Down

Down Early development v. 1.1 [[Begin]] Author's note: This is an early access version of the first two chapters. Please report all bugs you might find so I can try and fix them. The return arrows are enabled for that specific reason too. Commentary or issues please either here on itch.io or at: singingstranger.projects@gmail.com

When you try to move your arms, your legs, anything, a sharp pain goes through your head. Something sticky, cold is preventing you from doing anything but tense your muscles so far. With every movement your strength increases though. [[Struggle|Struggle2]] [[Lay still and try to gather information on where you are|Blink2]] [[Scream for help|Scream2]]

Despite your eyelids resisting to move, you force them open. It does not make a big difference at first. It is pitch black around you. But then you discover: A faint light shines far above your head. As you adjust to your surroundings, you can see more details of the world around you. Rock formations, moss, water running down the walls. [[Struggle|Struggle2]] [[Scream for help|Scream1]]

You fight to open your mouth and scream, but all that comes out is a croak. You feel stuck where you are. As you crack open your eyes, a faint light shines down onto you from far above. [[Struggle|Struggle2]] [[Lay still and try to gather information on where you are|Blink2]]

You twist and turn your shoulders, crane your neck, pull your arms up. As you are fighting against a strange goo that is holding you down, you free yourself more and more. Squelches accompany each movement as you finally break free from the mud that was trapping you. You are sitting up, your breathing labored and overpowering any other noises that might be around you. Under your hands is the thick mud but with your head facing the ceiling above, you feel free and much less claustrophobic. Enthusiastic with the thrill of freedom, you try to call out for help. Your voice fails you, breaking and making you cough feebly. Silence sets back in. Accompanied by dread. [[Look around|Blink3]] [[Get to your feet|Move1]]

As you lie in, what seems to be a cold thick liquid, you can move only your eyes. Gathering your strength to get up, you observe the world around you. Everything is drenched in darkness, interspersed merely with a few feeble rays of light from above. High above. You can see the outline of perhaps a rope dangling far above you. It looks torn. You need to get out of here. [[Struggle|Struggle2]]

Now that you can move your head, you can actually see your surroundings much better. Half sunk into the mud by your side is a length of rope, torn at one end. The other half is high above, dangling through a hole in the ceiling, unsecured. You spot a backpack a few feet away from you. You try so hard to get up. But your legs are not obeying your command. { (if: $bag is 0)[[Pick up bag]]} {(if: $rope is 0)[[Pick up rope]]} [[Explore the room|mudroom]]

You cannot seem to get up. Your legs are numb from cold and barely listening to you. You manage to free them from the slick mud, turning and crawling on your hands and knees. [[Look around|Blink3]]

You fight to open your mouth and scream, but all that comes out is a croak. You feel stuck where you are. You need to get out of here. [[Struggle|Struggle2]]

{(if: $mudroom is 0) [Your eyes are quite used to the darkness now, but there is simply not enough light. You use your hands to touch the walls, slowly navigating your way around the room you are in as your crawl.]} {(if: $mudroom is 1)[This is the room where you woke up. You see the rope above your head and feel mud under your knees.]} {(if: $bag is 1)[The bag is still lying in the mud.]} {(if: $rope is 1)[The rope is stilly lying in the mud.]} {(set: $mudroom to 1)} There are two passages it seems. Both lead further downward, away from the muddy room and deeper into the cave. Out of one passage you can hear and feel a bit of wind. Perhaps an exit lies this way? However it is shrouded in complete darkness. The other passage carries a promise of water. A trickle runs by your knees and you hear a stream further down. {(if: $bag is 0)[[Pick up bag]]} {(if: $rope is 0)[[Pick up rope]]} [[Follow the wind|windroomhall]] [[Follow the water|waterroomhall]]

{(set: $bag to 1)} The sturdy, leather bag has been torn open at the side. The contents are missing. Perhaps they fell further into the cave? You put it on your back anyway. {(if: $rope is 0)[[Pick up rope]]} [[Explore the room|mudroom]]

