((Here's my return to GMing. I promise this one won't die quickly for real.))
The twin rotors of the CH-47 Chinook make a constant, loud chopping sound as the war machine flies over the Iranian semidesert. From the small window, you can see hills, shrubbery, and a small village or two. The sky is blue, without a single cloud visible, and overall the situation is calm. Your squad of ten US soldiers (including the pilot) is transferring to a different forward base further northwards, closer to the front line of the civil war. The southern semideserts are controlled by allied rebel forces, so surely everything will turn out fine...?
But looking sideways from your seat, in the direction of the cockpit's large window, you see a strange rippling spot in the sky, twisting and shifting unpredictably. It is unlike anything you have ever seen before in your whole life. The pilot fails to stop the helicopter quickly enough, and as the anomaly draws closer, it seems to twist more and more until it turns into a maelstrom of a vortex, its many colors changing every second, some of them indescribable and seemingly impossible, from greenish reds to blackish whites.
Fear overtakes you as the Chinook enters the vortex. The squad begins panicking as the landscape outside changes from a completely mundane desert to a tunnel of impossible colors, shapes, and patterns. The sound of the rotors is distorted as if by an amplifier, turning into an unearthly screech. This continues for a few minutes which feels like hours. Your heart pounds, and you feel motion-sick. The pilot somehow doesn't lose control.
And then, with a loud pop followed by a humming sound as well as everything seemingly going back to normal, the sights from out the window become... a jungle? And not just any familiar jungle; many of the trees are of shapes you don't recognize. You are around ten meters above the treeline. There is a strange cinnamon-like smell in the air, which quickly enters the interior of the transport chopper. The whispers and shouts of confusion and fear among your squadmates have already begun to calm down.
You've a feeling you're not in Iran anymore.
Allocate 6 points between those three stats, none can be higher than 3 or lower than 1. This will be used for internal checks and stuff. This is a singleplayer game anyhow.
Strength:
Dexterity:
Intelligence:
What is your gender?
What is your name?
- Army pants and jacket
- Army helmet
- Ballistic vest
- Tactical gloves
- Combat boots
- Canteen (1 liter of clean water)
- Leg ammo pouch (2 magazines, each with 30 bullets)
- Assault rifle (has a shoulder sling, 30 bullets)
- Tactical knife (in sheath)
- Wristwatch
- Backpack
And last but not least... what do you do?
Jim Carter, male. Our nomenclatural resemblance to a certain former president earns us no end of teasing from our squadmates.
Unless we're in charge here, we do nothing and wait for orders from our ranking officer. Unless no such officer's present, anyway.
+1
Separately, I suggest a boring 2-2-2 stat distribution:
Strength: 2
Dexterity: 2
Intelligence: 2
Accepted.
Jim Carter, male. Our nomenclatural resemblance to a certain former president earns us no end of teasing from our squadmates.
Unless we're in charge here, we do nothing and wait for orders from our ranking officer. Unless no such officer's present, anyway.
You sit there and wait, still trying to process the bizarre situation you are in. Staff Sergeant Noah Collins, your squad's leader, first to seemingly regain composure, orders everyone to, in his own words, "remain calm and don't panic until we figure out where the fuck are we".
Wait. Observe surroundings - situational awareness is important as as a soldier. Have we taken jungle survival training? If so, put as much of that into practice as we can. Take stock of the others.
The fact that nobody seems to be significantly disturbed makes me suspicious. The pilot just flew into a magical summoning vortex and you didn't even lose control of the chopper? Check up on him. Make sure he hasn't been replaced with, like, a replicant body double or something.
You keep looking out of the small round window upon the unfamiliar landscape. Trees, trees as far as you can see, punctuated by hills and clearings. What looks like a river cuts through the Amazonia-like thicket some distance away, though you can't quite see the water. And in the distance, beyond the hazy, misty horizon, you see what looks like a pillar of dark smoke. Whether it is a campfire or a distant volcano or something else entirely, you can't tell. Fortunately, you remember taking a jungle survival training class, long ago. You probably remember some stuff from it, hopefully. The entire squad is still present, though understandably very shaken up.
