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Nyctohylophobia (Perma-death Quest)

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[X] Take the path through the swamp. - Votes: 4
@Gamefreak1ed @Nevill @Tarock Star @PayKey

[X] Take the path through the cave. - Votes: 4
@SpeckofStardust @Gingganz @Hannz @veekie

[X] It's a Fork in the Road. This means that there is a Third, untraveled Path. Swamps generally don't form around cave systems, so if we go down the middle we can go around the swamp. - Votes: 1
-[X] Go down the middle to circle around the swamp
@Simulium Novitius

Seems we got a tie here. Well, I'm closing the vote later today when I get off work, hopefully by then we'll have a tie breaker to decide if you guys go into the culling cave or the slaughter swamp (not official names).
 
[X] Take the path through the cave.

Caves may be dark, but at least they don't have waist deep levels of mud and decay and probably hidden branches that will poke our poor shins.

I forgot to vote earlier, and now take pleasure in breaking a tie.
 
-drifts in- Guess I missed the votes again. I blame school, homework, and my brain. Oh well. Enjoying the ride is just as fun~
 
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Chapter 19: Cave of Singing Crystals
  • Threadmarks
    • [X] Take the path through the cave.
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    You don't feel like treading through the mud and muck of the swamp you opt to head through the cave. The foreboding darkness of the cave entrance made you feel a bit nervous, but as you got closer the wisps began to appear, illuminating the darkness of the cave. You felt a bit more comfortable with your decision now that the way was lit for you, but you did feel apprehensive. Orphiel did say there were dangerous things lurking in this forest.

    No.

    This is a dream.

    This is strictly a dream and any "monsters" that might be here are just in your head.

    This is a dream.

    This is a dream.

    This is a dream.

    You repeated this to yourself as you stepped into the cave, wisps vanishing behind you as you moved forward, but no matter how much you repeated that to yourself you never quite felt convinced.

    The cave was, so far, rather unremarkable. Dark grey stone surrounded you on all side, the ground slick and damp from water that dripped from the ceiling, the sound of your footfalls echoing off the walls. No matter how far you go everything just looks the same, and the tunnel seems to twist and turn every so often that you honestly felt like you were in a labyrinth and can't even mentally map out where you were in relation to where you entered. It doesn't help that the wisps disappear, sending the tunnel behind you into complete darkness.

    However you spot a light ahead.

    Overjoyed that you managed to get to the end you pick up the pace of your walk, eventually jogging. You quickly close the distance between yourself and the light and found, not the exit, but a room of sorts. It was a bit odd: It was maybe a good 20 feet in both length and width and was completely round with the walls and ground being so impossibly smooth that it couldn't have been formed naturally. The ceiling formed into a dome and had large glowing crystals embedded into it.

    Feeling a tinge of disappointment at not finding a way out you start to move towards the other opening in the room to continue your walk through the cave, but with a flash of light ghostly figures appear before you. You were briefly startled but you soon calm down and analyze the scene in front of you.

    You see the girl from the vision from earlier.

    "Rebecca Lundqvist," you remind yourself.

    She was curled up in the fetal position, crying and nursing several cuts and bruises she had accumulated across her pale skin. Surrounding her were four other figures, boys that had to at least be her age, but unlike Rebecca their appearances were completely shadowed, keeping you from properly identifying them. You can tell that these boys weren't shadowy beings or the like, but something was making you only see them as silhouettes. Perhaps that is the nature of these visions? Only showing you the important people while everyone else is blacked out?

    Regardless, while Rebecca cried the boys     laughed.

    "Please... Leave me alone..." She whimpers, her voice breaking.

    "Then show us what that light was!" One of the boys yells.

    "Yeah, we want to see!" Another says.

    "I can't!" Rebecca cries as she tries to move out of the fetal position and push herself up. "I don't even know how I-"

    Rebecca is cut off by a kick to her gut by another, stockier boy, causing her to collapse to the ground and making heave up whatever contents were in her stomach to the floor beneath her. Watching this made you absolutely disgusted by these kids. What did she ever do to them?

    "Ewww! Look at her roll in it!" The boy that kick her said, chuckling at the sight of the of injured girl squirming in her own vomit.

    "P-please stop..." She gasped out, only to be greeted with a kick to her side.

    "Show us what you were doing, you little witch!" The fourth boy said, easily the tallest of the group. He leaned over, grabbing Rebecca by the hair and shoved her face directly into her puke. "Show us and we'll let you go."

    "HEL-"

    Her cry for help was cut off with another kick to the stomach by the stocky boy. The boy that grabbed her hair let go, standing to his full height. The tall boy looked to each of his fellow bullies and with a nod of his head they all got close to Rebecca and started to kick her.

    The poor girl could do nothing to defend herself other than wrap her arms around her head to protect it as the four boys rained kicks on her. They kicked for a good few seconds but did eventually let us, panting heavily.

    "So..." The first boy said through heavy breathing. "You gonna show us?"

    "Leave me alone..." Rebecca whispers.

    "Say... that... again..." The fat boy demands, panting louder than the rest.

