[CYOA] A Practical Guide to the Destruction of Angels

Mojo_Jojo

I. Introduction

There is always hope. Hope that the passage of time, the winds and rains, will be enough to reduce all things to dust. To erode away the remnants and remove the lingering spectres. Such hope is madness. Wicked pride that refuses to recognise fundamental nature. All that has happened is that the world has forgotten what was sealed and why. Now the day has come when the futile containment fails. And once more I must do nothing except bear witness... and try to pretend that there isn't a tiny glimmer of hope deep within me that this time could be different.

-A weary voice

Elsewhere, a single sharp click prompts an end to dreams. Consciousness slowly drags itself together with the sound of something old and rusted reluctantly moving. Damp, musty memories disintegrate like gossamer. All that is certain is this place had been known as The Bastille. A sharp intake of breath stops any further attempts at snatching the disintegrating threads of the past. 

II. What is this?

This is a Choose Your Own Adventure (CYOA) game. It’s sort of like a Play By Post but more freeform and with no defined player list. Every turn I’ll post an update, with a few options and then you lot get to decide what you would like to happen. With your choices determining the fate a mysterious, ancient entity that was sealed away for some reason. Anybody can jump in and have their say on the direction taken in a given turn. I'll go for whatever gets a majority.

I also encourage you guys to post little side stories, or drawings or whatever. I’m just arbitrating, you're the voices inside the entity's head. Also, it helps me to know what you guys want so I can swing my options to fit that better.

In other words it's a bit like a another thing like Space Australia or Seven Wizards.

III. The Rules

These are ultralightweight and I'll introduce them as required. I plan to be less number-y in this game that I have historically. We'll see how I manage.

IV. Can I play?

Yes, just look at my latest post and tell me which option you want. Do it in bold and red so I can see it.

V. How do we start?

I need a number, a symbol, a letter and a name. Help me out and do it in red and bold for vote counting.

I'll aim for posting an update per day, probably after work so this first one has thirty hours or so

Where are you?

1: Slumped in a barred cell set in the wall of a deep pit carved into the earth
2: Cocooned in chains and suspended from the branches of a vast petrified tree
3: Frozen within the heart of a salt-crusted glacier
4: Buried in the fine white sands of a vast desert
5: Impaled by an ancient spear in the throne room of a ruined castle
6: Sitting restfully in a dusty study

What do you still carry?

£: A hammer and chisel
$: An insatiable hunger for flesh
%: A fragment of the old sun
&: A collection of surgical tools
*: A taxidermied jackelope

Who has woken you?

A: A youth, little more than a child, who slipped away from her chores and stumbled upon the forbidden
B: A zealot, hooded and whispering prayers
C: A father, haggard and desperate, searching for his lost child
An aristocratic explorer, seeking to win the attention of her queen
E: A warrior, hidden inside an armoured shell
F: An old enemy friend

What is your name?

(No options here, time to be creative!)

joshgotro

5 & C

Rubigred

Auralynx

5 % F
Baron Philoctetes

zekebeau

6*A
The Unchained

see317

2 * A
The Shadowcloak'd

discrider

4 % A
Bill Nye

Polaritie

6 % A

The Old Man

Endless_Serpents

2 % A
Rhapsody

webguy20

5 % B

Jayna

discrider

I don't know why we're even dragging the young child into this if we aren't going to helpfully explain the dark arts behind controlling the old sun.

Auralynx

discrider wrote: »

I don't know why we're even dragging the young child into this if we aren't going to helpfully explain the dark arts behind controlling the old sun.

It's clearly a heirloom of some sort.

Tiphareth

1 % C

If we want to change our vote should we edit our post or make a new one?

zekebeau

Auralynx wrote: »

discrider wrote: »

I don't know why we're even dragging the young child into this if we aren't going to helpfully explain the dark arts behind controlling the old sun.

It's clearly a heirloom of some sort.

I thought it was a snack, a light breakfast if you will.

Mojo_Jojo

Tiphareth wrote: »

If we want to change our vote should we edit our post or make a new one?

Just edit it. Do a strike through and rebold/colour it if you think it needs doing.

Mojo_Jojo

Turn 1

Verdict: 5 % A Rhapsody: Thrones, suns and young ladies

Verdigris had formed in every joint. It resisted as Rhapsody twitched her arm eventually failing with a faint crack that sent a waft of green mist coiling towards the wide-eyed youth who had stumbled into the chamber.

"Fryd?"

Weak daylight spilled in through the narrow unglazed windows. Bare stone was streaked with moss in places where the rain had got in. The wide stone flags underfoot looked worn smooth but Rhapsody knew that this couldn't have been the case. Nobody had set foot in here since... Since Rhapsody had been imprisoned and sealed here. Until the youth standing open mouthed had arrived. Brave? Perhaps just foolish. Possibly both.

