In a room
The sign reads
"Welcome all new travellers.
To continue you must go through a series of doors.
After going through you will pick a costume. You will then become a half- human and half that creature.
After a week(100 mins a hour,20 hrs a day,10 days a week) has passed you may morph and get another costume. To start of with you will only be able to become 40% human to 60% human.
If you put on a costume you will then become that creature, be teleported to it's home town and have to wait a week before being able to morph.
After 50 costumes you may change into one of your other costumes and become 30% to 70% human. When changing costumes you must wait at least an hour before you can change costumes again.
100 different species/gender costumes allows you to gender-morph and become 20% to 80% human
200 different species costumes allows you to combine costumes and become 10% to 90% human
400 different species costumes allows you to return to your world with no more morphing
And 800 different species costumes makes a polymorph and allows you to morph outside of this world.
Also if you have a costume like a centaur then the human part will always be human and is counted towards the human percentage.
Any gender/species transformation magic of yours can only change your gender(if you have at least 100 costumes) and the animal part to a different animal.
When you change into a different costume (that you already have) you may teleport to that species home town but you will have the week penalty where you have no costume changes.
If you die while wearing a costume you will be reborn at the local inn (or appropriate location ). If you have more then 100 costumes you will lose the costume you had when you died and go to an appropriate place for your next costume.
If you fail to make it out in 100 years(100 weeks in a year) one of your possible forms will be chosen and you will be permanently stuck in that form(apart from magic) until you die. Also there will be no possibility of going back to your world.
Also, one final note: should you take a female form and become pregnant, you won't be able to change your gender until the child is born, though the other aspects of your form may change (the child will change to match.) That is all, and good luck!
You realise that you have to do what the sign said to do and go through the doors and grab a costume.
Alternatively you could use the key system to determine the room
Written by Catprog on 11 February 2004
Normal Land
You go through the door.
All of a sudden it slams shut and with no handle on this side it appears that you are stuck.
There are two more doors however and both of them have a sign on them saying
Costume room for
Element: Land
Type: Normal
Gender: ????
So which door do you want
Written by Catprog on 26 February 2004
Male Normal Land
You go through the door.
All of a sudden it slams shut and with no handle on this side it appears that you are stuck.
There are five costumes in this room, all of them male, all of them are normal land creatures.
<small><suggestions><ul>
</ul></suggestions></small>
Written by Catprog on 26 February 2004
Salamander
This outfit seems particularly interesting to you, the bumpy surface, the webbed fins. You can’t help but think to yourself about how this experience seems like one like none other,
“What is this?” You ask yourself aloud, thinking how regardless of what’s ahead of this road for you, it must be better than the situation you’re already in. You take in your environment while staring into the shattered mirror. A rusty sink is before you, to your left a decrepit wood framed window complete with an annoyingly loud fan-ventilation system. To your right a scratched up metal door, you swear you see bullet holes scattering the length of the door. Covered in graffiti, the handle barely hanging on, and rust making its way up the length of the metal quarter-round along the bottom.
You hear the buzzing of the lights overhead as they flicker, the steril lighting in this gas station bathroom fills your stomach with anxiety and nausea. You look at your wrinkly skin in the mirror, bloodshot eyes yearning for a new beginning. Bony hands aged by the sun run along the warts embedded in this costume, the texture reminds you of a freshly plucked chicken. Your empty stomach growls causing your mind to go back to the last time you had a good meal. Flies buzz around the vicinity, causing a harsh annoying kind of sound in tandem with the buzzing of the light fixture swinging above you.
The sound of the ventilation fan almost drowning out the two more subtle yet annoying sounds overwhelming your senses. You’ve had enough of staring at yourself in the mirror, it’s the same thing every day, so today you’re doing something different. You hold the outfit up to you stretching it out, examining the blended values of green, against a harsh black pattern. Its striking emerald eyes entice you. You can’t seem to wait anymore, so you align the suit with your body, and step in.
