Night Trap Gaiden - 1 - NNWM2k21
Nov. 1st, 2021 05:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
atma posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
heroicrecordsNOTE: Anything with a > before it is generated by GPT2/3 or a tool like Inferkit or AIDungeon and edited by me.
2609/50000
~ * ~ * ~
A mysterious listing had cropped up over on the Japanese auction sites seemingly overnight. Cryptic wording covered the object up for bid, being sold for a measly equivalent of a quarter in yen, with a warning that its contents were extremely cursed. An old, unreleased venture by who claimed to be ex-employees of the old Japanese game companies Elf and ZYX, proclaiming what lay inside was unlike any of their other series, and would lead to producing one of the most cursed and reviled games of all time far later on in history. It was a gamble, and would require whomever bought it to know how to dump and play PC98 games, but the description was too tempting, too strange, too unusual to pass up.
Atma was more surprised than anyone that she got it, and that she was also the only bidder.
A message from the person who sold it to her came by, saying that he would only sell it if she promised to only share it with a handful of people, not wanting to release its deadly secret too much into the wild, and that any roms she dumped of it would only be shared among enough people to verify it had existed, and for now at least, not widely distribute it. The chance to be a part of a weird history like this was too great to pass up, and she agreed almost immediately, paying the extra for expedited shipping to America. The people selling it didn’t care who got it, they just wanted to pass on the game to anyone brave enough to handle such strange contents.
Was it really cursed? Who knows. Atma most certainly didn’t know. She had been involved with friends who had been translating and preserving games like this for about half her life, and figured it’d give them a chance to work on something really special. A few weeks after sale and communication happened, the discs were in Atma’s hands, and being handed off to trusted parties to dump it and make backups, shipping the discs back to her so she could store them as had agreed. It wasn’t much longer after that that they had images of what appeared to be a whole seven game RPG series.
What was most curious about it was the internal files and names for it were indeed almost identical to a game everyone loved to hate and hated to love that came out much later after this game’s supposed copyright date of the early 1980s. Night Trap? Surely it was coincidence and nothing more that it shared the same fateful name as another somewhat failed project, albeit an American one. There was most likely nothing serendipitous about it, right? There was only one way to find out and that was to put the game on display for a select audience of people who would swear the contents secret, outside of confirming it existed, and a brief summary of characters and events. Very few screenshots would be allowed to be released beyond that.
The streaming event took place over the course of a month. Seven PC98 games is a lot to document, especially with how finicky the emulation for it is. Making sure it all booted cleanly, didn’t speed up, and stayed stable was half the challenge. The other half was putting up with the era’s notorious game grinding, more so than a lot of games that would come out on consoles after it. There had to be care when speeding the game up, so it wouldn’t render itself stuck, and with due diligence, the game was locked in and preserved. The people who sold Atma the game were glad she had upheld her end of the bargain, thanked her for lifting the curse off of them, and seemingly vanished, as if they had never existed. The scene was abuzz now with the mystery of the series that came to be known as Night Trap Gaiden. No, nobody was quite sure how a Gaiden existed before the main series, but that is how it went. Especially on the PC98, everything there was fucking strange. That seemed to be the system’s whole purpose was to give bored twentysomethings of the era something to code freely for. Yeah, we got Hideo Kojima out of it, but at what cost?
Eventually, Atma chalked the whole thing up to a mix of misadventure and destiny, although a lot more of the former than the latter, and promptly sealed the files away.
There they lay for a long time, dormant, waiting for the day they could be unsealed and shared at large.
- ~ - ~ - ~ -
It was a fine, sunny, lazy weekend over in Ul’dah. Granted, it was almost always sunny there, but it felt particularly cozy that one fateful Saturday. Bahl Redwood was sitting under a lamp near the main aetheryte and was playing on her guitar, just wiling away some hours during a low point of activity, when the streets were the most quiet. Ladies might toss her a coin if she’s lucky. It was positive attention though, at least for the most part, and she enjoyed doing it, even if it didn’t sound like she was carrying a genuine tune most of the time, her heart was in it and that was all that mattered to a majority of people stopping by to cheer her on. If nothing else she knew how to put on a good show.
Time passed and the sun gave way to the moon, with a small nap here, and then back around to the sun again. She had finished busking for the day and was now hankering for attention of a different kind. The groupies were great and all, but an urge to stunt tank was overcoming her soul, and she looked around the mercenary party boards and threw herself at a new group attempting to fight Diamond Weapon, only the much harder version of it. You know, the version of events she tells to others to impress them. Or intimidate them. Depends on the person.
“You know what they say about pick up groups, Redwood.” Alisaie joked. “You’ll be picking that group up from the ground in no time!”
