A tale of hope, a tale of unwavering. A tale of hurt, and loss, and change- a tale of love, turned into hatred. A tale of lies, turned into truths...

Believe.

Take control of Hue, the peculiar and tardy offspring of a human being and a magical entity- cursed with being created through unconventional means, painted to life with hope and magic... but something went wrong. Existing not as a human, but as a creature of ink, set out with the goal of finding those who created you, all while on a collision course with a duo of tyrants that have sent the villagers into a deep depression- the island is full of hurt, deceit, unsavory characters, and ugly truths that may have been better left in the dark.

Can you get through it all... without changing?

Can you stay true to their intent?

Can you become human?

This storygame has a total of 22 endings. 10 bad, 6 neutral, 6 good. A good amount of those are death-adjacent.

This is my entry for EndMaster's Prompt Contest 4. Happy reading!

If you've ever seen Kitchen Nightmares, you've run into the same problem I have. The show is fine, whatever, but certain episodes would have been seriously elevated if Gordon Ramsay had been allowed to just take out some of those restaurant owners. I can't be alone in thinking that, right?

Last year we at CYS brought in the New Year with Wholesome Dog's Birthday Adventure. This year... this.

Disclaimer: This gets a little rancid.

Super Bonus Challenge: See if you can deduce which page of this storygame was written by Sent!

Hunger means desperation.
Play as Elizabeth, a young woman recently involved in a tragic accident that claimed the lives of her family... except for one, very unfamiliar man. Or, is he a man at all?

This is my entry for EndMaster's Prompt Contest 2. There are a total of 7
endings (and one profile badge) to find, not including deaths.

"One last adventure in the forest with our friends. There's nothing to be afraid of..."

Play as Rebecca, a troubled and pessimistic young woman living in a small town called Whittle Falls. Sleepy and independent, leading a simple existence and a very happy one- once upon a time. Now, a terrible curse has befallen the town, in the form of an unstoppable Beast that refuses to stop its violent hunting.

Navigate Rebecca's bonds both old and new, and take her on one final trek through the forest. Confront the distant and buried past, while trying not to fall to the otherworldly horrors lurking around every corner.

Winner of EndMaster's Prompt Contest 3!

Prompt 43: A story involving body horror.

There's something horrifying lurking in the water...

Play as Will Robinson, a money-loving fisherman living in the foggy town of Bullhead Rock, who's been bribed into unraveling a mystery and putting an old legend to rest once and for all. His desire for cash outweighs his fear of supernatural nonsense- and this can easily get him into trouble...

There are 5 endings you can get, not including deaths, of which there are quite a lot.

A sixth, secret ending can be obtained by getting the Legend Killer Ending, clicking the Reset Game link, and then getting the Blessed Ending.

Winner of Mizal's 2023 Gone Fishin' Contest!

A twisted and broken family.
A parallel world.
One chance to escape.
 

This is my entry for EndMaster's 2022 Prompt Contest.

Four endings, including a true ending.

Oh no! Wholesome Dog overslept, and is late to his own birthday party! Help Wholesome Dog get to the party his friends are throwing before it's too late!

There are 4 endings!

Siren
Monster

I'd have to dig into my search history sometime to find the Warden song, I'd recognize it if I heard it, but turns out I never saved it.

So as a bonus, this is what I've got in my ear while writing my (probable) next story.

That being said, you'll be hearing from my lawyer about including that crack-smoking slander!

As per the results of the poll, this episode will focus heavily on the construction of a dedicated shop for tailoring new clothes, as well as a hotel so that we can host and bond with the neighbors that AREN'T trying to kill us. Additionally, we're going to have to learn how to brew, because we're growing hops and coffee beans this season! We'll be drunk and caffeinated.

Growing more stuff in addition to our food means we've got to clear some land, uprooting trees and bushes and cutting grass to make room for our plants. Thankfully, this is not a burden that Sent and Suranna will have to shoulder alone this year, as we've recruited a number of very capable colonists since those cold, rainy, starvation-filled nights that plagued us in the past.

It's a bit hard to begin building without the steel, and we're pretty low on wood as well. For this reason, it's the construction crew of Sherbet, Anthraxus, and Cavus that load up in the Vengabus to steal the steel from these independents. That should give the planting crew a pretty good chunk of time to uproot more trees for us, so we can officially begin construction.

Don't ask me how the bus crossed the river, because I would not be able to tell you. Either way, it takes about half a day for us to reach the first mining camp- it's hosted on a cavernous tropical rainforest tile, so there's all kinds of rock formations, fruit trees (yippee!) and monkeys wandering around. It is a shame Sent didn't come along, or we could've had a chance to tame some of those gorillas you see if you zoom in around the bottom left and reeeally try to ignore how few pixels there are.

