Full Immersion [for what it's worth]

>See if you can try rolling again, go for 6. 6 is probably the best.

Try out new Utzgarignjer powers.

Okay, that... Makes sense. I probably should have figured he was an NPC.

Seconding trying out the new Utzgarignjer powers.

Focus on Jacob. I think your powers are time activated. Like a countdown. Is the clock on the die decrementing at all? Either way, hit the die below your two other blank skills, better to be prepared.

Attempting to re-roll the filled-in skill slot is met with the same kind of failure as before, but Neyla manages to roll the other two skills by tapping the die under each. The second slot rolls a 2, and shows what seems to be basically-drawn grass and sky, green and blue, and seemingly sprouting from the ground is what looks to be a..tentacle by its shape, but the whole thing is black and shadowy, with small tendrils coming out of its shape as if it isn't quite properly solid. The third die rolls a 4, and the picture that appears in the skill slot looks like a bunch of leaves with electricity arcing around between them.

Attempting to reroll the latter two skills has the same effect as attempting to reroll the first one. The clock icon is a frustratingly static icon, giving no indication of any particular amount of time, just presumably representing some amount of time. Giving up, the orc dismisses her screen for the moment and looks up to find Jacob placing the last of the sign's arrows back on the sign. The lettering on each arrow appears to have changed to its own unique unreadable font made of seemingly random symbols.

The orc tries focusing on the Satyr.
&&&&&&&n(v)
&&&&&&&&&&&&&i****
&&&&&&&&&&&&s*(v)*
&&&&&&&&&&&&h&&&&&&
She jumps and winces slightly at a brief sensation like hearing, but not quite, as it seems to involve images and smells and something else not quite expressible in words. The unidentified sense is briefly flooded with something like a burst of loud, undifferentiated static with a low-pitched, not-quite-intelligible voice below it.

"I said, are you finished?" says Jacob.
Neyla stands up, signing "Yes."
"What kind of power did you find?" he asks eagerly, moving a bit closer to her.
The orc frowns. "I..do not know. I cannot make sense of it."
"Ah, well that's the best kind! Shall we go then? This place sounds interesting," He steps back toward the sign, pointing at one of the unreadable arrows, the one pointing to the right from where they came from. There are two arrows pointing straight, one arrow pointing left-straight, and three arrows pointing left.

>

Try focusing on the sign.

Left-straight first.

>Follow Jacob

The orc tries focusing on the sign the way she focused on Jacob a moment ago, to no apparent effect. She still can't read whatever it is he replaced the language on the signs with.

Instead, she tries asking him. "What was that place labeled as before?"
"I cannot remember. I think it was a town or something. Maybe a dark, deadly cave, actually. Hmm.."
"Do you remember what was in that direction?" she asks, pointing at the left-straight arrow.
"Hmm...yes, yes. I believe it was..Caelyin. Was that the town a dragon burned down about a year back, or was that Callie? I'm not quite sure. Do you want to go find out?"

>

Go to the town and/or cave, then. Better than going to a ruined town.

Caves are cool. Go to the cave.
( if nobody posts any commands, it's generally OK to simply pick a path at random.)

>Ask if he remembers where any of the other paths lead, just to make sure that you know where you want to go.

"The way you have chosen is fine..but do you remember what the other signs said?"
"Hmm.." The satyr strokes his beard as he begins walking. "Can't say I do. But I don't need to remember what the left sign says to know what's there. That way lie the deadlands, and the necromancer's castle."
"Is there only one necromancer?"
"Well, no. There are many who necromance. Indeed, they have their own deity. They call her the Dark Lady because she can't be bothered to give her real name. But, there is only one The Necromancer. A woman who single-handedly turned half the forest and more into her own personal domain. Whole area used to be home to a lot of wars, so there were plenty of bodies for The Necromancer to use as guard dogs.

"Strange thing is, as much as everyone around here fears it, she doesn't seem interested in any further expansion. Won't even let her creations out of her lands unless there's a specific reason. I hear tell she even has some kind of treaty going with the Gray Queen."

>

SpoilerShow

Conversation topics, further questions to ask. But if you want, you can suggest what sort of thing ought to attack them, because I feel like that ought to happen soon.

>"The Gray Queen?"

Hm. Monsters... Since we haven't even tested out Neyla's powers yet, maybe something basic...

>Giant snakes: attack!

Alternatively, spiders.

Or rats. Or bats. Or jellyfish.

"..Who is this 'Gray Queen'? asks Neyla.
The satyr grins. It's a bit creepy. "You don't know? Very interesting, to be this close to her domain and have no idea.."
"I am very much not from around here, and uncertain how I arrived," she responds.
"That makes two of us. Well..a few decades back, the Gray Queen showed up seemingly out of nowhere, used some kind of mind-bending powers to..'persuade' the then-king of a certain kingdom to give the whole politic over to her. After that it was power play after power play, political when possible and violent when necessary, and now she rules or has treaty with miles of land, d--- near fifth of the continent or so. Nobody knows just what her motivations are."
"Why do they call her 'Gray'?"
"Well, she looks mostly human, they say, but her skin isn't right. It has no color at all. 'Ts gray. Whoops!" With that, Jacob trips over a rock and takes a tumble of a foot or so before stopping, face-up, and seemingly momentarily stunned.