You leave your pants right on the floor, feeling the skin of the suit bristling up against your leg hair. Your socks wet in a puddle on the ground, you take care to not get the slick suit wet. Upon slipping your arms into the sleeves you can already feel it constricting to the shape of your skinny frail body. The zipper zips smoothly, “One thing that went right today.” You say to yourself as you stand up straight, causing the outfit to tighten in certain parts, it feels enjoyable. You begin to feel it compress in all directions; crushing your body causing you to hunch over slightly, as the tight latex-like skin begins creeping up your neck and over your head. The sink begins to rise higher and higher, you slowly shrink out of your own vision in the mirror, the last thing you see is the bright greens and dark blacks begin to overtake your body.
Slick slimy hands reach up to touch your face, you pull out handfuls of your silky brown hair out in clumps, examining a moist leather-like texture atop your head. Looking once again at your hands, you’ve noticed that they’ve began forming a sensitive webbed membrane sprawling between your knuckles. You try grabbing at the sink before it’s just out of reach but you can feel your skin begin to secrete a thin mucus from your fingertips. The loss of traction causes you to struggle as you cling for your life onto the edge of the sink, your futile effort resulting in your slow descent over the edge of the porcelain.
In the moment when you’re airborne you realize how small you’ve become. You brace yourself for the impact on the cold hard tile, wincing your eyes shut your heart races as you expect the feeling of the floor strike you. Your world begins to change around you, the ground seems to swallow you up in a raging vortex, almost choking you as the forces overwhelm your body. Your head flies back and the trauma of this event causes you to begin drifting off into a deep slumber. Your vision growing dim as you view your body sinking into the darkness, a turquoise color takes over your vision as you observe clear little sparkles of light rising up from around you.
Written by Driftingdragon on 25 November 2019
Turtle
A humming tune fills your senses, the gentle swaying of you falling continues to push you farther into your sleep. You can’t help but focus on the humming tune, which conversely begins to jolt you awake. “What happened?” you think to yourself, head throbbing, you bring up your hand to touch your cold clammy forehead. In a moment your experience floods back into your memory like a wave. You sit bolt upright in a quick panic, you gasp for air.
“Hold up there son!” You feel another wet clammy hand press down on your chest, trying to restrain you, the rocking intensifies. You begin to calm down before realizing that you’re no longer in the bathroom you were standing in a moment before. “Calm down now, o’else ya tip the boat.”
“Boat?” you repeat quietly, placing your webbed hands solidly on the wood frame of the boat. You look around to see yourself sitting in a small swaying boat on a thick river. The olive green water is covered with a more saturated bright green color of algae spread thinly on for miles. Farther than you can see, you look to the stranger in this boat with you. His long wrinkly neck extending towards you, eyes squinting to meet you. You immediately realize that you’re in a boat on a river, with a turtle. He slowly extends his hand.
“I’m Carter.” The old turtle’s hands shake as he waits for you to grasp his bony fingers.
“Nice to meet you.” You reply suspiciously.
“I found ye here floatin in the river, so’s I pick ye up, an I’ll be takin ye to my lil village.” you look him over once again.
“Village?” You ask questioningly.
“Wow a wordy one aren’t ye? Like askin questions yes? Well hold tight an you’ll be gettin
an answer fa all’ye questions.
“Talkative?” you think to yourself this time, taken aback by the fact that you’ve only said a handful of words. You take another moment to examine your surroundings and relax, the boat’s rocking now beginning to cease. Your hands reach for the side of the boat as you peer over the edge of it, looking at your slinky salamander face, eyes blinking in surprise. “I’m a lizard?” You continue to yourself.
“Hey there, yer actin kinda odd son. You gonna be okay?” Your distraction and awe cut short by the slow monotoned inquiry from your fellow creature.
“Yeah, I’ll be fine.” You almost stumble as you reply, “Just excited to see your house.
“Well I’ll be damned!” He says while wrapping a wrinkly arm around you. “Been a long time since we had visitors, much less one as excited as y’all!” You feel slightly discomforted by his hospitality. Where is he really taking you? Why is he being so nice?
“He could have let me die there, what about me is so special to him.” your mind almost
completely thinking for you. You sit in silence and listen to the wind rustling through the trees as the two of you slowly make your way down the winding river. Never knowing what lurks just below this murky swamp water.
