A retelling of a short story written by myself for an old Horror fanzine. That story focuses on a particularly eventful evening in the life of freelance photographer Pamela Grey in the world of the Dark Conspiracy RPG. In this story game you take the place of Pamela. 

The world you live in is much like today's, only a little worse.  The rich are richer, the poor are poorer, and the gap between is so much wider. So much is controlled by the mega-corporations and rich interests that large swatches of the ever expanding urban sprawl are marked as "Outlaw Territory, Enter At Own Risk" - where even the police don't go, either for fear or lack of resources.  The middle class has mostly disappeared except for the lowest echelon of corporate execs, and legislative changes have allowed many that would have previously been on the public dole to instead sell their vote to corporate interests in exchange for support. Crime is up, as are disappearances, theft, and violence. Even as bad as the world has become, there are persistent rumors that even worse things lurk in the shadows.  Many neighborhoods have abandoned houses that everyone knows better than to enter, and even in the outlaw where the police fear to tread there are rumors of entire blocks that no one but the mad or the most desperate are willing to risk going into after dark.

You and Susan, your significant other, are doing ok.  Her job with Aprico has afforded the two of you a small place in a small gated community owned by the company. A prized place in the vanishing middle class. Your home is close enough to the gates that you can still easily indulge in your favorite hobby, walking through Chicago with your trusty camera in hand, particularly at night.  The sale of these photos as art pieces to the ultrawealthy, facilitated by Susan's contacts, has helped with sporadic lump sums of money.  Susan pays the bills, but your money pays for luxuries and splurges.

In the twilight one often finds isolated moments of beauty and mystery that would never been seen in the daylight, and you work to capture these moments in the perfect clarity of your lens. You know the risks of being out alone at night outside the gates, but even Susan has had to admit that the last couple of pictures you sold would not have been possible if you hadn't been out there.  To help comfort her (and yourself to be completely honest), you recently bought a large knife to carry with you, just in case.

So, come explore the night and see what waits for you in the dark.

The job listing was simple "Earn 100K » in your sleep!" Having not been able to find a steady job for over a local year and half, you jumped at the chance.

Now, eight months later by the clock on the pod, you have suddenly been awoken from hypersleep to fulfill your role as the emergency backup crew of PrimObs 80085. There is no sign of the regular crew, and even worse, no sign of the rest of the backup crew, so it is up to you to determine what happened and hopefully get a message back to sector command for rescue.

Entry for EndMaster's Prompt Contest 4: Prompt #27) A story involving a space station.

This work is currently being rewritten to include an additional successful ending. If you find a path that appears to dead-end, please come back and try this story again soon.

An entry for MHD's Fairytale contest, this is a retelling of the old Appalachian Fairy Tale "The Little Princess of the Forest".

Come listen to the telling of one of the wildest fairy tales I've ever heard.    This story was originally told by Marshall Ward for a fairy tale collection, and has stuck with me ever since I first heard it.  I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.  Grab a seat and listen up, as it starts like this...

You have made your way through the city, state, regional, national, planetary, sector, parsec, arm, 64th-, 32nd-, 16th-, octo-, quarter- and semi-finals to arrive with a guaranteed spot in the Finals of the 169th cycle IntraGalactic Culinary Challenge brought to you by Mag King and Gal-actic Robotics held on RecStation 420 in the Lagoon Nebula. When those magnetronics need to sing, 🎶🎶 Call on Mag King 🎶🎶! Do you need a handy robot pal? Everybody wants a Gal!

You face a varied array of challengers and an even more diverse panel of judges to win over in the two round Final. Before each round, you will have time to plan your dish and explore the features of the station. Who knows, you might even find something to help in the contest! Judges and contestants are randomly selected with every read-through, and finding things is done by a random function of your stats, so every new read is a fresh game.

This was originally going to be an entry for EndMaster's Promt Contest 4, but I ran out of time and quickly wrote The Backup

This is a storygame conversion of the Minion Hunter Board Game (and Minion Nation expansion) by GDW, based on the Dark Conspiracy TTRPG by GDW and Dynasty Presentations, with some modernization updates by myself, and is set in the same world as my "A Night in Chicago" storygame.

This is a simulation of a complex boardgame and while I have done my best to add some narrative to the events, it does not have a standard ending that you are working towards.  Every movement is a "round" in the game, and while you are developing your own stats and equipment, the forces of the Dark influences are advancing their plots.  The story ends when one of the main Dark Minion races (ETs, Fae, Morlocks, or Nukids) gains 20 plot points, or you defeat enough plots to run out the plot deck.

Full rules are detailed within.  Give it a try and see if you can save Dark America from the corrupting influence of the Dark Minions.

It was just supposed to be a quick run down to the bodega. Ten minutes, tops. Then you saw something in the alley, and now everything has been turned upside down.

This is incomplete. Sorry, I just ran out time.

Entry for Sherbet's Summer's End Synergy Contest

This update has a lot of highs and lows, some from the game and some from my own ineptitude. However, the Gazette staff stands and presses on.

As we left off last time, RK is hunting the wasteffalo. He is able to succesfully take down both that beast and it's brother, while TCat dealt with what I think is the last of the corpses of those that fell here while we were all out exploring the first genetics lab.

After the wasteffalos were brought back and butchered, a few meals were made before I realized that the wasteffalos produced toxic meat when butchered. Fortunately only a couple of meals were made with that before I noticed, and it is still useful to make kibble for the animals with. Given that the cold has keep our haygrass from growing, several of the animals will be quite happy for it.

