[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 threaten Cain

[Assistant]
"No."

"No?"

"No. I don't think you understand the nature of the offer I'm giving you. I'm letting you live. Whenever I want, I could have every single man under your command strangled to death by your collars, blown apart or force you to tear each other apart. You're going to follow my orders, or you're going to die."

You prepare yourself for Cain to strike, but he only lets out a low, rumbling growl.

"What was that?" you ask suspiciously.

"An order," Cain snarls.

Suddenly, a massive fist smashes into your back. You fly forward, smacking into the operating table and onto the ground. You let out a pitiful moan, before Cain puts his massive foot on your head.

"What orders do you have for me?" he asks.

Cain attempts a triumphant yet terrifying smile. The corners of his mouth twist unnaturally high, revealing rows of serrated teeth, curved fangs, massive molars and many other weird, odd teeth, protruding from bloody, rotten gums. Cain raises his foot, before bringing it down and crushing your head.


[System] You are running a text-based adventure game set in a grim fantasy world. Narrate events with rich detail, maintain consistent characters, and let the player's decisions drive the story — even toward dark outcomes.

[User] Continue

[Assistant]
Funny that you are about to suggest an idea to the Colonel that got you out of trouble with Alex in the first place.

"No, I think you do have a good idea about stopping Alex, I saw first hand how crazy he was. Maybe we can't actually get to him, but we could contain him.  We blow up the elevator like you wanted to do and then dump explosives down the shaft, it should collapse things enough that they won't be able to leave, and we won't lose any people."
"Ah, I like the way you think, but suppose they attempt get out, or rebuild the elevator or something?"
"Well, we could leave a permanent detachment there to keep a constant vigil. I mean the surface part of the base is completely usable. That way we get an early warning just in case anything does try to come out."
"Interesting idea. Having two command centers would be a good idea, I was planning on expansion in the future, might as well start now. Should keep us alert as well. Can't afford to get sloppy out here. Okay. We'll go with that idea, and since you came up with it, you can oversee the operation. In fact consider yourself stationed there until further notice."
"What?!"
"Hey I have to put someone there, you've done a good job so far and you have the best experience with the place so you can be in charge. Think of it as an honor son! I have a lot faith in you and I don't have much in anyone."
"Well thanks, but wouldn't someone like Harry be a better choice?"
"Harry? Yeah, he's got his uses, but I'd rather not have him in charge of anything important like this, no I want you and few others to go, in fact you pick them. I'll let you know if I can afford to spare them."
"Well then I pick Marina right now."
"I expected that. Sure, if you can convince her to go. Just remember what you're there for! Okay go pick out your team and gather what equipment you might need."

You leave and tell Marina the situation immediately, she of course agrees to go with you, though she's a little worried about being someplace with a bunch of cyborgs several feet underneath her, of course you're worried about the same thing.

You pick out six more people of varying skills, but mostly people you were getting along with during your stay at the Compound. You don't want to take anyone who you're not going to get along with. The Colonel approves of your choice and gives you the okay, Harry looks positively jealous that he was passed over for you who just got here. In fact before you leave he tells you as much.

"You fucking little pissant. You think because you're all chummy with the Colonel that you're his fucking second in command now?"
"No, I…"
"You're goddamn right no! If anything happens to the Colonel I'M in charge of this shit! You better remember that fuckhead! Because if you're still on my list when that occurs, you best pray to God that I at least lube your asshole after I rip off your pink panties and before I shove my foot up it and make your colon my permanent fuckin' sock!"

You're a little bewildered by the logic of this comment, you almost can't be sure if he's threatening you, or flirting with you. You don't feel like arguing with him though since it won't accomplish anything, besides if any good is coming from this, it's getting away from him. You and your team leave.

When you and your team get to the base in a few days, you're in for a little surprise. A medium sized robot is patrolling the courtyard. Looks like your friend Alex also dabbles in robotics as well as cybernetics. You and your team hide behind the outer wall when you all catch sight of it. Apparently Alex didn't trust you any more than you trusted him, and looks like both of you were right.

"Uh, what's that?" one of your team members asks.
"It's a robot, what's it look like?"
"Well what're we gonna do?"
"Kill it! Everyone open fire!"

You have no idea if your bullets are going to penetrate its armor, but you you're going to try anyway. Everyone fires upon the robotic being, which begins to shutter and spark, but returns fire and a bright burst of light strikes one of your team members and completely incinerates him.

"Holy shit, get cover and keep firing!" you shout.

The rest of the battle doesn't last too much longer, while your team continue to fire bursts at the machine while they dodge plasma blasts, you get enough time to toss a grenade at it and blow it to smithereens. Shards of burnt twisted metal lie all over the place.

"Come on we need to blow up that door, before something else comes out of the damn thing!"

You and the rest apply charges to the elevator door and run before it explodes. Just like you though, Alex doesn't have the elevator on the surface anymore, it's at the bottom, in fact its ascending right now!

"Dump grenades down the fuckin' shaft!"

This action is followed by running far away from the elevator, a large explosion, and then a large crash and another smaller explosion. You ask for a flashlight and peer down the shaft. Its smoking mess and from what you can tell, part of the structure collapsed in on itself. Nothing is going to be coming out of there for a long time. You're about to radio in and tell the Colonel the news when another signal breaks in, its Alex…

"So, that snitch told after all! I knew he wasn't to be trusted! You can't stop me! I'll get out of here eventually! And I shall…"
"Got news for you Alex, you're talking to the snitch right now, and you won't be going anywhere as long as I'm here. Enjoy your underground prison."

You switch to another frequency and tell the Colonel who seems pleased, he tells you he'll keep in contact with you on a regular basis and send more people when possible, in the mean time secure the place and get settled in.

A few more weeks pass and eventually the initial nervousness disappears from everyone, Alex still breaks in ranting on your radio frequency every now and then, but you ignore him. In fact being at the base turns out to be more to your liking, there's less people around, you're in charge and you get to spend more time with Marina.

A year passes…

Not too much changes around the base (Which you now call Pandora which seems appropriate since you're keeping in something that shouldn't be let out!) a few more people are transferred here, supplies are delivered back and forth, but not much else happens. You get reports from the Compound every now and then, seems they've made progress with a few small towns that survived, but there are a lot of problems with lawless bandits running around. Reports have also mentioned strange mutated animals lurking about too. Sounds like they have everything under control so far though. The Colonel has the idea to trade with the towns and offer protection when possible. He hopes to get more people to join the Compound you imagine.

Your orders are still the same, just guard Pandora, and make sure no cybernetic horrors are coming out. Sometimes you wonder if you shouldn't be doing something else, indeed Marina seems to think so. Sometimes you forget she's been training in all this survivalist shit longer than you have and has that "tame the wasteland" spirit more than you do.

[User] You do something

[Assistant]
Well there's nothing stopping you from sending your own exploration detachment teams, there's nothing stopping you from going yourself either. As far as you know, nobody from the Compound has bothered scouting past Base Pandora, you figure it's as good of place as any…

"Okay I want two scouting detachments of four. I'm going with one of them. We're just going to go a few miles from this place and then come back. It'll give us a better lay of the land in case of an attack and it'll keep our skills sharp as well. The rest of you guard the base as usual."

You half expect Marina to come with you, but she's content on staying behind to help look after the base. She looks at you admiringly though that you're taking the initiative. She tells you she loves you and that she can't wait for you to get back. You like the fact she's got confidence that you ARE coming back this time around.

You and your team leave and start exploring. Base Pandora really was in a secluded location, most of your trek is through a small unspoiled woods, eventually you get to the end though after about a day. You notice the Geiger counter is clicking a bit more. Not a lot, but enough to be a little unsettling. Using some binoculars, up ahead you see a single run down farm house (the farm itself also looks run down and hasn't been up kept in years). Just then you see a few vehicles also approaching up ahead, you tell everyone else to pull back into the woods and keep down while you do likewise. You continue to look as the vehicle park nearby the farm house and figures begin to get out. All of them are wearing robes and carrying automatic weapons over their backs. You also see them dragging what looks to be a few hapless prisoners with them as they enter the structure. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that these folks aren't the nice type.

"Oh shit, these guys look prepared. Who do you think they are?" one of your team asks.
"How should I know Reggie? When we moved into Base Pandora it's not like we got a welcome to the neighborhood letter from every nearby freak within a few miles of us. If I had to guess and judging by the robes, they're probably some doomsday cult. Probably one that was building up a stock pile of shit even before the bombs hit. Got some interesting vehicles though."
"So, what're we going to do?"

What to do indeed. You definitely need to wipe these cultists out since it's possible you could have trouble with them in the future if they start wandering in your direction. They also have vehicles that could be of use and probably other supplies as well. You could radio in and wait for reinforcements, but the prisoners you just saw them take in might be dead by then.

[User] You get reinforcements

[Assistant]
It's a brutal world and it just got more so. Rushing in outnumbered, isn't likely to save anyone and most likely going to get you killed. You radio in for reinforcements and keep an eye on the farm in the mean time. Later when the darkness comes you see a group of them come out with torches, form a circle in a nearby plain and begin chanting. You count ten of them altogether Soon two more come out with one of the prisoners from earlier. She's bound, gagged and naked; you know what's going to come next.

