Shrike's Heart (#1)

[idolpro]

The woman before you is beautiful—fair of features, with lovely golden skin and luxurious long black hair, petite. You have the immediate and distinct impression that she's just let go of your hand, and she steps back, and smiles.

It's not quite a happy smile.

"I'm sorry," she says. "There's just nothing I can do, as things are. But the way is there; it just needs to be lit."

You open your mouth—maybe to say something, or to express confusion—but you have to cough, and taste something metallic, spattering black blood onto the ground in front of you. Then you realize—blood seeps from opening wounds in your arms, your chest, your stomach, your face. It rims your eyes and trails from your nose and you feel like you're dissolving—

—and you fall through the ground like it's the surface of a lake, and go down, down, down.

> Wake Up

Comments

RULES

[idolpro]

You begin with 0 WILLPOWER. Upon completion of certain activities, you will gain more, including but not limited to the below:

1. Pay proper respect to the dead - close their eyes, say a prayer over them, and so on, twice per area.
2. Spill the blood of others.
3. Accept the advice of the Neverborn, at a cost.
4. Experience a moment of peace.
5. Display a moment of great compassion, valor, temperance or conviction.

To perform certain activities, you will be told you need to SPEND an amount of willpower to do it without incurring the WRATH OF THE VOID. It is not usually a bad idea to spend the Willpower when asked.

If you don't know what to do, you can ASK THE ADVICE OF THE NEVERBORN once per area. Their advice may not be great! But it may get you in the right direction and will net you Willpower. Otherwise, poking around in the environment and talking to anyone you might find around is not a bad idea; depending on the action and the intent, any action taken might be useful.

OBJECTIVES

[idolpro]

You are instinctively aware that these will help do what the woman at the beginning asked you to do.

Try and fulfill as many as possible but you only need to fulfill five.

1. Do not accept mercy.
2. Preserve something for the future.
3. Decide what's important and protect it.
4. Encourage growth.
5. See the sun rise.
6. Write a letter home.
7. Find strength amid fear.
8. Make a house a home.
9. Don't die.
10. Give Sorrowful Blade of the Softly-Falling Blade her name.

Many of these are abstract and can be fulfilled in multiple ways (apart from the last two), but consider that they should probably be fulfilled in the spirit of a way Shrike would interpret it.

Once at least one person has completed an objective in an area, the way ahead will be clear to the whole group, but you will not be able to return to previous areas.

You may also want to pick up items you find along the way; they might be useful later.

WILLPOWER TOTALS

[idolpro]

go here

> START

[handpuppets]

Once, there was a maiden...
...who lived in a tomb, and the tomb was made in her image.
Because she lived in a tomb, she became like the dead.
She slept, and dreamed.
And sometimes, woke, and walked within the confines of her tomb.
"Why do you move?" her own ghost asked. "Why walk at all?"

[ You hear the voice of the woman from before distantly, and then silence.

At first, it might seem like you have your eyes closed—it's so dark, but no. This world is sunless, lightless, silent; low, dark water covers the ground, although, it's a little hard to tell there's water, because—

—because what also covers the ground are corpses, as far as the eye can see. Some of them still have their eyes open; some have obvious wounds, and some don't. Some hold weapons in hand, and some have weapons driven through them.

This is a place for the dead. What does that make you?

But you can move, and sit up, and stand up, if you have the stomach for it.

Some distance away, you can hear water moving, like there's an uphill or downhill, and there's a vague sussuration at the edge of your consciousness that you instinctively strain to listen to.

You are also aware of the objectives and rules, instinctively. ]

Re: > START

[claestrophe]

[ DETERMINED KESTREL





is very confused. ]

... So that was a lot...

[ where... is she supposed to go... to fulfill...... some of these less questionable goals? ... she's going to head toward the sounds of water. ]

Re: > START

[mind_blown]

[fan-fucking-tastic.

he's going to look around at who's present.

and then look at what's around.

what weapons can he grab?]

Great.

Re: > START

[syncintohell]

[ Shu wakes and feeling dead, like he's a corpse and should be buried is. Unfortunately familiar. He remembers asking Requiem to hold his funeral, and make him a proper member of the undead.

This isn't quite the same, but it's unpleasantly nostalgic.

He looks down, to see if he still has those wounds he felt before being dragged under. ]

I feel that one of these objectives was already failed before I had even begun.

Re: > START

[jokesaboutrighthands]

[groaning as he sits up]

Christ, I am too old for this.

A PATH

[handpuppets]

[ And then, inexplicably, a light appears at your feet, extending out into a single gold line—and there, a path, spiraling up onto a long, long staircase you couldn't see before. Maybe to somewhere other than here.

"I am not trapped while yet I run," says a voice.

Perhaps you'd better.

Proceed. ]

THE RUINED TOWN

[handpuppets]

Once, there was a maiden...
...falling forever in the water. She reached for purchase, but found nothing; her arms swung through the sea.
The water did not slow her, nor the chill,
but she could not breathe.
Each time she gasped and found no breath, a human child died; and thus, she lived.

[ As you go, the ground slowly grows marshier, softer, and smells creep in. They're ordinary earthen smells—peat and damp and marsh, but there's a hint of the metallic tang of blood, and the acrid note of smoke in the distance.

