Game of Doom and Despair (by Storyteller) ECTOCOMP 2025

You woke up in dark room with walls from unprocessed, raw stone with no memory or sense of yourself whatsoever. As you open your eyes and you are waiting for them to get used to the darkness, you realize that your head hurts and your limbs are still bit [[numb.]]The smell of the room is a mix of rotting dead bodies and the smell of chemicals. As you look around the room, you notice a [[door from thick steel]].

You slowly walk up to the door and push to open it. It takes a few tries but you move the door enough for you to slip trough. You enter a long narrow hallway with very dim ligth and water dripping from the ceiling. the water produces loud sounds that make you feel uneasy. As you progress trough the hallway you feel less and less confident about your decision. After short hesitation you convince yourself just to keep walking on. After a while you come a cross a guy laying on the ground - his eyes closed, his hand leaning towards the wall. [[talk to him]]

You chose to lay on the ground for a litlle longer. As you are lying, the door opens and three men walk through. Two of them are walking behind the first one and they have the same set of black armor that is oozing with magic. You presume that they have some kind of weapon but you don´t see it right away. The man at the fron one is wearing a black suit and has magic wand in his right hand. He introduces himself as the Enforcer of the game and says: ,,You have failed to progress to the next stage in time, so you are hereby eliminated." Before you get the chance to say or even do anything he points his wand towards you and a beam of black light and you get evaporated, and thus, cease to exist. The unnecessarily early ending. [[Do you want to read it again?->the beginning]]

After a while of contemplating you realize you dont have much of a choice so you shake him ligtly to even see if h s alive. He slowly opens his eyes and immediately starts moving violently while shouting: "Don´t hurt me! please, don´t hurt me!" It takes you a few minutes but you eventually convince him that you mean him no harm whatsoever. You explain him the situation you are in. He starts laughing maniacally and tells you that from this point on there is no way out and that you are a dead man. He also mentions something about a Game you´re now in. Before you get the chance to ask him more questions he starts seizing up while grabbing his chest... and [[dies.]] [[keep walking]]

You keep on walking, still mentally shocked from the encounter with the man. Then suddenly you see a door right before you. You could swear the door was´nt there just a second ago. You open the door. The empty room is similar to the one you were in previously, just transformed with some candles, paintings on the wall and few more decorations. In the exact center of the room there is a man standing, his grey coat stretching all the way to his feet and a magical wand in his hand[[...->man with wand]]

"What happens if I refuse?" you ask. The man doesn´t even answer. He just lights up the black crystal on his wand and that is more than enough of an answer for you. [[throw the dice]]

You throw the dice and it lands on the number 28. You let out audible exhale as you realize you made it. Game overseer congratulates you and informs you that you may progress to the next level. [[Ask him for more info about the game.]] [[start second game]]

Just as you let out half of the word you wanted to start the question with, he vanishes into thin air and with him the decorations of the room disappear - just to reveal an empty cold room once again. [[start second game]]

You are back on the dark hallway with the disgusting smell from before. You promise to yourself that if you are lucky enough to leave this place you will never ever go to any cave again. After few more minutes of walking you spot another one of those doors and say "Here we go again" to yourself. Upon entering you are greeted by the same game overseer and the same gimmick with magically self decorating [[room.->second room]]

Block number 3 was not solid. You fell to the lava and died a painfull and agonizing death. [[start second game]]

You got lucky enough to survive all five blocks without harm. While you are lying on the cold stone ground and smelling the air hot from the lava (all while gasping for air) the game overseer congratulates you once again. This time the room doesn´t change back to normal. You just get teleported back to the hallway with no trace of the previous room or the game overseer. [[move on to the third game]]

The last block wasn´t solid so you fell trough and died a painful and agonizing death. But you almost made it through. [[start second game]]

While you are making your way to the third game you meet an NPC. It is seemingly harmless entity of this game realm. It might even help you if you are lucky. [[Talk to the NPC]] [[ignore the NPC]]

