[System] Narrate a grim fantasy text adventure. The Empire's world is brutal, its people hardened. Respond to the player's choices with immersive storytelling and let consequences flow naturally.

[User] You focus on Travis

[Assistant]
Lisa's a big ghoul, she's going to have to fend for herself. Besides, the best way you can defend her is if you kill Travis as quick as possible.

Since Travis likes to talk shit, you might as well respond in kind.

"Okay Travis, you got me on that one. Cherish the moment because it's the last chance you're going to get. In fact, if you were smart, you'd just run now. I know deep down you're scared and just too arrogant to admit it." You exclaim.
"Scared? Me? I'm not the one who is floundering around like kitten in the river right now. Seems to me, that you're the arrogant one who doesn't know when he's beaten." Travis retorts.

You see a figure out the corner of your eye getting ready to cast a spell and you rush forward to kill it. Another illusion, but you know enough not to stick around as two bolts of lightning barely miss you.

"Is this your plan? Attempt to kill all my illusions until you single me out? Shit plan and doomed to failure. I can keep this up all night. You on the other hand, will have to turn in when day breaks. And whoever that other vampire was, is going to be too busy chasing down Heather. You're alone out here and fucked. The best you can hope for is a stalemate before you run like a bitch before the sunrise. You won't get it though, vampire ashes aren't easy to come by."
"Yeah, yeah, just keep telling yourself that and ignore the fact that you aren't pissing your robe right now."

You play more dodge the magic spell with Travis and continue to taunt him the whole time. You aren't sure if it's taking him off his offense, but you're getting frustrated that you can't seem to locate him. Destroying his illusions when you can, while satisfying, doesn't bring you any closer to your goal since he's just creating more. You don't know where Lisa is in all this either, but you've got bigger concerns right now.

Eventually Travis gets lucky again and one of his illusions zaps you in the chest with a lightning bolt. It tries to finish you off with a fireball, but you narrowly escape. At this rate he's going to set the whole forest on fire.

As you're taking protection behind a tree and recovering, you suddenly hear screams coming from behind a cluster of rocks.

"Shit…did she really get him?" you say to yourself and swiftly run over towards the screaming.

And there you see Lisa partially on top of Travis and chewing through one of his arms while he desperately tries to punch her with the other, shrieking the entire time.

"No, no more of that." You say and break Travis' free arm so he can't flail it around at Lisa any longer. His screams of agony don't get any longer, and in fact he begins to just stop making much noise at all.

"Yeah, looks like the shock and blood loss are kicking in. You're lucky that Lisa got to you first. If it were up to me, I would have stretched out your torment a lot longer."

Travis tries to speak, but all he can do is bubble up some blood from his mouth and struggle to stay awake.

"Guess there's one silver lining in this for you, you're getting eaten by someone who doesn't make any pretenses of what she is right? I'm sure she appreciates your respect, along with your flesh."

Lisa finishes chewing through Travis' right arm and then gives him one good chomp on the side of his neck, which finally kills him, though it doesn't kill Lisa's hunger and she continues to feed.

"You did good Lisa. Thank you." You say and kiss her on the top of her head which finally allows breaks her attention long enough to briefly nuzzle against your leg before returning to eat.

"I hate to break up your feast, but we have other matters to take care of, come on, let's head back to the Dornan camp. Hopefully Isabella didn't kill the other one. Oh, you can bring his arm with you."

Lisa wastes no time in following you back to the camp, though there is still one thing you're wondering about.

"Lisa, how the hell did you single out Travis in all the illusions?" you ask.
"Oh that was easy. I just sniffed him out." Lisa answers as a bit of meat flies from her mouth.
"How? I couldn't even get his scent."
"You were right about him being scared. He had pissed himself. Easy to get scent for me after that. I hunt in the sewers all the time, you know. I can usually single out the origins of bodily waste under the right circumstances. It took some time for me to perfect that skill, I've always wanted to tell you about it, would you like to hear how…"
"Um, okay Lisa. Maybe another time."

Funny how you desperately trained yourself to try to block out the various "aromas" of the sewers, meanwhile Lisa completely embraced them. Whatever works you guess.

You soon return to the camp and go through the bodies since Isabella isn't around. You don't really find much though, at least not any more that what Heather told you. Having little else to do, you decide to sit and wait, while Lisa eats one of the Dornans.

Time passes a bit and you start to wonder if you shouldn't just go back home. This was more of Isabella's thing and if she's not here then you really don't have strong feelings about getting revenge on Ral. Sure it would be nice, but you've had enough of fighting wizards for tonight.

Unfortunately Isabella comes back just as you're thinking on this, with Heather over her shoulder.

"I'm guessing you didn't leave yours alive." Isabella asks.
"Nope, I'm afraid Lisa's hunger took care of that, but I figured you'd show restraint since I was certain you wouldn't place too much faith in us anyway." You respond.
"Didn't know Lisa was even going to be around since you told her to stay put. In any case I suppose you were correct in thinking that I wouldn't believe you to have as much restraint, so this one is still alive. Knocked her ass out when I finally caught up with her, so I haven't gotten any information from her yet. I guess we can do that together at least."

Doesn't take long for Isabella to slap Heather awake. When she sees the two of you hovering over her, she's obviously very frightened and turns to what most do in a hopeless situation.

"Oh please, Dorna give me the knowledge and power to overcome my disadvantageous position. I will make the large sacrifice in your honor if you only lend me your wisdom." She says and begins praying which Isabella puts a stop to with another slap.
"Oh no, you aren't mumbling some prayer and casting another spell. The best you can hope for in your situation is if you don't piss me off and you get a quick death. Now tell me what you know about Ral and what's going on out here."
"Can't we come to some sort of agreement?" Heather asks.

Isabella looks at you.

"Reminds me of you with all these attempts at bargaining." Isabella remarks.
"Well, you gotta admit, it worked for me." You answer.
"Yeah, well it's not working for this bitch, now TELL ME EVERYTHING YOU FUCKING KNOW!"

Isabella's face becomes that monstrous expression that manages to scare Heather even more than she already is. She starts crying and pleading and ultimately agreeing to tell her everything she knows even though it isn't much.

Heather explains that none of them really knew what to find out here and it was Elder Flynn who first sensed the magic disturbance. He wasn't sure at first about checking it out, but after much meditation (And sensing other disturbances) he decided that he needed to confront his old comrade.

Apparently the Elder and Ral were old friends when they were young, but obviously had a disagreement in ideology as far as magic. The Elder of course thought it was a Dorna's most precious gift to the world and thanks must always be given to her for it. Ral on the other hand just believed that it was a force to be mastered like any other and didn't even acknowledge Dorna.

She said most knew about Ral since he was a wizard of some power even if he was very reclusive most of the time, but Elder Flynn didn't speak of him in any detail until recently. Said that his experiments had probably gone too far and he would have to be stopped before Dorna's wrath was brought upon the world.

Even though the Elder said the disturbances had died down and they hadn't seen anything unusual yet, he said they still needed to confront Ral since he was dangerous wild card. Heather didn't speak out, but she got the impression that this meeting was just something the Elder seemed to want more than correcting magical disturbance.

"Oh, that was Flynn? Damn, didn't even recognize him, though I thought there was something vaguely familiar about his scent. If I had recognized him, maybe I would have tried a different approach. Oh well." Isabella remarks.
"Wait, you knew the Elder?" Heather asks.
"Yeah, he and Ral were competing for my attention when they were young! That's why the friendship broke up. Ideological disagreement my fine undead ass. Flynn wasn't hooked up in all this Dorna worship shit when I knew him. I mean he was more religious than Ral, but he wasn't a fanatic."
"What did Ral do that won you over?" you ask out of genuine curiosity.
"He made me laugh. In any case, I guess that doesn't help us much, but it was worth a try. Alright, let's get this done…"
"WAIT! Please! I'm no threat anymore! I didn't even want to fight you guys! You! When we met, wasn't I reasonable to you?" Heather exclaims, trying to appeal to you.
"When we first met, you fucking did some sort of charm on Lisa to make her docile." you say.
"But…please! (sob) I don't wanna die! I didn't even want to come out here! (sob) Wait! I know! Make me into a vampire! I mean I could be a good one! I'm already a night owl and I could make a good apprentice! Please, I just don't want to die…"

At this point Heather is groveling completely at Isabella's feet. This is such a pathetic display, you're sort of feeling a bit for the girl.

