Choose your path to greatness, obscurity or death. A multiple choice LP

[Computer Gamer Refugee]

I thought I'd mention that I regularly follow this as well, but most of the time I cannot spare the time/mental effort to reply. In that case if the consensus appears to be going in a direction that I don't disagree with I won't comment (I know it is a sin since if you appreciate someones work they are doing for free, the least you can do is let them know you appreciate it.)


P.S. I am totally not wasting my company's resources to look at forums at work.

 

[Baltika9]

Bros, about this presence, it is :

A. a benevolent ward/spirit being channeled through the shard (Kalach-Cha is entirely possible), sort of a guardian angel if you will.
B. a malevolent ward/spirit that is trying to find it's master/other parts.
C. an intelligence/spirit/psyker interacting with us through the shard, trying to keep us alive to free itself/regain the shard for:
1) a demonic retual to summon this world's version of Cthulhu/MHD/Satan, what have you.
2) freeing itself.
3) guiding us to free itself.

Whatever is inside the mansion is most likely an undead being, almost surely a lich, or possibly a ghost. Maybe a necromancer.
After all this, it might be retarded, but I want to meet and bargain with this entity. Maybe become the apprentice.

As for the statues, use the Steve Irwin approach. Get a long stick and poke it. Preferably three meters away from it, well outside the ward. Then, throw a rock at them. Worst case scenario: they wake up and we're screwed. But hey, no guts no glory, amirite?

 

[Bloodshifter]

Bros, about this presence, it is :

A. a benevolent ward/spirit being channeled through the shard (Kalach-Cha is entirely possible), sort of a guardian angel if you will.
B. a malevolent ward/spirit that is trying to find it's master/other parts.
C. an intelligence/spirit/psyker interacting with us through the shard, trying to keep us alive to free itself/regain the shard for:
1) a demonic retual to summon this world's version of Cthulhu/MHD/Satan, what have you.
2) freeing itself.
3) guiding us to free itself.

Whatever is inside the mansion is most likely an undead being, almost surely a lich, or possibly a ghost. Maybe a necromancer.
After all this, it might be retarded, but I want to meet and bargain with this entity. Maybe become the apprentice.

As for the statues, use the Steve Irwin approach. Get a long stick and poke it. Preferably three meters away from it, well outside the ward. Then, throw a rock at them. Worst case scenario: they wake up and we're screwed. But hey, no guts no glory, amirite?

+1

 

[newcomer]

Oh btw, what's the in-game time right now? At least the seasons and the year (might use this opportunity to establish the calendar system, I remember it was voted at one point in this CYOA but I don't remember seeing any dates). Also, is Kyoss still 16 years old? And do Kyoss know how old exactly is Irene (or at least her birth date)?

 

[Absinthe]

I vote B, and semi-open choices.

Question: What other skills does our spy have? You can't be a spy without having a profession or two or more to hide behind, so I want to know what else he's good for. Also, are there patterns identical to our shard?

Action: I'm going to say a forcefield suggests its maker isn't hostile. It's pretty much the most peaceful way to make someone stay away. If the defenses are like that, we're in no real danger. We should calmly tell this to Irene and the troops and use our charisma and composure to order the troops to calm the fuck down, get in order, and pay attention instead of gawking at shit. We need them to be reliable instead of freaking out if there's trouble. Also, we should relegate the spy to counter-espionage. If there are traps, they're going to be magical, so he's useless. We send him back now and have him give a report on our investigations while he's at it. If we can do requests from lord Medah, I say we request at least 10 more spies as troops, laborers, accountants, healers/herbalists, cooks, etc. for counter-espionage and normal shit. For every class of individuals, I want a spy in it. I don't recommend hiring a religious nut because they like to answer to their gods about magic instead of us. Lets get a scholar with expertise in that field instead. Lets appeal to Lord Medah to get us briefed on the classified information about magic. It's mission critical now. The area is warded so it's no threat to us unless we fuck with it. So lets not fuck with it yet, and I say we keep exploring around the mansion for anything else. As for the shard, it's not doing anything, so I'm not concerned. We definitely don't tell anyone about it now, because we'd lose it. I also say we ask about both our parents' origins when we get to chill, and cite homesickness and missing our parents as the reasons. Ask the scholar because he should know. We can also ask Irene for relationship points and info - she's a traveled individual and might have something useful to share. Caveat: Irene is perceptive as fuck, and might detect our ulterior motives, so I'm not quite sure.

