Shadowborne.

CTG: > Examine surroundings
CUC: >Recall recent past.
CAO: [You examine your surroundings. You appear to be in a grimy cell of some sort.]
CTG: > Anything of interest?
CAO: [Do you recall the recent past?]
CTG: > yes
CCA: > yes
CCA: do we want to know?
CAO: [...]
CUC: Yes.
CPB: we have to know
CAO: [Your name is ∂åœî Ά∑£. You are a carpenter and ex-private assassin.]
CTG: What the shit.
CAO: [What the shit, you ask yourself. You don't know either.]
CTG: > Try to remember why you're here
CAO: [You were caught giving a Markotchi prisoner of war bread when they had escaped from the Grand Hegemony Prison, and were sentenced to life in prison.]
CTG: Is there anything of interest in your cell?
CAO: [There's a bed, which you are sitting upon, the door, and one (1) bucket and mop in the corner.]
CTG: examine the bucket and mop
CTG: > Ponder if escape is possible or if it's even something you should be working towards
CAO: [The bucket is filled with a soapy water. Probably toxic to humans. The mop, however, is made of a sturdy... hazel wood. It has served you well in the required manual labor hours. Similarly, you're pretty sure that escaping prison for being locked up after giving a starving person bread is justifiable enough.]
CTG: is there a window?
CAO: [There are no external WINDOWS. There is, however, a window on the door, barred and large enough to stick a pole or a hand through.]
CTG: Look outside.
CAO: [You look outside. Your hall in the prison is damp, slimy, and, most of all, empty. There are no other cells here. No other doors, even. Just yours at the end of the hall, one guard standing before it, and one set of stairs up to the ground level.]
CTG: does the guard have keys on him
CAO: [The guard does not appear to have keys on him. He DOES, however, have some sort of electrokinetic pistol holstered on his belt just within sight, though perhaps not your reach.]
CTG: can you use the broom pole to snag the pistol from his belt
CAO: [Can you?]
CTG: save your game before attempting
CAO: > SAVE GAME <
CAO: [Saving...]
CAO: [Saving...]
CAO: [Game saved successfully. Continue?]
CTG: Continue.
CAO: [What do you do?]
CTG: is there anything you can reach using your hands?
CAO: [You can reach the lock on the other side of the door, though you cannot open it, of course, as it is locked.]
CTG: if it's locked, then who has the keys?
CAO: [Presumably the Warden.]
CTG: okay I have a shitty plan but here we go
CTG: use the broom pole to snag the pistol from the guard's belt
CTG: the mop, I mean
CTG: wait wait hold on
CAO: [Holding on.]
CTG: is the guard human
CAO: [The guard is, in fact, a human.]
CTG: tell him that the bucket in your room is filled with water that's most likely toxic to humans and that if he wants to avoid getting poisoned he should probably replace it with a clean bucket.
CTG: this will force the guard to come into the cell
CTG: by which time you can then steal his pistol
CAO: [What do you say, specifically, to the guard?]
CTG: "Excuse me, guard, but I'd like to file a complaint about the quality of my cell. The bucket of water that you've supplied to me is insuitable for any human to use, as it is most likely toxic. I swear I feel sicker each time I use it. Could you possibly come in here to replace my water supply with something cleaner?
CAO: [The guard turns around, looking at you suspiciously. Slowly, he nods. "Alright," he says, unlocking the door, "but keep that /arm/ away from me, and stand in the corner while I'm in here."]
CTG: what's so bad about your arm?
CPB ceased responding to memo.
CAO: [You look to your left arm. It's covered in bandages and oily black stains.]
CTG: unwrap the bandages?
CAO: [The guard steps into the room, and you unwrap the bandages. Below is no human arm, but a twisted, thorny artifice of liquid shadow. Twisting and throbbing, sending pains and chills down your bones with every palpitation.]
CTG: well then.
CTG: do you know what it does?
CUC: rewrap the bandages
CUC: REWRAO
CAO: [You've never known what it does, but it whispers to you, sometimes. Like now.]
