Gravestone

Image

Encounter Conditions

None

Initial Text

It's not terribly shocking to find a drawing of a gravestone in this sketchbook. There's something compelling about it, though, that it's hard to put your finger on.

Maybe it's the way it seems to have grown out of the same black stone that forms the cavern walls. The idea of a naturally-formed tombstone is certainly curious.

The gravestone has a curious blank spot where a name should be. Perhaps the artist was waiting to add it at a later date.

The last line is replaced by this if you choose to scratch a name

The gravestone still shows the name you scrawled on it earlier.

or with this if you choose to write in a ghoul name

The gravestone has a strange bit of text scribed onto it in the native tongue of these lands. It's strange… you remember writing it, but it looks as though it was added as part of the original piece.

Summary of Choices

1. Scratch in a name - Closes if a ghoul name was scratched in. Unlocks the ability to Rub Out The Name
2. Rub out the name - Unlocks the ability to Scratch In a Name and Write In a Ghoul Name
3. Write in a ghoul name - Closes if a name was scratched in. Unlocks the ability to Rub Out The Name
4. Dig up the grave - Lose all HP or gain a battered pistol/jade amulet
5. Pay your respects - Gain 3 XP in Will or gain a rose bud

Choice Text and Results

Scratch in a name

It takes a little searching, but you eventually find a pen and write in the first name that comes to mind. The tombstone looks a bit better completed, even though anyone could tell it's not part of the original art.

Unlocks the option to Rub Out The Name

This also uncovers the gravestone in the Grave Reflection encounter

Rub out a name

Your hastily-written name vanishes with a swipe of your finger. You've actually seen ads recently for paper including polysteel fibers that would let you do that, so there might even be a legitimate explanation.

(or, rubbing out the ghoul name?)

You find the pen again and scratch at the strange characters you etched on the page. Just as easily as they went down, they vanish again.

Maybe the pen didn't really have anything to do with it at all.

This also covers the gravestone in the Grave Reflection encounter with snow

Write in a ghoul name

It takes a little searching, but you eventually find a pen and write in the first name that comes to mind. The characters are faintly similar to letters you're familiar with, but carry meanings beyond their pronunciation.

Strangely, when you look back down over the sketch, your addition looks like it's always been there. Perhaps the pen was broken and you didn't make a mark at all.

This also changes the writing on the gravestone in the Grave Reflection encounter

Dig up the grave

You flip through the book, searching for a picture of the hero opening up the grave. Each flipping page is marked with a strangely wet sound.

Eventually, you wake up face-down on the tome. You just felt tired for a moment, but the scoops of flesh and bone taken from your back tell a different story.

Lose all HP.

(or if you chose to Scratch In a Name (NOT a ghoul name!) and then Pay Your Respects, and haven't rubbed out the name since doing so)

You flip through the book, finding a sketch of the hero standing knee-deep in the opened grave. From there, he pulls an ancient pistol.

More than anything else you've seen in these pages, the gun is incredibly detailed. It's ornate and intricate, but also perfectly shows years of being buried in the soil.

The layers of detail are touching. A fleeting thought, one that doesn't even really seem to be your own, suggests that most people will never be seen with the detail of that imaginary weapon.

(Adds a battered gun to the list of items in your quest log)

(Or, if you have written in a ghoul name, not chosen to Pay Your Respects, have a dark rose, and haven't already got an amulet in the hero's inventory? Needs plenty of testing.)

You find an interesting illustration of the hero digging up the grave to find a strange amulet. You can't get a good look at it from the sketch, but it looks a little like a sphinx.

Most of the effort in the image actually seems to be spent portraying a faint winged shadow framed by distant flames.

(Adds a jade amulet to the list of items in your quest log)

Pay your respects

You find a page where the hero pays his respects at the nameless grave. It's calming, in the way that grief for the dead comforts the living.

You've earned 3 XP in Will

(or if you chose to Scratch In a Name)

You find a page where the hero pays his respects at the grave. It seems different somehow, like the hero shares your grief… like you have grief for the name you made up to scratch on the page.

Perhaps there's something to it, a hook into the unremembered past that might still exist out there somewhere. Even if that's the case, you can't imagine that explains how the name appears on this page when you drew it on a completely different one.

(or if you choosed to Write In a Ghoul Name)

You quickly find a picture of the hero kneeling in front of the gravestone, his head tilted back and arms outstretched as though he's baying madly. A strange tangle of roses reaches around the stone and the hero, binding them together.

Although the roses might be black because it's the only color of ink the artist uses, you have a feeling they're actually intended to be that dark. The next page shows the hero wandering off with one of the roses still wrapped around his arm, bleeding where the thorns bite through his coat.

(Adds a rose bud to the list of items in your quest log)

Notes

The image of the gravestone shows the Latin inscription "Eram quod es eris quod sum," meaning "I was what you are, you will be what I am."