Another thing we want to consider is this: we didn't tell Lord Medah about the shard before, partly because we wanted to learn more about it. And now we have. If we're eventually forced to reveal the existence of the shard, or if the lord finds out through other means, he's going to wonder why we didn't reveal we have the shard now, when the success of the mission and the survival/safety of the team might hinge on certain other people knowing about it - our commander and the scholar, in particular. Our loyalty will come into question, we might very well lose our cushy job and means of advancing in the world, and oh, good luck getting into Irene's pants.

We'll deal with it if we get to it. For example, we could say: "A) It is a family heirloom, and dear to me. B) It has protected me in the past. (Give the story.) C) We've been loyal and useful." etc. etc.

The way I see it, either we tell at least Irene now, or we never tell anybody about the shard EVER, including Thomas (although why that old guy is somehow more trustworthy than all your colleagues is beyond me).

Because he's sympathetic to your character, he's not selfish (free discounts), works for himself, might actually know something on the subject, and should know more about our parents origins. All our colleagues answer to our boss, the scholar isn't exactly a friend of ours, and the scholar already told us he doesn't know anything about the shard. Unless you want to torture him to check if he's lying.

I'm just saying that I think the benefits of revealing the shard to a select few, especially DURING THIS MISSION where our shard is directly involved, far outweigh the (vague) risks. It's not like we're blabbing about it to every random person that comes our way, we're telling it to people whose execution of their job depends on KNOWING about stuff like this.

There are no benefits. Zilch. We asked the scholar about the patterns, and he answered, "I never saw or heard of anything like this." Since "anything like this" clearly includes our shard, I don't know why you imagine he has anything useful to share if we tell him. The only thing we can expect is him telling us what to do with the shard and how to have it leave our possession.

Also, if you people had wanted to lean magic, y'all should have voted for going to see the mysterious note-giver waaaaay back during the whole merchant vs carpenter crap. I strongly suspect that the person giving us the note and the wizard who was calling down all those lightning storms on the centipedes was one and the same. Given that the note said "forget about ever hearing from me again if you tell somebody else", and since magic users are so rare, especially one of that caliber... All I can say is, good job ruining our only chance of becoming an apprentice to one of the most powerful magic users alive today

(About the updates, I'd like to have them daily, but please don't worry about keeping up if stuff gets in the way.)

...Right.

 

[Anabanana]

Question: What other skills does our spy have? You can't be a spy without having a profession or two or more to hide behind, so I want to know what else he's good for. Also, are there patterns identical to our shard?

Action: I'm going to say a forcefield suggests its maker isn't hostile. It's pretty much the most peaceful way to make someone stay away. If the defenses are like that, we're in no real danger. We should calmly tell this to Irene and the troops and use our charisma and composure to order the troops to calm the fuck down, get in order, and pay attention instead of gawking at shit. We need them to be reliable instead of freaking out if there's trouble. Also, we should relegate the spy to counter-espionage. If there are traps, they're going to be magical, so he's useless. We send him back now and have him give a report on our investigations while he's at it. If we can do requests from lord Medah, I say we request at least 10 more spies as troops, laborers, accountants, healers/herbalists, cooks, etc. for counter-espionage and normal shit. For every class of individuals, I want a spy in it. I don't recommend hiring a religious nut because they like to answer to their gods about magic instead of us. Lets get a scholar with expertise in that field instead. The area is warded so it's no threat to us unless we fuck with it. So lets not fuck with it yet, and I say we keep exploring around the mansion for anything else. As for the shard, it's not doing anything, so I'm not concerned. We definitely don't tell anyone about it now, because we'd lose it. I also say we ask about both our parents' origins when we get to chill, and cite homesickness and missing our parents as the reasons. Ask the scholar because he should know. We can also ask Irene for relationship points and info - she's a traveled individual and might have something useful to share. Caveat: Irene is perceptive as fuck, and might detect our ulterior motives, so I'm not quite sure.