Heading to the cockpit, you question the pilot, Konnor Foster, about how on Earth he managed to not lose control. His reply is quite troubling.
"I don't know! It's as if I didn't control my fuckin' hands at all! Like some puppeteer was pulling my strings, y'know? By the way, the GPS ain't working at all and the radio's just picking up static. We have fuel for one and a half hour, tops. I'll try to find some flat ground to land on but what then?"
(I just realized we have water but no rations is there a reason for this, also aren't most soldiers given sidearms?)
You then look around the helicopter for rations, finding a dozen MREs in a box secured under one of the seats. This wasn't meant to be a long trip so they won't last the ten of you for long... also, you remember you have a pistol.
Name/Gender:
Jim Carter/Male
Inventory:
- Army pants and jacket
- Army helmet
- Ballistic vest
- Tactical gloves
- Combat boots
- Canteen (1 liter of clean water)
- Leg ammo pouch (2 magazines, each with 30 bullets)
- Assault rifle (has a shoulder sling, 30 bullets)
- Tactical knife (in sheath)
- Wristwatch
- Backpack
- Pistol (15 bullets)
Stats:
Strength: 2
Dexterity: 2
Intelligence: 2
What do you do, and do you tell Konnor to fly towards the smoke pillar?
be careful. tell the pilot to set us down somewhere high, defensible, and where we can keep an eye on the smoke. we then get our hands on some binoculars, and after scanning our surroundings for threats, we try to ascertain more about the smoke and where its coming from.
+1
+1, while also relaying all the info we've gained to our squad leader
After giving directions to the pilot, who responds with a nod of agreement and turns the helicopter 90 degrees, flying towards a nearby clearing on top of a hill, you tell what you have seen and heard to Noah Collins. The sergeant sits down to mull over the recent events, taking notes on a notepad. You search the lobby and cabin for batteries but find no loose ones. If you might need electricity, you will have to take batteries from equipment such as flashlights and radios. Fortunately, there is a battery charger in the cockpit, however, it works off the Chinook's battery which is a fairly limited resource unless you can find fuel. The batteries in most equipment should last a little longer than civilian versions but not by much.
The warbird hovers over the grassy, tree-less patch upon the hill. As it touches down, blowing leaves, dust, and dirt in all directions, its two large rotors slow down, and their roar disappears into nothing. Finally some silence. Noah gives you the okay to step outside with a pair of binoculars, and your squad soon follows. The air is... different. The smell of cinnamon is still present but is weaker than it was immediately after the incident. Your thoughts are suddenly interrupted by a fellow rifleman, Jake Taylor, shouting and pointing to the edge of the clearing, revealing a... pile of still-smoldering wood ash and coals, likely the remnants of a campfire, beside a simple wooden stool. Someone was here not too long ago! You're really not sure how to feel about this. Other than this, nothing seems threatening.
You look towards the pillar, and what you see surprises you. It's a brightly-burning fire pit, around which is built a village with perhaps two dozen square huts made of logs and covered with broad leaves, with small windows. There is a single rectangular, large-windowed stone structure placed near the sole dirt path leading outside, and the whole settlement is surrounded by a palisade of sharpened logs. There are many people walking around, though you can't quite see any features they may have, what they are wearing, or even if they are humans or not (who knows given recent events). Atop the stone keep waves a large, fairly intricate flag with three tails:
(https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/688677848193564686/937371526905344061/Untfitdfeled.png)
Name/Gender:
Jim Carter/Male
Inventory:
- Army pants and jacket
- Army helmet
- Ballistic vest
- Tactical gloves
- Combat boots
- Canteen (1 liter of clean water)
- Leg ammo pouch (2 magazines, each with 30 bullets)
- Assault rifle (has a shoulder sling, 30 bullets)
- Tactical knife (in sheath)
- Wristwatch
- Backpack
- Pistol (15 bullets)
Stats:
Strength: 2
Dexterity: 2
Intelligence: 2
What do you do?
You thought this was dead? I keep my promises!
+1 absolutely, refer back to our commanding officer.
As far as our own decision making, keep monitoring the village with our binoculars.
