I try to jump for it, then.
[Might As Well Jump: 2]
You get up, but unfortunately gravity gets you down. It's quite tough, the toughest luck around.
[Much-Needed Assistance: 2]
It seems your friend knows just how you feel. But sometimes you just need to roll with the punches to get to what's real. Such as when it suddenly disappears from under you after your last jump attempt, leaving you tumbling down to the stone floor with admirable lack of grace. As you get up, you notice the hand of the priestess extended toward you motionlessly.
"Ah, excellent, you made it back. Come with me, save that grapefruit for yourself. Don't like the things."
Go with Eriksson to the chapel! Consent is not an issue.
Yeah, the drunk bastard's coming with you, no two words about it. Of course, his insistence does not diminish, and he claims it is quite
INEVITABLE
that you try one of his fruits. You're not quite sure what happens next, the events blurring into something like several thousand variations of walking, talking and a smattering of grisly violence, but by the time you're at the chapel, Mr. Erikson has three new points of articulation and seems vaguely displeased by the fact. You can't say you didn't adequately warn him, honestly.
Thomas scratched his head. "So... five murderers? Is this one of the stories and histories, like the crazy doctor tells? She seems to have a lot of ideas for a complete lunatic."
Miss the point
It's not a history, it's a prophecy. Well, of sorts. Two thirds of a prophecy, perhaps. And perhaps not nearly as crazy a prophecy as some of what is accepted history. Though admittedly while much of the older histories do contain more than a fair amount of the inexplicable, this particular partial prophecy points to the downright extrauniversal. At least in hindsight, but then isn't that the way of all prophecies?
Three parts, however!
Three. She gives you a careful look. She knows of two. What is the third? Something not quite visible to her, or perhaps something entirely extraneous? The stoatmen, maybe. They appear to have been a crucial ingredient to this confluence of events. And their progress has been greatly suspicious, given their relative minority and general lack of training. It has a distasteful tinge of fate about it. Would the meeting of you and these adversaries result in a clash... or a unification?
Hm. There is a great multitude of places to go to next. Perhaps it would be more useful to bring the information here, after a fashion. She concentrates, and the rest of the walls begin to resolve in different kinds of writing, motivational chants replaced with arcane scrawlings and diagrams, all carved with an unfathomably steady hand in what looks like single strokes per image. Quite a bit of information to go through here. Why don't you take a look? Your perspective may be enlightening. Or at least a little fresher than hers.
"...but my friend. It'ss an excellent fruit! Best you can find around here!"
Be led away. Take heed of his suggestion and enjoy the fruit myself, but keep offering another. Everyone needs some alcohol based happiness! His resistance will INEVITABLY crumble.
You have one more grapefruit, and continue badgering Mr. Daniels about having one himself. Seems like such an uptight guy. But you know his type. All it takes is some persistence, and a loosening of moral fiber is ultimately
INEVITABLE
[Word: 1]
You explode into a million probabilities of your path to the chapel, thousands of thousands of variations, intensities and repetitions of your inexplicable grapefruit trick pushing toward Mr. Daniels' psyche, trying to find an opening. You go for broke, exploring the further reaches of probability in search of the ultimate shining shitfaced future for the two of you on this fine Sunday morning... and you slide effortlessly into the one where he looks at your grapefruit with a patient smile, a gentle look in his eyes as he gazes back upon your offering...
... and then lifts you up and breaks you in three sensitive places over his knee. A dreadful accident, he says. Happens a lot when you're drunk, he finds. Might keep happening, you know. Over and over and over again. You don't really like the look of him when he says that. But here you are, next to what looks like a giant stained glass window. Mr. Daniels appears to want you to do something with it.
How indeed? Probably with great difficulty, unless someone's left the key in the other side.
Peep through the keyhole, then examine the lock and hinges more thoroughly.
[What The Butler Saw: 1]
Looking through the keyhole, you spot an eye, surprisingly bright yellow, a black pupil narrowing as it settles to look into yours. It rises up, being exchanged for a chattering, tongueless mouth of sharp black teeth. A horrid smell wafts from the keyhole and you step back a little, then look at the construction of the door. Seems like it's locked, braced and reinforced throughout, with no easy access to hinges by what appears to be deliberate design.
There is, however, a slot on the door. This appears to require a separate, smaller key to open and presumably deposit things into. Or maybe remove things from?
