Book Six, Chapter 30: A Proper Greeting

The Atlas contained an aerial photograph of the Carousel Casino, taken from a helicopter’s perspective.

It was likely a news helicopter because there was some sort of hostage situation going on on the roof of the building, but we ignored that part. We just wanted to get the layout of the premises.

As we tried to analyze it, Isaac was playing with the rooster-shaped weathervane omen we had picked up from the hardware store.

He would raise it above the table, and a subtle breeze would pick up and shuffle our papers. Then he would lower it again.

The omen was for a storyline called Ida Rae, which was a character-driven murder mystery or slasher that took place during a heavy storm.

As we all stood over the aerial photograph, Antoine was pointing out all the outbuildings around the casino.

“Tell me that doesn’t look like a ski lift,” he said.

And it did, or at least it looked like one of the halves of a fancy ski lift, the indoor kind. It was the structure you would enter at the bottom of a mountain to get on the lift.

Of course, a few things were missing, the most important of which was the mountain and all of the lifts. But the building was there, in case any of those just happened to appear.

“Look here,” Camden said. “Someone theorized that the casino is connected to Snowblind, but they don’t know how.”

“If only the Vets had known about that, we might have been on the other side of the mountain already,” Antoine said solemnly.

Antoine’s brother, Chris, had been part of the team that was supposed to go out to Snowblind and try to find a way over to the Manifest Consortium’s compound. But of course, the Vets didn’t know that’s what was over there. They just knew something important was.

“You think that’s weird?” Logan said. “Check out this building over here. What does that look like to you?”

I stared at it. It was a very simple structure. Nothing more than a few walls that almost looked sunk into the ground.

“Are those stairs?” Kimberly asked.

“This is a subway entrance,” Logan said. “Not quite as fancy as the one in Northern Carousel, but that’s what it is. In the middle of a rose garden.”

Most of the buildings around the casino were sheds. There were a few trailers. We had no idea what their function was.

“The casino has tons of omens in it,” Camden said. “Most of which are just repeats from those found elsewhere in Carousel. There’s actually a machine in there where you can gamble on omens, and then the one you win will seek you out.”

“I’m not so concerned with all the random omens from around Carousel,” I said. “The Atlas says those can be easily avoided. You basically have to go out of your way to get them. What storylines are native to the casino itself? I assume that there are tons. It’s built like a resort, and all the different sections look like the resort is located in different places.”

“That sounds super tacky,” Isaac said, as he lifted the rooster weathervane and caused the aerial photograph to billow under its breeze.

“I think it’s reasonable to assume that if we start a storyline in the casino, there’s no telling where that storyline is going to be set,” Logan said.

I agreed. The whole place was built like a maze, more so than a normal casino. You never knew where you were or what time it was. That much was clear. And I had only been in it long enough to get dragged upstairs for torture by Generation Killer.

“No windows,” Camden said. “No clocks. No set time period for the decor. I’d say you’re right. We trigger a storyline in there, we could end up anywhere doing anything.”

“We could play a death game on the beach. Or a death game at a ski resort. Or a death game in the desert,” Isaac said. “So many options.”

The fact was, we didn’t have a lot of information on the storylines within the casino, because any logical person would walk into that place, realize how dangerous it was, and how many omens were bouncing around the walls in there, and never play any of them.

But what if you could visit the casino with all the omens gone?

What if there were a storyline you could play that would adapt to wherever it was that you started it?

Such a storyline did exist. And Isaac was holding the omen for it.

Ida Rae. Wherever you strapped down the rooster weathervane was the place you had to survive the storm.

“With all these buildings clearly being set pieces meant to lead to different locations, we should be careful about which building we attach it to,” Antoine said. “If we attach it to the ski lift, for all we know, our storyline will be set in Snowblind, and we won’t even be able to walk into the casino.”

“So we attach it to the casino itself. That should guarantee we get what we’re after,” Logan said. “Unless of course, this narrator realizes he’s in a storyline and decides he’s too chicken to meet us off-screen.”

I had a feeling that this Lucien Graves fellow wouldn’t back down from our little meet and greet just because we decided to meet him on our terms.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“I still think we should do the hallucinogenic rock candy omen,” Isaac said. “Of course, the meeting with the immortal sorcerer might be a bit more awkward.”

“You won’t be going on the storyline at all,” Logan said. “You have to stay here with your scouting trope and help keep the others safe.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Isaac said. “You finally find a fun storyline at a casino, and I’m not allowed to go. But trying to figure out why a man dressed like a scarecrow is murdering members of a weird cult family? I get to do that every other week.”

He might have gone on those grocery runs to The Final Straw, but he rarely contributed more than a pint of blood or so. I had to admit that in By the Slice, he had been very useful, but he’d also engaged with the plot because of his possibly real crush on Avery.

“This storyline should be around Plot Armor 35, so that limits our options,” Camden said. He didn’t seem too upset that at Plot Armor 27, he was not a prime candidate to run Ida Rae.

Luckily, I could run the storyline without worrying about the level jumping up to an unbeatable difficulty. That was the exact reason we had gotten the omen.

“The Atlas gives it all the makings of a murder mystery, everyone cut off in the storm,” Camden said.

“Classic,” I said. “I have to assume that we’re not going to have to deal with too many NPCs either.”

“That’s right,” he said. “Fewer suspects. That’s always a good thing.”

“Do we know how big of a threat this storm is? Or is it just designed to keep us from escaping?” Kimberly asked.

“Don’t know,” Camden said. “It’s not clear. Not in the Atlas at least.”

If things had gone differently, we would be scouting out Eternal Savers Club instead. But we would have to do that one later. Our interview with a Narrator took precedence. We needed to bring the Narrators and the Consortium itself into the larger narrative. I was sure of it.

Night was falling outside. We should have been up on the roof lounging like the other players, but we had work to do.

As dusk approached, the sky turned a deep red.

Too red.

“Something’s happening,” I said. “Get ready.”

And so we scrambled, like a bunch of firefighters when the alarm rang, to get dressed and ready for a fight.

I equipped I Don’t Like It Here, and I almost immediately regretted it.

I buckled to my knees. That trope didn’t just give you information; it gave you the anxiety and fear to go along with it.

“It’s an apocalypse,” I said, barely managing to get the words out.

“What?” Antoine asked. “Where? What is happening?”

I couldn’t blame him for the confusion. It did come out of nowhere. But it was so strong that I could see the storyline on the red wallpaper, even with my eyes closed, regardless of which direction I looked.

Dread Epoch

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