Foregone Conclusion

Following a trail of [[dead bodies]] to its source is not the smartest thing you've done. But the [[Saybiran|Saybir]] fanatics have followed you all the way here and there is no turning back. You'd rather take your chances with whatever was once here to cause this destruction than face the certainty of a sharp blade and a terrible end burned at the stake. "Get the mage!" "The One protect us!" Hearing the shouts somewhere behind you, you [[run into the cave]]. <% window.canvasMode = ""; walkWord = "walk"; woundedLeg = "false"; paladinSword = "false"; lossoLine = ""; usedLight="false"; foundKuni = "false"; talkPaladin = "false"; %>

These mangled bodies put your nightmares to shame. You would call them the product of a very deranged elementalist, except most of those only stick to a single element. You see a frozen man lying just beside a charred body, and another has been strangled by vines. It makes no sense and you shudder to think of what might have done this. [[Back|Intro]]

The kingdom of Saybir is a land dominated by the faith of the One. Only white mages and healers are accepted, all other mages are treated with extreme prejudice. You tracked Elrek's whereabouts to this region of the continent, but it seems foolish now to think that he would ever set foot in a land like this. Crossing into Saybiran borders is a mistake you've regretted ever since. [[Back|Intro]]

<% canvasMode = "black"; %>You blink into the sudden darkness. A few stray rays of sunlight still filter in from the entrance, but they seem just that: strays. Somehow, even though the mouth of the cave is large and gaping just behind you, light doesn't seem to belong here. There is something eerie and wrong here and the feeling won't leave you as you feel around blindly and stumble forward. The stench doesn't help. With a sinking feeling, you conjure a ball of light. It shines only briefly, illuminating the fallen bodies all around you, and you make a mental map of the grisly scene before everything goes dark once again. You don't want to make it easier for the Saybirans by giving away your location. [[Go deeper.]]

You are Charles Losso, an illusionist who wanted nothing more than to live in peace with your beloved, the summoner Eva. For a few years, you had just that, and you were happy. However, it wasn't nearly long enough before the man you both feared more than anyone showed himself again. High Mage Elrek has always had an unhealthy fixation on Eva and fleeing the Mages' Guild to escape his reach was one of the reasons you both settled in the newly discovered demon realm. Caught in a conflict that wasn't your own, Eva was ripped from you and given to Elrek as a reward for an attack against the authorities. You have spent years pursuing them across all corners of the realm, even though you know that even if you managed to find them, you would stand no chance in a duel against Elrek. Little did you know that [[an unfortunate run in with some paladins|Intro]] from a mage-hating nation would lead you to the power you needed... Or that it would never let you be the same again.

<% canvasMode = "dark"; %> You reach out into the darkness and take a few cautious steps deeper into the cave until your hand finds the cold, rocky wall. Letting your touch guide you, your steps become more confident, and you follow the natural corridor deeper and deeper despite the uneasy feeling that settled in your stomach. Everything is quiet, and for the longest time all you can hear is water dropping from--somewhere? You wouldn't be surprised if it turned out to be blood. Yours is pumping through your ears, your breath short and tense as you worry that at any moment you will start hearing heavy, metallic footfalls behind you. Eventually the corridor widens into a large, circular room, and you finally feel comfortable enough to send a ball of light to the ceiling and let it stay. [[Look around.]]

<% canvasMode = "ceiling"; %>You are surprised to find that this room has been lived in. There is a makeshift wooden table with some books and a dirty plate, a few bookshelves carved into the stone, and a stock of nonperishable food. A few blankets are piled over a rock slab, and you deduce it is supposed to be a bed. The glint of light on metal catches your eye. Your heart jumps in surprise, but before you can panic, you realize that the suit of armor isn't moving. It's a paladin, and you recognize the symbols on his armor from the group that was chasing you earlier. That said, he seems to have been here for a few days at least: the stench says as much, and the blood pooling under his body has already dried out. You see a hole in his chest, tearing right through the plate armor, and the thought that something here actually managed to rip through something that tough is frightening enough on its own. Even worse is the fact that you can't see anything that looks like it might have done it. The only way out other than the corridor you just came through seems to be right past the paladin. He is lying right at the entrance of another tunnel. Maybe the paladin has something you can use. At the very least, whatever killed him could be in store for you, so you should try to find out more. [[Take a closer look.]] The air is charged with magic. You'd better not touch anything, and that includes suspicious corpses. [[Step around it and continue down the tunnel.|Go down the tunnel.]]

Your hand trembles as you hesitantly reach for the corpse. You grab his shoulder and turn him onto his back, hissing through your teeth as the putrid smell hits you full on. Too late, you realize the corpse was lying over a rune carved onto the floor. The movement triggered it, and you see it light up in blue. [[Oh crap! Duck!]]