    "Leave me alone..."

    "A little louder, witch..." The tall boy said as he lightly kicked her in the back.

    "I SAID LEAVE ME ALOOOOOOOOONE!" Rebecca angrily screams as she thrusts a hand towards the ceiling, the kaleidoscope sigil Orphiel uses appearing in front of it.

    And then the boys explode.

    They maybe have about a second to realize what is happening before their bodies rapidly expand and burst like water balloons. Blood and gore sprays across the room, their splintered bones, shredded flesh, and exploded organs fly across the room like shrapnel, drenching every inch of the room with the blood of Rebecca's now former tormentors.

    "Jesus fucking Christ!" You scream as you instinctively start backing away quickly.

    Once that gory display was finished, Rebecca's arm falls into the pool of blood and vomit beside her. The young girl is breathing heavily, seemingly too tired to either notice or care that she just     killed four people and is now bathed in their blood. The battered and bruised child slowly closes her eyes and falls into unconsciousness, just as the distant sounds of yelling and stomping feet charging towards her location become audible to you.

    And slowly the scene fades away, thankfully taking away the red coloring of blood with it.

    You stood there, staring at the spot where the vision had played out feeling numb and more than a little sick.

    "This is just a dream. This is just a dream." You muttered to yourself, forcing yourself to press onward.

    You find yourself traveling through another tunnel just like the one you entered the room from, trying desperately to not recall what you just witnessed. You continued to walk through the twisting and turning cave tunnel for what seems to be an eternity, following the wisps through the near featureless stone passageway. However after a while you started to hear... something. You weren't to sure what it was so you focus your hearing on it. It sounded like a song, not like the Whistling, but more as if someone or something was singing. Curious, you sped up your walking, the sound of the singing getting louder as you approached.

    Eventually you stumble upon a chamber, truly massive in scope. The sheer size of the chamber was hard to estimate. If you were to guess you'd say it had to be at least the size of a football stadium but even that felt a little short of its true size. The chamber was completely hollowed out with a seemingly bottomless pit, but thankfully you were standing on a stone bridge that reached from one side of the chamber to the other. Every inch of the walls of the chamber were covered in crystals, each glowing with a myriad of colors. But oddly enough the crystals would glow in tune with the song, and then you realized: they were the source of the song. The crystals themselves were singing.

    The song was quite beautiful, but you weren't sure how this was possible.

    "This is a dream," You mentally reminded yourself. "Anything is possible."

    Shrugging it off, you continue to move on but once more ghostly images appear before you.

    "Oh not again..." You were not looking forward to this, especially after the last one.

    Before you was the image of a steel table and two people sitting at it: Rebecca and another shadowed individual, but visually an adult. Rebecca wasn't injured this time, but her black hair was more grown out and she was wearing an orange prison jumpsuit for some reason. The other person sitting at the table appeared to be wearing a long coat of some kind, possibly a lab coat. The shadowed man pulled out a tape recorder from his coat and placed it upon the table, hitting the record button before scribbling down on a notepad he had already laid out.

    "Taped patient interview 1. Subject is Rebecca Lundqvist," The man said monotonously as he wrote his notes. "In the room with the patient is myself, Dr. Axford." The man looks up from his notepad towards Rebecca. "Good morning, Rebecca."

    "...'Ello." She mutters quietly, looking down at the table.

    "So Rebecca, care to explain what events transpired on April 5th?" He asks. Rebecca looks up at him, giving him a confused look. "Ah, that is to say, what happened on that day before you passed out."

    Rebecca was silent, choosing instead to void eye contact by focusing her vision on the table.

    "You were found covered in the blood of four of your peers, with their remains covering the room. How did that happen?"

    Silence.

    "Rebecca, I can't help you if you don't talk to me."

    "...I just wanted to be left alone." She whispers.

    "When you were found, you were quite injured." He said as he looked over some documents on the table. "Bruised bones, slight internal bleeding, several lacerations. Tell me, were this boys hurting you?"

    She nods.

    "And so what happened to them?"

    "I didn't mean to hurt them..." She whispers, tears welling up in her eyes. "I just wanted to be left alone..."

    "I understand," The doctor said as he scribbled down some more notes. "Our experts tell us there was some residual magical energy in the area where you were found. That is usually the case when a powerful enough spell is used." You looked at the silhouetted man a little shocked, and so does Rebecca. Did this guy, a scientist, just admit to the existence of magic?

    "You know about-"

    "Now tell me if I'm correct, Rebecca," He says, cutting her off. "These boys attacked you, and while they did so you used magic to ward them off, but you unintentionally used too much power. Am I correct in assuming this?"

    Rebecca nods once again.

    "I see." He jots down another note before putting down his pen. "Well that's it for today, Rebecca. Thank you for your cooperation."

    And with that the scene fades away, leaving you staring at the part of the bridge it played out on. You are at least grateful that the guy's head didn't explode or anything. You take one step forward and the crystals that had been glowing in the room suddenly stopped doing so, the music vanishing from the air. The suddenness made you feel uneasily, why would that just happened?