{(set: $rope to 1)} You pick up the rope. It is heavy, tightly braided but waterlogged from the mud. It is also much longer than you thought it would be. It must be mutliple times your height. You tie it to your belt with difficulty, as your fingers are numb with cold. {(if: $bag is 0)[[Pick up bag]]} [[Explore the room|mudroom]]

{(if: $windroomhall is 0)[The further you go, the louder the wind becomes. You find yourself in a large corridor of sorts. The wind angrily blows over your icy skin. In complete darkness, you pray you will find the way back. Suddenly a strike against your forehead. It barely hurts, it just stuns you in surprise. You went right against what feels like a stalagmite growing up from the ground. Next thing you know, you hurt your hand, stabbing it onto a smaller deposit and shattering it. Again, no pain. Just what feels like a trickle of blood on your palm.]} {(if: $windroomhall is 1)[You re-enter the windy corridor. Wherever you place down your hands, you feel terribly pointy little spikes boring into your skin. They break under your fingers from the lightest bit of pressure, but they cut you if you are not careful.]} {(set: $windroomhall to 1)} You cannot continue here like this. {(if: $bag is 1) [[Use your bag to protect your hands|windroomhall2]]} [[Try to find away around|windroomhall1]] {(if: $waterroomescape is 1)[[Return to the muddy room|mudroom2]]} {(if: $waterroomescape is 0)[[Return to the muddy room|mudroom]]}

{(if: $waterroomhall is 0) [You wade into the water, hoping it will not become deep. As it is, it barely covers your hands. Slowly you push forward, exploring the path with your hands. The sound of dripping in your ears. It grows louder. Closer. Finally you feel drips onto your head and shoulders. The room feels larger. You can no longer feel the walls over the passage by your shoulders and the sounds of you shuffeling through the stream are echoing much more grandly but further. The ground is leading you further down, water creeping up your arms. It is cool, but not as icy as you feared. And actually, it becomes easier to move because the water is carrying your dead weight legs.]} {(if: $waterroomhall is 1)[You re-enter the lake cavern.]} {(set: $waterroomhall to 1)} At first you believe you are having your eyes playing a trick on you in the complete darkness, but you quickly realise that you can see a very faint light at the far end of the cavern. There is a slope before you and you reach an arm down into the water to see how deep it goes. You cannot reach the bottom with the tips of your fingers though. You are a good swimmer, usually. But in complete darkness and without the use of your legs, it feels quite hazardous to just slip into the water without something to help you find the way back. {(if: $rope is 1)[[Tie the rope to a rock|waterroom2]]} [[Explore the room to try and find a way around|waterroom explore]] {(if: $waterroomescape is 1)[[Return|mudroom2]]} {(if: $waterroomescape is 0)[[Return|mudroom]]}

You touch the walls blindly as you crawl off to the side. To your left there is a solid slab of smooth rock with no passage. To your right it is much the same, with a rougher rock that feels strangely warm to the touch. It makes your numb hands hurt with pins and needles. But it is unyielding. You are stuck here. The only way are forward through the stalagmite riddled path or back to where you came from. {(if: $bag is 1) [[Forward, using your bag to protect your hands|windroomhall2]]} {(if: $waterroomescape is 1)[[Return to the muddy room|mudroom2]]} {(if: $waterroomescape is 0)[[Return to the muddy room|mudroom]]}

Suddenly an idea strikes you. Your torn up bag has little use to hold anything, but it is still made of sturdy leather. If you put it under your hands, pushing it forward, perhaps you can break all those tiny little spikes on the ground. The shards won't hurt your hands if the leather protects you, your legs dragging behind you won't get injured if you push the shards in front of the bag. This might work. This has to work. You let the bag slide off of your shoulder onto the ground beneath you. In the movement, the cold air stream crawls over your damp back. It had just started to warm up a bit against the leather but now it chills your spine. Eager to get out, you playe the bag under your hands, wrapping the straps around your arms and forcing your stiff fingers to hold onto the folded fabric as hard as you can muster. The stalagmites shatter beneath your hands, producing a quite satisfying crunch. A throaty laugh escapes you, followed by yet another feeble cough. It feels mad. Every one of these little pillars took decades to grow. Yet here you are, waltzing over them. [[A small price to pay if it leads you out.|windroom1]]

