>>117093
>Search your prison for something to help you escape

>>117120

You search yourself frantically, discovering that some kind of fabric sheet covers your otherwise naked body, now damp with your sweat. In your palm is a small object, no larger than an arrowhead. Cylindrical, and smooth and cold like glass...there is a recessed area like a button on one end...

--------------------

>Hold it carefully
>Press the button
>Set it aside
>Write-in

>>117143
Press the button

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>>117237

Light erupts from the small vial as you press the button on its surface. The candlerod is no brighter than the lift of a dozen fireflies, but even so it makes you blink as your eyes refocus themselves.

You can more or less see yourself now in the tight confines of a stone box, the rough gray surface of which is digging like sandpaper into your bare back and shoulders. Recognizing the white linen cloth on your body as a burial shroud, it dawns upon you that you are entombed in a sarcophagus.

--------------------

>Scream for help
>Push up on the lid, try to lift it off to free yourself
>Remain calm, take a moment to think

>>117315
Take a deep breath and try to push off the top.

>>117334

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>>117334

You place you palms on the lid above you and take a deep draw of breath, filling your lungs with stale air. You push, and feel the heavy stone give as it grinds a little against the box's edges. You can't push the slab off entirely, with great strain you manage to slide it partially askew, revealing a triangle of blackness in one corner of your prison. Forcing your hands through, you push the lid further, until you can sit upright and climb free.

Holding it aloft, the candlerod’s weak amber light fills a small stone chamber, lengthening the shadows into twisted, ghoulish shapes. The room is old, and in disrepair. Three pillars still hold fast, but a fourth has crumbled and crushed the sarcophagus beside yours, burying it under a mountain of rubble and earth from the collapsed ceiling. The desiccated hand of a long-dead corpse is all you can see of the other coffin’s occupant. There is a single doorway, sealed shut by a massive stone slab laid against it from the other side.

You climb out of the sarcophagus and see no visible ornamentation of any kind on its surface, and as you examine it with one hand you see the dark, intricate designs of tribal tattoos on your skin. Seeing the markings summons a cloud of jumbled memories, but none of them make sense. Muffled screams. Faceless people. Intense pain...the realization comes upon you that you can’t remember who you are.

What is that noise? You hear water dripping from the ceiling, and see a small puddle of stagnant water reflecting your candle’s light on the floor. Climbing from your grave, you kneel close and look into the reflection. The water is too rancid to drink, but is clear enough to mirror your face.

-------------------

Appearance:

>Sex: male / female
>Hair: long / short
>Eyes: brown / hazel / amber

>Male
>Long
>Brown

>write-in pretty serious unibrow?

>>117382
>Sex: male
>Hair: short
>Eyes: brown

Rolled 2 (1d2)

>>117465
>>117471

hair length tiebreak:

1=long
2=short

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>>117509

The brown eyes of your tribe look back at you in the gloom, your fair complexion framed by disheveled ash brown hair cropped short for military practicality. You are a stranger.

KORATHI.

The word forces its way through the chorus of confusion. Korathi...your tribe. Your heritage. Your eyes wander again to the intricate lines inked into your bare upper shoulder. The interwoven swirls and sharp curves were a picture; no, not a picture. Caligraphy.

Looking back at the stone box you were buried in, you see a single inscription on the base which you had missed before, and recognize the jagged script of your native language. Running one finger across it, you piece the syllables together...

“Cataphracti...Kejeral Roericar,” you say with a coarse, halting voice. It feels right. Familiar. Cataphracti – the cavalry. You are a soldier.

The name and title slowly stir the thick morass of your memories. The sounds of combat, of horses crying, of steel striking steel, mixed with the metallic taste of blood and the sting of pain. There had been a battle; a war. You remember your training...

--------------------

Vitality to spend: 9
Divide between the following three aspects:

>Might 1
Martial prowess, constitution, and stamina
Infantry, cavalry, and phalanx

>Nobility 1
Charisma, leadership, and allure
Officers, strategos, and diplomats

>Artifice 1
Cunning, subterfuge, and stealth
Skirmishers, scouts, and spies

>>117532
Might 4
Nobility 3
Artifice 2

>>117532
Might: 4
Nobility: 2
Artifice: 4

Also, fuck yeah OP, cataphracts are badass

>>117568
+1

>>117568

You start with 1 in each, so that would be:

5 Might
4 Nobility
3 Artifice

writing

>>117568
I'll back this as well.

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You were in the thick of the fighting, yelling commands over the roar of battle. A closer examination of your body reveals the scars of several arrow piercing in your upper chest, and a grazing scar from another bolt that cuts through your hairline.

