The Endless Road
The Endless Road is a semireal (or possibly unreal, or superreal) dimension of existence alongside, above, and below more ontologically traditional dimensions. It brings itself into existence when there is a great threat to another reality, and then builds upon itself. The first thing it creates is an entity who will travel through the dimension, and from there it builds up the challenges and opportunities that will build up that entity to mold it into the kind of creature that can challenge the coming threat. This is rarely straightforward, due to mysticism.
First section: The entity awakes in an underground room full of offered gifts, with an implied test of its worthiness depending on what it chooses and how it takes it. It chooses a cup inscribed with two serpents, and seems to pass. Mechanically, it gains its first skill, “Reach”. Inside the cup is a key.
Choice: The key’s trappings: a hooded skull and the sound of swords and magic; a clenched fist and the sound of unarmed combat; a rabbit’s tail and the sound of a lapine burrow; or a starship and the sound of laser fire. Successful choice: a rabbit’s tail and the sound of a lapine burrow.
Second section: The entity examines the key, and then sorts the other gifts so that it can use them to escape the underground room. It emerges at the side of a highway that separates it from a small hut, a waterfall-fed pool, and a pillar with a keyhole set inside it.
Choice: The entity’s manipulators: fingers; claws; pincers; tendrils; or wing-tips. Successful choice: pincers.
Choice: How the entity crosses the highway, open-ended. Successful choice: climbing the gantry overarching the highway.
Third section: The entity finds climbing the gantry surprisingly easy. Mechanically, it gains its second skill, “Climb”. It unlocks the pillar with the key; the pillar sinks into the ground and takes the key with it, starting the Riverview Rabbits’ adventure. At the same time, the entity learns one of the letters of its as-yet undetermined name, “N”. Inside the hut, it finds a bustling pub that could not have fit in the cub, and a friendly innkeeper.
Choice: whether the entity seeks something to eat, something to drink, or a room for the night. Successful choice: a room for the night.
Fourth section: The entity is given a room for the night, and the innkeep sets up rations for its journey, including a book. The entity offers the innkeep a drink from the serpent-inscribed cup, and is told that sharing a drink from that cup is a ritual to be performed judiciously, and not with “something that isn’t real”. The entity, somewhat starved for communication, tells the innkeep the one letter of its name that it knows, and then sleeps. It dreams of a lyceum with a tree that speaks through flowers.
Choice: The name of the book: Powerchord Bloodstrosity Triumphant; To Break the Grip of Death; The Artemis Scenario; or Sanction X Rebellion: Her and Their Opposition. Successful choice: Powerchord Bloodstrosity Triumphant.
Choice: How the entity communicates: speaking; thinking; writing; signing; or displaying. Successful choice: displaying.
Choice: What the entity asks the speaking tree: “Where should I go next?”; “What do I most need?”; “What is the nature of reality, as it relates to me?”; “What is the nature of the threat I need to face?”; “If I were a worm, would I be a sexy worm? To other worms, I mean. Or not?”; or “I don’t feel like asking you a question.” Successful choice: the nature of reality.
Fifth section: The tree tells the entity that to be real is to be able to exist even when not perceived by any other creature, but that unreal things can affect reality. It adds that the entity already knew that on some level, as a dream isn’t outside communication. The entity wakes up to find the supplies the innkeeper gave it: two packages of food, three bottles of water, a sewing kit, an unreliable compass, a straw hat, the book Powerchord Bloodstrosity Triumphant, the serpent-inscribed cup, a sword, and a music player that when played narrates the events of the entity’s journey. It leaves its room to reenter the Road proper, and sees a raceway to one side and a mountain monastery to the other. As it tries to move, it finds that it is hampered by sand that seeks to trap its legs.
Choice: How many legs the entity has: two; four; six; eight; or uncountable. Successful choice: eight.
Choice: How the entity next acts: going to find what is dragging it down; going to find what is dragging it down while ready for combat; heading to the raceway; or heading to the mountain. Successful choice: going to find what is dragging it down while ready for combat.