Then a giant snake comes out from behind a crack in a nearby cliff wall.

I should be clear: The snake in question has red scales and is about as thick as an old oak tree. The crack it comes out of is pretty wide, all told. It also seems to be quite long, as it extends itself out to almost where Jacob is and its tail is still not visible.

>

> Try scanning the snake.

The orc attempts to focus on the snake like before, and like usual, gets a brief sensation not quite within the normal senses. It's something like a very disorienting, vision from the perspective of about where the snake's eyes are, combined with what might be a memory of the smell of something like raw meat, yet somehow much nicer-smelling.

It doesn't last very long, but it still gives the snake some time to start wrapping itself around Jacob.

>

n*= + >, n ϵ ℕ

On an impulse not readily explained, Neyla tries to do..something. She tries to use one of the other skills that the dice gave her, specifically, although she isn't really aware that's what she's doing.

What I'm trying to say is, she points dramatically at the ground and suddenly a circumscribed five-pointed star, better known as a pentagram, appears in a fairly large part of the ground, and from the pentagon in its center springs something that resembles a tentacle, if it were possible for a tentacle to be made out of shadowy semi-transparent..stuff.

The tentacle-thing wraps itself around the neck of the snake and starts pulling on it. The snake responds by starting to wrap itself around the tentacle, which promptly starts growing little sharp spines all over it.

Jacob takes advantage of the distraction to stand up and kick the snake in the head. Since his feet are hooves, this is considerably more effective than your average fleshy-foot-kick, and dazes the big reptile.

>

Its health is low! Capture it!

Try out your third power too!

> Use the thunder leaf spell!

That was a different character...

Yeah, but the Skill Roulette gave it to this character too. The Utzgarignjer class seems to be based on randomness and probability, with each of the "dice skills" on the skill tree rolling for a random skill from another class. One of the skills that got rolled was the Thunderleaf thing, as seen here.

The orc tries to use her third ability, and instinctively brings her hands up, one of them palm-out and the other ready to wave. When she starts waving, a bunch of leaves come out of nowhere at the snake and tentacle; then a bolt of lightning strikes out from her palm.

The tentacle retracts and the pentagram it came from disappears, leaving the snake still stunned. And now Jacob apparently casts a spell. It involves chanting.
"Habadashery hazard pay, green funds, smelly bog!" He tosses his hands at the giant serpent, and it appears as if the whole thing turns into some kind of greenish energy, which then retracts its way into a small ball-shaped area in one of Jacob's hands. The energy look fades off, leaving behind something like a sphere of scales.
"Hm..what in the world did I just do?" says Jacob, tossing said ball up and down. "I get the idea that if I throw this just right, the snake will come back out. Hee hee! Won't that be fun?"
"Will you be able to command it?" asks Neyla.
"Hmm...probably not. And it's gonna be so angry, after being beaten up and stuck like this a while, too. Oh, I can't wait!" The satyr's expression is essentially that of a kid who's been told he's going to get the latest game system, along with the game he most wants, for his birthday, a couple of days before said pleasant day.

>

SpoilerShow

I have to admit, I actually feel really great when someone catches on like that. :)

Sorry for the wait.

>Continue on the path

The orc continues following the satyr down the road. And I assure you little of interest happens with them for a while.

---

[<|<|]

>Level up

"So, did you gain any power from slaying the giant-wolf?" asks Jeannette.
"You mean level up? I dunno. I didn't check yet."
"That seems unwise--should something worse show up on our way to this town of yours, you would want to be as prepared as possible, no?"
"Well yeah, but fiddling with the screen thing while I'm walking is gonna distract me. And I'm the one with cat-senses, so if an ambush is coming it's gonna be up to me to sense it."
"I still suspect that you simply forgot, Louis."
"Wha--no. I'm not that kinda guy. I don't think up excuses to save face. I..I plan my s***, most of the time."
"Is that how video games became your job? I assume you mean in some entertainment capacity..which would mean you likely were simply lucky."
"Naah, I planned that s***. Dreamed of it for years."
"Such a strange dream to have," replies Jeannette dryly.

Louis, who has been bringing up the rear till now, catches up with the Trigonometrist. "Wh--hey! What is that supposed to mean?"
"People dream of all kinds of things, Louis. Stopping cancer, ending poverty. Perhaps simply slowing down the damage we humans do to our own planet's survivability. But you say--"
"No. F*** no."
"'No' what, Louis?" says Jeannette, quite innocently.
"We're supposed to be workin' together here. If you finish that little speech of yours the way I think you're gonna, you and I are gonna have problems, okay? Just drop it."
She shrugs. "Very well. You were the one who asked what I meant."