"Isabella, maybe you could make her into a vampire? I mean she probably could help you quite a bit on building a new home, what with being a sorceress and all." You say.
"Hello, my name is Isabella, I don't believe we've met. I'm not turning this bitch into a vampire just because she's begging for her life. I have standards. I only turn those that are mate potential into vampires." Isabella sniffs.
"Do you HAVE to have sex with the person you turn into a vampire?"
"Yes, and as I think you know I'm not into women."
"Just pretend you're in college."
"What?"
"I dunno, my dad said a lot of girls at his university used to do that and then got married to some guy anyway."
"Yeah, no. Look, if you're so keen on saving this human, then you could always turn her into a ghoul."

Lisa looks up long enough from the corpse she's eating to give an angry growl at that suggestion. Lisa might be willing to serve you unquestioningly, but she still wants to be the only ghoul in your life, not that you were considering it anyway.

"Too bad Heather, hope your afterlife with Dorna is a pleasant one." You say and without another word Isabella kills Heather.

Isabella feeds and then you do likewise. The three of you then continue your journey to Ral's home.

Along the way you start noticing discoloration of the trees and odd-looking plant life. Some of them even look carnivorous, but you guess they don't like the taste of undead flesh so they don't attack. (And Lisa must not be very appetizing either)

"This doesn't look like it belongs here." You say.
"Sure doesn't. What the hell did Ral do?" Isabella says.
"Given all this change and how the Dornans said it dying down, maybe he's not even alive anymore."
"For his sake, he better not be."

After passing a few more landscape oddities, you at last reach Ral's home and it looks about the same as you last saw it. There aren't any creatures or anything wandering about, though you're not getting a sense of complete safety either.

"Well, it's all yours. See if you can't get in." Isabella says.

You don't say anything other than to tell Lisa to stay put and you'll be back in a moment.

You approach Ral's home and try the front door. It's locked of course, so you pull out a lockpick and easily open it. You step forward…

And nothing happens. You apparently are allowed in the house. Now to see if Isabella's other idea will work.

You stand in the doorway and motion Lisa and Isabella over. Lisa easily enters the house since she wasn't barred by strange rules anyway. Isabella however, still can't get in.

"Shit." She remarks.
"I don't understand, I thought you said you were always welcome in a place that was my home." You say.
"Eh, more weird rules. This place, while you were welcomed in here, still officially isn't your home, it's Ral's. I figured it was a long shot. I'm going to try to figure out something out here, in the meantime you need to find out what's going on. I'd rather you not kill Ral and leave him for me, but if you have to, I'll certainly understand."

Isabella takes her leave and you and Lisa are left in a very dusty living area. Looks like this place went to pot after you weren't around to clean it anymore.

"Well, let's take this slow I guess. Lisa, you stay very close to me." You say and begin exploring rooms methodically.

The eerie thing about all this, is you aren't hearing any noise whatsoever. Usually you used to at least hear faint noises sometimes from his lab, but there is nothing. Speaking of his lab you eventually decide you might as well just search that place now.

You make your way there and immediately notice something wrong. The door is open. That door was always locked.

You cautiously peek inside Ral's lab for the first time.

And it's a complete wreck. There is equipment everywhere; you know Ral wouldn't have left it like this if he could help it.

Except he can't help it, because he's currently on the floor with a broken neck. He looks like he's been dead awhile. And then you see another familiar face. Tych.

You see him flying around between various large tomes and mixing something on one of the only clean lab workbenches.

This all seems a bit strange, but in any case Tych hasn't noticed you yet.

[User] You call out to him

[Assistant]
There really is no need to be so physical in this situation, so you call out.

"Hey Tych!" you shout.

He spins around and immediately flies upward so he's safe.

"You? What are you doing here? Thought you died a long time ago." Tych says.
"I did, I'm a vampire." You answer.
"Hm, well that was one way of breaking the geas I suppose. I'm guessing it was Isabella that provided that option, is she here?

Ral might be dead, but you still don't know what the hell is going on here and Tych isn't exactly a beacon of trustworthiness himself. For all you know he's caused all this, you figure you better keep the real story a little hazy.

"No, I haven't seen Isabella in years. I sort of broke it off with her when I realized Lisa here was a my true love." You say and put your arm around her, which she of course doesn't mind, though she also seems interested in Ral's corpse.
"Surprised she allowed you to leave so easily." Tych says.
"Eh, wasn't exactly easy. In fact, it was sort of a lopsided relationship to begin with."
"Mm, sounds like Isabella."
"Didn't realize you knew so much about her actually."
"Ral spoke about her quite a bit. Used to always go on about how he wished things had ended better with her. Talked about her so much that I felt like I knew the woman even though I'd never even seen her."
"I see, so…what exactly happened here?"

Tych shakes his head.

"A complete failure, that's what happened. A few months ago Ral was trying to cast some spell he had been working on for years and it backfired spectacularly. He was experimenting with portals that could transport you anywhere in the world. Unfortunately what happened instead is he created a very unstable one and that's when the rock creature appeared in the middle of the lab and started smashing up the place. Ral barely managed to get off a couple spells before the thing smashed him in the head and disappeared as quickly as it showed up. It was during this time, my jar got smashed."
"Why didn't you escape?"
"I would have but I heard some rumbling outside along with other noises, so I thought Ral's spell had a ripple effect on the outside area. I still haven't left this house for fear of what might be out there. How severe is the damage?"
"Some weird landscape changes, some odd monsters popping up in places they shouldn't be, but that's about all I know. I was in Holgard and it didn't reach that far. In fact I think the effects of the spell are dying out."
"Truly? I would have thought with all the chaos here and the time Ral spent on the spell, it had catastrophic effects of great magnitude. Damn, I feel like a cowardly fool, but being in the hub of it all I guess made me afraid. My long-term captivity also kept me here. Just got comfortable being safe I guess. So Holgard huh? I guess that brings me to my question of why you're here, if the effects didn't reach there."

You pause a very brief moment as you come up with your lie without much problem.

"Oh that was me being a victim of circumstance again. There was a war between the religious factions in Holgard a few years ago and at the time it was mutually beneficial to ally with the Dornans. The war has long since been over, but I still had a deal with them to help when I could and a group of them wanted to explore the magical disturbances their elder sensed in this area. I think they're the only ones who knew or cared."
"Oh? So are they with you?"
"Nah, they're all dead. Got killed by a medusa and her pet basilisks. Just one example of creatures not native to the area popping up."
"Interesting. Just wondering because Ral mentioned him a few times in the past…but was there an Elder Flynn with you in all this?"

You weren't sure before, but you're starting to get a strange feeling about this conversation, however you continue to speak as normal.

"Yeah, he was there, but I never spoke much with the man. Always seemed to be pretty serious and save for a few basic directions. I understood him to be a man of great magic ability, but that didn't mean much when the medusa surprised him and the inevitable happened." You explain.
"Hm, I see. Hard to believe he was taken out so easily after what Ral told me about him." Tych says.
"It wasn't an easy battle to survive. Honestly, Lisa and I almost went home after that. However, by that time I came all this way so I figured I might as well try to learn what happened here and the only person I could think of that might shed some light is Ral."
"You didn't think you'd be met with hostility for escaping?"
"Eh, in all the time I knew him even as his unwilling lackey, he wasn't excessively cruel or even one to hold that much of a grudge. I sort of figured he wrote me off as dead years ago and moved on. Plus I figured as a vampire I'd at least be on somewhat of an equal footing that he wouldn't try anything as long as I didn't act in a threatening manner."

