City of IF

[Lebrenth]

Fabled Island, Chapter 13a "Blood of Akala"

“That’s it then,” Thomas announces. One certain thing the hunters have in common, it is distrust. Even before Ross picks her up, her mind is scrambling for something to tell the hunters. Something that will interest them enough to keep her alive. But the only thing she can think of was the pain of fire and the uncertainty of death. She remembers a kindly old priest who gently called for the islanders to repent from the heathen ways. He calmly explained the horrors of Hell. He explained that human sacrifice was an abomination and that her own ancestors, who were ceremonially cast into Akala, would not merely die or be received in a celestial paradise. At that moment and forever more, there would be no intermission of burning pain. She laughed, but she could never truly banish the images of masses of islanders writhing in the lava and trapped within the volcano, and the fear grew that one day she would join them.

The pain now was just the beginning. When the treasure hunters feed her feet into the lava, the screams take over until she blacks out.

“I don’t think she knows anything,” a treasure hunter says.

“Are we supposed to wait for her to wake up? That volcano could erupt any minute!”

“She knows something.”

“If being lowered into lava doesn’t get it out of her, nothing will.”

“Just wait a few minutes. If she wakes she should be ready to talk.”

Chia’s trembling continues to worsen. The things she’s seen has done nothing to harden her against the sight and smell of Carmilla being burned alive. She feels like her throat is closing up on her. She vomits and nearly faints. The heat and the smell and horror won’t go away. She can’t handle it anymore. They hear her piercing scream as her fortitude caves in and the desperate emotion explodes. She runs. It’s all she can think to do.

“Let her go,” Ethan says when Jim starts after her. Jim moves past him anyway, but Thomas and Ross also get in his way.

“She’ll get herself killed,” Jim says.

“You stay,” Thomas says, not about to let an able fighter go before the mundies are dealt with. Jenn and Aspi watch as Chia staggers away. They have to ask themselves if they should do something, but they know she isn’t safe with the group. They may as well let her go for her own good. Soon enough, she is out of sight.

“I don’t think we’re going to get anything out of her,” Thomas says looking at Carmilla, who barely breathes. “We don’t have time for this.”

“The lava was too much,” Ethan says in hindsight. Too late for more subtle tortures and time is running out. They roll her into the lava flow and she immediately catches fire.

“Let’s go, we might as well find the Bulletproof Juice,” Thomas says. Jeremy hesitates a moment, watching Carmilla burn. A barmaid burning in the lava of Akala. He asks himself what he’s gotten himself into. He sized the hunters up when they first came and he could tell they weren’t to be trifled with, but didn’t really think they would resort to such things. Her brother will not be pleased if he finds out. Jeremy makes certain his weapon is loaded. He’s going to need it.


Mundie territory lies on the opposite side of the island, so the crew return to their boat, half expecting it to be swarmed but finding it undisturbed. The wind is not so favorable that evening, but enough to make more progress than by foot.

Ethan borrows one of Chia’s abandoned telescopes as the crew nears the northeast. FITH has put on the bounty on the White Mundie and it became the obsession of certain hunters to capture it, comically similar to Ahab’s white whale. Nonetheless it appeals to some instinct in man to hunt rare things. This couldn’t be understood better amongst the hunters than by Ethan. Sight unseen, Ethan is confident he could find the albino mundie single-handedly, in fact better that way since hunting is a skill that requires more than steady aim. The difficult part would be knowing where to start. Regardless, the mundie is not his target. They’re looking for the islander’s potion and its rumored power.

Night falls before the crew lands. Jeremy insists that it would be suicide to travel through mundie territory at night and considers it wiser to land in the city of Paradise and wait for tomorrow. But the wind doesn’t favor this idea. As if insulted by its presence, it turns violently against the boat, insisting that it either remains at the brink of the haunted bamboo forest or goes back the way it came. Jeremy belligerently refuses to land in the amongst the thick shafts of bamboo nor even look in its direction. He gets a sinking feeling that he’s already gotten too close. With a look in his eyes that says he’s ready to shoot anyone who opposes him, he tells Jim to turn back and find the nearest place to land outside of the bamboo.

Jenn looks deep into the darkness surrounding the island… she can see torches moving amongst the forest, but she can’t see who holds them.