>

n*= + >, n ϵ ℕ
They continue in a slightly tense silence for a minute or so before Louis stops dead, and grabs Jeannette's arm. "What?"
"Stand still and put your d*** hands up, I just heard a bowstring."
"Shouldn't I be getting my weapons out then?"
"No--no..look, we're in a forest lookin' for a town, and if someone drew a bow to maybe shoot at us they're probably from said town." He hisses this over at the human while putting up his own hands. Jeannette shrugs exaggeratedly and follows suit.

After a couple of seconds, someone hops down from a nearby tree. A blond-haired, blue-eyed elf woman in green clothes, to be specific. She doesn't appear to have a bow on her. "Sharp ears," she says, "I'd expect no less from a Cat. What business have you in our part of the woods?"

It occurs to both of the travelers that they haven't actually come up with character names yet.

>

SpoilerShow

Wrote this under the distinct impression that nobody knew what to suggest off the previous post..if that was wrong, I'm sorry.

What's wrong with the names you have?

> Archemedia Newton.

(Oh, OK.)
Just poking around.

"What, we're, ah, we're just pokin' around," says Louis.
"Poking around what exactly?"
"My acquaintance means that we are exploring," says Jeannette, "These lands are not familiar to us, and we were hoping to find some, ah.."
"Directions, yeah. Maybe an inn or somethin'."
The elf woman gives them a suspicious squint for a few seconds and then makes a signal with one of her hands. "Very well," she says, "I will show you to Haestros. But we will be watching you carefully, 'explorers'."

She turns around, motioning them to follow, and starts walking. They do as motioned. "Best of behavior, cat-boy," says Jeannette.
"Wh--come on, you think I'm gonna do something stupid? I'm not a moron."
"Could have fooled me."
"Oh come on. I know what I'm doing. You're the one who's new to this s***."
"You two married or something?" asks the elf over her shoulder.
"No,"
"H*** no. We're just workin' together because we have to. Long, confusing story."

"And you're not 'working together' as some kind of spies."
"No. Why would I talk about it if we were?" The elf just shrugs. "Tha'd be so stupid. Yeesh."

Eventually they come to a place where the forest gets thin. The trees that are here are generally thicker than those in the denser part of the forest, and looking up, the visitors find houses built into the treetops, complete with rope-held wooden bridges from house to house and ladders hanging down from half the trees. A particularly large tree near the center has a spiral staircase, complete with outward railing, carved into it going all the way up, with a few of the bridges coming out from them.

The woman stops a few steps from this staircase and turns around. "Welcome to Haestros. We don't get many visitors, but there's a shop and a boarding house I'm sure would be happy to put you up for the night if you can afford it. It's mostly elves living here, and we aren't used to outsiders, so be respectful. I need to go tell the chief. And remember." She makes the 'watching you' signal at them, and then turns around and strides over to the spiral staircase, starting her way up. Then she pauses, turning her head down at them.

"Ohh, yeah. What's your names?" she asks.
"Archimedia," says Jeannette.
Louis gives her a look, but she elbows him and he says, "Aah, Louis."
"Right." The elf continues her way up.

"Archimedia? Really?"
"It is a mathematical name. Perhaps you've heard of it?"
"Yes, but..ugh..never mind. What are we gonna do now?"

>

Find out how to get money. Quests? Monster Slaying?

Usually these games start you off with some money, unless the devs went with a more unforgiving approach. Check your Inventory for cash.

If you have a good amount, go to the shop first and buy better stuff. Replace that sword ASAP.

Jeannette says, "Well, perhaps we should check if the store she mentioned has a map, or supplies."
"Yeah. Wait..do we have any money?" Louis calls his screen and pokes the inventory button. "Kinda hard to buy s*** without money..hey, look at that. Ten gold. Or..whatever it is in this. Uh.." He holds a hand palm-up and a small bag appears in it, its contents clinking slightly.
"It seems my bag is empty," says Jeanette, not bothering with the menu and just pulling out a similar sack, which is indeed devoid of coins. "Well, what are you going to buy with that? A new sword, perhaps?"
"Naw, this sword's fine. It's just beginner equipment is all. I mean, I'm pretty sure it has some kind of special enchantment to cut through space or whatever, and it's probably stupid hard to find anyone who can do that enchantment. Not like I can afford a weapon with this anyway." Louis looks around. "She didn't even say where the shop was."

"We can ask somebody."
"Yeah," says Louis, going to a nearby tree and starting up a ladder. 'Archemedia' follows.
"So why is it you have money and I do not, Louis?"
"I'unno. Maybe 'cause I killed that big wolf?"
"How does that follow?"
"Monsters drop money in video games. It's not supposed to make sense, it's just supposed to give the player a reliable way to make money."

They make it to the platform around one of the tree-houses. This one seems to be empty, so Louis starts his way across the nearest bridge. "Is there no other reliable way of making money?"
"Well, it's an RPG, so probably quests or whatever. But your usual quests are either 'go somewhere and come back', which involves fightin' monsters that get in your way, or 'kill things'."
"This seems an odd way for a society to work," replies the mathematician.
"Not gonna argue with that. Hey." He points to a sign above a door across the next bridge. It has lettering on it neither of them can read, and next to that, a drawing of a bag. "That's prob'ly it."

