A new world, a new start
This article is a CYOA based on the game I wrote in Arkadia: Monsters' land. If you are unfamiliar with it, read it to understand the choices you make.
The world of Arkadia needs heroes. The Sitvanity live on islands because their lands are in ruins, conquered by creatures and monsters. You are a god-sent, a wight sent by the gods to help the Sitvanity recover their lands and homes.
You appear on a small island, right in front of a tavern. Behind you, a bridge connects this island to a smaller island bridging to the main island. A nearby person calls for your attention. They are tall, almost two heads taller, and with a soft smile, they approach you and, while shaking your hand, greet you.
(Select only one class, selecting more than one will remove you from the previous. To read more about the classes, head to the main Arkadia article. Make sure to click on the text.)Hello there! You must be one of the god-sent! We’ve been waiting for ya! Oh, but what are these manners? I am Eliard, but please call me Elly, and I’ll give you a tour! I am the mayor of this island, you might see me somewhat often, so I hope we can be friends! Now, before I talk more and more, I am curious about your training.
(Once again, pick only one option! And if you need more information about them, go to the main Arkadia article. Make sure to click on the text.)And which god send you?
So you are a sent by? That’s an interesting combination, if I may say! Back to work, as you must be aware, we are trying to recover our lost lands, but we dislike sending underpowered people to missions and, while we trust our god’s opinions, we have a tradition to test you, god-sent. If you’ll be so nice to follow me...
You follow Elly towards the back of the tavern. While walking over there, Elly stops and talks with different people. After talking, people salute you and go on with their lives. One is a small child, akin to Elly, who jumped in their arms after calling them. “Hello, little one. Why don’t you salute my friend over there? They are one of the god-sent.” says Elly, and the child waves at you while hiding in Elly’s chest. Elly laughs and lets the child on the floor, who ran away. “She’s shy, not used to new people, but she is a lovely kid. Come on, we’re almost there. Sorry for stopping to talk with everyone.” they chuckle.
As Elly starts walking away, you take another look at your surroundings. The small island nearby seems to have little shops with some different stuff, and as you get closer to inspect it, a man stops you before crossing the bridge. "Woah, woah, can't you read?" says him while pointing at a <In works, do not cross> sign, "We are working in here, please don't cross until we have finished, shouldn't take more than a day so go spend some time at the tavern." While he leaves with some building materials, you turn once again towards that tavern and go inside of it. It is a busy tavern, but the ambience is calm. It's early in the morning, and people are having breakfast. You can see it has some upper floors, probably some bedrooms, and as you were about to sit at a table, Elly grabs your arm, "Hey now, we have stuff to do before stopping to have some drinks. Come on, follow me, it'll be quick, and then you'll be free for today." They drag you gently towards outside the tavern and then behind it.
As you turn and see the back of the tavern, you see a tree which a hollowed trunk from where you can see purple mists dancing. Elly is keeping a distance from it.
I can't fight. I hope you don't mind if I stay away from the portal. It's not like it's not safe being near it, but knowing that monsters are behind it makes me unsafe if I get near. That portal will send you to your test, and you'll appear in a forest. In there, there will be 3 or 4 creatures you'll have to slay. Once you are back, the portal will close until another god-sent appears. But don't worry, god-sents tend to brag that it's easy.
It takes you a couple of seconds to cross the portal, and you stare at the "Loading..." sign on the screen while a forest starts growing around you. It's impressive. First, the earth floor appears under your feet, followed by plants of different plants and sizes growing fastly to their determinated propieties values. In these couple of seconds, a forest grows from nowhere, and as the last plant reaches its final state, the "Loading..." sign disappears.
Finding the creatures is simple as a path guides you to them. You see three of them, a two-headed wolf, an eight-legged wolf, and a wolf with spines for fur. Killing them is not too hard. The most problematic one is the spiked one because it can shoot spines at you.
You turn back and start going towards the portal. You feel observed, but cannot see anyone or anything, and you cross the portal. The forest scenario disappears, and as you look up the "Loading..." you see it glitched, and feel a cold touch on your neck. But no one is there, nothing is there, only you?
