You find yourself in E1M1

[Shadowswift]

>wander around aimlessly, as you have no idea what to do next

> look for the mainframe

You start pacing back and forth, contemplating what to do and where to go. The mainframe! Let's go find that thing. You head back down to the main atrium and look around. Above water, you can't find anything. The waste is too thick and merky...you can't see much of anything below water. You turn the radar on on your console and see what you can find. You zoom in and find a small, square protrusion on the wall behind you approximately 4 feet below you. You head toward it. You see a dim red light on the wall. You swim over and press the button. You hear the sound of rushing water. You realize that the large drain below you has opened and is now draining the main atrium. Oh shit! You hook to the wall before you get sucked in. As the water vanishes, you notice the submerged passageway is no longer submerged. You should be able to pass through it now without drowning. You head that way and have a look around. There's a catwalk here over a huge pool of water. It follows a wall for about 16 feet, then turns to the right. The water is polluted, but is clear enough to see through. It looks deep...really deep. You doubt you'd be able to reach the bottom on a single breath. You check the radar. It can't find the bottom...meaning that this pool is more than one hundred feet deep. Scary...you wonder what's down there. If you can get your hands on a biosuit, you'll have to check it out. Your console buzzes. The radar has picked up 4 units around the corner. You ready for battle. You've been waiting for this...you can hardly wait to try this Thunderbolt. You tell your followers to hold back. You've got this one. You charge around the corner and aim your rifle. Four pissed-off Shadow Shamblers greet you with shadow plasma bolts. They rip through your armor and pierce your soul. Fuck!

You lose 16 health and 10 armor

You counter with your own lightning. It shreds the enemies with incredible efficiency, leveling all four of them with ease. You haven't seen Shadows get owned this bad since Ray opened up with his plasma rifle for the first time. You love this gun. You decide to name it Shaft, because it's one bad motha-
"Silence! More enemies approach!!" Radar shows more Shadows behind you. Hrm...there are quite a few. You could wipe them out with the Thunderbolt, but cells aren't exactly easy to come by. Should you evade your pursuers, or stand and face them?

>

[ImperiusDamian]

> try to avoid, but face them if you have to

[Shadowswift]

> try to avoid, but face them if you have to

You and your followers rush around the corner. Your pursuers emerge from the passageway behind you. You continue to follow the catwalk quietly. There's a door ahead...not an electronic automatic one, but a regular door with a knob. You head over to it, quickly but quietly. You try to open it, but it doesn't open. It's locked...annoying. You don't have much time. Your enemies will be upon you soon. If you try to break the door down, they will hear you. Shit! What are we gonna do??

>

[metchsteekle]

>try the key

[foq]

>You're Phoenix motherfucking Stockton, can't you handle a simple lock?

[Shadowswift]

>You're Phoenix motherfucking Stockton, can't you handle a simple lock?

Well, if you had a bit more time, you could get this thing open easily...and if stealth weren't an issue, you could just bust the thing down.

>try the key

You take the small sliver of brass out of your pocket and slip it into the lock. It fits perfectly, and the lock yields to your passage. You quietly shut the door behind you and your followers. You eyeball your radar. The blips round the corner, idle for a bit, then go back in the opposite direction. You're in the clear for now. You have a look around. This looks like the purifier room. There's a large 8-tank processing unit. It's pretty loud, so the Shadows likely won't hear you or notice you in here. There's a skeleton on the floor. It's wearing grunt fatigues and holding a shotgun. You search the skeleton...

You find the Gold Keycard!

You also find his dogtags that identify this corpse as Keith Long. You leave the tags as they are. You search around and find a chest in one of the corners. It has a gold keycard symbol on it. You slide the keycard across it and it pops open. Inside is a bounty of goodies!

You got the Plasma Pistol!
You got the Fireman's Axe!
You find some Pristine Warrior Armor, 50 cells, 10 30-06 rounds, 2 D cell batteries, 5 stimpaks, a medikit, and a Biosuit.

