngers or the other former members of the James-Younger Gang. The most reliable of the lot seems to be Wood Hite, Jesse's cousin and a former Guerrilla. Dick Liddil, a clever young man seems reliable enough while Bill Ryan, a hard-drinking admirer of Jesse also seems fairly dependable. The last two members of the Gang, Clell Miller's younger brother Ed Miller and a farmer called Tucker Bassham strike you as idiots and the absence of Frank James concerns you. Despite your worries your first robbery in three years goes very well: Jesse has decided to concentrate on trains rather than banks after his experience at Northfield and one winter's night you hold a train outside Glendale, using a red light to stop the train. You and Jesse quickly empty the Express Safe while the others guard the driver and passengers before you all mount your horses and escape cross-county. After several hours you pause to count the money, you have stolen $6,000 which makes your share $800. Jesse is pleased with the success of the robbery but cautions his new recruits. "This will get the law on our trail and when the papers learn I am behind it the whole state will be looking for us. It's best if we split up, Tucker you back to your farm at Jackson. Wood, Dick and Bill, you head up to Wood's family's place in Kentucky. Ed, you come with me, we'll go and hole up at your farm outside Norborne. Where you going to go Bill?" > You join Jesse and Ed at the Miller Farm Jesse rents a small house on the outskirts of Norborne and together you, Jesse and Ed live there for a time. Ed is a heavy drinker and over time you notice he seems to hold you and Jesse responsible for the death of his brother Clell in the Northfield Bank Robbery three years ago. One night after an especially heavy drinking bout Ed threatens to tell local lawmen where you are all staying unless you give him money. Jesse takes you to one side and quietly declares he intends to kill Ed. He asks if you would be willing to help him. > You help Jesse kill Ed You and Jesse walk up behind Ed who is sitting in a chair. Without a word you both draw your pistols and shoot him in the head, killing him instantly. Wrapping the body in a blanket you dump it outside before saddling up and riding away, heading to the Hite Farm in Kentucky where Wood, Dick and Bill are staying. When you arrive you learn that Tucker Bassham has been arrested in Missouri and named all of you who took part in the Glendale robbery, worsening Jesse's already grim mood.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Jesse rents a small house on the outskirts of Norborne and together you, Jesse and Ed live there for a time. Ed is a heavy drinker and over time you notice he seems to hold you and Jesse responsible for the death of his brother Clell in the Northfield Bank Robbery three years ago. One night after an especially heavy drinking bout Ed threatens to tell local lawmen where you are all staying unless you give him money. Jesse takes you to one side and quietly declares he intends to kill Ed. He asks if you would be willing to help him. > You refuse to help murder your fellow gang member You return to the kitchen and join Ed sitting at the table. A moment later Jesse walks up behind Ed and without a word he draws his pistol and shoots him in the back of the head, killing him instantly. Wrapping the body in a blanket you dump it outside before saddling up and riding away, heading to the Hite Farm in Kentucky where Wood, Dick and Bill are staying. When you arrive you learn that Tucker Bassham has been arrested in Missouri and named all of you who took part in the Glendale robbery, worsening Jesse's already grim mood.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>By the time you and your surviving companions make it out of Northfield you are in a pretty bad way: Bill Chadwell and Clell Miller are dead and everyone except Jesse (and possibly you) has been wounded: Charlie and Frank have both been shot once, Bob twice, Jim three times and Cole a remarkable five times, though all his wounds are minor. The most serious wounds are Jim's and Bob's the latter of whom has had his right elbow completely shattered. Altogether you have managed to steal less than $27 dollars from the bank in Northfield. Perhaps worst of all your only guide to Minnesota, Bill Chadwell, is dead leaving all of you stranded in a hostile state with only the knowledge that you have to head in a generally southern direction to reach safety. You don't have a single friend in Northfield and within days thousands of men in hundreds of posses are combing Minnesota for you. The first week after your escape from Northfield requires all the knowledge that all of you (except Bob) gained during your four years as Guerrillas during the Civil War and your eleven years as outlaws since. Performing basic medical care for your injured and stealing a horse for Bob you manage to get the drop on one posse of several men who are hunting you, swiftly disarm them and ride off with their guns. Exchanging shots with another posse you escape during a rainstorm you pass yourselves off as a posse hunting the Northfield Robbers which goes well until one night when you camp on a small island and wake to find the island surrounded by hundreds of men. You only escape by unleashing your horses in one direction and swimming off in another, somehow escaping in the fog and the storm. After this narrow escape you spend a few days resting in an abandoned farmhouse before continuing, stealing horses along the way. By the 14th things are serious. Both Bob and Jim have become feverish from their untreated wounds and can only travel very slowly. Finally Cole turns to you and the others. "It's no good, we'll never get out of Minnesota going at this speed," he admits to you all. "Bill, it's better that you, Frank and Jesse ride ahead. You'll be moving faster, attracting more attention from the posses and meanwhile me, Jim and Bob can keep going in our own slow way and hopefully slip out of Minnesota unnoticed while all the posses are busy chasing you." You all consider the idea but Charlie shakes his head and declares that he wouldn't feel right abandoning the badly injured Younger Brothers. The James brothers have no problem with the plan and take all the Youngers money and personal possessions to give to their family in case the worst happens. Frank and Jesse decide to ride directly west towards the Dakotas and try to draw posses after them while the Youngers and Charlie continue south towards Iowa. You need to choose which group you will join. > You keep going south with Cole, Jim, Bob and Charlie You choose to remain with the Younger Brothers and Charlie while the James boys ride off. Initially the plan works well, continuing to head slowly south you rarely encounter posses now, most have them have drawn off west to chase Frank and Jesse. Unfortunately Bob and Jim's fever is continuing to worsen and you are moving slower than ever. One week after the James brothers split off you find yourselves approaching a copse of woods when a glance back shows a few hundred posse members armed with pistols, rifles and shotguns closing in on you. The four of you run into a thicket and take shelter behind a fallen tree. "If anyone wants to surrender they can," Cole suggests but you are all determined to go down fighting." As the posse fans out to surround the copse of trees where you are hiding and seven men armed with rifles approach on foot Cole sighs. "When they get close let them have it," he orders. "Bob, you reload our pistols. Ok boys get ready... now!" Cole fires his pistol, hitting one of the approaching posse in the hip. > You join the others in firing at the posse You fire your pistol over the dead-fall, one of your shots clipping a posse member in the side. The posse returns fire, the men in front firing from cover while those behind on a slight hill direct their fire over their heads. Your friends are hit several times: Cole is hit three times, Charlie four times and Jim once but you all keep firing. Charlie glances at Cole. "We are entirely surrounded and we had better surrender." Cole nods. "Charlie if you want to surrender go but this is where Cole Younger dies." "All right Captain, I can die as game as you can," Charlie replies. "Let's get it done." Springing to his feet with a pistol in each hand he opens fire, hitting one posse member in the hand. A moment later he is shot through the chest and with a groan he falls dead to the ground. A moment later Jim is shot in the face, the bullet knocking out several of his teeth and lodging in his head, clutching his face he falls to the ground. Cole turns to look at Jim and a bullet hits him in the back of the head, he too falls to the ground. Glancing round you catch Bob's frightened eyes looking at you. > You copy Charlie and spring to your feet guns blazing You spring to your feet, firing your pistols as fast as you can. One of your shots hits a posse member in the shoulder then someone shoots you in the chest, directly into your heart. You fall back behind the dead tree and as silence falls you quietly die, another Outlaw passing into the legend of the Old West.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You fire your pistol over the dead-fall, one of your shots clipping a posse member in the side. The posse returns fire, the men in front firing from cover while those behind on a slight hill direct their fire over their heads. Your friends are hit several times: Cole is hit three times, Charlie four times and Jim once but you all keep firing. Charlie glances at Cole. "We are entirely surrounded and we had better surrender." Cole nods. "Charlie if you want to surrender go but this is where Cole Younger dies." "All right Captain, I can die as game as you can," Charlie replies. "Let's get it done." Springing to his feet with a pistol in each hand he opens fire, hitting one posse member in the hand. A moment later he is shot through the chest and with a groan he falls dead to the ground. A moment later Jim is shot in the face, the bullet knocking out several of his teeth and lodging in his head, clutching his face he falls to the ground. Cole turns to look at Jim and a bullet hits him in the back of the head, he too falls to the ground. Glancing round you catch Bob's frightened eyes looking at you. > You keep firing from behind cover You keep firing at the posse but a bullet passes over the dead tree to strike you in the upper chest and knocking you backwards onto the ground. You lie there among your fallen motionless companions as the guns slowly stop firing. You hear a voice shout out "do you men surrender?" A moment later Bob replies. "I surrender. They're all down but me. For God's sake don't shoot me too." You get a glimpse of Bob rising to his feet when suddenly a shot rings out hitting him in the chest and he falls to his knees. "Stop shooting," an angry voice yells. "Anyone else fires I'll shoot them!" A moment later a handsome young lawman climbs over the dead tree followed by his companions. "I was surrendering," Bob murmurs to him. "Someone shot me while I was surrendering." The posse members approach you and the others. Jim is moaning in pain, clutching his shattered jaw, while Cole tries to fight off two men who try to help him up. "Cole it's over," Bob tells him. "Give it up or they'll hang us for sure." Another two men lift you up, gasping in pain and barely aware of what is happening. The four of you and the dead Charlie are taken into a nearby town in a wagon. You all receive treatment: in the gunfights at Northfield and Hanska Slough Bob has suffered a total of three bullet wounds, Jim five and Cole a remarkable eleven while you have been shot at least once, possibly more at Northfield. It takes two months of medical treatment until the four of you are fit enough to stand trial. Meanwhile Frank and Jesse James succeed in escaping back to Missouri. Your trial is an open and shut case and it is only by pleading guilty to bank robbery and murder that you all avoid execution: instead you are sentenced to prison for twenty-five years, all of you always refuse to identify Frank and Jesse James as your fellow bank robbers in Northfield. While you serve your sentence you read how first Jesse and then Frank return to their outlaw careers. Jesse is finally betrayed and shot dead by his friend Robert Ford in April 1882 and Frank surrenders to the law six months later. After a series of lengthy trials Frank defeats all the charges against him and is released from custody in 1885. Though Bob dies in prison of tuberculosis, worsened by his chest injury, in 1889 you, Cole and Jim all survive to be paroled from prison in 1901. By this time you are over sixty and both the Younger Brothers are in their fifties. Jim doesn't enjoy his freedom: unable to marry the woman he loves because of his parole conditions he commits suicide a year after his release. As you and Cole enter the Twentieth Century you reflect over the lives you have led.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You choose to remain with the Younger Brothers and Charlie while the James boys ride off. Initially the plan works well, continuing to head slowly south you rarely encounter posses now, most have them have drawn off west to chase Frank and Jesse. Unfortunately Bob and Jim's fever is continuing to worsen and you are moving slower than ever. One week after the James brothers split off you find yourselves approaching a copse of woods when a glance back shows a few hundred posse members armed with pistols, rifles and shotguns closing in on you. The four of you run into a thicket and take shelter behind a fallen tree. "If anyone wants to surrender they can," Cole suggests but you are all determined to go down fighting." As the posse fans out to surround the copse of trees where you are hiding and seven men armed with rifles approach on foot Cole sighs. "When they get close let them have it," he orders. "Bob, you reload our pistols. Ok boys get ready... now!" Cole fires his pistol, hitting one of the approaching posse in the hip. > You help Bob reload the pistols You keep your head down and concentrate on helping Bob reload the pistols while your companions fire their guns. The posse returns fire, the men in front firing from cover while those behind on a slight hill direct their fire over their heads. Your friends are hit several times: Cole is hit three times, Charlie four times and Jim once but you all keep firing. Charlie glances at Cole. "We are entirely surrounded and we had better surrender." Cole nods. "Charlie if you want to surrender go but this is where Cole Younger dies." "All right Captain, I can die as game as you can," Charlie replies. "Let's get it done." Springing to his feet with a pistol in each hand he opens fire, hitting one posse member in the hand. A moment later he is shot through the chest and with a groan he falls dead to the ground. A moment later Jim is shot in the face, the bullet knocking out several of his teeth and lodging in his head, clutching his face he falls to the ground. Cole turns to look at Jim and a bullet hits him in the back of the head, he too falls to the ground. Glancing round you catch Bob's frightened eyes looking at you.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Racing to the backdoor you point your pistol at the fleeing man and fire. The bullet hits the teller in the back of his shoulder, though the man stumbles he makes it to the edge of the street and vanishes round a corner. As you shut the door and go back inside the bank you can hear shots outside and suddenly Cole's voice yelling "Hurry up, they've given the alarm!" "God damn you, open the safe," Jesse barks at the teller on the floor and fires his pistol at the floor next to the man's head. You and Bob quickly scoop all the loose notes you can find off the counter while Frank and Jesse continue to threaten the fallen teller who bravely refuses to help them in any way. Dozens of gunshots are ringing out on the streets outside now and again you hear Cole's voice shouting "They're killing our men! Get out here!" "Fuck you," Jesse snarls, hitting the teller in the face again with his gun and then he and Bob give up and run out of the bank. As you are about to follow them you notice Frank massaging his wounded arm and eyeing the teller. "We should kill that son of a bitch," Frank says to you. > You leave him alone and make your escape You turn and run out of the bank, as you do you hear a gunshot behind you as Frank coldly executes the brave teller. Outside the bank you are greeted by a scene of utter pandemonium. Clell, Bill and a third man who looks like a citizen of the town are lying dead in the street; the rest of your Gang are riding their horses up and down firing their pistols up at the buildings where several men seemed to have armed themselves and are firing back. Bob's horse is lying dead and Bob himself runs off to find cover but your horse and Jesse's are still alive and you pull yourself onto your horse's back as Jesse does likewise with his. As Frank emerges from the bank and the gunfire intensifies you see that you have to get out of town fast or you will all be killed. "It's no use boys, lets clear out," you shout and spurring your horses into a gallop you concentrate on riding your horse out of time, quickly catching up with Charlie and Cole, the latter bleeding from several gunshot wounds. As you reach the edge of town you hear a scream behind you "Don't leave me boys, I've been shot!" Glancing back you realize you have all forgotten Bob who has sprung out of his hiding place and is sprinting down the street after you. "Shit," Cole mutters and glances at you and Charlie. "Cover me boys," he orders. Cole then does the most incredible thing you have ever seen someone do in real life: he spurs his horse directly back down the street towards his injured brother. Several men are shooting at them and though you and Charlie are firing your pistols at the buildings you might as well be throwing stones at them for all the good it does. Cole and Bob seem to be moving through a virtual rain of bullets. Bob stumbles as one shot hits his leg. Two more graze Cole's horse making it scream and rear but he keeps it under control. Reaching down he helps Bob climb onto his horse. As he does three more bullets hit Cole, the dust exploding from his clothes in small puffs as each bullet hits him. Gritting his teeth he turns his horse around and gallops straight back towards you and Charlie. The gunfire is directed at you two now: one bullet grazes Charlie's arm and another bullet whizzes right past your right ear. As Bob and Cole reach you both you turn horses around and gallop out of town after Frank, Jesse and Jim. Behind you leave the dead bodies of your two fellow outlaws and the shattered myth of the invincibility of the James-Younger Gang.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You and your friends ride up to the bank, leave your horses tied up outside and go in. There are three tellers but no customers inside the bank and drawing your pistols you approach the tellers. "We're robbing this bank," Jesse declares. "Don't any of you holler, we've got forty men outside." The tellers raise their hands and Frank wanders inside the vault to look at the safe inside. As he does one of the tellers suddenly grabs the vault door and starts pulling it shut. Frank darts back and jams his arm forward as the teller slams the door on it, running forward Bob hits the teller with his pistol and knocks him to the floor. You all approach the fallen man, Frank angrily rubbing his crushed arm, and drawing a small knife from his pocket Jesse holds it to the injured teller's neck. "Open the safe or I'll cut your damn throat from ear to ear," Jesse snarls. "You'll have to cut my throat because I can't open the safe," the man replies bravely. A shot from outside makes you all glance at the door. As you do another of the tellers springs into action, and dashes away, through a back door and out into the street. "Get him," Jesse shouts. > You concentrate on getting all the money you can You ignore the fleeing man and begin scooping all the loose change you can find on the counter into a sack but Bob runs after him, stands in the back door of the bank and fires a shot at the fleeing man. Coming back inside the bank he slams the door. As he does you can hear shots outside and suddenly Cole's voice yelling "Hurry up, they've given the alarm!" "God damn you, open the safe," Jesse barks at the teller on the floor and fires his pistol at the floor next to the man's head. You and Bob quickly scoop all the loose notes you can find off the counter while Frank and Jesse continue to threaten the fallen teller who bravely refuses to help them in any way. Dozens of gunshots are ringing out on the streets outside now and again you hear Cole's voice shouting "They're killing our men! Get out here!" "Fuck you," Jesse snarls, hitting the teller in the face again with his gun and then he and Bob give up and run out of the bank. As you are about to follow them you notice Frank massaging his wounded arm and eyeing the teller. "We should kill that son of a bitch," Frank says to you.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You and your eight companions begin scouting towns in Minnesota for good banks to rob and settle on one in the town of Northfield. While you are in Minnesota you learn that Hoobs Kerry has been identified and arrested and has promptly identified each of the Gang including those who took part in the Otterville Train Robbery in exchange for a reduced sentence of two years imprisonment. You are all furious at Hoobs's betrayal but decide to go ahead with your plans anyway. As usual it's Jesse who makes the plans. "Folk in Minnesota will be on the lookout for nine men acting suspiciously so we won't all go in at once tomorrow," he declares. "Frank, Bob and myself will go into the bank while Cole and Clell hold the horses outside. Bill, Charlie and Jim, I want you to wait on the edge of town and if you hear any shooting come riding in like hell firing your pistols into the air to get those Yankee townsfolk off the streets. I know it's a big town boys but this is a rich bank and the money we should get is worth the risk. Bill, which group do you want to join?" > You join Cole and Clell in guarding the horses outside That morning you ride up to the bank and while your companions enter you, Clell and Cole wait outside. After a few moments two men approach the bank and though you and Clell move to intercept them the men are walking too fast and suddenly freeze as they witness your friends holding up the bank at gunpoint through the bank's glass windows. "Keep your damned mouths shut," Clell hisses and the men nod and start walking away when suddenly one of them starts shouting "Get your guns boys! They're robbing the bank!" Swearing Clell draws his pistol and fires a shot one of the men's head which misses. You, Cole and Clell quickly mount your horses and begin galloping up and dozen the street firing your pistols into the air and shouting "Get in, get in!" Alerted by the shot, Jim, Bill and Charlie gallop into town and begin imitating your tactics. Unfortunately for you and your friends the townsfolk quickly find their weapons and begin returning fire at you all from the safety of windows, doorways and store fronts. As he rides past the bank Cole shouts to the men inside "hurry up! They've given the alarm!" As you ride along the front of the bank you see a young man standing absolutely motionless nearby staring round in confusion. "Get off the damn street," Cole yells at him as he rides past but the man just steps at him before suddenly putting his hand into his pocket. > You shoot the man in the head Your shot hits the man in the head and he falls to the ground fatally wounded. You turn away just in time to see Clell get shot off his horse by a bullet fired from somewhere high. As you and Cole ride towards him and dismount Clell is in a bad way, lying on the ground with blood pouring from his face and shoulder. A quick check reveals he is indeed dead. Cole snatched up Clell's pistol and cartridge belt but as he does so a bullet hits his left leg. Glancing up you think you can see the man who shot and killed Clell. He is standing at an upper-story window rapidly reloading a rifle in his hands. Though it is a very difficult shot with a pistol you could try to shoot and kill him. > You fire up at the sniper You fire up at the man, missing, and a moment later he fires back, hitting you in the throat. You fall backwards to the ground, your pistol flying from your grasp. You are dimly aware of Cole at your side shouting something in your ear but you can't hear him. You quickly bleed to death as the gun battle rages on, one of five men killed on this bloody day.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Your shot hits the man in the head and he falls to the ground fatally wounded. You turn away just in time to see Clell get shot off his horse by a bullet fired from somewhere high. As you and Cole ride towards him and dismount Clell is in a bad way, lying on the ground with blood pouring from his face and shoulder. A quick check reveals he is indeed dead. Cole snatched up Clell's pistol and cartridge belt but as he does so a bullet hits his left leg. Glancing up you think you can see the man who shot and killed Clell. He is standing at an upper-story window rapidly reloading a rifle in his hands. Though it is a very difficult shot with a pistol you could try to shoot and kill him. > You concentrate on finding cover You duck down behind your horse to avoid the sniper but behind you another of the townsfolk fires a shot that hits you in the right arm. Swearing you risk remounting your horse and gallop after Cole, who has also been hit again in the shoulder. Riding past the bank he shouts "They're killing our men! Get out here!" Continuing down the street, still firing your pistol, you pass the dead body of Bill Chadwell who is lying dead in the dirt and Jim Younger, still mounted on his horse but bleeding from multiple wounds. Finally Frank, Jesse and Bob emerge from the bank at a run and make it to their horses. "It's no use boys, let's go," you shout at them and turning your horse you spur it down the street leading out of town. You are soon joined by Charlie and Cole, the latter bleeding from several gunshot wounds. As you reach the edge of town you hear a scream behind you "Don't leave me boys, I've been shot!" Glancing back you realize you have all forgotten Bob who has sprung out of his hiding place and is sprinting down the street after you. "Shit," Cole mutters and glances at you and Charlie. "Cover me boys," he orders. Cole then does the most incredible thing you have ever seen someone do in real life: he spurs his horse directly back down the street towards his injured brother. Several men are shooting at them and though you and Charlie are firing your pistols at the buildings you might as well be throwing stones at them for all the good it does. Cole and Bob seem to be moving through a virtual rain of bullets. Bob stumbles as one shot hits his leg. Two more graze Cole's horse making it scream and rear but he keeps it under control. Reaching down he helps Bob climb onto his horse. As he does three more bullets hit Cole, the dust exploding from his clothes in small puffs as each bullet hits him. Gritting his teeth he turns his horse around and gallops straight back towards you and Charlie. The gunfire is directed at you two now: one bullet grazes Charlie's arm and another bullet whizzes right past your right ear. As Bob and Cole reach you both you turn horses around and gallop out of town after Frank, Jesse and Jim. Behind you leave the dead bodies of your two fellow outlaws and the shattered myth of the invincibility of the James-Younger Gang.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>That morning you ride up to the bank and while your companions enter you, Clell and Cole wait outside. After a few moments two men approach the bank and though you and Clell move to intercept them the men are walking too fast and suddenly freeze as they witness your friends holding up the bank at gunpoint through the bank's glass windows. "Keep your damned mouths shut," Clell hisses and the men nod and start walking away when suddenly one of them starts shouting "Get your guns boys! They're robbing the bank!" Swearing Clell draws his pistol and fires a shot one of the men's head which misses. You, Cole and Clell quickly mount your horses and begin galloping up and dozen the street firing your pistols into the air and shouting "Get in, get in!" Alerted by the shot, Jim, Bill and Charlie gallop into town and begin imitating your tactics. Unfortunately for you and your friends the townsfolk quickly find their weapons and begin returning fire at you all from the safety of windows, doorways and store fronts. As he rides past the bank Cole shouts to the men inside "hurry up! They've given the alarm!" As you ride along the front of the bank you see a young man standing absolutely motionless nearby staring round in confusion. "Get off the damn street," Cole yells at him as he rides past but the man just steps at him before suddenly putting his hand into his pocket. > You ignore him You turn away but seconds later you hear a gunshot and glancing back you find the young man shot through the head and lying motionless on the street. You turn away, this time just in time to see Clell get shot off his horse by a bullet fired from somewhere high. As you and Cole ride towards him and dismount Clell is in a bad way, lying on the ground with blood pouring from his face and shoulder. A quick check reveals he is indeed dead. Cole snatched up Clell's pistol and cartridge belt but as he does so a bullet hits his left leg. Glancing up you think you can see the man who shot and killed Clell. He is standing at an upper-story window rapidly reloading a rifle in his hands. Though it is a very difficult shot you could try to kill him.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You and your eight companions begin scouting towns in Minnesota for good banks to rob and settle on one in the town of Northfield. While you are in Minnesota you learn that Hoobs Kerry has been identified and arrested and has promptly identified each of the Gang including those who took part in the Otterville Train Robbery in exchange for a reduced sentence of two years imprisonment. You are all furious at Hoobs's betrayal but decide to go ahead with your plans anyway. As usual it's Jesse who makes the plans. "Folk in Minnesota will be on the lookout for nine men acting suspiciously so we won't all go in at once tomorrow," he declares. "Frank, Bob and myself will go into the bank while Cole and Clell hold the horses outside. Bill, Charlie and Jim, I want you to wait on the edge of town and if you hear any shooting come riding in like hell firing your pistols into the air to get those Yankee townsfolk off the streets. I know it's a big town boys but this is a rich bank and the money we should get is worth the risk. Bill, which group do you want to join?" > You join Jim, Bill and Charlie waiting on the edge of town You join Jim, Bill and Charlie on the edge of town hoping the alarm will not be raised requiring you all to ride into town. Unfortunately, mere moments into the robbery, you hear a gunshot which is the signal for all of you ride into town. Spurring your horses into a gallop and drawing your pistols you ride down the street, firing your guns into the air and shouting for townsfolk to get off the street. Unfortunately by the time you all arrive the situation has degenerated into an all-out battle. Townsfolk have taken cover in buildings up and down the street, grabbed their weapons and are firing back at you all. Jim is hit in the left shoulder as you all gallop down the street and you are fired at by some people who have taken shelter in stores further down the street. Bill reins his horse to a halt and taking careful aim at the people he fires back at them with his pistol while Jim and Charlie keep riding on. > You join Bill in firing at the people in the building You and Bill halt and fire your pistols at the people in the store but unfortunately there are several of them, they are behind cover adn they are armed with rifles. First Bill and then you are hit in the chest and with a wet gasp you fall from your horse onto the ground. Shot through the heart you rapidly bleed to death as the gunfight rages on.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You join Jim, Bill and Charlie on the edge of town hoping the alarm will not be raised requiring you all to ride into town. Unfortunately, mere moments into the robbery, you hear a gunshot which is the signal for all of you ride into town. Spurring your horses into a gallop and drawing your pistols you ride down the street, firing your guns into the air and shouting for townsfolk to get off the street. Unfortunately by the time you all arrive the situation has degenerated into an all-out battle. Townsfolk have taken cover in buildings up and down the street, grabbed their weapons and are firing back at you all. Jim is hit in the left shoulder as you all gallop down the street and you are fired at by some people who have taken shelter in stores further down the street. Bill reins his horse to a halt and taking careful aim at the people he fires back at them with his pistol while Jim and Charlie keep riding on. > You keep riding on You keep riding and hear a boom of a rifle and see Bill fall from his saddle dead to the ground. As you all reach the bank several more shots are fired at you: Jim is hit in his other shoulder and a bullet grazes your right hip making you wince. Outside the bank Clell Miller and another man are lying dead in the street while, Cole bleeding from his own wounds, is outside the bank firing his pistol into the air. As you arrive Bob, Jesse and Frank emerge from the banks and mount their horses, except Bob whose horse has been killed so he takes shelter under some wooden stairs. "It's no use boys, let's go," you shout at everyone and turning your horse you spur it down the street leading out of town. You are soon joined by Charlie and Cole, the latter bleeding from several gunshot wounds. As you reach the edge of town you hear a scream behind you "Don't leave me boys, I've been shot!" Glancing back you realize you have all forgotten Bob who has sprung out of his hiding place and is sprinting down the street after you. "Shit," Cole mutters and glances at you and Charlie. "Cover me boys," he orders. Cole then does the most incredible thing you have ever seen someone do in real life: he spurs his horse directly back down the street towards his injured brother. Several men are shooting at them and though you and Charlie are firing your pistols at the buildings you might as well be throwing stones at them for all the good it does. Cole and Bob seem to be moving through a virtual rain of bullets. Bob stumbles as one shot hits his leg. Two more graze Cole's horse making it scream and rear but he keeps it under control. Reaching down he helps Bob climb onto his horse. As he does three more bullets hit Cole, the dust exploding from his clothes in small puffs as each bullet hits him. Gritting his teeth he turns his horse around and gallops straight back towards you and Charlie. The gunfire is directed at you two now: one bullet grazes Charlie's arm and another bullet whizzes right past your right ear. As Bob and Cole reach you both you turn horses around and gallop out of town after Frank, Jesse and Jim. Behind you leave the dead bodies of your two fellow outlaws and the shattered myth of the invincibility of the James-Younger Gang.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Leaving Jim behind you join the rest of the gang in holding up the train outside Otterville. As usual the robbery goes smoothly: after forcing the train to halt you and the James brothers empty the Express Safe while the Youngers guard the train staff and the others hold the horses. Mounting up you ride cross-country, easily eluding pursuit, and once you are well clear of Otterville. You have got away with a good haul: $15,000, which makes your share $1,600. You are all ready now to make the trip up to Minnesota and even Jim joins you to help protect his brothers. At the last moment Hoobs gets cold feet, he has been nervous ever since the train robbery and he insists on staying behind at his farm in Missouri. You and the other outlaws are not impressed but since you can't force him to go with you if he doesn't want to you all agree to let him back out of the planned robbery and make preparations to head up to Minnesota without him. > You stay behind with Hoobs in Missouri The others are disappointed by your decision but accept it and you choose to stay behind at the Kerry Farm with Hoobs. One morning you are in the kitchen when there is a knock on the front door. When Hoobs goes to answer it you hear a voice cry out "Hoobs Kerry, you are under arrest!" Springing quietly to your feet you quickly consider your options. There are two doors out of the kitchen, one to a pantry and one leading outside, you can either hide in the pantry or run out the back door and make for the nearby woods. > You hide in the pantry Quickly and quietly you cross the room, slip inside the pantry and close the door behind you. Unfortunately for you the lawmen search the house to see if anyone is hiding there and soon discover your hiding place. Dragged out you are taken into custody with Hoobs Kerry who soon starts singing like a canary, identifying all the members of the James-Younger Gang including you and claiming you took part in the Otterville Train Robbery, whether you did or not. Your trial is a foregone conclusion so you plead guilty to armed robbery of a train and escape with the incredibly light sentence of two years imprisonment. While you are in prison the rest of the gang tries to rob a bank in Northfield, Minnesota but the alarm is raised and an epic gunfight breaks out. Bill and Clell are killed and soon after Charlie is killed and Cole, Bob and Jim are all wounded and captured in a second major gunfight. Only Frank and Jesse James succeed in escaping Minnesota and when you are released in 1878 you immediately return to Missouri to rejoin them, Hoobs has already been released and gone into hiding. By the following year Jesse has formed a new Gang and he invites you to join them.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The others are disappointed by your decision but accept it and you choose to stay behind at the Kerry Farm with Hoobs. One morning you are in the kitchen when there is a knock on the front door. When Hoobs goes to answer it you hear a voice cry out "Hoobs Kerry, you are under arrest!" Springing quietly to your feet you quickly consider your options. There are two doors out of the kitchen, one to a pantry and one leading outside, you can either hide in the pantry or run out the back door and make for the nearby woods. > You run out the back door Opening the back door silently you slip outside, shut the door and run for the safety of some nearby woodland. You escape completely and stealing a horse you set off up to Minnesota after your companions. You manage to catch up with them and breathlessly tell them the story of Hoobs's capture. You all decide to go ahead with your robbery plans anyway and continue on up to Minnesota and begin looking for banks to rob.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You and the other nine members of the James-Younger Gang who gather in an empty cabin on the edge of Otterville are the most wanted men in America. Jesse, grinning and carefree sits next to a dour and frowning Frank. Cole, tough and capable sits between his handsome, young brother Bob and his other brother Jim who looks like he is wishing he could be somewhere else. The joker Clell Miller and the tall Bill Chadwell are gazing at Jesse with something like adoration while the silent Charlie Pitts sits with them. Finally you are sitting next to the newest member of the Gang, another former Guerrilla but a bit of a weak link called Hoobs Kerry. "Boys, we've had a turbulent couple of years but we sure are taking the fight to the Yankees, America's never known bandits like us before," Jesse declares. "My idea for this year is that we rob a train here in Missouri first and then go all the way up to Minnesota and rob one of those fat Northern banks up there. Bill here is from Minnesota and knows the area well and together the ten of us are unbeatable! We'll pull off a crime so audacious all of America will be talking about it!" "I'm only here to try and stop you from getting my brothers Cole and Bob killed the way you got John killed," Jim Younger says dourly. "You can rob your train here without me." "Well I'm sorry you feel that way Jim," Jesse says, his smile not even flickering. "What do the rest of you say? You're all in aren't you?" Everyone else agrees and then it's your turn. > You join Jim in sitting this robbery out You hide out with Jim at Hoob Kerry's Farm while the others pull off the robbery and rejoin you. You are all ready now to make the trip up to Minnesota and even Jim joins you to help protect his brothers. At the last moment Hoobs gets cold feet, he has been nervous ever since the train robbery and he insists on staying behind at his farm in Missouri. You and the other outlaws are not impressed but since you can't force him to go with you if he doesn't want to you all agree to let him back out of the planned robbery and make preparations to head up to Minnesota without him.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You keep riding but a yell behind you makes you glance back: Tom McDaniels has been shot in the chest and he slowly falls from his horse to the ground. You and your surviving companions concentrate on outracing your pursuers across the prairie and though they follow you all day at nightfall they finally break off the pursuit. Weary and exhausted you stop to count the money you have stolen: though you made off with $10,000 from the bank Tom was carrying some of it when he was shot so your share of the robbery is only $2,000. "We need to split up in case they keep coming after us," Cole says wearily. "Frank and I will keep going west into Kentucky, Tom you turn south and head into Tennessee. Keep a low profile and we will all meet up together again back in Missouri. This could be desperate work." You consider who you will go with. > You go south into Tennessee with Tom Webb You and Tom split off from the other two and ride south. For five days you make your way out of West Virginia and across Tennessee until you feel confident you have left your pursuit behind you but you are mistaken. One afternoon as you are trotting your horses along a rocky hill path several lawmen suddenly rise from behind several rocks to your right and level their rifles at you. "Throw up your hands gentlemen," one of the lawmen calls out. "You are under arrest." After a moment's hesitation Tom raises his hands. He is between you and the lawmen giving you a little time and glancing to your left you see the hillside descends steeply into a tree-lined valley. You could spur your horse down into the valley but it would be very dangerous and if you horse trips or fall he could roll down the hill, killing you both. As the lawmen approach slowly and cautiously you know you only have seconds to decide. > You surrender like Tom Meekly you raise your hands into the air and together with Tom you are taken into custody. Imprisoned in Nashville you are put on trial and witnesses from Huntingdon swiftly identify both of you as men who helped rob the bank. You both refuse to name your fellow outlaws and together you are both sentenced to eight years imprisonment for armed robbery. This effectively ends your outlaw career and until 1883 you are forced to perform hard labor in the prison. Over the following years your companions are all captured or killed. Bill, Clell and Charlie are killed and Bob, Cole and Jim are captured following a failed bank robbery in Minnesota the year after your capture. Frank and Jesse remain at large for another six years until Jesse is murdered by a friend of his called Robert Ford while he hangs a picture on the wall and to avoid the same fate Frank surrenders himself. Finally the long years of prison end and in the winter of 1883 you and Tom are released. Frank soon after is acquitted after a series of trials and both of you decide to renounce your outlaw ways and enter into a peaceful retirement.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You and Tom split off from the other two and ride south. For five days you make your way out of West Virginia and across Tennessee until you feel confident you have left your pursuit behind you but you are mistaken. One afternoon as you are trotting your horses along a rocky hill path several lawmen suddenly rise from behind several rocks to your right and level their rifles at you. "Throw up your hands gentlemen," one of the lawmen calls out. "You are under arrest." After a moment's hesitation Tom raises his hands. He is between you and the lawmen giving you a little time and glancing to your left you see the hillside descends steeply into a tree-lined valley. You could spur your horse down into the valley but it would be very dangerous and if you horse trips or fall he could roll down the hill, killing you both. As the lawmen approach slowly and cautiously you know you only have seconds to decide. > You risk spurring your horse down the slope You spur your horse down the slope and the lawmen cry in alarm as you vanish from sight. Bounding and slipping your horse takes you down the slope in what seems mere seconds and you are in the safety of the trees. Riding as fast as you dare through the woodland you make it to safety and escape from Tennessee back to Missouri. You later read that Tom Webb was found guilty of armed robbery and sentenced to eight years imprisonment, true to the rest of you he doesn't identify his fellow outlaws. You hide out in Missouri over the winter and spring until in the summer the gang re-gathers again in the little Missouri town of Otterville.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Your aim is perfect and Ladd jerks as four bullets slam into his chest, knocking him to the ground. Fleeing the property you decide it is better to get out of Missouri and heading south to join Bob and Cole. Most of the newspapers, which were initially supportive of the James brothers after the attack on their family, are outraged by the two murders and urge people everywhere to shoot any member of the James-Younger Gang on sight. Going down to the McDaniels Farm you meet up with Bob, Cole and their host Tom McDaniels, brother of the slain Bud. Together with another friend and war veteran called Tom Webb the group are planning to rob a bank in West Virginia, far from your usual raiding areas. Frank likes the idea but uncharacteristically Bob, Clell and Jesse think it is better to lay low for a spell until the attention of the Pinkertons has worn off. You will have to choose who to join. > You lie low with Jesse, Clell and Bob in Missouri You decide to stay in Missouri with your friends and hide out at the Farm of Hoobs Kerry, another former Guerrilla but a bit of a flake. The others travel to West Virginia and pull off their robbery but during their escape Tom McDaniels is shot and killed by a posse and Tom Webb is captured: only Frank and Cole make it back to Missouri. You spend the rest of the year and the first half of 1876 resting until Jesse summons all the Gang together for a meeting to plan your next robberies in the small Missouri town of Otterville.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Raising your pistol you shoot the old farmer in the head killing him. Fleeing the scene rapidly you and your companions take to the woods where you live in hiding. Reading newspapers you learn that the Pinkerton Detective Agency are sending one of their Agents, Jack Ladd, to investigate Dan Askew's murder. As Ladd also took part in the attack on the James Family Farm Frank and Jesse see more opportunity for revenge and decide to kill the Pinkerton as well. Returning to the Askew Property armed with rifles you and your companions sneak through the trees and get yourself into a position from which you can see the farm house. You watch it for several hours until finally a man in a smart suit who you recognize as Ladd from the newspaper photographs emerges from the front door. "Now," Jesse murmurs and all of you raise your rifles. You consider whether or not to fire at the unsuspecting man. > You let the others kill him You hold back from firing but the others don't and Ladd jerks as three bullets slam into his chest, knocking him to the ground. Fleeing the property you decide it is better to get out of Missouri and heading south to join Bob and Cole. Most of the newspapers, which were initially supportive of the James brothers after the attack on their family, are outraged by the two murders and urge people everywhere to shoot any member of the James-Younger Gang on sight. Going down to the McDaniels Farm you meet up with Bob, Cole and their host Tom McDaniels, brother of the slain Bud. Together with another friend and war veteran called Tom Webb the group are planning to rob a bank in West Virginia, far from your usual raiding areas. Frank likes the idea but uncharacteristically Bob, Clell and Jesse think it is better to lay low for a spell until the attention of the Pinkertons has worn off. You will have to choose who to join.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You go with the James boys and Clell to hide out near St Joseph where you read in newspapers that Bud was identified as one of the Muncie train robbers and shot while trying to escape prison in Kansas City. His death saddens you all and drives you into hiding but in January 1875 you read even more incredible news in the newspapers. Suspecting that you and the others are in the area a small army of Pinkerton Agents surrounded the James Farm and blew it up with some kind of explosive. The explosion killed Frank and Jesse's eight year old brother Archie and tore their elderly mother Zerelda's right arm off. Frank and especially Jesse are overwhelmed with rage when they learn of the cowardly attack and Jesse's first reaction is to kill every single Pinkerton Detective involved in the raid. After calming a little he decides to settle for killing his neighbor Dan Askew who is wildly known to have allowed the Pinkertons to use his Farm as a base from which to launch the raid. One night the four of you approach the Askew Farm and knock on the door. When the old farmer opens his front door Jesse shoots him in the chest. > You let Jesse finish him off Jesse shoots the old man twice more in the chest and he falls dead to the ground. Fleeing the scene rapidly you and your companions take to the woods where you live in hiding. Reading newspapers you learn that the Pinkerton Detective Agency are sending one of their Agents, Jack Ladd, to investigate Dan Askew's murder. As Ladd also took part in the attack on the James Family Farm Frank and Jesse see more opportunity for revenge and decide to kill the Pinkerton as well. Returning to the Askew Property armed with rifles you and your companions sneak through the trees and get yourself into a position from which you can see the farm house. You watch it for several hours until finally a man in a smart suit who you recognize as Ladd from the newspaper photographs emerges from the front door. "Now," Jesse murmurs and all of you raise your rifles. You consider whether or not to fire at the unsuspecting man.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>One winter's day you and your companions ride out to the train tracks near the town of Muncie. You start a fire right next to the tracks and hide in the trees: sure enough when the train comes down the line the driver sees the fire and stops the train. While Bob and Cole take the driver hostage you, Frank and Jesse board the Express Carriage and capture the messenger at gunpoint. Quickly emptying the contents of the safe into a sack you leave the train, all of you running back to where Bud and Clell are holding your horses. You ride a long distance from Muncie before you stop to count the money and when you do you discover you have really hit the jackpot big time: you have stolen $55,000 from the train, making your share a whopping $7,800. Everyone, especially Bud, are very happy but you know it is time to split up again. Frank, Jesse and Clell decide to hide out with friends near St Joseph, Missouri, Bud McDaniels declares he intends to rent a hotel room in Kansas City while Bob and Cole decide they are going down to Texas to stay with their old friend Bud's brother Tom McDaniels. You need to choose who to join. > You go with Bud to Kansas City You join Bud in going to Kansas City where you both check into a hotel and begin celebrating your success at the train robbery by frequenting local bars. Unfortunately one night Bud drinks too much and brags to some girls that he helped rob the Muncie Train, they promptly tell some local lawmen. That night you are woken by a fist slamming against your hotel door and a voice calls out "This is the law Bill Grey, come out with your hands up in ten seconds or we start shooting!" You spring from your bed and glance around the room, the only exit apart from the door is the window but you are on the first floor and could hurt yourself quite badly if you try jumping out. > You surrender to the lawmen "Ok, I'm coming out," you call wearily and open the hotel door to find a pistol pointing at your face. You and Bud are promptly taken to the Kansas City Jail but as you are taken to a cell a commotion breaks out a few cells away as a prisoner grabs a policeman who has got too close to the cells. The two lawmen escorting you and Bud promptly abandon you both to go and deal with the situation. Though handcuffed you both immediately take advantage of the situation and make a break for the unlocked front door of the Jail. Seeing what you are doing the lawmen shout in alarm and as you race down the street a shotgun blast suddenly fires behind you. The charge hits Bud in the back, nearly cutting him in half as he flies to the ground dead. You glance back and see a Deputy standing in the Jail doorway re-cocking his shotgun for another shot. An alleyway opens to your left and you could dart down that or you could keep going towards a horse tied to a hitching post a short way further down the street. > You dart down the alley You reach the alley and dart down it just as the lawman fires again, the shotgun pellets whistling harmlessly across the mouth of the alley behind you. Racing down the alley and then through a tangle of streets you manage to find an unguarded horse, steal it and ride out of Kansas City. You find a blacksmith who can remove your handcuffs and unnerved by your narrow escape you spend the next year in hiding in Kansas until in the summer of 1876 you get a letter from Jesse telling you the Gang is gathering in Otterville, Missouri. Reluctantly you return to your outlaw life.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Ok, I'm coming out," you call wearily and open the hotel door to find a pistol pointing at your face. You and Bud are promptly taken to the Kansas City Jail but as you are taken to a cell a commotion breaks out a few cells away as a prisoner grabs a policeman who has got too close to the cells. The two lawmen escorting you and Bud promptly abandon you both to go and deal with the situation. Though handcuffed you both immediately take advantage of the situation and make a break for the unlocked front door of the Jail. Seeing what you are doing the lawmen shout in alarm and as you race down the street a shotgun blast suddenly fires behind you. The charge hits Bud in the back, nearly cutting him in half as he flies to the ground dead. You glance back and see a Deputy standing in the Jail doorway re-cocking his shotgun for another shot. An alleyway opens to your left and you could dart down that or you could keep going towards a horse tied to a hitching post a short way further down the street. > You make for the horse You keep running down the street but the shotgun explodes into life behind you. Dozens of tiny razor-sharp pellets tear through your back and emerge out your chest, shredding your heart and other organs. The blast throws you down onto the street and kills you in an instant of oblivion, conclusively ending your attempt to escape justice.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You join Bud in going to Kansas City where you both check into a hotel and begin celebrating your success at the train robbery by frequenting local bars. Unfortunately one night Bud drinks too much and brags to some girls that he helped rob the Muncie Train, they promptly tell some local lawmen. That night you are woken by a fist slamming against your hotel door and a voice calls out "This is the law Bill Grey, come out with your hands up in ten seconds or we start shooting!" You spring from your bed and glance around the room, the only exit apart from the door is the window but you are on the first floor and could hurt yourself quite badly if you try jumping out. > You risk the jump Opening the window wide you slip your legs over the sill, brace yourself and slide down. You fall straight down fifteen feet and land in a crouching position, badly spraining your right wrist. Hissing in pain you spring to your feet as you hear your hotel door burst open above you and slip down an alleyway. Racing through the streets you find and steal a horse before riding out of town. A few days later when you are in another town you learn that Bud McDaniels was arrested and killed trying to escape. Your latest narrow escape has made you wary of fresh crimes for a while and you spend a year drifting around Kansas while your fellow gang members pull off more robberies and crimes. Finally in the summer of 1876 Jesse summons the whole gang together to meet in the little town of Otterville, Missouri to plan your most daring crimes yet.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>One winter's day you and your companions ride out to the train tracks near the town of Muncie. You start a fire right next to the tracks and hide in the trees: sure enough when the train comes down the line the driver sees the fire and stops the train. While Bob and Cole take the driver hostage you, Frank and Jesse board the Express Carriage and capture the messenger at gunpoint. Quickly emptying the contents of the safe into a sack you leave the train, all of you running back to where Bud and Clell are holding your horses. You ride a long distance from Muncie before you stop to count the money and when you do you discover you have really hit the jackpot big time: you have stolen $55,000 from the train, making your share a whopping $7,800. Everyone, especially Bud, are very happy but you know it is time to split up again. Frank, Jesse and Clell decide to hide out with friends near St Joseph, Missouri, Bud McDaniels declares he intends to rent a hotel room in Kansas City while Bob and Cole decide they are going down to Texas to stay with their old friend Bud's brother Tom McDaniels. You need to choose who to join. > You go with Bob and Cole to Texas You and your two friends go to Tom McDaniels's house where you lie low together with another friend of Tom's and a fellow war veteran called Tom Webb. You read in the papers that Bud McDaniels was recognized as a train robber in Kansas City and killed while trying to escape arrest. Bud is very sad to hear about the death of his brother. You are all soon joined by Frank, Jesse and Clell who have fled Missouri after killing two men including a Pinkerton Agent. You, Cole and the two Tom's have developed a plan to rob a bank in West Virginia which is far from your usual hunting areas and hopefully not as well protected. You explain the plan to the others but only Frank is keen, unusually Jesse, Bob and Clell think it is better that you lie low for the rest of the year and start robbing targets again next year. Finally only Frank, Cole, Tom McDaniels and Tom Webb agree to the idea while Jesse, Bob and Clell announce they are going to hide out in Missouri.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Riding into the town of Austin you and your companions make inquiries about the local stagecoach routes before heading south and hiding in some trees to waylay a coach on its route. The hold-up goes smoothly, the coach is stopped and the passengers forced to dismount before being stripped of their valuables. Mounting up your ride cross-country before catching a train and rejoining Frank and Cole at the McDaniels Farm. During the ride you count the loot to find you have stolen $3,000, making your share $500. The success of the robbery has encouraged Frank and Cole to join in fresh robberies and you soon have a new gang member in the form of Bud McDaniels, the cheerful life-long friend of the Younger family. Together you all plan a daring train robbery in Kansas but Bill and Charlie prefer to lay low this time and return to their hiding place at Charlie's farm as they are both enjoying the fact they haven't been identified as outlaws yet and have safety in their anonymity. You need to choose which group you join. > You join Bill and Charlie in hiding out at the Pitts's Farm You hide out with Bill Chadwell and Charlie Pitts at Charlie's farm, mostly staying in and around the property while the others do the chores of going into town for supplies and newspapers. You become reliant on the newspapers, reading avidly about the rest of the gang's crimes but rarely seeing your fellow outlaws until after two years you are starting to go stir-crazy. You persuade Bill and Charlie to join you in robbing a bank in the little town of Baxter Springs, Kansas. One spring morning you lead your companions into the little town of Baxter Springs and dismount outside the town bank. While Bill holds the horses you and Charlie walk into the bank, draw your pistols, take the lone teller hostage and loot the safe. After locking the teller inside you all ride out of town, traveling cross-country until you get to a safe place where you can count the money. You find that you have stolen $3,000, making your share $1,000 - not bad for a morning's work! You return to the Pitts Farm for a few months until a letter arrives from Jesse telling you that the Gang is gathering in Otterville, Missouri to plan it's most daring robberies yet!<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Hiding out at the Pitts Farm you feel confident of avoiding detection because though both you and Clell are well-known outlaws Bill Chadwell and Charlie Pitts have never been connected with any crime and you rely on those two to go into town for all your supplies and newspapers. You read how the James and Younger boys continue to pull robberies in Arkansas and Missouri but there are consequences: the Pinkerton Detective Agency is hired to bring you and your companions to justice. Frank and Jesse kill one Pinkerton Agent near their Farm but a second gunfight claims the lives of two more lawmen and John Younger near the Younger Farm, Jim Younger being the sole survivor. A letter arrives from Jesse telling you all to meet the rest of the gang in Texas and when you reunite the Gang is a grim bunch. All the remaining Younger Brothers are saddened by John's death with Jim openly blaming Frank and Jesse for getting him mixed up in robberies and swearing he wants nothing more to do with either of them and that he's going to California. Frank and Cole also think it's better that you all lie low for a time at the farm of their friend Bud McDaniels but not Jesse: he sees it as the best way to avenge John is to pull another robbery and the newer members of the gang, Clell, Charlie, Bill and Bob Younger all agree to join him in robbing a stagecoach here in Texas. You need to choose who you join. > You join Frank and Cole at the McDaniels Farm You stay at the McDaniels Farm and soon learn that the robbery of a stagecoach in Texas went off without a hitch when the rest of the gang (bar Jim Younger who is still in California) rejoin you at the McDaniels Farm. The success of the robbery has encouraged Frank and Cole to join in fresh robberies and you soon have a new gang member in the form of Bud McDaniels, the cheerful life-long friend of the Younger family. Together you all plan a daring train robbery in Kansas but Bill and Charlie prefer to lay low this time and return to their hiding place at Charlie's farm as they are both enjoying the fact they haven't been identified as outlaws yet and have safety in their anonymity. You need to choose which group you join.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Hiding out at the Pitts Farm you feel confident of avoiding detection because though both you and Clell are well-known outlaws Bill Chadwell and Charlie Pitts have never been connected with any crime and you rely on those two to go into town for all your supplies and newspapers. You read how the James and Younger boys continue to pull robberies in Arkansas and Missouri but there are consequences: the Pinkerton Detective Agency is hired to bring you and your companions to justice. Frank and Jesse kill one Pinkerton Agent near their Farm but a second gunfight claims the lives of two more lawmen and John Younger near the Younger Farm, Jim Younger being the sole survivor. A letter arrives from Jesse telling you all to meet the rest of the gang in Texas and when you reunite the Gang is a grim bunch. All the remaining Younger Brothers are saddened by John's death with Jim openly blaming Frank and Jesse for getting him mixed up in robberies and swearing he wants nothing more to do with either of them and that he's going to California. Frank and Cole also think it's better that you all lie low for a time at the farm of their friend Bud McDaniels but not Jesse: he sees it as the best way to avenge John is to pull another robbery and the newer members of the gang, Clell, Charlie, Bill and Bob Younger all agree to join him in robbing a stagecoach here in Texas. You need to choose who you join. > You go to California with Jim Younger You travel with Jim out to California where the pair of you purchase a cabin, a tract of land and live a quiet life as farmers for two years. You continue to read about your companions committing more crimes but continuing to elude capture. Finally a letter arrives from Bob urging you both to return to Missouri where the Gang are planning their most daring crimes yet. "We'll have to go," Jim says with a great sigh. "I'll never forgive myself if the law catches or kills Bob and Cole like it did with John and I'm not there to help them." Reluctantly the pair of you leave your peaceful lives in California and in the summer of 1876 you return to Missouri to return to the outlaw life.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Taking the hammer and the bar you pry up several rails and toss them to one side. You and the rest of the Gang then take cover in the trees near the track and wait for the train. When the train comes down the line you are astonished by how fast it is going. The driver sees the damage to the track and slams on the brakes but the train is going too fast: to your astonishment the locomotive shoots off the end of the broken line and crashes down onto it's side with an ear-splitting crash, as does the first passenger carriage. The noise is indescribable. The train has come to a complete halt with the front two carriages on their side and you and your deafened companions emerge stunned from the trees. While Bill, Charlie, Bob and Jim hold the horses and Jesse leads most of the rest towards the Express Carriage at the rear of the train you and Frank jog to the crashed locomotive and peer inside. The sight sickens you, the driver has been literally crushed to death and the fireman has been badly hurt, bleeding freely from his head. You are still shaken by the time you return to the woods and are rejoined by Jesse and the others. Mounting up you ride away from the train you have just wrecked and ride nonstop for several hours to get to safety. When you count the money you are disappointed to find the train was not carrying a lot, just $3,000 which is divided between the ten of you to make your share $300. Despite the small profits from this you know this brazen robbery will increase your already great fame and notoriety. Bill, Clell and Charlie are all a bit unnerved by the attention this crime will bring and decide they will all go and hide out at Charlie's farm in Missouri. Jesse, as usual, is delighted and indifferent to the fact the robbery has led to another death. He intends for himself, Frank, Bob, Cole, Jim and John (all the James and Younger brothers) to ride south into Arkansas to rob a stagecoach, another type of crime the Gang haven't committed before which Jesse hopes will lead to more fame. It is up to you whether or not you want to go into hiding or join in the crime spree. > You join Frank, Jesse, Bob, Cole, Jim and John in robbing a stagecoach in Arkansas Crossing the border into Arkansas you and your companions continue your crime spree by holding up a stagecoach one night outside the town of Hot Springs. After stopping the coach you all force the passengers to disembark at gunpoint and relieve them of their money and valuables. Escaping back across the border to Missouri you count the loot and find you have gotten away with $2,000, which split seven ways makes your share $200. Jesse now has plans to rob another train. > Another Train Job At a little community called Gad's Hill you, Frank and Jesse board the night train, having come up with a new way to stop the train. Making your way to the locomotive you draw your pistols, take the driver hostage and order him to stop the train where the four Younger brothers are waiting next to a fire. They board too and while you and Frank guard the driver Jesse leads them to the back of the train to rob the Express Carriage. This safe is quite full and when you have finished the robbery you all mount your horses and ride off, back across the Arkansas border knowing state law forces can't pursue you across state lines. Counting the money you find you have stolen an impressive $12,000, $1,700 of which is yours. But your crime spree is not finished yet. > Another Arkansas Hold-Up Keen to expand into new areas of criminal achievement Jesse has heard of a wealthy store owner in the little Arkansas town of Bentonville. Sure enough one evening you all ride into town and dismount outside, while the others hold the horses you and Cole enter the store and at gunpoint force the solitary owner to hand over the contents of the till. He might be wealthy by Bentonville standards but not by your standards, he hands over a paltry $200 which isn't large enough to warrant you getting a sizable share. Your unprecedented crime wave in Arkansas and Missouri has got the attention of the National Press and in Missouri you all read how the Pinkerton Detective Agency has been hired specifically to bring each and every member of the James-Younger Gang to justice. Though Jesse and Bob want to continue the crime spree the rest of you persuade them it is better that you all split up. Frank and Jesse decide to go back to the James Farm, Jim and John will go back to the Younger Farm while Cole and Bob decide to go and hide out at the Farm of their friend Bud McDaniels. You will have to pick one of these pairs to accompany. > You hide out with Frank and Jesse at the James Farm Riding with the James boys you soon get back to their Farm where you hide out for a time until one night there is a knock on the door. Frank and Jesse's mother Zerelda opens it and a young man steps in. He claims he is a worker looking for work in the area and heard there might be a place in the James Farm. Zerelda leads him into the kitchen where you and your companions are waiting. You can tell just by looking at him he isn't a common worker and has the look of an educated man. Frank draws his pistol, cocks it and points it at the man. "You are a Pinkerton Detective," he declares. "I would bet my life on it." The man vigorously denies this but a quick search of him reveals a pistol in his pocket and incriminating papers. The three of you march him out of the Farmhouse and across several fields, interrogating him the whole way. Finally when Jesse holds a knife to his throat the man breaks down and admits he is a Pinkerton Detective called Joseph Whicher. You and Jesse glance at each other. "What do you want to do with him?" you ask. "Shoot him," Jesse replies. You silently glance among yourselves deciding who will do it. > You take out your pistol and execute Whicher You walk up behind Whicher and shoot him in the back of the head. As he falls to the ground Jesse draws his pistol and shoots him twice more in the back. Frank kneels down to check that he is dead before nodding. "Let's go," Jesse mutters and returning to the Farm the three of you mount your horses and ride south to Texas. A week later you are shocked to read of another gunfight in the area: two more lawmen caught up with Jim and John and in a raging gun battle both lawmen and John Younger were killed. As Pinkerton Agents pour into Missouri to avenge their slain Detectives Jesse fires off a series of letters summoning the whole Gang to Texas. Cole, Bob and Jim are devastated by the death of their brother, particularly Jim who blames Frank and Jesse for getting John involved in robberies in the first place, swearing he wants nothing more to do with them and declaring he's going to California. Frank and Cole think it's better to lie low at their friend Bud McDaniels's farm but Jesse is certain the best way to avenge John's death is to rob a stagecoach here in Texas and the newer gang members, Clell, Bill Chadwell, Charlie Pitts and Bob Younger all agree to join him. You have to choose who to go with.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Riding with the James boys you soon get back to their Farm where you hide out for a time until one night there is a knock on the door. Frank and Jesse's mother Zerelda opens it and a young man steps in. He claims he is a worker looking for work in the area and heard there might be a place in the James Farm. Zerelda leads him into the kitchen where you and your companions are waiting. You can tell just by looking at him he isn't a common worker and has the look of an educated man. Frank draws his pistol, cocks it and points it at the man. "You are a Pinkerton Detective," he declares. "I would bet my life on it." The man vigorously denies this but a quick search of him reveals a pistol in his pocket and incriminating papers. The three of you march him out of the Farmhouse and across several fields, interrogating him the whole way. Finally when Jesse holds a knife to his throat the man breaks down and admits he is a Pinkerton Detective called Joseph Whicher. You and Jesse glance at each other. "What do you want to do with him?" you ask. "Shoot him," Jesse replies. You silently glance among yourselves deciding who will do it. > You leave it to Frank or Jesse to kill Whicher You are all silent for a moment and then Jesse walks up behind Whicher and shoots him in the back of the head. As he falls to the ground Jesse shoots him twice more in the back. Frank kneels down to check that he is dead before nodding. "Let's go," Jesse mutters and returning to the Farm the three of you mount your horses and ride south to Texas. A week later you are shocked to read of another gunfight in the area: two more lawmen caught up with Jim and John and in a raging gun battle both lawmen and John Younger were killed. As Pinkerton Agents pour into Missouri to avenge their slain Detectives Jesse fires off a series of letters summoning the whole Gang to Texas. Cole, Bob and Jim are devastated by the death of their brother, particularly Jim who blames Frank and Jesse for getting John involved in robberies in the first place, swearing he wants nothing more to do with them and declaring he's going to California. Frank and Cole think it's better to lie low at their friend Bud McDaniels's farm but Jesse is certain the best way to avenge John's death is to rob a stagecoach here in Texas and the newer gang members, Clell, Bill Chadwell, Charlie Pitts and Bob Younger all agree to join him. You have to choose who to go with.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Keen to expand into new areas of criminal achievement Jesse has heard of a wealthy store owner in the little Arkansas town of Bentonville. Sure enough one evening you all ride into town and dismount outside, while the others hold the horses you and Cole enter the store and at gunpoint force the solitary owner to hand over the contents of the till. He might be wealthy by Bentonville standards but not by your standards, he hands over a paltry $200 which isn't large enough to warrant you getting a sizable share. Your unprecedented crime wave in Arkansas and Missouri has got the attention of the National Press and in Missouri you all read how the Pinkerton Detective Agency has been hired specifically to bring each and every member of the James-Younger Gang to justice. Though Jesse and Bob want to continue the crime spree the rest of you persuade them it is better that you all split up. Frank and Jesse decide to go back to the James Farm, Jim and John will go back to the Younger Farm while Cole and Bob decide to go and hide out at the Farm of their friend Bud McDaniels. You will have to pick one of these pairs to accompany. > You hide out with Jim and John at the Younger Farm You and your two friends go into hiding at the Younger Farm for a time but one morning you read in the papers that Frank and Jesse have killed a Pinkerton Detective near their Farm and you decide you'd better leave. After traveling all night you are hiding out at a friend's farm where you hear men making inquiries about you to the farm's owner. After they leave John is keen to get after those men and find out who they are and you and Jim reluctantly agree. Riding down the road you see three men riding ahead of you. You and Jim draw your pistols and John pulls a shotgun from his saddle scabbard and all three of you shout for the men to halt. One reins in but the third gallops away for his life, with casual accuracy Jim fires a shot that knocks the hat off his head but leaves the man beneath it untouched. As he vanishes down the road the rest of you close in on the two that remain and order them to throw their guns onto the road which they do. While Jim dismounts and begins collecting up the pistols you and John start questioning the two men. They insist they are cattle buyers but when you accuse them of being Pinkerton Agents one of the men suddenly pulls a small pistol from his pocket and shoots John in the throat. Knocked backwards by the force of the shot John instinctively shoots the man in the chest with his shotgun. The wounded lawman turns his horse away from you all and Jim fires a shot at him, missing. The second, unhurt lawman, also turns his horse away as you raise your weapon. > You shoot him in the back of the head Your shot hits the man in the back of the head and he falls from his horse. While Jim runs over to check if he is alive John spurs his horse after the wounded lawmen and chases him straight across a field towards a copse of trees, dropping his shotgun as he goes and drawing a pistol which he fires at the man. You spur your horse after John and watch as he shoots the wounded lawman a second time knocking him from his horse. Exhausted and weakened from his injury Jim turns away without checking to see if the lawman is dead or not. > You spur your horse into the thicket to check if the lawman is dead You gallop your horse straight towards the thicket and as you do the lawman shakily rises from cover and fires a pistol shot at you. The bullet hits you squarely in the right eye, toppling you from your saddle and you lie insensible on the ground. You are the fourth victim of a gunfight that claimed the lives of the two lawmen and your fellow outlaw John Younger. Your famous last gunfight will become the stuff of Western Legend, though this is no consolation to you as you lie dead on the green fields of Missouri.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Your shot hits the man in the back of the head and he falls from his horse. While Jim runs over to check if he is alive John spurs his horse after the wounded lawmen and chases him straight across a field towards a copse of trees, dropping his shotgun as he goes and drawing a pistol which he fires at the man. You spur your horse after John and watch as he shoots the wounded lawman a second time knocking him from his horse. Exhausted and weakened from his injury Jim turns away without checking to see if the lawman is dead or not. > You approach cautiously with pistol ready You approach cautiously and as you do the badly-wounded lawman rises from cover to fire a shot at you. You fire first, hitting him in the chest for the third time and knocking him down, fatally wounded. Turning you spot your friend John reeling in his saddle nearby, blood pouring down his chest from his neck. As you ride towards him he suddenly topples to the ground. Reaching him you dismount and drop to your knees alongside him as his brother Jim runs up but it is too late. Your friend John is dead. Two farmer working in a nearby field witnessed the gunfight and run up. "See that my brother is buried right," Jim tells them, tears in his eyes, as he takes John's pistol from his motionless hand and you both run back to where you left your horses. Remounting you leave the two lawmen and John lying dead on the bloody field. Riding south you escape Missouri and eventually make it to Texas where you rejoin the rest of the Gang. Jim is inconsolable and blames Frank and Jesse for his brother's death, claiming they lured John into taking part in their robberies. Swearing he never wants to see them again he declares he is going to California. Frank and Cole also think it is a good idea to lie low at their friend Bud McDaniels's farm but not Jesse: he thinks the best way to avenge John is to rob a stagecoach here in Texas and the newer members of the gang, Clell, Bill Chadwell, Charlie Pitts and Bob Younger, agree with him. You have to choose who you will accompany.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You and your two friends go into hiding at the Younger Farm for a time but one morning you read in the papers that Frank and Jesse have killed a Pinkerton Detective near their Farm and you decide you'd better leave. After traveling all night you are hiding out at a friend's farm where you hear men making inquiries about you to the farm's owner. After they leave John is keen to get after those men and find out who they are and you and Jim reluctantly agree. Riding down the road you see three men riding ahead of you. You and Jim draw your pistols and John pulls a shotgun from his saddle scabbard and all three of you shout for the men to halt. One reins in but the third gallops away for his life, with casual accuracy Jim fires a shot that knocks the hat off his head but leaves the man beneath it untouched. As he vanishes down the road the rest of you close in on the two that remain and order them to throw their guns onto the road which they do. While Jim dismounts and begins collecting up the pistols you and John start questioning the two men. They insist they are cattle buyers but when you accuse them of being Pinkerton Agents one of the men suddenly pulls a small pistol from his pocket and shoots John in the throat. Knocked backwards by the force of the shot John instinctively shoots the man in the chest with his shotgun. The wounded lawman turns his horse away from you all and Jim fires a shot at him, missing. The second, unhurt lawman, also turns his horse away as you raise your weapon. > You check to see if John is alright You glance at John who seems to have recovered, as you do Jim raises his pistol and shoots the fleeing uninjured lawman in the back of the head. While Jim runs over to check if he is alive John spurs his horse after the wounded lawmen and chases him straight across a field towards a copse of trees, dropping his shotgun as he goes and drawing a pistol which he fires at the man. You spur your horse after John and watch as he shoots the wounded lawman a second time knocking him from his horse. Exhausted and weakened from his injury Jim turns away without checking to see if the lawman is dead or not.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Keen to expand into new areas of criminal achievement Jesse has heard of a wealthy store owner in the little Arkansas town of Bentonville. Sure enough one evening you all ride into town and dismount outside, while the others hold the horses you and Cole enter the store and at gunpoint force the solitary owner to hand over the contents of the till. He might be wealthy by Bentonville standards but not by your standards, he hands over a paltry $200 which isn't large enough to warrant you getting a sizable share. Your unprecedented crime wave in Arkansas and Missouri has got the attention of the National Press and in Missouri you all read how the Pinkerton Detective Agency has been hired specifically to bring each and every member of the James-Younger Gang to justice. Though Jesse and Bob want to continue the crime spree the rest of you persuade them it is better that you all split up. Frank and Jesse decide to go back to the James Farm, Jim and John will go back to the Younger Farm while Cole and Bob decide to go and hide out at the Farm of their friend Bud McDaniels. You will have to pick one of these pairs to accompany. > You hide out with Bob and Cole at the McDaniels Farm You and your friends hide out at the home of Bud McDaniels, who along with his brother Tom is a good friend of the Younger Family. There you read about the Pinkerton Detectives flooding into Missouri in search of you all. Frank and Jesse confront and kill one near their Farm, prompting you, Cole and Bob to flee south to Texas. You are still en route when you learn that two more lawmen have caught up with Jim and John and in a bloody gunfight both lawmen and John Younger are killed. Bob and Cole are devastated when you grimly report their brothers death to them. Reaching Texas you are soon joined by Frank and Jesse with the rest of the gang following soon after. Jim in particular is angry, blaming Frank and Jesse for John's death because they got him involved in robberies in the first place and he angrily swears he is going to California and wants nothing more to do with them. Frank and Cole also think it is better to lie low and hide out at Bud McDaniels's Farm but Jesse persuade the newer gang members Clell, Bill Chadwell, Charlie Pitts and Bob Younger that the best way to avenge John is to rob a stagecoach in Texas. Again you have to choose who to join.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>In the pre-dawn morning light you and the rest of the James-Younger Gang assemble outside the busy little town of Adair. Cole and John have brought along their brothers Jim and Bob to join in the robbery. Jim is a steady veteran who you fought alongside during the Civil War, though he seems reluctant to be involved in this robbery, Bob is a likable and reliable young man. You and Clell turn up with Charlie Pitts, a quiet but tough man who is another former Guerrilla. Frank and Jesse arrive with an extremely tall and chatty man called Bill Chadwell. Altogether there are ten of you, including the two James brothers and the four Younger brothers. Though you held up trains during the War you are all new to peacetime train robbery and you study the railroad trying to think of the best way to get the train to stop near your place of concealment. Predictably it is Jesse who has the idea of using a mental bar and a hammer to tear up the track, reasoning that the driver will see the broken line and halt the train alongside where you will be waiting with the horse. You all agree to the plan. "Who will tear up the track?" Cole asks and you all glance among yourselves. > You let someone else do it Jesse uses the hammer and iron bar to pry up several railway tracks. You and the rest of the Gang then take cover in the trees near the track and wait for the train. When the train comes down the line you are astonished by how fast it is going. The driver sees the damage to the track and slams on the brakes but the train is going too fast: to your astonishment the locomotive shoots off the end of the broken line and crashes down onto it's side with an ear-splitting crash, as does the first passenger carriage. The noise is indescribable. The train has come to a complete halt with the front two carriages on their side and you and your deafened companions emerge stunned from the trees. While Bill, Charlie, Bob and Jim hold the horses and Jesse leads most of the rest towards the Express Carriage at the rear of the train you and Frank jog to the crashed locomotive and peer inside. The sight sickens you, the driver has been literally crushed to death and the fireman has been badly hurt, bleeding freely from his head. You are still shaken by the time you return to the woods and are rejoined by Jesse and the others. Mounting up you ride away from the train you have just wrecked and ride nonstop for several hours to get to safety. When you count the money you are disappointed to find the train was not carrying a lot, just $3,000 which is divided between the ten of you to make your share $300. Despite the small profits from this you know this brazen robbery will increase your already great fame and notoriety. Bill, Clell and Charlie are all a bit unnerved by the attention this crime will bring and decide they will all go and hide out at Charlie's farm in Missouri. Jesse, as usual, is delighted and indifferent to the fact the robbery has led to another death. He intends for himself, Frank, Bob, Cole, Jim and John (all the James and Younger brothers) to ride south into Arkansas to rob a stagecoach, another type of crime the Gang haven't committed before which Jesse hopes will lead to more fame. It is up to you whether or not you want to go into hiding or join in the crime spree.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You fire a shot that hits one of the men in the hand. He yells in pain but a moment later the four customers have scrambled out the door leaving the three of you alone in the bank with the dead teller on the floor behind the counter. "Quickly, grab the money" you tell the others and moving fast you snatch up all the money you can find on the counter. In less than a minute you are back outside to find Frank, Clell and John firing their pistols into the air as you, Jesse and Cole scramble back onto your horses. A man runs out onto the street and fires a pistol at you, Jesse fires back. Both miss but Jesse's shot prompts the man to take cover and the six of you are able to spur your horses out of town and escape. Riding hard you do not stop until you are a long way from Columbia. When you pause to count the money you find you have escaped with less than $1,000, which makes your share $200. Frank is especially unhappy. "We're killing too many bank tellers Jesse," he tells his brother. "This will bring the law down on us." "Maybe we should lay off banks for a while," Jesse says thoughtfully and grins. "I have a mind to rob a ticket office at the Kansas City Exposition." After a quick discussion Cole and John both offer to join Jesse but Frank and Clell decide it is better to lay low - Frank is going back to the James Farm while Clell is going back to his own family's farm. You consider what is best to do. > You join Jesse, Cole and Frank in robbing the Kansas City Exposition After a few months hiding out you and your companions ride into Kansas City on the day of the Exposition and approach the ticket office. "Hand over the money box," Jesse tells the cashier and you all draw your pistols. The man obediently obeys and quickly the four of you start to ride away. The alarm is quickly raised and as the guards of the Exposition are alerted you and your friends start firing your guns into the air to clear the crowd. It works well and you are quickly clear and riding to safety. Jesse is delighted with the ease of the robbery and opening the cashier's money box you find you have made off with $1,000, which split between the four of you makes your share $200. The event is widely reported and to make sure the reports are correct Jesse sends his own letter to the newspapers describing the robbery. You are slightly worried when you learn that Clell has been arrested for the Columbia Bank Robbery but he is soon released when witnesses of the robbery fail to identify him, in high spirits you and the rest of the Gang gather in the spring of 1873 to plan your next robbery.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You fire a shot that hits one of the men in the hand. He yells in pain but a moment later the four customers have scrambled out the door leaving the three of you alone in the bank with the dead teller on the floor behind the counter. "Quickly, grab the money" you tell the others and moving fast you snatch up all the money you can find on the counter. In less than a minute you are back outside to find Frank, Clell and John firing their pistols into the air as you, Jesse and Cole scramble back onto your horses. A man runs out onto the street and fires a pistol at you, Jesse fires back. Both miss but Jesse's shot prompts the man to take cover and the six of you are able to spur your horses out of town and escape. Riding hard you do not stop until you are a long way from Columbia. When you pause to count the money you find you have escaped with less than $1,000, which makes your share $200. Frank is especially unhappy. "We're killing too many bank tellers Jesse," he tells his brother. "This will bring the law down on us." "Maybe we should lay off banks for a while," Jesse says thoughtfully and grins. "I have a mind to rob a ticket office at the Kansas City Exposition." After a quick discussion Cole and John both offer to join Jesse but Frank and Clell decide it is better to lay low - Frank is going back to the James Farm while Clell is going back to his own family's farm. You consider what is best to do. > You join Clell at the Miller Farm You and Clell hide out at the Miller Farm for a few months until one evening there is a knock on the door. Clell goes to answer it and you hear a voice declare "Clell Miller, you are under arrest." You are sitting in the kitchen and springing to your feet you raise to the back door. As you do you hear a voice yell halt and glancing back you see a Deputy Sheriff standing in the kitchen doorway pointing a pistol at you. You have to decide whether or not to surrender or keep running. > You surrender Unwilling to risk a bullet in the back you sigh and raise your hands. You and Clell are taken into custody and escorted to the local jail. There you find things aren't as bad as you fear: you and Clell are only charged with the armed robbery of the Columbia Bank. Even better when the four customers who were in the bank are brought to the jail to identify you they seem uncertain that you are the men who really robbed the bank. Thanks to their mistake you and Clell are released on bail due to the lack of evidence and you both promptly go on the run. Pleased at your lucky break you meet up with the rest of the gang in the spring of 1873.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You and Clell hide out at the Miller Farm for a few months until one evening there is a knock on the door. Clell goes to answer it and you hear a voice declare "Clell Miller, you are under arrest." You are sitting in the kitchen and springing to your feet you raise to the back door. As you do you hear a voice yell halt and glancing back you see a Deputy Sheriff standing in the kitchen doorway pointing a pistol at you. You have to decide whether or not to surrender or keep running. > You keep running Taking a risk you dart out the door, promptly turn right and spring around the side of Clell's farmhouse. The Deputy tries to pursue you but you lose him in the dark and escape through the tangle of trees that surrounds Clell's home. Making it to safety you read more good news in the papers: after being arrested and charged with the Columbia robbery Clell was released when witnesses failed to identify him as one of the robbers. Pleased at your success you and the rest of the gang reunite the following spring.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You shoot the cashier in the chest and he staggers back, blood spreading across his shirt front. Jesse and Cole shoot him as well and the cashier falls dead to the ground. Instantly the four customers spring to their feet and start running for the door. "Stop them," Jesse yells. > You let someone else deal with them and focus on getting all the money you can You move towards the counter and as you do Cole fires a shot that hits one of the men in the hand. He yells in pain but a moment later the four customers have scrambled out the door leaving the three of you alone in the bank with the dead teller on the floor behind the counter. "Quickly, grab the money" you tell the others and moving fast you snatch up all the money you can find on the counter. In less than a minute you are back outside to find Frank, Clell and John firing their pistols into the air as you, Jesse and Cole scramble back onto your horses. A man runs out onto the street and fires a pistol at you, Jesse fires back. Both miss but Jesse's shot prompts the man to take cover and the six of you are able to spur your horses out of town and escape. Riding hard you do not stop until you are a long way from Columbia. When you pause to count the money you find you have escaped with less than $1,000, which makes your share $200. Frank is especially unhappy. "We're killing too many bank tellers Jesse," he tells his brother. "This will bring the law down on us." "Maybe we should lay off banks for a while," Jesse says thoughtfully and grins. "I have a mind to rob a ticket office at the Kansas City Exposition." After a quick discussion Cole and John both offer to join Jesse but Frank and Clell decide it is better to lay low - Frank is going back to the James Farm while Clell is going back to his own family's farm. You consider what is best to do.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>As you have done so many times you and your companions ride into a small town early one morning. While Frank, Clell and John hold the horses outside you lead Jesse and Cole into the bank. Inside four customers are sitting at a table talking while one smiling cashier waits behind the counter. The three of you walk up to the counter and draw your pistols. "Consider yourself under arrest," Cole says cheerfully. To your amazement the cashier begins shouting "Bank Robbers! Bank Robbers!" at the top of his voice. "Shut up man or I'll kill you," you yell at him but the cashier keeps shouting warnings at the top of his voice. > You keep yelling at him to be quiet You keep shouting at the teller but he continues to shout at the top of his lungs. A moment later Jesse and Cole both shoot him and the cashier falls dead to the ground. Instantly the four customers spring to their feet and start running for the door. "Stop them," Jesse yells.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Your bullet hits the teller in the head, blasting a circle of red blood and gore onto the wall behind him. As the teller slumps dead in his chair Frank and Jesse fire more bullets into him. The customer screams "Murder!" and starts running past the three of you towards the door to the bank. "Shoot him," Jesse yells. > You let him go Frank fires a shot that hits the man in the back of the right arm but he keeps on running and makes it through the door and out onto the street. "Quickly boys, get the money," you call out and moving quickly you, Frank and Jesse scoop up all the money you can find from the counter, which comes to several hundred dollars. Unwilling to spend time pillaging the vault you all run outside and begin mounting your horses but the alarm has already been raised a a few citizens are taking pot shots at you with pistols from teh shelter of a gun store. When a bullet nicks it Jesse's horse rears up in terror, spilling it's rider to the ground before running off. "Get up behind me Jesse," Frank yells and while you fire your pistol at the gun store, trying to cover them, Jesse awkwardly scrambles up behind Frank. The three of you ride out of town on two horses, not stopping for several hours until you reach the safety of the James Farm. There you find you have escaped with less than $700, making your share a paltry $200. There is worse news to follow however. The next morning Frank returns to the Farm with a paper. "It wasn't Colonel Cox who we killed in Gallatin," he declares. "It was some bank clerk called John Sheets. They know it was us as well, we've all been identified by name. We'd better clear out." Leaving the James Farm the three of you go traveling for a year to wait for the attention to die down before returning to Missouri in the summer of 1871 and arranging a meeting with Cole Younger at the home of your mutual friend Clell Miller. Despite the loss of John, George and Ol you are all determined to continue your robberies.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You join the James brothers at their farm where you live quietly for a few weeks until one morning Frank returns from town with a newspaper and a grim expression. "Yankee lawmen killed John and Ol," he says tersely. "George is in prison charged with bank robbery." You and Jesse crowd round to read how your three companions were identified as participants in the Russellville robbery and were tracked to their homes by lawmen. George later receives a three year prison sentence for his part in the robbery. Despite the loss of three of your companions Jesse is eager for the three of you to rob a bank and after a year and a half when you feel it is safe you make a plan to rob the little bank in the town of Gallatin, Missouri. Riding into town one winter's morning you leave your horses tied up outside and walk inside to find a single teller talking to a customer. The teller looks oddly familiar to you and you can't figure out where you have seen him from until Jesse pulls you and Frank to one side. "Isn't that Colonel Cox?" Jesse asks quietly. "That Yankee Colonel who killed Bill Anderson during the War? I heard he lived in Gallatin." The three of you study the teller closely. You now remember Cox well from his picture in the newspapers, he led an ambush that killed several of your friends including your former leader Bloody Bill Anderson. The teller does indeed look exactly like him and Frank agrees quietly. "Let's kill him," he mutters. Approaching the bank counter the three of you draw your pistols from your pockets. The customer backs away and the teller looks up startled. > You hold your fire You pause but Jesse shoots the man in the head, blasting his brains out onto the wall behind him. As the teller slumps dead in his chair Frank and Jesse fire more bullets into him. The customer screams "Murder!" and starts running past the three of you towards the door to the bank. "Shoot him," Jesse yells.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Raising your pistol you fire back: your shot hits the man on the side, spins him on the spot and he falls to the ground. Turning your horse you spur after your companions and moments later you are out of town and riding across the countryside. You ride hard until you are back across the border in Missouri and there you pause in a copse of trees to count the money you have stolen: you are all pleased to discover it comes to $12,000, which split seven ways makes your share $1,700, which has been added to your Score. "We need to all split up now to make it harder for the Law to track us," John declares. "Jesse and I will go back to our Farm and hide out there," Frank declares. "I'll go with George and Ol back to their Farm to hide out," John decides. "My brother John has just got a job at his friend Tom McDaniel's Farm near the town of Scyene down in Texas," Cole says thoughtfully. "I'll go down there for a bit to lie low." You consider who to hide out with. > You go with John, George and Ol to the Shepherd Farm The four of you arrive at the Shepherd Farm where you hide out for a time until, less than two weeks after the Russellville Robbery John returns to the Farm with a bombshell: all four of you have been identified as participants in the Russellville Robbery and warrants have been issued for your arrests. "We need to split up again," John declares. "I'm going back to my farm, you stay here Ol. George, you go and hide out at the Miller Farm. Who do you want to go with Bill?" You consider who would be best to hide out with and where you consider safest. > You go with John to the Jarette Farm You and John go to his Farmhouse where you are the only residents and for a few days you live in peace. One night you are woken by an alarming crackling sound and springing from your bed you see smoke filling the house. A glance through the windows shows dozens of men outside armed with all sorts of weapons from guns to pitchforks. Grabbing your pistol you rush out of your room in your underclothes to encounter John similarly prepared. "The house is on fire and we're surrounded by vigilantes," John declares. "We'll have to make a break for it." There is only one door into the farmhouse and no windows so John approaches it carefully, a pistol in each hand and prepares to charge out guns blazing. As he does so you glance at the chimney and the thought strikes you that if you can somehow squirm up there you might be able to drop down from the roof and escape, though if you get stuck you'll probably be burnt alive. > You follow John out the main entrance The pair of you throw open the front door and race out into the night as flames engulf the house. As you start running a voice shouts "Death to the bank robbers" and gunshots ring out. John jerks like a marionette as bullet after bullet tears through his body and he topples to the ground. You make it a few more feet until a shotgun explodes into life directly in front of you, hitting you in the centre of the chest and hurling you back onto the ground. As you struggle to rise more pistol and rifle bullets hit you and like John you die in a rain of bullets, killed by vigilantes on this bloody night.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You and John go to his Farmhouse where you are the only residents and for a few days you live in peace. One night you are woken by an alarming crackling sound and springing from your bed you see smoke filling the house. A glance through the windows shows dozens of men outside armed with all sorts of weapons from guns to pitchforks. Grabbing your pistol you rush out of your room in your underclothes to encounter John similarly prepared. "The house is on fire and we're surrounded by vigilantes," John declares. "We'll have to make a break for it." There is only one door into the farmhouse and no windows so John approaches it carefully, a pistol in each hand and prepares to charge out guns blazing. As he does so you glance at the chimney and the thought strikes you that if you can somehow squirm up there you might be able to drop down from the roof and escape, though if you get stuck you'll probably be burnt alive. > You risk the chimney Squirming awkwardly up the chimney you shimmy yourself up the narrow chimney shaft. Outside you hear shouts and dozens of gunshots but focus on ignoring the intense heat and making it up the chimney. Finally you burst out into the cold night air of the roof. Approaching the edge of the roof cautiously you glance down to see John lying dead in a pool of blood just in front of his house. There is a shout as a vigilante spots you and points at you. Turning you race across the roof as vigilantes fire at the spot where you were seen and with a flying leap you jump off the back of the roof, fortunately landing on one of the few snow mounds to have escaped destruction from the spring sun. Scrambling up you race through the trees that surround John's farmhouse and make your escape through the forest. After an all-night journey you manage to make it to a friend's house and safety. In the morning you buy a newspaper and read about a series of raids carried out against you and your companions. Ol Shepherd is dead too, killed by lawmen while resisting arrest. George has been arrested and charged with bank robbery. After a short trial he is found guilty and given a short prison sentence. For the next three years you move around Missouri, never staying in one place for too long until finally in the spring of 1871 you re-establish contact with Cole Younger and Frank and Jesse James and arrange to meet at the farm of your mutual friend Clell Miller. Though the gang has lost three of its members you are determined to continue your bank-robbing career.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The four of you arrive at the Shepherd Farm where you hide out for a time until, less than two weeks after the Russellville Robbery John returns to the Farm with a bombshell: all four of you have been identified as participants in the Russellville Robbery and warrants have been issued for your arrests. "We need to split up again," John declares. "I'm going back to my farm, you stay here Ol. George, you go and hide out at the Miller Farm. Who do you want to go with Bill?" You consider who would be best to hide out with and where you consider safest. > You go with George to the Miller Farm You and George set off towards the Miller Farm but you never get there. One evening you reach the little town of St Joseph and as you are trotting your horses down the street two lawmen armed with rifles emerge from an alleyway to your right. "Hold up your hands men, you are under arrest!" one calls out. George immediately raises both his hands but the thought crosses your mind that rather than surrender you could lean down your horse's left flank and try to spur it into a gallop for safety. That would be far more dangerous than just surrendering however. > You surrender Slowly you raise your hands and allow the lawmen to take you into custody. You and George are swiftly imprisoned and put down for an early trial, around the same time both John and Ol are shot and killed while trying to escape arrest. Your trial is a simple affair: you and George are both found guilty of armed robbery and both receive a fairly lenient sentence of three years imprisonment. You serve your time and when you are both released George decides he is done with crime and is ready to go straight. You have no such intention and immediately arrange to meet Cole Younger, Frank and Jesse James at the farm of your mutual friend Clell Miller to resume your outlaw career.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You and George set off towards the Miller Farm but you never get there. One evening you reach the little town of St Joseph and as you are trotting your horses down the street two lawmen armed with rifles emerge from an alleyway to your right. "Hold up your hands men, you are under arrest!" one calls out. George immediately raises both his hands but the thought crosses your mind that rather than surrender you could lean down your horse's left flank and try to spur it into a gallop for safety. That would be far more dangerous than just surrendering however. > You try riding to safety You start to raise your arms and then suddenly yell out "Fuck you, you sons of bitches!" Leaning down in your saddle to try to keep your horse's body between yourself and them you dig your spurs in so deep they draw blood. With a scream your horse bolts, the lawmen fire a few pistol shots which zip overhead but within seconds your horse has carried you down the street, out of town and across the prairie leaving the startled lawmen with their prisoner. Riding your unhappy horse all night you reach safety and over the next few days learn what has transpired. In a series of raids lawmen and vigilantes have killed Ol and John and captured George, who gets a short prison sentence. For the next few years you live a wondering assistance, moving around Missouri and other states to avoid detection. Finally, in the spring of 1871, you renew contract with Cole Younger and Frank and Jesse James and arrange a meeting at the home of your mutual friend Clell Miller. Despite the loss of three of your companions you are ready to resume your career in banditry.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The four of you arrive at the Shepherd Farm where you hide out for a time until, less than two weeks after the Russellville Robbery John returns to the Farm with a bombshell: all four of you have been identified as participants in the Russellville Robbery and warrants have been issued for your arrests. "We need to split up again," John declares. "I'm going back to my farm, you stay here Ol. George, you go and hide out at the Miller Farm. Who do you want to go with Bill?" You consider who would be best to hide out with and where you consider safest. > You stay with Ol at the Shepherd Farm You stay with Ol hiding out at the Shepherd Ranch while the other two clear out and for three days all is peaceful. One morning you hear a knock on the front door and you hear Ol go and open it. "Hello Ol," a voice says. "I am Detective Bligh, this is Detective Gallagher and you are under arrest." There is a bang and a yell that sounds very much as though Ol has just hit someone with the door and then Ol bolts into the kitchen and races for the back door, pulling a pistol from his pocket as he goes. You have two swift choices to make, you can either follow Ol out the back door or run through a door that leads to a bedroom. From the bedroom a second door opens into the hall and you might be able to slip back through the front door as the Detectives run through, though the plan is a risky one. > You follow Ol out the back door You follow Ol out the back door and spring across the yard outside towards the safety of some trees, pulling your pistol from your pocket as you run. The two Detectives follow you both outside and begin shooting, Ol goes down first with a bullet in his back. A second later you are hit in the back of your head and your world ends in an explosion of light followed by endless darkness. Both you and Ol are cut down and killed in a series of raids that also bring John and George's careers in banditry to an end.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You stay with Ol hiding out at the Shepherd Ranch while the other two clear out and for three days all is peaceful. One morning you hear a knock on the front door and you hear Ol go and open it. "Hello Ol," a voice says. "I am Detective Bligh, this is Detective Gallagher and you are under arrest." There is a bang and a yell that sounds very much as though Ol has just hit someone with the door and then Ol bolts into the kitchen and races for the back door, pulling a pistol from his pocket as he goes. You have two swift choices to make, you can either follow Ol out the back door or run through a door that leads to a bedroom. From the bedroom a second door opens into the hall and you might be able to slip back through the front door as the Detectives run through, though the plan is a risky one. > You run into the bedroom and try to circle round to slip out the front door You dart through into the bedroom and moving as swiftly and silently as you can you circle round to the hall door. As you expected both Detectives run straight through the kitchen and out the back door where they begin shooting at the fleeing Ol. You take your chance, dart out the front door and immediately make a left to the safety of some nearby trees. Fleeing through the thickets on foot you make it to the farm of a friend several hours later. Over the next few days you learn what has happened: Ol was indeed shot dead while trying to run away while John was also killed and George arrested in a series of raids (George later receives a short jail sentence for armed robbery). Shaken by your narrow escape you spend the next three years moving around Missouri and generally lying low until you finally get back in touch with Frank and Jesse James and Cole Younger and arrange a meeting at the home of your mutual friend Clell Miller to return to your chosen profession of robbing banks.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Raising your pistol you fire back: your shot hits the man on the side, spins him on the spot and he falls to the ground. Turning your horse you spur after your companions and moments later you are out of town and riding across the countryside. You ride hard until you are back across the border in Missouri and there you pause in a copse of trees to count the money you have stolen: you are all pleased to discover it comes to $12,000, which split seven ways makes your share $1,700, which has been added to your Score. "We need to all split up now to make it harder for the Law to track us," John declares. "Jesse and I will go back to our Farm and hide out there," Frank declares. "I'll go with George and Ol back to their Farm to hide out," John decides. "My brother John has just got a job at his friend Tom McDaniel's Farm near the town of Scyene down in Texas," Cole says thoughtfully. "I'll go down there for a bit to lie low." You consider who to hide out with. > You go with Cole down to Texas You travel south with Cole to Texas and join his brother John and John's employer Tom McDaniels at McDaniels's Ranch. You are in Texas when you learn that in a series of raids in Missouri your friends John Jarette and Ol Shepherd have been killed and George Shepherd has been arrested and imprisoned after they were identified as Russellville Bank Robbers. Fearing he'll be identified to Cole goes to California to join another brother Jim but you like Texas so you stay on with John and Tom for a few years. Nearly three years after the Russellville robbery you, John and Tom go into the local town of Scyene to have a few drinks in a bar. John drinks more than you two and begins boasting he is an excellent shot and can hit any target. To demonstrate this he pulls out his pistol and shoots the smoking pipe out of the mouth of an old man who is sitting at a nearby table. The very frightened man leaves the bar and initially you think nothing of it. The next morning after spending the night in town the three of you go down to the local stable to collect your horses and ride back to Tom's ranch. While you are in the stables two Deputy Sheriffs walk in and approach the three of you with pistols in their hands. "John Younger?" one of them asks. "We have had a complaint of attempted murder lodged against you and we need to take you into custody. Please hand over your weapons." "Certainly officers," John says pleasantly, drawing his pistol from his pocket. He is still smiling when he shoots the lawman in the chest. There is a moment of stunned silence and then all five of you draw your weapons. The wounded officer fires back at John, his shot creasing his hip while the other officer aims at you. > You fire at the man aiming at you You fire at the lawman, by luck or skill you shoot him through the heart and without a sound he falls to the ground, his pistol discharging as it hits the ground though the bullet goes wide. John has shot the lawman who wounded him again and the man has sunk to his knees, though he is still trying to raise his gun arm from the ground to fire at John again. John's gun clicks on a faulty cartridge and there is a risk the badly-injured lawman might shoot him. > You ride your horse up and shoot the wounded lawman in the head Your shot hits the wounded lawman in the side of the head and he falls to the ground where he lies still. An ominous silence descends on the stables as the three of you stare down at the bodies of the two Deputy Sheriffs whom you have just murdered. Tom, who hasn't moved since he drew his pistol, is shaking. "We need to get out of here," John mutters as blood drips from his hip and through his fingers and spurring your horses out of the stable you rapidly clear out of Scyene. You pause briefly to collect your things from the McDaniels Ranch before riding on while Tom clears out to other parts. In Missouri you and John split up: John goes back to the Younger Ranch to see his brother Bob and recover from his injury. Meanwhile you get back in touch with Cole and Frank and Jesse James and arrange a meeting with them at the home of your mutual friend Clell Miller. Your role in the murder of the two lawmen in Texas has put your name firmly back on Missouri's list of wanted men so you figure it's time for you to get back to robbing banks and making some money!<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You fire at the lawman, by luck or skill you shoot him through the heart and without a sound he falls to the ground, his pistol discharging as it hits the ground though the bullet goes wide. John has shot the lawman who wounded him again and the man has sunk to his knees, though he is still trying to raise his gun arm from the ground to fire at John again. John's gun clicks on a faulty cartridge and there is a risk the badly-injured lawman might shoot him. > You let John deal with the mess he has made John raises his pistol, shoots the wounded lawman in the side of the head and he topples to the ground where he lies still. An ominous silence descends on the stables as the three of you stare down at the bodies of the two Deputy Sheriffs whom you have just murdered. Tom, who hasn't moved since he drew his pistol, is shaking. "We need to get out of here," John mutters as blood drips from his hip and through his fingers and spurring your horses out of the stable you rapidly clear out of Scyene. You pause briefly to collect your things from the McDaniels Ranch before riding on while Tom clears out to other parts. In Missouri you and John split up: John goes back to the Younger Ranch to see his brother Bob and recover from his injury. Meanwhile you get back in touch with Cole and Frank and Jesse James and arrange a meeting with them at the home of your mutual friend Clell Miller. Your role in the murder of the two lawmen in Texas has put your name firmly back on Missouri's list of wanted men so you figure it's time for you to get back to robbing banks and making some money!<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You travel south with Cole to Texas and join his brother John and John's employer Tom McDaniels at McDaniels's Ranch. You are in Texas when you learn that in a series of raids in Missouri your friends John Jarette and Ol Shepherd have been killed and George Shepherd has been arrested and imprisoned after they were identified as Russellville Bank Robbers. Fearing he'll be identified to Cole goes to California to join another brother Jim but you like Texas so you stay on with John and Tom for a few years. Nearly three years after the Russellville robbery you, John and Tom go into the local town of Scyene to have a few drinks in a bar. John drinks more than you two and begins boasting he is an excellent shot and can hit any target. To demonstrate this he pulls out his pistol and shoots the smoking pipe out of the mouth of an old man who is sitting at a nearby table. The very frightened man leaves the bar and initially you think nothing of it. The next morning after spending the night in town the three of you go down to the local stable to collect your horses and ride back to Tom's ranch. While you are in the stables two Deputy Sheriffs walk in and approach the three of you with pistols in their hands. "John Younger?" one of them asks. "We have had a complaint of attempted murder lodged against you and we need to take you into custody. Please hand over your weapons." "Certainly officers," John says pleasantly, drawing his pistol from his pocket. He is still smiling when he shoots the lawman in the chest. There is a moment of stunned silence and then all five of you draw your weapons. The wounded officer fires back at John, his shot creasing his hip while the other officer aims at you. > You raise your hands to show him you mean no harm You raise your hands but to your amazement and fury the lawman points his pistol at you and fires, hitting you in the left side. As pain shoots through your chest you cry out in anger and lower your pistol but seeing what is happening John has already turned and shot the lawman who wounded you in the side of the head. As the lawman falls dead to the ground John turns back to the lawman who shot him and squeezes the trigger again, hitting him in the chest. As the lawman sinks to his knees on the ground he tries to raise his gun arm but when John tries to shoot him a third time he revolver clicks on a faulty cartridge.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You get up to the morning breeze blowing through the window. The start of summer is upon the villiage of Aravon. You, unlike most people of the village, have a dragon. Redscale has been in your care for several years now. You came upon him as hatchling when he was being attacked by a wild boar. Your long bow you had killed the giant boar in a single shot. You were ready for the dragon when you realized that he was no more than a baby. You took him to your house. That was a wise choice. You no longer have to worry of robbery. You two been best of friends since that faithful day. Dragons in this land are common. They vary in size depending their age. Not many hang around humans because of their past war with dragons. The two races had disagreements that when one king went too far war was declared by dragons. It ruined may kingdoms and the caves of dragons. Until the war exhausted both of them they settled on leaving each other alone. Though some humans found ways to work with them. Together they built houses, discovered new medicine, and worked to get a better understanding of the world. Normally he'd be outside hunting around the time you get up. So you go outside to see the flowers bloom and a humid smell in the air. Clouds were in the sky. It might start to rain. Better get a coat just in case, you think. You live a hundred meters from Aravon. Near the edge of a great forest known as Valkar Forest. You get a coat and head out. You get an axe. You go to start chop some wood for a fire when a blinding flash of light beams up in front of you. A snarling wolf demon appears and stares at you. Demons have appeared when the dragon war was ended by the humans that wanted power. Though the Royal Court of Varon put an end to it. Or most of it. All you have to defend yourself is a axe for cutting wood. You have your bow and sword inside. Still you prepare for battle. "Don't bother to fight me Human." it sneers at you. "You think you can kill me with an axe. I wouldn't try." You stare at the beast, focused and concentrated. You were taught to stay calm at all times. "What do you want demon?" "To talk to you about your pet dragon." It replies. "We caught him." You stand there. How could they catch him? Who would want to mess with you two? " Where is he? "I'll find him and kill whoever did this." you say. " Go to Igor's tower and you'll find whom you seek." He disappears in flames leaving you there to think how this could've happened. And why would they just tell you that they took Redscale? It doesn't make sense. You don't have enough time to think about the situation you're in. You'll have to resolve it and fast. > You get Supplies You return to your house to prepare for your journey. Whoever did this has to be very powerful to stop a big dragon like Redscale. You grab your weapons: a sword and longbow. You grab a bag full of coins differing in value. You make a list for what you need: a horse, food, and quiver of arrows. You look around for anything else you may need. You see nothing and start to move toward Aravon. You arrive to see several single storied. You head to the local butcher. He was a rather large man. He goes by the name of Scar. Noone in the village ever found out why he calls himself that. He was skinning a whitetail deer when you entered his house. "Need something?." Scar asked.You sigh. "I need some meat. Why else would I come here?" He gets up and looks at you. "Come" was all he said. He says nothing to you as you buy the meat you need for your trip. You head to the blacksmith who is known to have quivers of arrows. You enter his workshop to a smell of smoke. You never hunted for any animal because Redscale would hunt for you two, so you never really had any need for arrows. You see the blacksmith hammering a cherry red sword that had to be recently made. You say,"Sir, I have come in need of some arrows." He continues to hammer until its shape is correct. He puts it into a barrel of water and looks at you. "Sure, you need some for a trip. I'll get you a quiver of usable arrows." He returns with your quiver and you pay. "Thanks." is all you say is before you leave. You head toward the local stable that sells horses. You are looking for a palfrey or known as a riding horse. You see a chocolate colored horse that looks as it was never used. You walk to the stable keeper. "I want that one." You point at the palfrey. "Well Mister, its one of my finer ones. You have 100 gold pounds with you?" He asked. You sigh. Why is every stable keeper here a rip off, you think. You reluctently give him the amount. You leave with your new companion. You give him the name Amin, the Honest horse. You ride Amin to your house. You know Redscale went to Valkor Forest to hunt, so that is the direction you are heading in. > You head for Valkor Forest You are in the forest. Animals scurry around you. A bridge is about 50 yards before you are stopped by two warriors. They come in front of you. The wierd thing is no battle horses. They bear the symbol of Varon: the king's knights. "Halt." one of them says. You bring Amin to a stop. He snorts nervously. "Why are you in the forest, young one?" he asked. "I am but a simple peasant." you reply. "Somehow I doubt that," The other one says, " you would not have weapons like that." "Gotta protect myself." you say cautiously. You have uneasy feeling about these two. You look at the armor. You look at all the details and see nothing, but you see a sword mark by the heart. You now know what happened. These two must have ambushed a pair of battle-weary knights. By the look of the aromor they tried to fix it, but could not repair the heart wound. "You two aren't knights! You're bandits!!!" you yell. "Your smarter than you look. The master misread your intelligence. Though we're not bandits, We'Re DeMoNs." No more words are to be exchanged. These two are of the same demon that told you that Redscale was gone. These wolf demons must be killed. You can use your blade or take them out with your bow > You use Sword You shoot your blade out of its scabbard with lightning fast reflexes. You were star pupil of world reknowned swordmaster Quon. As they pounced you slashed one deeply into the shoulder. It dropped to the ground howling in pain while holding his shoulder. The other one leaped on top of you and knocking you to the ground. You drop your sword and it slides away from your reach. Damn. you think as you hit the ground. You see a claw come at you to cut you. You grab the arm as its in mid swing and use your leg to kick him. That stuns him for a second and goes to grab your fallen sword. You get up to your knees to see him try to cut your head off. You duck and give him a leg sweep to try get him down. It works. He drops the sword and holds the back of his leg. You get up and pick up your sword. You limp over and look down in disgust. "You should've left me alone. Your action will cost you your life." You raise your sword and cut his head off. He's done. You walk over to the wounded one and say, "Whoever is your master is as good as dead. I'll spare you to tell him that he better realease Redscale or he's doomed." You remount Amin and go across the bridge. You know that there's two villages on two crossroads. You come up to one, but the road to Seri is blocked by collapsed trees. Looks like Xias is the only one. > You xias Xias is little less than a city. You head on the crossroad leading toward it. People are running around you trying to go somewhere or get something. You get people to look at you. They step back from you. They're afraid of me, you think as Amin walks across a busy street. You make your way to the local inn for any rumors that may help. The innkeeper is a rather bulky figure. Stories are told of how he trained in the military. He goes by the name of Io. He asks you if you wanted some coffee. Io asked,"What makes you visit these parts stranger? Not as many folks come in here as the used to." "I'm looking for a certain wizard who has captured a close friend of mine." you reply. You don't want to get too detailed. You hear the front door open to see a person come in with a cloak. The person heads to a croner and sits down. You're curious on who it is. Your curiosity was shattered by another person at the door come in. This was an angry group of men wielding swords and other kinds of weapons. A tall man, you presume to be their leader, steps up and shouts, "Where is SHE! There you are you wrench!!" They head over to the cloaked figure in the corner. You see them pull the hood down. A female sat there. Knowing that, you stand up and draw your own sword. "You should leave her alone if I were you." you tell him. The leader turns and whispers to two of his men. They come at you with a axe and club. You let them attack you first. The axeman swings the axe at your head. You duck and bring an uppercut to his chin that sends him staggering to the group. The man with the club tries to hit you in the head. It connects and sends you flying to the ground dazed and confused. Looks like I failed my quest. Forgive me Redscale, you think. For a moment there you think you felt a far sense of disappointment from somewhere. Then the woman leaps at the others with a concealed dagger. Within a few seconds, half the men that entered were on the ground, dead or wounded. The man raises the club for the final blow when a dagger thrusts through his heart. You see the woman standing over you, her hand reaching out at you. You grab it and she pulls you to your feet. When you got up you got a better look at her. Brown hair that flowed down her back. Blue eyes that shone with a life energy that you"ve never seen before in someone. She looks over your shoulder and her eyes widen. "Come" is all she says. She dashes up the stairs of the inn and disappears. You head up the stairs to see her in a room motioning for you to come in. you go in and she says, "Help me." She's trying to barricade the door with the bed. You go over and out the corner of your eye you see a chair. "Let's jam the chair in the doorknob." you yell. She grabs the chair and jams it under the doorknob. Pounding on the door starts and you know men are trying to break in. Fear is swelling inside your body. "OPEN THIS DOOR!!!" someone outside the door yells. You start to get angry and your fear is gone. "Like that's gonna happen," you yell back. The pounding is harder now. "Explain later. What now?" you say to your supposed ally. She gives you a grin that makes chills go down you back. "We jump." she responds. "Where?" you ask. She points at a window behind you. Oh boy, you think. > You jump You open the window to see a cart of hay below. "Well." you hear her voice behind you. Better to jump than fight in my condition. Well, here I go, you say to yourself. You jump and land in the cart of hay below. You see her jump in to the cart nearly before you got out. "What now?" She looks at you in a funny way. "We go to the stable." She responds. We get to the stable to see Amin and another horse. It was a dark black. She mounts the horse. "Do you have a horse?" She asks. You nod and point at Amin who snorts. "Nice. Let's go." You mount Amin and we head toward the gate. You see some men with bows at the gate wall with bows pointed at your companion and you. judging by the distance you estimate a hundred yards. An arrow shoots by your head. Apparently these archers are expert shooters. "Don't shoot." She says. You look at her in worry. "Why?" you ask. "I have some help of my own." she says. "Look to your right." You turn your head to the right to see ten archers with crossbows. They aim and fire to take out all of the archers. She turns to them and nods. You two bolt through the gate and head towards Valkor Forest. > You finally Meet You ride with her for hours until you make it back to Aravon. You head into your house and collapse on your bed. She enters and sits on a chair near your fire place. "This is where you live? she asks and you nod. "I'll put the horses in the stable." you say. You never use it and thought back then how it might come in handy. You take the black horse and Amin to the stables. You fetch water from a small stream out back. You get some oats and feed them and head back in. You return to the cabin and see your friend asleep. You go to your bed and doze off. You have a dream: You see yourself in front of two shadow figures. "How could you fail on killing the boy. I've trained him and saw potential. But he's not good enough to slay a demon and wound one." a loud voice roars. To you it seems really familiar, though you can't seem to recall who's voice it is. A low one who's clearly afraid says, "But Master... he's far more powerful than you envisioned. His dragon has made him far too powerful than your magic can predict." All you can see is black, but the voices remain very clear. "My magic not strong enough. That is a lie!!! He may be more powerful, but I'm not stupid enough to not believe it." You hear a low rumble. You know its Redscale rumbling a warning. You are all too familiar with it. "He will save me and when he does. I'll personally tear you limb from limb. Zaron, I know you're your here. Don't give up! Use the power that I saw in you the day we met!" Tears started to flow down your cheeks. "The boy is here!?! Fine. You listen up Zaron. I will have my revenge. Just you wait..." the voice fades in to darkness. > You continue You wake up to your friend shaking you. Tears were really flowing down your cheeks. So it wasn't a dream, you say to yourself. "We need to talk." you say to her. "Fine. But I start. My name is Kai. I come from a wealthy family in the royal court of Varon. They were selfish. My OWN family! They sent me off to marry some Lord Warren I didn't even know. I reluctently agreed to the marrige. As my escort and I neared to his lands we were taken by suprise by some large group of bandits. My escort was killed and I ran to Xias. Some of the bandits followed me and I bought the cloak you first saw me in from a farmer. I went to the inn you were in. As they entered I prayed someone may help me. When you stood up I thought you were leaving, but you helped me and almost died from it. For that I'm in your debt." Kai finished. You nod. "I'm surprised I'm in the presence of royalty. I'd escort you, but I have a mission that demands my immediate attention." "What mission?" she asked. "You wouldn't believe me anyway." I've seen some crazy stuff." You give her a sarcastic look. "I'm not lying. Tell me of your mission that demands your attention." "I'm not trying to get into deatils, but someone was taken from me." "You're trying to save someone?" "Yeah." "Who?" You sigh and go to the window to look at the sky. You look at her with a deep sadness. "My dragon." That got her attention. She didn't say a thing so you continue, "Two days ago Redscale; that's his name, went out hunting and never came back." She finally was able to speak,"How do know he didn't just leave." For once since he was taken you laughed. It didn't last long, but it felt good. You look at her. "Because we were too close to leave each other without telling one another. Anyway, before I went out to chop wood a flash of light appeared. A wolf demon appeared to give me the news. Then I went to the village for supplies. I headed for Valkor Forest and took the path to Xias for any rumors. Before I got info you came along with those thugs. And I'm Zaron, son of Aron." you finish. "That's sad. Well I made my decision. I am coming with you." > You continue with Kai "I accept your help Kai." you say with gratitude. "We need to make a stop at Aravon. You know how to use a sword and shield?" She nodded. "We need a sword for you and two shields. Let's go." You head out to the stable and mount Amin. She mounts her horse. You ask, "What's its name?" "Shadow." She said. We went in the direction of Aravon. We go to the blacksmith. He greets you two and asks what you want. " Two shields and a sword." He comes back with a shield with a red dragon on it and a steel one with the symbol of Varon: an eagle. He asks Kai if she could use it. She grabs it and waits. "This I made for you personally if the day came. This battle-ready Red Dragon shield is made of 16 gauge thick steel which will protect you from poundings on any battle field. Its yours without cost. And this is for you girl." He uncovers a steel sword on a table and gives it to her. He goes back to work and you leave with your new gear. We put our gear on and headed torward a mountain rumored to have Igor's Tower. You both didn't talk because you know you two may die. You make it to a pass up the mountain when you hear you a noise in the bush. You snap you head in that direction and saw more movement. A lesson from Quon to observe everything. Kai was already doing that when the attack came, but you were ready. Groups of demons varying from animals of all kinds. A bear demon swipes you off Amin and to the ground. You cut at its leg and it goes down. Before you could finish it two more of them were on you. You see Kai kill any demon that came at her with expert cuts. She kills every demon that crossed her path. Something fired inside you that made each swing of your blade and land an instant kill. The first was a bird-demon from the air aiming to pick you up and drop you. A tiger came and clawed at you. You blocked with your shield and cut it apart. They begin to retreat. You can follow them to there hideout or cheak the area for any clues. > You check for clues You go to see if Kai is okay. "You hurt?" She shakes her head. "Yell if anything happens." "What are you doing?' she asks panting. "To search for any clues on how those demons got here." You leave her while she tends to the horses. You look around to see a large set of footprints. You notice at least twenty humans have been here recently. You look around to see not only humans, but some demon footprints. Satisfied here you look in the direction opposite of which you looked at. You go in the opposite direction to see a village there. North of there stood a large sructure you can't identify. "Looks like a prison to me, but who's it for?" you say to yourself. With the information you have it looks like that's your next destination. You head to Kai and all you say is "Mount up. We can't leave those demons. We must find out who summoned them." She smiles. "Let's get to it partner." > You head deeper into the mountain You remount your horse. Kai and you follow them. Whatever they're up to you need to know. You track them using the footprints and some blood they left. You have your sword laying in your hand for immediate use. Whoever is here has got to be powerful to summon these demons. You eventually come to a cave. Kai said, "We have to go in there." "I never thought of that. Thanks." "Don't have to be a jerk." "I know. So we go in carefully or charge?" > You approach carefully "Wait here." you tell Kai. You go in with your shield up enough to protect you but not enough to block your line of sight. A turn is up ahead with a small reflection of light coming from it. You motion for her to come in. "There is a light behind the corner. I'll go see what's in there. Stay close enough that if I need help. You'll be here. Don't move! Be ready for a fight. I sense a great evil in there." You go in there to see an old man who's maybe seventy years old. He turns towards you and smiles. "I've been waiting for you." "Who are you?" "I'm known by many names. But you may call me Tora." "Were those your demons?" "Yes. The has master taught me very well." "Master? Who is he?" "Telling you would be too easy. You'll find out soon enough. After we bring you down." Demons from a secret path. One was a black dragon, bigger than Redscale. "Kai!!!" you shout. "You have a partner. His reading said you'd be alone." Tora screams. Kai comes by your side. "No way. I may never have joined you if I knew this would happen." "Shall we?" "We shall." You both leap into action. You cut down any demon that enters your blade's range. Kai also was doing great until all that remained was the black dragon. You can't move. Why can't I move, you ask yourself. The feeling is preventing you from moving. the black dragon swipes at you. Kai intervenes by blocking the claw with her shield. "Snap out of it Zaron!! This isn't a dragon. Its a dragon demon!" You aren't able to keep its tail from smacking her across the room. She hits the wall and falls to the floor motionless. That angers you to see it do that. Whatever pity you have for it is gone now. It goes in the direction of Kai to finish the job. You run in its path and yell, "You want her? You'll have to go through me first!" You hear a deep rumble in its throat, like a laugh. To your amazement it can talk. "Go through you first? You can't kill me boy! For I'm no demon, for I'm the KING of all dragons. I'm called Calivir." "Some king you are. You'll let one of your kind be taken captive? You have no right to be called king!" " NO RIGHT!?!" Calivir roars. "You heard me." "You don't understand. He's my son. I couldn't convince him to leave you, so I helped capture him." "You may be his father, but he's my brother." "You have no right to say that. Your a human and not a dragon." You shake your head. "We look out for one another, we argue with each other, we will risk everything to save each other, and the most important thing: we love each other. I don't need to be a dragon to call him my brother. I know he feels the same way. I feel it. So I have every right to call him my brother." "Be as that may. I have no choice but to kill you." You look him in the eye and see something that shocks you. They have pain and a deep sadness in them. No.... something isn't right, you think. No one should ever have that look. You try one more time to reason with him. "You have pain." "Alas I do. I have to kill my son's brother." "You have pain that whoever has Redscale may kill him." "You obviously know how to read a dragon from Redscale. If you defeat me I'll reveal his location to you. If not, you die." "Very well." You get into a battle stance and Calivir sighs. He wips a claw and it glides across your shield. You cut a swipe at his leg and he flaps his wings to go airborne. He shoots a jet of flame at you. You lift your shield, unsure if it will protect you. It does however hold against the array of flames. You see him land and use his tail to whip at you. You are sent flying into a wall. Can't lose consciousness. You fight the urge to pass out. Calivir walks in your direction and shoots a claw at your chest. It rips your shirt off, but otherwise your uninjured. You grasp your sword for a final strke and cut a deep gash in his chest. Blue blood gushes out and he falls on his side. You fall to your knees after the battle. Kai and Calivir are in your sight. It gets blurry and blurrier by the second. You think you'll die before you pass out. A dream appears to you: All blackness surrounds you except for a faint red glow. It grows bigger until you see Redscale. "Redscale...." "Rise brother." He says. You hear passion in his voice. "I can't... pain ...too great." "You must. You must not leave us. The pain is not enough to keep you down. RISE BROTHER!!!" A great power awakens in you. The pain disappears and you rise from the dead. " I'm up." "Run toward the light Zaron. Run towards it and arise from your grave." He fades away and you feel tears come up. You hold them in and look around to see a light above you. "I'm not done. Not by a long shot." You wake to see Calivir gone and Kai in a corner with a fire. "I must have been hit by a rockslide." She hears your voice and jumps up. "Your alive! But your pulse was gone." "I was dead, but a friend showed me the light." "Well Tora was easy to kill. I burned his remains and disposed off them. Calivir told me Redscale was in a prison in a village called Osco. I was gonna bury you, but you got up. How did you defeat Death?" "With purpose and Redscale. Let's go get him." With your spirits refilled you head to the Osco. You will rescue him. You've got to, for it's destiny! > You go to the Prison You have no idea of Redscale's and your death sentence. You go to the large building you saw when searching for clues. Kai and you dismount your horses and sneak up a hundred meters from the prison. "We'll camp here for the night." You start to set up camp for the night. You have another dream of Redscale: You are on the ground you first saw Redscale. You see the boar with that very same arrow you killed it with. You look down to see your sword isn't there. It was here the day you met Redscale. You hear a rustle in the bush to your right. You head in the direction to see Redscale in a river that wasn't there when you were last here. " "Redscale." He snaps his head in your direction. His eyes flash with an acknowledgement of your presence. " So your here." "I am." "Are you near the prison?" "I'm camped outside with my new ally Kai." "Never seem to go alone." "So it seems." "I'll be killed at midnight tommorow, then you will be hunted down too." "Don't worry old friend. You can count on us." "What will we do when we get out of here?" "Go after this so called master." "Then do me a favor." "What?" He comes out of the water. He walks up to you and puts his snout on your face. "Wake up...wake up...wake up..." his voice says to you becoming fainter and fainter. You open your eyes to see your blade in hand. Its changed in appearance: The blade itself was a deep shade of red and the hilt is the same except for a saphire on the end. You smile and know this will work out. > You go into the Prison You wake Kai. "What..." she asks half asleep. Her eyes are barely open. She falls into another sleep and you shake her. That makes her angry. "WHAT!" she yells. "We're going in there now." you reply. "Now? There's still hours till daylight." "We need to go in there now. Redscale has been sending me dreams on how he's doing. We go in now because by midnight tommorow, he'll be dead. Why are we going now after a big fight? Night gives us the concealment of darkness. We only have one chance, so I will go in with or without you. Redscale's my world, so I'll go in and I'll die trying to save him." you say with affection. "If we go now, we have time. Okay, let's go." You sneak up to the prison wall and scan the area. You don't see anyway in, but after further looking you see a house. "That house might be our way in." you whisper. You head in the direction with Kai following close behind. You head toward the door and quietly open it. A guard is in ther asleep guarding a door next to him. You close it and whisper,"There's a guard in there. Go in and take him down quietly. Then sneak around and get info. Don't make noise and run in the sign of danger. I'm coming with you in the house, but will seperate with you and find Redscale." She has no worry in her eyes, you can see determination. Kai heads in with blade drawn and cuts his throat. He falls and you drag his body outside to a big bush you see growing on the bottom wall.You head back in to see Kai waiting for you. You nod and go through the door. You go down a long passage underground and see a latter uphead of you. "I'll go first." You head up the latter to see a lit hallway that has two directions. You lift yourself up and whisper,"Clear." Kai clinbs up and is next to you in a second. "Don't make any unneeded noise. I'm going left. You take right." "Zaron." "Yeah." "Better live." She quietly dashes down the hall and takes a left turn. You walk in the other direction. You left your bow on Amin because most combat will be close up. You head down to two hallways leading in two differrent directions. One heads downstairs and the other up. > You right (Down) Redscale may be downstairs so you decide to go down. Sword drawn you head down to see doors. All along the hallway. > You dungeon You see doors going all along the hall. The biggest is the one at the far end. You approach it with deep caution and peer through a window to it. You see Redscale there lying on the stony floor. You see keys on a table. A chair was there but no guard. You head to the door to put the key in the keyhole. You head in. "I warned you whoever would come in would die." "What did I do?" you say playfully. "Zaron!" "Let's go find Kai." You her a scream from upstairs. Its no male. Then the saddening thought came to you. " Go outside. I'll go get Kai." Redscale let loose a ripple of flame at the ceiling and flew outside the castle. > You scream You run up the stairs and see some man holding Kai by the arm. "So you found your dragon, but that was not my true intention. Getting the princess was." That voice was very familiar. Then it came to you. "It's been along time Quon." "You remember me. How sweet." "Let her go." "I'd like to see you make me." "Okay." You swing your sword at his head and he ducks letting go of Kai. She grabs her fallen blade and goes on the offense. Swing after swing she goes at Quon with. He blocks or dodges every blow she tries. You go at him with your blade and he cuts your thigh. You fall holding it. Then he swings and nails the hilt of his blade into Kai's temple. She collapses to the ground. "You've failed Zaron. Your quest was successful, but your mission was in vain." A black shape came from above. It was Calivir. The blood surrounding you makes your vision blurry and you black out. You wake up to see Redscale hovering over you. "You have waken. Where is your friend?" You look at your leg. It has clotted up and stopped bleeding. "I'm such a fool. Why has that thought not occurred to me?" "Not everyone can predict what will happen." He comes over and breathes on your leg. It starts to heal to a scar and finally to nothing. That get's you shocked. "When did you learn to do that?" "People don't know everything about dragons. Many known facts on dragons are complete lies." You look at the sky. "Where do we go from here?" "We go back to Aravon or go for the rescue." > You go home "Let's go home." There was a faint disappointment in him. He did not argue. You go to Aravon on Amin and sold Shadow to a trader. You two live happily until you die of old age. Redscale then goes to live with his own kind. You often dreamed of what could have been. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You run up the stairs and see some man holding Kai by the arm. "So you found your dragon, but that was not my true intention. Getting the princess was." That voice was very familiar. Then it came to you. "It's been along time Quon." "You remember me. How sweet." "Let her go." "I'd like to see you make me." "Okay." You swing your sword at his head and he ducks letting go of Kai. She grabs her fallen blade and goes on the offense. Swing after swing she goes at Quon with. He blocks or dodges every blow she tries. You go at him with your blade and he cuts your thigh. You fall holding it. Then he swings and nails the hilt of his blade into Kai's temple. She collapses to the ground. "You've failed Zaron. Your quest was successful, but your mission was in vain." A black shape came from above. It was Calivir. The blood surrounding you makes your vision blurry and you black out. You wake up to see Redscale hovering over you. "You have waken. Where is your friend?" You look at your leg. It has clotted up and stopped bleeding. "I'm such a fool. Why has that thought not occurred to me?" "Not everyone can predict what will happen." He comes over and breathes on your leg. It starts to heal to a scar and finally to nothing. That get's you shocked. "When did you learn to do that?" "People don't know everything about dragons. Many known facts on dragons are complete lies." You look at the sky. "Where do we go from here?" "We go back to Aravon or go for the rescue." > You rescue Kai "She helped me rescue you, so it's time to return the favor." You get on Redscale's back. It felt prickly under you. You hold on to a spike that bunches ran down his back. "Run toward the horses." He flaps his giant wings and is up several thousand feet in a matter of minutes. You aren't afraid because you became used to it from a very young age. He heads in the direction your horses are. They were grazing and drinking from a stream. They scuttle away from Redscale as he lands. " So I fly above and scout the area." "Tomorrow. We are gonna need rest and night is almost upon us. Plus we are gonna need to talk." He gets into a comfortable resting position. "Okay. What's on your mind?" "Does the name Calivir sound familiar." "Yes, that's my father's name." "He's working with Quon." "That's impossible!" "I saw him!" "What color are his scales?" "Black." He looks down. "Only someone can remember a dragon's scale color once if he's seen it." "So you believe me?" "Yes." You two rest for the night. You know where to look first: Quon's old training grounds. > You quon's Old Training Place You woke early in the morning to see Redscale looking at the sunrise. "Beautiful. Isn't it?" You look to see swirling colors of yellow, orange and a light red color of the rising sun. "Might be the most beautiful sunrise I've ever seen." "Where we going today?" "Quon's training grounds." "We're rescuing the girl?" "Yes. Either we'll save her or die trying." "Why are we going there?" "Its the only lead we've got. Do you know where Igor's Tower is?" "No..." "Then that's where we check first. Fly above and keep watch for any guards, students, or demons of his." "What of father." "I couldn't beat him, but if you see Calivir you land at once! We need each other to finish this once and for all!!" "Understood." He takes off and soars above to keep watch over the land. You arrive there in two days ride on your horses. It was once a plush place filled with flowers and life of all kinds. Now the place was a dead forest. No plants grew there and as your eyes could see there's no animal life. Redscale lands next to you. There stood the castle of Quon. Once a mighty place was now a former look of its former appearance. A destroyed castle. "Let's go." You ride to the former castle. You look around for any sign of Quon. No luck. Redscale sniffs the air around here. "They were hear alright. Maybe four hours at best." "Good going. Any sign of Kai?" "She's here." "Now?" "Yes." "Anyone else?" He had a sad face. "Father's here too. Demons of all kinds too." "We're going in. I know how hard it is to fight someone you love. I felt like Quon is my father, but now I lost that love. I feel as if something is not right in there." You walk in on Redscale's back. You see demons, but all they do is sneer and jeer at you. "They don't stop us. Why?" "They want us to see what's in here. Let's go to the throne room." Redscale responds. We go to the court room and there you beheld a sight you may never forget. Kai and Calivir was there. "About time you got here. I see you rescued Redscale." Calivir sighs. "What's the meaning of this father?" "I work with Quon." "WHY!!!" Redscale roars. "To save you from this human who calls you his "brother"." Calivir says calmly. Kai comes at you blade drawn. You get off his back with your sword drawn. "She's being controlled." Redscale looks at me then snaps his head back. "I'll never forgive you!" "I'm trying to save YOU!" he shouts angrily shaking the room. "I'm not asking to be saved. I DO think of him as my brother. We know how the other feels and thinks. We came for the girl. Give her to us." "I'm afraid I can't do that." "Why?" "She is under Quon's control. The only known way to break it is death." "Zaron, take on Kai. I'll deal with Calivir." That's the first time you heard him say him by name. "Kai, I'll make sure you won't die. Redscale, take on Calivir." "Got it." His let's an inferno of flame at Calivir. The fight is on. > Two Allies Fight Forgive me Kai. I'll break this spell without killing you, you think as you go in. She cuts and hacks at you without stopping . Each cut is blocked though you must get on the offense. But how, you say to yourself deflecting a thrust. You could block or go on the offensive on your next move, but what would be the consquenses. > You offensive You go on the offensive. You can't stay on defensive forever, so after her last blow you attack. Blow after blow you drive her back. Redscale battles his father and by the looks of it is winning. You let your guard down for a moment to get a cut in the arm. Damn, you say to yourself. You then recall leaving your shield with Amin. you block another one and respond with an overhand cut. She deflects it. You see an opening and leap on her . Both of you hit the ground with a THUD. Both of your swords slid on the ground beyond reach. She keeps on hitting you and you refuse to fight. "Fight me." she says punching you in the face. "N-n-n-no..." you say as you fall to your side. "WHY?!?" she screams. "Your my f-f-friend..." "Even friends fight." You stand up to see her in a fighting stance. "Not like this... friends fight... but not like this." "JUST FIGHT ME!" You shook your head. "Kai, are you happy? Do your parents condone this. Strike me down. If it makes you happy, then I'm happy." You smile. Something is different now. An opening has been made. You take a chance and throw her on the ground. You reach for your blade with her coming at you. You trip her and keep her grounded by your knees pinning her to it. I hope this works. You grab the hilt and put the jewel to her forehead. > You break the spell The sword and jewel light up. She stops struggling and looks at you. "Why am I on the ground?" she asks. You lift her up and don't answer. All you do is hug her. "I'm glad you're back." "Where was I?" "Gone. But I found you again." She hugs you back and you feel that she's smiling. You know you will win this fight now. You turn to see Redscale losing the fight. Claws and fangs were attacking him from each side. You turn to Kai. "Let's help him." "Come on." And you charge together. > You battle Calivir You get in between the recovering Redscale and the towering Calivir. "This ends here." Calivir merely laughs. He swings a claw at you and you roll out of its path. Redscale trys to stand but falls down. "You are no match for me. You know of my kingship." You don't answer and aim for one of his legs. He flaps his wings and goes airborne. Kai goes and tends to Redscale. Calivir looks at her and aims a jet of fire at her. Redscale attempts to rise his head to shoot fire back but his head falls back down. "KAI!" you yell. Your sword all of a sudden blazes up with fire along the blade. You don't stare at it for long and aim it at the fire shooting at your friends. It goes and the fires collide. You move in the direction that Calivir's fire is. You align yourself with Calivir and wait. "So you learn some new tricks. Big deal." He looks at you. "You're more powerful, but it won't save you," Redscale recovers and is behind you within a second. Kai follows shortly. "You're right. It won't. But I've got friends to help me. We become strong if we're willing to save each other in our darkest moments. I now realize it. But we will finish it now." You smile at them. Kai returns it but Redscale doesn't. He looks at you. Can you hear me. That's Redscale's voice in your head. Redscale, you think. Yes. You can hear my thoughts and I yours. You have awakened your true power. Now let's use it. How? you ask. By protecting those you care for. I must protect them. This isn't our battle anymore: it will determine the fate of Varon. We must win! You focus all your energy to fighting Calivir. Your attacks become lightning fast. Calivir has no time to block them and soon falls from the small wounds you gave him. Not enough to kill but make him unable to fight. "So this is how it ends, huh." "Redscale, you decide your father's fate." Redscale comes over and you see his wounds were all gone. "I've decided to spare you. Though if you intervene again I'll have no choice but to end you." "Why?" "You are my father, but tell me why you joined Quon." Calivir has the pain in his eyes like in the cave. "I was a fool. He promised me I'd win my son's heart over Zaron. I bought into his lies and lost what I wanted most; your love." "I always have loved you." "Then why did you never visit me? I'd lost hope and my heart became bitter. I'd lost the wisdom that dragons poccess. All to that I'd thought you've forgot me, but my guess is you never had." "Dragons never forget their relatives." "Well since I'm not making it back you have a job." Redscale looked confused. "Since I'm no longer able to be King of Dragons it is now your job. Rule over us with pride son. And may I speak with you Zaron." You walk up to him and kneel by his head. "Forgive me for my blindness. I never saw what Redscale meant until now. Take care of Redscale. For... without him... you'll find out life is... hardly work living... at all." Redscale comes over and says to Kai and you, "He may not have been perfect but nor is anyone else. He was a confused and saddened dragon. But in the end he was a hero. As the new king I must go announce my father's death and claim my right as king. Are you two coming?" "I am." you announce. He looks at Kai. She sighs and says, "I'm coming. Though know now that I am the princess of Varon and the dragons have never been fond of us. Since the war five hundred years ago we've managed to get along, though never really made up for it." Redscale says, "I forgive your people for your past deeds. What happened then can be fixed by YOU. Zaron and Kai; you are now official representatives of the human race. Do you accept?" You answer for you two, "We do. But what of our horses?" "You must sell them. Grab your shields and some food." You nod and grab the shields and food. You then sell your horses to a traveling trader and go to the dragon's cave. > You go to the Dragon's Cave With Calivir left in the castle you head out. Redscale gets down on his chest and you climb to grab a spike on his back to hold on to. You help Kai up and put her in front of you. "Grab a spike and hold on." Redscale gets up and asks, "Are you ready back there." We are. You decide to answer through this new telepathic communication you two share. He goes up and you head in the direction of his clan's cave. After a few hours riding on his back a new mountain range comes into view. You and Kai look down to see wildlife of all kind. Flashes of animals you see are wolves, deer, moose, birds and fish. Plants can be seen as far as the eye can see. Do you like it? Redscale asked. Its great. It looks as if no human has been here forever, you respond. No human ever has because of the dragons that live here, he says. He turns right and heads to a small cliff on one of the mountains. A big cave stood there. I can see a dragon living here. Pretty much anyone could see that. The clan would attack any human that came here without a dragon. They already saw us. So let me talk to them. Are you alright with that? Will they attack us, you ask. They may. But they usually would question a dragon. Here comes one now, he says. A big silver dragon comes out and stands between you and the entrance. You stand there unconcerned by this dragon. It looks at you and simply nods as if he approves of you. But when he turns to Kai there is a different reaction. It is of confusion and anger. It finally speaks, "Welcome to the Draco clan. Dragon, why are these humans here?" The voice of it is female. Comparing the size to Redscale its at least a few centuries old. "These are the human representatives. I'm Redscale and these are my traveling companions: my brother Zaron and Princess of Varon Kai." Redscale replies. "Your brother? This human." "Yes." "You're Calivir's son. Is Calivir among us anymore?" "Unsure. He might have passed out in our fight. He's been working with the wizard Quon." "Come." She heads in and you follow close behind Redscale. > You follow the dragon. You head in and for about a hundred meters you can't see a thing. Kai puts her hand on yours making sure you weren't seperated from one another. You finally see a light up ahead and are amazed by what you see. There was a large hole at the top of the mountain, letting the sunlight through. Grass and flowers made the ground glow like a rainbow. Looking above, you see hundreds of caves varying in size and shape. Then dragons come of the caves and look down at the passing figures. Some gave looks of surprise, others hate, and others of happiness. You were led down another passage way to a fire lit room. Three large dragons and a small one the size of Redscale sat there. One was gold, one deep blue, another was red like Redscale, and forest green. Whoever these guys were they were expecting you. "May I introduce the three elders of the Draco clan. The gold one is Haru, the green one Mia, the red one Scaro, and the young blue one Sea. And I'm Moon," the silver dragon says. "Is there anything else you need elders?" They shake their heads and Moon leaves. Haru moves in your direction. Haru looks at Redscale and nods. "You'll be a fine dragon one day." Its voice is female. Haru then sets her eyes on Kai and you. "You two are the first humans to ever set foot in our clan's caves. We knew Redscale had a human companion, but the princess of Varon is another story. We don't have any affection for your family girl." "Do you still have a grudge against us?" The red dragon Scaro speaks up, "May we speak of the matter of why they're here Haru? I have no affection for her either, but let's hear what young Redscale has to say." Redscale goes by us and says loudly, "Dragon Circle, I bring grave news of Calivir and a request." The green dragon Mia finally speaks, "We will grant your request if its within our power, but what of Calivir?" "Calivir as you all know is king of the clan. Recently, he has been working in league with the wizard Quon. He and his demons captured me and brought me to a prison in Oscro. My companions rescued me for us turning to rescue Kai. We went to Quon's former castle to see Calivir waiting for us. He brainwashed Kai into fighting Zaron there, but he managed to break his control over her. We managed to overpower Calivir and after the battle, he named me king. I have no idea if he's still alive, but we need your help. We then had no idea for the location of Igor's Tower. We have roamed far and wide for if you don't know then no one knows." He finished the tale of your quest. Haru looks mad at Kai and says, "We can't help." That gets you mad, but your teachings taught you to be calm at all times. > You mad "What do you mean you can't!" you yell. Haru was surprised by your outburst. "We know the location, but won't reveal it." That get's you even angrier. Calm down, Redscale says in your mind. She is just annoying. Let me handle handle it. Fine, you grumble. You start to calm down and eventually regain your senses. > You calm "Dragon Circle", Redscale roars, "My father has named me the new clan king. So as the new king I order you to tell me the location of Igor's Tower." Haru sighs. "Fine. Young Sea here will take you." She motions for the young blue dragon to come over next to her. "She will take you to Igor's tower and help you end this darkness over the land. She's one of our greatest fighters and will fight to her last breath." You calmly wait for Redscale to respond. Finally he says, "What of my kingship?" Scaro replies, "You are a young king, so we will advise you until you're old enough to make your own decisions." Mai says, "You must return once you finish. Return them to the Varon capital and we will announce your new rule." "And as for you Kai." Haru swipes a claw at her. You react and block it with your shield. You draw your sword and its blade gleams with glee. Mia and Scaro moved quickly for their age between you and her. Scaro screams, "Haru! Return to your cave at once!" She prowls out with anger. You bow to the dragons. They incline your bow with a nod. Sea speaks to you three, "Let's spend the night here." > You rest. Both dragons fly up to Sea's cave. It was like a regular cave. Everything made of stone. The two dragons retire as Kai and you head out and sit on the edge of the cliff. Kai finally says, "Why'd you come and rescue me from Quon?" "Well I could not leave you. Why'd you not leave yet?" "I don't know why." "This place is pretty." She seems sad. You can tell by this next response, "Sure. Its really pretty..." You now are concerned about her. What could be bothering her? "What's wrong?" "When this is all over I'm gonna have to marry that creep Warren. He's three times my my age." "Do you have a choice?" "Why? They arranged this years ago." "You have a choice." "What?" "To marry someone YOU love. Not some guy they tell you to." She smiles and leans close to you. "You're right." She kisses you. You're shocked yet somehow pleased. You are close together until Redscale comes out. You both don't see him until he says, "Having fun?" Kai pulls back almost immediately. She gives you a hug and goes in the cave. "Why'd you have to ruin the moment?" "For rest." Kai is in a corner. You look in a bag you brought and hand a blanket to her. "Time to sleep." You turn and she grabs your wrist. "You are sleeping by me tonight." You nod. You fall asleep in each others arms smiling. You dream of a wonderful future you will have with her. For once in your life you feel true love. > You shocking News Last night is a night you'll never forget, but that's the past. Kai and you wake up early. Not that you wanted to but of the dragons making loud noises. You grab an apple from your bag and eat it. "Let's head out," you say. Mia and Scaro meet you outside of Sea's cave. Scaro whispers something to Mia and flys off. "I've got grave news my friends. Scaro was flying toward Igor's Tower to see Quon's armies marchng toward Varon. Even having the second largest army in the world Varon would be wiped out. Unless..." Kai stepped foward with determination on her face. "Unless what?" "Unless the dragons weren't mobilizing to help. We've been stuck in petty hate for years and are ready to reestablish our friendship with the Varonians. Will you help us Kai?" Kai smiled. "I will help. And when I take my father's throne you will become honored counsel members." "Thank you. Now you must go warn your father and have him mobilize your army. We will come when we are ready." Redscale comes and asks Mia, "Have you told them of the Circle's choice?" "I have." "Then go prepare. We will go visit the king." She flys off and Redscale says to you, "We are gonna need a whole lot of luck to win this." Kai laughs. "Don't worry. We have a great army in store for this. We faced threats like this before." You step in. "Come on you two. We have a job to do." Sea comes from another cave further down and comes to you. "I'm coming to." There was not any disagreements on it and Kai gets on Sea's back while you Redscale's. You head in the direction of the Varon capital Yeli. > You to Warn a King You fly in the direction of Yeli. Yeli is the most populated city in Varon. The first wall was in your eyesight and guards see you, yet don't stop you. You head over the city and people look up. The color drains from their faces and the run in the nearest building. The castle loomed in the distance and had a second wall protecting it. "Land in by the entrance," you tell Redscale. The two dragons land by the two large doors that go into the castle. Further down guards came and surrounded you in a circle. A man in the group comes foward. He studies you and Redscale. Then looks at Sea and sees Kai on her back. That shocks him. He stammers, "W-w-what are y-y-you doing on a d-dragon?" "Captain!" "Yes." " Fetch my father. We have a horrible situation coming our way. And hurry!" "Yes mistress." And goes to get the king. The king sends you to his chambers to talk to him. He was a large man. He wore the traditional robes of the royal family. Its color was a deep saphire and gold. He looks with interest as Kai and you enter his private study. He finally talks, "You have put me in a deep issue here. Kai... you are supposed to be at Lord Warren's palace by now. He sent message that you never came." "I was ambushed and fled while my escort held this large group of bandits off. This is a discussion another time. You have a larger threat in the making." He walks around the room pondering that thought. "I see no threat large enough to be of concern." You shake your head. The king sees and asks, "Who may you be?" You respond, "The one who saved your daughter." "Why didn't my daughter return here then?" "She offered to come along in my quest to save my dragon." "I'm afraid you can't do that." "It was already done." "I thank you for saving her, but why are you still here then?" "To stop my old master Quon." "What do you mean?" Kai interrupts, "He turned evil long ago. He took control of my mind and Zaron here saved me. He made an army large enough to destroy Varon. They are coming here as we speak." "Then there's no hope." You say, "There still maybe is." "Where?" "The dragons have overcome the hate of Varon and are mobilizing to help." "Only the king can be giving that order and Calivir would never do that." You can feel the pain in his voice. "Calivir is no longer among us as we know, but his son is my brother and he issued the help of the Draco clan." "May I speak with him?" the king asks. "Follow me." All three of you head out to Redscale and Sea. > You king to King The dragons were lying down in the courtyard where you last saw them. The king had a worried look on his face. They got up and look down on Kai's father. "You are the king I presume", Redscale asks. The king gets over his nervousness and responded, "Welcome to Yeli. What makes you come to Yeli?" "The threat of a madman's demons. We have come to aid you and the dragons will join later." "We must first come to the issue with you three now. Our army will prepare for this at once. First I've got to start with Zaron." He looks at you. "I don't agree with what daughter and you did, but it may have saved us. I will have to have a fully detailed report on what happened between the rescue of your dragon to your arrival here. Please don't lie on anything. Come to my private chambers tonight. And Kai too. Dragon, may I speak with you alone?" Redscale nods and they walk off in another direction. Kai and you walk towards her father's private chambers. You come to a door with an eagle symbol on it. You knock and a male voice answers, "Come in." You go inside the room.The king sat on his bed. It was large and had the most exspensive bedwear out in the kingdom. His look was of pain and sorrow. "Sit there", he said pointing to a pair of wooden chairs. He gets up and walks back and forth between Kai and you. "I've recieved a message from Warren asking why Kai isn't there. I responded to him of what happened to the escort and what transpired between you. He is to arrive at morning tomorrow, but what I called you here for is something to do with the marriage between Warren and you Kai." You speak up, "Why am I here sir?" "Call me Ponis. And because I have a suspicion something may have happened between you two. I'm not angry, but there may be some issue with it." Kai's body froze up. You had a similar feeling in your body. Kai recovered and was the one who spoke up for the two of you, "I'm going to have to say a kiss and a bit more. I don't think the marriage with Warren is what I want. I don't love him." "I do understand. I fell in love with someone of nonroyalty. It was your mom Kai. If you do love him I will support you." "I do." He smiled. "Then may the gods look over you two. You may go. We will talk of this tomorrow with Lord Warren." Both of you go to your bedrooms for the night. > You redscale explains Before you went to bed you went talk to Redscale. This power thing between Redscale and you has been something the occasion to talk of never offered till now. You went to the courtyard since there was nowhere in the palace big enough for him, so you walk up and sit next to him. Is there a problem? There is Redscale. Its the entire power that we share. One is how my sword changed its appearance and has different abilities. Also how we can talk through thinking? How is this even possible? Redscale laughs. He responds, Many people over the ages in different places had bonds like ours. We are known as Entrin by the dragons. Or in your language known as Dragon Rider. We share feelings, thoughts, and are even considered realatives by some. The bond gets so strong by a human and dragon at times that supernatural things may happen. Just like your sword for example. There are none known aside from you and me since the war between our races. Why was there a war? He looks to the night sky. You look at them with them and see thousands of little dots up there. Redscale answers, Its like those stars. Two worlds collide with different beliefs and traditions than the other. The stars represent the lives of humans and dragons. I can't say who's fault it is who started the war, but can say it killed it millions. People in and out of the war. So its just as bad. Though good came from it. What? The bonds that came between our races. It became the strongest link to connect humans and dragons, but evey person with a bond with a dragon took it very seriously. Now go rest . For you will need it for Lord Warren's arrival tomorrow. You leave Redscale and go to your room for the night. > You lord Warren's arrival You are dreaming of a bright future with Kai and Redscale. You are the king of Varon and are sitting at a large round table. There are knights all around it. You seee them arguing about something. A pounding starts and you jump up. "What's that?" Your knights look at you with a worried glance. One of them gets up and looks at you. The pounding resumes until everything goes dark. You launch up in your bed. You look at the door and the pounding was something from there. A voice said, "Get dressed and to the court yard." Someone left you a new outfit: a expensive silk shirt with a detailed drawing of a red dragon on it with a jacket to put over it. A pair of pants with a belt so you could have your sword with you. Finally with a pair of boots. "Nice clothing." You get dressed and strap your sword on. You head to the courtyard to await the arrival of Warren. It turns out you didn't have to wait. Ponis, Kai, and a man of sixty stood there. He had snow with hair and had a scar below his left eye. You walk up to hear him say in a raspy voice, "... but the marriage was made years ago!" Ponis repiles, "I'm sorry old friend, but she already loves a man." The man says angrily, "Who may this coward be?" This man is getting on your nerves, but you announce your presence to them, "Fair day to you three I suppose?" The man turns to you. "Who may you be?" "Zaron." He nods. "So your this Zaron character I've heard about. You love Kai I suspect?" "I do." "And you know of..." "The marriage. We talked about it." "Then you must know the rules of that interference? You know peasants can't marry a royal family member?" "I'm familiar with them, but there is a way they can." "And that is?" "Is that if the courter is beaten in single combat that he drops any rights to the member of the royal family. If my assumption is correct Ponis?" He nods. "You think you can beat me boy?" "I know I can!" "I have won some of the greatest single combats in history, You scared?" You look at Kai and smile. Then return to his glance and frown. "I've beaten stronger people than you." "Then I Warren accept your challenge." He draws his sword and prepares to fight. You go for your sword until Kai says, "Wait." She walks up to you and gives you a long kiss that makes your mind feel like its melting. She steps back and whispers, "Please defeat him." You give her a kiss on the forehead. "I'll win. Just like the battle with Quon." You draw your blade. Its red blade flashes with glee. > You attack You attack him with swordcuts from all angles. He is forced to block them. You manage to get a cut on his left arm. He jumps back and preapres to attack. > You attack again You attack again to keep the momentum up. You continue the attack and push him back. He tries to attack and he gets cut in several different places. Its tiring you out. > You attack again Your fatigue sets in and you fall to your knees, so you don't see his blade come toward your head. The ground is the last thing you ever see. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You attack again to keep the momentum up. You continue the attack and push him back. He tries to attack and he gets cut in several different places. Its tiring you out. > You defend You go on the defense while he wears his strength down. He goes blow after blow and on his face you you can see his exhuastion grow. He stops to catch his breath and that's when you strike. Your age helps because of endurance. He recieves blows all over his body and he falls to the ground. Warren coughs blood from his mouth and mutters, "D-d-do what y-y-you want with m-m-me." > You spare Him "You may have some great victories in the way of the sword, but I have more duty to rid this land of a great evil. You may live, but never return to Varon. And if you do I'll have no choice but to end you... forever." He gets up and with his old gaze replies, "I acknowledge defeat. I retake any claim I've got to Kai. You are a worthy man to marry her. May you two live in harmony for all enternity." He bows to you and asks to King Ponis, "May I see your healer?" "You may." For that is the last time you see Warren . A few hours later when a feast is prepared for your victory a messager comes and announces, "The dragons are here." > You dragons' Arrival The dragons filled the courtyard as you exit the castle. Ponis come close behind with Kai and whispers, "Oh my god!" "They won't hurt you," you assure him. He gulps and says, "I hope so." Redscale came through the mass of dragons and heads in your direction. He says, "There's five hundred thousand of us here. The others will be defending our home." Ponis replies, "That's good. How far is Quon from Yeli?" "I'd say two weeks away." "I'll go prepare a meeting with my generals. Come as soon as you announce what to do." He leaves leaving Kai, Redscale, and you with the other dragons. You say, "Let's get started." Redscale nods and lets go a big roar to tell the other dragons to quiet down. He speaks loudly so every dragon could hear, "We have come to an end of an era of hate and mistrust between our races. We have all agreed to fight together to stop a threat in a man we always trusted: Quon! A man who twisted Calivir's way of peace and trust to hate and bitterness. A man who capture a dragon against his will. A man who wants to destroy both our way of living. I say we work as one to stop this threat. I came to care for a human. So much that the bond we thought never would happen again did happen. Entrin, dragons, Entrin! The bond between a dragon and human. I have bonded with Zaron, but we share more than what our legends say. We have done more than any other pair that has existed. Dragons, will we fight to keep our ways the same or forever killed?" "Fight for freedom," the dragons yell. "Now let my friend speak. Zaron." You walk up and nod. You say as loudly as possible, "We have come together for a common cause: Quon's death. All of you should hide in the forest and wait for his flying demons. The final confrontation will be between Redscale and me against Quon. We will be prepared. Please try not to terrify Yeli. All of you may head to the forest." They head to the forest, but the red dragon Scaro stayed for a second. He said, "After the meeting come to the forest to talk." He flys off. "Kai, let's go to the meeting. Redscale, wait for us to be done. Go with your clan for now." He flys away and you mutter, "What a day it has been." > A Plan You follow Kai to the meeting room with Ponis and three large men waiting for you. All sat at a circular table with a map of the surrounding areas. They had little wodden figures on it to represent varon's troops, the dragons, and Quon's demons. You took a seat next to one of the generals and Kai sat next to her father. Ponis stood up. Zaron. I'd like you to meet Generals Aso, Tumera, and Ferka." The one named Aso was a large blond headed man who looked to have years of experience in battle. Tumera was a dark skinned man who must have been a general for a short time. Ferka was the one who was the pale one of them, but he looked to be a good strategist. You shook their hands and sat to begin the meeting. Ponis said, "All the citizens will be sent to our ally Skania. I got the emperor's approval. All the provisions will be provided. Now onto the battle plan." Ferka says, "We have one your Majesty. We came up with it while you told us of the dragons. We will have the dragons handle our arial combat while the troops handle the ground. My 7th Legion will defend the courtyard and town area." Tumera says, "My 1st Division will handle the gate areas." Aso finishes, "And my 2nd Division will fight further out." Ponis says, "Okay. What will Zaron do?" Aso answers, "He will be in my 2nd Division fighting outside with my soliders. Kai will help defend the castle." Kai looked steamed. Though replies calmly, "I'll fight further out. I'm fighting with Zaron and there's no stopping me." Aso stammers, "But princess..." "That's final." "Fine. This meeting is dismissed." Everyone leaves the meeting room. You go to where you sent Redscale to see what's he wants. > You continue You think of what could trouble Scaro. Nothing comes to mind as you head through Yeli with speed. Kai and her advisors are talking over some private matters, so she couldn't come. Ponis was too nervous to even consider to. The generals were busy preparing to evacuate the citizens, but you were given no job. It gave you the free time to do as you please, but since Scaro has to talk you should see what he has to say. You head out the gate and see the first wave heading out the northeast gate. You say to yourself, "I wonder what would have happened if Redscale never came into my life, but I wouldn't have it any other way." You smile and head for the forest with that thought. You look around for sign of the dragons. They had a habit of scorching trees and have tend to leave huge footprints. You walk for a few hundred yards until you see a few dragons flying overhead. You follow under them until you come to a large open area. The dragons were talking to each other and stop and look as you walk by them. You have to walk to the center of their little camp until you see Scaro, Redscale, and the green dragon Mia. Scaro sees you and motions for you to come to him. He says, "Haru betrayed us. She was working for Quon the whole time. We were fools. Her place will be taken by Sea, but where is she?" "Oh, Sea? She's with Kai. She seems to have taken a liking to her," you reply. He laughs. "Seems your bad influence is starting to rub off Redscale." He snorts. "I doubt it." "It is! It is! You may be a great king one day." "Thanks. And how is it?" "The bond you and Zaron share made her think of it." "Fair enough. What is the plan?" "Haru will most likely be carrying Quon. What most people don't know is past Dragon Riders have worn a dragon's saddle. Its used to keep the rider safe from the dragon's scales. We have one here that was newly made from an ally. Its for you Zaron. It is like a horse's saddle, but made for dragons. I'll tell you how to put it on. It has two safety buckles on the bottom to made sure it doen't move around. They are in between a middle buckle to make sure you have it on before you do the other two. You would see two footholds going down with a long piece of strong cloth. Step in it and sit in the saddle. That's about it." "Where is it?" "Its behind me. Train for awhile. It will come in handy in tough predicaments. It won't matter how bigger Redscale is, but have a good time flying safer in the sky. You may go." You bow to them and put the saddle on Redscale. He takes flight and its basically the same without the saddle. Still you decide to practice just in case. > The first invasion The days went by with training with your sword, to your nights spending with Kai, and to the hours training as a Dragon Rider with the dragons. Life would be great if it wasn't for Quon, but you already are ready for him. The thing you don't know is that a preinvasion Quon had. You were in the castle learning about Kai's backround and family history when the invasion started. Bells rang and you leap out to head to the courtyard. Redscale was fighting demons off. None got to him. He slashed and bit and smacked all of them around leaving none left standing. Redscale!!! I'm fine. Get on. You were flying earlier and left it on for the invasion. You get on and he begins to circle the city. Demons and soliders were fighting off demons at every corner. He returns to the courtyard to you see Sea and Kai there. They both looked worried. "Kai, it's hell out there." "Well that's bad. I also got a saddle for Sea. We decided we're partners since we are similar in many ways." "Great!" "We going to fight?" "From above." Your both in your saddles and get in the air. You draw your sword and Redscale and Sea flew upside down so you could slash demons. This is around the time when they began to retreat. You watch until they are no longer in view. The deaths were in the hundreds. You were all over and did many jobs. The final fight will start the next day. > The final invasion starts You were summoned to the throne room. Kai, Sea, Redscale and Ponis were there talking as you got there. "... no way Zaron can win," Ponis says as you walk up. "Win against who," you ask. He jumps. "When did you get here?" "Just now." "Quon's army did some serious damage, but we have millions of soliders left to the hundreds we left." "Were you saying I wouldn't beat Quon?" "I did." "Well I'll win." Then a pounding noise was outside. It shook the whole castle. You were to put on a suit of armor. You did that and wore a suit of armor made of ruby, metal fused into it. Then that's where the talking stopped. Quon has arrived. "Redscale!" Both of you rush outside. You see him and Haru waiting in the sky above. You mount Redscale and he flaps his wings with strong gusts of wind and pushes himself into the sky. > You quon's Challenge You head in the direction of Haru. Quon was in his saddle. His snow white hair became much clearer on his pitch black armor. He had a golden sword in one hand and a shield in the other. You drew your sword. Its red blade gleemed in the morning sun. A smile crosses Quon's ancient face. "So its come down to student and teacher. Will you back down?" "We won't." "Join us! We can teach you so much. We could make all your desires come true!" "My dreams are here. With Kai, Redscale, and Sea. They're my desires." "Then I suppose you leave me no choice." > You redscale blows fire Redscale blows fire at them. The fire hits them and you think its over. You can't see as smmoke covers the area they're at. The smoke clears and they were not even damaged. He smiles and Haru does the same to you. Redscale flys sharply left to avoid the flame. You can't get why the fire didn't hurt them, but you don't dwell on it for long. They move in and it's now close combat. You aim for a leg on Quon and he blocks you sword with his own. The fight between you and him with the dragons is getting you nowhere. He gets a pleasant look in his face and says, "Let's do this alone." > A Long Fall Quon snaps his fingers. A rumble went through Redscale's body and he begins to fall to the ground. "Redscale! Redscale! Are you okay," you ask nervously. "I can't move my body!" He wiggling underneath you, but still no major body movement. Looks like the end of you two. In your mind it goes the other way. I can't die here. We came too far to lose now. He defeated Redscale so easily with his magic. I need the power, you say to yourself. You know that your family used to use magic for the royal court to help the people of Varon. You hope that the power is somewhere in you that remained dormant, but its unlikely. You get mad. Then some spark of unknown energy sparks through your body. Redscale begins to slow down and lands in the city unharmed. You slide out of the saddle as Redscale landed. Redscale collapses to the ground. "I can't move. Looks like you'll have to fight on your own..." Redscale is either dead or knocked out, but that makes you check for signs of life just to make sure. He's breathing, so he should be fine. Your anger is flaring and you look at Quon in the sky to see him smiling. The fighting is further down the street. Among the fighting is Kai who saw what happened and runs over to you. Your anger is preventing you from noticing her. She says, "Zaron, is Redscale okay?" "He's unconcious, but he should be fine." She sensed something. Something abnormal, so she looks at you to see a red aura coming from your ruby armor. "Your armor is glowing." "I know," you reply. "You were falling to fast to slow down by normal means, so you must have used..." "Magic. I did to save Redscale. I didn't know how to use magic until now. My family as you know used magic all those years ago to aid the royal family." "But yours is aided by your anger. You must calm down." "I... can't." "You can. What would Redscale say?" That snaps you back into reality. You have a short thought on what'd he say. He'd tell you magic is the energy that flows through the kindness of people and all living things. Its possible to do many things. Your breathing slows down and you can think clearly now. "Thanks. I'm better." "You have a better chance to beat Quon now. You can use magic, but don't through rage." "Okay. But what of Redscale?" She gives you a kiss on the cheek and says, "I'll tend to his injuries. Now go and fight." She starts to care for Redscale's wounds. You run in the other direction to the gate to get to Quon and Haru. > You to fight alone You dash out the gate and head in the direction of Quon. He is still airborne. Haru begins to lower herself to give Quon and her a better fighting zone. "So you have unlocked your hidden power?" You don't answer as you get into a fighting stance. He sighs. "Why do you always want to do the the hard way? You were always like that and still are." Haru breathes fire at you. > You block with shield You block the fire with your shield and jump left. Quon shoots electricity before you can attack and you roll out of the way. You use your magic to lift Quon from his saddle and throw him to the ground. You'll have to fight a two on one battle, but you know you can't die until they are dead. > You attack Quon You aim for Quon. He is the reason that this battle is taking place. It's hard at first since of Haru, but eventually you come up with ideas to move around her to attack Quon. He becomes more desperate as he knows your gaining control of the fight. He began to attack you from a sides and was getting more reckless. Soon he began to regain his senses and used magic on you. You block most of it, but a lighting bolt hits you in the chest and you fly back to hit a large rock. You see them above you ready to finish you when a fire blast knocks them away. > You an Unexpected Arrival You are struggling to focus when a familiar voice, but faint, say, "I suppose I'll fight with you." "Who... are... you?" "You mean you don't remember me?" Your eyes begin to refocus and you see a former foe: Calivir. That was a shocking since the last time you saw him he was on the brink of death. He stood over you looking for you to get up. "Come on. It won't take long for them to recover." You get to you feet and look at him. "You are going to help me?" "I'll fight till my last breath. I will die anyway because of my injuries. I found an old friend who put a temporary spell on me that will help me fight with you. Where's Redscale?" "With Kai trying to heal him. We fought them and we were tossed around like we were like children." "I'll hold them off. Redscale will have to fight Haru alone. You on the other hand will fight Quon alone. The dragons in the sky are aware of me and the spell. I'll seperate them." "No. We fight together." "Fine. Get on my back." > You redscale Recovers Redscale begins to regain his senses. He moves his legs, tail, and neck. He opens his eyes to see the princess Kai over him. "What is it, Kai?" "Oh! Your awake? You'd better hurry." "Why?" "Zaron is fighing alone." "Not for long!" Redscale opens his wings and flies off looking for Zaron's scent. Kai stood there alone. She sighs. "These two were made for each other." She laughs to herself. A man comes up and says, "You are needed Kai." "And so here we go." She heads off in the direction of where she's needed. > You fight with Calivir You got on Calivir's back and got ready to continue the fight. Haru got back in the air and stood about thirty meters away from Calivir. Quon was rubbing the back of his like he's hurt. He says, "Well this is shocking. Calivir, I thought you were dead. And to think you'd betray me. Yes, very shocking indeed." Calivir merely snarls at Quon. "What now Zaron?" "We fight." He launches a ball of fire from his jaws and aims it at them. That made him go on the defense and you ask what will you do next? > You sword You have Calivir go in close so you can use your sword. That was your mistake. He was wanting close combat. He cuts your back and then stabs your heart. He cuts Calivir and then Haru finished the job. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You got on Calivir's back and got ready to continue the fight. Haru got back in the air and stood about thirty meters away from Calivir. Quon was rubbing the back of his like he's hurt. He says, "Well this is shocking. Calivir, I thought you were dead. And to think you'd betray me. Yes, very shocking indeed." Calivir merely snarls at Quon. "What now Zaron?" "We fight." He launches a ball of fire from his jaws and aims it at them. That made him go on the defense and you ask what will you do next? > You magic You feel the power of magic flow through your veins. This power was yours and you focus all of it against Haru and Quon. You used fire, lightning, water, and much more against the pair. They couldn't keep this hell away. Quon smiles. Of all the things he can do, he smiles. Then he looked at Calivir. Haru moved in and Quon stabs Calivir in the heart. You tried to stop him, but were a split second too late. "NOOOOO," you shout. You begin to fall to the ground once more. > You redscale returns to a death The fall was a foggy memory as Calivir and you fell. You come to see Calivir lying on the ground next to you. You move your arms and legs to make sure you could move. You could move without any pain, but you remember what happened and rushed to Calivir. His breathing was faint. He says, "I hope your okay." "I-I-I-I am, but what of you?" His mouth seems to have formed a smile. "I won't make it. I have an idea how to defeat them." "How?" "You must seperate them." Redscale appears over the horizon and lands next to you. He sees Calivir and moves back a few steps. "Father..." "Redscale my boy. How good is it to see you." "You're..." "Dying. Yes, I am. I want one last wish before I pass on." "What?" "Protect Zaron and live a full, happy life. Goodbye... my... sons." And he closed his eyes for the last time. You look at Redscale. "Are you okay?" "I'm fine." "I hope so. I got a plan to beat those two." "What?" "Seperate them." They come in the distance. You use a spell and Quon was lifted from his saddle and tossed in another direction. Redscale flys off and tackles Haru in the opposite direction. > One on One You head in the direction Quon landed. He was on his knees when you reached him. "It ends now," you snarl at him. "I couldn't agree more," he replied. You two begin to exchange sword blows. He was getting the advantage. You block his cuts and attack back. He had a hurt expression on his face. That gives you confidence. You attack him until you began to push him back. All the anger and pain was involved in these cuts. He misses a block and you get him in the chest. He falls. You look over him. "Quon, traitor of Varon, you are hereby sentenced to death." You stab him in the heart and end his life. Fatigue sets in and you fall to your knees. "So I may die as well. I am happy to rid this land of Quon. If I die, farewell my friends." And you fall down into a black conciousness. > You celebration You wake in your room and see Kai sitting by your bedside. She has a sad look on her face. You feel happiness and launch up to give her a hug. "I did it, Kai, I did it." She was in shock and recovers to say, "I know, but at the price I thought was I lost you." "It'd be hard to get rid of me." She laughs and gives you a big kiss. "I know. I think I'd perfer it that way." "I do too." "What will you do now?" "Stay here with Redscale and you." "I think Redscale must leave." "Why?" "He's the king of his clan and must rule them." "I suppose. And you?" "You should know that." She laughs and and gives you another kiss.You leave the room and go outside to see everyone celebrating. With Kai there you go out.A party was made and you party all night. You drank, danced and talked a more than you did your entire life. Everything is how it is supposed to be. Life couldn't be better, so you go to see Redscale. > You seperation of Brothers Redscale stood in the moonlight. He looked at the heavens above him. "I'll have to leave you," he said as you came to him. "Kai said that you may have to." "Are you okay?" "I am. For I have Kai and you, no matter how far we are apart we will talk through on minds." That we can. "Hahahaha, don't need to do that. I'm sure going to miss you." "But I'll come and visit every month. That's true." "Its sad what happened Quon, he was such a great man." "His ways were twisted from what they once were." "What shall happen to Sea?" "She's telling Kai what I'm telling you. I've decided she'll be my queen." A big grin came to your face. "Otherwise your wife?" "In your language... yes." "Goodbye brother." "And fair winds to you brother." What he said is the old dragon goodbye, but no one knows whoever came up with it. You put a hand on side. He moved so he was face to face with you. He put his snout on your forehead and gazed into your eyes. All the memories you had together flashed into your mind. You smiled and for the last time he says, "Goodbye brother." He flies off. > You final Words Months have past since you married Kai. You are on the Varonian throne with Kai by your side. Ponis decides to go on a long trip. He sends you letters every few weeks. Redscale and Sea did become mates and had many children. He sent one to you and it was a silver color to the egg. You smile and set it in a cushion. You are known as the Dragon King among your followers. For all you can do now is rest and wait. For your great journey is now over.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You got on Calivir's back and got ready to continue the fight. Haru got back in the air and stood about thirty meters away from Calivir. Quon was rubbing the back of his like he's hurt. He says, "Well this is shocking. Calivir, I thought you were dead. And to think you'd betray me. Yes, very shocking indeed." Calivir merely snarls at Quon. "What now Zaron?" "We fight." He launches a ball of fire from his jaws and aims it at them. That made him go on the defense and you ask what will you do next? > You dragon fire "Fire!" Calivir lets loose an inferno of fire on Haru and Quon. Calivir was unleashing hellfire upon the unlucky pair. They get burned and they fall back. Calivir follows quickly behind them. Haru flys higher and you loose them. "Where are they?" Calivir responds, "I don't know. They may be..." He didn't finish because somehow they got below Calivir and Quon managed to stab his heart. "Nooooooooo," you shout as you realized what happened. Calivir had no movement as you fell to the earth. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You block the fire with your shield and jump left. Quon shoots electricity before you can attack and you roll out of the way. You use your magic to lift Quon from his saddle and throw him to the ground. You'll have to fight a two on one battle, but you know you can't die until they are dead. > You attack Haru You try to remove Haru from the fight, but it was her that removed you. She clawed your stomach to make a big gash. Then breathed fire onto you. She bites you to finish the job. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You dash out the gate and head in the direction of Quon. He is still airborne. Haru begins to lower herself to give Quon and her a better fighting zone. "So you have unlocked your hidden power?" You don't answer as you get into a fighting stance. He sighs. "Why do you always want to do the the hard way? You were always like that and still are." Haru breathes fire at you. > You use magic to block You raise your hand to create an invisible wall and the fire goes to the right, left and up. The power slides you back a little bit, but your otherwise unharmed. Quon was already on you with a sword cut and you block it with your sword. You attack a leg of Haru and get a deep cut in it. She roars of agony of the pain. You strike them with a combination of attacks. Some connect and others don't. You somehow manage to get under them to deal a finishing blow. > You stab Haru You manage to stab Haru. She roars and shoots fire at you. You roll out of the way and slash her again. She claws at you and manages to remove your helmet, but that just reveals your smile. Quon looks shocked. You guess that is how you are lasting so long against him without Redscale. He keeps on the offense and becomes careless in his attacks. You hit Haru and him a few times. He then uses magic on you and you are being pushed back one step at a time. He hits a fire ball on you and sends you flying back. He gets ready to finish you when a dark shape rams Haru to send her in another direction. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You raise your hand to create an invisible wall and the fire goes to the right, left and up. The power slides you back a little bit, but your otherwise unharmed. Quon was already on you with a sword cut and you block it with your sword. You attack a leg of Haru and get a deep cut in it. She roars of agony of the pain. You strike them with a combination of attacks. Some connect and others don't. You somehow manage to get under them to deal a finishing blow. > You slash Quon You slash at Quon. That's a mistake. He blocks it and hits your arm with his sword. He then hits a leg that makes you fall to the ground. He then cuts your head off to finish the job. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You dash out the gate and head in the direction of Quon. He is still airborne. Haru begins to lower herself to give Quon and her a better fighting zone. "So you have unlocked your hidden power?" You don't answer as you get into a fighting stance. He sighs. "Why do you always want to do the the hard way? You were always like that and still are." Haru breathes fire at you. > You dodge You dodge the fire, but Haru stops the flow and keeps it on you by closing her mouth to fire again. You dodge it a few times more until the fire hits you. It burns through the armor and burns you alive. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You head in the direction of Haru. Quon was in his saddle. His snow white hair became much clearer on his pitch black armor. He had a golden sword in one hand and a shield in the other. You drew your sword. Its red blade gleemed in the morning sun. A smile crosses Quon's ancient face. "So its come down to student and teacher. Will you back down?" "We won't." "Join us! We can teach you so much. We could make all your desires come true!" "My dreams are here. With Kai, Redscale, and Sea. They're my desires." "Then I suppose you leave me no choice." > You sword Slash Redscale moves in quickly so you can get a sword cut on Quon. He's ready and blocks the attack and returns with lightning fast reflexes. You raise your shield and blocked the hit. The dragons were fighting with their teeth, claws, tail, and fire. One hoping to get an advantage. Quon and you are exchanging blows, but is hard because of the fighting dragons. Redscale, you need to back up. We need a better plan. We don't have one. We attack until they die! And that's what you do. Or what you tried to do. It drags to a sword fight between Quon and you. He is getting made by the look on his face. The dragons fight below and its getting hard to fight Quon. He gets a annoyed look to his face. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You head in the direction of Haru. Quon was in his saddle. His snow white hair became much clearer on his pitch black armor. He had a golden sword in one hand and a shield in the other. You drew your sword. Its red blade gleemed in the morning sun. A smile crosses Quon's ancient face. "So its come down to student and teacher. Will you back down?" "We won't." "Join us! We can teach you so much. We could make all your desires come true!" "My dreams are here. With Kai, Redscale, and Sea. They're my desires." "Then I suppose you leave me no choice." > You wait for him to attack You wait for him to attack. Haru flys at Redscale, but he goes into a steep dive. He slows down by flapping his wings strongly to stop his fall. He rises up and faces them again. Redscale lets a jet of fire go at them and they stay there and get hit. For some reason you think it isn't over. You were right, for they were in the same place undamaged. There is something wrong, Redscale. I agree, but we may have to split up. The fighting continues. You aim sword cuts at Quon and Haru. Some do damage and others don't. Redscale uses his claws on them and lands some while others are blocked or avoided. They return the attack by sword cuts and claws flinging at Redscale and you. The same results as you did to them. Quon has a nasty look in his eyes now.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You go on the defense while he wears his strength down. He goes blow after blow and on his face you you can see his exhuastion grow. He stops to catch his breath and that's when you strike. Your age helps because of endurance. He recieves blows all over his body and he falls to the ground. Warren coughs blood from his mouth and mutters, "D-d-do what y-y-you want with m-m-me." > You kill Him "You have my sorrow, Warren. I can't let you live though, for you may ruin my quest to kill Quon." You walk up and raise your blade and aim for his heart. His last breath is now forever lost in the sands of time. You look over to Kai and she's nodding. Ponis comes over and says, "Nothing could be done Zaron. He chose a young woman that a man had already claimed his love for. Warren's death was inevitable." "I wish it may have turned out differently." "As do I. Come! Let's have a feast in honor of your victory!" You feast for the next fews hours until a message came of the dragons' arrival.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You attack him with swordcuts from all angles. He is forced to block them. You manage to get a cut on his left arm. He jumps back and preapres to attack. > You defend You wait for him to attack. He attacks form all directions and gets no hits. He keeps going and hits a blow on your left leg. You step back for another solution. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Forgive me Kai. I'll break this spell without killing you, you think as you go in. She cuts and hacks at you without stopping . Each cut is blocked though you must get on the offense. But how, you say to yourself deflecting a thrust. You could block or go on the offensive on your next move, but what would be the consquenses. > You defensive You go on the defensive and keep blocking cut after cut. This is zapping your strength. You got to go on the offensive before she gets a lucky blow in. > You stay on defensive You stay on the denfensive until a cut to the leg brings you down. Then a head blow finishes it. Redscale is recaptured and is come to believe his father's lies. Kai stay's under Quon's control who eventually takes over Varon.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You wake Kai. "What..." she asks half asleep. Her eyes are barely open. She falls into another sleep and you shake her. That makes her angry. "WHAT!" she yells. "We're going in there now." you reply. "Now? There's still hours till daylight." "We need to go in there now. Redscale has been sending me dreams on how he's doing. We go in now because by midnight tommorow, he'll be dead. Why are we going now after a big fight? Night gives us the concealment of darkness. We only have one chance, so I will go in with or without you. Redscale's my world, so I'll go in and I'll die trying to save him." you say with affection. "If we go now, we have time. Okay, let's go." You sneak up to the prison wall and scan the area. You don't see anyway in, but after further looking you see a house. "That house might be our way in." you whisper. You head in the direction with Kai following close behind. You head toward the door and quietly open it. A guard is in ther asleep guarding a door next to him. You close it and whisper,"There's a guard in there. Go in and take him down quietly. Then sneak around and get info. Don't make noise and run in the sign of danger. I'm coming with you in the house, but will seperate with you and find Redscale." She has no worry in her eyes, you can see determination. Kai heads in with blade drawn and cuts his throat. He falls and you drag his body outside to a big bush you see growing on the bottom wall.You head back in to see Kai waiting for you. You nod and go through the door. You go down a long passage underground and see a latter uphead of you. "I'll go first." You head up the latter to see a lit hallway that has two directions. You lift yourself up and whisper,"Clear." Kai clinbs up and is next to you in a second. "Don't make any unneeded noise. I'm going left. You take right." "Zaron." "Yeah." "Better live." She quietly dashes down the hall and takes a left turn. You walk in the other direction. You left your bow on Amin because most combat will be close up. You head down to two hallways leading in two differrent directions. One heads downstairs and the other up. > You left (Up) He may be up there since he's so big. You head up there to see at least twenty soldiers. You are able to kill half of them until they overwhelm you with numbers. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|> "Wait here." you tell Kai. You go in with your shield up enough to protect you but not enough to block your line of sight. A turn is up ahead with a small reflection of light coming from it. You motion for her to come in. "There is a light behind the corner. I'll go see what's in there. Stay close enough that if I need help. You'll be here. Don't move! Be ready for a fight. I sense a great evil in there." You go in there to see an old man who's maybe seventy years old. He turns towards you and smiles. "I've been waiting for you." "Who are you?" "I'm known by many names. But you may call me Tora." "Were those your demons?" "Yes. The has master taught me very well." "Master? Who is he?" "Telling you would be too easy. You'll find out soon enough. After we bring you down." Demons from a secret path. One was a black dragon, bigger than Redscale. "Kai!!!" you shout. "You have a partner. His reading said you'd be alone." Tora screams. Kai comes by your side. "No way. I may never have joined you if I knew this would happen." "Shall we?" "We shall." You both leap into action. You cut down any demon that enters your blade's range. Kai also was doing great until all that remained was the black dragon. You can't move. Why can't I move, you ask yourself. The feeling is preventing you from moving. the black dragon swipes at you. Kai intervenes by blocking the claw with her shield. "Snap out of it Zaron!! This isn't a dragon. Its a dragon demon!" You aren't able to keep its tail from smacking her across the room. She hits the wall and falls to the floor motionless. That angers you to see it do that. Whatever pity you have for it is gone now. It goes in the direction of Kai to finish the job. You run in its path and yell, "You want her? You'll have to go through me first!" You hear a deep rumble in its throat, like a laugh. To your amazement it can talk. "Go through you first? You can't kill me boy! For I'm no demon, for I'm the KING of all dragons. I'm called Calivir." "Some king you are. You'll let one of your kind be taken captive? You have no right to be called king!" " NO RIGHT!?!" Calivir roars. "You heard me." "You don't understand. He's my son. I couldn't convince him to leave you, so I helped capture him." "You may be his father, but he's my brother." "You have no right to say that. Your a human and not a dragon." You shake your head. "We look out for one another, we argue with each other, we will risk everything to save each other, and the most important thing: we love each other. I don't need to be a dragon to call him my brother. I know he feels the same way. I feel it. So I have every right to call him my brother." "Be as that may. I have no choice but to kill you." You look him in the eye and see something that shocks you. They have pain and a deep sadness in them. No.... something isn't right, you think. No one should ever have that look. You try one more time to reason with him. "You have pain." "Alas I do. I have to kill my son's brother." "You have pain that whoever has Redscale may kill him." "You obviously know how to read a dragon from Redscale. If you defeat me I'll reveal his location to you. If not, you die." "Very well." You get into a battle stance and Calivir sighs. He wips a claw and it glides across your shield. You cut a swipe at his leg and he flaps his wings to go airborne. He shoots a jet of flame at you. You lift your shield, unsure if it will protect you. It does however hold against the array of flames. You see him land and use his tail to whip at you. You are sent flying into a wall. Can't lose consciousness. You fight the urge to pass out. Calivir walks in your direction and shoots a claw at your chest. It rips your shirt off, but otherwise your uninjured. You grasp your sword for a final strke and cut a deep gash in his chest. Blue blood gushes out and he falls on his side. You fall to your knees after the battle. Kai and Calivir are in your sight. It gets blurry and blurrier by the second. You think you'll die before you pass out. A dream appears to you: All blackness surrounds you except for a faint red glow. It grows bigger until you see Redscale. "Redscale...." "Rise brother." He says. You hear passion in his voice. "I can't... pain ...too great." "You must. You must not leave us. The pain is not enough to keep you down. RISE BROTHER!!!" A great power awakens in you. The pain disappears and you rise from the dead. " I'm up." "Run toward the light Zaron. Run towards it and arise from your grave." He fades away and you feel tears come up. You hold them in and look around to see a light above you. "I'm not done. Not by a long shot." You wake to see Calivir gone and Kai in a corner with a fire. "I must have been hit by a rockslide." She hears your voice and jumps up. "Your alive! But your pulse was gone." "I was dead, but a friend showed me the light." "Well Tora was easy to kill. I burned his remains and disposed off them. Calivir told me Redscale was in a prison in a village called Osco. I was gonna bury you, but you got up. How did you defeat Death?" "With purpose and Redscale. Let's go get him." With your spirits refilled you head to the Osco. You will rescue him. You've got to, for it's destiny! > You redscale's Jail Redscale wakes and smiles with glee. "I'm in jail. Zaron will come. With his new sword he'll become the true Entrin." Or dragon rider. Redscale settles down for his noon meal. He hears a knock and a note appears at the door's bottom. Zaron taught him literature long ago. It reads: Dragon, This is your final night in this prison. Zaron will be killed and so with you. Enjoy your time in your cell. I'll see you later. Master Redscale snorts and thinks, Zaron will be here before then. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You remount your horse. Kai and you follow them. Whatever they're up to you need to know. You track them using the footprints and some blood they left. You have your sword laying in your hand for immediate use. Whoever is here has got to be powerful to summon these demons. You eventually come to a cave. Kai said, "We have to go in there." "I never thought of that. Thanks." "Don't have to be a jerk." "I know. So we go in carefully or charge?" > You cHARGE!!! You get your weapons ready for use. You dismount and run in ready. A man who's at least seventy years old is standing before you. He turns and smiles. "I've been waiting for you." Without warning he uses some magic. A bolt of lightning hits Kai and kills her. Before you turn towards him, he launches a fire ball at you and burns you to death.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"I accept your help Kai." you say with gratitude. "We need to make a stop at Aravon. You know how to use a sword and shield?" She nodded. "We need a sword for you and two shields. Let's go." You head out to the stable and mount Amin. She mounts her horse. You ask, "What's its name?" "Shadow." She said. We went in the direction of Aravon. We go to the blacksmith. He greets you two and asks what you want. " Two shields and a sword." He comes back with a shield with a red dragon on it and a steel one with the symbol of Varon: an eagle. He asks Kai if she could use it. She grabs it and waits. "This I made for you personally if the day came. This battle-ready Red Dragon shield is made of 16 gauge thick steel which will protect you from poundings on any battle field. Its yours without cost. And this is for you girl." He uncovers a steel sword on a table and gives it to her. He goes back to work and you leave with your new gear. We put our gear on and headed torward a mountain rumored to have Igor's Tower. You both didn't talk because you know you two may die. You make it to a pass up the mountain when you hear you a noise in the bush. You snap you head in that direction and saw more movement. A lesson from Quon to observe everything. Kai was already doing that when the attack came, but you were ready. Groups of demons varying from animals of all kinds. A bear demon swipes you off Amin and to the ground. You cut at its leg and it goes down. Before you could finish it two more of them were on you. You see Kai kill any demon that came at her with expert cuts. She kills every demon that crossed her path. Something fired inside you that made each swing of your blade and land an instant kill. The first was a bird-demon from the air aiming to pick you up and drop you. A tiger came and clawed at you. You blocked with your shield and cut it apart. They begin to retreat. You can follow them to there hideout or cheak the area for any clues. > You follow the demons You follow them deep into the mountain.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You walk through the undergrowth, a rifle leaning against your shoulder that you struggle to keep from dropping. You rush to keep up with father, who is seemingly oblivious to how fast you’re having to walk. “Come on, boy!” father said, his fingers scratching at his thick black mustache. As you walked out of the confines of the tight pines, you saw home. The stone and thatch cottage that was to be your home for the next few years, until you became of age to find your own place, stood there in the fields. Overgrown fields lay to the West and South, a trickling stream East and the vast forest you’d been walking to took up the North. Judging from the cart sitting alongside it, Mother and Meredith were already here. The family was tiny by all accounts. Mother was prone to bouts of sickness, making her womb a barren place for a child to be born. Although they had tried all their life, and continued trying despite even you recognizing the futility of the action, two children was all they’d ever have. It was you and Meredith, the “miracle twins” as the doctor who delivered you liked to say, that would be the only ones that had survived. The number of miscarriages had clearly taken its toll on Mother, who was fond of siting my the fire, staring into it as she said her rosaries. From Father’s stories she was a wild and untamed girl as a child, a rebellious soul that Father had been ensnared by. Whoever Father speaks so fondly off, its no longer Mother. Father still retained some joy, a love of the land and and a love of nature, although the glimmer of excitement in his eyes was becoming rarer and rarer as time passed. That left Meredith. While father’s love of nature and positive nature had been instilled in you when you were younger when Father still held the hope of a large family that Mother had long abandoned, Mother’s cold, distant nature took hold of Meredith. She wasn’t as bad as mother, but she was a pain to play with and even worse to talk to. All in all, this turned you into the child you are. Without many friends, you’ve become quite lonely, but there is a certain peacefulness in nature you just adore. With the birds nesting in the trees singing to you, the hares bounding carefree underfoot among the undergrowth and eyes of a thousand beasts and creatures staring at you, you could never truly be lonely in the woods. You’d do your chores and feel the burden of labor required to survive in such a harsh time, but then, you were free to walk under the protection of the greak oaks and pines and gaze at the glory of nature. You run down along the fields, hefting the weight of the rifle in your hands as father jogs ahead. Soon, you run up to the porch to find mother and Meredith unpacking. You put your gun in the rack, looking at them. “What can I do now, father?” you ask. “Nothing, boy. It’s up to mother and Meredith to do the unpacking and prepare the catch, Papa says, pulling off his hunting sack and pulling out two hares, their necks broken. “I’ll tell you what. Get the bearings of the forest for me, lad. Scout out for any hare paths or wild fruit growing or deer grazing areas.” “Got it, father,” you nod, grabbing your rifle once more and swinging around to walk back outside again. > You head to the woods You begin wandering up towards the trees, holding your gun tightly in your hands. Whilst nature is no doubt a sanctuary to your young mind to find tranquility, there’s many dangers hidden. You point your rifle, making a loud bang sound as you picture yourself shooting a large grizzly bear like that your grandfather had stuffed in his cabin. You reach the trees, leaning against a large, thick Oak tree and taking a deep breath, taking in all the scents the forest offers you. Your eyes scan the forest, quickly spotting several points of interest. Among the underbrush you spot a slightly trampled hare path, no doubt leading to wherever’s a good spot to graze. There’s also the stream, which you could wander along for a fair distance in search of anything worth seeing without getting lost. Finally, there’s a large oak tree with lots of strong branches. Perfect for climbing.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>WARNING! (The fake one) This story contains mature subject matter concerning teens and is meant to help said age group “experience” a problem they may encounter in their life and show the consequences of their actions if they handle it in the wrong way. There will be separate sections for boys and girls for as we all know, both genders experience different struggles during their precious formative years. If you are a pre-pubescent, you should NOT be reading this story, you should be in bed. Such mature subject matter is not for your tender young eyes. If you are an adult and you are a parent, perhaps you should “experience” this story with your teen, for they may still have further questions about the subject matter. Questions that you should provide answer for, because if you do not they may learn the wrong answers from their peers, the streets, minorities or even (gasp) the evil dirty internet! If you are an adult and NOT a parent, get the fuck out of here. You probably just want to “play” the girl path and choose all the slutty choices, you fucking pervert. It is the hope that this story may somehow help teens better deal with the problems found in this story in real life. And remember if you do turn out to be gay (boys) or sexually loose (girls) it doesn’t make you a bad person. It just means you’re going to die of AIDS and burn in hell. Now what gender are you? > You male You are a typical male teen…well maybe not entirely typical. In your current state you aren’t very popular in school. Sometimes you feel left out of things, particularly social gatherings involving girls. Maybe being popular would makes things easier and make you happier, but then you also wonder if you even belong here, as you have a hard time relating to people sometimes. Well, what are YOU going to do about it?<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The world feels empty. So lacking, so listless, so full of nothing but wasted potential. It feels strange to look upon such a place. A battle was fought here, once, long ago upon this barren ground. Nothing remains of it now. Even the bodies have long decomposed. The trees are twisted and dead. Burned black by the lightning which rained down from the heavens. There is nothing here anymore. It almost seems as if you are completely alone in the world. But who wants to be utterly alone? Can you live? Can you breathe? Can you survive? > You breathe You cannot breathe. Your body will not obey you. Perhaps you have long forgotten how, or maybe it is no longer possible. No air to breathe anymore. The enemy used chemical gases at the end of the war, burned our humanity alive. Surely, you cannot be alive. Yet you exist, you think, you can see… …and you can choose. > You try to breathe again You make an effort to breathe, to suck in air. It is useless. Why should you bother? A feeling of helplessness washes over you, and then gradually recedes. At the same time, you become aware of something taking place around you. You are moving; drifting, rather, as if carried by the wind. > You let yourself drift forward, hoping that you will be carried towards fresh air You travel slowly, and time has no meaning. You can hardly move your body at all, or what passes for your body at this point. Your limbs feel numb, but there is a certain freedom which envelops your mind. There is no change in the surrounding climate. Everything repeats, from the landscape before you to the lack of air or life upon the surface of the world. Nothing is going to change. > You wait for the current to pull you forward The current brings you forward across the surface of the earth, and you feel the wind suddenly pick up and strike you. You are propelled towards the ground with alarming speed. The rocks rise up towards you, sharp and cracked with decades of erosion. You feel your heart race in your chest. It’s an unfamiliar sensation. > You try to dodge the rocks as you fall You try with all your might to steer yourself away from the jagged rocks waiting below, but you can barely move your body at all. It feels like you are trying to move through tar. The wind is strong and rebuffs any movement you make, sending you back towards the rocks. Only precious seconds remain before you will crash into them. Faster and faster. You can see them so clearly now. Every little detail, every little piece of them, all clustered together like a makeshift sculpture. > You your body smashes into the rocks The first thing that strikes you, curiously enough, is the sensation of everything coming to an abrupt stop. No more movement. No more drifting, endlessly, through an abundance of dead space. After that, you hit the rocks hard enough for them to tear through your flesh and transform your body into a bloody mess across the surface of the earth. Or so you would have thought. There is pain, certainly. It washes across you in waves of unrelenting agony until you can barely see straight at all, but it doesn’t seem to last very long – or rather, it doesn’t seem to matter so much. Looking back on it, the real scare might have been if everything really did come to an end. The pain doesn’t matter, until it makes you pass out. Pain is what warns you of the danger, after all. What you didn’t expect was for your body to pass through the rocks relatively unharmed, as if you were nothing more than a ghost. No blood. No wounds. No broken bones. Just lots and lots of pain. > The wind has finally stopped After what seems like an eternity, the pain has lessened to the point that you feel brave enough to lift yourself off the ground. Now that the wind has gone, you no longer feel that the energy has been sapped from your body. In fact, you seem to be gathering more and more strength with every passing moment. It is an exhilarating experience, to finally be able to stand upon your feet again. You take a moment to bask in your new-found freedom, flexing your limbs until they start to feel like a part of you again. The air is stale and dusty here, and your chest heaves as you struggle to breathe it in – Breathe. You can breathe again. Here, upon the surface of the dead and blackened earth, there is sufficient air for you to breathe. You didn’t think that was possible. At the same time, you instinctively feel that you do not necessarily need to breathe to stay alive. It’s difficult to explain. Either way, it brings great comfort to your heart. The barren earth stretches far and wide before you. A dead planet, bereft of life. You don’t know what’s but there for you. Maybe there’s nothing at all. But one thing is for sure: you have regained hope, and you burn with life. The future is yours to make. Ending 2: Hope for The Future You survived the fall to the surface in the most painful way possible. Your future is left uncertain. Would you like to try again?<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The current brings you forward across the surface of the earth, and you feel the wind suddenly pick up and strike you. You are propelled towards the ground with alarming speed. The rocks rise up towards you, sharp and cracked with decades of erosion. You feel your heart race in your chest. It’s an unfamiliar sensation. > You shield your body with your hands to protect yourself Your reaction is to shield your body with your hands in preparation for impact. There is no avoiding it. You can see the jagged rocks coming up rapidly now, close enough to see every speck of dirt on their surface. You can also tell that at the speed you’re going, protecting yourself with nothing but your hands isn’t going to make a bit of difference. Terror washes over you as you fall towards the deadly rocks, looming larger and larger in your mind’s eye. Death. You fear death, or at least your body does. Does that mean you still have some sense of being alive? There is no longer any time left.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The current brings you forward across the surface of the earth, and you feel the wind suddenly pick up and strike you. You are propelled towards the ground with alarming speed. The rocks rise up towards you, sharp and cracked with decades of erosion. You feel your heart race in your chest. It’s an unfamiliar sensation. > You let yourself fall unhindered You willingly allow yourself to plummet towards the deadly rocks far below. Your mind was numb before, so there seems no rational reason to simply let yourself…die. Unless you thought for a moment that this wasn’t real, that this wasn’t going to happen, that this couldn’t happen to you. But it is happening. Perhaps death means nothing to you, or perhaps you felt that you were never truly alive. They say that life is too precious to throw away so easily. Unless you are absolutely sure, this is not a decision to make lightly.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You travel slowly, and time has no meaning. You can hardly move your body at all, or what passes for your body at this point. Your limbs feel numb, but there is a certain freedom which envelops your mind. There is no change in the surrounding climate. Everything repeats, from the landscape before you to the lack of air or life upon the surface of the world. Nothing is going to change. > You wait for something to change Nothing is going to change. You feel yourself slow down, strangely, the wind dying down around you. It seems so silent all of a sudden. Below you, the wind picks up suddenly and passes you by, sending particles of dust across the plain. You barely notice it. There is silence, and you feel almost as if you have lost the ability to hear, for the impact of complete and utter silence is earth-shattering. There is no sound so piercing as the sound of nothing at all. > You listen to the silence You listen to the sound of nothingness all around you. It envelops you. Clings to you. Embraces you. Complete and absolute silence, clutching at the last vestiges of your sanity and slowly pulling them away, piece by piece. The impact is both comforting and frightening in equal measure. The wind has become totally silent. You are no longer drifting, but stuck in limbo. You cannot hear the sound of your own breathing or your own heartbeat. There is little evidence that you are alive at all. Even so, you strain your ears to listen. You listen, and listen, and listen… The absolute silence threatens to swallow you up completely: mind, heart and soul. > You keep listening to the silence As you listen to the infinite silence, the emptiness begins to seep into you. Deeper and deeper it sinks into you, expanding to fill your mind and engulf your senses. Before long, you start to feel as if you too are part of the void. You continue to listen, and time passes you by endlessly. You begin to hear strange voices from beyond the silence. They must be calling out to you. You hear no words, only sounds without meaning. They must be speaking to you. Comforting you. Keeping you company. You cannot put words to what they are saying, but you feel almost content in their presence. The silence continues without end. What little energy you possessed is gradually leeched from your body and mind.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You listen to the sound of nothingness all around you. It envelops you. Clings to you. Embraces you. Complete and absolute silence, clutching at the last vestiges of your sanity and slowly pulling them away, piece by piece. The impact is both comforting and frightening in equal measure. The wind has become totally silent. You are no longer drifting, but stuck in limbo. You cannot hear the sound of your own breathing or your own heartbeat. There is little evidence that you are alive at all. Even so, you strain your ears to listen. You listen, and listen, and listen… The absolute silence threatens to swallow you up completely: mind, heart and soul. > You try to focus on the wind again You wait for the wind to reach you, but it has already passed you by. Nothing else happens, except that you can hear the faint sound of the wind from a great distance away. If you had some control over your body, perhaps you could follow it. Anything would be better than staying here in this void of dead silence. > You follow the sound of the wind You gradually drift back to where you were before. Within seconds, the wind starts to push you forward again, buffeting you back and forth uncomfortably. It would be simple enough to push past the wind completely before it can gain momentum. > You push back against the wind once more Taking advantage of this opportunity, you break through the wind completely and force your way towards the other side. A strange feeling is pulsing through your body, and you discover that it is no longer so difficult to move by yourself. Somehow, your muscles are now more responsive to you. Your limbs will still need some more work, but for whatever reason you are gaining greater control over your own body. Without the wind to support you, however, there is no longer anything keeping you in equilibrium. You are beginning to fall towards the surface of the earth. The ground rises up towards you at a dangerous speed. > You find something to grab onto There is nothing you can grab on to at this altitude. You flail fruitlessly in mid-air as you fall faster and faster towards the ground, still desperately trying to cling to any visible support. Even the wind fails to pick up again and save you from this fate. You plunge towards the earth, unable to stop your descent. > You fall You hit the ground with a terrific impact that runs through your entire body at once. Waves of pain wash over you, and you feel sure that the crash landing must have broken every bone in your body. Nobody could survive such a fall. Yet something is different. The pain is receding, little by little, and there is a strange freedom here on the ground that you did not have before. For some time you lie upon the dirt, waiting for the pain to disappear, not too far away from the rocks which almost killed you. Would they have killed you? Who knows if you were ever alive? It’s a wonder to say so, but you certainly feel alive. Even now. .<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Taking advantage of this opportunity, you break through the wind completely and force your way towards the other side. A strange feeling is pulsing through your body, and you discover that it is no longer so difficult to move by yourself. Somehow, your muscles are now more responsive to you. Your limbs will still need some more work, but for whatever reason you are gaining greater control over your own body. Without the wind to support you, however, there is no longer anything keeping you in equilibrium. You are beginning to fall towards the surface of the earth. The ground rises up towards you at a dangerous speed. > You shield your body with your arms and prepare for a rough landing Your instinct is to protect your head and body with your arms defensively. As the ground rushes up towards you, you have just enough time to perceive that at the speed you’re going, it won’t make much difference whether you try to protect yourself or not. Nevertheless, you decide to make the best of the situation and brace yourself for landing. It will not be a soft one.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Taking advantage of this opportunity, you break through the wind completely and force your way towards the other side. A strange feeling is pulsing through your body, and you discover that it is no longer so difficult to move by yourself. Somehow, your muscles are now more responsive to you. Your limbs will still need some more work, but for whatever reason you are gaining greater control over your own body. Without the wind to support you, however, there is no longer anything keeping you in equilibrium. You are beginning to fall towards the surface of the earth. The ground rises up towards you at a dangerous speed. > You try to find some way to slow your descent At the speed you’re plummeting to earth right now, there is very little you can do to slow your inevitable descent. The wind was the only thing keeping you up. It brings an idea to mind, however: what if you could find another strong current to slow your fall? Unfortunately, that isn’t something you can easily summon to hand. You will just have to be lucky. > You hold out hope that another strong gust of wind will catch you in time before you hit the ground You continue to plummet towards the ground. Luck does not seem to be with you after all. The only thing left to do is to protect your body with your arms in the hopes that you will survive the fall. You prepare yourself for the worst… All of a sudden, you sense a tiny gust of wind rush past your face, barely noticeable. Hardly daring to hope, you reach out for it and feel it move through your fingers. The current changes direction and moves beneath you. Within seconds, you are relieved to feel yourself slow down. That isn’t all, however: the wind current is powerful enough to take you away from this part of the landscape altogether, and you are soon travelling away at a considerable speed. Unlike before, however, you feel that you are much more in control of where you are going. > You ride the wind You travel for some distance, before feeling a lapse in the currents which guide you. They seem to be weakening as you travel further and further across the barren landscape below you. Perhaps it is a change in the temperament. At the same time, you feel a strange energy passing through your body. With the wind gradually weakening, you find that your body is much more responsive than before. You can even move your limbs to some degree, though the wind still restricts what you can do. As the current starts to lose strength, you find that you are gradually falling down towards the ground at a gentle speed. You have almost gained full control over your body now. Perhaps you can manipulate the wind to navigate exactly where you will land. The ground is barren and dead, but there are several landmarks of note. > You aim for a landing near the cliffs up north You move towards the cliffs and see that they overlook a deep gorge. Quickly, you keep your body streamlined with the wind currents so that you don’t end up going over the edge. Even if you could somehow survive the fall, there would be no way of finding your way back up again. Slowly, you drift down towards the ground and feel your feet make contact with hard rock. You have made it. The wind dies down completely, departing for good. A split second later, you feel stale and dusty air flood into your lungs. Air. You suck in a deep breath what feels like the first time in years. Here, upon the surface of a dead earth ravaged by war and plague, you can finally breathe again. The air isn’t exactly clean or fresh, but it’s better than nothing. Relief washes over you. Against the odds, you have survived what many could not. > You breathe Whether by chance or your own skill, you have succeeded in making it this far. The barren earth stretches far and wide before you. A dead planet, bereft of life. You don’t know what’s out there for you. Maybe there’s nothing at all. But one thing is for sure: you have regained hope, and you burn with life. The future is yours to make. Ending 3: Safe And Sound You survived the fall to the surface without sacrificing anything. Your future is uncertain, but you are optimistic about what awaits you. Would you like to try again?<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You travel for some distance, before feeling a lapse in the currents which guide you. They seem to be weakening as you travel further and further across the barren landscape below you. Perhaps it is a change in the temperament. At the same time, you feel a strange energy passing through your body. With the wind gradually weakening, you find that your body is much more responsive than before. You can even move your limbs to some degree, though the wind still restricts what you can do. As the current starts to lose strength, you find that you are gradually falling down towards the ground at a gentle speed. You have almost gained full control over your body now. Perhaps you can manipulate the wind to navigate exactly where you will land. The ground is barren and dead, but there are several landmarks of note. > You aim for a landing on the hillside You reach the side of the hill within half a minute, your feet touching down upon burnt grass. It’s a surprisingly pleasant feeling, considering that you haven’t experienced the touch of anything against your skin for many decades. Before you can do anything else, however, the wind unexpectedly picks up, as if sensing you are no longer in its control. There is no time to brace yourself for it. Within seconds, your body is thrown back roughly and you hurtle down the slope at a dangerous speed. Sharp rocks and pebbles are sent flying in your wake, and you can find virtually no support anywhere. > You try to grab onto the grass to stop yourself from falling You clutch at the grass on the hillside, clumps of it coming apart in your hands. Even so, the friction generated helps to slow you down to the point that you are no longer in danger. You dig your fingers into the rock and hold on for dear life, feeling yourself gradually reach a welcome stop. The stones scrape painfully against your skin, but you are able to stop yourself from falling. Before you can do anything else, the hillside starts to shake and tremble beneath your feet. You are thrown off balance and fall a short distance to the ground, slightly bruised but mostly unhurt. You scarcely have time to think before you realise that the entire hill is moving. > You pick yourself up A great rumbling is shaking the ground you stand on. Painfully, you get to your feet and see that the side of the hill is starting to lift up, as if on a lever. A curved platform of some kind, lifting up, folding away, blinking…Blinking? With a shock, you realise that a giant eyeball is lifting out of the side of the “hill”. The whole mound is shifting and rising up, revealing a monstrous creature rearing out of the earth itself. This is no hill. You have disturbed the slumber of an ancient beast concealed within the planet, lying dormant since the war. The burnt grass is torn away to reveal extended spines and a mass of scales upon the monster’s back. Quickly, you back away as the colossal beast opens up its maw to swallow you whole. Two rows of thick, razor-sharp teeth clash together with a sound that sends another tremor through the ground. A second eye snaps open to stare at you, and then a third. > You run away as fast as you can from the monster You don’t wait around to see what the monster’s going to do next. Without hesitation, you turn tail and run for your life, your heart beating hard in your chest. What kind of twisted evolution could create such a creature? This world was supposed to be long dead; monsters like that should only exist in the depths of nightmares, or consigned to fiction. What’s happening now feels almost like a nightmare in itself. As you run, you chance a glance over your shoulder. Fortunately, there is no sign of the beast following you. Perhaps it isn’t able to, or perhaps it returned to its slumber after having been so rudely awakened. Nevertheless, you decide to keep moving in case some other hellish being rears its ugly head before you. It’s a long time before you finally feel you are out of danger. The monster has been left far behind you, and the silence settles about you like an impenetrable fog. For several seconds, you stop to catch your breath and - Breathe. The revelation hits you all at once. You hadn’t realised it before in all the chaos, but you can breathe now. There is air here. The wind dies down completely, departing for good. You suck in a deep breath for what feels like the first time in years. Here, upon the surface of a dead earth ravaged by war and plague, you can finally breathe again. The air isn’t exactly clean or fresh, but it’s better than nothing. Relief washes over you. Against the odds, you have survived what many could not. > You breathe Whether by chance or your own skill, you have succeeded in making it this far. The barren earth stretches far and wide before you. A dead planet, bereft of life save for the ancient horrors that may be waiting. You don’t know what’s out there for you. Maybe there’s nothing at all. But one thing is for sure: you have regained hope, and you burn with life. The future is yours to make. Ending 4: Survivor You survived the fall to the surface without sacrificing anything, and escaped with the knowledge that dangers still lurk within the depth of the planet. Your future is uncertain, but you are optimistic about what awaits you. Would you like to try again?<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>A great rumbling is shaking the ground you stand on. Painfully, you get to your feet and see that the side of the hill is starting to lift up, as if on a lever. A curved platform of some kind, lifting up, folding away, blinking…Blinking? With a shock, you realise that a giant eyeball is lifting out of the side of the “hill”. The whole mound is shifting and rising up, revealing a monstrous creature rearing out of the earth itself. This is no hill. You have disturbed the slumber of an ancient beast concealed within the planet, lying dormant since the war. The burnt grass is torn away to reveal extended spines and a mass of scales upon the monster’s back. Quickly, you back away as the colossal beast opens up its maw to swallow you whole. Two rows of thick, razor-sharp teeth clash together with a sound that sends another tremor through the ground. A second eye snaps open to stare at you, and then a third. > You attack the beast head-on with your fists You charge at the massive beast with your puny little fists in a decidedly foolhardy and certainly suicidal course of action. The creature before you is literally as big as a hill – and that’s just its head. Possibly not all of its head, because the beast seems to be partially submerged in the earth. Another eye flicks open, and then another, and another. Close to a dozen eyes open out to stare directly at you. Honestly, you don’t know what you were thinking, but this really wasn’t a very good idea. Since you’ve decided to do this, you might as well follow through with it. > You attack one of the creature's many, many eyes Each of the creature’s eyes are bigger than your head. You swing your fist and punch an eye, or at least part of one. It feels exactly like trying to hit a brick wall, and pain courses through your hand at once. The monster doesn’t even notice what you were trying to do. (What were you trying to do?) Instead, the beast’s gigantic fanged mouth opens larger as if to swallow you up completely. If you don’t do something quickly, then you’re going to be its next meal. > You jump onto the creature's body and attempt to find a weak spot You take a flying leap onto the creature’s body, trying to dodge the many eyes that are popping up all over the place. Considering that the monster is covered with spines, this turns out to be a bad idea. You are forced to jump very precisely in order to dodge the spines, and in doing so lose your balance and start to fall. You feel a strange force pull at your body, and realise that you are slowly being dragged towards the beast’s gaping maw. Time is running out. If you’re going to run, then do it now. > You circle round to the creature's rear to take it by surprise Building up your speed, you spring around to the back of the creature’s body. There is one main problem with this course of action: the monster in front of you is literally the size of a hill, and it will take you at least ten minutes to get around it. Nevertheless, you give it a shot and make it about a fifth of the way round. Eyes are opening everywhere. There must be dozens of them now, making for a very disturbing sight indeed. Each and every one of them are focused on you. To make things worse, a second gigantic mouth is converging on you. It doesn’t matter which side you attack from: if you’re too close, the creature could easily devour you whole. Before you can do anything else, the powerful suction force on your body increases at a terrific rate. You are helpless to prevent yourself from being dragged inside the beast’s colossal mouth… > You be eaten The last thing you see before oblivion takes you is the clashing of two rows of razor-sharp teeth ripping through your flesh and tearing you asunder. There is a moment of agony, but it doesn’t last too long. You perish here, barely minutes after your arrival, within the maw of an ancient monster of the planet. Ending Five: Permadeath You survived the fall to the surface, but suffered a gruesome death with no possibility of revival. Your life had scarcely begun. Would you like to try again? <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Each of the creature’s eyes are bigger than your head. You swing your fist and punch an eye, or at least part of one. It feels exactly like trying to hit a brick wall, and pain courses through your hand at once. The monster doesn’t even notice what you were trying to do. (What were you trying to do?) Instead, the beast’s gigantic fanged mouth opens larger as if to swallow you up completely. If you don’t do something quickly, then you’re going to be its next meal. > You circle round to the creature's rear to take it by surprise Building up your speed, you spring around to the back of the creature’s body. There is one main problem with this course of action: the monster in front of you is literally the size of a hill, and it will take you at least ten minutes to get around it. Nevertheless, you give it a shot and make it about a fifth of the way round. Eyes are opening everywhere. There must be dozens of them now, making for a very disturbing sight indeed. Each and every one of them are focused on you. To make things worse, a second gigantic mouth is converging on you. It doesn’t matter which side you attack from: if you’re too close, the creature could easily devour you whole. You feel a strange force pull at your body, and realise that you are slowly being dragged towards the beast’s gaping maw. Time is running out. If you’re going to run, then do it now. > You jump onto the creature's body and attempt to find a weak spot You take a flying leap onto the creature’s body, trying to dodge the many eyes that are popping up all over the place. Considering that the monster is covered with spines, this turns out to be a bad idea. You are forced to jump very precisely in order to dodge the spines, and in doing so lose your balance and start to fall. Before you can do anything else, the powerful suction force on your body increases at a terrific rate. You are helpless to prevent yourself from being dragged inside the beast’s colossal mouth…<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You charge at the massive beast with your puny little fists in a decidedly foolhardy and certainly suicidal course of action. The creature before you is literally as big as a hill – and that’s just its head. Possibly not all of its head, because the beast seems to be partially submerged in the earth. Another eye flicks open, and then another, and another. Close to a dozen eyes open out to stare directly at you. Honestly, you don’t know what you were thinking, but this really wasn’t a very good idea. Since you’ve decided to do this, you might as well follow through with it. > You jump onto the creature's body and attempt to find a weak spot You take a flying leap onto the creature’s body, trying to dodge the many eyes that are popping up all over the place. Considering that the monster is covered with spines, this turns out to be a bad idea. You are forced to jump very precisely in order to dodge the spines, and in doing so lose your balance and start to fall. As you tumble to the ground, the beast’s gigantic fanged mouth opens larger as if to swallow you up completely. If you don’t do something quickly, then you’re going to be its next meal. > You attack one of the creature's eyes Each of the creature’s eyes are bigger than your head. You swing your fist and punch an eye, or at least part of one. It feels exactly like trying to hit a brick wall, and pain courses through your hand at once. The monster doesn’t even notice what you were trying to do. (What were you trying to do?) You feel a strange force pull at your body, and realise that you are slowly being dragged towards the beast’s gaping maw. Time is running out. If you’re going to run, then do it now.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You charge at the massive beast with your puny little fists in a decidedly foolhardy and certainly suicidal course of action. The creature before you is literally as big as a hill – and that’s just its head. Possibly not all of its head, because the beast seems to be partially submerged in the earth. Another eye flicks open, and then another, and another. Close to a dozen eyes open out to stare directly at you. Honestly, you don’t know what you were thinking, but this really wasn’t a very good idea. Since you’ve decided to do this, you might as well follow through with it. > You circle round to the creature's rear to take it by surprise Building up your speed, you spring around to the back of the creature’s body. There is one main problem with this course of action: the monster in front of you is literally the size of a hill, and it will take you at least ten minutes to get around it. Nevertheless, you give it a shot and make it about a fifth of the way round. Eyes are opening everywhere. There must be dozens of them now, making for a very disturbing sight indeed. Each and every one of them are focused on you. To make things worse, a second gigantic mouth is converging on you. It doesn’t matter which side you attack from: if you’re too close, the creature could easily devour you whole. If you don’t do something quickly, then you’re going to be its next meal.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>A great rumbling is shaking the ground you stand on. Painfully, you get to your feet and see that the side of the hill is starting to lift up, as if on a lever. A curved platform of some kind, lifting up, folding away, blinking…Blinking? With a shock, you realise that a giant eyeball is lifting out of the side of the “hill”. The whole mound is shifting and rising up, revealing a monstrous creature rearing out of the earth itself. This is no hill. You have disturbed the slumber of an ancient beast concealed within the planet, lying dormant since the war. The burnt grass is torn away to reveal extended spines and a mass of scales upon the monster’s back. Quickly, you back away as the colossal beast opens up its maw to swallow you whole. Two rows of thick, razor-sharp teeth clash together with a sound that sends another tremor through the ground. A second eye snaps open to stare at you, and then a third. > You try to communicate with the beast There are a few different methods of communication you can try. In the ten seconds remaining to you until the monster eats you, you only have time to try out one of them. > You speak to the creature in your own language You open your mouth to call out to the creature – but no sound emerges at all. Instead, what happens is altogether more bewildering. It feels like a mystical force has erupted from your mouth, surging through the air and knocking down everything in its path. The force of your soundless cry crashes right into the beast, and several pairs of eyes swivel round to stare at you. As far as you can tell, your action had no effect except to irritate the creature. Startled at what just happened, you try to call out again, but now you find that now you cannot speak at all. You have no voice with which to speak. In hindsight, perhaps it should not be surprising that you appear to have lost your voice. It has been so long since you have thought to try speaking at all. It may be a temporary loss. As to where that strange hostile force came from, however, you have no idea. It seems to be gone as well. Right now, that’s not your main concern. You now have the beast’s full attention, which is hardly a good sign. You suspect that the only reason it hasn’t devoured you yet is because it is still waking up.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>There are a few different methods of communication you can try. In the ten seconds remaining to you until the monster eats you, you only have time to try out one of them. > You roar at the creature You open your mouth to roar at the creature – and no sound emerges at all. Instead, what happens is altogether more bewildering. It feels like a mystical force has erupted from your mouth, surging through the air and knocking down everything in its path. The force of your soundless cry crashes right into the beast, and several pairs of eyes swivel round to stare at you. As far as you can tell, your action had no effect except to irritate the creature. Startled at what just happened, you try to call out again, but now you find that now you cannot make a sound at all. You have no voice with which to speak. In hindsight, perhaps it should not be surprising that you appear to have lost your voice. It has been so long since you have thought to try speaking at all. It may be a temporary loss. As to where that strange hostile force came from, however, you have no idea. It seems to be gone as well. Right now, that’s not your main concern. You now have the beast’s full attention, which is hardly a good sign. You suspect that the only reason it hasn’t devoured you yet is because it is still waking up.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>There are a few different methods of communication you can try. In the ten seconds remaining to you until the monster eats you, you only have time to try out one of them. > You communicate with hand gestures You flail your hands around fruitlessly at the colossal creature bearing down on you. Several pairs of eyes swivel around to stare at you, attracted by your colourful movements. It seems that you have succeeded only in gaining the monster’s full attention, which is hardly a good sign. You suspect that the only reason it hasn’t devoured you yet is because it is still waking up.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You reach the side of the hill within half a minute, your feet touching down upon burnt grass. It’s a surprisingly pleasant feeling, considering that you haven’t experienced the touch of anything against your skin for many decades. Before you can do anything else, however, the wind unexpectedly picks up, as if sensing you are no longer in its control. There is no time to brace yourself for it. Within seconds, your body is thrown back roughly and you hurtle down the slope at a dangerous speed. Sharp rocks and pebbles are sent flying in your wake, and you can find virtually no support anywhere. > You protect yourself with your arms to prevent any further damage to you You force yourself into a defensive crouch, protecting your head and body as best as you can. Sharp rocks and pebbles cut into your unprotected arms, causing numerous abrasions and bruises as you tumble down the hillside. There is no end to it, and it is still a long way down. In desperation, you clutch at the grass to try and stop your fall. It seems fruitless at first, but gradually you begin to slow down to the point that you are no longer in danger. You dig your fingers into the rock and hold on for dear life, feeling yourself gradually reach a welcome stop. The stones scrape painfully against your skin, but you are able to stop yourself from falling. Before you can do anything else, the hillside starts to shake and tremble beneath your feet. You are thrown off balance and fall a short distance to the ground, slightly bruised but mostly unhurt. You scarcely have time to think before you realise that the entire hill is moving.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You reach the side of the hill within half a minute, your feet touching down upon burnt grass. It’s a surprisingly pleasant feeling, considering that you haven’t experienced the touch of anything against your skin for many decades. Before you can do anything else, however, the wind unexpectedly picks up, as if sensing you are no longer in its control. There is no time to brace yourself for it. Within seconds, your body is thrown back roughly and you hurtle down the slope at a dangerous speed. Sharp rocks and pebbles are sent flying in your wake, and you can find virtually no support anywhere. > You kick out with your legs to try and slow yourself down You lash out with your legs and encounter only rocks and dirt. It helps to slow your fall somewhat, but it’s difficult to kick out when you’re falling down the hillside so fast. You try to dig your heels into the earth, and it’s some time before the resulting friction slows you down to the point that you are no longer in danger. Before you can do anything else, the hillside starts to shake and tremble beneath your feet. You are thrown off balance and fall a short distance to the ground, slightly bruised but mostly unhurt. You scarcely have time to think before you realise that the entire hill is moving.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Taking advantage of this opportunity, you break through the wind completely and force your way towards the other side. A strange feeling is pulsing through your body, and you discover that it is no longer so difficult to move by yourself. Somehow, your muscles are now more responsive to you. Your limbs will still need some more work, but for whatever reason you are gaining greater control over your own body. Without the wind to support you, however, there is no longer anything keeping you in equilibrium. You are beginning to fall towards the surface of the earth. The ground rises up towards you at a dangerous speed. > You try to find a way to maintain your current altitude The only way of maintaining your current altitude which comes to mind is to find another wind current, powerful enough to keep you airborne. As you fall, you sense a tiny gust of wind rush past your face, barely noticeable. You reach out for it and feel it move through your fingers. The current changes direction and moves beneath you. Within seconds, you are relieved to feel yourself slow down. That isn’t all, however: the wind current is powerful enough to take you away from this part of the landscape altogether, and you are soon travelling away at a considerable speed. Unlike before, however, you feel that you are much more in control of where you are going.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You travel slowly, and time has no meaning. You can hardly move your body at all, or what passes for your body at this point. Your limbs feel numb, but there is a certain freedom which envelops your mind. There is no change in the surrounding climate. Everything repeats, from the landscape before you to the lack of air or life upon the surface of the world. Nothing is going to change. > You push back against the current You find it surprisingly easy to push back against the flow of the current. The wind has weakened somewhat and you soon find yourself drifting away in the opposite direction. Even this small action enables you to gain some element of control. It would be nice to be able to live again.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You travel slowly, and time has no meaning. You can hardly move your body at all, or what passes for your body at this point. Your limbs feel numb, but there is a certain freedom which envelops your mind. There is no change in the surrounding climate. Everything repeats, from the landscape before you to the lack of air or life upon the surface of the world. Nothing is going to change. > You give up hope and wait without any expectations You wait. Nothing is going to change. The sound of the wind passes by your ears, or what passes for ears; you feel a slight movement, but nothing more. What little energy you had until now is slowly being sapped away by the never-ending emptiness of the barren world around you. Slowly, you close your eyes.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You cannot breathe. Your body will not obey you. Perhaps you have long forgotten how, or maybe it is no longer possible. No air to breathe anymore. The enemy used chemical gases at the end of the war, burned our humanity alive. Surely, you cannot be alive. Yet you exist, you think, you can see… …and you can choose. > You stop trying at all It is useless to try to breathe in this suffocating climate. You stop, and feel almost as if your body is relaxing. At this point, you become aware of something taking place around you. You are moving; drifting, rather, as if carried by the wind.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The Kingdom of Vinia is a beautiful, prosperous country that lies on the southwestern coast of the continent Belacia. While many of the surrounding countries frequently go to war with each other, Vinia has been neutral in all conflicts for centuries. Because of this, many refugees and other citizens flee to Vinia to find peace, creating a rich, diverse, and multicultural population. Vinia's captial city of Dialla is also home to the largest, most prestigious college in all of Belacia. Because of Vinia's prosperity, some other kingdoms have grown envious and show distaste towards Vinia and its people. The most notable of these enemies is the Kingdom of Niravia, Vinia's less affluent neighbor. However, while the relationship between these two countries has always been tense, it has always been been peaceful. You are Prince Alexander of Vinia, the only child of King Arien and Queen Lianne. You have grown up in the royal palace in Dialla, Vinia's seaside capital. Your parents believed it important for you to be humble, so they allowed you to go into the city and play with the common children. As a young boy, you often found yourself on the beach with the other children, calling out to the fishermen in the distance and trying to find seashells. As you got older, you and your friends often spent time in the marketplace helping merchants and listening to members of the Royal Guard tell extravagant stories. Occasionally, you would help the students at the college collect materials for their studies. You had a happy childhood. When you were of age, your parents asked you what you wanted to be as an adult. You chose to be a soldier. As a soldier, you will join the Royal Guard, where you will be trained in the art of physical combat. You will become strong of body and mind, and those traits coupled with your unmatched sword skills will make you a difficult foe to defeat. > The Story Begins You are in your bedchamber, fast asleep. You are exhausted from your training, but when a large thump is heard outside your door, you awake. What do you do? > You call out You sit up, annoyed at having been woken up, and call out, "Who's there?" The only response is an eerie silence that fills the air around you. You're beginning to wonder if you had imagined the sound when the door handle begins to turn ever so slowly. Do you... > You grab your sword You have a bad feeling about what's going on, so you grab your sword from its place next to your bed. You quietly get out of bed and get into a fighting stance, mentally preparing for what may come at you. The door handle turns completely, accentuated with a small click. Then, the door is pushed open. It gives way to nothing but a pitch black hallway. You begin to step cautiously toward the door, sword at the ready, when a small dart flies from the darkness and lands in your arm. Another follows, hitting you in the neck. You cry out as your body begins to become numb and your vision blurs. The last thing you remember is falling to the floor. > You wake up When you come to, you find yourself in the back of what appears to be a wooden cart with a large piece of cloth placed over top of you. You can hear the sound of the wooden wheels moving through the grass and dirt, the clop of a horse's hooves, and the melodious sounds of a forest. You try to move but find that your hands and feet are tied tightly with rope. There's a piece of cloth shoved in your mouth and another tied around your head (so as to prevent you from spitting out the piece in your mouth). At first you can't recall why exactly you're in the back of a wooden cart, bound and gagged, but then it all comes rushing back to you; waking up in the middle of the night, being attacked by an unknown intruder. Your mind is reeling, and you can't think of a reason why you would have been attacked in the first place. You don't think you've ever made any enemies, and your kingdom has never been hostile towards another kingdom. You think that maybe someone wanted ransom money, and thought kidnapping you would be the way to get it. That wouldn't be too far fetched. Vinia is arguably the most affluent country in Belacia, after all. Just when you think you're beginning to make sense of what's happened to you, you hear the unmistakable sound of an arrow being shot and a shout from where you presume the driver of the cart would be. There is the thud of a large object falling on the ground, and then the cart suddenly lifts on one side as the wheels of the cart run over the object--presumably the body of your kidnapper. "Clean work, boys, now let's get that cart!" you hear a gruff, booming voice yell somewhere not far from you. Was your cart being hijacked? You hear multiple voices saying calming things to the horse pulling the cart and it slowly comes to a halt. The same voice as before, closer now, says, "Alright, let's see what this poor sod had with him." Your cart had definitely just been hijacked. The cloth that is covering you is abruptly pulled off of your body, and you wince at your eyes' sudden reintroduction to sunlight. When your eyes adjust, you see a group of five or so men standing over you. They all look thuggish and dirty. They look down at you in confusion. "What's this?" the same voice as before, most likely the leader of the group, says. The man is the largest and dirtiest of all present. "Who are you?" he asks you. You... > You try to talk You attempt to say something, but the cloth in your mouth prevents you from making any intelligible sounds. "Oh, right," the leader says, as if he's just noticing the fact that you're gagged and can't answer his question. He grabs the cloth covering your mouth, allowing you to spit out the cloth in your mouth. Your mouth is dry, your throat sore from thirst. "Now then, who are you?" he asks. > You lie "My name is Alexander, I'm a knight in training from Vinia," you tell them. You don't think it would be smart to tell them who you really are. Just in case. "Well, Alexander," the leader says, "how'd you find yourself in the back of some guy's cart? Got a debt you forgot to pay?" "No, I have no idea what's going on. He just attacked me!" You tell them. Some of the men nod in understanding. The leader seems to feel sorry for you. "Well, why don't you come with us back to ou camp? We can get you fed and watered." You... > You go with them "I think I'll take you up on that offer," you tell the leader. "By the way, what's your name?" "The name's Jarven," he tells you, puffing up his chest in an attempt to look more grand. "No title?" you ask. "Nope, just Jarven," he confirms. "My boys and I roam this forest and take what we need to survive." When Jarven and "his boys" begin to walk back into the forest, you follow. You figure it isn't such a bad idea to get some food and water, and then you can try to figure out where you are and why you're there. The camp doesn't end up being that far of a walk, which you're thankful for. It's situated in a decently sized clearing, with about ten tents surrounding the perimeter--one of which looks larger and nicer than all the others--and has a large bonfire in the middle. There are about ten other men scattered around the camp when you arrive, a few of them playing a card game and the others polishing some swords. It's not the standards that you're used to, but it'll do. "Everybody," Jarven announces,"this"--he motions to you--"is Alexander. He'll be joining us for a little bit. Play nice." The men acknowledge their leader's words with a few noncommittal grunt and nods, but for the most part they ignore your presence. Jarven claps you on the shoulder and says, "Now, let's get you some food and drink, boy." Jarven leads you to the largest tent, which, although nicer than the others, is still pretty shabby. The inside has a large carpet covering the ground, a cot on the far left side, a small table next to the bed, and a circular dining table to the right. There's a large chest at the end of the bed. "Go on, have a seat," Jarven tells you, waving in the direction of the table. You do as he says. "I'll be right back." You are then left alone in Jarven's tent. You... > You look around With Jarven gone, you figure it'd be a good time to snoop around a little and get up from the table. You walk towards the chest at the end of the cot and try to open it, but it's locked. Upon further examination, you see a few things on the bedside table. There's a rolled up piece of paper, a few gold coins, a candle, and an empty cup. You're about to inspect these things further when you hear someone approaching the tent, so you quickly return to your seat at the table. When Jarven returns, he does so with a loud, "Food's ready!" and places a bowl of stew and a cup of something that might be water in front of you. It smells good, so you dig in right away. "So, Alexander," Jarven says, taking a seat across from you, "you really from Vinia?" You finish chewing your food before answering. "Yes," you tell him, "I live in Dialla." "Hm. Then why are you here?" He asks. "I told you before, the person driving the cart just kidnapped me one night. I don't even know where I am." Jarven laughs a big, bellowing belly laugh. "Well you're not in Vinia, I can tell you that much." You sigh, getting somewhat annoyed at the fact you're not getting a straight answer. "So then where am I?" "You're in Niravia." You're taken aback. "Niravia?" you ask. You feel slightly sick; Niravia is known for it depravity and poverty, and many of the knights back in Dialla have told you of the things they've experience in the country. "The one and only." Jarven chuckles when he sees the expression on your face. "Aw, come on, boy, it's not that bad. I'm sure it's not as nice as Vinia, but--" "How far are we from the border?" you cut him off. He has to think for a moment, but he finally tells you, "Twenty kilometers, about." You sigh in relief. That's not far enough too far. And Vinia is relatively small country, stretching maybe one hundred kilometers across. It's not an impossible distance to travel on foot, should you choose to do so. "I wouldn't get my hopes up if I were you, boy," Jarven says. "The journey to the border isn't an easy one. You'd probably die." > You stay with the bandits "I think you may be right," you tell Jarven. He looks pleased at your answer. "I think I'll stay here for a little while, build up my strength some more before I try to travel home." Those were your plans, but you never make it back to Dialla. After about a month of living with the bandits, the group is attacked by some military scouts. In the chaos, you manage to escape death by the sword, but you run into a pack of feral wolves not far from the fighting. This is where you meet your end. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>With Jarven gone, you figure it'd be a good time to snoop around a little and get up from the table. You walk towards the chest at the end of the cot and try to open it, but it's locked. Upon further examination, you see a few things on the bedside table. There's a rolled up piece of paper, a few gold coins, a candle, and an empty cup. You're about to inspect these things further when you hear someone approaching the tent, so you quickly return to your seat at the table. When Jarven returns, he does so with a loud, "Food's ready!" and places a bowl of stew and a cup of something that might be water in front of you. It smells good, so you dig in right away. "So, Alexander," Jarven says, taking a seat across from you, "you really from Vinia?" You finish chewing your food before answering. "Yes," you tell him, "I live in Dialla." "Hm. Then why are you here?" He asks. "I told you before, the person driving the cart just kidnapped me one night. I don't even know where I am." Jarven laughs a big, bellowing belly laugh. "Well you're not in Vinia, I can tell you that much." You sigh, getting somewhat annoyed at the fact you're not getting a straight answer. "So then where am I?" "You're in Niravia." You're taken aback. "Niravia?" you ask. You feel slightly sick; Niravia is known for it depravity and poverty, and many of the knights back in Dialla have told you of the things they've experience in the country. "The one and only." Jarven chuckles when he sees the expression on your face. "Aw, come on, boy, it's not that bad. I'm sure it's not as nice as Vinia, but--" "How far are we from the border?" you cut him off. He has to think for a moment, but he finally tells you, "Twenty kilometers, about." You sigh in relief. That's not far enough too far. And Vinia is relatively small country, stretching maybe one hundred kilometers across. It's not an impossible distance to travel on foot, should you choose to do so. "I wouldn't get my hopes up if I were you, boy," Jarven says. "The journey to the border isn't an easy one. You'd probably die." > You travel to the border "That's a risk I'm going to have to take," you tell Jarven. He sighs. "I guess I should have expected that, there's no reason for you to stay here with us. Have to say I was hoping you would, though, you look like you're a good fighter. Probably could've used you." "Thank you for everything you've done for me," you say as you finish up your stew. "I have no clue what would have happened if you and your men hadn't killed the person driving that cart I was in." "You'd probably be dead!" He laughs. You don't really know why he finds the prospect of your death so funny. Jarven then gets up and walks over to the chest at the end of his cot. "You haven't caused any trouble, so I'll give you some things to take with you. Hopefully they'll help." He then pulls a key out of his pocket and unlocks the chest. You get up and walk over, standing next to him. "Let's see..." he says to himself. "You'll need...a sword...and a canteen...and a map...and some money...and a knapsack...that should be enough." As he says each word, he pulls the corresponding item out of the chest. You're shocked by the man's generosity, but you don't question it. He stands up, holding the canteen, and turns to walk out of the tent. "I'll go grab you some food and fill this up with some water." You pick up the things Jarven had laid out for you and begin packing your knapsack. He returns with what he promised and gives the food and canteen to you. "All set?" he asks as you secure the sword to your belt. It's not as nice as the ones you have in Dialla, but it'll work if you need to defend yourself. You nod at him and he leads you out of the tent. He pulls a crumpled up piece of paper from his pocket and unfolds it, showing that it's a map. "The map you have is an exact replica of this one," he tells you. "This," he says as he points at a small triangular marking about a third of the way from the left edge of the page, "is this camp. You need to go west to reach Vinia's border. Depending on how you go, you might hit Sirra"--he points at a house marking in between the camp and the edge of the page--"where you can stay at the inn. It's kinda run down, but it's better than spending the night in the woods." "And how exactly do I reach Sirra?" you ask. "There's a path that goes straight to the border--I'll bring you there, don't worry--but it forks a little while down. If you go on the more northern route then you'll reach Sirra. The other one's a little faster, but there's no guarantee you'll find someplace to sleep. There're some houses along that way, though. Maybe someone will be feelin' hospitable." It's a lot to take in, and you hope you'll remember all the information. "Now then, let's get you to the road," Jarven says jovially, clapping you on the shoulder. He then takes you out of the camp, leading you back the way you had walked earlier. You emerge on a road, the cobblestones worn down by years of use. It was mostly just grass, really, but it was still a clear path that you could easily follow, and for that you were thankful. Jarven grabs your shoulders and turns you so you're facing one way on the path. "West," he says, and gives you a small push. You take the hint and begin walking. As you leave him behind, you hear Jarven shout, "Don't die out there, kid!" You don't intend on doing so, but at least it makes you laugh. You wave at him without turning around, your mind set on one thing: getting back to Vinia. You've only been walking for a couple of hours when the sun starts to set. You're starting to get hungry again and there's a dull ache in your feet; the rough terrain was doing you no favors. But you push forward for another fifteen minutes or so, at which point you can see the fork in the road Jarven had told you about. As you approach, you see what looks to be a sign indicating what lies in each direction, but as you get closer you see that the paint is too faded to make out. You take a swig of water from your canteen and think. The sun is setting quickly, as it always does this time of year, and the forest is quickly coming alive with foreign noises. You need to find someplace to stay for the night--the sooner the better. Do you go to the left or right? > You left You go with your gut and take the left path. Within half an hour, the forest is completely dark. The only light is that coming from the full moon overhead. As you walk, you look up at the sky and see it's littered with hundreds of stars, twinkling like small diamonds. You can't see as many stars in Dialla, what with all of the lights in the city. As beautiful as the sight is, you know you'll enjoy it more when you're safe. However, this does not happen. Having taken the left path, you have unintentionally avoided the town of Sirra, and are now stranded in the forest overnight. You grow uneasy as you push forward, the strange sounds of the forest growing louder and louder with every step you take. You think you're saved when you spot a small house along the road, and you eagerly knock on the door. An older woman opens it, and looks quite concerned by your situation, so she invites you in. She gives you a hot meal and drink, which you happily accept, but it will be your last meal. Unbeknownst to you, the woman was only interested in the supplied you carried and so put poison in your drink. The last thing you see before your vision fades is the fresh, hot meal before you. This is where you meet your end.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"That's a risk I'm going to have to take," you tell Jarven. He sighs. "I guess I should have expected that, there's no reason for you to stay here with us. Have to say I was hoping you would, though, you look like you're a good fighter. Probably could've used you." "Thank you for everything you've done for me," you say as you finish up your stew. "I have no clue what would have happened if you and your men hadn't killed the person driving that cart I was in." "You'd probably be dead!" He laughs. You don't really know why he finds the prospect of your death so funny. Jarven then gets up and walks over to the chest at the end of his cot. "You haven't caused any trouble, so I'll give you some things to take with you. Hopefully they'll help." He then pulls a key out of his pocket and unlocks the chest. You get up and walk over, standing next to him. "Let's see..." he says to himself. "You'll need...a sword...and a canteen...and a map...and some money...and a knapsack...that should be enough." As he says each word, he pulls the corresponding item out of the chest. You're shocked by the man's generosity, but you don't question it. He stands up, holding the canteen, and turns to walk out of the tent. "I'll go grab you some food and fill this up with some water." You pick up the things Jarven had laid out for you and begin packing your knapsack. He returns with what he promised and gives the food and canteen to you. "All set?" he asks as you secure the sword to your belt. It's not as nice as the ones you have in Dialla, but it'll work if you need to defend yourself. You nod at him and he leads you out of the tent. He pulls a crumpled up piece of paper from his pocket and unfolds it, showing that it's a map. "The map you have is an exact replica of this one," he tells you. "This," he says as he points at a small triangular marking about a third of the way from the left edge of the page, "is this camp. You need to go west to reach Vinia's border. Depending on how you go, you might hit Sirra"--he points at a house marking in between the camp and the edge of the page--"where you can stay at the inn. It's kinda run down, but it's better than spending the night in the woods." "And how exactly do I reach Sirra?" you ask. "There's a path that goes straight to the border--I'll bring you there, don't worry--but it forks a little while down. If you go on the more northern route then you'll reach Sirra. The other one's a little faster, but there's no guarantee you'll find someplace to sleep. There're some houses along that way, though. Maybe someone will be feelin' hospitable." It's a lot to take in, and you hope you'll remember all the information. "Now then, let's get you to the road," Jarven says jovially, clapping you on the shoulder. He then takes you out of the camp, leading you back the way you had walked earlier. You emerge on a road, the cobblestones worn down by years of use. It was mostly just grass, really, but it was still a clear path that you could easily follow, and for that you were thankful. Jarven grabs your shoulders and turns you so you're facing one way on the path. "West," he says, and gives you a small push. You take the hint and begin walking. As you leave him behind, you hear Jarven shout, "Don't die out there, kid!" You don't intend on doing so, but at least it makes you laugh. You wave at him without turning around, your mind set on one thing: getting back to Vinia. You've only been walking for a couple of hours when the sun starts to set. You're starting to get hungry again and there's a dull ache in your feet; the rough terrain was doing you no favors. But you push forward for another fifteen minutes or so, at which point you can see the fork in the road Jarven had told you about. As you approach, you see what looks to be a sign indicating what lies in each direction, but as you get closer you see that the paint is too faded to make out. You take a swig of water from your canteen and think. The sun is setting quickly, as it always does this time of year, and the forest is quickly coming alive with foreign noises. You need to find someplace to stay for the night--the sooner the better. Do you go to the left or right? > You right You decide to take the path to the right. Within half an hour, the forest is completely dark. The only light is that coming from the full moon overhead. As you walk, you look up at the sky and see it's littered with hundreds of stars, twinkling like small diamonds. You can't see as many stars in Dialla, what with all of the lights in the city. As beautiful as the sight is, you know you'll enjoy it more when you're safe. Your perseverance pays off, because a few minutes later you can see the lights of a town in the distance. You begin running down the path, eager to reach a place where you can relax a little. The town--Sirra, you presume--isn't large, but it's big enough to have a few shops and an inn. There are a decent amount of people still walking the streets, and you think that Sirra must get a lot of people passing through it since it's so close to the border. You find the inn easily enough--it's by far the largest building in the town, and most of the people on the streets are going to or coming from it. You walk in and are met with an environment far different than that found in the inns in Dialla. The room is dark and smoky with a bard at the end playing a low tune. The room is filled with people, but the conversation isn't loud and boisterous, it's almost like a quiet hum. There's a bar to the right that spans the entire side of the building, and stairs directly to your left, most likely leading to the rooms upstairs. You walk over to the bar and sit down at one of the stools. After a moment one of the workers--a stout, middle aged man with a large beard--comes over to you. "What'd you like?" he asks. He's cleaning some glasses and doesn't seem particularly interested in you. You think he might be the barkeep. "A meal and a room, please," you tell him. He laughs. "Not from around here?" "Excuse me?" You don't think you did anything that would shout to the world that you're not from the area, but this stranger obviously thinks otherwise. "You're too polite to be from Sirra," he chuckles. "But never mind that--tonight there's either rabbit stew or meat pie. What do you want?" You had stew earlier, so you go with the meat pie. The barkeep goes through a door at the far end of the bar--the kitchen, most likely--and comes back a moment later with your food. You... > You eat in silence You dig into your food eagerly. The barkeep seems to catch on that you're not in the mood for talking and leaves, going to tend to another customer. The food is good, and it fills you up quickly. When you're finished you wave the barkeep back over and hand him a few coins. "How much for the room?" you ask. "Fifteen," he tells you. You hand over the money. He counts it, looking satisfied. "You get room twenty-four. Second floor on the left." With that he leaves and goes into the kitchen. You put your remaining money back in your pocket and make for the stairs. Before you can reach them, however, a large, brutish man steps in front of you and looks down at you menacingly. You're not exactly a small person, and yet this man towers over you. "Can I help you?" you ask. You really just want to get to your room and go to sleep, not be bothered by some giant. "I don't like your face," he grunts. You're taken aback a little, because no one's ever insulted you like that before. You... > You fight him You don't take kindly to insults, so you throw the first punch, landing a solid blow to the brute's neck. He's stunned momentarily, but his fist soon slams into your jaw. You're knocked back by the force of his blow, and you crash into one of the tables behind you, your head colliding with a now-shattered plate. You feel the shards cut into your face, but pay it no mind. You get up and try to ready yourself for the fight, but the barkeep is suddenly in front of you and there are a few men holding back your attacker. "Get him out of here!" the barkeep yells. The men comply, dragging the struggling brute out of the inn. The barkeep turns to you and asks, "Are you alright?" "Yeah, I'm fine," you tell him, but the entire side of your face is throbbing. You know you'll be fine, though; you've had worse injuries than a bruised jaw before. "Head on up to your room, I'll have one of the staff bring up some water and a washcloth so you can clean those cuts." You nod and head up the stairs, the old wood creaking with every step you take. You go up to the second floor and take the second door on the left, just like the barkeep had told you. The room is small, with a bed and a side table, a small dresser in the corner, and a mirror hung on the wall above that dresser. A dim light comes from the candle on the bedside table. You place your bag on the bed and then look at yourself in the mirror. The side of your face is already starting to swell, and there are cuts on your temple and cheek from the plate you fell on. Your nose is bleeding, but you don't think it's broken. A knock on the door pulls you away from the mirror. You open it and a man is standing there, a large bowl of steaming water in his hands and a washcloth hung over his arm. He's probably around your age, with close-cut dark hair and equally dark eyes. He's smiling, but it doesn't quite look genuine. "For you," he says, extending the bowl out to you. "Thank you," you respond, taking the bowl from him. You walk it over to the dresser and put it down. When you turn around, you see he's standing right behind you, although you never heard him enter. He holds out the cloth to you. He's got the same empty smile as before, and up close you notice how hollow his eyes look as well. You begin to feel uneasy and want him to leave. Luckily, when you take the cloth from him he turns and leaves your room, closing the door behind him. Weird. You take your time washing your wounds, wanting to make sure they don't get infected, before collapsing on your bed. All at once, your fatigue and the stress of your situation hit you. You've been kidnapped, rescued by bandits, and walked god knows how long--all in one day. You're grateful for the adrenaline that must have kept you going, but now that it's worn off your limbs feel achy and tired, your eyelids heavy. Whether you wanted to or not, you slowly drift off to sleep... > You wake up You're awakened by a knock on your door. You're disoriented, having woken up suddenly, and you struggle to clear your mind of sleepiness. The room is dark, the candle on the bedside table had extinguished on its own. There's another knock, a little more urgent this time, so you stand, stretch, and walk towards the door. When you open the door, you find the same man who had delivered your water the night before. You immediately feel uncomfortable in his presence. "Sorry to wake you, but I have an urgent question," he says. "Do you have any idea what time it is?" you demand. You were still exhausted, your body weary, and you wanted to go back to sleep. The man smiled. The expression looked out of place on his face. "Don't worry, it'll take but a moment." You're about to ask what he has to ask you when he suddenly pushes you back into your room with far more force than you thought a man as scrawny as he would be able to muster. You stumble back away from the man while he closes and locks the door to your room. "What are you doing?" you shout. The man doesn't answer you, he simply pulls out a knife. You groan; is he an assassin too? You... > You try to talk to him "Hold on--" you're cut off by the dagger that now finds itself in your throat. You fall to your knees, bleeding out quickly as your vision begins to fade. This is where you meet your end.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You're awakened by a knock on your door. You're disoriented, having woken up suddenly, and you struggle to clear your mind of sleepiness. The room is dark, the candle on the bedside table had extinguished on its own. There's another knock, a little more urgent this time, so you stand, stretch, and walk towards the door. When you open the door, you find the same man who had delivered your water the night before. You immediately feel uncomfortable in his presence. "Sorry to wake you, but I have an urgent question," he says. "Do you have any idea what time it is?" you demand. You were still exhausted, your body weary, and you wanted to go back to sleep. The man smiled. The expression looked out of place on his face. "Don't worry, it'll take but a moment." You're about to ask what he has to ask you when he suddenly pushes you back into your room with far more force than you thought a man as scrawny as he would be able to muster. You stumble back away from the man while he closes and locks the door to your room. "What are you doing?" you shout. The man doesn't answer you, he simply pulls out a knife. You groan; is he an assassin too? You... > You fight back Recognizing the danger in front of you--and remembering what happened during your last encounter with an assassin--you get into a fighting stance. You see your sword in your periphery and wonder if it would be smart to try to grab it, or if you should just try to use your hands. You... > You grab your sword You figure you'll have a better chance of surviving if you have your sword, so you dash across the room towards where it lies with the rest of your supplies. However, the assassin sees what you're trying to do and jumps at you. You move to the side barely in time and make it to the dresser, where you pick up your sword. You turn to face your attacker, who is recovering from his fall. You... > You charge You want to kill this man and get it over with, so you charge at him, sword raised. You swing down powerfully where the assassin is, but at the last second he moves out of the way and you hit the floor. You pull your sword up and prepare for another attack, but it's too late. You've left your side and back completely open and the assassin takes advantage, stabbing you once in the side and again in the back. You fall to the ground as you cry out in pain. The last thing you see before you die is the assassin's empty smile.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You figure you'll have a better chance of surviving if you have your sword, so you dash across the room towards where it lies with the rest of your supplies. However, the assassin sees what you're trying to do and jumps at you. You move to the side barely in time and make it to the dresser, where you pick up your sword. You turn to face your attacker, who is recovering from his fall. You... > You take a defensive stance Knowing assassins are the masters of dishonest fighting, you get into a defensive stance and wait for the man to attack you. You had been trained how to properly defend yourself back in Dialla, so you're feeling quite good about your chances, even if you don't know how the enemy fights. The assassin regains his footing and prepares to attack, but you're ready for whatever he can throw at you. When he stabs at you you move out of the way and try to counter his attack, but he's fast and is able to move out of the way as well. The two of you do this dance until you are both exhausted, each getting a few good hits in on the other. You're thinking you've reached a stalemate when the assassin suddenly jumps at you again, knife in the air. You muster up all of your energy and jump out of the way, and then you use your momentum to swing the hilt of your sword down on the assassin's head, knocking him out momentarily and making him fall to the floor. You kick the man's dagger away from his body and stand over him. You... > You interrogate him "Who are you? Why are you trying to kill me?" You shout at the assassin. You've bested him, so now it's time to get some answers. He looks up at you, his face vaguely angry, and remains silent. "Answer me!" you demand. "Silence in life, silence in death," the assassin spits at you. "Who do you work for?" "Silence in life, silence in death." You sigh; the guy's not going to give you anything. You... > You incapacitate him Despite your frustration, you see no need to kill the assassin. He looks up at you, and furiously says, "Silence in life, silence in death." When you hear this, you find it funny. "You're not dying today," you say. You kick him in the head, hard enough to make him pass out, but not hard enough to kill him. It's then that you hear a furious knocking on the door. You walk over and unlock it before opening it, revealing the barkeep and a few other workers standing in the hallway, all with worried looks on their faces. "What the devil is going on in there?!" the barkeep shouts. When he looks behind you and sees the man lying on the floor, the color drains out of his face. "He tried to kill me," you tell him, and he drags his eyes away from the body to inspect your face. He looks as though he is unsure whether to trust you or not. "All of you, go back to your rooms," he tells the people behind you. As they wonder off, you wonder how long they've all been standing out there. The barkeep comes into your room and closes the door. "What happened?" he asks. "I think he's an assassin, he came to my door and ambushed me," you reply. The barkeep rubs his face, obviously overwhelmed by what's happening. "He was a strange one, I wouldn't be that surprised if he was a shady character." "Unfortunately I couldn't get any information out of him. All he said was 'silence in life, silence in death.'" At these words, the barkeep froze. "He said that?" he asked, looking panicked. "Yes?" The barkeep sat on the edge of the bed, looking like he very much wanted all of this not to be happening. "That's the motto of the Niravian Crows." "What does that mean? What are the Niravian Crows?" You asked. "The assassins that cater to the crown." "Oh." You couldn't make sense of this. Why would the king of Niravia target you? There had been no recent disagreement between Vinia and Niravia, nothing that would prompt an attempt to take your life. "Why would they want to kill me?" you say allowed to no one in particular. "Well who are you? You someone important?" the barkeep asks. You're contemplating how to answer when he continues, "It doesn't matter. You need to get out of here, though." You look out the sole window in the room and see that the sky is getting brighter. "Is there any way I can travel to the border? Fast?" you ask. The barkeep thinks for a moment before responding, "There might be a merchant or someone with a cart, or a horse. That'd get you there quick." "I'll look for someone then. Thank you." "Don't mention it." The barkeep waves you off and stands up. "If you want, have some breakfast before you go. But I'd get out of here as soon as possible if I were you. Just make sure to tell me when you go so I can get someone to clean up the body." With that, he leaves. You... > You have breakfast You figure you should have some food before heading out--you don't really know when your next chance to have good food is--so you gather up your things and head downstairs. There are a few people passed out around the room, but for the most part the place is empty. You think it looks different during the day, the open windows bringing in the early morning light, making the room look larger and more open. Some of the staff are cleaning off tables and preparing for the day, and the barkeep is behind the bar, cleaning dishes. You go up to the bar and take a seat. "What's for breakfast?" you ask. "Eggs and bread," he replies. "I'll have that, then." The barkeep walks back to the kitchen and emerges a few minutes later with your food. Upon smelling the delicious food you realize how much the fight with the assassin took out of you, so you dig in. "Listen," the barkeep whispers, leaning in, "there's a farmer waiting for you by the edge of the town. He's got a large cart that you can ride in. He's not going all the way to the border, but he'll get you there faster than if you were just walking." You nod. "Okay. Thank you." "Don't mention it," he says. "He wants to leave soon, though, so hurry up and eat." "Wait," you say, "Could you tell me more about the Niravian Crows?" The barkeep sighs. "There's not much more to say about them. They're assassins, hired by the crown. They do whatever they're told, even if it means they'll die." He looks at you for a moment, thinking. "You don't have assassins in Vinia?" "We don't really have a need for them," you say. The barkeep chuckles. "I doubt that, but if you say so." You're about to ask what he means when he says, "You should head out now, don't want that farmer to leave without you." "Oh, alright. Thank you for everything, really." You finish up the last of your food and stand, picking up your bag and slinging it over your shoulder. You don't know how you've gotten so lucky, really, first with Jarven and his bandits and now with the barkeep. You thought Niravia was some depraved place, but the people you've encountered have been kind, generally. You wave a final goodbye to the barkeep before leaving the inn. > You head out You leave the inn and are thrown back into the world that is Niravia. Sirra looks much different in the daylight. There are mothers and children running around the streets, some merchants set up along the sidewalk trying to sell their wares. People walk to their work, chatting with each other jovially. The sun, although just having risen, illuminates the streets. Despite the fact the town looks nothing like Dialla, it reminds you of your beloved city. The energy of the town lifts your spirits and encourages you to move toward the edge of the town. As the buildings get more and more spaced out and the people become more sparse you see a man leaning against a cart with two bulls hitched to it. When you get closer, the man calls out, "Are you the kid I'm supposed to be drivin'?" "Yessir," you tell him. The man is older, with a weathered look about him. "Alright, hop in front," he tells you, climbing onto the seat on the front of the cart. He grabs the reigns in his hands and waits until you're settled next to him to leave. The bulls aren't fast creatures, but you know they're faster than you. Plus, you won't get tired from walking. "I'm only following the main road for so long," the farmer tells you. While the path leading to Sirra had been shrouded in trees, the path was now winding through farmlands, flat and spreading for as far as the eye could see. You occasionally spot workers in some of the fields. "I'm going north, to Terrid--it's a small town on the way to the capital--so you're gonna have to walk the little bit back to the border. It's not too far, though. You can make it before sunset." "Okay." The farmer looks at you. "So tell me about yourself, boy. Got any reason for going to Vinia? Or maybe just visitin'?" "I live in Dialla," you tell him. "I'm training to be a soldier. Some...unfortunate circumstances lead me to Niravia." The farmer laughed. "I can tell ya don't wanna talk about it, it's alright, boy. But a soldier? That's excitin'!" "It is," you give a small laugh yourself, "we're trained in defending ourselves and the people, and we get to patrol the city. I've met many colorful characters." "I've always wanted to go to Dialla," the farmer confesses. "My wife went when she was little, once--said it was amazing. I've never even seen the sea." "Doesn't Niravia touch the sea? In the south?" "Yeah, but everyone says the beach there is rocky and ugly, nothin' compared to Dialla, I'm sure." "Not many places can compare to Dialla, I'm afraid," you say. "You should visit sometime, we love having guests in the city." The farmer smiled. "Maybe in the winter, when I don't have to care for the farm. I'd have to find someone to watch the animals, though. I won't ask my neighbor, that's for sure. He's a prick." You laugh. "I'm sure you'll be able to find someone." The rest of your ride with the farmer continues in the same fashion, simply talking about whatever crossed your minds. When you reach the small fork in the path, the farmer brings the cart to a stop. "Well, this is where we part ways," he says. "Go ahead and take a few vegetables for your travels. Wouldn't want ya to starve, would we?" he chuckles. "I couldn't--" "Go ahead, boy. You can repay me when I come to Dialla. What's your name? I'll ask for ya at the guards' barracks." "Just ask for Alexander," you tell him, going around to the back of the cart where the farmer's wares are. All of the fruits and vegetables look delicious, but you don't want to take too much, so you just grab a nice green apple and a ripe tomato. "Alright, Alexander, you'll be seein' me in the future!" the farmer yells as he takes off down the north road. You wave before continuing on the main road. The sun is high in the sky, so you figure it must be around noon. You walk down the seemingly endless path, the sun beating down on you with every step you take. Not long into the journey you become hungry and stop for some food, sitting on the side of the path as you munch contently on the food you received from the farmer. When you've finished, you stand up and continue on your way. You feel like you've been walking for years--your feet ache and your mind is weary with doubt--before you see your goal: the border. The border of Vinia is marked very clearly by a ten meter high stone wall. All the fatigue you had suddenly left your body and you began running for the gate at the end of the road, giddy as a child running to play. When you reach the large gates, the three guards stationed there look concerned at your happiness. "Can we help you?" one of them asks. He's the shortest of the three. "Yes," you say, catching your breath, "I would like to pass through to Vinia, please." Upon hearing you speak, the guards seem to lighten up a little. "You're from Dialla, aren't you?" one of them--the youngest--asks. You smile and nod, knowing they must have picked up on the slight accent all native Diallans have. You're shocked by how happy you are to be around your own countrymen again. "Open the gate!" the last guard--a woman--shouts, and a moment later the large gate leading into Vinia is lifted, granting you access back to your beloved land. "Lucky for you, there's a group of guards heading back to Dialla tonight. I'm sure they'd be happy to take you along," the short one tells you, pointing you towards the barracks located along the stone wall. There's a large carriage next to it, the horses not yet hitched. You sigh in relief. "Thank you," you tell the guards. The guards lead you to the barracks, where you are given a fresh meal and new clothes before being loaded on the carriage back to Dialla. You chat with the other soldiers on the ride before letting yourself drift off to sleep, dreaming of the beautiful land you have been returned to. Before you know it, you are back in Dialla. > You fast forward You have been back in Dialla for about a week, and your parents have not let you out of their sight since your return. With your help, they plan to take action in some form against Niravia. What do you do? > You send spies to investigate You decide to be cautious and utilize the spies you have at your disposal. You dispatch multiple agents to Niravia--some working in the royal palace, some living in the capital city--and wait for their feedback. It only takes a few weeks for a report to be sent to you. It claims that spies have found documents sent by the King of Niravia ordering the kidnapping and subsequent public execution of you. You and your parents barely have time to process this information when it is discovered that one of your spies has been discovered and Niravia's army marches towards the border. Now knowing that the Niravian crown planned on assassinating you to deplete your country's morale, your soldiers and citizens are filled with a passionate desire to crush this threat. All who can help in any way they are able to, so your army is well supplied and strong when it meets Niravia's. Vinia easily prospers over Niravia. The battles are violent, but the Vinian army spares as many lives as possible--it's simply their nature. When the royal family is captured, however, the king is executed and the rest of the family banished. You personally take control of Niravia and all of its assets, and with the guidance of your parents you help make the country prosperous and peaceful, although it still has its rustic charm. The end.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You have been back in Dialla for about a week, and your parents have not let you out of their sight since your return. With your help, they plan to take action in some form against Niravia. What do you do? > You send a letter to the Niravian royalty You decide to take the diplomatic route and send a polite inquiry to the Niravian crown. Within a few weeks, you receive your reply--in the form of an army marching towards Vinia. While they didn't actually tell you they planned on killing you, you think this is a pretty clear implication of their intentions, so you rally your own troops. Now knowing that the Niravian crown planned on assassinating you to deplete your country's morale, your soldiers and citizens are filled with a passionate desire to crush this threat. All who can help in any way they are able to, so your army is well supplied and strong when it meets Niravia's. Vinia easily prospers over Niravia. The battles are violent, but the Vinian army spares as many lives as possible--it's simply their nature. When the royal family is captured, however, the king is executed and the rest of the family banished. You personally take control of Niravia and all of its assets, and with the guidance of your parents you help make the country prosperous and peaceful, although it still has its rustic charm. The end.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You have been back in Dialla for about a week, and your parents have not let you out of their sight since your return. With your help, they plan to take action in some form against Niravia. What do you do? > You send an army to seize control of Niravia You throw caution to the wind and order troops to seize control of Niravia. Vinia easily prospers over Niravia, having taken them by surprise. Vinia hasn't taken part in any battle in centuries, after all. Most of the Niravians don't even put up a fight, and so many innocent lives are spared. When the royal family is captured, the king is executed and the rest of the family is banished. You personally take control of Niravia and all of its assets, and with the guidance of your parents you help make the country prosperous and peaceful, although it still has its rustic charm. The end.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You have been back in Dialla for about a week, and your parents have not let you out of their sight since your return. With your help, they plan to take action in some form against Niravia. What do you do? > You lead your troops into battle You throw caution to the wind and lead troops to into Niravia. Both countries are largely unprepared for battle, causing this new war to last for months. Many lives are lost on both sides. Unfortunately, this includes yours. You're leading your troops into the capital of Niravia when an arrow land square in your chest, knocking you off your horse and causing you to be trampled by your troops. In the end, Vinia does prosper and seizes control of Niravia. Your parents get rid of Niravia completely, opting to simply make it part of Vinia, and proceed to reform the lawless lands. Soon after your death they adopt a baby boy and name it Alexander in your honor. The end.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You have been back in Dialla for about a week, and your parents have not let you out of their sight since your return. With your help, they plan to take action in some form against Niravia. What do you do? > You forgive and forget Much to the dismay of your parents, you decide not to hold a grudge about this whole thing. You made it back safely, after all. A few weeks later, however, you discover that Niravia's army marches towards the border. Your troops are completely unprepared for the invasion, and so Niravia easily overpowers Vinia with its brutality. You and your parents are devastated by the loss of many innocent lives, so you decide together to sacrifice yourself so that this war might end. You are beheaded by the King of Niravia's own sword. Vinia is then plunged into a state of despair, and falls into ruin when the Niravian royalty does not know how to properly run the country. The end.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You have been back in Dialla for about a week, and your parents have not let you out of their sight since your return. With your help, they plan to take action in some form against Niravia. What do you do? > You assassinate the King of Niravia You decide to get even with the King of Niravia. Despite the fact you have no royal assassins like the Niravian Crows, you know you can be deceptive if you want to be. You send a letter to Niravia inviting the royals and nobles to a large peace-making ball in Dialla under the guise that you and your parents want to improve relationships with Niravia and forget all that's happened in the past. Luckily the bait is taken, and you have a spy poison the King of Niravia's wine at the end of the night, and he is found dead the next morning. You then banish the rest of the royal family and you personally take control of Niravia and all of its assets. With the guidance of your parents, you help make the country prosperous and peaceful, although it still has its rustic charm. The end.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Who are you? Why are you trying to kill me?" You shout at the assassin. You've bested him, so now it's time to get some answers. He looks up at you, his face vaguely angry, and remains silent. "Answer me!" you demand. "Silence in life, silence in death," the assassin spits at you. "Who do you work for?" "Silence in life, silence in death." You sigh; the guy's not going to give you anything. You... > You kill him You have no patience or mercy for the man on the floor in front of you, and you know that if you do not kill him now he will most certainly come after you. With little hesitation, you bury your sword in the assassin's chest, and after you do so, he lets out a weak "Silence in life, silence in death," before the life leaves his body. It's then that you hear a furious knocking on the door. You walk over and unlock it before opening it, revealing the barkeep and a few other workers standing in the hallway, all with worried looks on their faces. "What the devil is going on in there?!" the barkeep shouts. When he looks behind you and sees the man lying dead on the floor, the color drains out of his face. "He tried to kill me," you tell him, and he drags his eyes away from the body to inspect your face. He looks as though he is unsure whether to trust you or not. "All of you, go back to your rooms," he tells the people behind you. As they wonder off, you wonder how long they've all been standing out there. The barkeep comes into your room and closes the door. "What happened?" he asks. "I think he's an assassin, he came to my door and ambushed me," you reply. The barkeep rubs his face, obviously overwhelmed by what's happening. "He was a strange one, I wouldn't be that surprised if he was a shady character." "Unfortunately I couldn't get any information out of him. All he said was 'silence in life, silence in death.'" At these words, the barkeep froze. "He said that?" he asked, looking panicked. "Yes?" The barkeep sat on the edge of the bed, looking like he very much wanted all of this not to be happening. "That's the motto of the Niravian Crows." "What does that mean? What are the Niravian Crows?" You asked. "The assassins that cater to the crown." "Oh." You couldn't make sense of this. Why would the king of Niravia target you? There had been no recent disagreement between Vinia and Niravia, nothing that would prompt an attempt to take your life. "Why would they want to kill me?" you say allowed to no one in particular. "Well who are you? You someone important?" the barkeep asks. You're contemplating how to answer when he continues, "It doesn't matter. You need to get out of here, though." You look out the sole window in the room and see that the sky is getting brighter. "Is there any way I can travel to the border? Fast?" you ask. The barkeep thinks for a moment before responding, "There might be a merchant or someone with a cart, or a horse. That'd get you there quick." "I'll look for someone then. Thank you." "Don't mention it." The barkeep waves you off and stands up. "If you want, have some breakfast before you go. But I'd get out of here as soon as possible if I were you. Just make sure to tell me when you go so I can get someone to clean up the body." With that, he leaves. You...<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Recognizing the danger in front of you--and remembering what happened during your last encounter with an assassin--you get into a fighting stance. You see your sword in your periphery and wonder if it would be smart to try to grab it, or if you should just try to use your hands. You... > You fight with your fists You don't have time to grab a weapon, so you ready yourself for the assassin's attack, your fists raised. However, fists don't do much against a dagger. The assassin charges, having a significant upper hand because of his weapon. You're able to get a few good hits in, but the assassin manages to stab you in the chest with his dagger. Stunned, you stumble back and fall to the ground as you slowly lose consciousness. This is where you meet your end. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You dig into your food eagerly. The barkeep seems to catch on that you're not in the mood for talking and leaves, going to tend to another customer. The food is good, and it fills you up quickly. When you're finished you wave the barkeep back over and hand him a few coins. "How much for the room?" you ask. "Fifteen," he tells you. You hand over the money. He counts it, looking satisfied. "You get room twenty-four. Second floor on the left." With that he leaves and goes into the kitchen. You put your remaining money back in your pocket and make for the stairs. Before you can reach them, however, a large, brutish man steps in front of you and looks down at you menacingly. You're not exactly a small person, and yet this man towers over you. "Can I help you?" you ask. You really just want to get to your room and go to sleep, not be bothered by some giant. "I don't like your face," he grunts. You're taken aback a little, because no one's ever insulted you like that before. You... > You ignore him You don't want to cause any trouble, so you shrug off the boor's comment and try to walk around him. "Are you ignoring me?" he shouted, enraged. You sigh. "Listen, I really don--" You're cut off when his fist slams into your jaw. You're knocked back by the force of his blow, and you crash into one of the tables behind you, your head colliding with a now-shattered plate. You feel the shards cut into your face, but pay it no mind. You get up and try to ready yourself for the fight, but the barkeep is suddenly in front of you and there are a few men holding back your attacker. "Get him out of here!" the barkeep yells. The men comply, dragging the struggling brute out of the inn. The barkeep turns to you and asks, "Are you alright?" "Yeah, I'm fine," you tell him, but the entire side of your face is throbbing. You know you'll be fine, though; you've had worse injuries than a bruised jaw before. "Head on up to your room, I'll have one of the staff bring up some water and a washcloth so you can clean those cuts." You nod and head up the stairs, the old wood creaking with every step you take. You go up to the second floor and take the second door on the left, just like the barkeep had told you. The room is small, with a bed and a side table, a small dresser in the corner, and a mirror hung on the wall above that dresser. A dim light comes from the candle on the bedside table. You place your bag on the bed and then look at yourself in the mirror. The side of your face is already starting to swell, and there are cuts on your temple and cheek from the plate you fell on. Your nose is bleeding, but you don't think it's broken. A knock on the door pulls you away from the mirror. You open it and a man is standing there, a large bowl of steaming water in his hands and a washcloth hung over his arm. He's probably around your age, with close-cut dark hair and equally dark eyes. He's smiling, but it doesn't quite look genuine. "For you," he says, extending the bowl out to you. "Thank you," you respond, taking the bowl from him. You walk it over to the dresser and put it down. When you turn around, you see he's standing right behind you, although you never heard him enter. He holds out the cloth to you. He's got the same empty smile as before, and up close you notice how hollow his eyes look as well. You begin to feel uneasy and want him to leave. Luckily, when you take the cloth from him he turns and leaves your room, closing the door behind him. Weird. You take your time washing your wounds, wanting to make sure they don't get infected, before collapsing on your bed. All at once, your fatigue and the stress of your situation hit you. You've been kidnapped, rescued by bandits, and walked god knows how long--all in one day. You're grateful for the adrenaline that must have kept you going, but now that it's worn off your limbs feel achy and tired, your eyelids heavy. Whether you wanted to or not, you slowly drift off to sleep...<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You decide to take the path to the right. Within half an hour, the forest is completely dark. The only light is that coming from the full moon overhead. As you walk, you look up at the sky and see it's littered with hundreds of stars, twinkling like small diamonds. You can't see as many stars in Dialla, what with all of the lights in the city. As beautiful as the sight is, you know you'll enjoy it more when you're safe. Your perseverance pays off, because a few minutes later you can see the lights of a town in the distance. You begin running down the path, eager to reach a place where you can relax a little. The town--Sirra, you presume--isn't large, but it's big enough to have a few shops and an inn. There are a decent amount of people still walking the streets, and you think that Sirra must get a lot of people passing through it since it's so close to the border. You find the inn easily enough--it's by far the largest building in the town, and most of the people on the streets are going to or coming from it. You walk in and are met with an environment far different than that found in the inns in Dialla. The room is dark and smoky with a bard at the end playing a low tune. The room is filled with people, but the conversation isn't loud and boisterous, it's almost like a quiet hum. There's a bar to the right that spans the entire side of the building, and stairs directly to your left, most likely leading to the rooms upstairs. You walk over to the bar and sit down at one of the stools. After a moment one of the workers--a stout, middle aged man with a large beard--comes over to you. "What'd you like?" he asks. He's cleaning some glasses and doesn't seem particularly interested in you. You think he might be the barkeep. "A meal and a room, please," you tell him. He laughs. "Not from around here?" "Excuse me?" You don't think you did anything that would shout to the world that you're not from the area, but this stranger obviously thinks otherwise. "You're too polite to be from Sirra," he chuckles. "But never mind that--tonight there's either rabbit stew or meat pie. What do you want?" You had stew earlier, so you go with the meat pie. The barkeep goes through a door at the far end of the bar--the kitchen, most likely--and comes back a moment later with your food. You... > You strike up a conversation "So what's there to do in Sirra?" you ask the barkeep. "Not much, really. Some people go hunting in the forest, and there are a few farms to the north. It's mostly travelers that pass through, so the people who actually live here live pretty ordinary lives. Not much different than anywhere else." "It's pretty different than where I'm from." "Oh? And where's that?" he asks. "Dialla." He laughs. "I knew you were too polite to be from here. So you're a city boy?" "Yeah, part of the Royal Guard," you tell him proudly. When you say this you realize just how homesick you are. You miss your friends and your parents. But you know you're not far, so you don't let yourself get too upset. "Then how'd you find yourself here?" the barkeep says, and he actually seems somewhat interested in what you have to say. "It's a big mess," you tell him. You don't think you should just go telling people who you truly are. "I'm just trying to get back now." "Well lucky for you, Sirra's not too far from the border. If you head out early I'm sure you could make it there by noon." "I think I will, thank you." By now you've finished your meal, so you hand the barkeep a few coins. "How much for the room?" you ask. "Fifteen," he tells you. You hand over the money. He counts it, looking satisfied. "You get room twenty-four. Second floor on the left." With that he leaves and goes into the kitchen. You put your remaining money back in your pocket and make for the stairs. Before you can reach them, however, a large, brutish man steps in front of you and looks down at you menacingly. You're not exactly a small person, and yet this man towers over you. "Can I help you?" you ask. You really just want to get to your room and go to sleep, not be bothered by some giant. "I don't like your smug face," he grunts. You're taken aback a little, because no one's ever insulted you like that before. You...<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"I think I'll take you up on that offer," you tell the leader. "By the way, what's your name?" "The name's Jarven," he tells you, puffing up his chest in an attempt to look more grand. "No title?" you ask. "Nope, just Jarven," he confirms. "My boys and I roam this forest and take what we need to survive." When Jarven and "his boys" begin to walk back into the forest, you follow. You figure it isn't such a bad idea to get some food and water, and then you can try to figure out where you are and why you're there. The camp doesn't end up being that far of a walk, which you're thankful for. It's situated in a decently sized clearing, with about ten tents surrounding the perimeter--one of which looks larger and nicer than all the others--and has a large bonfire in the middle. There are about ten other men scattered around the camp when you arrive, a few of them playing a card game and the others polishing some swords. It's not the standards that you're used to, but it'll do. "Everybody," Jarven announces,"this"--he motions to you--"is Alexander. He'll be joining us for a little bit. Play nice." The men acknowledge their leader's words with a few noncommittal grunt and nods, but for the most part they ignore your presence. Jarven claps you on the shoulder and says, "Now, let's get you some food and drink, boy." Jarven leads you to the largest tent, which, although nicer than the others, is still pretty shabby. The inside has a large carpet covering the ground, a cot on the far left side, a small table next to the bed, and a circular dining table to the right. There's a large chest at the end of the bed. "Go on, have a seat," Jarven tells you, waving in the direction of the table. You do as he says. "I'll be right back." You are then left alone in Jarven's tent. You... > You sit and wait for him to return While part of you would like to take a look around, you know it would be rude. You simply sit at the table, twiddling your thumbs, for a few minutes. When Jarven returns, he does so with a loud, "Food's ready!" and places a bowl of stew and a cup of something that might be water in front of you. It smells good, so you dig in right away. "So, Alexander," Jarven says, taking a seat across from you, "you really from Vinia?" You finish chewing your food before answering. "Yes," you tell him, "I live in Dialla." "Hm. Then why are you here?" He asks. "I told you before, the person driving the cart just kidnapped me one night. I don't even know where I am." Jarven laughs a big, bellowing belly laugh. "Well you're not in Vinia, I can tell you that much." You sigh, getting somewhat annoyed at the fact you're not getting a straight answer. "So then where am I?" "You're in Niravia." You're taken aback. "Niravia?" you ask. You feel slightly sick; Niravia is known for it depravity and poverty, and many of the knights back in Dialla have told you of the things they've experience in the country. "The one and only." Jarven chuckles when he sees the expression on your face. "Aw, come on, boy, it's not that bad. I'm sure it's not as nice as Vinia, but--" "How far are we from the border?" you cut him off. He has to think for a moment, but he finally tells you, "Twenty kilometers, about." You sigh in relief. That's not far enough too far. And Vinia is relatively small country, stretching maybe one hundred kilometers across. It's not an impossible distance to travel, should you choose to do so. "I wouldn't get my hopes up if I were you, boy," Jarven says. "The journey to the border isn't an easy one. You'd probably die." Do you...<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"My name is Alexander, I'm a knight in training from Vinia," you tell them. You don't think it would be smart to tell them who you really are. Just in case. "Well, Alexander," the leader says, "how'd you find yourself in the back of some guy's cart? Got a debt you forgot to pay?" "No, I have no idea what's going on. He just attacked me!" You tell them. Some of the men nod in understanding. The leader seems to feel sorry for you. "Well, why don't you come with us back to ou camp? We can get you fed and watered." You... > You run away "I...think I'll take you up on that offer," you lie, thinking it might be better for you to get away from these people as soon as possible. You have no idea what they might actually be planning on doing with you. "By the way, what's your name?" "The name's Jarven," the leader tells you, puffing up his chest in an attempt to look more grand. "No title?" you ask. "Nope, just Jarven," he confirms. "My boys and I roam this forest and take what we need to survive." When Jarven and "his boys" begin to walk back into the forest, you get up and follow for a few steps before suddenly turning and sprinting as fast as you can in the opposite direction. You hear them calling after you, but you don't look back. You sprint through this unfamiliar forest, tripping on roots and rocks, for what feels like ages, and you eventually you have to stop to take a rest. You're lungs and throat burn and your legs are numb from running. You lean against a tree and look at your surroundings, but all you see is the emerald see of trees extending for as far as you can see. Because of your gasping for air, you fail to hear the pack of feral wolves that creep up on you from all sides. When you see the first one you know there's something wrong with it; in its eyes is a bloodlust you've never seen in any animal before. When you try to back away from it slowly, you hear the warning growls of the other wolves behind you. This is where you meet your end. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You attempt to say something, but the cloth in your mouth prevents you from making any intelligible sounds. "Oh, right," the leader says, as if he's just noticing the fact that you're gagged and can't answer his question. He grabs the cloth covering your mouth, allowing you to spit out the cloth in your mouth. Your mouth is dry, your throat sore from thirst. "Now then, who are you?" he asks. > You tell the truth "I am Prince Alexander of Vinia," you say. You see all of the men's eyes widen before they all burst out laughing. "What's so funny? Do you think I'm lying?" You demand. "You're no more the Prince of Vinia than I am the the Queen!" The leader howls with laughter. When the laughter finally dies down, he says, "I like you, Alexander. Would you like to come with us back to our camp? We can get you fed and watered." You...<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>When you come to, you find yourself in the back of what appears to be a wooden cart with a large piece of cloth placed over top of you. You can hear the sound of the wooden wheels moving through the grass and dirt, the clop of a horse's hooves, and the melodious sounds of a forest. You try to move but find that your hands and feet are tied tightly with rope. There's a piece of cloth shoved in your mouth and another tied around your head (so as to prevent you from spitting out the piece in your mouth). At first you can't recall why exactly you're in the back of a wooden cart, bound and gagged, but then it all comes rushing back to you; waking up in the middle of the night, being attacked by an unknown intruder. Your mind is reeling, and you can't think of a reason why you would have been attacked in the first place. You don't think you've ever made any enemies, and your kingdom has never been hostile towards another kingdom. You think that maybe someone wanted ransom money, and thought kidnapping you would be the way to get it. That wouldn't be too far fetched. Vinia is arguably the most affluent country in Belacia, after all. Just when you think you're beginning to make sense of what's happened to you, you hear the unmistakable sound of an arrow being shot and a shout from where you presume the driver of the cart would be. There is the thud of a large object falling on the ground, and then the cart suddenly lifts on one side as the wheels of the cart run over the object--presumably the body of your kidnapper. "Clean work, boys, now let's get that cart!" you hear a gruff, booming voice yell somewhere not far from you. Was your cart being hijacked? You hear multiple voices saying calming things to the horse pulling the cart and it slowly comes to a halt. The same voice as before, closer now, says, "Alright, let's see what this poor sod had with him." Your cart had definitely just been hijacked. The cloth that is covering you is abruptly pulled off of your body, and you wince at your eyes' sudden reintroduction to sunlight. When your eyes adjust, you see a group of five or so men standing over you. They all look thuggish and dirty. They look down at you in confusion. "What's this?" the same voice as before, most likely the leader of the group, says. The man is the largest and dirtiest of all present. "Who are you?" he asks you. You... > You glare You glare at the man. Does he not notice the gag in your mouth? The leader chuckles. "Now now, no need for the nasty look. Lemme get that cloth for you." He grabs the cloth covering your mouth, allowing you to spit out the cloth in your mouth. Your mouth is dry, your throat sore from thirst. "Now then, who are you?" he asks.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You sit up, annoyed at having been woken up, and call out, "Who's there?" The only response is an eerie silence that fills the air around you. You're beginning to wonder if you had imagined the sound when the door handle begins to turn ever so slowly. Do you... > You hide You have a bad feeling about what's going on, so you quietly get out of your bed and make your way to the large wardrobe in the corner of your room. You open its door and get inside of it. It's a bit of a tight squeeze, but you manage to close the door. You hear the small click of the door handle being turned completely followed by the slow creak of the door being opened. Now knowing that something isn't right, you cover your mouth with your hand in an attempt to quiet your breathing and stay as still as possible. Everything is silent for a few moment when the wardrobe door is suddenly flung open. An unknown intruder grabs you by the hair and slams your head into the thick wooden frame of the wardrobe. You barely register the pain before you pass out.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You sit up, annoyed at having been woken up, and call out, "Who's there?" The only response is an eerie silence that fills the air around you. You're beginning to wonder if you had imagined the sound when the door handle begins to turn ever so slowly. Do you... > You stay in bed You have a bad feeling about what's going on, but you decide to remain in your bed. It could be nothing, right? The door handle is turned completely, accentuated with a small click. The creaking sound the door makes as it is gently pushed open sends shivers down your spine. You begin to think that you should have hidden or grabbed your weapon, just in case. That's when a dart flies from the darkness, landing directly in your neck. You pull it out, but it's too late; your vision begins to fade and you lose control of your body, slumping forward onto your blankets. The last thing you see before passing out is a figure emerging from the dark hallway, walking towards your bed.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You are in your bedchamber, fast asleep. You are exhausted from your training, but when a large thump is heard outside your door, you awake. What do you do? > You stay in bed You feel a little wary of what's going on, but you're too exhausted to really care. You roll over so your back is to your door and are content to go back to sleep. As you drift off to sleep, you hear the distant click of the door handle being turned. Subconsciously you know you should care, but your sleep addled mind pushes it to the side. Suddenly you are hit over the head with a large, blunt object. You have no chance to react or fight back before everything goes black.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You are in your bedchamber, fast asleep. You are exhausted from your training, but when a large thump is heard outside your door, you awake. What do you do? > You open the door You get out of bed and walk toward the door. It's best to confront whatever's happening head on, right? However, just as you begin to reach for the door handle, it turns and the door is swung forward, straight into your face. You're shocked but still conscious as you fall back, now alert to the danger you may be in. You stand up and get into a fighting stance. A figure, clothed in all black, emerges from the darkness beyond your door. They have the look of an assassin about them. You charge forward, trying to catch the intruder off guard, but despite the fact you are superior to them in physical strength, they are faster than you and easily dodge your attack. As they do so, they stab you in the side with a small dart. You push them away and pull the dart from your side, but you can already begin to feel its affect--your side is beginning to numb and your head is getting foggy. You are a soldier, though, stubborn and a fighter by nature, so you charge your assailant once again. However, they take advantage of your disoriented state and easily stab you with two more darts. It doesn't take long for you to collapse.