+1
+1
+1
After watching the village for some more, you see the villagers start loading up what looks like a wooden, roofed cart (not a cloth-roofed wagon, this one has a wooden roof and small circular windows) with some sort of crates and cages. You immediately inform Noah Collins about the settlement you have seen in the distance, describing everything you have seen and then handing over the binoculars for a moment. He is quite flabbergasted and not sure what to make of it, but still issues a clear order as he hands you the binoculars after a few minutes of similar surveying:
"They might be hostile. We might not even be on Earth anymore, I certainly don't recognize that flag and the architecture doesn't look African or Southeast Asian or South American. We take off again and follow that dirt path, see where it leads."
You follow your superior's orders as the Chinook takes off into the air. The rest of your squad don't even believe you until they see the village with their own eyes as the shadow of the chopper passes over its surprised denizens who look up in unison. You happen to get a clearer look on them, and they definitely aren't human. All seem to be of the same... species. Humanoid and of good stature, with long tails, snouts, and animal-like ears which are actually as large as their (normally-proportioned) heads. They are purple-ish in color, and you're not sure if they have fur, scales, or bare skin from this distance. The creatures wear light robes and tunics as well as footwraps. One, noticeably taller and bulkier than the rest, is wearing what looks like copper and silver jewelry and seems to be issuing orders to the others present.
The helicopter continues flying down the path. It is mostly featureless, though you see another one of those covered carts being pulled by an ox, heading away from the village. In the distance, you see what looks to be a larger town composed of taller stone structures, taking the form of square or cylindrical towers, rising from the sea of smaller wooden houses. Surrounding it is cleared jungle and a stone wall. You point forwards, calling the sergeant's attention, and following that he gives the order to land nearby and carefully approach.
You land some distance away in the clearing surrounding the city as clouds of dirt are blown into the air by the rotors. Nobody's nearby-- yet. The squad, headed by Noah and Jake as the rest follow behind, guns ready, steps outside. The city is much more clearly visible from here, though the wall makes it so that you can't see its streets, just the towers made of grayish cobblestone. One of those creatures; the same species as you have seen in the village, approaches you. He, or she, or it has very short purple fur and large orange eyes which resemble that of a lizard or snake. It is unarmed. Pointing to itself, the creature says something in a language you don't understand and doesn't really sound like anything you have heard.
"Sa lwa, ks mi ime ral-mu?"
Name/Gender:
Jim Carter/Male
Inventory:
- Army pants and jacket
- Army helmet
- Ballistic vest
- Tactical gloves
- Combat boots
- Canteen (1 liter of clean water)
- Leg ammo pouch (2 magazines, each with 30 bullets)
- Assault rifle (has a shoulder sling, 30 bullets)
- Tactical knife (in sheath)
- Wristwatch
- Backpack
- Pistol (15 bullets)
Stats:
Strength: 2
Dexterity: 2
Intelligence: 2
What do you do?
Wrote myself into a corner and was preoccupied writing out lore notes for both this and my other projects. The next update will be longer.
Noah and the rest of the squad just stand there in awkward silence following the creature's introduction(?). Said silence is swiftly broken by you pointing to yourself and saying "Jim Carter". You keep your hand on your holster just in case but take no hostile actions. The creature pauses before replying "Ral-Mei". You can only guess that is its name... and before you can say or do anything else it runs away towards the city with almost superhuman speed, looking very scared. Wondering what happened, you turn your head around only to notice a massive flying creature of an indeterminate species on the horizon! Looking at it through your binoculars, you see that it looks almost like two huge mythical dragons fused together, with four wings, two tails, eight short legs, and two toothy heads. It's heading right towards the city, and, by extension, you! You reflexively pull your rifle at it but you're not sure if your combined fire is enough to bring it down and not simply aggravate it...
Name/Gender:
Jim Carter/Male
Inventory:
- Army pants and jacket
- Army helmet
- Ballistic vest
- Tactical gloves
- Combat boots
- Canteen (1 liter of clean water)
- Leg ammo pouch (2 magazines, each with 30 bullets)
- Assault rifle (has a shoulder sling, 30 bullets)
- Tactical knife (in sheath)
- Wristwatch
- Backpack
- Pistol (15 bullets)
Stats:
Strength: 2
Dexterity: 2
Intelligence: 2
What do you do?