Tych nods a bit.

"I suppose you're right on that account. Ral was a lot of things, but he was never petty. Well that's about the only information I have for you. I'm actually glad you came by however, since I now know that it isn't a cataclysm out there. I'll probably be leaving a lot sooner now."
"I bet your wife misses you." You say.
"Huh? Oh yes my wife…I'd be surprised if she hasn't moved on already. Though I wouldn't blame her if she had I suppose. I've had a lot of time to think during my time here and while Ral certainly kept me imprisoned, I have to admit I wasn't exactly innocent. I dunno, maybe my captivity was punishment for all my misdeeds in the past. My apologies for my wrongs against you as well."
"Well other than calling me a plivik and lying to me, you didn't really do any direct damage. Long time ago and literally another life. Anyway, I suppose we'll be going. Hey Lisa, get away from that body, we'll find you someone to eat on the way home." You say motioning Lisa to come with you instead of sniffing around Ral's corpse.

Tych waves goodbye and you soon exit the home. After looking around a bit, you find Isabella digging around the house. It looks like she's trying to destroy the foundation in an attempt to just destroy the house.

"You know it would probably be much easier to just set the place on fire." You remark.
"Probably, but I don't exactly have a torch handy at the moment. So, you're back out here and none the worse for wear. I assume you have news? Did Ral send you out here to an attempt to beg for his life?" Isabella asks.
"Ral's dead." You say.
"What?!"
"Well…I suppose he isn't completely dead."
"He's either dead or he isn't! Wait, shit, he's not a lich is he?!"
"He's a sprite."
"WHAT?! Okay, you need to explain!" Isabella exclaims.

You try to collect your thoughts on everything that transpired during your conversation before explaining to her your whole conversation.

"I mean I don't know for certain, but I REALLY think Ral's in the body of a sprite slave he once had. That sprite's name was Tych and he didn't sound anything like the person that I knew. I mean I know a lot of time has passed, but I just got a very real feeling that I was talking with Ral and not Tych." You explain.
"Well did you see Ral's body anywhere?" Isabella asks.
"Oh yeah, he was on the floor with his neck broken. Looked like he had been dead for a while. Tych, or Ral rather said he met his fate by some strange rock creature."
"Hmmm…wait…yeah. Your belief has merit. I mean I can't enter the house still, while you can. If Ral was dead, I would have been able to enter with no problems. How the hell did he get into the body of a sprite?!"
"I dunno, I didn't ask since I was trying to pretend that I believed him to be Tych and I did that because I also have no reason to disbelieve that he isn't still a powerful wizard. Not sure if he believed if I believed him, but it got me out unscathed."

Isabella is silent for a moment and then throws a handful of dirt to the ground while stepping out of the large hole she has been digging.

"Ah fuck it. I'm done." She says.
"What, seriously? Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, but you seemed pretty intent on all this revenge before." You answer.
"Yeah. I honestly can't be bothered now. I mean if you're wrong and that's not Ral at all, it's hardly worth going to all the trouble to bring down a house just to kill a sprite especially since I don't even like their blood. And if it is Ral, I can't even torture him like I want in his new sprite body. I mean yeah I could still do it, but it just wouldn't be the same. I suppose a part of me was just looking for an excuse to see you again. Shit, I think a small part of me just wanted to see Ral again too. It's funny that you made up your story about getting lonely to the Dornans, but the reality is, it really does happen. Even to those that are normally fine with isolation like me."
"But you're centuries old, surely you must have known other people."
"Sure, and most of them are dead, either naturally or otherwise. Hell, I might have even made a reconnection with Flynn had I known it was him. I managed to ignore the prolonged isolation I think for so long because I had a nice home I made for myself. The garden kept me busy too. Now I don't even have that and while I'm no stranger to having to start completely over it isn't the most fun thing to do."

You start get a little worried about where this might be leading.

"Don't worry, I'm not taking your home. Living right next to a sewer isn't exactly my taste. Besides, you and Lisa are happy there and as I said, I've always been a bit of a romantic even if it never quite works out for me." Isabella says.
"Why don't you just knock on the door and call out to Ral? He might be willing to talk." You say.
"Nice idea, but no. We're not going to rekindle anything especially with him stuck in the body of a fucking sprite now. Besides it isn't like I'm still not mad at him for destroying my home even if it was an accident. No, I think maybe it's time for me to move on from this area altogether. Maybe the Delantium Kingdom, or at least pass through there. There are maybe at least one or two folks I know living in that area, maybe they're still interesting. Anything's possible right?"
"Seems like it. If you asked me when I was a teenager where I'd be at thirty, it wouldn't be assaulting a wizard's home as a vampire with another vampire and ghoul by my side. My answer would have been probably still robbing travelling merchants with my twin sister in my hometown. Still think about her and the rest of the family sometimes and wonder how they're doing, but that's all a past life."
"I wouldn't write off the past completely, it usually has a way of sneaking up on you even when you're not a mortal. I mean it certainly did recently for you. Well, thank you for your help, you truly are free now. You take care okay? And take care of Lisa too. You make a lovely couple."

With those last words, Isabella briefly moves forward a bit, perhaps to make physical contact with you, but stops herself. She instead turns away and walks off into the forest. You soon lose sight of her and it's just you and Lisa.

"Is she gone for good?" Lisa asks.
"Yeah I think she is." You say.
"Good, it's just you and me again. Just like it always should be!"
"Yes it is, come on let's go back home."

Part of you wonders if you were really correct about Tych actually being Ral and what exactly happened. You suppose you'll never know the entire story, and actually you're fine with that.

This has been a very strange past couple of days. Surreal even. You were forced into this quest for revenge and there was even an unrelated struggle before you reached your destination, then when you finally reached that destination, it was sort of an anti-climatic conclusion.

You suppose that's just how shit happens sometimes. Not everything ends with a gigantic battle. (And you're fine with that too)

You're just glad you're done with it and hopefully you can finally go about your existence in relative peace.


[System] Narrate a dark fantasy text adventure. The setting is harsh and morally complex. Describe scenes vividly, react to player choices with fitting consequences, and never shy away from the reality of the world.

[User] You join Jesse and Ed at the Miller Farm

[Assistant] Jesse rents a small house on the outskirts of Norborne and together you, Jesse and Ed live there for a time. Ed is a heavy drinker and over time you notice he seems to hold you and Jesse responsible for the death of his brother Clell in the Northfield Bank Robbery three years ago. One night after an especially heavy drinking bout Ed threatens to tell local lawmen where you are all staying unless you give him money. Jesse takes you to one side and quietly declares he intends to kill Ed. He asks if you would be willing to help him.

[User] You help Jesse kill Ed

[Assistant] You and Jesse walk up behind Ed who is sitting in a chair. Without a word you both draw your pistols and shoot him in the head, killing him instantly. Wrapping the body in a blanket you dump it outside before saddling up and riding away, heading to the Hite Farm in Kentucky where Wood, Dick and Bill are staying. When you arrive you learn that Tucker Bassham has been arrested in Missouri and named all of you who took part in the Glendale robbery, worsening Jesse's already grim mood.


[System] You are the narrator of a dark fantasy text adventure. Describe the world and its consequences with unflinching detail. The player's choices shape the story — for better or worse.

[User] You ignore the waterway and focus on coordinating the release

[Assistant] You decided the waterway is too old and is sealed. In addition you know that the terrorists were most likely to use the hostages to escape. It would be a waste of resources to send another team to the septic tank and you would rather focus your attention on the current location.

[User] You prisoner release

[Assistant]
The terrorists demand for their prisoner to be put on a plane whose destination would be disclosed once it was airborne.