<% woundedLeg = "true"; walkWord="limp"; %>You cry out and throw yourself to the floor, rolling away from the glyph. A sharp ice spike shoots out and grazes your leg; if you had been any slower, you might have joined the paladin permanently. You sit up and pale at the amount of blood, but rip a piece of your robe and manage to bandage up your leg. The gash burns as soon as you put any weight on it, but you know you can't linger here much longer. You stand on shaky legs, and just as you start to limp away, you catch sight of the paladin's sword, still in its scabbard. [[Take the sword.]] Better travel light. [[Limp down the tunnel.|Go down the tunnel.]]

<% paladinSword="true"; %>Careful to stay as far from the glyph as you can, you take the sword from its sheath. It is just long enough that you can put some weight on it as you walk, and although you're a little wary of using a sword as a crutch, you manage not to stab your own foot with it. [[Limp down the tunnel.|Go down the tunnel.]]

You dispell the light sphere from the previous room and create another to light up the tunnel. You <% print(walkWord); %> down the tunnel for a while before a voice stops you cold in your tracks. It is a low whisper, a strange mixture of more voices than you can count, and it sounds both distant and eerily close at the same time. "Come to me." [["W-Who's there?!"]] [[Keep quiet and slowly turn around.]] <% if(woundedLeg == "false") print("[[Run!]]"); else print("<a class='disabled-link'>Run!</a> (Your wounded leg prevents this.)"); %>

Whatever it is can't be good. There is a time and place to stop and talk to creepy voices and now is neither of those. You run desperately down the tunnel, only barely managing not to trip on loose rock or slippery dirt. Eventually your lungs cry for relief, and you stop and lean against the cave wall, heart thumping in your chest and cold sweat dripping down your neck as you catch your breath. "Oh Eva, the things I do for you." [[Continue onward.]]

"W-Who's there?!" you call out, voice rising in panic. <% if(paladinSword=="true") print("You wave your sword around in a panic, slashing at the empty air."); %> But your hear nothing except the sound of your own heart hammering in your chest. [[Continue onward.]]

You freeze up and keep a frightened silence before slowly, slowly turning around. But where you hoped (or feared?) to see something, there is only empty darkness. Your stomach ties itself into a knot as you look around yourself, waving your light sphere around to ward off the dark. <% if(paladinSword=="true") print("Your hand clenches tightly around the handle of your sword."); %> [[Continue onward.]]

You quickly lose track of how long you've been <%print(walkWord)%>ing down the tunnel. Every time you manage to calm down, the whisper sends your heart racing again: "Come closer." "I know you're there..." "Almost, almost." You try to block it out, but the further you stumble into the darkness, the louder it seems to get. "I can give you what you seek." "Only I can." [["Leave me alone!"|Paladin]] [["Just shut up already!"|Paladin]]

<a href="https://elrumordelaluz.github.io/csshake/">Shake CSS</a> by elrumordelaluz <a href="https://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/sears-tower">Sears Tower</a> font by Michael Tension [[Back|Start]]

<h1>Foregone Conclusion</h1> <h2>by Yara Grassi Gouffon</h2> Welcome! Before we get started: <ul> <li>Best viewed with Chrome or Firefox. This has not been tested with Safari or Opera.</li> <li>This has not been optimized for phones and is incompatible with Internet Explorer. It's going to look awful...</li> </ul> [[Credits]] [[Start|Losso]]

You've had enough. "<% print(lossoLine); %>" you scream into the darkness. But the voice finally quiets down, and it is something else you hear this time. Something that makes your blood freeze, because you just gave your position away screaming. Growing louder and louder, the sound of running footsteps and heavy armor echoes down the corridor. You don't have the time to cast an illusion, he'll be here any second now. [[Dispell the lights, hide and hope for the best.]] [[Try to talk it out.]] <% if(woundedLeg == "false") print("[[Run!|Run from the paladin]]"); else print("<a class='disabled-link'>Run!</a> (Your wounded leg prevents this.)"); %>

<% canvasMode="black"; usedLight="true"; %> You press yourself close to the wall and hold your breath. The footsteps come closer, closer, and stop. Oh crap he's here. <% if(paladinSword == "true") print("[[Grab your sword and swing blindly.]]"); else print("<a class='disabled-link'>Grab your sword and swing blindly.</a> (You are unarmed.)"); %> [[Cast a bright light to blind him.]] <% if(woundedLeg == "false") print("[[Run!|Run from the paladin]]"); else print("<a class='disabled-link'>Run!</a> (Your wounded leg prevents this.)"); %>