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You are a local swineherd in the village of Jacquescrappe and your two best friends in the whole world are your two favorite pigs "Oinky" and "Snout". You have recently finished your daily chores when you hear a terrifying scream. Your village is known for suffering frequent hit and run attacks from the creatures in the mountainside and those that get taken never come back. By the time you get there, it is already too late. And to make matters worse, it was your little sister that was taken this time. You've been dealing with this shit your whole life, but this is the last straw. Somebody has to take care of those foul beasts! You pick up a pitchfork only to be stopped by the gentle hand on your shoulder. You turn and see Brandolf the Bray gazing down at you from behind a beard that is quickly encompassing his whole face. He tells you that to stop the monsters you must focus on assassinating the Craxil, for without their leader the rest will likely vacate the area (or at least fall into disunity making them easier for the local militia to handle individually). Many other villagers have arrived on the scene and they obviously share the same sentiments as you. Seeing the looks in their eyes, Brandolf decides he's going to have to organize a council meeting to discuss the matter before anyone gets it in their mind to do anything stupid. > You to The Council Meeting Then Brandolf the Bray manages to convince the townspeople to stow their torches and pitchforks and agree to a council meeting but it is clear from everyone's faces that they would not accept any outcome that did not involve taking immediate action. Brandolf's magic may be formidible, but against a numerous and organized foe he would not get far. The townspeople (yourself included) are but farmers and peasants and would be hardpressed to slay a hackneyed donkey, let alone a monster. Most of the creatures that come out of the mountains are lumbering, humanoid creatures that stand about 10 feet tall and are covered by brown fur from head to toe. They have a hunch in their backs, and the villagers have taken to calling them humunculi. While these creatures are certainly new to you, you are warned that there are even more dangerous creatures lurking in the depths of the mountainside. Now you begin to look at the towering rockface with a mixture of curiosity and dread. "We need to deal with this Craxil thing NOW" an angry voice shouts. "How long must be culled before the royal military arrives to aid us?" Of course, the royal military they speak of is from the kingdom of Mihtana, which is a considerable distance away. "The royal military has never been willing to send any military force out to our village, why should this be any different?" This comment is true, you think. The village of Jacquescrappe is a considerable distance away from civilization and the kingdom of Mihtana sees it as being of no strategic value. Even if it was under direct threat of annihiliation, you doubt anyone would go through the trouble of committing a significant military force out to such a far away place. In fact, Brandolf is the only outsider that has bothered to help the village in a long time. The rest of the townspeople immediately begin arguing over whether they should stay and defend the land of their ancestors or simply leave. Others put forth ideas on how to trap the Craxil that are quickly dismissed by Brandolf as stupid. Suddenly, Brandolf makes an announcement. "I have a poison, aquired from an alchemist in Lima, that can kill the Craxil. Even trace amounts of this deadly substance can kill even the largest of creatures". > You listen Intently to Brandolf's Plan "The trouble is that this poison must be ingested or applied to a blade, simply splashing your opponent with it will not suffice." "But how will anyone even get that far? Without royal aid, how can anyone even hope to reach the Craxil?" At this point, many in the council are reminded of your exploits at last year's "capture the flag" contests. In fact, at every annual festival you manage to outfox your opponents, evade their numbers, and sneak up on their flag. Your success record was almost unrealistic. Suddenly, the council gets it in their minds to send you in with the poison. In fact, you're alarmed by how quickly they're all agreeing to this idea despite the fact you haven't yet. Then again, you've always sensed that as a swineherd you've never really been well liked or considered "valuable" by the townsfolk so this response isn't entirely unexpected. Nonetheless, you aren't going to go anywhere or do anything that you haven't agreed to do first. Unlike the others in the room, Brandolf has the decency to walk up and ask your opinion on the matter. He is usually dismissive of stupid ideas, but he seems to think this one might actually work. You take a moment to decide how to respond. > You accept The Offer And Begin Your Quest You resent that the rest of the village is so quick to agree to such an idea without bothering to consult you first, but these creatures carried off your sister and they are going to have to pay for that. Besides, this shit has to stop. You inform Brandolf that you agree and he smiles warmly. "Thank you young one, you are certainly bold to undertake such a suicidal mission." "Well, what choice do I have right?" He hands you the vial of poison, a short sword, a longbow, and a quiver of basic iron arrows. For once, some of the people of the village actually look at you with respect but then you realize that they are commenting on how stupid you must be under their breath. The ingrates! Still, you need to focus on the task at hand. Brandolf reminds you that the Craxil will be larger that the other creatures and that you should seek to evade rather than engage its underlings. At this point, you realize you have a problem... You stink! The stench of swine manure spreads forth like body odor of a sweaty fat girl and you realize you are going to have to do something about this if you expect to succeed in your quest. The council members may be used to it as this is a farming community, but the creatures almost certainly will not be. You are going to have to consider how you are going to go about dealing with this issue. > You try The Fancy Cologne You know that a friend of yours has recently returned from his trip to the city and brought some cologne with him. You've heard that it does wonders for a man's scent and promptly apply some from a bottle labeled "Musque". Coincidentally, it does seem rather musky. Confident in your newfound manly scent you head into the mountains and prepare to meet destiny. The wind changes direction and your enemy is aware of your position before you even reach the first plateau on the trail. It isn't long before the humunculi are upon you, ripping you from limb to limb. You tried to defend yourself with your short sword but hey... these are monsters and you've got the upper body strength of an anorexic girl. They find you to be an unsatisfying meal. THE END<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You resent that the rest of the village is so quick to agree to such an idea without bothering to consult you first, but these creatures carried off your sister and they are going to have to pay for that. Besides, this shit has to stop. You inform Brandolf that you agree and he smiles warmly. "Thank you young one, you are certainly bold to undertake such a suicidal mission." "Well, what choice do I have right?" He hands you the vial of poison, a short sword, a longbow, and a quiver of basic iron arrows. For once, some of the people of the village actually look at you with respect but then you realize that they are commenting on how stupid you must be under their breath. The ingrates! Still, you need to focus on the task at hand. Brandolf reminds you that the Craxil will be larger that the other creatures and that you should seek to evade rather than engage its underlings. At this point, you realize you have a problem... You stink! The stench of swine manure spreads forth like body odor of a sweaty fat girl and you realize you are going to have to do something about this if you expect to succeed in your quest. The council members may be used to it as this is a farming community, but the creatures almost certainly will not be. You are going to have to consider how you are going to go about dealing with this issue. > You roll Around In Mud And Grass So You Smell More "Earthy"... Like The Monsters Do You reason that many of the monsters that come down from the mountainside smell a bit "earthy" so you try rolling around in the mud and grass to try and acheive that same smell for yourself. Unfortunately, it doesn't mask the stench of the hog manure that still stains your pants and boots. It isn't long before the humunculi are aware of your presence. The villagers got to see their hero pounced on and torn apart before he even got out of sight range. Too bad. THE END<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You resent that the rest of the village is so quick to agree to such an idea without bothering to consult you first, but these creatures carried off your sister and they are going to have to pay for that. Besides, this shit has to stop. You inform Brandolf that you agree and he smiles warmly. "Thank you young one, you are certainly bold to undertake such a suicidal mission." "Well, what choice do I have right?" He hands you the vial of poison, a short sword, a longbow, and a quiver of basic iron arrows. For once, some of the people of the village actually look at you with respect but then you realize that they are commenting on how stupid you must be under their breath. The ingrates! Still, you need to focus on the task at hand. Brandolf reminds you that the Craxil will be larger that the other creatures and that you should seek to evade rather than engage its underlings. At this point, you realize you have a problem... You stink! The stench of swine manure spreads forth like body odor of a sweaty fat girl and you realize you are going to have to do something about this if you expect to succeed in your quest. The council members may be used to it as this is a farming community, but the creatures almost certainly will not be. You are going to have to consider how you are going to go about dealing with this issue. > You just Take A Bath This is a no brainer. If you want to shed the stench of pig crap then take a bath and get a change of clothes! You head down to the bathouse and a tall, dark haired girl prepares your bath. The bath is relaxing and you take special care to dawn an all tan outfit as you suspect it may help you blend in with the rockface better than your usual swineherding outfits will. When you are done, you realize you haven't any scent at all and gather up the equipment you were given at the council. It is time to go. The villagers are gathered at the base of the mountainside cheering you on as you walk forth. Despite their cheering you know they don't really give a shit about you and you question why you are still taking this kind of risk, but you move forward with it anyway. You continue up the path and reach the first plateau that overlooks the village. There are two caves that go down deeper into the rockface. You remember seeing humunculi emerge from these caves so you reason that this would be a good place to being your search. All that's left to decide is which cave you wish to enter. > The Left Cave You are quickly beginning to wish Brandolf had given you a torch, but given the nature of your quest he probably figured you didn't need to draw attention to yourself. Still, you can barely see more than a few feet in front of your face and it is only getting darker as you continue further inward. You run your hand along the right wall and move carefully, scouting each step with your foot to avoid a fall. Your heart is racing and you know that at any moment, something might come out and attack. Eventually, the cave leads into a small inner chamber with a campfire in the middle. Three humunculi are sitting around the campfire, roasting human limbs on a stick as if they were marshmellows. Fortunately, they are not aware of your presence and the campfire enables you to see there are several tunnels leading out from this chamber. On the other side of the chamber is a tunnel that goes deeper in, but you won't be able to go down this way undetected as long as the humunculi are here. There are also nondescript passsageways to the left and the right (large and small respectively) that you can reach as long as you stay in the shadows. > You sneak Down The Large Passageway You press your body firmly against the back wall of the chamber and slowly make your way over to the entrance of the large passageway on the left. Occasionally the campfire will flicker light in your general direction giving you pause, but the humunculi are totally unaware of your presence. Eventually, you manage to make it to the passageway and it doesn't take long before you reach another chamber. You are greatly disheartened by what you see up ahead. A larger than normal humunculus stands in the center of the fairly well lit chamber and judging from his tribal decor you figure he must be someone of rank. The passageway continues at the other end of the chamber, but this creature blocks your path. At the moment, he is looking off to the side and does not notice your presence. You weigh your options. > You charge Him With Your Sword Drawn. Only One Of Him After All. You may be weaker than a Japanese schoolgirl but there is only one enemy to face here and you have the element of surprise! Perhaps if this were just an ordinary humunculus this would have worked, but it becomes apparent that this well decorated character is something altogether different. His reaction time is excellent and he whirls around to back hand you before you can get within range to strike. This sends you sprawling across the floor and knocks the sword out of your hand and beyond your reach. Before you can get up, he leaps over and grasps your neck. As he squeezes the life out of you, the three from the other room come down and you quickly realize all hope is lost. There is no point in fighting now, it is simply... THE END<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You press your body firmly against the back wall of the chamber and slowly make your way over to the entrance of the large passageway on the left. Occasionally the campfire will flicker light in your general direction giving you pause, but the humunculi are totally unaware of your presence. Eventually, you manage to make it to the passageway and it doesn't take long before you reach another chamber. You are greatly disheartened by what you see up ahead. A larger than normal humunculus stands in the center of the fairly well lit chamber and judging from his tribal decor you figure he must be someone of rank. The passageway continues at the other end of the chamber, but this creature blocks your path. At the moment, he is looking off to the side and does not notice your presence. You weigh your options. > You draw Your Bow And Try To Kill Him From A Distance Before He Realizes You're Here. The room is too well lit to try and sneak past him and lunging forth at a superior foe with a short sword doesn't strike your fancy either. You decide to get creative and pull out the bow that Brandolf gave you in the council before you left. You ran a few practice shots before departing on this journey and you know you can at least hit a general target, though you'd be pretty hard pressed to achieve any kind of real accuracy. The first shot whizzes past the creatures head and into a nearby pillar of rock. His eyes go wide as he looks at the arrow then turns to look directly at you. You immediately pull back another arrow and take aim knowing this shot is going to make or break destiny. You aim for his chest as that is the broadest target available and the iron arrowhead may even reach his heart. As he lunges forth you close your eyes and release... You half expected you'd be dead by now but when you open your eyes you discover your arrow went through the creatures neck. He is now on his knees bleeding profusely and clutching his throat. Wasting no time, you finish him with your short sword, then dive into the darkest corner. The three humunculi heard the ruckus and have come down from their campfire to see what the commotion was. When they discover their fallen comrade, they go into a rage and start to look around. You dig into the corner as much as you can and clutch your sword. Two of the creatures move towards the unexplored passageway on the other side of the chamber while the third seems to be gravitating closer to your position. You begin to wonder if you should strike him by surprise while you still can or hope you can try to remain undiscovered. > You strike Now While You Have The Chance! Instinctively, you know you are going to be discovered if he gets any closer. You aren't sure how you are going to go about escaping the other two, but you are gonna have to kill this one before it gets any closer. Without warning you lunge forth and put your short sword through the creature's belly. You were actually aiming for the heart and the creature moved so I guess that says something about your swordsman skill. Nonetheless, it proved effective at killing the creature. You waste no time at all in bolting back up to the original chamber with the campsite and the other two will round the corner any second. You need to make a decision FAST! The large pathway (on the right wall as you enter) is now inexplicably barred but you can still run back outside the cave or down the passageway that was previously inaccessable due to their presence. The adrenaline floods your body and your survival instincts take over. You immediately decide to... > You run Down The Previously Inaccessable Passageway You run down the passageway that you were previously unable to get to while the three humunculi were at the campfire. Unfortunately, the humunculi have chosen the same path. You aren't sure if it is because they saw you or because of bad luck, but they are not far behind you now. You reach another chamber and find a large, demonic looking creature blocking your path. Before you can even think about how to describe this thing you feel the humunculi grab you from behind and pull you to the ground. They are about to stomp you to death when the demonic looking creature disintigrates them on the spot. "Nobody takes my prey in my domain. Tell me little thing, what are you here to do?" This thing looks like a large floating eye with multiple smaller eyes attached atop its head. You realize this thing is a beholder and soon you find yourself paralyzed in its gaze. That's what you get for staring into its eye I guess. "Answer me puny one, why are you here in my domain?" You are too terrified to answer, but this creature appears to grow irritated by your silence so you muster all the courage you've got and speak up "I'm here to slay the Craxil" you proclaim, terrified of how this creature will respond to such a bold statement. "HA! Amusing little one, someone of your strength doesn't have what it takes but it would entertain me to see how you die in the Craxil's mountains. Answer this riddle correctly, and I will permit you to continue through to the other side of my domain. Answer incorrectly, and you will share the same fate as your pursuers. Are you ready?" "As ready as I'll ever be" you squeak. "Very well!" it bellows, clearly enjoying every bit of this. "I am a vast canyon that spans beyond sight. I am without end and have been a part of every man whenever there is trouble. What am I?" > You boundless Hope "Indeed" the creature states. "You are clearly in trouble right now as you are helpless in my domain, yet like the rest of your kind you retain hope of survival somehow. I guess this means I'll have to let you through to the other side, but hear this: once you reach the other side, I'll not permit you back in so this is a one way deal. Get going." You wanted to protest as you can't guarantee you won't need to come back here later in search of the Craxil but let's face it... you aren't willing to argue with this thing either. Just stay focused on the goal and avoid unnecessary conflict with anything other than the Craxil. You cross to the other side and a gate closes behind you. The beholder gives you a look as if to say "good-bye", then turns and moves the other way. You have no choice but to move foward from here. > You time To Move Forward You are standing on a narrow plateau in the rugged mountainous region beyond your village. Unlike the brownish/tan rockface you see near your village, the rocks in this region are more redish and vibrant looking. You see a path leading forward and you decide to follow it. On the plus side, you haven't encountered any hostile creatures so far. You walk for at least a few miles and it appears to extend beyond your sight. You curse at your luck and begin to slump into depression when you realize you don't even know where to fnd this Craxil thing in the first place. You decide to build a campfire for the night, think things over, and gather some rest. As you are doing so, a strange man lumbers out from behind a large rock and begins to beg you for help. "Please, it won't take long. My caravan was beset upon by foul creatures and I fear for my families safety. You must help me!" You pause. It seems odd that a human would be up here in such a hostile region, let alone a caravan. But this is definitely the face of a human and he shows no signs of hostility. "Why are you up here anyway"? you ask. "The Craxil and his followers will kill anyone that wanders into their mountainous territory." "We got lost trying to find our way to Jacquescrappe village, perhaps you've heard of it"? "Yeah... I just came from there... but I don't think you want to go back that way, you won't get far." "Look, I don't wish to be rude, but my family is in danger and I need your help NOW!" At this point, the man turns and runs down the path. You call out to him to stop but he keeps going. You aren't sure if you would be of much help to him in battle, but you aren't sure how you would feel about abandoning him like that either. Time to decide... > You ignore The Man, There Is Something Fishy About That Fellow You decide to just ignore the man as he runs on ahead. Part of you feels like an absolute dickhead for doing this, but you sense there is something strange about how a human caravan is operating this far into the Craxil's lands in the first place. And even if it is true, the man is physically stronger than you are so what kind of help do you honestly think you can provide in a situation that has him scared? Most importantly of all... your gut tells you there is something fishy about that fellow and you think it best to let him run on ahead. You wait until he is out of sight, then wait a while longer and continue your jouney. As you continue on your journey you wonder if you made the right choice. I mean, what if the man's family really was in danger and you could have made a difference? Did you make the right call? You console yourself by reminding yourself of the importance of your own mission and how you cannot afford to take unnecessary chances. Just as you are having these thoughts, you discover the man who approached you earlier as well as four others standing in the middle of the beaten path with their heads down. It looks like you aren't done with them after all... > You what Do They Want? The man you just dismissed earlier is standing at the front of the pack. You knew there was something off about that earlier request and seeing this display only reaffirms that you were right to avoid them in the first place. They are all looking down at the ground but now he is looking up directly at you with a creepy smile on his face. "So, you saw through our little ambush scheme did you?" he sneers. "What is it you want?" "Quite simply we're aware of your quest to reach the Craxil and we are not prepared to allow it." At this point their heads begin to twist and contort and their skulls appear to come out of their mouths. It is almost as though they were never human at all but part of some kind of disguise. In fact, it is now readily apparent that this is the case. You are now looking at five maniacal looking skeletons armed with an assortment of swords and hand axes. They seem like they are eager to get things started and in fact, they are all rushing down the beaten path towards you. You turn the other way until you can decide what to do and despite what you've been told about the undead, you discover they are perfectly capable of keeping pace with you. You know you aren't going to be able to take on five of these guys and they seem intent on sticking together during the pursuit. To your left is another cave you've chosen to pass up on your journey, figuring it was just another humunculus den. Perhaps, if you are lucky, you can lose your pursuers in there. Alternatively, you could always try climbing the steep rockface off to your right. You've had plenty of climbing experience as a kid and somehow you hope these skeletons won't be able to follow you. You could also turn around and start unloading arrows into your enemies. They may be keeping pace with you, but you still have a heck of a head start and you'd wager you could release quite a few before they catch up to you. It's up to you... > You try To Lose Them In The Cave The cave is dark, and dark is good given your need for evasion. You dart forth into the cave hoping not to alert any inhabitants present inside. You know you have a good headstart on your pursuers so you take the time to quietly move in and survey your surroundings. Just inside the cave is a half eaten corpse (one of the villagers that was taken from the village a few weeks ago in fact). The stench is overpowering but you persist down the next passageway and into a large chamber with a multitude of standing rocks. Another passage off the left wall goes deeper in, but you choose instead to find a hiding place behind one of the standing rocks here. For quite a while you wait, thinking the skeletal warriors that chased you are not going to be coming. Just as you are about to stand up and leave you see them coming down the corridor. They fan out and are now scoping out all the possible hiding spots in this room so it won't be long before they find yours. You look back at the passageway on the left and notice that although they are not up, there are bars in the floor that can be raised to block the passage. You can only hope that the lever on the wall controls this mechanism. In a flash you jump up and run towards this passage. You throw up the lever and step back. The bars raise in time to stop the other four from getting in, but the lead one who tried to fool you earlier managed to get in before the bars raised and now brandishes his sword at you. In self defense you draw your own sword and prepare to thwart his advance. He is fast and it takes all your concentration just to block his attacks from hitting you. Given you are in a close range battle in a part of the cave that may or may not have other inhabitants, you don't really see much use in running. You figure you are going to have to continue this fight with your sword but another item catches your eye. Off to the side is a good size rock that would fit easily in the palm of your hand. Given the opportunity you could try and bash the skeleton in the face with it. > You sword Fight There is no time to try newfangled plans, you just need to survive. You parry his most of its attacks but take several slashes. Nothing major, but damn if it doesn't hurt and you are losing blood. You manage to land a blow against his shoulder and it goes halfway through the bone, but that doesn't stop the skeleton from fighting. In fact, before you can get your sword back out he lands a blow against your shoulder and it deals a lot more damage. You struggle to keep up with your opponent but you are losing a lot of blood now and this monster is picking up the pace. In desperation you suddenly drop any pretense of defense and lunge forth at your opponent. You bring your sword down through several ribs but this does little to phase him and now you are wide open for the final blow. Perhaps this would have gone better if you remembered that bladed weapons are only effective against enemies with flesh and blood. THE END<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The cave is dark, and dark is good given your need for evasion. You dart forth into the cave hoping not to alert any inhabitants present inside. You know you have a good headstart on your pursuers so you take the time to quietly move in and survey your surroundings. Just inside the cave is a half eaten corpse (one of the villagers that was taken from the village a few weeks ago in fact). The stench is overpowering but you persist down the next passageway and into a large chamber with a multitude of standing rocks. Another passage off the left wall goes deeper in, but you choose instead to find a hiding place behind one of the standing rocks here. For quite a while you wait, thinking the skeletal warriors that chased you are not going to be coming. Just as you are about to stand up and leave you see them coming down the corridor. They fan out and are now scoping out all the possible hiding spots in this room so it won't be long before they find yours. You look back at the passageway on the left and notice that although they are not up, there are bars in the floor that can be raised to block the passage. You can only hope that the lever on the wall controls this mechanism. In a flash you jump up and run towards this passage. You throw up the lever and step back. The bars raise in time to stop the other four from getting in, but the lead one who tried to fool you earlier managed to get in before the bars raised and now brandishes his sword at you. In self defense you draw your own sword and prepare to thwart his advance. He is fast and it takes all your concentration just to block his attacks from hitting you. Given you are in a close range battle in a part of the cave that may or may not have other inhabitants, you don't really see much use in running. You figure you are going to have to continue this fight with your sword but another item catches your eye. Off to the side is a good size rock that would fit easily in the palm of your hand. Given the opportunity you could try and bash the skeleton in the face with it. > You bash Skeleton With Rock You grab the rock you noticed earlier almost immediately, then go back to blocking your opponents attacks. The enemy is attacking fast and furious and it takes all your concentration to block. Even so, you only manage to block most of its attacks and take a few slashes. Nothing major, but you are losing blood. Eventually you see your opening and you ram the rock into the creature's skull with the full force of your adrenaline infused arm. You hear a satisfying crack as the front of the skull crumbles and the creature stumbles back. Realizing how brittle this thing must be, you grab its wrist before it can regain composure and bring the rock down again, taking off its sword arm at the elbow. Another crack at the spine for good measure and you are confident the creature is dead. The other four look on angrily and scream but the bars prevent them from doing anything about it, so you decide to move on deeper into the cave in hopes of finding another way out of here. The cave only gets darker and darker as you go in deeper and you find it odd that there are no other inhabitants in this region... until you see a pair of large white eyes staring back at you from the darkness in the next cavern. It doesn't appear willing to leave the chamber in pursuit of you, but you cannot return the way you came as the skeletons are still banging on the bars you left behind. Studying the creatures behavior a little more, you begin to suspect it is a grue. You've heard stories of grues from nearly every adventurer you've ever met. These things are the leading cause of death amongst those in the adventuring profession. Even higher than dragons, vampires, and Lindsay Lohan. In fact, while grues are believed to be organic and corporeal, no adventurer has ever actually killed one before. You struggle to remember what the adventurers told you when dealing with a grue. It has a certain weakness, but for the life of you you simply cannot remember what that is... You're going to have to guess. > A Grue's Weakness Is Garlic, you apply It To Myself Of course! Garlic! You still have some garlic powder in your pack that you use to flavor your pork rines. You douse yourself with it and make a mental note to bathe later so the other monsters don't notice your scent. You confidently walk into the dark chamber ahead, certain that the grue will flee your garlic stench. As you confidently strut through the creatures chamber you think to yourself, "Why can't all my challenges be this...." You don't get enough time to finish that thought. You were eaten by a grue. THE END<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You grab the rock you noticed earlier almost immediately, then go back to blocking your opponents attacks. The enemy is attacking fast and furious and it takes all your concentration to block. Even so, you only manage to block most of its attacks and take a few slashes. Nothing major, but you are losing blood. Eventually you see your opening and you ram the rock into the creature's skull with the full force of your adrenaline infused arm. You hear a satisfying crack as the front of the skull crumbles and the creature stumbles back. Realizing how brittle this thing must be, you grab its wrist before it can regain composure and bring the rock down again, taking off its sword arm at the elbow. Another crack at the spine for good measure and you are confident the creature is dead. The other four look on angrily and scream but the bars prevent them from doing anything about it, so you decide to move on deeper into the cave in hopes of finding another way out of here. The cave only gets darker and darker as you go in deeper and you find it odd that there are no other inhabitants in this region... until you see a pair of large white eyes staring back at you from the darkness in the next cavern. It doesn't appear willing to leave the chamber in pursuit of you, but you cannot return the way you came as the skeletons are still banging on the bars you left behind. Studying the creatures behavior a little more, you begin to suspect it is a grue. You've heard stories of grues from nearly every adventurer you've ever met. These things are the leading cause of death amongst those in the adventuring profession. Even higher than dragons, vampires, and Lindsay Lohan. In fact, while grues are believed to be organic and corporeal, no adventurer has ever actually killed one before. You struggle to remember what the adventurers told you when dealing with a grue. It has a certain weakness, but for the life of you you simply cannot remember what that is... You're going to have to guess. > A Grue's Weakness Is Noise, you Shout Loudly As you Enter Of course! Many creatures are frightened by loud noises, grues must be too! You march into the chamber singing "FRIDAY FRIDAY" as well as "MY MILKSHAKE BRINGS ALL THE BOYS TO THE YARD..." certain that this will scare the creature. Sadly, despite your frightening choice in music, the creature does not appear to be phased. You were eaten by a grue. THE END<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You grab the rock you noticed earlier almost immediately, then go back to blocking your opponents attacks. The enemy is attacking fast and furious and it takes all your concentration to block. Even so, you only manage to block most of its attacks and take a few slashes. Nothing major, but you are losing blood. Eventually you see your opening and you ram the rock into the creature's skull with the full force of your adrenaline infused arm. You hear a satisfying crack as the front of the skull crumbles and the creature stumbles back. Realizing how brittle this thing must be, you grab its wrist before it can regain composure and bring the rock down again, taking off its sword arm at the elbow. Another crack at the spine for good measure and you are confident the creature is dead. The other four look on angrily and scream but the bars prevent them from doing anything about it, so you decide to move on deeper into the cave in hopes of finding another way out of here. The cave only gets darker and darker as you go in deeper and you find it odd that there are no other inhabitants in this region... until you see a pair of large white eyes staring back at you from the darkness in the next cavern. It doesn't appear willing to leave the chamber in pursuit of you, but you cannot return the way you came as the skeletons are still banging on the bars you left behind. Studying the creatures behavior a little more, you begin to suspect it is a grue. You've heard stories of grues from nearly every adventurer you've ever met. These things are the leading cause of death amongst those in the adventuring profession. Even higher than dragons, vampires, and Lindsay Lohan. In fact, while grues are believed to be organic and corporeal, no adventurer has ever actually killed one before. You struggle to remember what the adventurers told you when dealing with a grue. It has a certain weakness, but for the life of you you simply cannot remember what that is... You're going to have to guess. > A Grue's Weakness Is It's Reflection, you Hold Up A Reflective Surface As you Enter Upon reflection you decide that a mirror would be your best bet against this creature. Grues are afraid of their reflection right? You go back and find an old iron shield half buried under dirt. It is mostly caked with crud and rust, but still operable as a ghetto-esque mirror. You hold the mirror in the direction of the grue and move along the wall looking for the next passage. Suddenly you realize the stupidity of your mistake. It's pitch black down here, how is this thing even gonna see its reflection in the first place?!? Sadly, you learn all to late that your new concerns are well founded. You were eaten by a grue. THE END<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You grab the rock you noticed earlier almost immediately, then go back to blocking your opponents attacks. The enemy is attacking fast and furious and it takes all your concentration to block. Even so, you only manage to block most of its attacks and take a few slashes. Nothing major, but you are losing blood. Eventually you see your opening and you ram the rock into the creature's skull with the full force of your adrenaline infused arm. You hear a satisfying crack as the front of the skull crumbles and the creature stumbles back. Realizing how brittle this thing must be, you grab its wrist before it can regain composure and bring the rock down again, taking off its sword arm at the elbow. Another crack at the spine for good measure and you are confident the creature is dead. The other four look on angrily and scream but the bars prevent them from doing anything about it, so you decide to move on deeper into the cave in hopes of finding another way out of here. The cave only gets darker and darker as you go in deeper and you find it odd that there are no other inhabitants in this region... until you see a pair of large white eyes staring back at you from the darkness in the next cavern. It doesn't appear willing to leave the chamber in pursuit of you, but you cannot return the way you came as the skeletons are still banging on the bars you left behind. Studying the creatures behavior a little more, you begin to suspect it is a grue. You've heard stories of grues from nearly every adventurer you've ever met. These things are the leading cause of death amongst those in the adventuring profession. Even higher than dragons, vampires, and Lindsay Lohan. In fact, while grues are believed to be organic and corporeal, no adventurer has ever actually killed one before. You struggle to remember what the adventurers told you when dealing with a grue. It has a certain weakness, but for the life of you you simply cannot remember what that is... You're going to have to guess. > A Grue's Weakness Is Light, you Make A Fire With Some Wood And Tinder Grues are afraid of light! This is why it won't leave its pitch black chamber to pursue me. Fortunately, you still have some flint and tinder. You originally brought it with the intention of building a campfire along the journey but things change I guess. You light a piece of wood and wrap a piece of torn clothing (soaked in cave water) around the middle to help prevent the flames from going to far down near your hands. You need to move fast as this is not going to last for long and you don't want to be stuck down there without light. As anticipated, the grue backs away in a feverish effort to avoid the light your flame is generating. You are pleased to see that the passageway at the end of this chamber has a faint light source at the end (although it is very far away). Hauling ass as fast as you can, you head down the tunnel towards the light source as your makeshift torch is already beginning to burn itself to completion. By the time it does, you've already made it close enough to the nearby light source that the grue wouldn't dare follow. It seems the light is being generated by a series of torches that line a set of tracks. It is then that you realize this cave is not really a cave at all but a mine occupied by numerous kobolds. You were always raised to believe that kobolds had beards and wore candles on their heads, but seeing them now you realize how ridiculous that claim actually is. Who came up with that anyway? In reality, they are like miniture lizard folk and very scrawny too (even by your scrawny standards). Staying at the edge of the light source, you decide to observe these creatures for a little while before planning a move. You are reasonably certain you could handle one or possibly even two in a fight but you most certainly can't charge in or you will be overwhelmed in an instant. Of particular notice is the kobold on the high ledge that is sporting a purple overcoat and barking orders at the laboring kobolds in whatever the hell language these things are speaking. It occurs to you that these kobolds may very well be working for the Craxil, in which case you would very much like to get your hands on that one in the purple & green coat. You tire of wandering the mountainside aimlessly, narrowly evading one death after another all the while having no idea where this Craxil actually is. Perhaps you could find some way of getting to him quietly and making him talk. There are a few problems with this plan. For starters, the torches provide plenty of illumination in this region and there are countless kobold laborers that would detect your presence and tear you to shreds if you just went in as things are now. You entertain the idea of making them chase you back to the grue, but you don't really have enough wood for another makeshift torch. Even if you were to sneak along the wall on either side, there is still enough light in there to give away your location. This is going to be tough. You observe them more and try to formulate some kind of cogent strategy when you notice a kobold has to emerge from a nearby storage chamber to bring wood to the torches. The storage chamber isn't illuminated and you didn't even notice it was there in the beginning. That gives you a couple of ideas. For one, you could hide in the storage chamber until the next kobold comes in to keep the torches going, then kill him quickly. Once the torches go out, you can head to the head kobold in charge. Alternatively, you can set the entire room on fire, which would undoubtedly create a diversion. This plan is risky given that the fire would undoubtedly light the place up quite a bit, but it would also eliminate the tinder they need to light any torches later. > You hide In The Storage Room And Kill The Kobold You sneak into the storage room and wait for almost 2 hours before the next kobold comes in. As soon as he does you plunge your sword into his back and try to silence him by holding his mouth shut with your arm. He let's out several whining and whimpering noises but nothing that seems to attact alarm. A few minutes later another kobold walks in, obviously waiting for that tinder and you manage to surprise attack that one as well. Unfortunately this plan isn't working out as well as you had planned. The torches are still going strong and now a group of three kobolds is heading towards the stock room. You hide behind the door and manage to kill the first one but the other two draw their weapons and start shouting. Soon, all the kobolds in the mine are aware of your presence and it isn't long after that that you begin to find yourself overwhelmed. You have the unique displeasure of being killed an eaten by a large number of creatures that are even weaker than you are. THE END<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Grues are afraid of light! This is why it won't leave its pitch black chamber to pursue me. Fortunately, you still have some flint and tinder. You originally brought it with the intention of building a campfire along the journey but things change I guess. You light a piece of wood and wrap a piece of torn clothing (soaked in cave water) around the middle to help prevent the flames from going to far down near your hands. You need to move fast as this is not going to last for long and you don't want to be stuck down there without light. As anticipated, the grue backs away in a feverish effort to avoid the light your flame is generating. You are pleased to see that the passageway at the end of this chamber has a faint light source at the end (although it is very far away). Hauling ass as fast as you can, you head down the tunnel towards the light source as your makeshift torch is already beginning to burn itself to completion. By the time it does, you've already made it close enough to the nearby light source that the grue wouldn't dare follow. It seems the light is being generated by a series of torches that line a set of tracks. It is then that you realize this cave is not really a cave at all but a mine occupied by numerous kobolds. You were always raised to believe that kobolds had beards and wore candles on their heads, but seeing them now you realize how ridiculous that claim actually is. Who came up with that anyway? In reality, they are like miniture lizard folk and very scrawny too (even by your scrawny standards). Staying at the edge of the light source, you decide to observe these creatures for a little while before planning a move. You are reasonably certain you could handle one or possibly even two in a fight but you most certainly can't charge in or you will be overwhelmed in an instant. Of particular notice is the kobold on the high ledge that is sporting a purple overcoat and barking orders at the laboring kobolds in whatever the hell language these things are speaking. It occurs to you that these kobolds may very well be working for the Craxil, in which case you would very much like to get your hands on that one in the purple & green coat. You tire of wandering the mountainside aimlessly, narrowly evading one death after another all the while having no idea where this Craxil actually is. Perhaps you could find some way of getting to him quietly and making him talk. There are a few problems with this plan. For starters, the torches provide plenty of illumination in this region and there are countless kobold laborers that would detect your presence and tear you to shreds if you just went in as things are now. You entertain the idea of making them chase you back to the grue, but you don't really have enough wood for another makeshift torch. Even if you were to sneak along the wall on either side, there is still enough light in there to give away your location. This is going to be tough. You observe them more and try to formulate some kind of cogent strategy when you notice a kobold has to emerge from a nearby storage chamber to bring wood to the torches. The storage chamber isn't illuminated and you didn't even notice it was there in the beginning. That gives you a couple of ideas. For one, you could hide in the storage chamber until the next kobold comes in to keep the torches going, then kill him quickly. Once the torches go out, you can head to the head kobold in charge. Alternatively, you can set the entire room on fire, which would undoubtedly create a diversion. This plan is risky given that the fire would undoubtedly light the place up quite a bit, but it would also eliminate the tinder they need to light any torches later. > You sneak Into Storage Room And Set Fire To Their Supply Of Tinder There is no point in hiding in the storage room as they may very well send more kobolds in to retrieve the tinder. Instead, you are going to set it all ablaze. Even if the distraction doesn't work well enough for you, it will only be a matter of time before the quell the fire and run out of tinder for their torch basins. You sneak in start a fire using their own flint and tinder. Soon this fire spreads to the rest of the tinder in the room (with your help of course) and you quickly find your way out of there and out of sight before the kobolds are aware of what has transpired. It isn't long before they take notice and flock over to their storage room. The taskmaster kobold keeps jumping around shouting "yip yip" or whatever the hell these things say and the other kobolds are struggling to stop the fire. You manage to slip around the corner and evade the bulk of them and you think you've found the passageway leading up towards the taskmaster kobold. In fact, you have. There's just one small problem. There are two kobolds guarding the taskmaster and you would be foolish to assume the taskmaster is unarmed so that makes three. At present, the taskmaster is clearly focused on the fire, to the point of ignoring all else, but the two guardian kobolds are still vigilant. You're going to need another plan. You consider using your bow again. You are actually pretty close to the bodyguard kobolds yet still veiled in darkness so you would not likely miss from this range. Of course, with one dead you would have to immediately focus on the other and subdue the taskmaster all in quick succession lest the entire colony become aware of your attack. Another, possibly crazier idea is to just run past the guards before they mentally register your presence, grab the taskmaster, jump from the ledge, and just run. The fall may be considerable for a kobold, but you are sure that as a human you can handle it. > You use Your Bow To Take Out The Guardians Quickly, Then Subdue The Taskmaster You are going to take advantage of the short range and the distraction you created to shoot down your target's guardians and then grabbing the target himself. You don't want to just grab him and run as you have no secluded place in mind in which to take him and you certainly don't want to alert the rest of the colony. It is decided then, you are going to have to use the element of surprise once again and make a risky move. You draw your bow and notch an arrow in the drawstring. The nearest kobold is so very close. You aim at his head and for the first time in your life the arrow actually goes where it is supposed to. The other bodyguard is so in shock at the sight of this that by the time it registers what is going on you already have another arrow drawn back and ready to go. He turns to run towards his taskmaster and you put one between his shoulderblades. Its only at this time that the taskmaster turns around and sees what has transpired. He starts shouting more of his "yip yip" nonsense but given that he had been doing that already since the fire started the other kobolds don't seem to notice anything out of the ordinary. You grab him and pull him back into the passage before the ledge, tear the purple cloth that makes his coat, bind his wrists, and search him thoroughly for any weapons. The creature looks at you in complete fear and for the first time you are truly taken back by the kind of things you are capable of. After all, you've just been an underappreciated swineherd your whole life. And a scrawny one to boot (ok, so you're still scrawny, but that's beside the point). I guess survival and stress can make people do some pretty crazy things huh? You draw your sword and let the kobold know that if he makes any unnecessary noise he'd quickly regret it. Like most leaders, he's bold in words and all coward at heart. You decide its time to begin. "Tell me what you know about the Craxil" you demand. You're clearly not used to being in such a position of dominance or control but damn if you're gonna let the kobold know that. "Yip, ok. The Craxil is the organizer, the one that unifed the scattered beastmen thoughout this region of the barren mountain range." "Why did the Craxil do this? What does it hope to accomplish?" "eee. The Craxil wants to provide for the beastmen it does! No likes hoominz that take all nice land and push us back into barren lands yip. Craxil wants some good lands too yip. Takes them from hoominz he will. You'll see" You shove your sword under his neck as if to somehow counter his claim. "What manner of creature is this Craxil you demand." "Yip. Nobody knows, least not us kobolds anyway. We's gets our orderss from the riders we does" "Riders?" "Yip, humans that serve the Craxil. Well, at least they used to be human. Now... not anymore" "The Craxil raised them as undead?!?" "Yip noes, the Craxil does not perform such foul practices. The Craxil is noble to us beasties he is. No, the Craxil spends days performing the ritual to break their mind and make them thralls." This last part terrifies you. You know mindflayers are capable of turning humans into thralls, but they can do so instantly. They don't require days and a ritual to do so. Clearly, this Craxil is indeed a creature unlike any other. You can hear the sound of kobold laborers gradually getting closer so you take the last bit of time you have to ask the most important question. "Where can I find the Craxil?" "Yip! He resides in an underground cavern accessed from the bottom of a vast canyon up north yip. Best way is Redridge Pass. Rocks will be red they wills and cactii too. Use mine shaft at end of mine that way, it takes you close. Now let's me go yip!" The voices are drawing closer and you don't have time for any further answers. You decide to execute your prisoner and stash the body so you can sneak out to the passageway without alerting the rest of the kobold colony. > You continue Sneaking To The Yours Shaft The kobolds are not alerted to your presence yet; and with most of them trying to contain the fire you started, there aren't very many standing between you and the mine shaft. You continue down along the tracks in the passageway. There are multiple passages and mining spots on both sides and even some ladders leading deeper into the ground but you follow the tracks straight as told until you reach the end of the passage. A single ladder leads up, very far up in fact. You are beginning to develop a fear of heights just looking at how high you are gonna have to climb and given that kobolds built this place you have serious reservations about how well the ladder is gonna support your weight. But what choice do you have? The skeletons and grue you left behind will certainly make it difficult to leave this place the way you came and it won't be long before the kobolds discover the bodies. You set about climbing the ladder and waste no more time thinking about it. You just do it. The ladder reaches higher and higher and higher and looking down you are soon aware of just how extensive these mining tunnels are. Still, your curiosity about kobold mining practices will have to wait. You've got a Craxil to kill and a village to save. Finally, you reach the top and fling open the hatch. > You move On With The Quest You are glad to have put that unplesant ordeal behind you and now head forth in search of the Redridge Pass. You are finally beginning to see cactii, which pleases you greatly, and the dirt/rocks are still red. You get the sense that you must be close so this Redridge Pass is going to have to be somewhere nearby or up ahead. You shudder when you realize there are rarely ever any formal signs in beastmen controlled territories so how will you know this pass when you get to it? As you ponder these thoughts you notice a small hut up ahead, along your path. Smoke rising from a brick chimney tells you someone is home though you cannot imagine what civilized being could possibly live so deep within the Craxil's territory. How would such a person get supplies? How would such a person survive out here with all the hostile creatures roaming about? Perhaps this person isn't a person at all but a hostile creature himself that for whatever reason favors the abode of humans? Despite the fact that it is still daytime, you decide to creep up and look in the window to see who is inside. All you see is a homely old man with a beard eating plumpdinberry pie in his rocking chair. An illusion you question? Or perhaps your time out here in the Craxil's territory has made you jaded. After some internal debate, you decide to go in. You've been awake for two and a half days now and eaten nothing but the pork rines you brought with you (which you are nearly depleted on). At this rate, you won't be able to put up much of a fight at all, even if you do get to the Craxil. Besides, he might know something about the Craxil or the Redrange Pass and you can't afford to be wandering around aimlessly throughout the Craxil's domain. You go back around to the front door and before you even knock the door opens... > You dun Dun Duuuuuuunnnnnnnnn!!!!!!!!! The door opens and the old man is standing there, looking at you expectantly. He is at least two feet taller than you but looks frail in his old age. He invites you in and you go in, though cautiously. The inside of his home looks pretty much like you would expect for a man of his age. A tad messy, but plenty of paintings of his family and the all too familiar old people smell. He beckons you to join him for dinner and nervously you do so. The food is tremendous though in all fairness, its been quite a while since you have had anything but the pork rines you brought with you. He fills your pack with fruits and breads and now you are starting to feel guilty about it all. This guy seems genuinely nice and you feel your guard beginning to drop, but still...you have to ask... "Why do you live out here sir? This is deep within the Craxil's territory and extraordinarily dangerous." "I've lived her since before the Craxil established itself. I'm pretty out of the way for their usual operations so they don't usually pay me much mind. Besides, I'm old. If they find me and its my time then so be it." You're taken back by this strange answer but you accept it and ask further... "If you've been here all this time, that must make you something of a hermit. Still, you ought know something about the Craxil right?" "Yes, I suppose I am something of a hermit, but only because the visions I have make people suspect I'm crazy. Still, I've sensed the Craxil in my dreams and I know it is capable of having such visions as well. That is how it is aware of you and your plans." "WHAT?!" you exclaim. You've always relied upon stealth and the element of surprise to make up for the drastic difference in power between you and your adversaries. If the Craxil is aware of you and your plans, how are you going to pull this off? "Indeed, the Craxil knows what you hope to do. But don't dispair yet, as I've seen a good deal of cleverness in you and even if it knows your coming it doesn't know when. Somehow that last statement doesn't offer you much consolation but after coming as far as you have you don't really see that you have any other choice than to stay the course. After a filling dinner you lie down on a mat and get the best sleep you've had in a long time. During this nap, you are visited by a strange dream... > You strange Dream You saw a soft mist of white and purple against a pitch black surrounding. You could sense there was something or someone in the room with you but you could not see who it was. You could not sense whether or not it was good or evil, kind or malevolent, all you could sense was its presence. It hits you that this presence is the Craxil, and it is watching you intently as you stumble around in the darkness. You sense one more presence, one which you are very familiar. It's your sister! You see her only breifly before her likeness disappears back into the darkness. You sense fear followed by supplication coming from her. You are now moving faster through the darness, stumbling over rocks and nearly twisting your ankles on rivets in the ground. But no matter how quickly you move you cannot get a visual on either your sister or the Craxil, you only sense their presence. You wake up sweating feverishly. "That was quite a dream you had young man" the old man starts. "You were shouting so loud I thought you were losing it. And here people thought I was crazy..." You aren't really sure what to make of this dream. Was it a vision or just a nightmare? Was the Craxil really watching you the whole time? And what of your sister? You last saw her being drug off by humunculi so you assumed she was dead. Could she still be alive somehow? She looked a lot different in that dream too. Not the shy, reserved younger sister you knew but rather a fierce looking warrior in battle garb. The hell is that about? Your dream seemed so vivid you can't help wondering if it was a vision, but your logical mind tells you that the power of suggestion is at work here and its all bullocks. Feeling full, refreshed, and well stocked on supplies you thank the old hermit for everything and really appreciate what he's done for you. He tells you that the Redrange Pass is just over the peak to the northwest of his hut and you immediately see what he's talking about. Its still a long way from the pass to the canyon, but you have a very clear idea of where you are going now. Once you get to the Redrange Pass you just follow it northwest of your current position and it will EVENTUALLY lead you straight to the canyon, which you're told is hard to miss. "Good luck young man, I'm rooting for you". "Thank you sir, and again I appreciate it." Nice guy. He's the first to address you as something other than "pencil arms", "scrawny one", "bone boy", or the like. You head out towards the peak and begin the lengthy climb upwards. > Up The Peak You climb the peak and though it takes a considerable amount of time to get to the top, it isn't nearly as tiring as you expected it would be. You are now standing on an even higher plateau on the mountainside and the Redridge Pass is precisely where you expected it to be. You are thrilled to have finally found the pass, which is really more of a trail than a pass, but you still have a lot further to go. As you move forward you suddenly get wind of a foul stench and hear a lot of loud, obnoxious grunting noises up ahead. You immediately get off the beaten path and find a good hiding spot. It is midday now so there isn't a lot of darkness to aid you. Still, you manage to crawl forward unseen until you see a small group of orcs. This is VERY not good you think you yourself. Orcs are exceptionally strong. Even one on one you stand no real chance of defeating one. There are about five blocking the path forward so you are going to simply have to sneak around them and continue on your journey. You've interrogated lesser creatures, but if the Craxil is commanding these creatures then just how strong is the thing? No, don't dwell on such thoughts. You need to focus. You've come this far and you're sure as hell not gonna let yourself be intimidated now. Returning to the task at hand you see a couple of different options. There is a river that runs down the middle of the orc group's position and some hollow reeds close to you. You remember one time during capture the flag where you moved through the river underwater and breathed through reeds very similar to these. That was an epic maneuver worth remembering, perhaps it will serve you again here? The orc camp and you are at the same elevation; but there is a ditch that runs from your current position, along the side of the camp, and out the other side. Presumably, if you hug the side of the ditch closest to the orcs and move along quietly they shouldn't be able to see you. Alternatively, you still have plenty of poison. Even if you applied it to all your remaining arrows, you wouldn't even have used half the bottle. Orcs are large and there are only five of them... Time for a decision. What's your plan of action? > You breathe Through Reeds And Move Slowly Underwater To The Other Side Of course! The reeds will enable you to breath from underwater. The river water is opaque so you will not be seen and because orcs have an exceptional sense of smell, this is probably the safest way to get past them without being seen. You quietly slip into the river water from a point that can't be seen by the orcs, get one of the hollow reeds to act as a snorkel, and slowly begin moving through the water. You intend to move slowly, so that if any of the orcs do notice the moving reed it will look like it is just drifting downriver. The idea is working. You can hardly see where you are going, but you got a very good look at where the river goes and the approximate distances before you got in so you have a pretty good estimate of where you are. Soon, you can hear the orcs talking and you know you must be in the middle of them now. As fate would have it, a snapping turtle decides to be a pain in the ass (literally) but despite the pain this hissing bastard is inflicting you manage to keep your cool and continue moving slowly through the river. Eventually you, make it to the other side and emerge out of the orc's view. You pat yourself on the back for that one, this maneuver is definitely one of your favorites. Just then the hissing bastard that bit your ass makes it known that he's still attached by tighting his bite and inflicting more pain. You put a drop of the poison in his mouth and within moments he's off of you and squirming on the ground. Looks like this stuff Brandolf gave you is legit after all. You massage your sore bottom and try to walk it off. There is a welt on your right butt cheek that still stings but you figure you will eventually get over it. > You get Over It And Get On With The Quest You rejoin the Redridge Pass and continue northwest towards the canyon you hope to find. You hear a shuffling noise and you could have sworn that the vines stemming from that rather bizarre looking cactus just moved. Nah, just a vine on the ground... from a cactus... on a mostly dry and rocky mountainside... makes perfect sense. You continue to rationalize this in your head as you walk along only to notice a similar movement from another cactii vine up ahead of you. Suddenly you feel one of these vines wrap itself around your left ankle and sting you. You pull and draw your sword but other vines have taken up the call as well and you are getting grabbed and stung all over. You still have limited movement with your limbs, but you are out of balance. The stingers must have injected you with something because you are feeling nausious. You need to focus and get out of this mess before you black out or you might not wake up. You look over at the cactii these vines are coming from and they have inexplicably moved closer to your position. Very close in fact. The needles jutting out from them seem to have perked up and gotten longer. Whatever these things are, they've got you and you aren't about to become their prey. You are still able to reach your sword, but with vines slowing your arm and your lack of balance you aren't sure you will be able to sever the thick vines that are holding you in place. You could always apply some poison to it first, but just reaching the poison is going to be a challenge as you've stored that in your backpack. You still have flint in your front pocket and a few pieces of tinder left, perhaps if you can get a small fire going you can push them back. Whatever you do though, it has to be quick. You can feel the venom from the many stingers affecting your mind and it is taking all your discipline to maintain your focus right now. > You just Draw Your Sword And Try To Cut Through The Vines It would take too much time and energy just to reach the backpack and rumage through it for the venom right now, and you need all the time and energy you have to try and free yourself from this trap you seem to have landed in. You are able to reach your shortsword within a short while and begin raising it against the vine holding your left arm. You bring it down as hard as you can, but with the vine holding your right arm and the others keeping you off balance, you don't cause nearly as much damage as you would like to. The same happens when you try again. You decide to start using your sword like a saw instead, running the edge of the blade back and forth against a singular point on the vine holding your left arm. It takes a while but you are about halfway through the vine when it suddenly responds. The vine recoils abit so that the part you were working on is now out of your reach. You are greatly disheartened by this, but set to work on it again in a new spot. The creature's vine responds the same way again and by now the venom has clouded your mind so much you are barely able to maintain your conciousness. You realize now that it is over. You have no idea what they did after you blacked out, because you never woke up again. THE END<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You rejoin the Redridge Pass and continue northwest towards the canyon you hope to find. You hear a shuffling noise and you could have sworn that the vines stemming from that rather bizarre looking cactus just moved. Nah, just a vine on the ground... from a cactus... on a mostly dry and rocky mountainside... makes perfect sense. You continue to rationalize this in your head as you walk along only to notice a similar movement from another cactii vine up ahead of you. Suddenly you feel one of these vines wrap itself around your left ankle and sting you. You pull and draw your sword but other vines have taken up the call as well and you are getting grabbed and stung all over. You still have limited movement with your limbs, but you are out of balance. The stingers must have injected you with something because you are feeling nausious. You need to focus and get out of this mess before you black out or you might not wake up. You look over at the cactii these vines are coming from and they have inexplicably moved closer to your position. Very close in fact. The needles jutting out from them seem to have perked up and gotten longer. Whatever these things are, they've got you and you aren't about to become their prey. You are still able to reach your sword, but with vines slowing your arm and your lack of balance you aren't sure you will be able to sever the thick vines that are holding you in place. You could always apply some poison to it first, but just reaching the poison is going to be a challenge as you've stored that in your backpack. You still have flint in your front pocket and a few pieces of tinder left, perhaps if you can get a small fire going you can push them back. Whatever you do though, it has to be quick. You can feel the venom from the many stingers affecting your mind and it is taking all your discipline to maintain your focus right now. > You apply The Poison First, Then Cut At The Vines You aren't sure if you will be able to completely sever the vines that hold you, but if you can at least cut into them, the poison should do the rest. Unfortunately, it is stored in your pack which is a little difficult to reach right now, but that isn't going to stop you from trying now is it? You pull your right hand back and the vine that holds it pulls back. Somehow, you think it might realize you are trying to get something and it seeks to keep your arm out front. You continue to pull against it with all your might but you reach a stalemate with the vine just getting your arm to your side. The venom is starting to really kick in now. In addition to being nausious you are now dizzying as well. The only thing keeping you going is your sheer determination to live. You bite and claw at the vine, you squirm, you fight, and eventually you get your arm back to your pack. You are feeling light headed and you know you don't have much time. You manage to get the vile of venom out of your backpack but in your situation that struggle took too much time and energy. You no longer have the energy and wherewithall to apply it. You black out and the vile falls uselessly to the ground. You don't know what they did after that, because you never woke up again. THE END<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You rejoin the Redridge Pass and continue northwest towards the canyon you hope to find. You hear a shuffling noise and you could have sworn that the vines stemming from that rather bizarre looking cactus just moved. Nah, just a vine on the ground... from a cactus... on a mostly dry and rocky mountainside... makes perfect sense. You continue to rationalize this in your head as you walk along only to notice a similar movement from another cactii vine up ahead of you. Suddenly you feel one of these vines wrap itself around your left ankle and sting you. You pull and draw your sword but other vines have taken up the call as well and you are getting grabbed and stung all over. You still have limited movement with your limbs, but you are out of balance. The stingers must have injected you with something because you are feeling nausious. You need to focus and get out of this mess before you black out or you might not wake up. You look over at the cactii these vines are coming from and they have inexplicably moved closer to your position. Very close in fact. The needles jutting out from them seem to have perked up and gotten longer. Whatever these things are, they've got you and you aren't about to become their prey. You are still able to reach your sword, but with vines slowing your arm and your lack of balance you aren't sure you will be able to sever the thick vines that are holding you in place. You could always apply some poison to it first, but just reaching the poison is going to be a challenge as you've stored that in your backpack. You still have flint in your front pocket and a few pieces of tinder left, perhaps if you can get a small fire going you can push them back. Whatever you do though, it has to be quick. You can feel the venom from the many stingers affecting your mind and it is taking all your discipline to maintain your focus right now. > You light A Piece Of Tinder And Wield The Flame As A Weapon You need to get out of this mess as quickly as you can. The vines are thick, you are off balance, your arms are partially restrained, and you don't have much time. You reason that in this situation your best bet is to start a fire and try to use it against the vines. You lean forward and allow the flint and tinder to fall from you and onto the ground. After a short struggle, you manage to get your hands on them and work feverishly to start a fire. You worry that lighting the tinder on fire will make it difficult to hold against your enemies without burning yourself but you do it anyway and wrap a thick piece of cloth torn from your shirt around your hand before doing so for rudimentary protection. It hurts, but not to the point of burning you thanks to the cloth material and you are far more concerned about survival. You hold the fire up close to the vine holding your left arm and it releases and recoils almost immediately. The others follow suit pretty quick, which is good as this tinder won't last much longer before it is burned to completion. You hold out what's left of it to keep these cactii away and rush away. You've managed to get away, but the venom in your system is already screwing with your head and you don't think you will get much further before blacking out. You go to the nearest area you can find without any cactii around and collapse on a large rock. You don't awaken again until nightfall, but at least you have your mind and focus back, and you are glad you weren't attacked while you were out. However, it isn't long after you awaken that you get a sickening feeling in the pit of your stomach. > You uh-Oh, What Is This? The bad feeling in the pit of your stomach returns and you realize that eating all those pork rines and only pork rines for several days until seeing the old man did not do your digestive system any good. You spring into action, find a secluded corner, and relieve the mess that was building up inside you. Unfortunately, it is not until after this messy endeaver that you remember you neglected to pack bottom tissue when you left on this quest. You've braved many dangers and survived several impossible situations but now you are going to have to make a decision. A decision that is more frightening than any you have made before. To your left are large, round, orange leaves. They aren't brittle and look as though they might work. To your right are a bunch of ferns sporting three fingered leaves. These are green with red spots. It's time to make an all important decision. > You wipe With The Large, Round, Orange Leaves You choose to wipe with the large, round, orange leaves and you find them quite well suited for the task. With your keister sanitized you have now averted another dangerous situation and decide to continue on with your quest. The next three days of travel down the Redridge Pass are surprisingly uneventful. You sneak past the occasional orc patrol and wild animal but nothing particularly difficult. You half expect something to come jumping out at you from the darkness or to find some large camp around the corner but to your plesant surprise the way seems more or less clear. Part of you wonders if it is a trap given the Craxil knows you are coming but then ... what choice do you have? As you come up a steep incline you look down and with great satisfaction you find what you've been searching for all this time. A colossal chasm, the canyon you've been searching for! The old man said you would know it when you see it and damn if he wasn't right about that! Still, this canyon is freaking huge. It will take probably half a day just to get down to the bottom safely and once down there, there is a LOT to explore. You know the underground cavern that houses the Craxil is accessed somewhere down there, so I guess you don't have much choice than to go down there and investigate huh? You are about to cautiously decend when you hear the sound of hoofprints behind you... > You turn Around You turn around to confront the source of the hoofprint noise and you see two humans on horseback. Their eyes appear to be in a glaze and they are looking right at you. Thing is, you recognize these two. They were farmhands that were captured a few weeks back. Everyone assumed they were eaten like most of the people who are taken. For some reason the Craxil must have decided to make them thralls and this is abundantly clear in their appearance. These must be some of the "riders" you've heard about. They both hop down from their horses and draw swords. Given you were already standing at the edge of the canyon when they showed up, you don't have a lot of room to maneuver. You know that before they became thralls they didn't really possess much fighting skill, but you have no idea now. You don't have much time to decide what to do here. There is a small gap between the two of them and they are widening it in an attempt to come at you from both sides. Perhaps you should bolt between them and try to get away. Alternatively, there is a branch sticking out of the wall of the canyon not far below you. You could jump down to it and try to climb down the wall of the canyon to a safer ledge. Either way, you need to get away from these two. > You run Between Them You make a break for it and dash between them. You catch an unpleasant slash across the right hip and it is bleeding but you are still alive and running and that's what counts. You contine down the Redridge Pass, determined to lose them and double back somehow. Its only when you hear the hoofprints getting closer that you realize the tactical error you've just made. The horseback riders quickly catch up to you and one of them puts his sword into the back of your head as he rides by. THE END<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|> You turn around to confront the source of the hoofprint noise and you see two humans on horseback. Their eyes appear to be in a glaze and they are looking right at you. Thing is, you recognize these two. They were farmhands that were captured a few weeks back. Everyone assumed they were eaten like most of the people who are taken. For some reason the Craxil must have decided to make them thralls and this is abundantly clear in their appearance. These must be some of the "riders" you've heard about. They both hop down from their horses and draw swords. Given you were already standing at the edge of the canyon when they showed up, you don't have a lot of room to maneuver. You know that before they became thralls they didn't really possess much fighting skill, but you have no idea now. You don't have much time to decide what to do here. There is a small gap between the two of them and they are widening it in an attempt to come at you from both sides. Perhaps you should bolt between them and try to get away. Alternatively, there is a branch sticking out of the wall of the canyon not far below you. You could jump down to it and try to climb down the wall of the canyon to a safer ledge. Either way, you need to get away from these two. > You jump To Branch And Climb Down You aren't going to be able to outrun them if they have horses so you take the only option you got and jump. You are scared out of your mind but you successfully grapple the hanging branch and the two riders can do nothing but glare down at you and growl. The tricky part is getting down from here. You have never really been afraid of heights but you are REALLY high up. The nearest ledge is almost halfway down the canyon and the rockface isn't easily climbable. Still, you don't have much of a choice so you try anyway. You make it most of the way down until one of the groves you were holding onto comes out and you fall. Thankfully, you land on the ledge and you were already most of the way there so aside from knocking the wind out of you and hurting like hell you are pretty much alright. Its possible you might have a broken rib but you have no way of knowing and it isn't precluding you from going on even if it is broken. After taking time to recover a bit and catch your breath, you look around a bit and find a clear way to climb down to the bottom of the canyon and downward you go. Fortunately, you make it to the bottom of the canyon without further incident. You have now reached the bottom of the canyon and you know the entrance to the Craxil's chasm must be around here somewhere, but it is a massive canyon to explore. You spent almost 7 hours down there until you come across three bizarre looking doors. One is red and bears the emblem of a bear. The next is green and bears the emblem of a spider. The last is blue and bears the emblem of a wolf. This whole ritual gets even more bizarre when you notice a rabbit approach and stand beside the red door as if to beckon you in that way. A squirrel approaches the green door and stands atop the frame as if to endorse that one, and an owl flies down to a rock near the blue door. Its times like these you wish you were a druid so you could better understand what the hell these critters are trying to tell you. Still, you have a decision to make and your instincts (whatever they are worth) are telling you that you only get one shot at this. ~Hint: Depending upon the path you took to get here, you may or may not have seen one or both of the creatures on the correct door already. If not, you are just going to have to guess.~ > You enter The Red Door With Bear Emblem, Endorsed By The Bunny Who can resist a cute widdle fluffy wuffy bunny hmm? You open the red door with the bear emblem and as soon as you enter, the door slams shut and locks behind you. It looks like you really don't have much of a choice but to continue down this passageway. At the end is a large, circular chamber with numerous torches illuminating the entire chamber. You are trying to decide which of two passageways to proceed down until you notice two bears, one coming out of each passage. They lock eyes on you and give chase almost immediately. You turn and run back to the door you entered from but it won't budge. It seems you've made the wrong decision, and now the bears are eviscorating your midsection. THE END<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You aren't going to be able to outrun them if they have horses so you take the only option you got and jump. You are scared out of your mind but you successfully grapple the hanging branch and the two riders can do nothing but glare down at you and growl. The tricky part is getting down from here. You have never really been afraid of heights but you are REALLY high up. The nearest ledge is almost halfway down the canyon and the rockface isn't easily climbable. Still, you don't have much of a choice so you try anyway. You make it most of the way down until one of the groves you were holding onto comes out and you fall. Thankfully, you land on the ledge and you were already most of the way there so aside from knocking the wind out of you and hurting like hell you are pretty much alright. Its possible you might have a broken rib but you have no way of knowing and it isn't precluding you from going on even if it is broken. After taking time to recover a bit and catch your breath, you look around a bit and find a clear way to climb down to the bottom of the canyon and downward you go. Fortunately, you make it to the bottom of the canyon without further incident. You have now reached the bottom of the canyon and you know the entrance to the Craxil's chasm must be around here somewhere, but it is a massive canyon to explore. You spent almost 7 hours down there until you come across three bizarre looking doors. One is red and bears the emblem of a bear. The next is green and bears the emblem of a spider. The last is blue and bears the emblem of a wolf. This whole ritual gets even more bizarre when you notice a rabbit approach and stand beside the red door as if to beckon you in that way. A squirrel approaches the green door and stands atop the frame as if to endorse that one, and an owl flies down to a rock near the blue door. Its times like these you wish you were a druid so you could better understand what the hell these critters are trying to tell you. Still, you have a decision to make and your instincts (whatever they are worth) are telling you that you only get one shot at this. ~Hint: Depending upon the path you took to get here, you may or may not have seen one or both of the creatures on the correct door already. If not, you are just going to have to guess.~ > You enter The Green Door With Spider Emblem, Endorsed By The Squirrel You choose the green door with the spider emblem, endorsed by the squirrel. After all, what is more trustworthy than a cute little squirrel? You enter and immediately thereafter the door slams shut behind you and locks in place. It seems you haven't much of a choice but to move forward down the passageway. It is exceptionally dark down here, but given that you are a sneak that is actually a good thing. You suddenly find yourself stuck and after fidgeting around for a while you come to the sudden realization what it is that has trapped you and why the door has a spider emblem on it. It seems you aren't the only one that enjoys sneaking around in the dark... THE END<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You aren't going to be able to outrun them if they have horses so you take the only option you got and jump. You are scared out of your mind but you successfully grapple the hanging branch and the two riders can do nothing but glare down at you and growl. The tricky part is getting down from here. You have never really been afraid of heights but you are REALLY high up. The nearest ledge is almost halfway down the canyon and the rockface isn't easily climbable. Still, you don't have much of a choice so you try anyway. You make it most of the way down until one of the groves you were holding onto comes out and you fall. Thankfully, you land on the ledge and you were already most of the way there so aside from knocking the wind out of you and hurting like hell you are pretty much alright. Its possible you might have a broken rib but you have no way of knowing and it isn't precluding you from going on even if it is broken. After taking time to recover a bit and catch your breath, you look around a bit and find a clear way to climb down to the bottom of the canyon and downward you go. Fortunately, you make it to the bottom of the canyon without further incident. You have now reached the bottom of the canyon and you know the entrance to the Craxil's chasm must be around here somewhere, but it is a massive canyon to explore. You spent almost 7 hours down there until you come across three bizarre looking doors. One is red and bears the emblem of a bear. The next is green and bears the emblem of a spider. The last is blue and bears the emblem of a wolf. This whole ritual gets even more bizarre when you notice a rabbit approach and stand beside the red door as if to beckon you in that way. A squirrel approaches the green door and stands atop the frame as if to endorse that one, and an owl flies down to a rock near the blue door. Its times like these you wish you were a druid so you could better understand what the hell these critters are trying to tell you. Still, you have a decision to make and your instincts (whatever they are worth) are telling you that you only get one shot at this. ~Hint: Depending upon the path you took to get here, you may or may not have seen one or both of the creatures on the correct door already. If not, you are just going to have to guess.~ > You enter The Blue Door With Wolf Emblem, Endorsed By The Owl After careful consideration, you trust the owl and enter the door with the wolf emblem. The door shuts and locks behind you and you see no choice but to move forward. An eery glow beckons you forward down a passageway that is leading you deeper and deeper underground. You can't tell if that is a good thing or a bad thing but you follow it anyway. When you reach the bottom you see a large room decorated to look like the antechamber of a church. You aren't sure what to make of all this, but you feel like you must be getting close to the Craxil now. The next chamber is substantially different than the one you just entered from. Instead of being all decorated and kept, you see half eaten farm animals in a pen and three large lizardfolk guarding a doorway. They bear polearms and plate mail and you don't think you would be able to take even one of them in combat. The blue door has shut behind you and you don't really see any reliable means of setting a trap. You have dealt with these types of situations before though. You just have to keep your cool and figure a way to deal with this. For one, you could start a fire in the antichamber to distract the lizardfolk from the door, then slink in. The antichamber is big, but a fire large enough to attract their attention might also illuminate most of the room, making it hard for you to operate unseen. Another possibility is their food source. You surmise the half eaten farm animals are what they've been feeding on during their meal breaks. You could try using some of the poison Brandolf gave you on some of the meat of the freshest looking animal and wait until they feed again. Of course, there is no telling how long you will have to wait for them to feed again. Your call adventurer. > You start A Fire To Distract The Lizard Folk You don't have any tinder left after that incident with the cactii, but you do have some flint. You look around the large antichamber-like room for anything wooden and you find a few things that look like they might be combustable. You set about lighting them with the flint, then quickly cast them in the direction of a large wooden table in the center of the room and run to the corner just before the room with the lizardfolk. As you had hoped, two of the lizard folk eventually come out and because you are hiding in their blindspot, they don't see you. The creatures rush over to quell the fire as best they can but there is a problem. Only two of the lizardfolk emerged to deal with this threat. The third one still stands guard at the door. Lizardfolk are known for their fierce dedication to their duty and unfortunately it seems they are also smarter than the majority of your adversaries as well. After quelling the fire the two begin searching the room, leaving no stone unturned so-to-speak. They must suspect that it was caused by someone. You move around from one dark hiding spot to another, hoping to evade their search until they retire back to the door but you step down on the charred remains of the table and an audible crunch is heard. To your credit, you kept them searching for a long time due to your skill at evasion but given that you just removed any and all doubt about your presence, it was only a matter of time before they found you. THE END <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>After careful consideration, you trust the owl and enter the door with the wolf emblem. The door shuts and locks behind you and you see no choice but to move forward. An eery glow beckons you forward down a passageway that is leading you deeper and deeper underground. You can't tell if that is a good thing or a bad thing but you follow it anyway. When you reach the bottom you see a large room decorated to look like the antechamber of a church. You aren't sure what to make of all this, but you feel like you must be getting close to the Craxil now. The next chamber is substantially different than the one you just entered from. Instead of being all decorated and kept, you see half eaten farm animals in a pen and three large lizardfolk guarding a doorway. They bear polearms and plate mail and you don't think you would be able to take even one of them in combat. The blue door has shut behind you and you don't really see any reliable means of setting a trap. You have dealt with these types of situations before though. You just have to keep your cool and figure a way to deal with this. For one, you could start a fire in the antichamber to distract the lizardfolk from the door, then slink in. The antichamber is big, but a fire large enough to attract their attention might also illuminate most of the room, making it hard for you to operate unseen. Another possibility is their food source. You surmise the half eaten farm animals are what they've been feeding on during their meal breaks. You could try using some of the poison Brandolf gave you on some of the meat of the freshest looking animal and wait until they feed again. Of course, there is no telling how long you will have to wait for them to feed again. Your call adventurer. > You poison Their Food Supply And Wait For Them To Feed Again Brandolf gave you more than enough poison to kill the Craxil. It takes only trace amounts to kill even the largest of creatures so why would you need to save the entire vial? You carefully creep up and apply poison to various parts of the bovine flesh, particularly the meaty parts, and take care to poison all the carcasses in the pen so you don't have to try and guess which ones they will feed off next. You then back away to the antichamber-like room and begin waiting the long wait. It is almost 7 hours later and only now do the lizardfolk appear to be conversing with each other and gravitating towards the food pen. "About damn time" you think to yourself, eagerly waiting for them to begin eating as you watch them from a dark corner in the next room. You struggle to contain your glee as the first one sinks his teeth into the freshest cow and another picks up a smaller animal you also poisoned. Before long, they are all dry heaving and you are doing a silent victory dance in the darkness. For some reason it took a while for one of them to finally die, but when he did the way to the door was clear. Crossing through the doorway and into the underground chasm, you come to realize the Craxil is NOTHING like what you had expected... > The Craxil The Craxil is nothing like what you were expecting. You are standing in a massive underground cavern that extends as far as the eye can see in all directions (except the one you came from). Running across it is an underwater stream and floating above it is a beautiful woman bathed in pure white light. It almost appears to leave an after image of itself behind as it moves. You aren't really sure if you would categorize this as a ghost or spirit or what, but you remember that it is a supposed to be a creature unlike anything since discovered. Almost as if reading your mind the Craxil remarks "Indeed... I am not like any other creature your kind has ever seen before, but then I believe I have already told you that haven't I?" To your shock and horror she transforms into the likeness of Brandolf the Bray, the mage who visited you in the village of Jacquescrappe, then into the old man who watched over you as you slept. Was it really the Craxil all along?!? Is this why you had that dream that it was watching you the entire time?!? What does this mean for your sister, is she still alive? And what of the poison? Surely she wouldn't give you something that would actually work on her. Sensing the millions of questions that flurry through your mind, the Craxil begins to laugh and float about you in circles. The door once guarded by lizardfolk now slams shut and locks on its own. With this door shut, there is no longer any light and the Craxil itself is the only thing left that you can actually see. "I can take whatever form I please swineherd, and I have been watching you in various forms throughout the entirety of your journey. You fancy yourself the king of sneak yet you were clearly unaware that you were being watched the moment you entered my territory." Your face grows pale and you have no idea how you are going to deal with this being. She knows all your secrets. She knows your plan. You haven't any element of surprise whatsoever. Hell, you aren't even sure if your weapons are going to work and you're sure as hell certain the poison isn't going to be effective given that it was her that gave it to you. Your mind races to discern a proper course of action as she continues to toy with you. However, your concentration is broken when another figure enters your view... > The Other Figure You turn to find your sister, dressed in one of the war garbs you saw in your dream, walk out towards you from the shadows. She doesn't look as glossy-eyed as the other riders you encountered (in fact she looks perfectly normal) but from her demeanor and obvious reverence to the Craxil you know she is in fact a thrall. How can this be? This is the same war garb from the dream! But your sister has never been like that. "We have big plans for her" the Craxil coes. "She is the carrier of a great plague, a slower acting yet more contagious version of what you carry in that vial I gave you. As a carrier she will be immune to its effects, but she will spread them among the humans whereever she goes." "Why?!? Why would you do something like that you sick bitch?!?" The Craxil only laughs at your insult and seems to take delight in your obvious fear and frustration at this moment. "With the surrounding kingdoms of Mihtana and Lima buckling from the plague, there will be little resistance when we move out of the mountain range and into their lands. As you may have noticed on the way here, I have many humunculi, goblins, grippli, kobolds, and even a handful of orcs all gathered here in these mountains." "So you really are planning an invasion then?" "I believe that poor servant you so ruthlessly interrogated several days ago already explained that much to you." You struggle not to be blinded by your anger at this point, but there is nothing you can do to stop her. "The humans are a truly repugnant race. They have no respect for those that labor, those that produce, those that sacrifice for the good of others. Whenever they want something (be it money, power, or respect) they simply take it for themselves, and only those who do are respected. This is why the beastfolk I serve have been pushed deep into this barren mountainside." To your astonishment, you actually find yourself identifying with the Craxil. Even when you agreed to stick your neck out on their behalf they snickered comments about your intelligence under their breath. Even now, after all the dangers you've faced, you're sure they have probably already assumed you're dead and are likely redistributing your property as we speak. "The beastfolk here are loyal to me and to themselves, they have honor. And they certainly deserve the lands of their ancestors, taken from them by the humans." "And you think slaughtering humans is the answer?" "Since when has diplomacy not ended with a beastman's head on a human's table? Since when did the humans ever sit down to negotiate with my brethren? The humans understand only the simplicity of death and destruction so that is what we will bring to them." You know this is morally reprehensible, but from a purely stoic and logical standpoint you can understand the rationale behind the Craxil's argument. You wonder if peace between humans and the beastmen really is possible. Since the beginning of time, beastmen have always preyed on humans and humans have always responded with military force on their camps. Perhaps there really is no better way to advance their position right now but you cannot stomach the loss of life that would come with it. "My beast brothers have every right to be happy, and so they shall. They humans will be brought to the breaking point with this plague and the forces I gathered will retake the lands they deserve. But I am not without understanding. I can see you have an open mind and have considered my position. You were wondering if peace between human and beast is possible. It is a noble but impractical thing. If you were to join us, I could make you powerful..." You think to yourself "damn, does this Craxil thing read my mind too?" Still, it is a tempting offer. You have always toiled as a swineherd, providing the ever popular hams and bacon that are so popular at festivals and weddings and even fed those without homes, yet you've always been looked down upon as a swineherd by those who have probably never worked a day in their lives. You've seen girls you had feelings for go for men who were of "higher social standing" than yourself. You've always wanted respect, maybe even a little money or even power. You think about what the Craxil said, about how only those who TAKE it can ever HAVE it, and upon reflection you must admit it makes sense. But the Craxil's plan would involve massive loss of life and you are unsure if you want that on your hands. "Your sister did not understand the situation as well as you and I, so I had to make her a thrall. When the acquisition is finished, I will return her to you... but only if you join me and help spread this plague throughout the human lands." The Craxil, now clearly curious about all the thoughts running through your head, moves closer until her face is less than a foot away from your own. "Well human, how do you respond?" > You Will Join You, And Seize The Respect And Power you Deserve The humans of Mihtana refused to send aid to the villagers of Jacquescrappe (even when people were dying) because it didn't suit their political or military interests. The villagers practically elected you for this quest without even asking you if you wanted to, then mocked your intelligence when you accepted on their behalf. You're sick of being looked down upon as a low class swineherd despite all the hard work you've done to provide for your community. All of that is about to change. You proclaim your allegiance to the Craxil and to your astonishment she is actually overjoyed. Seems she needs as many people as possible to help spread the plague and your sister is the only thrall that doesn't look like an obvious thrall. Your voluntary support to the Craxil's plan is well recognized. You and your sister are made to be carriers of the great plague. When you return to the village of Jacquescrappe, you misinform the people that the Craxil is dead and deliver a liquid dose of the plague into the town's wine supply and shaking hands with everyone who comes to congratulate you. Shortly thereafter, you make sure to thoroughly infest all your pork before the next big wedding in Lima. Meanwhile, your sister gets a position as a laysister at a cathedral in the kingdom of Mihtana. By poisoning the holy water, she manages to infect everyone who comes in for a blessing. Between the two of you, and the increased contagiousness of this version of the plague, you are able to infect a massive segment of the population. You work to continue spreading the disease, but the damage is already done. Quarantines are set up in Mihtana and Lima in a desperate attempt to quell the spread of the plague. Those who are uninfected (or who believe themselves uninfected) revolt against the guards in a desperate bid for self preservation. Others lock themselves in their homes and arm themselves in hopes of outliving the vile plague. Criminals take full advantage of the choas to operate unchecked and before long both kingdoms (and their militaries) are completely at their knees. When the beastmen move forth to retake human lands, there is nothing to stop them. As you and your sister have become the Craxil's right and left hands so-to-speak, you are now recognized as a person of power and all respond with fear and respect when in your presence. "The Craxil was right" you think to yourself. "If you want respect, you have to take it. If you want power, you have to take it. Nobody else is going to recognize your merit and deliver these things to you. To have anything worth having in life, you simply have to take it." Unfortunately, it wasn't quite what you imagined. You enjoy your newfound respect and power, but the fear felt by everyone else only makes you feel more alienated and alone. By choosing this path, you have seized what you've always wanted, but what good is respect if it comes with the kind of fear that pushes people away? What good is power if there is no one to share it with. When the time comes, the Craxil honors its agreement to release your sister and as you feared, she is appauled by what the two of you have wrought. You recieve word the next week that she was found in a clearing in the woods. She hung herself in the field where she used to play as a child. You try to establish some sort of peace between humans and beastfolk, but given what you have done the humans want nothing to do with you. They only respect you out of fear because of the beastmen you now command. Realizing you are now completely alone, you go to meet your sister in the clearing and follow her to whatever lies beyond. CONGRATULATIONS! This is official ending #1 of 2<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You turn to find your sister, dressed in one of the war garbs you saw in your dream, walk out towards you from the shadows. She doesn't look as glossy-eyed as the other riders you encountered (in fact she looks perfectly normal) but from her demeanor and obvious reverence to the Craxil you know she is in fact a thrall. How can this be? This is the same war garb from the dream! But your sister has never been like that. "We have big plans for her" the Craxil coes. "She is the carrier of a great plague, a slower acting yet more contagious version of what you carry in that vial I gave you. As a carrier she will be immune to its effects, but she will spread them among the humans whereever she goes." "Why?!? Why would you do something like that you sick bitch?!?" The Craxil only laughs at your insult and seems to take delight in your obvious fear and frustration at this moment. "With the surrounding kingdoms of Mihtana and Lima buckling from the plague, there will be little resistance when we move out of the mountain range and into their lands. As you may have noticed on the way here, I have many humunculi, goblins, grippli, kobolds, and even a handful of orcs all gathered here in these mountains." "So you really are planning an invasion then?" "I believe that poor servant you so ruthlessly interrogated several days ago already explained that much to you." You struggle not to be blinded by your anger at this point, but there is nothing you can do to stop her. "The humans are a truly repugnant race. They have no respect for those that labor, those that produce, those that sacrifice for the good of others. Whenever they want something (be it money, power, or respect) they simply take it for themselves, and only those who do are respected. This is why the beastfolk I serve have been pushed deep into this barren mountainside." To your astonishment, you actually find yourself identifying with the Craxil. Even when you agreed to stick your neck out on their behalf they snickered comments about your intelligence under their breath. Even now, after all the dangers you've faced, you're sure they have probably already assumed you're dead and are likely redistributing your property as we speak. "The beastfolk here are loyal to me and to themselves, they have honor. And they certainly deserve the lands of their ancestors, taken from them by the humans." "And you think slaughtering humans is the answer?" "Since when has diplomacy not ended with a beastman's head on a human's table? Since when did the humans ever sit down to negotiate with my brethren? The humans understand only the simplicity of death and destruction so that is what we will bring to them." You know this is morally reprehensible, but from a purely stoic and logical standpoint you can understand the rationale behind the Craxil's argument. You wonder if peace between humans and the beastmen really is possible. Since the beginning of time, beastmen have always preyed on humans and humans have always responded with military force on their camps. Perhaps there really is no better way to advance their position right now but you cannot stomach the loss of life that would come with it. "My beast brothers have every right to be happy, and so they shall. They humans will be brought to the breaking point with this plague and the forces I gathered will retake the lands they deserve. But I am not without understanding. I can see you have an open mind and have considered my position. You were wondering if peace between human and beast is possible. It is a noble but impractical thing. If you were to join us, I could make you powerful..." You think to yourself "damn, does this Craxil thing read my mind too?" Still, it is a tempting offer. You have always toiled as a swineherd, providing the ever popular hams and bacon that are so popular at festivals and weddings and even fed those without homes, yet you've always been looked down upon as a swineherd by those who have probably never worked a day in their lives. You've seen girls you had feelings for go for men who were of "higher social standing" than yourself. You've always wanted respect, maybe even a little money or even power. You think about what the Craxil said, about how only those who TAKE it can ever HAVE it, and upon reflection you must admit it makes sense. But the Craxil's plan would involve massive loss of life and you are unsure if you want that on your hands. "Your sister did not understand the situation as well as you and I, so I had to make her a thrall. When the acquisition is finished, I will return her to you... but only if you join me and help spread this plague throughout the human lands." The Craxil, now clearly curious about all the thoughts running through your head, moves closer until her face is less than a foot away from your own. "Well human, how do you respond?" > You Cannot Abide The Senseless Slaughter You're Scheming, you Would Rather Die Humanity may not be perfect, but it certainly doesn't deserve the kind of death and destruction the Craxil has in mind. You announce to her that you would rather die than support her in this plan. You were terrified that this being might become infuriated and attack, but instead she calmly and slowly backs away... then looks to your sister. Your sister looks back at the Craxil and you realize the Craxil has just given her a nonverbal order. By now your sister's blade is unsheathed and she is coming at you. She fights with a furocity and intent that is completely out of character for your shy and reserved little sister, but her physical strength is the same. There is nothing special about her swordplay technique either and you are pleased to see that you can block and parry her attacks. Still, this is your sister, and you don't want to kill her if you don't have to. The Craxil is obviously enjoying this and you can't help but think that if you could just find some way of killing her then perhaps your sister can be saved. The Craxil is currently in her noncorporeal true form, but she has taken corporeal forms before when she was watching you. You wonder if striking her while she's in one of these corporeal forms might actually damage her. Alternatively, you wonder why a shapeshifting being with noncorporeal capability would even need others to spread the plague in the first place. Perhaps she isn't immune like you once thought or perhaps she felt secure from it in her noncorporeal form. Would you still need to get her into corporeal form for that first or could you try and give it to her while she's in her noncorporeal state. Or perhaps there is some other way of getting your sister back to normal. Unlike you, she knows some very basic magic. Perhaps she will have something that will damage the Craxil in its noncorporeal state. While your mind wonders to ponder these things, your sister manages to get a shallow cut across your right shoulder and you respond by kicking her onto the ground and stopping down on her sword hand. You remove your sister's weapon and the Craxil moves in as if to protect its vassal. You quickly begin to go over your previous ideas in your head knowing you will need to try something and soon lest the Craxil decides to attack first. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You run down the passageway that you were previously unable to get to while the three humunculi were at the campfire. Unfortunately, the humunculi have chosen the same path. You aren't sure if it is because they saw you or because of bad luck, but they are not far behind you now. You reach another chamber and find a large, demonic looking creature blocking your path. Before you can even think about how to describe this thing you feel the humunculi grab you from behind and pull you to the ground. They are about to stomp you to death when the demonic looking creature disintigrates them on the spot. "Nobody takes my prey in my domain. Tell me little thing, what are you here to do?" This thing looks like a large floating eye with multiple smaller eyes attached atop its head. You realize this thing is a beholder and soon you find yourself paralyzed in its gaze. That's what you get for staring into its eye I guess. "Answer me puny one, why are you here in my domain?" You are too terrified to answer, but this creature appears to grow irritated by your silence so you muster all the courage you've got and speak up "I'm here to slay the Craxil" you proclaim, terrified of how this creature will respond to such a bold statement. "HA! Amusing little one, someone of your strength doesn't have what it takes but it would entertain me to see how you die in the Craxil's mountains. Answer this riddle correctly, and I will permit you to continue through to the other side of my domain. Answer incorrectly, and you will share the same fate as your pursuers. Are you ready?" "As ready as I'll ever be" you squeak. "Very well!" it bellows, clearly enjoying every bit of this. "I am a vast canyon that spans beyond sight. I am without end and have been a part of every man whenever there is trouble. What am I?" > The Thirst For Knowledge You run outside the cave and around the corner. You are back on the plateau overlooking the village. Your heart is beating fast as hell and you are clutching your sword so tightly you will probably have blisters. Fortunately for you, the humunculi have chosen to run down the path behind their campsite. You wait outside the cave for a few hours and still they haven't returned from the passageway. Perhaps they have chosen to travel further in to pursue you? You return to the cave's interior and are standing at the campfire. The large passageway on the right side of the chamber is still blocked. You peer down the passageway in front of you, the one the humunculi chose to go down and you wonder what lies beyond its depths. However, as you look left you remember there is still an as yet unexplored passageway down in the cavern where the humunculi nearly overwhelmed you. You aren't going to find the Craxil by standing around here so you are going to have to decide where you want to go from here. > You follow The Path Behind The Campfire, Where The Two Humunculi Went You chose to take the passageway behind the campfire. If these creatures are protecting the Craxil, or at least serving him in some sense, it would makes sense they would head in this direction. You get the strong scent of burning animals or something like that and what you see next is COMPLETELY unexpected. Instead of seeing the two humunculi that ran down this passageway earlier, you are standing directly in front of some kind of hovering demon whose gaze is fixed directly upon you! This thing looks like a large floating eye with multiple smaller eyes attached atop its head. You realize this thing is a beholder and soon you find yourself paralyzed in its gaze. That's what you get for staring into its eye I guess. "Answer me puny one, why are you here in my domain?" You are too terrified to answer, but this creature appears to grow irritated by your silence so you muster all the courage you've got and speak up "I'm here to slay the Craxil" you proclaim, terrified of how this creature will respond to such a bold statement. "HA! Amusing little one, someone of your strength doesn't have what it takes but it would entertain me to see how you die in the Craxil's mountains. Answer this riddle correctly, and I will permit you to continue through to the other side of my domain. Answer incorrectly, and you will share the same fate as your former pursuers. Are you ready?" "Did he kill the humunculi?" you think to yourself... "As ready as I'll ever be" you squeak. "Very well!" it bellows, clearly enjoying every bit of this. "I am a vast canyon that spans beyond sight. I am without end and have been a part of every man whenever there is trouble. What am I?" <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|> You run outside the cave and around the corner. You are back on the plateau overlooking the village. Your heart is beating fast as hell and you are clutching your sword so tightly you will probably have blisters. Fortunately for you, the humunculi have chosen to run down the path behind their campsite. You wait outside the cave for a few hours and still they haven't returned from the passageway. Perhaps they have chosen to travel further in to pursue you? You return to the cave's interior and are standing at the campfire. The large passageway on the right side of the chamber is still blocked. You peer down the passageway in front of you, the one the humunculi chose to go down and you wonder what lies beyond its depths. However, as you look left you remember there is still an as yet unexplored passageway down in the cavern where the humunculi nearly overwhelmed you. You aren't going to find the Craxil by standing around here so you are going to have to decide where you want to go from here. > You go Down To The Cavern Where You First Used Your Bow And Try That Passageway Naturally, you are not going to go down the passageway that your pursuers went down, that's just stupid. You want to avoid unnecessary conflict after allso you can increase your chances of reaching the Craxil. This passageway leads you out to a large plateau. To the right, you can see another several clusters of cave networks populated by humunculi. To the left you see a step drop off that would land you in the forest the hunters of your village like to use. In front of you, and in the distance, is a curious looking camp. You see a couple different campfires and at least two dozen tee-pee style tents down over there. You can't make out who the inhabitants are though, at least not from here. Odds are they aren't friendly though. This is Craxil territory after all. Of course, the humunculi in the multiple cave clusters over there aren't friendly either so what does it matter? You still have no leads as to where to find the Craxil but you need to make a decision as to where to go. > You investigate The Camp You cannot contain your curiosity about this camp but you know you should keep your distance and be careful. They are likely hostile after all. You remember that you are out in the open now so the sun will remove any advantage that the shadows had given you in the caves. You decide to wait until nightfall, then slink in closer to the camp. There is minimal rock cover but you manage to find a decent place from which to observe their camp. They are goblins, armed with schimitars and polearms which you assume must be the work of the Craxil. Even outside the Craxil's domain, goblins are known for their hostility towards humans so approaching them would be stupid. However, unlike the powerful humunculi you've had to deal with so far, goblins are a weaker enemy you feel confident you could stand against (provided you don't get yourself overwhelmed). There are about 30 of the foul creatures wandering about the camp, but the one that catches your interest is the shaman. Decked out in fancy garb and occupying a large tent in the center of the camp, it is clear this one is the leader. It occurs to you that if they are working for the Craxil then this one might be able to provide you with some much needed leads as to where you can find him. You are confident in your ability to handle a single goblin or perhaps even two if your life depended on it but certainly not the entire camp. You're just a sneaky swineherd after all. You wait until midnight, when most of the goblins have retired to sleep. There are still a handful of night watchmen goblins though, and they will need to be dealt with before you can hope to reach the shaman's tent. You also shudder at the thought of the shaman unleashing horrid magicks upon you. Once again, you will have to use the element of surprise to make up for your lack of fighting experience but then... as a sneaky bastard that is your specialty. The first concern is the single goblin standing at the closest entrance to the camp. He is holding a polearm and needs to be removed before you can get into the camp. As stated before, you are confident you can take him, but you need to be careful not to wake the rest of the camp in the process. One idea is to sneak up on him and stab him through the back with your sword before he can react. Another idea is to try and hit him with an arrow from a distance, then move on to the next target. Either way, he needs to be removed. > You sneak Up And Stab Him You might be able to hit the broadside of a barn, but your aim is not sufficient for anything more than a general area. You don't want to alert the goblin to your presence so you are just going to have to deal with him the old fashioned way. Under cover of midnight you slink around to the edge of the camp and work your way along the side until you are close. Despite your apparent lack of skill in fighting and archery you are an absolute master at sneakery. But enough of such destracting thoughts. As the goblin turns away you leap forth, cup his mouth with your left hand, and stab him through the back. You pull the body away from the camp so none of the other goblins will see it. Fortunately for you, none of the goblins seem stirred in the least. You removed that problem without attracting attention. Even better, another one of the nightwatchmen goblins has come back to the same post trying to figure out why his comrade is no longer at his post. This affords you the opportunity to repeat the procedure and return once again. The way to the central tent still has a few more problems in store for you. Single goblins patrol the area and there is always at least one patrol goblin within sight range of that tent. Also, the tent itself has its own nightwatchman who is evidently dedicated to the shaman. At the very least, you need to kill one of the patrolling goblins to create an opening and the sentry guarding the tent. With this done, you have a chance at abducting and interrogating the shaman for some much needed information on the Craxil. You have some ideas on the patrolling goblin. You could attempt to construct a simple foothold trap out of vine and add some barbs from the camp to dig into his foot. Alternatively, you could wait until he rounds his usual tree and cut him down before the next patrolling goblin comes along. > You construct A Barbed Foothold Trap And Place It In The Patrol's Path You can't get caught if you aren't around when he trips the trap right? Well, I suppose you could be, but whatever. You spend a half hour or so of your time outside the camp constructing this trap. The knot will tighten the loop around the goblins leg when I pull on the vine so I just need to get back into position and lay the trap. As predicted, the goblin came back around with his usual path but this time he was a little bit to far to the right. You pull the loop a bit closer and wait until the next one comes, but he is a bit too far to the left. After some frustrating trial and error, a patrolling goblin finally steps foot in your loop and you tighten it abruptly around his foot. At the same time, you quickly drag him towards your hiding spot so you can silence him. Goblins are particularly light, especially when they are not wearing armor, so you are able to do it fairly easily. The barbs dug into his foot so deep they nearly too it off. You silence him with your hand then break his neck. For a moment, you are amazed at what you have learned to do given you're just a swine herd, but then again... survival makes us capable of many things doesn't it. The next patrolling goblin discovers the sword the last patrolling goblin dropped when you got him. You are concerned that he's about to raise the alarm but he just mutters "Akt Khazzat nighmam noriet maln" or something along those lines and walks off. You have no idea what he said, but from his tone of voice, you think he thinks the other watchman is skipping out on his duties. Shit, does that mean the shaman will be able to speak English? Surely he will, he's a shaman after all. He better dammit. You wait for the opening to come again, then quickly maneuver into position to stab the tent's sentry before the next patrol goblin comes around. You peek inside to see the shaman sleeping (lucky you) and drag the sentry's body inside where it won't be detected. You've reached the shaman, and he's still asleep, but you can't very well interrogate him here. You pick up a candlestick from the nearby table and as he's coming to you clock him over the head with it. You check for a pulse to see if he's dead or unconcious and thankfully, he's just knocked out. You gag him and bind his arms behind his back because he won't be able to cast spells without his tounge and hand movements. You use the same patrol opening to escape the camp and return to a spot distant from the camp. You rouse the shaman to wake up and realize you are probably more scared than he will be. > You time For An Interrogation Fortunately for you, he does know English as is readily apparent by the curses he chooses to expel regarding your parents. You glare at him and ask him about the Craxil but he just squeals with laughter as if finding it difficult to take you seriously. You ask him again and remove the gag so he can answer but then quickly put it back in when he starts trying to chant a spell of some sort. You punch him and because you're such a wimp it ends up hurting your wrist more than it hurt his face, which only adds to his laughter. You realize this isn't working as planned so you take him to where you stashed the bodies of the two nightwatchmen you killed at the entrance and draw your sword. This seems to make a bigger impression upon him. You take him back further away from the camp and inquire again. This time he seems more receptive. "The Craxil isn't something you can reason with or just strike down, he's an inspiration to the beastmen of this region. A unifying force." The shaman goes on to explain that the Craxil has been gathering his strength here for longer than the villagers realized and that the weekly raids for food were little compared to what is being organized. "The Craxil isn't content to leave his children here in the mountains while the humans enjoy the soft lands." The shaman explains. "He isn't after world domination or anything, but he wants to take a few choice pieces of territory from the humans down below." "What manner of creature is he?" you demand, keeping your sword out as a reminder of your unspoken threat. "None of us goblins really knows for sure. The riders deliver his orders to us and they are the only ones who have ever seen him." "The riders?" "Yes, they were once human but umm... not anymore." "You mean they were raised as undead!?!?!" "Heavens no, the Craxil doesn't resort to such disgusting practices. Rather, they become his thralls after a lengthy, mind breaking ritual. They do his bidding now." You pause at that comment. You've heard of mind flayers dominating people's minds like this but they've always been able to do so instantly, without the need for such rituals and practices. Moreover, Brandolf insisted that the Craxil is a being unlike any that has been seen in this world so far. You decide to change the topic to discuss the Craxil's location. "Where is the Craxil located?" you ask. "Pff. Do you even know where YOU are located right now" the shaman says with a chuckle. "A bit far from home and looking a little lost out here aren't we?" You shove your sword closer to his throat and he ceases to taunt you. "The Craxil resides in an underground cavern that is accessed from a canyon north of here. When the rocks cease to be this familiar brown and start looking red then you are getting closer. Even closer still when you begin to see the cactii. The most direct route is the Redrange pass, though that has some dangers of its own." You are about to inquire further about what else lies in store for you, but you hear the sounds of goblins in the distance and you are worried the shaman may start making noise for them. You can't afford to be swarmed by goblins right now so you cut his throat and retreat a little until they return to camp. Fortunately, the path he spoke of can be reached by simply going around the goblin camp from a safe distance and continuing in that direction. You still have about a full days journey before you get to this "Redrange Pass" and even then you are only at the start of the shaman's directions. But hey, at least you know where you are going now and have the knowledge that you've been going the right way all this time. You just really hope that little shit isn't lying to you. > Onward You've gotten past the bulk of the humunculi and the goblins were refreshingly easy, but as you continue forward you shudder to think at what else may lie in store for you up ahead. This nondescript plateau had dredged on for quite a while and still no sign of Redridge pass. Suddently you reach a tunnel and you are dismayed to see a large troll blocking access. Trolls are even stronger than humunculi so you won't be fighting this one anytime soon. The tunnel represents the only way through to the other side as an inclimbable rockface extends in both directions along the plateau. You're gonna have to get through that tunnel one way or another. You remember that the shaman said that the Craxil uses riders to send its orders out to its minions and that these riders are basically human thralls. Perhaps you could fake it to get past him. Another option is your bow. Trolls are very large creatures and therefore pretty hard to miss, even for you. A final option is to try and distract it somehow. You reason that you could cause a lot of commotion in the half-dead vegetation nearby to draw him away from the tunnel, then circle around and make a run for it. > You try To Trick The Troll Into Believing You Are A Thrall You dawn your poker face and approach the troll expectantly. You reason that you cannot hope to match a troll's strength but rather take advantage of their lack of intelligence. As you approach, the troll glares at you and is clearly readying his club for a strike. "I must report back to the Craxil" you announce. "And who are you to see the Craxil" the troll questions. "I am a rider and have no time for your nonsense. This report is very important." There is a pause as the troll is thinking over your response. Clearly, he isn't sure what to say or do in this situation. It looks like this might actually work. But then... "Where is your steed?" the troll asks. Shit. Of course, they're called riders for a reason and you haven't got any ride now do you? Of all the rotten luck. "He is ill, suffers the ick" you manage, doubtful as to whether or not this will be taken. At this point the troll isn't buying it. You wish you had considered this before you attempted to lie. Hard to take, being outsmarted by a troll. Even harder to take is the club that has now crushed every bone in your body and left you a mangled mess. THE END<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|> You've gotten past the bulk of the humunculi and the goblins were refreshingly easy, but as you continue forward you shudder to think at what else may lie in store for you up ahead. This nondescript plateau had dredged on for quite a while and still no sign of Redridge pass. Suddently you reach a tunnel and you are dismayed to see a large troll blocking access. Trolls are even stronger than humunculi so you won't be fighting this one anytime soon. The tunnel represents the only way through to the other side as an inclimbable rockface extends in both directions along the plateau. You're gonna have to get through that tunnel one way or another. You remember that the shaman said that the Craxil uses riders to send its orders out to its minions and that these riders are basically human thralls. Perhaps you could fake it to get past him. Another option is your bow. Trolls are very large creatures and therefore pretty hard to miss, even for you. A final option is to try and distract it somehow. You reason that you could cause a lot of commotion in the half-dead vegetation nearby to draw him away from the tunnel, then circle around and make a run for it. > You draw Your Bow And Fire Upon The Troll You may only be able to hit a general area, but a troll is a very large and broad target so you have practically no chance of missing here. You position yourself behind a large rock, just out of the trolls sight and ready your bow. The troll is still completely unaware of your presence and just stands there looking bored out of his mind. You pull out an arrow and draw it back in the string. You take aim and release. The first shot hits the troll in the navel but seems to deal minimal damage. You draw back again and fire one into him, this time just below his chest. He looks confused but now lumbers in your direction. As you pull another one back he detects your presence and is now moving faster. You put another one into his midsection but again this deals minimal damage. You prepare to draw back another but he is upon you now. It's too bad you forgot that trolls have exceptional regenerative capabilities. It takes more than a few arrows to bring these things down. Unfortunately, this is a lesson that has cost you your life. THE END<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|> You've gotten past the bulk of the humunculi and the goblins were refreshingly easy, but as you continue forward you shudder to think at what else may lie in store for you up ahead. This nondescript plateau had dredged on for quite a while and still no sign of Redridge pass. Suddently you reach a tunnel and you are dismayed to see a large troll blocking access. Trolls are even stronger than humunculi so you won't be fighting this one anytime soon. The tunnel represents the only way through to the other side as an inclimbable rockface extends in both directions along the plateau. You're gonna have to get through that tunnel one way or another. You remember that the shaman said that the Craxil uses riders to send its orders out to its minions and that these riders are basically human thralls. Perhaps you could fake it to get past him. Another option is your bow. Trolls are very large creatures and therefore pretty hard to miss, even for you. A final option is to try and distract it somehow. You reason that you could cause a lot of commotion in the half-dead vegetation nearby to draw him away from the tunnel, then circle around and make a run for it. > You create A Diversion To Lure Him Away, Then Run For It The troll may be large, but something tells you it would take more than a few arrows to bring this thing down and you have no intention of getting up close to it for a bluff. It takes time, but after making enough noise from cover you manage to get the troll's attention and lure him away from the tunnel entrance. The creature lumbers slowly and cautiously towards the source of the noise and you are already working your way around from the other side. Eventually you see your opportunity and make a break for it. By the time the troll realizes you are there, you are already behind him and nearing the entrance to the tunnel. He tries to stop you, but you are already inside and despite his best efforts to stop you, you are already beyond his reach. He lets out a series of angry grunts and you continue onward through the tunnel. Clearly all those years of playing capture the flag have served you well. As you emerge from the other side, you begin to see the rocks getting more red and you take it as a sign that you are on the right path. There was never much foliage in this mountainside but the area you are in now is especially rocky and devoid of vegetation. You hope you will find the Redrange Pass soon so you can deal with the Craxil and be done with this quest. You've been traveling a long time without sleep and dawn is starting to crack. Somehow, the warm beams of sunlight raising up over the distant rocks make you feel sleepy. As you continnue forward along the rugged expanse of jagged red rocks and dirt you discover the remains of an unused campsite. The inhabitants are long gone, but the camp is still here. A cozy warm campfire, soft, cottony sleeping mat, warm blanket, the works. There are no enemies as far as the eye can see in any direction and you think you would probably be able to think better if you had some rest. The warmth and coziness of this campsite is calling to you and since you haven't slept in almost 40 hours now, you begin to consider. > You curl Up And Sleep, You May Not Get The Chance To Later You are going to need to stay awake if you want to keep your mind sharp, and you can't do that if you are sleep deprived. It only makes sense that you would need to take a break in your journey and catch some much needed sleep. Besides, the blanket is so warm, the mat is so cottony soft and the sun beams over your face are just wonderful. You feel as though you could just curl up and hibernate like a bear and continue your sneaky journey at night. Kind of lucky that you just happened upon such a nice, uninhabited camp huh. I mean, what are the odds right? Well... they aren't very high actually. Actually, its pretty damn convinent isn't it. It's at this point you start to get suspicious but by now it is too late. The entire camp site dissipates into a thick black smoke and you feel as though you've just aged by 50 years. You manage to stand but you can barely move. This is when you notice all the skeletons on the ground that were not here before. How could you not see them before?!? They definitely weren't here before. No way! The billowy smoke takes form and suddenly it all makes sense in a terrible way. The campsite was just a tempting illusion generated by a wraith. Its terrifying to think that its intelligent enough to lure you in like this, and now that it has already sapped so much of your strength and lifeforce you know in your heart you are completely fucked. Fear gives way to anger, which then gives way to desperation followed by pathetic pleading. The wraith ignores it all and soon you are but a husk of a man and within a few weeks of decay you become just another skeleton adorning his trap. THE END<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The troll may be large, but something tells you it would take more than a few arrows to bring this thing down and you have no intention of getting up close to it for a bluff. It takes time, but after making enough noise from cover you manage to get the troll's attention and lure him away from the tunnel entrance. The creature lumbers slowly and cautiously towards the source of the noise and you are already working your way around from the other side. Eventually you see your opportunity and make a break for it. By the time the troll realizes you are there, you are already behind him and nearing the entrance to the tunnel. He tries to stop you, but you are already inside and despite his best efforts to stop you, you are already beyond his reach. He lets out a series of angry grunts and you continue onward through the tunnel. Clearly all those years of playing capture the flag have served you well. As you emerge from the other side, you begin to see the rocks getting more red and you take it as a sign that you are on the right path. There was never much foliage in this mountainside but the area you are in now is especially rocky and devoid of vegetation. You hope you will find the Redrange Pass soon so you can deal with the Craxil and be done with this quest. You've been traveling a long time without sleep and dawn is starting to crack. Somehow, the warm beams of sunlight raising up over the distant rocks make you feel sleepy. As you continnue forward along the rugged expanse of jagged red rocks and dirt you discover the remains of an unused campsite. The inhabitants are long gone, but the camp is still here. A cozy warm campfire, soft, cottony sleeping mat, warm blanket, the works. There are no enemies as far as the eye can see in any direction and you think you would probably be able to think better if you had some rest. The warmth and coziness of this campsite is calling to you and since you haven't slept in almost 40 hours now, you begin to consider. > You focus & Discipline, You Need To Keep Moving You decide that there will be time to sleep when your journey is over. Sleeping now would only make you vulnerable within Craxil territory and given the myriad of possible fates that may befall you we simply cannot take that chance now can we. Then again, you have gone almost 40 hours without sleep so far and you aren't even sure if you are halfway there yet. If you continue pushing yourself forth at this pace you may very well collapse. Perhaps finding a safe place to rest isn't such a bad idea after all. As you try to walk away you get the distinct smell of bacon. You look back and see a skillet over the campfire. It smells fantastic. Strange that you didn't notice this earlier though. The campsite seems to be calling to you, but of course that idea is completely absurd. Your beginning to feel like that halfling Brodo Faggins, who traveled relentlessly on his journey without supplies or rest. You suppose that given you've been an underappreciated swineherd your whole life, such an idea is a fun one to ponder. You catch yourself stopping in your tracks, and starring at the food over the campfire and the mat on the ground. "How convinent" you think, "to have all that food within reach of the soft cotton mat. You shake your head and try to shake it off but the temptation is grabbing at your attention. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|> You might be able to hit the broadside of a barn, but your aim is not sufficient for anything more than a general area. You don't want to alert the goblin to your presence so you are just going to have to deal with him the old fashioned way. Under cover of midnight you slink around to the edge of the camp and work your way along the side until you are close. Despite your apparent lack of skill in fighting and archery you are an absolute master at sneakery. But enough of such destracting thoughts. As the goblin turns away you leap forth, cup his mouth with your left hand, and stab him through the back. You pull the body away from the camp so none of the other goblins will see it. Fortunately for you, none of the goblins seem stirred in the least. You removed that problem without attracting attention. Even better, another one of the nightwatchmen goblins has come back to the same post trying to figure out why his comrade is no longer at his post. This affords you the opportunity to repeat the procedure and return once again. The way to the central tent still has a few more problems in store for you. Single goblins patrol the area and there is always at least one patrol goblin within sight range of that tent. Also, the tent itself has its own nightwatchman who is evidently dedicated to the shaman. At the very least, you need to kill one of the patrolling goblins to create an opening and the sentry guarding the tent. With this done, you have a chance at abducting and interrogating the shaman for some much needed information on the Craxil. You have some ideas on the patrolling goblin. You could attempt to construct a simple foothold trap out of vine and add some barbs from the camp to dig into his foot. Alternatively, you could wait until he rounds his usual tree and cut him down before the next patrolling goblin comes along. > You wait Behind The Tree And Cut Him Down As He Comes Along You are concerned that if you were to get to close to him or the camp before he is taken out then you will be detected so it is best to deal with the problem from afar. You pull an arrow back in your bow and wait until the goblin stops fidgeting around. You were successful with this thing the last time you used it against that one humunculus, but you know that was just luck. Besides, you aren't going to get a second chance this time. You carefully aim at the goblins chest because that is the broadest target on his body and an arrow that lands there is likely to still prove fatal. You wait for the wind to die down, pull the drawstring as far back as you possibly can, perfect your aim, and....................RELEASE! The arrow sails through the air but fails to hit its target. Actually, you overshot and the arrow tore through one of the peripheral tents. You ready another arrow, but the goblin guard is aware now and so is the inhabitant of that tent you shot. You manage to blow out the guards knee with the second shot (despite still aiming for the chest) but its no use as the camp is now stirring and the goblins are now being roused. You pull back towards the humunculus caves you emerged from, hoping to find someplace to hide before they get their shit together. You duck behind a large rock just outside the passageway you exitted from when you first arrived on this plateau. The goblins have explored the area between you and the camp and they are drawing closer. The shaman leads them into the passageway you came from and for a moment you think you're going to be safe...until one of the footsolder goblins detects your presence. He lifts his spear above his head leaving you no choice but to thrust your sword through his abdomin. Of course, now the other goblins are aware of your presence. Reasoning your longer legs should enable you to outrun the goblins you take off and it looks like you might get away. At least, that's what you thought until the shaman lands a fireball against you. THE END<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|> You cannot contain your curiosity about this camp but you know you should keep your distance and be careful. They are likely hostile after all. You remember that you are out in the open now so the sun will remove any advantage that the shadows had given you in the caves. You decide to wait until nightfall, then slink in closer to the camp. There is minimal rock cover but you manage to find a decent place from which to observe their camp. They are goblins, armed with schimitars and polearms which you assume must be the work of the Craxil. Even outside the Craxil's domain, goblins are known for their hostility towards humans so approaching them would be stupid. However, unlike the powerful humunculi you've had to deal with so far, goblins are a weaker enemy you feel confident you could stand against (provided you don't get yourself overwhelmed). There are about 30 of the foul creatures wandering about the camp, but the one that catches your interest is the shaman. Decked out in fancy garb and occupying a large tent in the center of the camp, it is clear this one is the leader. It occurs to you that if they are working for the Craxil then this one might be able to provide you with some much needed leads as to where you can find him. You are confident in your ability to handle a single goblin or perhaps even two if your life depended on it but certainly not the entire camp. You're just a sneaky swineherd after all. You wait until midnight, when most of the goblins have retired to sleep. There are still a handful of night watchmen goblins though, and they will need to be dealt with before you can hope to reach the shaman's tent. You also shudder at the thought of the shaman unleashing horrid magicks upon you. Once again, you will have to use the element of surprise to make up for your lack of fighting experience but then... as a sneaky bastard that is your specialty. The first concern is the single goblin standing at the closest entrance to the camp. He is holding a polearm and needs to be removed before you can get into the camp. As stated before, you are confident you can take him, but you need to be careful not to wake the rest of the camp in the process. One idea is to sneak up on him and stab him through the back with your sword before he can react. Another idea is to try and hit him with an arrow from a distance, then move on to the next target. Either way, he needs to be removed. > You put An Arrow In Him Perhaps it is wise to stick with the enemy you know right? Anyway, the creatures that have been attacking your village have been humunculi and while they are not the only creatures under the Craxil's command (according to Brandolf) they are the ones he seems to call on the most. Perhaps you'll find clues to his whereabouts somewhere about in their dwellings. The task of sneaking over to these cave clusters unseen is a challenging one. You are out in the open now, so the sun is taking away any advantage that the darkness would otherwise have given you. Also, a couple humunculi are standing outside in the open, in the front of the cave clusters you seek to gain entry to. Realizing the impossibility of this situation, you fall back a bit and wait until nightfall to make your move. Eventually the sun sets and the humunculi retire to their caves. You slink over to their position using what little rock cover and shrubbery you have to conceal your approach. Just as you reach the next rock for cover you feel something strike you from above and you lose conciousness. Seems one of the humunculi noticed your approach and got you with a rock from a high vantage point. You're surprised you survived such a blow but you soon wish you hadn't. Your arms and legs are restrained with thick vines and it is clear you are about to become the meal for a handful of humunculi. THE END<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The room is too well lit to try and sneak past him and lunging forth at a superior foe with a short sword doesn't strike your fancy either. You decide to get creative and pull out the bow that Brandolf gave you in the council before you left. You ran a few practice shots before departing on this journey and you know you can at least hit a general target, though you'd be pretty hard pressed to achieve any kind of real accuracy. The first shot whizzes past the creatures head and into a nearby pillar of rock. His eyes go wide as he looks at the arrow then turns to look directly at you. You immediately pull back another arrow and take aim knowing this shot is going to make or break destiny. You aim for his chest as that is the broadest target available and the iron arrowhead may even reach his heart. As he lunges forth you close your eyes and release... You half expected you'd be dead by now but when you open your eyes you discover your arrow went through the creatures neck. He is now on his knees bleeding profusely and clutching his throat. Wasting no time, you finish him with your short sword, then dive into the darkest corner. The three humunculi heard the ruckus and have come down from their campfire to see what the commotion was. When they discover their fallen comrade, they go into a rage and start to look around. You dig into the corner as much as you can and clutch your sword. Two of the creatures move towards the unexplored passageway on the other side of the chamber while the third seems to be gravitating closer to your position. You begin to wonder if you should strike him by surprise while you still can or hope you can try to remain undiscovered. > You remain In The Corner And Hope To Be Undiscovered You press your body firmly against the back wall of the chamber and slowly work your way around to the right passageway. You pause whenever the campfire flickers light in your general direction, but the humunculi are completely unaware of your presence. > You continue You reach a large but unoccupied chamber filled with rugged rock formations that hang from the ceiling and jut upward from the ground. Clear pools of water dot the floor and in the distance, fireflies can be seen dancing around in the sky. There is a large passageway on the left hand side of the chamber, and another passageway on the right, near the fireflies. Despite hearing no sounds of any nearby creature activity, you decide it best to remain in the shadows and pick your next destination carefully. > You take The Large Passageway On The Left You are quickly beginning to wish Brandolf had given you a torch, but given the nature of your quest he probably figured you didn't need to draw attention to yourself. Still, you can barely see more than a few feet in front of your face and it is only getting darker as you continue further inward. You run your hand along the right wall and move carefully, scouting each step with your foot to avoid a fall. Your heart is racing and you know that at any moment, something might come out and attack. Eventually, the cave leads into a small inner chamber with a campfire in the middle. Three humunculi are sitting around the campfire, roasting human limbs on a stick as if they were marshmellows. Fortunately, they are not aware of your presence and the campfire enables you to see there are several tunnels leading out from this chamber. On the other side of the chamber is a tunnel that goes deeper in, but you won't be able to go down this way undetected as long as the humunculi are here. There are also nondescript passsageways to the left and the right (large and small respectively) that you can reach as long as you stay in the shadows. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You reach a large but unoccupied chamber filled with rugged rock formations that hang from the ceiling and jut upward from the ground. Clear pools of water dot the floor and in the distance, fireflies can be seen dancing around in the sky. There is a large passageway on the left hand side of the chamber, and another passageway on the right, near the fireflies. Despite hearing no sounds of any nearby creature activity, you decide it best to remain in the shadows and pick your next destination carefully. > You take The Passageway On The Right, Near The Fireflies You carefully maneuver towards the right hand passageway, eager to ensure your every step is as quiet and well placed as possible. You step inside the passageway to discover a large pool with crystal clear water that is cool to the touch and ever so refreshing. There sure are a lot of fireflies in this room though. What was once a pretty sight is starting to get aggrivating. As you lean in for another drink of water the fireflies start moving in closer around you and you soon realize that their touch kinda burns. These things are definitely more malevolent than you initially suspected and you are racing to thing of any possible solution for this situation. The simple solution would be to just run like hell through the swarm and back out into the chamber you came from. Another idea would be to jump into the pool and submerge yourself so the fireflies can't hurt you. Whichever you decide, you're going to have to act NOW. > You dive Into The Pool You jump straight into the pool of crystal clear water and take care to submerge yourself as soon as possible. As you suspected, the fireflies are reluctant to actually get in the water, preventing them from harming you. You chuckle to yourself until you realize you need to breathe and there are no straws for you to breathe through. You pop up for a quick gasp of air before submerging yourself again. The fireflies are waiting en masse just above the surface and you begin to fully realize the position you've gotten yourself into. The next time you pop up for air, one of the fireflies burns your upper lip. The next time, two get your nose. The pain makes you want to cry out and you have difficulty holding your breath under such circumstances. You try to endure this, hoping they will leave, but waiting for you to emerge and then striking is like a game to them. Eventually you can bear no more and spring forward for a long gasp of air. At this point, a host of fireflies decend upon your face and before you know it, your flesh is seared through and through. THE END<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You carefully maneuver towards the right hand passageway, eager to ensure your every step is as quiet and well placed as possible. You step inside the passageway to discover a large pool with crystal clear water that is cool to the touch and ever so refreshing. There sure are a lot of fireflies in this room though. What was once a pretty sight is starting to get aggrivating. As you lean in for another drink of water the fireflies start moving in closer around you and you soon realize that their touch kinda burns. These things are definitely more malevolent than you initially suspected and you are racing to thing of any possible solution for this situation. The simple solution would be to just run like hell through the swarm and back out into the chamber you came from. Another idea would be to jump into the pool and submerge yourself so the fireflies can't hurt you. Whichever you decide, you're going to have to act NOW. > You run Through The Swarm This is no time to play around, these things hurt and you need to get out of here. You charge through the heart of the swarm, flailing your arms and trying to get back out into the mainchamber as soon as you possibly can. Their touch burns, and you are taking a lot of burns, but you are determined not to cry out lest you draw the attention of the caves other inhabitants. Though it only took you a few moments to get back out to the main cavern, you have a multitude of small, circular burns on your arms, face, and sides. It sucks, but hey... live and learn. Even pretty things can be mean. And you're still alive so there's that. Time to continue on your quest. > You time To Continue On Your Quest You reach a large but unoccupied chamber filled with rugged rock formations that hang from the ceiling and jut upward from the ground. Clear pools of water dot the floor and in the distance, fireflies can be seen dancing around in the sky. There is a large passageway on the left hand side of the chamber, and another passageway on the right, near the fireflies. Despite hearing no sounds of any nearby creature activity, you decide it best to remain in the shadows and pick your next destination carefully.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>This is a no brainer. If you want to shed the stench of pig crap then take a bath and get a change of clothes! You head down to the bathouse and a tall, dark haired girl prepares your bath. The bath is relaxing and you take special care to dawn an all tan outfit as you suspect it may help you blend in with the rockface better than your usual swineherding outfits will. When you are done, you realize you haven't any scent at all and gather up the equipment you were given at the council. It is time to go. The villagers are gathered at the base of the mountainside cheering you on as you walk forth. Despite their cheering you know they don't really give a shit about you and you question why you are still taking this kind of risk, but you move forward with it anyway. You continue up the path and reach the first plateau that overlooks the village. There are two caves that go down deeper into the rockface. You remember seeing humunculi emerge from these caves so you reason that this would be a good place to being your search. All that's left to decide is which cave you wish to enter. > The Right Cave The people of Jacquescrappe have never really treated you with respect and you never really liked them either. Moreover, you are offended by how many of them just agreed to send you in without even bothering to ask you how YOU felt about the idea. You decide to return to your swineherding responsibilities and let the rest of the townspeople try to figure this out for themselves. "Fuck 'em" you think as you leave the council chambers and return to the fields. In the weeks that followed, several intrepid individuals attempted to reach the Craxil and never returned. Many townspeople gathered together all the gold they had in hopes of putting together a reward for a worthy adventurer who might succeed in this task. Many others were sent to the royal palace, begging desperately and fruitlessly for military assistance in their remote and low value settlement. In the end, all these events failed and soon, the raids returned. If the townspeople didn't like you before, they certainly hated you now. While before you would sometimes get dirty looks or the occasional one word answer, they now ignore you completely wherever you go. You insist that you had every right to refuse such a foolish plan, but most just dismiss you as being a selfish bastard. You return to the fields to talk to "oinky" and "snout", the only friends that haven't turned their backs on you yet. In the monthes that followed, numerous people are dragged off into the mountainside, never to be heard from again. You smile as the fat hog of a woman with a barbed tounge that pissed you off the most is seen screaming while in the grasp of one of these creatures. However, one night while you are cleaning up the digested remains of oinky's chili burritos you are surprised by two humunculi. You may have enjoyed it when others you didn't like so much got carried off, but this time it is you. You are never heard from again. THE END<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You wake up in your cabin in the woods. You sit up and scratch some fleas that have infested your body. You also realize its still daylight. You hate waking up early. You lope into the bathroom and look in the mirror where you see a canine face covered in gray fur, you remember a time when your fur was completely brown. “You’re getting old Wolf” you say to yourself like you always do while trying to look on the bright side that at least you don’t have the mange. You think you’d just put a silver bullet in your head if you ever started to go bald. After eating some left over mutton in the fridge and some Gummy Blobs (for the sugar “pick me up”) you ponder how you’re going to pay this month’s rent on your cabin. You call your agent Erik and see if that little pissant has found any work for you. Hopefully it’s an actual job and not just a guest speaker spot at a comic convention. “Erik! It’s me Wolf! Pick up the fucking phone! I know you’re there!” you say when you get the answering machine. “Erik! Get on the phone NOW, or I’m gonna go over there and shove a pipe organ up your ass!” That got his attention. “Wolf, I’m sorry, but I fear I’m in a deep depression.” “What else is new? Look I need some work, got anything? I don’t even care if it’s straight to video. I just need some of the green stuff!” “Sadly, I don’t think I do, but then I haven’t really checked…I’m so depressed. I’ve been wondering if I made the right decisions in my life…and now it’s too late for me to do anything about it, because I’m old…” “Join the fucking club Erik! Look do you…” “But my art, my music, that is my love and its failing me again. My latest opera isn’t doing well. I wonder if I chose the wrong thing to love and pursue. Just like I did with Christine. Oh Christine WHY couldn’t you have loved me? I loved you…” Wonderful, he’s in full blown tortured artist mode. He can go on like this forever. You can either give up, or persist in getting something out of him. > You persist “Oh boo fucking hoo, your latest Opera hasn’t been doing too well lately. At least people are paying to see the goddamn thing! As bad of a composer, and musician you are, you oughta be glad anyone’s even paying to see the goddamn thing! People don’t want to see anything with me in it! And at least you’ve got another job to fall back on LIKE BEING AN AGENT THAT’S SUPPOSED TO BE GETTING ME A FUCKING JOB!” you snarl. There’s some dead air briefly and then Erik begins talking again. “You’re right. I shouldn’t be complaining about my problems to you. You of course know all about torment. A war that wages within you, a beast that…” “Erik I’ve got no time and I’m in no mood to hear how we’re supposed to be kindred spirits, you just better tell me you found something for me and it better not be another guest speaker spot at a comic convention!” “Well let’s see…I dunno. Werewolves aren’t popular anymore you know…there might be something…here it is! It’s called Wolf Pack.” “Pack? That implies more than one wolf on the set there Erik. Well I suppose I can share the spotlight with some others. As long as I’m in charge of course.” You say. “Er…well according to this, you’d be the old cranky grandpa wolf that makes a bunch of rude remarks.” “What?! What kind of stupid shit is that?” “Yeah that’s the stuff.” Erik replies not catching on. “I mean what the hell kind of movie is this?” “Its uh…let’s see…oh here. It’s a horror comedy about a werewolf family and how they adjust to human society. Looks like you’ll be playing with a lot of young pups as you’d call them.” “WHAT?! NO! What the fuck Erik? I’m a fucking monster not something to be fucking laughed at! And they already did a movie like that a long time ago and it sucked!” “Well that’s all I got. Maybe you could talk to the director to make changes since they also wrote it. I’m sure you and her are familiar with each other. You had an affair with her for quite some time.” “Uh, you wanna narrow that list down Erik?” “It’s Mary. You know, the one who used to be married to Frankie, until your affair broke up both of your marriages?” Erik’s new information didn’t exactly make you any more enthusiastic to want to take the job. > You take the job anyway “Alright I’ll take the job, just tell me where its at.” You say. After Erik gives you the information, you ride your Harley to the studio. When you arrive on the set, you see a bunch of snot nosed wolflings hanging around trying to look “tough”. Some of them are in human form, but you can smell them for who they truly are though. These cubs today, you swear they would’ve never lasted back in the old days. All flash and nothing to back it up. (Though you don’t mind looking at the young females that are there) That’s why they hang out in packs. You never did that even when you were young. You were always a lone wolf. “Hey who’s the fossil?” one of them asks. “Hey Grandpa, the remake of Old Yellow is next door!” This causes a howl of laughter from all of them, until you confront the one who said it. Probably the leader no doubt. Not even in wolf form. Pathetic. “I’m going to give you time to transform into a more adequate fighting form before I neuter you.” You calmly explain. “You? You’re like 300 years old! I could take…” Can’t say you didn’t give him a chance. You immediately pounce on him, knocking him down while clamping your jaws on his face and digging your fangs in. “HOLY SHIT DUDE!” one of them shouts. “Oh my god he’s killing him!” a female screams. “Get him off of him, get him off of him!” While them all attempt to pull you off of their leader you hear a familiar voice that gets your attention. “Well, I see Erik passed my script over to you, good. I’m also glad to see you’re still as anti-social as usual Wolf.” Mary says as you finally get off of your misguided heckler and approach her. She still looks the same, though she looks a lot better now that she got rid of that hair style she used to have and dyed it blonde. “Just re-establishing the proper hierarchy, nothing more.” “Hmm, always the Alpha Male, that was what I always loved about you. So primal. Maybe later I can dress in a little red cloak and we can reenact a fairy tale.” “Some fairy tale, as I remember you loved a lot of beings.” “Hey I can’t help who I am. I was created this way.” “Just like Frankie eh?” “Don’t you compare me to that sicko! Yes we are controlled by our genetics to a certain degree, but as you damn well know I rose above them! I made my own identity. I’m a successful director and writer now, so what if I have a healthy sexual appetite? There’s nothing wrong with that, I’m sure you’d agree given all the beings you had your way with before, after and DURING your marriage!” “Look never mind all that. I got a real problem with this film.” You say side stepping her correct accusation. “What’s wrong with it?” “What’s wrong with it? Are you kidding me? It sucks! It makes a mockery of werewolves! You even named one of them fucking Benji!” “Well comedy is popular now. Plus children like monsters just as long as they aren’t too scary, so I was hoping to make it a family film.” “ARRGH! I don’t DO family films! This is insulting and demeaning!” “How? Come on Wolf. In most horror movies you’ve made you always got killed in the end by a human, how was that any less demeaning?” “Because at least I was portrayed as feared monster that killed a bunch of people! I can play ball with the humans and their idealistic notion of good always having to overcome evil and all that…but THIS! This makes me into a fucking joke! I can’t even believe you of all people wrote this…no wait I can. You fucking undead don’t have any consideration for anyone, but yourselves.” “You know I’m technically not even undead, I’m created from several dead bodies. I’m more of a golem.” Mary attempts to correct you. “Who gives a shit, you’re still basically a walking corpse, and your flesh is dead. You’re Undead in my book.” “You know for someone who hasn’t been able to find a job in months and is basically just rotting away in his little cabin, you’d think that you’d be a little more appreciative. I wrote this with you in mind you hairy bigoted asshole!” You don’t know whether to take that as an insult or as an attempt for her to try to make amends for the past. > You take it as an insult “So you had me in mind eh? Well that proves it. You think I’m a joke because that’s how you wrote the character.” “What? No! I just…” “I see your time with that bloodsucker was well spent. Learning how to exploit and leech right? Look maybe you can pull this shit with those puppies over there, but I ain’t fucking one! I don’t need the money that badly. I’ll go fucking live my twilight years in the forest and DIE there as nature probably intended. I don’t need this shit.” As you turn to leave, Mary shouts at you. “Yeah, that’s right go on leave Mr. Lone Wolf! You’ll fucking die alone, you stubborn bastard! I tried to help you! Erik tried to help you and you don’t appreciate any of it! That’s why none of your children speak to you and…” You run back over to her and slam her into the wall. You stare at her face to face as she struggles to get free. She’s strong, but you manage to keep her pinned. She really pissed you off and you were already pissed off to begin with. “Fuck you, and fuck Erik! You two don’t know shit about me, never did. I’m through with the pair of you! In fact I think I’ll be taking something with me since you’re so worried about me being alone…” You release Mary and go over to the wolflings who look a little worried that you’re going to cause harm to them. Many of them cast their eyes downward. “Hey, you want to be REALLY tough? You want to really raise some hell? Come with me. If you want to stay under the thumb of this patchwork dead bitch and be exploited and mocked, stay here. Your statement alone convinces all of them. They all follow you, even the one you made an example of. Mary attempts to call everyone back, but it’s useless, you’ve taken control of the pack and they’ll do what you want now. And right now you want to get into a fight. You think about all the people and creatures that wronged you in some way and only two of them keep coming to mind consistently. One is that fucking Dr. Victor Frankenstein. If it wasn’t for him, Frankie and Mary wouldn’t have been created in the first place which also means you wouldn’t have gotten yourself into trouble all those years ago. You wouldn’t have had to put up with his “children” taking jobs away from you. Not to mention he sued you once. But the one who you REALLY despise, is that bisexual bloodsucker. Fucking Dracula or Vlad, or whatever the hell he’s calling himself these days. The disgust you have for him and the reasons are too numerous to list here. > You go kick Victor's ass Your recent dealings with Mary, have made you think about all the shit you’ve had to put up with from that no talent dickhead. No human has ever given you such trouble. You know he’s still alive. (Mad scientists always find ways of prolonging their lives somehow) That won’t be true for long though, if you get your way. You killed him once before. This time you’re going to make sure he stays that way. He’s probably got whatever crappy inventions and experiments protecting his castle and from what you know, Frankie’s still living with his “Dad” as well. You don’t give a fuck, you’ll kill him too. You figure you’ll be doing the world a favor as well as getting some satisfaction. Besides, you’ve got to show these wolflings what being a werewolf is all about. “All right you cubs! We’re going to go raise some fucking hell. We’re going to Frankenstein’s Castle. We’re going to rip the place apart brick by brick, and I’M going to rip Victor apart limb from limb.” “Erm…Castle Frankenstien? Isn’t that where Frankie lives?” one of the wolflings asks. “I heard he’s really powerful, didn’t he fight Dracula and win?” ‘I dunno if we should mess with him.” You can’t believe your ears! These snot nosed pups know nothing of their heritage! Back in the old days they would’ve been killed and eaten for such cowardice! “Goddammit are you Wolves or fucking Chihuahuas? Frankie’s a fucking pussy! I personally kicked his ass before and I’ll do it again all by myself if I have too! Now are you going to run with me and be a fucking Wolf or are you going to go back home with your tails tucked between your legs?” After looking at each other for awhile they all agree to go with you. “Good! Now I want all of you to transform into your wolf form too! I’m traveling with fellow wolves not humans!” Just before one of the females begins to transform, you stop her. She’s dressed in a short leather skirt and a tight white t-shirt that’s tied in the center and has long flowing brown hair. You can smell that she’s in heat. You hate to coin a pun, but she literally is one hot l’il bitch. “Erm, not you. You stay in your human form; I kind of like the whole teenage slut look you got going on. In fact you come here right now; you’ll be traveling on my bike with me.” You say. As she slides in behind you and holds on, you ask her one more question. “So what’s your name?” “Ginger. What’s your name, you never did tell us.” “Wolf. Just Wolf baby. Remember it. You’ll be screaming it later.” Damn you’re so fucking cool, you think as you start up your Harley and ride ahead of the pack. (You’d probably be even cooler if these pups weren’t all riding those Japanese “crotch rocket” bikes, but that’ll have to be another lesson for another day) After a couple of days of riding, and a few “pit stops” with Ginger, you all eventually reach Castle Frankenstein. You park your bikes at the gate, and size the place up, which now looks a lot different. It looks like a damn Nazi fortress now, there’s guard towers and everything. It seems Victor has been keeping himself very busy in recent years. As it begins to rain, a familiar voice calls to you from one of the towers. “Its you. Vic always knew you’d return one day. I never believed him though. I guess I owe him fifty bucks.” You look up and see Igor, he looks different too. He has a lot of clumsy cybernetic implants, one of them being some sort of gun in place of an arm. More of Vic’s “handy work” no doubt. He’s still got that damn hump on his back though. “Igor? You still alive? I thought your ungrateful master would’ve just let you die of old age and get himself another assistant. I see he did a real good job of improving you though. Tell me, how’s it feel to be the real brains, never getting the credit and continuing to be a doormat?” “I’m happy with my lot in life. How’s it feel to be broke ass overgrown dog who’s trying to relive his lost youth?” Igor retorts back. “Don’t know yet. I’ll tell you before I shove that metal arm up your ass.” Well looks like the fight’s starting here. > You attempt to climb over the gate before Igor can get off a shot In your prime you would’ve been able to scale the gate, climb the tower and rip Igor’s head off all without getting hit. Unfortunately you aren’t in your prime anymore. Igor’s having trouble aiming his awkward arm-gun, but with as many bullets as it pumps out he doesn’t need to be completely accurate. While you’re attempting to climb over the gate he hits you several times. Naturally those bullets are silver. You crash to the wet ground with a loud CLANK! sound, as the rest of the pack go running away with their tails between their legs.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Your recent dealings with Mary, have made you think about all the shit you’ve had to put up with from that no talent dickhead. No human has ever given you such trouble. You know he’s still alive. (Mad scientists always find ways of prolonging their lives somehow) That won’t be true for long though, if you get your way. You killed him once before. This time you’re going to make sure he stays that way. He’s probably got whatever crappy inventions and experiments protecting his castle and from what you know, Frankie’s still living with his “Dad” as well. You don’t give a fuck, you’ll kill him too. You figure you’ll be doing the world a favor as well as getting some satisfaction. Besides, you’ve got to show these wolflings what being a werewolf is all about. “All right you cubs! We’re going to go raise some fucking hell. We’re going to Frankenstein’s Castle. We’re going to rip the place apart brick by brick, and I’M going to rip Victor apart limb from limb.” “Erm…Castle Frankenstien? Isn’t that where Frankie lives?” one of the wolflings asks. “I heard he’s really powerful, didn’t he fight Dracula and win?” ‘I dunno if we should mess with him.” You can’t believe your ears! These snot nosed pups know nothing of their heritage! Back in the old days they would’ve been killed and eaten for such cowardice! “Goddammit are you Wolves or fucking Chihuahuas? Frankie’s a fucking pussy! I personally kicked his ass before and I’ll do it again all by myself if I have too! Now are you going to run with me and be a fucking Wolf or are you going to go back home with your tails tucked between your legs?” After looking at each other for awhile they all agree to go with you. “Good! Now I want all of you to transform into your wolf form too! I’m traveling with fellow wolves not humans!” Just before one of the females begins to transform, you stop her. She’s dressed in a short leather skirt and a tight white t-shirt that’s tied in the center and has long flowing brown hair. You can smell that she’s in heat. You hate to coin a pun, but she literally is one hot l’il bitch. “Erm, not you. You stay in your human form; I kind of like the whole teenage slut look you got going on. In fact you come here right now; you’ll be traveling on my bike with me.” You say. As she slides in behind you and holds on, you ask her one more question. “So what’s your name?” “Ginger. What’s your name, you never did tell us.” “Wolf. Just Wolf baby. Remember it. You’ll be screaming it later.” Damn you’re so fucking cool, you think as you start up your Harley and ride ahead of the pack. (You’d probably be even cooler if these pups weren’t all riding those Japanese “crotch rocket” bikes, but that’ll have to be another lesson for another day) After a couple of days of riding, and a few “pit stops” with Ginger, you all eventually reach Castle Frankenstein. You park your bikes at the gate, and size the place up, which now looks a lot different. It looks like a damn Nazi fortress now, there’s guard towers and everything. It seems Victor has been keeping himself very busy in recent years. As it begins to rain, a familiar voice calls to you from one of the towers. “Its you. Vic always knew you’d return one day. I never believed him though. I guess I owe him fifty bucks.” You look up and see Igor, he looks different too. He has a lot of clumsy cybernetic implants, one of them being some sort of gun in place of an arm. More of Vic’s “handy work” no doubt. He’s still got that damn hump on his back though. “Igor? You still alive? I thought your ungrateful master would’ve just let you die of old age and get himself another assistant. I see he did a real good job of improving you though. Tell me, how’s it feel to be the real brains, never getting the credit and continuing to be a doormat?” “I’m happy with my lot in life. How’s it feel to be broke ass overgrown dog who’s trying to relive his lost youth?” Igor retorts back. “Don’t know yet. I’ll tell you before I shove that metal arm up your ass.” Well looks like the fight’s starting here. > You duck for cover! You tell everyone to get the hell out of Igor’s range and take cover. Fortunately Igor’s gun-arm isn’t the best design and he’s having problems aiming and standing still due to the recoil, so you all manage to hide behind some nearby rocks Still, there’s no way you’re going to be able to scale the front gate with Igor on that damn tower. “See I knew this was a bad idea!” one of the wolflings says. “How are we supposed to get past that? I’m pretty sure he’s firing silver bullets at us.” “Oh I KNOW he is. Hence the reason why I told everyone to get out of the way. Okay so we’re not going through the front gate, the castle’s a big place right? Igor’s only guarding the front. I say we split up and scale the walls on the sides and around the back. We’ll meet up inside the castle.” “Yeah, but won’t there be other defenses?” “Probably. So you better be fucking prepared! This ain’t no damn game. You cubs think you’re really tough when in fact you’ve probably never had a real challenge. This is it. Don’t think about backing out now. This is where we truly test the idea of survival of the fittest. Damn, my blood is starting to feel that rush! Don’t you all feel it? I haven’t felt this way since they sent a group of ten “werewolf assassins” to put me down. Shit. They never tried that again! Ha ha ha ha ha!” While you’re reveling in gruesome nostalgia, your pack is looking at you like you’ve completely lost it. And they’re probably right. However, your speech seems to have stirred something in them. “The crazy old fossil’s right! I remember having to hear about similar stuff my grandfather used to talk about all the damn time. I never really paid any attention to it before. Now I think I understand. We need to prove our skills to truly be proud to call ourselves werewolves!” one of them states. “Now that’s the attitude I’m talking about!” You all huddle in the rain and make a howling noise in unison to the moon and proceed with your plan. You all split up into a couple of groups and begin to scale the side and back walls, which really isn’t all that difficult. You know Igor’s probably ran off to warn Vic though. All you can think is, he better have something better than just Igor and Frankie defending him. As you prowl around in the courtyard, you hear moaning and the clomping of several footsteps. You and your group turn to see some of Vic’s defenses. “Zombies? Are you fucking kidding me Vic? I thought you’d at least have some robots or something!” you say to yourself. Though upon a second look, you see that the horde of corpses aren’t actually zombies. Zombies are complete corpses brought back to life. These things look more like Frankie, except designed even worse. A lot of them have arms and legs in odd places. Some have a couple of heads or extra limbs. Most aren’t even stitched together neatly, there are just giant rivets and spikes sticking out, holding them together. These are probably some of his “failed” experiments. Doesn’t matter, they’re close enough to be Undead for you. > You fight them Damn straight! That’s what you’re here for! You take out the nearest pile of shit with ease and your pack follows suit. They’re a little tougher than you thought, but limbs are flying everywhere. Needless to say you’re really enjoying yourself, and you can see your pack is too. (Well the ones that haven’t gotten themselves killed) You attack one large experiment with four arms, it catches a few heavy hits on you, before you rip them off. It’s relentless and begins smashing its head (Which contains a lot of jagged metal bits) into you, knocking you down. As you shake it off, Ginger (Who’s now in wolf form) and a couple of other wolflings comes to your aid and finish off the large abomination. “Godammit! I had that! Don’t EVER come to help me! I can handle myself!” you snarl angrily. “We were just helping…” Ginger says casting her eyes downward and lowering her ears. “…yeah…well…just don’t let it happen again…” you say understanding they weren’t really trying to embarrass you. “Come on, we’re done here, let’s get in the castle.” You meet up with the ones remaining in your pack at the front door of the castle. You put all your muscle into it and rip the doors of their hinges. When you step inside, you narrowly dodge a laser beam of some sort. “He’s got the whole place trapped, be careful where you…” A wolfling steps on some floor stone that releases yet another beam trap, reducing him to ashes. “Step.” You say completing the sentence. That’s when you hear a loud speaker. “Wolf! Igor informed me you had arrived with some friends! I’m actually glad you’re here I get to test out my new experiment on you! Assuming you survive long enough to get to me of course!” At this point he does his typical Mad Scientist laugh. If he thinks you’re going to waste your time in his castle of death traps he’s sadly mistaken. He seems to have forgotten you have an excellent sense of smell and tracking in general. Of course the smell of dead bodies seems to be emanating everywhere. You try to sniff out a human scent, but you aren’t getting anything solid. The dead body smell is too overpowering. You’re catching a couple of different ones though. One of them is a very faint sweet smell. The other is a burning type smell. > You follow the burning smell Knowing that Vic works with electricity a lot, you figure he’s in that direction. You and the wolflings that are still with you follow, carefully avoiding traps. You travel further to higher levels of the castle where the burning smell is getting stronger. You KNOW you’re getting closer to him. You can feel it. You just hope his “experiment” is as great as he claims. It would suck if there wasn’t a real battle to fight after all this. You burst into the room with strong burning smell and see big globes of energy, conduits, generators and a big ass corpse with cybernetic implants lying on the table. It’s Frankie with some modifications and absorbing more electricity than lightning rod. You half expect to see Victor somewhere, but all you hear is the loudspeaker disturbing your ears again. “You see Wolf! You see! While you’ve been wasting away in that shitty cabin, I’ve been preparing for my son’s come back! You stole his woman! You ended his career! You didn’t just damage him physically, you damaged his mind! Scarred him emotionally! It’s taken me YEARS to undo the damage!” “Damaged his mind? He was a psychopathic serial pedophile made of corpses! What the fuck kind of damage could I have done? And Mary never liked him anyway!” “She could’ve learned! He could’ve too! They just needed more time! But YOU! You prevented all that! You and your dog dick!” “For fuck’s sake, I wasn’t the only one fucking her!” “Yes, but you’re the one who did it the longest and destroyed my poor boy’s career! You’re going to pay! Ha ha ha ha! He’s up! HE’S ALIVE! HE’S ALIVE! HE’S ALIVE! Frankie look who we have here! And old friend, why don’t you go and give him a big hug?” Victor goes into his mad scientist laugh yet again, as Frankie “2.0” gets up from the table. He opens his eyes and looks directly at you. “FRANKIE BEAT YOUR HEAD IN NOW.” He says with a booming voice. Still as verbal and articulate as ever. > You have the pack surround Frankie You order everyone to surround Frankie to try to keep him off guard. Frankie watches as the wolfling encircle him, but he’s still slowly moving towards you. He charges! A couple of the wolfling dive for his legs in an effort to stop him, but he’s like a juggernaut and keeps charging. Fortunately you’re still nimble and get out of his way as he smashes through the wall. The wolflings that dived for his legs, follow up and begin attack him with tooth and claw. It’s not having that great of an effect though, he’s got metal plating on that dead flesh now. Frankie kills the pair of them by smashing their heads together until there is nothing left except mush. “Everyone grab a weapon! Don’t fight him head on!” you bark at the survivors while attempting to find something. You find a large metal pole, though you’re reluctant to take it, with all the electricity in the damn room. “It’s useless! You’ll never defeat my boy Frankie!” Victor says. Frankie begins to approach you again. > You throw the pole at him Just as Frankie charges you again, you throw the pole as hard as you can at him like a spear. Bullseye! Literally. The pole slams into his left eye and straight through his head. It still doesn’t slow him down though and you just barely get out his way. Frankie stops his attack for a moment and attempts to remove the pole, but you and another wolfling don’t miss the opportunity. The pole is quite long and you grab it from the front, while the other grabs it from the back and you both run clockwise around Frankie. All the titanium plating in the world isn’t going to protect him from massive head trauma. “RARRRRGH! BRAIN!” Frankie yells as half of his head comes apart. As he attempts to keep his brains from falling out, and that’s when the rest of the pack begins to beat his head in even more with various blunt objects. He’s still putting up a fight though. “NO! STOP! FRANKIE! MY SON!” you hear Victor scream over the loudspeaker. Victor’s voice sounds like its very close. You see another door in the lab, and you’ve got a really good feeling that he’s behind it. You leave the wolflings to finish off Frankie, and run to open the door. And there he is, Victor Frankenstein… Or what’s left of him at least, he’s just a brain in a jar, hooked up to various machines now. “Wow, Vic. I always knew you were a terrible mad scientist, but I would’ve thought you’d be able to at least create a robot body for yourself, or a youth elixir or something!” “Shut up Wolf! You haven’t won! I’ve still got…” “What? What’ve you got? Nothing! Unless you’re a giant space brain from Venus or some shit, you can’t do anything to me. And you ain’t, so…” ”Wait! Wolf! Can’t we talk about this?” “Oh like you wanted to talk to me, when you fed me drugged meat?” “Oh yeah…you’re not still mad about that are you? I mean you did kill me for it…” ”Yeah, and I should’ve stuck around to make sure you stayed dead. Well no mistakes this time.” You take Victor’s brain out of the jar. “NOOOOOOOO……” are the last words to come out of the loud speakers before you step back into the lab where Frankie is flailing wildly at the wolflings who are carefully standing out of harms way as they continue to make quick strikes as him. He’s badly damaged and blind. Not deaf though. You call over to Frankie who turns around when he recognizes your voice. “Hey Frankie, your Dad wants to talk to you, he’s got a lot on his mind.” You say and then throw Victor’s brain into what remains of Frankie’s face. The brain splatters into bloody pieces, while you follow up with a quick and vicious attack. You sink your fangs deep into Frankie’s shoulder until it hits the bone, where upon you rip off the arm at the socket. The rest of the pack follows your lead and help you rip Frankie apart, until he’s reduced to the pieces that made him up in the first place. “Damn, I think I broke a tooth on that fucking metal plating.” You say breathing heavily. “We won Wolf! You were right! This was fun! I felt the primal instinct and everything!” one of the wolflings exclaims. “Yeah and right now all of you are going to be feeling silver burning through your bodies.” Igor says standing in the lab door exit, pointing that infernal arm weapon at you all. > You rush him You take one look at your pack and nod at them. You all make a howl in unison. Igor realizes he’s in deep shit. “No wait you dumb ass dogs! I got a fucking weapon here! Stop!” You all charge at him and Igor opens fire, he can’t stop you all before you overwhelm him. Unfortunately he does get some… including you. You eviscerate Igor as the silver begins to take its toll on your system. He dies coughing up blood, apologizing for not being able to defend Victor in his death throws. “I’m sorry Victor…I’m sorry my brother…gurgle…” The rest of the pack attempts to carry you out, but you refuse their help and stagger to the outside of the castle where you finally collapse on the ground. It seems so comfortable you figure you’ll just rest for awhile. You’re not surprised to see Mary standing over you. “I take it you killed my whole family.” She says unemotionally. “Yeah, even Igor. Never knew he was Vic’s brother. That explains a lot.” “Why? Why’d you do it? What was the point?! You could’ve just done my movie and still been alive! Or even if you didn’t want anything to do with me, you could’ve just went back to your cabin instead! You could’ve been alive!” “You’ll never understand Mary. You don’t get old. I did and I wasn’t meant to. I outlived my place in this world. No point in going on. Just had to get in one last monster fight and damn it felt good.” Mary shakes her head, you think she might even shed a tear if she was capable. “Go on now Mary, there’s nothing for you here. Don’t morn your family. You were always better than the rest of them anyway. Don’t morn me either, I don’t want it. Go. The pack is coming.” Mary gives you one last look and runs off before the rest of the pack arrives. When they do they begin howling loudly. “Goddammit shut the fuck up! I’m trying to die with a little peace and quiet here!” you snarl. “You have to lead us! You can’t die!” one wolfling says “The hell I can’t! Look I showed you what it means to truly be a Wolf tonight. It’s up to you to do something with it.” Ginger kneels down and tries to sit you up hoping that you’re not really dying. She’s very upset. “You can’t die! I want you with me…I…” “Stop Ginger. Don’t say it. Don’t give yourself anymore unnecessary pain, especially when I don’t deserve it. It’s just as well as I die now, I probably would’ve only broken your heart later. Just remember me how I was in the short time you knew me and every time you look at your litter.” You touch her stomach. “How do you know? I mean it’s too early, we can’t be sure if…” Ginger exclaims. “Please. I’m the Alpha Wolf. I never fucking miss. I got kids everywhere. None of them ever listened to me or talk to me, but I got ‘em.” “What do you want me to tell our litter about you?” “Whatever you want, you’ll be the one raising them and I’ll be too dead to do anything about it… just teach them what I taught all of you here tonight…hopefully they’ll listen. Damn willful pups…mmm…getting sleepy…one more thing…” “What’s that Wolf?” “Burn my damn body, I don’t want some fucker trying to bring me back to life! I hate the Undead!” You close your eyes and feel the darkness envelop you. After a brief period of howling, the remaining pack members take your body and burn it just like you asked, then they all part ways, each to pursue their own destinies in their own way just like you did. A few months later, Ginger does indeed give birth to a new litter and teaches them about you and how you lived. (This is tempered by some common sense on her part though). At last, a legacy worthy of an Alpha Wolf.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Just as Frankie charges you again, you throw the pole as hard as you can at him like a spear. Bullseye! Literally. The pole slams into his left eye and straight through his head. It still doesn’t slow him down though and you just barely get out his way. Frankie stops his attack for a moment and attempts to remove the pole, but you and another wolfling don’t miss the opportunity. The pole is quite long and you grab it from the front, while the other grabs it from the back and you both run clockwise around Frankie. All the titanium plating in the world isn’t going to protect him from massive head trauma. “RARRRRGH! BRAIN!” Frankie yells as half of his head comes apart. As he attempts to keep his brains from falling out, and that’s when the rest of the pack begins to beat his head in even more with various blunt objects. He’s still putting up a fight though. “NO! STOP! FRANKIE! MY SON!” you hear Victor scream over the loudspeaker. Victor’s voice sounds like its very close. You see another door in the lab, and you’ve got a really good feeling that he’s behind it. You leave the wolflings to finish off Frankie, and run to open the door. And there he is, Victor Frankenstein… Or what’s left of him at least, he’s just a brain in a jar, hooked up to various machines now. “Wow, Vic. I always knew you were a terrible mad scientist, but I would’ve thought you’d be able to at least create a robot body for yourself, or a youth elixir or something!” “Shut up Wolf! You haven’t won! I’ve still got…” “What? What’ve you got? Nothing! Unless you’re a giant space brain from Venus or some shit, you can’t do anything to me. And you ain’t, so…” ”Wait! Wolf! Can’t we talk about this?” “Oh like you wanted to talk to me, when you fed me drugged meat?” “Oh yeah…you’re not still mad about that are you? I mean you did kill me for it…” ”Yeah, and I should’ve stuck around to make sure you stayed dead. Well no mistakes this time.” You take Victor’s brain out of the jar. “NOOOOOOOO……” are the last words to come out of the loud speakers before you step back into the lab where Frankie is flailing wildly at the wolflings who are carefully standing out of harms way as they continue to make quick strikes as him. He’s badly damaged and blind. Not deaf though. You call over to Frankie who turns around when he recognizes your voice. “Hey Frankie, your Dad wants to talk to you, he’s got a lot on his mind.” You say and then throw Victor’s brain into what remains of Frankie’s face. The brain splatters into bloody pieces, while you follow up with a quick and vicious attack. You sink your fangs deep into Frankie’s shoulder until it hits the bone, where upon you rip off the arm at the socket. The rest of the pack follows your lead and help you rip Frankie apart, until he’s reduced to the pieces that made him up in the first place. “Damn, I think I broke a tooth on that fucking metal plating.” You say breathing heavily. “We won Wolf! You were right! This was fun! I felt the primal instinct and everything!” one of the wolflings exclaims. “Yeah and right now all of you are going to be feeling silver burning through your bodies.” Igor says standing in the lab door exit, pointing that infernal arm weapon at you all. > You stall for time You briefly entertain the idea of rushing Igor, he wouldn’t be able to get all of you, but you’re not ready to risk death at the hands of some deformed assistant after you already killed Victor and Frankie. You need to buy some time. “Alright Igor, just calm down. It’s over Vic and Frankie are dead. You don’t have to get pushed around by either one anymore and you got this whole castle as inheritance! I just did you a favor.” “A favor? A favor? You killed my younger brother you ASSHOLE!” You quickly put two and two together. “Vic? Victor was your brother? Your younger brother?” “He damn well better have been, after all the abuse I took from him! You know what it’s like being abused by your younger brother on a daily basis for YEARS?” “Not really, I killed all my brothers soon after we were born. I wasn’t sharing. Survival of the fittest and all.” You say dryly. “Really? Well I envy you. I wish I had that option. But nooo. Mom liked Vic best. Vic was handsome. Vic wasn’t deformed, Vic this. Vic that! Look after Vic, Igor. Make sure he doesn’t get into trouble Igor. He’s your younger brother and you have to protect him Igor. I was the first born! Why didn’t Igor get any love?! I was the smart one!” “Yes you were. I mean if it hadn’t been for you Vic wouldn’t have even created Frankie.” You say. “Damn straight! I was the one who kept his ass alive! I’m the one that corrected all his idiot ideas when it came to updating Frankie! I’m not stupid like everyone says! I’m smart! And I demand respect! And I never fucking got it! I just got a fucking whip to the hump!” At this point Igor is ranting so much about hating his brother and his self-pity, he’s not aiming his weapon at you any longer. You take advantage of the situation and rush at him, he’s not quick enough to react and you knock him to the ground before eviscerating him. Oddly after all that ranting, he dies gurgling an apology. “I’m sorry Vic…I tried…gurgle…” You shake your head at Igor’s misguided loyalty, while the Pack surrounds you. “We won! You rule Wolf! What now?” one of them asks. “Dunno, didn’t expect to survive really…so did you get all this on camera Mary?” you ask out loud, startling the wolflings. Mary comes out of hiding, with a camcorder. “How did you know I was here?” she asks “Please, I don’t forget a scent, especially one that I know quite intimately. So let me guess. You’re going to exploit this footage for financial gain right?” “Well yeah. When you left the studio I followed you a bit and found out you were heading here. At first I wanted to protect and help my family so I got here before you.” “What changed your mind?” “I realized what a bunch of miscreants and fuck ups they all were! What was I supposed to do? Be like Igor and stay loyal to a bunch of reprobates that wouldn’t appreciate it anyway? It’s not like they’re REALLY my family. So I just decided to film the epic battle since you ruined my original movie by taking this lot with you.” “I take it you didn’t care who won though.” “Not really, but if it makes you feel warm and squishy inside I suppose I was rooting for you more. You were the underdog after all…hey! That’s a great title for the movie!” Mary exclaims. The Wolflings get a little restless about all this. “Hey shouldn’t we do something, I mean she’s part of this fucked up family, and she’s trying to exploit us!” “Ah see now this is another lesson I can teach you guys. You don’t need to be an asshole all the time, especially when there’s some benefit for not doing so. A lesson I probably should’ve obeyed more when I was your age. Mary’s little movie is made purely for exploitation, but its GOOD exploitation. It’ll show everyone who we are and that we’re NOT to be fucked with! This isn’t some shitty family movie. This is raw footage of werewolves doing what they do best, kicking ass! We couldn’t ask for better publicity. AND I assume we’ll be getting some money for this right Mary?” Mary looks a little reluctant, but she realizes she has to give you something. “Right Wolf.” “That’s what I thought. Now the battle is good and all, but you’ll need to pad it out more, I say you start doing interviews with us. We can make this into a documentary! If you need more footage, we can always go bust up a bar…” And so it happens, Mary releases “Underdogs: The Inner Mind of the Wolf” in a bunch of pansy art theatres at first where it’s critically acclaimed. Later it gets released it regular theatres where most people like it mainly due to the brutal violence and your “colorful” interviews. You even win an award. The movie makes Werewolves “cool” again and you’re never out of work anymore, which is a good thing since Ginger gave birth to a litter of cubs which YOU have to pay to support! You come home every day to the little nippers biting your ankles for your attention. Still, life is good and you once again have achieved the fame and fear you deserve.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You order everyone to surround Frankie to try to keep him off guard. Frankie watches as the wolfling encircle him, but he’s still slowly moving towards you. He charges! A couple of the wolfling dive for his legs in an effort to stop him, but he’s like a juggernaut and keeps charging. Fortunately you’re still nimble and get out of his way as he smashes through the wall. The wolflings that dived for his legs, follow up and begin attack him with tooth and claw. It’s not having that great of an effect though, he’s got metal plating on that dead flesh now. Frankie kills the pair of them by smashing their heads together until there is nothing left except mush. “Everyone grab a weapon! Don’t fight him head on!” you bark at the survivors while attempting to find something. You find a large metal pole, though you’re reluctant to take it, with all the electricity in the damn room. “It’s useless! You’ll never defeat my boy Frankie!” Victor says. Frankie begins to approach you again. > You stand firm and wait for him to charge You hold the pole like a medieval pike waiting to skewer Frankie when he comes charging at you. It’s like throwing rocks at a tank. The pole certainly impales Frankie, but it barely slows him down, he continues his rush even as the pole breaks off into him and he slams his heavy body into you hard. You go flying into the wall and collapse on to the floor. Frankie follows up with stomping your head into mush. Werewolves do have regenerative powers, but you won’t be regenerating this severe damage since your brains have leaked out of your head.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Knowing that Vic works with electricity a lot, you figure he’s in that direction. You and the wolflings that are still with you follow, carefully avoiding traps. You travel further to higher levels of the castle where the burning smell is getting stronger. You KNOW you’re getting closer to him. You can feel it. You just hope his “experiment” is as great as he claims. It would suck if there wasn’t a real battle to fight after all this. You burst into the room with strong burning smell and see big globes of energy, conduits, generators and a big ass corpse with cybernetic implants lying on the table. It’s Frankie with some modifications and absorbing more electricity than lightning rod. You half expect to see Victor somewhere, but all you hear is the loudspeaker disturbing your ears again. “You see Wolf! You see! While you’ve been wasting away in that shitty cabin, I’ve been preparing for my son’s come back! You stole his woman! You ended his career! You didn’t just damage him physically, you damaged his mind! Scarred him emotionally! It’s taken me YEARS to undo the damage!” “Damaged his mind? He was a psychopathic serial pedophile made of corpses! What the fuck kind of damage could I have done? And Mary never liked him anyway!” “She could’ve learned! He could’ve too! They just needed more time! But YOU! You prevented all that! You and your dog dick!” “For fuck’s sake, I wasn’t the only one fucking her!” “Yes, but you’re the one who did it the longest and destroyed my poor boy’s career! You’re going to pay! Ha ha ha ha! He’s up! HE’S ALIVE! HE’S ALIVE! HE’S ALIVE! Frankie look who we have here! And old friend, why don’t you go and give him a big hug?” Victor goes into his mad scientist laugh yet again, as Frankie “2.0” gets up from the table. He opens his eyes and looks directly at you. “FRANKIE BEAT YOUR HEAD IN NOW.” He says with a booming voice. Still as verbal and articulate as ever. > You fight him head on Um…no. Even in your prime you would’ve had problems taking on Frankie in his current updated state. At your age it’s just unthinkable. You attempt to bite his neck in an effort to tear his head off, but he crushes his strong metallic arms around you squeezing with all his might. Your pack attempts to help, but Frankie is too focused on his revenge. Even when you tear out his eyes, he continues to squash your internal organs until he finally breaks your back and throws you blindly into one of those electric generators. Your limp corpse fries for a little while, but unlike Frankie, it doesn’t bring you back to life.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Damn straight! That’s what you’re here for! You take out the nearest pile of shit with ease and your pack follows suit. They’re a little tougher than you thought, but limbs are flying everywhere. Needless to say you’re really enjoying yourself, and you can see your pack is too. (Well the ones that haven’t gotten themselves killed) You attack one large experiment with four arms, it catches a few heavy hits on you, before you rip them off. It’s relentless and begins smashing its head (Which contains a lot of jagged metal bits) into you, knocking you down. As you shake it off, Ginger (Who’s now in wolf form) and a couple of other wolflings comes to your aid and finish off the large abomination. “Godammit! I had that! Don’t EVER come to help me! I can handle myself!” you snarl angrily. “We were just helping…” Ginger says casting her eyes downward and lowering her ears. “…yeah…well…just don’t let it happen again…” you say understanding they weren’t really trying to embarrass you. “Come on, we’re done here, let’s get in the castle.” You meet up with the ones remaining in your pack at the front door of the castle. You put all your muscle into it and rip the doors of their hinges. When you step inside, you narrowly dodge a laser beam of some sort. “He’s got the whole place trapped, be careful where you…” A wolfling steps on some floor stone that releases yet another beam trap, reducing him to ashes. “Step.” You say completing the sentence. That’s when you hear a loud speaker. “Wolf! Igor informed me you had arrived with some friends! I’m actually glad you’re here I get to test out my new experiment on you! Assuming you survive long enough to get to me of course!” At this point he does his typical Mad Scientist laugh. If he thinks you’re going to waste your time in his castle of death traps he’s sadly mistaken. He seems to have forgotten you have an excellent sense of smell and tracking in general. Of course the smell of dead bodies seems to be emanating everywhere. You try to sniff out a human scent, but you aren’t getting anything solid. The dead body smell is too overpowering. You’re catching a couple of different ones though. One of them is a very faint sweet smell. The other is a burning type smell. > You follow the sweet smell Even though you’re sure that the burning smell is probably where Vic is at, the sweet smell is so out of place here, you’re compelled to follow it. You tell the wolflings to follow the burning smell while you investigate the other one. They look a little unsure of being without you leading them, but they follow your instructions. Carefully avoiding traps, you travel further to different parts of the castle where the sweet smell starts getting so strong it’s almost sickening, until you finally get to a closed door. You open the door to an elegant bedroom. The smell pervades the entire area. Someone soaked this place in perfume and there you see Mary standing there in a see-through nightgown. You’re genuinely surprised to see her here. “I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist. I knew you’d follow this scent. it’s the very perfume I used to wear when we had our affair.” “Mary? What the hell are you doing here and why the hell did you douse the room in the shit?” “I know you don’t like the dead smell, I don’t like it either. I makes me remember that I’m not alive…I never was.” “Yeah, well this smell isn’t too pleasant either. Whew!” “You know out the many, many…many lovers I had, you know you’re the only one that made me feel alive? Like a real woman, instead of collection of parts as you’ve pointed out so accurately so many times.” Mary begins to get closer to you. “Look Mary I ain’t got time for this reminiscing bullshit, I’m on a mission of kicking ass right now and you’d do well to stay out of my way. Why are you here anyway?” you ask again. “I figured after you left the studio, you’d be in a wicked mood. I thought you’d probably just take your pack and smash up a bar or something. I followed you for a bit and found out you were planning on coming here. Look. I understand that my family has wronged you in many ways. My dad has, Frankie has, and I know I have, but I can’t let you kill them. I know they’re all fucked up and even I don’t like them, but they’re still my family such as they are. Wolf you already got your revenge a long time ago. I mean you beat the hell out of Frankie and ended his career and I heard tales about how you even killed my Dad once before he created either of us. What’s this all going to prove? My dad isn’t any match for you now. He’s barely alive. Frankie has been just lying on a slab for years. Dad took him apart in an effort to fix him. That’s the only experiment he’s talking about and he’s nowhere completed. Dad spends all his time with the insane idea of revitalizing Frankie for a come back. I tell him that it isn’t going to happen, but he continues anyway. There’s no battle here Wolf. Just a lot of empty dreams and delusions.” At this point she takes your paw and brushes her other hand against your fur. “Please Wolf, just let my family live. If you have any lingering feelings for me that I know you once did, just call off your attack.” > You call off the attack Mary’s plea for you to spare her family has gotten to you. Maybe she’s right. Maybe you did do a lot of damage to them already. Maybe you were just trying to relive your own youth. Maybe you’re a complete fucking idiot. As soon as you embrace Mary, you feel multiple shots to the back and extreme pain. You collapse to the floor, as Mary stands back from you angrily shouting. “Igor, you humped backed fucker! Those bullets went through him and hit me! Asshole!” “Hey, I can’t control the damn power of this thing. So is he dead?” “Not quite.” Mary heftily kicks you over as you struggle to breathe. “Poor Wolf. You of all people forgot the cardinal rule. Blood is always thicker and you abandoned your own kind over silly nostalgic feelings for me. I am touched though. I shall always remember you as your pelt covers my body as a new coat. Time to put this doggie down Igor.” “I’m on it.” Igor raises his weapon once more and blasts your head off in a hail of silver.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Even though you’re sure that the burning smell is probably where Vic is at, the sweet smell is so out of place here, you’re compelled to follow it. You tell the wolflings to follow the burning smell while you investigate the other one. They look a little unsure of being without you leading them, but they follow your instructions. Carefully avoiding traps, you travel further to different parts of the castle where the sweet smell starts getting so strong it’s almost sickening, until you finally get to a closed door. You open the door to an elegant bedroom. The smell pervades the entire area. Someone soaked this place in perfume and there you see Mary standing there in a see-through nightgown. You’re genuinely surprised to see her here. “I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist. I knew you’d follow this scent. it’s the very perfume I used to wear when we had our affair.” “Mary? What the hell are you doing here and why the hell did you douse the room in the shit?” “I know you don’t like the dead smell, I don’t like it either. I makes me remember that I’m not alive…I never was.” “Yeah, well this smell isn’t too pleasant either. Whew!” “You know out the many, many…many lovers I had, you know you’re the only one that made me feel alive? Like a real woman, instead of collection of parts as you’ve pointed out so accurately so many times.” Mary begins to get closer to you. “Look Mary I ain’t got time for this reminiscing bullshit, I’m on a mission of kicking ass right now and you’d do well to stay out of my way. Why are you here anyway?” you ask again. “I figured after you left the studio, you’d be in a wicked mood. I thought you’d probably just take your pack and smash up a bar or something. I followed you for a bit and found out you were planning on coming here. Look. I understand that my family has wronged you in many ways. My dad has, Frankie has, and I know I have, but I can’t let you kill them. I know they’re all fucked up and even I don’t like them, but they’re still my family such as they are. Wolf you already got your revenge a long time ago. I mean you beat the hell out of Frankie and ended his career and I heard tales about how you even killed my Dad once before he created either of us. What’s this all going to prove? My dad isn’t any match for you now. He’s barely alive. Frankie has been just lying on a slab for years. Dad took him apart in an effort to fix him. That’s the only experiment he’s talking about and he’s nowhere completed. Dad spends all his time with the insane idea of revitalizing Frankie for a come back. I tell him that it isn’t going to happen, but he continues anyway. There’s no battle here Wolf. Just a lot of empty dreams and delusions.” At this point she takes your paw and brushes her other hand against your fur. “Please Wolf, just let my family live. If you have any lingering feelings for me that I know you once did, just call off your attack.” > You continue the attack For a moment you almost believed her. For a moment she almost displayed real emotions and feelings. For a moment you almost were a complete idiot, except you remember the old prejudice that you’ve never forgotten: “No matter how much the Undead try to mimic feelings, they have none.” You hear a click of a wall opening up. You see a metal arm point out and run out of the room, pushing Mary in the way. Igor opens fire and Mary takes king’s ransom in silver to her body, toppling her over with a heavy thud. She’s not dead, but she’ll need some new parts and a major stitch job. “Igor, you fucking idiot!” she yells from the floor attempting to get up. “Go help Dad! Wolf’s probably on his way there!” If Mary knew you were coming back, she probably wouldn’t have dismissed Igor so quickly. She manages to stand up just as you stand in the doorway…with a torch. “You know what I like about these old castles? They always have torches and candles lighting the corridors.” You say. “Even in my present condition, you won’t get close enough to use that thing!” Mary says with defiance. “Save your feeble threats, but I don’t need to get close, you doused your room with perfume in your overly elaborate and dramatic attempt to trick me. Bye bye baby.” Mary’s eyes widen as you dump the torch on the floor which lights up the room spectacularly. Mary attempts to get out of flames, but all the silver in her body makes her too heavy and she falls over again. “Hmm, maybe the undead do have emotions. She certainly looked scared and sounds like she’s in pain.” You say as you leave to catch up with the rest of the pack. You don’t get far when you see the wolflings running towards you. Many of them are wounded, some badly. “What’s going on?” you ask, stopping one of them. “It’s too damn big! It’s unstoppable! We really tried! Honest!” “What?!” “Frankie! He’s been heavily modified. He doesn’t look at all like he did the old pictures I’ve ever seen of him!” No sooner have you been informed when you hear that damn loud speaker again, the remaining wolflings run past you. “You see Wolf! You see! While you’ve been wasting away in that shitty cabin, I’ve been preparing for my son’s come back! You stole his woman! You ended his career! You didn’t just damage him physically, you damaged his mind! Scarred him emotionally! It’s taken me YEARS to undo the damage!” “Damaged his mind? He was a psychopathic serial pedophile made of corpses! What the fuck kind of damage could I have done? And Mary never liked him anyway!” you retort. “She could’ve learned! He could’ve too! They just needed more time! But YOU! You prevented all that! You and your dog dick!” “For fuck’s sake I wasn’t the only one fucking her!” “Yes, but you’re the one who did it the longest and destroyed my poor boy’s career! You’re going to pay! Frankie look who we have here! And old friend, why don’t you go and give him a big hug?” Victor goes into his mad scientist laugh yet again, and Frankie “2.0” comes lumbering down the hallway, he’s definitely got that cybernetic look now. “FRANKIE BEAT YOUR HEAD IN.” He says with a booming voice. Still as verbal and articulate as ever. > You grab a torch and burn him The problem with this tactic, is you’ve neglected to remember that Frankie has been vastly updated whereas Mary wasn.’t. Titanium plating doesn’t burn very well, as you find this out the hard way when you grab a nearby torch and shove it into Frankie’s body. It doesn’t do any notable damage. Frankie does some notable damage to you though. He grabs your arm, breaking it in several places, and then takes the torch and sets YOU on fire, by shoving the flaming torch right through your body. Fur seems to burn very well.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>For a moment you almost believed her. For a moment she almost displayed real emotions and feelings. For a moment you almost were a complete idiot, except you remember the old prejudice that you’ve never forgotten: “No matter how much the Undead try to mimic feelings, they have none.” You hear a click of a wall opening up. You see a metal arm point out and run out of the room, pushing Mary in the way. Igor opens fire and Mary takes king’s ransom in silver to her body, toppling her over with a heavy thud. She’s not dead, but she’ll need some new parts and a major stitch job. “Igor, you fucking idiot!” she yells from the floor attempting to get up. “Go help Dad! Wolf’s probably on his way there!” If Mary knew you were coming back, she probably wouldn’t have dismissed Igor so quickly. She manages to stand up just as you stand in the doorway…with a torch. “You know what I like about these old castles? They always have torches and candles lighting the corridors.” You say. “Even in my present condition, you won’t get close enough to use that thing!” Mary says with defiance. “Save your feeble threats, but I don’t need to get close, you doused your room with perfume in your overly elaborate and dramatic attempt to trick me. Bye bye baby.” Mary’s eyes widen as you dump the torch on the floor which lights up the room spectacularly. Mary attempts to get out of flames, but all the silver in her body makes her too heavy and she falls over again. “Hmm, maybe the undead do have emotions. She certainly looked scared and sounds like she’s in pain.” You say as you leave to catch up with the rest of the pack. You don’t get far when you see the wolflings running towards you. Many of them are wounded, some badly. “What’s going on?” you ask, stopping one of them. “It’s too damn big! It’s unstoppable! We really tried! Honest!” “What?!” “Frankie! He’s been heavily modified. He doesn’t look at all like he did the old pictures I’ve ever seen of him!” No sooner have you been informed when you hear that damn loud speaker again, the remaining wolflings run past you. “You see Wolf! You see! While you’ve been wasting away in that shitty cabin, I’ve been preparing for my son’s come back! You stole his woman! You ended his career! You didn’t just damage him physically, you damaged his mind! Scarred him emotionally! It’s taken me YEARS to undo the damage!” “Damaged his mind? He was a psychopathic serial pedophile made of corpses! What the fuck kind of damage could I have done? And Mary never liked him anyway!” you retort. “She could’ve learned! He could’ve too! They just needed more time! But YOU! You prevented all that! You and your dog dick!” “For fuck’s sake I wasn’t the only one fucking her!” “Yes, but you’re the one who did it the longest and destroyed my poor boy’s career! You’re going to pay! Frankie look who we have here! And old friend, why don’t you go and give him a big hug?” Victor goes into his mad scientist laugh yet again, and Frankie “2.0” comes lumbering down the hallway, he’s definitely got that cybernetic look now. “FRANKIE BEAT YOUR HEAD IN.” He says with a booming voice. Still as verbal and articulate as ever. > You retreat You jump out of Frankie’s way as he smashes into the wall behind you. You make your way quickly down the stairs, where you here Frankie getting back up and following you down them like a freight train. You’re still a good ways from the bottom, but you see Igor appear at the bottom. You can’t stop or Frankie will slam into you and probably kill you by breaking every bone in your body and tearing you apart. You can keep going and attempt to jump towards Igor hoping you’ll land on him before he can fire accurately or you could jump over the banister and get out of the way altogether. The only problem with this is you’re still pretty high up. You wouldn’t die from such a fall, but you could break something if you land wrong and you certainly don’t want that disadvantage. > You jump over the banister You jump over the banister. Frankie goes flying past you unable to stop himself. You hear gunfire and some sounds of bullets plinking off of metal and burying themselves into flesh. “OH SHIT!” you hear Igor shout. This term is followed by your own, when you see that you were a lot higher than you thought. You go crashing through a solid wooden dining table. It hurts...A LOT. You don’t get up right away and you half expect Frankie or Igor to come and finish you off, but fortunately that doesn’t happen. You painfully rise and prepare yourself for the final battle, which doesn’t occur. You go over to the bottom of the stairs and see the wolflings taking advantage of Frankie’s weakened prone state and getting revenge for the beating he gave them all earlier. As for Igor he’s lying under Frankie crushed and dying. He’s bleeding from his ears, mouth, nose and eyes. “(Gurgle) (sputter) I’m sorry…Vic…Sorry brother…(Gurgle)” he says before dying. “Well I guess that explains his loyalty.” You say to yourself. “Hey Wolf you want to get in on this?” A wolfling says ripping a hand off of Frankie. “Nah, you’ve earned this. I’m just going to go back upstairs and finish off Victor.” “Need any of us to come up with you?” “No, you just make sure you do a good job of killing Frankie there.” You head back up stairs and head to the lab that Frankie came bursting out of, it’s empty, but there’s another door in the room and you’ve got the impression that a certain doctor is behind it. You open the door to a small room with a bunch of big computers hooked up to a brain in a jar… “Dr. Frankenstein I presume?” you say. “Wow Vic, I would’ve thought you would’ve at least made a clone body or something.” “Frankie! Igor! Get in here! NOW!” ‘They’re dead just like you’ll be soon and should’ve been before.” “Erm…Wolf! Hold on! Come on, I can’t do anything to you! This isn’t fair! Hold on how about…” “How about you shut up and die?” you say and take Victor’s brain out of the jar. “NOOOOOO….” Is the last thing that comes out of the loud speakers as you crush the brain under your foot. Its over. You won, and you fucking hurt like hell. You stagger back downstairs where you find Frankie completely in pieces. The wolflings look at you expectantly. “Did you kill him?’ “Yeah, and it was hardly worth the effort.” You reply. “What are we going to do now?” another asks. “Well I don’t know about you, but I’m going back home to rest.” “But aren’t you taking us to raise hell somewhere else?” “Maybe some other day. Look I’m not here to lead you around by the paw. If you want to raise hell you can certainly do it without me. I showed you the way of the wolf tonight, it’s up to you to do something with it. Just remember you’re fucking werewolves, live up to the name.” You get back on your Harley and head home. Hopefully you taught the new generation something so tonight wasn’t a complete bust. You didn’t really get to have the epic battle you were looking for, but you survived and in the end that’s what it’s all about.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You jump out of Frankie’s way as he smashes into the wall behind you. You make your way quickly down the stairs, where you here Frankie getting back up and following you down them like a freight train. You’re still a good ways from the bottom, but you see Igor appear at the bottom. You can’t stop or Frankie will slam into you and probably kill you by breaking every bone in your body and tearing you apart. You can keep going and attempt to jump towards Igor hoping you’ll land on him before he can fire accurately or you could jump over the banister and get out of the way altogether. The only problem with this is you’re still pretty high up. You wouldn’t die from such a fall, but you could break something if you land wrong and you certainly don’t want that disadvantage. > You jump towards Igor What happens next is so quick it’s amazing you survive it. You leap up in the air in an effort to land on Igor before he fires. Frankie is still charging behind you, but that changes when you leap up into the air, because he ends up being underneath you when gains more momentum. Meanwhile Igor is attempting to lift that heavy arm weapon of his to accurately shoot you. The weight and the recoil makes it difficult and he’s not very accurate and begins firing everywhere randomly in your AND Frankie’s direction. You’re still airborn heading towards Igor and now Frankie as well who’s somehow gotten in front of you due to him being unable to stop himself at this point. This is fortunate since this causes Frankie to block most of the randomly fired bullets with his body. You still take a couple in the leg though. “OH SHIT! Igor yells as Frankie slams into him and the floor at terrific speed. You don’t fair much better since you crash into the back of Frankie which is pretty hard due to the metal plating. It hurts like hell and you crawl off as quickly as possible while Frankie attempts to recover. Igor isn’t recovering as quickly; he’s bleeding from every orifice and whatever cybernetic parts he had can go to the scrap yard. You’re in great pain and you got some silver bullets in your leg, but you need to act. > You finish off Igor You’ll never be able to fight Frankie in this condition and in his updated status, you get an idea. You go over to Igor who pathetically attempts to point his weapon at you. You easily grab his arm weapon and begin to pull the thing out its weakened socket. Blood spurts all over you and Igor finally dies from the loss of it. “I’m sorry Vic…my brother… (gurgle)” he sputters. “Hm, that explains his loyalty I guess.” You say to yourself. Frankie’s is attempting to recover from his own wounds, but you’re not going to give him a chance to do it. You point Igor’s arm at Frankie and manipulate the tendons inside. The gun fires and you blast half of Frankie’s head off with a rain of silver bullets. The recoil causes you to fall to the ground and the heat from it burns the fur on your hands. “Holy shit that was fucking cool.” You say impressed. Frankie’s not dead yet though, he tries to get back up, so you just take the weapon and club him in what remains of his head with it until he stays down for good. You then tear him apart to make sure. You stand over Frankie’s body parts panting heavily. You can’t even give a victory howl. You’re too tired. The rest of the pack comes in, somewhat surprised to see you alive. “You’re alive!” “Of course I’m alive! No thanks to you! Where the hell were you assholes?” “Um…well we didn’t know if we should help since you got mad when we did it last time…” You can’t even argue with them, you’re too tired to do even that. You only have the strength to do one more thing… You head upstairs by yourself, back to the lab Frankie came bursting out of, its empty, but there’s another door in the room and you’ve got the impression that a certain doctor is behind it. You open the door to a small room with a bunch of big computers hooked up to a brain in a jar… “Vic, you really are a shitty Mad Scientist, you couldn’t even come up with a better way to prolong your life.” “Frankie! Igor! Get in here! NOW!” ‘They’re dead just like you’ll be soon and should’ve been before.” “Erm…Wolf! Hold on! Come on, I can’t do anything to you! Hasn’t there been enough killing for one day!? “Not yet.” you say and take Victor’s brain out of the jar. “NOOOOOO….” Is the last thing that comes out of the loud speakers as you crush the brain under your foot. “NOW there’s been enough killing for one day.” You say. Its over. You won, and you fucking hurt like hell. You stagger back downstairs. Where the wolflings look at you expectantly. “Did you kill him?’ “Yeah, and it was hardly worth the effort.” You reply. “What are we going to do now?” another asks. “Well I don’t know about you, but I’m going back home to rest.” “But aren’t you taking us to raise hell somewhere else? We want to do more werewolf stuff!” “Raise hell? You fuckers made ME do all the damn work! I killed every single member of this fucked up family all by my damn self! As far as I’m concerned I’M the only werewolf here! The rest of you are fucking lapdogs at best! I’m not leading any of you anywhere until you go prove otherwise…no fuck that. I don’t want to see ANY of you again! Well except Ginger. You know where I live baby. When you don’t want to hang around with these neutered pups, come see me.” Unsurprisingly Ginger comes with you immediately. You and Ginger get back on your Harley and head home. You’re now convinced that you’re the last of a dying breed. Today’s youth are fucking spoiled. Still, you got to prove that you’re still the baddest ass Alpha Wolf this world is ever going to see, and it’ll be a long time before the world sees an Alpha Wolf like you again. That is until Ginger has a litter of cubs…<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>What happens next is so quick it’s amazing you survive it. You leap up in the air in an effort to land on Igor before he fires. Frankie is still charging behind you, but that changes when you leap up into the air, because he ends up being underneath you when gains more momentum. Meanwhile Igor is attempting to lift that heavy arm weapon of his to accurately shoot you. The weight and the recoil makes it difficult and he’s not very accurate and begins firing everywhere randomly in your AND Frankie’s direction. You’re still airborn heading towards Igor and now Frankie as well who’s somehow gotten in front of you due to him being unable to stop himself at this point. This is fortunate since this causes Frankie to block most of the randomly fired bullets with his body. You still take a couple in the leg though. “OH SHIT! Igor yells as Frankie slams into him and the floor at terrific speed. You don’t fair much better since you crash into the back of Frankie which is pretty hard due to the metal plating. It hurts like hell and you crawl off as quickly as possible while Frankie attempts to recover. Igor isn’t recovering as quickly; he’s bleeding from every orifice and whatever cybernetic parts he had can go to the scrap yard. You’re in great pain and you got some silver bullets in your leg, but you need to act. > You finish off Frankie You limp over to Frankie while he’s recovering and land a few well placed strikes, even ripping off some of the back plating. It’s no good though; Frankie’s still got a lot of fight in him. He turns around, grabs you by the throat and begins to squeeze the shit out of it, raising you off the ground. Igor who’s dying makes one last effort to avenge his last blunder. “For my brother Vic!” he yells and fires his weapon at you one last time. He can’t miss at this range and your death is instantaneous.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You tell everyone to get the hell out of Igor’s range and take cover. Fortunately Igor’s gun-arm isn’t the best design and he’s having problems aiming and standing still due to the recoil, so you all manage to hide behind some nearby rocks Still, there’s no way you’re going to be able to scale the front gate with Igor on that damn tower. “See I knew this was a bad idea!” one of the wolflings says. “How are we supposed to get past that? I’m pretty sure he’s firing silver bullets at us.” “Oh I KNOW he is. Hence the reason why I told everyone to get out of the way. Okay so we’re not going through the front gate, the castle’s a big place right? Igor’s only guarding the front. I say we split up and scale the walls on the sides and around the back. We’ll meet up inside the castle.” “Yeah, but won’t there be other defenses?” “Probably. So you better be fucking prepared! This ain’t no damn game. You cubs think you’re really tough when in fact you’ve probably never had a real challenge. This is it. Don’t think about backing out now. This is where we truly test the idea of survival of the fittest. Damn, my blood is starting to feel that rush! Don’t you all feel it? I haven’t felt this way since they sent a group of ten “werewolf assassins” to put me down. Shit. They never tried that again! Ha ha ha ha ha!” While you’re reveling in gruesome nostalgia, your pack is looking at you like you’ve completely lost it. And they’re probably right. However, your speech seems to have stirred something in them. “The crazy old fossil’s right! I remember having to hear about similar stuff my grandfather used to talk about all the damn time. I never really paid any attention to it before. Now I think I understand. We need to prove our skills to truly be proud to call ourselves werewolves!” one of them states. “Now that’s the attitude I’m talking about!” You all huddle in the rain and make a howling noise in unison to the moon and proceed with your plan. You all split up into a couple of groups and begin to scale the side and back walls, which really isn’t all that difficult. You know Igor’s probably ran off to warn Vic though. All you can think is, he better have something better than just Igor and Frankie defending him. As you prowl around in the courtyard, you hear moaning and the clomping of several footsteps. You and your group turn to see some of Vic’s defenses. “Zombies? Are you fucking kidding me Vic? I thought you’d at least have some robots or something!” you say to yourself. Though upon a second look, you see that the horde of corpses aren’t actually zombies. Zombies are complete corpses brought back to life. These things look more like Frankie, except designed even worse. A lot of them have arms and legs in odd places. Some have a couple of heads or extra limbs. Most aren’t even stitched together neatly, there are just giant rivets and spikes sticking out, holding them together. These are probably some of his “failed” experiments. Doesn’t matter, they’re close enough to be Undead for you. > You out run them and get into the castle You don’t have time to fight some half ass experiments, the wolflings can handle that. You’re after a bigger prize. You leave the pack behind and run to the front door of the castle where upon you rip it off the hinges. You’re in such a hurry to kill Victor; you don’t proceed cautiously enough and forget that he’s probably trapped the place. You step on a floor panel and a laser beam suddenly shoots out, incinerating you into ash.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Your recent dealings with Mary, have made you think about all the shit you’ve had to put up with from that no talent dickhead. No human has ever given you such trouble. You know he’s still alive. (Mad scientists always find ways of prolonging their lives somehow) That won’t be true for long though, if you get your way. You killed him once before. This time you’re going to make sure he stays that way. He’s probably got whatever crappy inventions and experiments protecting his castle and from what you know, Frankie’s still living with his “Dad” as well. You don’t give a fuck, you’ll kill him too. You figure you’ll be doing the world a favor as well as getting some satisfaction. Besides, you’ve got to show these wolflings what being a werewolf is all about. “All right you cubs! We’re going to go raise some fucking hell. We’re going to Frankenstein’s Castle. We’re going to rip the place apart brick by brick, and I’M going to rip Victor apart limb from limb.” “Erm…Castle Frankenstien? Isn’t that where Frankie lives?” one of the wolflings asks. “I heard he’s really powerful, didn’t he fight Dracula and win?” ‘I dunno if we should mess with him.” You can’t believe your ears! These snot nosed pups know nothing of their heritage! Back in the old days they would’ve been killed and eaten for such cowardice! “Goddammit are you Wolves or fucking Chihuahuas? Frankie’s a fucking pussy! I personally kicked his ass before and I’ll do it again all by myself if I have too! Now are you going to run with me and be a fucking Wolf or are you going to go back home with your tails tucked between your legs?” After looking at each other for awhile they all agree to go with you. “Good! Now I want all of you to transform into your wolf form too! I’m traveling with fellow wolves not humans!” Just before one of the females begins to transform, you stop her. She’s dressed in a short leather skirt and a tight white t-shirt that’s tied in the center and has long flowing brown hair. You can smell that she’s in heat. You hate to coin a pun, but she literally is one hot l’il bitch. “Erm, not you. You stay in your human form; I kind of like the whole teenage slut look you got going on. In fact you come here right now; you’ll be traveling on my bike with me.” You say. As she slides in behind you and holds on, you ask her one more question. “So what’s your name?” “Ginger. What’s your name, you never did tell us.” “Wolf. Just Wolf baby. Remember it. You’ll be screaming it later.” Damn you’re so fucking cool, you think as you start up your Harley and ride ahead of the pack. (You’d probably be even cooler if these pups weren’t all riding those Japanese “crotch rocket” bikes, but that’ll have to be another lesson for another day) After a couple of days of riding, and a few “pit stops” with Ginger, you all eventually reach Castle Frankenstein. You park your bikes at the gate, and size the place up, which now looks a lot different. It looks like a damn Nazi fortress now, there’s guard towers and everything. It seems Victor has been keeping himself very busy in recent years. As it begins to rain, a familiar voice calls to you from one of the towers. “Its you. Vic always knew you’d return one day. I never believed him though. I guess I owe him fifty bucks.” You look up and see Igor, he looks different too. He has a lot of clumsy cybernetic implants, one of them being some sort of gun in place of an arm. More of Vic’s “handy work” no doubt. He’s still got that damn hump on his back though. “Igor? You still alive? I thought your ungrateful master would’ve just let you die of old age and get himself another assistant. I see he did a real good job of improving you though. Tell me, how’s it feel to be the real brains, never getting the credit and continuing to be a doormat?” “I’m happy with my lot in life. How’s it feel to be broke ass overgrown dog who’s trying to relive his lost youth?” Igor retorts back. “Don’t know yet. I’ll tell you before I shove that metal arm up your ass.” Well looks like the fight’s starting here. > You memories (Igor) The Assistant: Igor You’ve never really had much contact with Igor, other than knowing he’s Victor’s assistant. For awhile you thought he and Vic had something ELSE going on, (Much like Vlad and Renfield) but that’s not the case. Igor’s just a loyal henchman. You always wondered why he is though. Despite general public perception, he’s not stupid. In fact, he’s been the one that’s given Vic most of his “successful” experiment ideas. Vic wouldn’t even be around if it hadn’t been for Igor. Vic doesn’t seem to appreciate any of his help though and doesn’t treat him very well. He treats his experiments better than he treats Igor. You can only guess Igor is a masochist, or has some severe self-esteem problems. Probably both.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>“So you had me in mind eh? Well that proves it. You think I’m a joke because that’s how you wrote the character.” “What? No! I just…” “I see your time with that bloodsucker was well spent. Learning how to exploit and leech right? Look maybe you can pull this shit with those puppies over there, but I ain’t fucking one! I don’t need the money that badly. I’ll go fucking live my twilight years in the forest and DIE there as nature probably intended. I don’t need this shit.” As you turn to leave, Mary shouts at you. “Yeah, that’s right go on leave Mr. Lone Wolf! You’ll fucking die alone, you stubborn bastard! I tried to help you! Erik tried to help you and you don’t appreciate any of it! That’s why none of your children speak to you and…” You run back over to her and slam her into the wall. You stare at her face to face as she struggles to get free. She’s strong, but you manage to keep her pinned. She really pissed you off and you were already pissed off to begin with. “Fuck you, and fuck Erik! You two don’t know shit about me, never did. I’m through with the pair of you! In fact I think I’ll be taking something with me since you’re so worried about me being alone…” You release Mary and go over to the wolflings who look a little worried that you’re going to cause harm to them. Many of them cast their eyes downward. “Hey, you want to be REALLY tough? You want to really raise some hell? Come with me. If you want to stay under the thumb of this patchwork dead bitch and be exploited and mocked, stay here. Your statement alone convinces all of them. They all follow you, even the one you made an example of. Mary attempts to call everyone back, but it’s useless, you’ve taken control of the pack and they’ll do what you want now. And right now you want to get into a fight. You think about all the people and creatures that wronged you in some way and only two of them keep coming to mind consistently. One is that fucking Dr. Victor Frankenstein. If it wasn’t for him, Frankie and Mary wouldn’t have been created in the first place which also means you wouldn’t have gotten yourself into trouble all those years ago. You wouldn’t have had to put up with his “children” taking jobs away from you. Not to mention he sued you once. But the one who you REALLY despise, is that bisexual bloodsucker. Fucking Dracula or Vlad, or whatever the hell he’s calling himself these days. The disgust you have for him and the reasons are too numerous to list here. > You go kick Vlad's ass Its long over due and its time. You need to go fucking kill that bloodsucker or die trying. You need to prove that you are and always will be the baddest of the monsters. You also need to prove to these wolflings that they need to be proud of their fucking heritage and not play second fiddle to some overgrown leeches. “All right you cubs! We’re going to go raise some fucking hell. We’re going to Dracula’s Castle. We’re going to rip the place apart brick by brick, and every fucking bloodsucker in the goddamned place and I’M going to rip Fagula apart limb from limb, drive a stake in his heart, cut his head off and then shove his dick in his mouth!” The Wolflings look very apprehensive about your suggestion, in fact they outright refuse. “You’re a fucking crazy old coot; if you think we’re gonna follow you to Dracula’s Castle! Fuck that, he’s got an army of bloodsuckers and ghouls and who knows what the hell else! We can’t win that Wolf! Can’t we just bust up a bar or something?” one of them exclaims You can’t believe your ears! These snot nosed pups know nothing of their heritage! Back in the old days they would’ve been killed and eaten for such cowardice! “Goddammit are you Wolves or fucking Chihuahuas? Vampires have been taking OUR rightful place in the monster hierarchy for centuries! We need to set the fucking record straight on this shit! Now are you going to run with me and be a fucking Wolf or are you going to go back home with your tails tucked between your legs?” After looking at each other for awhile they all begin to leave and head back to the studio. “Oh fuckin’ fine then, play werewolf in a movie, but I can see I’m the only fuckin’ REAL Werewolf here, the rest of you are just goddamn overgrown dingos! Fuck this, I don’t give a shit, I’ll kill Dracula my own goddamned self. I don’t need anybody’s help!” You get on your Harley and ride. You only make a few stops on your way; you’re completely driven to have your final showdown with Vlad. Finally after a few days of riding you reach Dracula’s Castle. The place looks exactly the same. You get off your bike and scale the high iron gate. As you jump down into the courtyard you half expect yourself to be overwhelmed by vampires, or even ghouls, but nothing happens. This is weird, there aren’t even any guards patrolling or even at the door. In fact it sounds like a party is going on inside. You hear lots of laughter and music. Suddenly someone comes outside and sees you. It’s some Vampire chick. “Ohhh, a Werewolf! Wow, I didn’t know any of you types were invited to the party; I thought Drac hated you guys. Well what’re you doing standing outside? Come on in the party’s just starting!” she says waving you in. A bit of a different approach than you were preparing for, but you enter. You entrance to the ballroom is immediately a big event. You’re the only Werewolf there. Everyone else is either a Vampire, a ghoul, or even a human “servant”. Everyone is staring at you, some with wonder and interest, most with hatred, a few in awe. Most probably haven’t encountered a Werewolf like you before. The staring would probably continue if another slightly out of place being didn’t come shuffling up to you to talk you in a friendly manner causing the bloodsuckers to go back to partying. It’s Im-Ho-Tep. You’re surprised to see him here. “Wolf?! YOU got an invitation to this thing? I can’t believe it! What the hell did you and Dracula kiss and make up?” he remarks with his scratchy sounding voice. “Not in this life time Teppy. What’re you doing here?” ”Me? Oh you know Vlad, he’s always gotta put on a show. Likes to play up the whole royalty thing to the other bloodsuckers, so he always invites me to these things to prove he’s got connections or something since I was a Prince. I always keep telling him, it’s a meaningless title since the Egyptian Empire fell thousands of years ago, but he insists on flying me out here, making a big fuss and everything so what the hell, it’s not like I got anything better to do plus I get a kick out of watching the bloodsuckers get drunk and make idiots out of themselves, well that and I like to look at some of these Vamp chicks. Heh, guess that makes me a voyeur, but again what the hell, its one of the few pleasures I get in this world anymore. But enough about this dirty old man, what brings you here if you weren’t invited? Just randomly crashing the party?” “Sort of…I didn’t even know there was one…I’m here to kill Fagula.” You whisper quietly. Tep’s eyes widen a bit under his bandages. He isn’t entirely surprised (At his age barely anything surprises him anymore) but he was caught a little off guard by your statement. “Wow Wolf…I can tell you’re really not joking about this. All I can say is… what took you so long? I thought this day would come long before now. Lost some bets because of it, oh well easy come easy go. Well you know your secret’s safe with me, though I suppose it won’t be a secret for too much longer! You’re still the craziest sonofabitch I know, but then you always did know how to liven up a party! Ha ha! Ol’ Vlad will probably be making his grand entrance soon, so just wait awhile. He threw this party for some kind of special announcement he has to make. I still got a bet with Erik that you would win if you and Drac ever got into a battle to the death. I’ll be hoping to collect that bet from Erik. Good luck!” Tep then shuffles off back to where he sitting. Erik bet against you? Fucking little depressed shit! You’re going to have a little talk with him after all this. You put your back against the wall, watching everyone while waiting for Dracula to arrive. An hour passes and you’re fucking sick of waiting, you don’t feel like waiting for him to make “an entrance”. You’re here to commit major mayhem on him, not listen to anything he has to say. While you’re surveying the place, you see a disheveled man peek out from a corner across the room and then slink back. That was Renfield, you’d know Fagula’s sycophantic bitch boy anywhere. > You wait a little longer You figure he really can’t be that long now, and decide to wait. Soon you see Renfield come back, he tells everyone to quiet down on orders of his master. “Excuse me everyone, I know you’re all anxious to hear what my master has to say, but I have been informed that he will not step into this room until a certain infestation has been taken care of first. Namely THAT ONE OVER THERE!” Suddenly all the Vampires, Ghouls and Human servants look at you and advance! You’re beyond out numbered. You put up a good fight for someone in your position, but ultimately you are scratched, bitten and sucked dry. And not in the good way either. You are then skinned where your pelt is hung up over Drac’s fireplace, where he always brags about how he defeated you single handedly.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Its long over due and its time. You need to go fucking kill that bloodsucker or die trying. You need to prove that you are and always will be the baddest of the monsters. You also need to prove to these wolflings that they need to be proud of their fucking heritage and not play second fiddle to some overgrown leeches. “All right you cubs! We’re going to go raise some fucking hell. We’re going to Dracula’s Castle. We’re going to rip the place apart brick by brick, and every fucking bloodsucker in the goddamned place and I’M going to rip Fagula apart limb from limb, drive a stake in his heart, cut his head off and then shove his dick in his mouth!” The Wolflings look very apprehensive about your suggestion, in fact they outright refuse. “You’re a fucking crazy old coot; if you think we’re gonna follow you to Dracula’s Castle! Fuck that, he’s got an army of bloodsuckers and ghouls and who knows what the hell else! We can’t win that Wolf! Can’t we just bust up a bar or something?” one of them exclaims You can’t believe your ears! These snot nosed pups know nothing of their heritage! Back in the old days they would’ve been killed and eaten for such cowardice! “Goddammit are you Wolves or fucking Chihuahuas? Vampires have been taking OUR rightful place in the monster hierarchy for centuries! We need to set the fucking record straight on this shit! Now are you going to run with me and be a fucking Wolf or are you going to go back home with your tails tucked between your legs?” After looking at each other for awhile they all begin to leave and head back to the studio. “Oh fuckin’ fine then, play werewolf in a movie, but I can see I’m the only fuckin’ REAL Werewolf here, the rest of you are just goddamn overgrown dingos! Fuck this, I don’t give a shit, I’ll kill Dracula my own goddamned self. I don’t need anybody’s help!” You get on your Harley and ride. You only make a few stops on your way; you’re completely driven to have your final showdown with Vlad. Finally after a few days of riding you reach Dracula’s Castle. The place looks exactly the same. You get off your bike and scale the high iron gate. As you jump down into the courtyard you half expect yourself to be overwhelmed by vampires, or even ghouls, but nothing happens. This is weird, there aren’t even any guards patrolling or even at the door. In fact it sounds like a party is going on inside. You hear lots of laughter and music. Suddenly someone comes outside and sees you. It’s some Vampire chick. “Ohhh, a Werewolf! Wow, I didn’t know any of you types were invited to the party; I thought Drac hated you guys. Well what’re you doing standing outside? Come on in the party’s just starting!” she says waving you in. A bit of a different approach than you were preparing for, but you enter. You entrance to the ballroom is immediately a big event. You’re the only Werewolf there. Everyone else is either a Vampire, a ghoul, or even a human “servant”. Everyone is staring at you, some with wonder and interest, most with hatred, a few in awe. Most probably haven’t encountered a Werewolf like you before. The staring would probably continue if another slightly out of place being didn’t come shuffling up to you to talk you in a friendly manner causing the bloodsuckers to go back to partying. It’s Im-Ho-Tep. You’re surprised to see him here. “Wolf?! YOU got an invitation to this thing? I can’t believe it! What the hell did you and Dracula kiss and make up?” he remarks with his scratchy sounding voice. “Not in this life time Teppy. What’re you doing here?” ”Me? Oh you know Vlad, he’s always gotta put on a show. Likes to play up the whole royalty thing to the other bloodsuckers, so he always invites me to these things to prove he’s got connections or something since I was a Prince. I always keep telling him, it’s a meaningless title since the Egyptian Empire fell thousands of years ago, but he insists on flying me out here, making a big fuss and everything so what the hell, it’s not like I got anything better to do plus I get a kick out of watching the bloodsuckers get drunk and make idiots out of themselves, well that and I like to look at some of these Vamp chicks. Heh, guess that makes me a voyeur, but again what the hell, its one of the few pleasures I get in this world anymore. But enough about this dirty old man, what brings you here if you weren’t invited? Just randomly crashing the party?” “Sort of…I didn’t even know there was one…I’m here to kill Fagula.” You whisper quietly. Tep’s eyes widen a bit under his bandages. He isn’t entirely surprised (At his age barely anything surprises him anymore) but he was caught a little off guard by your statement. “Wow Wolf…I can tell you’re really not joking about this. All I can say is… what took you so long? I thought this day would come long before now. Lost some bets because of it, oh well easy come easy go. Well you know your secret’s safe with me, though I suppose it won’t be a secret for too much longer! You’re still the craziest sonofabitch I know, but then you always did know how to liven up a party! Ha ha! Ol’ Vlad will probably be making his grand entrance soon, so just wait awhile. He threw this party for some kind of special announcement he has to make. I still got a bet with Erik that you would win if you and Drac ever got into a battle to the death. I’ll be hoping to collect that bet from Erik. Good luck!” Tep then shuffles off back to where he sitting. Erik bet against you? Fucking little depressed shit! You’re going to have a little talk with him after all this. You put your back against the wall, watching everyone while waiting for Dracula to arrive. An hour passes and you’re fucking sick of waiting, you don’t feel like waiting for him to make “an entrance”. You’re here to commit major mayhem on him, not listen to anything he has to say. While you’re surveying the place, you see a disheveled man peek out from a corner across the room and then slink back. That was Renfield, you’d know Fagula’s sycophantic bitch boy anywhere. > You go follow Renfield You push your way through the crowd and head towards where Renfield was lurking about. He isn’t far, you can smell him. You follow a long corridor and then turn the corner to see Renfield hobbling down another passage, you quickly knock him to the floor, turn him over and kneel on his chest. He attempts to struggle, but you’re still too strong for him. “Well, well, well, I’m surprised your faggot master still keeps you around. Shit, you smell terrible, I suppose along with your flesh rotting, and lousy hygiene in general, all those ass rammings have taken a toll on you eh? Where the hell is he?” ”You! You’ve always been jealous of the master! Jealous of his wealth, his style and his beauty! You’re nothing, but a lowly animal!” “For someone who gets abused in every possible way, has no self respect, and is a filthy Ghoul, I wouldn’t be calling anyone a lowly animal. And you’re not really in the position to be pissing me off anyway. Now where the fuck is Fagula?” “The master is going enjoy killing you, especially tonight! Now he’ll be able to claim victory over TWO of his greatest enemies!” “What the hell are you blathering about?” “Oh you’ll find out…” Renfield smiles with a set of blacken teeth. “Yeah whatever, look last chance to…” Suddenly you feel a powerful crushing blow to the back of your head. It isn’t enough to knock you out, but you fall off of Renfield and roll over feeling very woozy. In your bleary vision you can make out the form of that cocksucker Dracula standing over you. Another figure stands there as well, you don’t know who they are, but they look somewhat familiar. “Wolf, I don’t believe I invited you to this party, but it was good of you to come anyway. It only makes festivities more enjoyable! I think you’ll give Jacob a good chance of testing himself. I was going to have him fight Renfield, but I’m sure you’ll provide much more of a challenge. You think you’re up for the challenge Jacob?” “Sounds perfect to me.” The other figure says and steps closer, and just before he kicks you in the head, you could swear it looks like Van Helsing, but much younger. “Sonofa…” you begin to say and then get your face kicked in, knocking you unconscious. Time passes and you wake up in a cage with silver bars. You see the figure that kicked you in the face on the other side, it is Van Helsing…or someone that looks like him since his name was Abraham, not Jacob. You find out soon enough, when he begins to speak. “Wolf, you’re up. Good. I’m anxious to test my new skills on you. Renfield certainly wouldn’t have been much of a challenge, but you should prove to be. Even my foolish grandfather couldn’t kill you. He couldn’t kill Dracula either, but then Dracula was always superior in everyway. I have no idea why he pursued such an idiotic quest of trying to kill Vampires, they really are the supreme life form on this planet and certainly the most lovely and sensual. Vladimir has shown me such pleasures since our time together.” You shake your head and snicker. This must’ve been the “other” defeated enemy that Renfield was on about. “So, that’s how it is now? The Van Helsing bloodline finally defeated not through violence, but through seduction? Never thought I’d see the day come. I had my problems with your family and especially your father, but I could at least respect their dedication. You’re a fucking disgrace kid.” “On the contrary, I’m merely ensuring the survival of my family name. What was I supposed to do, carrying on some pointless family tradition of monster hunting, and get myself killed? Fuck that. I want to live forever.” “Yeah? Well you can scratch that plan, because when I get a hold of you, you’re going to be wishing you hadn’t turned into a fucking bloodsucker.” “(Sigh) Yes, Vladimir told me you were always one to make unimaginative threats, I’ll be more interested in hearing your howls of pain though, see you soon.” As Jacob leaves you to your cage. You hear another voice in the room. “So…Vlad has now eliminated all his enemies, I guess I always knew he’d succeed.” You see another holding cell, but one made of some kind of heavy duty unbreakable see-through plastic. The top of it has a ton of garlic hanging from it. Sitting and looking utterly defeated is an ugly distorted looking humanoid, who is yet another face you’re amazed to see. This revenge trip has just been one surprise after another. “Orlock? Heard you were dead.” you say. “I wish I was, unfortunately Dracula insists on keeping me alive…feeding me rats…tormenting me…reminding me of my shameful defeat by his hands…I’m proud of him.” “You’re happy that he’s torturing you? Sheesh, all you Undead are fucking masochists.” “I’m not happy that he’s torturing me you ignorant dog, I’m happy that he’s proven to be so ruthless, despite his foppish ways. I must admit I had my doubts about him when I first created him.” “Yeah, I see that really worked out well for you.” “(Sigh) True. But it’s my own fault for having a soft spot for him I suppose. I should’ve been more watchful of him. You’ll be lucky, he’ll just kill you, or rather have his new conquest Jacob do it.” “Nobody’s killing me, I’m getting the fuck outta here right now. These bars aren’t going to hold me.” “Won’t that be difficult Wolf? Seeing that the bars are made of silver?” “So fucking what? Doesn’t mean I can’t touch them! As long as the things aren’t going into my body they don’t mean shit! Thought you bloodsuckers knew that. See that’s the problem with you Vampires, always underestimating your enemies and being melodramatic. If Fagula and his bitch boys were smart they would’ve killed me when they had the chance. That’s what I would’ve done.” “You and I actually have more in common than you think. We both are the last of the old ways. I must admit that I too would’ve killed you immediately, rather than toy with such a dangerous enemy.” You ignore Orlock and concentrate on the bars. You easily pry the silver bars open and step out of the cage; you then rip one of the bars out to take with you. Orlock looks at you with interest. “Why are you taking that?” “Because unlike you Vampires, we Werewolves try to learn everything we can about our enemies. I know for a fact that silver hurts you fuckers too, though you guys like to try to keep that shit quiet.” “Ah. Tis a shame we never clashed Wolf, you would’ve been a worthy opponent.” “Yeah? Well when I kill Drac, I can come back to finish you off too.” “Ha ha! Glad to see you have such confidence. However, if in the unlikely event that you do defeat Vlad, by all means come back and finish me off to put me out my misery. I would gladly welcome everlasting death at this point.” You leave the room and find yourself in a corridor made of dull stone; you’re guessing you’re probably underground. Nobody’s around, but you can still hear the noise of the party above. You’re about to head back up when you hear a voice close by. “Psst! Wolf! Over here! Quick!” You turn around and at one end of the corridor you see Mary. Now what the fuck is SHE doing here?! You rush over to Mary. “What the fuck are you doing here?” you ask. “Trying to prevent you from getting yourself killed, you stubborn macho asshole! When the Wolflings returned to the studio, I asked them where you went, and they told me, so I went after you. What the hell did you think you were doing coming here to kill Dracula?” “Just that! Kill his bloodsucking ass! How’d you sneak in here anyway?” ”I didn’t, I got an invitation about a month ago to the party, so when I arrived I was expected. Then I heard you were taken down here by some of the guests.” “Oh I can see you and Drac are still chummy with each other, figures, all you Undead stick together. You’re probably here to help him not me!” ”Goddammit Wolf, will you stop being so fucking paranoid! I wasn’t even going to this thing; the only reason why I’m here is because of you! Because maybe you don’t want to believe it, but I do love you, you’ve always only been the one to make me feel complete. After all the searching and traveling and trying to discover myself, it was our time together that I always held dear to me and stayed in my mind. Please, Wolf don’t go through with this, we lost a lot of years already; now that we’ve been reunited I don’t want to lose you permanently. This is isn’t worth it. You don’t have to prove anything. I’m familiar with the secret passages in this place, we could leave right now without any trouble.” Mary’s face does show expression of concern, and her voice does display worry. She may or may not be telling the truth. If she isn’t then she’s done a good job of fooling you. However, even if she is telling you the truth, there’s something else at stake here, namely your principles and pride. You’d really hate to run from Dracula, especially at this point. > You leave with Mary You’re a lot older and not exactly at one hundred percent right now. Dracula is still in peek condition. You’re on his home turf. There are other hostile Vampires, Ghouls and Humans here, not to mention Dracula’s new boy Van Helsing. You’re not going to win this one. Maybe if you were still alone you’d do it anyway, but Mary’s words have had an effect on you. Your pride in the past is what got you into a lot of trouble, and most of it was unnecessary. With age comes wisdom, and maybe its time you started to act your age. Your past accomplishments have spoken for themselves; you don’t need to prove you still have “one last fight” in you. Why die pointlessly for some feud that nobody else cares about, and throw away a potentially good future with Mary? “Alright Mary, alright.” You say. Mary looks surprised, as if she thought you wouldn’t listen to her, but she’s pleased never the less. Having been involved with Dracula and been in his castle in the past, she is of course quite familiar with the secret passages of the place and you both leave quietly. After resting up a bit, you get back to work on that movie with Mary. You of course still insist on her making changes to the script, which she does. The movie comes out and its relatively successful, it’s not going to make you a superstar again, but it’s good enough. Eventually you move in with Mary and live out the rest of your life with her. You always expect Dracula to attempt to get you somehow for escaping, but he never does. In fact that whole event is never even brought up or made public, since you were also expecting slanderous attacks about how you ran away to show up in magazines or something. Maybe it was because he was too busy having trouble with his new lover Jacob attempting to get palimony, or maybe he didn’t think the feud was that important either. You still always will wonder what might’ve happened…<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You push your way through the crowd and head towards where Renfield was lurking about. He isn’t far, you can smell him. You follow a long corridor and then turn the corner to see Renfield hobbling down another passage, you quickly knock him to the floor, turn him over and kneel on his chest. He attempts to struggle, but you’re still too strong for him. “Well, well, well, I’m surprised your faggot master still keeps you around. Shit, you smell terrible, I suppose along with your flesh rotting, and lousy hygiene in general, all those ass rammings have taken a toll on you eh? Where the hell is he?” ”You! You’ve always been jealous of the master! Jealous of his wealth, his style and his beauty! You’re nothing, but a lowly animal!” “For someone who gets abused in every possible way, has no self respect, and is a filthy Ghoul, I wouldn’t be calling anyone a lowly animal. And you’re not really in the position to be pissing me off anyway. Now where the fuck is Fagula?” “The master is going enjoy killing you, especially tonight! Now he’ll be able to claim victory over TWO of his greatest enemies!” “What the hell are you blathering about?” “Oh you’ll find out…” Renfield smiles with a set of blacken teeth. “Yeah whatever, look last chance to…” Suddenly you feel a powerful crushing blow to the back of your head. It isn’t enough to knock you out, but you fall off of Renfield and roll over feeling very woozy. In your bleary vision you can make out the form of that cocksucker Dracula standing over you. Another figure stands there as well, you don’t know who they are, but they look somewhat familiar. “Wolf, I don’t believe I invited you to this party, but it was good of you to come anyway. It only makes festivities more enjoyable! I think you’ll give Jacob a good chance of testing himself. I was going to have him fight Renfield, but I’m sure you’ll provide much more of a challenge. You think you’re up for the challenge Jacob?” “Sounds perfect to me.” The other figure says and steps closer, and just before he kicks you in the head, you could swear it looks like Van Helsing, but much younger. “Sonofa…” you begin to say and then get your face kicked in, knocking you unconscious. Time passes and you wake up in a cage with silver bars. You see the figure that kicked you in the face on the other side, it is Van Helsing…or someone that looks like him since his name was Abraham, not Jacob. You find out soon enough, when he begins to speak. “Wolf, you’re up. Good. I’m anxious to test my new skills on you. Renfield certainly wouldn’t have been much of a challenge, but you should prove to be. Even my foolish grandfather couldn’t kill you. He couldn’t kill Dracula either, but then Dracula was always superior in everyway. I have no idea why he pursued such an idiotic quest of trying to kill Vampires, they really are the supreme life form on this planet and certainly the most lovely and sensual. Vladimir has shown me such pleasures since our time together.” You shake your head and snicker. This must’ve been the “other” defeated enemy that Renfield was on about. “So, that’s how it is now? The Van Helsing bloodline finally defeated not through violence, but through seduction? Never thought I’d see the day come. I had my problems with your family and especially your father, but I could at least respect their dedication. You’re a fucking disgrace kid.” “On the contrary, I’m merely ensuring the survival of my family name. What was I supposed to do, carrying on some pointless family tradition of monster hunting, and get myself killed? Fuck that. I want to live forever.” “Yeah? Well you can scratch that plan, because when I get a hold of you, you’re going to be wishing you hadn’t turned into a fucking bloodsucker.” “(Sigh) Yes, Vladimir told me you were always one to make unimaginative threats, I’ll be more interested in hearing your howls of pain though, see you soon.” As Jacob leaves you to your cage. You hear another voice in the room. “So…Vlad has now eliminated all his enemies, I guess I always knew he’d succeed.” You see another holding cell, but one made of some kind of heavy duty unbreakable see-through plastic. The top of it has a ton of garlic hanging from it. Sitting and looking utterly defeated is an ugly distorted looking humanoid, who is yet another face you’re amazed to see. This revenge trip has just been one surprise after another. “Orlock? Heard you were dead.” you say. “I wish I was, unfortunately Dracula insists on keeping me alive…feeding me rats…tormenting me…reminding me of my shameful defeat by his hands…I’m proud of him.” “You’re happy that he’s torturing you? Sheesh, all you Undead are fucking masochists.” “I’m not happy that he’s torturing me you ignorant dog, I’m happy that he’s proven to be so ruthless, despite his foppish ways. I must admit I had my doubts about him when I first created him.” “Yeah, I see that really worked out well for you.” “(Sigh) True. But it’s my own fault for having a soft spot for him I suppose. I should’ve been more watchful of him. You’ll be lucky, he’ll just kill you, or rather have his new conquest Jacob do it.” “Nobody’s killing me, I’m getting the fuck outta here right now. These bars aren’t going to hold me.” “Won’t that be difficult Wolf? Seeing that the bars are made of silver?” “So fucking what? Doesn’t mean I can’t touch them! As long as the things aren’t going into my body they don’t mean shit! Thought you bloodsuckers knew that. See that’s the problem with you Vampires, always underestimating your enemies and being melodramatic. If Fagula and his bitch boys were smart they would’ve killed me when they had the chance. That’s what I would’ve done.” “You and I actually have more in common than you think. We both are the last of the old ways. I must admit that I too would’ve killed you immediately, rather than toy with such a dangerous enemy.” You ignore Orlock and concentrate on the bars. You easily pry the silver bars open and step out of the cage; you then rip one of the bars out to take with you. Orlock looks at you with interest. “Why are you taking that?” “Because unlike you Vampires, we Werewolves try to learn everything we can about our enemies. I know for a fact that silver hurts you fuckers too, though you guys like to try to keep that shit quiet.” “Ah. Tis a shame we never clashed Wolf, you would’ve been a worthy opponent.” “Yeah? Well when I kill Drac, I can come back to finish you off too.” “Ha ha! Glad to see you have such confidence. However, if in the unlikely event that you do defeat Vlad, by all means come back and finish me off to put me out my misery. I would gladly welcome everlasting death at this point.” You leave the room and find yourself in a corridor made of dull stone; you’re guessing you’re probably underground. Nobody’s around, but you can still hear the noise of the party above. You’re about to head back up when you hear a voice close by. “Psst! Wolf! Over here! Quick!” You turn around and at one end of the corridor you see Mary. Now what the fuck is SHE doing here?! You rush over to Mary. “What the fuck are you doing here?” you ask. “Trying to prevent you from getting yourself killed, you stubborn macho asshole! When the Wolflings returned to the studio, I asked them where you went, and they told me, so I went after you. What the hell did you think you were doing coming here to kill Dracula?” “Just that! Kill his bloodsucking ass! How’d you sneak in here anyway?” ”I didn’t, I got an invitation about a month ago to the party, so when I arrived I was expected. Then I heard you were taken down here by some of the guests.” “Oh I can see you and Drac are still chummy with each other, figures, all you Undead stick together. You’re probably here to help him not me!” ”Goddammit Wolf, will you stop being so fucking paranoid! I wasn’t even going to this thing; the only reason why I’m here is because of you! Because maybe you don’t want to believe it, but I do love you, you’ve always only been the one to make me feel complete. After all the searching and traveling and trying to discover myself, it was our time together that I always held dear to me and stayed in my mind. Please, Wolf don’t go through with this, we lost a lot of years already; now that we’ve been reunited I don’t want to lose you permanently. This is isn’t worth it. You don’t have to prove anything. I’m familiar with the secret passages in this place, we could leave right now without any trouble.” Mary’s face does show expression of concern, and her voice does display worry. She may or may not be telling the truth. If she isn’t then she’s done a good job of fooling you. However, even if she is telling you the truth, there’s something else at stake here, namely your principles and pride. You’d really hate to run from Dracula, especially at this point. > You kill Dracula You stare deeply into Mary’s eyes, grab her and kiss her long and passionately. “You’re going anyway aren’t you?” she says. “I have to.” “But why?! You know he’s going to use every dirty trick in the book, he’s not going to fight you man to man. He’ll throw all his followers at you first.” “Good, it’s the only chance he’s got to level the playing field.” “But you’re severely outnumbered.” “Yeah, and they’re going to be overconfident like all those bloodsuckers are. And that I’m gonna beat ‘em, they keep underestimating me. Now you get out of here…don’t worry, we’ll see each other again. Just remember to make those changes in that movie of yours.” Mary gives a weak smile, she doesn’t look convinced that she’ll see you again, but she realizes you have to go. Actually you’re not even sure you’re getting out of this alive, but this is something that you have to do, win or lose. You leave Mary to head back upstairs, while she goes off through one of those passages she was talking about. As you’re heading up the twisting staircase, you run into Renfield, who was coming down to get you no doubt. His eyes widen in shock and he turns to run. “MAST…” he begins to shout and you smash the back of his skull with one of the silver bars. You then turn him over. “I’m not exactly sure what’s correct way of killing you Ghouls so I’m not going to take any chances.” You say placing your hands around his head and giving his neck a quick snap. He’s still alive, but now unable to move. “You’ll never defeat the master!” he says defiantly. “Yeah, yeah…” you say and shove your fist in his mouth to rip out his tongue. It takes some doing, but eventually you fish out the long slimy body part. “I don’t even want to think about where this has been.” You say and throw it away. As Renfield helplessly hisses at you, you plunge one of the silver bars through his chest. He begins to melt, he’d probably shriek if he could. When he quickly becomes nothing but bloody bones, you remove the skull and throw it into the wall where it shatters and take back your silver bar. Renfield won’t be coming back. You finally reach the ground floor again and follow the sounds of the party. The guests have already heard about what you did earlier, and when you run into a few of them in the hallway they give you some problems. Fortunately they’re a lot of flash and no substance. Three vampire guests attack and you quickly use your silver bar to smack them around. After knocking them all to the ground, you disable one by breaking his neck, while you’re doing that, one of them attacks you from behind where upon you grab and flip him into a small table which splinters into pieces. He tries to get back up, but you kick him in the face, grab one of the table legs and shove it into his chest. Your last would be attacker seeing what you’ve done runs off. You shake your head. “Sheesh, what happened to the days when you bloodsuckers actually put up a good fight?” you say and shove another table leg into the chest of the vampire whose neck you just broke. Your little rumble in the hallway has most definitely been heard, but the rest of your journey to the ballroom continues with no other interruptions. Upon your arrival, the rest of the guests just watch you. Dracula lounges on a fancy couch on the far side of the room while his followers to grovel over him, Jacob being the most fawning. “So is Jacob going to be the next Renfield?” you shout which gets you his attention and a very hostile look from Jacob. “Ah Wolf, you’ve arrived. Where is Renfield anyway, I sent him to fetch you. I do hope you didn’t hurt him too badly.” Dracula, says without even looking at you. “I regret to inform you that your favorite jizz jar is no longer among the living or the undead. He’s just plain dead.” “(Sigh) Ah well, it was bound to happen eventually, but still I will miss his…enthusiasm. But this is no time to morn past losses, tonight is a time of celebration! Jacob, a member of the Van Helsing family. The mortal enemies of vampires everywhere, and the source of the notorious Abraham Van Helsing, who nearly ended my life. A family of murderers, yet Jacob has abandoned his homicidal family tradition and become one of us, proving that even the most implacable of foes can one day become friends…and more.” Dracula says giving Jacob a lecherous stare, but then finally looks over in your direction and his demeanor changes to that of anger as he points at you the whole time. “But some foes always remain. These types are the OLD, the JEALOUS, the BITTER, and the HATEFUL that are so miserable with their own pathetic existence that they feel they must ruin other people’s happiness to make themselves feel better. This…this ANIMAL that stands before us is attempting to do just that! He is the pinnacle example of everything that’s wrong with his kind! The animals have always been jealous of us, and that will never change. Every now and then when a dog runs wild, it becomes necessary to slap it down and put it back in its place, but there are other times when it becomes rabid and needs to be destroyed. And that’s what you are Wolf and rabid dog that’s too stupid to know when to bow before your masters. Jacob, prove your love for me, destroy this animal.” “With pleasure.” Jacob says to Dracula and steps towards you baring his fangs. > You fight offensively You charge at Jacob with your silver bar, but you miss and he swiftly grabs it from you. You turn around and he smashes you in the face with it, knocking you to the ground. You attempt to get back up, but shoves the bar into your stomach with a great force, knocking the wind and fight completely out of you. You cough up blood as Jacob stands over you. “Maybe my father failed to kill you, but I won’t. Time to put you to sleep little doggy.” Jacob says and then pulls out a pistol and shoots you in the head with silver bullets.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You stare deeply into Mary’s eyes, grab her and kiss her long and passionately. “You’re going anyway aren’t you?” she says. “I have to.” “But why?! You know he’s going to use every dirty trick in the book, he’s not going to fight you man to man. He’ll throw all his followers at you first.” “Good, it’s the only chance he’s got to level the playing field.” “But you’re severely outnumbered.” “Yeah, and they’re going to be overconfident like all those bloodsuckers are. And that I’m gonna beat ‘em, they keep underestimating me. Now you get out of here…don’t worry, we’ll see each other again. Just remember to make those changes in that movie of yours.” Mary gives a weak smile, she doesn’t look convinced that she’ll see you again, but she realizes you have to go. Actually you’re not even sure you’re getting out of this alive, but this is something that you have to do, win or lose. You leave Mary to head back upstairs, while she goes off through one of those passages she was talking about. As you’re heading up the twisting staircase, you run into Renfield, who was coming down to get you no doubt. His eyes widen in shock and he turns to run. “MAST…” he begins to shout and you smash the back of his skull with one of the silver bars. You then turn him over. “I’m not exactly sure what’s correct way of killing you Ghouls so I’m not going to take any chances.” You say placing your hands around his head and giving his neck a quick snap. He’s still alive, but now unable to move. “You’ll never defeat the master!” he says defiantly. “Yeah, yeah…” you say and shove your fist in his mouth to rip out his tongue. It takes some doing, but eventually you fish out the long slimy body part. “I don’t even want to think about where this has been.” You say and throw it away. As Renfield helplessly hisses at you, you plunge one of the silver bars through his chest. He begins to melt, he’d probably shriek if he could. When he quickly becomes nothing but bloody bones, you remove the skull and throw it into the wall where it shatters and take back your silver bar. Renfield won’t be coming back. You finally reach the ground floor again and follow the sounds of the party. The guests have already heard about what you did earlier, and when you run into a few of them in the hallway they give you some problems. Fortunately they’re a lot of flash and no substance. Three vampire guests attack and you quickly use your silver bar to smack them around. After knocking them all to the ground, you disable one by breaking his neck, while you’re doing that, one of them attacks you from behind where upon you grab and flip him into a small table which splinters into pieces. He tries to get back up, but you kick him in the face, grab one of the table legs and shove it into his chest. Your last would be attacker seeing what you’ve done runs off. You shake your head. “Sheesh, what happened to the days when you bloodsuckers actually put up a good fight?” you say and shove another table leg into the chest of the vampire whose neck you just broke. Your little rumble in the hallway has most definitely been heard, but the rest of your journey to the ballroom continues with no other interruptions. Upon your arrival, the rest of the guests just watch you. Dracula lounges on a fancy couch on the far side of the room while his followers to grovel over him, Jacob being the most fawning. “So is Jacob going to be the next Renfield?” you shout which gets you his attention and a very hostile look from Jacob. “Ah Wolf, you’ve arrived. Where is Renfield anyway, I sent him to fetch you. I do hope you didn’t hurt him too badly.” Dracula, says without even looking at you. “I regret to inform you that your favorite jizz jar is no longer among the living or the undead. He’s just plain dead.” “(Sigh) Ah well, it was bound to happen eventually, but still I will miss his…enthusiasm. But this is no time to morn past losses, tonight is a time of celebration! Jacob, a member of the Van Helsing family. The mortal enemies of vampires everywhere, and the source of the notorious Abraham Van Helsing, who nearly ended my life. A family of murderers, yet Jacob has abandoned his homicidal family tradition and become one of us, proving that even the most implacable of foes can one day become friends…and more.” Dracula says giving Jacob a lecherous stare, but then finally looks over in your direction and his demeanor changes to that of anger as he points at you the whole time. “But some foes always remain. These types are the OLD, the JEALOUS, the BITTER, and the HATEFUL that are so miserable with their own pathetic existence that they feel they must ruin other people’s happiness to make themselves feel better. This…this ANIMAL that stands before us is attempting to do just that! He is the pinnacle example of everything that’s wrong with his kind! The animals have always been jealous of us, and that will never change. Every now and then when a dog runs wild, it becomes necessary to slap it down and put it back in its place, but there are other times when it becomes rabid and needs to be destroyed. And that’s what you are Wolf and rabid dog that’s too stupid to know when to bow before your masters. Jacob, prove your love for me, destroy this animal.” “With pleasure.” Jacob says to Dracula and steps towards you baring his fangs. > You fight defensively Normally you aren’t one to fight defensively, however in this case it’s to your advantage. Jacob is eager to prove himself to Dracula and overconfident in his abilities. Jacob rushes at you and you trip him to the floor. As he attempts get up you impale him through the back with the silver bar. He screams in pain, but it looks like you missed his heart, he back kicks you in the nuts before scrambling to get up. While you recover, Jacob pulls the bar out of his back and throws it at your head which you dodge. With a burst of speed, he leaps next to you and punches you three times in the face, the fourth time however his hand goes into your open mouth. You sink your fangs in, grab his arm and pull back with your head as hard as possible, biting it off at the forearm. Jacob reels back in shock as he stares in horror at his spurting bloody stump. You spit out the gory limb which flops on the floor. You quickly pick up your silver bar from the ground. The crowd looks on in captivated awe. “Well looks like I get to kill two Van Helsings, that’s already one more than Fagula over there. Though I have to say, your father put up a better fight and he was only human. You sure you weren’t adopted? You put up a poor showing boy, even for an overgrown leech.” “You dare call me a leech you fucking animal?! You haven’t won, look at what I found here!” Jacob reaches into vest pocket with his one good arm and pulls out a pistol. You already know what it’s loaded with. He fires haphazardly at you, while you roll out of the way. Luckily he’s as bad of a shot as his father was. Guests start running out of the way after a few silver bullets start hitting them. He doesn’t care, who he hits, he’s too busy trying to make sure one of the bullets hits you. “I won’t fail where my father did, I will kill you! I WILL KILL HIM!” he screams. Of course in the chaos of everyone running around he doesn’t seem to realize you’ve appeared behind him. “Wrong again junior.” You say, turning him around and shoving the silver bar cruelly through his chest, hearing that satisfying crack of his upper ribs and the squishy sound of the bar hitting his heart. He falls to the ground dropping his pistol and clutching the bar which you dig in deeper as he starts to melt. “When you get to hell, say hello to your dad for me…and I sincerely hope he and the rest of the dead Van Helsing clan kicks your pansy ass for all eternity you fucking traitor.” As he releases one last death screech, you rip his head off and throw it at Dracula who hasn’t left his couch. He just looks at the melted skull and shrugs while you take your silver bar and prepare for the final battle. “Well I see your skills haven’t deteriorated, but there has been a great deal of luck involved here tonight as well. Unfortunately, you’ll find that your luck has run out. Do you actually think I’m going to dirty my hands on an animal such as you? Please. It wouldn’t be a contest anyway. My guests, I now give you the honor of fighting for me! That fool Van Helsing obviously wasn’t worthy of my love, but for any of you that lands the killing blow on this mangy dog, you shall know the pleasures that only I can show you.” “You gotta be fuckin’ kidding me Vlad! That’s supposed to be an honor? You’re just trying to get out of this shit because you’re fucking scared.” Im-Ho-Tep pipes up from the back ground. “Stay outta this Tep!” Dracula exclaims. “Hey, I’m not in this little feud, but I’m calling it like I see it. You’re not willing to fight an old and tired Werewolf who’s supposed to be inferior to you anyway? Now you do whatever, but if you’re seriously going to let your followers do your dirty work, then you really are a big pussy.” There’s a moment of silence as Dracula looks at Tep and then back over at you. He stares at you and then… “KILL HIM MY CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT!” Dracula commands “Goddammit I knew it!” you say to yourself. You hear Tep shout over the crowd. “Sorry Wolf I thought he’d go for it!” As the crowd of vampires, ghouls and human servants advance on you, you think about how many you can take out before they finally get you. Just then it looks like Drac was wrong, your luck hasn’t run out yet. Werewolves crash through the windows, and attack! They look like the ones from the studio! Then Mary comes rushing into the room smashing a Ghoul in the head, and stands fighting by your side while you fight off an attacking vampire. “Mary! What’re you still doing here?! And how’d you get them to help?” you shout, twisting the vampire’s head completely around. “You didn’t think I came here by myself did you? I figured you’d insist on killing Drac. So I had the Wolflings come with me and told them to stay back until the appointed time.” “But how?! I tried to get them to come and they didn’t listen to me! And I’m a fucking Werewolf!” “Well, I’m a people person, while you’re mean old bastard, so of course they’d be more willing to listen to me. Plus I told them about how you paved the way for all of them and how they should be grateful.” “You told them you were going to replace them with human actors in furry suits didn’t you?” “Well…yeah, but that doesn’t mean the other stuff didn’t work either! Ugh! These ghouls aren’t very study are they?” Mary says putting her fist right through the face of one of them. “Hey Wolf, I hate to interrupt, but Vlad just went running down that corridor when your wolf pack arrived. I think you better go catch him. Oh hey Mary, I haven’t seen you for awhile, how have you been?” Tep says shuffling up to the both of you. “Tep! I was just thinking about you the other day! I’ve been alright, how about you?” While Mary and Tep bizarrely exchange pleasantries in the chaos of battle you head down the corridor that Tep pointed out with your silver bar. Eventually it leads into a study of some sort. You cautiously enter, but you’re immediately ambushed and thrown into a bookcase hard which then falls on you. “It ends here Wolf.” You hear Drac say as you crawl from underneath the bookcase. > Back up and recover You scramble for the silver bar and try to back away, but Dracula won’t allow you the chance to regain your strength. He rips the bar from your hands and hits you with it. You claw him across the face and get him in bear like hug so he can’t get enough momentum to shove the bar into you, but he’s got something different in mind. “Fucking animals like you need collars!” he says and wraps the bar around your neck! As your airway becomes constricted, you release Drac who then takes complete advantage and gets behind you and tightens the twisted silver even more eventually choking you out. A few minutes later you wake up before Tep and Mary who’s taken the silver bar from around your neck. “Wolf?! Are you alive? Speak to me!” Mary says. “(Cough! Cough!) Yeah…shit…(Cough!) What the fuck happened?” “Well looks like old Drac got the drop on you and tried to strangle you. Guess he didn’t do a very good job though since you’re still alive. He ran off though; don’t know where he went, probably to one of his other homes. Well, I guess this makes it a bit of a tie. I guess nobody collects the bet. Though I still think you would’ve won in a fair fight.” Tep says. “Ah shit, I gotta (Cough!) track his ass down, gather up the Wolflings…and…” ”NO! You’ll do no such thing! Most of the Wolflings are dead, and YOU almost died tonight too! I’m not having you risk that again over this foolishness! You’re coming home with me right now!” Mary takes you back to her place where you rest up. You still want to go after Dracula, but Mary is very convincing and eventually you give up on it and work on her movie (Which was rewritten) instead. As for Dracula you don’t hear from him ever again, obviously he knows it was a close call and doesn’t want to risk another battle with you. Still it always pisses you off that it was a “tie”.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Normally you aren’t one to fight defensively, however in this case it’s to your advantage. Jacob is eager to prove himself to Dracula and overconfident in his abilities. Jacob rushes at you and you trip him to the floor. As he attempts get up you impale him through the back with the silver bar. He screams in pain, but it looks like you missed his heart, he back kicks you in the nuts before scrambling to get up. While you recover, Jacob pulls the bar out of his back and throws it at your head which you dodge. With a burst of speed, he leaps next to you and punches you three times in the face, the fourth time however his hand goes into your open mouth. You sink your fangs in, grab his arm and pull back with your head as hard as possible, biting it off at the forearm. Jacob reels back in shock as he stares in horror at his spurting bloody stump. You spit out the gory limb which flops on the floor. You quickly pick up your silver bar from the ground. The crowd looks on in captivated awe. “Well looks like I get to kill two Van Helsings, that’s already one more than Fagula over there. Though I have to say, your father put up a better fight and he was only human. You sure you weren’t adopted? You put up a poor showing boy, even for an overgrown leech.” “You dare call me a leech you fucking animal?! You haven’t won, look at what I found here!” Jacob reaches into vest pocket with his one good arm and pulls out a pistol. You already know what it’s loaded with. He fires haphazardly at you, while you roll out of the way. Luckily he’s as bad of a shot as his father was. Guests start running out of the way after a few silver bullets start hitting them. He doesn’t care, who he hits, he’s too busy trying to make sure one of the bullets hits you. “I won’t fail where my father did, I will kill you! I WILL KILL HIM!” he screams. Of course in the chaos of everyone running around he doesn’t seem to realize you’ve appeared behind him. “Wrong again junior.” You say, turning him around and shoving the silver bar cruelly through his chest, hearing that satisfying crack of his upper ribs and the squishy sound of the bar hitting his heart. He falls to the ground dropping his pistol and clutching the bar which you dig in deeper as he starts to melt. “When you get to hell, say hello to your dad for me…and I sincerely hope he and the rest of the dead Van Helsing clan kicks your pansy ass for all eternity you fucking traitor.” As he releases one last death screech, you rip his head off and throw it at Dracula who hasn’t left his couch. He just looks at the melted skull and shrugs while you take your silver bar and prepare for the final battle. “Well I see your skills haven’t deteriorated, but there has been a great deal of luck involved here tonight as well. Unfortunately, you’ll find that your luck has run out. Do you actually think I’m going to dirty my hands on an animal such as you? Please. It wouldn’t be a contest anyway. My guests, I now give you the honor of fighting for me! That fool Van Helsing obviously wasn’t worthy of my love, but for any of you that lands the killing blow on this mangy dog, you shall know the pleasures that only I can show you.” “You gotta be fuckin’ kidding me Vlad! That’s supposed to be an honor? You’re just trying to get out of this shit because you’re fucking scared.” Im-Ho-Tep pipes up from the back ground. “Stay outta this Tep!” Dracula exclaims. “Hey, I’m not in this little feud, but I’m calling it like I see it. You’re not willing to fight an old and tired Werewolf who’s supposed to be inferior to you anyway? Now you do whatever, but if you’re seriously going to let your followers do your dirty work, then you really are a big pussy.” There’s a moment of silence as Dracula looks at Tep and then back over at you. He stares at you and then… “KILL HIM MY CHILDREN OF THE NIGHT!” Dracula commands “Goddammit I knew it!” you say to yourself. You hear Tep shout over the crowd. “Sorry Wolf I thought he’d go for it!” As the crowd of vampires, ghouls and human servants advance on you, you think about how many you can take out before they finally get you. Just then it looks like Drac was wrong, your luck hasn’t run out yet. Werewolves crash through the windows, and attack! They look like the ones from the studio! Then Mary comes rushing into the room smashing a Ghoul in the head, and stands fighting by your side while you fight off an attacking vampire. “Mary! What’re you still doing here?! And how’d you get them to help?” you shout, twisting the vampire’s head completely around. “You didn’t think I came here by myself did you? I figured you’d insist on killing Drac. So I had the Wolflings come with me and told them to stay back until the appointed time.” “But how?! I tried to get them to come and they didn’t listen to me! And I’m a fucking Werewolf!” “Well, I’m a people person, while you’re mean old bastard, so of course they’d be more willing to listen to me. Plus I told them about how you paved the way for all of them and how they should be grateful.” “You told them you were going to replace them with human actors in furry suits didn’t you?” “Well…yeah, but that doesn’t mean the other stuff didn’t work either! Ugh! These ghouls aren’t very study are they?” Mary says putting her fist right through the face of one of them. “Hey Wolf, I hate to interrupt, but Vlad just went running down that corridor when your wolf pack arrived. I think you better go catch him. Oh hey Mary, I haven’t seen you for awhile, how have you been?” Tep says shuffling up to the both of you. “Tep! I was just thinking about you the other day! I’ve been alright, how about you?” While Mary and Tep bizarrely exchange pleasantries in the chaos of battle you head down the corridor that Tep pointed out with your silver bar. Eventually it leads into a study of some sort. You cautiously enter, but you’re immediately ambushed and thrown into a bookcase hard which then falls on you. “It ends here Wolf.” You hear Drac say as you crawl from underneath the bookcase. > You attack! You stagger over to attack Drac, but he dodges and throws you into another wall. You slam to the floor landing behind a desk. “You think you could come here to defeat me? You’re a fucking loser Wolf! You always will be! You know why? Because you don’t have any style or class! You should be thanking me for putting an end to your miserable existence! I think I’ll take some revenge on Mary too, since she felt the need to help you…” While he’s making dramatic villainous speeches you were searching the drawers in the desk and found a very sharp letter opener. You pop up from behind the desk and throw it at Drac, hitting him directly in the eye! “ARRRGH! MY EYE!” he bellows while pulling the opener out taking the bloody orb with it. You then lift up the entire desk and throw it at him! It crashes into his body, knocking him onto the floor. You grab your silver bar from the floor and prepare to do some more permanent harm to Drac, but he lifts the desk off of himself, before you can take advantage. “You’re going to pay for this you lowly dog!” he shouts and kicks the bar from your hand. He then kicks you in the stomach and brings both of his fists down on your head when you hunch over from the stomach kick. You take the opportunity to grab him by the legs and in a fireman carry, you run straight forward with him over your back, out the window! Both of your bodies crash and fall to the outside courtyard ground, broken glass embeds itself in both of your bodies, but mostly Drac’s. He pushes you off of him and retreats. You don’t give up your attack and tackle him, and bite deep into his leg. He kicks you with the other foot, but not before you tear off his leg from the bottom of the shin. Blood splatters all over the place. At this point Drac is too enraged to run and grabs hold of you and bites you deep in the neck! You feel the energy rapidly leaving you. > You try to pull his heart out Pulling someone’s heart out is never as easy as it appears in the movies, but you muster up all your strength and plunge your fist into Drac’s chest. He winces in pain, but continues to drain your blood. You break through the rib cage until you feel that squishy four chambered organ in your clutches. As your energy and life begin to ebb you pull it out and crush it into a bloody mess right before his eyes. He then begins to smoke suddenly. The sun! Its morning! You’ve been here so long you completely forgot about the passage of time. “Looks like it’s the end for both of us bloodsucker, but I’m making sure I live an extra minute longer to see you die first.” You say and collapse. Drac falls into a weird death spasm, and crawls in a hopeless escape attempt, but there is no escape. If the destruction of his heart didn’t kill him the sun certainly does. He shrieks as his body becomes a flaming torch and spectacularly explodes. At this point Mary, Tep and some of the remaining Wolflings rush outside to see what’s going on. Mary immediately rushes to you. “Wolf! No!” Mary shouts holding you. She’d probably shed tears if she was capable. “Is he dead?” you ask. “Yeah, Wolf he’s dead. You killed him. I always knew you’d be able to do it.” Tep says. “Good, now I can die happy now.” “No! I don’t want you to die! Why couldn’t you have just come with me?!” “I’m sorry Mary, but this is the way it had to be. I wasn’t meant to live a regular life. I wasn’t supposed to get old. I was supposed to die in combat…and I have…there’s nothing else for me here now. Its time for me to leave this world that no longer wants me.” “I’m here! I want you with me!” You smile weakly and grab her hand tightly. “I would if I could…just remember the good times Mary…and thank you for what you did tonight…I know that you did truly love me…just remember to burn my body, I don’t want to take the chance of coming back as one of these leeches.” You feel darkness envelop as Mary holds you close. “Tep, one thing before I leave.” “What’s that Wolf?” “When you collect your money from Erik, kick his fucking ass for betting against me!” You close your eyes and then nothing. After a brief period of mourning, Mary follows your last orders and burns your body. A few months later she writes a book about you and ultimately makes a movie about your final battle with Dracula, it’s a blockbuster hit. The movie is also dedicated in loving memory of you. Mary makes sure the legacy of the Alpha Wolf lives on…<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You stagger over to attack Drac, but he dodges and throws you into another wall. You slam to the floor landing behind a desk. “You think you could come here to defeat me? You’re a fucking loser Wolf! You always will be! You know why? Because you don’t have any style or class! You should be thanking me for putting an end to your miserable existence! I think I’ll take some revenge on Mary too, since she felt the need to help you…” While he’s making dramatic villainous speeches you were searching the drawers in the desk and found a very sharp letter opener. You pop up from behind the desk and throw it at Drac, hitting him directly in the eye! “ARRRGH! MY EYE!” he bellows while pulling the opener out taking the bloody orb with it. You then lift up the entire desk and throw it at him! It crashes into his body, knocking him onto the floor. You grab your silver bar from the floor and prepare to do some more permanent harm to Drac, but he lifts the desk off of himself, before you can take advantage. “You’re going to pay for this you lowly dog!” he shouts and kicks the bar from your hand. He then kicks you in the stomach and brings both of his fists down on your head when you hunch over from the stomach kick. You take the opportunity to grab him by the legs and in a fireman carry, you run straight forward with him over your back, out the window! Both of your bodies crash and fall to the outside courtyard ground, broken glass embeds itself in both of your bodies, but mostly Drac’s. He pushes you off of him and retreats. You don’t give up your attack and tackle him, and bite deep into his leg. He kicks you with the other foot, but not before you tear off his leg from the bottom of the shin. Blood splatters all over the place. At this point Drac is too enraged to run and grabs hold of you and bites you deep in the neck! You feel the energy rapidly leaving you. > You punch him in the face You have to get him off of you NOW! You immediately smash him in the face as hard as you can, and then again, and then again, and then again; finally he releases his grip and falls to the ground while you retreat a bit trying to shake the dizziness from the loss of blood. Drac having gained a little more strength from his quick meal makes an escape attempt by transforming into a bat. “Oh fuck no, you’re not getting away that easy!” you grab a nearby stone and throw it, smacking him out of the air. He falls to the ground in a bloody heap and transforms back into humanoid form. You run over and kick him repeatedly in the head and then starts smashing the back of his skull into the pavement until blood and brains come leaking out. Drac begins to beg for mercy. “Wolf! Stop! I give up! Please! Surely you as a man of honor can see that you’ve defeated me and will show mercy!” You nearly shit yourself laughing. “I’m afraid I can’t do that since as you were so fondly reminding me…I’m a fucking dog and like any good dog when we smell fear, we go in for the kill!” you say amused. Dracula, sensing this truly is the end for him attempts a different approach. “Very well you fucking animal! Kill me! But know this! You’ll never be as famous as me! People shall always remember me even after my death! My fame and name will still live on long after you’re rotting in a pet cemetery!” “…maybe…maybe you’re right…but you won’t be around to enjoy it!” you say and break his back over your knee and clamp your jaws around Drac’s throat ripping it out. He clutches at his new gruesome tracheotomy and then begins to smoke suddenly. The Sun! Its morning! You’ve been here so long you completely forgot about the passage of time. You finish ripping off Drac’s head and then hold it up high to the sunlight and howl in victory. Then it burns up and explodes, (Along with the body) injuring you and knocking you to the ground. You brush yourself off and remind yourself never to do that again! Meanwhile Mary, Tep and a few of the surviving Wolflings come outside to see what’s going on. “Wolf are you alright?!” Mary asks. “Yeah I’m fine, told you we’d see each other again.” You say and kiss her. “Well Wolf, I guess this makes you the winner, looks like Erik owes me a thousand dollars.” Tep replies looking at the ashes blowing all over the courtyard. “Yeah and I owe Erik an ass whipping for betting against me in the first place!” “Well I’m just glad you’re alive and it’s over.” Mary says. “Not quite, there’s still one more loose end I need to take care of, but it shouldn’t take long…” You head back down to the basement; Count Orlock is still lying slumped in the corner of his cell. He looks up when he sees you come in with your silver bar. “You’re back…so I guess this means Vlad is dead?” “Got it in one bloodsucker.” “(Sigh) Such a shameful defeat. He deserved much better…but then so did I…let’s get this over with. The lever to open this cell is over there.” You pull the lever and the cell opens. Count Orlock stand before you completely still as you approach. You expect him to put up some kind of resistance, but he doesn’t. He looks resigned and actually relieved to accept his fate. You plunge the bar into his chest. “At last my torment is at an end.” He says before you take his head. It is done. All loose ends have been taken care of. You go back outside and meet back up with Mary. After resting up (And participating in some less restful “activity” with Mary) you agree to work on the new movie that Mary has decided to do instead. Namely a movie based on your battle with Dracula. Of course most of the true story is changed around and a bunch of young monsters are all cast in the roles. (Mary even got an Aztec mummy to portray Tep) you don’t really mind not getting to play “yourself” though, you understand that youth sells better, besides it’s a lot easier sitting on your ass and just raking in the money from the movie since it turns out to be a big blockbuster hit. Perhaps Dracula’s name will always been more well known, but yours will always be known as the one who killed him and that’s certainly something you don’t mind being remembered best for. You live out the rest of your life with Mary, your days of battle finally behind you, but confident in your knowledge that you have made a permanent impact on the world. Your legacy as the Alpha Wolf is secured in history.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You push your way through the crowd and head towards where Renfield was lurking about. He isn’t far, you can smell him. You follow a long corridor and then turn the corner to see Renfield hobbling down another passage, you quickly knock him to the floor, turn him over and kneel on his chest. He attempts to struggle, but you’re still too strong for him. “Well, well, well, I’m surprised your faggot master still keeps you around. Shit, you smell terrible, I suppose along with your flesh rotting, and lousy hygiene in general, all those ass rammings have taken a toll on you eh? Where the hell is he?” ”You! You’ve always been jealous of the master! Jealous of his wealth, his style and his beauty! You’re nothing, but a lowly animal!” “For someone who gets abused in every possible way, has no self respect, and is a filthy Ghoul, I wouldn’t be calling anyone a lowly animal. And you’re not really in the position to be pissing me off anyway. Now where the fuck is Fagula?” “The master is going enjoy killing you, especially tonight! Now he’ll be able to claim victory over TWO of his greatest enemies!” “What the hell are you blathering about?” “Oh you’ll find out…” Renfield smiles with a set of blacken teeth. “Yeah whatever, look last chance to…” Suddenly you feel a powerful crushing blow to the back of your head. It isn’t enough to knock you out, but you fall off of Renfield and roll over feeling very woozy. In your bleary vision you can make out the form of that cocksucker Dracula standing over you. Another figure stands there as well, you don’t know who they are, but they look somewhat familiar. “Wolf, I don’t believe I invited you to this party, but it was good of you to come anyway. It only makes festivities more enjoyable! I think you’ll give Jacob a good chance of testing himself. I was going to have him fight Renfield, but I’m sure you’ll provide much more of a challenge. You think you’re up for the challenge Jacob?” “Sounds perfect to me.” The other figure says and steps closer, and just before he kicks you in the head, you could swear it looks like Van Helsing, but much younger. “Sonofa…” you begin to say and then get your face kicked in, knocking you unconscious. Time passes and you wake up in a cage with silver bars. You see the figure that kicked you in the face on the other side, it is Van Helsing…or someone that looks like him since his name was Abraham, not Jacob. You find out soon enough, when he begins to speak. “Wolf, you’re up. Good. I’m anxious to test my new skills on you. Renfield certainly wouldn’t have been much of a challenge, but you should prove to be. Even my foolish grandfather couldn’t kill you. He couldn’t kill Dracula either, but then Dracula was always superior in everyway. I have no idea why he pursued such an idiotic quest of trying to kill Vampires, they really are the supreme life form on this planet and certainly the most lovely and sensual. Vladimir has shown me such pleasures since our time together.” You shake your head and snicker. This must’ve been the “other” defeated enemy that Renfield was on about. “So, that’s how it is now? The Van Helsing bloodline finally defeated not through violence, but through seduction? Never thought I’d see the day come. I had my problems with your family and especially your father, but I could at least respect their dedication. You’re a fucking disgrace kid.” “On the contrary, I’m merely ensuring the survival of my family name. What was I supposed to do, carrying on some pointless family tradition of monster hunting, and get myself killed? Fuck that. I want to live forever.” “Yeah? Well you can scratch that plan, because when I get a hold of you, you’re going to be wishing you hadn’t turned into a fucking bloodsucker.” “(Sigh) Yes, Vladimir told me you were always one to make unimaginative threats, I’ll be more interested in hearing your howls of pain though, see you soon.” As Jacob leaves you to your cage. You hear another voice in the room. “So…Vlad has now eliminated all his enemies, I guess I always knew he’d succeed.” You see another holding cell, but one made of some kind of heavy duty unbreakable see-through plastic. The top of it has a ton of garlic hanging from it. Sitting and looking utterly defeated is an ugly distorted looking humanoid, who is yet another face you’re amazed to see. This revenge trip has just been one surprise after another. “Orlock? Heard you were dead.” you say. “I wish I was, unfortunately Dracula insists on keeping me alive…feeding me rats…tormenting me…reminding me of my shameful defeat by his hands…I’m proud of him.” “You’re happy that he’s torturing you? Sheesh, all you Undead are fucking masochists.” “I’m not happy that he’s torturing me you ignorant dog, I’m happy that he’s proven to be so ruthless, despite his foppish ways. I must admit I had my doubts about him when I first created him.” “Yeah, I see that really worked out well for you.” “(Sigh) True. But it’s my own fault for having a soft spot for him I suppose. I should’ve been more watchful of him. You’ll be lucky, he’ll just kill you, or rather have his new conquest Jacob do it.” “Nobody’s killing me, I’m getting the fuck outta here right now. These bars aren’t going to hold me.” “Won’t that be difficult Wolf? Seeing that the bars are made of silver?” “So fucking what? Doesn’t mean I can’t touch them! As long as the things aren’t going into my body they don’t mean shit! Thought you bloodsuckers knew that. See that’s the problem with you Vampires, always underestimating your enemies and being melodramatic. If Fagula and his bitch boys were smart they would’ve killed me when they had the chance. That’s what I would’ve done.” “You and I actually have more in common than you think. We both are the last of the old ways. I must admit that I too would’ve killed you immediately, rather than toy with such a dangerous enemy.” You ignore Orlock and concentrate on the bars. You easily pry the silver bars open and step out of the cage; you then rip one of the bars out to take with you. Orlock looks at you with interest. “Why are you taking that?” “Because unlike you Vampires, we Werewolves try to learn everything we can about our enemies. I know for a fact that silver hurts you fuckers too, though you guys like to try to keep that shit quiet.” “Ah. Tis a shame we never clashed Wolf, you would’ve been a worthy opponent.” “Yeah? Well when I kill Drac, I can come back to finish you off too.” “Ha ha! Glad to see you have such confidence. However, if in the unlikely event that you do defeat Vlad, by all means come back and finish me off to put me out my misery. I would gladly welcome everlasting death at this point.” You leave the room and find yourself in a corridor made of dull stone; you’re guessing you’re probably underground. Nobody’s around, but you can still hear the noise of the party above. You’re about to head back up when you hear a voice close by. “Psst! Wolf! Over here! Quick!” You turn around and at one end of the corridor you see Mary. Now what the fuck is SHE doing here?! You rush over to Mary. “What the fuck are you doing here?” you ask. “Trying to prevent you from getting yourself killed, you stubborn macho asshole! When the Wolflings returned to the studio, I asked them where you went, and they told me, so I went after you. What the hell did you think you were doing coming here to kill Dracula?” “Just that! Kill his bloodsucking ass! How’d you sneak in here anyway?” ”I didn’t, I got an invitation about a month ago to the party, so when I arrived I was expected. Then I heard you were taken down here by some of the guests.” “Oh I can see you and Drac are still chummy with each other, figures, all you Undead stick together. You’re probably here to help him not me!” ”Goddammit Wolf, will you stop being so fucking paranoid! I wasn’t even going to this thing; the only reason why I’m here is because of you! Because maybe you don’t want to believe it, but I do love you, you’ve always only been the one to make me feel complete. After all the searching and traveling and trying to discover myself, it was our time together that I always held dear to me and stayed in my mind. Please, Wolf don’t go through with this, we lost a lot of years already; now that we’ve been reunited I don’t want to lose you permanently. This is isn’t worth it. You don’t have to prove anything. I’m familiar with the secret passages in this place, we could leave right now without any trouble.” Mary’s face does show expression of concern, and her voice does display worry. She may or may not be telling the truth. If she isn’t then she’s done a good job of fooling you. However, even if she is telling you the truth, there’s something else at stake here, namely your principles and pride. You’d really hate to run from Dracula, especially at this point. > You memories (Van Helsing) The Hunters: The Van Helsings No group of humans ever actively caused as much trouble for the bloodsuckers than the Van Helsings. You’d actually like them, had they not hunted Werewolves as well. The Van Helsing family had a long standing tradition of hunting Vampires, they eventually stretched out to hunt other monsters as well, but Vampires were always their main target. They first got their start sometime during the medieval ages and each generation just continued the tradition. Oddly just as monsters had to adapt to the changing times, so did the Van Helsings. No longer could they just barge into a house and kill someone because they were a Vampire, indeed most of the people who were bitten by Vampires claimed it was consensual and there for the Van Helsings had no right to intrude on what two beings did in private. Subterfuge abounded as Vampires in high political offices or positions of power manipulated laws to encourage more “liberal” policies. This still did not deter the Van Helsing family, but it did cause disillusionment and less of them enthusiastically took up the tradition of monster hunting. Abraham Van Helsing is probably the best known one for his continual hunt and battles with Dracula. Despite his best efforts he could never defeat him and ultimately lost all his friends and his life in the finally confrontation. (Yes, the movies like to give the “happy ending” to the tale, but reality is always much darker) His son Ishmael Van Helsing took up the mantle next, but fearing to follow in his father’s footsteps he didn’t pursue Dracula. Instead he hunted less powerful Vampires and other monsters, including you. There were a couple times he attempted to assassinate you, but the last time he tried, you managed to catch him and rip him limb from limb. Jacob would be the next one to take up the mantel, but he showed little interest in it, and that would seem to be the end of Van Helsing tradition.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You push your way through the crowd and head towards where Renfield was lurking about. He isn’t far, you can smell him. You follow a long corridor and then turn the corner to see Renfield hobbling down another passage, you quickly knock him to the floor, turn him over and kneel on his chest. He attempts to struggle, but you’re still too strong for him. “Well, well, well, I’m surprised your faggot master still keeps you around. Shit, you smell terrible, I suppose along with your flesh rotting, and lousy hygiene in general, all those ass rammings have taken a toll on you eh? Where the hell is he?” ”You! You’ve always been jealous of the master! Jealous of his wealth, his style and his beauty! You’re nothing, but a lowly animal!” “For someone who gets abused in every possible way, has no self respect, and is a filthy Ghoul, I wouldn’t be calling anyone a lowly animal. And you’re not really in the position to be pissing me off anyway. Now where the fuck is Fagula?” “The master is going enjoy killing you, especially tonight! Now he’ll be able to claim victory over TWO of his greatest enemies!” “What the hell are you blathering about?” “Oh you’ll find out…” Renfield smiles with a set of blacken teeth. “Yeah whatever, look last chance to…” Suddenly you feel a powerful crushing blow to the back of your head. It isn’t enough to knock you out, but you fall off of Renfield and roll over feeling very woozy. In your bleary vision you can make out the form of that cocksucker Dracula standing over you. Another figure stands there as well, you don’t know who they are, but they look somewhat familiar. “Wolf, I don’t believe I invited you to this party, but it was good of you to come anyway. It only makes festivities more enjoyable! I think you’ll give Jacob a good chance of testing himself. I was going to have him fight Renfield, but I’m sure you’ll provide much more of a challenge. You think you’re up for the challenge Jacob?” “Sounds perfect to me.” The other figure says and steps closer, and just before he kicks you in the head, you could swear it looks like Van Helsing, but much younger. “Sonofa…” you begin to say and then get your face kicked in, knocking you unconscious. Time passes and you wake up in a cage with silver bars. You see the figure that kicked you in the face on the other side, it is Van Helsing…or someone that looks like him since his name was Abraham, not Jacob. You find out soon enough, when he begins to speak. “Wolf, you’re up. Good. I’m anxious to test my new skills on you. Renfield certainly wouldn’t have been much of a challenge, but you should prove to be. Even my foolish grandfather couldn’t kill you. He couldn’t kill Dracula either, but then Dracula was always superior in everyway. I have no idea why he pursued such an idiotic quest of trying to kill Vampires, they really are the supreme life form on this planet and certainly the most lovely and sensual. Vladimir has shown me such pleasures since our time together.” You shake your head and snicker. This must’ve been the “other” defeated enemy that Renfield was on about. “So, that’s how it is now? The Van Helsing bloodline finally defeated not through violence, but through seduction? Never thought I’d see the day come. I had my problems with your family and especially your father, but I could at least respect their dedication. You’re a fucking disgrace kid.” “On the contrary, I’m merely ensuring the survival of my family name. What was I supposed to do, carrying on some pointless family tradition of monster hunting, and get myself killed? Fuck that. I want to live forever.” “Yeah? Well you can scratch that plan, because when I get a hold of you, you’re going to be wishing you hadn’t turned into a fucking bloodsucker.” “(Sigh) Yes, Vladimir told me you were always one to make unimaginative threats, I’ll be more interested in hearing your howls of pain though, see you soon.” As Jacob leaves you to your cage. You hear another voice in the room. “So…Vlad has now eliminated all his enemies, I guess I always knew he’d succeed.” You see another holding cell, but one made of some kind of heavy duty unbreakable see-through plastic. The top of it has a ton of garlic hanging from it. Sitting and looking utterly defeated is an ugly distorted looking humanoid, who is yet another face you’re amazed to see. This revenge trip has just been one surprise after another. “Orlock? Heard you were dead.” you say. “I wish I was, unfortunately Dracula insists on keeping me alive…feeding me rats…tormenting me…reminding me of my shameful defeat by his hands…I’m proud of him.” “You’re happy that he’s torturing you? Sheesh, all you Undead are fucking masochists.” “I’m not happy that he’s torturing me you ignorant dog, I’m happy that he’s proven to be so ruthless, despite his foppish ways. I must admit I had my doubts about him when I first created him.” “Yeah, I see that really worked out well for you.” “(Sigh) True. But it’s my own fault for having a soft spot for him I suppose. I should’ve been more watchful of him. You’ll be lucky, he’ll just kill you, or rather have his new conquest Jacob do it.” “Nobody’s killing me, I’m getting the fuck outta here right now. These bars aren’t going to hold me.” “Won’t that be difficult Wolf? Seeing that the bars are made of silver?” “So fucking what? Doesn’t mean I can’t touch them! As long as the things aren’t going into my body they don’t mean shit! Thought you bloodsuckers knew that. See that’s the problem with you Vampires, always underestimating your enemies and being melodramatic. If Fagula and his bitch boys were smart they would’ve killed me when they had the chance. That’s what I would’ve done.” “You and I actually have more in common than you think. We both are the last of the old ways. I must admit that I too would’ve killed you immediately, rather than toy with such a dangerous enemy.” You ignore Orlock and concentrate on the bars. You easily pry the silver bars open and step out of the cage; you then rip one of the bars out to take with you. Orlock looks at you with interest. “Why are you taking that?” “Because unlike you Vampires, we Werewolves try to learn everything we can about our enemies. I know for a fact that silver hurts you fuckers too, though you guys like to try to keep that shit quiet.” “Ah. Tis a shame we never clashed Wolf, you would’ve been a worthy opponent.” “Yeah? Well when I kill Drac, I can come back to finish you off too.” “Ha ha! Glad to see you have such confidence. However, if in the unlikely event that you do defeat Vlad, by all means come back and finish me off to put me out my misery. I would gladly welcome everlasting death at this point.” You leave the room and find yourself in a corridor made of dull stone; you’re guessing you’re probably underground. Nobody’s around, but you can still hear the noise of the party above. You’re about to head back up when you hear a voice close by. “Psst! Wolf! Over here! Quick!” You turn around and at one end of the corridor you see Mary. Now what the fuck is SHE doing here?! You rush over to Mary. “What the fuck are you doing here?” you ask. “Trying to prevent you from getting yourself killed, you stubborn macho asshole! When the Wolflings returned to the studio, I asked them where you went, and they told me, so I went after you. What the hell did you think you were doing coming here to kill Dracula?” “Just that! Kill his bloodsucking ass! How’d you sneak in here anyway?” ”I didn’t, I got an invitation about a month ago to the party, so when I arrived I was expected. Then I heard you were taken down here by some of the guests.” “Oh I can see you and Drac are still chummy with each other, figures, all you Undead stick together. You’re probably here to help him not me!” ”Goddammit Wolf, will you stop being so fucking paranoid! I wasn’t even going to this thing; the only reason why I’m here is because of you! Because maybe you don’t want to believe it, but I do love you, you’ve always only been the one to make me feel complete. After all the searching and traveling and trying to discover myself, it was our time together that I always held dear to me and stayed in my mind. Please, Wolf don’t go through with this, we lost a lot of years already; now that we’ve been reunited I don’t want to lose you permanently. This is isn’t worth it. You don’t have to prove anything. I’m familiar with the secret passages in this place, we could leave right now without any trouble.” Mary’s face does show expression of concern, and her voice does display worry. She may or may not be telling the truth. If she isn’t then she’s done a good job of fooling you. However, even if she is telling you the truth, there’s something else at stake here, namely your principles and pride. You’d really hate to run from Dracula, especially at this point. > You memories (Orlock) Nosferatu: Count Orlock The bloodsuckers are big on keeping secrets. Nowadays, all Vampires have a “cool” look about them which fits in with their youthful image. Even the ones that are “old” are still regal and respectable looking. Its part of the whole “Let’s get stupid humans to serve us and be like us” routine that they like to employ. You keep telling the masses something long enough and they believe it and the past becomes forgotten. However even a secret slips out every now and then in movies and the hideous Nosferatu appear, but this is usually quickly dismissed as “creative license” and not based on any kind of fact. Vampires deliberately attempt to destroy any evidence of their ugly pasts. One old movie was actually supposed to be based on Count Orlock, but this movie was quickly ordered to be destroyed through Vampire string pulling. The truth is Vampires weren’t always the “cool” MTV movie bullshit propaganda that that’s churned out now. In the past there were the Elders or the first Vampires who looked as repugnant as any rotting corpse, they are also known as the Nosferatu. You rarely had any encounters with them as most of them were dead by then, but you heard many stories from your grandfather about them. They hid in the shadows, striking from the darkness, and returning to isolation, they used no servants. They did not mix and carry on a charade of “humanity”. They were true monsters. Over time however, things change and so did Vampires, there became an “evolution” of sorts (Though you’re loathed to use a word for such unnatural creatures). In time it became necessary for trickery, to fit in, to blend with humans to prevent mass extinction from vampire hunters. Later generations started to retain their human looks, and the Nosferatu began to die off through various means. Most of them by the hands of their own younger kind. The younger generation saw the Nosferatu as a threat to their own survival, not to mention cramping their style. How were they supposed to get humans to willingly serve them, if these ugly Nosferatu were going around snatching children in the night? No, their time had come and gone, a new era must be ushered in. Eventually the Nostferatu were all hunted down and killed save one. Count Orlock was the last of the Nosferatu, he was by no means an Elder, but he was still old enough to not retain his humanity. Sensing his time was coming to a close, decided to create a servant to protect him. He sensed Vlad would be able to do this. The instant he made him into a Vampire, he attempted to instill loyalty into him and it worked…for awhile at least. Eventually Dracula realized that Orlock was more of a burden than a teacher, and he turned on him. Defeating him utterly, but contrary to what most know (For those that even know about the Nosferatu in the first place) he didn’t kill him. Orlock’s implanted loyalty did still exist, but it was to Orlock’s detriment. Dracula could not bring himself to kill his creator, but he could make his unlife a living hell. Keeping him a weaken captive and tormenting him for all time. He’s been forgotten and held prisoner ever since.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Its long over due and its time. You need to go fucking kill that bloodsucker or die trying. You need to prove that you are and always will be the baddest of the monsters. You also need to prove to these wolflings that they need to be proud of their fucking heritage and not play second fiddle to some overgrown leeches. “All right you cubs! We’re going to go raise some fucking hell. We’re going to Dracula’s Castle. We’re going to rip the place apart brick by brick, and every fucking bloodsucker in the goddamned place and I’M going to rip Fagula apart limb from limb, drive a stake in his heart, cut his head off and then shove his dick in his mouth!” The Wolflings look very apprehensive about your suggestion, in fact they outright refuse. “You’re a fucking crazy old coot; if you think we’re gonna follow you to Dracula’s Castle! Fuck that, he’s got an army of bloodsuckers and ghouls and who knows what the hell else! We can’t win that Wolf! Can’t we just bust up a bar or something?” one of them exclaims You can’t believe your ears! These snot nosed pups know nothing of their heritage! Back in the old days they would’ve been killed and eaten for such cowardice! “Goddammit are you Wolves or fucking Chihuahuas? Vampires have been taking OUR rightful place in the monster hierarchy for centuries! We need to set the fucking record straight on this shit! Now are you going to run with me and be a fucking Wolf or are you going to go back home with your tails tucked between your legs?” After looking at each other for awhile they all begin to leave and head back to the studio. “Oh fuckin’ fine then, play werewolf in a movie, but I can see I’m the only fuckin’ REAL Werewolf here, the rest of you are just goddamn overgrown dingos! Fuck this, I don’t give a shit, I’ll kill Dracula my own goddamned self. I don’t need anybody’s help!” You get on your Harley and ride. You only make a few stops on your way; you’re completely driven to have your final showdown with Vlad. Finally after a few days of riding you reach Dracula’s Castle. The place looks exactly the same. You get off your bike and scale the high iron gate. As you jump down into the courtyard you half expect yourself to be overwhelmed by vampires, or even ghouls, but nothing happens. This is weird, there aren’t even any guards patrolling or even at the door. In fact it sounds like a party is going on inside. You hear lots of laughter and music. Suddenly someone comes outside and sees you. It’s some Vampire chick. “Ohhh, a Werewolf! Wow, I didn’t know any of you types were invited to the party; I thought Drac hated you guys. Well what’re you doing standing outside? Come on in the party’s just starting!” she says waving you in. A bit of a different approach than you were preparing for, but you enter. You entrance to the ballroom is immediately a big event. You’re the only Werewolf there. Everyone else is either a Vampire, a ghoul, or even a human “servant”. Everyone is staring at you, some with wonder and interest, most with hatred, a few in awe. Most probably haven’t encountered a Werewolf like you before. The staring would probably continue if another slightly out of place being didn’t come shuffling up to you to talk you in a friendly manner causing the bloodsuckers to go back to partying. It’s Im-Ho-Tep. You’re surprised to see him here. “Wolf?! YOU got an invitation to this thing? I can’t believe it! What the hell did you and Dracula kiss and make up?” he remarks with his scratchy sounding voice. “Not in this life time Teppy. What’re you doing here?” ”Me? Oh you know Vlad, he’s always gotta put on a show. Likes to play up the whole royalty thing to the other bloodsuckers, so he always invites me to these things to prove he’s got connections or something since I was a Prince. I always keep telling him, it’s a meaningless title since the Egyptian Empire fell thousands of years ago, but he insists on flying me out here, making a big fuss and everything so what the hell, it’s not like I got anything better to do plus I get a kick out of watching the bloodsuckers get drunk and make idiots out of themselves, well that and I like to look at some of these Vamp chicks. Heh, guess that makes me a voyeur, but again what the hell, its one of the few pleasures I get in this world anymore. But enough about this dirty old man, what brings you here if you weren’t invited? Just randomly crashing the party?” “Sort of…I didn’t even know there was one…I’m here to kill Fagula.” You whisper quietly. Tep’s eyes widen a bit under his bandages. He isn’t entirely surprised (At his age barely anything surprises him anymore) but he was caught a little off guard by your statement. “Wow Wolf…I can tell you’re really not joking about this. All I can say is… what took you so long? I thought this day would come long before now. Lost some bets because of it, oh well easy come easy go. Well you know your secret’s safe with me, though I suppose it won’t be a secret for too much longer! You’re still the craziest sonofabitch I know, but then you always did know how to liven up a party! Ha ha! Ol’ Vlad will probably be making his grand entrance soon, so just wait awhile. He threw this party for some kind of special announcement he has to make. I still got a bet with Erik that you would win if you and Drac ever got into a battle to the death. I’ll be hoping to collect that bet from Erik. Good luck!” Tep then shuffles off back to where he sitting. Erik bet against you? Fucking little depressed shit! You’re going to have a little talk with him after all this. You put your back against the wall, watching everyone while waiting for Dracula to arrive. An hour passes and you’re fucking sick of waiting, you don’t feel like waiting for him to make “an entrance”. You’re here to commit major mayhem on him, not listen to anything he has to say. While you’re surveying the place, you see a disheveled man peek out from a corner across the room and then slink back. That was Renfield, you’d know Fagula’s sycophantic bitch boy anywhere. > You memories (Im-Ho-Tep) The Mummy: Im-Ho-Tep If there was ONE undead who was consistently alright with you, it was Tep. He’s one of the few exceptions to your dislike of the Undead. Ironic, because even without being Undead, his personality was completely different from yours, however you like him because he at least has a down to earth attitude on life. Which is at least a step up from the arrogance of Vampires and most humans. Tep is very very VERY old. He was a Prince at one time during the height of the Egyptian Empire, but he never likes going by that title. He says it’s pointless to hold on to something that doesn’t exist anymore. As a royal Prince he didn’t have as much freedom as he would’ve liked, he basically had to stay in his palace and carry the responsibilities of an Empire which wasn’t as much fun as one might think. He used to read a lot about all the places his advisors and soldiers all traveled to, but he couldn’t ever go. So he decided that he would extend his life through magic so he could do and see all the things he couldn’t while he was alive. When he died at the ripe old age of 33 (Humans didn’t annoying live as long back then like they do now) the spell took effect and he snuck out of his sarcophagus at night. With no more responsibilities he was now allowed to see, go and do whatever and wherever he wanted. In fact his down to earth, observational habits are mainly due to the fact that he’s literally done it all. There really isn’t anything left for him to do anymore, so he gets a small pleasure from watching “Life” in general now. It’s also why he laughs at bloodsuckers who think they’re old, wise, and “done it all”. Even Dracula would be a mere child when compared to how old Tep is. One time Dracula was bragging about this completely decadent orgy he threw one time back in the 1600s that lasted for 6 days. He claimed it had everything and taunted everyone saying that they would never know about the carnal pleasures that were had that week. Tep just laughed and calmly put Vlad in his place that’s become a well known event in Hollywood History: “Please Vlad spare us of your fat musings, I was married to my younger sister at 13, I personally knew Cleopatra and lived through the Roman Empire during Caligula AND Nero’s reign, let alone all the other shit I saw long before you were even thinking about shoving little old ladies on iron spikes as a petty human dictator. You don’t know fuck about sexual decadence. Whatever you THINK you’ve done has already been done long ago. You’re an unoriginal amateur at best.” Dracula never “bragged” again when Tep was around.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Its long over due and its time. You need to go fucking kill that bloodsucker or die trying. You need to prove that you are and always will be the baddest of the monsters. You also need to prove to these wolflings that they need to be proud of their fucking heritage and not play second fiddle to some overgrown leeches. “All right you cubs! We’re going to go raise some fucking hell. We’re going to Dracula’s Castle. We’re going to rip the place apart brick by brick, and every fucking bloodsucker in the goddamned place and I’M going to rip Fagula apart limb from limb, drive a stake in his heart, cut his head off and then shove his dick in his mouth!” The Wolflings look very apprehensive about your suggestion, in fact they outright refuse. “You’re a fucking crazy old coot; if you think we’re gonna follow you to Dracula’s Castle! Fuck that, he’s got an army of bloodsuckers and ghouls and who knows what the hell else! We can’t win that Wolf! Can’t we just bust up a bar or something?” one of them exclaims You can’t believe your ears! These snot nosed pups know nothing of their heritage! Back in the old days they would’ve been killed and eaten for such cowardice! “Goddammit are you Wolves or fucking Chihuahuas? Vampires have been taking OUR rightful place in the monster hierarchy for centuries! We need to set the fucking record straight on this shit! Now are you going to run with me and be a fucking Wolf or are you going to go back home with your tails tucked between your legs?” After looking at each other for awhile they all begin to leave and head back to the studio. “Oh fuckin’ fine then, play werewolf in a movie, but I can see I’m the only fuckin’ REAL Werewolf here, the rest of you are just goddamn overgrown dingos! Fuck this, I don’t give a shit, I’ll kill Dracula my own goddamned self. I don’t need anybody’s help!” You get on your Harley and ride. You only make a few stops on your way; you’re completely driven to have your final showdown with Vlad. Finally after a few days of riding you reach Dracula’s Castle. The place looks exactly the same. You get off your bike and scale the high iron gate. As you jump down into the courtyard you half expect yourself to be overwhelmed by vampires, or even ghouls, but nothing happens. This is weird, there aren’t even any guards patrolling or even at the door. In fact it sounds like a party is going on inside. You hear lots of laughter and music. Suddenly someone comes outside and sees you. It’s some Vampire chick. “Ohhh, a Werewolf! Wow, I didn’t know any of you types were invited to the party; I thought Drac hated you guys. Well what’re you doing standing outside? Come on in the party’s just starting!” she says waving you in. A bit of a different approach than you were preparing for, but you enter. You entrance to the ballroom is immediately a big event. You’re the only Werewolf there. Everyone else is either a Vampire, a ghoul, or even a human “servant”. Everyone is staring at you, some with wonder and interest, most with hatred, a few in awe. Most probably haven’t encountered a Werewolf like you before. The staring would probably continue if another slightly out of place being didn’t come shuffling up to you to talk you in a friendly manner causing the bloodsuckers to go back to partying. It’s Im-Ho-Tep. You’re surprised to see him here. “Wolf?! YOU got an invitation to this thing? I can’t believe it! What the hell did you and Dracula kiss and make up?” he remarks with his scratchy sounding voice. “Not in this life time Teppy. What’re you doing here?” ”Me? Oh you know Vlad, he’s always gotta put on a show. Likes to play up the whole royalty thing to the other bloodsuckers, so he always invites me to these things to prove he’s got connections or something since I was a Prince. I always keep telling him, it’s a meaningless title since the Egyptian Empire fell thousands of years ago, but he insists on flying me out here, making a big fuss and everything so what the hell, it’s not like I got anything better to do plus I get a kick out of watching the bloodsuckers get drunk and make idiots out of themselves, well that and I like to look at some of these Vamp chicks. Heh, guess that makes me a voyeur, but again what the hell, its one of the few pleasures I get in this world anymore. But enough about this dirty old man, what brings you here if you weren’t invited? Just randomly crashing the party?” “Sort of…I didn’t even know there was one…I’m here to kill Fagula.” You whisper quietly. Tep’s eyes widen a bit under his bandages. He isn’t entirely surprised (At his age barely anything surprises him anymore) but he was caught a little off guard by your statement. “Wow Wolf…I can tell you’re really not joking about this. All I can say is… what took you so long? I thought this day would come long before now. Lost some bets because of it, oh well easy come easy go. Well you know your secret’s safe with me, though I suppose it won’t be a secret for too much longer! You’re still the craziest sonofabitch I know, but then you always did know how to liven up a party! Ha ha! Ol’ Vlad will probably be making his grand entrance soon, so just wait awhile. He threw this party for some kind of special announcement he has to make. I still got a bet with Erik that you would win if you and Drac ever got into a battle to the death. I’ll be hoping to collect that bet from Erik. Good luck!” Tep then shuffles off back to where he sitting. Erik bet against you? Fucking little depressed shit! You’re going to have a little talk with him after all this. You put your back against the wall, watching everyone while waiting for Dracula to arrive. An hour passes and you’re fucking sick of waiting, you don’t feel like waiting for him to make “an entrance”. You’re here to commit major mayhem on him, not listen to anything he has to say. While you’re surveying the place, you see a disheveled man peek out from a corner across the room and then slink back. That was Renfield, you’d know Fagula’s sycophantic bitch boy anywhere. > You memories (Renfield) The Manservant: Renfield Dracula has had a wide variety of lovers, and it’s well known he doesn’t limit himself to just women. However NOBODY (Gay or straight) could figure out what the hell he was doing with Renfield. Vampires being the vain, shallow and arrogant types they are, tend to only pick the “beautiful” people to have sex with. Indeed that’s the whole reason to be eternally youthful in the first place. Renfield didn’t fit into that category…ever. He wasn’t even a beautiful person on the inside. While everyone knows about his bug eating, that’s probably the least disgusting thing he’s ever eaten. Drac has always been a bit of a perverse individual, so he probably first fucked the dirty asylum patient just for kicks and to have a story to tell. Little did even Drac know that that was the kindest act that had ever been done to Renfield, who broke out of that asylum the very next day to track down Dracula and profess his undying love and loyalty to him. His willingness to completely debase himself in everyway imaginable for Drac, is probably one of the reasons why Drac kept him around. Drac always eventually gets bored of his “long term” lovers and begins to act dismissively and abusively to them and eventually no matter how much they were in love with him, they realize that they were just another notch on his fangs and they bitterly leave. Renfield has NEVER left, he routinely has endured all manner of abuse by Drac for years and he still comes back for more, it’s why he ultimately made Renfield into Ghoul to serve him forever. (Another oddity for Drac, since he never creates Ghouls, he prefers “disposable” humans or fawning fellow vampires. Renfield is the only Ghoul, Drac has ever created) Ghouls are considered low in Vampire society. They have some of a Vampire’s power, but at root they’re basically human servants who weren’t considered good enough to be turned into a Vampire. Also while they gain Vampire longevity, they don’t gain the eternal youth, and eventually rot to the point that they look more like zombies. They’re usually treated worse than human servants, since human servants still have “potential”. They’re typically are a miserable bunch who have a lot of anti-social personal habits while they continue to serve their thankless Vampire masters and resentful of the human servants. Renfield’s life didn’t really change much at all.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>“So you had me in mind eh? Well that proves it. You think I’m a joke because that’s how you wrote the character.” “What? No! I just…” “I see your time with that bloodsucker was well spent. Learning how to exploit and leech right? Look maybe you can pull this shit with those puppies over there, but I ain’t fucking one! I don’t need the money that badly. I’ll go fucking live my twilight years in the forest and DIE there as nature probably intended. I don’t need this shit.” As you turn to leave, Mary shouts at you. “Yeah, that’s right go on leave Mr. Lone Wolf! You’ll fucking die alone, you stubborn bastard! I tried to help you! Erik tried to help you and you don’t appreciate any of it! That’s why none of your children speak to you and…” You run back over to her and slam her into the wall. You stare at her face to face as she struggles to get free. She’s strong, but you manage to keep her pinned. She really pissed you off and you were already pissed off to begin with. “Fuck you, and fuck Erik! You two don’t know shit about me, never did. I’m through with the pair of you! In fact I think I’ll be taking something with me since you’re so worried about me being alone…” You release Mary and go over to the wolflings who look a little worried that you’re going to cause harm to them. Many of them cast their eyes downward. “Hey, you want to be REALLY tough? You want to really raise some hell? Come with me. If you want to stay under the thumb of this patchwork dead bitch and be exploited and mocked, stay here. Your statement alone convinces all of them. They all follow you, even the one you made an example of. Mary attempts to call everyone back, but it’s useless, you’ve taken control of the pack and they’ll do what you want now. And right now you want to get into a fight. You think about all the people and creatures that wronged you in some way and only two of them keep coming to mind consistently. One is that fucking Dr. Victor Frankenstein. If it wasn’t for him, Frankie and Mary wouldn’t have been created in the first place which also means you wouldn’t have gotten yourself into trouble all those years ago. You wouldn’t have had to put up with his “children” taking jobs away from you. Not to mention he sued you once. But the one who you REALLY despise, is that bisexual bloodsucker. Fucking Dracula or Vlad, or whatever the hell he’s calling himself these days. The disgust you have for him and the reasons are too numerous to list here. > You memories (Victor) The Mad Scientist: Dr. Victor Frankenstein You don’t strictly have anything against humans. You’ve even been known to get along with a few of them. Victor doesn’t fall into that category though. His “creations” caused much trouble for you, but you had problems with him even before then. Victor was the typical mad scientist type looking to shock and take the world by storm through weird experiments. He was always jealous of Dr. Moreau who managed to buy an entire island and create a small colony of “man-animals”. Victor wanted that same status, so he tried to do the same thing, but the problem was, he wasn’t as skilled of a doctor. Victor’s feud with Moreau and his petty human dreams would’ve gone unnoticed at this point had he not tried to perform an experiment on YOU. He invited you over to his place once for an idea of a new movie. After eating a big dinner of mutton, veal, and beef (No pork though, you don’t dig on swine) you promptly passed out from all those products being heavily drugged. When you woke up he was sticking needles into you and had you strapped to a table. He claimed he wasn’t going to do anything except some tests, but you highly doubted that since he also had scalpels nearby. He figured he could successfully duplicate Moreau’s experiments by using your DNA or something. You didn’t let him get that far though. The good doctor forgot how strong you were and you easily broke the straps with minimal effort on your part. Your revenge was quick and terrible. In fact you killed him…that is if his assistant Igor (Who had later come home to find his master lying on the floor with his throat ripped open and his arm ripped off) hadn’t got his heart started again with a major jolt of electricity and sewed him back together. Needless to say he wasn’t the really the same after that, but Igor’s “quick thinking” lead Victor to the idea of his first creation Frankie, then later Mary. In fact those two were probably his way of attempting to get back at you for killing him and it probably worked to a certain degree. Of course you weren’t the one who had to piss and shit into a bag for the rest of his life.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>“So you had me in mind eh? Well that proves it. You think I’m a joke because that’s how you wrote the character.” “What? No! I just…” “I see your time with that bloodsucker was well spent. Learning how to exploit and leech right? Look maybe you can pull this shit with those puppies over there, but I ain’t fucking one! I don’t need the money that badly. I’ll go fucking live my twilight years in the forest and DIE there as nature probably intended. I don’t need this shit.” As you turn to leave, Mary shouts at you. “Yeah, that’s right go on leave Mr. Lone Wolf! You’ll fucking die alone, you stubborn bastard! I tried to help you! Erik tried to help you and you don’t appreciate any of it! That’s why none of your children speak to you and…” You run back over to her and slam her into the wall. You stare at her face to face as she struggles to get free. She’s strong, but you manage to keep her pinned. She really pissed you off and you were already pissed off to begin with. “Fuck you, and fuck Erik! You two don’t know shit about me, never did. I’m through with the pair of you! In fact I think I’ll be taking something with me since you’re so worried about me being alone…” You release Mary and go over to the wolflings who look a little worried that you’re going to cause harm to them. Many of them cast their eyes downward. “Hey, you want to be REALLY tough? You want to really raise some hell? Come with me. If you want to stay under the thumb of this patchwork dead bitch and be exploited and mocked, stay here. Your statement alone convinces all of them. They all follow you, even the one you made an example of. Mary attempts to call everyone back, but it’s useless, you’ve taken control of the pack and they’ll do what you want now. And right now you want to get into a fight. You think about all the people and creatures that wronged you in some way and only two of them keep coming to mind consistently. One is that fucking Dr. Victor Frankenstein. If it wasn’t for him, Frankie and Mary wouldn’t have been created in the first place which also means you wouldn’t have gotten yourself into trouble all those years ago. You wouldn’t have had to put up with his “children” taking jobs away from you. Not to mention he sued you once. But the one who you REALLY despise, is that bisexual bloodsucker. Fucking Dracula or Vlad, or whatever the hell he’s calling himself these days. The disgust you have for him and the reasons are too numerous to list here. > You memories (Vlad) The Vampire: Vlad III AKA Vlad the Impaler AKA Dracula AKA… You’ve got more interesting names to call him though. “Fagula” comes to mind. All those movies nowadays that they make about how vampires and werewolves can’t get along were no doubt inspired by you and the bisexual bloodsucker. Yeah that always pissed you off. He was always considered a “ladies man” and yet he was buttfucking his sycophantic manservant Renfield on a regular basis. Fucking pretty boy got all the best looking women throwing themselves at him, while he was getting some massive man meat in his elitist aristocratic undead ass on the side. Blood wasn’t the only thing he was sucking on. That pretty boy also got all the best roles; got all the fame, got everything better and he didn’t deserve any of it. He came from fucking money. He was goddamn royalty. He was all those things that humans admire and strive for, looks, money, power, famous, and eternal youth. You didn’t really stand a chance in terms of popularity. Here you were a dirty ruthless “animal” that ripped people apart, while HE was Mr. suave and sexy that seduced his victims. Making death erotic rather than violent. In short, humans saw him and saw what they wanted to be. While they saw you, and saw what they were. Its one of the reasons why you have a big dislike for the undead. They aren’t natural. They don’t have that primal instinct that all living creatures have on some level. Humans and Werewolves both have it. Even all the Alien creatures you’ve had rare encounters with have a primal instinct due to the evolution that existed on their home worlds. The Undead don’t. They’re without emotion. No matter how much they try to mimic it. Any emotion they have is only due to their remembrance of how they reacted to events in their former lives. They don’t BREED naturally. Vampires are just fucking overgrown parasites and leeches in your superior opinion. All they do is try to exploit, hide and lie. And most idiotic humans fall for it. Now there’s a whole sub-culture of wannabe Vampires out there. Nobody wants to be a werewolf though. (Granted you’d probably hate a wannabe werewolf, but that’s not the point.) It’s not “sexy” enough. It’s not “dark and mysterious” enough, basically it’s not GAY enough. But being a Vampire sure is gay enough though, so let those stupid ass human wannabes go ahead and pretend and worship Vampires. They always find out just how much their “Masters” truly value them and it’s normally as food and at best a “pet”. Werewolves don’t lie. If they’re going to kill you, they’ll be up front immediately, they won’t string you along. At least you’ve always been that way. Fagula just represents everything you hate about his kind. All of which makes you wonder: Where the hell are the Van Helsings of the world, nowadays?<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>“Alright I’ll take the job, just tell me where its at.” You say. After Erik gives you the information, you ride your Harley to the studio. When you arrive on the set, you see a bunch of snot nosed wolflings hanging around trying to look “tough”. Some of them are in human form, but you can smell them for who they truly are though. These cubs today, you swear they would’ve never lasted back in the old days. All flash and nothing to back it up. (Though you don’t mind looking at the young females that are there) That’s why they hang out in packs. You never did that even when you were young. You were always a lone wolf. “Hey who’s the fossil?” one of them asks. “Hey Grandpa, the remake of Old Yellow is next door!” This causes a howl of laughter from all of them, until you confront the one who said it. Probably the leader no doubt. Not even in wolf form. Pathetic. “I’m going to give you time to transform into a more adequate fighting form before I neuter you.” You calmly explain. “You? You’re like 300 years old! I could take…” Can’t say you didn’t give him a chance. You immediately pounce on him, knocking him down while clamping your jaws on his face and digging your fangs in. “HOLY SHIT DUDE!” one of them shouts. “Oh my god he’s killing him!” a female screams. “Get him off of him, get him off of him!” While them all attempt to pull you off of their leader you hear a familiar voice that gets your attention. “Well, I see Erik passed my script over to you, good. I’m also glad to see you’re still as anti-social as usual Wolf.” Mary says as you finally get off of your misguided heckler and approach her. She still looks the same, though she looks a lot better now that she got rid of that hair style she used to have and dyed it blonde. “Just re-establishing the proper hierarchy, nothing more.” “Hmm, always the Alpha Male, that was what I always loved about you. So primal. Maybe later I can dress in a little red cloak and we can reenact a fairy tale.” “Some fairy tale, as I remember you loved a lot of beings.” “Hey I can’t help who I am. I was created this way.” “Just like Frankie eh?” “Don’t you compare me to that sicko! Yes we are controlled by our genetics to a certain degree, but as you damn well know I rose above them! I made my own identity. I’m a successful director and writer now, so what if I have a healthy sexual appetite? There’s nothing wrong with that, I’m sure you’d agree given all the beings you had your way with before, after and DURING your marriage!” “Look never mind all that. I got a real problem with this film.” You say side stepping her correct accusation. “What’s wrong with it?” “What’s wrong with it? Are you kidding me? It sucks! It makes a mockery of werewolves! You even named one of them fucking Benji!” “Well comedy is popular now. Plus children like monsters just as long as they aren’t too scary, so I was hoping to make it a family film.” “ARRGH! I don’t DO family films! This is insulting and demeaning!” “How? Come on Wolf. In most horror movies you’ve made you always got killed in the end by a human, how was that any less demeaning?” “Because at least I was portrayed as feared monster that killed a bunch of people! I can play ball with the humans and their idealistic notion of good always having to overcome evil and all that…but THIS! This makes me into a fucking joke! I can’t even believe you of all people wrote this…no wait I can. You fucking undead don’t have any consideration for anyone, but yourselves.” “You know I’m technically not even undead, I’m created from several dead bodies. I’m more of a golem.” Mary attempts to correct you. “Who gives a shit, you’re still basically a walking corpse, and your flesh is dead. You’re Undead in my book.” “You know for someone who hasn’t been able to find a job in months and is basically just rotting away in his little cabin, you’d think that you’d be a little more appreciative. I wrote this with you in mind you hairy bigoted asshole!” You don’t know whether to take that as an insult or as an attempt for her to try to make amends for the past. > You continue to talk with Mary Eh, you let it slide this once, Mary can’t really help being so ignorant of a Werewolf’s pride, she’s just a fucking patchwork of corpse parts, besides you need the money from this job, and who knows, maybe you can jump start your career again… But there’s still no way you’re going to play in this movie the way it is! Time to turn on that charm. “Mary, look I know you mean well and all, but come on, you can’t seriously expect me to play this character! It’s insulting! Make it a comedy if you must, but make a dark one at least, not some family shit. Maybe I’m some fucking relic of the past trying to hold on to days gone by, but just about all I got left in this shitty world is my balls and my pride and I’m not losing either of them!” Mary stares at you a bit, then she addresses the wolfings. “Alright you guys that’s a wrap for today! I’ll call you back when I need you, there’s going to be some script rewrites, and before someone bites my head off, don’t worry nobody’s lost their jobs.” After the set is completely clear, Mary addresses you and strokes your facial fur. “That was a very passionate little speech you just gave, and almost halfway civilized for you. I especially liked the part about your balls.” At this point she gently caresses the twins with her other hand. “Mmm yes, I don’t think I’d like you to lose those either, or THIS!” At this point Mary grabs your big fully erect dick. “How about you and I discuss those script changes now, Wolfie?” “Alright, but its going to be hard for you to talk with your mouth full…” Four hours later, you and Mary have expended your sexual energy and are in a more talkative mood. “…and that’s how I think the movie should go.” You finish explaining. “Actually that’s not a bad idea; I’ll certainly incorporate some of the changes you suggested. See, and that’s why you’ll always hold a place in my heart, Wolfie.” Mary says lying next to you. “Well, the patchwork heart that was given to you anyways Mary.” “Damn Wolf, you were doing so well there for awhile and you revert right back to asshole mode.” “It’s a gift.” “Hmm, it’s also why you’re all alone.” “So what? I’ve always been a loner.” “And you’re happy living like that?” “Its worked pretty well so far, don’t see any reason to change now.” “Oh come on, surely you’d like someone around as opposed to the fast ass girls I hear you still bed every now and then.” “What? You mean like a wife? Yeah right! Tried that remember, you were part of the reason why I ultimately got divorced…ah fuck it. I was having problems with that bitch and fucking around on her before we started seeing each other. Nobody’s fault except my own for being stupid enough for getting married in the first place.” “Well maybe you just made the wrong choice in woman…” “No, I didn’t. I made the wrong choice period. I wasn’t meant to be married, and it’s not the idea of just fucking one female forever, I just value my freedom too much.” “Well I don’t see how you can be happy without someone special in your life.” “Jesus fuckin’ Christ, Mary what is with you getting all into my fucking business? What about you? You ain’t married and you seem to be doing alright! …Or are you trying to tell me something?” Mary looks at you with a solemn expression on her face and touches your hand. “Wolf, things are different for me now. I spent years searching and while I’ve had lots of exciting and pleasant experiences in my life, but I’ve never felt as close to someone as I have during our time together. I might be made up of parts, but I’ve always felt a piece was missing when I wasn’t with you. No matter where I was, you were always in my mind.” “Oh so that’s what this is huh? You’re feeling that something is missing in your existence so you figure you can just waltz back into ol’ Wolf’s life because hey he doesn’t have anything going on and pick back up where we left off? Fuck that, I can say you literally and figuratively screwed the pooch on that one, baby. You ended up running off with that half a fag Dracula while I was getting all my shit taken away from me by my bitch ex-wife and sued by your goddamn no talent father!” you say and move your hand away. “It was a confusing time for me Wolf! You know how I was, I had all these hormones injected into me and I was initially created for the sole purpose of being a sex toy! Yes, I managed to overcome, but I couldn’t fight all of my initial feelings, I was also so curious about everything and anything! Dracula was a well traveled person and yes he WAS charming, I learned a lot while I was with him. I saw the world and more. You think I wanted to leave you? I loved you! Yes and I know you find that hard to believe that something Undead is capable of love, but I LOVED you!” “Oh yeah, well if you loved me so fucking much, why the fuck did you leave?” “Because I had to! You were stuck in your own little world, never wanting to mix with anyone, never wanting to do anything that didn’t interest you, I’m a social being! I need to be around people. I don’t know, maybe its because I was originally made to just stay locked in that fucking castle for that sicko Frankie and I spent so much time alone that I never wanted to be alone again. If stayed with you EVEN after your divorce and mine, I would’ve been trading a neglective mate, for an overly possessive one. Come on Wolf I know you. You would’ve been alienating everyone who looked at me with a hint of attraction. I had to let you go so I could be independent and find myself.” “Yeah, yeah, you’re the fucking victim as always right Mary? Tell someone who gives a shit. Fuck this, I’m not working on this movie with you, I don’t care what rewrites you do. I’m out.” You storm off, but as always Mary gets the last word. “I can’t be a victim, because you’ve already taken that job! You carry a chip on your shoulder the size of Gibraltar and act like the goddamn World owes you something, well it doesn’t! You can’t let shit go! It’s why you’re all by yourself! Okay Wolf, fuck me then, I was no good fucking cheating bitch that did you wrong. Fine. You talk to any of your children lately? At least the ones you know about? You got fucking sons and daughters Wolf and you’ve alienated ALL of them with your inflexibility and assholiness! Even Lawrence, who you once were so proud of remember? He was following in your footsteps remember? But what happened? He disappointed you by following his heart instead of YOUR bigotry!” The name “Lawrence” is one you haven’t heard in a long time and one you hoped you’d never hear again. You have to stop yourself from seriously damaging Mary for even mentioning him. Instead you just slowly turn around and attempt to calm yourself. “Mary, you will NOT fucking utter that name again. He’s fucking dead to me. You got that? He’s as fucking dead as your fucking flesh! He’s not a son, he’s not a relative, he’s not a friend!” “Yeah, I knew you’d say something like that, I told LAWRENCE that when we talked the last time and it’s so sad because he’s always just wanted your approval.” What the hell? What is Mary doing talking to your fucking no good disappointment of a son who dishonored the family by marrying Irena…one of the Cat People. > You question Mary Your interest is overriding your loathing; you decide to question Mary further. “What the fuck are you doing talking to Lawrence?” “It’s not like he’s a complete stranger to me you know, we did meet several times on the set when you and I were seeing each other. We got along remember?” “Yeah, I remember, so what, were you fucking him too at the time?” “(Sigh) No Wolf, though I wouldn’t have minded that since he was less of an asshole and a more open minded sort than you! In fact had he not been so in love with Irena, I might’ve tried, but I saw theirs was a true love and I wasn’t going to break that up…” “Hold just a goddamn minute! He told YOU about Irena before me?! You were keeping secrets from me?!” “No! In fact I was the one who told him to tell you about Irena because I knew you’d find out eventually, though he should’ve picked a better time than in the middle of your divorce to do it. I didn’t tell you because it wasn’t my place and it was between you and him. He wanted to keep it secret since he was so afraid that you’d be disappointed in him…” ”Hah! Disappointment isn’t a strong enough word!” “Yeah, I guess that was a mistake on my part. I figured you’d be able to look past it and I told him you would because he was your son and you were so proud of him…huh. I see your mind hasn’t changed on the subject though.” “Never will either, now that was fucking years ago what the hell are you doing still talking to him?” “Wolf, just because I wasn’t with you, doesn’t mean I couldn’t talk to Lawrence! Maybe by staying in contact with him, I felt like I was still in contact with you. Goddammit Wolf, I’m a free woman, I can talk to who I want! Besides, you disowned him anyway, what do you care?! I always kept in contact with Lawrence AND Irena. I even see them both every now and then…I bet I know more about Lawrence now than you do…hell I bet you don’t even know they have children! You got MORE grandchildren you don’t even know about!” You stand in utter shock; you didn’t even know such a pairing would produce off spring. You didn’t really want to think about it really. “He’s got children?” you say dumbfounded. “Yeah a few of them, they’re a bit funny looking, but they’re very cute! (Sigh) I always wished I was able to have children…” Mary says wistfully. “You know Wolf you really should see Lawrence. It would mean so much to him.” You don’t know, maybe all this information has bewildered you a bit, maybe Mary laid down the lovin’ really good, maybe you’re getting soft in your old age or maybe, just MAYBE you do want to see Lawrence. “…Alright…alright Mary, I’ll go see him, but I’m not promising anything!” Mary smiles and hugs you. “You will?” “Yeah, but if his cat bitch starts anything, I’m outta there!” “Oh Irena’s nice! You should get to know her too! She isn’t at all like you think Cat People are! I’ll go get ready!” “What?! You’re coming too?” “Of course, someone’s gotta keep you on a leash so you don’t end up destroying something, besides I know where they live and you don’t, so I’m going with you.” Soon you and Mary get on your Harley and are on your way. Mary tells you how to get your son’s house. You didn’t even realize he lived in the same state. You park your bike outside a fairly nice looking house. Your son’s been doing something right. You take a deep breath when you get to the door and stand there for a few seconds preparing yourself, and then ring the bell. The door opens almost immediately and a feline face stands before you, this must be Irena. It’s obvious she recognizes you, but predictably she doesn’t look happy to see you. “You? What do you want?” she demands, while Mary looks at you a little concerned about what you’re going to say. > You ask for Lawrence “Look Irena, I’m not here to fight, I just want to see Lawrence.” Speaking of whom, Lawrence arrives at the door; he’s very surprised to see you. “Dad?! What’re you doing here?” “I don’t really know, you can thank Mary here for even convincing me though… look we need to talk in private, I can’t be doing this shit in front of everyone.” Lawrence nods understanding completely and invites everyone in, Mary and Irena go off together while you and your son enter a study of some sort, where you have a fairly long talk. You find out that he runs his own security business, and is his own boss, which is something you can certainly respect. He excitedly tells about everything that’s occurred in his life since you “disowned” him. Its weird, he doesn’t seem to hold any kind of grudge or anything towards you. He’s just so happy you’re here. Must be a trait he picked up from his human mother’s side, because you know damn well he didn’t inherit it from you. If the roles were reversed, you’re certain you would’ve slammed the door in your own face. For once you’re glad Lawrence isn’t completely like you. You also realize that you have been unreasonable for all these years. You still don’t approve of your son’s choice in mates, but like Mary said, you need to get over it. Just then a couple of little furballs come wandering into the room, they look like Wolf cubs, but the unmistakable feline features are there. They look at you with wide eyes. “Hey, Tom and Isis. Come closer, I want you to meet someone.” Lawrence says. “Who’s that Daddy?” Tom asks. “That’s your grandfather.” Lawrence says picking one up. “Dad you’ve never even seen your own grandchildren. You want to hold them?” “Uh…erm…I don’t think we’re quite there yet Lawrence.” You say “Okay, I understand…hey! We’re having dinner soon, you should stay!” “I dunno it might be weird.” “Nonsense! Look if you think you’re going to get into it with Irena, I can tell you it won’t happen if you don’t say anything to her. She’ll keep quiet if you do. I hope you can be a little civil, I know it sucks when I have to be civilized to clients for my job, but you know how it is.” “Yeah I know how it is. Alright I can do it. Hell, I’ve come this far. This is a whole new experience for me. I hope just hope you’ve got some good food.” “Of course! We’re not vegetarians here you know!” “Well that’s good, or else I would’ve had to disown you again!” you badly joke. There’s a period of silence, and you think you might’ve stepped over the line, however Lawrence begins to laugh. “Disown me? If I become a vegetarian, just put a fucking silver bullet in my head! Ha ha!” You laugh too, and breathe a sigh of relief. You remind yourself that you’ll have to do a better job of your words at the dinner table! Dinner is a pleasant affair; Irena certainly is an excellent cook. In fact it looks like she’s an excellent housewife in general. You’ve noticed the house is spotless. She might be a house cat, but she’s certainly not a lazy one. Maybe there are exceptions to Cat People. She doesn’t talk to you, but she doesn’t start anything either. Everyone eats except Mary who doesn’t require it, but she looks happy that you’re here making an effort to get along with everyone. You can’t be sure, but you get the impression that she did this for herself as much as she did for you. Mary’s own “family” is pretty fucked up and she’s unable to have children of her own. Maybe in some ways she hoped to create a “surrogate” family that she could be apart of instead and all that was missing was you. The doorbell rings. “Who could that be?” Lawrence asks Irena. “I don’t know, I’ll go check.” Irena gets up to answer the door and you can hear a loud voice in the next room. “Sis! It’s so good to see you! How about a hug for your brother?” You hear some muttering and whispering, but can’t quite make it out. A few seconds later, another Irena and another Cat Person enters the room. You don’t like him. He’s fat and scruffy. He looks like scum and smells like scum. All your previous good feelings immediately start to dissipate. Mary looks over at you. “Uncle Oliver!” the furballs say in unison. “Hey, kids! It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you! I’ll be staying here for awhile so we’ll have lots of time to play!” You don’t like him. “Hey Lawrence…I hope you’ve been taking good care of my sister.” He says with almost a hint of distain. You really don’t like him. “Who’s this couple?” he asks when noticing you and Mary. He gives you an unmistakable hostile stare. You hate him. You immediately whisper to Mary. “Who the fuck is this shithead?” “Its Irena’s brother, Oliver. I don’t know too much about him, this the first time I’ve met him in person.” > You leave There’s a limit to your tolerance and you’ve just reached it. This lowlife is going to piss you off severely. You better just leave now, before you turn this place into a warzone. “Well, I’d like to stay, but me and Mary have a lot of work to do on a new movie.” “We do?” “Yes! Remember all those rewrites?” you give her hand a squeeze and look at her while moving your head slightly in the direction of Oliver. She gets the hint. “Oh yeah, we have to go.” “Oh, well okay. I hope you’ll come by again soon though!” Lawrence says. As you and Mary head towards the door, you turn back around and look at the house, look at his wife, look at his children and then look at that other… cat person. You can only change so much. You can’t see yourself being “part of the family” This is your son’s life not yours. “I’m sure we’ll see each other again someday.” You say. Lawrence looks a little disappointed, but understands. “Yeah, I’m sure we’ll have a good time then.” He replies. “Goodbye and good luck son.” You and Mary get on your bike, wave goodbye and zoom off. During the ride you feel like you should say something to Mary, who you think is probably just as disappointed as your son was. “I’m sorry Mary, I just can’t change that much.” “I know. I suppose it was too big of a step. You did really make an effort though, and you at least reconciled with Lawrence.” “Hey I reconciled with you too…so are we like moving in together or should we still keep our own places?” “Excuse me? What’s all this? Are you suggesting that we should get back together?” “Well you were the one who brought it up first, and yeah you were right about a lot of stuff. I probably should have someone special in my life at my age. And since you’re about the only one who’ll put up with me on a long term basis, you’re the best candidate.” “Wow, Wolf with words like that, you REALLY make a girl feel special!” “You know I like everything else about you. I don’t need to say it.” “Hmm, what makes you think I still want to be with you?” “Oh please, you know you want this. Besides your hands are supposed to be around my waist, not fondling my crotch every five minutes.” Mary laughs at your remark and kisses you on the cheek. She rests her head on the back of your shoulder and just holds you normally for the rest of the trip, giving you a bit of a hugging squeeze every now and then. Sometimes a little change isn’t always a bad thing.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>“Look Irena, I’m not here to fight, I just want to see Lawrence.” Speaking of whom, Lawrence arrives at the door; he’s very surprised to see you. “Dad?! What’re you doing here?” “I don’t really know, you can thank Mary here for even convincing me though… look we need to talk in private, I can’t be doing this shit in front of everyone.” Lawrence nods understanding completely and invites everyone in, Mary and Irena go off together while you and your son enter a study of some sort, where you have a fairly long talk. You find out that he runs his own security business, and is his own boss, which is something you can certainly respect. He excitedly tells about everything that’s occurred in his life since you “disowned” him. Its weird, he doesn’t seem to hold any kind of grudge or anything towards you. He’s just so happy you’re here. Must be a trait he picked up from his human mother’s side, because you know damn well he didn’t inherit it from you. If the roles were reversed, you’re certain you would’ve slammed the door in your own face. For once you’re glad Lawrence isn’t completely like you. You also realize that you have been unreasonable for all these years. You still don’t approve of your son’s choice in mates, but like Mary said, you need to get over it. Just then a couple of little furballs come wandering into the room, they look like Wolf cubs, but the unmistakable feline features are there. They look at you with wide eyes. “Hey, Tom and Isis. Come closer, I want you to meet someone.” Lawrence says. “Who’s that Daddy?” Tom asks. “That’s your grandfather.” Lawrence says picking one up. “Dad you’ve never even seen your own grandchildren. You want to hold them?” “Uh…erm…I don’t think we’re quite there yet Lawrence.” You say “Okay, I understand…hey! We’re having dinner soon, you should stay!” “I dunno it might be weird.” “Nonsense! Look if you think you’re going to get into it with Irena, I can tell you it won’t happen if you don’t say anything to her. She’ll keep quiet if you do. I hope you can be a little civil, I know it sucks when I have to be civilized to clients for my job, but you know how it is.” “Yeah I know how it is. Alright I can do it. Hell, I’ve come this far. This is a whole new experience for me. I hope just hope you’ve got some good food.” “Of course! We’re not vegetarians here you know!” “Well that’s good, or else I would’ve had to disown you again!” you badly joke. There’s a period of silence, and you think you might’ve stepped over the line, however Lawrence begins to laugh. “Disown me? If I become a vegetarian, just put a fucking silver bullet in my head! Ha ha!” You laugh too, and breathe a sigh of relief. You remind yourself that you’ll have to do a better job of your words at the dinner table! Dinner is a pleasant affair; Irena certainly is an excellent cook. In fact it looks like she’s an excellent housewife in general. You’ve noticed the house is spotless. She might be a house cat, but she’s certainly not a lazy one. Maybe there are exceptions to Cat People. She doesn’t talk to you, but she doesn’t start anything either. Everyone eats except Mary who doesn’t require it, but she looks happy that you’re here making an effort to get along with everyone. You can’t be sure, but you get the impression that she did this for herself as much as she did for you. Mary’s own “family” is pretty fucked up and she’s unable to have children of her own. Maybe in some ways she hoped to create a “surrogate” family that she could be apart of instead and all that was missing was you. The doorbell rings. “Who could that be?” Lawrence asks Irena. “I don’t know, I’ll go check.” Irena gets up to answer the door and you can hear a loud voice in the next room. “Sis! It’s so good to see you! How about a hug for your brother?” You hear some muttering and whispering, but can’t quite make it out. A few seconds later, another Irena and another Cat Person enters the room. You don’t like him. He’s fat and scruffy. He looks like scum and smells like scum. All your previous good feelings immediately start to dissipate. Mary looks over at you. “Uncle Oliver!” the furballs say in unison. “Hey, kids! It’s been a long time since I’ve seen you! I’ll be staying here for awhile so we’ll have lots of time to play!” You don’t like him. “Hey Lawrence…I hope you’ve been taking good care of my sister.” He says with almost a hint of distain. You really don’t like him. “Who’s this couple?” he asks when noticing you and Mary. He gives you an unmistakable hostile stare. You hate him. You immediately whisper to Mary. “Who the fuck is this shithead?” “Its Irena’s brother, Oliver. I don’t know too much about him, this the first time I’ve met him in person.” > You stick around You’ve just reconciled with your son you’re not leaving now, but you’re still on heightened state of agitation. “This is my father Wolf, and his…girlfriend Mary.” Lawrence says unsure of if that’s actually the case. You and Mary look at each other, shrug and nod silently in agreement that it is. “Wow, Lawrence, your family doesn’t keep to your own kind. Your Dad’s fucking a corpse and you’re fucking my sister. Wait, you’re also part human aren’t you? Sheesh, you Werewolves will fuck anything that isn’t another Werewolf! Can’t say I blame you though! HAR HAR HAR (BURP!) I’m kidding! I’m kidding of course. Relax. Hey Irena bring your pretty little tail over here and bring me some food too!” Okay you are REALLY close to losing it. Mary senses this and whispers to you to just calm down. It’s very difficult though. Meanwhile you see Irena bring Oliver some food, Lawrence isn’t paying attention as he’s talking to his children, but you notice Oliver is lecherously looking at Irena the whole time. Then he begins stuffing his bloated face when Lawrence turns back around. “Yeah, I’ll be staying here awhile Lawrence; I had a couple of job set backs. Might be awhile before I can find another one. Irena said it was okay.” Oliver says while food hangs from his mouth. You knew it. You goddamn well knew it. Typical fucking Cat Person. Fucking sponge. “Sure Oliver, you’re family after all, your home is my home.” “Ah, you have my thanks Lawrence. My sister is so lucky to have such a highly motivated well to do man such as yourself. Don’t know why our family disapproved so much of you, but hey at least I was at the wedding, right Irena? There to give you away, right Irena?” “Um, yes Oliver.” Irena says nervously and quickly goes back into the kitchen. Something is seriously WRONG here. You’ve hung around with some shady characters and known several creepy ones, and Oliver is just oozing with both traits. Even his sister doesn’t seem to like him; she seems more scared of him than anything. Like an abuse victim. You don’t understand why Lawrence is letting him talk like that. You ask to see Lawrence in the next room privately. “What’s up Dad?” he asks. “What’s up with you? Why are you letting Oliver talk shit like that?” “What Oliver? He’s harmless. That’s just how he is. Don’t pay any attention.” “Yeah well I’m having a very hard time doing that. Look fuck all my personal feelings about what you think of your relationship with Irena, but if that’s the woman you love, then you need to put Oliver in his place right now. I know damn well you HAD to inherit that trait from me.” “Dad I know your answer to everything is to kick everyone’s ass that looks at you sideways, but sometimes you have to let things go. Besides Oliver’s the only family member on EITHER side who supported our wedding you know. He even paid for it. He might make comments every now and then, but I know he’s supportive of us.” “Lawrence, I know about letting things go, I’ve been doing it all damn night, but I’m telling you I can sense that he’s up to no fucking good. He’s been staring at his sister’s tits and ass since he got here! It’s like he’s a psychotic stalker ex-boyfriend. I noticed Irena acting nervous around him, I’m telling you something weird went on between them and I don’t think it was consensual.” “Dad! You know what the fuck you’re saying?” “Hell yes I know what the fuck I’m saying. I’m saying he’s a fucking sicko and a moocher to boot. Doesn’t have a job and it’ll be awhile? You know what that translates into? A permanent squatter.” “Geez Dad, not all Cat People are decadent lazy inbreeders.” “Maybe not, but I’m saying HE is!” “I don’t think he is. Irena’s never told me that he’s ever done anything to her and I’m sure she would’ve, and as for the job thing, he’s just been having a string of bad luck. I mean come on; you should be able to identify with how hard the job market is right now. Look Dad, I hope you can put your bigotry aside, because I wanted you to stay awhile. Even stay here for the night.” > You leave “Lawrence I can’t put up with this, maybe you can and this is your life, but this ain’t me. If you ever want to see me, that’s fine, but I can’t deal with this aspect of your life.” You say and go back into the dining room. “Mary come on let’s go we gotta work on that movie thing.” ‘We’re leaving?” “Yeah, come on!” “Alright calm down!” When Lawrence enters the room, Oliver feels the need to make remarks again. “Hey Lawrence your Dad here really bosses around his woman, I hope you didn’t inherit that trait from him. When I gave her away I was hoping it would be to a gentleman, not a barking tyrant.” “Oliver, why the fuck did you give your sister away anyway? Was it because she was so repulsed by your appearance? Or was it because you were too much of a fucking loser to adequately provide for her?” You just set it off in this motherfucker. “What the fuck did you just say, you fucking mangy dog?” “Too complicated for you? Okay. I SAID YOU’RE A FUCKING SICKO INBREEDING DRAIN ON SOCIETY! Just like your whole fucking race! You’ve been ogling your sister all fucking night while shoveling that food in your fat face!” “Fucking racist! You’re a narrow minded racist!” Oliver screams. “Yeah? Well I’d rather be that, then a sick incestuous piece of worthless shit like you.” “Fuck you!” Oliver shouts and throws a fork at you. You dodge it and jump over the table. Oliver’s in poor physical condition and you easily put him in poorer physical condition; that is until Mary, Lawrence and Irena get you off of him. Only Mary is strong enough to hold you back. “Get him out of the house!” Irena shouts as the furballs go running off to hide from the mayhem. “Yeah, stick up for that fat floor rug! Just shut out the past like it didn’t happen, right?” “Dad, stop!” “Wolf, calm down!” Mary says. “Ignoring the problem ain’t gonna make it go away Lawrence. I thought you were smarter and more perceptive than this. I hope you realize soon, for your kids’ sake.” You take your leave, with Mary apologizing quickly to Lawrence and Irena and running after you. Oliver’s fat ass is still unconscious on the floor bleeding profusely. When you get to your bike, Mary is about to say something to you, but you interrupt her before she can start. “Mary don’t even start, because I’m not fucking wrong on this. You fucking saw him and how he was acting, don’t tell me you didn’t think he was a piece of shit pervert too.” Mary looks at you and nods. She can’t help but agree with you. She’d know the signs; after all she was married to that equally depraved fucker, Frankie. “But Wolf, shouldn’t we try to do something else? I mean…” “What else can we do Mary? I already said what I thought and kicked Oliver’s ass. Lawrence and Irena are going to have to take it from there. If I meddle anymore it’s just going to make things worse, if you meddle, it’ll just look like you’re siding with me. Its Lawrence’s family, it’s his life, it’s his choices, he’s gotta be the one to sort it out. Hopefully he makes the right one. Come on Mary let’s get out of here.” Mary hops on the back of your bike and you zoom off. On the trip home Mary rests her head on the back of your shoulder while holding you and giving you a bit of a hugging squeeze every now and then. It’s not really spoken, but it’s apparent you and Mary are back together again, and hopefully Lawrence listens to your warning so you can someday reunite with him again as well.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You’ve just reconciled with your son you’re not leaving now, but you’re still on heightened state of agitation. “This is my father Wolf, and his…girlfriend Mary.” Lawrence says unsure of if that’s actually the case. You and Mary look at each other, shrug and nod silently in agreement that it is. “Wow, Lawrence, your family doesn’t keep to your own kind. Your Dad’s fucking a corpse and you’re fucking my sister. Wait, you’re also part human aren’t you? Sheesh, you Werewolves will fuck anything that isn’t another Werewolf! Can’t say I blame you though! HAR HAR HAR (BURP!) I’m kidding! I’m kidding of course. Relax. Hey Irena bring your pretty little tail over here and bring me some food too!” Okay you are REALLY close to losing it. Mary senses this and whispers to you to just calm down. It’s very difficult though. Meanwhile you see Irena bring Oliver some food, Lawrence isn’t paying attention as he’s talking to his children, but you notice Oliver is lecherously looking at Irena the whole time. Then he begins stuffing his bloated face when Lawrence turns back around. “Yeah, I’ll be staying here awhile Lawrence; I had a couple of job set backs. Might be awhile before I can find another one. Irena said it was okay.” Oliver says while food hangs from his mouth. You knew it. You goddamn well knew it. Typical fucking Cat Person. Fucking sponge. “Sure Oliver, you’re family after all, your home is my home.” “Ah, you have my thanks Lawrence. My sister is so lucky to have such a highly motivated well to do man such as yourself. Don’t know why our family disapproved so much of you, but hey at least I was at the wedding, right Irena? There to give you away, right Irena?” “Um, yes Oliver.” Irena says nervously and quickly goes back into the kitchen. Something is seriously WRONG here. You’ve hung around with some shady characters and known several creepy ones, and Oliver is just oozing with both traits. Even his sister doesn’t seem to like him; she seems more scared of him than anything. Like an abuse victim. You don’t understand why Lawrence is letting him talk like that. You ask to see Lawrence in the next room privately. “What’s up Dad?” he asks. “What’s up with you? Why are you letting Oliver talk shit like that?” “What Oliver? He’s harmless. That’s just how he is. Don’t pay any attention.” “Yeah well I’m having a very hard time doing that. Look fuck all my personal feelings about what you think of your relationship with Irena, but if that’s the woman you love, then you need to put Oliver in his place right now. I know damn well you HAD to inherit that trait from me.” “Dad I know your answer to everything is to kick everyone’s ass that looks at you sideways, but sometimes you have to let things go. Besides Oliver’s the only family member on EITHER side who supported our wedding you know. He even paid for it. He might make comments every now and then, but I know he’s supportive of us.” “Lawrence, I know about letting things go, I’ve been doing it all damn night, but I’m telling you I can sense that he’s up to no fucking good. He’s been staring at his sister’s tits and ass since he got here! It’s like he’s a psychotic stalker ex-boyfriend. I noticed Irena acting nervous around him, I’m telling you something weird went on between them and I don’t think it was consensual.” “Dad! You know what the fuck you’re saying?” “Hell yes I know what the fuck I’m saying. I’m saying he’s a fucking sicko and a moocher to boot. Doesn’t have a job and it’ll be awhile? You know what that translates into? A permanent squatter.” “Geez Dad, not all Cat People are decadent lazy inbreeders.” “Maybe not, but I’m saying HE is!” “I don’t think he is. Irena’s never told me that he’s ever done anything to her and I’m sure she would’ve, and as for the job thing, he’s just been having a string of bad luck. I mean come on; you should be able to identify with how hard the job market is right now. Look Dad, I hope you can put your bigotry aside, because I wanted you to stay awhile. Even stay here for the night.” > You stay for the night You’ve come this far, you might as well go a little further. “Alright…alright…I’ll stay around, but just direct me to your spare bedroom or something because I refuse to be in the same room with Oliver. His mere presence sickens me.” “Very well, just go upstairs turn left and straight ahead. It’s a blue room. I hope you’re in better spirits tomorrow, I want to talk with you some more.” “Yeah, well I hope you heed my warning Lawrence. See ya tomorrow.” You head to the bedroom, which is a fairly large one. You stretch out on the bed thinking about everything that’s happened today. It was going pretty well until fucking Oliver showed up. He just makes you want to rip his guts out and hang him with them until his tongue turns purple and sticks out. You’ve never had to hold in your anger like this before, but you’re trying to change. For the sake of Lawrence you’re trying damn hard to change. An hour passes and Mary enters the room. “So you can’t sleep, or am I correct in assuming you’re just isolating yourself so you don’t kill someone? Lawrence told everyone you were tired, but I knew better. You don’t like Oliver.” “Can you fuckin’ blame me? I mean come on Mary, you fuckin’ saw how he acts and how he is! Tell me you don’t find SOMETHING wrong with the fucker.” “Yeah, I know what you mean, I’ve been down there talking with everyone, and assessing him as well, and he is creepy. Especially with Irena.” “That’s what I tried to tell Lawrence, but he thinks I’m just a bigot.” “Well…you are, but that doesn’t mean you’re wrong.” “I just want to fucking do massive harm to that fucking cat…” ”Whoa, easy there. We don’t actually know anything or have any proof of anything, he could just be harmlessly weird.” “I don’t need proof when I’ve got instinct! Arrgh! Why the hell isn’t Lawrence using his?!” “Calm down, you’re pretty tense, I think you need to work off some of that excess energy. Come on we worry about this tomorrow, for right now let’s continue to discuss those movie rewrites.” Mary seductively hops on your lap and begins to kiss you all over. “Mmm, I was wondering if you still wanted to be with me after what happened back at the studio.” “What you mean that little argument we had? Please, I’ve heard worse from you remember? I know you were just doing a lot of prideful macho posturing, which is kind of sexy actually. Beside I know damn well you want to be with me again, your actions of changing your views on Lawrence have proven that, not to mention your body is telling me right now.” Four hours later, Mary is fast asleep, but you’re still wide awake. This pleasant diversion still hasn’t calmed you down. You slide out of bed to get a drink and go for a walk. On your way to the bathroom, you hear to whispering and mumbling from another bedroom. You listen closely. “You know Isis, you’re growing into a pretty young feline, thank God you take after your beautiful mother.” “Thank you Uncle Oliver, but why’d you wake me up?” “Just to tell you that and to play a game with you. You see me and your mother used to play a game when we were younger, but it was a secret game. We didn’t tell anyone, and you can’t tell anyone either, especially not your Dad.” “Um I don’t like the way you’re rubbing my leg Uncle Oliver...” “But that’s how the game is played, now let me just…” You immediately burst through the door; Oliver’s fat frame is lurching over Isis when he turns his head in your direction. His eyes wide open like a deer caught in the headlights. “YOU’RE DEAD, YOU SICK PIECE OF SHIT!” you bellow and grab Oliver and throw him against the wall. Isis goes running and screaming from the room while you pound Oliver’s face into a bloody pulp. He tries to bat you with his claws, but they don’t even phase you, you’re too angry and you’ve been wanting to do this all fucking night. You throw him out of the room and into the hallway where you kick the hell out of him as he coughs up puke and blood. Mary arrives wondering what’s going on. “WOLF! STOP!” “NO! He was trying to molest Isis! I caught him right in the fucking act! I knew I was fucking right!” you bend down and speak in his ear. “And I’m gonna make sure you don’t ever try that shit on my granddaughter again, you fuck!” You begin shredding his balls and dick into pieces and howl of pain is sounded throughout the house, Tom at this point has woken up, but Mary takes him back to his own room and tells him to stay there. Now you’re lurching over Oliver’s bloody body ready to deliver the killing strike, when Lawrence and Irena arrive from downstairs. They look at you, they look at Oliver, then Irena says something you don’t expect, but the look in her eye doesn’t entirely surprise you. “Do it Wolf.” And you do, you drive your claws deep into his throat effectively decapitating him. After the deed is done, you and Lawrence dump the body (and head) in a nearby woods where nature can take care of it. Lawrence then speaks. “When Isis told us what happened exactly, all I could think about is that I should’ve listened to you. I’m a fucking idiot, and failed you and my children.” “Look nevermind all that now son, what’s important is the problem has been dealt with. YOU, just be on guard more in the future. Remember, you’re the protector of this family, you have to suspect everything and everyone. If something doesn’t feel right, trust your fucking instinct, its never wrong. Let’s get back home, I gotta wash this cat blood off of me, I think he pissed on me too, ugh.” The following day you decide to leave, Lawrence wants you to stick around, but you tell Lawrence he needs to spend time with his family right now, not you. This time he listens to you. You and Mary get on your Harley, while Lawrence, Irena, Isis and Tom all say their good byes to you. “Bye Grandpa!” Isis and Tom say in unison. “Bye you two. Remember, if someone starts trying to do something you don’t like to you, scratch their eyes out!” you reply patting them both on the head. “Thank you Wolf, for what you did…you don’t know how much it means to me…” “Think nothing of it, Irena, but you’re welcome.” “Bye Dad, I do hope we’ll see you again.” “You will.” You start up the cycle and you and Mary zoom off. On the trip home Mary rests her head on the back of your shoulder while holding you and giving you a bit of a hugging squeeze every now and then. “So are we going to actually get to those rewrites when we get back home, or are we going to just fuck our brains out again?” you ask Mary jokingly. “How about we do the latter, I don’t think the movie needs any rewrites now.” ”What?! Dammit I told you I’m not playing that cranky old grandpa part!” “Why not? You do an excellent job of it in real life.” Mary taunts. “Hey don’t joke like that! I got a public image to maintain!” “Ha ha! Don’t worry; we’re still making the changes. Your image of being a distrusting combative asshole will be maintained…and don’t ever change that trait.” Mary says while kissing you on the cheek. “No need to ever worry about that Mary, some things will never change.”<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Your interest is overriding your loathing; you decide to question Mary further. “What the fuck are you doing talking to Lawrence?” “It’s not like he’s a complete stranger to me you know, we did meet several times on the set when you and I were seeing each other. We got along remember?” “Yeah, I remember, so what, were you fucking him too at the time?” “(Sigh) No Wolf, though I wouldn’t have minded that since he was less of an asshole and a more open minded sort than you! In fact had he not been so in love with Irena, I might’ve tried, but I saw theirs was a true love and I wasn’t going to break that up…” “Hold just a goddamn minute! He told YOU about Irena before me?! You were keeping secrets from me?!” “No! In fact I was the one who told him to tell you about Irena because I knew you’d find out eventually, though he should’ve picked a better time than in the middle of your divorce to do it. I didn’t tell you because it wasn’t my place and it was between you and him. He wanted to keep it secret since he was so afraid that you’d be disappointed in him…” ”Hah! Disappointment isn’t a strong enough word!” “Yeah, I guess that was a mistake on my part. I figured you’d be able to look past it and I told him you would because he was your son and you were so proud of him…huh. I see your mind hasn’t changed on the subject though.” “Never will either, now that was fucking years ago what the hell are you doing still talking to him?” “Wolf, just because I wasn’t with you, doesn’t mean I couldn’t talk to Lawrence! Maybe by staying in contact with him, I felt like I was still in contact with you. Goddammit Wolf, I’m a free woman, I can talk to who I want! Besides, you disowned him anyway, what do you care?! I always kept in contact with Lawrence AND Irena. I even see them both every now and then…I bet I know more about Lawrence now than you do…hell I bet you don’t even know they have children! You got MORE grandchildren you don’t even know about!” You stand in utter shock; you didn’t even know such a pairing would produce off spring. You didn’t really want to think about it really. “He’s got children?” you say dumbfounded. “Yeah a few of them, they’re a bit funny looking, but they’re very cute! (Sigh) I always wished I was able to have children…” Mary says wistfully. “You know Wolf you really should see Lawrence. It would mean so much to him.” You don’t know, maybe all this information has bewildered you a bit, maybe Mary laid down the lovin’ really good, maybe you’re getting soft in your old age or maybe, just MAYBE you do want to see Lawrence. “…Alright…alright Mary, I’ll go see him, but I’m not promising anything!” Mary smiles and hugs you. “You will?” “Yeah, but if his cat bitch starts anything, I’m outta there!” “Oh Irena’s nice! You should get to know her too! She isn’t at all like you think Cat People are! I’ll go get ready!” “What?! You’re coming too?” “Of course, someone’s gotta keep you on a leash so you don’t end up destroying something, besides I know where they live and you don’t, so I’m going with you.” Soon you and Mary get on your Harley and are on your way. Mary tells you how to get your son’s house. You didn’t even realize he lived in the same state. You park your bike outside a fairly nice looking house. Your son’s been doing something right. You take a deep breath when you get to the door and stand there for a few seconds preparing yourself, and then ring the bell. The door opens almost immediately and a feline face stands before you, this must be Irena. It’s obvious she recognizes you, but predictably she doesn’t look happy to see you. “You? What do you want?” she demands, while Mary looks at you a little concerned about what you’re going to say. > You be an asshole So much for civility… “Peeyew! It smells like a fucking litter box emanating from the house!” “Wolf! You said you’d be civil!” Mary remarks. “Doesn’t sound like something I’d say.” “Mary, why’d you bring this dick here?” Irena asks. “Because I THOUGHT he wanted to reunite with his son, not be obnoxious!” Just then your son comes to the door. He’s even more surprised to see you. “Dad? What, what’re you doing here?” “Insulting your wife so far.” Irena answers. “I don’t need to insult your feline ass; you people do a good enough job of that yourself by your mere existence.” “Now that’s enough Wolf!” Mary says hitting you. “Fuck you, you mean old bastard!” Irena says. “Dad, come on stop. Look let’s all go inside and…” Now two little furballs come to the door, they look like Wolf cubs, but the unmistakable feline features are there. They look up at you with wide eyes. “Who’s that Daddy?” “That’s your grandfather.” Lawrence says picking one up. “Dad you’ve never even seen your own grandchildren. You want to hold them?” “Don’t let that bastard hold them! He’s never bothered to see ANY of his grandchildren! Fuckin’ deadbeat!” Irena says. “Shit, they’d be safer with me than they are with you! You better watch your kids Lawrence, she’ll be trying to molest them soon, if she isn’t already, you know how those fuckin’ cats are!” Oooh boy you really crossed the line that time. “WOLF!” Mary shouts. “How fucking DARE you! Fuck you! I don’t need to be insulted on my own property! Get the fuck out!” “Dad, you’re out of line! You can’t just come here and insult my wife and family like this!” “Oh so that’s how it is eh? I’ve been hearing about how you want to see me so bad, but now you’re showing your true colors. You’re gonna side with your wife, instead of your blood. Shit, I knew you were whipped. I wasted my fucking time all those years ago trying to groom you to take my place and there’s no point in wasting my time here, I’m fuckin’ done. Enjoy your fuckin’ life with your cat bitch and your halfcat brats.” As you turn around you address Mary. “Yeah, this was a great idea Mary. If you want a ride back home, I’ll be on my bike waiting a few minutes, if not, you can get a ride from either the inbreeder or the traitor.” You get on your bike and wait awhile for Mary, but it’s apparent she isn’t following, so you take off and leave. Fuck her too and if she doesn’t want to work on the movie idea with you; then fuck that as well, you’ll survive somehow, you always have. It’s what you do best. You had a temporary moment of weakness, but when it came down to it, you stuck by your principles. You might be an old and broke, but at least you’re not fucking a cat thing.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Eh, you let it slide this once, Mary can’t really help being so ignorant of a Werewolf’s pride, she’s just a fucking patchwork of corpse parts, besides you need the money from this job, and who knows, maybe you can jump start your career again… But there’s still no way you’re going to play in this movie the way it is! Time to turn on that charm. “Mary, look I know you mean well and all, but come on, you can’t seriously expect me to play this character! It’s insulting! Make it a comedy if you must, but make a dark one at least, not some family shit. Maybe I’m some fucking relic of the past trying to hold on to days gone by, but just about all I got left in this shitty world is my balls and my pride and I’m not losing either of them!” Mary stares at you a bit, then she addresses the wolfings. “Alright you guys that’s a wrap for today! I’ll call you back when I need you, there’s going to be some script rewrites, and before someone bites my head off, don’t worry nobody’s lost their jobs.” After the set is completely clear, Mary addresses you and strokes your facial fur. “That was a very passionate little speech you just gave, and almost halfway civilized for you. I especially liked the part about your balls.” At this point she gently caresses the twins with her other hand. “Mmm yes, I don’t think I’d like you to lose those either, or THIS!” At this point Mary grabs your big fully erect dick. “How about you and I discuss those script changes now, Wolfie?” “Alright, but its going to be hard for you to talk with your mouth full…” Four hours later, you and Mary have expended your sexual energy and are in a more talkative mood. “…and that’s how I think the movie should go.” You finish explaining. “Actually that’s not a bad idea; I’ll certainly incorporate some of the changes you suggested. See, and that’s why you’ll always hold a place in my heart, Wolfie.” Mary says lying next to you. “Well, the patchwork heart that was given to you anyways Mary.” “Damn Wolf, you were doing so well there for awhile and you revert right back to asshole mode.” “It’s a gift.” “Hmm, it’s also why you’re all alone.” “So what? I’ve always been a loner.” “And you’re happy living like that?” “Its worked pretty well so far, don’t see any reason to change now.” “Oh come on, surely you’d like someone around as opposed to the fast ass girls I hear you still bed every now and then.” “What? You mean like a wife? Yeah right! Tried that remember, you were part of the reason why I ultimately got divorced…ah fuck it. I was having problems with that bitch and fucking around on her before we started seeing each other. Nobody’s fault except my own for being stupid enough for getting married in the first place.” “Well maybe you just made the wrong choice in woman…” “No, I didn’t. I made the wrong choice period. I wasn’t meant to be married, and it’s not the idea of just fucking one female forever, I just value my freedom too much.” “Well I don’t see how you can be happy without someone special in your life.” “Jesus fuckin’ Christ, Mary what is with you getting all into my fucking business? What about you? You ain’t married and you seem to be doing alright! …Or are you trying to tell me something?” Mary looks at you with a solemn expression on her face and touches your hand. “Wolf, things are different for me now. I spent years searching and while I’ve had lots of exciting and pleasant experiences in my life, but I’ve never felt as close to someone as I have during our time together. I might be made up of parts, but I’ve always felt a piece was missing when I wasn’t with you. No matter where I was, you were always in my mind.” “Oh so that’s what this is huh? You’re feeling that something is missing in your existence so you figure you can just waltz back into ol’ Wolf’s life because hey he doesn’t have anything going on and pick back up where we left off? Fuck that, I can say you literally and figuratively screwed the pooch on that one, baby. You ended up running off with that half a fag Dracula while I was getting all my shit taken away from me by my bitch ex-wife and sued by your goddamn no talent father!” you say and move your hand away. “It was a confusing time for me Wolf! You know how I was, I had all these hormones injected into me and I was initially created for the sole purpose of being a sex toy! Yes, I managed to overcome, but I couldn’t fight all of my initial feelings, I was also so curious about everything and anything! Dracula was a well traveled person and yes he WAS charming, I learned a lot while I was with him. I saw the world and more. You think I wanted to leave you? I loved you! Yes and I know you find that hard to believe that something Undead is capable of love, but I LOVED you!” “Oh yeah, well if you loved me so fucking much, why the fuck did you leave?” “Because I had to! You were stuck in your own little world, never wanting to mix with anyone, never wanting to do anything that didn’t interest you, I’m a social being! I need to be around people. I don’t know, maybe its because I was originally made to just stay locked in that fucking castle for that sicko Frankie and I spent so much time alone that I never wanted to be alone again. If stayed with you EVEN after your divorce and mine, I would’ve been trading a neglective mate, for an overly possessive one. Come on Wolf I know you. You would’ve been alienating everyone who looked at me with a hint of attraction. I had to let you go so I could be independent and find myself.” “Yeah, yeah, you’re the fucking victim as always right Mary? Tell someone who gives a shit. Fuck this, I’m not working on this movie with you, I don’t care what rewrites you do. I’m out.” You storm off, but as always Mary gets the last word. “I can’t be a victim, because you’ve already taken that job! You carry a chip on your shoulder the size of Gibraltar and act like the goddamn World owes you something, well it doesn’t! You can’t let shit go! It’s why you’re all by yourself! Okay Wolf, fuck me then, I was no good fucking cheating bitch that did you wrong. Fine. You talk to any of your children lately? At least the ones you know about? You got fucking sons and daughters Wolf and you’ve alienated ALL of them with your inflexibility and assholiness! Even Lawrence, who you once were so proud of remember? He was following in your footsteps remember? But what happened? He disappointed you by following his heart instead of YOUR bigotry!” The name “Lawrence” is one you haven’t heard in a long time and one you hoped you’d never hear again. You have to stop yourself from seriously damaging Mary for even mentioning him. Instead you just slowly turn around and attempt to calm yourself. “Mary, you will NOT fucking utter that name again. He’s fucking dead to me. You got that? He’s as fucking dead as your fucking flesh! He’s not a son, he’s not a relative, he’s not a friend!” “Yeah, I knew you’d say something like that, I told LAWRENCE that when we talked the last time and it’s so sad because he’s always just wanted your approval.” What the hell? What is Mary doing talking to your fucking no good disappointment of a son who dishonored the family by marrying Irena…one of the Cat People. > You smack her and leave “I warned you about saying that name again!” you say and back hand Mary across the face, if she was human, she’d have a nice red welt there now and be on the floor, but Mary’s made of stronger stuff, in fact she starts hitting you back, which you attempt to deflect. “YOU BASTARD! How fucking dare you! Get the fuck out, I was an idiot thinking I could get you to change! You can forget about being in the movie too! Go back to your shithole cabin and be fucking alone since that’s what you want so bad!” “Yeah, yeah. Fuck you too.” You say turning around to leave while taking a few punches to your back. You return to your cabin and brood in the darkness, muttering to yourself. “I don’t need them; I don’t need any of them. I don’t need anybody. Never did. I’m not a pussy ass whiney weakling. I’m the fucking Alpha Wolf. That’s why I’m still here and everyone else is gone or fallen by the wayside. I got my fuckin’ pride. That’s all I need…that’s all I’ll ever need…” you say falling asleep.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Eh, you let it slide this once, Mary can’t really help being so ignorant of a Werewolf’s pride, she’s just a fucking patchwork of corpse parts, besides you need the money from this job, and who knows, maybe you can jump start your career again… But there’s still no way you’re going to play in this movie the way it is! Time to turn on that charm. “Mary, look I know you mean well and all, but come on, you can’t seriously expect me to play this character! It’s insulting! Make it a comedy if you must, but make a dark one at least, not some family shit. Maybe I’m some fucking relic of the past trying to hold on to days gone by, but just about all I got left in this shitty world is my balls and my pride and I’m not losing either of them!” Mary stares at you a bit, then she addresses the wolfings. “Alright you guys that’s a wrap for today! I’ll call you back when I need you, there’s going to be some script rewrites, and before someone bites my head off, don’t worry nobody’s lost their jobs.” After the set is completely clear, Mary addresses you and strokes your facial fur. “That was a very passionate little speech you just gave, and almost halfway civilized for you. I especially liked the part about your balls.” At this point she gently caresses the twins with her other hand. “Mmm yes, I don’t think I’d like you to lose those either, or THIS!” At this point Mary grabs your big fully erect dick. “How about you and I discuss those script changes now, Wolfie?” “Alright, but its going to be hard for you to talk with your mouth full…” Four hours later, you and Mary have expended your sexual energy and are in a more talkative mood. “…and that’s how I think the movie should go.” You finish explaining. “Actually that’s not a bad idea; I’ll certainly incorporate some of the changes you suggested. See, and that’s why you’ll always hold a place in my heart, Wolfie.” Mary says lying next to you. “Well, the patchwork heart that was given to you anyways Mary.” “Damn Wolf, you were doing so well there for awhile and you revert right back to asshole mode.” “It’s a gift.” “Hmm, it’s also why you’re all alone.” “So what? I’ve always been a loner.” “And you’re happy living like that?” “Its worked pretty well so far, don’t see any reason to change now.” “Oh come on, surely you’d like someone around as opposed to the fast ass girls I hear you still bed every now and then.” “What? You mean like a wife? Yeah right! Tried that remember, you were part of the reason why I ultimately got divorced…ah fuck it. I was having problems with that bitch and fucking around on her before we started seeing each other. Nobody’s fault except my own for being stupid enough for getting married in the first place.” “Well maybe you just made the wrong choice in woman…” “No, I didn’t. I made the wrong choice period. I wasn’t meant to be married, and it’s not the idea of just fucking one female forever, I just value my freedom too much.” “Well I don’t see how you can be happy without someone special in your life.” “Jesus fuckin’ Christ, Mary what is with you getting all into my fucking business? What about you? You ain’t married and you seem to be doing alright! …Or are you trying to tell me something?” Mary looks at you with a solemn expression on her face and touches your hand. “Wolf, things are different for me now. I spent years searching and while I’ve had lots of exciting and pleasant experiences in my life, but I’ve never felt as close to someone as I have during our time together. I might be made up of parts, but I’ve always felt a piece was missing when I wasn’t with you. No matter where I was, you were always in my mind.” “Oh so that’s what this is huh? You’re feeling that something is missing in your existence so you figure you can just waltz back into ol’ Wolf’s life because hey he doesn’t have anything going on and pick back up where we left off? Fuck that, I can say you literally and figuratively screwed the pooch on that one, baby. You ended up running off with that half a fag Dracula while I was getting all my shit taken away from me by my bitch ex-wife and sued by your goddamn no talent father!” you say and move your hand away. “It was a confusing time for me Wolf! You know how I was, I had all these hormones injected into me and I was initially created for the sole purpose of being a sex toy! Yes, I managed to overcome, but I couldn’t fight all of my initial feelings, I was also so curious about everything and anything! Dracula was a well traveled person and yes he WAS charming, I learned a lot while I was with him. I saw the world and more. You think I wanted to leave you? I loved you! Yes and I know you find that hard to believe that something Undead is capable of love, but I LOVED you!” “Oh yeah, well if you loved me so fucking much, why the fuck did you leave?” “Because I had to! You were stuck in your own little world, never wanting to mix with anyone, never wanting to do anything that didn’t interest you, I’m a social being! I need to be around people. I don’t know, maybe its because I was originally made to just stay locked in that fucking castle for that sicko Frankie and I spent so much time alone that I never wanted to be alone again. If stayed with you EVEN after your divorce and mine, I would’ve been trading a neglective mate, for an overly possessive one. Come on Wolf I know you. You would’ve been alienating everyone who looked at me with a hint of attraction. I had to let you go so I could be independent and find myself.” “Yeah, yeah, you’re the fucking victim as always right Mary? Tell someone who gives a shit. Fuck this, I’m not working on this movie with you, I don’t care what rewrites you do. I’m out.” You storm off, but as always Mary gets the last word. “I can’t be a victim, because you’ve already taken that job! You carry a chip on your shoulder the size of Gibraltar and act like the goddamn World owes you something, well it doesn’t! You can’t let shit go! It’s why you’re all by yourself! Okay Wolf, fuck me then, I was no good fucking cheating bitch that did you wrong. Fine. You talk to any of your children lately? At least the ones you know about? You got fucking sons and daughters Wolf and you’ve alienated ALL of them with your inflexibility and assholiness! Even Lawrence, who you once were so proud of remember? He was following in your footsteps remember? But what happened? He disappointed you by following his heart instead of YOUR bigotry!” The name “Lawrence” is one you haven’t heard in a long time and one you hoped you’d never hear again. You have to stop yourself from seriously damaging Mary for even mentioning him. Instead you just slowly turn around and attempt to calm yourself. “Mary, you will NOT fucking utter that name again. He’s fucking dead to me. You got that? He’s as fucking dead as your fucking flesh! He’s not a son, he’s not a relative, he’s not a friend!” “Yeah, I knew you’d say something like that, I told LAWRENCE that when we talked the last time and it’s so sad because he’s always just wanted your approval.” What the hell? What is Mary doing talking to your fucking no good disappointment of a son who dishonored the family by marrying Irena…one of the Cat People. > You memories (Lawrence) The Wolfman: Lawrence Talbot One of your halfbreed sons by a human woman, however as long as the father is a werewolf then the child is still considered a werewolf. (Yes Werewolf society is patriarchal) Besides any seed of yours can’t be anything else BUT a werewolf! At least that’s what you’ve always believed, until Lawrence. Its true some of your other sons and daughters have disappointed you in some way for your strict ideology of how a “True Werewolf” is supposed to act, but Lawrence stepped over a line that can’t be dismissed as simple weakness, if anything its treason at worst and perverted mental illness at best, especially since you had such high hopes for him. When Lawrence was a cub, he did everything he could to emulate you. You weren’t in his life growing up of course since you’d long moved on before you even knew he was born, but he did everything he could to learn about you and eventually seek you out when he grew up. You remember he first arrived on one of the sets he punched out two security guards who tried to escort him off. You knew then he was one of yours. He was very excited to finally meet you and for your part you liked him too. Here he was, wanting to model his life after yours, as opposed to complaining and whining about how you weren’t there for him. Truly the survival instinct mindset was strong in this one. You spent time with him when you could. Indeed you wanted to. He didn’t ask for hand outs either, he wanted to prove he could do everything himself. And when his first movie opened up to glowing reviews, you were bursting with pride. It looked like everything was going good; Lawrence might’ve eventually replaced you as the “Alpha Wolf” which you didn’t even mind. He was worthy. You had the idea of him having cubs of his own and how one of them would also replace him when he got too old. It would’ve been a good legacy to be proud of…but then love got in the way. You don’t even like thinking about that dark day. The day he met that cat THING! Needless to say everything fell apart; it was also around the time of your divorce so you were really in no mood to hear his pleas for you to “understand”. You disowned him immediately. He wasn’t even a fucking werewolf anymore as far as you were concerned; you didn’t even dirty your hands beating the shit out of him since he disgusted you so much. Eventually he faded out of sight in the movie industry, disheartened by your harsh and brutal decision, but continued his abominable relationship with that cat thing. Years later you were invited to the wedding, but you returned it to sender with the words “PUSSY WHIPPED” in big red letters on the front.