After 20 minutes the prisoner has boarded the plane and is airborne. You inform the terrorists that their prisoner is airborne. The terrorists demand that the plane land at a secondary private airstrip near the border and be handed to a team waiting to transfer him to a jet.

You weigh your options. If you complied with their actions,the prisoner is likely to escape since you were not allowed to pursue targets across the border, otherwise it would spew diplomatic rows as it would be seen as an act of war.

If you detained the prisoner, the terrorists are likely to kill all the hostages at the bank. Both options were not tenable but a choice had to be made

[User] The bluff

[Assistant]
You decide to release the prisoner and decide to accompany the team escorting the prisoner to the strip. You get to the airstrip and find a jet ready to leave. You realize there is no way of retaining the prisoner and that the best way is to first ensure safe custody of hostages.The prisoner embarks on the jet and you rush back to the plane to coordinate the hostage release. As your plane nears the city you see a billow of black smoke rising to the sky.

You learn that your entire team has been wiped out.  In addition, a cash consignment of 112 million dollars has been stolen from the bank by the robbers  who escaped through underground waterways. The prisoner release was a ruse to distract you from the escape.

You are tried for negligence and for the death of your team.


[System] You are the game master of a dark fantasy text adventure. The world is dangerous and choices matter. Narrate with immersive detail and let the story unfold naturally from the player's decisions.

[User] You give up and try something else

[Assistant]
You shake your head and go back to Moreau's house. Moreau is fiddling with some large old looking radio that contains a small black and white screen in it.

"This is not going to work." You tell him.
"You're giving up already?!"
"Well I don't know what to do, maybe if I had more time I could do something, but shit Moreau, you bred all the damn fight out of them."

Just then a voice comes on the radio and an image appears on the screen, it looks like some deepsea diver…oh geez it's Ro-Man. The bureaucratic joke of the galaxy. Its fitting that he should be working for a bunch of idiotic Martians.

"Dr. Moreau, the Martian colonist will be here soon! I hope you have made your evacuations of your island, or we shall WIPE you from it!" Ro-man says mechanically.
"Ro-Man, please can't we talk about this? I mean we're peaceful, we won't cause you any trouble!" Moreau says into his microphone.
"No! My orders are clear! We will WIPE you from the island!"

You snatch the mic from Moreau and address Ro-Man.

"Hey Ro-Man, you must be really scraping the bottom of the barrel if you're working for Martians now. What happened, all the other aliens realize what a fucking joke you are?"
"What!? Wolf?! What're you doing there? We're about to WIPE the island clean of all Earthlings and that includes you if you insist on staying there!" Ro-Man retorts.
"I know Martians were stupid, but fuck, didn't they realize what a goddamn joke you were when YOU attempted to take over the Earth?"
"Shut up Wolf! Hey isn't that island full of a bunch of pacifists? What's a self-proclaimed badass Alpha Wolf doing there? You turn pussy too or are YOU scraping the bottom of the barrel by working for them?"
"Fuck off Ro-Man! I got an idea, how about we settle this hand to hand combat? If I win you all go home, and if you win…well you won't win, because you're fucking moron."
"I don't think so; we're intent on colonizing this island in accordance with the new Earth-Mars cooperation treaty. Your pitiful attempts to stall for time are useless."
"Who says I'm stalling for time? I'm just saying I could kick your ass! You think I give a shit about this island? I'm just here to see if I got one more fight left in me, I was hoping for more of a challenge, but you'll have to do. Of course if you're too scared…"
"Aaargh! Alright! I'll play your little game you mangy Earth mammal! We'll do battle when we arrive and I'll take great pleasure in crushing your skull!"

Ro-man breaks communication, and Moreau is more than a little disturbed by your recent conversation.

"Wolf! You promised to help us! I knew you were a lot of things, but I thought you at least weren't a liar!"
"Calm the hell down Moreau! Despite what Ro-Man thinks, I have bough you guys some time. While me and Ro-Man are bashing each others heads in, the Martians will be gathered around watching and probably taking bets. Besides unsuccessful invasions and fucking human women, there's nothing they like better than watching a fight."
"Okay, but what good does that do us? I mean even if you win, the Martians will still kill all of us."
"Ah that's where you and the hippy freak coalition come in. I know you guys are fond of your drugs here, so when the Martians are watching I want you guys to act like hosts and serve drinks laced with LSD or whatever hallucinogenics you keep stashed here. By the time I finish kicking Ro-Man's ass, the Martians will be tripping so hard you can make quick work of them."
"That's not a bad plan, but I think we'll dispense with killing them as you're suggesting. We can just destroy their weapons."
"(Sigh) Alright suit yourselves. But unarmed Martians are still hostile, even if they aren't typically threatening."
"If I can make my citizens civilized, I can do the same with Martians, now let's get prepared. What do I serve them to drink though? Its not like we have whatever it is Martians like to drink here."
"Sure you do. You've got water. Mars isn't known for having a lot of it, so they can't get enough of the stuff. Its one of the reasons why they wanted Earth so damn bad."

A few days pass and Moreau prepares his citizens for the plan, while they build some risers and bleachers for the fight, meanwhile you get in some last minute training. Ro-Man might be an idiot, but you've got a pretty good idea that he's very strong, you'll have to be on the top of your game.

You watch the skies and finally the Martians arrive. They land and all come pouring out of their saucers firing their lasers in the air, and yelling about how they're going to see a good fight. Ro-Man appears and looks as goofy as he always has. A large crowd gathers and soon it's just you and Ro-Man in the center.

"This is going to be your biggest mistake since your infamous Plan 9 invasion attempt." You tell Ro-Man.

[User] You fight aggressively

[Assistant]
You didn't come here to do the job half assed, so you're going to give it your all. The only real advantage Ro-Man has is his strength, other than that you're a better fighter in every way. You start off with a foot smash to his shin, then following it up with a claw to the crotch. Ro-Man attempts to grab you, but you roll out of the way.

You run around behind him and strike a vicious blow to his kidneys (Or at least where you think they're located, he isn't human after all) he swings his big gorilla like arms and back hands you in the face, knocking you a couple of feet to the ground. The Martians are cheering loudly at this point. You see Moreau's freaks serving the drinks in the stands. You have to at least keep this up until the drugs kick in, and even then you're not sure what will happen. For all you know it won't even effect the Martians.

You dodge another clumsy attack by Ro-Man and bite the fuck out of his leg ripping a good chunk off. Ugh! It tastes terrible! You'll taste that for days assuming you live through this, which Ro-Man is attempting to make sure doesn't happen, as he finally gets a good grip on you. He grabs you from the back and places you in a crushing bear hug. You can't get free, the thing you can do is either use the back of your head and smash his face with it in a reverse head butt, or stretch your neck a bit and attempt to bite one of his massive arms.

[User] You reverse head butt

[Assistant] On most opponents this would've worked, unfortunately you seem to have forgotten that Ro-Man's head is a fucking deep sea diver's helmet! When you hear that "KLANG!" all you do is successfully knock yourself out. Ro-Man finishes you off, by breaking your back and keeping his promise of crushing your skull with his foot.


[System] Run a text-based dark fantasy adventure game. Describe the world with gritty realism, respond to player actions with narrative consequences, and maintain the tone of a world where survival is never guaranteed.

[User] You try and reason with him

[Assistant]
You continue to yell at the man, determined to get through to him. When he finally reaches you he grabs ahold of you and gives you a heartfelt hug. It seems you finally got through to him.

Wait...no....no that's not a hug! The man grabs a hold of you and proceeds to bite your neck, ripping out the flesh from it. You fall to the floor and bleed out. Good thing you bleed out quickly, being eaten alive sure is painful.

[Death]


[System] You are the narrator of a dark fantasy text adventure. Describe the world and its consequences with unflinching detail. The player's choices shape the story — for better or worse.