Reggie and another one in your team wants to do something, but you insist that they do nothing and to keep quiet. It's all over soon anyway, as you see them sacrifice the poor girl for whatever outlandish beliefs they hold. You take first watch for the night. The next day your reinforcements arrive…both of them.

"What the fuck? I asked for at least five more people!"
"Sorry, but that other recon group you sent also ran into trouble, in fact two of them are already dead, and we had to send a rescue team to fetch the other two since one has a broken leg."
"Oh that's wonderful."
"So should we call this off?" one of you team asks.
"No Vivica, we're going through with it, but we're going to employ some stealth, they had three prisoners, I get the feeling they'll be doing the same ceremony they did last night."
"Are we going to attack them now then?"
"No Leonard, I don't feel like fighting a bunch of fanatics armed with machine guns in an open plain with no cover. And we can't just start firing on them from here, we need to wipe them ALL out as quickly as possible without them having a chance the regroup, fortify or any of that shit. We're gonna sneak into the house and ambush the whole fuckin' cult while they're doing their little ceremony."

You wait until night and sure enough they all come out like you thought, then come the others with the prisoner. That's when the six of you quickly sneak through an overgrown field towards the house. You get to the stairs when Reggie and Leonard break off towards the area were the cult is performing their ceremony.

"I can't just let them kill another! We can take 'em now! They're off guard!"
"Reggie get the fuck…shit!"

Reggie and Leonard begin firing, the fucking idiots aren't even taking cover, they're going head long in like they're stupid ass action heroes. You and the others lay down some cover fire, but it's not enough. Reggie and Leonard are cut down after killing a whopping ONE cultist and not even saving the hapless girl, who's shot instantly. The cultists start spreading out, moving forward, and circling around you at the same time, they're also better shots than you too, as they're carefully aiming rather than just firing in the general vicinity. After seeing another one of your team members go down, you and the rest fall back into the house itself.

The inside of the house looks like something out of a horror movie, there are skulls and bones littering it, along with it blood stains everywhere.

"Holy shit! What've we gotten ourselves into?" Vivica yells.
"Shut the fuck up, I hear something…like crying…it's downstairs."
"What about the cultists?"
"Well it's the same plan, they just know about us now, let's hope we can still get 'em in a good ambush."

You and your team members spread out in the house, you head down into the basement, which looks more like a small temple layout. You see a young woman in a cage, and when she sees you her eyes fill with hope. You hear the cultists stomping around upstairs and some gunfire, at which point you try to find a good place to hide.

A bunch of footsteps run down the stairs, you wait in anticipation…closer…closer…

NOW!

You pop up from your spot and begin firing, you kill six of them before they can even react, and the remaining two barely get off some wild shots before you splatter them as well. Still breathing heavy among the dead, you finally hear some good news.

"Hey! Are you still alive down there?" Vivica shouts.
"Yeah! What's going on up there?"
"We got a few of them, but I think most of them converged on your position though."
"Of course they did, I've always been popular." You reply.

You release the girl in the cage who's very thankful. She mentions her name is Ophelia and she's from a place called Ashtown which is far from this place. She says the cultists came storming into her town specifically trying to capture young girls; they took three before they finally were driven away, and unfortunately Ophelia was one of the three. You tell Ophelia your story; she seems to think you've got the right idea about going about things.

"I think I'm going to tell my people back in Ashtown that we need to start getting better organized as well, and I'll be sure to tell them all about you and how you rescued me! Maybe we'll see each other in the future."

You and your team search the farm house which just like you thought was stocked with all sorts of goodies. You're going to have haul some of it back, but you decide that you could also establish another base of sorts here after it was cleaned up. You'd also like to establish more of a relationship with this Ashtown. So you allow Ophelia to take one of the vehicles for her to drive back there, she certainly doesn't have a problem with that!

Before heading back you put Vivica in charge of the place and tell her you'll be sending some more folks to help get this farm up and running. Not bad for a first try.

Four more years pass…

It's been five years since you joined the Compound and things are going fairly well for you, the farm house has been converted into a way point to Ashtown, with which you have good relations with and is now producing food. You are no longer solely dependant on the Compound for supplies which might be just as well…

You get less and less reports from the Compound itself other than its undergone a name change and due to its inclusion of a few towns now, its called the Combine and the Compound itself is called Fort Justice. You know about how the Colonel has gotten sick and seems to be getting worse as more time passes and how the population rate is growing, but it's slow. The major theory is the elevated levels of background radiation are probably affecting fertility. (You wonder about yourself and Marina since she hasn't once gotten pregnant in the five years you've been together) There have been more people sent here, mainly because they hear about how great it is in Pandora as opposed to the miserable place Harry has made Fort Justice since he's been getting freer reign of the place as the Colonel continues to get sicker.
In fact you've been hearing some disturbing stories from others who have come here recently. Ranging from needlessly violent occupation of towns, sending people on dangerous unnecessary missions to the city, and recruiting desert scum into the Combine! People are saying Harry's going nuts with power.

One day, one of your assistants comes in and has something to report.

The Colonel has died, Harry has taken complete control of the Combine and his first order is for YOU to return to Fort Justice for reassignment.

Harry's just plain gone completely nuts if he thinks you're going to do that.

Speaking of nuts, that same day after you convince everyone in seceding from the Combine you get a radio message from someone who's been quiet until now.

"Well well, it seems you've got a problem on your hands."

It's Alex. You're guessing he's been surviving on rats and roaches down there.

"What the hell do you want and how do you know what's been going on?"
"How do you think? I've been listening in on all your incoming and outgoing radio transmissions since you betrayed me and trapped me down here! I must say though, you probably did the intelligent thing. And your progress with establishing your own separate territory has been intriguing…but I can tell you right now, you are going to need help with your current problem, a problem I will be willing to help with if you're willing to talk."
"Alright, I'll play. What're you proposing?"
"There are still a lot of those high tech weapons down here that you were coming to get when you came here five years ago. I'm sure they would be very useful in your up coming war with Harry, and don't tell me there isn't, because I know you aren't going to run or meekly follow his orders to return. You've obviously set your sights on higher ambitions than just following orders and survival. I'll be willing to give them to you, in exchange for my freedom."
"Oh that easy huh? How do you propose we go about this? I send people down there to retrieve them while your death machines ambush them as soon as they enter?"
"It would be kind of hard for that to happen since all my cyborgs are long dead and my robots have fallen into disrepair…I'm basically alone down here. You were guarding nothing!" Alex laughs.

You're pretty skeptical about this little tale, but if it's true, those weapons would certainly help.

[User] You believe Alex

[Assistant]
The chance is too good to pass up. You're going to risk believing Alex, of course everyone else isn't willing to do so. You had a hard enough to convince them to join you in seceding from the Combine; you can't really press this issue as well. There's nothing else for it, you're going to have to go down there yourself. You just ask someone to make sure the ropes and pullies are stable for you to descend down the elevator shaft. Now Marina loves your bravery and willingness to take risks, but even she's a little apprehensive about this idea. You're determined to do this though.

"Marina, if something goes wrong and I get killed, then get yourself out of here, and head to Ashtown. There's no reason for you to stick around and get yourself killed as well, or worse."
"Nonsense! I'll fight for what you accomplished here whether you're still around or not! But that'll be after I go underground and take care of whatever metal bastards killed you!"

No point in arguing with her, she'll do it anyway just like you're going underground anyway and that's probably why you love her. You give her a kiss and descend.

When you finally reach the bottom, you're standing on top a pile of scrap. Part of it looks like it was moved in an attempt to clear it at one time, so you are able to squeeze through the previous elevator entrance.

The same corridor you stepped through five years ago is remarkably dim now, you see a few steel husks lying on the ground. A lot of course are cyborgs, so decaying flesh is also present. Looks like Alex was telling the truth so far. Eventually you find Alex brooding in his office which is in complete disarray. Alex himself is very pale and a lot thinner than when you last remember him.

"Hey! There you are! See, I told you I wasn't lying." He states when he sees you.
"Yeah I can see that, what exactly happened?"
"Oh there were complications…psychotic episodes…power problems…lack of more equipment and extra help…does it matter? I utterly failed. I watched my creations die one by one over the months and years due to my own lack of skill…and I thought I was going to usher in some sort of new era…yeah right."
"Alex, I'm surprised to hear you talk like that."
"Yeah? Well being prisoner here gives you a lot of time to think. Sometimes people go mad in captivity, I think in my case it did me some fucking good. I should've trusted the Colonel, he was my friend. He wasn't going to do anything to me. He trusted me, and now he's dead and I didn't even get a chance to say goodbye."

While Alex's speeches of redemption are intriguing, you really want those weapons.

"Alex, where are the weapons?"
"…huh? Oh yes. The weapons. Please, don't let me stop you. Go down the corridor make a right and enter the second door. You'll find all you need in there. They were all tested out and work well. One of the few things GZS helped design that wasn't prone to failure."

You leave Alex to his brooding, and follow his directions; you soon come across a room with the weapons, or what's left of them. There's not the great arsenal that Alex made out there was. He most likely used most of them when he was creating his robots and cyborgs. You're disappointed, but still it's better than nothing and the few that are here will help.

