Empty Overworld, Abandoned Isle [Survival Text Adventure]

>Jared, attempt to help threadstuck learn the three runes he needs if at all possible, also, if you could list in your head some of the more commonly used runes, that would be nice.

I turn to face derelict.
"Alright, I'm coming with, seems that my guy knows the magic of this particular story, so I can throw about some basic magic if needed.
Also, if there's a machine that can grab stuff like that, then I'm gonna want access to it, I know of a VERY large number of different items that will be useful, including several that could be used to get loading and threadstuck back where they belong."

(Sorry about not using my color, I'm on mobile currently. Also, in case you weren't already planning to do so derelict, I'd recommend having a power limiter on the retrieval gadget, I personally can think of a large number of items capable of cracking this story's power scale in half, and I'm pretty sure most of the others can too.)

Yeah well fear might make me useless if I do go with you because I don't want to fight, sorry. I kind of want to help somehow though.

>Buck: Wake up and tell everyone about your dream.
>Buck: Suggest heading towards the river again and examining the area to see if anything's changed.

RANDOMWRITER: I'm up for going.
PIONOPLAYER: Alright, I'm coming with, seems that my guy knows the magic of this particular story, so I can throw about some basic magic if needed.
PIONOPLAYER: Also, if there's a machine that can grab stuff like that, then I'm gonna want access to it; I know of a VERY large number of different items that will be useful, including several that could be used to get Loading and ThreadStuck back where they belong.
DERELICT: Alright. You two OK with staying behind?
CON AIR: Yeah.
NEOTTOLEMO: I want to help, but I’m just kinda scared…
NEOTTOLEMO: I’ll stay. Don’t worry.
DERELICT: Alright. Keep an eye on Jojo, and whatever you do, DO NOT open the door again.
DERELICT: If someone knocks, it won’t be us. We can get back… another way.
CON AIR: Got it. No answering the door.
DERELICT: Here are your headsets, gentlemen.
RANDOMWRITER: Thanks.
PIONOPLAYER: Awesome!
DERELICT: Let’s get going.

Derelict, RandomWriter and pionoplayer all state their commands to their characters as they walk away.





Alone, with only Jojo for company, Con Air and Neo look at each other. 

CON AIR: Wanna watch a movie in D-man’s room?
NEOTTOLEMO: …Yeah, why not. Let me just write a command.

Con Air decides to do the same, and the pair head off. Loading is in his room, they assume. He doesn't answer when they knock, so they leave him be.





With that done, they head into Derelict’s room.

CON AIR: Alright! Let’s get this party started!
NEOTTOLEMO: …Yeah, sure.

Meanwhile, Derelict and the other guys have left the Lobby.


Morning dawns on the island, slow and stately, beautiful and serene. William is still fast asleep, having been on watch for the first half of the night. ThreadStuck, deciding to stay with the group, sees Harry exit the hut. He stops talking quietly with Jared and looks at the newcomer.

HARRY: Uh, hi?
THREADSTUCK: Hey. I’m ThreadStuck.
JARED: Hi, Harry. We’ve just been talking for the last hour or so, we need to get this guy home!
HARRY: Is he a survivor?
JARED: …Not really.
THREADSTUCK: I’m an omnipotent god from another universe… something fucked up and now I’m here. I need to get back home, you understand?
HARRY: I guess. How can we help?
JARED: The runes.
JARED: ThreadStuck apparently can use the runes, and I know a few of them. I think they might be able to help us.
THREADSTUCK: D’you know the runes for ‘escape’, ‘from’ and ‘story’?
JARED: Uh, not quite.
HARRY: I know a little about the runes. What can you tell us?
JARED: …Well, they’re very abstract. For example, I know the runes for healing, but it’s not what you think.
JARED: If I wanted to cure you of a fever, I’d use Onr ix Cyl, or ‘heal with ice’, which would lower your body temperature and keep you safe. If I wanted to exorcise a demon from you, I’d use Onr ver Lum, or ‘heal the light’, which would restore the light in your body, thus removing the demon.
THREADSTUCK: Oh, I see. So you have to think outside the box a little?
JARED: Yeah, exactly. If I wanted to free you, we’d need the runes for something like ‘remove the physics’ - which would give you your god powers back…
THREADSTUCK: Allowing me to go back to my own dimension.
HARRY: Interesting. So what would those runes be?
JARED: I don’t know. I definitely never learnt what ‘physics’ was, but I’m sure I can remember what the rune for ‘remove’ is… given time.
JARED: Damn. I’m sorry.
THREADSTUCK: No worries. I’ll stick around here until you remember.

Learnt new runes!

Onr = heal (sacrifice 10% Food)
ver = the (sacrifice 2% Water)
Lum = light (sacrifice 20% Food)
Cyl = ice (sacrifice 15% Food)

Buck wakes up.