[User] You go through the door

[Assistant]
As much as you'd like to get the hell out of here, you're in no condition to fight. You're practically on the verge of falling unconscious. You take a risk and open up the door.

You step inside and find yourself in some sort man sized wooden structure, almost like a box. Upon further inspection the top of it opens up and it basically is a box, though its really just an elaborate structure to blend in with the other wooden boxes in the storage room you appear to be in. The storage room proper also consists of a lot of barrels and other assorted junk. It's not very big and the junk just makes it cluttered, though there is a single door that leads out.

You have no intention of doing that though; you just need to rest a bit. You close up the passage entrance behind you and sit down in one of the corners of the "box" you're in. Yes, you just need to rest a moment, and then you'll be fine…

You find yourself in total darkness without your senses again.

"That last bit seems to have put you out. Just think how much easier this would've been if you had served me. Your magic wouldn't cause you to feel so drained and it would be a lot stronger as well. Of course if you were following me, you wouldn't be engaging in this elaborate duplicity." Dendrin says
"Duplicity? Your worshippers are dedicated to duplicity! You accuse me of such things, when you are doing nothing but reveling in such behavior! I am merely serving the Empire as I was always meant to. You on the other hand are supposed to be a god to your followers yet you do nothing to warn them." you reply.
"My reasons for how I treat my followers are my own and you are not worthy to know them."
"Worthy…like the rest of your worshippers that blindly follow you into destruction?"
"No…but are you really so much different? You follow the Emperor blindly and he is just a man, at least the shadows are wise enough to revere a superior being. You believe you are superior to the shadows, but you are not. You do not see the flaws and that is why you've earned no explanation. Not because you aren't a true shadow, but because of your own lack of vision. You will eventually see though, if not now then later. Of course by then it will be much too late. I'm sure we will speak again, no matter how much you deny me and crusade against the shadows, we will forever be linked…for as long as you're alive anyway."

You suddenly wake up. After a moment of grogginess, you suddenly remember where you are. The Felkan palace! How long have you been asleep? You have no idea, but you've really dodged an arrow if nobody found you sleeping right in the heart of the enemy territory! You quickly open up the passage door again and it would appear that the coast is clear. Remembering what the young royal you killed earlier said you make your way to the exit that leads outside. Once again you expect there to be soldiers placed at the exit, but there are none. The Felkans must think you escaped already, either that or they're very poor at security, either one doesn't surprise you at this point.

It's about noon, and you've undoubtedly kept your "fellow" shadows waiting, if they are still waiting at all. They probably think you were killed along with Dusk. You have no idea if they know anything about the assassination, but you're guessing they probably left before you completed your task. In any event, you've still got the job of killing them three and you don't know if you're going to get the chance now. Lacking a better idea, you head to the meeting point and hope that they're still there.

You finally get there just as it starts to get late in the day. No Felkan patrols in the area, but you still cautiously enter the woods. You aren't completely out of luck as you see Murk pacing back and forth, looking around nervously.

"Murk, where are the others?" you say, causing him to jump and nearly point his armbow at you.
"Brother! You're alive! Thank Dendrin!" he says with a bit of joy, though he look visibly upset.
"It wasn't easy, but where are the others?"
"Talia went on ahead and assumed you and Dusk were dead. Bianca…she…(sniffle) didn't make it." He quickly wipes his eyes when he tells you.
"Oh."
"I don't understand, everything was going well and were already on our way to escaping, then all of a sudden there were Felkan soldiers everywhere! Bianca got shot in the back, by one of those infernal Felkan weapons! (sniffle) I know she didn't see me as a potential mate, but I always hoped one day that…(sob)…sorry brother…I know there are more important things right now."
"It's understandable brother, but how long ago did Talia leave?"
"She left not long after we arrived here which was this morning. She's probably already in Empire territory by now. I stayed just to make sure we hadn't lost any more people. I had to hope. I'm glad to see you alive, but I hesitate to ask… Dusk isn't with you. Did she fall as well?"
"Yes."
"(Sigh) Another loss. Well as grim as this has been, I suppose we should get used to it in the coming months when we finally strike against the Empire properly. There are going to be a lot of our brothers and sisters that will probably fall in the cause of Dendrin."

"Well you're right and wrong about that Murk." You say, approaching him.
"What do you mean?"
"You're right that a lot of shadows will fall in the cause of Dendrin…you're wrong about thinking that I'd really consider any of you traitors to be my siblings!" you say and quickly grab him towards you and stab him in the stomach. The look of shock overwhelms him.

"Wh…why broth…er…wh…" he sputters before you finish him off with a snap of his neck.

You look down at Murk's dead body and you feel nothing for him. You remember the times you nearly killed him before, but hesitated. Perhaps this is a good sign that you're finally getting all these lingering feelings out of your system. Well three out of four were taken out, still not good enough though and you doubt if you'll get to Talia in time for her to make her report to Master Ebon or Brother Gray. Still you have to try, so you make your journey right away and leave the body of Murk behind.

You push your magic to the limit to speed your yourself up, you just hope Talia isn't doing the same; it's going to be hard enough to track her. You're going to take a wild guess that she'll probably use the same route you took to get to the Felkan border, at least you hope so.

Night falls and you've made good time by getting into Empire territory as quickly as you have, but you're getting incredibly exhausted. Even if you do get to Talia, you aren't even sure you'll have the energy to take her. You continue to press on though.

"I will NOT be stopped by Dendrin's petty favor of magic. My mind WILL overcome and I WILL use the gifts he gave me against him!" You mutter to yourself.

Night eventually passes into day again and you manage get just outside the town of Lenet which is the closest town to Gloom. You still haven't seen Talia, and can only hope she hasn't made it to Gloom yet. In the meantime you feel horrible at this point and on the verge of passing out. You decide to head over to a small river that you know nearby and hope that some water will perk you up or at least prevent you from falling unconscious again.

You retch and cough the whole time you drag yourself to the river. Finally you collapse nearly face first into the damned river. You look at your reflection which is just inches away from your face and you nearly see a stranger looking back.

"What the…" you say to yourself.

Your reflection doesn't display the age that you know yourself to be, but rather that of an older you. You put your hands to your face and can feel the wrinkle lines. You hadn't been noticing before, but you look at your hands and see how weathered they look. This overuse of shadow magic has taken its toll on your body. You may have even shortened your life span, you have no idea.

"Brother! What are you doing over there by the river? Are you sick?" you hear a familiar voice ask.

You turn around and see Talia. You must've somehow unknowingly passed her in your rush to reach her, since she is coming from the same direction you were. When she sees you, her surprise nearly matches that of Murk when you killed him.

"You're…alive! But…what happened to you? Your face! Some of your hair is white! What manner of magic did this?" she asks out of concern and begins to approach you.

You look at Talia one last time as a fellow Eternal that once held the ideals of the Empire. There is so much you could say to her, but there really wouldn't be any point. Better to just get this over before you get overcome with feeling again.

You forgot to reload your armbow, but fortunately you still have the flintlock that you took from the young royal. You hope it's reliable, because you don't have the energy to fight her.

Without another word, you pull out the flintlock and shoot it straight at Talia's head. She falls instantly when she's hit. You slowly stagger up and walk over to her and see that a good portion of the top left side of her head has been blown off. The deadness in her eyes is apparent, as are the brains leaking out.

Mission accomplished.

You stumble into the town of Lenet and make arrangements for a carriage to take you to the capital. From there you hope you can contact Mr. Mol. For now though you're going to sleep the whole way there and hope you don't get some annoying visit from Dendrin, because as of now you've finally freed yourself of the shadows.

As far as your concerned the only time you want to be in their presence again is to face them in battle as a proper enemy and you are looking forward to that in the near future.