The loot was exactly what we expected it to be- a little over two-hundred pieces of steel. However, there was also a cruddy wooden computer sitting around one of the caverns. It's pretty beat up and, y'know, made of wood, but it'll be some good recreation for our colonists when we take it home and fix it up a little!

Speaking of the colony, a look back at our home base reveals that things are going very well in the planting process. All the trees and large bits of shrubbery have been successfully cleared, and they're finally starting to plant the coffee beans, all four of them. I bet Sentinel Penguin is crying tears of joy, no longer having to break his spine in two by jamming 700+ crops into the ground. Now he just has to do, like... 250 of them, or so.

Speaking of Rex and Anthraxus, it's time to revisit the adventure of the construction crew- the second mining camp on our list seems to be a bit more advanced than the last, constructed out of brick, and there does seem to be at least an ATTEMPT at an electrical system. Our enemies this time are also more threatening, a pair of elves wielding bows. They don't seem to notice us at first, so we begin shooting down doors to look for the precious steel we're after.

This time, it's Sent, Suranna, Mizal, and Liminal's turn to load up in the Vengabus and go on a road trip while the rest of our colony stays behind to work. It's only fair.

The moment the bus arrives at the ruins after a short trip out, the carnage has already begun. The other factions are tearing each other apart for the opportunity to claim the ruins' prizes, and groups are already fleeing after losing too many people. The number of corpses is unlike anything our colonists have witnessed up to this point. They feel incredibly grateful that they aren't on foot, and can drive around in the Vengabus as the other crews destroy one another.

While our colonists WERE outnumbered by just about every one of the ten or so groups that came to take whatever these ruins had to offer, there really isn't anyone who can stand up to us by the time the Vengabus finally stops moving. Most have already fled, are dead, or are too wounded to continue fighting. Mizal tends to Ace's many wounds, before the quartet picks off whoever is left in their path- then, it's looting time! Like I said, pristine ruins are REALLY good, so brace yourself for what you're about to see.

That'd be funny.

Soon after, more discoveries are made. Sent discovers a room packed full of textiles, fuel, medicine, leathers, and even some giant heaps of raw jade. Liminal finds a concrete structure that contains over a hundred more Luciferium, more leather and textiles, and an abundance of stone bricks. Components, too!

Between all that leather and fabric, we'll have plenty of material for new clothing at the new tailor shop.

After quickly loading up the Vengabus as much as we can, it's time to make a hasty exit. It's best not to linger in places like this- we may have been the last group standing at the ruins, but that wouldn't have lasted very long, as massive raider groups were likely already on the way.

But to be honest, that was by FAR the best Cystian looting that the colony has had up to this point, we should be extremely proud of ourselves. If only we had some beer and coffee to celebrate with... soon, soon.

She also crosses paths with a jade dragon, briefly, during her harvests. It thankfully doesn't seem hostile- befriending such a beast would be extremely valuable to us, but alas, only the Velonir race is really capable of bonding with these majestic creatures.

Now, with the tailor finished, the hotel becomes the colony's sole construction project. It's looking... not too bad. It's a very large building that contains a lot of wiring and furniture, so it's expected to take longer, of course. At least, this WOULD be fine if the project didn't drive Sherbet to SMOKE. Yeah, he found the stash of 19 smokeleaf joints that we took from the ruins (with the intent to sell them) and has officially ensured that I will never beat the crack-doing allegations, thanks Rimworld Sherbet.

With that, we have the hotel finished, the tailor finished, a few thousand hops harvested, and coffee beans on the way. We can comfortably start on clothes making and brewing, I'm certain our colonists are excited to change out of their hole-riddled apparel.

As for the vote...

Trade Vote

Our colony hasn't been visited by too many trade caravans, and the ones that have come by, well, they aren't willing to buy most of our goods. We could always wait for more, but if we really want to make money, we'll have to take action... or, we could just upgrade our systems and hope that brings in more traders. As our vault of valuables grows and grows, and with a stockpile of clothes, beer, coffee, and other goods on the way, we ought to start turning more of it into silver.

Option A: We should travel to neighboring settlements and cities to sell our stuff- we can view what they'll buy ahead of time and stock our caravans accordingly, and we won't have to rely on traders coming to us in order to turn a profit on our goods.

Option B: We should set up an orbital trade beacon and communications console so we can contact orbital traders, whenever they may come by the planet. We'll still have to wait for them to come to us, but these traders tend to have deep pockets.

Gambling with garlic cloves is deranged, this is the future Sent was after all along.

As for the Tox Pack, they do still have some pretty beefy factories near us, so it is fortunate that we didn't get raided while we were out, swift as we were.

