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Oh wait, this is not a game

Trail of Trials

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a part of Oh wait, this is not a game, by cucumbersome.

You found 1 gold. +100 points.

cucumbersome holds sovereignty over Trail of Trials, giving them the ability to make limited changes.

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Setting

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Trail of Trials

You found 1 gold. +100 points.

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Trail of Trials is a part of The Game.


Setting

4 Characters Present

Character Portrait: Corki Noelle Olsen Character Portrait: Orion Dahlberg Character Portrait: Andromeda Myu Smith Character Portrait: Thomas Redpoint
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Tom stood and watched the exchange with frustration. He couldn't understand why they seemed to be fooling around when all he wanted to do was get the puzzle over and done with. All these reflections were hurting his brain, and he couldn't stand it. He did find Corki's reaction to Orion's body incredibly amusing though, and stifled a chuckle which came out as a snort.

Then, remembering his annoyance, he spoke up. "Hey, guys, I know all this swapping is kinda fun, but these mirrors are giving me a headache, and I really wanna get this puzzle finished," he said, to a reflection of the group. Realising this too late, he turned around, and smiled sheepishly. "You see?"

Then the reality of what they were doing shot a feeling of defeat right through him. His face dropped and he slumped to the floor, holding his head in his hands. "What am I thinking?" he mumbled. "You guys might as well have your fun, I mean, people get lost in mazes like this even when the walls are visible, and we don't even have that. We're just going to starve to death until we get relogged." He looked up then, with a miserable look on his face. "I don't think we're ever getting out."

Setting

4 Characters Present

Character Portrait: Corki Noelle Olsen Character Portrait: Orion Dahlberg Character Portrait: Andromeda Myu Smith Character Portrait: Thomas Redpoint
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Orion had to fight back an irritated sigh. The fact that Corki was treating his body like a fancy new dress felt a bit embarrassing. Then again, it was slightly flattering as well. At least she seemed to like it to some degree, though he'd hate to think of whatever that implied. He scratched his head and looked around for different statues, but couldn’t see any so far. He was eager to reclaim his body before it was put through more of this. He shivered slightly when he heard a giggle with his voice, what a horrid noise. This puzzle was slowly destroying any authority he might have had.
Luckily it was then that Thomas broke down. Orion took a deep breath and collected himself before patting him on the back. Here was an opportunity to show his old confidence, even if it meant hiding his own misgvings.

“Relax Thomas, I know it’s easy to lose heart in this maze, but there’s a way out. A puzzle without a solution is rather silly after all and I’m not giving up after all the points we have gotten so far. We just have to sit down and reflect,” he mumbled, wincing slightly when he noticed the horrible pun he had made.
“The audio file mentioned we should keep a close eye on our companions. That might be a hint. Since we’re still all together, I’d say we are doing just fine for now,” he scratched his head once more, looked around and shrugged, “though I have no idea whatsoever to do next,” he admitted. It made him slightly less cheerful but he tried to keep the smile up, “we’ll figure it out before we starve though. So far no puzzle has been a match for our combined wits. And if we are getting really hungry, we can always resort to cannibalism, though I’d hate to eat my own body. Besides, I can’t imagine what would happen if we ate someone who had swapped bodies and I don’t really feel like finding out,” he joked, “so let’s try to decide on a course. Do we just keep wandering throughout the labyrinth or do we try to come up with some sort of plan? Regardless, if we still have any rope around it might be advisable to tie it to everybody’s waist, just to make sure we don’t lose anyone.”

Setting

4 Characters Present

Character Portrait: Corki Noelle Olsen Character Portrait: Orion Dahlberg Character Portrait: Andromeda Myu Smith Character Portrait: Thomas Redpoint
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Orion's words comforted Tom. He was almost a motherly figure in Andromeda's body... Although he decided not to mention this thought for Orion's sake.

Tom's eyes lit up at the rope idea. "That's fantastic! Why did no-one think of this before?" He exclaimed. Andromeda was the only one with a backpack, so she would have rope if anyone did. Luckily, Orion was now Andromeda. "Orion, why don't you have a look in the bag and see if there's any rope?" Tom said, "If Andromeda agrees, of course," he added, flinching.

His thoughts wandered for a moment. "Wait a moment... the audio guide also mentioned a glass sceptre that everyone was trying to find. Why do you think they were looking for it? Do you think it has power?" he said, to no-one in particular. "If only the audio had given us a few more hints to help us find it.."

Feeling better, he stood and looked around. "I think, in any case, we won't accomplish anything by staying in one spot. I say we explore a bit more, see if there are any hints to finding this sceptre."

