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CYOA - Out of the Dark

Demo.Graph

Arbiter
Joined
Jun 17, 2018
Messages
991
You're out of the dark.

Character sheet
This will be filled in gradually.
Last changes in levels are denoted by "+N" ("0+2" is 2). New skills also have "+" in the beginning.


Major stats

Physical stats

Strength 0 +2
Endurance 0 +3
Dexterity +1 +1

Mental stats
Intelligence 0 +1
Willpower +1 +1
Perception 0 +2

Social stats
Presense 0
Composure 0
Empathy 0

Skills
+ Athletics 0 +2
+ Concentration 0
+ Persuasion 0 +1

Crafts
+ Aviculture 0 +1
+ Art (mosaics) 0 +1
+ Herbalism 0 +1

Knowledges
Algeid language 3 (barely literate)
Empire knowledge 2

Reputation
St. Orzen's tenement - ancestor, good (+1)
Imperial court - ancestor (?)

Other notes
Luck +2
Mark of Shimmering Debt

Inventory
A pale bluish stone from the necropolis.

RPG system
I plan to generally keep the rolls to myself, but here's general description of the system so you could make sense of scale.

Generic roll is edge-exploding 3d6 + Stat + Skill vs difficulty.
Only skill matters sometimes (no amount of intelligence would allow you to speak foreign language by itself).
Edge exploding means that:
- if 18 is rolled, we add d6-1, and keep on adding d6 for each 6 on subsequent rolls.
- if 3 is rolled, it's a critical failure, add d6, and keep on adding d6 for each 1. Number of "1" signifies the scope of failure.

Skill lvl 8 is proficient (e.g. free use of language), lvl 16 is mastery (e.g. great writer), lvl 25-30 is human maximum, barring special cases.
Skills need 1 SP to reach lvls 1 to 5, 2 SP @ 6-10, 3 SP @ 11-15, etc.
Ordinary folks get 2-6 SP per season depending on intensity of training (usually 1-2 at main job for adults) or 8-24 SP annually. A person needs 12 years to go from skill lvl 0 to 20 at 4 SP annually.

You may "take 10" on a roll, if there's no stress.
You may "take 15" or "take 18", if there's plenty of time to try (5 and 10-20 times, correspondingly).
Those shouldn't really be necessary, really.
 
Last edited:

Demo.Graph

Arbiter
Joined
Jun 17, 2018
Messages
991
In the dark something goes pop.

You open your eyes.

Nothing changes. You're in the dark.

Are you the dark? Probably not, for how can you look inside youself? For some reason you know it's not the right thing to do.

You touch your eyes. They're where they should be. Your hand is cold and smells of dust.

Are you blind? You think not. There's a structure for darkness that you can vaguely perceive. Or is it your imagination?

What're you doing here? You're not sure. You try to recall, but your breath is uneven and thoughts are confused.

You trash around a bit, feeling, watching and listening. You think you're in a small space, like a cave. The stone below is cool and hard. The air is still, but you feel as if there's an emptiness ahead.

What do you do?
 
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ERYFKRAD

Barbarian
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Joined
Sep 25, 2012
Messages
28,237
Strap Yourselves In Serpent in the Staglands Shadorwun: Hong Kong Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Ears to the nearest surfaces- floor and walls, what do we hear?
Also cursory examination of self- any injuries, any markings that show up on tactile examination?
 

Demo.Graph

Arbiter
Joined
Jun 17, 2018
Messages
991
You crawl in the direction you think the wall is. And sure enough, you reach it after a few paces.

Cold sweat hits you, then a wave of heat and a bout of heartbeating. A small exertion did put you to the limit. You lean your forehead to the wall and concentrate on your body. You're naked and definitely male. You're tired, cold, hungry and cowered in bruises, but otherwise seem to be whole. Your head aches and there's a buzz in your ears that makes it hard to think.

With a pang of panic you realize that you don't know who you are. Another wave of cold sweat overcomes you. You suppress a shiver and try to recall how you got here. It's hard. The thoughts are galloping like a herd, pounding your skull. Still, you remember some things. You remember a moment that you broke into the water, it was all around you and then was the stone. You crawled out. You was cold. You reached for the heat and went somewhere without seeing where, but it got warmer. You went and crawled and went again through earth like a worm. You've scraped yourself upon narrow cracks. It got hot and cold again. You've breathed the stale air until you began to smell like earth. You thought you might become the earth yourself, but then you fell with a gush of air and got here.