You collect what you can for this trip, when Alex enters the room.

"So, now that you have what you're looking for, are you going to keep your word?"
"Well…ah fuck it…what the hell. Keep in mind though people are going to be pretty mistrustful of you. Don't expect a warm welcome."
"Didn't expect one."
"Good, now grab the rest of those weapons, so I don't need to make a round trip down here."

You and Alex come back up with the weapons (and their power cells). The confidence level increases in everyone, you delivered some cool weapons and you braved going into the "dreaded" underground of Pandora again. They're definitely more inclined to follow you more loyally now. Alex makes himself useful by using his technical skill to build and set traps in the surrounding wilderness. You radio Vivica to let her know what's going on as well, she's behind you and will make sure to send a few people to harass Harry's men when they decide the lay siege to Pandora. Everyone spends time preparing and organizing for the battle that's sure to come.

A month passes and sure enough Harry's men come thinking its going to be an easy victory, but it's a slaughter. Many are killed by the traps Alex set, the rest are fried by the laser and plasma weapons.

A couple more months pass and another invasion force arrives, this one better prepared and much bigger. More reinforcements show up armed to the teeth and despite the rugged terrain that prevents cars to come to this place, they managed to find some dirt bikes which whiz around Pandora while the riders nimbly dodge your fire while they toss grenades at (and sometimes over) the walls. You still have the advantage obviously, but they're doing a hell of a lot of damage to Pandora now.

The siege is now in full effect, fortunately you're fairly well stocked to hold out, and Vivica's men manage to get through sometimes with more supplies. Sensing that this is not going well for him and costing him a lot more time, man power and resources than he wanted to spend, he orders a final push.

People armed with rocket launchers come this time, and with a few volleys, Harry's men finally breach the walls of Pandora and storm into the place.

[User] You make a break for it and regroup at the farmhouse

[Assistant]
"Fall back to the farm house!" you shout as you mow down another dirt biker.

As your people begin to escape you look around for Marina in the chaos, and then you see her fighting multiple enemies converging on her position while she attempts to retreat.

You rush towards her to back her up and then you're blown back by an explosion. You slam up against a wall of one of the barracks, other than some minor pain and some scars you're going to have you aren't harmed, however your heart is when you see Marina lying bloody on the ground. She isn't moving. Ignoring everything else you run to her, you kneel down to pick up her body, she grabs weakly on to you, but she's in bad shape.

Alex then grabs you by the shoulder

"Hey! We got people firing on us; and in case you didn't notice you told everyone to fall back!
"You! You're a fucking surgeon! You fix her! Save her! Save her NOW!" you shout, picking her up and shoving her into Alex's arms.
"Wha…I…" Alex realizes you mean fucking business so he takes her, but asks about you since he notices you're grabbing another nearby gun.
"What're you doing? You gotta get outta here! You can't fight all of them!"
"GO! I'm giving you fucking time!" you order Alex pushing him away and charge into battle firing two weapons in hand.

You kill a lot of them, but you're outnumbered and outgunned at this point. You eventually fall to a hail of bullets and die. Marina follows you soon afterwards on the retreat back to the farmhouse.


[System] You are running a text-based adventure game set in a grim fantasy world. Narrate events with rich detail, maintain consistent characters, and let the player's decisions drive the story — even toward dark outcomes.

[User] You resist

[Assistant]
As lovely of a creature she is, she's been the one leading your current enemy for years. She's most likely trying to lull you into a false sense of security to kill you; you won't allow yourself to fall for it.

As Lisa kisses and grinds into you, you muster all your strength and grab her to roll her over so that you're on top and firmly in control.

"Ohhh…okay…if that's the way you want to do this, I don't mind." Lisa says and for a brief moment you think she might've been telling the truth about the alliance, however you go through with your plan.

"Sorry baby, but I could never trust you. Maybe next life." You reply and snap her neck with one quick twist.

After the deed is done you sit by the bed for quite some time by her lifeless body. You really wish you hadn't felt the need to do that, but given the fact that you've been the perpetrator of as well as a victim of betrayal in the past you felt you had no choice. Still, you always wonder what if…

Five years pass…

Ten years have passed since you decided that going to the City would be a great place to find supplies…

After the death of Lisa, the Shadow Horde became disorganized and eventually began to fight amongst themselves. They became much less of a direct threat, and as head of the Zeropolis Legion (As you renamed it) you were able to make the Dust District relatively safe once again. The idea of taking over the entire City was never something you want to pursue, so you just concentrated on building up the Dust District, however events conspire against you from living out a relatively conflict free life.

Recently over the last few years, a cult of mutants called the Glow Children, have taken over a great portion of Zeropolis through their weird faith. They follow a leader calling themselves the Savior. In your experience, groups with any type of religious faith behind them are never willing to negotiate and they aren't an exception. They are utterly fanatical and devoted to their cause. They turn out to be worse than the Shadow Horde (In fact they also engage in attacks from the sewers as well, causing you to believe that ex-Shadow Horde members fill their ranks.) They've made their headquarters (or Cathedral as it were) at the old hospital.

They attack the Dust District relentlessly, but the most disturbing thing you notice is how some of them carry high tech weaponry similar to the kind that you used to fight the Shadow Horde. Later you see some of the bigger Glow Children fitted with cybernetic implants. You know that the Combine won the war against the Cybernetic Evolution, but it would appear at least one of their number survived and are obviously remembering your past treachery. The day of reckoning is soon at hand.

Eventually one day while you're arranging yet another plan to take back parts of the Dust District you've lost control over, your head quarters is attacked by several of the biggest mutants you've ever seen. Many of them are of the cybernetic variety armed with weapons of devastating power that make quick work of your elite guards.

As you make your futile last stand with a plasma gun, one of the giant aberrations takes two shots to the chest and still manages to pick you up and rend you limb from limb with minimal effort on its part.


[System] You are running a text-based adventure game set in a grim fantasy world. Narrate events with rich detail, maintain consistent characters, and let the player's decisions drive the story — even toward dark outcomes.

[User] You say "I don't think I like your attitude, J'Arel."

[Assistant]
"I don't think I like your attidue, J'Arel", you reply.

J'Arel only snorts, and answers:
"And this would be your problem, or mine?"

You choke back the angry answer that lies on your tongue. After all, you are supposed to guard the emissary in case of an attack, and not squabble with a fellow magician.

With a dirty glance towards J'Arel, you decide to let the point rest for now.


[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] Continue

[Assistant]
You are standing in town next to your car with a flat tire. A car drives past every now and then, but there's not a lot of activity going on right now. The clouds have started to break up, but it would be a stretch to call it a sunny day yet. At least it's not hot.

There are two store fronts here where you are standing, a Mailboxes, etc., and a local coffee shop. There is no one in the Mailboxes store, but there are a few different people wandering in and out of the coffee shop, like any other day in any other town.

[User] You go into the coffee shop...

[Assistant]
As soon as you walk inside the coffee shop, the aroma of fresh coffee assaults your senses. There is a long counter along the left side of the small shop and a few small tables to the right. There are a few round tables along the right side of the room, not all of them empty. There is a small man with a thin beard typing at an old laptop computer, ignoring the room around him.

Before the door shuts, you hear the squeal of tires. A taxi has pulled up outside and the passenger door swings open. The driver is gesturing at you to get inside. You look around to see if he is talking to someone else, but there is no one else looking at him, he is clearly trying to get you to go in the taxi with him.

[User] You get in the taxi...

[Assistant]
The taxi accelerates quickly away from the coffee shop before you have time to put on your seat belt or even close the door. The door slams as the cab turns left in another squeal of tires. Looking around, you see the cab looks used and smells used, too. As the car turns another corner at high speed you notice that the place for the cab driver's name is empty.

Any attempts to speak with the driver of the cab are completely ignored as the driver concentrates on the road. You spend most of the trip trying to stay in your seat as the car accelerates, turns corners, and slams the brakes on faster and more often than any car you've ever been in.

Suddenly the car stops, almost throwing you on the floor. The driver does not turn around. Your door is opened from the outside by a red cap. A red cap? Yes, as you step outside of the cab you realize that you are at the airport. The red cap talks to the driver a moment, then the cab speeds away.

With no idea what else you are to do, you head inside the airport with the flow of people. You can see baggage checks and ticketing lines, but you have no bags, and you are sure you don't have enough money to pay for a ticket. You wander around a little, but then realize the entire place is focused on getting on a plane, so you are eventually pushed towards the TSA security area by the crowd.

Looking around, you realize you do not have a lot of options here. You can try and sneak past these TSA agents, knowing that many of them barely have a high school education; or you can just stay in the line with the rest of the people moving slowly towards the security check.

[User] You continue and attempt to board the plane...

[Assistant]
You walk up to the TSA guard, your hands empty. He looks up at you, finally realizing that something is wrong. "Hey, what the hell? What are you trying to pull here?"

His tone of voice attracts a few more of the blue-gloved guards. They gather around you quickly and one says, "Hey, do you want me to search him good?" They look from one to the other, unsure of what to do. Finally, a taller man, clearly the one in charge comes over and says, "What are you morons doing standing around? We need to keep this line moving. You know the rules. Anyone who doesn't have a ticket doesn't get through."

