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 Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2023 10:24 pm
Destiny City is a large place, with a large population. It’s not uncommon to find a lost item here or there. Maybe a keychain, an earring, a book.
But, a six sided die? That’s different.
While traveling through Destiny City, you find a strange little object. It looks like old, stained wood, but something shiny in it catches your eye. How could you resist picking it up? But then, maybe you've found one of these dice before. Maybe you remember the Gameboard, already.
That’s all that it was–a pretty wooden die–but maybe because it was pretty, Ekstrom couldn’t help but feel drawn to it, and ultimately couldn’t resist picking it right up off the ground.
She’d been enjoying the weather while patrolling from the rooftops of a less than savory area of Downtown DC, trusty white wisp alongside her (she still had no idea what it was at that point but it was pleasant company), when she spotted it. Nothing about it stuck out except perhaps the fact that she could have sworn the rooftop was bare when she first set foot on it. But it was dark and she might have just missed it. Besides, there was no way she could have known what would happen when she did pick it up.
The page closed her eyes and held her hands up against the sudden wind, and when she opened her eyes everything was dark.
At first, but soon enough a path began to illuminate before her, one space at a time, and at the end of it was a platform of some kind. Ekstrom felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end as she gazed about. Nothing but darkness, nothing but the path, nothing but…
She turned the die over in her hand, brows knit together as she quickly pieced together what she was meant to do.
And she sighed.
“Seriously?”
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itspao_ rolled 1 6-sided dice:
2
Total: 2 (1-6)
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Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2023 10:25 pm
It seemed risky to roll the die on the floor, so she lifted her pot lid so it was level just in front of her, and she rolled. The die clattered briefly on the metal surface before settling on a number. Space 2
Something pale and ghostly slams into your back; you don’t see it, but it feels like it’s trying to push you forward–or to the side, or off the path. Thankfully, the magical glass walls stop you from going too far, but this is jarring–and might hurt.
“Okay, you can stop now,” she called to whoever or whatever was at her back. No response, it just kept pushing forward. She wondered in brief if it would just push her right to the end, which would have been fantastic! An easy, sort of automated win.
She was right, sort of.
It pushed her to the end of the second space, where she found out the hard way that there was some kind of glass wall that was preventing her from moving any further than her roll would take her.
“Lovely,” she muttered as she peeled herself off the glass wall. The impact was jarring but only slightly painful, probably because she was a knight and all. She muttered a quiet thanks to the universe, and to Ephesus and Amarynthos as well for having been there to give her a quick intro into knighthood, before glancing around at her surroundings. Not a whole lot, so she lifted her pot lid and rolled again.
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itspao_ rolled 1 6-sided dice:
5
Total: 5 (1-6)
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Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2023 10:28 pm
Nothing came at her this time, thankfully, so she stepped forward, tested to make sure she wouldn’t slam into the wall again. When she saw that the wall was down, she walked the five allotted spaces that her roll allowed. Space 7
Something is twitching and flapping above you, and while you might be minding your own business, something is a little too invested in what you’re doing. You can’t see them, but you suddenly hear shrill, high pierced noises that are disorienting and confusing. They can bring about dizziness and pain and can cause vertigo if you’re stuck in them for too long.
It was hard to focus, but all she had to do was roll to get to the next space, so after taking a moment to steel herself, she finally opened her eyes and lifted the pot lid once more.
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itspao_ rolled 1 6-sided dice:
3
Total: 3 (1-6)
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Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2023 10:29 pm
As soon as the die landed and the wall opened up, Ekstrom sprinted forward and away from the noise. Space 10
A swampy smell fills the air. You take a step, and you seem to sink into it. Mud creeps over your feet, and you sink rapidly. Ankle deep, knee deep. Whether or not you squirm and fight against it, you are sinking. The mud is crushing and painful, and if you sink too deep it steals the breath from your lungs. There’s nothing to grab onto; you have to roll your dice quickly before that too gets sucked into the muddy quicksand.
“Come on!” she cried out in a frustrated voice. She was sore, dizzy, suffering some pain in her ears, and now this?!