<% talkPaladin = "true"; %>No matter whether you are an expert warrior or a powerful mage, sometimes a silver tongue can beat any blade and any spell. You hope that is the case this time. "Wait! Why are you doing this?" you call out in Common tongue. Eva made a point of making you both learn it, and now you are grateful for her foresight. Still, for a moment, you fear the paladin might refuse to speak in anything other than Saybiran. "You dare ask why after you slaughtered my brothers, mage?!" Your mind spins in confusion. Then, it clicks: do they think you were the one that caused all this destruction? Ha, you wish. Then perhaps his sword wouldn't look so threatening. "I had nothing to do with it! I swear, <% if(usedLight=="true") print("[[this is all a misunderstanding|used light on paladin]]--"); else print("[[this is all a misunderstanding]]--"); %>"

<% if(canvasMode=="black") print(""); %>You run as fast as you can, hearing the footsteps behind you quicken as the paladin hears you take off. You pray to anyone who will listen that the plate armor will slow him down enough.<% if(canvasMode=="black") print(""); %> <% if(canvasMode=="black") print(""); %>His footsteps grow distance as you gain on him, but you know it's only a matter of time until he catches up. Eventually, breathless, you reach [[another room.|Kuni room]]<% if(canvasMode=="black") print(""); %>

[[Swing]] [[Swing]] [[Swing]] [[Swing]] [[Swing]]

<% canvasMode=""; %> You shield your eyes before everything explodes in bright, blinding light. You hear the paladin cry out in pain, and don't wait around for more. <% if(woundedLeg=="true") print("You limp away as fast as you can,"); else print("You run as fast as you can,"); %> eager to put as much distance behind you as possible. Eventually the tunnel [[widens into another room.|Kuni room]]

You take a blind swing at the paladin. The clang of metal against metal is deafening, and the shock of hitting plate armor makes you almost drop your sword as it travels up your arm and shoulder. You are not a fighter. Your swing was wild and unskilled. Now that he knows where you are, the paladin's is not. You scream at the burning pain in your stomach. Warm blood stains your robe in the darkness. You fall to your knees, and the paladin takes another slash. You are dead. "Worthless."

<% canvasMode="torch"; foundKuni = "true"; %>This room is much smaller than the previous one. A torch still blazes near the center of the room, casting a dim glow on rock walls and earthen floor. The ground is painted in too many magical circles for you to keep track of, and while most are drawn in chalk or paint, you have a sinking suspicion that some of that dark, dried out brown color may be a mage's last resort of drawing with their own blood. Everything around you is chaos: scorch marks, frozen soil and fallen bodies, some of them paladins and others, you realize in surprise, mages themselves. In the middle of it all is a single [[facedown body]].

"Come." The voice makes you jump again. You look around nervously, but just like before, there is nothing to be found. The room itself seems to be a dead end, and you find your attention inexplicably drawn back to the body. You guess by the robes that he was a mage, and the closest fallen paladin is still clutching the blade that felled him. "You know that one will be here any second now." With a sinking feeling, you realize the voice is coming from the corpse. <% if(woundedLeg=="true") print("You approach the corpse very warily, the memories of that hidden rune from before still too fresh in your mind. Your leg throbs as if to complain that you are taking this risk again, but whatever this voice is, you know it has a point. There is no other way out of here, and you do not fancy your chances against the paladin."); else print("You approach the corpse warily, heart beating fast in apprehension, but whatever this voice is, you know it has a point. There is no other way out of here, and you do not fancy your chances against the paladin."); %> You reach out and turn the mage's body over. He is very much dead, and permanently so, despite the paladins' apparent conviction that you are a necromancer. It is then that you realize the voice was not coming from the dead man, but from [[the mask he is still wearing]].

It is a beautiful thing, elegant patterns intricately carved into smooth metal. It covers most of the cave, leaving only an opening for the eyes and for the mouth and chin. The edges are made to look like feathers and painted in bright colors, and it reminds you a little of a carnival mask. You touch its smooth, cold surface, and a torrent of voices flood your mind. It is overwhelming at first, but they quiet down to whispers, and one voice stands out above the others loud and clear in your mind. "Wear me. I can help you." "What... What is this?" You hear it chuckle in your mind. "Not 'what', 'who'." It speaks with the confidence of a cat watching unsuspecting mice scurrying about. "I am Eliphas Kuni, and I hold the power of a thousand mages." But before you can question its bold claim, once again you hear [[the sound of metallic footsteps]].

