The Ancient One, a being of immense power always hungry for more, has been the downfall of societies over thousands of years. Now, in the modern world, he has struck again. He has exerted his influence over Dominants, forcing them to treat their subs (or potential subs) cruelly and harshly. The only way to break his control is for the sub to submit fully. This is something that has been hard for any sub to do over the centuries, and so the Ancient One's power grows with each soul he consumes, draining the Dominant entirely of their lifeforce and leaving them a broken husk.

Draco, a simple saddlemaker, falls prey to the machinations of Headmaster Alaric Thorne, a sadistic man who subjects Draco to terrible cruelty and abuses the students under his care. As Draco learns how evil Thorne really is, he forms a close bond with one of Thorne’s students; a bond that may be instrumental in saving their world from the evil that threatens it.

In this story, you play as Arthur, as he returns to the Academy to retrieve a forbidden book to leave for someone in the future to find, creating allies that the Ancient One won't be aware of because they haven't been born yet.

This story does have some hints of Dominant/submissive themes, and certain paths will contain scenes of torture. There is also a sex scene right at the beginning. I won't warn for those paths, but just please be aware of what you might discover within.

Written for Summer's End Synergy Contest, using this prompt: A recent event has caused the protagonist to go through a difficult change.

To be honest, I was half-expecting to come last, so...fairly happy with my placement, even though it definitely could have been a lot better.

Got two new ideas for storygames in the same universe, but...I will see what happens.

Anyway, thank you for setting up the contest! I'm hoping to read all of the entries by the end of this week.

All right, here we are!

I chose to remove some of the choice paths, rather than rush and publish a subpar piece of work. I don't think I missed anything, but if anyone does spot any dead links, please let me know!

I guess it now reads a little more like a story than a game, even though there are choices that affect the path.

Anyway, I actually finished something, even though it wasn't as long as I would have liked it to be!

I think I've got a bit over three hours left (assuming the conversion from UK time to PST is accurate). It's going to be a really close thing, but...I'm hoping I'll sneak in just before the deadline!

Wavering a bit, but I'm in. Hopefully, I will actually be able to finish something this time!

So there won't be more random points docked?

I'm really confused about why I've had so many points taken away. Is it because I was inactive? I wasn't aware that was a thing.

It's really no secret that I'm incredibly bad at finishing things. Procrastinating is far too easy for me. And I get bored with things far too easily. So I figure that if I'm to have any hope of actually finishing something, I need a bit of 'nagging'.

The storygame I'm currently working on is going to be a prequel to an original novel I'm also working on, the details of which can be found on my profile. The storygame itself will be titled 'New Year's Massacre' and here is the (current) blurb for it. It may change.

The Carnell's New Year's Party is the event of the year. If you want to get anywhere in Red View, the Carnell family is your way in. And what better way to rub elbows with the most influential family than by attending their biggest social event?

As Thaya Mendez, the last thing you want is to go to yet another boring New Year's Party. But you've promised your brother you'll keep him from making a fool of himself in front of his crush, Kel Carnell. And so you attend.

But no one could have predicted the blood sickness. No one could have predicted that residents of Red View would turn on each other. No one predicted that some would be murderers; some would be victims; and some would just be the bystanders who stand by and let it happen.

And now you have to get out alive.

Like I said. Just the current blurb. I'll probably end up changing it. But thoughts, comments, suggestions, etc. would be helpful.

Thanks!

Yeah, I found myself really reluctant to just churn out something when I knew I'd lost inspiration. I'll work on getting more site points by actually finishing and publishing my current works and the next contest I enter, I'll complete something and pull myself out of the pit of SHAME.

Just wondering, though, why are some of the names bolded in the first list? Does that mean anything, or...?

I could do with an extension, if that's at all possible. Managed to fall majorly behind with a lot of things I was trying to do.

When you're reading/playing a storygame, how much freedom do you prefer when it comes to dialogue? Would you rather pick everything the character you play says? Have more generic responses (i.e. 'witty response', 'sarcastic response', etc.)? Just picking one question or comment to 'trigger' an entire conversation? Something else I haven't mentioned here?