You choose to try and talk to the NPC but it cuts you of imidiently and says: ,,I dont have time, mortal. Take this and leave me alone". The NPC is giving you some sort of relic depicting a skeleton in cloak. It might be useful later. [[take it]] [[refuse the relic]]

For some reason you do not want to talk to the NPC. You keep walking instead towards the door for the third game. After a while you come accros the entrance. This time it´s not just simple iron door like the last two, but a double door decorated with gold and silver and a few gems, with ornaments depicting skeletons and death. [[enter the third game]]

You push the door open and shivers run down your whole body as you enter. The game overseer is already waiting for you to begin the last game. "This time it will be little different, player." he says. You will be teleported to a graveyard and your task is to get from the starting point to the far end while the residents of the graveyard will try to stop you." With these words he summons a portal in front of you. [[step into the portal]]

You step into the portal and are imidiently teleported to a graveyard. It´s an eerie place stretching across many square miles with countless stone graves. You see a path that you are supposed to cross. As soon as you step onto the path, skeletons start coming out of the countless graves and chasing you. You try to run but they grasp you and start tearing you apart. The last thought you have is that they are pretty fast for a bunch of deteriorating corpses. The [[relic]] would come in handy right now.

You gladly take the relic and go your own way. After a while you come across the entrance to the next game. This time it´s not just a simple iron door like the last two. It´s a double door decorated with gold, silver and a few gems, with ornaments depicting skeletons and death. [[enter the 3rd game]]

You didn´t take the relic, so you just keep on walking towards the next game. After a while you come across the entrance to the next game. This time it´s not just a simple iron door like the last two. It´s a double door decorated with gold, silver and a few gems, with ornaments depicting skeletons and death. [[enter the third game]]

You walk trough the portal and are imidiently teleported to the graveyard. Its an eerie graveryard stretching across many square miles with countless stone graves. You see a path that you are supposed to cross. As soon as you step onto the path, skeletons start coming out the countless graves and chasing you. But as they get close to you invisible force field keeps them away from you and turns them to ashes when they try to get closer. So you just calmly walk trough dark path while smelling burned bones. At the end there is a Portal. [[enter the final portal]]

At the other side of the portal there is a big room that looks like some sort of throne room. There is a long table in the center of the room and at the most distant point of the table there is a tall man sitting. He greets you with a cold smile and introduces himself as the Game Lord. He says that you are the first ever to complete his game. However, the Game itself is designed as an endless cycle of doom and despair death and suffering. There is nothing you can do to stop it. There will always be another player to take your place. You get infuriated and try to argue and reason with him but he pulls out his wand with white crystal and evaporates your whole existence instantly. The END [[Do you want to play again?->the beginning]]

The door looks heavy. [[go to the door and try to open them]] [[keep laying on the ground]] [[back->the beginning]]

(it must be an aftereffect from the sedative that was used on you) [[beck->the beginning]]

...from heart attack, presumably. [[keep walking]]

The man greets you and introduces himself as the game overseer. He informs you that his task is to oversee that the game runs smoothly and to punish you if needed. He shows you to a table that is empty. Before you get to ask him why there is nothing on the table, a game board and a cube with 32 numbers appears on the table out of thin air. He explains that you have to throw the dice and get a number 17 or higher to survive, if you throw number 16 or lower you die - unless you get a number divisible by four. In such case if lower than 17 you get a chance to throw again, in case you chose so. [[Ask him what happens if you refuse.]] [[throw the dice]]

This time the room is exponentionally larger and there is pool of lava with stone blocks scattered in twos acros the pool. Game overseer informs you that your task is to jump to the other side of the lava pool but he tells you there is a twist to it. Only one of each two is solid, the other one you will fall right trough to your demise. Which combination of blocks will you choose? [[left-right-right-right-left]] [[right-left-right-right-left]] [[right-right-left-left-right]]

You have been given a chance to cheat death by the author and pick again. Use relic and [[move on to the third game]]