Only scraps of memory remained. Ethereal fragments and a deep sense of loss. Rhapsody was alone. Reaching out around her there was nothingness. No longer whole. The seized joints between her ornate helm and gorget finally gave as the corroded surfaces broke free of one another. The spear that penetrated her chest ran down to the floor some six feet ahead of her. Surprisingly the youth was frozen with one of her hands on its smooth shaft.

"Ruf?"

The youth gibbered in her nonsense tongue again. Evidently she hadn't expected to find Rhapsody, nor had expected her to be capable of movement.

A thin line of ants marched up and down one of the walls drawing a gently waving line from a crack in the flagstones to the corner of the window. Something tugged at the back of Rhapsody's mind that wanted to explain why she found herself in a badly kept stone castle rather than... whatever The Bastille should have been.

More grinding and Rhapsody was able to grip the spear with both of her gauntlets. The youth abruptly released her own hold as slowly the armoured figure pulled herself free. The scraping and grinding of metal on metal reverberated around the vast chamber. The spear itself was no simple length of forged metal, it fought to remain embedded becoming slick and greasy under Rhapsody's grip. It alone was free of corrosion. Frustrating but not insurmountable. Little by little she pulled the weapon free of her body.

Another gasp came from the youth. At least she was silent with terror now. The spear had left a ragged tear through Rhapsody's breastplate. Unsightly and almost certainly related to the profound confusion she felt.

The spear clanged loudly against the floor as Rhapsody turned and stalked towards the throne. It was a crude thing carelessly made of squared off blocks of stone without ornamentation. Despite appearances it was a point of light in the darkness. Reaching out, she made contact.

It was still there. 

Her palm pressed against the stonework of the throne and allowed her to extend her awareness through the Bastille. The façade of the ancient fortress caused a tingle of wry amusement as she plunged downwards into the depths. Into the chamber that held a fragment of the old sun. It burned as fiercely as it had when it was first sealed. She'd fed it occasionally before The Bastille was made into her jail. Did that mean whoever was responsible for her imprisonment didn't realise it was here? Could they have made such an oversight?

There was more emptiness than there was memory. Vast spaces between isolated concepts. Rebellion? Treachery? How could she take revenge if she did not know who her captors had been?

Her gauntlet clenched and the stone of the throne crumbled beneath her claws. She removed the burning mass from its hiding place. Better to have it to hand in the face of such unknowns. It came easily allowing itself to be forced into a much more convient form, a slender knife of shimmering gold.

There was nothing else to be done here. To regain her memories she would need to leave The Bastille at least for now. She strode past the youth who was still frozen in the spot. Stooping she gathering up the spear. It twisted briefly but settled under her gaze. Through the wide empty doorway, down the damp stairs and the vast wooden doors before her swung open with no more sound than the air they displaced. 

She stood at the top of a rocky cliff. Below was an ocean of dust, it danced and reformed as winds swept across it. Occasionally dark shapes would emerge and vanish before they could be properly seen. The sky above was clear and cloudless, still holding both of its suns. The reduced old sun a footnote compared to its larger counterpart beside it. Together, they did their best to warm the winter air but it was the aura from Rhapsody's fragment which pushed aside the thin layer of ice on the bare stone.

The Bastille has sat at the abrupt edge of a plateau. Scraps of ambitious greenery flecked it here and there. Ancient ferns, tufts of long grass but mostly just rough circles of lichens and mosses furred the hard surfaces of the iced stone.

It was time to pick a direction.

"Yna oui yh yhkam? So hysa ec <<Rana>>. Dryhg oui vun cbynehk so meva. E's cunno E mavd so ihlma. E femm nadinh rusa huf. Dryhg oui vun ouin sanlo"

Again the youth was speaking. She'd found some courage and followed Rhapsody out onto the cliff. Perhaps this animal could be of some use?

Status

Rhapsody
-Mysterious spear
-Fragment of the old sun (knife)
-Hole in chest

Youth
-???

Vote

What will you do with the spear?

1 - Hurl the spear into the dust. You do not wish to be burdened with a reminder of your imprisonment any further
2 - Give the youth the spear. Perhaps your new servant would be more use with such a tool
3 - Keep the spear. You would like to see whoever imprisoned you struck down by the same weapon they had employed against you

What will you do with the youth?

£ - Provide her with the gift of language. This could cause some damage to so simple an animal
$ - Accept her mouth sounds as attempts at communication and put your mind to learning to communicate with her

Where will you go?