((OOC in case we start exploring before my next post, there is a larger room somewhere, with a map in it))

Setting

4 Characters Present

Character Portrait: Corki Noelle Olsen Character Portrait: Orion Dahlberg Character Portrait: Andromeda Myu Smith Character Portrait: Thomas Redpoint
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Andromeda had a good look at the new body she was borrowing. She liked the contrast between the purple skin and orange hair, it reminded her of a large flower there were lots of in a place she had been very long ago, a place without puzzles, just lots and lots of trees, hundreds of meters high each. Where had that been? Looking like a flower (in a sense) reminded her of a more recent memory, of slowly turning into a flower. That had been scary, and what was scarier was that she didn’t remember how that had happened. Was it something that could happen again any moment? She shuddered. She brought her attention back to the present and to Corki’s body. The veins under the translucent skin reminded her of the ink smudges on the arms of a different girl, who, she had somehow figured out, was also Corki. Corki had also been a panther... Vague memories of people completely changing appearance were confusing enough by themselves, but now they were taking each others looks while surrounded by mirrors.

She looked at herself in one of those mirrors. The last change was a big improvement over looking like Orion, she was female again and had more or less the right height, shape and avatar stats. “Orion’s look sure is dashing, but I think it suits him better” Andromeda replied to Corki, laughing. “Heh, suits, hehhehheh” she added. “Sorry.” She continued “But look at you, I mean me now. You’re-I am-err-you get what I mean- really pretty. And colourful. Still, I prefer my own body for myself.”

Tom seemed unhappy with the situation they were in, but also somewhat amused by it. He was the only one still in the right body, why was he complaining? Andromeda was glad Orion seemed to understand what was going on in Tom’s mind and managed to motivate him again.

“My backpack only contains a datapad and lots and lots of apples, I’m afraid” Andromeda commented on the idea of looking for rope inside it. “Oh well, at least it should keep us from cannibalism for a while. Until someone wants meat, anyway.” She liked Orion’s joke. It was a joke, right?

“Maybe if two of us hold onto each shoulder strap it will be almost as good as a rope. With the weight of those apples I think we would notice immediately when someone lets go of it” Andromeda suggested.

For a moment she wondered if Corki’s teleportation ability could take her to that glass scepter they were supposed to be looking for. If it could, it might not be possible to return to the group, and judging by Orion’s initial difficulties using her tail, she would probably end up inside a wall anyway.

Setting

4 Characters Present

Character Portrait: Corki Noelle Olsen Character Portrait: Orion Dahlberg Character Portrait: Andromeda Myu Smith Character Portrait: Thomas Redpoint
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Orion got an apple out of the backpack and after a brief inspection took a bite from it. As he started to chew he gave everybody a wry look:
“This one’s seemingly on the sour side, but it’s definitely edible. Cannibalism averted,” he spoke with a slight grin, “good thing you collected those apples Andromeda. Now, let’s go exploring. Somebody grab my shoulder strap and let’s get going. If anyone tries to grab my tail I’ll make sure to react as angry as the average cat, if not worse. Just so we’re clear,” he grumbled as he slowly started to walk. He had no idea how it would feel if someone grabbed his tail, but he didn’t really feel like finding out. At first he didn’t encounter anything new, just more of those maddening mirrors. As his irritation started to rise they stumbled across a larger room. Orion poked his head through and surveyed the room. It was pretty large and in the middle was something that resembled a map. A wide smile spread across his face.

With huge relief he immediately rushed towards it, forcing whoever had been holding on to his strap to let go. He stopped in front of the map, tossed the core of the apple aside and started to study the map with a pensive frown on his face. Absent-mindedly he started to bite on his lip. He wasn’t sure why he did that as it wasn’t a regular habit of his. Could it have been a habit the body performed subconsciously? Or was it merely something he did because he was in a body better suited for it? A man like himself looked rather silly biting on his lip. He shook his head, the map was more important than trying to uncover the finer details of swapping bodies. Soon he’d be back in his old body anyway, so it wasn’t really something worth looking into. The map on the other hand might be a help, even if the mirrors would no doubt make following a specific course extremely difficult. Realising there was no point in keeping the map to himself he raised his voice.

“Hey, everybody, get over here. I think I’ve found a map,” he cried out in delight, urging the others to come have a look. He himself wasn’t making too much progress at first glance. He wished he could blame his weak map reading skills on his new body, but truth be told, he had never been particularly good at reading maps.

