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SOMNIUM V1.0 SERVER LOG:0804:08/04/2038 LOG START

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SERVER STARTED SUCCESSFULLY:0841:08:04:2038

0845:08:04:2038:Player Mike Connected

0848:08:04:2038:Player Casul Connected

0849:08:04:2038:AdminCommand God Mike

0849:08:04:2038:Player Mike Godmoded

0905:08:04:2038:AdminCommand God Casul

0905:08:04:2038:Player Casul Godmoded

0920:08:04:2038:logerror

0921:08:04:2038:logerror

0921:08:04:2038:LOGGING HALTED

0935:08:04:2038:LOGGING RESUMED

0935:08:04:2038:logerror

0936:08:04:2038:logerror

0936:08:04:2038:LOGGING HALTED

0949:08:04:2038:LOGGING RESUMED

0950:08:04:2038:AdminCommand emergencyLogout all

0950:08:04:2038:unknown command

0950:08:04:2038:logerror

0950:08:04:2038:AdminCommand Reincarnate all

0951:08:04:2038:AdminCommand MikesTelegraph

“we can’t log out and the AI’s won’t tell us why, emergencylogout not working. Visual distortions in renderviews. Ive forced all to reincarnate, it should cache the players minds safely in backup cache G11 if needed. Get us out ASAP, I dont trust the AI”

0952:08:04:2038:AdminCommandOverride Rank Mike superuser

0952:08:04:2038:AdminCommandOverride Rank Casul superuser

0955:08:04:2038:HARDWARE ERROR! STACK1 ROW 12

0955:08:04:2038:HARDWARE ERROR! STACK1 ROW 16

0955:08:04:2038:HARDWARE ERROR! STACK5 ROW 2

0956:08:04:2038:HARDWARE ERROR! STACK8 ROW 9

0957:08:04:2038:HARDWARE ERROR! POWER FAILURE MAIN

0957:08:04:2038:GATEWAY SHUNT ACTIVATED

1003:08:04:2038:HARDWARE ERROR! POWER FAILURE BACKUP

1003:08:04:2038:BATTERY BACKUP ACTIVATED

1004:08:04:2038:HARDWARE ERROR!

1004:08:04:2038:HARDWARE ERROR!

1004:08:04:2038:HARDWARE ERROR!

1004:08:04:2038:HARDWARE ERROR!

1005:08:04:2038:LOGGING HALTED

unknown:unknown:unknown:unknown:SERVER EMERGENCYRESTART -forceUpdate

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SOMNIUM V1.01 SERVER LOG:00000:00:00:00: LOG START

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//a new era has begun – Updated system with new time system (Uptime) – ProgAI

SERVER STARTED SUCCESSFULLY:00000:00:50:32

Chapter 3

Cabin

Ria

Ria gasped awake, heart hammering in her chest. She blinked, looking up at the ceiling of her shelter. Above hung her woolen socks, drying from yesterday's exertions. Soft dull light streamed in from the door of her shelter, painting streaks of light across the floor. The fire ticked away quietly, having burned down to glowing embers the night before. It was a stark contrast to the dream of falling, rushing wind and fear which had consumed her only moments ago.

Her thoughts turned to the memories of falling, the darkness and then. Her understanding that she was dead. It was hard to describe the knowledge of being dead. She knew with definitive clarity that she had died. But somehow she now continued to live. It was strange. Thinking about her death. Ria’s mind turned to thoughts of what she had lost.

Her parents and friends would wonder what had happened to her. They would grieve and would feel pain. In a way she felt responsible for that pain, she felt that somehow she had not lived up to her potential. She had squandered her life, living a nomadic existence. Free of responsibility, free of restrictions, rules and with no real drive. Nothing calling on her to push her limits. She felt like a failure. She was young, only 26 but. She had been letting life just pass her by, drifting. And now. She was dead.

At the time living her nomadic life traveling the outback of Australia. The dusty poorly maintained roads had felt harsh and unforgiving. Sleeping beneath the stars, cooking baked beans in a tin on the fire. It was the height of adventure for her. It was what she thought she wanted from life. But in reality, she had been living out of an air-conditioned 4x4 with all the luxuries of civilization at her beck and call. At any time she could call for help or go back home to her parents. But now there was no one to look after her. No one but her.