“Yeah but I’m the tank.” Redwood responded. “Do I look like I want to learn the version of this where I have to actually keep people standing up? That’s a lot of stress and I can only stretch my ego so far.”
“You know what I mean, auntie. Don’t be dense.”
“What if I want to be?”
The two went back and forth like this a while to kill time, much to the annoyance of other adventurers and their friends around them. At least they got a good laugh out of it.
It took a while, but eventually the rest of the group filled in, and most of them were new, which meant Redwood had signed herself up for a lot of being knocked around. She was fine with that, after all, that was her job, and she did it well. Besides, girls might show up and look at her doing it. What if they were girls who were also Viera? That’s basically like winning the lottery.
The party greeted each other and Redwood helped explain how this fight worked to others, laying out maps and giving strategies dumb names, as she never committed what was considered the formalized names of them for other adventurers to any kind of memory. They could figure out from context what she was talking about. Eventually. Maybe. She was generally a good teacher, but that would require people were trying and paying attention.
You know, that is before the group’s inevitable and messy first wipe. The really sudden, violent kind of wipe that just dominoes off of someone else entirely, and within seconds the whole group is down. And down Redwood went off the Cloud Deck, and before she could realize what had happened and could reset the map, she was out cold. This wasn’t how it went. Once you wipe, you wipe and reset.
And down she went, plummeting, until a hard thud struck her unconscious body.
When she came to, she had no idea where she was. A forest outstretched from her for miles. Was this the outer border of Werlyt? It’s not like she ever landed on that part of it, so if it was, it was new to her. Her eyes slowly came to focus and she rubbed her head. How she survived that with only a bump was beyond her guess. She’s had dumb luck plenty before and it’s not like she expected it to run out now. But this was not the time to be lost, so she picked up her axe, hefted it over her shoulder, and began to walk away as if nothing unusual had happened.
All had turned to black, and all had given way to light again.
And it would be a long, long way home.
- ~ - ~ - ~ -
Your name is Redwood, you are a tall, dark warrior woman from Eorzea. You wield a massive battleaxe, and you were last seen fighting an enemy of great renown far above the sky. You took a nasty bump, and fell to the earth below. You have woke up in a forest, in an area unfamiliar to you. After taking a bit to gather yourself, you have picked your axe up and began walking towards any sign of civilization in order to regroup. The area is dotted with coastal cliffs and the smell of the ocean tingles your nose. There’s something unfamiliar about this area, and you proceed with more cautious than you usually show.
> Suddenly, you come upon a bridge spanning a massive canyon, with a waterfall of massive proportions tumbling down the side. The bridge's cuddy is made of large stone blocks, held up by wooden beams and cables. This is certainly something you didn't expect to find. A sign hanging from one of the cables reads: "Balcony House Inn". As you approach the bridge, you can see a row of rooms on the other side, with a staircase that leads up to a small balcony with a railing.
You follow the stairs up to the balcony, keeping an eye on the horizon.
> You look around carefully. You saw a dark silhouette of something monstrous and glorious against the sky, but it has disappeared. You can't see anything remotely similar on the horizon, which is a relief. The sun is nearly at its zenith, and you don't want to be caught out. The sky around you is clear, and the sun is warming your skin.
You look around for the Balcony House Inn.
> From where you stand, you can see a long, stone staircase leading up through the cliffs. The stairs are narrow and winding, like a cobblestone alley in a city street. You see a small sign hanging from a beam above the stairs. The sign reads "Balcony House Inn".
But something is not right. You can see that the wood of the beams and the stones of the steps are scorched and blackened. The sign looks as if a fire had scorched it.
You draw your axe and look around for any survivors.
> You begin to hear something breathing heavily. The noise is coming from behind you, and it is drawing closer. You spin around and see a figure coming down the stairs. This is not a man. It is a woman, and she is frightened.
You say “Excuse me, miss? Are you okay?”
> "What?" asks the woman, "What do you want?" You can see that she is a young, rather scrawny woman.
You say "My name is Redwood, and you look to be in a spot of trouble. What happened to the Inn? It appears entirely burned."
> "He-he came. I tried to stop him. He was so strange, so quiet. I ran to the balcony and shouted at him. He just stood there, staring at me. Then, he... he…"
You say "Was this man you're describing some kind of villain? Sounds like one to me. Mayhap I will chase him down and teach him to hurt women before I find my way home."
> "No! No! He was quiet! I mean, he seemed quiet. He was staring at me and, and... and..."
"And what?"
"And he was... he was a... a monster!" she cries.
You say “Ah, was that what I saw flying away in the sky?”
