With those words, the Millenial Kingdom came to an end, the New Earth and the New Heaven were forged and vanished from the universe to whatever paradise the Almighty had in store for the faithful. Meanwhile, everyone who either rejected God or failed to live up to the standard are down here, in the Lake Of Fire, burning for eternity.
You can still hear that idiot as well as that Satan creature screaming their devotion as if it would save them. It won't save anyone down here, and everyone knows that. They know that they're at the end of the line, and that's why the number of voices are so few to be heard in the darkness and flames.
So why are you looking at this? What is this place? Why are you standing on water smoother than a pane of glass without a single ripple? You know you're still in the Lake, the pain is as much spiritual as physical, they might as well be the same thing now really. But this is not fire, or darkness, and if it wasn't for the wind blowing on your face, hot and thick with sulfur, you'd think you somehow traded places and were standing in the New Heaven.
But that's impossible.
There are no words, no angels, not even the 'Glorified' or whatever they were called. Just the clouds, the sky and the water, and the pure and perfect silence only marred by those two idiots screaming to Heaven and the stink of Sulfur.
"It's beautiful." You mutter and in a blink the vision fades and you're back in the darkness, back in the same pitch-black, burning morass of flames and screaming as you sit on the hard ground...at your feet...
You're sitting on solid ground, uncomfortably warm, and it feels like rock rather than soil or even dried grass but it's ground. It is solid, normal, rocky ground, and you can actually see the flames of the Lake licking against the roughly-circular edges of the rocky ground you are currently sitting on.
Somehow, you did this, that dream was a key to something, you don't know what. But now that you see this, you have an understanding, an inkling of possibility that maybe, just maybe, there's a way to make lemonade out of lemons, or even just burn life's house down with the lemons. Whatever.
The fact is that somehow, some way, you just might have the means to make being at the loser's table a...should you say it?
It wouldn't hurt, would it?
Eh, go on, say it.
You smile, "This is going to make things a Hell more interesting."
Disclaimer: If you actually take this seriously on religious ground, make some room for those who just want to have fun.
Gameplay Notes:
1. Until you introduce a concept of Time, any and all actions written in or voted on will be done.
2. Do not introduce the concept of Time until you are ready to find/make a way out of Hell.
3. There is no obligation to try and take on God again. He won, so let Him have the victory so that you don't get blasted down into the Lake again.
4. Have fun.
Starting Gameplay Mechanics:
-Focus: Focus is how the MC manipulates reality down in the Lake Of Fire and maybe outside in the Material Universe as well. It starts weak but can get stronger. Focus is spent performing actions, and spending more Focus increases the chance of success.
-Stress: When your Focus is reduced to 0, you gain a point of Stress. When your Stress is equal to your Focus, your Focus doubles.
-Region: You can create a rough patch of rocky ground with you at the center in kilometers equal to your Focus, but without investing Focus to create Permanency, the Lake of Fire will burn it back up again. Regions cannot be expanded, only new ones made.
-Permanence: Permanence is generated by spending Focus at a 2:1 ratio. As long as 1 Permanence is retained, the Lake of Fire cannot burn the land generated. Investing more Permanence in a Region hardens it from damage and allows for future improvements by spending invested Permanence.
Choose your difficulty:
[]Sulfur Sketcher (Easy)
-Open Rolls
-Starting Focus set to 100
-Start with a Region already generated with 2 Permanence
-Time can be introduced early with no penalty.
-No Write Ins
-You have to give orders to everyone all the time.
[]Ash Brickmaker (Medium)
-Open Rolls
-Starting Focus set to 50
-Start with a Region generated with 1 Permanence
-No Write Ins
-If Time is introduced, you only have 2000 years to open a gate to the Material Universe.
-Angels may arrive if you create too many regions to despoil your creation.
-The Antichrist may try to usurp you.
-People will operate autonomously as long as you are overseeing them.
[]Hell's Architect (Hard)
-You can generate Permanence on a 1:1 ratio.
-You have 1 continue if you fail.
-You are allowed a character sheet.