CTG: what does it say?
CAO: ["Zmtvi. Wvzgs. Gsilyyrmt wzipmvhh. Erhfzorav gsvn, zmw blf hszoo szev... uivvwln."]
CAO: [You've never understood its language. Its foul tongue.]
CTG ceased responding to memo.
CTG: "Anger. Death. Throbbing darkness. Visualize them, and you shall have... freedom."
CAU: Freedom sounds neat. What say you, Twin?
CTG: visualize anger, death, and throbbing darkness.
CAO: [How so? That isn't very specific.]
CTG: picture scenes of death, like horrible wars, vividly in your mind. try and feel as angry as you can. and above all try to visualize the darkness, I guess.
CAO: [In your mind's eye, you picture horrible wars, rank with death and carnage, all replaying atop one another. Beyond and yet above it all, a creeping, warm shadow, taking in the oblivion like it were its life-force.]
CAO: [You are so caught up in the visions that you fail to notice when your arm twists and shifts, and impales the guard through the back with a spine of pure condensed shadow, stretching a good four meters.]
CAO: [The spike pins the man to the wall, and wriggles through his internal organs, bloodletting him as he slowly expires in the utmost agony. Your arm retracts as he collapses to the ground.]
CTG: ....
CTG: is the door still open
CAO: [Yes.]
CAU: Take his gun.
CTG: take hjs pistol and run
CAO: [You take his pistol, and run out of the cell.]
CTG: wiat
CTG: should we take his clothes too?
CTG: so that we can assume the identity of a guard
CAO: [They've been mostly ruined by tears in the back and front, and, you know. The blood.]
CTG: oh, yeah.
CTG: then just go.
CTG: up the stairs.
CAO: [You run up the stairs.]
CGG: man regardless of how shıtty they look these eggs are stıll better than how ı used to cook them
CTG: examine new surroundings
CAO: [You appear to be in another hallway. This one is lined with doors. Beyond each, a prisoner banging at the door, desperate for freedom. There's a door at the far end of the hall that leads to an elevator, you think.]
CTG: unfortunately, we don't have the keys.
CTG: head to the elevator.
CAO: [You rush over to the thing, and get in. There are but two options. Floor elt, and floor -я.]
CGG: what do the locks look lıke agaın
CGG: and how's the pıstol work
CAO: [The locks are blocks of machinery nailed to the doors, powered by pure Blue, and hooked up to the alarms. The pistol takes in energy from the wielder's motion, and uses it to fire bolts of energy.]
CTG: ...Blue?
CGG: gotcha.
CAO: [Blue. You know, the energy source?]
CTG: sure.
CAU: Ah yes, my favorite color of Soylent.
CTG: run in place a lot so the pistol builds up energy
CTG: also, what floor are you on?
CAO: [You do so. The weapon is fully charged. Similarly, you appear to be on Floor Ѯ.]
CTG: go to floor elt
CAU: Floor elt awaits.
CGG: wow someone almost spoıled the exıstence of the breakıng poınt to a lıveblogger
CAO: [You choose to go to Floor Elt. The elevator begins to ascend. As it does, your arm whispers to you again.]
CGG: thank fuck steven's knıfe exısts
CAO: ["Gsv hvvw. Gsv hvvw. Gsv hvvw droo xlnv."]
CGG: to avert suspıcıon
CTG: "The seed. The seed. The seed will come."
CAO: [The elevator door opens, and, seven seconds later, the elevator itself stops.]
CTG: examine surroundings.
CAO: [You appear to be on the roof. There's nobody here.]
CAU: Peer over the roof's edge.
CAO: [You squint over the edge. The prison facility appears to be on the very edge of a cliff above the ocean. You can smell the salt, and hear the crashing waves far below.]
CTG: hm. you couldn't by any chance survive a fall from that height, could you?
CAO: [Unassisted? No.]
CTG: Assisted by whom
CAO: [Well, who in the Abyss is here with you?]
CTG: Your arm
CTG: ?
CAO: [This is a possibility, yes.]
