Breaking the Status Quo [Fantasy]
- Thread starter LonesomeTomb773
- Start date
- Original Fantasy
[X] Activate the pillar.
-[X] Stand back (Just out of spear distance).
-[X] Stand back (Just out of spear distance).
Snip Ten
- Location
- California
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[X] Activate the pillar.
Snip Ten:
You've made a decision. You step forward, reaching your fleshless hand toward the perfectly-shaped mark on the pillar before you. The moment you make contact with it, the many symbols carved into its surface blaze with light. Seams appear in the pillar, and the section immediately in front of you slides backward into the pillar, and then up, perfectly melding with the ceiling of the small room inside the pillar.
You think perhaps 'room' is misleading. The place would be better described as a hollow. It's bottom is high off the ground, reaching to about your waist. The chamber itself is only big enough to comfortably fit your upper body.
The inside doesn't resemble the outside very much. Where the outside of the pillar is made out of a black rock with an uneven texture, the inside is a smooth tan stone cut into a near perfect cylinder.
The bottom of the hollow is decorated with concentric circles and mysterious runes. The thing glows faintly. You wonder what it—PAIN! You collapse to the floor, clutching your skull with your bony hands.
<<NC-001-00036375, STATE INTENTIONS>>
You attempt to stand, do anything, but—
<<MESSAGE REPEAT, NC-001-00036375, STATE INTENTIONS>>
Τhe voice is in your head, blaring agonizingly into your thoughts, tearing apart your concentration. When it speaks, it's all you can think of. When it stops, you're too busy recovering to respond.
<<NC-001-00036375, STATE INTENTIONS OR—WIL—OC—IS—UR—N—NING>>
You don't understand what the voice attempted to say there, but somehow the broken thoughts it continues to send are even more painful than the regular ones.
<<REPEAT, THIS IS YOUR FI-INAL WARNING>>
You try to say something, but you can't. The aftereffects of the voice are too much for you to recover from. You can't do it.
<<ACTIVATING SECURIT-IT-IT-IIIIIIITT-TY>>
You brace yourself, finally just barely pushing yourself up to your knees. You force yourself to look around the room, prepared to escape the room at any moment despite the pain.
But nothing happens.
You force yourself to your feet as the effects of the voice speaking disappear. Just in front of you is the mysterious chamber that you opened in the pillar. At the bottom, the runes are glowing and the circles are spinning, by all appearances like some sort of complex machine. But the lights are flickering, and the circles are faltering and stuttering. It looks as if it's… dying.
You hunger.
You crave.
The lights dim and the circles sputter to a halt. But you can feel energy inside it. It's life is running out, but it's resting to conserve energy. You must… you must consume it.
You could restrain yourself.
But what would the point be? What would it accomplish?
You don't know. But you also don't know what consuming it would do to you.
[ ] Consume it (+2 Life Essence, 24 hours; +???).
[ ] Go back.
[X] Stay still (within touching distance).
Snip Ten:
You've made a decision. You step forward, reaching your fleshless hand toward the perfectly-shaped mark on the pillar before you. The moment you make contact with it, the many symbols carved into its surface blaze with light. Seams appear in the pillar, and the section immediately in front of you slides backward into the pillar, and then up, perfectly melding with the ceiling of the small room inside the pillar.
You think perhaps 'room' is misleading. The place would be better described as a hollow. It's bottom is high off the ground, reaching to about your waist. The chamber itself is only big enough to comfortably fit your upper body.
The inside doesn't resemble the outside very much. Where the outside of the pillar is made out of a black rock with an uneven texture, the inside is a smooth tan stone cut into a near perfect cylinder.
The bottom of the hollow is decorated with concentric circles and mysterious runes. The thing glows faintly. You wonder what it—PAIN! You collapse to the floor, clutching your skull with your bony hands.
<<NC-001-00036375, STATE INTENTIONS>>
You attempt to stand, do anything, but—
<<MESSAGE REPEAT, NC-001-00036375, STATE INTENTIONS>>
Τhe voice is in your head, blaring agonizingly into your thoughts, tearing apart your concentration. When it speaks, it's all you can think of. When it stops, you're too busy recovering to respond.
<<NC-001-00036375, STATE INTENTIONS OR—WIL—OC—IS—UR—N—NING>>
You don't understand what the voice attempted to say there, but somehow the broken thoughts it continues to send are even more painful than the regular ones.