The Pistol fires the same blue bolts of pain that Ray's rifle fires. It contains a self-charging cell, so it never runs out of ammo. It has a low rate of fire, and, being a pistol, will allow you to weild another one-handed weapon in your other hand. Take this axe, for instance...

This is a much-needed, much beefier upgrade from your hand-axe. The handle is tempered titanium, while the head is heavy industrial-grade steel. It is heavy enough to cause serious damage when used with both hands, yet light enough to be wielded in one hand. You'll definitely need this if you plan to go up against The Captain and his scythe.

The 30-06 rounds, you're not just dead sure what to do with them, but you hang on to them anyway, same with the D cells. They don't fit in your weapons, but you might need them later down the road...if they're even charged.

>

[foq]

What am I even doing here anyway? I can't remember shit.

>Do, uhh... stuff. Mainframe?

[Shadowswift]

>Do, uhh... stuff.

You scratch your chin.

Mainframe?

Well, you're still not quite sure where the thing is. You have a hypothesis that it is almost certainly NOT anywhere you've been already. So it can only be in one other place: anywhere else. You have a copy of the base's Gold Keycard, and you think you remember a Gold Door somewhere around here. There's likely Shadows around there, but you're not worried about them...much. This base doesn't seem to hold much appeal to the Shadows for whatever reason. You're not exactly surprised...it's a giant sewage treatment plant. Why the hell is the military even occupying this toilet as a base? Couldn't they have thought of something a little less...well, gross? You'll never figure that one out. Oh well. You backtrack until you find yourself back at the main atrium. The place looks a lot bigger now that the sewage has been drained. You grapple over to the northern passage, the one that leads to the Gold Door. You head through the door and look around. Off to the left is a wall. The passageway leads off to the right, then turns right again and up a ramp. The wall left of the ramp is open like a window. There are low-hanging florescents above the ramp. One of them is dimly-lit. The passageway leads off to the right. After that, you're not sure. At the top of the ramp, before it leads off, is a large rectangular barrel with biohazzard signs all over it. Next to it is a smaller, square barrel, also with biohazzard symbols on it. You're fairly certain those things will create a rather large explosion if upset in the right way. You make note of them.

>

[metchsteekle]

>check radar for enemies, if there is none peek out window

[Shadowswift]

>check radar for enemies, if there is none peek out window

No hostiles in range.

You walk over to the ramp. The moment you set foot on it, the wall behind you drops. There's an empty box of nails and an empty box of shells here. Weird. You proceed over to the opening in the wall. You can't quite reach it to climb up, so you grapple up to it. The opening reveals a small hallway inside the wall. It doesn't lead anywhere...there is, however, a nice little surprise up here for you.

You find the uad Damage!

Score. This will help. You just have to find the right time to use it and not piss it away. You stuff it into your satchel before your body has the chance to absorb the power from the icon.