> "Y-yes! Yes, that was it! He was a monster! He's dangerous. He's probably still out there!"
"Then we shall have to find him before he finds us, won't we?"
You offer her your hand. "By the way, before I go hunting this monster down, can you tell me which way it is to Werlyt?"
> "N-No! I can't! I can't! There is no such place as Werlyt! That name has never existed out here in the land of Varon!"
"What? Of course it has! My friends live in Werlyt!"
"No! No! Never! The name doesn't exist! I can't tell you which way to go!"
You look at her, stunned.
You say "Varon doesn't exist where I'm from. Oh no, don't tell me…"
> Just then, the girl begins to hyperventilate.
"It... it was... a dream!" she cries. "You must have dreamed of Werlyt! This is the Kingdom of Varon, Redwood."
You say "It's happening again. I'm in another world entirely. By the gods."
> "But the Inn! The Inn was on the other side of the river! You must have seen the place before!"
"I didn't! There is no such place!"
"But…"
You say "Miss, I'll hunt this monster down, but after this I must find a way home. Tell me, what is your name?"
> "S-S-Sorry, I can't tell you! I'm afraid! I'm afraid of him! The men of Varon rule this world, and have summoned the magic of the dark gods to invoke the Night Trap spell on this world! Us women cannot think to compete!"
"Night Trap? Is that some sort of cruel cage in which to trap someone? What is the Night Trap?"
"A paradise for men and a hell for all others. You're living in it now, Redwood!"
You look around the area. You aren't in a paradise. You're in the mountains, in a strange land surrounded by cliffs, with a river to your back and no way to cross it. Welcome to your new hell, Redwood.
You rub your head. “This is going to be a long day, isn’t it?”
> "Yes, I suppose it is. Well, off we go, then. The beast shall be driven back into the night, and the sun's light shall burn it to ash. I believe in you, Redwood!"
You sigh and pull up your game menu, saving the game, and looking at your character stats.
> You have chosen the female warrior class. You have an axe hefted across your shoulders and high stats in charisma, cooking, and lesbianism. You like to think you're a good cook, and you hope the girl survived because you have an extra rations pack for her. You are, by far, the strongest female fighter in the game. You have saved the game. Good luck, Redwood. May your journey in Varon succeed! You are now standing on the balcony of the stone inn, overlooking a narrow gorge. The sun is high in the sky, reflecting off the surface of the gorge. This is where your journey begins. Welcome to Night Trap: Daybreak.
2609/50000
~ * ~ * ~
A mysterious listing had cropped up over on the Japanese auction sites seemingly overnight. Cryptic wording covered the object up for bid, being sold for a measly equivalent of a quarter in yen, with a warning that its contents were extremely cursed. An old, unreleased venture by who claimed to be ex-employees of the old Japanese game companies Elf and ZYX, proclaiming what lay inside was unlike any of their other series, and would lead to producing one of the most cursed and reviled games of all time far later on in history. It was a gamble, and would require whomever bought it to know how to dump and play PC98 games, but the description was too tempting, too strange, too unusual to pass up.
Atma was more surprised than anyone that she got it, and that she was also the only bidder.
A message from the person who sold it to her came by, saying that he would only sell it if she promised to only share it with a handful of people, not wanting to release its deadly secret too much into the wild, and that any roms she dumped of it would only be shared among enough people to verify it had existed, and for now at least, not widely distribute it. The chance to be a part of a weird history like this was too great to pass up, and she agreed almost immediately, paying the extra for expedited shipping to America. The people selling it didn’t care who got it, they just wanted to pass on the game to anyone brave enough to handle such strange contents.
Was it really cursed? Who knows. Atma most certainly didn’t know. She had been involved with friends who had been translating and preserving games like this for about half her life, and figured it’d give them a chance to work on something really special. A few weeks after sale and communication happened, the discs were in Atma’s hands, and being handed off to trusted parties to dump it and make backups, shipping the discs back to her so she could store them as had agreed. It wasn’t much longer after that that they had images of what appeared to be a whole seven game RPG series.
What was most curious about it was the internal files and names for it were indeed almost identical to a game everyone loved to hate and hated to love that came out much later after this game’s supposed copyright date of the early 1980s. Night Trap? Surely it was coincidence and nothing more that it shared the same fateful name as another somewhat failed project, albeit an American one. There was most likely nothing serendipitous about it, right? There was only one way to find out and that was to put the game on display for a select audience of people who would swear the contents secret, outside of confirming it existed, and a brief summary of characters and events. Very few screenshots would be allowed to be released beyond that.
