Light

Adventure Awaits! - Prompt Voting CYOA (Always Open)

~ Chapter I ~

---

The savory and sweet aromas of braised goat stew wafted around you like a soothing quilt of warmth, a much needed contrast to the bitter and frigid air that stung your nostrils for the better part of the night. It was well past anyone's bedtime, yet the man who had left you to reach the temple alone was more than willing to allow you and your new companion to rest before hiking back down to the world below. This cantle lit hole-in-the-cliffs served as Umildraen's humble abode; cramped not only in a stature befitting a lone dwarf rather than two humans, but it also was cluttered with a myriad of books, pelts, tools, and climbing gear adorning the walls that would encroach upon your back no matter which side of the miniscule table you sat at. Aiding to warm your belly was a rather generous serving of mead, the smooth honey wine that complimented your dinner perfectly. Sitting across from you was the man himself, looking much more awake now than he did when you stood just outside his doorway not an hour prior. To your left, Aika justified the frenzy with which she devoured her meal by graciously thanking Umildraen over and over both before and during the feast.

"We don't have goats in Geland," Aika explained in a rough Daldoran. "I've always wanted to see one for myself but, this isn't what I had in mind." A small laugh was had around the even smaller table, and she looked up from the bowl to you and him. "Even so, this is simply divine, Mister Nogrid." As you nodded in agreement, your host took a long swig of drink, comically disparaging the respectful titling of his name with a hearty belch. "No need for formalities, lass," he assured her with an affable smile. "Enjoyin' me cookin's more than enough. That, and seein' ye both safe n' sound." Umildraen leaned back in his chair and cast his gaze to you for but a moment with the same wagging finger from earlier in the night. "Ersu heard me prayer, he did. If anyone needs thankin' it's him. He ain't th'god of weather n' travels for nothin'!" Another belch succinctly ended his point as he tilted forward once more and seized his spoon with a similar hunger to Aika's.

"Indeed," you agreed as you more gracefully tended to your meal than either of those sitting with you. "We'll likely needs his fortune once again as we make our way east, we've quite a trek ahead of us." Umildraen rose an eyebrow at this, curiosity bubbling. "Oh? Is yer business in Daldon over then?" Aika shook her head to clarify. "Well- not exactly. I- we-" she seemed to freeze up, again showing apprehension to divulge the details of her mission. Luckily, you could step in before the dwarf asked too many questions. "Aika's mentor, the client that hired me to find her, simply wants to see that she's alive and well. We may yet return after some time, if the temple proves enough interest to him." You looked to your companion, who in turn gave you a very short and relieved glance in gratitude. "Ahh, seems a simple enough prayer to whip up then, har har!" Umildraen pushed his empty bowl closer to the center of the table and began to run his fingers through his long beard. "Say, I've been livin' in th'temple's shadow fer years and ain't once set foot inside. Folks like you two comin' n' goin' seem like ye handle yerselves just fine tho. I can't help but thinkin', what's in there?"

Your eyes turned to Aika, and as she met your look with one of caution, she returned to your native Gelish tongue to ask you in secret. "Should we tell him? You said we need the help but, we can't just tell everyone either, right?"

---

• Tell Umildraen about Zorkuth and Aika's goal to extract his heart.

• Tell Umildraen about the books and spiders to deflect suspicion.

• Say something else.
[Write in: Describe something to say in either Gelish or Daloran.]

Adventure Awaits! - Prompt Voting CYOA (Always Open)

No voting this week, the Prologue is complete! Next week will begin Chapter 1, and voting will resume as normal.

Adventure Awaits! - Prompt Voting CYOA (Always Open)

> "Wait. We should get reinforcements in case this proves too dangerous." <

---

You felt for a moment a pull from the sincerity of Aika's plea, but one more glance at the beast lying in wait before you shook you to your core. With a heavy sigh, you wracked your mind for a compromise that would make sure you both leave here with all limbs intact. Just as she seemed fed up with waiting for you to reply, an idea stuck you. "So, you want to ferry the heart of a massive dragon across the country side, right?" you asked, getting a curious nod from your companion before continuing. "A heart that- and you can excuse me if my know-how about the insides of a dragon are off- is probably itself bigger than both of us combined, right?" After a bit of stammering, she could only reply with "W-what's your point?" You threw your attention backwards to the thin stairs that spiraled their way back up the edges of this deep chamber, and rose a finger to them. "There's a lot more than me telling you this is a bad idea-" you began. Her brow furrowed in frustration, but you held a hand up to her. "- so far. You found this place on your own, you fought off giant cave spiders with a broken arm and leg, and you cracked an ancient arcane lock in mere minutes. You're really capable, Aika, but unless you have some kind of spell to help us whisk the heart back home..." You rose an eyebrow at her, and as you let the line of thought linger, she seemed to understand more and more.