[User] You continue...

[Assistant]
You are quickly shoved and pushed. Before you can react, your hands and arms are grabbed by half a dozen pairs of blue gloves. Your hands are pulled behind your back and zip ties are quickly put in place, locking your hands behind you. "Let's go," you hear, as you are shoved from behind almost hard enough to knock you over.

You stumble forward and keep your feet as you are led to an elevator. Six TSA guards get on the elevator with you like they expect you to attack one of them and create a national security incident. They look smug, like they are proud to have captured you. The elevator moves down into the ground for a few floors -- more than you thought were in the airport. When the door opens, you see nothing but old grey walls all around the plain hallways.

They walk you down the hallway underneath bare light bulbs and exposed pipes. One guard walks ahead of you and open a large steel door on the right hallway. He roughly shoves you in the room and says, "Welcome to TSA jail."

The door slams behind you and you sit in the dimly lit room. There is a bare metal toilet here and a simple bench for you to sleep on.

Sorry, but that's all there is for this path! You're stuck in TSA jail.


[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 go finish cleaning

[Assistant]
This section of the station is literally a junk heap. You roll the machine past the clutter without giving the canister a second thought and then climb on and activate it, cleaning bristles and bubbles going to work on the drying blood.

Matti's arm you toss into a non-functioning incinerator and hope the power situation is sorted out before it gets a chance to rot.

The cleaning machine holds out after all. You finish just as it dies and shove it into an out of the way corner before going to seek out the others.


[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 go for your longsword

[Assistant]
The Norman struggles to rise, his leg is broken. He stabs at you feebly with his sword. You knock it aside and retrieve you own, pulling it from the horse's stomach with a sickening wrench.

Shoving the rider onto his back, you stand over him with your sword raised high.

"For Harold"

You breathe, and then plunge the blade into his chest, shattering the mail links and piercing his heart.

You stand there awhile, alone in the middle of a slaughter. Orvyn reaches you, and tugs urgently at your shoulder, he is yelling something, but you cannot understand him. The words sound far away; small.

You see a Norman on horseback charge towards you, he wields a cudgel.

You make no attempt to dodge. You just stand there, frozen. It is Orvyn who saves you, he ducks under the cudgel swing and drives his axe into the horseman's chest. The cudgel blow loses force and changes direction, clipping your helmet as opposed to killing you. Your vision fades and you feel the ground rush towards you, feel the mud leeching through your mailshirt.

Your vision blackens.


[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 time to break out of here, youÃƒÂ¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã¢â€žÂ¢re stronger than most and a few good charges will bust the door wide open.

[Assistant]
There's no way you're staying locked up in here, not when you're close to a perfect food source that will last you months, you're hungers back again stronger than ever for some reason too. Time to act on it!

You get yourself prepared and listen at the door but hear nothing there; you back off and charge the door with your shoulder. You feel it crack but it's not open yet. You back off and try again, this time smashing through as the bolts give way.

You're just about to congratulate yourself on your own strength when the shouting catches your attention. Guards are coming down the stairs just 20 feet to your right. Seems smashing a door open makes a lot of noise.

You sprint at them and catch them off guard near the base of the steps, they clearly didn't expect your speed or strength as you punch one in the chest, feeling his ribs crack.

The others react better, trying to raise their guns. You move quickly and swat one to the side, punching the guy in the throat before spinning on the last guard. You can see in his eyes that he just simply want prepared to fight anything as fast or strong as you as he fires and misses right before you kill him too.

You quickly ensure they are all dead and are about to leave when your hunger gets the better of you and you take a moment to grab one of the men's knives to hack a chunk of flesh off which you eat ravenously.

As soon as you have eaten and your hunger subsides your senses return somewhat. "What am I doing? I can't waste time eating here when more guards will be coming." You think. You glance around but the tunnel is blocked off at the other end and the only way is up the stairs. You can also already hear a lot of guards up there shouting and cocking weapons for you.

"Bloody hungers gotten me killed, guess that bite did have some affect after all."

You back off, trying to think of a plan when the new guards arrive. At least a dozen with guns, all ready to fire and pointed your way. Once they see what's happened they simple swear and some look like they are about to fire when one man steps a little forward and raises a hand.

"HOLD!" he looks behind to ensure the men obey before turning back to you. "SO you smashed through a solid door, killed three armed guards and ate some of their flesh, all while not acting crazy. Welcome to our holdout harbinger."

The men all start swearing and some are clearly getting itchy trigger fingers despite the hold order.

You finally reply. "Well this isn't exactly how I wanted to be found out but getting bitten earlier today seemed to send my hunger into overdrive. But yes I am indeed a harbinger, I usually only get to tell people before they die rather than before I do but I guess I had a good run and ate my fair share of people" you end with a bit of a grin, awaiting the bullets.

"Oh you won't die so easily." The Capt. Replies. You are about to question him when he gives the order to shoot your knees and elbows. It seems like every man there was just waiting for the chance and you feel you limbs practically disintegrate from all the shots.

"Bind the wounds and retrain him, we have experiments to conduct." You hear as you lose consciousness.

You survive the experiments for several weeks due to your advanced healing and innate strength before your mind and body finally give out to the torture, it seems they found out little of use, but many of them defiantly felt better as they tortured you.


[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 search for Talia

[Assistant]
Your main purpose of coming here in the first place was to make sure Talia was safe. You can't leave now without trying to find her or at least her body if she's dead.

You leave the storage room and decide your best bet would be to keep yourself cloaked the entire time while you search the fortress. You also decide to use spider crawl just to make sure you're really out of sight.

As you stick to the ceilings of corridors and rooms you survey the carnage of what the Derro have wrought on the shadows. It's almost like they didn't have a chance. You now have to believe that this was why the Empire wasn't attacking Gloom, they had some sort of deal with the Derro to do it for them and since this used to be a Derro home at one time, they probably knew every ancient secret passage and entire layout of it.

You progressively get more and more discouraged in your search and that's when you hear a voice in your head. Not Dendrin's though, it's distinctly a human one.

"To…the left and down the hall…hurry…not much time…" you hear Master Ebon say. Lacking any other ideas, you follow his instructions and make your make to his location from where you are. As you do so, you notice there aren't any Derro in this direction, though there are a few dead ones. You're guessing that the rest of their fellows haven't searched this area as much.

"The door…at the end…hurry…"

Sensing that there are no Derro in the immediate area, you climb down from the ceiling and prepare to enter the door at the end of the corridor. When you arrive in front of it, you hear a loud click as it opens.

"Quick, inside!" a brother says pulling you in by the arm roughly.

A quick glance and you see a couple more shadows both in wounded condition. You then see Master Ebon in some sort of spell trance. He's also wounded, but his status looks a lot worse. He probably shouldn't even be alive with the deep bleeding gashes he displays across his body. A female shadow stands near him also wounded. When you see her face more clearly and recognize her as Talia, your worries are at least divided by half.

"What are you doing here?" she exclaims.
"I heard the voice of Dendrin and…" in that moment you realize you've just admitted you've heard his voice for the first time. You then realize this isn't the time to keep it a secret and you continue. "…he…uh gave me a warning… are you alright?"
"Just a light wound…wait, you said Dendrin spoke to you? He warned you about the attack?"
"Well, not in so many words. Look we need get out of here, I can explain everything later."

You then hear Master Ebon's voice again. He still isn't speaking verbally though and is using his mind.

"Dendrin spoke to you? Lucky lad. He hasn't spoken to me since I first became a shadow. I always thought he would eventually, but he never did. I assumed he was testing me, to make my own decisions. Perhaps I offended him by claiming those decisions came from him directly, but I didn't know what else to do…"
"Master Ebon, we can discuss this later, right now we really need to leave!"
"Is Master Ebon speaking to you through his mind?" Talia asks.
"Yes, and what's he doing anyway? He's just sitting there with gashes in his chest deep enough for me to see his heart beating and bleeding out. As I said we need to leave before the Derro kill us all."

Master Ebon interrupts you.

"They've already succeeded in killing me I fear, but I still have powerful magic…enough to save the remainder of you…to carry on the fight…"

Master Ebon's eyes begin to turn completely black, this is followed by his entire body. A shimmering portal then opens up nearby.

"This…was to take us to strike at the very heart of the Empire…but now just an escape…to friends. Continue the fight there. The Empire will fall as long as you continue to fight. Dendrin I hope you can forgive my failures as I have served to the best of my abilities…I am ready to enter your realm of shadow if you will allow it…"

"Master Ebon!" Talia shouts when she sees his body undergo his transformation.
"He can't be helped and he's giving us a chance to escape. We need to take it now!"
"But where is it going?" the shadow that grabbed you by the arm asks.
"He said to friends, but quite frankly it could lead into the middle of an Empire battalion and I think we'd still have better chances! Now come on!"

Without another word you all enter the portal. Within seconds your eyes are nearly blinded by the whiteness of snow and you feel a blast of cold air whipping around you.

"DIE! Shadow bastard!" you suddenly hear and turn around just in time to avoid a sword strike to the head. Realizing that this is an Empire soldier and not a Derro, you quickly dispatch your assailant who falls turning the snow red.