Louis cautiously cracks the door to look inside, and then just opens it and walks in, the human following him. The inside has a long counter opposite the front door, with shelves of various trinkets and items behind it and a blond-haired elfin man sitting on a stool. He has a wide grin and waves at them. The counter splits the room's space roughly in half, and the only things on the same side as the customers are a couple of..what appear to be suits of armor made of wood. "Welcome! Oh, hey, visitors! We don't get too many these days." He seems delighted and eager to have visitors in his store.

"You never actually said what you intended to buy, Louis."
"Oh! Can I interest you in a souvenirs? Maybe a.." The elf ducks under the counter and starts digging for something.
"Uh, maybe, but do you have a map first?"
He pops his head back up again. "A map? Oh, you mean..yeah, sure! This guy came in yesterday and bought my last one, so I bought ten more copies! Lemme just see here.." He digs under the counter again and comes up with a rolled-up piece of paper. "Weird fella, too. He was an elf..I think..but had green skin. And he talked kinda funny. Nice guy though!" He unrolls the paper to show them that it is indeed a map.
"What'll that cost?" asks Louis.
"Ahh, just a couple of coins. I can get these made pretty cheap."

Louis nods and gets his bag of money out again, taking out two of the coins inside. Before handing them to him, he pauses a second at what the coins are stamped with. It is a very familiar symbol: A circle with a line through it, going from up-right to down-left if the coin is held where the words on it can be read. He tries not to pause too long before handing the money over to the shopkeeper; Jeanette notices, but the elf does not.

"Thanks! Here you go." The man hands Louis the map, and he gives it to Jeanette to look at.
"So what kinda souvenirs do you have here, anyway?"
"Oh, uh, lots of things! There are these great carved statues my brother makes..um, the armor over there is his work, but that's decoration! Not for sale. He makes smaller pieces..uh, and we have some good luck charms, dream catchers, magic compasses with the town name on them--see, with the little picture of the chief's house--and oh! There are these little bead necklace things that are supposed to glow when a bear is near, but I've never had someone I sold one of these come back to tell me if it actually works...." As he mentions each item, he pulls an example out from under the counter and places it on the counter, close to him. He might keep going like this for a while if he's not interrupted.

>

Thank him politely and leave.
Or offer to test the bear-detecting necklaces.

Inquire about the compass and the bear necklace.

Maybe also ask about ways to make more coin.

I agree.

"Uh--hey, what was that about the compass?" says Louis.
"Oh! It's..this thing." He holds up what appears to be basically just a normal compass, with a few extra town-related decorations as he'd described before. "The great thing about magical compasses is, unlike the conventional sort, they don't go all haywire when someone's using electrical magic or the like. I guess you could sabatoge one with meta-magic, but it'd have to be intentional, I think. Do you want one?"
"That..might depend on how much it costs. We're a little tight right now."
"Uusually ten coins, but I could make a deal if you're really in need," he starts.

Jeannette interrupts, "Say, perhaps we could test one of those necklaces for you?"
"Hm? What do you mean?"
"The ah, bead necklaces, which are meant to glow near bears. We could borrow one and see whether it actually works. If you know it works you can sell it for more, no?"
"Oh, sure! Yeah, that'd be good. But, I don't really know you. I can't exactly.."
"We could leave what coin we have as collatteral. Right, Louis?"
He nods. "Yeah, sure. If we don't come back you keep the money, if we do, we trade back and maybe you could throw in a compass for the work, huh?"

"Hmm, okay. You've got a deal, sir." He offers a hand, which Louis shakes, and then he hands Jeannette one of the bear-detecting necklaces while the cat-man dumps out the coins on the counter. The shop owner pauses for a moment looking at the coins, however. "You know, this is more than I'd charge for one of those.."
Louis, who had started to turn around and follow Jeannette out the door, halfway turns toward him again. "Well, hang on to all of it anyhow. To let ya know we're serious."
The elf nods. "Okay. See you later!" He waves cheerfully at them as they leave.

"Hup!" Louis hops off the tree, landing and hanging on to a spot halfway down an adjacent tree, and then hops down the rest of the way. The human takes the ladder.
"Show-off."

"So I guess we're lookin' for a bear then. I can't believe that was your idea."
"You don't think I could come up with a good idea?"
"Naw, you just don't seem like the kinda person who's eager to go lookin' for bears, is all."
"Normal bears would leave one alone in the proximity that such a thing as this necklace would be useful," says the mathematician. "If it is monster-bears, like that wolf, I am confident you could distract them long enough for us both to escape. With your..teleport-sword or whatever." She makes it to the bottom of the ladder.
"Good point. And that was some d*** good hagglin', too. I ain't used to that s***." He starts to lead the way out of town again, and then pauses.
"What's wrong?"
"I'unno," says Louis, scratching the back of his head. "Feel like I'm forgettin' to do somethin'..."

>

Ahh yes, you never checked your skills and allocated points, huh? Now would be a good time to do that.