Setting

4 Characters Present

Character Portrait: Corki Noelle Olsen Character Portrait: Orion Dahlberg Character Portrait: Andromeda Myu Smith Character Portrait: Thomas Redpoint
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((OOC - here's the map:)) Image

Grabbing the backpack strap and following Orion's lead through the winding tunnels, Tom decided that things would turn out better than he had thought. Sticking together was definitely the best way to progress through the maze.

Coming across the large room and feeling the backpack being yanked from his hand, he took a look around. Cobwebs and dust covered the once glorious tiled floor, now cracked, pieces missing from elaborate mozaics. Marble pillars reached to the ceiling; some with chunks missing, others broken completely, lying nearby like fallen trees. Walking up to the plinth, he examined the map that spread before him. A yellow square drew his gaze to a room that resembled the one they were standing in. He also noticed a red dot, and a green arrow pointing out of an open ended corridor - presumably the exit. The red dot must have been their starting point.

As for the location of the sceptre, no other markings could be seen. Perhaps it was at the exit, or even hidden somewhere in or beneath this room. He also noticed some text, scrawled in ancient Greek lettering. He couldn't make head or tail of it.

"Andromeda?" he called, remembering her familiarity with the ancient Greek myths painted on the first ceiling. "Do you think you can make sense of this writing here? It's all Greek to m..." the rest of his sentence trailed off into a fit of giggles at his own joke. "Sorry, that was terrible."

He turned back to the map and looked over it again. "It would be good if we can take this with us. I wonder if the game will allow that?" he thought aloud. Fumbling with the corners of the aged parchment, he found a nail holding it in place. Making sure everyone had finished looking at it, he prized it out with his thumb and forefinger, and peeled back the corner, anticipating something hidden underneath. He found nothing, and with a slightly disappointed sigh, he continued prizing the other three nails out. His task complete, he rolled up the map and put it under his arm.

"Let's go," he announced, bluntly. The sooner they were out of this dingy labyrinth, the better.

Setting

4 Characters Present

Character Portrait: Corki Noelle Olsen Character Portrait: Orion Dahlberg Character Portrait: Andromeda Myu Smith Character Portrait: Thomas Redpoint
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Perhaps it was simply the body. Male, authoritative. Taller. Broader. Clunkier, yes, but in a continuing authority theme. She wondered how she would look dressed in uniform, giving commands and using Orion's voice to thrust ranks into action. It was a difficult thought to adjust to, Corki herself never wanting to impose herself on anyone. But it wasn't so much imposing it was...well, leading. She wasn't a leader...was she? Inside Orion's body, she was beginning to wonder if she would make it as one.

Corki brought up the rear of their group once they decided to leave. She had been zoning out, which was a distinct Corki thing to do she knew, which was comforting. Maybe the body swapping was more complicated than she thought, her mind muddling up. Seeing her own dreads in front of her, she longed to feel them around her ears again.

Tom mentioned a sceptre and partially, Corki wanted to jump on the chance of finding something mysterious and most likely valuable. The danger of quest and adventure thrummed through her thoughts...but not her veins. Orion's body was all business and he wanted to finish this puzzle. Truthfully, the mirror gag was getting quite repetitive...and annoying. Knocking into their own reflections, while potentially a great literary device in a fiction story plot, was not enjoyable in reality.

When the map was in view and Tom's fingers around it, Corki had the urge to take it. Instead she said, "To the exit!" in a slightly comical way, but could notice the irritation around Orion's deeper vowels. Why shouldn't she have the map? She felt she could handle it and Tom himself said he couldn't read it. Corki had no promise that she could either, but she hadn't even had a chance to look. But, the prospect of an exit lifted her spirits somewhat. The sceptre was long out of her mind, the exit strongly pulsing in a scene of clouds and golden gates. Salvation from this hell hole!!

Corki shook her head a little. Was this Orion or something else interfering with her thoughts? She couldn't discern, but didn't like the sudden fear taking hold of her throat. They had to get out. Now. Exit, exit, exit. Exit!

"Go, go," she tried to urge gently.

Setting

4 Characters Present

Character Portrait: Corki Noelle Olsen Character Portrait: Orion Dahlberg Character Portrait: Andromeda Myu Smith Character Portrait: Thomas Redpoint
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Andromeda looked at the map Tom had found. For some reason he seemed to think she could figure something out about it. The characters looked familiar, she had been taught those once. Didn’t they have something to do with physics? “Iota... omicron Y... no, upsilon I guess...” she began.