The streaming event took place over the course of a month. Seven PC98 games is a lot to document, especially with how finicky the emulation for it is. Making sure it all booted cleanly, didn’t speed up, and stayed stable was half the challenge. The other half was putting up with the era’s notorious game grinding, more so than a lot of games that would come out on consoles after it. There had to be care when speeding the game up, so it wouldn’t render itself stuck, and with due diligence, the game was locked in and preserved. The people who sold Atma the game were glad she had upheld her end of the bargain, thanked her for lifting the curse off of them, and seemingly vanished, as if they had never existed. The scene was abuzz now with the mystery of the series that came to be known as Night Trap Gaiden. No, nobody was quite sure how a Gaiden existed before the main series, but that is how it went. Especially on the PC98, everything there was fucking strange. That seemed to be the system’s whole purpose was to give bored twentysomethings of the era something to code freely for. Yeah, we got Hideo Kojima out of it, but at what cost?
Eventually, Atma chalked the whole thing up to a mix of misadventure and destiny, although a lot more of the former than the latter, and promptly sealed the files away.
There they lay for a long time, dormant, waiting for the day they could be unsealed and shared at large.
- ~ - ~ - ~ -
It was a fine, sunny, lazy weekend over in Ul’dah. Granted, it was almost always sunny there, but it felt particularly cozy that one fateful Saturday. Bahl Redwood was sitting under a lamp near the main aetheryte and was playing on her guitar, just wiling away some hours during a low point of activity, when the streets were the most quiet. Ladies might toss her a coin if she’s lucky. It was positive attention though, at least for the most part, and she enjoyed doing it, even if it didn’t sound like she was carrying a genuine tune most of the time, her heart was in it and that was all that mattered to a majority of people stopping by to cheer her on. If nothing else she knew how to put on a good show.
Time passed and the sun gave way to the moon, with a small nap here, and then back around to the sun again. She had finished busking for the day and was now hankering for attention of a different kind. The groupies were great and all, but an urge to stunt tank was overcoming her soul, and she looked around the mercenary party boards and threw herself at a new group attempting to fight Diamond Weapon, only the much harder version of it. You know, the version of events she tells to others to impress them. Or intimidate them. Depends on the person.
“You know what they say about pick up groups, Redwood.” Alisaie joked. “You’ll be picking that group up from the ground in no time!”
“Yeah but I’m the tank.” Redwood responded. “Do I look like I want to learn the version of this where I have to actually keep people standing up? That’s a lot of stress and I can only stretch my ego so far.”
“You know what I mean, auntie. Don’t be dense.”
“What if I want to be?”
The two went back and forth like this a while to kill time, much to the annoyance of other adventurers and their friends around them. At least they got a good laugh out of it.
It took a while, but eventually the rest of the group filled in, and most of them were new, which meant Redwood had signed herself up for a lot of being knocked around. She was fine with that, after all, that was her job, and she did it well. Besides, girls might show up and look at her doing it. What if they were girls who were also Viera? That’s basically like winning the lottery.
The party greeted each other and Redwood helped explain how this fight worked to others, laying out maps and giving strategies dumb names, as she never committed what was considered the formalized names of them for other adventurers to any kind of memory. They could figure out from context what she was talking about. Eventually. Maybe. She was generally a good teacher, but that would require people were trying and paying attention.
You know, that is before the group’s inevitable and messy first wipe. The really sudden, violent kind of wipe that just dominoes off of someone else entirely, and within seconds the whole group is down. And down Redwood went off the Cloud Deck, and before she could realize what had happened and could reset the map, she was out cold. This wasn’t how it went. Once you wipe, you wipe and reset.
And down she went, plummeting, until a hard thud struck her unconscious body.
When she came to, she had no idea where she was. A forest outstretched from her for miles. Was this the outer border of Werlyt? It’s not like she ever landed on that part of it, so if it was, it was new to her. Her eyes slowly came to focus and she rubbed her head. How she survived that with only a bump was beyond her guess. She’s had dumb luck plenty before and it’s not like she expected it to run out now. But this was not the time to be lost, so she picked up her axe, hefted it over her shoulder, and began to walk away as if nothing unusual had happened.
All had turned to black, and all had given way to light again.
And it would be a long, long way home.
- ~ - ~ - ~ -
Your name is Redwood, you are a tall, dark warrior woman from Eorzea. You wield a massive battleaxe, and you were last seen fighting an enemy of great renown far above the sky. You took a nasty bump, and fell to the earth below. You have woke up in a forest, in an area unfamiliar to you. After taking a bit to gather yourself, you have picked your axe up and began walking towards any sign of civilization in order to regroup. The area is dotted with coastal cliffs and the smell of the ocean tingles your nose. There’s something unfamiliar about this area, and you proceed with more cautious than you usually show.
