Jump to content

The Never Ending Story.


Resistance

Recommended Posts

Okay, so I recently had an idea for a collaborative story effort worked on by the tavern. It is essentially the 'one word story' thread in forum games but more advanced because we're in the tavern, the story will hopefully :rolleyes: actually make sense and posts will need to be at least a paragraph. It will be a collaborative effort, so we can't have just one person contributing post when you feel.

 

I don't care about the setting, but I don't want to make the first post as it is usually the first few words that set the scene. So if somebody would be kind enough to post the first paragraph or sentence of the story we can get going.

 

qTLQRuS.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Since I am starting us off I will only do the first two sentences(So others may include characters they want to see in the rest of the paragraph):

 

...And so Fell the Dark Lord; Through their combined efforts the Champions of Good had at last managed to put an end to the Reign of Terror, but along with this triumph came a revelation of the approach of a much greater evil to this realm. The victory of the Champions of Good was not without cost though, As among their number The Griffon sacrificed release from the curse the Dark Lord had placed upon him, to grant his allies the free will to continue the battle.

 

(As far as I know there is nothing that says you cannot start a story at the end of one.)

 

p.s. While it is fairly obvious that this is intended to be an introduction to a Fantasy story, it is generic enough at this point that there are ways to get it in all sorts of different genres if you put the effort into it.

Luna_pirate_signature.png

Thanks to DrCue at DeviantArt for the signature source

Link to comment
Share on other sites

...And so Fell the Dark Lord; Through their combined efforts the Champions of Good had at last managed to put an end to the Reign of Terror, but along with this triumph came a revelation of the approach of a much greater evil to this realm. The victory of the Champions of Good was not without cost though, As among their number The Griffon sacrificed release from the curse the Dark Lord had placed upon him, to grant his allies the free will to continue the battle.

 

As the reels ticker and tacker around the projector wheels, a tinny rendition of Sunset begins playing and on the screen ahead of the class an eagle in profile is superimposed over the make-believe world of Europe...One of the only records they had left was this children's program. The tired looking teacher inside the Vault flicked the light switch and the projector, built some time four centuries ago, sank with a hydrallic hiss of one of the latest lifts. The juxtaposition of old and new was not lost on him, but having suffered it for these past seven years, and life in the Vault for twenty three years before that, it had grown thin...

"Ok then class can someone tell me what happened next."

Immediately a hand shot up, not even waiting for the teacher to respond the owner of that hand began to respond "The Bombs started falling Sir!"

The Teacher sighed, would he ever escape the inneptitude of these children? "No, the Bombs did not start until much later, after man had left Earth." With that he whistfully looked out of the large transparent aluminium sheeting, which, through a clever use of mirrors, always showed the Blue Marble.

"Sir," came a voice from near the door, and he looked around "The Griffon quarrelled with the Bear and the Age of Ice set in."

The teacher looked around to see a young girl of 14 or 15 standing at the door. He didn't recognise her, which, in their small population on this desolate outpost, was odd. "Correct, Miss?"

"Fluttershy", the girl responded.

 

(*Shrugs* I felt bad for derailing the fantasy train)

Well I knew you wouldn't agree. I know how you hate facing facts.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

And so perpetuated the invented theology of Historology, a religion that had long lost contact with the rest of the world. Its followers, or rather cultists, lived in a small desolate outpost in the radioactive Australian wastelands. The year was 2143, and mankind has mostly retreated into parts of the vast tundra and the deep oceans, far away from strong wind currents that tossed around windstorms of radioactive dust. Of all the known civilized groups, only the Historologists have managed to survive in a temperature climate. Only the blue marble, a mysterious object, protects the collective from the harsh climate outside their compound and creates the artificial light and water needed to grow the plants.

 

There are few old enough that remember the day that the most recent blue marble was installed. Although they keep it to themselves, they know that blue marble is dimmer than it was in their childhood.

Master of your domain? I am Lord of the manor, Queen of the castle, King of the county!

 

Former moderator of the original Dungeoneering

Former moderator of Ye Olde Hegemony

Moderator of the remake of Dungeoneering

Former Empress of the Lichten Empire (Hegemony)

Former President of the United States (Hegemony)

Former Emporer of Imperial Japan (Hegemony)

Czarina Catherine of Imperial Russia (Hegemony

 

 

The only difference between a disagreement between friends, an argument between strangers, and a feud between enemies is the ability to reconcile.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Suddenly an Explosion rocked the entire Vault throwing everyone to the floor, including Fluttershy and her daydreaming neighbor.

 

Elsewhere...

