STORYTELLERS a forum game *Clarkman wins*

[Vermilion]

*finally gets around to reading this thread*

*sees the last 2 pages*

What the flying f**k?!!

[Hulohot]

Day 4 - Conclusion.




OrangeRKN ducked into the shrubbery, leaping over the fence into what appeared to be a ran down neighbours house. Armed with his camera, he crept up the stairs, trying to get a good vantage point. Satisfied with his view, he prepared to snap.

____

Jenuall stepped from cover, dodging some airborne rusty spoons. "I will fight you."

Stool Guy stepped towards Jenuall, a battle of the ages about to commence.

A sudden flash, and then a scream. More rapid flashes. "It's that bloody internet posting stalker again!" Stool Guy screamed, now distracted.
Jenuall went for the kill, but as he did a dark void appeared before him. "You did not heed my words before, you shall not harm my Stool Guy." A candle flickered to life from the black void. "You will fight me instead. The GRail must be left alone." From the darkness grew two muscular limbs. In one hand, a butchers knife and in the other, a metallic blow up sex doll with knives for hands.

"Stool Guy," The Candle-Man spoke, "Head inside and sit with Towel Guy. I will deal with these trespassers."

____

Upstairs, OrangeRKN was spamming the camera when he heard a noise from behind.
"Oi who the goosberry fool are you? You're that strawberry float who keeps posting pictures of my Stool Guy on the internet aren't you!" It was the Jeremy Kyle fodder, Vermilion's overweight degenerate neighbour. He was holding a shotgun.

____

Jenuall dropped to the ground, narrowly avoiding the cleaver-sex doll combo. Mic tossed him the mallet, which Jenuall promptly dropped. Scrambling for his only weapon, Jenuall sensed death.

____

Being a made for trash TV British slob, the nasty neighbour didn't actually know how to use the shotgun. OrangeRKN on sensing this, threw the camera as hard as he could at the mans face, then followed it up with a running shove. The man stumbled to the floor, but was surprisingly agile at getting back up. Orange found himself suddenly wrestling against Slob Guy, who had tremendous strength. His neck wrung, and losing his footing, Orange found himself moving towards the shattered window, and shards of jagged glass.

____

With only a fingertip to the mallet, the Candle-Man's cleaver came down on his leg. He felt no pain and grasped the mallet hard, swinging it at the dark void. Nothing happened, but his swinging momentum allowed him to Dark Souls roll away from another Sex-Doll swipe. Finding his footing, Jenuall grabbed Stool Guy's Stool, which was now a make shift shield. Jenuall knew this was his best chance, and charged.

____


Orange struggled as hard as he could, throwing Slob Guy off balance. Reaching out, ignoring the searing pain, he grasped a blade of glass from the shattered window frame and rammed it into his opponents chest. Screaming, the man lifted Orange, a sudden outburst of strength, carried him out to the landing then threw him down the stairs. Orange landed awkwardly in the main foyer of the house, probably suffering broken bones. He struggled to move as Slob Guy slowly descended the stairs, blade of glass in hand.

____

The cleaver struck the stool and the two wrestled briefly for footing. The sex doll swiped at Jenuall's stomach, and he couldn't tell if he was hit or not. Suddenly overpowered, our hero was knocked to the floor, the stool clattering away. He swiped madly at Candle-Man with the mallet, but knew it was pointless. Candle-Man knelt over Jenuall, pinning him down with immense force. It was over. "Remember, the mountain is a lie."

____

Slob Guy was now stood over Orange. The mans foot holding him to the ground. Orange closed his eyes, waiting for the end.
Slob Guys attention was drawn away at the sudden sound of a screeching tyres, and before either of them knew what had happened, a car crashed through the front of the house, annihilating both Slob Guy and Orange into bloody, tyre grinded chunks.
Inside the car, a elderly couple. "I thought you said this was the drive-thru."
"No you stupid man, I said the drive-thru was on the left, not the right."

____

As the Butchers knife was about to come down, Jenuall did the only thing he could think of in that moment. He blew out the Candle-Mans candle. The void dissipated.
Stool Guy emerged from the garage, a man in a towel peeking through the door at the action.
"Well I guess you won Jenuall. As promised, I'll tell you a shortcut. If you cross the road and go through the drive-thru, follow the road out back and it will take you safely around Cash Mountain. You'll find it a much quicker, but probably more dangerous route to Grailtopia. Also, you can keep my stool as a reward, i'm certain it will be very, very useful on your journey."

Jenuall and the gang thanked Stool Guy, who turned out to be a pretty cool dude in the end. But we all knew that really, didn't we?

A quick search for Orange turned up nothing other than bloodied chunks of meat, but surely that wasn't related to Orange, right? Assuming he must have left, they decided to keep an eye out for him on the road.

Facing the drive-thru, the group contemplated their next move.

"Do we take the dangerous shortcut? Or do we head straight for Cash Mountain?"


Jenuall has survived the night, however OrangeRKN met a very surprising and grisly end, that was entirely pre-planned before the voting occured.

[OrangeRKN]

I guess you could say I got

Tired of living

[Jenuall]

Phew, was sure I was a goner there!

Another great update to our quest, good work!

[Herdanos]

Great work hulo.

How flexible are you on the deadline for a storyteller to be nominated, Orange? As I can't help but notice we don't yet have any volunteers.

[Hulohot]

Thank you everyone!

[Herdanos]

I put myself up for storyteller again - I don't want the momentum to end!

[Hulohot]

You have my sword (vote)

[OrangeRKN]

Great work hulo.

How flexible are you on the deadline for a storyteller to be nominated, Orange? As I can't help but notice we don't yet have any volunteers.