BUCK: Morning!
JARED: You seem chipper.
BUCK: I feel great! Slept off that whisky no problem!
THREADSTUCK: Oh good, a drunkard.
BUCK: Who’s this?
THREADSTUCK: ThreadStuck. You must be the one Jared called Buck.
BUCK: That’s me!
BUCK: Anyway, I wanted to talk to you guys.
HARRY: What’s up?
BUCK: I had a dream.
JARED: Oh, go on?
BUCK: I don’t remember everything, but… there was a monster, like, a big fucking demon thing…

William begins to wake up groggily.

BUCK: And it stabbed this girl in the chest. She had white hair and wore a rainbow dress…
WILLIAM: !
BUCK: So I had to kill the thing, but then the dream changed and there was a different demon. Then I shot it.
BUCK: I think I remember… fire after that? Lots of fire.
HARRY: I wonder what it could mean?
JARED: No idea.
WILLIAM: Morning, guys.
JARED: Oh, morning William.
THREADSTUCK: Before you ask, I’m ThreadStuck and I’m tagging along with this lot.
WILLIAM: Uh, oh, OK.
HARRY: So, what are we doing now that we’re all up?
JARED: I was figuring we could talk more runes.
BUCK: Actually, we can do that whilst walking.
WILLIAM: What do you mean?
BUCK: I was thinking we could walk back along this river. We followed it all the way to this clearing, but I think animals use this to drink from. We need more food.
JARED: That’s a good point.
THREADSTUCK: Let’s get going then. We can discuss runes whilst we walk.
HARRY: Yeah, OK, let’s go.
BUCK: Right the fuck on!

The gang begins to follow the brook, buffeted gently by a cool morning breeze. Jared and William walk further behind the group for a short while.

WILLIAM: Hey, can I talk to you?
JARED: Yeah, sure, what’s up?
WILLIAM: Did you spot anything weird when you were on watch?
JARED: Well, I met ThreadStuck. There was a native with a spear as well, I don’t know where he came from. I can only assume he’s the only one… don’t worry the other guys by telling them.
JARED: I’ll let them know when I’m ready.
WILLIAM: OK, will do.
JARED: What about yourself?
WILLIAM: …I met this really pretty girl. She matched Buck’s description perfectly.
WILLIAM: White hair, rainbow dress.
JARED: …Huh.
WILLIAM: She spoke to me for a bit, then vanished.
JARED: That’s interesting. I wonder what her deal is?
WILLIAM: No idea. I’ll let you know if I see anything like it.
JARED: Yes, please let me know.

Jared and William catch up with the others.

BUCK: I’ll keep a weather eye out for tracks.
JARED: Alright.
THREADSTUCK: So, Jared, what are the most commonly used runes? Do you know of them?
JARED: Oh, yes, of course. The most common… well, the main ones start with either ‘create’ or ‘destroy’, which are Jio and Brk respectively. Then there’s ix and erx, which are ‘with’ and ‘without’ respectively.
JARED: Oh, and deu, which is used often as well. That means ‘sacrificing’.
HARRY: Interesting.
WILLIAM: Any more?
JARED: Yes, other common runes are the core ones, that pretty much serve as the basis for everything. Nox, Lum, Vyr, Cyl and Itt, which are ‘darkness’, ‘light’, ‘fire’, ‘ice’ and ‘object’.
WILLIAM: Object?
THREADSTUCK: Thinking outside the box, I assume it just uses the nearest object to you?
JARED: The one that you’re holding, usually, yes. Though it can refer to multiple objects.
HARRY: Really? Let me just try something…
WILLIAM: Huh?
HARRY: Give me your stick a minute. If I’ve learnt this right…
HARRY: I can use Jio deu Itt to ‘create sacrificing object’, and if I’m holding the stick and, say, this rock, it’ll sacrifice them both to create a new object?
JARED: Yeah, in theory.
HARRY: Jio deu Itt!

The stick vanishes along with the rock, and Harry gains a pointed stone poker!

WILLIAM: Wow!
HARRY: Wow, uh, yeah…
JARED: Oh! Careful!
THREADSTUCK: What?
JARED: You have to be careful. Runes draw their power from your own body. If you use them too much you can die! Quite easily!
HARRY: Oh… would’ve been nice to know…
BUCK: Shush!
BUCK: I see a trail, I think it’s a deer!
WILLIAM: Gimme that poking stone. It’s mine.
HARRY: Oh, yeah, sorry man.
WILLIAM: No worries. Now where does the trail lead, Buck?
BUCK: This way! Stay quiet!

The five intrepid travellers venture off into the gloom, following the trail Buck has found.

Learnt new runes!

