Story arc #1: The Castle of Shadows
A Rocky Escape
A chapter of a choose your own adventure story
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Something deep inside tells you that it wouldn’t be wise to fall asleep in this bed. How the heck did it get here anyway?
Instead, you stand up, feeling a rising suspicion. Was there some kind of hallucinogenic substance in that pool of water, or something…?
It feels like the scientist inside you is struggling against the dreamer!
You leave the chamber and re-enter the beautiful marble hallway, tapping its walls as you walk back along the way you came. “Deeply weird,” you mutter.
You’ve never seen anything like this here in the mountains…
Could it be that the ancient tales of a hidden and long-lost Celtic fortress are actually true? The resting place of ancient treasures? If so, it would be great to delve deeper and find them. It could make your career — and your fortune!
But then again, isn’t there something rather unethical about grabbing artefacts from their indigenous habitat, and getting famous by putting them in a museum…?
Just as this dilemma is running through your head, you come to a halt. You have reached the start of the polished marble hallway, but it’s a dead end. No door-handle; no hatch. You seem to be stuck here.
Panic rising, you hunt around, and then spot a dim glimmer of light in the far corner above you. There’s a hole, and it looks large enough to climb into.
But where does it lead?
Using one of the sconces from the lamps on the wall of the hallway to raise yourself up, you wiggle into the gap in the stone and start to climb, unsure of where (if anywhere) it will take you.
As you climb, the gap turns into a narrow tunnel, and you are able to keep moving steeply upwards in the dim light. The rock is rough, and you feel your clothes getting repeatedly ripped until the knees are gone entirely.
After around five minutes of great effort — during which you more than once regret not staying in the bedchamber — you pull yourself out of the hole into the daylight of the mountainside.
Continue…
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