<<REPEAT, THIS IS YOUR FI-INAL WARNING>>
You try to say something, but you can't. The aftereffects of the voice are too much for you to recover from. You can't do it.
<<ACTIVATING SECURIT-IT-IT-IIIIIIITT-TY>>
You brace yourself, finally just barely pushing yourself up to your knees. You force yourself to look around the room, prepared to escape the room at any moment despite the pain.
But nothing happens.
You force yourself to your feet as the effects of the voice speaking disappear. Just in front of you is the mysterious chamber that you opened in the pillar. At the bottom, the runes are glowing and the circles are spinning, by all appearances like some sort of complex machine. But the lights are flickering, and the circles are faltering and stuttering. It looks as if it's… dying.
You hunger.
You crave.
The lights dim and the circles sputter to a halt. But you can feel energy inside it. It's life is running out, but it's resting to conserve energy. You must… you must consume it.
You could restrain yourself.
But what would the point be? What would it accomplish?
You don't know. But you also don't know what consuming it would do to you.
[ ] Consume it (+2 Life Essence, 24 hours; +???).
[ ] Go back.
[ ] Dial room.
[ ] Rest.
[ ] Spin the dial.
[ ] "Plain" room.
[ ] Tablet room.
[ ] Blockade room.
[ ] Dining room.
ChildishChimera
A umbran summon
- Location
- New York
[X] Consume it (+2 Life Essence, 24 hours; +???).
Snip Eleven
- Location
- California
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[X] Consume it (+2 Life Essence, 24 hours; +???).
Snip Eleven:
You decide to take a risk. You shove your fingers into the seam between the mechanism and the stone it's embedded in. You can only fit your fingertips in, but it's enough.
Using all of your strength, you pull on the rune-inscribed disk. It initially puts up resistance, but with a little more force, you pry it free easily. As soon as you do, the entire pillar stops glowing. A few pieces of dust fall down from the ceiling, but nothing particularly worrying.
Examining the disk itself, you notice that it is lit up again and spinning, but there's no voice in your head like the one from before. You lift it above your head, slightly surprised by how light it is, and dash it against the pillar in front of you, completely shattering it. Well, actually, it crumbles into dust, but either way, it's destroyed.
You feel a rush of energy, and you feel much stronger than before. Your bones ache slightly, before expanding. In fact, all of you seems to get bigger. You feel like you've grown a foot or two, and your bones are almost twice as thick as before. Examining your claws, you think that you might be able to cut through some light armor with them, seeing as they are far sharper and longer.
Looking up, you notice that the top of the hollow in the pillar is now down to your shoulders, whereas before it was just above the top of your head. Yeah, you're definitely taller by a foot at least. For some reason, your neck seems a bit longer than it should be, and your skull is definitely a bit more elongated than would be proportional.
You feel your face, and your teeth feel sharper and your eye sockets seem to have a weak barrier where your eyes should be. You can still stick your finger all the way into your skull, but there's a bit of initial difficulty.
Done examining yourself, you observe the area around you.
You are filled with the desire to swear.
The walls of the room are now brown instead of tan, and they're cracking. The room itself has big piles of some powder around the edges. You examine the powder. It's… dirt?
You suddenly feel like you should have read that book in closer detail. Is alchemy a thing in this world? Taking a quick glance at the walls around you… yeah, they're made out of dirt as well. The pillar? Uh-huh.
You make the wise decision to leave the room before getting buried under hundreds of tons of dirt. When you reach the big hub room from before, you exasperatedly notice that it also seems to be turning into dirt, just… slower. You try the door to the elevator room, thinking you might be able to leave by spinning the dial, but the door refuses to open.
There's only one thing to do. Get out of this place before it collapses on you.
But which way is the way out? On the same wall as the dial room is the dining room that you haven't investigated yet, but it seems to be very crumbly and brown. The blockaded room and the tablet room look almost untouched, but the tablet room doesn't look like it has a way through, and the blockade room is, well, blockaded. And that room that looks plain, well, it's not quite as bad as the pillar room, but there is another room through there.
Of course, none of them are guaranteed to be the way out, but you have to try.
[ ] Go through the barricade.
[ ] Investigate the tablet.
[ ] Explore the dining room.
[ ] Go through the "plain" room.
Snip Eleven:
You decide to take a risk. You shove your fingers into the seam between the mechanism and the stone it's embedded in. You can only fit your fingertips in, but it's enough.