>
"Wait. I've been meaning to ask you, Lord." Your ears perk up to your companion's call before you can decide to make your next move. "We know what we must do at the moment, do we not?" Stop the Shadows. Stop The Captain. "Yes...but exactly how do you plan to do that? We can obliterate every Shadow in this dimension...but what will that solve? There is still an entire dimension of them waiting for the right opportunity to strike again. The Nether, as you know, is not impenetrable. All it takes is the right spell, magic device, or technological invention to open portals between dimensions. To truly stop the Shadows and end their threat to both our worlds, we would need to go to the source and destroy the root." In order to do this, you would have to open a portal to their realm and wipe them out. "Precisely." You think on that for a moment. There are a lot of X factors involved. Exactly how will you get to their realm? Chthon destroyed the only portal. You can't program a slipgate to go there, there isn't anything on the other side for your slipgates to connect with; and even if you can stop The Captain and either turn him or take his scythe, you've never been to the Shadow Realm. You have no idea where it even is. The Reaper's Scythe can't take you to places you've never been or don't know how to get to. "There is only one way I can think of to create a portal to unknown destinations: Runic magic." Well, that's great. Chthon has the runes. You seriously doubt he'll give them up, and The Captain destroyed his failsafe device; the only means of defeating him. "Despair not, my master. There are more runes than just the ones Chthon has. Just as those runes represented the four greater magics of power, there are four lesser magics of creation also represented by runes." Magics of creation...elementals. "Exactly. Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water. The four runes of creation work very similarly to the four runes of power. They will surely be able to punch a hole in the dimensional fabric hard enough to create a wormhole to the Shadow Realm. There is only one stipulation. The runes will need an attinuator." A what? "A focus. You will need something of Shadow origen to point the wormhole in the right direction." Ray never needed anything like that when he used the runes... "When Ray used the runes, he was creating a portal from one area of Quake to another area of Quake. Shub-Niggurath's Pit is within the dimensional boundries of Quake. The runes didn't need a focus to create a portal to the dimension they were already in." Great. So, where are these runes? "If I was a betting man, I would put my currency on them being in the Shadows' posession already. They have been one step ahead of us all along. More than likely, if they have them, they are being kept safe by a high-ranking Shadow. Also, more than likely, they have already attempted, if not succeeded in, creating a new portal to their own realm. The fact that there are not many Shadows here opposing us leads me to believe that they are gathering somewhere to create this portal. If this truly is the case, then we must hurry. Time is now against us." When has time NOT been against you? This blows. As if you didn't have enough to worry about...as if you didn't have a big enough weight on your shoulders, now you gotta go dimension-hopping. Oh well. Take it in stride, soldier. It's your job. Now go save the world!

>

[Shadowswift]

[[need moar impulsez]]

[foq]

>Try checking up with bases you've already established to see if there are any signs of a shitstorm of Shadows coming in... and do something about finding those runes.

[Shadowswift]

>Try checking up with bases you've already established to see if there are any signs of a shitstorm of Shadows coming in... and do something about finding those runes.

Let's see, from what you remember, The Slipgate Complex and The Installation were the only two bases you and Ray bothered to bring back online. The power at Termination Central was restored, but that was about it. You never brought that base back online, nor did you post any sentries there. Also, according to the DKC, the forces of Quake that were posted at The Installation have abandoned their posts, leaving the base empty. You call the sentries at E1M1.

"Yes, sergeant? What is your order?" You demand a sitrep. "Situation normal, sir. Is everything ok?" You affirm, but tell them to set the base on high alert. You then ask if anyone has heard from The Captain. "Negative, sir." Damn...you close communication and think a moment. Runes....runes runes runes. Near as you can tell, the DKC may be your best source of information about the runes, but he has told you all he knows. You call HQ.
"Yes, sergeant? This is Scribe Irish, what can I do for you?" You ask him for all the intel he can find about the four lesser runes. "Just a moment, sir. I'll send whatever files I can find about them to your PDA. Stand by." You wait a moment. In a few seconds, a few small .txt files arrive on your console. You open them up and read them. Nothing really pikes your interest, except for the part that says that Quad Damages, Pentagrams of Protection, and Rings of Shadow are all runic in nature, made of the very same stone that the Four Runes of Power are made of. Truly fascinating. You ask the DKC what he thinks about it.
"Most conduits you find in this great realm are runic in nature. Runes were the Elder Gods' favorite creations. With all of the Greater and Lesser runes in their posession, they were unstoppable. Shub-Niggurath, for instance, was far more than just a tenticled white mass of flesh. When she held the runes, she was a true mistress of Black Magic. She could raise dead, enslave souls and lay the most powerful curses any mortal has ever dreaded to see. Yogg-Shargoth was a master of Nether Magic. It was him that set his sights on Quake. When he used his power, the dimension became his plaything. Chthon favored Earth Magic. With the Earth Magic Rune in his claws, he became an embodiment of Earth's fiery fury. There was a fourth, centuries ago, but he was obliterated by the other three for treason. He was a true master of Arcane Magic. He wanted dominion over the other Elder Gods, and he tried to use his Arcane Magic to do so. He nearly suceeded, too, but he wasn't counting on me being there. I slew him myself at my Lord Yogg-Shargoth's whim. While the other Elder Gods held him at bay, I went in for the kill. I can't remember his name. I suspect my Lords have wiped it from my memory. Back in those days there were four Commanders, one for each Elder God. Chthon's Commander was slain by the traitor God. The traitor God's Commander was slain the same day as his master. Shub-Niggurath's Commander was killed by the Shadows shortly after The Captain conquered his mistress. I am the only one left. Once, we fought as a single, invincible unit, the four of us. If only they were still here, we would crush these Shadows, and all who stand in our way." You take a step back from the DKC as you suddenly find yourself questioning his loyalty. "Don't fear, Lord. I may have died centuries ago, but much of my pride as a man still remains, though not much else does. We should press on. The more time we spend talking, the more time we offer to our enemies to undo us." You take it upon yourself to make the next move. You move up the ramp, past the biohazzard barrels and peek around outside. Beyond is an automatic door. You open the door and find yourself in the mainframe room. Beyond the mainframe is another door, no doubt leading to the slipgate. As you open the door to confirm your suspicion, you find several Shadowcasters gathered around the slipgate, channeling some sort of incantation on it. They don't notice your obvious presence. They seem to be deeply focused on their spell. You wonder exactly what the hell they are doing. You also wonder if simply asking them would yield anything fruitful...