 

"I've set the charges Boss, we can blow open this oyster whenever you are ready!" Janus said as he leapt back behind cover, bringing his furred and feathered form as far from danger as he could. These doors were almost impossible to crack open, but it was well worth the explosives and the effort for the treasures that lay inside with its long since dead occupants.

 

*KABOOM* went the charges as the detonantor trigger was pulled, sending a wave of searing heat out of the cavern, making things very uncomfortable for Janus behind the rock.

Luna_pirate_signature.png

Thanks to DrCue at DeviantArt for the signature source

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"Gadzooks!" cried someone, the Teacher almost groaned at the anacronism, though the sudden explosion distracted him from noticing too much.

"Everyone remain calm..." He began but was immediately cut off as the Overseer started over the PA system

"DON'T PANIC! DON'T PANIC! DON'T PANIC!"

With a few seconds the tables were being upturned as chaos swept through the classroom. The Teacher sighed internally, knowing that when all this was over he would be expected to pay to replace those tables. He cast his eye over the room, making a menal note of who to charge more than normal for bottled water, pencils and other bits and pieces that they innevitably ended up buying from him, before going to his desk and pulling out a whistle, which he blew three times.

The class quieted down momentarialy, but it was at that point that the usual Blue Marble vistage was obscured by a half man, half horse hybrid and the class exploded into panic once again. Realising the hopeless situation...and more importantly realising that the Vault had been breached (since the Blue Marble was, unfortunately, a recording made before the Martian skies were so fogged by radiation as to immediately destroy all glass, it could only mean they had already reached the inner sanctum of the Vault).

 

Survival instinct took over, immediately he grabbed Fluttershy and Zodiac by the waist, hoisted one over each shoulder and grabbed Wellington by the arm, dragging the trio of seemingly useful children out of the door and abandoning the idiots who made his life hell to their fates. Zodiac and Wellington, both male, protested immediately, while Fluttershy seemed spellbound by the state of affairs. Adrenaline pulsed in the Teacher's ears as the need to escape became increasingly urgent. If only he could reach...reach where?

Well I knew you wouldn't agree. I know how you hate facing facts.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A memory briefly flashed across The Teacher's mind, of one of the Overseer's drunken tirades. "What do I do if we get invaded by those damned horse-men? I type "swordfish" on any of the computers here. Nobody would see that coming! Ha!" He whispered, then stumbled briefly and shouted "Who's paranoid now, Margaret?" as he threw a punch at a nearby wall, missed, and collapsed in tears, oblivious to the young man that he had asked to see.

"Where are we going?" Wellington's voice took The Teacher back to reality. He had not stopped running.

"Somewhere safe" He replied, stopping at one of the public terminals. He entered the password and watched the wall slide away, revealing an elevator. The group hurried inside, and a few seconds later, the wall closed again. As he and Wellington stopped to catch their breaths, they were safe. They felt motion as the elevator groaned to life after years of disuse, and the sound of hooves around them was drowned out by its mechanical grind.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The teacher absent-mindedly hit the lowest button on the side of the elevator: B84. Cogs and sprockets began to whir around, the teacher was sure he could hear some fizzing as well as the normal squelching that he had grown accustomed to on these elevators. The lights dimmed, the buttons retracted and two compartments in the ceiling opened. The teacher looked up, the speakers were being lowered into the room to prepare them for the young journey down to B84.

"B84 - Storage" said the calm silky-voice of the overseer's assistant.

The teacher hit his hand hard against his head, he wanted to escape the danger but the fourty-eight hour journey from floor 983 was really something that he should have thought twice about, even some of the richest members of the vault didn't take intra-vault holidays with such long-travel times.

"Well, we can't cancel the lift now"" he shrugged, looking at Fluttershy.

"Can you buy us something from the vending machine?" Wellington said far-too excitedly

"No."

qTLQRuS.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Putting on his breathing mask in the tunnel that was now filled with smoke and dust from the explosion, Janus promptly got to work making sure the entryway was clear for the rest of the team to get through. Being the only Griffon on the team inevitably meant that it was his job to ensure the charges on the door didn't accidentally weaken the main access shaft to the point of collapsing into a drop of more than 10,000 feet straight to the bottom for anyone without the gift of flight. when he went out into the tunnel to look he could indeed tell that there were severe cracks in the tunnel floor, but they should hold baring further damage; However suddenly from within the totally obscured insides of the vault someone began firing blindly out into the tunnel, almost hiding the clatters of a bouncing grenade from Janus's hearing. Janus barely managed to avoid the deadly shrapnel of the grenade by diving back into his cover, however the explosion of the grenade was the last straw for the floor as the floor broke into pieces beneath him dropping him into the access shaft below.