+1 to this.

And yeah, my reasoning was less tell the scholar who is useless and more let's tell Irene this is happening so we can do our shard experiments with people supporting us so that it's safe(r), but whatevah~

 

[GreyViper]

A Also the presence might be the survivor of the battle. Who most likely is the key for us getting safely past the wards into keep. And yeah force field means the person does not want confrontation. For his origin he/she might be descendant of the old Avarlos bloodlines with magic abilities. Right now he/she sees bunch of strange soldiers romping his/her home garden probably wishing they would leave. Now here is the thing we know and can sense him/here, what we need to do is somehow convey that we are not a threat.
* Tell Irene to send the soldiers back they are not needed here now.
* With loud voice identify yourself and Irene and ask if you could enter the mansion.
*try to open the door.

And ask Irene for about both our parents' origins she's a traveled individual and might have something useful to share.

 

[Anabanana]

A Also the presence might be the survivor of the battle. Who most likely is the key for us getting safely past the wards into keep. And yeah force field means the person does not want confrontation. For his origin he/she might be descendant of the old Avarlos bloodlines with magic abilities. Right now he/she sees bunch of strange soldiers romping his/her home garden probably wishing they would leave. Now here is the thing we know and can sense him/here, what we need to do is somehow convey that we are not a threat.
* Tell Irene to send the soldiers back they are not needed here now.
* With loud voice identify yourself and Irene and ask if you could enter the mansion.
*try to open the door.

And ask Irene for about both our parents' origins she's a traveled individual and might have something useful to share.

+1 to this too.

 

[Baltika9]

A Also the presence might be the survivor of the battle. Who most likely is the key for us getting safely past the wards into keep. And yeah force field means the person does not want confrontation. For his origin he/she might be descendant of the old Avarlos bloodlines with magic abilities. Right now he/she sees bunch of strange soldiers romping his/her home garden probably wishing they would leave. Now here is the thing we know and can sense him/here, what we need to do is somehow convey that we are not a threat.
* Tell Irene to send the soldiers back they are not needed here now.
* With loud voice identify yourself and Irene and ask if you could enter the mansion.
*try to open the door.

And ask Irene for about both our parents' origins she's a traveled individual and might have something useful to share.

And +1 to Grey Viper. However, I'm pretty sure the presence kept us alive so we could meet it. Probably nothing good, but still.

 

[GameOver]

I am going to go with Grey Vipers suggestion as well.

 

[Smashing Axe]

Agreed with Vipers' suggestion, let's roll the dice.

 

[Darklife]

A Also the presence might be the survivor of the battle. Who most likely is the key for us getting safely past the wards into keep. And yeah force field means the person does not want confrontation. For his origin he/she might be descendant of the old Avarlos bloodlines with magic abilities. Right now he/she sees bunch of strange soldiers romping his/her home garden probably wishing they would leave. Now here is the thing we know and can sense him/here, what we need to do is somehow convey that we are not a threat.
* Tell Irene to send the soldiers back they are not needed here now.
* With loud voice identify yourself and Irene and ask if you could enter the mansion.
*try to open the door.

And ask Irene for about both our parents' origins she's a traveled individual and might have something useful to share.

This is actually a very good idea. +1

 

[Vernydar]

Oh btw, what's the in-game time right now? At least the seasons and the year (might use this opportunity to establish the calendar system, I remember it was voted at one point in this CYOA but I don't remember seeing any dates). Also, is Kyoss still 16 years old? And do Kyoss know how old exactly is Irene (or at least her birth date)?

Update 66 and 68, just a couple of game days before the current update. I said that it was halfway through the second month of summer

Question: What other skills does our spy have? You can't be a spy without having a profession or two or more to hide behind, so I want to know what else he's good for. Also, are there patterns identical to our shard?