A - Down into the dust
B - Across the plateau

joshgotro

3 $ B

Mojo_Jojo

Also, I strongly encourage player chit chat as a) it amuses me and b) it gives me a sense of what you want/like

Endless_Serpents

2 $ B






Somewhere across a body of salt, upon a half sunken bronze bell, a watcher lands clumsily. In the hierarchy of beings, they are the lowliest. Moving as if tugged on strings, none know of their purpose, or care much why. As they tend to do, it speaks now, mimicking words without knowledge of the meaning.

“I’m glad that’s the name.”, it croaks, “I was thinking of the song. But it can be a long poem too. An ecstatic feeling..”

There is no one nearby to listen.

Just as clumsily, it takes flight.

see317

2 $ A

Keep this one's mind intact, our own mental flexibility should be sufficient to match these crude grunts. If it can think and wield a spear, it may be a powerful... well, not ally, but a tool we can use.

zekebeau

3 £ B

The spear is special, the essence disrupted us. Keep it close, away from the enemy. Need for power, allies. Raise the creature up to be worthy, and find more to serve us.

Auralynx

2 $ A

If we accept that this sub-entity is trying to communicate it necessarily follows that they can figure out how to put the pointy end of the spear into something. We've got the sun-knife.

Also, going down into the dust is an inevitability. Why wait?

Invictus

2 $ B

also if I had seen this earlier I would've voted Rhapsody for name.

discrider

2 $ B
Time to fly

zekebeau

Naive cowards, the creature should be grateful to be blessed with new strength, but you would lower us to its level? And then give it a weapon that could turn against us? Madness.

Edit: Note, the above is a bit, not actually trying to insult, like idea we are all voices in its head.

Polaritie

zekebeau wrote: »

1 £ B

The spear is special, the essence disrupted us. Keep it close, away from the enemy. Need for power, allies. Raise the creature up to be worthy, and find more to serve us.

Did you mean:

3 £ B ?

I certainly did, anyways.

zekebeau

Thanks for the catch

discrider

zekebeau wrote: »

Naive cowards, the creature should be grateful to be blessed with new strength, but you would lower us to its level? And then give it a weapon that could turn against us? Madness.

Edit: Note, the above is a bit, not actually trying to insult, like idea we are all voices in its head.

Who cares for the trinket or expending our energy on something so trivial?
So hysa ec Rhapsody

discrider

Yna oui yh yhkam?

Yes
Bathe in our majesty

discrider

"Yna oui yh yhkam? So hysa ec <<Rana>>. Dryhg oui vun cbynehk so meva. E's cunno E mavd so ihlma. E femm nadinh rusa huf. Dryhg oui vun ouin sanlo"
"Are you an angel? My name is <<Rana>>.
Thank you for sparing my life.
I'm sorry I left my uncle.
I will return home now.
Thank you for your mercy"


Aeiouy
Yaeuio

Bcdf
.l.v
ghjkl
kr.gm
mnpqr
shb.n
stvwxyz
.d.f...

Tiphareth

3 $ A

The little one might be disgustingly adorable, we must find out without liquifying its thought glands.

Mojo_Jojo

Turn 2

Verdict: 2 $ B: Sharing the spear, not breaking the youth's brain and heading across the plateau

Again the spear tried to slip free of Rhapsody's grip. Enough was enough. She turned and held it out for the youth to take. The youth flinched and cowed before the weapon.

"Take it."

The words croaked out from within Rhapsody's helmet. Nothing was quite as it should be. Even her voice was muffled and faded. It didn't help that the youth wasn't able to comprehend true language.

"Bmayca tuh'd rind sa"

There was some sense to the bleating but it would take time to decipher properly. Still holding the spear horizontally, Rhapsody pushed it again toward the youth hoping she would get the message. If she was to take her place as a Herald then she would ned to be armed and attired appropriately. The weapon would be a start.

"Oui fyhd sa du dyga ed?"

At last she seemed to understand,

"Yes. It is yours now. Now follow."

The youth reached out and took the spear with two hands but stumbled and dropped it under its weight when Rhapsody released her own hold on it. Was this frustrating animal really fit to serve as Herald? Well, for now there was no alternative. Leaving the youth to struggle, Rhapsody turned and looked back across the plateau. For a moment she was sure she could make out a glimmer of reddish light in the distance. Or perhaps it was just a memory of what should be there.

She started walking. A few seconds later the youth trotted up beside her, pulling the spear along, the tip pointed to the wan sky while the end dragged loudly on the frozen rock.

"Yna fa kuehk du <<Babel>>?"

Rhapsody didn't respond to her blathering, but she did listen. As the endless stream of words spilled from her fleshy mouthparts Rhapsody began to piece together a sense of what each of the squalid notes attempted to convey.