Going slowly, so every encounter with a rock to your nose ends with a light tap and a careful avoidance, you keep crawling. Suddenly though, the ground beneath your hands seems to just... end. The rock shards you were pushing ahead of yourself begin to tumble. Your hands slip on the slope. You lose your grip and fall forward, slamming your chin onto the hard rock under you. The bag almost slips your fingers. There is no ground left in front of you. Your legs are not listening. Your arms are dangling helplessly in front of you. Far down below, you hear the echoes of rocks tumbling down. You realise you must be in front of a chasm of some kind. Your entire upper body is hanging over the ledge. [[Try to push yourself back up|Struggle1 windroom]] [[Try to turn on your side to get up|Struggle2 windroom]]

Your hands slide over the calcium coated rock, the bag tangled around your wrists. You cannot move an inch back. What is worse, a light incline downward is dragging you forward ever so slowly as gravity tugs you. There is no way to know how far down the hole goes. [[Try to turn on your side to get up|Struggle2 windroom]]

Your heart beat pounds in your ears as you try to turn onto your side. The breeze grows stronger against your shivering form, but it is no longer the cold, it is the fear that is making you quake. Just a little more... Leaning on your ribs, you get your hands back to level with your head and blindly reach into the dark, trying to find something, anything to push yourself back with. Just enought to be able to crawl again. To turn around. To your right, a patch of rough rock is your savior. You grip it and you push, sliding your body across the slippery coating until you have ground back under your head and shoulders. Exhausted, you lie still on the ground, trying to catch your breath. The wind howls in your ear. [[Breathe|windroom recover]] [[Push yourself to get going|windroom2]]

As your breathing slows and your heartbeat relaxes, you could swear you hear something... are those voices? Your attempts to call out are broken as you cough, frustrated and panicked. There are voices, you are sure of it! Even steps! Far away... at the bottom of the chasm. How is that even possible? Surely that is just a redirection of soundwaves. There is no way people are down there. Right? [[Try to make noise somehow|windroom noisemaker]] [[Push more debris down the chasm to get their attention|windroom debris]]

As you struggle to get back onto your hands and knees, the noise of your movements fills your ears. For a brief moment you thought you heard something else carried by the wind, but you seem to have been mistaken. With upmost care, you try to crawl around, feeling for the ledge of the chasm and mapping it into your mind. To the left, there is just cold, slippery rock. The stalagmites and stalactites are so dense and large that you cannot fit past them. To the right, the warm, hard rock greets your tingling fingers. A solid wall, mostly coated in calcium deposit, but some parts of it are exposed. When you lean your cheek against the rock, there is a brief moment of comfort. It feels welcoming. Reassuring. Warming. {(if: $waterroomescape is 1) [Just like in the lake cavern...]} As you are touching the rock, for a brief moment you think it came alive. It is moving against your skin. But you realise your error when you feel the ground beneath you begin to shake. [[Get out, fast.|windroom escape]] [[Lie still, wait for it to stop|windroom death]]

Desperate, you chose to make noise however you can. You slap your hand against the ground, against a stalagtite next to you... You break off a piece of rock to slam it into the ground over and over. You open your mouth, croaking out for help but it is a mere whisper. The voices have fallen silent. Maybe. Maybe they heard you? But maybe they just are too far away to hear anymore. You try again for good measure, aggravated and panicked. You slam your hand into the ground hard. Instead of a mere pounding sound though, a crackling goes through the windy room. The ground seems to be vibrating below your stomach. [[Get out, fast.|windroom escape]] [[Lie still, wait for it to stop|windroom death]]

Gripping the bag as tight as your fingers allow, you swipe it across the skipey ground, producing the crunching sound of breaking rocks. A grunt escaping your lips at the effort of doing this all while lying down, you shove the rocks out over the ledge and down into the chasm. A stream of pebbles cascades down below, rattling up quite a ruckus. You open your mouth, croaking out for help but it is a mere whisper. The voices have fallen silent. Maybe. Maybe they heard you? But maybe they just are too far away to hear anymore. You listen into the wind. Where is it even coming from? Below? Above? It feels as though it comes from everywhere and yet no where at the same time. The rattles end. But then a crackling goes through the windy room. The ground seems to be vibrating below your stomach. [[Get out, fast.|windroom escape]] [[Lie still, wait for it to stop|windroom death]]