An inhuman growl echoing from the hallway outside snaps your thoughts back to the present. There’s something out there, shuffling through the halls. You can hear the sound of metal grinding against stone, scratching, and...a woman’s sudden, terrified scream.

Before you can decide what to do, you feel something dry and cold coil around your ankle. The mummified hand of the corpse buried beside you is reaching out from the rubble for your leg, scratching at your flesh with claws of ossified bone.

--------------------

>(Might) Crush the undead hand with a stone
>(Artifice) Slip from the withered hand’s clutches
>Write-in

Trials:

Most rolls will be narrative, with the player and QM working together to create a worthy story. Every post will provide at least one might-based, nobility-based, and artifice-based avenue if applicable to the situation, and write-ins are both permitted and encouraged. Players vote for their preferred option, with majority determining the final choice. However, in the case of especially critical events, called “trials,” fate will be given its due through the roll of dice.

During trials, after the majority have chosen a course of action, the QM will then roll 1d10, add the player’s relevant aspect, and add any relevant bonuses from items or context. If the resulting sum meets the trial’s threshold, the player succeeds. If the sum falls short of the threshold, the player fails. For each margin of 3 the player exceeds or fails the threshold by, the outcome will be more severe (either positive or negative).

The thresholds for each trial are known only by the QM, and are different for every option. Depending on the situation, one option or another will probably be easier than the others. Sneaking past the elite palace guard will be easier than fighting all of them. Killing the feral tribe of cannibals is probably easier than talking them down diplomatically. This could change, of course, if the player is particularly proficient with one Aspect and deficient in another. Perhaps your Artifice is so bad that Might is the better option for getting past those palace guard, after all. Players should consider which approach is most likely to succeed given both the context of the trial and the character’s own skillset.

Criticals:

A trial roll of 10 that passes the threshold is a critical success, and reaps additional benefits. Conversely, a 1 that fails the threshold is a critical failure, and has additional consequences. A 10 that fails to beat the threshold still fails, but the player receives some accommodation, insight, or unforeseen benefit in the attempt. Likewise, a 1 that passes the threshold succeeds, but with a minor hiccup or unforeseen complication.

>>117647
>>(Might) Crush the undead hand with a stone

>>117647
Can we pull our leg free than crush it?

>>117647
>write-in: (Nobility)
Attempt to read the hollow's tomb and call out some kind of entreaty to your fallen brother in arms.

>>117704
Huh, could be worth a try. Then smash it if we fail.

>>117704
>>117716
Supporting

>>117704
Yeah give it a try (don't think it'sgoing to work )

Rolled 1 + 5 (1d10 + 5)

>>117689
>>117691

majority votes to attemt communication, rolling (hopefully...I think "dice+1d10+4" in options field works)

You recoil in dread as you see the rotting face of the monster emerge from the rubble, snarling with a dry, withered tongue as it regards you with empty eye sockets. Yet despite the horror of its appearance, you notice the same tattoos which cover your shoulders are etched into the creature's rotting skin...

"Brother...brother please, be still!" you plead, pulling your leg free.

>>117764
>Rolled 1
fuug

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Rolled 5 + 5 (1d10 + 5)

>>117764

(Nobility trial failed critically, resorting to Might)

Whatever bond of kinship you once shared with this man, it is lost now...all that remains is a ravenous, hollow shell. Your attempts to speak with it have given it the time it needs to pull itself forward, nearly in reach to lunge for you as you back against the far wall.

There is no more time to hesitate. You wrest a brick from the pile of rubble and hold it aloft, bringing it down with force upon the monster's exposed skull.

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>>117815

There is a sickening crack as the blow caves the monster's skull in, instantly robbing it of whatever power animated it and sending it to the floor in a pile of decaying flesh.

Outside in the hall, you recognize the sounds of more of these creatures, their moans rising in a growing chorus. If you want to escape, you don't have much time...you have no proper weapons, no armor, and won't be able to fight them all in your current state.

Again, you hear a woman's scream not too distant, and further still perhaps the sound of combat muffled by stone walls. You may not be the only one in this hellish place still alive...

--------------------

>Push open the slab and enter the corridor without
>Wait for things to quiet down
>Call for help
>Write-in

>>117865
Do a quick search for weapons more effective than a brick, and go out to the corridor

>>117865
If we can find more cloth we can put stones into to bash people.

>>117865
Grab a brick and open the door. Be ready to smash in some heads

>>117893
Oh home boy might have some.

>>117886
Seconded

>>117886
This

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>>117886

Your martial discipline kicks in, putting aside fear and forcing you to think. You wrap your linen shroud about your waist, then reach into the pile of rubble and search the monster you have just slain.