Leif Erikson, Miner
- A Word: INEVITABLE
- Wounds: 3
- The Queen's Guard: A Roaring Good Time
- Reappropriated, Clean Skirt
- 1 gp
- Anglefork Castle: A Free Man
- The Box: ?
- Tower of the Mind: Convenient Relocation
- Induced Inebriation: Comfortably Drunk
- Induced Lucidity: the Burning Church
- The Prison Stone
- Elongated Affairs: A Noble Task
- Elongated Affairs: The Numbers of the Stoat
- Compatibility: Minding
- Tricks of the Mind: Cormick's Condescending Riddle
- Tricks of the Mind: Perceptual Rebuke
- Tricks of the Mind: Erikson's Inexplicable Grapefruit
- Party in the Courtyard: Celebration in Earnest
- Never In: Swallowed By The Pit
- Gods of the Underground: Did You Just What
- Labyrinths of Anglefork: Tunnel-Literate
- The Voracious Dark: Two Deals Made
- The Voracious Dark: The Promised Sixth
Eileen Minett, Vinyl Collector
- Naked
- Wounds: 2
- An Arm And A Blade (blunted, bloodstained)
- A Word: HUNGER
- A Word: CHAOS
- A Weapon: Explosive Cysts
- Rat Pantheon: Disliked
- Traces of Mischief: Mouthful of Blackness
- Traces of Mischief: Loosened Smile
- Origins: Witness to Dissolution
- Tower of the Mind: There's Something To Remember
- The New Queen: And Something To Forget
- The Queen's Guard: Bringer of Doom
- Touch of Flame: the Secrets of Flammability
- Inscribed Brick ('Water')
- The Voracious Dark: Two Connections Given
- Body Count: 1
- Never In: the Obvious Candidates
- Labyrinths of Anglefork: the Crossroads
- The Impromptu Prophecy: the Sensible Solution
- Sweet Little Children: Pointlessness
Jack Daniels, Karate Man
- Naked
- Traces of Mischief: A Bisected Left Kidney
- Uncoupled: Strength
- Wooden Door (held)
- The Majordomo: ?
- The Winding Path of Inspiration: the Sword of Destiny
- The Winding Path of Inspiration: Something Priceless?
- The Winding Path of Inspiration: An Unspeakable Garment
- The Winding Path of Inspiration: A Profane Megalith
- Tower of the Mind: Endless Well of Mystery
- Induced Lucidity: A Garden Well-Tended
- Doomstones: ?
- A Place In History: Emergent Abomination
- Anglefork Castle: the Great Serpent
- The Obsolete Class: Suggested Victims
- 2 rats, crushed
- 1 rat, strangled
- 1 rat, live
- Touch of Flame: the Second Degree
- Travels In The Fourth Dimension: Sunday ± 2 Days
- The Impromptu Prophecy: There's A Mountain Higher Than We Knew
- The Voracious Dark: Three Connections Given
- The Good Doctor: A Recommendation
- Body Count: 2
Thomas Minstep, Insurance Agent
- A Word: ABSENCE
- Anglefork Castle: From Another Time, Another Land
- Gross Incandescence: Partly Illuminated
- Tight Leather Pants (worn, wet)
- Incredibly Tight Blue Dress (worn, mutilated, mildly provocative)
- Travels In The Fourth Dimension: Saturday, July 24th, 409 S.D.
- The Majordomo: A Fresh-Faced Lunatic
- The Good Doctor: House Call
- The Queen's Guard: Okayed by the Queen
- The New Queen: Within the Margin of Sanity
- Tower of the Mind: Wall of Prophecies
- Body Count: 1
- Army of the New State: 455 Stout Strangers
Oscar Wilde, Chemistry Teacher
- Wounds: 1
- Burlap Foot Wrappings (worn)
- Burlap Hand Wrappings (worn)
- Moth-Eaten Hat (worn)
- Respectable Brown Skirt (worn)
- Old Brown Waistcoat (worn)
- Bright Yellow Tunic (worn)
- Blue Shards of a Probable Bottle
- Blue Glass Shiv
- A Wealth of Burlap Ribbons
- An Obsolete Class: Incidental Observer
- A Frightening Door: A Glance Beyond
- The Voracious Dark: the Threshold