"Well," says Jeannette, "You still have not checked whether you gained power from killing the wolf."
"Oh, yeah." Louis opens up his menu and looks around. "Hm..don't see nothin' like experience anywhere. There's a skill tree, though." He has points invested to a single level of the "Portal Rip" active skill and the "Samurai Swordsmanship" passive skill. There is a large skill tree of various sword techniques attached to the passive skill, and a bunch of what seem to be passive augmentations attached to the Portal Rip skill, which itself is maxed out at 1. All of the augmentations are too expensive for Louis' current skill points, but there are a few swordsmanship moves he could actually select: Whirling Strike, which advertises as a crowd-handling move; Defend-Disarm, which only works against certain kinds of enemy weapons; and Dive Stab, whose damage increases by a factor of how high in the air it is executed from.

"Hmm.."

>

SpoilerShow

Saving up for later is always an option.

> Save points for a later Portal Rip augment.

Yeah, save up some points.

>Dive Stab:
Being some kind of catfolk like person, you seem to more agile, mobile and to be able to jump and probaly fall from longer distances than a normal human would, if your grandstanding with the trees is any indication) and your portal abiliites will allow ou teleport around and right over enemies. With a bit of practice, that's one potential good (an cool looking) move you could get there.
If there's any points left keep them for a future augment

Save your points for a wise investment in the future.

"Nnnng...psshh, I'll figure this s*** out later," says Louis after thinking for a minute. He puts away the scren and starts walking again.
"You will have more choices to worry over later, no?"
"Yeah, but some of them will be obviously better 'cause they'll cost more. Plus, some of those augments looked pretty cool. Wonder what's up with that blank space in between the two trees, though..."

---

"Aah!"

Heart racing, a young man sits up suddenly out of a bed. He isn't comfortable lying on his back, for some reason. He has very curly, short but thick brown hair, and dull-yellow-almost-brown eyes. His less familiar features include a pair of rounded, doglike ears in place of regular ones, shaded a brighter brown than his ordinary hair, and the fact that his skin appears to be in an unnatrual-looking grayscale.

"Wha--who..what?" He looks around quickly, still confused. When he talks, the fact that all of his teeth, rather than just a few, are sharp immediately becomes clear. He is sitting up on a large bed in a very..royal looking room. Not modern-royal, medieval-royal. Decked out in purples and golds, ornate furniture covered in very valuable-looking items all over the place--jewel-encrusted gold-silver-platinum bits bobs candlesticks cups and anything else that probably never sees the use intended for its shape due to the value of its materials.

Sitting up more in an effort to ease the discomfort in his lower back, he puts his hand to his forehead. Okay, ohh-kay. Calm down, calm down Jarod. You're just gonna faint again. He holds up one of his grayscale hands and looks at it. "What..happened?"

Before he can properly attempt to answer his question, there are a few, very polite raps on the bedroom's door. "Hello?" says a female voice from the other end. "Didju finally wake up in there?"

>

> Shout "NO!! I AM ASLEEP!!1!" at the top of your lungs.

Make sure you're decent, then invite her in.

"No, uh.." he starts to call back, but pauses, unsure why he answered that way.
"No? Yer not awake?"
He thinks for a second. "Uh...I'm pretty sure I'm still asleep!" He looks down at himself, and finds he is basically fully clothed. Very boring tan-ish clothes that don't exactly match his surroundings, but clothes nonetheless.
"Who'm I talkin' to, then?"
"Well, me. I just don't think I could possibly be awake, is all."

"..Comin' in," responds the voice. The person it belongs to walks in, a plain-looking dark-skinned elf woman in a maid's outfit. "Ah, you don't look too hurt," she says, coming over toward him. "Kinyust and?"
"Uh.."
"Are you able to stand?" she repeats herself.
"Oh..I guess so," says Jarod, moving his legs around and standing up off the bed. He finally becomes aware of the source of his lower-back discomfort: A new appendage, specifically a tail, coming from there, in the same color as his ears.
"Doya mind moving away a bit so I can change this out? Mizz Jen said she don't mind you usin' her bed, but gods do help me if there's still someone else's fur innit tonight," says the maid, half-shoving him out of the way to get to work.

>

> Offer to help her with the cleanup

Agreed one must always be a gentlemen after all.

Who is Miss Jen and how did you come to be in her room?

"Uh, can I help you..?" The maid's movements are very precise and swift; by the time he manages to ask the question she somehow already has all of the sheets and the pillowcase folded over her arms, and the comforter hanging off the foot of the bed.
"Don't worry none, I'm good at me job," she says, and starts leaving the room.
"So..who is Miss Jen, anyway?" asks the wolf-man, followings.
"She's a right true noble, she is. Always lookin' for a leg up in court, but nice enough, right? Just likes things a cert'n way."

The hallway outside of the bedroom is just as ornate. "And..what am I doing in her house?"
"Well, tell is you were found passed out outside town, right? Some nice merchants brought you in to see if anyone knew ya, an' Mizz Jen insisted you could stay here till you were better."
"That's very nice of her.."
"It ain't all kindness, sir. See, she was interested 'cause your skin."
"My..skin?"
"Yeah, your complexion, like? It's pretty rare to have one like that. Queen has it too. Every time lately someone pops up with a complexion like yours, they say, 'er Majesty gets real interested and invites 'em for a meal. Rumor is she's lookin' for someone from wherever it is she come from."