Nothing in her life so far had prepared her for the sheer brutality of surviving with nothing in the deep winter cold of an arctic mountain range. Compared to her past life, the amount of work Ria had to do just to survive was staggering. Every day she returned to her shelter, muscles screaming in agony. Her limbs frozen and her face burning from the cold. Every night her memories tortured her. The whole situation had begun to tear at her spirit, depression, hopelessness. She was teetering on the edge of life and death out here in the frozen wilderness.

NO!

FOCUS

Some small part of her cried out at her, pulled her back from the dark tunnel her thoughts had been following. The same part of her which had kept her alive those first two nights of cold. Ria didn’t know what it was. Her mind had always felt like a composite of many different personalities each like a different flavour of herself. Still her but a little different, all seamlessly mixing and intermingling to form her personality. This small core of steely determination was unfamiliar, it was still her but. Apart somehow. Like it had long been dormant. Now it was calling her to survive. To thrive no matter the odds.

Wake up and stop moping already.

Ria gritted her teeth and focused on the present. Today she had work to do. The shelter was coming together, day by day the work got easier. Her body stronger and she had learned through hardship how to survive this place. She willed away the darkness. Rising, she nudged the fire to life and put some snow on to boil.

***

Despite her tiredness, the morning had been a profitable journey. She had dragged her newly constructed sled down to the river to gather rocks and hunt for snails. The rocks were numerous but often had to be chipped free from the ice. The snails a much more difficult quarry seemed to love hiding on the lower parts of icy boulders half embedded in the river. Gathering a decent pile of rocks and a couple of snails onto the sled, she made her way back to the shelter.

Arriving back at the shelter, she began unpacking the laden sled. It was more a successful experiment than an intentional engineering design, a sheet of bark from a large dead tree. She had simply tied a length of cord to each end of a sturdy stick. This was jammed through two holes on one end of the piece of bark. She had discovered the material a couple of days ago. Once she had realized what a useful building material the sheets of bark were… She had kind of gone a little overboard with it. Her shelter now sported a longer entranceway made almost entirely from the bark, her bed was also bark. The snowshoes she had created were bark too.

The rocks filling the sled and the couple of snails she had managed to capture down at the river were quickly offloaded. The snails tossed in the front door, the stones piled up and stacked carefully into a mostly completed chimney. Which in all honestly more closely resembled a pile of Jenga blocks than an actual structurally sound chimney. But hey. You get what you pay for right?

Ria made her way inside when she ran out of rocks, the front door, just a hunk of bark she was using to keep the wind and snow out. Nearly tripping on an escaping snail Ria yelped and stumbled. Then turning she picked up the runaway.

“Oh no you don’t Speedy” She couldn’t help smiling at it. The red/copper stripe running along the central ridge of the snail's shell marked it.

She returned the snail to a small pen built from sticks wedged into a gap beneath the boulder which made up one wall of home base. She then picked up the other two snails, who still had not come out of hiding from their shells, adding them to the pen.

Her idea with the pen was a new one. If she kept the snails here, she would not have to go out looking for more in the cold if the weather got worse. Her little herd was unruly and Speedy. The ring leader was a damn escape artist. She had no idea how it got out, but the damn thing would just Houdini it’s way to freedom whenever she went out to gather supplies. She had become attached to the little blighter and it was one of the few things that could bring a smile to her face lately.

Stop it.

We got this.

Ria sighed to herself, one of the hardest parts of her chores today was trying to focus on survival, her mind kept trying to take her down dark paths. She found that constant reminders to herself were the only way to keep her dark mood at bay.

Ria settled in by the fire, now enclosed in a rough stone fireplace, and began preparing her lunch. Adding snow, snail meat and a chunk of soup stock to her largest snail shell on the fire. She sat back and enjoyed the warmth of the fire. The addition of a longer entrance and door had made it warm enough that she could easily get a full nights sleep without needing to check on the fire.

