What Time Remembered (formerly Generic Text Adventure)

[raekuul]

Anybody who wants to can post actions; I'll try and resolve them in the order that they come.

The derelict old castle stands alone in the middle of the Stonegrave Desert. Abandoned long before the Alcheme Empire was formed, it is the last monument to the ancient Four Kingdoms.

There is a tingle of magic here. There is no door, though there is an opening, and there are no landmarks by which you could navigate in order to return to the Grasslands. Your water supply has run nearly dry, but the sound of water dances on the edge of hearing. Perhaps there is water inside the ruin?

Status:
40 HP
10 MP
100 EXP to next level
Ambient Magic: 10%

Inventory:
Waterskin (Nearly Empty)
Food Rations (7)

[MatthewV]

Take the triangle of magic.
Go North.

[raekuul]

A triangle of magic materializes in front of you, and you take it.

The tingle of magic grows stronger as you approach the doorway to the ruins, as does the sound of water.

Inside the ruins, there are three closed doors - one in each of the three remaining compass directions, each with a brass plate set in the wall nearby. On the ground is a sigil of an eight-pointed star. Behind you, which is to the south, is the doorway from which you entered. The west wall is made from red sandstone, the east wall is made of some sort of blue marble, and the north wall is made from black obsidian. The south wall is yellow adobe, but there is no brass plate along the south wall.

Status:
40 HP
10 MP
100 EXP to next level
Ambient Magic: 15%

Inventory:
Waterskin (Nearly Empty)
Food Rations (7)
Triangle of Magic

[Amb*]

North.
Steal triangle of magic from MatthewV
Use triangle of magic with MatthewV
Punch MatthewV
South.

[raekuul]

You enter the North Doorway. There is a tickle of magic here.

You steal a Triangle of Magic from yourself.

You use a Triangle of Magic on yourself. Your waterskin is filled!

You return to the central chamber.

Status:
40 HP
10 MP
100 EXP to next level
Ambient Magic: 15%

Inventory:
Waterskin (Full)
Food Rations (7)

[Amb*]

Oh one player. Whoops. I guess that means I better go fix my black eye I just gave myself when I accidentally thought I was MatthewV

[Zag]

But you learned something valuable -- that the triangle of magic creates water. Where did that come from, anyway? Was it just MattV mis-reading the word 'tingle' and you playing along?

Anyway, head back into the ruins, then examine all the brass plates.

[raekuul]

Yes, it was.

You leave the ruins through the ruined south door, then return to the main room.

The Brass Plate on the Northern Wall reads "The Ruler and the Servant - MARS"

The Brass Plate on the Western Wall reads "The Scholar and the Magician - MERCURY"

The Brass Plate on the Eastern Wall reads "The Warrior and The Merchant - VENUS"

[Zag]

Hmmm. Venus is the warrior; that's a twist. Amazons, maybe?

Anyway, I'll head west.

[Amb*]

East.
Take the plates.
West.

[raekuul]

The layout of this area is largely one big Shout Out.

You head West, then back east. You take the plates from each of the four walls, then head through the western door.

Inside the room behind the red sandstone wall, the magic feels a little stronger - now, it is as though a feather was wiggling around the outside of the ear. There is a pool of fresh water here, as well as three more untested doors - one to the south, one to the north, and one further to the west. The north and south doors have more brass plates next to them, while the west door appears to have two keyholes next to it.

Another odd feature of the room is that there is a skeleton lying on the floor, with a spear in hand.

Status:
40 HP
10 MP
100 EXP to next level
Ambient Magic: 20%

Inventory:
Waterskin (Full)
Food Rations (7)
Onyx Wall Plate
Red Wall Plate
Blue Wall Plate

[Dread Pirate Westley]

xyzzy
Drink water
Take skeleton's hand

[raekuul]

You mumble an incomprehensible word of unimaginable power. A butterfly halfway around the world flaps its wings slightly more furiously.

You take a drink of water from the pool. You feel refreshed.

You obtain a Spear! You obtain a Skeletal Hand!

SPEAR: The Foot Soldier's bread-and-butter. Perfect for stabbing enemies from behind a four-foot-tall shield, it also makes for a handy quarterstaff.

SKELETAL HAND: While most people wouldn't consider taking the arms of the dead, clearly you have no qualms about that. The Skeletal Hand can be used to strike fear into the hearts of your enemies. This can only affect hostile creatures.

Status:
40 HP
10 MP
100 EXP to next level
Ambient Magic: 20%

Inventory:
Waterskin (Full)
Food Rations (7)
Onyx Wall Plate
Red Wall Plate
Blue Wall Plate
Spear
Skeletal Hand (?)

[Neo]

Take skeleton ribcage.