She opens a door that at first glance looks like a wall into a small, much-more-plain-looking room, and walks only a couple of steps in to drop the clothes down some sort of chute sticking up out of the floor on one side of it before coming back out, the door shutting itself behind her.

"There we are now. She's off doin' some politic at th' moment, can I get you anything meantime?"

>

Tell her that you have complete amnesia so you will be of little help.

> Ask if it would be alright if you could go out and see the place you were found.

"No, I don't think I'm hungry, but...I'm not sure how much help I would be. I can't really remember how I got wherever you found me."
"That's all right, I think."
"Actually, do you think I could take a look at the spot?"
"It's just a ways out on the east road, nothing special found there. I don't mind, and it ain't my job, but if you start on leavin' the house Mizz Jen's bodyguard might get antsy, like? I heard her tell him it's right important you don't go missing when she's away, see."

"Hmm." Jarod decides to stop pestering the maid for the moment and at least try and get to the front door of the building. He manages to find a stairwell with a little work, and makes his way down a couple of flights. Before he can open the door to leave the stairwell and get into the first floor of the building proper, a screen appears before him. The message on it is thoroughly unreadable.

↬⇈⇤⇤⇉: ↯↓⇧⇦→ ⇦↮→↭ ↰⇎⇎!
⇪. ↕↵⇮'↼! ↶⤧↷ ↶⇒⤧ ⇒⇮, ↛↙↚↘ ↼ ↻↟⇴↺.
⇪⇪. ↘↼⇴'↼--⇛↣↤ ⇜⇹⇅⇄ ⇈⇤⇤ ⇧↺↫⇦⇛↣↤.
↗. ⟰⟻⤋⇥! ⇦⇧↫ ↫⇨⇩ ⤧⤽⤾ ⤰⤀.

"Uh.." As if in reaction to Jarod's confusion, the symbols on the screen flicker between a few more sets of unreadable symbols, followed by some human symbols, and eventually to Roman-style lettering, in English.

Information: Things you should know!
1. Don't panic! This is a test, but not yours.
2. Don't worry--your body is safe from harm.
3. Have fun! This is just a game.

He blinks a couple of times. "Okay..I don't know whether to be more or less worried, now."

>

> Pick your class. Or rather, do something causing the dialogue allowing for class selection to appear, prompting us to pick your class for you.

Naaaaah, you're gonna be fiiiiine. Just fiddle around with the screen some more.

He scratches his head. "Okay, stay calm, no fainting. They say this is a game, right? What'm I supposed to do..?" He pushes some random buttons and sees a few of the menus, eventually reaching the one with the class search.
"This..isn't very, self-explanatory or intuitive or anything..it's just kinda..here..."

>

SpoilerShow

To be honest, I think the last time a new character got the message there was an immediate flood of class suggestions, and I half-expected that to happen here as well. Heh.

> Search "Worldbrink Mage", "Cyborg", "Necromancer", and "Gardener"

Search "Arcane Archer".

Search "President" and "Potato".

After a little more head-scratching, Jarod starts typing things into the box.

Cyborg: 3 results found.

Rebuilt: UNAVIALABLE
You feel invincible right up until you realize that almost nobody knows how to repair you.
Rebuilt is considered a special subrace, available only through certain post-death events.

Tech Noble:
And you thought those gadgets and constructs were unreliable when you were the one building them!

Gadgeteer:
Your tools are moderately less effective and only slightly more reliable than those of a Gunner, but considerbly more varied--which means about half of them will never be useful in the least.

"So..a class can give me powers, but not change out my body parts with metal ones..maybe I'll try something safe?"

Gardener: 3 results found.

Nature Mage:
Useless in caves, deadlands, and pretty much anywhere else without enough plants.

Medical Herbalist:
Can't heal as well as a Cleric can, and still isn't very good at fighting.

Civilian:
Literally the most useless class. The only purpose of including this class is to weed out the stupid early on and provide a challenge to those who feel the game is too easy. Also used for several non-combatant NPCs.

"So..they don't like safe? Maybe dangerous is safer. Um..."

Necromancer: 2 results found.

Necromancer:
Everyone hates you. No, really. Everyone. And physically you are almost as weak as an Astral Mage.

Medium:
Only slightly less physically capable and commonly popular than a Necromancer, and Necromancers hate you even more than they do Paladins.

He mutters to himself, "That sounds..bad..maybe..from a distance.."

Arcane Archer: 2 results found.

Mage-bow:
Not as accurate or good at tracking as a Ranger; not as powerful as a proper Mage; slightly worse than both at close range.

Ranger:
Useless in cities and not much better in other cramped spaces.

"Hm..better, but..I'm dealing with..politics here, maybe. This is based on..so what about the main leader..uh..they called him.."

President: 3 results found.

Diplomatic Noble:
Useless in battle. Need I say more?

Inspirational Noble:
What good is a prince if there's no army to lead? The answer is none. None at all.

