[Inspiration: Ultima Underworld (starting in a cave), Darkwood (doctor story and plague), Skyrim, and FAITH: The Unholy Trinity (see Michael Davies)]
A drop of water hits the schist floor of the cave…, but the next drop doesn’t. A person is lying on the floor, and a tired groan escapes their mouth and echoes through the entrance of the cave. He couldn’t remember anything… but soon he started to come to. As he wakes up he feels the chill cavern air down his spine. “Wha- w-where am I? Well… I’m in a c-cave,” and yes he was. He was in a small cave on a hillside near the village. This cave was used for storing goods such as wine, aged meat, and brined food, but ever since the village’s blight it had all but been empty. He had been thrown into this stone prison covered with nothing but a sack. All his belongings had been taken from him. As he tried to gauge his surroundings, his stomach growled. If he wanted to survive he’d have to see what was in this cave.
Off he went. He searched around the entrance for a bit. He was locked in by a large, immovable stone door that was closed with some sort of mechanism. On the right was a small doorway and straight ahead was a long winding tunnel leading deeper into the ground. The cave was lit sparsely with dim torches making it hard to see, but it wasn’t too bad when his eyes adapted. Wandering past the small doorway he finds a storage room. The walls of the room stand filled with shelves. He could only presume that they were fully stocked long ago, but now they rest barren with only cobwebs filling their space. Fortunately, on one of the shelves, he found a small iron dagger; it was, presumably, used to cut meat before it was aged or maybe it was in case something tried to steal some food. Nonetheless, it was a welcome surprise. On the floor in front of the shelves was a leather cuirass. This room wasn’t only used for food, it seems. It was also an armory at one point in time. Next to the armor was some basic linen clothing. They were the same clothes most people wore but it made the cold cave much more bearable. Before he left the room, he grabbed a torch off of the wall so he could see. With some basic equipment, he started venturing deeper into the tunnels. At first, it was going alright. His new clothes fit alright and he felt safe with a weapon at his side. He frequently saw patches of moss on the floor and walls of the cavern and some lichen drooping from the ceiling; although, life in the cave was sparse so far.
He walked briskly down the tunnel. He lit up the dim corridor with his torch.
Soon, he remembered. He could remember his son lying sick on his bed. He used to be the town doctor. Unfortunately, the villagers locked him in this cave because he couldn’t cure the town’s blight. No matter the reason, he still needs to survive, so he starts looking around for anything helpful. He soon reached an old decrepit mineshaft.
One of the village’s main resources was ore. Miners would descend into the mine to gather metal ore, gems, stone, and occasionally relics. One day, some miners came up from the caves. They looked paler than usual. The village was located in the north so pale skin was common, but the miners’ skin didn’t look normal. It started to become thin and papery but still relatively strong. Nonetheless, not even a day later, they lay sick in their beds. During this time they started to become very hungry. Their partners would feed them all sorts of food: soup, bread, meat, and so on, but even that couldn’t satisfy them. Their flesh seemed to wither away leaving nothing but skin and bones, but they could still move around. Afterward, they started to show signs of psychosis. They started to try and attack other people. These were no longer people. During the doctor’s research, he discovered that the disease grew in stages.
First, the victim would become very pale as if they had the flu. Second, the victim starts coughing up black particles, a bit like soot. These particles are flammable just like coal. Third, the victim’s eyes fill with blood. Through testing, it was discovered that the blood was thin enough that the person could still see (although blurrier) in a dark crimson hue. Fourth, their muscles would atrophy and eventually wither away. After the muscles decay, they are still able to move due to an unknown force. People think that it is the same method that reanimated skeletons can move. Fifth, they start to develop immense hunger, but they become carnivorous. They only want flesh whether it be beef, pork (they don’t seem to be affected by foodborne illnesses), chicken, etc. Sixth, in the final stage the victim loses their sense of self. They forget about their loved ones, their fellow people, their job, all of it. By this point, they usually start running on all fours to hunt prey. This allows them to reach much faster speeds than any other human.