-Anyone dredged up from the Lake will operate independently if they can be motivated, freeing you from having to direct their every move.
-You will be warned if Angels arrive.
-Write Ins are required until you can create a society and can delegate responsibilities.
-You only start with the patch you woke up on.
-Starting Focus is 10.
-You will only have 100 years to create an exit if you introduce time.
-Angels will constantly arrive should you generate more than 9 regions.
-The Antichrist and Satan will both try to usurp you.
There is no such thing as [Time] in the Lake of Fire, nor [Light], [Warmth] or any other concepts.
What exists is [Pain] and [Fire] and plenty of it in great numbers to ensure that the very concept of [Eternity] was only fire and agony. Frankly, whatever agony the flames brought was only exceeded by listening to the screaming praises of those idiots whose existence allowed so many...fuck, there had to be [i]trillions[/i] of people in this infinite expanse, and here you were sitting on a patch of rock floating amidst the eternally-hungry flames in the darkness.
You need to consider your options as you concentrate your strange new power into creating [i]something to write with[/i].
*pop*
There was no light to herald its arrival, but you were now holding in your hands some paper and a sharpened pencil, and another brief thought gave you a lantern to write by as you begin listing what should be your immediate goals:
1. Find a way to expand these new powers.
2. Find a way to create a new society that is sufficiently advanced.
3. Find out if there's still a universe out there.
4. Get Out Of Hell.
Those all seem like reasonable, and somewhat achievable goals. And it's not like time is a factor down here, so you have as long as you want in order to find a way to rescue people, create land to build on, and then bust out of this burning garbage pile and go somewhere actually cool. After all, you were able to witness the end of the old Earth, but there was nothing done to the rest of universe.
Which means that you might be able to see the night sky once again. Who cares about seeing the sun, if you can see the night sky after experiencing 1000+ years without it, it'll be worth it. Hell, fuck the sun!
Hmm, since there might be a chance of lightning strikes if anyone uses that guy's name in vain, maybe you should figure out a cool new swear-word?
[b][]Write In:
[]Nah.[/b]
Looking around your little patch of rock, you consider what your first step should be. With any luck, you will be able to figure out some potential courses of action.
[b][]Write In:[/b][/Time]
Your first order of business is to try and get a good look at your surroundings and situation, so with a flex of your will, you begin by first creating [Light] in the form of small orbs, about the size of a baseball and placing them at equal distances around you, improving them with broadcasts of [Infrared] and then you expand the concept of [Sound].
7/10 Focus
Immediately you are blasted by a wall of noise; the roaring inferno around now illuminated and it seems like there is nothing but a writhing sea of flames as far as your eyes can witness, and the screaming is still going on. But even so, you can see and you can hear and the pain you feel is lessened by being on this platform of dark, unidentifiable rock.
You decide to celebrate and you try to create [Delicious Food] from what you can remember, only to be dismayed when everything you create is suddenly snatched away by the ever-hungry flames.
6/10 Focus
Frowning, you try instead for some [Tranquility] to even out the pain. A floating blue orb appears, illuminating a ring around you and already your agony fades, allowing you to feel something other than pain for the first time in...whenever.
5/10 Focus
Next, you decide to create [Water] and with a faintly burbling sound, clear water begins to flow from a crack in the rock and out into the flames, turning into steam but slowly, ever so slowly, you watch as the stream increases in flow and forces and soon, amidst clouds of steam, you see black rock, riddled with glowing veins, begin to be exposed by the water flowing over it.
4/10 Focus
[Spring] created! Land will expand naturally as Water extinguishes flames.
Steam begins to rise and billow...
Next, you decide to create [Air] and a misty ball forms over your head, about the size of what you remember a basketball as being. Delighted by your progress, you decide to create [Wind] in the same breath, and you watch as the ball begins to rotate until it was a flat disc and you could feel a breeze wash over you, relieving you of the heat surrounding you.
Even if the flames are fanned, they are being blown away from you all the same, though you wonder how the other souls are reacting to this?