"I'm willing to help you on this, but we need even more help to not only carry, but protect this thing. Nobody from the lowest thug to the King himself would decline a chance to pilfer a dragon's heart from us once the word gets out."

It all seemed to make sense to her now, and you would see the glint of defeat in her eye as she turned toward Zorkuth. "So, what do we do, then?" Her voice was as cold as the air around you, and she refused to turn around. "I can't just return empty handed." As she lamented, you lifted your hand to her shoulder, a supportive touch compared to the protective grasp from earlier. "You're far from empty handed. Imagine how elated your master will be to hear that not only are you alive, but Zorkuth's remains truly do lie here in this temple. He's a smart man, he'll understand our caution. He might even be able to help us round up a few more hands and make this work. What do you say?"

Aika lowered her head for a moment, you could feel her shoulder heave slowly with a very deep breath. Before looking back at you, her head lifted with a nod. "All right," she forced herself to say. "Ok, we'll get some help." Aika finally allowed you to view her face once again. Her expression was one that- as an adventurer yourself- you could resonate with. Just out of reach from one's goals, only for circumstance to put miles between. You gave her a pat on the shoulder, and nodded in mutual understanding. "Now, let's get out of here, I'm freezing!" Your little quip put a hint of a smile on her otherwise somber face, and as you began to follow her back up the stairs, you threw one more glance at the dragon.

For just the smallest of moments, you could have sworn he moved but an inch.

Aika didn't seem to notice, her eyes down at the steps.

You were just seeing things then. Surely.

You shook yourself right, and carefully made your way back up to the surface.

The crystalline breeze atop the powdery snow cliffs outside were not much more comforting than the bone-chilling aura of Zorkuth's chamber. Electing to still make some haste to avoid another run in with the spiders, you and Aika now stood at the edge of the entry platform that decorated the front doors of the temple. The howl of winter wind whistled through the canyon that you fought the mountain troll in, reaching your ears as an ethereal wail that matched the bright white landscape all too well. It was as if time were as frozen as the weather itself, with the moon's glow not angled much more than when you had first delved down. "It's kind of beautiful, isn't it?" Aika's voice had regained its airy quality, shackled less by the chains of doubt and defeat. You nodded, at least understanding her point if not agreeing with it. "It certainly is something, a view from the top of the world."

~

Adventure Awaits! - Prompt Voting CYOA (Always Open)

Holy crap I completely forgot that yesterday was Sunday. Sorry it was a really busy day. I will have time to write today though.

Adventure Awaits! - Prompt Voting CYOA (Always Open)

> Grab her arm again. <

---

Aika only managed to take one more step toward the riser between the ground and platform, when your hand seized her wrist once again. She stuttered in that step and shot a uncharacteristically sharp leer at you over her shoulder, lifting her arm in a similarly sharp motion to wrench it free of your grasp. However, you were set on disallowing this, and maintained your grip. "I said let me go," she restated with more emphasis. Your rebuttal was equally filled with agitation, as you sought to remind her of the dangers here. "Are you trying to get yourself killed? Stop for one second and just think this through," you urged her to caution. Unfortunately, she seemed unswayed, shaking her head against your advice. "I told you, this is why I'm here, I'm not leaving empty handed," her eyes met yours with a determined glint. "Now let me go!" You couldn't help but shake your head in disbelief. "Listen to yourself! Who just strolls up to a dragon and tries to gut out its heart?"

"I told you, he's dead!"

"You said 'maybe.' If this is one of the most powerful dragons of the First Era, I wouldn't be surprised if- I dunno- maybe it's some kind of trick or trap?"

"Do you really think he'd let us get even this close? Look at him. He's not even breathing."

"All right, maybe not the big scary dragon that needed an army to fell and there's only two of us, of course." You rolled your eyes with sarcasm. "But why not be as careful as possible, right? This place was build to seal Zorkuth away, forever, presumably. If I was going to hollow out the top of an entire mountain for the sole purpose of preventing one of the most dangerous dragons in history from escaping, I think I'd wanna make sure nobody else gets in either. Just in case some old wizard across the country side wanted- oh I dunno- his heart!?" You would have thrown both arms up in the air, but with one occupied restraining the woman you were hired to find and escort alive, only one hand would suffice for expressive gesticulation. As your posture calmed down, your free hand pinched your brow, baffled that you needed to argue against such wanton recklessness. "What- what does he need this dragon heart for, anyway?"

