Ashwood Cross

---

Check darkness: is the glowing-red-touchscreen-thing-that's-obviously-an-eye still there?

Oh, that's right! You should be able to see that glowing red... thing. The touchpad.
You take a quick look around. It was a circle, right? Or was it more like an eye?



Well, crap. Whatever the case, you don't see any sign of it right now.
Wonder what happened. Maybe it just ran out of power after you got zapped?
That is, assuming you're still in the same place. And that you haven't gone blind.

Fumble around for the flashlight

If you want to get out of here, it'd help if you could see where you were going.
Unfortunately it's quite dark, and your Flashlight seems to be missing.

From a seated position, you feel the stony ground in a circle around you.
There's nothing but pebbles and gritty dust on the ground.

To one side, you find a new stone surface, rising slightly from the ground.
Grooves divide it into flat squares. It might be the edge of the pavement?
Moving carefully on your knees now, you follow the grooves away from you.
Your knuckles brush against a pitted, flaky surface suggesting rusty metal.
Next to that, a vertical stone face made of interlocking rectangles... brickwork?

Seems like you're still where you were, when you got knocked out.

Slowly and carefully, you climb to your feet, shuffling toward the nearest wall.
With closed eyes, you feel the nearby surfaces, building a mental image of the area.



You follow a wall until it joins with an unfamiliar, waist-high stone ledge.
Cautious about getting turned around, you search by feel, along it's perimeter.
If you're lucky, your Flashlight should be within arms reach of the ledge.
Of course, if you're not, it probably rolled away into some unreachable crevice.

PERCEPTION TEST: 2 Wit + 1 Composure - 1 Can't See ☆☆ <VS> Difficulty ★Show

Failure... ☆☆

As you go, you sweep your hands across the top surface, and shuffle your feet at the base.
Neither encounter your Flashlight. Or anything but more gritty dust, for that matter.

You're not sure what's past your arm's reach, but leaving the ledge feels pretty risky.
For the sake of not getting hopelessly lost, you hold off on further searching for now.

Now just hold on a moment. If you were unconscious from electrical shock, how were you dreaming?

Hmm. You can't recall any other times you've fallen unconscious.
Maybe dreaming when you're KO'd is... normal? It's like sleeping, right?
Or, you suppose, maybe that really wasn't a dream after all.
Might've been some kind of hallucination?

The next time you pass out, maybe you can ask that doctor about it.

Strum the uke. Use the sound to echolocate the flashlight.

Then pretend you're a country star and play a horrible beautiful song.

You're not quite sure how this is going to work, but what the heck!
You sling Memento Mori the Ukulele out of your Duffel Bag.



In the darkness, you'll have to position your hands by feeling the strings and frets.
Once you wipe the dirt off your fingers and get comfortable, you start to play.

PERFORMANCE TEST: 2 Grace + 2 Wit + 2 Music + 1 Ukulele - 1 Can't See ☆☆☆☆☆☆ <VS> Difficulty ★Show

Success! ★☆☆☆☆☆

[♫] ≫ You improvise a short but heartfelt tune.

Sorry I Threw You Away:

Flashlight
Sorry back there
I didn't
Mean to fling you in the air

I was
In a bit of a shock
But buddy
I'd be lost without you

Flashlight please come back
I didn't mean to be rude
And if your shit got cracked
I'm pretty sorry about that too

The last chord rings out, and echoes off into the surrounding darkness.
For a cave, it's got pretty good acoustics! You must be in a huge chamber.
If you listen really closely, you can still hear the reverb in the distance!
That, and the soft, rhythmic scraping and clicking of...

Wait. What's making that scraping, clicking noise?

And why does it sound like it's right behind you?

---

---