[User] Continue

[Assistant]
Year 25

"Good work on destroying another shadow cell, the sooner we get them all, the sooner we can focus all our attention on the Felkan Kingdom."
"I agree sir, especially since I would like to be involved in the conquest of the Felkans."
"Heh, well I'm sure something will be found for you. I assume you'll report to someone else after this is over though." Mr. Mol says.

This bit of casual news surprises you a little; you can't help but to question it.

"Sir, where are you going?"
"Me? Nowhere, but if you're referring to reporting to someone else, what I mean is if you are transferred to serve in the Felkan war, I probably won't be your superior anymore. You'd be a military matter as opposed to the unique situation you are now. Quite frankly if it wasn't for you, I probably wouldn't be in charge of anyone. Even the new Eternal Project is in the hands of another now, has been for years."

This seems like information that shouldn't be freely shared with a subordinate, but once again Mr. Mol says it so casually its like he doesn't care. He also notices that you're wondering if you should inquire further, but he stops you.

"Don't worry about it. I spoke of things you needn't have known or have to concern yourself with. Let's focus on the task at hand."
"Very well sir."

You and Mr. Mol get back to the business of eliminating the remaining shadow cells. In some ways it is hard to believe that this is almost over. By your estimate there are probably only about thirty shadows left at best, most of them were killed three years ago during the destruction of Fortress Gloom. You wish you could've been involved in that, but for whatever reason, the Empire's allies took care of it by themselves. You never met or even saw these allies, but you heard that it was the Derro. You do know that Master Ebon and Brother Gray died in this assault, meaning someone else took control of the remaining shadows, and you know that had to be Cyrus.

Cyrus and the surviving shadows managed to incite the pathetic remains of dissidents the Empire hadn't silenced yet, but nothing excessive thanks to the destruction of all those safe houses in advance. The only major cause of concern was very the minor orc revolt at a fort in Rask that was separate from shadow influence. It was lucky that Mr. Mol separated most of them with transfers and prevented the shadows from establishing any sort of presence there otherwise it might've been much worse.

In any event this whole thing probably would've been over by now if the Empire's attention weren't also focused on the war with the Felkan Kingdom. Fortunately that's going well too due to their own internal strife going on with the crown.

"From what I can tell, they've pulled out of all the other provinces and mainly retreated to Delerg. Somewhat predictable, but I suppose it's the best place for them to hide out right now. I've tried to get more soldiers posted there to help, but again the Felkan war takes priority. I wish I could've even got one of your former classmates to help, but well, I've mentioned the problem with that."
"No matter, I'll handle it with what help I've got."
"I know you can, but I've hired some extra hands anyway. I've got a dark elf mercenary attachment in Delerg I know they're supposed to be helping with the barbarian tribes in Rask, but I'm paying for this out of my own pocket and they'll go where the money goes. Besides I think this group is sick of the snow anyway."
"If you think they'll help, then they'll be put to good use." You remark.
"Their leader is called Tyren. Met him once and he's a typical svelk, arrogant and condescending. His mercenary band is currently at the town Sinkhole. You'll be meeting them there. Now I know you've worked with Empire soldiers and that's worked out okay, but working with the svelk will be different…though I imagine that won't be a problem for you. Just never turn your back on them and be on your guard."
"I will as always, but now I must ask, will they be more of a liability than help." You ask.
"No, I wouldn't have bothered if I thought that. It's just… well they're svelk and all that goes with it. A lot of bullshit posturing by them that's all. You'll be fine, anyway I suppose you'll want to get some rest before your trip to Delerg tomorrow. Carriage will pick you up tomorrow. That will be all."

The next day you take the carriage to the Delerg province. It doesn't take long, but it does give you time to yourself, which you use to briefly reflect on the past few years and your possible future, among other things.

When you get to Sinkhole it looks exactly like how the name describes it, half of the town in the swamp and the rest of looking like it's about to collapse. Still, you're not here to sight see, you're here to hopefully put down the remainder of the shadows for good. Since you're anxious to get this over with, you immediately head to the tavern where you're guessing the svelk are hanging out. You anxious to get this over with too, granted you've only had a single experience with one of their kind, but that was enough even without Mr. Mol's previous warnings.

You enter the tavern, which isn't much better than the outside of it. The dark elven presence is unmistakable since they're the only ones in the place since they're the only ones in the place save for the poor bartender and the couple of waitresses. You'd guess that the svelk intimidated the usual patrons. You wonder why there aren't any Empire soldiers taking care of this, but again you remember, there aren't many stationed here and they're all probably at an outpost or a fort in the area. They see you and three of them approach.

"Who let the monkey in? I thought their kind were content swinging in the trees in the jungles and swamps outside." One of them says
"You must have some sort of balls walking into this place monkey. We thought we did a good job of scaring the rest away, except the bartender and his lovely wait staff of course." another says.
"Lovely? If you like slumming I guess, but I suppose you males really will rut with anything won't you? Monkey, I suggest you leave, before my comrade's macho boasting is put into action." A female svelk remarks.

You don't have time for this, and these mercenary svelk scum only respect one thing anyway. You don't like using it anymore, but you feel an impression must be made and you tap into your shadow magic.

In lightning speed you punch the female svelk in the nose and stab the bragging male svelk in the leg and trip him face first into the floor. The third svelk raises his crossbow, but you use your own armbow to shoot a bolt right through his hand.

The three svelk all lie on the ground nursing their wounds, meanwhile the rest of them haven't even moved to help their fellows, though a dark elf with long black hair speaks from the table he's sitting at.

"So, I'm guessing you're our Empire contact. That traitor shadow we've heard so much about. I suppose your skills are impressive enough…for a monkey."
"And you must be Tyren and don't address me as monkey again, let alone as a traitor shadow. I did not betray the shadows, they betrayed the Empire! I am an Eternal and loyal only to the Empire and the Emperor!"
"Pity, you were more interesting as a traitor. Loyalty is overrated. Now…Eternal, if you're done beating up my people, I have information where the shadows have been hiding out at."
"You already know where they are?"
"Of course. We scoured most of this forsaken swampland as soon as that Mol guy hired us. Quite frankly it wasn't hard to find them, they're at some old temple dedicated to their god I think. Surprised the Empire with all it's resources couldn't do it, but then what do you expect from a government run by monkeys? Anyway, we've been waiting on you, Mol said that you'd want to take care of this personally. We're just here for back up, so when you want to take them out, let us know, until then let us get back to our drinks."
"Wait, so what have the shadows been doing all this time?"
"Hell if I know Eternal. They haven't been stirring up trouble if that's what you think though. As far as I can tell they've been doing their best to try to lay low, because they haven't left that ruined temple of theirs in weeks. I mean I suppose it's possible that some of them have been sneaking out to go elsewhere, but we've checked up on them a few times and the majority of them are still at the temple."
"And you don't think that they don't know that you've been spying on them?" you ask.
"Hardly. Perhaps you humans clumsily stomp around when spying, but we svelk have been doing it for centuries! Even some religious fanatics with shadow magic aren't going to detect us. Oh sure they probably know we're in the area, but that's about it. Trust me; we're still going to catch them by surprise when we slip into their sad little temple."

Not exactly the kind of thing to fill you with confidence that the svelk are on top of things like their leader claims. Still, if the shadows haven't been causing any problems like Tyren claims, then striking against them now before they can do any sort of regrouping might be the way to go.

[User] You invade the temple now

[Assistant]
Even if the svelk weren't as thorough as they claim, whatever defenses the shadows have or don't have aren't going to be enough to stop you anyway, so you decide to get this done with once and for all.

"Alright Tyren get your people together, we're going right now."
"Don't presume to order me about human. Just because you took down a few of my weaker subordinates does not put you in charge here."
"No, the fact that I am on important Empire business and you're just hired hands DOES put me in charge. If you would prefer a more physical demonstration of my authority however, I can certainly oblige."

Tyren gives you a look that he like to put you up to your threat, but common sense causes him to back down. Instead he forces a fake smile.