CTG: hmmm. examine floor -я before deciding on this.
CAO: [You go down to Floor -Я.]
CAO: [For once, the elevator door opens at the right time.]
CTG: examine surroundings
CAO: [You appear to be in a cold, dark chamber. There is a locked door on the far side of the room, one single flickering light hanging from the ceiling, a curious wooden rack with leather straps attached to it and blood upon it, and the mangled corpses of three guards lying upon the ground, entrails streaming towards the door.]
CAO: [One of the guards has a Red-powered datapad.]
CTG ceased responding to memo.
CCA: > Inspect corpses.
CAO: [The guards' pistols have all been torn to metallic shreds on the ground. At seeing this, you note a number of scorch marks on the walls around you. The only other thing of interest they have is the datapad.]
CTG: take datapad and examine it.
CAO: [You take the pad. Reading its contents, you find two things. A notice saying the Warden and high-ranking prison staff have abandoned the prison permanently, and a short video clip from the security cameras, evidently, of a shadowy creature, slinking close to the ground all the while, creeping through one of the halls.]
CPB ceased responding to memo.
CUC: ...that might be our arm
CAO: [Your ARMS are right where they should be! Their sockets.]
CAO: [SURELY, they couldn't have come to life whilst you slept and killed people.]
CAO: [Please enter command.]
CTG: ...hm.
CTG: examine the wooden rack.
CAO: [You examine the wooden rack. If you're not mistaken, this is some sort of torture device, especially considering the tub filled with blood below it.]
CAO: [There's also a canister of Blue plugged into the wooden thing's side, along with a network of invasive-looking tubes.]
CTG: take the canister of blue.
CTG: maybe we can use it to free the other prisoners?
CAO: [You do so. This is a distinct possibility, yes. Perhaps you could overload the locks.]
CTG: cool.
CTG: head back to the floor with all the prisoners, then, and prepare for jailbreak.
CAO: [You head back down to Floor Ѯ. A number of prisoners see the canister in your hands, and shout at you frantically to help them first.]
CAO: [As you observe them all, you get a inexplicable fleeting sense that you should kill every last one of the people here, in this hall.]
CTG: what is your arm whispering to you?
CAO: [For once, it seems to be silent.]
CTG: hm.
CTG: why do you feel you should kill everyone?
CAO: [You don't know.]
CTG: kill everyone, I suppose.
CTG: probably using your arm.
CAO: [If it could laugh, you're pretty sure that your arm would be uttering a gurgling chuckle right now.]
CTG: would it be possible to shoot the canister of blue creating an explosion killing everyone
CTG: and creating an escape route
CAO: [Hmm. Perhaps. Blue is a volatile thing, when not properly managed.]
CTG: then do so.
CTG: make sure to stand back, like, far back in the elevator
CTG: and place the canister in the middle of the hall
CAO: [You incinerate everyone in the hall. Your arm wriggles a little, muttering joyously. "Tllw, tllw. Uvzhg lm gsv wvzgs."]
CTG: "Good, good. Feast on the death."
CTG: Ask your arm why it's talking.
CAO: ["Dsb, R kirgsvv, ziv blf gzoprmt?"]
CTG: "Why, I prithee, are you talking?"
CTG: Good point.
CTG: What's your name?
CTG: Do you have one?
CAO: ["Snn."]
CAO: ["Yozxp."]
CTG: Black.
CAO: [Now what?]
CTG: Do you know what I should do next, Black?
CAO: ["Zhxvmw, zmw zxsrvev uivvwln, kviszkh. Fmovhh blf'w izgsvi dv nvivob ivgfimvw gl lfi xvoo, zmw orevw lfg gsv ivhg lu blfi wzbh gsviv."]
CTG: Is living in a cell alone preferable to living in the outside world?
CAO: ["Xlmhrwvirmt gsv wvzgs zylfg blf, R dlfow jfvhgrlm dsvgsvi li mlg blf xlfow vevm zxjfriv hfhgvmzmxv. Zugvi gsv xsziivw uovhs ifmh lfg, gszg rh."]