“Ethan,” she says, holding out her hand for the telescope. He doesn’t hand it to her, but rather looks for himself, though he doesn’t know what he’s looking for. He sees no lights nor anything of note. He hands her the telescope out of mild curiosity and scratches his arms. He feels itchy all over, probably from the salt and sweat and grime.

Through the telescope she can see islanders, but not like the ones she’s seen in the harbor city. These islanders have abundant piercings and tattoos, their faces are painted like skeletons, and as she looks at them, they seem to be looking at her… not just at her, but in her. She feels exposed and she turns away.

“What do you see?” Ethan asks, still scratching. Red bumps are forming all over his arms and face.

“Nothing,” she says… but she can still see the torches. Everyone turns their heads when the drums begin to pound. It sounds like hundreds of them… but to them it seems to be coming from the darkness. Jenn can tell they can’t see the lights, and wonders why she can. She’s not going crazy, she’s certain of that much. … Jeremy still refuses to look….

“Jeremy,” she says. “What do you see?”

“Nothing. I don’t see anything at all,” he says, but he doesn’t look. He won’t look. Jenn won’t either. It’s worse than just seeing something eerie in the dark that others can’t. It’s not just fear or denial. It’s something worse. They don’t want to understand it. They want to forget it.

[Lebrenth]

Fabled Island, Ep. 13b, "Law of the Jungle"

For no apparent reason, the bamboo ends and the jungle begins. Jeremy eagerly selects a place to land… it’s not very good… The boat runs aground before reaching the trees, and there’s nothing nearby to tie off. The crew pushes away with the oars and tries to find a better place. Jeremy leans on the bowsprit with a torch and looks into the jungle and the heaving black water. The oars prove better for testing the waters. The boat floats narrowly above rock and with the row of the tide and the violent winds it is especially precarious. Jim furls the sails but it still seems inadequate.

“We’re going to crack the boat open again,” Jenn complains, but they continue.

“We’re too deep,” Jeremy says, looking into the jungle. “We should just go back.”

“Stop worrying,” Jim says optimistically. He’s navigated worse; hell, in the same boat even. Finally a small cove is found, giving shelter from the wind and the waves, and there are plenty of trees to tie to for extra security. Fearful of a storm, Jim makes certain the ship was very well anchored while the others disembark. Ethan stumbles up onto a rock ledge to look around. He feels hot and heavy. All of his energy is gone and though he feels like he’s on fire, he doesn’t feel like he’s sweating. And the itching is just getting worse… it’s all over and now they’re starting to bleed. He continues crawling with what strength he has left. He needs to get into the trees before the others see him and decide he’s just dead weight, like Lawrence or Chia. When the others realize he’s missing, they don’t take any notice. He’s always sneaking away.

“We should stay close to the boat,” Jeremy says. “We need to make a perimeter of torches and we’ll establish a watch.”

“Do the mundies hunt at night?” Jim asks.

“They’re always hunting,” Jeremy says. “But they’re loud so we’ll know when they’re coming.”

“So why have a watch?”

“You should know by now that mundies aren’t the only thing to worry about on this island. It’s a good thing we took care of those rocs, but they were the mundies worst enemy. Now they don’t have any predators on the island.”

“Except us,” Ross says with a smile.

“We’ll see. Where’s Ethan?” Jeremy asks.

“He sneaked off again,” Jenn says. “I think he went up that way.”

“We should find him.”

“Be my guest,” Jenn says. Jeremy takes a torch and starts looking around. The others tie the torches to long branches and plant them in the ground in a semi-circle with the cove to their backs. Somebody asks the question ‘Can mundies swim?’ but only Jeremy knows anything about them. Realizing that Jeremy is the only one who can find what the crew is looking for, Thomas decides to catch up. It doesn’t take long before he sees, as Jeremy has seen, that there is excrement and claw marks all over the place around the cove. He’s the first to notice the mundies sleeping in the trees above him.

No time for anything fancy, there’s too many of them. He doesn’t call out or shoot his pistol or even put out the torch… he just slowly and quietly backs up.