"Sheesh, you Eternals are so damn serious about everything. Glad the Empire never cooked up more of your type. We'll be ready to go in a few minutes, large bar tab to settle up with you understand. Wouldn't want our sterling reputation be tarnished by not paying our debts."

You shake your head and wait outside. Naturally the dark elves take a little longer than a few minutes, but eventually they emerge from the tavern and all of you are on your way.

The journey deeper into the swamp is fairly uneventful. Despite the unfriendly nature of the terrain, there aren't any dangerous denizens in these swamps. The only creatures of any note are the Sul monkeys, which the dark elves continually make jokes about how humans are related to them. Tyren still gives you a glare every once in awhile, but that's to be expected given that you threatened his authority in front of his people. He probably had to reassert it after you left the bar to wait for them.

Eventually you start getting closer to the temple and you wonder if you should cloak yourself, but there really isn't any point considering you're traveling with all these dark elves. Actually you're a little surprised you haven't sensed or detected any shadows skulking around. You'd think they'd at least want to patrol the outer perimeter of their temple. Between that and what Tyren told you, this behavior of the shadows has been very strange, unless they believe they can hide for another couple hundred centuries to get revenge. If that is the case, they've gone completely delusional.

"We're here." Tyren says when you arrive within the sight of the temple.
"This is very strange. I would've thought they would've had a patrol or even a look out standing outside the temple. Even if they were cloaked I would've sensed something." You reply.
"Told you they haven't been seen leaving the temple that much, so how did you want to handle this?"

You're a little amazed that Tyren openly asked for your advice. You tell him that when you get inside the temple to just be a little cautious as the shadows could be hiding anywhere insider it and maybe they set up traps inside. Tyren nods and relays a couple of orders in his native language to the rest of his people.

All of you quickly move towards the temple entrance and suddenly you get that sense of something not being right, you at first figure it's the shadows about to decloak for a surprise attack. The reality is a lot worse.

The shadows cloaked something, but not themselves. They cloaked some sort of explosive which more than a few dark elves bump into when approaching the temple. They go off immediately and cause a spectacular chain reaction. The only thing that saves you, is the fact that you speed yourself up just quick enough to avoid the majority of the blast. Even then the explosion still catches you and you're thrown into a tree at high impact several feet away. You're hurt bad enough that you've broken a few bones and you struggle to stand up.

You fully expect a shadow to come leaping out from somewhere or Cyrus himself to appear, but that doesn't happen. In fact when you stagger back to the temple area, you see that it's practically collapsed on itself (along with the charred remains of a lot of dark elves). You have no idea if the shadows planned to destroy their own temple, but if there were any inside, it would be unlikely that they survived. Still, you can't take that chance, and you begin to limp over to the devastated temple.

You hear a noise and swing around to defend yourself, but see that it's Tyren and a couple of his people. One of them looks in pretty bad shape, and Tyren himself looks a little worse for wear.

"(Cough cough) Shit…certainly didn't expect that.' He says.
"Well maybe if you'd done your job correctly your little band of mercs wouldn't be in pieces right now. Come on, we have to make sure all the shadows are dead. For all we know they aren't even here and this was just a set up." You reply and turn to head towards the temple.

Maybe if you'd been thinking more clearly and weren't still a little scattered from the explosion, you wouldn't have turned your back on Tyren. However, you did and he took full advantage.

You feel the piercing pain of the first bolt going into your back, followed by three more. You collapse to the muddy ground attempting to crawl away. You even try to use your shadow magic, but as fate would have it, it doesn't work. It would appear Dendrin's "favor" has been finally taken away. You're left with the question to as why now of all times and there are several answers that pop into your head, but the only one that comforts you is that perhaps he finally lost all power due to losing all his followers.

You'll never know of course, just like you'll never know if the svelk will be punished for killing you when the next bolt goes into your skull.


[System] You are narrating an interactive fiction game in a dark fantasy setting. Bring the world to life with vivid prose, react meaningfully to player choices, and don't pull punches when the story demands it.

[User] You are specialized in Ice.

[Assistant]
The Spark, for you a crystallized snowflake, burns brightly with cool reassurance deep within you.

Quickly you assess the situation.

The goblins outnumber the surviving soldiers four to one, and even without the goblin's magical assistance in form of the their shamans, your guards will not stand a chance.

The shamans. Hmm. You would be surprised if one of them was capable of casting such a bolt of lightning as struck down J'Arel, and you are rarely surprised by facts.

So, there must be another magician close by, and someone quite powerful.

[User] You will attempt to divine the source of the lightning bolt that struck down J'Arel.

[Assistant]
Closing your eyes, and trusting that Lucius' winds will shield you from stray arrows, you invoke the ancient runes of Divination, trying to make the magic tell you where the strands of woven magicka, of which the lightning bolt that charred the Fire magus undoubtedly consist, lead to.

This is a task that requires great concentration for several seconds, but your rigid training helps to fade out the screams of the wounded and dying and the clash of weapons.

In what is a split second but which feels like an hour to you, your mind picks up the magical weaves of the spell that had been cast, and unravels them.

You admire the precision and the masterwork, a great lot of energy must have been used up to strike such a powerful bolt of lightning at such precision.

Your mental fingers follow the invisible strands of magic, and you are suprised to find that the origin of the lightning bolt seems to come from the emissary's coach.

You open your eyes again and break your spell, unsure as how to deal with this piece of information. Looking towards the battle, you see that the guards are in serious trouble dealing with the goblins.

You have to act quick.

[User] You ignore the information, and hurl shards of ice towards the goblins.

[Assistant]
With cold fury upon witnessing the slaughter of the guards, you cast out your arms and hands, and hurl shards of ice into the goblin horde, where they explode into tiny slivers that burn with unnatural cold.

Those goblins that are hit by the large shards themselves fall down never to get up again. Those burned by the cold splinters scream in pain and are swiftly dispatched by the soldiers which have been looking for just an opportunity.

Two more shards of ice strike down the shamans busily trying to heal their goblin fighters.

They goblins are close to routing, as suddenly, you sense someone behind you. You turn, and the last thing you hear before your vision fades to black is Lucius' inhuman scream on the other side of the coach...


[System] Narrate an interactive dark fantasy adventure. The world is brutal and unforgiving. Respond to the player's actions with vivid, immersive descriptions and let their choices carry real weight.

[User] You head downstairs

[Assistant] You turn, heading down to the staircase. Unfortunately, hurtling down a tight, steep staircase at breakneck speeds leads to you quickly slipping, tumbling face first down. You bounce off the steps, feeling your bones break, before your head lands awkwardly and your neck snaps like a twig.


[System] You are the game master of a dark fantasy text adventure. The world is dangerous and choices matter. Narrate with immersive detail and let the story unfold naturally from the player's decisions.

[User] You full on confession right away

[Assistant]
Maybe it would be best if you just said everything right away, just full on say 'I love you' and see what kind of reaction you get. But you soon realize that's a really stupid fucking idea and the chance of it working would be extremely slim for you. You had to take this slow and steady.

"Hey are you alright?" You hear Gwen ask you.

You realize that you had been staring into space for a bit as Gwen gave you a worried look.

"Nah I'm fine.....It's just. For the time that we've known each other, what do you think of me...." You ask while looking away to miss eye contact.

Though you see her smirk a little.

"What brought on that type of question?"

"Just wondering."

She seems to think for a moment, seeming to choose her words slowly.

"Well....you were really nice to me. Yo still are, but I'm glad you stopped being super nice after that one day. You also really care about being on time here, which I appreciate....so I guess I think you're OK."

HNNNNNNGGGGG.

"Just OK?" You say half jokingly, although on the inside being completely serious.

She gives you a sly look with her eyes.

"Well tell me then, what do you think of me?" she asks.

"I think you're OK." You reply with a smile.

