20k Leagues Under the Sea: Alcheme

[idolpro]

[The elevator deposits you in the interior of a spacious submersible with a decidedly steampunk aesthetic. All of the metal is brushed bronze, and the navigation tools look to be turn of the century]

[Through the periscope, you can still see the sky; the water visible through the circular windows is a pale blue-green, kissed by filtering sunlight]

Comments

RULES

[idolpro]

[The following rules are visible scrawled on a piece of paper on the navigation desk:]

Welcome to 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea!

Your goal is for your team to travel a distance of 20,000 leagues in your submersible. The teams that continue the longest will win a ~fabulous prize~: instant and painless revives, and full healing for one team of their choosing.

The journey won't be easy, though. Every time you choose to take your submersible further into the briny deep, you run the risk of suffering a fatal setback imposed by the challenges of the sea.

You can turn back at any time, safely surfacing. However, fortune favors the bold, and once you ascend, you cannot return to the challenge.

So the decision each round is up to you: will you boldly press onward, to discover the unknown? Or will you return to the realm above, and leave behind the ocean's watery secrets?

ROUND 1 DISCUSSION

[idolpro]

[Are you ready to set out on your grand journey to experience the undersea world and all its wonders? y/n]

[Please roll a 1d100 and submit your result with your decision]

Re: ROUND 1 DISCUSSION

[irregular]

Is there an option for stealing the sub and going to find somewhere with a beach bar?

Re: ROUND 1 DISCUSSION

[featherbeaned]

Can't see why we shouldn't try!

Re: ROUND 1 DISCUSSION

[irregular]

Sounds like a hell of a lot more fun than... whatever this game is supposed to be about. Dying of sea monsters.

Re: ROUND 1 DISCUSSION

[featherbeaned]

I like adventures and I like winning, but I also like not maybe-possibly-probably dying ...

Re: ROUND 1 DISCUSSION

[irregular]

Why don't we try for maybe slight adventures and fuck off if it starts getting Lovecraftian?

Re: ROUND 1 DISCUSSION

[featherbeaned]

Sounds like a plan!

Re: ROUND 1 DISCUSSION

[irregular]

We are definitely leaving if it starts getting all La Blue Girl.

Re: ROUND 1 DISCUSSION

[featherbeaned]

When it gets all what?

Re: ROUND 1 DISCUSSION

[irregular]

There's some, um, media with tentacles.

And sex ninjas.

My friend thought it was funny.

Re: ROUND 1 DISCUSSION

[featherbeaned]

[ ???????????? ]

Okay ...

Re: ROUND 1 DISCUSSION

[irregular]

... so, basically tentacle porn.

I'm not friends with him any more since he tried to kill me.

Re: ROUND 1 DISCUSSION

[featherbeaned]

Oh! Tentacle porn, okay, that makes more sense -

[ ... ]

Good on you for ditching him.

ROUND 1 SUBMISSION

[idolpro]

Re: ROUND 1 SUBMISSION

[featherbeaned]

[ 59! ]

ROUND 2

[idolpro]

"A slight declivity ends in an uneven bottom, at fifteen fathoms depth. Here, there is no fine sand, no submarine prairies, no sea-forest. It is the coral kingdom.

The light produces a thousand charming varieties, playing in the midst of the branches that are so vividly coloured. You seem to see the membraneous and cylindrical tubes tremble beneath the undulation of the waters. You're tempted to gather their fresh petals, ornamented with delicate tentacles, some just blown, the others budding, while a small fish, swimming swiftly, touches them slightly, like flights of birds. But if your craft approaches these living flowers, these animated, sensitive plants, the whole colony would take alarm. The white petals would re-enter their red cases, the flowers fade as you look, and the bush changed into a block of stony knobs."

[You take in the sights through the portholes, beholding the wonders of the sea. All around you, your submersible hums like a well-oiled machine, performing the duty of keeping you safe most admirably]

[At this depth, the pressure is beginning to increase. It will be more dangerous to continue from here]

ROUND 2 SUBMISSIONS

[idolpro]

[You think that you could coax the submersible's delicate robotic pincers to take a sample of coral and bring it in as a keepsake from your journey. Would you like to try? Please roll 1d100 if you choose to try your luck.

[Are you ready to continue your grand journey to experience the undersea world and all its wonders? Please roll a 1d100 and submit your result with your decision if you plan to continue]

Re: ROUND 2 SUBMISSIONS

[irregular]

Well I guess but it's not gonna look so nice out of water? It'll just be a blob.

Re: ROUND 2 SUBMISSIONS

[featherbeaned]

Not shiny enough.

Re: ROUND 2 SUBMISSIONS

[irregular]

Seems quite happy where it is, anyway. Well, less so right now.

Re: ROUND 2 SUBMISSIONS

[featherbeaned]

Let's get going, I wanna see if we can find actual fun souveniers for the others! Like maybe an octopus-shaped rock for W? And a furby-rock for C?