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Eh, you let it slide this once, Mary can’t really help being so ignorant of a Werewolf’s pride, she’s just a fucking patchwork of corpse parts, besides you need the money from this job, and who knows, maybe you can jump start your career again… But there’s still no way you’re going to play in this movie the way it is! Time to turn on that charm. “Mary, look I know you mean well and all, but come on, you can’t seriously expect me to play this character! It’s insulting! Make it a comedy if you must, but make a dark one at least, not some family shit. Maybe I’m some fucking relic of the past trying to hold on to days gone by, but just about all I got left in this shitty world is my balls and my pride and I’m not losing either of them!” Mary stares at you a bit, then she addresses the wolfings. “Alright you guys that’s a wrap for today! I’ll call you back when I need you, there’s going to be some script rewrites, and before someone bites my head off, don’t worry nobody’s lost their jobs.” After the set is completely clear, Mary addresses you and strokes your facial fur. “That was a very passionate little speech you just gave, and almost halfway civilized for you. I especially liked the part about your balls.” At this point she gently caresses the twins with her other hand. “Mmm yes, I don’t think I’d like you to lose those either, or THIS!” At this point Mary grabs your big fully erect dick. “How about you and I discuss those script changes now, Wolfie?” “Alright, but its going to be hard for you to talk with your mouth full…” Four hours later, you and Mary have expended your sexual energy and are in a more talkative mood. “…and that’s how I think the movie should go.” You finish explaining. “Actually that’s not a bad idea; I’ll certainly incorporate some of the changes you suggested. See, and that’s why you’ll always hold a place in my heart, Wolfie.” Mary says lying next to you. “Well, the patchwork heart that was given to you anyways Mary.” “Damn Wolf, you were doing so well there for awhile and you revert right back to asshole mode.” “It’s a gift.” “Hmm, it’s also why you’re all alone.” “So what? I’ve always been a loner.” “And you’re happy living like that?” “Its worked pretty well so far, don’t see any reason to change now.” “Oh come on, surely you’d like someone around as opposed to the fast ass girls I hear you still bed every now and then.” “What? You mean like a wife? Yeah right! Tried that remember, you were part of the reason why I ultimately got divorced…ah fuck it. I was having problems with that bitch and fucking around on her before we started seeing each other. Nobody’s fault except my own for being stupid enough for getting married in the first place.” “Well maybe you just made the wrong choice in woman…” “No, I didn’t. I made the wrong choice period. I wasn’t meant to be married, and it’s not the idea of just fucking one female forever, I just value my freedom too much.” “Well I don’t see how you can be happy without someone special in your life.” “Jesus fuckin’ Christ, Mary what is with you getting all into my fucking business? What about you? You ain’t married and you seem to be doing alright! …Or are you trying to tell me something?” Mary looks at you with a solemn expression on her face and touches your hand. “Wolf, things are different for me now. I spent years searching and while I’ve had lots of exciting and pleasant experiences in my life, but I’ve never felt as close to someone as I have during our time together. I might be made up of parts, but I’ve always felt a piece was missing when I wasn’t with you. No matter where I was, you were always in my mind.” “Oh so that’s what this is huh? You’re feeling that something is missing in your existence so you figure you can just waltz back into ol’ Wolf’s life because hey he doesn’t have anything going on and pick back up where we left off? Fuck that, I can say you literally and figuratively screwed the pooch on that one, baby. You ended up running off with that half a fag Dracula while I was getting all my shit taken away from me by my bitch ex-wife and sued by your goddamn no talent father!” you say and move your hand away. “It was a confusing time for me Wolf! You know how I was, I had all these hormones injected into me and I was initially created for the sole purpose of being a sex toy! Yes, I managed to overcome, but I couldn’t fight all of my initial feelings, I was also so curious about everything and anything! Dracula was a well traveled person and yes he WAS charming, I learned a lot while I was with him. I saw the world and more. You think I wanted to leave you? I loved you! Yes and I know you find that hard to believe that something Undead is capable of love, but I LOVED you!” “Oh yeah, well if you loved me so fucking much, why the fuck did you leave?” “Because I had to! You were stuck in your own little world, never wanting to mix with anyone, never wanting to do anything that didn’t interest you, I’m a social being! I need to be around people. I don’t know, maybe its because I was originally made to just stay locked in that fucking castle for that sicko Frankie and I spent so much time alone that I never wanted to be alone again. If stayed with you EVEN after your divorce and mine, I would’ve been trading a neglective mate, for an overly possessive one. Come on Wolf I know you. You would’ve been alienating everyone who looked at me with a hint of attraction. I had to let you go so I could be independent and find myself.” “Yeah, yeah, you’re the fucking victim as always right Mary? Tell someone who gives a shit. Fuck this, I’m not working on this movie with you, I don’t care what rewrites you do. I’m out.” You storm off, but as always Mary gets the last word. “I can’t be a victim, because you’ve already taken that job! You carry a chip on your shoulder the size of Gibraltar and act like the goddamn World owes you something, well it doesn’t! You can’t let shit go! It’s why you’re all by yourself! Okay Wolf, fuck me then, I was no good fucking cheating bitch that did you wrong. Fine. You talk to any of your children lately? At least the ones you know about? You got fucking sons and daughters Wolf and you’ve alienated ALL of them with your inflexibility and assholiness! Even Lawrence, who you once were so proud of remember? He was following in your footsteps remember? But what happened? He disappointed you by following his heart instead of YOUR bigotry!” The name “Lawrence” is one you haven’t heard in a long time and one you hoped you’d never hear again. You have to stop yourself from seriously damaging Mary for even mentioning him. Instead you just slowly turn around and attempt to calm yourself. “Mary, you will NOT fucking utter that name again. He’s fucking dead to me. You got that? He’s as fucking dead as your fucking flesh! He’s not a son, he’s not a relative, he’s not a friend!” “Yeah, I knew you’d say something like that, I told LAWRENCE that when we talked the last time and it’s so sad because he’s always just wanted your approval.” What the hell? What is Mary doing talking to your fucking no good disappointment of a son who dishonored the family by marrying Irena…one of the Cat People. > You memories (Irena) The Cat People: Irena Reed To be quite honest you don’t know a whole hell of a lot about your son’s wife Irena, and you don’t really want to. All you know is she’s a fucking cat person and that’s enough to disown him by association. While you’re openly vocal about your extreme dislike for the undead and vampires in particular, you’d grudgingly admit while under duress and in a hopeless state of drunkenness, you have met a few that you’ve been able to get along with. Hell you’ve been known to fuck the occasional Vamp chick every now and then (Not to mention Mary). Not being natural creatures, you don’t really expect anything better from them, so whatever sneaky arrogant shit they pull doesn’t really surprised you. However, there is ONE group of people you absolutely WILL NOT tolerate on any level, and those are those damn Cat People. You just can’t stand the scent of them. They’re a decadent perverted race that sickens you. The Cat People are lycanthrope predators much like Werewolves, but that’s where the similarities end, and they aren’t even good predators anymore. Werewolves favor a survivalistic mindset. Even the young pups today who you normally frown upon as being spoiled go around trying to hone their skills and maintain that fighting spirit. Cat People do no such thing. They sponge, scam, scavenge and are just outright lazy bastards, even those overgrown leeches you call Vampires are less of a drain on society in your opinion. It’s partly why you’re such a hard ass when it comes to the “old ways’ and harass young werewolves about not living up to them like they should. Because you see that Cat People USED to be like Werewolves but then they completely gave into civilization and allowed themselves to become soft, fat and weak, and as long as you draw breathe on this shitty World you will NOT allow the Werewolf race to follow in their paw prints. Cat People are a hated reminder of what “civilization” can do to anyone if they aren’t careful. Another unsavory characteristic that they have that repulses you is that they’ve been rumored to indulge in incest; a loathsome practice that only serves to destroy and weaken a gene line, all of which gives further reason why they have fallen so far from what they used to be. Not to mention fucking lazy. You mean sheesh, they can’t even be bothered to look for a mate outside their goddamn house?<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>“Oh boo fucking hoo, your latest Opera hasn’t been doing too well lately. At least people are paying to see the goddamn thing! As bad of a composer, and musician you are, you oughta be glad anyone’s even paying to see the goddamn thing! People don’t want to see anything with me in it! And at least you’ve got another job to fall back on LIKE BEING AN AGENT THAT’S SUPPOSED TO BE GETTING ME A FUCKING JOB!” you snarl. There’s some dead air briefly and then Erik begins talking again. “You’re right. I shouldn’t be complaining about my problems to you. You of course know all about torment. A war that wages within you, a beast that…” “Erik I’ve got no time and I’m in no mood to hear how we’re supposed to be kindred spirits, you just better tell me you found something for me and it better not be another guest speaker spot at a comic convention!” “Well let’s see…I dunno. Werewolves aren’t popular anymore you know…there might be something…here it is! It’s called Wolf Pack.” “Pack? That implies more than one wolf on the set there Erik. Well I suppose I can share the spotlight with some others. As long as I’m in charge of course.” You say. “Er…well according to this, you’d be the old cranky grandpa wolf that makes a bunch of rude remarks.” “What?! What kind of stupid shit is that?” “Yeah that’s the stuff.” Erik replies not catching on. “I mean what the hell kind of movie is this?” “Its uh…let’s see…oh here. It’s a horror comedy about a werewolf family and how they adjust to human society. Looks like you’ll be playing with a lot of young pups as you’d call them.” “WHAT?! NO! What the fuck Erik? I’m a fucking monster not something to be fucking laughed at! And they already did a movie like that a long time ago and it sucked!” “Well that’s all I got. Maybe you could talk to the director to make changes since they also wrote it. I’m sure you and her are familiar with each other. You had an affair with her for quite some time.” “Uh, you wanna narrow that list down Erik?” “It’s Mary. You know, the one who used to be married to Frankie, until your affair broke up both of your marriages?” Erik’s new information didn’t exactly make you any more enthusiastic to want to take the job. > You insist that Erik give you something else No, no, no, no! The movie sounds like it sucks and you’re not going to deal with Mary after all the shit you got yourself into last time with her. “Fuck that Erik, there’s gotta be something else!” “Well there’s a comic convention that needs another guest speaker…” You slam the phone down. You need to get out of the house. You decide to go for a walk in the forest. You wander around in the calmness of the forest and nature in general. Sometimes you wonder if you shouldn’t just go back to living in the wild. Things were certainly simpler then. While you’re thinking about the nostalgia of the old days, you see a very large hairy body lying prone in the distance. “What the fuck…how the hell…” you mumble to yourself while going over to investigate. When you arrive, its exactly who you thought it was, though you don’t understand how you couldn’t have heard him lumbering through the forest given how big he is, let alone seen him. “Hey Kong! You alive? Wake up!” you shout. Kong stirs a little and then sits up to yawn. He scratches his now silverback and looks over at you. “Wolf? What’re you doing here?” “Me? I live just a few miles away! What’re you doing here and how is it that I didn’t see or hear you crashing through the forest?” “Oh I can be pretty silent when I want to be.” “Okay, but what’re you doing here?” “Back to nature my friend. Nancy kicked me out of the house. For good this time, she said she can’t put up with my chauvinism any more. All I told her was to get her ass back in the kitchen and make me a banana split and serve it to me naked.” “Sounds like a reasonable request, so what happened?” “She went into the kitchen, came back out with a frying pan of hot grease, threw the shit on me and kicked me in the balls, before shoving me out the door and calling me a fucking backward primate.” You hold back some laughter, before speaking again. “Tough break there Kong, but I guess you could look on the bright side, you’re back to your roots with no more cares anymore. Living free in the wild and all.” “Are you on fucking crack Wolf? It sucks! You know when I lived on Skull Island I didn’t know any better, but in the last few days I’ve come to realize living in a warm HOUSE and sleeping in a bed is way better than living in the cold wild and sleeping on the ground where bugs crawl all over you!” Kong’s remarks certainly have made you reconsider your previous nostalgia of the old days. “Well, can’t you just make up with Nancy? Surely if she’s put up with you this long and if you apologized and did all that romantic crap she’d let you back in.” “Don’t think so Wolf, I never was good at that, besides she’s got a restraining order on me too.” ”What else did you do to her?” “Nothing! She’s just being a crazy bitch, that’s unwilling to listen to reason. Well unwilling to listen to me anyway. Hey Wolf, you’ve always been a smooth talker with ladies. Maybe you could talk some sense into her for me.” “Uh, I dunno Kong I don’t really like getting into the middle of shit like this, don’t you have someplace else to stay, hey what about your cousin Joe?” “I’m not staying with him! He’s a fucking fag!” “Well, beggars can’t be chooser Kong, besides he’s your cousin it’s not like you have worry about him trying any ass pirate shit on you. I’m sure he’s got a nice house too.” “Yeah, I guess…but I’d still prefer to go back to my own home, and I’m not sure if Joe would let me stay anyway. You gotta help me out Wolf, Nancy kicked me out with nothing, and I don’t even have any money in the bank. I don’t want to be living in the fucking wilderness again!” You normally aren’t one to help someone for no reason, but there’s the fact that you don’t want him living that close to you, you don’t relish the idea of him taking big healthy dumps in a forest you live near, so to avoid wearing a clothespin on your nose for the rest of your time living here, you decide to help Kong. > You go talk to Nancy “Alright Kong I’ll go talk to Nancy.” “Cool. You always had a better way with words than I did, more diplomatic.” “That’s gotta be the first time I’ve ever heard someone call me diplomatic, but I’ll see what I can do, I’m not guaranteeing anything though.” Kong gives you the address and you head back to your cabin where you get on you Harley and drive off. You have no plan whatsoever. You’re just going to fumble your way through and try to turn on the charm. Eventually you get to the house which is huge, but then it would have to be to accommodate a couple of giants. You can’t even reach the doorbell, so you just kick the door and howl as loud as you can. A few minutes pass and you think you haven’t been heard, but eventually a colossal bald man with a towel wrapped around his waist opens the door, its Glenn. Well this was certainly unexpected. He looks down with a perturbed stare. “Yeah, whadda you want?” he booms. “Is Nancy home?” “Whadda ya want with Nancy, hairball?” “I have to talk to her, its important.” “Yeah, well I say it isn’t, now get the fuck outta here!” “Look, I’m not looking for trouble, just let me talk to Nancy it won’t take long.” “It won’t take long because you ain’t gonna do it, now get the fuck outta here you fucking mutt!” “Do you even know who I am?” you say starting to lose your temper. “Yeah I do, and if you don’t get the fuck outta here I’m gonna know who you WERE!” While you study his foot, and deciding which one of those big veins you’re going rip into before running off to hide, Nancy comes to the door in a silk robe. She’s kept herself in pretty good condition, either that, or the alien ray that hit her slowed down her aging process. “Glenn, what’s going on…oh hello Wolf. What bring you here?” “Hello Nancy, I need to talk to you for a moment.” “Nancy you want me to get rid of this hairball?” “No Glenn that’s not necessary, be nice.” “Yeah whatever, look I’m leaving, I’ll be back later tonight so you be ready for another round of the amazing colossal dick! Har har har har!” Glenn at this point slaps Nancy hard on her ass, and walks out the door and down the street with just the towel around him! “Uh, isn’t he forgetting something?” “Yes, but its not the first time. One time he left without even a towel.” “Yikes, that must’ve been a sight.” “(Sigh) Not really, he’s isn’t nearly as colossal as he thinks…but anyway come on in.” You enter the house and follow Nancy into the kitchen who makes herself some coffee. You look up at the table trying to figure out the best way to climb up there; Nancy unexpectedly picks you up and puts on it. “Ohh your fur is so soft.” She says brushing her finger against your back. “So what did you have to tell me?” “Its about Kong, he’s taken residence in a forest not too far away from my cabin, he says you kicked him out and he wants to come back home.” “You have my sympathies, for getting him as a neighbor, but I’m not taking him back. I’ve put up with his shit for too long. I was an idiot thinking I could change him. Sometimes I don’t know what the fuck is wrong with me.” Nancy’s pleasant demeanor has changed. This is a delicate situation, say the wrong thing and you could be in real danger. > You ask her about Glenn “So I see you’ve hooked up with Glenn, how’s that working out?” you ask. “Oh its great…” she says. Her demeanor didn’t change. “So is Glenn treating you any better?” you ask “Well…uh…yeah! Yes he is…” “That didn’t sound very convincing Nancy.” “Okay, so he’s a dickhead too, but at least with him he goes home and I don’t have to slave over him on a regular basis.” “Oh no, you just get treated like a cum bucket whenever he wants some pussy.” “EXCUSE ME?!” “Hey look, I’m just tellin’ it like it is. From what I can tell he isn’t exactly Mr. Right. Sheesh don’t you know the guy’s past? He’s fucking crazy.” “Yeah, but I can change him…” ”This again? Look honey, your track record isn’t good as far as that goes. Besides you can’t change the insane.” ”(Sob!) I know! Why the hell do I keep doing this to myself! (Sob!)” Oh shit, you just got yourself into some drama you didn’t want to; you try to change the subject back to Kong. “Look, obviously Kong can’t be as bad as Colossal Asshole.” “(Sniff) Oh no? He doesn’t do shit around the house and this is MY house! MY money paid for everything in here! If it wasn’t for me picking him up all those years ago he wouldn’t have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out! Fuck him! I’m sick of him taking me for granted. I just jumped from one abusive marriage to another!” “Erm…Kong doesn’t beat you does he? Because if that’s the case then…” “Oh no, he’s never done that. If that ever had happened, I would’ve kicked him out a long time ago.” “Well, maybe I was wrong and you did change him a little then. I mean if you knew Kong back in the day, he had real temper problems. It seems like you did have some effect on him.” “Maybe…” “Look how about I go back and talk to…” Suddenly the doorbell rings. “Hold on Wolf let me get that.” While you wait for Nancy to come back, you think you’re on the right track to convincing her to take back Kong. Then she arrives in the kitchen with some big ass roses and happily reading a card. “Where the hell did you get those things? Hey are those from Kong?” you say hopefully. “No.” “They aren’t from Glenn are they?” you ask a little more worried. “Pfft, yeah right.” “So who are they from?” “Oh they’re from Ymir, he probably had Joe specially grow them for me…he’s so sweet and sensitive.” ”You’re fucking Ymir too?!” you exclaim. “No, he just leaves me presents with cards on my doorstep. He’s so shy, I wish he wasn’t though, because I wouldn’t mind seeing him. He writes the most romantic things…” Nancy begins to day dream about Ymir and now you’re back at square one again. Still, you do wonder if she shouldn’t be with Ymir. Nancy does seem like a nice girl and she probably deserves better than Kong, and certainly deserves better than Glenn. > You be a good Samaritan Here’s your good deed for…well you can’t remember the last time you did one, but you’re doing one now. “Nancy, you want me to find Ymir and talk to him?” “You’d do that? Why yes! But how are you going to find him?” “Please, I got an excellent sense of smell. I could find him if he was 20 miles from this house.” “Well okay then, tell him I’m interested and he needn’t be shy.” Nancy puts you down on the floor and opens the door for you. You know where the hell he’s at, Venusian isn’t a common smell on this planet and you aren’t going to have to go too far to find him. You walk around the corner of the house and see him hiding in the overgrown bushes looking into one of the windows. Big enough to hide him from Nancy, but not you since you can walk right in the things. “So Ymir, are you actually ever going to talk to Nancy, or are you going to stalk her forever?” “Argh! Wolf! I thought you were in the house! Um…did she get my roses?” Ymir asks surprised. “Yeah she got them and she likes them, so why don’t you just talk to her already?” “I dunno, she’s taller than me and…” “Don’t mean shit! I went out with Mary and she was taller than me, and that wasn’t even including that ridiculous beehive hairstyle she had! Look I know for a fact she likes you, she told me to tell you as much. Now I was originally here to hook her back up with Kong…so are you gonna let me do that? Or are you gonna fuckin’ man up and go talk to the girl, because she’s got that Colossal asshole coming by later too.” “Well, I guess I’ll try.” “Dammit! Don’t try! Do! There is no try! You gotta go in there with all the confidence that you say in your love poems or whatever the hell you’ve been writing to her. Obviously you’ve got the words, now just say the shit to her in person.” Ymir puffs up with pride. “I’ll do it!” “That’s the spirit. Now go in there and get your woman.” “Hey wait, you think I’ll be big enough to um…” ”What? To fuck her? Shit I dunno, just lick her pussy a lot, she’ll be happy trust me.” As you leave Ymir knocks on the door and Nancy opens it and gives him a big hug immediately. Looks like your work is done here. You drive back home. You get back and walk to where Kong is. He’s sleeping again. “Hey Kong wake up!” “Hmm? Yeah, I’m up. So did you do it?” “Nope, sorry. Couldn’t convince her.” “Ah well it was a long shot. Guess we’re neighbors.” “Guess so, see ya.” Kong rolls over back to sleep and you go back to your cabin. A few days pass and just as you thought, a new “aroma” invades the area. You’re happy to take the damn comic convention job just to get away from the stink. Just goes to show what you’ve always known: “No good deed goes unpunished.”<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>“So I see you’ve hooked up with Glenn, how’s that working out?” you ask. “Oh its great…” she says. Her demeanor didn’t change. “So is Glenn treating you any better?” you ask “Well…uh…yeah! Yes he is…” “That didn’t sound very convincing Nancy.” “Okay, so he’s a dickhead too, but at least with him he goes home and I don’t have to slave over him on a regular basis.” “Oh no, you just get treated like a cum bucket whenever he wants some pussy.” “EXCUSE ME?!” “Hey look, I’m just tellin’ it like it is. From what I can tell he isn’t exactly Mr. Right. Sheesh don’t you know the guy’s past? He’s fucking crazy.” “Yeah, but I can change him…” ”This again? Look honey, your track record isn’t good as far as that goes. Besides you can’t change the insane.” ”(Sob!) I know! Why the hell do I keep doing this to myself! (Sob!)” Oh shit, you just got yourself into some drama you didn’t want to; you try to change the subject back to Kong. “Look, obviously Kong can’t be as bad as Colossal Asshole.” “(Sniff) Oh no? He doesn’t do shit around the house and this is MY house! MY money paid for everything in here! If it wasn’t for me picking him up all those years ago he wouldn’t have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out! Fuck him! I’m sick of him taking me for granted. I just jumped from one abusive marriage to another!” “Erm…Kong doesn’t beat you does he? Because if that’s the case then…” “Oh no, he’s never done that. If that ever had happened, I would’ve kicked him out a long time ago.” “Well, maybe I was wrong and you did change him a little then. I mean if you knew Kong back in the day, he had real temper problems. It seems like you did have some effect on him.” “Maybe…” “Look how about I go back and talk to…” Suddenly the doorbell rings. “Hold on Wolf let me get that.” While you wait for Nancy to come back, you think you’re on the right track to convincing her to take back Kong. Then she arrives in the kitchen with some big ass roses and happily reading a card. “Where the hell did you get those things? Hey are those from Kong?” you say hopefully. “No.” “They aren’t from Glenn are they?” you ask a little more worried. “Pfft, yeah right.” “So who are they from?” “Oh they’re from Ymir, he probably had Joe specially grow them for me…he’s so sweet and sensitive.” ”You’re fucking Ymir too?!” you exclaim. “No, he just leaves me presents with cards on my doorstep. He’s so shy, I wish he wasn’t though, because I wouldn’t mind seeing him. He writes the most romantic things…” Nancy begins to day dream about Ymir and now you’re back at square one again. Still, you do wonder if she shouldn’t be with Ymir. Nancy does seem like a nice girl and she probably deserves better than Kong, and certainly deserves better than Glenn. > You convince her to take Kong back Nope you were here to help Kong and that’s what you’re going to do, for good or bad. “See? See what I’m saying Nancy? You’re doing it again! You’re falling for the romantic bit. Ymir’s just saying all that shit to get on your good side.” “You think so?” “Hell yeah! A lot of guys do it; you should know that by now! Look, I’ve used the same damn routine on several occasions until I just got too fucking lazy and decided it was too much trouble!” “I suppose you’re right, but why would he be too shy to show up? Surely it can’t all be an act.” “Hey, guy can do anything to get the pussy. Of course maybe it isn’t an act, and he’s just a creepy stalker type. You ever think of that? Maybe hiding and secretly spying on you! He is smaller than you, you know.” Nancy looks a bit worried by that revelation. “Eek! I never even thought of that!” ”See? That’s why you shouldn’t even consider getting with Ymir and should go back with Kong, at least you know where you stand with him.” “Maybe…but what about Glenn?” “What?! Hell no! You don’t want him, he’s a fucking nutball! Maybe Kong’s not the most sensitive, but at least you can reason with him. He can’t be all bad; you have stayed married all these years.” “I guess you’re right. Maybe I overreacted…okay you can tell Kong he can come back, but he’s going to have to stop saying some of the shit he says to me!” “I’ll tell him.” Nancy puts you back on the floor and opens the door for you to leave. You get back on your bike and ride back home to where Kong is munching on some leaves in a bored fashion. “Hey Kong…what the fuck man? You eat every leaf in the fucking forest?” “Just the ones in the immediate area…what? I was hungry!” ”Well, you can get yourself a home cooked meal now, Nancy’s willing to take you back, BUT you need to at least act a little less like an asshole. Tell her you love her and all that shit every now and then.” “Aw man…” ”Jesus fuckin’ Christ Kong it ain’t that hard! Hell she’s doing everything for your broke ass. I wish I was that fuckin’ lucky! You oughta be a little bit appreciative! She’s got other giants after her already.” “What?! Oh shit! I guess I better watch myself.” “Guess you better, okay then off you go.” “Hey thanks Wolf, I won’t forget this, when Nancy gives me my weekly allowance I’ll make sure to have a check sent to you.” He takes his leave and you head back home, not really expecting anything from Kong, a few days later when you’re dreading having to take that comic convention job, you get a check in the mail, its from Kong just like he promised. Hooray, you can avoid being a guest speaker for a bunch of nerds for at least another year!<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>“So I see you’ve hooked up with Glenn, how’s that working out?” you ask. “Oh its great…” she says. Her demeanor didn’t change. “So is Glenn treating you any better?” you ask “Well…uh…yeah! Yes he is…” “That didn’t sound very convincing Nancy.” “Okay, so he’s a dickhead too, but at least with him he goes home and I don’t have to slave over him on a regular basis.” “Oh no, you just get treated like a cum bucket whenever he wants some pussy.” “EXCUSE ME?!” “Hey look, I’m just tellin’ it like it is. From what I can tell he isn’t exactly Mr. Right. Sheesh don’t you know the guy’s past? He’s fucking crazy.” “Yeah, but I can change him…” ”This again? Look honey, your track record isn’t good as far as that goes. Besides you can’t change the insane.” ”(Sob!) I know! Why the hell do I keep doing this to myself! (Sob!)” Oh shit, you just got yourself into some drama you didn’t want to; you try to change the subject back to Kong. “Look, obviously Kong can’t be as bad as Colossal Asshole.” “(Sniff) Oh no? He doesn’t do shit around the house and this is MY house! MY money paid for everything in here! If it wasn’t for me picking him up all those years ago he wouldn’t have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out! Fuck him! I’m sick of him taking me for granted. I just jumped from one abusive marriage to another!” “Erm…Kong doesn’t beat you does he? Because if that’s the case then…” “Oh no, he’s never done that. If that ever had happened, I would’ve kicked him out a long time ago.” “Well, maybe I was wrong and you did change him a little then. I mean if you knew Kong back in the day, he had real temper problems. It seems like you did have some effect on him.” “Maybe…” “Look how about I go back and talk to…” Suddenly the doorbell rings. “Hold on Wolf let me get that.” While you wait for Nancy to come back, you think you’re on the right track to convincing her to take back Kong. Then she arrives in the kitchen with some big ass roses and happily reading a card. “Where the hell did you get those things? Hey are those from Kong?” you say hopefully. “No.” “They aren’t from Glenn are they?” you ask a little more worried. “Pfft, yeah right.” “So who are they from?” “Oh they’re from Ymir, he probably had Joe specially grow them for me…he’s so sweet and sensitive.” ”You’re fucking Ymir too?!” you exclaim. “No, he just leaves me presents with cards on my doorstep. He’s so shy, I wish he wasn’t though, because I wouldn’t mind seeing him. He writes the most romantic things…” Nancy begins to day dream about Ymir and now you’re back at square one again. Still, you do wonder if she shouldn’t be with Ymir. Nancy does seem like a nice girl and she probably deserves better than Kong, and certainly deserves better than Glenn. > You memories (Ymir) The Beast From Space: Ymir You don’t know too much about Ymir, all you mainly know is he’s originally from Venus. He never really fit in with the rest of the monsters mainly due to his height, he wasn’t small enough to hang out with the likes of you and Fagula, but he wasn’t big enough to hang out with the giants like Kong. It was because of this, he tried a little harder to prove he could be just as destructive as the bigger giants in movies, but as far as his private life was concerned he didn’t cause any mayhem at all. Most directors loved working with him.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>“Alright Kong I’ll go talk to Nancy.” “Cool. You always had a better way with words than I did, more diplomatic.” “That’s gotta be the first time I’ve ever heard someone call me diplomatic, but I’ll see what I can do, I’m not guaranteeing anything though.” Kong gives you the address and you head back to your cabin where you get on you Harley and drive off. You have no plan whatsoever. You’re just going to fumble your way through and try to turn on the charm. Eventually you get to the house which is huge, but then it would have to be to accommodate a couple of giants. You can’t even reach the doorbell, so you just kick the door and howl as loud as you can. A few minutes pass and you think you haven’t been heard, but eventually a colossal bald man with a towel wrapped around his waist opens the door, its Glenn. Well this was certainly unexpected. He looks down with a perturbed stare. “Yeah, whadda you want?” he booms. “Is Nancy home?” “Whadda ya want with Nancy, hairball?” “I have to talk to her, its important.” “Yeah, well I say it isn’t, now get the fuck outta here!” “Look, I’m not looking for trouble, just let me talk to Nancy it won’t take long.” “It won’t take long because you ain’t gonna do it, now get the fuck outta here you fucking mutt!” “Do you even know who I am?” you say starting to lose your temper. “Yeah I do, and if you don’t get the fuck outta here I’m gonna know who you WERE!” While you study his foot, and deciding which one of those big veins you’re going rip into before running off to hide, Nancy comes to the door in a silk robe. She’s kept herself in pretty good condition, either that, or the alien ray that hit her slowed down her aging process. “Glenn, what’s going on…oh hello Wolf. What bring you here?” “Hello Nancy, I need to talk to you for a moment.” “Nancy you want me to get rid of this hairball?” “No Glenn that’s not necessary, be nice.” “Yeah whatever, look I’m leaving, I’ll be back later tonight so you be ready for another round of the amazing colossal dick! Har har har har!” Glenn at this point slaps Nancy hard on her ass, and walks out the door and down the street with just the towel around him! “Uh, isn’t he forgetting something?” “Yes, but its not the first time. One time he left without even a towel.” “Yikes, that must’ve been a sight.” “(Sigh) Not really, he’s isn’t nearly as colossal as he thinks…but anyway come on in.” You enter the house and follow Nancy into the kitchen who makes herself some coffee. You look up at the table trying to figure out the best way to climb up there; Nancy unexpectedly picks you up and puts on it. “Ohh your fur is so soft.” She says brushing her finger against your back. “So what did you have to tell me?” “Its about Kong, he’s taken residence in a forest not too far away from my cabin, he says you kicked him out and he wants to come back home.” “You have my sympathies, for getting him as a neighbor, but I’m not taking him back. I’ve put up with his shit for too long. I was an idiot thinking I could change him. Sometimes I don’t know what the fuck is wrong with me.” Nancy’s pleasant demeanor has changed. This is a delicate situation, say the wrong thing and you could be in real danger. > You continue to talk to her about Kong “Look he says he’s really sorry. Why don’t you just give him a second chance?” you continue to press the issue. “I said NO and if he sent you here to convince me then you can go right back and tell him you fuckin’ failed!” “Oh so Glenn’s such a better choice huh? I though you were supposed to be a feminist. Usually those types are smart, you’re about as bright as a fucking busted nightlight!” “Get the fuck outta my house, you fuckin’ males are all alike! Trying to boss us around and tell us what to do!” “Yeah, yeah fine I’m outta here, enjoy bein’ Glenn’s fuck toy. I swear you bitches never know what the fuck you want…” That last remark gets you a hard slap from Nancy. You go flying from the table and through the window and continue flying until you hit a tree. You then fall to the ground in a heap. You attempt to stand back up, but you’re very woozy. You see Kong sitting nearby watching you try to regain your balance. She must’ve knocked you back to where you started! “Well let me guess, she’s not taking me back.” He says “Got it in one Kong.” You say and then fall unconscious.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>“Alright Kong I’ll go talk to Nancy.” “Cool. You always had a better way with words than I did, more diplomatic.” “That’s gotta be the first time I’ve ever heard someone call me diplomatic, but I’ll see what I can do, I’m not guaranteeing anything though.” Kong gives you the address and you head back to your cabin where you get on you Harley and drive off. You have no plan whatsoever. You’re just going to fumble your way through and try to turn on the charm. Eventually you get to the house which is huge, but then it would have to be to accommodate a couple of giants. You can’t even reach the doorbell, so you just kick the door and howl as loud as you can. A few minutes pass and you think you haven’t been heard, but eventually a colossal bald man with a towel wrapped around his waist opens the door, its Glenn. Well this was certainly unexpected. He looks down with a perturbed stare. “Yeah, whadda you want?” he booms. “Is Nancy home?” “Whadda ya want with Nancy, hairball?” “I have to talk to her, its important.” “Yeah, well I say it isn’t, now get the fuck outta here!” “Look, I’m not looking for trouble, just let me talk to Nancy it won’t take long.” “It won’t take long because you ain’t gonna do it, now get the fuck outta here you fucking mutt!” “Do you even know who I am?” you say starting to lose your temper. “Yeah I do, and if you don’t get the fuck outta here I’m gonna know who you WERE!” While you study his foot, and deciding which one of those big veins you’re going rip into before running off to hide, Nancy comes to the door in a silk robe. She’s kept herself in pretty good condition, either that, or the alien ray that hit her slowed down her aging process. “Glenn, what’s going on…oh hello Wolf. What bring you here?” “Hello Nancy, I need to talk to you for a moment.” “Nancy you want me to get rid of this hairball?” “No Glenn that’s not necessary, be nice.” “Yeah whatever, look I’m leaving, I’ll be back later tonight so you be ready for another round of the amazing colossal dick! Har har har har!” Glenn at this point slaps Nancy hard on her ass, and walks out the door and down the street with just the towel around him! “Uh, isn’t he forgetting something?” “Yes, but its not the first time. One time he left without even a towel.” “Yikes, that must’ve been a sight.” “(Sigh) Not really, he’s isn’t nearly as colossal as he thinks…but anyway come on in.” You enter the house and follow Nancy into the kitchen who makes herself some coffee. You look up at the table trying to figure out the best way to climb up there; Nancy unexpectedly picks you up and puts on it. “Ohh your fur is so soft.” She says brushing her finger against your back. “So what did you have to tell me?” “Its about Kong, he’s taken residence in a forest not too far away from my cabin, he says you kicked him out and he wants to come back home.” “You have my sympathies, for getting him as a neighbor, but I’m not taking him back. I’ve put up with his shit for too long. I was an idiot thinking I could change him. Sometimes I don’t know what the fuck is wrong with me.” Nancy’s pleasant demeanor has changed. This is a delicate situation, say the wrong thing and you could be in real danger. > You memories (Glenn) The Amazing Colossal Man: Glenn Manning Glenn was just another normal human who got “monsterized” through technology. A common theme during the 1950s. In this case it was a good old nuclear explosion and radiation that steadily caused him to grow into a giant. Given that he was soldier, the army was hoping to use him as some kind of weapon, but that was quickly dismissed due to his growing mental instability. Glenn, hadn’t been known to be stable anyway, he’d come close to a Section 8 a couple times before becoming a giant. It was only due to his coming from a proud military family that he’d avoided such a dismissal. Now that he was a 50ft freak, he just went crazier than a shithouse rat sitting in the hot sun. He wreaked havoc and again, it was only because of his influential family that he wasn’t killed and merely captured and heavily drugged instead. He was ultimately institutionalized and kept heavily doped up for a majority of his life, and let out for periods of time. A few agents wanted to use him in a series of movies, but most attempts were failures. He was either too doped up to act properly, or not doped up enough to act civilized. In his later years he became a little more subdued and was released permanently, but still had to take medication.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>No, no, no, no! The movie sounds like it sucks and you’re not going to deal with Mary after all the shit you got yourself into last time with her. “Fuck that Erik, there’s gotta be something else!” “Well there’s a comic convention that needs another guest speaker…” You slam the phone down. You need to get out of the house. You decide to go for a walk in the forest. You wander around in the calmness of the forest and nature in general. Sometimes you wonder if you shouldn’t just go back to living in the wild. Things were certainly simpler then. While you’re thinking about the nostalgia of the old days, you see a very large hairy body lying prone in the distance. “What the fuck…how the hell…” you mumble to yourself while going over to investigate. When you arrive, its exactly who you thought it was, though you don’t understand how you couldn’t have heard him lumbering through the forest given how big he is, let alone seen him. “Hey Kong! You alive? Wake up!” you shout. Kong stirs a little and then sits up to yawn. He scratches his now silverback and looks over at you. “Wolf? What’re you doing here?” “Me? I live just a few miles away! What’re you doing here and how is it that I didn’t see or hear you crashing through the forest?” “Oh I can be pretty silent when I want to be.” “Okay, but what’re you doing here?” “Back to nature my friend. Nancy kicked me out of the house. For good this time, she said she can’t put up with my chauvinism any more. All I told her was to get her ass back in the kitchen and make me a banana split and serve it to me naked.” “Sounds like a reasonable request, so what happened?” “She went into the kitchen, came back out with a frying pan of hot grease, threw the shit on me and kicked me in the balls, before shoving me out the door and calling me a fucking backward primate.” You hold back some laughter, before speaking again. “Tough break there Kong, but I guess you could look on the bright side, you’re back to your roots with no more cares anymore. Living free in the wild and all.” “Are you on fucking crack Wolf? It sucks! You know when I lived on Skull Island I didn’t know any better, but in the last few days I’ve come to realize living in a warm HOUSE and sleeping in a bed is way better than living in the cold wild and sleeping on the ground where bugs crawl all over you!” Kong’s remarks certainly have made you reconsider your previous nostalgia of the old days. “Well, can’t you just make up with Nancy? Surely if she’s put up with you this long and if you apologized and did all that romantic crap she’d let you back in.” “Don’t think so Wolf, I never was good at that, besides she’s got a restraining order on me too.” ”What else did you do to her?” “Nothing! She’s just being a crazy bitch, that’s unwilling to listen to reason. Well unwilling to listen to me anyway. Hey Wolf, you’ve always been a smooth talker with ladies. Maybe you could talk some sense into her for me.” “Uh, I dunno Kong I don’t really like getting into the middle of shit like this, don’t you have someplace else to stay, hey what about your cousin Joe?” “I’m not staying with him! He’s a fucking fag!” “Well, beggars can’t be chooser Kong, besides he’s your cousin it’s not like you have worry about him trying any ass pirate shit on you. I’m sure he’s got a nice house too.” “Yeah, I guess…but I’d still prefer to go back to my own home, and I’m not sure if Joe would let me stay anyway. You gotta help me out Wolf, Nancy kicked me out with nothing, and I don’t even have any money in the bank. I don’t want to be living in the fucking wilderness again!” You normally aren’t one to help someone for no reason, but there’s the fact that you don’t want him living that close to you, you don’t relish the idea of him taking big healthy dumps in a forest you live near, so to avoid wearing a clothespin on your nose for the rest of your time living here, you decide to help Kong. > You go talk to Joe “Well, I think it’s a lost cause with your wife, and to be quite honest I don’t want to get caught up in the drama, but I can go talk with your cousin Joe if you want.” You say. Kong looks disappointed by your remark, and agonizes over making a decision, but finally gives you the okay. “Alright Wolf, but I don’t like this.” “You’ll like it even less, if you have to live out here, now gimme the address.” Kong gives you the address and you go back to your cabin, start up your Harley and ride off. You don’t really have a plan, you’re just going to fumble through as usual, and you just hope Joe doesn’t hit on you. When you get to the house its very large like you expected, but not overly so. You notice the exterior is kept in very good condition, you have no doubt the inside looks like that as well. You get to the door and ring a doorbell that has been conveniently placed at your height level for normal sized guests. Joe opens the door and looks down. “Wolf? Well this IS a pleasant surprise! What brings you here, you perfect specimen of male?” Well no such luck of him not hitting on you. “Settle down there Joe, I’m just here to talk about your cousin Kong.” “Oh. Well what about him?” “He got kicked out by wife Nancy and now he’s living in a forest near my cabin, so can he stay here?” “So, Nancy finally threw that scrub to the curb eh? It’s about time girlfriend did that! Even I told her it was a bad idea for her to marry him. Well you have my sympathies Wolf, but I’m not having that homophobe living here! Though if you like YOU can live here!” “Uh, no. Besides I’m a homophobe too.” “Yes, but you’re a cute one!” “So all the GIRLS tell me. Look isn’t there anyway you’d reconsider? I mean he is family and all. I could tell him to behave himself, and he probably would since he really doesn’t want to be living in the wilderness again.” “Well…I guess, but surely you’ve noticed this place really isn’t built to accommodate his size. He’s a lot bigger than me you know.” You could kick yourself for not realizing that before. You sigh, but ask if there are any arrangements that could be made. “Isn’t there anywhere here he could stay?” “Not unless I had a giant addition built on to my house and I’m not about to do that, I have this house just perfect the way it is.” “How about your backyard? Don’t you have a large backyard with a garden?” “Yes I do, and I’m not about to have that lug crushing all my flowers! However there is a nearby cave that’s in the backyard that could accommodate him. But I’m having problems with my backyard in general which I’m trying to fix as we speak.” “What kind of problems?” “My garden has been infested with those awful Triffids! Horrid things, making that noise and killing my workers! It’s really ruining my business at this point. I’d get rid of them, but they’re much too nasty for me! Those stingers hurt!” You already know what he’s going to ask you, so you beat him to it. “If I get rid of these things can Kong stay in the cave?” “You’d do that? Oh thank you! And yes, if you saved my garden I’d take my cousin in.” Well that’s settled, get rid of the Triffids and Kong can stay, now you just have to figure out how to do it. > You rip them out yourself You figure Joe wants his garden still intact hence the reason he never used toxic chemicals, you prepare yourself for battle and enter the backyard which is littered here and there with dead human workers. The Triffids instantly sense you and begin to crawl slowly over towards you. Fighting them isn’t really that hard, Joe probably kept getting stung due to the fact that he’s a larger target and isn’t as fast as you. You easily avoid their stingers and carefully avoid getting surrounded as you turn them into Caesar salad. Soon you’re finished! You knock on the back door and Joe answers. “All finished Joe.” “What already? Wow, you’re efficient! Maybe you should stick around to help me on a regular basis.” “Don’t think so, but nice try. So Kong can stay then?” “Of course, I keep my word, (Sigh) I’m going to have to hire all new workers though, I’m really going to take a loss this year.” You turn briefly around and see someone coming out of the cave. “Hey Joe, looks like you won’t have to hire all new workers, there’s one coming out of the cave, guess some of them were hiding in there huh?” Joe looks over and another one comes out, then another. “That’s weird…I thought he was…now wait I know he’s…I saw!” “What? What’s going on?” You ask. “I saw those workers die! I saw the damn Triffids kill them right before my eyes! How can they be over there alive!?” At first you think zombies, but that can’t be it. Then you notice one of the dead bodies looks very similar to one of the ones coming out of the caves, and that’s when you know what you’re dealing with. “Uh Joe, you got something worse than just a Triffid infestation, you got fucking Body Snatchers! Fucking Pod People man!” you exclaim. At this point a bunch of them have just come out of the cave and they all look in your direction and let out an ear piecing screech while pointing at you. “Oh no! Wolf can you kill them too?” Joe asks as they advance. > You kill the Body Snatcher yourself “What?! Oh for fuck’s sake, alright you big pussy.” You say and walk towards them while Joe hides in his house. You clobber a couple of them, and think this is going to be an easy fight, that is until one of them starts talking about the intricacies of tax forms, then another talks about the topic of lint collecting and the details about it. Yet another discusses the fascinating subject of the history of cabinet making… You’ve never been overwhelmed by such mind-numbing matter! Your energy begins to leave you and your lids begin to get heavy. You fall into a deep slumber which you never wake up from. Soon a doppelganger of you is hatched. The Boring Snatchers have claimed another victim.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You figure Joe wants his garden still intact hence the reason he never used toxic chemicals, you prepare yourself for battle and enter the backyard which is littered here and there with dead human workers. The Triffids instantly sense you and begin to crawl slowly over towards you. Fighting them isn’t really that hard, Joe probably kept getting stung due to the fact that he’s a larger target and isn’t as fast as you. You easily avoid their stingers and carefully avoid getting surrounded as you turn them into Caesar salad. Soon you’re finished! You knock on the back door and Joe answers. “All finished Joe.” “What already? Wow, you’re efficient! Maybe you should stick around to help me on a regular basis.” “Don’t think so, but nice try. So Kong can stay then?” “Of course, I keep my word, (Sigh) I’m going to have to hire all new workers though, I’m really going to take a loss this year.” You turn briefly around and see someone coming out of the cave. “Hey Joe, looks like you won’t have to hire all new workers, there’s one coming out of the cave, guess some of them were hiding in there huh?” Joe looks over and another one comes out, then another. “That’s weird…I thought he was…now wait I know he’s…I saw!” “What? What’s going on?” You ask. “I saw those workers die! I saw the damn Triffids kill them right before my eyes! How can they be over there alive!?” At first you think zombies, but that can’t be it. Then you notice one of the dead bodies looks very similar to one of the ones coming out of the caves, and that’s when you know what you’re dealing with. “Uh Joe, you got something worse than just a Triffid infestation, you got fucking Body Snatchers! Fucking Pod People man!” you exclaim. At this point a bunch of them have just come out of the cave and they all look in your direction and let out an ear piecing screech while pointing at you. “Oh no! Wolf can you kill them too?” Joe asks as they advance. > You tell Joe to help you “Hey look, there’s a lot of them and I just expended energy fighting a bunch of Triffids! This is your business at stake here. Hell you’re two times bigger than me, the least you can do is help!” “Erm…well…okay, I guess you’re right. I just don’t like violence, I’m a lover not a fighter.” Joe says. You both walk towards them and get into it. You clobber a couple of them, and think this is going to be an easy fight, that is until one of them starts talking about the intricacies of insurance forms, then another talks about the topic of button collecting and the details about it. Yet another discusses the fascinating subject of the history of chamber pot making… You’ve never been overwhelmed by such mind-numbing matter! Your energy begins to leave you and your lids begin to get heavy. Fortunately Joe is there to help you from falling asleep. “Wake up Wolf! Don’t listen to them!” he shouts while punches out three of them at the same time. “Huh? Yeah!” you say getting yourself back into the fight. Eventually you both pound all the pod people back into mulch. “Man, what a boring fight.” You say. “I’m just glad its over, I think I ruined my manicure, I’ll have to make an appointment to get another one.” “Yeah anyway, that should be the end of your plant problems now. You’re not a bad fighter, for someone who claims to be a lover. I’ll just tell Kong he can come over.” “Hold on Wolf, you did help a lot, I didn’t even know about the Body Snatcher hiding in the cave. Good thing you were here, before they got too powerful. Here’s some money for your help.” “Hey, thanks Joe. Glad this hasn’t been for nothing.” You leave Joe to his clean up and ride back home. You then walk back to where Kong is. “Okay I think you can stay at Joe’s, he’s got a cave in his backyard, you can take up residence in, it’s better than nothing.” “I suppose so; I just hope he doesn’t pitch a bitch at me if I accidentally step on a couple of his faggot ass flowers.” “Hey, if you know what’s good for you, you won’t be talking like that around him or else you’ll be getting kicked out again.” You remind Kong. “Yeah, yeah, I know, well thanks for helping me out. I almost didn’t think you would when I first asked you.” “What can I say; it’s been that kind of day for me…and it won’t be again for a long ass time if I have anything to do about it.”<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You figure Joe wants his garden still intact hence the reason he never used toxic chemicals, you prepare yourself for battle and enter the backyard which is littered here and there with dead human workers. The Triffids instantly sense you and begin to crawl slowly over towards you. Fighting them isn’t really that hard, Joe probably kept getting stung due to the fact that he’s a larger target and isn’t as fast as you. You easily avoid their stingers and carefully avoid getting surrounded as you turn them into Caesar salad. Soon you’re finished! You knock on the back door and Joe answers. “All finished Joe.” “What already? Wow, you’re efficient! Maybe you should stick around to help me on a regular basis.” “Don’t think so, but nice try. So Kong can stay then?” “Of course, I keep my word, (Sigh) I’m going to have to hire all new workers though, I’m really going to take a loss this year.” You turn briefly around and see someone coming out of the cave. “Hey Joe, looks like you won’t have to hire all new workers, there’s one coming out of the cave, guess some of them were hiding in there huh?” Joe looks over and another one comes out, then another. “That’s weird…I thought he was…now wait I know he’s…I saw!” “What? What’s going on?” You ask. “I saw those workers die! I saw the damn Triffids kill them right before my eyes! How can they be over there alive!?” At first you think zombies, but that can’t be it. Then you notice one of the dead bodies looks very similar to one of the ones coming out of the caves, and that’s when you know what you’re dealing with. “Uh Joe, you got something worse than just a Triffid infestation, you got fucking Body Snatchers! Fucking Pod People man!” you exclaim. At this point a bunch of them have just come out of the cave and they all look in your direction and let out an ear piecing screech while pointing at you. “Oh no! Wolf can you kill them too?” Joe asks as they advance. > You memories (Body Snatchers) The Pod People: Body Snatchers Out of all the Alien races you’ve come across, or ANY race you’ve come across for that matter, the Body Snatchers have to be without a doubt the most BORING bunch of beings you’ve ever had the displeasure of meeting. They have no emotions whatsoever and talk in a monotone voice. They are not fun in any sense of the word and worse they want to turn everyone else like them as well. They’re like intergalactic religious missionaries, but even more boring if such a thing was possible. You can’t imagine what their home planet is like; it must be filled with bureaucrats, accountants and insurance agents. It’s not even any fun fighting them. They just fall down and die when you kill them. No screams, no yelling, nothing. At most they might say “Ow.” and keel over.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>“Well, I think it’s a lost cause with your wife, and to be quite honest I don’t want to get caught up in the drama, but I can go talk with your cousin Joe if you want.” You say. Kong looks disappointed by your remark, and agonizes over making a decision, but finally gives you the okay. “Alright Wolf, but I don’t like this.” “You’ll like it even less, if you have to live out here, now gimme the address.” Kong gives you the address and you go back to your cabin, start up your Harley and ride off. You don’t really have a plan, you’re just going to fumble through as usual, and you just hope Joe doesn’t hit on you. When you get to the house its very large like you expected, but not overly so. You notice the exterior is kept in very good condition, you have no doubt the inside looks like that as well. You get to the door and ring a doorbell that has been conveniently placed at your height level for normal sized guests. Joe opens the door and looks down. “Wolf? Well this IS a pleasant surprise! What brings you here, you perfect specimen of male?” Well no such luck of him not hitting on you. “Settle down there Joe, I’m just here to talk about your cousin Kong.” “Oh. Well what about him?” “He got kicked out by wife Nancy and now he’s living in a forest near my cabin, so can he stay here?” “So, Nancy finally threw that scrub to the curb eh? It’s about time girlfriend did that! Even I told her it was a bad idea for her to marry him. Well you have my sympathies Wolf, but I’m not having that homophobe living here! Though if you like YOU can live here!” “Uh, no. Besides I’m a homophobe too.” “Yes, but you’re a cute one!” “So all the GIRLS tell me. Look isn’t there anyway you’d reconsider? I mean he is family and all. I could tell him to behave himself, and he probably would since he really doesn’t want to be living in the wilderness again.” “Well…I guess, but surely you’ve noticed this place really isn’t built to accommodate his size. He’s a lot bigger than me you know.” You could kick yourself for not realizing that before. You sigh, but ask if there are any arrangements that could be made. “Isn’t there anywhere here he could stay?” “Not unless I had a giant addition built on to my house and I’m not about to do that, I have this house just perfect the way it is.” “How about your backyard? Don’t you have a large backyard with a garden?” “Yes I do, and I’m not about to have that lug crushing all my flowers! However there is a nearby cave that’s in the backyard that could accommodate him. But I’m having problems with my backyard in general which I’m trying to fix as we speak.” “What kind of problems?” “My garden has been infested with those awful Triffids! Horrid things, making that noise and killing my workers! It’s really ruining my business at this point. I’d get rid of them, but they’re much too nasty for me! Those stingers hurt!” You already know what he’s going to ask you, so you beat him to it. “If I get rid of these things can Kong stay in the cave?” “You’d do that? Oh thank you! And yes, if you saved my garden I’d take my cousin in.” Well that’s settled, get rid of the Triffids and Kong can stay, now you just have to figure out how to do it. > You use more chemical means You have no idea why the hell Joe hasn’t just gotten some heavy duty weed killer. You tell Joe you’ll be back and zoom off to the nearest hardware store, where you buy a big tank of the stuff with what little money you have. When you come back you head straight to the backyard where the Triffids sense new fertilizer and begin to slowly scuttle towards you. You put on a mask and begin to spray the area. The toxic gas does its work and the Triffids begin to die, along with every other plant in the backyard, you’ve just destroyed Joe’s garden! Just then, Joe comes out to see why there’s a toxic cloud in his yard and is horrified by what you’ve done. “MY GARDEN! WHAT DID YOU DO!?!” Joe cries. “I killed the Triffids just like you wanted.” “YOU KILLED MY GARDEN! You fucking idiot! Why the hell did you use poison?! You were supposed to rip them out by hand!” “Oh so it was okay for me to get stung right? Fuck that, you never said how I was supposed to kill them.” “It should’ve been obvious not to use poison you goddamn moron!” ”Well shit, I’m not a botanist, how the fuck was I supposed to know.” “Oh God! My business is ruined! I’m finished! (Sob!)” “Yeah, um, sorry about that. Look I’m just going to leave now…okay then.” You leave Joe to his tears and ride back home. You then walk back to where Kong is. “Okay I think you can stay at Joe’s, he’s got a cave in his backyard, you can take up residence in, it’s better than nothing.” “I suppose so; I just hope he doesn’t pitch a bitch at me if I accidentally step on a couple of his faggot ass flowers.” “I don’t think you’ll ever have to be worrying about that Kong.”<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>“Well, I think it’s a lost cause with your wife, and to be quite honest I don’t want to get caught up in the drama, but I can go talk with your cousin Joe if you want.” You say. Kong looks disappointed by your remark, and agonizes over making a decision, but finally gives you the okay. “Alright Wolf, but I don’t like this.” “You’ll like it even less, if you have to live out here, now gimme the address.” Kong gives you the address and you go back to your cabin, start up your Harley and ride off. You don’t really have a plan, you’re just going to fumble through as usual, and you just hope Joe doesn’t hit on you. When you get to the house its very large like you expected, but not overly so. You notice the exterior is kept in very good condition, you have no doubt the inside looks like that as well. You get to the door and ring a doorbell that has been conveniently placed at your height level for normal sized guests. Joe opens the door and looks down. “Wolf? Well this IS a pleasant surprise! What brings you here, you perfect specimen of male?” Well no such luck of him not hitting on you. “Settle down there Joe, I’m just here to talk about your cousin Kong.” “Oh. Well what about him?” “He got kicked out by wife Nancy and now he’s living in a forest near my cabin, so can he stay here?” “So, Nancy finally threw that scrub to the curb eh? It’s about time girlfriend did that! Even I told her it was a bad idea for her to marry him. Well you have my sympathies Wolf, but I’m not having that homophobe living here! Though if you like YOU can live here!” “Uh, no. Besides I’m a homophobe too.” “Yes, but you’re a cute one!” “So all the GIRLS tell me. Look isn’t there anyway you’d reconsider? I mean he is family and all. I could tell him to behave himself, and he probably would since he really doesn’t want to be living in the wilderness again.” “Well…I guess, but surely you’ve noticed this place really isn’t built to accommodate his size. He’s a lot bigger than me you know.” You could kick yourself for not realizing that before. You sigh, but ask if there are any arrangements that could be made. “Isn’t there anywhere here he could stay?” “Not unless I had a giant addition built on to my house and I’m not about to do that, I have this house just perfect the way it is.” “How about your backyard? Don’t you have a large backyard with a garden?” “Yes I do, and I’m not about to have that lug crushing all my flowers! However there is a nearby cave that’s in the backyard that could accommodate him. But I’m having problems with my backyard in general which I’m trying to fix as we speak.” “What kind of problems?” “My garden has been infested with those awful Triffids! Horrid things, making that noise and killing my workers! It’s really ruining my business at this point. I’d get rid of them, but they’re much too nasty for me! Those stingers hurt!” You already know what he’s going to ask you, so you beat him to it. “If I get rid of these things can Kong stay in the cave?” “You’d do that? Oh thank you! And yes, if you saved my garden I’d take my cousin in.” Well that’s settled, get rid of the Triffids and Kong can stay, now you just have to figure out how to do it. > You memories (Triffids) Killer Plants: Triffids There isn’t much to know about Triffids, they’re basically intelligent plants that like to kill people with their stingers and then use them for fertilizer. There have been questions if they came from spores from a crashed meteor or if they were yet another genetic experiment gone wrong. Given your past dealings with Mad Scientist types and humans in general, you’d say the latter. Fucking humans never know when to leave shit alone.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>No, no, no, no! The movie sounds like it sucks and you’re not going to deal with Mary after all the shit you got yourself into last time with her. “Fuck that Erik, there’s gotta be something else!” “Well there’s a comic convention that needs another guest speaker…” You slam the phone down. You need to get out of the house. You decide to go for a walk in the forest. You wander around in the calmness of the forest and nature in general. Sometimes you wonder if you shouldn’t just go back to living in the wild. Things were certainly simpler then. While you’re thinking about the nostalgia of the old days, you see a very large hairy body lying prone in the distance. “What the fuck…how the hell…” you mumble to yourself while going over to investigate. When you arrive, its exactly who you thought it was, though you don’t understand how you couldn’t have heard him lumbering through the forest given how big he is, let alone seen him. “Hey Kong! You alive? Wake up!” you shout. Kong stirs a little and then sits up to yawn. He scratches his now silverback and looks over at you. “Wolf? What’re you doing here?” “Me? I live just a few miles away! What’re you doing here and how is it that I didn’t see or hear you crashing through the forest?” “Oh I can be pretty silent when I want to be.” “Okay, but what’re you doing here?” “Back to nature my friend. Nancy kicked me out of the house. For good this time, she said she can’t put up with my chauvinism any more. All I told her was to get her ass back in the kitchen and make me a banana split and serve it to me naked.” “Sounds like a reasonable request, so what happened?” “She went into the kitchen, came back out with a frying pan of hot grease, threw the shit on me and kicked me in the balls, before shoving me out the door and calling me a fucking backward primate.” You hold back some laughter, before speaking again. “Tough break there Kong, but I guess you could look on the bright side, you’re back to your roots with no more cares anymore. Living free in the wild and all.” “Are you on fucking crack Wolf? It sucks! You know when I lived on Skull Island I didn’t know any better, but in the last few days I’ve come to realize living in a warm HOUSE and sleeping in a bed is way better than living in the cold wild and sleeping on the ground where bugs crawl all over you!” Kong’s remarks certainly have made you reconsider your previous nostalgia of the old days. “Well, can’t you just make up with Nancy? Surely if she’s put up with you this long and if you apologized and did all that romantic crap she’d let you back in.” “Don’t think so Wolf, I never was good at that, besides she’s got a restraining order on me too.” ”What else did you do to her?” “Nothing! She’s just being a crazy bitch, that’s unwilling to listen to reason. Well unwilling to listen to me anyway. Hey Wolf, you’ve always been a smooth talker with ladies. Maybe you could talk some sense into her for me.” “Uh, I dunno Kong I don’t really like getting into the middle of shit like this, don’t you have someplace else to stay, hey what about your cousin Joe?” “I’m not staying with him! He’s a fucking fag!” “Well, beggars can’t be chooser Kong, besides he’s your cousin it’s not like you have worry about him trying any ass pirate shit on you. I’m sure he’s got a nice house too.” “Yeah, I guess…but I’d still prefer to go back to my own home, and I’m not sure if Joe would let me stay anyway. You gotta help me out Wolf, Nancy kicked me out with nothing, and I don’t even have any money in the bank. I don’t want to be living in the fucking wilderness again!” You normally aren’t one to help someone for no reason, but there’s the fact that you don’t want him living that close to you, you don’t relish the idea of him taking big healthy dumps in a forest you live near, so to avoid wearing a clothespin on your nose for the rest of your time living here, you decide to help Kong. > You memories (Kong) King of Skull Island: King Kong Not King of the Monsters (That honor belongs to Godzilla) but Kong certainly ranks close. In some ways he has a similar background to yours, he was living in the wilderness before civilization came calling, but was exploited financially more by humans. (Whereas you just blew all your money on wine, women and divorce) Kong never was the sharpest knife in the drawer and from day one when those humans convinced him he could become a star; they milked the gravy train as much as they could. After all monkeys plus movie always equal big bucks (Okay he was really an ape, but nobody cares about technicalities) so Kong being the biggest means he would bring in even more. Kong did become very popular and famous, but he wasn’t making nearly as much money as he should’ve been. That still wasn’t enough to lead to his ruin, what did that was his self destructive personality. He knew he couldn’t hold his fucking liquor yet he went and did it anyway which would always result in him paying out millions in reconstruction fees and his own hospital bills from multiple biplane wounds. While you’ve never been one to fit into “polite society” your normal size didn’t cause you to commit damage on a massive scale when you got drunk. (Though there was that one time in LA when you were on a two week drinking binge…) There was also the fact if he thought some woman was pretty, he’d just grab her, which resulted in more legal trouble. He just had a hard time of grasping the concept of dating. Finally all this trouble was too much even for his agents and all the other humans exploiting him to put up with and they abandoned him finding out that sticking with normal sized monkeys was much easier, so Kong’s career was pretty much finished. He didn’t even have enough money to go back to Skull Island, not that he would’ve been able to live there, since it got turned into an amusement park. Things looked bleak for Kong until he struck lucky and Nancy took an interest in him and the two eventually married.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>No, no, no, no! The movie sounds like it sucks and you’re not going to deal with Mary after all the shit you got yourself into last time with her. “Fuck that Erik, there’s gotta be something else!” “Well there’s a comic convention that needs another guest speaker…” You slam the phone down. You need to get out of the house. You decide to go for a walk in the forest. You wander around in the calmness of the forest and nature in general. Sometimes you wonder if you shouldn’t just go back to living in the wild. Things were certainly simpler then. While you’re thinking about the nostalgia of the old days, you see a very large hairy body lying prone in the distance. “What the fuck…how the hell…” you mumble to yourself while going over to investigate. When you arrive, its exactly who you thought it was, though you don’t understand how you couldn’t have heard him lumbering through the forest given how big he is, let alone seen him. “Hey Kong! You alive? Wake up!” you shout. Kong stirs a little and then sits up to yawn. He scratches his now silverback and looks over at you. “Wolf? What’re you doing here?” “Me? I live just a few miles away! What’re you doing here and how is it that I didn’t see or hear you crashing through the forest?” “Oh I can be pretty silent when I want to be.” “Okay, but what’re you doing here?” “Back to nature my friend. Nancy kicked me out of the house. For good this time, she said she can’t put up with my chauvinism any more. All I told her was to get her ass back in the kitchen and make me a banana split and serve it to me naked.” “Sounds like a reasonable request, so what happened?” “She went into the kitchen, came back out with a frying pan of hot grease, threw the shit on me and kicked me in the balls, before shoving me out the door and calling me a fucking backward primate.” You hold back some laughter, before speaking again. “Tough break there Kong, but I guess you could look on the bright side, you’re back to your roots with no more cares anymore. Living free in the wild and all.” “Are you on fucking crack Wolf? It sucks! You know when I lived on Skull Island I didn’t know any better, but in the last few days I’ve come to realize living in a warm HOUSE and sleeping in a bed is way better than living in the cold wild and sleeping on the ground where bugs crawl all over you!” Kong’s remarks certainly have made you reconsider your previous nostalgia of the old days. “Well, can’t you just make up with Nancy? Surely if she’s put up with you this long and if you apologized and did all that romantic crap she’d let you back in.” “Don’t think so Wolf, I never was good at that, besides she’s got a restraining order on me too.” ”What else did you do to her?” “Nothing! She’s just being a crazy bitch, that’s unwilling to listen to reason. Well unwilling to listen to me anyway. Hey Wolf, you’ve always been a smooth talker with ladies. Maybe you could talk some sense into her for me.” “Uh, I dunno Kong I don’t really like getting into the middle of shit like this, don’t you have someplace else to stay, hey what about your cousin Joe?” “I’m not staying with him! He’s a fucking fag!” “Well, beggars can’t be chooser Kong, besides he’s your cousin it’s not like you have worry about him trying any ass pirate shit on you. I’m sure he’s got a nice house too.” “Yeah, I guess…but I’d still prefer to go back to my own home, and I’m not sure if Joe would let me stay anyway. You gotta help me out Wolf, Nancy kicked me out with nothing, and I don’t even have any money in the bank. I don’t want to be living in the fucking wilderness again!” You normally aren’t one to help someone for no reason, but there’s the fact that you don’t want him living that close to you, you don’t relish the idea of him taking big healthy dumps in a forest you live near, so to avoid wearing a clothespin on your nose for the rest of your time living here, you decide to help Kong. > You memories (Nancy) The 50ft Woman: Nancy Archer If you were gigantic freak, you certainly would’ve tried to tap that ass, hell if you just had a freakishly gigantic dick, you would’ve tried to tap that ass, but some things just aren’t meant to be. Nancy was just a normal rich human woman who was stuck in a bad marriage with an abusive cheating husband. The intelligent thing for her to have done would’ve been to leave him, but she had incredibly low self esteem due to his verbal abuse as well. So she just took all his abuse with a smile. Then one day some alien teenagers were fucking around with their toys on humans as usual and she got hit with some “Giant Ray”. She was horrified at first, but yet liberated. Her new size predictably had given her confidence. She didn’t waste any time, she immediately squashed her two timing abusive hubby and started a new life for herself. She did a few movies, but her main thing was modeling, mainly on those big billboards. Cancer sticks were popular back then so she had all kinds of contracts with cigarette companies. She was also a supporter of women’s’ rights and was also a big feminist. She invented the slogan “You’ve come a long way baby” However, despite all her new found freedom and her new life, she was still deep down unfulfilled. For whatever reason, she still wanted someone in her life, she had some suitors, but turned them all down and it was around that time when Kong was down on his luck and they met. It seems strange that Nancy would be interested in him, as he wasn’t the most “enlightened male” (Compared to him, you were considered pretty “forward thinking”) however that might’ve been why she fell for Kong. She felt that she failed at her past marriage by not trying hard enough to change him and just avoided the problem by stomping it into a bloody pulp. Kong was a chauvinist dick, and had problems controlling his anger. This would be her second chance! Apparently Nancy still had some issues. All of which goes to confirm what you’ve known all along, they can talk all they want about how they want a sensitive guy that does all that romantic shit 24/7, but more often than not chicks always fall for the dick.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>No, no, no, no! The movie sounds like it sucks and you’re not going to deal with Mary after all the shit you got yourself into last time with her. “Fuck that Erik, there’s gotta be something else!” “Well there’s a comic convention that needs another guest speaker…” You slam the phone down. You need to get out of the house. You decide to go for a walk in the forest. You wander around in the calmness of the forest and nature in general. Sometimes you wonder if you shouldn’t just go back to living in the wild. Things were certainly simpler then. While you’re thinking about the nostalgia of the old days, you see a very large hairy body lying prone in the distance. “What the fuck…how the hell…” you mumble to yourself while going over to investigate. When you arrive, its exactly who you thought it was, though you don’t understand how you couldn’t have heard him lumbering through the forest given how big he is, let alone seen him. “Hey Kong! You alive? Wake up!” you shout. Kong stirs a little and then sits up to yawn. He scratches his now silverback and looks over at you. “Wolf? What’re you doing here?” “Me? I live just a few miles away! What’re you doing here and how is it that I didn’t see or hear you crashing through the forest?” “Oh I can be pretty silent when I want to be.” “Okay, but what’re you doing here?” “Back to nature my friend. Nancy kicked me out of the house. For good this time, she said she can’t put up with my chauvinism any more. All I told her was to get her ass back in the kitchen and make me a banana split and serve it to me naked.” “Sounds like a reasonable request, so what happened?” “She went into the kitchen, came back out with a frying pan of hot grease, threw the shit on me and kicked me in the balls, before shoving me out the door and calling me a fucking backward primate.” You hold back some laughter, before speaking again. “Tough break there Kong, but I guess you could look on the bright side, you’re back to your roots with no more cares anymore. Living free in the wild and all.” “Are you on fucking crack Wolf? It sucks! You know when I lived on Skull Island I didn’t know any better, but in the last few days I’ve come to realize living in a warm HOUSE and sleeping in a bed is way better than living in the cold wild and sleeping on the ground where bugs crawl all over you!” Kong’s remarks certainly have made you reconsider your previous nostalgia of the old days. “Well, can’t you just make up with Nancy? Surely if she’s put up with you this long and if you apologized and did all that romantic crap she’d let you back in.” “Don’t think so Wolf, I never was good at that, besides she’s got a restraining order on me too.” ”What else did you do to her?” “Nothing! She’s just being a crazy bitch, that’s unwilling to listen to reason. Well unwilling to listen to me anyway. Hey Wolf, you’ve always been a smooth talker with ladies. Maybe you could talk some sense into her for me.” “Uh, I dunno Kong I don’t really like getting into the middle of shit like this, don’t you have someplace else to stay, hey what about your cousin Joe?” “I’m not staying with him! He’s a fucking fag!” “Well, beggars can’t be chooser Kong, besides he’s your cousin it’s not like you have worry about him trying any ass pirate shit on you. I’m sure he’s got a nice house too.” “Yeah, I guess…but I’d still prefer to go back to my own home, and I’m not sure if Joe would let me stay anyway. You gotta help me out Wolf, Nancy kicked me out with nothing, and I don’t even have any money in the bank. I don’t want to be living in the fucking wilderness again!” You normally aren’t one to help someone for no reason, but there’s the fact that you don’t want him living that close to you, you don’t relish the idea of him taking big healthy dumps in a forest you live near, so to avoid wearing a clothespin on your nose for the rest of your time living here, you decide to help Kong. > You memories (Joe) The Sensitive Ape: Mighty Joe Young After Kong destroyed his own career, some of the humans that exploited him still wanted to go with the giant monkey theme so they had to find a substitute. Someone suggested Kong’s cousin Joe. He seemed like the perfect candidate, maybe he wasn’t as big as Kong, but he was certainly a lot more manageable and calm. He’d do, they were sure of it. This plan was doomed from the start. First of all Joe wasn’t really interested in acting, he’d rather just live his life in the wilderness. This wasn’t too much of a problem, after all they’d convinced Kong to “embrace” civilization, they could do it with Joe. However, it was apparent that Joe didn’t really want to play a brute similar to Kong. He felt he should be portrayed as a more sensitive being. As a compromise the humans told him that the movie would be made in such a way that the audience would feel sympathy like they did with Kong, but Joe wasn’t buying it. Rewrites and recasts plagued the productions. Joe was also a lot smarter than Kong, they couldn’t exploit him like they could with Kong, he over looked everything they ever tried to make him sign and if he didn’t like it then he’d tell them as much. The third thing was it was apparent that Joe was erm…a bit light on his feet and it was coming through on the screen. They quite correctly though the public wouldn’t accept this, so they tried to “toughen” up his image by putting the word “Mighty” in front of his name. It didn’t really help since Joe made no effort to hide who he was in public and didn’t really understand why he should. Though nobody was going to say anything, since he was still an incredibly strong 12ft ape, the public wasn’t ready for a “sensitive” monkey. His movies bombed, but he didn’t mind, he made his money and invested it well. The joke was on the humans that tried to take advantage of him. Last you heard he bought himself a nice home and spends most of time in his private garden tending to his exotic flowers which he grows for his own florist business.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>“Oh boo fucking hoo, your latest Opera hasn’t been doing too well lately. At least people are paying to see the goddamn thing! As bad of a composer, and musician you are, you oughta be glad anyone’s even paying to see the goddamn thing! People don’t want to see anything with me in it! And at least you’ve got another job to fall back on LIKE BEING AN AGENT THAT’S SUPPOSED TO BE GETTING ME A FUCKING JOB!” you snarl. There’s some dead air briefly and then Erik begins talking again. “You’re right. I shouldn’t be complaining about my problems to you. You of course know all about torment. A war that wages within you, a beast that…” “Erik I’ve got no time and I’m in no mood to hear how we’re supposed to be kindred spirits, you just better tell me you found something for me and it better not be another guest speaker spot at a comic convention!” “Well let’s see…I dunno. Werewolves aren’t popular anymore you know…there might be something…here it is! It’s called Wolf Pack.” “Pack? That implies more than one wolf on the set there Erik. Well I suppose I can share the spotlight with some others. As long as I’m in charge of course.” You say. “Er…well according to this, you’d be the old cranky grandpa wolf that makes a bunch of rude remarks.” “What?! What kind of stupid shit is that?” “Yeah that’s the stuff.” Erik replies not catching on. “I mean what the hell kind of movie is this?” “Its uh…let’s see…oh here. It’s a horror comedy about a werewolf family and how they adjust to human society. Looks like you’ll be playing with a lot of young pups as you’d call them.” “WHAT?! NO! What the fuck Erik? I’m a fucking monster not something to be fucking laughed at! And they already did a movie like that a long time ago and it sucked!” “Well that’s all I got. Maybe you could talk to the director to make changes since they also wrote it. I’m sure you and her are familiar with each other. You had an affair with her for quite some time.” “Uh, you wanna narrow that list down Erik?” “It’s Mary. You know, the one who used to be married to Frankie, until your affair broke up both of your marriages?” Erik’s new information didn’t exactly make you any more enthusiastic to want to take the job. > You memories (Frankie) The Monster: Frankie Dr. Victor Frankenstein made Frankie out of the parts of dead bodies as everyone knows, but what wasn’t so well known at the time was he was using many of the parts from a graveyard where they buried insane asylum patients. The brain of an unstable sexual psychopath probably wasn’t the best choice. Even Igor tried to tell him it was a bad idea, but of course Victor knew it all so he went ahead with playing God. Victor probably wouldn’t have named his creation after himself if he knew what Frankie was going to do. Frankie had a… let’s say unhealthy interest in little girls. He also was an idiotic bully who would try to push anyone around who was smaller. You’re all for the survival of the fittest ideology and might makes right. Hell you live by it. But you didn’t like the way he acted since he was a real pussy when someone actually stood up to him. You also didn’t like him because when he came on the scene, all of a sudden he was number two. It was bad enough you had to play second fiddle to that fucking bloodsucker, but NOW you were getting pushed out of the spotlight from some child molesting, walking stitch work of corpses. Fortunately he tripped up his popularity somewhat when the public became suspicious of his little “secret”. Yet despite being a sicko, he still somehow managed to draw in the money, you hated even being in the same “rank” as him. You’ve never liked the undead as a rule, but Frankie was particularly loathsome to you. He always claimed he was “misunderstood” and couldn’t help the way he was. He couldn’t understand why some people hated him and chased him away with pitchforks and attempted to set him on fire. “Duh, it’s because you’re a goddamn pedophile you sick fuck.” as you so delicately explained one time.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>“Oh boo fucking hoo, your latest Opera hasn’t been doing too well lately. At least people are paying to see the goddamn thing! As bad of a composer, and musician you are, you oughta be glad anyone’s even paying to see the goddamn thing! People don’t want to see anything with me in it! And at least you’ve got another job to fall back on LIKE BEING AN AGENT THAT’S SUPPOSED TO BE GETTING ME A FUCKING JOB!” you snarl. There’s some dead air briefly and then Erik begins talking again. “You’re right. I shouldn’t be complaining about my problems to you. You of course know all about torment. A war that wages within you, a beast that…” “Erik I’ve got no time and I’m in no mood to hear how we’re supposed to be kindred spirits, you just better tell me you found something for me and it better not be another guest speaker spot at a comic convention!” “Well let’s see…I dunno. Werewolves aren’t popular anymore you know…there might be something…here it is! It’s called Wolf Pack.” “Pack? That implies more than one wolf on the set there Erik. Well I suppose I can share the spotlight with some others. As long as I’m in charge of course.” You say. “Er…well according to this, you’d be the old cranky grandpa wolf that makes a bunch of rude remarks.” “What?! What kind of stupid shit is that?” “Yeah that’s the stuff.” Erik replies not catching on. “I mean what the hell kind of movie is this?” “Its uh…let’s see…oh here. It’s a horror comedy about a werewolf family and how they adjust to human society. Looks like you’ll be playing with a lot of young pups as you’d call them.” “WHAT?! NO! What the fuck Erik? I’m a fucking monster not something to be fucking laughed at! And they already did a movie like that a long time ago and it sucked!” “Well that’s all I got. Maybe you could talk to the director to make changes since they also wrote it. I’m sure you and her are familiar with each other. You had an affair with her for quite some time.” “Uh, you wanna narrow that list down Erik?” “It’s Mary. You know, the one who used to be married to Frankie, until your affair broke up both of your marriages?” Erik’s new information didn’t exactly make you any more enthusiastic to want to take the job. > You memories (Mary) The Bride: Mary That entire wedding was an abomination. After the supposed “accidental” death of a little girl, Victor attempted to correct the problem by creating Mary. He figured if Frankie had a bride he could fuck her instead. Of course she was better made since Victor learned from the mistakes he made in Frankie. (This time he had Igor raid a regular graveyard) The marriage was brief and embarrassing. Mary hadn’t been alive that long and it was obvious that she didn’t want anything to do with Frankie even though Victor created her with an increased sex drive. And since Victor could be considered the “father” of them both, and he married them to each other…well that just a bit twisted. Mary didn’t have an identity. She didn’t even have the name “Mary” at that time. She was created solely as a sex toy for Frankie, an unused one to boot, since Frankie still had his sick fetish and didn’t take any interest in her at all. She was very unhappy in her role and pursued intellectual hobbies in her vast spare time. Eventually she took the name Mary after one of her favorite authors. However, she still had that BIG sex drive. She fucked everyone she could get her hands on behind Frankie’s back. It was only a matter of time before she got to you. And well, despite your prejudice against the undead, and the fact that you were married, and the fact she had a really bad hair-do, she was hot and you’re a big dog… You and her had very long and passionate affair. You even looked past the fact that she was Undead. Of course it just happened to be your bad luck to be the one that actually got caught in the act, by Frankie himself one day. Now while Frankie didn’t have any interest in her, he didn’t want anyone else to have her either and since he didn’t like you too much anyway all hell broke loose. Long story short. You beat the shit out of Frankie, depriving him of some of his vital parts. Victor sued you for vandalizing his “property”. Your bitch divorced you and took everything. And Mary left Frankie for good for that damn bloodsucking bastard until they broke up later as well. You really don’t like the undead.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You wake up in your cabin in the woods. You sit up and scratch some fleas that have infested your body. You also realize its still daylight. You hate waking up early. You lope into the bathroom and look in the mirror where you see a canine face covered in gray fur, you remember a time when your fur was completely brown. “You’re getting old Wolf” you say to yourself like you always do while trying to look on the bright side that at least you don’t have the mange. You think you’d just put a silver bullet in your head if you ever started to go bald. After eating some left over mutton in the fridge and some Gummy Blobs (for the sugar “pick me up”) you ponder how you’re going to pay this month’s rent on your cabin. You call your agent Erik and see if that little pissant has found any work for you. Hopefully it’s an actual job and not just a guest speaker spot at a comic convention. “Erik! It’s me Wolf! Pick up the fucking phone! I know you’re there!” you say when you get the answering machine. “Erik! Get on the phone NOW, or I’m gonna go over there and shove a pipe organ up your ass!” That got his attention. “Wolf, I’m sorry, but I fear I’m in a deep depression.” “What else is new? Look I need some work, got anything? I don’t even care if it’s straight to video. I just need some of the green stuff!” “Sadly, I don’t think I do, but then I haven’t really checked…I’m so depressed. I’ve been wondering if I made the right decisions in my life…and now it’s too late for me to do anything about it, because I’m old…” “Join the fucking club Erik! Look do you…” “But my art, my music, that is my love and its failing me again. My latest opera isn’t doing well. I wonder if I chose the wrong thing to love and pursue. Just like I did with Christine. Oh Christine WHY couldn’t you have loved me? I loved you…” Wonderful, he’s in full blown tortured artist mode. He can go on like this forever. You can either give up, or persist in getting something out of him. > You hang up and go to the bar in town Fuck it, you don’t feel like putting up with Erik’s whining. You’ll talk to him later when you’re in the mood. You hang up and decide to engage in one of your favorite past time ever since you became part of “society”. Drink. You head down to the bar in town. When you enter you see it nearly empty. Usually there’s someone here that you don’t like which gives you an excuse to get into a fight. You sit down and order a Scotch. The bartender tends to let you just drink and cleans up the mess you make afterwards, but today turns out a little differently. “Hey Wolf, some people have been wanting to see you.” The bartender says nervously. “Oh? Do these people have a name?” you ask downing your drink. “Well they’re in the bar right now actually, I think they’re old acquaintances of yours.” You scan the bar, which doesn’t take long considering its almost empty. And you’ll be damned you see not one, but THREE people from the old days; you’re surprised you didn’t notice them before. At a nearby table you see Dr. Henry Jekyll and Dr. Jack Griffin. Jack normally would be difficult to see in this dark lighting at the best of times, since he’s invisible, but he’s perfectly noticeable enough when he wears clothing. They see you and wave you to come over. At a table in the far corner you see Dr. Alphonse Moreau. He looks like a wreck. He’s obviously been chain smoking cigarettes and drinking a lot since he got here. He sees you and desperately signals you over like he needs your help severely. While you’re not surprised to see all these humans still alive (Mad scientists ALWAYS figure out how to extend their life spans past the normal human limit) you’re just surprised that they all want to see you and it makes you suspicious. You’ve always been mistrustful of Mad Scientist types ever since your run in with Dr. Victor Frankenstein. You turn to the bartender for more information. “What the hell, is there a Mad Scientist convention in town or some shit? Why are they all here and why do they want me?” “I dunno Wolf. I think its just coincidence. Henry and Jack say they got some sort of experiment going on and want your help on it. They know you’ve been needing some money lately and they’re willing to pay you for your time. I think Henry wants to play catch up with you as well.” “Hmm, speaking of catch, there probably is one. So why’s Moreau here? Same thing?” “He wouldn’t elaborate too much. He says he REALLY needs help with something, and it’s not an experiment. He says he gave up trying to play God. I dunno what’s wrong though you’ll have to ask him yourself. He just said, he’s willing to do anything for you if you help him. Well this venture to the bar seems to have become potentially lucrative; the problem is you have to deal with a bunch of humans with God complexes. (You doubt what the bartender told you about Moreau, his type never gets out of the game completely) You decide to throw caution to the wind and take one of their jobs; you feel you’ll be up to the challenge. After all its common knowledge of what you did to Victor when he tried to take advantage of you once. All it comes down to is who you want to deal with. > You go sit with Jekyll and Griffin Well despite your distrust of Jack, Henry’s always been alright and you could use the easy money. If it doesn’t sound like a good deal to you, you can always decline. You sit down with them both, keeping a constant eye on Jack, well his clothing anyway. “Hey Wolf, glad to see you, it’s been awhile. I remember when we used to tear up places like this back in the day.” Henry says. “Yeah, the good old days.” You say agreeing. “When we were young and a lot more active.” “Speak for yourself Henry.” You stand up and start punching and kicking. “I’m still active and I’m only as old as I feel which isn’t old at all! I can still… OW!” you get a slight sprain in your back when attempting to demonstrate your “youthful” combat abilities. “No, Wolf you’re not old at all.” Jack snickers. “Shut the fuck up Jack, I just haven’t been in a proper fight in awhile, I’m a little out of practice. Say, how about I practice on YOU?” “Uh, okay calm down Wolf! Jack! We’re not here to antagonize anyone!” “You’re right so let’s get all this catch up shit out of the way. Wolf, we got an experiment for you that should be right up your alley. It involves you testing those skills you claim you still have.” “Oh yeah? What kind of experiment is this?” Henry interjects before Jack can continue. “Well the government hired us to develop something that increased combat ability. We’ve been testing it on humans and the results have been good so far, however we want to see how good it is, so we wanted to test them against non-human opponents, you came to mind since well you ARE the Alpha Wolf and despite your age, you are probably the best the Werewolf race has to offer as far as combat skills. I figure you’re still worth 10 of the cubs nowadays. Plus I know you like to kick ass and get paid for doing it. You know how the government likes to throw money around when it comes to new weapons, so I figure we can spare five thousand for your help.” > You accept the job “I guess you always did know me pretty well Henry. Count me in.” you say. “Great! I knew you’d be game.” “Let’s get going, I’m ready.” You, Henry and Jack enter his car and drive to some nondescript building. The ground floor resembles just a normal abandoned warehouse, but of course you three enter a secret room with an elevator that takes you to a lab area, then you pass through a gym area where you see quite a few ugly overly muscular humans doing some rigorous training while doing a lot of shouting and yelling A lot of them look like they have severe ‘roid rage and that includes the females. “Huh, sure they all look pretty, but can they fight?” you mockingly ask Henry. “Well that’s what we’re going to find out. Now the arena area is through that door, you can just enter and the testing will begin. Jack and I will be watching from an upper room. I’ll see you when you’re ready.” Henry leaves with the rest of the humans and you’re about to enter the arena, but a hand grabs you causing you pull away in a defensive stance. It’s Jack. “Don’t fucking touch me Jack!” you growl. “Sheesh, calm down there, I just have to tell you something. Something important.” “What Jack? I don’t have time for your shit.” “Yeah, well you’ll be thanking me later. You need to take this.” Jack takes a bottle out of his jacket and hands it to you. “What’s this?” “It’s MY invention. Henry hasn’t been telling you the entire truth. He’s setting you up to be killed. He doesn’t have any intention of letting you out that arena until one of his super soldiers kills you, and I guarantee it’ll happen eventually. He’s already got most of them hopped up to the point of being uncontrollable. He’ll probably start increasing the dosage if you start winning against the initial barrage. However if you drink my invention you’ll be able to survive. It’s just like what Henry’s been feeding his Super Soldiers, but without all the side effects. Surely you noticed how ugly and distorted all those subjects were. All he did was make alterations to his original Hyde formula instead creating something new from scratch like I did, yet he claims my invention isn’t good enough.” “This all smells like bullshit Jack, but assuming you’re telling the truth, why’s Henry doing it and why in this way?” “I dunno, because he’s a Mad Scientist, and prone to be dramatic I suppose, its just one of our endearing qualities. Plus we really are testing this shit for the government, so its still good research even if it’s doubling as murder. If you want deeper reasons the only other explanation I can give is he’s ALWAYS been jealous of you. Yes, it’s true he did admire you, but he was always jealous of your natural abilities which he had to get artificially, and even then it wasn’t entirely successful as you well know. I can personally vouch for having to hear him rag on you over the years.” This all sounds pretty suspicious especially coming from Jack who’s known for his double dealing and sneaky ways. The bottle might contain poison for all you know, or maybe he’s just angry at Henry for snubbing his invention and he’s using you as a subject to test it which may or may not be as great as he says. Still, Mad Scientist types have tried to fuck you over before; you can’t help but wonder if Henry is planning what Jack’s claiming. > You drink the bottle As much as you don’t trust him, you have to admit Jack has never really done anything against you in all the time you’ve known him. If anything he’s always attempted to be friendly. Is it possible you’ve just been an asshole to him, for no good reason? Probably, but it wouldn’t be the first time and that’s all in the past. You take the bottle and down its contents. “(BURP!) I don’t feel any different.” “Oh you will trust me.” “I’ve put more than enough trust in you already, better not be trying anything Jack, because I swear I WILL get my revenge on you, if this is a fucking trick!” “Not a trick, everything I’ve told you is the truth, you’ll see.” “Yeah, we’ll see.” When you enter the arena area, it’s just a big empty white room with another door on the other side of it. High above you can see Henry on an upper floor with a clipboard behind some glass. He waves to you and speaks into a microphone. “Okay Wolf, we’re going to start off slow, this subject hasn’t been injected with as much of the formula so I’m guessing you shouldn’t have any problems with him. Try not to kill him though, since we DO want some of them to survive!” “No killing eh? Well I suppose there’s a first time for everything, alright Henry, send in the victim.” No sooner has the human entered the room, and you’ve already run up and drop kicked him in the face! You don’t allow him to get back up, and end up breaking one of his legs by totally destroying his knee. He’s in extreme pain and expresses it vocally. “Damn Wolf! What the hell!?” Henry shouts. “Hey you said not to kill him, you didn’t say anything about not breaking bones.” “Alright, drag him out, and bring in the next one.” This goes on for the next five fights. If the subjects are supposed to be getting tougher, you haven’t noticed. All you’ve notice is a severe change in the subjects, mainly being bigger and more vicious, they’re starting to not even resemble humans anymore, and in fact they resemble “Mr. Hyde” but even more out of control. But you haven’t even broken a sweat during all of this, it’s like you’re in your prime again. It must be Jack’s formula. Looks like he didn’t lie. You look up where Henry is located and you notice he seems to be ranting and yelling at Jack. He addresses you again. “How are you doing Wolf?” “Great! I haven’t felt this good in years!” “Hmm, well I guess I haven’t been trying hard enough! Wolf, I’m sending three of them in there, try to beat that!” “Hey, you’re supposed to be testing their fighting skills not mine.” “No Wolf, I’m supposed to be KILLING you, but you’re too fucking stupid to die properly! Well that ends now!” Looks like Jack was telling the truth about that too, you attempt to leave the way you came in but, a solid metal door slides from a hidden panel to block your way. Even your increased combat abilities can’t make more than a dent in it. Henry then begins to laugh maniacally and three lumbering hulks come through the opposite door all intent on doing you massive harm. However, you don’t have any fear about this situation, you’re confident that you can take them and you do just that! You’re literally a whirlwind of fury and violence. Bones are broken, flesh is ripped, faces are bitten and balls are stomped and happily none of them are yours. As you stand over the three large mutilated corpses you look up at the observation area and see only Jack standing there to address you. “Hey Jack! Let me outta here, I got a score to settle with that fucking pussy Henry!” “Uh, Wolf, you might want to prepare yourself, Henry said he’s coming down to handle you himself.” “What as Mr. Hyde? Pfft! Yeah, I’m really worried. He’s nowhere near as vicious as these fucktards were. I had to bail him out of most of the fights he started in the past. Sure he looked scary, still couldn’t fight worth a shit though.” Suddenly a very large figure smashes through the wall opposite you, its Mr. Hyde and he’s a LOT bigger and uglier than the last time you saw him. He’s easily larger than the last three subjects you just put down. “WOLF!!!” he bellows. Okay somebody just overdosed on the “formula”. > You fight Yeah, you might be feeling in your “prime” and all, but Mr. Hyde is severely out of your weight class right now. You might be quicker, but all he has to do is hit you once and you’re not that good to completely avoid being hit entirely… And when you inevitably feel that pile driver like fist breaking every bone simultaneously in your body you know you’ve been hit. You don’t feel the next one reducing you into a thin red furry paste.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>As much as you don’t trust him, you have to admit Jack has never really done anything against you in all the time you’ve known him. If anything he’s always attempted to be friendly. Is it possible you’ve just been an asshole to him, for no good reason? Probably, but it wouldn’t be the first time and that’s all in the past. You take the bottle and down its contents. “(BURP!) I don’t feel any different.” “Oh you will trust me.” “I’ve put more than enough trust in you already, better not be trying anything Jack, because I swear I WILL get my revenge on you, if this is a fucking trick!” “Not a trick, everything I’ve told you is the truth, you’ll see.” “Yeah, we’ll see.” When you enter the arena area, it’s just a big empty white room with another door on the other side of it. High above you can see Henry on an upper floor with a clipboard behind some glass. He waves to you and speaks into a microphone. “Okay Wolf, we’re going to start off slow, this subject hasn’t been injected with as much of the formula so I’m guessing you shouldn’t have any problems with him. Try not to kill him though, since we DO want some of them to survive!” “No killing eh? Well I suppose there’s a first time for everything, alright Henry, send in the victim.” No sooner has the human entered the room, and you’ve already run up and drop kicked him in the face! You don’t allow him to get back up, and end up breaking one of his legs by totally destroying his knee. He’s in extreme pain and expresses it vocally. “Damn Wolf! What the hell!?” Henry shouts. “Hey you said not to kill him, you didn’t say anything about not breaking bones.” “Alright, drag him out, and bring in the next one.” This goes on for the next five fights. If the subjects are supposed to be getting tougher, you haven’t noticed. All you’ve notice is a severe change in the subjects, mainly being bigger and more vicious, they’re starting to not even resemble humans anymore, and in fact they resemble “Mr. Hyde” but even more out of control. But you haven’t even broken a sweat during all of this, it’s like you’re in your prime again. It must be Jack’s formula. Looks like he didn’t lie. You look up where Henry is located and you notice he seems to be ranting and yelling at Jack. He addresses you again. “How are you doing Wolf?” “Great! I haven’t felt this good in years!” “Hmm, well I guess I haven’t been trying hard enough! Wolf, I’m sending three of them in there, try to beat that!” “Hey, you’re supposed to be testing their fighting skills not mine.” “No Wolf, I’m supposed to be KILLING you, but you’re too fucking stupid to die properly! Well that ends now!” Looks like Jack was telling the truth about that too, you attempt to leave the way you came in but, a solid metal door slides from a hidden panel to block your way. Even your increased combat abilities can’t make more than a dent in it. Henry then begins to laugh maniacally and three lumbering hulks come through the opposite door all intent on doing you massive harm. However, you don’t have any fear about this situation, you’re confident that you can take them and you do just that! You’re literally a whirlwind of fury and violence. Bones are broken, flesh is ripped, faces are bitten and balls are stomped and happily none of them are yours. As you stand over the three large mutilated corpses you look up at the observation area and see only Jack standing there to address you. “Hey Jack! Let me outta here, I got a score to settle with that fucking pussy Henry!” “Uh, Wolf, you might want to prepare yourself, Henry said he’s coming down to handle you himself.” “What as Mr. Hyde? Pfft! Yeah, I’m really worried. He’s nowhere near as vicious as these fucktards were. I had to bail him out of most of the fights he started in the past. Sure he looked scary, still couldn’t fight worth a shit though.” Suddenly a very large figure smashes through the wall opposite you, its Mr. Hyde and he’s a LOT bigger and uglier than the last time you saw him. He’s easily larger than the last three subjects you just put down. “WOLF!!!” he bellows. Okay somebody just overdosed on the “formula”. > You escape Even with your renewed “youth”, you know you’re not going to be able to take Mr. Hyde, not head on at least. You still need to get the hell out of here though and he’s blocking the only exit, but you have a plan. Mr. Hyde predictably charges at you, and puts his giant fist through the wall behind you, collapsing most of it when you dodge out of the way. Well there was your plan! When he unsuccessfully tries to hit you again, you roll out of the way and run out the opening Mr. Hyde just provided for you. You quickly take a few bricks and chuck them at Mr. Hyde’s face when he attempts to squeeze through, of course that doesn’t do anything except causing a few gashes and making him madder. “YOU DIE TODAY WOLF!” he says collapsing more of the building in an attempt to get you. You just realized you’re underground, if he continues with this destruction he’s going to end up burying the both of you. You make your way to the elevator with Mr. Hyde in pursuit. When you get to where the elevator is in sight, you see Jack with a briefcase, busily fiddling with the buttons, he turns to face you. “Wolf! Watch out behind you!” he yells pointing in your direction. > You immediately dive to the floor You don’t think you just act and dive face first in the floor and roll attempting to avoid whatever Mr. Hyde has just thrown at you. The only problem is, he didn’t throw anything; in fact he’s still trying to squeeze through the corridor that’s just a bit too small for him. Meanwhile you were rolling on the floor; Jack nipped inside the elevator and closed the door! “SONOFABITCH!” You shout and quickly pry the doors open with all your might, but the elevator is already on its way up. Fortunately there is an emergency ladder on the side you can still use, or if you want to risk it the elevator has only just started to ascend, you could grab on to the bottom of it and take it up. > You grab the bottom You jump up and grab the bottom as the elevator doors snap shut behind you. You hold on for dear life as you hear the building shake from Hyde destroying yet another load bearing pillar no doubt. The elevator is shaking as well which does concern you since if it suddenly starts to drop, you’re going to be in a BAD position! As you dangle high above, you look down and see the elevator doors you came through being smashed through. Hyde sticks his head in first, then his massive body, and looks up, he sees you. “DIE WOLF!” His single mindedness on your death causes him to start digging his massive fingers in the shaft walls to climb after you! To make matters worse the elevator has just stopped, you hear Jack cursing above you. As you look up you notice a service panel on the bottom of the elevator. You could either open and go through that, or attempt to leap to the emergency ladder. > You leap for the ladder You leap for the ladder and just barely make it from your awkward position. Hyde is still in pursuit and closing fast. When you start your ascent, the see the figure of Jack jumping on the ladder just above you, he must’ve used the service panel in the roof of the elevator to escape. He must’ve left the briefcase behind in the elevator too since he’s not carrying it anymore. He looks down and pulls out a pistol. He fires several times, but fortunately only hits you in the arm. Unfortunately those bullets are silver and it fucking hurts like hell! “Argh! Shit! I should’ve known not to trust you, you goddamned invisible bastard!” you yell. Jack stops firing at you and then starts firing at the main elevator cord hitting it. The elevator is now dangerously dangling by a weakened cord. You quickly climb past the elevator before it falls which it inevitably does. You’re safe, but Mr. Hyde isn’t so lucky. The elevator drops at a good speed that even he can’t stop in his position and knocks him off his shaft climb. Hyde makes a deafening roar as the elevator crushes his body when they both hit the bottom. You don’t know if he’s dead yet, but he soon will be, in any case its one less problem to worry about. You continue your ascent after Jack, who is now at the top, trying to open the elevator doors. Too bad for him, he doesn’t have enhanced strength like you and is struggling to open them up, while still balancing on the ladder. “Ha ha, should’ve used your own formula Jack!” you say and grab his leg, digging your claws deeply in. “Arrrgh! Let go you mangy dog!” “You shouldn’t have double crossed me Jack!” “I can see my formula’s made you stronger than I thought, I’ll have to make a note of that after I put an end to you!” Jack pulls out his pistol again which was a big mistake, as now he’s not holding on to anything and is merely balancing on his legs, one of which you’re holding on to… You wrench the leg you’ve dug your claws into and pull hard, causing him to fall off. “NOOOOOOOOO!” he screams as he falls into the dark shaft to his imminent demise. You continue your escape by prying the elevator doors open and crawl through panting heavily. You lie face up on the ground for awhile just resting. You think the effects of the formula are wearing off. Too bad, you liked feeling “young” again. You do realize the folly of going against your instinct though; you knew you weren’t just being an asshole to Jack for all these years for no reason. You knew he was shady. He might’ve been telling the truth about Henry, but he was just using you as a “subject” just to test his invention and to hopefully kill Henry in the process. Oh well you came out alive and they’re both dead, you won. Though one thing pisses you off. “Fuck. The money’s buried down there.” You say to yourself.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You jump up and grab the bottom as the elevator doors snap shut behind you. You hold on for dear life as you hear the building shake from Hyde destroying yet another load bearing pillar no doubt. The elevator is shaking as well which does concern you since if it suddenly starts to drop, you’re going to be in a BAD position! As you dangle high above, you look down and see the elevator doors you came through being smashed through. Hyde sticks his head in first, then his massive body, and looks up, he sees you. “DIE WOLF!” His single mindedness on your death causes him to start digging his massive fingers in the shaft walls to climb after you! To make matters worse the elevator has just stopped, you hear Jack cursing above you. As you look up you notice a service panel on the bottom of the elevator. You could either open and go through that, or attempt to leap to the emergency ladder. > You go through the panel As soon as you open up the panel, you feel a boot to the head. This wouldn’t be able to stop you, but the pistol with silver bullets does. After kicking you in the head, Jack unloads six silvers into your head killing you instantly before your body drops down the elevator shaft, hitting Mr. Hyde and then bouncing off him and continuing to fall until it crashes to the bottom.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You don’t think you just act and dive face first in the floor and roll attempting to avoid whatever Mr. Hyde has just thrown at you. The only problem is, he didn’t throw anything; in fact he’s still trying to squeeze through the corridor that’s just a bit too small for him. Meanwhile you were rolling on the floor; Jack nipped inside the elevator and closed the door! “SONOFABITCH!” You shout and quickly pry the doors open with all your might, but the elevator is already on its way up. Fortunately there is an emergency ladder on the side you can still use, or if you want to risk it the elevator has only just started to ascend, you could grab on to the bottom of it and take it up. > You take the ladder You start climbing the ladder as quickly as you can, its not quick enough though. Hyde eventually bashes the elevator doors open and squeezes into the shaft, upon seeing you on the ladder he climbs up the shaft by digging his massive fingers into the walls. He climbs high enough to grab you off the ladder and squeeze the life out of you until you explode into a mass of blood like a bloated tick.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Even with your renewed “youth”, you know you’re not going to be able to take Mr. Hyde, not head on at least. You still need to get the hell out of here though and he’s blocking the only exit, but you have a plan. Mr. Hyde predictably charges at you, and puts his giant fist through the wall behind you, collapsing most of it when you dodge out of the way. Well there was your plan! When he unsuccessfully tries to hit you again, you roll out of the way and run out the opening Mr. Hyde just provided for you. You quickly take a few bricks and chuck them at Mr. Hyde’s face when he attempts to squeeze through, of course that doesn’t do anything except causing a few gashes and making him madder. “YOU DIE TODAY WOLF!” he says collapsing more of the building in an attempt to get you. You just realized you’re underground, if he continues with this destruction he’s going to end up burying the both of you. You make your way to the elevator with Mr. Hyde in pursuit. When you get to where the elevator is in sight, you see Jack with a briefcase, busily fiddling with the buttons, he turns to face you. “Wolf! Watch out behind you!” he yells pointing in your direction. > You sprint for the elevator You lower your head and make a sprint to the elevator which opens up just as you leap into it. Jack moves out of your way when you do this and then follows you into the elevator. “Wow Wolf, you just missed getting nailed in the head.” Jack says pressing the button up. He might be invisible, but you can tell by the movement of his clothing that he’s fidgeting a lot. The building is shaking, not to mention the elevator, from Mr. Hyde’s destructive rampage, you seriously hope it makes it to the top. As the elevator ascends upward, you both can hear Mr. Hyde below bashing the elevator door open. “YOU WON’T ESCAPE ME WOLF!” you can hear him yell. He’s definitely in the shaft at this point, you can hear scraping and the twisting of metal. It sounds like he’s climbing after you through the shaft, not the emergency ladder! Suddenly the elevator creaks to a halt. Jack frantically presses the buttons, but nothing works. “NO! Shit! No! This can’t be happening! He must’ve knocked some sort of power out some how! Wolf there’s a service panel up top, open it up and we’ll escape out that way.” > You open up the panel While you turn around to reach the panel, Jack reaches into his coat pocket for a pistol. One loaded with silver bullets. He fires three into your back, then when you fall to the floor in a heap, he puts the final one into your head. “Sorry Wolf, but you never were anything more than a test subject for my invention. Glad to see it worked very well, you have my thanks… I suppose you can keep this briefcase of money, I’ll make a fortune with my formula after I dispose of your friend Mr. Hyde of course.” Jack dumps the briefcase on your dead body and climbs through the service panel and hops to the emergency elevator where he fires his pistol at the main elevator cable, hitting it and causing it to dangle a bit and then finally falling. This of course kills Mr. Hyde since even he can’t withstand such a heavy force at such a speed when it knocks him off and then finally crushes him when they both reach the bottom of the shaft. Jack makes his good escape, makes up a story about you and Henry to discredit him and his work, and finally makes millions of dollars from his formula.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You lower your head and make a sprint to the elevator which opens up just as you leap into it. Jack moves out of your way when you do this and then follows you into the elevator. “Wow Wolf, you just missed getting nailed in the head.” Jack says pressing the button up. He might be invisible, but you can tell by the movement of his clothing that he’s fidgeting a lot. The building is shaking, not to mention the elevator, from Mr. Hyde’s destructive rampage, you seriously hope it makes it to the top. As the elevator ascends upward, you both can hear Mr. Hyde below bashing the elevator door open. “YOU WON’T ESCAPE ME WOLF!” you can hear him yell. He’s definitely in the shaft at this point, you can hear scraping and the twisting of metal. It sounds like he’s climbing after you through the shaft, not the emergency ladder! Suddenly the elevator creaks to a halt. Jack frantically presses the buttons, but nothing works. “NO! Shit! No! This can’t be happening! He must’ve knocked some sort of power out some how! Wolf there’s a service panel up top, open it up and we’ll escape out that way.” > You punch out Jack You remember an old saying, “A liar is still a liar even when he’s telling the truth.” And despite Jack telling you the truth about Henry, you can tell he still had his own agenda. In fact it’s obvious he was trying to leave you here to rot. “Hey Jack what’s that?” you say pointing in his direction “Huh?” Jack replies looking down and around himself. POW! You clock Jack in his bandaged face, cracking his sunglasses and knocking him to the floor. You quickly rummage through his coat and find a pistol and check the clip. “Well, well, silver bullets. I always knew you weren’t to be trusted! Hell, you sold out Henry pretty quickly. You were using me as a test subject for your formula and were probably were hoping me and Henry would end up killing each other. I knew I wasn’t being an asshole to you for all these years for no reason! I bet this is the money I was never going to receive either right?” you open the briefcase and close it when you see it contains the money. “Alright fine Wolf you got me, but what use is there in really killing me? You can have the money, you can escape. Just let me live, besides you owe me a life! Self serving it may have been; if it wasn’t for my formula, you wouldn’t have survived the arena!” You better make up your mind either way; you can hear Mr. Hyde climbing closer to your location. > You kill Jack “Fuck you Jack, I would’ve survived the arena even without your wonder drug, now how about I make myself invisible too?” and with those words you take off Jack’s cracked sun glasses and shove two claws in where his eyes would be located, you know you got the right spot since you can feel the squish of the ocular jelly and his screams of agony. While you’d normally finish the job you don’t have time since you hear Mr. Hyde bounding on the bottom of the elevator, making dents in it. You grab the gun and the briefcase and leap up through the service panel in the roof, leaving Jack to writhe in unbelievable pain. Still hearing Mr. Hyde trying to get in, you leap to the emergency ladder, you’re having difficulty holding on to the ladder, the gun AND the briefcase though, and guess which one you accidently drop? The briefcase of course. “Goddammit!” you shout as it tumbles from you. “Well someone’s paying for that!” You point the gun at the main elevator cable and fire, hitting it a couple times. It dangles a bit and then falls onto Mr. Hyde who is in no position to be able to stop it. Eventually the elevator hits the bottom of the shaft with Jack’s dying body inside and crushing Mr. Hyde under it. You continue your escape by prying the elevator doors open and crawl through panting heavily. You lie face up on the ground for awhile just resting. You think the effects of the formula are wearing off. Too bad, you liked feeling “young” again. You’re also pissed that you dropped the damn briefcase of money. You’d climb down and get it, but you’re honestly too damn tired and can’t be bothered. You’re starting to really feel the pain from all the physical activity you’ve been doing today. “Damn, I really am getting too old for this shit.” You say to yourself.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You remember an old saying, “A liar is still a liar even when he’s telling the truth.” And despite Jack telling you the truth about Henry, you can tell he still had his own agenda. In fact it’s obvious he was trying to leave you here to rot. “Hey Jack what’s that?” you say pointing in his direction “Huh?” Jack replies looking down and around himself. POW! You clock Jack in his bandaged face, cracking his sunglasses and knocking him to the floor. You quickly rummage through his coat and find a pistol and check the clip. “Well, well, silver bullets. I always knew you weren’t to be trusted! Hell, you sold out Henry pretty quickly. You were using me as a test subject for your formula and were probably were hoping me and Henry would end up killing each other. I knew I wasn’t being an asshole to you for all these years for no reason! I bet this is the money I was never going to receive either right?” you open the briefcase and close it when you see it contains the money. “Alright fine Wolf you got me, but what use is there in really killing me? You can have the money, you can escape. Just let me live, besides you owe me a life! Self serving it may have been; if it wasn’t for my formula, you wouldn’t have survived the arena!” You better make up your mind either way; you can hear Mr. Hyde climbing closer to your location. > You let him live “Alright, you got me in a generous mood, plus there really isn’t enough time for me to kill you properly, but here!” you throw the briefcase at him which he catches. “You’re making yourself useful, carry that, I’LL keep your pistol.” You exit the elevator through the service panel in the top of the elevator with Jack following behind you. Mr. Hyde is attempting to punch his way through the bottom of the elevator. You point the gun at the main elevator cable and fire, hitting it a couple times. It dangles a bit and then falls onto Mr. Hyde who is in no position to be able to stop it. Eventually the elevator hits the bottom of the shaft crushing Mr. Hyde under it. You continue your escape by prying the elevator doors open and crawl through panting heavily. You then pull Jack up while holding them open. Both of you are very tired. “Damn, I think that formula of yours is wearing off Jack.” You pant. “Hmm, that’s interesting; I’ll have to make a note of that. Well here’s your money. I suppose this is where we part ways, I guess I should thank you for not killing me and being a good subject for my formula. I anticipate the government will be very pleased with it. More than they would’ve been with Henry’s clumsy formula at least. You really do have my eternal gratitude Wolf.” “Yeah, yeah, you better get the hell outta here Jack before I catch my breath and change my mind about letting you live.” You say snatching the briefcase. Jack turns to leave, but you tell him one more thing. “And Jack…don’t let me catch your scent near me again or you’ll find that invisibility won’t be enough to protect you.”<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>“I guess you always did know me pretty well Henry. Count me in.” you say. “Great! I knew you’d be game.” “Let’s get going, I’m ready.” You, Henry and Jack enter his car and drive to some nondescript building. The ground floor resembles just a normal abandoned warehouse, but of course you three enter a secret room with an elevator that takes you to a lab area, then you pass through a gym area where you see quite a few ugly overly muscular humans doing some rigorous training while doing a lot of shouting and yelling A lot of them look like they have severe ‘roid rage and that includes the females. “Huh, sure they all look pretty, but can they fight?” you mockingly ask Henry. “Well that’s what we’re going to find out. Now the arena area is through that door, you can just enter and the testing will begin. Jack and I will be watching from an upper room. I’ll see you when you’re ready.” Henry leaves with the rest of the humans and you’re about to enter the arena, but a hand grabs you causing you pull away in a defensive stance. It’s Jack. “Don’t fucking touch me Jack!” you growl. “Sheesh, calm down there, I just have to tell you something. Something important.” “What Jack? I don’t have time for your shit.” “Yeah, well you’ll be thanking me later. You need to take this.” Jack takes a bottle out of his jacket and hands it to you. “What’s this?” “It’s MY invention. Henry hasn’t been telling you the entire truth. He’s setting you up to be killed. He doesn’t have any intention of letting you out that arena until one of his super soldiers kills you, and I guarantee it’ll happen eventually. He’s already got most of them hopped up to the point of being uncontrollable. He’ll probably start increasing the dosage if you start winning against the initial barrage. However if you drink my invention you’ll be able to survive. It’s just like what Henry’s been feeding his Super Soldiers, but without all the side effects. Surely you noticed how ugly and distorted all those subjects were. All he did was make alterations to his original Hyde formula instead creating something new from scratch like I did, yet he claims my invention isn’t good enough.” “This all smells like bullshit Jack, but assuming you’re telling the truth, why’s Henry doing it and why in this way?” “I dunno, because he’s a Mad Scientist, and prone to be dramatic I suppose, its just one of our endearing qualities. Plus we really are testing this shit for the government, so its still good research even if it’s doubling as murder. If you want deeper reasons the only other explanation I can give is he’s ALWAYS been jealous of you. Yes, it’s true he did admire you, but he was always jealous of your natural abilities which he had to get artificially, and even then it wasn’t entirely successful as you well know. I can personally vouch for having to hear him rag on you over the years.” This all sounds pretty suspicious especially coming from Jack who’s known for his double dealing and sneaky ways. The bottle might contain poison for all you know, or maybe he’s just angry at Henry for snubbing his invention and he’s using you as a subject to test it which may or may not be as great as he says. Still, Mad Scientist types have tried to fuck you over before; you can’t help but wonder if Henry is planning what Jack’s claiming. > You don't drink the bottle “I don’t think so Jack. I’ve never trusted you and I’m not about to start now. You can shove your invention up your ass and give yourself an enema with it, because I ain’t drinking the shit.” “Always with the colorful and inventive vocabulary Wolf. (Sigh) Very well, it’s your funeral. You’ll see.” Jack says and walks away. When you enter the arena area, it’s just a big empty white room with another door on the other side of it. High above you can see Henry on an upper floor with a clipboard behind some glass. He waves to you and speaks into a microphone. “Okay Wolf, we’re going to start off slow, this subject hasn’t been injected with as much of the formula so I’m guessing you shouldn’t have any problems with him. Try not to kill him though, since we DO want some of them to survive!” “No killing eh? Well I suppose there’s a first time for everything, alright Henry send in the victim.” No sooner has the human entered the room, and you’ve already run up and drop kicked him in the face! You don’t allow him to get back up, and end up breaking one of his legs by totally destroying his knee. He’s in extreme pain and expresses it vocally. “Damn Wolf! What the hell!?” Henry shouts. “Hey you said not to kill him, you didn’t say anything about not breaking bones.” “Alright, drag him out, and bring in the next one.” This goes on for the next five fights. The subjects are getting tougher, but so far you haven’t had too many problems. You’ve notice a severe change in the subjects though, mainly being bigger and more vicious, they’re starting to not even resemble humans anymore, and in fact they resemble “Mr. Hyde” but even more out of control. You look up where Henry is located and you notice he seems to be laughing and joking with Jack. He addresses you again. “How are you doing Wolf?” “I’m a little tired, but I’m okay.” “Okay Wolf, you’ve been doing well against one opponent, let’s see how you do against three.” “Hey, you’re supposed to be testing their fighting skills not mine.” “Well you’re kicking their asses, so I need to see them at least on equal footing.” “Who are they supposed to be fighting? If they’re fighting other humans then you’ve succeeded, there’s no way a normal human can beat those steroid freaks I’ve been fighting. I don’t even think most of the alien races, humans have come in contact with could stand up to them. I’d say your formula is a success.” “Wolf, I’m the scientist here, just a few more tests.” “Fuck that, I’m done. I’m going home and getting some sleep, I’ll be taking my money now.” When you try to go out the way you came in, a solid metal door slides from a hidden panel to block your way. “Don’t think so Wolf, we’re done when I SAY we are!” Henry then begins to laugh maniacally and when a Mad Scientist does that, well it’s never good. And it’s really not looking good when three lumbering hulks come through the opposite door all intent on doing you massive harm. > You fight They’re already upon you, so there’s nothing else for it, you’ll have to fight, but you still have a plan to escape. As soon as the first hulking freak is trying to bash your head in, you dodge and rake him across the eyes. This earns you a flailing backhand to the wall as it roars in pain, but you’ve effectively taken him out of the fight. Now the other two attempt to take advantage of you while you try to recover. You narrowly miss a punch that puts a large crack in the wall. “Goddamn it, kill the fucking mongrel!” Henry screams. You run up to the blind subject who’s still wailing and lumbering around swinging at anything. You jump up on its back and hold on as it tries to grab you. The two other freaks decide to tackle the both of you. As soon as the first one lunges into the blind one with a sickening crunch, you leap from him and on to the back of the second freak and then with all your might leap again through the glass of observation area! “Sucks to be you Henry!” Jack says and runs off in the corner and takes off his clothing in a vain attempt to hide. Henry doesn’t say anything, he just reaches into his lab pocket for something; it’s a vial which he fully attempts to drink from. Not wishing to deal with Mr. Hyde, you quickly knock the vial out of his hand and grab him by the throat. Henry looks helplessly over at the vial which falls to the floor and shatters leaking out all its contents. “Got any last words before I rip your fucking spine out?” “Urg. (Choke) Wait! Don’t you want to know why? See it from my point of view?” “Fuck no! Besides Jack tried to warn me before all this shit went down, I thought he was lying though. Looks like you turned out to be the treacherous one. Too bad, I thought you were one of the few alright humans I knew.” “Hold on, we can still work this out, I mean maybe I…” You silence Henry’s pathetic pleas for mercy, with a quick snap to his neck; you don’t bother doing anything else, since you don’t really feel like wasting any more effort on him. You look down into the arena area where the three subjects have now turned on each other in a spectacularly bloody way. You can still sense someone in the room you’re in. “Jack! I know you’re here! I might not be able to see you, but you know damn well I can smell your scent!” ”Hey, calm down Wolf, I did try to warn you!” ”Yeah I know and that’s why I’m not trying to kill you too, well that and the fact that I’m too damn tired, maybe later.” Jack quickly changes the subject away from his possible death. “Well I suppose you’ll be wanting your payment. You might as well have it, since you did me a favor by killing Henry anyway. Now I can test my own serum, and I won’t have to share the credit with him. There’s a briefcase under the table over there.” You go over to pick it up, check it and head home where you collapse on your bed. You’ll be feeling the pain from all of this for days. Still, it beats being a “guest speaker” at a comic convention.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>“I don’t think so Jack. I’ve never trusted you and I’m not about to start now. You can shove your invention up your ass and give yourself an enema with it, because I ain’t drinking the shit.” “Always with the colorful and inventive vocabulary Wolf. (Sigh) Very well, it’s your funeral. You’ll see.” Jack says and walks away. When you enter the arena area, it’s just a big empty white room with another door on the other side of it. High above you can see Henry on an upper floor with a clipboard behind some glass. He waves to you and speaks into a microphone. “Okay Wolf, we’re going to start off slow, this subject hasn’t been injected with as much of the formula so I’m guessing you shouldn’t have any problems with him. Try not to kill him though, since we DO want some of them to survive!” “No killing eh? Well I suppose there’s a first time for everything, alright Henry send in the victim.” No sooner has the human entered the room, and you’ve already run up and drop kicked him in the face! You don’t allow him to get back up, and end up breaking one of his legs by totally destroying his knee. He’s in extreme pain and expresses it vocally. “Damn Wolf! What the hell!?” Henry shouts. “Hey you said not to kill him, you didn’t say anything about not breaking bones.” “Alright, drag him out, and bring in the next one.” This goes on for the next five fights. The subjects are getting tougher, but so far you haven’t had too many problems. You’ve notice a severe change in the subjects though, mainly being bigger and more vicious, they’re starting to not even resemble humans anymore, and in fact they resemble “Mr. Hyde” but even more out of control. You look up where Henry is located and you notice he seems to be laughing and joking with Jack. He addresses you again. “How are you doing Wolf?” “I’m a little tired, but I’m okay.” “Okay Wolf, you’ve been doing well against one opponent, let’s see how you do against three.” “Hey, you’re supposed to be testing their fighting skills not mine.” “Well you’re kicking their asses, so I need to see them at least on equal footing.” “Who are they supposed to be fighting? If they’re fighting other humans then you’ve succeeded, there’s no way a normal human can beat those steroid freaks I’ve been fighting. I don’t even think most of the alien races, humans have come in contact with could stand up to them. I’d say your formula is a success.” “Wolf, I’m the scientist here, just a few more tests.” “Fuck that, I’m done. I’m going home and getting some sleep, I’ll be taking my money now.” When you try to go out the way you came in, a solid metal door slides from a hidden panel to block your way. “Don’t think so Wolf, we’re done when I SAY we are!” Henry then begins to laugh maniacally and when a Mad Scientist does that, well it’s never good. And it’s really not looking good when three lumbering hulks come through the opposite door all intent on doing you massive harm. > You attempt to scale the wall Your plan is to climb to Henry, break the glass and beat the fuck out of him. The walls are smooth, but your claws and climbing skills can certainly overcome them, they can’t overcome the three butcher shops on legs though. As you attempt to climb, one of the subjects jumps up to grab your leg and slams you back down to the floor hard. The others then kick you about the head and frog stomp you in general. The last thing you see is a big black boot coming at your face, followed by Henry’s laughter.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Well despite your distrust of Jack, Henry’s always been alright and you could use the easy money. If it doesn’t sound like a good deal to you, you can always decline. You sit down with them both, keeping a constant eye on Jack, well his clothing anyway. “Hey Wolf, glad to see you, it’s been awhile. I remember when we used to tear up places like this back in the day.” Henry says. “Yeah, the good old days.” You say agreeing. “When we were young and a lot more active.” “Speak for yourself Henry.” You stand up and start punching and kicking. “I’m still active and I’m only as old as I feel which isn’t old at all! I can still… OW!” you get a slight sprain in your back when attempting to demonstrate your “youthful” combat abilities. “No, Wolf you’re not old at all.” Jack snickers. “Shut the fuck up Jack, I just haven’t been in a proper fight in awhile, I’m a little out of practice. Say, how about I practice on YOU?” “Uh, okay calm down Wolf! Jack! We’re not here to antagonize anyone!” “You’re right so let’s get all this catch up shit out of the way. Wolf, we got an experiment for you that should be right up your alley. It involves you testing those skills you claim you still have.” “Oh yeah? What kind of experiment is this?” Henry interjects before Jack can continue. “Well the government hired us to develop something that increased combat ability. We’ve been testing it on humans and the results have been good so far, however we want to see how good it is, so we wanted to test them against non-human opponents, you came to mind since well you ARE the Alpha Wolf and despite your age, you are probably the best the Werewolf race has to offer as far as combat skills. I figure you’re still worth 10 of the cubs nowadays. Plus I know you like to kick ass and get paid for doing it. You know how the government likes to throw money around when it comes to new weapons, so I figure we can spare five thousand for your help.” > You decline Maybe it’s your sixth sense or mistrust in general, but you don’t really like the sound of this. Henry might be an alright guy, but you really don’t trust Jack and you’ve had problems with Mad Scientists before. Maybe if you were younger you’d take the risk, but you’re a lot wiser now and you’re not about to set yourself up into going into a bad situation that you might not be able to get out of. You’re not scared, you’re just not stupid. You decide to decline and make up an excuse. “Well it does sound like fun, but unfortunately I’ve got a job from Erik recently that I need to see about tomorrow, so I’ll have to decline.” Henry looks very surprised at your answer; it was almost as if he thought you’d immediately take his offer. He attempts to convince you further, but you continue to decline which makes his voice and inflections sound more desperate with a hint of anger in them. “We were fucking friends Wolf! You’re going to leave me hanging like this?! Fucking ingrate! After all the fights I helped you in too!” ”Henry, you better just fucking mind your tone. And half those fights I distinctly remember you starting and ME having to finish them!” “Why you fucking…” Henry stands up, which you do too daring him to do something, but naturally he realizes he isn’t in “Hyde” form, so he backs down. Jack eventually speaks up. “Come on Henry let’s go, we can get someone else.” Jack hands Henry his coat who’s still giving you the hard stare. Just before they leave Henry has to get another word in. “Fucking yellow dog! You oughta be put out of your misery! The Wolf I knew would’ve jumped at this chance, I don’t know what happened, but you ain’t him! Fucking mongrel!” “Alright Henry shut the fuck up, before he kicks your ass EEEK!” Jack gets out of the way when he sees you charge at Henry, he doesn’t stand a chance in his human form and you beat the hell of him. As he lies on the ground bleeding and pondering his poor choice of words, you relay a question to him. “Is that more like the Wolf who you USED to know? And Jack get your invisible ass outta here, before I tear you a new one too! I’m not falling for whatever fucked up scheme you had planned for me!” Jack quickly drags Henry out as quickly as possible, while you go back to drinking. After drinking your drink, you head back home and decide to call Erik up tomorrow who’ll hopefully be less annoying and actually have a job for you. Turns out he does and you end up having to show up at a comic convention as a special guest. It’s not exactly exciting for you, but then at least you don’t have to get your head bashed in to get paid. “Oooo! Ooo! Mr. Wolf! In Lycanthrope Terror #6, were you supposed to be immune to the silver dagger because you had sex with the witch who granted you extra powers in the beginning, or was it because you had been sent directly from Hell and thus had demon blood in your veins giving you extra powers? Because their problems with both of those things, because if…” The nerdy human goes on for another 10 minutes pointing out plot holes when in actuality there isn’t one, since the fucking dagger wasn’t silver at all it was just really shiny steel, and if he’d paid as much attention to movie then he did his own whiney voice he’d know that. Come to think of it, maybe getting your head bashed in might be preferable.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Fuck it, you don’t feel like putting up with Erik’s whining. You’ll talk to him later when you’re in the mood. You hang up and decide to engage in one of your favorite past time ever since you became part of “society”. Drink. You head down to the bar in town. When you enter you see it nearly empty. Usually there’s someone here that you don’t like which gives you an excuse to get into a fight. You sit down and order a Scotch. The bartender tends to let you just drink and cleans up the mess you make afterwards, but today turns out a little differently. “Hey Wolf, some people have been wanting to see you.” The bartender says nervously. “Oh? Do these people have a name?” you ask downing your drink. “Well they’re in the bar right now actually, I think they’re old acquaintances of yours.” You scan the bar, which doesn’t take long considering its almost empty. And you’ll be damned you see not one, but THREE people from the old days; you’re surprised you didn’t notice them before. At a nearby table you see Dr. Henry Jekyll and Dr. Jack Griffin. Jack normally would be difficult to see in this dark lighting at the best of times, since he’s invisible, but he’s perfectly noticeable enough when he wears clothing. They see you and wave you to come over. At a table in the far corner you see Dr. Alphonse Moreau. He looks like a wreck. He’s obviously been chain smoking cigarettes and drinking a lot since he got here. He sees you and desperately signals you over like he needs your help severely. While you’re not surprised to see all these humans still alive (Mad scientists ALWAYS figure out how to extend their life spans past the normal human limit) you’re just surprised that they all want to see you and it makes you suspicious. You’ve always been mistrustful of Mad Scientist types ever since your run in with Dr. Victor Frankenstein. You turn to the bartender for more information. “What the hell, is there a Mad Scientist convention in town or some shit? Why are they all here and why do they want me?” “I dunno Wolf. I think its just coincidence. Henry and Jack say they got some sort of experiment going on and want your help on it. They know you’ve been needing some money lately and they’re willing to pay you for your time. I think Henry wants to play catch up with you as well.” “Hmm, speaking of catch, there probably is one. So why’s Moreau here? Same thing?” “He wouldn’t elaborate too much. He says he REALLY needs help with something, and it’s not an experiment. He says he gave up trying to play God. I dunno what’s wrong though you’ll have to ask him yourself. He just said, he’s willing to do anything for you if you help him. Well this venture to the bar seems to have become potentially lucrative; the problem is you have to deal with a bunch of humans with God complexes. (You doubt what the bartender told you about Moreau, his type never gets out of the game completely) You decide to throw caution to the wind and take one of their jobs; you feel you’ll be up to the challenge. After all its common knowledge of what you did to Victor when he tried to take advantage of you once. All it comes down to is who you want to deal with. > You go sit with Moreau You and Moreau have never had any dealings with each other before, so you’re kind of curious to as why he wanted to see you. You approach Moreau and he’s tripping over himself to thank you for seeing him. You’re a little suspicious of this treatment, especially since you’ve never been welcomed by anyone before. “Wolf, its Wolf right? Or do you prefer Mr. Wolf?” “Wolf is fine…will you tell me why the hell you want to see me so badly for? We’ve never had anything to do with each other before.” “Yes. Quite correct. My Vision didn’t lead me to interact socially that much. Maybe I shouldn’t have concentrated so much on my Vision though. Maybe I should’ve been more flexible. If I had, I might not have the problems I have now.” “Okay, so will you quit with the fucking mystery already and tell me what’s going on?” “As you know I transformed my island into a utopia where no being harms another.” “Pfft, some Utopia. I call it fucking with nature.” “And you know what? I agree with you. At one time, I would’ve dismissed you as a vicious animal that only pleased his primal instincts.” “You say it as if it’s a bad thing.” You utter. “I once thought so…but now I’m starting to see reality for the first time. My Utopia wasn’t followed by the world…it was hated. It was despised. Most are jealous of what I’ve done and want to destroy it.” “Duh, that’s humanity for you. So are you getting to the point anytime soon?” “My Utopia is about to be destroyed, but NOT directly. No human nation wants to look like the bad guys so you know what they’ve done instead? They’re letting Martians do it for them!” “What? Martians aren’t even allowed on this planet after all the unsuccessful attacks they’ve attempted on it.” You exclaim. “See that’s just it. In exchange of a new Martian-Earthling Peace accord they’re letting the Martians put a colony here provided they don’t kill any humans. The Martians agreed and MY Island was scheduled for designation for the colony! If we stay they’ll be allowed to kill everyone since nobody on there is human except me.” “Well that certainly does suck, but why not just move?” “WHAT!? That’s our home! Would YOU move from your own home?” “Eh…I suppose I can see your point. So what am I supposed to do though?” Moreau takes another drink and looks at you with dead seriousness. “I need you to get them all to FIGHT! I need you to get them all in touch with their animal instincts again! I know you’re more than just a werewolf. You’re the self-proclaimed Alpha. I need that viciousness, I need that aggressiveness, I need it ingrained into my people. I can’t do it. I’m not qualified, and I’d only make things worse. I can pay you all the money you want; our economy has always been good. If you like you could even live on the island and spend your remaining years there with nothing to worry about. You could mate with whoever you wanted, we could import whatever meat you wanted, or if you preferred…we could even make special arrangements just for you, to hunt living creatures. Anything…just please help us.” This is pretty heavy shit. Moreau must be very desperate to come begging to a practical stranger. There’s no way he’s lying about this, you have heard some stuff lately about Martian-Human relations, though you don’t really pay attention to the news a lot. You can’t say Moreau’s offer isn’t appealing on some level, but as much of a badass you are, you’re not in your prime anymore. Taking on a shit load of Martians and training a bunch of genetic freaks of nature could be just a little out of your scope. > You take the job; you always wondered what Martian meat tasted like “Aw hell, if the past is any indication Martians ain’t shit. I don’t have anything better to do. Let’s get going.” You remark. You and Moreau leave the next day to his island by private plane. When you arrive you can see why the place is considered a paradise, its basically untamed wilderness with some agricultural improvements and basic structures to house the citizens. Speaking of citizens, you see them in person. They’re a motley looking bunch. You see boar boys, goat girls, manatee men, and wombat women and those are some of the regular ones. Some look like they’ve been mixed with several species of animals, so you can’t even be sure what the hell they are. Moreau’s citizens are equally interested in you. “Are you another citizen?” one of them asks as they all attempt to crowd you. “What? Hell no! I’m a fucking werewolf! Not a freak of nature!” you snarl, not wanting them to touch you. Moreau take the opportunity to make sure you don’t kill anyone. “This is Wolf. He’s different than you…in several ways. But he’s here to help us with our current problem, just like our aquatic friend who volunteered to help a few days ago.” You stop Moreau. “Aquatic friend? You got someone else to help you?” you ask. “Well yes, I wasn’t sure if you’d help, so I tried to get others as well. You and he were the only takers it seems though. I’m pretty sure you and he are familiar with each other. I can’t pronounce his real name, but he goes by Gil.” “Gil?! You got GIL?! He was almost as reclusive as you! How’d you get him to help?” “I don’t know. It was really just a gamble. I made the same deal, but I had little hope of him accepting it since he’s not exactly fond of land dwellers. He accepted though since he’s tired of having humans intrude on his home every five minute. He already has a place set aside for himself on the island. I just hope the island is still ours after all this.” “Where is he?” “He keeps to himself in a nearby swamp. He likes his privacy and I respect it. You and he can talk later. I’d like you to get to the training. The Martians will be coming soon, I’m predicting in a matter of days.” “DAYS!? You didn’t say that before! How am I supposed to train these freaks in days?” “Please Wolf you must try! Gil tried and didn’t get very far; he may have even given up. I was hoping you might have more luck since you’re a bit closer to my citizens.” “I’m nothing like your citizens…but I’ll see what I can do.” > You start training the citizens If Gil’s already given up, you see little point in involving him. He’s never liked land dwellers anyway. You call everyone to the center of the town. “Alright I got a lot to teach you and there isn’t much time. As you all know the Martians are coming here and they won’t be interested in peace and love. They’ll be taking bets on who can blast more freaks.” You say frankly. “That’s pretty judgmental of you. How do you know that they won’t accept us and live in peace with us?” one of the freaks asks. “Because that’s not the Martian way! In fact it’s not ANYONE’S way! Not anyone sane anyway! The only reason why you freaks are all love and peace and shit, is because Moreau played God with your genetics and socially engineered you all to be pussies. It’s not right! But despite my disgust for your way of life, I’m here to get you back in touch with your animalistic sides. Now it’s my idea that you could evacuate the town and your other small settlements, take to the jungles, and wage a guerilla war on the Martians. A lot of you are designed for it already. The Martians are poor tacticians and weak immune systems, so the jungle diseases could have…” And you realize you’re not convincing them. > You keep trying “Look I understand some of you freaks never had that predator instinct, but just because you’ve got herbivore blood doesn’t mean you can’t fight. Those antlers and horns are just for show, they’re for defense! And even if you’re a total sissy, you could at least act as scouts and shit. When the Martians approach you can neigh, whinny, baa, or uh…quack your heads off to warn the rest of us that will fight!” They still don’t look convinced, now they’re starting to just leave. You begin to get angry. “Damn it, don’t you freaks want to live? They’re going to kill all of you stupid bastards when they get here! Grow a fuckin’ pair and stand up for your freak existence! “Stop calling us freaks, we are not animals!” one shouts. “Oh ho! Struck a nerve did I? Look at you fuckin’ freaks! You’re a goddamn embarrassment to mother nature! You know what I’ll be glad when the Martians waste your sorry asses. You don’t deserve to live.” “Fuck you! You’re no different than us you fucking hypocrite!” “The hell I ain’t! I am a creature of nature! My mother was a werewolf and my father was a werewolf, and guess what? THEIR parents were werewolves! You know who your parents were? The DNA of some dead animals and some stupid humans that Moreau captured! Then you disgustingly mate with each other and create more freaks. Bunch of fucking mongrels!” The crowd is beginning to get angry with you now. Good. Your plan is working. “I can see that you’re all pissed off. You probably want to kick my ass; well that’s a bad idea, because I’m the only one who can properly train you in the short period of time, now save that anger for the Martians…” Suddenly someone throws a rock at your head, causing you to fall. Before you can get up, you feel a strong kick to the face (Literally a mule kick) this is then followed up by the entire town attacking you. You kill quite a few, but they’re very intent on killing you, and eventually they rip you apart and even devour parts of you to make sure you won’t be regenerating back from the dead. Some of the older freaks kill Dr. Moreau as they remember the cruelty he inflicted in the past. Their new found animal side is short lived since when the Martians arrive, they bombard the island with death beams killing most of the inhabitants before invading. The Martians then easily mop up the few survivors.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>If Gil’s already given up, you see little point in involving him. He’s never liked land dwellers anyway. You call everyone to the center of the town. “Alright I got a lot to teach you and there isn’t much time. As you all know the Martians are coming here and they won’t be interested in peace and love. They’ll be taking bets on who can blast more freaks.” You say frankly. “That’s pretty judgmental of you. How do you know that they won’t accept us and live in peace with us?” one of the freaks asks. “Because that’s not the Martian way! In fact it’s not ANYONE’S way! Not anyone sane anyway! The only reason why you freaks are all love and peace and shit, is because Moreau played God with your genetics and socially engineered you all to be pussies. It’s not right! But despite my disgust for your way of life, I’m here to get you back in touch with your animalistic sides. Now it’s my idea that you could evacuate the town and your other small settlements, take to the jungles, and wage a guerilla war on the Martians. A lot of you are designed for it already. The Martians are poor tacticians and weak immune systems, so the jungle diseases could have…” And you realize you’re not convincing them. > You give up and try something else You shake your head and go back to Moreau’s house. Moreau is fiddling with some large old looking radio that contains a small black and white screen in it. “This is not going to work.” You tell him. “You’re giving up already?!” “Well I don’t know what to do, maybe if I had more time I could do something, but shit Moreau, you bred all the damn fight out of them.” Just then a voice comes on the radio and an image appears on the screen, it looks like some deepsea diver…oh geez it’s Ro-Man. The bureaucratic joke of the galaxy. Its fitting that he should be working for a bunch of idiotic Martians. “Dr. Moreau, the Martian colonist will be here soon! I hope you have made your evacuations of your island, or we shall WIPE you from it!” Ro-man says mechanically. “Ro-Man, please can’t we talk about this? I mean we’re peaceful, we won’t cause you any trouble!” Moreau says into his microphone. “No! My orders are clear! We will WIPE you from the island!” You snatch the mic from Moreau and address Ro-Man. “Hey Ro-Man, you must be really scraping the bottom of the barrel if you’re working for Martians now. What happened, all the other aliens realize what a fucking joke you are?” “What!? Wolf?! What’re you doing there? We’re about to WIPE the island clean of all Earthlings and that includes you if you insist on staying there!” Ro-Man retorts. “I know Martians were stupid, but fuck, didn’t they realize what a goddamn joke you were when YOU attempted to take over the Earth?” “Shut up Wolf! Hey isn’t that island full of a bunch of pacifists? What’s a self-proclaimed badass Alpha Wolf doing there? You turn pussy too or are YOU scraping the bottom of the barrel by working for them?” “Fuck off Ro-Man! I got an idea, how about we settle this hand to hand combat? If I win you all go home, and if you win…well you won’t win, because you’re fucking moron.” “I don’t think so; we’re intent on colonizing this island in accordance with the new Earth-Mars cooperation treaty. Your pitiful attempts to stall for time are useless.” “Who says I’m stalling for time? I’m just saying I could kick your ass! You think I give a shit about this island? I’m just here to see if I got one more fight left in me, I was hoping for more of a challenge, but you’ll have to do. Of course if you’re too scared…” ”Aaargh! Alright! I’ll play your little game you mangy Earth mammal! We’ll do battle when we arrive and I’ll take great pleasure in crushing your skull!” Ro-man breaks communication, and Moreau is more than a little disturbed by your recent conversation. “Wolf! You promised to help us! I knew you were a lot of things, but I thought you at least weren’t a liar!” “Calm the hell down Moreau! Despite what Ro-Man thinks, I have bough you guys some time. While me and Ro-Man are bashing each others heads in, the Martians will be gathered around watching and probably taking bets. Besides unsuccessful invasions and fucking human women, there’s nothing they like better than watching a fight.” “Okay, but what good does that do us? I mean even if you win, the Martians will still kill all of us.” “Ah that’s where you and the hippy freak coalition come in. I know you guys are fond of your drugs here, so when the Martians are watching I want you guys to act like hosts and serve drinks laced with LSD or whatever hallucinogenics you keep stashed here. By the time I finish kicking Ro-Man’s ass, the Martians will be tripping so hard you can make quick work of them.” “That’s not a bad plan, but I think we’ll dispense with killing them as you’re suggesting. We can just destroy their weapons.” “(Sigh) Alright suit yourselves. But unarmed Martians are still hostile, even if they aren’t typically threatening.” “If I can make my citizens civilized, I can do the same with Martians, now let’s get prepared. What do I serve them to drink though? Its not like we have whatever it is Martians like to drink here.” “Sure you do. You’ve got water. Mars isn’t known for having a lot of it, so they can’t get enough of the stuff. Its one of the reasons why they wanted Earth so damn bad.” A few days pass and Moreau prepares his citizens for the plan, while they build some risers and bleachers for the fight, meanwhile you get in some last minute training. Ro-Man might be an idiot, but you’ve got a pretty good idea that he’s very strong, you’ll have to be on the top of your game. You watch the skies and finally the Martians arrive. They land and all come pouring out of their saucers firing their lasers in the air, and yelling about how they’re going to see a good fight. Ro-Man appears and looks as goofy as he always has. A large crowd gathers and soon it’s just you and Ro-Man in the center. “This is going to be your biggest mistake since your infamous Plan 9 invasion attempt.” You tell Ro-Man. > You fight aggressively You didn’t come here to do the job half assed, so you’re going to give it your all. The only real advantage Ro-Man has is his strength, other than that you’re a better fighter in every way. You start off with a foot smash to his shin, then following it up with a claw to the crotch. Ro-Man attempts to grab you, but you roll out of the way. You run around behind him and strike a vicious blow to his kidneys (Or at least where you think they’re located, he isn’t human after all) he swings his big gorilla like arms and back hands you in the face, knocking you a couple of feet to the ground. The Martians are cheering loudly at this point. You see Moreau’s freaks serving the drinks in the stands. You have to at least keep this up until the drugs kick in, and even then you’re not sure what will happen. For all you know it won’t even effect the Martians. You dodge another clumsy attack by Ro-Man and bite the fuck out of his leg ripping a good chunk off. Ugh! It tastes terrible! You’ll taste that for days assuming you live through this, which Ro-Man is attempting to make sure doesn’t happen, as he finally gets a good grip on you. He grabs you from the back and places you in a crushing bear hug. You can’t get free, the thing you can do is either use the back of your head and smash his face with it in a reverse head butt, or stretch your neck a bit and attempt to bite one of his massive arms. > You reverse head butt On most opponents this would’ve worked, unfortunately you seem to have forgotten that Ro-Man’s head is a fucking deep sea diver’s helmet! When you hear that “KLANG!” all you do is successfully knock yourself out. Ro-Man finishes you off, by breaking your back and keeping his promise of crushing your skull with his foot.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You didn’t come here to do the job half assed, so you’re going to give it your all. The only real advantage Ro-Man has is his strength, other than that you’re a better fighter in every way. You start off with a foot smash to his shin, then following it up with a claw to the crotch. Ro-Man attempts to grab you, but you roll out of the way. You run around behind him and strike a vicious blow to his kidneys (Or at least where you think they’re located, he isn’t human after all) he swings his big gorilla like arms and back hands you in the face, knocking you a couple of feet to the ground. The Martians are cheering loudly at this point. You see Moreau’s freaks serving the drinks in the stands. You have to at least keep this up until the drugs kick in, and even then you’re not sure what will happen. For all you know it won’t even effect the Martians. You dodge another clumsy attack by Ro-Man and bite the fuck out of his leg ripping a good chunk off. Ugh! It tastes terrible! You’ll taste that for days assuming you live through this, which Ro-Man is attempting to make sure doesn’t happen, as he finally gets a good grip on you. He grabs you from the back and places you in a crushing bear hug. You can’t get free, the thing you can do is either use the back of your head and smash his face with it in a reverse head butt, or stretch your neck a bit and attempt to bite one of his massive arms. > You bite his arm It’s going to taste like shit, but you bite down on Ro-Man’s arm ripping another chunk out of him, he drops you instantly and begins to feel the effects of his wounds as he bleeds severely from his arm and leg. And it looks like the drugs are taking effect too; you take a quick look in the stands and see them behaving strangely. A lot of them are giggling to themselves and hugging each other; some are just walking around in circles, and others are staring into the distance, pontificating about how they can hear the colors and taste sound. Fortunately none of them seem to have gotten more violent. Moreau’s freaks take their weapons away from them. Meanwhile Ro-Man is attempting to escape back to one of the saucers, limping and leaving a blood trail behind him. You attempt to finish him off, and tackle him to the ground, but he manages to bash you in the face a few times and gets you off of him. While you’re trying to recover, he escapes in the saucer. Oh well, it’s another loss for him and another win for you. That’s the important thing. Moreau approaches you while you brush yourself off. “You did it Wolf! You saved the island and with a minimum of violence!” he says. “Unfortunately. Well at least I got to kick someone’s ass, even if it was Ro-Man.” “So do you want to stay on this island as part of our agreement? Remember I said we’ll make special arrangements for you.” You look at Moreau’s freaks again who are now also tripping on drugs along with the Martians. The freaks and the Martians look like they’ve gotten very close to each other too. It looks like an orgy is about the break out. “Uh no! Living with your freaks would be bad enough, but adding Martians makes it even less attractive. I’ll be taking my reward in cash and leaving NOW!” Moreau shrugs his shoulders, goes back to his office and returns with a briefcase of money, which should be enough to support you for a long time. He flies you back to your home, where you head back to your run down cabin in the woods. It may not be paradise, but it’s yours and you don’t have to put up with hippy peace freaks or idiotic drug addled Martians.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You shake your head and go back to Moreau’s house. Moreau is fiddling with some large old looking radio that contains a small black and white screen in it. “This is not going to work.” You tell him. “You’re giving up already?!” “Well I don’t know what to do, maybe if I had more time I could do something, but shit Moreau, you bred all the damn fight out of them.” Just then a voice comes on the radio and an image appears on the screen, it looks like some deepsea diver…oh geez it’s Ro-Man. The bureaucratic joke of the galaxy. Its fitting that he should be working for a bunch of idiotic Martians. “Dr. Moreau, the Martian colonist will be here soon! I hope you have made your evacuations of your island, or we shall WIPE you from it!” Ro-man says mechanically. “Ro-Man, please can’t we talk about this? I mean we’re peaceful, we won’t cause you any trouble!” Moreau says into his microphone. “No! My orders are clear! We will WIPE you from the island!” You snatch the mic from Moreau and address Ro-Man. “Hey Ro-Man, you must be really scraping the bottom of the barrel if you’re working for Martians now. What happened, all the other aliens realize what a fucking joke you are?” “What!? Wolf?! What’re you doing there? We’re about to WIPE the island clean of all Earthlings and that includes you if you insist on staying there!” Ro-Man retorts. “I know Martians were stupid, but fuck, didn’t they realize what a goddamn joke you were when YOU attempted to take over the Earth?” “Shut up Wolf! Hey isn’t that island full of a bunch of pacifists? What’s a self-proclaimed badass Alpha Wolf doing there? You turn pussy too or are YOU scraping the bottom of the barrel by working for them?” “Fuck off Ro-Man! I got an idea, how about we settle this hand to hand combat? If I win you all go home, and if you win…well you won’t win, because you’re fucking moron.” “I don’t think so; we’re intent on colonizing this island in accordance with the new Earth-Mars cooperation treaty. Your pitiful attempts to stall for time are useless.” “Who says I’m stalling for time? I’m just saying I could kick your ass! You think I give a shit about this island? I’m just here to see if I got one more fight left in me, I was hoping for more of a challenge, but you’ll have to do. Of course if you’re too scared…” ”Aaargh! Alright! I’ll play your little game you mangy Earth mammal! We’ll do battle when we arrive and I’ll take great pleasure in crushing your skull!” Ro-man breaks communication, and Moreau is more than a little disturbed by your recent conversation. “Wolf! You promised to help us! I knew you were a lot of things, but I thought you at least weren’t a liar!” “Calm the hell down Moreau! Despite what Ro-Man thinks, I have bough you guys some time. While me and Ro-Man are bashing each others heads in, the Martians will be gathered around watching and probably taking bets. Besides unsuccessful invasions and fucking human women, there’s nothing they like better than watching a fight.” “Okay, but what good does that do us? I mean even if you win, the Martians will still kill all of us.” “Ah that’s where you and the hippy freak coalition come in. I know you guys are fond of your drugs here, so when the Martians are watching I want you guys to act like hosts and serve drinks laced with LSD or whatever hallucinogenics you keep stashed here. By the time I finish kicking Ro-Man’s ass, the Martians will be tripping so hard you can make quick work of them.” “That’s not a bad plan, but I think we’ll dispense with killing them as you’re suggesting. We can just destroy their weapons.” “(Sigh) Alright suit yourselves. But unarmed Martians are still hostile, even if they aren’t typically threatening.” “If I can make my citizens civilized, I can do the same with Martians, now let’s get prepared. What do I serve them to drink though? Its not like we have whatever it is Martians like to drink here.” “Sure you do. You’ve got water. Mars isn’t known for having a lot of it, so they can’t get enough of the stuff. Its one of the reasons why they wanted Earth so damn bad.” A few days pass and Moreau prepares his citizens for the plan, while they build some risers and bleachers for the fight, meanwhile you get in some last minute training. Ro-Man might be an idiot, but you’ve got a pretty good idea that he’s very strong, you’ll have to be on the top of your game. You watch the skies and finally the Martians arrive. They land and all come pouring out of their saucers firing their lasers in the air, and yelling about how they’re going to see a good fight. Ro-Man appears and looks as goofy as he always has. A large crowd gathers and soon it’s just you and Ro-Man in the center. “This is going to be your biggest mistake since your infamous Plan 9 invasion attempt.” You tell Ro-Man. > You fight defensively You figure all you need to do is last until the drugs start affecting the Martians, Ro-Man’s not very fast so you can just stay out of his way. You don’t want to tire yourself out. The problem with this is the Martians begin to get restless and angry at the “dodge and run” tactic, this is followed by loud booing. They came to see a fight not a dance! One of the Martians decides to take matters into his own hands and blasts you with his incineration beam. They proceed to do the same to the rest of the inhabitants on the island.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You shake your head and go back to Moreau’s house. Moreau is fiddling with some large old looking radio that contains a small black and white screen in it. “This is not going to work.” You tell him. “You’re giving up already?!” “Well I don’t know what to do, maybe if I had more time I could do something, but shit Moreau, you bred all the damn fight out of them.” Just then a voice comes on the radio and an image appears on the screen, it looks like some deepsea diver…oh geez it’s Ro-Man. The bureaucratic joke of the galaxy. Its fitting that he should be working for a bunch of idiotic Martians. “Dr. Moreau, the Martian colonist will be here soon! I hope you have made your evacuations of your island, or we shall WIPE you from it!” Ro-man says mechanically. “Ro-Man, please can’t we talk about this? I mean we’re peaceful, we won’t cause you any trouble!” Moreau says into his microphone. “No! My orders are clear! We will WIPE you from the island!” You snatch the mic from Moreau and address Ro-Man. “Hey Ro-Man, you must be really scraping the bottom of the barrel if you’re working for Martians now. What happened, all the other aliens realize what a fucking joke you are?” “What!? Wolf?! What’re you doing there? We’re about to WIPE the island clean of all Earthlings and that includes you if you insist on staying there!” Ro-Man retorts. “I know Martians were stupid, but fuck, didn’t they realize what a goddamn joke you were when YOU attempted to take over the Earth?” “Shut up Wolf! Hey isn’t that island full of a bunch of pacifists? What’s a self-proclaimed badass Alpha Wolf doing there? You turn pussy too or are YOU scraping the bottom of the barrel by working for them?” “Fuck off Ro-Man! I got an idea, how about we settle this hand to hand combat? If I win you all go home, and if you win…well you won’t win, because you’re fucking moron.” “I don’t think so; we’re intent on colonizing this island in accordance with the new Earth-Mars cooperation treaty. Your pitiful attempts to stall for time are useless.” “Who says I’m stalling for time? I’m just saying I could kick your ass! You think I give a shit about this island? I’m just here to see if I got one more fight left in me, I was hoping for more of a challenge, but you’ll have to do. Of course if you’re too scared…” ”Aaargh! Alright! I’ll play your little game you mangy Earth mammal! We’ll do battle when we arrive and I’ll take great pleasure in crushing your skull!” Ro-man breaks communication, and Moreau is more than a little disturbed by your recent conversation. “Wolf! You promised to help us! I knew you were a lot of things, but I thought you at least weren’t a liar!” “Calm the hell down Moreau! Despite what Ro-Man thinks, I have bough you guys some time. While me and Ro-Man are bashing each others heads in, the Martians will be gathered around watching and probably taking bets. Besides unsuccessful invasions and fucking human women, there’s nothing they like better than watching a fight.” “Okay, but what good does that do us? I mean even if you win, the Martians will still kill all of us.” “Ah that’s where you and the hippy freak coalition come in. I know you guys are fond of your drugs here, so when the Martians are watching I want you guys to act like hosts and serve drinks laced with LSD or whatever hallucinogenics you keep stashed here. By the time I finish kicking Ro-Man’s ass, the Martians will be tripping so hard you can make quick work of them.” “That’s not a bad plan, but I think we’ll dispense with killing them as you’re suggesting. We can just destroy their weapons.” “(Sigh) Alright suit yourselves. But unarmed Martians are still hostile, even if they aren’t typically threatening.” “If I can make my citizens civilized, I can do the same with Martians, now let’s get prepared. What do I serve them to drink though? Its not like we have whatever it is Martians like to drink here.” “Sure you do. You’ve got water. Mars isn’t known for having a lot of it, so they can’t get enough of the stuff. Its one of the reasons why they wanted Earth so damn bad.” A few days pass and Moreau prepares his citizens for the plan, while they build some risers and bleachers for the fight, meanwhile you get in some last minute training. Ro-Man might be an idiot, but you’ve got a pretty good idea that he’s very strong, you’ll have to be on the top of your game. You watch the skies and finally the Martians arrive. They land and all come pouring out of their saucers firing their lasers in the air, and yelling about how they’re going to see a good fight. Ro-Man appears and looks as goofy as he always has. A large crowd gathers and soon it’s just you and Ro-Man in the center. “This is going to be your biggest mistake since your infamous Plan 9 invasion attempt.” You tell Ro-Man. > You memories (Ro-Man) Robot Monster: Ro-Man If there’s a bigger laughing stock of the galaxy, they must’ve died of shame, because it would be tough to top Ro-Man. Ro-Man’s appearance is comical enough, but his personality takes him over the edge. For the most part he comes across as a typical unflinching bureaucratic tight ass that does everything his superiors tell him to the letter. However he does have his own ambitions and plans but he’s never competent enough to carry them through, since he can barely carry out plans of his superiors. The incident that really destroyed his career was his failed invasion of Earth. After seeing that the Martians were so interested in the planet he convinced his superior called “The Great One” that they should invade it and that he should lead the invasion force. He said he just needed one ship to do it too. The Great One up to that point wasn’t too impressed with Ro-Man, but he indulged the fool and said he’d get a promotion if he pulled it off. Ro-Man had it all planned out, he was going to WIPE out humanity (As he liked to say) and make the way clear for his own people to colonize. He developed a big death ray and everything. What happened next made every failed invasion by the Martians look like military genius in comparison. After he did all his long winded speeches, the governments of Earth pretty much dismissed him for the long winded blowhard he was and ignored him as a potential threat. Ro-Man was incensed and unleashed his “Death Beam” and destroyed every Earthling on the planet… Or at least that’s what he thought happened, what really happened is when he turned the damn thing on he caused a power outage in his ship due to his bad wiring. After fumbling around in the dark for awhile and putting in a new fuse, his lighting came back on. Unfortunately for him not all the rest of his controls went back on line, but of course this genius didn’t think to make sure. When he checked his scanners they didn’t detect any life on Earth. It never occurred to him that all Earthlings hadn’t been WIPED out and his scanners just weren’t working. Thinking he’d succeeded in his plan he landed on Earth to check things out, but instead of landing some place that would’ve tipped him off right away like a major city, he landed in the boondocks, where he ended up running into some very frightened humans who he figured were the only survivors on Earth. He spent the next few months chasing them around trying to kill them, until he started to get a hard on for some of the young human girls and then he was just trying to commit intergalactic rape at that point. What ultimately happened was some hunter caught sight of him and shot him in the ass with a heavy duty tranquilizer, thinking he was Bigfoot. (He wanted to capture him alive for a reward) When he woke up he was on the first saucer back home and deported in great shame. His planet was humiliated for his spectacularly idiotic failure. He was demoted several ranks after that and eventually just kicked off his planet and his citizenship revoked. Later he would go on to hire himself as a mercenary for other aliens often as an invasion consultant. Needless to say he would get hired once and then have to find a new employer.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>“Aw hell, if the past is any indication Martians ain’t shit. I don’t have anything better to do. Let’s get going.” You remark. You and Moreau leave the next day to his island by private plane. When you arrive you can see why the place is considered a paradise, its basically untamed wilderness with some agricultural improvements and basic structures to house the citizens. Speaking of citizens, you see them in person. They’re a motley looking bunch. You see boar boys, goat girls, manatee men, and wombat women and those are some of the regular ones. Some look like they’ve been mixed with several species of animals, so you can’t even be sure what the hell they are. Moreau’s citizens are equally interested in you. “Are you another citizen?” one of them asks as they all attempt to crowd you. “What? Hell no! I’m a fucking werewolf! Not a freak of nature!” you snarl, not wanting them to touch you. Moreau take the opportunity to make sure you don’t kill anyone. “This is Wolf. He’s different than you…in several ways. But he’s here to help us with our current problem, just like our aquatic friend who volunteered to help a few days ago.” You stop Moreau. “Aquatic friend? You got someone else to help you?” you ask. “Well yes, I wasn’t sure if you’d help, so I tried to get others as well. You and he were the only takers it seems though. I’m pretty sure you and he are familiar with each other. I can’t pronounce his real name, but he goes by Gil.” “Gil?! You got GIL?! He was almost as reclusive as you! How’d you get him to help?” “I don’t know. It was really just a gamble. I made the same deal, but I had little hope of him accepting it since he’s not exactly fond of land dwellers. He accepted though since he’s tired of having humans intrude on his home every five minute. He already has a place set aside for himself on the island. I just hope the island is still ours after all this.” “Where is he?” “He keeps to himself in a nearby swamp. He likes his privacy and I respect it. You and he can talk later. I’d like you to get to the training. The Martians will be coming soon, I’m predicting in a matter of days.” “DAYS!? You didn’t say that before! How am I supposed to train these freaks in days?” “Please Wolf you must try! Gil tried and didn’t get very far; he may have even given up. I was hoping you might have more luck since you’re a bit closer to my citizens.” “I’m nothing like your citizens…but I’ll see what I can do.” > You go talk with Gil You take one look at Moreau’s citizens and shake your head. There’s no way you can whip these freaks into shape by yourself. Look at them, all peace and love and shit. There’s a damn giraffe man kissing a damn bear woman. It’s not right! You’re too disgusted right now; you have to talk to someone normal! You go to the nearby swamp, where you see Gil catching a small lizard and eating it. “Well its good to see someone here, who’s not a pansy ass herbivore.” You say. Gil looks up, perturbed at first, but surprised when he sees you. “Wolf? What’re you doing here?” “Same thing as you, Moreau offered to set me up for life, if I help him. Though I don’t see how that’s possible with the freaks I just met.” “I know, tell me about it. I can’t even get them to argue with me! I was calling them a bunch of ignorant land dwellers who should’ve been killed at birth like the freaks they were and they tried to do was hug me.” “Still don’t like surfacer dwellers eh Gil?” “Hell no! I wouldn’t even be here, but I was getting really tired of moving every five minutes because humans feel the need to build a factory near my home. At least here, I know that’s not going to happen and the freaks will know to leave me be.” “Assuming the freaks will still be here. The Martians will be taking over soon if we don’t do anything.” You remind Gil. “I know, I know. They would be even worse neighbors than humans assuming they would still let me live here. (Sigh) Looks like I’ll be moving again soon.” “Oh come on Gil, we gotta think up something. The Martians are a bunch of idiots. I can’t give up just yet.” “Ah I should’ve suspected. You’re here to prove you still got one fight left in you. The old Alpha Wolf syndrome.” “I’m not here just for that, but maybe that is part of it. So what the hell’s wrong with that?” “Nothing I suppose. It’s your life. I just think it’s a pointless and silly endeavor that gets you killed for no good reason.” “Oh fuck you Gil. We’re natural born killers, we’re designed to establish our dominance and be combative! You of all should understand that. You want to die an old fish in your sleep?” “Sounds about right. Look Wolf, I know you’ve always subscribed to natural law, survival of fittest ideology and I do too. But you take it to the fucking extreme that it’s ridiculous. Really I mean don’t you feel that in your elder years that you’d just like peace and quiet? I never picked fights for the hell of it. It didn’t make much sense. I mean shit, I’ve been fighting humans all my damn life, and I’m tired of it. I want to rest. I always just wanted to be left alone but the damn land dwellers wouldn’t leave me alone.” “Gil, I learned a long time ago, no matter how much you try, shitheads are going to bother you. You can be a recluse like you and Moreau or be an anti-social asshole like me. It doesn’t matter. Someone is going to fuck with you; someone is going to annoy you. All you can do is deal with it head on and make the best of it. What’re you going to do Gil? Move when the Martians arrive? Then move again when some humans build yet another factory by your new home and just keep going like that until you die? You got a chance here to pretty much live your dream of a relatively peaceful undisturbed life here. It’s not going to get any better Gil. All you gotta do is stand up to the Martians. Yeah, maybe you’ll get killed, but it’s better than constantly being on the run.” Your words have made sense to Gil. He can’t really argue with your logic. This place probably is the best he’s going to ever have it on this planet. He just needs to help get rid of the Martian threat. “Well Wolf, I guess either way this is going to be my last fight. Alright what should we do next? Because attempting to train the freaks seems like it’s doomed to failure.” > You ask Gil if he knows anyone else who can help If you actually had any friends you’d ask them if they could help, but since you don’t, you ask Gil if he knows anyone. “Not really.” He says. “Come on Gil, I mean you must know someone! There were a ton of aquatic sea monsters!” “Oh yeah, we ALL know each other. Damn land dweller ignorance. I bet we all look alike to too you right?” Gil says annoyed. “And I suppose you don’t think we all look alike?” you retort. “Alright nevermind. I don’t know though, most of the beings I know, tolerate land dwellers even less than I do. And most of them can’t even leave the water to begin with.” “I guess giant crabs and squids are out of the question then huh?” “You guess right.” “Damn.” “Okay well, I DO have a cousin that might help, but we haven’t spoken in years.” “Would he be of much help?” “Oh he’d be more than enough help; he doesn’t much care for aliens in general. In fact he doesn’t like anyone and is very violent.” “Sounds like a great guy.” You say. “Hmm, yes I’m sure you and he have a few things in common. He’s another that pointless picks fights and believes in proving his dominance whenever possible.” “Well get his ass over here!” “I don’t know if he’ll come, we had a fight about something a long time ago hence the reason we haven’t spoken.” “Gil, I know Moreau has at least one phone on this island. USE IT. NOW!” “Alright, I’ll try, but like I said I don’t know if he’ll come to help. You and Gil make your way back to Moreau’s freak town where the freaks still give you strange looks. You knock on Moreau’s door. “Hey Moreau! Open up, Gil’s gotta use the phone.” Moreau looks as haggard as ever when he opens his door. “Damn Moreau, you look like shit, you really need to take better care of yourself. Eat some fucking meat. Anyway, Gil has a bad ass cousin apparently that can help, he just needs to call him.” “Wolf, I don’t know if he’ll come, and now that I’m thinking about it, I don’t know if I WANT him to come. He might still be pissed at me.” ”Have some faith Gil.” Gil picks up the phone and starts pressing a million numbers. “Where the hell does your cousin live, Gil?” “Japan. Oh I got a tone…here he is. Hello Godzilla?” “Your cousin is FUCKING GODZILLA?!” you ask. “Oh even I’ve heard of him, heard he was giant lizard that routinely defeated other monsters and aliens. Surely he’ll be able to help.” Moreau says hopefully. You look at Moreau in disbelief, he apparently has been such a recluse he hasn’t even kept up on who the fuck Godzilla really is and the extent of his power. You know damn well if Godzilla comes here, the Martians will be destroyed, but so will everything else on the island! “It’s me. No don’t hang up! Look I’m sorry about that! I didn’t mean for that to happen! Come on I really need your help. I’m in a predicament and…” You snatch the phone from Gil “Dammit, no matter what shit happened between you two, you should at least know how your cousin’s mind operates by now, Gil!” you say to Gil. “Hello, Godzilla? Big fan. My name’s Wolf you might know me, but it doesn’t matter if you don’t. Look there’s a bunch of fucking Martians coming down to Earth thinking they’re tough shit and acting like they’re going to own the place. Yeah I know you’re King of the Monsters here on Earth, but you know how all aliens are, they’re arrogant bastards. Okay. Oh why thank you! That was my favorite role; I got to kill 17 humans in that one! Glad to see you have heard of me. Alright bye.” You turn to Moreau and Gil. “He’s coming.” You say. > You get the hell off the island You respect and even admire Godzilla for his abilities, but you’re not a damn idiot! When Godzilla comes to kick ass, he goes into overkill. You don’t want to be anywhere on the island when he arrives. You ask Moreau for your money. “Alright Moreau, you said I could have my reward in cash, I’ll be taking it now seeing as my work here is done.” “What?! You haven’t done anything!” Moreau says. “The hell I didn’t, I got Godzilla to come here. He’ll solve your Martian problem.” “Okay there’s two things wrong with that statement. First of all YOU still aren’t personally doing anything. Second of all Godzilla is Gil’s cousin not yours, if anything he gets credit for this before you!” “Yeah!” Gil remarks. “That may be, but I’m the one who convinced Godzilla to come here! Gil was too busy stuttering and apologizing.” “Godzilla’s not even here yet! I’m not paying you anything; you can wait until after he gets rid of the Martians.” Looks like Moreau isn’t parting with anything until after the job is completed, but if you wait until after Godzilla does his thing there won’t be anything left on the island to part with and that’s assuming you can find some place to lay low to avoid the sheer destruction that’s sure to come. (Even though Moreau seems to be ignorant of what’s about to occur to his Utopia) > You insist on getting paid You begin to get angry at Moreau’s unwillingness to pay up. “Moreau I’m going to ask you ONE last time, I want my money!” you snarl. “You’re not getting anything from me! And you can stop threatening me, because it won’t work! I had to face angry tigermen and worse while attempting to turn this place into a Utopia! So you can just…” You don’t let Moreau finish that sentence; you take a swipe at him with your claws, knocking him down. He slams his head into his desk and looks very still. Gil goes over to check on him. “He’s dead.” Gil says. “Damn, I didn’t mean to hit him so hard, I was just trying to scare him a bit.” “You dickhead! NOW what are we supposed to do?!” “Will you relax, I’m sure he’s got a safe or some place where he keeps the money, all we have to do is find it, it can’t be far.” ”I’m not talking about that! I’m talking about he was the only one who could fly the plane of the island! How the hell are we supposed to leave now that he’s dead?! And do I need to remind you that my cousin is coming here? I didn’t want to be here anymore than you did when he arrived especially since he’s pissed at me!” “Oh shit, I didn’t think about that. FUCK! Wait a minute! What the hell are you worried about? All you gotta do is start swimming!” ”Hey asshole, it’s the fucking ocean! SALTWATER! I can’t survive in that shit. Not for that long anyway. I might as well be swimming in vinegar.” “Hold on you better just calm the fuck down, and watch your tone Fishboy.” “Fuck you mangy land dwelling dog! I should’ve never listened to you!” Gil is just as pissed at you as you are with him right now and you both act on your anger. A fight between you both occurs in the office, and eventually out in the middle of the town. Moreau’s freaks stand in disbelief, they’re unaccustomed to seeing such violence in a long time, and the younger ones have never seen it at all. Most of them just stand out of the way as you and Gil attempt to kill one another. You fight for a couple days, and then the Martians arrive. When they see that the island is still inhabited they go into their kill all Earthlings routine and start killing the citizens of the island with ease, until they’re all dead. Meanwhile you and Gil are still beating each others brains out. The Martians decide not to interrupt and start placing bets; you’re the odds on favorite since Gil is starting to dehydrate at this point. Another day passes and Godzilla finally arrives. The Martians attempt to fight back, but this is fucking Godzilla. He merely sneezes at their beam weapons and their saucers. Then he crushes the remaining ones under foot, destroying most of the island in the process. Then he notices Gil, and remembering whatever he did to piss him off, he decides to get some payback. Unfortunately you’re in the way of his “payback” and you’re both incinerated with one bellow of radioactive fire.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You respect and even admire Godzilla for his abilities, but you’re not a damn idiot! When Godzilla comes to kick ass, he goes into overkill. You don’t want to be anywhere on the island when he arrives. You ask Moreau for your money. “Alright Moreau, you said I could have my reward in cash, I’ll be taking it now seeing as my work here is done.” “What?! You haven’t done anything!” Moreau says. “The hell I didn’t, I got Godzilla to come here. He’ll solve your Martian problem.” “Okay there’s two things wrong with that statement. First of all YOU still aren’t personally doing anything. Second of all Godzilla is Gil’s cousin not yours, if anything he gets credit for this before you!” “Yeah!” Gil remarks. “That may be, but I’m the one who convinced Godzilla to come here! Gil was too busy stuttering and apologizing.” “Godzilla’s not even here yet! I’m not paying you anything; you can wait until after he gets rid of the Martians.” Looks like Moreau isn’t parting with anything until after the job is completed, but if you wait until after Godzilla does his thing there won’t be anything left on the island to part with and that’s assuming you can find some place to lay low to avoid the sheer destruction that’s sure to come. (Even though Moreau seems to be ignorant of what’s about to occur to his Utopia) > You leave without getting paid You don’t even care about the money or anything at this point, you just need to get off this island and Moreau’s the only one who can fly the plane. “Alright look, forget the money, just take me home, I just don’t want to be on this island any longer the whole place sickens my sensibilities.” Moreau looks annoyed by your comment. “Hmm, well if you hate my Utopia so much, I certainly won’t keep you any longer. I’ll fly you home immediately. I didn’t want your kind really living here anyway. At least Gil is civilized enough to appreciate this place.” “Uh actually I’d like to go back to the mainland as well. I don’t care about any money either, I’m not going to be living anywhere that requires rent anyway.” Gil says nervously. “What? I thought you wanted to stay?” “I changed my mind! Can we just leave?!” “Alright fine, I’ll fly you both back. I’ll get the plane ready. I’m a little puzzled by all this, you’ve helped me, but now you don’t want any reward. All I can say is thanks I guess.” After Moreau leaves to start up the plane, you ask Gil what’s up with him. “So why are you leaving?” you ask. “Duh! The same reason you are, because my cousin will destroy this fucking place, even though Moreau seems to be oblivious of that fact. Not to mention he still sounded pissed at me on the phone, so I don’t want to be here when he arrives! (Sigh) And I did so want to live here too.” “Well if it wasn’t your cousin, it would’ve been the Martians so you would’ve had to leave anyway. I’m not getting anything out of this either; I gotta go back to my cabin in the woods and figure out how to raise some money again. I hope Erik’s got something lined up.” “At least you have a home to return to, I gotta find a new one all over again.” “Hm, well there’s a small lake in the woods I live in, you might try that for awhile. Not too many people go into the woods, especially since I tend to discourage it.” “I might just do that since I don’t have any better ideas right now, I guess you’re not a bad sort for a land dweller. Sounds like Moreau got the plane working, let’s get the hell out of here.” You and Gil proceed to talk about a great many of things while on the plane and become quite friendly with each other. Probably a first for the both of you. After Moreau drops you both off, you continue to discuss the old days while Gil checks out the lake you were talking about. He mentions it’s a good place as long as nobody bothers him. Gil becomes your new neighbor and you both part ways since you both still want your solitude. You do get together to watch TV when a news story comes on a couple days after you left Moreau’s island... The Martians arrived just like they said, and so did Godzilla. A massive fight broke out, but of course the only winner could ever be Godzilla. Their flying saucers were incinerated by his radioactive breath and their troops were crushed underfoot with ease. The entire island was also incinerated and crushed underfoot with ease! Most of Moreau’s citizens were killed in the cross fire of this battle. Dr. Moreau was found dead from a self-inflicted beam blast to the head (A weapon he picked up from a dead Martian no doubt) Some of the survivors claim his last words were “Such destruction… Why? Why? Why didn’t they tell me?!” This massive devastation continued even after Godzilla killed all the Martians, apparently from some of the other survivor reports, he was tearing the place apart searching the entire island for something or someone. When he didn’t find it, he gave a roar and went back to Japan. After watching the news report, you turn to Gil. “Alright Gil what the hell did you do to your cousin? I mean what possibly could you’ve done to piss him off so bad? It’s not like you’re Rodan or Mothra.” “Eh, it’s not something I like to talk about Wolf. I’m not too proud of doing it, but…” “But what Gil? Out with it!” “Well…I kind of…impregnated his wife…I know what your next question is, and it’s a bit complicated so I won’t try to explain, but we aquatics mate a little differently than…” “Alright Gil! I don’t need to hear anymore!” you say, and then sudden you have to ask… “So wait a minute. You mean to say Minya was…” “Yep, he was my son. Why else would he blow smoke rings instead of radioactive fire and be so small?” “Well I thought it was because he was young.” “You probably haven’t kept up with Minya, but he’s STILL that size and still can’t breathe radioactive fire. My cousin knew something was rotten around Minya’s 10th birthday, since he should’ve grown a lot bigger by then as well as the fire stuff. His wife confessed everything. It’s another reason why I’m so reclusive.” You just stare in disbelief at all this. Even with all the dirty secrets you’ve known about in this business, this one is definitely a new one for you. You don’t think you’ll be able to look at Godzilla OR Gil in the same light ever again. Godzilla might be King of the Monsters, but you have to give some sort of props to someone who fucked his wife and got away with it.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>If you actually had any friends you’d ask them if they could help, but since you don’t, you ask Gil if he knows anyone. “Not really.” He says. “Come on Gil, I mean you must know someone! There were a ton of aquatic sea monsters!” “Oh yeah, we ALL know each other. Damn land dweller ignorance. I bet we all look alike to too you right?” Gil says annoyed. “And I suppose you don’t think we all look alike?” you retort. “Alright nevermind. I don’t know though, most of the beings I know, tolerate land dwellers even less than I do. And most of them can’t even leave the water to begin with.” “I guess giant crabs and squids are out of the question then huh?” “You guess right.” “Damn.” “Okay well, I DO have a cousin that might help, but we haven’t spoken in years.” “Would he be of much help?” “Oh he’d be more than enough help; he doesn’t much care for aliens in general. In fact he doesn’t like anyone and is very violent.” “Sounds like a great guy.” You say. “Hmm, yes I’m sure you and he have a few things in common. He’s another that pointless picks fights and believes in proving his dominance whenever possible.” “Well get his ass over here!” “I don’t know if he’ll come, we had a fight about something a long time ago hence the reason we haven’t spoken.” “Gil, I know Moreau has at least one phone on this island. USE IT. NOW!” “Alright, I’ll try, but like I said I don’t know if he’ll come to help. You and Gil make your way back to Moreau’s freak town where the freaks still give you strange looks. You knock on Moreau’s door. “Hey Moreau! Open up, Gil’s gotta use the phone.” Moreau looks as haggard as ever when he opens his door. “Damn Moreau, you look like shit, you really need to take better care of yourself. Eat some fucking meat. Anyway, Gil has a bad ass cousin apparently that can help, he just needs to call him.” “Wolf, I don’t know if he’ll come, and now that I’m thinking about it, I don’t know if I WANT him to come. He might still be pissed at me.” ”Have some faith Gil.” Gil picks up the phone and starts pressing a million numbers. “Where the hell does your cousin live, Gil?” “Japan. Oh I got a tone…here he is. Hello Godzilla?” “Your cousin is FUCKING GODZILLA?!” you ask. “Oh even I’ve heard of him, heard he was giant lizard that routinely defeated other monsters and aliens. Surely he’ll be able to help.” Moreau says hopefully. You look at Moreau in disbelief, he apparently has been such a recluse he hasn’t even kept up on who the fuck Godzilla really is and the extent of his power. You know damn well if Godzilla comes here, the Martians will be destroyed, but so will everything else on the island! “It’s me. No don’t hang up! Look I’m sorry about that! I didn’t mean for that to happen! Come on I really need your help. I’m in a predicament and…” You snatch the phone from Gil “Dammit, no matter what shit happened between you two, you should at least know how your cousin’s mind operates by now, Gil!” you say to Gil. “Hello, Godzilla? Big fan. My name’s Wolf you might know me, but it doesn’t matter if you don’t. Look there’s a bunch of fucking Martians coming down to Earth thinking they’re tough shit and acting like they’re going to own the place. Yeah I know you’re King of the Monsters here on Earth, but you know how all aliens are, they’re arrogant bastards. Okay. Oh why thank you! That was my favorite role; I got to kill 17 humans in that one! Glad to see you have heard of me. Alright bye.” You turn to Moreau and Gil. “He’s coming.” You say. > You sit back and watch the show No way are you going to miss a front row seat to watch the master do his work! You just need a good place to be at that’s out of the way of the destruction. “Okay so now that that’s settled, is there any place on the island that’s relatively uninhabited?” you ask “As you can see the island is mostly still in its natural state, but I’m assuming you’re talking about areas that aren’t visited or traveled very often, well there’s a peninsula on the island that’s pretty much avoided since it just consists of a rocky plateau. Nothing grows there and it’s barren.” ”Good that’s where I’ll be then.” You say. Moreau looks at you wondering why you’re acting strangely, then he wonders the same thing about Gil when he starts asking to leave. “Uh…Moreau can you take me back to the mainland? I don’t care; just drop me off at the nearest swamp.” Gil asks. “What?! I can’t leave right now, the Martians will be here soon and so will your cousin, I have to look out for my people! Why do you want to leave anyway? I thought you were going to live here.” “I changed my mind! Look it won’t take that long, I just need to leave!” “Well I’m not leaving now, you’ll have to wait until this blows over. Or if you really want to leave I’m sure you can swim.” ”It’s the fucking ocean you dick! I can’t be swimming in saltwater for extended periods of time! I can’t wait either! My cousin still sounded like he was pissed at me! He’ll destroy this whole island and me with it!” “What?!” Moreau says startled. “Uh, Gil’s exaggerating! Nothing to worry about!” you say attempting to shut Gil up. “Wait a minute! What the hell have you two brought to my island!?” “Dammit Moreau, if you don’t know who the fuck Godzilla is it’s your own damn fault! Look just keep your freaks out of the way and everything will be fine.” You say. Now Moreau looks as green as Gil, who’s looking even greener if such a thing was possible. They’re looking very worried. > You come up with another plan “Hey look I got an idea…” “SHUT UP! JUST SHUT UP WOLF!” Moreau screams. “I can’t believe I let you talk me into calling my cousin!” Gil says and then attacks you! You and Gil start wailing on each other pretty good, eventually your fighting brings you both in the middle of the town where Moreau’s freaks look on in wide eyed wonder. They’re even more surprised when Moreau comes out with a silver fork and stabs you in the back with it. “Agh! What the fuck? Fuckin’ silverware? You’re gonna have to do better than that Freakmaker!” you say turning around, and slashing Moreau a couple times across the throat, killing him. Unfortunately you turned your back on Gil, who takes advantage of the fork in your back and drives it in deeper, puncturing vital organs. You fall to the ground in extreme pain attempting to catch your breath, as Gil smashes your face into some rocks and reenacting a psycho killer tactic by repeatedly stabbing the shit out of you with the silver fork, until he’s sure you’re dead. Gil’s revenge is short lived though. He’s killed in the big battle between the Martians and his cousin a few days later. In fact nothing on the island survives the battle except Godzilla.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>No way are you going to miss a front row seat to watch the master do his work! You just need a good place to be at that’s out of the way of the destruction. “Okay so now that that’s settled, is there any place on the island that’s relatively uninhabited?” you ask “As you can see the island is mostly still in its natural state, but I’m assuming you’re talking about areas that aren’t visited or traveled very often, well there’s a peninsula on the island that’s pretty much avoided since it just consists of a rocky plateau. Nothing grows there and it’s barren.” ”Good that’s where I’ll be then.” You say. Moreau looks at you wondering why you’re acting strangely, then he wonders the same thing about Gil when he starts asking to leave. “Uh…Moreau can you take me back to the mainland? I don’t care; just drop me off at the nearest swamp.” Gil asks. “What?! I can’t leave right now, the Martians will be here soon and so will your cousin, I have to look out for my people! Why do you want to leave anyway? I thought you were going to live here.” “I changed my mind! Look it won’t take that long, I just need to leave!” “Well I’m not leaving now, you’ll have to wait until this blows over. Or if you really want to leave I’m sure you can swim.” ”It’s the fucking ocean you dick! I can’t be swimming in saltwater for extended periods of time! I can’t wait either! My cousin still sounded like he was pissed at me! He’ll destroy this whole island and me with it!” “What?!” Moreau says startled. “Uh, Gil’s exaggerating! Nothing to worry about!” you say attempting to shut Gil up. “Wait a minute! What the hell have you two brought to my island!?” “Dammit Moreau, if you don’t know who the fuck Godzilla is it’s your own damn fault! Look just keep your freaks out of the way and everything will be fine.” You say. Now Moreau looks as green as Gil, who’s looking even greener if such a thing was possible. They’re looking very worried. > You head to the plateau Gil and Moreau can shit themselves with fear, but you’re not going to sit around worrying about all this. You decide to get yourself a prime seat on that rocky plateau. As you leave Moreau and Gil to their own devices, you walk through the town while the freaks all stare at you. That’s when you notice they have do have some livestock here after all. It looks like they just sheep for the wool purposes though. (Probably part of their economy) What a waste. You boldly go into the little grazing field and pick yourself up a couple of big fat sheep. A shepherd who looks like his origins lie with some sort of rodent, attempts to stop you from killing them. “Hey, those are my sheep, I’m afraid you can’t just…” You punch out the ratboy and continue to kill your dinner while all the other freaks whisper amongst themselves about your behavior. “Fuck all of you pussy ass bitches, y’all oughta be glad I’m not eating any of YOU!” you say and continue to your destination. You get to the plateau, and it really is a nice view. You can see the entire island from it. Not long after you get there you see Moreau’s plane leave. “Hmm, so much for sticking around to defend his Utopia.” You say. A day passes and you see the saucers come from the sky. A few of them land in the distance, while others are blasting the hell out of the towns scattered around the island. They’re too busy invading the populated areas though, so you’re safe. That’s when you also see Godzilla’s giant form looming in the distance. “Aw shit! This is going to be good!” you say preparing to watch the master in action. As soon as Godzilla steps foot on the island he starts wrecking the place. The Martians attempt to fight back, but it’s useless. They can’t even beat humans; they stand even less of a chance against Godzilla. Their technology is like the equivalent of someone throwing a rock at a fully armored tank; a tank that can breathe radioactive fire. The Martians are completely destroyed along with most of the island. Godzilla seems to stick around smashing the place, like he’s looking for someone, that’s when he notices you. Even from your high location, you’re still staring up at him from his belly. “RRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAGH! RAAAAAAAAAGH!” “Oh Gil? Yeah, he was here.” You shout holding your ears. “RRRRRRAAAAAAAGH! RRRRAAAAAGGGGGH!” “Yeah, I think he left with Dr. Moreau though. You just missed him a couple days ago.” ”RRRRRAAAAGGGGHHH! RRRAAAAAGGGH!” “Okay I’ll let him know that, assuming I ever see him again.” “RRAAAAAAAAAGHHH! RRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAGGH!” “Okay bye then. And it was great to see you in action first hand!” Godzilla leaves and you’re now standing on a wrecked island. You’ll probably be stuck here for awhile, until the humans deploy ships to find out what the hell happened. This will all probably lead to another war between Earth and Mars again. Oh well. In the meantime, the island isn’t complete wasteland, in fact parts of it are still intact and there are plenty of animals around and even some freak survivors are still alive. You’ll have plenty of food, lots of solitude as well. Hell, it’s like a vacation. You just realized you’ve never been on vacation ever in your life, but you’re taking the opportunity now. You even got to see a “big show”. And why not, you’ve deserved it.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>If you actually had any friends you’d ask them if they could help, but since you don’t, you ask Gil if he knows anyone. “Not really.” He says. “Come on Gil, I mean you must know someone! There were a ton of aquatic sea monsters!” “Oh yeah, we ALL know each other. Damn land dweller ignorance. I bet we all look alike to too you right?” Gil says annoyed. “And I suppose you don’t think we all look alike?” you retort. “Alright nevermind. I don’t know though, most of the beings I know, tolerate land dwellers even less than I do. And most of them can’t even leave the water to begin with.” “I guess giant crabs and squids are out of the question then huh?” “You guess right.” “Damn.” “Okay well, I DO have a cousin that might help, but we haven’t spoken in years.” “Would he be of much help?” “Oh he’d be more than enough help; he doesn’t much care for aliens in general. In fact he doesn’t like anyone and is very violent.” “Sounds like a great guy.” You say. “Hmm, yes I’m sure you and he have a few things in common. He’s another that pointless picks fights and believes in proving his dominance whenever possible.” “Well get his ass over here!” “I don’t know if he’ll come, we had a fight about something a long time ago hence the reason we haven’t spoken.” “Gil, I know Moreau has at least one phone on this island. USE IT. NOW!” “Alright, I’ll try, but like I said I don’t know if he’ll come to help. You and Gil make your way back to Moreau’s freak town where the freaks still give you strange looks. You knock on Moreau’s door. “Hey Moreau! Open up, Gil’s gotta use the phone.” Moreau looks as haggard as ever when he opens his door. “Damn Moreau, you look like shit, you really need to take better care of yourself. Eat some fucking meat. Anyway, Gil has a bad ass cousin apparently that can help, he just needs to call him.” “Wolf, I don’t know if he’ll come, and now that I’m thinking about it, I don’t know if I WANT him to come. He might still be pissed at me.” ”Have some faith Gil.” Gil picks up the phone and starts pressing a million numbers. “Where the hell does your cousin live, Gil?” “Japan. Oh I got a tone…here he is. Hello Godzilla?” “Your cousin is FUCKING GODZILLA?!” you ask. “Oh even I’ve heard of him, heard he was giant lizard that routinely defeated other monsters and aliens. Surely he’ll be able to help.” Moreau says hopefully. You look at Moreau in disbelief, he apparently has been such a recluse he hasn’t even kept up on who the fuck Godzilla really is and the extent of his power. You know damn well if Godzilla comes here, the Martians will be destroyed, but so will everything else on the island! “It’s me. No don’t hang up! Look I’m sorry about that! I didn’t mean for that to happen! Come on I really need your help. I’m in a predicament and…” You snatch the phone from Gil “Dammit, no matter what shit happened between you two, you should at least know how your cousin’s mind operates by now, Gil!” you say to Gil. “Hello, Godzilla? Big fan. My name’s Wolf you might know me, but it doesn’t matter if you don’t. Look there’s a bunch of fucking Martians coming down to Earth thinking they’re tough shit and acting like they’re going to own the place. Yeah I know you’re King of the Monsters here on Earth, but you know how all aliens are, they’re arrogant bastards. Okay. Oh why thank you! That was my favorite role; I got to kill 17 humans in that one! Glad to see you have heard of me. Alright bye.” You turn to Moreau and Gil. “He’s coming.” You say. > You memories (Godzilla) King of the Monsters: Godzilla Naturally you never got to hang out with him since he ran in his own circle and did most of his films in Japan, but you have nothing, but respect for Godzilla. He’s beaten the shit out of everything that’s been thrown at him. Humans, Aliens, Robots, other Giant Monsters, all of them decimated. If there was anyone else you had to be, you’d be Godzilla. There are no words that you could say that would do him justice. He’s the pinnacle of badassitude. He really is the King of the Monsters and will always be a legend.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You take one look at Moreau’s citizens and shake your head. There’s no way you can whip these freaks into shape by yourself. Look at them, all peace and love and shit. There’s a damn giraffe man kissing a damn bear woman. It’s not right! You’re too disgusted right now; you have to talk to someone normal! You go to the nearby swamp, where you see Gil catching a small lizard and eating it. “Well its good to see someone here, who’s not a pansy ass herbivore.” You say. Gil looks up, perturbed at first, but surprised when he sees you. “Wolf? What’re you doing here?” “Same thing as you, Moreau offered to set me up for life, if I help him. Though I don’t see how that’s possible with the freaks I just met.” “I know, tell me about it. I can’t even get them to argue with me! I was calling them a bunch of ignorant land dwellers who should’ve been killed at birth like the freaks they were and they tried to do was hug me.” “Still don’t like surfacer dwellers eh Gil?” “Hell no! I wouldn’t even be here, but I was getting really tired of moving every five minutes because humans feel the need to build a factory near my home. At least here, I know that’s not going to happen and the freaks will know to leave me be.” “Assuming the freaks will still be here. The Martians will be taking over soon if we don’t do anything.” You remind Gil. “I know, I know. They would be even worse neighbors than humans assuming they would still let me live here. (Sigh) Looks like I’ll be moving again soon.” “Oh come on Gil, we gotta think up something. The Martians are a bunch of idiots. I can’t give up just yet.” “Ah I should’ve suspected. You’re here to prove you still got one fight left in you. The old Alpha Wolf syndrome.” “I’m not here just for that, but maybe that is part of it. So what the hell’s wrong with that?” “Nothing I suppose. It’s your life. I just think it’s a pointless and silly endeavor that gets you killed for no good reason.” “Oh fuck you Gil. We’re natural born killers, we’re designed to establish our dominance and be combative! You of all should understand that. You want to die an old fish in your sleep?” “Sounds about right. Look Wolf, I know you’ve always subscribed to natural law, survival of fittest ideology and I do too. But you take it to the fucking extreme that it’s ridiculous. Really I mean don’t you feel that in your elder years that you’d just like peace and quiet? I never picked fights for the hell of it. It didn’t make much sense. I mean shit, I’ve been fighting humans all my damn life, and I’m tired of it. I want to rest. I always just wanted to be left alone but the damn land dwellers wouldn’t leave me alone.” “Gil, I learned a long time ago, no matter how much you try, shitheads are going to bother you. You can be a recluse like you and Moreau or be an anti-social asshole like me. It doesn’t matter. Someone is going to fuck with you; someone is going to annoy you. All you can do is deal with it head on and make the best of it. What’re you going to do Gil? Move when the Martians arrive? Then move again when some humans build yet another factory by your new home and just keep going like that until you die? You got a chance here to pretty much live your dream of a relatively peaceful undisturbed life here. It’s not going to get any better Gil. All you gotta do is stand up to the Martians. Yeah, maybe you’ll get killed, but it’s better than constantly being on the run.” Your words have made sense to Gil. He can’t really argue with your logic. This place probably is the best he’s going to ever have it on this planet. He just needs to help get rid of the Martian threat. “Well Wolf, I guess either way this is going to be my last fight. Alright what should we do next? Because attempting to train the freaks seems like it’s doomed to failure.” > You suggest you and Gil just try to do the best training them “Well we have to work with what we got Gil, nothing else for it.” “(Sigh) I don’t know, I tried already, and none of them have any kind of fighter instinct.” “You probably were treating them like something you scraped off your scales.” “Oh and I suppose you’d treat them better?” “Not really, but they might respond better to me, I can be diplomatic.” “Ha ha ha ha! YOU!? Diplomatic?! Alright I’ll help because I gotta see this!” You and Gil go to back to Moreau’s freak town, where the freaks stare at you again. You call everyone to gather around. “Alright you freaks come gather around! Now then, it has become quite apparent to me that all of you are a bunch of hippy weaklings who would’ve been killed a long time ago, if you actually lived in reality. Well soon the reality will come to rectify that mistake if you don’t stand up to the Martians that will be coming to annihilate this little so called paradise you all have.” “Oh maybe if we’re real nice to them, they’ll let us live!” one says. “Not familiar with Martians are you? They’re not the nicest beings in any sense of the word. They’ve attempted to conquer this planet several times and have killed millions of humans. What do you think they’ll do to you freaks?” “I’m sure they can be reasonable, if we just ask them nicely to live with us in peace.” “Argh! Didn’t you fucking freaks hear what I said?! I said they’ll fucking kill ALL of you! Now if you fight back you might have a chance! All you have to do is evacuate your town and whatever little settlements you have on this island and take to the wilderness. You could easily conduct a successful guerilla war on here. Martians aren’t very good tacticians and have bad immune systems. They’ll probably catch malaria and every other disease under the sun attempting to root you guys out and I of course will be the one leading you to victory!” Your speech is met with more silence and disapproval. “No! We shall not give in to hatred and violence! Those are the old ways!” “Yes and some of us never followed those ways in the first place!” “That went over real well, got any other ideas?” Gil asks you. > You fly into a rage This is too frustrating to you and once again you’re sickened with how nature has been perverted like this. You can’t take it any more. You start killing the nearest freaks to you. Naturally this all results in a lot of running and screaming on their part. The blood lust gets to you, so you don’t just stop there, you won’t be happy until you’ve killed them all. Dr. Moreau comes out to see what’s going on, and immediately goes into shock at the sight of his citizens lying on the ground in bloody heaps. He then clutches his heart and falls over dead. Gil sees that you’re busy, so he goes back to his swamp mumbling something about land dwellers. By the time the Martians arrive you’ve pretty much done their job for them. They take this as a sign of genuine steps to improve Martian-Earthling relations. They thank you and allow you to live on the island for free. You accept since it beats going back to the run down cabin and having to pay rent. As it turns out, Martians aren’t really such bad neighbors. A lot of them are pretty stupid, but then so are most humans. Life doesn’t change too much for you. Just goes to show wherever you go, there you are.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>“Well we have to work with what we got Gil, nothing else for it.” “(Sigh) I don’t know, I tried already, and none of them have any kind of fighter instinct.” “You probably were treating them like something you scraped off your scales.” “Oh and I suppose you’d treat them better?” “Not really, but they might respond better to me, I can be diplomatic.” “Ha ha ha ha! YOU!? Diplomatic?! Alright I’ll help because I gotta see this!” You and Gil go to back to Moreau’s freak town, where the freaks stare at you again. You call everyone to gather around. “Alright you freaks come gather around! Now then, it has become quite apparent to me that all of you are a bunch of hippy weaklings who would’ve been killed a long time ago, if you actually lived in reality. Well soon the reality will come to rectify that mistake if you don’t stand up to the Martians that will be coming to annihilate this little so called paradise you all have.” “Oh maybe if we’re real nice to them, they’ll let us live!” one says. “Not familiar with Martians are you? They’re not the nicest beings in any sense of the word. They’ve attempted to conquer this planet several times and have killed millions of humans. What do you think they’ll do to you freaks?” “I’m sure they can be reasonable, if we just ask them nicely to live with us in peace.” “Argh! Didn’t you fucking freaks hear what I said?! I said they’ll fucking kill ALL of you! Now if you fight back you might have a chance! All you have to do is evacuate your town and whatever little settlements you have on this island and take to the wilderness. You could easily conduct a successful guerilla war on here. Martians aren’t very good tacticians and have bad immune systems. They’ll probably catch malaria and every other disease under the sun attempting to root you guys out and I of course will be the one leading you to victory!” Your speech is met with more silence and disapproval. “No! We shall not give in to hatred and violence! Those are the old ways!” “Yes and some of us never followed those ways in the first place!” “That went over real well, got any other ideas?” Gil asks you. > You continue to speak You’re determined to make these freaks fight, mainly because you’re too stubborn to give up. You start going on about natural law, survival of the fittest an all those other might makes right philosophies you subscribe to. After about a day of this, some of the carnivorous and omnivore freaks begin to find something that still dwells within them. Even the herbivores start tapping into their human side to get that aggressive streak within them. Now you’ve got something to work with! Unfortunately you don’t have much time. You and Gil only manage to give the bare minimum of training when the Martians arrive. You manage to get most of them to evacuate before they do their initial saucer bombardment. Dr. Moreau stays behind to die after seeing what you’re turning his “citizens” into; he doesn’t want to be any part of it. As far as he’s concerned his Utopia is over. But your battle is just beginning! Just like you suggested you, Gil and the freaks take to the jungles which they all know like the back of their paws, hoofs, etc. You get some of the freaks that have burrowing skills to create a system of underground tunnels, where you do your training, planning and where you strike from. The Martians meanwhile use their superior technology to combat you, but they aren’t very successful. They can’t just destroy the entire island since they’re attempting to hold it, this all results in a war of attrition that ultimately ends very badly for them as they die of diseases, ambushes and the like. It also doesn’t help when you get a hold of some of their weapons. Eventually they pull out. Gil parts ways with you at this point and goes back to live in his bit of swamp where he originally wanted to spend the remainder of his days. Nobody ever bothers him again. You however take control of the island. The freaks are a lot more to your liking now. No more of that pussy peace shit. No more “No spill blood law” either. The only law now is the law of the jungle. (Well since you’re in charge, you tend to make “rules” that benefit you though) You live out the rest of your years in relative luxury mating with a Fox woman on a regular basis. Amazingly she gives birth to some weird crossbreed. You “imaginatively” call him Wox and teach him the same thing you taught everyone else. When Wox grows up he’s so grateful for your ruthless teachings that he decides that you’ve earned you rest and kills you for ruler ship of the island. You don’t blame him though it’s the natural order of things.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>“Aw hell, if the past is any indication Martians ain’t shit. I don’t have anything better to do. Let’s get going.” You remark. You and Moreau leave the next day to his island by private plane. When you arrive you can see why the place is considered a paradise, its basically untamed wilderness with some agricultural improvements and basic structures to house the citizens. Speaking of citizens, you see them in person. They’re a motley looking bunch. You see boar boys, goat girls, manatee men, and wombat women and those are some of the regular ones. Some look like they’ve been mixed with several species of animals, so you can’t even be sure what the hell they are. Moreau’s citizens are equally interested in you. “Are you another citizen?” one of them asks as they all attempt to crowd you. “What? Hell no! I’m a fucking werewolf! Not a freak of nature!” you snarl, not wanting them to touch you. Moreau take the opportunity to make sure you don’t kill anyone. “This is Wolf. He’s different than you…in several ways. But he’s here to help us with our current problem, just like our aquatic friend who volunteered to help a few days ago.” You stop Moreau. “Aquatic friend? You got someone else to help you?” you ask. “Well yes, I wasn’t sure if you’d help, so I tried to get others as well. You and he were the only takers it seems though. I’m pretty sure you and he are familiar with each other. I can’t pronounce his real name, but he goes by Gil.” “Gil?! You got GIL?! He was almost as reclusive as you! How’d you get him to help?” “I don’t know. It was really just a gamble. I made the same deal, but I had little hope of him accepting it since he’s not exactly fond of land dwellers. He accepted though since he’s tired of having humans intrude on his home every five minute. He already has a place set aside for himself on the island. I just hope the island is still ours after all this.” “Where is he?” “He keeps to himself in a nearby swamp. He likes his privacy and I respect it. You and he can talk later. I’d like you to get to the training. The Martians will be coming soon, I’m predicting in a matter of days.” “DAYS!? You didn’t say that before! How am I supposed to train these freaks in days?” “Please Wolf you must try! Gil tried and didn’t get very far; he may have even given up. I was hoping you might have more luck since you’re a bit closer to my citizens.” “I’m nothing like your citizens…but I’ll see what I can do.” > You memories (Gil) The Creature: Gil AKA Gilqtzejeopleziqjadg’helixizrtylewv’rocrzs… Gil’s real name is a mile long and unpronounceable like most members of underwater species. He doesn’t really care for the name “Gil”, but he resigns himself to the fact that you land dwellers can’t pronounce his real one. He was pretty private, normally he’d just come to work, do his job and go back to his swamp, or lagoon, or whatever body of water he was living in at the time. (Never anyplace with salt water though, as it reeked havoc on his skin) As far as the “big name monsters” go, he was probably the one who socialized the least, mainly because he didn’t like land dwellers. He didn’t like land dwellers for several reasons, but even if they hadn’t been draining his swamps, pissing into his pools, polluting his lagoons, and over fishing his lakes, he didn’t like them before they did all that. While he didn’t like land dwellers, you didn’t take offense to it like everyone else did. You actually understood it. You don’t have anything in common with the Undead and you don’t like them. Gil was an aquatic being, there’s no real reason for him to like ANY land dwellers, since he didn’t have much in common with them. (Given that you can’t stand most of them half of the time, you couldn’t really blame Gil for his prejudices) You and he never interacted much, but you did respect each other for each ones natural predator instinct.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You and Moreau have never had any dealings with each other before, so you’re kind of curious to as why he wanted to see you. You approach Moreau and he’s tripping over himself to thank you for seeing him. You’re a little suspicious of this treatment, especially since you’ve never been welcomed by anyone before. “Wolf, its Wolf right? Or do you prefer Mr. Wolf?” “Wolf is fine…will you tell me why the hell you want to see me so badly for? We’ve never had anything to do with each other before.” “Yes. Quite correct. My Vision didn’t lead me to interact socially that much. Maybe I shouldn’t have concentrated so much on my Vision though. Maybe I should’ve been more flexible. If I had, I might not have the problems I have now.” “Okay, so will you quit with the fucking mystery already and tell me what’s going on?” “As you know I transformed my island into a utopia where no being harms another.” “Pfft, some Utopia. I call it fucking with nature.” “And you know what? I agree with you. At one time, I would’ve dismissed you as a vicious animal that only pleased his primal instincts.” “You say it as if it’s a bad thing.” You utter. “I once thought so…but now I’m starting to see reality for the first time. My Utopia wasn’t followed by the world…it was hated. It was despised. Most are jealous of what I’ve done and want to destroy it.” “Duh, that’s humanity for you. So are you getting to the point anytime soon?” “My Utopia is about to be destroyed, but NOT directly. No human nation wants to look like the bad guys so you know what they’ve done instead? They’re letting Martians do it for them!” “What? Martians aren’t even allowed on this planet after all the unsuccessful attacks they’ve attempted on it.” You exclaim. “See that’s just it. In exchange of a new Martian-Earthling Peace accord they’re letting the Martians put a colony here provided they don’t kill any humans. The Martians agreed and MY Island was scheduled for designation for the colony! If we stay they’ll be allowed to kill everyone since nobody on there is human except me.” “Well that certainly does suck, but why not just move?” “WHAT!? That’s our home! Would YOU move from your own home?” “Eh…I suppose I can see your point. So what am I supposed to do though?” Moreau takes another drink and looks at you with dead seriousness. “I need you to get them all to FIGHT! I need you to get them all in touch with their animal instincts again! I know you’re more than just a werewolf. You’re the self-proclaimed Alpha. I need that viciousness, I need that aggressiveness, I need it ingrained into my people. I can’t do it. I’m not qualified, and I’d only make things worse. I can pay you all the money you want; our economy has always been good. If you like you could even live on the island and spend your remaining years there with nothing to worry about. You could mate with whoever you wanted, we could import whatever meat you wanted, or if you preferred…we could even make special arrangements just for you, to hunt living creatures. Anything…just please help us.” This is pretty heavy shit. Moreau must be very desperate to come begging to a practical stranger. There’s no way he’s lying about this, you have heard some stuff lately about Martian-Human relations, though you don’t really pay attention to the news a lot. You can’t say Moreau’s offer isn’t appealing on some level, but as much of a badass you are, you’re not in your prime anymore. Taking on a shit load of Martians and training a bunch of genetic freaks of nature could be just a little out of your scope. > You go back home You’re not about to go traipsing across the world to save a bunch of hippy freaks from some dumb ass Martians. “I don’t think so Moreau, see ya around.” You say and get up to leave the bar, before anyone else asks you for any favors. You don’t get two feet outside of the place and suddenly you’re assaulted by a terrible smell. The stench is not unlike that of hot garbage during a heat wave. You turn around holding your nose and see Andre with his big ol’ stupid grotesque fly head. “Hey Wolf... Can you spare me some money?” he asks “Fuck Andre! Stand the hell away from me! What the hell? Did you roll around in a septic tank?” “Uh no, I just ate some fresh turds back in the alleyway…” “I don’t even know why I asked you that, I already knew the answer. Ugh.” you say continuing to hold your nose. “They tasted pretty good to me. Hey, but I could use some of that sweet sugar. You got any spare change so I can get me a box of the stuff?” “Fuck no! I barely have enough money for me! Phew! Just get the fuck away!” “Aw come on, help a brother out.” “Broth… what the…look nevermind, I ain’t got time for this shit Andre, if you want sugar so bad just go into a fast food place and stock up on those little free packets!” “I can’t! A lot of those places use that artificial sugar now! Don’t those idiotic humans know that stuff can cause cancer?! Besides whenever they see me coming they start spraying raid on me and hitting me in the head with swatters. I’ve even attempted to sneak in quietly, but they always seem to sense I’m coming, I can never understand how they do that.” “Gee, I can’t imagine how they’d be able to do it, Andre.” You say still holding your nose futility trying to block out Andre’s odor. “I just wish I could get with Janice, she’s got ALL the sugar! (Buzz) But she won’t have anything to do with me; She thinks I’m just low class trash.” “Well if you’re eating shit, I’d say she’s pretty much right.” “It’s not just her sugar I’m after though, I think she’s beautiful! She has such heavenly wings, and a nice abdomen! Yep she really kept herself in good condition after all these years. (Buzz)” “Yeah that’s real nice Andre, tell someone who cares.” You start to leave and then Andre has the nerve to grab you by the arm. “Wolf, please you gotta help me out! I can’t live like this anymore, I thought I could being part fly and all, but it’s getting too bad! I’m nearly killed everywhere I go and I’m getting too old to defend myself adequately! Humans hate the sight of me and I disgust them! I need to a home! Janice has a home! You gotta help me convince her that we should be together! Look, you know she’s rich too! You said you were in need of money too right? Maybe if we’re successful, something can be worked out.” > You kick Andre's ass You have absolutely no patience for this and you begin beating the hell out of Andre, starting by slashing him across his many eyes. Andre surprises you though by fighting back. Due to his diet he’s not exactly the best fighter, but he’s a lot stronger that you thought. You land a few bites on him which immediately cause you to puke since he tastes like a bleeding leper with gangrene. Andre counters with some puke of his own, unfortunately for you, his is acidic. Your arm is horribly burned to the bone. After howling in pain you summon up a reservoir of strength and put your fist through Andre’s chest and proceed to dig around deeply, pulling out all the nasty black stuff inside. Andre twitches and spasms for a good ten minutes before he dies. You stagger back home to nurse your wounds. Against any other opponent you probably would’ve just felt the pain for a couple of days, and regenerated back to your old self, but Andre WAS a fly and as such he was carrying multiple diseases both known and unknown. And during your fight he was spitting and bleeding all over you not to mention you bit him a few times. As a result you’ve been infected by some pretty nasty ones. Over the course of a few days you begin to get very sick and lethargic, if you were younger, your immune system might’ve been stronger to fight it off, but you don’t have that advantage anymore. You feel deathly ill and your fur is falling out, you refuse to die like this. You drag yourself back into town and weakly attack the nearest human you can find. After the cops are called you attempt to attack them as well, but they shoot you full of silver before you can even get near them.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You’re not about to go traipsing across the world to save a bunch of hippy freaks from some dumb ass Martians. “I don’t think so Moreau, see ya around.” You say and get up to leave the bar, before anyone else asks you for any favors. You don’t get two feet outside of the place and suddenly you’re assaulted by a terrible smell. The stench is not unlike that of hot garbage during a heat wave. You turn around holding your nose and see Andre with his big ol’ stupid grotesque fly head. “Hey Wolf... Can you spare me some money?” he asks “Fuck Andre! Stand the hell away from me! What the hell? Did you roll around in a septic tank?” “Uh no, I just ate some fresh turds back in the alleyway…” “I don’t even know why I asked you that, I already knew the answer. Ugh.” you say continuing to hold your nose. “They tasted pretty good to me. Hey, but I could use some of that sweet sugar. You got any spare change so I can get me a box of the stuff?” “Fuck no! I barely have enough money for me! Phew! Just get the fuck away!” “Aw come on, help a brother out.” “Broth… what the…look nevermind, I ain’t got time for this shit Andre, if you want sugar so bad just go into a fast food place and stock up on those little free packets!” “I can’t! A lot of those places use that artificial sugar now! Don’t those idiotic humans know that stuff can cause cancer?! Besides whenever they see me coming they start spraying raid on me and hitting me in the head with swatters. I’ve even attempted to sneak in quietly, but they always seem to sense I’m coming, I can never understand how they do that.” “Gee, I can’t imagine how they’d be able to do it, Andre.” You say still holding your nose futility trying to block out Andre’s odor. “I just wish I could get with Janice, she’s got ALL the sugar! (Buzz) But she won’t have anything to do with me; She thinks I’m just low class trash.” “Well if you’re eating shit, I’d say she’s pretty much right.” “It’s not just her sugar I’m after though, I think she’s beautiful! She has such heavenly wings, and a nice abdomen! Yep she really kept herself in good condition after all these years. (Buzz)” “Yeah that’s real nice Andre, tell someone who cares.” You start to leave and then Andre has the nerve to grab you by the arm. “Wolf, please you gotta help me out! I can’t live like this anymore, I thought I could being part fly and all, but it’s getting too bad! I’m nearly killed everywhere I go and I’m getting too old to defend myself adequately! Humans hate the sight of me and I disgust them! I need to a home! Janice has a home! You gotta help me convince her that we should be together! Look, you know she’s rich too! You said you were in need of money too right? Maybe if we’re successful, something can be worked out.” > You help Andre Maybe you’re getting a little soft in your old age, but you can somewhat sympathize with Andre, he’s in an even worse situation than you. He’s been stricken by bad luck more than you have. Helping him could be financially beneficial, plus if Andre had a home, he wouldn’t be constantly bothering you for money every time you walked into town. “Alright Andre I’ll help, just stand back and get your fucking disease ridden hands off of me! And don’t touch me again!” “Okay, I can do that. Thanks Wolf! I swear I won’t forget this!” “Yeah, yeah, now what do you want me to do?” “I need you to deliver this letter to her; it’s a poem about how I feel about her and how I’ve always felt about her. I know if she just read this she’d give me a chance!” You take the crumpled letter which reeks of Andre’s overall foulness, but you still have more questions. “Andre I know you’ve always wanted to do some buggery on Janice, but I hardly see how this is going to change how she feels and why the hell can’t you do this?” “Because every time I even try to get NEAR her mansion she has her guards chase me off! Its like when I try to sneak in anywhere people can somehow sense I’m coming!” “Andre, did it ever occur to you to that your fucking ODOR is the reason?” “Odor? What odor?” Andre asks like it’s the first time anyone’s ever suggested that to him that before. “Look I know in my heart that if she read my words, she’d fall for me, just like I know you’ll be able to get in and give her that letter!” “This is starting to sound like a lot of effort for possibly no reward…” “Arrrgh! Look when you get in there, you could always just rip something valuable off! Just please, you gotta give her that letter!” You look at the love letter (which has remarkable penmanship) and shake your head. Looks like you’re on a bug hunt. “Alright Andre you’re lucky her mansion isn’t far and I’m not busy right now. I just turned down an offer to live on an island paradise for the rest of my life in exchange for getting rid some Martians.” “What, you mean Moreau’s offer? He offered me a similar deal, but then quickly retracted it for some reason. But Wolf I know you wouldn’t have wanted to help some hippy freaks you don’t even know! But this is different! In this case you’re helping out an old friend gain true love!” “Okay listen up, I’m not, nor will I ever be your friend. I’m doing this for my own reasons. When I return, meet me back here at this bar.” You turn and eagerly leave Andre to go back to your cabin. You don’t normally like to wash, but in this case you definitely feel the need to! After thoroughly scrubbing down, you take your Harley and drive over to Janice’s mansion which is just a couple of counties away. It doesn’t take you long to get there. You haven’t really seen this place except once a long time ago and it looked like a regular mansion, now the place looks like a concentration compound; there is a big metal gate and barbed wire lined walls surrounding the mansion. The mansion itself looks like some half weird insect hive, half man made structure. As soon as you park near the gate you’re approached by some figures marching in unison like soldiers. They’re like big ants or at least they look like THEM. Something weird is going on. “You! Inferior hairy mammal! What business do you have here at the Hive?!” one of the ant guards asks clicking his mandibles angrily. “I’m supposed to deliver a letter to Janice.” “Watch you tongue, dog! You mean the Supreme Hive Queen! And she does not see inferiors such as you! Be gone, you impotent mangy mutt!” Well you’re used to people not liking you, but hearing it from a giant bug is still pretty insulting. > You argue with the guards Outnumbered or not, you’re not about to let some overgrown insect mouth off to you like that! “Impotent?! Fuck off, you fucking transantsexual! Everyone knows that all of you drones are fucking females that don’t get to mate! That explains why you’re all hostile all the time. I’d be hostile too if I wasn’t getting any, unless you’re all dyking it out and using those mandible on each others abdomens! Now let me in, I’m suppose to give this letter to Janice!” “Insolent dog! First of all drones are fucking MALE dipshit! Use the correct terminology at least! And second, you’re not getting in here! You’re a lowly mammal! You will leave now or become melted down for food!” “I’m not leaving until I give this letter to Janice!” You half expect THEM to open up the gates and attack you, but surprisingly one of THEM steps forward and addressed you in a more civilized manner. “Look, what’s so important in the goddamn letter that it has to be taken to her Majesty?” “Its some love nonsense from Andre…” As soon as you mention Andre, all of THEM begin clicking their mandibles. “Andre? That fly fucker who’s been stalking the Queen for years?” “Yeah, apparently he’s been trying give this letter to her; he says you guys chase him off, so he’s got me to do it. He says she’ll instantly fall in love with him after she reads it, I think he’s wasting his time, but there’s no point in telling him that.” “So do you think he’ll stop stalking her, if this letter was finally delivered, regardless of the outcome?” “I dunno, maybe.” You say. “Alright, give me the letter I’ll take it to her, we’re sick of that smell every time he comes around here anyway.” > You give the guard the letter You hand the guard the letter through the gate, who goes scuttling off to the mansion. The previous ant guard you were arguing with keeps watch on you, while the others go about their normal marching drills. Soon the other guard returns. “The Queen says while she’s flattered by such words, she has no interest in Andre and never has. She also says she hopes that this will finally put an end to his obsessive stalking. Goodbye mammal, you have no further business here.” Well that was certainly abrupt. You get back on your bike and return home. You can’t help but think the guard probably just ripped up the letter, but there’s not much you can do about it now. You tell Andre what happened, and he seems crushed, but you don’t really give a damn, since you basically wasted your time and didn’t get anything out of this. You tell Andre to never bother you again or you’ll shove a bug zapper up his ass. You return home pissed off and give Erik another call. You end up having to take a job as a special guest at a comic convention where you have to endure the inane rambling of hundreds of nerdy humans, which results in you being arrested after you maul a couple of them due to your short tolerance level.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Outnumbered or not, you’re not about to let some overgrown insect mouth off to you like that! “Impotent?! Fuck off, you fucking transantsexual! Everyone knows that all of you drones are fucking females that don’t get to mate! That explains why you’re all hostile all the time. I’d be hostile too if I wasn’t getting any, unless you’re all dyking it out and using those mandible on each others abdomens! Now let me in, I’m suppose to give this letter to Janice!” “Insolent dog! First of all drones are fucking MALE dipshit! Use the correct terminology at least! And second, you’re not getting in here! You’re a lowly mammal! You will leave now or become melted down for food!” “I’m not leaving until I give this letter to Janice!” You half expect THEM to open up the gates and attack you, but surprisingly one of THEM steps forward and addressed you in a more civilized manner. “Look, what’s so important in the goddamn letter that it has to be taken to her Majesty?” “Its some love nonsense from Andre…” As soon as you mention Andre, all of THEM begin clicking their mandibles. “Andre? That fly fucker who’s been stalking the Queen for years?” “Yeah, apparently he’s been trying give this letter to her; he says you guys chase him off, so he’s got me to do it. He says she’ll instantly fall in love with him after she reads it, I think he’s wasting his time, but there’s no point in telling him that.” “So do you think he’ll stop stalking her, if this letter was finally delivered, regardless of the outcome?” “I dunno, maybe.” You say. “Alright, give me the letter I’ll take it to her, we’re sick of that smell every time he comes around here anyway.” > You insist that you take it to her in person “I don’t think so; I want to make sure this gets to her, so you can just let me in.” “Well then you can shove that letter up your ass and pull it back out and give it to Andre to eat, because you ain’t getting in here mutt. We’ll not let your inferior kind pollute the Hive. Leave, you’re not wanted here.” It’s obvious that they don’t know anything about you, because they’d know that anyone telling you that you’re not wanted somewhere is the surest way of causing you to get in on purpose out of sheer spite. “Well I guess I’ll just…” you stop talking and grab the guard’s big ant head through the bars of the gate and smash it towards you causing green stuff to leak out. You then retreat back to you bike when the rest open up the gate to punish you. The fools now have the gate open! While they attempt to catch you, you maneuver your bike around THEM to avoid their attacks and drive towards the mansion. A general alarm is raised and soon there are ants all over the estate attempting to catch you. You’d never be able to fight them all. As you get closer to the mansion you notice its several entrances. You can either drive your bike into one of these hive tunnels or just drive your bike through one of the low mansion windows. > You drive through a window You’re not about to get yourself lost in some insect tunnels, besides knowing that stuck up wasp bitch, she’d still live in her mansion area. You drive up on a raised part of the ground and jump your bike through one of the first floor windows. The glass breaks and several house ants get out of your way except one who you land on and crush. You fly off your bike “Shit!” you exclaim as you slam into the wall. You quickly recover and find yourself surrounded by more ant people. These ants aren’t as big as the ones outside, but that hardly matters. They seem a little more shocked than anything though. “Eeek! There’s a filthy mammal in the Hive! Protect the queen! Protect the queen! Where are the soldiers?!” one yells and then they all let off an ear piecing sound Speaking of the soldiers, they’re heading towards the broken window you just crashed through, you need to get to Janice NOW. You punch your way through the house ants. In the ensuing scuffle you rip off a couple of antennas, this seems to have a desired incapacitating effect on THEM and they begin twitching on the floor. “Oh yeah, I forgot that they need those things.” You say as you run up an ornate staircase with a fistful of antennas in your hand. You go through fancy room through fancy room (Mostly filled with expensive items, lots of sugar and some strange looking symbols) looking for Janice, until you finally reach a large bedroom with several mirrors. A bipedal insect creature stares into one of the mirrors brushing her hair. She turns around and a low angry buzz is sounded when she sees you. She flaps her wings and flies towards you. “AN INFERIOR MAMMAL IN MY HIVE? YOUR KIND WILL SOON BE ERADICATED FROM THE EARTH! INSECTS SHALL RULE ONCE AGAIN! THE TRUE MASTER RACE!” she shouts. You’re not exactly surprised that she doesn’t want to see you. > You attack her You don’t exactly know what’s going on here with the insectfest, but given Janice’s outburst it’s apparent she’s been planning something and whatever it is; you don’t feel like putting up with it later. Better to kill her now, than wake up one day and finding your cabin in the middle of another giant insect and human war. Besides you can kill her, rob the place, and make your escape, so this trip won’t be a total loss. Plus there’s the fact you need to prove to this bitch that you don’t care how big they are, all of them are still a bunch of lowly fucking bugs. Janice attempts to sting you, but you dodge and grab one of her mirrors. Your next move is throwing it in an attempt to decapitate her, she flies out of the way, but happily it hits a soldier ant in the head who was attempting to come in the doorway. “Filthy mammal! How dare you come here to try to kill me, don’t you know that you’re…” While she’s giving another speech, you grab her leg and slam her to the floor. Then you proceed to stomp on her back, crushing her wings. While she attempts to crawl away, you grab her stinger and pull it out; this is followed by a dying shriek as you’ve ripped the poison sack out which was attached to the rest of her insides. Your claws are covered with bug guts. A few more Ant soldiers come inside, but you use the stinger as a weapon and stab THEM in the chest with it squeezing the sac filling their bodies with deadly poison. They die convulsing horribly on the floor. Before more can arrive you look through some of her drawers and find some money lying around, you take that and the diamond rings on her fingers. Before escaping out the window, you throw Andre’s letter at her corpse. “I believe I was supposed to deliver this to you.” Your escape is fortunately uneventful, but you lost your bike, so you have to walk home which sucks. Eventually you get back to your town where you stop at the bar to have a drink. You’re about to enjoy your drink, when that revolting odor hits you again. “Wolf! You’re back, so what happened? Did she like my letter?” “Eh, let’s just say she didn’t have any reaction to it…Andre I don’t think she’ll ever be interested.” Andre looks a bit saddened by the news. “Oh. I guess you were right.” “Here, here’s a c-note, knock yourself out on sugar.” You say giving him a hundred dollars. “Well thanks Wolf, see ya around.” Andre says cheering up almost immediately and running out of the bar. The bartender speaks up about your uncharacteristic charity. “Wow, Wolf that was out of character for you.” “Yeah well keep the drinks coming, I’ll get back into character soon enough.”<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You’re not about to get yourself lost in some insect tunnels, besides knowing that stuck up wasp bitch, she’d still live in her mansion area. You drive up on a raised part of the ground and jump your bike through one of the first floor windows. The glass breaks and several house ants get out of your way except one who you land on and crush. You fly off your bike “Shit!” you exclaim as you slam into the wall. You quickly recover and find yourself surrounded by more ant people. These ants aren’t as big as the ones outside, but that hardly matters. They seem a little more shocked than anything though. “Eeek! There’s a filthy mammal in the Hive! Protect the queen! Protect the queen! Where are the soldiers?!” one yells and then they all let off an ear piecing sound Speaking of the soldiers, they’re heading towards the broken window you just crashed through, you need to get to Janice NOW. You punch your way through the house ants. In the ensuing scuffle you rip off a couple of antennas, this seems to have a desired incapacitating effect on THEM and they begin twitching on the floor. “Oh yeah, I forgot that they need those things.” You say as you run up an ornate staircase with a fistful of antennas in your hand. You go through fancy room through fancy room (Mostly filled with expensive items, lots of sugar and some strange looking symbols) looking for Janice, until you finally reach a large bedroom with several mirrors. A bipedal insect creature stares into one of the mirrors brushing her hair. She turns around and a low angry buzz is sounded when she sees you. She flaps her wings and flies towards you. “AN INFERIOR MAMMAL IN MY HIVE? YOUR KIND WILL SOON BE ERADICATED FROM THE EARTH! INSECTS SHALL RULE ONCE AGAIN! THE TRUE MASTER RACE!” she shouts. You’re not exactly surprised that she doesn’t want to see you. > You give her the note “Here, I’m supposed to deliver this letter to you.” You say and hold it out to her. “What?! You break into MY Hive, kill my guards and face your imminent destruction all to give me a letter?!” “First of all, I’m not facing any kind of destruction, and Andre said it was important.” “Andre?! You were sent here by Andre?! That lowly fly? What the hell is he paying you with?” “Nothing actually, I was planning on getting something out of you, though in retrospect, it probably was a stupid idea given your personality…I can tell by your rhetoric of insects being the master race, it hasn’t changed. Just a WASP in another form eh Janice?” Several Ant guards enter the room, but Janice tells them to halt. “Hold on, I’m slightly amused by Wolf here. Yes, I remember you. Getting drunk, picking fights with everyone, sleeping with every woman that could stomach you; typical behavior of the lower class. Just proves that I’m right, we insectoids aren’t controlled by our impulses; we’re orderly and superior. Anyway, be that as that may, I might as well read the note…ugh, I’ll have to remember to wash my hands after touching this.” Janice takes the letter and reads it. She then begins to laugh. “Does this fool actually believe he EVER had a chance with me?! Oh that IS amusing, in fact I’m in a good mood, guards you can escort Mr. Wolf out alive. This lap dog can run to tell his master Andre that I’ll never ever be interested in such a common creature as him.” There’s no way you’re going to just leave without retorting to her insult. > You antagonize her guards Just as the Ant guards are about to take you away, you speak up. “Yeah, that’s right take me back to my master. We all got masters right? Just like you Ants have yours. Tell me how’s it feel serving some demanding bitch.” “She is our queen, mammal, she has every right to demand from us.” The guard says unemotionally. “See? Order! Everyone knows their place! Purity!” Janice adds. “Some purity! You’re not even an Ant! Hey, you Ants even think of that?! She’s not even one of your kind, and you serve her?” “She understands our plight. She is an insect, like us. Our own Queen was destroyed a long time ago, we were directionless when she died, we were assimilated and exploited by you mammals soon after. The Wasp Queen has made arrangements so that shall never be ever again!” “Hey that was the humans, not me.” “Doesn’t matter! All you mammals are alike!” the guard snaps. “Guard stop arguing with this fool! He’ll never understand! Wolf I suggest you stop barking, or I shall change my mind of letting you go!” Janice says, she sounds a bit nervous about your line of questioning though. “Yeah, I guess you’re right, all mammals are alike, I mean look at Janice, she’s acting just like the rest of us. Ordering you around, living on your hard work.” “Shut up Wolf! Guard, I changed my mind! Kill this furball!” “When I said Janice wasn’t your kind, I didn’t mean the fact that she was a Wasp, I meant the fact that she NOT an insect! I mean look at her, she wasn’t born that way! YOU were born an ANT! She became a half Wasp freak due to a failed human experiment!” “Well we know that, but still…” “Still nothing! She’s just using you for whatever twisted purpose she has and to make life easy for herself, just like she did when she was human! Think about it, who does all the work around here? It looks like you Ants! She only has you around because no human wants to work for her! AND even if she WAS all for making things better for insect people why is she so against Andre? Shouldn’t HE be allowed in too? I mean sure he’s a half freak, but so is Janice! Sounds like a double standard to me!” “The mammal has a point…you really aren’t one of us, in any sense of the word. A Queen is supposed to breed to keep the colony alive, in all these years, you haven’t even made that attempt, you’ve just been telling us what to do with promises of a so called glorious future for our kind.” “Um, I haven’t found the right guy…erm…Well what the hell do you want me to do mate with a pathetic mammal? All you Ants are female, and it’s not like there’s exactly any Male insects around!” Janice says trying in vain to find excuses. “There’s Andre.” You remind everyone. “Yes, there’s Andre. Granted he might be part human, but then as Wolf pointed out, so are you. We would look past that though since the children of such a pairing could be indoctrinated to…” “Silence! I will not fuck Andre! Andre is unfit!! He’s a disgusting insect, who belongs in the trash! Now you Ants know your fucking place and kill this asshole! Your place is to serve your superiors!” Janice says in anger. That statement didn’t go over to well. The Ant guards begin to look at Janice and click their mandibles. They then advance on her. “What’re you doing?! Stop! I command you! OBEY!” Janice’s orders go unheard, she attempts to escape out the window, but one of the guards grabs her legs before she can take flight. She stings one of them, but is ultimately ripped apart. There’s bug guts and blood all over the place. The Ant guard you were speaking to earlier addresses you. “You can take whatever you like from this mansion; it was never our style, just more of Janice’s human vanity at work. We prefer the tunnels we’ve built Thank you for opening our eyes to reality. (Sigh) We wish it hadn’t been true though, now we don’t have any purpose once more, as strange as it may seem we prefer to serve in a hierarchy, it’s just our nature.” “Hmm, can’t argue with nature. I know I for one, would love to be stalking humans on the foggy moors, but adaptation can be a bitch. I do have an idea though….” You gather as much money and valuables you can from the Mansion and head back to the bar where Andre’s been waiting, he buzzes excitedly. “Wolf! You’re back! So is Janice is interested?!” “She’s dead, but that’s not important…” “She’s dead?! What!? What happened?! But she was my love and...” You smack Andre upside the head and then shove your paw in a nearby patron’s beer to wash it. “Hey!” the patron says and then sees you scowl causing him to retract his statement. “Andre shut the fuck up and listen, I got you a better deal! You’ll be set for life, with all the sugar and whatever else you want. You know all those Ant guards, Janice had? Well they’re all willing to serve YOU, under a couple of conditions. You’re in charge, but you can’t think yourself inherently superior, you have to understand that you need them. You can’t suddenly start thinking you’re better than THEM just because you’re technically the king.” “Really? Well, yeah sure I can do that. Being a fly has made me pretty humble. I’ll be grateful more than anything.” “Okay second, TAKE A FUCKING BATH! Stop smelling like a garbage dump!” “Take a bath? Gee I dunno, that’s a pretty big step Wolf.” “You goddamn well better, if you want to score with all the Ant bitches there.” “WHAT?! Are you serious?!” “Fucking dead serious. None of them have ever mated, given that in the past only the Queen is supposed to, but now most of them want to feel what its like before they die. Hell, some of them hold out hope that they’ll produce offspring, to make their race thrive again. So, what’s it gonna be? A shit eating bum, or a smooth pimp Superfly that gets to be serviced by a bunch of virgins?” Andre doesn’t even answer; he just thanks you quickly and runs out the door. You doubt if you’ll ever see him again. “Lucky bastard.” You say as you sit down and order a drink with your newly gained loot.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>“Here, I’m supposed to deliver this letter to you.” You say and hold it out to her. “What?! You break into MY Hive, kill my guards and face your imminent destruction all to give me a letter?!” “First of all, I’m not facing any kind of destruction, and Andre said it was important.” “Andre?! You were sent here by Andre?! That lowly fly? What the hell is he paying you with?” “Nothing actually, I was planning on getting something out of you, though in retrospect, it probably was a stupid idea given your personality…I can tell by your rhetoric of insects being the master race, it hasn’t changed. Just a WASP in another form eh Janice?” Several Ant guards enter the room, but Janice tells them to halt. “Hold on, I’m slightly amused by Wolf here. Yes, I remember you. Getting drunk, picking fights with everyone, sleeping with every woman that could stomach you; typical behavior of the lower class. Just proves that I’m right, we insectoids aren’t controlled by our impulses; we’re orderly and superior. Anyway, be that as that may, I might as well read the note…ugh, I’ll have to remember to wash my hands after touching this.” Janice takes the letter and reads it. She then begins to laugh. “Does this fool actually believe he EVER had a chance with me?! Oh that IS amusing, in fact I’m in a good mood, guards you can escort Mr. Wolf out alive. This lap dog can run to tell his master Andre that I’ll never ever be interested in such a common creature as him.” There’s no way you’re going to just leave without retorting to her insult. > You antagonize her “I don’t think you’ll be taking me anywhere.” “Oh and why not?” “Because…well let’s just say, I’d tell you, but only in private.” “Save your veiled threats, I’m not impressed.” “It’s not a threat. I suggest you listen to my proposal.” You say all of this calmly with no malice in your voice. Janice gets a little nervous, but attempts to cover. “Alright fine, I’ll humor this mammal! Guards leave us, I’m sure I’d be able to handle this dog if he tries anything.” After the guards leave Janice backs away from you, close to the window in case she has to make an escape. She’s obviously intimidated by you, which is good. “We’re alone, speak.” “Well, it’s just occurred to me that you’re talking a lot of rhetoric, but not doing a whole lot about it. A so called Queen would be mating with SOMETHING to produce offspring. Surely you could’ve used Andre for such a purpose, even if he was a so called lower class bum. As long as they’re bugly and indoctrinated to the insect cause you shouldn’t have any problems right? In fact I question this whole insect supremacy thing. While I don’t doubt that YOU think you’re superior, I wonder if you feel that way about THEM. I think you’re just using THEM, to make your life more comfortable, and their dumb enough to believe your lies because they’re a bunch of good little Ants that mindlessly follow a hierarchy because that’s what they know best. However, they have been exploited in the past, namely by humans in their little wars. I don’t think they’d like to be suddenly reminded that something similar is going on here, because after all, when it comes down to it, you’re not really one of THEM, you’re just a half freak insect human who’s taking advantage of the situation. You’ve been lucky to get away with it so long, without any return investment on your part.” “…Okay, assuming that’s all true…and I’m not saying it isn’t…what are you proposing?” “It’s pretty simple. I delivered the letter to you; I expect a little something for it.” Janice buzzes displeasingly, but she realizes she has little choice. She goes over to a wall safe and hands you everything in it. “Okay, you’ve got your money, now get out of here!” “Thanks, now what do you want me to tell Andre?” “Andre? Tell him to fuck off! I still don’t want anything to do with that bum!” “You know, maybe I’m keeping quiet about your scheme, but that doesn’t mean your Ant slaves won’t catch on eventually. Maybe you should take precautions by considering Andre’s offer, just some free advice.” “You’re kidding right?” “Not at all. What’s the big deal? You’re both hideous bug freaks. Doesn’t seem like you’d be that picky at this point in your life…” “I am NOT hideous, I have a condition! And I’m just waiting for the right man. What about YOU? You’re not exactly Mr. Universe!” “Janice…give it up. No bloodsucker is going to EVER want you. Not when there are all those young human girls to seduce and consume. Not to mention the eternally youthful Vamp girls. I think its time you lowered your standards. And as for your comments to me, I’m a guy; the lowering of my standards doesn’t apply to me. Maybe it’s sexist and all that unPC shit, but that’s the way the world works. I could get old as fuck, and still be banging teenagers. All I need to worry about is being able to get it up. And since I’m the Alpha Wolf, that ain’t a problem.” “You know Wolf, I’ve always heard about your so called legendary prowess in the bedroom, but I’ve always questioned it. I can’t help wonder if you yourself have done a lot of talking, but not actually doing. Perhaps you’ve spread all those lies yourself eh?” Janice taunts. > You prove it You’re NOT going to let your cocksmanship come into question here! If this bug bitch wants your dick in her then that’s what you’re going to do! Janice senses it and smiles as she positions herself on the bed. “So are you gonna show me what you got, or are you just stand there and hold your dog dick.” She buzzes. “You know, I’ve fucked a lot of women. Humans, aliens, other werewolves, and even the goddamned undead so help me. Yeah, I’ve fucked just about everything that’s walked or crawled at one time or another, and now I’m here to fuck you Janice.” You get down to it. It’s an “interesting” experience to say the least. You have to be careful due to her stinger, but its not too bad. Now if anyone asks if you’ve ever fucked a bug, you can honestly answer “Why yes I have!” Afterwards while she’s praising your abilities, you wonder if you shouldn’t stick around, might be alright to live in a mansion, you can ignore the Ants, since they seem to concentrate on their own business and all you’d have to do is keep her satisfied and just close your eyes. (You’d fuck her from behind, but there’s that damn stinger…) > You stay You made up in your mind to stay “So Janice you ready for round two because URK!” you’re cut off mid sentence when you feel a sharp pain in your stomach! Poison soon follows, you’re paralyzed! You attempt to speak, but you can’t even do that. Janice hovers above you. “Well you were everything you claimed, it’s almost a shame that I have to kill you, but you’re right appearances have to be kept up. I can’t have a filthy dog like you dirtying up the house, what WOULD the Ants think?” As the poison finally works on completely destroying your nervous system, everything goes dark and the last thing you hear is the buzzing laughter of Janice.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You’re NOT going to let your cocksmanship come into question here! If this bug bitch wants your dick in her then that’s what you’re going to do! Janice senses it and smiles as she positions herself on the bed. “So are you gonna show me what you got, or are you just stand there and hold your dog dick.” She buzzes. “You know, I’ve fucked a lot of women. Humans, aliens, other werewolves, and even the goddamned undead so help me. Yeah, I’ve fucked just about everything that’s walked or crawled at one time or another, and now I’m here to fuck you Janice.” You get down to it. It’s an “interesting” experience to say the least. You have to be careful due to her stinger, but its not too bad. Now if anyone asks if you’ve ever fucked a bug, you can honestly answer “Why yes I have!” Afterwards while she’s praising your abilities, you wonder if you shouldn’t stick around, might be alright to live in a mansion, you can ignore the Ants, since they seem to concentrate on their own business and all you’d have to do is keep her satisfied and just close your eyes. (You’d fuck her from behind, but there’s that damn stinger…) > You go Nope, you need your freedom and even if you were going to be “kept” you’d make sure it would be by someone a lot hotter. As you get up, you hear a lower buzz tone. Sounds angry. When you turn around you narrowly avoid a sting to your face. Definitely angry! Janice is now hovering in front and slightly above you preparing for another attack. “Oh ho! Mating then killing afterwards is it? Sorry, but I’m not a drone baby.” You say and grab her legs. You follow this up, by throwing her into the wall. While she attempts to recover and calls for her guards, you leap out the window, with your payment. It takes awhile to get back because you left your bike back at the mansion which sucks big time. When you get back to town you immediately head for the bar. You don’t even get to drink your drink before Andre comes in stinks up the place. “Wolf! You’re back! The letter! Janice! What’s going on? Is she in love with me?” “Uh no Andre, she isn’t, but look on bright side, she has a nasty habit of killing after she mates with someone. Surely you didn’t want that, right?” “Yikes! No I suppose you’re right, I guess it was a pipe dream anyway.” Andre gets to the door and then turns back around. “Hey Wolf, how do you know she kills after she mates?” “Um, it’s an insect thing, I would’ve thought you’d known that Andre.” “Not all insects do that though, in fact that’s spiders! Now some in some insect species, the males die afterwards, but...” “(Sigh) okay I didn’t want tell you this but…” Andre looks at you expectantly. “I caught her fucking some other bug guy and when they were done, she stabbed him with her stinger, and ate him.” “Oh. Well okay then, thanks for looking out for me.” Andre says and leaves. “Yep, I am the Samaritan.” You say taking a drink.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>“I don’t think you’ll be taking me anywhere.” “Oh and why not?” “Because…well let’s just say, I’d tell you, but only in private.” “Save your veiled threats, I’m not impressed.” “It’s not a threat. I suggest you listen to my proposal.” You say all of this calmly with no malice in your voice. Janice gets a little nervous, but attempts to cover. “Alright fine, I’ll humor this mammal! Guards leave us, I’m sure I’d be able to handle this dog if he tries anything.” After the guards leave Janice backs away from you, close to the window in case she has to make an escape. She’s obviously intimidated by you, which is good. “We’re alone, speak.” “Well, it’s just occurred to me that you’re talking a lot of rhetoric, but not doing a whole lot about it. A so called Queen would be mating with SOMETHING to produce offspring. Surely you could’ve used Andre for such a purpose, even if he was a so called lower class bum. As long as they’re bugly and indoctrinated to the insect cause you shouldn’t have any problems right? In fact I question this whole insect supremacy thing. While I don’t doubt that YOU think you’re superior, I wonder if you feel that way about THEM. I think you’re just using THEM, to make your life more comfortable, and their dumb enough to believe your lies because they’re a bunch of good little Ants that mindlessly follow a hierarchy because that’s what they know best. However, they have been exploited in the past, namely by humans in their little wars. I don’t think they’d like to be suddenly reminded that something similar is going on here, because after all, when it comes down to it, you’re not really one of THEM, you’re just a half freak insect human who’s taking advantage of the situation. You’ve been lucky to get away with it so long, without any return investment on your part.” “…Okay, assuming that’s all true…and I’m not saying it isn’t…what are you proposing?” “It’s pretty simple. I delivered the letter to you; I expect a little something for it.” Janice buzzes displeasingly, but she realizes she has little choice. She goes over to a wall safe and hands you everything in it. “Okay, you’ve got your money, now get out of here!” “Thanks, now what do you want me to tell Andre?” “Andre? Tell him to fuck off! I still don’t want anything to do with that bum!” “You know, maybe I’m keeping quiet about your scheme, but that doesn’t mean your Ant slaves won’t catch on eventually. Maybe you should take precautions by considering Andre’s offer, just some free advice.” “You’re kidding right?” “Not at all. What’s the big deal? You’re both hideous bug freaks. Doesn’t seem like you’d be that picky at this point in your life…” “I am NOT hideous, I have a condition! And I’m just waiting for the right man. What about YOU? You’re not exactly Mr. Universe!” “Janice…give it up. No bloodsucker is going to EVER want you. Not when there are all those young human girls to seduce and consume. Not to mention the eternally youthful Vamp girls. I think its time you lowered your standards. And as for your comments to me, I’m a guy; the lowering of my standards doesn’t apply to me. Maybe it’s sexist and all that unPC shit, but that’s the way the world works. I could get old as fuck, and still be banging teenagers. All I need to worry about is being able to get it up. And since I’m the Alpha Wolf, that ain’t a problem.” “You know Wolf, I’ve always heard about your so called legendary prowess in the bedroom, but I’ve always questioned it. I can’t help wonder if you yourself have done a lot of talking, but not actually doing. Perhaps you’ve spread all those lies yourself eh?” Janice taunts. > You leave “Ha ha, sorry darling, but you’ll just have to wonder about the Legend, because you ain’t getting any of this, I guess I do have my standards too of a sort. I’ll be leaving now, so are you sure you don’t want Andre?” “(Sigh) Very well, I supposed his letter and stalking did prove genuine feelings. Tell him he can come by, but under one condition, he needs to take a fucking bath!” “Hmm, that’ll be a big step for him, but I’ll see what I can do.” “Yeah you do that, now get the hell out and never return!” You gather your bike from downstairs where you left and leave with your money. When you get back to the bar Andre is hopping up and down waiting for your news. “Wolf! My letter! So what about it? Did she like it?” “She’s all yours Don Juan. Just take a bath before you approach her, that was her only condition.” “For her, anything! Thanks Wolf!” Andre says and runs out the door, leaving you to your drink. Time passes and you never see Andre lurking around town to bother you ever again, you figure he was living it up with Janice. The truth is much different as you soon find out later. Apparently Janice took your advice of keeping up appearances and she mated with Andre. Unfortunately for him, she killed him afterwards when she confirmed she was pregnant. She ended up giving birth to a bunch of little Wasp Flies. Disgusting little buggers and even more so when they grew up. Rotten attitude and equally rotten smell. No discipline whatsoever. They all eventually just became a gang of thugs calling themselves the “Yellow Jackets” who weren’t really interested in world domination so much as just petty criminal activity. Still, they were enough to keep the Ants from thinking that Janice wasn’t dedicated to the “Queen” role. Her place was secure. Meanwhile you live fairly well on your wealth from Janice. Everyone won. Well except Andre of course.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>“I don’t think so; I want to make sure this gets to her, so you can just let me in.” “Well then you can shove that letter up your ass and pull it back out and give it to Andre to eat, because you ain’t getting in here mutt. We’ll not let your inferior kind pollute the Hive. Leave, you’re not wanted here.” It’s obvious that they don’t know anything about you, because they’d know that anyone telling you that you’re not wanted somewhere is the surest way of causing you to get in on purpose out of sheer spite. “Well I guess I’ll just…” you stop talking and grab the guard’s big ant head through the bars of the gate and smash it towards you causing green stuff to leak out. You then retreat back to you bike when the rest open up the gate to punish you. The fools now have the gate open! While they attempt to catch you, you maneuver your bike around THEM to avoid their attacks and drive towards the mansion. A general alarm is raised and soon there are ants all over the estate attempting to catch you. You’d never be able to fight them all. As you get closer to the mansion you notice its several entrances. You can either drive your bike into one of these hive tunnels or just drive your bike through one of the low mansion windows. > You drive into one of the holes You figure Janice will be in the hive tunnels given that she’s a “queen” now. You’re still wondering what the fuck is exactly going on here. Sadly you won’t be finding out. As you drive deeper through the hive tunnels it gets very apparent that you’re lost due to the fact they all look alike! The ant guards have no such directional difficulties and are all over the place. Soon they manage to knock you off the bike, you make a run for it, but its no use there are too many and you’re completely lost. They catch you, overwhelm you, kill you and eat you. Yes, in that exact order. (It would be silly in any other order)<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Maybe you’re getting a little soft in your old age, but you can somewhat sympathize with Andre, he’s in an even worse situation than you. He’s been stricken by bad luck more than you have. Helping him could be financially beneficial, plus if Andre had a home, he wouldn’t be constantly bothering you for money every time you walked into town. “Alright Andre I’ll help, just stand back and get your fucking disease ridden hands off of me! And don’t touch me again!” “Okay, I can do that. Thanks Wolf! I swear I won’t forget this!” “Yeah, yeah, now what do you want me to do?” “I need you to deliver this letter to her; it’s a poem about how I feel about her and how I’ve always felt about her. I know if she just read this she’d give me a chance!” You take the crumpled letter which reeks of Andre’s overall foulness, but you still have more questions. “Andre I know you’ve always wanted to do some buggery on Janice, but I hardly see how this is going to change how she feels and why the hell can’t you do this?” “Because every time I even try to get NEAR her mansion she has her guards chase me off! Its like when I try to sneak in anywhere people can somehow sense I’m coming!” “Andre, did it ever occur to you to that your fucking ODOR is the reason?” “Odor? What odor?” Andre asks like it’s the first time anyone’s ever suggested that to him that before. “Look I know in my heart that if she read my words, she’d fall for me, just like I know you’ll be able to get in and give her that letter!” “This is starting to sound like a lot of effort for possibly no reward…” “Arrrgh! Look when you get in there, you could always just rip something valuable off! Just please, you gotta give her that letter!” You look at the love letter (which has remarkable penmanship) and shake your head. Looks like you’re on a bug hunt. “Alright Andre you’re lucky her mansion isn’t far and I’m not busy right now. I just turned down an offer to live on an island paradise for the rest of my life in exchange for getting rid some Martians.” “What, you mean Moreau’s offer? He offered me a similar deal, but then quickly retracted it for some reason. But Wolf I know you wouldn’t have wanted to help some hippy freaks you don’t even know! But this is different! In this case you’re helping out an old friend gain true love!” “Okay listen up, I’m not, nor will I ever be your friend. I’m doing this for my own reasons. When I return, meet me back here at this bar.” You turn and eagerly leave Andre to go back to your cabin. You don’t normally like to wash, but in this case you definitely feel the need to! After thoroughly scrubbing down, you take your Harley and drive over to Janice’s mansion which is just a couple of counties away. It doesn’t take you long to get there. You haven’t really seen this place except once a long time ago and it looked like a regular mansion, now the place looks like a concentration compound; there is a big metal gate and barbed wire lined walls surrounding the mansion. The mansion itself looks like some half weird insect hive, half man made structure. As soon as you park near the gate you’re approached by some figures marching in unison like soldiers. They’re like big ants or at least they look like THEM. Something weird is going on. “You! Inferior hairy mammal! What business do you have here at the Hive?!” one of the ant guards asks clicking his mandibles angrily. “I’m supposed to deliver a letter to Janice.” “Watch you tongue, dog! You mean the Supreme Hive Queen! And she does not see inferiors such as you! Be gone, you impotent mangy mutt!” Well you’re used to people not liking you, but hearing it from a giant bug is still pretty insulting. > You sneak in “Fuck off, bug.” You say and leave. You get on your bike and drive off, but only a few miles out of sight, you then stash your bike behind some bushes and head back to the mansion. You head around the side walls, and scale them. The barbwire on top is a bitch though and you end up getting your fur caught in it. After tugging and ripping yourself up, you fall off the wall into the mansion grounds, bleeding and surrounded by ant people. Apparently they could sense something not “Bugly” creeping around, not to mention you made some noise trying to get off the barb wire. You end up meeting Janice after all…on her dinner plate.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Maybe you’re getting a little soft in your old age, but you can somewhat sympathize with Andre, he’s in an even worse situation than you. He’s been stricken by bad luck more than you have. Helping him could be financially beneficial, plus if Andre had a home, he wouldn’t be constantly bothering you for money every time you walked into town. “Alright Andre I’ll help, just stand back and get your fucking disease ridden hands off of me! And don’t touch me again!” “Okay, I can do that. Thanks Wolf! I swear I won’t forget this!” “Yeah, yeah, now what do you want me to do?” “I need you to deliver this letter to her; it’s a poem about how I feel about her and how I’ve always felt about her. I know if she just read this she’d give me a chance!” You take the crumpled letter which reeks of Andre’s overall foulness, but you still have more questions. “Andre I know you’ve always wanted to do some buggery on Janice, but I hardly see how this is going to change how she feels and why the hell can’t you do this?” “Because every time I even try to get NEAR her mansion she has her guards chase me off! Its like when I try to sneak in anywhere people can somehow sense I’m coming!” “Andre, did it ever occur to you to that your fucking ODOR is the reason?” “Odor? What odor?” Andre asks like it’s the first time anyone’s ever suggested that to him that before. “Look I know in my heart that if she read my words, she’d fall for me, just like I know you’ll be able to get in and give her that letter!” “This is starting to sound like a lot of effort for possibly no reward…” “Arrrgh! Look when you get in there, you could always just rip something valuable off! Just please, you gotta give her that letter!” You look at the love letter (which has remarkable penmanship) and shake your head. Looks like you’re on a bug hunt. “Alright Andre you’re lucky her mansion isn’t far and I’m not busy right now. I just turned down an offer to live on an island paradise for the rest of my life in exchange for getting rid some Martians.” “What, you mean Moreau’s offer? He offered me a similar deal, but then quickly retracted it for some reason. But Wolf I know you wouldn’t have wanted to help some hippy freaks you don’t even know! But this is different! In this case you’re helping out an old friend gain true love!” “Okay listen up, I’m not, nor will I ever be your friend. I’m doing this for my own reasons. When I return, meet me back here at this bar.” You turn and eagerly leave Andre to go back to your cabin. You don’t normally like to wash, but in this case you definitely feel the need to! After thoroughly scrubbing down, you take your Harley and drive over to Janice’s mansion which is just a couple of counties away. It doesn’t take you long to get there. You haven’t really seen this place except once a long time ago and it looked like a regular mansion, now the place looks like a concentration compound; there is a big metal gate and barbed wire lined walls surrounding the mansion. The mansion itself looks like some half weird insect hive, half man made structure. As soon as you park near the gate you’re approached by some figures marching in unison like soldiers. They’re like big ants or at least they look like THEM. Something weird is going on. “You! Inferior hairy mammal! What business do you have here at the Hive?!” one of the ant guards asks clicking his mandibles angrily. “I’m supposed to deliver a letter to Janice.” “Watch you tongue, dog! You mean the Supreme Hive Queen! And she does not see inferiors such as you! Be gone, you impotent mangy mutt!” Well you’re used to people not liking you, but hearing it from a giant bug is still pretty insulting. > You memories (THEM!) Giant Ants: THEM! Well thanks to human ingenuity they probably created more monsters in the 50s with their nuclear tests. Gigantism and mutation were a big problem during that era. Along with giant spiders and mantises, the biggest problem was when an ant colony was struck by massive radiation and went undetected in the desert for a couple of years and wasn’t discovered until giant ants began carrying off small children from nearby towns to their colony. Granted they were never as big as people saw in the movies (Such a size would cause them to collapse underneath their own weight) but they did grow to be as big as humans. In fact they took on the look of “Ant centaurs”. A torso with two arms and a back end with four legs, still all very antlike though. Initially they weren’t very intelligent, but they grew smarter as time went on. This caused even greater problems for humans later. Now the “Ant people” weren’t malevolent per say, but they just had a different outlook on life just like any other culture, and they saw humans (And anything else that went near their colony) as a source of food. Naturally humans and insects have never gotten along so it was only a matter of time before all out war was declared. The war might’ve lasted longer if the Ant people were able to adapt a little better, and if humans hadn’t had a severe tech advantage. The humans were determined to wipe THEM out before they could get the numerical advantage. This of course was done by blowing up their queen thus ending any chance of THEM ever conquering the Earth. The remaining Ant people would’ve probably been mopped up, but by this time it was the 60s and civil rights and shit came about. Hippies started saying that they had the right to exist on their own land and such, so the remaining ones were eventually allowed to live, and in time they assimilated into society like everyone else. Nobody was sure of their life span, but the government still perceived THEM as a legitimate potential threat and didn’t really want to take the chance that one of those ants could turn into another queen somehow, so a lot got drafted into the Vietnam War to “thin out” their population. (Plus they made excellent soldiers, and were especially helpful in flushing out Viet Cong tunnels) Needless to say there aren’t too many Ant People left anymore, the ones that are still alive tend to keep to themselves and suspicious of everyone and anyone that doesn’t have six limbs. Any chance of THEM making a “come back” is highly unlikely.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You’re not about to go traipsing across the world to save a bunch of hippy freaks from some dumb ass Martians. “I don’t think so Moreau, see ya around.” You say and get up to leave the bar, before anyone else asks you for any favors. You don’t get two feet outside of the place and suddenly you’re assaulted by a terrible smell. The stench is not unlike that of hot garbage during a heat wave. You turn around holding your nose and see Andre with his big ol’ stupid grotesque fly head. “Hey Wolf... Can you spare me some money?” he asks “Fuck Andre! Stand the hell away from me! What the hell? Did you roll around in a septic tank?” “Uh no, I just ate some fresh turds back in the alleyway…” “I don’t even know why I asked you that, I already knew the answer. Ugh.” you say continuing to hold your nose. “They tasted pretty good to me. Hey, but I could use some of that sweet sugar. You got any spare change so I can get me a box of the stuff?” “Fuck no! I barely have enough money for me! Phew! Just get the fuck away!” “Aw come on, help a brother out.” “Broth… what the…look nevermind, I ain’t got time for this shit Andre, if you want sugar so bad just go into a fast food place and stock up on those little free packets!” “I can’t! A lot of those places use that artificial sugar now! Don’t those idiotic humans know that stuff can cause cancer?! Besides whenever they see me coming they start spraying raid on me and hitting me in the head with swatters. I’ve even attempted to sneak in quietly, but they always seem to sense I’m coming, I can never understand how they do that.” “Gee, I can’t imagine how they’d be able to do it, Andre.” You say still holding your nose futility trying to block out Andre’s odor. “I just wish I could get with Janice, she’s got ALL the sugar! (Buzz) But she won’t have anything to do with me; She thinks I’m just low class trash.” “Well if you’re eating shit, I’d say she’s pretty much right.” “It’s not just her sugar I’m after though, I think she’s beautiful! She has such heavenly wings, and a nice abdomen! Yep she really kept herself in good condition after all these years. (Buzz)” “Yeah that’s real nice Andre, tell someone who cares.” You start to leave and then Andre has the nerve to grab you by the arm. “Wolf, please you gotta help me out! I can’t live like this anymore, I thought I could being part fly and all, but it’s getting too bad! I’m nearly killed everywhere I go and I’m getting too old to defend myself adequately! Humans hate the sight of me and I disgust them! I need to a home! Janice has a home! You gotta help me convince her that we should be together! Look, you know she’s rich too! You said you were in need of money too right? Maybe if we’re successful, something can be worked out.” > You memories (Andre) The Fly: Andre Delambre For every successful “Mad Scientist” there are several failed ones. Most of them usually get killed by their own fool creations, or in their attempt to rule the world. Others are just inept and can’t create anything worthwhile. Still others just have some very bad luck. Andre falls into that category. Everyone knows the story, Andre was working on a teleportation device and when he tested it out a fly got in the thing with him and turned him into the big bug he is today. Contrary to what the movies say, there was NOT a fly buzzing around with his head on it after the accident! It was more like “remake” where his DNA combined with the fly’s DNA, just one being, not two separate ones. (Though he did still have a big ol’ grotesque fly head afterwards.) Needless to say his career as any kind of scientist was over, while his intelligence hadn’t been reduced to that of a fly, it certainly lowered it from what it was, and tended to make him more focused on simpler things like eating. His marriage was over as well. (His wife got everything; a repulsive fly isn’t too sympathetic) While he did find a new life of sorts in horror after his accident, it was still limited. It’s not like being a werewolf or vampire, they don’t make multiple movies with rampaging fly people and it’s not like he could “pass” for human for other roles. It wasn’t just that though, the main problem was he was a disgusting disease carrying fly and nobody wanted to be around him! This of course made other jobs somewhat limited as well. His last hope was working in the “Sanitation Engineering” field, which he thought would be perfect, but the problem was he spent too much time eating garbage rather than picking it up. He was fired within the week. Eventually his money ran out and he became a bum which probably wasn’t that bad for him, indeed he was more “free” now; ironic, since he started out from poverty and worked his way up from the gutter when he was a human and stated he’d never want to be poor ever again. You always avoided him for the same reasons everyone else did. He was just nasty smelling and looking. Despite your obvious dislike for Andre it hasn’t stopped him from all the times he’s tried to borrow money from you.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You’re not about to go traipsing across the world to save a bunch of hippy freaks from some dumb ass Martians. “I don’t think so Moreau, see ya around.” You say and get up to leave the bar, before anyone else asks you for any favors. You don’t get two feet outside of the place and suddenly you’re assaulted by a terrible smell. The stench is not unlike that of hot garbage during a heat wave. You turn around holding your nose and see Andre with his big ol’ stupid grotesque fly head. “Hey Wolf... Can you spare me some money?” he asks “Fuck Andre! Stand the hell away from me! What the hell? Did you roll around in a septic tank?” “Uh no, I just ate some fresh turds back in the alleyway…” “I don’t even know why I asked you that, I already knew the answer. Ugh.” you say continuing to hold your nose. “They tasted pretty good to me. Hey, but I could use some of that sweet sugar. You got any spare change so I can get me a box of the stuff?” “Fuck no! I barely have enough money for me! Phew! Just get the fuck away!” “Aw come on, help a brother out.” “Broth… what the…look nevermind, I ain’t got time for this shit Andre, if you want sugar so bad just go into a fast food place and stock up on those little free packets!” “I can’t! A lot of those places use that artificial sugar now! Don’t those idiotic humans know that stuff can cause cancer?! Besides whenever they see me coming they start spraying raid on me and hitting me in the head with swatters. I’ve even attempted to sneak in quietly, but they always seem to sense I’m coming, I can never understand how they do that.” “Gee, I can’t imagine how they’d be able to do it, Andre.” You say still holding your nose futility trying to block out Andre’s odor. “I just wish I could get with Janice, she’s got ALL the sugar! (Buzz) But she won’t have anything to do with me; She thinks I’m just low class trash.” “Well if you’re eating shit, I’d say she’s pretty much right.” “It’s not just her sugar I’m after though, I think she’s beautiful! She has such heavenly wings, and a nice abdomen! Yep she really kept herself in good condition after all these years. (Buzz)” “Yeah that’s real nice Andre, tell someone who cares.” You start to leave and then Andre has the nerve to grab you by the arm. “Wolf, please you gotta help me out! I can’t live like this anymore, I thought I could being part fly and all, but it’s getting too bad! I’m nearly killed everywhere I go and I’m getting too old to defend myself adequately! Humans hate the sight of me and I disgust them! I need to a home! Janice has a home! You gotta help me convince her that we should be together! Look, you know she’s rich too! You said you were in need of money too right? Maybe if we’re successful, something can be worked out.” > You memories (Janice) The Wasp Woman: Janice Starlin Even before she became another insect hybrid, she was a “WASP” in every sense of the word, though “Nazi” might be even more appropriate. Janice likes to keep her past a secret, but for those in the know, she was sympathetic to the Germans during WW II. It’s one of the reasons why she wasn’t in “showbiz” for too long. (Showbiz and Anti-Semitism isn’t a good combination) Even without being a Nazi sympathizer, she was still a stuck up rich human bitch who came from “Old Money”. She was obsessed with her youth and looks and being an actress she was even more fanatical about it. As with all humans they can’t stop the ravages time without a little help, either supernatural or scientific. She attempted supernatural first, and tried to get one of those parasitic bloodsuckers to turn her. It would’ve been perfect for her; the problem was no vampire was willing to do it. The bloodsuckers are monsters, but even they tend to frown upon Nazis. (Of course Werewolves aren’t fond of Nazis either) Indeed, most Vampires have roots in the “Old country” (Not any particular country, just all of them) and as such most originally have Slavic or even Jewish backgrounds. (Which might explain why crosses don’t really work so well in real life as opposed to the crap they show in movies) and since Fagula is the head cocksucker…erm bloodsucker in charge, no vampire was going to defy him, even if they wanted to. Janice resorted to scientific means, so she hired some mad scientist type who was working on a youth serum based on wasp jelly. You’re not exactly familiar with the technical stuff involved, but what basically happened was a typical mad scientist “accident” and the shit turned her into a half wasp creature. Though while not as spectacularly as bad as Andre’s “accident”, it was horrific for her and ended her career as a “normal” actress. This transformation didn’t make her disposition any better, if anything she just got meaner and more condescending. When she “arrived” in the monster world, she constantly would go on about how she was superior to everyone else and why. (Though she didn’t say anything about the bloodsuckers since despite them shunning her she still always wanted to be one) After the show biz career started to dry up for her, she went back to being a typical rich shut in who never left her mansion. It’s not like she had to work, being independently wealthy and all. Nobody’s really had any contact with her since.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You and Moreau have never had any dealings with each other before, so you’re kind of curious to as why he wanted to see you. You approach Moreau and he’s tripping over himself to thank you for seeing him. You’re a little suspicious of this treatment, especially since you’ve never been welcomed by anyone before. “Wolf, its Wolf right? Or do you prefer Mr. Wolf?” “Wolf is fine…will you tell me why the hell you want to see me so badly for? We’ve never had anything to do with each other before.” “Yes. Quite correct. My Vision didn’t lead me to interact socially that much. Maybe I shouldn’t have concentrated so much on my Vision though. Maybe I should’ve been more flexible. If I had, I might not have the problems I have now.” “Okay, so will you quit with the fucking mystery already and tell me what’s going on?” “As you know I transformed my island into a utopia where no being harms another.” “Pfft, some Utopia. I call it fucking with nature.” “And you know what? I agree with you. At one time, I would’ve dismissed you as a vicious animal that only pleased his primal instincts.” “You say it as if it’s a bad thing.” You utter. “I once thought so…but now I’m starting to see reality for the first time. My Utopia wasn’t followed by the world…it was hated. It was despised. Most are jealous of what I’ve done and want to destroy it.” “Duh, that’s humanity for you. So are you getting to the point anytime soon?” “My Utopia is about to be destroyed, but NOT directly. No human nation wants to look like the bad guys so you know what they’ve done instead? They’re letting Martians do it for them!” “What? Martians aren’t even allowed on this planet after all the unsuccessful attacks they’ve attempted on it.” You exclaim. “See that’s just it. In exchange of a new Martian-Earthling Peace accord they’re letting the Martians put a colony here provided they don’t kill any humans. The Martians agreed and MY Island was scheduled for designation for the colony! If we stay they’ll be allowed to kill everyone since nobody on there is human except me.” “Well that certainly does suck, but why not just move?” “WHAT!? That’s our home! Would YOU move from your own home?” “Eh…I suppose I can see your point. So what am I supposed to do though?” Moreau takes another drink and looks at you with dead seriousness. “I need you to get them all to FIGHT! I need you to get them all in touch with their animal instincts again! I know you’re more than just a werewolf. You’re the self-proclaimed Alpha. I need that viciousness, I need that aggressiveness, I need it ingrained into my people. I can’t do it. I’m not qualified, and I’d only make things worse. I can pay you all the money you want; our economy has always been good. If you like you could even live on the island and spend your remaining years there with nothing to worry about. You could mate with whoever you wanted, we could import whatever meat you wanted, or if you preferred…we could even make special arrangements just for you, to hunt living creatures. Anything…just please help us.” This is pretty heavy shit. Moreau must be very desperate to come begging to a practical stranger. There’s no way he’s lying about this, you have heard some stuff lately about Martian-Human relations, though you don’t really pay attention to the news a lot. You can’t say Moreau’s offer isn’t appealing on some level, but as much of a badass you are, you’re not in your prime anymore. Taking on a shit load of Martians and training a bunch of genetic freaks of nature could be just a little out of your scope. > You memories (Martians) The Invaders: Martians Martians much like Human comes in many shapes, sizes and colors. They are a technologically advanced race which is amazing considering how stupid they actually are. It makes you wonder if natural selection even occurred on the dismal red planet. The first Martian invasion was impressive since humans weren’t prepared for it. Unfortunately for all their advanced weaponry their medical science was probably in the fucking toilet…literally. They have to be the only galactic race of “conquerors” that lost a war because of dysentery. All the “War Machines” in the world couldn’t protect them from all the air born germs that infest humanity (They really are filthy when you think about it). You’d think that they’d take this information and try to combat it with…uh you know inventing fucking vaccinations and penicillin. But did they do that? Nope. They tried to invade again this time they figured if they never got out of their machines at all they’d be safe. Unfortunately in order to invade a planet you HAVE to have ground troops to do it. So while they blasted the shit out of the Earth again they couldn’t properly conquer it. So these geniuses spent the rest of the time arguing about what they should do until all their flying saucers ran out of fucking fuel and started falling out of the sky, crashing into shit. At this point you’d think they’d just give up, but they didn’t. The next failed mission involved them stealing human women to breed with them. They figured two things: One was that they could replenish all their soldiers again that they’d lost in the last two invasions. The second idea was they figured they could create a hybrid that was more resilient to human germs. The plan was doomed to failure in its typical Martian idiocy and this was a particularly spectacular one that nearly wiped them out permanently as well as effectively destroying them as a potential threat. First of all the Martians had to get OUT of their machines in order to kidnap these women. Sure they finally developed protective suits at this point, but they were made of a thin and easily ripped material. Many Martians died attempting to steal away feisty housewives. Second of all they would’ve had to steal a lot more housewives than they did in order to replenish their severely depleted military (And male population in general) to say nothing of the fact they had to put up with the human women for at least 9 LONG months before they got a return on their “investment”. The third problem was for some reason it didn’t occur to them that the germs would still be ON these human women! Many Martians died after mating with these kidnapped housewives, not to mention an “Earth” plague hit the entire planet now. More dead Martians and lots of them. The kicker of all this, was most of the “hybrid” Martians that grew up tended to be very interested in their human heritage and would go back to Earth. (With their moms of course) The only good thing that occurred was the survivors were now finally resistant to human germs. Little good it did now since half the planet died, and was in no position to invade anyone. (Luckily for them, humans were too busy fighting each other, or they would’ve surely been defeated had humans invaded Mars). The Martians tried a few more stupid invasions later, but they never were really serious and by that time humanity had caught up to them technologically. (Thanks to salvaging the technology from all those immobilized war machines and flying saucers that fell out of the sky) Nowadays Martians are considered the intergalactic equivalent of rude hillbilly neighbors with lots of guns. They bring a whole new meaning to term “REDneck”.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Fuck it, you don’t feel like putting up with Erik’s whining. You’ll talk to him later when you’re in the mood. You hang up and decide to engage in one of your favorite past time ever since you became part of “society”. Drink. You head down to the bar in town. When you enter you see it nearly empty. Usually there’s someone here that you don’t like which gives you an excuse to get into a fight. You sit down and order a Scotch. The bartender tends to let you just drink and cleans up the mess you make afterwards, but today turns out a little differently. “Hey Wolf, some people have been wanting to see you.” The bartender says nervously. “Oh? Do these people have a name?” you ask downing your drink. “Well they’re in the bar right now actually, I think they’re old acquaintances of yours.” You scan the bar, which doesn’t take long considering its almost empty. And you’ll be damned you see not one, but THREE people from the old days; you’re surprised you didn’t notice them before. At a nearby table you see Dr. Henry Jekyll and Dr. Jack Griffin. Jack normally would be difficult to see in this dark lighting at the best of times, since he’s invisible, but he’s perfectly noticeable enough when he wears clothing. They see you and wave you to come over. At a table in the far corner you see Dr. Alphonse Moreau. He looks like a wreck. He’s obviously been chain smoking cigarettes and drinking a lot since he got here. He sees you and desperately signals you over like he needs your help severely. While you’re not surprised to see all these humans still alive (Mad scientists ALWAYS figure out how to extend their life spans past the normal human limit) you’re just surprised that they all want to see you and it makes you suspicious. You’ve always been mistrustful of Mad Scientist types ever since your run in with Dr. Victor Frankenstein. You turn to the bartender for more information. “What the hell, is there a Mad Scientist convention in town or some shit? Why are they all here and why do they want me?” “I dunno Wolf. I think its just coincidence. Henry and Jack say they got some sort of experiment going on and want your help on it. They know you’ve been needing some money lately and they’re willing to pay you for your time. I think Henry wants to play catch up with you as well.” “Hmm, speaking of catch, there probably is one. So why’s Moreau here? Same thing?” “He wouldn’t elaborate too much. He says he REALLY needs help with something, and it’s not an experiment. He says he gave up trying to play God. I dunno what’s wrong though you’ll have to ask him yourself. He just said, he’s willing to do anything for you if you help him. Well this venture to the bar seems to have become potentially lucrative; the problem is you have to deal with a bunch of humans with God complexes. (You doubt what the bartender told you about Moreau, his type never gets out of the game completely) You decide to throw caution to the wind and take one of their jobs; you feel you’ll be up to the challenge. After all its common knowledge of what you did to Victor when he tried to take advantage of you once. All it comes down to is who you want to deal with. > You memories (Henry) The Split Personality: Dr. Henry Jekyll/ Mr. Edward Hyde Henry Jekyll was a typical bookworm human nerd that couldn’t get a girl. If that all he was, you two wouldn’t have even met. Henry’s experiments though led him to the “Monster world”. Apparently he’d seen you and studied how successful you were with females of all types. He chalked it up to your confidence and overall badassitude. (Well he wasn’t really wrong in that assumption) Using you as a model of what he wanted to be like, he started designing potions to duplicate the lycanthropy effect. Contrary to what most folks believe, Werewolves tend to breed with each other to make more, (as opposed to those unnatural parasitic Fagpires) they very rarely “make someone a werewolf”. It’s typically only by accident that that happens, and its VERY rare that someone survives long enough to escape a werewolf attack. Given all those risks and the very likelihood he would be killed in such a process Henry went ahead with his potions until one of them finally got the desired effect. The problem was, it just made him into a big vicious ugly brute. (As opposed to a super smooth handsome Wolf like yourself) He wasn’t any more successful with the ladies as Mr. Hyde, if anything they were repulsed by him even more, which led a lot of…”accidents”. Ultimately he just broke down and paid for hookers. However, you and he hung out a lot back in the old days, mostly partying and fighting with others. He was a good guy to have your back in a fight when he was Mr. Hyde. You rarely talked to him as Henry, but he was usually civilized and respectful when he did address you. He didn’t annoy and piss you off like Erik, because he knew to keep his distance when he wasn’t your “peer”. You can respect a (hu)man who knows his limitations.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Fuck it, you don’t feel like putting up with Erik’s whining. You’ll talk to him later when you’re in the mood. You hang up and decide to engage in one of your favorite past time ever since you became part of “society”. Drink. You head down to the bar in town. When you enter you see it nearly empty. Usually there’s someone here that you don’t like which gives you an excuse to get into a fight. You sit down and order a Scotch. The bartender tends to let you just drink and cleans up the mess you make afterwards, but today turns out a little differently. “Hey Wolf, some people have been wanting to see you.” The bartender says nervously. “Oh? Do these people have a name?” you ask downing your drink. “Well they’re in the bar right now actually, I think they’re old acquaintances of yours.” You scan the bar, which doesn’t take long considering its almost empty. And you’ll be damned you see not one, but THREE people from the old days; you’re surprised you didn’t notice them before. At a nearby table you see Dr. Henry Jekyll and Dr. Jack Griffin. Jack normally would be difficult to see in this dark lighting at the best of times, since he’s invisible, but he’s perfectly noticeable enough when he wears clothing. They see you and wave you to come over. At a table in the far corner you see Dr. Alphonse Moreau. He looks like a wreck. He’s obviously been chain smoking cigarettes and drinking a lot since he got here. He sees you and desperately signals you over like he needs your help severely. While you’re not surprised to see all these humans still alive (Mad scientists ALWAYS figure out how to extend their life spans past the normal human limit) you’re just surprised that they all want to see you and it makes you suspicious. You’ve always been mistrustful of Mad Scientist types ever since your run in with Dr. Victor Frankenstein. You turn to the bartender for more information. “What the hell, is there a Mad Scientist convention in town or some shit? Why are they all here and why do they want me?” “I dunno Wolf. I think its just coincidence. Henry and Jack say they got some sort of experiment going on and want your help on it. They know you’ve been needing some money lately and they’re willing to pay you for your time. I think Henry wants to play catch up with you as well.” “Hmm, speaking of catch, there probably is one. So why’s Moreau here? Same thing?” “He wouldn’t elaborate too much. He says he REALLY needs help with something, and it’s not an experiment. He says he gave up trying to play God. I dunno what’s wrong though you’ll have to ask him yourself. He just said, he’s willing to do anything for you if you help him. Well this venture to the bar seems to have become potentially lucrative; the problem is you have to deal with a bunch of humans with God complexes. (You doubt what the bartender told you about Moreau, his type never gets out of the game completely) You decide to throw caution to the wind and take one of their jobs; you feel you’ll be up to the challenge. After all its common knowledge of what you did to Victor when he tried to take advantage of you once. All it comes down to is who you want to deal with. > You memories (Jack) The Invisible Man: Dr. Jack Griffin You’ve never trusted Jack. He never did anything to you per say, but anyone who turns himself invisible is obviously a sneak who’s not to be trusted. Jack sometimes attempted to make friends with you or converse with you on various topics, but you just didn’t want his friendship (Granted you never really wanted anyone’s friendship, but that’s another story) and you told him as much one time. Being invisible bothered a lot of folks though, so you weren’t the only one that didn’t trust him. Just about everyone felt his wrath due to all this rejection and not being accepted as a “real monster”. He pulled a lot of cruel jokes on people as revenge, always got away with it too, since it’s difficult to find someone that’s invisible. (You did think it was funny when he stole some of Fagula’s best baby blood “wine” and mixed it with the blood of a diseased rat from his lab. He was sick for a month after ingesting such filth) He never tried anything on you though. It might be because he seemed to take your rejection a little better. You at least acknowledged his existence, by telling him WHY you didn’t like him. Most others just tried to avoid the issue and avoid or ignore him just like…well an invisible man. Besides, his invisibility wouldn’t have affected you too much anyway; with your sense of smell, you could always sense him coming.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Fuck it, you don’t feel like putting up with Erik’s whining. You’ll talk to him later when you’re in the mood. You hang up and decide to engage in one of your favorite past time ever since you became part of “society”. Drink. You head down to the bar in town. When you enter you see it nearly empty. Usually there’s someone here that you don’t like which gives you an excuse to get into a fight. You sit down and order a Scotch. The bartender tends to let you just drink and cleans up the mess you make afterwards, but today turns out a little differently. “Hey Wolf, some people have been wanting to see you.” The bartender says nervously. “Oh? Do these people have a name?” you ask downing your drink. “Well they’re in the bar right now actually, I think they’re old acquaintances of yours.” You scan the bar, which doesn’t take long considering its almost empty. And you’ll be damned you see not one, but THREE people from the old days; you’re surprised you didn’t notice them before. At a nearby table you see Dr. Henry Jekyll and Dr. Jack Griffin. Jack normally would be difficult to see in this dark lighting at the best of times, since he’s invisible, but he’s perfectly noticeable enough when he wears clothing. They see you and wave you to come over. At a table in the far corner you see Dr. Alphonse Moreau. He looks like a wreck. He’s obviously been chain smoking cigarettes and drinking a lot since he got here. He sees you and desperately signals you over like he needs your help severely. While you’re not surprised to see all these humans still alive (Mad scientists ALWAYS figure out how to extend their life spans past the normal human limit) you’re just surprised that they all want to see you and it makes you suspicious. You’ve always been mistrustful of Mad Scientist types ever since your run in with Dr. Victor Frankenstein. You turn to the bartender for more information. “What the hell, is there a Mad Scientist convention in town or some shit? Why are they all here and why do they want me?” “I dunno Wolf. I think its just coincidence. Henry and Jack say they got some sort of experiment going on and want your help on it. They know you’ve been needing some money lately and they’re willing to pay you for your time. I think Henry wants to play catch up with you as well.” “Hmm, speaking of catch, there probably is one. So why’s Moreau here? Same thing?” “He wouldn’t elaborate too much. He says he REALLY needs help with something, and it’s not an experiment. He says he gave up trying to play God. I dunno what’s wrong though you’ll have to ask him yourself. He just said, he’s willing to do anything for you if you help him. Well this venture to the bar seems to have become potentially lucrative; the problem is you have to deal with a bunch of humans with God complexes. (You doubt what the bartender told you about Moreau, his type never gets out of the game completely) You decide to throw caution to the wind and take one of their jobs; you feel you’ll be up to the challenge. After all its common knowledge of what you did to Victor when he tried to take advantage of you once. All it comes down to is who you want to deal with. > You memories (Alphonse) The Visionary: Dr. Alphonse Moreau Fuck Victor Frankenstein. That crackpot couldn’t compare to Moreau, and he knew it. Victor tried to “beat” Moreau in the Mad Scientist department and he failed spectacularly in everyway, and to add insult to injury, Moreau barely even acknowledged Victor’s self-created “feud” with him. Moreau was more interested in his own work more than competition. You never had any contact with Moreau mainly because he didn’t really take an interest in anything except his work. Everyone knows Moreau was doing a lot of genetic experimentation and crossbreeding with humans and animals. Everyone also knows that Moreau was attempting to create a utopia of sorts on his island. What surprised people, is he actually succeeded to an extent. When he realized initial attempts of inflicting punishment via “The House of Pain” were just making matters worse, he scraped that idea and tried a bunch of other ideas. He wasn’t really successful with any of them until the 60s came rolling on in… He adopted some weird hippy/communist philosophy. You’re not really sure what it all entailed really since you never really were interested in such topics like government and philosophy, (Your simple “survival of the fittest” ideology seemed to work well for you) all you know is it entailed a lot of drugs and a lot of sex. By the end of the 70s, Moreau’s Island had achieved what no human nation ever has. No violence. No crime. No hate. A Utopia. The “citizens” of the island from what you know just mate, eat, and sleep until they die of natural causes. While most would say that sounds like a paradise, you’d have to disagree. While the mating, eating, and sleeping all sound pretty good. Everyone there is a fucking VEGETARIAN! Even the citizens that were crossbred with carnivores such as lions, bears and (Shudder) wolves are all vegetarians, eating leaves right along side their herbivore counterparts peacefully. The thought of any predator mating with something they should normally be eating makes you ill. Maybe you’re old fashioned, but it just ain’t natural.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You wake up in your cabin in the woods. You sit up and scratch some fleas that have infested your body. You also realize its still daylight. You hate waking up early. You lope into the bathroom and look in the mirror where you see a canine face covered in gray fur, you remember a time when your fur was completely brown. “You’re getting old Wolf” you say to yourself like you always do while trying to look on the bright side that at least you don’t have the mange. You think you’d just put a silver bullet in your head if you ever started to go bald. After eating some left over mutton in the fridge and some Gummy Blobs (for the sugar “pick me up”) you ponder how you’re going to pay this month’s rent on your cabin. You call your agent Erik and see if that little pissant has found any work for you. Hopefully it’s an actual job and not just a guest speaker spot at a comic convention. “Erik! It’s me Wolf! Pick up the fucking phone! I know you’re there!” you say when you get the answering machine. “Erik! Get on the phone NOW, or I’m gonna go over there and shove a pipe organ up your ass!” That got his attention. “Wolf, I’m sorry, but I fear I’m in a deep depression.” “What else is new? Look I need some work, got anything? I don’t even care if it’s straight to video. I just need some of the green stuff!” “Sadly, I don’t think I do, but then I haven’t really checked…I’m so depressed. I’ve been wondering if I made the right decisions in my life…and now it’s too late for me to do anything about it, because I’m old…” “Join the fucking club Erik! Look do you…” “But my art, my music, that is my love and its failing me again. My latest opera isn’t doing well. I wonder if I chose the wrong thing to love and pursue. Just like I did with Christine. Oh Christine WHY couldn’t you have loved me? I loved you…” Wonderful, he’s in full blown tortured artist mode. He can go on like this forever. You can either give up, or persist in getting something out of him. > You memories (You) The Werewolf: You AKA Wolf The Werewolves nowadays are spoiled, but you are the last of the “True” Werewolves. The Alpha Wolf. The one who terrorized the wilderness and entire countrysides. Oh sure MAYBE you didn’t have a fancy accent like that damn aristocratic bloodsucker, but damn it YOU didn’t have the privilege of coming from money. You started from nothing and pulled yourself up from nothing to become a star. You just wish you’d invested your money better, and hadn’t gotten married and…well a whole bunch of things really. Sometimes you think about transforming into a human and living like a normal person, but you were never one to pretend. You’re a monster and you’ll DIE a monster. Besides you’re more noticeable in your Wolf form even if you aren’t properly feared anymore. If you’re lucky you’ll get some human asking you for your autograph. At least it’s something. It doesn’t pay the bills on this humble cabin though. You need to make some money or you’ll be scrounging around in the forests like when you were a young pup. Not that you can’t survive, but you’re really accustomed to your “human comforts” now. Damn civilization has had a domesticating effect on you. But you’re still the Alpha Wolf damn it. > Back to the story You wake up in your cabin in the woods. You sit up and scratch some fleas that have infested your body. You also realize its still daylight. You hate waking up early. You lope into the bathroom and look in the mirror where you see a canine face covered in gray fur, you remember a time when your fur was completely brown. “You’re getting old Wolf” you say to yourself like you always do while trying to look on the bright side that at least you don’t have the mange. You think you’d just put a silver bullet in your head if you ever started to go bald. After eating some left over mutton in the fridge and some Gummy Blobs (for the sugar “pick me up”) you ponder how you’re going to pay this month’s rent on your cabin. You call your agent Erik and see if that little pissant has found any work for you. Hopefully it’s an actual job and not just a guest speaker spot at a comic convention. “Erik! It’s me Wolf! Pick up the fucking phone! I know you’re there!” you say when you get the answering machine. “Erik! Get on the phone NOW, or I’m gonna go over there and shove a pipe organ up your ass!” That got his attention. “Wolf, I’m sorry, but I fear I’m in a deep depression.” “What else is new? Look I need some work, got anything? I don’t even care if it’s straight to video. I just need some of the green stuff!” “Sadly, I don’t think I do, but then I haven’t really checked…I’m so depressed. I’ve been wondering if I made the right decisions in my life…and now it’s too late for me to do anything about it, because I’m old…” “Join the fucking club Erik! Look do you…” “But my art, my music, that is my love and its failing me again. My latest opera isn’t doing well. I wonder if I chose the wrong thing to love and pursue. Just like I did with Christine. Oh Christine WHY couldn’t you have loved me? I loved you…” Wonderful, he’s in full blown tortured artist mode. He can go on like this forever. You can either give up, or persist in getting something out of him.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>These stories occur within a set time limit where the reader has to solve the mystery by asking the right questions to the right people and looking in the right places for clues (and recognizing the importance of some clues over others). The Normal setting for this TIME challenge is 100, if a reader wants an Easier game they can select this feature to be allowed a TIME of 125, for a Harder game a TIME of 75 is given (this isn't recommended for readers reading the story for the first time). So Reader, Choose your Difficulty. > You easy Difficulty (125 Time Points) The Dorset Evening Gazette - 1 July 2000 TRAGIC DEATH ON BLACKSEA ISLAND The residents of Poole were shocked to learn this morning of the apparent suicide of Blacksea Island resident Robert Powell, aged 15. Powell and his mother Olivia Powell, aged 40, were volunteers for the National Group and both lived and worked on the Island. Powell, who took the ferry to and from the mainland to attend and leave Poole Grammar School every morning and evening was described by one classmate as a “happy” and “intelligent” student. In a statement issued by the Dorset Police Force it was confirmed that “A teenager died during a fall from a clifftop on Blacksea Island sometime between the hours of 10pm and 6am last night. At this time no foul play is suspected as the part of the island on which the deceased and his mother were living, known locally as “The Wetlands”, is enclosed by a high spike-topped wall and barred gates, making entry by a third party extremely unlikely. This paper was able to speak with Barry Guest, owner and operator of the Blacksea Ferry. “I can’t believe it,” he told us in a statement. “Robert was a happy boy and just about the last person I would have expected to top himself. I reckon it was an accident, a fall from the cliffs though Robert would have known better than to go up there at night. I feel sorry for his poor mum, she’s been left all on her own now.” Robert Powell’s suicide is the third such to happen on the island within living memory: on 25 December 1920 island owner Colonel Augustus Foster shot himself in the Hall of Blacksea Castle and on 5 July 1960 Castle Housekeeper Gwen Green apparently drowned herself in a Lily Pond on the island following a devastating fire on 30 June that had claimed the lives of her husband, butler Jack Green, and the island’s owner, Lord Marcus Van Raalte. Blacksea Island has a history of death and madness and indeed the eccentricity of a number of the island’s owners, most notoriously “The Mad Doctor” William Benson and the much-reviled Lady Mary Bonham-Christie, who closed the island to the public during her ownership of the island from 1960 to 1980, has done much to bear these suspicions out. This latest suicide is just the most recent in a long line of tragic and unusual deaths to occur on this notorious island. > The Mystery You lay down the Dorsetshire Gazette for 1 July 2000 (by now, nearly a month old) and stare moodily over the Blacksea Ferry’s railing towards Blacksea Island, squatting like a bug on the gentle sea, its thickly-growing dark green trees clustering together like a wall which, together with the almost total lack of beach beneath the steep cliffs, makes the island and its secrets appear ominously impenetrable. With a sigh you flick open your notebook to a page you have titled SUSPECTS. SUSPECTS: The ten Resident Volunteers who were actually on the island on the night of 30 June 2000: Iris Grey (50), Castle Compound Volunteer. Barry Guest (40), Ferryman of the Blacksea Ferry. George Loader (80), Castle Compound Volunteer. Gerry Luff (30), Island Handyman. Father Patrick Ould (40), Island Priest. Bill Parsons (30), Island Farmer. Olivia Powell (40), Wetlands Volunteer. Robert Powell (15), Wetlands Volunteer and Murder Victim. Arthur Van Raalte (40), Castle Compound Chief Volunteer. Charles Whitburn (20), Island Gamekeeper. You stroke your finger over Robert’s name. To you it’s not just a name, it’s a friend, a hundred happy memories, an ear in times of trouble and a joker in times of play. He was your best friend in school and given time he might have become more than that. That will never happen now and you want to know why. You KNOW Rob would never have killed himself. You KNOW that. So now you need to find out if his death was accident or murder. You suspect the latter. Your name is Susan Knox and you are a fifteen-year-old amateur detective. You know that your time is limited: the first ferry arrives at the island at 9am and the last ferry leaves the island at 5pm and tomorrow, because of the tragedy, the National Group Volunteers on the island will be moved to another location and a new group will move onto the island: this is your last chance to find out what really happened to your friend Robert. You don’t believe either the accident or suicide theories which means it must be murder. There were only nine other people on the island on the night your friend died and as steep cliffs ring the island except in one place where the ferry lands (which is locked up at night) you are sure that his killer must be somewhere on the island. You are determined to find out who it is, how they murdered your friend and why. As the ferry bumps alongside the Island’s Quay you rise to your feet alongside the other tourists who visit the island daily. As you climb off the boat with the others you reflect that time is short and you have to search everywhere and talk to everyone to find the clues that you need to solve this mystery so that you can confront the staff of the island when they gather together to leave on the last boat. You owe it to the memory of your best friend to find the person who killed him. NOTE: YOU MIGHT FIND IT USEFUL TO PICK UP THE LIST OF SUSPECTS TO REFER TO IT IN THE FUTURE. TAKING NOTES OF YOUR OWN WOULD ALSO BE A GOOD IDEA.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The Story of Count Osmond Jorgensen > You begin Memories Things weren't supposed to be like this, you think through the rattling of plates and low chatter. Talia was the only woman you ever loved. Things were good, at first, as good as good can get. You met her at a party your father put on for the lords and ladies beholden to him, and although you only spoke for a moment, you knew she was the one to be your wife. Beautiful and graceful, with an infections smile and a laugh that commanded the attention of the entire gathering, there was no circumstance in which you would give up on winning her. However, as magnificent as she was, she was of lower birth than you and ten years your junior, and your father forbade any courting or propositioning to her father. Still, he was sickly, and less than a year later he died, making you the Count of Djuprskogr. Wasting no time, you petitioned the prince and her father immediately for permission to marry her. The prince, looking to gain an ally in political debates, granted you the marriage, and her father, knowing her daughter would be marrying into a higher station, was overjoyed. And so the plans were made, and within a month you and Talia were wed. The wedding was a joyous occasion, for while you had few acquaintances who wished to attend, Talia brought hundreds of her friends, all of whom were as young and vibrant as she. If there was a downside to the wedding, it was that your new wife spent more time with her friends than you would like. This became a theme early in your marriage, but wanting to please her at any cost, you allowed her this one indulgence. Aside from not seeing her as much as you would like, you had never been as happy as after you married Talia. Your reminiscing is interrupted by a servant: "My lord," he whispers near you ear. "Lord Andruxius has requested to speak with you in your wife's chambers." You stand, telling him to continue to serve the guests. "Remember, of all the guests, Lord Vicor is most important for the coming negotiations. See to all his needs." The servant nods and leaves, and you give your apologies to those nearest you before beginning the march to the vacant tower where your wife rests. As you walk the lonely steps, you find yourself slipping into memories again. > You from Then Until Now From Then Until Now You're not sure how you didn't see it, but the signs were always there. Early on, she spent almost all of her time with her friends, especially the handsome troubadour. At first you indulged her, wanting to keep her happy, but two months after the wedding you began to despair over her time spent away from you. After a bitter argument, you sent her friends home. She refused to speak to you for more than two weeks, and your heart began to die. Eventually, perhaps because she finally came to accept that her life was with you now, she came out of her shell again. For a time, your joy returned; you'd meet her in the garden, where she spent most of her time then, and her smile would always lift your spirits. But over time, those wind-stealing smiles came less and less frequently. You were again falling into melancholy, until you heard the news that she was with child. If there was anything that could restore joy to your marriage, it was a baby. Talia came out of her depression, and you were so overjoyed that she was spending time with you again that you allowed her to visit her friends again. As she came closer to giving birth, you even allowed her friends to visit your castle once more. Even the pesky troubadour roaming your halls could not dampen your spirits. But on the day of your son's birth, everything changed. Perhaps the storm was an omen, but the birth was exceedingly difficult, and your wife soon took a turn for the worse. Moreover, due to the weather, a doctor could not arrive in time to help. Fortunately, Andruxius arrived that very night. Scholar, sorcerer, necromancer, you did not care. He offered to help your wife deliver the baby in exchange for extended room and board. You accepted without hesitation, as your wife was deathly pale, and the midwife had said she thought your sweet Talia would die that night. Andruxius was able to deliver the babe, but he confirmed your worst fears: Talia would die that very evening. However, as pained as you were, nothing hurt more than when you first laid eyes on the child. You remember screaming in rage as you looked upon the newborn and saw the face of the troubadour your wife was so friendly with. Perhaps you would have killed the infant anyway, but Andruxius spared you the decision with words you still hear in your mind every night when you lay in your bed: "My lord, your wife's life is forfeit. However, there is a spell that I can fashion that would detach her from the timeline of this world, buying us months or perhaps even years to seek a way to cure her. Unfortunately," he said in a lowered voice, "it will require the life of your son." Your son. Without hesitation you agreed, for as angry as you were, you could not fathom living without Talia. Andruxius then performed what can only be called an evil ritual; the baby was killed, and your wife's death was delayed. Now, as you stand in front of the door to your wife's chambers fifteen years later, you wonder if that evil act, and the hanging of the troubadour the very next day, were some sort of punishment for your sins. Shaking your head to clear out those thoughts, you enter the room.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Chapter I: Humble Beginnings You stand in front of a large hut, watching as your two older brothers, Gruzub and Mazkil, fight with large wooden clubs, battering each other until they're bleeding profusely. Your oldest brother, Bagig, appears in the doorway of the hut. "Dag!" he shouts, "Come on! We have an appointment with Lurkhim Deathforge." Bagig stands at 6'4 and towers over you. His green skin ripples with muscles that make his black tattoos of wolves and bears ripple as his sharp teeth curve into a grin. Despite being a fearsome monster that would make most men run in terror, he's the kindest of your brothers and probably one of the nicest Orcs in the village. You nod, and eagerly rush over to follow him as he begins walking towards the center of the village. "Now, promise me you won't tell Mama what we're doing. I can imagine her shrieking. 'Oh, Bagig! What were you thinking, giving a sword and dagger to an eight year old!' She'd howl louder than a dragon that's lost its tail!" You giggle, smiling at your brother. "Still, you're an Orc, for fuck's sake! What does she expect you to do? We were born to spill blood." Eventually, you come across the stone forge. Rows of iron swords, axes and maces are stacked there. Lurkhim appears behind the forge, working on a large war axe. She's heavily scarred from years of battle and forging accidents, her face being so scarred you can barely tell if she's angry or cheerful. "Hello! Look who it is, it's Dagden Youngblood! You're getting so big, aren't you? Big enough for a sword, hmmm?" "Yes, Lurkhim." "Damn right you are. I had a sword twice my height at your age. Ran it through a neighboring boy who tried to take my apples, I recall. Ah, the days of youth." She leads you over to the weapons rack, and picks out a tiny dagger. "There. Try it out. It should be well balanced for someone of your height." You look at the blade, filled with disappointment, and Lurkhim bursts into laughter. "Ha! I'd be ashamed to give that to a baby!" she says, grabbing a much larger sword from a rack. "Here. Stain it red, Dagden. May your life be long and your enemies' short." > You take a few practice swings You take a few swings of your blade. It takes some effort and strength to properly swing the heavy blade, but it does work quite well. "Hey! Watch it, you little shit!" Bagig growls, as you realize you've sliced open his knee. "Oops." "He's already drawn blood. A promising start," Lurkhim grins. "We're not called Red Blades for nothing," Bagig says, rubbing dirt into the cut. "Sheath your blade, Dag, you're not in a battle yet, despite how much you may hope," she says, handing over a tiny leather belt that looks custom made for you. You put the belt on and quickly sheath the weapon. "Now, shall we get you a dagger? A dagger for Dag? Fitting." You nod eagerly, as she takes you over to a row of knives. You look through them. "Go ahead. Pick your favorite. You can tell a lot about an Orc from the dagger he picks. Whether it's gilded or plain, big or small, large or short..." You quickly eye your favorite. "That one." Lurkhim laughs, picking it up. It's a deadly sharp knife made of bone, simple yet elegant. "Ha! I like your choice! So many boys your age pick the biggest or the shiniest. You know what you want, Dagden." You smile, as she hands you the knife. "Keep it in your boot, so you always have it. An Orc should never be caught without a blade handy. Do you know what kind of knife that is, Dagden? What kind of bone is it?"<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You live in the town of CYS and today’s the day of the tournament! You are very excited to play all the powerful players of CYS, and to beat the four most powerful players of “Commander” today. The mayor of the town, JJ, had announced that whoever can beat the most powerful of the four commanders will win a great prize today. But, before that, do you know the rules to “Commander”? > Yes That’s great! But I’ve made some changes to JJ’s rules. Here’s the rule book for you to go through, and find out what the changes are.The changes will be outlined in red, and bolded at the bottom of the rulebook<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You are a Private Detective living in Victorian London. Crimes are common and you are frequently called upon to assist the policemen in Scotland Yard. You have been a Detective for a few years now and by combining hard work with intelligence you have had a few successes in uncovering the information that has enabled the Police to arrest wanted criminals. This has earned you a good Reputation but you must be careful not to lose it: if you do Scotland Yard will no longer trust you to help them. One evening you are at home when Commissioner James Monro, an experienced Policeman, visits you. "We would like your help again," he tells you. "A lunatic murderer called James Kelly escaped from Broadmoor Asylum for the Criminally Insane ten days ago. My detectives have investigated and found no trace of him. Perhaps if you look into the case you might be able to find something?” What do you do? > You search for the escaped killer "I'll see what I can do," you tell Monro who nods. “I’m glad you can help," he tells you. "I’ll send a telegram to Dr Orange, the Superintendent at Broadmoor, asking him to meet you tomorrow. He can tell you more about Kelly.” The next day you take a train out to the Asylum in the heart of the Berkshire countryside. A servant from the Hospital meets you at the station and takes in a horse and carriage through the sleepy village of Crowthorne and up to the gloomy and looming concrete walls of the Hospital. You are shown directly into Orange’s office where the Doctor shakes your hand. He is a middle-aged profession with a no-nonsense manner. “I got Commissioner Monro's telegram and I will be glad to help you in any way I can,” he tells you. “We are all rather concerned here: James Kelly was one of our most clever patients and I believe him to be a real danger to the general public, especially women.” You nod and consider which questions to ask first. > You what is Kelly's criminal history? “Five years ago Kelly stabbed his wife Sarah in the neck with a knife killing her," Dr Orange tells you. "He believed she was a prostitute who had infected him with a sexually transmitted disease. He surrendered at once to policemen and became very remorseful afterwards, claiming he was mad. At the trial he was originally sentenced to be executed but at an appeal he was found mentally unfit and sentenced to life imprisonment at this facility. During his time here Kelly has shown no violent tendencies and in fact displayed no signs of insanity whatsoever. I would say he was one of the cleverest patients we've ever had here." You nod, considering what to ask next. > You say "How did Kelly escape your prison?" "Kelly and another prisoner called George Shatten both play instruments in the Asylum’s band," Dr Orange tells you. "On the evening Kelly escaped they went out into the garden where the band meet to practice. When the rest of the band joined them an hour later only Shatten was still there. When we searched him we found two keys that he and Kelly had carved made out of some metal they found in the asylum’s garden. Kelly used this to let himself through a gate in the inner wall and afterwards climbed the six-foot high outer wall. He vanished without a trace but guards do report seeing a man called John Merritt near the Hospital during the day yesterday. He is an old friend of Kelly’s and visits him occasionally.” You nod, considering your next question. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Chapter 1: Minor Ambitions Once upon a time in a city called Klyton, there was a young man who wanted to be a doctor. He studied hard in school and his parents supported his dreams for he was intelligent and hard working and they knew he could succeed if given the chance. They also wanted him to have a more stable and comfortable life than they did. (Much like their parents before them) Despite the high costs of a formal education of a person growing up in his middle class background, his parents who ran an inn, scraped together enough money to send him to a university and for awhile the young man was able to pursue his dreams. Unfortunately life doesn’t always go as planned and one day the young man’s father died and to make matters worse it turned out his father who only had the best intentions for his son, had been borrowing from a dangerous loan shark. With his mother in danger of losing the inn, the young man had to put his dreams on hold and help his mother. It was a time of great stress for the young man, but in time he was able to not only keep the inn afloat and pay off the debt, but he was also able to turn enough profit to re-enroll at the university and eventually become the doctor he always wanted to be. During his time as an innkeeper however, he had become very close to a young barmaid by the name of Eliza. While their love didn’t blossom immediately, he soon realized his feelings before it was too late and the two became romantically involved and in time they married. For various reasons together they moved away from the city and to a quieter smaller town called Teckleville. There the young man opened a private practice and became a respected member of the community and had twins with Eliza. These twins, a boy and a girl, had possibly even more of a loving home than their father did and they certainly had even more comforts and advantages. Truly when they grew up, they could be anything they set their minds to. However, once again life is not always so simple. As they grew up, these twins became the scourge of Teckleville, always getting into mischief. Granted some misbehavior is expected from youth as they find their purpose in life, but it would seem no matter what, these two were bound and determined to pursue the life of crime. The pair of them rogues through and through and as they got older it was apparent they had no desire to change. And that’s where our tale begins… > You continue Year 16 As you sit counting your ill-gotten loot from the latest traveling merchant in town, your twin sister is watching you with a slightly distracted expression. She’s been looking like that a lot lately. You know she can’t be concerned about getting into trouble. The pair of you have been doing this since you were kids. You’ve got this routine down pretty well at this point. While most of your small town is fully aware of your roguish ways, you’re fortunate that you’re both still young and your father is a good doctor and has some measure of influence in keeping you out of the local jail. Plus, it helps that you long since stopped stealing from the town itself and focused on stealing from people passing through Teckleville instead. Still, it isn’t like either of your parents are pleased with your recreational criminal activities and have tried to steer you in a different direction with little success. While it tends to go in one ear and out the other with you, sometimes your sister listens occasionally. And you’re pretty sure that’s the cause of her distraction in-between your jobs. Something is on her mind and has been for a while now and today is the day she says as much. “We need to talk bro.” your sister says. “Uh oh. You sound like mom. Which means this doesn’t sound good.” You reply. “I really wish you wouldn’t set a negative tone to this already difficult situation. I’ve been going back and forth about this multiple times, making myself sick over it actually.” “Very well, let’s get this over with.” You sister exhales deeply and sits next to you. “There’s nothing here for me in this town.” “Gee thanks, sis.” “That’s not what I mean, I just…(Sigh) look I know you don’t listen to mom or dad, but I’ve been thinking they’ve got a point. I mean, what am I doing? What are WE doing? I mean when we were little kids, this was fun. Working together in near perfect harmony and avoiding trouble, but we’re both sixteen now. We really going to be doing this for another sixteen years?” “We weren’t doing this straight out of the womb, sis.” “You know what I mean! What does the future hold for us? How long before dad just gets fed up and tells the town guard to throw us in jail for our own good?” “Mom, wouldn’t allow that.” “Yeah, well I think even mom has her limits. Besides, neither one may have a choice in protecting us, if we really fuck up one day.” “We’re too good at this, we’re not going to fuck up.” “Yeah well, even if that is the case, I don’t see staying here in Teckleville robbing travelling merchants as a stable future.” “So what are you saying exactly?” “I’m saying I’m getting out. I’m leaving town.” You’re silent for a moment. You knew that’s where this was heading, but hearing it makes it real. “Where are you going to go?” you ask. “I dunno. Anywhere! Maybe Klyton, or Holgard or even the Delantium Kingdom. I’ll figure it out during my travels. Just anywhere, but here.” “Oh? And just how exactly are you going to support yourself?” “Half of that stuff we steal is mine you know.” Your sister points out. “Yeah, I know that, but that’s not going to last forever and it isn’t that much.” You say. “Well mom has always stressed how nice my voice is and how creative I am. And I think you know I’ve been practicing my lute a lot more lately. I figured I might be a bard…” “A bard?” “Yeah, you know. Singing tales, telling stories and getting into adventures…” “…okay…Yes, you’ve got many talents. I mean it’s why we work so well together. You distract folks with your charm and I do the rest. I’ve always known that and I get that you’ve always liked the attention you get from the marks more than the actual thievery. But I thought you said you were seeking a more stable future. Being a wandering bard doesn’t exactly qualify.” “Well okay, maybe stable wasn’t the right word, maybe DIFFERENT was more accurate. My point is, this is something I want to do and I can’t be a proper bard unless I travel and experience the world! I can’t stay here any longer.” Your sister is quite serious about this and you know that there is going to be no deterring her from this path. This is going to change everything, but you’re willing to roll with it. “Well…okay I suppose if this is something you want to do, I’ll have to support it. You’re probably right about sticking around here anyway, I know I get pretty bored in between waiting for the next mark. I assume you’re probably already getting ready to leave soon. Just let me get my things together and I’ll be ready…” “Not this time. I’m going by myself.” Now you’re really surprised. “What?! But you can’t! I mean…who’s going to look out for you? Don’t you know how dangerous it is out there?” you exclaim. “How would you know? You’ve never left this town either!” your sister points out. “Yeah, well I’ve heard things!” “And so have I. Look…I’m well aware that it isn’t a safe world out there, but that’s part of what I need to experience. I mean even here, with that overly aggressive asshole Klint hitting on me every other day, I know I’m safe from him because you, mom and dad are around.” Your sister continues. Look, I need to do this on my own. I need to fail or succeed on my own. I need to take care of myself, I mean don’t you think I’ve got the skills to do it?” “Yeah, but…I dunno…I guess it’ll just be sort of strange. We’ve been a team for so long.” “I know. It’ll be strange for me too since we’re so close, but maybe this will be for the best anyway. I mean have you heard some of more recent ugly rumors about us just because we’re twins?” “Yeah, sort of twisted where people’s minds go. (Sigh) I guess this is goodbye. Are you leaving tonight, are you telling mom and dad?” “Yes, as you correctly guessed I will be leaving tonight. As for telling mom and dad, I thought about it…but I can only imagine the chaos that might cause with mom getting weepy and dad forbidding me to go anywhere. Hell, he might actually have the town guard throw me in jail just so I’d have to stay! No, better just leave a note and take off in the middle of the night.” “Probably the safest bet for you. Though of course you realize I’m going to catch the fallout of this plan of yours. In fact I’ll probably somehow get blamed for it.” “Yeah, I suppose you will…apologies.” Your sister says. “Meh, don’t worry about it. I’ll muddle through like I always do.” “Y’know you could leave too. I mean not with me of course, but you’re a resourceful guy, I’m sure you could make it outside this one horse town too. You did say you get bored here.” Your sister says. “Yeah, but I dunno. I’m not exactly multi-talented as you are and I doubt if I’d be able to try my hand at a life not involving crime somehow. Plus, here I’m probably the best thief in town. Elsewhere? I’m probably an amateur that would get eaten alive by the bigger criminals. Besides, I still got a good thing going here. I admit though it’s not going to be the same without your help.” Your sister pats you on the shoulder. “You’ll be fine. Just remember what I said. You’ve got more talent than you think and you could definitely do well out there too.” Maybe there is some truth to that, but in any case, this is where you part ways with your blood partner in crime. You both hug knowing that you both are going to feel like part of you is gone, but perhaps your sister is right. Perhaps it will ultimately be better for you in the long term. At least for her since she does have talent other than petty thievery. Later that night, your sister takes off to parts unknown and you prepare yourself for the hell that your parents are no doubt going to raise. Truth be told, if you left, they probably wouldn’t cause as much fuss…okay well maybe that’s not entirely true, but still, your sister has always been the favorite so they’re going to take this hard. They won’t be the only one.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Your name is Leo Trapa (which you have had legally changed from Cleo Trapa to sound more manly) and you have recently gained great fame after sailing your ship Adventurer completely around your world of Magellan from north to south. The Adventurer is a tough little ship, large enough for a Crew of 30 and with enough space to hold 30 days worth of supplies. Though you are only twenty years old you have already received the rank of Commander in recognition of your superb ability and are widely respected as one of the greatest sailors of your homeland, The Kingdom of the Three Islands. The World of Magellan on which you live is mostly water and for this reason the people of The Three Islands have a rich naval tradition. Gunpowder is a recent invention and though your ship is armed with four cannons and all of your crew carry muskets these are slow to load and highly inaccurate when fired making the sword your crew's primary weapon. A dozen Colonies have been established on Islands beyond your people's borders but these vary from well-organized and thriving settlements to frequently-massacred outposts of civilization. Your ship can only carry a maximum amount of Food for 30 days, which will make finding and obtaining sources of Food your top priority. If you ever run out of Food (your Food number reaches 0) then you and all your Crew will starve to death and die. You will almost certainly lose Crew members on this military expedition and you must take care that your Crew number never falls to 0: that will mean that you and all your Crew are dead. Though not as important as during your previous voyage you will still want to make your journeys in the shortest number of Days possible. Queen Anne-Marie is keen to encourage efficiency and rewards those Captains who complete their voyages swiftly with additional Crew and Food. You are sailing as one of the ten Ships in the War Fleet, commanded by Queen Anne-Marie, and you will find details of your fellow Captains and Commanders in the List of War Fleet Officers provided below. Surviving this voyage will not be as easy as it may appear... those who do will receive 1 Score Point while those who run out of Crew or Food during their voyage and die win no Score Points. Your Score will be shown if you leave a comment when you have finished this story. As in previous adventures you might find it useful to make a map as you sail as the information might be useful for future voyages and adventures in these waters... So good luck reader, make wise and strategically sound choices and with a little luck, a good course and a fair wind you might live to see your homeland again! > You click here to begin your adventure (pick up the List of War Fleet Officers first!) Queen Anne-Marie looks round at you and her other assembled Officers with a steely gaze, as if measuring each officer's worth. "Your voyages so far have accomplished great things", she announces. "Many Islands have been colonized, many more islands discovered and I am confident that with sailors such as you under my command many more will be found. We do however have a problem: the Lapau as they call themselves. A vast confederation of allied tribes by force or reason we must come to a favorable treaty with them and establish where the border between their lands and ours lies. To do this we must explore their islands, see where they are, how strong they are and how wealthy they may be." You glance round at the other officers, both those you know and those you don't. Grey-bearded and softly-spoken Commander Cuthrew is gazing intently at Queen Anne-Marie as she speaks, nearby Donald Trevers is cleaning his spectacles nervously. Your friend Esme Hale, the attractive fire-haired maiden of the sea, catches your eye and winks at you. You smile back but quickly pay attention as Queen Anne-Marie gives you a disapproving glance. "During The Great Race and The Second Race most of our problems were caused by lack of Food," she declares. "I have had those of our Colonies which lie in our path well-stocked with food and my vessel, the Monarch of the Sea, has been specially constructed to carry vast amounts of Food which I will allocate among you all based on your performance and speed during this voyage. We must try to learn from our past experiences." Anne-Marie pauses again and you quickly glance round at those Officers you are not personally familiar with. Thomas Finch and Richard Quarrel stand behind the Queen, Finch is straight-backed and hard-looking while Quarrel has the face and manner of a pickpocket. More impressive are the cousins Swift and Mason, both fair-haired and smart-looking young ladies. Standing aloof to one side and scowling at something is the tomboyish Eva Freer. With her short purple hair and wiry, slender figure she's quite good looking you think... "The first leg of our voyage will be south through the Southern Passage, past Trever's Island and we will rendezvous on Burnt Island," Queen Anne-Marie declares. "We will sail at dawn tomorrow morning and woe betide you if ten Days from now we are not all anchored off Burnt Island. I know you are all good Sailors and if you serve me well then together we can make this world ours... very well. See to your ships Commanders and we will sail on the dawn tide." The next day the early morning fog is just clearing as you order the anchor raised aboard the Adventurer in readiness to sail out of Golden Sands. The packed crowds on the quay remind you of when you set sail on The Great Race around the world but then the crowds were cheering while today they are oddly subdued and silent... you sense that deep down everyone knows the War Fleet has not been assembled for diplomatic reasons and there are many husbands and fathers aboard it's ships that will not come home again. Some individual ships are still capable of raising a cheer, your Adventurer is one and when Hale's Merry Company sets sail the cheers and shouts are deafening. The Sea Ghost rapidly pulls away from the harbor, vanishing to the south, followed in a group by The Royal Escort, Indefatigable and The Monarch of the Seas. The cousins Swift and Mason are sailing together and you watch with a smile as Trever's Lucky nearly collides with Freer's Gambler prompting a string of imaginative and and biologically detailed insults from that colorful Commander. With a sigh you watch your homeland vanish from sight as you sail the Adventurer once more into the unknown. > You sailing South Sailing South for three days you soon come to the Southern Passage, a channel mined and blasted through The Great Reef which surrounds The Three Islands, which together with the Northern Passage and the newer Eastern and Western Passages allow access to the outside world. As you approach the Passage you see the Explorer and Maverick sailing through, not being personally familiar with either Commander Swift or Mason you hang back until they are clear before guiding the Adventurer through. On a relatively flat corral shelf a wooden watchtower and cabin has been built, above the tower flies the royal emblem of Queen Anne-Marie. A soldier in the tower waves cheerfully at you and you remember Anne-Marie's claim she'd had the colonies and outposts along the War Fleet's route supplied with large caches of food. You could drop anchor and try to beg for food but it would cost you 1 Day. > You drop anchor and try to claim fresh Supplies Anchoring in the Passage you lead a party of sailors ashore to meet the two friendly soldiers who garrison the watchtower, each working 12 hour shifts. "Expedition is underway then?" one asks you cheerfully. "I have to say Commander Trapa I don't envy you. I served in the Colony on Burnt Island I've seen those Lapaw come out in those little canoes to inspect us. They look a tough bunch, even with ten ships and three hundred men behind me I wouldn't like to go against them." "Have you any food to spare?" you ask politely. The guards cheerfully supply you with a barrel of salted pork which you take back to your ship and thaking them you sail on.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>This is no way to live. Working on a barely profitable rundown farm with far too many family members to feed. It’s a damn good thing you’re an excellent hunter. However, lately there’s even been a shortage of game to thwart your efforts. You didn’t really want to be working on the farm your whole life in the first place, you wanted to see the world but when dad died, things got a lot harder for the family and you had to take over as “man” of the house and stay put. Something is going to have to change. While you’d like nothing more than to go through with your childhood dreams of becoming a traveling bard without any responsibility you don’t have that luxury. Hell, you barely have time to play your lute anymore in the small amount of free time you do have. You doubt if you’d even be good enough to make a living for just yourself doing it. But you need to get away, but what can you do that won’t allow you to completely abandon your mom and all your brothers and sisters? You suddenly think of the choice that many in your desperate position have thought of many times before. The army. Its not exactly ideal, but you be traveling and seeing the world so to speak. You’d also be making enough money that you could send to your family. Your own living expenses would be provided for by the army. Of course there’s all that fighting that usually goes along with it that you’re not to keen on. Not that you aren’t a stranger to battle as their have been the occasional bandits or kobold thieves that have attempted to steal from the farm in the past, but you prefer not to fight if possible, especially not up close. The bow has always been your weapon of choice. There’s also the matter of mass combat on a grand scale that usually accompanies army life. A lot different than chasing away some thieves in the chicken coop. As you’re thinking about this, you also realize that there is another option. There’s a small mercenary company passing through the area. They’ve been hanging out at the local tavern for a couple days. They don’t seem to be the noblest sort from what you can tell, but fortunately they seem to have kept their revelry confined to the tavern. Who knows how they act away from “civilization” though. Still, it’s something to consider. There probably is less attention to discipline and a little more relaxed on rules and regulations. You probably wouldn’t be fighting in some mass land war that governments are fond of waging. Mercenaries travel a lot and tend to make more, however they tend to get hired for a lot weirder jobs, usually ones that the employer doesn’t want people to know about or ones that nobody else seems to be able to handle. > You enlist in the army Well, as much as you’re going to hate the whole uniform thing, you’d rather there be some sort of guidelines. The mercenaries look like a rough bunch. You get the impression you’d have to be watching your back as much as your enemies if you signed up with them. You explain your decision to join the army to the family one night at dinner. Your revelation comes as a shock. Your smaller brothers and sisters don’t want you to go, your brother Mallack really doesn’t want you to leave since he’ll be next in line to take the brunt of the manual labor! Your mother surprises you as much as you surprised everyone else. You expected her to be the most vocal about you not leaving, but she sees that this would help out the family. She gives her blessing. Before you leave the next day with your packed belongings, your whole family comes to say goodbye to you. You almost hesitate to leave, wondering if it would actually be better for you to stay, but your mother urges you on. “Don’t worry! Mallack is old enough to take over your responsibilities on the farm. He’s not quite as skilled of a hunter, but he’ll be able to do it. I’ve always known that you’ve had a desire to travel. The army isn’t an ideal life I hope you realize though.” Your mom says. “Yeah, I know, but I’ve thought it through.” “Very well, you’re old enough to make your own decisions and live your own life, though I’m glad to see that you still want to help the family as opposed to just leaving in the middle of the night.” “I’ll start sending money as soon as possible. I’ll also try to write and visit when I can.” “I know…okay, you best get going. It’s still quite a walk to the capitol.” You begin to leave the farm as your family wave goodbye to you in the distance. Soon you’re on the road to your nation’s capitol. You’ve been to Zal once before a long time ago with your dad when he was trying to sell some kobold eyes to an alchemist there. You remember being overwhelmed with how many people lived there and how big it was. You always did want to go there again one day; you just didn’t think it would be to enlist in the army. Eventually you arrive at Zal. The place is even bigger than the last time you came here. So much has changed and you’re a little overwhelmed. You don’t have any knowledge of the city so you ask the gate guard who is giving a watchful look to everyone coming in and out. “Excuse me…” ”Whadda ya want peasant? I’m busy! Market square is three blocks down as soon as you get inside the gate here!” The guard snaps. “No, I was wondering where I could enlist in the army.” The guard seems to change his tone to a somewhat more cordial tone. “Oh I see. Well, as soon as you go through the gate, take a left, and walk two blocks. The recruiting office is on the right hand side across from a general store.” You thank him and proceed, but you can’t help overhearing the guard laughing to his buddy as you walk away. You don’t make out all of it, but “Dumb fucking hayseed peasant.” was definitely in there. At last you arrive at the recruiting office. The man sitting at the desk looks bored at first, but perks up a bit when he sees you. “Well now, this is a nice break in the monotony. Have a seat.” “I want to enlist in the army.” “Well of course you do son, why else would you be here? To join the Zalan Empire’s best right? Okay, but before we start I need to ask you some questions just so we can get a feel of where we think you’ll best serve in the Emperor’s glorious army.” “Uh, okay.” “Good, so where are you from son? You certainly don’t look like you’re from the city here. You look like a farmer.” “Well I sort of am sir. My family owns a farm a couple miles from the city, I decided to enlist to help my family monetarily. Times are hard on the farm.” “Mmm, noble of you. Your sense of duty will also serve you well too. Any combat experience?” “Some, but nothing major I’m afraid. A few bandits. Kobolds in the chicken coop. That’s about it.” “Don’t worry you’ll learn to be a killing machine, but your past experience are more than some we’ve recruited. Any other talents?” “Besides farming? Um…I’m a good hunter, I use this bow all the time!” you say and show the recruiter your worn bow. “Good. Good. We can always use good marksmen. But you’ll get the chance to use a better bow than that old thing you’ve been carrying around. What’s that other thing on your back?” “Oh this? Well this is my uh lute.” “Lute? Ha ha! You a bard or something?” “Well not really, but…” “You planning on charming the enemies with your music?” “Uh…” you say begin to get a little anxious. “Hah! Settle down son, I’m just messing with you. But I’m afraid whatever your musical hobbies may be you’ll most likely be abandoning them. Can’t be picking your lute while an angry ogre is charging at you or you’re storming a castle. This is the army, not an entertainment company!” The recruiter at this point begins to look through some papers and grabs one after looking it over. “Ah. Here it is…you know how to read and write?” “YES!” you say indignantly for the first time. “Okay, okay, don’t get testy. Its just most of you peasant farmer types don’t. Anyway just sign here and we’ll get you started on your basic training.” You take the paper, and give it a pointless look over like you actually understand all the legal mumbo jumbo and sign. The recruiter takes the paper from you and then shakes your hand. “Congratulations son! You’re in the Zalan Army now! The best damn one in this world!” Somehow he’s more enthusiastic than you are…<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You look through the window from the observation room, down onto the Object placed at the heart of the chamber. Protruding from the walls are all manner of scientific gadgetry, so that the tests can be carried out remotely, and hopefully more safely, from the observation room. It has been two and a half months of all manner of tests, such as bathing the Object in various forms of radiation, scanning it with all manner of sensors, trying tests in normal air and in a vacuum, and that sort of thing. So far, the Object has just sat there. It could continue to do nothing at all. It could just be a solid chunk of lifeless metal for all anyone knew. That's what you are beginning to think, anyhow. Of course, the Government and Military representatives were "completely positive" that something would happen eventually. And they got to monitor the tests from another facilitiy eighty kilometers away - just in case the Object happened to be a bomb of some sort. That was really reassuring for you. "Come on, Jones, let's get to work," Hammond says, the doors to the observation room swishing shut behind him as he arrives. > You say "Sure. So, what are we going to do to it today?" "Okay, we're doing Gamma Radiation today. Why don't you get us started, spin the dial to five, will you?" Hammond says, leaning over one of the consoles, and peering through the window at the Object below. > You turn the dial to five. "Here goes nothing," you say as you turn the dial to five. Both of you look out through the window at the Object in the chamber beyond. A long mechanical arm unbends from the wall, with a large emitter on the end. It slowly powers up, and you watch a counter slowly tick up from zero. Invisible gamma radiation begins to bathe the Object from the emitter. As the counter begins to pass four, something happens! There is a flash of light, almost blinding your eyes, and then- > You (continue) Hammond yawns, leaning back in his chair. "Well, there goes another day of useless tests, Jones," he says. "What the-" you stammer, looking around you. The clock on the wall says it is early in the evening outside. You glance at the dial for the gamma radiation emitter, and it is turned off, set to zero. Out through the window, the Object just sits there doing nothing, as usual. Hammond notices the look on your face, "What's wrong?" > You tell him what happened. "Hammond, what just happened?" you ask him, bewildered. "What do you mean? We just completed another day of the same old boring tests that seem to have achieved nothing at all," he answers. "You know what? I think something happened!" you say, confusion giving way to excitement. Something was finally taking place! "What are you talking about Jones?" he says, tired and in no mood for games. "The last thing I remember, I was turning the gamma radiation dial to five. The counter passed four, and there was a flash of light! The next thing I know, I was standing here and the day was over!" you explain, bursting with excitement. "Is this some sort of joke," he says, standing up, and getting his things, ready to go home. "Look, Jones, we tested it for gamma, we zapped it with more x-rays, we doubled the air pressure, we tried to cut it open with lasers! Nothing happened, no lights, no sounds, no anything. Look, you're probably just tired, imagining things. There's nothing so boring as staring through a window at a block of metal that just sits there, for hours on end." > You stick to your version of what happened. "I'm telling you Hammond, one moment we were standing there performing the test, the next it was the end of the day!" you exclaim, beginning to feel angry. You're sure of what happened. At least, you think you are... "Look, Jones, maybe you saw a flashing light, maybe not. It only takes a few minutes to run the gamma radiation test. If you want, we'll throw it back up to five and see what happens. Will that make you happy? Maybe then I can go home and get some sleep," he grumbles. > You perform the Gamma radiation test again. "Yes, Hammond. That would make me happy. Let's do the test again," you say. "Okay, by all means. Turn the dial back to five," he says, shaking his head tiredly.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Hammond, what just happened?" you ask him, bewildered. "What do you mean? We just completed another day of the same old boring tests that seem to have achieved nothing at all," he answers. "You know what? I think something happened!" you say, confusion giving way to excitement. Something was finally taking place! "What are you talking about Jones?" he says, tired and in no mood for games. "The last thing I remember, I was turning the gamma radiation dial to five. The counter passed four, and there was a flash of light! The next thing I know, I was standing here and the day was over!" you explain, bursting with excitement. "Is this some sort of joke," he says, standing up, and getting his things, ready to go home. "Look, Jones, we tested it for gamma, we zapped it with more x-rays, we doubled the air pressure, we tried to cut it open with lasers! Nothing happened, no lights, no sounds, no anything. Look, you're probably just tired, imagining things. There's nothing so boring as staring through a window at a block of metal that just sits there, for hours on end." > You maybe you just imagined it? You yawn. Actually, it does feel like you've been working for a whole day. Maybe Hammond was right, maybe you're just tired. Day after day of repetative tests could indeed make everything seem to blur together, after a while. "Yeah, maybe you're right, Hammond. I guess I should drive home and get a good night's sleep," you say. "Rest up, and I'm sure you'll feel better tomorrow," he says. "Well, see you later then, I'm off." Hammond puts on his jacket and heads home. > You leave the Facility. You grab your jacket, flick off the lights, and walk out through numerous corridors and doorways. Finally, after passing through two security checkpoints, you reach the garage. Taking your car keys out of your pocket, you hop into your Toyota Aurion V6. You sink into the comfortable seat with a smile. Ah, the perks of your job. Switching the car on, you pull out of the multi-level garage, and head out onto the road. The Facility was mostly underground, but a large boxy building juts up from the barren surface. Your temporary home, for the duration of the tests, was a house the company purchased in a relatively modern country town an hour's drive away. It's getting dark outside, but the sky is clear, the moon and stars bright above you. You flick on your headlights, and there is a flash of light as they turn on... > You waking up to more confusion. You wake in your bed, in a house that the company has purchased, about an hour's drive from the Factility. Stretching, you get up out of bed. What an odd dream... Something had happened out at the Facility, but you couldn't remember what. Dreams tended to be like that. You were in your car, or something? Stretching your arms above your head, you bend to each side, stretching your aching muscles, then reach out and open the door to the ensuite. A fierce, hot wind assails you, and you stumble backwards, your sleepy limbs not prepared. For a moment you just stand there in your underwear in shock. Outside your bedroom, looking through what should be the door to your ensuite, was the desert! You glance out the bedroom window, and it's still there! Bleak, barren desert sands and rocks stretch off to the horizon. Where is the town? More importantly, where is the rest of your house! > You step outside Astonished and confused, you open your main bedroom door, to see more desert outside. You step outside, onto the hot sand, to see if it is real or an illusion. The sand is hot beneath your feet, and you quickly step back inside. Perhaps you should get dressed first? > You get Dressed Your clothing lies scattered across the floor around your bed. (Click on objects to put them in your inventory)<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Geek: 1. A person regarded as foolish or clumsy. 2. A person who is single-minded or accomplished in scientific or technical pursuits, but is felt to be socially inept. 