After reviewing the suggested names for the Bang Bus, I was originally going to go with Cavus's suggestion since it did have the most 'votes' behind it, but as it turns out it's well above the character limit for vehicle names. The result is that we'll be naming our ride the Vengabus, but perhaps it'll always be the B.A.N.G Bus in spirit. In animal news, our stegosauruses are now officially Apex (male) and Bumpy (female).

This is the route that we'll be taking to attack a Tox Pack military base- unfortunately, we have no way of really knowing how many people are going to be there, so it may be best to send as much manpower as possible... fortunately, the Vengabus holds all six of us! But Sherbet will scrape together what steel and components we have left to upgrade the vehicle's engine, tires, and storage capacity, so we spend as little time away from home as possible AND we get to loot more!

Liminal's weakness is bad hearing, and this immediately comes into play as the Vengabus pulls up right beside the base, and our colony spills out ready for a fight... to no reaction, at first. Once the bullet rain begins, of course, we're spotted.

A big amoeba wanders by as Miz saves Liminal's life, it's kind of cute so Sent attempts to tame it. Ultimately unsuccessful, which is a shame, but it's also not what we're here for.

At this point in the raid I have become nervous, because the bus only has six seats, and we're going to be transporting seven people back. Could it be that we're going to have to leave our prisoner behind? Thankfully, no- it allows us to load Liminal and all of our colonists up, though Liminal doesn't get a seat on the bus... I'm not sure whether one of the stegosauruses carried Liminal back, or if this was like a tied-to-the-roof-of-the-bus situation.

All in all, I'd call that an extremely successful raid! But we shouldn't get used to them being so easy, the factories especially are said to be very well-guarded... but admittedly the description of the military base did also claim that there could be up to two dozen people defending it, so who knows? What matters is that we blew a Tox Pack base right off the map, and we'll hopefully do the same to many more in the future.

The trip home is smooth, aside from poor Liminal getting two separate infections, so the top of that bus must not be very sanitary. Ultimately no death comes of the infections, but this is what the medical tab looks like, so really not a good first day for our new potential recruit;

Now that we're back home, the colonists fall back into their routines. Games are played, work is tended to, and friendships are strengthened. After all the battles we've been through recently, even the once crippling farmwork seems so relaxed, as Sent harvests his favorite crop with enthusiasm.

Fortunately for him, something more problematic appears on the horizon- something disgusting. A dark, fleshy heap from a monstrous insectoid faction called the Black Hive has tunneled its way to the edge of our base to release a pair of ghoulish bugs to maul our colonists. These insects are genetically engineered to lay waste to mechanoid bastions, so despite the fact that it's visually just two little bugoids, this threat isn't one to ignore.

Sent returns to bed so his mauled foot can recover, and with that, it seems we've managed to survive another chapter of our colony's story! Actually, this is quite a big moment for the colony, as the winter season has now officially come to an end... meaning we've passed our one year anniversary. Yahoo! Our garage and research office are complete just on time for the occasion. The researchers of the colony even get their own rec room complete with a poker table, isn't that nice? Although... what are they betting, cabbages?

Some giant pandas wandered in at the last second, perhaps as a colony birthday present. They wouldn't really do anything if we tamed them, but they are an endangered species, which means if we breed them and release them so they can repopulate in the wild, other factions will notice and like us more as a result. Also, they're so cute and I love them. :)

Vote 1: Year 2 Farming

We're officially in year two, and with winter behind us, it's a good time to start growing something new. Like I said earlier, we're very food secure even as we continue to acquire new mouths to feed, so we also have an opportunity to grow more non-food crops this year. We'll go ahead and grow whatever the top two voted upon options are, in addition to our food.

Option A: Coffee beans- we may get addicted to caffeine, but our productivity will probably go up. Coffee is also a luxury item that is not difficult to sell.

Option B: Devilstrand, a difficult to plant, yet rewarding mushroom that will provide us with deeply red fabric, both valuable and excellent to make clothes out of.

Option C: Hop plants. Because I want beer.

Option D: Tea grass, because tea is more classy than beer.

Option E: Smokeleaf, because I want to get high.

Vote 2: Construction

There are some buildings that'd be nice to have, but we're ultimately still a small colony- if we throw too many big construction projects at them at once, none of them will be finished for months. The top two results are what we'll prioritize in the next episode.

Option A: A dedicated storage area, death to clutter!

Option B: A hotel would allow us to host guests from other colonies and improve relationships.

Option C: We've only got one more bed to spare and could use more housing, another layer to the apartment complex couldn't hurt.

Option D: A tailor; our colonists' clothes are beginning to fall apart, making them unhappy. It's time for some new garments!

Option E: A forge to melt down the metal slag around the map, and produce new weaponry and armor.

Also, I hope Anthraxus isn't getting any ideas about those bricks, that seems quite dangerous.