"Though I didn't anticipate presence of massive underground natural gas reservoirs. This one seems unfortunately large. I hope this won't become another Door to Hell. The previous one is still burning, sixty years after its ignition."
Evacuation seems like a proper plan. Pay attention on those glowing cracks spreading.
Lee doesn't quite understand what you're referring to there, but her momentary quizzical look gives way to the obvious wisdom of continuing to evacuate as swiftly as possible. You choose the most orthogonal direction from the canyon and start running at the same time. It's a lot like a race, except everyone's a winner! Except the ones who are dead.
[Run For Your Lives: 4]
Sprinting flat out, you make it about a mile out before you feel safe enough to say that if you still get killed, there was probably no way for you to escape death to begin with. Lee stumbles as you slow your pace, her heart nearly giving out even under all the adrenaline, and you yourself feel a lot like somebody's replaced your blood with liquid helium, a chilling crawly sensation making you suspect you'll be feeling this next morning.
As you both stop a long distance away, breathing heavily as explosions ring out in the distance, you see that the flashes of light behind you are taking a while to emit their corresponding bangs. Though they've definitely kept spreading at a geometric pace, the horizon now lined with waves and ripples of white, scouring flames. You almost think they're getting closer as they increase in size every minute or so. The earth has begun to shake violently, spiderweb cracks spreading along it in your direction from afar.
[Women And Children First: 6]
Some distance to your right you see the Stork Clan, or however much of it stayed around here - a hundred people perhaps, you would say, a few of them carrying tents that they've grabbed in the confusion, four warriors watching the others like hawks as quite a few others seem to have returned to grab the rest of their valuables from the camp.
This, as it turns out, proves a rather critical mistake, as there is a sudden great flash as the flames rise to the sky and a blast knocks you, Lee and pretty much the rest of the gathered clan off their feet, dirt rising in a massive cloud as a tract of land is disintegrated by the exploding canyon, trailing along the entire horizon as the reaction goes on in a massive chain, cracks spreading in the wake of its progress. Everything shakes violently, the cracks not so slow in spreading in your direction anymore, looking like flat, dwindling lightning bolts as they race along the landscape under the massive stress the ground is being subjected to.
The air is choked with dust, and you can't see a goddamn thing as more and more of it keeps washing over you in lazy waves as it billows outward and settles at the same time. You hear Lee cough a few times before audibly pulling up her dress to cover her face. The roar continues as a massive earthquake rips through the land, though the explosions start to grow a little more distant.
This thing seems friendly enough. I follow it into the building.
The beaver-esque bridge to the hollowed mound of branches crunches under your feet as you head over to the opening and lean in as you spot a fire... going sideways above a pool of water? And you think deeper down in there is the... you lean in a little to make out the details and your sense of balance goes completely haywire for a second as you tumble forward.
When you get up, gravity seems to have taken a 90 degree turn, the vertical tunnel of the hole looking strangely horizontal as you stand next to a gently smoking campfire, the smoke rolling to your right toward a distant wall of blue, slightly cloudy sky.
You look to the other side, and see a rippling wall of water. Behind it, dimly visible in the firelight mostly on account of sheer proximity, is the long-armed figure of the fisher, which stands still and stares at you. Four nautiloid vision-holes with no eyeballs to speak of are organized symmetrically around its puckered mouth, each narrowing or widening independently as it angles its head to get a better look at you for a few moments, floating along the breadth of the water wall to try and get a sense of what exactly you seem to be.
*ggghhhhhhhh*
Mouth foaming. Mind bloody. Find blacksmith. Disable legs. Must not leave until fixed.
Stand up and find blacksmith. If blacksmith is not near his cabin, find nearest person and ask where he is. Write in the dirt if I need to. Don't tolerate any delays.
[The Worm That Walks: 2]
You can't stand up, actually. Well, not for long. You can do a snaking sort of S-shape with some effort that is about as easy to walk in as you would expect. You press on, trying your best to walk as fast as you can, and eventually make it over to the door. Flopping your sausage-like arm into it you manage to bust it open and then land out in the courtyard on your back, your head making soft contact with the dirt just as the ground starts to rumble menacingly.