Pulling the body from the debris tears it in half, and you see no weapons on its remains. However, as you do, it possesses a candlerod and a shroud of its own, which you pull free and fill with stones until it forms a makeshift flail.

You are as ready as you can be, and the longer you wait, the worse things will get. Steeling yourself, you ram the doorway's stone slab with your shoulder, sending it crashing to the ground and onto a shambling corpse that had been standing just on the other side of it.

Standing atop it, you swing your flail above your head and bring it down on the snarling beast, splattering its brainmatter across the stone floor.

The tomb is pitch dark, with only your candlerod to provide the faintest island of illumination in a sea of wailing and gnashing teeth. To one side, you see a sealed stone chamber like your own, the stone slab still covering the entrance. The woman's voice is coming from in there, but it will slow you down to try to help her. The other way, you see...

For a moment, the silhouette of a four-legged creature stands superimposed on the darkness around it, looking at you with eyes that reflect the amber light from your candle...and then, it is gone.

--------------------

>Follow the shadow
>Help the woman
>Follow the sounds of combat
>Write-in

>>117985
Help the woman

>>117985
>>Help the woman
Numbers win fights and they can at least watch for enemies.

>>118012
>>118016
yee

>>118012
+1

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Rolled 7 + 5 (1d10 + 5)

>>118012
>>118016

You run to the neighboring crypt and try to force your way through the door, but it is far harder to pull the slab free from the outside than to push it from the inside. The snarls and sounds of frantic struggle from inside spur you on, however, and you manage to get purchase with your fingers on the top of the stone. Pulling with all your might, you feel it move only slightly. The strain burns your muscles, but you place a leg on the wall and pull harder, finally feeling it pull free.

You barely manage to move aside as the slab falls to the ground and shatters, revealing the inside of the other chamber with a rush of air.

The woman you heard is still in her partially opened sarcophagus, trying to pull it further shut as a shambling undead reaches down into it to claw at her and pull the lid free.

You once again raise your flail, and swing at the creature...

File: terrified woman.jpg (56 KB, 234x552)

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>>118087

...crushing its ribcage and sending it into the chamber's far wall, where it falls to the ground twitching harmlessly.

You hear the woman trying to pull her coffin closed again, but reach in first and push it aside, holding the candlerod above to illuminate your face and hers.

"I'm not one of them. We have to leave now, before too many more of them wake up," you say with a voice used to issuing commands.

For her part, the woman looks terrified, with wide tear-streaked eyes and gasping breaths, but not helpless. She nods, and take your offered forearm as you help her from the stone box.

Like you, she has nothing but a shroud to barely cover her and a single candlerod, as did the beast that now sits in a heap on the far wall. Further down the corridor, you hear an uncountable number of hissing corpses shambling towards your light like moths to a flame. Deeper in the halls, the sounds of a struggle and cries of pain grow louder.

--------------------

>Ask her what's going on, who she is?
>Have her follow you back out
>Write-in

>>118136
Make her a flail similar to ours, then find out what that fighting is

>>118153

This. Ask her what she remembers as she gets her bearings.

>>118153
This,
There will be time enough to talk once our lives aren't in immediate peril

>>118153
She may not have the strength if they are not a fighter, but they do have the candle rod. Which could act as a shiv. Ether way it will be good to have back ups.

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>>118153
>>118170

You begin to make her a flail like your own, and hazard a single question as you throw stone into the fabric.

"What is this place?"

She is looking at her own arm, apparently noticing the tattoos crawling up one side of her body and down the other, and how they mimic those on your own shoulders.

"Isn't it obvious? We are dead, and this is hell."

Her eyes fall on the weapon you are making, and she reaches out to stop you. "I won't be able to use that as you do," she says, taking the bundle from your hands and emptying it. She tears the twists the fabric into a long strip, then picks some of the smaller, stones and carries them with her as a makeshift sling.

"If I can't make it out with you..." she starts, having difficulty finishing. "Please kill me. I'd rather it end quickly."

--------------------

>Try to reassure her
>Agree to her request
>That ranged weapon won't work in here
>Tell her to just hold the light for you
>Write-in

>>118244
>>Try to reassure her
We don't know anything for sure yet. Let's just focus on surviving for now.

>>118244
We're getting out of here.

That's it. Leave no room for argument or doubt

>>118244
>>Try to reassure her
It will not come to that if we work together. Stay strong and have faith.

>>118293
This and go towards the screaming

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>>118281
>>118293
>>118300

"We're getting out of here," you say with confidence, blowing aside her concerns. You aren't sure it has the desired effect on her, but she falls into step behind you, her own shroud wrapped about her hips like yours.