Ahead, what had seemed like an endless stretch of flat vegetation speckled stone at first glance began to take on features. Ahead the rocky sheet developed a slight ripple that rapidly transformed into a bank of long, low foothills. No vegetation appeared to try to claim them. Instead, they caught the pale winter light and offered smooth glassy reflections between the patches of snow that gathered on them. Off to one side of them there was more vegetation, the tufts of grasses becoming more common and even the occasional stunted tree squatting amongst them. And on the opposite side of the glass hummocks there was smoke.

The thin streamer of black danced in the moving air. Rhapsody couldn't quite make out where it was coming from. It seemed to just be drifting up out of the ground. Curiosity got the better of Rhapsody and she adjusted her direction to get closer.

"Dryd'c frana E meja. E's hud naymmo cina fryd dra udranc femm drehg pid E pad drao fuh'd seht dryd E fahd uvv aqbmunehk nydran dryh kydranehk fuut ev E pnehk oui rusa fedr sa"

The youth stopped and planted the spear to point at the smoke and gibber. While the exact meaning of the noises was hard to discern, Rhapsody could clearly understand the youth regarded the sight of the smoke fondly. Pausing for a moment, Rhapsody looked at the spear as it calmly remained planted in the thin soil. Despite its weight, the spear didn't work to resist the youth's grip. It remained balanced and evenly textured. Perhaps whatever crude mind it held did not recognise the youth as a threat.

"Drana'c so ihlma"

More words, the youth was trying to get Rhapsody's attention. Turning, she could see a figure had appeared beside the rising streamer of smoke. Now the youth was waving both her free arms to attract the attention of the figure.

"IHLMA! RAMMU. OUI'MM HAJAN KIACC FRYD RYBBAHAT!"

A second figure rose from the ground to stand beside the first. There was some kind of warren beneath the ground then. The smoke was from its submerged heath. More emerged, clambering out into the open. At least a dozen. Despite the welcoming sounds from the youth they did not appear especially welcoming. Not one had elected to genuflect or the like. Instead they held still, clustered together in a pack. These beasts were certainly arrogant.

Status

Rhapsody
-Fragment of the old sun (knife)
-Hole in chest

The Youth, Herald of Rhapsody
-Mysterious spear

Vote

How will you respond?

1 - Destroy one of the figures to properly cow the rest
2- Destroy all of the figures. Strong and impulsive offense is the most effective defence.
3 - Attempt to address the figures in the youth's tongue: Inform them that they are claimed by Rhapsody
4 - Attempt to address the figures in the youth's tongue: Attempt to understand what they are
5 - Send your Herald forth

see317

Send the Herald forth to introduce our self, then speak on our own behalf.
It is time to verify that we have mastered this primitive tongue, then, perhaps, we can start teaching this rabble true speech.

5/3

Bursar

If these creatures don't know what We are, they might not know what they themselves are. We ought to see how low they gauge themselves before We tell them how much higher then them We are.

4

Tiphareth

5

Understanding is paramount, how are they so broken as to not recognize us? The Herald will perform their duty. They will Know.

Auralynx

4

Context is important!

Endless_Serpents

A little, unimportant watcher makes no headway against sudden winds. Its tiny wings flap as fast as it is able. It speaks to the storm rolling in.

“Diplomacy is key. For every key there is a lock. Unlock the locks and then things go free. That’s nice. Keys!”

Lightning illuminates the sky as the wind throws it down, tumbling through dark clouds.

5

discrider

5
The lack of genuflection is concerning.
Are we not magnificent?
Our Herald seems to understand at least.
Maybe some more time and our Herald will correct the issue.

discrider

Please don't hurt me
You want me to take it?
Are we going to <<Babel>>?

"that's where i live. i'm not really sure what the others will think but i bet they won't mind that i went off exploring rather than gathering wood if i bring you home with me"
"there's my uncle"
"uncle! hello. you'll never guess what happened!"

var english = 'aeiouybcdfghjklmnpqrstvwxz';
var garbage = 'yaeuiopltvkr.gmshb.ncdjfq.';

function means(input){
	return translate(input.toLowerCase(), garbage, english);
}
function demeans(input){
	return translate(input.toLowerCase(), english, garbage);
}

function translate(input, a, b){
	output = ''
	for (c of input){
		var character = english.indexOf(c);
		if (character == -1){
			output += c;
		}else{
			var find = a.indexOf(c);
			if (find != -1){
				output += b.charAt(find);
			}else{
				output += '.';
			}
		}
	}
	return output;
}

zekebeau

5
The lack of genuflection is concerning, yes, but what is expected of the lesser creatures. We failed to raise this one to proper prophet, so we seem stuck to sending it as a servant. If they fail to be properly cowed, then we may need to stoop so low as to smite one

discrider

We still owe a debt to the small one, mind.
Surely we can impress ourselves on these creatures without harming this one's home.

Invictus

5