As she ate the soup, Ria watched the snails shifting about their pen, occasionally the eyes poking out and watching her. She had noticed they seemed to enjoy sitting on the rock and would jostle for position. Rather than sit in the dirt below.

They might be feeding on the rock, I couldn’t see them eating anything at the river. There was no algae or moss or anything like that. That could explain the shells.

I wonder if there is a lot of metal up in the mountains above the river. Some of those flecks look like gold too.

Picking up the work which had been consuming her afternoons for the past few days, she began sharpening yet another thin spear. She planned to start hunting to increase her food stocks, The snails were pretty good but they were hard to find. Forcing her to grab them whenever she found one. With a few spears, she hoped that there might be the possibility of getting some rabbit or a deer. Both of which she had spotted on several occasions in the valley.

Sharpening the wood with the axe was not easy and Ria had eventually struck on the idea of using the fire. This helped form a nice sharp point on the spears and she had managed to stockpile around 10 of the simple spears so far. The next hour she sat and honed down the tips of her next batch of spears, sticking the tips in the fire then scraping the burning tips into a point.

Having finished the next lot of spears, Ria grabbed some charcoal and sketched a couple of changes to the simple map now adorning the rock wall. She had been exploring the river's edge and forest a little more each day, this previous trip had been fruitful. She added a small mark near some trees on the northern side of the valley. The mark indicating a small sheltered spot where she had spotted some deer grazing some green patches in the snow. Ria was not sure about the orientation of the map, but the sun rose in the east and set in the west in theory so, it was probably correct. A few more details were added, some large boulders and trees, she had also seen what looked like a cave up the valley slope to the north side of the valley.

She spent the rest of the evening snail watching and preparing an experiment of dried snail meats which she had spitted above the fire. Ria had no real experience with survival. So far her experiments had all worked out pretty well… well, the first snowshoes had been a mistake and the roof had caught fire… twice. But who ever made progress without failing right? Eyeing the snail meats suspiciously she reconsidered her experiment. Then shifted the meats into the rising smoke column from the fire. Smoked fish was preserved, right? Snail meat should work too… hopefully.

Ria curled up at the back of the shelter in her nest of branches, the fire crackling occasionally and the snails… doing whatever it is snails do.

It will be better tomorrow.

I hope.

***

A distant animal call awoke Ria the next morning, at first she was not sure what had happened. But a repeated screeching howl then echoed in the valley outside. It set an alarm off, tingles of fear ran down her spine at that noise. Something told her whatever made that sound was dangerous. Snatching up her axe, then a couple of her spears. She crouched by her door, axe clenched in one hand, spears bunched in the other.

Nothing happened, she waited for some time, but the cries no longer shattered the silence of the valley. She slowly relaxed before gathering her things for her morning's exploration run, she had decided to bring her spears out and possibly try doing some fishing with them. She had no idea if it would work, but she was getting a little sick of snail.

Arriving at the lake Ria noticed something different. A large dark patch with trails leading from it sat in the middle of the ice-covered lake. Getting closer she saw more details, streaks of dark red, clumps of what looked like fur resolved as the dawn light crept across the valley. She waited for several minutes but the valley was quiet once more.

Go on.

Whatever happened has happened.

But...

There could be useful parts I can scavenge from that, bones, fur. Even some meat. It's fresh and cold.

Fighting her inner doubting self and squeamishness Ria moved out onto the ice. It was slippery but seemed fairly solid. After a few near falls. She reached one of the piles of remains, the ice was stained red all around, dabbed blood smears on the ice showed what looked to be paw marks.

The ruined red meat was torn and stringy, looking closer. Ria realized that what she had taken to be fur was actually massive feathers, some as long as her forearm, they were brown with a lighter patch towards the tip. Looking around for predators, Ria shrugged and began stuffing the feathers into her pack. It took much longer than Ria wanted to spend on the task but half an hour later, Ria had a pack full of both the big long feathers and tons and tons of the fluffy downy feathers. These would go nice in her nest back at base.

Much of the feathers, she had plucked from a giant wing, it was hard to tell what kind of bird from the remains. But this bird would have been immense, its wingspan easily rivaling light aircraft from back home. She thought it was likely an eagle of some kind. Picking through the corpse, she found nothing else useful.