The "Loading..." sign disappears before any scene has loaded. Weird, "is Altrea having some technical problems?" you think, but you can't recall anything like this ever happening. A voice distracts you from your thoughts, it feels close but also far away, and you don't know where it is coming from, are the audio settings messed up?
You are... a God-sent... *heavy breathing* Look at you, being a good dog, following what people tell you without questioning it. Why do you do so? Why do you help these people who only think of sending you to danger? To fix their problems? Are you even send by gods? Do you have any memories of what you were before reaching Arkadia? Do you really want to be a used weapon with no opinion or ability to choose? I'll let you think of it... And be sure that I'll be back...
You are relieved but also confused. Having this voice speak about Arkadia's lore dissipates your thinking of Altrea having technical problems, but... How is it that you never heard anyone talking about this scene? Fire appears in front of you, there is no sign of anything else in this misty place, and you feel how suddenly you can move again. You hear a "Come towards me" coming from the fire.
Not only the voice told you to go into it, but you can feel it calling you, demanding you. You move instinctively towards it, and without thinking twice, you jump into it. The flames, while warm, do not hurt you, and they surround you, hug you until you close your eyes and see darkness.
The fire looks like a trap, it cannot be the exit. You start walking around, trying to find anything similar to the exit. You walk for what seems like an eternity, and yet, you find nothing. As you turn towards where the fire was, you find the fire right next to you, roaring fiercely and demanding your presence. Unsure this is the better option, but the only one, you jump into it. The fire quickly surrounds you, cold at the touch, almost freezing your skin, and hits you on your eyes, forcing you to close them, and suddenly you are surrounded by nothing else than darkness.
With the darkness after the fire, you see the "Loading..." sign appear without being glitched. And with it, a scene starts being built around you, and shortly you recognize the back of the tavern.
It is now night in the city of Arkadia, and while you are stepping outside the portal, you can see Elly bobbing their head while trying to stay awake. When they see you, they stretch a bit and get near you.
You are back! It has been over half a day! Are you okay? What happened?
As you start explaining the portal "incident", they lead you to the tavern. Once in there, Elly asks for a couple of drinks for both of you.
I've never heard of a creature or someone being able to stuck someone in a portal and talk with them, but monsters constantly evolve, and thus it might be possible? I'll ask someone more expert than me. Meanwhile, little can we do while it's night, so let's meet tomorrow morning, okay? I've paid for a night in the tavern for you, the first floor, the third room on the left. I have a kid to care for, so I'll be going. Have a good night, and if something weird happens, please let me know when we meet tomorrow.
There's nothing else than a warm comfy bed more attractive right now, so you leave behind the lively floor of the tavern and climb the stairs towards where Elly said your room was. On your way there, you find a drunkard falling in front of you near where your room is. As you poke him to see if he is still breathing, he jumps and stands up close to you.
"So brave of you to bother me. What do you think you are doing?" he says. It is then when you realize two things: one, he is not drunk or at least don't reek of alcohol,You go around the tavern talking with the patrons and the workers. They don't have many interesting stories to tell (most of them being about fishes fished on the ocean or stories of other god-sents), and most of them feel intimidated once they discover that you are a god-sent.
A man climbs down the stairs and locks his eyes onto you. "Well, well, what do we have here, a lost god-sent?" he says while approaching you. "You don't seem much of a thing..." he circles arounds you, taking a good look at your avatar. He stops circling, grabs you from your chestplate and gets way too close, "We'll have a good time tomorrow, if you are worth it." the man pats you on your shoulder before showing a crooked smile and leaving the tavern. You decide that's enough for the night.
You find your room but realize it's locked by key. Only then you realize you have new items in your inventory, two things in total: a pearl of darkness (filled with the familiar purple dancing mists) and a key. You use the key in your door and open it.
This is so cool! I'm looking forward to seeing more of this story, I'm very intrigued :D
I'm glad you like it :D I hope I don't tend too long to write the next part :P
Love to code, but this one is driving me crazy!
My world Shattered won as the "Most ground-breaking premise new world"!