You return to the junction, and find two more of the hollow men waiting for you, their dead eyes turning towards your light and jaws opening wide to consume you.

Without prompting from you, the woman lets loose a bullet, the stone impacting one of the creatures' shoulders and slowing it down, making them come at you one at at time. As you ready your own weapon, you hear her stone land on the floor beneath, and fall into some kind of recess...

The two shambling things and you are standing on a metal grate, which seems a bit loose under your feet. You can hear voices below, but can't make them out...

--------------------

>Take on both of the monsters
>Try to collapse the grate and send them falling below
>Go a different way
>Write-in

>>118382

Wallop the floor grate and send the corpse-men into the abyss.

>>118382
>Try to collapse the grate and send them falling below

>>118382
Hm... I want to say fight and then make a rope with the cloth. If we can talk to the people down there.

Yet the best thing would be the drop them or fall back. Two will be a problem till we find a weapon.

>Go a different way
Maybe we can open up our options.

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Rolled 5 + 5 (1d10 + 5)

>>118400

Thinking quickly, you step backwards, pushing your companion back with you, and strike the metal grate on which you were just standing with a mighty swing of your flail...

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>>118500

...and sending them falling into the darkness below. The grate crashes down the well with the two monsters until it lands with a heavy, echoing crash at the bottom. You shine you light over the pit, looking down for the source of the voices.

Rather than people, you find only a writhing sea of serpents, twisting and slithering over each other as they constrict around the bodies of the two hollow men. The voices - whispers - don't seem to have a human owner.

"...don't I swear I will never..."
"...take both the horses..."
"...the finest bread this side of..."
"...grow old without such comforts..."

The nonsensical gibberish mixes with the hisses of the serpents, and you realize it is the creatures themselves which are speaking. There is no time to think of it. Putting the bizarre scene from your mind, you jump to the other side of the pit, towards the sounds of combat, and extend an arm to help the woman follow you.

She makes the jump easily herself, though she takes your arm just to be safe. It seems she was just in time, because on the side of the pit you just came from now stands another creature the the others, but this one in full plate and carrying a rusted iron sword. It cocks its skeletal head to one side, deprived of a voice but still capable of communicating its malice.

You look ahead and see the junction the four-legged shadow stood in, a winding passageway leading off the way it departed. To the other side is another antechamber, from which the sounds of combat are coming.

--------------------

>Try to save the person in the next room
>Follow the shadow
>try to kill the armored skeleton
>Write-in

>>118565
We have the save anyone we can. We werent a leader for nothing

>>118565
>Try to save the person in the next room

>>118587
Agree

>>118587
Supporting

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>>118587
>>118603
>>118606

Even if it means the risk, you can't leave a kinsman in this place...

You leave the silent armored skeleton to watch you from the chasm's opposite side and follow the sounds of violence. Another burial chamber, still sealed...

You and the woman with you start to pry the stone free as the others, but are interrupted by the two more creatures coming towards you from another passageway.

Your female companion stops and pulls out her sling, letting fly a couple of missiles at the approaching monsters, slowing them down. You almost have it free, but the undead are nearly upon you, and you don't think whoever is trapped in there has much time left...

--------------------

>Keep at it, pry open the door
>Stop and help her
>Run
>Write-in

>>118676
Pragmatism or Idealism...

I for one vote to try and get that door open. More people = more survival. And we dont leave kin behind.

>>118676
Yell for her to fall back. Finish opening the door.

>>118676
>WI:
Roll for might,
Throw our weapon at one of the creature's heads, and count on the woman to hold off the other as we free the survivor.

>>118684
>>118691
>>118710

Seems like we are definitely trying to open this door, but are unsure what to have her do in the mean time.

being a leader kinda sucks, doesn't it?

>>118744
The truth is loose. She wasn't terribly right minded to begin with with either. But it is better to die a good death doing something in pursuit than to die as a coward pursuing more cowardice.

>>118684
Be the tie breaker

>>118710
I was trying to compromise, and let our stats do the walking on this one.

>>118782
She is one of us. She can hold her own. I have faith in that. We toss our weapon as hard as we can and might the door down afterwards

>>118744

Have her draw the zombies past you and crush them with the door?

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Rolled 10 + 5 (1d10 + 5)

>>118684
>>118691
>>118710

"Back away! I can take them!" you command her, still struggling with the door. If you let it go to fight them, you won't have time to open it and save your stranded tribesman. But if they attack you...you can take a few bites from them if you must, but that door must open.