Before he’s made more than a few steps, there’s a loud scream of a man… Ethan? Jeremy? And soon there’s loud barking from all around as the mundies awaken. While they’re stirring, Thomas runs out of the trees to the stone ledge over the cove. Through the trees, Thomas can see the red eyes of the mundies reflecting torchlight. They launch themselves from the trees. Thomas barely has time for one shot, which he aimed true, but he’s forced to jump into the cove as the other two bound off the ground and swing they’re long claws at him. If they attacked him first, instead of knocking the torch away, he wouldn’t have time for jumping or anything else. Thomas’ side slams into the water. The mundies bark and howl loudly above him, but they do not follow. Thomas swims to the camp, nearly got shot in the process by a high strung treasure hunter.

“It’s me!” Thomas yells, getting on the land and frowning at getting his rifle wet. He begrudgingly sets it down and gets one of the extra muskets. “They’re all over. I have a feeling Ethan and Jeremy are being peeled apart like bananas as we speak.”

The howling and barking approaches the camp, but the mundies can hardly be seen moving amongst the trees. As they get into torchlight, they stop and whoop and howl and bark, but they keep ducking and dodging instead of charging. The careful shots the treasure hunters take still miss the goading mundies.

“Hold your fire!” Thomas yells, seeing what they’re doing. “Wait till you see the whites of their eyes!”

“They don’t have--”

“You know what I mean!”

The treasure hunters hold their fire and the mundies start getting bolder, but they’re playing the same game. Thomas wishes his rifle didn’t get wet, but manages to shoot one out of a tree. This spurs the mundies to make a all at once, and the treasure hunters use up their shots trying to repel them, killing only one more mundie in the process. The treasure hunters back up, forcing a few into the water as they draw their melee weapons. The mundies first priority, it seems, is to attack the torches. This makes them very vulnerable to Jenn, Ross and Aspi’s strikes. One mundie catches fire which the other mundies find especially startling, turning the charge and scaring them back into the trees.

The immolated mundie thrashes wildly until Aspi pins him to the ground. Then the group hurries to relight the torches that extinguished, realizing their value.

“We should get out of here!” Jenn yells.

“What if they’re not dead?” Jim says pointing out where Ethan and Jeremy could be.

“They’re dead!” Aspi insists. But then a shot is heard…. “He will be now he’s used up his shot….”

Then a series of shots… four or five perhaps….

“… Look, is it worth dying for this voodoo juice?” Aspi says, honestly asking for an answer.

[D-Lotus]

Your style is interesting, Leb, now that I notice. I'm always looking forward to the next sentence, reading hungrily, yet carefully, so that nothing escapes my attention. All the details are important. This is the peak of your story- you write best when your adventurers are in peril. I think that perhaps the ill of your style is that it takes getting used to. Now, I am very familiar with it and I like it, but at the intro of the story, I used to think it was dull, confusing, and boring. When you write the next story, think about changing the introduction so as to smoothly introduce your style.

DP- Hmmm, this is another of those DP's which I will denominate 'flight-or-fight'. You can do better than that, Leb. My choice is fight, as it has been in similar DP's.

[Chinaren]

I'm still not happy about killing the girl, we could have got further use out of her.

Anyway, to the current DP.

Load up with flammable goods and all head in together, the extra manpower would be worth it, and in for a penny...

Nice, if grim, chapter Leberenski.

[Kalanna Rai]

Gee, we're a bunch of wonderful people arn't we?

Still we've survived undead rocs, the rapids from hell, and a flight through the jungle with an erupting volcano at our backs. And we didn't do that by running away.

Onward...

[Draven Bones]

WHOA! I didn´t quit expect the barmaid to just go limp fish on us! I figured with all the hours she put in the bar and her relentless past, she would have been stronger then that! Pitty I was hoping to hear her scream a list of lies before passing out on us like that! Oh well one tribal down, just three hundred more to go! bring it on baby!

Cap´m I thought pacing was good, and you sure know how to make a forrest dark and scarey! I could tell you were trying to build up sympathy for the crispy native, but it doesn´t work on Aspie! she´s a hardend bitch with a mission! She does find this ¨magic juice¨ a pretty stupid, not to mention pointless hunt, but what the hell if she gets to kill some mundies and take some claws as a reminder! let go into the forrest!

DP: I say we get a couple of sticks of explosives and go back to the door in the lava fields and blow the hell out of that mountain! I bet that would open the door!

and the chia running off like that! I am glad I didnt trust her with my life! I think the group is very unstable right now and we need to regroup...heheehe regroup!
so as soon as we can get out of this spot, lets try and work things out because we are all gonna end up dead if we dont move as a team!