> Suddenly, you come upon a bridge spanning a massive canyon, with a waterfall of massive proportions tumbling down the side. The bridge's cuddy is made of large stone blocks, held up by wooden beams and cables. This is certainly something you didn't expect to find. A sign hanging from one of the cables reads: "Balcony House Inn". As you approach the bridge, you can see a row of rooms on the other side, with a staircase that leads up to a small balcony with a railing.
You follow the stairs up to the balcony, keeping an eye on the horizon.
> You look around carefully. You saw a dark silhouette of something monstrous and glorious against the sky, but it has disappeared. You can't see anything remotely similar on the horizon, which is a relief. The sun is nearly at its zenith, and you don't want to be caught out. The sky around you is clear, and the sun is warming your skin.
You look around for the Balcony House Inn.
> From where you stand, you can see a long, stone staircase leading up through the cliffs. The stairs are narrow and winding, like a cobblestone alley in a city street. You see a small sign hanging from a beam above the stairs. The sign reads "Balcony House Inn".
But something is not right. You can see that the wood of the beams and the stones of the steps are scorched and blackened. The sign looks as if a fire had scorched it.
You draw your axe and look around for any survivors.
> You begin to hear something breathing heavily. The noise is coming from behind you, and it is drawing closer. You spin around and see a figure coming down the stairs. This is not a man. It is a woman, and she is frightened.
You say “Excuse me, miss? Are you okay?”
> "What?" asks the woman, "What do you want?" You can see that she is a young, rather scrawny woman.
You say "My name is Redwood, and you look to be in a spot of trouble. What happened to the Inn? It appears entirely burned."
> "He-he came. I tried to stop him. He was so strange, so quiet. I ran to the balcony and shouted at him. He just stood there, staring at me. Then, he... he…"
You say "Was this man you're describing some kind of villain? Sounds like one to me. Mayhap I will chase him down and teach him to hurt women before I find my way home."
> "No! No! He was quiet! I mean, he seemed quiet. He was staring at me and, and... and..."
"And what?"
"And he was... he was a... a monster!" she cries.
You say “Ah, was that what I saw flying away in the sky?”
> "Y-yes! Yes, that was it! He was a monster! He's dangerous. He's probably still out there!"
"Then we shall have to find him before he finds us, won't we?"
You offer her your hand. "By the way, before I go hunting this monster down, can you tell me which way it is to Werlyt?"
> "N-No! I can't! I can't! There is no such place as Werlyt! That name has never existed out here in the land of Varon!"
"What? Of course it has! My friends live in Werlyt!"
"No! No! Never! The name doesn't exist! I can't tell you which way to go!"
You look at her, stunned.
You say "Varon doesn't exist where I'm from. Oh no, don't tell me…"
> Just then, the girl begins to hyperventilate.
"It... it was... a dream!" she cries. "You must have dreamed of Werlyt! This is the Kingdom of Varon, Redwood."
You say "It's happening again. I'm in another world entirely. By the gods."
> "But the Inn! The Inn was on the other side of the river! You must have seen the place before!"
"I didn't! There is no such place!"
"But…"
You say "Miss, I'll hunt this monster down, but after this I must find a way home. Tell me, what is your name?"
> "S-S-Sorry, I can't tell you! I'm afraid! I'm afraid of him! The men of Varon rule this world, and have summoned the magic of the dark gods to invoke the Night Trap spell on this world! Us women cannot think to compete!"
"Night Trap? Is that some sort of cruel cage in which to trap someone? What is the Night Trap?"
"A paradise for men and a hell for all others. You're living in it now, Redwood!"
You look around the area. You aren't in a paradise. You're in the mountains, in a strange land surrounded by cliffs, with a river to your back and no way to cross it. Welcome to your new hell, Redwood.
You rub your head. “This is going to be a long day, isn’t it?”
> "Yes, I suppose it is. Well, off we go, then. The beast shall be driven back into the night, and the sun's light shall burn it to ash. I believe in you, Redwood!"
You sigh and pull up your game menu, saving the game, and looking at your character stats.
> You have chosen the female warrior class. You have an axe hefted across your shoulders and high stats in charisma, cooking, and lesbianism. You like to think you're a good cook, and you hope the girl survived because you have an extra rations pack for her. You are, by far, the strongest female fighter in the game. You have saved the game. Good luck, Redwood. May your journey in Varon succeed! You are now standing on the balcony of the stone inn, overlooking a narrow gorge. The sun is high in the sky, reflecting off the surface of the gorge. This is where your journey begins. Welcome to Night Trap: Daybreak.