After the miners, the next soul suffered the blight. The man used to be the town friar. He was one of the first people to get the affliction. In less than a week, he progressed all the way to stage six. It had pale white skin akin to paper, its eyes were filled with blood, and it was a frail, frail creature. It rushed into town on all fours at an exhilarating speed. The door to the blacksmith’s house was ripped off of the hinges and the wood was snapped. Some villagers came to investigate after hearing the door being broken down; they never forgot what they saw that day. The friar husk was ripping the still-alive child’s flesh off. His face lay on the ground, and where it used to be was now just red pulsating meat left rotting on the skull. The child’s humerus was now fully exposed; the creature had eaten his entire upper arm. At this moment the town blacksmith tried to attack the creature with a knife. Before the knife could even make contact, the creature threw the now-dead child’s corpse towards the door and lunged at the blacksmith. The creature bit at the blacksmith’s neck and drew blood. The blacksmith tried to stab the creature again, but there was no flesh to sink the knife into. The knife cut cleanly through the creature’s papery skin. It then let go and ran into the forest leaving a trail of blackened blood behind it. The blacksmith sadly died soon after due to blood loss. His body lay mangled on the floor next to his son’s corpse. A funeral was held the next day at the church that used to be run by the friar. The father’s corpse was laid to rest next to his son’s massacred body.
The sickness soon started affecting everyone in the village, even the hermit. The only way they knew the hermit died was the rotten, fetid stench that came from his house. A day later, the Doctor went to check in on the Hermit. He opened the door slowly. He walked across the creaking floors into the now abandoned house. As he turned the corner into the bedroom he saw a pile of bones and skin lying on the floor in a pile of black ooze.
He came out of the house carrying the skull of the hermit. The villagers saw him and thought he killed the hermit! After that, the people of the village turned on him. They knocked him unconscious and dragged his body into this cave. The cave where he is still trapped to this day.[3]
[This story was about the main character descending through a cave full of spooky creatures. He would have eventually reached a large black cathedral underground where he would have killed an evil god. The cave would have then started collapsing (see the start of Super Metroid) and the character would have bareilly escaped.]
* MC starts in the cave.
* The people in his village locked him in because they blamed him for the pestilence that caused them to start wasting away.
* He couldn’t find a cure.
* He was stripped of all his belongings. Now he is wearing ragged clothing.
* Explores and survives against rats and things.
* They tear him up badly
* Finds lore.
* He finds notes from a geologist who came into the cave system before him.
* Eventually, he finds the skeleton of the geologist, but as he walks away the geologist says, “Hey! Help! Help me up! My bones don’t work like they used to”
* The characters explore more and start seeing weird creatures as they get deeper.
* He has visions of the town and all the people turning into horrid creatures.
* They finally reach the depths of the caverns.
* They find a ruined underground town.
* The buildings are made of dark basalt.
* They face horrendous demonic creatures.
* He barely escaped alive; unfortunately, the skeleton was eaten by a hellhound. (The skeleton became a chew toy.)
* Eventually, he finds the black temple.
* In the temple, the reasons for the plagues are explained.
* He pieces together a solution for healing the village, but he needs to sacrifice his son.
* He must say a sacrificial incantation to summon the wraith.
* The wraith will slay his only son and use the power of his soul to kill the vengeful god.
* He finds an altar.
* On top of the altar is the body of a snake’s skeleton.
* He starts to read some inscriptions around the altar.
* While he is reading the runes, the snake starts to speak.
* “For what purpose is your arrival? I’ve been visited by your kind before. Only, a meager task for such a powerful god as myself,” and so on.
* He attacks the MC
* The MC says the rite to sacrifice his son and the god dies.
* The depths start to collapse after the god is slain.
* The main character tries to escape the depths.
* He barely makes it out of the collapsing dark cavern.
* When he is back in the upper parts of the caves he searches for a way to get out.
* He goes up through the caves.
* He finally finds a way out through a hidden waterfall, but the door to the room is made of dark stone that only crumbled after the god died. (Foreshadowing)
* When he makes it out the people of the village appreciate his work, but he learns of his son's fate.
* He died (Bruh 💀). And his wife died of grief.