The woman backs away as you instruct, though the anxiety in her expression is plain. She scours the hall for more ammunition and takes a few more shots, buying time as you exert force on that slab of stone...

>>118842
Crit yeah

>>118842
Oh baby.

this is neat

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>>118842

(critical success)

You find your last reserve of might, channeled by the sheer disgust you have for these vile things that are defiling the bodies of your kindred. The slab comes free, and you surprise even yourself as you hurl it into the two shambling corpses just as they lunge for you. The massive stone slab crushes them instantly, leaving you panting and dizzy with adrenaline. Your female companion stares at you incredulously...she doesn't seem to believe what she has just witnessed.

Without a word you step into the next chamber and find another man, marked as you, grappling with one of the hollow monsters. He has it pinned beneath him on top of a sarcophagus, trapped beneath his straddling legs as he beats it over and over again with the disembodied head of another such monster.

A third creature has emerged from the shadows behind him, sinking its teeth into his shoulder as he finished off the one he wrestles with.

"Aaahh!" he cries in pain.

You step beside him and dispatch the last monster with a heavy swing of your flail, finishing it with a second blow to be certain. The other soldier, still somewhat crazed from battle, turns and almost clocks you with his skull-club, but stops short when he sees you are still amongst the living.

"He looks weakened by his wound, but not beaten. "Thank you...kinsmen.," he says, panting heavily with a limp arm.

The woman leans in from the doorway and calls to you. "There are more coming...too many! I don't know which direction will lead us out!"

--------------------

>Fortify the room
>Carry him out
>Have him walk out with you
>Search the room
>Write-in

>>118910
>Have him walk out with you
Follow the shadow.

>>118910
There is probably nothing of genuine value in these rooms. We need to escape the dead. We run. This is the best opton.

>Write-In. Shoulder him, as carrying would over strain us. Then we Exit.

>>118931
>>118933
This. Follow the dank doggo.

>>118943
Second

>>118931
>>118933

I see we have the right idea. Time to gtfo.

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>>118931
>>118933

He is a large man, with a physique similar to your own and the same shorn hair. You take his healthy arm and sling it over your own shoulder, but he shrugs you off defiantly.

"I can walk, and we need your strength."

You nod and push past the woman, who lets loose another stone from her sling that fells an approaching shadow in the gloom, just outside the range of your candle's light. Two more step over it.

"I think I know a way out," you say, leading them into a narrow side passage. It is a risk - if there are more of these things on the other side waiting for you, the three of you will be trapped.

You squeeze through the tight quarters of the corridor, making a single turn and find, to your horror, a solid wall waiting for you.

"They are following us inside," she calls from the back of your line, looking over your shoulder and seeing the dead end.

In the distance, over the clamor of wailing corpses, you think you hear the sound of a rusty sword dragging across the floor, coming for you...

Is that it, then? Have you failed them?

--------------------

>Hurry back, there may still be time to push through the horde and find another way.
>Make a stand. At least you have a chokepoint.
>Write-in

>>118996
Make a stand. Funnel them through one at a time, and make them trip over each other

>>119006
Make a stand

>>118996
Make a stand. This chokepoint will hold damn you!

>>118996
Chokepoint confirmed,
Look around for something to barricade the doorway?

>>119006
>>119023
>>119037

So be it.

You look to your two kin, saying with your eyes what words need not to. They do not accuse you, or harbor anger that you brought them here. Together, you three just share a moment of solemn understanding.

"They can only come in two wide at a time," you say, taking the lead in front.

But of course, there was only one of you, the other kinsman with a wounded shoulder would only be half a combatant, and her sling would be useless in these confines. Every would you took would wear you down, but not them...and when the armored one came for you...

There must be something else. Had you just imagined that creature walking this way? Were you mad? If it did pass through this passage, there must be something you missed...

There was scant time left. A few more moments, and they will be upon you...

--------------------

>Ready defense
>Counter-charge forward
>Write-in

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>>119083

(forgot picture, dammit)

>>119083
Reinspect the wall one last time. There has to be something we missed!

>>119098
Other than using bodies to block the sword. I guess we have to recheck the area.

>>118996
>the same shorn hair.
I thought we had long hair.

>>119127
We DID. It was cut for military purposes.

>>119083
Recheck the area.

>>119127

Rolled a 1d2 up top to break a tie. Came up short.

>>119139
>>119124
>>119098

writing

You create tension well OP, this board needs more yous.

>>119137
MOTHERFUCKER.

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>>119146

You know what you saw, and you can't be that mad yet. Fighting every military instinct you have, you shoulder past your two companions and return to the dead end, placing a hand on the stone wall.