3. A carnival performer whose show consists of bizarre and disgusting acts. Your breath stinks from the foul things you’ve been eating and the rest of you stinks from not bathing in who knows when. Your head hurts from the cheap moonshine you’ve been getting “paid” in. Rubes often throw stuff at you and spit on you. Most of the other Carnies find you utterly repulsive and avoid you, a couple of them just abuse you for various reasons. On a good day, only the Pinheads come to your cell and taunt you with their gibbering laughs and mongoloid chatter. You have absolutely no worth as a human being, you get no respect from others, and you have no respect for yourself…and why should you? You are the lowest form of life in Carney society. You’re not a real performer; what you do can’t really be considered a skill. You’re not even a real freak. At least a deformed freak can evoke an emotion of horror, or pity, or even admiration for overcoming their condition. You weren’t born “this way”. You chose to do this. All you evoke is disgust and revulsion. At best you’re laughed at and not in the good way like those pervert clowns you work with. Fuck all that “Wildman of Borneo” shit that the Ringmaster tries to tell all the rubes. You’re little more than a bum with a “job”. A degrading job that involves you to debase yourself, all for the amusement and shock value of others, but hey it keeps a “roof” over your head and you pleasantly drunk enough to just barely forget how utterly pathetic your life is. You are the GEEK. You wake up to a bucket of piss being thrown in your face. Not the first time and certainly won’t be the last. “You like the taste of that Geek? Get up Geek! The Ring Master wants to see you!” Charley orders then he throws the empty bucket at your head. The comical sound it makes hitting your skull and the pain it causes makes Charley laugh. Then he jabs you a couple times with his pointed stick. Midgets can be so cruel… > You go see the Ring Master “Agh! Alright, alright! Stop poking me…what day is it?” “Never mind all that geek! Get going you know how the Ring Master doesn’t like being kept waiting! Phew! You smell even more disgusting than usual! I guess that’s one way to keep Ajax from killing you, he’d probably vomit his guts out before he could lay a hand on you…then you could lick it up for the rubes! Ha ha! Move it Geek!” Charley prods you with a sharp stick periodically on your way to the Ring Master’s trailer until you arrive at which point, Atlas stops the both of you. “Stop! What business do the both of you have here?” “Goddamnit you fuckin’ one eyed freak! We go through this all the fucking time and its getting REALLY old! You just saw me come out of the Ring Master’s trailer earlier today when he sent me to get the Geek, you know damn well what we’re both doing here!” Ignoring Charley’s comments Atlas looks down at you and points. “You may enter, but the Ring Master doesn’t need to see you again, so you may not.” “Yeah, whatever enjoy the smell.” Charley says and mumbles something to himself while leaving the area. You barely make it up the little steps to the trailer, but you do. You’re finally starting to gather your wits together; your head still hurts though and you’ve just realize you haven’t had a drink yet. What a terrible feeling. You open the door. “Close the door, you’re letting all the sunlight in.” the Ring Master orders from behind his desk. She’s siting in his chair, but has her back turned to you. “Uh you wanted to see me?” “Of course…(Sniff sniff) you really haven’t been taking care of yourself. If anything you’ve become even more repulsive than when I first took you in. Remember that day?” “Um, yeah I think…no, no I don’t. I mean kind of… I forget things.” “I’m not surprised; you’re constantly drinking that swill Charley makes. I am surprised you haven’t gone blind yet though. Oh well what you insist on doing to yourself is of little concern to me, all I require is your obedience. You are thankful for all I have provided for you aren’t you?” “Oh yeah. Sure I am.” “You seem to be one of the few nowadays then. There are some though that are ungrateful for things I’ve done for them, they plan to betray me and everything this carnival stands for. They plan to change the natural order of things. Can you imagine what might happen to this carnival if I wasn’t here? What might happen to you?” You attempt to think about this scenario, but instead you just stand there because you can’t really form anything in your mind because it hurts really bad, you’ve been sober too damn long, and it’s about to get even longer as the Ring Master seems intent on bombarding you with talk as he finally swivels around in her chair. That pale androgynous face of the Ring Master’s is displaying a look of seriousness as usual. “Nothing good I can assure you. Which is why I’m putting YOU in charge of this task.” “Huh? What task?” “Why ensuring the survival of the carnival of course.” ”What!? Me?! Why? How!? I’m not qualified! Can’t you or Charley do it?” “I fear I’ve done all I’ve can. I mean I’ve provided all of THIS to everyone here. I’ve given them purpose and a life. If that isn’t enough for them, then my words aren’t going to make a difference at this point. And as for Charley, well…I’m sure even in your usual state of drunkenness you’re aware that he has his own plans for this carnival.” “I guess…but agh, it’s too early for all this…why me? I mean what am I supposed to do? I’m just the Geek.” “Yes, and that’s exactly why I’m choosing you. You have no motive, you have no agenda, you have no friends, and as such you would probably be the best candidate to convince others to resist change and keep the status quo.” “You have to be joking! Nobody’s going to listen to me! I’m the fucking Geek!” “You might be surprised, you have far more potential than you give yourself credit for…perhaps you’ll even change some perspectives, or maybe not. The choice is yours, because the fate of THIS carnival is resting solely on your actions, you can no longer afford to hide from the world in a bottle and a cage if you wish to keep your current life. It is time for you to take some responsibility, its time to repay the debt you owe me. You have until show time.” “But…” “Now leave me, I wish to be alone.” The Ring Master swivels his chair back to its original position. You head back outside, where upon Atlas blocks it again with his massive body. Never before in your life have you been put in this kind of position of responsibility, (Not that you can remember anyway) but you’re going to have to do something, the question is what exactly? > You obey the Ring Master You feel you don’t really have a choice in this situation. The Ring Master is in charge and whatever he says goes and you DO owe a lot to her. As bad as it can be here sometimes, it would probably be worse if you didn’t have the protection of the Carnival. As tempted as you are to get a drink to get you through this test you have before you, you realize you need to stay sober for this. What a terrible thing. Now you have to figure out who you need to convince. The Freaks are firmly on the side of the Ring Master, so you don’t need to talk to them. That just leaves the Midgets and the Normals, both of those present some problems. > You try to convince the Midgets Charley leads the Midgets and you doubt if he’s going “fall in line” and even if he claimed he was, he’d just be lying. You might even be putting yourself in great danger by speaking to him directly about this, however you know the Midgets don’t really care for Charley, so if you could get him out of the way somehow, they might be more willing to ally with the Ring Master. You decide to “test the waters” by speaking to one of the few Midgets (Actually the only one) that’s somewhat less hostile towards you. You see Bob working on hammering tent stakes in the ground and go up to him. “Hey Bob, can I talk to you?” “Aw hell Geek, I ain’t got no money for you to get fucking drunk! Just go steal the liquor from that sonofabitch Charley and take your goddamn chances!” he says barely paying attention to you. “No, its not that…so you uh think Charley’s a son of a bitch huh?” “I don’t think it, I know it. Everyone does.” “So why do you guys follow him?” “Because he does make things better for us. Better than the Ring Master did anyway.” “Yeah, but what if he’s not the best choice to lead you guys, I mean…” Bob raises one eyebrow and focuses all of his attention on you now. “What the fuck are you talkin’ about Geek? You seem to be awfully interested with matters that don’t concern you.” Bob states raising his hammer menancingly. “Well um…I just heard that…um Charley…I mean…look there’s some shit gonna go down and the Ring Master wants me to get people on his side!” You’re unsure of what Bob’s going to do about your revelation. You expect the worst, but for once luck is on your side. “Look Geek, I ain’t gonna lie to ya, not many of us like Charley, and sure, he’s a fucking tyrant, but he gets things done, I dunno he’s kinda like that guy in Germany, except shorter. However, if he wasn’t around, we’d go back to being second class citizens again and why? We DO keep this place running. The Ring Master claims he cares about us, but it doesn’t seem that way to us. We’re under appreciated. And if Charley does have ideas about taking over, then we’re behind him. Maybe the whole place would be run a lot better with him in charge anyway. AND I suggest you don’t talk to any other dwarves about this, you’ll find that you’ll get the same answer and they might just feel the need to tell Charley about the discussion and I don’t think that would be very good for you.” “So there’s nothing I can do or say to change your mind?” “Goddamn it, weren’t you fuckin’ listening Geek? I said no! Not unless you found someway of replacing Charley with someone a little more even tempered and with his business savvy.” “Well, why don’t one of you midg…I mean dwarves do it?” “(Sigh) Because most of us are simple laborers. We just wanna do our job with as little hassle and relax when we can, we don’t wanna be worried about extra shit. Let Charley worry about it since he wants it so bad. Besides if you haven’t noticed he’s got a mean streak a mile wide and that fuckin’ muscle bound freak Ajax around him all the time.” “So there’s nobody who’d want to take Charley’s place?” “Nope. The only one I can think of who’d even have the intelligence of running the criminal activity here smoothly anyway would be his overgrown girlfriend Salina. Now her I wouldn’t mind working under if you know what I mean! Hah! Now get the fuck outta here Geek, I got work to do and your smell is gonna stick to my clothes for days! Get!” You back away from Bob before he hits you with his hammer or kicks you in the shin. It wasn’t what you expected, but perhaps Bob has subtlety shown you a way to get the midgets to ally with the Ring Master, but of course this means talking with Salina. That could be even more risky though, considering she’s the object of Charley’s “love”. Not to mention she doesn’t particularly like you. But then again, who does? > You go talk to Salina You cautiously approach Salina’s trailer, you’re nervous as hell. You stop and hide behind a nearby barrel when you see someone coming out. It’s Sasha. She looks like she’s been crying, probably about Ajax no doubt. Salina seems to be telling her something and then hugs her before closing the door. When Sasha leaves you knock on Salina’s door. She answers. “Look, I told you…UGH! Its you! Get the fuck outta here Geek! No amount of money is gonna make me degrade myself for your festering ass! And you’re upsetting my snakes with your odor!” “No, it’s not that, I really gotta talk to you.” “You don’t have anything to say that I wanna waste my time OR my sense of smell on, so…” “Please it s really important! It’s about Charley and the future of the Carnival!” Salina raises her eyebrow. “Hmm, very well, but you’re not coming in here, let’s go someplace secluded where nobody can see me associating with you.” You and Salina walk to a nearby spot in the wilderness (Separately of course) to talk where you explain the situation to Salina. “Yeah, so what does all this mean to me? If Charley takes over I win and if the Ring Master stays in power I still win. I don’t see why I should get involved in this power struggle.” Salina says unemotionally. “You’re not looking at the big picture. As it stands now you got some measure of freedom, but if Charley wins, this place will cease being a Carnival and become a crime ring. And while you might do alright gift and money wise, you’ll be Charley’s girlfriend full time at that point with little freedom. You know he’s never going to let you do anything without his approval if he’s in power. And if the Ring Master wins, chances are the criminal activity here is gonna be severely diminished without Charley to run it, meaning you’ll probably be making less money.” “Okay…but don’t you want the Ring Master to win?” “Yes, but she needs allies and I’m trying to get the midgets to ally with him and they won’t if Charley’s in charge of them.” “So I don’t understand, what exactly are you proposing? You’re kind of all over the place here.” “I’m saying I want YOU to take over Charley’s position. You run all his business dealings.” “What? You’re crazy Geek.” “Why? You’re intelligent; surely you probably know all of Charley’s secrets.” “Well THAT’S true. The little fucker insists on bragging about everything after sex, but what makes you think the midgets will follow me? I mean I’m a Normal.” “Please, you’re a tall beautiful woman, the midgets will love you, didn’t you see Wizard of Oz? Just as long as you promise to uphold all the things Charley did like protection from being bullied by rubes and keeping their payment the same, I don’t think they’ll mind you in charge instead of Charley. Think about it, YOU could be in charge of the whole operation, and it’s not like the Ring Master will bother you as long as you don’t try to screw with the everyday Carnival workings.” “I’d never do that, the Carnival has been like a home to me…I…” Salina seems to stop herself before she displays too much emotion to you. “Alright Geek, I’m willing to entertain this idea, but you have to do something for ME first.” “Okay, what?” “You gotta get rid of Randal.” “What? Why? What did he do?” “To me? Nothing, but he’s competition and I can’t have that.” “Competition for what?” “Nevermind, just get rid of him. Think of it this way, if you get him out of the picture, you’ll also eliminate the leader of the third faction here which would really cement the Ring Master’s supremacy here. Surely that should be incentive enough?” “You want me to kill him?!” “Look, I don’t care HOW you get rid of him, just get rid of him before show time. If you do that, you can tell the midgets that I’ll be taking over Charley’s position when the time comes. Now don’t speak to me again until you do this.” Looks like you got MORE work ahead of you and you really don’t know how you’re supposed to get rid of Randal. You doubt if just asking him to leave is going to work, and while killing him would solve the problem, it’s not really that simple to just kill a man even if you had it in you. You could really use a drink… > You talk to Randal You can’t kill Randal, so you’re going to have to just try to convince him to leave…somehow. You think perhaps Madam Orbec can help, since she has the most contact with him. You approach Madam Orbec’s tent which carries an air of creepiness about it. When you enter, you see her lying on the floor convulsing. “Madam! Are you alright?!” you run to her attempting to pick her up, but she pushes you away. “GEEK! Take your filthy hands off of me! My body is for the spirits only! You will not molest my person lest I call down their wrath upon you! Though I’m not sure what more they could do to such a pathetic soul such as yourself, and death would be a mercy.” “Sorry, I was just trying to help.” “Liar! You sought me out, to help yourself! But still…your mission is a somewhat good intentioned one…even if you are in the dark about some of it…” “What do you mean?” “That’s for the more enlightened to know, but I’m sure you’ll find out eventually, assuming we decide to help you that is…” “How do you know that I want your help?” “I see what the spirits see! And the spirits see all! You’re easier to read than an open book! You want to know how to get rid of Randal.” “How…nevermind. So how do I get rid of him? No…don’t tell me YOU want me to do something as well!” “Actually getting rid of Randal would serve me…he wouldn’t be around hounding me and the spirits all the time for one thing. The only reason I prefer him around is that he is a balancer of this carnival…but we see things are about to change…great changes…things would be better if he wasn’t around any longer.” “So?” Madam Orbec begins to talk to herself. “Should we? Maybe. What about them? Later. Yeah, let’s do it.” “Madam?” “Tell Randal to come to my tent, I will get rid of him. I shall tell him something that will give him cause to leave immediately. He won’t even be here for showtime. You have the word of the spirits and Madam Orbec. Now leave me, we must prepare.” You leave Madam Orbec’s tent and go find Randal. When you do, he attempts to avoid you, but when you mention Madam Orbec wants to see him, he pushes you out of the way to meet her right away. You follow him and watch Orbec’s tent, after awhile Randal leaves and heads back to his own tent. Orbec also exits and nods at you. You go back to Salina and tell her the news. Salina smiles and tells you everything has been set in motion, and she’ll be ready. She then tells you to go tell the midgets. You go back to Bob, who’d forgotten all about your discussion with him. In fact you have to remind him what it was you even discussed. “So lemme get this straight Geek…Salina’s taking over the crime trade here?” “Yeah, and she says everything will stay the same, the protection and the pay. All you gotta do is side with the Ring Master, after show time tonight.” “…Alright Geek, I’ll tell the rest of the dwarves. I just hope all of you fuckers know what you’re doing, because I guarantee if we get fucked in any way in this arrangement, YOU will be the first to feel our wrath!” You hope so too, a lot of this riding on the “word” of everyone. You don’t actually have any assurance by anyone that everything’s going to go as planned. You don’t tell the Ring Master that when you go back to his trailer though. (After getting Atlas’ permission to enter of course) you just tell her that he’ll have her allies when the time comes. The Ring Master seems confident in you and tells you to get ready for show time. You spend your remaining time a little on edge, wondering if everything is going to work out. You really wish the Ring Master hadn’t put all this pressure on you. Then show time arrives, everything goes pretty much the same except you’re a little distracted the entire time until you notice Randal doesn’t show up at all. You hope that’s a good sign that your plan has worked. > You but the real show begins afterwards A dark moonlit night. Charley confronts the Ring Master with his army of midgets behind him as well as Ajax. The Ring Master has Atlas, and his usual allies, the Freaks are hanging in the darkness ready to strike if necessary. Most of the Normals though are nowhere to be seen. Your heart sinks…the midgets have still sided with Charley and you get so worried that you puke up the sheep testicles and pigeon heads you consumed for your act. “Your time has come Ring Master! No longer will you exploit us! I’m taking over!” “So you can exploit your own people of course. Charley, I’ve put up with your delusions of grandeur long enough, it ends tonight. I have allies of my own, and you might find they are much more dedicated to me than yours are.” “It won’t work Ringy, I got more in common with my people than you ever will! Blood is thicker, and yours is going to run everywhere if you don’t peaceably leave…I’m giving you this one chance you pale she-male.” “Not likely.” At this point all of the freaks come out of hiding. Charley orders an attack, but the rest of the midgets do nothing…you cease worrying and Charley begins to get angry. “What the fuck man? I told you fuckers to attack! I’m your leader!” “Not anymore Charley…we got a new one.” Bob says. “Who? HIM? This fucking hermaphrodite bitch?” Charley yells pointing to the Ring Master. “No, this tattooed bitch.” Bob says calmly where upon Salina appears petting a cobra lovingly which is wrapped around her arm. “Yes, this tattooed snake bitch to be precise. Give it up Charley; your time here is done. You don’t have any allies anymore. I’d suggest you and the muscle bound woman beater leave NOW.” “You fucking back stabbing viper bitch…” Charley says in shock. “Hey fuck off cunt, fore I shove that snake up your ass!” Ajax yells. “You’re certainly welcome to try, here catch!” Salina throws here cobra at Ajax, which lands on him, he squashes its head, but not before it bites him a couple times. He runs at Salina, but the midgets trip him up and hold him down as the poison takes effect. Salina then puts out his eye, with her stiletto heel before he succumbs leaving Charley all by himself. “Well Charley, it seems all your grand plans have failed. You have nothing left. I’d say there’s no reason for you to stay. Atlas, if you would be so kind to escort this former employee of the premises…” When the Ring Master says that, it typically means “Atlas, after you break his neck make sure the body is properly disposed of.” Atlas grabs Charley who attempts to defend himself with his sharp stick, but instead it’s taken from him and broken. Then Charley’s spine is taken from him and broken. Atlas lumbers off in the darkness to get rid of Ajax and Charley’s bodies. “So, I trust we’ll have no problems Salina?” The Ring Master asks. “No problems from me, I have all I need, or I soon will have.” “Good, I suggest you and your new friends get some rest, we got a big show tomorrow.” While Salina and the munchkin brigade leave and the freaks disperse as well, the Ring Master calls you out. “Geek, you may come out of hiding, I’m sure you can see the danger is over, not that there ever was any.” “I can’t believe it actually worked. Everything…” “See? I told you, you underestimated yourself. Not only did you save the Carnival, but you stabilized it even more. I told you, I saw potential even when there was none apparent. Do you still want to be a Geek? You could be so much more if you just put in the effort. Charley used to do all my leg work, but now that he’s gone I need someone else to fit that role…would you be interested? Keep in mind that this new job would require a whole lot more responsibility and significantly less drinking as I would need you in a better frame of mind.” At one time you’d balk, but after seeing what you accomplished first hand, maybe you DO have potential. You accept and you’re given Charley’s old trailer. Time goes by and you stumble along the way with the first few months as you still have a really bad drinking problem, but fortunately the Ring Master is slightly understanding about that, and only sends Atlas to remind you ONCE to get it under control. (That incident really sets you on the straight and narrow) you get yourself cleaned up and actually become presentable. You’re more of an organizer than a main event now, but you still go ahead and bite some chicken heads off every now and then for the kids. Salina is a pretty fair and even handed business woman when it comes to the being new leader of the midgets. Much more than Charley, and she also has Pervus and his clown crew eliminated during one night. Apparently they got rough with one of her girls. They were all found dead the next day. Nobody said anything outright, but the fact that little snake bites were found on their bodies was a pretty good idea who was responsible. However, the Ring Master said nothing since Pervus and his friends had it coming for a long time, not to mention with them gone things actually improved morale wise. (People tend to work better when their aren’t evil demented clowns lurking around) You also see Salina and Sasha get very close in a way that makes you tingle in the nether regions. Now you know why Salina wanted you to get rid of Randal. Without Ajax to kick her around anymore, Sasha probably would’ve fell for Randal (You also found out Madam Orbec told him he needed to leave the Carnival to find some magic book in some Mayan ruins that the spirits commanded him to retrieve…he never returned) but since he wasn’t around, she ended up with Salina. They seem to be happy though. Actually everyone at the Carnival seems to be a lot happier and more relaxed and it’s all due to your actions. The Ring Master has given you a second chance at life, a life with a whole hell of lot more meaning. You’ve gotten respect at last.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You cautiously approach Salina’s trailer, you’re nervous as hell. You stop and hide behind a nearby barrel when you see someone coming out. It’s Sasha. She looks like she’s been crying, probably about Ajax no doubt. Salina seems to be telling her something and then hugs her before closing the door. When Sasha leaves you knock on Salina’s door. She answers. “Look, I told you…UGH! Its you! Get the fuck outta here Geek! No amount of money is gonna make me degrade myself for your festering ass! And you’re upsetting my snakes with your odor!” “No, it’s not that, I really gotta talk to you.” “You don’t have anything to say that I wanna waste my time OR my sense of smell on, so…” “Please it s really important! It’s about Charley and the future of the Carnival!” Salina raises her eyebrow. “Hmm, very well, but you’re not coming in here, let’s go someplace secluded where nobody can see me associating with you.” You and Salina walk to a nearby spot in the wilderness (Separately of course) to talk where you explain the situation to Salina. “Yeah, so what does all this mean to me? If Charley takes over I win and if the Ring Master stays in power I still win. I don’t see why I should get involved in this power struggle.” Salina says unemotionally. “You’re not looking at the big picture. As it stands now you got some measure of freedom, but if Charley wins, this place will cease being a Carnival and become a crime ring. And while you might do alright gift and money wise, you’ll be Charley’s girlfriend full time at that point with little freedom. You know he’s never going to let you do anything without his approval if he’s in power. And if the Ring Master wins, chances are the criminal activity here is gonna be severely diminished without Charley to run it, meaning you’ll probably be making less money.” “Okay…but don’t you want the Ring Master to win?” “Yes, but she needs allies and I’m trying to get the midgets to ally with him and they won’t if Charley’s in charge of them.” “So I don’t understand, what exactly are you proposing? You’re kind of all over the place here.” “I’m saying I want YOU to take over Charley’s position. You run all his business dealings.” “What? You’re crazy Geek.” “Why? You’re intelligent; surely you probably know all of Charley’s secrets.” “Well THAT’S true. The little fucker insists on bragging about everything after sex, but what makes you think the midgets will follow me? I mean I’m a Normal.” “Please, you’re a tall beautiful woman, the midgets will love you, didn’t you see Wizard of Oz? Just as long as you promise to uphold all the things Charley did like protection from being bullied by rubes and keeping their payment the same, I don’t think they’ll mind you in charge instead of Charley. Think about it, YOU could be in charge of the whole operation, and it’s not like the Ring Master will bother you as long as you don’t try to screw with the everyday Carnival workings.” “I’d never do that, the Carnival has been like a home to me…I…” Salina seems to stop herself before she displays too much emotion to you. “Alright Geek, I’m willing to entertain this idea, but you have to do something for ME first.” “Okay, what?” “You gotta get rid of Randal.” “What? Why? What did he do?” “To me? Nothing, but he’s competition and I can’t have that.” “Competition for what?” “Nevermind, just get rid of him. Think of it this way, if you get him out of the picture, you’ll also eliminate the leader of the third faction here which would really cement the Ring Master’s supremacy here. Surely that should be incentive enough?” “You want me to kill him?!” “Look, I don’t care HOW you get rid of him, just get rid of him before show time. If you do that, you can tell the midgets that I’ll be taking over Charley’s position when the time comes. Now don’t speak to me again until you do this.” Looks like you got MORE work ahead of you and you really don’t know how you’re supposed to get rid of Randal. You doubt if just asking him to leave is going to work, and while killing him would solve the problem, it’s not really that simple to just kill a man even if you had it in you. You could really use a drink… > You kill Randal You’ll have to kill him. It’s the only way, since he’ll never listen to you. You need a drink to get you ready for this though. You sneak over to Charley’s still, thankfully it’s not being manned right now. You down a couple of bottle of the toxic swill, spilling some of it on yourself. After you’re sufficiently “prepared” you steal one of the midget’s hammers and head to Randal’s tent. It’s now or never… You enter Randal’s tent which seems a lot larger on the inside than it does on the outside, but you figure it’s the booze is effecting your perception. You see Randal getting dressed with his back to you. Excellent. You creep as quietly as you can in your condition, step right behind him with the hammer raised up high and then… He disappears before your eyes! You do a double take, thinking it’s the booze again, but then you feel a tap on your shoulder, causing you to turn around to a fiery flash. Not very good in any case especially since Charley’s brew that you spilled on yourself earlier makes you quite flammable. You run around his tent attempting to put yourself out. “Didn’t you think I could SMELL you approaching Geek?” Randal says. “I have no idea why you would attempt something so foolish as to try to kill me, but I’ve always said the Carnival would be a lot better without the likes of you! TABAXINDOGA!” Whatever Randal just said causes all your limbs to freeze up. The good news is you aren’t on fire anymore, the bad news is you’re turning to stone! Randal looks noticeably exhausted after casting his spells, but he’s still holding all the cards. “I hate to waste such power on you, especially before showtime. (Pant) it really takes a lot out of me, but sometimes such actions are necessary when being attacked. I’ll have to inform Madam Orbec that the new spell she taught me works perfectly… I’ll take that hammer, it’ll come in handy.” As your body becomes completely stone, the last thing you see is Randal swinging the hammer at your head before it breaks into several pieces.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Charley leads the Midgets and you doubt if he’s going “fall in line” and even if he claimed he was, he’d just be lying. You might even be putting yourself in great danger by speaking to him directly about this, however you know the Midgets don’t really care for Charley, so if you could get him out of the way somehow, they might be more willing to ally with the Ring Master. You decide to “test the waters” by speaking to one of the few Midgets (Actually the only one) that’s somewhat less hostile towards you. You see Bob working on hammering tent stakes in the ground and go up to him. “Hey Bob, can I talk to you?” “Aw hell Geek, I ain’t got no money for you to get fucking drunk! Just go steal the liquor from that sonofabitch Charley and take your goddamn chances!” he says barely paying attention to you. “No, its not that…so you uh think Charley’s a son of a bitch huh?” “I don’t think it, I know it. Everyone does.” “So why do you guys follow him?” “Because he does make things better for us. Better than the Ring Master did anyway.” “Yeah, but what if he’s not the best choice to lead you guys, I mean…” Bob raises one eyebrow and focuses all of his attention on you now. “What the fuck are you talkin’ about Geek? You seem to be awfully interested with matters that don’t concern you.” Bob states raising his hammer menancingly. “Well um…I just heard that…um Charley…I mean…look there’s some shit gonna go down and the Ring Master wants me to get people on his side!” You’re unsure of what Bob’s going to do about your revelation. You expect the worst, but for once luck is on your side. “Look Geek, I ain’t gonna lie to ya, not many of us like Charley, and sure, he’s a fucking tyrant, but he gets things done, I dunno he’s kinda like that guy in Germany, except shorter. However, if he wasn’t around, we’d go back to being second class citizens again and why? We DO keep this place running. The Ring Master claims he cares about us, but it doesn’t seem that way to us. We’re under appreciated. And if Charley does have ideas about taking over, then we’re behind him. Maybe the whole place would be run a lot better with him in charge anyway. AND I suggest you don’t talk to any other dwarves about this, you’ll find that you’ll get the same answer and they might just feel the need to tell Charley about the discussion and I don’t think that would be very good for you.” “So there’s nothing I can do or say to change your mind?” “Goddamn it, weren’t you fuckin’ listening Geek? I said no! Not unless you found someway of replacing Charley with someone a little more even tempered and with his business savvy.” “Well, why don’t one of you midg…I mean dwarves do it?” “(Sigh) Because most of us are simple laborers. We just wanna do our job with as little hassle and relax when we can, we don’t wanna be worried about extra shit. Let Charley worry about it since he wants it so bad. Besides if you haven’t noticed he’s got a mean streak a mile wide and that fuckin’ muscle bound freak Ajax around him all the time.” “So there’s nobody who’d want to take Charley’s place?” “Nope. The only one I can think of who’d even have the intelligence of running the criminal activity here smoothly anyway would be his overgrown girlfriend Salina. Now her I wouldn’t mind working under if you know what I mean! Hah! Now get the fuck outta here Geek, I got work to do and your smell is gonna stick to my clothes for days! Get!” You back away from Bob before he hits you with his hammer or kicks you in the shin. It wasn’t what you expected, but perhaps Bob has subtlety shown you a way to get the midgets to ally with the Ring Master, but of course this means talking with Salina. That could be even more risky though, considering she’s the object of Charley’s “love”. Not to mention she doesn’t particularly like you. But then again, who does? > You go convince the Normals instead The Midgets are firmly in the camp of Charley. Your only hope is to convince the Normals and that’s not going to be easy either. A lot of them don’t like you and most of them are “unified” under Randal and he doesn’t like you either. The only thing you can of is to talk to Madam Orbec. She has the most contact with Randal, maybe you can get her help. You approach Madam Orbec’s tent which has an air of creepiness about it. You see her gazing into a crystal ball. “Geek! You foul aura disturbs the spirits!” “Um, sorry…but I need your…” “Yes, yes, yes, I know you want my help.” “How did you know that?” “I see what the spirits see! And the spirits see all! You want me to convince Randal to convince the Normals to side with the Ring Master in the upcoming battle tonight!” “Uh…yeah.” “I suppose I could do that…but I won’t, at least not directly…” “So you’re not going to help me?” “I didn’t say that, the spirits say that you can’t get something for nothing however…since you seem to be in such a noble mood Geek, then you won’t mind performing another noble deed. A deed that will help you as well as us.” “Well, what is it?” Madam Orbec starts talking to herself. “Could be a suicide mission. So? Yeah, no risk to us. What about the other thing? Will solve itself.” “You must get rid of the beautiful Sasha’s abusive boyfriend Ajax once and for all. Do this and we shall help you.” Orbec says addressing you. “WHAT?! How the hell am I supposed to do that? And why?” “Do not question the spirits’ wisdom! Just DO! Now leave and don’t return until you complete this task!” You exit Orbec’s tent. You’ve got an impossible job to do. Ajax is a vicious thug who beats you for fun on several occasions, there’s no way you can beat him even if you had the killer instinct which you don’t. You’re going to need some help. > You talk to Sasha Maybe you can talk directly to Sasha about this. Surely since she’s the one taking the abuse she’d be for getting rid of Ajax. Maybe she’ll even know some tips on weaknesses or something. You head to her trailer. She answers the door and looks obviously disgusted. “Ew! What’re you doing here Geek? Get outta here, you’re stinky!” “Wait Sasha, I got a proposal for ya!” “Excuse me?! This isn’t Salina’s trailer! And I doubt she’d degrade herself for you either! Goodbye!” “WAIT! This is about Ajax! And about how to get rid of him for good!” Sasha suddenly stops trying to get rid of you and seems more willing to listen. “How?” “I dunno, but I’ve seen how he treats you and it isn’t right. Nobody does anything, well I’m just saying I’ve had enough of seeing him push everyone around, especially you!” Sasha looks a bit touched by your remark, but then quickly speaks. “Okay look, he’ll be coming soon, he always has a drink when he comes over, and I’ll drug it. He’ll get drowsy and fall asleep, BUT you’ll have to finish him off. Many times I’ve though about it, but I just can never bring myself to do it…you’ll have to do it. Please free me from this brute once and for all.” “I will Sasha.” “Thank you…I guess underneath the grime you’re alright Geek…now go hide by that barrel over there, I’ll give the signal when he’s asleep!” You quickly run over to the barrel and hide. Soon you see Ajax enter Sasha’s trailer. While you wait, you can’t believe what just happened. Sasha actually seemed nice to you. You’ve never experienced that before. And could it be that you saw a glint of something in her eyes when she thanked you? Maybe after all this is over you and Sasha might have something. You never thought this could be possible. You feel positive and confident…you know you’ll have the strength to do in Ajax, he doesn’t deserve a beauty like Sasha anyway. He doesn’t deserve life. While you’re thinking about all this you see Sasha come back out of her trailer and wave at you. She has a knife in her hand, obviously what she’s going to give you to do in Ajax which you’ll take great pleasure in. After all this is over, Sasha is going to see you as her savior… Nice fantasy Geek. The sad truth is much worse though. When Ajax arrived he could tell you were around because your stench was still clinging to the door. Then he questioned Sasha about it. And the funny thing about abuse victims is they always side with their abuser before siding with someone who’s trying to help them. She didn’t just tell him everything, but she’s also lured you back into the lion’s den as it were… When you get to the doorway, Ajax pulls Sasha back inside roughly, and grabs you. “I’ve been looking for a good excuse Geek! I’m gonna enjoy this!” Ajax pulls you inside, and enjoys beating you to death. Oh how he enjoys it.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The Midgets are firmly in the camp of Charley. Your only hope is to convince the Normals and that’s not going to be easy either. A lot of them don’t like you and most of them are “unified” under Randal and he doesn’t like you either. The only thing you can of is to talk to Madam Orbec. She has the most contact with Randal, maybe you can get her help. You approach Madam Orbec’s tent which has an air of creepiness about it. You see her gazing into a crystal ball. “Geek! You foul aura disturbs the spirits!” “Um, sorry…but I need your…” “Yes, yes, yes, I know you want my help.” “How did you know that?” “I see what the spirits see! And the spirits see all! You want me to convince Randal to convince the Normals to side with the Ring Master in the upcoming battle tonight!” “Uh…yeah.” “I suppose I could do that…but I won’t, at least not directly…” “So you’re not going to help me?” “I didn’t say that, the spirits say that you can’t get something for nothing however…since you seem to be in such a noble mood Geek, then you won’t mind performing another noble deed. A deed that will help you as well as us.” “Well, what is it?” Madam Orbec starts talking to herself. “Could be a suicide mission. So? Yeah, no risk to us. What about the other thing? Will solve itself.” “You must get rid of the beautiful Sasha’s abusive boyfriend Ajax once and for all. Do this and we shall help you.” Orbec says addressing you. “WHAT?! How the hell am I supposed to do that? And why?” “Do not question the spirits’ wisdom! Just DO! Now leave and don’t return until you complete this task!” You exit Orbec’s tent. You’ve got an impossible job to do. Ajax is a vicious thug who beats you for fun on several occasions, there’s no way you can beat him even if you had the killer instinct which you don’t. You’re going to need some help. > You talk to Pervus You figure Pervus the clown is the only possible candidate to help you in this endeavor. He’s immoral enough and doesn’t have any allegiances. You don’t relish the idea of going anywhere near the clown tent though; everyone knows what terrible things they do to trespassers in there. Fortunately you find Pervus harassing one of the acrobats. She looks terrified, by this scary overbearing clown “Aw come on, I just wanna get to know ya better. You’re so pretty and young with a nice tight ass. What I could do with that for about an hour…” Suddenly Pervus goes to grab at the acrobat, but she leaps out of the way and runs off in fear. “Fuckin’ cock teasin’ bitch…(sniff sniff) I know that smell…smells like a dead dog’s asshole after I busted a nut in it…Geek…what the hell do you want?” “Uh hello Pervus…I uh, need your help with something.” “Oh do ya now? What might that be?” “I need to get rid of Ajax and I need your help to do it.” “Whoa, hold on there first of all what makes you think I’d help you without asking for something in return, and second of all, Ajax isn’t exactly easy prey if you know what I mean.” “Well…what would convince you…and NOT THAT!” Pervus chuckles. “Feh, maybe some of my boys might like a piece of your filthy ass, but I’m a little more discriminating…actually you got me in a unique mood. I’m willing to help you. Ajax pisses me off every time I go try to get some liquor from Charley. Walkin’ around displayin’ that perfect physique. He really needs to be taken down a fuckin’ peg. In fact he NEEDS to be pegged in the fuckin’ ass. Tell ya what, you get Ajax to come over to the clown tent and we’ll do the rest. He’s had this coming for a long time.” Pervus says stroking his crotch. “You gonna kill him?” “No, but I suggest you not ask what we ARE going to do to him. Trust me though; you’ll never see him again.” “Uh, okay…but how the hell am I supposed to get him to go over to your tent, nobody ever goes over there!” “Well I suggest you think of something, if you want our help. See you later and hopefully with a certain Strongman in tow.” Facing Ajax one on one is NOT what you had in mind! You’re going to have to do it though. You could attempt to make up a story which may or may not work, or you could go with a much dangerous approach and piss him off so he chases you there. The problem with that approach is you’re a dead Geek if he catches you. > You convince Ajax with a story You don’t want to piss Ajax off anymore than what’s necessary, so you decide to come up with a story that Charley needs him to go get some money the clowns to because they haven’t been paying their latest gambling debts. You look around for Ajax, but he’s nowhere around, typical. The one time you WANT to find him you can’t. Eventually you do see him entering Sasha’s trailer, you go to knock on the door. He answers it, and already looks pissed. “You got some fuckin’ balls Geek, disturbing me while I’m tryin’ to get me some pussy! This better be REALLY important!” “It is, Charley wants you to go to the clown tent, apparently they gambled on something or other and didn’t pay up, so he wants you to go get the money from them.” Ajax, gives you a hard look. “Why didn’t Charley come tell me himself, in fact this is the first I’m hearing about this and I certainly don’t understand why he’d send YOU to tell me.” “Well I just happened to be around at his still and he was ranting about some private bet he had with Pervus and well you know Charley…he ended up prodding me with his stick and ordered me to go get you to collect the debt from the clowns.” “I smell bullshit and I don’t like bein’ fuckin’ disturbed from fucking my bitch, let alone by the likes of you! I dunno what your fuckin’ angle is Geek, but since you seem to be so interested in the clown tent, let’s go asshole!” Ajax grabs you and raises you above his head with a vice like grip. You attempt to escape, but it’s useless. He walks all the way to the clown tent, where inhuman noises are emanating. “Hey you fuckin’ clowns, here’s a new fuck toy for ya!” Ajax yells and throws you inside. Pervus and his crew were working themselves up into a sexual frenzy waiting for Ajax to enter, but instead you got thrown in. They’re all a bit disappointed, but they fuck you anyway, no sense in wasting an erection. You never return from the horrors inflicted on you in the tent that day, and you are forced to serve their twisted pleasures day in day out, never to exit the tent.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You figure Pervus the clown is the only possible candidate to help you in this endeavor. He’s immoral enough and doesn’t have any allegiances. You don’t relish the idea of going anywhere near the clown tent though; everyone knows what terrible things they do to trespassers in there. Fortunately you find Pervus harassing one of the acrobats. She looks terrified, by this scary overbearing clown “Aw come on, I just wanna get to know ya better. You’re so pretty and young with a nice tight ass. What I could do with that for about an hour…” Suddenly Pervus goes to grab at the acrobat, but she leaps out of the way and runs off in fear. “Fuckin’ cock teasin’ bitch…(sniff sniff) I know that smell…smells like a dead dog’s asshole after I busted a nut in it…Geek…what the hell do you want?” “Uh hello Pervus…I uh, need your help with something.” “Oh do ya now? What might that be?” “I need to get rid of Ajax and I need your help to do it.” “Whoa, hold on there first of all what makes you think I’d help you without asking for something in return, and second of all, Ajax isn’t exactly easy prey if you know what I mean.” “Well…what would convince you…and NOT THAT!” Pervus chuckles. “Feh, maybe some of my boys might like a piece of your filthy ass, but I’m a little more discriminating…actually you got me in a unique mood. I’m willing to help you. Ajax pisses me off every time I go try to get some liquor from Charley. Walkin’ around displayin’ that perfect physique. He really needs to be taken down a fuckin’ peg. In fact he NEEDS to be pegged in the fuckin’ ass. Tell ya what, you get Ajax to come over to the clown tent and we’ll do the rest. He’s had this coming for a long time.” Pervus says stroking his crotch. “You gonna kill him?” “No, but I suggest you not ask what we ARE going to do to him. Trust me though; you’ll never see him again.” “Uh, okay…but how the hell am I supposed to get him to go over to your tent, nobody ever goes over there!” “Well I suggest you think of something, if you want our help. See you later and hopefully with a certain Strongman in tow.” Facing Ajax one on one is NOT what you had in mind! You’re going to have to do it though. You could attempt to make up a story which may or may not work, or you could go with a much dangerous approach and piss him off so he chases you there. The problem with that approach is you’re a dead Geek if he catches you. > You get Ajax to chase you He’ll see through a lie, and even if he can’t he won’t want to listen to anything you have to say anyway. There’s nothing for it, you have to have him chase you there. He’s going to be pissed off anyway. You look around for Ajax, but he’s nowhere around, typical. The one time you WANT to find him you can’t. Eventually you do see him entering Sasha’s trailer. You take a deep breath and start throwing stones at it, calling him out. “Hey asshole, stop hiding behind Sasha in there and get out here!” Plink! Plink! Plink! “Hey motherfucker I’m talkin’ to you! I know you ain’t still fuckin’ Sasha. Everyone knows you don’t last that long!” Plink! Plink! Plink! You’re actually having so much fun shouting and throwing things, it almost comes to a shock to you when Ajax comes storming out like a mad bull. He is wicked pissed. “YOU’RE FUCKING DEAD GEEK!” You throw the rest of your stones at him and run as fast as you can. You just hope you can make it to the clown tent before he catches you. Somehow despite Ajax being in better shape than you in every way, you are surprisingly faster than him, maybe its from all that protein from the pig uteruses you’ve had to consume over the years…or perhaps its just fear. Either way it gets the job done. You arrive at the clown tent stopping right at the entrance with Ajax not far behind; you see the glinting eyes and hellish grins peering from the unnatural darkness within it. The slurping and hideous laughter makes you REALLY hesitant to actually enter. In your current situation you feel like you’re bordering on the edge of madness with fury seeking to drive you into it. And that’s exactly what happens, while you’re stopped at the edge of the clown tent. Ajax tackles you hard, where upon the both of you roll into the clown tent. Its pitch dark in here and you don’t know how that’s even possible, but it is. You feel Ajax’s heavy body suddenly be lifted off of you along with several bottle sounds breaking. You can feel several glass particles fall down onto you. “AGH FUCK MY HEAD! GODDAMN CLOWN FUCKERS!” Ajax yells. You begin the crawl on the floor to get to the outside of the tent, but you’re not sure where the hell the entrance is anymore, the clowns have closed the flap. Apparently they have no intention on letting either of you escape. The only thing working to your advantage is they’re having a hard time subduing Ajax. It’s all very frightening to you though when you begin to hear Ajax scream in a high pitched falsetto voice, you never thought you’d ever hear something like that. The other sounds you hear from the clowns you don’t even want to think about. You keep crawling in the darkness hoping to reach the edge of the tent. It seems like forever, but eventually you feel the canvas, you then grab at the bottom and pull up; a beam of daylight enters. “STOP THAT GEEK!” you hear one of the clowns yell causing you to scramble out of the tent as fast as possible. You feel a hand grab your foot and attempt to pull you back in. You kick several times with your other foot and once again luck shines down and the clown releases you long enough for you to escape. You run back to Madam Orbec’s tent, who glances up at you from her crystal ball. “Ah, you’ve returned and from what the spirits have told me, you were successful…good. I will speak to Randal about siding with the Ring Master when the time comes. You may leave.” You’re still a little bewildered by her attitude, but you’re not going to press the issue, you got what you wanted. Time to report back to the Ring Master. You tell the Ring Master that he’ll have her allies when the time comes when you go back to his trailer though. (After getting Atlas’ permission to enter of course) The Ring Master seems confident in you and tells you to get ready for show time. You spend your remaining time a little on edge, wondering if everything is going to work out. You really wish the Ring Master hadn’t put all this pressure on you. Then show time arrives, everything goes pretty much the same except Charley looks a bit distracted the whole time as Ajax is nowhere to be seen. Pervus and his clowns seem to keep waving at you and making obscene gestures whenever they can. > You but the real show begins afterwards A dark moonlit night. Charley confronts the Ring Master with his army of midgets behind him. The Ring Master has Atlas, and his usual allies, the Freaks are hanging in the darkness ready to strike if necessary. Most of the Normals though are nowhere to be seen. You hope Madam Orbec did her job, because even without Ajax, Charley still has a numerical superiority and a pissed off midget can do a lot of damage. “Your time has come Ring Master! No longer will you exploit us! I’m taking over!” “So you can exploit your own people of course. Charley, I’ve put up with your delusions of grandeur long enough, it ends tonight. I have allies of my own, and you might find they are much more dedicated to me than yours are.” “It won’t work Ringy, I got more in common with my people than you ever will! Blood is thicker, and yours is going to run everywhere if you don’t peaceably leave…I’m giving you this one chance you pale she-male.” “Not likely.” At this point all of the freaks come out of hiding, and then Randal and most of the Normals appear as well. Pervus also shows up with his clown crew, and that’s when you see Ajax, or what’s left of him. He’s dressed in a weird leather getup and has a chain around his neck which one of the clowns is holding. There’s also a black leather mask covering his face now and some sort of ball gag…he looks completely docile and broken. Suddenly Charley seems to get a little less hostile, the rest of the midgets also look less than willing to fight now, though he’s still not backing down completely. “…so that’s what happened to Ajax…(Sigh)…alright Ringy you win. I can see I can’t beat you…I’ll leave. BUT! I’m taking my people with me!” “No you won’t, they work for me.” “The fuck I can’t! They’re still fuckin’ free people! You don’t fuckin’ OWN them Ringy! They ain’t your slaves!” “Oh and I suppose they’re YOUR slaves eh?” “Fuck it, let’s settle this.” Charley turns around to his fellow midgets. “Hey, do you want to work for me and make some serious money doing something a lot less menial? Or do ya wanna work for this hypocritical slave driving bitch bastard who claims everyone is free to do what they want and has his protection, but in reality she doesn’t do shit for anyone but herself and just expects everyone to obey him?” The midgets talk to each other for a moment and then reply with a uniformed answer that they want to stay with Charley. The Ring Master actually looks surprised, she even gets mad claiming all of what he’d done for them, but it doesn’t work. Charley was right they have more in common with him than they do the Ring Master. Charley leaves with his midget gang. The Ring Master looks like he’s going to order an attack, but decides against it. Instead he just assigns some Normals to do the job of the midgets and orders the rest to seek out new recruits in the next town. Everyone disperses leaving just the Ring Master, Atlas and you alone. The Ring Master for once looks a bit despondent. Not knowing what else to do, you attempt to lighten the situation. “Well you won, I’m just glad I didn’t mess things up for you.” “Yes, for now, but there will only be problems in the future. What happened to tonight was just a temporary patch for the situation…I suppose you did your best within your capabilities Geek. No more could be expected of you. The Carnival will survive, just like it always has though…return to your cell, we have a big show to do tomorrow and significantly less help.” And you do exactly that and continue on as usual Time passes and while nothing really changes for you, things do change… Without the midgets around to do most of the manual labor of setting things up, some of the less talented Normals like game barkers and such have to double as laborers. This causes some bad feelings initially until the Ring Master orders the Freaks to start helping as well. The Freaks seem to dislike the fact that the Ring Master isn’t “favoring” them as much anymore, but she’s just trying to keep things fair so his Carnival stays together. The criminal activity goes down quite a bit. (Though someone’s always still making hooch so happily you still have a steady supply of booze to grab) With Ajax out of the way Sasha grows closer to Randal who returns these feelings. This new relationship makes him a little less “uptight” and more willing to take chances and less likely to go running to Madam Orbec before he does anything. His “threats” of taking over start becoming more likely. Another rift in the Carnival is expected to occur and finally does, starting with the fiery death of Pervus and his clowns. Since the Ring Master was always looking for more help, Pervus and his clown crew took it upon themselves to start “recruiting” unsuspecting townies and rubes to come work for the Carnival, this causes them to start engaging in debauchery on a bigger scale than before, to an extent that they become a liability and more obvious. Randal, still having a great sense of ethics and morality could not stand by and let it go on any longer. He and several other Normals set fire to the entire tent in the middle of the night killing them all. (And putting the “Gimpjax” out of his misery.) The Ring Master was furious that Randal would take such a liberty. Another battle comes close to occurring, but fortunately for the Ring Master,(Who would’ve been greatly outnumbered) Randal doesn’t want to fight over the Carnival, instead he convinces his followers to leave while they started their OWN Carnival. One that was more family friendly and without Freaks all over the place. He leaves with Sasha and most of the other Normals in tow. The Carnival becomes much smaller and is little more than a traveling Freak show as they are practically the only ones still left. The Ring Master doesn’t seem to mind though, as he said, the Carnival would survive, maybe not in the same way, but its still around. And you still remain the GEEK.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>“Agh! Alright, alright! Stop poking me…what day is it?” “Never mind all that geek! Get going you know how the Ring Master doesn’t like being kept waiting! Phew! You smell even more disgusting than usual! I guess that’s one way to keep Ajax from killing you, he’d probably vomit his guts out before he could lay a hand on you…then you could lick it up for the rubes! Ha ha! Move it Geek!” Charley prods you with a sharp stick periodically on your way to the Ring Master’s trailer until you arrive at which point, Atlas stops the both of you. “Stop! What business do the both of you have here?” “Goddamnit you fuckin’ one eyed freak! We go through this all the fucking time and its getting REALLY old! You just saw me come out of the Ring Master’s trailer earlier today when he sent me to get the Geek, you know damn well what we’re both doing here!” Ignoring Charley’s comments Atlas looks down at you and points. “You may enter, but the Ring Master doesn’t need to see you again, so you may not.” “Yeah, whatever enjoy the smell.” Charley says and mumbles something to himself while leaving the area. You barely make it up the little steps to the trailer, but you do. You’re finally starting to gather your wits together; your head still hurts though and you’ve just realize you haven’t had a drink yet. What a terrible feeling. You open the door. “Close the door, you’re letting all the sunlight in.” the Ring Master orders from behind his desk. She’s siting in his chair, but has her back turned to you. “Uh you wanted to see me?” “Of course…(Sniff sniff) you really haven’t been taking care of yourself. If anything you’ve become even more repulsive than when I first took you in. Remember that day?” “Um, yeah I think…no, no I don’t. I mean kind of… I forget things.” “I’m not surprised; you’re constantly drinking that swill Charley makes. I am surprised you haven’t gone blind yet though. Oh well what you insist on doing to yourself is of little concern to me, all I require is your obedience. You are thankful for all I have provided for you aren’t you?” “Oh yeah. Sure I am.” “You seem to be one of the few nowadays then. There are some though that are ungrateful for things I’ve done for them, they plan to betray me and everything this carnival stands for. They plan to change the natural order of things. Can you imagine what might happen to this carnival if I wasn’t here? What might happen to you?” You attempt to think about this scenario, but instead you just stand there because you can’t really form anything in your mind because it hurts really bad, you’ve been sober too damn long, and it’s about to get even longer as the Ring Master seems intent on bombarding you with talk as he finally swivels around in her chair. That pale androgynous face of the Ring Master’s is displaying a look of seriousness as usual. “Nothing good I can assure you. Which is why I’m putting YOU in charge of this task.” “Huh? What task?” “Why ensuring the survival of the carnival of course.” ”What!? Me?! Why? How!? I’m not qualified! Can’t you or Charley do it?” “I fear I’ve done all I’ve can. I mean I’ve provided all of THIS to everyone here. I’ve given them purpose and a life. If that isn’t enough for them, then my words aren’t going to make a difference at this point. And as for Charley, well…I’m sure even in your usual state of drunkenness you’re aware that he has his own plans for this carnival.” “I guess…but agh, it’s too early for all this…why me? I mean what am I supposed to do? I’m just the Geek.” “Yes, and that’s exactly why I’m choosing you. You have no motive, you have no agenda, you have no friends, and as such you would probably be the best candidate to convince others to resist change and keep the status quo.” “You have to be joking! Nobody’s going to listen to me! I’m the fucking Geek!” “You might be surprised, you have far more potential than you give yourself credit for…perhaps you’ll even change some perspectives, or maybe not. The choice is yours, because the fate of THIS carnival is resting solely on your actions, you can no longer afford to hide from the world in a bottle and a cage if you wish to keep your current life. It is time for you to take some responsibility, its time to repay the debt you owe me. You have until show time.” “But…” “Now leave me, I wish to be alone.” The Ring Master swivels his chair back to its original position. You head back outside, where upon Atlas blocks it again with his massive body. Never before in your life have you been put in this kind of position of responsibility, (Not that you can remember anyway) but you’re going to have to do something, the question is what exactly? > You get a drink If you’re going to do anything you have to get a drink first, you head over to Charley’s still, you can only hope Ajax isn’t there. “What the fuck is that smell? Oh it’s the fucking lame ass Geek, why am I not surprised?” Ajax shouts when he sees you coming. Well so much for hope. Normally you’d run, but Charley’s also there and will keep Ajax from killing you (Maybe not beating you though) plus your reliance on alcohol in any form drives you on even in the presence of possible danger. “Lemme guess Geek, you want a drink?” Charley asks. “Ah good ol’ predictable Geek. Here you go.” Charley pours you some of the swill that you consider the Nectar of the Gods and drink it greedily. He pours you another when you finish it. Charley’s being unusually cool with you. “Can’t get enough eh? Here’s another…so what’d the Ring Master want to see you for?” “Huh?” “I said what the fuck did the Ring Master want to see you for? Surely it wasn’t about your act, you eat disgusting shit and that’s the end of it. So what did you talk about?” Charley’s demeanor has changed severely. He’s looking at you intently to determine if you’re going to lie to him. You’re thrown off guard and can only stutter a response. “Um, nothing much, he, um…I mean she…uh…” “WRONG ANSWER GEEK!” Charley yells, punching you in the nuts and at his height, he lands a good hit. You collapse like a rag doll, and then Ajax puts his foot on your neck while you hold your scrotum in pain. Charley continues his interrogation this time with his sharp stick pointed near your eye. “Now you’re gonna tell me what you and that pale she male freak talked about or you’ll have something in common with Atlas! Talk!” “(Groan) Alright! Okay! The Ring Master thinks change in this carnival is coming and he wants me to convince people that they should be on his side when the shit goes down!” Charley smirks and looks at Ajax. “You hear that Ajax? Some SHIT is supposed to go down! This is the first I’ve heard of any shit going down! You know about any shit going down Ajax?” “Nope. First I’ve heard of it. The only shit that goes down around here that is what this fucking Geek eats!” “Got that right…but just in case there WAS some SHIT going down, I’d say it would be in someone’s best interest to not be on the Ring Master’s side and be doing his bidding…after all they might find themselves getting hurt very badly.” “Charley you don’t have to worry about me! Nobody’s going to listen to me, I’m just a Geek!” “Of course I’m not worried about you! However…if the Ring Master asked YOU to do this, there must be a reason that I’m not readily seeing…I know! You’re working for me now!” “What?!” Ajax asks. “What?!” you repeat. “Yeah, all the shit the Ring Master told you to do; you’re doing for me now. Trust me you’ll be better off when I’m in charge. You can have all the booze you want, a bigger cell, hell I’ll even get you LAID! I know a couple of ladies who’ll debase themselves almost as much as you will!” Charley then gets in your face and whispers “And you won’t have to worry about Ajax ever hitting you again with me in charge I promise. But if you betray me, I’ll make sure Ajax breaks every bone in your goddamn body and then tosses you to Pervus and his fucked up clown army where they can skull fuck your corpse. Are we clear?” “Yeah, yeah, sure!” you quickly say. “Good. Ajax let him up.” You get up and Charley addresses you before you leave. “Remember, you have until show time Geek, and don’t even think about trying to run away, because I’ll find you and you know what happens then.” You stagger away with your new mission, you have no idea of how to go about this, so you just think about who might need convincing. God you could use another drink… > You go convince the Freaks Well, if you can get the freaks to side with Charley, everyone else should be pretty easy of course HOW you’re going to do that is another story. The Freak community is pretty loyal to the Ring Master and given your lowly status, you don’t know if they’re even going to listen to you. You approach the freak side of the Carnival. The instant you enter their camp, you’re watched and studied by many eyes (And some of those many eyes belong to the same freak), but at least nobody throws anything at your head. You don’t get far before Jasmine the Bearded Lady stops you. “Hey Geek! What’re you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be doing something for the Ring Master?” “Huh? How do you know about that?” “Because we’re his supporters obviously Geek! What he knows we know and she knows all!” Obviously he doesn’t know all; otherwise the freaks would know you’re working for Charley now. “Anyway, you don’t need to come here to convince us to ally with the Ring Master, our loyalty to him is well known. Though I must admit I wonder why she chose you for this task, but I guess he has her reasons. I suggest you leave now, there’s nothing else for you here Geek.” > You tell her the Freaks should change their allegiance “Um, Jasmine maybe you should reconsider.” “Reconsider what?” “Well maybe siding with the Ring Master isn’t the best thing for you guys.” Those words suddenly causes all the freaks that were previously spying on you from their trailers, tents, and holes to come out and surround you. There’s no way to escape. Jasmine’s eyes narrow while she strokes her beard. “Oh? And who would YOU suggest we side with?” “Well Charley makes this place really profitable and you know you’d have protection, even more than if the Ring Master kept running things.” “CHARLEY? That little obnoxious creep? He’s a fucking low life and with more power he’d be a fucking dictator! There wouldn’t be the freedom that the Ring Master gives us!” “How do you know? I mean he’s a midget, that’s almost like being a freak, he might understand your struggle. I mean I do and…” Suddenly you feel a crushing blow to the back of your head as Roger the Crustacean hits you with one of his claws. You then feel the stomping of various feet, hooves, talons and “other” on your body. You begin coughing up blood as your head is repeatedly kicked into the dirt. Jasmine then address you again while pulling your bloody head up. “You feel that? Hundreds of feet continuing to step on you as you struggle to rise up. THAT’S our struggle everyday. And now you know it. Hope you liked being one of us Geek.” Jasmine then lands a crunching blow your nose, pushing the bone up into your brain, killing you and ending your misery.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Well, if you can get the freaks to side with Charley, everyone else should be pretty easy of course HOW you’re going to do that is another story. The Freak community is pretty loyal to the Ring Master and given your lowly status, you don’t know if they’re even going to listen to you. You approach the freak side of the Carnival. The instant you enter their camp, you’re watched and studied by many eyes (And some of those many eyes belong to the same freak), but at least nobody throws anything at your head. You don’t get far before Jasmine the Bearded Lady stops you. “Hey Geek! What’re you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be doing something for the Ring Master?” “Huh? How do you know about that?” “Because we’re his supporters obviously Geek! What he knows we know and she knows all!” Obviously he doesn’t know all; otherwise the freaks would know you’re working for Charley now. “Anyway, you don’t need to come here to convince us to ally with the Ring Master, our loyalty to him is well known. Though I must admit I wonder why she chose you for this task, but I guess he has her reasons. I suggest you leave now, there’s nothing else for you here Geek.” > You leave Mentioning anything against the Ring Master would be a death sentence at this point, so you keep your mouth shut and leave. As you leave the freaks, you notice a group of Pinheads congregating behind one of the trailers, when they see you they suddenly become quiet and stare at you with vacant smiles on their distorted faces. > You approach them The Pinheads are behaving very oddly, normally they’re gibbering or playing, they’re hardly ever this quiet. You approach them. “Hey, what’s going on?” you ask. They look up at you still vacantly smiling at you. > You talk some more “So, are you guys getting ready for your act tonight?” The Pinheads look at each other and then look at you and continue to smile vacantly. > You talk even more For some reason the Pinhead’s silence makes you feel welcome, normally everyone drives you off, you decide to talk more. “Yeah I got a new act, I bite the head off of a cat, vomit it back up and then eat it again with rotten chicken livers.” The Pinheads cease smiling, and begin to look utterly bored. > You continue to talk to them “Yeah, I remember one time I ate a dog bladder, kind of a bitter taste.” The Pinheads are now starting to get annoyed with you as you insist on telling them your “interesting” list of past dinners. You might want to stop. While the Pinheads aren’t normally abusive to you, you don’t exactly have a nice history with them and they have been known to get mean when something displeases them, much like young children do. > You keep pushing it “So one time…” “Geek will you shut the fuck up? Shit, I can smell your rotten breath from here!” one of the Pinheads shouts, you’re absolutely stunned. “You…you can talk?!” The lead Pinhead gives a dirty look to the one who shouted at you, and then looks back. “Yeah we can talk, and now YOU know we can thanks to big mouth over here! Thanks a lot Frank!” “Well he was getting on my nerves George!” “But…if you can talk, why do you act like idiots?” “Why do you eat all that nasty shit? For the money of course or in your case for the booze. You think we’d make as much if we didn’t act like little retarded children? We’re fucking ugly just like any freak, but by acting like simple minded children we come across as charming and harmless…cute even. Which makes us rube favorites. Nobody knows the truth, not even the other freaks, nobody except you…I guess we’ll have to kill you.” “Hold on wait wait! Can’t we come to an agreement here? I mean I’m not going to tell anyone! And even if I did, who’d believe me?” “Can’t take that chance.” You suddenly crumple to the ground and beg pathetically for your life at the feet of the George. He gives you a disdainful squinted expression. “Get off my feet Geek! Sheesh, you’re pathetic! We probably wouldn’t have killed you, maybe just cut out your tongue.” “So you’ll let me live?” “Yeah, but you’re still not getting off that easy. You gotta do something for us to make us trust you.” “What?” “Go to the clown tent and destroy all their sex toys.” “WHAT?!” “Shhhh! Stop fucking drawing attention!” “You want me to go to the clown tent? But nobody in their right mind goes in there!” “Duh, that’s why we’re sending you.” “Why do you want me to do this?” “Because those pedophile ass clowns are direct competition, they always draw all the children away from our act, and we’d like to get back at them in some way. It’ll really piss off Pervus when he sees his cock ring in pieces heh heh heh.” “I don’t wanna touch those things! Who knows where they’ve been!” “You’re kidding me right? This coming from the guy who eats cow ass for his grand finale. Look they’re mostly all in a big wooden box anyway so just set fire to the box or something. It’s not like you have a choice in this matter.” “I dunno, I think death might be preferable to getting caught by the clowns.” “(Sigh) Alright, I know you’re working for Charley you wanted to convince the Freaks to side with him in this ensuing struggle coming up…don’t ask us how we know, we just do. And it’s mainly because since much like you we hear a lot more because we’re considers idiots and non-threatening. If you do this, we’ll convince the Freaks to side with Charley, again don’t ask us how…we have our ways…do we have a deal now?” Knowing this is probably your best shot and if the Pinheads don’t kill you, Charley certainly will for your failure to get people to side with him, so you agree. “Good, return when you’ve completed the job, we’ll be playing around in this area until show time.” You leave the Pinheads who resume their pretend act of being morons while you resume your completely real act of being a moron for getting yourself into this mess. You don’t know how you’re going to do this. As you approach the tent, you notice how quiet it is. Normally loud insane rowdy laughter can be heard from within, but it’s silent which almost makes it scarier. You wonder if you shouldn’t just set the WHOLE tent on fire. In some ways you’d be doing the world a favor. You do wonder about how the Ring Master can just let such evil go unchecked. > You set the whole tent on fire You make up your mind and decide to save yourself some risk and set the whole tent on fire. You head back the Charley’s still, which luckily is unattended right now. You steal three bottles of his stuff and his Zippo lighter that he foolishly left near the volatile concoction. Before you leave you take another drink to calm your nerves. You return to the clown tent and start dowsing it with Charley’s booze trying not to be noticed and hopping no clown suddenly comes out of the tent. You continue to do this until you encircle the entire tent and run out of booze. You light it up… The entire tent goes up like tinder box, you didn’t expect it to go up so fast, and you’re a little singed yourself, as you fall backwards. You scramble away as other Carneys notice what’s happened and start calling for water. The clowns soon come running out screaming horribly while burning alive. Their faces literally melting off with all the makeup they were wearing. You are about to go see the Pinheads, but the carnival is in too much chaos, as your act of arson has had an unintended side effect. The burning clowns end up running hither, thither and yon, setting everything else on fire as well in their torment. Soon the entire Carnival is up in flames and its every man, woman, and freak for itself. Having no other options, you keep running until you reach the nearest town. You spend a couple days just bumming around the town and sleeping in the park until one night… “Hello, Geek.” You hear melodic voice say. Before you can reply a huge foot steps on your throat. It’s Atlas and the Ring Master. “It wasn’t enough that you attempted to betray me, but you had to destroy my beloved Carnival. The Carnival that brought so much joy to others and gave jobs to the outcasts. Outcasts like you…well do you have anything to say?” Atlas relaxes his foot on your throat for just a bit for you to answer. “It…it…was an accident…” “Hmm, an accident. Yes I made an accident too, time to correct it. Atlas.” “N…” Before you can get out the “o” Atlas brings his massive foot down on your throat utterly destroying your windpipe, your larynx, and your life.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>“So one time…” “Geek will you shut the fuck up? Shit, I can smell your rotten breath from here!” one of the Pinheads shouts, you’re absolutely stunned. “You…you can talk?!” The lead Pinhead gives a dirty look to the one who shouted at you, and then looks back. “Yeah we can talk, and now YOU know we can thanks to big mouth over here! Thanks a lot Frank!” “Well he was getting on my nerves George!” “But…if you can talk, why do you act like idiots?” “Why do you eat all that nasty shit? For the money of course or in your case for the booze. You think we’d make as much if we didn’t act like little retarded children? We’re fucking ugly just like any freak, but by acting like simple minded children we come across as charming and harmless…cute even. Which makes us rube favorites. Nobody knows the truth, not even the other freaks, nobody except you…I guess we’ll have to kill you.” “Hold on wait wait! Can’t we come to an agreement here? I mean I’m not going to tell anyone! And even if I did, who’d believe me?” “Can’t take that chance.” You suddenly crumple to the ground and beg pathetically for your life at the feet of the George. He gives you a disdainful squinted expression. “Get off my feet Geek! Sheesh, you’re pathetic! We probably wouldn’t have killed you, maybe just cut out your tongue.” “So you’ll let me live?” “Yeah, but you’re still not getting off that easy. You gotta do something for us to make us trust you.” “What?” “Go to the clown tent and destroy all their sex toys.” “WHAT?!” “Shhhh! Stop fucking drawing attention!” “You want me to go to the clown tent? But nobody in their right mind goes in there!” “Duh, that’s why we’re sending you.” “Why do you want me to do this?” “Because those pedophile ass clowns are direct competition, they always draw all the children away from our act, and we’d like to get back at them in some way. It’ll really piss off Pervus when he sees his cock ring in pieces heh heh heh.” “I don’t wanna touch those things! Who knows where they’ve been!” “You’re kidding me right? This coming from the guy who eats cow ass for his grand finale. Look they’re mostly all in a big wooden box anyway so just set fire to the box or something. It’s not like you have a choice in this matter.” “I dunno, I think death might be preferable to getting caught by the clowns.” “(Sigh) Alright, I know you’re working for Charley you wanted to convince the Freaks to side with him in this ensuing struggle coming up…don’t ask us how we know, we just do. And it’s mainly because since much like you we hear a lot more because we’re considers idiots and non-threatening. If you do this, we’ll convince the Freaks to side with Charley, again don’t ask us how…we have our ways…do we have a deal now?” Knowing this is probably your best shot and if the Pinheads don’t kill you, Charley certainly will for your failure to get people to side with him, so you agree. “Good, return when you’ve completed the job, we’ll be playing around in this area until show time.” You leave the Pinheads who resume their pretend act of being morons while you resume your completely real act of being a moron for getting yourself into this mess. You don’t know how you’re going to do this. As you approach the tent, you notice how quiet it is. Normally loud insane rowdy laughter can be heard from within, but it’s silent which almost makes it scarier. You wonder if you shouldn’t just set the WHOLE tent on fire. In some ways you’d be doing the world a favor. You do wonder about how the Ring Master can just let such evil go unchecked. > You enter the tent You cautiously enter the tent, fearing for your ass (Literally). As it turns out, all the clowns are all passed out from the night before. Looks like it was necrophilia this time, judging from the rotting corpses lying on the floor. In fact if you weren’t so rank yourself, the smell might actually bother you. Pervus doesn’t seem to be here though. Liquor bottles are everywhere; in fact you could probably grab one and dowse the box (Which is open and crammed full of whips, shackles and “insertion objects”) then take one of the Zippos lying on a table and light the box up easy. This is going to be simpler than you… Suddenly you feel a hand grab around your foot. “Hmm, yeah come here baby…” Before you can do anything one of the clowns has curled his face up next to your foot and began sucking your BIG TOE. This is REALLY disgusting, even for you. The only good thing is the clown seems to still be somewhat asleep. > You remove your foot and get out of there As you attempt to remove your foot the clown’s grip tightens, and then he wakes up completely. “What the…Hey fellas! Look what we got here! It’s the Geek! Let’s fuck the shit out of his ass and make him our permanent fuck toy!” The clowns suddenly all get up from their drunken slumber and surround you, there is no escape. The horrors that are unleashed upon you that day are best left unmentioned, but you never leave that tent ever again. You are no longer known as a Geek anymore, you are something much worse… You are now the GIMP.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You cautiously enter the tent, fearing for your ass (Literally). As it turns out, all the clowns are all passed out from the night before. Looks like it was necrophilia this time, judging from the rotting corpses lying on the floor. In fact if you weren’t so rank yourself, the smell might actually bother you. Pervus doesn’t seem to be here though. Liquor bottles are everywhere; in fact you could probably grab one and dowse the box (Which is open and crammed full of whips, shackles and “insertion objects”) then take one of the Zippos lying on a table and light the box up easy. This is going to be simpler than you… Suddenly you feel a hand grab around your foot. “Hmm, yeah come here baby…” Before you can do anything one of the clowns has curled his face up next to your foot and began sucking your BIG TOE. This is REALLY disgusting, even for you. The only good thing is the clown seems to still be somewhat asleep. > You let him suck your toe You don’t want to risk waking him, so you just let him finish...the sucking and slurping sound is unnerving. “Hmmm, yeah, your clit tastes so good…mmm.” You shutter to think what clits he’s been sucking and licking if he thinks YOUR toe is one and that it tastes good! Soon he seems to stop and mumbles something about being sorry for pissing the bed again. You safely move your foot away. Not wishing to have anything else of yours molested, you grab a bottle dowse the box, and then set it on fire with one of the lighters here and get out as fast you can. You can hear some of the clowns cursing and yelling from the tent in the distance. When you get back to the Pinheads they’re playing with a ball and laughing. Upon seeing you, George nods in your direction, as its safe to talk with nobody around. “I did it.” “Yes, I know, I had Frank follow you. Good job.” “So about your side of the deal…” “Yes, don’t worry, we’ll honor it. Charley’s a good business man, he’ll make this place even more money…which means more money for us too, we don’t mind if he takes charge. You can go report to your new master the good news, but don’t you fucking DARE say shit about our true nature to anyone, EVER.” You agree and leave, you tell Charley the news before show time who chuckles heartily and tells you to be ready after the show because the revolution is coming after the rubes leave. Not wishing to run into the Ring Master before hand you hang around Charley’s still which isn’t too pleasant since you have to endure Ajax’s abuse while Charley goes off to make his preparations. Then show time arrives, everything goes pretty much the same except the Ring Master looks a little distracted the entire time and the clowns seem to be off their game tonight. The Pinheads take the opportunity to show them up in from of everyone. > You but the real show begins afterwards A dark moonlit night. Charley confronts the Ring Master with his army of midgets behind him as well as Ajax. The Ring Master has Atlas, and looks around for his usual allies, the Freaks, but they’re nowhere around. The Normals seem to be staying out of the fight for the most part, but chances are some of them will take one side or the other. “Your time has come Ring Master! No longer will you exploit us! I’m taking over!” “And you all feel this way? You’d rather follow this criminal who’ll be corrupt? You really think he’s doing this out of some noble moral code? Obviously you must be blind if you don’t see that rule by this degenerate will be worse than anything you THINK I’m doing…but I leave it up to you…” “It won’t work Ringy, I got more in common with my people than you do! Blood is thicker, and yours is going to run everywhere if you don’t peaceably leave…I’m giving you this one chance you pale she-male.” “Not likely, I have my own friends as you know.” The Ring Master whistles and you arrive with all the Freaks behind you. He looks surprised to see you. “Geek?” “Sorry, Ring Master, but we made a better deal.” You say and the Freaks advance. “NO! Atlas, it’s just me and you now!” The battle ensues, though it’s not really a battle. A few of the normals side with the Ring Master, but sensing Charley’s got the winning hand most of them either just stay out of it or directly side with him. The only thing that makes the battle last longer is the fact that Pervus and his clowns side with the Ring Master as they still were mad about the Pinheads embarrassing them at show time. Atlas and Ajax lock horns, and while Atlas kills Ajax in the struggle, he is easily taken down by the midgets afterwards. Pervus and the clowns do some damage, but likewise they too are taken down. On the side lines watching, the bloodshed is too much for Randal and he leaves during the battle which has forever destroying his love of the carnival. Sasha leaves with him seeing that Ajax is no longer alive to hold power over her. Finally in the last moments Charley laughs as he stands over the Ring Master’s body which is now lifeless with Charley’s sharp stick through its heart. Meanwhile you were hiding during all this, but Charley calls you out. “Hey Geek! Come out you fuckin’ coward! We won! Come out, you ain’t gotta worry about Ajax anymore his goddamn neck is twisted all the way around, damn shame.” “…I’m here Charley.” “Good, unzip the Ring Master’s pants.” “What?” “Unzip the Ring Master’s pants, I wanna see what the hell he or she was packing. I had a bet going with Ajax and while I’m just gonna take everything from his trailer anyway, I still wanna see if I would’ve won fairly.” You’re a little hesitant, but your crouch over the body and start unzipping the Ring Master’s pants. A crowd begins to form around you. Normal, Midget and Freak alike. “Come on come Geek, we ain’t got all fuckin’ night.” Charley says while kicking you in the ribs. You pull down the underwear… “EEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWW!” the crowd shouts in unison. “Holy shit!” you say falling back. “Ha ha, I knew it!” Charley chuckles before continuing. “Alright you lot, I want all these bodies cleaned up and disposed of before we head out to the next town, and Salina I want YOU in my new trailer to help me celebrate this glorious victory!” And so begins the reign of Charley the Ringmaster. Under his guidance midgets run everything and the Carnival doesn’t so much resemble a Carnival as it resembles a mobile grifting ring. While regular carnival activities still abound, they’re more of a cover than anything. In time, most of the high maintenance acts are done away with and eventually only thing that stays completely the same is the freak show, just to upkeep the front for what’s really going on. The Pinheads get their own special attraction since they take up the clown vacancy. You do somewhat better under the new management. You still do your act as it’s still a big draw; you get lumped in with the Freak Show. You don’t need to put up with Ajax’s abuse anymore so fearing for your life isn’t a factor. (Though the Pinheads still verbally warn you every now and then to ensure your secrecy) Charley uses you as a gopher, so you’re actually making money now (If little). He still kicks you around for his amusement, and is prone to dump a bucket of piss in your face to wake you up, but it’s better than what a Geek like you could’ve hoped for.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>“Yeah, I remember one time I ate a dog bladder, kind of a bitter taste.” The Pinheads are now starting to get annoyed with you as you insist on telling them your “interesting” list of past dinners. You might want to stop. While the Pinheads aren’t normally abusive to you, you don’t exactly have a nice history with them and they have been known to get mean when something displeases them, much like young children do. > You go talk to the Normals Since the Freaks are firmly behind the Ring Master, you might as well talk to the Normals, the problem is you have to talk to someone with some pull with most of them, and Remarkable Randal is the only one who has that in any great capacity and getting him to side with Charley is out of the question. At least directly. It’s possible you could talk with Madam Orbec and get her to convince Randal to change his stance since he follows anything she says; also she’s less likely to throw something at your head when she sees you approach. You head towards Madam Orbec’s tent, which has an air of creepiness surrounding it. You enter the tent and immediately get your usual welcome. “Geek! Begone from this place! Do not assault the spirits with your foulness!” Madam Orbec commands. “They’re dead; I don’t really see how my smell can affect them.” “It’s not your odor that offends the spirits, it’s your aura! We do not want you in our presence! Away with you, we have no wish to be involved in your underhanded dealings!” “How do you know what I’m here for?” “Fool! I am Madam Orbec! I see all that the spirits see! You’re working with that miscreant Charley in an attempt to take over the Carnival and you’re hoping to influence me so that I may in turn influence Randal to convince the normals to side with him.” “Well since you know…Madam?” Madam Orbec begins to clutch her head and writhe on the floor talking to herself. “Yes. But no! Maybe? Perhaps. If he can pull it off. Is he capable? I doubt it. We must try. Whatever, just get him out of here!” Madam Orbec suddenly stops and slowly sits up. “You need to expose those of the small craniums.” “What?” “The Pinheads. You need to show their true nature to the public.” “True nature? What’re you talking about? Why” “That is all the spirits have told me, their reasons are not to be questioned, but I have been advised to help you in your treacherous endeavor if you accomplish this objective. Now leave and do not return unless you are successful.” At this point Madam Orbec seems to go into a cationic trance. You take your opportunity to leave and ponder what the hell her cryptic ramblings were about. All you know for certain is that you have to do something to the Pinheads. Expose their true nature, though you can’t imagine what that could be. You could try spying on them and see what you can find out, or maybe a more direct approach would work. > You spy on them You head towards the Freak side of the carnival and try to find the Pinheads, when you see them you notice they’re all congregated together in a relatively secluded area. Almost as if they’re in a meeting. How odd. They haven’t seen you yet, so you take the opportunity to get closer by sneaking around behind them and hiding behind a barrel. You prop your back up against it, close your eyes and pretend to be passed out, just in case someone passes by, wondering what you’re doing. You then attempt to listen and you can’t believe what you’re hearing… “So George did you hear what’s going on in Germany?” “Yeah, it wouldn’t surprise me if we had to go to war with them…AGAIN.” “Well maybe a war would be good for the economy.” “Maybe, I doubt if it could get any worse.” “Yeah, but if we go to war that means less people coming to this Carnival, and that’s not good for our income.” “Oh I don’t know about that. History has shown that in hard times, people are actually more inclined to want to escape reality and that’s what this Carnival is all about; escaping reality.” The Pinheads are discussing world matters! All this time they’ve been acting like idiot children and they’re actually intelligent! You get enthralled by more of their conversation. They begin discussing literature, science, philosophy and other topics that are far above your comprehension or even a normal person’s comprehension. Unfortunately since you’re not actually watching them and just listening, you don’t see what some of them do. The Pinheads realize you’ve been spying on them mainly due to your powerful smell which is unmistakable at this range. A couple of them did a bit of sneaking around on their own while the others continued the conversation to keep you put until they got into position. “Psst! Hey Geek, over here!” You open your eyes just in time to see a baseball smash into your face, breaking your nose. You curl in a fetal position while holding your nose and resisting the urge to yell. You pretend you’re still drunk, hoping you can throw them off suspicion. It doesn’t work though. The Pinheads have been fooling everyone for so long they’re experts in seeing through a fake act as pathetic as yours and even if they couldn’t they still wouldn’t want to take the chance of you blabbing. “Shoulda stayed in your cell today Geek.” are the last words you hear as a crowd of angry little squinty faces stare down at you, before they beat you to death and then dump your body in the clown tent. You really don’t want to know what happens after that.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Since the Freaks are firmly behind the Ring Master, you might as well talk to the Normals, the problem is you have to talk to someone with some pull with most of them, and Remarkable Randal is the only one who has that in any great capacity and getting him to side with Charley is out of the question. At least directly. It’s possible you could talk with Madam Orbec and get her to convince Randal to change his stance since he follows anything she says; also she’s less likely to throw something at your head when she sees you approach. You head towards Madam Orbec’s tent, which has an air of creepiness surrounding it. You enter the tent and immediately get your usual welcome. “Geek! Begone from this place! Do not assault the spirits with your foulness!” Madam Orbec commands. “They’re dead; I don’t really see how my smell can affect them.” “It’s not your odor that offends the spirits, it’s your aura! We do not want you in our presence! Away with you, we have no wish to be involved in your underhanded dealings!” “How do you know what I’m here for?” “Fool! I am Madam Orbec! I see all that the spirits see! You’re working with that miscreant Charley in an attempt to take over the Carnival and you’re hoping to influence me so that I may in turn influence Randal to convince the normals to side with him.” “Well since you know…Madam?” Madam Orbec begins to clutch her head and writhe on the floor talking to herself. “Yes. But no! Maybe? Perhaps. If he can pull it off. Is he capable? I doubt it. We must try. Whatever, just get him out of here!” Madam Orbec suddenly stops and slowly sits up. “You need to expose those of the small craniums.” “What?” “The Pinheads. You need to show their true nature to the public.” “True nature? What’re you talking about? Why” “That is all the spirits have told me, their reasons are not to be questioned, but I have been advised to help you in your treacherous endeavor if you accomplish this objective. Now leave and do not return unless you are successful.” At this point Madam Orbec seems to go into a cationic trance. You take your opportunity to leave and ponder what the hell her cryptic ramblings were about. All you know for certain is that you have to do something to the Pinheads. Expose their true nature, though you can’t imagine what that could be. You could try spying on them and see what you can find out, or maybe a more direct approach would work. > You direct approach You can’t think of anything else to do, so you wait around for the Pinheads to come running around the Carnival like they usually do. When you see them gleefully playing catch with a baseball with each other, you insist on joining in The Pinheads look a little bewildered by your actions at first, and when you actually get a hold of the ball and toss it back at them, they start getting noticeably angry. A few of them start pushing you and attempting to trip you up. You continue to antagonize them by “playing” with them. Until one of them says something out loud surprising everyone. “GET THE FUCK OUTTA HERE GEEK! YOU’RE FUCKING STINKING UP THE PLACE!” This one hostile sentence shows a coherency that the Pinheads have never displayed before, and shouting it in public for the rest of the Carneys to hear has outted them. “Fucking Pinheads can talk!” someone shouts. At this point the Pinheads start arguing with themselves and attempting to cover up their mistake, but its too late now. You slip away and head back to Madam Orbec. When you get to Orbec’s tent, she’s talking to herself as usual (Or the “spirits” rather) “No, I don’t like that. Well if you moved a little more. NO! YOU CAN’T FUCK ME IN THE ASS! Oh fuck it then.” “Um, am I interrupting something intimate?” “The Geek returns! And I see you have been successful in your mission. The spirits thank you and you can be sure the Normals will be on your side when the time comes. Now leave us we are discussing something important.” “Wait, can you at least tell me why you…I mean the spirits wanted the Pinheads exposed?” “I suppose. Does he need an answer? Probably not. Then why tell? You’re right.” Then Madam Orbec answers you directly. “No, now leave before we change our mind.” Not wishing to undo your work, you leave and head back to Charley, who you see walking around looking for you. “Hey there you are Geek! What’s all this I’ve been hearing about you fucking around with the Pinheads? You’re supposed to be doin’ shit for me, I hope you’ve been making progress in that little endeavor.” “I have. I got the Normals to side with us.” Charley chuckles heartily and tells you to be ready after the show because the revolution is coming after the rubes leave. Not wishing to run into the Ring Master before hand you hang around Charley’s still which isn’t too pleasant since you have to endure Ajax’s abuse while Charley goes off to make his preparations. Then show time arrives, everything goes pretty much the same except the Ring Master looks a little distracted the entire time and the Pinheads don’t show up at all, apparently their exposure caused some trouble with other Carneys (All of them Normals) who didn’t like the fake act they were doing just to get paid more and taking money out of the pockets of performers who had real talents. (Tricking rubes is one thing, but fucking over other Carneys is frowned upon… if you get caught) > You but the real show begins aftterwards A dark moonlit night. Charley confronts the Ring Master with his army of midgets behind him as well as Ajax. The Ring Master has Atlas, and his usual allies, the Freaks are hanging in the darkness ready to strike if necessary. Most of the Normals though are nowhere to be seen. “Your time has come Ring Master! No longer will you exploit us! I’m taking over!” “And you all feel this way? You’d rather follow this criminal who’ll be corrupt? You really think he’s doing this out of some noble moral code? Obviously you must be blind if you don’t see that rule by this degenerate will be worse than anything you THINK I’m doing…but I leave it up to you…” “It won’t work Ringy, I got more in common with my people than you do! Blood is thicker, and yours is going to run everywhere if you don’t peaceably leave…I’m giving you this one chance you pale she-male.” “Not likely, I have my own friends as you know.” The Ring Master whistles and his Freaks show up, but Charley doesn’t look impressed. “Geek?” “Sorry, Ring Master, but we made a better deal.” You say and show up with a bunch of Normals behind you, and then Randal shows up on the other side with a bunch of Normals behind him as well. “I see. So you’ve all decided to throw your lot in with petty criminal activity. I’m glad to see your hypocrisy show its true face Randal, and Geek, I’m very disappointed in you. Very well, if I die this day, it’ll be beside those who are the true heart of Carnival! ATTACK!” The battle ensues, though it’s not really a battle. A few of the Normals side with the Ring Master, but most of them are on Charley’s side. The only thing that makes the battle last longer is the fact that the Freaks are fierce fighters. Atlas and Ajax lock horns, and while Atlas nearly kills Ajax, Randal does a couple of his magic tricks and blinds Atlas with a bright light, giving Ajax enough time to kill him. On the side lines watching, is Pervus and his clown gang masturbating to the carnage. Finally in the last moments Charley laughs as he stands over the Ring Master’s body which is now lifeless with Charley’s sharp stick through its heart; the last “Freak” to die. Meanwhile you were hiding during all this, but Charley calls you out. “Hey Geek! Come out you fuckin’ coward! We won!” “Yeah come out, you fucking useless piece of shit! I’m too tired to do anything to you right now.” Ajax adds. “…I’m here Charley.” “Good, unzip the Ring Master’s pants.” “What?” “Unzip the Ring Master’s pants; I wanna see what the hell he or she was packing. I have a bet going with Ajax and we wanna see who won.” You’re a little hesitant, but your crouch over the body and start unzipping the Ring Master’s pants. A crowd begins to form around you. Normal and Midget alike. “Come on come Geek, we ain’t got all fuckin’ night!” Ajax says while kicking you in the ribs. You pull down the underwear… “EEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWW!” the crowd shouts in unison. “Holy shit!” you say falling back. “Ha ha, I knew it! I fucking won!” Charley chuckles. “Shit! Fuck!” Ajax shouts and starts beating you to take his frustrations out. “Alright you lot, I want all these bodies cleaned up and disposed of before we head out to the next town, and Salina I want YOU in my new trailer to help me celebrate this glorious victory!” And so begins the reign of Charley the Ringmaster. Under his guidance midgets run everything and the Carnival doesn’t so much resemble a Carnival as it resembles a mobile grifting ring. While regular carnival activities still abound, they’re more of a cover than anything. In time though problems occur. Randal and Charley begin to come into conflict as Randal begins to regret his decision to side with him as well as his disapproval of what’s become of the Carnival. Another division begins to occur, but one on a smaller scale as Charley’s corrupting influence has infected most of the remaining Carneys at this point. Things really come to a head when Ajax suspects Sasha of having an affair with Randal. Eventually Randal, a few of his remaining “followers” AND Sasha are all killed in the middle of night and their bodies dumped in the river. Lacking any more “true talent” or even sideshow freaks, the Carnival is disbanded entirely and Charley and Ajax set up headquarters permanently in a sleazy small town where they primarily run the place. Proving that crime does pay. You on the other hand don’t do so well. While the Carnival was still around, you were routinely abused by Charley or Ajax more so than you normally were. When the Carnival disbanded you didn’t really have anywhere else to go, so you became the town drunk. Not really needing you anymore and having moved on to more important things, Charley forgets all about you, which leads to one dark rainy night when Ajax comes across you sleeping behind one of his bars. Not being reined in anymore, he does to you what he’s always wanted to do. He beats you death, laughing the whole time.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>“Agh! Alright, alright! Stop poking me…what day is it?” “Never mind all that geek! Get going you know how the Ring Master doesn’t like being kept waiting! Phew! You smell even more disgusting than usual! I guess that’s one way to keep Ajax from killing you, he’d probably vomit his guts out before he could lay a hand on you…then you could lick it up for the rubes! Ha ha! Move it Geek!” Charley prods you with a sharp stick periodically on your way to the Ring Master’s trailer until you arrive at which point, Atlas stops the both of you. “Stop! What business do the both of you have here?” “Goddamnit you fuckin’ one eyed freak! We go through this all the fucking time and its getting REALLY old! You just saw me come out of the Ring Master’s trailer earlier today when he sent me to get the Geek, you know damn well what we’re both doing here!” Ignoring Charley’s comments Atlas looks down at you and points. “You may enter, but the Ring Master doesn’t need to see you again, so you may not.” “Yeah, whatever enjoy the smell.” Charley says and mumbles something to himself while leaving the area. You barely make it up the little steps to the trailer, but you do. You’re finally starting to gather your wits together; your head still hurts though and you’ve just realize you haven’t had a drink yet. What a terrible feeling. You open the door. “Close the door, you’re letting all the sunlight in.” the Ring Master orders from behind his desk. She’s siting in his chair, but has her back turned to you. “Uh you wanted to see me?” “Of course…(Sniff sniff) you really haven’t been taking care of yourself. If anything you’ve become even more repulsive than when I first took you in. Remember that day?” “Um, yeah I think…no, no I don’t. I mean kind of… I forget things.” “I’m not surprised; you’re constantly drinking that swill Charley makes. I am surprised you haven’t gone blind yet though. Oh well what you insist on doing to yourself is of little concern to me, all I require is your obedience. You are thankful for all I have provided for you aren’t you?” “Oh yeah. Sure I am.” “You seem to be one of the few nowadays then. There are some though that are ungrateful for things I’ve done for them, they plan to betray me and everything this carnival stands for. They plan to change the natural order of things. Can you imagine what might happen to this carnival if I wasn’t here? What might happen to you?” You attempt to think about this scenario, but instead you just stand there because you can’t really form anything in your mind because it hurts really bad, you’ve been sober too damn long, and it’s about to get even longer as the Ring Master seems intent on bombarding you with talk as he finally swivels around in her chair. That pale androgynous face of the Ring Master’s is displaying a look of seriousness as usual. “Nothing good I can assure you. Which is why I’m putting YOU in charge of this task.” “Huh? What task?” “Why ensuring the survival of the carnival of course.” ”What!? Me?! Why? How!? I’m not qualified! Can’t you or Charley do it?” “I fear I’ve done all I’ve can. I mean I’ve provided all of THIS to everyone here. I’ve given them purpose and a life. If that isn’t enough for them, then my words aren’t going to make a difference at this point. And as for Charley, well…I’m sure even in your usual state of drunkenness you’re aware that he has his own plans for this carnival.” “I guess…but agh, it’s too early for all this…why me? I mean what am I supposed to do? I’m just the Geek.” “Yes, and that’s exactly why I’m choosing you. You have no motive, you have no agenda, you have no friends, and as such you would probably be the best candidate to convince others to resist change and keep the status quo.” “You have to be joking! Nobody’s going to listen to me! I’m the fucking Geek!” “You might be surprised, you have far more potential than you give yourself credit for…perhaps you’ll even change some perspectives, or maybe not. The choice is yours, because the fate of THIS carnival is resting solely on your actions, you can no longer afford to hide from the world in a bottle and a cage if you wish to keep your current life. It is time for you to take some responsibility, its time to repay the debt you owe me. You have until show time.” “But…” “Now leave me, I wish to be alone.” The Ring Master swivels his chair back to its original position. You head back outside, where upon Atlas blocks it again with his massive body. Never before in your life have you been put in this kind of position of responsibility, (Not that you can remember anyway) but you’re going to have to do something, the question is what exactly? > You do something else This mission that’s been given to you by the Ring Master has gotten you all shook up. You don’t want all this pressure, yet you’re too scared to leave. This is the only place that accepts you somewhat. You’re too distracted to even get a drink! You’d rather not have to deal with Charley or especially Ajax right now either. Sometimes you just wish you didn’t have to live an utterly pathetic existence. While you’re attempting to find some place dark to crawl into and hide, you literally bump into Remarkable Randal. “Oof! Watch it you smelly, ugly, Geek! Honestly it’s bad enough this Carnival has Freaks and criminal Midgets, but honestly having YOU here defies all logic. If I ran this Carnival things would be different! What are you doing out of your cell anyway? Doesn’t the Ring Master usually keep you locked up until show time?” “Oh, um he wanted to talk to me about something.” “She did? What about?” “Oh about my act, and uh…doing…um…something.” Randal’s normal distain for you changes to one of interest. He studies you for a moment before speaking. “So the Ring Master has entrusted YOU to save this place? Hah! She MUST be desperate!” “Huh? What? How did you know?” “Madam Orbec has been teaching me how to contact the spirit world and read into people’s souls. And yours is an easy read indeed, such as it is…perhaps our meeting has its purpose however. After reading your soul I can see something within you that may be worth saving. I never thought it possible, but I think I may be able to help you and your situation Geek.” “I don’t understand.” “Yes you do. Maybe you try to block it out of your mind with that swill you drink from Charley, but deep down you hate what you are and your retched life. And you should. You’re a sorry excuse for a human being, in fact you aren’t really even human anymore, you’re sub-human. However, you have a chance to regain your humanity back, and even become a useful member of this Carnival again. And I’ll help you, if you help me.” “How am I supposed to help you?” “A simple task really. All I want you to do is go get Madam Orbec’s black book. She keeps it by her bed. You’ll know it when you see it.” “What?! You want me to steal from her? I thought she was supposed to be your mentor or something!” “Shhhhh! Keep it down Geek! Look. Madam Orbec IS my mentor and I’ll always be grateful for what she’s taught me. I’ve always believed in magic, but without her teachings, I wouldn’t be a magician, I’d only be an illusionist.” “There’s a difference?” you interrupt. “Oh yes, Geek. Oh yes. Anyway, you’re not stealing the book, I just need to borrow it for awhile because its time for me to learn more. I think Madam Orbec is afraid I’m not yet prepared to learn the secrets that lie inside her black book. But I know I am, and its time for me to prove it to her. She’ll be so proud when she sees what I’ll be able to do.” “So what’re you going to do with it?” “I’m going to use its powers to help me take over the Carnival of course.” “What?! I’m not helping you do that! I’m supposed to be helping the Ring Master anyway!” “Why? Seriously, what has the Ring Master really done for you? Given you a job? The Ring Master is exploiting you for his own personal gain. She cares nothing for you. He just saw a useless dreg of society and turned you into something that could somehow make money for her. Assuming you helped the Ring Master and were even successful, think about it, you’d just go back to your living your miserable life. Is mere existence just enough for you? Isn’t it time you wanted MORE out of life?” You’re quiet. You don’t think anyone’s even asked you that question, even before you became a geek, and you’re really surprised to hear it coming from Randal. Someone who has nothing, but distaste for you. “I dunno, I think I’m pretty bad off. I don’t think there’s anything I can do to improve myself at this point.” “Nonsense, there’s always a way and your first step is by helping me. Look. Maybe you are what you are and I don’t like it, but I do see that underneath it all you ARE a Normal. You should be on my side anyway; I can help you be something more than a geek. With magic anything is possible! Retrieve that book for me and I’ll turn this Carnival into something much more than what it is and I’ll turn you into something much more than what you could’ve thought possible.” Something about Randal makes you believe him. You can understand why people do tend to want to follow him. Maybe things would be better if he took over. He certainly seems more caring than the Ring Master and a hell of a lot better in general than Charley. “Okay, I’ll help you, but I dunno how I’m gonna ste…I mean borrow the book.” “Well I leave that up to you, but make sure you get the book to me before show time and don’t come back to me until then.” Randal leaves you to it, but you’re still not sure how you’re going to go about this. If Randal can read your intentions then Madam Orbec will certainly be able to read yours. It occurs to you, that you might need some help from the less “moral” people here. And you can’t ask Charley to help you for several reasons. You could go to Pervus for help. If murder and sexual deviancy is no problem for him then surely a little theft won’t be either. And he’s usually up for doing anything remotely illegal. You could also go see Salina. Besides prostitution she’s known to be good at theft as well, though her helping you is a real long shot. > You go see Pervus You decide Pervus would be a better choice. Probably not the safest, but he’s more likely to help you. You’re hesitant to go anywhere near the clown tent to get him though, however for once luck is with you and you see him around the animals talking to a horse. “Hmmm, yeah. You’re a pretty filly. Yes you are. Let me tell you what I’m gonna do…(sniff) you smell different than usual.” Pervus then turns around. “Oh it’s you Geek. What the fuck do you want? Can’t you see I’m with a lady?” “Hey um, Pervus I need your help with something.” “Oh do ya now?” “I need to borrow a black book from Madam Orbec, and I need you to distract her.” “Hmm, normally I wouldn’t help you do shit, but I’m kinda in the mood for some OLD pussy right now. Yeah I’ll distract her, I know exactly how to distract her.” Pervus say while stoking his crotch. “Um hold on, you’re not gonna rape and kill her are ya?” “I won’t kill her…oh fine I won’t rape her either. Probably won’t be necessary anyway, I’ve always had a way with the ladies…sorry old girl, but I’ll have to be fucking you some other time.” Pervus remarks and pats the horse on the head before following you. You both approach Madam Orbec’s tent which has an air of creepiness about it. Pervus has a look of crazed lust in his eyes. He’s starting to breathe heavily and doing a lot of slurping. “Oh fuck yeah, this is gonna be soooooooo good.” He said he wasn’t going to do anything excessive, but now you’re not so sure… > You continue with the plan All that really concerns you is getting that book, because if you don’t get Randal’s help, the Ring Master is certainly going to kill you when she finds out you’ve turned traitor. Pervus enters the tent and you sneak around back and begin trying to lift up a small portion of it to crawl in. You hear a lot of noise and some protesting, while you’re doing this, when you finally get in, Pervus is having his way with Madam Orbec, completely oblivious to you and Madam Orbec isn’t making a sound…you don’t like the looks of this. You turn to your left and see you’re right by her bed, next to that is her dresser which has the book on it. You grab it and crawl back out as quickly as you can. You run and don’t look back. When you get back to Randal he wonder’s why the hell you’re so worked up. “(Pant) I got the book.” “Phew! Well don’t breathe all over me, just gimme the thing! Excellent. I’ll study what I can tonight before show time and then afterwards we’ll see who the new master is! And what’s wrong with you Geek? Why are breathing so heavy and looking around…you didn’t let Madam Orbec see you borrow this did you?!” “No, not at all. I’m just winded from trying to get out there without her seeing me!” “Well you better make yourself scarce until showtime anyway. I’m sure you wouldn’t want to run into the Ring Master before hand. Relax, I will keep my end of the bargain. Now go.” You leave and linger around the edges of the Carnival, staying out of sight until show time. What happened back at Madam Orbec’s tent still has you unnerved a bit. You know it’s only a matter a time before everyone finds out, before Randal finds out. She was basically like a mother figure to him. You didn’t think Pervus would kill her, unless he didn’t mean to and more likely he was just so overwhelmed with lust that he didn’t care at that point. In fact you’re a little worried about being here by yourself with no one around. You half think Pervus is going to leap out somewhere and kill you too to shut you up. It would be exactly like him to do something like that. In fact now you think its weird to you that he HASN’T shown up to kill you. You’ve got a lot of potential enemies right now, Pervus, the Ring Master, not to mention plain old Ajax who always wants to kill you. Randal is pretty much your only hope for survival now. Eventually you wander back to the Carnival around show time. Everything goes as normal with a few exceptions. The Ring Master looks pre-occupied, Randal’s act seems to be a lot more spectacular than usual, the clowns nowhere to be seen and all throughout the show you have a dreaded feeling that something really bad is going to happen. And you just may be right. > You because the real show occurs afterwards A dark moonlit night. Charley confronts the Ring Master with his army of midgets behind him as well as Ajax. The Ring Master has Atlas, and looks around for his usual allies, the Freaks, and to the surprise of everyone Randal appears with most of the Normals behind him. You attempt to hide directly behind Randal figuring that will be the safest place. “YOU? You’re attempting to take over? You must be joking! Go take your fairy dust and prance off somewhere, this is between me and the she male freak!” Charley spits. “No, you malignant midget! Your time and a criminal ways are at an end here today! And you too Ring Master! No longer will this Carnival be run by an exploitative tyrant!” Randal retorts. The Ring Master sees you and shakes his head. “I’m very disappointed that you decided to betray me here today Geek. You will learn to regret that fateful decision.” “Enough, of this fuckin’ talk. Let’s see who’s gonna fuckin’ run this show once and for all! Attack!” Charley and his midgets begin the assault, and the other two sides follow suit. The fighting is furious and brutal. All you do is crawl away and try to hide under a trailer and hope Randal wins, which he looks like he’s doing. Randal has the upper hand in every way, he has numerical superiority for one thing, and the other thing is he’s casting actual magic spells. A couple of bolts of lightning fry Ajax and Charley. Another spell strikes down Atlas. All looks good for Randal…until Pervus and his clown crew show up. When you first see them, they look like they’ve already been in a fight. They’re walking in a shambling motion and have wounds on them. When they get closer those wounds look like mortal one. In fact they are. Pervus and the clowns are no longer among the living. It takes awhile for anyone else to recognize this. Randal just thinks he’s got more allies until they start biting other Normals (as well as some remaining Midgets and Freaks). Upon seeing this, he tries to cast another spell to destroy them, but is stopped when one of the previously dead bodies on the ground rises up and bites his leg. When he cries out, he sees another familiar face. Madam Orbec, who while dead, looks obviously displeased by the theft of her book. “I TOLD YOU NOT TO USE THIS BOOK! NOW SUFFER ALONG WITH THE REST OF US!” she shouts and bites a chunk of Randal’s throat out. He falls to the ground to be consumed by more of the dead and the book goes flying out of his hand. All of the bodies have risen now. They’re attacking everyone living, you take this as your moment to escape, when you scramble from under the trailer you feel a very strong grip tighten around your shoulder. You look up and see the Ring Master. “My poor sad Geek. I told you that you would learn to regret your decision to betray me. I have to thank you though, while my Carnival may be no more, perhaps it was time for a change, and with this book (The Ring Master shows you the black book that Randal lost) I think I can make a lot of them.” You try to struggle, but its no use. The Ring Master has an unnaturally strong grip on you. He walks directly towards the zombie horde, dragging you along. “Why?! Why aren’t they attacking you?” is the last thing you cry out. “Silly Geek, haven’t you at least figured that one out by now? Zombies don’t attack other undead.” With a sharp fang protruding in a grinning smile at you, the Ring Master hurls you to the zombies, who eat you alive.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You decide Pervus would be a better choice. Probably not the safest, but he’s more likely to help you. You’re hesitant to go anywhere near the clown tent to get him though, however for once luck is with you and you see him around the animals talking to a horse. “Hmmm, yeah. You’re a pretty filly. Yes you are. Let me tell you what I’m gonna do…(sniff) you smell different than usual.” Pervus then turns around. “Oh it’s you Geek. What the fuck do you want? Can’t you see I’m with a lady?” “Hey um, Pervus I need your help with something.” “Oh do ya now?” “I need to borrow a black book from Madam Orbec, and I need you to distract her.” “Hmm, normally I wouldn’t help you do shit, but I’m kinda in the mood for some OLD pussy right now. Yeah I’ll distract her, I know exactly how to distract her.” Pervus say while stoking his crotch. “Um hold on, you’re not gonna rape and kill her are ya?” “I won’t kill her…oh fine I won’t rape her either. Probably won’t be necessary anyway, I’ve always had a way with the ladies…sorry old girl, but I’ll have to be fucking you some other time.” Pervus remarks and pats the horse on the head before following you. You both approach Madam Orbec’s tent which has an air of creepiness about it. Pervus has a look of crazed lust in his eyes. He’s starting to breathe heavily and doing a lot of slurping. “Oh fuck yeah, this is gonna be soooooooo good.” He said he wasn’t going to do anything excessive, but now you’re not so sure… > You change the plan “Hold on Pervus. I got a better idea.” You say stopping Pervus from entering. “Geek, that’s the second time you’ve interrupted my dick from finding happiness. If you do it again, it’s gonna find happiness in YOU!” “Um…well look, I was just thinking that it would be better if you got the book, I dunno if I’m up for it. I’ll distract Madam Orbec instead.” “The ONLY reason why I agreed to this, was because of the possibility of getting some Granny pussy, and now you’re fuckin’ sayin’ no? Fuck you Geek! I’m doin’ this shit now!” Pervus knocks you to the ground and enters Madam Orbec’s tent. You begin to hear some weird noises. Some of it sounds like screams, but not of the human kind. You sit in shock unsure of what to do, and then soon Pervus comes back out with the black book. There’s blood all over his clown costume. “I’m not sure what the fuck you wanted this for, but you ain’t gettin’ it now Geek. See ya at show time.” You don’t want to check, but you do anyway. You go inside Madam Orbec’s tent and see a gruesome sight. Something else is here though. You feel a force hit you several times. You see sheer depravity in your mind! It overwhelms you, you begin to cry, and laugh at the same time. You immediately run back out to hide somewhere utterly mad from what you saw. You run off to the nearest town hoping nobody comes looking for you, and nobody does due to what happens at show time… With the black book in his possession, Pervus goes back to his own tent and begins reading it, wondering what you wanted it for. Soon he begins to discover the power contained inside. The reason why Madam Orbec never wanted Randal to use it is due to the evil contained within and didn’t want that evil unleashed lest it destroy him. Of course Pervus isn’t a choir boy like Randal, he embraces the evil and the evil embraces him. It’s a match made in hell. When show time comes around he and his whole degenerate clown crew begin chanting from the book unleashing horrible powers. Many in the audience are killed as they attempt to escape, the Ring Master attempts to restore order, but with one utterance by Pervus, a burning black light annihilates her. The next blast destroys Atlas. Randle attempts some sort of cheap magic defense, but he’s powerless against the sheer destruction Pervus is wreaking. Eventually some of the clowns surround and capture him and do unspeakable things to him until he’s literally an empty husk. Charley and Ajax attempt to escape, but are run down and torn apart by strange shadow creatures that were summoned up. The ones that manage to survive that terrible night become part of this twisted new Carnival that now travels the night seeking to pull more victims into its dreaded den of wickedness and suck their souls dry, with Pervus as the new crazed ring master. And while you weren’t there for the event, you SAW it all, in your mind back at Madam Orbec’s tent. One last curse by the spirits for your involvement in the death of Madam Orbec. You are doomed to forever see the on going horrors committed by Pervus’ Carnival, and yet can do nothing about it. You’re eventually picked up off the street while during one of your screaming jags and thrown into a mental asylum, straight jacked and doped up with morphine. But it doesn’t help. You still see. And you can’t stop the screaming.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>This mission that’s been given to you by the Ring Master has gotten you all shook up. You don’t want all this pressure, yet you’re too scared to leave. This is the only place that accepts you somewhat. You’re too distracted to even get a drink! You’d rather not have to deal with Charley or especially Ajax right now either. Sometimes you just wish you didn’t have to live an utterly pathetic existence. While you’re attempting to find some place dark to crawl into and hide, you literally bump into Remarkable Randal. “Oof! Watch it you smelly, ugly, Geek! Honestly it’s bad enough this Carnival has Freaks and criminal Midgets, but honestly having YOU here defies all logic. If I ran this Carnival things would be different! What are you doing out of your cell anyway? Doesn’t the Ring Master usually keep you locked up until show time?” “Oh, um he wanted to talk to me about something.” “She did? What about?” “Oh about my act, and uh…doing…um…something.” Randal’s normal distain for you changes to one of interest. He studies you for a moment before speaking. “So the Ring Master has entrusted YOU to save this place? Hah! She MUST be desperate!” “Huh? What? How did you know?” “Madam Orbec has been teaching me how to contact the spirit world and read into people’s souls. And yours is an easy read indeed, such as it is…perhaps our meeting has its purpose however. After reading your soul I can see something within you that may be worth saving. I never thought it possible, but I think I may be able to help you and your situation Geek.” “I don’t understand.” “Yes you do. Maybe you try to block it out of your mind with that swill you drink from Charley, but deep down you hate what you are and your retched life. And you should. You’re a sorry excuse for a human being, in fact you aren’t really even human anymore, you’re sub-human. However, you have a chance to regain your humanity back, and even become a useful member of this Carnival again. And I’ll help you, if you help me.” “How am I supposed to help you?” “A simple task really. All I want you to do is go get Madam Orbec’s black book. She keeps it by her bed. You’ll know it when you see it.” “What?! You want me to steal from her? I thought she was supposed to be your mentor or something!” “Shhhhh! Keep it down Geek! Look. Madam Orbec IS my mentor and I’ll always be grateful for what she’s taught me. I’ve always believed in magic, but without her teachings, I wouldn’t be a magician, I’d only be an illusionist.” “There’s a difference?” you interrupt. “Oh yes, Geek. Oh yes. Anyway, you’re not stealing the book, I just need to borrow it for awhile because its time for me to learn more. I think Madam Orbec is afraid I’m not yet prepared to learn the secrets that lie inside her black book. But I know I am, and its time for me to prove it to her. She’ll be so proud when she sees what I’ll be able to do.” “So what’re you going to do with it?” “I’m going to use its powers to help me take over the Carnival of course.” “What?! I’m not helping you do that! I’m supposed to be helping the Ring Master anyway!” “Why? Seriously, what has the Ring Master really done for you? Given you a job? The Ring Master is exploiting you for his own personal gain. She cares nothing for you. He just saw a useless dreg of society and turned you into something that could somehow make money for her. Assuming you helped the Ring Master and were even successful, think about it, you’d just go back to your living your miserable life. Is mere existence just enough for you? Isn’t it time you wanted MORE out of life?” You’re quiet. You don’t think anyone’s even asked you that question, even before you became a geek, and you’re really surprised to hear it coming from Randal. Someone who has nothing, but distaste for you. “I dunno, I think I’m pretty bad off. I don’t think there’s anything I can do to improve myself at this point.” “Nonsense, there’s always a way and your first step is by helping me. Look. Maybe you are what you are and I don’t like it, but I do see that underneath it all you ARE a Normal. You should be on my side anyway; I can help you be something more than a geek. With magic anything is possible! Retrieve that book for me and I’ll turn this Carnival into something much more than what it is and I’ll turn you into something much more than what you could’ve thought possible.” Something about Randal makes you believe him. You can understand why people do tend to want to follow him. Maybe things would be better if he took over. He certainly seems more caring than the Ring Master and a hell of a lot better in general than Charley. “Okay, I’ll help you, but I dunno how I’m gonna ste…I mean borrow the book.” “Well I leave that up to you, but make sure you get the book to me before show time and don’t come back to me until then.” Randal leaves you to it, but you’re still not sure how you’re going to go about this. If Randal can read your intentions then Madam Orbec will certainly be able to read yours. It occurs to you, that you might need some help from the less “moral” people here. And you can’t ask Charley to help you for several reasons. You could go to Pervus for help. If murder and sexual deviancy is no problem for him then surely a little theft won’t be either. And he’s usually up for doing anything remotely illegal. You could also go see Salina. Besides prostitution she’s known to be good at theft as well, though her helping you is a real long shot. > You go see Salina Maybe you just want to talk to Salina because you’re creeped by Pervus or maybe you want to talk to her because you think she’s pretty, or maybe it’s a combination of both. Whatever the case the result is still the same when you bang on her trailer. “PEEYOO! Geek! Get the fuck outta here, even if you did have some money I wouldn’t debase myself!” Salina says when she answers. “No, its not that, I need some help.” “I’ll help you get your ass kicked if you don’t get outta here! I’m sure Charley wouldn’t like seeing you here lingering around me.” You just realized that. If Charley caught you here, he’d probably torture the shit out of you and then let Ajax finish you off (Nevermind the fact that Salina IS a prostitute, but Charley isn’t always logical when it comes to her, plus you’re a punching bag anyway) You need to not remain here as long as possible. > You try to convince her “Look, I just need your help to ste…I mean borrow something! I heard you were good at borrowing things, so…” “Go steal it yourself Geek! I’m not your personal thief! And it’s time for you to fucking go!” “Listen! It’s…” As you aggressively begin to step inside the trailer, you suddenly hear some hissing and a couple snakes appear by Salina’s foot. Before you have time to react, both of them dart their heads at your legs, giving you a bite. You fall back on the ground, as the poison begins to take effect. First you feel paralysis set in then your organs shut down completely. “Hey, somebody come pick up this Geek! He’s gonna smell even worse while dead!” is the last thing you hear Salina shout.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Maybe you just want to talk to Salina because you’re creeped by Pervus or maybe you want to talk to her because you think she’s pretty, or maybe it’s a combination of both. Whatever the case the result is still the same when you bang on her trailer. “PEEYOO! Geek! Get the fuck outta here, even if you did have some money I wouldn’t debase myself!” Salina says when she answers. “No, its not that, I need some help.” “I’ll help you get your ass kicked if you don’t get outta here! I’m sure Charley wouldn’t like seeing you here lingering around me.” You just realized that. If Charley caught you here, he’d probably torture the shit out of you and then let Ajax finish you off (Nevermind the fact that Salina IS a prostitute, but Charley isn’t always logical when it comes to her, plus you’re a punching bag anyway) You need to not remain here as long as possible. > You beg and plead pitifully Being pitiful has always been something you’ve been good at, sometimes it even works to your advantage. You collapse on the little piece of stairs you’re standing on and start pleading. “Please Salina you gotta help me! (sob) I don’t have anyone else to turn to! I need to sneak in Madam Orbec’s tent and get a book from without her knowing (sob) or I’m gonna die! (sob)” Salina doesn’t completely understand what the hell you’re babbling about, but she just wants you to leave and stop stinking up the place. Salina goes back inside and grabs a bottle and dumps the entire contents on you. The shit burns like hell on the sores you have on your skin. You roll off the stairs and on to the ground in irritated pain. “I dunno what the hell you’re on about Geek, but you ain’t sneaking anywhere as long as you smell the way you do. I just dumped a strong perfume on you. Normally you’d smell like flowers, but with your disgusting odor all it’s gonna do is cancel out your usual foulness and even then only for a little while giving you time to do whatever it is you have to do. And this is ALL the help you’re getting from me! Now get outta here I got customers coming!” Salina says and then slams her trailer door. Not exactly what you had in mind, but more help than you expected. You head to Madam Orbec’s tent. When you arrive there’s a distinct air of creepiness about it. You can’t afford to waste too much time so you head around the back of the tent and start trying to pull up so you can sneak in and get the book. You only hope she doesn’t happen to be looking in your direction while you’re attempting to do this. As luck would have it, she isn’t, in fact when you crawl inside you see you’re right near her bed where she’s fast asleep. Next to the bed you see a small table with a black book on it. That must be it. You grab it. Madam Orbec then begins to stir. She starts sniffing in her sleep. The perfume must be wearing off! > You run out of the front entance of the tent No time to mess around lifting and crawling you just need to get out of here! You run out of the tent and don’t stop until you reach Randal who wonders why you’re breathing so hard. When you get back to Randal he wonder’s why the hell you’re so worked up. “(Pant) I got the book.” “Phew! Well don’t breathe all over me, just gimme the thing! Excellent. I’ll study what I can tonight before show time and then afterwards we’ll see who the new master is! And what’s wrong with you Geek? Why are breathing so heavy and looking around…you didn’t let Madam Orbec see you borrow this did you?!” “No, not at all. I’m just winded from trying to get out there without her seeing me!” “Well you better make yourself scarce until showtime anyway. I’m sure you wouldn’t want to run into the Ring Master before hand. Relax, I will keep my end of the bargain. Now go.” You leave and linger around the edges of the Carnival, staying out of sight until show time. You just hope Randal does live up to his bargain and manages to take control, because if he doesn’t, you’re going to be in a world of shit with the Ring Master. Eventually you wander back to the Carnival around show time. Everything goes as normal with a few exceptions. The Ring Master looks pre-occupied, and Randal’s act seems to be a lot more spectacular than usual. > You but the real show occurs afterwards A dark moonlit night. Charley confronts the Ring Master with his army of midgets behind him as well as Ajax. It appears that Pervus and his clowns have also decided to join him. The Ring Master has Atlas, and looks around for his usual allies, the Freaks, and to the surprise of everyone Randal appears with most of the Normals behind him. You attempt to hide directly behind Randal figuring that will be the safest place. “YOU? You’re attempting to take over? You must be joking! Go take your fairy dust and prance off somewhere, this is between me and the she male freak!” Charley spits. “No, you malignant midget! Your time and a criminal ways are at an end here today! And your too Ring Master! No longer will this Carnival be run by an exploitative tyrant!” Randal retorts. The Ring Master sees you and shakes his head. “I’m very disappointed that you decided to betray me here today Geek. You will learn to regret that fateful decision.” “Enough, of this fuckin’ talk. Let’s see who’s gonna fuckin’ run this show once and for all! Attack!” Charley and his midgets begin the assault, and the other two sides follow suit. The fighting is furious and brutal. All you do is crawl away and try to hide under a trailer and hope Randal wins, which he looks like he’s doing. Randal has the upper hand in every way, he has numerical superiority for one thing, and the other thing is he’s casting actual magic spells. A couple of bolts of lightning fry Ajax and Charley. Another spell strikes down Atlas. All looks good for Randal, especially when he wipes out Pervus and all the clowns with a huge fireball and finally with one last spell he strikes down the Ring Master with a dark black light which completely disintegrates him. Its over. “Geek! You can stop hiding! We won!” Randal shouts. “Yes, and with the help of MY book!” Madam Orbec says appearing from nowhere. “What the hell is wrong with you Randal? Didn’t I tell you not to mess with this book?” Orbec begins hitting Randal and takes her book back. “Ow! I’m sorry Madam! I just wanted to prove to you that I was ready to…ow!” “You’ll never be ready for this book, you hear me? You’re lucky you didn’t bring the dead back to life with your careless chanting!” then she points to you. “And YOU’RE lucky I didn’t catch you stealing this for him! I would’ve turned you into a worm which probably would be a step up for you!” Orbec decides she doesn’t want to dirty herself hitting you though, so she just leaves. After this embarrassing incident Randal regains his composure. “Okay people get some rest for tomorrow, a new era of this Carnival has arrived and we have a lot of hard work ahead of us, but it’ll be worth it! Because with magic anything is possible! And don’t worry Geek, I still haven’t forgotten about you, thanks to your help, you’ll have a place in my Carnival.” Time passes and Randal “cleans up” the Carnival of all remaining criminal activity, though without Charley around, it wasn’t really a factor anymore. Salina ends up leaving though as the Carnival has gotten too “Goody” for her liking. Without Ajax around, Sasha ends up falling for Randal and the two eventually get married. There also aren’t anymore Freaks in the Carnival anymore; the few that survived ran off to eke out meager livings elsewhere. There were quite a few Midgets left, and were allowed to stay due to the fact that they were hard workers, but their status is severely diminished. In fact they’re pretty relegated back to second class citizen status again. The Carnival flourishes though as it becomes a truly wondrous and safe place for entire families. And your reward for your help was a complete magical transformation into… An animal keeper. Having no other useful skills you’re relegated to have to look after all the animals and take care of them in Randal’s new Carnival. Every day you take your life into your hands when dealing with the lions. Every day the horses fart on you whenever you’re around. Every day you suffer the indignities of the monkeys throwing their shit at you. Not that it matters since you smell like shit anyway after having to clean up after the elephants. In fact you only smell slightly better than when you were a Geek, though at least you don’t have eat various parts of the animals’ anatomies and you don’t get beat up anymore. It’s a step up!<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Being pitiful has always been something you’ve been good at, sometimes it even works to your advantage. You collapse on the little piece of stairs you’re standing on and start pleading. “Please Salina you gotta help me! (sob) I don’t have anyone else to turn to! I need to sneak in Madam Orbec’s tent and get a book from without her knowing (sob) or I’m gonna die! (sob)” Salina doesn’t completely understand what the hell you’re babbling about, but she just wants you to leave and stop stinking up the place. Salina goes back inside and grabs a bottle and dumps the entire contents on you. The shit burns like hell on the sores you have on your skin. You roll off the stairs and on to the ground in irritated pain. “I dunno what the hell you’re on about Geek, but you ain’t sneaking anywhere as long as you smell the way you do. I just dumped a strong perfume on you. Normally you’d smell like flowers, but with your disgusting odor all it’s gonna do is cancel out your usual foulness and even then only for a little while giving you time to do whatever it is you have to do. And this is ALL the help you’re getting from me! Now get outta here I got customers coming!” Salina says and then slams her trailer door. Not exactly what you had in mind, but more help than you expected. You head to Madam Orbec’s tent. When you arrive there’s a distinct air of creepiness about it. You can’t afford to waste too much time so you head around the back of the tent and start trying to pull up so you can sneak in and get the book. You only hope she doesn’t happen to be looking in your direction while you’re attempting to do this. As luck would have it, she isn’t, in fact when you crawl inside you see you’re right near her bed where she’s fast asleep. Next to the bed you see a small table with a black book on it. That must be it. You grab it. Madam Orbec then begins to stir. She starts sniffing in her sleep. The perfume must be wearing off! > You crawl back out the way you came You figure you don’t want anyone else seeing you run out of her tent with the book or else they’ll only rat you out later. You lift up the tent and try to crawl back out. You waste too much time though; she wakes up when you’re halfway through. She’s not happy! “GEEK! YOU DARE STEAL FROM ME! I CALL UPON THE SPIRITS TO CURSE YOU TO RESEMBLE THE LOWLY WORM YOU ARE!” You don’t think too much of those words at first, until you get fully out of the tent and find that you can’t stand up to run anymore. You look behind yourself and to your horror you see that your legs have fused together into one fleshy mass. Soon the rest of you begins to transform. You gradually start to shrink as you try to crawl away in a hopeless attempt to escape your fate. When you’ve fully transformed, Madam Orbec finally arrives to retrieve her book and sees you squirming around in the grass. She laughs and remarks how leaving you in that state is what you really deserve. But she decides to show mercy for your plight by stepping on you and putting you out of your misery.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>“Agh! Alright, alright! Stop poking me…what day is it?” “Never mind all that geek! Get going you know how the Ring Master doesn’t like being kept waiting! Phew! You smell even more disgusting than usual! I guess that’s one way to keep Ajax from killing you, he’d probably vomit his guts out before he could lay a hand on you…then you could lick it up for the rubes! Ha ha! Move it Geek!” Charley prods you with a sharp stick periodically on your way to the Ring Master’s trailer until you arrive at which point, Atlas stops the both of you. “Stop! What business do the both of you have here?” “Goddamnit you fuckin’ one eyed freak! We go through this all the fucking time and its getting REALLY old! You just saw me come out of the Ring Master’s trailer earlier today when he sent me to get the Geek, you know damn well what we’re both doing here!” Ignoring Charley’s comments Atlas looks down at you and points. “You may enter, but the Ring Master doesn’t need to see you again, so you may not.” “Yeah, whatever enjoy the smell.” Charley says and mumbles something to himself while leaving the area. You barely make it up the little steps to the trailer, but you do. You’re finally starting to gather your wits together; your head still hurts though and you’ve just realize you haven’t had a drink yet. What a terrible feeling. You open the door. “Close the door, you’re letting all the sunlight in.” the Ring Master orders from behind his desk. She’s siting in his chair, but has her back turned to you. “Uh you wanted to see me?” “Of course…(Sniff sniff) you really haven’t been taking care of yourself. If anything you’ve become even more repulsive than when I first took you in. Remember that day?” “Um, yeah I think…no, no I don’t. I mean kind of… I forget things.” “I’m not surprised; you’re constantly drinking that swill Charley makes. I am surprised you haven’t gone blind yet though. Oh well what you insist on doing to yourself is of little concern to me, all I require is your obedience. You are thankful for all I have provided for you aren’t you?” “Oh yeah. Sure I am.” “You seem to be one of the few nowadays then. There are some though that are ungrateful for things I’ve done for them, they plan to betray me and everything this carnival stands for. They plan to change the natural order of things. Can you imagine what might happen to this carnival if I wasn’t here? What might happen to you?” You attempt to think about this scenario, but instead you just stand there because you can’t really form anything in your mind because it hurts really bad, you’ve been sober too damn long, and it’s about to get even longer as the Ring Master seems intent on bombarding you with talk as he finally swivels around in her chair. That pale androgynous face of the Ring Master’s is displaying a look of seriousness as usual. “Nothing good I can assure you. Which is why I’m putting YOU in charge of this task.” “Huh? What task?” “Why ensuring the survival of the carnival of course.” ”What!? Me?! Why? How!? I’m not qualified! Can’t you or Charley do it?” “I fear I’ve done all I’ve can. I mean I’ve provided all of THIS to everyone here. I’ve given them purpose and a life. If that isn’t enough for them, then my words aren’t going to make a difference at this point. And as for Charley, well…I’m sure even in your usual state of drunkenness you’re aware that he has his own plans for this carnival.” “I guess…but agh, it’s too early for all this…why me? I mean what am I supposed to do? I’m just the Geek.” “Yes, and that’s exactly why I’m choosing you. You have no motive, you have no agenda, you have no friends, and as such you would probably be the best candidate to convince others to resist change and keep the status quo.” “You have to be joking! Nobody’s going to listen to me! I’m the fucking Geek!” “You might be surprised, you have far more potential than you give yourself credit for…perhaps you’ll even change some perspectives, or maybe not. The choice is yours, because the fate of THIS carnival is resting solely on your actions, you can no longer afford to hide from the world in a bottle and a cage if you wish to keep your current life. It is time for you to take some responsibility, its time to repay the debt you owe me. You have until show time.” “But…” “Now leave me, I wish to be alone.” The Ring Master swivels his chair back to its original position. You head back outside, where upon Atlas blocks it again with his massive body. Never before in your life have you been put in this kind of position of responsibility, (Not that you can remember anyway) but you’re going to have to do something, the question is what exactly? > You run away! This is all just too much for you; you don’t want to be any part of this. You do what you’ve always done all your life; run away leaving the carnival behind. Nobody goes looking for you, not even the Ring Master. Geeks like you are a dime a dozen. They can get another one. You take up “residence” in the nearest town, begging for money for booze and sleeping in the park. The townsfolk are a little less tolerant of the likes of you than the Carneys were though and besides they already have town drunks that they know and love. You’re treated worse than you were at the Carnival if such a thing were possible. At least there you served somewhat of a purpose; here you’re just a drain on the community. One night the town’s drain is solved when you’re beaten and set on fire by the local young punks.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Geek: 1. A person regarded as foolish or clumsy. 2. A person who is single-minded or accomplished in scientific or technical pursuits, but is felt to be socially inept. 3. A carnival performer whose show consists of bizarre and disgusting acts. Your breath stinks from the foul things you’ve been eating and the rest of you stinks from not bathing in who knows when. Your head hurts from the cheap moonshine you’ve been getting “paid” in. Rubes often throw stuff at you and spit on you. Most of the other Carnies find you utterly repulsive and avoid you, a couple of them just abuse you for various reasons. On a good day, only the Pinheads come to your cell and taunt you with their gibbering laughs and mongoloid chatter. You have absolutely no worth as a human being, you get no respect from others, and you have no respect for yourself…and why should you? You are the lowest form of life in Carney society. You’re not a real performer; what you do can’t really be considered a skill. You’re not even a real freak. At least a deformed freak can evoke an emotion of horror, or pity, or even admiration for overcoming their condition. You weren’t born “this way”. You chose to do this. All you evoke is disgust and revulsion. At best you’re laughed at and not in the good way like those pervert clowns you work with. Fuck all that “Wildman of Borneo” shit that the Ringmaster tries to tell all the rubes. You’re little more than a bum with a “job”. A degrading job that involves you to debase yourself, all for the amusement and shock value of others, but hey it keeps a “roof” over your head and you pleasantly drunk enough to just barely forget how utterly pathetic your life is. You are the GEEK. You wake up to a bucket of piss being thrown in your face. Not the first time and certainly won’t be the last. “You like the taste of that Geek? Get up Geek! The Ring Master wants to see you!” Charley orders then he throws the empty bucket at your head. The comical sound it makes hitting your skull and the pain it causes makes Charley laugh. Then he jabs you a couple times with his pointed stick. Midgets can be so cruel… > You kick at Charley You stagger to get up and attempt to kick Charley, but instead to trip over yourself and fall…right on to Charley’s pointed stick. The only good thing is you skewered yourself right through the heart killing you instantly. “Aw hell. Hey guys! Someone get me another Geek! This one’s dead.”<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Geek: 1. A person regarded as foolish or clumsy. 2. A person who is single-minded or accomplished in scientific or technical pursuits, but is felt to be socially inept. 3. A carnival performer whose show consists of bizarre and disgusting acts. Your breath stinks from the foul things you’ve been eating and the rest of you stinks from not bathing in who knows when. Your head hurts from the cheap moonshine you’ve been getting “paid” in. Rubes often throw stuff at you and spit on you. Most of the other Carnies find you utterly repulsive and avoid you, a couple of them just abuse you for various reasons. On a good day, only the Pinheads come to your cell and taunt you with their gibbering laughs and mongoloid chatter. You have absolutely no worth as a human being, you get no respect from others, and you have no respect for yourself…and why should you? You are the lowest form of life in Carney society. You’re not a real performer; what you do can’t really be considered a skill. You’re not even a real freak. At least a deformed freak can evoke an emotion of horror, or pity, or even admiration for overcoming their condition. You weren’t born “this way”. You chose to do this. All you evoke is disgust and revulsion. At best you’re laughed at and not in the good way like those pervert clowns you work with. Fuck all that “Wildman of Borneo” shit that the Ringmaster tries to tell all the rubes. You’re little more than a bum with a “job”. A degrading job that involves you to debase yourself, all for the amusement and shock value of others, but hey it keeps a “roof” over your head and you pleasantly drunk enough to just barely forget how utterly pathetic your life is. You are the GEEK. You wake up to a bucket of piss being thrown in your face. Not the first time and certainly won’t be the last. “You like the taste of that Geek? Get up Geek! The Ring Master wants to see you!” Charley orders then he throws the empty bucket at your head. The comical sound it makes hitting your skull and the pain it causes makes Charley laugh. Then he jabs you a couple times with his pointed stick. Midgets can be so cruel… > You jog your damn memory to remember who the hell you even associate with (Cast of Characters) Just because you’re all Carneys and united against the Rubes doesn’t mean there isn’t division in the ranks. You’re all like a big dysfunctional family, and you’re the scapegoat black sheep, you lucky Geek you. The only good thing about being the GEEK, is that nobody considers you a threat or even a person! Plus you’re usually sprawled out someplace either drunk or asleep. This means while others assume you’re out of it and not competent enough to do anything except eat disgusting things, you’ve over heard some interesting information in your half conscious state of mind. Things that will probably come in handy in the ensuing power struggle you’re about to become embroiled in. So if you keep your head down, use animal cunning, watch your ass and you might just come through this alive. And maybe, just maybe you’ll finally get some respect. Maybe… > You cast of Characters (The Main Event) The Ring Master Nobody knows what his real name is and if they do nobody’s telling and she’s certainly not volunteering any information about himself. Of course everyone assumes she’s male, but there’s an “air” of androgyny about him leading to rumors that he may actually be female…or possibly both. He’s very pale, his voice has an unnatural melodic tone and he wears a traditional ring master suit with a top hat. The only thing she wants people to know and remember is that he is definitely in charge. Her main concern is to keep his carnival running and turning a profit; he doesn’t really care what any of his employees do in their spare time unless it interferes or hampers the carnival. The Ring Master is known for being “Freak friendly” after all not many would have jobs at all if it weren’t for him, but by the same token he pays them fairly. Many see her as somewhat of a savior since he’s given many of them a place in the world where they can be useful. She doesn’t hold their hand or overprotect them he just gives them a chance. A chance that they can either succeed or fail in, but a chance they might not have had otherwise without him. He tends to stay in his trailer until show time allowing her assistant Charley to do all his leg work. She’s rarely seen walking around anywhere; instead he just suddenly “appears” and he’s never seen outside at all during the daytime. There have been the hushed rumors and semi-jokes that she’s really a vampire, but most people just think he’s just weird and suffers from albinism which makes her less inclined on wanting to be exposed to the sun. While not sadistic, (He doesn’t appear to get off on it like say Charley) he will make examples out of people that displease him and you’ll definitely feel it. Oh how you’ll feel it. When you have to see the Ring Master personally it’s usually not a good thing. You met him when she found you wandering and vomiting near his trailer at night while in your usual drunken states. She saw how utterly hopeless you were. You had no job, no home, no loved ones, no future prospects, yet he saw potential where there literally was none. He made a deal with you. Become the GEEK for a place to call home and all the liquor you could drink. Well gee how could you not pass up a deal like that? Charley the Midget Charley was a criminal long before he joined the carnival. The carnival just allowed him to flourish in those activities. He’s in charge of most of the illegal activities that go on at the carnival as well as making life miserable for anyone who displeases the Ring Master. Of course he takes great delight in making people miserable whenever it suits him. He has found a like minded partner in Ajax the Strongman who acts as his muscle when the need arises. He’s a first class sonofabitch, but he probably makes the carnival more profitable than it is. Midgets represent most of labor workforce in the carnival and being the “Biggest” and toughest midget at the carnival makes him their unofficial leader which the rest of the midgets have mixed emotions about, but with all his connections and power there is little that they can do about it even if they wanted to. Charley constantly reminds them that they are the real backbone of the carnival and also reminds them how townies and rubes would often pick on them for fun and ever since he arrived they don’t do that anymore lest they suffer the consequences. Gruesome consequences. Charley definitely harbors secret plans to take over the carnival completely one day, he likes to think of himself as the “Real Ring Master” and dresses like his boss except his suit is checkered and has an especially tall top hat. (To extend his height no doubt) He feels that with Ajax and “his people” behind him he’ll be able to launch a take over when the time is right. All he needs to do is get a few more of the others to side with him. As for you, Charley likes to take any free opportunity he has to humiliate you, which seems rather pointless given you don’t have any self-respect to begin with, still it makes him laugh. Chances are if he did take over the Carnival you’d still have a “job” since Charley wouldn’t want to get rid of his favorite whipping boy. The Remarkable Randal Randal is the appointed spokesperson for the “normal” Carneys such as the acrobats, tightrope walkers and other performers that rely on their genuine skills rather than their genetic conditions. Randal himself is a magician, but makes no pretense that he actually has any kind of real magical powers, but he believes magic exists. He’s constantly acquiring old books hoping that someday that he can learn how to perform real magic one day. Randal is a bit of an optimistic dreamer, he believes the carnival is supposed to be a place of fun and wonder for the whole family. He IS that boy that ran away to join the circus in a sense as he did run away from his family who were fundamentalists that believed him to be dabbling in Satanic worship with his magic tricks. He doesn’t really like the idea of the carnival having “freaks” for the sake of having them. He feels its pandering to the lowest common denominator and cheapening the other Carnies who actually have to rely on a learned skill and he really doesn’t approve of all the illegal activity that goes on (Especially in a place which is supposed to be for the children) he blames the Ring Master as much as Charley for this, since the Ring Master turns a blind eye to it when he should be stopping it. Randal is a little more open about his rebellious nature than Charley and complains to the Ring Master whenever he gets the chance, (One of the few that gets away with it without consequences) to which his last response was if he doesn’t like the way things are being run, he can either leave or make his move. So far Randal hasn’t gone anywhere, so maybe he’s going to take the Ring Master up on his challenge. Charley thinks he’s a lot of talk and doesn’t think he really has the balls to do it so he’s not worried about him. Considering Randal’s views, you might find yourself out of a job if Randal got things his way. Shock value and Freaks wouldn’t really have a place in Randal’s carnival. Unsurprisingly Randal finds you and your act disgusting and completely unsuitable for anyone, especially children. (Even though the kiddies really like throwing chickens at you)<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Just because you’re all Carneys and united against the Rubes doesn’t mean there isn’t division in the ranks. You’re all like a big dysfunctional family, and you’re the scapegoat black sheep, you lucky Geek you. The only good thing about being the GEEK, is that nobody considers you a threat or even a person! Plus you’re usually sprawled out someplace either drunk or asleep. This means while others assume you’re out of it and not competent enough to do anything except eat disgusting things, you’ve over heard some interesting information in your half conscious state of mind. Things that will probably come in handy in the ensuing power struggle you’re about to become embroiled in. So if you keep your head down, use animal cunning, watch your ass and you might just come through this alive. And maybe, just maybe you’ll finally get some respect. Maybe… > You cast of Characters (The Secondary Acts) Ajax the Strongman While Charley has delusions of grandeur, he is somewhat grounded in reality enough not to believe he’s invincible. Ajax on the other hand probably thinks he could catch a bullet in his teeth and spit it back at his assailant. The man is completely narcissistic. Undoubtedly he is in good shape, very strong and probably a lot better looking than most of the Carnies, and he takes every opportunity to let everyone know it. He sneers at all the other guys for being “lesser” than him (Save Charley, Atlas and the Ring Master) and of course shamelessly grabs at any woman that strikes his fancy. So pleased with his own body image that he basically walks around in a loin cloth at all times. Even when the Carnival is someplace cold and snowing. He’d probably walk around naked if he could get away with it. Why he’s allied with Charley given his own arrogance and his “normie” status might cause some to wonder, but the reasons aren’t far fetched. Besides Ajax’s own criminal mentality, Ajax is an opportunist, and he’ll make more money under Charley and he thinks Charley is going to be on the winning team (Especially with him on his side) Not to mention Ajax doesn’t really like the Ring Master. Never has. His pale androgynous nature really creeps him out. And the Remarkable Randal is a pussy as far as Ajax is concerned. Another person that Ajax definitely doesn’t like is you. While most others will simply avoid, taunt or abuse you for awhile for amusement, Ajax HATES you and has nearly beaten you to death a couple times. Presumably he sees you as a pathetic example of the male specimen that should’ve been killed at birth and while he may be right, he’s kept in check by Charley and/or the Ring Master from carrying out his desires. (As a rule Carneys are NOT supposed to kill each other…well unless there’s a good reason for it) You’d be in a world of shit if something ever happened to both of them. Atlas the Cyclopean Giant If there’s one person that’s possibly stronger than Ajax, it’s Atlas. (He’s certainly scarier) He’s an eight foot Cyclops that wears a hood covering everything except a single unblinking eye. He stands outside the Ring Master’s trailer at all times not letting anyone pass unless the Ring Master wishes it. Atlas has been with the Ring Master even before the Carnival. Atlas was personally brought up by the Ring Master and is utterly loyal to him. It’s commonly thought that the Ring Master found him abandoned as a baby and took him in, of course rumors also persist that he’s the Ring Master’s son. (Whether the Ring Master is the father OR the mother causes more rumors) Whatever the truth, Atlas might as well be his son as he certainly considers the Ring Master as a parental figure since he raised him. Atlas’ sole job is to protect the Ring Master and to look intimidating. A job he does very well. Atlas rarely speaks and if he does it’s usually a one word response in a low voice. Charley hopes Ajax will be his counter balance when the time comes, of course Ajax feels he’ll be able to beat Atlas with no problems. Atlas is one of the few people that has no opinion of you, he just sees you as another Carney who works for the Ring Master and aren’t allowed to see him unless he deems it so. Madam Orbec Madam Orbec is the gypsy fortune teller. Like most fortune tellers she claims to genuinely have psychic powers, but most likely she’s just really good at conning people. Still she always keeps in character at all times, so it’s possible she believes her own hype. One thing she does a lot is talk to “spirits” that aren’t there. Sometimes this results in her talking to herself for great lengths of time and often screaming to tell “them” to shut up. She doesn’t even appear to notice anyone else around while she’s doing this. All of which pretty much means most of the other Carneys consider her just mentally unstable and is listening to the voices in her own head. Oddly Randal completely believes she has psychic abilities, this is probably due to Randal’s own naivety and his own desperate belief that magic is real. He consults her frequently about what she sees in the future for the carnival, it’s possible that’s why he hasn’t made any kind of move of his own because he’s guided by her visions to a certain degree. Madam Orbec likes Randal, but remains suspicious if he isn’t just trying to be friendly to gain access to an old book she has supposedly containing secrets to necromancy. Because of this factor, unlike the Ring Master and Charley’s “right hand men”, Madam Orbec isn’t necessarily on Randal’s side. She believes a great change is coming in the carnival, but the spirits haven’t told her exactly what that is yet. Her visions and conversations have been increasing to the point where she can barely keep it together for the rubes anymore. Her sanity has been in severe question for years, but now her competency is as well. Of course she still has enough sense to not want to be near you. Apparently the spirits don’t like you anymore than the living do. Pervus the Clown “Pervert” or “Pervo” is what he’s usually called and for good reason. Pervus is probably the next disgusting Carney after you, the only difference is he has a group of like minded “friends” and the other thing is he’s a clown. And clowns no matter how twisted and evil they are; they can get away with it. He and his gang of equally demented red nosed fellows have to be the sickest bunch in the Carnival, particularly in the sex department. It’s not surprising that townie children start disappearing whenever the Carnival makes an extended visit somewhere and they certainly haven’t all run off to join, what ultimately happens to them is better left unmentioned and not dwelled upon too much. But it isn’t just children that disappear. Local farm animals will disappear as well (Strangely these poor creatures may be spared death, if the Carnival is in need of a couple new pack animals) and local graveyards may even be raided… Of course Pervus and the clowns think it’s all a big joke on the rubes. Despite being the symbols of utter depravity, they are one of the other “major groups” and as is fitting they are a wild card. They do their job when its show time and do it very well which puts them in good standing with the Ring Master. They often indulge in the prostitutes and liquor Charley provides. And while Randal barely approves of them (To be honest he probably isn’t aware of how bad they REALLY are) he does recognize them as having a talent and are an important staple of any carnival. (They also aren’t Freaks, though classifying them as “Normals” might be stretching it) Its unknown who Pervus will side with, but they see that there’s definitely benefits for any of them. Pervus and his crew are the one exception concerning you. Instead of them avoiding you, YOU purposely avoid them! While they’d never kill you (They do still follow that one rule that you don’t kill a fellow Carney for no reason) that wouldn’t prevent them from having their way with you if the urge ever struck them. You have been known to resemble a rotting dead body (In smell especially) when you’re passed out after all. Sasha and Salina Sasha is the on/off girlfriend of Ajax. She’s not only a contortionist, but also an acrobat. She’s very beautiful, but her self-esteem isn’t really the best otherwise she wouldn’t be with Ajax. He pretty much treats her like shit, and she’ll put up with it, until he really fucks up and then she throws him out of her trailer. Upon which time he’ll continue to harass and stalk her until she takes him back for the umpteenth time and the cycle starts over again. She’s definitely the star attraction of the “normal” Carneys, besides Randal. (Who really wishes she wasn’t so close to Ajax.) Salina is Charley’s girlfriend…or at least he likes to tell everyone she is. She’s the tattooed woman and also dances with various kinds of snakes. (Imaginatively called a “Snake Lady”) She’s pretty, but has a harder look than Sasha, its obvious by her demeanor she had a rough life before the Carnival. Charley is constantly hitting on her, but he’s unsuccessful for the most part though every now and then he gets lucky, though you suspect it’s his money talking more than his “charms” at work in those cases. In any event she isn’t particularly fond of him. She’s considered a normal, but her activities and lifestyle lean more towards the criminal mindset particularly prostitution. So she has more in common with Charley than Randal who looks his nose down at her. Probably due to the partnership of Charley and Ajax, Sasha and Salina associate with each other more than they might normally would. As it turns out the two are genuinely friends and speak to each other frequently, one may wonder if they aren’t plotting something on their own together… Of course you’d never know since the two of them avoid you like the plague because you’re just icky.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Just because you’re all Carneys and united against the Rubes doesn’t mean there isn’t division in the ranks. You’re all like a big dysfunctional family, and you’re the scapegoat black sheep, you lucky Geek you. The only good thing about being the GEEK, is that nobody considers you a threat or even a person! Plus you’re usually sprawled out someplace either drunk or asleep. This means while others assume you’re out of it and not competent enough to do anything except eat disgusting things, you’ve over heard some interesting information in your half conscious state of mind. Things that will probably come in handy in the ensuing power struggle you’re about to become embroiled in. So if you keep your head down, use animal cunning, watch your ass and you might just come through this alive. And maybe, just maybe you’ll finally get some respect. Maybe… > You cast of Characters (The Sideshows) Normals Normals is really a generic term for anyone who isn’t a Freak, but its often used to describe Carneys who aren’t deformed in some way and make a living in the Carnival utilizing some skill. (“Normals” who aren’t Carneys are usually just called “Rubes” or at best “Townies”) The core of these include acrobats, tightrope walkers, game barkers and the like. Normals as always out number the Freaks, but they aren’t nearly as unified, though Randal’s been trying to, in his effort to gain power. Nearly all Normals find you revolting and run you off if you get near, either verbally OR physically. Freaks This is a generic term for Carneys who have some sort of genetic condition that separates them from the rest of society. They can range from being very hairy, have no limbs, or have a few extra ones. In any case they are one of the major carnival draws. Some learn a few skills to go along with their deformities, but it’s mainly their horrific appearance that they rely upon. Despite all their different forms, they are very unified and support the Ring Master for giving them a place in the world. Jasmine the bearded lady tends to be the Matriarch of them all Freaks are a little more tolerant of you, since they’ve also suffered scorn and ridicule too, but you’re not REALLY one of them and as such you’re still an outsider and aren’t really welcomed around them. Midgets Not quite normals and not quite freaks, but the midgets are the ones who get things done in the Carnival and keep it running. (Though everyone else refers to them as Midgets, they prefer to refer to each other as Dwarves) They make up a majority of the labor force of the Carnival, a thankless job to be sure, and one that went unappreciated until Charley arrived. Now they make a lot more thanks to his “extra curricular” activities. They are pretty much unified, though they have mixed feelings about their self appointed leader. Midgets are overworked at the best of times, so when a smelly disgusting Geek like you is around they really don’t have the tolerance or patience for it. Bob is about the only one who’ll even talk to you, the rest tend to kick you in the shins and chase you off with their work tools while shouting obscenities. Pinheads An interesting sub-society within the Freak community. They all tend to hang out together constantly laughing and babbling nonsensical ramblings. Though they may appear childlike and carefree, those qualities can mask a mean spiritedness sometimes. You’d know since you’ve experienced this meanness first hand. Clowns Pure evil wrapped up in the guise of something supposedly funny and harmless. While technically classified as “normals”, there isn’t anything normal about them. One wonders if they’re actually even human underneath that make up. All intelligent right thinking people stay away from them. Even YOU stay away from clowns!<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Just because you’re all Carneys and united against the Rubes doesn’t mean there isn’t division in the ranks. You’re all like a big dysfunctional family, and you’re the scapegoat black sheep, you lucky Geek you. The only good thing about being the GEEK, is that nobody considers you a threat or even a person! Plus you’re usually sprawled out someplace either drunk or asleep. This means while others assume you’re out of it and not competent enough to do anything except eat disgusting things, you’ve over heard some interesting information in your half conscious state of mind. Things that will probably come in handy in the ensuing power struggle you’re about to become embroiled in. So if you keep your head down, use animal cunning, watch your ass and you might just come through this alive. And maybe, just maybe you’ll finally get some respect. Maybe… > Back to the story Geek: 1. A person regarded as foolish or clumsy. 2. A person who is single-minded or accomplished in scientific or technical pursuits, but is felt to be socially inept. 3. A carnival performer whose show consists of bizarre and disgusting acts. Your breath stinks from the foul things you’ve been eating and the rest of you stinks from not bathing in who knows when. Your head hurts from the cheap moonshine you’ve been getting “paid” in. Rubes often throw stuff at you and spit on you. Most of the other Carnies find you utterly repulsive and avoid you, a couple of them just abuse you for various reasons. On a good day, only the Pinheads come to your cell and taunt you with their gibbering laughs and mongoloid chatter. You have absolutely no worth as a human being, you get no respect from others, and you have no respect for yourself…and why should you? You are the lowest form of life in Carney society. You’re not a real performer; what you do can’t really be considered a skill. You’re not even a real freak. At least a deformed freak can evoke an emotion of horror, or pity, or even admiration for overcoming their condition. You weren’t born “this way”. You chose to do this. All you evoke is disgust and revulsion. At best you’re laughed at and not in the good way like those pervert clowns you work with. Fuck all that “Wildman of Borneo” shit that the Ringmaster tries to tell all the rubes. You’re little more than a bum with a “job”. A degrading job that involves you to debase yourself, all for the amusement and shock value of others, but hey it keeps a “roof” over your head and you pleasantly drunk enough to just barely forget how utterly pathetic your life is. You are the GEEK. You wake up to a bucket of piss being thrown in your face. Not the first time and certainly won’t be the last. “You like the taste of that Geek? Get up Geek! The Ring Master wants to see you!” Charley orders then he throws the empty bucket at your head. The comical sound it makes hitting your skull and the pain it causes makes Charley laugh. Then he jabs you a couple times with his pointed stick. Midgets can be so cruel…<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You had always enjoyed your alone time. You could spend hours upon hours at the lake in the woods near your house. You love the serene glass-like surface of the lake and the wild flowers along the bank. Everyday you go out and lay a blanket in the grass and lie there for hours upon hours. The lake was far enough into the woods that it felt like your own little universe there. The lake was very small, and willow trees draped their dangling branches around the edges of the lake. But the main reason you loved it there so much, you could never quite explain. There was an energy to the place. It felt powerful and magical to you, like it belonged in another world. Today you decide to bring a book with you to the lake to read. Every day after work you change out of your uniform and take your hair out of it's harsh bun. You feel that the peacefulness of the lake and the stress you associate with your job do not mix. Then you grab your old ratty blanket, the one that has spent every day with you at the lake. You always keep it in the closet right by your front door. You spend very little time in your house when you get home from work. What you really look forward to at the end of each day is your little hideaway. Even though you have been there thousands of times before, you always rush to get out the door. But today felt different. While you usually rush there because you love the lake, today it felt like you were practically being pulled to the lake by a force outside you control. With your book in your hand and the blanket under your arm, you are finally ready to leave. You turn around quickly before leaving to see if you left anything behind. You scan what you can see of your house and realize you are all ready to go. Little do you know you might not ever see your home again. > You go through the door You close your door quietly and take a deep breath of fresh air. Day after day you are always astounded by the beauty of nature. You feel more at home in the outdoors than anywhere else in the world. You begin walking to the edge of the woods, just to the right of your house. You don't bother locking the door, your house is in the middle of nowhere and you don't have to worry about anyone breaking in. You walk into the woods and take the path you have worn down from constantly traveling it, taking you straight to the lake. As you walk into the area, you feel as if you have entered a small sanctuary, a peaceful area hidden away from the chaos of the world. You sigh deeply. You feel content as you lay your blanket down at the lake's edge. There is a patch of grass that is permanently squished down from you putting your blanket there every day. You place your book gently on your blanket. You are very excited to read this book. It is about what certain mythologies believe about animals. It is like reading fairy tales, but the animals are real and you can see them everyday! Sort of like this place, now that you think about it. It has always felt like something out of a fairy tale. In fact, you have always thought this place was.... otherworldly. You've never said it outright, but there is something about this place. Not just that it is your getaway, you favorite place in the world. Theres something else... Something you can't explain. It feels even more so today in particular. You brush off this strong sensation and sit on your blanket. You are excited to dive into your book. You pick it up and open it to the first page when something on the other end of the lake catches your eye. You know this place like the back of your hand and whatever is over there certainly was not when you visited here yesterday. You want to go see what it is, but, you also want to read your book. > You go see whats at the other side of the lake You begin walking towards the thing you saw in the water. Your book and blanket soon forgotten, you move quickly along the bank. As you get closer the thing you saw before becomes more clear. You think there is something in the water. After all the time you spend here everyday after work, you know that something is out of the ordinary. Whatever is in the water up ahead was not there before. You get closer and closer. Your heart is pounding in your chest from excitement and you pick up your pace, walking quickly to the edge of the lake where the water is. When you are finally close enough to see what it is you stop in your tracks. It's... a hole. How could that be possible? You creep closer to the edge, in awe of this. "What the hell..." you whisper to yourself. You get on your knees at the bank of the lake and lean over as far as you can, trying to get a glimpse down the hole. You can't quite see down it so you get a little bit closer, the water from the lake soaking the end of your dress completely. You are now leaning out so far, you can barely keep yourself steady. But you are desperate to see what is inside the hole in the water. Finally! You have leaned over as far as you possibly can and caught a glimpse of... well, you don't really understand what you are seeing. You can see trees and flowers on the glassy surface of the water but they do not seem to match your surroundings. You get so caught up in trying to comprehend what you are seeing that you lose your balance and fall and fall ...and fall you go down the hole in the water > Down the hole in the water There is rushing water all around you. You scream and scream but you know no one can hear you. Terror creeps in to your body as you continue to fall. You feel so afraid that you get lightheaded. Water continues to rush down the hole all around you, then... nothing. The terror was too much for you and you pass out. > The other side You slowly awaken from your sleep. You remember passing out from terror as you fell through the hole. Now, however, you can feel grass beneath you and know you have stopped falling. You peel you eyes open and check your surroundings. You see you are lying in the middle of a meadow with long, wild grass and bright orange and purple flowers blowing in a warm breeze. There is crumbled stone walls throughout the meadow where you assume a maze or something similar used to stand. Even though the air is warm you still shiver. You look down at yourself and realize you are still soaking wet from falling through the hole in the water. You look up and see a wooded area surrounding you just beyond the ruins. In the dusk of the setting sun, you catch a glimpse of something near the edge of the woods. You stand and slowly walk through the crumbled stone to the area where you saw something. The grass tickles your feet and you realize you are barefoot. As you reach the end of the woods you see a small sleek red fox and a gentle spotted fawn. They stand a fair distance from each other, as if repelled by one another's presence. Their eyes, both pairs staring at you intently, seem to hold more than a regular animals. The fox and the fawn seem strange to you, but then again, you don't even know where you are right now. You wonder if you are even still on earth. Suddenly, the fox and the fawn both run in different directions. The fox scurries straight into a dense area of the woods. The fawn goes the other direction and turns it's head back to you, right before stepping into the woods. You figure your best bet is to follow one of them. > You follow the fox You decide to follow the fox. The fox has already run off into the woods. You are desperate to catch up to the fox. Something about the animal attracts your attention. Perhaps it is the intelligence in it's eyes or the way it dashed off into the forest, like it knew you would follow. Whatever the reason, you are enticed to follow the fox. You run and run, panting and struggling to catch up to the fox. The rough terrain leaves cuts and scrapes on your feet. You run through a dense part of the forest. The fox can dodge objects easily but you find yourself struggling to jump over fallen branches and avoid roots on the forest floor. It is tough work keeping up with the fox. After ages of running, you feel like you cannot run for much longer. You are about to give up and let the fox get away when you see the fox run into a huge hollow tree and disappear. You slow down and catch your breath while inspecting the tree. It has a massive trunk; you could fit a king size bed inside. An archway acts as an opening into the hollow tree. You walk through and find a massive hole in the ground. Great... another hole. The fox must have jumped down it. You have no choice but to follow. > You into the fox hole You prepare yourself and leap into the dark fox hole. You do not know how far you have to fall since it is pitch black, but you do your best to prepare yourself for whatever waits at the bottom. You fall about six feet before you feel yourself land on something metal and slick. You begin to slide down. You realize the way into the fox is hole is on a slide. As you pick up speed, your hair is brushed back in the wind. The trip is exhilarating. When you think you could not possibly go deeper underground, you see a light below you. As you zip closer and closer to it, you see that you are quickly approaching the end of the slide and that the fox is waiting for you at the bottom. You reach the end of the slide and the fox takes off again. You run after it. As you pass through the long tunnel you try to figure out where the light source is coming from, it seems there is something covering the walls of the tunnel that glows brightly, providing a light as bring as if it were a sunny day. The fox turns a corner and disappears. You dash to catch it and race around the corner. You don't make it very far down the tunnel before you crash into something. You fall back and crash to the floor. "Whoa there!" You hear a male voice say. As you regain your bearings you look up and see a man with dark hair and olive skin laughing down at you. He wears a red sleeveless shirt with a mandarin collar and black pants. He gives you his hand to help you up and you take it. "Where did the fox go?" you ask. He only laughs as a response and turns away from you to walk farther down the tunnel. You gasp as you see a long fox tail coming from his tailbone. "Follow me." He says, "Don't worry, your fox hasn't gone anywhere. I'm right here." "How... what?" you say, confused. He turns around and glances at you, his dark eyes look mischievous. He laughs again. "Im a shape shifter, love." He swishes his tail. "I shift into a fox, if that wasn't already obvious." You are amazed by him. "Wow." is all you say. "Come on now, I'm taking you to the leader of the fox clan, you'll see where we all live soon enough. I'm Tomas, by the way." You stay silent and continue down the tunnel with Tomas. > The Great Cave "Welcome to the home of the fox clan. We call it the Great Cave." Tomas waves his hand to gesture to the massive cavern in front of you. Your jaw drops. In front of you is a huge area of underground space, with various tunnels leading in all different directions from the cavern. In the center of the cavern is a huge stone made of the same glowing substance you saw earlier. The massive open space was filled with members of the fox clan, all wearing clothing similar to Tomas'. To the left you see what look like boxing rings with many people fighting in them. Next to the rings, on the wall, is an impressive display of daggers. To the right is a recessed wall that is filled top to bottom with books. The cavern is breathtaking. As a book lover, the massive library was a welcome sight. However, you are not too sure about the daggers and the boxing rings. "This way." Tomas says. You both walk around the massive glowing stone. On the other side is a tunnel that is much bigger than the others. A fox face is carved into the stone above the tunnel. You follow Tomas inside. You go through a few twists and turns and finally reach a huge pair of wooden doors. Tomas throws them open without any hesitation. "Kitsune! We have a visitor!" You walk into a room littered with books. Sitting atop a raised area was a man lounging on a massive couch piled with fur. He jumps up at the word 'visitor.' He has blonde hair and is wearing what looks like a crown of twigs woven together, with pieces of glowing rock stuck haphazardly inside. His blue eyes light up when he looks at you. "Well hello small fox. I see you have chosen our path. A very wise decision, if you ask me." He walks down and off the raised platform and walks over to you. He lifts your hair off your shoulder and observes it. Then he walks 360 degrees around you, surveying you. You do not like being stared at so intently. "What are you doing?" You say to him, slightly irritated. "Feisty!" he says. "I like you already." He climbs back up onto his couch. He smiles mischievously. He has a glint in his eye when he looks at you. "Come sit with me. I'm sure you're wondering what the hell is going on." "Yes I am!" You say. "I have a lot of questions that need answers." Kitsune looks you in the eye, suddenly serious. "I will answer your questions soon. But first I must ask you... Do you wish to stay here and live in the Great Cave with my fox clan?" > You say "Yes. I will stay with the fox clan" Kitsune smiles at you. He has an enticing smile and you relax a bit more in his company. "Excellent choice, small fox. You are now one of us. Now, let me tell you a bit about the fox clan. The Great Cave is home to the fox clan. We are a breed of shape shifters that can transform into foxes. You made the decision to come to join us, rather than the fawn clan, who shape shift into deer. While they are more rigid and rule-oriented with a strong root in spirituality and beliefs, we tend to be more chaotic and some of us tend to be quite the tricksters. We have had a long rivalry with the fawn, but we are currently living in an age of peace, with no wars between the clans." You nod, this all is very fascinating to you. Kitsune rubs his hands together. "So," he begins, "ask me what you want to know." > You asking questions You are finally ready to get some answers. > You where are you\? "You are in the Other Realm. It is a world that exists side by side with your realm. We have had a long history of people and things from your realm popping up in our realm. I don't think many of us make it to your realm, though. I have only heard of a few cases. It is more rare to leave here than to come here. Our realm is very different from yours. We are simply a forest, that stretches on for who knows how long. No one has ever traveled to the edge of the woods. Sadly, the exact "where" of this place cannot really be explained, just know that this is your realms neighbour." > You how did you get here? "You got here through a fairy hole. They pop up randomly in your realm. They are like passageways to here, The Other Realm. I don't know where your fairy hole appeared in your realm, but every fairy hole over there always goes to the ruins, the place where you first met the fox and the fawn and made your decision. I don't really know the scientific explanation to it but you fell through a fairy hole and here you are."<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Welcome to the home of the fox clan. We call it the Great Cave." Tomas waves his hand to gesture to the massive cavern in front of you. Your jaw drops. In front of you is a huge area of underground space, with various tunnels leading in all different directions from the cavern. In the center of the cavern is a huge stone made of the same glowing substance you saw earlier. The massive open space was filled with members of the fox clan, all wearing clothing similar to Tomas'. To the left you see what look like boxing rings with many people fighting in them. Next to the rings, on the wall, is an impressive display of daggers. To the right is a recessed wall that is filled top to bottom with books. The cavern is breathtaking. As a book lover, the massive library was a welcome sight. However, you are not too sure about the daggers and the boxing rings. "This way." Tomas says. You both walk around the massive glowing stone. On the other side is a tunnel that is much bigger than the others. A fox face is carved into the stone above the tunnel. You follow Tomas inside. You go through a few twists and turns and finally reach a huge pair of wooden doors. Tomas throws them open without any hesitation. "Kitsune! We have a visitor!" You walk into a room littered with books. Sitting atop a raised area was a man lounging on a massive couch piled with fur. He jumps up at the word 'visitor.' He has blonde hair and is wearing what looks like a crown of twigs woven together, with pieces of glowing rock stuck haphazardly inside. His blue eyes light up when he looks at you. "Well hello small fox. I see you have chosen our path. A very wise decision, if you ask me." He walks down and off the raised platform and walks over to you. He lifts your hair off your shoulder and observes it. Then he walks 360 degrees around you, surveying you. You do not like being stared at so intently. "What are you doing?" You say to him, slightly irritated. "Feisty!" he says. "I like you already." He climbs back up onto his couch. He smiles mischievously. He has a glint in his eye when he looks at you. "Come sit with me. I'm sure you're wondering what the hell is going on." "Yes I am!" You say. "I have a lot of questions that need answers." Kitsune looks you in the eye, suddenly serious. "I will answer your questions soon. But first I must ask you... Do you wish to stay here and live in the Great Cave with my fox clan?" > You say "No. I want to search for the fawn." Kitsune flops back onto the couch. "Oh well. Go off then, search for your silly fawn" > The search You walk and walk through the woods. You start to worry that you have become lost, maybe you should gave stayed with the clan after all. It is too late to think like that anyway, you have made your decision and must stick to it. After a long time walking aimlessly through the woods, you stumble upon a trail. You do not know what direction to go in because the trail stretches two ways, with no indicator of where each way goes. You can choose to go left or right. What will you do? > You go left You decide to go left. You walk quickly down the pathway. As you walk farther along, you see the bushes around you rustle, like something is moving through them. It is too dark and you cannot make out what is rustling the bushes. You begin to feel on edge. You pick up your pace even more, hoping you will find what you are looking for soon. You hear a wolf howl, joined by a few others. It is so dark now and the weak light coming from the moon and the stars do not break through the dense leaves of the trees above you. You cannot see a single thing. It takes all of your concentration to stay on the path. You become very afraid. You are vulnerable all alone in the dark. Finally, after what felt like the whole night walking, a faint light breaks the darkness around you. You are so relieved to have found something! You sprint to the source of the light. You run and run until you finally break through the forest and right into a clearing. A huge fire is in front of you and men and women with wolf tails howl and scream while dancing around the fire. Their dance is vicious and rough. They wear only animal skin around their waists that cover from their hips to their upper thighs. The are like the other clan, but seem more wild. All their chests are bare with patterns painted in what looks like blood across their chests. You realize you have taken the wrong path and have stumbled upon what seems to be a wolf clan. You are absolutely terrified at this blood thirsty clan and their savage dancing. You try to back away from the area, but a female wolf has already seen you. She dances through the crowd and points you out to a man who is wearing a headdress made out of scraps of fur and teeth. You turn to run but three more wolf people are there, cornering you. The wolf man wearing the headdress, who is clearly their leader, stops the other wolf's dance. He looks at you with a murderous glint in his eye. "A Sacrifice!" He howls to his clan. > You death The clan rushes you and you are torn apart by them. You should have never left the clan. It is too late now though, you're already dead.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You walk and walk through the woods. You start to worry that you have become lost, maybe you should gave stayed with the clan after all. It is too late to think like that anyway, you have made your decision and must stick to it. After a long time walking aimlessly through the woods, you stumble upon a trail. You do not know what direction to go in because the trail stretches two ways, with no indicator of where each way goes. You can choose to go left or right. What will you do? > You go right You decide to go right. You walk a along the path and find yourself back at where you first woke up. You stumble over a piece of crumbling stone and fall. You see a quick movement in the corner of your eye. The noise of you falling has attracted the attention of something. You start to feel fear creep into you. You hope whatever is lurking just beyond your sight is not something that will hurt you. You freeze, waiting nervously for whatever is out there to reveal itself. From behind one of the crumbled stone walls to your right, you hear rustling noises. Slowly, the fawn appears from behind the wall. Thank God! You finally found the fawn. You slowly approach it, with your hand out in front of you. The fawn nestles it's head into the palm of your hand then steps back and looks at you with it's large eyes. You both stand there for a moment before the fawn turns and slowly leads you through the forest. You walk for a long time before coming to a large field in the middle of the woods. In the center of the field is a circle of willow trees. Their long vines cover everything inside, so you cannot see what lies inside the circle. The fawn dashes off through the willow vines, leaving you behind. What is behind the willow trees? Do you even want to find out? > You go through the willow tree vines You reach your hand out and sweep away the vines blocking your path. You walk in with the fawn and stop dead in your tracks. The sight you see before you is unbelievable! There is a huge bonfire in the center of the willow tree circle. You look up and see many rope bridges passing between the willow trees, making a large network of passages to little tree houses built in the branches of the trees. The trees are so large that many tree houses can fit into them. In front of some tree houses and in between some of the rope bridges are little areas on wooden platforms, with railings all around them. Looking up, you see that the buildings and bridges go up very far and at the very top you can see the stars in the night sky. Down where the bonfire is you notice there are many different areas. There is a place that looks like it is set up as a kitchen of some sorts, another area appears to be an archery range, and one area appears to be a gathering place, as there are logs set out to act as benches. You are completely astonished by this fortress! But what you are most amazed by was the creatures that inhabit it. The creatures are everywhere. They look human, but they are all incredibly slender and delicate looking, each one with large, round doe eyes. The most distinguished feature they all share though is the white deer antlers coming from their foreheads. The men have larger ones while the women have smaller. Some deer creatures dance around the fire, some talk among each other, and some shoot arrows on the archery range. They occupy the tree houses and walk on the rope bridges, filling the area with noise and movement. At this point you are terrified. You have never seen anything so strange in your life! You turn to run back through the willow trees but the fawn blocks your path. Then, right before your eyes, The fawn you followed to this place changes into one of the deer creatures. You choke on a scream and try to run past the deer creature. > You attempted Escape "STOP!" the deer creature yells, "what are you doing?" You are surprised to hear the creature speak and fall to the ground, dumbstruck. You continue to sit, your eyes fixed on the creature in front of you. He has large antlers like the rest of the deer creatures. He has light brown hair underneath his antlers and big, golden eyes. His chest is bare and covered in freckles. He wears loose pants and no shoes, as do most of the deer men. He looks down at you and seems unimpressed with your behavior. "You have chosen to follow me over the fox. Follow me, I am taking you to the leader of my clan." He grabs your arm and pulls you to your feet. "Clan?" You say, "What is this place? What do you mean I chose you?" He begins walking and you follow. You start up a ladder and go on to a rope bridge. You wonder if he will answer you. "My clan leader will answer your questions." You continue walking higher and higher up, until you reach the top level of rope bridges. The deer man does not say anything else to you. At the top of the fortress is the largest tree house you have seen, around twice the size of the others. More vines are draped over it's entrance and the deer man pulls them back and motions you through the door. Inside, a woman wearing a long, thin gown sits on top of a throne made of twigs. Her antlers are strung with beads and feathers, making her antlers look like a piece of art. She has long white hair that reaches her knees, large grey eyes, and the palest skin you have ever seen. "Welcome." She says to you. You do not know whether or not to respond. "Take a seat. My name is Emerald" she motions to a log in front of her. You sit. "I'm sure you have many questions about this place." You nod and start to speak. She interrupts you. "Before i can answer your questions, you must answer on of mine. Are you willing to make Willow Haven your home in this realm?" You ponder her question for a long time. Willow Haven seems to be a safe place, but you don't really know for sure. The fawn you traveled here with was gentle with you in your travels. Staying seems to be a good idea. However, there could be a better place out there somewhere. Maybe you should leave and search for the fox. > You say "I will stay at Willow Haven" Emerald smiles. "You have made a good decision, little fawn. You are now part of our clan." You smile back. "Let me tell you about this place." You lean forward, eager to learn more. "Willow Haven is home to the fawn clan. We are a breed of shape shifters that can transform into fawns. You made the decision to come to join us, rather than the fox clan, who shape shift into foxes. While they are more chaotic and tricky, we tend to stick to our rules and beliefs. We have had a long rivalry with the foxes, but we are currently living in an age of peace, with no wars between the clans." You absorb this silently. "Do you have any questions for me, little fawn?" You nod. "I definitely do." > You getting answers "Alright." She says. "Ask away." You are finally ready for some answers. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"STOP!" the deer creature yells, "what are you doing?" You are surprised to hear the creature speak and fall to the ground, dumbstruck. You continue to sit, your eyes fixed on the creature in front of you. He has large antlers like the rest of the deer creatures. He has light brown hair underneath his antlers and big, golden eyes. His chest is bare and covered in freckles. He wears loose pants and no shoes, as do most of the deer men. He looks down at you and seems unimpressed with your behavior. "You have chosen to follow me over the fox. Follow me, I am taking you to the leader of my clan." He grabs your arm and pulls you to your feet. "Clan?" You say, "What is this place? What do you mean I chose you?" He begins walking and you follow. You start up a ladder and go on to a rope bridge. You wonder if he will answer you. "My clan leader will answer your questions." You continue walking higher and higher up, until you reach the top level of rope bridges. The deer man does not say anything else to you. At the top of the fortress is the largest tree house you have seen, around twice the size of the others. More vines are draped over it's entrance and the deer man pulls them back and motions you through the door. Inside, a woman wearing a long, thin gown sits on top of a throne made of twigs. Her antlers are strung with beads and feathers, making her antlers look like a piece of art. She has long white hair that reaches her knees, large grey eyes, and the palest skin you have ever seen. "Welcome." She says to you. You do not know whether or not to respond. "Take a seat. My name is Emerald" she motions to a log in front of her. You sit. "I'm sure you have many questions about this place." You nod and start to speak. She interrupts you. "Before i can answer your questions, you must answer on of mine. Are you willing to make Willow Haven your home in this realm?" You ponder her question for a long time. Willow Haven seems to be a safe place, but you don't really know for sure. The fawn you traveled here with was gentle with you in your travels. Staying seems to be a good idea. However, there could be a better place out there somewhere. Maybe you should leave and search for the fox. > You say "I want to leave and search for the fox" She sighs. She looks disappointed with your choice. "Very well, it is time for you to leave. Rowan will escort you to the exit of Willow Haven." You turn and leave the tree house. Rowan, the fawn who brought you to this place, looks sad but takes you to the bottom of their home and pulls the vines of the willow tree to the side allowing you to leave Willow Haven. "It is too bad you did not join my people." Rowan looks you in the eyes and you feel a little bad for deciding to leave. "You would have made a strong and beautiful fawn." You blush at that. While you have decided to leave, you appreciate that Rowan has taken care of you. "Goodbye Rowan." You say. He nods and reaches for your hand and kisses it. "Good luck." You walk through the willow vines and Rowan drops them, closing you off from Willow Haven. While it was a nice place, you feel like you belong with the fox, so you set off to search for it. Even though it is night time, you walk confidently into the woods, eager to start your search for the fox. > The search You walk and walk through the woods. You start to worry that you have become lost... maybe you should gave stayed with the clan after all. It is too late to think like that anyway, you have made your decision and must stick to it. After a long time walking aimlessly through the woods, you stumble upon a trail. You do not know what direction to go in because the trail stretches two ways, with no indicator of where each way goes. You can choose to go left or right. What will you do? > You go right You decide to go right. You walk quickly down the pathway. As you walk farther along, you see the bushes around you rustle, like something is moving through them. It is too dark and you cannot make out what is rustling the bushes. You begin to feel on edge. You pick up your pace even more, hoping you will find the fox soon. You hear a wolf howl, joined by a few others. It is so dark now that the weak light coming from the moon and stars do not break through the dense leaves of the trees above you. You cannot see a single thing. It takes all of your concentration to stay on the path. You become very afraid, you are vulnerable all alone in the dark. Finally, after what felt like the whole night walking, a faint light breaks the darkness around you. You are so relieved to have found something! You sprint to the source of the light. You run and run until you finally break through the forest and right into a clearing. A huge fire is in front of you and men and women with wolf tails howl and scream while dancing around the fire. Their dance is vicious and rough. They wear only animal skin around their waists that cover from their hips to their upper thighs. The are like the other clan, but seem more wild. All their chests are bare with patterns painted in what looks like blood across their chests. You realize you have taken the wrong path and have stumbled upon what seems to be a wolf clan. You are absolutely terrified at this blood thirsty clan and their savage dancing. You try to back away from the area, but a female wolf has already seen you. She dances through the crowd and points you out to a man who is wearing a headdress made out of scraps of fur and teeth. You turn to run but three more wolf people are there, cornering you. The wolf man wearing the headdress, who is clearly their leader, stops the other wolf's dance. He looks at you with a murderous glint in his eye. "A Sacrifice!" He howls to his clan.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You walk and walk through the woods. You start to worry that you have become lost... maybe you should gave stayed with the clan after all. It is too late to think like that anyway, you have made your decision and must stick to it. After a long time walking aimlessly through the woods, you stumble upon a trail. You do not know what direction to go in because the trail stretches two ways, with no indicator of where each way goes. You can choose to go left or right. What will you do? > You go left You decide to go left. You only have to follow the path for a short time before you come to a clearing. In the center is the red fox you saw before. You found him! Good thing you didn't go down that other path. The red fox is curled up in a ball, asleep. You approach it quietly, not wanting to wake it up. You get very close to the fox and reach your hand out to nudge it and wake it up. Before you can touch the fox, it's eyes snap open and it darts out of the clearing, and you have no choice but to run after it. You run and run, panting and struggling to catch up to the fox. The rough terrain leaves cuts and scrapes on your feet. You run through a dense part of the forest. The fox can dodge objects easily but you find yourself struggling to jump over fallen branches and avoid roots on the forest floor. It is tough work keeping up with the fox. After ages of running, you feel like you cannot run for much longer. You are about to give up and let the fox get away when you see the fox run into a huge hollow tree and disappear. You slow down and catch your breath while inspecting the tree. It has a massive trunk, You could fit a king size bed inside. An archway acts as an opening into the hollow tree. You walk through and find a massive hole in the ground. Great... another hole. The fox must have jumped down it. You have no choice but to follow. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You decide to go right. You walk a along the path and find yourself back at where you first woke up. You stumble over a piece of crumbling stone and fall. You see a quick movement in the corner of your eye. The noise of you falling has attracted the attention of something. You start to feel fear creep into you. You hope whatever is lurking just beyond your sight is not something that will hurt you. You freeze, waiting nervously for whatever is out there to reveal itself. From behind one of the crumbled stone walls to your right, you hear rustling noises. Slowly, the fawn appears from behind the wall. Thank God! You finally found the fawn. You slowly approach it, with your hand out in front of you. The fawn nestles it's head into the palm of your hand then steps back and looks at you with it's large eyes. You both stand there for a moment before the fawn turns and slowly leads you through the forest. You walk for a long time before coming to a large field in the middle of the woods. In the center of the field is a circle of willow trees. Their long vines cover everything inside, so you cannot see what lies inside the circle. The fawn dashes off through the willow vines, leaving you behind. What is behind the willow trees? Do you even want to find out? > You wait outside the the circle of trees You wait what feels like ages outside the circle of trees. You are too afraid to go to the other side and see what is there. You decide to lie down in the grass and relax as it turns to night time. You start to wonder where you are. Did you end up in some alternate reality or another dimension? You couldn't have fallen into the hole in the water and woken up in a meadow, it just doesn't make sense. You can't help but be apprehensive of this new world. Sure, the woods that you walked through with the fawn were gorgeous, but it seems to good to be true. You decide you must figure out how you came to be here and where exactly you are. You think deeply about your current situation. So deeply, in fact, that you do not even notice when the fawn comes up to you. It nudges your arm and you startle. The fawn was so silent you did not hear or see it sneak up on you. You stand. The fawn nudges you towards the circle of willow trees. You realize that going in there was your only option all along. You walk alongside the fawn once again, straight into the willow trees.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You slowly awaken from your sleep. You remember passing out from terror as you fell through the hole. Now, however, you can feel grass beneath you and know you have stopped falling. You peel you eyes open and check your surroundings. You see you are lying in the middle of a meadow with long, wild grass and bright orange and purple flowers blowing in a warm breeze. There is crumbled stone walls throughout the meadow where you assume a maze or something similar used to stand. Even though the air is warm you still shiver. You look down at yourself and realize you are still soaking wet from falling through the hole in the water. You look up and see a wooded area surrounding you just beyond the ruins. In the dusk of the setting sun, you catch a glimpse of something near the edge of the woods. You stand and slowly walk through the crumbled stone to the area where you saw something. The grass tickles your feet and you realize you are barefoot. As you reach the end of the woods you see a small sleek red fox and a gentle spotted fawn. They stand a fair distance from each other, as if repelled by one another's presence. Their eyes, both pairs staring at you intently, seem to hold more than a regular animals. The fox and the fawn seem strange to you, but then again, you don't even know where you are right now. You wonder if you are even still on earth. Suddenly, the fox and the fawn both run in different directions. The fox scurries straight into a dense area of the woods. The fawn goes the other direction and turns it's head back to you, right before stepping into the woods. You figure your best bet is to follow one of them. > You follow the fawn You decide to follow the fawn. You race to catch up to it. When you finally reach the running fawn, it slows to a walk and gazes at you. The fawn looks more intelligent than your average animal. It walks alongside you, pushing it's head into your thigh when it wants you to make a turn. You travel at a leisurely pace with the creature as it slowly gets darker and darker. After a long time, what feels like a couple of hours, you notice the trees start to thin. As you walk farther you suddenly come to a large field in the middle of the woods. The fawn takes off into the center of the field, where a large circle of willow trees stands. The trees are impossibly tall, much taller than the average tree, and their branches sweep so low they touch the ground. It forms a curtain around whatever is inside the ring of willows. The fawn darts through the swinging vines. You think that you should probably follow the fawn, since it will soon be completely dark. However, you do not know what is on the other side of the willow trees. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You close your door quietly and take a deep breath of fresh air. Day after day you are always astounded by the beauty of nature. You feel more at home in the outdoors than anywhere else in the world. You begin walking to the edge of the woods, just to the right of your house. You don't bother locking the door, your house is in the middle of nowhere and you don't have to worry about anyone breaking in. You walk into the woods and take the path you have worn down from constantly traveling it, taking you straight to the lake. As you walk into the area, you feel as if you have entered a small sanctuary, a peaceful area hidden away from the chaos of the world. You sigh deeply. You feel content as you lay your blanket down at the lake's edge. There is a patch of grass that is permanently squished down from you putting your blanket there every day. You place your book gently on your blanket. You are very excited to read this book. It is about what certain mythologies believe about animals. It is like reading fairy tales, but the animals are real and you can see them everyday! Sort of like this place, now that you think about it. It has always felt like something out of a fairy tale. In fact, you have always thought this place was.... otherworldly. You've never said it outright, but there is something about this place. Not just that it is your getaway, you favorite place in the world. Theres something else... Something you can't explain. It feels even more so today in particular. You brush off this strong sensation and sit on your blanket. You are excited to dive into your book. You pick it up and open it to the first page when something on the other end of the lake catches your eye. You know this place like the back of your hand and whatever is over there certainly was not when you visited here yesterday. You want to go see what it is, but, you also want to read your book. > You read your book before investigating You open your book and dive in. You decide that you can investigate the lake later. For now, your book has captured your attention. The most interesting part of the book, you find, is the qualities that are associated with each animal. You find the section about foxes and the section about fawns. The Fox: The fox has always been associated with intelligence. Foxes are considered very clever animals. They can outwit most things and are prone to taking advantage of that fact. The fox is a symbol of wisdom and intelligence, however they often act like cunning, strategic, quick-thinking tricksters. Foxes are tricky animals and are very good at manipulating a situation. The fox is a beautiful and impressive animal. The Fawn: The fawn is a baby deer. It is a graceful and swift animal. The fawn is a strong yet delicate creature. It represents peace, innocence, spirituality, and grace. The fawn is an elegant and lovely creature. Many consider it a weak animal, but it is strong in its own unique way. It is fast and moves incredibly swiftly, and has a fierce determination. The fawn can sometimes be stubborn because it is strong in it's beliefs. You find this all very fascinating, but you only read these two sections before curiosity takes over. You cannot resist getting up and searching the lake for that strange thing you saw in the water. You close your book and place it back on the blanket. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>“Are you sure we should be doing this?” the nervous voice of your best friend, Harlan, asks. “Of course. I can do whatever I want," you reply. “What if the King finds out?” “Ha! So what? I’ll deal with him. There’s not much he can do to me that he hasn't tried before.” "It’s not you I’m worried about...” Though you wouldn’t admit it out loud, you know Harlan is right. Being the second-born prince of the Brelia Kingdom had its benefits. Unfortunately for Harlan, he wasn't afforded the same privilege and would likely be punished much more severely. You both sat at the bar in one of the city’s shadiest taverns, The Dancing Goat. Lately, you've become somewhat of a regular. You always wore rugged attire, but its patrons somehow assumed you were nobility, probably because you never argued on price like most everyone else. Once a week, The Goat held fights and it wasn't uncommon for the matches to end in death. After weeks of being thoroughly entertained in the crowd, you were ready to test yourself in the ring. “Hey, pretty boy. Are you ready to pop your cherry?” the announcer’s ragged voice resonates over the bar noise. You empty your cups contents. “If you have anyone skilled enough to challenge me.” "The brash ignorance of youth!" the announcer replies. "You're not the first soft face to wander in here. Most don't leave as pretty as they come in." "I intend to stay this good-looking for awhile, old man," you reply. A burly hand grabs your arm and drags you into the circle of a screaming mob. Looking around, you see the drunken faces of screaming gamblers. Standing your opposite and a full head higher, you instantly recognize your opponent. That’s the fucking champion, you think to yourself. His heavily muscled frame is marked with numerous scars. His eyes meet yours and upon sizing you up, the corner of his lip curls into a grin. "Ladies and gentlemen! Our very own nobleman has finally grown a pair. I just hope he remembered to clean his fingernails for the occasion (the crowd laughs). Who will welcome him to the pit? A man that needs no introduction. A man that has never been defeated. The champion, Carthus!" At the mention of his name, Carthus lets loose a primal scream and beats his chest in pride. The crowd roars into a frenzy at the sight of the monstrous champion. “Fight!” Carthus rushes at you like a crazed bull. You're unsuprised by his tactics and quickly get a feel for the man's combat prowess. An untrained man of his size, he depends upon superior strength to compensate for lack of technique. You easily side step his mad charge, tagging him with a right hook on the way past. Angered by the blow, Carthus turns to you and starts a second charge. You stand still until he’s almost upon you. Just before he reaches you, your arm underhooks his shoulder and you use his momentum to swing onto his back. You throw hard elbows to the back of his head to soften him up a bit. Dazed by your blows, you slip your arm underneath his chin and lock the choke with both arms. He bucks and grabs at you with both hands in attempt to throw you off. Holding with all your strength, you press your body into his and wrap your legs around his massive frame to keep your center of gravity even with his. “Arghh!” you yell as Carthus bucks and flails around the ring. After a few moments, the lack of air gets to him and you feel his body begin to go limp. His body falls to the ground with an earth-shaking thud. You're careful not to be squished by the falling giant. “Victory! Nobleman!” “Pour me another drink and bring on the next challenger!” you shout to the cheering crowd. > The Next Morning You feel the events of last night as you wake up. The massive bed, filled with pillows and silk sheets, offers little relief to your pulsing headache. Natalie sure as hell enjoys it though. You didn’t exactly plan for things with the house-servant to escalate this far. The two of you were childhood friends ever since her mother became a handmaiden to your mother, Queen Laurine. “Nat,” you gently nudge her awake. “Think you could scoot over a bit to give me more blanket?” With a soft moan she shifts her weight, loosening slack on the covers. She finishes the movement by pressing her bare skin against yours. Overwhelmed by her soft skin and aroma, you briefly forget about your headache and parched throat. Just as you make your move, someone knocks on the door. You ignore it, but another knock echoes in the room. Cursing, you grab a robe from the floor and make your way to the bedroom door. The morning coolness stings your bare feet on the marble floor. Sunlight shining through the sheer, satin drapes reminds you again of the headache. Creaking the door open, you see one of the house servants. “Samuel, what are you doing here?” you ask. “Prince, you are required in the court,” he replies. “What do they want? They rarely ask for me.” “Not sure, prince. It sounds important though. All the upper nobility are there including Baron Reginald and Duke Kane.” “Fine. Inform them I'll be there shortly.” With a nod, Samuel turns and walks down the hall. You slam the door shut, completely waking Natalie up in the process. “What — you’re already leaving me?” she playfully whines. “Sorry, Nat. It's a shame their precious first-born, Urijah, is away otherwise they’d summon him instead. It must be important if they’re not willing to wait for his return.” “Well don’t take too long. You and I have unfinished business here.” Fully exposing herself, she slides out from beneath the covers. Her hair length is almost enough to conceal her chest. You smile, thankful it wasn't grown out more. “You must be on guard when approaching the court.” she warns gliding closer towards you. “Dangerous people seek to occupy places of power.” With her final word she reaches for a dagger on the nightstand. The blade makes a shrill sound as its razor sharp edge is revealed. In a quick motion, she thrusts the point towards your throat. Despite your poor condition, instinct takes over. Ducking from the thrust, you grab her hand around the hilt and twist backwards, forcing the dagger from her hand and pinning her against the wall. “Dangerous people are everywhere,” you whisper from behind.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You are an immigrant travelling along the Oregon Trail to California, joining the thousands of settlers who are crossing America to the rich fertile lands of Oregon and California. Three months of journeying alone finds you in Fort Bridger, the last outpost on the Oregon Trail until you come to California. An explorer named Lansford Hastings recommends that settlers travelling to California leave the Oregon Trail here and follow a route known as Hasting’s Cut-Off, a shortcut across the Salt Lake Desert and Sierra Nevada Mountains that will save hundreds of miles of travelling. Jim Bridger, a legendary explorer and owner of the trading post Fort Bridger, also recommends the route to the last party of settlers to arrive before you: a group of eighty-seven people led by two brothers called George and Jacob Donner. Hastings left Fort Bridger a week ago, escorting another party through Hastings Cut-Off and though you are disappointed to have missed him you decide to join the Donner Party who are also taking the route. It will prove to be the worst decision of your life. On the last day of July the Donner Party leaves Fort Bridger and you leave with them, driving your wagon piled high with provisions. You travel over the hills and valleys of the Wasatch Mountains until after a week a letter is discovered tied to a sage bush at the mouth of a canyon. It is from Hastings and advises against going down the canyon as it is rocky and might damage the wagons. He suggests that any immigrants following should send some people on fast horses to catch up with him so he can give specific directions about the route ahead. Three men: James Reed (a man with a strong personality and one of the most respected members of the party), Charles Stanton (Another strong personality in the party who is travelling to California on his own initiative) and William Pike (An engineer and one of the cleverest men in the group) are chosen to perform the dangerous task of travelling across unfamiliar country to try and catch up with Hastings. You can either volunteer to accompany them or remain camped with the Donner Party. What do you do? > You ride ahead Riding hard for three days with your companions you cover a great deal of distance before finally catching up with Hastings and a large wagon party of a few hundred settlers on the shores of the great Salt Lake. By the time the four of you catch up with him you are all exhausted and your horses are close to collapse. Lansford Hastings is a strong-jawed man with a rapidly receding hairline and despite his note he is surprised to see you. While Charles Stanton and William Pike rest their horses you and James Reed trade your horses for two fresh ones from some of the settlers with Hastings and ride with him to the summit of a nearby mountain where Hastings explains the best direction to travel across the Canyon’s wooded slopes and promises to continue leaving messages. Reed is keen to ride ahead and get back to the Donner Party to get them moving along this but both Pike and Stanton’s horses are tired. Reed proposes to split up: he’ll ride ahead back to the Party while Stanton and Pike follow behind. What do you do? > You ride ahead with Reed It took three days to reach Stanton but by riding with incredible speed and determination it takes just one for you and James Reed to return to the Donner Party. There Reed boastfully describes meeting with Lansford Hastings and how they worked out the route the Donner Party should take. Unfortunately it turns out to be a not very good route and you have to cut a road through the thick trees that line the Canyon’s sides and haul the wagons up some steep inclines to make it. Charles Stanton and William Pike become lost on their return journey and arrive twelve days after you, extremely hungry and very relieved to re-discover the Party. The jubilation of their safe return and finally reaching the Salt Lake Desert is marred by a tragedy that happens the next day. > The first death... Just outside Fort Bridger a young man called Luke Halloran joined your group: dying of tuberculosis he was taken in by George and Jacob Donner and allowed to ride in their wagon. On the shores of the Salt Lake he collapses and dies suddenly of his illness. There was nothing anyone could have done but his death casts a bleak mood of the Party. He is buried the next day on the shores of Salt Lake next to the grave of another settler who died on his way to California. Pressing on you enter the Salt Desert in September, a place of skin-blistering heat and dry humidity. The wagons struggle to cross the Desert, the cattle pulling them consume enormous amounts of water as they struggle to pull the wagons. James Reed is forced to abandon two of his wagons and George Donner and another settler, a fierce man called Louis Keseberg, both have to abandon one of their wagons. The whole wagon train becomes strung out over many miles and the cattle herds with the wagons become separated, many of them dying. Somehow you manage to keep your wagon moving and your cattle alive but the experience is nightmarish. Finally you and your companions make it across the Desert and camp at a spring for several days which are spent rounding up lost cattle, recovering things from the abandoned wagons and it is not until nearly the middle of September that the Party is ready to continue. The crossing through the Desert killed many cattle and also cost the Party many supplies. Most of the settlers, especially James Reed, are now concerned they might not have enough food to make it all the way to California. A plan is soon made: Charles Stanton and another settler called William McCutchen (a giant of a man who is travelling to California with his wife and baby daughter) volunteer to go ahead on fast horses to Fort Sutter, the first trading post in California, collect fresh supplies and bring them back to the Party. Moving fast they could be back in as little as a month. If you want you can ride ahead with them to California or you can remain travelling with the Donner Party. What do you do? > You stay with the Donner Party After Charles Stanton and William McCutchen leave things get no better. Though you are out of the Desert Indians now begin to steal horses from the Party at night and tempers become very short. Arguments begin to break out between the settlers as food becomes scarce and hunger begins to set in. The situation inevitably culminates in violence in October when two wagons become stuck while climbing a difficult hill. Your wagon becomes stuck in the rocks while climbing the hill, forcing James Reed’s wagon and another belonging to Franklin Graves (a friendly man travelling with his wife, seven children and son-in-law) to collide. Reed loses his temper and snarls “Move you damn fool, you have no business being in my way!” “Shut your mouth trash or I‘ll shut it for you” barks back John Snyder, a hot-tempered driver working for Graves. At this Reed completely loses his temper and springing from his wagon he strides across towards Snyder who drops to the ground to meet him. You are startled to see a long-bladed butcher’s knife gleaming in Reed’s hand and there is murder in his eyes. What do you do? > You rush forward to intervene You drop from your wagon and race forward as Reed plunges his blade deep into Snyder’s chest. Snyder staggers backwards clutching his wound and falls to the ground. As you run up Reed whirls and slashes his knife across your throat, opening a savage wound. You step back and clutch your throat, stunned. Immediately Reed drops the knife and looks horrified. “My God, what have I done?” he cries but it is too late. The world turns black and you collapse lifeless to the ground. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>After Charles Stanton and William McCutchen leave things get no better. Though you are out of the Desert Indians now begin to steal horses from the Party at night and tempers become very short. Arguments begin to break out between the settlers as food becomes scarce and hunger begins to set in. The situation inevitably culminates in violence in October when two wagons become stuck while climbing a difficult hill. Your wagon becomes stuck in the rocks while climbing the hill, forcing James Reed’s wagon and another belonging to Franklin Graves (a friendly man travelling with his wife, seven children and son-in-law) to collide. Reed loses his temper and snarls “Move you damn fool, you have no business being in my way!” “Shut your mouth trash or I‘ll shut it for you” barks back John Snyder, a hot-tempered driver working for Graves. At this Reed completely loses his temper and springing from his wagon he strides across towards Snyder who drops to the ground to meet him. You are startled to see a long-bladed butcher’s knife gleaming in Reed’s hand and there is murder in his eyes. What do you do? > You fetch your pistol from your wagon You find your pistol and cocking it you jump from the wagon. You are just in time to see Snyder staggering towards you, his eyes wide in shock and the handle of Reed’s knife sticking out of the centre of his chest. Reed stands shocked by what he has done and as you stare at him several other men including the Donner brothers come running up. Before your eyes Snyder collapses to the ground and breathes his last breath. The men of the Donner Party quickly gather and Reed is surrounded, giving in without a fight. He is placed under armed guard while a quick discussion ensues over what to do with him. Franklin Graves is furious that Reed has murdered his employee while his wife and children are crying hysterically. “Hang him” Louis Keseberg urges, looking fiercely among you. “No” replies William Eddy (a friend of Reed’s and a skilled marksman). “Mr Reed should leave the camp.” There is a great deal of arguing for a while and eventually it is agreed that Reed should take some food and be sent away to make his own way to California. One of Reed’s teamsters called Walter Herron volunteers to accompany him and Reed, still in a state of shock, says a brief farewell to his wife and children. Snyder is buried; the Graves Family are inconsolable and the whole Party is stunned by this sudden outbreak of violence. William Eddy is worried about Reed and Herron’s chances of making it to California on their own and mutters to you that perhaps others should go with them. What do you do? > You stay with the Donner Party After Reed and Herron leave the Donner Party’s situation continues to deteriorate. Indians shoot arrows at William Eddy and William Pike when they are hunting away from the main party and both are lucky to escape unhurt. Louis Keseberg irritated by his elderly wagon-driver Hardcoop’s increasing complaints orders him out of his wagon and snaps at him to walk. Hardcoop manages keeps up for the first day but increasingly begins to lag behind. Without James the Reed family have to abandon another wagon and now many of the Party are on foot: a dangerous situation to be in with so many hostile Indians about. At noon you see Hardcoop, now a long way behind, collapse and crawl under the shade of some bushes. What do you do? > You go back to help him Unable to turn your wagon around you abandon it and carrying two canteens of water you walk back to where you saw Hardcoop fall. By the time you reach him you can see you are too late: the old man is dead. By now the Donner Party have vanished from sight and you hurry back as fast as you can, drinking all your water. You don’t even see the Indian hiding behind a rock until it is too late, with deadly accuracy he shoots you through the head, ending your journey and life in an instant. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>After Reed and Herron leave the Donner Party’s situation continues to deteriorate. Indians shoot arrows at William Eddy and William Pike when they are hunting away from the main party and both are lucky to escape unhurt. Louis Keseberg irritated by his elderly wagon-driver Hardcoop’s increasing complaints orders him out of his wagon and snaps at him to walk. Hardcoop manages keeps up for the first day but increasingly begins to lag behind. Without James the Reed family have to abandon another wagon and now many of the Party are on foot: a dangerous situation to be in with so many hostile Indians about. At noon you see Hardcoop, now a long way behind, collapse and crawl under the shade of some bushes. What do you do? > You grit your teeth and press on That day’s journey is a difficult one and that night Hardcoop fails to rejoin the group, William Eddy and another man do go out to look for him but return without him after a few hours. Without food and water and surrounded by hostile Indians there is little chance that the old man is still alive. Louis Keseberg is criticised by most of the group for forcing Hardcoop out of his wagon and Keseberg responds by angrily challenging anyone who doesn’t like him to a fight. The Party is beginning to tear itself apart. Moving on the next day you come across the skeleton of a settler killed by Indians, more horses are stolen and that night nineteen cattle vanish, stolen by Indians who occasionally fire arrows at your group from hiding in the rocks all around. Keseberg steps on a spiked tree stump and seriously injures his foot, making him more disagreeable, Indians make off with no less than twenty-one oxen the next day and William Eddy is forced to abandon his wagon. A week after Hardcoop’s death another wagon owned by a German called Wolfinger falls behind. Two other Germans called Joseph Reinhardt and Augustus Spitzer go back to help him. They are mean-looking fellows and for some reason both take their rifles with them when they go back. You don’t like the look of this but the other members of the Party appear not to see and continue struggling to get their remaining wagons to the Humboldt River. What do you do? <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Click. “…well I still say a compromise can be achieved if we all just sat down and talked things out. I mean at the core, we aren’t really so different. I mean we’re human beings, for God’s sake; we shouldn’t be killing each other like animals! I mean...” Click. “…are you worried about these uncertain times? Do you stay up at night thinking about the current fucked up situation the world is in? Wondering if some mad man is going to finally press the button, putting an end to it all? Do you think how you’ll spend your final moment with your loved ones huddled around you and crying before you’re all reduced to mere shadows? Scared that you can’t do anything about it? You are? Well never fear! Ground Zero Survival is here! You’ll find that the…” Click. “…situation has worsened; more troops were deployed today, but…” Click. “...how about our President huh? If he was anymore reactionary, I’d think we were living in the country we’re currently at war with! Am I right? What country are we at war with anyway? Anyone remember? Did we just spin the wheel again or what? You guys are a great audience! Hey did you hear…” Click. “…about peace? Oh gimme a fuckin’ break! You think that pussy ass we are the world shit’s gonna fly? You can’t teach those fuckin’ people nothing! You want my solution to the goddamn problem? BLOW IT ALL THE FUCK UP! We can clean up later and…” Click. “…pray in these dark times! We must place our faith in Jesus! For when Judgment Day comes he will save all of us that are the faithful, and God will punish the wicked! Oh it will be such a glorious time when…” Click. “…you act now you’ll get ten percent off! We here at GZS also believe in quality and you’ll find our shelters are designed with your family’s safety in mind! We have worked hard to make sure our shelters will sustain you and your family years after the entire surface has been turned to ashes! After all don’t…” Click. “…you think genocide is the answer? I can’t believe you just advocated that on national TV! I suppose you think Hitler was right too huh? Its people like you that…” Click. “…are the best audience in the world! I tell ya, it’s been great. You can catch my next show at…” Click. “…the radioactive fuckin’ wasteland that the whole goddamn Earth is going to become! You think any of this shit matters? All the fuckin’ talk in the world ain’t changing shit now! We’re on the fast train to nukesville and I for one ain’t gonna worry about it! Y’know what I’m gonna do? I’m gonna quit this stupid ass job, and spend the rest of my savings on fuckin’ hookers! Yeah that’s right, I fuckin’ said it and I don’t care because when you think about it…” Click. “...isn’t your family’s survival worth it?” This advertisement has been paid for by Ground Zero Survival Inc. > You zzzzzzzzzzzzz Monday 8:00 AM You groggily wake up from the sofa like you always do, dreading to have to go to work at your pointless job. You haven’t been sleeping well lately, you don’t know what the hell the problem is, and all you know is you’re going to be tired for work again. As you go through your routine of getting ready, the TV can be heard; as usual you left it on from the night before. “…And peace talks broke down today, as several ambassadors engaged in a physical fight at the UN…Neo-Communist party gaining favor in Russia… more terrorist bombings in European Union cities…US troops won another victory in the Middle East…mysterious epidemic in China, several million dead…skirmishes on the Indian-Pakistan border…world wide tensions at an all time high…” Same old doom and gloom on TV; you wonder why you even bother watching the news anymore. Still it does seem like things are getting worse, late at night when you’re suffering from your usual insomnia, you’ve been catching infomercials attempting to sell bomb shelters, like something out of a 1950s propaganda film. It seems silly, but you do wonder if it’s only a matter of time before someone presses the button. Then again you live out in the boonies, you’ve always thought that if the world ever did blow up; you’d doubt you’d even notice until you drove to work the next day and saw the ruins of the city. Speaking of which you better get going or you’ll be late. > You head to work You turn off the TV and head to work, no point in worrying about things you can’t do shit about. You have other real everyday problems to deal with. You go about your mundane life, doing mundane tasks at your mundane job, talking to your mundane co-workers about mundane things. Not much changes. One month later... Monday 8:00 AM You groggily wake up from the sofa like you always do, dreading to have to go to work at your pointless job. You haven’t been sleeping well lately, you don’t know what the hell the problem is, and all you know is you’re going to be tired for work again. As you go through your routine of getting ready, the TV can be heard; as usual you left it on from the night before. “…Russian hardliners seized control of the government…Chinese epidemic has worsened; entire country is under quarantine…UK has withdrawn all association from the EU…Senate dissolved in US, martial law enacted…India declared open war on Pakistan…mass starvation in Africa… world wide depression… Same old doom and gloom on TV, a lot more serious now though. Those “silly” bomb shelter infomercials have increased; you’ve also been noticing an increase in survival type book titles whenever you browse the book stores now and the Emergency broadcasting system has been doing A LOT of tests lately. Something bad is going to happen and it’s going to happen soon. You go about your life which isn’t quite so mundane, world politics is a constant topic at work, and many of your co-workers aren’t even coming in to do their job. All the married ones are no doubt spending time with their families, in fact the work place really isn’t a work place anymore so much as it is a “socializing site”. A lot of them believe the world is coming to an end anyway, so they might as well have a good time. Attempting to go about your normal life isn’t an option anymore; neither is buying a bomb shelter at this late stage. > You indulge in the festivities You’ve never really been a party person, but if this is it, maybe you can have some fun before the end comes. There’s plenty of food and liquids of all kinds at your place of work. The entire office is turned into party central. Nobody bothers going home; it’s actually safer to stay inside the office building anyway since the National Guard is attempting to restore what little order there is in the city. Everyone makes sure to stay away from windows. Even though you attempt to enjoy yourself, you still have a nagging bit of “concern” for what lies ahead in the future and just can’t quite loosen up completely; you’re about the only one who still bothers to keep up on current events by watching TV and looking at the internet in between non-stop merrymaking. Eventually one of your co-workers Greg walks in on you watching the news by yourself. He’s not exactly what you’d consider a friend, but he’s an acquaintance you normally talked to when you actually did work. “Jesus Christ man! There’s a non-stop party going on and you’re in here wasting time watching TV?” Greg says holding a bottle of beer. “I just want to see if the situation has improved…” “Are you kidding me? It ain’t improving man! The world’s going to hell in a hand basket, and the sooner you accept that fact the better! Why don’t you go talk to Marina in accounting, didn’t you always have a crush on her or something?” “Well yeah, but…” “But? But nothing man! There ain’t no time left anymore! Hell I haven’t seen you participate in ONE orgy since you’ve been here!” “I dunno, seems unsanitary, I don’t want to catch something, and I don’t want everyone to see me naked.” Greg puts one of his hands on his face and shakes his head in disbelief of your answer. He then throws his beer bottle into the TV screen breaking them both. “WAKE THE FUCK UP! This is fuckin’ it man! There ain’t nothing coming after this! We’re all gonna die in a fiery nuclear explosion! You think it’s really gonna matter if in the off chance that you do catch AIDS or some shit, you’ll be alive long enough to die from it? And nobody gives a shit about how small your dick is…” “HEY! My dick isn’t small! Its average length for someone of my height!” you protest. “Whatever man! Look what I’m trying to say is, everyone is just here to have a good time and grab some pleasure before the nukes start flying, and nobody’s even caring about looks right now. Shit, that fat troll Phil must be getting more action now than he ever has in his entire life! You thought Phil was disgusting looking with his clothes on, he ain’t any prettier with his clothes off, and yet he has banged Kate no less than ten times since we started this Armageddon party and you know how fucking fine she is!” “Really? Phil?” “I’m telling you man, you NEED to go talk to Marina and get you some of that before the bombs start dropping!” Greg sees that you’re still a little apprehensive about the idea. “Fine then, or don’t. It doesn’t matter to me man. I’m going back to the party, I’m not gonna stand here wasting my time talking to you when I could be fucking Kate. I just hope I can get to her before Phil this time.” Greg leaves you to ponder the situation. > You party like its 1999 (Even though it really is not 1999) Greg’s right. This IS it! This is no time to be playing it safe! The world is going to end any day and damn it you’re going to fucking LIVE life for the first time! You immediately get up and make your way to the main office area; it looks like you’re just in time for another orgy. Greg is getting ready to stick it to Kate just like he said…that is until you smash the back of his head in with a stapler until he’s bloody and unconscious…or dead. You’re not sure and you don’t really care anymore. “You were right…man.” You say breathing hard. Your actions cause people to stop in shock, then you grab Kate who’s completely naked and worried about what you’re going to do next. “Come here you little fucking whore, you like being a fucking fuck slut? I’ll treat you like one then!” you utter viciously. You proceed to bend Kate over the copy machine, pull her hair and fuck the hell out of her calling her every derogatory name in the book. The weird thing is she starts to like it. She even starts taunting you back saying you can’t fuck worth a shit. This of course only makes you slap her around a bit more. You both are really getting into it. After watching this spontaneous act of S&M/Rape everyone goes back to doing what they were doing. From then on in, Kate hangs around you a lot more (Much to Phil’s dismay) and you forget all about Marina, in fact you don’t even see her in the whole time during this Armageddon party. You indulge in carnal delights like you never had before. Until one day… Monday 8:00 AM You groggily wake up from the floor; Kate’s lying beside you asleep. There are sleeping naked bodies everywhere. Yesterday’s orgy was a dozy, someone broke open a couple bags of coke they’d been saving and everyone had a snort. Can’t say you liked it though, your head fucking hurts, you keep hearing a fucking ring… “…BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE….” Then you realize it’s not in your head, it’s an actual ring from another TV that was left on. There’s a test pattern on it. This is it. You put your clothes back on and give Kate a quick kiss, which causes her to smile a little in her sleep. You wonder if you would’ve actually had a shot with her if things had been normal, oh well you guess you’ll never know. You quietly make your way through the room and head up to the top floor and onto the roof of the building. The city is deadly quiet. You don’t hear a sound except the wind gently blowing. In all the revelry you’ve been indulging in, you forgot how much you liked the solitude and silence. The loneliness is peaceful. You look up in the sky, shielding your eyes from the sun shining down. You see a bright light and then nothing at all.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You’ve never really been a party person, but if this is it, maybe you can have some fun before the end comes. There’s plenty of food and liquids of all kinds at your place of work. The entire office is turned into party central. Nobody bothers going home; it’s actually safer to stay inside the office building anyway since the National Guard is attempting to restore what little order there is in the city. Everyone makes sure to stay away from windows. Even though you attempt to enjoy yourself, you still have a nagging bit of “concern” for what lies ahead in the future and just can’t quite loosen up completely; you’re about the only one who still bothers to keep up on current events by watching TV and looking at the internet in between non-stop merrymaking. Eventually one of your co-workers Greg walks in on you watching the news by yourself. He’s not exactly what you’d consider a friend, but he’s an acquaintance you normally talked to when you actually did work. “Jesus Christ man! There’s a non-stop party going on and you’re in here wasting time watching TV?” Greg says holding a bottle of beer. “I just want to see if the situation has improved…” “Are you kidding me? It ain’t improving man! The world’s going to hell in a hand basket, and the sooner you accept that fact the better! Why don’t you go talk to Marina in accounting, didn’t you always have a crush on her or something?” “Well yeah, but…” “But? But nothing man! There ain’t no time left anymore! Hell I haven’t seen you participate in ONE orgy since you’ve been here!” “I dunno, seems unsanitary, I don’t want to catch something, and I don’t want everyone to see me naked.” Greg puts one of his hands on his face and shakes his head in disbelief of your answer. He then throws his beer bottle into the TV screen breaking them both. “WAKE THE FUCK UP! This is fuckin’ it man! There ain’t nothing coming after this! We’re all gonna die in a fiery nuclear explosion! You think it’s really gonna matter if in the off chance that you do catch AIDS or some shit, you’ll be alive long enough to die from it? And nobody gives a shit about how small your dick is…” “HEY! My dick isn’t small! Its average length for someone of my height!” you protest. “Whatever man! Look what I’m trying to say is, everyone is just here to have a good time and grab some pleasure before the nukes start flying, and nobody’s even caring about looks right now. Shit, that fat troll Phil must be getting more action now than he ever has in his entire life! You thought Phil was disgusting looking with his clothes on, he ain’t any prettier with his clothes off, and yet he has banged Kate no less than ten times since we started this Armageddon party and you know how fucking fine she is!” “Really? Phil?” “I’m telling you man, you NEED to go talk to Marina and get you some of that before the bombs start dropping!” Greg sees that you’re still a little apprehensive about the idea. “Fine then, or don’t. It doesn’t matter to me man. I’m going back to the party, I’m not gonna stand here wasting my time talking to you when I could be fucking Kate. I just hope I can get to her before Phil this time.” Greg leaves you to ponder the situation. > You get another TV and watch the world die You grab another TV and sit quietly by yourself in a separate office, watching world events unfold and get worse before your eyes as your co-workers reenact something out of a porno movie. You block out the sounds of ecstasy and turn up the TV. You’re starting to wonder if you shouldn’t have just stayed home, or better yet bought that damn bomb shelter… Just then someone else comes in to disturb your solitude. It’s Marina. “Oh. I didn’t know anyone was in here. I thought everyone was at the orgy.” She says. “So did I…um how come you aren’t?” you ask nervously. “Eh not really my thing, how come you aren’t?” “Same here.” “I see…so what are you doing to pass the time?” “Keeping up on events to see if things will change for the better.” “Ah an optimist eh?” “Not really, I think I just get a kick out of living in a fantasy world and delusions to make myself feel better…that and I have a morbid fascination of the utter chaos that’s occurring throughout the world right now.” “Hmm, interesting approach to life…I’ve always noticed you seem to keep to yourself. You like solitude don’t you?” “It’s easier.” “Yet, you stayed here for the end.” “Yeah, and I’m really wishing I hadn’t now, I can’t mix with anyone here. Never could. Not even on the primal level that everyone seems to be favoring right now. I don’t know why I thought things would change in the end…ah fuck it the world’s gonna end and it’s probably a good thing if our co-workers are an example of humanity. Still…I kind of wish I bought that bomb shelter…” “So you don’t want to die?” ”Of course not! I just don’t really see how to avoid it at this point.” “Well, for starters you could come with me; I’m getting ready to leave the city. It seems like things have died down for the most part out there, hopefully nobody’s vandalized or stolen either of our vehicles.” Marina suggests. “What? Leave? And go where? It’s not like there’s any place really safe to go at this late stage.” “Sure there is. Look, I’ll level with you, since you seem to be the only one here that’s different. I stayed around here to see if there was anyone who was worthy enough to be saved, and apart from you, it pretty much looks like I wasted my time.” “Save? What do you mean?” “Well despite the fact that you kept to yourself and never took any interest in any of the private lives of your co-workers doesn’t we don’t have them.” Marina laughs. “But like you I never really mixed with any of our co-workers either, however unlike you I do have a very active social life filled with people who are close like a family, people who live clean and have a strong sense of freedom…and who have been preparing for this day ever since the Commies started the first Cold War. You don’t have to die and you don’t have to be alone anymore. Come with me, you’ll be accepted as long as you’re willing to work hard and from what I know, you aren’t averse to doing that.” You’re not entirely sure of what Marina has in store for you, but it sounds better than staying here waiting to die. You agree to leave with her. You both make your way past the mass of naked bodies and head immediately to the parking structure. Unfortunately Marina’s car is gone, it’s been predictably stolen in the looting frenzy during the city exodus; however your old van is perfectly fine. It hasn’t even been vandalized, of course the thing looks like it’s already been vandalized which is probably why nobody bothered to steal it. You both get in the van and you drive while Marina tells you where you’re going. While you’re driving through the city, you keep expecting to be attacked by lawless hold outs still lingering in the city or open fired on by Nation Guardsman, but you suspect either they were ordered to pull out to reinforce a more important city or most of them abandoned their “job” long ago when they realized the futility of it. You make your way out of the city with no problems. Of course now you’re just wondering if you’re just going to get nuked at any second. You listen to the radio to keep up on events, which is more of the same that you were watching on TV. Eventually Marina turns it off and tells you not to worry about the old world anymore, a new one is going to be built. Your drive takes you far from the city, where ever Marina’s leading you it’s even further than where you live and you lived pretty way out. You drive through the night and into next morning; while Marina’s asleep you turn the radio back on and keep it on low… Monday 8:00 AM “…BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE…” The radio suddenly stops broadcasting anything except a loud warning sound; it wakes up Marina before you can turn it off. Seeing her current surroundings, Marina hastily tells you to turn at a dirty road that’s coming up, which then leads into a wooden gate. Looks like a compound of some sort, where a man is standing guard with an assault rifle. Marina gets out and talks to him a moment, to which he nods his head and opens the gate. As soon as you drive in another woman comes running out of one of the many log cabin like structures in the compound. She immediately starts talking to Marina through the passenger window. “Marina! Thank God you’re here! We thought you were dead! Come on we gotta get down into the underground, its beginning!” Wasting no time Marina and you follow the woman into the cabin and down into a trap door in the floor. You find yourself in a wide tunnel with dim electrical lighting to what looks like a pretty elaborate underground complex. Marina and the woman are running ahead of you, but you can’t help but stare in wonder of all this. “Holy shit, they really were working on this since the Cold War…” you say to yourself as you slow down to examine everything. Then it happens. You hear a loud noise above and you fall to the ground due to the tremors. Then all the lighting goes out. You attempt to get back up and try to feel the walls to get your bearings. You don’t know where the hell you’re going, but you can hear voices and shouting; some of it close and some of it far away. You have no idea where the hell you’re at, let alone the layout of this place. Instead of getting yourself lost, you decide to just stay put until the lighting comes back on; surely they probably have an emergency generator that will kick in soon. The lighting suddenly comes on and you’re just in time to see Marina and a man dressed fatigues arrive on your position. “Are you alright?” Marina asks you. “Yeah, I’m okay.” No sooner do you get out those words when the man in military fatigues begins giving you the hard stare. “I’ve heard about you before from Marina, but don’t think that hiding behind her skirt is gonna give you a fuckin’ free pass in this place! You better prepared to pull your goddamn weight everyday! I catch you slipping and you’re outta here!” “What the hell? I didn’t say anything!” “And you better not say any fuckin’ thing either if you don’t wanna get on my bad side! The Colonel doesn’t like slack offs in his compound and neither do I! So if you intend on staying here, you better get REAL used to the idea of getting your head outta your fuckin’ ass and living like a real fuckin’ person instead of the goddamn disgusting parasitic shit maggot you are!” You’re about to reply to GI Jerk, but Marina stops you and insists on taking you to your room, leaving Harry to his own devices. “Alright Marina, what the hell was all that about, and who’s full metal asshole back there?” “That was Harry, and don’t pay any attention to him, he’s just really gung ho and is second in command around here. The Colonel is the one who runs this place. He’s actually a more even tempered man than Harry is.” Marina and you arrive at a small room by itself at the end of one of the corridors. “Well here’s the room you’ll be staying for now. Things might change mind you, but rest assured this is the safest place you could be right now. We’ve prepared for this day and will definitely survive the aftermath of what’s to come, and now you will too.” Marina leaves with a smile, but you don’t really share her optimism, given the fact that Armageddon has just happened. That reality has only just now sunk in that the world is probably one big radioactive desert at this point. Then again, Marina might be right, this place is probably safer than most and its better than being dead. At least you hope it is. You lie down on the bed provided and fall asleep; surprisingly it’s the best rest you’ve experienced before the bombs dropped. A few weeks pass and you get acquainted with the compound. You and most of the others are to remain underground while until some scouts in radiation suits determine if the radiation level is low enough. In the mean time you’re forced to do extensive combat training like everyone else. Most of the people are okay with you, even though you’re an outsider. Harry gives you a hard time though. Still, you’re probably in the best shape of your life and you got to brush up on your aim. Sometimes you get to spend time with Marina, funny how you find it easier to talk to her now. One day you finally see the Colonel you’ve been hearing about, he gives a speech to all of you in the cafeteria. “Well, I’ve been informed that the surface part of our compound only suffered minor damage and that the radiation level is fairly low all things considering…anyway we all knew this day would come, and we would be prepared for it, but we can’t just sit on our asses hoping things will be alright! NO! We must take a proactive approach if we have to survive! As we speak, there are probably low lives scavenging the shell of the old world, we must secure as many abandoned resources as we can to ensure our future and some of you will be sent out into the world to do just that for the good of the compound. We’re going to tame this new world and rebuild a new society! You have undergone rigorous training before hand, to ensure you will be able to survive the dangers. Now I’ll be accepting volunteers first.” > You volunteer Maybe you’re high on your new found physique and adrenaline, but for whatever reason, something comes over you to volunteer. Indeed you’ve made everyone a little surprised by your actions especially since you’re an outsider. The Colonel looks at you with interest. “Hmm, you’re the one I’ve heard about from Marina, didn’t expect you to volunteer, she’s always mentioned you’re quiet loner type. Then again, you might be just what I need…alright you’re coming with me. Harry, you start picking some of the others and form recon detachments. Everyone goes on assignment tomorrow.” The Colonel then takes you to his office, where he sits down and gets a bunch of papers from his desk. “Okay, I’m sure during your short stay here, you probably think we’re all a bunch of survivalist militia loonies, and to a certain extent, we probably are, however we aren’t without a plan.” The Colonel shows you some blueprints to what looks to be a small military base. “My friend Alex was stationed at this base. It’s not exactly close by, but its closest military base around here.” “Didn’t realize there were any military bases in the area.” “Most people don’t, it was a top secret, and kept off the records so it wouldn’t be targeted. There aren’t even any roads leading to the place, you have travel by foot. Though I guess you could say it wasn’t so much of a military base as it was a research facility. Obviously I know about it, because I had a friend stationed there who was feeding me information. He didn’t exactly run the place, but he was attempting to work his way up to get special level clearance. Apparently GZS was working with the government on some high tech weaponry.” ”GZS?” “The Ground Zero Survival Corporation. I’m sure you’ve heard of them, they were the ones hawking their Shelters like snake oil salesmen before doomsday.” “Oh yeah, I used to see their commercials on late at night, I thought about buying one of those.” “Well good thing you didn’t, only an idiot would’ve bought one of those things. Look at this.” The Colonel now shows you a schematic of a GZS Shelter. “Why? It certainly looks just as equipped as this compound and has a lot more conveniences.” You remark. “It would appear that way, but the fucking thing is a death trap. They engineered them so once you entered; you most likely couldn’t get out of them. Supposedly the GZS computer is supposed to let you out when it deems that it’s safe to do so. In fact the whole thing is controlled by the computer. A computer that could glitch and break down at anytime. Let a machine be in charge of your survival…yeah great idea. I dunno about you, but I’ll take this compound any day. It might not look pretty, but I don’t have to worry about getting trapped with no access to food or water. Not to mention I heard from Alex that they suffered cutback during the creation of most of those things meaning they cut a lot of damn corners, so they probably aren’t as state of the art as they claimed. I’ll bet those dumb bastards who are living in those things are regretting it as we speak.” You’re not sure where he’s going with all this so you interrupt. “So, what does all this mean? Are we going to seek out these shelters and rescue the people inside?” “What?! HA HA! That’s a good one!” The Colonel laughs. “Hell no son, as far as I’m concerned they’ve made their choice now they can live with it, we’re not here to play white knight. We have to look out for ourselves, and part of that is making sure we’re the best defended and from what I heard, whatever they were working on in that base, sounds like it would make things a lot easier in the defense department.” “Whoa, hold on, if this is a military base won’t they just shoot me on sight if I go there I mean won’t it be heavily guarded? I mean I know I went through some training, but I doubt to the degree that I can take on an entire military base!” “Alex was making friends with most of the lower personnel there, getting them to follow him as it were. Last I heard, he was pretty successful, so chances are, as long as I gave you some identifiers to take with you proving that you were following my orders, you wouldn’t have any problems when you arrived, but obviously there IS a problem or I wouldn’t be sending you at all.” “Of course…” you say expecting this assignment to be even more complicated. “I haven’t heard anything from Alex for a month before the bombs dropped. I dunno what’s happened to him.” “Is it possible they discovered he was leaking information and killed him?” “I suppose, but chances are that afterwards they would’ve found out about us and also sent the National Guard as well as GZS private security here to lay waste to this compound.” “Well the National Guard were busy trying to maintain order to the major cities at the time. I should know I was there when they were stationed in the one I was working at.” “True, but I still think they would’ve sent someone here, and GZS still would have. As I said they had enough money to pay for their own security force. Maybe not as well trained as military personnel, but fanatical enough to eliminate anyone that GZS thought was discovering secrets about them. That’s why Alex always focused on solely making friends with the grunts and government officials. The GZS employees always seemed a bit more dedicated to their corporation.” “Okay, well is it possible that the base wasn’t so secret and it got hit after all?” “Nope, mainly because I get the impression the background radiation level would be a hell of a lot higher, if that got nuked, so I’m pretty sure the place is intact, in fact I’m guessing its been abandoned. We recently figured out their frequency, we never used it before for obvious reasons, but now, why not? We’re getting a signal, but no verbal answers from anyone. To sum up, I want you to go there to scout and explore as much as you can. Find out what the hell happened to Alex if possible, and let me know if that high tech weaponry is worth anything or just more bad engineering by GZS. Here. You’ll probably need this security pass to enter, got it from Alex, last time he was here; I hope it’s still valid. And here’s my ring and a letter, if Alex IS still alive then those will prove that you’re working for me. That’s all I can do to help other than to give you a map to the place and what equipment you think you’ll need.” Before you leave you have to ask. “Okay why me?” “Why you? You volunteered son!” “I know, but for this particular job, surely you have others more qualified to tackle it.” “Eh…you MIGHT think that, but to be quite honest, no. I mean don’t get me wrong I see all of these people here as family, but a lot of them are a bunch of weekend warriors who were playing survival. I’m sure in the years to come we’re going to see who’s a REAL soldier and who isn’t. Not that it matters, I mean I’ll find something for them to do, but you’re different. You certainly aren’t some commando, but there’s definitely something about you that makes you seem a bit more…detached from everything else. Like you’ll be willing to do what’s necessary to survive without hesitation. While you may never have been in a situation like this one, I got a feeling you’ll do just fine. Besides Marina’s previous beaming remarks about you are good enough for me. Now go get some rest, you’ll be leaving tomorrow.” You head back to your room and think about what the Colonel said. He might be right in a lot of ways, but you still wonder if he’s sending you because as he said, “All these people here are like family, but you’re different.” Maybe if you get killed it won’t feel like such a loss. You don’t think anymore about it, mainly because Marina enters your room to interrupt your thoughts. “I hear you’re leaving tomorrow, I just want to tell you how brave I think you are for doing this for all of us. I know we didn’t get a lot of quality time with each other, but I wanted us to spend at least what could be the last time I see you together.” Marina’s ominous words that imply how much danger you’re possibly getting yourself into might worry you more if she wasn’t on top of you right now… The next day you load up with what you think you might need, water, food, rifle, pistol, knife, Geiger counter, all the basic essentials. You get a bunch of goodbyes and good lucks. Harry merely sneers and mentions he expects you to get yourself killed twenty feet after you leave. The Colonel is a little more supportive and gives you a silent salute, but you like Marina’s goodbye kiss best of all. And with that, you’re on your way. It’s actually amazing to see that the outside world doesn’t look drastically different, you can only assume the bombs didn’t hit near your area. When you’re out of sight of the compound, you go back to thinking about this mission you volunteered for and wondering if you should go through with it. You do have the suitable equipment and skills to survive off the land after all. Perhaps it would be better to just go AWOL as it were… > You continue with your mission You volunteered and you’re going to see it through, might not be that dangerous as you think especially if the place is indeed abandoned. You spend a few days crossing over hills and some plains. For awhile you think someone’s following you, but never see a soul, actually you’re wondering about the Geiger counter readings more than anything, but you’re guessing there wasn’t any nuclear blast the direction you’re going. You also guess that seeing trees up ahead is also a good sign. You would’ve dressed yourself in a radiation suit, but the Colonel kept insisting it wouldn’t be necessary and for the mission that Harry was sending some of the others on would need them more. “Shit! I forgot to take a radio!” you say to yourself finally realizing that it would’ve been nice to radio in to the Compound if you had something important to report, like being unable to enter the base because snipers were shooting at you. Happily that doesn’t seem to occur when you finally arrive. You almost aren’t even sure if you’re at the right place at first. The Compound is bigger, then again this place probably has an extensive underground, and as the Colonel said, it was more like a research facility than a proper military base. Still there’s something a little weird about all this, it seems like security would be of major importance for a place like this, yet there’s nobody here guarding the outside and you just walked through open gates. Maybe the place is abandoned, but they could all be underground though, (That would certainly be more sensible than wandering around exposing themselves to radioactive wind…) The surface offices and barracks don’t look like anyone left in a hurry; in fact a lot of the barracks still have their equipment. (You take some extra ammo for your assault rifle) You search through some of papers you find in the offices, but there’s nothing of any importance. Just mundane status reports of personnel guard duties. You find a few letters with GZS logos on them, but again nothing telling you much. Nothing else for it, but to go underground. You approach the solid metal structure at the far end of the base. Looks like an elevator door with an ATM machine near it. There’s a slot and some button, so you’re guessing this is where you shove your security pass that the Colonel gave you. Hope it works or you came all this way for nothing. You slide the pass in the slot. “Identification recognized. GZS wishes you a pleasant day in all your endeavors sir!” a chipper female voice sounds as the elevator door opens. Not exactly what you were expecting, GZS must’ve had more input here than the Colonel thought. You’re a little nervous as you press the elevator button down, you expect the worst. The elevator eventually reaches its destination and opens up to a corridor. You cautiously exit. You don’t get far when a cybernetic being comes from around a corner and points its arm at you, which is doubling as a weapon of some sort, one that would blow a big hole in you. “Lower your weapon and please come with me sir. Alex will want to see you. Any attempt to attack or escape will be met with extreme use of force.” > You open fire and run You unload a clip into the cyborg, not knowing if your bullets are going to hurt it or not. You manage to do something since you knock it to the ground and you see it spark, before you head for the elevator. “Hostile detected! Enacting defense systems!” a robotic voice echoes. You begin to panic when the elevator refuses to open and more cybernetic beings come at you. You can’t stop them, and you expect a quick death by their weapons, but unfortunately that doesn’t occur. Instead they knock you out and take you to Alex. When you come to you’re lying naked, tied to an operating table with a bunch of tubes in you. Alex is hovering over you with a scalpel. He’s obviously deranged. “Well I see I didn’t use enough anesthesia, I’ll have to apply more…I also see by this letter and his ring the Colonel sent you. Probably all a ruse of friendship to kill me no doubt. I never did trust him. Well his loss will be my gain. I’m going to remake you. Better, stronger, faster. Just like the Million Dollar Man, except this won’t cost any money, just my time. I’ve been studying about some new cybernetic implants I want to test. I think I know enough about the procedure for it to be successful. You’ll thank me for this, trust me. L17 hand me the bone saw.” You pass out again, which is just as well since Alex butchers your body trying to “remake” you. His crude skills fail in the attempt and you die on the surgical table, with Alex cursing about accidentally severing multiple arteries of yours.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You volunteered and you’re going to see it through, might not be that dangerous as you think especially if the place is indeed abandoned. You spend a few days crossing over hills and some plains. For awhile you think someone’s following you, but never see a soul, actually you’re wondering about the Geiger counter readings more than anything, but you’re guessing there wasn’t any nuclear blast the direction you’re going. You also guess that seeing trees up ahead is also a good sign. You would’ve dressed yourself in a radiation suit, but the Colonel kept insisting it wouldn’t be necessary and for the mission that Harry was sending some of the others on would need them more. “Shit! I forgot to take a radio!” you say to yourself finally realizing that it would’ve been nice to radio in to the Compound if you had something important to report, like being unable to enter the base because snipers were shooting at you. Happily that doesn’t seem to occur when you finally arrive. You almost aren’t even sure if you’re at the right place at first. The Compound is bigger, then again this place probably has an extensive underground, and as the Colonel said, it was more like a research facility than a proper military base. Still there’s something a little weird about all this, it seems like security would be of major importance for a place like this, yet there’s nobody here guarding the outside and you just walked through open gates. Maybe the place is abandoned, but they could all be underground though, (That would certainly be more sensible than wandering around exposing themselves to radioactive wind…) The surface offices and barracks don’t look like anyone left in a hurry; in fact a lot of the barracks still have their equipment. (You take some extra ammo for your assault rifle) You search through some of papers you find in the offices, but there’s nothing of any importance. Just mundane status reports of personnel guard duties. You find a few letters with GZS logos on them, but again nothing telling you much. Nothing else for it, but to go underground. You approach the solid metal structure at the far end of the base. Looks like an elevator door with an ATM machine near it. There’s a slot and some button, so you’re guessing this is where you shove your security pass that the Colonel gave you. Hope it works or you came all this way for nothing. You slide the pass in the slot. “Identification recognized. GZS wishes you a pleasant day in all your endeavors sir!” a chipper female voice sounds as the elevator door opens. Not exactly what you were expecting, GZS must’ve had more input here than the Colonel thought. You’re a little nervous as you press the elevator button down, you expect the worst. The elevator eventually reaches its destination and opens up to a corridor. You cautiously exit. You don’t get far when a cybernetic being comes from around a corner and points its arm at you, which is doubling as a weapon of some sort, one that would blow a big hole in you. “Lower your weapon and please come with me sir. Alex will want to see you. Any attempt to attack or escape will be met with extreme use of force.” > You go with the cyborg You lower your rifle (But still hold on to it) and walk side by side with the cyborg who is surprisingly chatty, you also see it walks a bit irregularly, like it hasn’t been spliced together correctly. “Alex will be most pleased to see you; you’ll be the first human here in months!” “What happened to all the others?” “Oh well most of them have been improved like m-m-m-m.” the cyborg hits itself in the head before he stops stuttering “Like me, sir.” “Hmm, some improvement.” “Oh well, its not so bad. Alex promises to give us a tune up when he gets the necessary time, he is only one man after all. Some assistants would certainly help.” “So Alex is a surgeon?” “Well he’s not really. I mean he didn’t start out that way at least, but he’s completely self taught and trying to learn more each day! Sure there have been some failures, but there’s also been success! Why look at m-m-m-m.” the cyborg hits itself in the head again while you just shake yours. You can see this is going to be an interesting meeting. “So who were you before Alex…uh improved you.” “Oh I was a regular military man who guarded this base with no real identity. Just a name and a number really.” “And now?” “Now I’m known as J-34 and I protect Alex!” “That’s great… so everyone here is a cyborg like you?” “Just about. Most military personnel were friends with Alex before being renewed, so they were happy to be improved. The GZS personnel weren’t so enthusiastic about the idea, in fact they were mad that Alex discovered their top secret project. They tried to stop him, but they were stopped instead. Alex saw that the project would be pointless in trying to perfect it to use in a war that was going to be over in six minutes. Better that it should be applied to those that would surely survive the aftermath of that same war. Here we are, I’m sure Alex will want to hear all about the outside world, hey maybe he’ll improve you too!” You enter an office where a man sits at a desk pouring over technical manuals and medical books. Two more cyborgs armed with some sort science fictionish weapons stand by him. There’s no way you could hope to kill him without them killing you as well. He looks up. “Ah a guest! Been a long time since we’ve seen anyone new…in fact I’m a little puzzled on how you even found this place, let alone entered it…you’re not GZS are you?” Alex says changing his pleasant demeanor in mid sentence. “No! Not at all! I’m here because the Colonel sent me. He says you and he are friends. Here. Here’s his ring and a letter he wrote to prove it. He’d also given me a security pass so I could enter this place.” Alex takes the ring and letter and inspects them both, before addressing you again. “Well it looks like everything’s legitimate. I shall trust you. Though I’m not sure I trust the Colonel. I never did trust him. He only wanted to use me so I could get access to high tech weaponry, but instead I found much more here! Much more than I ever told him! Ha ha! I hear him trying to radio in, wondering if there’s anyone here, I’ve been ignoring him. He and his group of right wing loonies are unworthy of being re-made. If they think they’re true survivialists then they don’t need the gifts that this base provides. All of it is mine, I EARNED this place and it shall be I who ushers in a new era. Not GZS, not the government and not the fucking goddamn Colonel!” Alex is obviously unhinged, you don’t know if he was always this way or got that way later, but it hardly matters, what’s of major importance is that you walk away from this meeting unscathed. You try to calm him down. “Whoa hold on, I don’t think the Colonel or any of his right wing loonies would want to be re-made.” “Nonsense, anyone with any sense of survival would want to be re-made if they new about what was being worked on here.” You can’t help, but notice that Alex hasn’t done any improvements on himself… “However, I can see you don’t share that same short sighted thinking that the rest of those Compound cronies do. You are worthy of being re-made! In fact I would like to start now, I’ve been studying up on some new techniques and I would love to test them out. I think I could do a really good job this time, there will definitely be less acc…er complications than in the past.” This is just getting worse. Now this nutjob wants to work on you. “Look, I don’t want to be re-made! I was just here to see if you were alive and scout this place out! Now that I’ve done that, I’m to return to the Compound!” “Oh well now that’s going to be a problem…I can’t risk you telling him what’s here.” You really didn’t want to hear that. “Look, I’ll tell the Colonel that there wasn’t anything here, I can reason with him. You can even take my security pass to make sure I can’t get back in if you’re really worried. However, if he doesn’t hear from me, he’s only going to send more folks to this place.” “And what of it? They wouldn’t be able to get in and even if they could, his weekend warriors would be no match for Cybernetic Evolution!” “No, but they could just blow up the elevator trapping you down here forever, and you’ll never be able to leave to allow your genius to usher in the new era that you were talking about.” That seems to relax Alex a bit, as always a little flattery goes a long way to ease an unbalanced mind. “Hmm, perhaps you make some sense, and you seem like a trustworthy sort…very well. I shall arrange for you to leave. Give me your security pass.” “Okay, and I’ll be needing the Colonel’s ring and letter back, so I can say I didn’t find anything here.” You and Alex exchange items and he and his two cyborg guards escort you back to the elevator. “Goodbye, perhaps if we meet again you will be more receptive to being re-made. It’s a harsh new world, and you’ll soon wish you had an edge to survive it.” Alex tells you before you leave. “I’ll do alright.” The elevator goes up and you’re back on the surface again where you make your trek back to the compound in just a few days. You notice there have been a few changes in the few days you’ve left. Namely there’s a still to make hooch. And you now have some working vehicles that been modified to run on hooch. The same still that people are making cheap booze from they’re also using it as fuel, which basically translates into the vehicles running on “garbage” given that’s what the booze is being made out of. Smells pretty bad, but whatever works. Though from what you heard some towns have been found to be running their vehicles on shit (animal AND human) so the smell could be worse. There’s been a couple deaths from some of the other recon missions, but for the most part everything else is normal. Everyone’s almost surprised to see you come back, Marina’s happy, Harry obviously isn’t. The Colonel though wants to see you immediately. Since you don’t owe any allegiance to some nutcase playing Frankenstein in an underground base, you tell the Colonel everything. You expect him to get mad at you, but he doesn’t. “(Sigh) Alex always was a bit unstable; I always wondered why the army never gave him a section 8. Anyway, what you’re telling me doesn’t surprise me, though I wish you could’ve gotten away without giving up that security pass. It’s going to be harder to get down there now.” “You still want to go down there?” “Of course! What you think I’m going to let Alex slowly refine and build up his cyborg army? Who do you think he’s going to attack first? No, we need to get rid of him NOW. I suppose we could blow up the elevator doors to gain access. Not like we don’t have the means to do that.” “Yeah, but don’t you run the risk of blowing up the entire elevator, and causing it fall and crash down the shaft? We wouldn’t be able to send anyone down there in an efficient manner. Let alone fighting off cyborgs who would cut us down with ease if we were trying to repel down the shaft or huddled together coming off the elevator, besides Alex might have left the elevator on his level given the recent visit of mine.” The Colonel lets forth another sigh knowing that you make a good point, but frustrated as well. “You’re right, so what do you suggest we do then? Sit and do nothing with our thumbs up our asses?” > You suggest in hacking the security system, then invading the base. “Well I suppose you’re right in that we need to stop Alex, but blowing up the elevator still isn’t going to help, I suggest we hack the security system to gain control of it properly and then send down the invasion force and hope we can deal with the robots and cyborgs down there.” You reply. “Sounds like a better plan, I didn’t know you had so much computer experience though, let alone able to hack into a secret army base.” “Huh? I don’t. I mean, don’t you have people like that here?” “Excuse me, but you seem to be new here, hello welcome to the Compound…NO OF COURSE I DON’T I HAVE ANYONE LIKE THAT HERE! Sheesh! It’s not like we figured advanced computer hacking skills are going to be that useful when the world is blown back to the stone age! So you mean you don’t have the ability to pull off this amazing plan of yours?” “Well, not really, not to that degree at least…I suppose there’s just taking the panel apart and re-wiring it so it opens up for us though, you got any electricians or someone of that nature?” “Yeah a few, but I hope you do too, because you’re going to assist the team since you’re the idea man for all of this. After you clean out all the cyborgs and whatever the hell else Alex has built down there, remember to grab those weapons and come back. We’ll go back to occupy the base later. Now go select your team and whatever else you think you might need.” After asking for the names of the electronically “gifted” around the place, you go about following the Colonel’s orders and saying goodbye to Marina again, she looks more confident that you’ll return this time, you wish you could feel the same. When you and your team get to the base in a few days, you’re in for a little surprise. A medium sized robot is patrolling the courtyard. Looks like your friend Alex also dabbles in robotics as well as cybernetics. You and your team hide behind the outer wall when you all catch sight of it. Apparently Alex didn’t trust you any more than you trusted him, and looks like both of you were right. “Uh, what’s that?” one of your team members asks. “It’s a robot, what’s it look like?” “Well what’re we gonna do?” “Kill it! Everyone open fire!” You have no idea if your bullets are going to penetrate its armor, but you you’re going to try anyway. Everyone fires upon the robotic being, which begins to shutter and spark, but returns fire and a bright burst of light strikes one of your team members and completely incinerates him. “Holy shit, get cover and keep firing!” you shout. The rest of the battle doesn’t last too much longer, while your team continue to fire bursts at the machine while they dodge plasma blasts, you get enough time to toss a grenade at it and blow it to smithereens. Shards of burnt twisted metal lie all over the place. “Come on we need to open up that door, before something else comes out of the damn thing!” You and a few others start working on the card reader, trying to get it open as fast as possible. You don’t even know how you’re going to rewire the damn thing; you’ll just keep doing something until something else happens! As it turns out you didn’t need to do anything, while you and few others are fumbling around, the elevator doors open. At first you think you it was you who opened them, but in fact it was Alex who was controlling the elevator from the bottom. Two heavily armed cyborgs exit and begin firing immediately turning most of your team into charred skeletons. You manage to just barely get away and duck behind one of the buildings. Fortunately they don’t seem to be very fast, so when they try to chase you, you toss a few grenades in their direction, blowing them up in the same manner you destroyed the robot, except a bit bloodier, given their human bits. You come out of your hiding place and see nothing left of your team, they’ve all been killed. The elevator door is still open; you could enter and finish the job, or return to the Compound in failure. > You enter You take a deep breath and enter the elevator taking it down. As soon as it opens you step out and blaze away at the first metallic monster that pops from around the corner, hitting it critically in some vital component. In fact you’re doing okay all things considering, but as they say, it usually isn’t thing that you’re expecting that gets you. Thinking you have a breather, you duck into one of the rooms to reload; unfortunately you feel a dart go into your back, before you enter it. You pull it out and see it’s a tranquilizer dart. Already you feel drowsy, and begin to collapse. You ban barely make him out in your current state, but Alex soon enters with a victorious look on his face, holding his tranquilizer gun. “Well, it looks like I was right to not trust you, but you’ll be able to repay me back soon enough. Trust me, you’ll thank me for this remaking.” Despite Alex’s claims you’re unable to do much talking at all after Alex remakes you, let alone thanking him. He basically designs you in such a way that only your basic brain functions remain. Just enough for you to obey simple commands such as “Attack the Compound”. Obeying that command is the last thing you do, before you’re eventually blown to bits during Alex’s attack on the Compound.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>“Well I suppose you’re right in that we need to stop Alex, but blowing up the elevator still isn’t going to help, I suggest we hack the security system to gain control of it properly and then send down the invasion force and hope we can deal with the robots and cyborgs down there.” You reply. “Sounds like a better plan, I didn’t know you had so much computer experience though, let alone able to hack into a secret army base.” “Huh? I don’t. I mean, don’t you have people like that here?” “Excuse me, but you seem to be new here, hello welcome to the Compound…NO OF COURSE I DON’T I HAVE ANYONE LIKE THAT HERE! Sheesh! It’s not like we figured advanced computer hacking skills are going to be that useful when the world is blown back to the stone age! So you mean you don’t have the ability to pull off this amazing plan of yours?” “Well, not really, not to that degree at least…I suppose there’s just taking the panel apart and re-wiring it so it opens up for us though, you got any electricians or someone of that nature?” “Yeah a few, but I hope you do too, because you’re going to assist the team since you’re the idea man for all of this. After you clean out all the cyborgs and whatever the hell else Alex has built down there, remember to grab those weapons and come back. We’ll go back to occupy the base later. Now go select your team and whatever else you think you might need.” After asking for the names of the electronically “gifted” around the place, you go about following the Colonel’s orders and saying goodbye to Marina again, she looks more confident that you’ll return this time, you wish you could feel the same. When you and your team get to the base in a few days, you’re in for a little surprise. A medium sized robot is patrolling the courtyard. Looks like your friend Alex also dabbles in robotics as well as cybernetics. You and your team hide behind the outer wall when you all catch sight of it. Apparently Alex didn’t trust you any more than you trusted him, and looks like both of you were right. “Uh, what’s that?” one of your team members asks. “It’s a robot, what’s it look like?” “Well what’re we gonna do?” “Kill it! Everyone open fire!” You have no idea if your bullets are going to penetrate its armor, but you you’re going to try anyway. Everyone fires upon the robotic being, which begins to shutter and spark, but returns fire and a bright burst of light strikes one of your team members and completely incinerates him. “Holy shit, get cover and keep firing!” you shout. The rest of the battle doesn’t last too much longer, while your team continue to fire bursts at the machine while they dodge plasma blasts, you get enough time to toss a grenade at it and blow it to smithereens. Shards of burnt twisted metal lie all over the place. “Come on we need to open up that door, before something else comes out of the damn thing!” You and a few others start working on the card reader, trying to get it open as fast as possible. You don’t even know how you’re going to rewire the damn thing; you’ll just keep doing something until something else happens! As it turns out you didn’t need to do anything, while you and few others are fumbling around, the elevator doors open. At first you think you it was you who opened them, but in fact it was Alex who was controlling the elevator from the bottom. Two heavily armed cyborgs exit and begin firing immediately turning most of your team into charred skeletons. You manage to just barely get away and duck behind one of the buildings. Fortunately they don’t seem to be very fast, so when they try to chase you, you toss a few grenades in their direction, blowing them up in the same manner you destroyed the robot, except a bit bloodier, given their human bits. You come out of your hiding place and see nothing left of your team, they’ve all been killed. The elevator door is still open; you could enter and finish the job, or return to the Compound in failure. > You leave There’s no way you can take on the rest by yourself, at the very least you need to get reinforcements! You’d radio in, but one of the other team members was carrying it, and he was fricasseed. Plus you don’t want to be around if anymore of Alex’s creations come up. Time for a full scale invasion, looks like the Colonel was right. And that’s just what the Colonel tells you, when he’s chewing your ass out for losing valuable people and equipment in an attempt to go through with your plan. His respect for you is severely lowered, in fact the entire Compound’s respect for you is lowered. Harry makes every effort to taunt you, and even Marina becomes distant. (Obviously you weren’t the “man” she thought you were.) Your status in the Compound is pretty much nil, when the Colonel finally organizes an invasion party; you of course aren’t included. Now knowing another invasion attempt is probably coming, Alex really beefed up his defenses; the invasion force doesn’t even set foot into the base before getting blasted by superior cyborg weaponry. Reinforcements are called in, but they don’t help. The base is too well defended now. A retreat is called, and the Compound has to abandon its invasion indefinitely. In fact all exploration is called off; since the Colonel decides he can’t afford to lose anyone else. (One of the only reasons why you’re kept around) The Compound just becomes a “place” where everyone lives because it’s safer than living outside it. The ideas of “rebuilding” civilization are abandoned. Morale certainly isn’t what it used to be. Of course none of that means shit to Alex, who only steps up his plans for conquest. A year passes without another incident and then the day happens which you all hoped would never happen, but somehow expected it would. Alex’s army arrives, and what’s worse is they now outnumber you. Alex must’ve been capturing people in the wastelands or something. He’s also improved his abilities, they’re even tougher, and worse they’re faster. You don’t have anywhere else to go, and this place is your home such as it is. You figure maybe you can regain some respect by defending the place. You and the rest prepare to defend the Compound. Harry is predictably yelling orders at everyone, while the Colonel is attempting to boost morale with inspirational speeches. None of it really helps though when the first wave of cyborgs easily melt the gate into liquid metal and blast holes in the walls. Then they proceed to melt the people into liquid pulp, and blast holes in their bodies, you are no exception.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You lower your rifle (But still hold on to it) and walk side by side with the cyborg who is surprisingly chatty, you also see it walks a bit irregularly, like it hasn’t been spliced together correctly. “Alex will be most pleased to see you; you’ll be the first human here in months!” “What happened to all the others?” “Oh well most of them have been improved like m-m-m-m.” the cyborg hits itself in the head before he stops stuttering “Like me, sir.” “Hmm, some improvement.” “Oh well, its not so bad. Alex promises to give us a tune up when he gets the necessary time, he is only one man after all. Some assistants would certainly help.” “So Alex is a surgeon?” “Well he’s not really. I mean he didn’t start out that way at least, but he’s completely self taught and trying to learn more each day! Sure there have been some failures, but there’s also been success! Why look at m-m-m-m.” the cyborg hits itself in the head again while you just shake yours. You can see this is going to be an interesting meeting. “So who were you before Alex…uh improved you.” “Oh I was a regular military man who guarded this base with no real identity. Just a name and a number really.” “And now?” “Now I’m known as J-34 and I protect Alex!” “That’s great… so everyone here is a cyborg like you?” “Just about. Most military personnel were friends with Alex before being renewed, so they were happy to be improved. The GZS personnel weren’t so enthusiastic about the idea, in fact they were mad that Alex discovered their top secret project. They tried to stop him, but they were stopped instead. Alex saw that the project would be pointless in trying to perfect it to use in a war that was going to be over in six minutes. Better that it should be applied to those that would surely survive the aftermath of that same war. Here we are, I’m sure Alex will want to hear all about the outside world, hey maybe he’ll improve you too!” You enter an office where a man sits at a desk pouring over technical manuals and medical books. Two more cyborgs armed with some sort science fictionish weapons stand by him. There’s no way you could hope to kill him without them killing you as well. He looks up. “Ah a guest! Been a long time since we’ve seen anyone new…in fact I’m a little puzzled on how you even found this place, let alone entered it…you’re not GZS are you?” Alex says changing his pleasant demeanor in mid sentence. “No! Not at all! I’m here because the Colonel sent me. He says you and he are friends. Here. Here’s his ring and a letter he wrote to prove it. He’d also given me a security pass so I could enter this place.” Alex takes the ring and letter and inspects them both, before addressing you again. “Well it looks like everything’s legitimate. I shall trust you. Though I’m not sure I trust the Colonel. I never did trust him. He only wanted to use me so I could get access to high tech weaponry, but instead I found much more here! Much more than I ever told him! Ha ha! I hear him trying to radio in, wondering if there’s anyone here, I’ve been ignoring him. He and his group of right wing loonies are unworthy of being re-made. If they think they’re true survivialists then they don’t need the gifts that this base provides. All of it is mine, I EARNED this place and it shall be I who ushers in a new era. Not GZS, not the government and not the fucking goddamn Colonel!” Alex is obviously unhinged, you don’t know if he was always this way or got that way later, but it hardly matters, what’s of major importance is that you walk away from this meeting unscathed. You try to calm him down. “Whoa hold on, I don’t think the Colonel or any of his right wing loonies would want to be re-made.” “Nonsense, anyone with any sense of survival would want to be re-made if they new about what was being worked on here.” You can’t help, but notice that Alex hasn’t done any improvements on himself… “However, I can see you don’t share that same short sighted thinking that the rest of those Compound cronies do. You are worthy of being re-made! In fact I would like to start now, I’ve been studying up on some new techniques and I would love to test them out. I think I could do a really good job this time, there will definitely be less acc…er complications than in the past.” This is just getting worse. Now this nutjob wants to work on you. “Look, I don’t want to be re-made! I was just here to see if you were alive and scout this place out! Now that I’ve done that, I’m to return to the Compound!” “Oh well now that’s going to be a problem…I can’t risk you telling him what’s here.” You really didn’t want to hear that. “Look, I’ll tell the Colonel that there wasn’t anything here, I can reason with him. You can even take my security pass to make sure I can’t get back in if you’re really worried. However, if he doesn’t hear from me, he’s only going to send more folks to this place.” “And what of it? They wouldn’t be able to get in and even if they could, his weekend warriors would be no match for Cybernetic Evolution!” “No, but they could just blow up the elevator trapping you down here forever, and you’ll never be able to leave to allow your genius to usher in the new era that you were talking about.” That seems to relax Alex a bit, as always a little flattery goes a long way to ease an unbalanced mind. “Hmm, perhaps you make some sense, and you seem like a trustworthy sort…very well. I shall arrange for you to leave. Give me your security pass.” “Okay, and I’ll be needing the Colonel’s ring and letter back, so I can say I didn’t find anything here.” You and Alex exchange items and he and his two cyborg guards escort you back to the elevator. “Goodbye, perhaps if we meet again you will be more receptive to being re-made. It’s a harsh new world, and you’ll soon wish you had an edge to survive it.” Alex tells you before you leave. “I’ll do alright.” The elevator goes up and you’re back on the surface again where you make your trek back to the compound in just a few days. You notice there have been a few changes in the few days you’ve left. Namely there’s a still to make hooch. And you now have some working vehicles that been modified to run on hooch. The same still that people are making cheap booze from they’re also using it as fuel, which basically translates into the vehicles running on “garbage” given that’s what the booze is being made out of. Smells pretty bad, but whatever works. Though from what you heard some towns have been found to be running their vehicles on shit (animal AND human) so the smell could be worse. There’s been a couple deaths from some of the other recon missions, but for the most part everything else is normal. Everyone’s almost surprised to see you come back, Marina’s happy, Harry obviously isn’t. The Colonel though wants to see you immediately. Since you don’t owe any allegiance to some nutcase playing Frankenstein in an underground base, you tell the Colonel everything. You expect him to get mad at you, but he doesn’t. “(Sigh) Alex always was a bit unstable; I always wondered why the army never gave him a section 8. Anyway, what you’re telling me doesn’t surprise me, though I wish you could’ve gotten away without giving up that security pass. It’s going to be harder to get down there now.” “You still want to go down there?” “Of course! What you think I’m going to let Alex slowly refine and build up his cyborg army? Who do you think he’s going to attack first? No, we need to get rid of him NOW. I suppose we could blow up the elevator doors to gain access. Not like we don’t have the means to do that.” “Yeah, but don’t you run the risk of blowing up the entire elevator, and causing it fall and crash down the shaft? We wouldn’t be able to send anyone down there in an efficient manner. Let alone fighting off cyborgs who would cut us down with ease if we were trying to repel down the shaft or huddled together coming off the elevator, besides Alex might have left the elevator on his level given the recent visit of mine.” The Colonel lets forth another sigh knowing that you make a good point, but frustrated as well. “You’re right, so what do you suggest we do then? Sit and do nothing with our thumbs up our asses?” > You suggest in containing Alex instead Funny that you are about to suggest an idea to the Colonel that got you out of trouble with Alex in the first place. “No, I think you do have a good idea about stopping Alex, I saw first hand how crazy he was. Maybe we can’t actually get to him, but we could contain him. We blow up the elevator like you wanted to do and then dump explosives down the shaft, it should collapse things enough that they won’t be able to leave, and we won’t lose any people.” “Ah, I like the way you think, but suppose they attempt get out, or rebuild the elevator or something?” “Well, we could leave a permanent detachment there to keep a constant vigil. I mean the surface part of the base is completely usable. That way we get an early warning just in case anything does try to come out.” “Interesting idea. Having two command centers would be a good idea, I was planning on expansion in the future, might as well start now. Should keep us alert as well. Can’t afford to get sloppy out here. Okay. We’ll go with that idea, and since you came up with it, you can oversee the operation. In fact consider yourself stationed there until further notice.” “What?!” “Hey I have to put someone there, you’ve done a good job so far and you have the best experience with the place so you can be in charge. Think of it as an honor son! I have a lot faith in you and I don’t have much in anyone.” “Well thanks, but wouldn’t someone like Harry be a better choice?” ”Harry? Yeah, he’s got his uses, but I’d rather not have him in charge of anything important like this, no I want you and few others to go, in fact you pick them. I’ll let you know if I can afford to spare them.” “Well then I pick Marina right now.” “I expected that. Sure, if you can convince her to go. Just remember what you’re there for! Okay go pick out your team and gather what equipment you might need.” You leave and tell Marina the situation immediately, she of course agrees to go with you, though she’s a little worried about being someplace with a bunch of cyborgs several feet underneath her, of course you’re worried about the same thing. You pick out six more people of varying skills, but mostly people you were getting along with during your stay at the Compound. You don’t want to take anyone who you’re not going to get along with. The Colonel approves of your choice and gives you the okay, Harry looks positively jealous that he was passed over for you who just got here. In fact before you leave he tells you as much. “You fucking little pissant. You think because you’re all chummy with the Colonel that you’re his fucking second in command now?” “No, I…” “You’re goddamn right no! If anything happens to the Colonel I’M in charge of this shit! You better remember that fuckhead! Because if you’re still on my list when that occurs, you best pray to God that I at least lube your asshole after I rip off your pink panties and before I shove my foot up it and make your colon my permanent fuckin’ sock!” You’re a little bewildered by the logic of this comment, you almost can’t be sure if he’s threatening you, or flirting with you. You don’t feel like arguing with him though since it won’t accomplish anything, besides if any good is coming from this, it’s getting away from him. You and your team leave. When you and your team get to the base in a few days, you’re in for a little surprise. A medium sized robot is patrolling the courtyard. Looks like your friend Alex also dabbles in robotics as well as cybernetics. You and your team hide behind the outer wall when you all catch sight of it. Apparently Alex didn’t trust you any more than you trusted him, and looks like both of you were right. “Uh, what’s that?” one of your team members asks. “It’s a robot, what’s it look like?” “Well what’re we gonna do?” “Kill it! Everyone open fire!” You have no idea if your bullets are going to penetrate its armor, but you you’re going to try anyway. Everyone fires upon the robotic being, which begins to shutter and spark, but returns fire and a bright burst of light strikes one of your team members and completely incinerates him. “Holy shit, get cover and keep firing!” you shout. The rest of the battle doesn’t last too much longer, while your team continue to fire bursts at the machine while they dodge plasma blasts, you get enough time to toss a grenade at it and blow it to smithereens. Shards of burnt twisted metal lie all over the place. “Come on we need to blow up that door, before something else comes out of the damn thing!” You and the rest apply charges to the elevator door and run before it explodes. Just like you though, Alex doesn’t have the elevator on the surface anymore, it’s at the bottom, in fact its ascending right now! “Dump grenades down the fuckin’ shaft!” This action is followed by running far away from the elevator, a large explosion, and then a large crash and another smaller explosion. You ask for a flashlight and peer down the shaft. Its smoking mess and from what you can tell, part of the structure collapsed in on itself. Nothing is going to be coming out of there for a long time. You’re about to radio in and tell the Colonel the news when another signal breaks in, its Alex… “So, that snitch told after all! I knew he wasn’t to be trusted! You can’t stop me! I’ll get out of here eventually! And I shall…” “Got news for you Alex, you’re talking to the snitch right now, and you won’t be going anywhere as long as I’m here. Enjoy your underground prison.” You switch to another frequency and tell the Colonel who seems pleased, he tells you he’ll keep in contact with you on a regular basis and send more people when possible, in the mean time secure the place and get settled in. A few more weeks pass and eventually the initial nervousness disappears from everyone, Alex still breaks in ranting on your radio frequency every now and then, but you ignore him. In fact being at the base turns out to be more to your liking, there’s less people around, you’re in charge and you get to spend more time with Marina. A year passes… Not too much changes around the base (Which you now call Pandora which seems appropriate since you’re keeping in something that shouldn’t be let out!) a few more people are transferred here, supplies are delivered back and forth, but not much else happens. You get reports from the Compound every now and then, seems they’ve made progress with a few small towns that survived, but there are a lot of problems with lawless bandits running around. Reports have also mentioned strange mutated animals lurking about too. Sounds like they have everything under control so far though. The Colonel has the idea to trade with the towns and offer protection when possible. He hopes to get more people to join the Compound you imagine. Your orders are still the same, just guard Pandora, and make sure no cybernetic horrors are coming out. Sometimes you wonder if you shouldn’t be doing something else, indeed Marina seems to think so. Sometimes you forget she’s been training in all this survivalist shit longer than you have and has that “tame the wasteland” spirit more than you do. > You stay put You decide that you got it made, why fuck with it? The rest of those at the Compound have to go on missions to fight bandits and go exploring possible hostile locations. You don’t need to do any of that. You’re in a nice safe isolated location where nobody ever comes except to drop off supplies every now and then. Even the fact cyborgs are trapped underneath you doesn’t bother you anymore. You continue your routine. Four more years pass... You and Marina are still together, but for some reason, you don’t seem as close anymore. It seems like she’s been getting distant in the past few years. You still get the harassing radio rant from Alex every now and then just to let you know he’s still alive along with his robots and cyborgs. You’re guessing he’s been surviving on rats and roaches down there. It’s been five years since you first joined the Compound and there’s been a lot more changes there at least that’s what you’ve been hearing from the people transferred to Pandora. You get less and less reports from the Compound itself other than its undergone a name change and due to its inclusion of a few towns now, its called the Combine and the Compound itself is called Fort Justice. You know about how the Colonel has gotten sick and seems to be getting worse as more time passes and how the population rate is growing, but it’s slow. The major theory is the elevated levels of background radiation are probably affecting fertility. (You wonder about yourself and Marina since she hasn’t once gotten pregnant in the five years you’ve been together) There have been more people sent here, mainly people that aren’t “cutting it” anymore at the Compound. In fact you’ve been hearing some interesting stories. One man in particular called Roger has spoken to you quite frankly about what’s been going on at the Compound some of it a bit alarming. “The fuckin’ Colonel? When he started getting sick that sonofabitch Harry started taking over more responsibility. Started doing shit HIS way, which was a lot more reactionary. I mean don’t get me wrong, I’m not some faggot peacenik, I’m all about creating a new strong society, like how America SHOULD’VE been, but fuck man. I’m not gonna kill children for no goddamn reason!” “What?! When did this happen?” “About a year ago! I was on a mission to this small town called Lost Springs and Harry was with us personally. They had a fresh underground supply of water, so we really wanted to gather them into the fold. Talks didn’t go so well though, so Harry went nuts and shot the fucking mayor of the town! Then he proceeded to tell us to start killing all the kids if they didn’t submit to us.” “And?” “Well I refused to do it, and some of the others didn’t either. A few did though, and after a couple of kids were killed. The rest of the townsfolk pretty much fell in line. Harry left the ones who were willing to kill at his command to occupy the place. He made up a damn story to the Colonel about how he HAD to do it and left out the shooting kids though. And the Colonel gets sicker and sicker, and Harry gets freer reign. Shit, if the Colonel wasn’t still alive I think Harry wouldn’t even be sending some people here, he’d probably be sending them all to the city.” “Wait, the city? There’s missions to the city? I thought those were stopped after the first few times that was attempted.” “Not anymore! Harry’s been sending a few people on his shit list to missions on the city. Harry says that there are still important resources to be gathered from there. Its bullshit, ain’t nothin’ there except fuckin’ mutants and radioactivity! I probably would’ve got sent there, but I lost my arm in an ambush, and the Colonel said I needed to be taken off of active duty and sent here. There’s a real mean motherfucker loyal to Harry called Damon, who goes on the city missions to ensure nobody tries to go AWOL. He’s fucking nuts, he loves going into the city; I think he actually gets a fucking orgasm.” “Where the hell is Harry getting all these new people, if he’s treating the towns so badly?” “I told you he’s been press ganging some of them and most are so beaten by that point that they just go along with it, but he’s also been subduing some of the raider scum! That Damon is one of those fuckers. Instead of killing them all like we should be doing, he’s been recruiting them into the Combine! These degenerates are usually the ones he uses for occupation since most of them don’t have any qualms about killing anything that moves and they’re used to terrorizing towns.” “Holy shit, I’ve never heard about all this before.” “I’m telling you, you’re lucky you got assigned here when you did, because you would’ve been going to the city. The only thing keeping you safe is the Colonel who insists you stay in charge of this place; I don’t want to think about the day when the Colonel finally croaks. Shit, I might just leave and take my chances, one arm be damned. YOU might want to think about leaving as well, because chances are Harry’s going to be turning his attention towards you when that day comes.” “I still don’t see what the hell I did to him, he’s hated me since day one.” “Well, you got the Colonel’s attention and his respect. You got a command position of your very own base, and most importantly you got Marina. He’s always liked her. You didn’t know?” “Well she did mention one time that he came on to her in the past, well anyway, it hardly matters why he hates me I guess. What matters is I gotta think about how I’m gonna deal with this problem in the future.” Suddenly one of your assistants comes in and has something to report. Something you really don’t want to know after having been given the recent information by Roger. The Colonel has died, Harry has taken complete control of the Combine and his first order is for YOU to return to Fort Justice for reassignment. Looks like you’ll have to be thinking fast. > You leave the Combine Secession isn’t really a viable option. You simply can’t stand up to the resources Harry has, the only option is to distance yourself as far away as possible. Harry’s escorts will be here in a few days so you start packing immediately. Marina wonders what you’re doing. “We’re getting the hell outta here! You think Harry’s gonna let me live? At best he might be sending me into missions into the city! Fuck that!” “You mean we’re just leaving? We’re not fighting back?” “What you think I like this? I mean I don’t want to leave, but if we stay, we’re gonna end up dead! Come on pack your shit.” “I dunno. I can’t just leave everything. I mean I’m still friends and close to all these people, I can’t just leave them.” “Look, I’ve actually gotten along with most of the folks here too, but I’m not sticking my neck out for any of them. Besides, if they’re smart they’ll leave too.” “I can’t do it, I can’t go.” You stop packing. “What, are you fucking kidding me?” “No, I mean I can’t do it. This is my life, this was my life before the bombs and it’ll continue to be my life afterwards. I can’t just leave, I mean we’re trying to re-build society…” “Fuck society! Why can’t it just be me and you?” Marina suddenly tells you a revelation you always had an inkling of, but never quite sure until today… “You know why I liked you in the beginning? Because all those years we worked in that office I saw a man who worked hard in a mundane job yet had the potential to be something more under the right circumstances. I’m sure you remember I said something similar five years ago when I convinced you to come with me. Then you proved me right somewhat by volunteering and taking charge of this place. I knew I’d chosen right. I was in love with you.” “Was eh?” “Yes, was. In the following years of you taking command of this place you’ve shown no more initiative. You’ve been content to just do the mundane routine of running this place. You were doing exactly the opposite of what I first saw. You were squandering your potential.” “So what was I supposed to be doing then Marina? Driving across the fuckin’ wasteland shooting up people, taking their shit, and declaring their town part of the Combine like Harry?” “No, of course not. But you could’ve done something more. Like sending out your own exploration teams, or even going on them yourself. Maybe if you had, you wouldn’t be in this position now. You’d have better leverage to face Harry. Maybe he is a fucking dictator, but he’s accomplishing a goal.” You pack the last of your things and start walking while Marina follows you. “Yeah, some goal…Okay you know what Marina, fuck it. I gotta get outta here, and its apparent you’ve made your decision and I’m not gonna try to talk you out of it, because if you’re that willing to throw fuckin’ five years away just because I’m not the wasteland warrior that you dreamed up in your mind, then like I said fuck it. You’re not worth my time either anymore. I hope you and Harry have a nice life, I’m sure he’s exactly what you’re looking for. Hope for your sake though his obsession for you is a lot stronger than his vindictiveness.” “Fuck you! It’s not that goddamn black and white! I don’t like fuckin Harry, and I never will, but…HEY! Don’t fuckin’ walk out on me!” You storm out of the base, and Marina attempts to reason and explain, but it’s all bullshit to you. This whole thing was. Trying to “rebuild” society, yeah right. As if there was anything worth rebuilding in the first place. You’re done with this shit. You tried it and it was okay for awhile, but now its time to move on. Away from this and away from people. You travel for a few days, and you expect Harry’s men to come tracking you, but nobody ever follows you. You get attacked by a few mutated wolves, and a few mad men here and there, but nobody from the Combine. It’s possible that you’ve done a good job of throwing them off, and Harry’s people aren’t skilled trackers, of course maybe Harry’s just glad you’re out of the way period. You briefly have an amusing thought, that Marina still had some sort of feelings for you and offered to be Harry’s girl in exchange of letting you live. You decide to think that’s what happened, since you’ll never know for certain and you’ve always been prone to imagine dramatic movie like endings. “Heh. We’ll always have Pandora.” You laugh to yourself as you distance yourself further away from Combine territory.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You decide that you got it made, why fuck with it? The rest of those at the Compound have to go on missions to fight bandits and go exploring possible hostile locations. You don’t need to do any of that. You’re in a nice safe isolated location where nobody ever comes except to drop off supplies every now and then. Even the fact cyborgs are trapped underneath you doesn’t bother you anymore. You continue your routine. Four more years pass... You and Marina are still together, but for some reason, you don’t seem as close anymore. It seems like she’s been getting distant in the past few years. You still get the harassing radio rant from Alex every now and then just to let you know he’s still alive along with his robots and cyborgs. You’re guessing he’s been surviving on rats and roaches down there. It’s been five years since you first joined the Compound and there’s been a lot more changes there at least that’s what you’ve been hearing from the people transferred to Pandora. You get less and less reports from the Compound itself other than its undergone a name change and due to its inclusion of a few towns now, its called the Combine and the Compound itself is called Fort Justice. You know about how the Colonel has gotten sick and seems to be getting worse as more time passes and how the population rate is growing, but it’s slow. The major theory is the elevated levels of background radiation are probably affecting fertility. (You wonder about yourself and Marina since she hasn’t once gotten pregnant in the five years you’ve been together) There have been more people sent here, mainly people that aren’t “cutting it” anymore at the Compound. In fact you’ve been hearing some interesting stories. One man in particular called Roger has spoken to you quite frankly about what’s been going on at the Compound some of it a bit alarming. “The fuckin’ Colonel? When he started getting sick that sonofabitch Harry started taking over more responsibility. Started doing shit HIS way, which was a lot more reactionary. I mean don’t get me wrong, I’m not some faggot peacenik, I’m all about creating a new strong society, like how America SHOULD’VE been, but fuck man. I’m not gonna kill children for no goddamn reason!” “What?! When did this happen?” “About a year ago! I was on a mission to this small town called Lost Springs and Harry was with us personally. They had a fresh underground supply of water, so we really wanted to gather them into the fold. Talks didn’t go so well though, so Harry went nuts and shot the fucking mayor of the town! Then he proceeded to tell us to start killing all the kids if they didn’t submit to us.” “And?” “Well I refused to do it, and some of the others didn’t either. A few did though, and after a couple of kids were killed. The rest of the townsfolk pretty much fell in line. Harry left the ones who were willing to kill at his command to occupy the place. He made up a damn story to the Colonel about how he HAD to do it and left out the shooting kids though. And the Colonel gets sicker and sicker, and Harry gets freer reign. Shit, if the Colonel wasn’t still alive I think Harry wouldn’t even be sending some people here, he’d probably be sending them all to the city.” “Wait, the city? There’s missions to the city? I thought those were stopped after the first few times that was attempted.” “Not anymore! Harry’s been sending a few people on his shit list to missions on the city. Harry says that there are still important resources to be gathered from there. Its bullshit, ain’t nothin’ there except fuckin’ mutants and radioactivity! I probably would’ve got sent there, but I lost my arm in an ambush, and the Colonel said I needed to be taken off of active duty and sent here. There’s a real mean motherfucker loyal to Harry called Damon, who goes on the city missions to ensure nobody tries to go AWOL. He’s fucking nuts, he loves going into the city; I think he actually gets a fucking orgasm.” “Where the hell is Harry getting all these new people, if he’s treating the towns so badly?” “I told you he’s been press ganging some of them and most are so beaten by that point that they just go along with it, but he’s also been subduing some of the raider scum! That Damon is one of those fuckers. Instead of killing them all like we should be doing, he’s been recruiting them into the Combine! These degenerates are usually the ones he uses for occupation since most of them don’t have any qualms about killing anything that moves and they’re used to terrorizing towns.” “Holy shit, I’ve never heard about all this before.” “I’m telling you, you’re lucky you got assigned here when you did, because you would’ve been going to the city. The only thing keeping you safe is the Colonel who insists you stay in charge of this place; I don’t want to think about the day when the Colonel finally croaks. Shit, I might just leave and take my chances, one arm be damned. YOU might want to think about leaving as well, because chances are Harry’s going to be turning his attention towards you when that day comes.” “I still don’t see what the hell I did to him, he’s hated me since day one.” “Well, you got the Colonel’s attention and his respect. You got a command position of your very own base, and most importantly you got Marina. He’s always liked her. You didn’t know?” “Well she did mention one time that he came on to her in the past, well anyway, it hardly matters why he hates me I guess. What matters is I gotta think about how I’m gonna deal with this problem in the future.” Suddenly one of your assistants comes in and has something to report. Something you really don’t want to know after having been given the recent information by Roger. The Colonel has died, Harry has taken complete control of the Combine and his first order is for YOU to return to Fort Justice for reassignment. Looks like you’ll have to be thinking fast. > You secede from the Combine "Fuck off Harry, and take your Combine and shove it up your ass. We’re seceding.” You abruptly tell him over the radio, before announcing your intensions to everyone else in the base. You get a mixed reaction of apprehension, while a lot of them aren’t too fond of Harry, they still like living with basic necessities, something that becomes apparent in the weeks to come. There are a number of problems from the beginning. First of all, you’re an isolated community and while that has its advantages, it also has its drawbacks, meaning the instant you tell Harry to fuck off and die over the radio, you’re no longer getting any supplies of any kind, you’re stuck with what you have. Medical supplies are scarce as it is; now they’re non-existent. Forget about getting new ammo too. Food is a bit of a problem, (Water isn’t, the base has its own water recycling and filtering system, fortunately it’s on the surface rather than underground) since you were getting a majority of that from Fort Justice. Some hunting is done in the surrounding wilderness. It becomes a major problem though when Harry sends an invasion detachment and cuts you off from even doing that. It’s not even like you can start farming even if you had the means since the inside of the base is completely paved (as well as harboring a deranged doctor and his cyborgs) The only thing that prevents him from completely taking the place is the fact he’s spread a bit thin in other areas of the Combine with keeping control of other towns and you’re pretty well fortified. Doesn’t mean he can’t continue to harass you, and he can keep supplying his people. You can’t. His people are somewhat more battle hardened as well. Not that you’re saddled with a bunch of non-combatants, but anyone that’s still following Harry willingly has been indoctrinated with a little more fanatic conformity, which is a great thing to have in a soldier. So great, you wish you had more people like that. A couple months after the initial siege; most people are ready to throw you to Harry’s men in exchange for mercy. Marina and few others stand by you, but its mob rule. You’re overwhelmed, disarmed and thrown to the invasion force outside. All that still stayed loyal to you are immediately shot as traitors. The ones that turned on you are merely beaten (and a few of them shot to ensure that something like this doesn’t happen again) You and Marina are taken back to Harry. He gets a sadistic pleasure out of having you beaten in front of Marina. He attempts to give Marina one last chance to submit, but she refuses causing him to slap her upside the face and then start to rip off her clothes. You yell out, but are promptly beaten by Harry’s guards again. Unfortunately for all his bravado Harry’s unable to get it up. He tries like hell since he wants you to watch, but for whatever reason, his attempt at rape is a complete failure. Knowing the end is near anyway, Marina laughs at him before he smashes her skull against the ground yelling and screaming at her whole time. He then kicks your bloody body and blames you for having to do that, you spit out a gob of blood and some teeth. “Enjoy your fuckin’ empire, you limp dick bitch.” You groan. “FUCK YOU, YOU GODDAMN PIECE OF SHIT!” he replies back, grabbing his pistol off the table. Harry then ends your existence by emptying his gun into you.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Funny that you are about to suggest an idea to the Colonel that got you out of trouble with Alex in the first place. “No, I think you do have a good idea about stopping Alex, I saw first hand how crazy he was. Maybe we can’t actually get to him, but we could contain him. We blow up the elevator like you wanted to do and then dump explosives down the shaft, it should collapse things enough that they won’t be able to leave, and we won’t lose any people.” “Ah, I like the way you think, but suppose they attempt get out, or rebuild the elevator or something?” “Well, we could leave a permanent detachment there to keep a constant vigil. I mean the surface part of the base is completely usable. That way we get an early warning just in case anything does try to come out.” “Interesting idea. Having two command centers would be a good idea, I was planning on expansion in the future, might as well start now. Should keep us alert as well. Can’t afford to get sloppy out here. Okay. We’ll go with that idea, and since you came up with it, you can oversee the operation. In fact consider yourself stationed there until further notice.” “What?!” “Hey I have to put someone there, you’ve done a good job so far and you have the best experience with the place so you can be in charge. Think of it as an honor son! I have a lot faith in you and I don’t have much in anyone.” “Well thanks, but wouldn’t someone like Harry be a better choice?” ”Harry? Yeah, he’s got his uses, but I’d rather not have him in charge of anything important like this, no I want you and few others to go, in fact you pick them. I’ll let you know if I can afford to spare them.” “Well then I pick Marina right now.” “I expected that. Sure, if you can convince her to go. Just remember what you’re there for! Okay go pick out your team and gather what equipment you might need.” You leave and tell Marina the situation immediately, she of course agrees to go with you, though she’s a little worried about being someplace with a bunch of cyborgs several feet underneath her, of course you’re worried about the same thing. You pick out six more people of varying skills, but mostly people you were getting along with during your stay at the Compound. You don’t want to take anyone who you’re not going to get along with. The Colonel approves of your choice and gives you the okay, Harry looks positively jealous that he was passed over for you who just got here. In fact before you leave he tells you as much. “You fucking little pissant. You think because you’re all chummy with the Colonel that you’re his fucking second in command now?” “No, I…” “You’re goddamn right no! If anything happens to the Colonel I’M in charge of this shit! You better remember that fuckhead! Because if you’re still on my list when that occurs, you best pray to God that I at least lube your asshole after I rip off your pink panties and before I shove my foot up it and make your colon my permanent fuckin’ sock!” You’re a little bewildered by the logic of this comment, you almost can’t be sure if he’s threatening you, or flirting with you. You don’t feel like arguing with him though since it won’t accomplish anything, besides if any good is coming from this, it’s getting away from him. You and your team leave. When you and your team get to the base in a few days, you’re in for a little surprise. A medium sized robot is patrolling the courtyard. Looks like your friend Alex also dabbles in robotics as well as cybernetics. You and your team hide behind the outer wall when you all catch sight of it. Apparently Alex didn’t trust you any more than you trusted him, and looks like both of you were right. “Uh, what’s that?” one of your team members asks. “It’s a robot, what’s it look like?” “Well what’re we gonna do?” “Kill it! Everyone open fire!” You have no idea if your bullets are going to penetrate its armor, but you you’re going to try anyway. Everyone fires upon the robotic being, which begins to shutter and spark, but returns fire and a bright burst of light strikes one of your team members and completely incinerates him. “Holy shit, get cover and keep firing!” you shout. The rest of the battle doesn’t last too much longer, while your team continue to fire bursts at the machine while they dodge plasma blasts, you get enough time to toss a grenade at it and blow it to smithereens. Shards of burnt twisted metal lie all over the place. “Come on we need to blow up that door, before something else comes out of the damn thing!” You and the rest apply charges to the elevator door and run before it explodes. Just like you though, Alex doesn’t have the elevator on the surface anymore, it’s at the bottom, in fact its ascending right now! “Dump grenades down the fuckin’ shaft!” This action is followed by running far away from the elevator, a large explosion, and then a large crash and another smaller explosion. You ask for a flashlight and peer down the shaft. Its smoking mess and from what you can tell, part of the structure collapsed in on itself. Nothing is going to be coming out of there for a long time. You’re about to radio in and tell the Colonel the news when another signal breaks in, its Alex… “So, that snitch told after all! I knew he wasn’t to be trusted! You can’t stop me! I’ll get out of here eventually! And I shall…” “Got news for you Alex, you’re talking to the snitch right now, and you won’t be going anywhere as long as I’m here. Enjoy your underground prison.” You switch to another frequency and tell the Colonel who seems pleased, he tells you he’ll keep in contact with you on a regular basis and send more people when possible, in the mean time secure the place and get settled in. A few more weeks pass and eventually the initial nervousness disappears from everyone, Alex still breaks in ranting on your radio frequency every now and then, but you ignore him. In fact being at the base turns out to be more to your liking, there’s less people around, you’re in charge and you get to spend more time with Marina. A year passes… Not too much changes around the base (Which you now call Pandora which seems appropriate since you’re keeping in something that shouldn’t be let out!) a few more people are transferred here, supplies are delivered back and forth, but not much else happens. You get reports from the Compound every now and then, seems they’ve made progress with a few small towns that survived, but there are a lot of problems with lawless bandits running around. Reports have also mentioned strange mutated animals lurking about too. Sounds like they have everything under control so far though. The Colonel has the idea to trade with the towns and offer protection when possible. He hopes to get more people to join the Compound you imagine. Your orders are still the same, just guard Pandora, and make sure no cybernetic horrors are coming out. Sometimes you wonder if you shouldn’t be doing something else, indeed Marina seems to think so. Sometimes you forget she’s been training in all this survivalist shit longer than you have and has that “tame the wasteland” spirit more than you do. > You do something Well there’s nothing stopping you from sending your own exploration detachment teams, there’s nothing stopping you from going yourself either. As far as you know, nobody from the Compound has bothered scouting past Base Pandora, you figure it’s as good of place as any… “Okay I want two scouting detachments of four. I’m going with one of them. We’re just going to go a few miles from this place and then come back. It’ll give us a better lay of the land in case of an attack and it’ll keep our skills sharp as well. The rest of you guard the base as usual.” You half expect Marina to come with you, but she’s content on staying behind to help look after the base. She looks at you admiringly though that you’re taking the initiative. She tells you she loves you and that she can’t wait for you to get back. You like the fact she’s got confidence that you ARE coming back this time around. You and your team leave and start exploring. Base Pandora really was in a secluded location, most of your trek is through a small unspoiled woods, eventually you get to the end though after about a day. You notice the Geiger counter is clicking a bit more. Not a lot, but enough to be a little unsettling. Using some binoculars, up ahead you see a single run down farm house (the farm itself also looks run down and hasn’t been up kept in years). Just then you see a few vehicles also approaching up ahead, you tell everyone else to pull back into the woods and keep down while you do likewise. You continue to look as the vehicle park nearby the farm house and figures begin to get out. All of them are wearing robes and carrying automatic weapons over their backs. You also see them dragging what looks to be a few hapless prisoners with them as they enter the structure. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that these folks aren’t the nice type. “Oh shit, these guys look prepared. Who do you think they are?” one of your team asks. “How should I know Reggie? When we moved into Base Pandora it’s not like we got a welcome to the neighborhood letter from every nearby freak within a few miles of us. If I had to guess and judging by the robes, they’re probably some doomsday cult. Probably one that was building up a stock pile of shit even before the bombs hit. Got some interesting vehicles though.” “So, what’re we going to do?” What to do indeed. You definitely need to wipe these cultists out since it’s possible you could have trouble with them in the future if they start wandering in your direction. They also have vehicles that could be of use and probably other supplies as well. You could radio in and wait for reinforcements, but the prisoners you just saw them take in might be dead by then. > You get reinforcements It’s a brutal world and it just got more so. Rushing in outnumbered, isn’t likely to save anyone and most likely going to get you killed. You radio in for reinforcements and keep an eye on the farm in the mean time. Later when the darkness comes you see a group of them come out with torches, form a circle in a nearby plain and begin chanting. You count ten of them altogether Soon two more come out with one of the prisoners from earlier. She’s bound, gagged and naked; you know what’s going to come next. Reggie and another one in your team wants to do something, but you insist that they do nothing and to keep quiet. It’s all over soon anyway, as you see them sacrifice the poor girl for whatever outlandish beliefs they hold. You take first watch for the night. The next day your reinforcements arrive…both of them. “What the fuck? I asked for at least five more people!” “Sorry, but that other recon group you sent also ran into trouble, in fact two of them are already dead, and we had to send a rescue team to fetch the other two since one has a broken leg.” “Oh that’s wonderful.” “So should we call this off?” one of you team asks. “No Vivica, we’re going through with it, but we’re going to employ some stealth, they had three prisoners, I get the feeling they’ll be doing the same ceremony they did last night.” “Are we going to attack them now then?” “No Leonard, I don’t feel like fighting a bunch of fanatics armed with machine guns in an open plain with no cover. And we can’t just start firing on them from here, we need to wipe them ALL out as quickly as possible without them having a chance the regroup, fortify or any of that shit. We’re gonna sneak into the house and ambush the whole fuckin’ cult while they’re doing their little ceremony.” You wait until night and sure enough they all come out like you thought, then come the others with the prisoner. That’s when the six of you quickly sneak through an overgrown field towards the house. You get to the stairs when Reggie and Leonard break off towards the area were the cult is performing their ceremony. “I can’t just let them kill another! We can take ‘em now! They’re off guard!” “Reggie get the fuck…shit!” Reggie and Leonard begin firing, the fucking idiots aren’t even taking cover, they’re going head long in like they’re stupid ass action heroes. You and the others lay down some cover fire, but it’s not enough. Reggie and Leonard are cut down after killing a whopping ONE cultist and not even saving the hapless girl, who’s shot instantly. The cultists start spreading out, moving forward, and circling around you at the same time, they’re also better shots than you too, as they’re carefully aiming rather than just firing in the general vicinity. After seeing another one of your team members go down, you and the rest fall back into the house itself. The inside of the house looks like something out of a horror movie, there are skulls and bones littering it, along with it blood stains everywhere. “Holy shit! What’ve we gotten ourselves into?” Vivica yells. “Shut the fuck up, I hear something…like crying…it’s downstairs.” “What about the cultists?” “Well it’s the same plan, they just know about us now, let’s hope we can still get ‘em in a good ambush.” You and your team members spread out in the house, you head down into the basement, which looks more like a small temple layout. You see a young woman in a cage, and when she sees you her eyes fill with hope. You hear the cultists stomping around upstairs and some gunfire, at which point you try to find a good place to hide. A bunch of footsteps run down the stairs, you wait in anticipation…closer…closer… NOW! You pop up from your spot and begin firing, you kill six of them before they can even react, and the remaining two barely get off some wild shots before you splatter them as well. Still breathing heavy among the dead, you finally hear some good news. “Hey! Are you still alive down there?” Vivica shouts. “Yeah! What’s going on up there?” “We got a few of them, but I think most of them converged on your position though.” “Of course they did, I’ve always been popular.” You reply. You release the girl in the cage who’s very thankful. She mentions her name is Ophelia and she’s from a place called Ashtown which is far from this place. She says the cultists came storming into her town specifically trying to capture young girls; they took three before they finally were driven away, and unfortunately Ophelia was one of the three. You tell Ophelia your story; she seems to think you’ve got the right idea about going about things. “I think I’m going to tell my people back in Ashtown that we need to start getting better organized as well, and I’ll be sure to tell them all about you and how you rescued me! Maybe we’ll see each other in the future.” You and your team search the farm house which just like you thought was stocked with all sorts of goodies. You’re going to have haul some of it back, but you decide that you could also establish another base of sorts here after it was cleaned up. You’d also like to establish more of a relationship with this Ashtown. So you allow Ophelia to take one of the vehicles for her to drive back there, she certainly doesn’t have a problem with that! Before heading back you put Vivica in charge of the place and tell her you’ll be sending some more folks to help get this farm up and running. Not bad for a first try. Four more years pass… It’s been five years since you joined the Compound and things are going fairly well for you, the farm house has been converted into a way point to Ashtown, with which you have good relations with and is now producing food. You are no longer solely dependant on the Compound for supplies which might be just as well… You get less and less reports from the Compound itself other than its undergone a name change and due to its inclusion of a few towns now, its called the Combine and the Compound itself is called Fort Justice. You know about how the Colonel has gotten sick and seems to be getting worse as more time passes and how the population rate is growing, but it’s slow. The major theory is the elevated levels of background radiation are probably affecting fertility. (You wonder about yourself and Marina since she hasn’t once gotten pregnant in the five years you’ve been together) There have been more people sent here, mainly because they hear about how great it is in Pandora as opposed to the miserable place Harry has made Fort Justice since he’s been getting freer reign of the place as the Colonel continues to get sicker. In fact you’ve been hearing some disturbing stories from others who have come here recently. Ranging from needlessly violent occupation of towns, sending people on dangerous unnecessary missions to the city, and recruiting desert scum into the Combine! People are saying Harry’s going nuts with power. One day, one of your assistants comes in and has something to report. The Colonel has died, Harry has taken complete control of the Combine and his first order is for YOU to return to Fort Justice for reassignment. Harry’s just plain gone completely nuts if he thinks you’re going to do that. Speaking of nuts, that same day after you convince everyone in seceding from the Combine you get a radio message from someone who’s been quiet until now. “Well well, it seems you’ve got a problem on your hands.” It’s Alex. You’re guessing he’s been surviving on rats and roaches down there. “What the hell do you want and how do you know what’s been going on?” “How do you think? I’ve been listening in on all your incoming and outgoing radio transmissions since you betrayed me and trapped me down here! I must say though, you probably did the intelligent thing. And your progress with establishing your own separate territory has been intriguing…but I can tell you right now, you are going to need help with your current problem, a problem I will be willing to help with if you’re willing to talk.” “Alright, I’ll play. What’re you proposing?” “There are still a lot of those high tech weapons down here that you were coming to get when you came here five years ago. I’m sure they would be very useful in your up coming war with Harry, and don’t tell me there isn’t, because I know you aren’t going to run or meekly follow his orders to return. You’ve obviously set your sights on higher ambitions than just following orders and survival. I’ll be willing to give them to you, in exchange for my freedom.” “Oh that easy huh? How do you propose we go about this? I send people down there to retrieve them while your death machines ambush them as soon as they enter?” “It would be kind of hard for that to happen since all my cyborgs are long dead and my robots have fallen into disrepair…I’m basically alone down here. You were guarding nothing!” Alex laughs. You’re pretty skeptical about this little tale, but if it’s true, those weapons would certainly help. > You believe Alex The chance is too good to pass up. You’re going to risk believing Alex, of course everyone else isn’t willing to do so. You had a hard enough to convince them to join you in seceding from the Combine; you can’t really press this issue as well. There’s nothing else for it, you’re going to have to go down there yourself. You just ask someone to make sure the ropes and pullies are stable for you to descend down the elevator shaft. Now Marina loves your bravery and willingness to take risks, but even she’s a little apprehensive about this idea. You’re determined to do this though. “Marina, if something goes wrong and I get killed, then get yourself out of here, and head to Ashtown. There’s no reason for you to stick around and get yourself killed as well, or worse.” “Nonsense! I’ll fight for what you accomplished here whether you’re still around or not! But that’ll be after I go underground and take care of whatever metal bastards killed you!” No point in arguing with her, she’ll do it anyway just like you’re going underground anyway and that’s probably why you love her. You give her a kiss and descend. When you finally reach the bottom, you’re standing on top a pile of scrap. Part of it looks like it was moved in an attempt to clear it at one time, so you are able to squeeze through the previous elevator entrance. The same corridor you stepped through five years ago is remarkably dim now, you see a few steel husks lying on the ground. A lot of course are cyborgs, so decaying flesh is also present. Looks like Alex was telling the truth so far. Eventually you find Alex brooding in his office which is in complete disarray. Alex himself is very pale and a lot thinner than when you last remember him. “Hey! There you are! See, I told you I wasn’t lying.” He states when he sees you. “Yeah I can see that, what exactly happened?” “Oh there were complications…psychotic episodes…power problems…lack of more equipment and extra help…does it matter? I utterly failed. I watched my creations die one by one over the months and years due to my own lack of skill…and I thought I was going to usher in some sort of new era…yeah right.” “Alex, I’m surprised to hear you talk like that.” “Yeah? Well being prisoner here gives you a lot of time to think. Sometimes people go mad in captivity, I think in my case it did me some fucking good. I should’ve trusted the Colonel, he was my friend. He wasn’t going to do anything to me. He trusted me, and now he’s dead and I didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye.” While Alex’s speeches of redemption are intriguing, you really want those weapons. “Alex, where are the weapons?” “…huh? Oh yes. The weapons. Please, don’t let me stop you. Go down the corridor make a right and enter the second door. You’ll find all you need in there. They were all tested out and work well. One of the few things GZS helped design that wasn’t prone to failure.” You leave Alex to his brooding, and follow his directions; you soon come across a room with the weapons, or what’s left of them. There’s not the great arsenal that Alex made out there was. He most likely used most of them when he was creating his robots and cyborgs. You’re disappointed, but still it’s better than nothing and the few that are here will help. You collect what you can for this trip, when Alex enters the room. “So, now that you have what you’re looking for, are you going to keep your word?” “Well…ah fuck it…what the hell. Keep in mind though people are going to be pretty mistrustful of you. Don’t expect a warm welcome.” “Didn’t expect one.” “Good, now grab the rest of those weapons, so I don’t need to make a round trip down here.” You and Alex come back up with the weapons (and their power cells). The confidence level increases in everyone, you delivered some cool weapons and you braved going into the “dreaded” underground of Pandora again. They’re definitely more inclined to follow you more loyally now. Alex makes himself useful by using his technical skill to build and set traps in the surrounding wilderness. You radio Vivica to let her know what’s going on as well, she’s behind you and will make sure to send a few people to harass Harry’s men when they decide the lay siege to Pandora. Everyone spends time preparing and organizing for the battle that’s sure to come. A month passes and sure enough Harry’s men come thinking its going to be an easy victory, but it’s a slaughter. Many are killed by the traps Alex set, the rest are fried by the laser and plasma weapons. A couple more months pass and another invasion force arrives, this one better prepared and much bigger. More reinforcements show up armed to the teeth and despite the rugged terrain that prevents cars to come to this place, they managed to find some dirt bikes which whiz around Pandora while the riders nimbly dodge your fire while they toss grenades at (and sometimes over) the walls. You still have the advantage obviously, but they’re doing a hell of a lot of damage to Pandora now. The siege is now in full effect, fortunately you’re fairly well stocked to hold out, and Vivica’s men manage to get through sometimes with more supplies. Sensing that this is not going well for him and costing him a lot more time, man power and resources than he wanted to spend, he orders a final push. People armed with rocket launchers come this time, and with a few volleys, Harry’s men finally breach the walls of Pandora and storm into the place. > You make a break for it and regroup at the farmhouse “Fall back to the farm house!” you shout as you mow down another dirt biker. As your people begin to escape you look around for Marina in the chaos, and then you see her fighting multiple enemies converging on her position while she attempts to retreat. You rush towards her to back her up and then you’re blown back by an explosion. You slam up against a wall of one of the barracks, other than some minor pain and some scars you’re going to have you aren’t harmed, however your heart is when you see Marina lying bloody on the ground. She isn’t moving. Ignoring everything else you run to her, you kneel down to pick up her body, she grabs weakly on to you, but she’s in bad shape. Alex then grabs you by the shoulder “Hey! We got people firing on us; and in case you didn’t notice you told everyone to fall back! “You! You’re a fucking surgeon! You fix her! Save her! Save her NOW!” you shout, picking her up and shoving her into Alex’s arms. “Wha…I…” Alex realizes you mean fucking business so he takes her, but asks about you since he notices you’re grabbing another nearby gun. “What’re you doing? You gotta get outta here! You can’t fight all of them!” “GO! I’m giving you fucking time!” you order Alex pushing him away and charge into battle firing two weapons in hand. You kill a lot of them, but you’re outnumbered and outgunned at this point. You eventually fall to a hail of bullets and die. Marina follows you soon afterwards on the retreat back to the farmhouse.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The chance is too good to pass up. You’re going to risk believing Alex, of course everyone else isn’t willing to do so. You had a hard enough to convince them to join you in seceding from the Combine; you can’t really press this issue as well. There’s nothing else for it, you’re going to have to go down there yourself. You just ask someone to make sure the ropes and pullies are stable for you to descend down the elevator shaft. Now Marina loves your bravery and willingness to take risks, but even she’s a little apprehensive about this idea. You’re determined to do this though. “Marina, if something goes wrong and I get killed, then get yourself out of here, and head to Ashtown. There’s no reason for you to stick around and get yourself killed as well, or worse.” “Nonsense! I’ll fight for what you accomplished here whether you’re still around or not! But that’ll be after I go underground and take care of whatever metal bastards killed you!” No point in arguing with her, she’ll do it anyway just like you’re going underground anyway and that’s probably why you love her. You give her a kiss and descend. When you finally reach the bottom, you’re standing on top a pile of scrap. Part of it looks like it was moved in an attempt to clear it at one time, so you are able to squeeze through the previous elevator entrance. The same corridor you stepped through five years ago is remarkably dim now, you see a few steel husks lying on the ground. A lot of course are cyborgs, so decaying flesh is also present. Looks like Alex was telling the truth so far. Eventually you find Alex brooding in his office which is in complete disarray. Alex himself is very pale and a lot thinner than when you last remember him. “Hey! There you are! See, I told you I wasn’t lying.” He states when he sees you. “Yeah I can see that, what exactly happened?” “Oh there were complications…psychotic episodes…power problems…lack of more equipment and extra help…does it matter? I utterly failed. I watched my creations die one by one over the months and years due to my own lack of skill…and I thought I was going to usher in some sort of new era…yeah right.” “Alex, I’m surprised to hear you talk like that.” “Yeah? Well being prisoner here gives you a lot of time to think. Sometimes people go mad in captivity, I think in my case it did me some fucking good. I should’ve trusted the Colonel, he was my friend. He wasn’t going to do anything to me. He trusted me, and now he’s dead and I didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye.” While Alex’s speeches of redemption are intriguing, you really want those weapons. “Alex, where are the weapons?” “…huh? Oh yes. The weapons. Please, don’t let me stop you. Go down the corridor make a right and enter the second door. You’ll find all you need in there. They were all tested out and work well. One of the few things GZS helped design that wasn’t prone to failure.” You leave Alex to his brooding, and follow his directions; you soon come across a room with the weapons, or what’s left of them. There’s not the great arsenal that Alex made out there was. He most likely used most of them when he was creating his robots and cyborgs. You’re disappointed, but still it’s better than nothing and the few that are here will help. You collect what you can for this trip, when Alex enters the room. “So, now that you have what you’re looking for, are you going to keep your word?” “Well…ah fuck it…what the hell. Keep in mind though people are going to be pretty mistrustful of you. Don’t expect a warm welcome.” “Didn’t expect one.” “Good, now grab the rest of those weapons, so I don’t need to make a round trip down here.” You and Alex come back up with the weapons (and their power cells). The confidence level increases in everyone, you delivered some cool weapons and you braved going into the “dreaded” underground of Pandora again. They’re definitely more inclined to follow you more loyally now. Alex makes himself useful by using his technical skill to build and set traps in the surrounding wilderness. You radio Vivica to let her know what’s going on as well, she’s behind you and will make sure to send a few people to harass Harry’s men when they decide the lay siege to Pandora. Everyone spends time preparing and organizing for the battle that’s sure to come. A month passes and sure enough Harry’s men come thinking its going to be an easy victory, but it’s a slaughter. Many are killed by the traps Alex set, the rest are fried by the laser and plasma weapons. A couple more months pass and another invasion force arrives, this one better prepared and much bigger. More reinforcements show up armed to the teeth and despite the rugged terrain that prevents cars to come to this place, they managed to find some dirt bikes which whiz around Pandora while the riders nimbly dodge your fire while they toss grenades at (and sometimes over) the walls. You still have the advantage obviously, but they’re doing a hell of a lot of damage to Pandora now. The siege is now in full effect, fortunately you’re fairly well stocked to hold out, and Vivica’s men manage to get through sometimes with more supplies. Sensing that this is not going well for him and costing him a lot more time, man power and resources than he wanted to spend, he orders a final push. People armed with rocket launchers come this time, and with a few volleys, Harry’s men finally breach the walls of Pandora and storm into the place. > You continue to fight “Keep fighting the bastards! Pandora will never fall!” you shout as you mow down another dirt biker. In all the fighting though you begin to worry where Marina is, you look around for her in the chaos, and then you see her fighting with multiple enemies converging on her position. You rush towards her to back her up and then you’re blown back by an explosion. You slam up against a wall of one of the barracks, other than some minor pain and some scars you’re going to have you aren’t harmed, however your heart is when you see Marina lying bloody on the ground. She isn’t moving. Ignoring everything else you run to her, you kneel down to pick up her body, she grabs weakly on to you, but she’s in bad shape. “Keep fighting to rebuild civilization…its still worth it…” she says before losing total consciousness. Alex suddenly comes up to you. “Hey! We got people firing on us; you need to get the fuck outta the open!” “You! You’re a fucking surgeon! You fix her! Save her! Save her NOW!” you shout, picking her up and shoving her into Alex’s arms. “Wha…I…” Alex realizes you mean fucking business so he just nods and runs with her to one of the few undamaged buildings. You’re blind with rage, you begin charging into battle trying take out as many of these motherfuckers as you can, its quite possible with your actions alone you turned the tide, but you are still just one man, and you nearly get yourself killed, if it hadn’t been for Vivica managing to get a few people from Ashtown to help out, and they arrive just in time. Ophelia shoots a Combine soldier who was sneaking up on you. You turn around to see her, you nearly don’t recognize her decked out in battle gear. “Told you, you’d see me in the future.” She says and runs off to clean up the stragglers running away. The Combine is pulling back. You’ve won, but at a high cost. When you return to check on Marina, you find her dead. Alex explains there was nothing he could do for her. You ask to be alone which he complies. You spend the rest of the night alone with Marina’s lifeless body weeping and vowing revenge. The next day, you come out with one focus. To assault Fort Justice. This will never be over until Harry is dead. You need to strike now when he’s weak. A lot of people are wondering if you shouldn’t wait to regroup, but you won’t hear of it, you’re determined to do it now and everyone who’s in fighting condition is coming with you. In a couple days you and your small army arrive at Fort Justice. You half expect to die this day assaulting the place, but once again destiny is with you. Fort Justice is experiencing a minor authority problem. You can take the scum out of the wasteland, but you can’t make them disciplined soldiers. The last defeat has shattered morale, and apparently some are starting to question Harry’s orders, while others aren’t willing to die for him. The gate is wide open and parts of the place are in flames. You walk in relatively unopposed. Some fighting occurs, but you’re looking for Harry and when the loud mouth shithead sees you, instead of confronting you, he runs for the trapdoor to the underground. You immediately run to cut him off and shoot him in both legs. He falls and grabs for his pistol, but you take careful aim and blow his hand off, he screams in pain when he sees his fingers all over the ground. A kick to his face follows, and then a stomp, and another, and another. You don’t stop until his face looks like tenderized hamburger. He tries to act defiant by trying to give you the finger with his good hand, but you take it and break the motherfucker along with the rest of his hand. “This is for Marina and the rest of the deaths you caused.” You say, before blasting his mushy bloody head into mushy bloody pieces. Now its over. You collapse by Harry’s body, spent and drained. Alex goes over to see if you’re alright, but Ophelia tells him to just make sure all the enemy are either dead or running. Ophelia takes you to a barrack and puts you on a bed and tells you to rest, which you do. “I did it Marina…I got him…” you mumble while falling asleep. The next few weeks consist of rebuilding. Rebuilding everything. Fort Justice. Base Pandora. All the damage Harry caused. Word gets out to the Combine occupied towns about their current situation, with no centralized authority figure anymore, the Combine dissipates as wasteland scum flee and return to the outlands where they belong. The townspeople of those places are very grateful for your help, and you’re now in charge of everything but you take no joy in any of it, or anything. You’re numb. You go through the motions, but you’re basically in a daze. All your thoughts are of Marina, you feel empty without her. If it wasn’t for her, you wouldn’t even be alive right now. You would’ve died in a big mushroom cloud death. You start blaming yourself for not being able to save her, you start thinking about suicide. Everyone gets a little worried about you. Vivica starts radioing in wondering about your condition, Alex (Who’s quite familiar with mental breakdowns) attempts to talk to you, but it’s Ophelia who turns you around, though not immediately, but it’s her actions that become the turning point. Late one night, as you wallow in the emptiness, Ophelia visits you. You expect her to tell you not blame yourself for Marina’s death again, but she doesn’t. Instead she talks about the time when you saved her from the cultists and how grateful she was that day and how she would’ve almost done anything to repay you for saving her life. “Mm…well you repaid it already. You saved mine back at Pandora.” You say wishing to be left alone. “No, I’m saving it now.” Ophelia begins to remove her clothing, something that takes you completely by surprise. You feel you shouldn’t, you know you shouldn’t, but maybe it’s feeling of loneliness, maybe it’s the feeling of confusion, or maybe its just plain hormones, and you give in to Ophelia’s advances. And for that one night, the emptiness within you disappears. The next day Ophelia is gone leaving you a note saying she’s going back to Ashtown and tells you that you shouldn’t give up on life since you have so much more to change in this new world. When you think about it, Marina saved you, so you could carry that goal out. She always did see the potential in you to do great things. With this new perspective, you begin to return to normal, though there still was a little piece of you that died when Marina did. You’ll never completely be the same. Life goes on though. Five more years pass… It’s been ten years since the bombs dropped and civilization is starting to rebuild itself again…well somewhat. Hard to believe you would’ve become any type of leader trying to rebuild civilization. Marina might not be around anymore, but obviously her influence on you still is and always will be as you follow her dream of rebuilding civilization again. You’re still running things from Base Pandora, which is now the unofficial head of the Atomic Alliance. The towns formally under Combine occupation are included, but are now treated as equals rather than glorified labor camps, though getting everyone to agree completely on anything still remains a problem. Fort Justice is now under Vivica’s command and the Farmhouse, now known as Eden is a fully functional agricultural community. (It supplies food as well as biofuel for vehicles now) After that one night with Ophelia you don’t see her anymore, but last you heard she had a baby and got married to someone in Ashtown. Good for her. Other than political disagreements, everything has been going fairly well; raiders are still a problem, but much less than in the past. For the most part people are pretty happy living in your territory. One thing that’s been debated among you and some of other leaders, are the few GZS Shelters the Alliance has stumbled across over recent years. No effort has been made to open them, but they’re all sealed shut by their main computers. From what you know by reading some of the GZS documents found in Base Pandora (and Alex who definitely has some knowledge of GZS protocols) the Shelters weren’t supposed to open up until the central computer determined that sufficient amount of time had passed and the surface deemed safe. Apparently the computers still think the surface sucks. (And that assessment wouldn’t exactly be wrong) Most of the other Alliance leaders say that some sort of contact should be made with them. You get the impression some of them might’ve done it anyway, it’s just you have most of the equipment that makes it a lot easier. > You open them up At one time you thought about actually buying one of those things, sometimes you even wonder how things would’ve been living underground completely oblivious to what’s going on the surface. Things might’ve been a lot easier…or maybe they wouldn’t. You’ll just have to wonder about the road not traveled. You see no harm in making contact; they may even have useful resources to trade and might appreciate knowing that the surface is exactly the hell on Earth that they might think. Plus the rest of the Alliance leaders seem pleased that you’re agreeing with them. Maintaining good relations to keep everyone happy is always a sure way of keeping the Alliance stable. Even Ashtown makes mention of a Shelter nearby that they’ve been debating about whether to contact or not. You organize how to go about this, since you don’t want to make enemies unnecessarily. It doesn’t take long to open up the Shelters and bypass the computer elevator systems with your help. First contact with most of the shelters is a very large surprise for its inhabitants, though a lot of them seem really grateful. Apparently GZS Shelters weren’t built very well, you hear reports of how inhabitants had to improvise and constantly repair various things. Alex tells you he isn’t surprised. “The main reason why I outlived my cyborgs when I was…uh…indisposed… was due to having faulty GZS equipment. Granted they made a lot of good stuff, but they had a terrible habit of cutting corners. When I think about it, I really can’t believe I thought I was actually going to DO something with them, probably wouldn’t have even lasted in a real fight…still it would’ve been interesting…my God I can’t believe I used to think things like this…like…I dunno…” Every now and then Alex talks like that. Probably wondering about his own road not traveled. It creeps people out though, however it doesn’t prevent him from being a good doctor. You almost get the impression he feels like by being a good doctor and patching folks up real well is sort of like his “penance”. One he feels necessary to do until the day he dies. This line of thinking becomes really noticeable within a few weeks of the Shelter openings. The Shelter near Ashtown is in bad shape. From the reports you’ve heard some sort of weird “social experiment” was going on down there which resulted in some sort of catastrophe. There are many dead bodies and broken equipment. Many of the people are sick and infected with something, and they aren’t in very good shape to go anywhere. Looks like they’ve been slowly dying. In fact the Mayor of Ashtown, Carlos, is taking the hard line stance refusing to let the ones that went down there to come back up, for fear that they will infect his town. This isn’t a popular decision, so he’s hoping you can send some sort of medical team to help since Ashtown doesn’t have the experts you do. Carlos says that he’ll formally join the Atomic Alliance if you get him out of this jam. Alex insists on going to help. “Please, let me go help. I’m the best doctor in the Alliance. I…I need to do this. I need to help these people…” Alex says almost in a begging fashion. “…Well alright Alex, but you’re taking one of those biohazard suits! Who knows what the hell those people have, and I really can’t risk losing my best doctor.” Alex thanks you profusely, and gathers a couple of his assistants and all the necessary equipment before leaving. A couple weeks pass and you get a report from Carlos. He mentions that Alex has determined there is nothing contagious about whatever the Shelter people are infected with, and the Ashtown citizens are allowed to come back up and return. Alex is still working on the problem though and it might take awhile, he requests for more equipment, which you allow Ashtown formally joins the Alliance. You personally go there to welcome them in. It’s strange that you’ve never actually been to Ashtown before, given a lot of your dealings with it. While you’re here on business you think about Ophelia, and that one night. A night that possibly saved you from committing suicide, given the downward spiral you were in at the time. There’s a few times you thought about going to see her to thank her…but then you think how she has a family now and it would just be too weird. A month passes and you suddenly get a call from Alex on your radio. “Alex? Where are you?” “I’m in the Shelter. I managed to rig the computer to transmit a signal! Now I can talk to you directly! Great huh?” “Uh yeah…what’s going on over there?” “Oh, nothing much. This place is pretty fascinating; I’ve been trying to figure out what was going on down here. This one diary was really interesting” “Alex what about the people?” “It seems there was this guy called Elliot who had a lot of weird ideas, he was a doctor…” Alex says seemingly oblivious to your question. “Yeah, I know the type. ALEX WHAT ABOUT THE FUCKIN’ PEOPLE?” “Oh yeah…the people. They’re okay…I guess.” “You guess? What the fuck Alex, don’t you know?” “Well, uh y’know... this isn’t an exact science, and I’m still trying to figure some things out…I went to Ashtown recently for some more supplies, but I think I need some more higher qulity equipment from you, its getting kind of complicated down here…” “What the fuck Alex? No, you’re not getting anything else! We’re not an endless supply of resources! Now you work with what you got and I better hear some progress soon!” “…work with what I got…yeah…story of my life…” Alex says and disconnects. Another week passes and this time you get a message from Carlos, he doesn’t sound well, but he does sound angry. “…we ally with you and this is (Cough) what happens? We’re all sick and it’s (Cough!) all you and that doctor’s fault! He contaminated us! YOU contaminated us! The town is Uhhh…” There’s an old saying, that a scorpion, no matter how well you take care of it or treat it, its nature will always be to sting you. And that’s just what happened. Shit. > You do not take chances, purge EVERYTHING You’ve got to keep this quiet and you’ve got to keep whatever this is from spreading. You quietly call the most loyal and capable soldiers under your command to meet you immediately. You explain to them what needs to be done. Any still living Ashtown inhabitants must be killed, and the entire town burned to the ground. Alex must also be killed and the Shelter rendered inaccessible forever. You tell them to keep you informed at all times. The strike team is sent in the middle of the night in Hazmat suits and tons of hardware. Everyone in Base Pandora wonders what’s going on, but due to the more military mindset here, people know not to ask too many questions. Eventually you get a message from one of your soliders. “Uh sir, it looks like most of the town is dead already, I don’t think it’s airborne, because it doesn’t look like the children were affected…” “Are you sure about that? Just because they look sick doesn’t mean they aren’t. They could be carrying.” “Sir?” “…I said kill everything Sergeant…” “But I think…” “DON’T THINK! JUST DO IT!” The Sergeant disconnects and you can only imagine what happened next, but you don’t really want to. A little while later you get another report. It’s the Sergeant again, he sounds very hollow. “Sir…it’s uh over. Alex is dead…he didn’t even put up a fight…we’re putting the explosives in Shelter entrance as I speak…should implode and bury the Shelter from being accessible…” “Very good. You’ve done a necessary thing Sergeant.” “…no I haven’t…goodbye…” You hear a gunshot on the other end followed by a bunch of other voices shouting and dead air. Your official report to the Atomic Alliance (Because it’s not like you can completely cover this up) is that a ruthless gang of raiders completely destroyed Ashtown as well as the Shelter and that you’re sending squads to go hunt them down. This isn’t really a satisfactory answer, but given how far away Ashtown is from the rest of the Alliance towns nobody really questions it. At least not initially. Over the past few months you’re noticeably distracted, and can’t concentrate on anything. You’re constantly thinking someone’s going to investigate, or one of those you sent on the mission is going to blab (Now you wish they all blew their brains out) your behavior starts becoming a bit erratic as you give out strange orders to cover up things you think are going to lead to your exposure. You constantly rationalize your orders as attempting to keep the Alliance from falling, since you’re convinced that everyone knew what Alex did, you’d be blamed for incompetence for allowing it to happen and without you running things you just know the Alliance wouldn’t survive. However something like this couldn’t be covered up forever. Eventually someone gets suspicious of your behavior which leads to rumors, which then in turn leads to investigating. Eventually the truth comes out. The Alliance citizens are appalled, in fact if you hadn’t proceeded with your extreme plan and just come out with the truth about Alex’s actions in the beginning you might not have been hated quite so much. You displayed poor judgment, by allowing Alex to go about his own devices. Strike one. You ruthlessly had children killed to possibly contain a contagion. Strike two. You attempted to cover all this up and lied about it. Strike three. This type of behavior makes you look like deceitful murderous tyrant, something the Alliance towns had enough of under Harry during the Combine regime. People are calling for your blood, and your immediate resignation of Atomic Alliance leader, in fact you might be imprisoned…or worse. You’ve lost all support. By the end, you’ve barricaded yourself in an underground room in Base Pandora with people telling you to give yourself up; of course you have no intention of doing that. In your last moments as you point the pistol to your head, you think about Marina, and how it all would've been easier had you died with her and how you tried to rebuild civilization even after she was gone, but just failed without her around, however once again you rationalize. “Yeah…they all united against me…I kept them united… then Vivica will certainly take power…the Alliance will live on…I didn’t fail…Marina…I didn’t fail…” Your delusional thoughts come to an end with a door burst open, and a bullet to the brain.