The Vengeance of Aldrick

The game finally finishes installing, and you boot it up. A lore cutscene pops up as an eye catcher, but you instinctively click a button to skip it. You are taken to a 16-bit title screen, showing a forest background as digital trumpets blare out fanfare. Stylized text creeps down from the top of the screen, reading: “The Vengeance of Aldrick.”

Rather than waiting for the eye catcher to start up again, you click the first option on the menu: “Start.” Next, the only available follow-up: “New Game.”

You see a purplish blue night sky, covered in dark clouds. White text fades in on top of it reading: “England, circa 1300.”

The camera pans down, and you see a jagged, brown stone tower, with bloodstained grey rocks at the bottom. The blood is old, having itself gone from red to brown, and a trail of it leads across some grass and back into the tower’s front door.

Pan left. A long, winding dirt road leads westward from the tower. Cut to the outskirts of an imperial city. Fires are lit atop every pillar of the city wall, covering the sky above with a dense blanket of smoke. The farmers and peasants sleep lightly in poorly-insulated straw apartments on the outer edge of the city within the wall.

You see the inner part of town, a very wealthy neighborhood full of well-insulated mansions, made from stone, wood, and other materials, with a large castle made of grey stone bricks at the center point.

Further westward, you see a dark forest, full of silhouettes of various sleeping creatures. Some sit in human-or-greater sized birds nests built into the tree branches. On the ground, others lay unprotected, or in various burrowing holes. However, most rest in small tree-branch shelters and mud-brick mounds.

Eventually, your view comes to a forest clearing to the northwest. A cluster of blanket tents and wooden huts is seen, and on the southern edge, you see a wooden sign with the words “Anglers’ Dive” sloppily written on it. At the very north of this village is a smaller hut made from cobblestone.

The camera zooms in on this hut. Inside, we see a young woman sleeping on a burlap-covered bed in the upper-left corner, with a large wooden box in the top-middle.

What will the name of this young woman be?

[This poll has already been answered]

Not caring too much about names, you click the “Default” button on the on-screen keyboard that appears.

Your name is Alexis. You are in a dreamless sleep when out of nowhere, you are roughly pushed by the shoulder and woken up. You look up at the guy who’s just done so. Whoever he is, you do not remember giving anyone permission to be in here.

Immediately, you throw his hand off of your shoulder, punch him in the face, gain some distance and go into a fighting stance. He backs up, putting one hand over the cheek you just hit, and the other one up where you can see it.

You start sizing him up in greater detail. Burly dude, thick hair, thicker beard. Wait a minute, you recognize this asshole! He’s that one guy you fought back in the city!

At least, you think it is. For some reason, his entire body is made of a glowing blue light, through which you can see the room behind him. You very clearly remember the guy you fought was made of flesh. In fact, a trail of this light leads from the center of his chest to the ground outside your window, and you don’t remember that either.

You glance at your own forearm to discover that you, too, are made of light, which concerns and surprises you. You also realize that your feet are not actually touching anything. You look down. You are floating. You look back forward. You notice that a flesh version of your body is still laying in bed, and that another string of energy leads from your chest to that of your body’s. This is also very concerning.

The man begins to whisper to himself.

MAN: (Ow, fucker! You’re lucky I’m not here to-)

He clears his throat and begins speaking up.

MAN: Sorry about that.

You demand an explanation.

MAN: For why I’m here, why I woke you up, or why we’re ghosts?

You confirm that it’s for all three.

MAN: Well, in that order, I’m here cause I need your help-

You don’t buy that one bit, but you don’t press it.

MAN: I woke you because it’s urgent,

You don’t like the sound of that.

MAN: And I’m dead. You, however, are dreaming.

You buy that last part, but you don’t know what the fuck could drive him to ask you for help.

MAN: I’m glad you asked.

MAN: You see, the king sent me out to kill this evil wizard, but uh, apparently this guy had a plan for that, and he killed me with a stage fatality.

You scoff at him.

MAN: *Long story short,* I woke up in Hell, had a brief crisis about that, and thought “Hey, if this guy’s strong enough to beat me, the country doesn’t stand a chance!” So I learned how to come back and tried to warn everyone, but they didn’t want to talk to a guy whose string lead downward. Tried to talk to the monsters, too, but they didn’t really care, so, here we are.

You ask him why you would care, of all people.

MAN: BECAUSE if he takes over the kingdom- Okay, look, you had a rabble of peasants. I don’t really like you or them, but at least it was clear what you were trying to do. This guy has an army of golems and an assistant who is a literal demon. There is no telling what this fucker wants. And if you actually care about these deadbeats, my guess is he’s gonna make life Hell for them, too.

...

MAN: Common enemy, get it?

You say you’ll look into it.

MAN: Cool. Now, I wanna be involved in taking him down. I don’t really want to do this, but I’m told I can grant you a strength boost if I can just float into-

He inches closer to you as he says this. You quickly back up again and hold your hand out in the universal “stop” gesture.

MAN: ...Alright, then.

MAN: Just wake up and try to take care of it as soon as possible, alright? I’ll be up ahead.

The fallen knight floats out of the front window. As he’s leaving, you realize he never told you how to wake back up. You try pinching yourself. It doesn’t work. You take a queue from his somewhat-creepy request earlier and just literally float forward into your body.

It works! You wake up again, this time inside your body. You get up from the bed.

Would you like to do anything before you leave the room?

[This poll has already been answered]

You open the large wooden box that you keep next to your bed.

The box contains a Worn, Rusty Spear, a Leather Tunic, a Water Bottle, a Dried Wolf Steak, and a piece of Bread.

You take everything.

You equip the Leather Tunic.

Your Armor increased from 0 to 1!

You equip the Worn, Rusty Spear.

Your Strike increased from 2 to 5!

Your Shoot increased from 1 to 4!

Your Block increased from 1 to 2!

You will now deal 1 extra Tetanus Damage on crit!

You begin thinking to yourself.

After having your home invaded like that just now, you are more than ready to blow off some steam.

However, you get a slight nagging feeling.

You are the leader of this town, so maybe just disappearing without a replacement could lead to some trouble.

Perhaps it would be best if you found one before leaving.

Knowing it will be easier to find someone else while everyone is awake, you decide to rest for the night.

It comes to your attention that for a more comfortable sleep, it would have made more sense to put these clothes on *after* waking up in the morning.

You also chuckle about bringing a sharp weapon with you into bed, before leaning it against the wall for the night.

Your game has been saved.

The next morning, you awaken to the morning light, and the sounds of people talking outside.

You grab your spear and exit the house.