Setup :
(New game) I’m a warrior seeking peace and an end to bloodshed. I’m on pilgrimage to the Temple to No Gods in the distant City of Gulls. My pilgrimage has brought me to mountains yet unsummitted by man, inhabited by enemies of my people. My goal is to pass safely through and continue my pilgrimage.
You, my friends online, play the world. Your goal is to see me to my doom, instead of safely on my way. You’re allowed only to directly answer my direct questions, though, so you might not be able to do it.
The rules: 1. Only answer my questions. 2. If you don’t already know the answer, make something up. 3. Keep your answers short. 4. If your answer’s disruptive, I’m allowed to delete it. 5. Otherwise, I have to go with the first answer somebody gives. I’ll 'like' it. 6. You may subscribe to this thread if you like. Please use the sentence ‘no gods watch over you’ to do so.
For three days I sought a Sherpa to guide me : no one took the duty on. Advancing slowly up the frozen heights of Icengard alone I've come to recognize a wasteland unlike those I've become accustomed to : less the inhospitable boiling sand kept alive by nighttime crawlers and scavengers, more a dead space of frozen bones and icy nothingness, climbing ever higher. The climbing, 15 degrees or so, slowly but noticeably drains my strength. I can walk upright but am worn to the point of leaning forward : using my arms to help me overcome the terrain of this last mountain.
I've been journeying for three months now. I have the summoning name of a ghost buried in my memory and a vast and deadly patience. With the sun threatening to settle in an hour I have scrapped a length of rock clean and begun preparing a fire. Something warns me of approaching danger : What warns me? Anyone should answer.
Player One : Directly behind you a twig snaps and a shadowy figure is visible when you turn your head. My hand freezes, prone to strike steel on flint. I try to watch it out of the corner of my vision : Has this shadowy figure definitely seen me? Can I make it out, watching it as I am, or is it somehow shadowy by it's nature? Smitty should answer...
I tall thin man steps through the shadows, his careful swift step allows you to know the snapping twig was intentional and not the clumsy inept step of a drunk. He steps closer and is obviously armed with a bow and a small sword. Dressed in dark clothing he pauses and waits to see the reaction of this new lone stranger.Trying my best to control my shaking, I stretch my arm out and offer him a length of my last remaining bison jerky. Mentally I try to map out escape routes, both up and down this eternal mountain, my eyes on him the whole time. Does it seem suspicious / violent yet? ANYONE can answer.
Player Two : He steps forward and reaches for the jerky with his right hand, while the left crosses his chest to rest on his sword. He keeps his body at a diagonal to you, careful not to expose himself as too large a target. He takes hold of the jerky, but does not pull it from your hand.I let go of my end. I'm still in a crouch/hunker from tending the fire : maybe I can spring into him and knock him down the mountain. Or I could jump away and run up it a ways. Given the violent nature of my people's enemies I doubt remaining here with him is prudent.
Which looks more promising, fight or flee? While I weight the options does anything happen? Anyone can answer.
Player Three : From behind him the sound of rustling leaves is heard. Perhaps he is not alone, but a part of a of patrol.Ahhh, the bow makes running uphill too slow, and if he has brush to his back I'm unlikely to knock him down the mountainside from my position. It will be dark soon though, I may be able to evade him/them.
Since his sword's in the crossdraw position and his other hand is full he can't draw when I spring into him, knocking him backwards momentarily, and take off down the embankment, weaving a bit and seeking a crevice or brush to place between us. Is there a place where I might lose him (and his band, if such exists)? Anyone can answer.
No promising hiding spot presents itself. There are shrubs and gulleys, but no convenient caves or woods to disappear into. But he/they do not follow you from that spot. He/they clear out anything you may have left at your makeshift camp, and fade into the wide and silent twilight.Night comes fast in the mountains. I'm unlikely to be the first to successfully summit these colossal beasts, which means I still need to go through the area I just ran from. After waiting for the grey twilight to settle into pitch I creep back and onward, staying low and refraining from using any lights. This in itself endangers me, given the fractured and fracturing nature of the terrain, but I need to watch for the hunting party (or whatever they were) and my attention is split. Do I feel watched? Anyone can answer.