Written by Driftingdragon on 26 November 2019
Sleep
You awaken in the middle of the night, it seems you have drifted off into sleep yet again. You found it hard not to while listening to the old turtle go on and on about his family, the lands they came from, and the boring history. Though you can’t help but feel like the things he was talking about might have been important.
You shrug it off and step off the boat after your new friend, looking around at the shoreline. Further out within the shrubbery you find houses dotting the horizon in the path of a long road leading away from the riverbed. The huts made of thick poles and raised high off the ground astound you as you make your walk along the dirt road. Their hay rooftops catch your eyes, as you can detail out individual bundles of dried grass and mud lying atop of the houses, tied together in thick bundles. This experience is so novel to you that you barely notice the old man beginning again on another one of his long rants.
“-And oer’there considered the medical hut. S’where ya go if ya’s get hurt.” You look to him smiling, you nod as he continues. “Now the history of this building-” your mind is carried away once again by the details of your surroundings; various pottery decorates the huts, torches line the dark streets, droning musical noises surrounding you from the insides of houses. The turtle stops in front of you abruptly, he whips around slowly to face you. “An this is where you’ll be stayin fer now.”
You stand before a large central hut, right in the middle of the road. You turn around to see the walk you had just made from the river, from there you can see straight into the dark black water, harboring tiny white sparkles as it reflects the moon’s light.
“My house!” the old one continues, you shrug your shoulders and roll your eyes.
“It wouldn’t hurt to have an experience at like, a faster pace.” You think to yourself, as
You follow the shelled old man into the hut.
Upon entering you behold a room adorned with a thousand trinkets. Masks with elongated faces hung up on the walls with spears converging in an X over them. Adorned with brightly colored feathers, weapons of all sorts hung on the walls; arrows, axes, dart shooters, even more spears. You ponder the use of these things, or even if all of these items have even been used.
Pots striped with colorful dyes and bowls dotted with hand prints and finger-smeared decorations. Images of different creatures drawn all along the walls, from low to high every inch is covered in a new color; a new decoration.
A middle aged tortoise greets the elderly one in a door threshold.
“Welcome back father” She says while embracing the old man.
“This is ma beautiful daughter Elizabeth” he shows her off, “the very beginning of my legacy.” This causes you to wonder, ‘legacy?’ how many children does this old man have?
Over the next few days you find yourself in a house filled with children of all ages running around, shouting, doing daily tasks, and games. You find yourself growing fond of some of the children, not even being annoyed by the constant stimulation.
“This sure is a change of pace” you find yourself thinking this multiple times over this period of time.
Written by Driftingdragon on 01 December 2019
Time Passes
By the beginning of the second week you have almost come to remember the names of each individual child. You ponder to yourself how much more there is to expect about this family, as you make your usual trip back from the lake, hauling the morning catch back home on your own. Struggling slightly with your small slippery body, your lungs take in the moist air gathered around the other village huts.
That afternoon you find yourself helping Elizabeth care for the children, your small frame struggling to hold one child. They play with the slime coming from your skin as you walk around with them, checking on the status of the others alongside the female turtle. This kind of structure in your life gives it a new meaning, to have someone else who needs you; it’s really starting to grow on you, though you constantly steel your mind about whether or not you can trust them. The young woman approaches you in their hut equivalent of a foyer, also holding a child.
“Hey can we talk?” She asks you, putting down the infant child in her arms, pulling at her hair and being a nuisance. You follow her lead and put the two middle aged children down as well. “Jase, can ya please take care a’ Piper” The older child nods.
“Right!” he replies running off with the younger child. Children continuing to run around you, eating their breakfasts, playing with sticks, practicing hunting. The stimuli really helps you clear your head on this little theoretical vacation.
“Ya been here for a while now. We been meaning ta tell ya bout a ritualistic event we have planned.” Your eyes light up in excitement, it’s about time something a bit more entertaining happens in this town.
“An event? What kind of event is it?” You ask inquisitively. She looks around at the foyer, in this moment you also notice that all of the smaller children have left, leaving only the older ones, who stand around as if to anticipate something. She clears her throat.
“Well we actually need you for something.”
“Sure, what do you need?” You reply.
“Well there’s darkness here, we need to find the source and get rid of it.”