>

[foq]

>Attempt to obliterate them... and save one Quad Damage, one Pentagram of Protection, and one Ring of Shadows in some sort of attempt to use them to punch a hole to the Shadow territory. There's supposed to be four runes though, so what could be the fourth? Surely not the Biosuit...

[Shadowswift]

>Attempt to obliterate them... and save one Quad Damage, one Pentagram of Protection, and one Ring of Shadows in some sort of attempt to use them to punch a hole to the Shadow territory. There's supposed to be four runes though, so what could be the fourth? Surely not the Biosuit...

Biosuits are human creation. "Quad Damage, The 'Pentagram', and the Ring of Shadows are human design, also. Around fifteen hundred years ago, a band of human warlocks and heretics from your world trespassed into ours. When they came here, they stole some of our sacred runestone and imbued them with weak magic. They had intended to take them back to their warriors, but we made sure they never left our realm alive. True, they are runic magic, but they are not nearly strong enough to punch a hole in the dimensional fabric." The DKC sure is a smart zombie. Oh well. It was a good idea, though. Enough Talk. You point your Thunderbolt at the Casters and open fire. Hot lightning rips through the air and crashes against...a barrier? They have erected a barrier of pure Shadow Plasma around them. It seems pretty stable. Not even your Thunderbolt can penetrate it. Only one caster turns from the spell to face you. The rest do not even acknowledge your presence.
Non imperde, mortalium. Non opus esse molesti. Its voice is so hallow, like that of the Reaper's, but even more aetheric and insubstantial. You approach the barrier and ask the caster what they are doing. Deus noster embroque de Eredar Mundus. Hic machina serves. Is that latin? You activate your console's phonic detector...it's not latin, at least not entirely. The console can't detect a known language. "It said they are using the slipgate to open a portal to the Elder World." Again, the DKC comes through. Apparently, he speaks their language. "It is an ancient language. Most of your human languages stem from it, including ancient greek, egyptian, and latin." You ask him to ask the Shadows if they will let you use that portal. "Lorem ipsum embroque?" The caster nods. Concede nobis tempore perficere carmine. Ut nobis sequi Eredar Sanctuarium Dei. Cum transierit, ut deleret. Sic est voluntas Domini. The DKC looks utterly confused. "It said when the spell is finished, we can follow them to the Elder God Shrine. Once we are there, we can destroy them...thus is Master's will." Why would they lay down their lives? You've never seen these casters in action, but you imagine they'd be quite formidable. Why would they just let you kill them? Oh well. You allow them to finish (what choice do you have?) after a few moments of chanting, they stop channeling. One by one, they go into the slipgate and vanish. The barrier falls. Could this be a trap?

>