Wear skeleton ribcage.
_________________
_{Ad Astra}

[Sentran*]

Take skull
Use spear on Skull

[Amb]

xyzzy

[MatthewV]

[raekuul]

You take the Skeleton's Ribcage.

RIBCAGE: If you weren't so large, this ribcage would make for some nice, fear-inducing armor. Too bad it doesn't fit.

Try as you might, you cannot wear the ribcage.

You take the Skull.

SKULL: Often used as an ingredient in Necromantic Rituals, Skulls have a variety of uses in alchemy and magic. Just make sure nobody else is using it first.

You combine the Spear and the Skull to make the Tribal Spear

TRIBAL SPEAR: This modified spear, made from combining a Spear and a Skull, strikes fear into the hearts of your enemies as easily as it strikes iron into their hearts. Every successful attack against an enemy has a small chance of the enemy panicking. Be careful, however, because some Tribal Spears have a smart mouth...

You mumble an incomprehensible word of unimaginable power. A butterfly halfway around the world flaps its wings slightly more furiously.

Your spear talks to you. "Are you done yet? I'm supposed to prevent you from entering the rooms without reading the plates first. Ah well, it's probably a good thing that you're doing this in the Mercury Hallway; shows a lot of curiosity."

Status:
40 HP
10 MP
100 EXP to next level
Ambient Magic: 20%

Inventory:
Waterskin (Full)
Food Rations (7)
Onyx Wall Plate
Red Wall Plate
Blue Wall Plate
Tribal Spear
Skeletal Hand (?)
Ribcage

[Zag]

Drop all the retarded things that were never intended to be taken in the first place.

Read the brass plates on the north and south walls, vowing to myself to leave them where they are for future travelers to find.

Head south.

[raekuul]

You drop the Ribcage and the three plates from the Main Hallway. They dissolve into nothingness.

The ribcage appears in its proper location.

The brass plate on the north wall reads "Intelligence"

The brass plate on the south wall reads "Perseverance"

Inventory:
Waterskin (Full)
Food Rations (7)
Tribal Spear
Skeletal Hand (?)

[Zag]

Realizing that heading south is clearly intended for much later, head north instead.

[raekuul]

Actually, all of the surviving rooms are at about the same difficulty. You will do the two missing rooms - Farmer and Artisan - much, much later.

You enter the Room of Intelligence. The doorway seals shut behind you! The doorway to the north seals shut!

The walls of this room are lined with books. There is a ghost reading a book in the middle of the room. You hear the distinctive sound of pages turning.

Inventory:
Waterskin (Full)
Food Rations (7)
Tribal Spear
Skeletal Hand (?)

[Jedo the Jedi]

Cast a spell of invisibility on myself.
Talk to the ghost (in my invisible state).
_________________
Paragon Tally: 18 mafia, 3 SKs (1 twice), 1 cultist, numerous chat scum...and counting.

[Sentran]

Find the book of maps.
_________________
Sentran
"Speaking of double negatives, I haven't read greylab yet today." - Lifeinmomland

[Amb]

Oh for heavens sake, dont just drop stuff that we already took.

Go back, get the ribcage, return to here.
Fashion the ribcage into a skeleton key.

[raekuul]

You don't know how to cast Invisibility, and you do not have any items to make you invisible.

You stand next to the ghost. She looks at you for a moment, then turns back to her book. "Hello, have you found the Tauropedia yet? I can't let you go forward or back until you find it."

You search for the book of Maps. You find a history of the Five Kingdoms.

Try as you might, you cannot open the door back to the Hallway of Mercury.

Inventory:
Waterskin (Full)
Food Rations (7)
Tribal Spear
Skeletal Hand (?)
History of the Five Kingdoms

[Jedo the Jedi]

Wet my pants at the ghost talking to me.
Wonder where the fifth kingdom suddenly came from.
Look for a book to teach me some useful spells.
Ask how I got here in the first place.
_________________
Paragon Tally: 18 mafia, 3 SKs (1 twice), 1 cultist, numerous chat scum...and counting.

[raekuul]

You wet your pants in fright at the harmless ghost of a scholar long since dead.

You wonder why this book mentions five long-since destroyed kingdoms when you've only ever heard of four. As you read the book, you come to understand the history of the Five (Now Four) Kingdoms - The Crystal Kingdom, the Moon Kingdom, the Kingdom of Atlantis, and the Moon Kingdom were still in existence at the time this book was compiled, while the Star Kingdom had been destroyed during the Dark Hatching.

You look for a spellbook. You find an mostly empty spellbook (it comes with a free spell of Summon Fey).

In a moment of introspection, you ask yourself how you got here. Apparently the lure of finding the Hidden Cache of the Star Kingdom was too great for you to pass up.