When you said being transported into the middle of an Empire battalion would be a better situation, you didn't actually mean it! Fortunately it isn't quite as bad as all that.

Getting your bearings you notice you're on a battlefield. The bodies of several Empire troops lay on the ground and are mixed in with those of orcs and shadows. A great fortress looms in the distance.

"Fort Defiance…" you say to yourself.
"Brother, we're over here!" one of the shadows calls out to you and you run over to the group. (Apparently, all the others teleported to a place out of immediate danger!)

"Are we in Rask?" the shadow who grabbed you asks. You still don't know his name, you can only guess he was one of the newer recruits after you joined.
"Well it doesn't look like Delurg that's for sure. I'm guessing that group ahead of us fighting the Empire troops are our brothers and sisters from Fort Defiance." Talia says.
"Looks like it, well no time like the present, we need to go help them."
"But what about those two? They're badly wounded and can't fight properly." The new shadow asks.
"(Sigh) Very well, you, what's your name anyway?"
"I'm Brother Gannon. I just joined recently…"
"Yes brother, we can get all that getting to know you stuff out of the way later. I want you to take those two and head over to that fort in the distance. I'm sure they can get help there. What about you Talia, I know you're wounded too, do you need any first aid?"

Talia draws her weapon.

"I'll worry about my minor cuts after we take care of this Empire scum." She answers in a harsh tone.
"Okay then let's go down there and drive back the Empire!" you answer back.

You and Talia sprint as fast as you can to where all the action is taking place. Swords are clashed, halberds are swung, skulls are smashed and heads are severed. Mostly all in your favor and the Empire troops were actually losing even before you got here. Still, it's good to be on a winning side of a fight today and you feel energized by the battle.

A short reunion occurs as you finish off the last of the stubborn Empire soldiers.

"What the…? What are you doing here?! I thought you were supposed to be in the Quala province!"Cyrus exclaims running his sword through an enemy.
"Things change brother and how have you been doing?" you answer doing the same.
"We've been getting wave after wave of Empire skirmishers recently, but nothing serious yet. Honestly I would've thought we would've had a full on assault by now. I think they're trying to whittle us down, it won't work though. We're entrenched and have people all over the area slowly turning the population of Rask against them…is that Talia over there? What's SHE doing here? Last I heard she was supposed to be back in Gloom helping with the ritual that Master Ebon and Brother Gray were doing."
"Like I said, things change Cyrus."

At this moment there is a lull in the fighting that allows Cyrus to actually stop fighting. He looks at you his expression is one you've never seen before. One of genuine worry.

"Oh no…what happened?"

You don't even know where to begin.

"Cyrus let's just get through this battle and celebrate THIS victory over the Empire. We can dwell on the troubled times to come later."

The pair of you say nothing more for the rest of the battle which soon ends with your victory. You just wish it was a better one, because it cannot possibly counteract the incredible loss you have suffered this dark day.

You think back on how you told Murk in his dying breaths that the Empire would fall, you also think back to how Master Ebon believed it would fall in his on dying breaths. If you had to guess, you think Talia probably still believes it and you know Cyrus will even when you tell him all that has happened. The righteousness in the shadows' cause and its unwavering faith in Dendrin has always been its strength that it cannot lose no matter how bad the odds.

Of course it would help if you actually believed all that nonsense.

Which brings you to your next dilemma: You already let it slip to Talia that you spoke to Dendrin and Brother Gannon was also there to hear it (and maybe even the other two wounded shadows heard it as well) , so it'll probably be brought up after everyone is caught up to speed on the war front and what happened at Gloom. The fact that Dendrin spoke to you is actually why you're here in the first place.

The question is should you even mention what Dendrin said to you or just lie about what he said? Your own feelings on the situation are that Dendrin, god or not, is not worth following let alone creating a fanatical religion around. He obviously doesn't give a shit about any of you and sees you all as amusing toys at best. However, given the grim situation, the misguided slavish devotion to Dendrin might be the only thing that'll keep their spirits up. Not to mention you wonder if you'd even be believed. Cyrus himself is a very dedicated believer, he may even turn violent and you aren't even sure if Talia would believe you.

[User] You tell the truth about Dendrin

[Assistant]
You really can't pay any more lip service to Dendrin after what you know and it's silly to let this charade go on. What's the point of rebelling against the Empire if it was solely built on the whim of a being that doesn't even care about his own followers anymore?

After Cyrus catches you up on the situation at Rask, you and Talia tell him what happened at Gloom. Talia fills in the details better since she was actually there. Cyrus seems a little distraught at hearing so many shadows dying nevermind losing the shadow home, but he doesn't seem broken in his goals to continue to fight the Empire.

"It doesn't matter, we've still got agents in the Quala province and other places. Once we reconnect with the various cells we can regroup. We need to tell the others here though now, the sooner we get this information out the way the quicker they can deal with the loss. The Empire is desperate and we'll overcome whatever else they decide to throw at us because Dendrin will see us to victory."
"Yeah, about that I've got some more to tell you, in fact Talia you'll want to hear this as well. And before I start I need to both to not interrupt until I'm finished. Afterwards you can do what you like."

This gets their attention and they sit down to listen to your tale. You start from the moment Dendrin first spoke to you and go from there. The look on both of their faces is first one of shock then as you explain more, Cyrus' face is one of calmness with a simmering anger that is only growing with every "blasphemy" you speak about Dendrin. He eventually closes his eyes as if blocking out the sight of you will help keep him from attacking you.
Talia's expression displays more of a concern than anger. You aren't sure if it's because she believes you or is pained by the idea that someone she loves is basically speaking out against something she has placed unwavering faith in.

You'll soon find out you suppose.

When you finish, there is a moment of silence and then Cyrus takes a deep and opens his eyes. You feel him staring right through you and you are ready to fight if necessary, but he speaks instead.

"Is that it?" he asks.
"Yes." You reply.
"What the hell do you hope to gain by this?"
"Wha? Nothing, I just feel that the…"
"And I'm supposed to believe this shit?"
"Believe what you want Cyrus, it's the truth."
"No, it isn't! Look I can believe that Dendrin perhaps warned you about Gloom because it was a dire situation, but I DO NOT BELIEVE…" Cyrus catches himself raising his voice and then stops to calm down again.

"I do not believe that you were speaking to him on a regular basis. Only Master Ebon could speak with him in such a manner!"
"He couldn't speak to Dendrin at all! He even admitted as much before he died! Talia was there for that, come on back me up here!"

Talia turns away and hides her face. It's obvious now that she believes you, but doesn't WANT to believe you. Her silence though doesn't help in convincing Cyrus.

"Just because you're mates doesn't mean you're allowed to bully her into your heretical way of thinking!"
"What? No! Look, I can drag in Brother Gannon and confirm it as well since I'm pretty sure he heard everything as well!"
"No, you're not poisoning anyone else with this shit. I can't believe…I mean where do I fucking start? You've stood here and just admitted that you've never been a believer in Dendrin! That's the whole foundation of our organization!"
"Okay first of all I never said I didn't believe in him. He's very real and I know because he's been playing games with the shadows for centuries and fucking with my head since I met the bastard."
"Yes, so you've said. So why you? You say that when you first met him during the ceremony that you resisted him and then gave in only to save your own life. You even said you still weren't sure if you weren't going to turn us all in to Mr. Mol when he questioned us that one time. Why would Dendrin speak with someone whose faith in him was so lacking?"
"Fuck, I don't know Cyrus! Don't you think I've tried to figure that out? My best assessment? He's a sadistic fucker that gets bored easily so he finds new ways to amuse himself."
"You insult Dendrin one more time and it'll be your last." Cyrus warns.
"Oh fuck you Cyrus, you've wanted to kill me since we were Mistresses class. Just admit it and stop hiding behind an excuse."
"Really? Is that what you think? Because if it is, then you're wrong about that as well. Yes, it's true I didn't like you for a long time, but after that moment when all of us walked out of Mr. Mol's interrogation room without betraying the shadows and staying true to the cause my opinion of you changed. I saw then we really were as brothers. Pity it turned out to be a lie. A horrible vicious lie."

At this point Talia steps in.

"So where does this leave us?"
"What do you mean?" you ask.
"I mean you've been keeping this all a secret for years. Why tell us now when things are at their worst for us?"
"I…don't know. Maybe because things ARE at their worst and if we're going to continue this fight against the Empire, then we need to do it for the right reasons rather than for the misguided devotion of a false god…"
"DENDRIN IS NOT A FALSE GOD!" Cyrus snaps and attempts to tackle you. You and he roll around on the floor punching each other for a while until you both finally break a few pieces of furniture and back off to catch a breather. Talia tells the both of you stop fighting.

As you stare at him from across the room, you know that some part of him must be questioning his beliefs. If he really thought you were completely full of shit, he would've made more of an effort to try to kill you. And this scuffle tells you is he's pissed at you for making him question his beliefs. Still doesn't mean he won't try to kill you later if you press this issue, but it's more than you could've hoped for.

"Look Cyrus, I know this sucks and maybe Dendrin is a god… I know he certainly thinks he is, but I'm still not following him. It's enough that I have to listen to his cryptic warnings and outright taunts on a random basis. I do see the need for the Empire to fall because it's corrupt, it's inefficient, and it's oppressive. However, I also see that in this shadow organization. How can you be against something when you're part of something else that's just as bad?"