Luna_pirate_signature.png

Thanks to DrCue at DeviantArt for the signature source

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Janus swore, there was no way he could manage to get the loot by himself. He and the others would have to find another way in. The Griffon dimly heard the abrupt silence of the gunfire, but heard much more distinctly a slurred sentence, which could only be "Damn this thing!" to anyone who had listened to drunken speech before. The Griffon sighed. The entry covered and blasted by a drunk amateur. The others would be furious, and when they got furious, they got careless.. Careless enough to, perhaps, try to make the much-too-far leap to the other side in rage. It really made it difficult sometimes, when your companions were either healf-dead from drink, or insanely raging at the wastes around them. He didn't have much time to come up with a plan before the others thought that he was taking too much time..

FaladorTavern.png

Youtube account: Earthgragonsage; currently uploading not an effing thing.

[hide=Memorable Crossroads Quotes.]

Reigan: NO MOOSE CAN SAVE US NOW; ...Had that been taken out of context, it would have been comical... Right now, it's terrifying.

[/hide]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

He thought falling through the air. One could argue that perhaps he spent too much time on the introspective and practically forgot about what was actually going on...On the other hand a Griffon is part Lion and as every school child knows, Lions are Felines and Felines have the uncannability to land on their feet. One could also argue that, as a part eagle, he should have spread his wings. But, as it was, the fall was much further than most would have predicted, allowing for both an extended internal monologging and for his subconscience mind to take over, carefully adjusting his muscles to absorb the impact of the ground.

Another thought stuck him as his legs recoiled against the ground. The Grenade came from outside, not inside? Perhaps he was losing his touch? He put the thought out of his mind and, with a casual glance over his shoulder as several tonnes of rubble collapsed down, he took two steps forwards and one to the side, then pulled out his datapadd, from the padd he quickly pulled up a floorplan and plotted a new course for the data center...Somewhere, hidden amongst the teraquads of data, there would be a slender clue as to Garrett's presence, and with his presence known the Griffon might just finally see about getting this curse reversed.

A few moments later there was a crackle in his ear and his Mercenary Commander barked a few orders...Inwardly Janus - The alias was a particularly fitting one - held the woman in contempt...She had planned this operation almost to disaster. Outwardly he simply responded in his monsterous tone "Ma'ma." To his right a data terminal crashed to the ground. 'Losing it? Who am I kidding.' He thought with a thin smile, then he set back to work, free from the hail of gunfire and friendly fire grenades.

Well I knew you wouldn't agree. I know how you hate facing facts.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

(Dang we're going to need characters added into the main post to keep track of the few that have been introduced before it gets confusing... Before let's say I add another few characters into the mix :) )

 

"I thought you said this place could take a bit more firepower" he said, a hint of humor in his tone, his fingers pressed to the side of his breathing apparatus.

"Mistakes were made, perhaps being so close I overlooked a few... Minor details" replied a soft disembodied voice, it echoed through the man's helmet but was silent to anyone who could be near. A short burst of laughter between the two, but to anyone else it would look like a man stood over a crater laughing to himself. His outfit was in many ways makeshift for a soldier, his helmet which was a two-piece set; a pre-war gas mask and goggles (https://encrypted-tbn1.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcT3a6uppDpEQbRzvXQAX6A1YLccPkVOlBRgzgIOfT4_AySNladR for reference), with a large Kevlar dome to cover him, outdated by many years however it aged well with good maintenance. A combat vest shielded his organs, adorned with many tools which looked custom built and perhaps a bit excessive. How could a man need so many tools? Only he would know.

 

"The blue marble looks wonderful, even when covered by the dust. So romantic!" The voice squeeled, it hummed a slight tune to finish its sentence, a slight sadness overshadowed the delight.

"Yeah, she's a real beaut but that isn't why we're here. Do you know where the nearest access lift is, this crater is definitely only a one way thing and I plan on getting out" The man replied as he edged away from the crater. It wasn't that he was afraid of heights, it was that the dust was clouding his goggles and he was afraid it would disorientate him enough to make him lose his balance, he assured himself. "Back the way you came it seems, turn left and it should be down that hallway" and with that he left the scene fading into the dust until he disappeared into the cold metal hallway, its walls were blank, it was lucky he had a guide, a man could easily lose himself here.

 

The lift was sufficient for the purpose; a bed, a fridge, toilet, books. How could anyone live here? He thought to himself. B84 lit up in the jungle of buttons he could have pressed, its light was only dim but it shone in his eyes. What he was looking for was down there.

It's a REALLY big shaft.

I didn't catch fire, I used the can of hairspray as a flamethrower and pointed it at my arm.

how are you going to ignore my posts when I'm offering to let you live as my vassal in two weeks time?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"How far down does this go?" The man asked.