He's a specialist in social infiltration. He has people skills, can pose as a noble or merchant, and is apt at breaking inside houses. Hence the skills with locks and traps

The patterns are similar, but you did not study your metal shard well enough to know if they are the SAME.



That said, very interesting discussion going on. Some suggestions, I must admit, I did not think you would try. Whether or not they are good I won't say

Still debating actually whether or not to switch to updates every other day. I did see that most would prefer daily updates, but my schedule is getting rather busy so I don't know. I very much enjoy writing, but I do not want it to become a chore, else I could indeed risk burning out.

Anyway, update tonight in about 8-9 hours.

 

[newcomer]

That said, very interesting discussion going on. Some suggestions, I must admit, I did not think you would try. Whether or not they are good I won't say

I wonder whether you are referring to the "Charge into monster nest" or "May I come in" suggestion...
Looks like the "May I come in" suggestion will win, I hope everything will be alright...

 

[Absinthe]

He's a specialist in social infiltration. He has people skills, can pose as a noble or merchant, and is apt at breaking inside houses. Hence the skills with locks and traps

Best off sent back to camp then.

The patterns are similar, but you did not study your metal shard well enough to know if they are the SAME.

Action: Then lets take our time and memorize these ones properly so we can tell next time we see shard runes.
Question: With all the memory work we've been doing and above average int, how close are we to the good memory trait?

A Also the presence might be the survivor of the battle. Who most likely is the key for us getting safely past the wards into keep. And yeah force field means the person does not want confrontation. For his origin he/she might be descendant of the old Avarlos bloodlines with magic abilities. Right now he/she sees bunch of strange soldiers romping his/her home garden probably wishing they would leave. Now here is the thing we know and can sense him/here, what we need to do is somehow convey that we are not a threat.
* Tell Irene to send the soldiers back they are not needed here now.
* With loud voice identify yourself and Irene and ask if you could enter the mansion.
*try to open the door.

And ask Irene for about both our parents' origins she's a traveled individual and might have something useful to share.

Action: I say we merge this with my suggestion. First we calm down everyone and send back the spy, then we finish scouting around the building, then we send back the troops with another report and go ahead with this.
Question: Is the language of Avarlos the same as ours or mutually intelligible? (Ask the scholar if we don't know.) If not, we keep the scholar for a translator.

 

[Anabanana]

He's a specialist in social infiltration. He has people skills, can pose as a noble or merchant, and is apt at breaking inside houses. Hence the skills with locks and traps

Best off sent back to camp then.

The patterns are similar, but you did not study your metal shard well enough to know if they are the SAME.

Then lets take our time and memorize these ones properly so we can figure it out next time we see shard runes.

A Also the presence might be the survivor of the battle. Who most likely is the key for us getting safely past the wards into keep. And yeah force field means the person does not want confrontation. For his origin he/she might be descendant of the old Avarlos bloodlines with magic abilities. Right now he/she sees bunch of strange soldiers romping his/her home garden probably wishing they would leave. Now here is the thing we know and can sense him/here, what we need to do is somehow convey that we are not a threat.
* Tell Irene to send the soldiers back they are not needed here now.
* With loud voice identify yourself and Irene and ask if you could enter the mansion.
*try to open the door.

And ask Irene for about both our parents' origins she's a traveled individual and might have something useful to share.

I say we merge this with my suggestion. First we calm down everyone and send back the spy, then we finish scouting around the building, then we send back the troops and go ahead with this.

+1 to all of these.

 

[Monty]

It's interesting that we can sense a presence, but it seems that the others in the group can't (or not as clearly). We also have a relic from Avarlos handed down from our parents, and our parents have mysterious origins. Which leads one to suspect that we may be directly descended from the mages of Avarlos, or at least to a greater extent that the others in the group are.

Perhaps our hopes of becoming some sort of mage are not as far fetched as they seemed when we were a 16 yr old clad in rags stumbling around the forest in a rural backwater.

 

[Vernydar]

Question: With all the memory work we've been doing and above average int, how close are we to the good memory trait?