Lets tell the mundies to hold off on the attack for about an hour while we have a group therapy meeting and work out our emotions, and then we can start the battle over ok!! sound good cap´m!?

but seriously in light of the moment, I want mundie skin and mundie claws baby!

what is the volcanic activity as of nightfall? is she chillin out or heatin up?

Bones

[LordoftheNight]

Well, I expect I'm going to go on doing whatever it is I'm doing, and take no part in the decision.

I will point out though, that shooting one of the weaker party members, and fleeing with the others, is definately a tactically sound way to go.

Funny too.

[Kalanna Rai]

Right, savage bloodthirst animals are going to give us time for 'group therapy'...why do I highly doubt that.

And Lordy...if anyone's in serious danger of being shot...it's Ethan. He's weak, sick(mentally or otherwise), and all by himself. At this point I doubt your sword is going to help you a whole hell of a lot.

As for the rest of us, for all our strengths we arn't much better. We're damn low on ammo, which really put's a crimp in Thomas's style, being advanced on by rifle weilding people we don't know, and three members short. Which means there's...four?...of us about to make a charge into the jungle.

While I'm all for advancing, I agree that there needs to be a slightly hasty argument between the treasure hunters as to how to deal with everything that's happening. After which we probably shove Thomas out front since he's been doing most of the talking so far...

[LordoftheNight]

Ethan's also not there. Therefore making it difficult to shoot him.

[Kalanna Rai]

Nope, you're all alone in the jungle where people are shooting and mundies are angery. Good luck with that.

[Lebrenth]

Quote: We're damn low on ammo, which really put's a crimp in Thomas's style, being advanced on by rifle weilding people we don't know, and three members short. Which means there's...four?...of us about to make a charge into the jungle.


Actually, there's still six of you. Thomas, Ross, Jenn, Juan, Jim, and Aspi. Thomas' gunpowder was spoiled by the swim, but the crew has maintained its supply. You had a chance to resupply in Gadiri Harbor, and since I chose not to track and charge for ammunition, I will assume you're actually in good order. You also have extra muskets that you took from the other treasure hunters back in Paradise.

By being resourceful (at the cost of time of course), you've been eating fish and rocs and for short time coconuts, but most of the time the crew has been slogging back and forth on the island. I need to take account of the food situation, so I might as well do it now:

Nights on the island: 6. First night by the cemetery. Second in the mansion. Third night in Gadiri Harbor. Fourth night in the cemetery again. Fifth night in Connelly Fortress. Sixth night in Mundie Territory.

.... Hmm... All right, with captured rations and collected food I think it's fair to say that everyone has several days of food left and a few of you have an extra week or more.

You should also know that you have 14 torches (since Chia's torches were still in the boat).

Geez, this logistics stuff takes a lot of work. A bit of advice for anyone crazy enough to try this kind of Fable-fed storygame: keep it simple!

Quote: what is the volcanic activity as of nightfall? is she chillin out or heatin up?


It's hard to tell from the side of the island you're on. You can feel a faint rumble in the ground, but there's no big explosions or flows that you can see.

By the way, dynamite hasn't been invented yet in this story and you have no grenades or such. You would have to improvise and that would take a lot of time and gunpowder.

[Chinaren]

Quote: Geez, this logistics stuff takes a lot of work. A bit of advice for anyone crazy enough to try this kind of Fable-fed storygame: keep it simple!

Yup, that's one reason I won't be doing another 'Arena' in the same format! :lol:

Sorry, :off:

[Draven Bones]

Quote: Right, savage bloodthirst animals are going to give us time for 'group therapy'...why do I highly doubt that

for the one who cant pick up on sarcasm the above statement was a joke.

and I still think we need mundie skins!

[Lebrenth]

Episode 13 Poll is up


BTW, an aspect of my 'style' which really hasn't made itself obvious is that my DP's are always open. I've never made voters choose between my options for the sake of my story. I build the story entirely around the votes. If my generous readers were not so interested in the Heart of Akala, none of this would have happened. There are many other treasures (which I might add would be easier to get to) that you could have chosen from and had an entirely different story.

I'm just saying I focus more on the interactivity than the story. A lot more could be done with the DP's, especially if questions were asked. In my opinion, the best players are the ones who ask good questions. Questions like: "About how many mundies can we guess are out there?" "Is there a place with better cover?" "How far did the mundies retreat?" "How close were those gunshots?"

