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.

You're a patient in a psychiatric hospital, having been admitted there on the instructions of your family, who are no longer able to take care of you. But despite the best efforts of the doctors trying to treat you, you're still in the grip of the delusions they tell you you're suffering.

Every night, when you dream, you find yourself in a fantasy world of dragons, magic, elves, and warriors. Your dreams feel as real to you as your life in the hospital; perhaps even more real. But the doctors tell you that there's something wrong with your mind; that you cannot differentiate fantasy from reality. And you're in the hospital for treatment.

As the days progress and your condition doesn't get any better, you find yourself wondering if the doctors are right. Are your dreams merely fantasy, or are they glimpses into another world?

Or is something far more sinister going on?

Set in the world of The Ancient One. Arendin and Rain have lived many lives together, and have fought against the Ancient One and his insiduous evil in many of those lives.

In this storygame, you play as Arendin the morning of a battle against the King's army. Aware that the soldiers you are going to face have been corrupted and are being controlled by the Ancient One, you intend to use nonlethal force where possible and save as many as you can.

But while you are trying to save the soldiers who you can, you are unprepared for the real target of the Ancient One's schemes.

Scribe's Note: Arendin and Rain have been reincarnated multiple times, and have always been given different birth names by their parents in each life. However, as they adopt their original names once their memories have been awakened, I will use the names Arendin and Rain.

(Please be aware that this storygame contains mature themes, such as sexual content, violence, scenes of abuse, and mind control. A lot of the more adult content will depend on paths you take in this storygame, but I'm not going to warn for those in the storygame, as I don't want to pull anyone out of the story. Just be aware that the Anything Goes rating fits some of the paths here).

More than two decades ago, a series of brutal murders rocked the small town of Rivercrest. Several students at the high school lost their lives in the massacre, and the murderer was never caught.

Your parents were survivors of the massacre and it's made them extremely overprotective of you. You find yourself chafing against their constant rules, especially when combined with the curfew set through the whole town. It's been twenty years since there were any murders...since there was any crime.

But one day, all of that changes. After your own mother is murdered brutally, you find yourself thrown back in time....before the Rivercrest High School murders occurred.

Can you stop the murders and figure out who the killer is before you end up another victim?

One of my just started WIPs fits the prompt, so...I'm in.

I do have holiday booked, too, so hopefully, I'll be able to work on it then too. 

Hi! Welcome to the site!

I think that a lot of writing is basically, 'write what you know.' For me, it's more, 'write what you enjoy reading, or what you want to reat.' Speaking from experience, though, I'd advise not starting off with something really complicated. That's a trap I've fallen into multiple times, and why I only have one finished (not great) storygame and a multitude of started ones that will likely never be completed.

I prefer Story A. Personally, I like that Story A focuses more on the individual character. Unfortunately, Story B reads like a somewhat disjointed summary of events. There's no real reason to care about any of the characters, as there's no real way to empathise with them. Story A, I could understand the main character's perspective, even though I didn't agree with it...and I held out hope that things would end better than I thought they might.

(I'd like to also say that the Thunderdome is a really cool idea).

It's also possible that he did and I don't actually remember...but the name Darren doessn't actually strike the same memory chord in me as the whole 'how will you find the light switch?' bit.

I'm afraid not. Sadly, it was a few years ago, but I remember the whole light switch part; and the caressing the wall. No one actually 'won' the game, but the experience was a fun one.

Oh, I actually attended a show at a comic con event where someone did a live action version of this, calling up members of the audience to try and complete the game! It was actually a lot of fun.

Hi!

I used to be on a previous website called Infinite Story, before I followed a couple of the members over here. I've always loved choose your own adventure stories, I think because actually having some choice in my life as a child was really important to me.

I'm really good at starting things, though not so good at finishing them. I have one completed storygame and multiple others that I started. And I now have three further ideas, but we'll see how that goes.

Welcome to the site! I hope you have fun here! 

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!