{(set: $windroomescape to 1)} Realising what is happening, you get yourself turned around with strength you did not believe you had left. But your body is full of surprises. As you pull yourself out of this spike filled cave, crashes strike the ground around you. Terrible echoes follow you, always seeming to be just next to you. Just above you. Maybe you can make it. Maybe. Something strikes your arm but you pay it little mind, as long as you can just keep crawling. You just keep crawling, as fast as you can while dragging your legs behind you. The sounds are changing. Growing distant. Fuelled with panic, you just keep pushing until your feel the cold mud against your arms. You only stop when you see the light above your head. Slipping in the mud, you finally push the bag off of your wrists and sling it over one shoulder. In exhaustion you collapse onto the ground, gasping for air through your strained throat. The pounding sound of blood in your ears reassures you. You are alive. [[Rest|mudroom2]]

You freeze to the spot, blood rushing through your body. The vibrating gets more violent, shaking through your arms and cheeks. It is when you start hearing crunches and a sickening rattle above that you realise what is about to happen. As you try to turn around and pull yourself out of this spike filled cave, crashes strike the ground around you. Grateful briefly for your cold induced numbness, you drag yourself back down the same path you came in through. Maybe you can make it. Maybe. You reach forward, try to shift your weight onto your arms to pull yourself further away from the chasm, but you find yourself no longer moving forward. Desoriented by the deafening noise around you, you try in desperation to shed the bag off your arms. But even while grabbing the ground with your bare hands, you can not get forward. Are you stuck? Is one of your feet hooked around something? You try to turn. You can't. You reach behind yourself, lying flat on your stomach. Something is there, a rock, just on your thigh. It must have fallen onto you. You try to push it. You can't. When you feel your blood warm and tingling against your fingers, you realise the rock is not on your leg. It is deeply speared inside of it. You try to scream. You can't. Around and above you the caucophany or shattering rocks grows louder. An impact against your back. Then. Nothing. [[Try again?|Begin]]

{(if: $windroomescape is 1 and $waterroomescape is 1) [You lay there, unmoving. Your body is exhausted. You do not believe you can go on. If you sleep now, what will happen to you? You curl up in the mud, eyes closed, just listening to the silence. The dripping stopped. The wind has ceased. The light above you has faded. It is quiet now. Only your heartbeat in your ears. Your eyes flutter shut. In pain, coldness, fatigue, a moment of quiet. You barely realise... The ground is growing warmer.]} {(else:) [You lie in the mud to just recover and slowly feel a tremble passing down from the crown of your head down to your waist. It is not the cold. Your body quakes with adrenaline. But you must go on. You must. If you lay down your head here... you will die. There is another passage in this room, if you remember correctly. {(if: $windroomescape is 1) [The other passage sounds of water.]} {(if: $waterroomescape is 1) [The other passage sounds of wind.]} ]} {(if: $bag is 0)[[Pick up bag|Pick up bag 2]]} {(if: $rope is 0)[[Pick up rope|Pick up rope 2]]} {(if: $windroomescape is 0)[[Follow the wind|windroomhall]]} {(if: $waterroomescape is 0)[[Follow the water|waterroomhall]]} {(if: $windroomescape is 1 and $waterroomescape is 1)[[Wake up|Scent begin]]}

{(set: $rope to 1)} You pick up the rope. It is heavy, tightly braided but waterlogged from the mud. You tie it to your belt with difficulty, as your fingers are numb with cold. {(if: $bag is 0)[[Pick up bag 2]]} [[Explore the room|mudroom2]]