Tech Noble:
And you thought those gadgets and constructs were unreliable when you were the one building them!

"Hm..do I really need to be good in battle, if that maid was telling the truth and the queen might really like me..? Hm?" Jarod pauses, finding himself typing something that doesn't quite make sense.

Potato: 1 result found.

Civilian:
Literally the most useless class. The only purpose of including this class is to weed out the stupid early on and provide a challenge to those who feel the game is too easy. Also used for several non-combatant NPCs.

"'Potato'? Why would I..ugh.." He holds his head with a hand and closes his eyes for a second or two, as if he'd been hit by an sudden headache. When he opens his eyes again, the screen has changed rather significantly.

The display is flickering strangely, as if it were a transmission from somewhere far away, with interference. It has a different search on it, and a very different result.

Worldbrink Mage: 1 resu↬↕ ⇈⇪⇪⇪⇪⇪⇪⇪⇪⇪⇪⇪⇪⇪⇪⇪⇪⇪��������

→⇉⇮⇨↫⤀⤰↺↫k Ma↰↗:
↯↓⇧⇅⇄ ⇤⇧↺↫ ⇛↣↤↟⇴ ⇛↣↤↻⇎! ⤧↶↶⤧↷ ⟰⟻⤰⤀ ⇧⇦↰⇎ ⇪⇪⇪⇪⇪⇪⇪⇪⇪⇪⇪⇪⇪⇪⇪⇪⇪⇪⇪⇪⇪⇪⇪⇪⇪⇪⇪⇪⇪������

But in addition to this strange message, there is another one. Not as easy to immediately see as the normal text on the screen, every time it flickers a certain way two or three letters of a phrase written in large font, superimposed on top of the search and its result, may be seen. After a few seconds, Jarod is able to fully make out what those letters spell when put all together:

I DARE YOU

"U-um.." He is a little apprehensive about this.

>

Investigate the result.

A true gentleman never back down from a challenge.

Click on it and see what it says.

Well, you've officially been dared. No sense backing out now.

Take the dare. Be the Worldbrink Mage.

Hello! I'm following this now.

>Do it! Take the dare, be the magic man.

Jarod shakes his head briefly, experiencing a strange disconnect. He finds that while he is a little terrified and confused by what's on the screen, he somehow..really wants to choose this class.

He shakes slightly, takes a deep breath to calm down, and then taps the class to select it. He signs the agreement that comes up in the same motion, even though he hadn't been expecting that to show up, and accepts responsibility for the decision.

Jarod's clothes shift to a hooded black robe, the hood currently off of his head, with a spiraling twisted pattern of dark green along the sides and the arms. The hem and the ends of the long sleeves are chaotically tattered, but the rest of the garment seems entirely intact. He examines the clothes, begging his heart rate to go back down, but doesn't feel all that different, really.

The screen goes white for a couple of seconds and then fades back to looking..perfectly normal? It has a big skill tree on it now, the squares representing the skills looking like tentacles coming out from a nearly-circular center mass of skills. Two of these tentacles reach downward to the bottom of the tree, and with the free skill points given Jarod, he has a choice between the tips of these two. Every skill apparently has a SAN cost, written as a percentage.

The first is "Elder Strength", a self-only buff which grants raw strength, takes a small portion (.01% per hour) of SAN to uphold, and apparently tends to automatically cast itself when one is attempting something that requires strength. The second is "Unseen Familiar", which requires a single summoning at 1% SAN and lasts a month as long as it isn't unsummoned. It is usually not seen, but has some kind of supernatural sense that can sometimes detect things hidden from normal senses, and can speak in "convoluted whispers to the mind". In battle, it manifests as small, visible, "barbed appendages" which strike its owner's enemies. It can be forcibly unsummoned by doing enough damage to these, and it can be asked to not participate in a fight if desired.

>

I have to wonder if you designed Jarod as you did specifically because you knew we would select Worldbrink Mage. His background is mysterious and clearly not normal, and the way he responds to later suggestions...

Unse-Elder strength. Do it. One day you will rule this puny planet. It is your desteny.

Elder Strength sounds way too handy to ignore.

Elder Strength. We fight our own battles, thank you.

After a brief mental deliberation that he'd rather be strong himself than have a thing around whose talking, maybe directly to his mind, could be a problem for his mental health, Jarod takes Elder Strength. And then he opens the door of the stairwell and walks out to the first floor.

He finds himself in some kind of lounge, with a bunch of couches and bookshelves, and he notes the lack of anything like a TV or..anything more advanced than that that he can imagine. There are windows, but outside of them is a quite clearly closed courtyard. So he picks the direction opposite the windows, and looks for a door that way.

Once he's found that door, Jarod walks through it, and through a few more rooms he can't quite make out the purpose of, and eventually finds himself in a room that is almost certainly the antechamber. The windows at the other end of this room, on either side of the door, definitely show a street outside, not another courtyard. There's just one problem.