Status:
40 HP
10 MP
100 EXP to next level
Ambient Magic: 20%

Inventory:
Waterskin (Full)
Food Rations (7)
Tribal Spear
Skeletal Hand (?)
History of the Five Kingdoms

Spellbook:
Summon Fey (5 MP)

[Zag]

Amb, useless things are useless. This is meant to be a text adventure, where things designated as being pick-up-able are clearly marked and they each have their own purpose. If you want to play a more open-ended role-playing game, then come join me at http://www.rpol.net. (Search for games GM'ed by Zag24.)

Look among the books for something titled "Tauropedia," or generally anything about bullfighting. In the process, try to figure out what the organization/categorization of the books is.

[Jedo the Jedi]

w00t! I found us a spell. That's all I care about. (Damn lack of invisibility...)
_________________
Paragon Tally: 18 mafia, 3 SKs (1 twice), 1 cultist, numerous chat scum...and counting.

[raekuul]

You're getting thirsty.

You try and make sense of the categorization methods of this miniature library, but the books only seem to be organized in broad categories. You notice that a lot of the books around where you found the nearly empty spellbook have a lot to do with Magic Theory.

You find a section of what appear to be reference materials. One of these is labeled "Tauropedia: A comprehensive index of everything." You take it. The ghost smiles, and fades into nothingness.

The door onwards opens! The door back opens!

Status:
40 HP
10 MP
100 EXP to next level
Ambient Magic: 20%

Inventory:
Waterskin (Full)
Food Rations (7)
Tribal Spear
Skeletal Hand (?)
History of the Five Kingdoms
The Tauropedia

Spellbook:
Summon Fey (5 MP)

[Zag]

Look through the books on magic theory and in the Tauropedia (it's not bullfighting? really?) for a discussion of Mana (which is what I assume the M in MP stands for). If one uses it to cast spells, does it eventually come back, perhaps with rest?

Also look for any other spells that we might add to our spellbook.

Also look for a description of Fey. Are such creatures generally harmless and/or helpful? What would one expect if one summons such a creature.

Finally, drink some water and then continue north.

[Neo]

[Zag]

I specifically said only to drop the useless things. (OK, I said retarded, but I think that the meaning was clear.) It was to discourage additional distractions by continuing to name every imaginable thing and expecting raekuul to keep allowing it. You'll notice that he left the Skeletal Hand, even though that wasn't originally something identified as pick-up-able.

[Amb]

If I had metal brass plates in an adventure game, I'd find uses for them. At the very least they could make good shields. Let alone if I hit someone on the head with them....

[Jedo the Jedi]

My only counter here, Zag, is that this isn't an Elder Scrolls/D&D game in which we have a carrying limit (at least not one stated yet); therefore, picking up things probably isn't an issue. In essence: what could it hurt?
_________________
Paragon Tally: 18 mafia, 3 SKs (1 twice), 1 cultist, numerous chat scum...and counting.

[raekuul]

Let me put it this way - if it dissolves when you drop it, I couldn't think of any way to make taking it bite you in the ass later.

----

You read through the Tauropedia's section on magic theory. In summary, the stronger the ambient magic is, the quicker one's mana recovers on its own, and that resting properly will restore one's mana to that person's maximum. However, it gives a warning that higher concentrations of mana can be hazardous to the health.

You read through the Tauropedia's section on Fey. In summary, they are creatures of magic that can be summoned as cannon fodder (it actually says that their most common use is as cannon fodder for squishy adventurers).

You drink some water. You feel refreshed!

You continue north. The ghost from the previous room is here, and there is a table in the middle of the room. On the table is a key.

Status:
40 HP
10 MP
100 EXP to next level
Ambient Magic: 20%

Inventory:
Waterskin (Full)
Food Rations (7)
Tribal Spear
Skeletal Hand (?)
History of the Five Kingdoms
The Tauropedia

Spellbook:
Summon Fey (5 MP)

[Amb]

Take the key.
Talk to the ghost.
Pick up the ghost.
Give skeleton hand to the Ghost.
Attempt to stab the ghost with the spear.
Overturn the table.

[raekuul]

Okay, now you're just being silly.

You take the key. The ghost smiles, and fades into the afterlife. You hear these words. "Do well for my sake, Scholar."

You gain 30 EXP!

You cannot talk to the ghost, as she is not here.

You cannot take the ghost, as she is not here.

You cannot give the Skeletal Hand to the ghost, as she is not here.

You cannot stab the ghost with the Tribal Spear, as she is not here.

You overturn the table."

Status:
40 HP
10 MP
70 EXP to next level
Ambient Magic: 20%

Inventory:
Waterskin (Almost Full)
Food Rations (7)
Tribal Spear
Skeletal Hand (?)
History of the Five Kingdoms
The Tauropedia

Spellbook:
Summon Fey (5 MP)

[Neo]

Examine Key
Examine Table
Read Tauropedia cover to cover.
_________________
_{Ad Astra}