As flexible as we need to be! If you want to do it, you have my vote as a dead member of the audience so go ahead

And yes great end there Hulo, I was sure at a point that I had survived and Jen was dead

[Herdanos]

I reckon two votes is as good a majority as I'll need at this stage*.

Day Five

Before first light, the travellers, having taken stool guy at his word, navigated the Drive-Thru and began the walk southwest, around Cash Mountain, and on to whatever was to follow.

The party - Jenuall, DarkRula, Quantum Name, Clarkman, Ironhide, mic and Hulohot - were weary, and the sun, having risen, was unrelenting as they made their way along the open road that cut through the vast continent, evading the mountain as it swerved west.

A brief midmorning stop to shelter from the rays and eat something only made the mood sourer, as the group realised just how depleted their inventory was (save for a heavy stool, which they'd taken turns to carry). By early afternoon they were exhausted, having not slept in some time.

"I'm exhausted," confirmed Quantum Name. "I don't even have the energy to log on to the No Context thread and talk about our heavy stool."

"Look," said mic, "there's a village up ahead. We can restock there and find a bed for the night."

And so the party stopped in the tiny trading post of Pilalgevor. It wasn't long before they'd found an inn. It wasn't a huge building, but it had a tall chimney at its east side, and an even taller clock tower on its west.

Upon entering, the group were greeted by a friendly elderly lady at the reception desk.

"Welcome to the Pilalgevor Rest Stop. What can we do for you?"

"There are seven of us," explained Clarkman. "Do you have beds for us all? We can pay."

"Let me see..." the woman replied as she moved her spectacles further down her nose to better scrutinise her bookings list. "I have a couple of double rooms... one could fit three at a push. And then two singles which, it so happens, are the cheapest rooms we have!"

"Great!" mic replied cheerily, reaching for his wallet.

"Wait," interjected Jenuall. "Why are they the cheapest?"

"Well," explained the woman, "one is a small room atop the clock tower, and one is our basement room."

"In the clock tower?" said Hulohot. "Won't we be woken by the, well, clock?"

"Oh, no, dear," said the woman. "There's no danger of that. The clock hasn't worked for a little while now. It doesn't even tick, let alone chime."

"And what about the basement?" enquired DarkRula.

"Well, it's too cold for my old bones, I grant you," advised the receptionist. "But there are extra blankets and pillows to make it feel all cosy and safe for whichever of you draws the short straw."

The group looked at one another. Though it didn't sound pleasant, they were all shattered, and none the wiser as to whether they had any other options.

"We'll stay the night."

One of you must sleep in the clock tower room.
One of you must sleep in the basement.

You must make a decision before 9pm tonight.


*side note: where are all the audience peeps? There were plenty of folk who said they would watch, if not take part, during sign ups.

Get involved, GR!

*deactivates jawa cheerleading mode*

[That]

I'm still watching! I think the thread has been great so far.

[Hulohot]

Great work hulo.

How flexible are you on the deadline for a storyteller to be nominated, Orange? As I can't help but notice we don't yet have any volunteers.

As flexible as we need to be! If you want to do it, you have my vote as a dead member of the audience so go ahead

And yes great end there Hulo, I was sure at a point that I had survived and Jen was dead

Thanks that's exactly what I wanted you both to think.

[OrangeRKN]

I like how it seems like such an innocent choice of some mild inconvenience, but we know in the context of the game that someone is going to die because of it

[Tsunade]

I've been busy and havent had chance to catch up till now.. what a story so far. I really wasn't expecting stool bloke to show up, but I'm so glad he did!

I nominate DarkRula for the clock tower and ironhide for the basement.

[DarkRula]

I'm happy to be in the clocktower. It'll be like being with the Time Force Rangers, but if I get into trouble they obviously won't be there to stop me getting thrown from it. It's a risk I'm willing to take, though.

[Clarkman]

Apologies for disappearing from the thread yesterday. The Nintendo Direct and a busy work day affected by availability. Loved the Stool Bloke saga.

+1 for DarkRula Clocktown and Ironhide in the basemet.

I hope that bastard Thetime Runcklesworth doesn't show up in the Clocktower! Rogueleader was always said to have close links to The Rogue Mod...

[Hulohot]

Ok DarkRula for clocktower.

I'm going to go ahead and be an arse, and vote for someone who has not volunteered.

Basement goes to mic!

[Herdanos]

Can I make a suggestion?

At the moment we seem to be working towards deadlines of 9am and 9pm, but that means there's limited time for the thread to be active during the night, which is when players and audience members need to:
- read the conclusion
- run for/vote for storyteller
- write the next chapter
- write the conclusion (or at least prepare it/think about it)

It's not a lot of time, and it means it all takes place when the thread is at its least busy.

It looks like DarkRula is locked in for the clock tower bedroom; Hulohot's post just before this one complicates things, but assuming we DO reach a consensus on who's taking the basement bedroom, can I post the conclusion earlier?

This gives players more time to react, think, decide if they want to tell the next chapter, and so on.

someone is going to die

Thoughts?

[OrangeRKN]

The overall story has been more... coherent than I had predicted, with events one day directly leading into the next. Which is very cool, but yes that means the storyteller has less time to write (whereas I imagined people both writing less and being able to write a rough draft in advance). Consensus during the day has also been much more easily reached.

So yeah, it might work better to conclude the day a little earlier, provided that does give all the players the opportunity to vote during the day. I'm wary of people who might be working 9-6 for example so not able to be involved except for in the evening, but I guess we'll see!

[Ironhide]

I'll take the basement room, I don't particularly want to be storyteller so I'm willing to take the risk of being violently murdered in my sleep.