Your reasoning seemed to calm Aika down as well, she no longer tugged to escape your hold. She didn't look convinced, but she also didn't look like she'd take off the moment you released her. With some kind of understanding reached, you slowly unfurled your fingers from around her wrist, which she then coddled in her other hand to rub away the soreness of your tight grasp. "I... That's..." she hesitated to answer, finally choosing not to. "That's not for you to know." As you looked up at her again, you could see a deeper worry in her eyes, one that sunk further down than the concerns of magical or mechanical traps, or even the prospect of a dragon's trick to ambush two simple travelers. There was also the worry that you wouldn't take kindly to such an answer, one that you made sure she was right about.

"Excuse me?" You could feel your skin of your cheeks heating against the frigid air. "My reason for being here is to bring you back to your master. Alive. He never mentioned anything about toying with dragons on the top of the world, but if it's a danger to both you and myself, I think I deserve to know what's really going on here," you justified yourself and finished with a crossing of your arms and one final statement. "I don't care what you were hired to do here, I won't let it get in the way of what I'm here for, which is both of our wellbeings. If your boss really wants this heart, why did he send only you? What in Atros is so important that he's willing to send you on a suicide mission?"

Aika seemed to emotionally crumple under your verbal barrage, shaking her head to let loose her building adrenaline and anxiety before snapping back at you. "This is not a suicide mission! I know what I'm doing, and I don't need to explain myself to you! My master trusts me, and one slip-up and fall isn't going to change that!" After her explosion, her shoulders slumped and she let out a tense breath. "Look, I appreciate your help so far, really I do. But this?" she turned and cast her gaze upon Zorkuth, who still hadn't budged this whole time. "This is far too important. I need- I mean- he needs this. So," she turned back to you, that deeper concern still in her eye. "Either help me or stay out of my way."

---

• "All right, I'll help."

• "Fine, you're on your own then."

• "Wait. We should get reinforcements in case this proves too dangerous."

• "No. I'm taking you back to your master."

Adventure Awaits! - Prompt Voting CYOA (Always Open)

Thank you everyone for your patience again. I'm juggling a lot on my plate at the moment with moving and a few other projects I'm working on, but I'm still fully committed to this game, and I'll be trying to stick to the Sunday schedule more now that the rocky parts of my moving are mostly over.

Adventure Awaits! - Prompt Voting CYOA (Always Open)

> Try to solve the glowing statue puzzle. <

Solution Spoiler

Emperor, Knight, Scoundrel, Acolyte

---

"... And that should do it," Aika withdrew her hand from the small glass sphere held by the final statue in the sequence. All six surrounding you both shimmered with an arcane golden radiance, and with a nod from her, you lowered your palm against the central pedestal. Each time you had tried this before, the concentration of energies into the center was meager and fleeting, yet this time it captured the light from each statue into a brilliant shine that focused between the claw that held this central orb, casting long shadows from you both and the statues onto the red and gray banners that hung along the walls. As you looked up toward the door in expectation, it too matched this newer, pure potent light with its own, and the slow churning sounds of grinding age-old stone mechanisms informed you that you and Aika were correct. That did indeed do it, as the door separated into the walls, sliding out of your way and giving you both a view into what lay behond.

Your heads poked through the door in unison, and as you glanced up and down through the massive and dark cylindrical chasm before you, the familiar whistling of wind poured through a hole high above you. A small circle in the high ceiling let in the cold mountaintop air along with a moonbeam of silvery blue that filtered gently down several stories-worth of a staircase that sloped downward around the walls. As you crossed the door and out onto the top landing of stairs, the slightly less cold underground you had just explored stayed behind, and a unnaturally frigid air seemed to settle over you. Even under the weight of your winter-gear, your skin crawled and your shoulders shivered. There were no banisters to protect you from falling, yet curiosity won as you peered over the edge to discover that the decent would most assuredly be fatal should you slip.