"Didn't you pay attention in school? These vaults were built to protect people during the war, when governments feared that radiation would render the planet uninhabitable. The earlier ones, like this one, were made deep enough that-"

"Yes, yes, I know. How deep?"

The voice gave an exasperated sigh, "Even if it wasn't a few kilometers down, these old lifts are slower than the ones back home. Better get comfortable."

 

 

Janus caught his balance and began to glide through the enormous cavern. It was empty, save for the mass of pipes, wires, and metal in the center that supported the vault, and too deep for the light from above to reach the bottom, though the part that was most surprising was that two of the lifts were moving. That was all he needed to see to know that there was something important buried under the vault. He began the long descent into the darkness.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The teacher groaned as the rest of his band of escapees tried to while away the time with scary stories. In part, his groans were for the fact that there was no imaginable way these children could find anything scarier than what was happening now (Although, to be fair, the elevator ride was boring), and the rest was for the fact that the stories were absolutely harmless. Not scary at all. He did think it meant that they focused more on the stories than the danger, which may have been the point. He got up and looked around, making an inventory of the room. The meager lift only had a snack machine he had no means of getting in to, as he had left his wallet back in the classroom, a bed with nothing on it due to someone looting it for their own personal use, the control panel to decide where to go, and.. The students. Hopefully whatever was down on the level they were headed too had something more.. Substantial than this. He really hoped so.

FaladorTavern.png

Youtube account: Earthgragonsage; currently uploading not an effing thing.

[hide=Memorable Crossroads Quotes.]

Reigan: NO MOOSE CAN SAVE US NOW; ...Had that been taken out of context, it would have been comical... Right now, it's terrifying.

[/hide]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

"Right! That’s it!" the teacher shouted.

Wellington stopped mid-sentence, the teacher normally had a frustratingly calm demeanour even when faced with the most annoying of things but he looked livid; there wasn’t a chance in hell that he was going to spend the next fourty-seven and a bit hours listening to the maddening un-academic jabber of a bunch of children.

“But Sir...”

“Shut it, you!”

Wellington shut his mouth tightly, opening it again before realising that it probably wouldn’t be the best idea to argue with his teacher, he didn’t want his parents to see a bad report.

Suddenly, he heard the all-too-familiar sound of the control-panel connecting to the tinternet and then the even more familiar printer playing the song of its people as a ticket was being printed off. Normally it is procedure for indoor vaults to have a large speakers everywhere but this was complained about and replaced with a mass-ticket system which albeit used a lot of paper but was far quieter.

<threadstart>
Rolph Douhickey – Hello, are you okay up there up at G23?
...
...
...
<G23> Automatic shutdown message
Rolph Douhickey - <scaleup>
Operator - <accepted>
/
...
...

...
Operator – G23 offline? Respond!
/
...
...
...
Dr. Johnston Erik – No reply from schools <scaleup>
/
...
...
<operator> [report]
Guest24034 – Help!
...
Guest24034 – G23er36 burn, most statons hv ben dc’d.
/  - Guest24034 left.

<operator> - >Priority elevate
<operator> - >Priority elevate
<operator> - >Priority elevate
..
Josh Seeking - damage spreading vertically.

 

"Fluttershy!"

"Yes?"

"Pass me a pen!"

qTLQRuS.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Teacher finished and handed Fluttershy her pen. He fed the paper into the machine, and after a minute the elevator began to descend faster. At this rate, they'd reach the bottom of the cave within an hour. "What did you do?" Zodiac asked.

"Before I became your teacher, the overseer got very sick and I was the candidate for his replacement. I had to memorize all of the tricks and commands for this place, things like getting a cup of coffee that doesn't taste like ass-" Fluttershy gasped, she didn't expect that sort of language from her teacher "-And the command for making the elevators go faster", he finished. After staring at the Teacher as if he was a storybook hero come to life for a few minutes, they returned to their conversations.

 

The man in the other elevator was relaxing with a yellowing, crumbled book - Clearly, these elevators haven't been used in many years - when he noticed that it seemed to be moving faster. After a moment of panic, he realized that the increase in speed was not a result of a malfunction and returned to his book. "I guess it's my lucky day", he muttered.