“To the exit!” she was startled by Orion’s voice, used by Corki. Andromeda jumped, and stepped on a shard of something that had been shattered by a fallen pillar. Suddenly she was holding the map. The disorienting feeling of switching bodies was becoming familiar, and she didn’t have to guess who she looked like now. “That just had to happen, didn’t it?” she sighed with Tom’s voice.

Her attention returned to the text below the map. It had to be something more important than the location of the exit, why else would it be there? To taunt them of course, but it might as well be important. “Hmm, reckon it’s in all caps? Maybe we should shout it.” She chuckled. This was such a silly place. Silly, and meaningless, and empty, and depressing...

“Yo-uh shpks... sepgh... sergh in fen. Ummm... de sepi... sep ter is in... anoh-der kasn... kasleh.” Andromeda mumbled as she puzzled. These did appear to be words, perhaps a magic formula that would fix everything. “Yo-uh sergh in fen. De sep ter is in anoh-der kasleh” she tried. Nothing happened. She took a deep breath and yelled “YO-UH SERGH IN FEN! DE SEP TER IS IN ANOH-DER KASLEH!!!”, waving her arms hoping it would somehow add magical effect. Nothing.

“To the exit it is”, she said with a sheepish grin.

Setting

4 Characters Present

Character Portrait: Corki Noelle Olsen Character Portrait: Orion Dahlberg Character Portrait: Andromeda Myu Smith Character Portrait: Thomas Redpoint
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Orion was relieved everyone seemed so intent on leaving this place behind. Judging by the map they had already travelled a large distance, surely they’d be able to get out of here soon. But then, as usual, the puzzle threw a couple of complications at them. The last person of their group had just lost his normal body. He dismissed the thought. They’d solve that one as well, eventually. Instead he decided to worry about the Greek text that Andromeda was shouting so vehemently. Toms voice made sure it could be heard throughout the entire labyrinth. Then it dawned on him and he started to laugh uncontrollably. After a while he took a deep breath and wiped the tears from his eyes.

“Yeah, let’s get to the exit. That Greek text there made it all too clear the sceptre can’t be found here,” he managed to say before he started laughing again. This was simply too funny. Once more the odd sense of humour of the creators had managed to surprise him. It was a nicer surprise than walking into a wall, risking a flight with a shabby plane or turning into an animal. The things they did for points...he shook his head and started to mumble the words:

“Yo-uh sergh in fen. De sep ter is in anoh-der kasleh,” a silly smile appeared on his face, “we seem to have a case of mock latin or perhaps should I say mock Greek going on here. Oh my oh my. Well let’s get to the exit,” he agreed, I’ve had it up to here with this place. Andromeda, you seem to have gotten the map so why don’t you lead the way? I’m sure it’s a subtle trick of the puzzle to put you in the lead,” he suggested with a mocking smile. Corki seemed to be getting used to the authority that came with his body just a bit too swiftly to his liking. Better to let Andromeda lead who no doubt was still adjusting to her new body.

Setting

4 Characters Present

Character Portrait: Corki Noelle Olsen Character Portrait: Orion Dahlberg Character Portrait: Andromeda Myu Smith Character Portrait: Thomas Redpoint
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Andromeda didn’t understand what was funny about the text, and felt rather awkward after her useless shouting. If the Greek was fake, how come Orion could understand it?

“Okay, sure, I’m good with maps” she replied to Orion’s suggestion that she should lead. At least she did understand maps, she had even made some, long ago, when... when was that? She traced the shortest route to the exit with her finger. “Right, right, left, left, straight ahead, corner to the left, right, straight ahead, corner to the left, exit! Easy.” She went over it a few more times until she was sure she knew the sequence. “I hope we find enough stuff to get everyone back in their own body. What’s the shortest series of swaps now anyway?” She grabbed one of the shoulder straps of her backpack. “I won’t mind if some of you like your new bodies better, but I still want my tail back.”

Andromeda heard a low rumble, like a distant waterfall. “I don’t know what that noise is,” she commented, “but it can’t be good. Let’s go.”

Setting

4 Characters Present

Character Portrait: Corki Noelle Olsen Character Portrait: Orion Dahlberg Character Portrait: Andromeda Myu Smith Character Portrait: Thomas Redpoint
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Tom ran the jumble of Greek letters around in his head a few times. If anything, it sounded like English... Orion burst out laughing, and Tom caught on a second later. He giggled, which he quickly stifled after hearing a girl's voice.
"One, two, testing, testing..." Oh no. He looked down at himself, finding that the view had changed a bit. He absent-mindedly felt around a bit to check if it was real, then when he realised what he was doing, he hurriedly stuffed his hands in Corki's pocke... oh God, everything sounded wrong. He blushed and gave Corki an apologetic look, wincing at how Corki's perception of him must be changing for the worse.
"Sh**."
The computer voice gave him the spiel about bad language, which gave him time to calm down slightly.
"Why?" he asked, to no-one in particular. "Why did it have to be a girl?"