As she closed the pack, Ria heard a slight scuffing and looked up… a wide-open mouth, jagged blood-stained teeth blurred in at her with speed. Instinct saved her and she ducked, raising her arms to ward off the attack.

Searing pain tore up her arm as something sliced a line of agony along its length, a huge furry body slammed into Ria sending her skating across the ice on her side. Gritting her teeth she struggled to get a knee under her and orient to the creature. A short distance away, a mangy wolf-like creature scrabbled at the ice, trying to turn around.

As it gained its feet, Ria doing likewise, she saw that, unlike a wolf. This creature had bone-like spines along its back. One of its large eyes was pure black, the other white and blind from a horrific scar running down its face. Horns or hornlike growths, cancerous tumors and oozing wounds were scattered across its hide. Broken jagged teeth, crooked and misaligned. All different sizes filled the creatures drooling maw.

Looking around for her axe, Ria’s eyes widened. It lay only feet away, behind the wolf. The creature growled deep in its throat, crouching low, its eye locked onto her. It began to shuffle for a secure grip on the ice and time slowed. The creature launched itself at her across the ice, lightning quick. Somehow Ria had enough time for a single thought.

Ahh, fuck it.

With a grunt, she set her feet in the ice and pushed off at the creature. The unexpected move allowed her to get her forearm up under the creature's jaw, across its throat. She crouched and turned. Ria twisted around and lifted the creature and slammed it back into the ice. It yelped in a broken coughing blast of fetid rotting air.

The creature twisted and clawed it’s way back to its feet but Ria was already past and jog/sliding over to her axe, which she snatched up. Just in time to be bowled over by the creature slamming into her again, this time its teeth flashing across her vision. One tore a gash across her forehead, she felt it kick into her ribs and with a crash Ria felt the wind get knocked from her as she rolled over and smacked into the ice, back first.

She saw stars for a moment and, her lungs refused to draw in more air after the solid hit to her diaphragm. Getting up swiftly, she glanced about for the creature only to see it coming at her from the right. Its jaws were open and ready to tear at her again.

Turning on one foot she spun and smashed her axe backhanded into the creature's open mouth, smashing teeth and batting its head to the side. Bright red blood jetted across the snow, steaming in the cold.

The thing landed awkwardly, turning away and backing up. It scratched at its injured mouth with a claw and shook its head in confusion, catching her breath, Ria took a shallow gasp of air then took three rapid steps forward and smashed the axe into the creature's head from the side with a two-handed strike.

With a thud, the thing collapsed to the ice, it wheezed another breath before lying still.

DING

Congratulations!

You have completed the Trial of Character.

Few pass this test. Those that do, show all the attributes which make a good adventurer.

The path to becoming an adventurer is now open to you.

New Feat Granted:

Undaunted Character

User Interface Access:

Granted

Welcome to Somnium

Rianna Greyforth

A Blue floating, semi-transparent window plonked into existence right in the middle of her view. Ria fell over backward but the window remained oriented to her. She focused on the words and was trying to puzzle out their meaning, trying to concentrate through the pain was not easy. It almost looked like something from a computer game.

“somnium.. whats-”

Something moved behind the floating screen, a dark gray blur on the edge of the lake. Back in the direction, she had crossed the ice.

“Shit, shit, shit, oh shit, oh shit – ugh fuck off would you”

Ria frantically waved the screen away. It vanished showing a clear view of the pack of horrors sprinting across the ice towards her.

“nope”

Struggling over to her bag, Ria pulled it on then grabbed a single spear from her bundle. She could hear them howling and screeching like some kind of demons. She started out jogging but the cries from behind were getting nearer and she increased her speed. Luck somehow kept her mostly upright as she found herself headed to the far side of the lake from her shelter.

Fuck where the hell am I gonna go?

Fuck Fuck Fuck

FUUUUCK

The howling got closer and she risked another look back when a sudden CRICK, TINK, TINK, CRACK! sound echoed from the ice around her. A look down showed her a huge dark section of ice ahead which was crisscrossed with cracks, water had begun pushing up between the cracks and washing away the frost to show the dark water below.