Using all of your strength, you pull on the rune-inscribed disk. It initially puts up resistance, but with a little more force, you pry it free easily. As soon as you do, the entire pillar stops glowing. A few pieces of dust fall down from the ceiling, but nothing particularly worrying.
Examining the disk itself, you notice that it is lit up again and spinning, but there's no voice in your head like the one from before. You lift it above your head, slightly surprised by how light it is, and dash it against the pillar in front of you, completely shattering it. Well, actually, it crumbles into dust, but either way, it's destroyed.
You feel a rush of energy, and you feel much stronger than before. Your bones ache slightly, before expanding. In fact, all of you seems to get bigger. You feel like you've grown a foot or two, and your bones are almost twice as thick as before. Examining your claws, you think that you might be able to cut through some light armor with them, seeing as they are far sharper and longer.
Looking up, you notice that the top of the hollow in the pillar is now down to your shoulders, whereas before it was just above the top of your head. Yeah, you're definitely taller by a foot at least. For some reason, your neck seems a bit longer than it should be, and your skull is definitely a bit more elongated than would be proportional.
You feel your face, and your teeth feel sharper and your eye sockets seem to have a weak barrier where your eyes should be. You can still stick your finger all the way into your skull, but there's a bit of initial difficulty.
Done examining yourself, you observe the area around you.
You are filled with the desire to swear.
The walls of the room are now brown instead of tan, and they're cracking. The room itself has big piles of some powder around the edges. You examine the powder. It's… dirt?
You suddenly feel like you should have read that book in closer detail. Is alchemy a thing in this world? Taking a quick glance at the walls around you… yeah, they're made out of dirt as well. The pillar? Uh-huh.
You make the wise decision to leave the room before getting buried under hundreds of tons of dirt. When you reach the big hub room from before, you exasperatedly notice that it also seems to be turning into dirt, just… slower. You try the door to the elevator room, thinking you might be able to leave by spinning the dial, but the door refuses to open.
There's only one thing to do. Get out of this place before it collapses on you.
But which way is the way out? On the same wall as the dial room is the dining room that you haven't investigated yet, but it seems to be very crumbly and brown. The blockaded room and the tablet room look almost untouched, but the tablet room doesn't look like it has a way through, and the blockade room is, well, blockaded. And that room that looks plain, well, it's not quite as bad as the pillar room, but there is another room through there.
Of course, none of them are guaranteed to be the way out, but you have to try.
[ ] Go through the barricade.
[ ] Investigate the tablet.
[ ] Explore the dining room.
[ ] Go through the "plain" room.
+2 Life Essence, 24 hours
+Dirt-to-Stone Durability
+Dirt-to-Stone Durability
ChildishChimera
A umbran summon
- Location
- New York
[X] Go through the "plain" room.
-[X] Test Dirt-to-Stone Durability. Plenty of dirt around.
-[X] Test Dirt-to-Stone Durability. Plenty of dirt around.
Last edited:
- Location
- California
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Maybe I should mention: With any decision, you can access an item or an active ability. So if you wanted to access your new ability right now, you could, even though it's not listed as an option. You can also read your book at any time (but I would recommend waiting for now).
ChildishChimera
A umbran summon
- Location
- New York
Considering how things started diplomacy was never really a option.
StoryJumper
Believer of the Multiverse
- Location
- New York
[X] Investigate the tablet.
Edit: Changed my vote.
Edit: Changed my vote.
Last edited:
Snip Twelve
- Location
- California
- Pronouns
- She/Her
AN: So, I decided to take some liberties with the voting. Feel free to complain about it.
[X] Investigate the tablet.
[X] Test Dirt-to-Stone Durability. Plenty of dirt around.
[X] Go through the "plain" room.
Snip Twelve:
Well, the walls might be turning into dirt, but it seems to be slow enough that you don't have to leave immediately. And there is that mysterious tablet chained to a pedestal; you would prefer to not leave it behind to be buried underneath the mountains of dirt.
You hurriedly enter the small room. It's small enough that, even without passing all the way through the doorway, you can touch the tablet if you reach out. If, you know, it wasn't completely covered in chains.
The room is still currently stone, but you can see the edge of the transmutation approaching, rather quickly at that. You should hurry.
You examine the tablet. It's made out of some kind of shiny black stone, possibly obsidian. The chains are some kind of steel, and they almost completely cover the tablet itself, attaching it firmly to the pedestal. The holes in the chain are wide enough that you can fit your fingers through them, and you do.