Calming down a bit more, he followed the rest of the group out of the room, feeling incredibly awkward and finding it difficult to walk on feet that were about 4 sizes smaller than his own. Hearing the rumbling noise, he sighed. Just when they were finally getting somewhere. He spoke aloud to the computer.

"Really? Are we really doing the Indiana Jones thing right now? Seriously?"

Setting

4 Characters Present

Character Portrait: Corki Noelle Olsen Character Portrait: Orion Dahlberg Character Portrait: Andromeda Myu Smith Character Portrait: Thomas Redpoint
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The computer did not reply to Tom. Besides it hardly ever giving any information about the game, it didn’t understand what he meant.

The noise became louder. The change in volume didn’t seem to depend on which way they were going, and the sound did not have an echo (although that’s a bit difficult to tell about a constant noise). The maze appeared to be vibrating, and yet it wasn’t, which made Andromeda nauseous... or was it her feeling Tom’s nausea? No, definitely her own.

Now, the computer voice began to talk. “We are about to arrive at an unknown destination. Congratulations, your teamwork has beat the highscore by six million threehundredtwentyfivethousand ninehundred twenty points. We apologize for the delay and for the inconv-”

The noise and vibration were replaced by a different, unbearably loud noise and violent shaking. The computer voice stopped mid-sentence, everything in the maze stopped moving, then -- black. Seconds later, there were a bang and a crunch, one last extra violent shake, followed by silence.

Andromeda lost consciousness at the bang.

.
.
.

In less than a minute, Andromeda was back. She opened her eyes. She was sitting in a chair inside a round white thing, something almost like an egg. Hanging from a chair was more like it, without the seatbelts she would have fallen into the door in front of her. The air smelled awful, like zombie breath. She felt dizzy and sick, and her head hurt, and at the same time she was hungry. Andromeda unbuckled. Her arms and legs felt weak, tired, sleepy, but they still had the strength she expected from them, allowing her to land almost graciously on all fours. It was a bit awkward not to land on the door.

To her left there was a small closet, which contained a familiar looking backpack. It didn’t look as full as before. And were those loops at the side always damaged like that? Were they always there in the first place? She’d worry about that later, first she needed to get back to the group. She put on the backpack.

Now wait as second.

Andromeda looked at her hands. She was back in her own body! She grabbed her tail. “Hello! I missed you!” It felt so soft, so real. Strange.

She finally opened the door below her. There were more of the egglike things, one directly below her with its door facing her. Hadn’t she seen Corki enter that one, long ago? It occurred to her that they had become friends at least twenty times.

She looked around. Most of the doors of the pods were open, nobody had ever been in there. To the left, after a few rows of pods, there was a wall. An equal distance to the right, there also was a wall, but one that didn’t seem to belong. It was made of rock, and where the metal walls joined it those were bent all out of shape. Following that wall in the direction that should be up, but wasn’t, there was a huge hole and a mess of crushed pods. Something red was dripping from a few. Water was flowing in through one side of the hole.

“What kind of fucked up shit is this?” Andromeda commented. Nothing happened. “Come on, relog me goddamnit. I don’t want to play!”

Andromeda climbed down from her pod. It was good to be upright, but she had no idea what to do. The water slowly flowing into whatever this place was worried her. Getting away from the water was a good idea. There was a door in the wall to the left, its frame was bent out of shape and it had dropped open. Behind it there were racks containing suitcases. Two things that weren’t suitcases stood out, they were rectangular orange things labeled “black box”. How odd that they weren’t black.

One of the suitcases looked familiar, but Andromeda was intrigued by the universal connectors on the orange boxes. She reached into her backpack. How come her datapad had grown a keyboard? Another thing to worry about later. Copy that data, find a clue what to do...

There were lots and lots of numbers. Coordinates, speeds, sensor readouts, life support system statistics per pod... Nothing looked like a clue. She closed the laptop. There were sounds coming from the room with the pods. There were other living people here!

The familiar suitcase had her name on it. She tugged at it but couldn’t get it to move. Maybe one of those other people could help. Andromeda slapped her forehead, not a good idea considering she had a headache. She had been right above Corki’s pod and never bothered to look inside to see if her friend was still there and okay!