I could have answered those in the story, but cramming all the details into a story ruins the flow of it. And for the most part, it's assumed that whatever the players choose, it's going to work out, so why bother with details? Well, especially with this game, I consider the details inordinately important. I don't think anyone agonizes over the details more than me, actually. If you look for it, I think you'll see how.


(btw, the answers to the questions above (in order): 1. Actually that would be really hard to guess. You heard at least 7 of them, but Thomas saw more than that in just a couple trees. 2. Yes, but you would have to leave the boat. 3. They might have fled altogether. 4. A good 400 yards (about 400 meters).)

[Draven Bones]

Speaking of questions Cap´m.
Are the tribals, that Jenn saw with their torches, heading our way?

Also when going after the fallen brother. I would like to carry a torch rather then galavanting off into the jungle without seeing in front of me.

Also when was the last time it rained?
And if taking on the tribals is in our unlikely servivable future, what type of protection do they have. armor of some sorts? Other then bullet proof juice.

And if there are so many mundies what do they feed off of? are they preditors or are they like agressive plant eating gorillas?
If they are carnivors what type of game do they eat?

by the way, nice brief explination on how to be a better game player. it might help

[Lebrenth]

Draven Bones wrote: Speaking of questions Cap´m.
Are the tribals, that Jenn saw with their torches, heading our way?

Also when going after the fallen brother. I would like to carry a torch rather then galavanting off into the jungle without seeing in front of me.

Also when was the last time it rained?
And if taking on the tribals is in our unlikely servivable future, what type of protection do they have. armor of some sorts? Other then bullet proof juice.

And if there are so many mundies what do they feed off of? are they preditors or are they like agressive plant eating gorillas?
If they are carnivors what type of game do they eat?

by the way, nice brief explination on how to be a better game player. it might help

Don't worry about it, Draven. You have been very engaging and you ask a lot of questions. Have you read the backstory? That's probably about as much as you could do.... Oh yeah, and reading the "Secrets Discovered" section of FITH.

Answers to your questions: Jenn won't want to talk about the strange islanders she saw. She couldn't tell you where they were going anyway. The ones she saw very clearly weren't moving, they were just looking at her. The ones that were moving didn't have an obvious direction or pattern. Kinda spooky.

No worries, there's enough torches to go around (for now at least). You want a torch, you can take one of Chia's abandoned ones.

Though it hasn't been written into the story as well as I would like, it has at least sprinkled every day. Usually it passes fairly quickly. Also two days ago you had a good storm.

The islanders that you've encountered in Gadiri Harbor tend to be lightly dressed, often only in short leggings. You had a chance to see the islanders armed and ready for a conflict and it looked like they were dressed the same and had a variety of weapons. You would guess the number of muskets would be about 1 for every 4 adult male islanders. They all have some sort of weapon. Spears are popular. You really don't know how many islanders there are because they seem to like to pack themselves into the homes. It's surprising to see how many people come out of a little hut when they wake up in the morning. Once again guessing, there are about 250 adult male islanders in Gadiri Harbor.

Mundies are omnivorous, but they seem rather fond of meat. They eat boars, other species of monkeys, rats (big fat ones), snakes, bats, birds, jaguars, livestock, and of course people.... their long claws and the fact they hunt as a group gives them an advantage. They'll eat anything that moves. It's important to note that you had a stroke of bad luck landing near a large group of them. They aren't that dense everywhere in the jungle.

:) :) :)

[Mad Hatter]

Sorry everyone, but there's been a change of plans. You see, I don't approve of the way Lebrenth has been handling this story. I'm afraid I will have to take over for the remaining duration of your stay on the island.

Very soon you will see how our styles are different, but I will attempt to maintain the "spirit" of the story, in the sense that the original soul of the fable, if you will, will now be haunting and lurking about like a proper ghost, rather than jabbering uselessly like a fortune teller on crack.

Thank you for you cooperation and if you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to murmur and complain amongst yourselves... quietly.

MH

[D-Lotus]

Allright! Looking forward to the Mad Hatter gimmick. :D

...oh...murmur...

[Mad Hatter]

When I said you could murmur I didn't tell you to blast our eardrums out! I distinctly said "quietly". Like this: murmur. You must surely be new here, to not even understand the most basic of Internet courtesy. I'll have my eye on you!