 

He had not heard the griffon land on top of his elevator moments earlier, and Janus was asleep when it began to descend faster, having planned to follow the vault's citizens to the prize he had been sent to claim... Whatever it may be.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Meanwhile, at the entrence, the gang of bandits lounged in the wasteland sun, grumbling at each other and wondering where the hell their drinks were. They had settled down in a rare moment of sober lazyness, however considering that several of their number had already tried to jump the gap in a feat of bravado and ended up screaming the whole way down, it's not truly impressive. The bandits are a mixed bunch of humans, all florid with too much drink and a mis-match of armor and equipment. They laugh on and off at the continued attempts of the drunk Overseers attempt to murder them, as the bullets ricocheet several feet beyond their position. The only thing they can do, and are doing, is waiting for that damn pidgeon man, Janus.

FaladorTavern.png

Youtube account: Earthgragonsage; currently uploading not an effing thing.

[hide=Memorable Crossroads Quotes.]

Reigan: NO MOOSE CAN SAVE US NOW; ...Had that been taken out of context, it would have been comical... Right now, it's terrifying.

[/hide]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Doctor Clark peered out of the window into the black jungle which sustained most of the population from floors 24 to b24, some people bought their oxygen privately but Doctor Clark thought that these people were nobby. He took a puff from the long pipe which had been made out of a goats horn and coughed a bit, he wasn't used to smoking but he decided that he'd have to look the part as the jungle-keeper.

Suddenly, a flaming lift crashed through the ceiling portion of the indoor jungle, charred fragments of wood exploded throughout the area and a academically-dressed man crawled out sideways followed by a small group of children.

Doctor Clark was a botanist, and this wasn't part of his contract so placed his busby hat over his head and began to snooze.

qTLQRuS.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Teacher scrambled with his students to get out of the firey wreckage of the lift. He laughs. "Yeah. Tricks of the trade, remember the lift command for letting the lift fall entirely.."

The students stare at him as if he had gone mad, and Fluttershy pipes up with "You could have KILLED us!" The teacher stares right back. "Maybe, but it's a better chance than waiting for the lift to get to where we needed to go without us starving to death. The lifts are old, and so they move slow." The teacher stands up, and looks around. Now where was he supposedly going again?....

FaladorTavern.png

Youtube account: Earthgragonsage; currently uploading not an effing thing.

[hide=Memorable Crossroads Quotes.]

Reigan: NO MOOSE CAN SAVE US NOW; ...Had that been taken out of context, it would have been comical... Right now, it's terrifying.

[/hide]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...

THREAD NECROMANCY!

 

The Teacher poured over his memories of the maps he had seen of this cave. The Blue Marble was buried at the center of this cavern, around the remains of the labs that were originally built to study it. Almost a hundred years earlier, the scientists discovered that the Marble could be used to make the vaults habitable, and that its effects were different depending on proximity. Their supervisors noticed changes in anyone that spent extended periods of time close to the Marble, and eventually they lost contact with the labs. Knowledge of the incident was first restricted, then lost entirely, except to the Overseers.

 

And The Teacher was going to find them again, because he had to destroy the Marble before it fell into the wrong hands. He ran through the ruins of the original vaults, and his students did their best to catch up.

 

Somewhere nearby, they heard growling.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Luckily, the teacher had a digitalised memory of the cavern. The sound of whirring tape resounded through the cavern as the teacher remembered the format of the cave, digital memories had to use ticker-tape as the more modern technologies weren't compatible with the human brain, which itself being one of the oldest technologies in the galaxy.

"ping."

 

histrology.png

 

"What are the green dots!" the teacher screamed.

qTLQRuS.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Suddenly, from nowhere in particular, the Lambada began playing and from around the corner several growling Brazillians came charging forwards, armed with roses.

The Teacher found himself seperated from his students as the tunes overtook them and they began to dance.

Fluttershy, who was partially deaf in one ear was immune to the musical powers of the Lambada and quickly whipped a pistol from her knickers and fired, taking down the wireless speakers that surrounded the room. As the music subsided the Teacher responded with a haymaker to the lead Brazillian, but they countered by kicking a football at Zodiac, who was knocked for six.

The situation seemed hopeless when a Masked figure appeared, armed with a plate of Prokofiev Rolls and a beatbox playing the Dance of the Knights, which disabled the Brazilians with its disciplined style. The Teacher stepped forwards and asked the Masked figured "Do you know where the Blue Marble is" to which the Masked figure responded "Here it is", which drew and "Oh" from the Teacher, and then the gradual understanding that the Masked figure must be the Director of Project Wellington. The only man higher than the Overseer.

"We must hurry to the Gazpacho" Said Fluttershy, with her tummy rumbling, the others ignored her and the Teacher took the gun off of her and loaded with it with the Blue Marble and shot it into the wall, opening a portal back to Earth. As the Cataclysmic forces unleashed began to tear the cave apart the Teacher, Director and Children escaped through the portal.

Well I knew you wouldn't agree. I know how you hate facing facts.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.