She couldn’t stop, clearly, so she kept moving, already on the verge of tears but fighting like hell to keep them at bay.
The page held her arms up and went as fast as she dared, all the while being careful to make sure that the pot lid was flat overhead so she could roll.
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itspao_ rolled 1 6-sided dice:
4
Total: 4 (1-6)
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Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2023 10:30 pm
Maybe it was the roll that did it, but Ekstrom managed to get out of the swamp soon after the die landed on a number. Now muddy and cold on top of everything else, she pressed on. The platform in the distance was closer now, was she about halfway? Space 14
The ground is sticky. You land on this and immediately dip, as though you’ve stepped on a trampoline. Close inspection reveals that you are standing on an intricately woven web–and your shoes are stuck. And something is skittering just on the horizon.
“Weird…” she murmured quietly to herself as she took another step, and another. Sticky underfoot and slightly bouncy, she tried to think of what it could possibly be.
The skittering pulled her out of her head.
Once again felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end, and she surged forward, dropping an expletive with each step. She didn’t have to look toward the skittering or at the ground–she knew exactly what she was walking on and the goal was to get the hell off this space as soon as humanly possible.
In her rush she slammed into the wall first.
The skittering seemed to grow ********, ********, ********, ********, <********>...” she muttered frantically under her breath. With shaky hands she lifted her pot lid again, and rolled.
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itspao_ rolled 1 6-sided dice:
5
Total: 5 (1-6)
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Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2023 10:31 pm
It was hard to get rid of the sensation of her skin crawling even after she managed to get off of that accursed space. While she didn’t have a phobia, per se, spiders still weren’t her favorite thing. Her immediate reflex has always been to freak out and squash on site if safe and able, or otherwise summon the exterminator (that is, either her dad or an actual exterminator if her dad wasn’t around).
She wound up in the space just before the end, which was probably just her luck. At least for tonight. Space 19
You’re so close! Almost at the end! But the space you’re standing on shifts and shakes and seems to crumble beneath you. You have to hold on; there’s nowhere to fall but down into the deep abyss. If you manage to hang on for long enough, you find some invisible purchase and can pull yourself back up, but it’s quite the ordeal. Make sure you don’t get cut on falling spaces! The ground restores itself once you roll again.
Her eyes went wide as she saw the black depths beyond, and her heart dropped. She barely had any time to think, acting almost purely on instinct–she ran toward the end of the space, the floor crumbling right at her heels.
Four steps away.
Three, two, one.
She slipped.
The sensation of falling was as scary as it was fascinating, and despite knowing that the floor was going to crumble she reached out anyway, her last, desperate, attempt to survive. Just one more step, she was almost there.
Her arms caught on some invisible ground and she cried out, the sound a fascinating combination of shock and pain and relief. Blessedly, her training in kickboxing helped her gain a decent amount of upper body strength. It was still quite an endeavor, but she managed to pull herself up and onto the ledge. Shaking, she took deep, desperate breaths as she did her best to collect herself long enough to roll one last time.
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itspao_ rolled 1 6-sided dice:
2
Total: 2 (1-6)
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Posted: Wed Oct 11, 2023 10:32 pm
The floor came back as soon as she rolled, which helped to calm her all the more, and then the next number landed she felt the wall open up behind her. Space 20
The end; once you have arrived here you are free to leave. You will see be basked in the glow of a beautiful, opalescent aura that will take you back home. If you arrived with a guest, you can leave without them or choose to stay until they make it to the end as well. When you arrive back in Destiny City, you may choose to keep the six sided die–if nothing else, it’s pretty! Though, it doesn’t seem to have any magical qualities, that might be for the best.
Cold and muddy, dizzy, in pain, and still reeling from the experience, but she was back in Destiny City.
Her memory of the experience was one of the only pieces of evidence that it happened at all, if one counted memories as evidence anyway. And despite even having them, as she started on the trek home she was starting to doubt that it happened at all.
But then she would squeeze her right hand, and the die would press into her palm.1532 (gdocs)
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