“What… Do you mean?” You reply, anxiety causing the mucus to begin dripping down your fingertips.
“The Denizens have warned us of a curse.”
“Curse?” Your hands begin to shake as your mind races. You feel a sharp pain in the back of your head, “Did I get hit?” You fall to the ground and black out, instantly regretting the decisions leading you to this, and wondering what kind of ‘ritual’ did you get yourself caught in this time around!
Written by Driftingdragon on 09 December 2019
Wake Up
The next morning, you come to while sitting up, hands tied behind you, and sore you wake up in a chair, in a dark room, illuminated only by candles, only meters away from you. Farther than that you don’t seem to see anything, you hear a low drumming noise in the distance. Your pupils shrink as you realize what’s going on, the feeling of fear beginning to weigh down in your stomach.
“We must rid him of his cursed body.” chanting around you can be heard, a dark figure can be seen before you; the elderly turtle who had saved you. He holds out his hand toward you, colorful beads adorning his fingertips, the hanging bracelets knock together and form a gentle chattering sound; a stark contrast to the heavy pounding of your heart. The thundering drums begin to grow louder, you look around and as your amphibian eyes adjust, you begin to see some of the eldest children surrounding you. They play their drums while covered in cloth loin, fur capes, and feathers sprouting from the tops of their heads. It appears as if they’re doing an ancient familial ritual. Before you on the ground, you notice that the candles make a shape; one resembling an oblong octagonal polygon.
The fear begins creeping through your body, as you slowly begin to realize what type of ‘ritual’ your housemates were referring to.
“And now we must sacrifice your cursed body to help us get to the bottom a this.” The tortoise gestures for the drumming children to take a step closer. They obey as the ancient one begins to chant erie illegible words.
Your mind races. What do these strange people have in store for you? Is today finally going to be the end of your adventure? You feel tiny hands beginning to smear across your mucus-covered scales. Your heartbeat rises rapidly as the adrenaline begins to rush through your veins. Your mind begins synthesizing thoughts of its own.
“Swampy homelands, silly trinkets, magical rituals. This MUST be a shaman priest’s cult village? And I must be their sacrifice?” it all makes sense to you now. Their hospitality, the insane amount of offspring, the annoying talking that you now regret tuning out over these weeks.
The hands begin engulfing you, pulling at every grabible place on your body, the pain begins to overtake you. Suddenly a loud crack noise breaks through the now booming sounds of chanting and drumming. Your eyes glued shut begin to slowly relax and loosen as you sense those around you beginning to back away.
A scraping can be heard from behind you. You turn your head reluctant to see what’s behind you. A tail? Your tail? They popped off your tail, a wash of sadness falls over you as you realize your disfigurement.
The small figures escort your disembodied tail over to the elder where he places it into the center of the polygon.
“And now we seek to destroy this curse!” The elder yells in his slow boring tone, before throwing the tail into the fire.
“NO!” You scream, as the chanting and drumming rises to a loud booming thunder that causes you to double over in your chair. The smoke from the fires flare up wildly as your tail burns to a crisp, you can barely see what’s going on in the volatile reaction.
Moments seem like centuries as they pass, the smoke begins to clear and you see all of the shadowy figures standing before you. Your face full of inquisitive questions as you wonder how the hell you’re still alive at this point. The elder steps forward.
“I see. So That's how we can cure your curse.” The elder sifts around the ashes, your tail
now stretched thin like loose skin, he turns it over and smirks. You still remain dumbfounded.
“What the hell is this about?” you shout. Not noticing the elder picking up the loose skins and dusting them off. The children begin to untie you.
“The Sky Denizens have showed us what you need to continue your journey. Surely you didn’t expect to live with us forever right?” He lays the skins on your lap. Your eyes light up, and the icy rock in your stomach instantly melts away when you realize the elder has gifted you a new costume for a future transformation. “I don’t fully understand what this means, but the Denizens always know what is right for anyone.”
You remain seated, baffled by the trauma of this experience. You laugh to yourself and shrug as you clutch the outfit tightly in your arms.
That evening you share your gratitude with the family, leaving with your outfit to continue your journey to your next experience.
Written by Driftingdragon on 14 December 2019
The end (for now)