Here, in this petty cave with nothing around... A bite of hunger interrupts you. Maybe your senses got sharper because of it, but you almost see an opening ahead. You move onwards a bit, touching its edges. There's really a crooked cave pass. The air is warmer there, but as still, silent and dark as in the cave.

What do you do?
 

Demo.Graph

Arbiter
Joined
Jun 17, 2018
Messages
991
You move forwards, crawling or walking when the pass and your strength allow you to. Your eneven breathing is the only thing to unterrupt the darkness. You think that your breathes should be shallow for the darkness might enter you if you leave a place for it.

The pass slopes upwards and soon turns too steep to walk through. Again you crawl.

You begin seeing shapes in the dark. First your hands. Then the ledges you touch. Then your body and the pass. The feeling is uncanny. There's no color, no tints, only a slightly blurred cutouts of black upon black. You're sure that humans shouldn't be able to see in the dark. Another pang of panic strikes. You breath slowly and concentrate. Maybe there's a source of light nearby?

The pass ends and you reach another opening, no larger than a fox den. You crawl through.

First thing you see is a sarcophagus. It's big and rectangular, the first manmade thing you see. The stone is so old, it crumbles at the corners. There's another one behind it. You crawl forward. There're dozens, maybe hundreds of them, sheltered in alcoves on both sides of a narrow passage. It slopes upwards to the right and downwards to the left. There's a thin layer of dust on the floor. Nobody has been here for months, maybe years. Both ends of the passage are lost in dark.

What do you do?
 

Demo.Graph

Arbiter
Joined
Jun 17, 2018
Messages
991
You begin making a religious gesture, but your hand hangs in mid-air. You don't remember how to do it.

You look at the sarcophagus. It's closed. Examining it further you see a man engraved on the lid. Probably its inhabitant. Time and darkness had made his features indistinguishable, but it seems that he's bearded and smiling. There're some letters on the side of the sarcophagus. You don't recognize the language. Or letters. They look strange. You try to recall how letters should look and get another bout of headache.

You move to another sarcophagus. It looks the same. Then to another one. And another. After a dozen or so you stop to take a breath. All the coffins are alike for as far as you can see. Crafted out of some pale stone, with lids that are covered in cracks and sometimes crumble, but don't budge at your exertions. Sometimes there's a smaller stone coffin near the large one, probably the one for the wife; sometimes it's submerged in the floor near the main sarcophagus. Sometimes there're small offerings near the sarcophagi: half-burned candles, small ceramic bowls full of dust or pieces of paper so old they might dissolve on the first touch. Nothing useful or metallic or edible... You're not desperate enough to eat candle wax. Yet.

You trip over some stones. They roll away with a faint crack of dice. You grab a nearest casket to get your balance and it shakes slightly. You look closer. The tomb is seemingly unremarkable, like the many around it. On the closer examination you notice some differences. Firstly, there's a woman inside - the figure carved on the lid is too busty to be a male. Secondly, the sarcophagus is damaged. There're potholes on its sides, as if someone tried to break it deliberately, and the lid is cracked in half. You move it with all your strength and it budges a bit. Small cloud of dust rises from the coffin. You put your hand in it carefully. There's a dried up corpse inside, tightly bandaged and clothed in voluminous clothes. Definitely a woman. You fumble just a bit and her left arm falls off. You pull out a strip of cloth, that should've covered her arm. Only dust is inside, no bones or nails or anything. Her entombers had probably rolled a bunch of tissue in place of her limb.

You hold a piece of fabric taken from the dead.
A. You cover yourself with it.
B. You put it back.
C. You do something else (specify).

You're still in a tomb corridor. It slopes gently upwards in one direction and downwards in another.
1. You go upwards.
2. You go downwards.
3. You do something else (specify).

Luck +1. Char sheet added to OP.
 