Interesting! Great potential here, if I can ever master it. And not do it involuntarily. In a room full of children.
Oh.
"Oh, hello there! You wouldn't happen to know what's just happened, would you? I'm rather confused about it myself."
Check I'm fully back to normal and start heading for the exit. Engage in conversation but don't stop walking whatever they say.
The running person doesn't seem to be in the mood for conversation, which you suppose is fine. You head over to the foyer, where more people waste no time in scattering as you give them a quick greeting, leaving but two in place by the keep's open door. The first is Nately, who walks in your direction. Mr. Wilde! He was WONDERING when you'd come to!
Slightly behind him is Deirdre, hanging around the open doorway with a look of concern, raising an eyebrow at your once more quasi-normal bearing, feeling her chances of not being eaten if you come closer to be about 50-50. She asks if you'd mind staying a little ways back - for safety purposes, y'know?
It's perfectly safe, Nately says with a conviction that makes you seriously doubt he legitimately knows what he's talking about, then walks up to you and taps you on the shoulder. As your entire skin twitches on your body exactly once at the tap, he draws his hand back hurriedly. Yes, he says reassuringly to himself, perfectly safe!
What happened, you decide to ask, as you can't really remember yourself, and from both Nately and Deirdre you come to understand that clearly something went wrong in that room you were in. Some bloody minders got bloody eaten, Deirdre explains, that's what happened! And then most everyone decided to barricade the door and run, adds Nately. Simple affair, really!
The castle starts to rumble and shake gently. Nately looks around excitedly. Aha! An earthquake! Earthquakes are good luck for trips, did you know? He seems to be waiting for you to ask why.
Nope.
"Gee well that sounds like fun maybe we will meet along the way I do hope things go well for you here oh you should probably take care of that bye now."
Head on to the north. This sounds like an internal problem that doesn't need interference.
You're not sure what these children want, but it surely can't be hygienic, so you exercise the better part of valor and head over the bridge into a brand new day of presumable travel. Looking back, you see the children approach closer, the commander looking gravely alarmed at something. Shortly after the children the castle is also vacated by the queen herself, and a rather sizable entourage of her attending staff, the girl holding up her dress a little as she too tries to run as quickly as possible to the commander's side, solidly outpaced by the lord of the castle, who has no worries about taking a tumble or two in his quest to get the hell out of dodge. Soon the riverside is even more filled with people than before as you head north along the road, looking back.
You stare straight ahead. There is a road sign stuck into a mound of rocks. Elizabeth, 53 miles north-northwest. Anglefork, 2 miles south. To Be Announced, 20 miles north. Seems you have quite a distance to cross before you get there. And... huh. Do your senses deceive you, or is the ground rumbling?
Leif Erikson, Miner
- A Word: INEVITABLE
- A Word: APOCALYPSE
- Wounds: 1
- Mead of Poetry (6 shining revelations remaining)
- Enders' Friend: The Grave of Red Clouds Parting
- Small brass box
- Body Count: 1
- Reappropriated, Clean Skirt
- Inscribed Wooden Stylus
- Iron spear
- 1.03 gp
- The Box: ?
- Induced Lucidity: the Aftermath, or the New Beginning
- Compatibility: Minding
- Tricks of the Mind: Perception, Memory
- Tricks of the Mind: Engagement, Negation, Abstraction, Prestige
- Tricks of the Mind: the Self, the Other
- Gods of the Underground: Did You Just What
- A Visit From The Stork: Is What You Yes
- The Voracious Dark: Two Deals Made
- The Voracious Dark: The Promised Sixth
- Moth's Flight: Not In Her Wildest Dreams
Eileen Minett, Vinyl Collector
- In Living Memory: Yeah She's Probably Dead Isn't She I Think She's Dead Yeah
- Wounds: 3
- The Doom Guard: Consorting With The Enemy
- Exotic serrated zweihander
- White silk bandeau and loincloth
- Inauspicious Day: Off Into The Horizon
- Giant White Mushroom
- A Word: SEA
- A Word: HUNGER
- A Word: CHAOS
- A Weapon: Explosive Cysts
- The Voracious Dark: Three Connections Given
- Tower of the Mind: There's Something To Remember
- The New Queen: And Something To Forget
- Body Count: 1
- The Impromptu Prophecy: ?