At first glance, it looked just like the others - but in the dim light of your candles, you start to notice the different shade of stone...the less perfect way it fits into the adjoining walls that look to have been in place for millennia. It was newer...a shoddier.

"They're here!" she calls behind you, and you hear the other warrior lash out at something with a grunt of pain.

Taking a few steps back, you charge at the wall, shoulder first, and feel it give way before you, collapsing in a pile of sandstone. Looking up, you see the tiniest prick of light above...

"Climb!" you command, and the others obey.

--------------------

>Go first, lead the way
>Go last, hold off the horde
>Write-in

>>119188
>Hold off the horde.
We're the most able-bodied

>>119197
>WI:
Plenty of loose bricks now, throw them shits

>>119188
Fend off the horde, even if we do nothing but buy them time. If they get out, any wound is worth it. Follow up the moment we get a chance.

If possible, try to knock them over rather than kill them, if it's any easier

>>119188
>>Go last, hold off the horde
>>119203
The will slow them down for a bit.

>>119188
>Go last, hold off the horde

We're the most capable for it

>>119188
>Go last, hold off the horde

damn we got a good crowd

File: 1357484418842.jpg (270 KB, 664x690)

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Rolled 6 + 5 (1d10 + 5)

>>119197
>>119203
>>119206

"Go, I will follow," you tell them, all but shoving the two of them through the gap you have just created. She starts to protest, but before she can you are already charging headlong into the approaching monsters, ramming a broad shoulder into one of their chests. It stumbles backwards, losing its feet, and obstructs those behind it.

A second lunges for you, but you swing you sack of bricks, pinning it against the wall and shattering it legs. It too, falls.

A third snaps at your arm, and a forth grabs at your leg beneath you. Dropping your weapon, you instead grab one of the creatures, holding it by the neck as it chomps its lifeless, toothy jaws at you. You swing it back and forth, using its body as a makeshift shield even as the weight of all of the others presses in behind it, making oyu lose ground one step at a time...

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>>119246

One of the creatures lunges past your reach and sinks its teeth into your forearm, but you just grimace and push it aside with your hostage corpse.

"We are high enough! Follow us, please!" you hear her voice behind you in the darkness. With a last burst of strength, you shove the beast into its fellows and run into the crevice, jumping up to find a handhold in the darkness.

You find one - you kinsman's good arm. The two of them hoist you up to a small ledge, out of reach of the gnashing, wailing sea of undeath gathering beneath you.

The three of you look at the hungry, empty eyes...the tormented, decayed faces of people that were almost certainly people you once knew, perhaps loved...

There is nothing you can do for them. Nothing except survive, and learn what you are, and what happened to your people.

All three of you climb, your kinsman with some difficulty, but eventually all reach the top. The light shine from a crack in the stone chimney's ceiling, casting a long bright shadow against the stone walls that descend into the deep foundations you just escaped from.

You choose a wall, and push, once again upending weakened stone to reveal something else entirely...

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>>119309

The temple - for there is no doubt as to the structure's purpose - is crumbling, covered in the dust and sands of neglect. Several of its features have collapsed into piles of rubble on the mosaic floor, destroying the images of whatever forgotten deities or heroes it once celebrated.

There does not seem to be any immediate danger...you are, as far you can tell, safe.

>>119330

(forgot the options)

--------------------

>Try to figure out who you each are.
>Explore the temple
>Tend to wounds
>Write-in

>>119339
>Try to figure out who you each are.
Look deep within you.

>>119339
Let's figure out who we are

>>119330
>Explore the temple
We should try to find clean water. I doubt tending to the wounds will do little with the old rags.

>>119339
>Explore the temple

>>119339
>Try to figure out who you each are while tending to wounds.

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>>119348
>>119365
>>119389

The others are exhausted, and as the rush of combat wears off, so too are you. The woman helps your kinsman to a collapses pillar and seat s him against it, examining the bite-shaped wound on his shoulder. She tears a strip the shroud she wears - a generous offering considering it is all she has to cover her body - and uses it to bandage him as best she can. It is clear she knows what she is doing.

"You are a healer?" you ask her, watching her work.

"I'm...not sure," she replies, struggling with disjointed memories the same as you are. "I just...seem to know this."

That sounds similar to the affinity you felt when you saw Cataphracti written across your burial place. It made more sense than anything else you can think of.

"Can you remember your name?" you ask her.

"...Kirari. Kirari...Tajricai," she answers, unsure of herself. "I think."

"And you?" you ask him.

"Dorje. Akritoi," he says, equally unsure of himself.

"Neither of you has any memory of this place?" you ask further. They both shake their heads.

