CYOA: Stars Beyond

"Right, Cthulhu-dude gets unleashed. What do we need to find to stop that from happening?" 

"I... saw it. It looked like some sort of... bomb? Like, with... a digital timer? I can't tell what the scale was, but... it looked like a grey orb with three spokes coming out of it, 120 degrees between them, each having a coloured light at the base? Red, green, and blue."

"Could you see where it was? What was behind it?"

"No, I couldn't see where it was. It was like a 3D model of it, that I saw, not where it actually was?"

"I see..."

"We need to get on with finding those bags. Hey, maybe it's in the airport...?"

What do you do?

You take your leave and go to the women's room.

What strikes you first, is how much better the women's smells than the men's.

What strikes you next, is the huge rift in the floor, clearly leading down into some sort of sewer area, and the burlap sack with a grey '-1' clearly marked on it. But, enough about that.

There are six stalls, three sinks, no urinals, a paper towel dispenser, and an odd lack of graffiti and befouled flooring.

What do you do?

You go back to the men's, explain the situation, and Decider agrees to help you.

When you come in, he is visibly uncomfortable with being in the women's. Interesting...

He looks down at the sack. "See, now, there's your problem. The sack is at the bottom of that hole. Toodles!"

"Can I have help getting it, please? I don't mean moral support"

"How about morale supp—"

"No. Weren't you the one so concerned?"

"Well, yeah. Thing is, we probably don't need that one to actually continue or anything."

"Even if we don't need it (which I'm not sure about, by the way) having some insight into the guy who's probably our biggest threat and will kill two more people if they're not stopped, don't you think that might be helpful?"

"There could be anything down there! It's schmuck bait! What do you want me to do about it?"

What do you say?

"Look... just... be ready to catch the bag when I toss it up. Also, can you give me a hand and help me up?"

"You're really going through with this?"

"Yes."

"I see... I thought you just wanted me to do your dirty work... Anyway, good luck, kid."

"You're what, a few years older than me?"

"Emotionally, you've got a cloud of a way to go."

You sigh, and press the button on the end of the hilt. Your sword grows out of it, and you feel a comfortable balance...

Except...

You look over the blade. It's not curved anymore. It looks more like a longsword.

Hmm...

You take the moose mask off, put your helmet on, look down, and suddenly feel vertigo.

Right, the 'heights thing'.

You lower yourself as much as possible, until you're hanging off of the edge.

"Here goes nothing..."

You hold your sword aloft with one hand, and then let go with the other. You manage not to scream.

The Sewer

You hit the ground hard, despite the layer of water slowing you down.

HP: (980)/1000

You are nearly fully submerged. The water's cold, but sadly not acidic. You don't get any movement boost or anything.

There's something in the water, moving towards you. You quickly get up on the path beside the water, feeling the bag behind your leg and hold your sword to the side. Its unfamiliar shape is going to hamper you somewhat.

All at once, there's a snarling sound, and a lightning-fast long-snouted reptile springs out of the water, an agape mouth full of unnaturally long and sharp teeth.

You scream involuntarily, and swipe. Your sword cuts through the... thing's neck. It's a clean cut, and the head clatters beside you, the body lying on the path.

"Clatters"?

You look over the head, and are surprised to find severed wires spewing out of the neck, and jagged metal encircling the head.

You search the body, and find a scaly bag of coins and... a drill?

There's more movement in the water. You're guessing there's not just one this time.

You've got the magnifying glass in your pocket, the bag's by you, you're holding a sword, you now have a green drill and a bag of coins, the entrance you came in by is quite a way above you, but the tunnel stretches in two other directions.

What do you do?

You think about chucking the bag up. Unfortunately, the bag is fairly heavy, and you couldn't even throw something light that far up.

"Can you get me a rope, please!? Or something similar?"

"I could probably wrangle a long enough rope from that skipping rope and the comfort blanket..."

"Make sure to twist it so it doesn't just tear!"

"I know, I know."

You put your back against the wall, and get into an 'en garde' stance.

The crocodiles... or alligators... or whatever they are are swarming, without immediately jumping out at you. It seems they're also getting into some kind of formation.

You hear a high pitched screeching, and from the right you see a small pink nose with whiskers like a marijuana leaf poke its way out of a disturbingly large hole, given that it seems to fill it almost completely, about a dozen metres away.

The rat emerges fully. It's the size of a watermelon, it's covered almost entirely with long jet black hairs like a tarantula's with glowing blue tips, its tail is scabby with small spines all the way down the sides, glistening with venom. It turns its head to meet your gaze with its own glowing red eyes, except for a black slit in the centre.

Oh, rats.

It's followed by two more, and you can hear more high pitched squeaking in the hole.

The croco-gators haven't made their move yet, but they have suddenly stopped, as if finished preparing their strike.

What do you do?

You grab the bag, and run to the left. You run for some time, before you finally reach the part of the tunnel blocked off by huge vertical metal bars with gaps too small to squeeze through.

What's on the other side is a very interesting sight. Apart from the puzzle involving valves and chambers, there's a Frankensteinesque table with straps contained in a hexadecagonal shape. On the side of the table is a keyhole, a digital interface which says: 'Vittalis: INTACT' ,  beside which is a tablet with a stylus that has the words 'My name is...' overhead.

What is that thing?

You're against the bars now, and the rats come swarming towards you.

What do you do?

 ❤

*❤*


Game
Over


You cannot give
up just yet. . .

Contestant 7!
Stay determined!

...

...

...

Seriously though, you're giving up? Booooo!

You run back in the other direction, lashing out with your feet as you do so, knocking some of the rats into the water, and squishing others.

Your heart surges with joy as you see the dangling chain.

How do you go about getting back up?

You grab the sack, and as a 'gator (or 'dile) thrashes towards you, you jump onto it, slamming its head into the ground, and as it opens its mouth you jump.

You wrap your hands around the chain, and swing wildly; you feel yourself being dragged into the air.

Your arms are aching and nearly giving way by the time you're finally able to grasp the edge of the hole. When he sees you've done this, Decider immediately lets go of the Diet Rope Substitute and pulls you up by your one hand.

When you've both had a chance to catch your breath he points at the bag. "Shall we take a look inside?"