CTG: The charred flesh?
CAO: ["Yfimg xlikhvh, hszggvivw wivznh, sld gsvb hrmt gl nv."]
CTG: Is that what you eat
CTG: we eat
CAO: ["R'w rnztrmv blf'w kivuvi zxgfzo ullw, yfg blf xzm hfivob xlmhfnv uovhs, ru mvxvhhzib, ml?"]
CTG: I guess so.
CTG: Okay, how can we escape. If you helped me, could we really survive jumping off the roof?
CTG: Or is there another exit.'
CAO: ["Rg dlfow yv z ivozgrevob hrnkov zuuzri gl pvvk blf uiln kofnnvgrmt gl blfi wvzgs."]
CTG: Then let's do it.
CTG: First though, is there anything we can loot from the corpses?
CAO: [You don't think so. If there was, it was probably incinerated.]
CTG: Okay. Head to the top floor again.
CAO: [You are now upon the roof once more.]
CTG: Just kinda sort of maybe...
CTG: jump
CAO: [Only, something's different this time.]
CTG: Oh?
CAO: [Yes. There's an odd sound in the air. Like the beating of diaphanous insect wings, magnified three gvix over.]
CTG: Look around for the source of the noise.
CAO: [You look left. You look right. Then, you look up.]
CAO: [There's a monolithic creature in the air above you, maw dripping with some unknowable substance, insides glowing Green.]
CAO: [It's a Mosquito.]
CTG: Fire your pistol at it.
CAO: [You shoot the thing, to no avail. Its body seems to just absorb the energy.]
CAO: [It twitches slightly, massive eyes taking you in several times over.]
CTG: try using your arm against it.
CAO: [With roiling, frothing emotion building up within you, Black erupts into slimy darkness. Spines of shadow arc up the skies, stabbing it several hundreds of times over with dripping liquid darkness. It still yet lives.]
CTG: Try again.
CAO: [Its maw quivers, and the Mosquito stabs its proboscis into the top of the prison. It forces its head down further into the building. You continue to ravage it, off-colored goo dripping from the creature as it appears to drink up something within the prison.]
CTG: Try to slice its proboscis in two with your arm.
CAO: [You slice with Black, but the proboscis appears too sturdy. You fail.]
CAO: [It does not appear to be attacking you.]
CTG: Try to commune with the Mosquito? Tell it to leave, or something.
CTG: also /afl
CTG: */afk
CAO: [You attempt to commune with the beast-insect. It looks over to you, and sound comes from all around you, and within you.]
CAO: ["Деатх муст бе цонсумед. Тхис ис тхе трутх оф лифе, вагабонд. Феаст упон ыоур енемиес."]
CUC: "death must be consumed. this is the truth of life, vagabond. feast upon your enemies."
CUC: huh.
CTG: /back
CTG: should we just... let the mosquito do its thing, then?
CUC: As long as it doesn't hurt us...
CAO: [It doesn't seem to be posing an imminent threat to you.]
CTG: then jump off, I suppose.
CAO: [You leap off of the top of the prison, rapidly falling into the ocean below.]
CTG: black, now would be a good time to help
CAO: [Your left arm pulsates with oily black fluid. Pustules of Green appear over the limb, and curved bulbous bubbles of liquid darkness burst upward, slowing your descent.]
CAO: [You think you might be free.]
CTG: Good.
CTG: Where will you land?
CTG: In teh water? On land?
CAO: [You plunge into the warm ocean below, and Black cackles a twisted cackle.]
CTG: it suddenly occurs to me that trusting black might not have been the greatest of ideas
CTG: examine surroundings once you surface
CAO: [Waves of salty water swirl around you as you pop up onto the waves. You can see the sandy shores a short distance away, out of the sight of the prison's windows.]
CTG: start swimming towards the shores
CAO: [Black's chuckling comes to a gradual and natural halt. You set foot on the shore, free.]
CAO: [A seed, perhaps, on the sandy earth.]
CAO: [Shadowborne.]
CTG: The seed will come.
CAO: FIN?