"Perhaps our memories...died with us, in that place," Kirari says. "It seems clear to me were buried with those creatures - our brothers and sisters - but for whatever reason, only we came back whole."

>>119491

--------------------

>Write-in. Sandbox mode, engaged.

>>119500
Rest for a while and try to find a way out.

>>119500
Look around for wood and water to ready a fire.

>>119491
Explore the temple while the other two get rest.

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>>119557
>>119565
>>119573

"I will see if I can find some water, maybe learn where we are," you say. It didn't seem like you were moving too far for a time, and your throat was already dry from the exertion of fighting off those things below you.

The temple is simple, and what little of value it may once have had seems to have been looted my ages ago. You run your hand across a relief depicting some grand event - a star descending from the heavens, or something similar. Its craftsmanship is alien to you...this structure was not built by your people.

A small pool, long dry, sits coated in dust in the antechamber. You feel a gust of wind from the doorway, and step outside...

>>119491
I was waiting to bring this up until things calmed down, (not trying to descend into literotica) but you mentioned earlier that the woman and the PC were both only wearing a shroud on our hips.
As a (presumably) heterosexual male, I couldn't help but check out her breasts at least in passing. Y'know, since they're just hanging out and all.

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>>119614

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w57IhyaAx6E

...to find barren nothingness waiting for you. As far as the horizon stretches, there is only sand, the sun, and the wind.

You curse in your native language. You can't stay here...you may have won the battle to survive those monsters, but now you had already begun a battle against thirst. You need a plan to find water, and quickly.

--------------------

>Forage for food
>Try to find a vantage point
>Find game
>Consult with the others
>Write in

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>>119627

She has since covered herself more as shown
>>119491

But you are all three practically naked, yes. All of you seem to be more concerned with survival at present than the (admittedly generous) proportions of Kirari's chest.

And as far as eroticism goes, I don't shy away from it when it makes sense, but neither do I make a point of bringing it up when it doesn't make sense to.

>>119640
>Consult with the others
>Try to find a vantage point
>Find game
>Forage for food

Where there are plants or animals there will be water, worst come to worst and we can only find game we might be able to subsist off of blood for a bit

>>119640
>Try to find a vantage point closeby and look for a water source.

>>119684
I'll support this

>>119684
I put my backing to this.

>>119684
Yup and then we talk with the others.

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>>119693
>>119684

You climb to the top of the temple, which is comprised of a series of terraces and pagodas worked into the slope of the hill you were buried beneath. It seems to be fairly tall compared to the surrounding hills, and perhaps you will be able to find a landmark or some evidence of life nearby.

Your fear is that the temple once relied upon a spring that has run dry - in which case, it s builders had long since left and the place was uninhabitable. It would be a cruel irony for you to survive that dungeon below just to slowly die of thirst now.

You hear something - a voice on the wind. A whisper.

"...ripest ones have the sweetest juices..." Your eye catches the slithering movement of a serpent uncoiling itself not far from your feet, greeting you with a hiss and display of its fangs.

"...sours the milk if left too long..."

What are these accursed things? You kick sand at it, and it slithers off, taking the unsettling human gibberish with it. It leaves a wave of sand in its path...which crosses the tracks of hooved game.

You follow the direction of the tracks, and find a game trail...southwest. From the hilltop, you see a landmark in a distant mountain range to serve as a marker.

--------------------

>Return to the others, form a plan
>Forage first
>Follow the trail a bit
>Write-in

>>119755

>Forage a bit.

Basically we ought to check for clues and then return to base camp.

>>119755
Follow the tracks a while. Not too far, just see if they head anywhere specific.

>>119755
It's best that we have something to return to them with.

Follow the trail a bit.

>>119769
>>119790

The sun is starting to set, but you decide to use some of the remaining light to search some more and make sure these tracks lead somewhere relevant.

You follow them down the hillside, where they do, in fact, wander about in circles briefly before continuing southwest again. In the distance, though the heat haze, you think you can see a mountain shadow where water might be able to gather. It's not too far...perhaps 20 miles distant, though over uneven terrain and under oppressive conditions.

The wind kicks up a little and swirls about your ankles, brushing away the tracks slightly and leaving a surprisingly painful stinging sensation on your exposed legs and ankles.

You look closely at the sand swirling about your feet, and see tiny flakes of thin, sharp, white stone mixed in with the grains. Hmmm.

Well, if the winds disturbed the animal tracks that easily, it means they couldn't have gotten far since the tracks were made. You have no bow or javelins to hunt with, and no time to make them...but you know where to find one thing...

Thirty minutes later you return to your camp in the temple with the snake dangling lifelessly over your shoulder.