Re: ROUND 2 SUBMISSIONS

[irregular]

We got that aquarium, right? Maybe we could get like... a literal octopus.

Re: ROUND 2 SUBMISSIONS

[featherbeaned]

Ehhhhhhhhhh, I'm not a fan of taking things outta the wild and putting them in tanks.

Re: ROUND 2 SUBMISSIONS

[irregular]

Fair. Ain't much of a life for the octopus. Unless it's one of those tiny ones and a really big tank.

Re: ROUND 2 SUBMISSIONS

[featherbeaned]

Even then. Trust me, even a "big" tank gets old and boring really, really quick.

Re: ROUND 2 SUBMISSIONS

[irregular]

You're, uh...

I mean, I trust you. Sounds like you know what you're talking about.

Re: ROUND 2 SUBMISSIONS

[featherbeaned]

I suuuure do!

Anyways. Keep your eyes peeled for octo-rocks.

Re: ROUND 2 SUBMISSIONS

[irregular]

There better really be one that looks like a furby, I'm gonna be disappointed if there ain't now.

Re: ROUND 2 SUBMISSIONS

[featherbeaned]

Right? It's out there, we'll find it.

ROUND 2 DISCUSSION

[idolpro]

Re: ROUND 2 DISCUSSION

[irregular]

20 for onward
No souvenir fish.

ROUND 3

[idolpro]

"The mountain along the sea floor rises only 700 to 800 feet; but on its far slope it crowns the receding bottom of this part of the Atlantic by a height twice that. Your eyes scan the distance and take in a vast area lit by intense flashes of light. In essence, this mountain is a volcano. Fifty feet below its peak, amid a shower of stones and slag, a wide crater vomits torrents of lava that are dispersed in fiery cascades into the heart of the liquid mass. So situated, this volcano is an immense torch that lights up the lower plains.

"This underwater crater spews lava, but not flames. Flames need oxygen from the air and are unable to spread underwater; but a lava flow, which contains in itself the principle of its incandescence, can rise to a white heat, overpower the liquid element, and turn it into steam on contact. Swift currents sweep away all this diffuse gas, and torrents of lava slide to the foot of the mountain, like the disgorgings of a Mt. Vesuvius over the city limits of a second Torre del Greco."

[You take in the sights through the portholes, beholding the wonders of the sea. All around you, your submersible hums like a well-oiled machine, performing the duty of keeping you safe most admirably]

[At this depth, the pressure is beginning to increase. It will be more dangerous to continue from here]

ROUND 3 DISCUSSION

[idolpro]

[You think that you could coax the submersible's delicate robotic pincers to take a sample of the lava and bring it in as a keepsake from your journey. Would you like to try? y/n]

[Are you ready to continue your grand journey to experience the undersea world and all its wonders? y/n]

[Please roll a 1d100 and submit your result with your decision if you plan to continue]

[To try for the keepsake, please roll another 1d100]

Re: ROUND 3 DISCUSSION

[featherbeaned]

I'm fine without lava. Are you fine without lava?

Re: ROUND 3 DISCUSSION

[irregular]

I think I could happily live for the rest of my life without any souvenir lava, yeah.

Re: ROUND 3 DISCUSSION

[featherbeaned]

Cool.

Ssssso. I don't mind keeping going for now.

ROUND 3 SUBMISSIONS

[idolpro]

Re: ROUND 3 SUBMISSIONS

[featherbeaned]

[ rolled a 10 for going deeper! ]

[ we're ignoring the lava ]

ROUND 3 RESULTS

[idolpro]

"Through the portholes, before your eyes there quivers a horrible monster worthy of a place among the most farfetched teratological legends."

"It is a squid of colossal dimensions, fully eight meters long. It gazes with enormous, staring eyes that are tinted sea green. Its arms (or more accurately, feet) are rooted in its head; they stretch a distance twice the length of its body and are writhing like the serpentine hair of the Furies. The monster’s mouth—a beak made of horn and shaped like that of a parrot—opens and closes vertically. Its tongue, also of horn substance and armed with several rows of sharp teeth, flickers out from between these genuine shears. What a freak of nature! A bird’s beak on a mollusk! You can plainly see its 250 suckers, arranged over the inner sides of its tentacles and shaped like semispheric capsules."

[While the lava looked extremely dangerous, unfortunately its distraction allowed those suckers have taken hold of the side of the submersible; each one is large enough to obscure a window on its own, and the metal of the vehicle creaks and groans in protest. There is a snap, and a ping, perhaps of a rivet giving way]

[And perhaps for a moment, you feel assured that somehow, miraculously, the pressure inside and out reaches equilibrium as nothing happens.]

[But that reassurance would be short-lived, as the tiniest piece of glass shoots forward into the vehicle, water spraying into the breach with the full power of the ocean's depths behind it, all apparently singularly focused on meeting you in its watery embrace.

It proves to be very, very good at such a goal, unfortunately for those of you who require air to live]





[Who can say exactly what happened? But eventually you wash up elsewhere...]