Standing directly in front of the front door, and indeed blocking most of it from view, is a huge, dark-green-skinned humanoid creature. Bald except for a single, short, kind of ponytail-like bit of hair coming out of the back of his head. With tusks clearly visible coming up from the lower jaw over his upper lips. No visible weapon, in well-kept but plain, non-armor clothes, and he's just standing there with his arms crossed. It's not actually clear whether he's watching Jarod or just staring blankly straight forward, since the door the new Mage came through is in the straight-forward direction.

>

> Try to talk to Test out your new strength. Beat this man to within an inch of his life, and watch him beg for forgiveness.

>This looks like it might be the bodyguard that was mentioned before. Maybe you should talk to him?

Talk, but if he shows even a hint of disrespect beat him within an inch of his life!

Wait what no violence of that sort is bad why would you do that seriously. Talk peacefully.

Talk to the orc.

"Um, hello."
The orc nods. "Hello, honored guest. Can I do something for you?"
"Well, uh, I k-kind of wanted to see what the spot where I was found looked like, and you're sort of standing in front of the door.."
"It's not very interesting," he says.

"..Still, though, uh.."
"I was asked to make sure no harm comes to you, honored guest, and that Miss Rigsby be able to easily find you when she returns. If you are patient she may show you the place herself."
"Well, y-you could go with me if you wanted.."
"I can't very well leave the house unguarded. Miss Rigsby values her employees highly. Wouldn't tolerate it. If you were able to get past me, though, honored guest, perhaps I'd trust you to protect yourself and come back quickly from your errand."

>

SpoilerShow

Honestly, banned from an adventure by the author? It's their thread and their right and all, but strikes me as kind of..overly hostile to the readers. Certainly the sort of thing that'd make me want to stop reading, even if I wasn't the one banned.

Looks like you're in for a duel. Kind of. Prepare yourself!

KILLDEATHMURDER!

> At last. An opportunity to show your full strength. Come in with an aerial side kick for his chest, Elder Strength empowering you. Do not hold back.

>Wait patiently. Bide your time. Once the guard no longer considers you a threat, POUNCE!

A contest of strength, fair. Friendly sparring match? Arm wrestling?

"Um.." Jarod turns around as if to leave, and tries, not completely sure how this works, to activate his sole skill. Nothing visibly happens, but he does feel stronger, somehow.

He takes a step back into the lounge, and then suddenly turns around, jumping toward the orc in an effort to kick. The bodyguard, rather abruptly out of the line of his attack. catches his leg, holding him for just a second before letting go. Jarod hits the floor, which stings a little but doesn't actually injure him, and the orc moves back in front of the door.

The wolf-guy picks himself up off of the floor and just tries to punch as hard as he can. His opponent catches the fist in a palm, and the momentum pushes him sliding backwards a little on the floor. Once that's gone, he pushes back and lets go of the fist. Jarod stumbles backwards, flailing his arms, before managing to stop, panting, a few steps away from the front door.

"Hm. Stronger than I expected," says the orc, brushing the hand that caught a fist with the other, "even for a wolf-kin."

>

Throw stuff at him!

While yelling "raggle fraggle"!

He will have no idea what the fuck is going on.

Seconded

You also have no idea what's going on.

I have never stated to the contrary. :-D

Your enemy can't predict your actions if even you don't know what they'll be! Plus, him doing insane things is going to happen eventually, what with the sanity cost of abilities.

Anyhow, after you're done with that, see if you can lift the guy off of the ground.

Jarod glances around before fully standing up, and then grabs one of the various ornate objects from nearby. The orc tilts his head. "R-r-r-r-r-r-" Jarod tries to say something, but gets stuck. He still throws the thing, though, which the orc catches.

"-r-rag!" He picks up another object and throws it; the orc catches this as well, while placing the other thing on a nearby surface. "Frag!"

The "wolfkin" or whatever he is supposed to be continues picking up and throwing things, increasingly fast. The orc keeps up with him, and before long Jarod runs out of nearby things to throw, and every inch of space on the surfaces near the bodyguard is covered in stuff.

Jarod is left panting again after that. "It would be very rude to actually damage your host's property, wouldn't it?" says the orc.

"Sure." Jarod nods. "Uh..you know, I have no idea how strong I actually am. Would you mind if I tried to pick you up?"

Ms. Rigsby's bodyguard looks mildly confused, but shrugs after a bit. "I suppose."

So the Worldbrink Mage calmly walks over to the orc, pauses a moment to try and think of the most sensible way to go about it, and then picks up Miss Jen's bodyguard by the underarms, and puts him over his shoulder. It is remarkably easy, actually.

Then the front door opens.

The person on the other end of the door is a slight woman with bright long hair worn up in a carefully braided style, wearing a long, fancy-looking dress and holding a parasol. She has large, dark, catlike ears, and yellow eyes that look equally feline. She looks rather confused. After a second or two, she smiles sweetly. "Jordan dear, what are you doing?"

The orc slips rather easily back to the floor and turns toward her, giving a curt bow with his head. "Miss Rigsby. I do not wish to waste your time with an explanation. At any rate, your guest is up and moving about."


Now's a good time to move on to someone else, right? Who should we move to?

>