On instinct, you apply your full strength to pulling the chain apart, expecting the chain to be stronger than you. However, it easily shatters under your ministrations, and you fall backward, unbalanced. Bits of metal clank against the stone walls, causing some dirt to rain down from the ceiling.
Quickly, you examine the tablet. It's covered in runic inscriptions that hurt your eyes to look at. The tablet itself feels weak, almost dead, like the spinning disk from before. However, you also feel a… tie, for the lack of a better word, that connects your life force to it. Maybe you could rejuvenate it? You won't be able to do so before the building collapses around you, though.
Speaking of the building collapsing…
You return to the hub room, where the wave of collapsing dirt has reached about three-quarters of the way across the room. You stride toward the center of the room and place your hand on the hard-packed earth. Concentrating, you push your life force through your claws, concentrating on the concept of earth turning into stone.
You feel slightly weaker, but not nearly as much as you were when you first woke up back with those knights. The dirt before you has turned back to it's previous state, some sort of tannish stone. The area of the effect seems to be most of the floor of the room you're in, and the bottom of the walls. However, even as you look, the edges seem to be crumbling again. You can feel a tie from your life force to the stone you just transmuted, and you guess that you could probably pour more energy into the spell in order to sustain it, if you wanted.
But enough experimenting, more escaping. A quick glance reveals that only three rooms are even traversable; the dining room's doorway is blocked by a slowly growing mound of dirt, and the pillar room is just gone. A quick check reveals that the dial room is still locked tightly. One of the three remaining rooms is the tablet room that you had just left. Now there's only the blockaded room and the plainish room that your eyes keep being drawn to.
Well, considering that either one of them has an equal chance for being an exit, you decide that you don't have time to try to break down a barricade, even if the room is slightly more intact. You head into the plain room. Beyond it is another room, with another doorway. And beyond that, another one. It reminds you of the architectural style of the place you started in: an apparently random series of rooms that occasionally branches off into multiple paths, like some kind of labyrinth.
Okay, so there doesn't seem to be very much branching, but besides that, it seems to be about the same. You head through the series of rooms that seem to twist and turn into illogical patterns, and at times you're forced to use your one spell to prop up a collapsing ceiling. All of the rooms are well-lit, but empty. At one point, you come across what looks like a staircase heading up, but it's completely blocked by the upper floor's remains.
After just a little bit of wandering, you end up at a pair of doors. These doors remind you of the big doors before, but there are some differences. For one, these ones are slightly ajar, and are being held open by a slightly bent metal bar, as if the doors were trying to close with immense force. For another, through that crack, you can see sunlight, green grasslands, and some mountains off in the distance!
With some effort, you pry the doors apart. Apparently, that bar was preventing the doors from slamming closed. You manage to push the doors into the walls, seemingly locking them in place. You finally exit the labyrinth that has held you prisoner for so long. Well, a couple hours. Okay, it wasn't actually that long, it just felt like it was.
You turn around to look at the building you left, just in time to watch the second story collapse into the first, sending a billowing cloud of dirt into the air. The outer walls of the first story are still mostly intact, but they're slowly turning into dirt at the bottom. After another couple minutes, they completely collapse, leaving only a massive pile of dirt where there once was a multi-story dungeon.
Well, that's over, apparently. Now that you've escaped, you need to know where to go. In the distance, you see a small mountain range. To the right of those mountains, you can see what looks like a large walled city, even further away. To the left, you can only see more plains for miles and miles, with only a few villages marring the near-perfectly flat landscape. In the opposite direction of the mountain range, you can see the ocean, just barely. There's a few small towns scattered about, but by and large the area seems to be mostly wilderness.
Where to go?
[ ] To landmark.
[X] Investigate the tablet.
[X] Test Dirt-to-Stone Durability. Plenty of dirt around.
[X] Go through the "plain" room.
Snip Twelve:
Well, the walls might be turning into dirt, but it seems to be slow enough that you don't have to leave immediately. And there is that mysterious tablet chained to a pedestal; you would prefer to not leave it behind to be buried underneath the mountains of dirt.
You hurriedly enter the small room. It's small enough that, even without passing all the way through the doorway, you can touch the tablet if you reach out. If, you know, it wasn't completely covered in chains.
The room is still currently stone, but you can see the edge of the transmutation approaching, rather quickly at that. You should hurry.
You examine the tablet. It's made out of some kind of shiny black stone, possibly obsidian. The chains are some kind of steel, and they almost completely cover the tablet itself, attaching it firmly to the pedestal. The holes in the chain are wide enough that you can fit your fingers through them, and you do.