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>At one time you thought about actually buying one of those things, sometimes you even wonder how things would’ve been living underground completely oblivious to what’s going on the surface. Things might’ve been a lot easier…or maybe they wouldn’t. You’ll just have to wonder about the road not traveled. You see no harm in making contact; they may even have useful resources to trade and might appreciate knowing that the surface is exactly the hell on Earth that they might think. Plus the rest of the Alliance leaders seem pleased that you’re agreeing with them. Maintaining good relations to keep everyone happy is always a sure way of keeping the Alliance stable. Even Ashtown makes mention of a Shelter nearby that they’ve been debating about whether to contact or not. You organize how to go about this, since you don’t want to make enemies unnecessarily. It doesn’t take long to open up the Shelters and bypass the computer elevator systems with your help. First contact with most of the shelters is a very large surprise for its inhabitants, though a lot of them seem really grateful. Apparently GZS Shelters weren’t built very well, you hear reports of how inhabitants had to improvise and constantly repair various things. Alex tells you he isn’t surprised. “The main reason why I outlived my cyborgs when I was…uh…indisposed… was due to having faulty GZS equipment. Granted they made a lot of good stuff, but they had a terrible habit of cutting corners. When I think about it, I really can’t believe I thought I was actually going to DO something with them, probably wouldn’t have even lasted in a real fight…still it would’ve been interesting…my God I can’t believe I used to think things like this…like…I dunno…” Every now and then Alex talks like that. Probably wondering about his own road not traveled. It creeps people out though, however it doesn’t prevent him from being a good doctor. You almost get the impression he feels like by being a good doctor and patching folks up real well is sort of like his “penance”. One he feels necessary to do until the day he dies. This line of thinking becomes really noticeable within a few weeks of the Shelter openings. The Shelter near Ashtown is in bad shape. From the reports you’ve heard some sort of weird “social experiment” was going on down there which resulted in some sort of catastrophe. There are many dead bodies and broken equipment. Many of the people are sick and infected with something, and they aren’t in very good shape to go anywhere. Looks like they’ve been slowly dying. In fact the Mayor of Ashtown, Carlos, is taking the hard line stance refusing to let the ones that went down there to come back up, for fear that they will infect his town. This isn’t a popular decision, so he’s hoping you can send some sort of medical team to help since Ashtown doesn’t have the experts you do. Carlos says that he’ll formally join the Atomic Alliance if you get him out of this jam. Alex insists on going to help. “Please, let me go help. I’m the best doctor in the Alliance. I…I need to do this. I need to help these people…” Alex says almost in a begging fashion. “…Well alright Alex, but you’re taking one of those biohazard suits! Who knows what the hell those people have, and I really can’t risk losing my best doctor.” Alex thanks you profusely, and gathers a couple of his assistants and all the necessary equipment before leaving. A couple weeks pass and you get a report from Carlos. He mentions that Alex has determined there is nothing contagious about whatever the Shelter people are infected with, and the Ashtown citizens are allowed to come back up and return. Alex is still working on the problem though and it might take awhile, he requests for more equipment, which you allow Ashtown formally joins the Alliance. You personally go there to welcome them in. It’s strange that you’ve never actually been to Ashtown before, given a lot of your dealings with it. While you’re here on business you think about Ophelia, and that one night. A night that possibly saved you from committing suicide, given the downward spiral you were in at the time. There’s a few times you thought about going to see her to thank her…but then you think how she has a family now and it would just be too weird. A month passes and you suddenly get a call from Alex on your radio. “Alex? Where are you?” “I’m in the Shelter. I managed to rig the computer to transmit a signal! Now I can talk to you directly! Great huh?” “Uh yeah…what’s going on over there?” “Oh, nothing much. This place is pretty fascinating; I’ve been trying to figure out what was going on down here. This one diary was really interesting” “Alex what about the people?” “It seems there was this guy called Elliot who had a lot of weird ideas, he was a doctor…” Alex says seemingly oblivious to your question. “Yeah, I know the type. ALEX WHAT ABOUT THE FUCKIN’ PEOPLE?” “Oh yeah…the people. They’re okay…I guess.” “You guess? What the fuck Alex, don’t you know?” “Well, uh y’know... this isn’t an exact science, and I’m still trying to figure some things out…I went to Ashtown recently for some more supplies, but I think I need some more higher qulity equipment from you, its getting kind of complicated down here…” “What the fuck Alex? No, you’re not getting anything else! We’re not an endless supply of resources! Now you work with what you got and I better hear some progress soon!” “…work with what I got…yeah…story of my life…” Alex says and disconnects. Another week passes and this time you get a message from Carlos, he doesn’t sound well, but he does sound angry. “…we ally with you and this is (Cough) what happens? We’re all sick and it’s (Cough!) all you and that doctor’s fault! He contaminated us! YOU contaminated us! The town is Uhhh…” There’s an old saying, that a scorpion, no matter how well you take care of it or treat it, its nature will always be to sting you. And that’s just what happened. Shit. > You send another medical team to Ashtown You immediately dispatch another team of medics in hazmat suits to Ashtown. Vivica insists on going since she’s probably the second best doctor in the Alliance, you order her not to since you can’t afford to lose her as well, not to mention she runs Fort Justice, but she’s defiant and goes anyway. You also order Eden to not let ANYONE who wasn’t already working there in, until this situation is resolved. You can’t afford your major food source to get contaminated. You decide not to inform the rest of the Alliance towns, since you hope maybe you can contain this before panic occurs. You next step is to radio Alex, but as predicted you don’t get an answer. You soon get a report from Vivica, “It looks bad. REAL Bad. Most of Ashtown is already dead or dying. Whatever it is, I don’t think it’s airborne. It might be the water supply. The only weird thing is, the children didn’t seem to be affected…it’s very sad though. We’re going to have a bunch of orphans.” “Can’t you do ANYTHING?” “No, I have no idea what this is and I think it’s too late anyway, uh there’s something else I think you’ll want to know…though I’m not sure how to say this…” “Vivica just spit it the fuck out!” “Well, uh…I tired to treat Ophelia, but I failed, her husband was already dead by the time I got here.” “…Vivica, I appreciate you trying to save someone I had fond memories of, but there’s a whole town at stake…” “I know, I know, but that’s not what I’m getting at. Ophelia had a daughter you know. Her name’s Laura. She’s five. Ophelia told me before she died; she wanted her daughter to have a good home.” “Well of course! I mean we’ll give good homes to all the orphans!” “Again, that’s not it. She asked for you specifically to give her that home. She said she said it’s about time her daughter got to know her father anyway.” The surprises just keep coming. “Excuse me?” “Looks like you’re this little girl’s father…the timing is about right, I mean you did have that encounter with her five years ago. She’s five and if I may say, I see the family resemblance, she doesn’t look anything like Ophelia’s husband, I mean granted he’s dead right now, but…” “Why the hell didn’t she tell me? I mean I would’ve…” “I asked the same question, during her final moments. She’s said she was sorry she never told you before, but she knew you had other things on your mind and bigger concerns with rebuilding civilization and all. She always thought she would’ve lived in Marina’s shadow anyway and by keeping Laura to herself it was like she still had a piece of you…sir I hate to break this information up since I know it probably really important to you, but what are we going to do about the town and Alex and everything?” “Start evacuating the children to Base Pandora, the town is dead. I’ll take care of Alex.” You say grimly before disconnecting. Armed and focused, for the first time in a long time you travel by yourself to the Shelter where Alex is at. You meet up with Vivica on the way, who tries to advise you to at least go in with back up, but you won’t hear of it and tell her to continue on to Base Pandora. You also see Laura and some of the other orphaned children. They’re obviously still upset about their parents dying horrible deaths. You approach Laura whose eyes are all red from crying. She looks up at you. “Are…are you really my daddy?” she asks, obviously having been informed of the situation. Contrary to what Vivica said, you think she looks more like her mother, but yes there is a resemblance to you particularly the hair. Unsure of how to respond, you give a straight forward answer. “Yes I am and I’ll be home soon to take care of you.” you stroke her face and get back in your vehicle and drive off. You drive through Ashtown and see the dead bodies, by the facial expressions you get the impression it wasn’t a pleasant one. Once again you think about going to see Ophelia’s body, but you quickly decide against it. You’d rather remember her how she was the last time you saw her. Besides you’ll always see her now in your daughter, plus you’ve got a score to settle with Alex. You get to the Shelter and enter its foyer and surprisingly its elevator is at the top, looks like some modifications have been made to it as it looks as if the call buttons were there originally. You really don’t care about any of it though, you’re on a mission. When you get to the bottom, you see the same modified call buttons near the elevator on this level as well (You can’t believe the idiotic way GZS designs their Shelters though, effectively trapping their “customers” down here) You also see more dead bodies in various stages of decay, some look like they were dead long before Alex got here. Much of the equipment and place in general is in disarray, but you also notice some of it has been recently repaired. Probably by Alex no doubt. You hear cursing coming from a nearby room, it sounds like Alex. > You confront him now Knowing Alex, he’s probably killed his assistants too; you go in with your weapon ready. “FUCK! Goddamn GZS equipment! Always fucks up!” Alex says as he’s trying to install some sort of implant in the head of some corpse on a table. Its one of his assistants and his brains are leaking all over the place, you don’t even know what the hell Alex was trying to accomplish, and you get the impression he doesn’t either. He stares at you with eyes telling you he’s finally gone over the edge for good this time. “You see? You see what I have to work with? Can’t fucking work under these conditions! Not enough equipment! Plenty of bodies, just need the equipment…is it lunch time?” “Is that why you infected Ashtown? So you could rebuild your insane dreams of cyborgs again?” “It’s not insane! Its evolution! You really think the Atomic Alliance can last in its current form? NO! It NEEDS to be remade! Y’see I tried…I really did…I really tried to delude myself into thinking civilization can be rebuilt and survive in its current form…but it wasn’t until I came here and found this diary…this Elliot guy…had lots of good ideas about the nature of man…and how control IS the only way to maintain order…of course he obviously failed when his so called “obedience serum” had a long term detrimental health effect on the inhabitants here. Comes in handy as a virulent toxin when altered a bit and dumped into a water supply though. Strange how it doesn’t affect pre-pubescent children.” “You fuckin’ sonofabitch…” you say pointing your rifle at him, he doesn’t even seem to notice, he just keeps talking. “His ideas were sound, just his method was flawed, and it made me realize I was right in the beginning, I was just prevented from seeing my plan come to fruition due to YOUR own ambition and meddling! Shit, you can barely keep the Alliance leaders to agree on anything! The only reason why they follow you is because of the polite threat of superior firepower that you have access to and the major food source you have under your direct control in Eden. If that advantage ever disappeared, you’d have another civil war on your hands. You’re petty dictator hiding in democracy. Your own method of control is as clumsy as Elliot’s.” “I’m not controlling anyone, you psychotic fuck!” “Bullshit! You’ve built your whole career on it! Your destruction of my plans, your war with the Combine, creating the Atomic Alliance and being the head of it. You really expect me to believe you did all this without ambition?” “Actually yeah. Had it not been for Marina’s influence, I probably wouldn’t have bothered…” “How long are you going to hide behind THAT ghost? Perhaps she did have influence on you in the beginning as far as motivation was concerned, but nobody, NOBODY that has gotten this far can say they’ve been doing this all this as some sort of monument for the love of a dead woman! You’re lying to yourself because YOU don’t have the fuckin’ balls to admit you’re a goddamn friendly fascist! And after you’re dead? Do you think the Atomic Alliance will really live on? I predict it falls apart and in fighting occurs within a month! Humans are incapable of ruling themselves! The LAST WAR PROVED THAT! The Cybernetic Evolution is the ONLY thing that makes sense!” You think about some of the things Alex’s insane ranting, before responding. “…you might be right Alex. You might be right, but there’s just one thing...” “Oh what’s that?” “Your method sucks too, mainly because you were too idiotic to ever get it off the ground in the first place and this isn’t for Marina, its for my daughter Laura you fucking mass murdering motherfucker.” You riddle Alex’s body with bullets until he’s such a bloody heap that he’s actually ripped in half by your burst. You then pull out your pistol and blast his face into a red pulpy mess. Its over. You return to Base Pandora where Vivica has been trying to keep control of things as everyone is starting to wonder what’s going on exactly. You give a full report to the entire Atomic Alliance about what happened. It’s a big event that nearly shatters the Alliance. When you think about it, maybe that was Alex’s “back up plan”, as even if he had been killed, he must’ve known you’d catch heat for what happened. Some say it really wasn’t your fault, others say it was, since you left an unstable element like Alex to his own devices. Some say your past deeds should be taken into consideration, others say it doesn’t make up for the death of an entire town. Some say you tried to make things right, others say you shouldn’t be applauded for attempting to fix something that was your fault in the first place. Still others say it wasn’t your fault to begin with since the opening of the Shelters was most of the OTHER town leader’s idea not yours. It’s apparent everyone is divided on the situation, so you do the only thing that makes sense and step down from being the head of the Atomic Alliance. This has more of an effect than you hoped. Some people still think you should be punished directly, but for the most part most are just satisfied that you aren’t the head of the Alliance anymore. The ones closest to you think it’s unfair, but you don’t really care. You probably saved the Alliance again with your actions, another civil war would’ve occurred otherwise. You can only hope in time people will see that. Vivica becomes the new head of the Alliance. Some object to her as well since she’s somewhat close to you, but most accept her since her reputation is pretty spotless and fair minded. You remain in control of Base Pandora, which now mainly concentrates on strictly military matters as in defending the AA borders. Less politics, but not less responsibility since you now have a daughter to take care of… Ten more years pass… Twenty years have passed since the bombs dropped, and the Atomic Alliance is the largest known stretch of civilization known in the immediate area. It’s now become an official democratic political entity rather than just a collection of separate towns and forts which were merely aligned. Vivica is now officially the President. GZS Shelters have been converted into major the supplier of water. Gone are the days of wondering if water was safe to drink. These Shelters have also been modified to have surrounding land to become agricultural centers like Eden; the water is piped in from underground to help grow crops. They’re probably more useful than what they were initially intended for. Ashtown was repopulated, but a big memorial is now standing there in memory of the dead, the Shelter near Ashtown was destroyed. Explosives were placed in the entryway such a manner that it imploded in on itself forever burying the place. As for you, you find less and less to do each day at Base Pandora. While it’s foolish to think that the world is now a safe place that an Atomic Alliance military isn’t needed, it’s just that it has fewer threats. Raiders might lurk on the outskirts of it, but to actually attack it now would be folly. Only the craziest and most desperate raiders do that nowadays, and they’re usually easily dispatched by the AA Police Force. (Most of course having trained at Base Pandora combat academy) Civil unrest mainly consists of a few normal complaints, never anything like what happened in the past. It almost like the “Old World” again. You however are glad of this, since you have enough trouble trying to look after your daughter Laura. She’s quite willful now that’s she’s a teenager, but fortunately your relationship isn’t really bad though, you just never did get a hang of this whole father thing. The best thing you did was train her to take care of herself. Though now you’re wondering if that was such a good idea. “I want to join the Atomic Alliance City Project!” she says. Having tamed most of the surrounding area, the next big agenda for the Alliance is to restore the City. You never really thought this was the best idea Vivica had, since the City has always been considered a very dangerous place, with nothing but deadly radiation levels and mutant monstrosities. In fact you turned down the option to head up the project when she proposed it to you. You remember way back in your early days of the Compound, when a few people were sent to the City, and only one returned speaking of the horrible creatures inside. Since then, nobody ever really went there. Every now and then you heard about a few hostile mutants wandering from the city, but it was rare, it seems as if they were content on living in their own area. You lived on “your side” and they lived on “their side” and that’s the way it should stay. Seems like fucking around with the City might be inviting trouble, sort of like when you decided to fuck around the Shelters ten years ago… Your daughter on the other hand like most youthful sorts, sees “adventure”. True she’s not some delicate flower and she grew up relatively fast (She did see her mother die in front of her along with the rest of the town) but its not like she’s had any real combat experience, plus she’s only fifteen and you do feel the need to protect her. > You restrict her from going She’s still fifteen; you’re still able to restrict her from doing whatever the hell she wants. You do however realize that too much restriction isn’t going to help and possibly even drive her away, so what you propose is a compromise and you allow her to go on border patrol mission and minor recon duty. Let her deal with some raiders and see if she still wants to pursue this life of adventure… She isn’t exactly enthusiastic about this idea, probably because it doesn’t seem as “exciting”. Most raiders go running at the first sign of trouble, so there’s actually little in the way of combat. She starts becoming a little more daring and patrols further than she’s supposed to. You tell others to keep an eye on her, but of course that’s impossible all the time. Then your worst fears come true. Laura is ambushed, beaten and gang raped. She would’ve probably been killed, but the rest of the recon team arrived in time to drive them off. They managed to kill a few…but not all. You’ve suffered a lot of tragedies in your life, but this one has got to be the worst since you lost Marina…worse even. You don’t sink into depression though, you fly into a rage. You immediately gather your best men and personally hunt the rest of these scumfucks down. There is no where they can hide; you are the embodiment of vengeance. As is typical you find them hold up in a cave where you catch most of them off guard, as ordered, your men don’t shoot to kill, they shoot to maim. You’ll be the one doing the killing. You cut off the genitals of each one of them and stuff them into their mouths. You yell and scream at them as you repeatedly shoot and kick their bloody bodies. You don’t stop tormenting them even after death until one of your men finally tells you stop. You don’t really feel any better though, once again you feel like you’ve failed, just like you did ten years ago with Alex killing most of Ashtown. You can’t do this anymore; you resign your command at Pandora, despite Vivica not wanting you to. It takes Laura awhile to get over the traumatic event, and she never really does. She picks a safer career path and she never marries or even dates, despite you telling her that she should and that its okay, but she says she’s satisfied just living with you. (And while you blamed yourself for what happened, she never did) And while you don’t mind her company, this also saddens you. In your remaining years, you spend a lot of time regretting a lot of decisions you made in the past. You can’t even take “pride” in the fact that you contributed greatly to rebuilding civilization. When yet another war breaks out with the mutants due to the Atomic Alliance City Project you just shake your head wondering if it was all worth it to begin with. Eventually when you die, it’s sort of a release for you. A small respectful funeral is held for you as you’re buried next to Marina like you always wanted to be, but as time goes on after Vivica and those who were with you from the beginning in the Compound die off, your name and deeds are forgotten completely as what happens to most “heroes” of history.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Knowing Alex, he’s probably killed his assistants too; you go in with your weapon ready. “FUCK! Goddamn GZS equipment! Always fucks up!” Alex says as he’s trying to install some sort of implant in the head of some corpse on a table. Its one of his assistants and his brains are leaking all over the place, you don’t even know what the hell Alex was trying to accomplish, and you get the impression he doesn’t either. He stares at you with eyes telling you he’s finally gone over the edge for good this time. “You see? You see what I have to work with? Can’t fucking work under these conditions! Not enough equipment! Plenty of bodies, just need the equipment…is it lunch time?” “Is that why you infected Ashtown? So you could rebuild your insane dreams of cyborgs again?” “It’s not insane! Its evolution! You really think the Atomic Alliance can last in its current form? NO! It NEEDS to be remade! Y’see I tried…I really did…I really tried to delude myself into thinking civilization can be rebuilt and survive in its current form…but it wasn’t until I came here and found this diary…this Elliot guy…had lots of good ideas about the nature of man…and how control IS the only way to maintain order…of course he obviously failed when his so called “obedience serum” had a long term detrimental health effect on the inhabitants here. Comes in handy as a virulent toxin when altered a bit and dumped into a water supply though. Strange how it doesn’t affect pre-pubescent children.” “You fuckin’ sonofabitch…” you say pointing your rifle at him, he doesn’t even seem to notice, he just keeps talking. “His ideas were sound, just his method was flawed, and it made me realize I was right in the beginning, I was just prevented from seeing my plan come to fruition due to YOUR own ambition and meddling! Shit, you can barely keep the Alliance leaders to agree on anything! The only reason why they follow you is because of the polite threat of superior firepower that you have access to and the major food source you have under your direct control in Eden. If that advantage ever disappeared, you’d have another civil war on your hands. You’re petty dictator hiding in democracy. Your own method of control is as clumsy as Elliot’s.” “I’m not controlling anyone, you psychotic fuck!” “Bullshit! You’ve built your whole career on it! Your destruction of my plans, your war with the Combine, creating the Atomic Alliance and being the head of it. You really expect me to believe you did all this without ambition?” “Actually yeah. Had it not been for Marina’s influence, I probably wouldn’t have bothered…” “How long are you going to hide behind THAT ghost? Perhaps she did have influence on you in the beginning as far as motivation was concerned, but nobody, NOBODY that has gotten this far can say they’ve been doing this all this as some sort of monument for the love of a dead woman! You’re lying to yourself because YOU don’t have the fuckin’ balls to admit you’re a goddamn friendly fascist! And after you’re dead? Do you think the Atomic Alliance will really live on? I predict it falls apart and in fighting occurs within a month! Humans are incapable of ruling themselves! The LAST WAR PROVED THAT! The Cybernetic Evolution is the ONLY thing that makes sense!” You think about some of the things Alex’s insane ranting, before responding. “…you might be right Alex. You might be right, but there’s just one thing...” “Oh what’s that?” “Your method sucks too, mainly because you were too idiotic to ever get it off the ground in the first place and this isn’t for Marina, its for my daughter Laura you fucking mass murdering motherfucker.” You riddle Alex’s body with bullets until he’s such a bloody heap that he’s actually ripped in half by your burst. You then pull out your pistol and blast his face into a red pulpy mess. Its over. You return to Base Pandora where Vivica has been trying to keep control of things as everyone is starting to wonder what’s going on exactly. You give a full report to the entire Atomic Alliance about what happened. It’s a big event that nearly shatters the Alliance. When you think about it, maybe that was Alex’s “back up plan”, as even if he had been killed, he must’ve known you’d catch heat for what happened. Some say it really wasn’t your fault, others say it was, since you left an unstable element like Alex to his own devices. Some say your past deeds should be taken into consideration, others say it doesn’t make up for the death of an entire town. Some say you tried to make things right, others say you shouldn’t be applauded for attempting to fix something that was your fault in the first place. Still others say it wasn’t your fault to begin with since the opening of the Shelters was most of the OTHER town leader’s idea not yours. It’s apparent everyone is divided on the situation, so you do the only thing that makes sense and step down from being the head of the Atomic Alliance. This has more of an effect than you hoped. Some people still think you should be punished directly, but for the most part most are just satisfied that you aren’t the head of the Alliance anymore. The ones closest to you think it’s unfair, but you don’t really care. You probably saved the Alliance again with your actions, another civil war would’ve occurred otherwise. You can only hope in time people will see that. Vivica becomes the new head of the Alliance. Some object to her as well since she’s somewhat close to you, but most accept her since her reputation is pretty spotless and fair minded. You remain in control of Base Pandora, which now mainly concentrates on strictly military matters as in defending the AA borders. Less politics, but not less responsibility since you now have a daughter to take care of… Ten more years pass… Twenty years have passed since the bombs dropped, and the Atomic Alliance is the largest known stretch of civilization known in the immediate area. It’s now become an official democratic political entity rather than just a collection of separate towns and forts which were merely aligned. Vivica is now officially the President. GZS Shelters have been converted into major the supplier of water. Gone are the days of wondering if water was safe to drink. These Shelters have also been modified to have surrounding land to become agricultural centers like Eden; the water is piped in from underground to help grow crops. They’re probably more useful than what they were initially intended for. Ashtown was repopulated, but a big memorial is now standing there in memory of the dead, the Shelter near Ashtown was destroyed. Explosives were placed in the entryway such a manner that it imploded in on itself forever burying the place. As for you, you find less and less to do each day at Base Pandora. While it’s foolish to think that the world is now a safe place that an Atomic Alliance military isn’t needed, it’s just that it has fewer threats. Raiders might lurk on the outskirts of it, but to actually attack it now would be folly. Only the craziest and most desperate raiders do that nowadays, and they’re usually easily dispatched by the AA Police Force. (Most of course having trained at Base Pandora combat academy) Civil unrest mainly consists of a few normal complaints, never anything like what happened in the past. It almost like the “Old World” again. You however are glad of this, since you have enough trouble trying to look after your daughter Laura. She’s quite willful now that’s she’s a teenager, but fortunately your relationship isn’t really bad though, you just never did get a hang of this whole father thing. The best thing you did was train her to take care of herself. Though now you’re wondering if that was such a good idea. “I want to join the Atomic Alliance City Project!” she says. Having tamed most of the surrounding area, the next big agenda for the Alliance is to restore the City. You never really thought this was the best idea Vivica had, since the City has always been considered a very dangerous place, with nothing but deadly radiation levels and mutant monstrosities. In fact you turned down the option to head up the project when she proposed it to you. You remember way back in your early days of the Compound, when a few people were sent to the City, and only one returned speaking of the horrible creatures inside. Since then, nobody ever really went there. Every now and then you heard about a few hostile mutants wandering from the city, but it was rare, it seems as if they were content on living in their own area. You lived on “your side” and they lived on “their side” and that’s the way it should stay. Seems like fucking around with the City might be inviting trouble, sort of like when you decided to fuck around the Shelters ten years ago… Your daughter on the other hand like most youthful sorts, sees “adventure”. True she’s not some delicate flower and she grew up relatively fast (She did see her mother die in front of her along with the rest of the town) but its not like she’s had any real combat experience, plus she’s only fifteen and you do feel the need to protect her. > You ask Vivica to make you the head of the project If your daughter’s going to insist on this foolishness, you’re going to make sure you’re at least observing her. You travel to New Justice (Formally called Fort Justice) to see Vivica. Lately you and Vivica haven’t been agreeing on too much about this, so you end up storming into her office and demanding the position. “Vivica! I want that City Project job, I don’t give a shit who you’ve already applied the position to already, I’m fuckin’ taking it!” “Sure. You got it. Anything else?” Vivica says not looking up from her writing some document. “…uh no? You don’t mind?” “Why would I? I asked you to take this position in the first place.” “Yeah I know, but I was sort of an asshole about turning it down before.” “Well I figured you’d come around, even if you don’t agree with this project.” “I still don’t…I mean don’t you think we’ll be doing more harm than good by fucking around with the City? I mean the mutants inside don’t normally come out, if we start going in, we might be stirring up a bee’s nest.” Vivica stop writing and looks at you. “Let me ask you something…didn’t you stir up a bee’s nest when you first confronted Alex at Base Pandora twenty years ago? Think about it. Had you not gone in, isn’t it possible that he would’ve actually built up a large enough army of cyborgs and robots to attack us later and we wouldn’t have been able to defend against?” “Well MAYBE, but…” “How about when we fought those cultists at Eden? Your actions saved a woman who you would later give birth to your daughter. Not to mention that once run down farm house became a great agricultural center that is still a big supplier of AA food today. Not to mention Biofuel.” “Yeah, but…” “How about standing up to Harry and the Combine? I’m sure you could’ve easily run away from the situation, but you didn’t.” “Well I stayed because of Marina.” “True, but you also stay because deep down you KNEW that the Combine was corrupt and evil and needed to be destroyed and yes the loss was great, to you especially. But look what happened, the Atomic Alliance was created, and is still the closest thing to civilization in this little part of this fucked up world, well that we know of anyway.” “I guess, but…” “What about the opening of the Shelters? Now I know that’s a sore point with you. I know some people blame you for what happened due to that bastard Alex’s treachery. I know you probably still blame yourself to a certain degree, but think about it we use most of those Shelters as the major suppliers of food and water now. I don’t even think Atomic Alliance would be as prosperous as it is today without them. You’ve done more for the Atomic Alliance than anyone. Marina always said you never gave yourself a lot of credit for what you were capable of, it’s one of the reasons why she always felt the need to push you a bit.” “Okay, but…” “And you want to know why I wanted you to head this project? Because you’re the only one capable of pulling it off. Seriously if anything this shitty new world has taught us is we can’t just leave things alone. We have to take a pro-active approach to things just like we always have. I mean sure the mutants aren’t leaving the city NOW, but who knows what the hell the future holds? Shouldn’t we find out if those muties are forming their own army rather than finding out about it when it’s crossing our borders? Shouldn’t we find out if they aren’t ALL insane freaks and perhaps some of them are even civilized enough to make friends with? You’ve dealt with situations like this so many times that you’re about the only expert on the matter; you always seem to have made the decisions that turned out for the best in the long run. Maybe you aren’t running the Alliance, but you ARE the fuckin’ founder. So while perhaps you’re only taking this position to keep an eye on your daughter, you’ll eventually realize that you’re doing the right thing anyway, just like you always have.” “…how’d you know that’s why I was doing this?” you ask totally surprised. “Because a few weeks ago Laura snuck into my office begging me to let her join and I told her she better clear it with you. I figured your reaction would’ve been telling her no, or you would’ve let her only to demand to be head of the project to keep an eye on her. Glad it was the latter.” She says with a grin. So it happens, you take control of the Project. You organize and plan and all the rest that goes along with it. A relatively large force made up of the best Pandora’s combat academy has to offer make a trip to the City. The radiation levels aren’t quite as high as expected, but everyone is still expected to wear their radiation suits. While you aren’t worried about yourself, you are sort of worried about Laura. Even if the mutants aren’t a problem, the higher radiation levels could render her sterile. You never thought about it before, but you would like to have grand-children someday…but if it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen. No more regrets or wondering about what could be done differently. You’ve done enough of that in the past, and Vivica was right, you don’t give yourself enough credit for your accomplishments. You personally go on every patrol Laura does. It embarrasses her a bit, that you’re being so over protective, but she appreciates it later when a gang of hungry mutants attack. (Though some snickering is heard later from some of the others in the squad when you help her up, and she has to endure a few taunts of being “Daddy’s little girl”, but she soon proves to be able capable in combat which makes you proud) After a few weeks of exploration, you find that there’s a whole little world going on in the city. There are more factions here than you’ve ever come across! Some mutants are just mindless cannibals roaming the streets, while others are more organized and vicious. Still others follow weird new religions (Never friendly types in your experience) and others are actually friendly and have collected, fixed and horded lots of equipment over the years and would be willing to trade with “pretties” such as yourselves. (You don’t like the way they look at Laura though even if she is in a radiation suit) Oddly new mutants are being born, not a lot, but a few. Seeing as they’re going to be a factor in years to come you guess it would be best to make alliances with the friendly mutants and provide them with help…this of course comes in the form of firepower. Of course you aren’t so idiotic to start giving them rocket launchers and such, but ammunition and few extra rifles to your new mutant “friends” can’t hurt the balance of power in the city since you don’t see it as it ever being fully part of the Alliance. You think it’ll always be known as Zeropolis (As the mutants call it) where the mutants live and chaos will always be a way of life where only the fittest survive. Hmmm, just like before the bombs hit actually… One other good thing about this experience is after her first tour in Zeropolis, Laura decides to pursue a slightly safer career as a member of the Atomic Alliance Police Force. You’re beyond relieved. Thirty years pass… Fifty years have passed and you’re now celebrating the forty fifth anniversary of the founding of the Atomic Alliance at its capital of New Justice, of course you and Ex-President Vivica are about the only ones still alive who were around from the VERY beginning when it was only just “The Compound”. You personally are receiving some sort of honor for all your deeds in making the AA possible. You even get a statue and while you’re publicly humble about it, you do secretly really like it. After all you do deserve the recognition, and you’re finally being given your credit. After you and Vivica give your speeches and get off stage, Laura hugs you and says how happy she is for you. Your grandson David does as well. You were always happy Laura’s fertility wasn’t affected by the trip to Zeropolis. Though David’s six fingers on each hand display some of the effects, but he’s normal in every other way. (If anything he may make a great diplomat to the mutants when he grows up!) After the grand night of celebration, you go back home to rest. You’re really tired. Like you feel like you could sleep forever. Sometimes it weird to think that before the bombs hit, you were never really a social person, but then afterwards, you became a warrior, a diplomat and a founder of a new civilization leading people through it all. “I guess you were right Marina…I always did have it in me…” you say as you drift off to sleep…<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You immediately dispatch another team of medics in hazmat suits to Ashtown. Vivica insists on going since she’s probably the second best doctor in the Alliance, you order her not to since you can’t afford to lose her as well, not to mention she runs Fort Justice, but she’s defiant and goes anyway. You also order Eden to not let ANYONE who wasn’t already working there in, until this situation is resolved. You can’t afford your major food source to get contaminated. You decide not to inform the rest of the Alliance towns, since you hope maybe you can contain this before panic occurs. You next step is to radio Alex, but as predicted you don’t get an answer. You soon get a report from Vivica, “It looks bad. REAL Bad. Most of Ashtown is already dead or dying. Whatever it is, I don’t think it’s airborne. It might be the water supply. The only weird thing is, the children didn’t seem to be affected…it’s very sad though. We’re going to have a bunch of orphans.” “Can’t you do ANYTHING?” “No, I have no idea what this is and I think it’s too late anyway, uh there’s something else I think you’ll want to know…though I’m not sure how to say this…” “Vivica just spit it the fuck out!” “Well, uh…I tired to treat Ophelia, but I failed, her husband was already dead by the time I got here.” “…Vivica, I appreciate you trying to save someone I had fond memories of, but there’s a whole town at stake…” “I know, I know, but that’s not what I’m getting at. Ophelia had a daughter you know. Her name’s Laura. She’s five. Ophelia told me before she died; she wanted her daughter to have a good home.” “Well of course! I mean we’ll give good homes to all the orphans!” “Again, that’s not it. She asked for you specifically to give her that home. She said she said it’s about time her daughter got to know her father anyway.” The surprises just keep coming. “Excuse me?” “Looks like you’re this little girl’s father…the timing is about right, I mean you did have that encounter with her five years ago. She’s five and if I may say, I see the family resemblance, she doesn’t look anything like Ophelia’s husband, I mean granted he’s dead right now, but…” “Why the hell didn’t she tell me? I mean I would’ve…” “I asked the same question, during her final moments. She’s said she was sorry she never told you before, but she knew you had other things on your mind and bigger concerns with rebuilding civilization and all. She always thought she would’ve lived in Marina’s shadow anyway and by keeping Laura to herself it was like she still had a piece of you…sir I hate to break this information up since I know it probably really important to you, but what are we going to do about the town and Alex and everything?” “Start evacuating the children to Base Pandora, the town is dead. I’ll take care of Alex.” You say grimly before disconnecting. Armed and focused, for the first time in a long time you travel by yourself to the Shelter where Alex is at. You meet up with Vivica on the way, who tries to advise you to at least go in with back up, but you won’t hear of it and tell her to continue on to Base Pandora. You also see Laura and some of the other orphaned children. They’re obviously still upset about their parents dying horrible deaths. You approach Laura whose eyes are all red from crying. She looks up at you. “Are…are you really my daddy?” she asks, obviously having been informed of the situation. Contrary to what Vivica said, you think she looks more like her mother, but yes there is a resemblance to you particularly the hair. Unsure of how to respond, you give a straight forward answer. “Yes I am and I’ll be home soon to take care of you.” you stroke her face and get back in your vehicle and drive off. You drive through Ashtown and see the dead bodies, by the facial expressions you get the impression it wasn’t a pleasant one. Once again you think about going to see Ophelia’s body, but you quickly decide against it. You’d rather remember her how she was the last time you saw her. Besides you’ll always see her now in your daughter, plus you’ve got a score to settle with Alex. You get to the Shelter and enter its foyer and surprisingly its elevator is at the top, looks like some modifications have been made to it as it looks as if the call buttons were there originally. You really don’t care about any of it though, you’re on a mission. When you get to the bottom, you see the same modified call buttons near the elevator on this level as well (You can’t believe the idiotic way GZS designs their Shelters though, effectively trapping their “customers” down here) You also see more dead bodies in various stages of decay, some look like they were dead long before Alex got here. Much of the equipment and place in general is in disarray, but you also notice some of it has been recently repaired. Probably by Alex no doubt. You hear cursing coming from a nearby room, it sounds like Alex. > You check to make sure his assistants are not lurking around You figure Alex is occupied, so you can check to make sure he doesn’t have one of his assistants skulking about. You’d hate to confront him only to get shot in the back by one of them. Unfortunately that’s exactly what happens anyway. While you search for other enemies, Alex hears and sneaks up on you, shooting you in the back. You drop to the floor gasping for air. “I always said you’d make an excellent candidate for remaking…trust me, I’m saving the Alliance, by doing this…” are the last words you hear by Alex before you fall unconscious and never wake up.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>“Keep fighting the bastards! Pandora will never fall!” you shout as you mow down another dirt biker. In all the fighting though you begin to worry where Marina is, you look around for her in the chaos, and then you see her fighting with multiple enemies converging on her position. You rush towards her to back her up and then you’re blown back by an explosion. You slam up against a wall of one of the barracks, other than some minor pain and some scars you’re going to have you aren’t harmed, however your heart is when you see Marina lying bloody on the ground. She isn’t moving. Ignoring everything else you run to her, you kneel down to pick up her body, she grabs weakly on to you, but she’s in bad shape. “Keep fighting to rebuild civilization…its still worth it…” she says before losing total consciousness. Alex suddenly comes up to you. “Hey! We got people firing on us; you need to get the fuck outta the open!” “You! You’re a fucking surgeon! You fix her! Save her! Save her NOW!” you shout, picking her up and shoving her into Alex’s arms. “Wha…I…” Alex realizes you mean fucking business so he just nods and runs with her to one of the few undamaged buildings. You’re blind with rage, you begin charging into battle trying take out as many of these motherfuckers as you can, its quite possible with your actions alone you turned the tide, but you are still just one man, and you nearly get yourself killed, if it hadn’t been for Vivica managing to get a few people from Ashtown to help out, and they arrive just in time. Ophelia shoots a Combine soldier who was sneaking up on you. You turn around to see her, you nearly don’t recognize her decked out in battle gear. “Told you, you’d see me in the future.” She says and runs off to clean up the stragglers running away. The Combine is pulling back. You’ve won, but at a high cost. When you return to check on Marina, you find her dead. Alex explains there was nothing he could do for her. You ask to be alone which he complies. You spend the rest of the night alone with Marina’s lifeless body weeping and vowing revenge. The next day, you come out with one focus. To assault Fort Justice. This will never be over until Harry is dead. You need to strike now when he’s weak. A lot of people are wondering if you shouldn’t wait to regroup, but you won’t hear of it, you’re determined to do it now and everyone who’s in fighting condition is coming with you. In a couple days you and your small army arrive at Fort Justice. You half expect to die this day assaulting the place, but once again destiny is with you. Fort Justice is experiencing a minor authority problem. You can take the scum out of the wasteland, but you can’t make them disciplined soldiers. The last defeat has shattered morale, and apparently some are starting to question Harry’s orders, while others aren’t willing to die for him. The gate is wide open and parts of the place are in flames. You walk in relatively unopposed. Some fighting occurs, but you’re looking for Harry and when the loud mouth shithead sees you, instead of confronting you, he runs for the trapdoor to the underground. You immediately run to cut him off and shoot him in both legs. He falls and grabs for his pistol, but you take careful aim and blow his hand off, he screams in pain when he sees his fingers all over the ground. A kick to his face follows, and then a stomp, and another, and another. You don’t stop until his face looks like tenderized hamburger. He tries to act defiant by trying to give you the finger with his good hand, but you take it and break the motherfucker along with the rest of his hand. “This is for Marina and the rest of the deaths you caused.” You say, before blasting his mushy bloody head into mushy bloody pieces. Now its over. You collapse by Harry’s body, spent and drained. Alex goes over to see if you’re alright, but Ophelia tells him to just make sure all the enemy are either dead or running. Ophelia takes you to a barrack and puts you on a bed and tells you to rest, which you do. “I did it Marina…I got him…” you mumble while falling asleep. The next few weeks consist of rebuilding. Rebuilding everything. Fort Justice. Base Pandora. All the damage Harry caused. Word gets out to the Combine occupied towns about their current situation, with no centralized authority figure anymore, the Combine dissipates as wasteland scum flee and return to the outlands where they belong. The townspeople of those places are very grateful for your help, and you’re now in charge of everything but you take no joy in any of it, or anything. You’re numb. You go through the motions, but you’re basically in a daze. All your thoughts are of Marina, you feel empty without her. If it wasn’t for her, you wouldn’t even be alive right now. You would’ve died in a big mushroom cloud death. You start blaming yourself for not being able to save her, you start thinking about suicide. Everyone gets a little worried about you. Vivica starts radioing in wondering about your condition, Alex (Who’s quite familiar with mental breakdowns) attempts to talk to you, but it’s Ophelia who turns you around, though not immediately, but it’s her actions that become the turning point. Late one night, as you wallow in the emptiness, Ophelia visits you. You expect her to tell you not blame yourself for Marina’s death again, but she doesn’t. Instead she talks about the time when you saved her from the cultists and how grateful she was that day and how she would’ve almost done anything to repay you for saving her life. “Mm…well you repaid it already. You saved mine back at Pandora.” You say wishing to be left alone. “No, I’m saving it now.” Ophelia begins to remove her clothing, something that takes you completely by surprise. You feel you shouldn’t, you know you shouldn’t, but maybe it’s feeling of loneliness, maybe it’s the feeling of confusion, or maybe its just plain hormones, and you give in to Ophelia’s advances. And for that one night, the emptiness within you disappears. The next day Ophelia is gone leaving you a note saying she’s going back to Ashtown and tells you that you shouldn’t give up on life since you have so much more to change in this new world. When you think about it, Marina saved you, so you could carry that goal out. She always did see the potential in you to do great things. With this new perspective, you begin to return to normal, though there still was a little piece of you that died when Marina did. You’ll never completely be the same. Life goes on though. Five more years pass… It’s been ten years since the bombs dropped and civilization is starting to rebuild itself again…well somewhat. Hard to believe you would’ve become any type of leader trying to rebuild civilization. Marina might not be around anymore, but obviously her influence on you still is and always will be as you follow her dream of rebuilding civilization again. You’re still running things from Base Pandora, which is now the unofficial head of the Atomic Alliance. The towns formally under Combine occupation are included, but are now treated as equals rather than glorified labor camps, though getting everyone to agree completely on anything still remains a problem. Fort Justice is now under Vivica’s command and the Farmhouse, now known as Eden is a fully functional agricultural community. (It supplies food as well as biofuel for vehicles now) After that one night with Ophelia you don’t see her anymore, but last you heard she had a baby and got married to someone in Ashtown. Good for her. Other than political disagreements, everything has been going fairly well; raiders are still a problem, but much less than in the past. For the most part people are pretty happy living in your territory. One thing that’s been debated among you and some of other leaders, are the few GZS Shelters the Alliance has stumbled across over recent years. No effort has been made to open them, but they’re all sealed shut by their main computers. From what you know by reading some of the GZS documents found in Base Pandora (and Alex who definitely has some knowledge of GZS protocols) the Shelters weren’t supposed to open up until the central computer determined that sufficient amount of time had passed and the surface deemed safe. Apparently the computers still think the surface sucks. (And that assessment wouldn’t exactly be wrong) Most of the other Alliance leaders say that some sort of contact should be made with them. You get the impression some of them might’ve done it anyway, it’s just you have most of the equipment that makes it a lot easier. > You leave them alone You remember something the Colonel said years ago “They made their bed now they can sleep in it.” You see no reason to disturb the Shelters; you have enough to do with surface matters. Your unwillingness to contact them though is frowned upon by the other alliance leaders. Some are even calling you “inhumane” for leaving them down there. You take great offense to this since you’re anything but inhumane; you just don’t see the need to contact a bunch of people who wanted to be shut off from society for a long period of time in the first place. Besides who says they want to be contacted? Who know how they’ll act? Seems like it’s just going to open up trouble you don’t really need. It doesn’t matter though, the other town leaders are determined to go through with it, and you can’t stop them, it’s not like you’re running a dictatorship here. You are however denying all help from your end. Base Pandora, Fort Justice, and Eden are not to be involved. The Alliance relationship becomes a bit strained. A few weeks pass and you get a report from the Alliance towns, the first Shelter openings didn’t go very peacefully. Due to their fumbling and having no plan other than “Opening them up.” They manage to get into misunderstandings and a few fights occurred resulting in some deaths on both sides, but mostly on the Shelter people side, seeing as they haven’t been hardened by the surface. Ultimately they pull everyone out the Shelters kicking and screaming. Some Alliance citizens don’t like the fact that their local governments have engaged in these kinds of tactics, and you’re wondering what the hell they think they’re doing, since you said it was a bad idea in the first place and this just proves it. You later find out that one of the pettier leaders convinced most of the others that the Shelters contained resources that would make them less dependant on you (Such as operating filtrated water recycling systems) and decided taking the Shelters by force would be a good idea since if you were unwilling to help before you might be unwilling to help in the future. Of course that was just idiotic logic on their part since you were just against the idea of fucking around with the Shelters; you weren’t on some power trip. Within the next few weeks reports start coming in about riots in the towns and mistreatment of the relocated Shelter people. It’s the Combine all over again… You send in troops on your end to try to maintain some sort of peace, AND to stop all this unnecessary cruelty to the Shelter folks who were just peacefully living out their existence until some Alliance assholes pulled them from their homes. Naturally being a peacemaker is a thankless job. The “doves” think you’re being a fascist by using force to stop the rioting and protests, and then by the same token the “hawks” think you’re meddling in business that isn’t your concern since you didn’t want anything to do with the Shelters in the first place and shouldn’t be telling them what to do with the Shelters OR its people. Now you start to get angry. “Motherfuckers I RUN the goddamn Alliance! I fuckin’ built it! I’ll say what the fuck goes!” That’s the last transmission you make to the Alliance as a single entity. The next day it becomes a much smaller entity as the Alliance town leaders official break off from you and declare themselves independent and calling themselves the Atomic Confederation. You’re so pissed of by all of this that you don’t even WANT to bring them back into the “fold”. You’re ready to wash your hands of this exercise in stupidity. You withdraw all peacekeeping troops and instead of wasting more resources and man power on a long drawn out war taking town after town that will only weaken you, you decide to take a more strategic approach and attack the Shelters themselves. You send a strike team to locate each one that’s been opened up and blow up the water recyclers, and then to blow up the elevators allowing access to the Shelters in the first place. You also of course aren’t going to be trading food supplies from Eden anymore. “So much for your new resources. See how long you last without our help, fucktards.” Is your last transmission to the Atomic Confederation. The Atomic Confederation doesn’t last very long, it collapses mainly due to the inept and corrupt government, civil unrest, and even outside attack from raiders who are always attracted to chaos. By the time its all over the towns are little more than criminal havens that fight amongst each other. You’re still in good shape though; however this event has caused a trend in isolationism. The Atomic Alliance doesn’t expand past its now severely shortened borders. You still have dealings with Ashtown every now and then, but after they heard all the problems that were going on, it appears they become a bit isolationist as well (Which does have the benefit that they don’t try to open the Shelter that they located nearby, thankfully someone learned the lesson to leave well enough alone.) and you even have less contact with them as well. You live out the rest of your years running the Atomic Alliance which mainly consists of protecting your borders. Your death comes suddenly when Alex unexpectedly assassinates you. (Theories point to simple revenge for all those years ago and just his underlying unstableness) You’re buried next to Marina, he’s immediately executed and Vivica takes over. The Alliance continues under her leadership, but after her, leaders become less capable as leaders are apt to do in government systems. Eventually like the Combine, and the Atomic Confederation, the Atomic Alliance collapses completely thus ending the attempt to rebuilding civilization in this part of the wasteland.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>It’s a brutal world and it just got more so. Rushing in outnumbered, isn’t likely to save anyone and most likely going to get you killed. You radio in for reinforcements and keep an eye on the farm in the mean time. Later when the darkness comes you see a group of them come out with torches, form a circle in a nearby plain and begin chanting. You count ten of them altogether Soon two more come out with one of the prisoners from earlier. She’s bound, gagged and naked; you know what’s going to come next. Reggie and another one in your team wants to do something, but you insist that they do nothing and to keep quiet. It’s all over soon anyway, as you see them sacrifice the poor girl for whatever outlandish beliefs they hold. You take first watch for the night. The next day your reinforcements arrive…both of them. “What the fuck? I asked for at least five more people!” “Sorry, but that other recon group you sent also ran into trouble, in fact two of them are already dead, and we had to send a rescue team to fetch the other two since one has a broken leg.” “Oh that’s wonderful.” “So should we call this off?” one of you team asks. “No Vivica, we’re going through with it, but we’re going to employ some stealth, they had three prisoners, I get the feeling they’ll be doing the same ceremony they did last night.” “Are we going to attack them now then?” “No Leonard, I don’t feel like fighting a bunch of fanatics armed with machine guns in an open plain with no cover. And we can’t just start firing on them from here, we need to wipe them ALL out as quickly as possible without them having a chance the regroup, fortify or any of that shit. We’re gonna sneak into the house and ambush the whole fuckin’ cult while they’re doing their little ceremony.” You wait until night and sure enough they all come out like you thought, then come the others with the prisoner. That’s when the six of you quickly sneak through an overgrown field towards the house. You get to the stairs when Reggie and Leonard break off towards the area were the cult is performing their ceremony. “I can’t just let them kill another! We can take ‘em now! They’re off guard!” “Reggie get the fuck…shit!” Reggie and Leonard begin firing, the fucking idiots aren’t even taking cover, they’re going head long in like they’re stupid ass action heroes. You and the others lay down some cover fire, but it’s not enough. Reggie and Leonard are cut down after killing a whopping ONE cultist and not even saving the hapless girl, who’s shot instantly. The cultists start spreading out, moving forward, and circling around you at the same time, they’re also better shots than you too, as they’re carefully aiming rather than just firing in the general vicinity. After seeing another one of your team members go down, you and the rest fall back into the house itself. The inside of the house looks like something out of a horror movie, there are skulls and bones littering it, along with it blood stains everywhere. “Holy shit! What’ve we gotten ourselves into?” Vivica yells. “Shut the fuck up, I hear something…like crying…it’s downstairs.” “What about the cultists?” “Well it’s the same plan, they just know about us now, let’s hope we can still get ‘em in a good ambush.” You and your team members spread out in the house, you head down into the basement, which looks more like a small temple layout. You see a young woman in a cage, and when she sees you her eyes fill with hope. You hear the cultists stomping around upstairs and some gunfire, at which point you try to find a good place to hide. A bunch of footsteps run down the stairs, you wait in anticipation…closer…closer… NOW! You pop up from your spot and begin firing, you kill six of them before they can even react, and the remaining two barely get off some wild shots before you splatter them as well. Still breathing heavy among the dead, you finally hear some good news. “Hey! Are you still alive down there?” Vivica shouts. “Yeah! What’s going on up there?” “We got a few of them, but I think most of them converged on your position though.” “Of course they did, I’ve always been popular.” You reply. You release the girl in the cage who’s very thankful. She mentions her name is Ophelia and she’s from a place called Ashtown which is far from this place. She says the cultists came storming into her town specifically trying to capture young girls; they took three before they finally were driven away, and unfortunately Ophelia was one of the three. You tell Ophelia your story; she seems to think you’ve got the right idea about going about things. “I think I’m going to tell my people back in Ashtown that we need to start getting better organized as well, and I’ll be sure to tell them all about you and how you rescued me! Maybe we’ll see each other in the future.” You and your team search the farm house which just like you thought was stocked with all sorts of goodies. You’re going to have haul some of it back, but you decide that you could also establish another base of sorts here after it was cleaned up. You’d also like to establish more of a relationship with this Ashtown. So you allow Ophelia to take one of the vehicles for her to drive back there, she certainly doesn’t have a problem with that! Before heading back you put Vivica in charge of the place and tell her you’ll be sending some more folks to help get this farm up and running. Not bad for a first try. Four more years pass… It’s been five years since you joined the Compound and things are going fairly well for you, the farm house has been converted into a way point to Ashtown, with which you have good relations with and is now producing food. You are no longer solely dependant on the Compound for supplies which might be just as well… You get less and less reports from the Compound itself other than its undergone a name change and due to its inclusion of a few towns now, its called the Combine and the Compound itself is called Fort Justice. You know about how the Colonel has gotten sick and seems to be getting worse as more time passes and how the population rate is growing, but it’s slow. The major theory is the elevated levels of background radiation are probably affecting fertility. (You wonder about yourself and Marina since she hasn’t once gotten pregnant in the five years you’ve been together) There have been more people sent here, mainly because they hear about how great it is in Pandora as opposed to the miserable place Harry has made Fort Justice since he’s been getting freer reign of the place as the Colonel continues to get sicker. In fact you’ve been hearing some disturbing stories from others who have come here recently. Ranging from needlessly violent occupation of towns, sending people on dangerous unnecessary missions to the city, and recruiting desert scum into the Combine! People are saying Harry’s going nuts with power. One day, one of your assistants comes in and has something to report. The Colonel has died, Harry has taken complete control of the Combine and his first order is for YOU to return to Fort Justice for reassignment. Harry’s just plain gone completely nuts if he thinks you’re going to do that. Speaking of nuts, that same day after you convince everyone in seceding from the Combine you get a radio message from someone who’s been quiet until now. “Well well, it seems you’ve got a problem on your hands.” It’s Alex. You’re guessing he’s been surviving on rats and roaches down there. “What the hell do you want and how do you know what’s been going on?” “How do you think? I’ve been listening in on all your incoming and outgoing radio transmissions since you betrayed me and trapped me down here! I must say though, you probably did the intelligent thing. And your progress with establishing your own separate territory has been intriguing…but I can tell you right now, you are going to need help with your current problem, a problem I will be willing to help with if you’re willing to talk.” “Alright, I’ll play. What’re you proposing?” “There are still a lot of those high tech weapons down here that you were coming to get when you came here five years ago. I’m sure they would be very useful in your up coming war with Harry, and don’t tell me there isn’t, because I know you aren’t going to run or meekly follow his orders to return. You’ve obviously set your sights on higher ambitions than just following orders and survival. I’ll be willing to give them to you, in exchange for my freedom.” “Oh that easy huh? How do you propose we go about this? I send people down there to retrieve them while your death machines ambush them as soon as they enter?” “It would be kind of hard for that to happen since all my cyborgs are long dead and my robots have fallen into disrepair…I’m basically alone down here. You were guarding nothing!” Alex laughs. You’re pretty skeptical about this little tale, but if it’s true, those weapons would certainly help. > You disbelieve Alex “Nice try Alex, but I’m not falling for it, now don’t bother calling me again, because I won’t be listening to anymore of your lies.” “Alright, suit yourself. I guess I better prepare for a change in landlords then. Pity, because I don’t think Harry will be willing to let me just live down here, I guess I better prepare myself as well.” Alex disconnects and you don’t hear from him again. You radio Vivica to let her know what’s going on as well; she’s behind you and will make sure to send a few people to harass Harry’s men when they decide the lay siege to Pandora. Everyone spends time preparing and organizing for the battle that’s sure to come. A month passes and sure enough Harry’s men come thinking its going to be an easy victory, but it’s merely a stand off. They end up falling back and try to wait you out, but you still have the advantage for the most part though. A couple more weeks pass and reinforcements arrive and armed to the teeth and despite the rugged terrain that prevents cars to come to this place, they managed to find some dirt bikes which whiz around Pandora while the riders nimbly dodge your fire while they toss grenades at (and sometimes over) the walls. Pandora is a lot less secure, and you’re just glad Vivica’s skirmishers are doing a good job at diverting the invasion force’s attention and getting through with supplies, though you catch wind that Harry is sending even MORE reinforcements. You doubt if you can handle it, Marina doesn’t want to leave, but even she sees that things are pretty grim, and is willing to leave if need be. You’ve already decided the place to retreat to would be the Farmhouse. If you’re going to leave though, you need to do it now, because when Harry’s second wave of reinforcements arrive, it will be impossible to break out. > You leave “We’re getting the hell outta here! Get everyone ready!” you tell Marina, before radioing Vivica, to tell her that you’ll be arriving soon. You and everyone else start gathering everything you can carry, and before opening the gates you purposely blow up some of the buildings in the base, particularly the building with the water filtering and recycling system. You might be running, but you’ll be damned if they’ll get the prize fully intact. Due to the explosions, you throw the invasion force a little off guard, since they’re wondering what the hell’s going on. This works in your favor when you exit and make your risky escape. “Split up and meet you know where!” you shout to everyone as you haul ass to the Farmhouse. You, Marina and a few others stick together as you battle Harry’s men who are in pursuit of you. Fortunately you know the lay of the land a little better, so your escape is fatality free by the time you make it to the Farmhouse. A few of the others who split up aren’t quite as lucky, but most make it. You immediately tell Vivica to start beefing up the defenses. The Farmhouse is relatively well defended, and even has two vehicles to help you. Its also further away, so by the time Harry regroups a large enough invasion force, you figure you’ll be ready for him. What you weren’t ready for, was the hi-tech weaponry, Harry’s men arrive with months later. Granted they don’t have them per soldier, but they have enough to start laying waste to the Farmhouse and its surroundings. Apparently they grabbed the ones Alex told you about. Whether the Combine just took them and killed Alex, or Alex came to an agreement with Harry is unknown, but your guess is Harry just killed him and whatever cyborgs might’ve been down there. (Dictators aren’t known to “share”) Some help comes from Ashtown, but it really isn’t enough and given Ashtown’s even further position away, it doesn’t do much good. Eventually you hear from Ophelia on the radio who suggests that you are all welcome to come live in Ashtown, as they have plenty of room and wouldn’t mind having some good warriors with a variety of skills. Reluctantly you accept, though you hate the fact you have to run again. You, Marina, Vivica and the remaining survivors pile into the two vehicles in between attacks and drive off to Ashtown. No need for scorched Earth tactics this time since the Combine soldiers did a good enough job of that during their initial attacks. Eventually you arrive in Ashtown, where you’re welcomed, but now you have to remember, you’re not in charge anymore and things are a bit different. You welcome the change though, after all the time of fighting non-stop and being in charge you’re happy to be able to relax more often as the only problems Ashtown has is the occasional bandit attack which aren’t organized or well lead. Everyday though, you expect the Combine to show up again, but a year passes without a sign of them. One day you hear about the Combine again, from a wandering traveler who stops in Ashtown one day. Word is, it’s currently undergoing another regime change. Apparently, shortly after the Farmhouse was completely destroyed, someone named Damon shot Harry and took over, then just recently someone blew him up and now someone else is in charge. Even though the Combine still pursues the idea of conquest, it now constantly has problems with infighting, hampering many of their plans. For now they’ve been concentrating on trying to maintain control in the places they already hold. It’s quite possible the Combine will eventually turn its attention in this direction of conquest in your direction again, but you’ll be ready as you always are, maybe you won’t win, but you know you’ll always survive to fight another day if necessary.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Year 378 of the Second Era You were really starting to get tired of the color green. The forests were green, the grass was green, even your damn Realm's emblem was green. It made already boring guard duty even worse. You would pace back and forth staring at the dreadfully large expanse of forest ahead of you, but nothing would ever happen. You might see the occasional kobold walk along the edge of the forest, but they never did anything. They just watched and waited. If you weren't on a fifty foot high wall you might actually be worried, but, as it happens, you were. There was no kobold in all of the Lost Realm that could scale these walls, and even if there was it, and its disgusting green skin would get peppered with arrows before it had the chance to. Yes, this was simply the easiest most boring place to guard in all of the Realm of Men. It was because of this fact that your lieutenant was thoroughly confused when you requested to be transferred here. You were his most reliable soldier, and you knew that. You used his fondness of you to get him to give you this transfer. He'd asked why, and you'd simply replied that you needed time to get over what happened to Liliana. Your wife. She was assumed dead by everyone. The night of your wedding you and her were cornered in an alley by thugs. You were beaten to a pulp, and she was taken, in more than one sense of the word, right before your eyes. Her parting words to you before you blacked out from the pain were, "I'm lost!" I'm lost. You take off your wedding ring and examine it. It's a beautiful piece. Solid gold encrusted with an emerald gem. It is the only green you find yourself being able to stand, and only then because it was from Liliana. Guard duty wasn't paying you enough for you to be able to get rings for the both of you, so instead you blew all of your money on her ring. That one was polished iron inlaid with golden patterns, and it wasn't much, but it represented more than money. Liliana accepted your proposal, and when she found out you hadn't gotten yourself a ring she gave you her mother's ring. It was a little too girly for you, but the smile on her face turned you into an emotional sob, so you accepted. She was taken that same night. Presumed dead, and with you chosen as her closest 'relative' it was up to you to bury her coffin. You did so quickly. Many people, including your lieutenant, suggested you take things slower, but you were adamant. You didn't tell them why you were in such a hurry, and even if you did, you doubt they would've believed you. You were the closest person to Liliana and consequently the only one whom she would trust with her secrets. I'm lost. Those words could only mean one thing. They were a confirmation to a question you asked her years ago, when the two of you first met... > You memory: Meeting Liliana Year 366 of the Second Era At the age of ten, you were average. Your height, weight, disposition, and, well, pretty much everything about you was average. Never the last one chosen for capture the emblem, but never the first one either. Your life then was a monotonous slog: Go to your rundown academy, try to do well in your academic work, fail, and return home only to have your drunkard of a father beat you. You didn't realize how miserable your life was until the fateful day when Liliana joined your class at school. Like the rest of the girls in the class, she wore a dress. Unlike the rest of the girls in the class, her dress was obviously of fine make. The embroidery on her dress had no faults. No drops of blood from clumsy mothers who pricked themselves on their needle. No lazy patches sewn in to cover up holes. No, her dress was flawless. Her hair was onyx black, and fell down in waves around her face. Her glittering blue eyes were filled with anticipation, and maybe a little fear. She clearly wasn't used to being in these kinds of situations, and she kept glancing around as if someone else was going to introduce her to the other classmates. Your teacher, a hag of a woman, prompted her to introduce herself. "Go ahead and introduce yourself to the class, dear." She widened her eyes in surprise, but followed the teacher's command. "My name is Liliana, I'm ten years of age, and..," she looked to the teacher for instruction. She had an accent, and one that you'd never heard before at that. Not northern, or even like those from the eastern realm. No, this was decidedly different from any other accent you'd heard before. "Go on," the teacher prompted again. "I don't know what else to say," Liliana responded. The teacher frowned disappointedly. "Surely you have more things to tell us about yourself than your name?" When Liliana didn't respond, the teacher spoke again. "Where are you from? Or, what do you like to do in your spare time? Tell us things like that." Liliana hesitated once more. "Come now. We don't judge people here," the hag patted her comfortingly on the shoulder, but failed to notice the snickering in the back. Liliana, it seemed, found her words comforting, and finally started to open up. "I was born in Arboribus. My father is the king there, and it's an amazing place. There are trees larger than castles there! Oh, and I like to go stag riding with my father if he has the ti-" The teacher interrupted. "Excuse me. Where?" The teacher sounded somewhat confused, but definitely disappointed. The snickering in the back increased, but Liliana still hadn't noticed. "Arboribus," she said this clearly, and with an expression of incredulity fixed upon her face. The teacher simply stared at her blankly, until Liliana continued. "You know, in The Lost Realm..." The boys in the back, try as they might, couldn't contain themselves any longer. They busted out into raucous laughter that spread to the rest of the students that were typically thought of as nice. Everyone gave into the laughter, and even the teacher hag was chuckling. You were on the edge of laughter as well, but something kept you there. Stories of The Lost Realm, and rumors of a ancient city of humans therein. Your mother, before she died of disease, would tell you fairy tales of the ancient land, and how it used to be as prosperous as the Realm of Men is now. You'd always harbored the secret thought, hope, that the stories were true, and here was a person who claimed to hail from that very place. This, and the expression on Liliana's face, caused you to hesitate. Her expression was that of someone hurt , and a genuine expression at that. You held the laughter off, and waited for everyone else to do the same. They eventually quieted down, but only after tears started streaming down Liliana's face. Silence took the place of laughter, and all joy was replaced with the sad sound of sobbing. The old hag had the decency to attempt to comfort her by giving her a hug, but Liliana jerked away. Apparently she didn't like the idea of hugging the old hag. Especially since she'd promised no ridicule would come, but then turned around and gloried in it herself. "It's true!" Liliana yelled after she managed to control her sobbing. "I'm not a liar! And, and ,and..." She starts crying again, but instead of staying in the classroom for everyone to see, she ran through the door and out of the classroom. The silence continued for a moment longer, before you made your first life changing decision. You got up from your designated chair and followed after Liliana. You were no expert at dealing with girls. Let alone crying ones, and you weren't the most... > You ...charismatic... Year 366 of the Second Era ...charismatic of people, but you were smart enough to know that, when crying, a girl needs a comforting shoulder. Not a questioning voice. You follow the sound of sobbing through the worn wooden hallways of the school, and outside, until you find the source of the crying. Liliana sits on the steps to the main door of the school. Her well crafted dress is ruffled in places and her body constantly shifts under the pressure of her tears. Her hair comes down in waves around her head, effectively cutting off any view of her face. She doesn't notice you there at first, but when the main door closes behind you she jumps and turns towards you. Tears and snot cover her face with her eyes both sad and angry at the same time, and for a moment you find yourself regretting coming here. That moment passes, and the impulse you followed earlier propels you toward her. "Are you going to laugh at me again?" Her voice reflects what she is feeling. Sadness, despair, anger, and, you think, a bit of hope color her voice. You decide to concentrate on her hopefulness. "I didn't laugh." "Everyone laughed. I saw." Clearly she hadn't been paying attention to you when in the classroom. "Not me." You sit down on the same step as her, and she glares at you. Silence ensues, and you turn away and gaze out in front of you. You want to ask her about the Realm of the Lost, but the question dies in your throat. Wouldn't it be at least a little insensitive to ask her prying questions now? Your question is answered when you hear her start to sob again. This time it's less intense, but it's still crying all the same. Maybe it's the memory of her excited face when she was in front of the classroom, or maybe you just didn't like the sound of crying. Whatever the reason, you decide to wrap your arm around her shoulders in a half hug. Liliana turns to stone beneath your touch, and you think she'll pull away, but she doesn't. She stays still, but continues her crying. You feel absurdly awkward in this position, but she doesn't seem to mind. She even leans into your hug after a while. In between holding her and listening to her crying, you find yourself staring at her wondering how in all the realms this girl was from the Lost Realm. You might be tainted by the knowledge of fairytales, but you were still aware that the Lost Realm was crawling with kobold and others of that ilk. It was a very dangerous place. At the end of the first era was when the Lost Realm was supposedly at the height of its power, but that ended when a dragon led a massive host of kobold and wyverns and sacked the entirety of the realm. Well, that's how the stories went. So how then, could a delicate being such as this come from such a dangerous place? Then a brilliant idea came over you. There was a story your mother once told you. One about the faerie, a race of beings native to the Lost Realm. When they were in the Lost Realm they were humanoid creatures of a similar height humans, but with pointed ears and a slender build. In the story, a faerie wandered over the border of the Realm of Men and the Realm of the Lost, (Before the border walls were constructed) but the faerie were tied to their own realm. Whenever they left, they became as humans. This particular faerie panicked when they realized they left their home for another realm, and immediately tried to go back, but every time he tried to re-enter his homeland, he would get lost, turned around. He could never find his way back. Once the faerie willingly left the Realm of the Lost, they weren't allowed back. He was left in the Realm of Men to fend for himself, but he desired that no their faerie would feel like he did. Alone, confused and afraid. So the faerie came up with a code. If he thought there was another faerie, he would ask them a simple question. You ask that question now. "Are you lost?" Liliana immediately pulls from you and stares at you in disbelief. She suddenly wipes all of the tears from her face with her sleeve before asking you a question. "Will you help me fit in here?" Kinda shocked that your plan worked you only nod in response. A hint of a smile breaches her face. "What's your name?" You briefly wonder what you've gotten yourself into, but you answer regardless. "My name is..." > You end of Memory Year 378 of the Second Era You pull yourself from the memory. That was happening way too often since Liliana was captured. And she was captured. There was no doubt in your mind about that. Captured by people who obviously knew what they were doing. Otherwise they wouldn't be able to make it through the forests of the Lost Realm without being captured, killed, or raped by horny kobold. That means there's a way to make it through that forest. You just have to find it. That was the reason you spent your time here on the wall watching, waiting, planning your route through that kobold infested place. Of course you could just leave on your own and hope for the best, but th- Your thoughts are interrupted when the roar of some beast sounds throughout the air. You jerk your head immediately towards the sound. It came from somewhere over the tops of the trees, and still must've been miles out. Every guard on the wall peels their eyes to the forest, and it isn't long before one of your fellow guardsmen spots something. "There! Above the forest!" The guard sounds quite panicked. You look where he indicated and spot several grey blots in the distance. They look like birds at first, but as they get closer you can tell they're much larger and have several more rows of teeth than a bird. "Wyverns." The guard right beside you breathes out. You turn back to look at the beasts. They're still a few miles out, but you can hear the beat of their leathery wings drawing closer every second. The guards in your platoon stand on the wall in stunned silence. Nothing happens here, ever. Why now of all times? Your lieutenant, an older fellow named Byron, calls everyone to order. "This is what we're here for men! This is why..." Byron's voice fades into the depths of your mind. It is replaced by a different voice. One that's mocking, provoking. The memory of your first fight calls back to you. > You remember Year 368 of the Second Era "Are you listening bitch?" A hand is shoved into your back and you're sent tumbling to the ground. Grass presses against your face, and you even feel some dirt in your mouth. That was fine. You didn't care very much. These guys could push you around all they wanted. They'd never be able to beat you as bad as your father did. "Stop it, Daniel!" Liliana's voice sounds from behind you. Apparently she didn't like Daniel pushing you. You slowly pick yourself up and off of the ground as Daniel replies. "What? You didn't like me pushing your bitch around?" That remark is followed by some laughter. "He hasn't done anything to you." Liliana replies readily. "Leave and go hit your mom if you're looking for a bitch to hit. Don't touch him." There's a moment of silence before you hear a smack. That sound reverberates around the academy yard, and for a moment you think Liliana finally slapped the guy like she said she'd been wanting to do, but when you turn around you find it's the complete opposite. Liliana is on the grass now, clutching her face. You see tears start to come to her eyes, but she doesn't sob. Not anymore. You've never been the most violent person. Your mother instilled that into you, so you let others push you around. You didn't give a damn either way, but when you see Liliana on the ground you don't hesitate. You lunge forward and shove Daniel hard in the chest, and you do it hard enough to send him flying to the ground as well, but unlike you and Liliana he gets back up to his feet quickly. His reaction is also quick. He immediately rushes toward you and raises his fist back. You can tell a punch is coming. You've grown in the past couple years, and are easily one of the tallest guys in class. Aside from Daniel, that is. You might not be taller than Daniel, but you'd bet your mother's corpse (Muse bless her soul) that you can take more hits than he can. That being said, you don't particularly fancy getting punched if you can avoid it. > You let him hit you Year 368 of the Second Era Despite what others think of him, Daniel is weak. And you're going to prove just that. His punch comes directly into your right cheek. It has a hell of a lot of power. Certainly more than you anticipated, but you don't allow yourself to stumble. Your head snaps back as it hits, and there's a lot of pain, but you ignore it. Instead you revel in the shock displayed upon Daniel's face. He's thoroughly surprised, and you doubt someone has ever lasted past the first punch against him. Let alone be barely affected by it. You look him dead in the eyes and smile just before returning his punch with one of your own. He doesn't get away in time, and is hammered by your punch. He stumbles backward, and you take a step forward and shove him to the ground once more. There's no time for him to react as you pounce on top of him and lay punch after punch into his face. His 'friends' don't rise to stop you, and the courtyard is silent save for the sound of your fist pounding his face. After several more punches you feel a hand on your shoulder. You nearly jerk away from it, but, despite your frenzied mind, you are able to recognize that it is a distinctly feminine hand. Liliana, you think and stop punching. Daniel doesn't stop his groaning as you rise to your feet to face her. There's less baby fat on her face now than when you first saw her, and is beginning to be quite the knockout. Her eyes are still slightly red and the right side of her face is still red, but she isn't crying any more. "Enough," she whispers to you. You only nod in response. You start to walk away from the scene when you realize that you'd gathered quite the crowd. You think about saying something, but instead you reach for Liliana's hand and glare at everyone in the crowd. Your look says it all. You leave the scene with Liliana in tow. > You return from the memory Year 378 of the Second Era The memory fades away, and Byron's voice returns. "I need one person to light the signal light over by the watchtower. Everyone in division two stay here and support us with arrows. Everyone in division one follow me!" The wyverns are still racing to the wall, and a fight seems inevitable. Byron leads the way as he and division one head down to the ground to support the rest of the group. Everyone else stays and prepares their bows. You were assigned to division two upon your transfer here, and so your orders are abundantly clear. > You stay with division two Year 378 of the Second Era The signal fire will get lit by someone else, so you don't need to worry about that. After that your decision becomes even easier. You aren't a fool. Leaving the safety of the wall when it's under attack, and of your own volition at that, would be utter foolishness. You stay right where you are and string your bow with the rest of division two. The distinctive sounds of the wyverns approaching doesn't change, but as you wait for them to draw near, you hear another set of noises. Several sets of hooves pound against the ground just beyond the edge of the forest, and before too long you see the culprits of the noise bursting through the edge of the wood. Five horses, mounted by at least one person apiece, ride from out of the forest. They ride at a very fast speed, and the horses themselves seem to be running more from fear rather than their rider's instructions. A few moments after they come out of the woods almost twenty giant lizards come out of the forest. The beasts are generally green, but many, if not, all, have blue or purple scales scattered across their hide. Three kobold ride atop each of the lizards. If your division wasn't silent before, then they certainly are now. The math is easy. There are around sixty kobold, and that is discounting the wyverns and their riders still on their way. You briefly wonder what in the four realms this group of less than ten individuals did to anger this many kobold, but the thought is dashed from your mind as the kobold come into range. You aren't the best shot out there, but you are far from the worst, and today is a good day for you. Nearly every one of your arrows finds its mark, and many an enemy dies at your hand. You continue this up until the very moment division one clashes with the kobold host. After that you slow down, and pick your shots. You don't want to accidentally hit a fellow guard after all. You're so focused on the battle below you that you nearly miss it when the wyverns make their first approach. The beasts, although much larger than the giant lizards, only carry two kobold apiece. The wyverns themselves are a leathery grey color with razor sharp teeth, and hind legs that could tear guards apart. there are only five, but you have trouble thinking about how you and division two are supposed to bring down one of these monstrosities. Let alone five. The fear in division two is palpable as you and your fellow guardsmen switch your attention from the kobold below to the wyverns above. Almost as if they could sense the fear in your comrades, three of the wyverns barrel past the battle below and head straight towards the portion of the wall your division is centered on. Specifically, and unluckily so, one of the wyverns seem to be coming straight toward you. You find yourself in the midst of a decision that could cost you your life, and you only have a second to act. > You dodge to the side Year 378 of the Second Era You act on impulse and throw yourself to the side as the wyvern makes its pass, but you don't throw yourself nearly far enough away to avoid its claws. While it doesn't manage to grab you and fling you off the wall, its claws do manage to carve your stomach to pieces. If that wasn't enough, the sheer momentum of the beast flying at you at breakneck speed and hitting you is enough to send you flying off the wall. Your body can't even keep itself together as you plummet to your death.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Year 378 of the Second Era The signal fire will get lit by someone else, so you don't need to worry about that. After that your decision becomes even easier. You aren't a fool. Leaving the safety of the wall when it's under attack, and of your own volition at that, would be utter foolishness. You stay right where you are and string your bow with the rest of division two. The distinctive sounds of the wyverns approaching doesn't change, but as you wait for them to draw near, you hear another set of noises. Several sets of hooves pound against the ground just beyond the edge of the forest, and before too long you see the culprits of the noise bursting through the edge of the wood. Five horses, mounted by at least one person apiece, ride from out of the forest. They ride at a very fast speed, and the horses themselves seem to be running more from fear rather than their rider's instructions. A few moments after they come out of the woods almost twenty giant lizards come out of the forest. The beasts are generally green, but many, if not, all, have blue or purple scales scattered across their hide. Three kobold ride atop each of the lizards. If your division wasn't silent before, then they certainly are now. The math is easy. There are around sixty kobold, and that is discounting the wyverns and their riders still on their way. You briefly wonder what in the four realms this group of less than ten individuals did to anger this many kobold, but the thought is dashed from your mind as the kobold come into range. You aren't the best shot out there, but you are far from the worst, and today is a good day for you. Nearly every one of your arrows finds its mark, and many an enemy dies at your hand. You continue this up until the very moment division one clashes with the kobold host. After that you slow down, and pick your shots. You don't want to accidentally hit a fellow guard after all. You're so focused on the battle below you that you nearly miss it when the wyverns make their first approach. The beasts, although much larger than the giant lizards, only carry two kobold apiece. The wyverns themselves are a leathery grey color with razor sharp teeth, and hind legs that could tear guards apart. there are only five, but you have trouble thinking about how you and division two are supposed to bring down one of these monstrosities. Let alone five. The fear in division two is palpable as you and your fellow guardsmen switch your attention from the kobold below to the wyverns above. Almost as if they could sense the fear in your comrades, three of the wyverns barrel past the battle below and head straight towards the portion of the wall your division is centered on. Specifically, and unluckily so, one of the wyverns seem to be coming straight toward you. You find yourself in the midst of a decision that could cost you your life, and you only have a second to act. > You duck behind the ramparts Year 378 of the Second Era You know you won't have enough time to get entirely out of the range of the wyvern's claws. It's better to duck and hope for the best than to definitely die. You follow this thought and duck behind the ramparts. The wyvern makes its pass, and perhaps from sheer luck, you pass between its hind legs. Stones from the ramparts on either side of you crumble and fall away, but you remain fairly unscathed. You thought you were going to die for sure, and, after finding out you managed to scrape by, you stand up in a fit of pure relief. You celebrate too early, however, for a kobold archer from the battle below takes the opportunity and releases an arrow at you. The arrow pierces through your jugular, and you bleed out in mere moments.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Year 378 of the Second Era The memory fades away, and Byron's voice returns. "I need one person to light the signal light over by the watchtower. Everyone in division two stay here and support us with arrows. Everyone in division one follow me!" The wyverns are still racing to the wall, and a fight seems inevitable. Byron leads the way as he and division one head down to the ground to support the rest of the group. Everyone else stays and prepares their bows. You were assigned to division two upon your transfer here, and so your orders are abundantly clear. > You go light the signal fire Year 378 of the Second Era When you first transferred here, Byron was telling you about all of the duties that you might have here as a wall guard. One of these duties, should the need arise, was to light the signal fire. Byron didn't expound upon the why, and said only that it was an important duty. You didn't find out until later that this was the signal fire for the Griffin Knights. The Griffin Knights, or at least the patrol of them that stood at the ready in case the walls were attacked. You assume most guards forget this fact. Otherwise they'd simply be fools. Griffin knights were among the best warriors in all of the Realm of Men, and that was when they weren't atop their chosen steed. With their griffins these knights surpassed all other units in their usefulness in battle. That was the way to win this battle. Not through grit, and a hell of a lot of grit. No, in order to win, to live to see Liliana again, the Griffin Knights needed to be here. The wyverns would tear apart everyone otherwise. You run along the ramparts to the signal fire. It's quite the distance from where the battle is taking place, and you start to hear the sound of swords clashing and wyverns roaring as you make your way. Upon arriving, you find straw and oil ready to be used in case of an emergency. You waste no time in starting the fire. Before long you tend the fire to maximum intensity, or at least as intense as you can get it on such short notice. Having finished your job, you gaze back in the direction of the battle. Five wyverns patrol the skies with each occasionally taking dives at the top of the wall where division two was stationed. You feel a pang of guilt that you should've stayed there to help, but you dismiss it. If the Griffin Knights come to support you in the battle, then your efforts will have been well worth it. That being said, there isn't much of an excuse for you now. > You return to the battle Year 378 of the Second Era You start a light jog to the wyvern infested ramparts, but you stop before you get there and string your bow. What is the point in throwing yourself into the middle of danger for nothing? Chances are that you would die a gruesome death for no reason other than your eagerness for battle. An inexperienced fool's death. With your bow stringed and the wyverns attention away from you, you start taking shots at the beasts. You aim your first few shots at the wyverns themselves, but when they bounce harmlessly off of their scaly hides, you shift your focus. There are two kobold atop each of the five wyverns present, and while they are certainly dwarfed by the sheer size of the wyverns they are riding, you don't let that distract you. Each of the kobold atop the wyvern has a critical purpose. The one in the front is to steer and control the mount while the one in the back holds a bow in its hands. It's job is to fire at anyone attempting to kill the former type of kobold. Such as you. The wyvern you'd been concentrating on turns its attention toward you, as does the kobold archer atop it, but it never gets a chance to loose its arrow at you. Instead your own arrow pierces its chest sending it tumbling from its mount and into the open air. Unfortunately, the other kobold still sits atop the wyvern, and after your display of accuracy, you've become a prime target. That wyvern and its rider come flying toward you, which is bad, but away from the battle, which is good. You take the last opportunity you'll get and loose one more arrow at the other kobold. Your aim is off on this, so your arrow only ends up bouncing off of the wyvern's body. You start to draw another arrow, but as you do, the wyvern takes on a burst of speed and is on you before you know it. Your life flashes before your eyes, and an image of Liliana's beautiful face plants itself at the forefront of your mind. You simply don't have enough time to react to the wyvern's speed, and you just close your eyes in acceptance. Then you feel a large claw grab your waist. Its touch is surprising gentle. Nothing of what you would expect of a wyvern, and you keep waiting for it to hurl you from its grip, but that doesn't happen. Hesitantly, you open your eyes to find yourself suspended in the air, and not in the grasp of a wyvern. Rather, you find yourself in the grip of a griffin. The relief you feel is instantaneous, but that is quickly replaced by terror. You quickly reach your hands and grip onto the cold claws of the griffin. You take stock of the situation. Including the griffin carrying you, there are at least seven Griffin Knights combating the wyverns in the air. It's an amazing scene, and your breath catches. Griffins are much smaller than the wyverns, but this makes them significantly faster, so the wyverns seeme clumsy by comparison. The griffin knights themselves wear gleaming silver armor and cast a perfect picture of the word 'knight.' On the ground, the fight continues. The kobold outnumber division one, by nearly two to one, and that is discounting the giant lizards they brought with them to the battle. You start wondering why so many kobold came to mount an attack on the wall, but are soon distracted from that with what happens next. You feel a sudden change in direction as the griffin carrying you heads back to the walls. You realize that it, and the rider, must want to drop you back off at the wall before returning to the melee. You are quite okay with this, but then a scene just below you unfolds in the span of a moment. A wyvern, with just the rider left to guide it, chases a griffin just below you. For that moment it seems the entire world slows down in order for you to see and understand what's happening. The wyvern is gaining, and it opens its mouth in anticipation for the coming chomp on the griffin's lower half. It isn't some beast's wild hope that it'll manage to bite the griffin either. No, you can very clearly see that this wyvern will be able to catch the griffin. Thus leading to both the griffin's and its rider's death. In this same moment, an utterly absurd idea crosses your mind. The griffin holding you wasn't trying to keep you prisoner. It was merely keeping you from falling, and you think you could pry yourself open from its grip if you really tried. If you did, then you should land just as the wyvern's saddle passes beneath you. Your weight might even be enough to cause the wyvern to lose the edge its gained on the griffin. You left your bow back on the ramparts when the griffin saved you from the wyvern, but you do still have your standard short sword strapped to your waist. If you did go through with such a ridiculous plan, you could maybe even take out the rider and wyvern. Maybe. > You follow that plan Year 378 of the Second Era This won't be the first time you've done something crazy, though it is likely the one with the most at stake. You pry yourself from the claws of the griffin and fall into the open air. Your plan... > You fails! Year 378 of the Second Era Your timing was horribly off. You jump much too early and find yourself face to face with the open mouth of a wyvern. It must think you're the griffin, for as soon as you even near its mouth it snaps its mouth shut on top of you. Your midsection is torn to pieces, and you die instantly. At least you can die well knowing that you saved that Griffin Knight.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Year 378 of the Second Era You start a light jog to the wyvern infested ramparts, but you stop before you get there and string your bow. What is the point in throwing yourself into the middle of danger for nothing? Chances are that you would die a gruesome death for no reason other than your eagerness for battle. An inexperienced fool's death. With your bow stringed and the wyverns attention away from you, you start taking shots at the beasts. You aim your first few shots at the wyverns themselves, but when they bounce harmlessly off of their scaly hides, you shift your focus. There are two kobold atop each of the five wyverns present, and while they are certainly dwarfed by the sheer size of the wyverns they are riding, you don't let that distract you. Each of the kobold atop the wyvern has a critical purpose. The one in the front is to steer and control the mount while the one in the back holds a bow in its hands. It's job is to fire at anyone attempting to kill the former type of kobold. Such as you. The wyvern you'd been concentrating on turns its attention toward you, as does the kobold archer atop it, but it never gets a chance to loose its arrow at you. Instead your own arrow pierces its chest sending it tumbling from its mount and into the open air. Unfortunately, the other kobold still sits atop the wyvern, and after your display of accuracy, you've become a prime target. That wyvern and its rider come flying toward you, which is bad, but away from the battle, which is good. You take the last opportunity you'll get and loose one more arrow at the other kobold. Your aim is off on this, so your arrow only ends up bouncing off of the wyvern's body. You start to draw another arrow, but as you do, the wyvern takes on a burst of speed and is on you before you know it. Your life flashes before your eyes, and an image of Liliana's beautiful face plants itself at the forefront of your mind. You simply don't have enough time to react to the wyvern's speed, and you just close your eyes in acceptance. Then you feel a large claw grab your waist. Its touch is surprising gentle. Nothing of what you would expect of a wyvern, and you keep waiting for it to hurl you from its grip, but that doesn't happen. Hesitantly, you open your eyes to find yourself suspended in the air, and not in the grasp of a wyvern. Rather, you find yourself in the grip of a griffin. The relief you feel is instantaneous, but that is quickly replaced by terror. You quickly reach your hands and grip onto the cold claws of the griffin. You take stock of the situation. Including the griffin carrying you, there are at least seven Griffin Knights combating the wyverns in the air. It's an amazing scene, and your breath catches. Griffins are much smaller than the wyverns, but this makes them significantly faster, so the wyverns seeme clumsy by comparison. The griffin knights themselves wear gleaming silver armor and cast a perfect picture of the word 'knight.' On the ground, the fight continues. The kobold outnumber division one, by nearly two to one, and that is discounting the giant lizards they brought with them to the battle. You start wondering why so many kobold came to mount an attack on the wall, but are soon distracted from that with what happens next. You feel a sudden change in direction as the griffin carrying you heads back to the walls. You realize that it, and the rider, must want to drop you back off at the wall before returning to the melee. You are quite okay with this, but then a scene just below you unfolds in the span of a moment. A wyvern, with just the rider left to guide it, chases a griffin just below you. For that moment it seems the entire world slows down in order for you to see and understand what's happening. The wyvern is gaining, and it opens its mouth in anticipation for the coming chomp on the griffin's lower half. It isn't some beast's wild hope that it'll manage to bite the griffin either. No, you can very clearly see that this wyvern will be able to catch the griffin. Thus leading to both the griffin's and its rider's death. In this same moment, an utterly absurd idea crosses your mind. The griffin holding you wasn't trying to keep you prisoner. It was merely keeping you from falling, and you think you could pry yourself open from its grip if you really tried. If you did, then you should land just as the wyvern's saddle passes beneath you. Your weight might even be enough to cause the wyvern to lose the edge its gained on the griffin. You left your bow back on the ramparts when the griffin saved you from the wyvern, but you do still have your standard short sword strapped to your waist. If you did go through with such a ridiculous plan, you could maybe even take out the rider and wyvern. Maybe. > You let yourself be brought back to the ramparts Year 378 of the Second Era Sure you've done crazy things in the past, but this is no time to try and accomplish the utterly insane. Especially when the chances of success are so very low. Better to live and keep your chance of saving Liliana alive rather than to throw it away on the unlikely chance that you'll be able to save some random nobody. Despite this fact, you still wince when you see the wyvern's mouth snap down on the griffins hindquarters. The scene turns into a bloody mess, and you can't help but look away as the griffin (or at least what's left of it) and its rider plummet down to the battle below. You feel a pang of guilt, but you push it away by telling yourself you couldn't have done anything anyway. Yet, somewhere in the back of your mind, you don't believe this. Not too long after that you are dropped off on the ramparts you were originally guarding. Much is different. Several chunks of the wall are missing, and many soldiers lie dead on the ramparts. The wall you once guarded no longer carries that symbol of boredom and ease in your mind. It is readily replaced with the memory of blood spilt, and comrades dying. Over half of division two is either dead or incapacitated. Division on was doing better, but the griffin that was killed only moments before plummeted right into their line. That turned out to be the turning point in the kobold's favor, and now division one is slowly being pushed back against the wall. The griffins are locked in a very deadly battle with the rest of the wyverns, and don't seem at all in a position to help the human forces on the ground. You aren't sure what you could do to help in this situation, for it looks like your defeat is inevitable. The griffins won't be able to kill the wyverns fast enough to help division one avoid getting slaughtered, which division one is mere minutes away from. This leaves you with a few honorable choices and one dishonorable choice. > You join division one on the ground Year 378 of the Second Era You're no griffin knight. You can't contend with wyverns on an equal level, and firing a few arrows won't make any difference in the fight on the ground. No, if you're going to win this fight, then you need to go right into the thick of it. If you can manage to help division stay alive for even five minutes longer, then the chances of the griffin knights helping out are significantly higher. You still have your sword strapped to your waist, and you don't usually carry a shield on you for guard duty, so you pick one up from the dead and strap it to your back. Following this you jog to the closest tower and go down the stairwell. Inside the tower it is eerily quiet compared to the roars and clangs of battle outside, and the sound of your steel boots hitting the stone stairs reverberates throughout. Moments later, you come to the bottom of the stairs. A large iron gate-like door greets you. It is quite the durable piece, and nothing less than a battering ram would be able to break through it. Or perhaps a wyvern flying at breakneck speed... You push that foreboding thought from your head and walk through the iron doors. What greets you outside is a scene of bloodshed and death. Division one has been pushed back nearly all the way to the walls, but their line still holds. Currently the division is organized in a semi-circle formation with the flat of the circle pressed against the wall. Everywhere else is a place for fighting, and nearly every soldier fights for their lives. There is one soldier, however, that does not fight, You see him sitting against the wall with the shaft of a crude arrow of kobold make protruding from his stomach. It's Byron, and it looks like he's lost a lot of blood. Almost instinctively, you approach him. As you near, a spurt of blood comes out of his mouth and splatter against your chest-piece. "Lieutenant Byron?" You ask this fairly loudly, but he doesn't respond, so you repeat it. "Lieutenant Byron?" This time he turns his pain and regret filled eyes toward you. He focuses on you and reaches his arm up and grips your forearm in his. A sign of comradery and trust. "I know not who you are, nor from where you came, but I need you now soldier. We are losing. My men die at every turn, and the kobold do not let up. Even still, there is hope. If we can keep the line, then they," he looks up to the sky, "will save us." He coughs up some more blood, but his grip on your arm stays strong. "Your name escapes me soldier, and I feel bad for laying this burden upon you, but someone must keep these soldier together. Will you do this for me brother? See to it that some of these men survive this battle." With this last request his grip loosens and falls limp at his side. His breaths cease, and you're left in the presence of a dead man. Numbly, you stand back up and gaze at the fight. You knew you needed to help in this battle in the first place, but speaking with Byron has strengthened your resolve. The only thing left to decide is where you will help. > You help the left flank Year 378 of the Second Era You aren't Byron. You won't be able to lead these men better than him, or lead them at all. You're just another soldier, so what does it matter where you go? So you head to the flank closest to you. The left one. The fighting over here doesn't seem nearly as intense as the fighting near the middle. You pull out your sword and shield, and immediately get to work. Most of the people fighting are beginning to get tired, so the addition of a fresh, well equipped soldier vastly improves the line. So much, in fact, that it seems that the entirety of the left flank almost molds around your fighting. Which strikes you as odd, because of the way you're fighting. You don't rush in and throw yourself at the enemy in a fit of battlefield rage, or anything of that sort. No, you're calm in the heat of battle. You have a focused determination, and because of this you don't make any brash moves. Your goal is to stay alive while keeping everyone else alive as well. Defense is the best offense, and it happens to make the fight last a hell of a lot longer. Maybe this will buy enough time for the griffin knights to take care of the wyverns. With this thought in mind, you fight. Not for glory, nor for yourself. You fight for Liliana, and the chance to see her alive and well again. "Retreat!" The sound of a despairing voice breaks you out of your focus, and a kobold nearly guts you because of it, but you quickly block the flimsy attack and return it with one of your own. It dies before you, and you have a sacred moment of rest before another kobold comes to fill its spot in the line. It gives you time to think about what the guy meant by retreating. Your line was doing so well, and retreating now would be suicide. The kobold would have a field day with chasing down and killing everyone on the ground. It was a cowardly, foolish mistake. Hopefully no one would listen to the fool's order, but, to your chagrin, they do. Soldiers from your left and right start disappearing, and, soon enough, there is no longer even the semblance of a line. You're quickly surrounded by kobold, and while you make a valiant effort to stay alive, it isn't enough.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Year 378 of the Second Era You're no griffin knight. You can't contend with wyverns on an equal level, and firing a few arrows won't make any difference in the fight on the ground. No, if you're going to win this fight, then you need to go right into the thick of it. If you can manage to help division stay alive for even five minutes longer, then the chances of the griffin knights helping out are significantly higher. You still have your sword strapped to your waist, and you don't usually carry a shield on you for guard duty, so you pick one up from the dead and strap it to your back. Following this you jog to the closest tower and go down the stairwell. Inside the tower it is eerily quiet compared to the roars and clangs of battle outside, and the sound of your steel boots hitting the stone stairs reverberates throughout. Moments later, you come to the bottom of the stairs. A large iron gate-like door greets you. It is quite the durable piece, and nothing less than a battering ram would be able to break through it. Or perhaps a wyvern flying at breakneck speed... You push that foreboding thought from your head and walk through the iron doors. What greets you outside is a scene of bloodshed and death. Division one has been pushed back nearly all the way to the walls, but their line still holds. Currently the division is organized in a semi-circle formation with the flat of the circle pressed against the wall. Everywhere else is a place for fighting, and nearly every soldier fights for their lives. There is one soldier, however, that does not fight, You see him sitting against the wall with the shaft of a crude arrow of kobold make protruding from his stomach. It's Byron, and it looks like he's lost a lot of blood. Almost instinctively, you approach him. As you near, a spurt of blood comes out of his mouth and splatter against your chest-piece. "Lieutenant Byron?" You ask this fairly loudly, but he doesn't respond, so you repeat it. "Lieutenant Byron?" This time he turns his pain and regret filled eyes toward you. He focuses on you and reaches his arm up and grips your forearm in his. A sign of comradery and trust. "I know not who you are, nor from where you came, but I need you now soldier. We are losing. My men die at every turn, and the kobold do not let up. Even still, there is hope. If we can keep the line, then they," he looks up to the sky, "will save us." He coughs up some more blood, but his grip on your arm stays strong. "Your name escapes me soldier, and I feel bad for laying this burden upon you, but someone must keep these soldier together. Will you do this for me brother? See to it that some of these men survive this battle." With this last request his grip loosens and falls limp at his side. His breaths cease, and you're left in the presence of a dead man. Numbly, you stand back up and gaze at the fight. You knew you needed to help in this battle in the first place, but speaking with Byron has strengthened your resolve. The only thing left to decide is where you will help. > You help the right flank Year 378 of the Second Era You aren't Byron. You won't be able to lead these men better than him, or lead them at all. You're just another soldier, but you do think it matters where you go. You happen to be right handed, so you'll likely fight better in the right flank. With this hope in mind, you go over to your destination. The fighting over here doesn't seem nearly as intense as the fighting near the center. You pull out your sword and shield, and immediately get to work. Most of the people fighting are beginning to get tired, so the addition of a fresh, well equipped soldier vastly improves the line. So much, in fact, that it seems that the entirety of the right flank almost molds around your fighting. Which strikes you as odd specifically because of the way you're fighting. You don't rush in and throw yourself at the enemy in a fit of battlefield rage, or anything of that sort. No, you're calm in the heat of battle. You have a focused determination, and because of this you don't make any brash moves. Your goal is to stay alive while keeping everyone else alive as well. Defense is the best offense, and it happens to make the fight last a hell of a lot longer. Maybe this will buy enough time for the griffin knights to take care of the wyverns. With this thought in mind, you fight. Not for glory, nor for yourself. You fight for Liliana, and the chance to see her alive and well again. "Retreat!" The sound of a despairing voice breaks you out of your focus, and a kobold nearly guts you because of it, but you quickly block the flimsy attack and return it with one of your own. It dies before you, and you have a sacred moment of rest before another kobold comes to fill its spot in the line. It gives you time to think about what the guy meant by retreating. Your line was doing so well, and retreating now would be suicide. The kobold would have a field day with chasing down and killing everyone on the ground. It was a cowardly, foolish mistake. Hopefully no one would listen to the fool's order, but, to your chagrin, they do. Soldiers from your left and right start disappearing, and, soon enough, there is no longer even the semblance of a line. You're quickly surrounded by kobold, and while you make a valiant effort to stay alive, it isn't enough.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Year 378 of the Second Era Sure you've done crazy things in the past, but this is no time to try and accomplish the utterly insane. Especially when the chances of success are so very low. Better to live and keep your chance of saving Liliana alive rather than to throw it away on the unlikely chance that you'll be able to save some random nobody. Despite this fact, you still wince when you see the wyvern's mouth snap down on the griffins hindquarters. The scene turns into a bloody mess, and you can't help but look away as the griffin (or at least what's left of it) and its rider plummet down to the battle below. You feel a pang of guilt, but you push it away by telling yourself you couldn't have done anything anyway. Yet, somewhere in the back of your mind, you don't believe this. Not too long after that you are dropped off on the ramparts you were originally guarding. Much is different. Several chunks of the wall are missing, and many soldiers lie dead on the ramparts. The wall you once guarded no longer carries that symbol of boredom and ease in your mind. It is readily replaced with the memory of blood spilt, and comrades dying. Over half of division two is either dead or incapacitated. Division on was doing better, but the griffin that was killed only moments before plummeted right into their line. That turned out to be the turning point in the kobold's favor, and now division one is slowly being pushed back against the wall. The griffins are locked in a very deadly battle with the rest of the wyverns, and don't seem at all in a position to help the human forces on the ground. You aren't sure what you could do to help in this situation, for it looks like your defeat is inevitable. The griffins won't be able to kill the wyverns fast enough to help division one avoid getting slaughtered, which division one is mere minutes away from. This leaves you with a few honorable choices and one dishonorable choice. > You stay here and support division one with arrows Year 378 of the Second Era The Griffin knights are living legends. They don't need your 'support,' and they definitely don't need you shooting stray arrows and accidentally hitting one of them. Division one, however, does need your help, but leaving the wall at this point would be foolish. You'd likely be an easy target for a kobold archer in the back. Instead you decide that your best option is to stay on the ramparts and pick your shots. Thus, you act. You find a bow lying beside a dead body, along with a few arrows, and immediately set to work. You focus on the easy targets, the ones away from the forefront of the battle. Those, and the kobold archers. You loose arrow after arrow into the enemy force, and bring many a kobold down, but it simply isn't enough. Your contribution isn't enough to turn the tide of battle at all, but, unfortunately for you, it is enough to garner the attention of the kobold archers. You manage to keep from being hit for quite a while, but eventually a kobold gets a lucky shot and you fall dead onto the ramparts with an arrow lodged in your throat.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Year 378 of the Second Era Sure you've done crazy things in the past, but this is no time to try and accomplish the utterly insane. Especially when the chances of success are so very low. Better to live and keep your chance of saving Liliana alive rather than to throw it away on the unlikely chance that you'll be able to save some random nobody. Despite this fact, you still wince when you see the wyvern's mouth snap down on the griffins hindquarters. The scene turns into a bloody mess, and you can't help but look away as the griffin (or at least what's left of it) and its rider plummet down to the battle below. You feel a pang of guilt, but you push it away by telling yourself you couldn't have done anything anyway. Yet, somewhere in the back of your mind, you don't believe this. Not too long after that you are dropped off on the ramparts you were originally guarding. Much is different. Several chunks of the wall are missing, and many soldiers lie dead on the ramparts. The wall you once guarded no longer carries that symbol of boredom and ease in your mind. It is readily replaced with the memory of blood spilt, and comrades dying. Over half of division two is either dead or incapacitated. Division on was doing better, but the griffin that was killed only moments before plummeted right into their line. That turned out to be the turning point in the kobold's favor, and now division one is slowly being pushed back against the wall. The griffins are locked in a very deadly battle with the rest of the wyverns, and don't seem at all in a position to help the human forces on the ground. You aren't sure what you could do to help in this situation, for it looks like your defeat is inevitable. The griffins won't be able to kill the wyverns fast enough to help division one avoid getting slaughtered, which division one is mere minutes away from. This leaves you with a few honorable choices and one dishonorable choice. > You stay here and support the griffin knights with arrows Year 378 of the Second Era You aren't going to flatter yourself. You firing a few arrows into the kobold horde below won't change anything, except perhaps where you die. Fighting on the forefront of the battle won't change anything either, and will almost definitely lead to your gruesome death. No, you aren't that powerful of an individual. There is only one thing left. If you can manage to hit even just one of your shots on one of the kobold riders, then you could very well change the course of this battle. Killing a few kobold on the ground won't make that much of a difference, but if you can manage to help take down the wyverns, then the griffin knights will be free to help division one on the ground. At this point, victory relies on those knights. You only hope that you can help expedite that process. You find a bow lying among the dead on the ramparts, along with a few arrows. The only thing left to decide is what you will aim at. > You aim at the kobold riders Year 378 of the Second Era Wyverns are beasts of terrible power, and their hides, while not as thick as dragon hide, will easily block your arrows. Better to aim at the riders, and have the wyverns panic with their riders dead. This would make the wyverns much easier to kill. In theory. The situation casts you into a state of wonderment. You never would have though that you'd be in a battle this large, let alone one with aerial combat, and you don't want it all to end here. You take your first arrow, notch it, and pull it back. You wouldn't get many decent shots here, and when the opportunity arises, you don't want to miss it, so you wait. The kobold riders ride low in their saddles, for some among their numbers (including the one you killed) have felt the sting of mankind's arrows. This makes finding a decent shot all the more difficult, but you're patient. After all, you only need one good shot to turn the tide in this battle. You're left waiting for nearly a full minute before such an opportunity arises, and what the opportunity it is. One of the griffin riders, having been separated from the rest, rides past the wall only several feet away from you. A wyvern and its pair of riders give chase, and their passing by the wall gives you the perfect chance. You take aim at the kobold rider steering the beast, and release. The Muses must have seen it fit to bless you this day, for your arrow strikes true. it hits the kobold rider and it goes flying from the saddle. You're about to leap with joy when an arrow pierces you through the chest, and you immediately fall to the ramparts wounded. It isn't a shot that kills you immediately, but blood is pouring out of your chest at an alarming rate, so you know you're about to die. You only wish you could've seen Liliana one last time.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Year 378 of the Second Era You aren't going to flatter yourself. You firing a few arrows into the kobold horde below won't change anything, except perhaps where you die. Fighting on the forefront of the battle won't change anything either, and will almost definitely lead to your gruesome death. No, you aren't that powerful of an individual. There is only one thing left. If you can manage to hit even just one of your shots on one of the kobold riders, then you could very well change the course of this battle. Killing a few kobold on the ground won't make that much of a difference, but if you can manage to help take down the wyverns, then the griffin knights will be free to help division one on the ground. At this point, victory relies on those knights. You only hope that you can help expedite that process. You find a bow lying among the dead on the ramparts, along with a few arrows. The only thing left to decide is what you will aim at. > You aim at the wyverns Year 378 of the Second Era Wyverns are beasts bred for killing and war. You don't think they'll simply abandon this instinct just because their riders die. No, if you're going to attempt to help the griffin knights, then the best way to do so is to take out a wyvern. Even if you only manage to take out one of them, it would help a significant amount. You cast your thoughts back to your youth. Your mother would tell you stories of the beasts in the Lost Realm, and of the heroes whom bested those beasts. You're sure you remember something about a wyvern being vulnerable in its underbelly? Or maybe it was its wings? You can't remember for sure, but you don't have any other ideas. > You aim for the stomach Year 378 of the Second Era Maybe you're certain that wyverns are weak in the stomach, or maybe it's just a wild guess. Whatever the reason, you decide to try hitting the wyverns' stomach. Sweat forms on your brow as you notch an arrow and take aim. You raise your bow at the wyvern closest to you, whom is being chased by a pair of griffin knights, and loose your arrow. Your aim is true, but the arrow merely glances off the strong hide. Apparently your hunch was wrong. The stomach is not a weak point for a wyvern. This fact, however, doesn't keep you from trying. You enter a state of pure focus. Arrow after arrow is loosed from your bow, and when you run out of arrows you search for more. You will kill one of these blasted beasts even if it takes every arrow in this realm, this wyvern will fall. Fortunately for you, you don't have to wait too long before one of your arrows finds a weak point in the wyverns scales. The wyvern roars in pain, and for a moment you think you've succeeded, but the wyvern keeps flying. There is one thing that changes, however, and that is that the wyvern now targets you. Apparently it didn't appreciate your lucky shot. The griffin knights are not quick enough to save you this time, and you end up learning how sharp a wyvern's teeth are firsthand.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Year 378 of the Second Era Wyverns are beasts bred for killing and war. You don't think they'll simply abandon this instinct just because their riders die. No, if you're going to attempt to help the griffin knights, then the best way to do so is to take out a wyvern. Even if you only manage to take out one of them, it would help a significant amount. You cast your thoughts back to your youth. Your mother would tell you stories of the beasts in the Lost Realm, and of the heroes whom bested those beasts. You're sure you remember something about a wyvern being vulnerable in its underbelly? Or maybe it was its wings? You can't remember for sure, but you don't have any other ideas. > You aim for the wings Year 378 of the Second Era You can't remember for certain if their wings are vulnerable, but you doubt the stomach is, as you can think of no viable reason for it to be. The wings, on the other hand, if damaged enough can cause a wyvern to lose its flight abilities. Sweat forms on your brow as you notch an arrow and take aim. You raise your bow at the wyvern closest to you, whom is being chased by a pair of griffin knights, and loose your arrow. Your aim is true, but the arrow is merely gusted away by the draft the flapping its wings create. Apparently your hunch was wrong. The wings are not a weak point for a wyvern. This fact, however, doesn't keep you from trying. You enter a state of pure focus. Arrow after arrow is loosed from your bow, and when you run out of arrows you search for more. You will kill one of these blasted beasts even if it takes every arrow in this realm, this wyvern will fall. Fortunately for you, you don't have to wait too long before you time your arrow just right. You let your arrow go just before the wyvern flaps his wings, and it sails true piercing the softer scales of the wing. The wyvern roars in pain, and for a moment you think you've succeeded, but you only hit one arrow, and that wyvern's wings are quite large. There is one thing that changes, however, and that is that the wyvern now targets you. Apparently it didn't appreciate your lucky shot. The griffin knights are not quick enough to save you this time, and you end up learning how sharp a wyvern's teeth are firsthand.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Year 378 of the Second Era Sure you've done crazy things in the past, but this is no time to try and accomplish the utterly insane. Especially when the chances of success are so very low. Better to live and keep your chance of saving Liliana alive rather than to throw it away on the unlikely chance that you'll be able to save some random nobody. Despite this fact, you still wince when you see the wyvern's mouth snap down on the griffins hindquarters. The scene turns into a bloody mess, and you can't help but look away as the griffin (or at least what's left of it) and its rider plummet down to the battle below. You feel a pang of guilt, but you push it away by telling yourself you couldn't have done anything anyway. Yet, somewhere in the back of your mind, you don't believe this. Not too long after that you are dropped off on the ramparts you were originally guarding. Much is different. Several chunks of the wall are missing, and many soldiers lie dead on the ramparts. The wall you once guarded no longer carries that symbol of boredom and ease in your mind. It is readily replaced with the memory of blood spilt, and comrades dying. Over half of division two is either dead or incapacitated. Division on was doing better, but the griffin that was killed only moments before plummeted right into their line. That turned out to be the turning point in the kobold's favor, and now division one is slowly being pushed back against the wall. The griffins are locked in a very deadly battle with the rest of the wyverns, and don't seem at all in a position to help the human forces on the ground. You aren't sure what you could do to help in this situation, for it looks like your defeat is inevitable. The griffins won't be able to kill the wyverns fast enough to help division one avoid getting slaughtered, which division one is mere minutes away from. This leaves you with a few honorable choices and one dishonorable choice. > You abandon them Year 378 of the Second Era There isn't anything left for you here but death. And you cannot die. Your goal is to save your beloved. Liliana. You don't have time to be caught up in border battles where death is a likely possibility. Your life is not your own anymore, for if you die, then Liliana will as well. With most of division two destroyed and with what's left of division one, there is no one to see you leave. You jog along the ramparts, and away from the battle. You pass the signal fire you lit and head to the next watchtower over. They keep food and water storage in the towers, and if you were to have any hope of deserting and living then you would need supplies. You move quickly, and gather food, water, flint and steel, extra arrows, a shield and everything else you could possibly need. After gathering it all, you head to the very bottom of the stairwell and tower. A large iron gate-like door greets you. It is quite the durable piece, and nothing less than a battering ram would be able to break through it. Or perhaps a wyvern flying at breakneck speed... You push that foreboding thought from your head and walk through the iron doors. A slight breeze pushes against your face. You're far enough from the battle that you can only barely hear the roar of the wyverns fighting. you take a breath and look at your next destination. The green of the forest is all that will greet your eyes for an indeterminate amount of time in the future. This is the only way to go. The penalty for desertion is death, so there is no way you are going to stay here. Your only option is to move forward in your search for Liliana. You take a deep breath, ready yourself mentally, then enter into the Lost Realm. You don't get very far in there, however, before you run into kobold reinforcements. They number over ten, and you are no god though you do manage to take a few out before succumbing to multiple stab wounds.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Year 378 of the Second Era The memory fades away, and Byron's voice returns. "I need one person to light the signal light over by the watchtower. Everyone in division two stay here and support us with arrows. Everyone in division one follow me!" The wyverns are still racing to the wall, and a fight seems inevitable. Byron leads the way as he and division one head down to the ground to support the rest of the group. Everyone else stays and prepares their bows. You were assigned to division two upon your transfer here, and so your orders are abundantly clear. > You abandon the fight Year 378 of the Second Era You didn't come here for a fight. This was supposed to be the easiest place to guard in all the realm. No wyverns or kobold were supposed to come here, and certainly not in the numbers that actually threaten your wall occupation. Your goal is to save your beloved. Liliana. You don't have time to be caught up in border battles where you might die. Your life is not your own anymore, for if you die, then Liliana will as well. You pretend to be lighting the signal fire, but when you are out of sight of the other soldiers you find one of the many towers and make your way down it. They keep food and water storage in the towers, and if you were to have any hope of deserting and living then you would need supplies. You move quickly, and gather anything that you might need: Food, water, flint and steel, extra arrows, a shield. Everything you could possibly need. After gathering it all, you head to the very bottom of the stairwell and tower. A large iron gate-like door greets you. It is quite the durable piece, and nothing less than a battering ram would be able to break through it. Or perhaps a wyvern flying at breakneck speed... You push that foreboding thought from your head and walk through the iron doors. A slight breeze pushes against your face. You're far enough from the battle that you can only barely hear the roar of the wyverns fighting. you take a breath and look at your next destination. The green of the forest is all that will greet your eyes for an indeterminate amount of time in the future. This was the only way to go. The penalty for desertion is death, so there was no way you were going to stay there. Your only option was to move forward in your search for Liliana. You take a deep breath, ready yourself mentally, then enter into the Lost Realm. You don't get very far in there, however, before you run into kobold reinforcements. They number over ten, and you are no god though you do manage to take a few out before succumbing to multiple stab wounds.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Year 368 of the Second Era "Are you listening bitch?" A hand is shoved into your back and you're sent tumbling to the ground. Grass presses against your face, and you even feel some dirt in your mouth. That was fine. You didn't care very much. These guys could push you around all they wanted. They'd never be able to beat you as bad as your father did. "Stop it, Daniel!" Liliana's voice sounds from behind you. Apparently she didn't like Daniel pushing you. You slowly pick yourself up and off of the ground as Daniel replies. "What? You didn't like me pushing your bitch around?" That remark is followed by some laughter. "He hasn't done anything to you." Liliana replies readily. "Leave and go hit your mom if you're looking for a bitch to hit. Don't touch him." There's a moment of silence before you hear a smack. That sound reverberates around the academy yard, and for a moment you think Liliana finally slapped the guy like she said she'd been wanting to do, but when you turn around you find it's the complete opposite. Liliana is on the grass now, clutching her face. You see tears start to come to her eyes, but she doesn't sob. Not anymore. You've never been the most violent person. Your mother instilled that into you, so you let others push you around. You didn't give a damn either way, but when you see Liliana on the ground you don't hesitate. You lunge forward and shove Daniel hard in the chest, and you do it hard enough to send him flying to the ground as well, but unlike you and Liliana he gets back up to his feet quickly. His reaction is also quick. He immediately rushes toward you and raises his fist back. You can tell a punch is coming. You've grown in the past couple years, and are easily one of the tallest guys in class. Aside from Daniel, that is. You might not be taller than Daniel, but you'd bet your mother's corpse (Muse bless her soul) that you can take more hits than he can. That being said, you don't particularly fancy getting punched if you can avoid it. > You use his strength against him Year 368 of the Second Era Despite what others think of him, Daniel is weak. And you're going to prove just that. His punch comes directly at your right cheek. It has a hell of a lot of power. Certainly more than you anticipated, but you don't allow yourself to hesitate. He might be powerful, but he was predictable. You dodge his punch by stepping in towards him, and then follow up his punch with one of your own. It hits right below his sternum, and he starts to keel over. You act on instinct now. You grip the top of his head and bring your knee up into his face, and there's a distinct crunch noise. You then push him slightly away from you. He stumbles backward, and you take a step forward and shove him to the ground once more. There's no time for him to react as you pounce on top of him and lay punch after punch into his face. His 'friends' don't rise to stop you, and the courtyard is silent save for the sound of your fist pounding his face. After several more punches you feel a hand on your shoulder. You nearly jerk away from it, but, despite your frenzied mind, you are able to recognize that it is a distinctly feminine hand. Liliana, you think and stop punching. Daniel doesn't stop his groaning as you rise to your feet to face her. There's less baby fat on her face now than when you first saw her, and is beginning to be quite the knockout. Her eyes are still slightly red and the right side of her face is still red, but she isn't crying any more. "Enough," she whispers to you. You only nod in response. You start to walk away from the scene when you realize that you'd gathered quite the crowd. You think about saying something, but instead you reach for Liliana's hand and glare at everyone in the crowd. Your look says it all. You leave with Liliana in tow.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Year 378 of the Second Era You pull yourself from the memory. That was happening way too often since Liliana was captured. And she was captured. There was no doubt in your mind about that. Captured by people who obviously knew what they were doing. Otherwise they wouldn't be able to make it through the forests of the Lost Realm without being captured, killed, or raped by horny kobold. That means there's a way to make it through that forest. You just have to find it. That was the reason you spent your time here on the wall watching, waiting, planning your route through that kobold infested place. Of course you could just leave on your own and hope for the best, but th- Your thoughts are interrupted when the roar of some beast sounds throughout the air. You jerk your head immediately towards the sound. It came from somewhere over the tops of the trees, and still must've been miles out. Every guard on the wall peels their eyes to the forest, and it isn't long before one of your fellow guardsmen spots something. "There! Above the forest!" The guard sounds quite panicked. You look where he indicated and spot several grey blots in the distance. They look like birds at first, but as they get closer you can tell they're much larger and have several more rows of teeth than a bird. "Wyverns." The guard right beside you breathes out. You turn back to look at the beasts. They're still a few miles out, but you can hear the beat of their leathery wings drawing closer every second. The guards in your platoon stand on the wall in stunned silence. Nothing happens here, ever. Why now of all times? Your lieutenant, an older fellow named Byron, calls everyone to order. "This is what we're here for men! This is why..." Byron's voice fades into the depths of your mind. It is replaced by a different voice. One that's mocking, provoking. The memory of your first fight calls back to you. > You push the memory back Year 378 of the Second Era This isn't the time for idle thoughts. No, you need to focus on the situation at hand. The memory fades away, and Byron's voice returns. "This is why we guard this wall! No wyverns, kobold, or other filth will cross this wall! Gather your weap-" Byron is interrupted by another voice. "Help! There are kobold chasing us on the ground. The rest of my party is coming with the kobold hot on their tail." The voice comes from all the way at the bottom of the wall. You can barely make out what he's saying, but someone does and repeats it to Byron, who then continues speaking. "I need one person to light the signal light over by the watchtower. Everyone in division two stay here and support us with arrows. Everyone in division one follow me!" Byron leads the way as he and division one head down to the ground to support the rest of the group. Everyone else stays and prepares their bows. You were assigned to division two upon your transfer here, and so your orders are abundantly clear. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Year 366 of the Second Era At the age of ten, you were average. Your height, weight, disposition, and, well, pretty much everything about you was average. Never the last one chosen for capture the emblem, but never the first one either. Your life then was a monotonous slog: Go to your rundown academy, try to do well in your academic work, fail, and return home only to have your drunkard of a father beat you. You didn't realize how miserable your life was until the fateful day when Liliana joined your class at school. Like the rest of the girls in the class, she wore a dress. Unlike the rest of the girls in the class, her dress was obviously of fine make. The embroidery on her dress had no faults. No drops of blood from clumsy mothers who pricked themselves on their needle. No lazy patches sewn in to cover up holes. No, her dress was flawless. Her hair was onyx black, and fell down in waves around her face. Her glittering blue eyes were filled with anticipation, and maybe a little fear. She clearly wasn't used to being in these kinds of situations, and she kept glancing around as if someone else was going to introduce her to the other classmates. Your teacher, a hag of a woman, prompted her to introduce herself. "Go ahead and introduce yourself to the class, dear." She widened her eyes in surprise, but followed the teacher's command. "My name is Liliana, I'm ten years of age, and..," she looked to the teacher for instruction. She had an accent, and one that you'd never heard before at that. Not northern, or even like those from the eastern realm. No, this was decidedly different from any other accent you'd heard before. "Go on," the teacher prompted again. "I don't know what else to say," Liliana responded. The teacher frowned disappointedly. "Surely you have more things to tell us about yourself than your name?" When Liliana didn't respond, the teacher spoke again. "Where are you from? Or, what do you like to do in your spare time? Tell us things like that." Liliana hesitated once more. "Come now. We don't judge people here," the hag patted her comfortingly on the shoulder, but failed to notice the snickering in the back. Liliana, it seemed, found her words comforting, and finally started to open up. "I was born in Arboribus. My father is the king there, and it's an amazing place. There are trees larger than castles there! Oh, and I like to go stag riding with my father if he has the ti-" The teacher interrupted. "Excuse me. Where?" The teacher sounded somewhat confused, but definitely disappointed. The snickering in the back increased, but Liliana still hadn't noticed. "Arboribus," she said this clearly, and with an expression of incredulity fixed upon her face. The teacher simply stared at her blankly, until Liliana continued. "You know, in The Lost Realm..." The boys in the back, try as they might, couldn't contain themselves any longer. They busted out into raucous laughter that spread to the rest of the students that were typically thought of as nice. Everyone gave into the laughter, and even the teacher hag was chuckling. You were on the edge of laughter as well, but something kept you there. Stories of The Lost Realm, and rumors of a ancient city of humans therein. Your mother, before she died of disease, would tell you fairy tales of the ancient land, and how it used to be as prosperous as the Realm of Men is now. You'd always harbored the secret thought, hope, that the stories were true, and here was a person who claimed to hail from that very place. This, and the expression on Liliana's face, caused you to hesitate. Her expression was that of someone hurt , and a genuine expression at that. You held the laughter off, and waited for everyone else to do the same. They eventually quieted down, but only after tears started streaming down Liliana's face. Silence took the place of laughter, and all joy was replaced with the sad sound of sobbing. The old hag had the decency to attempt to comfort her by giving her a hug, but Liliana jerked away. Apparently she didn't like the idea of hugging the old hag. Especially since she'd promised no ridicule would come, but then turned around and gloried in it herself. "It's true!" Liliana yelled after she managed to control her sobbing. "I'm not a liar! And, and ,and..." She starts crying again, but instead of staying in the classroom for everyone to see, she ran through the door and out of the classroom. The silence continued for a moment longer, before you made your first life changing decision. You got up from your designated chair and followed after Liliana. You were no expert at dealing with girls. Let alone crying ones, and you weren't the most... > You ...intelligent... Year 366 of the Second Era ...intelligent of people, but you were outgoing enough to provide a suitable person for her to talk to. You follow the sound of sobbing through the worn wooden hallways of the school, and outside, until you find the source of the crying. Liliana sits on the steps to the main door of the school. Her well crafted dress is ruffled in places and her body constantly shifts under the pressure of her tears. Her hair comes down in waves around her head, effectively cutting off any view of her face. She doesn't notice you there at first, but when the main door closes behind you she jumps and turns towards you. Tears and snot cover her face with her eyes both sad and angry at the same time, and for a moment you find yourself regretting coming here. That moment passes, and the impulse you followed earlier propels you toward her. "Are you going to laugh at me again?" Her voice reflects what she is feeling. Sadness, despair, anger, and, you think, a bit of hope color her voice. You decide to concentrate on her hopefulness. "I didn't laugh." "Everyone laughed. I saw." Clearly she hadn't been paying attention to you when in the classroom. "Not me." You sit down on the same step as her, and she glares at you. Silence ensues, and you turn away and gaze out in front of you. You want to ask her about the Realm of the Lost, but the question dies in your throat. Wouldn't it be at least a little insensitive to ask her prying questions now? Your question is answered when you hear her start to sob again. This time it's less intense, but it's still crying all the same. Maybe it's the memory of her excited face when she was in front of the classroom, or maybe you just didn't like the sound of crying. Whatever the reason, you decide to wrap your arm around her shoulders in a half hug. Liliana turns to stone beneath your touch, and you think she'll pull away, but she doesn't. She stays still, but continues her crying. You feel absurdly awkward in this position, but she doesn't seem to mind. She even leans into your hug after a while. In between holding her and listening to her crying, you find yourself staring at her wondering how in all the realms this girl was from the Lost Realm. You might be tainted by the knowledge of fairytales, but you were still aware that the Lost Realm was crawling with kobold and others of that ilk,. It was a very dangerous place. At the end of the first era was when the Lost Realm was supposedly at the height of its power, but that ended when a dragon led a massive host of kobold and wyverns and sacked the entirety of the realm. Well, that's how the stories went. So how then, could a delicate being such as this come from such a dangerous place? Then a brilliant idea came over you. There was a story your mother once told you. One about the faerie, a race of beings native to the Lost Realm. When they were in the Lost Realm they were humanoid creatures of a similar height humans, but with pointed ears and a slender build. In the story, a faerie wandered over the border of the Realm of Men and the Realm of the Lost, (Before the border walls were constructed) but the faerie were tied to their own realm. Whenever they left, they became as humans. This particular faerie panicked when they realized they left their home for another realm, and immediately tried to go back, but every time he tried to re-enter his homeland, he would get lost, turned around. He could never find his way back. Once the faerie willingly left the Realm of the Lost, they weren't allowed back. He was left in the Realm of Men to fend for himself, but he desired that no their faerie would feel like he did. Alone, confused and afraid. So the faerie came up with a code. If he thought there was another faerie, he would ask them a simple question. You ask that question now. "Are you lost?" Liliana immediately pulls from you and stares at you in disbelief. She suddenly wipes all of the tears from her face with her sleeve before asking you a question. "Will you help me fit in here?" Kinda shocked that your plan worked you only nod in response. A hint of a smile breaches her face. "What's your name?" You briefly wonder what you've gotten yourself into, but you answer regardless. "My name is..."<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You don't remember when you first acquired the power to see spirits. After all differentiating the dead from the living could be rather difficult considering that the ones you saw at such a young age died rather peacefully to your recollection. Or that was the case, until the age of around ten or so. The memory of that night was vivid, and it seemed to be stained into your brain, it's not something that you could imagine that you would ever forget. You had spent the night at a friend's house, which was pretty rare considering that you mostly always stayed at home on your own free time when you were younger at that age. You were so overjoyed and ecstatic, and so was your friend as you spent most of that night playing video games and at around midnight tried to watch the adult stuff that he had bragged about having access to on his T.V. It wasn't until the next morning, that he had invited you to come into his basement to look at his dad's motorbike that was stored down there, that made the night so unforgettable and morbid. At first, you didn't really know what it was, it seemed to be a jumble of hair, mixed with red clothes and gray clay. It was right by the motorbike that your friend was about to show off. You didn't really think much of it, not even asking your friend about it at first since it was probably your eyes just playing tricks on you, it was pretty dim after all. It was wasn't until you got closer. The facial features, the blood, the bent limbs and the wriggling maggots that were feasting around its mouth and what was left of its nose. You don't remember all that much after that. Your dad told you that you had to be sent home since you wouldn't stop screaming or crying, when he reminisced the story to you he found it amusing. Knowing what you do know, you didn't find it funny. You didn't really fear it all that much either though. > You present day There seemed to be a difference in the dead you saw. Some were alive and could communicate with you, while others were just corpses that you would see as if the crime or accident had just happened, sometimes the corpses would seem very decayed too, just like the one at your friend's house. At first, it was just it was just corpses that you were able to see, which really fucked you up when you saw them every now and then at different locations whenever you left you left your house. The first times you screamed, as far you can remember or have been told by your parents, but soon it seems you just got used to it as no one else were able to see what you kept on seeing. It didn't scare you as it did the first times after encountering new corpses, but then again it wasn't a sight that you looked forward to seeing either. You could best describe it as getting sick, or getting injured. It sucks when it happens, but you can't really do all that much about it, and the only way around it is to limit yourself in the locations that you went. That's how you ended up becoming a shut-in, locked away in your room on your computer for whenever you came home from school or had free time on the weekends. That's to say you weren't an emo loner or someone who had terrible serious issues that needed therapy, or at least you hoped so. The screaming parts were just seen as a phase to your parents. Like sex or bad words, seeing dead people was something that you never really felt comfortable talking about with them. In fact, at first, you thought everyone could see it, and they were just fucking with you when they said that they had no idea what you were talking about when you pointed at the corpses. It took months before you knew that it was just your own personal disease. A disease that you knew would probably never get cured. Waking up from bed, in a tired daze, you looked at your phone to see that it was Friday, and you had woken up an hour early before school. This was pretty unusual, since most of the time you would stay up till one or two a.m. and would usually miss the morning bus. That had to mean you only got like four or five hours of sleep. "Shit." Taking the time that you had, you got yourself showered and dressed and went downstairs to make yourself some breakfast before you would walk to your bus stop. Your school was close enough that walking could be an option. Although usually, you run into a few car crash victims along the sidewalk, most of the time their heavily disfigured or heavily weeping. You don't know exactly why you didn't notice them when you were younger, though you chalked it up to the assumption that you were always playing on your Gameboy on car rides or something. There have been a few instances in which you've spoken to the dead, although most of the time they never ended well. It seems that they're trapped into a sort of box, each box differentiating in size to reasons unknown to you. If they're lucky they have someone to talk to if the place they died has another ghost, or they died in pairs. When there's a lone ghost, however, most of the time they look miserable or heavily distressed. You learned never to make eye contact, as that was a sure fire way that they knew that you could see them. There was one time that one on a road you traveled on was screaming at you, and that had caused other ghosts in the area to also look over at you as he screamed that you could see him. You don't ever go on that road now on the way home, in fact, you stay try your best to stay away from that part of the city. Though there a bit of you that was ashamed for being afraid of ghosts. If this was something you were going to live with for the rest of your life then you had to start facing it head on, or at least that's what you wanted to think.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|> > You turn out the lights. Once upon a time you were called the greatest hero to ever live. You must have been nineteen at the time. Fresh faced, hot headed, and too dumb for your own good. With sword in hand, you set out with your childhood friends to save the world from an evil wizard (damn, you can't even remember his name) bent on enslaving mankind. When you left home, there were five of you: a mage, a rogue, a bard, a healer, and yourself, a fighter. The six month long journey to the wizard's tower was filled with happy times, light hearted misadventures as you all prepared for fortune and glory. When you reached the tower, the mood quickly changed. Your bard fell to a herd of undead that ambushed you at the entrance. The healer took a poison dart to the throat on the fourth floor while the rogue was burned to ash by a pyromancer on the seventeenth floor. Yourself and the mage were all that remained when you reached the twentieth and final floor, and she was cut down halfway through the fight with the wizard. When the dust cleared and all was quiet, you were the last one standing. You returned home a year after you had left it. The villagers showered you in praise for killing the wizard, and word reached the nobles in the cities far away that the evil wizard had been defeated. They held a feast in your honor, they showered you in gold, they gave you a title and a manor and an army of servants. Women wanted you, men wanted to be you. But it was all hollow. You played along for the first ten years, finding little joy in the newfound fortune and glory you had longed for. It wasn't until the writers and artists began to touch your quest that you finally shut yourself in. It started innocently enough, sanitized children's tales about the exploits of you and your allies, but soon it became epic poems and romanticized paintings. One by one, your friends disappeared from the fictionalized tales of your quest, until it was just you, the knight in shining armor, slaying the vile wizard with your enchanted blade. That was when you finally shut yourself in, to hide from the common folk and their damning praise, from the artists and their bastardized accounts. For five years the only place you'd go was the tavern down the road from your estate, where you'd planned to waste the rest of your days drinking until you couldn't remember your regrets. It didn't work. Just as luck would have it, you were recognized one day, and soon people were flocking to the pub like moths to a torch. All in the hopes of meeting you, the legendary hero. In these last five years, you've stayed locked up in the master bedroom of your manor. You ordered your butler to bring you ten bottles of wine and three loafs of bread in the morning, leaving you be until the next day. No one can enter your room save the butler, and if anyone does you make sure to scare them off by grabbing your old sword and flailing it around while yelling drunkenly at them. It's a fitting end for the man regarded as the greatest hero to ever live: locking himself away in the home gifted to him, drinking wine and eating bread and waiting for the day he finally dies.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>“My face is fucking freezing,” says Lars. No shit you think to yourself. It’s the middle of winter and you both are assigned to guard duty. Normally, the cold isn’t an issue. However, due to increasing demon sightings, a few unlucky bastards have to spend the night outside the city walls keeping watch. Snow begins to fall, and your cheap leather armor offers little resistance. “I can’t take it anymore, I quit.” Lars tosses down his sword and walks towards the city entrance. “What about the demons?” you ask. He turns to you and a slight grin appears on his face. “Demons? I welcome them with open arms. The city could use some heating up.” With that, he leaves. It’s just you and the dead silence of the night. You try to stand still and focus on the dirt road leading away from the city. This road is where nearby demon sightings have occurred. A few minutes past and you swear you saw a red flash. Your hands shake and your heart beat slows down. Is your mind just playing tricks on you? Surely you’re just reacting to the cold, right? Mere moments after this thought you hear a laugh. Unlike what you were expecting, this isn’t the laugh of some badass demon. No, it’s the laugh of a female. You try to tighten your grip on your sword but can’t move your fingers. Shit, maybe Lars had the right idea. Spending the night out here is a death sentence, regardless if demons attack. You can’t bear to stand any longer and lower yourself to the ground. You drop your sword and curl into a ball. You don’t have the energy to move a muscle and your body becomes stiff. Your eyes shut close and you’re out cold seconds later. “What’s a strong soldier like you doing out here all alone?” a soothing voice inquires. You open your eyes to find yourself staring at barely clothed succubus. She radiates an intense heat, although it’s not enough to burn. “Who are you?” you ask. “My name’s Catia and you never answered my question. Why are you all alone?” “My other guard, Lars, left. Look there’s his sword right there,” you say, feeling compelled to give more information than necessary. Catia walks towards his sword and picks it up. “Is this supposed to kill me? Ha! Don’t make me laugh. Why is your equipment so poor?” You see no logical reason to tell a demon this but find yourself doing so instinctively. “Ever since demons came near our city, trade has been impossible. We have no experience with a threat this large and thus don’t have the weapons or equipment to deal with it.” She grins and salivates to your every word. You take a moment to stare at her figure. She looks more human than succubi are told to be. Still, there are a few stark differences. These being her bright red eyes, dark red curled horns, and pink tail. Oh, and she utterly beautiful. More so than any human you’ve seen. Despite being face to face demon for the first in your life, you feel entirely calm. Dare you say, the calmest you’ve ever felt. This calmness is ripped away when she begins to leave. “Where are you going?” “Hm? You want me stay huh?” “Yes… I do.” She grins again and starts chewing on her tail in a seductive manner. “Sorry, no can do. But if you want, I would love to see you again. Trust me, it will be the most pleasurable experience of your life. All you have to do for me is one small favor.” You feel an intense compulsion to comply with her every demand, but you stop yourself. Making deals with demons is serious business. You have enough willpower to at least ask what the favor is. She explains how if you want to meet again you need to be a more suggestive state, like you are right now due to the cold. She recommends going to a bar and drinking for a few hours. Then, all you have to do is whisper her name and she will come visit, provided that you’re alone. She walks away leaving you all alone. As if in a trance, you make your way to The Drunk Tortoise Tavern. > A few hours later... “This is the last time I’m saying this Greg, immortality is not worth cutting off your cock. What’s the point of being immortal if you’re deprived of the best feeling in the world?” “Ey’ maybe he’s lacking in that area. No wonder he wants immortality if all he has to do his cut off an inch or two worth of pecker.” Greg suddenly stands up, drawing your eyes to the bickering trio. They’ve been arguing random hypotheticals since you’ve gotten here. All you wanted was to get a quiet drink before meeting with Catia. As long as these buffoons are here, that’s impossible. Even as Greg stands up he’s shorter than the other two sitting. It’s no wonder they pick on him, he looks pathetic. “Can you both just shut the fuck up? I mean, god damn. All I’m saying is living forever outweighs the downsides of not having a dick,” he says in a whiny voice. The other two laugh uncontrollably at his pitiful attempt of defiance. One manages to calm down and spits out, “Maybe when it’s smaller than a gnome’s toothbrush, but for the rest us it’s not so easy.” Queue more uncontrollable laughter as Greg’s face becomes redder than demon blood. “I’ll shove a gnome’s toothbrush up your ass if you say that one more time! C’mon, let’s move on to another question.” The trio quiets down and you zone them out. You take a swig of whisky and start to remember the reason while you’re here. Oh yeah, the succubus. She wanted you to drink a bit before meeting her. You didn’t necessarily jump at the idea of getting drunk before meeting with a demon, but she promised you she would make it worthwhile. You’re pretty sure that means… Your thoughts are interrupted by the thickheaded trio once again. “You’re telling me you’d prefer your child be retarded and kind than ingenious and mean?” “Yes Connor, I would.” “God damn it, Greg! You want to spend an eternity with no dick while taking care of a retarded child? Pathetic. I would kill myself after a week.” “Har har har! I would kill myself in a week if I had to live Greg’s life as it is. No, scratch that, a day!” “Fuck you Tom. I can’t be the only one who thinks this…” Greg glances around nervously looking for a savior. Eventually he turns his gaze towards you and his eyes light up. “Hey you over there! What would you rather have, a dumb, but kind child; or a smart, but cruel child?” he says while pointing at you. You stare blankly ahead and breathe a deep sigh. This is beyond stupid. You briefly consider just ignoring him and getting the hell out of this place. “Why do you think that man would agree with you? He’s a soldier. Surely, he recognizes the benefits a genius could provide for society. Especially when you consider the need for mages regarding the growing demon problem.” Soldier? Shit you forgot to change out of your uniform. So much for staying inconspicuous. You can thank your lucky stars none of the other guards are here to see you in this shithole. “Now now, let the man speak. Just because he’s a soldier doesn’t mean he agrees with you,” says Tom. “Fine, what do you think...and hurry up! We don’t have all day.” > You say "I prefer a retarded but kind child." “Thank you,” Greg whispers. “You what!” “Pfft! And to think, I used to respect soldiers.” Tom and Connor start shouting about how much of a dumbass you are. You don’t bother to engage with such idiotic banter. Instead, you walk out of the tavern without a second glance. As you make your way outside you are hit with a rush of cool air. “I can’t wait to meet Catia,” you mutter to yourself. “Who’s Catia?” You turn around and only see the entrance to the tavern. “Hello?” “Ermm down here sir!” You glance down and instantly recoil. It’s Greg, what’s he doing here? “What the hell do you want?” He begins to squirm uncomfortably and hyperventilate. “I…uh…I…erm…” “Spit it out!” “I wanted to thank you for agreeing with me,” he says between irregular gasps for air. Oh, that’s why he’s here. You normally wouldn’t mind but you have plans tonight and have no time for conversation. “People don’t agree with you often kid? That’s too bad,” you say while walking away. “I’m not a kid, I’m 20. But yeah, everyone I meet either ignores or makes fun of me. I almost prefer the latter as at least they keep me company,” he says while following behind you. “Damn that really sucks,” you stop walking and stare him in the eyes, “Look I’d love to keep you company, but I have somewhere very important to be.” Greg looks at you with a face of disappointment. But he lights up to ask, “Where do you have to be? Maybe I could come with you.” Gah! As bad as you feel for Greg, under no circumstances could he come with you. She agreed to see you, not Greg and you. “Sorry I don’t have time.” “God damn it. Can you at least tell me why? I don’t want to be near Connor and Tom right now. They make me feel inhuman.” Does this guy ever shut up? You been trying to exit this conversation gracefully since it started. You should just tell him to fuck off and be done it. Of course, you could humor him and tell him what you’re doing. It’s been hard keeping this succubus thing a secret and having someone to confide in wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. On the other hand, you really want to go have demon sex. > You talk to Greg “Fine I’ll tell you why. But be warned, it’s a long story.” “That’s alright, the longer I’m away from the other two the better.” You take a deep breath and begin to describe your recent encounter with a succubus. “Well it all started when I fell asleep during guard duty.” Later “And that’s why I came to this tavern.” Greg looks off in the distance, taking in everything you’ve told him. He starts speaking aloud slowly asking, “Do you think she was immortal?” Immortal? Aren’t all demons immortal, unless killed? You’re no expert, but you have never heard of a demon dying of old age. “I don’t have a clue to be honest. I was under the impression that her actual age is much more than her physical appearance would suggest though.” Greg gives a nod satisfied with your answer. You feel like you’ve told Greg more than enough and decide it’s time to go. You wish him goodbye and feel a hint of longing in his response. “Goodbye friend.” You tuck your hands in your pockets and begin the walk to your home. You’re going to have to get home fast as the cold is unbearable. You decide to take the alleys, as not only is it faster, but it also provides protection from the wind. Common sense says going through alleys at night isn’t safest, but Ashton is different than most cities. Crime is low, and poverty is uncommon as anyone can get a job as a guard as demand is higher than ever. The night’s sky combined with the tight spaced alley nearly blinds you. When you finally get out you’re relieved to have arrived at your parents’ house. Most guards sleep in the barracks, however, since your parents never returned from their trip their house is all yours. If they ever return, you hope they don’t mind you bringing a demon inside the house. Although, they were always bugging you about finding a girlfriend, this might not be what they had in mind. You walk to your parent’s porch and open the door. The wooden door squeaks loudly as you open it. “Some things never change,” you whisper to yourself. You immediately start making yourself more presentable. You change out of your soldiers’ uniform and put on a loose-fitting black tunic. You probably should take a bath but your too excited to see Catia that you forget to. Do demons mind odor? You feel like this is your purpose. It’s time to see Catia. “Catia”. A dark cloud appears in your room, dispelling a toxic fume. You start violently coughing as you vision blurs indiscriminately. Your eyes shut close and you feel you grip on reality slipping away from you. “Ah shit,” you whisper before passing out. Your eyes jitter open and you’re greeted by Catia stroking your face. Her palm flushes the coolness off your face. Beads of sweat drip furiously down your neck as she continues caressing you. “Couldn’t wait a single day before seeing me again? How cute.” She crawls onto your bed and moves closer to you. Her aura is all consuming and you feel your free will being drained away. Yet, the whole process is extremely pleasing to you. She moves her mouth to your ear and whispers, “Do you want to see everything I have to offer?” You bite your tongue to avoid instinctively shouting yes. This may be your last chance to not go through with this. At the very least, it would give you chance to ask her a few more questions. > You yes, you're ready. She takes no time to hesitate and begins kissing you. As she does so, she unties your tunic and throws it off. Her warm body pushes against your bare skin as you are filled with euphoria. Soon both of you are completely naked. Catia pleases you in ways no other woman has or will ever be able to. Afterwards you both lay in bed panting as one thought races through your mind. How do you get more of this? 1 Month Later It’s been a month since you’ve started having sex with Catia on a regular basis. The first few times you felt great afterwards. However, lately she has been demanding more out of you. First, you no longer have to say her name to see her. She visits you most nights whether you like her to or not. Last night she told you she wants to introduce you to a group: The Order of the Inferno. She told you they are a group of demons who could give you unimaginable powers in exchange for your help. You protested as you feared what could happen. Demon attacks are becoming more common and more lethal. Their reputation proceeds them and stomps out any curiosity you have of meeting one. Tales of rape, human consumption, and slavery are a few of many horrendous acts they have committed. Yet, as always, she managed to convince you. As much as your mind tries to resist, her presence is intoxicating. You embrace it as fighting gets you nowhere. She tells you to meet you in a nearby forest tonight. This is the first time you're seeing her outside your bedroom since the day you met. You sneak out the city walls when no one is watching and blend into the shadows. Although it is still winter, the temperature has unexpectedly risen. Some say its because of demonic power, others view it as being coincidence. Whatever it is, the cold will not be a hindrance. You reach the edge of the forest and feel your heart leaping out of your chest. While the city has many focused-on demons, other creatures lurk during the night. Just because Catia is on your side doesn’t mean you are safe. You keep this in mind as you take cover in bushes and flora periodically. An intense red light comes into view causing you to close your eyes. You begin to stumble and fall to the ground. When you’re able to open your eyes, you find yourself staring up at a hooded figure. “Who dares disturb me?” she hisses. Behind a dark brown hood lies a demonic face. Compared to Catia, she is clearly not human. Although none of that matters now, you begin to explain, “Catia told me to come here. Are you part of The Inferno Order?” “She sent a human to the center of The Order of the Inferno! I guess she wants to make up for earlier. I could never turn down a good meal.” She begins advancing towards you as a snake-like tongue hangs out of her mouth. ‘Wait! She told me you wanted my help and would give me powers in exchange.” She begins to laugh as she towers over you. You’re helpless as she grabs your neck and leans in… to kiss you? “My kiss is to die for!” You surprise yourself when you send a punch flying at her mouth. She seems equally surprised as she falls backwards. “I guess I can still resist,” you say. You get up and start running away but it's no use. She’s much faster than you, especially considering she can fly. You don’t have many options left but need to decide quick. Do you run deeper in the forest and hope to lose her or run back to the city and put everyone at risk? > You go deeper into the forest You start running to the heart of the forest praying that you lose her. It’s to no avail, she easy catches up to you and it seems you reached your end. Right as she is in arm’s length she stops. Before you know it, she has flown away leaving you all alone. What’s the deal? You quickly get your answer as you hear a monstrous screech. You suddenly feel extremely cold as a ghost like entity hovers above you. There’s no doubt about it, this is a wraith. They're well known for their madness and spreading it to all they encounter. Your mind is assaulted with a barrage of incomprehensible whispering. Within seconds you wish that demon would have killed you as the pain you experience is like no other. Your life energy is sapped away from you when the wraith eats your soul. You haven’t died technically but exist as one of hundreds of souls trapped within the wraith’s body. You’re never heard from again.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>She takes no time to hesitate and begins kissing you. As she does so, she unties your tunic and throws it off. Her warm body pushes against your bare skin as you are filled with euphoria. Soon both of you are completely naked. Catia pleases you in ways no other woman has or will ever be able to. Afterwards you both lay in bed panting as one thought races through your mind. How do you get more of this? 1 Month Later It’s been a month since you’ve started having sex with Catia on a regular basis. The first few times you felt great afterwards. However, lately she has been demanding more out of you. First, you no longer have to say her name to see her. She visits you most nights whether you like her to or not. Last night she told you she wants to introduce you to a group: The Order of the Inferno. She told you they are a group of demons who could give you unimaginable powers in exchange for your help. You protested as you feared what could happen. Demon attacks are becoming more common and more lethal. Their reputation proceeds them and stomps out any curiosity you have of meeting one. Tales of rape, human consumption, and slavery are a few of many horrendous acts they have committed. Yet, as always, she managed to convince you. As much as your mind tries to resist, her presence is intoxicating. You embrace it as fighting gets you nowhere. She tells you to meet you in a nearby forest tonight. This is the first time you're seeing her outside your bedroom since the day you met. You sneak out the city walls when no one is watching and blend into the shadows. Although it is still winter, the temperature has unexpectedly risen. Some say its because of demonic power, others view it as being coincidence. Whatever it is, the cold will not be a hindrance. You reach the edge of the forest and feel your heart leaping out of your chest. While the city has many focused-on demons, other creatures lurk during the night. Just because Catia is on your side doesn’t mean you are safe. You keep this in mind as you take cover in bushes and flora periodically. An intense red light comes into view causing you to close your eyes. You begin to stumble and fall to the ground. When you’re able to open your eyes, you find yourself staring up at a hooded figure. “Who dares disturb me?” she hisses. Behind a dark brown hood lies a demonic face. Compared to Catia, she is clearly not human. Although none of that matters now, you begin to explain, “Catia told me to come here. Are you part of The Inferno Order?” “She sent a human to the center of The Order of the Inferno! I guess she wants to make up for earlier. I could never turn down a good meal.” She begins advancing towards you as a snake-like tongue hangs out of her mouth. ‘Wait! She told me you wanted my help and would give me powers in exchange.” She begins to laugh as she towers over you. You’re helpless as she grabs your neck and leans in… to kiss you? “My kiss is to die for!” You surprise yourself when you send a punch flying at her mouth. She seems equally surprised as she falls backwards. “I guess I can still resist,” you say. You get up and start running away but it's no use. She’s much faster than you, especially considering she can fly. You don’t have many options left but need to decide quick. Do you run deeper in the forest and hope to lose her or run back to the city and put everyone at risk? > You go back to the city You pump your muscles and start running back to the city walls. She follows you like a hawk, soaring above you with her wings. Once she’s directly above she swoops in. Too late though as you bolt through the city entrance. You keep running straight and dive into a nearby bush. You stop breathing and don’t dare move. You can sense that she is nearby, but she doesn’t seem to be trying to kill you anymore. Instead, you hear screaming in a nearby house followed by laughing. Curiosity gets the better of you and you peak out from the bushes. You spot her in a house cornering a family. You know demons are monsters, but what benefit is there to killing innocent children and their parents? It’s senseless, what’s the point of destruction for destruction sake? You continue starring at her as she slashes the throat of presumably a father. But for some reason, she does not kill him. What she does is much worse. She leaves him alive to watch as she sends a ball of red energy at the children. It renders them into ash, not giving them a chance to scream. You curse at yourself for indirectly causing this. Why did you listen to a demon anyways? You keep watching in nervous anticipation of her killing the father. Instead, she just leaves. What cruelty propels such an atrocious action? This man has lost all that’s dear to him, and she left him alive. You stay in the bushes as she goes from house to house committing similar acts of violence. There must be a stop to the madness. You gather the courage to leave your bush haven. You dash away back to your home and fling the door open. Your immediately reaction is to get your sword and leather armor to slay the demon. Yet, the logical side of your mind tells you that’s suicide. There's another way, although you don’t want to admit it. What if you got drunk and contacted Catia to save your city? She saved your life before, maybe she can do it again? > You slay the demon You must slay the demon yourself. Catia didn’t bother showing up to the forest, why would she help you? You throw on your armor and pick up your sword. You grin at the thought of stabbing this demon to death. You haven’t ever felt pleasure from violence before, yet something tells you you’ll enjoy killing her. With your weapon and protection, you leave your home. Terror has spread like wildfire. Bodies lay on the street charred and bruised. Your veins pulsate with anger. Why, tell me why? These are your neighbors and friends. You run with each step being more purposeful than the last. After a few hundred steps, you hear laughter. There she is, cornering a group of children. You yell to create a distraction, but she ignores you. The children are reduced to fragments of ember. Destruction lies all around you with more bodies than you could count. You scream a battle cry of hatred and charge. She looks up and makes eye contact but doesn’t move. You resist the urge to strike her down as you know you are outmatched physically. Still, another urge gnaws at your conscious forcing you to spit out, “Why would you do this?” You’re surprised when she stops to think for a moment. “I had everything I held dear to me ripped away. When Catia came to me with the idea of working along side a human, I couldn’t contain my anger.” “What’s wrong with working with a human?” She stares at you with pity. “You truly don’t know? Why the hell are you helping Catia then? I don’t understand.” You are equally confused and explain your relationship with Catia. “Oh, so you’re her fuck toy then? Jesus Christ, she’ll never get back with such degrading tactics.” You ignore her insult (although she said it more like an objective statement) and ask her, “What do you mean get back? Demons invaded earth, why wouldn’t they want to finish the job?” “You think we’re here willingly? Holy shit you’re brain dead, I still can’t get over Catia fucking a human as dumb as you. It would be like if you had sex with a jellyfish, completely different wavelengths.” This hellish creature is relentless with her insults. Though it seems there is a fundamental misunderstanding between you two. “If you’re not here by choice, why are you here?” She explains that there is a demonic code in the infernal realm. Any demons who break it, are sent to lesser realms for a chance at redemption. “And I was sent to one of the worst; Earth.” “How do you get back?” “I need to conquer not through destruction, but manipulation. It goes against my nature, but it is the way of life in the infernal realm where all strength is equal. To prove my worth, I need to work with humans and other lesser creatures.” “Then why are you destroying my city?” She sighs and furrows her eyebrows. “Because I’m pissed off, ok?” You continue talking to the demon, who tells you her name is Aria, until you come to a complete understanding of each other’s motivations. Still, after everything you’ve learned about each other she says, “I’m still going to destroy your city. Although there may be one thing you could do to stop me…” She explains how a nearby wizard has imprisoned her friend, Azor, and offers to spare your city in exchange for his freedom. “You have 24 hours, or your city goes up in flames.” Your blood boils over the fact she still desires to destroy the city. Your morality prevents you from standing aside and letting your city burn. You have your sword in hand and amour equipped. Why not pretend to agree then attack when she least expects it? > You help save her friend “I’ll help you to stop the destruction.” “Great!” Aria conjures a portal made of dark matter. “Quick get in before it closes.” You jump in, not knowing your destination. After a short transit, you find yourself outside of a tree house. You wanted to live in a tree house as a child, but now that your in front of one, they don’t seem very practical. “How do I get inside?" you wonder aloud. “The ladder.” “Why didn’t I think of that! Thank you voice inside my head.” “You're welcome, now free me from this ethereal prison.” This must be who Aria was talking about, but you want to make sure. “Say, what’s your name?” “Amlodipine Olmesartan Medoxomil, but you may call me Azor for short.” You climb the ladder and enter a room with wooden floors and walls. “Why are you so fixated on the floors and walls? What did you expect a tree house to be made of?” You don’t answer and continue examining your surroundings. A table lies in the center of the room aligned with various trinkets. One that catches your eye is a glowing red crystal ball. Your first instinct is to break it but you resist the temptation. “What are you waiting for, mortal? Free me from this ethereal trap at once!” > You free him You grab the red crystal ball and drop it as it burns your finger tips. It shatters into a million pieces as a red fog pours out of it. “Now open up!” The red fog flows into your ears, mouth, and nose. Your eyes roll into the back of your head as your mind splits into two. Thoughts that aren’t your own begin to flood in. “What are you waiting for? Let’s get the hell out of here.” You climb down the ladder and exit the tree house. You don’t even know where you are right now but somehow know the way back is to the north. “Take a rest, I’m taking over.” Your face grows warm and you start feeling lightheaded. Your body still walks forward as you black out. You awaken in mid conversation sitting by a campfire. “So when are you gonna get a better body Azor? Look at yourself, how will you kill anyone appearing like that.” “Don’t be so dismissive Kancor, at least with this body he won’t have to worry about losing control.” You look around and note the men you're talking with are much more muscular than yourself. There’s something off about them, their body language is inexpressive and follows little pattern. Sometimes their hands dangle from their arms and other times they jerk up and down. It all feels unnatural and inhuman. “Looks like you might of spoke too soon Borax.” “Nonsense, Azor is fucking with us and you're taking the bait. Now tell me, how did you convince this poor fuck to release you?” You stare at these two men and know you can’t fight them. Plus, you feel a nauseating light-headed feeling. You could experience a loss of movement at any time if Azor gains control. “I convinced him to break my crystal ball, releasing me from my ethereal prison,” you say remembering his own words. “Yeah but how did you do it? Borax and me had to torture bandits to near death, how did you get someone to give you control willingly?” “He had no idea I would gain control,” you say with a hint of spite. “Damn small-muscled and a moron? Looks like you hit the jackpot with this one.” “I sure did…” You talk for a little longer before Borax puts out the fire. Despite having little clothing for spending a night outside in the winter, you don’t feel cold. Is Azor’s presence maintaining your normal body temperatures? “What’s the point of putting out the fire? We’re going to have to use twice as much energy to stay warm.” “We’re demons, not monsters. Wouldn’t want an entire forest burning down for no reason.” “Wasn’t the poor bastard you’re possessing now screaming ‘Monster! Monster!’ when you tortured him?” “Kancor, you know I had no choice. He was being uncooperative and I needed to put him in his place.” “Well you can think about how you had no choice but to mutilate his ball sack into a dough-like mess over sleep.” All three of you lie down on lovely dirt mattresses. You stare eyes open fearing you might lose control at any moment. After what feels like an hour, you’re sure both of them are asleep. You could get up and make your escape, although you have no idea where you are. Something tells you north is the way to go, but you have no idea how long of a journey it will be and when you will lose control again. You could fall asleep and wait until you're closer to safety. But what good will that even do? Azor will still coexist with you like an infernal parasite. > You escape You get up and sneak away, careful not to step on any sticks. Once you’re a good distance away, you break into a sprint. You need to get out of here before they realize you're gone. If Ashton, or any city for that matter, is nearby, then maybe someone could help you. You heard about demon purges before but it never seemed to be the most pleasant process. What choice do you have if you want to hold onto your own free will? While running you start to feel incredibly dizzy. Your head sways up and down, spit drips out of your mouth, and you begin to fall. You wait for Azor to take over, but he never does. A coldness perpetuates all around you as you go numb. There will be no one to save you as you pass out from the freezing temperatures. You die a relatively painless death. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You grab the red crystal ball and drop it as it burns your finger tips. It shatters into a million pieces as a red fog pours out of it. “Now open up!” The red fog flows into your ears, mouth, and nose. Your eyes roll into the back of your head as your mind splits into two. Thoughts that aren’t your own begin to flood in. “What are you waiting for? Let’s get the hell out of here.” You climb down the ladder and exit the tree house. You don’t even know where you are right now but somehow know the way back is to the north. “Take a rest, I’m taking over.” Your face grows warm and you start feeling lightheaded. Your body still walks forward as you black out. You awaken in mid conversation sitting by a campfire. “So when are you gonna get a better body Azor? Look at yourself, how will you kill anyone appearing like that.” “Don’t be so dismissive Kancor, at least with this body he won’t have to worry about losing control.” You look around and note the men you're talking with are much more muscular than yourself. There’s something off about them, their body language is inexpressive and follows little pattern. Sometimes their hands dangle from their arms and other times they jerk up and down. It all feels unnatural and inhuman. “Looks like you might of spoke too soon Borax.” “Nonsense, Azor is fucking with us and you're taking the bait. Now tell me, how did you convince this poor fuck to release you?” You stare at these two men and know you can’t fight them. Plus, you feel a nauseating light-headed feeling. You could experience a loss of movement at any time if Azor gains control. “I convinced him to break my crystal ball, releasing me from my ethereal prison,” you say remembering his own words. “Yeah but how did you do it? Borax and me had to torture bandits to near death, how did you get someone to give you control willingly?” “He had no idea I would gain control,” you say with a hint of spite. “Damn small-muscled and a moron? Looks like you hit the jackpot with this one.” “I sure did…” You talk for a little longer before Borax puts out the fire. Despite having little clothing for spending a night outside in the winter, you don’t feel cold. Is Azor’s presence maintaining your normal body temperatures? “What’s the point of putting out the fire? We’re going to have to use twice as much energy to stay warm.” “We’re demons, not monsters. Wouldn’t want an entire forest burning down for no reason.” “Wasn’t the poor bastard you’re possessing now screaming ‘Monster! Monster!’ when you tortured him?” “Kancor, you know I had no choice. He was being uncooperative and I needed to put him in his place.” “Well you can think about how you had no choice but to mutilate his ball sack into a dough-like mess over sleep.” All three of you lie down on lovely dirt mattresses. You stare eyes open fearing you might lose control at any moment. After what feels like an hour, you’re sure both of them are asleep. You could get up and make your escape, although you have no idea where you are. Something tells you north is the way to go, but you have no idea how long of a journey it will be and when you will lose control again. You could fall asleep and wait until you're closer to safety. But what good will that even do? Azor will still coexist with you like an infernal parasite. > You fall Asleep You drift off to sleep, wondering if you’ll wake up in the same place. An unknown amount of time later You wake up starring at a bloody pile of human corpses. You’re carrying an iron sword that’s stained red. The stained sword seems like the proximate cause of human bodies. You hold back from throwing up as you notice all the stab wounds that you made. You feel lightheaded and can’t tell if its because of the bodies or Azor. Regardless, you have to get out of here before someone sees you. You run from the murder scene and notice you’re in a small village. The sun is beginning to rise and people are going to wake up any minute. Needing to get the hell out of here, you take off running to the north. You hear screams in the distance the moment you take off. They must have discovered the bodies… Once out of the village, you bend over gasping for air. Your heart flutters as you feel like you’re gonna pass out from adrenaline. You stumble haphazardly knowing the villagers are on the lookout for a killer. You need to reach Ashton, you need to know it’s ok. The thought that Aria manipulated you and destroyed your city spikes your anxiety. This isn’t the only thought that is causing you panic though. You have a fucking demon inside of you. It’s like a tape worm but instead of wanting food it craves evil. What happens if you return to Ashton and lose control? What if you’re the one who destroys the city under Azor’s guidance? Your thoughts are too much causing you to stop dead in your tracks. Why should you try to reach Ashton just to lose control? Instead, you could turn around and go back to the village. If you explained you situation, they may be able to help you. > You go back to the village You’ve seemed to lack so much control over your choices ever since you met Aria. Now that Azor is involved, this lack of control has intensified. This may be your last chance to make your own choice. It’s time to put an end to this. You turn around and sprint back to the village. When you arrive, the villagers don’t seem very happy. “That’s the murderer! I saw him run away covered in blood.” “Yeah and he has a sword! Let’s get him!” It probably would have been a good idea to change clothes and ditch the sword. Or, you know, go to any other place but the village you just killed someone at. No matter, this was your choice and you have to live with the consequences. “Please let me explain.” They give you no chance as they charge at you with pitch forks and makeshift swords. You are beaten to a bloody pulp until you die from loss of blood.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You drift off to sleep, wondering if you’ll wake up in the same place. An unknown amount of time later You wake up starring at a bloody pile of human corpses. You’re carrying an iron sword that’s stained red. The stained sword seems like the proximate cause of human bodies. You hold back from throwing up as you notice all the stab wounds that you made. You feel lightheaded and can’t tell if its because of the bodies or Azor. Regardless, you have to get out of here before someone sees you. You run from the murder scene and notice you’re in a small village. The sun is beginning to rise and people are going to wake up any minute. Needing to get the hell out of here, you take off running to the north. You hear screams in the distance the moment you take off. They must have discovered the bodies… Once out of the village, you bend over gasping for air. Your heart flutters as you feel like you’re gonna pass out from adrenaline. You stumble haphazardly knowing the villagers are on the lookout for a killer. You need to reach Ashton, you need to know it’s ok. The thought that Aria manipulated you and destroyed your city spikes your anxiety. This isn’t the only thought that is causing you panic though. You have a fucking demon inside of you. It’s like a tape worm but instead of wanting food it craves evil. What happens if you return to Ashton and lose control? What if you’re the one who destroys the city under Azor’s guidance? Your thoughts are too much causing you to stop dead in your tracks. Why should you try to reach Ashton just to lose control? Instead, you could turn around and go back to the village. If you explained you situation, they may be able to help you. > You continue to Ashton You keep running north, praying it’s the way to Ashton. It’s a long journey, and you find yourself having to piss multiple times. During one of these pisses you lose muscle control and fall into a puddle of your own urine. When you come to, you find yourself in Ashton. Or at least, what used to be Ashton. The city has been completely destroyed, houses burned to the ground and there’s not another soul in sight. You do sense someone being nearby and search for any survivors. What you find instead sends you into a rage. It’s Aria and she is looking at you smugly. “Good job destroying the city, you did a much better job than I ever could.” You hold back from attacking her considering you no longer have your sword. You make an emotional plea and say, “You promised you wouldn’t destroy the city if I freed Azor.” She laughs and starts to fly circles around you. “Au contraire my little killer. YOU destroyed the city and I kept my promise. Thanks to you I’ve been granted a passage home.” “What are you even talking about? How could I destroy the city if I don’t have a weapon?” She laughs again and stops flying to land beside you. “When you black out, you take on a different form. Azor is capable of much more than you ever will be.” This can’t be real, you’ve gone through so much just to be a pawn in her little game. You wish you just died on that freezing night instead of having Catia save you. Maybe Ashton would still exist if it weren’t for you. “Don’t be so sad, you’re coming with me!” You stare daggers at her. “What do you mean I’m coming with you?” “You’re coming home with me of course. Azor’s a demon too and you couldn’t have destroyed the city without him. And thanks to you, Tornaxaan, a powerful demon lord, commended us for tricking you into destroying your own city. As a reward, we get to return to the infernal realm.” “Can’t you just let me go? Surely Azor could possess a different body...” “Nonsense, now grab my hand. We’re going to have so much fun!” > You epilogue #3: Returning to a Home Unknown “So your name’s Coyote?” “Yes, and I presume you’re Azor?” At this point you don’t even bother correcting people. Your moments of control are becoming more scarce and there’s no point in wasting it telling people you aren’t Azor. “That’s correct, now tell me, how can I get sent to Earth?” “You could try learning dark magic, that’s how my friend Jirzan got there.” Dark magic is notorious for being hard to control. Still, it might be your best option. “Dark magic sounds interesting. Is there some sort of teleportation spell that can get me back to earth? Oh, maybe I could learn to conjure a portal!” Coyote, who is half man half coyote, shows what would be a pleasant smile if he didn’t have two monstrous fangs. “No nothing like that, you don’t even have to learn a single spell. Just being in possession of a dark magic book, or kit, will be enough to get you sent back.” “And where could I get such resources?” “I wish I knew, but dark magic is heavily guarded by the most elite demons. I would take a look in Tornaxxan’s castle, just don’t get caught.” “Yeah I wasn’t planning to. Thanks for your help Coyote, I’ll try to sneak in before it's too late.” “Too late? Buddy, you got an eternity to figure this out.” “Sure I do,” you say while sulking away. Coyote calls after you, “Before you go, could you do me a favor?” You stop and pause to ask, “What?” “If you ever meet a demon named Jirzan, tell him I’ve been released from captivity. He’ll be happy to hear that.” “I’ll be sure to tell him if I get the chance.” Coyote wags his tail as you wave goodbye. Who knows if you’ll ever return home? And if you do, when can you get rid of Azor? Life used to be so much simpler.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>“I’ll help you to stop the destruction.” “Great!” Aria conjures a portal made of dark matter. “Quick get in before it closes.” You jump in, not knowing your destination. After a short transit, you find yourself outside of a tree house. You wanted to live in a tree house as a child, but now that your in front of one, they don’t seem very practical. “How do I get inside?" you wonder aloud. “The ladder.” “Why didn’t I think of that! Thank you voice inside my head.” “You're welcome, now free me from this ethereal prison.” This must be who Aria was talking about, but you want to make sure. “Say, what’s your name?” “Amlodipine Olmesartan Medoxomil, but you may call me Azor for short.” You climb the ladder and enter a room with wooden floors and walls. “Why are you so fixated on the floors and walls? What did you expect a tree house to be made of?” You don’t answer and continue examining your surroundings. A table lies in the center of the room aligned with various trinkets. One that catches your eye is a glowing red crystal ball. Your first instinct is to break it but you resist the temptation. “What are you waiting for, mortal? Free me from this ethereal trap at once!” > You keep looking around You continue searching the tree house until you find a book. It's titled in a language you don't understand. You pick it up to get and a closer look and it seems to be some sort of spell book. "Don't read that!" screams Azor. But it's too late, you've already opened the book. You poof into nothingness and die in unpredictable fashion.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You must slay the demon yourself. Catia didn’t bother showing up to the forest, why would she help you? You throw on your armor and pick up your sword. You grin at the thought of stabbing this demon to death. You haven’t ever felt pleasure from violence before, yet something tells you you’ll enjoy killing her. With your weapon and protection, you leave your home. Terror has spread like wildfire. Bodies lay on the street charred and bruised. Your veins pulsate with anger. Why, tell me why? These are your neighbors and friends. You run with each step being more purposeful than the last. After a few hundred steps, you hear laughter. There she is, cornering a group of children. You yell to create a distraction, but she ignores you. The children are reduced to fragments of ember. Destruction lies all around you with more bodies than you could count. You scream a battle cry of hatred and charge. She looks up and makes eye contact but doesn’t move. You resist the urge to strike her down as you know you are outmatched physically. Still, another urge gnaws at your conscious forcing you to spit out, “Why would you do this?” You’re surprised when she stops to think for a moment. “I had everything I held dear to me ripped away. When Catia came to me with the idea of working along side a human, I couldn’t contain my anger.” “What’s wrong with working with a human?” She stares at you with pity. “You truly don’t know? Why the hell are you helping Catia then? I don’t understand.” You are equally confused and explain your relationship with Catia. “Oh, so you’re her fuck toy then? Jesus Christ, she’ll never get back with such degrading tactics.” You ignore her insult (although she said it more like an objective statement) and ask her, “What do you mean get back? Demons invaded earth, why wouldn’t they want to finish the job?” “You think we’re here willingly? Holy shit you’re brain dead, I still can’t get over Catia fucking a human as dumb as you. It would be like if you had sex with a jellyfish, completely different wavelengths.” This hellish creature is relentless with her insults. Though it seems there is a fundamental misunderstanding between you two. “If you’re not here by choice, why are you here?” She explains that there is a demonic code in the infernal realm. Any demons who break it, are sent to lesser realms for a chance at redemption. “And I was sent to one of the worst; Earth.” “How do you get back?” “I need to conquer not through destruction, but manipulation. It goes against my nature, but it is the way of life in the infernal realm where all strength is equal. To prove my worth, I need to work with humans and other lesser creatures.” “Then why are you destroying my city?” She sighs and furrows her eyebrows. “Because I’m pissed off, ok?” You continue talking to the demon, who tells you her name is Aria, until you come to a complete understanding of each other’s motivations. Still, after everything you’ve learned about each other she says, “I’m still going to destroy your city. Although there may be one thing you could do to stop me…” She explains how a nearby wizard has imprisoned her friend, Azor, and offers to spare your city in exchange for his freedom. “You have 24 hours, or your city goes up in flames.” Your blood boils over the fact she still desires to destroy the city. Your morality prevents you from standing aside and letting your city burn. You have your sword in hand and amour equipped. Why not pretend to agree then attack when she least expects it? > You pretend to help, then backstab her “I’ll help you seeing as I don’t have much choice.” “Great!” Aria conjures a portal made of dark matter. “What are you waiting for, jump in!” You instead jump at her with your sword. This does not go as planned as you are reflected by a pulse of telekinetic energy. “I had a feeling you might betray me. After all, I did just massacre half of your city. Humans emotions are soooo predictable.” Before you can even scream, she burns you head to toe. You are reduced to a bubbling puddle of human flesh. “Great, what body will Azor possess now?<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You pump your muscles and start running back to the city walls. She follows you like a hawk, soaring above you with her wings. Once she’s directly above she swoops in. Too late though as you bolt through the city entrance. You keep running straight and dive into a nearby bush. You stop breathing and don’t dare move. You can sense that she is nearby, but she doesn’t seem to be trying to kill you anymore. Instead, you hear screaming in a nearby house followed by laughing. Curiosity gets the better of you and you peak out from the bushes. You spot her in a house cornering a family. You know demons are monsters, but what benefit is there to killing innocent children and their parents? It’s senseless, what’s the point of destruction for destruction sake? You continue starring at her as she slashes the throat of presumably a father. But for some reason, she does not kill him. What she does is much worse. She leaves him alive to watch as she sends a ball of red energy at the children. It renders them into ash, not giving them a chance to scream. You curse at yourself for indirectly causing this. Why did you listen to a demon anyways? You keep watching in nervous anticipation of her killing the father. Instead, she just leaves. What cruelty propels such an atrocious action? This man has lost all that’s dear to him, and she left him alive. You stay in the bushes as she goes from house to house committing similar acts of violence. There must be a stop to the madness. You gather the courage to leave your bush haven. You dash away back to your home and fling the door open. Your immediately reaction is to get your sword and leather armor to slay the demon. Yet, the logical side of your mind tells you that’s suicide. There's another way, although you don’t want to admit it. What if you got drunk and contacted Catia to save your city? She saved your life before, maybe she can do it again? > You contact Catia How could you possibly save your city and survive? As much as you don’t want to admit it, you can’t win without some help. You sprint to the drunk tortoise tavern (which luckily is on the opposite side of the city that is being terrorized) and bust through the door. It’s completely empty aside from a single person. “Long time no see bud.” It’s Greg, he has bright red cheeks and is swaying slightly. “Why are you still here? There’s a demon on a murder rampage outside!” He chuckles then says, “Sometimes you don’t want to be saved. I’m staying here and if I die, so be it.” “Well let me join you,” you say with no intention of sitting around to die. You and Greg sit together and talk about all sorts of things while drinking. This isn’t like the before, when the conversation revolved around meaningless hypotheticals. You delve into some deep shit in a relatively short amount of time. You talk about politics, the meaning of life, and what happens after you die. While this is all going on, the demon continues massacring your entire city. Oops, looks like getting drunk has made you forget your priorities. When the realization dawns on you after a few drinks, you waste no time in shouting, “Catia!” Greg squints at you, clearly remembering the name from the last time you talked. This look of curiosity turns into horror as a swirling red cloud appears in front of you. Catia stands before you but looks much different than before. Unlike her human-like form, she has dark red skin and humongous bat wings. “You call me once again, how pathetic are you?” This question strikes you with surprise as it’s the first time she has shown open hostility towards you. Greg on the other hand begins laughing, then says, “Is this the demon that’s been destroying the city? Man, I thought it would be at least a little bigger than that. I know it's rich coming from me, but damn how can something as small as that destroy the city?” “Shut up already Greg! This isn’t the demon that’s been attacking the city.” Greg looks at you in confusion as Catia speaks up, “He's right you know, I haven’t killed a single person in weeks. That is, until now.” Catia takes to the air and flies towards Greg. His drunken state makes him slow to react as Catia rips his throat out. Blood sprays everywhere like a broken faucet. “Who’s the small one now, bitch?” “Jeez I know he was asking for it, but you didn’t have to kill him.” Catia turns her head towards you and shows no remorse. Her pupils have shrunk, giving her eyes a milk white appearance. “This is all your fault, why couldn’t you have just listened to Aria?” She advances towards you, snarling like a wild beast. “Wait just a second I didn’t have a chance—“ And you didn’t have a chance to finish that sentence either as Catia pulls your throat off your body like a soldier grabs a sword off a rack. You die in a puddle of mixed, throat extracted, blood.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>“Fine I’ll tell you why. But be warned, it’s a long story.” “That’s alright, the longer I’m away from the other two the better.” You take a deep breath and begin to describe your recent encounter with a succubus. “Well it all started when I fell asleep during guard duty.” Later “And that’s why I came to this tavern.” Greg looks off in the distance, taking in everything you’ve told him. He starts speaking aloud slowly asking, “Do you think she was immortal?” Immortal? Aren’t all demons immortal, unless killed? You’re no expert, but you have never heard of a demon dying of old age. “I don’t have a clue to be honest. I was under the impression that her actual age is much more than her physical appearance would suggest though.” Greg gives a nod satisfied with your answer. You feel like you’ve told Greg more than enough and decide it’s time to go. You wish him goodbye and feel a hint of longing in his response. “Goodbye friend.” You tuck your hands in your pockets and begin the walk to your home. You’re going to have to get home fast as the cold is unbearable. You decide to take the alleys, as not only is it faster, but it also provides protection from the wind. Common sense says going through alleys at night isn’t safest, but Ashton is different than most cities. Crime is low, and poverty is uncommon as anyone can get a job as a guard as demand is higher than ever. The night’s sky combined with the tight spaced alley nearly blinds you. When you finally get out you’re relieved to have arrived at your parents’ house. Most guards sleep in the barracks, however, since your parents never returned from their trip their house is all yours. If they ever return, you hope they don’t mind you bringing a demon inside the house. Although, they were always bugging you about finding a girlfriend, this might not be what they had in mind. You walk to your parent’s porch and open the door. The wooden door squeaks loudly as you open it. “Some things never change,” you whisper to yourself. You immediately start making yourself more presentable. You change out of your soldiers’ uniform and put on a loose-fitting black tunic. You probably should take a bath but your too excited to see Catia that you forget to. Do demons mind odor? You feel like this is your purpose. It’s time to see Catia. “Catia”. A dark cloud appears in your room, dispelling a toxic fume. You start violently coughing as you vision blurs indiscriminately. Your eyes shut close and you feel you grip on reality slipping away from you. “Ah shit,” you whisper before passing out. Your eyes jitter open and you’re greeted by Catia stroking your face. Her palm flushes the coolness off your face. Beads of sweat drip furiously down your neck as she continues caressing you. “Couldn’t wait a single day before seeing me again? How cute.” She crawls onto your bed and moves closer to you. Her aura is all consuming and you feel your free will being drained away. Yet, the whole process is extremely pleasing to you. She moves her mouth to your ear and whispers, “Do you want to see everything I have to offer?” You bite your tongue to avoid instinctively shouting yes. This may be your last chance to not go through with this. At the very least, it would give you chance to ask her a few more questions. > You no, let's just talk. As the words leave your lips you feel Catia’s mood shift. She seems more hostile saying, “Do you not find me attractive or something? I don’t have time to talk and have many more people to see after you. Let’s focus on the now shall we? Take of your clothes.” > You take of your clothes You follow her command as she details step by step what you should do. “Ok now remove your tunic. Good, throw it on the floor and put your pants on top. Great job!” She tells you things along the same lines until you're completely devoid of any clothing. “Now here comes the fun part, get on your hands and knees.” You’ve already come this far, might as well comply. You get down and have to arch your back to stare up at her. The uncomfortable position does not bother you as all you can focus on is her figure. Damn she sure is beautiful. Especially when she says incantations. Hey, that’s what she’s saying right now!” “Sarahkahnar Hor zeef narze taf!” When she finishes you have a out of body experience. It’s like you're having an orgasm all over your body. Yet, it’s so much more than just that. Your whole room is having an organism and you feel it all. The walls, the table, the bed, and even clumps of dust experience this sensation along side you. It’s magical and you don’t care if she’s a so called demon, she is a blessing to this world. You can’t keep this feeling inside and whisper, “I love…” You pass out before finishing from pure ecstasy. When you regain consciousness you feel utterly cold. You’re naked as Catia towers over you. "Saying the word 'love' after our first night together tells me all I need to know about you." "What's that?" She grows quiet and says in a pitiful tone, "You're too weak-willed to be of any real use to me. Best I throw away the trash before it makes my presence known." You try to question her but find yourself unable to move. A white spirit begins to flow out of your body. "Don't think I'm taking your soul or anything. I'm merely releasing you from your human form." Soon everything turns black as you find yourself floating in infinite space. Other floating spirits whiz around, but you're unable to communicate with any of them. You never escape this purgatory and soon forget how you got here. The weak-willed guard from Ashton is remembered as nothing more than a victim of the demon invasion.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>As the words leave your lips you feel Catia’s mood shift. She seems more hostile saying, “Do you not find me attractive or something? I don’t have time to talk and have many more people to see after you. Let’s focus on the now shall we? Take of your clothes.” > You refuse “I will be doing no such thing,” you say in protest. Catia raises her eyebrow before breaking out in laughter. “Well this is a first,” she says. You stare at her as she seems to be deciding whether she’ll force you to remove your clothes. You feel the sweat drip down your back when she finally says, “Maybe I really deserved to be sent here. I can’t even manipulate a human into having sex with me.” A black cloud appears as she disappears from your room. You start violently coughing but don’t pass out this time. It’s not like it matters, you need to sleep anyway. You put out your candles and fall into bed. You focus on your breathing as you drift off to sleep. Best to reflect on what happens when you have a clearer mind. You wake up with a throbbing pain in your head. The light coming from your window floods your mind with intense pain. Guess you drunk more last night than you thought. You decide its best to make yourself some food and drink to clear your head. You grab water and a slice of peach pie you made a few days ago. You scarf the food down and shallow the water in huge gulps. Your head should start feeling better within the next few hours. Except it doesn’t, you lie in bed with constant tension on your head. It’s like someone is squeezing your brain with both hands, but not hard enough to cause physical harm. Something unnatural is going on and you know it. Hangovers should get better after rest, not worse. It’s hard to focus on anything but the pain. You try remembering what Catia did before she left. She dispelled a black cloud which didn’t knock you out. Is it possible this was a curse? The more you think about it, the more it makes sense. While she tried not to show it, she was upset you resisted her temptation. She wanted you to pay for hurting her ego. That bitch! As you think about her more, tension is released from your skull. In fact, you're able to think about her in vivid detail and feel headache free. Although, the second you stop thinking about her the pain comes rushing back. This certainly isn’t good. You’re going to have to do something about this. There is one obvious solution which is trying to contact Catia and having her remove the curse. Though who knows if she’ll even remove it, assuming she still wants to visit you. The other option is going to a local witch doctor and having them remove the curse. Although, you’ve heard they’ve been busy since demons first started being sighted. Maybe the curse is temporary, why not wait it out? > You call for Catia You can barely move, so you know you’re in a susceptible state. The question is, does she still want to see you? “Catia,” you whisper. You wait a few tense seconds and feel the pain in your head begin to relieve itself. But then, nothing. She never comes and the pain comes rushing back. You find tears streaming down your face as you realize your chances with Catia are probably over. You’re also in no state to continue working as a guard and will probably be fired soon. The only thing you can do is lay in bed and suffer. Days past and your state of mind only gets worse. You begin seeing shadowy figures at the corner of your eyes. One day you manage to touch one and ask, “Who are you?” He laughs and laughs before disappearing. This isn’t the most psychologically scaring part of this ordeal. Your recurring nightmares are much worse. You dream of your family returning home in vivid detail, only for it to all come crashing down as you realize they're not real. You stop eating and drink only when necessary. It gets to a point where you know if you don’t try to seek help you will die. You have no idea where to go for help, especially since the local witch doctor has been arrested for using humans as potion ingredients. You wander aimlessly taking morning walks in a vain attempt to find your savior. Shadowy figures whisper about you as you walk past. “There’s nothing out here, return home” “You’re never going to get better, why not end it?” You’ve been seeing these shadowy figures more frequently recently. You chalk this up to your lack of sleep. Sleeping is when your most vulnerable, so you try to do as little of it as you can. During a morning walk you run into a familiar face. It’s your childhood friend Julia. You haven’t seen her since schooling and boy does she look different. “Is that…” she says “Yeah it’s me,” you reply “Boy do you look different.” You haven’t been grooming yourself since the madness occurred. You have lots of dark circles under your eyes and probably don’t smell too good either. “You also look different.” She raises an eyebrow not knowing if your complementing or insulting her. “In a good way in a good way!” you clarify. She laughs as her dress flows in the wind. “Sorry I can’t say the same to you. Down on your luck?” “That’s putting it lightly,” you say jokingly, even though it’s the truth. “Hahah I bet. I was just about to get some coffee, wanna come with?” “Would I ever! Is it ok if the shadow people follow along?” “The what?” “Never mind.” Later Julia and you decided to go to the Cinnamon Pearl Cafe. As fancy as it may seem, its nothing more than a place to eat pastries and drink coffee. She begins telling you what’s she’s been doing lately. “You know Andy right?” “Of course, me and him have been on guard duty together a couple times.” Julia bites her lips and chooses her words carefully, “Well we broke up recently due to the fact that he...he...raped me...” You’re shocked at this revelation, Andy has always seemed like a standup guy. “How could he do such a thing?” “He’s a piece of shit that’s how!” Your lower your head as she composes herself. “Sorry, I’m just not in the best mental space right now.” “No need to apologize, you have every right to be angry.” “Thank you.” “So tell me, what happened?” She explains how one night, after a long tiring day working as a cleaner, Andy wanted sex. They had been dating for a few months and had yet to have sex. The conversation went a little like this, “All of my other friends constantly brag about sex. If I keep telling them I haven’t fucked you yet they might start thinking I’m gay," says Andy. “Stop pressuring me! I told you, I am not in the mood and am not ready to pursue that kind of relationship with you.” “You’re such a bitch, you know that right? Fuck you make me angry,” Andy says while walking towards Julia menacingly. “Back off, get away from me!” Julia stops talking and begins to choke up. She covers her face with her hands and says shakily, “He grabbed me and wouldn’t let go. I tried to scream but he covered my mouth and clenched my throat. He violated me and nobody cares to do anything about it. Everyone’s to focused on the damn demons to give a shit about poor ol’ me.” “That’s horrible, who else have you told?” “Just you and the captain of the fucking guards. He wouldn’t even fire him, saying the demand for guards is ‘very high’ right now. No guard is better than a guards that’s a mother fucking rapist.” “I wish I could help, but the captain probably won’t listen to me anymore. I haven’t shown up for work in days and didn’t give any notice.” “It’s ok, I don’t want the captain’s help anyways. I need to move on and be strong.” You make small talk about various things before saying your goodbyes. With Julia in such a vulnerable state, you wonder if it’s best to give her time to heal. At the same time, you long for human relationship. The shadow figures just aren’t the same as real human contact. > You give her time to heal You decide it’s best to give it time before pursuing a relationship. Not just for her, but you as well. You figure you’ll stop seeing shadow people sooner than later and be in a better headspace. A few days go by and the shadowy figures start to appear in the corner of your eyes. You’re starting to regret your decision of not pursing Julia but they reassure you. “You’re better of without her.” “Why have friends when you have us?” And a particularly rude one says, “She’s much better off without you in her life.” You stop your morning walks and live a hermit lifestyle. You start eating bugs off the ground as you’ve long since ran out of food. This is no way to live your life and you know it. In a moment of clarity you sprint out of the house and run to “The Devil’s Cliff”. You jump off laughing as you’ve hit rock bottom in life and now in death.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You can barely move, so you know you’re in a susceptible state. The question is, does she still want to see you? “Catia,” you whisper. You wait a few tense seconds and feel the pain in your head begin to relieve itself. But then, nothing. She never comes and the pain comes rushing back. You find tears streaming down your face as you realize your chances with Catia are probably over. You’re also in no state to continue working as a guard and will probably be fired soon. The only thing you can do is lay in bed and suffer. Days past and your state of mind only gets worse. You begin seeing shadowy figures at the corner of your eyes. One day you manage to touch one and ask, “Who are you?” He laughs and laughs before disappearing. This isn’t the most psychologically scaring part of this ordeal. Your recurring nightmares are much worse. You dream of your family returning home in vivid detail, only for it to all come crashing down as you realize they're not real. You stop eating and drink only when necessary. It gets to a point where you know if you don’t try to seek help you will die. You have no idea where to go for help, especially since the local witch doctor has been arrested for using humans as potion ingredients. You wander aimlessly taking morning walks in a vain attempt to find your savior. Shadowy figures whisper about you as you walk past. “There’s nothing out here, return home” “You’re never going to get better, why not end it?” You’ve been seeing these shadowy figures more frequently recently. You chalk this up to your lack of sleep. Sleeping is when your most vulnerable, so you try to do as little of it as you can. During a morning walk you run into a familiar face. It’s your childhood friend Julia. You haven’t seen her since schooling and boy does she look different. “Is that…” she says “Yeah it’s me,” you reply “Boy do you look different.” You haven’t been grooming yourself since the madness occurred. You have lots of dark circles under your eyes and probably don’t smell too good either. “You also look different.” She raises an eyebrow not knowing if your complementing or insulting her. “In a good way in a good way!” you clarify. She laughs as her dress flows in the wind. “Sorry I can’t say the same to you. Down on your luck?” “That’s putting it lightly,” you say jokingly, even though it’s the truth. “Hahah I bet. I was just about to get some coffee, wanna come with?” “Would I ever! Is it ok if the shadow people follow along?” “The what?” “Never mind.” Later Julia and you decided to go to the Cinnamon Pearl Cafe. As fancy as it may seem, its nothing more than a place to eat pastries and drink coffee. She begins telling you what’s she’s been doing lately. “You know Andy right?” “Of course, me and him have been on guard duty together a couple times.” Julia bites her lips and chooses her words carefully, “Well we broke up recently due to the fact that he...he...raped me...” You’re shocked at this revelation, Andy has always seemed like a standup guy. “How could he do such a thing?” “He’s a piece of shit that’s how!” Your lower your head as she composes herself. “Sorry, I’m just not in the best mental space right now.” “No need to apologize, you have every right to be angry.” “Thank you.” “So tell me, what happened?” She explains how one night, after a long tiring day working as a cleaner, Andy wanted sex. They had been dating for a few months and had yet to have sex. The conversation went a little like this, “All of my other friends constantly brag about sex. If I keep telling them I haven’t fucked you yet they might start thinking I’m gay," says Andy. “Stop pressuring me! I told you, I am not in the mood and am not ready to pursue that kind of relationship with you.” “You’re such a bitch, you know that right? Fuck you make me angry,” Andy says while walking towards Julia menacingly. “Back off, get away from me!” Julia stops talking and begins to choke up. She covers her face with her hands and says shakily, “He grabbed me and wouldn’t let go. I tried to scream but he covered my mouth and clenched my throat. He violated me and nobody cares to do anything about it. Everyone’s to focused on the damn demons to give a shit about poor ol’ me.” “That’s horrible, who else have you told?” “Just you and the captain of the fucking guards. He wouldn’t even fire him, saying the demand for guards is ‘very high’ right now. No guard is better than a guards that’s a mother fucking rapist.” “I wish I could help, but the captain probably won’t listen to me anymore. I haven’t shown up for work in days and didn’t give any notice.” “It’s ok, I don’t want the captain’s help anyways. I need to move on and be strong.” You make small talk about various things before saying your goodbyes. With Julia in such a vulnerable state, you wonder if it’s best to give her time to heal. At the same time, you long for human relationship. The shadow figures just aren’t the same as real human contact. > You pursue a relationship You’re both facing adversity in life. In a sense, you’ve both been raped. Julia in a literal sense and yourself in a mental sense. Catia cursed you and has left you a shell of your former self.The past few days have been hell. Why not reconnect with a old friend and see if it leads anywhere? Everyday you walk to the Cinnamon Pearl Cafe hoping to see Julia. A few days go by and you never see her, however it’s not all bad. You’re now eating and staying hydrated, which is never a bad thing. You haven’t seen any shadow people in days and have stopped having nightmares. Things are looking up for you. One day after ordering your usual (a cup of coffee and cinnamon toast) Julia walks in. She’s all alone and you make eye contact with her. She winks at you and holds up a finger indicating that you should give her a second. You watch as she orders a coffee and raisin bread. After paying, she walks over to join you. “I’m surprised to see you here,” she says. “I’m here all the time now. I mean, their coffee’s really great.” She laughs and asks, “How have you been doing?” “I’m great, but I’ve been worrying about you, how have you been holding up?” She gets a little teary eyed while saying, “That’s so sweet of you, but you don’t have to worry about me. I’m planning on leaving Ashton tomorrow morning.” You sit mouth agape shocked at the news. She could have easy left without telling you. You might have gone mad waiting for her, but now you have a chance to leave with her. “Why are you leaving? I get why you might not want to live in a place with bad memories of your past, but why leave so soon?” “It’s no longer safe here and you should know better than anyone being a guard and all.” “Former guard, and what do you mean it’s not safe? I haven’t heard of any demon sightings...” “Well there was one just a few nights ago and people living in Ashton died. I have family up in Kingsburg and know I’ll be safe there.” “Are you going all alone or bringing anyone with you?” “As of now, all alone. I don’t know how difficult travel will be, back if I survive, I’ll finally have a place to call home.” You really don’t think it’s a good idea for her to travel alone. One for the selfish reason of wanting to be close to her, but also because it’s the middle of winter and travel hasn’t been safe since the demonic invasion. This is all happening so fast, you barely know Julia the adult considering you just reconnect with you. Will she even let you come with her if you ask? <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>“Thank you,” Greg whispers. “You what!” “Pfft! And to think, I used to respect soldiers.” Tom and Connor start shouting about how much of a dumbass you are. You don’t bother to engage with such idiotic banter. Instead, you walk out of the tavern without a second glance. As you make your way outside you are hit with a rush of cool air. “I can’t wait to meet Catia,” you mutter to yourself. “Who’s Catia?” You turn around and only see the entrance to the tavern. “Hello?” “Ermm down here sir!” You glance down and instantly recoil. It’s Greg, what’s he doing here? “What the hell do you want?” He begins to squirm uncomfortably and hyperventilate. “I…uh…I…erm…” “Spit it out!” “I wanted to thank you for agreeing with me,” he says between irregular gasps for air. Oh, that’s why he’s here. You normally wouldn’t mind but you have plans tonight and have no time for conversation. “People don’t agree with you often kid? That’s too bad,” you say while walking away. “I’m not a kid, I’m 20. But yeah, everyone I meet either ignores or makes fun of me. I almost prefer the latter as at least they keep me company,” he says while following behind you. “Damn that really sucks,” you stop walking and stare him in the eyes, “Look I’d love to keep you company, but I have somewhere very important to be.” Greg looks at you with a face of disappointment. But he lights up to ask, “Where do you have to be? Maybe I could come with you.” Gah! As bad as you feel for Greg, under no circumstances could he come with you. She agreed to see you, not Greg and you. “Sorry I don’t have time.” “God damn it. Can you at least tell me why? I don’t want to be near Connor and Tom right now. They make me feel inhuman.” Does this guy ever shut up? You been trying to exit this conversation gracefully since it started. You should just tell him to fuck off and be done it. Of course, you could humor him and tell him what you’re doing. It’s been hard keeping this succubus thing a secret and having someone to confide in wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. On the other hand, you really want to go have demon sex. > You tell him to fuck off “My man!” shouts Connor. “Har har Greg probably wants a retarded child to have someone finally agree with him,” Tom jokes. Tom and Connor start shouting about how much of a dumbass Greg is. You agree, but don’t join in on the berating. Instead, you walk out of the tavern without a second glance. As you make your way outside you are hit with a rush of cool air. “I can’t wait to meet Catia,” you mutter to yourself. You tuck your hands in your pockets and begin the walk to your home. On the way, you bump into a familiar face. It’s Lars. “How did last night go?” he asks. Something about Lars is rubbing you the wrong way. It might be his emotionless eyes or his downtrodden tone, but you feel like telling him about Catia is a bad idea “I nearly froze to death,” you say, wanting to be vague. “Yeah how exactly did you avoid doing that? When I left it looked like you were about to pass out.” “Just lucky I guess.” “Lucky huh? Well it’s your ‘luck’ that got me fired. Thanks a lot, now my family can starve to death before getting killed by demons.” You remain silent. “The captain chewed my ass out for quitting guard duty. I thought he would berate me and give me a warning, but he fucking fired me. I told him how much bullshit that was because I would have frozen to death otherwise. He told me I was lazy and incompetent because ‘the other guard didn’t complain’ as if your dumbass was smart to stay.” You try to apologize but Lars is having none of it. He gets angry and says, “I pray to god the demons invade and gut you and the captain like fish. Scrape out your insides with their claws and your other insides with their dick.” “Jesus man I said I was sorry.” “Sorry doesn’t feed my family. Get out of my way, I’m gonna’ drink until I die.” You move aside as Lars storms past you. Well, that was an interesting encounter. You don’t even know what to think, were you wrong to lie to him? How would he have reacted if you told him the truth? You push these thoughts out of your head and focus on getting home. It’s super cold and you don’t want to freeze to death and not have a succubus save you. You find yourself exiting out of the slums and into the residential part of the city. Most guards sleep in the barracks, however, since your parents never returned from their trip their house is all yours. If they ever return, you hope they don’t mind you bringing a demon inside the house. Although, they were always bugging you about finding a girlfriend, this might not be what they had in mind. You arrive at your parent’s old home and open the door. The wooden door squeaks loudly as you open it. “Some things never change,” you whisper to yourself. You immediately start making yourself more presentable. You change out of your soldiers’ uniform and put on a loose-fitting black tunic. You probably should take a bath but you're too excited to see Catia that you forget to. Do demons mind odor? You’re about to sit down in your bed when a chill runs down your spin. Your door makes a squeaking noise and a cold breeze rushes towards you. “Is somebody there?” you ask. No reply, although you don’t know what you were expecting. It’s possible the breeze pushed the door open, it's pretty flimsy and it wouldn’t be the craziest thing that’s happened in the last 24 hours. On the other hand, you can’t shake the feeling your being watched. Should you grab your sword and investigate? > You close the door and get in bed It probably was just the wind, no need to be paranoid. You hop in bed and close your eyes. “Cat---” Your head is struck making you collapse. “They may have taken my job, but they didn’t take my sword.” “Lars?” You ask through blurred vision. “Why yes, it’s me, demon! You really think I believed you survived on pure luck?" He looks completely unhinged. You try to say something but just start coughing blood. It comes out in chunks resembling mashed berries. “You really thought you could get away with it, didn’t you? HAHAHAHA! I know you’ve been possessed by a demon; how else could you survive the frigid cold?” Clumps of blood continue flying out of your mouth as you fail to speak. Lars crotches down next to you and strokes your face. “It’s ok, calm down. Like I told you before, or at least the non-possessed you, the city could use some heating up.” Where is this going? “I want to make a deal with you! Kill the Captain and I’ll let you live. Hell, I’ll even give you something in exchange. Perhaps a part of my soul? If there’s anything left in there.” > You nod your head That’s the last thing you do before passing. Between your shuttered eyes you can make out one last thing. An even bigger smile on Lars’ face. The next time you wake up your chained in darkness. You can still reach around a fair bit and waste no time exploring your surroundings by touch. When you get to your face you find it hastily wrapped in gauze and bandages. You shallow and taste dried up blood sticking to your mouth like honey. You really need a drink. With nobody around you start banging your chains against the ground. It makes a loud rattling sound that will surely attract anyone close by. Nothing. Wherever you are nobody is here. Although, you assume Lars will be back soon. That is, unless he was killed as raving mad men often are. As you sit here hungry, tired, and thirsty you rack your mind trying to remember anything that can help you. Your head pounds with each thought, it feels like a hangover but a 100 time worse. Getting whack in the head may have some long-lasting effect on your mental capabilities. After a few minutes of fruitless concentration, it hits you. The thing that got you into this mess is what will get you out; Catia. While the alcohol has mostly worn off, your injuries have left you in a susceptible state. Assuming she wasn’t lying when she said she would meet you again, she should be able to get you out of this mess. You can’t believe you need a demon to rescue you, but you have no choice. “Catia,” you whisper. A few seconds pass and despair creeps in. Just before you lose all hope a dark cloud appears in the room. It dispels a nauseous fume that ferociously attacks your lungs. You start violently coughing more blood, mostly dry, as you vision blurs. Your eyes shut close and you feel your grip on reality slipping away. You awaken to find yourself in a metallic cage. This room is much brighter than the one before. “When I saw you chained I figured a cage would make you feel right at home.” It’s Catia and you’re getting a very different vibe from her than last time. Your gut tells you to do what she says as you are powerless. “Now tell me, how come I wasn’t the first one to put you in chains?” she says while licking her lips. “It’s not like it was consensual. I was blindsided and nearly died.” She gives you a playful smile and whispers in to your ear “Tell me everything and don’t spare any details. Seeing as you don’t have much of a choice you describe everything that’s occurred since you last saw her. You don’t withhold even the most irrelevant details. “It’s nice to know you believe I exist. I know it’s hard to believe someone this beautiful isn’t a figment of your imagination.” Her red eyes pierce into your mind, daring you to think otherwise. “So, what do you think we should do about Lars?” you ask. She starts laughing to herself. “What?” She walks towards your cage and reaches inside. She puts her hand on your chin and points your head upwards. She locks eyes with you and grins widely “You’re going to kill the captain!” Later It took a lot less convincing that you thought it would. Something about Catia just makes you want to obey her, though this time around you didn’t have much choice. She didn’t give you a reason other than saying “Chaos sows the seeds of discontent.” Which if you agree with this line of thinking, you are only helping the infernal realm by following Catia. Her influence is so strong you didn’t consider any other option. Or maybe you just really want to fuck her. Either way, time to kill the captain. After releasing you from your cage, she offers to heal you with dark magic. You agree, as you can barely move let alone assassinate someone. What you didn’t know is that another demon would be performing the ritual. “Why is a human stinking up the place?” “Mind your manners, Jirzan. Someone finally wants you for your magic and you treat them like this?” “Heh I guess you got a point. They don’t call me Jirzan the Lunatic for nothing. Alright tell me what you need me to do.” She whispers into his ear and is too quiet to understand. Though you make out words such as “transform” and painful. What exactly do they plan on doing to you? Perhaps you should try backing out of this whole ritual. > You go on with it Catia asks you to join hands with Jirzan and her. Once you do, they begin chanting nonsensical words. Their eyes roll into the back of their heads and their bodies go limp. After a few seconds they get up and it’s now you that’s limp. You feel excruciating pain course through your veins. Your skin burns, and it feels like fire ants are crawling in your eyes. You can’t help but scream as every part of your body feels like hell, literally. Your skin starts to red and your head feels like it’s being ripped apart. They can’t be doing what you think they’re doing. “The transformation is working!” Jirzan shouts. You begin spazzing out on the floor. This isn’t what you thought she meant by healing you. “Enjoy your new life under my servitude,” Catia laughs. Your body starts contorting as blood spills out of your eyes. You jolt in and out of consciousness while Catia laughs louder. Her voice sounds dreamlike as the room around you morphs into hell. You black out. When you wake up you find Catia and Jirzan shorter than before. In fact, the whole room feels smaller. “There he is!” shouts Jirzan. “How does it feel?” asks Catia. You stare at them in shock. “What did you do to me?’ Catia approaches you differently than before. She no longer seems to be trying to seduce you. Rather, she carries a wave of supremacy not present before. “You will obey my commands as long as I live. Now, get on your knees,” she says. You try to protest, but find your whole body paralyzed. You assume this must be some sort of magic forcing you to obey. This however is not the case as she makes clear. “WHY AREN’T YOU MOVING?” “It seems like my ritual may have had some unintended effects.” Your body goes into an epileptic seizure as they start arguing over the ritual. None of that matter to you as your heart can’t support your new body. The world becomes a blur as you hear one last thing, “Great, I’ll never return home now that he’s dead.” While you aren’t dead yet, you will be soon. Your tale ends here.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>That’s the last thing you do before passing. Between your shuttered eyes you can make out one last thing. An even bigger smile on Lars’ face. The next time you wake up your chained in darkness. You can still reach around a fair bit and waste no time exploring your surroundings by touch. When you get to your face you find it hastily wrapped in gauze and bandages. You shallow and taste dried up blood sticking to your mouth like honey. You really need a drink. With nobody around you start banging your chains against the ground. It makes a loud rattling sound that will surely attract anyone close by. Nothing. Wherever you are nobody is here. Although, you assume Lars will be back soon. That is, unless he was killed as raving mad men often are. As you sit here hungry, tired, and thirsty you rack your mind trying to remember anything that can help you. Your head pounds with each thought, it feels like a hangover but a 100 time worse. Getting whack in the head may have some long-lasting effect on your mental capabilities. After a few minutes of fruitless concentration, it hits you. The thing that got you into this mess is what will get you out; Catia. While the alcohol has mostly worn off, your injuries have left you in a susceptible state. Assuming she wasn’t lying when she said she would meet you again, she should be able to get you out of this mess. You can’t believe you need a demon to rescue you, but you have no choice. “Catia,” you whisper. A few seconds pass and despair creeps in. Just before you lose all hope a dark cloud appears in the room. It dispels a nauseous fume that ferociously attacks your lungs. You start violently coughing more blood, mostly dry, as you vision blurs. Your eyes shut close and you feel your grip on reality slipping away. You awaken to find yourself in a metallic cage. This room is much brighter than the one before. “When I saw you chained I figured a cage would make you feel right at home.” It’s Catia and you’re getting a very different vibe from her than last time. Your gut tells you to do what she says as you are powerless. “Now tell me, how come I wasn’t the first one to put you in chains?” she says while licking her lips. “It’s not like it was consensual. I was blindsided and nearly died.” She gives you a playful smile and whispers in to your ear “Tell me everything and don’t spare any details. Seeing as you don’t have much of a choice you describe everything that’s occurred since you last saw her. You don’t withhold even the most irrelevant details. “It’s nice to know you believe I exist. I know it’s hard to believe someone this beautiful isn’t a figment of your imagination.” Her red eyes pierce into your mind, daring you to think otherwise. “So, what do you think we should do about Lars?” you ask. She starts laughing to herself. “What?” She walks towards your cage and reaches inside. She puts her hand on your chin and points your head upwards. She locks eyes with you and grins widely “You’re going to kill the captain!” Later It took a lot less convincing that you thought it would. Something about Catia just makes you want to obey her, though this time around you didn’t have much choice. She didn’t give you a reason other than saying “Chaos sows the seeds of discontent.” Which if you agree with this line of thinking, you are only helping the infernal realm by following Catia. Her influence is so strong you didn’t consider any other option. Or maybe you just really want to fuck her. Either way, time to kill the captain. After releasing you from your cage, she offers to heal you with dark magic. You agree, as you can barely move let alone assassinate someone. What you didn’t know is that another demon would be performing the ritual. “Why is a human stinking up the place?” “Mind your manners, Jirzan. Someone finally wants you for your magic and you treat them like this?” “Heh I guess you got a point. They don’t call me Jirzan the Lunatic for nothing. Alright tell me what you need me to do.” She whispers into his ear and is too quiet to understand. Though you make out words such as “transform” and painful. What exactly do they plan on doing to you? Perhaps you should try backing out of this whole ritual. > Back out “Hey uh guys, I don’t know about this. I think it would be best if I just heal the natural way.” Jirzan turns towards you and hisses. “You insolent fool! You dare turn the opportunity to become a demon, what else do you have going for you in life?” You instinctively start backing away as he gets angrier. “Is it my epithet ‘Lunatic’ that scares you? You humans disgust me. If that scares you I couldn’t imagine what you’d think about the meaning of my first name.” Well his epithet played a role, but dark magic frightens you more. Now you’re curious about his first name and don’t hesitate in asking him, “What does Jirzan mean?” He does a little dance and is excited to share, “Enslaver. My full name means translates to Enslaver the Lunatic. As a shorthand, ‘Deranged Enslaver’ works as well.” He’s known as an Enslaver? Kind of ironic seeing as he is doing Catia’s bidding. How did he plan to enslave you with dark magic? Does dark magic break demonic rule or did he have no intent on subjugating you? “Were you planning to enslave me? How can you just do that, doesn’t a deal have to be made?” “A deal? Why do you think I was banished to earth? I don’t do deals and see no reason why I should. All I need is your consent to use dark magic and I can do whatever I want.” Looks like you dodge a bullet. Although, you’re still confused about this whole banishment to earth. You thought demons were mounting a full-scale invasion. You bring up your confusion and that only causes him to laugh at you. “You think I would be near humans willingly? The only reason I’m here is because dark magic is outlawed in hell. Demons tend to stray away from things they don’t understand” “Same reason I’m here,” adds Catia. If not here by free-will, what explains the siege of the capital? How would a bunch of misfits pose a threat to the elite empiric army? As you to reason through it, your brain aches with pain. Damn that hit from Lars got you good. “Well if he doesn’t want to go through with the ritual then my work here is done,” says Jirzan. “Not so fast!” says Catia. “Eh? Do you want me to kill him or something? I thought you could use the practice.” Catia sighs and places her hand on hip whist saying, “What about instead of turning him into a demon we make him a Doom Knight? All you’d have to do is teach him a little dark magic and we should be all set.” You don’t even know what a Doom Knight is and still don’t trust Jirzan to teach you. “You think this imbecile could handle learning the dark arts? You have truly gone mad! And to think, they call me the lunatic.” “C’mon Zan, you owe me this. Backing out will only lead to more consequences down the road.” This seems to shut him up real quick. He starts cursing as it becomes clear to you Catia has something he dearly wants. “Fine I’ll do it, under two conditions. The first, I will need his full consent to do the initiation spell. Without it, there is no way he could become a Doom Knight. The second, you return Coyote back to me once I finish.” Catia nods and agrees to his terms. She now turns to you and asks, “Any questions?” > You what's a Doom Knight? You rack your brain and try to formulate some questions. Everything they’ve been saying kind of has blurred together. Though you do want to know what exactly a Doom Knight is. “Doom Knights are slayers of all things good and holy. Think of them as some sort of reverse paladin.” You always thought paladins were self-righteous assholes. They claim to protect others from evil yet persecute the smallest of sins. Who knows, Doom Knights might be more to your liking. Other questions? > You why you\? “I told you he would ask this!” says Jirzan. “We might as well tell him the truth, or he might not join,” says Catia. “Go ahead, though you are putting a lot of trust in a meathead.” Catia explains how if they wanted to, demons could conquer earth in minutes. “Why don’t you then?” you ask. Catia pauses and starts speaking in a sad tone, “If we did, I could never return to my homeland. In the underworld, different dimensions are at constant war. When darkness fights darkness, brute strength does nothing. You must outsmart your opponent through trickery and manipulation. That’s where you come in.” She goes on to explain how banished demons are sent to lesser domains, such as earth, to earn redemption. Some demons are content with wreaking havoc, but others long for home. Take Jirzan for example, he couldn’t care less about the underworld. He thrives of chaos and enslaves all weaker than him. “The only reason he’s helping is because he has no choice,” adds Catia. In Catia’s case, she needs to others to do her own bidding to prove she does not have to relay on brute strength. Lucky for her, succubi are experts at having others do what they want. By having you kill the captain, she can prove just how capable she is. “Making Lars believe you are a demon, and constructing a fake deal with him, proves how I can bend reality to my whim,” boasts Catia. Regardless of what you think of her motivations, it seems the only choice you have is to follow her. What else do you want to know?<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>It probably was just the wind, no need to be paranoid. You hop in bed and close your eyes. “Cat---” Your head is struck making you collapse. “They may have taken my job, but they didn’t take my sword.” “Lars?” You ask through blurred vision. “Why yes, it’s me, demon! You really think I believed you survived on pure luck?" He looks completely unhinged. You try to say something but just start coughing blood. It comes out in chunks resembling mashed berries. “You really thought you could get away with it, didn’t you? HAHAHAHA! I know you’ve been possessed by a demon; how else could you survive the frigid cold?” Clumps of blood continue flying out of your mouth as you fail to speak. Lars crotches down next to you and strokes your face. “It’s ok, calm down. Like I told you before, or at least the non-possessed you, the city could use some heating up.” Where is this going? “I want to make a deal with you! Kill the Captain and I’ll let you live. Hell, I’ll even give you something in exchange. Perhaps a part of my soul? If there’s anything left in there.” > You shake your head That’s the last thing you do before passing out. And the last thing you’ll ever do as Lars makes no attempt at reliving you. End...<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>“My man!” shouts Connor. “Har har Greg probably wants a retarded child to have someone finally agree with him,” Tom jokes. Tom and Connor start shouting about how much of a dumbass Greg is. You agree, but don’t join in on the berating. Instead, you walk out of the tavern without a second glance. As you make your way outside you are hit with a rush of cool air. “I can’t wait to meet Catia,” you mutter to yourself. You tuck your hands in your pockets and begin the walk to your home. On the way, you bump into a familiar face. It’s Lars. “How did last night go?” he asks. Something about Lars is rubbing you the wrong way. It might be his emotionless eyes or his downtrodden tone, but you feel like telling him about Catia is a bad idea “I nearly froze to death,” you say, wanting to be vague. “Yeah how exactly did you avoid doing that? When I left it looked like you were about to pass out.” “Just lucky I guess.” “Lucky huh? Well it’s your ‘luck’ that got me fired. Thanks a lot, now my family can starve to death before getting killed by demons.” You remain silent. “The captain chewed my ass out for quitting guard duty. I thought he would berate me and give me a warning, but he fucking fired me. I told him how much bullshit that was because I would have frozen to death otherwise. He told me I was lazy and incompetent because ‘the other guard didn’t complain’ as if your dumbass was smart to stay.” You try to apologize but Lars is having none of it. He gets angry and says, “I pray to god the demons invade and gut you and the captain like fish. Scrape out your insides with their claws and your other insides with their dick.” “Jesus man I said I was sorry.” “Sorry doesn’t feed my family. Get out of my way, I’m gonna’ drink until I die.” You move aside as Lars storms past you. Well, that was an interesting encounter. You don’t even know what to think, were you wrong to lie to him? How would he have reacted if you told him the truth? You push these thoughts out of your head and focus on getting home. It’s super cold and you don’t want to freeze to death and not have a succubus save you. You find yourself exiting out of the slums and into the residential part of the city. Most guards sleep in the barracks, however, since your parents never returned from their trip their house is all yours. If they ever return, you hope they don’t mind you bringing a demon inside the house. Although, they were always bugging you about finding a girlfriend, this might not be what they had in mind. You arrive at your parent’s old home and open the door. The wooden door squeaks loudly as you open it. “Some things never change,” you whisper to yourself. You immediately start making yourself more presentable. You change out of your soldiers’ uniform and put on a loose-fitting black tunic. You probably should take a bath but you're too excited to see Catia that you forget to. Do demons mind odor? You’re about to sit down in your bed when a chill runs down your spin. Your door makes a squeaking noise and a cold breeze rushes towards you. “Is somebody there?” you ask. No reply, although you don’t know what you were expecting. It’s possible the breeze pushed the door open, it's pretty flimsy and it wouldn’t be the craziest thing that’s happened in the last 24 hours. On the other hand, you can’t shake the feeling your being watched. Should you grab your sword and investigate? > You grab your sword and investigate Maybe it’s paranoia, but what kind of brain-dead retard wouldn’t rather be safe than sorry? You take out your sword and leave the bed room, checking every corner as you do so. This pays of as you notice a shadowy figure standing outside your bedroom. Is that…Lars? “Your senses are very good, demon. I knew you were possessed, how else could you have heard me?” “The annoying door squeak, for one. Also, it's fucking freezing so I knew someone let in the cold.” “More lies! First you tell me you survived the cold from pure luck, now you tell me your heighten senses are nothing special? “Lars, you have no idea what you’re talking about.” “Stop pretending, I know your secret. You’ve been possessed by a demon; how else could you survive the frigid cold?” Not wanting to fight a former friend, you decide to tell him the truth. “I haven’t been possessed by a demon, but one did save me. It all started once you left…” Later “So that’s why you were at the drunk tortoise? I admit, you’ve never been one to drink.” “Exactly! I’m glad you understand.” “What now? You’re going to come clean to the captain and convince him to give me back my job, right? While the captain may give Lars his job back, you would probably be fired. Coming into direct contact with a demon and living to tell the tale is a no go. He’ll probably think you made some sort of deal to avoid being killed. Regardless of what you plan to do, you say, “I will definitely do that tomorrow.” Lars nods but still looks a little unhinged. His hand twitches and he gives you a half grin. “Ok I’m holding you to it, because if you don’t, you’re gonna wish you froze to death last night.” You gulp as you have no doubt Lars could kill you if he wanted. He leaves and you hear the door squeak once again. The cold breeze has expanded throughout your house and you could use some heating up. After securing to house to make sure Lars isn’t still lurking, you fall into bed. You’re super tired and debate whether you still want to see Catia. It’s been a long day and if you have any intention of talking to your captain tomorrow, you should go to sleep. > You summon Catia “Catia.” A dark cloud appears in your room, dispelling a toxic fume. You start violently coughing as you vision blurs indiscriminately. Your eyes shut close and you feel you grip on reality slipping away from you. “Ah shit,” you whisper before passing out. Your eyes jitter open and you’re greeted by Catia stroking your face. Her palm flushes the coolness off your face. Beads of sweat drip furiously down your neck as she continues caressing you. “Couldn’t wait a single day before seeing me again? Especially after you promised your friend you would visit ‘the captain’? How cute.” You don’t have time to question how she knows that before she crawls on top of your bed and snuggles against you. Her aura is all consuming and you feel your free will being drained away. Yet, the whole process is extremely pleasing to you. She moves her mouth to your ear and whispers, “Do you want to see everything I have to offer?” You bite your tongue to avoid instinctively shouting yes. This may be your last chance to not go through with this. At the very least, it would give you chance to ask her a few more questions. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Maybe it’s paranoia, but what kind of brain-dead retard wouldn’t rather be safe than sorry? You take out your sword and leave the bed room, checking every corner as you do so. This pays of as you notice a shadowy figure standing outside your bedroom. Is that…Lars? “Your senses are very good, demon. I knew you were possessed, how else could you have heard me?” “The annoying door squeak, for one. Also, it's fucking freezing so I knew someone let in the cold.” “More lies! First you tell me you survived the cold from pure luck, now you tell me your heighten senses are nothing special? “Lars, you have no idea what you’re talking about.” “Stop pretending, I know your secret. You’ve been possessed by a demon; how else could you survive the frigid cold?” Not wanting to fight a former friend, you decide to tell him the truth. “I haven’t been possessed by a demon, but one did save me. It all started once you left…” Later “So that’s why you were at the drunk tortoise? I admit, you’ve never been one to drink.” “Exactly! I’m glad you understand.” “What now? You’re going to come clean to the captain and convince him to give me back my job, right? While the captain may give Lars his job back, you would probably be fired. Coming into direct contact with a demon and living to tell the tale is a no go. He’ll probably think you made some sort of deal to avoid being killed. Regardless of what you plan to do, you say, “I will definitely do that tomorrow.” Lars nods but still looks a little unhinged. His hand twitches and he gives you a half grin. “Ok I’m holding you to it, because if you don’t, you’re gonna wish you froze to death last night.” You gulp as you have no doubt Lars could kill you if he wanted. He leaves and you hear the door squeak once again. The cold breeze has expanded throughout your house and you could use some heating up. After securing to house to make sure Lars isn’t still lurking, you fall into bed. You’re super tired and debate whether you still want to see Catia. It’s been a long day and if you have any intention of talking to your captain tomorrow, you should go to sleep. > You go to sleep and visit the captain first thing in the morning You close your eyes and drift off to sleep. You dream of a bright forest with playing children. Everything is nice and everyone is happy. Then one day that changes when a portal to another dimension appears in the middle of the forest. Out of the portal comes abominations to mankind. A collection of arms and legs attached on to a giant ball of flesh. This ball rolls around destroying the forest, killing everyone and growing stronger as it does so. The ball then comes rolling at you. You don’t have time to scream before… You jolt awake and find yourself covered in sweat. As much as you hate nightmares, they do a great job at waking you up. You look outside your window and notice the sun rising. This rising ball of fire reminds you of the ball from your dream. You throw on a clean pair of clothes, grab your sword just in case, and make your way to the captain’s quarters. It’s an uneventful journey and you arrive within a few minutes. Not wanting to wake the captain, you pull out pen and paper. It goes as follows, Dear Captain Dario, I am writing to you regarding the firing of guard Lars. I was on the same shift as him before he left. The windchill was approaching deadly levels and he decided to head inside as a last resort. I stayed out only because I feared the repercussions. As I sat out there, my muscles began to freeze until I could no longer move. I passed out minutes later. I would have surely died had a traveling merchant not stopped by. They started a fire and warmed me up. I would have died otherwise and thank the heavens a demon didn’t wander by. Due to my own experiences, I recommend you rehire Lars and if anything, fire me for putting my life on the line when it wasn’t needed. You are in such a rush that you slide the letter under the door before signing it. You decided against telling the truth as Captain Dario is a hard ass for rules. Not only would you have been fired, but also forced to undergo a purging to ward off any demonic influences. With that out of the way, you decide to head to a local armory. Your city issued sword is no match for a demon, as Catia pointed out. Not knowing if your parents will ever return, you see no problem with using their savings for your protection. You take a stroll to the armory and find it to be quite crowded for this early in the morning. “I need something that can scare away demons,” a farmer says “Scare away? Why not something that can kill?” “Look son, I’ve never been one to resort to violence. I just need something to protect you and the Misses.” You zone out their conversation and take a look around. They have swords, maces, axes, and even a trident. However, what catches your eyes is a bow painted red and black. It’s the only one in the store and seems rare. “Excuse me sir, what’s the price on this bow?” “That would be 500 gold sir,” replies a dwarf with steel encrusted teeth. “What’s so special about it?” “We brought it from a dark elf mercenary. They have great craftsmanship, especially when it comes to bows.” “How is it different than all the other bows for sale?” He pauses and turns red, “I hate to admit it, but I’ve always struggled making bows. That red and black one has much finer strings and sturdier wood, giving it a greater firing range.” You thank the dwarf for the information and continue looking around. Nothing else catches your eye, so you decide to buy the bow. “Pleasure doing business with ya.” You leave with your new bow and 500 gold poorer. You hope you still have your guard job as your parent’s money won’t last much longer. You go to the guard barracks and decide to get a meal there. Even if you’ve been fired, you doubt any of the servers will know. You arrive to a mess hall and find it more empty than usual. Two men eat soup together and another man sits alone. You grab a cup of soup and take another look around. You recognize the two men sitting together as Herbert and Andy. Herbert is an older man with a gray beard who has always been kind to you. Andy is around your age, mid twenties, and is already going bald. Both are good chaps and would be happy if you sat with them. The man sitting alone is someone you don’t recognize. He is a very thin fellow with patchy hair and missing teeth. You could try to find out who he is, or sit with Herbert and Andy. > You sit with the skinny man You walk over to the skinny man and and ask, “Mind if I sit next to you?” He is startled by your presence and jumps up a bit. He mutters something incomprehensible before saying, “I don’t mind.” The hot soup burns your tongue as you eat a spoonful. “So what’s this town’s name again?” “Ashton, why do you ask?” “You might not believe me, but I came face to face with a demon. When I finally got away, I ran to the city walls.” “Trust me, I believe you. I encountered a demon while on guard duty.” You tell him about how you passed out and met a succubus. “That’s wild.” “Sure is, now tell me about the demon you met.” He grits what few teeth he has and begins, “He wasn’t pleasant at all like the one you met. I was going for a walk in the forest. I know, it’s not the smartest thing to do in times like these, but it's one of my few sanctities.” His voice gets lower as he describes, “I knew something was off the moment I entered. An unholy energy made me feel weak and tired. I started hearing voices and couldn’t tell what was real. It was like I was in a trance.” “Did you actually see a demon?” “No, but he made his presence known. He tired to coerce me into letting him take over my mind. I almost did it too, but something broke me out of my trance.” He pauses for dramatic effect, “A bird fucking shat on my head!” You stare at his head and notice white flakes clumped in his hair. “Once I realized what I was about to do I ran like hell. I wasn’t thinking straight and went the opposite direction which I came in. I’m lucky I ended up here.” His experience is vastly different to your own. You suppose he encountered a demonic sprit, rather than a full fledge demon. “Perhaps this all was for the best. My city was running low on food, hence my frail appearance.” “Are you planning on staying in Ashton?” “I don’t know. I would need to get a job and a place to sleep at night. Would you be able to help me out in any way?” When your about to answer you hear someone call your name. It’s Captain Dario and he wants to speak with you immediately. You get up and tell the thin man, “It was nice talking to you.” “I hope you can come back when you're done. My name’s Eric by the way.” You wave goodbye and follow the captain into his private quarters. A rush of anxiety hits you as your still not sure if the captain bought your story. What if Lars told him the truth? “Please, take a seat.” You sit and find yourself starring at the gray haired captain. He stares back, unblinking as you both wait to see who makes the first move. “First things first, you’re not fired.” “That’s a relief.” “I’m sure it is, but what I say next may not be. I have no intention of re-hiring Lars.” “Wait what? Like I said in my letter, he did the smart thing and could have died had he stayed.” The captain sighs and says, “While that may be true, I’ve been wanting to fire him for awhile. He’s lazy and incompetent. The only reason he still had a job was because guards are in high demand right now. The problem now is finding a replacement.” “What happens if you don’t?” Dario frowns and bitterly says, “Then I might have to rehire Lars.” You could mention your new acquaintance, Eric, and vouch for him to replace Lars. On the other hand, who knows how Lars will react if he finds out you played a role in replacing him. There may be no reasoning with him. > You mention Eric “I may know of a potential replacement.” “No need not to not speak in absolutes. Spit it out sonny.” You stumbled a bit, not because your scared to tell him, but because his syntax confuses you. “Erm… I—I… his name is Eric.” “Who is this so-called Eric?” “He was the man I was sitting with. He’s looking for work and seems like a good fellow.” “That’s all I need, tell him he’s hired. Oh, and he starts immediately. 11pm tonight tell him to go to the city walls.” “Tonight? Isn’t this all happening a bit too fast?” “Nonsense, plus he won’t be doing it alone. He’ll have you to teach him.” You tense up as Dario continues, “Lighten up, kid! I took the initiative and brought fur coats for each of you.” Hell of an initiative considering you almost died two nights ago. “Thanks for taking the initiative…” “You’re most certainly welcomed! Now that that’s settled, get the hell out of here!” You stand up and leave his office. Eric does a one tooth smile as you walk over to him. “What was that all about?” You have a sly smile on your face when you say, “It was about you, congrats you’re now a guard!” He gives you a look of confusion and asks, “What the hell are you talking about?” You explain how guards are in high demand and that you mentioned him to the captain. “And I almost forgot, you start tonight.” “Wait what?” “Don’t worry, I’m on guard duty tonight as well. Plus, I’ve only ever seen demons one time...” “That one time was last night!” “Actually two nights ago, but never mind that. Anyways the captain brought fur coats for the both of us so no freezing to death tonight. C’mon, let’s get rolling.” “Alright but don’t act like this is permanent, if I don’t like it, I’m quitting after tonight.” “Trust me, it’ll be much easier now that we won’t be freezing. I have a feeling you’ll stick around.” > You 1 month later “You really don’t have to do this,” “Blasphemy, I’ve seen what you can do with my bow, you deserve one of your own.” “Yeah but you don’t have to help me pay for it. Anyways, I’m not that good with a bow,” Eric says humbly. “Well you’ll have plenty have chance to practice, let’s get going.” The past month in Ashton has been quiet, but demon sighting have increased in the nearby forest. Eric and you need to be as prepared as possible for when they strike. In addition, you have grown to like Eric a lot and are happy to help pay for his bow. You’re hoping they have one that’s as good quality as the one you brought last month. You arrive at the armory and note it being a lot less busy than it was last time. In fact, you’re the only two here aside from the dwarf who runs the place. “Where is everyone?” you ask. “I about ran out of equipment. With how trade has been recently, its impossible to get the material needed to craft weapons.” You offer your condolences and tell him why you’ve came here, “You wouldn’t happen to any bows for sale?” He half smiles, then says, “I might have a few, but none of my own creation. Those sold out the fastest due to their cheap price.” Eric gives you a concerned look knowing the cheapest bows are all sold out. “Well let’s see them,” you say. He lays out a few bows on a table and describes each of them. “This one right here was specifically crafted to kill orcs, but it should be fine for just about anything.” “What about demons?” “I see no reason why not!” He shows you a few other bows, mostly made be other local blacksmiths, but one other thing catches your eye. “Hey what’s that?” you say pointing to a crossbow on display. “She’s a beauty, isn’t she? Crafted by the capital’s smartest black smiths, though its a few years outdated. It doesn't have the most range, but it sure packs a punch. I reckon one shot from it could bring any creature to near death. That is, if you’re a good enough shot to hit your target dead on.” “How much?” asks Eric. “800 gold.” “Are you crazy? That’s more than I made last month working as a guard.” “Higher prices, higher quality.” “What about the orc killer bow?” “Those are pretty common, 300 gold would be a fair price.” “We should probably just get that one, don’t want my friend going bankrupt.” > You insist you buy the better bow You help Eric buy the better bow and he is apprehensive. “Thanks man, but now we’re both broke.” “Better broke than dead.” You leave with the bow and get ready for guard duty. 5 hours later It’s been a quiet night so far and warmer than usual. Eric stands up and draws his crossbow towards the forest. “Do you see something?” “Yeah I do. It’s like a bat but much larger.” You look where he’s pointing and something comes into view. It’s a succubus, but unlike the one you met before, it no longer resembles a human. It has blood stained skin and humongous bat wings. “Holy shit.” Don’t just stand there, fire!” you say. You and Eric unleash a flurry of arrows at the creature. It manages to dodge almost everything, but Eric hits it dead on. “Got it!” It falls from the sky and lands awkwardly. You waste no time laying it to waste with arrow after arrow. You don’t stop until you’re sure its dead, and it soon looks like a half-bat, half-porcupine monstrosity. You did it, you killed a demon. “That was an amazing shot, I’m not sure we would have brought it done had we brought the cheaper bow.” “Yeah, thanks again,” Eric says with tears streaming down his face. “What’s wrong?” “I just can’t believe we survived. You hear tales about demons destroying entire cities and yet we were able to bring down one with only two of us.” “We make a good team.” “We sure do, we sure do.” > You epilogue #2: Succubus Slayers You two are lauded as heroes and given a big pay raise. “And to think, I almost kept that loser Lars!” Speaking of Lars, want to know what happened to him? He and his whole family starved to death. Better him than the whole city am I right? On the bright side, you and Eric continue killing demons as sightings become more common. After word of your legacy spreads, a local lord hires you as demon hunters. You decide to take up the name Succubus Slayers as a reference to your first kill. This is a rather ironic turn of events considering you went from being saved by a succubus, to killing them for a living. Who knows, maybe you’ll have to kill Catia one day?<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>“You really don’t have to do this,” “Blasphemy, I’ve seen what you can do with my bow, you deserve one of your own.” “Yeah but you don’t have to help me pay for it. Anyways, I’m not that good with a bow,” Eric says humbly. “Well you’ll have plenty have chance to practice, let’s get going.” The past month in Ashton has been quiet, but demon sighting have increased in the nearby forest. Eric and you need to be as prepared as possible for when they strike. In addition, you have grown to like Eric a lot and are happy to help pay for his bow. You’re hoping they have one that’s as good quality as the one you brought last month. You arrive at the armory and note it being a lot less busy than it was last time. In fact, you’re the only two here aside from the dwarf who runs the place. “Where is everyone?” you ask. “I about ran out of equipment. With how trade has been recently, its impossible to get the material needed to craft weapons.” You offer your condolences and tell him why you’ve came here, “You wouldn’t happen to any bows for sale?” He half smiles, then says, “I might have a few, but none of my own creation. Those sold out the fastest due to their cheap price.” Eric gives you a concerned look knowing the cheapest bows are all sold out. “Well let’s see them,” you say. He lays out a few bows on a table and describes each of them. “This one right here was specifically crafted to kill orcs, but it should be fine for just about anything.” “What about demons?” “I see no reason why not!” He shows you a few other bows, mostly made be other local blacksmiths, but one other thing catches your eye. “Hey what’s that?” you say pointing to a crossbow on display. “She’s a beauty, isn’t she? Crafted by the capital’s smartest black smiths, though its a few years outdated. It doesn't have the most range, but it sure packs a punch. I reckon one shot from it could bring any creature to near death. That is, if you’re a good enough shot to hit your target dead on.” “How much?” asks Eric. “800 gold.” “Are you crazy? That’s more than I made last month working as a guard.” “Higher prices, higher quality.” “What about the orc killer bow?” “Those are pretty common, 300 gold would be a fair price.” “We should probably just get that one, don’t want my friend going bankrupt.” > You settle for the cheaper bow You help Eric buy the cheaper bow and he is glad. “Thanks man, no need to go broke.” “Better dead than broke,” you say sarcastically You leave with the bow and get ready for guard duty. 5 hours later It’s been a quiet night so far and warmer than usual. Eric stands up and draws his bow towards the forest. “Do you see something?” “Yeah I do. It’s like a bat but much larger.” You look where he’s pointing and something comes into view. It’s a succubus, but unlike the one you met before, it no longer resembles a human. It has blood stained skin and humongous bat wings. “Holy shit.” Don’t just stand there, fire!” you say. You and Eric unleash a flurry of arrows at the creature. It manages to dodge almost everything, but Eric hits it dead on. “Got it!” Except it does nothing but annoy it. The creature screams and flies at blazing speed towards both of you. You manage to hit it a few times, but it does nothing. You are torn to pieces as Eric watches. He awaits the same fate. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You walk over to the skinny man and and ask, “Mind if I sit next to you?” He is startled by your presence and jumps up a bit. He mutters something incomprehensible before saying, “I don’t mind.” The hot soup burns your tongue as you eat a spoonful. “So what’s this town’s name again?” “Ashton, why do you ask?” “You might not believe me, but I came face to face with a demon. When I finally got away, I ran to the city walls.” “Trust me, I believe you. I encountered a demon while on guard duty.” You tell him about how you passed out and met a succubus. “That’s wild.” “Sure is, now tell me about the demon you met.” He grits what few teeth he has and begins, “He wasn’t pleasant at all like the one you met. I was going for a walk in the forest. I know, it’s not the smartest thing to do in times like these, but it's one of my few sanctities.” His voice gets lower as he describes, “I knew something was off the moment I entered. An unholy energy made me feel weak and tired. I started hearing voices and couldn’t tell what was real. It was like I was in a trance.” “Did you actually see a demon?” “No, but he made his presence known. He tired to coerce me into letting him take over my mind. I almost did it too, but something broke me out of my trance.” He pauses for dramatic effect, “A bird fucking shat on my head!” You stare at his head and notice white flakes clumped in his hair. “Once I realized what I was about to do I ran like hell. I wasn’t thinking straight and went the opposite direction which I came in. I’m lucky I ended up here.” His experience is vastly different to your own. You suppose he encountered a demonic sprit, rather than a full fledge demon. “Perhaps this all was for the best. My city was running low on food, hence my frail appearance.” “Are you planning on staying in Ashton?” “I don’t know. I would need to get a job and a place to sleep at night. Would you be able to help me out in any way?” When your about to answer you hear someone call your name. It’s Captain Dario and he wants to speak with you immediately. You get up and tell the thin man, “It was nice talking to you.” “I hope you can come back when you're done. My name’s Eric by the way.” You wave goodbye and follow the captain into his private quarters. A rush of anxiety hits you as your still not sure if the captain bought your story. What if Lars told him the truth? “Please, take a seat.” You sit and find yourself starring at the gray haired captain. He stares back, unblinking as you both wait to see who makes the first move. “First things first, you’re not fired.” “That’s a relief.” “I’m sure it is, but what I say next may not be. I have no intention of re-hiring Lars.” “Wait what? Like I said in my letter, he did the smart thing and could have died had he stayed.” The captain sighs and says, “While that may be true, I’ve been wanting to fire him for awhile. He’s lazy and incompetent. The only reason he still had a job was because guards are in high demand right now. The problem now is finding a replacement.” “What happens if you don’t?” Dario frowns and bitterly says, “Then I might have to rehire Lars.” You could mention your new acquaintance, Eric, and vouch for him to replace Lars. On the other hand, who knows how Lars will react if he finds out you played a role in replacing him. There may be no reasoning with him. > You defend Lars “Lars might not be the best guard, but he’s the best option available. On the bright side, we at least seem to get along.” Dario’s face turns dark red as he spits out, “If he’s the best option, then this city might burn in flames tonight. None of us are safe with him on duty.” “So I take it that you won’t be rehiring him?” The captains sighs deeply out of frustration. “Look, tell him he can guard tonight. However, if he messes up one more time, he’s out for good.” You do a small fist bump out of celebration. “Not so fast sonny, you’re going with him.” “Really? Even after what happened the last time we were on guard duty together?” “You said it yourself, you two get along. Now, get out and get to work.” You leave in a pissed off mood, however the captain adds one thing before you slam his door shut. “I brought fur coats for the both of you. They’re in your lockers and it’s best if you wear them tonight.” You leave in a slightly less pissed off mood and slam the door. Eric does a one tooth smile as you walk over to him. “What was that all about?” “Nothing too important. I have to go now, it was nice meeting you.” Nice meeting you too...” You leave and head over to Lars house. It’s best to tell him the good news as soon as you can. You get there shortly and he answers the door right away. “So did you do it? Did you tell the captain what really happened.” “I convinced the captain to give you your job back, that’s all that matters.” Lars looks like he wants to argue, but holds back. “I’m just happy my family won’t starve to death. Oh, and that I won’t have to kill you,” he says with a wink. “Yeah it’s great news, now follow me. The captain brought fur coats for both of us.” > A month later Lars is an incompetent fucktard who can’t even hold a bow. You’re very lucky the last month has been quiet for you, however demon sighting are getting more common. Sooner than later you’re going to encounter one. You put on your fur coat and walk to the city walls. 5 hours later It’s been a quiet night so far and warmer than usual. Lars stands up and points his sword towards the forest. “Do you see something?” “Maybe, unless the booze is fucking with my vision. It looks like a bat but much larger, and...sexier.” You look where he’s pointing and something comes into view. It’s a succubus, but unlike the one you met before, it no longer resembles a human. It has blood stained skin and humongous bat wings. “Holy shit.” Don’t just stand there, defend yourself.” “Nah fuck that,” Lars says while running away. You unleash a flurry of arrows at the creature as Lars makes his escape. It manages to dodge almost everything, but one arrow grazes its foot. “HOW DARE YOU!” The succubus releases a bolt of dark energy at you. It hits you in the chest and you collapse. As you sit there about to pass out, a thought comes to you. One month ago a succubus saved your life, now another ends it. “Tell Catia I said hi...”<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You close your eyes and drift off to sleep. You dream of a bright forest with playing children. Everything is nice and everyone is happy. Then one day that changes when a portal to another dimension appears in the middle of the forest. Out of the portal comes abominations to mankind. A collection of arms and legs attached on to a giant ball of flesh. This ball rolls around destroying the forest, killing everyone and growing stronger as it does so. The ball then comes rolling at you. You don’t have time to scream before… You jolt awake and find yourself covered in sweat. As much as you hate nightmares, they do a great job at waking you up. You look outside your window and notice the sun rising. This rising ball of fire reminds you of the ball from your dream. You throw on a clean pair of clothes, grab your sword just in case, and make your way to the captain’s quarters. It’s an uneventful journey and you arrive within a few minutes. Not wanting to wake the captain, you pull out pen and paper. It goes as follows, Dear Captain Dario, I am writing to you regarding the firing of guard Lars. I was on the same shift as him before he left. The windchill was approaching deadly levels and he decided to head inside as a last resort. I stayed out only because I feared the repercussions. As I sat out there, my muscles began to freeze until I could no longer move. I passed out minutes later. I would have surely died had a traveling merchant not stopped by. They started a fire and warmed me up. I would have died otherwise and thank the heavens a demon didn’t wander by. Due to my own experiences, I recommend you rehire Lars and if anything, fire me for putting my life on the line when it wasn’t needed. You are in such a rush that you slide the letter under the door before signing it. You decided against telling the truth as Captain Dario is a hard ass for rules. Not only would you have been fired, but also forced to undergo a purging to ward off any demonic influences. With that out of the way, you decide to head to a local armory. Your city issued sword is no match for a demon, as Catia pointed out. Not knowing if your parents will ever return, you see no problem with using their savings for your protection. You take a stroll to the armory and find it to be quite crowded for this early in the morning. “I need something that can scare away demons,” a farmer says “Scare away? Why not something that can kill?” “Look son, I’ve never been one to resort to violence. I just need something to protect you and the Misses.” You zone out their conversation and take a look around. They have swords, maces, axes, and even a trident. However, what catches your eyes is a bow painted red and black. It’s the only one in the store and seems rare. “Excuse me sir, what’s the price on this bow?” “That would be 500 gold sir,” replies a dwarf with steel encrusted teeth. “What’s so special about it?” “We brought it from a dark elf mercenary. They have great craftsmanship, especially when it comes to bows.” “How is it different than all the other bows for sale?” He pauses and turns red, “I hate to admit it, but I’ve always struggled making bows. That red and black one has much finer strings and sturdier wood, giving it a greater firing range.” You thank the dwarf for the information and continue looking around. Nothing else catches your eye, so you decide to buy the bow. “Pleasure doing business with ya.” You leave with your new bow and 500 gold poorer. You hope you still have your guard job as your parent’s money won’t last much longer. You go to the guard barracks and decide to get a meal there. Even if you’ve been fired, you doubt any of the servers will know. You arrive to a mess hall and find it more empty than usual. Two men eat soup together and another man sits alone. You grab a cup of soup and take another look around. You recognize the two men sitting together as Herbert and Andy. Herbert is an older man with a gray beard who has always been kind to you. Andy is around your age, mid twenties, and is already going bald. Both are good chaps and would be happy if you sat with them. The man sitting alone is someone you don’t recognize. He is a very thin fellow with patchy hair and missing teeth. You could try to find out who he is, or sit with Herbert and Andy. > You sit with Herbert and Andy You head over to sit with Herbert and Andy and listen in on their conversation. “I can’t believe she would do such a thing,” says Herbert. “I don’t know how she could just lie after all I did for her. She’s been pissed at me ever since we last had sex. I can’t even talk to her anymore.” “I know how you feel, women sure are a pain in the ass. Hey new guy, did you hear what Andy’s girlfriends been doing?” You stop blowing on your soup and glance at Herbert. “I haven’t, what happened?” “So this fucking bitch named, what was her name again Andy?” “Julia.” “Yeah so this bitch named Julia has been spreading lies about him ever since they broke up. She told the captain that he raped her!” “I guess she wants to get me fired. Rather get revenge against me for something I didn’t do then have the city be safe.” “Julia...what’s her last name?” “Why does it matter? She’s a fucking liar and that’s that,” says Andy. “Sorry I thought I might know her...I had a childhood friend named Julia.” “Well I hope you don’t still consider her a friend after what she did to Andy. That skank deserves to live a life alone.” You sit in silence as you take this all in. If this is the Julia you think it is, there’s got to be a reason she said what she said. You never knew her as the type of person to lie, even as a child. When you’re about to prod further, you hear someone call your name. It’s Captain Dario and he wants to speak with you immediately. You wave goodbye and follow the captain into his private quarters. A rush of anxiety hits you as your still not sure if the captain bought your story. What if Lars told him the truth? “Please, take a seat.” You sit and find yourself starring at the gray haired captain. He stares back, unblinking as you both wait to see who makes the first move. “First things first, you’re not fired.” “That’s a relief.” “I’m sure it is, but what I say next may not be. I have no intention of re-hiring Lars.” “Wait what? Like I said in my letter, he did the smart thing and could have died had he stayed.” The captain sighs and says, “While that may be true, I’ve been wanting to fire him for awhile. He’s lazy and incompetent. The only reason he still had a job was because guards are in high demand right now. The problem now is finding a replacement.” “What happens if you don’t?” Dario frowns and bitterly says, “Then I might have to rehire Lars.” You could talk about Herbert and Andy, they might be able to take over Lars’ previous guard duties. On the other hand, who knows how Lars will react if he finds out you played a role in replacing him. There may be no reasoning with him. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Welcome to Magus: Betrayal! You are known as Uriel, master elementalist and accomplished magician of the Acadamy of Alzur. The Spark, the talent to manipulate the essence of the elements in everything, has enabled you to live a youth far away from the spears of the soldiers, or the toils of the peasants. A findling you are, born to unknown parents and found on the steps of the Academy, but this is not a fate unusual, for the times are harsh for those without the privilige of noble heritage, and few can spare the resources to feed yet another crying mouth. If the Magi of the Academy had not found the Spark in you, they would have turned you over to one of the servants to grow up as one of them, a practice that comes closest to local charity, and ensures that the servants are loyal to the Academy. But this fate was spared to you. From earliest childhood you learned the arts of the scribe, the arts of the rune and the arts of the Elements. Your life has been one of scholarship, and learning, and even though your thoughts sometimes turned towards the parents you never had, you soon accepted that the Academy was your family, never knowing anything different. However, a restlessness in your soul worried your teachers. You were sharper than most of your classmates, and thus began to find the lectures boring, often huddling alone in your study with an ancient tome borrowed from the library with the librarian's grudging permission, learning on your own faster than your teachers could hope to achieve. Finally, the master magicians admitted defeat. They no longer could teach you anything, and thus it came as a relief to them, that you were chosen, with two other magicians, to fortify the guard of an Alzuran emissary on the dangerous, bandit-infested road to Khofte, a coastal city in the far south. The council of magicians apparently thought that a bit of adventure would help to dull your restlessness and sharpen your practical skills. To begin with, you must choose to specialize in one of the five elements: Fire, Air, Water, Ice and Earth. You may still manipulate the other four, but you can only hope to access the powerful effects with the element of your specialization. Furthermore, specializing in one element also slightly affects your character. Ice elementalists are known for the cool and logical mind, while Earth magicians tend to be protective of their charges. Choose your Specialization. > You choose to specialize in Fire, the element of Passion, Heat and Destruction. You quickly, and with passion, learned everything you can from your chosen element, regarding little else. You especially have disregarded the lessons of Water and of Ice, having nothing but contempt for those who have to think through every situation when, obviously, there is need for speed. You possess a greater physical prowess than most of your classmates, and since your inborn arrogance left your without many friends but quite some enemies, you had to use your quickness and strength to avoid being the target of constant ridicule - noone dared to ridicule you after a while. Instead, you became something of a loner. You simply know you are a better magician than the others, and you are willing to prove it. The specialization of Fire enables you to aquire a deadly arsenal of combat spells, far superior to that of other magicians. You are also able to command the element of elements, the Flames themselves, to do your bidding. Also, you are somewhat resistant to their heat. Make a note somewhere that you have specialized in Fire. > You are ready to begin your journey! It is early summer in the world of Thyr, and the smell of spring has not yet left the air. The emmissary's trek consists of two coaches, one for the magicians, of which there are two more on board, and one for the emissary and his bodyguard himself. Furthermore, there are two dozens warriors on horse accompanying the trek, some of which are scouting ahead. It has been two days since you left the Academy of Alzur, and by now you have left the city's military influence, as can be witnessed by the steady growing worse of the road. You know close to nothing about Fahan Brownhand's - the emissary of Alzur - orders, or about the man himself, save that he is known to be a devious mind and a quick judge of character, abilities well received within a politician. Also you know that your trek is carrying valuable gifts in jewels and gold for Khalar, the citystate you are destined to reach within the week. Your two magician-companions are no strangers to you. Opposite of you is sitting J'Arel Whitefang, a young man emitting an aura of arrogance that is barely to bear in the confines of the coach. He is, as you know, a capable Fire elementalist. Currently on top of the coach, unable to bear the presence of J'Arel any longer, is Lucius Tarchild, an Air mage of some renown. Unfortunately, Lucius is somewhat senior to you, and thus he has the right of first choice, as he explained to you with a wink. Already weary by the long trip so far, you did not argue. > You wish to pass the time and speak with J'Arel. J'Arel looks up from some thought in surprise, as you cough to catch his attention. His cruel eyes narrow themselves, and he pierces you with his look. "What is it that you want?" > You say "Do you know anything about the road ahead?" His eyes narrow even further as you ask him about the road ahead. Then he snorts, and shakes his head, while saying: "Only as much as you, I suppose. The road will be getting a lot worse the next days, and when we reach the outskirts of Thalun Forest in two days, who knows what will await us in these ancient, dark and magical woods..." His voice is getting dark and foreboding, and then he suddenly breaks into laughter. "Peasants' superstition. Likely some bandits roam the Woods, and that's the reason why lone travellers sometimes are never seen again." He grins, and forms a magical gesture with his left palm, upon which a blueish flame appears there, a ball of pure energy powerful enough to burn through a tree when hurled with enough force. "However, we are no lone travellers", he adds, his malicious grin broadening. Then, he claps his hands together, and the flame vanishes. "I doubt that some ragged band of bandits is going to choose us as our target anyway," he says, sounding disappointed. "Those soldiers look like excellent fighters, and I am certain the bandits will see this as well." > You continue... Suddenly, the coach shudders to a halt. Voices call out, but your first reaction of worrying is soothed as you recognize them as your scouts' voices. The captain of the scouts, a burly man in leather armor, approaches the second coach, which is occupied by Master Brownhand, the emissary of Alzura. The captain dismounts his gelding, and appears to speak agitatedly with someone inside the coach - which is all you can make out. Unfortunately, they are too far away to understand a word. > You will do nothing but wait. The captain of the scouts is arguing agitated with someone inside the other coach, but you cannot make out the words, nor interpret the gestures. Probably nothing important. You lean back against the hard wooden seat of the coach, wishing for something to break the monotony of the trip. Already you wonder when you will arrive at your destination. Or at least return to the comfort of the Academy. Suddenly the door is opened by Lucius, who had been riding the top of the coach. > You continue... Lucius is a tall, slender man. There is always the sly grin on his face, and his hair looks like he has been in a tornado. Right now, looking at J'Arel and you, his grin nearly splits his face, causing J'Arel to scowl back. "Well, look who's here. Not suffocated yet, I hope", Lucius grins. J'Arel only snorts with disdain, throwing you a meaningful look as if the journey would have been quite pleasant without your companionship inside the coach. Before you can think of how to answer that challenge, Lucius continues as if not noticing the tension between the two of you: "Looks like we got ourselves some trouble coming. The captain of the scouts just raced his horse nearly to death coming here, then barely pauses to take a breath before arguing with old Farhan. Seems like they want us to make camp here, instead of driving on, but Farhan doesn't sound too happy about that." Lucius gives the countryside an appraising glance. "Can't say I blame them. It's a good position here, with the hills in front and the plains at the back. At least if anyone's sneaking up on us, they're doing so from only one direction." J'Arel interrupts: "Phah, let them come, so we can finally have some use. I don't see why..." Lucius holds up a hand to silence J'Arel, cocking his head to one side and closing his eyes, as if listening intently. As you strain to hear anything untowards yourself, you notice it... the silence is unnatural. Where the journey was accompanied by the rustling of leaves and grass, the chirping and buzzing of insects and the caws of birds, there is now silence... even the horses of the guards seem to hold their breath. Then suddenly the first volley of arrows hit the group. Lucius curses and hurls himself into the relative but crowded safety of the coach, but a few of the guards do not have as much luck. The air is filled with the rearing of horses and the screams of the wounded. The captain of the scouts turns to face the enemy, but gives only a gurgle, as you can see the black arrow protruding from his neck. Blood runs out of his mouth, and for a horrifying second, he seems to stare at you with the paincrazed eyes of the already dead, before falling from his horse only to be gored by the panicking beast. When you catch yourself again, you see that J'Arel and Lucius are already preparing spells, even if they cannot yet see who is attacking you. > You will wait until it becomes clear who is attacking you and wherefrom. You decide to stay in the relative safety of the coach. J'Arel, suddenly engulfed in an aura of sizzling flames, jumps out of the coach and hurls a ball of fire in the general direction of the assault. Lucius leaves the coach on through the other door, and immediatley the carriage is rocked by gusts of wind, which also cause the arrows to stray. One arrow, however, flies straight at J'Arel's head - but it bursts into flame upon touching his aura. Someone bellows a command over the screams of the guards, and those that survived the initial deadly onslaught charge off into the direction where the volleys came from. You are considering your options, when suddenly a lightning strike that turns you blind and deaf turns J'Arel into a cinder, but not before you hear his piercing death scream and see, in minuite detail how the fire mage's skin peels off under the tremendous energy of the lightning. Shocked, you decide to join the combat as quickly as possible, before the next strike perhaps hits the coach. > You continue... Desperately, you attempt to get your bearing. From the twoscore warriors that accompanied the emissary's treck, only one dozen survived the initial deadly volley of black arrows. However, the guards are rallied and charge the enemy, apparently a group of about half a hundredship ragged looking beings you immediatley recognize as large goblins, led by a couple of their shamans. While a single goblin is no match for a human warrior, the shamans double the goblins' threat, and they make up in numbers what they lack in size. Lucius is using his powers over the wind to make arrows useless, and most goblins have thrown their bows away and now wield evil looking barbed knives. One guard, trying to charge through the goblins to strike down a shaman, is dragged from his horse, and both the guard and the poor beast soon disappear und the goblin's small twisted bodies. > You are an adept of Fire. The flame of the Spark is strong within you today, and your fingers itch with the desire to channel your magic. This is it... this is how it feels to have an adventure! If not for the seriousness of the situation, you would laugh with delight. > You will use your powers over Fire to rain destruction down the goblins! You climb up the coach to get a better overview of the battle, trusting Lucius to do what he's best at, and turn away any stray arrows from you. You close your eyes, drawing deep from the burning energies within you provided by the Spark. When you open them again, they seem to be ablaze. In your hands, a powerful ball of flame forms, and you hurl it directly where the goblins' throng is thickest, where it explodes with a deafening noise. About twenty goblins remain on the ground, charred. Another ball of flame takes out a dozen more of the wicked creatures, and this is sufficent to break their morale, and they turn to flee. The soldiers cheer, and strike down the fleeing goblins as they run back to the hills from where they came. Suddenly, Lucius screams in pain. With another ball of flame formed in your hand, intended to speed the goblin's flight, you turn to see that Farhan Brownhand, emissary of Alzur, has stabbed Lucius in the back with an evil looking sword that protrudes from the Air adept's chest. He grins wickedly at you and makes a gesture with his offhand. Instinctively you hurl your fireball into his general direction, and throw yourself from the coach. Just in time, as it explodes under you, smouldering splinters burying themselves into your robes and into your flesh. Shaking, you stand up, turning to Farhan and the spitted Lucius, and prepare another spell... > You continue... You stare disbelieving at Master Brownhand, and before you can launch a spell at him, he uses your hesitation to weave a quick strand of fire at you. You barely dodge the small bolt of fire that jumps from his fingers and flies past you. Seeing he missed you, he curses and prepares another spell. You have to act quick. > You attempt to sever or unravel the spell's weave when Farhan casts it, thus countering it. You concentrate, and your mental eyes follow the Farhan's weaving. He uses Fire, and mixes Earth in it, but when he leashes it out, you already took hold of one of the strands of magic with your mental touch, and the spell already unravels itself as it is cast. When it reaches you, it is nothing more than a gust of warm wind that ruffles your hair. Infuriated, sensing what you have done, Farhan pulls the black blade out of Lucius' body, and, brandishing it, charges you. Out of the corners of your eyes you see that the guards are approaching the obviously crazed emissary. > You flee towards the guards, hoping that they will overpower the Magus. Seeing Farhan approaching you with the evil-looking dark blade in his hand that is still glistening with Lucius' blood, you jump down from the top of the coach and hurry towards the surviving guards, knowing that you do not stand a chance against the master Magus alone. Farhan laughs, and you hear behind your back the incantations as he prepares another spell. He is only a precious few steps behind you, but the remaining guards, led by a scarred and blackbearded bear of a man, already charge at Farhan with swords drawn. Suddenly, you hear a sizzle, and it is only instinct that saves your life. You throw yourself on the ground in midrun, just as the first guards pass you in the other direction, and, accompanied by a loud crackle, a searing pain blazes across your back, just before one of the guards in front of you emits a loud scream, and something bright hits him in the chest. As you quickly jump to your feet again, bloodied and dirty, with a singed back, you hear another sizzle, a crackle, and then a double scream, as two guards that are running at Farhan are hit by more lightning. You turn around, and the four remaining guards are about to swing their swords at the emissary, when suddenly, out of the shadow of the coach, Farhan's bodyguard, a bulky man that moves with the gracefulness of a cat, launches himself at the group of guards. Farhan turns to flee towards the hills, as his bodyguard snaps the neck of a guard with his bare hands. You shudder involuntarily as you hear the sickening sound. Before you can react, the burly man is spitted on the sword of the black bearded soldier, and Farhan, weaving a last spell, disappears in a clap of thunder. > You continue... Farhan Brownhand, the emissary of Alzur, is gone and his bodyguard is dead. Only three guards - and yourself - survived his treachery and the goblin attack. All agree that Master Brownhand had been probably in league with the goblins, but why he would attack the trek himself, noone knows. The situation looks grim, reports Kor, the scarred and blackbearded bear of a man who led the charge against the emissary. He is a seasoned veteran, and you can see in his eyes the disgust for this treachery. The horses drawing the coach are all either dead or have fled. Night is coming soon, and the road through the hills is known to be a dangerous way even in daylight. Bandits and bands goblins roam the area, as you were forced to experience yourself. The plains are not much better. Any camp made on the way would be like a beacon to anyone searching for them, and neither Kor nor you have no doubts that Farhan will likely return - with or without help - to finish what the goblins had begun. As a Magus, even a rather inexperienced one, the duty of leadership is on you, but Kor is ready with advice. Basically, you have only few options. You might attempt to travel back to the Acadamy and report of Farhan's treachery. Or, you might attempt to find him before he finds you. Teleport weaves, as Farhan has used to escape, are tricky: They are dangerous to pull off, because inexperienced adepts attempting to move their essence to somewhere else usually unravel themselves and get no second try. Also, the further away the destination is, the more difficult the spell becomes, and you know that even a master magician like Farhan Brownhand must have been tired after the spells he crafted during the battle. Your guess is, that he fled to somewhere in the hills, and Kor agrees with you on this, for in the plains, there is nowhere to hide for several miles around, not even a light wood or a small village. The only thing you know for certain is, that it would be wise to leave this place as soon as possible, as long as the enemy Magus is still weakened from his spellcasting. > You will turn back and attempt to make your way to the Academy to report Master Brownhand's treachery. The guards pack their gear with some relief about the decision, and, lightly packed, you abandon the coaches in the coming twilight. Happy to leave the scene of the slaughter, an invisible tension leaves the men you did not notice before. Noone is happy to have Master Brownhand now in his back, but all of you are glad that he's not right in front of you. The guards march at a good speed, and you, not really used to such sports, wondered whatever must have ridden you to ever complain about riding inside a coach. Soon, night falls, and the clear sky would be a beautiful sight were you in a mood for it. However, the moon is young, and there is not much light to see by. Kor asks if you are capable of lighting a globe, and wearily, you agree. Concentrating briefly, although much, much longer than you would usually need, you create a shining sphere between your hands and command it to float over your group. Kor reaches out to you as you stagger, your mental exhaustion nearly complete, but you catch yourself, and although your dignity as a Magus takes quite a scratch by stumbling because of such a simple spell, you are too tired to rightly care. Soon, the guards go off the road, and you just fall over on the ground when you hear that everyone agrees that now, you are far enough away from the place of the ambush to rest a while. You are already asleep before you hit the ground and do not notice that someone wraps a blanket around you. > You continue... The smell of fried bacon and spiced tea wakens you, and, although bleary-eyed because of a rest that was too short by far, you stand up to face a barely rising sun. You are greeted by the guards, and handed a wooden mug of the hot water as well as a small plate of food, and then, it is already time to break camp. You agree to to travel with all haste back towards the Academy. The day passes uneventful, although you find yourself in a very bad shape. You wonder why you could have ever complained about riding inside a coach, stuffy as it might have been. The guards march a fast tempo, and you are barely able to keep up, even though your packing is somewhat lighter than that of the others. The next day, your back feels like a wooden plank... even despite the blankets that are part of your travel gear, sleeping on the ground is never going to be your preferred method of rest, and you already long for the comforts of life at the Academy. Kor reports that you are likely to reach Alzur by midevening the next day, and you are happy to hear so. The next two days pass uneventfully also, although tension grew because everyone was expecting Farhan to return, or another goblin attack. Suspicions rose when you noticed the increased military patrols around, but they ignored a group of travellers and your desire to reach the council of the Academy was too great to become entangled with the military. Finally, after a journey you are glad to forget about, the sight of the walls of Alzur is very welcome to you. But something is wrong. The gates, usually open all day and night, are barred, and the military presence has been more than doubled. Kor apparently recognizes one of the guards and approaches him. The guard obviously expresses surprise and worry at seeing you return so early, but before you can question him what happened, you are immediatley led to the quickly roused council... it is past nightfall, after all. > You continue... You are lead into the heart of the city, and something definitely feels wrong here. The atmosphere is tense unlike the teeming, bustling city you left only five days ago. The huge ironwrought gates of the Academy are opened for you, and your group enters. Without even given the chance to refresh yourself, much to your dismay, you are led before the council's chambers and bidden entry. The chambers themselves are somewhat in disarray, as if there had been a meeting recently and yet no time for the personell to clean, and three of the five High Magi look like indeed they have been roused from sleep. They stare at you, some with unhidden contempt, until finally Tharain Ironweave, highest of the Magi, steps forward and explains the situation to you. There had been an assassination attempt on the wedding night of princess Jessamin of Khalar, the very city your treck was initially heading. This was exactly two days before. And, apparently, evidences point towards Master Farhan Brownhand, Alzur's very own emissary sent there, as the assassin. You begin to remark that this is not possible, your treck barely left Alzur's lands, but the High Magus interrupts you, that they knew this very well. Yet attempts to explain that to the Khalifat of Khalar met only disbelief, understandingly so. They want some sort of proof. You briefly relay to the council what happened to you on your treck, the attack of the goblins and Farhan's treachery, and are met by stoic silence. "Do you, then, have any proof that could convince the Khalifat to take back their declaration of war?", you are asked. Numbly, you shake your head. "Then", Thalain sighs and suddenly appears much older than he is, "this war cannot be turned away..." Wishing your first adventure would have turned out to be more successful, you retire into your room, but the longing for comfort leaves a bitter aftertaste when you think that Farhan Brownhand, the traitorous emissary of Alzur, escaped your grasp...<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Farhan Brownhand, the emissary of Alzur, is gone and his bodyguard is dead. Only three guards - and yourself - survived his treachery and the goblin attack. All agree that Master Brownhand had been probably in league with the goblins, but why he would attack the trek himself, noone knows. The situation looks grim, reports Kor, the scarred and blackbearded bear of a man who led the charge against the emissary. He is a seasoned veteran, and you can see in his eyes the disgust for this treachery. The horses drawing the coach are all either dead or have fled. Night is coming soon, and the road through the hills is known to be a dangerous way even in daylight. Bandits and bands goblins roam the area, as you were forced to experience yourself. The plains are not much better. Any camp made on the way would be like a beacon to anyone searching for them, and neither Kor nor you have no doubts that Farhan will likely return - with or without help - to finish what the goblins had begun. As a Magus, even a rather inexperienced one, the duty of leadership is on you, but Kor is ready with advice. Basically, you have only few options. You might attempt to travel back to the Acadamy and report of Farhan's treachery. Or, you might attempt to find him before he finds you. Teleport weaves, as Farhan has used to escape, are tricky: They are dangerous to pull off, because inexperienced adepts attempting to move their essence to somewhere else usually unravel themselves and get no second try. Also, the further away the destination is, the more difficult the spell becomes, and you know that even a master magician like Farhan Brownhand must have been tired after the spells he crafted during the battle. Your guess is, that he fled to somewhere in the hills, and Kor agrees with you on this, for in the plains, there is nowhere to hide for several miles around, not even a light wood or a small village. The only thing you know for certain is, that it would be wise to leave this place as soon as possible, as long as the enemy Magus is still weakened from his spellcasting. > You are specialized in the powers of Ice, and will attempt to divine the target of the emissary's teleportation spell. It should be not difficult to find such a powerful weave as a teleportation spell. You close your eyes and enhance your trained mental senses to a point where you can feel the pattern of the world around you. But although you search the point where Farhan has disappeared, you do not find any traces of the weave. You ponder this fact, and come to the conclusion that Master Brownhand must have masked the weave. This is a very difficult to achieve while casting or maintaining a spell, and your respect for the other Magus grows, whatever he might have done. Yet your insight does not help you, and you are unsure of how to go on - a state which you, as an Ice Magus deeply dislike. > You it is only logical that someone should report the treason, but such a powerful Magus must be stopped. Thus you venture alone into the hills, and send the men back to the Academy to report. Kor expresses worry about your shape, but you assure him that you do not intend to face down Farhan Brownhand in hand to hand battle right now, but it is important that you find out what Farhan is up to, and eventually, the warrior agrees. You are handed a flask of some of the strong smelling brew with healing powers, and set up with light gear into the hills, with the best wishes of the guards and a short sword from one of the fallen - you usally carry no weapons with you, but your mental exhaustion is too great to be certain that you are able to defend yourself if attacked. Keeping slightly away from the main road, you travel crosscountry, following the trail of the fled goblins from the foiled ambush as best as you can. Wearily, you walk on, although twilight slowly gives way to the starfilled darkness. Suddenly, you notive some movement in the distance... a goblin patrol! Confidence that you are still on the right track gives away to fear as they appear to have seen you. > You are a Magus of Air, and an illusion will certainly divert them. Gathering your last mental resources, you conjure the image of a powerful warrior. Once finished, it looks indeed a bit like Kor, the scarred leader of the guards, and you wonder if you have overdone it a bit when it charges the goblins with deadly silence. The goblins however break at the sight of the charging giant of a man, and dropping their assorted weaponry, they cry something in their own gutural language and flee. > You will pursue them, hoping they will lead you to their hideout. The goblins flee before you, and after ten minutes in pursuit - your lungs are about to give away - you arrive at a spooky scenery: Apparently the goblins' camp is under attack by wolves! Their howl fills the night and make it seem even more dark. The goblins, under attack from all sides, fight with uncommon valor, but even the surprise reinforcements that fled before you are cut down by the powerful jaws of the wolves within seconds. A black, wolfformed shape is within their midst, and the goblins fight back in terror, but hopelessly, against its devastating power. The camp is situated near a steep hill, and has a caveentrance. And out of that, a creature of your nightmares comes... it is the ugliest, and hugest goblin you have ever seen, with sharp claws like that of a troll. And beside it, stands Farhan Brownhand, the man you came to search for, wielding his dark blade. Farhan moves like a dancer between the goblins and the wolves, and whenever he swings his blades, a wolf falls down motionless. The big creature swings its long arms, regardless of hitting friend or foe, and whenever it hits, the victim is flung into the air. Farhan alone would suffice to turn the tide of battle in favour for the goblins, and with the strange creature against them, the wolves do not stand a chance. Even though you know the next spell might cost you your conciousness, you have to act fast. > You are a Magus of Ice. As you concentrate your magical powers, you suddenly realize what the creature is, as you notice its goblin resemblance. You have heared of this long forgotten lore of magically melding one being into another, and clearly the creature is a meld between a goblin and a troll. Since it obviously obeys Farhan's commands, he must be its master... and that makes him an abomination to any Magi: a nethermancer, trained in the arts of the Dark Empire of Lôrn, someone who does not weave with the Patterns of the world, but rather against them, destroying, not creating, feeding of the world's natural order like a vampire feeds of blood. So this is why you found no traces of the teleportation weave that Farhan used to flee, and obvious if you think about it now, though it must have been at great risk for Master Brownhand to reveal himself like that. You snap yourself out of following your thoughts in that direction, and with uncharacteristic determination launch a devastating attack against the troll-goblin, or goblin-troll, knowing that before you can harm Farhan, who is likely feeding of its life energy, you must destroy his creature first. A column of pure elemental ice erupts from the earth below the twisted being, and spiked upon the sharp crystals, it twists in agony and emits a horrifying scream of death before it is finally still. Farhan curses madly at the death of his creature. > You continue... With the creature destroyed, Farhan's fighting prowess also seems to have suffered. You now see sweat on his face as he attempts to fight through the wolves, who now take the upper hand, to reach you. His blade still seems to be thirsty for wolfblood, and whenever he strikes one, it remains still. You grip your blade as he appears to make his way through the now encircling wolves which attack him with all their fury, now that most of the goblins are slain, but then his way is bared by the giant black wolf. It growls, and Farhan takes a step back, for the first time emitting fear. The wolf's growl seems to stop the others attack, and they circle Farhan, forcing him against the wall of the steep hill, next to the cave. The wolf, apparently content to have trapped the emissary, appears to wait for something. Unsure what is expected from you, you approach Farhan. When he sees that the wolf seems to wait for you, fear is somewhat replaced with a mixture of grudging respect and hope. "This is a nice pet you have there", he speaks in that pleasant voice of his, straining to keep it straight. "It won't do me any harm, will it? I can explain..." But you interrupt him. "It is not my pet, and I have no command over it." "But... but...", he begins... > You are a Magus of Air. "But", you interrupt him in your smoothest voice, "I might convince it not to harm you, if you tell me enough to satisfy my curiousity." You wonder for a moment if he calls your bluff, but either your social skills are too developed or, as you rather suspect, he is too frightened. "It wasn't my idea, you see", he begins flustered, always nervously eyeing the black wolf, "It wasn't my plan. It just had to look like an accident. You know, the princess... I mean, when the masters said... but..." You have no idea what he is talking about, but you made the experience that its best to let madmen and drunk talk, as they get to the point in their own time. "The masters... the blood, all the blood, and... it was their idea! I am just a tool, and you... you won't hold a tool responsible, will you?", he begs, and pleads to you in his mad ravings. Then, the hunted, mad look in his eyes clears. He calmly salutes with the blade, speaks calmly: "My masters will save me." Farhan is obviously about to plunge the evil looking blade into his heart, as the black wolf growls and leaps. You turn away in disgust, but the screams of the dying and the sickening sound of teeth tearing at the flesh of the dying man will haunt your nightmares for quite some time to come. > You continue... It takes you the better part of to two weeks to reach the city of Alzur again. When you arrive at the gates, the first thing you notice is that obviously, the patrols have increased. The guards at first turn you away, but then you show the documents you found searching the cave you faced Farhan and his goblins, and they, recognizing the seal of the High Council, immediatley call upon the High Magi. While you wait in the antechamber, you reflect your voyage so far. When the wolves finished with Farhan's body, there was not much left of it. After they had done this, the wolves, completely ignoring you, slunk away, many with a bloodied snout. The large black wolf only raised his head to meet your eyes once, and it appeared as if it winked at you from the depth of those golden eyes. You do not know what kind of animal this creature was, but you were happy enough that it, too, ignored you and vanished with the rest of the pack. Feeling obliged to them, for some reasons, you spent a few hours piling the dead bodies of the wolves and burn them, leaving the goblins' corpses to rot. Then, you searched the cave. It appeared as if Farhan had quite a comfortable living hole there, filled with the goblins' plunder. You have also secured the documents Farhan was to bring to Khalar, as well as a note in a writing you were unable to decipher. Despite the risks, you decided to sleep the night there - exhaustion and the excitement of the last hours finally taking its toll. Undisturbed, you woke the next morning, and hurried to leave this place of carnage. Then, you hurried to catch up with Kor and his men, but you have not found them. Instead, the journey took much longer than you anticipated, and more than once you wished that this would remain your last adventure forever. Perhaps a life of devoted study and teachings in the Academy was not as bad a choice at that. At least the beds there consisted more than heaps of hay, if you could find any at all. Before admitted before the Council, you are bathed and clothed new, and for the first time in two weeks, you feel moderately human again, though it will take some more time for the bruises to heal. You make plans to sleep through the whole next week. Then, finally, you are, accompanied by two guards, led into the Council chambers. > You continue... You are led into a rather gloomy room, and face the five most powerful Magi of the Academy. Ancient Tharain Oakweave is the one to stand and greet you, and you have to recount your tale in full before he continues to speak. "These are dire news indeed, but then, these are dire times. The Khalifat of Khalar has declared war upon us, for an assassination attempt was made on princess Jessamin during her wedding night." Ah, so this must be the princess Farhan spoke about... but who are the "masters"? "Unfortunately", Tharain continues, "evidence was apparently found that points to our emissary as the assassin, and the princess has been seen neither dead nor alive since then." You try to interrupt and explain that this could hardly be, for Farhan has barely left Alzur, but you are silenced by a gesture of the old High Magus. "We know, but we have no way to dismiss their evidences, which, to our own surprise, appear to be real." You wonder what a war between the two most powerful states in Thyr would mean to your plans of living in comfort for the rest of your life, and you do not like the results you come to. Then, with a smile, you remember something, and produce the documents you found in the goblin cave. Tharain takes them, and reads through them briefly. Then he inspects the strange note you found, and his bushy eyebrows rise. "This, indeed, is a hint we might take into consideration." Without saying more, he looks at you, and smiles. "Welcome back, young Magus Uriel. You might have done more than your share to reveal a dark plot indeed. Now, if only the princess could be found..." Congratulations! You have beaten the part one of "Tides Of War". Part two will feature the story of Princess Jessamin, so stay tuned. :)<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>With the creature destroyed, Farhan's fighting prowess also seems to have suffered. You now see sweat on his face as he attempts to fight through the wolves, who now take the upper hand, to reach you. His blade still seems to be thirsty for wolfblood, and whenever he strikes one, it remains still. You grip your blade as he appears to make his way through the now encircling wolves which attack him with all their fury, now that most of the goblins are slain, but then his way is bared by the giant black wolf. It growls, and Farhan takes a step back, for the first time emitting fear. The wolf's growl seems to stop the others attack, and they circle Farhan, forcing him against the wall of the steep hill, next to the cave. The wolf, apparently content to have trapped the emissary, appears to wait for something. Unsure what is expected from you, you approach Farhan. When he sees that the wolf seems to wait for you, fear is somewhat replaced with a mixture of grudging respect and hope. "This is a nice pet you have there", he speaks in that pleasant voice of his, straining to keep it straight. "It won't do me any harm, will it? I can explain..." But you interrupt him. "It is not my pet, and I have no command over it." "But... but...", he begins... > You will question him about his plans. "My plans? MY plans?", Farhan cackles. "They are not my plans. And if I tell you, then what? You'll call of this beast? You will?" You try to answer, but he does not let you: "No, I can see my death in its eyes. But I tell you one thing. It wasn't my plan, I was just my masters' tool. The princess... hah... it was a good plan, though... it would have worked, if not for..." His voice trails off and his eyes suddenly have a glazed over look. Then, he smiles a half crazed smile, and raises his blade as if to salute to you. When he turns it around as if to impale himself, the black wolf leaps. You turn away in disgust, but the screams of the dying man and the sounds of wolfteeth tearing into living flesh will haunt your nightmares for a long time to come.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>With the creature destroyed, Farhan's fighting prowess also seems to have suffered. You now see sweat on his face as he attempts to fight through the wolves, who now take the upper hand, to reach you. His blade still seems to be thirsty for wolfblood, and whenever he strikes one, it remains still. You grip your blade as he appears to make his way through the now encircling wolves which attack him with all their fury, now that most of the goblins are slain, but then his way is bared by the giant black wolf. It growls, and Farhan takes a step back, for the first time emitting fear. The wolf's growl seems to stop the others attack, and they circle Farhan, forcing him against the wall of the steep hill, next to the cave. The wolf, apparently content to have trapped the emissary, appears to wait for something. Unsure what is expected from you, you approach Farhan. When he sees that the wolf seems to wait for you, fear is somewhat replaced with a mixture of grudging respect and hope. "This is a nice pet you have there", he speaks in that pleasant voice of his, straining to keep it straight. "It won't do me any harm, will it? I can explain..." But you interrupt him. "It is not my pet, and I have no command over it." "But... but...", he begins... > You will accuse him of treachery and call him to justice. You accuse him of treachery, and tell him you will personally bring him back to the Academy for the council to do justice. He just stares at you in disbelief, and then with a crooked smile at the black wolf. "I do not think you will bring me anywhere, my young friend. I see my death in its eyes." Then, his grimace turns into a snarl. "But for your insolence, I will first get you!" Surprised by the sudden change, you raise your own blade to deflect his sudden lunge, but you are too slow, and the blade bites deep into your flesh. You scream in agony as you feel your very soul drawn from your living body through the wound to feed the hungry sword. Your pain in the last seconds of your life is so great that you do not even hear the madman's dying screams as the wolves tear him apart. > You have died... An eternity passes in the wake of a second. You are floating in an emptiness even your bodiless mind fails to grasp. It appears as both a darkness so dark as to blind your mental eyes and a light so bright that it is already black at the same time. You see, with eyes not your own, the strands of raw magic that weave the pattern of the universe. There is the searing strand of Fire wherever the pattern forms a living soul, filling it with passion and emotion to differ it from the animals. Air lights up, with light blue strand of magic, whenever joy is felt or beauty grasped. Earth, a rich brown and green, gives life to plants and animals and all things that breathe. Water, the purest of elements, a deep blue that fills life in the hulls Earth is creating. Ice, most mysterious element of all, shines with a bright white, and you grasp that it forms the underlying logic of the pattern, directing all other strands into their destined form. And suddenly you understand. The secrets of life, the wisdom of existence, the riddle of the creation. It is all so easy, so clear. You see the forces of magic, and you also see the other forces, directing them, ordering them. And you see the forces that are directing those. You see what has happened, what will happen, what must happen. The future is just another pattern in the great weave of what you unknowingly called existence, which is yet just the dream of an illusion and at the same time reality. Now you know you can read the pattern, now you know the choices that led you to your doom, and why they did so. You know, you would not choose again wrongly, not this time, if you just had another chance... another chance... And the Fire that is Passion burns brightly within you and engulfs your soul, forming you into the essence that is. > You restart the Game. Welcome to Magus: Betrayal! You are known as Uriel, master elementalist and accomplished magician of the Acadamy of Alzur. The Spark, the talent to manipulate the essence of the elements in everything, has enabled you to live a youth far away from the spears of the soldiers, or the toils of the peasants. A findling you are, born to unknown parents and found on the steps of the Academy, but this is not a fate unusual, for the times are harsh for those without the privilige of noble heritage, and few can spare the resources to feed yet another crying mouth. If the Magi of the Academy had not found the Spark in you, they would have turned you over to one of the servants to grow up as one of them, a practice that comes closest to local charity, and ensures that the servants are loyal to the Academy. But this fate was spared to you. From earliest childhood you learned the arts of the scribe, the arts of the rune and the arts of the Elements. Your life has been one of scholarship, and learning, and even though your thoughts sometimes turned towards the parents you never had, you soon accepted that the Academy was your family, never knowing anything different. However, a restlessness in your soul worried your teachers. You were sharper than most of your classmates, and thus began to find the lectures boring, often huddling alone in your study with an ancient tome borrowed from the library with the librarian's grudging permission, learning on your own faster than your teachers could hope to achieve. Finally, the master magicians admitted defeat. They no longer could teach you anything, and thus it came as a relief to them, that you were chosen, with two other magicians, to fortify the guard of an Alzuran emissary on the dangerous, bandit-infested road to Khofte, a coastal city in the far south. The council of magicians apparently thought that a bit of adventure would help to dull your restlessness and sharpen your practical skills. To begin with, you must choose to specialize in one of the five elements: Fire, Air, Water, Ice and Earth. You may still manipulate the other four, but you can only hope to access the powerful effects with the element of your specialization. Furthermore, specializing in one element also slightly affects your character. Ice elementalists are known for the cool and logical mind, while Earth magicians tend to be protective of their charges. Choose your Specialization.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>With the creature destroyed, Farhan's fighting prowess also seems to have suffered. You now see sweat on his face as he attempts to fight through the wolves, who now take the upper hand, to reach you. His blade still seems to be thirsty for wolfblood, and whenever he strikes one, it remains still. You grip your blade as he appears to make his way through the now encircling wolves which attack him with all their fury, now that most of the goblins are slain, but then his way is bared by the giant black wolf. It growls, and Farhan takes a step back, for the first time emitting fear. The wolf's growl seems to stop the others attack, and they circle Farhan, forcing him against the wall of the steep hill, next to the cave. The wolf, apparently content to have trapped the emissary, appears to wait for something. Unsure what is expected from you, you approach Farhan. When he sees that the wolf seems to wait for you, fear is somewhat replaced with a mixture of grudging respect and hope. "This is a nice pet you have there", he speaks in that pleasant voice of his, straining to keep it straight. "It won't do me any harm, will it? I can explain..." But you interrupt him. "It is not my pet, and I have no command over it." "But... but...", he begins... > You want him to surrender his blade - it looks like a powerful object of magic. "My... my blade? Yes, here, have it", he quickly burbles and throws it on the ground. You move to pick it up, concious of the giant wolf next to you. But when you bend down to touch it, it snakes upwards as if moved by a ghostly hand. You scream in pain as the blade bites deep into your flesh, and you feel your soul drawn from your body into its hungry metal. Your agony is so great that you do not even hear Farhan's mad laughter as the wolves rip him to pieces.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The goblins flee before you, and after ten minutes in pursuit - your lungs are about to give away - you arrive at a spooky scenery: Apparently the goblins' camp is under attack by wolves! Their howl fills the night and make it seem even more dark. The goblins, under attack from all sides, fight with uncommon valor, but even the surprise reinforcements that fled before you are cut down by the powerful jaws of the wolves within seconds. A black, wolfformed shape is within their midst, and the goblins fight back in terror, but hopelessly, against its devastating power. The camp is situated near a steep hill, and has a caveentrance. And out of that, a creature of your nightmares comes... it is the ugliest, and hugest goblin you have ever seen, with sharp claws like that of a troll. And beside it, stands Farhan Brownhand, the man you came to search for, wielding his dark blade. Farhan moves like a dancer between the goblins and the wolves, and whenever he swings his blades, a wolf falls down motionless. The big creature swings its long arms, regardless of hitting friend or foe, and whenever it hits, the victim is flung into the air. Farhan alone would suffice to turn the tide of battle in favour for the goblins, and with the strange creature against them, the wolves do not stand a chance. Even though you know the next spell might cost you your conciousness, you have to act fast. > You are an Adept of Water. When you reach out for your mental powers, you suddenly realize that the creature is a magical construct, a being created and twisted from its natural form into a mindless killing machine, and quite likely insane. You also realize what Farhan must be... a nethermancer, a Magus trained in the arts of the Lôrn, the Dark Empire. Master Brownhand weaves not with the Patterns of the world to create his spells, but rather against them - an abominable thought to any thinking Magus. He does not work with the essence of the world, he destroys it, like a vampire living from the blood of others. Shuddering, you prepare to unravel the magical being's antipattern, knowing that if you wish to harm Farhan, you have to destroy his creature first. Patiently, and hoping he does not notice you yet, you mentally search the creature's being for a point of attack. It is difficult to do so without getting closer, but you do not dare to. You are no priest, but you remember once having a spirited discussion with one, and you know that what you have in mind is not unlike the banishing of undeath the priests of Thyr are able to perform. Patiently, you seek on, and there, you find it... a scar in the weave of the being, like a twisted, cancerous knot. You feel for it, and then, with determination to end this miserable creature's unlife, you give it a sharp mental pull. The creature screams in rage and pain, and flails blindly with those long arms of it, felling both goblin and wolf. Then, after a brief struggle, it falls down to the ground, the twisted pulsating knot and weave that gave it its unnatural life gone. Farhan screams in rage as he sees his creature destroyed.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The goblins flee before you, and after ten minutes in pursuit - your lungs are about to give away - you arrive at a spooky scenery: Apparently the goblins' camp is under attack by wolves! Their howl fills the night and make it seem even more dark. The goblins, under attack from all sides, fight with uncommon valor, but even the surprise reinforcements that fled before you are cut down by the powerful jaws of the wolves within seconds. A black, wolfformed shape is within their midst, and the goblins fight back in terror, but hopelessly, against its devastating power. The camp is situated near a steep hill, and has a caveentrance. And out of that, a creature of your nightmares comes... it is the ugliest, and hugest goblin you have ever seen, with sharp claws like that of a troll. And beside it, stands Farhan Brownhand, the man you came to search for, wielding his dark blade. Farhan moves like a dancer between the goblins and the wolves, and whenever he swings his blades, a wolf falls down motionless. The big creature swings its long arms, regardless of hitting friend or foe, and whenever it hits, the victim is flung into the air. Farhan alone would suffice to turn the tide of battle in favour for the goblins, and with the strange creature against them, the wolves do not stand a chance. Even though you know the next spell might cost you your conciousness, you have to act fast. > You will launch a barrage of magical missiles against the goblins. Knowing this is the final facedown, you summon up all the energy left within to create a hail of tiny magical missiles that strike their targets with deadly accuracy. The goblins fall under your precise hail, and even Farhan and the ugly creature are subject to your attack, although both appear to shrug of the magical assault. You feel you are beginning to blacken out, and the last thing you see is how the ugly goblinoid creature is brought down under three wolves. Then, your vision fades to black. You awake, unsure how long you were asleep, to the feeling of something breathing in your face. You open your eyes and stare into those of the giant black wolf. You tense in shock for a moment, but the wolf seems unaware. There is something strange about its eyes... it looks dead. A pleasant voice calls out to you: "Ah, I see you made acquaintance with my new friend. I admit, it took a while to tame him, but in the end, he was willing enough." A shiver runs down your spine as you recognize it as Farhan's. "A brave show of you, indeed. You slew many a goblin. But I no longer require them, now that I have a more powerful ally. So I might thank you for getting rid of them for me." Farhan pauses a moment, then adds: "Please understand that my gratitude has its limits, though. Blackfang, feed." Before you can react, the jaws of the black beast close around your throat, and not even a dying scream escapes your lips.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The goblins flee before you, and after ten minutes in pursuit - your lungs are about to give away - you arrive at a spooky scenery: Apparently the goblins' camp is under attack by wolves! Their howl fills the night and make it seem even more dark. The goblins, under attack from all sides, fight with uncommon valor, but even the surprise reinforcements that fled before you are cut down by the powerful jaws of the wolves within seconds. A black, wolfformed shape is within their midst, and the goblins fight back in terror, but hopelessly, against its devastating power. The camp is situated near a steep hill, and has a caveentrance. And out of that, a creature of your nightmares comes... it is the ugliest, and hugest goblin you have ever seen, with sharp claws like that of a troll. And beside it, stands Farhan Brownhand, the man you came to search for, wielding his dark blade. Farhan moves like a dancer between the goblins and the wolves, and whenever he swings his blades, a wolf falls down motionless. The big creature swings its long arms, regardless of hitting friend or foe, and whenever it hits, the victim is flung into the air. Farhan alone would suffice to turn the tide of battle in favour for the goblins, and with the strange creature against them, the wolves do not stand a chance. Even though you know the next spell might cost you your conciousness, you have to act fast. > You will cast a minor shield on yourself and join the fray with your short sword. Not daring to cast more than a minor charm in your current mental state, you weave a protective shield designed to turn the knives and spears of your enemies away without so much as penetrating your skin. Then, you grab your sword, and jump into the battle. A couple of wolves are startled by your appearance, and one snaps at you, but his teeth are deflected by your protection. You ignore the startled wolf, and throw yourself on the next goblin, which is as startled. Piercing him with your blade, you move on to the next target, when Farhan notices you. A pile of dead wolves surround him, and he laughs a madman's laugh in that pleasant voice of his. Then, he utters a command to the giant goblinoid creature, and it ignores the wolves hanging from him and charges you. You dodge its first blow, as it sweeps aside goblins and wolves to reach you, and make a bold stab against its chest. But its arms are somewhat longer than your blade, and like a hammer, his backhand swing hits you on the head. You feel lifted up and hurtled through the air, and as ground closes in again, you hear the sickening crunch of your right leg before you pass out into a darkness you will never again wake from...<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The goblins flee before you, and after ten minutes in pursuit - your lungs are about to give away - you arrive at a spooky scenery: Apparently the goblins' camp is under attack by wolves! Their howl fills the night and make it seem even more dark. The goblins, under attack from all sides, fight with uncommon valor, but even the surprise reinforcements that fled before you are cut down by the powerful jaws of the wolves within seconds. A black, wolfformed shape is within their midst, and the goblins fight back in terror, but hopelessly, against its devastating power. The camp is situated near a steep hill, and has a caveentrance. And out of that, a creature of your nightmares comes... it is the ugliest, and hugest goblin you have ever seen, with sharp claws like that of a troll. And beside it, stands Farhan Brownhand, the man you came to search for, wielding his dark blade. Farhan moves like a dancer between the goblins and the wolves, and whenever he swings his blades, a wolf falls down motionless. The big creature swings its long arms, regardless of hitting friend or foe, and whenever it hits, the victim is flung into the air. Farhan alone would suffice to turn the tide of battle in favour for the goblins, and with the strange creature against them, the wolves do not stand a chance. Even though you know the next spell might cost you your conciousness, you have to act fast. > You will concentrate your magical assault on the ugly creature. Somehow you feel more threatened by the presence of the twisted being than of Farhan Brownhand himself, though both leave tremendous damage among the remaining wolves. You form a powerful weave to destroy the creature, and, still unseen by Farhan or the goblins below, you launch it at the giant goblinoid, going for speed rather than for finesse. The mental strain hits you like a hammer, and you sway, but it is worth it as you see the big ugly thing implode with a deafening scream. The goblins, already panicking, are going frenzy and stab themselves as much as the wolves, and Farhan screams in rage at the death of the creature.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The goblins flee before you, and after ten minutes in pursuit - your lungs are about to give away - you arrive at a spooky scenery: Apparently the goblins' camp is under attack by wolves! Their howl fills the night and make it seem even more dark. The goblins, under attack from all sides, fight with uncommon valor, but even the surprise reinforcements that fled before you are cut down by the powerful jaws of the wolves within seconds. A black, wolfformed shape is within their midst, and the goblins fight back in terror, but hopelessly, against its devastating power. The camp is situated near a steep hill, and has a caveentrance. And out of that, a creature of your nightmares comes... it is the ugliest, and hugest goblin you have ever seen, with sharp claws like that of a troll. And beside it, stands Farhan Brownhand, the man you came to search for, wielding his dark blade. Farhan moves like a dancer between the goblins and the wolves, and whenever he swings his blades, a wolf falls down motionless. The big creature swings its long arms, regardless of hitting friend or foe, and whenever it hits, the victim is flung into the air. Farhan alone would suffice to turn the tide of battle in favour for the goblins, and with the strange creature against them, the wolves do not stand a chance. Even though you know the next spell might cost you your conciousness, you have to act fast. > You will focus your magical attack on Farhan. You summon your mental forces and prepare to unleash a weave of raw magica against Farhan. He apparently has not noticed you yet. Knowing you have to go for speed rather than for finesse, you just hope that your mental strength suffices for you not to black out. Then, you banish those distracting thoughts from your mind and concentrate at the work on hand. Within seconds, the weave is completed, and you hurl it with a single word of power against the emissary who dances among the wolves, cutting them down. Your magical force hits him straight into the chest. > You are a Magus of Fire. To your brief surprise, Farhan merely shrugs off the mental assault, and turns into your direction with a wicked grin, brandishing that evil looking blade of his. You notice out of the corner of your eyes that the ugly creature cringed in pain when your spell hit Master Brownhand, and without thinking, you unleash the powers of Fire within you at the creature. As it turns to ashes within a split second, much faster than you would have anticipated, Farhan screams in rage.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You summon your mental forces and prepare to unleash a weave of raw magica against Farhan. He apparently has not noticed you yet. Knowing you have to go for speed rather than for finesse, you just hope that your mental strength suffices for you not to black out. Then, you banish those distracting thoughts from your mind and concentrate at the work on hand. Within seconds, the weave is completed, and you hurl it with a single word of power against the emissary who dances among the wolves, cutting them down. Your magical force hits him straight into the chest. > You this is not the case. But Farhan simply shrugs off your mental assault. You are shocked by this, and he turns towards you with an evil grin on his face, and cuts his way through the wolves towards you. Horrified, and knowing your mental reserves are depleted entirely, you brandish your own sword, slowly giving way to Farhan. Unrelentlessly, he comes towards you. You turn to flee, knowing you cannot face him in hand to hand combat, and make a run for it, but he is faster. You utter an inhuman scream as the wicked blade he wields bites into your flesh, and you feel your very soul being drawn into the very weapon, feeding both its wielder and its own hunger...<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Gathering your last mental resources, you conjure the image of a powerful warrior. Once finished, it looks indeed a bit like Kor, the scarred leader of the guards, and you wonder if you have overdone it a bit when it charges the goblins with deadly silence. The goblins however break at the sight of the charging giant of a man, and dropping their assorted weaponry, they cry something in their own gutural language and flee. > You happy to have survived the encounter without much effort, you will rest to gain strength before continuing... Before something worse than the goblins appears out of the darkness. You decide that rest is what you need right now, for you cannot go on, your mental resources completely depleted and your physical condition is not much better. Telling yourself an hour rest will suffice, you feel weariness like you never knew before creeping up to you. The cool air and the ground, not quite chilling yet no longer containing the sun's warmth ever help to keep you awake, yet you feel your eyes closing themselves involuntarily. > You are a Magus specialized in Water. You feel sleep threatening to overtake you, but you embrace the feeling and turn it into restful energy, knowing that falling asleep right now would probably be the last thing you would ever do. Instead, you use a ritual like that of meditation, only the other way around, and you draw the tiredness out of your body and into the surrounding Pattern of the magic weaves. You close your eyes and reach a state like slumber, only at full awareness, while thinking through the situation so far. Suddenly you sense movement nearby. With a quickness that would surprise anyone taking your for someone asleep you jump up, your short sword in your hand. Sneaking up to you were three goblins, each armed with barbed spears, and they are more surprised than you at seeing them. With a quick thrust, you end the first goblin's life, and the others, expecting a defenseless human instead of one awake and capable of killing them, turn to flee. > You need to regain more strength before you face more enemies. You feel like drowning in your weariness. The day has been more than taxing so far. Casting spells never felt so tiring, but then again, the conditions under which you wove your spells so far never had been so demanding. Once you yearned for adventure, but right now, you yearn for a soft bed like you had when studying in the Academy. The thought of a bed is a dangerous one, and you cannot hold sleep off any longer. With a sigh, you close your eyes and give in to the drowning darkness. Your dreams are vivid and colorful. You dream of the Patterns of the world, and how a different Pattern feeds into it. You sense a dark presence swirling the weaves, twisting them with fingers unseen. You somehow feel threatened by the presence, and will yourself to wake up - yet to no avail. Another dark presence approaches the first... it is less human, more like an animal, but as dark and... you cannot put a finger to it... somehow out of place. You feel the presences clash together, in your mind, and all the colors turn to black and white, and then vice versa. With an incredibly intense, stabbing pain you awake, briefly, and, pierced through your chest is the barbed spear of a grinning goblin.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You decide that rest is what you need right now, for you cannot go on, your mental resources completely depleted and your physical condition is not much better. Telling yourself an hour rest will suffice, you feel weariness like you never knew before creeping up to you. The cool air and the ground, not quite chilling yet no longer containing the sun's warmth ever help to keep you awake, yet you feel your eyes closing themselves involuntarily. > You are an Adept of Ice. Your drowsiness threatens to take over, but it would be most unlogical to give in to the desire to sleep, for it would be much likely to be the last thing you would ever do. Instead, you use the cool air and the cold ground to refresh your body and your mind. This is your type of energy, after all. Suddenly, you notice movement at the corner of your vision, and immediatley, your senses clear and you are full awake. Remaining still as to pretend being still asleep, you notice that three goblins are sneaking up to you. Without further hesitation, you lash out your right hand into the direction of one, and with a simple yet effective weave freeze his heart. The goblins' companions gasp in surprise as their comrade simply falls over without another sound at your gesture, and they turn to flee immediatley. Not pausing, you stand up and run after them in pursuit, before they fetch more companions.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Kor expresses worry about your shape, but you assure him that you do not intend to face down Farhan Brownhand in hand to hand battle right now, but it is important that you find out what Farhan is up to, and eventually, the warrior agrees. You are handed a flask of some of the strong smelling brew with healing powers, and set up with light gear into the hills, with the best wishes of the guards and a short sword from one of the fallen - you usally carry no weapons with you, but your mental exhaustion is too great to be certain that you are able to defend yourself if attacked. Keeping slightly away from the main road, you travel crosscountry, following the trail of the fled goblins from the foiled ambush as best as you can. Wearily, you walk on, although twilight slowly gives way to the starfilled darkness. Suddenly, you notive some movement in the distance... a goblin patrol! Confidence that you are still on the right track gives away to fear as they appear to have seen you. > You will rely on your magic to defend against them. As you tap into your mental forces to prepare a weave to defend yourself against the goblins, you notice that your mental exhaustion is quite advanced... casting a spell to slay the four goblins will tax you dangerously. > You are a Magus of Fire, and its destructive powers are your speciality. Any other Magus would likely have a problem with the drain that comes with weaving destructive spells, but to you, it is rather refreshing. As the goblins charge, you simply smile and spread your hands, which burst into a blueish flame which casts spooky shadows on the nightly hills. Seeing this, the goblins' charge falters slightly, but the two archers are unfathomed by this and nock arrows into their bows. Deftly, a small weave of fire turns the bows in their hands to cinders, and they yelp in pain as the skin on their hands turns to blisters. Confused by the cries of pain behind them, the two remaining goblins stop and turn, and when you hurl the blueish flame around your hands at one of the archers, he explodes in a ghostly fire without a sound before their eyes. This is enough to convince the goblins that bravety is uncalled for, and they turn and flee.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>As you tap into your mental forces to prepare a weave to defend yourself against the goblins, you notice that your mental exhaustion is quite advanced... casting a spell to slay the four goblins will tax you dangerously. > You will take out as many goblins as it feels safe to do, then face the rest with your sword. As one of the archers comes in range and launches an arrow at you, you pick it up with a thin strand of air and redirect it to hit the other archer in the throat, which dies gurgling in a foul language you do not understand. Thrusting your left hand forward and uttering a single syllable of power, you focus what power remains for you to safely use, and thrust it into a powerful weave that rips one of the remaining goblins apart from the inside. Shocked by the display of power, the goblins are close to breaking point. You draw your short blade and charge them, and the darkness and their fear hides your exhaustion well from them. Before you reach them, your blade glimmering in the starlight like the sword of an avenging angel - at least in the goblins' eyes -, they drop their weapons and flee. Too exhausted to pursue them, you slump down on the ground and decide to rest for a while.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>As you tap into your mental forces to prepare a weave to defend yourself against the goblins, you notice that your mental exhaustion is quite advanced... casting a spell to slay the four goblins will tax you dangerously. > You will use your mental reserves instead to camouflage yourself, so that the goblin patrol will not find you. You throw yourself flat on the ground the moment the goblins begin moving into your direction. There, concentrating, you weave a small charm that blends your Pattern into that of the surrounding, effectively becoming invisible to the casual eye. You have a good view of the goblin patrol, and as they approach, you use what little power remains within you to handle safely to mask your breathing and movements. The goblins still approach, to the point where you can smell their sickening stench and hear their gutural language, which you do not understand. But obviously they are searching for someone, or something, and are not too happy about it. You cannot stop yourself to breathe a sigh of relief as they pass you, unseeing, and vanish into the darkness of the hills below. You wait for another quarter of an hour, and then you release your magic, slumping on the ground, mentally completely exhausted.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>As you tap into your mental forces to prepare a weave to defend yourself against the goblins, you notice that your mental exhaustion is quite advanced... casting a spell to slay the four goblins will tax you dangerously. > You using magic would be too taxing - it is of no help if you fall unconcious because of weaving a spell - so you trust on your swordblade on this encounter instead. Brandishing your short sword, you bellow a battlecry and charge the goblins, hoping that this will break their morale. The two archers loose their arrows at you, but you do not even have to dodge them... goblins are not known for their aim, and indeed, their arrows go stray. One of them manages to fire another arrow at you before you reach them, but that one misses you also. Your first blow, unexperienced as you are, is deflected by the goblin's shield. Using your weight and the force of the blow, your followup stab pierces his stomach. With a cry of pain in a foul language you do not understand, the goblin falls to the ground. However, as you are about to free your blade from the goblin's body, one of the archers shoots an arrow at point blank at you, and as you cry out from pain as the wooden shaft bores into your flesh, the other goblin with the morning star smashes it into your skull, and after a brief pain, there is only darkness.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Kor expresses worry about your shape, but you assure him that you do not intend to face down Farhan Brownhand in hand to hand battle right now, but it is important that you find out what Farhan is up to, and eventually, the warrior agrees. You are handed a flask of some of the strong smelling brew with healing powers, and set up with light gear into the hills, with the best wishes of the guards and a short sword from one of the fallen - you usally carry no weapons with you, but your mental exhaustion is too great to be certain that you are able to defend yourself if attacked. Keeping slightly away from the main road, you travel crosscountry, following the trail of the fled goblins from the foiled ambush as best as you can. Wearily, you walk on, although twilight slowly gives way to the starfilled darkness. Suddenly, you notive some movement in the distance... a goblin patrol! Confidence that you are still on the right track gives away to fear as they appear to have seen you. > You cowardice is preferable to death... You will hide yourself\! You know that your magic is too weakened to rely upon, and while a trained warrior could probably handle those four goblins, you realize your swordskill is mediocre at best. They appear to have spotted you, but you throw yourself flat on the ground - careful enough neither to break the flask you are carrying with you not to spike yourself on your sword - and roll down a hill, more away from the road. There, you keep down, knowing that in your state you are unlikely to outrun them. The hand on your swordhilt, you cower in darkness, thankful that the young moon does not give off much light. An eternity passes, and you are about to raise your head, as you hear the shuffling feet and the gutural language of the goblin patrol approaching. In the darkness, you briefly consider weaving a minor charm to make you unseen, but you are afraid that even the tiniest motion of a hand would betray you, so you hold your breath and remain still. Another eternity passes - probably barely more than a minute - and the sounds of the patrol fade away again - obviously they were not intent on searching too hard, after the beating they took at the ambush. Breathing a sigh of relief, you sit down to gather your strength again before continuing.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>It should be not difficult to find such a powerful weave as a teleportation spell. You close your eyes and enhance your trained mental senses to a point where you can feel the pattern of the world around you. But although you search the point where Farhan has disappeared, you do not find any traces of the weave. You ponder this fact, and come to the conclusion that Master Brownhand must have masked the weave. This is a very difficult to achieve while casting or maintaining a spell, and your respect for the other Magus grows, whatever he might have done. Yet your insight does not help you, and you are unsure of how to go on - a state which you, as an Ice Magus deeply dislike. > You are not in the possession of all the facts, and thus need to find out more about Master Brownhand. So you attempt to find him together, for eight eyes see more than two, and it is logical to have protection. Kor and the guards do not like your decision, and express clearly so, but they accept your status as the group's leader. Quickly, you are packed with light gear, and, abandoning the coaches, you head into the hills in the approaching nightfall. The moon is young, and the ground is not easy to see, yet you march through the hills slightly away from the road, as not to be so easy a target. An hour passes, and nightfall becomes a beautiful starspangled sky, were you in a mood to appreciate this. Suddenly, Kor stops and points towards an approaching goblin patrol. They have spotted you too, and seeing that you equal their size, decide to make a run for it after the disaster of the ambush earlier. "Get 'em 'fore they gets to their fellows!", Kor bellows, and, axe drawn, charges them. > You will attempt to strike down the goblins from afar, using the meager mental resources remaining to you. You close your eyes and focus your mental view on the goblins' Patterns. You weave a few simple strands of air and fire, to keep low the strain on your already overtaxed mind, and cause one of the goblin's chest to explode. Shocked by this display of power, the remaining goblins stop approaching you and appear to discuss what to do now - they are obviously not very bright. This distraction is all the guards need to reach them, and the goblins fall under the blows of the men. Seeing you have been victorious, you gently fall over, already fast asleep, as the spell takes its toll from you despite your rigid concentration. > You continue... You awake when someone shakes your shoulder. With an aching head, you stretch and stand up to face Kor, who woke you. "Quickly", he hisses. "I know yer in no shape, but we need ya here. Dem's buggers found out bout us somehow, and dere's about two dozens creeping all 'round us, closin' in. We're trapped like rabbits!" With that, he thrusts a short sword into your hand. You do not feel in any shape to weave spells at the moment, and this is bad as you realize what Kor just said. The goblins are approaching, and you see them... indeed, at least two dozens of them encircle the tiny camp the men made. You're uphill, but there's too many of them to really use that advantage. The men, and you, form a square, each one guarding one side. The blade in your hand is unfamiliar, but you feel that it would be a good idea to become familiar with it rather quickly. There is a moment of silence, and then, the goblins charge with cries in a gutural language you do not - and if the accompanying gestures are any indication, you are glad that this is so - understand. With an answering battlecry that you join in, you intercept the first wave of the attack. Kor's great axe slices through the goblins' bodies, and the man to your right spits two goblins at once on his sword. You are barely capable of deflecting the wicked spears and knives of the creatures, but you manage to bring in a well placed kick that causes one of the foul beings to yelp in pain, loose the balance and roll back down the hill, taking another one with him. Although the four of you manage to hold the goblins at bay, it is clear that you cannot do so for very long, and after a minute of frenzied fighting, a scream of pain indicates the guard in your back going down. Quickly, the square becomes a triangle, as you move to protect your fallen comrade, yet the battle appears to be without hope. Determined not to be the next to fall, you fight on, and it is by sheer luck that you survive the next minutes. Suddenly, a spooky howl fills the night, and the goblins cower in fear for a moment, then abruptly the break of their assault and turn to flee. Kor caughs something, and you notice that the giant of a man is wounded, as is the other guard. You, by none less than a miracle, are the only one not seriously wounded. "After em, lad," Kor cries and throws you a bottle of that evil smelling medicine the guards use. You drink a gulp, pocketing the last remains, and the fire within refreshes you sufficently to grab your sword and hurry after the fleeing goblins alone in the dark, towards the source of that ghostly howl that has now ceased...<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Kor and the guards do not like your decision, and express clearly so, but they accept your status as the group's leader. Quickly, you are packed with light gear, and, abandoning the coaches, you head into the hills in the approaching nightfall. The moon is young, and the ground is not easy to see, yet you march through the hills slightly away from the road, as not to be so easy a target. An hour passes, and nightfall becomes a beautiful starspangled sky, were you in a mood to appreciate this. Suddenly, Kor stops and points towards an approaching goblin patrol. They have spotted you too, and seeing that you equal their size, decide to make a run for it after the disaster of the ambush earlier. "Get 'em 'fore they gets to their fellows!", Kor bellows, and, axe drawn, charges them. > You this is a fighter's job, not yours... You are too exhausted, and the goblins should be no match for the guards. While Kor and his men charge the goblins, and gaining, you slowly walk after them. You are weary to the bones, and your mental resources are nearly depleted due to the exhaustion earlier. It would be of no use to anyone if you fell unconcious by trying to slay a few goblins. A couple of minutes later, and the guards are engaged with the goblins. Indeed, the goblins do not stand a chance against the trained fighters, but one of them manages to escape. > You are a Magus of Fire. Your instincts take over. With a pleased grin, like that of a cat on a chase, you deftly weave a small knot of fire and hurl it after the goblin. It hits him in the back, and within split seconds, only ashes remain of the creature, but even that tiny spell was too much for you, and you gently fall over.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>While Kor and his men charge the goblins, and gaining, you slowly walk after them. You are weary to the bones, and your mental resources are nearly depleted due to the exhaustion earlier. It would be of no use to anyone if you fell unconcious by trying to slay a few goblins. A couple of minutes later, and the guards are engaged with the goblins. Indeed, the goblins do not stand a chance against the trained fighters, but one of them manages to escape. > You launch a magical attack against him. You focus what remains of your mental resources into a ball of pure energy and cast it after the fleeing goblin, striking him from behind. The magical energy discharges into the goblin's body, and he falls down lifeless. You, however, having reached your limits, fall down into a deep, dreamless sleep...<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>While Kor and his men charge the goblins, and gaining, you slowly walk after them. You are weary to the bones, and your mental resources are nearly depleted due to the exhaustion earlier. It would be of no use to anyone if you fell unconcious by trying to slay a few goblins. A couple of minutes later, and the guards are engaged with the goblins. Indeed, the goblins do not stand a chance against the trained fighters, but one of them manages to escape. > You do nothing. What harm can one single goblin do? You judge your mental resources too low to be able to weave a spell that would do more than tickle the goblin, and thus you let him escape. The guards have finished dealing with the other three, but the fleeing goblin is too far away. Kor curses, when he notices that one got away, but everyone agrees that he's too far away. "The bugger's probably goin' ta get his friends on our heels within the hour", he mutters. "Let's get away from here." You agree on this, and you head away from the road, to make camp somewhere safe. You are in no shape for guard duty, and so the three men share it among themselves. Food is scarce, but sleep is all you need. Before you hit your blanket, you are already fast asleep. A battlecry wakes you in the middle of the night. Bleary-eyed you need a few seconds to get your bearing, and that is all the goblin standing behind you needs to ram a barbed spear through your body. A pain you never knew before fills you, and you faint the moment you see the spearhead protruding from your chest, falling into a darkness from where there is no awakening...<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Farhan Brownhand, the emissary of Alzur, is gone and his bodyguard is dead. Only three guards - and yourself - survived his treachery and the goblin attack. All agree that Master Brownhand had been probably in league with the goblins, but why he would attack the trek himself, noone knows. The situation looks grim, reports Kor, the scarred and blackbearded bear of a man who led the charge against the emissary. He is a seasoned veteran, and you can see in his eyes the disgust for this treachery. The horses drawing the coach are all either dead or have fled. Night is coming soon, and the road through the hills is known to be a dangerous way even in daylight. Bandits and bands goblins roam the area, as you were forced to experience yourself. The plains are not much better. Any camp made on the way would be like a beacon to anyone searching for them, and neither Kor nor you have no doubts that Farhan will likely return - with or without help - to finish what the goblins had begun. As a Magus, even a rather inexperienced one, the duty of leadership is on you, but Kor is ready with advice. Basically, you have only few options. You might attempt to travel back to the Acadamy and report of Farhan's treachery. Or, you might attempt to find him before he finds you. Teleport weaves, as Farhan has used to escape, are tricky: They are dangerous to pull off, because inexperienced adepts attempting to move their essence to somewhere else usually unravel themselves and get no second try. Also, the further away the destination is, the more difficult the spell becomes, and you know that even a master magician like Farhan Brownhand must have been tired after the spells he crafted during the battle. Your guess is, that he fled to somewhere in the hills, and Kor agrees with you on this, for in the plains, there is nowhere to hide for several miles around, not even a light wood or a small village. The only thing you know for certain is, that it would be wise to leave this place as soon as possible, as long as the enemy Magus is still weakened from his spellcasting. > You are specialized in the powers of Earth, and thus you attempt to question the animals of the area whether they know of Farhan's whereabouts. You sit down on the ground and close your eyes, sending out a mental call to all the animals around you. You probe into their minds and send your image, a human friend in need of help, and already you hear their answers. Dominating the mental images that answer is that of a huge, black shadow, and you know it must be the most powerful animal around - a natural leader, as you will. You feel its presence approaching, and the remaining guards gasp aloud as suddenly a huge black wolf jumps into your mid without so much of a sound. Swords and axes are drawn, but you command them to drop their weapons. The wolf, with the natural grace of a killer, ignores them as lesser prey - you see them through his eyes - and approaches them. You are about to lay down on the ground and bare your throat, not as a gesture of fear but as a token of respect, when you sense that something is not quite right about this wolf. You hesitate, but the wolf does neither appear to notice nor to care. He sits down on his hindlegs in front of you, staring at you with uncanny yellow eyes that seem to hide an intelligence much more than mere animal. Covering your nervousness, that might as well bring you death, you frame a mental picture of Master Brownhand and send it to the wolf. The reply is a flurry of images that nearly knock you out of your concentration. Blood, hatred, the scent of blood dominating the whole scene, slain cubs, a dark entrance into a cavern, the scent of goblins, the sickening taste of their foul flesh, and at the core of this, the being you knew as Farhan, and also something different, something dark, you cannot quite point your finger on. Hastily you break your concentration before the hatred you feel overpowers you, and it is only then that you notice the deep, dark growling of the wolf as it simply looks at you, and the nervousness of the guards, which already have drawn their blades again despite your command. But then, the huge animals simply stops, stands up and leaves towards the hills, ignoring the guards again as it strides through their midst. At the edge of the battlefield, it turns its head to look at you, as if to see whether you follow, then turns again and trots into the hills. > You will follow the wolf, with or without the others - it appears to want to lead you to somewhere specific. You know that it is your duty to follow the wolf, and perhaps your destiny. You have asked a favour from it, and it is now time for you to repay that favour. Kor presses a short sword into your hand and a flask containing one sip of that evil smelling brew with healing powers the guards used, but the men make it clear that they will not follow you. You have no time to argue with them, for the wolf is already out of sight, and so you hurry on, into nightfall, falling the huge black shape. The wolf waits for you just out of sight of the guards, and, seeing that you follow, turns to walk on again. Like in trance, you follow it. At least two hours, straight through the hills, slightly away from the road, the two of you march on. At one time, he sniffed the air, and lay low on the ground, and you did it likewise, wondering briefly about what kind of intelligence this uncanny animal possesses. Then, when you see a campfire shining at the horizon, the wolf emits a low growl. Then, suddenly, he raises his head and howls towards the young moon, a deafening sound that wakes primal instincts of fear deep within you. The howl is picked up through the surrounding hills, and the black wolf charges towards the fire. Fascinated, and worried, you follow. > You continue... When you arrive at the campfire, there is a battle going on between silvergrey shapes and the twisted humanoids. The black wolf has launched itself into the fray, and the goblins, having nowhere to flee as they are under attack from all sides, fight with uncommon valor, but you can see that the odds are not in their favor. The camp is situated against a steep hill, and you see a cave entrance out of which a nightmarish creature appears. It is without doubt the largest goblin you have ever seen, larger than many a human, sporting huge claws. And, standing next to it, is Farhan Brownhand, wielding that dark blade of his. He moves with the grace of a dancer amidst the goblins and wolves alike, and whenever he makes a cut with his sword, a wolf falls down motionless. Farhan alone might turn the tide of battle in favour for the goblins, and the goblinoid creature simply swipes those clawlike arms of it around, uncaring whether it hurts friend or foe. Even the powerful black wolf keeps its distance from it. While you are not exactly mentally fit, and afraid that even a single spell will be the last one you cast before falling down unconcious, you know you have to act.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You concentrate, and your mental eyes follow the Farhan's weaving. He uses Fire, and mixes Earth in it, but when he leashes it out, you already took hold of one of the strands of magic with your mental touch, and the spell already unravels itself as it is cast. When it reaches you, it is nothing more than a gust of warm wind that ruffles your hair. Infuriated, sensing what you have done, Farhan pulls the black blade out of Lucius' body, and, brandishing it, charges you. Out of the corners of your eyes you see that the guards are approaching the obviously crazed emissary. > You launch a quick spell against him, intend on stoping him long enough for the guards to reach him. You raise your arms, quickly contemplating the type of weave to throw against Master Brownhand, but decide for simplicity. A few minor strands of Air flow from your mind and wrap themselves around the emissary's arms, and, tightening, you attempt to hold him. His eyes widen in fury as he realizes what you are about to do, and he attempts to sever the weaves that surround his arms with his own magic. Surprised at the deftness and skill of his magical counterattack against your spell, you cannot do anything but admire the man's finesse as he unravels your spell with his mind. Within a split second, your spell falls to pieces beyond repair, and Farhan, unhindered again, charges the coach you are standing upon. > You will jump down the coach and grab the sword of a fallen soldier to face Farhan in close combat. Infuriated by the sight of your fallen friend, and by the treachery that you have witnessed, you jump down from the coach and grab the heavy, unfamiliar blade of a goblinslain soldier. You see, from the corners of your eyes, that the guards are approach Farhan Brownhand with drawn weapons, but you ignore them. The emissary grins a wicked grin and makes a fast and elegant move, that closes the distance to you and your blade much faster than you could have anticipated. By sheer luck, you manage to parry the first of Farhan's blows, but he anticipated the move and brings his blade back in a small circle, cutting deep into your unprotected side. As the black, evil-looking blade enters your body, you feel a pain you have never felt before. It is as if your soul itself is torn and shredded by the cold metal, and you utter an inhuman scream. Feebly, knowing that you are doomed, you wave your own blade towards Farhan, but he nimbly evades the clumsy blow and twists the sword in your side one more. Unable to bear the pain, you scream once again, and then, feeling your soul drawn out of your body through the wound, everything first fades from red to black to a chilling emptiness...<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You stare disbelieving at Master Brownhand, and before you can launch a spell at him, he uses your hesitation to weave a quick strand of fire at you. You barely dodge the small bolt of fire that jumps from his fingers and flies past you. Seeing he missed you, he curses and prepares another spell. You have to act quick. > You quickly launch a spell at him to disrupt his casting. Quickly, you close your eyes and stretch your fingers towards Farhan, hurling a small amount of raw magic against him. This is without finesse, and rather taxing, but effective enough. Master Brownhand gasps as the pure energy you launched at him hits him, and snarls a curse at you. Obviously, you successfully broke his concentration. Then, he grabs the dark blade still sticking in Lucius' body, hefts it in his right hand, weaves a protective gesture with his left and advances to the coach you stand upon. Out of the corner of your eyes, you see the surviving guards, with drawn swords, approach the emissary.