You resist the allure. Something is very wrong here. Hanging on tight, you turn your eyes away and you find yourself pulling more on the rope. Was the pool this far before? Was the rope this long? With a start, you hit your face into a algae covered, slimy rock. You are yet to reach the stalagmite though where you knotted your rope. Did the water level fall? Are you still in the pool or have you left it? You are beached, laying on the wet rocks, coughing and trying to understand. It is hard to move across the slippery stone, you end up pulling on the rope again to glide your heavy body across them. You feel much heavier than before now. Your weight is yours to bear, no longer suported by the water. Where did the water go? A flash of light startles you. For just a moment you can see you are at the bottom of a wide but very shallow natural pool, your rope just a few more feet long, knotted to a rock just ahead of you. It is not that arm's depth you thought it was earlier. A loud roar, a gurgle of water. Something beastial. Something alive. Something that cannot reach you. Or maybe it was just a natural drain that gave way and swallowed up the pool water? You are not keen to find out. Clenching your eyes shut, you pull yourself to relative safety. All the water, gone. Your clothes are gone. They must have been torn away by the stream. Exhausted, you feel your way back to the passage that leads to the muddy cavern you awoke in, collapsing on the sticky ground. [[Rest|mudroom2]] {(set: $waterroomescape to 1)}

You slowly crawl around the slope, very careful not to fall into the deeper pool. The mud that was previously caked to your skin and clothes is being washed off, making it a bit easier to move. Your hands are not as painful anymore, the tingling is a little more bearable. The rock under you feels quite smooth, seemingly having been coated with some algae perhaps. A bit fuzzy. As it moves with the water, if feels quite alive against you. There are large rocks around you, boulders that feel quite solid and a few sizable stalagmites growing from the ground. Running your hands over them, they are quite smooth to the touch, rippling with rings of growth under your finger tips. {(if: $windroomescape is 1)[It does not seem that things crashed down in the earthquake you felt in the other cavern. There are no rock shards on the ground, you do not taste dust in the air...]} {(if: $rope is 1)[[Tie the rope to a stalagmite|waterroom2]]} {(if: $waterroomescape is 1)[[Return|mudroom2]]} {(if: $waterroomescape is 0)[[Return|mudroom]]}

If you tie a rope to a rock and then the other end to your belt, you should be able to safely swim out into the pool. Perhaps there is something there... perhaps the light is filtering through from above? Maybe a way out? You are desperate to try. Holding one end of the rope, you touch the walls, searching for a good rock to tie it to. There is a stalagmite, round and conical, growing up. Thicker than your arm. Perfect. Turning to sit up best you can, you tie the rope around the rock, hoping it will hold. You unravel the rope with your hands, passing it through your fingers and hoping you might feel any faults in it, but there are none. How did it fail you? Presumably it must have, to land you down here in the first place. You are staring up at the light, rather than at the rope that is shrouded in darkness. You reach the other end of the rope and knot it to your hip sturdily. Then you roll the rope back up around your hand and elbow, hoping to keep it from getting tangled as you swim across. Turning back onto your stomach, you crawl through the water up until the ledge. You strip off your clothes, as they are growing water logged and heavy. It is better to be naked in complete darkness where nobody can see you than to drown. Even if it feels quite uneasy. [[Swim straight towards the light|waterroom3]] [[Swim at the edge of the pool, one hand staying on the wall|waterrom4]]

You cannot wait. You feel the dread of death looming over your shoulder with every second you spend in here. Taking a deep breath, you pull yourself into the pool. It is quite difficult to swim without your legs, but at least they are not dragging you as badly in here as on land. The rope in your hands are a bigger hurdle. Desperate, you start to swim. Your free hand shovels the water out of your way as your arm begins to quickly ache from the strain. [[Slow down|waterroom5]] [[Push through the pain|waterroom6]]

Taking a deep breath, you pull yourself into the pool. It is quite difficult to swim without your legs, but at least they are not dragging you as badly in here as on land. The rope in your hands are a bigger hurdle. But it is not too difficult to just pull yourself forward along the rocky wall. Curiously, the wall feels... warm. It is a much rougher rock. Touching it is strangely reassuring. {(if: $windroomescape is 1) [Just like in the windy cavern...]} Your arms are starting to feel quite tired. It is tedious to feed the rope after every stroke forward and your free arm is straining. [[Slow down|waterroom5]] [[Push through the pain|waterroom6]]