On instinct, you apply your full strength to pulling the chain apart, expecting the chain to be stronger than you. However, it easily shatters under your ministrations, and you fall backward, unbalanced. Bits of metal clank against the stone walls, causing some dirt to rain down from the ceiling.
Quickly, you examine the tablet. It's covered in runic inscriptions that hurt your eyes to look at. The tablet itself feels weak, almost dead, like the spinning disk from before. However, you also feel a… tie, for the lack of a better word, that connects your life force to it. Maybe you could rejuvenate it? You won't be able to do so before the building collapses around you, though.
Speaking of the building collapsing…
You return to the hub room, where the wave of collapsing dirt has reached about three-quarters of the way across the room. You stride toward the center of the room and place your hand on the hard-packed earth. Concentrating, you push your life force through your claws, concentrating on the concept of earth turning into stone.
You feel slightly weaker, but not nearly as much as you were when you first woke up back with those knights. The dirt before you has turned back to it's previous state, some sort of tannish stone. The area of the effect seems to be most of the floor of the room you're in, and the bottom of the walls. However, even as you look, the edges seem to be crumbling again. You can feel a tie from your life force to the stone you just transmuted, and you guess that you could probably pour more energy into the spell in order to sustain it, if you wanted.
But enough experimenting, more escaping. A quick glance reveals that only three rooms are even traversable; the dining room's doorway is blocked by a slowly growing mound of dirt, and the pillar room is just gone. A quick check reveals that the dial room is still locked tightly. One of the three remaining rooms is the tablet room that you had just left. Now there's only the blockaded room and the plainish room that your eyes keep being drawn to.
Well, considering that either one of them has an equal chance for being an exit, you decide that you don't have time to try to break down a barricade, even if the room is slightly more intact. You head into the plain room. Beyond it is another room, with another doorway. And beyond that, another one. It reminds you of the architectural style of the place you started in: an apparently random series of rooms that occasionally branches off into multiple paths, like some kind of labyrinth.
Okay, so there doesn't seem to be very much branching, but besides that, it seems to be about the same. You head through the series of rooms that seem to twist and turn into illogical patterns, and at times you're forced to use your one spell to prop up a collapsing ceiling. All of the rooms are well-lit, but empty. At one point, you come across what looks like a staircase heading up, but it's completely blocked by the upper floor's remains.
After just a little bit of wandering, you end up at a pair of doors. These doors remind you of the big doors before, but there are some differences. For one, these ones are slightly ajar, and are being held open by a slightly bent metal bar, as if the doors were trying to close with immense force. For another, through that crack, you can see sunlight, green grasslands, and some mountains off in the distance!
With some effort, you pry the doors apart. Apparently, that bar was preventing the doors from slamming closed. You manage to push the doors into the walls, seemingly locking them in place. You finally exit the labyrinth that has held you prisoner for so long. Well, a couple hours. Okay, it wasn't actually that long, it just felt like it was.
You turn around to look at the building you left, just in time to watch the second story collapse into the first, sending a billowing cloud of dirt into the air. The outer walls of the first story are still mostly intact, but they're slowly turning into dirt at the bottom. After another couple minutes, they completely collapse, leaving only a massive pile of dirt where there once was a multi-story dungeon.
Well, that's over, apparently. Now that you've escaped, you need to know where to go. In the distance, you see a small mountain range. To the right of those mountains, you can see what looks like a large walled city, even further away. To the left, you can only see more plains for miles and miles, with only a few villages marring the near-perfectly flat landscape. In the opposite direction of the mountain range, you can see the ocean, just barely. There's a few small towns scattered about, but by and large the area seems to be mostly wilderness.
Where to go?
[ ] To landmark.
[ ] Ocean.
[ ] City.
[ ] Mountain.
[ ] Plains.
[ ] To villages.[ ] Toward the ocean.
[ ] Toward the city.
[ ] Toward the mountain.
[ ] Toward the plains.
[ ] Write-in? (Feel free to head in any direction you want.)-30 minutes
+1 Mysterious Tablet
+1 Mysterious Tablet
[X] To landmark
-[X] Ocean.
Certainly won't solve all our problems, but it should offer some way to hunt and if we stick to shoreline it's a quick escape for at least 75% of what we'll encounter.
-[X] Ocean.
Certainly won't solve all our problems, but it should offer some way to hunt and if we stick to shoreline it's a quick escape for at least 75% of what we'll encounter.