With the aid of moonlight above, your view all the way to the bottom of this chamber was unimpeded by darkness. Cast in the ethereal glow was a raised platform of sorts in the center of the room. Surrounding it, the glint of gold reflecting back up to you was a strong contender for your attention, but there was something much more important at the center of the platform. Curled in the poise of slumber rested a shape that no self-respecting adventurer could mistake. Glimmering with tiny sparkles off of scales as white as perfect snow laid none other than a dragon, and quite an old one if tales about their size and age were to be believed.

"What..." your eyes widened as you leaned even further, only to be seized from both the sight of the creature and the danger of the ledge by your new partner. Her tight grip on your shoulder pulled you back to safety. "I wanna get a closer look too, but we should probably take the stairs," she beamed with excitement. "I don't have any spells to help with falling, remember?" Aika winked at you before letting you go, pivoting on her heel, and making her way down the stairs.

Whatever was about to happen was assuredly too important to miss, and so your pace caught up to her briskly as you both plunged deeper into the mountain than you thought possible.

By the time you landed at the bottom of the chasm, the shivering that draped over your shoulders like silk before now buffeted your very soul like a blizzard. The stairs let you go poetically in front of the beast, who had not seemed to respond to or otherwise acknowledge your presence. It remained coiled, its head poking out from a blanket formed by its own wing which folded over its body. Even with docile, closed eyes, the dragon's visage and presence was fulfilling some kind of awe- be it awe inspiring or awfully terrifying, or perhaps both. "Aika," you turned to her, caution coating your hushed words. "Is this- is this what you came here for?" A complete foil to your apprehension, Aika nodded with the giddiness of a child. Her arm and hand outstretched, gesturing to the dragon as she spoke. "You do know who this is, don't you? Son of The Comet Frindiath, namesake of this temple, Zorkuth?" The tale of Frindiath was known well enough across all of Geland, and you confirmed your familiarity with Zorkuth's mother by recounting it. "The general of the Minervan army during the Golden War, and spearhead of the attack on Albrigh at the war's end, that Frindiath? What in Atros do you plan to do here? And don't proclaim it so loud! You might wake him..." You recoiled slightly at the thought, but Aika quickly allayed your fears before instilling new ones. "While she was slain by Roethel the First, he was captured and imprisoned here. But it seems like my mentor's lead was rock-solid. He didn't last long down here by the looks of it." Aika stood on the tips of her toes, giving herself a bit of height to scan the dragon from here. "Strange, dragons usually live a long time. Maybe he simply succumbed to the injuries he had at Albrigh? Or maybe the Daldorans did him in when Geland handed him over? There's no way he'd just let us get this close if he wasn't already dead, right?" While she started off talking to you, she seemed more like she was wondering out loud to herself as she trailed on, eventually taking a step closer.

"Wait," it was your turn to grab her by the arm. "What are you doing?"

"Well- I didn't just come here to look at him. I need his heart."

"You need his what!?"

"Let me go, Verity," she shook your hand off of her. "This is the whole reason I came here."

---

• Grab her arm again.

• Let her approach Zorkuth alone.

• Follow her onto the platform.

Adventure Awaits! - Prompt Voting CYOA (Always Open)

@Light I think it might be best to gloss over the puzzle. I am stumped... ^^"

@Guardian Angel Haruki

Sure thing. I'm in the middle of a move so most of the week has been either packing or working, so I'll only have time to write later tonight.

Adventure Awaits! - Prompt Voting CYOA (Always Open)

@Light Just a little stuck trying to figure out the puzzle.
Still interested.

@Guardian Angel Haruki

OK. Let me know by next Sunday if you wanna try it or just have the characters gloss over it.

I wasn't super invested in trying to figure out the puzzle if I'm honest, but I am still interested in the story over all!

@The Muse

Yeah I'm not particularly into the puzzle stuff, as opposed to the narrative choices etc. Still enjoying the game though

@Kassarock

Ah I thought the puzzle would be a fun group thing instead of whoever votes first usually getting their way, but if puzzles aren't something this group is super into I will avoid having to solve them ourselves in the future. Maybe characters will have to deal with them or piece information together still but it'll be more narrative instead of mechanical.

Adventure Awaits! - Prompt Voting CYOA (Always Open)

@Guardian Angel Haruki @Kassarock @The Muse

As the three players who stuck around the longest so far, are you all still feeling into this CYOA game? If not that's cool, but I'd wanna communicate about it and see if the idea is still good, done for now, or if there was something perhaps more player-direct that maybe we can do?

I understand interests flux and sometimes wane. I've been having fun with you all so far so I definitely value your opinions on this.