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Welcome to the start of a brand new quest! It's a kind of fantasy apocalypse thing, wanted to see if it would work. Just a note, expect very little of elves/dwarves/potions/other fantasy staples. The fantasy will mostly be non-tolkien systems and such. A kind of challenge to myself to be creative.
You grew up on the island, the island of mesas and sagebrush. Your people were simple but happy, only concerning themselves with the matters of the island's great cities when it came to paying tribute. Then, one day, your world ended. The island drifted an astonishing distance from the Continent, as if it was dragged. Obelisks ruptured the ground in thousands of places, reaching to the sky. A great blue beam struck the center of the island, and from the point where it struck a wave of blue energy flowed outwards across the island. The obelisks repelled this energy, breaking the wave like the churning sea against jagged cliffs, and those close to them were safe. Those who were not, however, were warped into monstrosities. Some simply gained a finger, an eye, a limb, and they could continue as survivors, only warped mildly, and in body, not mind. However, many were twisted into awful beasts, having their heads replaced with animal skulls, their heads lost and their mouths moved and made great toothy maws, their hands replaced with masses of tentacles, and more. No two of these horrors are alike, but they are almost all hostile to some degree. The beam has struck again, twice every day at sunrise and sunset, and those too distant from an obelisk must pray that their mutations are minor and that they can continue their lives with only a third ear or clawed fingers.
Welcome to the end of the world. You have survived 4 days, and you have decided it is finally time to leave the safety of this small obelisk and see who else has made it.
Are you a Male or a Female?
>Male
>Female
>Leave ambiguous
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>>1846727
Female
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>>1846727
>Male
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>>1846727
>Leave ambiguous
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>>1846927
Female
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>>1846927
>>1847027
>>1847143
>>1847169
You were a poor farm girl, but you were never hungry. You always had enough food to put on the table and winter was never as harsh as it was in other places. Your father and your mother provided well for you.
It's now morning, and if you're going to embark you'd better do it now. Wait too long and you could find yourself stranded when the sunset wave hits. If you leave early enough you'll almost certainly locate another obelisk, they aren't uncommon, but it's usually better to be safe than sorry.
You weigh your options carefully. You know that the city of Haidok is to your southwest, and you know where it is well enough to find it. Then again, it's a walk of at least several days at a good speed, and even if you got there it would likely be a hellhole of twisted creatures that would pose extreme risk compared to the rewards. After that, there's the option of heading east to the town of Az-Kilnod. It's only a day or two's walk, and the risk would likely be less than a large city. Still, it would likely be filled with those horrid things. There's always the option of just heading off into the wilderness, finding safety in the wilds. The twisted creatures would be sparse, but potentially so would food and resources. Finally, you could always make your way to the center of the island, where the beam strikes twice each day. You could discover what's happening, maybe even stop it, but there's a feeling in your gut that makes you fear the beam, so strong that it's like an entity is intentionally repelling you.
>Travel to the city of Haidok. There are likely other non-twisted people, and the rich once owned magical artifacts that could help me immensely on my way. The benefits outweigh the risks.
>Head to the town of Az-Kilnod. If any of my family survived, they'd be there. Besides, there will be things worth taking with me.
>Head off into the wilderness. It's the only safe way to avoid the creatures, and I can hold my own out there.
>Head towards the beam. It tries to repel me, but I must know why it came, perhaps even stop it.
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>>1847245
>Head towards the beam. It tries to repel me, but I must know why it came, perhaps even stop it.
>>
>>1847245
>Head to the town of Az-Kilnod. If any of my family survived, they'd be there. Besides, there will be things worth taking with me.
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>>1847245
>Head to the town of Az-Kilnod. If any of my family survived, they'd be there. Besides, there will be things worth taking with me.
>>
>>1847245
>Head to the town of Az-Kilnod. If any of my family survived, they'd be there. Besides, there will be things worth taking with me.
>>
>>1847245
>Head to the town of Az-Kilnod. If any of my family survived, they'd be there. Besides, there will be things worth taking with me.
>>
>>1847258
>>1847315
>>1847327
>>1847486
>>1847537
You decide that it would be best to travel to Az-Kilnod. You know your parents won't be there, they're almost definitely dead, but you have some uncles and cousins there, and more could have fled there from the catastrophe.
You start your journey towards Az-Kilnod. You travel there maybe once or twice a year, usually to sell during harvests and see your relatives. The road there is at the bottom of a winding canyon with a river rushing by, with shrubs and the occasional cottonwood or willow lining the banks. Towering, rusty cliffs rise up on either side, streaked with black and spots where rock has fallen off, cleaved away by nature and gods. You spot a man with a huge gash in his neck on the side of the road and rush over. He's dead, with something having pierced straight through his throat from forward to back. In his belt you see a steel knife and a pouch of strange coins made out of what looks to be lapis lazuli. They have a mark on them that you vaguely remember being from a kingdom from the north of the island. Seeing as they could be helpful, you take both the knife and the coins.
As you stand up and turn around, you realize there's something charging straight at you. It's in the shape of a woman, but where her head would be there is the rattling skull of a one-horned bighorn sheep. Her left hand has been replaced by a sharpened blade of bone as long as the entire rest of her arm. Charging towards you using the bone sword-hand as almost a third leg, you have to think quickly.