I can't answer that, sorry I never told you if you can learn traits or not . I prefer to keep this not known to you. Plot necessities

Question: Is the language of Avarlos the same as ours or mutually intelligible? (Ask the scholar if we don't know.) If not, we keep the scholar for a translator.

Now this is a very good question nobody asked me before. It would be intelligible, though it would sounds very archaic to your ears. Basically, the language of Eskal derives strictly from Avarlos.

The writing you would not understand instead, since for more than a thousand years after the fall of Avarlos the territory that is now Eskal was truly a barbaric land, and when culture started to improve again you adopted the alphabet of the nearby nations.

 

[GreyViper]

That said, very interesting discussion going on. Some suggestions, I must admit, I did not think you would try. Whether or not they are good I won't say

Well you can allways pull a house on a hounted hill routine on us.:D

here is a small garden here, still perfectly kept. Irene frowns, and slowly you explore the place. It is indeed in pristine conditions, as if someone tended to it just a few days ago. Could this place's... magic have done so? This place seems very unlikely to be still inhabited. The garden is extremely beautiful anyway, a marvel as far as your are concerned. You wonder if the gardens of palaces are like this everywhere. There are even fruits on the trees, but Irene doesn't let anyone pick them obviously. Still, you do not feel worried, you feel calm, as if this was your home....
A small... graveyard lies here. Cautiously Irene orders to explore it a bit. There are many tombs, all lavishly decorated. And many of these tombs have written text on them. The scholar is almost frothing, quickly going from tomb to tomb.

Ok after giving it a thought here are some guesses. What piqued my interest were well kept ornate tombs. So it cant be survivors of battle lived there for generations and built tombs to their dead. It could be that this is the house of royal graveyard/tomb caretaker. Next the inhabitant could be old man/hag who remembers the old times and could recall the history of the blood lines.

Spoiler

OR if Vernydar really wants to troll us he could introduce another love intrest Bioware style. It being Morrign Esque descendant of royal bloodline who was raised/taught by caretaker before he died old age. And now this nubile you virgin vixen is surrounded by big burly soldiers and she see opportunity to explore the world. Oh yeah she is crazy from isolation.

 

[Vernydar]

Ok, small recap. Right now Greyviper's suggestion is two votes in the lead over TOME's suggestion. What I think I'm going to do if votes stay like this is:

- Proceed like greyviper wrote
- If nothing happens, go with what tome wrote

I might add in other small suggestions here and there.

What is not clear is: GreyViper, in your post you didn't say whether or not you want to tell Irene that you feel-not-alone. Do you (and those who voted for your option) want to tell her in order to motivate what you plan to do? (the whole sedning people away and introducing yourself).

Anyway, about 2-3 hours left to vote

 

[GreyViper]

No just let Kyoss throw a offhand suggestion to Irene that you though he saw movement inside, when he didn't. And tell her maybe the the person inside house is afraid of soldiers and maybe having two less armed individuals introduce them selves might get a better result.

 

[Absinthe]

I vote we just tell Irene that you get the feeling someone is watching you. Irene is extremely perceptive, so I strongly disagree with being suspicious and trying to lie about that. It puts our loyalty in question and damages relationship points. The ensuing line of questioning might also force us to reveal the shard. If it happens like that, we're fucked.

If we just tell her we have a feeling we're not quite able to explain, but it definitely feels like being watched, we should be okay.

 

[Vernydar]

Very well, time to close the vote. Greyviper's suggestion is the one who got most votes, but I will obviously keep in mind others options that did have some consensus, particularly Tome's. This is what you will do, edited a bit for consistency
- Try to calm the soldiers down
- Tell Irene that you feel like someone is watching you, and that the mansion is in such a perfect condition that someone might be inside.
- Suggest that Irene sends the soldiers back, they are not needed here now. Have the spy sent back to camp too
- With loud voice identify yourself and Irene and ask if you could enter the mansion.
- Try to open the door.
- If nothing happens, try to memorize the patterns, have a few guards posted near the skeletons, and go inspect the halo. Listen to what the scholar learns