The clang of metal rings out to your ears as you emerge from a reed bed next to a small, algae-choked pond, but it's clear the bulk of the fighting has long been over, from the only intermittent cries and the way you can see thatched roofs smouldering.

Though, nearby, there's a rustle from the same reeds you came from—like you're not alone. ]

Re: THE RUINED TOWN

[syncintohell]

[ Huffs his dissatisfaction at having his name taken, but he's here now and his stamina isn't great so he'll save his breath.

At the rustling, he turns immediately to see who— or what— is near him ]

Re: THE RUINED TOWN

[mind_blown]

[honestly, gonna observe those reeds for a bit.]

Re: THE RUINED TOWN

[claestrophe]

[ FUCKING RUDE. THAT WAS THE NAME HER MOTHER GAVE HER!!!!!

she swings her spear at the rustling reeds ]

THIEVES! GIVE ME BACK MY NAME!

A PATH

[handpuppets]

"Survival is acceptance," a voice says.

And the same gold line unwinds from your feet, and into the fields beside the village, off into the distance. You don't have to follow it this very moment, but you can.

Proceed.

THE BATTLEFIELD

[handpuppets]

Once, there was a maiden...
...whose battles called her far from home.
She slew the thing she feared most, and conquered the land that feared her.
As she fought, far away, she knew her children needed guidance.
She knew they faced tyrants.
She knew they faced fear.
In her homeland, things were broken.
So, she held up her hand before the sun, and cast a shadow on the world, and drowned the troubles of her home in darkness.

[ There's blood on your weapon, you realize—the weapon you hold in your hand, and if you didn't have one before, you have one now, whether it's sword or axe or war fan or chakram. It's no surprise from the bodies that lay in the trampled-down field behind you. It looks like it used to be for growing, but now nothing will grow there again, probably, even though a few bags of seeds sit aside it.

A clatter; one of your soldiers tosses another sword atop the pile of discarded enemy weapons.

Ahead of you lies the small border city that your forces have just conquered. ]

Re: THE BATTLEFIELD

[mind_blown]

[DID THEY SALT THE FIELDS?

he's petty but he's not that petty. c'mon.

actually why will nothing grow there]

Re: THE BATTLEFIELD

[syncintohell]

[ Shu is exhausted from burying two bodies.

So actually he's going to fall to his knees, grip on the axe in his hand loose ]

Re: THE BATTLEFIELD

[claestrophe]

[ ... this doesn't seem like a good place for their loads of personal items. actually, it seems like possibly a worse place. Are there MORE dead bodies here than before? ]

... I think we should go back, Peepaw.

Re: THE BATTLEFIELD

[handpuppets]

"Survival's a long reach," a voice says.

[ A bright line draws from where you stand, then to the doors of the local militia's barracks—now empty—leading you ahead.

Proceed. ]

THE BARRACKS

[handpuppets]

Once, there was a maiden...
...and things didn't go so well for her.
It was just the way of the world, you know?
She had to give up power to get it, and she didn't get much.
Some people hated her for getting any power at all.
She needed a protector,
so she gave herself to a man named Necessity.

[ Opening the door leads to a small barracks-hall, with about six very tidily-made cots—though it doesn't seem to be the same barracks or location at all, in the midst of a large army camp. Next to the single door is a plain desk made of dark wood; atop it are writing supplies, including one letter that seems to have already been written.

Outside, it seems to be evening getting on into night; the sun's fading fast. ]

Re: THE BARRACKS

[jokesaboutrighthands]

Finally.

[oh good, this seems like a good place to dump all this shit

He starts setting up the shrines he's saved, each one next to a different barrack]

Re: THE BARRACKS

[mind_blown]

[gonna set down the seeds.

also, is that his letter?]

EVENT: NIGHTFALL

[handpuppets]

[ The sun is setting fast, and with it seem to come... noises, out in the dark. You seem to be in the middle of a military camp, but outside you can hear the rustle of leaves, like you're in a forest, and the far-off howling of some great beast.

Now less far-off.

It sounds like it's getting closer. ]

Re: THE BARRACKS

[syncintohell]

[ He shows up late, but he's here now.

He's going to check the letters. UNLESS IT'S BEAST ATTACK TIME NOW AND HE MISSED HIS WINDOW ]

HOME

[handpuppets]

Once, there was a maiden...
....made from a lump of iron, shaped by wind, sea, and fire.
Fearing how wood might shape her, she ran, and did not look back.
One day, she forgot what she ran from.
So, she pulled out her heart to ask it.
"Why don't you look back and see?" it said.
So, she sighed and threw her heart away.

[ When you open the door and step through, you find yourself in a house—built in a somewhat antique style, a single level, but decorated with expensive yet practical taste. On one wall hangs a well-maintined longsword, and a number of military decorations.

Through the windows and out a set of doors on one side is a paved area surrounded by tall, broad-leafed trees. At a distance, there's also the sound of boots marching in unison between the pitter-patter of rain just beginning to start.

The atmosphere here feels... tense, in a way that doesn't seem to come from any one thing; but it doesn't quite feel safe here. ]

Re: HOME

[syncintohell]

[ The tense atmosphere has no clear source, so despite that sensation and with the raining starting outside, he doesn't leave just yet. He goes over to examine the military decorations on the wall near the long sword. ]