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You stare disbelieving at Master Brownhand, and before you can launch a spell at him, he uses your hesitation to weave a quick strand of fire at you. You barely dodge the small bolt of fire that jumps from his fingers and flies past you. Seeing he missed you, he curses and prepares another spell. You have to act quick. > You try to work a dangerous spell against Farhan, trusting your skill to complete it before him. You close your eyes, concentrating feverishly on a weave that you know will destroy Farhan Brownhand. Only seconds pass, as you prepare to launch the last patterns at your opponent, but he is faster, and a bright light errupts from the emissary's fingers, and hits you in the chest, just as you are about to complete your spell. With a searing pain in the chest, Farhan's spell throws you backward from the coach you were standing upon, and you hit the ground below head first, just as you hear a bellow of rage coming from the remaining guards... > You continue... You are not dead, and you are quite sure of it, because you always heared of death being somewhat of a peaceful slumber. Instead, your head feels like it is going to explode every second now, the world appears to be one of those carroussels you have visited once on a fair near the Academy, and if your stomach wasn't empty already, it would soon be. With a groan you open one of your eyes, only to find that the world not only spins like a carroussel, but the flashing lights that dance before your vision also appear to be like the fireworks that often accompany the fairs. You have no idea how long you were left there lieing, but when you open your eyes again, you stare into a horrific face, swollen and blurred like a nightmare come true. You gasp and wrench from the hands that suddenly grasp your shoulders, only to find that the sudden movement brings an explosion of pain so far unknown to you into your head, and you cannot help but twist to one side, assisted by the hands, and empty your stomach for good, even though all that comes from it is blood and bile, each spasm calling forth another explosion of pain that makes you wish you were, in fact, dead. A voice calls something you do not understand, and something cold splashes your face. When the spasms stop and the pain subside to barely above tolerable levels again, someone holds a wineskin to your mouth, and greedily you take a gulp, only to choke at the brandy that is now in your mouth. Coughing, and wincing, you try to sit up, and are assisted once again by the strong hands. You look at who is holding you, and finally, through the tears of pain, your vision clears and you recognize the scarred and bearded face of one of the soldiers who looks at you with some concern. "Some concussion y'got there, lad", he greets you. An hour later, when you feel well enough to stand up again, though somewhat shaky - the brandy helped greatly to settle your stomach, there must have been something in it - you take in the scenery. Only three guards - and yourself - survived, but the goblins were nearly decimated, and the few survivors fled. Lucius Tarchild and J'Arel Whitefang are both dead, J'Arel obviously the luckier of the two. Both were apparently killed by Farhan Brownhand, the emissary of Alzur, the scarred guard that woke you reports with a scowl. He interrupts his talking, and turns to spit on the ground. Master Whitefang was slain by a bolt of lightning summoned by Master Brownhand, and Master Tarchild was slain by a darkly enchanted sword the emissary wielded when he attacked the magus. For some reason, the emissary obviously was in league with the goblin horde, and wanted the trek to be exterminated. However, the guards managed to overcome the goblins in time, and faced by the remaining guards, Farhan slew most of them with his magic and then turned to flee. Why he did this, the scarred man, who is named Kor, the guards never knew, but they suspect some dark treachery. You have been unconcious for more than three hours, and it is high time to break the camp, in case Farhan, rested, returns to finish the work the goblins began. The animals that drew the coaches are either dead or fled during the ambush, and you have little choice but to leave the place by foot in the twilight that announces nightfall. Kor, obviously a seasoned veteran, is about to order the remaining guards to pack, when he hesitates a moment to look at you. > You as a Magus, it is on you to lead the group. You explain that the duty of leadership is on you, as a Magus. Kor's eyes show quite clearly what he thinks of this, seeing that you're in no shape, but then nods in agreement. He grunts something, then hands you some of the evilsmelling brew you were forced to drink earlier, but remembering its healing powers, you eagerly take another swallow. Feeling the soothing warmth running down your throat, you already feel a lot better, though by no way yourself again. Kor is ready with advice on how to proceed, and you gladly take it. You agree that you have to break camp as soon as possible, before Farhan - undoubtedly in a better shape than you - returns to finish his work. Basically, you only have two choices. You either return to the Academy of Alzur, reporting of Farhan's strange betrayal, or attempt to follow him into the hills, where he likely has fled - Kor reports that he teleported away when the guards charged him, and you know that teleport weaves are hard to pull off and very exhausting, and not even a master Magus could travel very far. And since there is not even a small village or a forest in the near vincinity, it is only sensible to assume Farhan must have fled into the hills. Kor suggests going back to the Academy, reporting the emissary's betrayal and counsel then what to do about it. A sideglance towards you either means that he is concerned about your weakened state and too polite to say so, or that he thinks you too young and inexperienced to even stand the smallest chance against Farhan Brownhand. But you are the leader, as you made quite clear, and so the decision is upon you.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You are not dead, and you are quite sure of it, because you always heared of death being somewhat of a peaceful slumber. Instead, your head feels like it is going to explode every second now, the world appears to be one of those carroussels you have visited once on a fair near the Academy, and if your stomach wasn't empty already, it would soon be. With a groan you open one of your eyes, only to find that the world not only spins like a carroussel, but the flashing lights that dance before your vision also appear to be like the fireworks that often accompany the fairs. You have no idea how long you were left there lieing, but when you open your eyes again, you stare into a horrific face, swollen and blurred like a nightmare come true. You gasp and wrench from the hands that suddenly grasp your shoulders, only to find that the sudden movement brings an explosion of pain so far unknown to you into your head, and you cannot help but twist to one side, assisted by the hands, and empty your stomach for good, even though all that comes from it is blood and bile, each spasm calling forth another explosion of pain that makes you wish you were, in fact, dead. A voice calls something you do not understand, and something cold splashes your face. When the spasms stop and the pain subside to barely above tolerable levels again, someone holds a wineskin to your mouth, and greedily you take a gulp, only to choke at the brandy that is now in your mouth. Coughing, and wincing, you try to sit up, and are assisted once again by the strong hands. You look at who is holding you, and finally, through the tears of pain, your vision clears and you recognize the scarred and bearded face of one of the soldiers who looks at you with some concern. "Some concussion y'got there, lad", he greets you. An hour later, when you feel well enough to stand up again, though somewhat shaky - the brandy helped greatly to settle your stomach, there must have been something in it - you take in the scenery. Only three guards - and yourself - survived, but the goblins were nearly decimated, and the few survivors fled. Lucius Tarchild and J'Arel Whitefang are both dead, J'Arel obviously the luckier of the two. Both were apparently killed by Farhan Brownhand, the emissary of Alzur, the scarred guard that woke you reports with a scowl. He interrupts his talking, and turns to spit on the ground. Master Whitefang was slain by a bolt of lightning summoned by Master Brownhand, and Master Tarchild was slain by a darkly enchanted sword the emissary wielded when he attacked the magus. For some reason, the emissary obviously was in league with the goblin horde, and wanted the trek to be exterminated. However, the guards managed to overcome the goblins in time, and faced by the remaining guards, Farhan slew most of them with his magic and then turned to flee. Why he did this, the scarred man, who is named Kor, the guards never knew, but they suspect some dark treachery. You have been unconcious for more than three hours, and it is high time to break the camp, in case Farhan, rested, returns to finish the work the goblins began. The animals that drew the coaches are either dead or fled during the ambush, and you have little choice but to leave the place by foot in the twilight that announces nightfall. Kor, obviously a seasoned veteran, is about to order the remaining guards to pack, when he hesitates a moment to look at you. > You kor is a seasoned veteran, and you follow his lead. As Kor looks at you with the question of leadership in his eyes, you only nod your head to him, and wince at the burst of pain this small movement causes. Noting it with some concern, one of the other two guards hands you a flask with the same evilsmelling stuff you were forced to drink earlier. Remembering its healing powers, though, you eagerly take a swallow, and the pain clears away nearly immediatley - although the taste remains, and you still not feel yourself. Seeing you recovered somewhat, Kor speaks to you: "We'll be headin' back to Alzur, the Academy needs ta know 'bout what happen' here." You cannot but agree, and although the thought of leaving Farhan behind makes you uncomfortable, you know that you at least are in no position to weave powerful spells at the moment. Within the hour, you are packed and prepared for the long journey back to Alzur.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Desperately, you attempt to get your bearing. From the twoscore warriors that accompanied the emissary's treck, only one dozen survived the initial deadly volley of black arrows. However, the guards are rallied and charge the enemy, apparently a group of about half a hundredship ragged looking beings you immediatley recognize as large goblins, led by a couple of their shamans. While a single goblin is no match for a human warrior, the shamans double the goblins' threat, and they make up in numbers what they lack in size. Lucius is using his powers over the wind to make arrows useless, and most goblins have thrown their bows away and now wield evil looking barbed knives. One guard, trying to charge through the goblins to strike down a shaman, is dragged from his horse, and both the guard and the poor beast soon disappear und the goblin's small twisted bodies. > You are a magus of Air. You quickly climb upon the coach, to get a better view of the battle. Decisively, you summon the powers of Fire to channel thin strands of elemental flame into the bodies of the three goblin shamans, which turn immediatley into cinder. One goblin has not dropped his bow, and fires an arrow at you, but another thin strand of fire takes care of both the arrow and the archer. Another goblin is about to plunge his wicked looking knife into the neck of a soldier, but yelps in pain and drops it as its hilt suddenly glows bright red, which gives the soldier time to dispatch the goblin with a backhand stroke. With their shamans dead, the goblins offer little resistance, and their morale is close to breaking point when you notice that Farhan Brownhand, the emissary of Alzur, is sneaking up behind Lucius, making strange gestures as if invoking a spell. You do not know exactly what to think of this, but then again, you are not a pesky Ice adept who needs to think through everything before reaching a decision. Invoking the Fire again, you settle for a warning shot, and the earth in front of Master Brownhand explodes into flame. Lucius turns around in surprise, but before you can react, Farhan has a slender, evil looking sword out and runs it through the Air adept, who's look turns from surprise to pain. Farhan lets go off his sword and turns towards you.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Desperately, you attempt to get your bearing. From the twoscore warriors that accompanied the emissary's treck, only one dozen survived the initial deadly volley of black arrows. However, the guards are rallied and charge the enemy, apparently a group of about half a hundredship ragged looking beings you immediatley recognize as large goblins, led by a couple of their shamans. While a single goblin is no match for a human warrior, the shamans double the goblins' threat, and they make up in numbers what they lack in size. Lucius is using his powers over the wind to make arrows useless, and most goblins have thrown their bows away and now wield evil looking barbed knives. One guard, trying to charge through the goblins to strike down a shaman, is dragged from his horse, and both the guard and the poor beast soon disappear und the goblin's small twisted bodies. > You wield the powers of Water. Earth is not your strongest element, but nevertheless you know of charms that prevent blows and knives to find their target. You climb up on the coach you rode in to get a better overview, and concentrate on channelling the energies out of the ground, and into the armor and bodies of the soldiers. A few twicht uncomfortably as you know they must feel a tingling sensation, but those you enchant this way react surprised when the wicked knives of the goblins glance of their armor and skin without leaving a scratch. The weaving of so many minor enchantments costs you a lot of concentration, and after a minute of holding the spell up, you are about to collapse. The soldiers, however, have made the best of uses of your spells, and only a few of the goblins are left alive. Suddenly, Lucius, who has been preventing accidental arrows to break your concentration, screams in pain, breaking your concentration. Before the whiplash of the dozens of suddenly broken spells wipe out your mind and cause you to fall into a deep blackness, you see Fahan Brownhand, the emissary of Alzur, standing behind Lucius, spitting him with an evil looking sword...<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Desperately, you attempt to get your bearing. From the twoscore warriors that accompanied the emissary's treck, only one dozen survived the initial deadly volley of black arrows. However, the guards are rallied and charge the enemy, apparently a group of about half a hundredship ragged looking beings you immediatley recognize as large goblins, led by a couple of their shamans. While a single goblin is no match for a human warrior, the shamans double the goblins' threat, and they make up in numbers what they lack in size. Lucius is using his powers over the wind to make arrows useless, and most goblins have thrown their bows away and now wield evil looking barbed knives. One guard, trying to charge through the goblins to strike down a shaman, is dragged from his horse, and both the guard and the poor beast soon disappear und the goblin's small twisted bodies. > You are specialized in Ice. Water is not your most powerful element, but nevertheless you know enough about how to manipulate the fluids in a being to slow it down, hoping that this will give the guards enough advantage to slay the wicked creatures. You close your eyes, concentrating, and hoping that Lucius can keep any stray arrows away from you, and channel the unaccustomed energies of Water through your body. Gently but unstoppable, like the tide, the powers flow into the bodies of your enemies, burdening them, slowing them, and one by one you feel, through your bondage with Water, how the life form of one after the other is destroyed by the soldiers, who use the turn of events. So absorbed are you in the unfamiliar enchantment, however, that you do not even hear the warning that Lucius screams to you, and the last memory of living that your soul carries to the netherworld is that of a blinding light and a searing pain, melting your skin and flesh and bones...<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Desperately, you attempt to get your bearing. From the twoscore warriors that accompanied the emissary's treck, only one dozen survived the initial deadly volley of black arrows. However, the guards are rallied and charge the enemy, apparently a group of about half a hundredship ragged looking beings you immediatley recognize as large goblins, led by a couple of their shamans. While a single goblin is no match for a human warrior, the shamans double the goblins' threat, and they make up in numbers what they lack in size. Lucius is using his powers over the wind to make arrows useless, and most goblins have thrown their bows away and now wield evil looking barbed knives. One guard, trying to charge through the goblins to strike down a shaman, is dragged from his horse, and both the guard and the poor beast soon disappear und the goblin's small twisted bodies. > The powers of Earth are yours to command. Some strange fever grips you, and you grab a heavy looking sword from one of the fallen. Brandishing it in both hands, you roar out a challenge that comes from the heart, and charge the goblins. Suprised by your fierceness, the goblins shrink back from you, and you cut down two of them before they realize it. However, your clothings offer little protection against the barbed knives, and you are soon swarmed by the evil beings. One goblin cuts your sinews from behind, bringing you down to the ground with a scream of rage, and it is only a matter of time before one of the wicked, barbed knives finds the way to your throat and to your heart.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>It is early summer in the world of Thyr, and the smell of spring has not yet left the air. The emmissary's trek consists of two coaches, one for the magicians, of which there are two more on board, and one for the emissary and his bodyguard himself. Furthermore, there are two dozens warriors on horse accompanying the trek, some of which are scouting ahead. It has been two days since you left the Academy of Alzur, and by now you have left the city's military influence, as can be witnessed by the steady growing worse of the road. You know close to nothing about Fahan Brownhand's - the emissary of Alzur - orders, or about the man himself, save that he is known to be a devious mind and a quick judge of character, abilities well received within a politician. Also you know that your trek is carrying valuable gifts in jewels and gold for Khalar, the citystate you are destined to reach within the week. Your two magician-companions are no strangers to you. Opposite of you is sitting J'Arel Whitefang, a young man emitting an aura of arrogance that is barely to bear in the confines of the coach. He is, as you know, a capable Fire elementalist. Currently on top of the coach, unable to bear the presence of J'Arel any longer, is Lucius Tarchild, an Air mage of some renown. Unfortunately, Lucius is somewhat senior to you, and thus he has the right of first choice, as he explained to you with a wink. Already weary by the long trip so far, you did not argue. > You will use the time to study the landscape, as you have never been so far from Alzura before. "I don't think I like your attidue, J'Arel", you reply. J'Arel only snorts, and answers: "And this would be your problem, or mine?" You choke back the angry answer that lies on your tongue. After all, you are supposed to guard the emissary in case of an attack, and not squabble with a fellow magician. With a dirty glance towards J'Arel, you decide to let the point rest for now.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>It is early summer in the world of Thyr, and the smell of spring has not yet left the air. The emmissary's trek consists of two coaches, one for the magicians, of which there are two more on board, and one for the emissary and his bodyguard himself. Furthermore, there are two dozens warriors on horse accompanying the trek, some of which are scouting ahead. It has been two days since you left the Academy of Alzur, and by now you have left the city's military influence, as can be witnessed by the steady growing worse of the road. You know close to nothing about Fahan Brownhand's - the emissary of Alzur - orders, or about the man himself, save that he is known to be a devious mind and a quick judge of character, abilities well received within a politician. Also you know that your trek is carrying valuable gifts in jewels and gold for Khalar, the citystate you are destined to reach within the week. Your two magician-companions are no strangers to you. Opposite of you is sitting J'Arel Whitefang, a young man emitting an aura of arrogance that is barely to bear in the confines of the coach. He is, as you know, a capable Fire elementalist. Currently on top of the coach, unable to bear the presence of J'Arel any longer, is Lucius Tarchild, an Air mage of some renown. Unfortunately, Lucius is somewhat senior to you, and thus he has the right of first choice, as he explained to you with a wink. Already weary by the long trip so far, you did not argue. > You attempt to take a nap. Travelling is a wearisome business. "Less than you, I suppose," J'Arel answers, then sighs and shakes his head. "I heared he's a powerful mage himself. I don't know why we're to accompany him, Master Brownhand is said to be capable of taking care of himself." "If I were you, I would rather worry about the road that lies ahead than about or passengers. The road will be getting a lot worse the next days, and when we reach the outskirts of Thalun Forest in two days, who knows what will await us in these ancient, dark and magical woods..." His voice is getting dark and foreboding, and then he suddenly breaks into laughter. "Peasants' superstition. Likely some bandits roam the Woods, and that's the reason why lone travellers sometimes are never seen again." He grins, and forms a magical gesture with his left palm, upon which a blueish flame appears there, a ball of pure energy powerful enough to burn through a tree when hurled with enough force. "However, we are no lone travellers", he adds, his malicious grin broadening. Then, he claps his hands together, and the flame vanishes. "I doubt that some ragged band of bandits is going to choose us as our target anyway," he says, sounding disappointed. "Those soldiers look like excellent fighters, and I am certain the bandits will see this as well."<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You open your eyes and see the sun out of the open window. You watch it for a second trying to feel its heat on your body but after a moment you give up. Its winter and its perpetually cold here anyway. You get up and wander over to take in the view, you've been staying in this room for a while now. Your not sure exactly how long but it feels like around 5 months, long enough to become used to it at least. You lean out through the window and take in the sights, There are still some skyscrapers to the east looking in good condition, the stadium to the North isn't doing so well though, the roof has caved in and taken a small part of the wall down with it. Looking around you get a sense of general decay, between the points of interest are just fields of broken buildings and rubble. You know the couple of decades since the infection couldn't have done it alone so you decided it was the military. They had actually held out for years with relatively few casualties before it became airborne, after that it was chaos for a time until a 'vaccine' was found and sent world wide in an attempt to end the spread of the infection. You take one last look around then head for the door. You picked this room since it not only had a working lock on the door but actually had glass in the window, seemed like a nice touch of normality. Sadly the food has run out and you've scavenged the entire surrounding area until nothing is left, you have to move on. At least now you have a destination. Just last week you had found a decrepit old survivor mumbling to themselves in a fever and learned that somewhere to the far east past the skyscrapers there is a thriving colony, THOUSANDS of people actually living and forming a good community. The dying old man didn't have much of value but at least you got enough food to keep you full until now. > Down the Stairs You head down the stairs to check on your trap. Its a simple pitfall at the base of the stairs but it's sometimes good enough to catch a wild animal or two. Sadly no such luck today. Seems like the dead have finally managed to make the city free from even rats now. You start heading for the door when you hear a small sound outside, just a piece of wood being disturbed but your senses are attuned to listening for these things. Your now stuck, there is a back door but you don't keep it or the alleyways back there clear so just about anything could have moved in, however your pretty sure there is something out the front doors. > The Front Door You sling your pack over your shoulder and take out your metal baseball bat before edging slowly closer to the door, you need to know what's out there. It could just be a shambler who is about as dangeous as a child unless they are in a large pack. Then again it could be one of the other types. The Fast types are tricky to handle if not too smart. The mutant types, animals who got directly infected, are very dangerous. The Crazies, humans who got the vaccine too late or were bitten after getting it, they retain some semblance of intelligence but only that of a stupid flesh craved psychopath. Then theres the 'Heralds' or 'Harbingers', Nicknamed as the 'Harbingers of the apocalypse', they look nearly completely human but the infection somehow bonded with them making them stronger and faster than normal humans while retaining all of their intelligence, of course they still feed on living and partly decayed flesh, you avoid them at all costs. Once you get close you very slowly open the door a crack and peek out. Nothing immediately visible, your going to have to open it and look properly. > You outside You slowly open the door until its wide enough for you to fit through the gap, you have your bat ready and slip out into the sun. You carefully look around as you creep into the street, still nothing... 'CRACK' You hear the noise from behind you and whirl around to see something stepping out of a pile of rubbish very close to the door you just came out of. You panic for a moment and consider just running away as fast as you can... when you see it more clearly. It wasn't hiding to ambush you, it's just a shambler. The slowest and least dangerous of all the undead. It was probably lying in that heap for days and only moved because of you walking nearby. You walk up to it and even take the time to do a little impression of a pro-hitter before a single clean strike caves its skull right in and it crumples into a heap on the ground. You briefly reminisce about when the outbreak first happened and it would take several hits to the head to stop them, but now you're a lot stronger and faster than an average human and sport a physique that would have belonged to a professional athlete... if there were any left alive in this messed up world. You wipe your bat clean then begin walking East to the cross-roads a couple hundred yards away, your kill-count on shamblers must be over a hundred by now but you lost count somewhere in the fifties. You now face the choice of which way to go. You intend to reach the far east side of the city and investigate if the survivors are real however the skyscraper district was the most inhabited before the plague hit, which means it still is, only with less welcoming residents. To the North you could head up to the area around the stadium, some people tried to make a stand there and thinned out the undead but there isn't much in the way of food there since they were overwhelmed leaving the area stripped clean. South could probably take you along the highway to the suburbs which has a mixed chance of food and dangerous monsters. Deciding on the North as the safest choice for now you go that way. > You heading North You jog a couple of blocks North before finding a large blockade of crashed rusted cars, you know the area fairly well and slip into a side alley to bypass it, cutting North again through the first intersecting alley. You quickly make it out onto a main road again when you realize something is moving pretty close by to the east, you carefully edge up to a car and climb it to get a clear view. There's one of the wandering hordes that frequent the area working its way down the road. They look like mostly shamblers, but you never know. The other directions look clear leaving you the choice of heading into another ally North, heading down the road West and trying to loop around on a different road or fighting your way through the mob to the east, looks like 6 of them spread out on the road. > You north, back into the alleyways You're already heading North so why not continue and see what the old stadium district has to offer? The alleyways always have a chance of hiding a lurking undead but at least you're not out in the open and visible to anyone who wants to look. You easily slip through several alleyways before hearing a noise behind a closed door. Listening closely you hear some mumbling. mumbling can be very good or very bad. It means it isn't a full undead, so you've either located a survivor or a crazy, theres always a small chance its a harbinger but you highly doubt one would be hiding out in a dingy alley in this area. Of course you could just bypass it and not take the risk, keeping nice and quiet you can easily slip past and maybe even make the stadium district by nightfall. Then again finding an actual survivor is never to be passed up. > You take it Slow and Careful as you Open the Door You carefully test the door and almost have it open enough to slip inside when the hinges squeak, this also causes the mumbling to suddenly stop. Well its took late to go back so you quickly open the door the rest of the way and duck in, moving quickly to the side incase of gunshots. Nothing happens and you aren't hearing movement so whatever was in here is now hiding. You edge forward and take in you surroundings. A dingy small damp room with equipment caged all along the far wall and piles of trash and random looking objects strewn everywhere. Some sort of access room for the air-con of the building behind it you think to yourself as you ready your bat. You decide that the careful friendly approach might work best since you can't see anyone in the room "Is someone there?" you softly call out. Theres silence for a few moments before you hear a quiet chuckle from the pile of trah nearest your left side. "Thats just great, its a crazy after all." you think to yourself. You ready your bat and carefully walk forward until your just past the pile when they jump out at you, bursting into a loud gleeful cackle as they swing their pipe at your head. Luckily this is just what you were counting on and as they jump you spin and land a solid blow to their ribs, sending them crashing to the floor. You move to check if they were really a crazy or just a traumatized survivor but you see dried blood around their mouth and they are still trying to get up to attack with shattered ribs so either way they just need to be put down. You're kind and finish it quickly and cleanly before checking the room and body, packing some food for later and heading back out. "Only a crazy but hey, I have more food in my pack now than I did before so I count a win." you think to yourself as you head further North. > You night in the Northern Alleys You travel until dusk is well underway before trying to locate a good place to rest, the ground is dangerous as the monster types are more active during the dark hours this close to the city centre but its difficult to find secure high up rooms since they are usually magnets for the walkers and crazies. Theres a nice building up ahead though, maybe an old hotel. You can se the fire escape is still standing and could use it to get into an upper room or you could see about the basement and lock yourself into a secure area there since basements usually have nice heavy doors and solid walls. > You hotel basement for the Night The basement is closer and a solid door should hold off anything that comes by, you can always rely on the stupidity of shamblers so even if they follow you, they can't tell the difference between a door and a wall if you keep quiet. You force the lock on the entrance door and head down a short flight of stairs and through another door at the bottom to find yourself in a small square room with the buildings power and heating equipment in it. nothing is working so you wont have to worry about the noise at least. You close both doors then use the two wooden pallets you find to lightly barricade the inner door. looking around you find the rest of the room completely empty so lay down your sheet and begin to rest for the night. Its not too long before you hear the howling some distance off and reach for your bat. Howling means mutant types and most likely dogs, your really don't want to fight a dog pack again. Last time you did that nearly nearly left you ripped into pieces and eaten. You hold your breath but when the howl is heard again its much closer, close enough to be on your scent. You swear and jump to your feet, you can make a mad dash outside and try and get somewhere up high where they can't follow or you hope they pass you by/the doors hold out. > You run for higher ground You grab your things and wrench the flimsy barricade away from the door before sprinting outside, the howling is loud enough now that you're certain they are after you. Seeing a lumbering mass of teeth and muscle turn into the alleyway from the South just confirms your fears as you sprint up the fire escape, pulling the bottom section up after you. You know that the virus has made the dogs stronger faster and much much more dangerous than they were before so you keep sprinting up the fire escape only pausing briefly to see what is coming after you. Its hard to see in the dark but theres defiantly 3 or 4 smaller shadows following the larger one and they are moving at speed now towards the building. You resume sprinting until you close to the roof which you find is a single ladder to the top. You scramble up then lean over the edge to see what is going on below. You see a lot of movement punctuated by barks and yelps when you think you make out one of the dogs leaping off a dumpster onto the fire escape, it creaks lower under its weight allowing more to jump on and within seconds its on the ground with the dogs surging up after you. You stand and ready your bat. You assume the big one is the alpha and wont be able to jump high enough to reach you due to all the muscle it carries, you think it must weigh as much a a small car. The smaller ones however could probably get up to you if they were persistent so you going to have to fend them off. You glance round the rest of the roof and see no movement so prepare for the attack. The first dog to reach the top it pretty lithe compared to the others meaning it still looks like a Doberman on steroids and makes a jump at you, scrabbling at the ladder to try and get purchase. its head lines up nicely at your waist height and you meet it with a solid blow to the skull crashing it down onto its companions as they arrive. They ignore it and all start jumping at you keeping you fully occupied taking swings at them as they start to get purchase on the roof but not landing any more definitive hits. Your starting to get concerned when you hear glass smashing and see several windows are being broken out by undead inside. the dogs quickly loose interest in you in favor of the easier option of readily available food and launch into an all out attack on the shamblers trying to get out towards the noise. You take the opportunity to rest and watch the fight unfold. The Shamblers are clearly just trying to reach the source of the noise while the dogs are actively attacking and trying to rip them apart. The shamblers only seem to fight back after an attack is aimed at them specifically, ignoring the others being taken down. The mutants do easily the most damage at first, tearing several undead completely apart before they get too frenzied and start lashing out in all directions. One leaps in through the window and you hear lots of barking and growling before finally growing quiet and a shambler missing its left arm drags itself through the window. "One got itself overwhelmed" you think to yourself. You see another getting its rear leg bitten into by a shambler on the ground and hear the snap of the bone breaking before it pulled it away but it stays up and fighting until the huge muscled mutant and last smaller one tore the last of the shamblers apart. You watch the three surviving dogs feast on the shamblers before heading back down the fire escape and disappearing South again out of the alleyway. You finally relax and rest until first light when you head down into the alley again and start off North, you've got to be within a few hours of the stadium district now. > You into the stadium district You can tell by the changing architecture that you are nearing the stadium, just a few hours walking at most before you'll reach it. You aren’t too confident about finding food and supplies there but between the holdouts and the military trying to keep the stadium safe, as a refuge you think there shouldn’t be many dead up here. They do wander, though but you get the odd impression that they never wander too far from where they died, circling endlessly for months before their flesh gives up and they become prey for the others. As you get closer you begin to see the signs of battle everywhere, buildings collapsed, old craters, and burnt out cars. They had lasted a really long time in that stadium. You never went too close yourself but you occasionally saw the lights and the signs from tall buildings or when you were scavenging nearby. Over-confidence had been their end, just as you had predicted. Their regimented daily armored patrols, scavenging squads and clearance teams had, over the years, given way to weekly lightly armed excursions and missed guard duties. Their initial efforts probably cleared 95% of the infected in the area so they rarely if ever spotted one. You heard from a few survivors you ran into right after what had happened. “The patrols were just for show and guards rarely bothered to turn up to their shifts by the end. One patrol team went out to do a mix of scavenging and clearing but they were all young had no idea what the early days were like. They went right inside some store on the outskirts of their territory without even checking for infected. A couple got bit when they found a shambler in a locked office. One turned right away and took two more down because they weren’t ready to kill their friends. The two survivors finished the rest off and headed back to the stadium with their tails between their legs and covered with gore. Of course they immediately brought back all the old rules and regulations about ensuring the guard was always there and sending out veterans with the new kids but it was too late, one of the survivors had ingested some splattered blood during the fight and turned a few days later, sadly into a fast bugger. Went on a rampage biting everyone it saw. The people panicked and ran for the roof but it had been neglected for years and a strut failed, bringing the entire thing down, including part of the wall. Between the panic, the dead and the spreading infected inside it was all over and the survivors scattered and ran. No idea where they came from but a large number of dead swarmed them, as if they had been hiding and waiting all that time just to appear at the worst moment. Most probably died in the first few days to the infected or mutants.” You keep going as far as you can but the alleys become tighter and clogged with debris, you can keep to the alleys and clamber through them carefully to keep a low profile or you can head out to the main streets and move quickly. > You keep to the Alleys and move carefully Keep to the alleys and clamber through them carefully to keep a low profile You don’t want to risk getting fully exposed right now and decide to risk the alley ways. You make difficult progress at first and have to slow your pace a lot. The alleys are half blocked with trash and even the occasional human remains. Finally you start to find entire alleys blocked by rubble from collapsed buildings and have to climb over it all. It’s not as if you find this level of exercise difficult or anything but the more you climb and clamber over rubble and trash, the more chance of you stumbling right into infected. Unfortunately this is exactly what happens as you climb over a rubble pile a few minutes later. you just reach the top of the pile which is roughly level with the first floor of the buildings either side when a shambler lurches out from the building to the side and tries to grab you. You manage to shove it away and avoid its bite but now you aren’t in the best position. > You bash it with a bat then continue, it's just one shambler afterall Bash its head in then continue, one shambler won’t even slow you down. You sling your bat out of your belt loop and dispatch the shambler with a brutal efficiency, no time for playing around right now. You quickly wipe your bat off on its shirt and continue climbing down the rubble pile on the other side. “Got to pick up the pace a little.” You think to yourself as you climb the next rubble pile, trying to be more prepared of surprises. You are however getting the impression that the rubble is too regular to be an accident. “Must have been the holdouts trying to block the infected and funnel them” you decide as you continue. It’s only a short time later when climbing a particularly steep pile that the fast type makes an appearance. Normally you can outpace a single one, but halfway up the rubble it comes leaping down at you from above and manages to latch onto your arm before your punches knock it free and you finish it with several good blows with the bat. “Gorram thing ripped my arm open!” you complain to the air, and indeed you now have an obvious bite wound to the flesh of your left arm which needs binding up. You pause there to bandage it quickly with strips of cloth. It’s not nearly the worst wound you’ve had and so long as you keep eating enough you heal fast. After a brief pause you continue without further incident until you climb the last rubble pile and see the Stadium ahead of you. > You approaching the stadium “Now what?” you mumble to yourself as you look around. The streets behind you are either completely clear or blocked entirely by rubble. “Probably the hold outs work.” you think. The area in front has barricades and ditches leading up the stadium seemingly to prevent groups or vehicles from getting close. “Guess forward is the best option if I want to get inside that ruin, all the buildings around here are rubble so not much else around.” You decide that your only choices are to try and get inside the stadium or bypass it North, either way you're going to have to cross some barricades so you might as well take a closer look Scout out the stadium carefully > You scout the area out You begin slowly approaching the stadium, checking every ditch and barricade before crossing them, just incase there are any more surprises lurking there. You make relatively quick progress and are halfway through the blockades when you hear something ahead. You quickly pause and hunker down, taking your time to look ahead to try and locate source of the noise. If your hearing wasn’t so good and you weren’t being so careful you know you would have missed it entirely. There doesn’t seem to be anything close by and the area right in front of the stadium doors is flat and cleared so nothing there. You are about to put the noise up to your own paranoia when you catch a glimpse of movement on a balcony over the door. There’s a man lying on it, watching you through a rifle scope. “Gorramit, this place isn’t deserted and now they have me scoped before I can find out what’s happening.” You mumble to yourself. The man with the gun however has clearly realized he was spotted and stands up, along with 2 others to call out to you. “We know you spotted us so you may as well come out now. Move slowly into the open area in front of the stadium and show us that you aren’t an infected and there will be no problems.” You’ve been through this drill before, you show you aren’t an infected and they lower the guns. You get inside with the survivors. > You might as well go along with it again since they haven't fired yet and your currently goal is to find survivors after all. You know the drill so you may as well go along with it and get inside with the survivors to scout it out at least. You carefully finish getting through the barricades as they assure you that there are no infected ahead and reach the open ground below them. “Right, drop the weapon and show us your skin!” They call down. You lay the bat and your pack down and even start undoing your shirt before remembering that you have a large bite wound on your arm that really isn’t going to go over well with the men holding the guns. You have little choice left now and finish taking off the shirt revealing your skin and the rough bandage on your left arm to the men above. Quite predictably you hear the guns being cocked above you. “What’s the bandage for friend?” You hear called down in a distinctly unfriendly tone. > You can lie about it and just say it was a cut. You aren’t showing any other signs to make them suspicious after all You lie about it and claim you cut it climbing the debris in the alleyways, no point in telling them about the infected biting you. “When I was climbing through the alleyways back there I lost my footing and injured it on some old broken pipe. So I bound it up, as you can see I can still talk normally and show no symptoms! I’ve taken the vaccine after all!” They quietly confer and lower their guns slightly, so far so good. “Alright, the rest of your skins clear and the right color and you can talk normally. The vaccine doesn’t always protect from direct exposure so can’t be too careful. Just show the wound then we can let you inside.” You pause and try and think of a way out of showing it but there isn’t much option here. You slip your shirt back on and roll the sleeve up before taking the bandage off. You try and think quickly about what to say if they challenge your story but you are suddenly stopped short. You hear the loud crack at the same moment as you feel your clavicle disintegrate as if hit by a professional boxer, unfortunately you feel the damage continuing inside, finding when you try to breath, blood comes out of your mouth instead. You collapse back and vaguely hear the man arguing before everything turns black. “He lied; it’s a bite, look at it!” “He has no symptoms you idiot, he’s probably immune and was just wor…”<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You know the drill so you may as well go along with it and get inside with the survivors to scout it out at least. You carefully finish getting through the barricades as they assure you that there are no infected ahead and reach the open ground below them. “Right, drop the weapon and show us your skin!” They call down. You lay the bat and your pack down and even start undoing your shirt before remembering that you have a large bite wound on your arm that really isn’t going to go over well with the men holding the guns. You have little choice left now and finish taking off the shirt revealing your skin and the rough bandage on your left arm to the men above. Quite predictably you hear the guns being cocked above you. “What’s the bandage for friend?” You hear called down in a distinctly unfriendly tone. > You own up but point out that you have taken the vaccine and bites don’t affect you. No Point in lying about it now. You call up to them carefully, preparing to run if needed. “Firstly I’ve had the vaccine and had bites before with no affect. It’s a bite wound, from a fast bugger back in the alleyways. I’m not hiding anything!” You see one of the men react and take aim at you, you’re about to dodge when the one who is clearly in charge swats his gun to the side and the shot misses you by a few feet. “Put that gun down you idiot, what the hell you think you’re doing?” he shouts “He’s been bit! He admitted it!” the man replies clearly panicked. “And he has no symptoms, he also has been bitten before and no reaction so obviously the vaccine works for him. Are you mentally challenged or something?” He turns back to you. “Sorry about that, he’s just a little panicky at the moment even if he knows full well the vaccine protects some people from all exposure, even bites. We are letting you in, but be warned; you’re being quarantined until we can be sure.” You collect your things and head inside. “So the vaccine protects some people from bites as well as the airborne strain but others get infected by it regardless. Good to know.” You think as you head inside and find more guns pointed your way. “Seems your skin is the right color, you can still bleed and still talk but you’ve been bitten. It’s a few days in our quarantine for you my friend.” One of them says to you. You quickly find yourself in a locked room in some basement area where you stay undisturbed until you judge its night time, a lamp on the outside wall giving some light through the door’s window. A soldier finally arrives to take a look at the wound. “Don’t worry mate, I’m a military doctor so I’m just here to take a look at that bite of yours.” He says as you let him take the bandage off and put a fresh proper one on it. “There, got it wrapped up properly now, I thought you said you just got it in the alleyway, it looks at least a couple of days of healing there?” You think quickly. “Oh I got it in the alleys, just not today, I’ve been clambering around in there for days now, I had no idea anyone was left here so I’ve been slowly making my way as I scavenge.” You watch his face and it seems he buys it. “Yeh, after the collapse almost everyone died or fled. Some of us are back now and making a new start. Well back in a day or two to make sure you haven’t gone crazy on us or anything. Longest I ever heard before a man turned was 3 days, and he just became a crazy so if you’re still you when you see me next I’ll get you outa here.” You’re left a tray of food as the door is once more locked. And a few more hours pass with no noise outside the door. > You time to break out of here, you’re stronger than most and a few good charges will bust the door wide open. There’s no way you’re staying locked up in here, not when you’re close to a perfect food source that will last you months, you’re hungers back again stronger than ever for some reason too. Time to act on it! You get yourself prepared and listen at the door but hear nothing there; you back off and charge the door with your shoulder. You feel it crack but it’s not open yet. You back off and try again, this time smashing through as the bolts give way. You’re just about to congratulate yourself on your own strength when the shouting catches your attention. Guards are coming down the stairs just 20 feet to your right. Seems smashing a door open makes a lot of noise. You sprint at them and catch them off guard near the base of the steps, they clearly didn’t expect your speed or strength as you punch one in the chest, feeling his ribs crack. The others react better, trying to raise their guns. You move quickly and swat one to the side, punching the guy in the throat before spinning on the last guard. You can see in his eyes that he just simply want prepared to fight anything as fast or strong as you as he fires and misses right before you kill him too. You quickly ensure they are all dead and are about to leave when your hunger gets the better of you and you take a moment to grab one of the men’s knives to hack a chunk of flesh off which you eat ravenously. As soon as you have eaten and your hunger subsides your senses return somewhat. “What am I doing? I can’t waste time eating here when more guards will be coming.” You think. You glance around but the tunnel is blocked off at the other end and the only way is up the stairs. You can also already hear a lot of guards up there shouting and cocking weapons for you. “Bloody hungers gotten me killed, guess that bite did have some affect after all.” You back off, trying to think of a plan when the new guards arrive. At least a dozen with guns, all ready to fire and pointed your way. Once they see what’s happened they simple swear and some look like they are about to fire when one man steps a little forward and raises a hand. “HOLD!” he looks behind to ensure the men obey before turning back to you. “SO you smashed through a solid door, killed three armed guards and ate some of their flesh, all while not acting crazy. Welcome to our holdout harbinger.” The men all start swearing and some are clearly getting itchy trigger fingers despite the hold order. You finally reply. “Well this isn’t exactly how I wanted to be found out but getting bitten earlier today seemed to send my hunger into overdrive. But yes I am indeed a harbinger, I usually only get to tell people before they die rather than before I do but I guess I had a good run and ate my fair share of people” you end with a bit of a grin, awaiting the bullets. “Oh you won’t die so easily.” The Capt. Replies. You are about to question him when he gives the order to shoot your knees and elbows. It seems like every man there was just waiting for the chance and you feel you limbs practically disintegrate from all the shots. “Bind the wounds and retrain him, we have experiments to conduct.” You hear as you lose consciousness. You survive the experiments for several weeks due to your advanced healing and innate strength before your mind and body finally give out to the torture, it seems they found out little of use, but many of them defiantly felt better as they tortured you.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>No Point in lying about it now. You call up to them carefully, preparing to run if needed. “Firstly I’ve had the vaccine and had bites before with no affect. It’s a bite wound, from a fast bugger back in the alleyways. I’m not hiding anything!” You see one of the men react and take aim at you, you’re about to dodge when the one who is clearly in charge swats his gun to the side and the shot misses you by a few feet. “Put that gun down you idiot, what the hell you think you’re doing?” he shouts “He’s been bit! He admitted it!” the man replies clearly panicked. “And he has no symptoms, he also has been bitten before and no reaction so obviously the vaccine works for him. Are you mentally challenged or something?” He turns back to you. “Sorry about that, he’s just a little panicky at the moment even if he knows full well the vaccine protects some people from all exposure, even bites. We are letting you in, but be warned; you’re being quarantined until we can be sure.” You collect your things and head inside. “So the vaccine protects some people from bites as well as the airborne strain but others get infected by it regardless. Good to know.” You think as you head inside and find more guns pointed your way. “Seems your skin is the right color, you can still bleed and still talk but you’ve been bitten. It’s a few days in our quarantine for you my friend.” One of them says to you. You quickly find yourself in a locked room in some basement area where you stay undisturbed until you judge its night time, a lamp on the outside wall giving some light through the door’s window. A soldier finally arrives to take a look at the wound. “Don’t worry mate, I’m a military doctor so I’m just here to take a look at that bite of yours.” He says as you let him take the bandage off and put a fresh proper one on it. “There, got it wrapped up properly now, I thought you said you just got it in the alleyway, it looks at least a couple of days of healing there?” You think quickly. “Oh I got it in the alleys, just not today, I’ve been clambering around in there for days now, I had no idea anyone was left here so I’ve been slowly making my way as I scavenge.” You watch his face and it seems he buys it. “Yeh, after the collapse almost everyone died or fled. Some of us are back now and making a new start. Well back in a day or two to make sure you haven’t gone crazy on us or anything. Longest I ever heard before a man turned was 3 days, and he just became a crazy so if you’re still you when you see me next I’ll get you outa here.” You’re left a tray of food as the door is once more locked. And a few more hours pass with no noise outside the door. > You wait it out. What’s a couple of days in solitary when you’ve spent years doing it? You feel hungry, far more hungry than normal and eating the lukewarm rations provided for you doesn’t hurt at all, but you’ve decided to wait it out. If you had your pack it wouldn’t be so bad since you had a few meat strips left in there but your bat and bag are gone for now. You curl up on the cot and spend the entire night trying to ignore your hunger. As it turns morning you hear someone approaching and a tray of food is left inside the door for you. You didn’t sleep well however once you eat the rations and rest again for a bit the hunger isn’t as bad. Lunch and dinner pass with more food provided. It doesn’t seem to agree with you at all, and you’re not surprised by that, however the hunger has passed and you spend the third night mostly sleeping pretty well all things considered. You aren’t surprised the next day when the army medic returns and leaves the door open behind him. “Quick test then your free to join the rest of what is left of society!” You are finally directed up into an atrium where you find four guards waiting for you. The medic disappears into a side room and the four take charge of leading you around. > You inside the stadium doors The four lead you to a room where you’re made to hand over your things and strip to your underwear while two of them check you for marks and prick your arms, causing you to bleed a little. Finally after discussion they let you get dressed and welcome you to the area. “Sorry about all the security but after what happened before, we can’t be too careful.” They tell you as you emerge into the center of the stadium. “The roof came down with the wall but as you can see it held mostly intact and covered over two thirds of the space down here.” You look up and see the roof lying on the lowest level of the seats, leaving plenty of room underneath for a small community, a few holes near the top letting the light in. “It also blocked off all but two of the tunnels with rubble so it kind of fixed the defense issue for us too.” “How many of you are here now?” you ask looking at the small group. “Only about 40 for now, we are hoping for more to arrive slowly as we have been getting the word out that it’s a safe zone now. Sorry again about all the checks but we have to be extra careful now of who we let in.” “You mentioned that before, I thought it was some survivor that got infected that caused everything?” you reply while thinking to yourself ‘Might as well get what information I can while they are still talking and the higher ups haven’t come sniffin to make life difficult.’ “That’s what we thought but some of the military guys saw more of what was happening than most of us, said that the infected outside had moved in close overnight and the ones inside behaved weirdly. Didn’t attack and eat like normal, they went on biting sprees, like spreading fresh infection was their goal. Like they were organized. We think they were led by a harbinger! So now we check everyone for bite marks, greying skin or lack of bleeding from small cuts to make sure they aren’t one!” “You idiots, those are just myths” you think to yourself “Harbingers looks nearly identical to normal humans, well I guess I won’t be the one to tell you the truth at least.” You finally see a man in full dress uniform approach “Here we go” you mutter under your breath. The man approaches you and is, to your surprise, very congenial. He welcomes you to their little hold out and asks only a few cursory questions before excusing himself to go and check on the other lookouts. He does make you affirm that if you would like to stay you would be willing to help out with defense if needed. “Well that wasn’t so bad.” You mutter just loud enough for your guards to hear. One laughs and responds. “A nice guy in charge? Yeh, rare enough I suppose, but people wouldn’t still follow the Capt. if he was an ass would they! Come on we will show you around.” You follow them around the accessible areas under the roof and see the paths up to the balcony where the men were on guard, you also notice that there are higher balconies with men in soldier’s uniforms on them. “Probably good I didn’t run” you think to yourself as you see the tents and shacks set up for sleeping and the tunnels used for storage. “Well that’s pretty much it.” One of the men says, looking around him. “Obviously there used to be a lot more here before the collapse but this is just the start. Once word spreads and more survivors gather we can tidy the place up more.” You think for a moment before speaking again. “Isn’t there some big group to the East of the city doing well, I heard a rumor about it some months back.” The guard smiles knowingly before responding. “It’s true! We had contact with them some time back via a series of radios we were setting up in the city. This was right before the collapse O’course. Seems that they got a really good thing going out there, clean food and water, even fields and solar panels up for power! Sadly when the roof came down, it took out our good radio equipment and most of the relays in the city are unreachable now without the manpower we used to have. We might not have enough men here to push through but we think if we hold out here and gather a good community then we can scout a safe route through the North of the city to the river and cross there. For now we are going to be the western safe zone for people unable to pass the city. You wouldn’t believe the monsters we used to kill in there when we had out jeeps and heavy guns. Most people that try and get through the city to the bridges die trying or turn back having lost their friends, some tried to circle up North or South well past the city limits but seems that there are infected and mutants out there too and no way to safely cross the river unless you carry a boat.” He trails off and you can see he is thinking of past friends, he was probably one of the ones who tried to get through and failed. “Well I better go get my stuff back and find a place to rest.” You state. The guards give you a nod and let you wander back to the entrance tunnel to collect your gear. You get pointed to your new temporary home, a small tent on the old pitch. Considering you half expected to get killed as soon as you saw the men with the guns this day has really turned out in your favor! > You your new home at the stadium You make some more small talk that evening then retire to your tent, you had learned something new and important today. They all seemed to strongly believe a Herald had somehow led and controlled the infected, even the ones inside the stadium. Some blamed him for planning the entire thing and that the infected had attacked the strut when it fell. Hard to believe but after seeing what the infection was able to do to some animals you were willing to give the idea a chance. That also meant that even if they had no idea what Heralds were really like, there must have been one in the area only a year or so ago and still might be. You were going to have to be extra careful with your planning for now. The second important thing was that they had a few shamblers trapped down in some old storage rooms, they experimented on them for good ways to hurt them and how long they lasted without food. You have choices to make in the morning. > You first light in the stadium A quiet ringing wakes you at first light. “Huh a near silent alarm, smatter than a loud one I guess.” You say to yourself as you get ready. You glance through your bag. They had left your last few strips of dried meat in there so you start chowing down on one as you head out. They said you had a few days to decide what you’d be doing but if you chose to stay more than that, then you would have to be useful to them in some way, guard duty and scavenging seemed to be the implied option. You had some time though. > You check out the caged shamblers They are keeping shamblers fully contained for experiments, with everything you’ve heard recently it’s just too tempting to pass up a little look at what’s going on. You know the rough location and after finding the stairs down, you emerge into a basement area with several doors leading off it. You also find two guards who ask what you’re looking for. “I heard there were some shamblers in cages being tested here and wanted to have a look. Its not often you get to see they relatively close without having to run away after all.” You joke. Luckily neither of them seems to think this is too out of the ordinary. “Yeh most new guys end up down here once they hear about it. Go on through and the doc can show you what’s up. Door gets locked behind you though, safety first.” He adds with a wink. You get let through a heavy door into a side corridor and indeed you hear the sound of a reassuringly large bolt being secured behind you. At the end of the corridor you see an open door with the lights on so head there first, passing two doors on either side with heavy bolts on them. You find a man in military uniform at a desk, writing in a book. He looks up at your arrival. “Ah the newest new guy! I wondered if you’d find your way down here. Most of them do once they hear about our test subjects. Let me show you around!” At first you are a little taken aback by his willingness to show you everything having only just met you but after a few minutes it becomes clear that he isn’t divulging important secrets, he’s an army medic acting as the stadiums doctor and their tests amount to two shamblers being starved slowly to death on one side of the corridor and two having weapons tested on them through slots in the door on the other. One still has a crossbow bolt in its upper leg, giving it a limp. “That’s about it sadly.” He sums up for you. “We had string tied to the bolts to get them back easily but that one caught on the bone so the string snapped. We did find out that destroying their joints and muscles is effective in slowing them down and they will die from large trauma, not just neural damage. So shooting knees and legs will stop them chasing you faster than a snail and body shots can kill them despite what anyone else says. We proved it with a fast bugger we found down here. 2 shots in the chest and he went down. Sure they can keep going with far more damage than a normal human but most things still work on them eventually.” You nod along, filling the information at the back of your mind for later, it matches up with your findings as well. “I’m guessing the closer to human they are, the easier they go down then? The crazies seem to be just like humans, the fast ones a little tougher and the shamblers just soak up damage if it’s not the head.” The man smiles and nods. “A man of experience. I assume the vaccine gave you full protection if you were able to test all of that out. You are right of course, the further from human they go, the tougher they get, taking more normal damage to kill them. Destroying the neural center is always effective though, headshots I mean. It’s easier if you don’t think of them as human.” He peeks through the windows a few more times before heading back to his office. “You’re welcome to stay and test things out on number 4, just never remove a lock no matter how dead they look.” The doors have large numbers on them so number 4 turns out to be the one with a crossbow bolt in its leg. “So it seems you are the expendable one.” You say quietly through the small slot. “You’ll be seeing more of me soon.” You head back up into the light to make up an excuse for being there so much and decide on something basic, you head off in search of materials in the rubble. > You testing time You exchange pleasantries with a few of the others in the stadium while you search and give the impression that you will probably choose to stay but just need a day or two to decide. A few even give you a hand in your search and after a couple of hours you have some forked metal the right size and shape and industrial elastic cable housing to make a high powered slingshot. You grab various possible projectiles from pebbles to bits of jagged metal and head back down to speak to the doc. You explain that you’ve always wanted to test how shamblers react to projectile damage as a way of killing them quietly. He has no issues but tells you that you’ll have to write down your findings. You get a small notebook with columns to fill out for weapon name and type, type of damage, effect on the shambler, tissue types… the list goes on but you know it’ll be fairly easy to fill out once you shoot them a few times. You glance a few pages back to see what else has been tried. “Huh, a flamethrower.” You say out loud. The Doc. Overhears from his office and calls out. “Highly effective, turned it into a walking torch and killed it in seconds, made a huge mess and bad smell though. Sadly ran out of fuel.” You shrug and get to work. You leave the slot on door number four and lean up against the opposite wall. You wait for it to wander into view and let fire with a small rock. Your slingshot is extremely powerful, to the point that a average male couldn’t even draw it properly but with your strength you can get it back a fair distance. The pebble hits at speed and pierces the skin of its abdomen. You note down your findings and tries out a few different projectiles. The small jagged metal pieces beaten into roughly a ball shape seem to win for the moment, you manage to shatter its clavicle with one and break its wrist with another. The doctor makes an appearance and glances through your notes. “Excellent, I can add all this to the data later on.” He says as much to himself as to you as he heads off out on some errand. Once he is gone you move closer to the door and pretend to be writing in the book just in case anyone is watching you. “So number 4, if you had any brain left you’d know by now that in our relationship, I am in charge, I can hurt you at will and you can do nothing, but you don’t really have a brain left do you?” You receive the silence that you expected so carry on. “I’ll be here a lot ‘testing’ weapons and other things on you but I have bigger plans for you and your brothers if some rumors I have been hearing work out.” You take your time there, concentrating, until you’ve used up all your makeshift ammo, you write a few more notes for the doc. Then head back up for lunch. > The testing continues Over the next two days you spend a lot of you time down ‘testing’ out various things on number 4, since you obviously had no qualms hurting the shamblers the doc and a couple of others even gave you their ideas to use on it which you did happily as it gave you more excuses to be down there. You also had your chat with the Capt. and said you’d be wanting to stay and would obviously help out with guard duty and scavenging if needed but hoped you could keep helping the doc too. He agreed and gave you half time guard duty and half time being the doc’s new assistant for the coming week to see how it worked out. You use the arrangement to your advantage and get to spend most of your evenings down with the shamblers. It’s 5 days before you make a break through, not a big one, but you defiantly notice something. You’ve been testing various weapons and objects on Number 4, as you call him, every day while concentrating hard and you were even beginning to doubt anything would happen when you hit him in there eye with a rusty bolt and you feel a slight twinge in your mind. You spend the next hour trying to concentrate on where and how you felt that twinge and when you fire the next bolt into its chest, you feel it again, a little clearer. The rest of the evening and a little into the night is spent this way until you are certain you can feel the shamblers presence with your mind and can tell when it feels pain. “So, the rumors are true, harbingers ARE able to use their minds in ways normal humans can’t. Next I work on controlling them.” You think as you head to sleep > You morning revelations You wake in the morning and realize that you can already feel the presence of the shamblers in the basement below without having to concentrate on it. You also get a hazy feeling throughout the stadium that you can’t pin down yet. You quickly eat breakfast with the other guards and head up to your post while eating your last meat strip. “The last of that crazy I killed a while back” You think as you set up on your balcony. Luckily you are alone today on a not very important post so you can relax and concentrate on the new sensations you mind is feeding you. After a few hours you find the haziness resolve into pockets that move about and decide that it must be linked to the normal people in the stadium. You can’t get anything stronger from the shamblers yet but if you made this much progress just by sleeping on it, who knows what I can do in a few more days. That evening you take a long pole with a spike on the end down, it will give you a good excuse to be close to the door for long periods of time while you pretend to stab at number 4. Once you are seated and staring at him the sensations gets strong and you can easily tell when it feels pain from being stabbed. “Huh, you don’t outwardly respond but the pains still there, interesting.” Two more days pass of these mornings concentrating and evenings testing and by the end you can tell what is happening to number 4 or any of the other 3 shamblers even from up in the stadium. While you were eating lunch, you felt that number 4 got stabbed in the left shoulder, and sure enough when you went down, there was the doc writing down that stabbing it through the shoulder join restricted its movement in that arm. “I’m testing if it recovers from its injuries now so please avoid its shoulder and arm for now if you test more.” He says as he passes you the book and heads up to eat. It’s now been several days since you arrived and you ran out of human flesh days ago. The food they give you doesn’t sit well or seem to quench your hunger but the progress you are making is distracting you enough that you can ignore it for now. You are even getting on well with several of the others in the stadium which gives you doubts for the first time about your original plans to kill them all and feed off them. You could probably volunteer for a scavenging mission to try and get some food out there but you’d probably only manage to get hold of some shambler flesh and it was simply not the same as normal flesh. Seemed just like the toughness, the further from human they got, the less useful their flesh was. But for now you move onto the next stage, time to make the puppet dance for you. You concentrate hard of the feeling you get from what you presume is the remains of the shamblers mind and try to make it lift its right arm into the air with little success, however, over the next few hours you see the arm twitch and eventually it responds and you see it lifting its arm up over its head. You lean back against the opposite wall feeling elated by your success when the doc returns. “Hey! You’ve got the mother of all nose bleeds there! Let me grab some gauze.” He heads into his office and returns quickly while you dab at your own nose, seems you were concentrating so hard you didn’t even feel it happening. You do however now feel fairly light headed so after being cleaned up and making your excuses you head up to lie down in your tent and very unusually fall asleep for the whole evening and night. The morning brings the final revelation and the decisions. You wake to a solid feeling of not only where the four shamblers are, but roughly what they are doing. Concentrating easily makes number 4 turn in a circle and only a little more effort is required to make the others do the same. A slight tingling at the reaches of your mind tells you that you can sense other infected out in the alleys near the stadium. “Time to make a choice. This mind stuff seems like a muscle, the more I use it, the stronger I get. Sleeping after a breakthrough only seems to reinforce it too. In days I’m certain I’ll be able to control small groups of the shamblers at the same time so I’ll have to start testing on the other types next. Can’t get anything from the normals other than a hazy feeling though.” You’re a Harbinger and you’ve eaten people for years, time to flex those powers, use the shamblers to help you wipe the stadium survivors out. You are a harbinger, but you aren’t sure you want to attack these people right now. Stay playing nice as you are while you train your powers, maybe get out on some scavenges to test yourself further. > You you're a Harbinger and you've eaten people for years, time to flex those powers, use the shamblers to help you wipe the stadium survivors out. Time to make your move, you are inside with four shamblers you can control and it’s time to feast! You wait until after breakfast when everyone splits up and head down to see the Doc, you find him leaning over some books in his office like normal so you head right inside and shut the door behind you. “What can I help you with.” He asks, giving you a quick smile before turning back to his books. You look round and see one of the blades that had been used to experiment on number 4. You lift it and walk carefully up behind the doc as you talk. “I have just a minor problem I need solved, I’ve been feeling very hungry lately and the rations here don’t really solve it. He starts to turn to answer you when you strike and stab him in the throat, preventing him from shouting out, you watch him die with only the faintest hint of remorse before you feel that last flicker of humanity disappear once more and you feast on him for a few minutes. You quickly clean the blood off yourself and head back out, tapping on the door to be let through to the security area. Only two guards and you are a lot faster than a normal human. You strike quickly, catching one in the throat and stabbing the other in the chest, clamping your free hand over his mouth before he can shout for help. You quickly drag them into the corridor before releasing the four shamblers who were to be the start of your little army, you concentrate hard but find it is easy to prevent them from attacking you and they quickly obey your compulsions to feed on the dead guards. Finally prepared, you head back out the door and to the base of the stairs, you can feel something fuzzy headed your way so you hide the shamblers round the corner and lean against the wall, trying to seem carefree as you see another guard heading down towards you. You give him a smile and a nod which he begins to return before looking at your trousers and pausing several steps away. You glance down and realize that one trouser leg has a lot of blood on it, must have been from dragging the guards. You look back up and start to go for the guard but he is already raising his gun, you bat it aside and stab him had enough in the chest to feel multiple ribs crack under your fist however his gun goes off with a loud crack. You swear and immediately head up the stairs with your shamblers only to find several other guards running your way, you try to charge them but being seem with blood on you and in the company of the four shamblers means they start firing first. Even with your speed you don’t make it more than a few feet before the bullets bring you down.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You wake in the morning and realize that you can already feel the presence of the shamblers in the basement below without having to concentrate on it. You also get a hazy feeling throughout the stadium that you can’t pin down yet. You quickly eat breakfast with the other guards and head up to your post while eating your last meat strip. “The last of that crazy I killed a while back” You think as you set up on your balcony. Luckily you are alone today on a not very important post so you can relax and concentrate on the new sensations you mind is feeding you. After a few hours you find the haziness resolve into pockets that move about and decide that it must be linked to the normal people in the stadium. You can’t get anything stronger from the shamblers yet but if you made this much progress just by sleeping on it, who knows what I can do in a few more days. That evening you take a long pole with a spike on the end down, it will give you a good excuse to be close to the door for long periods of time while you pretend to stab at number 4. Once you are seated and staring at him the sensations gets strong and you can easily tell when it feels pain from being stabbed. “Huh, you don’t outwardly respond but the pains still there, interesting.” Two more days pass of these mornings concentrating and evenings testing and by the end you can tell what is happening to number 4 or any of the other 3 shamblers even from up in the stadium. While you were eating lunch, you felt that number 4 got stabbed in the left shoulder, and sure enough when you went down, there was the doc writing down that stabbing it through the shoulder join restricted its movement in that arm. “I’m testing if it recovers from its injuries now so please avoid its shoulder and arm for now if you test more.” He says as he passes you the book and heads up to eat. It’s now been several days since you arrived and you ran out of human flesh days ago. The food they give you doesn’t sit well or seem to quench your hunger but the progress you are making is distracting you enough that you can ignore it for now. You are even getting on well with several of the others in the stadium which gives you doubts for the first time about your original plans to kill them all and feed off them. You could probably volunteer for a scavenging mission to try and get some food out there but you’d probably only manage to get hold of some shambler flesh and it was simply not the same as normal flesh. Seemed just like the toughness, the further from human they got, the less useful their flesh was. But for now you move onto the next stage, time to make the puppet dance for you. You concentrate hard of the feeling you get from what you presume is the remains of the shamblers mind and try to make it lift its right arm into the air with little success, however, over the next few hours you see the arm twitch and eventually it responds and you see it lifting its arm up over its head. You lean back against the opposite wall feeling elated by your success when the doc returns. “Hey! You’ve got the mother of all nose bleeds there! Let me grab some gauze.” He heads into his office and returns quickly while you dab at your own nose, seems you were concentrating so hard you didn’t even feel it happening. You do however now feel fairly light headed so after being cleaned up and making your excuses you head up to lie down in your tent and very unusually fall asleep for the whole evening and night. The morning brings the final revelation and the decisions. You wake to a solid feeling of not only where the four shamblers are, but roughly what they are doing. Concentrating easily makes number 4 turn in a circle and only a little more effort is required to make the others do the same. A slight tingling at the reaches of your mind tells you that you can sense other infected out in the alleys near the stadium. “Time to make a choice. This mind stuff seems like a muscle, the more I use it, the stronger I get. Sleeping after a breakthrough only seems to reinforce it too. In days I’m certain I’ll be able to control small groups of the shamblers at the same time so I’ll have to start testing on the other types next. Can’t get anything from the normals other than a hazy feeling though.” You’re a Harbinger and you’ve eaten people for years, time to flex those powers, use the shamblers to help you wipe the stadium survivors out. You are a harbinger, but you aren’t sure you want to attack these people right now. Stay playing nice as you are while you train your powers, maybe get out on some scavenges to test yourself further. > You are a harbinger, but you aren't sure you want to attack these people right now. Stay playing nice as you are while you train your powers, maybe get out on some scavenges to test yourself further. You decide that attacking now is pointless, you’d not be strong enough to take out all of the armed guards without the risk of getting shot and you are getting on well with a few of them. You spend the next few days more on guard duty and less down in the basement, flexing your abilities from further away to try and strengthen them. You think you can even reach one of two of the nearest ones out in the streets from the balcony. Finally you talk to the doc and the Capt. and volunteer to go along with a couple of scavenging missions, a couple of days before two men from a team didn’t return so they are happy for the offer of help. Your first mission goes smoothly as it’s a quick run to a relatively close store which a scout said still had some tins in its store room. For the others it’s a routine food grab but for you, it’s your chance to begin testing your new powers out properly. Sure you’ve been able to control the shamblers inside the stadium but that was only after days spent concentrating on them. What you needed were some shamblers you hadn’t tried anything on before or even some fast types. Not that you were planning on seeking them out, but if you sensed one close then you could give it a go. You did get closer to a couple of shamblers, finding that it only took you a few moments of hard concentration to get them to do simple tasks like change direction or move a specific limb. Happy with your success you help the others bring what little food there was back to the stadium and volunteered to go out again the next day. > You mission 2 The second mission begins the same as the first, a team of 4 sent out to check an old store you think might still have some supplies in it. This one is a little further away but it’s to the West and away from the city center so your team is confident that they won’t run into too much trouble. You set out happily, planning on testing your ability to make the shamblers do more complicated tasks when you quickly sense something slightly different from before, similar to a shambler but… more complicated, where the shambler feels like the last remnants of a broken and dead mind this feels more like a mind that has been twisted and shattered, but not yet dying. You concentrate on it hard for the next few minutes as you walk and realize that it’s moving about, jumping or running from spot to spot. It must be one of the fast ones or crazies. You walk onwards and soon move out of your range to sense it but an hour or so later you sense another one ahead of you. “As if my test subjects were lining up for me” You joke to yourself as you begin trying to affect its mind. You go through the process as you had with the shamblers, concentrating on sensing them properly first, then getting an idea of their sensations and finally trying to make it react to your prodding. It takes you about 2 hours but you finally have a good sense of what to do, its definitely a fast type infected and making them follow simple actions is only slightly different to the shamblers so by the time you reach your destination it’s only a couple of streets away but you have it walking in circles on command. “Dude, you hit your face of something?” one of the men quietly calls back to you and you realize that you have a nose bleed again. Not as bad as before but you quickly wipe it clean. “Yeh, sorry, I just get them sometimes.” You say as you clean the blood off. “Guess concentrating that hard on the other infected means I miss a lot, going to have to be more careful.” You think. You quickly realize that you have all arrived at the store, and there are several more infected in the vicinity. You were concentrating so hard on the one that you missed a second fast type not far off and several nearby shamblers. The rest of your team, completely unaware of the danger just streets away, starts to head into the store to check for the supplies. “I guess I could go for the big test now.” You think to yourself The team is contained and you can control the infected, you could use them to take them out as the first step to destroying the stadium hold out or you could force them all far away and help the stadium people for now, some of them are treating you like a real friend after all. > You take the first step to wiping the stadium out, use the infected to kill the team then eat them before returning You’ve wasted enough time playing happy families with this small community, your three team-mates will be the first to fall and become your food as you work to wipe them all out. Maybe you’ll even keep a few caged up to eat later, that would be a funny reversal, you think to yourself as you concentrate on all the surrounding infected, drawing them towards the store. “Just going to wipe all this blood off then I’ll be right in!” you call to the others before climbing on top of an old van across the street. No point in being a sitting duck incase the control isn’t as strong as you hope. In moments the nearest shambles and fast type appear. “Got about 6 shamblers and two fast types once the other arrives, should be enough” You wait for the second fast type, holding the infected at bay a few metres from the store, it’s harder to stop them once they can hear and smell the human flesh inside but you find, as with all your powers, that as soon as you master it once, it becomes very easy to do again. You edge them closer to the store until finally one of the men begins walking outside with a bag. You send the fast types rushing at him and he barely has time to react before them knock him to the ground and start feeding off him. The shamblers are only a few feet behind and also start biting into him, ensuring he is dead before the other two scavengers run to the door, guns ready. The fast types don’t respond instantly and you have to force with all of your will to make them stop feeding and go after the two in the doorway however the seconds lost doing this gets one on them shot and badly injured. You can feel its organs giving out so you ignore it now and concentrate on the other one. It makes it close enough to bite into one of the men’s arm and you get lucky. It seems the vaccine isn’t protecting him from direct exposure since you see his actions slowing down and the strange haze you sense from normal humans diminishes before your eyes. You send the rest of the nearby infected inside after the last survivor. You feel him taking down four of them but finally he gets bitten and overwhelmed. The infected make no move to come after you despite your proximity so you climb down and take your time to feed off your former team mates. > You tIme to get back to the stadium for part two You grab one of the men’s bags, partly full of tins, and carefully clean any trace of blood off your face. Leaving the guns behind, you bash in the head of the slowly dying fast type to make it look like you fought, then head back to the stadium. Once close you start running and panting a little for effect. The guards see you some distance away and they are already with guns aimed past you at the street when you get close. “They swarmed us, I was the only one fast enough to get away!” you call up. The gate opens and you are ushered inside quickly before seeing it being barricaded again from the inside. You tell your story about seeming to be ambushed by them when you were in the store a couple more times and it seems like everyone is buying it. Just a few days before the other scavengers to loose teammates told a similar story after all. You are given the rest of the day and the next one off from duties and spend it relaxing in your tent, simply prying with your mind as far as you could and drawing any infected you find, closer to the stadium. It seems that wherever you leave them, they stay. Sure they wander around nearby streets and buildings sometimes but never too far from where they started and they seem to usually return there. By dinner of the second day you have a fair number of shamblers and 1 fast type in the surrounding alleyways and buildings and you hear over dinner that everyone is sure that the harbinger had returned. Seem like this sort of thing fitted right into their suspicions. Time to get to work, the food here feels like its poisoning you now the more you eat of it. You have your army ready and know the enemy defenses perfectly; they think you are one of their defenders after all. At night the doc often sleeps in his office and there are only two guards so you are sure you can get the 4 shamblers out to go wild inside then all you’ll need is to get some on the ones from outside into the stadium to complete your victory. You are considering the best way to do this when you sense all the infected you brought close suddenly begin leaving towards the South and you cannot bring them back no matter how hard you concentrate. The last one pauses and you can feel that it seems to be waving at you for a few minutes, beckoning you after it almost, before it turns and heads South and eventually out of your range to sense it. “Well that’s odd.” You think as you watch it vanish along with your immediate attack plans. “Best bet is that they were right and the original harbinger is back, seems he wants to talk to me too.” The morning will bring a new decision to make, Go to meet the other harbinger or ignore his summons and take down the stadium yourself with your own army; you’ll just need to gather a new one first. > You go to meet the harbinger You wake first thing in the morning to find no other infected have come near to the stadium. “At least he is respectful” you think as you get up. You share a meal with the others as you ponder your next move; however it’s hard to pass on the chance to meet another like you. You go to see the Capt. right after eating. You find him with one of his soldiers looking over a map of this part of the city, probably planning some more scavenges. “Um, Sir, mind if we talk?” He looks up at you then waves the other soldier out leaving the two of you alone. “So what can I help you with?” He asks, having already turned back to his map. “Well, before I came here I stashed a few things of importance to me, memento’s and the like. I want to go retrieve them. I didn’t really expect this place to be inhabited so I stashed them near my old place to the South.” The Capt. quickly asks. “Is it within half a day’s walk of here?” “No, its going to take 2 or three days to get there and back.” You reply. At first he does not respond and you are finally about to speak up and break the silence when he gives his answer. “I can’t send a team with you, too dangerous but I won’t stop you going alone either. It’s your choice, please send Harry back in.” You shrug and head outside, finding a soldier waiting outside “The Capt. said to go back in now.” You tell him as you head off back to you tent. “Well I guess that was Harry at least.” You think as you grab your things and head to the gate. You are let out without a second glance, they trust you now afterall, and begin walking South to where you saw the shambler last. About halfway there you sense it again, South-East of its original position. It waves again and you follow after it, letting it stay a few blocks ahead of you as it leads you South and East of your position. You walk for the rest of the day before finally being lead to a small shop that looks like it might have been a high class gentleman’s tailor before the infection spread. Very heavy duty shutters are down over most of the windows however the door is uncovered and propped open. You try and sense inside and feel something akin to a bright, almost blinding light inside. You quickly stop trying to sense it but you kept your mind open long enough to realize that there are hundreds of infected of different types in the surrounding buildings. > You meeting the man You hear a chuckle from inside and hear an old man’s voice calling to you. “Oh don’t worry so much and come on in, your abilities will grow stronger in time, you are simply less practiced than me!” You start walking to the door and see and old man with a broom sweeping some near invisible dirt out of the door before standing aside for you to enter. You walk past him to find yourself in the fanciest tailors you’ve ever seen, with suits you never could have afforded before the infection spread. You glance again at the old man then back to the suits. He is clearly well dressed but not in anything as fine as the clothing in the store. You hear him chuckling again as pulls the shutters down and closes the door leaving everything in a dim sort of twilight. “Yes I am the tailor not the customer. I made every suit in this store to sell to others but it never felt quite right to wear one myself.” You can make out that he is looking you up and down, clearly not bothered by the lack of light. “You on the hand might need some new clothing; I’ll adjust something for you later. For now let’s head upstairs.” He heads off still holding his broom and you follow him closely, trying not to bump into anything until you reach the second floor and light from the open windows makes it easier to see. You let him get several feet ahead of you to see him better. He is clearly a frail old man and you begin wondering if he is really strong enough to be the other harbinger when he moves faster than you thought possible and in right in front of you, pinning your arms in a grip that doesn’t even let you move an inch. “Yes indeed I am the harbinger, and yes I am defiantly strong enough.” He releases you and walks over to a small chair beside a table covered with slices of meat. “Come have a seat, and yes, I can read your mind. Your powers are developing but they are still in their infancy, I will train you to use them properly so long as you don’t disappoint me.” You take a seat and immediately recognize the smell of the meat as fresh human. The old man smiles. “Yes I usually have a couple hanging around in old cellars to keep them fresh for me, my servants bring them to me when they find them and I divide them between myself and my horde.” He is clearly expecting you to eat, so you do. It’s not as if you haven’t eaten humans before and its nice to have human flesh again, it makes your whole body feel better. “Oh good, I was a little worried that you had sided with humans and might refuse to eat the meat but that’s the first test past. Here is the second.” The old man says to you as a shambler comes in through a previously closed door and begins to lunge for you. Your old reflexes tell you to go for your bat but your new practice kicks in and you reflexively lash out with your mind instead. You see it suddenly stumble back against a wall as if physically struck, before sinking down and not moving any more. “Ah, and the second test passed too, you didn’t have to kill it though you know?” The old man says to you. “Erm, sorry about that, it was reflexive and I’ve only been using this ability for a couple of weeks, I didn’t know I could kill them.” You suddenly feel your nose bleeding again and quickly pich it to prevent the blood pouring out on your clothing. The old man gives you a very happy look. “Only a couple of weeks, well that is great news, it means you are developing very quickly. The quicker the development, the higher the potential! Well I accept you as my student. Over the next few weeks I will be training you in all aspects of your gift, starting with shielding your mind from others, we aren’t the only ones out there you know.” The old man pauses and looks at you intently. “That is of course if you choose to learn from me, if so I will teach you for a few weeks and you will then aid me in destroying the last holdouts in the stadium, the greater plans will be revealed after that. Or you can leave now.” You glance around; he isn’t holding a weapon or acting threateningly. You also are pretty sure he didn’t lock the shutter and a glance out the window shows that the streets are clear. You try and sense the infected in the area again but try and block the old man’s mind out as you do so to prevent the painful blindness from before. It somewhat works and you sense that all the infected are right where they were when you sensed them the first time. He clearly isn’t making any obvious moves to trap you. Choose to stay and learn, it’s what you are after all, a harbinger. Back out politely and head back to the stadium, you were happier there and the old man is a bit creepy. > You choose to stay and learn, it's what you are after all, a harbinger. You think about it carefully, he doesn’t appear to be making any moves to trap you and you were getting to like some of the people back in the stadium, but wasn’t your reason for going there in the first place to eat them? It only makes sense to learn from the experienced harbinger while you can. You are about to tell him you choice when you realize he is practically grinning from ear to ear. “I can read your mind still, remember? An excellent choice you made too. You thought it through and weighed up the pro’s and Con’s. Excellent, you will learn very quickly under my tutelage, now eat up, there is much to be done!” He says to you happily as he tucks into the meat on the table. You join him in the meal and feel better about your choice already, predators were made to eat their pray were they not? > You training time You spend the next couple of weeks with the old man, you have three meals a day of human flesh and spend most of your waking hours training your mind, you used to sleep only a handful of hours a night but now you collapse into bed each night with the beginnings of a headache. He trains you hard, you constantly get nosebleeds but he doesn’t push you too hard, it turns out that if you push past the pain of a headache, you can actually fry your own abilities and drive yourself mad, so you are trained until the headaches come, then you rest and eat until they pass. The training pays off quickly. Within days of accepting your role as a harbinger and training to improve your abilities you feel faster and stronger than ever before, you begin seeing better in the dark and you can control an entire horde while barely trying. You even learn the subtle differences involved in affecting the fast types and mutants minds. You train briefly with crazies but the old man teaches you only enough to fend them off mentally rather than full control “They are unpredictable, forget commands nearly instantly and make terrible subjects who require your constant attention and concentration only to have them be barely more useful as combatants than shamblers.” He told you at one point, and you felt you had to agree. Their minds with the strange mix of haziness and cracks seemed to always shift and move even while you were trying to grasp them. By the end of the second week you have fully embrace your role as the new alpha predator or the planet. Sure you were once human, but now you are more, evolved beyond what humans thought was possible. You see in nearly pitch black, you move at speeds you couldn’t have imagined and you can punch through solid doors without more than a few scratches on your skin. You can now easily control an extensive horde without much effort and direct small teams separately without difficulty. One important thing you learned though was that if another harbinger has control of an infected mind, it is extremely difficult to take it from him. The old man can still take infected from you due to his extensive practice but you never come slightly close to taking one from him. It means if another harbinger attacks you, then at least you can try to keep your own troops under command. > You more mental exercises You are preparing for the days mental exercises when the old man comes to you. “I did have some interesting exercises for you today however we have more pressing news; I have had my scouts watching the Stadium and their scouts. They have been reaching further and further east in the clear attempt to find a way through to the Eastern colony. Obviously we cannot let that happen, they know too much about the truth of harbingers and my army requires food, not to mention myself of course. You nod along; it would be good to test out your new abilities on live subjects and it’s not as if you care about the normal anymore, you are better than them. Their predator. The old man goes through his things and pulls out an old map of the bus routes through the city. “It looks like they are planning to keep to a main route.” He begins. “They have been keeping their main scouting to larger open roads which lead directly East so my assumption is that they plan to move through at speed. Now the tricky thing is, before I brought down the stadium the first time, they had some military jeeps with mounted guns, I had originally presumed that I had destroyed them all however their actions suggest otherwise. We have to assume at least 1 vehicle so I will be blockading the road here.” He points to the map indicating a section of road just after a large corner. “this way they will only see it once they round the bend and I can then block their retreat. Obviously normally I would co-ordinate everything myself, however with you here I can give you some of my forces to control, leaving me with much better fine control of the assault horde.” You look over the map for a few moments. “What will my job be then?” You ask. The Old man smiles, you will have roughly 1/3 or the army, your job will be to close the trap!” He gives you a big smile. “Their captain is an annoyingly smart man and will have backup routes and plans so you must keep your horde hidden until they pass the designated position then close the trap instantly. You can then of course join in the assault from their rear while I handle the front and flanks.” There isn’t much to argue about so again you simply nod along, you’d rather he split his forces with you 50/50 however you know he is still significantly more powerful than you mentally. You can hold him at bay for a few moments but he can still force his way into your mind whereas you can’t even dent his current defenses you know you are rapidly improving though and you hold out a few seconds longer every time. The old man rolls his map up and carefully stores it away. “Time for us to be heading out, they could leave any day now and we must be prepared for them!” > You heading out to the ambush You take a leisurely pace with the old man and bring your horde along with you, from various trips out around the city you have gathered over 50 infected including 2 mutant cats which you found during a trip to the edge of the city centre, not as strong as the dogs but frighteningly agile and fast. You’re pretty happy with your little horde however as you walk you come into range of more and more of the Old man’s ‘storage points’, buildings where he places large numbers of infected for use later. By the end of the day you can sense hundreds of infected moving around you. The Old man clearly notices you trying to sense all of them and laughs. “They took me many months to build up again, a large number were originally from the stadium hold-outs before I destroyed it, others I have scavenged where I could to re-build my forces. You have heard something similar before, the old man clearly lost his hord at some point and you don’t believe it was during the stadium battle, there is clearly something he is holding back from you. You finally arrive at a small apartment block that is less damaged than the rest in the area and the Old man takes you inside. “This place will have to do, we are only two roads South of where the stadium people should pass so we can begin preparations in the morning. You head to sleep thinking about what it would mean to wipe out the last survivors in the stadium, and probably the North-West of the city, the Old man had been thorough in hunting them all down. > You setting up time With first light you wake and check on your horde “Still right where I left you.” You think as you dress and head down into the street. You had left them all locked in a small hospital clinic you passed a couple of blocks South, you thought it was funny to pack it full of infected. You gather them together near the apartment when the Old man comes to you. “Interesting news, it seems they have left the stadium a few minutes ago!” You turn West and concentrate hard, it’s still many miles away but you get a faint sense of haziness there. “Now now, don’t strain yourself, you are not practiced enough to sense properly over that distance, it’s even at the limit of my own abilities.” He looks over your Horde. “Excellent, all gathered, well you better get over to the North side and prepare to close the trap, remember that they have a jeep so just standing in the road won’t cut it!” he heads off cheerfully and you feel a large number of infected in a nearby building leave his control, they must be your part of the horde. You take control of them and along with your own horde you head North to look for some good blockade materials. As you pass North you begin noticing a change, the closer to the Highways, the more cars there are. “Huh, they all went for the highway to escape and blocked each other in.” you mumble as you look around. “Well at least the cars might make the blockade easy enough. You begin commanding your shamblers to start pushing the cars and taking off handbrakes when you notice the bus on a side road. A large solid looking city bus, easily capable of blocking the main road by itself. “Hah, almost too easy!” you say aloud as you redirect all of your forces to the bus and maneuver it pointing south, it would have to go round a bend to get into position but any closer and they could spot you as they pass so you put a shambler into the driving seat and take careful control of its mind so you can ensure the bus gets where it needs to go. Then you wait, you carefully send your senses out West again a few times, not pushing it like before and after an few tries you begin to sense them coming closer and closer, moving at a solid pace. “They must all be jogging or running,” you suddenly panick and this they have enough vehicles for all of them but as they approach you realize that they are too spread out to be packed into a vehicle. You settle back and track their progress, you have at least an hour to watch them approach and after a few minutes begin picking out individuals in the larger haze, you then start trying to assign names to them and think back to your time with them. It occurs to you for the first time in two weeks that you didn’t really need to go through with this. You could betray the old man and help the people from the stadium; they did treat you like a friend after all. Stop concentrating on the haze; it’s causing you to think funny. You’re a predator and they are just pray Watching the haze so closely for so long must have brought these thoughts on, however they are correct, why not help them. They helped you before and you are sure they would accept you if you saved them. > You look away from the haze and attack You quickly shake off the feelings that the haze is giving you. You concentrate on your little army for a time and quickly feel the thoughts of helping recede and die. “So it’s dangerous to concentrate in the normal’s mind for too long. Well at least I learned it now.” You are committed and ready; you track the little convoys progress as they get closer and closer along the main road. You avoid concentrating closly on them but they are near enough for you to resolve the shapes of the haze into individual people without concentrating on them. Large crowd following behind a Jeep fits best, that means you plan will work as the jeep won’t have time to back out of the trap. You finally hear the old man pop trying to politely pop back into your head. He could force his way in but recently he politely ‘Taps’ on your defenses when he wishes to talk mind to mind. You let him in and immediately hear his voice in your mind. “Excellent, they are proceeding exactly as predicted. The trap is set, are you ready?” You quickly mentally go over your hordes positions and plans before answering. “All set. Ready to go the moment the last normal passes by.” You feel him vanish and assume he is turning his full attention to his horde. You watch and wait as the normal pass by below you and set your horde off on their attack. The bus starts rolling slowly but quickly picks up speed and within seconds you have to run to keep up with it as you control the shambler in the driver’s seat to ensure it stays on course. It navigates the bend in the road with only a small scrape along an abandoned car and finally come flying out onto the main road only meters behind where the rearmost guards are standing. You crash it into the buildings on the far side and check your work. The front of the bus is stuck in the now partly destroyed wall of a building and the rear reaches nearly right back to the turning, there is a gap at the back where they could escape but you immediately start moving your horde through it to block them from trying. You hear the Old man speaking and gunfire starting, the sound of a heavy machine-gun peppered with the softer cracks from rifles and know the attack had begun. You swarm your own little horde forward to join in the assault, you immediately feel several fall with bullet wounds but the jeeps gun suddenly goes silent and the hordes quickly over-run the convoy, tearing the normals apart. > You time to clean up The clean-up doesn’t take long. There are two ‘survivors’ from the assault who are taken away by the old man to be kept fresh until he was ready to kill and eat them, the rest are given to the horde along with their own dead and everything is consumed within minutes. The Old man finally makes a personal appearance and heads your way. “Excellent work, the bus was a nice touch, blocked most of the road without the fuss of lots of smaller cars!” You accept his thanks and begin organizing your horde again to count up the losses while you think about your response. “Well I lost nearly a dozen, including wounded I had the others eat. Not bad considering the number of guns they had. How did yours fair?” The Old man looks like he is concentrating for a moment “Nearly three dozen, my left flank took the brunt of the heavy gun before I silenced it.” acceptable losses though to ensure the future of the horde. It looks like he is going to head away when you call him back. “Before we head back, you said this was the beginning and you would tell me more after we were finished here. Well we are now, so what is the big secret?” You are unsure how he will react to the sudden questioning but he simply smiles. “Excellent, thinking like a proper predator and looking for the next pray, I very much approve young man!” He waves you towards the jeep as he talks. “Well firstly we needed our horde to be fed and to ensure there were no enemies behind us, which was the aim of this little raid.” He hops inside and restarts the engine. “This little jeep is a lovely surprise though and will be very useful, you see the infected are too awkward to use guns by themselves, completely lack the co-ordination and fine control to be effective. You can of course fine control a couple yourself to be able to use them, however the concentration required means that you lose most of your control on the rest of the horde. This heavy gun however might well be worth that risk, especially with the two of us.” He pauses as if deciding how to explain before waving you into the passenger seat and beginning to drive back South with both of you directing your hordes to follow. > You finally the reveal “I have an enemy” He begins “Well two actually. They are harbingers like us, well more like me, we became harbingers during the first wave of the virus, before the vaccine and before it became airborne so we have had years to practice. They joined up together and set themselves up in the very center of the city with their own hordes of powerful mutants. They quickly took control of most of the city center and set up a colony of sorts, they actually let normals live there in a reasonable number so long as they obey the rules and treat the pair like Gods in their little playground.” He slows the jeep as he directs groups into holding buildings then continues when he is satisfied they are locked in. “I found all this out right after I had destroyed the stadium and raised my strongest horde, I was overconfident and waltzed right into the city center to add powerful mutants to my ranks, the outskirts were all the normal types of dogs and cats among the shamblers etc. but I had heard that further in there were other types including mutated humans and I wanted to find those. I ran right into the ‘Lords of the New City’s’ horde as they call themselves. They indeed had a couple of the human mutants and they tore through my ranks but I had greater numbers by far and won the first battle. That’s the first I knew of their existence and they of mine. It seems that they had the larger and more powerful hordes overall but they were spread throughout the city center and I had just run into a small group. I obviously pressed the attack as I hoped to reach their little colony before the growing hordes I could sense on my flanks reached me but I was a little too late, they resized I was alone.” For the first time you see clear annoyance on the old man’s face as he speaks. “One of them launched a mental attack on me, trying to invade my mind to stop me. It was the strongest attack I had faced but I was just as strong as him and fended him off easily, sadly the second one then attacked my horde. I knew I could not defend both against two minds so as I shielded myself, they whittled my horde down and took control of large numbers of them. By the time their re-enforcements arrive I had lost over three quarters of my horde and had to flee, leaving almost all the rest behind as well to cover my escape. That’s why I need you; I’ve been training my mind every day since then in order to attack again however I knew I needed an ally, a second mind to shield the horde as I shielded us.” You nod quietly as he speaks. “So this is why he needed me and took all the time to train and test me.” You think to yourself. “Well it’s an interesting proposition but I’d want to know more before we attack” You respond. “Of course, of course, I’ve been researching them since the last battle and have all the information you need back at my little shop!” The Old man happily responds. It seems the prospect of revenge puts him into a good mood. > Back at the apartment Once back at the apartment above his shop you look over all the information the Old man had gathered. They were a pair of Harbingers now calling themselves the ‘Lords of the New City’. They ruled a colony of around a couple of hundred normal survivors, they had no fear of them trying to escape as they city center was still flooded with mutants and other infected. The old man didn’t know why they kept them all, maybe as an insurance supply of food. They control a vast horde between them with groups spread around in a large circle to completely surround the colony. “Well it’s not too much but it’s a good start, I assume you have a cunning plan?” you say. “As cunning as a fox!” He replies, grinning to himself about what must be a reference to something. “Well two options really, the first option is the obvious assault plan. We both push into the city center and grab every infected we sense to add to our horde then attack their little base right away. I know there are far too many infected in there for them to control them all so we would probably reach our limit of control as well before we fought. After that it’s a matter of shielding ourselves and the horde as we attack them and wipe them out. Once they are gone we can overrun the pesky colony to the East of the city too using the more powerful mutants. The other option is for you to go in undercover and help destroy them from the inside as I attack from outside, it’s a lot riskier for you, however if you physically attack when they are mentally attacking me you might be able to take them out before the fight even really begins.” The old man is clearly leaving the choice up to you now, he needs you after all. > You frontal attack, you aren't going to walk right into enemy territory alone. You have no plans to wander into enemy territory alone without backup so you select the frontal assault. The Old Man nods and starts putting the map away. “Excellent! We leave at dawn!” You head to bed, excited for what was to come. As dawn breaks you are both well on your way to the city centre, collecting every infected you find on the way. The Old Man mostly walks in silence but he gives you little bits of advice every now and then “We face two enemies so each attack one, send your horde attack orders first so you need to concentrate on them less later.” You always nod and add it to your information list of how to fight other harbingers, it seems though that the best tactic is simply overwhelming force. Impress upon them your superiority by outright crushing them. It takes a few hours but you finally reach the outskirts of the skyscrapers and start sensing an incredible number of infected. At first you grab every find you can sense but it quickly becomes clear that there are so many here in the towering forest of buildings that you can afford to be picky. A few hours more and each of you is trailing over a thousand infected, with a huge number of those mutants of one variety or another. The Old Man cuts in again “The Lords took every human mutant in the city they could find, moved them close to them so we can’t capture them, they are the hordes main targets.” You once more nod as you walk. It will be interesting to take a few of them once you kill your rivals, after all this was where you were meant to be wasn’t it. Leading a horde, devouring everything in your path and crushing your enemies. You glance left; you would have to kill the Old Man after too the battle. Can’t have him trying to kill you or steal the humans. Suddenly the world becomes clearer and crystalizes for you. It makes perfect sense really, you are not just an Alpha Predator, you are THE Alpha, the rest of existence is for you to rule and devour as you see fit. Anything that opposes you will be crushed and utterly destroyed without mercy. You see the Old Man suddenly look at you with suspicion, you are about to lash out at him for daring to look at you that way when he speaks “Good, you are even stronger!” A compliment, acceptable, you won’t kill him yet, you need to use him first. You simply bod to him and you both continue until you feel the army ahead of you. > You battle in red The army ahead of you seems vast, even with two thousand at your back your hordes are dwarfed by those ahead, and you can sense strange minds amongst them which must mean the human mutants. “They knew we were coming! No matter, we crush them now!” The Old man does not wait and you don’t either, arraying a horde against you is a futile insult and you will crush all those responsible, feasting on their flesh as your final victory over them. You charge your horde at theirs and lash out at the glowing green minds you see half way up a building ahead of you. You feel the old man do the same and each of you slams your anger against the enemy. They seem prepared and you hit against what seems like both of their wills joined together into one shield and it holds, but you can feel its weakness, you know it won’t hold forever. You keep pushing, ignoring everything else but attacking their minds, anything the Old Man taught you is ignored as you are better than him anyway and you will prove that shortly. You can feel their defenses weakening moment by moment, cracks forming and barriers failing, you are stronger, the rightful ruler and devourer of humanity and no weak self-proclaimed Lords can stand in your way. You feel the attack weaken suddenly and spare a shred of concentration to check on what the Old Man is doing. You immediately see his rage has grown and know why. Your forces are being decimated by the enemy, they must have been holding back some of their concentration to direct their forces against you. You let out a hiss the Old Man had lost this way before, how was he not prepared for it again, he was too weak a tool for you to use. You almost lash out at him there an then but the main threat was the Lords and their army. You quickly scan the battle to see what was happening. Your hordes had charged blindly, right into a huge block of shamblers who had soaked up all of the initial attack and taken the brunt of the damage like cannon fodder, then while your army was busy tearing shamblers and other useless infected apart the enemies mutants, including humanoids had clearly just torn right through your forces. The little extra control had turned the battle into a one sided massacre in seconds. You let out an angry roar and concentrate hard on attacking again, leaving the Old Man to try and salvage some of his infected. You lash out hard again at the two minds but without the Old man, you are no longer crushing them, they are holding you at bay, you fall further into rage and push with all your might, thinking that you are still make some headway against them when you feel something hitting your own defenses. You had neglected them and pain shoots into your mind as you quickly shore them up but a small light seems to slip in a crack and your entire mind seems to suddenly explode with pain and colours, blocking all of your senses for several seconds. You stagger back and rub your temples until your mind recovers, it was some cheap trick by them, your defenses were still intact. The old man laughs at you “You fell for such a weak trick? I trained you better than that! Now attack them while I salvage the horde you threw away!” You simply hiss at him then turn back to your attack, they wouldn’t get away with it. Again you lash out and again at the peak of your attack your mind explodes in colours and lights. This time you hear the Old Man swearing when you return and see that the battle has been totally lost, there are also several humanoid mutants moving your way at incredible speed, some small but ridiculously fast, others larger than delivery vans yet still moving at speed. You try and think of the best plan when the Old Man insults you again “Weakling, you couldn’t even distract them properly!” This time was enough and you lash out at him only to be met by his attack, you strive against each other and this time you are almost equally matched. You suddenly see him scream in pain and clutch his head, you try to push the advantage but your own head explodes in pain again and you realize too late that in your rage, you ignored the other enemies. As your senses come back to you, you see the fist of the monstrosity that reached you first. “It’s first is the size of my entire torso.” You think right before it slams into you. You feel your entire ribcage crushing inward and destroying your organs, then your back hits something hard and blood is forced out of your mouth like a fountain. But you are still alive. You try to move, to get away but as you raise your head you see several of the smaller ones coming for you. The big ones now seem more concerned with the Old Man who is screaming at them “I am the End of You! The Endmaster! You cannot stop me!” sadly he is wrong as you see them catch him and tear his upper body in half before beginning to eat him. You turn back to the ones near you, they seem small, almost weak compared to the others until one moves close faster than you even though possible for something to move, one moment it was several metres away and the next it was beside you and your arm was gone. The others then move and you barely feel it as they remove your head. > The Old man lead you into a trap, kill him now! The Old man was too weak and stupid for you to have followed all this time. You were going to wait to prove that to him but leading you into a trap was the last straw. You stop your attack on the green minds in the city, you can destroy them when they are less prepared for you. You lash out at the Old Man’s mind, feeling him instantly recoil and falter. “You see Old man! I am the Alpha here, not you! You are a weak excuse for a Harbinger, no wonder you lost!” You press the attack and feel him trying to block you but then you sense the green minds attacking him too and his defenses shatter. You barely register the surprise mixed with rage which crosses his face as you force your attack into his mind, burning it with the red flames. You watch his nose, eyes and ears spouting out blood and feel him die there and then, mind destroyed by your attack. You laugh aloud in triumph. “At least you will make a fitting meal for me!” You announce as you grab his body. In your rage you had forgotten about your real enemy and they now attack you. Pressing on your mind and attempting to destroy it the way you did the Old Man’s. You lash out in return and they back off for a moment but you can already feel the difference in power. You know you could beat one of them but the two could hold you off until their horde reached you. You run to the Jeep and throw the Old Man’s body inside. The attack has returned and you find that your defense feels a lot weaker than your attack. When you lash out with your mind it feels like spears of flame, able to destroy anything but flames used for a defense feel less substantial and you know they won’t hold out for too long. You floor the gas pedal and start speeding away from the city Centre, back to the North West, You even know the perfect place to make your new base, the old Stadium is empty and defensible after all. As you get further away the attacks weaken then stop. You expect to feel your horde being stripped away but it seems like they don’t need too and you simply lose control as the distance gets too far. “I even added to their defenses now” you growl to yourself as you reach more familiar streets. > The Empty Stadium You reach the stadium as the fuel begins to run dry, there are two spare cans on the sides full of gas though so you aren’t worried and park it at the back where you find a cover big enough to hide it. Time to start building up your empire. It will take time but you are stronger than the Old Man was and you will eventually crush the City Minds and their little haven. The Old Man had the nerve to call himself the EndMaster, as if he could end the world. Well that is your title now and you will become the ruler of the City before destroying the colony to the East. ************************************************ You have found the current end to the Evil Path, this will be extended into a larger and more complete path at a later date, I simply do not have the time to do it before the competition deadline!<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The army ahead of you seems vast, even with two thousand at your back your hordes are dwarfed by those ahead, and you can sense strange minds amongst them which must mean the human mutants. “They knew we were coming! No matter, we crush them now!” The Old man does not wait and you don’t either, arraying a horde against you is a futile insult and you will crush all those responsible, feasting on their flesh as your final victory over them. You charge your horde at theirs and lash out at the glowing green minds you see half way up a building ahead of you. You feel the old man do the same and each of you slams your anger against the enemy. They seem prepared and you hit against what seems like both of their wills joined together into one shield and it holds, but you can feel its weakness, you know it won’t hold forever. You keep pushing, ignoring everything else but attacking their minds, anything the Old Man taught you is ignored as you are better than him anyway and you will prove that shortly. You can feel their defenses weakening moment by moment, cracks forming and barriers failing, you are stronger, the rightful ruler and devourer of humanity and no weak self-proclaimed Lords can stand in your way. You feel the attack weaken suddenly and spare a shred of concentration to check on what the Old Man is doing. You immediately see his rage has grown and know why. Your forces are being decimated by the enemy, they must have been holding back some of their concentration to direct their forces against you. You let out a hiss the Old Man had lost this way before, how was he not prepared for it again, he was too weak a tool for you to use. You almost lash out at him there an then but the main threat was the Lords and their army. You quickly scan the battle to see what was happening. Your hordes had charged blindly, right into a huge block of shamblers who had soaked up all of the initial attack and taken the brunt of the damage like cannon fodder, then while your army was busy tearing shamblers and other useless infected apart the enemies mutants, including humanoids had clearly just torn right through your forces. The little extra control had turned the battle into a one sided massacre in seconds. You let out an angry roar and concentrate hard on attacking again, leaving the Old Man to try and salvage some of his infected. You lash out hard again at the two minds but without the Old man, you are no longer crushing them, they are holding you at bay, you fall further into rage and push with all your might, thinking that you are still make some headway against them when you feel something hitting your own defenses. You had neglected them and pain shoots into your mind as you quickly shore them up but a small light seems to slip in a crack and your entire mind seems to suddenly explode with pain and colours, blocking all of your senses for several seconds. You stagger back and rub your temples until your mind recovers, it was some cheap trick by them, your defenses were still intact. The old man laughs at you “You fell for such a weak trick? I trained you better than that! Now attack them while I salvage the horde you threw away!” You simply hiss at him then turn back to your attack, they wouldn’t get away with it. Again you lash out and again at the peak of your attack your mind explodes in colours and lights. This time you hear the Old Man swearing when you return and see that the battle has been totally lost, there are also several humanoid mutants moving your way at incredible speed, some small but ridiculously fast, others larger than delivery vans yet still moving at speed. You try and think of the best plan when the Old Man insults you again “Weakling, you couldn’t even distract them properly!” This time was enough and you lash out at him only to be met by his attack, you strive against each other and this time you are almost equally matched. You suddenly see him scream in pain and clutch his head, you try to push the advantage but your own head explodes in pain again and you realize too late that in your rage, you ignored the other enemies. As your senses come back to you, you see the fist of the monstrosity that reached you first. “It’s first is the size of my entire torso.” You think right before it slams into you. You feel your entire ribcage crushing inward and destroying your organs, then your back hits something hard and blood is forced out of your mouth like a fountain. But you are still alive. You try to move, to get away but as you raise your head you see several of the smaller ones coming for you. The big ones now seem more concerned with the Old Man who is screaming at them “I am the End of You! The Endmaster! You cannot stop me!” sadly he is wrong as you see them catch him and tear his upper body in half before beginning to eat him. You turn back to the ones near you, they seem small, almost weak compared to the others until one moves close faster than you even though possible for something to move, one moment it was several metres away and the next it was beside you and your arm was gone. The others then move and you barely feel it as they remove your head. > You lash out at the city minds, crush them before their horde does any more damage You let out an angry roar and concentrate hard on attacking again, leaving the Old Man to try and salvage some of his infected. You lash out hard again at the two minds but without the Old man, you are no longer crushing them, they are holding you at bay, you fall further into rage and push with all your might, thinking that you are still make some headway against them when you feel something hitting your own defenses. You had neglected them and pain shoots into your mind as you quickly shore them up but a small light seems to slip in a crack and your entire mind seems to suddenly explode with pain and colours, blocking all of your senses for several seconds. You stagger back and rub your temples until your mind recovers, it was some cheap trick by them, your defenses were still intact. The old man laughs at you “You fell for such a weak trick? I trained you better than that! Now attack them while I salvage the horde you threw away!” You simply hiss at him then turn back to your attack, they wouldn’t get away with it. Again you lash out and again at the peak of your attack your mind explodes in colours and lights. This time you hear the Old Man swearing when you return and see that the battle has been totally lost, there are also several humanoid mutants moving your way at incredible speed, some small but ridiculously fast, others larger than delivery vans yet still moving at speed. You try and think of the best plan when the Old Man insults you again “Weakling, you couldn’t even distract them properly!” This time was enough and you lash out at him only to be met by his attack, you strive against each other and this time you are almost equally matched. You suddenly see him scream in pain and clutch his head, you try to push the advantage but your own head explodes in pain again and you realize too late that in your rage, you ignored the other enemies. As your senses come back to you, you see the fist of the monstrosity that reached you first. “It’s first is the size of my entire torso.” You think right before it slams into you. You feel your entire ribcage crushing inward and destroying your organs, then your back hits something hard and blood is forced out of your mouth like a fountain. But you are still alive. You try to move, to get away but as you raise your head you see several of the smaller ones coming for you. The big ones now seem more concerned with the Old Man who is screaming at them “I am the End of You! The Endmaster! You cannot stop me!” sadly he is wrong as you see them catch him and tear his upper body in half before beginning to eat him. You turn back to the ones near you, they seem small, almost weak compared to the others until one moves close faster than you even though possible for something to move, one moment it was several metres away and the next it was beside you and your arm was gone. The others then move and you barely feel it as they remove your head.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Once back at the apartment above his shop you look over all the information the Old man had gathered. They were a pair of Harbingers now calling themselves the ‘Lords of the New City’. They ruled a colony of around a couple of hundred normal survivors, they had no fear of them trying to escape as they city center was still flooded with mutants and other infected. The old man didn’t know why they kept them all, maybe as an insurance supply of food. They control a vast horde between them with groups spread around in a large circle to completely surround the colony. “Well it’s not too much but it’s a good start, I assume you have a cunning plan?” you say. “As cunning as a fox!” He replies, grinning to himself about what must be a reference to something. “Well two options really, the first option is the obvious assault plan. We both push into the city center and grab every infected we sense to add to our horde then attack their little base right away. I know there are far too many infected in there for them to control them all so we would probably reach our limit of control as well before we fought. After that it’s a matter of shielding ourselves and the horde as we attack them and wipe them out. Once they are gone we can overrun the pesky colony to the East of the city too using the more powerful mutants. The other option is for you to go in undercover and help destroy them from the inside as I attack from outside, it’s a lot riskier for you, however if you physically attack when they are mentally attacking me you might be able to take them out before the fight even really begins.” The old man is clearly leaving the choice up to you now, he needs you after all. > You undercover, get inside and you can take out the enemy without risking your horde, more infected left alive means more ready to attack the Eastern colony after. “I like the undercover plan, they won’t know me so I can get inside and take them out personally as soon as you appear and take their attention.” You say. The Old man simply nods and starts putting the map away carefully. “Then we leave in the morning! I will escort you closer but once we near the centre you will be on your own. Remember to act nice around them, can’t have them attacking you before you get inside!” You nod back and snack on a bit of what you think must be a human bicep muscle before getting a couple of hour of rest. As the mornings first light arrives you grab a few handfuls of flesh and you both set out in the jeep again, this time towards the city centre. It’s not long before you cover a good distance, riding is clearly faster than walking and before you know it you are walking away from the Jeep towards the city centre alone, the Old man heading off into a building to set himself up for a few days. “Time to get things going then!” you think to yourself as you begin sensing infected ahead of you, already some mutants mixed in with the normal shamblers and fast types. > You start taking them over, it's always best to move with your own little horde for protection You aren’t going to march into enemy territory undefended so you quickly grab control of any infected you sense until it finally turns to lunchtime and you have over a hundred infected following around you. “Old man was right; I already have a horde this big after only a few hours, this really is the jackpot for forming an army.” You keep going but stop building your horde at around 150, You could control more but you realize that it is somewhat pointless as there are simply so many around you. Shamblers in every building practically, and since every building around is a huge multistory, that makes for a lot of infected. You carry on forward, only stopping briefly to eat the rest of the flesh you had brought with you and by dinner time you are keeping yourself occupied by swapping out horde menders, dropping the shamblers and taking more mutants. A couple feel slightly different when you force your control over them but they act exactly the same once you take their minds so you keep them too. Finally as night approaches you sense a very large number of infected ahead who aren’t moving and when you reach out you immediately realize that they are under someone else’s control. You are still deciding how to proceed against what must be over 1000 mutants when you feel the pressure hit your mind. You force up your defense against the attack like you had practiced with the old man, envisioning slabs of steel slammed up against the pressure of the assault but most of what he showed was how to attack so you know you won’t hold out long. You do know how to talk though, it took several days to learn but the Old Man had taught you a very useful trick and you send out a small thread of thought through your defenses and you feel the attack lessen very slightly and a voice finally enters you mind through it. “This is unexpected, you wish to talk this time? Last time you attacked us you seemed more like the rage driven egotist than the chatty type.” The voice says. You quickly respond, having already thought through several possible conversations. “I don’t know what you mean by ‘this time’ but I have never met you before, never mind attacked you.” You immediately feel surprise coming from the other mind. “You are actually telling the truth, you aren’t the one who attacked us before, you shared his colouring and came from the west so we had assumed it was him coming again. But in that case why are you entering our domain with an army?” You respond carefully “I had heard there were others like me here, I didn’t intend to attack you with my horde, and I just never like to travel alone for safety reasons.” There is silence for a time before an answer comes. “You may pass but your horde cannot, you must release them then pass through alone or there will be no entry.” You think about this for a moment > You who are they to order you about, they have their horde for protection and you have yours. Who are they to tell you where you can take you own horde? You didn’t train all this time with the Old Man just to be bossed about. “I’m coming in but I will be bringing my horde for safety, I can’t trust you won’t attack the moment I release them.” You say as you begin forward again towards the gap that had formed in the army ahead. “I’m not going to bow to their wishes for everything; I’m the Alpha predator as much as them and they will learn that soon.” You get no response from the mind in the city and you let the link drop. “Good, they know not to try and boss me around” you think as you walk. Sadly as you reach the army ahead they move as one large unit to attack your horde from the front and sides simultaneously. You are about to order your troops to fight back when your mind also comes under attack again and you are forced to concentrate on defense again while your troops are helplessly torn to pieces. You know it’s only been seconds but the attack feels like it’s been going on for hours when you feel the enemy horde change a little and suddenly there are two minds crushing into yours with almost as much force as the Old Man used to use on you. One of them you might hold off but two of them quickly crush your defenses and sparks of pain shoot through your mind as the last defense falls. The pain intensifies for a moment, past what you can bear so you are almost happy when it suddenly ends and blackness overwhelms you.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You aren’t going to march into enemy territory undefended so you quickly grab control of any infected you sense until it finally turns to lunchtime and you have over a hundred infected following around you. “Old man was right; I already have a horde this big after only a few hours, this really is the jackpot for forming an army.” You keep going but stop building your horde at around 150, You could control more but you realize that it is somewhat pointless as there are simply so many around you. Shamblers in every building practically, and since every building around is a huge multistory, that makes for a lot of infected. You carry on forward, only stopping briefly to eat the rest of the flesh you had brought with you and by dinner time you are keeping yourself occupied by swapping out horde menders, dropping the shamblers and taking more mutants. A couple feel slightly different when you force your control over them but they act exactly the same once you take their minds so you keep them too. Finally as night approaches you sense a very large number of infected ahead who aren’t moving and when you reach out you immediately realize that they are under someone else’s control. You are still deciding how to proceed against what must be over 1000 mutants when you feel the pressure hit your mind. You force up your defense against the attack like you had practiced with the old man, envisioning slabs of steel slammed up against the pressure of the assault but most of what he showed was how to attack so you know you won’t hold out long. You do know how to talk though, it took several days to learn but the Old Man had taught you a very useful trick and you send out a small thread of thought through your defenses and you feel the attack lessen very slightly and a voice finally enters you mind through it. “This is unexpected, you wish to talk this time? Last time you attacked us you seemed more like the rage driven egotist than the chatty type.” The voice says. You quickly respond, having already thought through several possible conversations. “I don’t know what you mean by ‘this time’ but I have never met you before, never mind attacked you.” You immediately feel surprise coming from the other mind. “You are actually telling the truth, you aren’t the one who attacked us before, you shared his colouring and came from the west so we had assumed it was him coming again. But in that case why are you entering our domain with an army?” You respond carefully “I had heard there were others like me here, I didn’t intend to attack you with my horde, and I just never like to travel alone for safety reasons.” There is silence for a time before an answer comes. “You may pass but your horde cannot, you must release them then pass through alone or there will be no entry.” You think about this for a moment > You let them all go and head in alone, no point making them mad now, you're playing the long game You head further into the city centre alone and the hordes part for you, you can feel them dispersing to either side around you. “The Old Man said they keep them evenly spaced out in a ring, does this mean they knew I was coming?” You think as you walk. Finally you see the two minds of the harbingers ahead of you without having to stretch your senses out, and you also see the minds of what seems like over 300 humans with them, the very thought makes you hungry. As you get closer you see another link reaching out for you and as before you join in to let them converse with you. “You are only about an hour’s gentle walk away but you will need to circle a little to your left, that’s North, to get inside, only one entrance you see and everything is guarded to prevent any problems in our little haven.” You carefully force your hunger and feelings down, if you’ve been getting snippits of theirs then they might get some of yours and that might not be good. “Of course, it’s getting dark but that isn’t really an issue for our kind, I’ll walk faster though so I don’t make you wait.” There is a pause and you are about to drop the link when you hear one more question “You came from the West where our enemy lurked, Have you have any interaction with him, he has the feel of an old man, a very angry one at that.” You pause for a moment; you didn’t expect this question so bluntly so you have to choose your words carefully. > You tell some of the truth, that you encountered someone that might match that description but no details, if they push cover up the involvement. The best tactic is a small truth to back up the lie right? Well, obviously it would be to slaughter then and feast on their flesh but for now you have to play nice. “I did encounter someone like that, they indeed seemed very angry. Coming here and meeting you seemed like the better option when compared to staying there with a clearly hostile harbinger.” There is a slight pause before the next question “And he didn’t attack you, no offence but I don’t see you being alive if he did.” You tut to yourself, got to cover a little more “Well I think he was trying to recruit me, I think he would have attacked once he realized I wasn’t taking him up on the offer but I was too far away already.” This time the reply comes right away “Oh how interesting, I presume he wanted your help in attacking us, he seems like the angry vengeful type and we did send him away in disgrace barely holding onto his life afterall. So you weren’t tempted to join him?” > You enough is enough. They aren't buying the half-truths as the whole story so Lie outright about it "Not at all, I got away as fast as I could to come here!' You emphasize, you can't let them know the truth There is a longer pause than before and you get a little nervous when you hear the voice again. “Ok just up ahead you’ll see the underground entrance on your right? Good, that’s the entrance you’ll need to take, we are quite nicely set up in an old arena here, if was half underground before so makes it very defensible as you can imagine!” The tone seems jovial and the tunnel leads towards the minds you sense so you head inside. As you walk through the tunnel which has obviously had some work done to it with reinforcements and walls removed or built you sense the humans all gathering up ahead. “Is something going on up there?” You ask down the link and immediately get the response “Of course! It’s not every day they get to see a new harbinger so this is somewhat of an event! Everyone has gathers for it. Some of the minds to the East don’t agree with our stance on the matter which is why we separated but we see that we are superior to humans and should be treated as such so we rule here like Gods in a way, when we say there is an event, EVERYONE attends, not that they’d want to miss this anyway.” You heartily agree with the statement. You ARE better than humans, they are your prey after all, you can see their position though. Keeping them like pets to obey and serve you before eating them wouldn’t be so bad either. You see some light up ahead and walk out into what looks like the centre of an arena with 10 foot walls of concrete topped with another 10 feet of metal and reinforced glass. The humans are all on the other side of the glass cheering down at you like fans watching a concert. Something clearly isn’t right though. You sense the minds above you and looking up you see two cloaked figures sitting on a platform that extended out from the wall over the tiered row s of seats giving them the best view both around the room and down into the pit. “Welcome to the City Arena! Rules by the Lords of the New City, this is the place where your post-apocalyptic fantasies can become a reality, for the right price!” You now know that something is definitely wrong as a massive battered steel sheet slams down behind you, trapping you in the arena. Even with your enhanced strength you aren’t sure you could budge it without a lot of time and something to level with. The announcement continues though, the speakers voice amplified through a speaker system hanging high above of the roof. “Today we have a very rare treat for you, in the ring is a harbinger folks! That’s right, like our very own Lords of the city he has superhuman abilities and can control infected, however this one tried to lie to the Lords and we know how they take that don’t we!” The crowd responds with even more cheers. > You what you get for lying You aren’t going to stand for this, being put on display like some animal while the humans throw money around and a large board has odds displayed! Odds displayed.. You look around as see another large metal sheet across the way beginning to rise. “That’s right folks, he might be a lot weaker than our lords but he is still a big challenge so we are sending in a big challenger! It’s Nate the Sentinel!” You lash out at the Lords above you but their defenses are solidly in place, you try the human minds, you are certain you can affect them but it seems that the two harbingers are protecting them too. The door does not wait for your tests though and before you have time to try the walls you see a huge beast lumber through. Like a man but grotesquely mutated into something that looked more like an ogre from the old myths than a human anymore. You can easily beat any mutant you have come across barehanded, even the large dog types but as you size this thing you realize that it must be 12 feet tall and covered in muscles, this won’t be an easy fight. The beast comes charging at you and you barely dodge in time as it moves faster than anything that size should be able to move. You don’t have many options left > You concentrate on its mind, if you get control of that then you can use it to let you escape. You lash out at Nate’s mind but find it protected, you push with everything you can to force your way in and register that its stopped moving at least while your try. The defense is slippery though, every time you think you have forced a way in, you find it there again. You finally think you have it when you feel a sudden spike against your own mind. Your defenses hold but you are stunned for a second. Your senses return just in time to register that your right arm and ribcage is crushed and you are flying at a tremendous speed directly at the wall. You impact with a sickeningly hard crunch and feel more ribs breaking. “Oh dear me folks, the Lords just indicated to me that instead of fighting Nate, the idiot tried to attack his mind and steal him from them! That left him wide open for Nate’s punch! Give the man a hand though, I never seem anything that didn’t turn into jelly at one of those hits never mind still be moving!” You cough up blood and stagger to your feet. Just in time for Nate to reach you again. You even see the punch coming but can’t get out of the way in time and take it full to the chest. You get slammed back into the wall and know your done for, your organs are jelly and your blood is pooling at your feet. “And it’s over folks, even if he is still breathing, he isn’t moving! That’s a win in two punches for Nate the sentinel, always a crowd favorite even if his opponent was weak. You want to protest and tell them you weren’t weak when just register being lifted in the air. “Oh and Nate is hungry folks!” you hear right before the crunch.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You aren’t going to stand for this, being put on display like some animal while the humans throw money around and a large board has odds displayed! Odds displayed.. You look around as see another large metal sheet across the way beginning to rise. “That’s right folks, he might be a lot weaker than our lords but he is still a big challenge so we are sending in a big challenger! It’s Nate the Sentinel!” You lash out at the Lords above you but their defenses are solidly in place, you try the human minds, you are certain you can affect them but it seems that the two harbingers are protecting them too. The door does not wait for your tests though and before you have time to try the walls you see a huge beast lumber through. Like a man but grotesquely mutated into something that looked more like an ogre from the old myths than a human anymore. You can easily beat any mutant you have come across barehanded, even the large dog types but as you size this thing you realize that it must be 12 feet tall and covered in muscles, this won’t be an easy fight. The beast comes charging at you and you barely dodge in time as it moves faster than anything that size should be able to move. You don’t have many options left > You concentrate on the two 'Lords' above you, hit their minds hard enough and you could get away or even defeat them You mentally lash out at the Lords above you again and once more find their defenses holding you at bay. You concentrate on just one of them and try to force you way in, putting all your anger and rage into the attack. You feel his defenses buckling under the pressure but then you find the problem with your plan. While you concentrated on your attack you stopped moving. Nate the Sentinel did not stop moving. You feel the impact and turn back to your normal senses just in time to register that your right arm and ribcage is crushed and you are flying at a tremendous speed directly at the wall. You impact with a sickeningly hard crunch and feel more ribs breaking. “Oh dear me folks, the Lords just indicated to me that instead of fighting Nate, the idiot tried to attack our rulers! That left him wide open for Nate’s punch! Give the man a hand though, I never seem anything that didn’t turn into jelly at one of those hits never mind still be moving!” You cough up blood and stagger to your feet. Just in time for Nate to reach you again. You even see the punch coming but can’t get out of the way in time and take it full to the chest. You get slammed back into the wall and know your done for, your organs are jelly and your blood is pooling at your feet. “And it’s over folks, even if he is still breathing, he isn’t moving! That’s a win in two punches for Nate the sentinel, always a crowd favorite even if his opponent was weak. You want to protest and tell them you weren’t weak when just register being lifted in the air. “Oh and Nate is hungry folks!” you hear right before the crunch.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You aren’t going to stand for this, being put on display like some animal while the humans throw money around and a large board has odds displayed! Odds displayed.. You look around as see another large metal sheet across the way beginning to rise. “That’s right folks, he might be a lot weaker than our lords but he is still a big challenge so we are sending in a big challenger! It’s Nate the Sentinel!” You lash out at the Lords above you but their defenses are solidly in place, you try the human minds, you are certain you can affect them but it seems that the two harbingers are protecting them too. The door does not wait for your tests though and before you have time to try the walls you see a huge beast lumber through. Like a man but grotesquely mutated into something that looked more like an ogre from the old myths than a human anymore. You can easily beat any mutant you have come across barehanded, even the large dog types but as you size this thing you realize that it must be 12 feet tall and covered in muscles, this won’t be an easy fight. The beast comes charging at you and you barely dodge in time as it moves faster than anything that size should be able to move. You don’t have many options left > You concentrate on the combat, it's based off a human so it has human weaknesses, hit it's eyes, nose and tendons, then see if it can fight you. You can’t beat two of them mentally so you will have to concentrate on the fight in front of you for now. Nate is huge and clearly going to be stronger than you but you might have speed and intelligence on your side. He charges you at amazing speed and swings a punch but you are prepared, you dodge it at the last second and land a punch of your on on its side as you move around it. You had punched right through metal car doors before and know it must have hurt the thing when it let out a roar and span wildly at you. You stayed being careful though, letting it attack and only hitting on counters. Finally you see your chance and as it lunged too far you jump its punch and hit it right in the eye, feeling it pop under the impact. You watch it stagger back and follow up with a running jump to hit the other eye before it recovers, feeling it pop too. “Let’s see you fight blind!” you sneer at the monster as it clutches its face and staggers back into the wall, making the whole thing shake. “Oh my! What a turn of events!” You hear blaring out. “The new entry has managed not only to avoid Nate’s attacks, but he blinded him folks! Let’s see those odd rolling!” You see a frenzy of activity as the humans obviously rush to place their bets on you as is only right. You are the Alpha here, not their ‘Lords’ or this monster and you would show all of them soon enough. You start towards Nate at a leisurely pace, it should be easy to finish off now at least. Suddenly its hands drop and it looks at you. “Oh dear folks, the new guy waited too long and Nate grew his eyes back! He’s going to be mad now!” You swear as the Nate charges you, faster and clearly angrier than before, he clips you with one punch and you are sent spinning away feeling several ribs shatter into pieces. “If that was a direct hit I’d be a gonner.” You think as he charges again but this time you roll under the punch and tear out his Achilles as you pass. You head the satisfying crunch as Nate smashed into the wall having lost the use of one foot and you can see he is stunned so you press the advantage and attack again, blinding it again and punching right through its flesh several times until it starts wheezing and looms like it might be a while before getting up. “And the fight is over folks! The new guy has defeated the crowd favorite, Nate the Sentinel!” You sense the monsters movements changing but instead of coming after you it slinks back against a wall near the door it came in “Everyone give a hand for our newest entrant!” you hear as the crowd goes wild. > You soak up the arenas glory You get caught up in the praise for a second until you see the door begin to move, this might be your chance to escape so you race towards it as it opens only to see several humanoids blocking your way. You skid to a halt a few feet short as the announcer comes back on. “Oh dear me folks, he tried to make a break for it but He found Madglee and the 3J’s blocking his escape, That’s right folks, he faced one sentinel and now he faces two of them!” He drops his tone to a fake stage whisper “The three J’s are really three people but they share one mind so they count as one right?” The crowd goes wild as the four enter and you quickly see three of them look similar to humans, just stretched out a little and identical to each other. The fourth one looked like a cross between them and the monster from before, it also looked semi-intelligent which worried you more. You back off as Nate slipped out the back of the area, already clearly healing its wounds and the four new entries move out towards you. You try and plan some tactics but suddenly they are all moving to attack. You instantly see that the 3J’s are faster than you and they seem to dodge attacks they can’t see, while Madglee circles you, not attacking yet. You start taking hit after hit, not hard but they are adding up and you feel bones breaking and bruises forming. You’ve had enough of them and suddenly charge at one, lashing out physically and mentally at the fast opponents who were dodging around you and keeping you from moving. You realize it was the wrong choice when suddenly the back of your head explodes in pain and you fly hard into the wall ahead of you. “Oh dear me folks, the 3 J’s kept him locked town tight and Madglee simply waited for the right moment to end things instantly!” You barely have time to pick yourself up when the last blows fall.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The best tactic is a small truth to back up the lie right? Well, obviously it would be to slaughter then and feast on their flesh but for now you have to play nice. “I did encounter someone like that, they indeed seemed very angry. Coming here and meeting you seemed like the better option when compared to staying there with a clearly hostile harbinger.” There is a slight pause before the next question “And he didn’t attack you, no offence but I don’t see you being alive if he did.” You tut to yourself, got to cover a little more “Well I think he was trying to recruit me, I think he would have attacked once he realized I wasn’t taking him up on the offer but I was too far away already.” This time the reply comes right away “Oh how interesting, I presume he wanted your help in attacking us, he seems like the angry vengeful type and we did send him away in disgrace barely holding onto his life afterall. So you weren’t tempted to join him?” > You enough is enough. They aren't buying the half-truths as the whole story sell out the Old man, he'd be the first to sell you out if it benefited him. These guys are clearly too suspicious to buy the lies. The Old Man would also sell you out in a second if it benefited him, so why not sell him out first and join the stronger side? “Ok to be very honest, he was stronger than me, by a lot. I only found my abilities a couple of months back and he recruited me when I didn’t really have a chance of fighting him. I did train with him for a while as he wanted me to help him and I got a lot stronger. Seems he wanted me to help him beat you guys as he didn’t want to risk the fight alone. I learned what I could from him and now would much rather join you guys as he is a bit crazy and would most likely kill me the moment you were defeated anyway.” There is silence for a time before an answer finally comes. “Well that is very interesting, and actually the truth which we didn’t initially expect. We shall let you join us, do understand though that you will still be under some suspicion for a time.” You nod, that’s pretty much what you expected “Sounds about what I expected so I’ll accept those terms.” You say as you walk closer. A different voice joins in the conversation now “As you get closer you will see a large underground entrance, then one building past that on the right you will see a metal door set back inside an entrance way, that’s the way you need to take in. If you see anything strange, do not attack it, they are semi-autonomous but still under our control and will not attack unless provoked.” You shrug to yourself “not as if anything could really surprise me anymore” you think as you see the underground entrance and head one building past it. You see what looks like a normal skyscraper lobby and almost wonder if you had gone too far when you see what looks more like a huge metal slab than a door part way into a side corridor. “Huge defensive door but tucked where people walking by won’t easily see it, smart.” As you get closer it swings open to reveal a huge monstrosity holding it. The roof here must be over 10 feet high and the thing is still hunched against the ceiling to be able to fit and its bulk blocks most of the corridors width, like a human mutated to be the biggest, most muscular abomination you could imagine. “Gorram-it, I take it back, I can still be surprised, you’re like some monster from mythology aren’t you?” You mutter as you decide about what to do. Surprisingly the thing growls at you in response. “Oh, and you seem to understand me, that’s a bit worrying too.” You say. You carefully edge past the thing as it makes no move to attack and you notice that the door is several inches thick of metal, and that the thing easily pulls it shut behind you even though it’s not on hinges. “Seems those muscles aren’t for show either, I can see why I wouldn’t want to pick a fight with you” you tell the monster which seems to take it as a compliment and grins at you, which is a truly horrifying sight. > You welcome to the thunderdone! You head down the corridor ahead and past several smaller doors, opened by other strange mutated humans. You make note that the walls and ceiling here is re-enforced, probably after knocking down walls to make the tunnel. You start hearing cheering up ahead as you come into a small lobby area. “Nearly there!” you hear the first voice saying “There are doors and corridors off this room but you need the blue one marked ‘Balcony’.” Then the link drops. You have some suspicions now about a trap, but why let you pass all the abominations which could probably kill you in the tight confines of the corridor only to try and kill you now? You head through the arch and up the stairs and walk right out into what looks like an old circular arena, lit from above with a large pit in the middle, walled by concrete topped with glass and steel. Crowds of humans line the glass, looking down and cheering like they are at a concert. “Welcome to the New City Arena!” you hear thundering above you, and looking up you see the suspended PA system as the announcer continues “The Lords have told me that we have a special guest here today, as so we are putting on a special show for you all!” place your bets and give a cheer for your competitors!” The crowd goes wild as you see giant metal doors in the pit opening. You catch sight of a section sticking out of the balcony and immediately recognize the minds of the two cloaked figures sitting on it as the harbingers. One of them waves you over and you move through the crowd until you reach their little dais, sticking out over the crowd below. There are now humans near them so you walk the last few feet quickly and find an empty seat for you beside them. “Welcome to our little community!” The nearest one begins “This is obviously our arena where we get our entertainment. Obviously living areas and all that are down other tunnels and in other buildings but we thought we would greet you in proper fashion today!” He indicates the pit and you see a pack of mutant dogs walk out into the large open space, on the other side you see a much large group of infected, shamblers and fast types enter. The Harbinger continues “As you see, we have brought back the coliseum, we have infected fight for our entertainment, and occasionally humans who break the laws here, a small group tried to rebell against us a while back, we gave them weapons and sent them in against Nate, who you met at the front door, he is one of our sentinels. It turned Nate into a crowd favorite and he ensured that the peace was kept, no-one has tried real insubordination since then!” You think for a moment before replying as you watch the infected standing still as the humans shout to make bets based off numbers displayed on a big screen on one wall “But the humans, don’t you eat them? That’s how we get stronger and they are simply prey.” You can almost feel the disapproval of the men beside you and you sense new colour swirling in the glow of their minds “Not at all, it seems the Harbinger of the West has been lying to you. Eating humans has no effect on your abilities at all. Only your mind and training does. You got stronger as you believed in what he was saying and because you trained. But it is also why we nearly killed you on sight. Your decision taints your mind and we can see it.” You don’t really know what to respond to this. But your overwhelming urge is to lash out, you were honest but now they were lying to you? Were they simply trying to indoctrinate you to use you like the old man? You follow your urge, you know they are lying as you ate humans and got stronger, in just a few weeks of eating humans and training you became superhuman yourself. Attack physically and mentally, once they are dead, their community and the humans will be your personal living food locker. You force your urges back down, the longer you spent with the Old Man and the more humans you ate, the more violent and volatile you became however they don’t really have a reason to lie to you right now. Find out what they are saying then decide the truth for yourself. > You follow the urge Tainted? You are not tainted by anything, you are the alpha predator of the weak humans below you and you will prove it by killing their ‘Lords’ in front of them and feasting on their flesh. Once you are in charge the games can continue but you will eat the humans as you watch. You lash out at them and make a lunge towards them at incredible speed but you feel both attacks suddenly blocked. The two men in cloaks moved just as fast as you and they are now pinning your arms in grips you can’t break. “You see, I told you we can’t trust a red, once they go that way they are ruled by the infection and lose all reason.” One says to the other “Sadly in this case you were right, I thought since his colour had shades and wasn’t set yet that he could still chance but I guess not.” “Don’t talk over me!” You shout at them, you are about to continue and tell them of what you will do to get your revenge when you feel something slamming into your mind and you have to use all your concentration to fend it off. You only hold for a second though as a second attack shatters your defense and you feel pressure inside your mind. Suddenly it vanishes and you don’t feel their minds anymore. “There, I left all your abilities and mind intact but you lost all of your… mental prowess shall we say.” One of them say cheerily to you “An impressive feat if I say so myself, mental brain surgery! Literally!” he chuckles at his own joke. You are about to say something when you feel yourself suddenly thrown out over the crowd and fall right into the centre of the pit. You try and lash out at them but find all of your mental senses gone; you can only feel what you did when you were a normal human. You panic for a moment but the announcer comes back on the PA system. “That’s right folks, our special event is that our Lords have captured an evil harbinger and stripped him of his mental powers! He is still incredibly strong and fast, but let’s see how he does against our hordes! The winners are the infected who deliver the killing blow, will it be mutants of walkers!” You looks up just in time to see all of the infected and mutants rush at you. You fight well, you still have your speed and strength and kill a large number of them but the small wounds add up. You lose your left arm first to a large mutant dog, you killed it but it had already severed the flesh. Your leg is broken by a shamber latching onto it while a fast type slammed into you. After that it goes quickly. It ends as a mutant tears your windpipe out, the last thing you hear is the crowd cheering your death.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You head down the corridor ahead and past several smaller doors, opened by other strange mutated humans. You make note that the walls and ceiling here is re-enforced, probably after knocking down walls to make the tunnel. You start hearing cheering up ahead as you come into a small lobby area. “Nearly there!” you hear the first voice saying “There are doors and corridors off this room but you need the blue one marked ‘Balcony’.” Then the link drops. You have some suspicions now about a trap, but why let you pass all the abominations which could probably kill you in the tight confines of the corridor only to try and kill you now? You head through the arch and up the stairs and walk right out into what looks like an old circular arena, lit from above with a large pit in the middle, walled by concrete topped with glass and steel. Crowds of humans line the glass, looking down and cheering like they are at a concert. “Welcome to the New City Arena!” you hear thundering above you, and looking up you see the suspended PA system as the announcer continues “The Lords have told me that we have a special guest here today, as so we are putting on a special show for you all!” place your bets and give a cheer for your competitors!” The crowd goes wild as you see giant metal doors in the pit opening. You catch sight of a section sticking out of the balcony and immediately recognize the minds of the two cloaked figures sitting on it as the harbingers. One of them waves you over and you move through the crowd until you reach their little dais, sticking out over the crowd below. There are now humans near them so you walk the last few feet quickly and find an empty seat for you beside them. “Welcome to our little community!” The nearest one begins “This is obviously our arena where we get our entertainment. Obviously living areas and all that are down other tunnels and in other buildings but we thought we would greet you in proper fashion today!” He indicates the pit and you see a pack of mutant dogs walk out into the large open space, on the other side you see a much large group of infected, shamblers and fast types enter. The Harbinger continues “As you see, we have brought back the coliseum, we have infected fight for our entertainment, and occasionally humans who break the laws here, a small group tried to rebell against us a while back, we gave them weapons and sent them in against Nate, who you met at the front door, he is one of our sentinels. It turned Nate into a crowd favorite and he ensured that the peace was kept, no-one has tried real insubordination since then!” You think for a moment before replying as you watch the infected standing still as the humans shout to make bets based off numbers displayed on a big screen on one wall “But the humans, don’t you eat them? That’s how we get stronger and they are simply prey.” You can almost feel the disapproval of the men beside you and you sense new colour swirling in the glow of their minds “Not at all, it seems the Harbinger of the West has been lying to you. Eating humans has no effect on your abilities at all. Only your mind and training does. You got stronger as you believed in what he was saying and because you trained. But it is also why we nearly killed you on sight. Your decision taints your mind and we can see it.” You don’t really know what to respond to this. But your overwhelming urge is to lash out, you were honest but now they were lying to you? Were they simply trying to indoctrinate you to use you like the old man? You follow your urge, you know they are lying as you ate humans and got stronger, in just a few weeks of eating humans and training you became superhuman yourself. Attack physically and mentally, once they are dead, their community and the humans will be your personal living food locker. You force your urges back down, the longer you spent with the Old Man and the more humans you ate, the more violent and volatile you became however they don’t really have a reason to lie to you right now. Find out what they are saying then decide the truth for yourself. > You force it down There are two of them and one of you, they are also much more experienced than you. Attacking now would be suicide. You force your urges back down and after a moment you think a little more rationally again. “It makes complete sense that the Old Man lied to me about things, he was a vengeance driven psycho afterall, he just wanted me to help him, probably the only reason he didn’t kill me.” You give yourself a moment then respond. “What do you mean?” You sense surprise from them as one speaks “Well it seems I was wrong, he held the urge back, you were correct my friend, so long as the red isn’t set there is still some hope for him!” You look t them then add “That doesn’t really tell me what you mean by these colours, or where my abilities really develop from.” The other one laughs “Sorry about that, were had a rather heated debate about you before you arrived and you seem to have provided the answer in my favour. We will explain everything while we watch the entertainment!” You hear the announcer providing commentary as the two groups in the arena below you rush each other and begin tearing each other to pieces. You mostly concentrate on what you are being told though. “You see your power has nothing to do with what you eat, you developed it the moment the infection altered your brain and body. It’s completely mental really, development is based on two things rather like a muscle. Training to make it stronger and understanding to know how to train and use it, as it were.” He pauses as you see three mutant dogs tear the limbs off a shamber right before a fast type leaps on one of their back and bites a chunk out of its neck. “As I was saying, the training is the obvious part. The other part is more understanding and belief, firstly you must believe that the abilities are possible, then you must believe in what you are and what your role in life is.” The fight begins winding down in the dogs favor as you expected, the shamblers and fast types had the numbers but the dog pack was stronger and faster. He looks at you “look at our minds and describe them to me.” > You understanding You concentrate on your senses and describe the impression of their minds that comes to you “They are like two suns compared to the dull glow of the humans below us, almost like they are a deep green with some other colours moving under the surface.” You see the man lean back in his throne-like chair “Excellent, and the other harbinger seemed like an angry red with swirls of darker colours under it yes?” You nod in agreement as he continues “The colours represent how you see yourself and your role, we believe it represents how much control the infection has over your mind and decisions, The red means you have lost any shred of humanity and are more like a rage driven animal than a human. You retain your intelligence of course, but you see humans and harbingers as mere prey and you lose control to your urges, like the one you just felt to kill us.” He raises an eyebrow to you and you nod to indicate that you are following along and that he was right about the urge to kill them “You colour is nearly red you see but it is not set, there are still other distinct colours there too which means you are not yet fully set in your decision, you believed what the Harbinger taught you but your final choice to live that way was not yet made, close, but not final.” He pauses to let you think. “So if I have given into my urges more and fully excepted that I was a preditor out to eat everything I would have been fully red? What does your green mean then?” You see the man smile under his hood “Exactly, and had your colour turned fully red we would have killed you the moment you got close, almost all harbingers would. Your last vestige of reason would have gone and the option to be anything other than a crazed killer would be removed from you. As for our green, it’s a complicated one, not one of the ‘pure’ colours as others describe them. Our green means we have accepted that we are not human and not normal infected. We see ourselves as a separate race above the others but not as their predators, as their next evolution and obvious rulers. We also see infected as nothing, hence our past-time here. They lack minds and are only good for fighting and entertainment.” You take time to think as the infected left alive in the ring feed on the dead, then all leave and the corpses are dragged out by new infected, probably to eat later. A new set of ‘combatants’ enter. This time a huge infected bear verses a large horde of shamblers. One of the Lords whispers over the announcer’s commentary “The bear is very strong but far too dumb to act as a sentinel; it does heal well though so it always wins in the end.” You nod and keep thinking for a bit. You can appreciate their stance, different and better than humans and infected but not their predator. It will be something to think on, you haven’t eaten anything but human in a while now though and you are already hungering for it. “So what about food, and you said ‘Pure’ colours?” You finally ask. One of them nods as he replies, still facing the games. “Blue and red, they represent the ‘pure’ decisions as some call them. Red you know, blues are called guardians, the fastest and easiest ways to describe it is that they think they are superheroes, and I don’t mean that in a funny way. They truly believe they are humans who are granted their powers for a greater purpose to help or serve humanity. The Eastern colony is mostly ruled by them.” You smirk at the description and the idea of serving humans but one of the men responds “Oh I wouldn’t smirk at them until you see their power, their mental defense is unrivaled in its strength and adaptability they are truly forces to be reckoned with, like your old teacher is, his attack is fuelled by his rage and will be stronger than other colours, but his defense is weak. We are of one of the many in-between colours with our own strengths.” This gives you pause, they lower themselves to serve humans but they are un-matched in aspects of their power. You truly will need to think more and come to your decision. One of the men continues “Oh and as for food, you really eat whatever you want so long as it matches your choice, we eat infected flesh and normal human food, either works. You will probably find it safest to eat infected flesh for now as normal food won’t sit well until your colour moves further from the red. Don’t try to eat any of our humans though, killing without our permission means you end in the pit.” You watch the rest of the entertainment as you think and you are finally shown to a fairly nice room through a few tunnels and up some stairs, you guess it’s probably a 6th floor apartment in one of the surrounding buildings. > You final choices You spend most of the night thinking on all you had found out. There are now several paths open you and you feel that you need to come to a choice. You have thought several different things over the past few weeks and each holds interest, the only one you can’t bring yourself to believe is that you are a gifted human sent to protect them. “Too long with the Old Man to ever be able to truly believe that I guess.” You think as you cycle through things. The two Lords here didn’t give their names yet but you like their position, choosing the red is still and option of course, a very attractive one, accept that you are truly superior to all other as the Old Man did and gain massive power, you would have to eventually kill the Lords and the Old Man too but you could easily do that later. They also didn’t go through all the possible colours or decisions, so there are other choices you could come too, they all involve moving away from the red though and accepting that you aren’t an alpha predator sent to earth to eat everything. You consider everything, but eating humans just feels right. They warned you about going red but what is wrong with power and standing on top of the food chain on your own terms, you are already in so they won’t kill you right away and that will buy you the time you need. You consider everything and the red is very tempting but they warned you strongly against it, you want to be on top but not at the expense of EVERYTHING else. You will find a way to rule and do as you wish, but not the red path. > The red path Going Crimson You choose the red. You considered all things but you are a true ruler and you will not be bound by others ideals. You will stand on top of the world and the food chain! You suddenly feel things crystalize around you, your senses clear and the haze around other minds reduces, you can see the humans minds clearly now, as well as the other harbingers, all of them your prey. You’ve made the right choice and already feel more powerful for it, you could crush the Lords and take their community, eating the humans at your leisure, and when the Old Man comes, you can devour him. How pitiable that he actually was so weak that he had to practically beg for your help. You flex your powers and see that your mind is like a fire now, as you stretch it out you can imagine the force of it crushing and burning everything before it. You suddenly notice one of the Lords sending you a link an laugh to yourself a little, the fools even let you inside and taught you how to be stronger! You accept the link to give them their final message before crushing and devouring them. “You chose the red then?” one asks you instantly. You smirk and let the emotion carry over the link “Of course, what other real choice was there? Some weak compromise in the middle? Lowering myself to ‘protect’ my prey? No, I chose my rightful place!” You feel disappointment and pity. Once you would have wondered at it but now that option is not there, it was an insult and that must be met with destruction, nothing more or less. You lash out instantly, reveling in your new strength and feel your mind crashing into one of the harbingers, you can feel his defenses instantly begin to weaken. “See my power, your weakness means your death now that I am whole!” You announce as you push harder to completely cave his mind in and destroy him but you hear the other one respond. “Sadly not dear boy, did you really think we left you to make this choice without planning? Of course you did, reds do not think, they are like rabid dogs, only fit to be put down.” You are about to respond in anger and lash out at him too when you feel an attack slam into your own mind and you are forced to defend against it, weakening your own attack. You can feel the defenses strengthening against you and know you could beat one of them but not while the other was attacking you. “If you were capable of it you should have learned from your teachers defeat, we do not have your attack or blues defense but we have a finesse each of you lacks. Like this for example.” You feel a sudden strange impact on your mental defenses and something slips through causing all of your senses to trigger at once, filling your head with pain and light. You try to recover and lash out again but suddenly feel your arm vanish, you turn back to your normal senses and realize there are human mutants in the room with you and one of them is holding your severed arm. You roar at them and forgetting alla bout the other harbingers in your rage you try and lash out mentally and physically at the enemies around you. Your mind explodes in pain and light again and once you recover you find yourself against a wall and see the monsters in front of you now holding both of your arms and a leg, you feel the blood draining from you as one of the Lords speaks to you. “It is too bad, we really thought you might join us, but it seems that the 3J’s and Madglee get to fest on you instead. Your mind explodes one more time and you never recover.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You spend most of the night thinking on all you had found out. There are now several paths open you and you feel that you need to come to a choice. You have thought several different things over the past few weeks and each holds interest, the only one you can’t bring yourself to believe is that you are a gifted human sent to protect them. “Too long with the Old Man to ever be able to truly believe that I guess.” You think as you cycle through things. The two Lords here didn’t give their names yet but you like their position, choosing the red is still and option of course, a very attractive one, accept that you are truly superior to all other as the Old Man did and gain massive power, you would have to eventually kill the Lords and the Old Man too but you could easily do that later. They also didn’t go through all the possible colours or decisions, so there are other choices you could come too, they all involve moving away from the red though and accepting that you aren’t an alpha predator sent to earth to eat everything. You consider everything, but eating humans just feels right. They warned you about going red but what is wrong with power and standing on top of the food chain on your own terms, you are already in so they won’t kill you right away and that will buy you the time you need. You consider everything and the red is very tempting but they warned you strongly against it, you want to be on top but not at the expense of EVERYTHING else. You will find a way to rule and do as you wish, but not the red path. > You find your own path Leaving the red behind You are tempted by the red, but it is not worth loosing yourself to gain a little more power, and the Lords hinted that they might have other abilities that the reds do not. You will work on your own choice here with them until you are sure of your course. A couple of hours later one of the Lords links to you and you join them again. They are both clearly happier with you and mention that your colour had already lightened, evidence of you rejecting the red. You spend the next week with them, learning a few tricks that the Old Man hadn’t taught you and getting used to new food. You ate the flesh of the infected that died in the arena and it wasn’t so bad. It didn’t have the rush of fresh human but you got more used to it the more you ate and your old hunger reduced now that you knew it wasn’t even needed. You even get to really enjoy the special arena events the Lords host. The Old Man soon makes his appearance though to make things more interesting. You are eating lunch when the Lords contact you and direct you to a ledge on one of the buildings, it is 60 stories up, which is only half way up the building they tell you that they can’t go too high or they won’t get the best view. As you stretch your senses out you see the tiny red sun on the western horizon, slowly getting closer. “It seems he is attacking in the hopes of you following his plan to kill us as he does so, it is your move now friend, what do you choose to do?” One of them says to you. They showed you how to reveal lies In a mind by how the colours change, it is not exact but it is fairly accurate and you know they are much better at it than you, part of their being green you guess so you cannot lie to them. > You say "I will help the Old man, I owe him that much" You realize nearly instantly that this was a bad choice; you actually just told two harbingers that you would help their enemy try and kill them. You try and take it back but before you can open your mouth you feel the punch on your back and go sailing out into the air. Even with your toughness and healing ability you aren’t going to come out well from a 60 story fall You do however have time to think about your own foolishness on the way down before finally hitting the road below.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Leaving the red behind You are tempted by the red, but it is not worth loosing yourself to gain a little more power, and the Lords hinted that they might have other abilities that the reds do not. You will work on your own choice here with them until you are sure of your course. A couple of hours later one of the Lords links to you and you join them again. They are both clearly happier with you and mention that your colour had already lightened, evidence of you rejecting the red. You spend the next week with them, learning a few tricks that the Old Man hadn’t taught you and getting used to new food. You ate the flesh of the infected that died in the arena and it wasn’t so bad. It didn’t have the rush of fresh human but you got more used to it the more you ate and your old hunger reduced now that you knew it wasn’t even needed. You even get to really enjoy the special arena events the Lords host. The Old Man soon makes his appearance though to make things more interesting. You are eating lunch when the Lords contact you and direct you to a ledge on one of the buildings, it is 60 stories up, which is only half way up the building they tell you that they can’t go too high or they won’t get the best view. As you stretch your senses out you see the tiny red sun on the western horizon, slowly getting closer. “It seems he is attacking in the hopes of you following his plan to kill us as he does so, it is your move now friend, what do you choose to do?” One of them says to you. They showed you how to reveal lies In a mind by how the colours change, it is not exact but it is fairly accurate and you know they are much better at it than you, part of their being green you guess so you cannot lie to them. > You say "The Old Man is a psycho and I owe him nothing, I will help you" You aren’t going to help a psycho slaughter everyone here and turn this place into a giant living meat locker. Even if you were, telling two harbingers to their faces while 60 stories up was just the same as committing suicide. They nod to you “Your job will simply be to shield, you can leave the infected gathering below to us, as well as any attacking. So long as you concentrate only on shielding and we aid you in that, we will win easily.” > You nod and prepare for battle You watch the Enemy get closer and closer and begin sensing his horde, you judge about 1500 infected, and a great number of those mutants. Normally this would have terrified you, but right below you were arrayed out nearly 4000 infected of various types and an extra thousand or so shamblers in a block in front of them. You can also sense quite a few of the strange infected minds that indicate human mutants “The Old Man has brought a large army today, I don’t see how he expects to win though.” One of the Lords comments. “You really went all out on the defense then.” You comment for lack of anything better to say. One of the men laughs “Oh this is just a small part of the forces we could bring in but we knew he couldn’t have brought more than two thousand so we judged these sufficient and kept the rest in place to guard other areas.” You nod, you had seen some of the ring of defenders that these two had moved into place and it was no idle boast that this was just a part of their forces. The approaching red mind suddenly flares and you slam your defenses into place, putting your shield over the two Lords through the link you had formed. You feel the other two adding strength to your defense as you feel some pressure pushing lightly on your mind. Suddenly you feel rage strongly emanating from the Old Man and his attack slams against your defenses. Despite his rage and power, with your two allies supporting you, your defenses hold strong and you know you can easily hold him at bay. “It seems he knows you are choosing to support us then!” one of the Lords jokes. “Just keep the defenses up and this shall be fast.” You do as asked and keep your defenses up but it quickly becomes apparent that it won’t matter soon. His horde was caught up in the block of shamblers, obviously devoid of fin control and will. In comparison, being free to do as they wish with you protecting them, the two Lords start dismantling his army in huge chunks while attacking him. Within minutes his attack has weakened then stops as he has to split his attention between his forces and defending. You know it’s no use though as they pick up their attack on him once they took the more dangerous of his forces away and send in their own army to slaughter the rest. You watch him rage and fight harder but with the two of them attacking him, you can see he is losing badly and suddenly staggers back clutching his head. One of your allies shouts out “Ha flashed him! It’s over now!” and you can tell it as, before he recovers two of the humanoid mutants reach him and literally tear him apart. You expect some shouting or celebration but the Lords simply stretch then start heading back inside while chatting “Well, we will eat well tonight at least, that was good exercise, I wonder how all the betting went?” You are confused for a moment but a quick scan shows that all the humans are in various buildings nearby watching the battle “You had them watch and bet on whether you would win or lose?” You ask after a moment. “Oh dear me no.” one replies “We had them bet on enemy forces, losses and how long he would last. The big bet was what would kill him, us or the Army, it seems we only took the assist and the army stole the kill though.” He jokes. You shrug and follow them down inside, glancing at the screen in the arena as you pass you see that it has “BATTLE OF THE CENTURY! BZ, SETH AND SURPRISE NEWCOMER VS. PSYCHO OLD MAN!” displayed on it. “What do you even need money for now?” you finally ask. “Oh, not much, but it’s fun to fill bath tubs with.” BZ replies as you all head to a late lunch. > You relaxing in the New City Life is pretty good after that and the Lords can teach you a lot, the entertainment is good too! ********************************************************************* Well done, you have reached another of the good endings in this version, later this arc will be greatly extended but I ran out of time so it ends here, congratulations!<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You head further into the city centre alone and the hordes part for you, you can feel them dispersing to either side around you. “The Old Man said they keep them evenly spaced out in a ring, does this mean they knew I was coming?” You think as you walk. Finally you see the two minds of the harbingers ahead of you without having to stretch your senses out, and you also see the minds of what seems like over 300 humans with them, the very thought makes you hungry. As you get closer you see another link reaching out for you and as before you join in to let them converse with you. “You are only about an hour’s gentle walk away but you will need to circle a little to your left, that’s North, to get inside, only one entrance you see and everything is guarded to prevent any problems in our little haven.” You carefully force your hunger and feelings down, if you’ve been getting snippits of theirs then they might get some of yours and that might not be good. “Of course, it’s getting dark but that isn’t really an issue for our kind, I’ll walk faster though so I don’t make you wait.” There is a pause and you are about to drop the link when you hear one more question “You came from the West where our enemy lurked, Have you have any interaction with him, he has the feel of an old man, a very angry one at that.” You pause for a moment; you didn’t expect this question so bluntly so you have to choose your words carefully. > You lie. You can't have them know you are affiliated with him, tell them you only recently came from the North before turning East to the city centre and didn't meet another harbinger. You Lie, can’t have them knowing the Truth. “I don’t recall anyone by that description, although I only recently came into the West of the City from the North, above the old stadium area. I really just passed through and didn’t stay to investigate if any others were there.” There is a longer pause than before and you get a little nervous when you hear the voice again. “Ok just up ahead you’ll see the underground entrance on your right? Good, that’s the entrance you’ll need to take, we are quite nicely set up in an old arena here, it was half underground before so makes it very defensible as you can imagine!” The tone seems jovial and the tunnel leads towards the minds you sense so you head inside. As you walk through the tunnel which has obviously had some work done to it with reinforcements and walls removed or built you sense the humans all gathering up ahead. “Is something going on up there?” You ask down the link and immediately get the response “Of course! It’s not every day they get to see a new harbinger so this is somewhat of an event! Everyone has gathered for it. Some of the minds to the East don’t agree with our stance on the matter which is why we separated but we see that we are superior to humans and should be treated as such so we rule here like Gods in a way, when we say there is an event, EVERYONE attends, not that they’d want to miss this anyway.” You heartily agree with the statement. You ARE better than humans, they are your prey after all, you can see their position though. Keeping them like pets to obey and serve you before eating them wouldn’t be so bad either. You see some light up ahead and walk out into what looks like the centre of an arena with 10 foot walls of concrete topped with another 10 feet of metal and reinforced glass. The humans are all on the other side of the glass cheering down at you like fans watching a concert. Something clearly isn’t right though. You sense the minds above you and looking up you see two cloaked figures sitting on a platform that extended out from the wall over the tiered rows of seats giving them the best view both around the room and down into the pit. “Welcome to the City Arena! Rules by the Lords of the New City, this is the place where your post-apocalyptic fantasies can become a reality, for the right price!” You now know that something is definitely wrong as a massive battered steel sheet slams down behind you, trapping you in the arena. Even with your enhanced strength you aren’t sure you could budge it without a lot of time and something to lever with. The announcement continues though, the speakers voice amplified through a speaker system hanging high above of the roof. “Today we have a very rare treat for you, in the ring is a harbinger folks! That’s right, like our very own Lords of the city he has superhuman abilities and can control infected, however this one tried to lie to the Lords and we know how they take that don’t we!” The crowd responds with even more cheers.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>“I like the undercover plan, they won’t know me so I can get inside and take them out personally as soon as you appear and take their attention.” You say. The Old man simply nods and starts putting the map away carefully. “Then we leave in the morning! I will escort you closer but once we near the centre you will be on your own. Remember to act nice around them, can’t have them attacking you before you get inside!” You nod back and snack on a bit of what you think must be a human bicep muscle before getting a couple of hour of rest. As the mornings first light arrives you grab a few handfuls of flesh and you both set out in the jeep again, this time towards the city centre. It’s not long before you cover a good distance, riding is clearly faster than walking and before you know it you are walking away from the Jeep towards the city centre alone, the Old man heading off into a building to set himself up for a few days. “Time to get things going then!” you think to yourself as you begin sensing infected ahead of you, already some mutants mixed in with the normal shamblers and fast types. > You simply move them aside, might be best not to approach with an army at your back You don’t want to appear too aggressive right away so you simply clear yourself a path through the infected, moving them aside as you walk and closing them back up behind you. “If this ring is part of their defense it’s probably best I leave it intact, and having a large number of infected might be useful in an emergency.” You think as you walk further and further in. After a few hours you have given up counting all the infected in the area, this part of the city is made up of blocks of giant multi-story sky-scrapers which all must have had thousands of people inside each before the infection hit if not more. Now even if only 1 in 100 is left alive then that’s still hundreds of infected for every building you walk past, and the mutants are everywhere too. You have no idea if they were strays, pets or migrated here after the infection had taken over but there was no shortage of food for them here at least. You move them aside like the others, a few feel slightly different when you try to take them over but they move aside like the rest and you ignore them once you know you are safely past. It’s nearly dinner time when you finally sense the gathering horde ahead of you. You carefully prepare your defenses and reach your mind out towards the city centre. You are just starting to sense something there when your senses show a strong green glow and you feel pressure on your mind. It’s like an attack but weaker than the ones the Old Man put you through when you were training and you are a lot stronger now than when you were training so you don’t even need to try to keep the pressure from your mind. > You they are weak, the Old man said he was stronger than them individually when he faced them before. Take this one out here and now. The second one won't be an issue alone. You Aren’t going to let some weakling push you around, they might have a lot of infected around them but it means nothing if their will is less than yours. You leave the bare minimum defense against the attack then lash out as hard as you can against the Green haze in the city centre that you know represents you enemy. You know if you can crush them in a single fast attack that the second one won’t stand a chance. You visualize your attack and send it racing out, almost gleefully imagining the moment it shatters right through the enemies weak and neglected defenses and you crush their mind. But it doesn’t. Your attack smashes into a fully formed barrier, easily as strong as anything you could make. You feel it flex and buckle slightly but it is immediately shored up while the attack on you suddenly intensifies. You realize your mistake too late, it was a trap to test whether you would attack and you failed. You frantically try to press your attack while holding your defense up but the enemies defense easily holds you to a stalemate while their attacks strains you defenses to their maximum. You try and think of a way out when the second attack slams into your mind and shatters your already weak defenses. You feel intense pain shooting through your mind. You can barely handle the pain and are almost glad when everything ends.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You don’t want to appear too aggressive right away so you simply clear yourself a path through the infected, moving them aside as you walk and closing them back up behind you. “If this ring is part of their defense it’s probably best I leave it intact, and having a large number of infected might be useful in an emergency.” You think as you walk further and further in. After a few hours you have given up counting all the infected in the area, this part of the city is made up of blocks of giant multi-story sky-scrapers which all must have had thousands of people inside each before the infection hit if not more. Now even if only 1 in 100 is left alive then that’s still hundreds of infected for every building you walk past, and the mutants are everywhere too. You have no idea if they were strays, pets or migrated here after the infection had taken over but there was no shortage of food for them here at least. You move them aside like the others, a few feel slightly different when you try to take them over but they move aside like the rest and you ignore them once you know you are safely past. It’s nearly dinner time when you finally sense the gathering horde ahead of you. You carefully prepare your defenses and reach your mind out towards the city centre. You are just starting to sense something there when your senses show a strong green glow and you feel pressure on your mind. It’s like an attack but weaker than the ones the Old Man put you through when you were training and you are a lot stronger now than when you were training so you don’t even need to try to keep the pressure from your mind. > You play everything safe, sure the attack is weak but the other one hasn't turned up. Hold fast and see what happens. You aren’t going to risk everything on a blind attack right now, you don’t even know if this is a real attack of just a test so you simply stop moving and hold your defenses in place, waiting for their next move. It isn’t long before you see a thread of thought reaching out to you and you do the same just like the Old Man had taught. You immediately hear a voice. “Hmm, you look like our old enemy but you came without an army and didn’t attack while I appeared weaker than you. Strange.” You aren’t sure how to respond to this so go with the playing it simple option. “I’m not your old enemy; I’ve never been to the city centre before so I don’t think we have encountered each other before.” The response comes with some small feelings of surprise “The truth is seems, you aren’t him after all, in that case what brings you to our little dominion alone as you are?” Again you carefully consider before answering “I heard about the two of you and came to meet you.” There is a longer pause this time before the answer finally comes “You may enter however do not try to control any infected now or once you are inside our ring.” You had already decided to not bring a horde so you happily start forward alone once the communication thread vanishes<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>With first light you wake and check on your horde “Still right where I left you.” You think as you dress and head down into the street. You had left them all locked in a small hospital clinic you passed a couple of blocks South, you thought it was funny to pack it full of infected. You gather them together near the apartment when the Old man comes to you. “Interesting news, it seems they have left the stadium a few minutes ago!” You turn West and concentrate hard, it’s still many miles away but you get a faint sense of haziness there. “Now now, don’t strain yourself, you are not practiced enough to sense properly over that distance, it’s even at the limit of my own abilities.” He looks over your Horde. “Excellent, all gathered, well you better get over to the North side and prepare to close the trap, remember that they have a jeep so just standing in the road won’t cut it!” he heads off cheerfully and you feel a large number of infected in a nearby building leave his control, they must be your part of the horde. You take control of them and along with your own horde you head North to look for some good blockade materials. As you pass North you begin noticing a change, the closer to the Highways, the more cars there are. “Huh, they all went for the highway to escape and blocked each other in.” you mumble as you look around. “Well at least the cars might make the blockade easy enough. You begin commanding your shamblers to start pushing the cars and taking off handbrakes when you notice the bus on a side road. A large solid looking city bus, easily capable of blocking the main road by itself. “Hah, almost too easy!” you say aloud as you redirect all of your forces to the bus and maneuver it pointing south, it would have to go round a bend to get into position but any closer and they could spot you as they pass so you put a shambler into the driving seat and take careful control of its mind so you can ensure the bus gets where it needs to go. Then you wait, you carefully send your senses out West again a few times, not pushing it like before and after an few tries you begin to sense them coming closer and closer, moving at a solid pace. “They must all be jogging or running,” you suddenly panick and this they have enough vehicles for all of them but as they approach you realize that they are too spread out to be packed into a vehicle. You settle back and track their progress, you have at least an hour to watch them approach and after a few minutes begin picking out individuals in the larger haze, you then start trying to assign names to them and think back to your time with them. It occurs to you for the first time in two weeks that you didn’t really need to go through with this. You could betray the old man and help the people from the stadium; they did treat you like a friend after all. Stop concentrating on the haze; it’s causing you to think funny. You’re a predator and they are just pray Watching the haze so closely for so long must have brought these thoughts on, however they are correct, why not help them. They helped you before and you are sure they would accept you if you saved them. > You what have you been doing, you need to help them You have to help them, the Old man was clearly altering your thoughts to make you do what he wanted but you were originally human, becoming stronger doesn’t change that so you should help the stadium survivors. You know that watching the haze so intently for a couple of hours brought this on but you feel like you know it’s the right thing to do. You have control of a couple of shamblers in their path and walk them out to try and signal but they are killed instantly by what feels like intense gunfire. “The old man wasn’t kidding about the armored jeep at least.” You start running towards them, intending to warn them in person about the trap but almost immediately feel the old man attempting to sense your thoughts. You block him out but know it will only hold for a few minutes, he can’t bring his full concentration onto you while controlling his horde. You begin hearing them coming and are about to run out into the street when you remember the shamblers and instead hide behind a corner and start shouting to get their attention. You feel the pressure on you mind intensify and quickly send the order for all the infected you control to attack the old man’s horde. You feel it subside slightly as he has to divert his attention again. “Who’s there?” you hear the convoy shouting to you. You step out. “It’s me! Don’t shoot!” You see all the guns pointed at you and the jeep slows but doesn’t stop, the pressure is already returning to your mind, you have little time. “It’s a trap, the harbinger has blocked the road off ahead, he has a huge army of infected ready to take you out.” You were about to say more when you feel the Old man’s mind slam into yours, your defenses hold but you are driven to your knees with the pain. You wince then speak again. “You have to change course, get away…” You feel the second mental attack and your defenses fail completely, the pain nearly blacks you out and you fall prone on the ground. You hear the Old man in your head. “Betraying me was a foolish mistake.” You hear him say sadly before he leaves your mind. You almost celebrate, “He couldn’t finish me off” you think, you try and stand but feel too week from the mental attack and collapse again. You hear the Captain talking. “Bring him with us, but chain him up carefully. We change course, loop South near the city center to try and bypass any blockade.” You are about to rejoice, they were taking you with them. Sadly in your current mental state you couldn’t sense the mutant dog behind you in the alleyway and in your physical state there is nothing you can do as it leaps onto your back and bites into your skull, crushing it instantly.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You hear a chuckle from inside and hear an old man’s voice calling to you. “Oh don’t worry so much and come on in, your abilities will grow stronger in time, you are simply less practiced than me!” You start walking to the door and see and old man with a broom sweeping some near invisible dirt out of the door before standing aside for you to enter. You walk past him to find yourself in the fanciest tailors you’ve ever seen, with suits you never could have afforded before the infection spread. You glance again at the old man then back to the suits. He is clearly well dressed but not in anything as fine as the clothing in the store. You hear him chuckling again as pulls the shutters down and closes the door leaving everything in a dim sort of twilight. “Yes I am the tailor not the customer. I made every suit in this store to sell to others but it never felt quite right to wear one myself.” You can make out that he is looking you up and down, clearly not bothered by the lack of light. “You on the hand might need some new clothing; I’ll adjust something for you later. For now let’s head upstairs.” He heads off still holding his broom and you follow him closely, trying not to bump into anything until you reach the second floor and light from the open windows makes it easier to see. You let him get several feet ahead of you to see him better. He is clearly a frail old man and you begin wondering if he is really strong enough to be the other harbinger when he moves faster than you thought possible and in right in front of you, pinning your arms in a grip that doesn’t even let you move an inch. “Yes indeed I am the harbinger, and yes I am defiantly strong enough.” He releases you and walks over to a small chair beside a table covered with slices of meat. “Come have a seat, and yes, I can read your mind. Your powers are developing but they are still in their infancy, I will train you to use them properly so long as you don’t disappoint me.” You take a seat and immediately recognize the smell of the meat as fresh human. The old man smiles. “Yes I usually have a couple hanging around in old cellars to keep them fresh for me, my servants bring them to me when they find them and I divide them between myself and my horde.” He is clearly expecting you to eat, so you do. It’s not as if you haven’t eaten humans before and its nice to have human flesh again, it makes your whole body feel better. “Oh good, I was a little worried that you had sided with humans and might refuse to eat the meat but that’s the first test past. Here is the second.” The old man says to you as a shambler comes in through a previously closed door and begins to lunge for you. Your old reflexes tell you to go for your bat but your new practice kicks in and you reflexively lash out with your mind instead. You see it suddenly stumble back against a wall as if physically struck, before sinking down and not moving any more. “Ah, and the second test passed too, you didn’t have to kill it though you know?” The old man says to you. “Erm, sorry about that, it was reflexive and I’ve only been using this ability for a couple of weeks, I didn’t know I could kill them.” You suddenly feel your nose bleeding again and quickly pich it to prevent the blood pouring out on your clothing. The old man gives you a very happy look. “Only a couple of weeks, well that is great news, it means you are developing very quickly. The quicker the development, the higher the potential! Well I accept you as my student. Over the next few weeks I will be training you in all aspects of your gift, starting with shielding your mind from others, we aren’t the only ones out there you know.” The old man pauses and looks at you intently. “That is of course if you choose to learn from me, if so I will teach you for a few weeks and you will then aid me in destroying the last holdouts in the stadium, the greater plans will be revealed after that. Or you can leave now.” You glance around; he isn’t holding a weapon or acting threateningly. You also are pretty sure he didn’t lock the shutter and a glance out the window shows that the streets are clear. You try and sense the infected in the area again but try and block the old man’s mind out as you do so to prevent the painful blindness from before. It somewhat works and you sense that all the infected are right where they were when you sensed them the first time. He clearly isn’t making any obvious moves to trap you. Choose to stay and learn, it’s what you are after all, a harbinger. Back out politely and head back to the stadium, you were happier there and the old man is a bit creepy. > Back out politely and head back to the stadium, you were happier there and the old man is a bit creepy. You decide to leave, you’re not sure you want to learn from a slightly creepy old man and you were getting to like some of the people in the stadium, the food was even sitting better. You get to your feet. “Well I think I should be going, thank you for the offer.” You tense but the old man makes no move as he replies. “This is a shame, you had so much promise and even managed to slightly shield my mind when you checked on my horde. Clearly a fast learner. It is too bad indeed.” Seeing his lack of aggression you head for the door, as you reach the stairs down you feel a sudden impact and looking down you see a foot of broom handle sticking out of the front of your chest around where you no longer beating heart should be. “Well at least you will make a very special meal.” You hear the old man say as you tumble dying into the stairwell.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You grab one of the men’s bags, partly full of tins, and carefully clean any trace of blood off your face. Leaving the guns behind, you bash in the head of the slowly dying fast type to make it look like you fought, then head back to the stadium. Once close you start running and panting a little for effect. The guards see you some distance away and they are already with guns aimed past you at the street when you get close. “They swarmed us, I was the only one fast enough to get away!” you call up. The gate opens and you are ushered inside quickly before seeing it being barricaded again from the inside. You tell your story about seeming to be ambushed by them when you were in the store a couple more times and it seems like everyone is buying it. Just a few days before the other scavengers to loose teammates told a similar story after all. You are given the rest of the day and the next one off from duties and spend it relaxing in your tent, simply prying with your mind as far as you could and drawing any infected you find, closer to the stadium. It seems that wherever you leave them, they stay. Sure they wander around nearby streets and buildings sometimes but never too far from where they started and they seem to usually return there. By dinner of the second day you have a fair number of shamblers and 1 fast type in the surrounding alleyways and buildings and you hear over dinner that everyone is sure that the harbinger had returned. Seem like this sort of thing fitted right into their suspicions. Time to get to work, the food here feels like its poisoning you now the more you eat of it. You have your army ready and know the enemy defenses perfectly; they think you are one of their defenders after all. At night the doc often sleeps in his office and there are only two guards so you are sure you can get the 4 shamblers out to go wild inside then all you’ll need is to get some on the ones from outside into the stadium to complete your victory. You are considering the best way to do this when you sense all the infected you brought close suddenly begin leaving towards the South and you cannot bring them back no matter how hard you concentrate. The last one pauses and you can feel that it seems to be waving at you for a few minutes, beckoning you after it almost, before it turns and heads South and eventually out of your range to sense it. “Well that’s odd.” You think as you watch it vanish along with your immediate attack plans. “Best bet is that they were right and the original harbinger is back, seems he wants to talk to me too.” The morning will bring a new decision to make, Go to meet the other harbinger or ignore his summons and take down the stadium yourself with your own army; you’ll just need to gather a new one first. > You ignore him, you will deal with the stadium first then decide his fate later Ignore the fool who stole your army for now, you can deal with him once you practice your own powers more and wipe out the stadium community. You spend the morning planning and stretching your powers as much as you can until you finally manage to detect something further North “Must be up near the highway.” You think as you head to find the Capt. He is a little surprised at first but you carefully explain that you really just want to keep busy and heading out with a scavenging party to the North should be perfect since it’s the furthers from the city centre and so should be the safest. He reluctantly agrees with you and the team for the day gets redirected to one of the Northern targets. You get to tag along as the 5th man. It only takes a couple of hours to get to the Highway on ramps directly North and your team raids the convenience stores there for supplies, finding a surprisingly good amount, seems like after the highway got fully blocked with cars and infected, no-one came back here. You also get lucky with the infected, you find a few dozen can be sensed from this far North so as you grab tins of Spam off a shelf you concentrate on beginning to steer them all South. Mostly shamblers and a few fast ones. You find one mind that’s different from the rest, hazy like a normal but also cracked and venerable with twisted knots inside. You give it a test push to see if you can affect it but it reacts erratically and you immediately realize that it would be a lot more work to try and affect it in any meaningful way so you leave it alone for now. No point getting a nosebleed now just for a single crazy. Watching the others work at filling their bags you realize you’re in the perfect spot for a meal again and the hunger begins to rise. You even have a proper little horde this time you could use. > You call in the horde to swarm them and feed, the fresh human flesh boosts your healing so maybe your powers too. You decide that this is simply too good an opportunity to pass up and call the little horde forward to surround your team. You simply have to eat and test if their flesh can increase your powers faster, you also need to get the taste of their rations out of your system, the more of them you eat, the worse they make you feel so it will be good to get some real food again. You carefully begin positioning your horde to ambush the group. You’ve never actively tried to control this many at once and you begin to feel the strain after just a few seconds. However you force yourself to keep going, fighting off a splitting headache until you are all half way back and you have the horde move it, fast ones followed by the shamblers. You feel your nose bleeding again and your headache becomes nearly unbearable but once the attack has begun you releases some of the control knowing that they can finish the job themselves. The team is almost instantly overwhelmed and you quickly join in the feeding, just controlling the ones nearest you to ensure they don’t attack you like they normally would. You rest for a few minutes after and can almost feel the fresh human flesh refilling your energy, the headache even passes a little and finally you clean off the blood and begin heading back to the stadium trying the same act as before. Sadly the Capt. is there this time and they don’t seem to believe your story. “It seems to me that a lot of our problems began right when you arrived here and now two entire teams get wiped out with you untouched. You can understand how this looks can’t you?” You try and profess your innocence but your headache is back in full swing having brought your horde closer in to the North of the stadium and you find it hard to think straight never mind sound convincing. You finally get control of yourself and begin to try and reason your way out of this when you feel a sudden pain like a whip in your mind and you vomit at your own feet. Sadly you have been eating a reasonably amount of human flesh and skin and blood is clearly still recognizable in the mess. You don’t even get a chance to run before all the shots ring out and you fall backwards riddled with bullets.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Ignore the fool who stole your army for now, you can deal with him once you practice your own powers more and wipe out the stadium community. You spend the morning planning and stretching your powers as much as you can until you finally manage to detect something further North “Must be up near the highway.” You think as you head to find the Capt. He is a little surprised at first but you carefully explain that you really just want to keep busy and heading out with a scavenging party to the North should be perfect since it’s the furthers from the city centre and so should be the safest. He reluctantly agrees with you and the team for the day gets redirected to one of the Northern targets. You get to tag along as the 5th man. It only takes a couple of hours to get to the Highway on ramps directly North and your team raids the convenience stores there for supplies, finding a surprisingly good amount, seems like after the highway got fully blocked with cars and infected, no-one came back here. You also get lucky with the infected, you find a few dozen can be sensed from this far North so as you grab tins of Spam off a shelf you concentrate on beginning to steer them all South. Mostly shamblers and a few fast ones. You find one mind that’s different from the rest, hazy like a normal but also cracked and venerable with twisted knots inside. You give it a test push to see if you can affect it but it reacts erratically and you immediately realize that it would be a lot more work to try and affect it in any meaningful way so you leave it alone for now. No point getting a nosebleed now just for a single crazy. Watching the others work at filling their bags you realize you’re in the perfect spot for a meal again and the hunger begins to rise. You even have a proper little horde this time you could use. > You hold off for now, they are a suspicious lot and probably won't believe that you are the only one to get away twice in a row. You are highly tempted to wipe this team out just like you did with the last one but you know the guards would be too suspicious of you if that happened and it would make your life a lot harder so you hold off for now and instead have your new small horde hold off a few miles North of you and follow behind as you all return to the stadium. You’ve never actively tried to control this many at once and you begin to feel the strain after just a few seconds. However you force yourself to keep going, fighting off a splitting headache until you are all half way back. You feel your nose beginning to bleed this time and quickly plug it up tight with some balls of cloth. It means the blood backs up and you have to swallow it, but it’s better than having it streaming down your face again. You finally arrive back at the stadium and release your active hold on the infected to the North, leaving them all just inside your current maximum reach as you head inside. You receive several comments about how pale and terrible you look and quickly try to explain that maybe it was too soon after looking your other team. You quickly drop off the supplies and collapse into you tent with your head feeling like it’s going to split open where you fall unconscious for the rest of the evening and right through the night. > You waking up as lord of your own little horde. When morning comes you wake slowly and groggily, the last remnants of your headache still present however you immediately notice that you can sense your horde still milling about where you left them. You can even sense some of the stragglers further back that you had lost control of last night due to the pain. Trying to direct them right now is out of the question though as you know you over-did it the day before and you don’t want to risk any more bleeding incidents right now, there is only so many times you can lose half a pint of blood from your nose before people realize something is wrong. You find the Doc waiting for you at breakfast to check on your condition. “I heard you looked like death last night, one of the guards almost shot you before your team convinced him that you were ok and hadn’t been bitten.” You think fairly carefully before replying. “Yeh, I think it might just have been a bit soon after losing my other team, I thought being back out there might help me get over it but I guess it had the opposite reaction. Feeling better today but still got a headache so might be best if I rest for a bit.” The Doc nods and goes to chat with the Capt. who comes over. “We saw things like this back in the wars so don’t worry too much about it, it should mostly pass in a day or two, just let the doc here know if you start feeling overly paranoid or having flashbacks in the next week. You and your team brought back a huge haul of tins and supplies so don’t worry about the scavenging or other duties for a few days either.” He heads off and you finally relax. They were giving you exactly what you needed to destroy them. You head back to your tent with full permission to do nothing for a couple of days and fall asleep again, waking about lunchtime with your headache finally gone. You do however notice that one of the hazy blobs that mark a normal is still hanging around near your tent exactly where it was when you went to sleep. “Seems they are having me followed” You think “best act as normal as possible for a bit then” You head outside and see some of the guys you are friendlier with eating so you head over to join them, and sure enough your shadow follows, you never catch a glimpse of him so he must be one of the military ones or just very good at following people “Maybe they put an ex-stalker after me” you think with a laugh as you start joining in the conversation over lunch. By the next morning of acting normal again your shadow vanishes and you feel up to flexing your powers again. You reach out to your horde and find that, as expected, it’s simple to control them all at once now. “So keep pushing the limits, but not too far or for too long” You think to yourself as you plan your next move. > You hit the stadium right away, get infected inside before they can react and defend properly You have the horde, the ability to use them and you even have a reasonable plan, why wait? You head down into the basement on the premise of getting checkup by the doc and even get a few comments from the guards about them being glad you are feeling better. What a surprise it was going to be for them. Once in his office, you left him swing the door shut then, while his back is still turned you snap his neck from behind. “Huh, much easier than expected” you think as you carefully move his body out of sight from the corridor. You give it a few minutes then exit the office, closing the door behind you and head back out to the two waiting guards who unbolt the door for you and let you through. “Clean bill of health then?” one asks. You smile as you reply “Better than ever!” You punch him in the throat, planning just to crush the wind pipe but you feel his spine snap at the impact as you move to the next guard, you have your hand over his mouth and his neck snapped before the first even hits the floor. You quickly glance down at your hands before grabbing them both and half carry them down to the doc’s office to hide them. “Ok I was fast and strong before but this is on a whole new level. Guess advancing my other powers is helping my body too.” You think as you take the locks off the cell doors and let the four shamblers out. Number 4 is barely able to walk and two are half starved so you let them join you in feeding on the Doc. And the guards while you slowly make your horde move into position. Once you are finished you move with your little team of shamblers to the base of the stairs that lead up to the stadium and wait while your little horde surrounds the stadium, everywhere there are balconies that could lead inside. It’s just before lunch when you start the attack, shamblers and fast types moving out of the alleys and towards the stadium as fast of each of them is able. You immediately hear gunshots ringing out from the front balconies along with occasional booms indicating the 50cal. Sniper is getting involved too. The flanks are slower to react though like you predicted and your horde is already reaching the ditches and barricades by the time they open fire. You can feel large numbers of your horde dropping dead or injured now but you press them forward, each one that falls increases your fine control over the rest and with your guidance they are moving through the defenses at a good speed. The fast types reach the flanks about the time you realize the front is lost, two thirds of the infected there are already down and more drop every second. Seems the military guys on gate duty today are no slouches. You quickly try and read where the normal are and find haziness moving towards all parts of the stadium with two coming your way. The reinforcements are reacting already, that’s not the best news but you have fast types climbing up to the side balconies right now and you feel them taking down a couple of guards on the right side before the others get there. > You head out to attack from the rear; make sure your horde gets inside Now is the time to strike, you can take out the re-enforcements headed to the right and ensure your horde breeches the perimeter. You rush out with your shamblers following behind and run right into the two guards who were headed your way. You punch one right away and feel his chest cave, the other manages to shout and tries to raise his gun, but you’re too fast and bat it aside, letting your shamblers take him down. You begin heading to the right, to take out the re-enforcements however the shamblers, true to their name, move slowly and you decide to leave them behind and rush for the right flank. You arrive shortly behind the guards and feel them killing your horde but you attack from the rear and quickly kill all three, letting your horde into the stadium. You give it a few moments for them to get the first few inside as you try and prolong the other fights, the front attack is pretty much wiped out but you keep the badly wounded moving to draw attention at least. The left side has made the walls but it’s a much harder climb there so they aren’t doing well either. “Time to attack from the inside.” You think as you head down from the balcony with your small force. The first thing you notice is the low rumbling that seems out of place in the normally quiet stadium, the second thing is that the noise is coming from a large armored military jeep parked right in the middle of the field and pointing its mounted gun your way. Even with your super human speed, you can’t dodge bullets, so when the heavy machine-gun opens fire you feel yourself being torn apart along with your horde. “They had a back-up plan.” You think as you fall. “I could have told you that, if you had been willing to listen.” You hear in your head right before it goes black.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You have the horde, the ability to use them and you even have a reasonable plan, why wait? You head down into the basement on the premise of getting checkup by the doc and even get a few comments from the guards about them being glad you are feeling better. What a surprise it was going to be for them. Once in his office, you left him swing the door shut then, while his back is still turned you snap his neck from behind. “Huh, much easier than expected” you think as you carefully move his body out of sight from the corridor. You give it a few minutes then exit the office, closing the door behind you and head back out to the two waiting guards who unbolt the door for you and let you through. “Clean bill of health then?” one asks. You smile as you reply “Better than ever!” You punch him in the throat, planning just to crush the wind pipe but you feel his spine snap at the impact as you move to the next guard, you have your hand over his mouth and his neck snapped before the first even hits the floor. You quickly glance down at your hands before grabbing them both and half carry them down to the doc’s office to hide them. “Ok I was fast and strong before but this is on a whole new level. Guess advancing my other powers is helping my body too.” You think as you take the locks off the cell doors and let the four shamblers out. Number 4 is barely able to walk and two are half starved so you let them join you in feeding on the Doc. And the guards while you slowly make your horde move into position. Once you are finished you move with your little team of shamblers to the base of the stairs that lead up to the stadium and wait while your little horde surrounds the stadium, everywhere there are balconies that could lead inside. It’s just before lunch when you start the attack, shamblers and fast types moving out of the alleys and towards the stadium as fast of each of them is able. You immediately hear gunshots ringing out from the front balconies along with occasional booms indicating the 50cal. Sniper is getting involved too. The flanks are slower to react though like you predicted and your horde is already reaching the ditches and barricades by the time they open fire. You can feel large numbers of your horde dropping dead or injured now but you press them forward, each one that falls increases your fine control over the rest and with your guidance they are moving through the defenses at a good speed. The fast types reach the flanks about the time you realize the front is lost, two thirds of the infected there are already down and more drop every second. Seems the military guys on gate duty today are no slouches. You quickly try and read where the normal are and find haziness moving towards all parts of the stadium with two coming your way. The reinforcements are reacting already, that’s not the best news but you have fast types climbing up to the side balconies right now and you feel them taking down a couple of guards on the right side before the others get there. > You ambush the two near you and keep hidden for now, wait for the right moment. You don’t want to play your hand just yet so you wait and concentrate on controlling the right flank now that they had made the balcony. Concentrating on them so much will lose you control elsewhere but the front group is almost entirely gone and the left flank is having huge issues climbing up so it’s the best choice for now. You have them hide either side of the door as the first of the shamblers starts to reach the top of the rubble and attempt to get over the balcony rail. The guards take the bait and rush forward, shooting the shamblers in front of them the moment they arrive and you have the hidden infected ambush them. You still lose one of them, but that’s two fast ones inside and more following up with the shamblers. You move to the side as you sense the guards heading down the stairs to you and quickly, but brutally dispatch them the second the round the corner. Can’t have them raising the alarm on you now. You hear a low rumbling from the back of the stadium but have to ignore it for the moment, it’s probably a generator or something and right now you have to get rid of the military guys at the front balconies. You sense no-one nearby so you head up the stairs as quickly as you can make your group move and start slipping between the shacks and tents toward the front. You hear the rumble getting louder and realize where you recognize it from. It’s a car engine, and a powerful one at that. You haven’t heard a working one in years. You speed up and direct your forces from the right to swarm down inside then up towards the front balcony to take them out before whatever type of car it is gets involved but you are too late. You hear the sound of a heavy machine gun opening up and instantly feel your force on the right flank go down, you have more coming but all your fast types in the stadium just got taken out in seconds and you are left trapped between the big gun and the balcony. > You rush the big gun, so long as it's around, you are doomed You send your four shamblers to the side a little then have them charge towards the vehicle as you circle round a little as quickly as you can before attacking from its flank. You immediately see that it is a fully armored military jeep with a 50cal. On the roof which tears through your distraction in seconds. With your new found speed though, it’s enough for you to cover the ground necessary for you to launch yourself at the jeep, landing on the roof and grabbing the gunner before he can turn to face you. You are about to let of a whoop of elation and kill him when you hear a strange voice in your head. “Close, but you forgot to account for the Captain, he is not a stupid man.” You get the urgent sense that you should look right, and see the captain and several others in full military garb hiding behind the shacks and pointing rifles at you. They don’t give you a chance to dodge before firing. The last thing you feel is the voice in your head again. “Of course he knew that the jeep was the lynch-pin so he guarded it with his best men.”<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You don’t want to play your hand just yet so you wait and concentrate on controlling the right flank now that they had made the balcony. Concentrating on them so much will lose you control elsewhere but the front group is almost entirely gone and the left flank is having huge issues climbing up so it’s the best choice for now. You have them hide either side of the door as the first of the shamblers starts to reach the top of the rubble and attempt to get over the balcony rail. The guards take the bait and rush forward, shooting the shamblers in front of them the moment they arrive and you have the hidden infected ambush them. You still lose one of them, but that’s two fast ones inside and more following up with the shamblers. You move to the side as you sense the guards heading down the stairs to you and quickly, but brutally dispatch them the second the round the corner. Can’t have them raising the alarm on you now. You hear a low rumbling from the back of the stadium but have to ignore it for the moment, it’s probably a generator or something and right now you have to get rid of the military guys at the front balconies. You sense no-one nearby so you head up the stairs as quickly as you can make your group move and start slipping between the shacks and tents toward the front. You hear the rumble getting louder and realize where you recognize it from. It’s a car engine, and a powerful one at that. You haven’t heard a working one in years. You speed up and direct your forces from the right to swarm down inside then up towards the front balcony to take them out before whatever type of car it is gets involved but you are too late. You hear the sound of a heavy machine gun opening up and instantly feel your force on the right flank go down, you have more coming but all your fast types in the stadium just got taken out in seconds and you are left trapped between the big gun and the balcony. > You rush the balcony; if you take it out you can get more infected inside to deal with the big gun. You know you can’t take the heavy gun on with only four shamblers so you rush for the front balcony instead, aiming to get to the highest one you can attack the ones below from there and they will never expect it. You can’t move at speed with the shamblers following so you send them to the left to see if they can do damage there but just as you reach the stairs up you feel them go down as you hear the heavy gun again. Glancing behind you, you see a fully armored military jeep parked right in the middle of the stadium with its 50cal. Now turning towards you. You use all the speed you can and manage to dive out of the way before it opens fire and you see the stairs where you hand been a moment before erupt into a shower of debris. “Now what do I do.” You think to yourself as you hide behind a pillar. “I would try running away if I were you, this little attack isn’t working out for you.” Comes the unbidden reply into your mind. You pause speechless for a moment “What the hell, my mind is talking to me now, are you the source of my powers?” You think at the air in front of you. You sense laughter in the response. “Oh dear me no, that did make me laugh! I’m simply another gifted, although significantly more powerful than a fledgling like yourself. I was hoping you’d accept my invitation to meet and discuss the stadium but you had to go and take this rash course instead. Well if you survive then come find me, I’m to your South. I doubt you will though.” You get the feeling that whoever it was has gone so you concentrate on your current predicament. You’re now surrounded, you’re covered with human blood since you were feeding on corpses and you attack is failing. All that’s left is to trust in your speed. You crouch then move right into a full sprint up the rest of the stairs, you hear the big gun starting to fire behind you but the bullets don’t find you until you have reached the balcony, you feel one tearing clean through your leg but dive through the doors and the shooting stops. Sadly this particular balcony is full of heavily armed soldiers. You manage to take three of them down before the others get shots on you and you slowly go down, bleeding from multiple bullet holes. “Ah, thought so.” You hear in your mind before it goes blank.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>When morning comes you wake slowly and groggily, the last remnants of your headache still present however you immediately notice that you can sense your horde still milling about where you left them. You can even sense some of the stragglers further back that you had lost control of last night due to the pain. Trying to direct them right now is out of the question though as you know you over-did it the day before and you don’t want to risk any more bleeding incidents right now, there is only so many times you can lose half a pint of blood from your nose before people realize something is wrong. You find the Doc waiting for you at breakfast to check on your condition. “I heard you looked like death last night, one of the guards almost shot you before your team convinced him that you were ok and hadn’t been bitten.” You think fairly carefully before replying. “Yeh, I think it might just have been a bit soon after losing my other team, I thought being back out there might help me get over it but I guess it had the opposite reaction. Feeling better today but still got a headache so might be best if I rest for a bit.” The Doc nods and goes to chat with the Capt. who comes over. “We saw things like this back in the wars so don’t worry too much about it, it should mostly pass in a day or two, just let the doc here know if you start feeling overly paranoid or having flashbacks in the next week. You and your team brought back a huge haul of tins and supplies so don’t worry about the scavenging or other duties for a few days either.” He heads off and you finally relax. They were giving you exactly what you needed to destroy them. You head back to your tent with full permission to do nothing for a couple of days and fall asleep again, waking about lunchtime with your headache finally gone. You do however notice that one of the hazy blobs that mark a normal is still hanging around near your tent exactly where it was when you went to sleep. “Seems they are having me followed” You think “best act as normal as possible for a bit then” You head outside and see some of the guys you are friendlier with eating so you head over to join them, and sure enough your shadow follows, you never catch a glimpse of him so he must be one of the military ones or just very good at following people “Maybe they put an ex-stalker after me” you think with a laugh as you start joining in the conversation over lunch. By the next morning of acting normal again your shadow vanishes and you feel up to flexing your powers again. You reach out to your horde and find that, as expected, it’s simple to control them all at once now. “So keep pushing the limits, but not too far or for too long” You think to yourself as you plan your next move. > You wait for nightfall then sneak them in slowly. Attack once you have a good force inside Your stalker is gone, headache is gone and you can now control a horde easily. What more could you want from life? To wipe out this little holdout of normals of course! You don’t want to rush things too much though; no sense attacking in the day when they defenders can all easily see and shoot your horde from far away, nighttime is the best option. You spend the rest of the day acting nice and chatting with people; you get several comments about how much better you are looking and always thank the person a lot and say how you think you’ll be back out there in no time. All the while you move your horde slowly closer to the stadium, until finally just before sunset they are hidden a single street away from the start of the barricades. You pretend to head to sleep for the night and wait for several hours. About 2am most people get sleepy whether or not they slept during the day so you wait until then and finally sneak out of your tent, heading towards the right-hand balcony Grabbing a combat knife along the way. Some fallen rubble means that your horde should easily be able to climb in there and there aren’t usually too many guards. You get close and almost get onto the balcony itself before you are challenged by the guards there. “Who’s that moving back there?” they call back to you in a not entirely unfriendly voice, your Inside the stadium after all. “Hey man, it’s just me.” You say stepping out into the moonlight. “Couldn’t sleep you know, remembering the other day.” The guard nods, probably thinking of his own nightmares fueled by watching people he knew killed. “Well you’re welcome to join us out here, it’s just me and Daed here tonight and I’ve heard his stories far too many times. Daed gives you a wave then does back to staring out into the darkness. You smile and lean back against the door frame, behind the two of them. “Thanks man, but I’m not sure I’ve heard all his stories yet.” You hear a groan from the first guard as Daed immediately starts into a story about when he was riding his motorcycle. You let him talk away as the other man shakes his head and looks out into the darkness, leaving both of their backs to you. It’s almost too east from there. You move quietly and stab the first guard in the neck, jumping over to Daed and putting your hand over his mouth before he has time to shout. A quick stab and he dies too leaving you alone on the moonlit balcony. You quickly start calling your horde in small groups to ensure they make as little noise as possible and after a few minutes the first group is climbing up with you. > You have a handful of fast ones and a handful of shamblers, strike now as the others make their way up. You can take out most of the other guards as the rest of your horde gets inside. You gather your ready infected and head right back down the stairs from the balcony; from here you can send the fast ones to one front side balcony while you attack another then re-group to attack the rest, by that time a large number of infected should be ready to sweep down over the living areas. You make it half way down the stairs at the front of your group before realizing that something is wrong, there are far too many hazy areas moving around in the center of the stadium and ahead of you. You try and concentrate but can’t make out more details of what is going on in the near complete darkness of the interior. You wait a few moments for your eyes to adjust so you can see what’s happening when you realize your mistake. You hear a barely audible whirring noise as your eyes adjust enough to realize that there is a huge armored jeep parked right in the middle of the stadium’s open area and its gun is both spinning, and pointed your way. They had taken the obvious follower off you but they must have still been keeping an eye on you, you think as the Jeeps gun opens fire. You dive to the side into a row of seats as you feel your small group of infected getting torn apart by the high caliber bullets. You try and think of where to run when you hear the separate boom at the same time as a hole appears in a seat in front of you and you feel a huge impact in your side. The dam 50cal. Sniper just shot you right through your cover. You try and run back to the balcony but you are already wounded and barely make it two feet before the second boom rings out and a hole appears in your chest.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Your stalker is gone, headache is gone and you can now control a horde easily. What more could you want from life? To wipe out this little holdout of normals of course! You don’t want to rush things too much though; no sense attacking in the day when they defenders can all easily see and shoot your horde from far away, nighttime is the best option. You spend the rest of the day acting nice and chatting with people; you get several comments about how much better you are looking and always thank the person a lot and say how you think you’ll be back out there in no time. All the while you move your horde slowly closer to the stadium, until finally just before sunset they are hidden a single street away from the start of the barricades. You pretend to head to sleep for the night and wait for several hours. About 2am most people get sleepy whether or not they slept during the day so you wait until then and finally sneak out of your tent, heading towards the right-hand balcony Grabbing a combat knife along the way. Some fallen rubble means that your horde should easily be able to climb in there and there aren’t usually too many guards. You get close and almost get onto the balcony itself before you are challenged by the guards there. “Who’s that moving back there?” they call back to you in a not entirely unfriendly voice, your Inside the stadium after all. “Hey man, it’s just me.” You say stepping out into the moonlight. “Couldn’t sleep you know, remembering the other day.” The guard nods, probably thinking of his own nightmares fueled by watching people he knew killed. “Well you’re welcome to join us out here, it’s just me and Daed here tonight and I’ve heard his stories far too many times. Daed gives you a wave then does back to staring out into the darkness. You smile and lean back against the door frame, behind the two of them. “Thanks man, but I’m not sure I’ve heard all his stories yet.” You hear a groan from the first guard as Daed immediately starts into a story about when he was riding his motorcycle. You let him talk away as the other man shakes his head and looks out into the darkness, leaving both of their backs to you. It’s almost too east from there. You move quietly and stab the first guard in the neck, jumping over to Daed and putting your hand over his mouth before he has time to shout. A quick stab and he dies too leaving you alone on the moonlit balcony. You quickly start calling your horde in small groups to ensure they make as little noise as possible and after a few minutes the first group is climbing up with you. > You wait for the rest of your horde, you have time before the guard change and it will be safer to swarm everything at once. There is no point in rushing now, you’re horde is climbing up and will soon be strong enough to swarm over the sleeping areas while you took the fastest ones to help with the other balconies. It’s only a few minutes before the balcony is getting full and you do a quick check ahead, trying to sense out the best targets you send the horde after. You immediately realize something is wrong, there is an awful lot of movement going on down there for the middle of the night, you edge through the doorway and carefully keep to cover while you let your eye adjust and look out. You quickly realize that there is something large in the middle of the previously empty space in the stadium and there are a lot of men out with guns, all in a nice big semi-circle around the stairs you were about to walk down. “They must have had someone still keeping an eye on me” You think as you back carefully back onto the balcony. It really doesn’t look like you can do much more here, you’re going to have to escape. You take more immediate control of the infected on the balcony, packed in as they are you have two dozen up here and more still climbing so you send they rushing down at the defenders, maybe they will be surprised and get over-run, worth a try after all. You almost instantly feel them getting torn apart as you hear what sounds like a heavy machine gun open fire. Punctuated now and them by a single boom which always co-insided with one of the infected dying from a huge wound to the chest. You swear to yourself as you realize that every one of them was killed in seconds and didn’t even get close to the defenders. You quickly climb down outside the stadium and set off at a run to try and put some distance between you and it. You leave the infected trying to climb inside as a distraction so you aren’t followed immediately.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The second mission begins the same as the first, a team of 4 sent out to check an old store you think might still have some supplies in it. This one is a little further away but it’s to the West and away from the city center so your team is confident that they won’t run into too much trouble. You set out happily, planning on testing your ability to make the shamblers do more complicated tasks when you quickly sense something slightly different from before, similar to a shambler but… more complicated, where the shambler feels like the last remnants of a broken and dead mind this feels more like a mind that has been twisted and shattered, but not yet dying. You concentrate on it hard for the next few minutes as you walk and realize that it’s moving about, jumping or running from spot to spot. It must be one of the fast ones or crazies. You walk onwards and soon move out of your range to sense it but an hour or so later you sense another one ahead of you. “As if my test subjects were lining up for me” You joke to yourself as you begin trying to affect its mind. You go through the process as you had with the shamblers, concentrating on sensing them properly first, then getting an idea of their sensations and finally trying to make it react to your prodding. It takes you about 2 hours but you finally have a good sense of what to do, its definitely a fast type infected and making them follow simple actions is only slightly different to the shamblers so by the time you reach your destination it’s only a couple of streets away but you have it walking in circles on command. “Dude, you hit your face of something?” one of the men quietly calls back to you and you realize that you have a nose bleed again. Not as bad as before but you quickly wipe it clean. “Yeh, sorry, I just get them sometimes.” You say as you clean the blood off. “Guess concentrating that hard on the other infected means I miss a lot, going to have to be more careful.” You think. You quickly realize that you have all arrived at the store, and there are several more infected in the vicinity. You were concentrating so hard on the one that you missed a second fast type not far off and several nearby shamblers. The rest of your team, completely unaware of the danger just streets away, starts to head into the store to check for the supplies. “I guess I could go for the big test now.” You think to yourself The team is contained and you can control the infected, you could use them to take them out as the first step to destroying the stadium hold out or you could force them all far away and help the stadium people for now, some of them are treating you like a real friend after all. > You feed off humans sure, but you aren't controled by that need and you are enjoying having friends for a change. Hold off wiping out the stadium for now You know, you feed on humans sure, but they are treating you well right now and it is nice to have friends for a change. You can help keep them safe until your powers develop fully at least. You concentrate hard for a moment and see near instant results, all the infected you concentrate on start moving out of the area. You initially try controlling individual actions and feel your nose bleed returning but after a few moments you relax and just give them the general incentive to move away and they find their own routes. You quickly wipe your nose and follow the others into the store, projecting the simple command of ‘Move away’ at the infected as you go. From there the mission goes very easily and you all bag a reasonable amount of food to take back with you. You joke with a couple of the other guys as you all head back about the super easy scavenge when you realize that you’ve been subconsciously projecting the command the entire time, all the shamblers that you get anywhere near immediately begin leaving the area. “It just keeps getting easier.” You think to yourself as you come close to the stadium. Confident that the only infected within several blocks of the stadium as the ones in the basement you head inside happily with the others and hand over the spoils of your scavenge. > You happy evenings rest You rest happily that evening with no infected in sensing range and you only got a minor headache as a response to your new advancement. Even the rations doled out at dinner time taste better and sit more comfortably in your stomach than normal. The doc comes up to eat and you joke with him about your teams haul improving the food in the stadium getting a laugh out of him before happily spending the rest of the evening chatting with the rest of the scavengers. You finally head to bed feeling happier than you have in a while, your control of the infected is growing practically by the hour and people are unwittingly accepting you as a friend, how could life get better? That’s when you sense the movement, its right at the edge of your sensing range while inside the stadium but it feels like a shambler to you, after a few moments it moves a little closer and you become sure. “Stupid thing is trying to stumble back to whatever whole I moved it from.” You think to yourself. You barely concentrate as you send it the signal to leave again but find it not reacting at all, sighing you concentrate hard and try again, this time it simply stops and wavers on the spot for a moment. “Huh, did I overdo it earlier?” you think to yourself as you sense it suddenly waving at you, you don’t know how you know it but it definitely waves at you to invite you to follow before turning and walking South again. “Well that’s odd.” You think as you watch it vanish along with your immediate plans. “Best bet is that they were right and the original harbinger is back, seems he wants to talk to me too.” The morning will bring a new decision to make.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>A quiet ringing wakes you at first light. “Huh a near silent alarm, smatter than a loud one I guess.” You say to yourself as you get ready. You glance through your bag. They had left your last few strips of dried meat in there so you start chowing down on one as you head out. They said you had a few days to decide what you’d be doing but if you chose to stay more than that, then you would have to be useful to them in some way, guard duty and scavenging seemed to be the implied option. You had some time though. > You enlist with the stadium guards You head to the shack that was pointed out as the Captain’s room and are about to knock when you find the door open and the man already up and looking at a map of the local city area, he gives you a quick glance before going back to studying the map. “Made a choice already, most people take a day or two to see if they like it here?” You think carefully, but the choice is fairly simple for you now. “Yep, been living alone for far too long now and let’s face it, food is getting short. Joining up here and working as a guard and scavenger gives me a much better chance at a steady food supply for the near future and I can sleep safer at night. It’s a no-brainer really.” He gives you another glance before calling in one of the guards you recognize from the day before. “We have a new recruit, get him kitted out and test him on weapons, you can start taking him out on missions. Unarmed until he passes his weapons handling, then he can have a rifle.” You are lead away and the next couple of days pass quickly as you head out on some very close scavenging missions, It’s the 5th day when you get your first real opportunity. You are sent out with three others to scavenge from an old store that the Capt. doesn’t think was totally cleared out yet. You wern’t doing so great on the provided food and you thought that this might be the first opportunity for a proper meal in a while. Most surprisingly however, you think you might be adapting to their rations but it's too early to tell. > You mission 1 You all head out quietly about an hour after dawn and make your way through the main streets, you don’t have a gun like the others but you do have your bat which you trust a lot more, using it doesn’t cause enough noise to call others to you after all. “I heard you guys had originally cleared this place out of infected?” you whisper to the nearest guard. He thinks for a moment before replying. “We had, but then that thing lead hundreds more to us, and what with all the ones bitten again when the walls fell… well let’s just say it’s not as safe as it used to be. Seems the vaccine doesn’t always work too well against direct exposure either, only the airborne strains, some people are immune but others turn right after getting bit.” You file this information away for later and keep a look-out since you’re nearing the store now and the leader is speaking up. “Right it's go time, two for the front, two for the rear.” The front is visible, it’s fairly open and all the large windows are broken giving easy access and sightlines. The rear must be through one of the alleyways you glimpse to the side. > You front? You don’t feel like alleyways today so you raise your hand for going in the front. The leader nods. “You’re with me then, we all meet in the middle of the store once we check all entrances are clear.” The other two men head off for the alley leading round back as you carefully approach the front door. Since you are unarmed you pull the doors open and jump back to give your partner a line of sight but there is no sign of movement so you both slip inside. The store was some old grocery and drug store combo, it has been mostly cleared out but it was done in a rush and there are still useable supplies on the shelves and floor if you sort through it. You and your partner begin to check the aisles more carefully when you hear the shot coming from the back of the store and you see the other two men stumbling in the back door, slamming it shut behind them. The first thing you notice is that one is clutching his arm and his has a large gash out of it. “It was under some trash, it didn’t move when we poked the bags or anything but after we went by and were trying the door it suddenly lurched up and grabbed me; bit me before, before I knew, before.” He stops and winces in pain, dropping his gun. Red sirens begin going off in your head. “His speech! He’s Going!” you practically shout. Your partner swears and glances around, we have to move NOW! Grab what you can and start running, I’ll finish him off then follow with my bags once I know for sure he’s turning. > You follow orders, grab tins and run You and the other guard grab what food and bags you can and start running as fast as you can away from the store, about a minute later you hear a gun shot, you glance behind you, the store is out of sight already but you see shamblers coming out of a couple of the alleyways headed that way. You pause, considering going back when your new partner grabs your arm. “No time, they are ahead too, Gorramit, it’s like it was a bloody trap!” You see that he is right, a couple of shamblers are already on the road ahead, two of them you can run past easy but if more come, then there will be trouble and there are already more than a dozen you can see behind. You keep running. You finally come within sight of the stadium and just have time to notice what you thought was a light in a nearby window before starting to climb barricades to get back to safety. Seems like the shamblers were more intent on the loud noise than chasing you at least. Once inside you let your partner do the talking, no-one blames either of you and you’re given the next couple of days off to recover before the next mission which goes smoothly. > You life as a guard The next few missions go a lot smoother and there are no casualties, your physical condition gives you advantages over some of the others and you become a fairly popular scavenging partner. You actually begin enjoying living there and even feel like you have begun to properly adapt to their rations and pass your weapon handling so can take a gun with you, though you still prefer the trusty bat for shamblers. Life goes pretty well for another week or two and you even think that settling here might not be so bad after all even if that wasn’t close to your intent when you first walked in the doors. Sadly things do not last that way for long. It’s barely been a month since you arrived in the stadium ruins when the scavenging team fails to return. They decide to send a larger squad after them so find out what happened and ask for volunteers. > You raise your hand You’ve been a great scavenger so far so people are not surprised when you volunteer and your team of 8 men sets out, heavily armed and ready. Everyone walks in a grim silence on the way. Loosing people is always a possibility but it’s still rare, apart from the two lost on your first time out there hasn’t been an incident in 3 months so losing an entire team has shocked everyone again. You walk quietly holding your gun at the ready, noisy but since everyone else will be firing it will be more effective than the bat you think. Once close the leader raises his hand. “Teams of two, always keep at least one other team in sight and call out all strange sights or sounds instantly, got it?” You all nod and split up as you enter the large store front, it used to be glass but with all the windows smashed you can walk right in wherever you want. You’ve gone with the other survivor from the first mission, seems that having everyone else die in your team makes a bond. It’s only a few seconds before you hear the first call go up from one aisle to your left, the one to your right a few seconds later, glancing through the empty shelves you see the teams hunched over something, moving forward past some upturned trollies you also make a find a call it out. Seems like all members of the other team have been found. Well, what remains at least. The rest of your team converges on the three groups that found something. “Looks like they got swarmed here, torn to pieces before they could put up a real fight, only a few shells on the floor.” One of the men says Something clicks in your brain and you suddenly turn to your partner. “Remember the first mission; you said it was like a trap? We have to get out of here right now, we have to run!” The other men hear and you can see it on their faces that they all agree, you all grab the fallen weapons and run to the front of the store but you find the street in either direction already full of infected, and not just shamblers, you’re pretty sure you see some fast ones there too, almost dancing on the spot with repressed energy, wanting to charge you, but they don’t. From a window across the street you see an old man call down to you. “Greetings new survivors of the stadium!” One of the men instantly reacts, “YOU! You’re the Harbinger! We let you in right before the attack happened!” He tries to take aim with his rifle but the man seems to move faster than he has any right to and vanishes from sight, you can still hear him though. “Indeed I have been called that many times before, although I won’t be by you again, sadly my pets here need a little food before I take out the rest of your little stronghold. I’d love to turn a few of you but feeding the current army comes first you know!” The infected rush you, the men get off several shots but they are quickly overwhelmed by the fast ones and the shamblers close in. You know there is no hope when you see them coming through the store too and take a running jump to catch the awning hanging high over the door, you easily make the high jump and are pulling yourself up to get away across the roof before you feel an impact in your back and lose your grip, falling to the pavement below. “Oh dear, you are a spry one, normal men shouldn’t have made that jump so easily but no matter!” you hear the old guy laughing as you get torn to pieces.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The next few missions go a lot smoother and there are no casualties, your physical condition gives you advantages over some of the others and you become a fairly popular scavenging partner. You actually begin enjoying living there and even feel like you have begun to properly adapt to their rations and pass your weapon handling so can take a gun with you, though you still prefer the trusty bat for shamblers. Life goes pretty well for another week or two and you even think that settling here might not be so bad after all even if that wasn’t close to your intent when you first walked in the doors. Sadly things do not last that way for long. It’s barely been a month since you arrived in the stadium ruins when the scavenging team fails to return. They decide to send a larger squad after them so find out what happened and ask for volunteers. > You keep quiet, you know full well what happened and don't want to be next You remember what happened on your first mission, going after them will be suicide and probably a trap. Luckily 8 men volunteer quickly enough and no-one blames those who don’t so you get away with no shame from it, you head off to your normal duty for that day, you’re on balcony 6 for the next 4 hours or so. You’ll be the only one there since it isn’t really an important one, kind of to the side of the main entrance and not looking at anything of interest. Its half way through your shift when you hear some muffled sounds coming from over the city and it seems another sentry heard it too, you report hearing it then head back up. Once you get off duty though and come back down it’s not to a pretty sight. It seems that they worked out that the noise was gun fire and the ‘rescue’ team was now also overdue. You think back again to your first mission and what seemed like a trap, your starting to get a bad feeling about the city now. Seems like scavenging too close to the city center isn’t such a good plan anymore. You have to choose whether to dump these guys and head out alone now or hold out until they are ready to make a larger push for the colony to the east, sure you have lost men recently but true to their word, they have recruited nearly a dozen in the last month. You had no idea there were so many survivors up in this area or you’d have come North a lot sooner. You’re also pretty sure that the Capt. is going to order a push East soon too, even with the losses, their numbers are still good and they have the guns and equipment for a full military push through the open streets, the scouts have everything planed out route wise with backups for it things go wrong. > You leave them, their tactics aren't working You really can't work out why people keep using tactics right out of old movies when they never work. You have to get out of here before you get taken down with everyone else on their suicide mission. You start your preparations, gathering spare food and supplies and get your bag ready to leave when your friend from the first mission approaches you about leaving with some others who share your opinion. You sign on immediately and get ready to sneak out. > You sneaking out You’ve been thinking the same for a while. If an even larger group of military couldn’t hold the infected at bay, then what will this small team do? Especially if the harbinger from before COULD control the infected, you’ll have to think about that more later, for now it’s time to get out. “I’m in, betting a small team can move a lot quieter than a large group too. Let’s go.” You grab you pack and bat, leaving the gun behind as you never liked using it anyway and head for a North-East balcony where you all climb down some piping and Begin heading East. There are 5 people in your little team including yourself. A few brought guns, but everyone needs something to make them feel safe you guess, even if all it does is draw more infected. The plan gets laid out as you walk. Seems that you are heading East along a route further North of the route the jeep will be taking, getting up to a highway that should take you most of the way to the river. It was too clogged with cars for the main group for no problem for 5 guys on foot. You all walk quietly for the next few hours before stopping to eat having covered a good distance. You pick a low rooftop that you think once belonged to a barber shop to rest. One of the men finally speaks up. “We are a few hours clear and this roof is pretty safe, shall we break for the rest of the night and head out again at dawn?” You all agree and settle down for the rest of the night on the rooftop. You spend the next few hours thinking about getting to the safe colony to the east and why you were originally heading there before getting so caught up with the stadium people before eventually falling asleep. > You morning hunger You wake with the dawn and find two of the others already up. “We couldn’t sleep so great being exposed out here.” One of them says to you. As the last two get up, you realize just how hungry you are and remember that you didn’t eat anything last night. You dig in your bag for your meat strips but find nothing there, remembering that you finished them off on the third day in the stadium. You accept some rations from the other guys but it seems to do little to your hunger. You think back to when you used to feel this hunger practically all the time, seems your days of living happily in the stadium and not feeling hungry are over for the time being. You all check your surroundings but it’s all clear and you head off again about an hour after dawn. “Won’t the others catchup to us at this rate?” one of the others asks out loud. It’s your friend that answers. “Nah, we are a few roads North of them and will be heading up to the highway by lunchtime, so even if they do move faster than us, they will pass right by us to the South and never see us. Hey if all goes well we will meet up with them in a few weeks at the colony and have a great laugh about this all!” The mood seems to lighten a little after that and you all keep moving with some quiet chatter going on. You even join in some of the joking and in the light atmosphere begin to forget about feeling hungry again. It’s a few hours later and you are getting close to the on ramps for the highway when you begin hearing the noises. Its very faint but you call it out anyway. “Low rumbling to the South.” The others pause and listen for a time before one turns and says. “I hear it now, sounds like the Jeep, they will be passing us soon. Those are some ears you have mate!” “Seems they are making great time if they are passing us already, they might actually do it at this rate!” one of the men jokes as you all start walking again, listening to the low rumble get louder, then start to get quieter as they pass you a few roads to the South. Its only a few minutes later that you hear a crashing noise and the rumbling stop. “Gorram Harbinger! They are being ambushed aren’t they, we should go help them!” > You agree to run and help, they aren't too far away after all You immediately agree. “Well we can’t just leave them there and even if it’s the harbinger, he won’t expect us. Your friend reluctantly agrees as do the others. You all set off at a run. There hasn’t been any other noise yet and you start to hear the Jeep again. “The jeeps just idling! They were probably just clearing a car off the road!” one of the guys says when you are only a couple of blocks away. Almost on cue you hear the 50cal. Starting up and blocking out any other noise. Swearing out loud you round the corner a couple of blocks behind the stadium group and find a bus between you and them, as well as a horde of the infected. One man with you drops to his knees. “It’s just like when the stadium fell. It’s the harbinger.” The 50cal. Falls silent, looking through the buss’s windows you see the infected swarming towards the jeep. “It’s already over, let’s get out of here!” You drag the kneeling man to his feet but he breaks free, rushing towards the buss firing his rifle. “We can still save them! It’s not too late!” He barely gets 20 feet before you see a couple of fast types sprinting from an alleyway, taking him down and beginning to feed on him. “Everyone run!” You hear someone shout. You don’t even check who it was and start sprinting back in the direction you came as you see 3 more fast types headed your way. You never even notice your friend and one other falling behind and getting eaten. You only stop once you are several blocks away and turn to see the last member of your group some distance behind trying to keep up. “Forgot how much faster I was” You think to yourself as you wait for him. “Where are the other two?” You ask, thinking about your friend. “Got, taken, down…” He stammers, out of breath. “None of us could keep up with you and the fast ones don’t tire like us. I only got away because they stopped to eat the other two.” “AAHH Gorramit!” you say out loud, you know it was only the 3 fast types and if you had helped then you could have easily taken them down, it’s not as if a bite of two would inconvenience you much, you’ve had enough before to know they will have no more effect on you. “Let’s just go before more come. We know what the plan was at least.” You head North and quickly get to the highway without further signs of pursuit. The lighthearted atmosphere from before has vanished leaving you and the last remaining survivor from the stadium walking in silence and brooding. You can feel your hunger returning with a vengeance now that you have little else good to think about and eating a trail bar doesn’t help at all. Your mind keeps wandering to how anyone you try and get close to dies anyway. You both walk until night when you find a van to climb into and shut the door behind you. “So they are all dead.” You mutter out loud as you both check for what food there is left, your hunger is killing you. Seems that between you, you have enough basic rations for a few days. “Right, I REALLY need to eat, let’s have a proper meal then we can scavenge more as we go.” Your new partner seems too depressed to argue about anything so you divide the food into two big meals and 1 day’s rations. You both eat up quickly and he curls up into a corner of the van to sleep. You spend the next few hours awake thinking about all those dead people and about talk of harbingers being able to control the infected. You hunger hasn’t gone down at all despite the meal. > You late night munchies It’s near midnight and the old hunger is eating at you and you come to a decision. “I tried, I tried for weeks. No-one can blame me now, since everyone around me dies, it may as well be to my plan like it used to be.” The other survivor doesn’t even move as you take out your bat and kill him with a single blow. Your hunger is finally sated and like returning to an old addiction, everything feels better than ever. You pack up what’s left of his remains to take with you as food for your journey and fall asleep happy in the fact that you have made you mind up at last. You will reach the colony to the East. And once there you will eat them one by one, you are a harbinger after all, it’s what you do. > You morning in the blood stained van The morning comes and you wake happy again, not the relaxed happiness of the stadium, a happiness with an edge. You have great things to do after all. You check that the other survivors remains are carefully wrapped up and in your packs, the last meat strips from that crazy you killed and ate had run out so you have to make sure you bring enough with you. You almost laugh out loud that the idiots in the stadium never thought you were a harbinger and the strips of mean were from a human. But time to move on. You need to test out these ideas of controlling infected. You walk slowly East on the highway, from memory this thing circles most of the city so it will be a much longer way round to the bridge but you still don’t want to be near the city centre. Mutants are still mutants whether you admit to yourself what you are or not. After a few hours you see a shambler down below, slowly making its way down a road. You pause and concentrate for hours on it. Concentrating, trying to feel its mind, trying to order it to do something mentally but to no avail. It slowly keeps walking down the road and eventually you give up following it, starting to walk along the highway looking for a closer target to test your theories on. You finally come across a car which had crashed into the van in front leaving the driver trapped. You thought it was dead at first but once you are close, it twitches a little and makes a weak movement with its arm. “Seems you’ve been trapped here a really long time little shambler.” You say to it, looking carefully in the car you see from all the bones that there must have been at least one other passenger in the car which the shambler was eating to have sustained itself this long. Either way it was still trapped and near death. A perfect test subject. You decide to use the van it crashed into for your bed and spent the next couple of hours concentrating on it. Still no luck, no reaction at all really. It seems the same as always, it wants to eat you and you have no effect. You sigh as you settle down for the night in the back of the van. You might have to give up on the stupid rumors, you’ve been a harbinger for years and never had an inkling of controlling infected with ‘mind powers’ sure it’s the apocalypse but its not some stupid movie. You’ve already seen the infected swarming towards noise and that jeep could be heard for miles, they just made too much noise and attracted everything in the area to them so when they stopped to push cars around, they got swarmed, they probably tried to use the bus to block the infected from getting to them and failed. > You give it up. Who are you kidding that you have amazing mind powers that you simply never noticed before? You head East, following the highway for several days and strangely find it mostly deserted, like someone had cleared it out some time before and only the occasional straggler came back. The going is easy and the worst you are left to contend with are the occasional shambler amidst the parked and crashed cars. Its not long before you see the bridge ahead of you. There are a few shamblers visible on it but it looks clear enough for you to make a try at getting across, "Then its right onto the Eastern Colony!" you say to yourself. You're a harbinger through and through and you're going to enjoy infiltrating the colony then eating everyone inside, one by one. Unfortunately as you take your first step onto the bridge you feel a sudden pain hit your mind, like the worst migraine you ever had described to you. You collapse gripping your head but the pain vanishes just as suddenly, leaving a strange numb feeling in your mind. A voice suddenly appears in your head "Too close to being red my friend, we can't have you coming here to try and destroy us now can we?" You feel a second wave of pain then nothing more<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The morning comes and you wake happy again, not the relaxed happiness of the stadium, a happiness with an edge. You have great things to do after all. You check that the other survivors remains are carefully wrapped up and in your packs, the last meat strips from that crazy you killed and ate had run out so you have to make sure you bring enough with you. You almost laugh out loud that the idiots in the stadium never thought you were a harbinger and the strips of mean were from a human. But time to move on. You need to test out these ideas of controlling infected. You walk slowly East on the highway, from memory this thing circles most of the city so it will be a much longer way round to the bridge but you still don’t want to be near the city centre. Mutants are still mutants whether you admit to yourself what you are or not. After a few hours you see a shambler down below, slowly making its way down a road. You pause and concentrate for hours on it. Concentrating, trying to feel its mind, trying to order it to do something mentally but to no avail. It slowly keeps walking down the road and eventually you give up following it, starting to walk along the highway looking for a closer target to test your theories on. You finally come across a car which had crashed into the van in front leaving the driver trapped. You thought it was dead at first but once you are close, it twitches a little and makes a weak movement with its arm. “Seems you’ve been trapped here a really long time little shambler.” You say to it, looking carefully in the car you see from all the bones that there must have been at least one other passenger in the car which the shambler was eating to have sustained itself this long. Either way it was still trapped and near death. A perfect test subject. You decide to use the van it crashed into for your bed and spent the next couple of hours concentrating on it. Still no luck, no reaction at all really. It seems the same as always, it wants to eat you and you have no effect. You sigh as you settle down for the night in the back of the van. You might have to give up on the stupid rumors, you’ve been a harbinger for years and never had an inkling of controlling infected with ‘mind powers’ sure it’s the apocalypse but its not some stupid movie. You’ve already seen the infected swarming towards noise and that jeep could be heard for miles, they just made too much noise and attracted everything in the area to them so when they stopped to push cars around, they got swarmed, they probably tried to use the bus to block the infected from getting to them and failed. > You can't give up yet, it's not as if you have anything else to do is it? You really don't have anything to loose by continuing testing so you decide to spend the day where you are studying the trapped shambler, even if you don't have mind powers, you might still learn something as it's not every day you get to study one without it actively trying to eat you. You spend your time concentrating on it, staring at it and even try rubbing your temples and waving your hand at it like in the old movies but to no avail. You are starting to get a headache too so decide to call it a day. You sleep a few hours hungry and frustrated before waking well before dawn. Your eyesight is pretty good and the moon is out so you try testing things on the shambler again with the same lack of luck as the evening before. Finally fed up you pick up a piece of metal and throw it at the trapped shambler. You watch as it sticks into the decaying flesh of its chest and fell a slight twinge in your own. touching your chest quickly you realize that you felt a twinge right where your projectile had stabbed into the shambler. "I call that progress!" You begin concentrating on how your felt the twinge and by the evening you think you are feeling something. The headache from the night before is back with a vengeance though and you realize that you now have a small nosebleed. "Guess its not good to stare at the same think for 12 hours straight" You think to yourself as you head to bed early for once. > The morning after the tests. You wake up and quickly notice three things; Your headache is gone, you can feel something strange just outside the van and judging by the light creeping in, its well into morning. "Must have been the headache, I never sleep more than a few hours" you think as you snack on some meat strips and peek outside. You definitely can sense something and it is exactly where the shambler sits trapped. a weird kind of haze shares it's position "So I can sense then, that is definitely a start, I'll have to keep this one alive for testing on" You toss the trapped shambler a meat strip which it devours quickly while you begin concentrating on the haze, you find as the morning passes that the haze resolves into a small ball and realize that it must represent the shamblers mind. You smile to yourself as you settle into trying to affect it. Again by the evening the headache and nosebleeds are back "These must be to do with my powers, streaching them after so long of un-use much be causing it" you think as you take a snack break. > You further tests The next few days pass in much the same way, you practice trying to control the shambler until you get a headache and nosebleed, then wait and rest until it passes. Sleep seems to help the most and you often wake up having progressed by a large leap from the day before. By the end of your practicing you can make the shambler react to your commands and you are pretty sure you can sense what is happening to it too, like where it is injured. You need to test further and see if you can control others as well or if you are limited to having to learn each new infected like you did with this one. Once you are pretty sure you could make it move the way you wanted if it wasn't completely trapped in place, you decide that it is time to move on and further your training with more testing. It's a few hours after setting out that you see something below you and realize that a shambler must be on the road below the highway. You reach out for it and feel its mind there like you did with the trapped one but you immediately feel your nosebleed coming on again and stop pushing it. It seems that you will need to take things slowly That night you find a rest stop and actually manage to camp inside a building. Your hunger is back but the last remains of the survivor you killed keep you sated for now "going to have to find some more food soon" you think to yourself. > You heading East with your new powers, get to the colony soon You keep heading East and don't find much food on the way but your powers do increase. You manage to control a fast type that comes into range, and since you were hungry, it provides some food too. Not nearly as good as human but definitely better than shambler flesh at least. You learn to differentiate the minds of shamblers and fast types, even a mutant to the South falls temporarily under your control as your range increases. Your tests let you control several infected at once and direct them as you please. "They will have no idea what hit them when I reach the Eastern colony" You think to yourself. Your physical abilities have also improved. You were already faster and stronger than any normal human but that has increases along with your mental abilities, you know there isn't a normal human alive who could face you in a fight and you can rip a car's door clean off its hinges with only a little effort. It's not long after that you finally reach the bridge across the river. there are infected on it but this wont stop you now as you direct them over the sides of the bridge to fall into the deep flowing water below. after a few moment you realize that either the fall or the drowning has actually killed most of them but shrug it off as another test, they are just prey after all. Then the pain begins. A sudden sharp stabbing right into your mind forces you to your knees. You try to fight it off and feel it diminishing, like you are holding a barrier up against it, protecting your mind with your powers, but you feel jsut how much stronger the other force is and your defense crumbles. "Sorry about this, I really am, but you are far too close to being red to get in here alive." You try and respond but find that everything feels fuzzy, you are sure the voice in your head is female though "Oh yes, might have damaged a few things there, attacking really isn't my strong suit so I might have used too much strength, well either way it doesn't matter now. Bye" You feel a slight pain then everything fades out to black<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The next few days pass in much the same way, you practice trying to control the shambler until you get a headache and nosebleed, then wait and rest until it passes. Sleep seems to help the most and you often wake up having progressed by a large leap from the day before. By the end of your practicing you can make the shambler react to your commands and you are pretty sure you can sense what is happening to it too, like where it is injured. You need to test further and see if you can control others as well or if you are limited to having to learn each new infected like you did with this one. Once you are pretty sure you could make it move the way you wanted if it wasn't completely trapped in place, you decide that it is time to move on and further your training with more testing. It's a few hours after setting out that you see something below you and realize that a shambler must be on the road below the highway. You reach out for it and feel its mind there like you did with the trapped one but you immediately feel your nosebleed coming on again and stop pushing it. It seems that you will need to take things slowly That night you find a rest stop and actually manage to camp inside a building. Your hunger is back but the last remains of the survivor you killed keep you sated for now "going to have to find some more food soon" you think to yourself. > You heading North to train before you make for the Colony You need time and safety to train your new talents, wandering recklessly East while still developing is probably too dangerous as you don’t know what is lurking between you and the colony. Heading South would just take you right into the city center and that would be a death wish without better abilities so North is your final option. You know there used to be small communities in the outlying areas, hamlets and villages that served the farming communities, retirement homes and even some affluent areas for those who no longer wanted to live in the big city. If you look around enough you are sure you will find a nice enough building to make a temporary base, food might be scarce but you can always subside on the infected for a few weeks. You walk until the next off-ramp leading to a North-bound road and wander down. Looking around you see most of the buildings reduced to rubble, the military must have hit this area harder than others during the defense. “Maybe this was one of the areas they tried to make a stand and bombed the hordes of infected that attacked them” You think to yourself as you walk, but it is unlikely that you’ll ever find out for sure. There are not too many infected in this direction but you know if you find a small community that you should find some there to practice on, they never wander too far from where they turned after-all. By night-time you have left the outskirts of the city behind and begin to see open areas of land a fields, some overgrown with crops of varying types, untended for years, the old clearly defined lines haven given away to a mish-mash of crops invading others fields while weeds and thorns try to choke them all out. By nightfall you are looking for a likely place to rest and see a few options, in the distance you can make out what looks like a small grain silo, it would take a couple of hours to reach but they usually are made of metal, have small ladders right up to the top where you’d be nice and safe from everything, There is also an old broken down farmhouse nearby and a Barn on the same land. The House was clearly ransacked long ago, the doors are missing, windows smashed and everything looted out of it. The barn seems in better shape, the doors wide open but still intact at least. > You head onto the Grain Silo, solid metal construction is more trustworthy You head resolutely toward the grain silo, if you were going to find a safe resting spot it would be there. You can see scattered houses in the distance but they will most likely be like the one you passed, ransacked and useless. THe grain silo however is a huge solid metal cylinder with a walkway spiraling up the outside which leads to the metal hatch on top to get inside. Even if the grain levels are too low inside it, there is often a small internal platform or walkway below the hatch you could rest on for the night. As you get closer the dusk ends and the night fully sets in, you count your blessings that you have good night vision as avoiding an infected attack now would be very difficult. You stomach keeps rumbling on you, reminding you of how long it has been since you ate. The old hunger has kept getting stronger recently and you know you will need to eat something very soon. And luckily you see prey. A woman is running out of the fields, right towards the same silo as you! You are normally a lot more cautious but the old hunger has finally overwhelmed your better judgment. You are a harbinger and you need to feed. You begin to sprint towards the woman, planning on cutting her off and tackling her. It has been too long since you had human flesh and you are practically salivating over the remembered taste. You realize almost too late that you are not the only thing chasing the woman. She screams out for help while she runs and you think you hear a response from up on the tower but you do not have time to think about it. Right behind the woman are two large mutant animals, they look like farm cats fed steroids having morphed into things larger than cougars and they are about to catch the woman seconds before you do. The woman is not a threat and despite your hunger you know you must deal with these mutants first or they will tear you apart too. The woman screams again as she finally notices you charging her way, bat raised ready to strike but as she stumbles you step past her and meet the front mutant cat with the full force of your swing sending it crashing to the ground, injured but still moving. You glance at the woman and see something akin to surprise before it returns to fear and she scrambles away toward the silo where you now see three men heading your way. You turn back as the second mutant attacks you. You know you can't afford to have it jumping around all the time so when it snaps you offer it your arm and it latches on. Once there you start smashing it's head in with your bat. only stopping when it slumps off you to the ground with half of its skull gone. You are about to turn back to the humans when the first mutant leaps at you again, you hadn't finished it off with that first blow and it knocks you clean off your feet. You realize that it is badly injured and probably could have killed it had the back of your head not landed neatly on a rock, knocking you out cold. > A painful wakening You slowly wake up and immediately feel the pain at the back of your head "Great I came to eat a human and wound up fighting mutants off for her instead" You think as you try and sit up. You realize something is wrong almost the moment you do. You are not outside anymore. You carefully feel your head while you look around. There is a bad gash but it should heal up in a few days so long as you eat. Your arm is in worse shape with several deep tears in the flesh "can't be helped, taking on two mutants is never a good plan" You think while trying to work out where you are. Finally you realize you are inside the grain silo you were trying to reach. The humans you saw must have dumped you down here once they scared off the other mutant. "Well thats some gratitude isn't it. I did save her life afterall." You are about to add a comment about how you planned to eat her not save her but you are fortunately cut off by a female voice from above "I know you did and I am sorry but you are bitten, we cannot risk it. I am glad you woke up though. please keep quiet now, they patrol this area at night." You think about responding but decide against it "They think I am a normal human who did somthing heroic and have put me down here to quarantine me while keeping me safe. this works to my advantage." You carefully lie down again and get some more sleep now that you know you have safety at least until morning. > You morning in the silo You wake at what you assume is the early morning hearing voices from above. They are whispering meaning you cannot hear most of what is said but one is definitely a woman and the other a man, you think they are arguing about you. The woman seems pretty adamant and you assume it is her defending you since she thinks you acted to save her. You can't make out any more details anyway so you loudly roll over and let out a yawn. The whispering immediately stops and the man calls down "If you are still human prove it now!" You think for a second before replying "You prove that you are human first then I will, I just saved that womans life while you chucked me down here!" You hear the woman cutting in "If he speaks, he is still human Chris and you know it." You hear silence again before a more resigned male voice calls down. "Ok, so you haven't turned yet but take a look at your arm. They bit you good and we can't risk having you loose until we know you wont turn" You nod to yourself, you proved you were human and that you were not scared of time, time to play nice for a bit "Ok I understand that, it's smart to quarantine those who are bitten but I haven't turned and it's not exactly comfortable down here, I can't even see what I am lying on!" You hear a creak from above and light floods down into the silo, the metal walls reflecting it to ensure everywhere is lit. You cover your eyes while they get used to the light then look around. You are about 12 feet below the small walkway below the hatch where you can see the two humans sitting. You are currently sitting on top of what appears to be some old fencing thrown down here so you wouldn't sink into the grain below it. You also notice the shambler only a few feet away from you. You lurch away from it and slip off the fencing boards, finding yourself sinking into the grain slowly when you hear the shout from above "Hold on there, it's trapped and not a thread, get back on the boards before you sink too deep!" You scramble back up again and sit down holding your arm, open wounds are not meant for clambering about, you have no idea if you would actually sink into the grain or if that was just some old myth but you are also not willing to test it out yourself. You look closer at the shambler and realize that it is indeed trapped. It is up to its shoulders in the grain with a piece of wooden plank sticking into its side, ensuring it cannot move at all. "So mind if I ask what it is doing in here with me then?" You call up and it's the woman that answers "He was one of us, a survivor but he got bitten so we lowered him in there incase he turned. he must have realized he was going because in the night we heard him jump off into the grain and dig himself in before he lost control. It took him over a day to turn in the end." You nod along. You try to catch and eat a woman and end up trapped in a grain silo with a shambler for company "Just great" You think. "So how long am I spending down here with no food or water then?" You call up to them. You reply is in the form of a small bag being tossed down to you which you catch deftly 1 handed. "That has some water and some rations, enough to last you three days. That's how long you'll have to stay here for." Then you see the man climb out the hatch. The woman goes to follow then calls down "I'm sorry but we must be sure." Then follows the man out. They at least leave the hatch propped open so you get a little light in. > You quarantine in the silo You are trapped and now along with the shambler in the silo. You could probably escape if you really tried. there are two sections of fence down here, if you stood on one and wedged the other up against the wall you are pretty certain you could make the jump off it and up onto the small walkway. It would be fairley easy to ambush those humans when they returned too. > You go for it, they trapped you in here and eating humans is what you do after all You quickly decide that you want out of here so you grab the other piece of fencing and testing it find that it is still good and solid. You are about to wedge it against the wall of the silo when you think about how hungry you are. You place it down and walk over it towards the trapped shambler. You quickly pull the plank out of its side and kill it with it before feeding on it briefly to sate your desire. You then go back to the original plan and using the wedged fencing you make it up to the walkway with a huge leap. You automatically grab onto the bottom lip to pull yourself up but remember too late about your arm. You feel the slight healing that had happened come undone and blood starts flowing down your arm as you pull yourself up. You collapse onto the walkway in pain "Now they are really going to pay" you think to yourself, you haven't felt this much pain in years. You check around and find some bags of food, mostly fruit and veg in one corner and assume they are here scavenging. You quickly tear a strip off one of the bags to bind up your wound then move to the corner of the walkway, trying to ensure you will be out of sight when they first come in, and you do not have long to wait. You watch as the hatch opens and lets more light flood in while you edge as far back into the corner as possible. It is unnecessary though and the woman climbs right in without checking first, seemingly completely sure that you were trapped and not a threat. You watch her move right over to some bags and start unloading some more fruit while the man climbs in behind. You spring your trap just as he turns his back to you, leaping clean onto his back and forcing him flat instantly. it is a simple task then for you to snap his neck and sit up to look at the woman who lets out a belated scream. You laugh aloud before replying "Sorry my dear but I was actually intending to eat you when those mutants got in the way, don't worry though, I will keep you alive down in the silo until I am finished eating this fo..." You are cut off as you hear the boom and feel the impact in your back. You are thrown to the ground and roll over in time to see two more men outside the hatch with guns pointed your way "There were three of them when they came to help there woman weren't there, I shouldn't have forgotten that" You think as the second man fires and it goes dark.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You are trapped and now along with the shambler in the silo. You could probably escape if you really tried. there are two sections of fence down here, if you stood on one and wedged the other up against the wall you are pretty certain you could make the jump off it and up onto the small walkway. It would be fairley easy to ambush those humans when they returned too. > You wait out the quarantine, a few days wont hurt and you have things to test on the shambler Three days down here wont hurt you and will give your arm time to start healing. You will also be just as talkative and lucid as before so they will obviously think you are fine and let you back up at the end, you just need to bind your arm so the wound is not so obviously healing too quickly. You tear a strip off the bag they threw down as a temporary solution and bind the wound up "Not visible now at least" You think as you settle in for the long haul. Since you are here with a completely trapped shambler you have the perfect test subject to work on the persistent rumors of Harbingers abilities. You take the time to think through them all carefully since you only have three days and want to use them to the fullest. "They are stronger and faster than humans, check, cos I am." You think to yourself "Two, they heal faster, also check. Three they can control hordes of infected, unknown. Four, they don't bleed, false but very useful." You pause for a moment to try and recall any other rumor but you draw a blank for now "Controlling the infected it is then" You think as you lie back down and begin staring hard at the shambler. ​You only last a few moments before your head begins to throb at you and you decide that maybe giving the head wound a few more hours to heal before concentrating too hard might be a good plan so simply lie back and let your mind wander over past encounters with infected and over the one close to you now, how you might control its mind. You drift off to sleep still thinking about the shambler and how to control it and do not wake up for a few hours. > You sudden light in the face You are woken by a light flashing on your face and you sit up quickly to look around. You hadn't planned to fall asleep, just to rest for a few moments. You immediately hear a voice from above "He's still moving at least" You look up and see the man has a torch in his hand, no longer pointed in your face though "You still talking? You've slept an awful lot." He calls down to you. You are about to answer back sarcastically but remember you are supposed to be nice at the moment "Yeh, the head wound was hurting so I decided to rest a bit more, it's not really like I have that many options down here." The man nods in response then heads back out. You notice the bags near the railing look a lot bigger though so they must have brought something back when they came in. You lie back down to rest but realize you can feel somthing near you, like when someone is in the room and you can kind of feel it in the hairs on the back of your neck. You turn towards the source of the feeling and it is clearly the trapped shambler. You can actually sense it already, either your head wound or the sleep helped you. You immediately decide that giving yourself another head wound is out of the question so you decide that it must have been the sleeping while thinking about the shambler that did it. You spend the rest of the day concentrating on the strange feeling and the shambler and slowly resolving it into something you can control a little better. By the end of the day you can sense the mind of the shambler as a small compressed haze which represents it's mind. Your concentration is occasional interrupted by the man and woman coming and going, dropping off what looks like fruit and veg into the large sacks "So this is their scavenging expedition then, they come to the farms to get food for where-ever their base is." The woman always takes a few moments to try and apologize for your treatment but each time you assure them that it is completely understandable and the only smart option and that finally seems to calm her about it and by even she simply trades pleasantries with you. You go to sleep once more thinking about the shambler and affecting the haze which is its mind. > The difference between the shambler and your guards You wake just after dawn and find a lot of dried blood on your lip "Dam nosebleeds" you think as you wipe it off, wouldn't be good for the humans to see you bleeding like this, they might jump to conclusions and last night you saw the other two men again standing outside, and they were carrying rifles. You turn to begin your concentration on the shambler like before but find you don't need to. You can sense it near you easily. you concentrate anyway and find you can sense thing from its mind, or what is left of it. It feels like the dying remains of a mind, weak and rotting away slowly. You can tell where it is injured though and with a slight push you make it lift its arm up in the air. You are about to rejoice when you feel wetness on your face and realize you have a massive nosebleed again. You quickly wipe it away again and wait for the bleeding to stop "guess the side effects are going to just keep being annoying for a while, going to have to be careful" you also feel the beginnings of a headache but as soon as you stopped concentrating it lessened slightly again. You lie back to take a break and realize another difference. You can sense a haze above you too, very different than the one from the shambler, warmer, full of energy and life "So thats the mind of a normal human then, I wonder what mine appears like?" You think as you try and concentrate on the human minds. You make a little progress and have reduced the haze to a small area around the sleeping humans when they begin to stir and the headache gets too strong. You take a complete break and rest while they do their short morning routine. The woman pauses to lean over and look down at you, realizing you are away and looking back she calls down "You'll be out soon, sorry again about this but as you said, we have to be safe!" You grin and reply "It really isn't a problem, I just get to rest down here all day while you guys go scavenging for food, you have the more dangerous job if there are more of those mutants out there." The man cuts in a little suspicious "How do you know we are scavenging for food here?" You just laugh as you see the woman rolling her eyes at him. He looks a little confused before she fills him in "We come in here 3 or 4 times a day and dump food into the sacs like 6 feet from his head, I would be more worried if he didn't know what we were doing." The man pauses then realizes his mistake "Right, then I'll be outside when you are ready" is all he says as he heads out the door clearly embarrassed. "The woman turns back to you "Sorry for that, he can be a little paranoid but his heart is in the right place. My name is Cara by the way" She gives you a big smile. "It's lovely to meet you Cara" you reply "And don't worry, the paranoid ones usually live longer these days." She smiles again as she heads out "Perfect, she trusts me already, I'll be out soon" You think as you settle down to your tests. You make the shambler do a few tricks and after throwing a couple of pieces of wood at it, you are confident you can sense what is happening to it. You do however get a wicked headache again and decide that you will need to pace yourself a little more. The headaches seem to accompany progress but they also might be dangerous as shown by the nosebleeds. You take the evening off just to recover more and spend more time chatting with the woman when she returns, trying to resolve the haze around her more, you finally fall asleep still concentrating on the human haze. > You morning resolutions The morning comes with more progress, things with the shambler seems the same, you can make it do anything you want already, but above you the haze has defined more. You can tell the difference between Cara's mind and the man's. You had spent time the night before gathering details and had given your own name and some details of your life before the infection spread but you gave away little of your recent life, just glossed over it as a hard life scavenging along. You did tell them about loosing some comrades recently to garner a little sympathy and from their looks they both knew what it was like to loose friends. Their minds also resolved to be clearer and softer. Utterly different from the shamblers beside you, almost the opposite, exuding life and clearly full of thought and emotion but you find you cannot affect them in any similar way or gather feelings from them, just sense that they have them. The energy they seem to exude does seem to make your hunger worse though, just knowing how much you would gain from eating them. You exchange a few more pleasantries as they head out and Cara throws you down a ripe apple for a snack, you thank her as you bite into it and find that it surprisingly helps with your hunger a little. Not a lot, but enough to take the slightest edge off, you are used to human food tasting terrible and barely sustaining you so it is a very welcome surprise. You relax and eat some of the other rations while thinking of the conversation the night before and what you had learned. They actually live in an old walled community a couple of days walking North of here. The large walls and steel gate kept infected out and guns held off the looters until they fell to the infected so they survived well. They are one of several scavenging teams that head out to gather food and supplies for the community. They give few other details but you guess they are small of number, maybe 30 in all but they seem to do well enough there. You finally decide that it is time to do more tests but you have exhausted what you want to try on the shambler so you put your mind to trying to sense other things around you. This takes most of the day, a nose bleed and several headaches but by evening you can sense some minds at the periphery of where your senses reach. You remember an old barn in that direction so assume that is where the infected you sense must be, that means you have several hundred feet of sensing ability. You relax as you feel the minds of the humans returning and make sure you don't have any blood left below your nose. THe evening passes like before with chatting and telling stories, it's been a while since you enjoyed yourself like this. > You decision time You wake in the morning and realize that once more you slept through the night instead of the normal few hours "Must be the mental training" You think as you test your senses to see what changed while you slept. Sure enough you can feel the infected in the barn more clearly now and with less effort "Two shamblers, one nearly dead and the other near it also in bad shape. Must be trapped in the basement of somthing" you think to yourself as the humans above you wake up. Once awake Cara immediately leans down over the bar "Time to wake up! Let's get you out of there!" The man groggily stands beside her, "Are you sure about this?" but she just gives him a disparaging look until he goes to fetch a rope and lowers it down to you, tying one end off on the railing. You catch it as it comes down and are about to start climbing up when you realize that your arm will be healed a lot further than a normal humans and your makeshift bandage is almost certainly going to be replaced soon, you're going to have to bluff. You climb up, pretending to be careful of the wounded arm but you secretly put extra strain on it and can feel the wounds tearing open again slightly "Perfect" You think as you climb ove the railing and immediately find yourself receiving a huge hug from Cara. You are taken aback for a moment by the very unusual occurrence and have no time to act before she hops away again "That was for saving my life, I've owed you it!" The she quickly hops out of the hatch, you can see the two men holding rifles greet her as she passes. The man turns to you "Wait here for a bit, we have to finish a quick scavenge then we will all return to discuss what to do with you." You judge it best not to decide anything while the two men with guns have a clear shot at you and you have you climb through a hatch to get to them so you simply nod and take a seat to await their return. This gives you plenty of time to think things through. It has not been long but you are already progressing amazingly with your abilities. You are certain you can control infected easily and can sense them coming a long way off and you can sense the presence of humans or 'normals' at an equal distance even if you can't affect them. Cara trust you and you actually enjoy her company, the man doesn't fully trust you but isn't aggressive either. The two outside seem to be the guards for the scavengers, you have yet to speak to them but you can sense them always nearby the scavengers. You could of course strike now, Cara trusting you and getting close to you can be used to your advantage, you just need to ge them off guard once when they return and you can take the guards out leaving Cara and Chris defenseless. It would be a little risky but you are certain you could pull it off. On the other hand you really are enjoying chatting with Cara in the evenings and the food they gave you is actually sitting well and taking the edge off your hunger, why not stay with them a bit, at least until you are back to their little colony, you can decide what to do when you are there after all. > You ambush them, you may like her company but you gain more from eating them You need to be prepared if you are going to kill them all. Cara you can use since she seems to trust you, Chris is a fool and wont be trouble. It is just the guards outside that you need to care about, you need a good opportunity to get to them before they can react. You spend the next couple of hours resting and preparing. You try some fruit from one of the bags but it tastes bad and sits horribly in your stomach as your hunger grows worse, you'll have to eat them soon. Finally you sense their approach and put on your best happy and innocent face to greet them. You think about putting out some food for them but you aren't sure how they would react to you going through their stores so you just wait instead. Cara enters first and gives you a big smile which you return with an equally big smile and nod, and you even greet Chris which somewhat surprises him but he seems happy about it. "lets get started then" You think to yourself as they sit down and Cara says that it is time for you to discuss your future with them. "Shouldn't we all be present for this?" You ask, indicating the two men standing outside with your head, "I haven't even met them yet." there is a pause and Chris replies "It's our rules, the guards stay on duty all the time and do shifts through the night time, it's the only way we have kept safe so far." > You suggest you all go outside then and discuss it there. You can get close to them that way and attack now! "Well why don't we all go out for our chat them!" You suggest "We could sit up on the silo behind them so they could be a part of the discussion while staying on duty." The two look at each other but you see Cara wavering in your favor and push it a little "It's not as if it will be any more dangerous and I haven't exactly seen the sun in a few days" You say and immediately see the guilt working. Cara agrees and you all head outside. The guards are not so easily won over though. As you exit they spread apart. They are still close enough either side to hear what is happening and take part but they are no longer close enough to attack at the same time. You have to time your attack perfectly. You make a show of offering Cara your hand to help her out and onto the silo roof then with a flourish do the same for Chris who gives you a wry laugh, one of the guards even smirks about it, but only for a moment as you suddenly lunge at him and tackle him down. You are faster and stronger than any human so it is only a couple of seconds before his neck is snapped and you are back to your feet, spinning to charge the other guard. Sadly it seems they did not survive this long without skills and the second guard is already pointing his gun at you. You just have time to take in the horror and tears in Cara's eyes and the immediate revulsion in Chris and the guards before you hear the boom and feel the impact on your chest. You stumble back but hear the click click of a bolt action, you look up in time to take the second shot to the chest and tumble off the silo railing. You are almost grateful that you die before you hit the ground.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You need to be prepared if you are going to kill them all. Cara you can use since she seems to trust you, Chris is a fool and wont be trouble. It is just the guards outside that you need to care about, you need a good opportunity to get to them before they can react. You spend the next couple of hours resting and preparing. You try some fruit from one of the bags but it tastes bad and sits horribly in your stomach as your hunger grows worse, you'll have to eat them soon. Finally you sense their approach and put on your best happy and innocent face to greet them. You think about putting out some food for them but you aren't sure how they would react to you going through their stores so you just wait instead. Cara enters first and gives you a big smile which you return with an equally big smile and nod, and you even greet Chris which somewhat surprises him but he seems happy about it. "lets get started then" You think to yourself as they sit down and Cara says that it is time for you to discuss your future with them. "Shouldn't we all be present for this?" You ask, indicating the two men standing outside with your head, "I haven't even met them yet." there is a pause and Chris replies "It's our rules, the guards stay on duty all the time and do shifts through the night time, it's the only way we have kept safe so far." > You bide your time, you'll get your chance at them soon There is no point blowing it by being pushy now "Ah of course, that is a pretty smart precaution" You begin "But as to my future, you say that as if it involves options?" Cara immediately replies with a smile "Well of course it does, we aren't keeping you prisoner or anything" she pauses "Anymore" She adds with a wink to which you grin. She then continues a little more seriously "Basically you can join us, or head on your way. I would much rather you came with us though" and you can definitely hear some hopefulness in her voice "Perfect, she completely trusts me, this will be easy now" You think you yourself, smiling all the while. "Well I would love to join you all, it will be much better than being alone again after what happened." you carefully craft your voice to make sure they understand you are referring to the lost friends you spoke about before and you watch them both immediately react like proper normal humans, putting on their caring faces and trusting you more "Honestly this is too easy, they buy anything I tell them" You think as Cara takes you hand, leading you outside. "Well, you are with us now! She announces "And since you have joined us we can do a quick introduction before we head off to the compound!" The guards chuckle and wink at the fact you are holding hands the moment you exit the hatch and Cara drops you hand, blushing, but berating the guards for being childish. They are now close together and distracted, but they said you were heading to the compound right now. > You they are open, attack now! You can get the location from one of them after the guards are dead There is no reason to wait. once the guards are dead, the other two are not even a threat and you can get all the information you need from them before you eat them. You lunge suddenly and punch one guard cleanly in the jaw. You are not a trained fighter but with your superhuman strength and speed you still hit like a professional heavyweight. You watch the man go unconscious immediately but the momentum tips him over the rail and he falls from the silo. You are already spinning though. The other guard starts to react and the woman starts to scream but you are too fast and punch the guard in the throat before slamming him into the ground and snapping his neck, the haze around his mind vanishes instantly. Seconds later you notice the haze from the first guard vanish too "The fall finished him off then" You think as you turn back to a horrified and crying woman. "Oh don't worry, I wont kill you right away, I will keep you and the other one alive for a few days, I need information afterall." You grab her and she is unable to resist your sheer strength ans you pull her through the hatch and toss her over the railing and into the silo. The man tries to intervene but you are again to strong and he is tipped over too. You leave them down there while you take the time to bring both bodies and guns inside, leaving no trace of your fight visible and begin feeding on one of them. You vaguely hear sobbing from the woman below and the man alternating between cursing you and comforting her but what does it matter? They are just prey after all. Finally your hunger is sated and you look down at them, leaving the blood smeared on your chin from your feeding. "So our roles are somewhat reversed then?" You call down. THe woman is clearly too distraught to answer right away so the man does "Harbinger, that's what you are!" he says it like an isult but it is a compliment really, you are better than them after all. "Indeed, that is one of my names" you reply with a smile "You made this rather easy for me too, trusting a stranger like that, tut tut." THe woman then pauses her crying long enough to speak up "But you saved me, you were horribly wounded doing it!" You just smirk. "Random luck for you, I was actually intending to kill you when I noticed the mutants too late, had to kill them first or they would have torn me apart while I attacked you. Giving me enough time to begin healing up was nice though" you say as you remove your temporary bandage and show your wounds already well on the way to healing. "Now, you will be telling me where this little colony of yours is before you die. You'll find I can be fairly persuasive when needed. The man clams up and the woman goes back to sobbing. > You they have no food or water, leave them a day or two while you feast on the guards in front of them, they will be desperate soon enough "Well be sure to rest now, you have a few days down there before I question you. although I might let the one who tells me everything go with your food and water. It's not like I need your fruit." You say indicating the partly eaten corpse. You then ignore them and go back to eating. As night falls they still haven't said a word but you don't expect them to break right away and keep ignoring them, you've eaten all the good meat on the first guard so chuck what is left down into the silo and have a good laugh at the resulting screams, it is one thing to see some one die, it's another to have their half eaten and desecrated corpse thrown at you in the dark. You settle down for a sleep and quickly fall asleep with your hunger sated for now, you are thinking about how to affect the normals haze when drift off. You are woken in the night by a thump and realize that you no longer sense the shambler in the silo, you call down "Killing it wont do you any good, not as if you could eat it!" You smile to yourself "And that should panic them more, the fact I know exactly what they are doing in the dark". You fall back asleep > The silo painted red You wake well before dawn and peer down into the silo, it is hard to make anything out down there even with your night vision so you wait until the light is shining through the cracks and wrench the hatch open, flooding the silo with light and blinding the humans. "Time to rise and shine!" you call down at them as they wake and cover their eyes "One of you might win a chance at going free to day by telling me what I need to now!" You then start eating the other guard, the hunger is never gone long. You try and probe their minds while you eat but you are met with little success, it seems normals minds are much trickier than infected, you will need to practice. There is not so much crying today so you decide to taunt them a little more, maybe throw the guards head down once you have eaten the brain os something like that. You tear the guards arm off to gnaw on while you lean over the railing to look down at them, you get a big surprise though and see the man holding a pistol pointed right at you. He immediately fires, giving you no time to dodge and you feel two bullets hit your chest before you stumble backwards, several more missing you. "Where did you?" You manage before you feel blood starting to pool in your lungs and stumble toward the hatch to get outside, there is still a chance of you surviving if you can get to safety, the amount of fresh human flesh you have eaten should help you. The man calls after you "We never mentioned that out friend down here still had his pistol on him when we lowered him down. I remembered and dug it out after killing him! And time to end this harbinger, you just showed me your back!" You try and climb outside but the open railing gives you no cover as you hear the man empty his clip. Most of the bullets miss but some still hit and it is enough. You slump down inside and hear the woman crying again as things darken "Why is she still crying" You think "I was eating them".<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>There is no reason to wait. once the guards are dead, the other two are not even a threat and you can get all the information you need from them before you eat them. You lunge suddenly and punch one guard cleanly in the jaw. You are not a trained fighter but with your superhuman strength and speed you still hit like a professional heavyweight. You watch the man go unconscious immediately but the momentum tips him over the rail and he falls from the silo. You are already spinning though. The other guard starts to react and the woman starts to scream but you are too fast and punch the guard in the throat before slamming him into the ground and snapping his neck, the haze around his mind vanishes instantly. Seconds later you notice the haze from the first guard vanish too "The fall finished him off then" You think as you turn back to a horrified and crying woman. "Oh don't worry, I wont kill you right away, I will keep you and the other one alive for a few days, I need information afterall." You grab her and she is unable to resist your sheer strength ans you pull her through the hatch and toss her over the railing and into the silo. The man tries to intervene but you are again to strong and he is tipped over too. You leave them down there while you take the time to bring both bodies and guns inside, leaving no trace of your fight visible and begin feeding on one of them. You vaguely hear sobbing from the woman below and the man alternating between cursing you and comforting her but what does it matter? They are just prey after all. Finally your hunger is sated and you look down at them, leaving the blood smeared on your chin from your feeding. "So our roles are somewhat reversed then?" You call down. THe woman is clearly too distraught to answer right away so the man does "Harbinger, that's what you are!" he says it like an isult but it is a compliment really, you are better than them after all. "Indeed, that is one of my names" you reply with a smile "You made this rather easy for me too, trusting a stranger like that, tut tut." THe woman then pauses her crying long enough to speak up "But you saved me, you were horribly wounded doing it!" You just smirk. "Random luck for you, I was actually intending to kill you when I noticed the mutants too late, had to kill them first or they would have torn me apart while I attacked you. Giving me enough time to begin healing up was nice though" you say as you remove your temporary bandage and show your wounds already well on the way to healing. "Now, you will be telling me where this little colony of yours is before you die. You'll find I can be fairly persuasive when needed. The man clams up and the woman goes back to sobbing. > The woman seems the easier one to break, Kill the man now in front of her too so she breaks sooner. You want the information soon and you can easily dust off a human a day the way your hunger returns so kill the man now and eat him later. The woman should break easily enough and you will be headed off to the colony soon to have the feast of your dreams. You pick up one of the rifles the guards was carrying "Been years since I used one of these! I was never great with them so you'll have to excuse my accuracy." You call down as you take aim at the man. It looks like he might be about to give a retort but you can't be bothered listening and fire right away hitting him square in the chest and knocking him off his feet. "Ah never mind, that was a great shot! You say as you chuck the rifle down on the walkway. The woman just startles then keeps crying. "Well she will break soon enough" You think as you spend the rest of the evening sleeping and finishing off the rest of the guard. Once you have finished off the good meat you chuck the remains of the desecrated copse down into the silo and have a good laugh at how it would scare the woman before falling asleep. > You morning in the red silo You wake up bright and early and realize it is still well before dawn so you make a start of eating the second guard, the hunger is never gone for long. You make good headway before finally seeing light through he cracks around the hatch and wrench it open to let it all flood in and wake the woman up. You expect a startled sound but hear nothing and look down into the silo and see she is missing. You swear and check everywhere you can see but you can only see the pieces of fencing, the half buried shambler and the dead man. You leap down, knowing you can get back out easily enough and start looking for the woman "If she killed herself I will tear her corpse apart before eating it" You think as you wrench up one of the pieces of fence while standing on the second one. You realize too late that it is a little too heavy and you just lifted the woman up too as she held onto the under side.You might be faster than any normal human but when you loose several seconds to shock you can still be taken off guard and the woman lashes out with a knife, managing to plunge it into your chest before you can get away. You stumble back as you lash out in return, knocking her aside, but your usual strength is not in the blow and she quickly pulls herself back onto a piece of fence and gets to her feet. "I'll kill you!" You manage as you take a step towards her but your one lung is already full with blood and it is leaking into the other. You can definitely survive this but you need to eat more flesh and rest very very soon to stand a chance. The woman snarls back at you, a terrifying counterpoint to the smiles she gave you the morning before "Oh, you will? like you killed the others, leaving me alive? Did you think the woman would be the weakest?" She lunges at you repeatedly, slashing and stabbing. You could so easily defeat her normally, she wouldn't even be a threat, but you can't breath and you are getting weaker. You land a punch as she cuts your arm and she goes down, but she staggers back up, dazed but still fighting and you know it is over. You don't have the strength any more and when she stabs again you cannot stop it. You simply watch as the knife plunges into your chest twice more before you fall to the ground. The last thing you hear is the woman crying again.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>There is no reason to wait. once the guards are dead, the other two are not even a threat and you can get all the information you need from them before you eat them. You lunge suddenly and punch one guard cleanly in the jaw. You are not a trained fighter but with your superhuman strength and speed you still hit like a professional heavyweight. You watch the man go unconscious immediately but the momentum tips him over the rail and he falls from the silo. You are already spinning though. The other guard starts to react and the woman starts to scream but you are too fast and punch the guard in the throat before slamming him into the ground and snapping his neck, the haze around his mind vanishes instantly. Seconds later you notice the haze from the first guard vanish too "The fall finished him off then" You think as you turn back to a horrified and crying woman. "Oh don't worry, I wont kill you right away, I will keep you and the other one alive for a few days, I need information afterall." You grab her and she is unable to resist your sheer strength ans you pull her through the hatch and toss her over the railing and into the silo. The man tries to intervene but you are again to strong and he is tipped over too. You leave them down there while you take the time to bring both bodies and guns inside, leaving no trace of your fight visible and begin feeding on one of them. You vaguely hear sobbing from the woman below and the man alternating between cursing you and comforting her but what does it matter? They are just prey after all. Finally your hunger is sated and you look down at them, leaving the blood smeared on your chin from your feeding. "So our roles are somewhat reversed then?" You call down. THe woman is clearly too distraught to answer right away so the man does "Harbinger, that's what you are!" he says it like an isult but it is a compliment really, you are better than them after all. "Indeed, that is one of my names" you reply with a smile "You made this rather easy for me too, trusting a stranger like that, tut tut." THe woman then pauses her crying long enough to speak up "But you saved me, you were horribly wounded doing it!" You just smirk. "Random luck for you, I was actually intending to kill you when I noticed the mutants too late, had to kill them first or they would have torn me apart while I attacked you. Giving me enough time to begin healing up was nice though" you say as you remove your temporary bandage and show your wounds already well on the way to healing. "Now, you will be telling me where this little colony of yours is before you die. You'll find I can be fairly persuasive when needed. The man clams up and the woman goes back to sobbing. > You kill the woman and the man now, screw the information, you know where to find to compound alone You look down at the two of them and run through a plan in your mind "The compound is about two days walk North, it is a walled community and still defended. That means it will be on a main road and I will see smoke from fires soon enough. I have no need for them to live." You pick up one of the rifles and look down at them "Change of plans, I know where the compound is and don't need to torture you. Take this as a blessing, I'm really being rather nice considering the alternatives." It takes you three shots since you aren't the best with guns but they lie dead in the silo, sources of food for once the guard is gone. You spend the rest of the day feasting on human flesh. and sleep through the night with no hunger bothering you for the first time in an age. Morning comes with more feasting, as does the rest of the day, and the next. All in all you spend 4 more days there eating every good bit of meat and organ off the four before finally setting out North "This is the only road in the area and it heads North, I am practically guaranteed to find their little community just by following it" You think as you set out, pack on your back we a few leftovers and your bat swinging in your hand. > You northward with killing on the mind You start out North with a swing in your step. You are full to bursting with energy from eating the humans, all your wounds are healed up and you know where to find a whole group of humans just waiting to be eaten. "What more could a man want!" You say aloud to the surrounding fields. Having gorged yourself over the past few days they hunger is staying low to nonexistent and you know it will stay that way for a few days more. Not that you would pass up another meal, best to stay ahead of these sorts of things. After a few hours you begin testing your powers again. You were able to get your senses to reach further than before and had some fun controlling the shamblers in the barn while you feasted but you need to try something more difficult. Something like the mutants that you fought near the silo. If you can control them, then you will have a force to be reckoned with! You keep stretching your senses out and find shamblers in small groups or singly but not anything stronger than that. You assume the mutants must be further off road and you might have to go searching for them. > You it's worth the time and effort, go searching for mutants Shamblers are not really fighters, those mutants you fought with however, those could fight. You head off the road to the West, that seemed to be the direction the others came from and you know the humans were being most careful out that way. By lunchtime though you have found nothing new. Just the usual scattered shamblers and no signs of anything else. It is possible that the two you fought were the only ones in this area "Maybe they are territorial like before they died and killed off other mutants? Guess I should actually learn more about the infected if I want to control them all" You think as you take a break for lunch and eat more meat strips. You decide that even if you want mutants, you may as well practice controlling some shamblers full time so reach out for the nearest ones. You stretch out your senses and invade the shamblers minds. It is so much easier than before and you take control of 8 of them, forcing them to follow you as you progress through the fields. 8 was a little tricky and after a few hours you find your headache growing and your nose starts bleeding again so you take a break, relaxing your hold on them while you snack on a piece of meat, wondering which human you ripped it off. It takes a couple of hours for the headache to begin subsiding and you set out again, by nightfall you are exhausted and the headache is throbbing with a vengeance. You relax your hold once more and climb into a ditch to sleep, you are in too rough a shape you look for anything else. You wake well after dawn, that means you slept right through the night again, you are going to have to be more careful from now on if you are going to be asleep for that long. You do however notice two things; Your headache is gone, and your shamblers have not moved an inch. You gently feel for them and it's almost as if you still have a small connection to their broken minds, you gently push a command for them to walk and they obey instantly "I see, so I must force my mind over them at the start but once I am in control I can relax and they still follow ymy commands!" Happy with the progress the sleep has given you, you set out again, once more having your shamblers following you from a distance, through the fields and ditches, but now you don't concentrate on them constantly, just gently send out commands and instantly feeling them respond to your will. You grin to yourself "This is going to be easy". You keep going in a haphazard fashion to the West until nightfall and find the second floor of a barn to use as a bed for the night.You think about the situation and realize that without you killing them off, that the scavenging team will be due back in a day or two at the most, and you wont beat that time back now so they will be suspicious either way. > You keep searching for mutants, if they are going to be suspicious either way, you want good minions to fight them You keep heading West the next morning and finally spot a large grouping of buildings in the distance. Once you get closer you see that it must have been a large farming complex before the infection. Several houses are spread out, surrounded by barns and various buildings you assume had something to do with raising farm animals though your lack of knowledge regarding farming prevents you from working out exactly what that was. You start being more careful as you approach and sure enough you begin sensing something different than before. haziness in one of the barns that you do not recognize. "Jackpot, something other than humans and shamblers is here, it better not just be some Goram crazy though" You think as your edge closer and closer. Finally things resolve. there are two things in there that you cannot identify along with a shambler. This confuses you at first but shortly after the strange things move closer and the shambler's mind vanishes "And now at least they have eaten" You think as you finally judge yourself close enough to try and take them over. You reach out with your mind at one of them first and find it instantly. It's mid is definitely different from anything before, feral and pulsing with instinct but not the same emotions or remnants of intelligence as other minds you had sensed before. You force you will on it and find it fighting back. You can feel the headache starting and push harder as you feel it now trying to flee you attack, leaping around the barn. Finally though you force your control over it and it settles down as your slave. The other one has reacted too though and you realize it is headed your way. Once more you lash out, but this time completely confident of your ability to take it over and the confidence seems to matter and you take it over is seconds. You now control two mutants, and from their minds, they are two more large mutant cats "Must have been the farm's ratters" You think as you command them to finish eating the shambler in the barn before following you back East. Your headache is terrible and with the accompanying nose bleed you would rather they didn't have hunger on their minds when they were looking at your back. You have no need to worry though and the next morning they are behaving in the same way as the shamblers you control. docile and waiting your commands. You smile to yourself, this attack was going to be easy. It is not long after that you notice the faintest hint of smoke in the distance > You waiting for nightfall You look carefully as you approach. The walls are High, maybe 10 foot high and 12 with the railings, the spikes on the top were surely ornamental before but they have been sharpened now into points and you can see men with guns looking over the walls at various points. They are clearly the guards as they are holding guns however they are also clearly relaxed. they probably haven't had any real excitement since the raiders died out a few years back. It is not long before you have moved right around to the rear of the little community and see that the walls appear exactly the same the entire way around and that there are guards on every wall. You'll have to wait for nightfall. You spend the next few hours carefully maneuvering your shamblers in closer to the community and snacking on meat strips. "Almost out of meat, seems the more I eat humans, the more the hunger grows. Ah well, a feast is coming soon enough." You begin salivating at the though of eating all the humans in the community in front of you. Your senses tell you that there could be as many as 40 in there. You will have to improve you abilities to number humans at a distance but for now the numbers match your expectations and you settle in to wait. > You attacking in the moonlight You wait as midnight comes and goes and give the new guards on the walls a couple of hours to get comfortable and sleepy before you make your move. The moon is out in a beautiful crescent, looking every bit like a blade cutting down at the little community ahead of you. The light it provides is more than enough for you to see clearly but you know it isn't enough for the guards who have lit torches on the railings "They have lit themselves up like candles but the light will blind them to my approach!" You think to yourself gleefully as you move closer with the six shamblers near you. You are within a few metres of the first guard when you realize the problem. You can get over the wall easily but the shamblers will never make it. You hiss at yourself for being so stupid and take a few minutes to send them all round to the ditches near the front gate along with the mutants. You will have to open it to get them inside to fight for you. You move to a dark spot between the torches and leave your bat and pack against the wall before jumping up incase they banged against somthing and gave you away. You reach the railings easily and swing yourself over in one smooth movement, landing quietly on a wooden platform behind the walls "Smart, they built a little walkway all the way around for their guards" You think as you sneak back towards the guard you were near before. He had seemed extra sleepy earlier, and sure enough, you find him napping. Two steps into the light from the small torch and you have and hand clamped over his mouth and the other around his throat, crushing his windpipe. It gives way with a pop and you finish him off by snapping his neck. The hunger surges up but you have to ignore it for now. You can feast once you have control of the entire compound. You start sneaking along the walkway toward the next guard and once more find a sleepy man, relaxing in his chair in the torchlight, you smile to yourself, they had become too lax in the peaceful times after the raiders all died. You once more move in close and before the man even wakes up enough to react you have you hand over his mouth and throat. You clamp down, crushing his windpipe but as you feel it give way, you hear the thump of his heel hitting his chair. You quickly snap his neck but the damage is done and the chair tumbles off the edge and into the compound before you can stop it. You swear to yourself and you hear the noise it makes but you know it wasn't really that loud, You almost think you got away with it when you hear the next guard calling out "Hey Kiel, you fall asleep again!" You quickly drop to the ground, the guard wont take long to get suspicious when their friend does not reply so you need to get the gates open fast. You sprint between the houses, luckily finding most quiet and dark and come to the main gate. there are two guards here, one either side of the gateway and they are awake and chatting to each other. But you hear the shout going up. The guard has found the body. "Kiel is dead! we have intruders! help!" You swear and rush towards the gate, leaping up and vaulting yourself onto the walkway behind one of the guards. He saw you coming and tries to raise his gun but you are faster and a punch to the throat sends him stumbling over the wall, only to get impaled on a spike before he can fully fall. the haze of his mind already gone by the time he hits the spike. You run and leap at the second guard, but this one has had more time and you see her with rifle ready. She takes the shot as you leap and you feel the impact in your side. You are certain she just got you cleanly in the kidney as you land and start punching her, not giving her time to work the bolt action for another shot. She shot you though and the hunger fills your mind with anger as you punch her repeatedly in revenge, even though she was dead after the second hit. The shouts of humans running brings you back from your rage and you can sense the minds of several humans headed your way. You leap down and wrench the wooden bar off the gate, swinging it open. "Time for vengeance!" you think as you order your horde inside and lean up against the wall for a moment to stop your own bleeding. You will easily survive this, but it is still not trivial, you will need a few moments to bind it before you move. You simply order your horde to attack while you tear a strip off your shirt to stuff into your wound when you hear the shots starting and feel your horde reduce in number quickly. You look up to see the humans aren't all carrying bold action hunting rifles or pistols, several have assault rifles and they are tearing your shambler horde apart with ease, the mutants are doing damage in return though and each has already downed a human. > You your wound has to wait, support your horde before it is too late "Gorram automatic weapons!" you say as you drop you attempts to stop your own bleeding and charge the men shooting at the shamblers.You quickly pass the slow cannon fodder as see that two of those still standing have assault rifles and need to be taken down fast, your mutants have also easily killed a man each but they are stopping to feed and at risk themselves because of it. You quickly send to order to attack humans relentlessly, only feeding once they are all dead and leap at the closest human. You clearly take him by surprise with your speed, bullets pass you by but luckily none hit as you plow right into the man knee first, feeling his ribs crack and sending him flying backwards. You can sense that he is still alive but you doubt that he will be moving any time soon. You spin and land a heavy punch on the next man, knocking him out cold before he can even get an aim at you. You feel two more human minds vanish behind you and glancing back you see the mutants mauling two more before moving on "No more automatic weapons now" You think as you shove the last man standing towards the shamblers as be desperately tries to reload his rifle. Then you feel one on the mutants flash in pain then vanish. looking over you instantly see it on the ground, bullet wound to the head. You search for the cause and see two of the wall guards, one still aiming down her gun at your dead mutant. You snarl, they were going to pay for that. The second guard grabs the woman "Briar, you killed it, now let's go!" and the both start running along the platform to the rear of the compound. You give chase and know you can cut them off if you run through the buildings quickly enough. You start dodging through, hearing gunfire still happening and know that other humans had finished off the last of the shamblers at the gate, but your second mutant and 3 shamblers were already loose between the buildings, hunting for humans. You rush out the side to see the two you are chasing jumping down and running for what looks like a bunker hatch where other humans are already gathering. > You chase them down, then slaughter the others as well, they killed your new pet You Rush after them "They die for killing my pet!" You snarl in your mind as you rush towards them, covering the ground inhumanly fast. You quickly catch the man and backhand him aside then lunge after the one he called 'Briar' she was the one who shot your pet. You even imagine how good your revenge will feel as you snuff her life out. Sadly though you never consider that when you move with inhuman speed in front of humans with guns currently fighting infected that they will assume you are indeed inhuman. The first bullet misses but the second catches you cleanly in the side of your chest right before you reach Briar and it knocks you off your stride. You stumble to your knee, feeling the internal bleeding start, you've been shot twice now and you are definitely reaching your limit even with your regenerative capabilities. You sense a movement and looking up you see Briar turn to you and raise her gun "You killed claw!" She says as she is about to fire, but she killed your pet and is standing close to you. You lunge upwards as she fires, her bullet tearing through your chest but you have momentum and manage to punch her in the throat before you collapse. You can feel the blood draining from you now and know you wont get up again but you are also looking right at Briars face. You both know you killed the other as you see her choke to death and she watches you bleed out.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Gorram automatic weapons!" you say as you drop you attempts to stop your own bleeding and charge the men shooting at the shamblers.You quickly pass the slow cannon fodder as see that two of those still standing have assault rifles and need to be taken down fast, your mutants have also easily killed a man each but they are stopping to feed and at risk themselves because of it. You quickly send to order to attack humans relentlessly, only feeding once they are all dead and leap at the closest human. You clearly take him by surprise with your speed, bullets pass you by but luckily none hit as you plow right into the man knee first, feeling his ribs crack and sending him flying backwards. You can sense that he is still alive but you doubt that he will be moving any time soon. You spin and land a heavy punch on the next man, knocking him out cold before he can even get an aim at you. You feel two more human minds vanish behind you and glancing back you see the mutants mauling two more before moving on "No more automatic weapons now" You think as you shove the last man standing towards the shamblers as be desperately tries to reload his rifle. Then you feel one on the mutants flash in pain then vanish. looking over you instantly see it on the ground, bullet wound to the head. You search for the cause and see two of the wall guards, one still aiming down her gun at your dead mutant. You snarl, they were going to pay for that. The second guard grabs the woman "Briar, you killed it, now let's go!" and the both start running along the platform to the rear of the compound. You give chase and know you can cut them off if you run through the buildings quickly enough. You start dodging through, hearing gunfire still happening and know that other humans had finished off the last of the shamblers at the gate, but your second mutant and 3 shamblers were already loose between the buildings, hunting for humans. You rush out the side to see the two you are chasing jumping down and running for what looks like a bunker hatch where other humans are already gathering. > You pull back and wait to see what is going on, there is a lot of them Chasing them down would be suicide and they would instantly notice your wound and that you are not one of them, pull back for now and observe. You slip into shadows between a house and some old decorative tree and watch what happens. The two fleeing guards are welcomed into the strange bunker and as the door opens you realize that a bunker is exactly what it is. One of the old 'survive the apocalypse' things you always laughed at. Even at a glance you can can see it has solid metal walls, a solid metal door and lots of room inside with shelved stuffed with food. "They weren't messing around with that thing, I bet dynamite would barely scratch it!" You think as you watch a family running out of the houses to the right, two shamblers in slow pursuit. "Even with a toddler they can outrun them" You think as the family gets to safety and the shamblers fall to gunfire. You send you mind out and realize the mutant has been doing its job though. there are no more guards on the walls and the gunfire has stopped although is is wounded, probably a single gunshot you think. You watch as the last humans run out from the houses toward the bunker and a man gets taken down from behind by the Mutant, you quickly change it's order from rampaging to surviving and feeding and it drags the body bad into the shadows, barely dodging the bullets from those at the bunker. You watch the humans look around desperately before all retreating inside and sealing the door. You find yourself along in the compound with your pet mutant and a small pile of dead humans. > You time to feast and heal You grab the two nearest bodies and head into a house at random. You find a well kept little home and feeling oddly out of place in the clearly well-loved house you take the bodies into the kitchen and start eating there, feasting until the easiest to devour meat and organs was gone and you couldn't eat more without serious risk of your stomach splitting open. You are about to take a limb with you but again the house puts you off and you head up empty handed after wiping the blood off your face with a cloth. You reflect on your own odd behavior, you have never respected property before but you guess that it might be different due to this clearly being a well loved home that was lived in literally until moments ago, the owners might even be alive just across the yard in their bunker, or they might be one of the dead you just ate. Either way you can literally feel how you are supposed to act here and find yourself obeying the old unwritten rules of a guest in another home without even thinking about it. Almost out of spite to how you were just behaving you head into the master bedroom and use it for the night, leaving your mutant orders to guard you as wel as feeding during the rest of the night. > You morning in the well loved home You wake up feeling a little strange in the house again, but this was no time to be put off, You have started healing but you need to feed more to expedite the process and you head back down to the kitchen. This time as you feast you start looking around and find all the things that you might find in a normal home before the infection came "Seems like they avoided the worst of everything here" You think as you gnaw on a piece of tough muscle. "Must have had a low turn rate when it became airborne and killed those who turned quickly to stop it spreading, guess I give them credit for that" You keep looking around and realize that there is a note on the fridge, a chore list addressed 'To myself' and signed "Cara" You laugh aloud "This is Cara's house!" you smile to yourself, no longer caring about the house, only thinking about how you tricked and killed it's owner as you feast. THe next three days pass much the same way, you feasting on humans and occasionally observing the bunker but nothing changes there when you are looking and you never sense any of the humans leaving it. Your wound is closing up already so you think it is time to start doing somthing. > You test the bunker, there might be a way it if the company selling it were scammers You can't sit around just healing for any longer so you decide to finally test out this bunker of theirs. You know there have always been companies selling these, some good and some scammers but also that the industry boomed as the virus first began to spread, and most of the boomer companies were frauds, installing the bare minimum for looks then leaving with the money before they had to be used. You move closer slowly but sense no response from the humans inside, they are so close together is is very difficult to tell anything from them though. You finally edge right up to the door and still no reaction so you start your investigation properly, running through a checklist of possible obvious problems "Hinges are on the inside and the door edges form a perfect seal, walls clearly go deep underground, no windows or large panels, internal welding, the air filters are imbedded right into a 3inch steel plate..." You run through everything you can think of but find no weaknesses, only that it appears to be extreamly well made and large, the 25-30 people you estimate inside seem to have spare room. You tut aloud as you plan your next move > You leave and head back South, you have learned what you need to crush the Eastern colony Time to get out of here and head East. No point wasting any more time now that you know you have the abilities needed to take out the entire Eastern colony. "Thousands, or even tens of thousands of humans just waiting to be eaten!" You think as you load up on some meat strips and Start the walk back South. You grab a few shamblers at first but think better of it and send them to the compound instead to harass anything that tries to live there again and walk on South alone smiling to yourself. There isn't an infected now that you are scared of as you can control them all. Maybe another harbinger could give you some problems but you know inside that you are the strongest, the alpha predator. You work out plans as you walk. A colony as big as the one you are heading too can't be handled the same way, even with only a small number of dead, the bodies started to rot before you could devour them all so you will need a smarter method. Maybe kill a couple of hundred at the start to make sure they know you are in control of their lives then trap the others with shambler and mutant guards. You can have them in little groups, each with their own guards or you could even ring the entire colony in a wall of infected, preventing any hope of escape. "I will need to increase my powers for that one though" You think. "Going to have to keep the majority alive, maybe use them as slaves while I feed off them slowly. a population that big could sustain me for years to come, my own little herd of cattle waiting for the slaughter." You are enjoying the ideas when night finally falls. You find a broken down building to camp in and sleep a few hours before setting off once more in the morning. > You reaching the highway from the North You move quickly the next day and cover a lot of ground by jogging and walking quickly, your hunger is already starting to return and you want to reach your goal as fast as possible. You think about grabbing the minds of some infected you pass but again decide against it, you can get stronger and better fed ones in the city. You could even grab a few mutants before crossing the bridge if you wanted as there should be a couple around there. As dusk begins you can make out the highway in the distance and keep jogging and hour into the night until you finally get back to the furniture van with the sofa in it. You lock yourself in once more and eat a few of your meat strips, as long as you keep eating those, then the hunger seems to keep itself at bay. It never truly vanishes though unless you consume fresh flesh. You consider this for a time, it used to be that your meals would come days apart, then weeks apart and you would have to horde scraps of human and animal flesh to get by. The hunger stayed away though, but now the more you eat, the more the hunger returns, getting stronger each time. Feasting on the humans in such numbers recently has made it stronger than ever and you can feel it constantly weighing on your mind, pushing you to kill more and eat more. "It's like a second voice where a conscience used to be, but the opposite, telling me to kill and feast on humans, which then makes it stronger. Maybe this is a curse harbingers face, each human they devour feeds the hunger inside which then drives them to kill more an more. I will have to be careful I don't let it influence me too greatly." With those thoughts you drift off to sleep > You east with the dawn You set off with the dawn as you know you have a few days walking ahead of you at the very least and wanted to relish the sofa for a few more hours. You keep heading East and don't find much food on the way but your powers increase even further, with you able to control and direct large groups of shamblers from a distance You learn to differentiate the minds of shamblers and fast types, even a mutants to the South easily fall under your control as your range increases. Your tests let you control several infected at once and direct them as you please individual without lessening your grip or concentration on the others. "They will have no idea what hit them when I reach the Eastern colony" You think to yourself. Your physical abilities have also improved. You were already faster and stronger than any normal human but that has increases along with your mental abilities, you know there isn't a normal human alive who could face you in a fight and you can rip a car's door clean off its hinges with only a little effort. It's not long after that you finally reach the bridge across the river. There are infected on it but this wont stop you now as they are just shamblers and you direct them over the sides of the bridge to fall into the deep flowing water below. After a few moment you realize that either the fall or the drowning has actually killed most of them but shrug it off as another test, they are just prey after all. Then the pain begins. A sudden sharp stabbing right into your mind forces you to your knees. You try to fight it off and feel it diminishing, like you are holding a barrier up against it, protecting your mind with your powers, but you feel just how much strong the other force is. It feels like a glacier bearing down on your mind, slow but inexorable. You lash out at it with your mind, trying to force it away and almost imagine your attacks as flames striving against the attack. Then the attack pauses, it cannot gain any more ground against you. The pressure is still there and the pain is throbbing in your head but you stopped it in it's tracks. You grin as you stand up as straight as you can, they probably cannot see you but if another harbinger is going to attack you then you will destroy them while standing tall and showing your superiority. You do however feel the blood streaming down your face from your nose and realize that this is the worst nosebleed you have ever had "But of course, they launched a surprise attack on me, anyone would take a small hit but I held them off, I stopped their surprise attack easily and now I can destroy them!" Then the second weight hits your mind and your defenses shatter, this one felt different, almost ethereal but once it hit, your already stretched defense shattered instantly, letting the original attack succeed, the pain spikes suddenly . But then the pain suddenly stops. "Sorry about this, I really am, but you are far too close to being red to get in here alive. Only a matter of days before you went fully over so it is much better you are killed now before you actually become a threat worth worrying about." You try and respond but find that everything feels fuzzy, you are sure the voice in your head is female though "Oh yes, might have damaged a few things there, attacking really isn't my strong suit so I might have used too much strength, well either way it doesn't matter now. Bye" You feel a slight pain then everything fades out to black<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You can't sit around just healing for any longer so you decide to finally test out this bunker of theirs. You know there have always been companies selling these, some good and some scammers but also that the industry boomed as the virus first began to spread, and most of the boomer companies were frauds, installing the bare minimum for looks then leaving with the money before they had to be used. You move closer slowly but sense no response from the humans inside, they are so close together is is very difficult to tell anything from them though. You finally edge right up to the door and still no reaction so you start your investigation properly, running through a checklist of possible obvious problems "Hinges are on the inside and the door edges form a perfect seal, walls clearly go deep underground, no windows or large panels, internal welding, the air filters are imbedded right into a 3inch steel plate..." You run through everything you can think of but find no weaknesses, only that it appears to be extreamly well made and large, the 25-30 people you estimate inside seem to have spare room. You tut aloud as you plan your next move > You wait it out, you have enough food for a while and you can observe more There is no rush and you don't want to waste your time bashing your head against some stupid bunker so you simply make yourself at home and keep feasting for the next week. The time passes slowly but happily as you feast on the best humans and have your pet mutant feed of those who start to rot of the bits you don't want. It's the perfect pet, bigger than any normal dog should be, eats your leftovers nd can literally tear a group of humans apart in seconds. Time passes though and still nothing happens, even with so many humans in there you saw a lot of food and that was just a glimpse in the doorway, there is no telling how long it could take for them to come out. You pass the next week in the same way and finally have enough. You are basically fully healed, you have eaten all the good human flesh available and you need to do somthing > You test this thing properly, you have guns and access to gunpowder afterall You head back to where all the guards died and collect all their weapons and ammo before taking it back to in front of the bunker. you start but simply shooting a few of the guns at it and get a clear reaction from those inside but the bullets just bounce right off leaving barely a scratch on the metal. You then start taking them apart using tools in one of the sheds, someone here obviously made their own ammo and between their spare powder and that collected from bullets you dismantle you gain a fair sized bag of explosive to test. You once read something about needing to contain he blast until it built up enough so you find an old heavy duty pan with a sealing pressure lid to use and take everything over to the door of the bunker. You place the bag inside, slip in a makeshift fuse and light it. You seal the pan up as fast as possible then run for it. You dive behind a building but nothing happens. You wait a few moments an nothing is happening so you get to your feet and peek around the corner of the building as the explosion goes off. It's rather impressive if you say so yourself with lots of smoke and bits of metal flying everywhere but when it clears you can see the bunker clearly un-moved. You head over and find that it scorched the door a fair bit and there are some obvious scratches from the pieces of metal but that is all. You clearly aren't going to get inside this way. You turn to head away when you see hear the faintest humming noise and notice something blinking near the edge of the bunker. You find a small indent with a camera sunken into it behind a tiny thick piece of glass "They have a generator and cameras in this thing? where the hell do you buy something like this!" Frustrated you give up and start walking back over to the house. Unfortunately now that they took the risk of turning the generator and cameras on the humans can see you, and can see you are alone. You sense them moving before you hear the door open and have time to spin around so that you can clearly see when it opens and there are 4 humans already pointing guns your way. You try to dive to the side but two of the bullets still hit you and you hit the ground hard. You see you mutant rushing them from the shadows but they simply turn nd fire at it, automatic weapons tearing it apart and killing it before it even got half way to them. THen they turn back to you and fire again.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Gorram automatic weapons!" you say as you drop you attempts to stop your own bleeding and charge the men shooting at the shamblers.You quickly pass the slow cannon fodder as see that two of those still standing have assault rifles and need to be taken down fast, your mutants have also easily killed a man each but they are stopping to feed and at risk themselves because of it. You quickly send to order to attack humans relentlessly, only feeding once they are all dead and leap at the closest human. You clearly take him by surprise with your speed, bullets pass you by but luckily none hit as you plow right into the man knee first, feeling his ribs crack and sending him flying backwards. You can sense that he is still alive but you doubt that he will be moving any time soon. You spin and land a heavy punch on the next man, knocking him out cold before he can even get an aim at you. You feel two more human minds vanish behind you and glancing back you see the mutants mauling two more before moving on "No more automatic weapons now" You think as you shove the last man standing towards the shamblers as be desperately tries to reload his rifle. Then you feel one on the mutants flash in pain then vanish. looking over you instantly see it on the ground, bullet wound to the head. You search for the cause and see two of the wall guards, one still aiming down her gun at your dead mutant. You snarl, they were going to pay for that. The second guard grabs the woman "Briar, you killed it, now let's go!" and the both start running along the platform to the rear of the compound. You give chase and know you can cut them off if you run through the buildings quickly enough. You start dodging through, hearing gunfire still happening and know that other humans had finished off the last of the shamblers at the gate, but your second mutant and 3 shamblers were already loose between the buildings, hunting for humans. You rush out the side to see the two you are chasing jumping down and running for what looks like a bunker hatch where other humans are already gathering. > You pretend to be a human fleeing the vilence like the others to get inside whatever it is they are running for You have the blood on you to look like a wound and you do look human so why not? You quickly start jogging out, clutching your side where you were shot and waving for help. You even pull the nearest shambler to 'chase you' to add a little realism to your drama. You see the group at the strange bunker entrance point at the two fleeing their way and welcoming them in. Then you see them point your way "Perfect, I get inside during the panic and they have no-where to run" You think as you close the distance. Shots ring out but you know they are aimed behind you and you feel the shambler go down, You glance behind then toward the men with guns "Thankyou! oh thankyou!" you start as you get close. Then the girl looks at you again, the one the man called 'Briar' "He is working with them, I saw him kill Claw at the gate!" she shouts and immediately the guns ring out again, this time at you.