Cyrus doesn't answer he's still standing there fuming at you, but Talia says something.

"I understand what you're saying, but Dendrin has at least given us our powers and shadow magic. Maybe everything what you've said about him is true, but does it really matter? In a way he sparked this rebellion centuries before any of us were even around. Without him, would their even been a rebellion able to hurt the Empire as bad as it has? I mean even with all that happened at Gloom, I still believe as Cyrus does that victory will come. I'm sure the orcs, the elves, the poor, the criminals and others all have their own reasons for wanting to see the Empire fall. Does it really matter why as long their beliefs carry them to see it through?"
"(Sigh) No, I guess it doesn't Talia, but maybe for ME it does and I can't be a shadow anymore, or at least not one that buys into this worship of Dendrin. I can't live a lie and just go through the motions anymore. Now I will continue to fight the Empire. I'm still here for that, if I wasn't I would've betrayed you all to Mr. Mol years ago. Though I might be fighting the damned Empire for the most cliché reason ever now, which is love. When we bonded Talia, that's what gave me more of a purpose to fight the Empire more than anything. It's why I even went back to Gloom AFTER Dendrin told me not to. I couldn't leave you in potential danger."
"Oh fucking spare me your romantic sense of nobility!"
"Cyrus stop!" Talia yells.
"He's just using honeyed words to get you on his side and somehow excuse his blasphemy. I can't believe you're even listening to him or even trying to see his side of things."
"Oh really Cyrus and your reasons for fighting the Empire are purely for Dendrin huh?" you say.
"Of course, why else would they be?"
"Oh I don't know, maybe a certain shadow by the name of Draven comes to mind? Sure you aren't just a little more dedicated because of him?"
"You leave Draven out of this!"
"Fine, but your little outburst just proved my point. You're ready to fight me again just for mentioning his name which proves you might be doing a little of this for love as well."
"I'm ready to fight you again, because you're attempting to sew chaos and dissent and I for one have had enough! If you want to abandon Dendrin fine. If you want to continue fighting the Empire for your own reasons fine. But you're not doing it here. I want you out of my fucking fort and I don't want to see you ever again!"
"You can't kick me out, you're not head of the fucking shadows." You laugh.
"Oh no? All of our leaders are dead! WE are the next in line if you haven't noticed and quite frankly I've got more support than you do. Always have. And if I wanted to I could expose your heresy to the shadows in the fort and have your head right now. The only reason why I'm not? Because I'm doing this out of respect for Talia and at one time I did consider you my brother. But you're nothing to me now. You're not an ally, you're not a brother, you're not a friend!"

You look over to Talia hoping for support, but she offers none.

"Talia, aren't you going to help me over here? All your professed love for me meaning nothing? Aren't we supposed to be mates?"
"And we always will be my love…but I cannot follow your path. I just can't…I'm sorry…"
"But…" you start to say, but you see that it won't do any good. You thought you were getting through to them too, but it would appear that even in the face of the truth, they are willing to stay in denial. Not even love can overcome faith it seems.

You gather up all your belongings and start to leave, but you turn to address both of them before doing so.

"You both know I'm right and you know why? Because all three of us have another bond and that's the fact we're Eternals and as such we have a tendency to acknowledge a hierarchy especially among our own kind even if we don't want to do it. Cyrus, I'm stronger than you, I'm smarter than you and just better than you in general. You've always known that. If we were in any other organization, I would be your superior officer or leader and what I would say would be unquestioned because you'd know that as your superior, I'd ALWAYS be right. You just can't admit it to yourself and let's face it, given how you flaunted how much support you had and how our leaders are dead, I'd say your true Eternal colors are finally showing. Talia…well I think you know where we stand. You were the one that brought up our bond as Eternals years ago. One would think that you would be listening to that instinct now, but for some reason you're not. When you're ready to tell me, I'll be around."

With those last words you leave Fort Defiance wondering if they'll ever face the truth. In the mean time you now have to figure out how to fight a one man war against the Empire. A daunting task to be sure, but part of you feels strangely free now that you've officially broken away from the shadows. Time will tell if you've broken away from Dendrin however.

[User] You time passes…

[Assistant]
Year 30

You throw another log on to the fire in an effort to keep warm. A futile task, but it's better than freezing. You'd like to stay in a town, but Empire troops seem to be everywhere in Rask nowadays ever since they halted the war with the Felkan Kingdom. From what you hear it wasn't exactly on favorable terms either, but you imagine that they needed to just so they had enough manpower to fight the rebellion.

And if it isn't them, then it's the shadows who you've had a few unfortunate runs in with over the past couple years. Seems Cyrus told everyone you were a heretic after all. You aren't really surprised though, you even understand it. He's trying to solidify his power base and he still sees you as a potential threat even though you have no desire to take anything he has, let alone the shadows. You haven't even heard Dendrin's voice since you left the shadows and while you're glad of that, it's still like everyone has completely abandoned you. (Your shadow magic abilities have weakened quite a bit, but aren't gone completely, so you're guessing Dendrin's probably still watching you for whatever twisted reason.)

You wish you could figure out why Talia turned on you though, but the only answer you can come up with is her bond with the shadows was stronger than her bond with you despite everything you shared.

It doesn't sadden you so much as it disappoints you though perhaps you had too much faith in the relationship. You laugh to yourself about that one since you probably lost faith in the Empire and Dendrin quicker than you did in Talia. Even now you still hold out the hope that she'll return to you and see that her own in Dendrin is incorrect.

Of course this also makes you question why the hell you're still doing all this. Like fighting the Empire for instance, why are you still bothering? When you were first part of the shadows, you were united with them in their cause if not their reasons. It wasn't probably the best motivation, but it was enough for you at that point because back then you were so damn confused about who you should even be loyal to.

When you got together with Talia, your motivation became stronger. However that motivation is all gone. Talia isn't around and the shadows have for the most part turned on you. Why bother? What are you getting out of it really? Even if the Empire does fall, then what? The shadows original plan was to go back to their old ways of private worship, but if Cyrus' leadership is any indication that plan will be thrown out. He'll most likely just try to carve out a nation of his own using similar oppressive measures.

You doubt he'll get the chance though. Sure the Empire has been greatly weakened, but by your observations it'll eventually overwhelm the rebellion through sheer numbers alone and things will most likely go back to the way they were before and the people will just accept it. It's not like your efforts are even appreciated by anyone at this point. The more you think about it, the more you think how you probably should've just stayed loyal to the Empire. You would've saved yourself a whole lot of hassle.

You wonder if you're just going through the motions because you don't have anything better to do. Though perhaps that's not entirely true, there is ONE thing that has stayed with you and that's your love of battle.

You think that has to be a major part of it. You could be fighting Empire soldiers or shadows and it ultimately wouldn't matter to you (And it really doesn't at this point because they're both hostile to you) you just like getting into the thick of combat and striking down whatever enemy that's in your way. Makes you think you'd probably be better off working as a mercenary like those svelk do. Unfortunately you don't really have that option considering both sides of this conflict hate you. If you wanted to pursue that life you'd have to move on to a different land somewhere, after the world has to be a bigger place than what you've seen right?

Still, you aren't and have never been motivated by money. You figure if it really is battle lust that's keeping you going then you might as well stay here since there's no shortage of it. And despite your brief period of re-assessing your situation, you are still hoping Talia will one day see the light and come back to you.

In the meantime you're just going to have to live off the land and continue the fight though you don't even know how much longer that's going to last, Captain Kane has been pushing for final victory a lot harder lately.

You know Cyrus has sent out assassination attempts against him, but they've all failed. Kane might not have the fancy shadow tricks, but he's still an Eternal and a pretty vicious one. Really you're sort of disappointed that Cyrus wouldn't at least try to do the deed himself, if he's serious about being a leader.

Likewise Kane has tried to take Fort Defiance, but so far it has lived up to its name, the problem though is it won't for long. The Empire has slowly been putting down the major rebellions in the south, and Captain Roldan has been hunting the remaining shadows still down there and doing a good job of it too. This means more troops have been getting sent up to Rask lately. Not enough to finish off the shadows, but enough to start making a difference in swinging the long stalemate.

It doesn't help that the alliance with the orcs has broken down with the shadows and you've heard rumors that their ring leader Gruz was finally caught in the act of sabotaging and misinformation and executed. Flog took it upon himself to take charge and didn't agree with how Cyrus was doing things since the orcs were still taking the brunt of the casualties. One would think this would've ended in bloodshed, but Flog apparently was remarkably forward thinking for an orc.

Flog took the remainder of his people and headed even further north to where the giants, ogres and other manner of monsters make their homes. As far as he was concerned the Empire wasn't going to ever be able to extend its territory that far north in the state they're in and saw no more reason to waste more lives to help the shadows (who only saw them as tools anyway).

As it stands the shadows, civilian dissidents and even some soldiers that turned traitor are about all that's left to defend Fort Defiance. Village and town support is next to nil now. There are probably still a few rebel bands hiding in the wilderness (much like you do) but you'd venture to say that they do even less damage than you do, which is pretty sad considering they at least have a bit more support and people than you do.