Kalarion

Serial Ratist
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San Antonio, TX
Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Shadorwun: Hong Kong BattleTech Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I helped put crap in Monomyth
B. I'd rather not be disrespectful of the interred dead.

1. We need food and water. We're not going to get it going deeper into a tomb complex.
 

Demo.Graph

Arbiter
Joined
Jun 17, 2018
Messages
991
You put the cloth inside the sarcophagus and close the lid. It might've warmed you up a bit, but wearing dead women's pseudo limbs seems wrong. You head to the side of the passage that leads roughly upwards, hoping to warm up by moving.

Alcoves pass by, sarcophagi in them seemingly endless. After some time you notice small blueish stones that are inserted into some sarcophagi here and there. They give out a faint blue light. It's probably paler than the moonlight but is probably the reason why you can see anything.

You don't know how long you walk. You pass several small stairs, several steps high, that continue with another pass with burial alcoves. Then you come to a larger staircase, carved out of rock, few stories high. You climb it, walk through a short corridor filled with more sarcophagi and find yourself near a sharp turn. Cautiously, you look behind it.

There's a cave there, big and dark. There're several other entrances, as dark and still as yours. If the cave was a palm, they would've been like fingers and a wrist.

You look out of the pinky, the smallest and the topmost of them. It descends to the cave proper via another short stair and turns into a path, carved out of the cavern's floor, that leads to the "wrist". Other "fingers" have the same paths, flat and polished.

The same blue stones are inserted into walls and floor here and there. They light is bleak, but enough to see shades of dark and blue.

PLOP. You jump. Then you realise that it was a drop of water that echoed over the cave. You look for its source and find a stone bowl in the floor below you, filled to the brim. There's a stalactite over it. It's the first water you see for a long, long time. You realise how thirsty you're and begin to descend when...

Clank, clink-clank, CLANK! It comes from the "wrist". You hide behind the last sarcophagus. The clatter gets nearer. You see flashes of torchlight. And almost at the same moment soldiers enter the hall.

They're heavily armored - each one carries a tower shield and a sword. Torches are attached to the bosses of their shields. Two soldiers step out on the path, turn their backs at each other, strike the shields with the handles of their swords and freeze in attention. Their swords point at ready, as if they're expecting an attack from the sides of the cave. Another pair comes in, takes several steps and does the same. Then another one. And another. They unfold like a giant metal centipede, a bright band that cuts darkness in half. They head to the pass opposite of where you are, the "thumb".

You look closer, squinting at the first proper light you see. The warriors' armor is covered in ornate casting, but their swords are definitely not ceremonial. Their faces are covered by full helmets. Their shields are painted red, golden waves and arcs criss-cross them in all directions. Some carry red or white banners attached to their backs, painted with animals, faces or letters. Warm waves of air come from them. You sense a bitter smell of burnt wax and oiled metal.

Thirst overcomes you. You want to drink, now. Low metallic rumble approaches from the main pass. Probably music, but you can't tell yet. In a few minutes there would be far more people in the cave for who knows how long.

What do you do?

Strength ?/-2, exhausted
Stamina ?/-2, exhausted
 

hello friend

Arcane
Joined
Feb 26, 2012
Messages
7,847
Location
I'm on an actual spaceship. No joke.
Thirsty or not, seems better to wait. There are too many warriors here, and they might not react kindly to an unlucky soul who just happened to awake in a crypt - probably a prank. Of course, the thirst might overcome us. We might end up brutally assaulting the, uh, bowl.
 

Kalarion

Serial Ratist
Patron
Joined
Jan 30, 2015
Messages
1,008
Location
San Antonio, TX
Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Shadorwun: Hong Kong BattleTech Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I helped put crap in Monomyth
Agreed. We're in no position to fight or negotiate, not yet. And begging isn't usually the best idea with professional soldiers. It tends to arouse their disgust, at least in conditions like this. A little patience is called for, I think. And maybe we'll observe something useful in the meantime.
 

baud

Arcane
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Dec 11, 2016
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Location
Septentrion
RPG Wokedex Strap Yourselves In Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I helped put crap in Monomyth
Thirsty or not, seems better to wait. There are too many warriors here, and they might not react kindly to an unlucky soul who just happened to awake in a crypt - probably a prank. Of course, the thirst might overcome us. We might end up brutally assaulting the, uh, bowl.
I agree too
 

Demo.Graph

Arbiter
Joined
Jun 17, 2018
Messages
991
You swallow heavily and pull your thoughts together. Showing your naked self before those soldiers seems as bad an idea as quenching your thirst with your own blood.