It is just a bit too much. You choose to slow down just a little bit, to be just a little kinder with yourself. The light is not about to swim away, after all. As you go slower, you have a moment to feel your body. The water is a little bit warmer. Perhaps that is just because you have been submerged so long now. But it is quite comfortable. As you warm up though, you are starting to be in awful pain. Your hands are throbbing, your back and your neck are pins and needles. You are almost there though. The light is so small... where is it coming from? Is it not falling down from the ceiling of the cave? [[Push through, you are almost there|waterroom7]]

No. No rest. No slowing down. You must keep going. You must. You must. Your arms are burning. But the light is close. So close. So much pain. Splashing in your ears. Pounding heartbeat. The light is so small... where is it coming from? Is it not falling down from the ceiling of the cave? [[Push through, you are almost there|waterroom7]]

The water feels almost pleasant now. You must have warmed yourself up with your vigorous swimming. You are so close now to the light... but how peculiar. It seems to be just under the surface of the water. Much too dim to illuminate even the walls around it. Just a pinhead of light. It looked larger from the other side of the cavern. A tug. You have reached the end of the rope. It goes no further. There is no sign of a way out through this way. Only this strange light. A ripple goes through the water. Or was that your imagination? It happens again, the light seeming to slowly sink under the surface of the water. Your only light. The water ripples yet again. [[Turn around. Now.|waterroom8]] [[Free yourself from the rope|waterroomdeath]]

You grab the rope more tightly and start to pull yourself forward, away from the light. Something is not right. The phantoms of the glow fill the lightless cavern with green dots as your brain believes it sees. Shadows are moving, liquified and spiraling as the water ripples. Then. A roar of water. And your head it pulled under. You are clinging to the rope with all your quickly diminishing might. You are not confident the knot alone can hold you. The water is pulling on you, trying to tear you down. A strong current has begun. Adrenaline gives you a rush to hold your breath and not let go. You find the strength to fight the current. The water surface breaks as you crane your neck, gasping for air, just to be pulled back under. If only you could use your legs for help, but they are merely uselessly dangling behind. You dare to look back. The light. It is so far down. Far down below. [[Give in to the light|waterroomdeath]] [[Get out of the water by any means|waterroomescape]]

You must follow the light, you just must! Struggling to keep yourself afloat, you tug at the knot on your hip with just one hand, your other paddling against the growing ripples. Small waves, reaching up to your face, growing colder and fueling your panic. The rope slips from your hand. You find yourself being dragged closer to the light. An arm's length away. Your fingers are almost touching it. It dives down. You dive down. The icy water closing above your head. The water feels as if it has come alive, tugging at you and pulling you towards your goal as it swims further away from you. Almost as if you are both being torn deeper into the pool. You have lost your orientation. Where is up, where is down? Where is left, where right? There is just the light. The current grabs at you, throwing you against sharp rocks that slice up your skin. Or are they rocks? It all is happening too fast for you to touch and sense your surroundings, you are being swallowed up into the depths. The light spinning before you. The light flickering. The light going out. You are in complete darkness once again, straining for air, grasping for a rope that must be far out of reach. A flash of light. A black hole beneath you, sucking in the water and all that is in it. Spikes of rocks reaching up towards you, surrounding it like the teeth of a monster. Or is it alive? A sickening roar of the stream. A thud into your stomach. Then. Nothing. [[Try again?|Begin]]

You open your eyes. It is easier this time. But you again are subject to darkness. You no longer feel cold. But why? A strange scent fills your nose before you can ponder too long on wether hypothermia is taking its claim on you. It smells warm. Inviting. The scent of firewood. But where is it coming from? (The v. 1.1 game ends here) [[Try again?|Begin]]

{(set: $mudroom to 0)} {(set: $windroomhall to 0)} {(set: $waterroomhall to 0)} {(set: $windroom to 0)} {(set: $waterroom to 0)} {(set: $windroomescape to 9)} Darkness surrounds you. You can hear nothing, see nothing, feel nothing. Your legs are heavy as lead. Slowly sensation returns. It is cold, wet. A dripping sound near your right ear pierces the silence. [[Try to move|Struggle1]] [[Try to blink|Blink1]] [[Try to scream|Scream1]]