Off to write the update I go

 

[Vernydar]

The most voted option was the one GreyViper's wrote. Edited to take everything into consideration, you will do what is written in my post above.
As far as open updates go, after listening to your suggestions I will keep completely open updates for a few select cases. Mostly the ones where you have to plan something rather large scale (example: a battle tactic, or a plan to use tens of people, or such.). Or for extremely important updates. Most of the time, I'll do semi open instead. I will give you some options, plus you can propose other things if you want, as usual.
As for update frequency, I'm not too sure. Summer is over, I have less time now. I need to think a bit more of my commitments. Might switch to updates every other day...

74 – A voice in the dark

After a moment of shock you quickly recover, and try to calm down the soldiers and the civilians here with you. Irene quickly joins you in your effort. You point out that these creatures are obviously dead, and that this circle of flaming patterns seems to be something made in order to keep them inside. Besides, they are not moving, so there is nothing to be afraid of for now. Irene makes use of her rank instead, verbally whipping them into action by barking some orders and using all of her persuasive abilities. To be honest, she is far more successful than you are. In barely a few seconds the soldiers are all relatively still once again, and the civilians at least capable of functioning.

You decide you can no longer ignore your feeling not alone. Someone might be inside this mansion, and judging from these flaming patterns, the state of the place and your feelings it might not be someone hostile. This bears some investigation, maybe if you are lucky you could come into contact with this... entity. You think a moment about what would be the best course of action.

You whisper to Irene that you would like to talk a second in private and together you move away a few steps. You tell her that you have felt somehow watched since you came here, and that considering the excellent state of this mansion you do not think this place is abandoned. As absurd as it may sound, you think that someone might be inside this mansion. And that someone could be friendly, or at least neutral to you.

These flaming patterns seem to be some sort of.. containment maybe, something to keep these skeletons (or the rotting disease) inside, and to keep people out. You have not been disturbed in your exploration either. Maybe this person (or persons) is afraid of your sudden arrival and barricaded inside this mansion. You do not think you are in danger but maybe you could try to talk? Or at least, let this person know that you have no hostile intentions. Irene is a bit perplexed by your proposal, and tells you what she thinks.

"Well, from what very little I know of magic, this seem indeed something... not hostile. These flaming patterns look like they are keeping those things inside. By the way, if we meet any of those things, we are NOT staying to fight. They are not... normal. Not natural. Besides I do not even know if we could kill them."

"Regarding this house, I did not have the impression of being watched. But I could be wrong of course. Still I do agree that this place is too perfectly kept. Even though I cannot think of who could be living here, or why, I do agree that it might be inhabited. Very low probability, but not impossible. What do you suggest then?"

You point out that the soldiers are not really serving any purpose right now. You are unlikely to be attacked physically, and against magic they would be of no use. Besides, if you are to try and make contact with whoever is inside, the fewer you are the better. You two could stay here and try to make contact by loudly introducing yourselves, saying you have no ill intent, and then trying to get inside the house again. Or maybe see if someone comes out. The soldiers and everyone else should go back to the courtyard, just outside the grove. And by the way, the spy could very well go back to the main camp, whatever you find here most likely won't be something he can tackle.

Irene ponders you suggestion, then agrees under the condition that you are ready to leave at the first sign of danger, and that you let her speak since she is better at making good impressions than you. You would prefer to be the one talking but you cannot press the point more than this. Irene calls everyone back in front of the mansion, including the scholar and his escort. The man is babbling excitedly, almost making no sense.

"Ohhh this place is a mine of cultural treasures! I must absolutely study these tombs more! Maybe we could unearth the bodies, and see if they buried anything with them. Oooh just wait, I'm going to let my every colleague know of this! There will be people pushing so hard to come here and study!"