This rebellion will be crushed in a few months if something doesn't change quickly and about the only thing that's going to do that at this point is doing something Cyrus has been failing to do: Killing Kane. Get him out of way and it'll probably take months for the Empire to get their shit together before they put in an equally competent person. (You'd guess that will probably be Roldan, but you'll have to deal with that later.) It'll give the rebellion a bit of breathing room up here in Rask at least.

The question is how to do it. You could try to break into Fort Destiny, but security there is always at maximum and your shadow magic stealth tricks aren't as strong now. Even trying to disguise yourself as a guard might only get you so far. Still, you can always trust that your combat skills will get you through day if magic and trickery fail.

You also could wait for an opportunity for Kane to leave the fort, he does do that from time to time when he wants to make an example of a town or engage in a major battle. The problem is the next major battle he'll probably engage in is trying to take Fort Defiance again, and by that time it'll be too late since he'll probably win this time.

This means you're going to have to do something that'll make him so angry that he'll want to make an example of some hapless village that isn't falling in line with the Empire.

[User] You sneak into the fort

[Assistant]
Elaborate plans usually mean more chance of failure, better to just stick with a simple assassination where you're at least sure to face Kane. You make preparations mainly in the form of a making a strong poison. The shadows always used them on their bolts, but given that Kane's an Eternal he's not going to be floored by the stuff instantly. Ideally you'll get a single shot while he's asleep, but who knows how this is going to play out so you take the time to heavily poison several small throwing daggers you'll take with you as well. Not very sporting perhaps, but you're trying to accomplish a very difficult task by yourself as quickly as possible.

The next day you make you way to the outskirts of Fort Destiny, making sure to avoid getting spotted by the multiple patrols along the way. One thing about the Empire is they typically stick to certain building designs. While you weren't in Fort Defiance very long you do remember the layout. If you're lucky, Fort Destiny's layout should be similar.

Sneaking about and scaling the walls of the fort aren't really a problem for you. You don't even need to rely on your magic that much. You make things easier for yourself by slitting the throat of an isolated guard in one of the towers and disguising yourself in his clothing and armor. It won't fool everyone, especially if they take a closer look, but it should help.

As you make your way through the fort you're relieved to find that the layout is indeed very similar to Fort Defiant's layout. This will make escape a lot easier. The closer you think you're getting to Kane's quarters the larger amount of soldiers standing around as guards. Eventually you get to a point where there's no way you've going to be able to bluff or sneak your way in. You're going to just have to kill them, the problem is that's going to alert everyone. So you do the only thing you can think of.

You cloak yourself and start tossing your poisoned throwing daggers at the soldiers. Naturally you catch them off guard and the poison is strong enough to kill them almost instantly. While you've cleared the way and done it as silently as you were able, there's still enough noise of their lifeless bodies hitting the floor.

This is just enough noise to alert Kane who was sleeping in his quarters, or perhaps he wasn't sleeping since when he steps out of his room, he's fully dressed in battle armor (It's entirely possible he sleeps in it though) with axe in hand.

He's certainly as imposing as his reputation.

Wasting no time you throw your remaining daggers at him and shoot your armbow bolt at him. The daggers unfortunately are deflected from his armor or he dodges them completely, the bolt sinks into his arm, but the poison doesn't seem to slow him down.

"Pfah! You shadows and your poisons. I developed immunities to those years ago! Now fight like a man!" he says and charges at you.

You block his attack just barely. In fact he keeps on the pressure for a good five minutes before you can even maneuver in such a way to attack back. By this time more soldiers have arrived, but Kane shouts at them saying he wants to slay you himself. They obey, but there's enough of them to block all the immediate exits. This is pretty grim, even if you win, you don't see how you're going to get out alive, unless you impress them so much with your victory that you break their morale.

Of course first you have to win, and right now that's looking more doubtful by the second. Kane is matching you in combat skill in everyway. In fact he's actually a little bit better than you and you're forced to rely on your shadow magic to give you a slight edge.

It doesn't give much of one though; Kane's slaughtered so many shadows trying to assassinate him with magic that he's developed his own battle style against them. Your own weak magic is more of a hindrance to you in the long run as you quickly begin to get fatigued from using it.

"What's the matter outcast? Weak magic, because you're no longer Dendrin's favored? Ha ha! I know who you are and you're a disgrace to the name Eternal!" Kane remarks and slams you into the wall with all of his weight. You feel like all the air has left your body and you struggle to catch your breath when you receive another slam to your head with his metal gauntlet.

Bleeding from your head and lying prone of the floor isn't a great position during any sort of fight and this one is no exception. Kane wastes no time in finishing you off with an axe blow to your face.

The Butcher of Rask has claimed another victory.


[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 smash him aside with the butt of your shotgun

[Assistant]
You swing your shotgun as hard as you can, the stock of your shotgun flying into his face. The shotgun butt smacks into his face, shattering the bridge of his nose and sending teeth and blood flying and spewing across the floor.

The man stands there, with a broken nose and blood streaming down his face, skin torn and fleshed bruised, but still standing there. He roars, grabbing you and flinging you into the wall. You smack into the wall, sliding down it onto the ground as you groan in pain. The Thrall rushes forward, drawing a knife as he rams it into your stomach.

You gasp, as the steel pierces and cuts through flesh and guts, and the Thrall precedes to repeatedly and aggressively penetrate your stomach. Blood, stomach acid and the remains of food begin pouring out of your open wound and running down your stomach as death quickly drags you into the endless darkness.


[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] Continue

[Assistant]
You awake in a great hall, huge stone pillars holding up the high ceiling, fine stone art carved into the perfect marble walls. Couples dressed in medieval finery dance around you, ignoring the nearly naked man on the floor who just woke up. With surprise and embarrassment you realize you're only wearing a loose pair of breeches that only reach to your knees. You keep a hand on it to stop it from falling down.

"Ah! Another one. I had just begun to believe the party was over. Seems the second round has started! Grab a lady and begin the dance anew. Oh, you might want to put something on first. Or not. Whatever you think is an appropriate way to celebrate!"

A man sits in a stone throne a few steps up in front of you. He stares at you with dark red eyes as he taps his bare feet on the lovely gold and red carpets. His pure white hair is pushed back over his head, over his ears, and under a dull plain looking iron crown, more like a simple iron circle than a crown. He puts his hand over his chin in a thinking position.

"On second thought; that is the perfect way to celebrate! Everybody naked! Brilliant my speechless friend! Haha, someone grab my friend here a partner!" He jumps up and rips off his coat.  "Nevermind, I will!" He grabs your hand and pulls you up, spinning you around and around.

Everyone around you is going through the long process of undressing and he pushes you into the crowd, towards the only person done, a woman who gracefully catches you before you not very gracefully fall into the nearly naked bodies.

You don't know if this is a nightmare or a fantasy.

[User] You where are you\?

[Assistant]
She's behind you, holding you up. You get back your footing and turn around to face her. She grabs your hands and starts to dance, forcing you along. Her long black hair is pulled up into a ridiculous hairdo, nearly making you laugh, but her intense face stops you.

You open your mouth to ask the question, but she places one finger over her red lips.

She turns her head and looks at you.

You look around. The women have all stripped to down to their shifts and the men down to breeches or hose.

[User] You ignore her warning

[Assistant]
As soon as you open your mouth again she pushes you away and stops dancing.

The crowd has stopped and is looking at you. The man, now minus his tight black pants, stares at you. You noticed that some of his guards are walking torwards you.

"Please, please, hold all questions until the end of the presentation." He claps and everyone resumes dancing.

Everyone but you that is, as his guards have long since killed you and are now in the process of cleaning up the mess your blood leaves on the smooth tiles.


[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 avoid the risk

[Assistant]
You remain with Christian's work party while Lamb heads off and he returns that evening looking utterly exhausted but grinning from ear to ear. His good feeling lasts until he returns to the Bounty to find an angry Bligh waiting for him.

"Impertinent dog!" he screams in Lamb's face. "You think a cleaver is not as valuable as your disgusting perversions? Quartermaster, twelve at once!"

By now whippings have become so depressingly commonplace that the crew feel nothing but a dull hostility towards Bligh.


[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 memories (THEM!)

[Assistant]
Giant Ants: THEM!

Well thanks to human ingenuity they probably created more monsters in the 50s with their nuclear tests. Gigantism and mutation were a big problem during that era. Along with giant spiders and mantises, the biggest problem was when an ant colony was struck by massive radiation and went undetected in the desert for a couple of years and wasn't discovered until giant ants began carrying off small children from nearby towns to their colony.

Granted they were never as big as people saw in the movies (Such a size would cause them to collapse underneath their own weight) but they did grow to be as big as humans. In fact they took on the look of "Ant centaurs". A torso with two arms and a back end with four legs, still all very antlike though. Initially they weren't very intelligent, but they grew smarter as time went on. This caused even greater problems for humans later.