    Then... you sensed...     something.

    You look over the edge of the bridge, down the yawning chasm of darkness below. You don't know why, but you can't     see it, you can't hear it, but you feel that something is there. Trying to get to you. Your primal instincts are screaming at you, telling you to run away. Telling you that whatever is there it was older than Orphiel, older than that thing that attacked you and your friends, older than that thing from your last dream. It was deep. It was slow. And it knew you were there.

    And it was coming for you from the dark.

    [ ] Find a place to hide. Maybe it'll pass you by.

    [ ] Run. The sooner you get out of here the better.

    [ ] Stay calm and keep moving at the pace you've been keeping.

    [ ] Face whatever it is in the dark head on.
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • [X] Stay calm and keep moving at the pace you've been keeping.

    They are slowly closing in; stay calm, stay calm
    Find an inner strength within; stay calm, stay calm

    In all seriousness, the old thing is slow. There is a time for haste, and that is not yet. If we run, we may miss the knowledge we need for survival if we rush things.
     
    TheLordofAwesome said:
    You quickly closed the distance between yourself and the light and find, not the exit, but a room of sorts. It was a bit odd: It was maybe a good 20 feet in both length and width and was completely round with the walls and ground being so impossible smooth that it couldn't have been formed naturally.
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    'impossibly'?
    TheLordofAwesome said:
    The battered and bruised child slowly closes her eyes and falls into unconsciousness, just as the distance sounds of yelling and stomping feet charging towards her location becomes audible to you.
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    'distant', 'become'
    TheLordofAwesome said:
    Every inch of the walls of the chamber were covered in crystals, each glowing with a myriad of colors.
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    'was'
    TheLordofAwesome said:
    Rebecca wasn't injured this time, but her black hair was more grown out and [she] was wearing an orange prison jumpsuit for some reason.
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    TheLordofAwesome said:
    These boys attacked you, and while they did so you used magic to ward them off, but you unintentionally used to much power.
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    TheLordofAwesome said:
    You [are] at least grateful that the guy's head didn't explode or anything. You take one step forward and the crystals that had been glowing in the room suddenly stopped doing so, the music vanishing from the air.
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    The update switches between S. Past and S. Present several times to describe our actions. Not sure which is preferred, so only listing the ones where both occur in one sentence.
    TheLordofAwesome said:
    You can tell that these boys weren't shadowy beings or the like, but something was making you only see them as silhouettes. Perhaps that is the nature of these visions? Only showing you the important people while everyone else is blacked out?
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    Now this is getting even more RPGmaker'y. Either that, or Orphiel got an under budget version of Clairvoyance.

    So, the plot thickens. The Government knows! It all was a conspiracy! Or something.

    Why did they interview the girl if they didn't let her say anything and explained everything themselves? I bet her nodding didn't get on tape! It was all suitably dramatic, but pointless to the extreme. I suppose that's how we know it's the government. :whistle:

    The 'thing' following us... is it something from the Dreaming? To be older than an Eldritch God or whatever that mountain thing was is indeed a feat. If so... hiding from it in a dream is probably not very useful. Facing it is likely to be even less useful than that. Dream logic dictates we try to make a run for it, but do we really want to run through these tunnels without knowing which way we are going? Maybe we can keep our pace and keep our wits about us. It's said to be slow.

    [x] Stay calm and keep moving at the pace you've been keeping.

    I'll take the chance. Don't want to find myself in a dead end. Then again, we couldn't make it out where we are or were going even when the thing wasn't there.
     
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    Nevill said:
    Why did they interview the girl if they didn't let her say anything and explained everything themselves? I bet her nodding didn't get on tape! It was all suitably dramatic, but pointless to the extreme. I suppose that's how we know it's the government. :whistle:
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    Without spoiling anything: This isn't these folks' first time dealing with someone like Rebecca.
     
    Hardly a spoiler, considering they knew all the answers beforehand. I am just poking fun at the scene being constructed in such a way to make us aware of the facts, rather than the people who are doing the interview. :p

    So, okay. Magic is real. Abominations from beyond are real. What does this have to do...

    ...oh. We chose the path of the Mystic, didn't we? Will we end up as a subject in a secret lab, giving testimonies about what we were doing in an abandoned house with four exploded bodies? :whistle:

    Makes me think what we'd see on the path of the Warrior or Knowledge.
     
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    Nevill said:
    Hardly a spoiler, considering they knew all the answers beforehand. I am just poking fun at the scene being constructed in such a way to make us aware of the facts, rather than the people who are doing the interview. :p
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    Remember this for when the quest ends, you'll be needing it.
    So, okay. Magic is real. Abominations from beyond are real. What does this have to do...

    ...oh. We chose the path of the Mystic, didn't we? Will we end up as a subject in a secret lab, giving testimonies about what we were doing in an abandoned house with four exploded bodies? :whistle:
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    No bodies have been exploded yet. :V
    Makes me think what we'd see on the path of the Warrior or Knowledge.
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    Fair Folk and Dinosaurs.
     
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