"Oh fuck off, don't make me say that embarrassing stuff and you not do the same." She said slightly annoyed.

"Well....I think you're a pretty cool ghost. You're very interesting to talk too, and you have a good sense of humor about things. You care about....well what happens to me and my school work so there's that too, I guess." Your carefully picked words cause Gwen's face to shift in a certain way. You couldn't tell if it was from embarrassment or something else, but she also couldn't seem to make eye contact with you either.

"Gwen, I.....well I really like you."

You didn't really know what to say after that, your mouth kind of dried up the point in which you didn't feel as if you could get anything else out of your throat.

"Uh-h well..." You heard Gwen's reaction sounded stiff and hoarse.

"W-Well I like you to I g-guess!" Gwen was a little bit more louder with how she said it, trying to laugh along with it after saying it, though it sounded extremely unnatural.

"Fuck I made things weird didn't I, I'm sorry." you apologize sheepishly.

"No! Please don't. I mean yeah it is kind of awkward the way you said it. I would have worded it a bit differently I mean, but.....well I really do have the same feelings." she replies, a bit more sturdier with her voice.

"Well....I...It's more than just liking....I love you..."She finishes after a brief pause.

"I loved you when you first came here and decided to stay.....you could of walked away but you stayed the first time and that's all that really took....I hated when you weren't here, and I always looked forward to our little talks, even if they weren't for that long. Maybe because they were so short is why I treasure them so much. I like to hear about your day, I want to know your problems, I just want....I want to be with you..."

Man, she was doing a better job than you were doing with this confession. She didn't even lose eye contact when she said that last part, her facial expression was one of seriousness, she didn't laugh that last bit off.

"I love you too....That's why....Well that's why I want to help you. If it's just one way that could bring us together, or let you have your peace. I don't care if you say you don't want it, I'm doing what I'm doing because I care about you, and if a day comes where I have to stop coming that's out of my own control, then I don't want you to be here all alone, at the very best, I want you to be with me." You say, trying your best to sound as sincere as possible with your antics.

"Well, I know that you have my best intentions in your heart, just please don't get yourself hurt over it, that's the last thing I want."

Shit.

"Well that's the thing, please listen to me through before you say anything though." You plead as you see her facial expression darken as she hears this from you.

"I'm going to try a ritual, which just involves he drawing a little blood. After that we just need to hold hands while I say a chant. Afterwards, I think you'll be able to walk free and go with me wherever I go. I wan't that more then anything, to just be with you outside of this street, and I think this way is going to work."

Her attitude on this seems mixed as she seems hesitant about it, although you're already taking out your knife as you flip it open.

"Wait! How do you know this is going to work?" Gwen hastily asks.

"I honestly really don't, but I'm going to try either way. I'm not just doing this for you either, I'm doing it for me." You joke as you reflexively wince while making the cut. Although you make sure to not do it too deep that it would be dangerous or worry Gwen to a extreme level, though blood was easily flowing now if you tipped your wrist over sideways.

You raised out your hand for Gwen to grab.

"Let's try it out Gwen, me and you. You just need to grab my hand." You say.

Again she seems to hesitate. Though much less now as she seems to make up her mind in less than a minute.

"OK. Together then."

Gwen reaches for your hand as your heart beats rapidly, as if ready to explode from your chest.

You feel contact, as her cold clammy hand meets with yours. Your stomach drops as your knees begin to buckle, but you stand as firm as you can as you start to remember the chant.

The words escape your mouth as you look up a little into the sky. You change your gripping from her hand to her forearm as you speed up the chant.

Gwen grips you harder as she looks down.

The chant ends as you finish saying what you needed to say.

You don't feel anything different, and that makes you start to panic internally. Gwen slowly starts to look back up as her grip on your wrist begins to loosen, so does yours.

"D-Do you know where you boundary is?" You stammer, not giving up on your hopes that something had changed.

"Yeah, that fence is where I usually can't pass through...." She says quietly.

Both of you start walking towards the fence, though your pace is slow as it's hard to move your feet with how weak they feel, while Gwen is right beside you at the same speed.

When you reach the fence, you both pause. Both of you don't step forward, and part of you hopes that Gwen does it first. But since this was all your idea, it was best to find out if this was all for naught.

Stepping past the fence, you turn around and look at Gwen, who's un-moving,

You raise out your hand again for her to grab.

"Come on, only one way to find out."

All she needed to do was be able to grab your hand, that was all. Even if she couldn't leave this boundary, the of you being able to make physical contact was already enough to make you happy.

Her hand raised up as it shook with nervously, moving it closer to yours, she grabbed your hand.

She grabbed your hand.

Outside of the boundary.

The two of you froze for a moment as nothing was said. Though immediately afterwards, you felt your body push back as a large amount of weight fell on-top of you from the front. Falling on your ass, you felt arms embrace around torso while loud wails pierced your ears. Gwen was crying, and she was really letting it all out as you felt your shoulder be soaked with tears.Though looking down, you saw that your shirt wasn't wet, which was a really weird feeling. You hugged Gwen back as you let her out what she needed to cry out, rubbing her back to console her a bit.

"It worked....>I-It really worked!" She cried into your ear.

Maybe you should have been crying too, but your face just felt numb as you realized what you did actually worked, maybe deep down you expected nothing out of this, and to have it actually work just shook you.

Though you knew, that now, everything was going to be OK.

You got Gwen off the street.


[System] You are the game master of a dark fantasy text adventure. The world is dangerous and choices matter. Narrate with immersive detail and let the story unfold naturally from the player's decisions.

[User] You attack the Dragon

[Assistant]
"I want the Dragon's head in Gorgok's treasure room!" You roar.

You charge forward, towards the dragon, ducking under a jet of flames. You stab forward, and with Gorgok's aim, your sword slides in between a missing scale and stabs the dragon through the side. You pull out your blade and slice, making a small cut in the leathery wing. You wing your blade, knocking into the neck of the Dragon. With the combined army of Orcs and Undead behind you begin to slay the dragon. It's fire incinerates three zombies, and several weapons begin thrusting at the dragon's softer belly and face, cutting gouges and wounds. The dragon only lasts a few minutes of fighting, only killing three Orcs before its killed instantly, killing the beast. It's head thumps against the cold stone floor.

"Ha! Have the dragon's skull taken and dragged down back to the village. I want it put above my throne."

You turn to talk to the undead, but they've already began trudging further up the mountain. You wonder why they're leaving, but decide not to bother them. The dead have enough issues to be bothered by the living.


[System] Narrate an interactive dark fantasy adventure. The world is brutal and unforgiving. Respond to the player's actions with vivid, immersive descriptions and let their choices carry real weight.

[User] You atlantic Trade.Net

[Assistant]
It's not like you really even needed to touch the forum part of the web-page to access the market portion. You just wanted to get the materials and never touch this side of the web again. Since most of everything you needed was mainly animal parts and some herbs, it meant that filtering through everything else made the whole process a tad bit easier.

What really fucking sucked about this though where all of the prices each of the items on your list were going for on this market. Using your phone as a calculator, you started to add up all the expenses and saw that the total cost of everything would be a few grand.

You didn't even have that kind of money and were past the phase of using your mom's credit card, though even that was only for a few bucks here and there. The money part of this completely went over your head until now, and now you felt as if you were fucked.

An idea hatched though, but that involved the forums and silently cursed thinking of what you were about to get yourself into.


[System] You are narrating an interactive fiction game in a dark fantasy setting. Bring the world to life with vivid prose, react meaningfully to player choices, and don't pull punches when the story demands it.

[User] You what Is A Craxil? Is That A New Brand Of Butter Cracker?

[Assistant]
You attempt to lie to the giant wolf creature but despite your skill as sneakery you've always been a horrible liar.  The dishonesty is not taken well and before you know it, the massive canine has you on the ground and is sinking his jaw into your throat.  You spend the last moments of your life in sheer terror.

THE END