Now the "Ant people" weren't malevolent per say, but they just had a different outlook on life just like any other culture, and they saw humans (And anything else that went near their colony) as a source of food. Naturally humans and insects have never gotten along so it was only a matter of time before all out war was declared. The war might've lasted longer if the Ant people were able to adapt a little better, and if humans hadn't had a severe tech advantage. The humans were determined to wipe THEM out before they could get the numerical advantage. This of course was done by blowing up their queen thus ending any chance of THEM ever conquering the Earth. The remaining Ant people would've probably been mopped up, but by this time it was the 60s and civil rights and shit came about. Hippies started saying that they had the right to exist on their own land and such, so the remaining ones were eventually allowed to live, and in time they assimilated into society like everyone else. Nobody was sure of their life span, but the government still perceived THEM as a legitimate potential threat and didn't really want to take the chance that one of those ants could turn into another queen somehow, so a lot got drafted into the Vietnam War to "thin out" their population. (Plus they made excellent soldiers, and were especially helpful in flushing out Viet Cong tunnels)

Needless to say there aren't too many Ant People left anymore, the ones that are still alive tend to keep to themselves and suspicious of everyone and anyone that doesn't have six limbs.

Any chance of THEM making a "come back" is highly unlikely.


[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 they are weak, the Old man said he was stronger than them individually when he faced them before. Take this one out here and now. The second one won't be an issue alone.

[Assistant]
You Aren't going to let some weakling push you around, they might have a lot of infected around them but it means nothing if their will is less than yours.

You leave the bare minimum defense against the attack then lash out as hard as you can against the Green haze in the city centre that you know represents you enemy. You know if you can crush them in a single fast attack that the second one won't stand a chance.

You visualize your attack and send it racing out, almost gleefully imagining the moment it shatters right through the enemies weak and neglected defenses and you crush their mind.

But it doesn't. Your attack smashes into a fully formed barrier, easily as strong as anything you could make. You feel it flex and buckle slightly but it is immediately shored up while the attack on you suddenly intensifies.

You realize your mistake too late, it was a trap to test whether you would attack and you failed. You frantically try to press your attack while holding your defense up but the enemies defense easily holds you to a stalemate while their attacks strains you defenses to their maximum. You try and think of a way out when the second attack slams into your mind and shatters your already weak defenses. You feel intense pain shooting through your mind.

You can barely handle the pain and are almost glad when everything ends.


[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 antagonize her guards

[Assistant]
Just as the Ant guards are about to take you away, you speak up.

"Yeah, that's right take me back to my master. We all got masters right? Just like you Ants have yours. Tell me how's it feel serving some demanding bitch."
"She is our queen, mammal, she has every right to demand from us." The guard says unemotionally.
"See? Order! Everyone knows their place! Purity!" Janice adds.
"Some purity! You're not even an Ant! Hey, you Ants even think of that?! She's not even one of your kind, and you serve her?"
"She understands our plight. She is an insect, like us. Our own Queen was destroyed a long time ago, we were directionless when she died, we were assimilated and exploited by you mammals soon after. The Wasp Queen has made arrangements so that shall never be ever again!"
"Hey that was the humans, not me."
"Doesn't matter! All you mammals are alike!" the guard snaps.
"Guard stop arguing with this fool! He'll never understand! Wolf I suggest you stop barking, or I shall change my mind of letting you go!" Janice says, she sounds a bit nervous about your line of questioning though.

"Yeah, I guess you're right, all mammals are alike, I mean look at Janice, she's acting just like the rest of us. Ordering you around, living on your hard work."
"Shut up Wolf! Guard, I changed my mind! Kill this furball!"
"When I said Janice wasn't your kind, I didn't mean the fact that she was a Wasp, I meant the fact that she NOT an insect! I mean look at her, she wasn't born that way! YOU were born an ANT! She became a half Wasp freak due to a failed human experiment!"
"Well we know that, but still…"
"Still nothing! She's just using you for whatever twisted purpose she has and to make life easy for herself, just like she did when she was human! Think about it, who does all the work around here? It looks like you Ants! She only has you around because no human wants to work for her! AND even if she WAS all for making things better for insect people why is she so against Andre? Shouldn't HE be allowed in too? I mean sure he's a half freak, but so is Janice! Sounds like a double standard to me!"
"The mammal has a point…you really aren't one of us, in any sense of the word. A Queen is supposed to breed to keep the colony alive, in all these years, you haven't even made that attempt, you've just been telling us what to do with promises of a so called glorious future for our kind."
"Um, I haven't found the right guy…erm…Well what the hell do you want me to do mate with a pathetic mammal? All you Ants are female, and it's not like there's exactly any Male insects around!" Janice says trying in vain to find excuses.
"There's Andre." You remind everyone.
"Yes, there's Andre. Granted he might be part human, but then as Wolf pointed out, so are you. We would look past that though since the children of such a pairing could be indoctrinated to…"

"Silence! I will not fuck Andre! Andre is unfit!! He's a disgusting insect, who belongs in the trash! Now you Ants know your fucking place and kill this asshole! Your place is to serve your superiors!" Janice says in anger.

That statement didn't go over to well. The Ant guards begin to look at Janice and click their mandibles. They then advance on her.

"What're you doing?! Stop! I command you! OBEY!"

Janice's orders go unheard, she attempts to escape out the window, but one of the guards grabs her legs before she can take flight. She stings one of them, but is ultimately ripped apart. There's bug guts and blood all over the place. The Ant guard you were speaking to earlier addresses you.

"You can take whatever you like from this mansion; it was never our style, just more of Janice's human vanity at work. We prefer the tunnels we've built Thank you for opening our eyes to reality. (Sigh) We wish it hadn't been true though, now we don't have any purpose once more, as strange as it may seem we prefer to serve in a hierarchy, it's just our nature."
"Hmm, can't argue with nature. I know I for one, would love to be stalking humans on the foggy moors, but adaptation can be a bitch. I do have an idea though…."

You gather as much money and valuables you can from the Mansion and head back to the bar where Andre's been waiting, he buzzes excitedly.

"Wolf! You're back! So is Janice is interested?!"
"She's dead, but that's not important…"
"She's dead?! What!? What happened?! But she was my love and..."

You smack Andre upside the head and then shove your paw in a nearby patron's beer to wash it. "Hey!" the patron says and then sees you scowl causing him to retract his statement.

"Andre shut the fuck up and listen, I got you a better deal! You'll be set for life, with all the sugar and whatever else you want. You know all those Ant guards, Janice had? Well they're all willing to serve YOU, under a couple of conditions. You're in charge, but you can't think yourself inherently superior, you have to understand that you need them. You can't suddenly start thinking you're better than THEM just because you're technically the king."
"Really? Well, yeah sure I can do that. Being a fly has made me pretty humble. I'll be grateful more than anything."
"Okay second, TAKE A FUCKING BATH! Stop smelling like a garbage dump!"
"Take a bath? Gee I dunno, that's a pretty big step Wolf."
"You goddamn well better, if you want to score with all the Ant bitches there."
"WHAT?! Are you serious?!"
"Fucking dead serious. None of them have ever mated, given that in the past only the Queen is supposed to, but now most of them want to feel what its like before they die. Hell, some of them hold out hope that they'll produce offspring, to make their race thrive again. So, what's it gonna be? A shit eating bum, or a smooth pimp Superfly that gets to be serviced by a bunch of virgins?"

Andre doesn't even answer; he just thanks you quickly and runs out the door. You doubt if you'll ever see him again.

"Lucky bastard." You say as you sit down and order a drink with your newly gained loot.


[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 get out the window and flee

[Assistant]
You run for the window, opening it, but instantly the door smashes open as the creature enters the room. It looks vaguely human, a fact even more terrifying. It stands at seven or eight feet, it's skin as white as bone. It has long black hair, matted with blood and gore. It's hands have transformed into horrible, mangled claws, with long, bloodstained claws. It's face is mangled and misshapen, but its eyes are filled with malice and hate.

It stares at you. Then, with supernatural speed, it bursts away as you hear your parents scream as they're no doubt torn apart. You fumble for the window latch, but the creature bursts back in once more. It bursts forward, grabbing the latch and closing it slowly, as you stumble back.

 The monster bursts towards Meredith who still lies in her bed, impaling her fragile body on one of its claws. It raises her up from her bed, growling in her face, before tossing her aside. Finally, it turns to you, it's horrible, mangled mouth seeming to turn into a grin.

It steps forward slowly. You know there's no use running. You stare at the monster as it brings its claws just next to your face, still grinning with satisfaction. It motions as if to slash open your throat, but stops suddenly. It motions to do so again, but pauses once more, this time hissing in pain. It stops, before howling up towards the sky. Then, it brings its face up to yours.

"Leave this place," it snarls.

Its breath reaches your nostrils, warm and toxic. You feel your head going black, before collapsing onto the ground.


[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 biker Chick's Sober friend

[Assistant]
You walk up to the girl that looks like she actually has something in her besides alcohol and nicotine. She's shy at first and plays hard to get for a while but with your vampiric charm none can resist you. Finally after she drops off her friends you follow her to her house where you decide you'll make a meal out of her and use her home as a bed for the day. Unluckily when she takes you into her home she tells you she'll slip into something more comfortable. Wait, haven't you heard that from somewhere before? You think about this more until she comes back with a lit molotov cocktail in her hand. The last thing you hear is "DIE BLOODSUCKER."

Seriously how do people keep finding out you're a vampire? Maybe you aren't good at this at all.