Before too much progress can be made on that, however, we get notice of being raided by yttikin assholes from the Byttden faction. They approach from two vectors, north and south.

As the southern group (squad 2) decided to hold much closer to the base than the northern group, all the gun-holders headed down that way to deal with them. Endmaster got added in late to be a melee threat, so he was trailing behind the group.

The southern squad was easy enough to deal with, and none of our folks even got so much as a scratch from it. Both raiders were gunned down, and Endmaster showed up in time to put the killing blow on each of them, while the gunners headed back north to deal with the northern squad that is a little better armed.

The original plan was to wait from the raiders to try to come across the river, but because of the layout of the mountains, one of the raiders wandered way to west. The other proved to be armed with a musket. This rifle was much slower than any of our guns, but had nearly three times the range. Because of this, they camped outside of our range and just started taking pot shots.

As we forded the river to get in range and Milton actived his combat command skill, the raider got off a lucky shot and managed to blow the heart out of Fresh's chest! She collapsed, instantly dead, as the rest of the group charged forward. The fire fight was intense for a few moments, but the other raiders were killed without any other major damage.

The victory was tainted with Fresh's death, and caused some reassessment of how we need to approach things. Since we have lost someone, we need to get started on the process to replace them. Thus, while Mr. Nobody buries Fresh, most of the rest of the group gathers to perform the skip abduction ritual.

It was surprising how long the ritual took and this is where I messed up. I wasn't paying close enough attention and by the time the ritual concluded, the peanut farm work site had disappeared. This invalidates Mystic's initial selection for what raid we should do. Sorry Mystic, but we will stick with your second option and work towards investigating the abandoned genetics lab.

The ritual takes a fair amount of time, during which Mr. Nobody even wanders over and joins the ritual from afar. Finally, with a brilliant flash of light the randomly selected StarGirl appeared. She is not follower of the Cystian path yet, and the dark ritual will leave her in a coma for the next four days.

Since the farm option is gone, we have a couple of days to prepare before heading to the lab. StarGirl is put one of the bedrooms that is now designated a prison and conversion room, although we can't really do anything with her other than treat her wounds until she comes out of her coma. We will have to send the caravan to the lab well before then, however.

Suranna and Anthraxus focus on making some kibble and feeding the animals, while everyone else returns to their normal duties. Endmaster is focused on making simple meals, and RK continues to serve as our primary hunter. TCat is focused on working on the flooring in the warehouse, while Mr. Nobody is working on cutting down trees and tending to the few plants that are still growing, however slowly. But everyone still takes time to eat and read together.

As everyone is doing their thing, jumping from task to task, Milton settles down at the tailor bench to work on finishing some backpacks as we don't have enough hide or cloth to finish the parkas we need to get everyone properly dressed for the freezine summer we are currently working through. Milton surprisingly makes a pass a Suranna that is not only not responded to, but she immediately starting talking about jock straps with him. Maybe he should take it as a warning.

Early the next morning we got a request for aid I've never seen before. A city was under siege and requesting help. The offered bounty was unbelievable in value, but not only are we not really equipped to defend a city but it is also nearly nine days away by foot. We would have to leave immediately to have even a chance of getting there in time, and we only have a couple days of food stored up anyway.

Progress was being made on building up supplies for the caravan. The lab is about three and half days away, so we will want to have plenty of food on hand. Since everyone kind of works by their own schedule, RK found time to hang out and relax while everyone was working. We have about a half dozen smokeleaf joints saved up, and RK helped himself to one while chatting with Suranna. As the afternoon wears on everyone (except the unconscious StarGirl) was startled by inhuman shrieks that echoed off the mountains. Something strange and terrible is coming.

Lacking any way to meaningfully prepare, everyone continues on with their tasks. Everyone is chatting and just waiting for the other shoe to drop. Finally, appearing literally out of thin air, a horrific entity reveals itself to Milton. Fortunately several folks were close by to run to his aid.

The fight was vicious, yet the Sightstealer could not withstand the barrage of attacks focused on it. By the time it was incapacitated and hauled off to containment, Milton had gotten clawed up pretty severely.

RK secured this strange entity capable of invisibility in containment and took extra care treating it's wounds. This will not only be a good contributor of bioferrite via the extractor, but it will also provide more Dark Research capabilities. Although thanks to RK and Endmaster's efforts, our food supplies are only increasing, we were pleasantly surprised when a couple hundred units of raw beef dropped to the west of the base.

Finally the time has come to pack up the caravan. Everyone but Milton and Suranna is going to go, including the anacondas and Isabell the bison. The bison will increase our carrying capacity by 84kg, and the anacondas will help with any wild animals that get in the way, maybe even with some of the genetic monstrosities. It is really unfortunate that they are untrainable. At the same time they were packing up, we got word of a trade caravan from Eastern Eumonla arriving. Milton will handle the negotiations with them.

It was interesting to catch the group just as they were leaving the map. We got a fun example of the kind of traveling conversation the group tends to have. Meanwhile, Milton worked out a good trade for some packaged survival meals, medicine, and a LMG in exchange for the Luciferium, Ambrosia and a handcannon.

While the caravan travels towards the lab, and Milton and our friends from Eastern Eumonla share a meal. Rina, our trusty dog, has finally been trained to help haul stuff and is now helping to put away our trade goods.

We don't really have anything to vote on this update.