>Ready your knife, you have to kill this thing!
>Climb up the cliff side, it won't be able to grasp the sides with that bone-hand!
>RUN!
>Write-in
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>>1847709
>>Climb up the cliff side, it won't be able to grasp the sides with that bone-hand!
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>>1847709
>Climb up the cliff side, it won't be able to grasp the sides with that bone-hand!
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>>1847709
>Seduce it
>Climb up the cliff side, it won't be able to grasp the sides with that bone-hand!
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>male
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>>1847712
>>1847716
>>1847724
>>1847728
You look over the creature. That goat horn is oddly good-looking, and you might not be opposed to playing both sides... No, snap out of it! It must have some magic to keep its prey infatuated. Poor throat-cut bastard must have thought he was going to be the one doing the stabbing...
To get away from the beast, you scramble up the side of the cliff. At first it's a slope, and as you get higher it gets steeper until you hit a straight cliff wall. Scrambling to the side, you reach a boulder and clamber up that. The bone-handed beast tries to come after you, but it only gets halfway up before fumbling with its sword-hand and falling to the floor. Its skull hits a rock and shatters into hundreds of pieces.
Clambering down once more, you look over the dead creature. Such a shame, might have been a pretty girl once, not too different from yourself. It has a couple of those lapis lazuli coins you found on the other man, which you pocket. With that, you continue down the road.
It's now midday, and the trail has been uneventful. Other than the ram-woman, you've been free from threats, and you've made good progress. However, you're starting to feel a bit hungry. You haven't eaten since yesterday...
>Go hunting/gathering. It'll take a bit, but it's better than starving.
>Try fishing. Depending on your luck, it could be either much faster or much longer than gathering, and it can give a nice amount of meat.
>Push onwards. If you can make it to town, there'll be plenty of food, and you don't want to be caught out here at sunset.
>Write-in
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>>1847898
>Loot and inspect the corpse
>Try fishing.
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>>1847898
>>Push onwards. If you can make it to town, there'll be plenty of food, and you don't want to be caught out here at sunset.
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>>1847898
>Push onwards
We looted the corpse, and we have some coins. Dark=dead.Nice work with the seduction choice.
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>>1847898
>Go hunting/gathering
We don't want to be in town at nighttime
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>>1847929
>>1847993
>>1848530
>>1848638
There's simply not enough time to stop for food. You can go a day or two without food, it's not a huge issue. Besides, being hungry is far better than being one of those twisted monsters.
After a while, the canyon opens out into a wider sort of plain covered in yellow grasses and sagebrush, with rock formations and mesas jutting up here and there. The river is more slow and meandering here, with less rapids and calmer waters. You're getting closer to Az-Kilnod, but it's mid-afternoon, and the sun is dipping lower in the sky.
You notice an obelisk under a willow tree by the river. You stop there to get a drink and examine the thing. It's a smaller one, about two human-heights high and made of sandstone the color of the sand around it. At the bottom is an inscription which you can't read. Above the inscription are three symbols: one is an eye, one is a skull, and one is a sword. You feel drawn to the strange structure...
>Brush your hand across the Eye
>Brush your hand across the Skull
>Brush your hand across the Blade
>Brush your hand across the inscription
>Resist the temptation and continue travelling
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>>1849616
>Brush your hand across the blade
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>>1849616
touch Eye
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>>1849616
>Brush your hand across the inscription.
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>>1849616
>>Brush your hand across the Blade
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>>1849687
>>1849927
>>1850168
>>1855708
You reach forward, enticed by the obelisk through some greater power. Your fingers brush the blade, carved unevenly into the rough sandstone. As your fingertips caress the carving, the blade begins to glow red, with the other symbols and the inscription starting to glow blue. At first they are dim, but they grow brighter and brighter until you are literally blinded by the light. No matter how hard you try, you can't close your eyes or pull away. The symbols glow like hundreds of thousands of suns, and you beg in your mind to let the pain stop.
Suddenly, it all goes back. You are temporarily blinded, seeing nothing but black, but that fades away after just a few seconds. Looking upon the obelisk once more, the symbols are gone. The inscription, too, is vanished, blown away like sand in the wind. You are confused, as nothing seems different, until you notice a weight on your leg. Looking down, you gasp. Where the dagger that you just took was, now rests a stunning blade, three quarters the length of your arm. The hilt is red sandstone and willow wood and the blade looks like blue steel, yet it's light and easy to use. Well, it would be if you knew much about swordfighting.
It's time to continue down the path. With about an hour to sunset, you have reached the edge of town. Two obelisks are in sight, one punching out of the roof of a small house, ripping the roof open, and another to the east, maybe 45 minutes walk away. You can see several creatures in the town, varying to men with mandibles and giant crab claws to a blue-skinned woman with a pearl in her forehead and blood dripping from her eyes and mouth.
>Go to the obelisk in town. I'll have shelter for the night and it'll be less of a walk, even if I have to fight one or two creatures.
>Go to the eastern obelisk. It's a longer walk, but it'll be safer and I won't be stopped by those horrid things.
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>>1858307
>Go to the obelisk in town.
Better than encountering more ram people with giant hand claws
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>>1858307
>>Go to the obelisk in town. I'll have shelter for the night and it'll be less of a walk, even if I have to fight one or two creatures
Time to use that sword
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