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You wait as midnight comes and goes and give the new guards on the walls a couple of hours to get comfortable and sleepy before you make your move. The moon is out in a beautiful crescent, looking every bit like a blade cutting down at the little community ahead of you. The light it provides is more than enough for you to see clearly but you know it isn't enough for the guards who have lit torches on the railings "They have lit themselves up like candles but the light will blind them to my approach!" You think to yourself gleefully as you move closer with the six shamblers near you. You are within a few metres of the first guard when you realize the problem. You can get over the wall easily but the shamblers will never make it. You hiss at yourself for being so stupid and take a few minutes to send them all round to the ditches near the front gate along with the mutants. You will have to open it to get them inside to fight for you. You move to a dark spot between the torches and leave your bat and pack against the wall before jumping up incase they banged against somthing and gave you away. You reach the railings easily and swing yourself over in one smooth movement, landing quietly on a wooden platform behind the walls "Smart, they built a little walkway all the way around for their guards" You think as you sneak back towards the guard you were near before. He had seemed extra sleepy earlier, and sure enough, you find him napping. Two steps into the light from the small torch and you have and hand clamped over his mouth and the other around his throat, crushing his windpipe. It gives way with a pop and you finish him off by snapping his neck. The hunger surges up but you have to ignore it for now. You can feast once you have control of the entire compound. You start sneaking along the walkway toward the next guard and once more find a sleepy man, relaxing in his chair in the torchlight, you smile to yourself, they had become too lax in the peaceful times after the raiders all died. You once more move in close and before the man even wakes up enough to react you have you hand over his mouth and throat. You clamp down, crushing his windpipe but as you feel it give way, you hear the thump of his heel hitting his chair. You quickly snap his neck but the damage is done and the chair tumbles off the edge and into the compound before you can stop it. You swear to yourself and you hear the noise it makes but you know it wasn't really that loud, You almost think you got away with it when you hear the next guard calling out "Hey Kiel, you fall asleep again!" You quickly drop to the ground, the guard wont take long to get suspicious when their friend does not reply so you need to get the gates open fast. You sprint between the houses, luckily finding most quiet and dark and come to the main gate. there are two guards here, one either side of the gateway and they are awake and chatting to each other. But you hear the shout going up. The guard has found the body. "Kiel is dead! we have intruders! help!" You swear and rush towards the gate, leaping up and vaulting yourself onto the walkway behind one of the guards. He saw you coming and tries to raise his gun but you are faster and a punch to the throat sends him stumbling over the wall, only to get impaled on a spike before he can fully fall. the haze of his mind already gone by the time he hits the spike. You run and leap at the second guard, but this one has had more time and you see her with rifle ready. She takes the shot as you leap and you feel the impact in your side. You are certain she just got you cleanly in the kidney as you land and start punching her, not giving her time to work the bolt action for another shot. She shot you though and the hunger fills your mind with anger as you punch her repeatedly in revenge, even though she was dead after the second hit. The shouts of humans running brings you back from your rage and you can sense the minds of several humans headed your way. You leap down and wrench the wooden bar off the gate, swinging it open. "Time for vengeance!" you think as you order your horde inside and lean up against the wall for a moment to stop your own bleeding. You will easily survive this, but it is still not trivial, you will need a few moments to bind it before you move. You simply order your horde to attack while you tear a strip off your shirt to stuff into your wound when you hear the shots starting and feel your horde reduce in number quickly. You look up to see the humans aren't all carrying bold action hunting rifles or pistols, several have assault rifles and they are tearing your shambler horde apart with ease, the mutants are doing damage in return though and each has already downed a human. > You get out of here, if your horde is loosing, you have to save yourself "Gorram automatic weapons!" You think as you quickly move out of the gate and into the night. You glance in all directions before heading South, the guards on the walls are too distracted by the fighting and you slip right past, jogging for nearly an hour before finding a small shed just off the road to collapse into for the night. You wedge the door shut then relax back against the wall to check your wound. The bullet is still inside and it is bleeding a lot, you'll have to keep it closed for it to heal and the jogging did you no favors, increasing your blood loss. You feel around the back and locate the bullet close to the skin on that side so you quickly cut the skin with a nail you find on the floor and pull the bullet out before finally using a strip of shift to bind yourself up. "Good thing I'm not human or that really would have killed me" you think as you fall deeply asleep never even wondering how far you had gotten in your jog. > You morning in the shed You wake with a headache and in pain from your wound but you can already feel it beginning to heal. This one would take at least a week to get healed enough to act normally but you got out alive and that is all that matters. You did however loose your horde and that angers you. You were going to have to get revenge on the humans another way, maybe once your wound heals up you can go for a new plan. Either way, you'll need to get a nice safe location to lay low for a bit. You retie your temporary bandage then force the door open to head out into the morning sunlight. You stop immediately when you find a ring of humans about 20 feet away with guns pointed at you. One calls over "You nearly had us that time raider, getting them inside the walls, don't know how you managed that but they are dumb and stop to feed letting us kill them easily. Then you also left us a blood trail all the way here, must be quite the wound you got." He says this last piece with a huge grin. He is obviously very happy that you are wounded. You spit and reply "I'm no raider, and I'm going to have my revenge on you all for killing my pets." you reply as you start forward, hunger and anger getting the better of you. Mere humans taunting you like this. Sadly anger is not a great way to think and the man replies as you take your first steps "Oh no, we will be getting our revenge on you, and we really don't care what you are." The humans all begin firing at once.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Shamblers are not really fighters, those mutants you fought with however, those could fight. You head off the road to the West, that seemed to be the direction the others came from and you know the humans were being most careful out that way. By lunchtime though you have found nothing new. Just the usual scattered shamblers and no signs of anything else. It is possible that the two you fought were the only ones in this area "Maybe they are territorial like before they died and killed off other mutants? Guess I should actually learn more about the infected if I want to control them all" You think as you take a break for lunch and eat more meat strips. You decide that even if you want mutants, you may as well practice controlling some shamblers full time so reach out for the nearest ones. You stretch out your senses and invade the shamblers minds. It is so much easier than before and you take control of 8 of them, forcing them to follow you as you progress through the fields. 8 was a little tricky and after a few hours you find your headache growing and your nose starts bleeding again so you take a break, relaxing your hold on them while you snack on a piece of meat, wondering which human you ripped it off. It takes a couple of hours for the headache to begin subsiding and you set out again, by nightfall you are exhausted and the headache is throbbing with a vengeance. You relax your hold once more and climb into a ditch to sleep, you are in too rough a shape you look for anything else. You wake well after dawn, that means you slept right through the night again, you are going to have to be more careful from now on if you are going to be asleep for that long. You do however notice two things; Your headache is gone, and your shamblers have not moved an inch. You gently feel for them and it's almost as if you still have a small connection to their broken minds, you gently push a command for them to walk and they obey instantly "I see, so I must force my mind over them at the start but once I am in control I can relax and they still follow ymy commands!" Happy with the progress the sleep has given you, you set out again, once more having your shamblers following you from a distance, through the fields and ditches, but now you don't concentrate on them constantly, just gently send out commands and instantly feeling them respond to your will. You grin to yourself "This is going to be easy". You keep going in a haphazard fashion to the West until nightfall and find the second floor of a barn to use as a bed for the night.You think about the situation and realize that without you killing them off, that the scavenging team will be due back in a day or two at the most, and you wont beat that time back now so they will be suspicious either way. > You head back quickly so you can attack before the party is too long overdue and alarms are raised You can take out the small compound alone easily enough so having some shamblers under your control will be more than enough. Also if you take too long they will be suspicious if their team does not return but you turn up instead. You stretch out your senses and invade the shamblers minds. It is so much easier than before and you take control of 8 of them, forcing them to follow you as you progress down the road. 8 was a little tricky and after a few hours you find your headache growing and your nose starts bleeding again so you take a break, relaxing your hold on them while you snack on a piece of meat, wondering which human you ripped it off. It takes a couple of hours for the headache to begin subsiding and you set out again, by nightfall you are exhausted and the headache is throbbing with a vengeance. You relax your hold once more and climb into a ditch to sleep, you are in too rough a shape you look for anything else. You wake well after dawn, that means you slept right through the night again, you are going to have to be more careful from now on if you are going to be asleep for that long. You do however notice two things; Your headache is gone, and your shamblers have not moved an inch. You gently feel for them and it's almost as if you still have a small connection to their broken minds, you gently push a command for them to walk and they obey instantly "I see, so I must force my mind over them at the start but once I am in control I can relax and they still follow ymy commands!" Happy with the progress the sleep has given you, you set out again, once more having your shamblers following you from a distance, through the fields and ditches, but now you don't concentrate on them constantly, just gently send out commands and instantly feeling them respond to your will. You grin to yourself "This is going to be easy" It is not long after that you notice the faintest hint of smoke in the distance > You approaching the target, horde following behind You slow your pace a little to match that of a normal human's walking and soon your keen eyes pick out a grey smudge below the thin trail of smoke. As you get closer the smudge resolves itself into a large grey wall topped with small spiked railings. The gated community. You keep your pace slow, you aren't sure if a normal human could have noticed the smoke and walls yet so you play it safe and wait a few more minutes before obviously turning your attention to the wall. You have your shamblers take more care and move slowly closer on either side, you picked up a few more that morning so you have a dozen of them now, 6 on each side. You look carefully as you approach. The walls are High, maybe 10 foot high and 12 with the railings, the spikes on the top were surely ornamental before but they have been sharpened now into points and you can see men with guns looking over the walls at various points. They are clearly the guards as they are holding guns however they are also clearly relaxed. they probably haven't had any real excitement since the raiders died out a few years back. You look carefully at them and realize that none of them is actually reacting to you at all. you look around and realize that most of you is covered by farm hedges and gates so that unless they were being vigilant they wont notice you for a few minutes yet. You still have time to decide on your best plan of action. > You head on up the road openly and claim the scavengers sent you so you can get inside The scavengers move a lot slower than you do so they might not even be expected back yet, time to use this to your advantage! You quickly check yourself over, your arm wound is already healed to the point that it looks more like an old injury than a frsh claw attack from a mutant, that will be easy to pass off. There is some blood on your clothing along with mud and other stains but honestly who doesn't in this world. You set out for the gates. As you walk you carefully maneuver all of your shamblers into ditches and under hedges, you are going to abandon then for a day maybe two before you attack so it is best if they are hidden properly, and it is not as if they complain about living in a hole for two days. You walk slowly, trying to emulate a weary human on a long walk and finally get close to the gate. You are in full view of the guard on the wall for a while before they finally notice you and the shout goes up to mark your presence "Lax guards, they should have seen me miles back. This will be easy if they are all this bad" You keep walking until you finally halt in front of the gate. The walls either side are clearly a solid 10 feet tall with the 2 foot railing spikes above and they are clearly maintained, the gates are large wooden affairs with metal banding, probably to emulate old castle gates but they will be strong. You see several humans looking down at you from either side and having seen them move there from around the walls you know they must have a walkway on the inside. You see several guns level at you but no fingers on triggers just yet, you also note that two of the guns are assault rifles, you will need to be careful. You know it is best to wait for them to speak first and do not need to wait for long before one of the men calls down "State your business, then prove you are human!" You lay your pak and bat down carefully then show your hands are now empty as you reply "Well I met your scavenging team a couple of days South and they sent me here to find sanctuary." you pause "I don't know how much they know about my kind so I'll play it dumb" You continue "As for proving I am human, well erm, I am talking?" The man stares at you "Show us your skin, no recent bites, that sort of thing. Then when we clear you, you can prove you were sent by our scavenging team." He keeps his gun up so you know you have to comply now. You slowly take your shirt off, revealing your muscular body and see a couple of approving looks from the women, then do a slow turn with arms raised to show you don't have any bites "Do I remove the trousers and underwear out here too?" You ask the man who is clearly in charge but he simply waves at your shirt and you put it back on. Realizing he is waiting for you you think quickly about what you had learned before you killed them, it occurs to you that they made a couple of jokes about a man called "Boring" who kept trying to be all official with the gate so you gamble on that. "Well when I was with Cara and Chris they did tell me what to do when I got here" You begin, and note the positive reaction when you gave their names "They said I should come to the gate a report to mr. Boring, well they just said 'boring'" You immediately see the man turn a little red and look displeased "I will have words with them!" The other guards clearly start chuckling and grinning behind him I have told them not to nickname me 'boring', they can use 'Fire' or 'Lion' but not Boring! what I do at the gate is important!" You can see you touched a nerve but from every ones expressions you know that you are safe, this is obviously a running joke so you keep going "Erm, sorry? Thats kind of all they told me to do,.." You trial off and know you are successful when you see the man sigh and wave behind him before replying "Yes, well you can't be blamed for their pranks, Chris is too easily influenced by Cara and her pranks, Welcome to 'Safe-Haven', the name might not be original but it fits." The gate opens and you head inside. > You safe-Haven As you walk in through the gate you get your first proper view of the little community, apart from the surrounding wall and wooden walkway you couldn't even tell that the world ended outside. There is a group of nicely laid out houses in the centre, a play park, a couple of mechanical looking buildings with tools and machinery inside and even a generator next to them. The people are the same, clean clothing and all smiling and chatting as if the most horrific decade in human history wasn't still fully underway just past the gate you had walked through. One of the guards hops down behind you and several of the people come over, one is even carrying a toddler. The guard starts introducing everyone and you give short pleasant responses before realizing the thing that was bugging you the most. You look like a hobo, a hobo who had something die and rot on it's clothing recently and everyone around you is clean and well dressed for a rural community. Your realization and glances at your torn and stained shirt must have registered as one of the women cuts the guard off "Let the man rest and get a change of clothing first before he gets embarrassed!" You are about to object when you hear a whoop from behind you and a female guard from the gate comes running over "I'll help, just wait till you see him with his shirt off!" The older woman tuts at her "Briar, behave yourself!" but she just grins and turns to you "Ok lets get you out of that shirt so I can burn it!". You don't actually feel embarrassed about anything around your prey and you definitely don't care what they think since you are about to eat them but you do find it strange that the social conventions still hold sway over you "I will have to break myself of these stupid old social compulsions, they get in the way" You think as you pull your shirt off and hear another whoop from Briar as she takes your shirt and heads off to a fire-pit near the walls. You also get some approving looks from the other ladies and glance down at your perfectly muscled self, "I am a bit of an Adonis thanks to the virus, makes sense I guess" you think as you let the crowd of women take you over to a shed and hand you some new clothing. You do change in private though, despite seeing them as prey to be eaten at the first opportunity, you mind still pulls you away from certain acts. When you finally come out there is a larger crowd, including men ready to greet you and show you their little community. They take you on a whirlwind tour, showing off everything like proud parents showing off their firstborn child. It is all as you first saw, nice well loved little houses and a couple of old barns used as machine shops, The one thing that catches your eye is at the back. A huge metal door leading into a metal corridor that seems half buried at the back of the compound. "That's our bunker!" One of the men proudly announces "If everything else fails, we can all live in there for months without any worries!" You mke a mental note to check it out, it would be problematic if you entire food supply was locked in a giant steel box after all. > The night and the next day You are shown to a house that looks less well kept than the others and are told you can use it as your own "An old member, called himself 'Playa' used to live here, sadly he was on a scavenge when they got attacked, him and his partner never returned so now it's yours." You thank them and head inside, finding yourself automatically wiping your feet as you do so "Oh come on, I haven't wiped my feet in years, what am I doing?" You head upstairs and find a nicely laid out bedroom complete with a full bead "Although I really can't complain about this!" You hop onto the bed and relax "Even better than my van-sofa!" You think as you begin making your plans. You start by stretching out your senses and trying to count the humans, you find that they are often too close together to count perfectly but at least 30-40 which fits your initial guess. Several act as guards day and night and they have a fair amount of guns including at least two automatic weapons. They also have the bunker but there are ways of dealing with that too. You slowly fall asleep as the sun sets, thinking about all those walking meals, just feet away and battling the hunger that always comes with those type of thoughts. > You well before dawn You wake after just a few hours sleep like you used too, hunger eating at your belly and pressing on the back of your mind. You are going to have to make your plans soon or you might snap and just outright attack someone.Then you pause "I'm not normally this bloodthirsty, I used to be able to control my urges much better. Guess this is what happens when I feast, luckily I know I can hold it at bay for a few days if I need too" You roll over in your bed and send out your senses again before finally heading over to the window to check the time "The moon says it's around 3 or 4 am and there are definitely guards still on the walkway but they are not moving at all. Probably sleep right now if not fully asleep from how lax they were when I approached. You head downstairs and peak out all of the windows, sure enough you see little to no movement anywhere in the compound. You cannot see the gate from your new house but if the two guards there are anything like the others then they will be fast asleep too. You think things through again "The scavengers are due back tomorrow I'd guess, I could play it out for one extra day if I say they had an extra large amount of food but people will get suspicious quickly. My other option is making my move now, I have the shamblers outside and ready to invade the second I kill a few guards and let them in." > You hold off one more day to plan and prepare Waiting it out one more day while you investigate the bunker and guard numbers is the best plan so you head to the kitchen and see what you can find to eat. You find it empty "They must have cleared it out after the last bugger died" You think s you head back upstairs to wait for dawn to arrive, it wouldn't be smart to be caught wandering about outside right now if you didn't plan to kill them all tonight. When the dawn finally comes, you have decided that the bunker is the key, even if you got half the guards dead and lat the shamblers inside, a large number of the humans could get to the bunker and hide out there if they were smart. You head out into the dawn light with a plan in mind. But first you have to act nice to the walking meat-sacks. You spend some time exchanging pleasantries with the members of the community and finally Boring heads you way with questions clearly on his mind "So friend, you survived long enough to get here and join us and you say Cara's team sent you but there are some things you need to answer". You give your best 'I'm not planning on ripping your head off and eating you' smile and reply "Of course, whatever you need to ask" "Two things" He begins "Firstly, everyone here earns their keep, even the kids, well, once they are able, anyway, if you plan to stay you'll need to do your share. Second, we were expecting Cara's team back before dusk yesterday and they haven't arrived, what do you know?" He immediately gets some disapproving looks from the others nearby but you reply quickly to them as well as him "They are fair questions, I will of course do my share where-ever I am needed, I will let the community decide my role and I will happily do it, you are the ones who know what is needed here. As for Cara and the others... I don't know, they did have a large number of sacks full of fruit and veg though, they said they had been extra successful?" He thinks for a moment then nods and heads off back to the gate while you force the bowl of gruel down your throat. It tasted liek ashes in your mouth and felt like it was kicking you in the gut it sat so badly but you had to keep the act up or they prey would get suspicious too quickly. After breakfast and the pleasantries you head for a walk around the inside of the wall, waving and saying hello to the guards before finally coming to the bunker, finding it open. > The bunker You grin at your own good fortune and immediately try to act like an innocent but curious visitor "Hello there?" You call as you slip through the door and down the ramp inside, finding yourself in a much larger room than expected. The walls lined with shelves packed with food tins of all varieties and bottles of water. You even see a generator with its vents plugged into the wall in one corner "They weren't kidding when they said they could survive here for months" You think as a man steps out of a far corner and simply asks "Can I help you?" You put on your best smile "Ah erm, well I just arrived yesterday and everyone was talking about the bunker so when I saw the door open I thought I should come and look, I did should hello?" The man simply nod and goes back to his clipboard "Ah yes, I saw you briefly as you were swarmed by the more excitable members of our little community. Luckily with the relatively recent loss of two members you will not throw our plans off at all. You are about to question his 'plans' when you realize he must be referring to the stores down here, he must be in charge of the rationing so he would be the one knowing exact numbers of people and things. "Well it seems very safe down here." You try. "Ah yes, safe indeed, out community all put in together to fund it from a specialist company I used to work for! We were not like the scammers that came after the infection began spreading. We were very expensive but with build with great care, our minimum standard was would we feel safe in it ourselves, and in this case I planned to use it myself so I made double certain of every detail." He seems keen on the subject so you keep asking questions "So you knew something like the virus was coming?" He pauses and looks at you "The virus?" Then he seems to reach some conclusion you can only guess at and brightens up before continuing "Oh dear me no, the virus was a shock indeed, we expected nuclear war. The world was headed towards it and we expected the biological attacks to get worse and worse until someone finally launched the first nuke. It seems that at least one country had other plans and released a virus that was a little too effective. Once it started mutating even their own vaccines were not effective.This beauty is a full community nuclear fallout shelter. You could house a small number safely for years without ever opening the door, the entire community could easily last" He glances down at his clipboard "5 and a half months before needing to make a run for more water, then they would have another 5 months!" excellent design and it could be hit directly by a tank and barely take any damage! We were remote enough to avoid the main hordes but close enough to the city to get the vaccine once it was developed and only lost a handful of members." He goes back to smiling to himself as he marked things off on his board "Well thanks for the info" you say as you head back out. Either you need to be in here when the door shuts of you need to stop anyone else getting in, you don't see any weakness at all in the design. > You waiting for nightfall You spend the rest of the day checking out all of the defenses as subtly as possible and being nice to all the humans as they taunted you with their flesh and minds, just waiting to be eaten, but you hold the urges off for now. You cannot act prematurely and let the hunger control you, that will just get you killed. You force yourself to stomach the horrendous food they give you and finally retire to your own house for the night and count the hour passed as you watch the moon. at midnight you sense the guards change over and watch the new ones settle in and get relaxed, leaving them long enough to get nice and sleepy before acting. But the ones at the gate keep moving, they clearly are not sleepy and might be a small problem tonight. > You gate open first, then while the shamblers get killed, you hide in the bunker with the others You slip quickly out of the house and head for the South West corner of the compound "No time like the present!" you think as you sneak close to the first guard and see he is isn't moving "Time to reduce the number of humans with guns so my shamblers will have free reign" You think as you move further along the wall. The guards have lit torches on the railings, helps them see nearby things but makes them night blind to anything more than a few feet away. You find a spot between torches and gently swing yourself up onto the walkway. You sneak back towards the guard you were near before. He had seemed extra sleepy earlier, and sure enough, you find him napping. Two steps into the light from the small torch and you have one hand clamped over his mouth and the other around his throat, crushing his windpipe. It gives way with a pop and you finish him off by snapping his neck. The hunger surges up but you have to ignore it for now. You can feast once you have control of the entire compound. You start sneaking along the walkway toward the next guard and once more find a sleepy man, relaxing in his chair in the torchlight, you smile to yourself, they had become too lax in the peaceful times after the raiders all died. You once more move in close and before the man even wakes up enough to react you have you hand over his mouth and throat. You clamp down, crushing his windpipe but as you feel it give way, you hear the thump of his heel hitting his chair. You quickly snap his neck but the damage is done and the chair tumbles off the edge and into the compound before you can stop it. You swear to yourself and you hear the noise it makes but you know it wasn't really that loud, You almost think you got away with it when you hear the next guard calling out "Hey Kiel, you fall asleep again!" You quickly drop to the ground, the guard wont take long to get suspicious when their friend does not reply so you need to get the gates open fast. You sprint between the houses, luckily finding most quiet and dark and come to the main gate. there are two guards here, one either side of the gateway and they are awake and chatting to each other. But you hear the shout going up. The guard has found the body. "Kiel is dead! we have intruders! help!" You swear and rush towards the gate, leaping up and vaulting yourself onto the walkway behind one of the guards. He saw you coming and tries to raise his gun but you are faster and a punch to the throat sends him stumbling over the wall, only to get impaled on a spike before he can fully fall. the haze of his mind already gone by the time he hits the spike. You run and leap at the second guard, but this one has had more time and you see her with rifle ready. She takes the shot as you leap and you feel the impact in your side. You are certain she just got you cleanly in the kidney as you land and start punching her, not giving her time to work the bolt action for another shot. She shot you though and the hunger fills your mind with anger as you punch her repeatedly in revenge, even though she was dead after the second hit.. The shouts of humans running brings you back from your rage and you can sense the minds of several humans headed your way. You leap down and wrench the wooden bar off the gate, swinging it open. "Time for vengeance!" you think as you order your horde inside and lean up against the wall for a moment to stop your own bleeding. You will easily survive this, but it is still not trivial, you will need a few moments to bind it before you move. You simply order your horde to attack while you tear a strip off your shirt to stuff into your wound when you hear the shots starting and feel your horde reduce in number quickly. You look up to see the humans aren't all carrying bold action hunting rifles or pistols, several have assault rifles and they are tearing your horde apart with ease. > You take them down fast before they kill too many of your shamblers Your wound will have to wait, you sprint towards the men, watching them take down two more shamblers with easy shots spread between the chest and head. The stupid shamblers were just not fast enough to get in close. But you are fast, very fast. You close the distance and pass your last 4 shamblers as you leap at the front human with an automatic weapon, Your knees hits him in the chest and you send him flying backwards. You felt his ribs crack but can feel that he is still alive "Out of action for now though" You think as you spin and punch another guard in the face, knocking him out cold. Then you feel the impacts in your back and stagger forwards. You turn slowly as your lungs fill with blood to see on of the men calmly pointing his rifle your way "Hey this one is a lot tougher than the normal ones at least!" He calls to his comrades as he pulls the trigger again and three more bullets tear into you.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You spend the rest of the day checking out all of the defenses as subtly as possible and being nice to all the humans as they taunted you with their flesh and minds, just waiting to be eaten, but you hold the urges off for now. You cannot act prematurely and let the hunger control you, that will just get you killed. You force yourself to stomach the horrendous food they give you and finally retire to your own house for the night and count the hour passed as you watch the moon. at midnight you sense the guards change over and watch the new ones settle in and get relaxed, leaving them long enough to get nice and sleepy before acting. But the ones at the gate keep moving, they clearly are not sleepy and might be a small problem tonight. > You wait one more day, it wont hurt to be cautious now With the guards at the gate still active it is too risky, they could raise the alarm and ruin everything before your plan every really gets underway. You sleep for a few hours and wake with the dawn, heading down to the kitchen you find a couple of the guards there. You are immediately on alert but one smiles at you and waves you to a seat "So we decided you'll be joining the guards!" seems best suited for you if you survived this long out there along you'll know something about killing infected right?" You relax a little and nod your consent as he continues "We came to get you but then felt bad for waking you before dawn since you aren't a guard YET. so we let you sleep, but come on Boring has asked us to show you a few things." The guards all get up and head for the door and you follow, you notice they are all carrying their guns but think nothing of it, it is their job. They take you right to the bunker and lead you inside "So this is the bunker, our last line of defense. Our main job is not so much to hold off the attackers at the walls, but to delay them until everyone gets in here safely then we can simply wait it out!" You smile back and pretend to look around interested as you walk inside. "Yeh I met someone in here the other day and he told me about it..." you begin as you turn to see the guards backing out of the door and locking you in as he says "And we can also use it as a prison for those we suspect, since there is no way out without a key." You rush the door but it locks in place before you can do anything. > You prisoner in the bunker Your hunger pushes you to rage against the door, and you are about to give in before you calm yourself and step back. You try to call to them to profess your innocence for whatever they suspect but it seems like the door blocks the noise out too so you wander over to a fold-out chair and take a seat. It is several hours before you hear the door moving again. You jump to your feet but as it opens you see at least 6 men with guns pointed at you on the other side, no way you could get out the door before they shot you. You see Boring stepping out from where he was obviously opening the door and move up to the entryway but not inside. You note that he never blocks too many of the gunmen from your view though, probably to make sure you still feel intimidated when he speaks "That wont work on me though, I am better in every way then him, I could easily crush his skull with one hand. But I will play along for now, then enjoy slaughtering everyone he cares about the second I get free." He finally begins talking to you as you sit down again on your little folding chair "Well I am sorry to have to do this since several of our little community seem taken with you but things are looking suspicious right now and you wouldn't be the first raider to try and get our guard down this way." You think carefully before replying "Oh come on, I have behaved perfectly, I was even sent here by Cara and Chris!" You see the man smiling in response "Yes you joked around the fire about saving her life and spending time chatting with them, but now they are two days overdue on their return. I sent out a couple of our fastest men yesterday to find out what happened to them. It might be a freak accident or problem, or they might just turn up late but we must be careful and until we know the truth you will be living here." You try and protest but he backs out and closes the door again. > You judgement day You have two more nights in the Bunker and open a couple of cans of meat to eat while you are there "Can't blame me for eating if they were the ones to lock me in here" You think, but the canned food taste horrible to you and barely does anything for the hunger, if it wasn't slightly better than nothing you wouldn't even bother. Finally the door opens again and once more you see boring and the men with guns outside. This time though there are a few more of them. "Come on out now, there are people wanting to chat with you to work out the truth." You are confused at first but this is better than expected, maybe they didn't find the remains or thought that infected got them, there were two mutant carcass near the silo after all. They look nervous though so you will have to be careful "Of course" you reply "I can clear my name that way and get back to helping out here". Boring simply nods in response and starts walking away, several of the men follow him off to the side, leaving only a few near the entrance and they stop actively pointing guns at you. You walk up happily "I can play on their doubts, play the sadness card, pretend I am broken up about my new friends deaths bla bla. They will trust me again in no time, then I can tear them apart and feast tonight!" You think as you reach the doorway and notice that boring and the other guards had simply looped around as soon as they were out of sight and were now just a few metres away with all their guns pointed right at you. "Heralds must die, that is the first commandment for survivors!" Boring shouts as the others all open fire. You go down in the hail of bullets "Ah, they must have worked it out from the bodies then" you think<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You wake after just a few hours sleep like you used too, hunger eating at your belly and pressing on the back of your mind. You are going to have to make your plans soon or you might snap and just outright attack someone.Then you pause "I'm not normally this bloodthirsty, I used to be able to control my urges much better. Guess this is what happens when I feast, luckily I know I can hold it at bay for a few days if I need too" You roll over in your bed and send out your senses again before finally heading over to the window to check the time "The moon says it's around 3 or 4 am and there are definitely guards still on the walkway but they are not moving at all. Probably sleep right now if not fully asleep from how lax they were when I approached. You head downstairs and peak out all of the windows, sure enough you see little to no movement anywhere in the compound. You cannot see the gate from your new house but if the two guards there are anything like the others then they will be fast asleep too. You think things through again "The scavengers are due back tomorrow I'd guess, I could play it out for one extra day if I say they had an extra large amount of food but people will get suspicious quickly. My other option is making my move now, I have the shamblers outside and ready to invade the second I kill a few guards and let them in." > You head right for the gate and get it open for your shamblers Getting the gate open is the first priority, you will need your shamblers running distraction and killing the slow humans while you pick off the ones with the automatic weapons. You slip out in the moonlight and move silently between the houses. Your night-vision is as excellent as ever and the clouded night is revealed to you just as clearly as the daytime would be for a human. You keep checking on the guards and others in the community but everyone is in the beds on the second floor of the houses and most of the guards are not moving. "Probably asleep in their chairs" you think as you finally get in a clear view of the gate. The two guards at the gate are clearly still awake. They are standing, one on each side, chatting across the gap. They aren't any more use as guards than the others since they are not facing the road or fields at all but they are facing each other which is bad for you. You judge the gap between the walkway edges at 10 feet. You can easily make the jump but you will need to time everything perfectly. They also have torches lit beside them so they are lit up completly while making themselves night-blind to anything else. > You slip close quietly, they will be night blind so you can completly surprise one then leap for the other You will have to rely on speed and surprise, you can't think of any reason the guards would let you close to them in the middle of the night. especially at the front gate. You edge to the left first and manage to get within a few feet of the walkway before reaching the edge of the weak torchlight "Any further and I can be seen. Going to time this perfectly, you give them a few moments more before seeing the guard opposite stretching and looking away. You vault yourself onto the walkway behind one of the guards. He saw you coming at the last second and tries to raise his gun but you are faster and a punch to the throat sends him stumbling over the wall, only to get impaled on a spike before he can fully fall. the haze of his mind already gone by the time he hits the spike. You run and leap at the second guard, but this one has had more time and you see her with rifle ready. She takes the shot as you leap and you feel the impact in your side. You are certain she just got you cleanly in the kidney as you land and start punching her, not giving her time to work the bolt action for another shot. She shot you though and the hunger fills your mind with anger as you punch her repeatedly in revenge, even though she was dead after the second hit. The shouts of humans running brings you back from your rage and you can sense the minds of several humans headed your way. You leap down and wrench the wooden bar off the gate, swinging it open. "Time for vengeance!" you think as you order your horde inside and lean up against the wall for a moment to stop your own bleeding. You will easily survive this, but it is still not trivial, you will need a few moments to bind it before you move. You simply order your horde to attack while you tear a strip off your shirt to stuff into your wound when you hear the shots starting and feel your horde reduce in number quickly. You look up to see the humans aren't all carrying bold action hunting rifles or pistols, several have assault rifles and they are tearing your shambler horde apart with ease, the mutants are doing damage in return though and each has already downed a human.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Getting the gate open is the first priority, you will need your shamblers running distraction and killing the slow humans while you pick off the ones with the automatic weapons. You slip out in the moonlight and move silently between the houses. Your night-vision is as excellent as ever and the clouded night is revealed to you just as clearly as the daytime would be for a human. You keep checking on the guards and others in the community but everyone is in the beds on the second floor of the houses and most of the guards are not moving. "Probably asleep in their chairs" you think as you finally get in a clear view of the gate. The two guards at the gate are clearly still awake. They are standing, one on each side, chatting across the gap. They aren't any more use as guards than the others since they are not facing the road or fields at all but they are facing each other which is bad for you. You judge the gap between the walkway edges at 10 feet. You can easily make the jump but you will need to time everything perfectly. They also have torches lit beside them so they are lit up completly while making themselves night-blind to anything else. > You try to get close with talking, then when they relax, strike fast They are facing each other and chatting across the gap. You might be ridiculously fast but you are nearly certain that you couldn't kill one, make the jump and silence the other before they get out a shout, or worse a bullet. The second the alarm goes up you know your plans will be ruined so you need to get closer by other means. It takes a few minutes but eventually you notice something that you normally wouldn't have. You realize that the guard to the right is female. You haven't looked at humans as specifically male and female in years, since you started eating them at least. "This place is really affecting my brain, although this information I can use, she was one of the ones hanging around a lot when I first arrived and making comments about my looks". You stand up then begin walking forward, making a little more noise than necessary just to be safe. You get a few feet when you see the guards turn quickly to look your way "a little more alert then" You think as you continue forward a few steps "Who is it?" gets called your way as you reach the edge of the torchlight. You step fully into it so you can be seen before replying "Just me, I can never sleep around this time so I was just walking around" you bank on them being a little suspicious of this excuse and it works perfectly. The woman calls out "And you just happened to end up at the gate?" You pause and pretend to be embarrassed before replying "Well, actually I ended up at the South wall and chatted to one of the guards there for a bit and when I asked about you, he said you were on the gate duty tonight..." You trail off and it takes a few seconds but the male guard catches onto your hint and lets out a chuckle, that gives the game away to the girl and she immediately blushes, you can see her reactions as clear as day with your heightened senses but she does not know that and tries to hide it by putting up a front "No matter, all you need to do is let my up on the walkway and you wont ever have to act again" You think as she replies "Well he was right, I am on duty now. So why were you asking about me?" You smile this time"Well you made quite the first impression on me when I arrived and I was planning on, you know, trying to get to know you a bit better over the next few weeks, when I heard you were awake now too I just kinda headed this way". The girls blush deepens and you can see the other guard laughing his head off as she responds "Well I am on duty now and can't leave my post!" You know you have her now though and push one last time "Oh, I wouldn't expect you too but having another set of eyes up there while we chat wouldn't hurt would it?" You give your biggest smile and she finally gives in and smiles back "Ok hop up and you can try and chat me up then!" You grin as you jog forward and try to act like pulling yourself up onto the platform is at least a little tricky, finally leaning against the arch of the gate beside her "She let me stand between her and the gate, idiot!" You think as you glance at the male guard who is now making a point of looking the other way. You turn back as the girl speaks "Well I'm waiting, I thought you were going to chat me up?" she says with a cheeky grin. The timing was perfect so you struck. You step a little closer and open your mouth as if to speak but as she looks at your face your fist moves unbelievably fast and hits her cleanly in the throat, crushing her windpipe, she wont be able to should for help or do anything at all as she quickly suffocates. You spin and leap the gap. The other guard barely even registers what is happening as your punch knocks him cold. You quickly snap his neck then stop and listen to see if your attack alerted anyone but the only sound you hear is the soft strangled noise of the girl dying and after a few moments that ends too. You smile to yourself as you force your hunger back down "Can't feed yet, I have to keep it in check until the battle is over" you mumble as you gently hop down and lift the bar off the gate. You gently swing one side open just enough to let the shamblers in and control them all directly again, making them move quickly until they are gathered right across the road, then slipping over and into the compound. > You clearing the guards out before the rampage "Time to play my little pets" You tell them as you direct them carefully between the buildings, spreading them out so that they can cause the greatest havoc possible. even if they die, they should bite enough to make more infected and those can rampage too. You hop back up on the walkway and start creeping South until you find the first torch and guard asleep at his chair. You take two quick steps and grab him with one hand on his throat and the other over his mouth. Just a gentle squeeze crushes his windpipe and you hold him until he stops struggling, dropping him back into his chair after "There, you are just as much use sitting there dead as you were alive!" You chuckle as you keep moving and turn the corner, heading wet now until you see the next light and the next guard asleep, or close to, in his chair. You smile at just how lax the guards had become as you do exactly the same as before and have the man by the throat before he even knows what is happening. You feel his windpipe pop and keep holding him as he kicks, imagining how good it was going to be to eat all the dead soon when his foot kicks out and hits his chair and you watch helpless as if, and his gun, tumble over the side with a small crash. You swear to yourself, you can't let yourself daydream in the middle of killing someone! You hear the expected call from further along the wall and know the gig is up for now. If you hide, the body will be found and the alarm goes up, if the kill the next guy, the others who heard the call will raise the alarm when he vanishes too "Well, half of the guards will be down at least" You think as you sneak forward into the darkest area near you and wait. The guard comes jogging your way calling out "What did you fall asleep and tip your chair over again?" You immediately stand and hit him as hard as you can. You catch him cleanly in the jaw and see his head snapping round instantly, accompanied by a snapping sound. You sense his life vanish instantly and realize your punch must have snapped his neck "I am getting stronger, never used to be able to do that before" You think as you keep moving forward seeking the next guard. > The raised alarm call You hear the shout going up load and clear "Everyone evacuate, infected in the compound, the gate wa opened!" Then you hear a loud horn going off and every human mind in the compound begins to move "Their guards are lax but they know how to evacuate at least" You start running openly now, no point hiding out if the alarm is already raised. The next guard sees you coming but realizes you are not a comrade far too late to save himself and he joins the dead. You sense the humans reaching their doors and then the screaming starts. Your dozen shamblers were all placed perfectly to cause the most chaos and you instantly sense several biting and feeding on human flesh. You think about making them rampage but they are slow and they are doing their job so you just leave them to attack and feed as their instincts direct. You feel one getting beaten off and killed, but then you sense a human mind change as you watch it. You see something like rot spread over it, the glow fading, it seems to fight back but they rot tears away at it until it shatters, leaving a weak rotted husk where there was a vibrant mind moments before "And so it spreads" you say aloud as the new shambler lumbers after what must have been it's family moments before. You reach one more guard as the gunshots begin and two more shamblers die. This guard is ready for you though with his gun raised toward the compound to shoot the first infected that comes near. You are that first infected and he spins towards you as you rush him, he realizes in time that you are an enemy but you are too close and his shot skims past you, just grazing your side "Claw has spotted some, Centre West wall!" You hear from not far away. The dead guards reinforcements are headed right for you. You sense three below running your way and another along the walkway. You pull at the nearest shambler and have it go after the three below but they instantly shoot it down and keep coming, the one on the walkway is getting closer too and you only have moments before they see you. > You into the bunker! It should be close enough! You immediately slip over the edge and land lightly on the grass below, you only have a few seconds but you were right, the bunkers is close, so you sprint towards it and slip into the already open door. You are the first one here but you can sense more headed your way already. You quickly hunch up against a wall pretending to look worried and wait. The call from the guards goes up as they find the bodies and you can sense them moving outward in arcs, searching the area but they don't come your way yet. You are going to need more survivors in here incase they come your way. You quickly locate your shamblers and find one blocking some humans so make it move as if it has a new target to the side and you sense the humans surge past and toward you. The guards locate another and it vanishes amidst the gunfire. You can feel the difference now between the human minds, some are clearly fleeing, headed your way, wavering and moving in sprints while others are methodically sweeping the area, these must be the guards. You do your best to have your last shamblers ambush the guards but you only catch one before the last of your horde are wiped out. Then the humans arrive, they flood inside lead by a guard who doesn't even look your way and the other humans don't either. They are just too panicked and desperate to get inside. You smile to yourself, a few more and no-one will remember where you were, they will just think you came in with the others from the houses. You watch as more and more pile inside, filially followed by a few guards and the door swings partly shut, manned by two guards. You can sense others outside, more guards, holding the area around incase of more survivors or threats but you know there are none of either, the humans are all here and the infected are all dead. You do a quick head-count and see at least twenty inside, your shamblers did good work with the ambushes. Time to fit in, You quickly see a a group of the humans that you met the day before and head over there trying your best to look scared "What's going on? we were just directed here but there were infected everywhere!" They don't even look suspicious for a moment as they reply "The gate got breached and they got inside. We have as little idea what's going on as you do." You simply nod in response and stay close, they are now your alibi and you will look less suspicious in a group. "This is going perfectly, half of their guards are dead and all the humans are trapped in here with me! > You surviving in the bunker You stay with the group, occasionally chatting, sometimes watching others come over to trade stories but generally just trying to fit in and look appropriately worried. If you are going to make your plan work you need the humans to trust you for just a little bit longer. Finally you sense that the humans left outside have swept the area clear and they all enter the bunker, staying in a group near the entrance. You sense the last three outside heading at speed towards the gate. "Ok, the compound is clear now and we are shutting the gates. We do not yet know how they got inside but once the gate team returns they can tell us more. For now you know the drill. Everyone check your neighbors for bites." You hear some mumbled swearing, it seems that they all had forgotten part of the procedure in the panic and now everyone starts rolling up their sleeves of taking their shirts off. You of course join in and pretend to look a couple of others over before giving them the all clear and they return the favor. A few people start calling out "All clear here" and you call it out for the people near you. "Not a single bite in the room, too bad, could have used a shambler or fast type turning in here". Finally things begin settling down and the guards return from the front gate, giving their report to the other guards, they speak softly but you know the survivors nearest them can hear and your hearing is advanced enough to pick it up too "Gate was definitely opened from the inside, bar taken out and pulled open, inside job. Looks like other guards on the walkways were killed too, probably before the gate was opened." The guards keep conversing for a time and finally call out to the whole bunker "The immediate threat is gone, but we are going into lockdown. This was no accident, the infected were let into the compound by design." You hear worried mumbling breaking out but as the door seals shut and is locked you can feel the entire bunker relaxing slightly "They must have fended off attacks in here before then" You think as you suddenly realize that several of the guards and a few other humans are staring right at you. "Well of course they suspect me now, gonna have to act fast." > You pretend to want to prove your innocence to the guards, then strike fast and kill the armed ones, you must act before they do You stand up slowly and see several more set of eyes latch onto you so you begin your act right away "Look, I know I am the most likely suspect here since I just arrived so I am going to go talk to the guards to prove my innocence." You make sure to keep your voice calm but loud enough for the entire bunker to hear and see many of your watchers stop staring. You then begin to head over to the guards who watch you coming, they don't actively point weapons at you but they are clearly keeping them close to hand. "We heard your little speech there and you are right. You are the main suspect, so how do you plan to prove yourself?" One of them says. You notice than Boring isn't here and realize he must be one of the dead, you smile inside while you speak "Well I don't know but but letting infected inside would be suicide for me so it doesn't make sense. How would I get the gate open with the guards watching me then get away as the infected attacked, in fact, how could I even have made them attack? They are just lumbering relics that hang around where they died until disturbed." The guards clearly don't seem convinced "We have been attacked before, in fact a few years ago the raiders were strong in this area, they used to capture or lead infected right up to the gates of communities like ours then kill some guards and let the infected in to do the dirty work for them. I think you are one of them." A couple of the other guards nod but some don't seem so sure so you know the idea can't be watertight yet "And at least they don't suspect I am a harbinger" You think as you plan your next response, you already pretended to not know the guards were killed so best to keep with that. "So you think that the raiders, who were wiped out years ago, suddenly recovered and sent me in here to open the gate and let infected attack me? why on earth would I do that? If they were willing to sacrifice me why wouldn't I just join you instead. You held off the strongest raiders groups in the past so why would I risk ym own death for some weak remnant?" You pause as if thinking "And how would I even do it, I mean you have guards all around the walkways and at the gate and they all have guns, you' think they might just notice a guy removing the bar and opening the gate?" You can see from their faces that your points are sinking in and they are relaxing, a couple let their guns slide down to less threatening positions. You smile slowly, then strike. You lunge forward and punch one guard, immediately grabbing another in your other hand and throwing him back into a third. you spin and lash out at one behind you, grabbing his gun as he falls unconscious and fire it point-blank into the chest of the next one you see "Too easy" You think as you use the gun like a bat to smash a guard round the head, feeling her mind blink out instantly as she dies "They can barely comprehend what is happening before they die". You leap towards the ones you knocked over and two swift blows kill them too and you finally turn to the gathered humans who are rushing away from you as much as the space allows in fear. "Future meals! hear me, I am in charge now! You can recognize me as a herald or harbinger, whichever term you choose to use for me, but you can also see that you don't stand a chance against me." You wave to the group of dead or unconscious guards behind you "All your guards are now dead and I will feast on their flesh, all you have to do is cower and wait to be eaten." > You to feast or to kill? You have all the time in the world to decide You grin to yourself "Look at them, prey is the right work for them, cowering in fear from me as it should be. They can live in fear while I slowly eat them all one by one. I can even take the kaycards for the door an leave them locked in here with shamblers as guards!" You are considering your next announcement when you hear the boom, amplified by the small space and metal walls and feel the impact on your back. You see a spurt of red leaving your chest and something hits a bag of wheat on a shelf in front of you. Glancing down you see blood pouring out of your chest. You spin around as you fight off the weakness you are feeling and are just in time to hear the click-click of a bolt action being worked to reload a rifle. You see one of the guards still lying slumped against the wall where your punch had sent him flying "Too bad you didn't knock me out then isn't is harbinger!" He shouts at you. One bullet wound wont kill you, you just need to get outside and lock the door while you recover, you know you can survive it, only one lung was punctured and your healing is more accelerated than ever now. You leap at the guard but you ar too late as just as you land his second shot tears through your chest leaving a second gaping hole and you can feel both lungs rapidly filling with blood. You try and swing for him but you are too weak and simply slump to the side. you watch your prey running forward to help the wounded and see them just ignoring you as everything just fades away.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You stay with the group, occasionally chatting, sometimes watching others come over to trade stories but generally just trying to fit in and look appropriately worried. If you are going to make your plan work you need the humans to trust you for just a little bit longer. Finally you sense that the humans left outside have swept the area clear and they all enter the bunker, staying in a group near the entrance. You sense the last three outside heading at speed towards the gate. "Ok, the compound is clear now and we are shutting the gates. We do not yet know how they got inside but once the gate team returns they can tell us more. For now you know the drill. Everyone check your neighbors for bites." You hear some mumbled swearing, it seems that they all had forgotten part of the procedure in the panic and now everyone starts rolling up their sleeves of taking their shirts off. You of course join in and pretend to look a couple of others over before giving them the all clear and they return the favor. A few people start calling out "All clear here" and you call it out for the people near you. "Not a single bite in the room, too bad, could have used a shambler or fast type turning in here". Finally things begin settling down and the guards return from the front gate, giving their report to the other guards, they speak softly but you know the survivors nearest them can hear and your hearing is advanced enough to pick it up too "Gate was definitely opened from the inside, bar taken out and pulled open, inside job. Looks like other guards on the walkways were killed too, probably before the gate was opened." The guards keep conversing for a time and finally call out to the whole bunker "The immediate threat is gone, but we are going into lockdown. This was no accident, the infected were let into the compound by design." You hear worried mumbling breaking out but as the door seals shut and is locked you can feel the entire bunker relaxing slightly "They must have fended off attacks in here before then" You think as you suddenly realize that several of the guards and a few other humans are staring right at you. "Well of course they suspect me now, gonna have to act fast." > You hold off, you can't be sure of vitory in this confined space and with so many guns around, the panic would help but you couldn't be sure to kill all the guards before they shot you You stand up slowly and see several more set of eyes latch onto you so you begin your act right away "Look, I know I am the most likely suspect here since I just arrived so I am going to go talk to the guards to prove my innocence." You make sure to keep your voice calm but loud enough for the entire bunker to hear and see many of your watchers stop staring. You then begin to head over to the guards who watch you coming, they don't actively point weapons at you but they are clearly keeping them close to hand. "We heard your little speech there and you are right. You are the main suspect, so how do you plan to prove yourself?" One of them says. You notice than Boring isn't here and realize he must be one of the dead, you smile inside while you speak "Well I don't know but but letting infected inside would be suicide for me so it doesn't make sense. How would I get the gate open with the guards watching me then get away as the infected attacked, in fact, how could I even have made them attack? They are just lumbering relics that hang around where they died until disturbed." The guards clearly don't seem convinced "We have been attacked before, in fact a few years ago the raiders were strong in this area, they used to capture or lead infected right up to the gates of communities like ours then kill some guards and let the infected in to do the dirty work for them. I think you are one of them." A couple of the other guards nod but some don't seem so sure so you know the idea can't be watertight yet "And at least they don't suspect I am a harbinger" You think as you plan your next response, you already pretended to not know the guards were killed so best to keep with that. "So you think that the raiders, who were wiped out years ago, suddenly recovered and sent me in here to open the gate and let infected attack me? why on earth would I do that? If they were willing to sacrifice me why wouldn't I just join you instead. You held off the strongest raiders groups in the past so why would I risk ym own death for some weak remnant?" You pause as if thinking "And how would I even do it, I mean you have guards all around the walkways and at the gate and they all have guns, you' think they might just notice a guy removing the bar and opening the gate?" You can see from their faces that your points are sinking in, it's lucky they thought you were a raider and not a harbinger as since you aren't a raider it is easier to convince them. One finally responds "We aren't saying the allegations are air tight but you arrived then after over a year of no infected sightings from the walkway, we are over-run within days." You pause, pushing further might be good or bad so you play it cautiously "That I can accept, as I said, I know I am the likely one but hopefully I can be proven innocent soon." One of the guards who had been silent up until now speaks up. "He might be guilty of letting them in for some other reason but he isn't with the raiders." The others look at him as he continues "The raiders always did the exact same thing, they killed some guards by surprise, opened the gates to let the infected they captured or lead here inside then ran. They were cowards who never faced a real fight and though only of themselves, one of them would never risk sacrificing himself by staying in the compound before and after the attack. Even if the attack worked and he out-ran the infected at the gate, he would know he would be the main suspect. He also would have a hard time killing the armed guards alone, so if it was him, he had help from other raiders meaning there was no need for him to stay, he would have just run off instead." The others pause and think about it for a time "Then since we have nothing better we go with that. If a raider squad miraculously turns up in the next two days as they always did after an attack, you are probably innocent. if they don't, then we shoot you and be done with it." You simply nod in response and head back to your seat "Time to make a raider squad appear from no-where" You think as your group nods at your return. > You planning a raider attack You settle back into your seat with one thing on your mind "How do I made a raider attack materialize in under two days? Every human I've met agrees that the raiding groups were all wiped out by the military or the infected years ago" Then it occurs to you that you don't actually need to make a raider attack happen, you just need to make it SEEM like one happens, and for that you need more information. You turn to those nearest you and begin fishing for clues "What were the raiders like, we never suffered from the the same way in the city?" A couple avoid your eyes but once the first ones begin describing their experiences others readily join in and a full on little debate about them begins. It goes on for nearly an hour before slowly dying out as people begin getting rations for breakfast and you pretend to enjoy a small can of meat with one of the others. You slowly work through all the stories to filter out the important information. The raiders always came from the North, avoiding the city and heavily populated areas. They used vehicles and had guns but still fought like cowards, killing a few guards then loosing infected that has taunted and made to follow them on the inhabitants of small communities. They would retreat right away so they were not forced to fight and were in no danger from the infected, returning the next day or day after to clear out the last of the infected and humans and steal all they could. They had also raided here a couple of times, killing guards and opening the gate before fleeing, but they always returned to find the inhabitants and food safely locked up, or back manning the walls so they would give up and leave after firing off guns for fun and breaking a few things. "So all that needs to happen is a lot of noise and some guns going off, and that I can do." Having worked out your plan, you relax back into a corner an pretend to be trying to get to sleep like many of the others. Once you are sure you wont be disturbed you send out your senses carefully, pushing near your limits but not forcing it, you don't want a nose-bleed now. You finally find a few scattered shamblers right at you limit and quickly grab their minds, sending the order to walk towards you before dropping the control again "That should do it for now" You think as the headache begins at the back of your mind, grabbing them at such range wasn't easy, you'll have to hope enough follow the order and get closer soon. > The Raiders arrival You actually let yourself rest for a few hours and nap for a short time before sending out your senses again and finding that you were successful. There are 5 shamblers now in easy range of your abilities so you quickly grab them and direct them to the community. Some of the humans are stirring again but you know most are avoiding you for now so you should have a little more time to relax and watch your shamblers approach. In the end it takes another hour for them to arrive and you finally get to direct them in the gate. They are in bad shape, nearer dead than alive so you direct them to feast on some of the bodies and leave them to it for a couple more hours while you exchange pleasantries with some of the humans. It seems that since you went and chatted to the guards and haven't been shot yet that some of them think that must mean you are innocent, enough to talk to you at least and that's fine, you only need the cover for a short time more. Once everyone quietens down again you once more retreat to your corner and pretend to nap while you check on your little hordes progress. They have been feeding and their bellies are full, you can sense the new energy in their bodies and know it is time to get to work, you want everything ready for evening. You have them stop feeding for now and carefully direct each one individually, having them find and gather guns. You fail at first, not knowing how to make them find something you cannot see but you can follow their senses to where you know the guards died and once there you have them sweep their arms around and feel whatever they find. It takes time and it is extremely difficult work for you, the fine control of their bodies, reading their senses and trying to locate things all at the same time takes it's toll and you headache is horrendous but you eventually get every shamblers holding a gun of some sort.You leave the order for them to hold on to their guns no matter what and release control, allowing your mind you relax as you try to wipe away a massive nosebleed. You glance around and see the guards are spread out with the other humans and many ar giving you suspicious looks "Good thing my plan is coming together" You think as you pretend to enjoy a late lunch with people and relax for the evening, you need to time this correctly. Three hours before sunset you think your headache has gone down enough to act so you move the shamblers closer to the bunker and begin trying to make one fire it's gun, this takes nearly twenty minutes to work out but finally you hear a muffled boom. Everyone looks instantly to the door and a guard makes sure it is locked, no-one says anything though and keeps quiet, waiting to see what comes next. You realize that the shambler dropped the gun when if fired and you don't have time to have it work out how to pick it up so you direct it to band on the door while starting to directly control a second one. This one you make hold the gun back against it's body and point the barrel at the bunker. You take much less time with this one and you hear the repeated cracking noises of a semi-automatic gun firing and at least a couple of the bullets ping off the outside of the shelter just as the first one reaches the door and slams it's arm into it. "The raiders are back!" one of the humans calls out in a panic and several others agree instantly, expressing the same concerns. Debate springs up with some saying they are wiped out while others say this must be a new group of them, either way they are all agreeing someone is outside with guns. You stop the one banging the door and have two more fire their guns off into the air before sending all of them to smash up a few breakables like the machine shop and its generator, keeping only the last one with a gun. You give it nearly half an hour before having this one fire it's gun too then have the shamblers leave. Directing them as far from the community as possible before loosing control over them > You acceptance and new trust The guards don't do much more than calm people down for the next few hours, re-assuring them about the bunker and how strong it is before finally one stands up and makes an announcement. "It seems like the raiders have returned. We don't know how or why, it is possible it is a new small group emulating their tactics after running out of supplies. We just know they are here. What happened over night was that several guards were killed, the gates opened and infected released inside. If they keep to their old playbook, it means that by now they are gone and all the infected are dead. We will wait in here one more night then go check on things" He sits back down as people begin talking about all the possibilities this brings up and you notice a massive drop in meaningful looks your direction. You smile to yourself "Off the hook for now then!" You think and people eat dinner then find a spot to sleep. You wait up a short time but your headache is throbbing so you finally lie down and join the sleeping humans. You even sleep right through the night and have to be woken in the morning by people moving around near you. Once you sit up, you get involved int he discussion about what the new raider threat means but add little to the conversation as you are mostly just trying to gage how quickly the doors open and you can get back to eating these walking ready meals. It isn't long before three guards head out and return with the news that guns were indeed fired around the compound and that the machine shop and a few of the houses were smashed up a little along with the generator but that little was taken, the general consensus rests with people deciding that it must have been another small community copying raider tactics to get more supplies. You smile to yourself once more "time for part B" You think as several people apologize for doubting you and the guards stop watching you. > You part B of the plan You watch the guards for a time, there are 7 of them and each is armed now however if you split them up, you can easily kill them all so you bide your time until a second team is sent out to investigate the surrounding area for danger. Three guards head out leaving 4 inside and you know it is the perfect chance. You wander slowly closer, seeing the door just ajar and the kaycard for it round one of the guards necks "So, about trying to prove my innocence here?" You begin as your excuse for walking closer and closer. Once of the guards replies for them all "We will still keep an eye on you but it does look more like a case of bad timing on your part now. Just don't do anything suspicious ok?" He gives you a little grin to signal that it's ok really but it freezes on his face as your fist crushes his windpipe. The others try and grab their guns but they are too late as you lash our at them, knocking them into the walls as you kill them. It is over is seconds and the four remaining guards lie dead at your feet. One of the humans rushes at you but you simply move too fast for him to stand a chance as you grab him by the skull with one hand and begin squeezing, forcing him to his knees in pain "I am a Harbinger, a Herald of the apocalypse! If you don't know what that means, it means that I am your new God, you can all cower in here while I feast on your dead, if your behave and cower like good prey should, many of you will survive, defy my and this is the result." You squeeze hard and feel the mans skull shatter, brain and blood squirts out as you drop his corpse in front of the others. You grab the keycard, checking the others to make sure there isn't a copy left inside then head outside and lock the door "And thats my food supply secured!" You laugh as you find the nearest body to feed on and clear the taste of the horrific human food from your mouth. > The coming days You know you are the Alpha predator now, humans are clearly just prey waiting to be eaten. You brought down an entire armed community with a security bunker no less and now you feast on their corpses. You powers are stronger than ever and you can keep pushing them further and further. Yes, this is right, there is a food chain and simply you are on top. other harbingers might rank second but you are first and the lowly humans are nothing but future meals. You suddenly feel your mind changing, everything becomes clearer, crystallized almost, your vision sharper and your mind more directed. It is as if a filter had been removed from your mind and you can see everything properly for the first time. Your rightful place in the world, your grandeur, it is all so simple really. You stretch out your senses, easily surpassing all of your previous limits and grab the minds of all the infected you locate, barely having to even think about it, every infected mind you touch, you crush instantly and control. You sense the three ast humans returning though and laugh "Oh how late to the party, well, you will be my next meal then, I shall eat you while you are still alive so you are as fresh as possible!" Once they are in the compound you sprint right for them. They can't even reach as you move with supernatural speed, knocking each of them flying into walls meters away and killing all but one instantly "Maybe I over did it? Ah well, they are still fresh now!" You look at the last one, pitifully clinging to life before lashing out at its mind with your own. You can almost see your mental attack, great red flames lashing the mind again and again as it writhes in pain then dies "Ah I can finally affect the normal human minds too, excellent, I truly am a god fit to rule this world." The next few weeks pass slowly and easily. You take humans from the bunker one by one and devour them until there isn't a single one left in the compound and you set your sights East "You are next oh great Eastern colony, you have enough prey to keep me going for years." You think as you rise and begin you journey > You journey of death You have reached the current Journey of Death ending. The second evil ending currently in the game. Of course this ending gets expanded greatly soon, but I was literally writing these pages a few hours before the deadline so I couldn't get it further along.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You hear the shout going up load and clear "Everyone evacuate, infected in the compound, the gate wa opened!" Then you hear a loud horn going off and every human mind in the compound begins to move "Their guards are lax but they know how to evacuate at least" You start running openly now, no point hiding out if the alarm is already raised. The next guard sees you coming but realizes you are not a comrade far too late to save himself and he joins the dead. You sense the humans reaching their doors and then the screaming starts. Your dozen shamblers were all placed perfectly to cause the most chaos and you instantly sense several biting and feeding on human flesh. You think about making them rampage but they are slow and they are doing their job so you just leave them to attack and feed as their instincts direct. You feel one getting beaten off and killed, but then you sense a human mind change as you watch it. You see something like rot spread over it, the glow fading, it seems to fight back but they rot tears away at it until it shatters, leaving a weak rotted husk where there was a vibrant mind moments before "And so it spreads" you say aloud as the new shambler lumbers after what must have been it's family moments before. You reach one more guard as the gunshots begin and two more shamblers die. This guard is ready for you though with his gun raised toward the compound to shoot the first infected that comes near. You are that first infected and he spins towards you as you rush him, he realizes in time that you are an enemy but you are too close and his shot skims past you, just grazing your side "Claw has spotted some, Centre West wall!" You hear from not far away. The dead guards reinforcements are headed right for you. You sense three below running your way and another along the walkway. You pull at the nearest shambler and have it go after the three below but they instantly shoot it down and keep coming, the one on the walkway is getting closer too and you only have moments before they see you. > You attack the guards on the ground, surprise them You wait until the last second and leap out into the darkness, You can see the humans but know they wont see you clearly until it is too late. You crash into the first one as you land, knocking him to the ground as you punch another hard in the jaw, he doesn't die but you know he will be unconscious for a long time as you spin to the last guard. They fire at you but you are too quick and knock the rifle barrel to the side at the last second before grabbing their head and twisting until you feel their neck snap cleanly and they go limp. You guard you knocked over cries out and tries to crawl away instead of shooting at you so you simply walk over and stamp on him until his mind vanishes too and you are left with one unconscious guard "Well if he isn't dead, his meat will keep better. I will save him for later." You can sense the people and the panic now, over half of the shamblers have been killed but so have several humans and a couple even turned and attacked their friends and family before being killed. Then you realize that they are all headed your way "The bunker, they are trying to retreat there now, but I am between them and it, perfect!" You quickly scan for which minds will reach you first when you realize you were ignoring the guard on the walkway. You spin around just as they fire at you and the shot takes you right in the gut. You stagger back "That wont kill me, but I will tear them apart for shooting me!" You think as you let out a roar of anger and let the hunger drive you after the shooter. You leap cleanly up onto the walkway, ignoring the pain and the blood flowing from your wound, to land right in front of them. You immediately start to swing at them but they didn't hesitate either and their next shot hits you cleanly in the chest moments before your punch connects. You stagger forwards in an attempt to stay close to they as you realize your punch was weak and they are still conscious and only a little dazed. You take one more step and grab them as your lungs fill with blood and your heart begins beating erratically. You know you don't have the strength left to kill them yourself but you throw yourself forward onto them and are rewarded when you feet their body being pierced by the wall spikes behind them. You let go and slide down to the walkway in a pool of blood, mixed from your own and the still human guards. "Funny, I can't tell it apart" You think as you fall into blackness<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You hear the shout going up load and clear "Everyone evacuate, infected in the compound, the gate wa opened!" Then you hear a loud horn going off and every human mind in the compound begins to move "Their guards are lax but they know how to evacuate at least" You start running openly now, no point hiding out if the alarm is already raised. The next guard sees you coming but realizes you are not a comrade far too late to save himself and he joins the dead. You sense the humans reaching their doors and then the screaming starts. Your dozen shamblers were all placed perfectly to cause the most chaos and you instantly sense several biting and feeding on human flesh. You think about making them rampage but they are slow and they are doing their job so you just leave them to attack and feed as their instincts direct. You feel one getting beaten off and killed, but then you sense a human mind change as you watch it. You see something like rot spread over it, the glow fading, it seems to fight back but they rot tears away at it until it shatters, leaving a weak rotted husk where there was a vibrant mind moments before "And so it spreads" you say aloud as the new shambler lumbers after what must have been it's family moments before. You reach one more guard as the gunshots begin and two more shamblers die. This guard is ready for you though with his gun raised toward the compound to shoot the first infected that comes near. You are that first infected and he spins towards you as you rush him, he realizes in time that you are an enemy but you are too close and his shot skims past you, just grazing your side "Claw has spotted some, Centre West wall!" You hear from not far away. The dead guards reinforcements are headed right for you. You sense three below running your way and another along the walkway. You pull at the nearest shambler and have it go after the three below but they instantly shoot it down and keep coming, the one on the walkway is getting closer too and you only have moments before they see you. > You attack the guard on the wall and dodge the three below You turn and sprint toward the mind coming your way and leap out of the darkness at him. His gun goes off too but again you are not hit as you snap his neck. You stand and begin to run when you hear the shot and feel the impact in your back. You stumble and look behind. The guards below should be too far to see you in the darkness but you realize you had jumped into torchlight when you killed the guard and lit up your actions for everyone to see. The next shot is followed by a burst from an automatic weapon and you die just as quickly as the guard you had punched.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You slow your pace a little to match that of a normal human's walking and soon your keen eyes pick out a grey smudge below the thin trail of smoke. As you get closer the smudge resolves itself into a large grey wall topped with small spiked railings. The gated community. You keep your pace slow, you aren't sure if a normal human could have noticed the smoke and walls yet so you play it safe and wait a few more minutes before obviously turning your attention to the wall. You have your shamblers take more care and move slowly closer on either side, you picked up a few more that morning so you have a dozen of them now, 6 on each side. You look carefully as you approach. The walls are High, maybe 10 foot high and 12 with the railings, the spikes on the top were surely ornamental before but they have been sharpened now into points and you can see men with guns looking over the walls at various points. They are clearly the guards as they are holding guns however they are also clearly relaxed. they probably haven't had any real excitement since the raiders died out a few years back. You look carefully at them and realize that none of them is actually reacting to you at all. you look around and realize that most of you is covered by farm hedges and gates so that unless they were being vigilant they wont notice you for a few minutes yet. You still have time to decide on your best plan of action. > You slip off the road before you are noticed, you can easily climb the wall and attack in the night You slow your pace a little to match that of a normal human to be less obvious and soon your keen eyes pick out a grey smudge below the thin trail of smoke. As you get closer the smudge resolves itself into a large grey wall topped with small spiked railings. The gated community. You look carefully as you approach. The walls are High, maybe 10 foot high and 12 with the railings, the spikes on the top were surely ornamental before but they have been sharpened now into points and you can see men with guns looking over the walls at various points. They are clearly the guards as they are holding guns however they are also clearly relaxed. they probably haven't had any real excitement since the raiders died out a few years back. You look carefully at them and realize that none of them is actually reacting to you at all. you look around and realize that most of you is covered by farm hedges and gates so that unless they were being vigilant they wont notice you for a few minutes yet. You still have time to decide on your best plan of action. You now have six shamblers on each side of the Road and two mutants hidden with you on the West It is not long before you have moved right around to the rear of the little community and see that the walls appear exactly the same the entire way around and that there are guards on every wall. You'll have to wait for nightfall. You spend the next few hours carefully maneuvering your shamblers in closer to the community and snacking on meat strips. "Almost out of meat, seems the more I eat humans, the more the hunger grows. Ah well, a feast is coming soon enough." You begin salivating at the though of eating all the humans in the community in front of you. Your senses tell you that there could be as many as 40 in there. You will have to improve you abilities to number humans at a distance but for now the numbers match your expectations and you settle in to wait. > You moonlight attacks You wait as midnight comes and goes and give the new guards on the walls a couple of hours to get comfortable and sleepy before you make your move. The moon is out in a beautiful crescent, looking every bit like a blade cutting down at the little community ahead of you. The light it provides is more than enough for you to see clearly but you know it isn't enough for the guards who have lit torches on the railings "They have lit themselves up like candles but the light will blind them to my approach!" You think to yourself gleefully as you move closer with the six shamblers near you. You are within a few metres of the first guard when you realize the problem. You can get over the wall easily but the shamblers will never make it. You hiss at yourself for being so stupid and take a few minutes to send them all round to the ditches near the front gate. You will have to open it to get them inside to fight for you. You move to a dark spot between the torches and leave your bat and pack against the wall before jumping up incase they banged against somthing and gave you away. You reach the railings easily and swing yourself over in one smooth movement, landing quietly on a wooden platform behind the walls "Smart, they built a little walkway all the way around for their guards" You think as you sneak back towards the guard you were near before. He had seemed extra sleepy earlier, and sure enough, you find him napping. Two steps into the light from the small torch and you have and hand clamped over his mouth and the other around his throat, crushing his windpipe. It gives way with a pop and you finish him off by snapping his neck. The hunger surges up but you have to ignore it for now. You can feast once you have control of the entire compound. You start sneaking along the walkway toward the next guard and once more find a sleepy man, relaxing in his chair in the torchlight, you smile to yourself, they had become too lax in the peaceful times after the raiders all died. You once more move in close and before the man even wakes up enough to react you have you hand over his mouth and throat. You clamp down, crushing his windpipe but as you feel it give way, you hear the thump of his heel hitting his chair. You quickly snap his neck but the damage is done and the chair tumbles off the edge and into the compound before you can stop it. You swear to yourself and you hear the noise it makes but you know it wasn't really that loud, You almost think you got away with it when you hear the next guard calling out "Hey Kiel, you fall asleep again!" You quickly drop to the ground, the guard wont take long to get suspicious when their friend does not reply so you need to get the gates open fast. You sprint between the houses, luckily finding most quiet and dark and come to the main gate. there are two guards here, one either side of the gateway and they are awake and chatting to each other. But you hear the shout going up. The guard has found the body. "Kiel is dead! we have intruders! help!" You swear and rush towards the gate, leaping up and vaulting yourself onto the walkway behind one of the guards. He saw you coming and tries to raise his gun but you are faster and a punch to the throat sends him stumbling over the wall, only to get impaled on a spike before he can fully fall. the haze of his mind already gone by the time he hits the spike. You run and leap at the second guard, but this one has had more time and you see her with rifle ready. She takes the shot as you leap and you feel the impact in your side. You are certain she just got you cleanly in the kidney as you land and start punching her, not giving her time to work the bolt action for another shot. She shot you though and the hunger fills your mind with anger as you punch her repeatedly in revenge, even though she was dead after the second hit.. The shouts of humans running brings you back from your rage and you can sense the minds of several humans headed your way. You leap down and wrench the wooden bar off the gate, swinging it open. "Time for vengeance!" you think as you order your horde inside and lean up against the wall for a moment to stop your own bleeding. You will easily survive this, but it is still not trivial, you will need a few moments to bind it before you move. You simply order your horde to attack while you tear a strip off your shirt to stuff into your wound when you hear the shots starting and feel your horde reduce in number quickly. You look up to see the humans aren't all carrying bold action hunting rifles or pistols, several have assault rifles and they are tearing your horde apart with ease.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>There is no point blowing it by being pushy now "Ah of course, that is a pretty smart precaution" You begin "But as to my future, you say that as if it involves options?" Cara immediately replies with a smile "Well of course it does, we aren't keeping you prisoner or anything" she pauses "Anymore" She adds with a wink to which you grin. She then continues a little more seriously "Basically you can join us, or head on your way. I would much rather you came with us though" and you can definitely hear some hopefulness in her voice "Perfect, she completely trusts me, this will be easy now" You think you yourself, smiling all the while. "Well I would love to join you all, it will be much better than being alone again after what happened." you carefully craft your voice to make sure they understand you are referring to the lost friends you spoke about before and you watch them both immediately react like proper normal humans, putting on their caring faces and trusting you more "Honestly this is too easy, they buy anything I tell them" You think as Cara takes you hand, leading you outside. "Well, you are with us now! She announces "And since you have joined us we can do a quick introduction before we head off to the compound!" The guards chuckle and wink at the fact you are holding hands the moment you exit the hatch and Cara drops you hand, blushing, but berating the guards for being childish. They are now close together and distracted, but they said you were heading to the compound right now. > You hold off, they can get you inside a compound full of humans, that is worth the wait. Leaving them alive for a couple more days to get inside the compound is well worth it, you can eat them after that and once you have a proper plan. Time to keep getting in their good books. You make the polite small-talk with the guards to introduce yourself and do your best to be as nice as possible. After a few minutes the guards indicate it is nearly time to move and Cara jumps and looks like she is about to leap back through the hatch "Oh, lost track of time, we have to set out soon if we want to make our safe point soon!". You dodge ahead of her though and offer her your hand to climb back through. She raises an eyebrow and says "oohhh, being a gentleman today" before accepting it and climbing through while the guards chuckle to themselves. You climb through after her, thinking about how to keep in their good books. Once inside you find her waiting and before you can react she kisses you on the cheek saying "You're very sweet" then spins and heads over to the food bags. You finally catch onto the situation "She is actually flirting with me!" It has been years since you even though about things like that but you are sure now that she is actually flirting with you, a harbinger. "Well she doesn't know I'm a harbinger, and I did save her life" You look down at yourself "And thanks to being a harbinger I am actually a bit of an Adonis, I guess it makes sense." Somewhat dazed by the revelation you start helping picking up the sacks to help carry them. > You starting out for the compound With you all carrying bags there isn't too much and you make sure you take two of the heavier ones so Cara gets a single light bag to carry, and you know she notices "Well the plan is to stick with them for now and be trusted so this is the easiest way" You think as you all begin walking. The way is fairly simple as you had guessed, follow the road North for a couple of days and you will see the compound with big obvious walls and smoke above it from the fire pit "We used to be more cautious" Cara explains "But once the raiders were all wiped out it didn't matter so we can make as much smoke as we like!" You smile in response and begin trading stories with her. It seems life out here was very different from the city once the infection had taken hold. "It was all small communities here" She begins "Farmsteads and walled places like ours were the gathering points. There was so much food grown out here scavenging has never been a problem so people banded together. Sadly some of them for other reasons, The infected were bad at firsts, roving mobs of them dozens strong were seen coming out of the city or down other roads and they would simply overwhelm places without walls or defenses with their numbers. It didn't matter if you shot fifty of them if the last 5 got inside to bite everyone and turn them too." She pauses and seem close to tears when you realize she is speaking from experience. "Crap what are you supposed to do now?" You desperately try and remember the proper way to act when courting but when you look at her again and the gentle haze of her mind you realize you are moving automatically and you put your arm around her. "Oh perfect, comfort, going to have to really remember what it was like caring about humans for this to work. It's not like hanging around with males just being gruff and defensive the whole time". Cara instantly smiles when she notices that you dropped a bag to hug her and with a quick wipe at her eyes she jokes with you "You are not supposed to drop fruit and vegetables on the ground you know?" You quickly take your arm away and pick the bag up again realizing that you hadn't even noticed dropping it, but you are thrown off again when she kisses you on the cheek again saying "Thankyou", then as chuckles break out behind you from the men she follows up with a shouted "Shut-up or I'll poison your food tonight!". You laugh aloud with her before she takes up her story again. "Right, where was I. Well as you guessed that is what happened to my family. Our little community didn't have walls and we were over-run, maybe three of us escaped and ran all night. It was a long way East of here, we were separated by morning and I just kept going until a scavenging team found me living in an orchard alone and I joined 'Safe-Haven'. You immediately give her a look and raise an eye-brow, she sighs before going on "And yes it is a stupid and corny name but it fits ok? Anyway, that was some years ago, right after the city fell. After that the issue was the raiders. It seems that some communities decided that keeping trucks running and using guns to steal from others was better than scavenging. They probably killed more communities than the infected did, the burnt out places South of here were all their work if you saw those. They attacked the weak themselves but if a place was strong like ours they would kill guards in a surprise assault and open the gates just to release infected inside, then return the next day to see if everyone was dead." "they sound like cowards, if you wish to fight then you can do it with your own strength" You say after a moment, Cara give you a strange look "You're a funny one you know, most people would say how terrible it was to attack other humans bla bla bla but you just called them weak for not doing it themselves." She cocks her head to the side as if observing you differently "You really are interesting!" She gives you a big grin then calls lunchtime. > You walking talking and eating The next couple of days pass with the same routine. You walk with Cara chatting and carrying the bag while the other three walk behind you with their own conversation. The going is slow, not because it is difficult but simply because Cara sets a slow pace and no-one else is in any more of a rush to get anywhere it seems so you enjoy the leisurely stroll through the countryside. Even the food is tasting good, generally normal human food taste terrible and makes you feel like you ate a lump of dirt but each time you stop and eat the food tastes better. The evening of the second night you accidently let speak your thoughts instead of just thinking them "I can't believe this tastes good!" you say as you bite into a bowl of stew Cara had just made. You hear an immediate hiss from the other men and turn to see Cara leaning in close to your face "oooohhhhHHH? surprised that it's good? Surprised that I can cook?" Whether by luck or design, every hour you spent with Care let you remember more about what being a human was like so you know well enough just how much trouble you had somehow gotten into with your innocuous comment. "I can dig my way out or I can dig myself deeper into a whole, best not to dig myself deeper" You think. but You are not given an option as you immediately hear her saying "I'm waiting?". You panic a little "Crap it's not as if I even insulted her!" You finally try and explain seeing that you had no choice and she was beginning to brandish a knife at your throat. "No, erm I meant that I haven't tasted anything like this in years, even before the infection. I generally hate eating cos everything tasted like crap in a tin but this was just so good I was surprised it was even possible." You grin weakly and consider having to defend yourself from the knife waving close to your own throat when Cara suddenly grins and sits back down to eat her own food "Good save, I give you that." She announces and the three other men clap in approval. You just keep eating until Chris pats you on the shoulder and whispers 'good luck' before walking away from the fire "I'm checking our safe zone is still secure, if I don't return in under ten minutes, you know the drill. One of the guards gets up and heads off with him. You finally turn to Cara "Chris and you used to talk a lot but he has kept a little separate since I join up." She keeps eating as she replies "Oh, he isn't jealous, he has a partner back in the community so don't worry about that." She gives you a quick smile before going back to shoveling her food into her mouth "unexpected but I guess good, she though I was checking if she was available, this works out too". "Well that's good then" you say aloud and get another quick smile as the two return and let you know that the current safe zone is still in fact safe. You are all lead to a very old looking square building with a tin roof and solid looking door "So yesterday it was the second floor of a barn, and today it's a shed, seems like we are going down in the world" You announce and get a couple of smiles as everyone heads inside. Care quickly grabs you arm and leans in close "Don't worry, if you get cold we can cuddle for warmth!" She announces a little too loudly before jumping away again and dropping her bag off in a corner. You realize you are blushing, so do the two guards who once more chuckle as they secure the door "Stupid chuckle brothers, do you ever actually speak or just chuckle behind people all day long?" You announce, only to send them both into fits of proper laughter. You simply sigh and lie down. Cara does pick to lie close to you but still far enough away to make the message of 'Don't try anything' clear enough. She also makes sure you get the message by telling you "Don't try anything" loud enough for everyone to hear resulting in howls of laughter again. > You morning arrival at Safe-Haven You are awake well before dawn again and check the surroundings for infected but only find a couple of them nearby, both alone and near death anyway. You send them away and realize just how easy it was to do "Seems like my abilities are developing even without use or human flesh." You think to yourself while the others slowly wake up and join you for a breakfast of fruit. "Right today we reach the community!" Cara announces, immediately followed by Chris retorting "Where we would have been yesterday afternoon if you walked faster." She scowls at him before replying "Well I didn't see you taking the lead or speeding us up did I?" She grabs her bag and swings the door open "come on then!" she shouts as she heads out leading the rest of you to pack everything up and grab your bags to follow her. You find her waiting outside and clearly in a good mood. she slips her free hand through your arm while she tells you about what to expect "So it's a lovely little walled community, big solid walls and railing around a nice grassy area and pretty houses. It was a kind of rich person 'out of the city house' type thing so everything was very well made and cared for. You should see it any minute now actually on the horizon as we are not far off!" You don't tell her that you can already make out the grey smudge and smoke in the sky from here as you are pretty certain no normal human could. "Sounds lovely" is all you say as she goes on to tell you about certain people and specifically her own home there and how much she likes it and thinks you will too. You let her talk and make all the right agreeable noises when required while you scan the surrounding are for infected and humans, You can once more Sense a few scattered shamblers but that is about all the infected that seem to be left out here, up ahead though you can definitely sense human minds, the glow of a normal's mind is now totally unmistakable to you. You also suddenly realize that you aren't hungry when you look at it. Normally seeing a human wa enough to make your hunger spike but you haven't felt it in the last two days, even when looking at their energy filled minds. Then it stirs and you feel it hiding in the back of your mind again "I guess thinking about it was enough to trigger it again" You think as you do your best to forget about it again as you all close the distance to the compound. > The Safe-Haven of Safe-Haven As you get closer the smudge resolves itself into a large grey wall topped with small spiked railings. The gated community. You keep your pace slow, you aren't sure if a normal human could have noticed the smoke and walls yet so you play it safe and wait a few more minutes before obviously turning your attention to the wall. You look carefully as you approach. The walls are High, maybe 10 foot high and 12 with the railings, the spikes on the top were surely ornamental before but they have been sharpened now into points and you can see men with guns looking over the walls at various points. They are clearly the guards as they are holding guns however they are also clearly relaxed. they probably haven't had any real excitement since the raiders died out a few years back. You look carefully at them and realize that none of them is actually reacting to you at all. you look around and realize that most of you is covered by farm hedges and gates so that unless they were being vigilant they wont notice you for a few minutes yet. "Well the wall certainly looks impressive from here, but shouldn't the guards have spotted us by now, I mean we are out on the road?" Care is about to respond when you hear a bell ringing "Wel, they just did!" she announces happily. Now when we get to the gate we are going to be harassed by Boring, we call him that cos it is what he is. Anyway just be polite and he will open the gate, he just likes to act tough to seem like he is in charge." She quickly gives you another kiss on the cheek and says "Now remember I saw you first." Before walking ahead a little so she reaches the gate first. You are wondering what she was meaning when you hear the call from the gate "Who goes there" and the immediate response from Cara of "Oh shut up Boring and open the gate already!" you just sigh and mumble "so much for being polite" you hear a chuckle as one of the guards passes you and adds "As you have probably noticed, subtle is not really Cara's strong suit. good luck." you nod to him then join the group at the gate holding the bags while the little drama plays out. By the number of people on the walls laughing you can guess that this has happened before and more than once. You can also tell it isn't serious by the number of them laughing as the man up top repeatedly tries to tell Cara off and explain procedures and rules and that your group is late while she just insults him, calls him boring and tells him to go die because he is so old. Eventually you are told to prove you have no bites and remove your shirt and give them a turn so they can see, then you hear a female voice whooping at you from the wall and actually feel embarrassed. You get dressed again while you think about how strange it is for you to care about what a human thought. The gates swing open and Cara immediately breaks into the big grin and waves you inside. As you walk in through the gate you get your first proper view of the little community, apart from the surrounding wall and wooden walkway you couldn't even tell that the world had ended outside. There is a group of nicely laid out houses in the center, a play park, a couple of mechanical looking buildings with tools and machinery inside and even a generator next to them. The people are the same, clean clothing and all smiling and chatting as if the most horrific decade in human history wasn't still fully underway just past the gate you had walked through. One of the guards hops down behind you and several of the people come over, one is even carrying a toddler. The guard starts introducing everyone and you give short pleasant responses before realizing the thing that was bugging you the most. You look like a hobo, a hobo who had something die and rot on it's clothing recently and everyone around you is clean and well dressed for a rural community. Your realization and glances at your torn and stained shirt must have registered as one of the women cuts the guard off "Let the man rest and get a change of clothing first before he gets embarrassed!" You are about to object when you hear a whoop from behind you and a female guard from the gate comes running over "I'll help, just wait till you see him with his shirt off!" The older woman tuts at her "Briar, behave yourself!" but she just grins and turns to you "Ok lets get you out of that shirt so I can burn it!". You don't actually feel embarrassed about it and you haven't cared what humans thought for years but you do find it strange that the social conventions still hold such strong sway over you "I wonder if they lingered around in the back of my mind of all this time being nice to Cara has helped them resurface?" You think as you pull your shirt off and hear another whoop from Briar as she takes your shirt and heads off to a fire-pit near the walls. You also get some approving looks from the other ladies and glance down at your perfectly muscled self, "here we go again." you think as you let the crowd of women take you over to a shed and hand you some new clothing and let you change in private. When you finally come out there is a larger crowd, including men ready to greet you and show you their little community. They take you on a whirlwind tour, showing off everything like proud parents showing off their firstborn child. It is all as you first saw, nice well loved little houses and a couple of old barns used as machine shops, The one thing that catches your eye is at the back. A huge metal door leading into a metal corridor that seems half buried at the back of the compound. "That's our bunker!" One of the men proudly announces "If everything else fails, we can all live in there for months without any worries!" You make a mental note to check it out. > You first evening in the haven You are shown to a house that looks less well kept than the others and are told you can use it as your own "An old member, called himself 'Playa' used to live here, sadly he was on a scavenge when they got attacked, him and his partner never returned so now it's yours." You thank them and head inside, finding yourself automatically wiping your feet as you do so "Oh come on, I haven't wiped my feet in years, what am I doing?" You head upstairs and find a nicely laid out bedroom complete with a full bead "Although I really can't complain about this!" You hop onto the bed and relax "Even better than my van-sofa!" You think as you begin making your plans. You start by stretching out your senses and trying to count the humans, you find that they are often too close together to count perfectly but at least 30-40 which fits your initial guess. Several act as guards day and night and they have a fair amount of guns including at least two automatic weapons. They also have the bunker but there are ways of dealing with that too. Then you sense one in particular and can immediately tell it is Cara alone in a house nearby "Hmm, I can tell human minds apart now, thats a new development" You think as you drift off to sleep The morning is still far off when you wake up and automatically scan your surroundings, you see humans asleep all around you and guards un-moving on the walkway behind the walls, probably sleep judging by how lax they were. You also once more immediately sense Cara asleep in her house. "This place and being with the humans is clearly affecting me, bring up old emotions and issues but I am still a harbinger" You reach out your senses and find you can stretch them a long way before getting a headache and you grab control of all the nearby shamblers, forcing them out of where ever they were and close to the community. Then you pause "I guess there is the other option" You think to yourself as you head downstairs and peek out the windows into the silent night. > You clear your mind of the stupid thoughts and emotions, you are a harbinger and it is time to kill You look yourself over and shake your head "I eat humans, I have done for years, this stupidity is just from being forced to spend too much time with them recently and it will end once they are all dead!" You concentrate on getting the shamblers you had controlled closer and finally have six of them grouped up near the gate to get in once you had it open for them. The guards on the walls still hadn't moved and inch but the ones by the gates might have "So those two might still be awake at least" You think as you plan out your next move. If this place was affecting you like a virus in your brain then you didn't have any time to loose and you had to strike now. As you decide this it is as if your mind clears a little for you, what does it matter what one of them in named? Male, Female, child? they are all just prey and none of them matters at all. You are a harbinger, a Herald of the appocolypse and caring about humans is beneath you. It is time to feed.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You are shown to a house that looks less well kept than the others and are told you can use it as your own "An old member, called himself 'Playa' used to live here, sadly he was on a scavenge when they got attacked, him and his partner never returned so now it's yours." You thank them and head inside, finding yourself automatically wiping your feet as you do so "Oh come on, I haven't wiped my feet in years, what am I doing?" You head upstairs and find a nicely laid out bedroom complete with a full bead "Although I really can't complain about this!" You hop onto the bed and relax "Even better than my van-sofa!" You think as you begin making your plans. You start by stretching out your senses and trying to count the humans, you find that they are often too close together to count perfectly but at least 30-40 which fits your initial guess. Several act as guards day and night and they have a fair amount of guns including at least two automatic weapons. They also have the bunker but there are ways of dealing with that too. Then you sense one in particular and can immediately tell it is Cara alone in a house nearby "Hmm, I can tell human minds apart now, thats a new development" You think as you drift off to sleep The morning is still far off when you wake up and automatically scan your surroundings, you see humans asleep all around you and guards un-moving on the walkway behind the walls, probably sleep judging by how lax they were. You also once more immediately sense Cara asleep in her house. "This place and being with the humans is clearly affecting me, bring up old emotions and issues but I am still a harbinger" You reach out your senses and find you can stretch them a long way before getting a headache and you grab control of all the nearby shamblers, forcing them out of where ever they were and close to the community. Then you pause "I guess there is the other option" You think to yourself as you head downstairs and peek out the windows into the silent night. > You send the shamblers away, staying here for a while wouldn't be so bad You stop and think things through. Your kills were always driven by your hunger, and sure you enjoyed killing and eating humans, but right now you feel no need too. Your abilities have progressed greatly without eating any humans recently and the food Cara has been giving you tastes great and gets rid of the hunger completely. So what is wrong with staying here for a bit and enjoying things? Sure you are a harbinger and you might not be human anymore but they don't know that and it's not as if you are infectious... You stop. "Am I infectious? It's not as if I went round biting live humans then seeing how they react... No I don't think so, the virus did something strange to change my body but it must have mutated to do that. I should be safe enough." Having decided that you probably aren't infectious after all you settle into a chair and wait for the dawn. watching the human minds beginning to stir and move about their houses. Once you judge enough people have gathered around where you saw the large fire-pit the night before you head outside yourself to join them and get breakfast. You no longer have the burning driving hunger constantly in your head pushing you to kill, but your stomach still rumbles if you go too long between meals. Once there you are immediately greeted by several people and a couple of the younger women come over to give you food and chat. You grateful accept the food and try it "Still tastes good" You think as you notice Cara across the fire hacking angrily at her bowl "Erm sorry ladies but I have to run". They try and keep to you you insist that it is important and jog over to Cara to sit beside her. "Hey, why sitting alone?" You begin and make her jump, she had been so intent on killing her food that she hadn't even noticed your arrival. She quickly recovers and gives you look that you can't tell is happy or angry "I was just eating and you surprised me, anyway weren't you talking to those other girls first?" She looks over to indicate the girls that had been talking to you and is immediately met with three evil glowers, clearly directed right at her. She lets out an "oooo" noise before turning to you "Ok what did you do?" she says wearily. You think about it for just a second "Honestly I have no idea, they were nice and brought me some food but I saw you sitting here alone so told them I had to go. I mean, they did try and keep me but I told them I had something much more important to... Oh dear" You finish as realization dawns on you. Cara just bursts into laughter then shuffles closer so she can lean against your side "Good choice!" she announces as she sticks her tongue out at the girls glowing at her "Stupid hussies trying to steal my man" she adds mostly to herself. "Your man?" you ask before you realize it might be something that you should have pretended you didn't hear. Cara immediately flushes bright red and you can feel her entire body freeze up beside you "Oh crap" You think and you are about to try and save yourself when you feel her relax a little and she replies "Well you haven't asked me yet but you have good taste and aren't too stupid so I can wait a day or two more." You let out an audible sigh of relief and hear her chuckling to herself "Only a day or two more?" You start "I understand that your a highly desirable girl but are you saying you have men lined up that I will need to fight off if I take more than a day or two?". She gives you a cheeky grin "A girl never reveals her secrets so you better just not wait so you don't need to find out!" THen she hops to her feet and heads off. > You settling into the community life You don't wait and later that day you and Cara kiss for the first time. The relationship moves on from there as you stay in the little community and more time passes. You keep working on your abilities and find that all your physical skills improve along with your mental ones and you direct any infected you sense miles away from the community of scavenging areas. You join Cara's scavenging team permanently to protect her and make sure that the community is always well stocked and prepared incase anything does happen. You decide finally to settle down there and stay as a sort of 'resident protector' for the whole community. Cara already announced to everyone that you will be getting married soon despite only being together for a few weeks but you actually have no problem with it and are just going along with it since it makes her happy. Once you accepted your roll as her future husband and protector of the people in Safe-Haven your mind shifted. You felt your mind changing, as if it was clarifying everything for you. The last remnants of the headaches fade away and your senses, in their fully relaxed state, seem to stretch further, showing more details of those around you and making everything less hazy when you look at minds. As if you had been walking on a frozen lake covered with snow before and suddenly the snow was brushed aside to reveal the solid clear ice underneath. You quickly test a few other metal exercises and find that before your mental defenses were like random planks nailed over a window and mostly held in place by you pushing on them constantly whereas now the moment you try to put up a defense it’s like a thick wall of pure blue ice forms around your mind, shielding you from all sides. You push out at shambler minds, only now in range of your abilities and feel you mind moving out like an inexorable glacier, sweeping them away before it. You now know you truly made the right choice, you have full awoken. > A romance ending in blue You have found the romance ending as a Blue harbinger! If you do not know what that means, then you need to seek out the other endings hidden in the game as they explain it all!" ******************************* As with several other endings I have unfortunately had to cut it shorter than I would like due to time constraints but one day in the future it will be extended and completed!<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You wake in the morning and realize that once more you slept through the night instead of the normal few hours "Must be the mental training" You think as you test your senses to see what changed while you slept. Sure enough you can feel the infected in the barn more clearly now and with less effort "Two shamblers, one nearly dead and the other near it also in bad shape. Must be trapped in the basement of somthing" you think to yourself as the humans above you wake up. Once awake Cara immediately leans down over the bar "Time to wake up! Let's get you out of there!" The man groggily stands beside her, "Are you sure about this?" but she just gives him a disparaging look until he goes to fetch a rope and lowers it down to you, tying one end off on the railing. You catch it as it comes down and are about to start climbing up when you realize that your arm will be healed a lot further than a normal humans and your makeshift bandage is almost certainly going to be replaced soon, you're going to have to bluff. You climb up, pretending to be careful of the wounded arm but you secretly put extra strain on it and can feel the wounds tearing open again slightly "Perfect" You think as you climb ove the railing and immediately find yourself receiving a huge hug from Cara. You are taken aback for a moment by the very unusual occurrence and have no time to act before she hops away again "That was for saving my life, I've owed you it!" The she quickly hops out of the hatch, you can see the two men holding rifles greet her as she passes. The man turns to you "Wait here for a bit, we have to finish a quick scavenge then we will all return to discuss what to do with you." You judge it best not to decide anything while the two men with guns have a clear shot at you and you have you climb through a hatch to get to them so you simply nod and take a seat to await their return. This gives you plenty of time to think things through. It has not been long but you are already progressing amazingly with your abilities. You are certain you can control infected easily and can sense them coming a long way off and you can sense the presence of humans or 'normals' at an equal distance even if you can't affect them. Cara trust you and you actually enjoy her company, the man doesn't fully trust you but isn't aggressive either. The two outside seem to be the guards for the scavengers, you have yet to speak to them but you can sense them always nearby the scavengers. You could of course strike now, Cara trusting you and getting close to you can be used to your advantage, you just need to ge them off guard once when they return and you can take the guards out leaving Cara and Chris defenseless. It would be a little risky but you are certain you could pull it off. On the other hand you really are enjoying chatting with Cara in the evenings and the food they gave you is actually sitting well and taking the edge off your hunger, why not stay with them a bit, at least until you are back to their little colony, you can decide what to do when you are there after all. > You stay with them for a bit and continue playing nice, you have nothing to loose that way There is nothing wrong with staying with them for a bit while you still enjoy their company, you can always eat them later if needed. You turn to Cara when she and Chris are seated "As to my future, you say that as if it involves options?" Cara immediately replies with a smile "Well of course it does, we aren't keeping you prisoner or anything" she pauses "Anymore" She adds with a wink to which you grin. She then continues a little more seriously "Basically you can join us, or head on your way. I would much rather you came with us though" and you can definitely hear some hopefulness in her voice to which you smile. "Well I would love to join you all, it will be much better than being alone again!" Cara gives you a huge smile and takes your hand, leading you outside. "Well, you are with us now! She announces "And since you have joined us we can do a quick introduction before we head off to the compound!" The guards chuckle and wink at the fact you are holding hands the moment you exit the hatch and Cara drops your hand, blushing, but berating the guards for being childish. You do the quick introductions to the guard but pause as you are heading back in to make a show of offering Cara your hand to help her enter. She blushes again as she accepts and climbs in to the laughter of the guards. Once inside you find her waiting and before you can react she kisses you on the cheek saying "You're very sweet" then spins and heads over to the food bags. You finally catch onto the situation "She is actually flirting with me!" It has been years since you even though about things like that but you are sure now that she is actually flirting with you, a harbinger. "Well she doesn't know I'm a harbinger, and I did save her life" You look down at yourself "And thanks to being a harbinger I am actually a bit of an Adonis, I guess it makes sense." Somewhat dazed by the revelation you start helping picking up the sacks to help carry them.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You need time and safety to train your new talents, wandering recklessly East while still developing is probably too dangerous as you don’t know what is lurking between you and the colony. Heading South would just take you right into the city center and that would be a death wish without better abilities so North is your final option. You know there used to be small communities in the outlying areas, hamlets and villages that served the farming communities, retirement homes and even some affluent areas for those who no longer wanted to live in the big city. If you look around enough you are sure you will find a nice enough building to make a temporary base, food might be scarce but you can always subside on the infected for a few weeks. You walk until the next off-ramp leading to a North-bound road and wander down. Looking around you see most of the buildings reduced to rubble, the military must have hit this area harder than others during the defense. “Maybe this was one of the areas they tried to make a stand and bombed the hordes of infected that attacked them” You think to yourself as you walk, but it is unlikely that you’ll ever find out for sure. There are not too many infected in this direction but you know if you find a small community that you should find some there to practice on, they never wander too far from where they turned after-all. By night-time you have left the outskirts of the city behind and begin to see open areas of land a fields, some overgrown with crops of varying types, untended for years, the old clearly defined lines haven given away to a mish-mash of crops invading others fields while weeds and thorns try to choke them all out. By nightfall you are looking for a likely place to rest and see a few options, in the distance you can make out what looks like a small grain silo, it would take a couple of hours to reach but they usually are made of metal, have small ladders right up to the top where you’d be nice and safe from everything, There is also an old broken down farmhouse nearby and a Barn on the same land. The House was clearly ransacked long ago, the doors are missing, windows smashed and everything looted out of it. The barn seems in better shape, the doors wide open but still intact at least. > You check out the House, beds are too big to loot right? You head over to the house to see what might be left behind and are quickly disappointed. The entire place has been ransacked with whatever was left destroyed, you do find human remains in the basement though. "looks like this is where they tried to hide from the infected or looters, had no idea that a single old trapdoor was not a good defense against attackers" You think to yourself as you examine the smashed in wooden trapdoor. This place will be useless for shelter, there isn't a single whole door in the place. You head back outside and wander over to the Barn, may as well check it now that you are this close, again though you are disappointed. The entire place is also picked clean and the second level where you hoped to rest for the night has been collapsed down onto the floor. This place will be useless for shelter.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You need time and safety to train your new talents, wandering recklessly East while still developing is probably too dangerous as you don’t know what is lurking between you and the colony. Heading South would just take you right into the city center and that would be a death wish without better abilities so North is your final option. You know there used to be small communities in the outlying areas, hamlets and villages that served the farming communities, retirement homes and even some affluent areas for those who no longer wanted to live in the big city. If you look around enough you are sure you will find a nice enough building to make a temporary base, food might be scarce but you can always subside on the infected for a few weeks. You walk until the next off-ramp leading to a North-bound road and wander down. Looking around you see most of the buildings reduced to rubble, the military must have hit this area harder than others during the defense. “Maybe this was one of the areas they tried to make a stand and bombed the hordes of infected that attacked them” You think to yourself as you walk, but it is unlikely that you’ll ever find out for sure. There are not too many infected in this direction but you know if you find a small community that you should find some there to practice on, they never wander too far from where they turned after-all. By night-time you have left the outskirts of the city behind and begin to see open areas of land a fields, some overgrown with crops of varying types, untended for years, the old clearly defined lines haven given away to a mish-mash of crops invading others fields while weeds and thorns try to choke them all out. By nightfall you are looking for a likely place to rest and see a few options, in the distance you can make out what looks like a small grain silo, it would take a couple of hours to reach but they usually are made of metal, have small ladders right up to the top where you’d be nice and safe from everything, There is also an old broken down farmhouse nearby and a Barn on the same land. The House was clearly ransacked long ago, the doors are missing, windows smashed and everything looted out of it. The barn seems in better shape, the doors wide open but still intact at least. > You check out the Barn, They often have second levels and old hay makes a comfortable enough bed. You wander over to the Barn, may as well check it now that you are this close, though you are disappointed. The entire place is picked clean and the second level where you hoped to rest for the night has been collapsed down onto the floor. This place will be useless for shelter. You head back outside and head over to the house to see what might be left behind and are quickly disappointed there too. The entire place has been ransacked with whatever was left destroyed, you do find human remains in the basement though. "looks like this is where they tried to hide from the infected or looters, had no idea that a single old trapdoor was not a good defense against attackers" You think to yourself as you examine the smashed in wooden trapdoor. This place will be useless for shelter, there isn't a single whole door in the place.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You wake with the dawn and find two of the others already up. “We couldn’t sleep so great being exposed out here.” One of them says to you. As the last two get up, you realize just how hungry you are and remember that you didn’t eat anything last night. You dig in your bag for your meat strips but find nothing there, remembering that you finished them off on the third day in the stadium. You accept some rations from the other guys but it seems to do little to your hunger. You think back to when you used to feel this hunger practically all the time, seems your days of living happily in the stadium and not feeling hungry are over for the time being. You all check your surroundings but it’s all clear and you head off again about an hour after dawn. “Won’t the others catchup to us at this rate?” one of the others asks out loud. It’s your friend that answers. “Nah, we are a few roads North of them and will be heading up to the highway by lunchtime, so even if they do move faster than us, they will pass right by us to the South and never see us. Hey if all goes well we will meet up with them in a few weeks at the colony and have a great laugh about this all!” The mood seems to lighten a little after that and you all keep moving with some quiet chatter going on. You even join in some of the joking and in the light atmosphere begin to forget about feeling hungry again. It’s a few hours later and you are getting close to the on ramps for the highway when you begin hearing the noises. Its very faint but you call it out anyway. “Low rumbling to the South.” The others pause and listen for a time before one turns and says. “I hear it now, sounds like the Jeep, they will be passing us soon. Those are some ears you have mate!” “Seems they are making great time if they are passing us already, they might actually do it at this rate!” one of the men jokes as you all start walking again, listening to the low rumble get louder, then start to get quieter as they pass you a few roads to the South. Its only a few minutes later that you hear a crashing noise and the rumbling stop. “Gorram Harbinger! They are being ambushed aren’t they, we should go help them!” > You can't sacrifice yourself by running into an ambush for them. Head North! You all chose to leave for exactly this reason didn't you? "Guys, we knew this might happen, it's why we left. If we run after them now we will just be dying with them at best and if they aren't really in trouble they will probably shoot us on the spot for deserting!" You tell them, trying to get them to leave the others for dead. "I can't!" is all one of them says before starting to run after the noises, clearly set on helping at all costs. The two others shrug and run after him, leaving you standing alone. You watch them disappear then shrug and begin heading North slowly, you'll keep to the plan even if you are the only one. You keep moving slowly and finally start up the on-ramp to the highway when you hear a shout behind you. turning you see one of the survivors running your way, chased by a fast type. Swearing you run back down and signal for the man to run past you, as he does you pause just for a second then swing. Your bat connects cleanly with the fast types head as it tries to pass you at full speed, intent on its prey. You watch it back flip and land with a thud, clearly not going to move again, before running after the man. You catch up quickly and call after him "Where are the others what happened?" he slows to a stop and nearly collapses "They are all dead, everyone dead. It was a trap, as we arrived to help they came after us too, I only got away because they stopped to eat the others before chasing me!" You realize that he is just a kid, probably still in his teens. You take his arm to help him walk and head up onto the highway. After a time you Find a secure looking van and you both get inside, securing the door behind you. You divide out the rations for a meal but your old hunger is back and even a full meal doesn't help. watching the depressed kid sink into the corner of the van and stare at nothing until he sleeps makes it worse too. "Every one of them dead." You think as you watch the kid sleeping.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You remember what happened on your first mission, going after them will be suicide and probably a trap. Luckily 8 men volunteer quickly enough and no-one blames those who don’t so you get away with no shame from it, you head off to your normal duty for that day, you’re on balcony 6 for the next 4 hours or so. You’ll be the only one there since it isn’t really an important one, kind of to the side of the main entrance and not looking at anything of interest. Its half way through your shift when you hear some muffled sounds coming from over the city and it seems another sentry heard it too, you report hearing it then head back up. Once you get off duty though and come back down it’s not to a pretty sight. It seems that they worked out that the noise was gun fire and the ‘rescue’ team was now also overdue. You think back again to your first mission and what seemed like a trap, your starting to get a bad feeling about the city now. Seems like scavenging too close to the city center isn’t such a good plan anymore. You have to choose whether to dump these guys and head out alone now or hold out until they are ready to make a larger push for the colony to the east, sure you have lost men recently but true to their word, they have recruited nearly a dozen in the last month. You had no idea there were so many survivors up in this area or you’d have come North a lot sooner. You’re also pretty sure that the Capt. is going to order a push East soon too, even with the losses, their numbers are still good and they have the guns and equipment for a full military push through the open streets, the scouts have everything planed out route wise with backups for it things go wrong. > You stay and help get ready for the push East with the military guys, they have the guns afterall It’s only a few days before your guesses are proven correct. The captain gathers everyone briefly and outlines a plan to head East. They have one working Military Jeep that they have been saving and lots of guns and ammo stockpiled for the attempt. Everyone is going along. They plan to head at a good pace just around the North of the city center along roads that have been scouted in advance over the past few weeks and head right for the bridge in force. Once over and safely near the ‘Eastern Haven’ as they call it, some of them will return with the jeep and begin their work here again to gather more survivors and get them across when they grow in number. Happy to be getting a free escort to your destination you continue your efforts to help the stadium and the next few days pass. It’s the day before the convoy leaves when you are approached by your friend from your first mission just as night falls. “Hey man, a couple of us don’t like the odds of this mission, they are going too close to the city center and that place is a death trap, also recently it seems like too much has been going wrong. We think the harbinger is behind it and we are getting out before everyone gets killed, you with us?” You weren’t expecting this since you’ve only been thinking of getting East for the last few days but you have to make a choice since he is clearly geared up and ready to leave. > You stay with the heavily armed convoy You aren’t going to leave the convoy now when you’re so close to your goal so you wish him the best of luck and wave him off; you can let the Capt. Know in the morning and just not tell him how long they have been gone. Staying has always been voluntary anyway. Morning comes and there is no sign of them, you report to the Capt. what happened and he simply nods. “Thought he might, hasn’t been the same since that mission. Glad you stayed though.” You head back to your post and prepare, you leave in 3 hours. The time arrives and you all gear up and follow the jeep, it weaves through the barricades and you all push the moveable ones out of its way until it stands ready to go on the road, its 50cal. reassuringly manned on the roof. “All stay close to the jeep and keep moving, we don’t stop for 4 hours when we make our first checkpoint, if you are too tired to continue then ride the tailgate and side seats on the jeep for a few minutes but switch out fairly.” Then you are moving. This level of exercise is nothing to you so you don’t feel the need to rest until three hours of jogging go past. That’s also about the time you turn a wide corner to find a full roadblock of cars. “I thought you scouted this!” one of the men shouts up “We did, but things have changed, we switch to route 2! Back 50 meters then we swap to a road parallel to this one, we only lose 5 minutes!” Its then that the bus comes rolling down the road you were headed back too and blocks your retreat. Swearing can be heard now and men and women preparing their guns. “Hold and prepare to fire!” the captain shouts but there isn’t anywhere to run even if you wanted too, infected start appearing in the doors and windows of all the buildings around you and start climbing the cars, climbing out of the bus until you are totally surrounded by a horde of infected, even a few mutants among them. You finally realize that you friend was right, the harbinger COULD control the infected and had come for you all. “Too late to make use for that information now” you think to yourself as the attack begins. At first the guns take them down but then the gunner on the jeep gets shot by something, followed by those doing the most damage, and the rest are swarmed over. You included.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You don’t feel like alleyways today so you raise your hand for going in the front. The leader nods. “You’re with me then, we all meet in the middle of the store once we check all entrances are clear.” The other two men head off for the alley leading round back as you carefully approach the front door. Since you are unarmed you pull the doors open and jump back to give your partner a line of sight but there is no sign of movement so you both slip inside. The store was some old grocery and drug store combo, it has been mostly cleared out but it was done in a rush and there are still useable supplies on the shelves and floor if you sort through it. You and your partner begin to check the aisles more carefully when you hear the shot coming from the back of the store and you see the other two men stumbling in the back door, slamming it shut behind them. The first thing you notice is that one is clutching his arm and his has a large gash out of it. “It was under some trash, it didn’t move when we poked the bags or anything but after we went by and were trying the door it suddenly lurched up and grabbed me; bit me before, before I knew, before.” He stops and winces in pain, dropping his gun. Red sirens begin going off in your head. “His speech! He’s Going!” you practically shout. Your partner swears and glances around, we have to move NOW! Grab what you can and start running, I’ll finish him off then follow with my bags once I know for sure he’s turning. > You say "Hold on, your gun will attract more of them, I'll use my bat then make my own way back, I know how to move safely alone!" He looks at you for a few moments before nodding in assent to you plan, he grabs the other man and they start running out of the store with the bags of supplies you had grabbed. You turn back to the man whose speech had slurred just in time to see him stumble then shake slightly. It only seconds later that he suddenly leaps at you with his teeth bared. Luckily you were ready and his head is cleanly intercepted by a swing from your bat. He crumples to the ground and you glance around. The others were long gone so you quickly try to grab some food when you hear noises from behind the back door, you’re about to run for it yourself when the noises begin out the front too. You glance round and see a large number of shamblers starting to appear and make their way into the store. The rear door opens and more start coming in the back to, heading towards you. “They worked out how to open the door?” is all you have time to think before you are fighting for your life against the growing number of infected. It’s not long before they start to latch onto you and weight you down. It’s shortly after that, that they tear you apart as they eat you.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You all head out quietly about an hour after dawn and make your way through the main streets, you don’t have a gun like the others but you do have your bat which you trust a lot more, using it doesn’t cause enough noise to call others to you after all. “I heard you guys had originally cleared this place out of infected?” you whisper to the nearest guard. He thinks for a moment before replying. “We had, but then that thing lead hundreds more to us, and what with all the ones bitten again when the walls fell… well let’s just say it’s not as safe as it used to be. Seems the vaccine doesn’t always work too well against direct exposure either, only the airborne strains, some people are immune but others turn right after getting bit.” You file this information away for later and keep a look-out since you’re nearing the store now and the leader is speaking up. “Right it's go time, two for the front, two for the rear.” The front is visible, it’s fairly open and all the large windows are broken giving easy access and sightlines. The rear must be through one of the alleyways you glimpse to the side. > You rear? You are considering the rear of the shop when someone else volunteers for the front which makes your mind up for you. You are paired off with a younger man who is clearly wearing a suit under his jacket. You ignore his choice of clothing and you both begin to carefully circle round the back of the store. The first alleyway you come too is clearly the right one. You see the dumpsters with the shops logo all over them and think you can see the back door some distance down the alleyway. You turn to your partner. “So what’s the plan?” He simply smiles at you before replying “Oh I have several plans. I have assessed dozens of situations like this and have backups for every eventuality. Careful research and planning is what always leads me to victory!” “Odd” you think before speaking aloud again. “Of course, that makes perfect sense, but what’s our plan for right now?” The man stares at the alley for a moment or two, “Ok you lead and I’ll back you up. Prod each dumpster and garbage pile you pass to check for hidden infected. If a shambler appears then you bat will be the best choice, a different kind or more than two of them and I’ll use the gun while we retreat to meet up with the others!” You shrug and start forward; it was an acceptable plan after all. The man whispers to you as you progress. “Names Drak by the way, not the one my parents gave me of course but I took it on after the infection, has a nice ring to it!” You nod back to him as you prod another garbage pile with your back and get no response. “A lot of people did that, kind of like a new start thing right?” You poke around inside a dumpster again for no response. “Exactly!” The man replies. “For all intents and purposes civilization ended, we are beginning anew in a new world so the new life begets a new name, don’t you agree?” You have just reached the backdoor and are about to open it when you hear a startled cry from behind you follow by two shots. Spinning around you see Drak with blood pouring down his arm and a dead shambler half out of a garbage pile you had just poked. “He didn’t respond when you poked the pile then went for me faster than I’ve ever seen one move!” He manages before wincing and grabbing his arm. You swear and force the door open; you both pile inside and slam it behind you. The others are headed your way guns at the ready. “What happened?” the leader calls out to you as they approach. You take half a step forward and do the talking for Drak since he is clearly in pain. “We were moving forward and being careful, I swear we poked and prodded every single piece of garbage when one leaped out and bit Drak.” The man swears and glances at him before turning back to you. “Drak’s always so careful too; we should get out of here soon. Grab what you can and let’s go.” You nod and turn to help Drak just in time to find him leaping at you, there’s no time to react as he sinks his teeth into your throat and rips out a large chunk of flesh, you knock him off and stand up again but immediately feel dizzy, he must have caught an artery. You feel blood pouring down your shirt as you see him spring to his feet and come after you again. “Gorram idiot had to turn into one of the fast ones didn’t he!” you think as you meet his lunge with a swing from your bat. His head caves in and his body his the floor only moments before you fall too due to the massive blood loss. You manage to roll over and see the leader of your team pointing his gun at you. “I’m sorry, but this is the only mercy I can give you now.” He says as he fires.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You are Vingrad Coldslayer, king of the mighty land of Farnorth. Your home was once a part of the huge empire known as the Odranithic Order, until the people rebelled. There had been a bad harvest followed by a long winter, which killed many of the Northmen people. When the Odranithic Order had not sent any food northward, Vronar Coldslayer and his friend Bortusken Thunderbeard led the city of Norgurune in rebellion. After the war, both Vronar and Bortusken wished to rule. In the end, they fought After several years, the Order granted them all land north of the River Star. Over the years, the Northmen conquered the region known as Nearnorth, which was south of River Star and north of the present day border of Odranith. You are sitting on your throne in the palace of Norgurune. You are very tired, as the last few nights, you have been plagued by vivid nightmares. In these dreams you saw undead creatures in the ruins of your home, wandering aimlessly. You were also visited by a spirit that claimed to be your ancestor, Vronar Coldslayer. He told you that Norgurune was in danger. Bortusken's curse, given to Vronar before his death, is coming true. According to ancient scrolls, Bortusken said that when Farnorth began to forget about Bortusken, the children would die first. Then the nobles and kings, and then the common folk. Farnorth would become a barren wasteland, inhabited by the dead. As you sit and think, three ideas come to your mind about what you can do. The Norgurune Library is managed by a wizard named Forixis, who may be knowledgeable on the subject. In addition, there may be books or scrolls that could help you learn more about this topic. Your Court Wizard, Dardis is not as wise as Forixis, but he was born in Farnorth and seems to know a lot about legends. Your last idea is to search the city for clues. Although there is no guarantee that you will find anything, it may give you a chance to find evidence and talk to your people. > You go to the Norgurune Library "Maybe the library will be a good place to start," you mutter, then begin heading over. It is on the other side of the city. "Where are you going, my lord?" asks your advisor, Kanvar. He is a Mountain Dwarf from the Coldstone Mountains, to the east of Farnorth. "I'm just going to the library," you reply. Kanvar nods, and looks back at the book he is reading. *** As you walk along the ancient stone roads, you see a woman on the side of the road, crying. > You speak to the woman "What is wrong?" you ask as you walk over to the side of the road. The woman looks up, her eyes red from crying. In her hands, she is holding a brass ring. "M-my daughter disappeared last night," she explains, still sobbing. "I don't know why... Sh-she didn't seem upset or anything, and I didn't hear anything, uh, last night." "I don't know what could have happened," you say apologetically. "If you really want to help, you can come back to my house and look around." > You investigate the woman's house "I would love to help you," you say, then follow her to her house. She lives in a small, two-room house in the west side of Norgurune. Upon entering the house, you smell wood smoke and cooked meat. On the table, a man is placing two plates of roasted goat on the table. You notice with a twinge of sadness that there are three chairs at the table. One for their daughter. "M-milord," the man stutters, flabbergasted. "I was no expecting you... I would have slaughtered one of your finer chickens to-" "It's fine," you say. "I'm here to help you with your missing daughter." The man nods and sits down. "I did not cook enough for you, so you can have mine if you want," he says, handing the clay plate towards you. You decline. "I'm Nargi by the way," the woman says. "My husband is Toruc." You shake their hands and sit down. "So, when was the last time you saw her?" you ask first. They both start talking at the same time. "One at a time." Toruc stops talking to allow Nargi to speak. "It was last night," she explains. "We were eating some eggs and pork, and she was talking about how she had finally been accepted into school." Only some children were able to go to school in Norgurune, and in most villages of Farnorth nobody was educated. "Then she went to sleep, and..." she swallows sadly. "Well, I guess that was the last time I saw her." "I will make sure something is done to find out more," you say. You stand to leave, but Toruc clears his throat. "I know you won't believe me, but I heard something talking to me last night," he says. "It had a voice that filled my head. It was awful. It said that Norgurune was lost." You are immediately interested. "Tell me more." "Alright, what do you want to know?" > You say "Did you see this creature?" "Did you see this creature?" you inquire curiously. "No, I just heard it," Toruc says. "Sorry. It sounded like the voice of a demon." You nod.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"I would love to help you," you say, then follow her to her house. She lives in a small, two-room house in the west side of Norgurune. Upon entering the house, you smell wood smoke and cooked meat. On the table, a man is placing two plates of roasted goat on the table. You notice with a twinge of sadness that there are three chairs at the table. One for their daughter. "M-milord," the man stutters, flabbergasted. "I was no expecting you... I would have slaughtered one of your finer chickens to-" "It's fine," you say. "I'm here to help you with your missing daughter." The man nods and sits down. "I did not cook enough for you, so you can have mine if you want," he says, handing the clay plate towards you. You decline. "I'm Nargi by the way," the woman says. "My husband is Toruc." You shake their hands and sit down. "So, when was the last time you saw her?" you ask first. They both start talking at the same time. "One at a time." Toruc stops talking to allow Nargi to speak. "It was last night," she explains. "We were eating some eggs and pork, and she was talking about how she had finally been accepted into school." Only some children were able to go to school in Norgurune, and in most villages of Farnorth nobody was educated. "Then she went to sleep, and..." she swallows sadly. "Well, I guess that was the last time I saw her." "I will make sure something is done to find out more," you say. You stand to leave, but Toruc clears his throat. "I know you won't believe me, but I heard something talking to me last night," he says. "It had a voice that filled my head. It was awful. It said that Norgurune was lost." You are immediately interested. "Tell me more." "Alright, what do you want to know?" > You say "What else did it say?" "What else did it say?" you question eagerly. Toruc shrugs. "Something about avenging his master's legacy, and that it was time for the children to play." "Mmmhmm."<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"I would love to help you," you say, then follow her to her house. She lives in a small, two-room house in the west side of Norgurune. Upon entering the house, you smell wood smoke and cooked meat. On the table, a man is placing two plates of roasted goat on the table. You notice with a twinge of sadness that there are three chairs at the table. One for their daughter. "M-milord," the man stutters, flabbergasted. "I was no expecting you... I would have slaughtered one of your finer chickens to-" "It's fine," you say. "I'm here to help you with your missing daughter." The man nods and sits down. "I did not cook enough for you, so you can have mine if you want," he says, handing the clay plate towards you. You decline. "I'm Nargi by the way," the woman says. "My husband is Toruc." You shake their hands and sit down. "So, when was the last time you saw her?" you ask first. They both start talking at the same time. "One at a time." Toruc stops talking to allow Nargi to speak. "It was last night," she explains. "We were eating some eggs and pork, and she was talking about how she had finally been accepted into school." Only some children were able to go to school in Norgurune, and in most villages of Farnorth nobody was educated. "Then she went to sleep, and..." she swallows sadly. "Well, I guess that was the last time I saw her." "I will make sure something is done to find out more," you say. You stand to leave, but Toruc clears his throat. "I know you won't believe me, but I heard something talking to me last night," he says. "It had a voice that filled my head. It was awful. It said that Norgurune was lost." You are immediately interested. "Tell me more." "Alright, what do you want to know?" > You say "I think it is time for me to go." "I think it is time for me to go," you say. They nod, and Toruc whispers the words "thank you". Now that you have learned this, you can go to the library, speak to your Court Wizard, or search the city. > You go to the library When you reach the Norgurune Library, you take in its massive size. It is a large, two-story building made of stone, like an ancient and powerful castle. A single tower rises up from the back corner. At the top is the office belonging to Forixis Labiris, a wizard from Odranith to the south. He is very old, with long white hair and a thick white beard. He does not wear a pointed hat like many wizards do, instead preferring a top hat and luxurious black suit. When you enter the library, you embrace the warmth. Although cold and unforgiving on the exterior, the interior is warm and cozy so all who go there will be comfortable. Fuzzy rugs cover the floor and fireplaces are lit among the wall. Every ten feet, there are alcoves that contain inviting chairs and tables to place books. Above the chairs are torches, hung on the wall, to illuminate the library. You reach the door that leads to Forixis' office and open it. After climbing a long spiral staircase, you reach his office. It is small, barely containing all the stuff that is within. A desk is in one corner, where the wizard is right now. He is reading a scroll, and does not notice you. Behind you, a large bookshelf contains ancient books and fragile scrolls. You clear your throat, and he looks up. "Oh, I did not notice you, my lord!" he apologizes. "What do you need?" > You say "What can you tell me of Norgurune?" "What can you tell me of Norgurune?" you ask Forixis. "Shouldn't you know about this, my lord?" he points out. "I mean, your father told you about it while you were growing up." You shrug. "I guess I forgot." "Okay," he says, inhaling deeply. "Norgurune was founded in about 800 or so, making it very old. Then, it was a part of the Odranithic Order. However, in 907, the people were starving because of a bad harvest. The king down in Towerhall was to busy fighting the elves of Anciarth to worry about us, so the people were angry. Why be a part of the Order if they starved anyways? So the current lord, Vronar Coldslayer, and his friend Bortusken Thunderbeard led the people in a rebellion. There weren't many battles at first, but once Anciarth was weakened they started sending men to Farnorth. We probably would have been defeated, but Bortusken was a better battle tactician than the average general. He ambushed Order troops, raided supply lines, and captured Order cities in Farnorth. Eventually, the king decided that the war had gone on long enough. In 917, he signed a treaty with Vronar, naming the province of Farnorth an independent kingdom. Vronar and Bortusken, once good friends, began to hate each other when both wanted to rule. They dueled, and your ancestor was victorious. Bortusken put a curse on the city of Norgurune before he was slain, however. I don't know what he said, exactly, but I sure hope for all of Dornathus' light that it never comes true. "Farnorth is mostly inhabited by Northmen and Orcs who settled here once their jungles in the south got overpopulated. We are currently allied with the Odranithic Order to the south and the Coldstone Empire to the east. You are our sixteenth king." "I knew that last part," you complain. "I'm not that stupid."<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>When you reach the Norgurune Library, you take in its massive size. It is a large, two-story building made of stone, like an ancient and powerful castle. A single tower rises up from the back corner. At the top is the office belonging to Forixis Labiris, a wizard from Odranith to the south. He is very old, with long white hair and a thick white beard. He does not wear a pointed hat like many wizards do, instead preferring a top hat and luxurious black suit. When you enter the library, you embrace the warmth. Although cold and unforgiving on the exterior, the interior is warm and cozy so all who go there will be comfortable. Fuzzy rugs cover the floor and fireplaces are lit among the wall. Every ten feet, there are alcoves that contain inviting chairs and tables to place books. Above the chairs are torches, hung on the wall, to illuminate the library. You reach the door that leads to Forixis' office and open it. After climbing a long spiral staircase, you reach his office. It is small, barely containing all the stuff that is within. A desk is in one corner, where the wizard is right now. He is reading a scroll, and does not notice you. Behind you, a large bookshelf contains ancient books and fragile scrolls. You clear your throat, and he looks up. "Oh, I did not notice you, my lord!" he apologizes. "What do you need?" > You say "What do you think of this prophecy?" "What do you think of this prophecy?" you ask, then clear your throat to recite it. "When the people of Farnorth forget about Bortusken the Beard of Thunder, they will pay with blood and bones. First depart the children, taken in the night like food stolen by a thief. Then the royals and nobles, the greedy and rich, will fall prey to their deadly demise. And last the common folk, whose ignorance is their doom. And then Farnorth will be the land of the dead, a haven for the wicked. Unless a hero true of blood, and heart of sword and shield, whose name can turn the cold away wields ancestral axe." Forixis raises an eyebrow. "I've never heard that before, and I have searched for what he said," he says. "Where did you here that?" "I heard it in a dream," you explain. "I was visited by my ancestor. Vronar Coldslayer." "Well, that is certainly surprising," he says. "And about the prophecy, I'm not sure what to make of it. I know it means that Bortusken wants to slowly kill the people of Farnorth, but he is dead. Unless he survived somehow and became some type of lich, then I don't know how he will go through with his threat." "Yes, but what about the end?" you ask. "It explains how to defeat the prophecy." "Maybe the axe is an artifact, and the hero true of blood is a specific person," Forixis says. "Feel free to check the library for tomes."<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>When you reach the Norgurune Library, you take in its massive size. It is a large, two-story building made of stone, like an ancient and powerful castle. A single tower rises up from the back corner. At the top is the office belonging to Forixis Labiris, a wizard from Odranith to the south. He is very old, with long white hair and a thick white beard. He does not wear a pointed hat like many wizards do, instead preferring a top hat and luxurious black suit. When you enter the library, you embrace the warmth. Although cold and unforgiving on the exterior, the interior is warm and cozy so all who go there will be comfortable. Fuzzy rugs cover the floor and fireplaces are lit among the wall. Every ten feet, there are alcoves that contain inviting chairs and tables to place books. Above the chairs are torches, hung on the wall, to illuminate the library. You reach the door that leads to Forixis' office and open it. After climbing a long spiral staircase, you reach his office. It is small, barely containing all the stuff that is within. A desk is in one corner, where the wizard is right now. He is reading a scroll, and does not notice you. Behind you, a large bookshelf contains ancient books and fragile scrolls. You clear your throat, and he looks up. "Oh, I did not notice you, my lord!" he apologizes. "What do you need?" > You say "Can I search your library?" "Go on ahead," Forixis says, smiling. You reach the bottom of the tower and begin walking around. After several hours, you have gathered up five books that may be of help to you. Tales of Norgurune is about legends surrounding your city. It is fairly new, so some of it may be complete fiction. But still, you have taken it in case it will help. The Kings of Farnorth seems to be a history of Farnorth's kings. By looking at the table of contents, you can see it goes up to the fourteenth king, your grandfather Gronol Coldslayer. Perhaps there is information within about the curse. Perhaps the most promising is Bortusken's Curse, which is self-explanatory. It is a pretty old book, but you doubt it is from the 900s. Heroes and Villains of the North shows a picture of who you assume is Vronar on the cover. If that is the case, it likely contains information on the duel between the two men. Northman Artifacts is about the legendary items of Farnorth. The cover of this one shows an axe.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>When you reach the Norgurune Library, you take in its massive size. It is a large, two-story building made of stone, like an ancient and powerful castle. A single tower rises up from the back corner. At the top is the office belonging to Forixis Labiris, a wizard from Odranith to the south. He is very old, with long white hair and a thick white beard. He does not wear a pointed hat like many wizards do, instead preferring a top hat and luxurious black suit. When you enter the library, you embrace the warmth. Although cold and unforgiving on the exterior, the interior is warm and cozy so all who go there will be comfortable. Fuzzy rugs cover the floor and fireplaces are lit among the wall. Every ten feet, there are alcoves that contain inviting chairs and tables to place books. Above the chairs are torches, hung on the wall, to illuminate the library. You reach the door that leads to Forixis' office and open it. After climbing a long spiral staircase, you reach his office. It is small, barely containing all the stuff that is within. A desk is in one corner, where the wizard is right now. He is reading a scroll, and does not notice you. Behind you, a large bookshelf contains ancient books and fragile scrolls. You clear your throat, and he looks up. "Oh, I did not notice you, my lord!" he apologizes. "What do you need?" > You say "Nothing, I was just on my way." "Nothing, I was just on my way," you explain, then depart. Upon leaving the library, you wonder what you should do now. You could always go ask your Court Wizard, or perhaps you could search the city for clues.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The rain, the patter of it hitting my surroundings like knocks on a door with no pause. It struck like needles, but was warm and mesmerizing. I turned on my side, glass rattled around me and something fell out of my hand with a clank. My eyes were still closed, I knew if I'd open them I'd be dizzy and get sick, my curiosity grew stronger and I wanted to see what my own hand was holding so dearly. My eyelids felt like they were made of lead, I was facing the sky and the rain didn't help either. As they slowly opened, I was seeing double, no, maybe triple of everything. I felt like vomiting. I turned to my left where my hand was once holding the object, it was an empty bottle of beer. Of course it was. As triple slowly turned to double, and then finally to seeing almost normally, I then saw my surroundings. I was surrounded by long walls with openings at either side, my body was cushioned by sacks of garbage. The stink might be one of the factors that's helping kick me out of the hangover, I leaned forward, struggling not to vomit. I sat there for a little while collecting my thoughts, like how I even got here. Oh thats right... With my left hand, I reached into my pocket and pulled out a shiny gold medallion, I remembered drinking too much and stealing this from a merchant when he wasn't looking. It was beautiful, a gold coin a little bit larger than a walnut, adorned with a lion and a red rope. I can't wait to sell it. Just at that moment, someone approached me from behind. With a start I quickly turned and grabbed my dagger with my other hand and stuffed the medallion back into my pocket as quickly as I could. I was still sitting but they were so close we startled each other when I turned around. The daylight brought shape to the intruder's face, it had subtle features and was accompanied by a gasp. The intruder was a woman, she looked panicked. I was a bit confused why she decided to wake up a bum in an alley, but I lowered my weapon. She didn't seem like she wanted to hurt me, and I don't think she saw the medallion so its safe to assume she wouldn't want to rob me. "Please you have to help me.", she tugged at my arm, frantically urging me to get up. I took my arm back and used the ground and the wall to support myself, clearing my throat. "What are you ta-" Just then I silenced myself, there were shouts in the distance. There were large groups of figures walking around quickly past the edge of the alley. Men interrogating people. No wait, they had spears. Those men are guards. The girl, who was looking up at the men, looked back to me and whispered "These men are after me but I didn't do anything!" The medallion wasn't the only thing I stole, I sometimes stole food and other goods and I became a little too known for my liking in the town. The guards would likely be after me too, but by some unknown force, I was swept to my feet and decided to help her. I needed to leave the area too. We ran the other direction, disappearing into the rain and further into the heart of the town. > You through the Town As we walked into the heart of the market, the streets lit up with warm lights and smiles and the air was filled with delicious smells and sounds of the townsfolk. We walked down for a little bit, casually blending into the crowds and making our way towards the opposite side of the town. All the smells of fresh food were tantalizing, I really wanted to take some for the road. It would probably be a good idea anyway since I don't know how soon again I'll be able to eat. I looked to my right and the girl was looking away from me, also at the food stands. I gave her a nudge and asked "Hey whats your name anyways?" She was startled a little bit, looked down at my arm and back up at me and nervously said "Um...its Deyna." and went back to looking at the food stands. She was hungry too. At that point I needed no further convincing, I quietly told her to stay nearby and I picked up the pace. I got to where I was in front of her and quickly snuck to the right side of the busy walkway closer to the stands. There was a merchant who was selling a large amount of food items like jerky and other preserved edible goods, we walked over and started talking to the merchant. The walkway was packed which was extremely lucky for us, I think Deyna was under the impression that I was buying something. I picked up an apple since it was the least amount in the stock in the front of the stand and asked if the merchant had anymore. He turned around and it was my turn to act, I quickly grabbed lots of dried meat and a few apples along with several other small food items. Deyna was looking at me with concern and ever growing urgency. Before the shopkeeper turned around we were already gone. We quickly walked further down the busy street, and Deyna quickly walked up to me. "Don't you need to pay for that?" "No, there's no need to when you can just take it. Especially when he had a lot of supplies anyway." She didn't seem to like that answer, I don't blame her. I don't exactly love that answer either, but life for me eventually went from push to shove and I didn't have many other options. Just then, my breath was taken away from me. I bumped into a huge armored man, almost dropping my hidden goods. The man was a soldier and immediately recognized both of us, he began to reach out his arm towards me and we quickly ran away. We bumped into people and started to cause a scene, the soldier started yelling to alert the others to our whereabouts. They started appearing as we were bolting through the town, trying to cut us off. > You new and Old Friends It seemed like the guards were coming around every corner now, we were rushing frantically to the edge of town to escape. Just then I heard a scream from closeby, I turned over to where Deyna was and she was gone. I ran around the corner looking everywhere nearby, I wasn't about to abandon by partner in...some unknown crime? I saw her a short distance away struggling to get free from the solider, I bolted over and bumped into him before he realized it was me and released her from his grip. I took her hand and continued to run to the edge of town. We could now see the outer gates and the guards didn't seem to be following us, 'It looks like we're in the clear!" Deyna exclaimed trailing behind me. We made it out of the town and onto the dirt road, it was surrounded by that beautiful black grass. I hadn't been out of the town for a long time so its always a surprise to see it from when it was once green. We were also met by a life long friend of mine, I never gave him a name though. It was a Mox, a half Moose half Ox hybrid, his fur was white and bore many scars from our adventures. It was a very unique animal, it always had a wise and ghostly aura about it. I was proud to call it my partner. I got on the Mox and offered my hand, she was hesitant but got on pretty quickly, after about an hour or so we made quite a bit of distance from us and the town. Even though the sun had been hidden behind dark clouds for many years now, it was easy to tell that night was almost upon us. Since its already dark, when nightfall hits it becomes hard to see very early on. "Ok I'm gonna go find some firewood, please stay here." I said while dismounting Mox. She stared for a minute, almost looking surprised. "Wait, here we can use this to help". She got off Mox and walked up to me, her palm suddenly lit up, a ball of fire was floating above her palm and lighting up our surroundings. Her face reflected with the orange glow of the fire she was holding in her hand. I was taken back, "What the fu-?" "Its ok! Really I can control it" she laughed. "Uh...who did you say you were again?" I said, I was beyond puzzled. "Why can you summon fire with your...just your hands?" "I'll tell you more once we set up camp, its already getting dark." Some time passed, while I was picking up twigs and branches she followed behind me like a proud child showing off a new toy they got. She had a big dumb grin on her face. Why could she summon fire? Only the royals of this small country Millenia could use magic, but they all died a long time ago. Could she be a descendant of one of them? No, they all died too recently for that. Regardless, it was helpful. Mox did carry some torches in its saddle but it was nice knowing I didn't have to restock. While we were walking back I realized I only had my own sleeping bag, I quietly huffed to myself. "Look, I only have one sleeping bag. You can have it just for tonight but tomorrow we need to grab another one. There's a town not too far from here we can stop at, lots of merchants like to trade there but its only because of its location so its not a sight for sore eyes. Its pretty rough.", she simply nodded in response. Once we arrived back, Mox greeted us with a friendly huff and raised its head. I threw the wood into a pile and she lit it up with her fire. We both sat down on almost opposite sides of the fire, slowly becoming mezmorized by its flames. "My name's not really Deyna..." she said quietly. "Its actually Alesis, I'm the princess of Millenia but...its supposed to be a secret to the public." My eyes widened, it had been an entire decade since the last known member of the royal family was killed by unknown circumstances. Most thought it was a disease or possibly assassination due to the sudden decline of the state of the land. It was only for a brief moment earlier that I thought she could be related somehow, but to have it be true... "So thats why the guards were after you..." "Yes, for the past several years I've been wandering around Millenia helping out in towns however I can but its much harder to do in more populated towns. Its easier to go to little agricultural towns where people don't usually keep up with what faces look like, and there's never really any guards there either. I want to help people before I go back to the castle and rule, I want people to think that I saved them rather than taking the throne for wealth and luxury." I stared for a minute, then back into the fire. "Thats very noble, I couldn't ever hope to have dreams like that. I'm just a thief who's trying to survive." I laid down on the ground and closed my eyes. I could hear her stand up, I opened my eyes briefly and saw her grab my sleeping bag from Mox's saddle and she gave him a small pat. She laid it out and said "No, I don't think thats true, you might be a thief but you are noble. You could have left me behind and the goal that I would have tried to achieve for so long would have been all for naught." I turned around so I faced away from her and had my eyes tightly shut, she laughed and it was silence from then on until morning. " > You town with a Secret I woke with a start from a sudden nudge on my arm, I gasped and lurched forward and eyes wide only to be met with her dumb and excited smile. The black grass was once again easily visible with shades of purple distiguishing the individual blades, Mox got up as well, dust and dirt fell from his brilliant white coat. All that was left of the fire was a few glowing cinder specs and black charcoal from the firewood. I slowly got up and dusted myself off, she already had the sleeping bag rolled up and back on Mox. She stood next to him eagerly waiting, almost hopping up and down. I reluctantly got on Mox and she soon followed, we were on our way to the small town known as Tyda. On our way there, her happy aura started to disappear. "I'm sorry to ask this of you, but would you be willing to take me to the castle? Its much easier with company and a mount rather than being on foot." The castle had become a dangerous place since it had been abandoned all this time, I was skeptical but she was the princess after all. There must be secrets in the castle that only she knows about and needs to be there for some reason, I agreed to help her with her request. She was going to go there with or without my help anyways. Roughly 2 hours past and finally arrived at the town, it almost seemed smaller than I remember. It had no grand walls, just wooden fences. People were sitting around near the street all over and chickens would be seen walking across the road. carridge tracks had been thoroughly worn into the dirt but there was hardly any road traffic. We made our way over to a merchant who had a wide variety of good, everything from old books to food and supplies. I traded the shiny medallion I had in my pocket for the sleeping bag, more food and other supplies. While we were making our purchase, the merchant kept glancing up at me. When we finished collecting our things from the stand, he suddenly said "You've both come a long way haven't you? Listen, my supplies haven't been coming in as much recently due to a black beast wandering near here. I've been coming to this town trading goods for awhile and I've learned quite a bit about it. If you can slay the beast I'll repay you handsomely." > The Sword of Sealing "What do you mean? What kind of payment are we talking about here?" I walked closer to the stand, Alesis looked at me, almost concerned. "Just information, but I can tell you that this town has a really amazing treasure hidden beneath it. I know where the entrance is to the chamber of the treasure but only certain people are permitted inside. I've already told you too much though, go take care of that monster or be on your way." "I'll do it, I could make a lot of money from something like that." I whispered, "Very well, meet me here again tomorrow. Its my last day here but I'll be here the whole day. Do be careful, people have died from monsters like these. The monster can be found at the foot of those mountains." I turned around and walked back over to where Mox was, Alesis was right behind me. "Are you sure about this?" she said nervously, "Yes, I think we'll be alright. I have a blade that i'm decently skilled with and you have the power of fire. With you especially it should be a cinch." It was mid day as we approached the foot of the mountains, the lond dead trees and black grass became much more abundant and the air had a heavy feeling to it. Mox was getting uneasy, its footsteps became more frantic and was looking around more. We must be getting close. We both got off Mox and drew our weapons, looking around as well. Just then Mox ran off, we stared as he ran into the distance towards the great field where we came. We turned around. It was so silent, we didn't hear a thing. But there it was, it was only feet away from us. It stood maybe 7 feet tall and was on all fours, it had the body of a mountain lion and the front half was especially muscular and distorted. It stood hunched over and its front paws were curled like a gorilla. Its fur was made of shadows that emmitted from its body like black and purple fire. Its red eyes glowed and its stark white teeth were covered in drool. Alesis fired a shot at it and our surroundings glew orange, it hit the beast right in the chest knocking it back. Luckily that moment gave us a chance to collect ourselves. I drew my dagger and held it at the ready in my left hand, "can you do that again?" I yelled. "Yeah!", she fired one more shot, this time she hit the monster square in the face. "Bull's eye!" I yelled excitedly, the monster was stunned for a moment and that was my chance. I ran up to it while it was holding its face, just then one of its arms lowered and it saw me. It reached forward as I jumping in to deliver the final blow, just as my dagger found its way into the monster's head, its claws met my left shoulder. The monster fell with one last mighty roar, when its dead body hit the ground the flames on it started to disappate. The grass around it turned green and the long dead trees started rapidly striaghtening out and growing leaves. Flowers started to blossom out of the ground, however they still bore their black colors. My arms wasn't critically injured but it was bleeding quite a bit, I took my dagger and cut off part of my cloak to use as a bandage for the bleeding. Both Alesis and I were dumbfounded by the sight of color, but just as soon as it arrived, everything quickly returned to the way it was. Our once excited faces returned to normal, and we both got up and made our way towards the great field where Mox ran off to. We ended up walking a quarter of the way where the town was, it was nearly dusk now. Thanks to Alesis' fire, we saw Mox large figure in the distance. We made our way back to the town mcuh faster after finding him. We decided to see if the merchant was still there at this hour, we walked over to his stand and found him just packing up for the night. He immediately noticed my arm and the red stained bandages around my shoulder. "You fought it and lived?!" He asked in amazement. "Yeah, and the strangest thing happened when it was killed. The environment around it returned to the state it was many years ago. But it soon reverted back to what everything else looks like right now..." "Come with me." said the merchant with a serious look in his eyes. We followed the merchant to a secluded part of the town that was overgrowing with the black brush, it was a door that belonged to no builidng standing all on its own. I've been to this town only a few times but I had no idea that this odd door resided here. "This door has been a popular subject of the town, I read about it in one of the books at my stand. Its been here a good many years but when its opened its just the other side of the door. Its nothing more than an empty frame after opening it, but in the book, if certain people open it, the door actually leads to an old stairway. Thats where the treasure is said to be. When I first saw you both, something odd struck me and I wanted to tell you. Please forgive me, but you did accept regardless." He was right, at the time I was blinded by the possibility of riches and didn't consider he could have been lying or had a few screws loose. He kinda looked like the type too. I approached the door, I knew nothing was going to happen. It was just a dumb rumor, there was no harm in it though I guess. My hand reached out and touched the doorknob. It was severely corroded with age and weather damage, I turned the knob and slowly opened the door. Through the first crack in it opening, it was completely dark unlike outside. I opened it further and there was the stairwell. We all stood there speechless, I don't think any of us were expecting a hidden passageway to appear. I turned around to Alesis, and with a still shocked expression she walked up to me and the stairwell. The merchant stood and simply smiled, "You're going to do great things..." and walked away without another word. We stared for a minute, and we proceeded cautiously down the old and dark stairs. The walls were narrow and made of rock and the stench of decay was strong. We got to the bottom and were met with a single bright ray of moonlight over a dirt hill. Sitting on the center of the small hill was a mummified corpse holding an ordinary looking sword, around the mummy and sword bloomed brilliant colored flowers. It was very serene. I approached the mummy and took the sword from it, its hands that once held the sword broke off into dust. The sword had beautiful engravings of a language I could not read, but other than that, it seemed very ordinary. > The Dark Castle We left the town, we were now on our way to the castle that Alesis once hailed from. You could see it from almost anywhere in Millenia because it was so huge. Its black towers peered over the land like watchful guardians. The caste's dark outer walls loomed over us, I took her hand and we nodded to each other. We took our first steps into the massive corridor. The interior was incredibly run down, the large room with filled with the chill of outdoors and the occasional rat was spotted running into one of the many crevices that now decorated the walls. Many chandeliers hung from the ceiling, they were covered in gold and jewels, the floor was black and white tile like a chessboard. The walls seemed to be at least 4 stories tall, there was a tattered up runner in the center of the room that lead to an impressive stairwell. "Please follow me, and stay close behind." Alesis said calmly. I did as she asked and followed her lead, the castle was astoundingly large and ominous, I wanted to explore the entire thing but not with her here. After naviagating through the castle, she brought me near the top, you could see for miles and miles from where we now stood. We found ourselves in a beautiful circular shaped room with windows adorning every wall and pillars supporting its roof. There was a stained glass mural over the center of the room and pillars surrounding its center with a throne at the back of the room. > You promise of Purpose As we entered the grand room, Alesis walked ahead of me. Her walk was a little off and she was laughing strangely, "You...you're so naive. Too kind for your own good, thats whats going to get you killed." "What?" I stared confused as she faced away from me, still in the center of the room. "I am the one responsible for the land's decay, I tainted the earth with shadows. I will destroy you, you cannot be allowed to live." In that moment, her body turned into a shadowy silhouette and started horribly disfiguring itself. Her form went from human to a giagantic beast that stood 2 stories tall. It almost reached the ceiling of the massive room. Its arms were covered in firey shadows and had horns the size of tree trunks. Crystals emerged from its back and arms, they were colored reds, greens, blues, oranges and yellows. It stood on 2 legs and grew massive claws upon its fingertips. Its mouth opened to reveal horribly jagged teeth, its chest and neck started to glow orange and then the glow started to emit from its throat. I needed to move fast. Just as my feet moved off the ground, the air surrounding me got very hot and a burst of orange and red flew by. The heat from the shot of fire was immense. The blast hit the floor and soon after the monster tried to hit me by smashing into the ground with its mighty arms. It was fast for its size but I was still faster, I dashed over to its arms before they left the ground and made a deep cut on the monster's arm. > A Summer Breeze (Sword Only) The monster roared and raged, seething with malice and decay. Its arms lashed out and broke a pillar off in the grand room causing rubble and debris to fly everywhere. A light was shining through the windows of the room, almost like angels redirecting the rays of the sun all around to the room's center. It was an odd sensation of adrenaline, fear and tranquility. The muscles in my legs tensed and brought me to my feet, a feeling of courage overcame me. I gripped the sword tightly in my hands, the rays of the sun gleamed and reflected off of its brilliant steel. I ran up the flight of stairs, nearing the upper half of the monster. It began to lean up towards me, eyes red with fury and hatred. But underneath at all, she was still there. It was still her, I didn't want to kill her. The massive shadowy claws of the monster were fast approaching me, I planted my feet into the ground and held my breath, swinging the sword and cutting through the dark figure's reach. It reared back in pain and screeched, black ooze dripping from its hand and stepping away from the corner of the room. The center of the room where the monster once stood was calling out to me, all the rays of light were like arrows shooting towards the middle. I didn't know what I was going to do, but I was going to do it. I ran down the stairs once more while the monster was crouched over in pain, the wound in its hand was almost bubbling light and the color of the crystals imbedded in its skin seemed to have faded in color for just a moment. I got to the foot of the stairs and the sword almost felt like it was being pulled by a magnetic force. The monster started to step forward once more, even more enraged than before. It started to break the room apart by swinging its head and hitting the architecture with its towering horns. Everything was shaking and bricks started falling all around me, dust clouding the air. But the light still remained. I held up my sword in the center of the room, light pierced it from all corners of the room. Tears were streaming down my face. The light pierced the monster and it shrieked once more. The darkness surrounding her began to wither away, almost like black petals being carried off by a breeze. The horrific figure grew smaller and smaller, to reveal the girl that I knew once more. I ran over to where she was collasped, and held her in my arms. She slowly opened her eyes, she was exhausted, but a new glimmer of kindness emitted from them. We both smiled and hugged each other, in that moment we began to hear birds outside. We haven't heard birds in so many years, we both got up and limped over to the grand room's balcony. We were met with the most magnificent thing we had ever seen. The once shadowed field, was adorned with every color imaginable. The green grass danced as the wind finally passed through the valley, the sky was free of the dark clouds and was a brilliant blue. Water was rushing through the streams and the entire valley was teeming with life. After many years of helping the people of Millenia, I grew to be the new king. The towns were being rebuilt, children ran through the streets smiling and laughing. The castle was also returned to its former glory, and became a safe haven for people everywhere. Alesis, the girl who woke me up in an alleyway, who was by my side through thick and thin, became queen and played a critical role in the land's newfound prosperity. We lived out the rest of our days happily.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>As we entered the grand room, Alesis walked ahead of me. Her walk was a little off and she was laughing strangely, "You...you're so naive. Too kind for your own good, thats whats going to get you killed." "What?" I stared confused as she faced away from me, still in the center of the room. "I am the one responsible for the land's decay, I tainted the earth with shadows. I will destroy you, you cannot be allowed to live." In that moment, her body turned into a shadowy silhouette and started horribly disfiguring itself. Her form went from human to a giagantic beast that stood 2 stories tall. It almost reached the ceiling of the massive room. Its arms were covered in firey shadows and had horns the size of tree trunks. Crystals emerged from its back and arms, they were colored reds, greens, blues, oranges and yellows. It stood on 2 legs and grew massive claws upon its fingertips. Its mouth opened to reveal horribly jagged teeth, its chest and neck started to glow orange and then the glow started to emit from its throat. I needed to move fast. Just as my feet moved off the ground, the air surrounding me got very hot and a burst of orange and red flew by. The heat from the shot of fire was immense. The blast hit the floor and soon after the monster tried to hit me by smashing into the ground with its mighty arms. It was fast for its size but I was still faster, I dashed over to its arms before they left the ground and made a deep cut on the monster's arm. > A New King The monster roared and raged, seething with malice and decay. Its arms lashed out and broke a pillar off in the grand room causing rubble and debris to fly everywhere. The muscles in my legs tensed and brought me to my feet, a feeling of courage overcame me. I gripped the sword tightly in my hands, rain started to fall from the broken in ceiling, the drops of rain ran off the steel of my sword. I ran up the flight of stairs, nearing the upper half of the monster. It began to lean up towards me, eyes red with fury and hatred. But underneath at all, she was still there. It was still her, I didn't want to kill her. The massive shadowy claws of the monster were fast approaching me, I planted my feet into the ground and held my breath, swinging the sword and cutting through the dark figure's reach. It reared back, screeching in pain, black ooze dripping from its hand. Its arms were outstretched as it roared, its chest exposed. I leaped towards the monster and buried the sword deep into the center of its chest, I closed my eyes and gritted my teeth. The rain felt once more like needles, it was cold and sharp. The flesh of the monster began to bubble all around me and the crystals in its skin began to crumble and shot out rays of brilliant colorful lights. I was slowly lowered down to the ground, standing over her. Alesis laid before me, bleeding out where she was stabbed. My face grew warm as tears streamed down my face, she reached her hand up towards me and smiled weakly. The cold rain hitting her face, she was crying as well. My hands met hers, as painful as this moment was, I didn't want it to end. I gripped her hand tightly, "I'm so sorry..." I said shakily. "Don't be, I'm free now." Her grip loosened in my hands, I laid her hand down gently onto the floor. The rain felt like it was coming down harder than ever. Just then, I began to hear birds outside. I haven't heard birds in many years. I looked towards the sky and hints of blue peeked through the rainy clouds. I got up and limped to the great room's balcony. The once shadowed field, was adorned with every color imaginable. The green grass danced as the wind finally passed through the valley. Water was rushing through the streams and the entire valley began to show signs of life. Many hard years later, I became a hero throughout the many towns of Millenia, and eventually a king. The towns were being rebuilt, children ran through the streets smiling and laughing. The castle slowly being rebuilt, but it still bore the many battle scars from that awful day. I will never forget her, she helped me become who I am. I had a statue built in her memory, in the town we first met, and every year the townspeople surround it with beautiful flowers.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>As we entered the grand room, Alesis walked ahead of me. Her walk was a little off and she was laughing strangely, "You...you're so naive. Too kind for your own good, thats whats going to get you killed." "What?" I stared confused as she faced away from me, still in the center of the room. "I am the one responsible for the land's decay, I tainted the earth with shadows. I will destroy you, you cannot be allowed to live." In that moment, her body turned into a shadowy silhouette and started horribly disfiguring itself. Her form went from human to a giagantic beast that stood 2 stories tall. It almost reached the ceiling of the massive room. Its arms were covered in firey shadows and had horns the size of tree trunks. Crystals emerged from its back and arms, they were colored reds, greens, blues, oranges and yellows. It stood on 2 legs and grew massive claws upon its fingertips. Its mouth opened to reveal horribly jagged teeth, its chest and neck started to glow orange and then the glow started to emit from its throat. I needed to move fast. Just as my feet moved off the ground, the air surrounding me got very hot and a burst of orange and red flew by. The heat from the shot of fire was immense. The blast hit the floor and soon after the monster tried to hit me by smashing into the ground with its mighty arms. It was fast for its size but I was still faster, I dashed over to its arms before they left the ground and made a deep cut on the monster's arm. > You black Dawn The monster roared and raged, seething with malice and decay. Its arms lashed out and broke a pillar off in the grand room causing rubble and debris to fly everywhere. The muscles in my legs tensed and brought me to my feet, a feeling of courage overcame me. I gripped the sword tightly in my hands, snowflakes started to fall from the broken in ceiling and quietly settled on the steel of my sword. I stood there for a moment, everything was silent. Even the monster stopped to look at the snowfall. Once its eyes met mine, it bared its teeth and snarled, but underneath at all, she was still there. It was still her, I didn't want to kill her. The massive shadowy claws of the monster were fast approaching me, confidence was still coursing through my veins. Warming my body and opposing the cold that was now creeping into the large room, I dropped my sword and stood with my eyes tightly shut, ready to take the hit. The ground shook tremendously and I could instantly feel cracks forming beneath my feet, I open my eyes to find that the monster's hand had slammed into the ground, its fingers trying to claw into the ruble trying to...restrain itself? Its head was reared back, she was fighting with all she could to not kill me. I got up, and cautiously walked forward. I don't really know what I'm doing, I don't want to die but no sane person would ever do this. I reached up my hand with my eyes shut tight, I reached out for her. I had faith that she, would in turn, meet my hand. Time seemed to have stopped, I had opened my eyes only to complete darkness. Another human hand had met mine. "Will you face this burden along side me?" "Yes.", I was never more confident with my answer. In that instant, it felt like fire traveled up my arm and into my body. The loving hand that was once familiar to me started to warp and once again became monstrous. It was different though, it was grotesque but still had an aura of kindness. I too, began to change in that moment, with the burning sensation, it felt like my bones were being bent and rearranged. I started to hunch over and my skin turned to shadows. We were both alive, but we had lost our old selves. We both walked over to the great room's balcony, I grew much fonder of the blackened landscape. It was beautiful. The land grew ever more desolate as the years past, but life still prevailed. The towns and castle were slowly being rebuilt, but it still bore the many battle scars from that awful day. The shadow beasts that roamed the land would still often attack villages, and no one dared go near the castle, but the people still forged onward. Building up the towns and continuing with their everyday lives.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>As we entered the grand room, Alesis walked ahead of me. Her walk was a little off and she was laughing strangely, "You...you're so naive. Too kind for your own good, thats whats going to get you killed." "What?" I stared confused as she faced away from me, still in the center of the room. "I am the one responsible for the land's decay, I tainted the earth with shadows. I will destroy you, you cannot be allowed to live." In that moment, her body turned into a shadowy silhouette and started horribly disfiguring itself. Her form went from human to a giagantic beast that stood 2 stories tall. It almost reached the ceiling of the massive room. Its arms were covered in firey shadows and had horns the size of tree trunks. Crystals emerged from its back and arms, they were colored reds, greens, blues, oranges and yellows. It stood on 2 legs and grew massive claws upon its fingertips. Its mouth opened to reveal horribly jagged teeth, its chest and neck started to glow orange and then the glow started to emit from its throat. I needed to move fast. Just as my feet moved off the ground, the air surrounding me got very hot and a burst of orange and red flew by. The heat from the shot of fire was immense. The blast hit the floor and soon after the monster tried to hit me by smashing into the ground with its mighty arms. It was fast for its size but I was still faster, I dashed over to its arms before they left the ground and made a deep cut on the monster's arm. > The Cost of the Future The monster roared and raged, seething with malice and decay. Its arms lashed out and broke a pillar off in the grand room causing rubble and debris to fly everywhere. The muscles in my legs tensed and brought me to my feet, a feeling of courage overcame me. I gripped the sword tightly in my hands, rain started to fall from the broken in ceiling, the drops of rain ran off the steel of my sword. I ran up the flight of stairs, nearing the upper half of the monster. It began to lean up towards me, eyes red with fury and hatred. But underneath at all, she was still there. It was still her, I didn't want to kill her. The massive shadowy claws of the monster were fast approaching me, I planted my feet into the ground and held my breath, but I was too late. The claws dug into my torse and forced me against the wall of the room, I was bleeding out. I gritted my teeth, clenching my sword. The pain was unbearable and everything started to become blurry. The monster leaned in, grinning with its jagged sharp teeth. In one final hope to end it, I threw my sword from my hand and it found its way deep into the monster's skull. The monster lurched back, its skull was bubbling with light and the crystals embedded into its skin began to fade into a deep gray. Its screams of pain grew weaker as it held its face. Its figure began to shrink and the screaming stopped. I was gasping for air, it was so hard to breath. I clenched my stomach, my clothes were soaked with blood. Alesis now took the place where the monster once was, the sword had also vanished into thin air, her head was bleeding badly. My face grew warm as tears streamed down my face. I hobbled down the stairs and she reached her hand up towards me and smiled weakly. The cold rain hitting her face, she was crying as well. My hands met hers, as painful as this moment was, I didn't want it to end. I gripped her hand tightly, "I'm so sorry..." I said shakily. "No, I should be the one who's sorry..." she said, weakly sobbing. Her grip loosened in my hands, I laid her hand down gently onto the floor. The rain felt like it was coming down harder than ever. Just then, amidst the rain, I began to hear birds outside. I haven't heard birds in many years. We both looked towards the sky and hints of blue peeked through the rainy clouds. We both sat there for a long time. The room grew ever more serene as the rainfall hit the floor of the castle, my eyes grew heavy and so did hers. We held each other tight, when my eyes finally shut, a sense of peace unlike any other filled my body and in that moment I knew, there was no where else we wanted to be. Many years had passed, the people continued to live out their lives, unaware of the happening that took place at the castle. The towns were being rebuilt, children ran through the streets smiling and laughing. The castle slowly became ruins and continued to fall apart. It was the cost for a prosperous future, and in the moment of our deaths, we both knew what our sacrifice would bring. We both passed away with smiles on our faces.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>As we entered the grand room, Alesis walked ahead of me. Her walk was a little off and she was laughing strangely, "You...you're so naive. Too kind for your own good, thats whats going to get you killed." "What?" I stared confused as she faced away from me, still in the center of the room. "I am the one responsible for the land's decay, I tainted the earth with shadows. I will destroy you, you cannot be allowed to live." In that moment, her body turned into a shadowy silhouette and started horribly disfiguring itself. Her form went from human to a giagantic beast that stood 2 stories tall. It almost reached the ceiling of the massive room. Its arms were covered in firey shadows and had horns the size of tree trunks. Crystals emerged from its back and arms, they were colored reds, greens, blues, oranges and yellows. It stood on 2 legs and grew massive claws upon its fingertips. Its mouth opened to reveal horribly jagged teeth, its chest and neck started to glow orange and then the glow started to emit from its throat. I needed to move fast. Just as my feet moved off the ground, the air surrounding me got very hot and a burst of orange and red flew by. The heat from the shot of fire was immense. The blast hit the floor and soon after the monster tried to hit me by smashing into the ground with its mighty arms. It was fast for its size but I was still faster, I dashed over to its arms before they left the ground and made a deep cut on the monster's arm. > You standing Among the Rubble (Without Sword Only) The monster roared and raged, seething with malice and decay. Its arms lashed out and broke a pillar off in the grand room causing rubble and debris to fly everywhere. The muscles in my legs tensed and brought me to my feet, a feeling of courage overcame me. I gripped the sword tightly in my hands, a burning sun started to find its way through the broken up ceiling, the gleams almost made it seem like my dagger was on fire. I ran up the flight of stairs, nearing the upper half of the monster. It began to lean up towards me, eyes red with fury and hatred. The massive shadowy claws of the monster were fast approaching me, I planted my feet into the ground and held my breath and cut through the dark figure's reach with my dagger. It reared back, screeching in pain, black ooze dripping from its hand. Its arms were outstretched as it roared, its chest exposed. I leaped towards the monster and buried the dagger deep into the center of its chest, I closed my eyes and gritted my teeth. . The flesh of the monster began to ooze all around me and the crystals in its skin began to crumble into nothingness. I was slowly lowered down to the ground, standing over her. Alesis laid before me, bleeding out where she was stabbed. The seething hatred did not disappear from those eyes and her face wore a crooked grimace. I took her by the hand and glared right back, "With you gone, the land can finally return to what it once was. The people can finally take back what you have stolen from them. Burn until we meet again." Her grip loosened in my hands, I laid her hand down gently onto the floor. Just then, I began to hear birds outside. I haven't heard birds in many years. I looked towards the sky and the darkness that once overtook it was replaced by a brilliant blue. I smiled knowing her tyranny over these people was over. Many hard years later, I became a hero throughout the many towns of Millenia, and eventually a king. The towns were being rebuilt, children ran through the streets smiling and laughing. The castle slowly being rebuilt, but it still bore the many battle scars from that day. The land also slowly regained the life it once had many years ago, water began to flow through creeks, the grass grew from black to green and all the flowers eventually burst with their true colors. I will never forgive that beast for what it did to these people, but at least now, the land can recover from all those years of strife.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>I woke with a start from a sudden nudge on my arm, I gasped and lurched forward and eyes wide only to be met with her dumb and excited smile. The black grass was once again easily visible with shades of purple distiguishing the individual blades, Mox got up as well, dust and dirt fell from his brilliant white coat. All that was left of the fire was a few glowing cinder specs and black charcoal from the firewood. I slowly got up and dusted myself off, she already had the sleeping bag rolled up and back on Mox. She stood next to him eagerly waiting, almost hopping up and down. I reluctantly got on Mox and she soon followed, we were on our way to the small town known as Tyda. On our way there, her happy aura started to disappear. "I'm sorry to ask this of you, but would you be willing to take me to the castle? Its much easier with company and a mount rather than being on foot." The castle had become a dangerous place since it had been abandoned all this time, I was skeptical but she was the princess after all. There must be secrets in the castle that only she knows about and needs to be there for some reason, I agreed to help her with her request. She was going to go there with or without my help anyways. Roughly 2 hours past and finally arrived at the town, it almost seemed smaller than I remember. It had no grand walls, just wooden fences. People were sitting around near the street all over and chickens would be seen walking across the road. carridge tracks had been thoroughly worn into the dirt but there was hardly any road traffic. We made our way over to a merchant who had a wide variety of good, everything from old books to food and supplies. I traded the shiny medallion I had in my pocket for the sleeping bag, more food and other supplies. While we were making our purchase, the merchant kept glancing up at me. When we finished collecting our things from the stand, he suddenly said "You've both come a long way haven't you? Listen, my supplies haven't been coming in as much recently due to a black beast wandering near here. I've been coming to this town trading goods for awhile and I've learned quite a bit about it. If you can slay the beast I'll repay you handsomely." > You expressionless "No, a town like this couldn't offer us anything of value. Thanks but we'll be on our way now." I proceeded to make my way back over to Mox and Alesis followed suit, she briefly looked back at the merchant and back over to where Mox was standing. We loaded up our new goods onto the saddle and got on. That merchant looked like the shady type, he looks like he's played a part in shady affairs. Mox began to move towards the direction of the castle, its footprints now joining the many others that once walked the dirt road. I held my dagger close and rode onward.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The splattering of raindrops was echoing through the rustic chambers of the cathedral. Damp, cool air passed over your skin, and despite the mail you wear, managed to send a shiver coursing through your entire body. The sky had turned dark and vile, as if the lord himself was trying to signify a bad omen. "...and thus in the name of the Father his Son and the Holy Spirit, do you vow to uphold your piety and rule with the value of justice?" "I do." "Then I, Louis I, son of Charles I of Hungary, representative and prince-elector of the house of Anjou, do hereby declare you the king of the romans. May the whole of christendom prosper under your reign." Golden torchlight was glistening off the plates attached to his mail. You had awaited this day, this exact moment for a very long time...all that’s left now is- A guard dressed from head-to-toe in heavy plate mail rushes into the chamber, distracting you from your train of thought. He bears the crest of the house of Wittelsbatch on his armour. "What is the meaning of this? You dare to interfere with the ceremony?" says a commanding voice. "I beg your pardon mein Herr," sayed the guard as he bows down. "However, it is of utmost importance that these premises be vacated. The army of the imperial cities has breached our defenses." > A month ago The streets of the bustling city of Prague had gone silent. Once upon a time, filled to the brim with merchants, tradesfolk and peasants, it now looks plain and deserted. The chill, cool air of the autumn weather passed through the city, as trees with yellowed leaves swayed gently in the breeze. Then, the grand city gates opened and in stepped a huge army. Footmen marched down the streets towards the Prague castle, being directed by a mounted man in dark steel plate, a knight. You clearly saw the approaching army through the fortifications. It’s a good thing that the alarm was sounded before hand. All you hoped for was that the people remain safe in their houses. The army came to a halt just before entering ballista range. The steel plate knight rode forward along with three heavily armoured soldiers on horse back, one of them carrying a white flag. You signaled the archers to be at ease. It was a dishonour to strike down an escort wishing to parley. The 4-man escort stopped short of hearing range at the foot of the castle. "Greetings to the great emperor Charles, I am Ansel, the representative of the free cities and general of the coup. It is with deep remorse that things have come to this mein Herr, however I'm sure after violating the agreement we had settled upon this was a given." "Herr Ansel of Millvesko. The perpetrator behind this whole ordeal. I'm glad to have met you here in person before I ordered your village to be run to the ground for treason!" "Treason? What treason do you speak of mein Herr? We were never bound to your lordship, you agreed to grant us our freedom in exchange for alliance, military help and an annual tithe, and this is how you honour our agreement?! By selling us off to your subjects as mere slaves? Have you no honour Holy Roman Emperor, or has your worth fallen to those of con-men and scoundrel bandits?!" "How dare you defile the name of your emperor!" shouts Wenceslas from behind. "You are going to apologize and repent for your actions, otherwise face the siniste-" "Calm down son, we aren't a pack of barbarians. Things can still be settled in a diplomatic fashion, could we come to terms with negotiations herr Ansel? We could give you entry to the royal garden nearby to discuss." "Agreed, mein Herr. I consider it foolish to negotiate for that which is rightfully mine; but it's better to save the bloodshed for another day. However, each of us will only bring along 3 guards." > You agree “A fair proposal, Herr Ansel, we shall continue this conversation at the royal gardens. God be with you,” you say and prepare to gather your escort. “May God be with you too mein Herr, you’ll surely need luck and fortune,” Ansel begins to speak something but then stops himself. After a few moments he speaks,”I know the true reason behind your actions mein Herr...” he says while staring directly at Wenceslas,”and I would advice you as your subject and well-wisher to agree to this negotiations; or face sinister ramifications in lack of thereof.” Beads of sweat begin to roll down your forehead. You close your eyes for a moment and think to yourself, making an attempt to call your nerves. Opening your eyes, you feel an instant of clearness, taking a long hard look at Wenceslas. “I sincerely hope you see the light mein Herr, this negotiation will be beneficial to us both.” Ansel, along with three of his escorts, gallops towards the entrance of the fort. You walk through the fortifications, down the wooden stairway and look up to the cathedral in the main courtyard. “In the name of the Father, his Son and the Holy Spirit amen.” It’s a good thing you ordered the renovation of the castle. It’s been around for over 400 years now and hasn’t been once captured. The symbol of greatness of the kingdom of Bohemia no doubt. Various statues of the saints are constructed around the basalt platform. Their colour as white as the snow during the peak of winter. Decorative pillars with little criss crosses lead all the way up to the towering rooftop. On top of which sits a miniature platform bearing the cross, made from pure silver mined in the bowels of the mountains near Skalitz. Highest structure of entirety of Prague. This reminded you of a verse by a bard you heard the other day... “The great city of Prague, mighty with it’s legacy, Worthy of a monologue, cause of strife and jealousy! The strikes of hammer at forges, the pulls of carriages and horses, Guided by King Charles, they’re destined for a legacy!” The thought brought forth a sense of pride in your mind and a feeling of jubilance to your heart. “The lord has selected me and deemed me worthy enough to be where I am today. I will not let him down. It’s his and my will that this kingdom prosper under my reign. I only hope that my son follows this path...” You turned to Wenceslas who was following you along with two of your best soldiers. “Son, I have gone through tests of fire and steel, of both the mind and body all in order to make give you the power you rightfully deserve. I’ve given Sigismund power over Hungary and you are my rightful heir to the throne. My obligations as your father are over, it’s now up to the both of you to work together an-“ “Father, father, why do you fear? Me and little sigi would surely be competent. We’ll bring Bohemia to a new legacy, following your footsteps.” You turned around facing Wenceslas eye to eye,”Just remember one thing son, always remember this... > You look before you leap You walk down the path and enter the royal gardens along with your escort. The trees are mostly bare, containing a few yellowed leaves that gently sway in the thin cool breeze. For a split second, you’re lost in the lush, green atmosphere around you. Your men, all equipped with great swords, form a comb around you as you move forward and take a seat at the wooden table in the centre. Ansel and his men stand outside the locked gate and you signal the guards to open it for them. Ansel’s men carry halbreds and stand behind him. Without a word he takes a seat at the table, his expression completely unreadable. “You look young for your age Herr Ansel.” “My age, or my background isn’t of any concern to the current matters at hand mein Herr,” he says in a flat, emotionless voice. “I know what you want, and I’ll give you my word for the vote if you agree to my terms.” “And what are these terms you speak of?” “Total Sovereignty to the free cities, along with a population of tradesmen, farmers and blacksmiths for each city and a fee for violation of the contract agreed upon.” “Have you forgotten all that I have done for you and your people? From the formation of the walls, to the establishment of the golden constitu-” “I am aware of the legacy you’ve set, great king Charles. I beg your pardon for revealing this fact to you, but legend or stickpicker, there are consequences for all when-” You stand up from your seat, placing your hands forcefully on the table. “I am the rightful owner of the cities! It is I who was the founder of them, and I don’t care of the views of some imbecile prodigy noble who knows absolutely nothing about feudalism!” Everything is silent for a few moments which feel like forever. You know the reason for your actions, it’s the only efficient way to secure the power your son rightfully deserves. This fool before you has no choice in the hand, the large army behind him is nothing but a grandiose charade. “Very well then mein Herr, I see that you need more time to comprehend this decision since you’re clearly unable to realize the implications of your actions,” says Ansel before getting up and heading towards the exit. “And what if it isn’t my wish to agree?” “You’ll regret it.” > You present Day “What’s wrong Father?” you ask as you get up from your kneeling position. “Coup of the imperial cities, I though I was done with Ansel for good.” “That bloody stick picker! We should’ve ambushed him and filled his guts with arrows when he had the chance!” Suddenly, the main doors of the cathedral are hit by a huge force. The entire structure shakes with the impact, you can feel the vibrations at your feet. The main doors are forced open and in steps a group of soldiers in a shield formation. “At arms! Everyone at arms!” Shouts your father. Your men quickly rush forward, the shield bearers stand ahead while the men equipped with pole arms stay in the second line, they’ll attempt to break the enemy formation and create an opening in their flank. “Wenceslas, take a group of five men and leave for Prague! There are horses at the back entrance!” “But fath-” You’re cut off by screams of fighting and clashing of swords and shields. Five fully armoured men form a circular formation around you, their kite shields held high up. Quickly you make your way out to the back. You’re currently wearing a ceremonial dress with nothing but a long sword sheathed at your waist. Hefting the hilt, you draw your sword, making the telltale clink sound of drawing from a sheath, and hold it with both hands. As you step outside, the scene is one full of carnage and destruction. There are dead everywhere, with mangled bodies and blood and gore being spilled on the damp wet ground. Rain water washes the path mixing with the blood in the form of miniature crimson red streams. Hoof beats are heard behind you, turning around you see a group of 3 enemy horsemen equipped with pole arms. As they rush towards you, your company is caught unawares. The point of the pole arm pierces through plate mail like knife through butter. 3 of your guards are incapacitated and unable to stand. The two remaining guards manage to land a blow on the horses and their riders fall down the ground. One of the riders fall and turn unconscious, the other two quickly get up and assume their stance with the pole arm. Your guards equipped with their great swords, spin them around in circular motion covering a huge distance and try to keep the riders away from you. One of the riders miraculously manage to side step the guards and heads towards you, but not before his pole arm is parried out of his hand. He quickly draws his long sword and faces you. You try and remember all that you’ve learnt about sword fighting from Grandmaster Liechtenauer, the blade master and your combat tutor.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Its a sunny Saturday morning, you are sitted on the staircase to your home sipping coffee and mulling over the day's newspaper after your routine morning run. Its a your rest day and you plan on tucking in the whole day having had 2 long weeks. Its been 2 years since you left the military and joined the Anti-Terrorism Unit having earned a medal of honor for saving your team from what would have been an overwhelming annihilation from enemy forces in Syria. Non-military life had its perks-relaxed time frames, more family time, no foreboding barking of commands and best of all a near-predictable life routine. Your walkie-talkie is rested on the floor next to you, just in case there were any alerts on the events frequency. Just then it chuckles to life as you turn a page on the newspaper. > You pick up walkie-talkie You pick up the walkie-talkie and reply "Copy dog patch 6" "New events have come up that need your immediate presence" replied the voice with an acute touch of urgency "Errr, I am........." "Its a level 1 situation, gather your team and get to M&T bank at Queensferry and Seagate immediately over" cut in the voice You jump onto your feet and run into the house. You dress quickly and run out. As you run out of your bed room remember you have not told your wife that you are leaving. > You talk to your wife You run to the kitchen where your wife is cooking. She smiles as she sees you. You quickly peck her on the cheek and you tell her that you have an urgent work situation. She understands and bids you goodbye. You rush out and jump onto your SUV and pull away from the parking lot in a hurry. 15 minutes later you get to your designated location and notice a number of police vehicles with their hazard lights on. Your team is already on site and awaiting further orders. You alight half running and your assistant Special agent in charge hands you your protective gear and gun. He briefs you on the situation on site and waits for your command. You assess the situation including all exit routes from the building. The terrorists have held hostage a total of 27 customers and 12 employees of the bank.They demand that a well known terrorist be released or hostages will be executed by the hour. You learn that the terrorists had planned their stay with enough food supplies for 3 days and were not planning to leave anytime. Delaying tactics would not work. You look at your watch and you only have 4 minutes until the 1st hostage is executed. Your assistants holds the line for the Director National Security Branch, just in case you decide to negotiate. "We are running out of time sir" He urges Snipers were in position and the team had also taken the front and back entrances > You call Director to release prisoners You decide that its not worth losing hostages over a single prisoner. Furthermore, it would be easier to trace a group of escaping terrorists running across the country with all the inter-agency resources at your disposal. You call the Director and he shares your views after assurance of the mission's success. You promise him that you would not let the terrorists escape. He barks vehemently on the phone and lets you know that if they escape you would be answerable. You immediately call back the terrorists and inform them of the decision to comply with their demands. The terrorists demand that their prisoner be put on a plane to a destination that would be disclosed once the plane was airbound. You make the arrangements and go back to looking at the floor plans. You notice an underlying old waterway below the building's blue print. > You inquire about the old waterway The building was renovated a decade ago and the old waterways were sealed with waterproof cement. It had remained unused for the period of time. The drainage had a diameter of about a meter and led to an abandoned septic tank 3 blocks away. > You follow up on the waterway You call your assistant and assign him an assault team of 10 strong. You send them to the septic tank and brief them. The team leaves and lays ambush at the location. As the second team drives away enroute to their location they catch a glimpse of a bomb set near the second floor window manned by one of the terrorists and let you know about it. You call your bomb expert and brief him. He examines the location and confirms that it was indeed a bomb. He tells you the good news that the bomb had to be manually set off to go off after a 5 minute timed delay. You wonder whether it is better to shoot the 2nd floor terrorist first and send the bomb expert to dispose it but risk a panic by the terrorist who may shoot the hostages or Take out the 2nd floor terrorist during the surprise attack and takeover the building without risking the hostage deaths by shooting > You shoot 2nd floor terrorist first You decide to first shoot the 2nd floor terrorist and send the bomb disposal expert. A sniper takes out the 2nd floor terrorist. The rest of the terrorists seem not to notice. You send in the bomb disposal expert through a fire escape collumn at the side of the building. He gets to the location and as he attempts to tinker with it another terrorist gets into the room and shoots your expert. Immediately he rushes to arm the bomb and is shot too by your sniper as he runs away. Hostages begin running out of the building but as they run out, an explosion tears the yard around the buidling throwing away debris . You are thrown away by the force and find yourself in a nearby ditch after a while. You stand up and look around, your ears ringing from the explosion. Your entire team is wiped out. You limp towards the entrance of the building to inspect the building. Debris is scattered all over the floor and the hall is obscured by a plume of smoke and dust settling from the explosion. you manage to reach the open vault. It has been plundered with cash bundles strewn on the floor. Its seems the robbers stole what they could carry. You limp back to the banking hall and notice a hole on the ground but before you approach it you notice your leg is bleeding profusely and tear off a piece of cloth from the debris to bandage the wound. Just then an ambulance parks at the front entrance with its sirens blaring. A paramedic runs into the bank and looks around the bank for survivors that might need help. He runs back towards you. "You don't look good," he proclaims as he proceeds to examine your leg."You need to go to hospital.'' You barely hear his voice. Out of confusion you don't say a word. Your ears are still ringing from the explosion. Just then you remember that your second team was laying an ambush at the end of the tunnels. The medic holds your hand towards the exit and you see a police vehicle idling with its doors open. You could easily jump into the vehicle and drive to the ambush site but your leg hurts > You go to the ambush You decide that there is unfinished business to attend to. You call a police officer who has just arrived , introduce yourself and inform him that the robbers might have escaped through the tunnel. He immediately gathers a team of 10 officers and plans to enter the tunnel. You get into the police vehicle and drive away towards the old septic tank. You get there and find a fire fight taking place. The robbers seem to be heavily armed and pin down your officers. Your team is annihilated and taken down. You pick an M16 rifle and join the fight. You tactically try to delay the robbers from leaving until the police officers in the water tunnels arrive. You run out of ammunition and you find yourself surrounded by the 5 masked men. They get to your position but hesitate once they see your face. the leader of the team raises his arm and clenches a fist to command the men to hold fire - special forces style. As you wonder why you are being spared a 5th man emerges from the tunnel and shouts "tunnels are boobytrapped." He screeches to a stop when he notices you lying on the floor like a deer amidst a pack of wolves. Your eyes meet and for a moment your faces show bewilderment. "Jack? Is that you?" He looks down. The rest of the men peel off their masks. > You unlikely reunion "Rohn, Lewis, Sean, Larry and Beck" you muse as you stand up to regard them. They were all part of another team of your special forces unit that had been regarded Killed in Action during a search and rescue mission two years ago in a Siberian bank heist. The discovery finally solved a mystery in which both the team, the robbers and the money were never found. You remain speechless as the revelation hits you piece by piece. No wonder the heist was executed with pin point precision. "We don't have time." muttered Jack. He picks a box full of cash and places it at your feet and signals the team to pack off. You are still in a dilemma as the team leaves you standing and walks away towards a parking lot guns in hand. > You take the cash and walk away You decide its too dangerous to pursue the team of elite ex-military men. In addition you have alot of cash to spend, retire and make your family comfortable. You pick up the box of cash and walk away towards a taxi at the corner of the block. You get in and travel back home. You count the money and find amounts in excess of 20 million dollars. You hide your find and head back to hospital for treatment. Your boss later visits you in hospital and lets you know that a team of policemen spotted the robbers splitting the stolen money near a parking lot. They managed to dispose an explosive devise planted at the scene and were reviewing nearby CCTV surveillance cameras to identify the culprits. Your heart beats palpitatingly as you listen to the Special Agent in Charge. The boss is a close friend who always respected you for your professional records. You wonder whether you should confess that you took some money from the team and split the spoils or let the investigation take its course since there was a chance the video surveillance might not reveal his identity at the parking lot > You confess to the Special agent in charge You trust your boss and call him aside where you narrate to him the story. He keeps quiet the whole time and asks where the money was. You lie to him that it was hidden at your office drawer, just in case he did not comply with your suggestion. He immediately summons 2 agents accompanying him to the hospital. "Place special agent Jasper under arrest until you hear from me" he commands and leaves you handcuffed to the hospital bed. You ask the two agents to allow you to make a call to your wife and since they know you they agree. You call your wife and you let her know the situation. Fortunately you had told her about the days events and she understands your predicament and stashes the loot elsewhere. The CCTV surveillance reports come out and fails to reveal your identities. The heist team was clever enough to cover their tracks and destroyed the camera a day before the heist. You are let free for lack of evidence and your boss is fired for implicating a decorated member of the National Security Division.Your retire from the force with full honors > You 3 months later You are sitted on your porch sipping coffee and reading your newspaper. Your phone rests on the small coffee table. you pick up the call from a strange number. "Hi Jasper, its Jack Zulu," ready for the next mission?"<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You decide its too dangerous to pursue the team of elite ex-military men. In addition you have alot of cash to spend, retire and make your family comfortable. You pick up the box of cash and walk away towards a taxi at the corner of the block. You get in and travel back home. You count the money and find amounts in excess of 20 million dollars. You hide your find and head back to hospital for treatment. Your boss later visits you in hospital and lets you know that a team of policemen spotted the robbers splitting the stolen money near a parking lot. They managed to dispose an explosive devise planted at the scene and were reviewing nearby CCTV surveillance cameras to identify the culprits. Your heart beats palpitatingly as you listen to the Special Agent in Charge. The boss is a close friend who always respected you for your professional records. You wonder whether you should confess that you took some money from the team and split the spoils or let the investigation take its course since there was a chance the video surveillance might not reveal his identity at the parking lot > You keep quiet about your meeting with the robbers You don't trust your boss. He is a stickler for rules and he may report you. You let the incident go and sit there listening to him.The CCTV surveillance reports come out and fails to reveal your identities. The heist team was clever enough to cover their tracks and destroyed the camera a day before the heist. You recover and go on with your duties in the force to avoid suspicion. You plan to keep a low profile and retire in the next 2 years. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Rohn, Lewis, Sean, Larry and Beck" you muse as you stand up to regard them. They were all part of another team of your special forces unit that had been regarded Killed in Action during a search and rescue mission two years ago in a Siberian bank heist. The discovery finally solved a mystery in which both the team, the robbers and the money were never found. You remain speechless as the revelation hits you piece by piece. No wonder the heist was executed with pin point precision. "We don't have time." muttered Jack. He picks a box full of cash and places it at your feet and signals the team to pack off. You are still in a dilemma as the team leaves you standing and walks away towards a parking lot guns in hand. > You warn the police officers and pursue the robbers You warn the officer that there was an explosive rigged to blow in the tunnel. You wait for backup and decide to pursue the team. Although your backup sustains injuries and deaths you manage to arrest 2 of the men and recover a total of 112 million dollars. You also save the lives of 10 police officers. You receive a presidential commendation and are appointed the director of the National Security Division. > You retribution You are at your office when you receive a call that a group of terrorists have held hostages in a nearby bank. The terrorists demand that you be handed over to them in exchange for the release of the hostages. the president gives you a call and lets you know that he trusts your judgment. As you deliberate on the matter a hostage is shot dead. You assess the situation. 1 life for many.......seemingly fairtrade.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You decide to first shoot the 2nd floor terrorist and send the bomb disposal expert. A sniper takes out the 2nd floor terrorist. The rest of the terrorists seem not to notice. You send in the bomb disposal expert through a fire escape collumn at the side of the building. He gets to the location and as he attempts to tinker with it another terrorist gets into the room and shoots your expert. Immediately he rushes to arm the bomb and is shot too by your sniper as he runs away. Hostages begin running out of the building but as they run out, an explosion tears the yard around the buidling throwing away debris . You are thrown away by the force and find yourself in a nearby ditch after a while. You stand up and look around, your ears ringing from the explosion. Your entire team is wiped out. You limp towards the entrance of the building to inspect the building. Debris is scattered all over the floor and the hall is obscured by a plume of smoke and dust settling from the explosion. you manage to reach the open vault. It has been plundered with cash bundles strewn on the floor. Its seems the robbers stole what they could carry. You limp back to the banking hall and notice a hole on the ground but before you approach it you notice your leg is bleeding profusely and tear off a piece of cloth from the debris to bandage the wound. Just then an ambulance parks at the front entrance with its sirens blaring. A paramedic runs into the bank and looks around the bank for survivors that might need help. He runs back towards you. "You don't look good," he proclaims as he proceeds to examine your leg."You need to go to hospital.'' You barely hear his voice. Out of confusion you don't say a word. Your ears are still ringing from the explosion. Just then you remember that your second team was laying an ambush at the end of the tunnels. The medic holds your hand towards the exit and you see a police vehicle idling with its doors open. You could easily jump into the vehicle and drive to the ambush site but your leg hurts > You go to hospital You decide to let your assistant handle the situation. You get onto the ambulance and go to hospital. You later learn that the ambush team was wiped out in the attack and another 10 police officers were killed by explosives. A total of 112 million dollars was stolen from the bank. You are tried for negligence and lose your job over the your team and the police officers' deaths.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You call your assistant and assign him an assault team of 10 strong. You send them to the septic tank and brief them. The team leaves and lays ambush at the location. As the second team drives away enroute to their location they catch a glimpse of a bomb set near the second floor window manned by one of the terrorists and let you know about it. You call your bomb expert and brief him. He examines the location and confirms that it was indeed a bomb. He tells you the good news that the bomb had to be manually set off to go off after a 5 minute timed delay. You wonder whether it is better to shoot the 2nd floor terrorist first and send the bomb expert to dispose it but risk a panic by the terrorist who may shoot the hostages or Take out the 2nd floor terrorist during the surprise attack and takeover the building without risking the hostage deaths by shooting > You surprise attack You decide a coordinated surprise attack would be more effective in arresting the fallout from the hostage situation. You order your sniper to shoot the terrorist on 2nd floor and shoot anyone entering the room when the attack commences. You give the command and the attack is made. All hostages run out of the building but the terrorist disappear through the underground water tunnels. You alert your team laying ambush to expect company at their end. You jump into a waiting car and rush to the ambush site<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The building was renovated a decade ago and the old waterways were sealed with waterproof cement. It had remained unused for the period of time. The drainage had a diameter of about a meter and led to an abandoned septic tank 3 blocks away. > You ignore waterway and focus on the current location You decided the waterway is too old and is sealed. In addition you know that the terrorists were most likely to use the hostages to escape. It would be a waste of resources to send another team to the septic tank and you would rather focus your attention on the current location > You prisoner release After 20 minutes the prisoner has boarded the plane and is airborne. You inform the terrorists that their prisoner is airborne. The terrorists demand that the plane land at a secondary private airstrip near the border and be handed to a team waiting to transfer him to a jet. You weigh your options. If you complied with their actions,the prisoner is likely to escape since you were not allowed to pursue targets across the border, otherwise it would spew diplomatic rows as it would be seen as an act of war. If you detained the prisoner, the terrorists are likely to kill all the hostages at the bank. Both options were not tenable but a choice had to be made > The bluff You decide to release the prisoner and decide to accompany the team escorting the prisoner to the strip. You get to the airstrip and find a jet ready to leave. You realize there is no way of retaining the prisoner and that the best way is to first ensure safe custody of hostages.The prisoner embarks on the jet and you rush back to the plane to coordinate the hostage release. As your plane nears the city you see a billow of black smoke rising to the sky. You learn that your entire team has been wiped out. As you are still pondering, your cell phone rings. It is your brother's wife calling.You pick up the call and listen. "Halo........he is gone, he is gone" sobs your sister in law "who is gone? where...." You ask "Tim was killed in the attack"she answers and continues to cry until the line goes dead. You hold your head in anguish Later on you discover that the prisoner release was a trick diversion to draw your attention away from the bank. A large consignment of cash was stolen through abandoned underground waterways and the bombs set off anyway by a group believed to be ex-military personnel. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You decide that its not worth losing hostages over a single prisoner. Furthermore, it would be easier to trace a group of escaping terrorists running across the country with all the inter-agency resources at your disposal. You call the Director and he shares your views after assurance of the mission's success. You promise him that you would not let the terrorists escape. He barks vehemently on the phone and lets you know that if they escape you would be answerable. You immediately call back the terrorists and inform them of the decision to comply with their demands. The terrorists demand that their prisoner be put on a plane to a destination that would be disclosed once the plane was airbound. You make the arrangements and go back to looking at the floor plans. You notice an underlying old waterway below the building's blue print. > You ignore the waterway and focus on coordinating the release You decided the waterway is too old and is sealed. In addition you know that the terrorists were most likely to use the hostages to escape. It would be a waste of resources to send another team to the septic tank and you would rather focus your attention on the current location. > You prisoner release The terrorists demand for their prisoner to be put on a plane whose destination would be disclosed once it was airborne. After 20 minutes the prisoner has boarded the plane and is airborne. You inform the terrorists that their prisoner is airborne. The terrorists demand that the plane land at a secondary private airstrip near the border and be handed to a team waiting to transfer him to a jet. You weigh your options. If you complied with their actions,the prisoner is likely to escape since you were not allowed to pursue targets across the border, otherwise it would spew diplomatic rows as it would be seen as an act of war. If you detained the prisoner, the terrorists are likely to kill all the hostages at the bank. Both options were not tenable but a choice had to be made > The bluff You decide to release the prisoner and decide to accompany the team escorting the prisoner to the strip. You get to the airstrip and find a jet ready to leave. You realize there is no way of retaining the prisoner and that the best way is to first ensure safe custody of hostages.The prisoner embarks on the jet and you rush back to the plane to coordinate the hostage release. As your plane nears the city you see a billow of black smoke rising to the sky. You learn that your entire team has been wiped out. In addition, a cash consignment of 112 million dollars has been stolen from the bank by the robbers who escaped through underground waterways. The prisoner release was a ruse to distract you from the escape. You are tried for negligence and for the death of your team. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You run to the kitchen where your wife is cooking. She smiles as she sees you. You quickly peck her on the cheek and you tell her that you have an urgent work situation. She understands and bids you goodbye. You rush out and jump onto your SUV and pull away from the parking lot in a hurry. 15 minutes later you get to your designated location and notice a number of police vehicles with their hazard lights on. Your team is already on site and awaiting further orders. You alight half running and your assistant Special agent in charge hands you your protective gear and gun. He briefs you on the situation on site and waits for your command. You assess the situation including all exit routes from the building. The terrorists have held hostage a total of 27 customers and 12 employees of the bank.They demand that a well known terrorist be released or hostages will be executed by the hour. You learn that the terrorists had planned their stay with enough food supplies for 3 days and were not planning to leave anytime. Delaying tactics would not work. You look at your watch and you only have 4 minutes until the 1st hostage is executed. Your assistants holds the line for the Director National Security Branch, just in case you decide to negotiate. "We are running out of time sir" He urges Snipers were in position and the team had also taken the front and back entrances > You launch a surgical strike with unknown casualties You decide to launch a surgical strike but you don't know the number of casualties that would be injured . As you read through your plan for the final time you notice some old abandoned underground waterways beneath the building.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You pick up the walkie-talkie and reply "Copy dog patch 6" "New events have come up that need your immediate presence" replied the voice with an acute touch of urgency "Errr, I am........." "Its a level 1 situation, gather your team and get to M&T bank at Queensferry and Seagate immediately over" cut in the voice You jump onto your feet and run into the house. You dress quickly and run out. As you run out of your bed room remember you have not told your wife that you are leaving. > You run outside the house You decide that you don't have the time to talk to your wife and you rush out ,jump onto your SUV and pull away from the parking lot in a hurry. You step on the accelerator as you hit the highway. Meanwhile your wife rushes outside and finds the SUV tearing away from the parking lot at high speed. Unaware that it was you driving away, she immediately thinks the car has been stolen and rushes to call the police to report the theft. "What is your emergency?'' Asks the telephone operator on the other end "I am reporting a stolen vehicle" she replies She describes the vehicle and its last seen location. "We have officers on that road, just give me a moment." The line goes quiet for a moment and then the operator speaks,"officers have placed a road block on all roads.we shall inform you of all new developments. meanwhile stay in touch in case we need clarification." > You roadblock You have been driving at high speed for the last 4 minutes. Suddenly you notice a traffic jam forming ahead of you. You pull out of the road and drive along the walk way honking as you snake your way through the lines of vehicles. You get to a junction and an officer signals for you to stop. Before you explain your situation 3 officers point guns at your face as the rest close the road. They force you out the vehicle and cuff you on the ground. As you try to explain yourself you are whisked away and the vehicle is searched for weapons. They find a walkie-talkie and service pistol and they immediately take you to a police station 20 minutes away. Unfortunately you have forgotten your badge and cannot prove that you are an agent. The 1st opportunity you get to speak is at the interview room when you are being questioned. You explain the day's predicaments and by the time you finish your wife appears in the questioning room. She informs the police that you are her husband and they let you go after apologizing. They hand you back your pistol, walkie-talkie and car. Just as you are about to leave the station you catch a glimpse of the television at the reception. It has been the perfect rest day. You lie on the couch and switch on the Television. There is breaking news showing terrorism attack in your city. 139 civilians and 23 agents of the Anti-terrorism Unit are reported dead from an explosion that rocked a bank in your city. The terrorists are said to have demanded for release of a well known prisoner but the security forces decided to launch an attack to rescue the hostages. Unknown to them, the whole building had been rigged to blow in case a rescue mission was attempted. You shoot to your feet, mouth agape as you take in the bad news. Your whole team has been wiped out in the attack. As you are still pondering, your cell phone rings. It is your brother's wife calling. You pick up the call and listen. "Halo........he is gone, he is gone" sobs your sister in law "who is gone? where...." You ask "Tim was killed in the attack"she answers and continues to cry until the line goes dead. You fall onto your knees and hold your head in anguish > You retribution You pull out of your grief in an instant. You call your senior and learn that the explosion has devastated your security force. You jump into your SUV and hit the road once more. Its a furious drive to the site and your feet hit the ground as the car screeches to a halt. You can feel adrenaline coursing through your veins as you walk over the site to look for clues, the kind that you usually felt when jumping off planes and dodging bullets back in the army. A couple of rescuers are on site to pull the hostages from the debris. Your eyes pore over as you look for what could be the bodies of the dead terrorists. A gaping hole welcomes you to one corner office at the far left of the banking hole. You peer into the hole and discover an underground tunnel. It seems old but wide enough to snuggle through. None of the bodies outside matched the profile of terrorists. You realize this could be the gunmen's escape route. > You pursuit You look around you and notice an armored truck pulling over at the bank's foyer. Its a replenishment of agents from your force. You immediately talk to a team leader disembarking from one of the vehicles. You walk over your findings with him. He spreads out a security map indicating old underground tunnels leading to an abandoned septic tank 3 blocks away. He assigns you a 10 man detail and a vehicle and selects another 10 men to pursue the attackers from the bank through the tunnels. > You go to the ambush You get there and immediately you alight from your vehicle a fire fight begins. The robbers seem to be heavily armed and pin down your officers. Your team is annihilated and taken down. Your M16 rifle runs out of ammunition and you find yourself surrounded by 5 masked men. They get to your position but hesitate once they see your face. the leader of the team raises his arm and clenches a fist to command the men to hold fire - special forces style. As you wonder why you are being spared a 5th man emerges from the tunnel and shouts "tunnels are boobytrapped." He screeches to a stop when he notices you lying on the floor like a deer amidst a pack of wolves. Your eyes meet and for a moment your faces show bewilderment. "Jack? Is that you?" You ask as he looks down. The rest of the men peel off their masks. > You unlikely reunion "Rohn, Lewis, Sean, Larry and Beck" you muse as you stand up to regard them. They were all part of another team of your special forces unit that had been regarded Killed in Action during a search and rescue mission two years ago in a Siberian bank heist. The discovery finally solved a mystery in which both the team, the robbers and the money were never found. You remain speechless as the revelation hits you piece by piece. No wonder the heist was executed with pin point precision. "We don't have time." muttered Jack. He picks a box full of cash and places it at your feet and signals the team to pack off. You are still in a dilemma as the team leaves you standing and walks away towards a parking lot guns in hand. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Its a sunny Saturday morning, you are sitted on the staircase to your home sipping coffee and mulling over the day's newspaper after your routine morning run. Its a your rest day and you plan on tucking in the whole day having had 2 long weeks. Its been 2 years since you left the military and joined the Anti-Terrorism Unit having earned a medal of honor for saving your team from what would have been an overwhelming annihilation from enemy forces in Syria. Non-military life had its perks-relaxed time frames, more family time, no foreboding barking of commands and best of all a near-predictable life routine. Your walkie-talkie is rested on the floor next to you, just in case there were any alerts on the events frequency. Just then it chuckles to life as you turn a page on the newspaper. > You do not pick up walkie-talkie You look at the walkie-talkie. Its not your job since you are on rest. You had promised your wife to stay at home and play with the kids. More so, there were other Special Agents in charge to lead the team.You turn to the next page and proceed to read the news paper ignoring the call. The line goes quiet and you forget the whole incident. You can smell something sweet coming from the kitchen and you cant wait to have the good meal. > You perfect rest day It has been the perfect rest day. You lie on the couch and switch on the Television. There is breaking news showing terrorism attack in your city. 139 civilians and 23 agents of the Anti-terrorism Unit are reported dead from an explosion that rocked a bank in your city. The terrorists are said to have demanded for release of a well known prisoner but the security forces decided to launch an attack to rescue the hostages. Unknown to them, the whole building had been rigged to blow in case a rescue mission was attempted. You shoot to your feet, mouth agape as you take in the bad news. Your whole team has been wiped out in the attack. As you are still pondering, your cell phone rings. It is your brother's wife calling. You pick up the call and listen. "Halo........he is gone, he is gone" sobs your sister in law "who is gone? where...." You ask "Tim was killed in the attack"she answers and continues to cry until the line goes dead. You fall onto the couch and hold your head in anguish<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Darkness.... You awake to find yourself lying on the floor. Cold. You shiver and listen. There is no sound except for your own heart beat and lungs drawing breath. > You search the floor You begin to crawl across the hard surface. Reaching out to see if there is anything of use... anything at all. Your hands come across a cold cylindric item. You feel across it to find a button and press it. Thankfully, you are no longer in the dark, and have found a flashlight. It's a little over a foot long, one of those tough black ones you've seen police officers use. Now that you can see, you search your pockets to see if you can find anything of use. You check your left pocket for your cell phone, but it is no longer there. The right pocket is empty as well. Whoever put you here obviously didn't want you to get out. Finally, you check your back pocket. Maybe they at least left you your wallet. You pull out and unfold the leather and see your ID. Name: Azure Age: 23 Height: 5'8 Hair: Brown Eyes: Brown There is also a small picture of a woman with long blonde hair and blue eyes. This wasn't here before, you think to yourself. You wish you knew who she was but no memories reveal. > You search the Room Your light scans the small room. You see a door immediately in front of you. Observing more closely, you find a note taped to the handle. The rest of the room is just hard stone wall. This door looks to be the only way out.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>I'm sorry, Jane, that I wasn't older, stronger and wiser when we met. You were a brief illumination in my otherwise bleak existence. I know now that the circumstances were out of our hands and that you would want me to be happy, but I've lived with this guilt for so long. I need to share you with everyone... > You into the past... You haven’t eaten anything since early this morning and the walls of your stomach are grinding together. You have to get your mind off of it somehow and the water fountain on the far wall beckons to you. You’ve been on the road for days and it feels like the better part of it has been planted in this seat—even though you’ve only been here for the last couple of hours. The skin on your back and the backs of your bare legs rip free of the hard plastic seat as you stand and your flip-flops slap and smack your heels as you plod across the room. You freeze midway when you see a cowboy roping a calf from horseback. It’s the most wonderful thing you’ve seen for days even if it is only a poster. And it’s not the only one! Scanning the room you see many, many more of far off magical places with waterfalls and cliffs and mountains and dark caverns. Some of cityscapes with towering buildings and some at night with only the lights on and still more of endless rolling plains. From somewhere behind you, you hear a garbled voice fighting it’s way through crackling static, droning on and on about things that only old people care about. You zero in on the source and discover that it is a tiny coin operated radio affixed to the arm of a terminal seat. Neat! Just then a clammy hand clamps down on the back of your neck and you’re whisked toward the double glass doors. “It’s time to go, mister,” comes the all too familiar voice of your mom and she only releases her grip—with a surprise thrust that causes you to whack your shin on the bottom step—to allow you to clamber up and into the bus on your own. A shiver runs down your spine and the back of your arms prickle as you make your way down the aisle between tall and comfy-looking seats. You’re not used to air conditioning and it brings both pain and relief. You pass by an elderly couple. The woman looks up and smiles at you warmly so you give her a wide berth. You doubt that she would, being a stranger and all, but you sure don’t want her squeezing your cheek like Grandma does. You’re nudged into the row behind them and you take the farthest seat. Your mother sits beside you and puts the bag with everything the two of you own at her feet. Her lips are pursed and her eyes drawn. She’s been tired every day since the divorce and when she gets tired, she gets mad. You have a hard time even recognizing her now. A hiss and a lurch later, the bus pulls out onto the highway and with your face plastered to the side window you watch as the fence posts strobe past with only the occasional bush or sapling breaking the pattern. “There’s a storm coming,” remarks the old man to his wife, “and it looks to be a bad ‘un.” “Mm-hmm,” she replies absently, not bothering to look up from her needlepoint. Your eyes drift upward from the fence to a draw on the horizon and there the sky is beginning to boil and bristle with blue-white sparks. You can’t shake the feeling that you are at the very beginning of the greatest adventure—and worst nightmare—of your life. After only a mile or two, the droning of the engine and the rhythmic beat of its tires thumping over the seams in the concrete soothes you to sleep and you sleep the whole rest of the way. You are shaken from a pleasant dream of opening Christmas presents with your parents to stumble and trip over your feet as you’re dragged toward the front of the bus. It pulls over, dumping the two of you out on a deserted street. You know it’s only your reflection, but the ghastly and pale boy is all you can make out in the store window before you. It brightens and fades, brightens and fades with each pulse of the stoplight on the corner. You take a step backward and the wind from the bus pushes you forward as it pulls away. “You tryin’ to get yourself run over?” Your mother cups the back of your head and shoves you toward the boy with hollow eye-sockets, “Get over there and sit down against the wall.” You do as your told, although you can’t help but look up at the glass expecting him to be standing there looking down at you. An eternity goes by with your mom standing slumped against a signpost and staring off into the night. Your butt burns as the bones chew their way to the cement. You rock slowly from one side to the other to relieve the pain and she flashes her eyes at you. You melt. “Sit there and don’t move,” she barks as she leaps toward the flashing light. A car has stopped at the corner and she waves her arms as she sprints toward it. It begins to pull away, but stops short and the window tentatively rolls down. You can’t make out her words, but there’s happiness in your mother’s voice again as she crouches there with her elbows propped against the car door. Maybe she’s not mad anymore. You stretch your legs out as far as you can and wiggle your toes. She stands as the car pulls away and turns toward you. You can’t see her face, but there’s no mad in her walk now. You let out a long breath in relief. “C’mon, I’ve found us a place to sleep tonight,” she beams snatching up the bag, “and tomorrow I start job huntin’. We’re gonna do jus’ fine you an’ me. You wait an’ see.” She wraps her arm around your shoulders and the two of you skip off around the corner and into the crisp night air. You sit with your shoulders slumped, dragging your feet in a circle as the swing’s chains lazily wind and unwind and then wind up again. You’ve already walked around the park twice and sat on everything here so now all you can do is wait. “You wait here an’ watch our stuff,” your mom had told you, “I’ve got a lot to do today an’, with any luck, things’ll be a whole lot better from now on. And don’t you leave the park! You hear me? I’ll be back as quick as I can.” Your stomach grumbles. The two half-crushed cheese and peanut butter crackers your mom gave you before she left didn’t do much to satisfy it. At least the gnawing emptiness is gone. You hear a squeal and giggles so you look up. Some little kids are playing in the dirt at the bottom of the slide as if it were a sandbox. A dozen steps away from them sits a plump woman with her nose in a book. You survey the park for other signs of life and spot a group about your age. Three boys in a circle around a dark-haired girl. They’re pushing her back and forth between them like some demented form of ‘Hot Potato’. “Where do you think you’re going?” jeers the fat one. “Yeah, you ain’t goin’ nowhere you little bastard,” cracks the snotty runt. “Let me go!” she hisses, “Leave me alone!” The tallest of the three quakes from head to toe and nearly loses his breath in a fit of really annoying breathy laughter as he shoves her back toward the other two. The girl turns beet red from anger and lashes out with flailing, non-connecting slaps which only seems to feed the boys’ hysterical laughter. You have the sudden urge to attack them, but that might be a little hasty. Perhaps you should find some other way.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You are Linda Niles, at just 19 you have become one of the most famous singers on the planet, your career started at 15 and you have enjoyed rave reviews, record breaking sales and all the fans a person could want. In addition, you have managed to avoid scandals and developing an ego, which have destroyed countless other singer careers, you live a life most dream of. Another typical day of your life, you are to make an appearance at the Destiny Hill Mall located in Destiny Hill, New Jersey. Recently you have become the spokeswoman, for Zidane's clothing and you are there to promote the opening of their newest store. They are a hoity toity clothing store that is hoping your endorsement will have people buy from them despite their outrageous prices. You arrive at the mall around noon in a inconspicuous car so the dozens of people waiting around outside don't notice you. The car stops in in the employee parking lot, you get out and sneak in through the employee entrance which is surround by half dozen police officers. Once inside you head up a flight of stairs, hearing the screaming of your fans, there must be hundreds of them. This doesn't bother you as you've had countless concerts that had as much 20,000 fans so it's actually more quiet then normal. At the top of the steps is the back exit to Zidane's, you knock and a giant mall security guard opens and lets you in. Heading towards the front of the store past the expensive clothes is a chair and a table with markers and a stack of photos of yourself. The screaming fans are kept outside and become even louder when they see you. A few more security guards are standing beside you as you take your seat. Along with them is Steve your lifelong photographer who has his camera on a tripod ready to take your picture with the fans. Police officers stand outside the store as the door's open letting the noise enter the store, which is unpleasant to the guards but not you. The first few fans come in and it is a pretty routine affair. You ask their name, you sign an autograph, they tell how great you are while trying contain their excitement, you take a picture with them and they leave. No matter how many times you've done this, you avoid going on auto pilot. You remain sincere and genuine for every fan, no doubt a factor to your success. The next fan that comes appears to be a bit uneasy, He's looks just one or two years older then you, he has fair skin and short black hair that he keeps nervously scratching and light brown eyes that seem to be intentionally looking away from you. You've dealt with people who were nervous in your presence before and have dealt with people a bit socially awkward, this guy however was different, you don't know why but your gut is telling you something is off. He approaches the table, you could have security kick him out or you could sign the autograph and just get this over with > You kick him out You've trusted your instincts your whole life and they have never let you down. You signal to the security guard to escort him out. The guard grabs the man by the arm and takes him out of the store. The rest of the meet and greet goes well and after several hours you head out the back of the store, back down the stairs and into the inconspicuous car. On the way home you get a cell phone call, it's your agent Lenny Hamliton. "Hey Lenny" you kindly say as you answer the phone. "What did you do?" Lenny angrily asks at the other end. You find this a bit odd since Lenny is usually calm. "What are you talking about?" You ask somewhat confused. "The media is saying you booted out a fan for no reason, I've been getting calls from news station, all day" "I found something odd about him, I don't know, something just didn't sit well" "I can't tell that to the press, they will be talking about this for weeks" "It'll blow over" "Maybe with someone else, but because you've been known for your spotless reputation, it'll hurt a lot more" Lenny hangs up on you, over the coming weeks it turns out you were both right in a way. The incident is talked about on all the tabloid papers and gossip sites. The identity of the man is never found out. Flame wars start on the internet over what you did was right or not. Your career continues to shine but you notice something is different, you are now just a singer, not the singer. This change takes a bit getting used too but you manage.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You are Linda Niles, at just 19 you have become one of the most famous singers on the planet, your career started at 15 and you have enjoyed rave reviews, record breaking sales and all the fans a person could want. In addition, you have managed to avoid scandals and developing an ego, which have destroyed countless other singer careers, you live a life most dream of. Another typical day of your life, you are to make an appearance at the Destiny Hill Mall located in Destiny Hill, New Jersey. Recently you have become the spokeswoman, for Zidane's clothing and you are there to promote the opening of their newest store. They are a hoity toity clothing store that is hoping your endorsement will have people buy from them despite their outrageous prices. You arrive at the mall around noon in a inconspicuous car so the dozens of people waiting around outside don't notice you. The car stops in in the employee parking lot, you get out and sneak in through the employee entrance which is surround by half dozen police officers. Once inside you head up a flight of stairs, hearing the screaming of your fans, there must be hundreds of them. This doesn't bother you as you've had countless concerts that had as much 20,000 fans so it's actually more quiet then normal. At the top of the steps is the back exit to Zidane's, you knock and a giant mall security guard opens and lets you in. Heading towards the front of the store past the expensive clothes is a chair and a table with markers and a stack of photos of yourself. The screaming fans are kept outside and become even louder when they see you. A few more security guards are standing beside you as you take your seat. Along with them is Steve your lifelong photographer who has his camera on a tripod ready to take your picture with the fans. Police officers stand outside the store as the door's open letting the noise enter the store, which is unpleasant to the guards but not you. The first few fans come in and it is a pretty routine affair. You ask their name, you sign an autograph, they tell how great you are while trying contain their excitement, you take a picture with them and they leave. No matter how many times you've done this, you avoid going on auto pilot. You remain sincere and genuine for every fan, no doubt a factor to your success. The next fan that comes appears to be a bit uneasy, He's looks just one or two years older then you, he has fair skin and short black hair that he keeps nervously scratching and light brown eyes that seem to be intentionally looking away from you. You've dealt with people who were nervous in your presence before and have dealt with people a bit socially awkward, this guy however was different, you don't know why but your gut is telling you something is off. He approaches the table, you could have security kick him out or you could sign the autograph and just get this over with > You sign autograph You decide to just sign the autograph and move on. Everyone has to deal with a werido at some point in their life, no sense in stressing over it. The man approaches the table. "Name?" You ask with a hint of fear in your voice. "Uh, Jacob" the man replied as if he had trouble remembering his own name. "To Jacob, keep on rocking your's truly Linda Niles" you say aloud as you write it out the photo. You hand the photo Jacob and notice his hand is a bit shaky as he takes it from you, he also seems to be sweating a bit. You wonder which one of you is more on edge, no matter this will be over with a bit. You just need to take a photo and he'll be on his way. You and Jacob walk in front of the backdrop that has been set up on the wall, in front you is Steve with his camera. "Nice big smile now" Steve says in a robotic tone. While looking at the camera, you fail to notice Jacob as he puts hand into his pocket and pulls out a handkerchief, you also don't notice until the last minute that he puts it over your mouth as he puts his other arm around your waist and hoists you over his shoulder. The smell of the handkerchief is sweet and soon your vision begins to get blurry and your hearing decreases. You can barely make out security guards chasing after you as Jacob runs out of the store and down the stairs while holding you in a fireman's carry. Things get blurrier and blurrier until you blackout. > You some time later You awaken in a small room with a throbbing headache, it takes a moment for things to come into focus. When they do you see a beige sofa and a flat screen tv on the wall. Dust bunnies are on the carpeted floor and there are two doors leading out the room. You try the first door and it is locked, while the second door leads to even smaller bathroom complete with a toilet, shower and sink. You're not quite sure what to do next. > You watch TV You sit down on the sofa and notice the remote on one of the cushions. You use it to turn it on the TV which is currently on a news stations and not your surprise, your kidnapping is the top story. Several hours ago, renowned singer Linda Niles was kidnapped in broad daylight as she attended a meet and greet at the grand opening of a Zidane's clothing store in Destiny Hill Mall, here in Destiny Hill, New Jersey. Fans are furious that despite Police protection, the kidnapper was able to abduct Linda without a weapon and eluded police capture. Chief of Police Terry Shepard has already announced his resignation. The FBI have taken over investigating the kidnapping. The man entered Zidane's shortly after the Meet and Greet, grabbed Linda Niles and escaped through the back exit, he then entered a car and drove off. A car believed to be used by the kidnapper was found in an abandoned gas station. The car had been reported stolen a week and the owner is not believed to be part of the abduction. It is strongly believed that the kidnapper is a local resident and that Linda is still in Destiny Hill. The FBI said they are doing everything they can to make sure Linda Niles is found alive and bring the culprits to justice. Linda Niles came to fame at 15 when her single...." You turn off the TV after they begin talking about your career, no need to hear about it, you know it far better then anyone else. > You wait You lay down on the sofa, wondering what lays in store for you. No one would go through all this trouble for no reason and you dread learning what that reason is. Does the kidnapper simply want a ransom or do they have something more sinister in mind? You notice there are no windows in this room and the bleak white walls are not helping you stay positive. You can't let fear overcome you, only by thinking rational will you get out of this. Suddenly the door that was locked opens up and the man who kidnapped you appears, he is holding a tray with a paper bag on it, he appears nervous and is looking down at the tray and not you. > You demand to be let go "Let me go right now or you're going to face serious consequences" You demand. The kidnapper is taken aback by your yelling and drops the tray. You soon realize that he is coward and the door behind him is wide open. You push him aside and bolt through the door, the next room is a larger version of the one you were just in, carpeted floors with dust bunnies, bleak white walls and no windows. In the middle of the room is is a staircase which you quickly run up. At the top of the stairs you find yourself in a foyer and figure out that you are in a residential house. After quickly looking around you eye the front door and dash towards it. The door isn't locked as you swing it open and run outside. You run, run some more and keep running, never stopping to look back to see if the man is following you. After maybe an hour your legs simply don't have the energy and you collapse on someone's yard. Luckily the owner is home and when they see you on the ground they quickly the police. When cops get there you explain who you are and they rush you to a local hospital, with full police and FBI protection of course. At the hospital, you are checked to see if you have physical wounds or emotional trauma. Physically you are fine, mentally not so much, after a few days you are sent back to your home Los Angeles. The police never find the kidnapper, you were in such a rush when you ran out that you can't retrace your steps from where you were found. You never looked back at the house when you escaped that you have no idea what it looks like, let alone the street you were on. The worse news is that the events have changed you, as you become withdrawn, don't have any more meet and greets, in fact you never do anything that directly involves interacting with the fans again. Even worse is that you become difficult to work with. At all future concerts you have a beefed up security presence. At first people sympathize with you, considering what you've been through, but as the years go on and your behavior only gets worse, all that sympathy goes away. Rumors begin to speared that the entire incident was a publicity stunt and not many people defend you. This damages your career but doesn't destroy it, however things have forever changed and not for the better.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You lay down on the sofa, wondering what lays in store for you. No one would go through all this trouble for no reason and you dread learning what that reason is. Does the kidnapper simply want a ransom or do they have something more sinister in mind? You notice there are no windows in this room and the bleak white walls are not helping you stay positive. You can't let fear overcome you, only by thinking rational will you get out of this. Suddenly the door that was locked opens up and the man who kidnapped you appears, he is holding a tray with a paper bag on it, he appears nervous and is looking down at the tray and not you. > You beg to be freed "Please let me go, I won't tell anyone about this I promise, I'll give you money if that's what you want" you beg as tears begin to roll down your face. The man appears to get sad as if he regrets what he is doing and his eyes seem to get a bit watery. It isn't long before he regains his composure and begins to speak "I'm sorry about this, I promise everything will be explained in time, just relax I have no intention of hurting you and by the end of the week, you'll be home". The kidnapper explains. "What's that?" you ask pointing the bag on tray with one hand and wiping the tears off your face with the other. "Oh, this is dinner, I got it from this deli called Luca's, the internet said you liked pepperoni calzone and diet soda so I got you that" The kidnapper says while putting down the tray. "Now that sofa opens up into a bed and in the morning, you'll meet my girlfriend, it won't be so bad" The man quickly leaves closing the door behind him and locking it. You wonder if he is afraid of being caught by the FBI or if he is always like that. You pick up the bag on the tray and take out the contents, sure enough it's a pepperoni calzone and a diet soda. Your stomach growls at the sight of the meal, you are too hungry to care if it's poisonous or not and begin wolfing the food down. After you've finished you put the tray in a corner and pull the bed out of the sofa . As you lay down, the events of the day race through your mind and you wonder if you'll truly leave this place alive. However you are exhausted and soon you fall asleep. > The next day You wake up the next morning, hoping the kidnapping was just a bad dream, sadly when you look around you see that you're still in the small windowless room. Not long after you wake up, the kidnapper enters the room with another tray, this one has a stack of pancakes and orange juice. "I read you like buttermilk pancakes and pulp free orange juice" He says as he puts down the tray. "In hour my girlfriend, Jeanette is going to visit, you can meet her, she's quite a fan yours" Before the man leaves he picks up the tray from yesterday and exits the room, locking the door behind him. As you look at the tray you noticed he didn't leave any utensils, he has either planned this out or is just forgetful. You figure now is not the time to worry about proper eating habits as you grab a pancake and take a bite out of it. While you have breakfast you turn on the TV. "20 hours after Linda Niles kidnapping, the FBI appears to be no closer to finding her. So far no group has claimed responsibility and no ransom has been demanded. Surveillance footage from the Destiny Hill Mall showing the kidnapper has been released to the public in effort to identify the man. Witnesses say that before the abduction, he gave his name as 'Jacob' when requesting an autograph. FBI officials say the name is most likely a fake.Officials also say they are considering a house to a house search, with the town's population at 40,000 doubts if such a search is possible or even if legal have been raised. Residents of the once quiet town are upset of the over the high police presence and checkpoints set up around the town's exits, meanwhile sales of Linda Niles albums have skyrocketed and rumors of the kidnapping being a hoax are beginning to circulate..." You finish breakfast and turn off the TV. You begin to wonder who this "Jeanette" person your going to meet soon is like, maybe she is just is timid as the guy is, you'll have just to wait to find out. > You an hour later After waiting for an hour the door opens and the man appears. "Come on" he shyly says while sticking out his arm. You walk towards him and he grabs hold of your wrist. He heads out while tugging you along, he is obviously trying to make sure you don't run for it, he also seems to be trying to avoid hurting you. You walk into the next room which is basically just a larger version of the room you were just in, carpeted floor with dust bunnies, bleak white walls and no windows. In the middle of the room is a staircase which you and the man walk up. Upstairs you discover you are in a foyer in what appears to be a residential house. You eye the front door at the end of the foyer but the kidnapper tugs you in the other direction. You enter a room on the right which has two loveseat sofas, a large flat screen TV on stand with a DVD player and several DVDs. On the floor is a carpet that doesn't have dust bunnies, walls that aren't so bleak as the ones in the basement, and more importantly for you windows. You never thought you'd be so happy to see sunlight, but after almost a full day without you'll never take it for granted again. While you're staring outside you almost overlook that there is a women sitting on one of the love seats. She looks around your age, has almost waist long blonde hair, jean short shorts and a red tank top, she looks far more confident then the kidnapper ever did. She notices you are looking at her and begins to talk. "I can't believe you pulled this off Martin" the women begins. "Yeah, I made a promise and I don't break my promises" the man replied as he sat down next to her. You notice the man is far more relaxed when in the company of this women. "So you're the world famous Linda Niles, I'm Jeanette" the women introduces herself. "Nice to meet you" you respond. You suppose being polite will improve your odds of getting out of this situation. "I hope Martin has been treating you alright, he isn't a bad person, but I don't blame you if the kidnapping gave you a different impression" You can't tell if she is being serious or making a wise crack. "So the reason I am here is I'm going to babysit you today, Martin has a few errands to run and we obviously can't just leave you here alone" Jeanette explained. "But the FBI is out looking for you" You say surprisingly with a bit of concern in your voice. "I have...things to do" Martin stated purposely vague. You could insist that Martin stays and Jeanette goes out to do whatever these errands are. You're not quite sure what to make of Jeanette, she could be dangerous, while you know Martin is timid and (probably) won't hurt you. You might even be able to make an escape attempt. On the other hand Martin isn't much for conversation, having Jeanette stay around would give you somebody to talk to, which would really help you keep your saintly while trapped. However Martin going out runs the risk if him being caught, which can your situation much better or way worse. > You ask Martin to stay You're smart enough to know the devil you know is better then the devil you don't. "Maybe Martin should stay" you suggest. Both Martin and Jeanette are bit surprise by your comment. "Sorry hun, but I have a ton of work to do and so does Martin" Jeanette stated. "If you really plan on letting me getting go by the end of the week, then it benefits me not having Martin go out and risk getting caught" Your case doesn't seem to persuade Jeanette in the slightest, Martin on the other hand seems to take heed to what you say. "You can do my errands Jeanette and I can do your bank statements, you'll still get the credit for doing them" Martin advised. "Fine, I guess we should be careful" Jeanette and Martin kiss each goodbye as she gets off the sofa, leaves the room and heads out the front door. As soon as she is gone Martin becomes his more on edge self. "We have some work to do" Martin explained. As before Martin grabs you by the wrist but not very tightly leading you into the foyer and then a room on the left. It is a kitchen complete with a refrigerator, oven and stove. The appliances seemed fairly modern, although the oven and stove appeared to be a bit dirty. Next to them was a counter and sink, with dishes that needed to be washed.A sliding door on the right lead to the backyard was on the right. In the middle of the room is a kitchen table, on it is a box with a bunch of papers. You both sit down at the table as Martin takes the box and dumps the papers on the table. "Jeanette needs these bank statements alphabetize" Martin blunted instructed. It is a very dull affair as Martin at times seems to forget you are even there, paying for more attention to the papers then to you. You try to make small talk, Martin doesn't say much, but you manage to learn that his parents died in a car crash a few years ago and he doesn't like hot weather. Martin works at very fast pace, finishing his half of the statements and then proceeds to complete your half. By noon you are done, Martin orders a pizza, mushrooms and olives your favorite. After lunch Martin returns to the room with the love seats, lays down on one and promptly dozes off. You are now left unsupervised in the house. > You explore the house Escaping is way too risky, but it would be a waste to go back downstairs just yet, so you decide to have a look around. You walk into a room that is at the opposite end of the front door. In it is a staircase leading to a second floor. When you reach the upper level you notice it is rather small, as it is just a hallway with two doors, the first one you try is locked but the second one isn't, inside you see a bed, a small nightstand, a dresser and a desk with numerous papers on it. There is little doubt this is Martin's bedroom. You head towards the desk and inspect the papers. One is the blueprints for the Destiny Hill Mall, with an a red arrow drawn from it. The arrow starts out in Zidane's clothing store, goes out the back exit, down a set of stairs and out of the employee entrance. It stops at a parking space outside the mall. So this was Martin's escape route, you remember there were a bunch of cops guarding that entrance, how'd he get past them? You being unconscious at time, can't recall. The next item is a photo of a fancy blue sports car, on the back of the photo it says: Leaves keys in garage, code is 0515, asleep by 11 PM. You are bit surprised how someone who acts like his own shadow would scare him, could plan this all, maybe Jeanette had a hand you wonder. Next to the photo of the sports car is a flyer with your face on it: COME MEET 8 TIME GRAMMY WINNER LINDA NILES!!! YOU CAN HAVE YOUR PICTURE TAKEN AND GET AN AUTOGRAPH OF THE WORLD FAMOUS SINGER. ON THURSDAY AUGUST 16TH FROM 12PM-4PM AT THE OPENING OF THE NEWEST ZIDANE'S CLOTHING STORE LOCATED AT DESTINY HALL MALL AT 219 OKONEDO STREET, IN DESTINY HILL, N.J *limit, one photo and one autograph person, first 800 people only. Did they really have to make this flyer so obnoxious you wonder. Moving on you see a small piece of paper with handwritten notes. Sgt. Marcus Walker $10,000 WAY TOO MUCH!!! Sgt. Lewis Mott $4,000. DOESN'T HAVE GOOD REPUTATION Cpt. Harold Morowitz $3500, NEEDS MONEY, HAS A LOT TO LOSE IF CAUGHT Ben Hinds (Head of mall security) $2000, SERVED WITH J's FATHER, TRUSTWORTHY So cops were on the take, now things started making more sense, the final thing on the desk was another photo, it appeared it a bit more worn then the one with the sports car, on it was Martin only he appeared slightly younger, next to him was a teenage girl, it wasn't Jeanette as the girl had short brown hair and a more narrow chin, the back of the photo read: M+K, state fair This photo had to be important as the creases on it showed it had been held many times. You hear footsteps shuffling around downstairs, Martin must be awake, you quickly leave the room and rush down the stairs, you manage to get back to the kitchen before Martin comes in. "Time to go back downstairs" He says in a somewhat groggy state. Once again he grabs you by the wrist and once again not too tightly. He leads you to basement and back into what has become your room. Once you are inside Martin heads out. Jeanette returns a few hours later and comes into you room, holding a box of leftover pizza. "Thanks for doing the bank statements" Jeanette said while putting down the box of pizza. "Martin did most of the work" You admit. "Maybe you didn't want Martin to go because you were worried about him, maybe you found working with him romantic" You are taken aback by this statement. "I'm joking" Jeanette says as soon she notices you're getting uncomfortable. Jeanette is obnoxious and Martin is on another world, quite a pair those two are you think to yourself. You and Jeanette spend time eating the leftover pizza and talking for a bit. You learn Jeanette's father was in the army. After you are done, Jeanette leaves taking the now empty pizza box. You watch some primetime TV and then fall asleep. > Next morning You wake up the next morning and the smell of pancakes is in the air. You sit up to see that another tray of buttermilk pancakes and orange juice on the floor, there is also a small hand written note on the tray as well. You get up, walk towards the tray and read the note: I just realized you haven't had a change of clothes since you got here, there's a fresh pair in the bathroom, I borrowed them from Jeanette, I hope they fit alright, once you have eaten and changed, meet me in the backyard. -Martin You find it a little creepy that Martin was walking around in here while you were asleep, no point in stressing over it now through. Suddenly it dawns on you that wearing the same clothes for two days, including to bed, can't be good hygiene. You enter the bathroom and find the clothes the note mentions, which consists of a pair of loose fit jeans and a navy blue tank top. In addition a pair of fresh socks are sitting next to them. After a relaxing shower, you change clothes, and head upstairs. You remember the sliding door in the kitchen, you go through the foyer into the kitchen and out the door. When you head outside, you take a moment to bask int the sunlight, you've been couped inside for two days and you now you have the chance to savior the sunlight beaming down your skin, a gentle breeze touches your face and feels so comforting. You take off your socks and shoes to feel the grass on your feet, enjoying the feeling of each blade. if someone was watching you, they'd think you'd suffer some sort of brain injury, but right now you simply don't care. As you walk further into the back you see tall wooden fences on both sides of yard, preventing the neighbors from looking in. At the opposite end of the lawn you see that there are tall trees, there are so many that it appears dark despite being early in the day. In the middle of the area you can see a lawn chair, with Martin laying in it, dozing. You'll have to wake him up, although you could run into woods and make your escape or you could turn around go back in the house and out the front door. > You wake up Martin You've stuck around this along you might as well find out you were kidnapped in the first place. You walk up to Martin and gentle nudge his shoulder, he wakes up startled but calms down quickly. He notices you standing beside him and gets up from the lawn chair. "How Jeanette's clothes?" He asks "They're fine" you reassure. "I suppose now would be a good time to tell you why I went through the trouble of brining you here" "You did say you'd tell me today" "I have a sister named Kate, she's fifteen and the only family I have, a year go she got diagnosed with liver cancer and it quickly became terminal" Martin begins to choke up, but regains his composure and continues "Tomorrow she is being released simply so she can enjoy the final days of her life. I own a place called the Whishaw theater, you are going to give her a concert" You're not sure what to make of all of this, the story of Marin's sister is sad, but this man has kidnapped you and held you against your will for two days, does he deserve this act of kindness? > You agree to do the concert Kidnapped or not, it just wouldn't be the right thing to do to turn Martin down, if not for him then at least for his sister who is dying of cancer and wasn't part of your kidnapping int he first place. "I'm in" You tell Martin. Martin faces quickly turns from sad, to surprised to overjoyed in a span of five seconds. He puts his arms around and hugs you. "Thank you, Linda" He responds, still holding on, the nervousness you've seen in him appears to have melted away. He eventually realizes what he is doing and let's go, his face has a flash of embarrassment. "So, Kate is coming home later today, you can meet her, talk to her and in the evening you can go down to the Whishaw and give the concert" "Sounds good" Martin walks back to the house, seemly forgetting the fact you are left outside without anyone watching. You sit down in the lawn chair he was sitting in earlier and enjoy the fresh air. After an hour or two of lounging you hear footsteps approaching, you turn to see Jeanette standing nearby. "It's time meet Kate, Martin and I are heading out" Jeanette says as the two of you walk back to the house. Once back inside, Jeanette heads out the front door while you see someone sitting in the room with the love seats. This is no doubt this Kate, she is about five feet tall, has short brown hair and a somewhat narrow chin. Upon seeing you, a huge grin appears on her face as she runs towards you. "Oh my god, it's you, it's really you, sorry I'm acting like a total weirdo. I mean part of me was thinking Martin had simply lost his mind when he said you were here" Kate says excitedly. Her outgoingness makes you surprise she is related Martin. "It's alright, I'm human like everyone" You reassure. Almost as she soon she gets up, she goes back to sit down on the love seat, no doubt all she going through is leaving her with limited energy. You go and join her on the love seat. "I know Martin kidnapped you" Kate's tone becoming more serious. "I imagine it's all anyone is talking about for past few days" You responded. "My brother is a good person, sure he's an oddball but I love him, I just don't want you to think he's a monster, please forgive him and try to understand why he did what he did" > You forgive Martin You've been fortunate to have never had to deal with the pain of loss, let alone the loss of someone so young, you can't begin to imagine the pain Martin is in. Once Kate dies, Martin's pain will only get worse, but at least he can take comfort in the fact that he made his dying sister happy. Maybe that isn't enough of a reason to justify what he did, but you understand why he did it and holding a grudge against him just felt wrong. "I forgive him" You tell Kate. Kate's face lights upon hearing this. You spend the next few hours talking about a variety of subjects like music, movies, TV shows and more specific topics such as why sliced cheese is better then cubed cheese, the right amount of ketchup to put on a hamburger, and why sticks will always be superior to stones. You're not quite sure what to think of that last topic, so you just go along with her opinion. "I want to show you something" Kate says with excitement. She gets up and walks over to the flat screen TV. She then turns on the DVD player, while rummaging through a pile of DVD's. She opens one with a clear case and puts it the DVD player. A huge grin is once again on Kate's face as she hurries back to the love seat and sits down next to you. "Wait until you see this" Kate says with enthusiasm as she use's the remote to turn on the TV. The TV shows a slightly grainy image of a street that you can immediately tell is New York City. On video you see a girl you're sure is a slightly version of Kate walk up to a fancy hotel, with the cameraman following her. "This is the place" Kate tells the cameraman. "Are you sure she'll be here?" the cameraman asks, you recognize the voice as Martin's. Suddenly two people walk out of the hotel, one is a very large, muscular man the other is you. "Linda you're awesome" Kate shouts at you. You give a quick wave, while the man glares at Kate. You then get into a waiting limo and drive off. "She waved at us, did you see that?" Kate says with an abundant amount of energy. The movie then cuts to static and Kate turns off the TV. "You don't remember that do you?" Kate asks with a bit of sadness. "I'm sorry kid, I won't be forgetting this that's for sure" You say with a mix of truth and dry wit. Around noon, Kate orders a pizza, unlike the one from yesterday, it's not your favorite of mush and olives, in fact it's your least favorite anchovies. You assume this must Kate's favorite as her eyes get wide eyed at the sight of it. Despite that she only manages to eat one or two slices. Despite her limited energy and lack of an apatite that is no doubt caused by her cancer she remains in good sprites. You manage to eat a few slices, although it is not a very fun experience.Shortly after lunch. Martin and Jeanette walk in through the front door. When they walk into the kitchen, Martin grins upon seeing the pizza. "Anchovies" He says with delight as he grabs a slice. "We just got back from Luca's" Jeanette scolded her boyfriend. "Always room for anchovies" Jeanette rolls her eyes, while Kate finds the situation quite amusing, letting out a small giggle. Once Martin is done with the slice he turns toward you. "So now we're off to Whisaw" Martin says as he takes a piece of paper out of his pocket and hands it to you. "These are the songs you're going to sing" You look at the note and sure enough it has the names of the songs you're going to sing. There is about ten of them and you know them all by heart, there is no need to rehearse. The four of you head outside and into Martin's car. It looks a bit old and is the color of walls in the basement. You all manage to squish in, with Martin driving, Jeanette in the front, and you and Kate in the back. > You to the concert (Happy Mood) Martin drives the car into the parking lot of the Whishaw theater. The building is about two stories and made out of bricks. Giant gray metal letters spelling out the word "WHISHAW" are above the front door. The parking lot itself needs a few repairs as grass is beginning to grow in the cracks of the pavement. As you get out of the car you look at the people across the street, walking to and from the various shops. You get a bit a worried that someone will see you, but they seem busy with their lives that if anyone did see you they wouldn't notice you were the famous Linda Niles who got kidnapped. You, Martin, Jeanette and Kate walk towards the entrance of the theater. "So how does this work, is there a band or something?" You ask, knowing you've should ask this when you first agreed to the concert. "It's like karaoke, the music of your songs will play and you do the lyrics" Martin explains. The four walk into the building. Inside you see posters for plays, singers and bands you've never heard of. On the opposite wall, two sets of double doors leading into the auditorium. There is a concussion stand advertising food that may or may not have expired long ago. A ticket booth on the right looks like it is in need of a good dusting. The carpet looks a bit dated and while the wall color is not nearly as bleak as the ones in the basement, it is beginning to peel. "She's really something isn't she" Martin says marveling his theater. "It's something alright" You respond. Martin doesn't seem to pick up on your sarcasm, but Jeanette does as she lets out a snicker. The four of you head into the auditorium, the stage has a microphone with a spotlight shining on it "I've got to get the music on, good luck" Martin bluntly states as heads off and goes through a door to the right of the stage. You walk up a set of steps and onto the stage. Gently you tap the microphone to see if it's working. The tapping sound echoes throughout the theater, confirm the mic works. Jeanette and Kate take their seat as the music for the first begins to play. Shortly after you begin singing Martin comes in and takes a seat next to Kate. The concert goes to perfection, you can confidently say it is the best performance you ever gave. It's ironic that it's also the smallest audience you ever had. After the show, Kate stands and applauds excessively. Martin and Jeanette also join in the applause. You walk off to the stage and approach the trio. "That was awesome, beyond awesome, awesome just isn't a strong enough word" Kate rapidly. "What happens now?" you ask, slightly afraid of the answer. "Now we say goodbye, if you leave here and walk down three blocks, you'll find the police station" Martin explains. "It really means a lot to us that you did this" Jeanette thanked. "Thank you for everything" Kate says while hugging you and squeezes tightly. When Kate finally lets go, you head to the front door, you turn around and wave to them as they wave back. Once outside it occurs to you that none of them are concerned about you reporting to the police. Perhaps it didn't matter to them, you gave the concert for Kate and that's all they wanted. It also crosses your mind that you are free, the whole situation is over, although you doubt you will forget this anytime soon. The sun has nearly set as you head for the police station. > A few weeks later Finally you are back home in Los Angeles, the press had been hounded you non-stop. Granted as an A-list star, they hound you all the time anyway, but after the whole kidnapping event, they have been doubling their efforts. Thankfully your house has the best security money can buy and you don't have to worry about them for the moment. You never turned in Martin and Jeanette, you even begin to see them as good people. Soon your kidnapping isn't the top story and it gets less and less media attention. After a month the news stops talking about it altogether, some other celebrity is caught in a scandal and the world turns their attention to that. Another month later you learn through sources that Kate has died from her cancer, you wonder if should attend her funeral or not > You attend funeral It may be risky but something is compelling you go back to Destiny Hill. You've avoided the press before and you can do it again. You arrive back in Destiny Hill in a inconspicuous car, similar to the one you were in when you had the meet and greet. At the church you recognize Martin's car. Rain begins to drizzle as you park the car and head in. There are a few people inside and most pay no attention to you. In front pew you see Martin and Jeanette sitting with their heads bowed down. They don't notice you as you head to the front and sit near them. You tap Martin on the shoulder and he jumps slightly upon seeing who are. Jeanette eyes widen when she sees you. "What are you doing here?" Martin says in a mix of sadness and confusion. "I came to pay my respects, I only Kate for a day, but I know she was a good kid". You answer. "You don't have to do this, you're risking your career by being here" Jeanette says with concern. "I want to do this" Martin hugs you in way his sister did back the concert. "It'll be alright" You comfort Martin. After the funeral, the three of you head back to the house, Martin goes over his favorite memories of his sister. You learn that Jeanette's father had also died of liver cancer and she and Martin meet at a support rally. By the end of the day you head off but remain in close contact with the two of them. You make it an annual tradition to head out to Destiny Hill and visit Martin and Jeanette, also putting fresh flowers at Kate's grave every time you are there. A few years later Martin and Jeanette get married, while you don't attend as you don't want the attention on you instead of them on their big day, you foot the bill so they can have a very large and extravagant wedding. The events that happen give inspiration and another year later your next album is called "Stockholm Syndrome" which gets universal acclaim. You dedicate the album to Kate, people begin talking about who this Kate could be. The rest of your career continues in this fashion. Decades pass and soon you are in inducted into the rock and roll hall of fame. You are considered one of the greatest singers of all times. Long after you're gone, people continue to talk about your legacy and the influence you had on music.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Finally you are back home in Los Angeles, the press had been hounded you non-stop. Granted as an A-list star, they hound you all the time anyway, but after the whole kidnapping event, they have been doubling their efforts. Thankfully your house has the best security money can buy and you don't have to worry about them for the moment. You never turned in Martin and Jeanette, you even begin to see them as good people. Soon your kidnapping isn't the top story and it gets less and less media attention. After a month the news stops talking about it altogether, some other celebrity is caught in a scandal and the world turns their attention to that. Another month later you learn through sources that Kate has died from her cancer, you wonder if should attend her funeral or not > You do not attend funeral Going back to Destiny Hill would just be too risky, if you caught being there, the rumors will start again that you staged everything and this time people would start to believe them. Not to mention you'd be putting Martin and Jeanette at risk. You send them flowers and a sympathy card signed "L.N.", you also have the funeral coasts taken care of. Your career goes back to way it was before. A year later your next album is called "Stockholm Syndrome" and gets positive reviews. You dedicate the album to Kate, people begin talking about who this Kate could be.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Kidnapped or not, it just wouldn't be the right thing to do to turn Martin down, if not for him then at least for his sister who is dying of cancer and wasn't part of your kidnapping int he first place. "I'm in" You tell Martin. Martin faces quickly turns from sad, to surprised to overjoyed in a span of five seconds. He puts his arms around and hugs you. "Thank you, Linda" He responds, still holding on, the nervousness you've seen in him appears to have melted away. He eventually realizes what he is doing and let's go, his face has a flash of embarrassment. "So, Kate is coming home later today, you can meet her, talk to her and in the evening you can go down to the Whishaw and give the concert" "Sounds good" Martin walks back to the house, seemly forgetting the fact you are left outside without anyone watching. You sit down in the lawn chair he was sitting in earlier and enjoy the fresh air. After an hour or two of lounging you hear footsteps approaching, you turn to see Jeanette standing nearby. "It's time meet Kate, Martin and I are heading out" Jeanette says as the two of you walk back to the house. Once back inside, Jeanette heads out the front door while you see someone sitting in the room with the love seats. This is no doubt this Kate, she is about five feet tall, has short brown hair and a somewhat narrow chin. Upon seeing you, a huge grin appears on her face as she runs towards you. "Oh my god, it's you, it's really you, sorry I'm acting like a total weirdo. I mean part of me was thinking Martin had simply lost his mind when he said you were here" Kate says excitedly. Her outgoingness makes you surprise she is related Martin. "It's alright, I'm human like everyone" You reassure. Almost as she soon she gets up, she goes back to sit down on the love seat, no doubt all she going through is leaving her with limited energy. You go and join her on the love seat. "I know Martin kidnapped you" Kate's tone becoming more serious. "I imagine it's all anyone is talking about for past few days" You responded. "My brother is a good person, sure he's an oddball but I love him, I just don't want you to think he's a monster, please forgive him and try to understand why he did what he did" > You don't Forgive Martin After all the terror Martin has put you through, you still manage to have a heart and put on the concert, but forgiving him is just simply asking for too much. You want to say you will because that is what Kate wants to hear, but a comforting lie is still a lie and you're the not kind of person who would lie to a person with cancer. "I'm sorry I can't" You truthful tell her. Kate stares at you the way a kid does when their parent tells them there's no Santa Clause. "You'll still get your concert" The next few hours are the longest and some of the most painful hours of your life. You try to talk to Kate about a variety of subjects, but she always just responded with one word answers. You get a little annoyed how you're the one who gets kidnapped but you're the bad guy. The torture comes to end when Kate goes and orders a pizza, you remain in the room with the love seats with Kate eats the pizza by herself in the kitchen. You don't have any lunch and you wonder how you will do the show on an empty stomach. Finally Martin and Jeanette come home, Kate walks to over to them, putting on a facade. "How are you two getting along?" Martin asks completelyobvious. "Doing great" Kate says with a very convincing fake happiness. You join the three in the foyer ad Martin turns his attention to you. "So now we're off to Whisaw" Martin says as he takes a piece of paper out of his pocket and hands it to you. "These are the songs you're going to sing" You look at the note and sure enough it has the names of the songs you're going to sing. There is about ten of them and you know them all by heart, there is no need to rehearse. The four of you head outside and into Martin's car. It looks a bit old and is the color of walls in the basement. You all manage to squish in, with Martin driving, Jeanette in the front, and you and Kate in the back. The car ride is filled with awkward silence. > You to the concert Martin drives the car into the parking lot of the Whishaw theater. The building is about two stories and made out of bricks. Giant gray metal letters spelling out the word "WHISHAW" are above the front door. The parking lot itself needs a few repairs as grass is beginning to grow in the cracks of the pavement. As you get out of the car you look at the people across the street, walking to and from the various shops. You hope that someone will see you, then you could get out of this mess without feeling even more guilty but they seem busy with their lives that if anyone did see you they wouldn't notice you were the famous Linda Niles who got kidnapped. You, Martin, Jeanette and Kate walk towards the entrance of the theater. "So how does this work,?" You ask, your mind focused solely on getting this over with "It's like karaoke, the music of your songs will play and you do the lyrics" Martin explains. The four walk into the building. Inside you see posters for plays, singers and bands you've never heard of. On the opposite wall, two sets of double doors leading into the auditorium. There is a concussion stand advertising food that may or may not have expired long ago. A ticket booth on the right looks like it is in need of a good dusting. The carpet looks a bit dated and while the wall color is not nearly as bleak as the ones in the basement, it is beginning to peel. "She's really something isn't she" Martin says marveling his theater. "Yeah" You respond, not really paying attention what he just said. The four of you head into the auditorium, the stage has a microphone with a spotlight shining on it "I've got to get the music on, good luck" Martin bluntly states as heads off and goes through a door to the right of the stage. You walk up a set of steps and onto the stage. Gently you tap the microphone to see if it's working. The tapping sound echoes throughout the theater, confirm the mic works. Jeanette and Kate take their seat as the music for the first begins to play. You can't help but notice Kate is giving a rather nasty glare. Shortly after you begin singing Martin comes in and takes a seat next to Kate. The pain in your stomach from not eating greatly effects your ability to think straight. You give without a doubt the worst performance of your career, thankfully it is also the almost audience of your career and you doubt they will ever tell anybody. After the performance is over the three just stare at you. "Well, thank you for doing that" Martin says unsure of how to handle the situation. Jeanette is at a loss of words and Kate flat out ignores you. "So what happens now?" You ask, eager to get out of here. "Now we say goodbye, if you leave here and walk down three blocks, you'll find the police station" Martin explains. You walk out of theater without looking back, you inhale deeply after you're outside. You don't plan on turning them in, you just want to put as much distance between you and this town as you can. The experience you have at Destiny Hill is so dreadful you want nothing to do with singing ever again. Over the next few months you become reclusive and live your life in solitude. People begin to talk about the successful but short career of Linda Niles. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You've stuck around this along you might as well find out you were kidnapped in the first place. You walk up to Martin and gentle nudge his shoulder, he wakes up startled but calms down quickly. He notices you standing beside him and gets up from the lawn chair. "How Jeanette's clothes?" He asks "They're fine" you reassure. "I suppose now would be a good time to tell you why I went through the trouble of brining you here" "You did say you'd tell me today" "I have a sister named Kate, she's fifteen and the only family I have, a year go she got diagnosed with liver cancer and it quickly became terminal" Martin begins to choke up, but regains his composure and continues "Tomorrow she is being released simply so she can enjoy the final days of her life. I own a place called the Whishaw theater, you are going to give her a concert" You're not sure what to make of all of this, the story of Marin's sister is sad, but this man has kidnapped you and held you against your will for two days, does he deserve this act of kindness? > You refuse to do the concert Two wrongs don't make a right, it is tragic what is happening to Martin's sister, but that's no excuse for holding someone against their will. "You have my sympathy, but I'm not going to do this for you" You firmly tell him. Martin's face appears to be on the brink of tears. "I had a feeling you'd say that, I suppose there is no point in holding you here, you can leave" You are bit shocked how easily Martin gives up. "You're not worried I'll turn you in the police?" you say, instantly realizing that wasn't the smartest question to ask. "Soon my sister will be dead,being free or in jail won't change the grief I will feel" Martin sits down on the lawn, coming to terms with reality. His goal was to make his dying sister happy and he had failed. He doesn't pay any attention to you as you make your way to the road. Eventually you come across a police car and flag them down. You are rushed to a local hospital, with full police and FBI protection of course. At the hospital, you are checked to see if you have physical wounds or emotional trauma. Physical you are fine, mentally you are worn out and have anxiety, which you can't say surprises you. The root of your anxiety isn't actually the kidnapping but the decision to turn Martin in or not, before you would have turn him in a second, but now that you know the situation he is facing you don't know. > You turn Martin in Martin broke the law and dealing with a personal tragedy doesn't change that, you tell the FBI about Martin and Jeanette. Although they only have first names to go on, finding Kate is rather easy she is the only teenage patient at the local hospital with liver cancer. From there they learn where Martin lives and are able to arrest him along with Jeanette, after a few days you are back home in Los Angeles. Over the next few months you learn while awaiting trial, Martin was unable to attend Kate's funeral after she dies. Eventually he is convicted and sentenced to twenty years in jail, a bit of a harsh sentence, but the fact that he kidnapped someone so popular really worked against him. Jeanette is also convicted and sentenced to five years. The public learns during the trial why Martin kidnapped you and many begin to see him in a sympathetic light. You get some heat for turning him and refusing to do the concert. You become overrun with guilt which affects the quality of your songs and preferences. After a few years the world turns its attention to another singer, while you start taking pills to deal with everything you're going through. Pills lead to stronger pills and after a few months you have a fatal overdose. Ten years later the movie: "The Rise and fall of Linda Niles" premiers in theaters, it gets positive reviews.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Two wrongs don't make a right, it is tragic what is happening to Martin's sister, but that's no excuse for holding someone against their will. "You have my sympathy, but I'm not going to do this for you" You firmly tell him. Martin's face appears to be on the brink of tears. "I had a feeling you'd say that, I suppose there is no point in holding you here, you can leave" You are bit shocked how easily Martin gives up. "You're not worried I'll turn you in the police?" you say, instantly realizing that wasn't the smartest question to ask. "Soon my sister will be dead,being free or in jail won't change the grief I will feel" Martin sits down on the lawn, coming to terms with reality. His goal was to make his dying sister happy and he had failed. He doesn't pay any attention to you as you make your way to the road. Eventually you come across a police car and flag them down. You are rushed to a local hospital, with full police and FBI protection of course. At the hospital, you are checked to see if you have physical wounds or emotional trauma. Physical you are fine, mentally you are worn out and have anxiety, which you can't say surprises you. The root of your anxiety isn't actually the kidnapping but the decision to turn Martin in or not, before you would have turn him in a second, but now that you know the situation he is facing you don't know. > You don't turn Martin in You are overcome with enough guilt over refusing to do the concert, you don't need more by having Martin arrested. Besides you figure Martin is already suffering enough You lie to the police saying you don't know the name of the kidnapper and don't remember the house. After a few days you are back home in Los Angeles. A few months later you learn through sources that Martin's sister, Kate has passed away, you anonymously send flowers. As for your career, the guilt continues to haunt you effecting the quality of your songs and future performances. In a few years the world turns its attention to a new singer and you are labeled a "has been". Luckily you've always been good with your money and enjoy a good if obscure life.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You wake up the next morning and the smell of pancakes is in the air. You sit up to see that another tray of buttermilk pancakes and orange juice on the floor, there is also a small hand written note on the tray as well. You get up, walk towards the tray and read the note: I just realized you haven't had a change of clothes since you got here, there's a fresh pair in the bathroom, I borrowed them from Jeanette, I hope they fit alright, once you have eaten and changed, meet me in the backyard. -Martin You find it a little creepy that Martin was walking around in here while you were asleep, no point in stressing over it now through. Suddenly it dawns on you that wearing the same clothes for two days, including to bed, can't be good hygiene. You enter the bathroom and find the clothes the note mentions, which consists of a pair of loose fit jeans and a navy blue tank top. In addition a pair of fresh socks are sitting next to them. After a relaxing shower, you change clothes, and head upstairs. You remember the sliding door in the kitchen, you go through the foyer into the kitchen and out the door. When you head outside, you take a moment to bask int the sunlight, you've been couped inside for two days and you now you have the chance to savior the sunlight beaming down your skin, a gentle breeze touches your face and feels so comforting. You take off your socks and shoes to feel the grass on your feet, enjoying the feeling of each blade. if someone was watching you, they'd think you'd suffer some sort of brain injury, but right now you simply don't care. As you walk further into the back you see tall wooden fences on both sides of yard, preventing the neighbors from looking in. At the opposite end of the lawn you see that there are tall trees, there are so many that it appears dark despite being early in the day. In the middle of the area you can see a lawn chair, with Martin laying in it, dozing. You'll have to wake him up, although you could run into woods and make your escape or you could turn around go back in the house and out the front door. > You escape into the woods Who knows what Martin and Jeanette have in store for you or even if they are actually going to let you go. You decide to go into the woods to make your escape. Quietly you walk to the woods edge to avoid waking up Martin, once there you make a run for it. After several minutes of running you slow down to so you don't trip over any roots or hidden tree stumps. You think to yourself once you're on the other side of the woods, it'll be easy to find help. Several hours later you come to conclusion that you are most likely lost, you wish you knew how to get back, as Martin and Jeanette don't seem so bad compared to your current situation of being, tired and hungry. At this point it's best to keep walking and eventually you'll be out of here, at this point you're probably one or two towns away from Destiny Hill. Hours turn into days as you are exhausted, starving and your mind is beginning to crack. You are convinced you are in the largest forest in the world or you're walking in circles, it's hard to figure out which theory is right. Days turn into weeks as you collapse in front of a large tree, dying is far less painful then you thought it would be. Your disappearance becomes one of the biggest mysteries of all time. Destiny Hill become a tourist attraction as people come all across the globe trying to solve the disappearance of Linda Niles. Martin and Jeanette move away several years later to small town in Pennsylvania. No one ever suspects them. Twenty years later, lumberjacks find your remains while clearing out the area to make room for office buildings. The mystery deepens.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You wake up the next morning and the smell of pancakes is in the air. You sit up to see that another tray of buttermilk pancakes and orange juice on the floor, there is also a small hand written note on the tray as well. You get up, walk towards the tray and read the note: I just realized you haven't had a change of clothes since you got here, there's a fresh pair in the bathroom, I borrowed them from Jeanette, I hope they fit alright, once you have eaten and changed, meet me in the backyard. -Martin You find it a little creepy that Martin was walking around in here while you were asleep, no point in stressing over it now through. Suddenly it dawns on you that wearing the same clothes for two days, including to bed, can't be good hygiene. You enter the bathroom and find the clothes the note mentions, which consists of a pair of loose fit jeans and a navy blue tank top. In addition a pair of fresh socks are sitting next to them. After a relaxing shower, you change clothes, and head upstairs. You remember the sliding door in the kitchen, you go through the foyer into the kitchen and out the door. When you head outside, you take a moment to bask int the sunlight, you've been couped inside for two days and you now you have the chance to savior the sunlight beaming down your skin, a gentle breeze touches your face and feels so comforting. You take off your socks and shoes to feel the grass on your feet, enjoying the feeling of each blade. if someone was watching you, they'd think you'd suffer some sort of brain injury, but right now you simply don't care. As you walk further into the back you see tall wooden fences on both sides of yard, preventing the neighbors from looking in. At the opposite end of the lawn you see that there are tall trees, there are so many that it appears dark despite being early in the day. In the middle of the area you can see a lawn chair, with Martin laying in it, dozing. You'll have to wake him up, although you could run into woods and make your escape or you could turn around go back in the house and out the front door. > You go out the front door You decide now is a good opportunity to leave and that the woods are too dangerous so you sneak back inside, into the foyer, and out the front door. Once out you decided to run off as fast as you can after exiting the house. You run, run some more and keep running, you never stop to look back to see if Martin is following you. After maybe an hour your legs simply don't have the energy and you collapse on someone's yard. Luckily the owner is home and when they see you on the ground they quickly call the police. When cops get there you explain who you are and they rush you to a local hospital, with full police and FBI protection of course. At the hospital, you are checked to see if you have physical wounds or emotional trauma. Physically you are fine, mentally you're a little out of it, not surprising after what you've through, after a few days you are sent back to your home Los Angeles. The police try find Martin or Jeanette, but you were in such a rush when you ran out that you can't retrace your steps from where you were found. You never looked back at the house when you escaped that you have no idea what it looks like, let alone the street you were on. The only info the FBI have to go on is their first names, it takes a while to comb through the hundreds of Martins in Destiny Hill but eventually they figure out which one kidnapped you. It turns out his last name is LaRosa, he owned a theater and has a little sister with terminal cancer. This process takes about a week and by the time the FBI arrive at the house it is long abandoned. They also find out who Jeanette is, turns out her last name is Richards and lives in an apartment, which has also been abandoned. Soon they are put on FBI's most wanted but they are never found. As for your career, you become a bit withdrawn and it is a very long time before you have meet and greet or anything that involves directly interacting with the fans. At future concerts you have a few more guards around. People notice all of this and you face some criticism, however just as many people defend you considering what you went through, rumors of your kidnapping being a publicity stunt die down, although the occasional internet troll mentions it. In several years things return to the way they were before, and incident just becomes a chapter of your long career. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You're smart enough to know the devil you know is better then the devil you don't. "Maybe Martin should stay" you suggest. Both Martin and Jeanette are bit surprise by your comment. "Sorry hun, but I have a ton of work to do and so does Martin" Jeanette stated. "If you really plan on letting me getting go by the end of the week, then it benefits me not having Martin go out and risk getting caught" Your case doesn't seem to persuade Jeanette in the slightest, Martin on the other hand seems to take heed to what you say. "You can do my errands Jeanette and I can do your bank statements, you'll still get the credit for doing them" Martin advised. "Fine, I guess we should be careful" Jeanette and Martin kiss each goodbye as she gets off the sofa, leaves the room and heads out the front door. As soon as she is gone Martin becomes his more on edge self. "We have some work to do" Martin explained. As before Martin grabs you by the wrist but not very tightly leading you into the foyer and then a room on the left. It is a kitchen complete with a refrigerator, oven and stove. The appliances seemed fairly modern, although the oven and stove appeared to be a bit dirty. Next to them was a counter and sink, with dishes that needed to be washed.A sliding door on the right lead to the backyard was on the right. In the middle of the room is a kitchen table, on it is a box with a bunch of papers. You both sit down at the table as Martin takes the box and dumps the papers on the table. "Jeanette needs these bank statements alphabetize" Martin blunted instructed. It is a very dull affair as Martin at times seems to forget you are even there, paying for more attention to the papers then to you. You try to make small talk, Martin doesn't say much, but you manage to learn that his parents died in a car crash a few years ago and he doesn't like hot weather. Martin works at very fast pace, finishing his half of the statements and then proceeds to complete your half. By noon you are done, Martin orders a pizza, mushrooms and olives your favorite. After lunch Martin returns to the room with the love seats, lays down on one and promptly dozes off. You are now left unsupervised in the house. > You escape You realize that you will never get an opportunity like this again, you head to the front door, unlock it and quietly sneak out. Knowing that Jeanette could be home any minute, you decided to run off as fast as you can after exiting the house. You run, run some more and keep running, you never stop to look back to see if Martin (or Jeanette) is following you. After maybe an hour your legs simply don't have the energy and you collapse on someone's yard. Luckily the owner is home and when they see you on the ground they quickly call the police. When cops get there you explain who you are and they rush you to a local hospital, with full police and FBI protection of course. At the hospital, you are checked to see if you have physical wounds or emotional trauma. Physically you are fine, mentally you're a little out of it, not surprising after what you've through, after a few days you are sent back to your home Los Angeles. The police try find Martin or Jeanette, but you were in such a rush when you ran out that you can't retrace your steps from where you were found. You never looked back at the house when you escaped that you have no idea what it looks like, let alone the street you were on. The only info the FBI have to go on is their first names, it takes a while to comb through the hundreds of Martins in Destiny Hill but eventually they figure out which one kidnapped you. It turns out his last name is LaRosa, he owned a theater and has a little sister with terminal cancer. This process takes about a week and by the time the FBI arrive at the house it is long abandoned. They also find out who Jeanette is, turns out her last name is Richards and lives in an apartment, which has also been abandoned. Soon they are put on FBI's most wanted but they are never found. As for your career, you become a bit more withdrawn and never have a meet and greet again. In fact you rarely do anything that involves interacting directly with the fans. Your future concerts all have a beefed up security presence. At first people sympathize with you, considering what you've been through but over the years the sympathy slowly turns to criticism, this hurts your career, but you're able to handle it.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You're smart enough to know the devil you know is better then the devil you don't. "Maybe Martin should stay" you suggest. Both Martin and Jeanette are bit surprise by your comment. "Sorry hun, but I have a ton of work to do and so does Martin" Jeanette stated. "If you really plan on letting me getting go by the end of the week, then it benefits me not having Martin go out and risk getting caught" Your case doesn't seem to persuade Jeanette in the slightest, Martin on the other hand seems to take heed to what you say. "You can do my errands Jeanette and I can do your bank statements, you'll still get the credit for doing them" Martin advised. "Fine, I guess we should be careful" Jeanette and Martin kiss each goodbye as she gets off the sofa, leaves the room and heads out the front door. As soon as she is gone Martin becomes his more on edge self. "We have some work to do" Martin explained. As before Martin grabs you by the wrist but not very tightly leading you into the foyer and then a room on the left. It is a kitchen complete with a refrigerator, oven and stove. The appliances seemed fairly modern, although the oven and stove appeared to be a bit dirty. Next to them was a counter and sink, with dishes that needed to be washed.A sliding door on the right lead to the backyard was on the right. In the middle of the room is a kitchen table, on it is a box with a bunch of papers. You both sit down at the table as Martin takes the box and dumps the papers on the table. "Jeanette needs these bank statements alphabetize" Martin blunted instructed. It is a very dull affair as Martin at times seems to forget you are even there, paying for more attention to the papers then to you. You try to make small talk, Martin doesn't say much, but you manage to learn that his parents died in a car crash a few years ago and he doesn't like hot weather. Martin works at very fast pace, finishing his half of the statements and then proceeds to complete your half. By noon you are done, Martin orders a pizza, mushrooms and olives your favorite. After lunch Martin returns to the room with the love seats, lays down on one and promptly dozes off. You are now left unsupervised in the house. > You go back to the basement If something seems to good to be true then it probably it is. You head back to the basement and back into what has become your room. Jeanette returns a few hours later and comes into you room, holding a box of leftover pizza. "Thanks for doing the bank statements" Jeanette said while putting down the box of pizza. "Martin did most of the work" You admit. "Maybe you didn't want Martin to go because you were worried about him, maybe you found working with him romantic" You are taken aback by this statement. "I'm joking" Jeanette says as soon she notices you're getting uncomfortable. Jeanette is obnoxious and Martin is on another world, quite a pair those two are you think to yourself. You and Jeanette spend time eating the leftover pizza and talking for a bit. You learn Jeanette's father was in the army. After you are done, Jeanette leaves taking the now empty pizza box. You watch some primetime TV and then fall asleep<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|> After waiting for an hour the door opens and the man appears. "Come on" he shyly says while sticking out his arm. You walk towards him and he grabs hold of your wrist. He heads out while tugging you along, he is obviously trying to make sure you don't run for it, he also seems to be trying to avoid hurting you. You walk into the next room which is basically just a larger version of the room you were just in, carpeted floor with dust bunnies, bleak white walls and no windows. In the middle of the room is a staircase which you and the man walk up. Upstairs you discover you are in a foyer in what appears to be a residential house. You eye the front door at the end of the foyer but the kidnapper tugs you in the other direction. You enter a room on the right which has two loveseat sofas, a large flat screen TV on stand with a DVD player and several DVDs. On the floor is a carpet that doesn't have dust bunnies, walls that aren't so bleak as the ones in the basement, and more importantly for you windows. You never thought you'd be so happy to see sunlight, but after almost a full day without you'll never take it for granted again. While you're staring outside you almost overlook that there is a women sitting on one of the love seats. She looks around your age, has almost waist long blonde hair, jean short shorts and a red tank top, she looks far more confident then the kidnapper ever did. She notices you are looking at her and begins to talk. "I can't believe you pulled this off Martin" the women begins. "Yeah, I made a promise and I don't break my promises" the man replied as he sat down next to her. You notice the man is far more relaxed when in the company of this women. "So you're the world famous Linda Niles, I'm Jeanette" the women introduces herself. "Nice to meet you" you respond. You suppose being polite will improve your odds of getting out of this situation. "I hope Martin has been treating you alright, he isn't a bad person, but I don't blame you if the kidnapping gave you a different impression" You can't tell if she is being serious or making a wise crack. "So the reason I am here is I'm going to babysit you today, Martin has a few errands to run and we obviously can't just leave you here alone" Jeanette explained. "But the FBI is out looking for you" You say surprisingly with a bit of concern in your voice. "I have...things to do" Martin stated purposely vague. You could insist that Martin stays and Jeanette goes out to do whatever these errands are. You're not quite sure what to make of Jeanette, she could be dangerous, while you know Martin is timid and (probably) won't hurt you. You might even be able to make an escape attempt. On the other hand Martin isn't much for conversation, having Jeanette stay around would give you somebody to talk to, which would really help you keep your saintly while trapped. However Martin going out runs the risk if him being caught, which can your situation much better or way worse. > You have Jeanette stay You decided to go with their plan, it's not likely the would change it if you wanted them too anyway. "I'm heading off now" Martin said as he got off the loveseat and headed towards the front door. "Aren't you worried he'll get caught?" You ask Jeanette. "He'll be fine" she responded not the least bit concerned. "So why did Martin kidnap me?" "I'm sorry Martin asked me not to tell you, just don't worry, we won't harm you and in a few days you'll be let go and can go home" You figure it was no use to keep trying to get info out of her, something about her makes you think she can rather stubborn. "So to help pass the time, you're going to help alphabetize some bank statements" Jeanette said in way she already assumed you would agree. "What do you mean" you responded quite puzzled. "Well the old manger of the bank I work at decided it would be fun to have bank statements in random order, so they fired him and if I fix this mess I got a good shot of getting his job, with you I can get it done even faster" You decide not to argue partly you're a bit afraid of what would happen if you said no and partly because sitting around doing nothing couldn't be good for your mental health. Jeanette heads off into the foyer and you follow her into a room on the left. It is a kitchen complete with a refrigerator, oven and stove. The appliances seemed fairly modern, although the oven and stove appeared to be a bit dirty. Next to them was a counter and sink, with dishes that needed to be washed. A sliding door on the right lead to the backyard. In the middle of the room was a kitchen table,on it is a box with a bunch of papers.You both sit down at the table as Jeanette takes the box and dumps the papers on the table. "You know the alphabet?" Jeanette sarcastically asks you. "Well if I didn't, now would be a good time to learn" You reply in equal wit. Jeanette smiles briefly at the remark, staying on her good side would be the best course of action. For next several hours you and her organize the files, it isn't so bad as you and her talk during the process. You learn that her father severed in the army and she lost her mother at a young age. You also learn she and Martin have been going out for two years. Around noon Jeanette orders a pizza, mushrooms and olives your favorite. By late afternoon you and her all done. "Alright, if you ever get tired as a singer, I'll hire you as my assistant. Jeanette compliments. A short while later Martin returns home and Jeanette greets him with a kiss. "Everything is all set for tomorrow" Martin confirms. "Great, Linda was a valuable help to me" Jeanette responds in a rather cheerful tone. Martin turns his attention to you. "Tomorrow I will explain everything to you, for now I'm afraid you have to go back to the basement" You comply and head back downstairs, for dinner you have left over pizza and after watching some prime time tv you fall asleep.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You lay down on the sofa, wondering what lays in store for you. No one would go through all this trouble for no reason and you dread learning what that reason is. Does the kidnapper simply want a ransom or do they have something more sinister in mind? You notice there are no windows in this room and the bleak white walls are not helping you stay positive. You can't let fear overcome you, only by thinking rational will you get out of this. Suddenly the door that was locked opens up and the man who kidnapped you appears, he is holding a tray with a paper bag on it, he appears nervous and is looking down at the tray and not you. > You say nothing You say nothing, you are way to nervous that saying the wrong thing will angry him and make your situation worse. He also says nothing and the two of you stare at each like 5th graders at their first dance. Finally the man gets the courage to speak up. "I'm sorry about this, I promise everything will be explained in time, just relax I have no intention of hurting you and by the end of the week, you'll be home". The kidnapper explains You stare at the bag on the tray. "Oh, this is dinner, I got it from this deli called Luca's, the internet said you liked pepperoni calzone and diet soda so I got you that" The kidnapper says while putting down the tray. "Now that sofa opens up into a bed and in the morning, you'll meet my girlfriend, it won't be so bad" The man quickly left, closing the door behind him and locking it. You wonder if he is afraid of being caught by the FBI or if he is always like that. You pick up the bag on the tray and take out the contents, sure enough it's a pepperoni calzone and a diet soda. Your stomach growls at the sight of the meal, you are too hungry to care if it's poisonous or not and begin wolfing the down the food. After you've finished you put the tray in a corner and pull the bed out of the sofa . As you lay down, the events of the day race through your mind and you wonder if you'll truly leave this place alive. However you are exhausted and soon you fall asleep.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You awaken in a small room with a throbbing headache, it takes a moment for things to come into focus. When they do you see a beige sofa and a flat screen tv on the wall. Dust bunnies are on the carpeted floor and there are two doors leading out the room. You try the first door and it is locked, while the second door leads to even smaller bathroom complete with a toilet, shower and sink. You're not quite sure what to do next. > You shout for help "SOMEONE HELP" you shout at the top of your lungs. You scream several more times until you are too tired to shout. After a few minuets nothing happens and you are convinced either no one heard you or if anyone did hear, they have no intention on helping you. You'd figure that was a long shot but was worth a try. So now what? <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You are an avid adventurer who has been on a journey for years. Your name is Bugle a myconic (a race of humanoid mushroom) cleric. Your equipment includes a mace, a short crossbow, 50 ft. of rope, a torch, and some spells. You are not alone though, you have been traveling in a group of five. There is a druid pixie named Tanzie, and a half-elf alchemist named Denzin. There is Khuthack who is a warrior goliath, and Naeris the drow bard. You have been traveling with this group looking for the Runes of Yeu. No one know much about the runes other than there is a map located in the town of Articasia. As you walk towards your goal of Articasia you see a small town in the horizon. You see a sign saying Boroughlan. > You enter Boroughlan As you enter the town the sun sets and it starts to get darker. You look around the town and notice four buildings. There is a barn, an inn, a food store, and a blacksmith. You hear growling coming from the distance. Where should you and your party travel. > You go to the Blacksmith (Night) As you approach the Blacksmith you hear the howling originates from the Blacksmith's shop. You look into the building that it is pitch black. You can hear thrashing and things breaking inside the house, but you don't see any movement inside.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>As you enter the town the sun sets and it starts to get darker. You look around the town and notice four buildings. There is a barn, an inn, a food store, and a blacksmith. You hear growling coming from the distance. Where should you and your party travel. > You go to the Inn (Night) As you enter the Inn you notice its also a tavern. You see a lady behind the bar, a man face down at the bar, and a man in the back cleaning up. > You walk up to Lady As you walk up the older lady at the bar welcomes you. "Hi my name is Gran, I run this bar and inn. Anything I can do for you?" > You say "Can I have a drink?" Once you drink one you can't stop. > Another One You hear someone in your brain chanting, "Another one, another one, another one..."<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>from The Annals of the Unsullied It all started when Dwynen joined the merrymaking of a strange island folk. Looking on, the saffron-haired goddess could feel a distinct sense of inspiration come over her. Their lithe movements, and Dwynen's elegant aerial dance, inspired such excitement to rise up in her that her hair seemed to truly be aflame. Watching intently, she reached for her hair and pulled away a handful of burning strands which she began to fashion into the shape of a faery – yet larger by far than any of Dwynen’s pixie kind; indeed, what she shaped was easily three feet tall, and the span of each of its wings twice that. Her skin was blue and her eyes gold, and she looked at the goddess with clear animosity. The goddess frowned. “Well, that came out wro-” but before she could wipe the angry thing away, the blue-skinned fae spread her wings and rose, and in her wake there scattered a thousand smaller fae of complexions blue and green and yellow and purple, turning their heads frantically here and there with clear mischief in mind. “There's no taking Asula back!” Said the mother-fae. A few of her children attacked poor Dwynen, and others yet pulled at the hair the the island folk, who cried out in shock and distress – for they had never been subjected to this kind of treatment and had not thought it possible. Irritated, the saffron-haired goddess caught one of the fae and shook it till it was dust, then pounced upon another and did the same. But the air all around was swarming with them, and many had flown far away – that Asula was long gone and was leaving newborns in her wake. Gathering the dust of all those she had slain, and throwing in her crimson hair, the goddess created once more. There arose another, of similar height but powerfully built and wingless, a clear warrior. He was horribly pale and his hair was all wrong – devoid of life and colour. And above him, yet another rose – a woman winged -, and another. “Brentylwith arises!” Declared the pale wingless male. “Eirgwyn takes flight!” The first female announced. “Dichdorka ascends!” The second female proclaimed. And as with Asula, in the wake of these latter two erupted more fae, seemingly more benign than Asula's, and they immediately set about tugging their blue- and green- and purple-skinned kin off the island folk, and freed poor Dwynen. But these new fae had not the strength or martial prowess of their firstborn cousins and were immediately set upon. Only the intervention of the larger three tipped the balance, and even then only slightly. And so the goddess fashioned a blade and summoned the wingless warrior to her (who, though wingless, flew just as easily as the rest) and she handed it to him. And immediately he was filled with its power and was made mighty. For in his grasp was the First Warsword; Seihdhos Sword of Victory. And the Sullied fae scattered, and the wingless warrior gathered his Unsullied kin and gave chase. Wherever Asula and the Sullied went, they spread mayhem and chaos, ranging from the slightly mischievous to the downright cruel, and wherever the Unsullied came they spread seeds and great forests grew all over the world, and streams exploded from the earth and gushed forth to the sea. And the fae clashed and battled – in the skies and in the deep dark forests, in streams and in lakes and atop the mountains and the hills. They burst across the world, warring and fighting as they went, and the terrifying power of the First Warsword was made manifest again and again. Even now it struck down one unfortunate Sullied or another, cleaving them in twain and causing them to burst into a great cloud of magick and dust. The saffron-haired goddess looked on this penitently and with great contriteness, and she was majorly conscious-stricken and guilt-ridden. “Whoops.” She woefully said. Now as the saffron-haired goddess stood there, a sudden nausea took her. She called her precious Dwynen to her and splashed into the sea, leaving the singing island behind her and sinking beneath the waves. Dwynen fluttered above the water, trying to keep the Flame-haired goddess in sight. But it was no use, and her efforts were swiftly cut short as a Sullied suddenly swooped upon her, caught her, and flew away laughing and cackling. The goddess noticed Dwynen's plight, distantly, and thought to help. But her body felt heavy and the feeling of being afloat in the water, being carried away and cushioned without any effort and without any part of her body being overburdened, was serene. She could feel it now – the reason for her heaviness. Her bloating belly. She laughed inwardly – it was only natural that a such a worthy sword should make her bloom. But with what – residue? Too tame! And yet here she was with a life growing within her. A boy, she knew, and smiled as she whispered his name in the water. “Brahun Dan.” > Next But the Crimson Goddess was not the only divine, and just as there are Sullied Fae, so too are there Sullied Gods. The One Who Mars (Mar to his non-existent friends), who dwells inside Mount Blight in the Heights of Utter Villainy, was one such divine, and he soon set his eyes on the Unsullied Court at the Heights of Utter Villainy. But for what reason, pray tell? He set out searching through the mountains, by the rivers, in the woods until- aha! He found what he was searching for. They shrank away in fear before him, and the very sight of him had already marred their day. These little creatures had infringed upon his domain uninvited, setting up this Court of theirs. They were asking for it. “Wh- who are you?” One asked. “No Hawthorn, don’t talk to i-” “I am the One Who Mars.” The god declared with dread horror. “Mar to my non-existent friends.” Then he snatched up the one who asked, smashed (nearly) all the others into golden dust, and carried this Hawthorn off with him to the Heights of Utter Villainy, right into the depths of Mount Blight. There he set about torturing the poor little thing, because that’s what terrible dark gods do. And once he was done with that, he got to the purpose and Marred the little fae. He was not satisfied, after all, with the great monstrosities he had already made, and when the shadowy fae was complete he was pleased. “Go,” he commanded his other monsters, “and bring them all to me to be marred!” Because that is what anyone whose name is quite literally Mar does. > You meanwhile elsewhere... “You must beware, you must beware,” said the purple-headed man, “the One Who Eats is everywhere!” They had thought him an odd giant, with his purple head and the strange object he balanced on his head. He had called it a top hat. They ignored the purpled-headed man with the top hat and continued doing what they were made to do: chase down those bad, bad Sullied fae. It was maybe a few days later that the earth began to rumble and the sky began to darken, and the One Who Eats came for everyone at the Unsullied Court at the Chomp-Munch Plain. He ate the Lord, and he ate the Lady, and he ate quite a lot of fae. But the ones who he did not eat were so afraid that they were willing to do just about anything to avoid the horrid fate of being in his belly forever. He told them to bring him lots of food as tribute, and to house him in a great temple. “And if I see you shirking, and if you try to flee,” he warned, “then I will find you, and I will gobble you right up.” And so the poor fae of the Unsullied Court at the Chomp-Munch Plain got to work. Now the One Who Eats was as greedy as he was gluttonous, and he worried that someone truly powerful might try to come along and ruin the good thing he had going for himself, with plenty of slaves to do all the hard work and bring him all the food he wanted. So he got to thinking – and when losing his eternal feast was at stake, he could really think. He thought for a long time, his face all scrunched up, and his eyebrows were all furrowed and even his stomach seemed all frowny- and thinky-faced until- Aha! He had a great idea. He would just make something really scary! So scary that it would scare away anyone who tried to steal his feast or end his fun. “Eating really makes you very smart.” The One Who Eats murmured sagely. > You how terrible. You must call for the King! Stealthily and with great cunning, silently and without allowing the One Who Eats to take notice, a little faery was sent off to tell the King about their plight and send aid. But the Unsullied King, Brentylwith, who was at the time leading his subjects against the Sullied Court at the Unhinged Steppe, searing terror into the hearts of his eternal foes with Seihdhos, had already received terrible news from the Unsullied Court at the Heights of Utter Villainy. And so he relented in his crusade and, after considering the plight of those at the those at the Crunch-Munch Plain, decided that the former case was more pressing. And so he forthwith made for the Heights of Utter Villainy. “Do not anger the One Who Eats too much, and give him no cause to devour you. In time I shall come for you. Have no fear.” On the King's arrival at the Heights of Utter Villainy, he was met with the horror that hunted down his people and was taken up in a fury. “What do they take the Unsullied race for that they should hunt us so?” He roared, and descended to the Lord and Lady of the Court, Fylmira and Elabeen, who looked far more worn and tired than when last the King has seen them. “Call up the Unsullied, for I shall lead them personally against these creatures that have taken us for foe.” And so Brentylwith the King drew Seihdhos and led a great Unsullied host – one so large had never before been seen to work as one. However, after engaging one of the monsters that had been kidnapping Unsullied faeries in battle, the King realised that the Unsullied could not hope to resist these creatures with their bare hands. “We cannot fight these creatures with our bare hands as we do our Sullied foe – do you not see that the Crimson Goddess has given me Seihdhos? So go ye forth to the trees and take from them branches, and I would have you sharpen them on stones.” And with this, Brentylwith armed his people with sharpened staves, and when next they met a monstrous kidnapper – or Marigs, as the Unsullied had taken to calling them – the hated creature was pierced by thousands of little spears and leaked its green, toxic blood. And the Unsullied cheered their glorious King and were filled with joy. > You but won't this annoy the One Who Mars? When Mar learned of King Brentylwith’s attempts at resistance, he waxed wroth and was filled with great furies and much rage, and he was incensed and indignant and really quite livid. To think that some upstart was slaying his arduously created minions – and with primitive sticks, no less! It was an outrage. So he decided to teach them a lesson. “If these upstarts won’t willingly give themselves over to be completely and utterly marred by yours truly, master of marring and mar enthusiast par excellence, then we will give them war! Go forth my many minions and go absolutely baloney out there!” Or maybe he didn’t word it quite like that. But either way, the shadowy fae he had been amassing over the weeks gave off what could pass for a cheer and flooded from Mount Blight to war. > You well, this ain't good One day, while stalking a Marig with a small host, Brentilwyth the King came upon a creature most strange. He looked at her warily, and scrutinised her. She was red of hair, like the Crimson Goddess, but she was not her. Her slender feminine body was encased in a black shell of some kind, like an insect. Beneath the great mass of red hair was a pale white face, and that paleness caused her pitch-black lips and obsidian eyes to stand out. After only a second of hesitation, the King…<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You awake in a great hall, huge stone pillars holding up the high ceiling, fine stone art carved into the perfect marble walls. Couples dressed in medieval finery dance around you, ignoring the nearly naked man on the floor who just woke up. With surprise and embarrassment you realize you're only wearing a loose pair of breeches that only reach to your knees. You keep a hand on it to stop it from falling down. "Ah! Another one. I had just begun to believe the party was over. Seems the second round has started! Grab a lady and begin the dance anew. Oh, you might want to put something on first. Or not. Whatever you think is an appropriate way to celebrate!" A man sits in a stone throne a few steps up in front of you. He stares at you with dark red eyes as he taps his bare feet on the lovely gold and red carpets. His pure white hair is pushed back over his head, over his ears, and under a dull plain looking iron crown, more like a simple iron circle than a crown. He puts his hand over his chin in a thinking position. "On second thought; that is the perfect way to celebrate! Everybody naked! Brilliant my speechless friend! Haha, someone grab my friend here a partner!" He jumps up and rips off his coat. "Nevermind, I will!" He grabs your hand and pulls you up, spinning you around and around. Everyone around you is going through the long process of undressing and he pushes you into the crowd, towards the only person done, a woman who gracefully catches you before you not very gracefully fall into the nearly naked bodies. You don't know if this is a nightmare or a fantasy. > You where are you\? She's behind you, holding you up. You get back your footing and turn around to face her. She grabs your hands and starts to dance, forcing you along. Her long black hair is pulled up into a ridiculous hairdo, nearly making you laugh, but her intense face stops you. You open your mouth to ask the question, but she places one finger over her red lips. She turns her head and looks at you. You look around. The women have all stripped to down to their shifts and the men down to breeches or hose. > You ignore her warning As soon as you open your mouth again she pushes you away and stops dancing. The crowd has stopped and is looking at you. The man, now minus his tight black pants, stares at you. You noticed that some of his guards are walking torwards you. "Please, please, hold all questions until the end of the presentation." He claps and everyone resumes dancing. Everyone but you that is, as his guards have long since killed you and are now in the process of cleaning up the mess your blood leaves on the smooth tiles.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>She's behind you, holding you up. You get back your footing and turn around to face her. She grabs your hands and starts to dance, forcing you along. Her long black hair is pulled up into a ridiculous hairdo, nearly making you laugh, but her intense face stops you. You open your mouth to ask the question, but she places one finger over her red lips. She turns her head and looks at you. You look around. The women have all stripped to down to their shifts and the men down to breeches or hose. > You keep quiet for now Considering you have no idea what in the hell is happening, you decide to take her silent advice. You nod to let her know you understood her message. Her large lucious lips briefly show a tiny smile. She leads as you slowly dance. She tries to bring you up to speed, but you've no talent for this. Suddenly, you hear it. A cacophony of bells and whistles, flutes and drums. The horrible sound is quiet at first, messy and brutal, but as the volume grows it becomes cleaner. The cruelty of the sound is transformed into music by the strings that fade in. And then your feet will themselves along. They know every move, exactly what to do, exactly when to do it. You hands are placed at just the right place on your partners body. You search for the source of the sweet sound, seeing the man sprinting and springing all around the room, screaming. The music is so loud you can only hear his roars of laughter as he passes by you. The choir starts in and the sound feels like honey. The men at first, low basses, then the women join in, their high sopranos filling the air with such lovely wisps of beauty. You lean your head back and open your mouth to drink in the sounds. Your partner leans against you closely as dance, right against your chest, but the music is the only thought in your head and heart. Your body almost don't care. > You quiet And then it stops without notice. You nearly fall down, and would have, if it weren't for the support of your partner. The strange man has stopped dancing, his laughter the only sound now. "Stop! Stop stop stop! Everyone!" The people had continued dancing without the music, but now at his word they halt their movements. The man looks around at them all. He squints his eyes and angles his head with a hand cupped around his ear. "What? Time already? It can't be. Oh yes it is, is can be, because it is and therefore must be and can be. Oh well, next time, same time. And you, find some proper trousers . Here, you can have mine." He hands you his black pants. You reach out to take them, in shock. "On second thought, no." He quickly grabs it back. He walks through the wall behind his throne, disappearing, all the while laughing. The room breathes a collective sigh and everyone is searching the floor for their clothing. Your partner is putting on her clothes, and you avert your gaze. People all around are talking now, and she finally says something. "Relax. I bet you have many questions. Come. We'll find you something to wear." You open your eyes and she's wearing a simple grey outfit, probably something that went under the ridiculous dress she's carrying now. Her hair is down now, and you can't help but appreciate her stunning beauty. You take a breath. You'll listen to her and keep quiet for now, at least until you have an inkling of what's going on. This feeling of tension inside you isn't just because you're mostly naked... But it probably would be better if you were wearing something proper. You blush. > You she guides you out of the room She takes your arm and pulls you towards a corner of the great hall. "The man you just met is Zaren. He's... Complicated. All you need to know right now is that he's God here. If he asks you to do something, it's not a question. You obey him. Without hesitation." She pulls you through the stone blocks of the wall before you know what's happening. It's chilly on your naked skin and tickles slightly. "A few decades ago Zaren had an argument with... with a door. Apparently, the door won, so he decreed that all doors be hung and then burned." She looks straight at you, not even blinking. "It was a few years before he got sick of that and decided to introduce these fake walls." She pulls you through a narrow hallway, past tapesties of Zaren eating breakfast. In every single one he's moving. You can hear whispers coming from them, most of them asking if it's on. A few people pass you, guards and servants by their look. None of them gives you a second glance. You look in awe at the beautiful artwork on the walls. "Oh my, I'm forgeting my manners. It's good Zaren isn't here. We must be quiet. He hears much of what is not meant for him. My name is Ophelia." She pulls you through a series of walls, all made of gorgeous stone with artwork carved into the individual blocks. "It's been a long time since one has joined the upper ranks. Maybe you'll even last. Although I've never heard of someone... Well, just appearing out of thin air. Something that Zaren would do certainly, but I think he went through that phase a few hundred years ago. It's hard to remember all the things he does... You will be joining the upper rank, won't you? You must be, Zaren did not request your absence, as he calls it, or an execution, as we call it. So, why are you here?" She pulls you into a room full of mannequins and fabric, with colourful carpet on the floors, walls, and ceiling. "I'm sure the Tailor will find something for you. So why you are here?" > You where is here, exactly? "Oh my. Now that is a very good question. But here comes the Tailor." She turns around and curtsies towards the door. "What -" You stand there speechless. A man walks into the room and bows, a spotless fine black coat shimmering around his white furry torso, four furry little limbs poking out of the coat. They are end in three long, delicate fingers with little hairs at the base and bare human-like tips. His hairy legs have the same pattern, with his feet looking almost normal. Large wings are folded at his back, trailing on the floor. His large black eyes poke out from his white fur and his human jaw opens to speak in a slightly buzzing voice. "Hello, good lord. I am the tailor. I must say, your eyes are a wonderful colour. Such a light but intense brown. They will be a challenge to match correctly, but I will enjoy creating your outfits for you." "What..." You take a step back, bumping into a mannequin and accidently knocking it over. "You will have to work on your coordination if you plan to be part of The Court. Dancing is quite popular here. But even if you fall or some such thing, you will look wonderful. Still, that is not my job. Now come over here, I must measure you. Take a look around at the outfits. You may find one you like." Ophelia stares at you and gestures. You timidly take a few steps forward. The tailor places his finger tips on your arms, mummering to himself. "Don't you need measuring tape for this?" You ask. "Measuring tape? Bah, I am better then the tailors you have known. A true master can look at a man for a second and make him a god within minutes." "I've never known any tailors." "Well then trust me, I am the best. Now lift your arms please?" As he slides his hands around your arms and chest you look away, uncomfortable. > You look at the strange carpeted walls Colourful fine carpets cover all the walls, some more rugs hanging over them in turn. The carpets are like a dark, dull rainbow. The carpet itself is black, with colours seeming floating over it like a reflection in water. The colours swirl and mix and seperate so slowly you have to careful look before you see the emerging patterns of dancing colours.. You watch a batch of a grey blue twirl around with concentrated yellow and green drops, absorbing them. The rugs draped over them like curtains over imaginary windows are stationary pictures of outfits, each in a different pose. They continue from down the walls onto the floor and a few hang from the ceiling. You recognize a few outfits, but what really catches your eye is the one hidden on the far left, the one that looks just like Zaren's black finery. It's the only one with a person in the clothes. Zaren's in it, posed elegantly in his black and gold coat. His arms are raised as if to greet you, but his face perfectly shows his comtempt at your very existance. All but his eyes, which are laughing. You do not know if the contempt is the joke. There is a man behind that insanity, you are sure of it. Whether the insanity is a cover or not, you do not know. You look back at the swirling patterns. They are starting to resemble pictures now, just barely, but the proper shades are coming in... > You an Arena Your heart beats. You stand in an great amphitheatre, on shifting sands. It's quiet for but a moment, and then the clashes of weapons rings out in great echoes, with cheery yells of murder providing a bass quality. Smiles flash all around as people hack or are hacked about and nothing but snorts of laughter without the barest hint of pain accompany the carnage. Sprays of blood float on the air. Spilled guts and limbs sink deep into the sands. Heads laughing are choking on sand and sweet blood spills out of their lifeless bodies. You smell gore in the air and it clouds your thoughts. Little droplets rain down in your vision. You count each as they pass. Some spray in the corner of your eye hits your cheek and you can taste the liquid life. Liquid life. Life. You're alive. Where is your weapon? > A claymore on the ground to your right The heavy blade is laying on the ground. Your heart beats. You survey the fight. It's a giant mass of men screaming in a variety of different emotions. Joy here, fear there. You can see spectres spectating, watchers watching, and shadows spectating as well, because what else would they do? Be serious. With all the chaos, if you crouched you could conceivably have more cover. A lower center of gravity would also be a benefit. A quick roll would provide more cover and speed, but lack the same control. The ground, while littered with weapons and bodies, has a clear path to your weapon. You could try to crawl there. This would provide the most cover, but you risk being stepped on, and what you gain in cover you give up in speed. Beat. Move now, or risk danger for another look around. > You crouch You shift and fall, knees bent, head low. An arrow whistles in the air. Beat. You senses collaspe in on this one thing. The arrow shines brightly as the sun catches it and then wades in and out of bloody bodies. Your toes curl in the sand, trying to the draw the rest of your body in. Your arms follow your slowly moving torso as it curls as well. You blink and lose the arrow. When your eye open your head to low to see it. You can only hope. You push foward with one foot. Beat. The arrow catches your left shoulder blade and tears through the top layer of muscle and skin but leaves your body mostly intact. Beat. You grit your teeth and swallow a gurgle of pain. You've had worse. You lie. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. You reach the sword and grab it with your right hand, using all your strength to swing it up and around so your weak hand to hold it. The man in front of you laughs as back is penetrated by the blade. The combination of the unbalancing swing and the collision shock your hands and they tingle. Oh wait, that's because someone cut them off. Now who would do such a thing. A laugh swirls around in your mouth and tastes great. You let it out and the fear and terror and pain all disappear. A pommel strike to the face later and you're laying on the ground as the battle rages on, spitting out sand and blood and teethe as you laugh. > Back in the room You blink. The world is... well, not really "normal", but... it's better. You bring a hand to your head, fine, but tears are falling down your face. Colours spin in your eyes. The madness of the walls creeps and lurks in your head and it's shrieks and whispers make your ears bleed. "You looked at the walls, didn't you? Where did you go? Nevermind, it's not important. It's not frequently a pleasent place anyway. Now look at me. Hmm, the barber will have to take a look at you. Fuzzy face, tangled hair. Still, not my job. Now please stand still and um, please do not touch anything. You don't seem graceful. No offense meant, my good sir." The Tailor lets go of your arm and waddles off on his strange legs. He walks straight through a carpeted wall. You carefully sit down on the floor. This isn't real. But it is. This can't be real. But it is. It was a dream then. But you're -- you're awake now. It was a dream. Just a dream. No, no, no, NO, NO, NO! This can't be happening. The world is spinning now, and you feel faint and dizzy. There's a sour taste in the back of your dry mouth. Don't open your eyes. Don't look up. This isn't real. This isn't real. This isn't happening. Your heart pounds. Your fists close and your arms tense. No, no, no, NO, NO, NO! Something touches your head -- NO! "Get away! Get away! Take your bug men and crazy kings and doors and dreams and shove it!" You fling yourself backwards and push off the attacking nightmares. > You ophelia You hit the nightmares and they gasp. You open your eyes. It's just Ophelia. Just Ophelia. She's holding her wrist in her other hand. "I..." Your mouth closes. This is it. This is all happening too fast, too fast, too much. You didn't mean to hit her but the world is just spinning now. "I'm sorry. It's been so long since any of us have seen someone new to The Court, let alone to this world. Most people -- well, besides you, everyone -- come to this realm through the slums and move up. I'm afraid you'll have to forgive them. This place changes people... Some for the better, like the Tailor. Or at least he would say so. Most... Well, you'll see soon. Please, just calm down, and I'll answer all your questions. Zaren will forgive us this." "I'm sorry... I didn't mean---" "I know. Just hold on a moment. We'll get you some clothes and then I'll take you to your rooms. I'll explain there. Just hold on." You take a deep breath. You're under control now. Those walls... They play with your mind. But you're back now. The Tailor walks back through the wall. "Now sir, please take a look around the room. The mannequins have some samples, the carpets others, although you probably would like to stay away from them now. Small changes can be made quite easily to the design, or even after if you are disappointed with my work, although I doubt that will happen. Anything custom will have to come later I'm afraid. You have much work to do my friend." > The black outfit You point out the tapestry in the corner, the one with Zaren in his shining black clothes. There's something about it that intrigues you. Something that just draws you in. Ophelia and the Tailor give each other a look. "I'm... I'm afraid you'll have to choose another my friend. I don't believe Zaren would be... happy. Wait. I think I have something in a similar style. Take a look at this. You may request changes if you wish." The Tailor pulls out a tapestry and peels it apart. You did not notice before, but they're made of different layers stuck together. Each layer contains one piece of the outfit. The pants are the same thin fit, but looser at the ankles. The belt has two buckles of polished gold and beautiful leather. "The tanner can make you such a belt. It is only cloth that I may create." The Tailor buzzes. A tight but long shirt with slightly ruffled sleeves is next. It's tight around the torso and hugs the waist with large shoulders. Over that comes a waist coat with shining gold buttons. "It is designed with a similar cloth in mind and the same colours. Colour, that is. The shirt is long sleeved and with a waist coat, but I will keep your wishes in mind. You may take these rags for now. It will be completed soon. I suggest you visit the barber, cobbler, and tanner. Oh, and all gentlemen of The Court are expected to have their own sword. Something about duels. I never saw the point of it, but it's been a long time since I was... different. That reminds me. You should have been here before. The style now is very fond of vibrant colours, not this... Monotone thing you have chosen. That must have been at least decades ago... Off, now." You don't particularly feel like hanging around, so you accept his choice and the Tailor fills you hands with fine shirts and breeches, simple but elegant. Only he would call them rags. He then turns you around and pushes you along and out. You nearly panic when he shoves you into the wall, only to remember that it is in fact a door. Ophelia walks down the hall. "Coming?" > You follow her "One second." You call out. You'd prefer to be clothed at this point. You slip on a pair of pants and a shirt before running, trying to catch up to her without dropping any of the things you're carrying. She looks at you. You feel self conscious suddenly, despite your newly clothed appearance. You look straight ahead, trying to keep even steps and the same pace as Ophelia, who walks fast. "Zaren didn't tell me where you'd stay. I suppose the guest quarters -- no, that's no good. They're too far, for one, and I don't believe Zaren considers you a guest. He is very fond of order and organization. Or at least the order and organization of others. We'll drop these off in my room for now. We have others to visit. Please wait just a little bit longer." You and Ophelia walk in silence. The stoned passage gives way into large rooms with bustling people. Ophelia leads you past a great fountain spitting out clear water and up stairs. Putting on pants was probably a good decision. On the second level people jostle and bump into your and it takes great skill not to drop anything. After a few minutes of twisting turns Ophelia stops in the middle of a hall. "This is my humble abode. Please just dump those off on my desk." Ophelia then pulls you through the wall. You doubt you'll ever.... get.... used.... to that? > You ophelia's room This isn't a room. It's a damn mansion. This is just one room and it's huge. Expensive carpets cover over parts of the floor. The high quality marble shows through in other parts. The walls are the same stones from the halls, but large paintings with golden frames cover parts of it. A giant golden chandelier hangs from the ceiling. Giant golden stairs are placed on both sides of the room. Before the stairs stands a bronze statue of... Something. It looks like a regular man, naked but for a cloth that hangs from one shoulder, but something feels off about it. His face is turned down and his eyes closed, one mouth corner lifted in a sneer. He's kneeling almost in a pleading position, as if he dare not look up. "Zaren's work. I suppose he thinks it a gift and why he's right of course. It's very lovely. Every so often when one disagrees with him death is not always the suitable punishment. I'm sure Tunc agrees with me, though he may not express it well." Ophelia grabs your hand and leads you quickly to a small, bare room behind the statue. Her face is ashen. "Check the walls!" She hisses at you, then brushes her fingers along the walls. You follow her example, even if you cannot fathom why. She and you check the whole wall and she takes a deep breath. "Zaren has a habit of popping up when he isn't wanted. We can never be sure we are safe, but vigilance is the only option if we wish to survive. We must go soon, but if you have any questions that must be answered, ask now. We must be very careful what we say outside this room, even inside it." > You tunc "Oh... Tunc. Yes. Tunc was a friend of mine... A very, very long time ago." Ophelia leans against a wall. "You can drop those clothes off right here." She gestures towards the spotless floor. "Tunc. He... Disagreed with Zaren a very long time ago. Zaren is unpredictable at best, and the king of chaos at worst. The power he wields is not a good combination with his nature. Tunc took a great risk. He thought he could challenge Zaren's rule. He... Failed. Listen closely. I don't care to relive the experience, so I will not be sharing any details, and I'd doubt you'd really want to hear them once you understand his fate." Ophelia looks down, unsure. "I tried to warn him...." She pauses and closes her eyes. The memory is obviously a painful one for her. You are unsure of what to do, so you just stand there, dumbly. She takes a few seconds to collect her thoughts and then continues in a monotone voice. "Zaren is a creative.... Man. He didn't kill Tunc, exactly. He decided to create an example of him. He was feeling particularly... Well, something. It's hard to tell what goes on in his mind, though it gets easier after time. That's what scares me the most, I suppose. Anyway, Zaren is a powerful man. He has abilities that the rest of us cannot comprehend. He's kept Tunc alive even as he is now." She looks straight up at you. "I suppose there's no easy way about this. That statue out there is Tunc. Zaren did something with him. I used to cry, talk to him, anything, but there's a time when you just have to let go. Especially here. I'm not even sure if it was meant to be a punishment, reward, or just some twisted form of art. Zaren is confusing, misleading, childish, and any other number of unpleasant things." "You said Zaren keeps him alive... Does that mean?" You ask, afraid of the answer. "Yes. He moves, ever so slowly. Once in a very great while he cries. That's where the "art" comes in." She sighs. "Do you have any other questions?" > You zaren "Zaren? You mean besides his seeming complete and utter insanity? Well, I told you. He's a god here. The god here. There's not much else to him. I could tell you about all the things he's done over the years. All the times I nearly laughed at him. All the times others did laugh at him, and paid for it. All the times he laughed along with them. He's unpredictable. Don't forget it, ever. If you remember nothing else, remember that. I've seen him kill people for following his instructions to the word. He's done things... Things that are worse than death. Tunc's fate is far from the worst." "Then why? Why do you let him do it? Why not do something about it? Surely he couldn't stop you all?" "Look at Tunc. As bad as things are, they could be worse. Zaren's powerful in ways even the strongest of us can't imagine. Tunc used to say that reality is Zaren's bitch. He was frank like that. Everyone here has at least the smallest ability for magic, and some are very talented, but Zaren's in a class of his own. Besides, most have adapted. They've learned to live with it. It doesn't matter how awful something is. If you live with something for a long time it becomes the norm. You can only be in sheer terror for so long before it bores you." You can see it in her eyes. The fear that has long given way to numbness. She attempts to smile. "Better the devil you know." > You where am I "Now that's a good question. The short answer is: I don't know. Nobody does as far as I know. Except, perhaps, for Zaren, but I don't think he's likely to share that information, do you? You really never went through the slums?" Ophelia narrows her eyes suspiciously. "I don't know what you mean." You answer truthfully. "The slums are what they are. A broken down place infested with poverty and suffering. Everyone, nobility and peasants alike, appears in the slums. People don't really have children here. Pregnancy is extremely rare among the population, even over large periods of time. Most women will go their whole life without a child. Most pregnancies will end in miscarriages. Almost all of those carried to term will be stillborn. Of the handful of people over our whole history to be born here... I've never met one. I've heard that they turn out strangely, even compared to the average citizen. Nothing specific, just strange. There are rumours that Zaren is one, but I doubt a thing like him was even born, even in another place. To my knowledge there is no one older than Zaren alive today so I guess we'll never know. Anyway, people will simply "arrive" here instead. From somewhere else. Always... Well, you're the exception, but always in the slums. They're not a pleasant place. The slums are filled with screams and the raving of the mad. The "upper ranks" to which you now belong are comprised of the completely sane, or at least the sanest. Zaren... I don't think he's insane. I've known him too long. No, I think he just likes to watch us suffer in our own filth." "So you can't tell me anything about where I am." "No, I can tell you much about where we are. I just don't know where where we are is. I can't tell you anything about where any of us came from. Most people don't remember anything and even if they do it's after a long time of searching. But it just tears them apart. It's best to forget if you start remembering." "But I... I remember.... Something." You're not sure. It's that faint form of memory, but vivid in strange places. More like a story that you've visualized. "Forget it. Or if you can't forget it, ignore it. At the very least leave it alone. Do not go any further into that abyss." But this memory is to real to forget. Ophelia looks at you, rolls her eyes, and sighs. "Okay. Tell me about it, but then that's it. Don't ever think you can make it farther into your own mind. It won't end well." "I remember. I remember... " Words roll of your tongue as you look through the past towards the only memory you can find. > You white It's white. Some of it is powder and some is thicker and clear. Some of it sticks together. Snow. It's snow. And it's falling. You look up. The sky is dark with little flecks coming into existance as they get close enough for you to see them. Snow crunchs under you. You open your mouth and catch a flake on your tongue and then laugh. You look at one closely. It's pretty with its twirls and patterns and designs. You dance, dance in the snow, falling, rolling, screaming with laughter and fun. Each flake unique but nothing without its friends. Then it's gone. You have it here in your head now, fixed and alive, something you'll remember. There's more... But that's gone, at least for now. > You memories Ophelia is speechless for a minute."Wow. That's a lot, well, compared to me. You, you like... Liked nature, didn't you?" "I don't know. Maybe. It's all I remember anyw--" "No. No. I'm sure you have more in there. Don't try to remember... But if you do... I don't know if we come from the same place, but maybe, just maybe, we do. If you remember enough it might trigger my memories too." Ophelia looks hopeful. Happy. You don't think she'll ever remember if she hasn't by now, but it's not in your heart to crush her new found hope. She smiles for a brief moment, caught up in a memory that isn't hers yet is still her only link to her potential past, even if it's faint at best. Then she remembers where she is right now and shakes her head to rid her of her folly. "Anymore questions? We don't have much time." > You doors "Oh yes. I told you about the "fight" Zaren had. He got rid of all the doors in The Court, except for the large front doors to the palace. Apparently they "took his side". Without doors we lacked privacy, but Zaren didn't care. Probably didn't eve occur to him. But after a few years he had his brilliant idea; fake walls. No one had any idea he could do something like that, but I don't think it surprised anyone. That's why we check the walls. He can build them anywhere he wants, so we must be vigilant, vigilant always. It's tiring at first but you build up a habit eventually." "Doesn't it... Freak you out?" "At first it was a little strange, but after a year or two you don't even think about it anymore. You start to forget what doors look like." > The Court "This is The Court. It's part of this realm. It, the slums, the markets, and a few other districts make up about half of it, with wildness making up the other half. Zaren keeps meticulous records of nearly everything, including maps. I'm not sure why, he's a very chaotic person, but I guess even chaos is ordered from time to time -- otherwise it would have an order to it. We should visit his libraries some time. Just one of them would take a very long time to read through. Every so often he'll change the realm so much that previous records need to be updated, so he purges almost everything and everyone starts again. He always keeps a very accurate record of the books he's had though, even the purged ones. There are rumours he keeps copies of them somewhere after he destroys the others. I wouldn't put it past him, but there are many things only Zaren knows, and this is one of them. But that doesn't really answer your question, does it? "Tell me about The Court." You ask. "Well, it's composed of servants, guards, and merchants and the like that look after us from the upper ranks. You've met the Tailor and seen a few of the guards and servants. You'll also meet the Tanner, the Shoemaker, the Barber, the Blacksmith, the Jeweler, and various teachers and instructors. Probably a few more I'm forgetting. Almost all necessities and wants are provided for us. We are the only sane ones left in this forsaken realm. We are basically Zaren's playthings. Let's see, what else...." She stops to think for a moment. "We're in the west wing right now. It's devoted mostly to private residences. Zaren will assign you one soon. For the most part he'll let you decorate it as you wish -- oh, that reminds me, the Framer, the Painter, the Carpenter, the Mason, and a few others. Anyway, he may give you some "gifts", akin to housewarming gifts. He would be "offended" if you did not accept them. He's given me things: paintings, statues, furniture. A lot of it is weird and out of style, but surprising none of the chairs will break... or strangle you, or something else Zaren would find funny. Let's see... There's the south wing which houses the servants quarters and the kitchens and other such things, and the south tower, which is primarily for the craftsmen. What is literally called The Court is in the northern end and is filled with Zaren's gardens, libraries, mess halls, and other areas for social gatherings. Oh, the gymnasium as well. The east wing holds more craftsman and merchants. Some of the market district blends in with this area. The west wing also includes the entrance to this palace and the long hall, as we call it. Zaren's throne room really, but he also has thrones in other rooms." > You events "We also have many events, like the dance you saw. The Tailor mentioned duels; all the men learn how to fight, as well as quite a few of the women. Zaren finds it amusing, although he doesn't allow anyone to die. Most of the time. We have feasts every few days and a hunt the next day. Lets see. There's contests and tournaments. You must participate in at least one event. That's where those teachers and instructors are useful. What else... I think that's all. If not, well, you'll figure out the rest as you go. You seem like you already know how to dance, so that's one less thing." "But I don't." "Then what was that back in the dance hall?" "Didn't you hear the music? It was so loud." Ophelia's eyes narrow. "What music?" Curious. > You it's time "It's time. No more questions. That reminds me; one more thing you should know. Time functions strangely here. Nothing grows or changes unless Zaren wills it. Every so often he'll change The Court - usually not to a noticeable extent but once in a while there are some great changes. But back to the point; time is strange. We don't quite... Age. But that's a discussion for later. We still have to visit the Shoemaker, the Blacksmith, the Tanner, the Jeweler..." The list feels nearly endless, though it's actually short. Ophelia goes through them as she leads out of the empty room, back into the halls, and towards the south tower, leading you through winding halls, large decorative rooms, up and down stairs, out onto a blooming courtyard and finally in front of the south tower. "We didn't go this way before." You ask, curious. "You were naked before. I didn't think you'd want to." "Fair enough." The tower itself is huge, made of tiny white stones grinded and polished to create a perfect cylinder. The entrance is a pair of huge and heavy stone slab doors that are currently open. The tower is a hub and dozens of people are walking in and out at any one moment, mostly guards, servants, and nobles. You and Ophelia are out of place in your plain clothing as the guards are wearing armour, the servants the uniforms of their specific job, and the nobles in outlandish outfits. "We have much to do and little time to do it. After the formal dances Zaren will do "realm maintenance". I mentioned it before; this is when he plays around with the fabric of reality. That's why it's so busy. Everyone wants to get their work done before Zaren changes anything. It will be busy after too. The tower is frequently full, especially at these times, but I have seen it nearly empty a few times." > The lift "Follow me." Ophelia walks past the guards and weaves through the throng of people with grace. You follow carefully, not wanting the heavy armoured feet of the guard to crush yours. She leads you up a spiraling staircase to a small platform reaching over the center. As soon as you step on it floats upwards. Ophelia grabs your arm to keep you from falling or freaking out. "Be calm. If you stand still it is surprisingly safe. The Tailor's rooms are on the third floor, so it was unnecessary to take the lift. The others reside near the top though, so unless you would like to go up all those stairs we're taking the lift." Ophelia holds your arm tightly. You force yourself to take a breath and try not to look down. Ophelia senses this is not the time to talk and so you just stand there, jaw clenched. Finally Ophelia takes a breath and talks. "Who shall we visit first? As a new member of our lovely "family" you have priority, so don't fret about lines or some such nonsense. After we visit them all we should go back to the Tailor and pick up the beginning of what will, trust me, become a very large wardrobe ." > The Blacksmith (this will continue the story) Ophelia smiles. "He's a friend of mine. Please don't let his appearence frighten you, he is at heart a gentle man, but he can be a bit sensitive. I mentioned... Changes. Some, like the Tailor, are happy with their new existence. The Blacksmith is good at his job and enjoys it, but I believe he misses some things about his previous life." The lift slows down and moves towards a space that it then attaches to. Ophelia walks straight off. "Come on. Don't hesitate. It gets better with practice." You step off the lift. It leaves your feet and lowers again, leaving you with a nearly falling sensation. Your heart pounds and you don't care to look down, even though you're on a stable floor now. Ophelia holds your arm and pulls you forward, not even looking back at that horrible open space. "It's a little way from here." Ophelia walks beside you, much more steady than you could be. With perfect posture and graceful movements she looks almost regal. "Do you have any combat experience? The Blacksmith will have to make you many weapons of all kinds, especially if you are fan of the dueling, so you should be familar with them all and with more than one style." "No... Well, I don't really remember." You can smell the fires and you know you are close. "Oh... Yes. My apologies. We're getting closer. Zaren created these spaces to minimize the smells. They're particularly bad at the tanery; though we are beyond many of the more unhygenic and barbaric practices, it smells nearly as foul as it would if we used the original "recipes. Here we are." Ophelia stops and pulls you into a searing steam filled room. > You meeting the Blacksmith The steam that flies in your face and shocks you quickly dissapates. Beyond it there is a large forge filled to the brim with tools that line shelves and walls, with all kinds of hammers, chisels, tongs, and other things you don't recognize of all different sizes; and works, both completed weapons that are displayed and those still to be finished. There is a regular anvil as well as other large metal pieces for shaping metal. There are buckets of water, ingots of different metals, and even polishing materials thrown around the large yet somehow still full room. There the sound of a hammer striking metal, a steady, heavy ting ting ting. A man grunts with each sound. He turns around and you gasp. That is not a man. He's tall, easily another half of a man. Horns curve out of his large furred head and a bull's nose move as he smells the steam; above those large and surprisingly deep blue eyes. His neck is thick and his arms bulge with muscles as he grips the hammer. He wears a thick leather apron to keep his skin safe, but still litle burn marks line his arms. As he steps forward you hear the clip clop of his hooves. He turns to look at Ophelia and his scowl turns into a smile. "Ophelia! So nice to see you. It's been too long since you visiting me in Tartarus. I almost thought Hades had got you." His voice is baritone, regular but higher than one would expect, and softer. "And this is?" "He's new. He... Doesn't have a name yet. That reminds me, we must discuss that as well. Anyway, he requires some weapons." Ophelia smiles at the Blacksmith and goes forward to hug him. "Always business with you. Does he have any experience? Preferences? You will definitely need a polearm, sword, and dagger, but anything else will be your choice. You look like you can handle the heavier weapons. What would you prefer for a sword, first of all? One or two handed? Any specific type? We have something of almost everything. Take a look along the walls. Pick out anything you like. Feel free to try it." He speaks so fast you can't respond before he starts onto something else. You look at the wall the Blacksmith points to, scanning the swords, but something catches your eye. It's in the corner up higher than the rest. You walk over and look over it. It's an arming sword of a regular length, with a plain black covered hilt and pommel. The cross guard is a thin long diamond shape and the blade is double edged but dull. "This one. This is the one." You barely hear yourself say it. Yoo careful pick the blade off of the wall and hold it; it's perfectly balanced and its weight compliments you well. "Now that's an old one. Before my time even. It doesn't look much like my predecessor's work either. It's amazing it's lasted this long. Alright, hand it over to me. I'll make you one." The Blacksmith walks over to you. "Can't I have this one?" There's something about it. Something about the way your hand fits on it, something about the cool feeling of the leather over the hilt, something about the plain ridge in the middle that just draws you into it. "I don't see why, but I don't see why not. Are you sure you'd not rather have a new one? I won't sharpen or polish it - that's not my job. Oh well. You must still pick out a dagger and polearm. Other weapons will come later. The Court is a game of time." > The polearm and the dagger "You can use the grindstone and I'll give you some whetstones and polishing cloth. Still, you will need a dagger and a polearm of some kind. You look like you would fancy a heavier weapon. Take a look at the wall. I've got a poleaxe that I've recently finished; it's the perfect length for you. Let me get it." You stare at the walls again, this time at one filled with pole weapons, some leaning against the wall, some packed on shelves, some in actual weapon holders. There are the long pikes that take down calvary lined on shelves at the top. Other weapons have spikes, tongs, flat ends for hammering, large and small points, curved blades, and any combination thereof. The choice between weapon types is dizzying, and even among the individual types there are more variables; weight, length, thickness, curve, even the way the shaft and tip are joined. You carefully pick up a weapon or two and try them out, a swing, a thrust, a step and a turn. They are unsurprisingly heavy, much heavier than your smaller sword. You place them back, making sure they are not going to fall and cause an avalanche of weapons. You look around a bit. You manage to pick out a few weapons that look good. The Blacksmith walks back in carrying one of the heavy weapons in one hand like it's nothing and places it on a weapon rack. Including the weapon the Blacksmith just brought in you've narrowed it down to three: a halberd about your height, with an end that has a long spike at the tip, a small axe on one side and a hook on the opposite, all mounted on a thick and sturdy wood pole; a slightly smaller warhammer with small but brutal looking spike on one side and the flat end for crushing, all on a mix of metal of wood; and the Blacksmith's weapon, a longer glaive, with a long curved blade on the tip and a small hook, on heavy dark wood. > You halberd You pick up the halberd and inspect it. It's heavy of course, but you're strong enough for it. The blade is engraved with long intricate lines and designs that circle around the point, connecting to rays from the ax blade and a hatching pattern on the hook. "The halberd? A good weapon. It looks well suited to you as well, just the right height." The Blacksmith stands beside you, picks up the weapon he brought in, and places it in a rack. "It's a complicated pattern, but a beautiful weapon." > The dagger You place your weapons on a table and stare at yet another wall. Again, there's a wide selection but you're getting better at scanning them. The shorter weapons are packed in much tighter in than the others, nearly making you dizzy. You feel a few; the short weapons are light and nimble with sharp edges and points. Though there are many different kinds and variations between all those you decide to narrow it down to just a few of different kinds. You look along the choices and pick out three again; a cinquedea about a foot long, with a very wide blade that is decorative and an even longer cross guard with a short handle and pommel; a stiletto at the opposite end of the spectrum, with a very thin blade and handle that can easily pierce or find a way through armour; and a baselard, with a thicker blade, thin handle, and no cross guard or pommel to speak of. > The cinquedea You reach out and lightly touch the blade of the cinquedea, running your hand over the tip to the fullers and the cross-guard. It softly nips your fingers when you run them over the sharp blade, drawing the tiniest drop of blood. You wipe your hand on your shirt and pick up the dagger. It's light and strangely balanced because of the abnormally wide blade where it connects to the hilt, but already you're getting used to it. You give it a practice thrust, twist it, and pull back. "That one?" asks the Blacksmith. "Very well. You have great taste, I can tell. It seems just the right one for you. Well, we're done here for now. Armour will wait until later, because we'll have to measure you for each piece, and even then it'll take a while to make. Still, you're set up enough for now. It was nice seeing you Ophelia, and nice to meet you as well." > Back to the lift Well that's everything done so far. Not much really. Overall I'm not very happy with this in any way that counts. The story and characters aren't great so far, there's little to no real choices, and it sort of jumps from one part to another. The only reason I'm submitting it is because it's the most work I've ever done on a story, and I guess that's something to be proud of at least. At the best it's... rambling I guess. Please tell me what you think.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You place your weapons on a table and stare at yet another wall. Again, there's a wide selection but you're getting better at scanning them. The shorter weapons are packed in much tighter in than the others, nearly making you dizzy. You feel a few; the short weapons are light and nimble with sharp edges and points. Though there are many different kinds and variations between all those you decide to narrow it down to just a few of different kinds. You look along the choices and pick out three again; a cinquedea about a foot long, with a very wide blade that is decorative and an even longer cross guard with a short handle and pommel; a stiletto at the opposite end of the spectrum, with a very thin blade and handle that can easily pierce or find a way through armour; and a baselard, with a thicker blade, thin handle, and no cross guard or pommel to speak of. > The baselard "That one?" asks the Blacksmith. "Very well. It seems you have good taste, though all my weapons are high quality. It seems just the right one for you though. Well, we're done here for now. Armour will wait until later, because we'll have to measure you for each piece, and even then it'll take a while to make. Still, you're set up enough for now. It was nice seeing you Ophelia, and nice to meet you as well." With your right hand you hold out your arm to press against the baselard. The cool metal cuts your skin lightly, drawing less than even an entire drop of blood on your finger tip. You pick up the blade, smearing that crimson speck on the hilt. It's light as a feather in your grasp, perhaps too light after holding other weapons. With a practice slash from high and then to the left you sense the way the dagger reacts to force, gaining an understanding of its balance. "Interesting choice." remarks the Blacksmith. "Okay then. All done here I suppose. Armour will come later -- we've little enough time now, and it requires much measuring. But you've got everything you need for the moment. I'll be seeing you Ophelia, and you as well I suppose."<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You place your weapons on a table and stare at yet another wall. Again, there's a wide selection but you're getting better at scanning them. The shorter weapons are packed in much tighter in than the others, nearly making you dizzy. You feel a few; the short weapons are light and nimble with sharp edges and points. Though there are many different kinds and variations between all those you decide to narrow it down to just a few of different kinds. You look along the choices and pick out three again; a cinquedea about a foot long, with a very wide blade that is decorative and an even longer cross guard with a short handle and pommel; a stiletto at the opposite end of the spectrum, with a very thin blade and handle that can easily pierce or find a way through armour; and a baselard, with a thicker blade, thin handle, and no cross guard or pommel to speak of. > The stiletto You pick up the blade by its handle and feel the guard over to the tip, where the sharp edge bites into your finger and draws a small drop of blood. You wipe the blood off your hand and hold the knife in the light to look over it. Light as any knife or dagger is, it glides though the air easy, almost requiring no effort. You sweep at and the air, listening to it cry out in that distinctive whistle. The Blacksmith looks over you and the blade before speaking "You choose that one? Good. Well I suppose that's everything. You'll need armour as well, but you'll need to be measured before and then it'll take a while for me to make all of it. But regardless, we're done here for now. Good to see you Ophelia. Wealth and health to you both.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"You can use the grindstone and I'll give you some whetstones and polishing cloth. Still, you will need a dagger and a polearm of some kind. You look like you would fancy a heavier weapon. Take a look at the wall. I've got a poleaxe that I've recently finished; it's the perfect length for you. Let me get it." You stare at the walls again, this time at one filled with pole weapons, some leaning against the wall, some packed on shelves, some in actual weapon holders. There are the long pikes that take down calvary lined on shelves at the top. Other weapons have spikes, tongs, flat ends for hammering, large and small points, curved blades, and any combination thereof. The choice between weapon types is dizzying, and even among the individual types there are more variables; weight, length, thickness, curve, even the way the shaft and tip are joined. You carefully pick up a weapon or two and try them out, a swing, a thrust, a step and a turn. They are unsurprisingly heavy, much heavier than your smaller sword. You place them back, making sure they are not going to fall and cause an avalanche of weapons. You look around a bit. You manage to pick out a few weapons that look good. The Blacksmith walks back in carrying one of the heavy weapons in one hand like it's nothing and places it on a weapon rack. Including the weapon the Blacksmith just brought in you've narrowed it down to three: a halberd about your height, with an end that has a long spike at the tip, a small axe on one side and a hook on the opposite, all mounted on a thick and sturdy wood pole; a slightly smaller warhammer with small but brutal looking spike on one side and the flat end for crushing, all on a mix of metal of wood; and the Blacksmith's weapon, a longer glaive, with a long curved blade on the tip and a small hook, on heavy dark wood. > You warhammer You hold the war hammer in your holds and turn it over. Heavy, but that's the point. The hammer itself is completely flat and even, smaller than you'd imagine, but that only concentrates the damage you'd guess. There's a metal grip on it, with a pattern to make it easier to hold. "Ah, the hammer. Brutal thing, that is. Just around the right size for you though." After placing the glaive he brought in on a rack the Blacksmith points to the hammer. "It doesn't matter if someone's wearing armour. With this, a single whack and it'll smash through a helmet, and even if it doesn't, it can still break bones, cause concussions, and at the very least give a very nasty bruise. The hook can rip through armour too, though usually a good set of platemail can block it. It's good for taking down calvary. The hook can tear at the legs of a horse, get the man off his mount, and the hammer can crush the horse's legs."<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"You can use the grindstone and I'll give you some whetstones and polishing cloth. Still, you will need a dagger and a polearm of some kind. You look like you would fancy a heavier weapon. Take a look at the wall. I've got a poleaxe that I've recently finished; it's the perfect length for you. Let me get it." You stare at the walls again, this time at one filled with pole weapons, some leaning against the wall, some packed on shelves, some in actual weapon holders. There are the long pikes that take down calvary lined on shelves at the top. Other weapons have spikes, tongs, flat ends for hammering, large and small points, curved blades, and any combination thereof. The choice between weapon types is dizzying, and even among the individual types there are more variables; weight, length, thickness, curve, even the way the shaft and tip are joined. You carefully pick up a weapon or two and try them out, a swing, a thrust, a step and a turn. They are unsurprisingly heavy, much heavier than your smaller sword. You place them back, making sure they are not going to fall and cause an avalanche of weapons. You look around a bit. You manage to pick out a few weapons that look good. The Blacksmith walks back in carrying one of the heavy weapons in one hand like it's nothing and places it on a weapon rack. Including the weapon the Blacksmith just brought in you've narrowed it down to three: a halberd about your height, with an end that has a long spike at the tip, a small axe on one side and a hook on the opposite, all mounted on a thick and sturdy wood pole; a slightly smaller warhammer with small but brutal looking spike on one side and the flat end for crushing, all on a mix of metal of wood; and the Blacksmith's weapon, a longer glaive, with a long curved blade on the tip and a small hook, on heavy dark wood. > You glaive You look at the glaive that the Blacksmith brought in. The wood is smooth, balanced and strong, and the blade looks like it craves blood. You pick it up and its just as heavy as you expected. It's simple compared to the other weapons; no intricate patterns or designs, but it's lovely nonetheless. "The glaive? Ah, a good choice. I knew it'd be the weapon for you, just the right size." The Blacksmith stands beside you. "It may seem simple, but I made it with the care all my weapons deserve. Of course, the wood work isn't mine, but all metal has been forged by my hands."<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Follow me." Ophelia walks past the guards and weaves through the throng of people with grace. You follow carefully, not wanting the heavy armoured feet of the guard to crush yours. She leads you up a spiraling staircase to a small platform reaching over the center. As soon as you step on it floats upwards. Ophelia grabs your arm to keep you from falling or freaking out. "Be calm. If you stand still it is surprisingly safe. The Tailor's rooms are on the third floor, so it was unnecessary to take the lift. The others reside near the top though, so unless you would like to go up all those stairs we're taking the lift." Ophelia holds your arm tightly. You force yourself to take a breath and try not to look down. Ophelia senses this is not the time to talk and so you just stand there, jaw clenched. Finally Ophelia takes a breath and talks. "Who shall we visit first? As a new member of our lovely "family" you have priority, so don't fret about lines or some such nonsense. After we visit them all we should go back to the Tailor and pick up the beginning of what will, trust me, become a very large wardrobe ." > The Tanner "I see. Get the worst out of the way first? I must say, the stench is worst I've ever smelled. He's not a... Nice man. Not mean, but wild. Feral, even. I've heard talk that he was born here, but he's one of the oldest I know of, so again, another thing we never may know. As you know, Zaren plays around with... the world. So don't let his appearence frighten you. If anything is terrifying, it's the stink. He's harmless really." You slow your upward motion and the lift reachs another floor, where it attaches to a opening. Ophelia walks off. "Don't let the height scare you. It's quite safe as long as you don't linger." One foot off and it feels stable enough. But as soon as your other leg leaves the platfrom descends. You go falling forward as your body compensates for the motion. Ophelia catches you and steadies you. "Let's go. The walk is long, to keep the smell from the lift." Ophelia leads you through a maze of halls and small rooms, as the smell gradually builds up and pains throb in your head. Just as you're about to pass out she pulls you into the tannery. There's a look of digust on her face. "Let us meet the Tanner." > You meeting the Tanner The smell hits your face; fresh rather than the stagnant air outside, but just as bad. Your eyes water and you blink again and again just to see. You nose and mouth curls up in disgust. There are furs everywhere, not just pelts but entire animals. "He prefers to skin them himself." Ophelia simply says. Tools for skinning and shaping litter the ground and little buckets of what you hope is water but is more foul smelling are sprinkled about the room. Larger vats are filled with the same foul odorous liquid, some of them colourless, but more black, brown, gray, or other dull colours. There are piles of furs, rags, and leather everywhere, some drying, being shaped, or otherwise in progress to becoming whatever they will be. A particularly large and dirty pile moves and -- oh dear, that's not a pile. It's a wereanimal, foul and feral, loudly poking around in dog corpse, picking out internal organs and placing them aside, sorting them. He pulls out bones and bits, and is covered in blood. Every so often he licks clawed hands with a slurping sound. He starts to peel off the skin with tools and surprising care when he lifts his head up and sniffs at the head. Turning around, he spots you and his mouth turns into a disgusting smile. "Ophelia? Why hellos! Goodness, goodness, I ams filthy." Emphasizing and adding an S to some words he speaks to you. He grabs a rag and attempts to clean his hands, then wipes drool and blood from his face with them. He's covered in spotted, dirty, clumped fur, especially along his legs and shoulders, with a longer patch on top of his leading down his back on his spine. The hair is shorter on his face and snout, except for a few long whiskers that poke out of his lips and along his chin. The shaggy fur recedes along his hands, leaving nearly thin fingers for precision in his trade. He wears only a pair of shorts and bones on a string on his thick and long neck. His ears are pierced, the left is tattered and they flap about independent of his head. His eyes are large and green and watch Ophelia with a sense of sincerity. He seems more like a dog than anything else. Then, as if suddenly seeing you, "I knows you! The Tailors said you were coming. Yesh, yesh. I have here somewhere... I cuts and cures it long time ago, ready for yous. Just waits, waits." He walks around in circles on his large paws and sniffs at the air. "Yesh, yesh, I see its!" He stretches up and pulls something off a shelf. "They gives me nice shiny buckles for belts. I use the yellow ones this time. People like the yellow ones." He sounds like a child, a filthy terrifying child. "You reminds me. You reminds me of hims. You gots the smell. He goods man, you know. Others they think he crazy, but he nice, he nice to mes. Used to be hads to thinks. All the times. Hard. Now I just do these things and I gets all I wants. He nice man. Waits, first I gots to cleans." He dips the belt in some sort of oily liquid and then hands it to you. "He says to use the oils because somes don't like the smell. But yous get used to it. I thinks it smells good now. Also these. The Tailors said yous might like." He hands you a pair of leather arm bands. > Back to the lift You take the black belt and bands out of his hands and try to hold as little of them as possible, with a forced smile. The Tanner smiles back at you, oblivious of your disgust. Ophelia takes your arm. "We have to go now." The Tanner smiles at you. "Come backs to visit. And if yous wants armours, I cans make it. But laters." His tail wags and he waves at Ophelia. Ophelia pulls you out of the room and walks off quickly, then runs after reaching the corner. "I'm sorry. I just can't stand it. He's just so pitiful. I want to hate him, I really do, but I also feel an overwhelming sense of sorrow for him." Her face is white and her hold is gripping your arm so hard it hurts. Her face says not to talk about it anymore, but you have a feeling there's something that she's not telling you. The smell diminishes as you get farther from the tannery. Once you reach the lift again you put on the belt and bracers, if just to buy some time before you have to step back on it. To your surprise the solution that the Tanner used actually seems to have worked. In fact, they have a slight leather smell, but otherwise are devoid of any discernible smell. You're about to step back on the lift. If you want to ask Ophelia about the Tanner, now is the time. > You ask Ophelia about the Tanner For a second, you're not sure she heard your question. She just holds your arm and pulls you onto the lift. Just when you're about to ask again she answers in a quiet voice, holding her necklace in a tight fist. "The Tanner is an animal. A nice, good-natured, even gentle thing, despite his appearance and the whispers of some, but an animal nonetheless. He isn't a man -- or maybe isn't one anymore. He can't make the decision to lie or even mislead. If you ask him a question he will answer to the best of his ability. He said you were like Zaren." She trails off. You want to know why this scares her so much. Maybe you smell like Zaren or something. Ophelia seems to be afraid of him, but why would this bother her so much? You're about to ask when her nails dig into your arm deep enough to cause marks, but not blood. "I don't want to talk about it. At least not now. Please." And that's all she'll say for now. A forced smile covers her anxious face. "Where to now?" She says, deftly changing the topic. "We've still got things to do yet." She lets go of your arm and lightly touches the mark. "I... Sorry." The discussion seems to be over. You doubt she'll even respond if you ask again, so you respect the silence, though you are still confused. The lift starts to move. "So, what's our next destination?"<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You take the black belt and bands out of his hands and try to hold as little of them as possible, with a forced smile. The Tanner smiles back at you, oblivious of your disgust. Ophelia takes your arm. "We have to go now." The Tanner smiles at you. "Come backs to visit. And if yous wants armours, I cans make it. But laters." His tail wags and he waves at Ophelia. Ophelia pulls you out of the room and walks off quickly, then runs after reaching the corner. "I'm sorry. I just can't stand it. He's just so pitiful. I want to hate him, I really do, but I also feel an overwhelming sense of sorrow for him." Her face is white and her hold is gripping your arm so hard it hurts. Her face says not to talk about it anymore, but you have a feeling there's something that she's not telling you. The smell diminishes as you get farther from the tannery. Once you reach the lift again you put on the belt and bracers, if just to buy some time before you have to step back on it. To your surprise the solution that the Tanner used actually seems to have worked. In fact, they have a slight leather smell, but otherwise are devoid of any discernible smell. You're about to step back on the lift. If you want to ask Ophelia about the Tanner, now is the time. > You keep quiet You close your mouth. She obviously doesn't want to talk about it and you still have things to do before Zaren... Does whatever Zaren does. You play with the folds of your belt and you and Ophelia stand in silence for a moment. "Thank you... I just... I'll explain it later. We've things to do now. I understand that things must be confusing for you -- it was for me, and even I had some experience with The Court before I joined it. It just... I've never done this before." Ophelia is quiet with this last sentence. "Zaren has people for this. I don't understand why he told me to help you. Then again, I don't understand why he does anything he does." The lift starts to move again. "Where to next?" <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Oh yes. I told you about the "fight" Zaren had. He got rid of all the doors in The Court, except for the large front doors to the palace. Apparently they "took his side". Without doors we lacked privacy, but Zaren didn't care. Probably didn't eve occur to him. But after a few years he had his brilliant idea; fake walls. No one had any idea he could do something like that, but I don't think it surprised anyone. That's why we check the walls. He can build them anywhere he wants, so we must be vigilant, vigilant always. It's tiring at first but you build up a habit eventually." "Doesn't it... Freak you out?" "At first it was a little strange, but after a year or two you don't even think about it anymore. You start to forget what doors look like." > You tailor "The Tailor? He's been here a very long time, longer than me, longer than most.... He used to be like us. I just barely remember it. He had another name too, but it's so far off I don't have an inkling what it could have been. Anyway he always had a talent for clothing, but he's had a lot of time to perfect his craft as well. Zaren decided he wanted to change The Court to something more like what you see now. He made the Tailor into what he is now so that he could... Well, so that he could be the Tailor. Zaren rubs off on people. He places the seeds of madness in our minds. The Tailor's soul was more fertile than most, but he still retained the appearance of reason. So he gladly accepted his changes and new role. He's happy with it, I think. One of few, but he has a long history here, and a possibly longer future." "What... Is he?" "Oh... That's your question. He's a silk worm. Part silk worm at least. At least he used to be a silk worm. I guess he's a moth now." You don't really want to think about him anymore.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Now that's a good question. The short answer is: I don't know. Nobody does as far as I know. Except, perhaps, for Zaren, but I don't think he's likely to share that information, do you? You really never went through the slums?" Ophelia narrows her eyes suspiciously. "I don't know what you mean." You answer truthfully. "The slums are what they are. A broken down place infested with poverty and suffering. Everyone, nobility and peasants alike, appears in the slums. People don't really have children here. Pregnancy is extremely rare among the population, even over large periods of time. Most women will go their whole life without a child. Most pregnancies will end in miscarriages. Almost all of those carried to term will be stillborn. Of the handful of people over our whole history to be born here... I've never met one. I've heard that they turn out strangely, even compared to the average citizen. Nothing specific, just strange. There are rumours that Zaren is one, but I doubt a thing like him was even born, even in another place. To my knowledge there is no one older than Zaren alive today so I guess we'll never know. Anyway, people will simply "arrive" here instead. From somewhere else. Always... Well, you're the exception, but always in the slums. They're not a pleasant place. The slums are filled with screams and the raving of the mad. The "upper ranks" to which you now belong are comprised of the completely sane, or at least the sanest. Zaren... I don't think he's insane. I've known him too long. No, I think he just likes to watch us suffer in our own filth." "So you can't tell me anything about where I am." "No, I can tell you much about where we are. I just don't know where where we are is. I can't tell you anything about where any of us came from. Most people don't remember anything and even if they do it's after a long time of searching. But it just tears them apart. It's best to forget if you start remembering." "But I... I remember.... Something." You're not sure. It's that faint form of memory, but vivid in strange places. More like a story that you've visualized. "Forget it. Or if you can't forget it, ignore it. At the very least leave it alone. Do not go any further into that abyss." But this memory is to real to forget. Ophelia looks at you, rolls her eyes, and sighs. "Okay. Tell me about it, but then that's it. Don't ever think you can make it farther into your own mind. It won't end well." "I remember. I remember... " Words roll of your tongue as you look through the past towards the only memory you can find. > You gray It's soft. It's got pieces branching off of it. It's small and blandly coloured. The colours continue along tiny pieces, like somebody just cut some of it out. This one is small, but you know there are bigger ones. It's a feather. You hold it close and peer at it. It looked solid at first, but now you see the little bits of fluff. The sky is blue and clear and you can see all the birds flying through the skies. Ravens flap in the wind and caw far off. Little songbirds sit on tree branches and tweet songs. Rabbit bolt through every so often. It's an orchestra of the wild. There's a slight breeze and the smell of trees. Green is everywhere. Long pieces of grass feel soft under your feet. Leaves and flower buds cover trees. This is it. This is life. Then it's gone. You have it here in your head now, fixed and alive, something you'll remember. There's more... But that's gone, at least for now.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Now that's a good question. The short answer is: I don't know. Nobody does as far as I know. Except, perhaps, for Zaren, but I don't think he's likely to share that information, do you? You really never went through the slums?" Ophelia narrows her eyes suspiciously. "I don't know what you mean." You answer truthfully. "The slums are what they are. A broken down place infested with poverty and suffering. Everyone, nobility and peasants alike, appears in the slums. People don't really have children here. Pregnancy is extremely rare among the population, even over large periods of time. Most women will go their whole life without a child. Most pregnancies will end in miscarriages. Almost all of those carried to term will be stillborn. Of the handful of people over our whole history to be born here... I've never met one. I've heard that they turn out strangely, even compared to the average citizen. Nothing specific, just strange. There are rumours that Zaren is one, but I doubt a thing like him was even born, even in another place. To my knowledge there is no one older than Zaren alive today so I guess we'll never know. Anyway, people will simply "arrive" here instead. From somewhere else. Always... Well, you're the exception, but always in the slums. They're not a pleasant place. The slums are filled with screams and the raving of the mad. The "upper ranks" to which you now belong are comprised of the completely sane, or at least the sanest. Zaren... I don't think he's insane. I've known him too long. No, I think he just likes to watch us suffer in our own filth." "So you can't tell me anything about where I am." "No, I can tell you much about where we are. I just don't know where where we are is. I can't tell you anything about where any of us came from. Most people don't remember anything and even if they do it's after a long time of searching. But it just tears them apart. It's best to forget if you start remembering." "But I... I remember.... Something." You're not sure. It's that faint form of memory, but vivid in strange places. More like a story that you've visualized. "Forget it. Or if you can't forget it, ignore it. At the very least leave it alone. Do not go any further into that abyss." But this memory is to real to forget. Ophelia looks at you, rolls her eyes, and sighs. "Okay. Tell me about it, but then that's it. Don't ever think you can make it farther into your own mind. It won't end well." "I remember. I remember... " Words roll of your tongue as you look through the past towards the only memory you can find. > You black They're big, much bigger than you. The big thing in the middle has pieces coming, and more off of those pieces. They're black. They're trees. Dead trees. You smell the air. Cold. Ashy. Fire, savage fire, has destroyed this haven of nature. But it's nature's way. You feel sad. You sit on a fallen tree. The fire is gone. Even the ground is cold now. You look up and see the sky. Gray. Ready to rain its tears on this dead place and put out any of the remaining flames. Little drops already dot the the air. A few fall on your head, as if nature is reassuring you. They mix with your tears, clearing paths through the soot on your face. This place is special. You loved something here. What? Then it's gone. You have it here in your head now, fixed and alive, something you'll remember. There's more... But that's gone, at least for now.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The heavy blade is laying on the ground. Your heart beats. You survey the fight. It's a giant mass of men screaming in a variety of different emotions. Joy here, fear there. You can see spectres spectating, watchers watching, and shadows spectating as well, because what else would they do? Be serious. With all the chaos, if you crouched you could conceivably have more cover. A lower center of gravity would also be a benefit. A quick roll would provide more cover and speed, but lack the same control. The ground, while littered with weapons and bodies, has a clear path to your weapon. You could try to crawl there. This would provide the most cover, but you risk being stepped on, and what you gain in cover you give up in speed. Beat. Move now, or risk danger for another look around. > You crawl The muscles holding you up loosen and you fall down. Beat. Your knees hit the sand and throw up little flecks. You hear a whistling sound. Beat. The rest of you falls forward, hands moving in position to cushion your fall. Beat. An arrow, bright and deadly, glides over you. Beat. You catch the ground and embrace it, pushing forward with your legs. Beat. Beat. The battle rages. Hand and elbow crawl forward as you make your way slowly to your weapon. Someone steps backwards into your path. You punch their leg and they fall out of the way. There is no mercy in this moment. Someone else tries to step backwards, but trips over you and falls. Almost there. Your hand is on your weapon now. Beat. Beat. Beat. You jump up and swing the blade around. You catch someone just barely on the back of their arm; you run them through and cleanly pull out the blade. In this small space no one can respect the length of the sword, so you kick a few people to clear a space. Something catches you in the side of your head and you fall down and... is that.... bloood.....<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The heavy blade is laying on the ground. Your heart beats. You survey the fight. It's a giant mass of men screaming in a variety of different emotions. Joy here, fear there. You can see spectres spectating, watchers watching, and shadows spectating as well, because what else would they do? Be serious. With all the chaos, if you crouched you could conceivably have more cover. A lower center of gravity would also be a benefit. A quick roll would provide more cover and speed, but lack the same control. The ground, while littered with weapons and bodies, has a clear path to your weapon. You could try to crawl there. This would provide the most cover, but you risk being stepped on, and what you gain in cover you give up in speed. Beat. Move now, or risk danger for another look around. > You roll Your arms start the long journey up. Your head lowers to meet them. Beat. An arrow shines between the blood and the laughter, then disappears. One leg contracts to bring your body in and the other pushes to give you your momentum. Your heel leaves the sand, then just your toes make contact with the ground, then you're in the air.. Beat. Your arms cover your head and you bring up one leg. The other pushes as you lean forward and bring your body low and ready for contact with the ground. Beat. Something rips through the skin in your left arm, leaving a relatively shallow wound. Beat. Beat. Beat. Your body falls and hits the ground, and with a little effort, the roll is completed. Beat. Beat. Beat. You reach the sword and grab it as your legs push you up. You bring the sword up and around to stand between you and the man in front of you. Another man with a smaller blade tries to stab your side. Your larger blade leaves little time to parry it and even less to regain balance, so you side step instead and let your movement swing the heavy sword around in his direction. He jumps back and knocks your blade just enough to leave him unscathed. Now that you're out of his range, you thrust foward and neatly catch his arm as he tries to avoid the attack. You push foward further and to the right, catching his torso. As you pull back the blade, he collaspes, eyes shut in pain at first, then open as he roars in laughter. All around you people are dying. Bodies litter the ground and few are left. Such a waste of life. The violent ones are dead, leaving the survivors to look across at each other in both suspicision and dread. Silence comes across the arena. The shades gather at the edges and stare at you. One sits alone, on a throne of burning night. It opens its mouth.... "NO! NO! NO NO NO NO! Please, stop! I beg of you!" You plead and cover your ears, but that doesn't alleviate the shattering misery the shade spouts. You writhe, you writhe, on the ground, tears streaming and blood leaking from your nose and the shades scream and scream and it hurts your heart so close to bursting you thrash and cry and pray but the anthem continues as others join in and they file into the sands as you see through blurry bloody eyes and surround you and rip you apart rip you apart rip you apart fingers and limbs and organs and blood so much blood and the shadows the shadows they scream and scream and scream and...<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The heavy blade is laying on the ground. Your heart beats. You survey the fight. It's a giant mass of men screaming in a variety of different emotions. Joy here, fear there. You can see spectres spectating, watchers watching, and shadows spectating as well, because what else would they do? Be serious. With all the chaos, if you crouched you could conceivably have more cover. A lower center of gravity would also be a benefit. A quick roll would provide more cover and speed, but lack the same control. The ground, while littered with weapons and bodies, has a clear path to your weapon. You could try to crawl there. This would provide the most cover, but you risk being stepped on, and what you gain in cover you give up in speed. Beat. Move now, or risk danger for another look around. > You look Your eyes flicker and see everything on the battlefield. Beat. Beat. Recognition flashes for but a brief moment, as you see the sun shining on the arrow that procedes to catch your throat and rip through flesh to find sweet death. Blood spurts out and you drift into blackness. It feels like an eternity but some part of you knows it's only a beat or two before you die. Beat. Beat. Now death is all that is left in your eyes as all traces of you meld into the sands and you are swept away from existence.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Your heart beats. You stand in an great amphitheatre, on shifting sands. It's quiet for but a moment, and then the clashes of weapons rings out in great echoes, with cheery yells of murder providing a bass quality. Smiles flash all around as people hack or are hacked about and nothing but snorts of laughter without the barest hint of pain accompany the carnage. Sprays of blood float on the air. Spilled guts and limbs sink deep into the sands. Heads laughing are choking on sand and sweet blood spills out of their lifeless bodies. You smell gore in the air and it clouds your thoughts. Little droplets rain down in your vision. You count each as they pass. Some spray in the corner of your eye hits your cheek and you can taste the liquid life. Liquid life. Life. You're alive. Where is your weapon? > You an axe in the hands of the man to your left The man next to you screams and whacks a corpse on the ground with your simple battle axe. He smiles and pulls himself up to grip the weapon with two hands and bring it down over the head of another distracted man. Your heart beats. You spare a quick glance over the rest of the battlefield. Men fight all around you, clanging metal and shrieking warriors ringing in your ears. There's laughter, joy, fear, and hatred in those screams. Shadows stand all around the raised edge of the arena, perfectly still. You need a weapon in your hands, something to defend yourself against this writhing mass of life and death. You need your axe; it's yours. It fits perfectly in your hand and bites at the flesh of your enemies like a loyal dog. There is no question: you must get it back. Beat. The man is chopping here and there and everywhere. He's not even holding your axe right. Beat. Attack him now and rely on your skills, or sneak up behind him? > You attack now! You rush, hoping to catch him unaware. He swings the axe around to his right and slashes another man. Beat. Your feet both push you forward and you put your hands into the perfect position to attack himand grab the handle of the axe. Both feet leave the ground and propel you into the man. Beat. Your right hand curls to give him a brutal punch with all your weight in his throat. Your left hand opens to grab the axe before he can swing it around to you. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Beat. Your fist makes contact with him and he falls back a bit, his face twisting in pain. You grab the handle of the axe and wrench it from his grasp as he's weak. Your fist only glances his neck and he recovers quickly to tug back at the axe and kick your shins. You quickly push him off and bring the axe down while he's still weak, but he blocks his face with one arm. There's a sickening thud as you bury it into his shoulder. He tries to pull it out and push you away as adrenaline covers his pain, but you elbow him in the face and kick him to the ground as you pull out the axe. Laughter takes him and he thrashes about on the ground. You sink the axe into his back and he stops moving, but that laughter continues. You're just about to end his pathetic life when an arrow catches your leg and tears open a huge gash. You collapse onto one knee and drop the axe as someone stabs you with a sword. The end sticks out of your left side and blood flows as the sword is pulled back. You lie on the ground and something bubbles inside of you. Well now, isn't that funny. You didn't get it before , but now... It's too much and you giggle until you can't breathe, but even when you try to stop and take a breath all you can feel is that hole in your torso. The other man grabs your hand and lets out a shriek, squeezes, and then his smile is stuck on his dead face. You can't help it. You smile too. And laugh. And laugh and laugh until a sword somehow finds its way into your eye. Woopsy daisy. How'd that get in there?<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The man next to you screams and whacks a corpse on the ground with your simple battle axe. He smiles and pulls himself up to grip the weapon with two hands and bring it down over the head of another distracted man. Your heart beats. You spare a quick glance over the rest of the battlefield. Men fight all around you, clanging metal and shrieking warriors ringing in your ears. There's laughter, joy, fear, and hatred in those screams. Shadows stand all around the raised edge of the arena, perfectly still. You need a weapon in your hands, something to defend yourself against this writhing mass of life and death. You need your axe; it's yours. It fits perfectly in your hand and bites at the flesh of your enemies like a loyal dog. There is no question: you must get it back. Beat. The man is chopping here and there and everywhere. He's not even holding your axe right. Beat. Attack him now and rely on your skills, or sneak up behind him? > You sneak up on him You quickly move around a few fights and dodge a few weak attacks, making your way to the man. Beat. He's still whacking into a corpse, though a different one now. His back is to you... It's the perfect time to strike. Beat. You lift your hands and go flying into his body, slamming him forward. Beat. Beat. Beat. Before he can respond your arms are wrapped around his neck from behind. The fool drops your axe on his foot so he can claw at your arms. Chokes and screams are stuck in his throat and there's a wheezing sound; the only air he can get out, and none of it goes back in. You give another squeeze. He beats against your body with one hand, but lacks to strength to do any damage, already fading. Suddenly, something hits you in the leg. You collaspe onto the man and look to it. An arrow is sprouting from your leg like a plant in the dirt. At the sudden shock of it you let go of the man and he tries to turn around. Before either of you realize what's happening your hand is on the axe and the axe flying to towards his head... And then his head is flying off by itself. The warm blood hits you like a geyser. You roll around and sit up. Another arrow grows in your shoulder. You aren't sure when that happened. You can barely feel it now, barely feel anything. A gurgle and a giggle are swallowed by blood in your mouth, when you realize there's another arrow there. You fall back, trying to laugh and just barely managed to make a sound. You're drowning now... Drowning in your own blood... And losing to much of it... And... It's... Funny. Funny. Haha funny. And then it's nothing, nothing but black.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Colourful fine carpets cover all the walls, some more rugs hanging over them in turn. The carpets are like a dark, dull rainbow. The carpet itself is black, with colours seeming floating over it like a reflection in water. The colours swirl and mix and seperate so slowly you have to careful look before you see the emerging patterns of dancing colours.. You watch a batch of a grey blue twirl around with concentrated yellow and green drops, absorbing them. The rugs draped over them like curtains over imaginary windows are stationary pictures of outfits, each in a different pose. They continue from down the walls onto the floor and a few hang from the ceiling. You recognize a few outfits, but what really catches your eye is the one hidden on the far left, the one that looks just like Zaren's black finery. It's the only one with a person in the clothes. Zaren's in it, posed elegantly in his black and gold coat. His arms are raised as if to greet you, but his face perfectly shows his comtempt at your very existance. All but his eyes, which are laughing. You do not know if the contempt is the joke. There is a man behind that insanity, you are sure of it. Whether the insanity is a cover or not, you do not know. You look back at the swirling patterns. They are starting to resemble pictures now, just barely, but the proper shades are coming in... > A library Hundreds of volumes of large tomes cover shelves that reach up to the very high ceiling. You are in narrow crack between two long shelves. You walk through the space between the shelves, trailing your hands on the book. The shelves are so close you can't help but bump into a book here and there. The shelves are so large and heavy they don't make even the slighest movement when you fall against one accidently. You've tripped over a ladder. It's laid along the ground, edges from shelf to shelf, the same kind as there is in every other row. They were used to reach the books once, but no one reads these records anymore. Now they just keep the space between the shelves uniform. Those maps hate being in the same place as the other non fiction and always try to push the shelves apart. The books are all a dull green, faded from dust and time. They are larger than usual. Each one is about as wide as your palm and the same length as your arms. They are stuffed in very tightly, leaving not one inch of space. You wouldn't want to have the job of putting them into the shelves. You reach one end of the row. There's next to no room between the wall and the shelf, but you manage to squeeze through. The rows of shelves seem to go on forever in this direction. You use the next row to turn around and face the other way. The shelves end a few rows up, so you head that direction. You come out into a small space between a shelf and the grey stone wall. There's a door here you could try it but it's locked. Oh. There's also another small shelf here at the end of the row. You look at the small selection it has. Most are records of the books in this library. They include just a topic and a number. There are too many books to even list the names in this tiny shelf. Three books that are not records draw your attention. > You pick up the small brown book You pick up the small brown book. Its wretched condition is something compared to even the oldest and worst kept tomes you've seen.You take out a sheet of paper to record its name. The ratty cover nearly comes off when you lift it to turn to the first page. There's no title or author listed, just a strange star design in the center of the page. You copy onto another piece of paper with your fountain pen the design as best you can and place it beside you so you can request another copy of whatever this book is. You turn the page as carefully as you can. The thin paper seems almost as if to look at it would shred it. It's another design. With your vast experience what? in many different languages and the writing of many different authors, in the books prior to the invention of the printing press of course, you can easily see that the symbols were of the same hand. You turn the pages, seeing nothing but strange symbols belonging to no language you can recognize. Even then, it should have repeated characters, but each design is different, leading you to believe it is no language, simply meaningless symbols. The next page is torn in the center where the symbol would be. Through the hole you can the next page is blank. You check the torn page; it's a violent rip but does not look in danger of growing and the rest of the page is blank anyway. But there's something about that blank page... You look at it carefully. There! A shape! A rip! A tear! That wasn't you, you're careful. You haven't ripped a page in... Well, it's been so long you've forgotten. That's not a rip though... It's growing, like a burn. You set the book down away from the others to keep the fire from spreading but... It's not hot. It's not smoking. Still, the pages burn through. Fiery shapes grow... Why, it's almost moving... It's beautiful. You can't.... You can't look away. The ash blows up through the windless air and the sparks bloom into flowers of fire. It's an inferno bubble around you. Your skin burns and blackens and crackles. You can see through the fire now.... In the fire now... It's...<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Hundreds of volumes of large tomes cover shelves that reach up to the very high ceiling. You are in narrow crack between two long shelves. You walk through the space between the shelves, trailing your hands on the book. The shelves are so close you can't help but bump into a book here and there. The shelves are so large and heavy they don't make even the slighest movement when you fall against one accidently. You've tripped over a ladder. It's laid along the ground, edges from shelf to shelf, the same kind as there is in every other row. They were used to reach the books once, but no one reads these records anymore. Now they just keep the space between the shelves uniform. Those maps hate being in the same place as the other non fiction and always try to push the shelves apart. The books are all a dull green, faded from dust and time. They are larger than usual. Each one is about as wide as your palm and the same length as your arms. They are stuffed in very tightly, leaving not one inch of space. You wouldn't want to have the job of putting them into the shelves. You reach one end of the row. There's next to no room between the wall and the shelf, but you manage to squeeze through. The rows of shelves seem to go on forever in this direction. You use the next row to turn around and face the other way. The shelves end a few rows up, so you head that direction. You come out into a small space between a shelf and the grey stone wall. There's a door here you could try it but it's locked. Oh. There's also another small shelf here at the end of the row. You look at the small selection it has. Most are records of the books in this library. They include just a topic and a number. There are too many books to even list the names in this tiny shelf. Three books that are not records draw your attention. > You pick up the grey book You pick up the grey book. With just that slight movement a huge cloud appears. As you discover through the huge dust cloud and your tears, it's actually a very old blue book, not grey. You walk through the cloud, past the door, and sit down where the air is clearer. You open up the blue book to the first page. In large flowery letters the title is written, "The Journals of Pip: Volume 8". Below that, "His Search For the History of the Colour Blue". You turn the page to read tiny block letters. "In his first year of journal writing, three years before his first published novel, "Theories on the Disappearance of Gravity During the Great Regression" (since which it has been discovered that spontaneously reverting the universe to a previous state may cause gravity to turn into small quantities of gravy, one of the outlined theories connecting the disappearance with the large increase in gravy mining during the years affected), Pip completed a few journals. One of these was a detailed plan and record of his three month long search for the nature and history of the colour blue. In the following pages you will see his journey as he discovers blue." "I have tracked it to a cave near the Grinning Stones. At first their wide mouths and the little giggles unnerved me, but I have grown used to their strange habits now. It has been nearly a week since I have seen it enter the cave, but I know it is in there. I hear the little snores before I sleep, "blu-o-o-o-o-o-o-o.... blu-o-o-o-o-o-o-o..." it calls. At dawn it will wake me up with a "Cocklebluedoblue!" You close the book. You just can't read through this radical nonsense. You've read through Pip's research; it's very good. But the man obviously has some trouble telling reality from fiction in his everyday life. You've been to the Grinning Stones; there are no caves anywhere near that region. It's too bad, he was a smart man. A little jerky and obsessive, but smart nonetheless. But you have to admit, those stones are creepy, especially at night. You pick it up and start on the... long, long journey, to row J786.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Hundreds of volumes of large tomes cover shelves that reach up to the very high ceiling. You are in narrow crack between two long shelves. You walk through the space between the shelves, trailing your hands on the book. The shelves are so close you can't help but bump into a book here and there. The shelves are so large and heavy they don't make even the slighest movement when you fall against one accidently. You've tripped over a ladder. It's laid along the ground, edges from shelf to shelf, the same kind as there is in every other row. They were used to reach the books once, but no one reads these records anymore. Now they just keep the space between the shelves uniform. Those maps hate being in the same place as the other non fiction and always try to push the shelves apart. The books are all a dull green, faded from dust and time. They are larger than usual. Each one is about as wide as your palm and the same length as your arms. They are stuffed in very tightly, leaving not one inch of space. You wouldn't want to have the job of putting them into the shelves. You reach one end of the row. There's next to no room between the wall and the shelf, but you manage to squeeze through. The rows of shelves seem to go on forever in this direction. You use the next row to turn around and face the other way. The shelves end a few rows up, so you head that direction. You come out into a small space between a shelf and the grey stone wall. There's a door here you could try it but it's locked. Oh. There's also another small shelf here at the end of the row. You look at the small selection it has. Most are records of the books in this library. They include just a topic and a number. There are too many books to even list the names in this tiny shelf. Three books that are not records draw your attention. > You pick up the gigantic green and gold book You place your hands over the gigantic book. It has a smooth and soft cover. Hands on the sides of it you strain to lift the thing, but settle for sliding it out instead. You sit down by the door so you can place the thing on your lap You turn it around and lift the cover. Inside is written I can't understand this language "Sinful Lake" in large, golden letters on a black page. It's written in the formal language of birds that are red. You'd think that birds, even just red birds, would only need a single language to communicate, but you must admit, you like the formal language over the everyday filth they will typically squak in. It's a good thing both languages are part of their education system. You turn the page. There is a diagram of a regular looking oak tree in white and more golden writing. "Quercus miaxia, also known as the Sinful Oak, is a species of oak tree that exists solely in the region of Sinful Lake. It is the only thing that will grow anywhere within a mile of the stagnant, murky waters. They often grow much denser and taller than other oak trees, but besides that, their diet, and their peculiar taste in soil, they are nearly indistinguishable from Quercus prinus. The Sinful Line is the tree line beyond which they cannot survive. It creates a very noticable change between thick forestation and bare plains. Boring You flip ahead a few pages. However, there has been some controversy over their diet. They have been known to trap smaller prey with the use of a sap that first traps them and with an oxydizing process begins to digest in a very slow manner. The tree will then grow around the trapped prey, which is often still alive through most of the process. After the prey is absorbed the tree will shrink down around the space the prey has left, with only the bones of the prey remaining. Certain logs found with the bones of what is agreed to be a extinct canine species with a bone structure remarkably similar to humans in the center is the cause of some very unfortunate rumours for us who study these awe inspiring trees. These rumours that they can trap and eat humans are completely unfounded. The numerous expeditions that into the Sinful Lake region that have disappeared are agreed to have traveled through the Lake into a little known bed and breakfast that exists on the other side. Numerous letters and records are listed in volume 2 and 3 of this series to prove this. You flip back to the beginning. "Sinful Lake". Under that in very tiny letters it reads "A study by Quercus miaxia Bob". You pick up the book with some effort and make your way to row A139 to replace it.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Oh my. Now that is a very good question. But here comes the Tailor." She turns around and curtsies towards the door. "What -" You stand there speechless. A man walks into the room and bows, a spotless fine black coat shimmering around his white furry torso, four furry little limbs poking out of the coat. They are end in three long, delicate fingers with little hairs at the base and bare human-like tips. His hairy legs have the same pattern, with his feet looking almost normal. Large wings are folded at his back, trailing on the floor. His large black eyes poke out from his white fur and his human jaw opens to speak in a slightly buzzing voice. "Hello, good lord. I am the tailor. I must say, your eyes are a wonderful colour. Such a light but intense brown. They will be a challenge to match correctly, but I will enjoy creating your outfits for you." "What..." You take a step back, bumping into a mannequin and accidently knocking it over. "You will have to work on your coordination if you plan to be part of The Court. Dancing is quite popular here. But even if you fall or some such thing, you will look wonderful. Still, that is not my job. Now come over here, I must measure you. Take a look around at the outfits. You may find one you like." Ophelia stares at you and gestures. You timidly take a few steps forward. The tailor places his finger tips on your arms, mummering to himself. "Don't you need measuring tape for this?" You ask. "Measuring tape? Bah, I am better then the tailors you have known. A true master can look at a man for a second and make him a god within minutes." "I've never known any tailors." "Well then trust me, I am the best. Now lift your arms please?" As he slides his hands around your arms and chest you look away, uncomfortable. > You look at Ophelia She's watching the Tailor as he measures your body. You look at her stunning eyes, bright but deep, as they follow the Tailor's hands. They are framed by thin eyebrows, bunched forward as if in intense thought. Her light cheekbones are high in her face and her cheeks thin. Her strong chin leads into weak jaw lines, disappearing in the thick black hair that caves over her thin shoulders and covers the neck of her grey dress. Her dress is long, covering everything from her wrists to her ankles, but tight around her torso, while loose at her legs. It's not meant to be a showy thing, but the way it fits against her skin reveals her beauty better than the poofy gold decorations that she carries under her right arm now. The Tailor starts feeling the width of your legs from the calves down and you resist the urge to squirm in... it's?... grasp. Ophelia looks back at you. > You smile You smile at her, not a large, joyful smile, but a small smile of thanks. You would have never thought you'd enjoy having a woman stare at your naked body in such a circumstance, but without her here you would probably freak out at the furry hands that are measuring your thighs and climbing higher. You take a deep breath. Just calm down.... The tailor reachs up to your hips and you let out a low squeak against your will. Ophelia laughs so quietly you almost doubt she did. But her smirk confirms your hearing. > You all Finished You relax as the Tailor stops his rubbing and moves back. "You are quite a splendid fit for many of my discarded outfits! Now wait here. I will bring some of them out for you to try on, and we'll see what you like and what looks best on you." You feel a little cold with your skin bare against the frigid air, and definitely a little awkward about standing naked in some castle's hallway. Ophelia asks you something, but you're deep in thought. "What?" "Before you ask me anything you should know that most of the inhabitants will tell the king if you insult him or his system in anyway. I can answer some of your questions later, once I show you to your quarters, but if you need to know anything right now, ask before the Tailor returns. I've never known him to be a 'loyal' subject, but considering self preservation... He enjoys his life here, unlike much of the other nobility. So do you have any questions about this place?" > The Tailor Before you have time to ask any questions the Tailor waddles back in, carrying all kinds of clothing of many materials and colours. "These are what you can wear for now, while I create your outfit. Please, sir, while I sort these take a look around. Find something you like. Samples are on the mannequins and the carpets. Changes can be made easily if you wish. Pick one thing please. After it is completed you will likely need to see the others, so a proper wardobe can wait until you return to pick up your clothing." You look around the room, noticing the colourful tapestries hanging from the walls and the ceiling. They are pictures of different outfits of many different styles. You recognize a few outfits from your brief dance, but the one you really see is hidden on the far left. It looks just like Zaren's black clothing. It's the only one with a person in the clothes. He's in it, posed elegantly in his black and gold coat. His arms are raised as if to hug you and his eyes smile and laugh as if at a joke, but the rest of his face shows nothing but disdain.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|> She's watching the Tailor as he measures your body. You look at her stunning eyes, bright but deep, as they follow the Tailor's hands. They are framed by thin eyebrows, bunched forward as if in intense thought. Her light cheekbones are high in her face and her cheeks thin. Her strong chin leads into weak jaw lines, disappearing in the thick black hair that caves over her thin shoulders and covers the neck of her grey dress. Her dress is long, covering everything from her wrists to her ankles, but tight around her torso, while loose at her legs. It's not meant to be a showy thing, but the way it fits against her skin reveals her beauty better than the poofy gold decorations that she carries under her right arm now. The Tailor starts feeling the width of your legs from the calves down and you resist the urge to squirm in... it's?... grasp. Ophelia looks back at you. > You turn away You turn away. You're not exactly at your most confident while you're naked and some... moth thing is poking you all over. You can't build up the nerve to look at the Tailor either, so you just stare into space while he plies his trade. A slight buzzing comes from the Tailor's... lips? He turns his head and looks at you from different angles. "Hold your arm up. Yes. Please. Okay. Good... I think I have an idea now. Hmm. Something red would look wonderful on you... What do you think? What is your favourite colour? Style? We're in a lull in proper style currently." He speaks fast and leaves no space to answer his questions. "Good for creative expressions, it looks rather silly I think, but Zaren..." The Tailor's face falls. "Nevermind."<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The sky is ashen black. It is slightly raining. You enter the shady bar and scan the surroundings. The windows here are closed tight and darkness prevails, the only source of light being a lantern dangling from the roof. You find yourself an empty chair and sit. A shabby man approaches you and put a jar of ale on your table. "Long time since your last visit." the man, the innkeeper says. "Any work?" you ask. "I've heard Yako, the wizard, is searching for an employer. You should visit him once, although he has warned that it would be a perilous task." he replys while wiping the spoils on your table. You haven't been in action for quite a time so perhaps it's the best time to rebegin you adventerer life. You ask for the wizard whereabouts and set off immidiately. The wizard dwells in a small hut on the far west of the city. It is quite a journey and you reach it the next day. Exhausted, you rap on the door and wait. Birds fly overhead the wet trees. The hut is old and decrepit, unlike the rich wizard Melin's home. After a minute, a bearded old man emerges from the hut and calls you in. You tell him your intentions and he seems pretty pleased hearing that. "North of here, deep in the Black wood forest, is the castle of Count, the long forgotten vampire. I wish you to bring his ashes..." You interrupt him and stammer, "...what do you mean by ashes? Am I supposed to kill an undead vampire!" He smiles. "I'll reward you with 10,000 gold coins. And you won't go alone. My man will accompany you. Agree?" Ten thousand gold coins. With that, you could travel to your home Nevai and start a tavern. And it wouldn't be that bad if someone would be covering your side. And now I'm dealing with pale people, you think. "Where is my ally?" you ask, grinning. A broad smile cover's the wizard's face and he calls a name. The next moment, a man in padded armour enters the hut, his hand gripped on the pommel of a long lethal sword. "Meet Icus." The man bows you and the wizard before kneeling down. "Pretty neat, eh?" So, the next day you and Icus proceed into the Blackwood forests, praying that this wouldn't be your last adventure. The rain has left the ground wet and slippery. The coldness is exilirating, thanks to the greenery around you. You both advance in a brisk pace, cutting down vegetation that block your path. Eventually, you both arrive a gentle river. After satisfying your thirst, you scan the surroundings and spot a fragile boat in a distance. "Atleast we aren't alone." you remark. > You check the boat (1) The boat is in the worst possible condition with wooden planks and nails coming out of it. Its interior is cracked and rotten. But perhaps the most sickening fact about it is that a dead body, literally half torn, rests upon its planks. A rank smell confirms that the body, if one could call that, is long dead. A quick, and disgusting, through its clothes reveal a shining blade which is far more superior than your current weapon. You merely toss it between your hands and then gaze upon the spoil. This blade adds to your attack strength in combat. As you are considering your next move, you hear Icus. "We are ambused, halt enemy!" he shrieks. A penny goblin crawls out from the grass and raises its small sword, even by goblin consideration, at you. You must defend yourself agaist this tiny opponent. Need a word of advice? Don't underestimate. You slash it in half, then proceed to drag his body into the boat and continue on your perilous journey to confront The Count. > You continue (2) You penetrate through the thick vegetation without encountering anything. You tell Icus to stop for a rest and prop yourself against a tree. Gwee! Gwee! Something falls down from the canopy of the tree and lands imp before you. You lean to check it and the something turns out to be a Troglodyte. Troglodye are small creatures with a wide variety of noses and they fear everything that is larger than them. The trog jerks its head and looks at you. A scream escapes its throat. "Wee...well big...big guy. Wha...what...brings you here? I...I...well...if you...you...please...don't eat me..." it stammers, the colours on its face washing off. You laugh wearily and wickedly tell it that you'll rip it off if it doesn't runs off, which it can't since its legs are crushed due to the fall. He starts crying and praying for his life. "I wonder I might leave you if you tell me something about The Count." you grin. "The...Count...well big guy...he is dangerous...you...better stay away from him..." You claim that you already know that to which he tells you the password to its lair's enterance. "It...it's just a little north from here...big...guy." Pleased, you let him go and advance, not forgeting to wake Icus, who is sleeping under the shade of trees, before. After few minutes of half running, half walking, you both come to two ways. The right one is cleared whereas the left one continues into vegetation. > You take the left way (3) The forest is getting denser and thicker with every step you move. You both are sweating profusely. Suddenly there is a warcry and two ancient people jump out of the trees, wielding twin axes. "Muh, muh, muh. Tha na kant de. Wei thou ne. Muh!" the smaller on squalls. You turn back to ask Icus if he could get what they are but he is nowhere to be seen. There is an another warcry an you hear a clinch of metal on a string.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"You look like you could use a drink, Captain." You turn to see Victoria, your first mate. Her purple hair is tied back in a ponytail. It always seemed to be tied a little towards the left side of her head. The thought came up to question why, but you've learned from experience not to question a woman on her hairstyle. "Way ahead of you, V," you say raising your cup from the bar top for emphasis. "I'll have what he's having," she addresses towards the bartender. "Got any news on The Sanguine?" you ask. "Yeah, boss, and it's not good. Procter is working on the repairs now. He said we might need the hull replaced." "I sure hope not," you reply. “We've been through worse, Cap,” Victoria replies. You take another sip from your cup. The latest job smuggling cargo for an English merchant paid well, but the damage sustained fleeing from a Spanish Galleon could very well cost the entire payout, or worse, put you in the hole. The wizard on board the Galleon hit The Sanguine with more than a few nasty spells. If Victoria didn't fire back with a perfectly aimed fire bolt, the entire ship might be at the bottom of the Caribbean. “I sent Freddy to find us some work,” you say to Victoria. “Did he come back with anything?” “Nothing yet,” she replies. “Although knowing Freddy, he probably got distracted by the nearest gambling hole.” “He always comes through in the end, despite his tendencies,” you reply. “What's next for you, Cap?” Victoria asks. You finish the cup and slam it back down on the bar top. Sunlight pours into the poorly lit building through several open windows creating rectangular beams of yellow. You're reminded of the Caribbean heat each time a wave of warm air floods in. Your crew had certainly seen better days. The last three ships you targeted weren't carrying anything substantial. Your most recent job would have been a huge payday if not for the Galleon's attack. At least you managed to escape alive and with most of your crew. Victoria's former life as naval mage certainly came in handy there. “Cap?” “Sorry, V. I must have zoned out for a second. My plan is to...” > You check on Procter “...check on Procter. I need to see the extent of the damage we sustained.” “A wise choice, Captain.” You toss a few coins onto the bar top, pick up your tricorn hat, and take your leave. The bright sunlight assaults your eyes as you enter into the open. The tavern is one of many upon a windy sloped path. Various vendors with small shops line the cobbled pavement. You pass by a group of marching soldiers and tip your hat towards their stoic, blank expressions. Tension between Nassau and the English occupation was at an all-time high. The governor's hold over the city had been steadily declining for years. Criminal activity only escalated with the diminishing control. Still, the English possessed the best firepower and wizards in their employ. Witnessing arcane power in addition to modern weaponry, you didn't think there would be much of a rebellion without outside help. Steel and gunpowder was vastly overshadowed by the power of the elements. As you continue on the road down the hill, your mind drifts to your crew. Besides the common sailor, gunpowder monkey, and cannoneer, you have three main members to rely on. Each have their flaws, although they're the best in the business as far as you're concerned. > You procter Sometimes you weren't quite sure of Procter's sanity. Your quartermaster had an affinity for unconventional methodology. During one less-than-friendly encounter with a French brig, Procter had saved The Sanguine by impersonating the ship's captain, taking the helm, and shouting “arrête de poser tes bras!” The cannon barrage and fiery destruction from Victoria helped as well. You had first met the sorcerer in Tortuga. The two of you shared a prison cell. He had been arrested selling watered-down ale to a group of French soldiers. Something about him had caught your eye, an obvious intelligence beneath the guise of quirkiness and social ineptitude. When Freddy broke you out, you took Procter along with you. His willingness to take the “smart” approach, despite the majority's disposition, is one of the many reasons you named him quartermaster. > You victoria There was no one you trusted more than Victoria, not even Freddy, when it came to getting things done. Your first mate had grown up among the nobility in London and attended the most prestigious schools. Her affinity towards arcane magic landed her a position within the Royal Navy as a naval mage, which is where you first met. You both served upon the HMS Eternity occasionally butting heads when it came to advising the captain. The two of you were considered Captain Newburry’s “right and left hands” and were the primary reason the ship survived as long as it did. You did find it frustrating that Newburry sided with Victoria more, probably since it’s hard to disagree with feminine beauty. Ironically, The Eternity went down under fire from the Spanish fleet, but not before you rescued Victoria’s unconscious body on a piece of floating debris. The two of you had gone your separate ways and met later in Port Maje. Uncharacteristically, Victoria had threatened her superior officers after being placed under another incompetent captain. Things escalated, a building or two burned down, and she was dishonorably charged from the Royal Navy. Her expertise when it comes to naval warfare has saved The Sanguine countless times. Lately, she has been teaching you to master the arcane, which in combination with your roguish tricks has created quite the resourceful, and deadly, captain.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"You look like you could use a drink, Captain." You turn to see Victoria, your first mate. Her purple hair is tied back in a ponytail. It always seemed to be tied a little towards the left side of her head. The thought came up to question why, but you've learned from experience not to question a woman on her hairstyle. "Way ahead of you, V," you say raising your cup from the bar top for emphasis. "I'll have what he's having," she addresses towards the bartender. "Got any news on The Sanguine?" you ask. "Yeah, boss, and it's not good. Procter is working on the repairs now. He said we might need the hull replaced." "I sure hope not," you reply. “We've been through worse, Cap,” Victoria replies. You take another sip from your cup. The latest job smuggling cargo for an English merchant paid well, but the damage sustained fleeing from a Spanish Galleon could very well cost the entire payout, or worse, put you in the hole. The wizard on board the Galleon hit The Sanguine with more than a few nasty spells. If Victoria didn't fire back with a perfectly aimed fire bolt, the entire ship might be at the bottom of the Caribbean. “I sent Freddy to find us some work,” you say to Victoria. “Did he come back with anything?” “Nothing yet,” she replies. “Although knowing Freddy, he probably got distracted by the nearest gambling hole.” “He always comes through in the end, despite his tendencies,” you reply. “What's next for you, Cap?” Victoria asks. You finish the cup and slam it back down on the bar top. Sunlight pours into the poorly lit building through several open windows creating rectangular beams of yellow. You're reminded of the Caribbean heat each time a wave of warm air floods in. Your crew had certainly seen better days. The last three ships you targeted weren't carrying anything substantial. Your most recent job would have been a huge payday if not for the Galleon's attack. At least you managed to escape alive and with most of your crew. Victoria's former life as naval mage certainly came in handy there. “Cap?” “Sorry, V. I must have zoned out for a second. My plan is to...” > You look for Freddy “…look for Freddy. No telling what he’s got himself into this time.” “A wise decision, Captain.” You flip a few coins to the bar and take your leave. The sudden sunlight in contrast to the dimly-lit tavern assaults your vision. You tip the point of your tricorn hat a bit lower to protect your eyes. The tavern is one of many upon a windy, sloped path. You pass by several street shops lining the cobbled pathway. A group of expressionless soldiers march by and receive a smile and tip of your hat. Tension between Nassau and the English occupation was at an all-time high. The governor's hold over the city had been steadily declining for years. Criminal activity only escalated with the diminishing control. Still, the English possessed the best firepower and wizards in their employ. Eventually you end up at a table underneath a covered patio. The entire overhang is covered with a green ivy. Three men sit at the table along with a crowd eagerly huddled around the players. You see Freddy in the middle always with a perfectly trimmed goatee. You never know how he finds the time, especially at sea, to trim each hair to the exact desired length. He holds his cup of dice with the usual several rings upon his fingers. “Not your lucky day, is it Freddy?” one man at the table speaks. “No one can lose this many times in a row,” he replies. “My luck’s about to change… and your coin purse is about to get lighter.” “Ha-ha, you’ve already lost several months of wages,” the other man chimes in. “Pretty soon you’ll be putting those fancy rings on the table.” “Done,” Freddy replies taking a ring from each pointer finger. “Call,” both his opponents say simultaneously and push their coin piles forward much to the amusement of the crowd. The three players shake their cups, rolling their dice, and slam the cups upside-down on the table. Then, they carefully peak underneath to see the result being careful not to let their opponent see. “Four fours,” one man speaks. “Five fours,” the other one bets. “Eight fours,” Freddy says. The crowd gasps at the sudden increase and start placing side bets with one another. “You mad dog, no way there’s that many,” the man to his left speaks. “Call me a liar then,” Freddy challenges. “Liar.” Freddy’s two opponents remove their cups revealing their rolled dice. Between the two of them, they have three fours. “Ha-ha-ha it’s still not your day, Freddy!” Freddy lifts his cup to reveal his roll. Each of the five dice shows a four. The crowd roars, threatening to riot. Freddy’s opponents stand up and knock their chairs to the ground in fury. “There’s no way you could roll that without cheating.” “Looks like my luck’s finally turned around. Thanks for the game, gentlemen,” Freddy says. Noticing you, he gets up to greet you. “Captain, there you are! I was getting to know the locals,” Freddy says. Quieter he adds on with a wink, “and they don’t have quick eyes.” “Yeah, well, they have quick feet,” you say pointing towards the table. As Freddy rose to greet you, his two opponents had taken their coin back and run off. “Damn, and we still had several more rounds to play. Anyway, I bet you’re here wondering about potential work. Don’t worry, I didn’t blow it off. I found us something and it could be big." “What’s the job?” you ask. “You heard of Woodes Rogers?” he asks. Seeing you nod he adds on, “I ran into his man, Dampier. They’re in the market for a captain; a captain who’s lived a life of danger and romance. One who all captains dream about becoming. I told him if I find anyone like that, I’d tell him.” Narrowing your eyes you reply, “Very amusing. What really happened?” “Ha. They are looking for a ship. The job is very hush-hush at this point. You’re supposed to meet him tonight at his estate.” “I suppose we don’t have much of a choice. We need money and a lot more than you were just playing for. I’ll meet with Rogers tonight.” “If you need me, I’ll be here,” Freddy replies. Turning back towards the crowd, he shouts, “Alright, who’s next?”<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"You look like you could use a drink, Captain." You turn to see Victoria, your first mate. Her purple hair is tied back in a ponytail. It always seemed to be tied a little towards the left side of her head. The thought came up to question why, but you've learned from experience not to question a woman on her hairstyle. "Way ahead of you, V," you say raising your cup from the bar top for emphasis. "I'll have what he's having," she addresses towards the bartender. "Got any news on The Sanguine?" you ask. "Yeah, boss, and it's not good. Procter is working on the repairs now. He said we might need the hull replaced." "I sure hope not," you reply. “We've been through worse, Cap,” Victoria replies. You take another sip from your cup. The latest job smuggling cargo for an English merchant paid well, but the damage sustained fleeing from a Spanish Galleon could very well cost the entire payout, or worse, put you in the hole. The wizard on board the Galleon hit The Sanguine with more than a few nasty spells. If Victoria didn't fire back with a perfectly aimed fire bolt, the entire ship might be at the bottom of the Caribbean. “I sent Freddy to find us some work,” you say to Victoria. “Did he come back with anything?” “Nothing yet,” she replies. “Although knowing Freddy, he probably got distracted by the nearest gambling hole.” “He always comes through in the end, despite his tendencies,” you reply. “What's next for you, Cap?” Victoria asks. You finish the cup and slam it back down on the bar top. Sunlight pours into the poorly lit building through several open windows creating rectangular beams of yellow. You're reminded of the Caribbean heat each time a wave of warm air floods in. Your crew had certainly seen better days. The last three ships you targeted weren't carrying anything substantial. Your most recent job would have been a huge payday if not for the Galleon's attack. At least you managed to escape alive and with most of your crew. Victoria's former life as naval mage certainly came in handy there. “Cap?” “Sorry, V. I must have zoned out for a second. My plan is to...” > You sit here and drink “…sit here and drink,” you say. “Doesn’t seem like much of a plan,” Victoria replies. “The rum helps with brainstorming. A few more of these, and I’ll come up with something. Always do,” you say with a grin. “Far be it from me to question the captain,” she replies raising two fingers toward the bartender. Three more later... “Ha-ha-ha and that’s when I hid under the horse carriage and tried to find where I left my clothes! Luckily, I still had my hat to decently cover one side of me!” you finish telling the story to Victoria. “Ha, Captain! Her father, the magistrate, would have hung you.” “I still have my life...and my hat!” you say plopping the hat onto Victoria’s head. She instantly takes it off disgusted by its involvement in your story. Suddenly, a man sits down next to you and says, “Buy you a drink, Captain?” The antique arquebus upon his back immediately catches your eye. “You’re free to do as you please,” you answer. “Might want to buy yourself a modern weapon while you’re at it,” you add on. “I assure you, no musket any of these street peddlers sell can compare to ol’ Shelly,” the man replies tapping the rifle affectionately. “Fair enough. Thanks for the drink. What’s your name, friend?” you ask. “Dampier,” Victoria butts in. “He’s one of Rogers' men.” The man, Dampier, nods, “That’s right. I’ve actually been looking for you. My employer, Woodes Rogers, has been looking for a captain of your caliber. He graciously offers an invitation to meet at his estate tonight to discuss business.” You look to Victoria and silently agree there’s no choice but to see him out. At least that’s what your intoxicated senses tell you. “Tell Rogers I’ll be there,” you answer. “He’ll be expecting you. And please try to sober up before then,” Dampier replies. “Excellent idea,” you say. “Bartender, two beers please.”<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The night is cold, dark and starless. The only light other than the candle Mama clutches in her hand comes from the moon, whose once bright, white, inviting and warm light is now deep red, like it's been splattered with blood. You're curled up with your two sisters, Ivana and Lilia, with Mama sitting over you, her candle in one hand and a wooden crucifix in the other. Papa is nailing boards to keep the door shut, hastily trying to give you some extra protection. It's the Night of the Blood Moon. You've never been through one, the last happening less than a year before your birth, but now, after another twelve years, it had arrived. Your eldest brother, Dornan, told stories about it, stories that chilled you to the bone, that kept you from sleep, that gave birth to the horrors of your nightmares. If even a fraction of what Dornan said is true, the screams should begin soon. "Mama?" Lilia asks. "Hush, darling," Mama replies, as Papa finishes boarding up the door and grabs his shotgun from it's place on the wall. He takes his spot next to you, his gun pointed at the door, and you wait. The screams start soon. Howls of pain and terror from other houses of the town. Ivana is old enough to know to stay quiet, but Lilia soon starts to cry. Mama desperately tries to hush her six year old daughter, but to no avail. "Sssh! Sssh, darling! It's alright, you just must stay quiet!" Papa says. Suddenly, a tall, dark shadow passes by the window. Papa immediately grabs his shotgun, frantically raising it to his shoulder. The shadow disappears, and Papa breaths a sigh of relief. "Scared of something?" a deep, guttural voice says from behind you. Papa turns, firing his shotgun as the monster speeds forward. It grabs Papa's throat with unnatural speed, smiling as it holds him in the air, strangling him. The monster looks hideous. It's dreadfully pale, it's face twisted with hate, and looks to be hairless. It's eyes are completely black, like the endless darkness of its soul, and it's mouth is filled with mangled teeth with two large fangs, curved and bloodstained, with even more blood pouring down its face. The creature snarls, before smiling as it turns to look at you and your siblings. "Ah... so young... so fresh..." the vampire says, licking it's lipless mouth with a forked tongue. "Peasant, your daughters are mine. Don't struggle." The vampire tosses Papa to the ground, turning towards your siblings. "No! No! You will not take my daughters!" Father says, grabbing for his gun. The monster strikes, smashing it's boot into Papa's head. "How dare you?!" the monster screams. "I gave you your land, I gave you your house, I give you your life!" The monster begins walking toward Papa, who desperately crawls back to the wall. "I keep the beasts away from the village! I let you roam the night all but one night every twelve years! I don't ask for your wife, to allow you to sire more. I don't ask for your son, to leave you a legacy. I only ask for your daughters! How dare you attempt to deny me that?" As the vampire walks towards Papa, his fangs bared, you see a chance to get Papa's shotgun. Still, you don't want to anger the vampire further. Perhaps the best option is to hope for the beast's mercy. > You grab for the gun You scuttle forward for the gun, grabbing it. You aim it at the vampire, grabbing the trigger and pulling it tightly. The gun explodes, sending you falling back with the recoil and smacking into the wall with a painful thud. The vampire roars as buckshot slams into his back. He grabs your father by the head, twisting with inhuman speed as your hear a painful snap. Then, he turns, staring at you. He snarls, walking forward quickly. You reach for the gun again, but he steps on your hand as you yelp in pain. "You dare shoot me? I have lived millennia, you think you'll be the one to end my life?" the hunter snarls, before laughing, a horrible, terrifying noise. "You have balls, little one." You stare at the monster in front of you, trying to stare him, but you see nothing but hate and unquenching thirst behind his eyes. "Yes... I see strength in you. Potential. I have an offer for you, as the newfound man of the house. Join me. Let me take you on as my... apprentice. As my servant. As my slave. As whatever I need you to be. In exchange for your servitude, I offer you not only your life, but the life of your mother and sisters." You stare at the monster, whose eyes narrow as he waits for you answer. > You agree "OK," you say, gulping. The vampire smiles, perhaps in an attempt to calm you, but the way his smile curves upwards seems unnatural. It's like the smile of a wolf who has found a young, bleating lamb all by itself. "Perfect," the vampire says, dropping you to the ground. The monster walks out of the hut, barking out a single order. "Follow," he commands. You walk outside to the glow of the red moon, seeing a dozen bodies, pale from blood draining, lying on the street. A single carriage lies there, with a hunch-backed man sitting there, wearing a low-down bowler hat, a balaclava and a large coat that cover his appearance. "Haygarth! We're finished here. I've fed," the vampire growls. The hunch-back nods eagerly, grabbing the reigns of the horses. "Yes, sir, ready to go, sir!" Haygarth says eagerly. "And the boy?" "He is mine," the vampire says, as he steps into the carriage. "Yes sir, yes sir! Up front, boy! Quickly!" Haygarth says. You quickly walk up to the carriage, climbing into the shotgun seat of the carriage. Haygarth seems badly deformed, clearly attempting to cover his appearance with his large coat, low hat and balaclava, but he still looks monstrous. Haygarth quickly stirs the horses into a trot, as you leave the town that's always been your home. "You're to serve Count Grey?" the hunchback asks. "Yes," you say, barely coming to terms with the fact. "Hmm... we'll see how long you last," Haygarth says. "Yes, we'll see..." > Three Years Later... You sit on the ground, scrubbing the cold stone floor of the Grey Castle, named as much for its cold, lifeless demeanor as much as its owner. Haygarth stands over you, watching as he makes sure you do a proper job cleaning the blood stains that cover the ground, a remainder of the last girl foolish enough to be out at night. So far, your job has been simple. You have little contact with Count Grey, as you work in the day and sleep at night, whilst he sleeps in the day, coming out at night to hunt, feed, plan and much more. Mostly, Haygarth forces you to work at any job he sees fit. He seems to think you're little different from a pack horse, working you as hard as them. If anything, he's feeding the pack horses better. You see your role in the castle as a servant on your more optimistic days, and as a slave on the worse ones. "Good, good, put your back into it! Yes, that's it!" Haygarth says, as he hurries around the room, collecting pieces of clothes left over from the poor girl being brutally murdered. "Yes, Haygarth," you reply, putting your pressure on the brush as you splash some more water to get rid of a particularly disgusting stain of a mixture of blood and urine. Haygarth is a hard ruler, forcing you to work day and night. He's not sadistic or cruel, he just doesn't seem to understand that you're not an animal who needs a break. Hell, perhaps his only redeemable feature is the fact that he works himself even harder. As he rushes past, trying to do various chores, you can hear him angrily mutter to himself to go faster. You finish off the stain, quickly crawling over to the next. You sigh as you realize just how much you need to clean. Your knees hurt from crawling around all day, your hands are covered in blisters, and you've done nothing but work all day. You had two ive minute breaks to cram food into your mouth, and one more to shit, and that was it. Who the fuck has only two people to keep an entire castle from falling into disrepair? "Hurry up, boy! Use some of those strong muscles! I want to be able to see my reflection in it!" Will he ever leave you be? The bastard can't just let you fucking work, he has to constantly remind you that you're not doing good enough? > You insult Haygarth "Really? You want to see your reflection in the floor? Maybe I should leave it dirty so you wouldn't have to look at your malformed, pathetic excuse for a face," you say, as a year of anger is released in a single jab. Haygarth stops suddenly, looking at you. He frowns, looking at the ground behind you, where ironically you've polished the stones enough for him to vaguely look at himself. "You... you know, you sound just like my mother, or Count Grey. Mean. Cruel. Perhaps it's good you've found yourself serving a man such as the Count. He could be your soul mate, if he had a soul." Haygarth hobbles out of the room, leaving you alone. You continue keeping working, but fuck, the floor is pretty clean. You sit down, leaning against the wall as you sigh as your aching muscles get relief. You take a deep breath, as you watch the the sun fall in the distance. After about half an hour, the moon has finally appeared, and Haygarth appears. "Come. We need to wake Count Grey," he says, not looking at you. > You follow Haygarth You follow Haygarth along the hallways with haste. You hurry down the stairs, quickly heading to the lowest floor, at the center of the castle, into a dark room, empty except for a single, candle-adored coffin leaning against the stone wall, and a large, black sword hanging above the coffin. The coffin in intricate, a large, black wooden coffin with an intricate, thorny pattern, and a single silver, demonic face with a roaring mouth with a pair of fangs on the front. The sword, on the other hand, is somehow even darker, its surface seeming to suck the very light from the room. Even staring at the thin edge makes you feel like you've been stabbed. You can practically taste the hatred and malice that emanates from it. "Do you feel it?" Haygarth says. "That is the master of the home." You feel the hairs stand up on your skin. The air tastes stale and rotten, and there's a general feeling of dread emanating from it. In a place like this, you feel even if you called on the good Lord to save you, he would be unable to find your soul in such an abyss of all warm or love, let alone rescue you from it. "What now?" you ask. Haygarth grabs your hand, pulling it forward until your hand touches the metal. "It... stings," you say, as it feels like your hand is both being put against a hot stove and a freezing block of ice. "You'll get used to it," Haygarth says, drawing an iron blade from his side. Haygarth presses the blade against your arm, smiling as he slices open your arm, a long, deep cut appearing with a stream of blood. "Ah!" you yelp as your arm is covered red. "Stop!" "It's necessary," Haygarth replies. "We need to draw blood." "Did you need to cut so deep?" you complain. "I wanted to," Haygarth replies, shoving your arm in the silver mouth of the demon, cut first. Blood begins to pour down the creature's mouth, as the coffin's door clicks open. Haygarth grabs you by the collar, pulling you back. Count Grey steps forward. He looks the same as he has every night since the night he took you, except now his lips look parched and cracked, his eyes immediately darting down to your arm. "Thirst," he moans, staring at your wound. Haygarth hits you in the back with a snarl. "Come on, boy, feed your master!" You hold your arm forward, as Count Grey grabs it, his mouth darting down to your bleeding wound with an insane speed. You close your eyes and wait for the pain of his bite, but instead feel his cold lips on your wound, instantly beginning to suck the blood out of your arm. You take a deep breath as you go pale, Haygarth putting your arm around his shoulder to keep you from fainting. After about a minute, Count Grey stops, raising his head as he smiles. "Good. I was thirsty. The bitch from the other night was dry, and half her blood ended up on the floors. Good thing I managed to stop myself from draining you completely," Count Grey says. He looks up at the sword that hangs above the coffin, staring at it for a second. "Do you see that sword? While I like to keep up to date with my weapon technology, such as with rifles. grenades and the new and innovative Maxim Gun, in cases of the super-natural, the old stuff is the best. I've had that sword since I was a child. Forged it myself under command of my master. So many ancient, arcane inscriptions, horrid rituals and infinitely worse had to be done to make it the thing it is today. It's name is the Psychí Líptis. It is a killing machine. You will become the same." Count Grey s walking past you, and up the stairs. You stand there, waiting, looking at Haygarth for what to do. "Follow!" Count Grey's voice booms. You quickly hurry up the stairs after him. > You an Hour Later... You sit in the shotgun seat of the coach, as Haygarth continues spurring the horses forward. You're entering the village of Nitchidorf, with Count Grey resting in the back. The carriage's wheels roll into the village, stopping as you enter the village limits. "Go open the doors for the Count," Haygarth says. You nod, quickly hopping off the carriage. You run to the back of the carriage, opening it as the tall, gaunt Vampire steps out, tilting his head to stare down at you. "Follow," he commands. He begins walking along the street, staring at each of the houses. "We must find you a little... playmate," Count Grey says, looking at the houses. He sniffs the air, staring at the houses. His eyes flicker to you, filling you with dread as he licks his lips, still stained with bits of your crimson ichor, looking hungry. "Ye-yes, master," you say, nervously. The vampire stares at you for a second, before looking away. He seems impatient. "Yes... I can smell two prominent ones. Tell me, Samuel, what do you think? There's a young one who smells freshly bathed and lemongrass perfume, or one that smells of fresh dough and... terror sweat. It appears the latter one can see us. Which is it, Samuel?" > The first girl "Uh... the... the fi..." you stutter, tripping over your words as the vampire growls. "Have I found myself with another fool, a boy with the mind of a mule?" the vampire says, his long, gleaning white fangs, the corners of his mouth still red with your blood. "I've had a year out of you. Perhaps it's best to finish you off now." Count Grey slowly walks forward, snarling as his fangs poke out, looking like huge spears. > You attack You charge forward, but you're a child, and he's an immortal, ancient vampire. He grabs your neck, holding your head high to expose your neck. His mouth immediately shoots forward, biting into your neck as he begins to drain you of your life force. You gasp as your blood is drained, before he drops your dead body to the ground.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Uh... the... the fi..." you stutter, tripping over your words as the vampire growls. "Have I found myself with another fool, a boy with the mind of a mule?" the vampire says, his long, gleaning white fangs, the corners of his mouth still red with your blood. "I've had a year out of you. Perhaps it's best to finish you off now." Count Grey slowly walks forward, snarling as his fangs poke out, looking like huge spears. > You stand your ground You stand your ground, as the vampire grabs you by the throat, lifting you into the air. His grip is tight, strangling you as he snarls, looking you at you with his cold, dark eyes. “I’m going to feel nothing as you die,” he says. Your brain begins to scream from lack of oxygen, as his eyes stare into yours. Your vision gets blurry, as your head begins to pulse with a desire to simply close your eyes and pass out. Suddenly, he releases you from his grip, as he drops you to the ground. “Perhaps… perhaps you’re ready to truly serve. Your life is mine, Samuel. If I decide to break your neck, you’ll lay your head down on the table and have your neck broken, understood?" "Ye... yes, sir. Whatever you desire," you manage to spit out. "Good. The rich one, was it?" the vampire says, smiling. "Follow me." You quickly begin following, walking along the stone road. You stop at one of the larger brick houses, with a fancy looking brass knocker. Count Grey briefly knocked on the wooden door, waiting. There was a loud noise inside, as the owner scrambled to get ready. The door opened on a chain, with an elderly bespectacled man peering out. "May I... oh, my..." the man said, stepping back. Count Grey grabbed him by the throat, tearing the door open as the chain snapped. Count Grey raised the man into the air, tossing him aside. "Follow," Count Grey shouted, as the old man struggled to stand, grabbing a letter opener. "Stay back!" he said. "You stay away from..." Count Grey let out a snarl, as he bared his teeth, his eyes filling his hunger. The old man meekly dropped the letter opener, stepping back. Count Grey walked forward into the house, sniffing the air. With a quick kick, he smashed the door open. You stood behind him, watching as a young girl barely into her teens lies, wearing a night gown. From the wet path on both the gown and the sheets she's curdled up in, it appears she's peed herself. "Ah... so fresh... so young... so delicious," Count Grey says. The girl screams for her grandfather, but Count Grey simply grabs her by the hair, in a quick jerk ripping her from the bed. Count Grey walked along the hallway, dragging her towards the coach. You follow, passing the disgraced looking grandfather. "Grandpapa! Grandpapa!" the girl screamed, as her father just looked down, ashamed. Count Grey dragged her into the coach, throwing her into the back, before locking it. He motioned for you to follow. "It's a beautiful night. The moon's full in the sky. I need to... negotiate with a few of the beasts of the night. I shan't be long. When to the West the honorless dogs create endless machines of war and to the East our enemies have endless' souls to give, we could always use more allies, yes?" You nod slowly, as the Vampire slides his coat off his gaunt frame, holding it out. You stare at it, before realizing he wants you to take it and grabbing it. "Take the girl back to the castle. Detain her. Then, await my return." "Yes, sir," you respond, as your master turns away, strolling off into the night. > You head back to the castle You walk towards the shotgun seat, climbing up to sit next to Haygarth. "The girl is alive and in my coach, yet the master is not. What happened?" he asks. "Count Grey is hunting. You need to take me and the girl home." "What's to become of the girl? Is she a blood bag, or a new apprentice?" Haygarth asks, raising an eye. "Neither would be particularly surprising." "I don't know," you admit. "So be it," Haygarth replies. You put your head against the back of the coach, and close your eyes as you head towards the castle. > You an Hour Later... The coach enters the castle gate, as you climb off the coach. Haygarth lowers the portcullis, as you go to the back to open the coach. The girl sits there, staring at you in terror. "Get out," you command. The girl nods, crawling ahead as she gets out of the coach. You grab her by the wrist, leading her along to the coach. She doesn't talk, seemingly in shock. She doesn't say a word, instead staring at you in terror. You wonder if you should try to converse, to calm her, or keep unemotional and professional about this issue. > You talk to the rich girl "So, do you have a name?" you say. "Yelena," she says, struggling to even talk. "My name's Samuel." You walk on for another few seconds of silence, as she looks at you, her face pale. "Am I going to die?" she asks. "You..." you begin to say, before she stares at you, trying to see if you're lying. "I don't know. I'm sorry." She nods. You show her down the stairs, before leading her into a prison cell. You lock the cell door, staring at her from behind the bars. She stares blankly ahead, leaning against the wall and sliding down to lean against it, her nightgown now covered in mud and dirt. You leave her there, now secured, and end up heading to bed for a few hours sleep before Count Grey arrives back. > You sleep... You awake to the prick of fangs against your neck. You don't move, taking in a deep breath. "You looked so... so appetizing. Let's go. We need to finish the last stage of your path towards becoming a true apprentice." You nod, standing. You make your way down to the prison cell, where the girl still waits. She looks up, terrified. "What... what is to be done with her?" you gulp. "She is food. Learn that fact," your master says. The vampire draws a long dagger from his side, handing it to you. "If you're going to be my Ghoul, you need to prove you're capable of preparing my food. Kill her," You hold the knife, staring at it as the girl begins to cry. You notice from the wet patch growing on her nightgown, she’s pissed herself once more. “Kill her. She’s weak, you’re strong. Slice open her throat, so I can feed,” Count Grey commanded. The girl breaks into sobs as Count Grey opens the cell door, swinging it ajar and motioning for you to enter. You nod, walking forward with the knife held tightly in your hand. > You kill her You step forward, into the cell. You close your eyes, moving forward as you grab the girls’ head. You hold the knife to her throat as she struggles desperately, her fingernails scratching at your face. You stab her through the throat, directly through the main vein. She collapses, shuddering as blood spurts out and begins to run down her neck, staining her hair crimson. You feel like bursting into tears, but you know to show weakness would be to end up like her… if you were lucky. “Good,” Count Grey says, tossing a rag forward. “Hold it against her neck to stem the bleeding, and then pick her up and follow me.” You grab the girl, holding the rag tightly against the wound to stem the bleeding. You lift her over your shoulder, standing up. You follow Count Grey along the hall. Soon, you find yourself in front of a large, wooden door. Haygarth has forbidden you from entering, which only mean that you had one less room to clean. Count Grey pulls a short, silver key from his pocket. He opens the door, revealing a massive storage room. The room is filled with cabinets and shelving units. They’re all filled with crystal bottles, filled with a scarlet red ichor. “This castle was built to withstand a siege. It’s storerooms could keep a force here going for years with wheat, potatoes, salted meats and more, as well as small gardens. Unfortunately, I require a more… delicate solution to avoid starving.” You look at the endless bottles of blood, wondering how many lives were given to fill them. “It’s quite hard to successfully bottle blood. Let alone hard hard it is to get it from the victim without a needle and a few hours. You’ll need to get quite good at that.” “You want me to kill people and bottle their blood?” you ask. “Yes. Not just anyone. Virgins, particularly. Once they’ve lost that, their blood’s impure, and will spoil quickly enough outside the body. After that, you’ll need to keep it around for a few days, make sure it doesn’t spoil.” “I thought you said virgin blood doesn’t spoil.” “It doesn’t, but in this day and age, it’s so hard to tell. I always struggle to pick out my targets. I want them to be young enough to be a virgin, but still old enough to… well, perhaps from the morality my tribe taught me oh so many years ago, I don’t want to kill babies, or children that young. I’m perfectly willing to, mind you, but I don’t find it necessary when there are so many other potential blood bags. Even then, you can never be sure. You always have some human filth so enamored with mortal concepts like sex that they end up defiling children. You’d be surprised by how young I’ve found my victims to be, yet still spoiled. Oh, they say power corrupts, but it just lets people be who they are naturally. Perhaps some day, we’ll see who you are at heart.” “Does… does it have to be children?” you ask. “What about someone like… the Catholic priests in the village?” “Ha! I’d be able to find more virgins among the girls at the whore house then at the church!” Count Grey says, laughing. His laughter is… unnatrual. Even though you understand the context to the joke, you still somehow feel as if he’s laughing maniacally since he’s got you at his mercy, which you suppose he does. You weakly smile, before the weight of the dead girl over your shoulders becomes too much and you lower her onto the cold stone floor, keeping the now red, sticky rag pressed against her wound. “Ah, yes. We’re wasting time,” he says. Count Grey grabs a crystal bottle, handing to you. “Move the rag, and replace it with bottle. Fill it,” he says. You take the bottle and remove the rag, quickly pressing the bottle against the bleeding wound, as blood continues to flow into it. You take effort not to look at the girl’s face, watching as the bottle is slowly filled. "The heart is a tremendous organ, isn’t it?” Count Grey says, licking his lips. “So… fresh. So… delicious.” The vampire snarls, taking a deep breath. For a second, his face contorts into a combination of that of a starving man willing to break any moral code to feed his hunger, that of a hate-filled demon knowing nothing other than the negative emotions that plague the depths of man’s soul, as well as that of a beast, knowing only hunger. You step back, almost knocking over a rack of bottles, before Count Grey pauses. “Don’t worry, little one. It’s just that staring at the blood makes me so, so thirsty. I’d imagine you’ll be able to fill up a lot more bottles than I, seeing as you won’t be tempted to down the bottle you’re filling at any given moment.” Count Grey takes the bottle, pouring a small amount into an ornate wooden bowl, before capping the bottle with a crystal stopper. “No, we test. You get this little box,” he said, grabbing an oak box from the cabinet, and opening it to reveal various things. Count Grey draws out a long tooth, seemingly from a vampire. It looks to be a curved, deadly sharp fang. “This belonged to Elise the Skin-Taker. You need to drop the fang in the bowl, and leave it there for three days. If the tooth is no different, put the tooth back in the box and put the bottle with the others. If the tooth has turned black, dump out the blood and wash out the bottle. Then, use a blade to scrape of the rotten outside, and put the rest, the tooth that's not rotten, back in the box. Be careful. A tooth can only last two or three of these, and I only have so many. Getting more takes another trip to the wilder regions and find a maddened, bestial vampire without reason or logic, a bandit who has found himself with the gifts of the blood moon or some aspiring Vampire who wishes to be a count." Count Grey puts the bottle on the stone table, next to the bowl. "You've prepared your first bottle, little one. You'll prepare many more. You've proven yourself tonight. Now, your job changes. Follow me," he says. Count Grey walks along the hallways, stopping at a small, wooden door that again has remained locked during your stay here. He opens it with the same key, before handing it to you. "Here. This is your new room," he says, opening the door. In stark contrast with your last room, a simple tiny bed in a barren room, this one is surprisingly less furnished. A desk and chair stands there, a mirror, a wardrobe and a large bed. A gun rack sits by the single window, with two rifles and a shotgun in it. "Thank you, thank you master!" you say. "Open the wardrobe," Count Grey commands. You walk forward, opening the wardrobe. Inside is a pair of black leather boots, black trousers, a black shirt, a dark red leather long coat and belt and a dark red tri-corner hat. "Put it on," Count Grey commands. You quickly get undressed, as Count Grey stares, bored, at the wall. You get dressed into the outfit, turning to look back at your master. "Yes... it fits well. Kneel, dog," the vampire says. You drop to your knee, bowing your head low. You look up at Count Grey, who raises his arm to his mouth. He bites it, releasing a flow of blood that runs down his hands. He holds it out, staring at you expectantly. "Drink," he commands. You look at the burgundy liquid running down the vampire's arm, in stark contrast with the white, ghastly skin. You put your mouth to the wound, and begin to suck. The liquid is like a poison. Your skin begins to tingle, as you feel drowsy. You try to pull your head away, but the vampire holds it in place. "Drink!" he commands aggressively. You keep drinking the cold liquid down, as your stomach begins to churn. You feel like you're about to collapse into a coma, as the blood seems to drain your life source. Finally, Count Grey lets you pull your head back. "Rise, ghoul," he commands. You stand, trying not to puke. You look at Count Grey, who raises an eyebrow. "Are you going to vomit, child?" he asks. You feel the puke rise up in your throat, but hold it down, shaking your head. "Well done," he says. "Now, you're a ghoul. No longer will you work like a slave with Haygarth. You will hunt for me when I am busy. You will scout and pick out potential prey. You will guard the castle. You will be a true minion." You nod, eagerly. "I... am yours, master," you say. > Three Years Later... You sit in the shotgun seat of a carriage with Haygarth at the reins. It's been a long journey. You have to venture to meet with King Ferdinand I in order to arrange taxation laws and other things you haven't been educated well enough to understand. You're finally entering the territory under Count Grey's control, staring out at the village you're entering as the sun falls in the distance. "Stop here," you say. "I want to grab a bite to eat." "We must be home soon!" Haygarth says. "Count Grey's in the back, he might wake up soon. Sun's almost gone." You're hungry, thirsty and you've been traveling for the past three days. There's no way in hell you're going back to the castle for Haygarth to cook up his famous soup, which you're certain he's literally shitting in. > You attempt to convince Haygarth to stop "Haygarth, be fair here. Do you really want to go back to the castle to have to cook for us? We could quickly get some grub, some drinks, and then head back to the castle. Right?" "Don't like leaving carriage. There's always pointing, laughing, staring," Haygarth says, pulling his balaclava up to the bridge of his nose. "Fine. I'll pull in. You go eat. I'll wait here, eat something when I get home," he says. The carriage pulls in alongside a tavern, as you look to Haygarth, who looks fairly pathetic as he attempts to cover his mishapen form. > You enter the tavern You walk inside the tavern by yourself, feeling the weight of your Leu-filled wallet in your side pocket. You walk along, and immediately garner the attention of everyone in the bar. Your garb makes it immediately clear to anyone but the most ignorant or simply stupid of the peasants that you're a servant of Count Grey. The tavern quickly clears out, heading to their various homes, leaving only a few idiots too old and stubborn or young and cocky to realize staying near you is death. You toss a crumpled note on the counter, looking up at the bar tender expectantly. Soon, you find yourself drinking a pint, a plate of chicken, boiled potatoes and cabbage in front of you. You smile, eating it up eagerly, downing the pint in a few gulps. You belch loudly, smiling as you find yourself now filled with food, warm and content. "Where's the bathroom?" you ask, feeling the need to piss rising as your full bladder demands you act. "Bathroom's broken. Go outside," the bar-tender replies. You raise an eyebrow, tapping on your hat. "Do you know who I am? Who I work for?" you ask. "I do. If he shows up here, I'm as happy to show him the broken toilet as I am you." You sigh, standing and walking outside into the alley. You unzip your trousers and pull out your dick, pissing onto the side of the old building. Suddenly, the cold blade of a knife is pressed against your throat. "Don't move," a deep voice whispers. "Hands in the air." "Do you expect me to let go of my dick and piss on myself?" you ask, more annoyed than scared. "Finish up," the voice says. You finish pissing, popping your genitalia back in your trousers, buttoning it up, and slowly turn to face your attack. Two teens, barely fifteen by the looks of it, both with short blond hair, one skinny, on large and muscular, stare at you. The skinny one holds a pistol, while the big one holds the knife pressed against your throat. "What's this about, gents? Revenge?" you ask, knowing just how many family's want your blood for taking their daughter's. "What? We don't know you," the big one says. "The wallet. Now," the skinny one says. You pause, frowning. "Are you seriously fucking telling me you've decided to mug me?" you ask, surprised. "Why the fuck wouldn't we?" the big one asks, pushing you against the wall as the skinny one draws his own knife with his left hand, strolling forward to press the barrel against your temple. "Wallet. Now," he says. "Fucking idiots. You don't recognize the outfit, eh? I'm a fucking Ghoul, Count Grey's personal assistant." The big one looks at the skinny one nervously. "Maybe we should let him go," the big one asks. "He's bluffing," the skinny one says, licking his lips. "Ghouls... ghouls are rotten, aren't they?" "The sun's down, boys. Count Grey's due to wake..." "Shut it! Wallet, now!" the skinny one commands. > You buy time "Do you know how dangerous the count is? He'll drink you dry, his fangs'll prick..." "Shut it!" the skinny one says. "Let's just go," the big one says. "First, the wallet!" the skinny one says. "I think I can hear Count Grey. He's co..." you say, before you're interrupted by the skinny one pulling the trigger, covering the wall with your brain matter.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You walk inside the tavern by yourself, feeling the weight of your Leu-filled wallet in your side pocket. You walk along, and immediately garner the attention of everyone in the bar. Your garb makes it immediately clear to anyone but the most ignorant or simply stupid of the peasants that you're a servant of Count Grey. The tavern quickly clears out, heading to their various homes, leaving only a few idiots too old and stubborn or young and cocky to realize staying near you is death. You toss a crumpled note on the counter, looking up at the bar tender expectantly. Soon, you find yourself drinking a pint, a plate of chicken, boiled potatoes and cabbage in front of you. You smile, eating it up eagerly, downing the pint in a few gulps. You belch loudly, smiling as you find yourself now filled with food, warm and content. "Where's the bathroom?" you ask, feeling the need to piss rising as your full bladder demands you act. "Bathroom's broken. Go outside," the bar-tender replies. You raise an eyebrow, tapping on your hat. "Do you know who I am? Who I work for?" you ask. "I do. If he shows up here, I'm as happy to show him the broken toilet as I am you." You sigh, standing and walking outside into the alley. You unzip your trousers and pull out your dick, pissing onto the side of the old building. Suddenly, the cold blade of a knife is pressed against your throat. "Don't move," a deep voice whispers. "Hands in the air." "Do you expect me to let go of my dick and piss on myself?" you ask, more annoyed than scared. "Finish up," the voice says. You finish pissing, popping your genitalia back in your trousers, buttoning it up, and slowly turn to face your attack. Two teens, barely fifteen by the looks of it, both with short blond hair, one skinny, on large and muscular, stare at you. The skinny one holds a pistol, while the big one holds the knife pressed against your throat. "What's this about, gents? Revenge?" you ask, knowing just how many family's want your blood for taking their daughter's. "What? We don't know you," the big one says. "The wallet. Now," the skinny one says. You pause, frowning. "Are you seriously fucking telling me you've decided to mug me?" you ask, surprised. "Why the fuck wouldn't we?" the big one asks, pushing you against the wall as the skinny one draws his own knife with his left hand, strolling forward to press the barrel against your temple. "Wallet. Now," he says. "Fucking idiots. You don't recognize the outfit, eh? I'm a fucking Ghoul, Count Grey's personal assistant." The big one looks at the skinny one nervously. "Maybe we should let him go," the big one asks. "He's bluffing," the skinny one says, licking his lips. "Ghouls... ghouls are rotten, aren't they?" "The sun's down, boys. Count Grey's due to wake..." "Shut it! Wallet, now!" the skinny one commands. > You attempt to negotiate "Look, you take my wallet, Count Grey's going to feel disrespected. Best case scenario, he sends me out with a rifle to track you down and..." "Shut it!" the skinny one says. "Let's just go," the big one says. "First, the wallet!" the skinny one says. "Worst case, Count Grey comes after you personally. He'll..." you say, before you're interrupted by the skinny one pulling the trigger, covering the wall with your brain matter.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You walk inside the tavern by yourself, feeling the weight of your Leu-filled wallet in your side pocket. You walk along, and immediately garner the attention of everyone in the bar. Your garb makes it immediately clear to anyone but the most ignorant or simply stupid of the peasants that you're a servant of Count Grey. The tavern quickly clears out, heading to their various homes, leaving only a few idiots too old and stubborn or young and cocky to realize staying near you is death. You toss a crumpled note on the counter, looking up at the bar tender expectantly. Soon, you find yourself drinking a pint, a plate of chicken, boiled potatoes and cabbage in front of you. You smile, eating it up eagerly, downing the pint in a few gulps. You belch loudly, smiling as you find yourself now filled with food, warm and content. "Where's the bathroom?" you ask, feeling the need to piss rising as your full bladder demands you act. "Bathroom's broken. Go outside," the bar-tender replies. You raise an eyebrow, tapping on your hat. "Do you know who I am? Who I work for?" you ask. "I do. If he shows up here, I'm as happy to show him the broken toilet as I am you." You sigh, standing and walking outside into the alley. You unzip your trousers and pull out your dick, pissing onto the side of the old building. Suddenly, the cold blade of a knife is pressed against your throat. "Don't move," a deep voice whispers. "Hands in the air." "Do you expect me to let go of my dick and piss on myself?" you ask, more annoyed than scared. "Finish up," the voice says. You finish pissing, popping your genitalia back in your trousers, buttoning it up, and slowly turn to face your attack. Two teens, barely fifteen by the looks of it, both with short blond hair, one skinny, on large and muscular, stare at you. The skinny one holds a pistol, while the big one holds the knife pressed against your throat. "What's this about, gents? Revenge?" you ask, knowing just how many family's want your blood for taking their daughter's. "What? We don't know you," the big one says. "The wallet. Now," the skinny one says. You pause, frowning. "Are you seriously fucking telling me you've decided to mug me?" you ask, surprised. "Why the fuck wouldn't we?" the big one asks, pushing you against the wall as the skinny one draws his own knife with his left hand, strolling forward to press the barrel against your temple. "Wallet. Now," he says. "Fucking idiots. You don't recognize the outfit, eh? I'm a fucking Ghoul, Count Grey's personal assistant." The big one looks at the skinny one nervously. "Maybe we should let him go," the big one asks. "He's bluffing," the skinny one says, licking his lips. "Ghouls... ghouls are rotten, aren't they?" "The sun's down, boys. Count Grey's due to wake..." "Shut it! Wallet, now!" the skinny one commands. > You give them the wallet You hand over your wallet, giving them the finger as you do. "Thanks," the skinny one smiles, grabbing it from your hand as he smacks you in the head with the gun, knocking you to the floor. "What are you doing?" the big one asks. "We don't need to kill him! We got the wallet!" You look up to see the barrel of the gun pointing directly at your head. "You heard what he said. He's with the count. If we kill him now, the count won't come after us!" the skinny one knows. "He's seen our faces." "He doesn't know our names," the big one says. "I'm Lucas. That's Mikhail," the skinny one said. "What the fuck!?" the big one, Mikhail replies. "We have to kill him. Now even you'd agree to that," Lucas says. "Always kill your prey. You don't want to let them come back and bite you in the throat," a voice says. Count Grey steps from the shadows, his teeth curved in a grin, his fangs prominent. He grabs Lucas' gun arm, twisting it until Lucas drops the gun. Mikhail charges with a knife, but with a quick, well-planted punch to the chest sends him to the floor, badly winded. You stand up, grabbing the gun as well as drawing your own, pointing one at each of the thieves. "What, are you some fucking cowboy with your guns? Shoot, come on!" Lucas says, even though his bottom lip is quivering. "Tell me, Samuel. How did they manage to jump you?" Count Grey asks, tracing a finger down Lucas' nose. "I was pissing," you admit. "Hmmm... tell me, where is your family?" Count Grey asks, turning his attention to the teens. "Dead," Lucas answers. "Well then, you've shown balls, willingness to kill and the ability to ambush. Perhaps... Samuel, you were the one mugged. What happened? Were you behaving stupidly and ambushed by some lackluster fools, or are these two deserving of becoming ghouls?" > You suggest the teens become ghouls "They have potential," you admit. "Young men, I'll give you a choice. I could kill you now, drain your blood and return to my castle for the night." "What's the other option?" Mikhail asks. "Join me. Let me take you on as my... apprentice. As my servant. As my slave. As whatever I need you to be. In exchange for your servitude, I offer your life." "Jesus, do you have that memorized?" you mutter, under your breath. "I'm in," Lucas says immediately, as Mikhail pauses, before nodding in agreement. "Perfect," the vampire smiles. "The coach is full. You'll walk behind it. No breaks. No time to pack. Immediately. If you're too pathetic for that, you might as well die of exhaustion." With that, Count Grey walks off, and you eagerly follow. > Three Years Later... You watch as the Twins hold the two girls in front of you, knives in their hands. Count Grey stands to your side, watching intently. "Do it," Count Grey commands. Mikhail takes a deep breath, stabbing the girl in the throat. He closes his eye as the girl twitches, blood spurting out as he slices through her throat. "Help..." the girl gurgles, blood filling her throat, before he head drops to the side. Lucas looks at his master, before down at the girl. He presses the knife to the girl's wrist, slicing it open. As the girl screams, before he wraps his left arm around her throat and beginning to strangle her to prevent her from screaming. "What are you doing?" Count Grey asks, more curious than angry. "If she's left alive, the heart keeps pumping. More blood will spurt out for you to consume," Lucas says, as the girl sobs desperately. "Interesting," Count Grey says. "Grab your blood bags and follow me. Samuel, no need to see this. You've filled countless bottles." "Yes, sir," you reply. You walk away, walking to the bedroom, lying down in the bed. You rest your head against the pillow, and drift off to sleep. You awaken about an hour later, with Count Grey staring at you from the doorway. "Yes?" you ask nervously. "There's going to be some changes in this castle, understood? Now that we have three ghouls. You and the others will extend our power. First, it's important you should know. I'm not the only vampire." "I know," you reply, confused. "We've fought rival Vampires, hunted those that went feral with bloodlust, taken out vampiric bandits..." "I mean," Count Grey says, annoyed by the interruption. "That I'm not the only vampire on our side. You're family with the three vassal vampires that run the various subsections of the region, yes?" "Yes," you reply. "The Draven Family House, the Alexa Family House and the Mihrab Family House." "Not exactly. These are not the names of families. They're the names of individuals. I have three vampires under by control, acting as my lieutenants. Their names are Draven, Mihrab and Alexa." "Are they threats?" "No. You just need to know of them. If needs be, you'll kill one someday. Maybe all three. Understood?" "Yes, sir," you reply. "Good. Train and drill with the Twins more. You'll need to become a better fighter. Now, sleep." With that, Count Grey closes the door, leaving you in the dark room. Just knowing Count Grey has constant access to you prevents you from sleeping. > Three Years Later... The coach drives down the road as the sun begins to fall from its high perch in the sky.You breath in the cold air, as Haygarth drives the horse forward. You take a cigarette from your pocket, lighting it with a match. You breath in the smoke, closing your eyes as you feel it fill your lungs, before exhaling. “Pass it over,” Mikhail says, reaching a gloved hand forward to grab at the cigarette from inside the coach. "Haygarth? How far?" you ask. "We're here," Haygarth mutters. "Yes, yes, we're here." The coach pulls up to the side of an old brick tavern, the Raven's Quill. “Is he late?” you ask. "What time is he supposed to be here?" “Five-ish,” Mikhail says, opening his pocket watch. “It’s five now." "He’s late,” you say. “He said five-ish. That could be another hour, knowing Lucas,” Mikhail says. You nod, and turn to look at your companion. Mikhail is an even uglier creature. The man is 6’4, hunched up in the back seat. His muscles bulge, easily filling the extra large jacket. His nose has clearly been broken a dozen times over, his face looking similar. He looks like a shaven ogre, and although quiet, he’s been quite a sweet man despite his line of work. “He’s here,” Haygarth says. Mikhail goes through his jacket pocket, as Lucas opens the side door of the coach. He looks angelic, like a grown-up Cherub, with blond hair, rosy cheeks and a flashing smile. A woman is at his side, a little younger than you. “Brother, thank you for the lift!” Lucas says. “This is Dasha. I really think she’s a special one. Hop in, darling.” Dasha smiles nervously, getting into the car. She extends a hand to Mikhail, smiling. “Hi, I’m Dasha. pleasure to meet…” Dasha says. Mikhail grabs Dasha’s head, quickly covering her mouth with his massive hand. He pours the bottle in his hand out onto a rag, soaking it, before pressing it tightly against her face. She lets out a muffled scream before slowly beginning to stop struggling. Soon, Dasha goes still. Mikhail props her up, and Lucas climbs into the carriage. “She was a real bitch. Always saying she should stay with her friends, or tell them where she’s going, or offering to pay for a hired coach home. If someone like that gets someone like me, they should just keep their fucking mouth shut,” Lucas complains. “Clearly she shouldn’t have,” you point out. “Whatever,” Lucas says, grabbing the cigarette and fumbling through his coat pocket for some matches. “How long will that last?" you ask in reference to the chloroform. “Six hours, give or take,” Mikhail says. “How long to the castle?” Lucas asks, lighting the cigarette. “Three,” Mikhail says. “Four, yes, yes, definitely four," Haygarth says. “The roads are icy.” “Fantastic, let’s get the fuck out of here,” Lucas says. > Four Hours Later... The coach drives inside the huge gates of the huge castle, as the sky turns gold and twilight fills the world with a beautiful feeling of serenity. The coach pulls into the stables, where Haygarth immediately gets to work with the horses. Mikhail opens the coach door, putting Dasha over his shoulder and walking towards the keep. You follow him, as does Lucas, walking alongside him as Dasha stirs with a groan, but doesn't break her slumber. You walk into the keep, and quickly down to the dungeons. The large dungeon is covered with an earth floor, and four occupied cells. Four women, all of similar age and appearance to Dasha, all whose names you've forgotten, are there. Their mouths are gagged, though they scream desperately as they see you enter. Mikhail mutters a curse under his breath as he tries not to make eye contact with the women, but Lucas smiles and cheerfully waves at women. Mikhail carries Dasha to an empty cell, opening it and laying her gently on the cot inside. He locks the cell behind him, and looks at you both. "The sun is down. Should we wake him?" Mikhail asks. "Leave him. It's late. We'll wake him in an hour," Lucas says. You nod, turning and walking away from the twins. You head up the stone staircase towards the kitchen. Despite the fact that this building is around a thousand years old, it's surprisingly well furnished. Count Grey has kept the house furnished with modern technology, one of the bonuses of controlling a tiny pocket of land and resources. As long as King Carol I got his taxes, he left Count Grey do as he pleased. You open a cabinet, taking out a somewhat stale sugar cookie and biting into it. You make yourself a sandwich from cold meat, nuts and dates, and quietly consume it, while watching as the world blackens. Just as you see the first red haze on the horizon of the rising blood moon, you quickly turn and head quickly down to the Count's chambers. You hurry down the stairs, quickly heading to the lowest floor, at the center of the castle. Mikhail is already waiting in the dark room, empty except for a single, candle-adored coffin leaning against the stone wall. The coffin in intricate, a large, black wooden coffin with an intricate, thorny pattern, and a single silver, demonic face with a roaring mouth with a pair of fangs on the front. You can feel the dark feeling emanating from it. It makes you feel cold just looking at it, and you shudder at the thought of what lies inside. Nonetheless, it is your duty to awaken your master. Lucas hurries into the room,, dropping his cigarette and crushing it under his heel. He looks at both of you. "Oh good, we're all here. Let's do it, shall we?" Lucas says. "Which one of us wakes him tonight?" you say. Lucas smiles, holding up his bandaged wrist. "I did yesterday." Mikhail shows you the two-day old cut on his upper arm You draw your dagger, pressing it against your forearm and gently slicing it open. You take in a deep breath as you feel the sharp pain. Blood pours down your arm, and your press the open cut into the roaring mouth of the silver ideal, smearing it with blood. You count to three, before leaning in. "Glorious Master, the night has come and the world is yours," you whisper. You step back as the coffin door is pushed open. Inside stands the Count. Dried blood cakes the corners of his mouth, as he lets out a growl, flashing his long, curved fangs, that look sharper than a needle. His black, soulless eyes peer into yours, as you take a deep breath. You outstretch your arm, and he walks forward, grabbing you by the wrist. He brings your arm to his mouth, and begins to suck. He sucks the blood that pumps from your cut as you wince, before releasing you. Mikhail hands you a roll of bandage, which you quickly begin wrapping them around your wound. Count Grey walks away from you, strolling towards the lounge. He walks up the stone stairs, before heading to the glass window. He stares out at the darkness, and the rising red moon. "Good... good..." he says. "Prepare altar. The Viceroys will be here soon." You nod eagerly, and quickly head down to the dungeons, followed by the others. The gagged woman are in the cells, curled up and terrified. Dasha is still unconscious, which gives you pause. "The new girl, Dasha, look at her," you say. "What of her?" Lucas asks. "She's still not awake. Maybe you used too much chloroform, Mikhail," you say. "No, I used the normal amount. Maybe she had a medical condition," Mikhail says. "Who the fuck cares?" Lucas asks. "What if she's dead? We'll be one victim short? Do you want to be the sacrifice?" you say. Lucas pauses, opening the cell and walking towards her. He drops to his knee, putting a hand against her chest. "She's breathing. Just unconscious. The idiot must've used too much chloroform. She's alive, she'll do, alright?" Mikhail shrugs, slinging the girl over his shoulder. Lucas opens the two other cells, grabbing the women inside and pulling them along by their hair. The girls are shackled, so they're incapable of struggling much, but any resistance leads quickly to a punch to the side of the head. "Samuel, get the last two!" Lucas shouts. You grab the cell keys, walking over. One of the girl stares at you with rage, the other sits in the back corner in terror. You open the scared girl's cell first, grabbing her by her chain. You drag her out of the cell, before opening the second cell and grabbing the more resistant girl. "Don't fight me on this. You're not going to win this, and I don't want to hurt you," you say. You pull on the second girl's chain, but she plants her feet down and stares at you. > You hit the girl You swing your fist, smashing into the side of the girl's head, as she crumples to her knees. She lets out a pained moan through her gag, and as blood trickles down the side of her face, her eyes fill with fear. You pull on her chain again and she follows. You quickly lead the two along the hallway, before up the stairs, into the "church". You hear Count Grey's dark, cold, emotionless voice from the main hall. "Welcome, Viceroys. Did you decide to come together, or simply met on the road here?" "Coincidence, my lord," another far deeper voice booms, one more filled with malice and hatred than Count Grey's. "Good, good. Haygarth!" Count Grey shouts. "Yes, yes master?" Haygarth's voice comes back from the stables. "Come, fetch the Viceroy's coats!" "Yes, yes sir!" Haygarth says, quickly hurrying to them. You turn your attention back to the task at hand. In front of you in a large, open stone room. Groves cover the stone floor, making the shape of a large pentagram. Lucas' two prisoners are kneeling at two of the points of the pentagram chained to a loop in the stone to prevent them from moving, while Dasha lies at the third, her unconscious state meaning she doesn't need to be chained up. "Come on," you say, raising your fist to threaten the second girl. You force her to kneel on the ground and chain her to the loop in the ground. You drag the first girl to the other, doing the same. Mikhail and Lucas stand off to the side, watching them. Mikhail looks down, looking vaguely embarrassed at his part in this. Lucas, however, seems ecstatic. He walks forward, grinning as he draws his dagger. "Oh boy, look at that!" he says, dropping to his knees in front of a girl. "Look at that. You see the pentagram? You see those deep, thick groves? I'm going to fill them with your blood. You like that? You ready?" The girl frantically begins to struggle, as Lucas smiles. Lucas slices the girl's throat open, as blood pours out, flooding into the grove and running along. The girl gurgles as blood pours through her throat, and Lucas lets the head fall to the ground over the grove, letting the blood pour out into it. "Mikhail, come on, we need this ready for the Viceroys and Count Grey!" he says. "I am not a butcher," Mikhail says softly, as Lucas' eyes narrow. "Don't fucking take the high road. You drugged every whore here, knowing it was all so we'd slit there throats here. You're as much a murderer as I am." Mikhail looks to the ground, opening his mouth as if to say something, but closing it just as quickly. "That's what I thought. Samuel, grab your knife, let's get to work." > You join in You sigh, drawing your knife as Lucas smiles. "If you're going to lead to someone's death, at least have the fucking balls to be the one who uses the knife," he says. Lucas walks over to the next girl, as you walk up to one. She tries to struggle, but you grab her by the hair, holding her vulnerable throat out and slicing it open with a long cut, before slowly lowering her head to above the grove. Lucas grabs the next girl by the hair, holding her forward and quickly slashing her throat as the blood pours out. You walk to the next one, quickly driving the sword through her neck, slicing open her fleshy throat and letting her bleed into the groove. "Watch them die, Mikhail. You choose for this to happen. Whether you want to actually hold the knife or watch, you're a fucking monster. We all are. At least, we're willing to fulfill our role." "Lucas! Mikhail! Samuel! Come down here!" Count Grey asks. "Quickly!" "We need to go," Mikhail says, quickly turning and heading towards the door. You quickly hurry towards the main hall, walking down the spiraling stairs. Count Grey stands there, alongside his three Viceroys, and Haygarth rushing to put away coats. Viceroy Draven is a tall,well-muscled man. He has long, curly black hair, and instead of the black attire of the other three, he instead dons steel plated armor which covers him from the neck down. A sword hangs by his side. From what you know, he's almost five hundred years old, once being and most likely still remaining a formidable warrior. He looks at you, his eyes narrowing as he stares at you. He lets out a low, guttural growling at the sight of you. Even after years of work around Count Grey, the man manages to make you feel like little more than a blood bag. The second, Viceroy Mihrab, is even older, almost as old as Count Grey. His skin seems unusually tight, a light brown in complex, his face sunken, his eyes lacking any emotion whatsoever. He wears dark attire, his eyes glancing in your direction away for a second, before peering away with disinterest. He doesn't appear to be armed, but with the long, sharp fingernails on his hand that at that length qualify as swords as well as long fangs, he doesn't need them. The final Viceroy, Alexa, is the only woman of te group. She wears a black hooded cloak, her pale, scarred face underneath, with unnaturally long fangs even for one of her kind to halfway down towards her chin. She leans against the wall, looking at you without a single noise. She stares at you like a starved wolf. Something tells you that of all those present, she's the biggest threat. "Yes, master?" Mikhail says, standing up straight. "Werewolves spotted on Hangman's Trail," he says. "They're amassing. Perhaps for a strike." You pause, and can hear the distant howls of what lies between monsters and men. "We'll push them back, sir," Mikhail nods. Mikhail turns away, and quickly begins heading to the armory. You follow, and you all quickly descend the stairs to the armory. You walk inside, grabbing a padded leather duster and slinging it over. You grab a rifle, as well as several magazines of silver bullets, popping them in a satchel that you put over your head. Now suitably armed, you grab a lantern, walking out towards the main hall. The Vampires have left, no doubt to partake in some drinks, discuss future plans, before beginning the ritual and, imbued with a power that grows as the blood moan rises, slaughtering dozens of helpless villagers. You walk out the hall doors, pushing the door open and entering the dark night. You walk along the earth, passing the gate, which for some reason has been left open, one of the Viceroy's carriages sitting under the raised portcullis. "Should we move it so we can drop the portcullis?" you ask. "And piss off Count Grey and whoever owns this carriage? No fucking chance," Lucas says. As you leave and wander off into the trees. Soon, the only sound is the crunching of leaves under foot and your breathing. "Control your breathing. Deep breaths. Watch your foot placement as well as the path in front of you. Avoid twigs and try leaves. We're trying to hunt, best be quiet about it," Lucas says. "The man's most definitely untrustworthy and cruel, but he knows how to hunt. You take his advise, holding the lantern out to illuminate the path ahead. You see a shape move to your right, and stop, immediately twisting to aim. "Contract, left side!" you whisper. "Just a deer, stay focused!" Lucas whispers. "This is a fucking hunting trail, of course there's deer around!" You keep moving, you gun raised in your one hand, propped in the crook of your shoulder to allow you to aim. The beam of your light comes across a deer lying on the ground. It's belly has been ripped to shreds, entrails covering the earth around it and soaking it with bodily fluids. It's head, connected to its body by a few strands of sinew and muscle, lies in the grass at the edge of the path, two lifeless eyes staring towards the stars. "It's fresh, look out!" Lucas growls, as you immediately turn. You see a form rush through the undergrowth, aiming at it, but it's gone before your finger can even tighten on the trigger. A growling comes from the trees to your left, and you swing your rifle over to aim at the beast. They're faster than usual. They're not supposed to be this fast. It must be that fucking moon! A howl comes from your right, and you drop your lantern to aim, catching a glance of blood-matted fur and a flash of white teeth. The beasts don't seem to bee going for the attack, rather endlessly circling, toying with you. None of you have even had the chance to fire a shot. Suddenly you see one of them, basked in the red glow of the moon, dead in the center of the path. This one stands directly there, hunched over and staring at you, clearly not scared in the slightest. It's abnormally large, not even wearing the tattered remains of clothes, covered in patches of fur. it's head is malformed, it's jaws filled with teeth that barely fit in its mouth, crushed into somewhat of a snout. It's hungry eyes stare at you, as it lets out a low growl. > You fire You pull the trigger, as the silver bullet flies through the air. Through the grace of God, or whoever else, the bullet slams into the werewolf's head, smashing into his skull and sending bits of bone, chunks of grey matter and clumps of flesh and fur in various directions. The wolf's massive body stumbles forward, before collapsing to the ground with a thud. You hear a howl, which is immediately answered by dozens of other howls. There must be all the beasts here, stalking you through the forest, all of their power amplified by the power of the blood moon tenfold. Lucas and Mikhail also seem to notice it, immediately letting out a shout. "Run!" Mikhail shouts. You fling your lantern off to the side, setting a pile of dry leaves alight. A fire lights, as the fire quickly engulfs the leaves and grass, dry from lack of rainfall. The fire flares up, distracting the wolves for a split second. You sprint forward, desperately running through the undergrowth and bushes. You jump over a tree root, grabbing Mikhail and pulling him forward as he stumbles. You hear the roars of the werewolves close behind you. You see one sprinting to your side on all fours, it's claws and hind-legs sending it hurtling forward, galloping to your side. It stares at you, howling skyward, as you keep running. You raise the gun, firing off to the side as the werewolf leaps out of the way of the bullet. You hear wet, heavy panting, less than a foot behind you. The castle is close. barely a few hundred feet away. If you get to it, you might be able to get inside and bar the door, or drop the portcullis and keep the werewolves away. Still, you can see the golden hum of torches at the edge of your peripheral, showing the village closest to the house. > You sprint to the castle You keep sprinting forward, as Mikhail yells in pain off to your side a few seconds later. You hear him smack into the ground, and his terrified screams fill the air. You keep running, before you feel your back breaking as the werewolf's claw smashed into your hack, the knife-like claws cutting through your leather duster and slashing through your flesh. You roll to the ground with a scream, as the werewolf leaps onto you, it's weight crushing you. It's wet saliva dripping onto your face, it howls at the moon in an act of triumph, before it lunges forward, biting deep into your throat.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You pull the trigger, as the silver bullet flies through the air. Through the grace of God, or whoever else, the bullet slams into the werewolf's head, smashing into his skull and sending bits of bone, chunks of grey matter and clumps of flesh and fur in various directions. The wolf's massive body stumbles forward, before collapsing to the ground with a thud. You hear a howl, which is immediately answered by dozens of other howls. There must be all the beasts here, stalking you through the forest, all of their power amplified by the power of the blood moon tenfold. Lucas and Mikhail also seem to notice it, immediately letting out a shout. "Run!" Mikhail shouts. You fling your lantern off to the side, setting a pile of dry leaves alight. A fire lights, as the fire quickly engulfs the leaves and grass, dry from lack of rainfall. The fire flares up, distracting the wolves for a split second. You sprint forward, desperately running through the undergrowth and bushes. You jump over a tree root, grabbing Mikhail and pulling him forward as he stumbles. You hear the roars of the werewolves close behind you. You see one sprinting to your side on all fours, it's claws and hind-legs sending it hurtling forward, galloping to your side. It stares at you, howling skyward, as you keep running. You raise the gun, firing off to the side as the werewolf leaps out of the way of the bullet. You hear wet, heavy panting, less than a foot behind you. The castle is close. barely a few hundred feet away. If you get to it, you might be able to get inside and bar the door, or drop the portcullis and keep the werewolves away. Still, you can see the golden hum of torches at the edge of your peripheral, showing the village closest to the house. > You take the detour through the village "Come on, you shout," running towards the village. Your hands push tree branches out of the way as you leave the path, almost tripping as your legs catch in the undergrowth, but manage to keep going. You stumble into the village, grabbing the corner of the house to steady yourself, as the werewolves charge into the village. Thankfully, a few peasants have been caught with their doors barely barricaded. The werewolves smash through hastily nailed planks and into the huts inside to devour a feast of flesh, bone, brains and organs. You hear horrified screams as the beasts get distracted and begin to tear apart the poor souls who have been left inside. "Ah!" Mikhail screams, as one of the more focused hunters knocks him to the ground with its claw. "Shit, Mikhail! Samuel, cover me!" Lucas says, skidding to a halt to help his brother. > You help the twins You grab the bolt of your rifle, pulling it back as you twist around and firing. The gun flies back in your hand as the recoil almost knocks you back as the werewolf takes the shot to its center mass, being knocked off Mikhail and letting out a high-pitched whimper as it quickly retreats back to the safety of the shadowy trees. Lucas grabs Mikhail. pulling him up to his feet as he joins you in running. As the werewolves are distracted with their prey, you continue sprinting towards the tower. Unfortunately, you see one of the werewolves stand in the center of the village. It's larger than the others, its fur white and its eyes red. It stares at you for a second, before it lets out a powerful, booming howl. The other werewolves emerge from the buildings, blood matting their fur and dripping from their claws. The Alpha Male drops to all fours and begins sprinting away towards you, followed by the others. "Shit! Shit! Shit!" Lucas says, as you see the castle. You sprint, the only noise being your heavy panting and the thudding of boots and clawed feet on the earth. You reach the castle, sprinting through the gates and past the carriages parked there. You see the portcullis' control wheel to your left, and the heavy wooden door to the keep to your right. > You close the portcullis You grab the wheel, freeing it of its latch and stepping back as the wheel frantically spins around. the portcullis smashing into the carriage in the middle of the gate. Although the carriage's roof is smashed, it prevents the portcullis from closing completely. The werewolves arrives, bursting under the gate and into the grounds. You frantically head to the door, before a massive bundle of flesh and fur smashes into you, shattering your bones. You painfully smash into the ground, looking up to see a massive, white werewolf sitting atop your broken body. It stares down at you, it's blood red eyes filled with an animalistic hunger, devoid of any sentience beyond that of the wolf it's body has morphed to imitate. You close your eyes. Thankfully, this beast doesn't like to play with its food, and finishes you quickly.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You grab the bolt of your rifle, pulling it back as you twist around and firing. The gun flies back in your hand as the recoil almost knocks you back as the werewolf takes the shot to its center mass, being knocked off Mikhail and letting out a high-pitched whimper as it quickly retreats back to the safety of the shadowy trees. Lucas grabs Mikhail. pulling him up to his feet as he joins you in running. As the werewolves are distracted with their prey, you continue sprinting towards the tower. Unfortunately, you see one of the werewolves stand in the center of the village. It's larger than the others, its fur white and its eyes red. It stares at you for a second, before it lets out a powerful, booming howl. The other werewolves emerge from the buildings, blood matting their fur and dripping from their claws. The Alpha Male drops to all fours and begins sprinting away towards you, followed by the others. "Shit! Shit! Shit!" Lucas says, as you see the castle. You sprint, the only noise being your heavy panting and the thudding of boots and clawed feet on the earth. You reach the castle, sprinting through the gates and past the carriages parked there. You see the portcullis' control wheel to your left, and the heavy wooden door to the keep to your right. > You get inside the castle You burst towards the wooden door, unlatching it and opening it so Lucas and Mikhail can topple in. You quickly close the door behind them, seeing the eyes of one of the beasts as as it desperately stares at you with the rage of a hungry and stuck lion. You lock the door as it's weight smashes into the hard wood with enough force to splinter it. "There's not supposed to be that many! There's not that fucking many!" Lucas says. "There must be every cursed wretch under the moon's gaze," you mutter. Mikhail spits blood onto his chest. "Christ..." he groans, as Lucas chuckles. "Oh dear brother, Count Grey would tear your throat out if he heard you mutter that fucker's name here," Lucas smiles. "Samuel, help me. We need to get Mikhail to the medical bay." "Can't you handle him? I need to go warn Count Grey and the viceroys," you say. "Yes, sure," Lucas says, grabbing Mikhail and putting his arm over his shoulder. He walks towards medical bay, as you quickly hurry up the stairs to the sacrificial chambers. You walk upstairs quickly, heading through the lounge. You reach the door to the sacrificial chambers, before pausing. You can hear whispered voices inside, almost drowned out by the roars of the werewolves outside. How has Count Grey not noticed the attack? Why is he still in the sacrificial chambers? You tilt your head forward, and you think you can make out the words if you try hard enough. > You eavesdrop You press your head against the wooden door, as you hear voices on the other side. "You're nothing more than rotten curs fixed with mange!" Count Grey snarls. "Why aren't we killing yet?" Draven asks. "We could run out pitiful master through and be done with it!" "There will be thousands of Blood moons, millions of hunting nights, but there will only ever be one Count Grey. I want to... savor his death," Mihrab says. "I'll skin you alive!" Count Grey howls. "What about his servants?" Alexa asks. "The crippled hunchback is no threat, Draven can hunt him down. The others will have been wiped out by the wulven," Mihrab commands. "What ab...? Understood," Alexa says, seemingly confused. "And the wulven?" Draven asks. "They're beasts with neither honor nor reason, nothing but instinct driving them forward. They can't be trusted." "They are the most trustworthy beings in existence," Mihrab says. "I can trust that they're too stupid to think to attack us, their bellies driving them forward to feast on the villagers instead of making a move for power. I can predict they think themselves too important, even as pawns, to know we plan to hunt them down when they're mortals the next moonless night. Hell, normal mortals are infinitely less manipulative. The mixture of fear, loyalty, honor, greed and ambition that drives them makes them hard to predict, let alone manipulate successfully." "You're going to die. You're going to suffer. I'll tear out your throat and fuck your bleeding neck stump, just like I should've when you were a pathetic mortal! I'll..." Count Grey threatens. Count Grey's voice stops abruptly as you hear the slicing of flesh followed by a desperate wet gurgling. The gurgling lasts about a minute, which the vampires stay silent for. Finally, it stops. "Goodbye, dear master," Mihrab says. "Good. We're finished here. I'm going to find that miserable humpback and take his head. Perhaps I might gift his body to the peasants under my control. The children should enjoy looking at his misshapen body, poking and prodding at it." You back step as you hear Draven begin moving, but he heads to the second door of the sacrificial chambers. Mihrab's steps follow him. "I'll follow. I need to make sure the albino knows his place." "The sound of footsteps fades as the pair leave. You breath out a sigh of relief. Suddenly, you find a dagger poking into your throat. "Look what we have here," Viceroy Alexa says, as she appears from the shadows. She doesn't exactly step out of the shadows, instead the shadows manifest, forming into material as the vampire appears in front of you. You take a deep breath, staring at her. She pushes the dagger against your neck, drawing blood that gently trickles down your neck. Her forked tongue darts forward and licks the blood as it runs down your neck, before she opens her mouth wide, her fangs pricking out. She gently scrapes her teeth along your neck, her breath as cold as a corpse, causing the hairs to stand on your neck. "Look at you," she says in a half-purr, half-growl. "You outsmarted the wolves, or maybe just got lucky. Unexpected, but not surprising. How did you manage to eavesdrop?" "I... I..." you stammer, reaching slowly for your gun. Unsurprisingly, Draven was too focused on killing to notice you, but Mihrab should've noticed you. You're nothing special. I could hear your footsteps up the stairs, you leaning slightly on the door, your heavy breathing. I don't know how you didn't get noticed, let alone the girl." Your hand wraps around the gun, as you slowly raise it to point at the monster's head. "Maybe Mihrab is too old, too proud, too over-confident to expect much from humans, not thinking to even check for you as you weren't a risk. Perhaps he needs to be taken off his so new throne. I'll admit, I like you. You have... balls. Listening in on three powerful vampires, pledging yourself to old Count Grey, even trying to grab your gun when my fangs are less than an inch away from your throat..." You grab your gun, raising it as your hand goes from the trigger. With the flat of her hand, Alexa slams it into your chest, knocking you against the wall as she grabs the gun from her hands. "You're weak. Slow. Stupid. One of the qualms of being human, I suppose," Alexa says, examining your rifle. "Uh, how I miss being able to eat some warm bread, drink myself stupid on cheap beer and feel the warmth of the sun on my face. Thankfully, I'm still able to enjoy some other... base pleasures. I'm so close to slicing your vein open and feasting on your delicious blood..." "Fuck you. Why don't you just kill me?" you spit. "Kill you? Why would I do that? You'll either fail and be killed, in which case why would I expend energy to kill you, or you'll succeed, and kill Draven and Mihrab, both of who will underestimate how dangerous you'll be, in which case they needed to die. If you do happen to kill them, please, come find me. I'm sure I'd like to talk to you at that point." Alexa steps back, smiling at you. She tosses the gun to the ground, where it clatters across the stone floor. She swirls around, walking away from you. She bursts forward, quickly speeding off. You let out a sigh of relief, grabbing your gun and picking it up. Fucking hell. You have three vampires and a pack of werewolves to deal with. Could things get...? Actually, you'll refrain from tempting fate. > You search the Sacrificial Chambers You walk into the sacrificial chambers. You walk over to Count Grey, who has a deep wound going through his chest and lies on the ground. You step over the blood-filled grooves of the floor, walking over to him. You drop to a knee, checking his pulse, before mentally hitting yourself for being so stupid. He's undead. You pull back his eyelids, revealing dull, lifeless black eyes. You quickly pat him down, finding only a curved ebony dagger and some Leu on him, which you take. You gently pat his cold head as a matter of respect, or perhaps more likely to comfort yourself. The terrifying menace who has controlled the region for over a thousand years is dead. He was your master, your mentor and your liege. "Good fucking riddance. He was a cold, sociopathic cunt," you say aloud, a part of you still terrified to say it, somehow expecting him to wake up and tear out your throat. You stand, looking around. There's the doorway to the lower floors, where you,,, A girl charges out from your blind side, holding up a dagger. > You shoot your gun You quickly raise your gun, firing it. The gun bucks in your hands as the bullet tears through the air forward, blowing out the girl's heart. She collapses onto the ground, her head smacking into the cold stone and falling into the groove. You stare at her face, recognizing Dasha, the sacrificial victim you kidnapped from earlier. Huh, she had survived. Must've gotten free of the chains. Did you even chain her up, or did you just leave her unconscious? Huh, doesn't matter. She's dead now. > You keep searching the room You keep looking through the room, finding several vials of blood sitting on a table off to the side. You open one of the table's drawers, before suddenly the door bursts open. Standing there, clad in armor with long, wild flowing black hair and a face contorted by rage and anger. "Yes! I thought I heard a gunshot! I was hoping for the cripple, but a ghoul will do!" he snarls, approaching. The vampire charges forward with remarkable speed. You raise your gun quickly, firing. The bullet thuds into Draven's chest, but it fails to even slightly slow him down. He swings the sword, slicing through your muscle and sinew and separating your head from your body. His lips immediately wrap around your gaping neck hole as he drains you of your blood, your head falling to the ground.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You quickly raise your gun, firing it. The gun bucks in your hands as the bullet tears through the air forward, blowing out the girl's heart. She collapses onto the ground, her head smacking into the cold stone and falling into the groove. You stare at her face, recognizing Dasha, the sacrificial victim you kidnapped from earlier. Huh, she had survived. Must've gotten free of the chains. Did you even chain her up, or did you just leave her unconscious? Huh, doesn't matter. She's dead now. > You head to the lower floors You walk towards the door to the lower floors, unclicking the latch. Before you can pull it open, something slams into it, sending you flying across the ground and onto your ass with a painful thud. Standing there, clad in armor with long, wild flowing black hair and a face contorted by rage and anger. "Yes! I thought I heard a gunshot! I was hoping for the cripple, but a ghoul will do!" he snarls, approaching. The vampire charges forward with remarkable speed. You raise your gun quickly, firing. The bullet thuds into Draven's chest, but it fails to even slightly slow him down. He swings the sword as he leaps upon you, slicing through your muscle and sinew and separating your head from your body. His lips immediately wrap around your gaping neck hole as he drains you of your blood, your head rolling to the ground.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You walk into the sacrificial chambers. You walk over to Count Grey, who has a deep wound going through his chest and lies on the ground. You step over the blood-filled grooves of the floor, walking over to him. You drop to a knee, checking his pulse, before mentally hitting yourself for being so stupid. He's undead. You pull back his eyelids, revealing dull, lifeless black eyes. You quickly pat him down, finding only a curved ebony dagger and some Leu on him, which you take. You gently pat his cold head as a matter of respect, or perhaps more likely to comfort yourself. The terrifying menace who has controlled the region for over a thousand years is dead. He was your master, your mentor and your liege. "Good fucking riddance. He was a cold, sociopathic cunt," you say aloud, a part of you still terrified to say it, somehow expecting him to wake up and tear out your throat. You stand, looking around. There's the doorway to the lower floors, where you,,, A girl charges out from your blind side, holding up a dagger. > You strike her with the butt of your gun You swing the butt of your gun, cracking into the side of her face and knocking her to the ground with a grunt. The knife goes clattering, and you dart forward, grabbing the knife and raising your rifle to point at her. "Who the fuck are you?" The girl stares at you with anger, blood running down her face from the newly opened cut on her forehead. You recognize her as Dasha, the sacrificial victim from earlier. Huh, apparently she survived. Interesting. "Hands in the air!" you say, pointing the gun at her head. She slowly raises her hands, spitting blood and a tooth on the ground. Apparently, you swung harder than you thought. "Fuck you!" she says. "You need to listen to me," you say. The girl swings at your head, but you catch her fist. She spits in your face, which you wince at. > You headbutt her You swing your head forward, your forehead smashing into the bridge of her nose and knocking her head back as she yells in pain. "Listen!" you say loudly, losing your patience. "Did you see those fucking vampires!?" The girl stares at you, still defiant, but quiet. "If we want to get out of this, we need to work together. I don't care how much you hate me for doing what I did to you, but we need to." "You work for the vampires," she says. "I work for that one," you say, nodding towards Count Grey. "The others killed him, and now they want to kill me... and you. We're on the same side here, understood?" The girl pauses, before slowly nodding. "If I let you up, you won't try anything?" you ask. "Give me my knife," she replies. "I can't trust you," you say. "I can't trust you either," she says. You sigh, before handing the knife back. She grabs it from your, staring at her reflection in the blade for a brief moment, looking as if contemplating attacks, before looking at you. "What's the plan?" she asks. "I don't know. We need to... Haygarth," you say. "We need to find him. He should be in the stables. He knows this place better than anyone. He'll have keys, know secret tunnels, know everything." "Let's go, then," Dasha says. > You head to the stables You walk along the hallways towards the stable, your gun clenched tightly in your hands. You consider pushing Dasha ahead of you so anything that attacks has to cut through her first, but that's not the right thing to do. It's better to keep her behind you, in case a creature attacks from behind, and you can fight off whoever attacks from the front with your rifle. You walk past the rows of unlit torches that cover the walls, wishing they were lit. You aim your gun ahead, sweeping the barrel to check the corners for any hidden beasts that could be hidden away there. "We need to hurry up, h.." Dasha says. Suddenly, one of the windows several meters above you shatters as the upper half of a body smashes through it. It hits the wall with a wet thud, collapsing to the ground. Dasha screams as you desperately back pedal to avoid it. "Fuck me!" you say. "The villagers must be having a bad night." "Oh god," Dasha says. You hear a terrified scream outside. It sounds female, and young. Very young. "Help! Help! Mama!" a voice screams from outside. "We need to help her!" Dasha says, a look of panic flooding through her. "Do you want to fight the Wulven?" you ask. "I'm not." You try to appear tough as Dasha stares you down, before looking away. You hear a high-pitched scream, before the crunching of bone and flesh. "It's done. Let's go," you say. "The village is down the road! Why the fuck would they bring the villagers here to kill them?" Dasha says. "Break our morale, or act as bait, maybe. They're intelligent, for abominable beasts. Now, let's move on." You continue walking forward, reaching a wooden door. You press up against it, waiting. "Here it it." "This is the door to the stables," you whisper. "You ready?" "Ready. I'll follow your lead." > You head in You take a deep breath, bashing open the door with your shoulder, raising your rifle. Draven stands there, a sword in his hands and a grin on his face as he stands over a heavily injured Haygarth, who has been stripped naked and is covered in bruising and cuts. "Don't you know how, freak? I said do it!" Draven shouts. He swings his blade and smacks Haygarth in the side of the head with the flat of his blade, knocking Haygarth to the floor. "Dance!" Draven laughs, before his eyes flicker to you. "Look who it is! One of Grey's ghouls and... I've no fucking idea who you are, but you look like a bleeder!" Haygarth lets out a terrified yell as you aim your rifle, as Draven lets out a roar, sprinting towards you with insane speed, even faster than you've seen Count Grey sprint. > You shoot Draven You fire your rifle, the bullet slamming into Draven, although even with all the stopping power that causes the gun to buck violently in your hands, but Draven doesn't even slow down. You grab the rifle to pull back and release the shell, before Draven's upon you. He thrusts his sword forward, running it through your chest. Your heart is destroyed as you yell in pain, before his head darts forward and his fangs sink into your neck.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You take a deep breath, bashing open the door with your shoulder, raising your rifle. Draven stands there, a sword in his hands and a grin on his face as he stands over a heavily injured Haygarth, who has been stripped naked and is covered in bruising and cuts. "Don't you know how, freak? I said do it!" Draven shouts. He swings his blade and smacks Haygarth in the side of the head with the flat of his blade, knocking Haygarth to the floor. "Dance!" Draven laughs, before his eyes flicker to you. "Look who it is! One of Grey's ghouls and... I've no fucking idea who you are, but you look like a bleeder!" Haygarth lets out a terrified yell as you aim your rifle, as Draven lets out a roar, sprinting towards you with insane speed, even faster than you've seen Count Grey sprint. > You roll out of the way You dive out of the way, as Draven flies just past you, swinging his sword. His sword slices into the back of your neck, not enough to seriously wound but enough to hurt like a bitch. He slams into the door behind you, grunting as he spins around. He wipes the blood from his broken nose as he stares at the two of you, before letting out a horrible laugh. "Got too excited there, didn't I? Ha!" he smiles, twirling the sword around in his hands. You look around desperately, for something, ANYTHING in the room to help you out. Dasha is just as in the cross-hairs as you are, and seems terrified. Haygarth is hiding behind a counter, unfocused and not thinking. Most of the horses are dead, having had their heads cleaved clean off. Still, there's three or four in the farther stables. There's two large, oil-filled lamps illuminating the hallways that could be used. Fire has a history of being effective with monsters. Finally, there's the old full lead solution. If you just duck, weave and fill the air with as much lead, or in this case silver, as possible to take out the vampire bastard, although silver bullets are more of a werewolf-killer. > You get to the horses You sprint towards the horses, your rifle held tightly in your hands as you run towards them. Draven charges ahead with a howl, kicking your leg away as you collapse onto the ground, laughing. "Look at you try to run! Where are you trying to run to, little one?" he asks, before his eyes flicker to Dasha who goes for the door. Draven runs ahead with an animalistic howl, slamming her into the door. He presses the sword to her throat, before throwing into the air and catching it once more. "Ohh... this is everything! Savor the hunt!" he says. "Go! Try escape again! Or are you in a fighting mood?" > You try for the horses again You sprint towards the horses once more, as Draven pauses, raising an eyebrow as he strolls after you. You reach the horses, as Draven walks towards you. You unclasp the gate as the horses stand there. "What... what was your plan?" he asks, looking genuinely confused. "Were you hoping to have the horses stampede me? Were you planning on riding one to safety?" Draven twirls his sword, running it through you. You grunt in pain, blood dripping out your mouth as you collapse to your knees. "I've had my fun. Goodnight, ghoul," he says. You collapse forward onto your stomach, running the sword even further into you.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You sprint towards the horses, your rifle held tightly in your hands as you run towards them. Draven charges ahead with a howl, kicking your leg away as you collapse onto the ground, laughing. "Look at you try to run! Where are you trying to run to, little one?" he asks, before his eyes flicker to Dasha who goes for the door. Draven runs ahead with an animalistic howl, slamming her into the door. He presses the sword to her throat, before throwing into the air and catching it once more. "Ohh... this is everything! Savor the hunt!" he says. "Go! Try escape again! Or are you in a fighting mood?" > You try for the lamp You run towards the lamp, as Draven smiles. "Running for the door now, are we?" he asks, mistaking your attempt to grab the lamp as an attempt to flee. Draven yells and charges forward. He swings his sword as you run for the lamp, and the next thing you know, you feel the cold bite of steel on your neck. Your head flies through the air, and your body collapses to the straw-covered floor.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You sprint towards the horses, your rifle held tightly in your hands as you run towards them. Draven charges ahead with a howl, kicking your leg away as you collapse onto the ground, laughing. "Look at you try to run! Where are you trying to run to, little one?" he asks, before his eyes flicker to Dasha who goes for the door. Draven runs ahead with an animalistic howl, slamming her into the door. He presses the sword to her throat, before throwing into the air and catching it once more. "Ohh... this is everything! Savor the hunt!" he says. "Go! Try escape again! Or are you in a fighting mood?" > You fire! You raise your gun and fire. Draven takes a shot to the shoulder, before side-stepping your next. He doesn't even attempt to charge, just grins. You keep firing, as he dodges the bullets with unnatural ease, even the lucky shots not even throwing him, and they only manage to graze or hit his central mass, which fails to even knock him back. You aim your rifle at Draven's head, as he gently taps his finger against it. "Come on, boy!" he says, laughing. "Take the shot! I'm enjoying this! I won't even move this time!" You peer down the sights, taking a deep breath, and you pull the trigger. It's empty. "Can't even c...?" Draven laughs, before grunting. Draven steps forward, before collapsing onto his stomach. A knife is imbedded in the back of his heart, directly where his heart it. He groans, spluttering blood, before lying still. Dasha stands behind him, a fierce look on her face. "They die easier than they did in my childhood nightmares," she says. "What now?" > You talk to Haygarth “Haygarth, what happened?” “He came for my head! Yelled at me and made me dance and work for him, the little cunt!” Haygarth says. “We need to get out of here. There…” “Is… is Count Grey truly dead?” “Yes,” you reply. “I never thought I’d see the day,” Haygarth says. “And the rest of what the vampire knight said was true? Vampires and werewolves have taken the castle?” “The area’s fucked, werewolves had surrounded the castle, the there’s still two other incredibly hostile vampires here.” “Where is Masters Lucas and Mikhail?” “They’re in the medical bay. We don’t need to think about them. We need to think about escape. They’re fine.” “Haygarth, is it? Dasha asks. “ “Yes,” Haygarth says, frowning. “You’re one of the sacrifices.” “I have a name. It’s Dasha.” “So be it,” Haygarth says. “Are there any secret passages that could get us out of here?” Dasha asks. “No, we wouldn’t have anything like that. The main gate’s the only way out, unless you’re willing to dive off the wall and pray your legs are all that ends up broken. Count Grey has become too paranoid, always thinking a Vampire Hunter would find there way in.” "So what can we do?" you ask. "The coach," Haygarth says. "We need to get out of here. We board it up heavily, and just make a run for it." "It's suicide!" you say. "Is it the only option?" Dasha asks. "Yes," Haygarth says. "There's werewolves out there! They'll easily wipe us out," you say. "We need to leave soon, before the werewolves find a way inside or the other two vampires find us. Are you willing to come?" Haygarth asks. > You agree "Fine. I'm in." "You must go find Mikhail and Lucas in the medical bay." "Do you expect him to traverse this castle, no doubt being found out by the vampires, whilst we're forced to wait here?" Dasha asks. "We need to go." > You leave without them "We need to go, now. They're probably already dead," you say. "Yes, sir," Haygarth says. "We must prepare the coach." Over the next few minutes, you board up whatever scrap wood you can over the carriage windows. Soon, you have what amounts to a massive, armored wooden box. "You can fire out the slits, to protect the horses. Hopefully, they'll be fast enough to escape the beasts' claws." Dasha climbs into the coach as Haygarth positions the reigns through the coach itself, so that he can control the horses without exposing himself. "Make as much noise as possible, to draw the werewolf's attention to us instead of the horses," Haygarth says, as he climbs in the coach. "Now, open the stable doors." You take a deep breath, unlatching the stable doors. You give them a hefty push open, as Haygarth yells at the horses to go. You run forward, grabbing onto the back of the coach and pulling yourself inside as Haygarth grabs the door and slams it shut behind you. You raise your rifle, pressing it to a firing shot and looking outside. The wolves are outside, as they prowl about the walls and the courtyard like a bad rabble, fighting over the bodies, both dead and living, of peasants, as well as searching for a way in. The big, albino one notices you, and lets out a loud, powerful howl, and the wolves charge. > You target the albino You aim your rifle, firing at the albino. The bullets slam into the albino as it roars in pain, before the nearing werewolves slam into your coach. Their massive, muscled frames slam through the wooden coach, knocking you against the other coach. A claw comes through the wall, grabbing you and tossing you against the ground, shattering your bones. You let out a pained scream, before the wolves are upon you, eagerly tearing you apart.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"We need to go, now. They're probably already dead," you say. "Yes, sir," Haygarth says. "We must prepare the coach." Over the next few minutes, you board up whatever scrap wood you can over the carriage windows. Soon, you have what amounts to a massive, armored wooden box. "You can fire out the slits, to protect the horses. Hopefully, they'll be fast enough to escape the beasts' claws." Dasha climbs into the coach as Haygarth positions the reigns through the coach itself, so that he can control the horses without exposing himself. "Make as much noise as possible, to draw the werewolf's attention to us instead of the horses," Haygarth says, as he climbs in the coach. "Now, open the stable doors." You take a deep breath, unlatching the stable doors. You give them a hefty push open, as Haygarth yells at the horses to go. You run forward, grabbing onto the back of the coach and pulling yourself inside as Haygarth grabs the door and slams it shut behind you. You raise your rifle, pressing it to a firing shot and looking outside. The wolves are outside, as they prowl about the walls and the courtyard like a bad rabble, fighting over the bodies, both dead and living, of peasants, as well as searching for a way in. The big, albino one notices you, and lets out a loud, powerful howl, and the wolves charge. > You target the nearing werewolves You target the nearing werewolves, firing bullet after bullet. The silver bullets slam into the beasts as they howl, many collapsing and falling away. You keep them away from the coach, but not the horses. As you just make it past the castle gates and smashing past the viceroy's coach, the werewolves tear the horses apart as they neigh and whiny in terror as they're devoured by the eager wolves. You coach quickly slows down, slamming into a tree and stopping suddenly. "Shit!" Dasha yells. Shit. You need to act. > You get out and run towards the nearest village "Run!" you yell, kicking open the carriage door and leaping outside into the forest. You sprint forward, as the werewolves reach the carriage. You hear Haygarth, simply too slow to flee, scream in pain. You keep running, before you feel your back breaking as the werewolf's claw smashed into your hack, the knife-like claws cutting through your leather duster and slashing through your flesh. You roll to the ground with a scream, as the werewolf leaps onto you, it's weight crushing you. It's wet saliva dripping onto your face, it howls at the moon in an act of triumph, before it lunges forward, biting deep into your throat.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You target the nearing werewolves, firing bullet after bullet. The silver bullets slam into the beasts as they howl, many collapsing and falling away. You keep them away from the coach, but not the horses. As you just make it past the castle gates and smashing past the viceroy's coach, the werewolves tear the horses apart as they neigh and whiny in terror as they're devoured by the eager wolves. You coach quickly slows down, slamming into a tree and stopping suddenly. "Shit!" Dasha yells. Shit. You need to act. > You defend the coach You aim your rifle, firing repeatedly. You fire at the werewolves from the slit, bullets slamming into the fur-covered beasts. A claw slams into the coach, breaking through the side, its claws slashing at the air as you back step to avoid it. A claw tears a massive panel of wood off the side of the coach and you shove the barrel through the firing slit, firing at the creature's black, beady eyes. A claw smashes through the coach, grabbing you as it tears you from the coach, gripping you tightly. You're held in the air staring into the black eyes of the Alpha Werewolf, as it growls. The gun flies from your hands as you desperately reach for it, before the claw tightens, crushing your limbs. The werewolf's huge, tooth-filled jaws fly forward, its teeth grabbing into your throat and tearing it out, before it flings your bleeding body into a tree, killing you instantly.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Fine. I'm in." "You must go find Mikhail and Lucas in the medical bay." "Do you expect him to traverse this castle, no doubt being found out by the vampires, whilst we're forced to wait here?" Dasha asks. "We need to go." > You go find the Twins "I'll find Lucas. You two stay here and prepare the coach, understood?" you say. "Yes, sir," Haygarth says, as Dasha nods. You turn, opening the doorway to the stables and entering the hallway. You take a breath, holding your rifle, and walking slowly along the hallways. You step slowly forward, looking along the dark, shadowy corridor. You feel a breath of cold air on your deck, quickly spinning to aim your rifle, only to find yourself staring at a shadow-filled corner. You turn, walking ahead again. You keep walking forward, as the figures in the paintings along the wall stare down at you, their eyes seemingly following you. You see a figure, writhed in a black cloak and shadows, leaning in an alcove. You quickly raise your gun and fire, but your bullet only slams into the stone alcove. You swear, grabbing the bolt and pulling it back. Suddenly, a gloved hand grabs you by the shoulder as a pair of sharp fangs prick into your neck, gently pressing into your neck. You pause, as their hand moves forward and grabs your rifle, which you allow them to take. The fangs pull away, breathing freezing cold air on the back of your neck. "Still here, huh?" Alexa asks. "I thought you were trying to escape, or at least kill Mihrab. From where you're going, it doesn't seem likely." "I'm getting my friends and getting out of here." "Optimistic," she says. "If you're not going to kill Mihrab for me, I might as well kill you," she says. You flinch and yelp as her lips close around your lips, before she laughs. "Ha! I like you, ghoul. You're going to die tonight, that's for sure, but I won't be the one killing you. Mihrab's busy, you can speed up a bit." She releases you, dropping the gun on the ground. You grab it quickly, stepping forward and spinning around to aim, only to be faced with shadows once more. "Fuck," you say. You turn, rushing along the halls. You open the door, pulling it open and walking inside the next room, the lounge. You quickly pass through, heading into the medical bay. He door is locked, so you quickly knock on it. You hear the door click unlocked as the door swings open, and someone grabs your arm, throwing you inside and onto the floor. You roll over as you stare at the barrel of a gun, looking up as Lucas aims his rifle at you. "Shit, what happened you?" Lucas asks, grabbing you by the hand and pulling you to your feet. "Count Grey is dead. The Viceroys betrayed him," you say. "Yeah, I suspected as much," Lucas admits. "We need to get the hell out of here. We have to find Haygarth." "He's in the stables with the girl. We're preparing the coach to escape. "The girl?" Lucas asks, frowning in confusion. "One of the girls we were going to sacrifice," you say. "Why didn't you kill her?" Lucas asks. "We need all the help we can get," you reply. "Fine," Lucas says. "Help me shift Mikhail." You look behind him, where Mikhail lies, heavily bandaged, in the medical bay's bed. He's unconscious, but moves his head slightly and groans upon hearing his name. You walk over, slinging your rifle over your back and grabbing Mikhail's left arm. You pull him up, as Lucas grabs his other arm, supporting him as he stands. "What is going on?" Mikhail mumbles. "We're getting out of here." "Let me stand, I can walk," Mikhail says, gently pushing at you. > You let him walk You let go of your grips on Lucas, as he immediately collapses face first on the ground. "Idiot," Lucas sighs, as you both lean over, grabbing him again. You continue walking, heading into the lounge, as Lucas pauses. "Put him down for a second," he says. He walks over to the lounge's bar, and begins grabbing several bottles, several boxes of matches, an oil lamp and more. He works for about a minute, before ending with with four bottles of oil and alcohol on the table topped with rags "What the fuck are those?" you ask. "Bombs. Light the rag, toss it, burn the monster," Lucas says. "Take two." You grab two, sliding into your leather duster's pockets, before grabbing a box of matches. "Alright, let's continue." You keep half-dragging, half-walking Mikhail towards the stables, before you finally arrive. You kick open the doors, as you all stumble inside, closing and locking the door behind you. "You're here. Good," Haygarth says. "We're ready to go." > You help Mikhail into the coach You help Mikhail clamber up into the coach, before turning to Haygarth. "You can fire out the slits, to protect the horses. Hopefully, they'll be fast enough to escape the beasts' claws." Dasha climbs into the coach as Haygarth positions the reigns through the coach itself, so that he can control the horses without exposing himself. "Make as much noise as possible, to draw the werewolf's attention to us instead of the horses," Haygarth says, as he climbs in the coach, followed by Lucas. "Now, open the stable doors." You take a deep breath, unlatching the stable doors. You give them a hefty push open, as Haygarth yells at the horses to go. You run forward, grabbing onto the back of the coach and pulling yourself inside as Lucas grabs the door and slams it shut behind you. You raise your rifle, pressing it to a firing shot and looking outside. The wolves are outside, as they prowl about the walls and the courtyard like a bad rabble, fighting over the bodies, both dead and living, of peasants, as well as searching for a way in. The big, albino one notices you, and lets out a loud, powerful howl, and the wolves charge.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"I'll find Lucas. You two stay here and prepare the coach, understood?" you say. "Yes, sir," Haygarth says, as Dasha nods. You turn, opening the doorway to the stables and entering the hallway. You take a breath, holding your rifle, and walking slowly along the hallways. You step slowly forward, looking along the dark, shadowy corridor. You feel a breath of cold air on your deck, quickly spinning to aim your rifle, only to find yourself staring at a shadow-filled corner. You turn, walking ahead again. You keep walking forward, as the figures in the paintings along the wall stare down at you, their eyes seemingly following you. You see a figure, writhed in a black cloak and shadows, leaning in an alcove. You quickly raise your gun and fire, but your bullet only slams into the stone alcove. You swear, grabbing the bolt and pulling it back. Suddenly, a gloved hand grabs you by the shoulder as a pair of sharp fangs prick into your neck, gently pressing into your neck. You pause, as their hand moves forward and grabs your rifle, which you allow them to take. The fangs pull away, breathing freezing cold air on the back of your neck. "Still here, huh?" Alexa asks. "I thought you were trying to escape, or at least kill Mihrab. From where you're going, it doesn't seem likely." "I'm getting my friends and getting out of here." "Optimistic," she says. "If you're not going to kill Mihrab for me, I might as well kill you," she says. You flinch and yelp as her lips close around your lips, before she laughs. "Ha! I like you, ghoul. You're going to die tonight, that's for sure, but I won't be the one killing you. Mihrab's busy, you can speed up a bit." She releases you, dropping the gun on the ground. You grab it quickly, stepping forward and spinning around to aim, only to be faced with shadows once more. "Fuck," you say. You turn, rushing along the halls. You open the door, pulling it open and walking inside the next room, the lounge. You quickly pass through, heading into the medical bay. He door is locked, so you quickly knock on it. You hear the door click unlocked as the door swings open, and someone grabs your arm, throwing you inside and onto the floor. You roll over as you stare at the barrel of a gun, looking up as Lucas aims his rifle at you. "Shit, what happened you?" Lucas asks, grabbing you by the hand and pulling you to your feet. "Count Grey is dead. The Viceroys betrayed him," you say. "Yeah, I suspected as much," Lucas admits. "We need to get the hell out of here. We have to find Haygarth." "He's in the stables with the girl. We're preparing the coach to escape. "The girl?" Lucas asks, frowning in confusion. "One of the girls we were going to sacrifice," you say. "Why didn't you kill her?" Lucas asks. "We need all the help we can get," you reply. "Fine," Lucas says. "Help me shift Mikhail." You look behind him, where Mikhail lies, heavily bandaged, in the medical bay's bed. He's unconscious, but moves his head slightly and groans upon hearing his name. You walk over, slinging your rifle over your back and grabbing Mikhail's left arm. You pull him up, as Lucas grabs his other arm, supporting him as he stands. "What is going on?" Mikhail mumbles. "We're getting out of here." "Let me stand, I can walk," Mikhail says, gently pushing at you. > You continue carrying him "No, brother, you can't walk," Lucas smiles, continuing walking. You continue walking, heading into the lounge, as Lucas pauses. "Put him down for a second," he says. He walks over to the lounge's bar, and begins grabbing several bottles, several boxes of matches, an oil lamp and more. He works for about a minute, before ending with with four bottles of oil and alcohol on the table topped with rags "What the fuck are those?" you ask. "Bombs. Light the rag, toss it, burn the monster," Lucas says. "Take two." You grab two, sliding into your leather duster's pockets, before grabbing a box of matches. "Alright, let's continue." You keep half-dragging, half-walking Mikhail towards the stables, before you finally arrive. You kick open the doors, as you all stumble inside, closing and locking the door behind you. "You're here. Good," Haygarth says. "We're ready to go."<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>“Haygarth, what happened?” “He came for my head! Yelled at me and made me dance and work for him, the little cunt!” Haygarth says. “We need to get out of here. There…” “Is… is Count Grey truly dead?” “Yes,” you reply. “I never thought I’d see the day,” Haygarth says. “And the rest of what the vampire knight said was true? Vampires and werewolves have taken the castle?” “The area’s fucked, werewolves had surrounded the castle, the there’s still two other incredibly hostile vampires here.” “Where is Masters Lucas and Mikhail?” “They’re in the medical bay. We don’t need to think about them. We need to think about escape. They’re fine.” “Haygarth, is it? Dasha asks. “ “Yes,” Haygarth says, frowning. “You’re one of the sacrifices.” “I have a name. It’s Dasha.” “So be it,” Haygarth says. “Are there any secret passages that could get us out of here?” Dasha asks. “No, we wouldn’t have anything like that. The main gate’s the only way out, unless you’re willing to dive off the wall and pray your legs are all that ends up broken. Count Grey has become too paranoid, always thinking a Vampire Hunter would find there way in.” "So what can we do?" you ask. "The coach," Haygarth says. "We need to get out of here. We board it up heavily, and just make a run for it." "It's suicide!" you say. "Is it the only option?" Dasha asks. "Yes," Haygarth says. "There's werewolves out there! They'll easily wipe us out," you say. "We need to leave soon, before the werewolves find a way inside or the other two vampires find us. Are you willing to come?" Haygarth asks. > You refuse "I'm not going!" you say. "So be it," Haygarth says. "If you're not leaving the castle, we need your help." "What?" you ask. "You need to ring the castle's alarm bell at the North-East tower. If you can ring that, you can distract the werewolves and draw them towards the North-Eastern area, so we have a chance." "Fuck, fine. I'll get it done," you say. "Thank you, thank you!" Haygarth says. "I must find the Twins, if they're still alive. I'll be sure to be back before you can make the journey to the bell." "Fan-fucking-tastic," you say. "Best of luck, Haygarth. I hope we meet on the other side." "Same to you, Samuel." You turn, walking away from the room. You enter the hallways again, and move quickly. You can hear the roars of the beasts outside, and you wince as you hear the scraping of sharp claws on the stones outside. You take a deep breath of air, trying not to let terror cloud your judgment. Suddenly, you pause. You see the massive, wretched body of a werewolf slowly move forward through the hallway, heading perpendicular to you. Tufts of black fur cover its body, as its deformed snout looks like a pale imitation of a true wolf's, this one looking like a poor soul has had her face bashed in to create the appearance of one. It creeps along the hallways, sniffing the air. You step back slowly, taking a sharp breath. You shouldn't be surprised that they've got in. The doors are thick, reinforced with steel and silver alike, but the werewolves were bound to get in some time. Not if the portcullis had been closed, but once they entered the courtyard, they were bound to get in. The beast shakes its head violently as if spasming, before sniffing the air once more. It lets out a growl, and you know it's caught your scent. There's a rotten chifferobe to your side that you could foreseeably hide in. There's also the silver-loaded gun in your hands, if you want to take it more bluntly, as well as the silver dagger you have hidden in your boot. for a quiet tactic. > You hide You grab the chifferobe, opening it and stepping inside. You close the door, quieting your breathing as you wait. You hear the loud, clawed footsteps of the beast towards you, as you wait patiently for it to pass by. This is a beast, lacking all the stealth of the true wolf, or even its stronger Wulven kin. Still, it has the nose of one, which soon becomes apparent as its wet sniffling leans to it pausing outside your room. You wait slowly, holding your breath, for the wolf to pass. It doesn't seem to know you're there... yet. > You strike You smash open the door, smacking the wooden door and hitting the werewolf in the head. You grab the werewolf. You stab the werewolf in the throat as you knock its snouth upwards, impaling its jaw. Blood spurts out, running down its jaw as the werewolf lets out a pitiful whimper, before collapsing on the ground. Well, you dispatched it. Quietly, as well. Not bad. Time to continue, though. > You continue to the North-East corner You continue moving along the hallways, but thankfully wherever the werewolf's entry point is, it's not close enough to you to have an issue. You don't know where Alexa or Mihrab are, but they're not here, so that's enough. Soon, you find yourself climbing the tight, spiraling staircase towards the bell tower. You push open the wooden door once you reach the top, and find yourself faced with a massive, cast iron bell. You look out at the courtyard from the lookout of the bell tower at the dozens of fur-covered beasts scattered around the area. Shit, there's more than you thought. You take a deep breath, leaning your head against the bell, taking a deep breath. The walk was fairly long, and the werewolf took some of your time. If Haygarth's still alive, he's back at the coach. You grab the bell pull, before pulling it down as hard as you can. The bell clangs loudly as you put your hand over your ears. The werewolves began to panic and howl, instantly growing frantic and charging towards the doors of the castle. You wait a moment, staring out at the courtyard, before you see the coach burst free from the castle and smashing towards the gates. The Coach smashes the Viceroy's coach out of the way, as it flies on past the trees towards the nearby village. Well, they've escaped. Lucky bastards. You turn, and begin walking down the stairs, before seeing the tanned skin and black cloak of Viceroy Mihrab. "You're still alive, are you?" he asks. "I had thought one of the stupider werewolves had gotten inside and smacked its head into the bell by accident. It's an interesting choice to ring it for whatever reason you have." Mihrab walks slowly towards you, as you back up, slipping on the staircase. You quickly crawl your way up the stairs and get to the bell once more, looking down as he approaches you slowly with cool indifference. "You've taken me away from my work. At least you'll provide a refreshing meal." You hold your rifle out, aiming. You look over the edge of the bell tower. You could jump, bouncing off one of the tiled roofs and into the courtyard. The werewolves are inside, so you might be able to escape. Your other, as shitty option, is fighting. > You jump You sigh, looking out at the tiled roof. A long drop to that and then into the courtyard, then you can leg it out of there. If the first fall doesn't break your bones. Or the werewolves here you and tear you apart. You climb over the bell tower wall, and jump. There's a brief second of the air rushing as your fall, adrenaline rushing into you. Then, you hit the tiled roof. Pain surges through your as you yell in pain. Unfortunately, you don't smack into it and roll off into the courtyard. Instead, you just go straight through the tiled roof. You smash through, into the room beneath you. The world goes dark and hazy, as you lie there atop the broken tiles in desperate pain. You groan, taking a deep breath. You need to get moving. Otherwise, the werewolves will find you, if not Mihrab. You grab the side of the table, slowly pulling yourself up. You put weight on your legs, and grunt in pain. It hurts like a bitch, but they're not broken. You're able to walk. You stand, taking a deep breath, and stumble forward. You're not going to be able fight Mihrab like this, and you highly doubt your chances of being able to leg it back to the nearest village. You need to think. You could head to the castle armory. There's a large amount of explosives there, as well as other fun and interesting weapons that could be turned to wiping out the werewolves and killing Mihrab as well. You could head to Count Grey's personal chambers. Knowing how paranoid and prepared he was, you have no doubt that the place is insanely secured and prepared for a situation like this. It's too late for him to use it, but you still might. There's also the chance of negotiation. You could talk to Mihrab, and attempt to convince him to spare you. Through offering up Count Grey's secrets and perhaps even offering your services in the future, he can be convinced to spare you, and even have you join him. If you're feeling courageous, you could attempt to negotiate with the werewolves. Whilst they're beasts, they still do have human souls and consciousnesses. They can probably negotiate. If you find the Alpha, you can most likely negotiate with it. > You head to the armory You grab your gun from the broken tiles, and stumble forward. You hear a howl resonate down the halls. You sigh as you realize they're getting louder. You luck at a nearby door along the hallway, before looking at the gun in your hands. > You fight You raise your gun and take a deep breath, before you see the werewolf coming towards you. Unlike the one you killed earlier, this one is tall, stronger and muscular, covered with brown, blood-stained fur. It snarls as it spots you, bounding towards you. You fire your gun as the werewolf roars in pain, your silver bullet slicing through the werewolf's hind leg. It slides along the hall before stumbling forward and smashing into you. Its claws and fangs tear through you, sending spurts of blood and tearing through your flesh. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You grab your gun from the broken tiles, and stumble forward. You hear a howl resonate down the halls. You sigh as you realize they're getting louder. You luck at a nearby door along the hallway, before looking at the gun in your hands. > You hide You grab at the nearest door and open it, finding yourself in a bathroom. You shut the door and press up against it, waiting. You hear the snarls pass the door, and begin counting. When you reach twenty, you listen again, before opening the door and continuing along. It only takes a few minutes before you arrive at the oak doors of armory. You open the doors, moving quickly inside. There's a row of rifles leaning against the walls, a crate of pistols, a large machine gun atop a crate of ammunitions and an entire box of dynamite. It seems like you're fairly set to do some serious ki... You hear a howl, and turn to look out the door at the approaching Alpha that charges towards you. It's white fur is dripping with flesh blood, and you can see pieces of flesh stuck in its teeth. > You run You turn and run, hearing it desperately chase after you. The footsteps get closer and closer, before you feel your back breaking as the werewolf's claw smashed into your hack, the knife-like claws cutting through your leather duster and slashing through your flesh. You roll to the ground with a scream, as the werewolf leaps onto you, it's weight crushing you. It's wet saliva dripping onto your face, it roars at you, before it lunges forward, biting deep into your throat.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You grab at the nearest door and open it, finding yourself in a bathroom. You shut the door and press up against it, waiting. You hear the snarls pass the door, and begin counting. When you reach twenty, you listen again, before opening the door and continuing along. It only takes a few minutes before you arrive at the oak doors of armory. You open the doors, moving quickly inside. There's a row of rifles leaning against the walls, a crate of pistols, a large machine gun atop a crate of ammunitions and an entire box of dynamite. It seems like you're fairly set to do some serious ki... You hear a howl, and turn to look out the door at the approaching Alpha that charges towards you. It's white fur is dripping with flesh blood, and you can see pieces of flesh stuck in its teeth. > You lock the armory door You slam the door shut, locking it quickly. You look around, as the claw smashes into the door, and you know it won't last much longer. There's a shotgun you can load with silver buckshot, that you've used on hunting some of the more dangerous werewolves before. There's a box full of dynamite that you could set off, which would almost certainly kill you as well as the Alpha, but fuck it, you wouldn't mind taking someone down with you. Finally, there's the machine gun. Although there's no silver bullets, you could set it up so you could pump so much lead into that beast that you'd definitely kill it. > You grab the shotgun You grab the shotgun, going for the box of silver shotgun shells. You quickly load one as the door begins to break as the wood splinters, before a claw smashes through the door. The albino werewolf charges inside, and you raise your gun, firing. The shotgun booms back, peppering the albino with buckshot. It howls as its skin begins to burn with silver, but it doesn't go down. You reach for another shell before the albino slams into you, its claws instantly shredding your torso as its jaws close around your head.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You slam the door shut, locking it quickly. You look around, as the claw smashes into the door, and you know it won't last much longer. There's a shotgun you can load with silver buckshot, that you've used on hunting some of the more dangerous werewolves before. There's a box full of dynamite that you could set off, which would almost certainly kill you as well as the Alpha, but fuck it, you wouldn't mind taking someone down with you. Finally, there's the machine gun. Although there's no silver bullets, you could set it up so you could pump so much lead into that beast that you'd definitely kill it. > You set off the dynamite Fuck, you don't have a chance. You're going to die here anyway. Might as well take that fucking albino out. You spot a box of matches on the shelf, grabbing it and pulling out a box of matches, which you quickly strike. The door begins to break as the wood splinters, before a claw smashes through the door. The albino werewolf charges inside, as you pull open the crate of dynamite, lighting it. The werewolf slams into you before the dynamite explodes with a powerful flash, before everything disappears with a loud boom, killing everyone in the room. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You slam the door shut, locking it quickly. You look around, as the claw smashes into the door, and you know it won't last much longer. There's a shotgun you can load with silver buckshot, that you've used on hunting some of the more dangerous werewolves before. There's a box full of dynamite that you could set off, which would almost certainly kill you as well as the Alpha, but fuck it, you wouldn't mind taking someone down with you. Finally, there's the machine gun. Although there's no silver bullets, you could set it up so you could pump so much lead into that beast that you'd definitely kill it. > You set up the machine gun You grab the machine gun, instantly loading in a box of ammo. You quickly hurry as you begin loading the ammunition into the gun and putting down the stand. The door begins to break as the wood splinters, before a claw smashes through. The albino werewolf charges inside, as you pull down on the trigger as bullets begin to slam into the werewolf, without even slowing down, let alone stopping it. You yell, before the albino slams into you, its claws instantly shredding your torso as its jaws close around your head.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You sigh, looking out at the tiled roof. A long drop to that and then into the courtyard, then you can leg it out of there. If the first fall doesn't break your bones. Or the werewolves here you and tear you apart. You climb over the bell tower wall, and jump. There's a brief second of the air rushing as your fall, adrenaline rushing into you. Then, you hit the tiled roof. Pain surges through your as you yell in pain. Unfortunately, you don't smack into it and roll off into the courtyard. Instead, you just go straight through the tiled roof. You smash through, into the room beneath you. The world goes dark and hazy, as you lie there atop the broken tiles in desperate pain. You groan, taking a deep breath. You need to get moving. Otherwise, the werewolves will find you, if not Mihrab. You grab the side of the table, slowly pulling yourself up. You put weight on your legs, and grunt in pain. It hurts like a bitch, but they're not broken. You're able to walk. You stand, taking a deep breath, and stumble forward. You're not going to be able fight Mihrab like this, and you highly doubt your chances of being able to leg it back to the nearest village. You need to think. You could head to the castle armory. There's a large amount of explosives there, as well as other fun and interesting weapons that could be turned to wiping out the werewolves and killing Mihrab as well. You could head to Count Grey's personal chambers. Knowing how paranoid and prepared he was, you have no doubt that the place is insanely secured and prepared for a situation like this. It's too late for him to use it, but you still might. There's also the chance of negotiation. You could talk to Mihrab, and attempt to convince him to spare you. Through offering up Count Grey's secrets and perhaps even offering your services in the future, he can be convinced to spare you, and even have you join him. If you're feeling courageous, you could attempt to negotiate with the werewolves. Whilst they're beasts, they still do have human souls and consciousnesses. They can probably negotiate. If you find the Alpha, you can most likely negotiate with it. > You negotiate with Viceroy Mihrab You grab your gun from the broken tiles, and stumble forward towards the bell tower once more. You head along in a hurry, hoping not to draw the attention of the werewolves. The bell-tower is close, seeing as you just fell from it, and you soon find yourself stumbling along the hallway as Mihrab descends from the bell tower. He pauses, staring at you. "You... leapt from a bell tower... and came back?" he asks, raising an eyebrow. "I... yes," you reply. "Alright, you've truly gained my attention," he says, slowly extending his hand and grabbing you by the throat, his long, sharp nails prodding into your neck. "I want to make a deal. I have an abundance of information, and am happy to serve you as faithfully as I served Count Grey." "Did you? Did you really serve him faithfully? It seems you're happy to betray his secrets right now. "My loyalty ended upon Count Grey's death," you stammer. Mihrab smiles, as his fingers slice open your throat. You gasp, blood filling your throat and running down your chest. "I'll have to decline," he says, as you collapse to the ground.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You sigh, looking out at the tiled roof. A long drop to that and then into the courtyard, then you can leg it out of there. If the first fall doesn't break your bones. Or the werewolves here you and tear you apart. You climb over the bell tower wall, and jump. There's a brief second of the air rushing as your fall, adrenaline rushing into you. Then, you hit the tiled roof. Pain surges through your as you yell in pain. Unfortunately, you don't smack into it and roll off into the courtyard. Instead, you just go straight through the tiled roof. You smash through, into the room beneath you. The world goes dark and hazy, as you lie there atop the broken tiles in desperate pain. You groan, taking a deep breath. You need to get moving. Otherwise, the werewolves will find you, if not Mihrab. You grab the side of the table, slowly pulling yourself up. You put weight on your legs, and grunt in pain. It hurts like a bitch, but they're not broken. You're able to walk. You stand, taking a deep breath, and stumble forward. You're not going to be able fight Mihrab like this, and you highly doubt your chances of being able to leg it back to the nearest village. You need to think. You could head to the castle armory. There's a large amount of explosives there, as well as other fun and interesting weapons that could be turned to wiping out the werewolves and killing Mihrab as well. You could head to Count Grey's personal chambers. Knowing how paranoid and prepared he was, you have no doubt that the place is insanely secured and prepared for a situation like this. It's too late for him to use it, but you still might. There's also the chance of negotiation. You could talk to Mihrab, and attempt to convince him to spare you. Through offering up Count Grey's secrets and perhaps even offering your services in the future, he can be convinced to spare you, and even have you join him. If you're feeling courageous, you could attempt to negotiate with the werewolves. Whilst they're beasts, they still do have human souls and consciousnesses. They can probably negotiate. If you find the Alpha, you can most likely negotiate with it. > You negotiate with the Alpha You grab your gun from the broken tiles, and stumble forward towards the courtyard. You move along the building, before finding a wooden door to the courtyard, pushing it open. You stumble into the courtyard, walking to the middle before dropping to your knees. "Wolves! Bring me your Alpha! I wish to talk!" you cry. About a dozen werewolves quickly appear, beginning to circle you. They don't strike, perhaps confused by what you're doing. Soon, the Alpha appears. It walks forward, staring at you as it growls, saliva hitting you in the face. "I want to join you," you say. "Mihrab is going to betray you. I overheard him say as much. The vampires will always seek to have dominion over... over the noble wolf." The Alpha bears its teeth, but doesn't strike. It looks you dead in the eyes, as you stare back. "Let me join you. I promise you won't regret it." The wolf snarls, before pouncing forward. > You fire your rifle You raise your rifle and fire, the bullet slamming into the Alpha, but failing to slow it. Its jaws close around your throat, tearing it open as you scream in terror and pain.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You grab your gun from the broken tiles, and stumble forward towards the courtyard. You move along the building, before finding a wooden door to the courtyard, pushing it open. You stumble into the courtyard, walking to the middle before dropping to your knees. "Wolves! Bring me your Alpha! I wish to talk!" you cry. About a dozen werewolves quickly appear, beginning to circle you. They don't strike, perhaps confused by what you're doing. Soon, the Alpha appears. It walks forward, staring at you as it growls, saliva hitting you in the face. "I want to join you," you say. "Mihrab is going to betray you. I overheard him say as much. The vampires will always seek to have dominion over... over the noble wolf." The Alpha bears its teeth, but doesn't strike. It looks you dead in the eyes, as you stare back. "Let me join you. I promise you won't regret it." The wolf snarls, before pouncing forward. > You use your knife You raise your knife, slashing open the hide of the Alpha, but failing to slow it. Its jaws close around your throat, tearing it open as you scream in terror and pain.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You grab your gun from the broken tiles, and stumble forward towards the courtyard. You move along the building, before finding a wooden door to the courtyard, pushing it open. You stumble into the courtyard, walking to the middle before dropping to your knees. "Wolves! Bring me your Alpha! I wish to talk!" you cry. About a dozen werewolves quickly appear, beginning to circle you. They don't strike, perhaps confused by what you're doing. Soon, the Alpha appears. It walks forward, staring at you as it growls, saliva hitting you in the face. "I want to join you," you say. "Mihrab is going to betray you. I overheard him say as much. The vampires will always seek to have dominion over... over the noble wolf." The Alpha bears its teeth, but doesn't strike. It looks you dead in the eyes, as you stare back. "Let me join you. I promise you won't regret it." The wolf snarls, before pouncing forward. > You scream You scream as the Alpha's jaws fly forward, biting deep into your arm. You yell in pain as the werewolf bites into your arm, as a flood of emotions enters you. Hate. Anger. Passion. Adrenaline Hunger. You yell, no, you roar as you feel your body morph.Your body begins to twist and break. Your bones snap as your limbs stretch wider and your head and body grows. Your face is torn apart as his teeth grow and sharpen past their usual point. Hair sprouts from your body, soon, you find yourself lying on the ground, feeling the animal inside you finally unleashed. You look at the moon ecstatically, letting out a howl, which is soon joined by your new family. The Alpha looks at you and growls, and you bow your head in submission, an act that just feels natural. The Alpha blinks slowly at you, and you understand that its time to hunt, and finish Mihrab off. You turn, sniffing the air. It's like you just know where to go. You sprint forward, running along the walls and smashing through oak doors. You find Mihrab, covered in blood from what you presume was a fight with a werewolf, hurrying towards the sacrificial chambers. He stops in terror as he stares at you, his eyes widening. "So, you joined with the dogs, did you? Pathetic," he snarls. You burst forward as he does the same. His claws painfully scrape along your snout and release a wave of blood and adrenaline as you smash your claw into him, knocking him against the wall. You bite down on his throat with a roar, tearing it clean out as you smash your claws into him. You turn, seeing a werewolf staring, half ready to charge and half ready to run. You burst forward, tearing its head off and tossing it down the hall, before bursting forward again. You... "feel" a presence in the shadows, twisting around and pouncing, pinning Alexa against a wall. "You're either much, much more intelligent than I thought, or much less so," she says. You feel pain run through your chest as she jabs a silver dagger into your chest. You howl, tearing it out as pain runs through you. "Sorry, wolfy," she says, falling back against the walls, letting the shadows absorb her. You snarl, before turning to be faced with the Alpha. You stare at it, as it sniffs the air and slowly approaches you. It's eyes are filled with a deep desire, a desperate hunger. You sniff the air, suddenly becoming aware of many new sensations. The Alpha seems to be... in full bloom. A sniff quickly fills your nostrils with the scent of a beast in heat. It seems the creature is more of an Alpha female. The creature steps towards you, her intentions clear. The human part of you looks at disgust at the beast, wanting to spit and turn away. For better or worse, that's not the part in charge of you. The animal inside you only smells the odor of a horny bitch in heat. You step forward, your animalistic side taking over as you leap on her. Needless to say, you get little sleep under the gaze of the crimson moon. > You continue You awake lying on the cold stone, completely naked and with a severe headache. For a second, you feel cold, confused and scared, like a child hiding as Papa stands by the door with his rifle, waiting for Count Grey to arrive. You reach an arm out, finding a warm body and pulling yourself tightly against it, as memories begin to flood into your mind. As you realize where you are your eyes dart open. You look around frantically, seeing the white-haired girl lying next to you, blood and... other fluids covering her, and you as well. She yawns, looking up at you. She slowly gets to her feet, groaning. "Well?" she asks, raising an eyebrow. "What?" "Nothing," you reply, as she smiles. "You did well last night," she says. "Two dead vampires? Yeah, not bad," you say. "I was talking about the fucking," the Alpha replies. You look around, spotting other naked men and women lying on the ground, all in the process of waking up. "There's clothes stashed away nearby. You need a place to stay?" the Alpha asks. "Yeah," you say. "Done. Daustin owns a mechanics shop, and had hired Godfrey as an assistant. Seeing as Godrey was cut apart by the vampires, you can take his place." "Perfect," you reply. "Don't worry. You're part of the pack now. We look out for each other." The Alpha leans in, pushing you against the wall and kissing you. You push her away, as she raises an eyebrow. "What? Was it only the beast within that wanted to fuck me?" she asks. You grab her, kissing her back, before she pulls away. "We should go. We need to be home before we're found. If the villagers spot a bunch of naked people returning from where they just saw werewolves kill a bunch of their friends, they'll put two and two together." She turns, barking out an order for her pack to follow her as she leads them outside of the castle. You follow, walking after them. Now, you're part of a pack. Now, the beast within in you has been released, and you're only barely to keep it contained with the moon gone. You can't wait for the moon to call it out again.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You continue moving along the hallways, but thankfully wherever the werewolf's entry point is, it's not close enough to you to have an issue. You don't know where Alexa or Mihrab are, but they're not here, so that's enough. Soon, you find yourself climbing the tight, spiraling staircase towards the bell tower. You push open the wooden door once you reach the top, and find yourself faced with a massive, cast iron bell. You look out at the courtyard from the lookout of the bell tower at the dozens of fur-covered beasts scattered around the area. Shit, there's more than you thought. You take a deep breath, leaning your head against the bell, taking a deep breath. The walk was fairly long, and the werewolf took some of your time. If Haygarth's still alive, he's back at the coach. You grab the bell pull, before pulling it down as hard as you can. The bell clangs loudly as you put your hand over your ears. The werewolves began to panic and howl, instantly growing frantic and charging towards the doors of the castle. You wait a moment, staring out at the courtyard, before you see the coach burst free from the castle and smashing towards the gates. The Coach smashes the Viceroy's coach out of the way, as it flies on past the trees towards the nearby village. Well, they've escaped. Lucky bastards. You turn, and begin walking down the stairs, before seeing the tanned skin and black cloak of Viceroy Mihrab. "You're still alive, are you?" he asks. "I had thought one of the stupider werewolves had gotten inside and smacked its head into the bell by accident. It's an interesting choice to ring it for whatever reason you have." Mihrab walks slowly towards you, as you back up, slipping on the staircase. You quickly crawl your way up the stairs and get to the bell once more, looking down as he approaches you slowly with cool indifference. "You've taken me away from my work. At least you'll provide a refreshing meal." You hold your rifle out, aiming. You look over the edge of the bell tower. You could jump, bouncing off one of the tiled roofs and into the courtyard. The werewolves are inside, so you might be able to escape. Your other, as shitty option, is fighting. > You fight You raise your rifle, firing. The bullet thuds into Mihrab as he bears his teeth in a grin. "Pathetic," he says. Mihrab bursts towards you, grabbing you by the throat, his claws cutting into your skin. "Your life is meaningless. Has your service to Count Grey blurred your mind and given you a strong head? You have nothing to offer." > You headbutt him You smack your head into Mihrab's face, knocking him backwards into the wall. The gun's not working. You need to find something else. You quickly hurry down the stairs as Mihrab swears in some long dead language. You run quickly, finding yourself in the lower floors of the castle. There's a straight shot up another stairs to the courtyard, where you could lure Mihrab outside. Hopefully, the werewolves would frenzy and take him out, while you could slip back inside the castle. You could also head deeper into the castle, towards Count Grey's coffin and the inner areas. > You head out to the courtyard You turn and sprint forward towards the courtyard as you hear Mihrab quickly following as he snarls. You push open the oak doors to the courtyard, running out. You hear a half dozen howls as the werewolves outside spot you, but you know Mihrab is most likely still pursuing. You can't tell, you only hear the pounding of his own heart. You keep running, before you feel your back breaking as the werewolf's claw smashed into your hack, the knife-like claws cutting through your leather duster and slashing through your flesh. You roll to the ground with a scream, as the werewolf leaps onto you, it's weight crushing you. It's wet saliva dripping onto your face, it howls at the moon in an act of triumph, before it lunges forward, biting deep into your throat.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You smack your head into Mihrab's face, knocking him backwards into the wall. The gun's not working. You need to find something else. You quickly hurry down the stairs as Mihrab swears in some long dead language. You run quickly, finding yourself in the lower floors of the castle. There's a straight shot up another stairs to the courtyard, where you could lure Mihrab outside. Hopefully, the werewolves would frenzy and take him out, while you could slip back inside the castle. You could also head deeper into the castle, towards Count Grey's coffin and the inner areas. > You head inwards You turn, running further into the castle. You hear Mihrab snarl behind you as he charges after you. Suddenly, he slams into your with unnatural speed, sending you toppling forward as his claw cuts open your back. You groan, quickly stumbling forward as you push open the door and slam it shut behind you, locking the door. Mihrab immediately punches through, his clawed hand reaching for the key. You look around desperately, and find yourself in the room with Count Grey's coffin. You look around, spotting an oak door at the side that you remember leads towards the armory. There, you could get enough firepower to do something. You could also go for the sword hanging proudly above Count Grey's coffin. It's supposed to be a great and powerful. You could try get it, and maybe best him in melee. If you're very, very luck. > You head for the armory You turn, barreling towards the armory. You hear the door unlocked behind you, hearing Mihrab approaching. You run desperately forward, but Mihrab is faster, stronger and angry as hell. As you run desperately, you feel Mihrab grab you. He flings you against the wall as you yell in pain, before darting forward and stabbing you through the neck with his claws. You let out a yelp of pain as blood fills your throat and runs down your chest, before Mihrab grabs your head and quickly twists it, breaking your neck.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You turn, running further into the castle. You hear Mihrab snarl behind you as he charges after you. Suddenly, he slams into your with unnatural speed, sending you toppling forward as his claw cuts open your back. You groan, quickly stumbling forward as you push open the door and slam it shut behind you, locking the door. Mihrab immediately punches through, his clawed hand reaching for the key. You look around desperately, and find yourself in the room with Count Grey's coffin. You look around, spotting an oak door at the side that you remember leads towards the armory. There, you could get enough firepower to do something. You could also go for the sword hanging proudly above Count Grey's coffin. It's supposed to be a great and powerful. You could try get it, and maybe best him in melee. If you're very, very luck. > You go for the sword You grab the top of the coffin, feeling ill as dark energy still emanates. You pull yourself atop it, grabbing the sword hanging there. You pull yourself onto the coffin, reaching up and grabbing the sword grip. The grip despite being made of leather, is icy cold to touch. You hop down from coffin as Mihrab breaks through the door, staring at you with malice. "Are you going to stab me? With your little sword that you never learned to use? You've been an annoyance. Now, this is over." Mihrab charges towards you with a snarl, charging towards you with the swipe of his claw, his eyes filled with unfocused rage. > You dodge You roll to avoid the strike, and Mihrab rushes past, filled with rage. He stops, swiveling around and taking a deep breath as he stares at you. He takes another breath, before walking forward, slow and methodical. > You dodge He strikes like a viper as you sidestep, but he slips to the side. He slashes his hand, cutting open the side of your face before grabbing you. He jabs his claws into your eye as you scream in pain, before he catches your head, twisting it quickly and snapping your neck.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You roll to avoid the strike, and Mihrab rushes past, filled with rage. He stops, swiveling around and taking a deep breath as he stares at you. He takes another breath, before walking forward, slow and methodical. > You strike He strikes like a viper as you slash your blade, but he slips to the side. He slashes his hand, cutting open the side of your face before grabbing you. He jabs his claws into your eye as you scream in pain, before he catches your head, twisting it quickly and snapping your neck.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You grab the top of the coffin, feeling ill as dark energy still emanates. You pull yourself atop it, grabbing the sword hanging there. You pull yourself onto the coffin, reaching up and grabbing the sword grip. The grip despite being made of leather, is icy cold to touch. You hop down from coffin as Mihrab breaks through the door, staring at you with malice. "Are you going to stab me? With your little sword that you never learned to use? You've been an annoyance. Now, this is over." Mihrab charges towards you with a snarl, charging towards you with the swipe of his claw, his eyes filled with unfocused rage. > You strike You swing your blade frantically, as Mihrab charges directly for you. You run the sword through his chest as he roars. His dark, soulless eyes go dull, as you pull the sword out of his chest, where it's just ran through his heart. "That..." Mihrab whispers, looking at the blade with horror and disgust, before he collapses to the ground. You step forward, running the sword through Mihrab's chest. He grunts as his body begins to turn to dust as the very essence of his life is absorbed into your blade. You release the blade, hearing it clang to the ground, before you step back. You watch as the ancient, powerful vampire's corpse disappears from view. You've killed Draven. You've killed Mihrab. Now, all you need to do is deal with Alexa, and the Viceroy problem will be solved. > You find Alexa You turn, walking towards the door. Last you remember, Alexa was inhabiting... "Hmm..." Alexa says, as you spin around to see her form from the shadows. Alexa walks forward, kneeling down to stare at the pile of ash. She gently picks some up with her finger, before blowing the dust away. "Good riddance," she smiles, showing her long fangs. Alexa stands, walking towards. You dive for the sword, grabbing it with your hand and holding it up, snarling. "Stay back," you snarl. Alexa moves forward, stopping in front of you just out of the reach of your sword. "You've proven yourself to me. You've shown that you truly deserve this gift I offer." "Gift?" you ask. "I offer you a chance to join me. We are immortal, we are powerful and we are predators. If you are willing, you can join me as a vampire, and we can take the places that Mihrab and Grey once occupied." "You want me to join you as a vampire? Why?" you ask. "Together, we can rule. I... miss the joys of mortal life. I miss having friends, having allies, having lovers. With you at my side, as equals, we can live forever, survive anything, and be the perfect allies." Alexa steps forward, smiling at you. "So?" she smiles. > You agree "Fine," you say. "I agree." "Good," Alexa says, striding forward. "The moon's falling, and the son will rise soon, scaring away the werewolves. Get undressed." You raise an eyebrow, but pull off your jacket, before pulling off your shirt. You pull off your boots and trousers, before looking up at Alexa. She pulls off her cloak, pulling off her shirt and pants as well, leaving her standing there naked, as she smiles at you. Her body, completely pale and white as snow, and as cold at it, has a definite beauty to it. She walks forward, wrapping her hands around you and kissing you, her forked tongue flickering in your mouth. You kiss back, as her freezing hands begin to roam around your body. She slowly pushes you into the coffin, which surprisingly is large enough to fit both of you. Soon, in the enclosed area, you find your thrusting as you push Alexa up against the steel coffin wall. Suddenly, Alexa bites into your neck as you groan in pain, and begins sucking on your blood, draining it from you. You struggle, but she grabs your head, pressing it against her neck. "Bite," she commands. You bite down on the vampire's neck, releasing a wave of dark crimson liquid that fills your mouth. "Drink," she whispers, as you hear her slurp your blood. You follow her orders, and begin drinking down on her black liquid. You feel, as the two of you become one and the spirit of the predator enters you with each once of blood you gulp down. The pair of you continue in the coffin, as you begin to transform. Mortality becomes a distant concept, life an old memory and a terrible thirst takes over you. The burden of the vampire is now yours, but so are all the benefits. > You pass out You stand on the wall of the castle, staring up at the gorgeous moon, Alexa's arm wrapped around you. She smiles at you, as you grin back, gently kissing her on the forehead. You sniff the air, smelling the blood of a nearby wounded dear, Alexa's perfume, the flowers along the river banks, so many senses. Alexa kisses you on the neck, before scraping her fangs across your neck. "I hunger, Sam," she smiles. "The thirst is back. Shall we go?" "Perfect," you smile. You hurry down the staircase and past the gate and out into the woods. You both sprint through the trees, laughing as you head out for the hunt. Yes. The hunt under the moonlight. The excitement. The joy. The passion. This is true life. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You turn, walking towards the door. Last you remember, Alexa was inhabiting... "Hmm..." Alexa says, as you spin around to see her form from the shadows. Alexa walks forward, kneeling down to stare at the pile of ash. She gently picks some up with her finger, before blowing the dust away. "Good riddance," she smiles, showing her long fangs. Alexa stands, walking towards. You dive for the sword, grabbing it with your hand and holding it up, snarling. "Stay back," you snarl. Alexa moves forward, stopping in front of you just out of the reach of your sword. "You've proven yourself to me. You've shown that you truly deserve this gift I offer." "Gift?" you ask. "I offer you a chance to join me. We are immortal, we are powerful and we are predators. If you are willing, you can join me as a vampire, and we can take the places that Mihrab and Grey once occupied." "You want me to join you as a vampire? Why?" you ask. "Together, we can rule. I... miss the joys of mortal life. I miss having friends, having allies, having lovers. With you at my side, as equals, we can live forever, survive anything, and be the perfect allies." Alexa steps forward, smiling at you. "So?" she smiles. > You decline "No," you say. "No?" Alexa asks, frowning. "Shame. i thought you had potential." Alexa puts her hand in her cloak to draw something, and you raise your sword with a snarl. She smiles, slowly opening her cloak to reveal a small flask, which she uncaps and puts to her lips, drinking. "I was really hoping to taste your blood... and for you to taste mine. Sadly, I shan't." Alexa leans against the shadowy corner of the wall, staring at you as the shadows begin to absorb her essence. "Good luck, ghoul. Hopefully, we'll both stay out of each others way in the future, shall we?" With that, Alexa disappears from the room and from your life. You fall to your knees, tossing the sword aside as you breath out a sigh of relief. You take a deep breath, before grabbing your rifle from the ground and standing. You hear a howl from outside, leaning up against the wall and creeping along before you stare out the window. You see in the distance the sun beginning to rise. The werewolves begin howl, fleeing off towards the woods, not wanting to be caught around him when the transformation ends. You wait, watching as even the Alpha flees desperately away. You wait until the sun's light actually begins to shine on the courtyard, before walking out into the courtyard. You look up at the sun, feeling its warmth on your face, before you realize how absolutely exhausted you are. You collapse on the ground, staring up at the sky and feeling the warmth of the sun on your face. > You continue Royalty You stand on the castle wall, staring out at the trees. A half a dozen guards patrol the walls, watching out for any potential werewolves. The purges you've organized of the forests have been effective, but you're still alive. Due to the loss of any significant supernatural power, you've need to replenish your power by recruitment. You've recruited Lucas, Mikhail and Haygarth, all of whom managed to survive the night through their coach escape, although Dasha thoroughly and aggressively refused to come anywhere near the castle. You recruited a few more men from the villages, and quickly regained the control that was lost with the death of Count Grey. Through hard-work and a treaty with King Ferdinand, you've managed to become the new Count of the region. The peasants continue to pay tax to you, although you've negated the need for any of them to die to feed you. You've created a nice little situation for yourself here. Count Samuel. You never thought you'd see the day. Yes, it's a new dawn. The world is changing. The myths and legends of the past are being dispelled. Now, you're the future.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You turn, walking towards the door. Last you remember, Alexa was inhabiting... "Hmm..." Alexa says, as you spin around to see her form from the shadows. Alexa walks forward, kneeling down to stare at the pile of ash. She gently picks some up with her finger, before blowing the dust away. "Good riddance," she smiles, showing her long fangs. Alexa stands, walking towards. You dive for the sword, grabbing it with your hand and holding it up, snarling. "Stay back," you snarl. Alexa moves forward, stopping in front of you just out of the reach of your sword. "You've proven yourself to me. You've shown that you truly deserve this gift I offer." "Gift?" you ask. "I offer you a chance to join me. We are immortal, we are powerful and we are predators. If you are willing, you can join me as a vampire, and we can take the places that Mihrab and Grey once occupied." "You want me to join you as a vampire? Why?" you ask. "Together, we can rule. I... miss the joys of mortal life. I miss having friends, having allies, having lovers. With you at my side, as equals, we can live forever, survive anything, and be the perfect allies." Alexa steps forward, smiling at you. "So?" she smiles. > You kill Alexa You step forward, as she smiles, assuming you've taken up her offer. Then, you swing your blade, beheading her in one quick move. Her head topples to the ground, and you smile. Three vampires in one night. Terrific. You fall to your knees, tossing the sword aside as you breath out a sigh of relief. You take a deep breath, before grabbing your rifle from the ground and standing. You hear a howl from outside, leaning up against the wall and creeping along before you stare out the window. You see in the distance the sun beginning to rise. The werewolves begin howl, fleeing off towards the woods, not wanting to be caught around him when the transformation ends. You wait, watching as even the Alpha flees desperately away. You wait until the sun's light actually begins to shine on the courtyard, before walking out into the courtyard. You look up at the sun, feeling its warmth on your face, before you realize how absolutely exhausted you are. You collapse on the ground, staring up at the sky and feeling the warmth of the sun on your face.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You raise your rifle, firing. The bullet thuds into Mihrab as he bears his teeth in a grin. "Pathetic," he says. Mihrab bursts towards you, grabbing you by the throat, his claws cutting into your skin. "Your life is meaningless. Has your service to Count Grey blurred your mind and given you a strong head? You have nothing to offer." > You go for your knife You lean down slightly, keeping eye contact with a snarling Mihrab, before grabbing your dagger. You stab it into Mihrab's stomach as he yelps in pain. You shove him back and immediately begin barreling down the staircase. The gun's not working. You need to find something else. You quickly hurry down the stairs as Mihrab swears in some long dead language. You run quickly, finding yourself in the lower floors of the castle. There's a straight shot up another stairs to the courtyard, where you could lure Mihrab outside. Hopefully, the werewolves would frenzy and take him out, while you could slip back inside the castle. You could also head deeper into the castle, towards Count Grey's coffin and the inner areas.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You raise your rifle, firing. The bullet thuds into Mihrab as he bears his teeth in a grin. "Pathetic," he says. Mihrab bursts towards you, grabbing you by the throat, his claws cutting into your skin. "Your life is meaningless. Has your service to Count Grey blurred your mind and given you a strong head? You have nothing to offer." > You go for your rifle You grab for your rifle and go down, grabbing it by the barrel and tossing it into the air. You grab for the trigger, before Mihrab slices his claws across your throat and pressing his mouth against it. You gasp as blood spurts into the monster's mouth, dropping the gun and letting out a pained grunt as you're drained of your life source.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You grab the chifferobe, opening it and stepping inside. You close the door, quieting your breathing as you wait. You hear the loud, clawed footsteps of the beast towards you, as you wait patiently for it to pass by. This is a beast, lacking all the stealth of the true wolf, or even its stronger Wulven kin. Still, it has the nose of one, which soon becomes apparent as its wet sniffling leans to it pausing outside your room. You wait slowly, holding your breath, for the wolf to pass. It doesn't seem to know you're there... yet. > You wait for it to pass You wait patiently as the werewolf snarls outside. Suddenly, it's massive claws bash through the chifferobe, smacking into your and shattering your bones as the claw runs through your chest. You groan, spluttering blood out onto your chest, before entering oblivion.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"I'm not going!" you say. "So be it," Haygarth says. "If you're not leaving the castle, we need your help." "What?" you ask. "You need to ring the castle's alarm bell at the North-East tower. If you can ring that, you can distract the werewolves and draw them towards the North-Eastern area, so we have a chance." "Fuck, fine. I'll get it done," you say. "Thank you, thank you!" Haygarth says. "I must find the Twins, if they're still alive. I'll be sure to be back before you can make the journey to the bell." "Fan-fucking-tastic," you say. "Best of luck, Haygarth. I hope we meet on the other side." "Same to you, Samuel." You turn, walking away from the room. You enter the hallways again, and move quickly. You can hear the roars of the beasts outside, and you wince as you hear the scraping of sharp claws on the stones outside. You take a deep breath of air, trying not to let terror cloud your judgment. Suddenly, you pause. You see the massive, wretched body of a werewolf slowly move forward through the hallway, heading perpendicular to you. Tufts of black fur cover its body, as its deformed snout looks like a pale imitation of a true wolf's, this one looking like a poor soul has had her face bashed in to create the appearance of one. It creeps along the hallways, sniffing the air. You step back slowly, taking a sharp breath. You shouldn't be surprised that they've got in. The doors are thick, reinforced with steel and silver alike, but the werewolves were bound to get in some time. Not if the portcullis had been closed, but once they entered the courtyard, they were bound to get in. The beast shakes its head violently as if spasming, before sniffing the air once more. It lets out a growl, and you know it's caught your scent. There's a rotten chifferobe to your side that you could foreseeably hide in. There's also the silver-loaded gun in your hands, if you want to take it more bluntly, as well as the silver dagger you have hidden in your boot. for a quiet tactic. > You shoot You pull the trigger, as the gun bucks in your hands. The bullet flies through the air, hitting the werewolf in the neck and knocking it to the ground with a burst of crimson blood, which sprays over its fur and sends it collapsing to the ground. An easy kill, but a loud one. You need to move, and you need to move fast.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"I'm not going!" you say. "So be it," Haygarth says. "If you're not leaving the castle, we need your help." "What?" you ask. "You need to ring the castle's alarm bell at the North-East tower. If you can ring that, you can distract the werewolves and draw them towards the North-Eastern area, so we have a chance." "Fuck, fine. I'll get it done," you say. "Thank you, thank you!" Haygarth says. "I must find the Twins, if they're still alive. I'll be sure to be back before you can make the journey to the bell." "Fan-fucking-tastic," you say. "Best of luck, Haygarth. I hope we meet on the other side." "Same to you, Samuel." You turn, walking away from the room. You enter the hallways again, and move quickly. You can hear the roars of the beasts outside, and you wince as you hear the scraping of sharp claws on the stones outside. You take a deep breath of air, trying not to let terror cloud your judgment. Suddenly, you pause. You see the massive, wretched body of a werewolf slowly move forward through the hallway, heading perpendicular to you. Tufts of black fur cover its body, as its deformed snout looks like a pale imitation of a true wolf's, this one looking like a poor soul has had her face bashed in to create the appearance of one. It creeps along the hallways, sniffing the air. You step back slowly, taking a sharp breath. You shouldn't be surprised that they've got in. The doors are thick, reinforced with steel and silver alike, but the werewolves were bound to get in some time. Not if the portcullis had been closed, but once they entered the courtyard, they were bound to get in. The beast shakes its head violently as if spasming, before sniffing the air once more. It lets out a growl, and you know it's caught your scent. There's a rotten chifferobe to your side that you could foreseeably hide in. There's also the silver-loaded gun in your hands, if you want to take it more bluntly, as well as the silver dagger you have hidden in your boot. for a quiet tactic. > You use your knife You creep forward, dropping low as you draw your knife. Your boots leather creeks, making the slightest noise, and the wolf turns and bursts towards you. It charges towards you, barreling down the hall. It pounces before and you jab your knife, stabbing into flesh and fur. It's weight smashes you into the wall, snapping your body like a twig. You scream in pain as it swings its claw, beheading you in one foul swing.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You dive out of the way, as Draven flies just past you, swinging his sword. His sword slices into the back of your neck, not enough to seriously wound but enough to hurt like a bitch. He slams into the door behind you, grunting as he spins around. He wipes the blood from his broken nose as he stares at the two of you, before letting out a horrible laugh. "Got too excited there, didn't I? Ha!" he smiles, twirling the sword around in his hands. You look around desperately, for something, ANYTHING in the room to help you out. Dasha is just as in the cross-hairs as you are, and seems terrified. Haygarth is hiding behind a counter, unfocused and not thinking. Most of the horses are dead, having had their heads cleaved clean off. Still, there's three or four in the farther stables. There's two large, oil-filled lamps illuminating the hallways that could be used. Fire has a history of being effective with monsters. Finally, there's the old full lead solution. If you just duck, weave and fill the air with as much lead, or in this case silver, as possible to take out the vampire bastard, although silver bullets are more of a werewolf-killer. > You get to the lamp You sprint towards the lamp, your rifle held tightly in your hands as you run towards it. Draven charges ahead with a howl, kicking your leg away as you collapse onto the ground, laughing. "Look at you try to run! Where are you trying to run to, little one?" he asks, before his eyes flicker to Dasha who goes for the door. Draven runs ahead with an animalistic howl, slamming her into the door. He presses the sword to her throat, before throwing into the air and catching it once more. "Ohh... this is everything! Savor the hunt!" he says. "Go! Try escape again! Or are you in a fighting mood?" > You try for the horses You sprint towards the horses, your rifle held tightly in your hands as you run towards them. Draven charges ahead with a howl, kicking your leg away as you collapse onto the ground, laughing. "Pathetic!" Dasha attempts to stand, before Draven smiles, flinging his sword. The sword embeds itself in Dasha's hand, pinning it to the door, as he laughs. "I forgot to mention, I'm not a bad through," he says, before looking down at you. "It's a shame she tried to move and I had to throw my sword, little Ghoul. Now, I have to deal with you with fangs... and trust me, it'll be more painful." The lamp flies through the air, smashing into Draven's head. Oil sprays across him as it's quickly set alight, as is his dry, cold corpse. Draven screams in object terror as he's engulfed in fire. He screams, desperately flailing in an attempt to put out the flames. Draven collapses to his knees as his scream finally stops, before collapsing onto his face. He slowly burns as his body turns to ash, as you crawl away from the body, standing. Haygarth stands behind Draven, staring at the fire. "Didn't know what, what to do," Haygarth says, panting. "Saw you go for the lamp. Decided to finish the job." "Well done," you say. You walk over to Dasha, who whimpers as she paws at the sword embedded in her arm. You grab it, gripping it tightly as you pull it from the wall. You tear a piece of cloth from your robes, tying it tightly around the wound. "I'm fine," she says.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You sprint towards the lamp, your rifle held tightly in your hands as you run towards it. Draven charges ahead with a howl, kicking your leg away as you collapse onto the ground, laughing. "Look at you try to run! Where are you trying to run to, little one?" he asks, before his eyes flicker to Dasha who goes for the door. Draven runs ahead with an animalistic howl, slamming her into the door. He presses the sword to her throat, before throwing into the air and catching it once more. "Ohh... this is everything! Savor the hunt!" he says. "Go! Try escape again! Or are you in a fighting mood?" > You try for the lamp again You run towards the lamp, as Draven realizes what you're doing, and charges forward. He grabs the lamp, opening it with the flick of his wrist and blowing out the candle. "Nice attempt," he says. "Now run." You turn and run, as Draven follows. He swings his sword as you run , and the next thing you know, you feel the cold bite of steel on your neck. Your head flies through the air, and your body collapses to the straw-covered floor.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You dive out of the way, as Draven flies just past you, swinging his sword. His sword slices into the back of your neck, not enough to seriously wound but enough to hurt like a bitch. He slams into the door behind you, grunting as he spins around. He wipes the blood from his broken nose as he stares at the two of you, before letting out a horrible laugh. "Got too excited there, didn't I? Ha!" he smiles, twirling the sword around in his hands. You look around desperately, for something, ANYTHING in the room to help you out. Dasha is just as in the cross-hairs as you are, and seems terrified. Haygarth is hiding behind a counter, unfocused and not thinking. Most of the horses are dead, having had their heads cleaved clean off. Still, there's three or four in the farther stables. There's two large, oil-filled lamps illuminating the hallways that could be used. Fire has a history of being effective with monsters. Finally, there's the old full lead solution. If you just duck, weave and fill the air with as much lead, or in this case silver, as possible to take out the vampire bastard, although silver bullets are more of a werewolf-killer. > You fire! You raise your gun and fire. Draven takes a shot to the shoulder, before side-stepping your next. He doesn't even attempt to charge, just grins. You keep firing, as he dodges the bullets with unnatural ease, even the lucky shots not even throwing him, and they only manage to graze or hit his central mass, which fails to even knock him back. You aim your rifle at Draven's head, as he gently taps his finger against it. "Come on, boy!" he says, laughing. "Take the shot! I'm enjoying this! I won't even move this time!" You peer down the sights, taking a deep breath, and you pull the trigger. It's empty. "Can't even count, huh?" Draven laughs, before bursting forward. You attempt to dodge, but he's faster and more prepared for your roll to the side. He swings his sword, cutting through flesh and bone as your upper body is separated from its organic stand. You barely have time for one scream before it's all over.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You walk along the hallways towards the stable, your gun clenched tightly in your hands. You consider pushing Dasha ahead of you so anything that attacks has to cut through her first, but that's not the right thing to do. It's better to keep her behind you, in case a creature attacks from behind, and you can fight off whoever attacks from the front with your rifle. You walk past the rows of unlit torches that cover the walls, wishing they were lit. You aim your gun ahead, sweeping the barrel to check the corners for any hidden beasts that could be hidden away there. "We need to hurry up, h.." Dasha says. Suddenly, one of the windows several meters above you shatters as the upper half of a body smashes through it. It hits the wall with a wet thud, collapsing to the ground. Dasha screams as you desperately back pedal to avoid it. "Fuck me!" you say. "The villagers must be having a bad night." "Oh god," Dasha says. You hear a terrified scream outside. It sounds female, and young. Very young. "Help! Help! Mama!" a voice screams from outside. "We need to help her!" Dasha says, a look of panic flooding through her. "Do you want to fight the Wulven?" you ask. "I'm not." You try to appear tough as Dasha stares you down, before looking away. You hear a high-pitched scream, before the crunching of bone and flesh. "It's done. Let's go," you say. "The village is down the road! Why the fuck would they bring the villagers here to kill them?" Dasha says. "Break our morale, or act as bait, maybe. They're intelligent, for abominable beasts. Now, let's move on." You continue walking forward, reaching a wooden door. You press up against it, waiting. "Here it it." "This is the door to the stables," you whisper. "You ready?" "Ready. I'll follow your lead." > You force Dasha to go in first "You go in first. He'll be able to smell my blood sooner than yours. I'm a ghoul." "Bullshit!" Dasha hisses. "Give me the gun, then I'll go." > You give Dasha the gun You take a deep breath, bashing open the door with your shoulder, raising your rifle. Draven stands there, a sword in his hands and a grin on his face as he stands over a heavily injured Haygarth, who has been stripped naked and is covered in bruising and cuts. "Don't you know how, freak? I said do it!" Draven shouts. He swings his blade and smacks Haygarth in the side of the head with the flat of his blade, knocking Haygarth to the floor. "Dance!" Draven laughs, before his eyes flicker to you. "Look who it is! One of Grey's ghouls and... I've no fucking idea who you are, but you look like a bleeder!" Haygarth yells as Dasha raises her rifle. Draven roars as he charges forward, and Dasha both attempts to backpedal and aim. She trips on the stairs, firing off the gun. Unfortunately, she misses Draven. Even worse, the bullet ends up flying straight through your head.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"You go in first. He'll be able to smell my blood sooner than yours. I'm a ghoul." "Bullshit!" Dasha hisses. "Give me the gun, then I'll go." > You convince Dasha to go in with just the knife "No!" you say, shaking your head. "Then go through!" Dasha commands. "You go in with the knife, I go behind you with the rang..." Something slams into the door, sending you flying across the ground and onto your ass with a painful thud. Standing there, clad in armor with long, wild flowing black hair and a face contorted by rage and anger. "Yes! I was distracted by the freak, but even I can hear you two bickering! Gotta get my ears checked, haha!" he snarls before laughing menacingly as he steps forward. The vampire charges forward with remarkable speed. You raise your gun quickly, firing. The bullet thuds into Draven's chest, but it fails to even slightly slow him down. He swings the sword as he leaps upon you, slicing through your muscle and sinew and separating your head from your body. His lips immediately wrap around your gaping neck hole as he drains you of your blood, your head rolling to the ground.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You swing the butt of your gun, cracking into the side of her face and knocking her to the ground with a grunt. The knife goes clattering, and you dart forward, grabbing the knife and raising your rifle to point at her. "Who the fuck are you?" The girl stares at you with anger, blood running down her face from the newly opened cut on her forehead. You recognize her as Dasha, the sacrificial victim from earlier. Huh, apparently she survived. Interesting. "Hands in the air!" you say, pointing the gun at her head. She slowly raises her hands, spitting blood and a tooth on the ground. Apparently, you swung harder than you thought. "Fuck you!" she says. "You need to listen to me," you say. The girl swings at your head, but you catch her fist. She spits in your face, which you wince at. > You try talk to her "Look, please, listen to me," you say. "Fuck off!" she shouts. "I don't need you to trust me, just listen! For..." "I said, fuck off!" she shouts again. "Listen!" you say loudly, losing your patience. "Did you see those fucking vampires?!" The girl stares at you, still defiant, but quiet. "If we want to get out of this, we need to work together. I don't care how much you hate me for doing what I did to you, but we need to." "You work for the vampires," she says. "I work for that one," you say, nodding towards Count Grey. "The others killed him, and now they want to kill me... and you. We're on the same side here, understood?" The girl pauses, before slowly nodding. "If I let you up, you won't try anything?" you ask. "Give me my knife," she replies. "I can't trust you," you say. "I can't trust you either," she says. You sigh, before handing the knife back. She grabs it from your, staring at her reflection in the blade for a brief moment, looking as if contemplating attacks, before looking at you. "What's the plan?" she asks. "I don't know. We need to... Haygarth," you say. "We need to find him. He should be in the stables. He knows this place better than anyone. He'll have keys, know secret tunnels, know everything." "Let's go, then," Dasha says.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You walk into the sacrificial chambers. You walk over to Count Grey, who has a deep wound going through his chest and lies on the ground. You step over the blood-filled grooves of the floor, walking over to him. You drop to a knee, checking his pulse, before mentally hitting yourself for being so stupid. He's undead. You pull back his eyelids, revealing dull, lifeless black eyes. You quickly pat him down, finding only a curved ebony dagger and some Leu on him, which you take. You gently pat his cold head as a matter of respect, or perhaps more likely to comfort yourself. The terrifying menace who has controlled the region for over a thousand years is dead. He was your master, your mentor and your liege. "Good fucking riddance. He was a cold, sociopathic cunt," you say aloud, a part of you still terrified to say it, somehow expecting him to wake up and tear out your throat. You stand, looking around. There's the doorway to the lower floors, where you,,, A girl charges out from your blind side, holding up a dagger. > You attempt to negotiate "Wait! Look," you say, holding up your hands in defense. The girl slashes her knife, cutting open the palms of your hands as blood spurts out and you yelp in pain. The girl slams into you, jabbing her knife directly into your throat. Blood spurts out in even more gallons, as you choke on your own blood as the girl repeatedly stabs you in a mixture of anger and terror.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You burst towards the wooden door, unlatching it and opening it so Lucas and Mikhail can topple in. You quickly close the door behind them, seeing the eyes of one of the beasts as as it desperately stares at you with the rage of a hungry and stuck lion. You lock the door as it's weight smashes into the hard wood with enough force to splinter it. "There's not supposed to be that many! There's not that fucking many!" Lucas says. "There must be every cursed wretch under the moon's gaze," you mutter. Mikhail spits blood onto his chest. "Christ..." he groans, as Lucas chuckles. "Oh dear brother, Count Grey would tear your throat out if he heard you mutter that fucker's name here," Lucas smiles. "Samuel, help me. We need to get Mikhail to the medical bay." "Can't you handle him? I need to go warn Count Grey and the viceroys," you say. "Yes, sure," Lucas says, grabbing Mikhail and putting his arm over his shoulder. He walks towards medical bay, as you quickly hurry up the stairs to the sacrificial chambers. You walk upstairs quickly, heading through the lounge. You reach the door to the sacrificial chambers, before pausing. You can hear whispered voices inside, almost drowned out by the roars of the werewolves outside. How has Count Grey not noticed the attack? Why is he still in the sacrificial chambers? You tilt your head forward, and you think you can make out the words if you try hard enough. > You enter the room You walk into the room, and are immediately faced with a shocking scene. Count Grey kneels on the ground in the center of the pentagram, his face covered with blood. Viceroy Draven stands over him, his sword pointed at the older vampire's chest he smiles, looking at his prey. Viceroy Alexa stands to the side, leaning against the wall as she drinks from a crystal bottle filled with the scarlet blood of one of Count Grey's many victims. Viceroy Mihrab stands over his former master, his sharp fingernails pressed against Count Grey's neck, an ornately carved wooden stake in his hands. In an instant, all four vampire's look at you, surprised. "He escaped the wolves. Impressive," Viceroy Alexa says. Viceroy Mihrab's eyes narrow, as he plunges the stake into Count Grey's hearts. "Get him," he commands. > You run You turn, sprinting away as the vampires give chase. You have a clear shot through the main hall and out into the courtyard, where you can lock the heavy wooden doors and keep him locked inside. You could head through the lounge and into the armory to find something capable of killing these beasts. Finally, you could head down the small, spiraling staircase and lose them in the lower floors. > You head into the courtyard You sprint forward, past the coat rack and into the entry hall. You grab the wooden door, quickly lifting the metal bar up with a heart-filled with adrenaline, and swinging the door open, shutting it behind you. A massive bundle of flesh and fur smashes into you, shattering your bones. You painfully smash into the ground, looking up to see a massive, white werewolf sitting atop your broken body. It stares down at you, it's blood red eyes filled with an animalistic hunger, devoid of any sentience beyond that of the wolf it's body has morphed to imitate. You close your eyes. Thankfully, this beast doesn't like to play with its food, and finishes you quickly.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You turn, sprinting away as the vampires give chase. You have a clear shot through the main hall and out into the courtyard, where you can lock the heavy wooden doors and keep him locked inside. You could head through the lounge and into the armory to find something capable of killing these beasts. Finally, you could head down the small, spiraling staircase and lose them in the lower floors. > You head into the armory You sprint forward, turning towards the armory. You run desperately, but the vampires are faster. You feel your legs knocked away, hurtling to the ground. You smack painfully into the stone floor, yelping as Alexa plunges a dagger into your chest. You yell as it pierces your lungs, coughing blood onto your face. Alexa smiles, licking the blood off your lips, before biting down on your neck and draining the very life source from you.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You turn, sprinting away as the vampires give chase. You have a clear shot through the main hall and out into the courtyard, where you can lock the heavy wooden doors and keep him locked inside. You could head through the lounge and into the armory to find something capable of killing these beasts. Finally, you could head down the small, spiraling staircase and lose them in the lower floors. > You head downstairs You turn, heading down to the staircase. Unfortunately, hurtling down a tight, steep staircase at breakneck speeds leads to you quickly slipping, tumbling face first down. You bounce off the steps, feeling your bones break, before your head lands awkwardly and your neck snaps like a twig.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You walk into the room, and are immediately faced with a shocking scene. Count Grey kneels on the ground in the center of the pentagram, his face covered with blood. Viceroy Draven stands over him, his sword pointed at the older vampire's chest he smiles, looking at his prey. Viceroy Alexa stands to the side, leaning against the wall as she drinks from a crystal bottle filled with the scarlet blood of one of Count Grey's many victims. Viceroy Mihrab stands over his former master, his sharp fingernails pressed against Count Grey's neck, an ornately carved wooden stake in his hands. In an instant, all four vampire's look at you, surprised. "He escaped the wolves. Impressive," Viceroy Alexa says. Viceroy Mihrab's eyes narrow, as he plunges the stake into Count Grey's hearts. "Get him," he commands. > You attack You raise your rifle, firing at Viceroy Mihrab. He easily sidesteps with inhuman speed, as Viceroy Alexa and Viceroy Draven charge you. Draven is faster, swinging his sword. You manage to duck under it, feeling it hack at your scalp, before he kicks your legs away. Your smack into the hard, cold stone floor, as Alexa grabs your neck, quickly snapping it.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You walk into the room, and are immediately faced with a shocking scene. Count Grey kneels on the ground in the center of the pentagram, his face covered with blood. Viceroy Draven stands over him, his sword pointed at the older vampire's chest he smiles, looking at his prey. Viceroy Alexa stands to the side, leaning against the wall as she drinks from a crystal bottle filled with the scarlet blood of one of Count Grey's many victims. Viceroy Mihrab stands over his former master, his sharp fingernails pressed against Count Grey's neck, an ornately carved wooden stake in his hands. In an instant, all four vampire's look at you, surprised. "He escaped the wolves. Impressive," Viceroy Alexa says. Viceroy Mihrab's eyes narrow, as he plunges the stake into Count Grey's hearts. "Get him," he commands. > You surrender You raise your hands, dropping to your knees as you put your hands behind your head. "Please, have mercy," you beg. Viceroy Alexa sprints up to you with a blur, stopping behind you as she pulls out a curved dagger. "How... boring. How did you even survive here?" she asks. With that, she slashes your throat open. You clutch at your bleeding throat, collapsing forward.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Come on, you shout," running towards the village. Your hands push tree branches out of the way as you leave the path, almost tripping as your legs catch in the undergrowth, but manage to keep going. You stumble into the village, grabbing the corner of the house to steady yourself, as the werewolves charge into the village. Thankfully, a few peasants have been caught with their doors barely barricaded. The werewolves smash through hastily nailed planks and into the huts inside to devour a feast of flesh, bone, brains and organs. You hear horrified screams as the beasts get distracted and begin to tear apart the poor souls who have been left inside. "Ah!" Mikhail screams, as one of the more focused hunters knocks him to the ground with its claw. "Shit, Mikhail! Samuel, cover me!" Lucas says, skidding to a halt to help his brother. > You leave them You keep running, as Lucas swears loudly, cursing your name. You keep running, twisting your head back as you see the werewolf biting into Mikhail's throat. Lucas aims his gun, but clearly seeing the blood streaming from his throat, turns and follows you. As the werewolves are distracted with their prey, you continue sprinting towards the tower. Unfortunately, you see one of the werewolves stand in the center of the village. It's larger than the others, its fur white and its eyes red. It stares at you for a second, before it lets out a powerful, booming howl. The other werewolves emerge from the buildings, blood matting their fur and dripping from their claws. The Alpha Male drops to all fours and begins sprinting away towards you, followed by the others. "Shit! Shit! Shit!" Lucas says as he nears you, as you see the castle. You sprint, the only noise being your heavy panting and the thudding of boots and clawed feet on the earth. You reach the castle, sprinting through the gates and past the carriages parked there. You see the portcullis' control wheel to your left, and the heavy wooden door to the keep to your right.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You sigh, drawing your knife as Lucas smiles. "If you're going to lead to someone's death, at least have the fucking balls to be the one who uses the knife," he says. Lucas walks over to the next girl, as you walk up to one. She tries to struggle, but you grab her by the hair, holding her vulnerable throat out and slicing it open with a long cut, before slowly lowering her head to above the grove. Lucas grabs the next girl by the hair, holding her forward and quickly slashing her throat as the blood pours out. You walk to the next one, quickly driving the sword through her neck, slicing open her fleshy throat and letting her bleed into the groove. "Watch them die, Mikhail. You choose for this to happen. Whether you want to actually hold the knife or watch, you're a fucking monster. We all are. At least, we're willing to fulfill our role." "Lucas! Mikhail! Samuel! Come down here!" Count Grey asks. "Quickly!" "We need to go," Mikhail says, quickly turning and heading towards the door. You quickly hurry towards the main hall, walking down the spiraling stairs. Count Grey stands there, alongside his three Viceroys, and Haygarth rushing to put away coats. Viceroy Draven is a tall,well-muscled man. He has long, curly black hair, and instead of the black attire of the other three, he instead dons steel plated armor which covers him from the neck down. A sword hangs by his side. From what you know, he's almost five hundred years old, once being and most likely still remaining a formidable warrior. He looks at you, his eyes narrowing as he stares at you. He lets out a low, guttural growling at the sight of you. Even after years of work around Count Grey, the man manages to make you feel like little more than a blood bag. The second, Viceroy Mihrab, is even older, almost as old as Count Grey. His skin seems unusually tight, a light brown in complex, his face sunken, his eyes lacking any emotion whatsoever. He wears dark attire, his eyes glancing in your direction away for a second, before peering away with disinterest. He doesn't appear to be armed, but with the long, sharp fingernails on his hand that at that length qualify as swords as well as long fangs, he doesn't need them. The final Viceroy, Alexa, is the only woman of te group. She wears a black hooded cloak, her pale, scarred face underneath, with unnaturally long fangs even for one of her kind to halfway down towards her chin. She leans against the wall, looking at you without a single noise. She stares at you like a starved wolf. Something tells you that of all those present, she's the biggest threat. "Yes, master?" Mikhail says, standing up straight. "Werewolves spotted on Hangman's Trail," he says. "They're amassing. Perhaps for a strike." You pause, and can hear the distant howls of what lies between monsters and men. "We'll push them back, sir," Mikhail nods. Mikhail turns away, and quickly begins heading to the armory. You follow, and you all quickly descend the stairs to the armory. You walk inside, grabbing a padded leather duster and slinging it over. You grab a rifle, as well as several magazines of silver bullets, popping them in a satchel that you put over your head. Now suitably armed, you grab a lantern, walking out towards the main hall. The Vampires have left, no doubt to partake in some drinks, discuss future plans, before beginning the ritual and, imbued with a power that grows as the blood moan rises, slaughtering dozens of helpless villagers. You walk out the hall doors, pushing the door open and entering the dark night. You walk along the earth, passing the gate, which for some reason has been left open, one of the Viceroy's carriages sitting under the raised portcullis. "Should we move it so we can drop the portcullis?" you ask. "And piss off Count Grey and whoever owns this carriage? No fucking chance," Lucas says. As you leave and wander off into the trees. Soon, the only sound is the crunching of leaves under foot and your breathing. "Control your breathing. Deep breaths. Watch your foot placement as well as the path in front of you. Avoid twigs and try leaves. We're trying to hunt, best be quiet about it," Lucas says. "The man's most definitely untrustworthy and cruel, but he knows how to hunt. You take his advise, holding the lantern out to illuminate the path ahead. You see a shape move to your right, and stop, immediately twisting to aim. "Contract, left side!" you whisper. "Just a deer, stay focused!" Lucas whispers. "This is a fucking hunting trail, of course there's deer around!" You keep moving, you gun raised in your one hand, propped in the crook of your shoulder to allow you to aim. The beam of your light comes across a deer lying on the ground. It's belly has been ripped to shreds, entrails covering the earth around it and soaking it with bodily fluids. It's head, connected to its body by a few strands of sinew and muscle, lies in the grass at the edge of the path, two lifeless eyes staring towards the stars. "It's fresh, look out!" Lucas growls, as you immediately turn. You see a form rush through the undergrowth, aiming at it, but it's gone before your finger can even tighten on the trigger. A growling comes from the trees to your left, and you swing your rifle over to aim at the beast. They're faster than usual. They're not supposed to be this fast. It must be that fucking moon! A howl comes from your right, and you drop your lantern to aim, catching a glance of blood-matted fur and a flash of white teeth. The beasts don't seem to bee going for the attack, rather endlessly circling, toying with you. None of you have even had the chance to fire a shot. Suddenly you see one of them, basked in the red glow of the moon, dead in the center of the path. This one stands directly there, hunched over and staring at you, clearly not scared in the slightest. It's abnormally large, not even wearing the tattered remains of clothes, covered in patches of fur. it's head is malformed, it's jaws filled with teeth that barely fit in its mouth, crushed into somewhat of a snout. It's hungry eyes stare at you, as it lets out a low growl. > You wait You wait, keeping the monster in your sights, but knowing there's as many off to the side, waiting to strike and wipe you out to the last man. The creature growls, clearly impatient. Suddenly, it arches it's head back, looking up at the crimson moon, and letting our a powerful, ear-splitting howl. Suddenly, the monsters are upon you. A wall of fur, muscles, teeth and claws strikes, a wave of death. You twist, firing your gun, grabbing the bolt and pulling it back, but before you have the chance, a clawed hand grabs you, willing you throw the air and into a tree. You yell as your back breaks against the tree. Before you can even scream, your throat is tore open by a mouthful of sharp canines.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You swing your fist, smashing into the side of the girl's head, as she crumples to her knees. She lets out a pained moan through her gag, and as blood trickles down the side of her face, her eyes fill with fear. You pull on her chain again and she follows. You quickly lead the two along the hallway, before up the stairs, into the "church". You hear Count Grey's dark, cold, emotionless voice from the main hall. "Welcome, Viceroys. Did you decide to come together, or simply met on the road here?" "Coincidence, my lord," another far deeper voice booms, one more filled with malice and hatred than Count Grey's. "Good, good. Haygarth!" Count Grey shouts. "Yes, yes master?" Haygarth's voice comes back from the stables. "Come, fetch the Viceroy's coats!" "Yes, yes sir!" Haygarth says, quickly hurrying to them. You turn your attention back to the task at hand. In front of you in a large, open stone room. Groves cover the stone floor, making the shape of a large pentagram. Lucas' two prisoners are kneeling at two of the points of the pentagram chained to a loop in the stone to prevent them from moving, while Dasha lies at the third, her unconscious state meaning she doesn't need to be chained up. "Come on," you say, raising your fist to threaten the second girl. You force her to kneel on the ground and chain her to the loop in the ground. You drag the first girl to the other, doing the same. Mikhail and Lucas stand off to the side, watching them. Mikhail looks down, looking vaguely embarrassed at his part in this. Lucas, however, seems ecstatic. He walks forward, grinning as he draws his dagger. "Oh boy, look at that!" he says, dropping to his knees in front of a girl. "Look at that. You see the pentagram? You see those deep, thick groves? I'm going to fill them with your blood. You like that? You ready?" The girl frantically begins to struggle, as Lucas smiles. Lucas slices the girl's throat open, as blood pours out, flooding into the grove and running along. The girl gurgles as blood pours through her throat, and Lucas lets the head fall to the ground over the grove, letting the blood pour out into it. "Mikhail, come on, we need this ready for the Viceroys and Count Grey!" he says. "I am not a butcher," Mikhail says softly, as Lucas' eyes narrow. "Don't fucking take the high road. You drugged every whore here, knowing it was all so we'd slit there throats here. You're as much a murderer as I am." Mikhail looks to the ground, opening his mouth as if to say something, but closing it just as quickly. "That's what I thought. Samuel, grab your knife, let's get to work." > You let Lucas kill them all You stare at Lucas wordlessly, who frowns. Lucas works to the next girl angrily, kicking her in the back of head to force her above the grove. He grabs her by the hair, holding her forward and quickly slashing her throat as the blood pours out. He walks to the next one, who at this point is frantically trying to escape. Lucas stabs her through the throat multiple times, as blood spurts to the ground. "Watch them die, cowards. You choose for this to happen. Whether you want to actually hold the knife or watch, you're fucking monsters. We all are. At least, I'm proud of myself." Lucas walks over the second last girl, putting the knife to her throat. The girl struggles desperately, but the chains stop her from resisting "Lucas! Mikhail! Samuel! Come down here!" Count Grey asks. "Quickly!" "We need to go," Mikhail says, quickly turning and heading towards the door. Lucas shrugs, slicing open the girl's throat and letting her head fall and knock against the cold stone. He quickly hurries towards Count Grey, and you follow. You quickly hurry towards the main hall, walking down the spiraling stairs. Count Grey stands there, alongside his three Viceroys, and Haygarth rushing to put away coats. Viceroy Draven is a tall, large man covered with heavy muscles. He has long, curly black hair, and instead of the black attire of the other three, wears steel plated armor covering him from the neck down, with a sword hanging by his side. From what you know, he's almost five hundred years, once being and most likely still remaining a formidable warrior. He looks at you, his eyes narrowing as he stares at you. He lets out a low, guttural growling at the sight of you, and even after years of work around Count Grey, the man manages to make you feel like little more than a blood bag. The second, Viceroy Mihrab, is even older, almost as old as Count Grey. His skin seems unusually tight, a light brown in complex, his face sunken, his eyes lacking any emotion whatsoever. He wears dark attire, his eyes glancing in your direction away for a second, before peering away with disinterest. He doesn't appear to be armed, but with the long, sharp fingernails on his hand that at that length qualify as swords as well as long fangs, he doesn't need them. The final Viceroy, Alexa, is the only woman of the group. She wears a black hooded cloak, her pale, scarred face underneath, with unnaturally long fangs even for one of her kind to halfway down towards her chin. She leans against the wall, looking at you without a single noise. She stares at you like a starved wolf. Something tells you that of all those there, she's the biggest threat. "Yes, master?" Mikhail says, standing up straight. "Werewolves spotted on Hangman's Trail," he says. "They're amassing. Perhaps for a strike." You pause, and can hear the distant howls of what lies between monsters and men. "We'll push them back, sir," Mikhail nods. Mikhail turns away, and quickly begins heading to the armory. You follow, and you all quickly descend the stairs to the armory. You walk inside, grabbing a padded leather duster and slinging it over. You grab a rifle, as well as several magazines of silver bullets, popping them in a satchel that you put over your head. Now suitably armed, you grab a lantern, walking out towards the main hall. The Vampires have left, no doubt to partake in some drinks, discuss future plans, before beginning the ritual and, imbued with a power that grows as the blood moan rises, slaughtering dozens of helpless villagers. You walk out the hall doors, pushing the door open and entering the dark night. You walk along the earth, passing the gate, which for some reason has been left open, one of the Viceroy's carriages sitting under the raised portcullis. "Should we move it so we can drop the portcullis?" you ask. "And piss off Count Grey and whoever owns this carriage? No fucking chance," Lucas says. As you leave and wander off into the trees. Soon, the only sound is the crunching of leaves under foot and your breathing. "Control your breathing. Deep breaths. Watch your foot placement as well as the path in front of you. Avoid twigs and try leaves. We're trying to hunt, best be quiet about it," Lucas says. "The man's most definitely untrustworthy and cruel, but he knows how to hunt. You take his advise, holding the lantern out to illuminate the path ahead. You see a shape move to your right, and stop, immediately twisting to aim. "Contract, left side!" you whisper. "Just a deer, stay focused!" Lucas whispers. "This is a fucking hunting trail, of course there's deer around!" You keep moving, you gun raised in your one hand, propped in the crook of your shoulder to allow you to aim. The beam of your light comes across a deer lying on the ground. It's belly has been ripped to shreds, entrails covering the earth around it and soaking it with bodily fluids. It's head, connected to its body by a few strands of sinew and muscle, lies in the grass at the edge of the path, two lifeless eyes staring towards the stars. "It's fresh, look out!" Lucas growls, as you immediately turn. You see a form rush through the undergrowth, aiming at it, but it's gone before your finger can even tighten on the trigger. A growling comes from the trees to your left, and you swing your rifle over to aim at the beast. They're faster than usual. They're not supposed to be this fast. It must be that fucking moon! A howl comes from your right, and you drop your lantern to aim, catching a glance of blood-matted fur and a flash of white teeth. The beasts don't seem to bee going for the attack, rather endlessly circling, toying with you. None of you have even had the chance to fire a shot. Suddenly you see one of them, basked in the red glow of the moon, dead in the center of the path. This one stands directly there, hunched over and staring at you, clearly not scared in the slightest. It's abnormally large, not even wearing the tattered remains of clothes, covered in patches of fur. it's head is malformed, it's jaws filled with teeth that barely fit in its mouth, crushed into somewhat of a snout. It's hungry eyes stare at you, as it lets out a low growl. It's trying to bait you into striking. Still, maybe this is the best chance you're getting.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The coach drives inside the huge gates of the huge castle, as the sky turns gold and twilight fills the world with a beautiful feeling of serenity. The coach pulls into the stables, where Haygarth immediately gets to work with the horses. Mikhail opens the coach door, putting Dasha over his shoulder and walking towards the keep. You follow him, as does Lucas, walking alongside him as Dasha stirs with a groan, but doesn't break her slumber. You walk into the keep, and quickly down to the dungeons. The large dungeon is covered with an earth floor, and four occupied cells. Four women, all of similar age and appearance to Dasha, all whose names you've forgotten, are there. Their mouths are gagged, though they scream desperately as they see you enter. Mikhail mutters a curse under his breath as he tries not to make eye contact with the women, but Lucas smiles and cheerfully waves at women. Mikhail carries Dasha to an empty cell, opening it and laying her gently on the cot inside. He locks the cell behind him, and looks at you both. "The sun is down. Should we wake him?" Mikhail asks. "Leave him. It's late. We'll wake him in an hour," Lucas says. You nod, turning and walking away from the twins. You head up the stone staircase towards the kitchen. Despite the fact that this building is around a thousand years old, it's surprisingly well furnished. Count Grey has kept the house furnished with modern technology, one of the bonuses of controlling a tiny pocket of land and resources. As long as King Carol I got his taxes, he left Count Grey do as he pleased. You open a cabinet, taking out a somewhat stale sugar cookie and biting into it. You make yourself a sandwich from cold meat, nuts and dates, and quietly consume it, while watching as the world blackens. Just as you see the first red haze on the horizon of the rising blood moon, you quickly turn and head quickly down to the Count's chambers. You hurry down the stairs, quickly heading to the lowest floor, at the center of the castle. Mikhail is already waiting in the dark room, empty except for a single, candle-adored coffin leaning against the stone wall. The coffin in intricate, a large, black wooden coffin with an intricate, thorny pattern, and a single silver, demonic face with a roaring mouth with a pair of fangs on the front. You can feel the dark feeling emanating from it. It makes you feel cold just looking at it, and you shudder at the thought of what lies inside. Nonetheless, it is your duty to awaken your master. Lucas hurries into the room,, dropping his cigarette and crushing it under his heel. He looks at both of you. "Oh good, we're all here. Let's do it, shall we?" Lucas says. "Which one of us wakes him tonight?" you say. Lucas smiles, holding up his bandaged wrist. "I did yesterday." Mikhail shows you the two-day old cut on his upper arm You draw your dagger, pressing it against your forearm and gently slicing it open. You take in a deep breath as you feel the sharp pain. Blood pours down your arm, and your press the open cut into the roaring mouth of the silver ideal, smearing it with blood. You count to three, before leaning in. "Glorious Master, the night has come and the world is yours," you whisper. You step back as the coffin door is pushed open. Inside stands the Count. Dried blood cakes the corners of his mouth, as he lets out a growl, flashing his long, curved fangs, that look sharper than a needle. His black, soulless eyes peer into yours, as you take a deep breath. You outstretch your arm, and he walks forward, grabbing you by the wrist. He brings your arm to his mouth, and begins to suck. He sucks the blood that pumps from your cut as you wince, before releasing you. Mikhail hands you a roll of bandage, which you quickly begin wrapping them around your wound. Count Grey walks away from you, strolling towards the lounge. He walks up the stone stairs, before heading to the glass window. He stares out at the darkness, and the rising red moon. "Good... good..." he says. "Prepare altar. The Viceroys will be here soon." You nod eagerly, and quickly head down to the dungeons, followed by the others. The gagged woman are in the cells, curled up and terrified. Dasha is still unconscious, which gives you pause. "The new girl, Dasha, look at her," you say. "What of her?" Lucas asks. "She's still not awake. Maybe you used too much chloroform, Mikhail," you say. "No, I used the normal amount. Maybe she had a medical condition," Mikhail says. "Who the fuck cares?" Lucas asks. "What if she's dead? We'll be one victim short? Do you want to be the sacrifice?" you say. Lucas pauses, opening the cell and walking towards her. He drops to his knee, putting a hand against her chest. "She's breathing. Just unconscious. The idiot must've used too much chloroform. She's alive, she'll do, alright?" Mikhail shrugs, slinging the girl over his shoulder. Lucas opens the two other cells, grabbing the women inside and pulling them along by their hair. The girls are shackled, so they're incapable of struggling much, but any resistance leads quickly to a punch to the side of the head. "Samuel, get the last two!" Lucas shouts. You grab the cell keys, walking over. One of the girl stares at you with rage, the other sits in the back corner in terror. You open the scared girl's cell first, grabbing her by her chain. You drag her out of the cell, before opening the second cell and grabbing the more resistant girl. "Don't fight me on this. You're not going to win this, and I don't want to hurt you," you say. You pull on the second girl's chain, but she plants her feet down and stares at you. > You drag her to the chambers You grit your teeth, pulling tightly on the chain and dragging her forward. She tries to resist, but you're simply stronger, and she's forced to follow. You slowly lead the two along the hallway, up the stairs, and into the "church". You hear Count Grey's dark, cold, emotionless voice from the main hall. "Welcome, Viceroys. Did you decide to come together, or simply met on the road here?" "Coincidence, my lord," another far deeper voice booms, one more filled with malice and hatred than Count Grey's. "Good, good. Haygarth!" Count Grey shouts. "Yes, yes master?" Haygarth's voice comes back from the stables. "Come, fetch the Viceroy's coats!" "Yes, yes sir!" Haygarth says, quickly hurrying to them. You turn your attention back to the task at hand. In front of you in a large, open stone room. Groves cover the stone floor, making the shape of a large pentagram. Lucas' two prisoners are kneeling at two of the points of the pentagram chained to a loop in the stone to prevent them from moving, while Dasha lies at the third, her unconscious state meaning she doesn't need to be chained up. "Come on," you say, dragging the second girl to one of the pentagram's points. You force her to kneel on the ground and chain her to the loop in the ground. You drag the first girl to the other, doing the same. Mikhail and Lucas stand off to the side, watching them. Mikhail looks down, looking vaguely embarrassed at his part in this. Lucas, however, seems ecstatic. He walks forward, grinning as he draws his dagger. "Oh boy, look at that!" he says, dropping to his knees in front of a girl. "Look at that. You see the pentagram? You see those deep, thick groves? I'm going to fill them with your blood. You like that? You ready?" The girl frantically begins to struggle, as Lucas smiles. Lucas slices the girl's throat open, as blood pours out, flooding into the grove and running along. The girl gurgles as blood pours through her throat, and Lucas lets the head fall to the ground over the grove, letting the blood pour out into it. "Mikhail, come on, we need this ready for the Viceroys and Count Grey!" he says. "I am not a butcher," Mikhail says softly, as Lucas' eyes narrow. "Don't fucking take the high road. You drugged every whore here, knowing it was all so we'd slit there throats here. You're as much a murderer as I am." Mikhail looks to the ground, opening his mouth as if to say something, but closing it just as quickly. "That's what I thought. Samuel, grab your knife, let's get to work."<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You hand over your wallet, giving them the finger as you do. "Thanks," the skinny one smiles, grabbing it from your hand as he smacks you in the head with the gun, knocking you to the floor. "What are you doing?" the big one asks. "We don't need to kill him! We got the wallet!" You look up to see the barrel of the gun pointing directly at your head. "You heard what he said. He's with the count. If we kill him now, the count won't come after us!" the skinny one knows. "He's seen our faces." "He doesn't know our names," the big one says. "I'm Lucas. That's Mikhail," the skinny one said. "What the fuck!?" the big one, Mikhail replies. "We have to kill him. Now even you'd agree to that," Lucas says. "Always kill your prey. You don't want to let them come back and bite you in the throat," a voice says. Count Grey steps from the shadows, his teeth curved in a grin, his fangs prominent. He grabs Lucas' gun arm, twisting it until Lucas drops the gun. Mikhail charges with a knife, but with a quick, well-planted punch to the chest sends him to the floor, badly winded. You stand up, grabbing the gun as well as drawing your own, pointing one at each of the thieves. "What, are you some fucking cowboy with your guns? Shoot, come on!" Lucas says, even though his bottom lip is quivering. "Tell me, Samuel. How did they manage to jump you?" Count Grey asks, tracing a finger down Lucas' nose. "I was pissing," you admit. "Hmmm... tell me, where is your family?" Count Grey asks, turning his attention to the teens. "Dead," Lucas answers. "Well then, you've shown balls, willingness to kill and the ability to ambush. Perhaps... Samuel, you were the one mugged. What happened? Were you behaving stupidly and ambushed by some lackluster fools, or are these two deserving of becoming ghouls?" > You suggest you were unprepared and the teens are undeserving of becoming ghouls "No. I was just unprepared," you say. "These thieves are nothing special." "So be..." Count Grey says, before Mikhail grabs your leg, flipping you onto your back. Count Grey steps back as he watches you struggle on the ground with Mikhail. Your guns bounce across the stones and land a few feet away, barely in arms reach. Lucas immediately goes for the guns, as Mikhail puts his hands around your throats and begins to strangle. > You go for the gun You reach for the gun, as both you and Lucas immediately grab it. You try to rip the gun from his hands, but Mikhail's massive, strong hands choke the life out of you. His hands crush your throat with it's powerful squeezing, and the life is wringed out of you as you desperately try to get one last breath. The world goes dark, as you let out a final croak.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"No. I was just unprepared," you say. "These thieves are nothing special." "So be..." Count Grey says, before Mikhail grabs your leg, flipping you onto your back. Count Grey steps back as he watches you struggle on the ground with Mikhail. Your guns bounce across the stones and land a few feet away, barely in arms reach. Lucas immediately goes for the guns, as Mikhail puts his hands around your throats and begins to strangle. > You focus on Mikhail Your fingers immediately grab Mikhail's face, your thumbs going into his eyes as you begin to push your thumbs down to blind him. Mikhail releases his grip to grab your wrists and pull him away, before Lucas fires the gun. The bullet blows out the back of your head, staining the ground red.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You walk inside the tavern by yourself, feeling the weight of your Leu-filled wallet in your side pocket. You walk along, and immediately garner the attention of everyone in the bar. Your garb makes it immediately clear to anyone but the most ignorant or simply stupid of the peasants that you're a servant of Count Grey. The tavern quickly clears out, heading to their various homes, leaving only a few idiots too old and stubborn or young and cocky to realize staying near you is death. You toss a crumpled note on the counter, looking up at the bar tender expectantly. Soon, you find yourself drinking a pint, a plate of chicken, boiled potatoes and cabbage in front of you. You smile, eating it up eagerly, downing the pint in a few gulps. You belch loudly, smiling as you find yourself now filled with food, warm and content. "Where's the bathroom?" you ask, feeling the need to piss rising as your full bladder demands you act. "Bathroom's broken. Go outside," the bar-tender replies. You raise an eyebrow, tapping on your hat. "Do you know who I am? Who I work for?" you ask. "I do. If he shows up here, I'm as happy to show him the broken toilet as I am you." You sigh, standing and walking outside into the alley. You unzip your trousers and pull out your dick, pissing onto the side of the old building. Suddenly, the cold blade of a knife is pressed against your throat. "Don't move," a deep voice whispers. "Hands in the air." "Do you expect me to let go of my dick and piss on myself?" you ask, more annoyed than scared. "Finish up," the voice says. You finish pissing, popping your genitalia back in your trousers, buttoning it up, and slowly turn to face your attack. Two teens, barely fifteen by the looks of it, both with short blond hair, one skinny, on large and muscular, stare at you. The skinny one holds a pistol, while the big one holds the knife pressed against your throat. "What's this about, gents? Revenge?" you ask, knowing just how many family's want your blood for taking their daughter's. "What? We don't know you," the big one says. "The wallet. Now," the skinny one says. You pause, frowning. "Are you seriously fucking telling me you've decided to mug me?" you ask, surprised. "Why the fuck wouldn't we?" the big one asks, pushing you against the wall as the skinny one draws his own knife with his left hand, strolling forward to press the barrel against your temple. "Wallet. Now," he says. "Fucking idiots. You don't recognize the outfit, eh? I'm a fucking Ghoul, Count Grey's personal assistant." The big one looks at the skinny one nervously. "Maybe we should let him go," the big one asks. "He's bluffing," the skinny one says, licking his lips. "Ghouls... ghouls are rotten, aren't they?" "The sun's down, boys. Count Grey's due to wake..." "Shut it! Wallet, now!" the skinny one commands. > You attack You grab the pistol, forcing it skyward as the skinny one pulls the trigger, the bullet ricocheting off the wall. The big one thrusts his knife forward, stabbing into your throat repeatedly, slicing open your throat and sending a wave of blood to run down your chest. You let out a pained gurgle, before collapsing to the ground.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Haygarth, be fair here. Do you really want to go back to the castle to have to cook for us? We could quickly get some grub, some drinks, and then head back to the castle. Right?" "Don't like leaving carriage. There's always pointing, laughing, staring," Haygarth says, pulling his balaclava up to the bridge of his nose. "Fine. I'll pull in. You go eat. I'll wait here, eat something when I get home," he says. The carriage pulls in alongside a tavern, as you look to Haygarth, who looks fairly pathetic as he attempts to cover his mishapen form. > You attempt to convince Haygarth to come in "Haygarth, it's cold, it's been a long day, you must be starving and desperate for a drink. Come on, Haygarth, let's go inside." "Fine," Haygarth says, nodding as he climbs off his spot. "Five minutes." > You enter the tavern You walk inside the tavern by yourself, feeling the weight of your Leu-filled wallet in your side pocket,. You walk alongside a nervous Haygarth, and immediately garner the attention of everyone in the bar. Your garb makes it immediately clear to anyone but the most ignorant or simply stupid of the peasants that you're a servant of Count Grey. The tavern quickly clears out, heading to their various homes, leaving only a few idiots too old and stubborn or young and cocky to realize staying near you is death. You toss a crumpled note on the counter, looking up at the bar tender expectantly. "Everyone's staring," Haygarth says, nervously. "Everyone either left, is drunk as fuck or is trying to appear tough while stopping from pissing themselves," you reply. Soon, you find yourself drinking a pint, a plate of chicken, boiled potatoes and cabbage in front of you, as Haygarth does likewise. You smile, eating it up eagerly, downing the pint in a few gulps. You belch loudly, as Haygarth mutters a complaint. You grin, finding yourself now filled with food, warm and content. "Where's the bathroom?" you ask, feeling the need to piss rising as your full bladder demands you act. "Bathroom's broken. Go outside," the bar-tender replies. You raise an eyebrow, tapping on your hat. "Do you know who I am? Who I work for?" you ask. "I do. If he shows up here, I'm as happy to show him the broken toilet as I am you." "Fuck you," you say, before turning to Haygarth. "Back in a sec, I need to piss." "Have haste! The master awaits!" Haygarth replies. You stand, turning and walking outside into the alley. You unzip your trousers and pull out your dick, pissing onto the side of the old building. Suddenly, the cold blade of a knife is pressed against your throat. "Don't move," a deep voice whispers. "Hands in the air." "Do you expect me to let go of my dick and piss on myself?" you ask, more annoyed than scared. "Finish up," the voice says. You finish pissing, popping your genitalia back in your trousers, buttoning it up, and slowly turn to face your attack. Two teens, barely fifteen by the looks of it, both with short blond hair, one skinny, on large and muscular, stare at you. The skinny one holds a pistol, while the big one holds the knife pressed against your throat. "What's this about, gents? Revenge?" you ask, knowing just how many family's want your blood for taking their daughter's. "What? We don't know you," the big one says. "The wallet. Now," the skinny one says. You pause, frowning. "Are you seriously fucking telling me you've decided to mug me?" you ask, surprised. "Why the fuck wouldn't we?" the big one asks, pushing you against the wall as the skinny one draws his own knife with his left hand, strolling forward to press the barrel against your temple. "Wallet. Now," he says. "Fucking idiots. You don't recognize the outfit, eh? I'm a fucking Ghoul, Count Grey's personal assistant." The big one looks at the skinny one nervously. "Maybe we should let him go," the big one asks. "He's bluffing," the skinny one says, licking his lips. "Ghouls... ghouls are rotten, aren't they?" "The sun's down, boys. Count Grey's due to wake..." "Shut it! Wallet, now!" the skinny one commands<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You sit in the shotgun seat of a carriage with Haygarth at the reins. It's been a long journey. You have to venture to meet with King Ferdinand I in order to arrange taxation laws and other things you haven't been educated well enough to understand. You're finally entering the territory under Count Grey's control, staring out at the village you're entering as the sun falls in the distance. "Stop here," you say. "I want to grab a bite to eat." "We must be home soon!" Haygarth says. "Count Grey's in the back, he might wake up soon. Sun's almost gone." You're hungry, thirsty and you've been traveling for the past three days. There's no way in hell you're going back to the castle for Haygarth to cook up his famous soup, which you're certain he's literally shitting in. > You force Haygath to stop "Haygarth," you snarl, drawing a pistol from your side. "If you really want me to pistol-whip you into submission, I'm willing to do so." Haygarth sighs, before nodding. "Fine, fine, but be quick about it!" The carriage pulls in alongside a tavern, as you look to Haygarth, who looks fairly pathetic as he attempts to cover his mishapen form.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You awake to the prick of fangs against your neck. You don't move, taking in a deep breath. "You looked so... so appetizing. Let's go. We need to finish the last stage of your path towards becoming a true apprentice." You nod, standing. You make your way down to the prison cell, where the girl still waits. She looks up, terrified. "What... what is to be done with her?" you gulp. "She is food. Learn that fact," your master says. The vampire draws a long dagger from his side, handing it to you. "If you're going to be my Ghoul, you need to prove you're capable of preparing my food. Kill her," You hold the knife, staring at it as the girl begins to cry. You notice from the wet patch growing on her nightgown, she’s pissed herself once more. “Kill her. She’s weak, you’re strong. Slice open her throat, so I can feed,” Count Grey commanded. The girl breaks into sobs as Count Grey opens the cell door, swinging it ajar and motioning for you to enter. You nod, walking forward with the knife held tightly in your hand. > You refuse “I can’t do it,” you say, dropping the knife and let it collapse on the ground. “Do you really want to make that choice?” Count Grey asks, baring his fangs. They remind you of long, curved thin ivory daggers, ready to strike at any given moment “Yes,” you say. “So be it,” he says. “You’ve shown courage by refusing an order. Perhaps you’re braver than expected. Fine, follow me. Lock the cell door behind you.” You breath out a sigh of relief, closing the door and locking it with a twist of the key. You follow Count Grey along the hall. Soon, you find yourself in front of a large, wooden door. Haygarth has forbidden you from entering, which only mean that you had one less room to clean. Count Grey pulls a short, silver key from his pocket. He opens the door, revealing a massive storage room. The room is filled with cabinets and shelving units. They’re all filled with crystal bottles, filled with a scarlet red ichor. “This castle was built to withstand a siege. It’s storerooms could keep a force here going for years with wheat, potatoes, salted meats and more, as well as small gardens. Unfortunately, I require a more… delicate solution to avoid starving.” You look at the endless bottles of blood, wondering how many lives were given to fill them. “It’s quite hard to successfully bottle blood. Let alone hard hard it is to get it from the victim without a needle and a few hours.” “You want me to kill people and bottle their blood?” you gulp. “Are you willing to do that?” > Yes “You think so? You’re a virgin, aren’t you?” “Yes,” you say, raising an eyebrow. “Then I think you’re right. You will fill a few bottles,” Count Grey says. Count Grey bursts forward, grabbing you by the neck and twisting it. His fangs fly forward, stabbing through your neck. You gasp as your blood fills his mouth. The last sensation you feel is your bleeding neck wound being pressed against the rim of an empty glass bottle.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>“I can’t do it,” you say, dropping the knife and let it collapse on the ground. “Do you really want to make that choice?” Count Grey asks, baring his fangs. They remind you of long, curved thin ivory daggers, ready to strike at any given moment “Yes,” you say. “So be it,” he says. “You’ve shown courage by refusing an order. Perhaps you’re braver than expected. Fine, follow me. Lock the cell door behind you.” You breath out a sigh of relief, closing the door and locking it with a twist of the key. You follow Count Grey along the hall. Soon, you find yourself in front of a large, wooden door. Haygarth has forbidden you from entering, which only mean that you had one less room to clean. Count Grey pulls a short, silver key from his pocket. He opens the door, revealing a massive storage room. The room is filled with cabinets and shelving units. They’re all filled with crystal bottles, filled with a scarlet red ichor. “This castle was built to withstand a siege. It’s storerooms could keep a force here going for years with wheat, potatoes, salted meats and more, as well as small gardens. Unfortunately, I require a more… delicate solution to avoid starving.” You look at the endless bottles of blood, wondering how many lives were given to fill them. “It’s quite hard to successfully bottle blood. Let alone hard hard it is to get it from the victim without a needle and a few hours.” “You want me to kill people and bottle their blood?” you gulp. “Are you willing to do that?” > No “I thought not. You’re a virgin, aren’t you?” “Yes,” you say, raising an eyebrow. “Then I think you will fill a few bottles,” Count Grey says. Count Grey bursts forward, grabbing you by the neck and twisting it. His fangs fly forward, stabbing through your neck. You gasp as your blood fills his mouth. The last sensation you feel is your bleeding neck wound being pressed against the rim of an empty glass bottle.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The coach enters the castle gate, as you climb off the coach. Haygarth lowers the portcullis, as you go to the back to open the coach. The girl sits there, staring at you in terror. "Get out," you command. The girl nods, crawling ahead as she gets out of the coach. You grab her by the wrist, leading her along to the coach. She doesn't talk, seemingly in shock. She doesn't say a word, instead staring at you in terror. You wonder if you should try to converse, to calm her, or keep unemotional and professional about this issue. > You do your job without talking You keep walking, as the girl stays compliant. She does actually smell quite strongly of perfume. You lead her quickly to the castle's dungeons. You drag her down the stairs, before leading her into a prison cell. You lock the cell door, staring at her from behind the bars. She stares blankly ahead, leaning against the wall and sliding down to lean against it, her nightgown now covered in mud and dirt. You leave her there, now secured, and end up heading to bed for a few hours sleep before Count Grey arrives back.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>"Uh... the... the fi..." you stutter, tripping over your words as the vampire growls. "Have I found myself with another fool, a boy with the mind of a mule?" the vampire says, his long, gleaning white fangs, the corners of his mouth still red with your blood. "I've had a year out of you. Perhaps it's best to finish you off now." Count Grey slowly walks forward, snarling as his fangs poke out, looking like huge spears. > You run You turn quickly, sprinting away as the vampire bursts forward, knocking your leg away and sending you tumbling forward. You smash into the ground as the vampire strikes, landing atop your fragile body.. He grabs your neck, holding your head high to expose your neck. His mouth immediately shoots forward, biting into your neck as he begins to drain you of your life force. You gasp as your blood is drained, before he stands, leaving your dead body on the ground.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You sit in the shotgun seat of the coach, as Haygarth continues spurring the horses forward. You're entering the village of Nitchidorf, with Count Grey resting in the back. The carriage's wheels roll into the village, stopping as you enter the village limits. "Go open the doors for the Count," Haygarth says. You nod, quickly hopping off the carriage. You run to the back of the carriage, opening it as the tall, gaunt Vampire steps out, tilting his head to stare down at you. "Follow," he commands. He begins walking along the street, staring at each of the houses. "We must find you a little... playmate," Count Grey says, looking at the houses. He sniffs the air, staring at the houses. His eyes flicker to you, filling you with dread as he licks his lips, still stained with bits of your crimson ichor, looking hungry. "Ye-yes, master," you say, nervously. The vampire stares at you for a second, before looking away. He seems impatient. "Yes... I can smell two prominent ones. Tell me, Samuel, what do you think? There's a young one who smells freshly bathed and lemongrass perfume, or one that smells of fresh dough and... terror sweat. It appears the latter one can see us. Which is it, Samuel?" > The second girl "Uh... the... the se..." you stutter, tripping over your words as the vampire growls. "Have I found myself with another fool, a boy with the mind of a mule?" the vampire says, his long, gleaning white fangs, the corners of his mouth still red with your blood. "I've had a year out of you. Perhaps it's best to finish you off now." Count Grey slowly walks forward, snarling as his fangs poke out, looking like huge spears. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You sit on the ground, scrubbing the cold stone floor of the Grey Castle, named as much for its cold, lifeless demeanor as much as its owner. Haygarth stands over you, watching as he makes sure you do a proper job cleaning the blood stains that cover the ground, a remainder of the last girl foolish enough to be out at night. So far, your job has been simple. You have little contact with Count Grey, as you work in the day and sleep at night, whilst he sleeps in the day, coming out at night to hunt, feed, plan and much more. Mostly, Haygarth forces you to work at any job he sees fit. He seems to think you're little different from a pack horse, working you as hard as them. If anything, he's feeding the pack horses better. You see your role in the castle as a servant on your more optimistic days, and as a slave on the worse ones. "Good, good, put your back into it! Yes, that's it!" Haygarth says, as he hurries around the room, collecting pieces of clothes left over from the poor girl being brutally murdered. "Yes, Haygarth," you reply, putting your pressure on the brush as you splash some more water to get rid of a particularly disgusting stain of a mixture of blood and urine. Haygarth is a hard ruler, forcing you to work day and night. He's not sadistic or cruel, he just doesn't seem to understand that you're not an animal who needs a break. Hell, perhaps his only redeemable feature is the fact that he works himself even harder. As he rushes past, trying to do various chores, you can hear him angrily mutter to himself to go faster. You finish off the stain, quickly crawling over to the next. You sigh as you realize just how much you need to clean. Your knees hurt from crawling around all day, your hands are covered in blisters, and you've done nothing but work all day. You had two ive minute breaks to cram food into your mouth, and one more to shit, and that was it. Who the fuck has only two people to keep an entire castle from falling into disrepair? "Hurry up, boy! Use some of those strong muscles! I want to be able to see my reflection in it!" Will he ever leave you be? The bastard can't just let you fucking work, he has to constantly remind you that you're not doing good enough? > You keep working "Yes, sir," you mutter. You continue working, as does Haygarth. It takes about half an hour before the entire place is clean. You look out the window, seeing the large moon rising in the distance. "Yes, yes! Tonight, tonight is the night, little one!" Haygarth says. "The year of the mule is ready. Now, let's go! We must wake Count Grey!" > You follow Haygarth You follow Haygarth along the hallways with haste. You hurry down the stairs, quickly heading to the lowest floor, at the center of the castle, into a dark room, empty except for a single, candle-adored coffin leaning against the stone wall, and a large, black sword hanging above the coffin. The coffin in intricate, a large, black wooden coffin with an intricate, thorny pattern, and a single silver, demonic face with a roaring mouth with a pair of fangs on the front. The sword, on the other hand, is somehow even darker, its surface seeming to suck the very light from the room. Even staring at the thin edge makes you feel like you've been stabbed. You can practically taste the hatred and malice that emanates from it. "Do you feel it?" Haygarth says. "That is the master of the home. Don't be scared. It grows on you." You feel the hairs stand up on your skin. The air tastes stale and rotten, and there's a general feeling of dread emanating from it. In a place like this, you feel even if you called on the good Lord to save you, he would be unable to find your soul in such an abyss of all warm or love, let alone rescue you from it. "What now?" you ask. "The Count needs blood to awaken. Be still. I'll make it as easy as possible. Just don't resist." Haygarth gently grabs your hand, pulling it forward until your hand touches the metal. "It... stings," you say, as it feels like your hand is both being put against a hot stove and a freezing block of ice. "It's OK. You'll get used to it," Haygarth says, drawing an iron blade from his side. Haygarth presses the blade against your arm, quickly slicing a small cut in your arm. "Ah!" you yelp. Haygarth slowly presses your wound into the mouth as the silver demon. Blood begins to pour down the creature's mouth, as the coffin's door clicks open. Haygarth grabs you by the shoulder, pulling you back. Count Grey steps forward. He looks the same as he has every night since the night he took you, except now his lips look parched and cracked, his eyes immediately darting down to your arm. "Thirst," he moans, staring at your wound. Haygarth gently nudges you forward. "The master needs to feed, Samuel. Offer up your arm." You hold your arm forward, as Count Grey grabs it, his mouth darting down to your bleeding wound with an insane speed. You close your eyes and wait for the pain of his bite, but instead feel his cold lips on your wound, instantly beginning to suck the blood out of your arm. You take a deep breath as you go pale, Haygarth putting your arm around his shoulder to keep you from fainting. After about a minute, Count Grey stops, raising his head as he smiles. "Good. I was thirsty. The bitch from the other night was dry, and half her blood ended up on the floors. Good thing I managed to stop myself from draining you completely," Count Grey says. He looks up at the sword that hangs above the coffin, staring at it for a second. "Do you see that sword? While I like to keep up to date with my weapon technology, such as with rifles. grenades and the new and innovative Maxim Gun, in cases of the super-natural, the old stuff is the best. I've had that sword since I was a child. Forged it myself under command of my master. So many ancient, arcane inscriptions, horrid rituals and infinitely worse had to be done to make it the thing it is today. It's name is the Psychí Líptis. It is a killing machine. You will become the same." Count Grey s walking past you, and up the stairs. You stand there, waiting, looking at Haygarth for what to do. "Follow!" Count Grey's voice booms. You quickly hurry up the stairs after him.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>You scuttle forward for the gun, grabbing it. You aim it at the vampire, grabbing the trigger and pulling it tightly. The gun explodes, sending you falling back with the recoil and smacking into the wall with a painful thud. The vampire roars as buckshot slams into his back. He grabs your father by the head, twisting with inhuman speed as your hear a painful snap. Then, he turns, staring at you. He snarls, walking forward quickly. You reach for the gun again, but he steps on your hand as you yelp in pain. "You dare shoot me? I have lived millennia, you think you'll be the one to end my life?" the hunter snarls, before laughing, a horrible, terrifying noise. "You have balls, little one." You stare at the monster in front of you, trying to stare him, but you see nothing but hate and unquenching thirst behind his eyes. "Yes... I see strength in you. Potential. I have an offer for you, as the newfound man of the house. Join me. Let me take you on as my... apprentice. As my servant. As my slave. As whatever I need you to be. In exchange for your servitude, I offer you not only your life, but the life of your mother and sisters." You stare at the monster, whose eyes narrow as he waits for you answer. > You refuse "No," you say. "No?" the vampire asks. "You have more balls than I thought. You're courageous. Too courageous. Can't have you getting brave and trying to get revenge for your peasant father some day." With that, the vampire grabs your head, quickly twisting it with unnatural speed, nearly tearing your head off before you can even blink in reaction.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The night is cold, dark and starless. The only light other than the candle Mama clutches in her hand comes from the moon, whose once bright, white, inviting and warm light is now deep red, like it's been splattered with blood. You're curled up with your two sisters, Ivana and Lilia, with Mama sitting over you, her candle in one hand and a wooden crucifix in the other. Papa is nailing boards to keep the door shut, hastily trying to give you some extra protection. It's the Night of the Blood Moon. You've never been through one, the last happening less than a year before your birth, but now, after another twelve years, it had arrived. Your eldest brother, Dornan, told stories about it, stories that chilled you to the bone, that kept you from sleep, that gave birth to the horrors of your nightmares. If even a fraction of what Dornan said is true, the screams should begin soon. "Mama?" Lilia asks. "Hush, darling," Mama replies, as Papa finishes boarding up the door and grabs his shotgun from it's place on the wall. He takes his spot next to you, his gun pointed at the door, and you wait. The screams start soon. Howls of pain and terror from other houses of the town. Ivana is old enough to know to stay quiet, but Lilia soon starts to cry. Mama desperately tries to hush her six year old daughter, but to no avail. "Sssh! Sssh, darling! It's alright, you just must stay quiet!" Papa says. Suddenly, a tall, dark shadow passes by the window. Papa immediately grabs his shotgun, frantically raising it to his shoulder. The shadow disappears, and Papa breaths a sigh of relief. "Scared of something?" a deep, guttural voice says from behind you. Papa turns, firing his shotgun as the monster speeds forward. It grabs Papa's throat with unnatural speed, smiling as it holds him in the air, strangling him. The monster looks hideous. It's dreadfully pale, it's face twisted with hate, and looks to be hairless. It's eyes are completely black, like the endless darkness of its soul, and it's mouth is filled with mangled teeth with two large fangs, curved and bloodstained, with even more blood pouring down its face. The creature snarls, before smiling as it turns to look at you and your siblings. "Ah... so young... so fresh..." the vampire says, licking it's lipless mouth with a forked tongue. "Peasant, your daughters are mine. Don't struggle." The vampire tosses Papa to the ground, turning towards your siblings. "No! No! You will not take my daughters!" Father says, grabbing for his gun. The monster strikes, smashing it's boot into Papa's head. "How dare you?!" the monster screams. "I gave you your land, I gave you your house, I give you your life!" The monster begins walking toward Papa, who desperately crawls back to the wall. "I keep the beasts away from the village! I let you roam the night all but one night every twelve years! I don't ask for your wife, to allow you to sire more. I don't ask for your son, to leave you a legacy. I only ask for your daughters! How dare you attempt to deny me that?" As the vampire walks towards Papa, his fangs bared, you see a chance to get Papa's shotgun. Still, you don't want to anger the vampire further. Perhaps the best option is to hope for the beast's mercy. > You beg "Please, please don't hurt my papa! We don't want any trouble! Please, show us mercy, and we'll remain forever loyal! We never miss food shipments...!" The Vampire snarls. "You are a sheep," he snarls. "Look at you. Look at all of you. Weak. Mindless. Sheep. You only exist to feed me. Your lifespan is measured in decades. I've lived over a millenia! I am the hunter, you are prey!" The vampire grabs Papa's head, twisting it with amazing speed. You hear his neck crack, as the vampire drops his limp body. Tears stream down your face, as he walks towards you. He grabs you by the scruff of your neck. "You are a sheep," he snarls. He flings you to the ground where you bounce off the wooden floor, skidding into the wall with a painful thud. Mama tries to strike him, but he catches her hand, yanking her into his grasp and biting down on her neck. She gasps as he tears open her throat, pressing his bloody mouth on the bleeding wound. He feeds for about a minute, as you lie there, too terrified to move. Then, he strides forward, catching your sisters by the hand and lifting them into the air. He flings them over his shoulder like a young lamb, and looks at you. "Bleet," he snarls, before walking out of the door, leaving you alone. > The Next Morning... You only peer out of your blood-spattered house when the sun rises, driving the vampires back like a shepherd driving off a wolf pack. The village is destroyed, and the vampire's promise is broken. Corpses lie strewn in the streets, in various states of dismemberment. One cadaver in particular stands out to you; the baker's son, who you used to play Knights and Goblins with, has been messily hanged with his own entrails. His face is bloated and blue, and you disgustedly realize that his eyes have been messily removed. You open the door to your house. As it swings out, it pushes the bisected corpse of a village toddler out of the way. You promptly vomit all over the corpse. The sound of a carriage rolling into town attracts your attention. Two riders sit astride, dressed as wealthy mourners attending a funeral might. The man nods curtly. "You're probably quite angry, then." > You life continues. A sob racks the woman's body as the grim-faced bishop slips the noose over her neck. "Please," The peasant woman begs as he pulls it taught and prepares to kick her off the platform. "I haven't done a thing, m'lord!" "For the crimes of murder, incest, communing with Satan and cannibalism, I sentence you to death." The holy man's voice wavers at death. Sympathy? Guilt? His face is unreadable, as always. A swift kick sends her off the platform. The young woman slumps like a marionette with its strings cut as the rope goes taught. A sign around her neck reads WITCH! You push through the crowd of peasant onlookers. Some jeer, some gasp in horror, but most shake their head and disperse, driven indoors by the chill and rain that comes with the mountain climate. Your hand touches the sword at your belt, feeling its reassuring weight. "Father Harrison." you murmur, nodding your head to the older man. "The sellsword returns," He looks at you disapprovingly. "What brings you back? No more corpses left to butcher for coin?" You bite back a swell of irritation. "Corpses that dine on human flesh. An important distinction." He laughs. It's a cold, humorless sound. "Of course. Best to charge for their disposal, no?" "Dangerous or not, I've still got to -" He silences you with a dismissive wave of his hand. "I'll hear no more of it. Tell me what brings you back to Eden." "I was looking to get my sword consecrated," You say evenly. "I was told that the Holy Roman Church provided such services." "We are obligated to, yes." He scowls. "See Friar Jameson. Stay no longer than is necessary." > The Blood of the Christ The basilica is empty, save for Friar Jameson, who frets over a golden bowl of what appears to be human blood. Along the carefully-crafted stone walls lie stained glass windows, displaying the adventures of various saints and angels from Catholic mythology. On the far wall is an oversized statue of Christ crushing the life out of a vampire with his two oversized fists. Friar Jameson looks up as the massive oak door swings shut behind you. He strides forward intently, grimly furrowing his eyebrows at you. He stops five feet away, glaring at you; you can feel his eyes pierce your very soul. "Hello, Jameson." He bursts into a grin and embraces you. You can feel your back crack under the big man's bear-like embrace. "Good to see you, you mercenary bastard!" You awkwardly pat his back. "Y-you as well, Jameson." "What brings you back to Eden?" He asks cheerfully, pulling back. You notice a fresh new scar running the length of his chin. "Lodgings for the night, and a Consecration. Been tracking a pack across the damn continent. Pretty sure they passed by here not too long ago." You explain, rubbing your shoulder. You hope he doesn't hug you again. His cheerful demeanor slips away, somewhat. "A Consecration, huh? Might be trickier than you expect. Blood's been angry recently." "How does blood get angry?" You wonder aloud. "Your guess is as good as mine, mate," He frowns deeply. "But shit's been going very, very wrong with the Ministrations." You're filled with a sudden impatience. You can feel your quarry slipping away. You hand him the leather scabbard, blade inside. "Do your best, anyhow." You leave the church, then, leaving Jameson clutching the blade with an ever-increasing look of alarm on his face. > You find yourself some lodgings for the night. You find yourself some lodgings at The Serpent, a run-down, overpriced inn on the edge of town. The beer has more in common with water than booze, and prostitutes and alcoholics glower at you from the edge of the common area. You rent yourself a room from the heavyset, nigh-incomprehensible Scottish bartender. He waves you to the back, where you find your meager lodgings. You lay your head against the stuffed straw pillow and doze off instantaneously. > You morning in Eden. The sun rises over the township of Eden, beating back whatever bloodthirsty creatures of the night lurk in its darkened streets. A cry is taken up in the town square, and it's carried to your ears on the backs of frightened townspeople. An old woman has been found dead in the night. Her one remaining arm is splayed out to the side, and the other lies ten feet away, on the other side of the street; it's been sucked dry of blood. From your vantage point in a nearby alley, you can see the church move in on the corpse almost immediately. Two glowering, armored figures dragging the corpse, along with the arm, back towards the basilica. One of the Paladins glares at you as you as the corpse is transported to the religious fortress on the hill. He appears to give you a silent challenge to come follow him. You suspect vampirism is at play, but there's no way to be certain until you can manually inspect the corpse for bite-wounds; otherwise, it could be werewolves, or even a plain serial killer. Of course, your sword is still in the basilica being consecrated. > You follow the Paladins. You follow the two agents of the Church as they drag the desecrated corpse back to their armored fortress. You maintain fifteen feet of distance, and use the crowds and narrow, winding streets to avoid their suspicious gaze. You become acutely aware of the two massive spears that they each carry; a four-foot hickory rod with a steel blade mounted on one end. You have no doubt that it could crack your head, or remove it wholesale, if swung by one of the two muscled brutes. They ascend the winding path to the basilica, leaving a steady trail of visceral fluid as the corpse scrapes along the ancient cobblestones. > You surprise! The unencumbered brute suddenly turns around, at a moment where you're exposed. You try to scramble backwards, but trip over your own feet. The last thing you see is the armored figure standing over you, prepared to club you over the head. > You sweet Sleep Finding the armored grasp of the Paladin quite comfortable, you slip once more into the land of unconsciousness. You go limp once more, leaving yourself a heavy burden for the alleged holy man to drag along. You awaken chained to a moist stone wall. A pounding headache graces your senses. "Oh, shit." you say to no one in particular. "Ephesians, four twenty-nine," A monotone voice chides you from the darkness. "Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear." Even in a dungeon, with a head injury, chained to a wall, you can't escape the proselytization of Father Harrison. > You retrieving your sword. The restraints effortlessly fall off. You rub your wrists, slotting your thumbs into the grooves dug in by the chains. Harrison's words about retrieving your sword linger with you; you find it curious that the elderly priest directed you to arm yourself. "Turn the other cheek" appears to have been replaced by "don't die". You leave the dungeon (why does the basilica have a dungeon?) and wince as sunlight assaults your senses once more. Your head injury flares up immediately, sending you sprawling to the carpeted floor. Curiously, your pain is ignored by the sparse population of friars and monks stewing about. You stand at the back end of the room you entered two days before. Before you lies the rom where mass would typically be held. On the leftmost side of the wall closest to you is a doorway leading to the upper floors of the building. A longing strikes you, the sort and intensity of which you hadn't felt in years; a desire for something spiritual, something greater than yourself. You feel a newfound awareness for your place in the universe. Either that, or you got hit really fucking hard. > You take a moment for prayer. You sit on the closest pew, and stare at the massive statue of Jesus Christ that dominates the preacher's stage. You bow your head a moment in contemplative prayer. It feels awkward, clumsy and out-of-place, and your throbbing head prevents you from any real introspection. After a few minutes, you get up to retrieve your sword. Intuition tells you it's upstairs. > You upstairs The upstairs isn't as large as you expected, but to call it "small" would be a disservice. After walking up the fifty stone-tile steps, you find yourself in a carpeted hallway, stretching out for a couple of hundred feet in front of you. Either side is lined with small wooden doors, where the monks and permanent inhabitants of the church sleep. Behind you is the entrance to a library; given as this is a church, there's likely not much in the way of interesting reading, unless you like Latin bibles and apologetics. Logically, you know there must be an armory somewhere, but it's not up here. You head back downstairs. > You head downstairs. You head back down through the central room and back downstairs. The stairs are little more than a darkened stone tunnel, lit intermittently with flickering torches. Through process of elimination, you realize that the armory must be somewhere on the subterranean level. You walk down the stairs, with the trepidation of one who has lived their entire life in a world filled with vampires. Thankfully, nothing lurks in the shadows, and you reach the armory fairly easily. It's roughly a ten-foot by ten-foot stone chamber, with walls lined with rifles and the like. You find your sword fairly easily, as it's been placed separate from the weapon's owned by the church, on an opposite table. You slam it into your scabbard and buckle it around your hip. You go back upstairs. > You pounding at the Door You hear a pounding at the thick, oaken door. The three friars milling about the central room look up in alarm. You quickly approach the door, and you’re ushered back by one of the stone-faced monks. “It’s in all of our best interest if that door stays sealed.” he explains in mute tones, not meeting your eye, “A… large flock moved in on the town shortly after we sealed the church. Father Harrison saw fit to leave you untroubled with these matters.” “Fuck.” you mutter, as you slowly begin to realize why you dislike the church. “If you want to speak to him, he should be in the War Room.” the grim man explains quickly. “Why the fuck would there be a War Room in a basilica?” you ask, growing more irritated by the moment. “Perhaps,” he runs a hand over his bald scalp, sweating profusely, “It would be best if you allowed Father Harrison to explain this matter to you personally.” “Perhaps,” you muse bitterly, “Where is the War Room?” “Come.” he instructs curtly, as he walks back across the large room. You’re beginning to suspect that it may be a very long time indeed before another mass is held in it. > The War Room You recognize a half-dozen high-ranking priests and town officials inside the strangely-titled War Room. They’re cloistered in a semicircle alongside a parchment map with arcane sigils scratched into it. You see what appear to be troop markers, which is strange in and of itself; why does the Roman Catholic church have an army at its disposal? What army is denoted by an upside-down cross? These questions burn into your mind as Father Harrison nods to you. “I suppose you’ve started to understand that our purposes here aren’t exactly… ecclesiastical.” Harrison says acridly. He looks strange, armored in medieval chain with a double-barreled shotgun strapped to his back. Gone are the clipped, judgmental tones of an aging priest, having been replaced with the pragmatic, competent voice of a general ordering his troops. “No,” you murmur, amazed, “Not much of a Christian operation you’re running here.” He scowls. Warrior or not, the expression still fits him perfectly. “Deus Vult, my friend. Whether you like it or not, there are occasions when God demands his flock pick up the shepherd’s rod in his stead. Whether it’s warlike Mohammedans and blaspheming Jews, or bloodthirsty vampires… he cares little.” You recognize the quotation from one of the old historical texts Sir Gregory crammed down your throat. Pope Urban the Second, shortly before the first “Crusade. You’re planning a crusade.” “Yes,” he says with a grim smile, “We’re planning a crusade.” > You specialist Knowledge “But… why?” you ask, equal parts fascinated and horrified. “Why not?” he responds simply, “We’ve been fodder for too long. You yourself were almost a digestif, when you were a lad.” Now it’s your turn to scowl. You’re beginning to suspect that Harrison might be a fucking nob. “Not how I’d describe a massacre of innocents, but that’s one way to describe it.” “Semantics,” he mutters, waving your concerns aside with a sharp gesture of the wrist, “Now, your… unique skills as a corpse-hunting sellsword put you in a uniquely valuable position.” “But what would you have done if I hadn’t come here?” you ask. “It was assured that you would come here. A job posting near Eden didn’t spring up organically.” he smiles, a touch of sinisterness brushing his lips. “But why would I —“ “You will be rewarded most handsomely, let me make that clear. The situation becomes clear. He’s offering you a job. > You join the Crusade You’re not sure if you believe in God or not, but you believe in gold and revenge, and the Church has given you ample opportunity to sample both. Within a couple of months, your knowledge of the scourge placed you in control of a small garrison in Eastern Europe. To your relief, you were far from the heavy fighting. You expected a Crusade, but WWIII may be a better descriptor. Within a few days of the Pope’s declaration, mass hysteria gripped the general populace. Although good, faithful Catholics were more than willing to take up arms, Europe’s resident protestant and Jews were unwilling to fight, at first; this quickly changed when entire hamlets and villages began to disappear into the night. Governments proved to be ineffectual for more than the usual reasons; most parliaments and senates had long since been infiltrated. A few dead heads of state and parliamentary massacres later, most of the governing bodies were left headless. As you saw, the Church fought with little regard for the common man. Those who were unable to fight found themselves out in the cold, and those who found themselves out in the cold oftentimes found something colder still waiting in their homes. Some might say you’ve found a grander purpose. Others might say you’re still a mercenary, whoring out your dignity for gold. Perhaps, both are true. However, with the war raging, you have no time for such esoteric matters. > You mixed Squad Tactics Seven feet tall, if it’s a foot. Blood drips off its curled tusks, which protrude from its mouth like massive, arching fingers pointed upwards. How does a vampire become a monstrosity like this? Gabriel tells you that it’s a result of pacts with Satan. Raziel, the village apothecary, informs you that the vampires have “read the writing inside”, and have unlocked the secrets to transform at will. You’re not sure about either explanation. Either way, the beast is an immediate threat to the supply chain crossroads you’ve been tasked with defending. Gabriel trains his rifle on it; his hand shake violently as he takes aim. You can see him struggle to hold on to his gun, white-knuckled and terrified. The two other men at your position are all in similar states of apprehension. The ground vibrates slightly as the colossal horror shambles onwards, marching down the forested road for reasons unknown. In the feeble light of the streetlamps, you can see the blasphemous tokens hanging about its neck, made out of bits of human bone and sinew. Your hand touches your own weapon, a plain-looking revolver hanging in a simple leather pouch at your waste. You could annihilate the beast right now, and bring an end to its life; or, you could follow it back to its lair, and see if you can’t drive out the swarm. > You bring it down! “Fire!” You whisper fiercely to Gabriel. He complies immediately, violently jerking on the trigger. His shot goes wild, and strikes the foliage behind the creature. A flock of crows takes flight into the trees, blotting out the moon in their frantic numbers. The other two men dive for their weapons, and launch a hasty volley as the creature bellows out a challenge. One bullet strikes its shoulder, rewarding the firer with a burst of thick, tar-like ichor. The other strikes a tree branch, scoring its deep bark with an ugly new wound. By the time you reach for your weapon, the jig is up. The creature barrels into your team of saboteurs, sending you barreling into the underbrush, and sending your pistol flying into the bushes some four feet away. You sympathetically wince as the vampire plants a foot on one Gabriel’s chest, and crushes his ribcage in one motion. You shimmy through the scratching thorns, frantically searching for your only hope of salvation. Struck by the back of a monstrous fist, a man begins an ill-fated flight into the night sky. Your grasp closes around the revolver as the third man is run through with a clenched fist through the stomach. Hot blood coats your face as he twitches and feebly claws at the oversized creature’s massive bicep. You scream in agony as a foot crushes your right hand, shattering the bones within. You look up, and see the beast standing above you. The ghost of a smirk touches it’s oversized features as it grabs your other arm and plants its foot on your chest. An enormous force is applied to your shoulder. As the agony grows, you become aware of your muscles and tendons snapping like rope, until your arm is pulled free of your body. Darkness takes you then. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|> Seven feet tall, if it’s a foot. Blood drips off its curled tusks, which protrude from its mouth like massive, arching fingers pointed upwards. How does a vampire become a monstrosity like this? Gabriel tells you that it’s a result of pacts with Satan. Raziel, the village apothecary, informs you that the vampires have “read the writing inside”, and have unlocked the secrets to transform at will. You’re not sure about either explanation. Either way, the beast is an immediate threat to the supply chain crossroads you’ve been tasked with defending. Gabriel trains his rifle on it; his hand shake violently as he takes aim. You can see him struggle to hold on to his gun, white-knuckled and terrified. The two other men at your position are all in similar states of apprehension. The ground vibrates slightly as the colossal horror shambles onwards, marching down the forested road for reasons unknown. In the feeble light of the streetlamps, you can see the blasphemous tokens hanging about its neck, made out of bits of human bone and sinew. Your hand touches your own weapon, a plain-looking revolver hanging in a simple leather pouch at your waste. You could annihilate the beast right now, and bring an end to its life; or, you could follow it back to its lair, and see if you can’t drive out the swarm. > You follow it. You decide then to trail the beast, hopefully finding its lair in the process. Silently, you motion for the two other saboteurs to stay back, taking just Gabriel with you. Out of all the village conscripts, you find him to be the least incompetent. That, and he quickly learned the valuable skill of shutting up. Terror crosses the boyish face under a blonde mop of hair, but he nods. You creep down the secluded lane, carefully avoiding twigs and treacherous birds. Crows, in particular, appear to be friends of the vampires; you’ve seen many a man fall to startled birds. Well, that and horrific injuries to the jugular. You stalk the beast for a good quarter mile, before it stops, seemingly at random, somewhere along the forested road leading into town. It steps into the bushes across the road from you, and looks down. And then, it vanishes completely. You move to follow it, and then you abruptly faint. The strings of consciousness are severed, leaving you as a marionette plummeting towards the stage. > A gateway. You awaken in a cold sweat, bundled in rags, and restrained to a bed. You find yourself in a small shack, scarcely illuminated by a few candles. It appears to be held up by naught but twigs and thatch, bound with bundles of rope. Piles of books line the corner. If you focus, you can see an unfamiliar language that makes your eyes water. An old man with a face like a mannequin flits about the shack. What he’s doing is unknown to you, as are his intentions. You gasp in horror as the candlelight surges; for a moment, you can see a pair of skeletal wings, extended into the shadowed corners of the makeshift building. He turns, and you wince as you feel his bright eyes bore through your defenses, laying bare your very soul. “The prodigal son awakens!” he tuts. “Prodigal son?” you ask as you regain your faculties. “I certainly hope so.” he responds with a warm chuckle. “Why?” “Disorder is bad for research.” he responds matter-of-factly, as if he were stating that the sky is blue. “Research… what do you research?” His body goes rigid. “Nothing.” “Nothing?” “Everything.” he smiles guiltily. You decide to change tack. “Why did you bring me here?” “I didn’t bring you anywhere,” he says defensively, “Gabriel brought you here.” “Why did he do that?” you ask. His double-talk is quickly growing tiresome. “You fainted,” Raziel assumes his matter-of-fact tone once more. “And I nursed you back to health?” “How did you nurse me back to health?” “I tied you down to prevent you from biting your fingers off.” “Why would I bite my fingers off?” “You had a fit of madness.” You let out an even sigh through your teeth. “Why did I have a fit of madness?” “It would appear that you looked into Hell.” despite the sudden and abrupt lurch to the unusual, his clipped, explanatory demeanor remains unchanged. “I looked into Hell?” you ask, incredulously, “How did I do that?” “You stalked a vampire, no?” Raziel takes the tone of a disappointed teacher, or perhaps a parent. “Yes.” you sound suspiciously like a misbehaving child. “Well,” he explains, “It’s only rational that you looked into Hell.” “Why in the hell would it be normal for me to look into Hell?” your temper flares, before you restrain it once more. He doesn’t seem to notice. “Vampires are dead, no?” “Yes, vampires are dead.” “Dead people go to Hell, no?” “I’m not so sure.” you’re unsure of how he’ll take to your agnosticism. “They do, trust me,” the ghost of a smile touches his lips, “As an undead species, vampires can traverse Hell if they’re so inclined.” “Oh, of course.” he doesn’t seem to pick up on the sarcasm. “Do you know how undeath works, Samuel?” gooseflesh ripples up your arm as he glares at you. You realize for the first time that he’s blind. “No.” you nervously respond. The temperature in the room must have dropped thirty degrees. “God is a novelist,” he whispers. “A-a novelist?” you stammer back. Who is this man?” “His works are written in blood.” A single tear leaks out of the old man’s broken eye. He ages forty years in front of you, and suddenly seems very small and fragile indeed. You begin to shiver uncontrollably. “W-what do you mean?” “The Church can only repeat his works. I read too many of them, that’s why he took my eyes.” “Who took your eyes?” A surge of dread seeps through you, from your chest down to your gut, and into your toes. You feel heavy under the weight of your terror. “They’re are writing their own works.” he wheezes in pain, as if he’s under duress. “What does that -“ “We have little time,” the strength seems to fade from him, “you must become a copyist to find their strength.” “How do -“ Your question is interrupted by his lifeless corpse hitting the ground. You wake up on the forest floor, gasping for air. > You awakening. The morning rays of dawn cannot penetrate the deep, unsettling, soul-penetrating cold that set in on you over night. You crane your neck, listening to the individual pops as your spine aligns itself. You look over, and see the corpse of Gabriel in the bush next to you. He’s frozen in place, an awful terror burned into his face for all of eternity. You pick up his rifle, and begin to walk back to town. Raziel’s words linger in your mind as you approach the hastily-erected fence around town. “Mornin’,” the watchmen mumbles though his late-in-shift exhaustion. You rub your eyes. “Where’s Raziel?” The watchmen looks at you, puzzled. “Who in the Hell is Raziel?” “Nobody,” you respond, sharing in the man’s exhaustion, “did any of the men make it back?” He shakes his head. “Nossir, thought they was with you!” “Fuck,” you mutter, “That’s a damn shame.” “Sounds like you had quite the night, sir,” he remarks, “Sure Father ‘oud love to here about it.” “I need sleep.” You mutter absentmindedly, already brushing past the man on the way to your quarters. “Don’t we all, sir?” He laughs, bitterly. > You head back to the church. You meander through the makeshift wall, and slowly begin your walk back to the church-turned-stronghold that quickly became the seat of power for the local religious militia. You marvel at how dirty the town had gotten; what was once a small European township with cobblestone streets and small, mom-and-pop businesses on every corner was now filthy, and comparable to a refugee camp. Old fire-barrels and trash litter the ground. The people you pass glare at you; perhaps one too many brush with looters is all it takes to gain a permanent mistrust of your fellow man. Your stroll ends at the church. A sign once read “FIRST PARISH CHURCH”, but it’s long since been replaced with a small sign that says “BASE OF OPERATIONS ” in small black lettering. The door to the small, unassuming little building has been ripped off, you you move the rubbery tarp aside as you enter. As with most churches converted to military strongholds, the pews have long since been scrapped for their requisite parts and nailed to the windows. The church smells of woodsmoke and unwashed bodies, consequences of the smoldering flame and lack of running water in the town. Fifty or so men are packed into it, milling about in various states of undress. In the far right corner, there’s an entrance to back room; this is where you need to be. > You reporting in. You enter the small office in the corner of the church, after shouldering your way through the dense crowd of sweaty, compacted men pressing in on each other. It’s original purpose was probably for the pastor to have a place to prepare his notes and sermon, but it’s been co-opted by the local militia, and is now used as a place for the local alderman to gather his thoughts and meet with advisors. The alderman is a small, grey-haired old veteran, worn out by the horrors of a lifetime of campaigns. You once heard that he cut a man’s head off with a trenching shovel. “Was your mission successful?” he croaks. “We were able to counter a vampire raid from the usual spot,” you begin, “but we made another, more alarming discovery.” “Don’t keep me in suspense, boy.” he croaks bitterly. The old man laughs, then; it’s a cold sound, lacking in mirth and warmth. “I collapsed, shortly after I witnessed a large vampire disappear into the underbrush.” you explain, as you begin to doubt your own experience. “You collapsed? What’s the matter, boy? The cold finally get to you? Would you like a cup of tea?” his sarcasm is grating, as always. You’d punch him, but hanging from a pole isn’t in your wheelhouse. “And after I collapsed, I had some sort of vision, or dream, or something.” your head begins to ache. “Well, boy. Do tell of this vision-dream-something you speak of.” You explain your vision in excruciating detail. His mask of snark and sarcasm drops quickly, and he leans forward in keen interest. His hands rest on his knees, and you can’t help but notice that they’re faintly shaking. “Well, boy, it sounds like your vision-dream-something knows a thing or to, eh?” He grins unexpectedly. “Sounds like it.” you say warily. You were expecting a religious tantrum, not a… whatever this is. “So he was instructing you to become a copyist,” the man lets out a heavy sigh, “One can assume that he wasn’t intending for you to live the life of a medieval friar.” “One can assume.” you echo. “So if a vampire can read “God’s Language”, then it sounds to me as if he’s telling you to become a copyist of it; that is, he wants you to become a vampire.” “Shit.” you mutter. “Shit indeed, ” he responds quietly, rubbing his beard, “Well, I suppose the decision has to be yours, then. Far be it beyond me to judge matters of the soul.” “But you’re the alderman, aren’t you going to tell the men?” you ask worriedly. You know the local superstitions; the second you’re suspected of communing with the devil, you’re one of “them”. “Tell them what?” he says meaningfully. > You mulling it over. You spend a fevered night at the church, tossing and turning. You’re chased through your dreams by a winged specter, gurgling at you in a language unknown to you. You run through a shadowed forest like a deer, artfully bounding over roots and tree-branches in the night. However, it isn’t enough, and the cruel ghost is never more than a few feet behind you. You awake with a start, shortly before dawn. Not a soul has stirred. You go outside, taking in the once-beautiful landscape of the small Eastern European town that has become your home. And then, quite abruptly, a vampire leaps onto your back, sinking its fangs into your shoulder. You react immediately, grabbing two fistfuls of its dry hair and throwing it into the ground. You plant a boot on its neck before it can react, and quickly snatch your revolver from its resting place. One bullet to the brain and its struggles cease. Onlookers rush towards you. You’re infected. You know that it’s only a matter of time before you’re strung up and left as an example. Even if their intentions are sympathetic, your path is clear; running. You fire another bullet into the air, startling the would-be first responders rushing towards you. With a cry of “back the fuck off!”, you run off into the woods, towards where you spotted the gigantic vampire. > You gateway You run full-pelt into the woods, exhausting your supply of stamina and then some. Your lungs beg for air, and your face goes flush as you prop yourself up against a nearby tree. You appear to have escaped your would-be pursuers, but the concept of a militiaman running about as an undead beast will likely bring them back in force. You can see the gateway that you saw a vampire walk through earlier. Perhaps, “see” is the wrong word; you can sense it. Like something in the corner of your vision, you know that it must exist, and where, even if you aren’t laying eyes on it directly. Out of options and desperate, you approach the hole in the ground. It’s cold and has no precise dimensions, appearing to you as a circle of indeterminate radius, shifting and slithering along the ground. It feels strangely inviting; like a blanketed bed in the morning. You could slip through, but there’s no guarantee of what you’ll see on the other side. Or, you could stay right here. > You enter the gateway. You step through. It feels as if you’ve just leaped into a pool; one moment you are on Earth, in the realm of the living, and the next, you are in the next life. Immediately, you feel uncomfortably warm. Sticky, uncomfortable sweat clings to your clothing as you materialize in a small dirt tunnel. Your arms and legs are uncomfortably close. There’s no room to stretch out, or even crawl backwards; you’re forced to slowly move forward. Vampirism begins to set hold on you; you feel weakened and feverish, as you begin to die. You can see an exit. It’s even narrower, and roughly fifteen feet away. Beyond it is complete and utter darkness. You force your failing muscles to propel you towards it. With a final, titanic effort, you force yourself out through the hole. You feel yourself falling down a gigantic hole, down to the interminable depths. Suddenly, you enter through another gateway, and rematerialize on a corn field. If you had to guess, you’d say you’re in Kansas at eight o’clock in the evening. You see the Devil standing before you. He’s tall and cultured looking, clad in a tuxedo and clutching a timepiece to his breast. He smiles at you. “My friend,” he begins in a vaguely English accent, “We’ve so much to talk about!” <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|> You run full-pelt into the woods, exhausting your supply of stamina and then some. Your lungs beg for air, and your face goes flush as you prop yourself up against a nearby tree. You appear to have escaped your would-be pursuers, but the concept of a militiaman running about as an undead beast will likely bring them back in force. You can see the gateway that you saw a vampire walk through earlier. Perhaps, “see” is the wrong word; you can sense it. Like something in the corner of your vision, you know that it must exist, and where, even if you aren’t laying eyes on it directly. Out of options and desperate, you approach the hole in the ground. It’s cold and has no precise dimensions, appearing to you as a circle of indeterminate radius, shifting and slithering along the ground. It feels strangely inviting; like a blanketed bed in the morning. You could slip through, but there’s no guarantee of what you’ll see on the other side. Or, you could stay right here. > You don't You decide to reject the vampirism thrust upon you. If it means dying as a man, so be it. You turn your back to the gateway, and walk back towards the town. Already you can feel yourself growing feverish and weak, as the disease takes hold. Soon, the son will burn you to a crisp; and that’s just fine with you. You put your head to the ground and close your eyes. You’ve earned yourself some rest. <|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>The night is cold, dark and starless. The only light other than the candle Mama clutches in her hand comes from the moon, whose once bright, white, inviting and warm light is now deep red, like it's been splattered with blood. You're curled up with your two sisters, Ivana and Lilia, with Mama sitting over you, her candle in one hand and a wooden crucifix in the other. Papa is nailing boards to keep the door shut, hastily trying to give you some extra protection. It's the Night of the Blood Moon. You've never been through one, the last happening less than a year before your birth, but now, after another twelve years, it had arrived. Your eldest brother, Dornan, told stories about it, stories that chilled you to the bone, that kept you from sleep, that gave birth to the horrors of your nightmares. If even a fraction of what Dornan said is true, the screams should begin soon. "Mama?" Lilia asks. "Hush, darling," Mama replies, as Papa finishes boarding up the door and grabs his shotgun from it's place on the wall. He takes his spot next to you, his gun pointed at the door, and you wait. The screams start soon. Howls of pain and terror from other houses of the town. Ivana is old enough to know to stay quiet, but Lilia soon starts to cry. Mama desperately tries to hush her six year old daughter, but to no avail. "Sssh! Sssh, darling! It's alright, you just must stay quiet!" Papa says. Suddenly, a tall, dark shadow passes by the window. Papa immediately grabs his shotgun, frantically raising it to his shoulder. The shadow disappears, and Papa breaths a sigh of relief. "Scared of something?" a deep, guttural voice says from behind you. Papa turns, firing his shotgun as the monster speeds forward. It grabs Papa's throat with unnatural speed, smiling as it holds him in the air, strangling him. The monster looks hideous. It's dreadfully pale, it's face twisted with hate, and looks to be hairless. It's eyes are completely black, like the endless darkness of its soul, and it's mouth is filled with mangled teeth with two large fangs, curved and bloodstained, with even more blood pouring down its face. The creature snarls, before smiling as it turns to look at you and your siblings. "Ah... so young... so fresh..." the vampire says, licking it's lipless mouth with a forked tongue. "Peasant, your daughters are mine. Don't struggle." The vampire tosses Papa to the ground, turning towards your siblings. "No! No! You will not take my daughters!" Father says, grabbing for his gun. The monster strikes, smashing it's boot into Papa's head. "How dare you?!" the monster screams. "I gave you your land, I gave you your house, I give you your life!" The monster begins walking toward Papa, who desperately crawls back to the wall. "I keep the beasts away from the village! I let you roam the night all but one night every twelve years! I don't ask for your wife, to allow you to sire more. I don't ask for your son, to leave you a legacy. I only ask for your daughters! How dare you attempt to deny me that?" As the vampire walks towards Papa, his fangs bared, you see a chance to get Papa's shotgun. Still, you don't want to anger the vampire further. Perhaps the best option is to hope for the beast's mercy. > You do nothing The vampire grabs Papa's head, twisting it with amazing speed. You hear his neck crack, as the vampire drops his limp body. Tears stream down your face, as he walks towards you. He grabs you by the scruff of your neck. "You are a sheep," he snarls. "Look at you. Look at all of you. Weak. Mindless. Sheep. You only exist to feed me. Your lifespan is measured in decades. I've lived over a millenia! I am the hunter, you are prey!" He turns, walking towards Mama. Mama tries to strike him, but he catches her hand, yanking her into his grasp and biting down on her neck. She gasps as he tears open her throat, pressing his bloody mouth on the bleeding wound. He feeds for about a minute, as you lie there, too terrified to move. Then, he strides forward, catching your sisters by the hand and lifting them into the air. He flings them over his shoulder like a young lamb, and looks at you. "Bleet," he snarls, before walking out of the door, leaving you alone.<|endoftext|> <|startoftext|>Life has never been easy for you. You were separated from your mother when you were three years old. Although you never heard the full story, you've heard enough over the years from the gossips of Endlemire to piece together the gist of it. Father banished your mother from the household with accusations that she didn't act like a proper wife, or even a proper woman. You never saw her again. In fact, the only memory you have left of her is a vision of a beautiful, but careworn face framed in copper colored hair, the same hair that you have. In light of the scandal, Father raised you with strict severity, even compared to the other children of your conservative village. The older you got, the more people threw it in your face that your mother was so scandalous. Any mistake you made was attributed to your mother's flaws. Perhaps if you looked less like her, they might have forgiven you in time. Instead your features are soft and fair, rather than dark and stern like Father's. You have heard it over and over again how much you look like your mother. The villagers sometimes whisper that red hair is the sign of a tainted soul, and green eyes reveal a dangerous heart. They are rare enough colors among the villagers, but aren't entirely unheard of. But no one harassed the others for these traits. Then again, you didn't recall anyone else having both traits at the same time. At first you tried to stand up for yourself, but this seemed to turn people against you even further; someone with your shameful lineage should show more humility. You were told you should be grateful to even be allowed to stay within Endlemire's boundaries. Forget the fact that when the trouble happened, you were nothing but an innocent child. Forget the fact that you were never told what shameful sin, or horrible crime, your mother committed. Living under the shadow of your mother's scandal hasn't done you any favors. How do you feel about this? > You angry: it's time you did something about it. Anger is completely natural; unfortunately for you, the people of Endlemire don't appreciate your right to express yourself. When protesting your innocence doesn't get you very far, you up the scale of your misbehavior. It starts with simply talking back to your elders, and then goes on to calling people out on their behavior. While you are actually speaking the truth, you ignore any sense of tact or delicacy, partly because you're just a child, but mostly because you're getting angrier by the day. Eventually this reaches a breaking point. You are playing with a handful of children in the market square, their parents are huddled in a small group, talking to each other about the price of eggs and other such village matters. At the moment they don't seem to notice that their children are breathing the same air as you, let alone playing with you. You are actually having fun for the first time in ages when a little boy calls out to his mother in excitement. When she instinctively turns her head to respond, she sees her two precious children playing with you. Angry, she rushes into the group of children and grasps each of her children by the arm, pulling them away from their play despite their reluctance. She hands them over to the other parents and storms back to confront you. Glowering down at you from her adult height, she puts her hands on her hips. "How dare you play with my darlings, you filthy child!" she demands, her words causing you to flinch. "I wasn't doing anything wrong," you protest, trying to fight back the tears. The afternoon had been so lovely, and she is ruining it. "Nonsense. Playing with you is only going to hurt them." "I wasn't even touching them." "Impertinence! How dare you be impertinent to me!" In her anger at your rudeness, though you're not sure what you did wrong, she reaches to grab your arm, which you evade. Unfortunately for you this only gets her even more incensed. This time she goes for your ear, and you fail to get out of her grasp. It hurts! You cry out and beg to be released, but she ignores your cries. That is why you jerk your head to the side and bite her arm. She lets go of you. Not only does she release you, but she shoves you down on the ground and calls for aid. Soon a mob of adults surround you and drag you home. You're locked in the cellar while they decide your fate. You hear the harsh sounds of their voices going back and forth, though you cannot make out any of the words. You doubt anything good is being said. Father sounds angrier than you have ever heard him before, and your stomach begins to sink. You spend the next few days in almost complete solitude, locked in your room. Your room never had a lock on it before, so you're guessing Father had it put there during the time you were in the cellar. You only see him when he gives you your meals for the day: porridge for breakfast, two pieces of plain bread for lunch, and a paltry helping of vegetables and meat for supper. On the fourth day you are taken away by a stranger wearing all black; Father isn't even there to see you off as you're bundled into a very austere looking carriage. "Where are we going?" you ask. You've never been outside of Endlemire before. "Silence, child! I am not here to answer your questions." He then promptly ignores you, other than to glare at you any time you try to speak up. You spend a long trip staring at the man and wondering where you are going. Finally, the carriage stops at an imposing stone building surrounded by stone walls. Unlike many such buildings, it is completely functional without a hint of adornment. At first you are relieved to be at your destination, but this feeling doesn't last long. If you thought Father was strict, he was nothing compared to the people here. Disobedience is met with whippings and meals are withheld when the whippings fail to bring you to contrition. At least Father allowed you some small time to yourself, but now you are always surrounded by other children who had been as rebellious as you and the adults who are tasked with taming them. You, and these other children, are called 'The Compromised' by the adults, who in turn demand to be called 'The Keepers.' You spend most of your first days angry. During the next few weeks you learn to fear your own anger, and fall into sadness. But even this is considered misbehavior. Ingratitude is a sin, or so The Keepers tell you. Everything seems to be a sin other than strict obedience, humility, and selflessness. You and the other 'compromised' children find your lot in life quite difficult. This new life leaves you: > You broken This is no way to live, and you fight it with all that you have. Unfortunately, there are many Keepers and only one of you. The other children are too afraid to aid you, and a few of them even tattle on you to the adults. You find yourself being increasingly cut off from everyone and everything, and your young heart can't take this anymore. Months go by and you become a pale shadow of yourself. When winter approaches, you become ill. The poor meals and whippings make recovery next to impossible, and you find that you don't even have the energy to care. One evening you slip into a nightmare filled fever. You never wake up again. Your life has come to a close; perhaps it was your choices that brought you here, and perhaps it was just cruel fate. > You it Was Your Choices (Restart) Life has never been easy for you. You were separated from your mother when you were three years old. Although you never heard the full story, you've heard enough over the years from the gossips of Endlemire to piece together the gist of it. Father banished your mother from the household with accusations that she didn't act like a proper wife, or even a proper woman. You never saw her again. In fact, the only memory you have left of her is a vision of a beautiful, but careworn face framed in copper colored hair, the same hair that you have. In light of the scandal, Father raised you with strict severity, even compared to the other children of your conservative village. The older you got, the more people threw it in your face that your mother was so scandalous. Any mistake you made was attributed to your mother's flaws. Perhaps if you looked less like her, they might have forgiven you in time. Instead your features are soft and fair, rather than dark and stern like Father's. You have heard it over and over again how much you look like your mother. The villagers sometimes whisper that red hair is the sign of a tainted soul, and green eyes reveal a dangerous heart. They are rare enough colors among the villagers, but aren't entirely unheard of. But no one harassed the others for these traits. Then again, you didn't recall anyone else having both traits at the same time. At first you tried to stand up for yourself, but this seemed to turn people against you even further; someone with your shameful lineage should show more humility. You were told you should be grateful to even be allowed to stay within Endlemire's boundaries. Forget the fact that when the trouble happened, you were nothing but an innocent child. Forget the fact that you were never told what shameful sin, or horrible crime, your mother committed. Living under the shadow of your mother's scandal hasn't done you any favors. How do you feel about this?<|endoftext|>