--------------------

>Write-in. Formulate a plan.

>>119836
The sun is setting? We should rest until it's all the way down, and head towards the mountain. We should be able to do 20 miles overnight, and it will help that we won't be doing it in the mid-day heat.

>>119836

Well, we're in a bad situation.

We should travel by night to the possible water location tonight. No sense sticking around the graveyard and traveling by day is a bad plan given the heat.

>>119836
We need to move to that mountainside. The desert will eat us alive during the day, so evening before the cold sets in is the best time to move. e.g. tomorrow evening. We bleed the snake for drink and make a makeshift fire quickly to roast it. We eat our shares and discuss

>>119871
>>119875
>>119878

There seems to be a broad consensus to travel by night to the mountains, just need to decide if tonight or tomorrow night.

Tonight seems best. We should do it now while we're strongest, and our wounds aren't infected. We can eat the snake while we wait for it to be time to go.

>>119891
>>119886
This desu

>>119886
This right here

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>>119891

You return to the camp with what dry scrub you could find and the snake over one shoulder, dropping it all in the center of the temple's once-ornate inner chamber.

Kirari has finished tending to Dorje's wounds, and he has busied himself grinding a shard of masonry into a sharper edge. Kirari gathers the wood into a pile, and Dorje uses his shiv to cut the serpent into pieces and drain its blood into a half-shattered ceramic pot you find in a corner.

"I've searched most of the temple. The creatures below don't seem to be able to get up here, but I also didn't find anything useful to us."

"I'm afraid I didn't either," you reply. "Unless this bastard counts," you say, nodding to the reptile. "We don't have much time to find water. In this heat, even if we keep to the shade, we'll be dead in days."

They both nod. They expected as much.

"But I think there may be an oasis not far from here. I found a game trail, and such beasts can't live without water. If we follow the trail, we find water, and we live."

Kirari places her palms together as she kneels in front of the pile of brush, apparently praying. Apparently, you were wrong. A spark erupts from the kindling and grows stronger, turning into a crackling fire as the two Korathi men watch.

"You are a healer and a mage, then," you say.

"A priestess, I think. Though I can't recall of what deity." She places the pieces of serpent on the flames, letting them start to roast.

"Have you discovered any new talents while I've been gone?" you ask Dorje in jest.

"Just bleeding and making sharp objects," he quips back, showing his shiv. The three of you share a moment of laughter you desperately needed after the nightmare you just awoke from.

"We will have to set out tonight, when the sun sets and the heat goes down, but before the cold sets in. It will be hard, but it will get harder the longer we wait."

Again, the both nod in agreement.

You eat your paltry meal, and recover your strength as you prepare to set out into the wilds.

Kirari breaks the melancholic silence with a song she salvages from her memory:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNvbh7jn8JU

Excusing yourself, you scan the horizon outside, thinking about what perils you may be leading your kin into...

You aren't sure, but you think you see a pair of glowing eyes staring back at you in the distance...

>>119976

This is where I tap out for the evening, gentlemen. hope you had fun, i will pick the quest back up in a couple of days.

Twitter for notifications and askfm if you have any questions.

>>119983

Thanks for running, solid start

>>119983
Looking awesome so far. Can't wait for the next installment. Any idea when that might be?

>>120031

I have a job interview tomorrow, and it will take me all day with travel. The day after I should be clear to go. I will notify everyone in advance through twitter if it is happening or not.

>>120040
Wonderful, can't wait. Good luck at the interview.

If you can can think of anything for me to work on, that's what I need to hear to make it better. I want us to have as much fun as possible, after all.

>>120070

You avoided all of the beginning QM mistakes, you have a good sense of pacing, and you've definitely created multiple mysteries for us to solve.

9/10 opener desu

>>120070
Dude srs, Youre great. Wish my qst was going half as well.

>>119983
I'm hooked, definitely coming back for the next one. Between the write-in sandbox modes, images, and that song at the end, I'm certainly feeling immersed.
Good luck with the interview based OP.

What was your source for the images btw?

>>120083
Thanks for running

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>>120151

All of the images are pulled from google image search, deviant art, and other places. I have a library of them on my data drive.

Most of the ones I use are on hand because I ran this questline over roll20 a couple of years back, and am recycling the resources I put together for it back then.

>>120070
I suppose the decision to kill the snake came a little suddenly. If we're going to take a (seemingly) significant action like that autonomously, a little more detail or foreshadowing might help us understand the decision better.

Those voices were freaking cryptic!

>>120464
The snake was a bit sudden but I admit it's what I would've immediately asked OP to do.

>>>127949