You spin around, facing the entrance to the room. Of course the paladin would have found out; there was only one way through the tunnel. And now there is only one way out of the room, and it is through this hulking suit of armor. "Need the help of a thousand mages?" You can't help but feel that it is mocking you, but as the Saybiran draws closer with his sword at the ready, you know you have to make a decision. [[Wear the mask.]] <% if(paladinSword == "true") print("[[Take your sword and fight.]]"); else print("<a class='disabled-link'>Take your sword and fight.</a> (You are unarmed.)"); %> <% if(talkPaladin == "true") print("<a class='disabled-link'>Try to talk it out.</a> (You already know he won't listen.)"); else print("[[Try to talk it out.]]"); %>

<% canvasMode="torch"; %> You have no other choice. For good or for bad... You surrender your fate to Kuni's mask. You feel a thousand voices scream into your ears. Kuni's voice cuts above the cacophony, cackling gleefully as he makes himself at home in your mind. You immediately realize this was a mistake. That is also the last thing 'you' realize. You feel lightning crackle around your hands like an old friend long forgotten. The paladin screams and twists and writhes and falls limply to the ground like a puppet with broken strings. The paladin is dead dead DEAD. And you are back.

<% canvasMode="torch"; %>Fighting him head on seems hopeless, but you don't trust the mask. You hold your sword tightly and face the paladin. You keep hoping for a miraculous opening, but either the One really is on the man's side, or he is just that much more skilled than you. Every time you strike, your blows land on armor or are parried with insulting ease. Eventually, he lunges at you and your stomach bursts in pain. "You know what you have to do." [[Wear the mask.]] [[Keep fighting.]]

"I swear, this is all a misunderstanding--" Your mind races for an argument that will give him pause. "Those bodies were already there before we ever went in!" "And you were hardly surprised to see them!" How is this fair? He didn't even see your reaction! "I'm telling you, I'm just an illusionist, I could never cause this kind of destruction!" Of course admitting to something as treacherous as casting illusions wasn't the best idea. You see his grip tighten on the handle of his sword, and you know you have to do something fast. <% if(foundKuni == "true") print("[[Wear the mask.]]"); %> [["Didn't you hear that voice? He's the one who killed your comrades!"]] <% if(foundKuni == "false") print("[[Cast a bright light to blind him.]]"); %> <% if(paladinSword == "true" && foundKuni == "false") print("[[Grab your sword and fight.]]"); else if(paladinSword == "true" && foundKuni == "true") print("[[Take your sword and fight.]]"); else print("<a class='disabled-link'>Take your sword and fight.</a> (You are unarmed.)"); %> <% if(foundKuni == "false" && woundedLeg == "false") print("[[Run!|Run from the paladin]]"); else if(foundKuni == "false") print("<a class='disabled-link'>Run!</a> (Your wounded leg prevents this.)"); %>

<% canvasMode="torch"; %>"I swear, this is all a misunderstanding--" But the paladin cuts you off. "Do you take me for a fool? You turned your magic on me!" You wince at that. "I thought you were going to kill me!" The man gives a triumphant smile at your 'confession'. "Then perhaps you know of a reason why I would?" This is hopeless. "Why not give him a real reason to fear you?" [[Wear the mask.]] <% if(paladinSword == "true") print("[[Take your sword and fight.]]"); else print("<a class='disabled-link'>Take your sword and fight.</a> (You are unarmed.)"); %> [["Didn't you hear that voice? He's the one who killed your comrades!"]]

"Didn't you hear that voice? He's the one who killed your comrades!" you cry out in exasperation. <% if(foundKuni=="true") print("Can't he see the mask you're holding? It's the only explanation that makes sense: the mage who was wearing it until now must have used it to defend himself from the paladins. How else would a single man kill that many of them?"); else print("Maybe you're bluffing, but you definitely didn't do it. Who else could it be? All that matters is you're trying to make the man see reason."); %> You see the paladin's expression change. For a moment, his eyes are filled with pity, and you dare hope he finally understands you. "Voice? You've lost your mind, the One bless your soul." That is not what you wanted to hear. His expression hardens. "Or you are trying to fool me with your unholy magic. Either way, today is the day you meet Him!" He is suddenly too close for you to react. Before you have time to do anything else, he runs you through with his sword. You are dead. "Should have seen that one coming."

You take a wild swing at the paladin. The clang of metal against metal is deafening, and the shock of hitting plate armor makes you almost drop your sword as it travels up your arm and shoulder. You are not a fighter. The scuffle is embarrassingly short before you fail to avoid his slash. You scream at the burning pain in your stomach. Warm blood stains your robe in the darkness. You fall to your knees, and the paladin takes another slash. You are dead. "Worthless."

You simply can't give in. Whatever this mask is, it's evil. Eva wouldn't want you to have anything to do with it, no matter the cost. But the cost is so much more than you could give. The paladin slashes again, and you fall to your knees, blood soaking your robe. Eva... Eva. This can't be happening. You are dead. "You will never see her again."