- Sweet Little Children: Fond Farewell
Jack Daniels, Karate Man
- Naked
- Red and gold vest and breeches combo
- Leather boots
- Traces of Mischief: 90% Boneless
- Wounds: 1
- 14033 gp (in sack)
- The Flip Side: Uh, Yeah
- The Queen's Guard: Unusual Troublemaker
- Powers of the Beyond: Gardener of Thoughts
- Dusty Wooden Speaking-Trumpet
- Crossbow Bolt (in throat)
- A Word: REND
- A Word: SILENCE
- A Weapon: Murder-Thought
- Uncoupled: Strength
- Wooden Door (held)
- The Winding Path of Inspiration: Back To The Drawing Board
- Tower of the Mind: Endless Well of Mystery
- Induced Lucidity: A Garden Well-Tended
- Elongated Affairs: Enemy of the New State
- A Place In History: Vastly Unreliable
- Anglefork Castle: the Great Serpent
- The Obsolete Class: Suggested Victims
- 2 rats, crushed
- 1 rat, strangled
- 1 rat, live
- Travels In The Fourth Dimension: Sunday ± 2 Days
- The Impromptu Prophecy: There's A Mountain Higher Than We Knew
- Doomstones: So High Up But Such A Bitter View
- The Majordomo: A Great Divide Between Us Now
- The Voracious Dark: Decreasing Demand
- The Voracious Dark: More Specific Requests
- The Good Doctor: A Recommendation
- Body Count: 3
Thomas Minstep, Insurance Agent
- Troubles In Anglefork Town: Bearer of the Sword
- Wounds: 2
- A Word: ABSENCE
- A Word: GOODBYE
- A Weapon: The Sword They Fear
- Traces of Mischief: Nausea's Depths
- A Bowl, Black and Knobby
- Anglefork Castle: From Another Time, Another Land
- Gross Incandescence: Partly Illuminated
- Tight Leather Pants (worn)
- Incredibly Tight Blue Dress (worn, mutilated, mildly provocative)
- Travels In The Fourth Dimension: Sunday, July 25th, 409 S.D.
- The Majordomo: Busy Morning
- The Good Doctor: House Call
- The Queen's Guard: A Reward Well Earned
- Make A Man Out Of You: A Crowning Achievement
- The New Queen: Lasting Gratitude
- Tower of the Mind: Advice Given
- The Obsolete Class: Let Them Be
- The One They Fear: A Satisfactory Contract
- A Place In History: A Worthwhile Associate
- The Box: Absolutely Delightful
- Body Count: 2
Oscar Wilde, Chemistry Teacher
- A Word: REVELATION
- The Serpent's Egg: Dissemination
- Body Count: 4
- Time-ender's measure (wrapped, yawning)
- 10 m of rope
- Half a candle
- 1 rat, skinless and smoked
- 6 gp
- Poor Misshapen Dice
- Lock of Hair (unidentified)
- Iron nail, unused
- An Inauspicious Key
- Burlap Foot Wrappings (worn)
- Burlap Hand Wrappings (worn)
- Moth-Eaten Hat (worn)
- Respectable Brown Skirt (worn)
- Old Brown Waistcoat (worn)
- Bright Yellow Tunic (worn)
- A Wealth of Burlap Ribbons
- An Obsolete Class: Trustworthy Individual
- The Flip Side: The Most Dangerous Friend
- The Doom Guard: The Inquisition Moves On
- Tower of the Mind: Get Away
- The Winding Path of Inspiration: Ready to Sail!
Author
Topic: Our Salvation: It Is Written (Read 262248 times)