Maybe this man doesn't have a clear idea of the fact that this place is under supervision of the crown. Irene tighten her lips, a displeased expression on her face. The man babbles on:

"These tombs are so interesting! All the people buried within seems to be important individuals. They all have strange titles, I am afraid I cannot immediately translate those. I might need to study my books a bit more. But they are all praised extravagantly, for example on one tombstone it is written that the man buried withing "Moved the land to stop the rising waters of the river", or some nonsense like that. Nonsense it may be, but it is still so interesting! And on another tombstone, an eulogy to a woman who performed some sort of ritual to make something go back to the forest. So interesting! And..."

Irene cuts the man short, and tells everyone to leave and go back to the courtyard. Just outside the grove will do, you two have something to do here instead. The scholar protests, but Irene makes a sign to the soldiers, and he is gently taken away.

"That man is going to be a problem. If he can't keep his mouth shut, someone will have to intervene. He does not seem to realize what the general could do to him if he reveals too much.... Anyway, we are alone now. Let us try this strange idea of yours Kyoss."

Irene and you get close to the door of the mansion. Once again, you have a strong feeling of not being alone. It is as if someone is just behind the door. Irene loudly introduces herself, and then you. She states that you came here in peace, and that you had no idea someone lived here. You have no hostile intentions, and would like to talk if possible. You wait for a moment, but nothing happens. Irene makes for the door....

Suddenly you are floating in the darkness. You panic for a moment, calling out for Irene. Then you realize that while you are somewhat floating in an empty darkness, you still feel your body, your leg stopped in mid step while you were advancing towards the door. You do not understand what is going on here, but you are not afraid anymore.

And then, a voice speaks. A small quiet voice. You have the impression that it is speaking directly in your head.

"I do not trust you. You are carrying around that THING. They made it. I think you are a bad man."

Is the one talking.... a child? It surely seems so, from its tone to the way he or she speaks. The voice is still talking and for a moment you have to stretch your mind to catch up with that it said.

"Also, She is not here. She had things to do elsewhere, and She told me not to open the door to anyone. But She also said that nobody would find this place. Maybe it is because you are carrying that THING. I do not trust you."

You think this... child? .... is talking of the metal artifact you carry with you. It is the only thing that makes sense. You try to talk, to explain that you have no bad intentions and that you simply found this thing. But you have the impression that the voice is not understanding you. Or at least, not very well.

"She said that people were coming and that they would come into the central courtyard as well. She said She would tolerate that, and let you people look around. If you behaved. But She did not think you would find this place, so maybe She will be angry and do something."

Who is this "She" that the voice is talking about? But the voice is still speaking.

"She said She would tolerate you, but if you desecrate the Third House, She will make you stop. And you will not like that."

You try to communicate with this voice, to convey at least your confusion, but you are not sure if you managed to.

"I think you are a bad man, but I wanted to tell you not to desecrate the Third House. And to go away, I'm not opening the door. But if you are not a bad man, I will tell you another thing. That THING you are carrying around will Eat you inside. If you are not a bad man and just found it, stop carrying it around."

Suddenly the darkness lifts,and your foot touches the ground again. Irene is in the same position she was before, her hand reaching for the door. It seems this conversation lasted only for a moment. Was it all in your mind? Irene's hand stops before touching the door and she turns towards you.

"Well Kyoss, seems like it did not work. Oh well, was worth a try anyway. I think we should go back to exploring the courtyard. What do you think we should start from?"

Irene didn't realize anything. You wonder for a second, should you tell her something or not?

Should you tell her something Kyoss?
A) Tell her about the voice
B) Tell her about the voice and the not-feeling alone
C) Tell her about everything, including the metal artifact.
D) Tell her nothing
E) Other, make a proposal

Should you do something about the metal artifact?
1) Do nothing for now
2) Bring it back to the camp, put it amongst your things
3) Give it to Irene or to the general (if you tell Irene everything)
4) Other, make a proposal

And where should you go for now?
a) You should go and investigate the halo behind the keep
b) You should go and do a careful search of the low buildings
c) You should go and take a look at the keep, from the outside for now.
d) You should go back to camp for today, it is only early afternoon but you all deserve some rest (and some time to think)

As always, feel free to make additional proposals.

 

[Vernydar]

whoops forgot one option. Fixed