You try to get comfortable behind your sarcophagus and wait.

Rumble had turned into music. Metal dings upon metal. Melody is enforced by a choir of bassos that abruptly alternates with tenors and back again. The music seems somber but triumphant. Singers step into the cave. They wear red and white robes and go in threes and fours. Many of them carry carillons, metallophones or more red and white banners. Their faces are covered by full red and white masks. They're sidelined by more soldiers, who keep unrolling into the passage they're all heading to.

A couple of dozen of singers had already entered the cave when a large man enters the cave. He walks alone, he's bald and cleanly shaven and he's the only man without a mask you can see. He carries a lamp in one hand and an open book in another and reads aloud something you can't hear over the music. A group of priests follows him carrying a large stretcher. There's a body upon it, an old man, also maskless, clad in intricate garments. More priests follow with musical instruments. Then a group of aristocratic-looking people in jewelled masks and clothes. Then another group of priests and soldiers.

As the procession enters the corridor, soldiers that guarded their passing, begin to roll in. Soon the last of them goes away and the cave goes silent again. Only muffled echoes are heard from the dark.

What do you do?

Willpower +1
 
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baud

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Dec 11, 2016
Messages
3,992
Location
Septentrion
RPG Wokedex Strap Yourselves In Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. Pathfinder: Wrath I helped put crap in Monomyth
I think that waiting for them to finish their burial and leave would take too long in our state (and they may even seal the mausoleum on exit!), so I'd say let's take the way the procession arrived from.
And grab a drink from the stone bowl too

Also did we recognize anything about the procession? Like which god(s) the priests are serving, in which region they could be from (like from the instruments, clothings, jewels, songs...)
 

Demo.Graph

Arbiter
Joined
Jun 17, 2018
Messages
991
You try to recall whether you've seen the priests or soldiers before and get another pain attack. Your heartbeat quickens. You walk down the stairs to the bowl. The water is cold. It makes your teeth ache and freezes your throat and it has a mineral taste, but you drink as if it's your last. Then you wash your head with it. The cold numbs the pain. You make several deep breaths to calm down and go to the largest passage.

It's short and wide. Its walls are covered in mosaics. You can't quite see the patterns in the dark. Something about people going below. You pass it and find yourself on a city street.

It's a street carved in another cave, slightly curved and wide enough for two carts to pass by. Blocky buildings, no more that three stories high, hug the road tightly. Many of them seem to be cut out of the same cave wall, though some are constructed out of adobe bricks. The same bluish stones are inserted into walls of the houses giving a faint light. None of the buildings that you see have doors to the main street. Narrow stairs lead to the terraces overlooking the main road.

You climb one of the stairs. The terraces around you are narrow and crooked, but there're many house entrances on them. You look inside one of the houses. It's pitch black inside, but you see that the house was abandoned long time ago. There's a fat layer of dust on the floor, the house is empty and the air inside is stale. You go back to the terrace and realize that there's a slight wind, almost imperceptible, that breathes from the other side of the city.

You proceed further. Terraces come up and down, sometimes for several stories in a row. While houses are short, they're occasionally layered one upon another for many floors. You look inside several more houses. They're all empty and dusty inside. You move on. Sometimes you have to climb to another floor, sometimes you get back to the main road. You feel that it's too wide and well observed and climb another terrace at the first opportunity.

After some time you hear something ahead and begin creeping. The city ends abruptly. The main road bends sharply below you and ends with a stone portal. Half-open iron grate gate bars it. There're more soldiers behind it, the same red-white soldiers in full helmets. Two of them stand at attention, many more sit on the ground and relax. A few of them stand around two robed priests who play their metallophones and seem to be conducting a group prayer. You can't hear their words. Fresh wind blows from above you and carries sounds into the gate. From your high position you can only see a ground level, but you're almost sure that the soldiers are standing outside.

What do you do?
 

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