You feel the eyes of nocturnal predators watching you, wheter this is real or imagined you can't be quite sure of. You hear the sounds of Owls whooing off in the distance. You once agin feel the presence of another, though differant than the last time. You turn to see a figure of something you really wish you hadn't, you know in a instant that what you are looking square in the eyes is a moutain lion.Ahhh!!! The worst thing I could run into out here. There is no way I can escape a mountain lion - it's faster by far and more familiar with the terrain. I'll have to risk the attention of the hunting party again. I draw my self up to full height and furrow my brow at the beast - hopefully it has tangled with the locals enough to fear man. Hopefully. "What do you want, ugly clump of fur? Cause I haven't eaten in ages, and you're looking pretty tasty kitty." Does it attack? Anyone can answer
It slowley creeps closer to you, not looking away, it sniffs the air around you. It readys as if ready to pounce.Mountain lions attack by grabbing your shoulders, mauling your face with their maws, and rapidly kicking downward THROUGH the guts with their giant clawed hind legs. I want to pre-emp that, and I might be able to fight free from it. Screaming, I lunge for him before he (she?) can pounce. Does it withdraw and give me the opportunity to go? Anyone can answer.
You catch it off guard, it wasn't expecting to be attacked. You knock it on it's back, dazed it slowly trys to get back up, leaving itself open until it can regain it's poseIt is too dangerous for me to run from it, here. I need to make it want to run from me or kill it. With no time to search for a suitable rock, and not wanting to bend over to pick one up even if I found it, I dash forward and stomp on its stomach, HARD, with my sandalled foot. As many times as I can.
Does it die or flee... or something else? Anyone can answer
The big cat reacts angrily. Imagine a domestic cat who doesn't want to get his tummy rubbed, but bigger. He grabs at your calf with his front two paws and rakes up your leg with his back two, all claws protruded. He bites at your foot and a sandal does little to protect it. His bites don't crush bone, but they give a nasty, gristly feeling as they slide between tendons. Cat's mouths are disgusting places, and their bites are guaranteed to produce copious volumes of pus within about a week. What sort of clothing do you have? His claws will shred fabric, but more layers will leave you with more superficial wounds. If you have one layer of fabric, you will have gashes up to 8 inches long (but mostly about 4) and up to three quarters of an inch deep (but mostly about a quarter inch). One layer of leather will reduce that by two thirds. Whether your sandal has a thick sole will determine if his teeth penetrate your foot from the bottom, but they definitely do from the top.
He is holding your leg with his front two paws the same way a disgruntled kitty holds your hand when he gets an unwanted tummy rub; loosely, with the apparent intention to deter, not devour. He continues to gnaw at your foot and rake at your leg.(I appreciate the details : Good one [Player Two]!)
My sandals are worn down to practically nothing from the long march over the desert. Both teeth easily find deep flesh. My leg is, in all likelihood, ruined. Even if I somehow survive this completing my journey to the temple of no gods just went from unlikely to improbable.
If I can't get away now it will kill me. I screech the summoning name of the man I drowned over a half peck of carrots during the Last War and lay as still as my screaming pain will allow, my eyes closed. The bastard ghost has haunted every dream of mine since the day I killed him - either the cat will consider his presence eerie enough to leave its fresh kill and I can try to piece myself together, or the ghost will have the pleasure of watching nature take the revenge he couldn't.
I lie with my eyes closed and await my fate.
Does the mountain lion kill me? Anyone can answer.
Player Four : Since your eyes are closed you feel and hear several things at once. You hear an unearthly laughter above you and a brief gust of wind that swirls. You hear the growl of the creature and the pressure you felt on your leg is released. You also hear the familiar twang and whoosh of bow firing arrow. You hear the arrow strike something hard, well away from you. After a moment, you hear a sound of anger above you and all is quiet. Your leg is wet.I think my leg has been wet since I first saw the cat!
I peek - the mountain lion has departed as hoped for, silent against the gusting wind. At the edge of my night vision I can make out a figure throwing something thin, curved, and chest high away and swatting frantically around his face as if being attacked by a swarm of bees. He trips on a lump of something at his feet - he goes down and the lump rolls slightly. Whatever he threw changes directions in midair a few times, even rising higher once before settling on the ground, buffeted by winds I can no longer hear. Biting my one remaining sandal between my teeth to silence my whimpers I climb downward on my hands and one good leg, belly in the air and eyes on the scene above, like a wounded crab.
When what little contrast between man and mountain disappears and my vision loses the flailing body in the night sky I roll over on my belly and crawl downward. A days walk behind me was the town of Blackened Wells - if I can crawl that far I might find a wetnurse or shaman for this leg. Maybe I'll circumvent the mountains and slog the longer route through the Longmoor of the predatory bandit-ghouls.
Near dawn I finally reach level ground and the end of the mountain, and I'm happy to put it behind me.
The End.
(For the mechanics of what just happened, or if you want to start your own Doomed Pilgrim game, check out
http://nightskygames.com/welcome/game/TheSunderedLand . The creator played a game on his forum and ran a Q&A here - >
http://lumpley.com/index.php/anyway/thread/722)
Thanks for playing guys!
That is a really weak ending. You went no where near your goal.