Jio = create (sacrifice 15% Food)
Brk = destroy (sacrifice 15% Food)
erx = without (sacrifice 5% Water)
deu = sacrificing (sacrifice 10% Water)
Vyr = fire (sacrifice 15% Food)
Itt = object (sacrifice 5% Food)


JARED [Food 85%] [Water 89%]
Hands [1/2]: Wrench
Pocket [1/2]: Crude Axe
Bag [2/6]: Rations, Rations

BUCK [Food 89%] [Water 94%]
Hands [1/2]: Revolver
Pocket [2/2]: Pocket Watch, Hip Flask (Empty)
Jacket [1/2]: Dante’s Inferno
Case [3/4]: Coconut Chunk, Apple, Apple

WILLIAM [Food 97%] [Water 82%]
Hands [1/2]: Pointed Stone Poker
Pocket [1/2]: Coconut Chunk

HARRY [Food 80%] [Water 82%]
Hands [0/2]:
Pocket [1/2]: Coconut Chunk

THREADSTUCK [Food 65%] [Water 92%]
Hands [0/2]:
Pocket [0/2]:


Derelict, pionoplayer and RandomWriter head through the Lobby and enter the Asylum.

RANDOMWRITER: Whoa. What is this place?
DERELICT: I… uh, don’t actually know. Keep your voices down, by the way.
DERELICT: The guardians told me very little about what they were doing here.
PIONOPLAYER: It’s creepy.
DERELICT: Yeah.
PIONOPLAYER: So where is this Silent Eli character?
DERELICT: He could be anywhere. But he never, ever makes noise, even when he tries to.
DERELICT: So you have to keep an eye out. You’ll never hear him sneaking up on you.
RANDOMWRITER: What does he look like?
DERELICT: He’s got a huge head with two vacant eyes. His whole body is bandaged and, well, his body isn’t really big enough to support his head. He has bandaged arms that just drag along the floor whenever he moves.
PIONOPLAYER: …Ugh, great…
DERELICT: He kills you by snapping your neck from behind. That’s what I’ve been told.
RANDOMWRITER: So where are we going?
DERELICT: We need to go through the Asylum to reach the Lab. That’s where the equipment will be.
DERELICT: You see all this rusty machinery everywhere? It’s a labyrinth, pretty much, pipes and machines criss-crossing everywhere.
PIONOPLAYER: Oh, excellent. Which way do we go then?
DERELICT: It’s a choice. We could take the direct route - downstairs, through the main holding cells. It’s quicker, but it’s more likely that Silent Eli will be down there.
DERELICT: There’s the route down here, which will be much longer but we don’t have to risk going downstairs. Of course, Silent Eli could just as easily be up here.
DERELICT: Or we go through the vents. It’ll make a lot of echoing noise when we move through them, so it will attract Silent Eli, but we can drop down on the other side of this place once we make it through the vents; only a few minutes away from the Lab.
DERELICT: What should we do?
RANDOMWRITER: Couldn't we split up?
DERELICT: I wouldn't advise it. You guys don't know where the Lab is, and if Silent Eli gets you... we wouldn't be able to know, because we wouldn't hear a thing.
RANDOMWRITER: Right.
PIONOPLAYER: OK then.
DERELICT: So. Where we going?

The rusting metal everywhere is completely silent. No noise at all, except for faint bangs in the distance. Somewhere in the darkness is a killer that can’t be heard, and somewhere else in the darkness is the scythe Derelict needs to complete his mission.

ThreadStuck: Ask for all food and water that the party is currently holding. Then, Jio Itt.

Hm. If this works, you shouldn't need to worry about food or water. I think I'll just wander around the lobby and see if I can't find anything like a rune dictionary.

Buck: Keep ye flask.
Buck: Suggest scouring the beach for a flask or glass later on instead.

Buck: Warily hand out case with food in it to ThreadStuck.

Buck: Follow trail.

Done. I'll update it as we go.

So, Buck saw Derelict's character in his dream (and Will met her later). Anyway-I have a suspicion that Buck's dream could be related to his title somehow. Specifically: the part where he feels duty-bound to protects Prism could hint to his future as a Knight. He sees demons, but he fights them. The last part features flames that turn into ice after he lashes out at them, and then they vanish into nothingness. There are a lot of 'aspects' that could be taken from here: Fire/Flame(s) because of the flames, Ice because he turns them into ice, Rage because he lashes out at them to do that, Void/Nothing/Nothingness because they vanish into nothingness afterwards.

So, a list of possible titles would be:

Knight of Fire/Flame(s)
Knight of Ice
Knight of Rage
Knight of Void/Nothing/Nothingness
Knight of Ice and Fire
Knight of Rage and Fire
Knight of Ice and Rage
Knight of Rage and Void
Knight of Fire and Void
Knight of Ice and Void
Knight of Fire, Ice and Void
Knight of Rage, Ice and Fire
Knight of Rage, Fire and Void
Knight of Rage, Ice and Void
Knight of Rage, Void, Ice and Fire

If there's only one aspect they could also be formatted as Fire Knight, Ice Knight, Void Knight, Rage Knight, etc., I guess.

Perhaps there are some books about titles and about what they entail in here? We should check. Derelict's room probably has something similar.

(I feel like ThreadStuck is a pretty clear Lord of Light, how would that translate?)
EDIT: I asked this before your quick edit, but it still would be cool to know.

(Threadstuck does at least.)

(Do the command prompters get titles too?)

Unfortunately not. But they may have something to do with the activation of their character's title...