Sixth section: The entity sees how the sand seems to move, and attempts to push through the resistance to get to its source. It is sufficiently bogged down that its opponent, both humanoid and insectoid, manages to ambush it and harm it before it can reach said opponent. The opponent, while not real – and thus having its origin entirely within the Endless Road – has been affected by something real, likely something from outside the Endless Road, catching the entity off-guard. The entity attacks with its sword, soon realising a natural aptitude for combat, and bringing the enemy down in three quick strokes. Mechanically, it gains the skills Fight and Jodan-no-Kamae, or “Sword, high stance”. It drinks a bottle of water, and sees that it is closer now to the raceway than the mountain, making its way to the racetrack. There, it is met by a woman who seemed to be waiting for it.
Choice: Which, if any, car to take: the car illustrated with four red hornets; the car illustrated with a green and black shield; the car illustrated by a bat; the car illustrated by three crowns; or not to take a car at all and investigate the buildings around the raceway. Successful choice: the car illustrated by three crowns.
Seventh section: The entity participates in a tournament-level motorsports race. It is at first almost completely unable to handle the car, but learns over the course of the race, managing to come to a 3rd place position. It briefly questions its purpose, but rededicates itself to taking every part of its journey as important. The woman from the track congratulates it, and when it asks to be paid in supplies for the journey, she tells it supplies are already being prepared for it in another garage. Though the entity briefly wonders if a vehicle will trivialise its journey, it accepts a large campervan with an entire small barracks located inside of it, which can apparently be used even while the vehicle is moving. It drives further along the Road and is flagged down by a group of people in oddly decorated robes, who have the medal from its race and expect it to read to them. The medal gives it another letter that is part of its name, “X”. It reads to them from the book, starting the Powerchord Bloodstrosity adventure.
Choice: How the storytelling ends: with nightfall; with morning; with questions; or with a dinosaur attack. Successful choice: dinosaur attack.
Eighth section: Unprompted, a quartet of Monolophosaurus, two with riders, storm into the area. One of the not-cultists says that this is a fairly regular thing that tends to lead to death. The entity challenges one of the dinosaurs, drags one of the riders off it, and manages to destroy the rider’s weapon and intimidate them into leaving. The not-cultists seem fairly blasé about being maimed. Ultra Brightbow, the apparent face of the not-a-cult, mentions that they were meant to have an artifact for the entity, but that the Radical Riders took it.
Choice: Which trait the entity will develop in its personality: creepiness; decisiveness; imagination; conscience; or violence.
Choice: Where to go next: north to the Radical Riders; east to the raceway and monastery; south into the not-a-cult’s camp; or west to move along the Road. Successful choice: north.
Choice: What sort of muffin to eat: chocolate chip; blueberry; orange and poppyseed; oatmeal raisin; or none. Successful choice: none.
Ninth section: The entity heads north towards the Riders’ base and finds, possibly as a front, a dinosaur petting zoo. It does not have the entry fee to the dinosaur petting zoo and instead sneaks into the main buildings, which are unguarded. It finds its way to a lift.
Title choice: The entity gains its first two titles, “the Violent” and “who Feeds the Hungry”. First title chosen: “who Feeds the Hungry”.
Choice: Which floor to visit: the armoury, the treasury, the interference portal, or an apparently interfering angel. Successful choice: the angel.
Tenth section: The entity travels down to the lowest floor, being small-talked at by a Radical Rider in the meantime who does not seem to mind its presence. It attempts to make a choice from a series of posters, but a stutter in reality restricts its choice to one, starting the Dragon Fists adventure and giving it the third letter of its name, “P”. It meets the angelic figure Right Boundaries, who tells it that she exists to prevent forces on the Road from overstepping their bounds. The entity has too many questions, and Right Boundaries offers a choice.
Choice: How Right Boundaries can help the entity: through conversation; through bringing it to face the Radical Riders’ leader; through bringing it to the entity the Radical Riders have contacted; through assisting in one of the adventures the entity is connected to; or through taking the entity to the artifact it is looking for.
Short-short: Our viewpoint entity got a cup and a key. It left a room. It crossed a highway, unlocked a pillar, and went to a pub, where it got a room for the night. The next day, it fought and killed a creature that fought with sandblasts and had apparently had contact with another real entity. It went to a racetrack and competed in a race. Afterwards, it was rewarded with a campervan, which it drove to a possible cult in order to read them stories. The not-a-cult was attacked by dinosaur riders, and the entity drove the dinosaurs away. One of the not-cultists told the entity that the group was meant to have an artifact to give them, but the dinosaur riders had taken it. The entity went to the dinosaur riders’ base, travelled to the lowest floor, and spoke to an angel.