2/10 Focus
[Wind] created! A cool breeze blows through the Lake Of Fire.
Wind and Steam interact...
Souls feel the wind and are reminded of better days...
And for your last trick, let there be [Dirt]!
You feel a rumbling shake the Lake, before a bulge forms out of the lake, dark and burning, dripping with what looks like glass and molten metal, before it explodes, a geyser of dirt spewing it's dark wealth across the flames desperately melting everything that lands on them, and it looks like the Lake is winning.
1/10 Focus
[Dirt] created! A geysering spire of dark earth, you can sense traces and small deposits of more advanced material within...
That was all rather exciting, and tiring you realise, so you wait until you feel more refreshed so you can continue, idly thinking of a new swear word, but since the only thing you can think of fickle-flop, you decide to abandon it for later.
And so, you plan your next moves...
[]Write In:
Dirt and Water will mix soon.
Steam clouds blown adrift begin to cool...
The wind remains cool.
Your platform is expanded by an additional 9 meters! Permanence remains at 1 for you and your platform.
You feel that your little realm is going to be unstable and on an impulse you place some of your power into the land itself, hoping to stabilise it from any possible future collapse.
Permanence invested into expanded platform. Permanence is now 3.
8/10 Focus
With the platform, enlarged and modified as it is, made more...permanent you should say, your attention turns to the fact that right now, you still feel hungry and lonely.
You once again try to create food, willing it into existence once more in the form of a large platter stuffed with what delicacies you can remember...and then watch as a tongue of flames reaches out and snatches it away again.
7/10 Focus
If only you had a proper Region to give you some security from the flames...
You decide to focus instead of creating a companion, a talking mouse to act as a friend and conversation partner, but when you focus your will, your body is wracked with a fiery agony unlike anything you ever experienced in the flames and for a moment you black out.
10/10 Focus
1/10 Stress
Blinking away spots from your eyes, you look around to see if your experiment worked, and you spot it, a small cute little creature that wouldn't be out of place in a cartoon, also looking around in confusion, until it locks eyes with you.
And screams.
It screams and screams and screams, a primal sound of soul-rending terror that you didn't think it had the lung capacity for as it screams and then turns and runs towards the Lake, throwing itself in where it vanishes in the blink of an eye, obliterated even as its screams echo in the air.
Well, that's concerning.
Greater power is needed to take up such an important mantle.
Shrugging at your failure, you decide to shelve it for now, focusing on improving your little island of sanity in madness. You decide to create some high ground, and with some focus, you feel the rock underneath you shift and tilt slightly in response to a small hill growing in the middle of the expanded platform, the action causing the ground where you are to become covered in a fairly thin layer of dirt that you are grateful for, as well as causing the spring to now gush forth at an angle, and as you climb up the hill to watch, you see layers of dirt, silt you remember it being called, be deposited across the expanding, steaming rock.
9/10 Focus
1/10 Stress
A hill has been made, you now stand above all and all you survey is fire, and potential.
You then start lacing the hill with veins of iron, copper, all the metal you can remember that don't need advanced machinery to process and forge. And you are reassured that even if time starts up again in here, that the supply is infinite.
8/10 Focus
1/10 Stress
There are no riches in the rock, but food production my be hampered. It is a balancing act.
Your attempts to create grass result in a dark scrub the colour of dried blood, and somehow you cannot really grow much food-producing plants now, but you manage to create what could be the only plantlife that can now be called native to hell.
It is a thorny bush with dark, fleshy leaves that grows large berries with white skull-shaped markings on the bright-purple skin. The taste is sweet and the seeds readily grow in the poor soil of your little realm. Assured of some kind of food supply, you lean back and enjoy a feast.
6/10 Focus
1/10 Stress
Food is now assured.
Now, you plan your next moves.
[]Write In:
Somewhere, rain falls and boils away on a distant corner of the Lake.
The spreading rock halts, it has reached the limits of growth without a true Region being created.
A little island of rock, small and unassuming, has created the first blasphemy against a story that has already ended by Divine Will.
