THE SUNDERED LAND: A Doomed Pilgrim in the Ruins of the Future -- play with me!
So hey! This is an instance of Vincent Baker's game THE SUNDERED LAND: A Doomed Pilgrim in the Ruins of the Future which was designed for play on social media platforms. I'm making little tweaks to fit with Steemit, but mostly it'll play as written. It's a role-playing game where you all are the GM and I'm the only player! Game play will take place in the comments.
I’m a warrior seeking peace and an end to bloodshed. I’m on pilgrimage to the Temple to No Gods in the distant City of Gulls. My pilgrimage has brought me to The Quivering Dunes, inhabited by animate shadows, hungry for souls. My goal is to pass safely through and continue my pilgrimage. I have the wisdom of the ancestors who guide me and the ability to ignore discomfort even unto death.
You, my friends online, play the world. Your goal is to see me to my doom, instead of safely on my way. You’re allowed only to directly answer my direct questions, though, so you might not be able to do it.
The rules:
1. Only answer my questions.
2. If you don’t already know the answer, make something up.
3. Keep your answers short.
4. If your answer’s disruptive, I’m allowed to flag it.
5. Otherwise, I have to go with the first
answer somebody gives. I’ll upvote it!
Steem-specific things: I'm new here and trying to figure out how to engage with the community. I think it would be ideal if when you see someone contribute to the game in a way you particularly like, you'd upvote their comment. But I've been analyzing the way things work here and that seems idealistic. So, on top of me urging you to do that (vote for others' contributions!), I'm also going to evenly distribute any SBD this post sends me in seven days to all the participants in the game. So if you're playing -- or just want to incentivize this use of the medium, you should vote for this post here.
The comments in this post should be reserved for game-play. But I've created a meta/chat post where anyone should feel free to comment on the game, the structure of play, the developing fiction, or whatever they like. That thread is here.
I've been walking through the Quivering Dunes all night, trying to stay cool. I'm approaching a rocky ridge emerging from the sand, flanked by grey scrub, hoping to get a better view of the path ahead. Something warns me of approaching danger. What warns me? Anyone should answer.
The knotting of your empty belly intensifies for a moment.
I lie back down and wait a bit. I try to release some of the stress and consider the feeling of cold that the thing is causing. I still the raging torrent in my head and listen. What are the ancestors telling me? Anyone should answer.
The ancestors tell you that the shadows here are hungry for souls. There may be other voices telling you to lie still, that your soul has been tenderized long enough, but those probably aren't the ancestors.
Not sure how I missed this...sorry!
The knotting of your empty belly intensifies for a moment.
This is unexpected and I'm not sure what to think. I'm prepared to leap up and bolt, but should I? Does this feel dangerous? Anyone should answer.
Definitely dangerous, but perhaps leaping up would be worse. Perhaps you need to do something other than hide!
From some distance away, you hear the man you met among the shadows moving around. It's not clear what he's doing.
I try it! I lie flat and start to wiggle my way into the sand, forming a depression. What does my shadow do? Does this seem to disarm it? Anyone should answer.
It does, with almost no surface area exposed to the sun you cast no shadow capable of attacking you. Furthermore, as you wriggle into the sand some of the sun seems to be blocked out by one of the human shapes that isn't there -- it seems to have taken this opportunity to move up and stand at your feet, and its shadow now stretches out to cover you, almost matching your exact position and completely covering any of your own shadow that might have been left. You feel cold to your bones.
Well I don't need the ancestors to tell me I don't want to be surrounded! I'm moving back, out of circle they're trying to form. Then I'm going to put a little distance between myself and their current location. How aggressively are they responding to me? Do I need to run for serious or do I have the leisure to examine them in relative safety? Anyone should answer.
As you try to put distance between yourself and the encircling shadows, you realize there is one shadow you cannot avoid-- your own. It lunges at you.
Yeah, OK...it's worth the risk of glancing up. So I bend at the waist and crane my head around, trying to spot the stranger and see what he's doing. He said he came to commune with the shadows, but there's more going on, I think. What's he doing and how can I use that to my advantage? Anyone should answer.
The stranger seems to be using a stick to draw lines into the sand in an elaborate pattern, perhaps with religious or mystical significance. If you had some plan that involved needing a stick perhaps you could take his, but it's unclear how you could turn lines in the sand to your advantage. As you sit in the shadow of the... shadow, you continue to feel extremely cold.
I wonder only briefly about the man's future -- these must be the Quivering Shadows I was told about, and they demand my full attention. What behavior are the shadows exhibiting? I've been told that they are animate; surveying these several, can I quickly learn anything of their intent? Anyone should answer.
They're moving toward you. The shadows move as if they're being cast by people striding purposefully. Unless you miss your guess they're trying to encircle you.
I nod and smile, coming closer. "Perhaps, but I have no choice. My will to continue warring has fled and I must find some sort of peace."
Looking around the darkness and toward the lightening horizon, I ask him for more information: "No one lives here -- what's your destination, friend?"
How does he respond? Anyone should answer.
As you turn toward the light you start to see long shadows projecting from the rocks and withered plants that dot the landscape. But also human forms, extending from where no one stands. Perhaps a half dozen of them arrayed in a semicircle between you and the rising sun. The stranger replies, "This is my destination, the shadows told me to come here and wait. I wasn't sure why until you turned up. It's true that no one lives here, at least not for long."
And so I move! I'm up and running, moving along the path of my original quest. Hopefully I don't need to be sprint because I'm settling in for a long, hard run. Can I outdistance the shadows as I run into the sun? Anyone should answer.
You jog towards the rising sun, quickly outdistancing all but your own shadow, which obviously keeps pace with you, step for step. It's unknown if you're now safe from your own shadow, or if it might betray you again. When you glance back, you only see the strange man, slowly walking in your wake, further and further behind you, the dim red coal of his cigarette against the lightening dawn sky.