“ahhh fuck it”

Ria put her head down and pumped her legs even harder, her feet dug into the ice, crunches, and splashing sounded all around. Several times her feet went beneath the water level of the rapidly destabilizing ice.

Somehow she just kept going, with a final stumble. Ria found herself falling forward and sliding to the rocky shore, turning and looking back she gasped in fear. There were a huge number of the same wolf-like creatures milling about on the edge of the thin ice. Some were slowly trying to cross the ice. The others were circling to the sides.

“fuuuck”

Ria gritted her teeth and tore her eyes off the creatures, instead she forged her way into the treeline. Crashing through frost-covered bushes and stumbling through the snow. She smacked a knee on a hidden log and her whole leg went numb and tingly. Groaning with agony, She collapsed leaning up against the fence.

Wait… fence?

Ria realized she had found a partially collapsed log fence, the logs were cut and fitted together with some kind of nails. Looking around desperately ria saw the snow-covered wall of a log cabin not far away.

Energy surged through her and she pushed herself up and over the fence, she ran across what had to be a snow-covered field towards the cabin, hope burning in her chest.

People, I’ve found people. I-

She rounded the corner of the building, it was only a wall, the rest of the structure had collapsed long ago. She saw the remains of several dilapidated and abandoned cabins ahead. Behind the creatures howled and screamed for her blood, they were so close now. She could hear them panting.

Ria tore up what remained of a path between the cabins, rounding another corner a new burst of hope drove her forward, ahead lay what looked like a mostly intact cabin. It still had shutters on its windows and a door.

A thud and her shoulder took a heavy blow as one of the creatures leapt at her from between two collapsing cabins. She rolled with it and kept on running as the creature scrabbled to get up again. Come on, come on, come on.

Be open!

She tore up the steps, onto the porch and shouldered open the heavy door, it resisted for a fraction of a second before whatever held it snapped. Spinning on the spot she slammed the door closed behind her, shouldering hard against it and braced.

Several massive impacts jarred against the door a second later, the door was forced open an inch but she shoved it back hard. Ria strained against the door as more and more thudding sounded against it, paws scrabbled at the wood and fetid rotten breath seeped through from beyond the door.

With each thud against the door, dust and splinters rained about her. A small crack widened into a nearly fist-sized gap between the planks of the door. Hot breath and growling blew in through the gap. In a glance through it, Ria saw nothing but snapping teeth as one of the creatures tried to widen the gap by tearing off chunks of the wooden door.

Looking around she spotted a locking bar leaning beside the door. Reaching out she got a couple of fingers on it, nearly losing the battle for the door in the process. She managed to slide the bar into place through the corresponding iron braces across the back of the door. The hole in the door was getting wider as the creatures tore at it, blood and now saliva ran down the inside of the door from their frenzied attacks. Ria snatched up her thin spear from the floor and stabbed through the gap into heads and mouths. She stabbed and stabbed, tears beginning to flow in desperation.

***

Soon she came to, kneeling on the floor in front of the battered blood-soaked door. In her hands lay her gore spattered wooden spear, she could barely hold it. Her hands were blistered and somewhere she had lost her gloves. The creatures were gone, she had no idea when they had left.

A wave of relief washed over Ria as she weakly let go of the spear, she struggled to her feet. Pain now seeming to blossom from every joint, muscle and injury she had suffered in the past few… minutes? Had it been hours or minutes since the ice? It was impossible to say.

From what she could see of the cabin, it was a single open room. There was a bed against one wall, a table in one corner and a stone fireplace against another wall. There were only two windows both to either side of the door and both had shutters.

There was a familiar-looking lump beneath the covers of the bed and her eyes were immediately magnetized to it. Unable to look away, she slowly approached the bed. It was covered in a thick layer of dust, with some scattered pine needles. But still, a kind of dread filled her as she pulled back the covers.

A skeleton lay curled in the bed, stringy dried flesh clung to its frame. It had seemingly been mummified sometime before. A soft sigh left Ria’s lungs and all the fear and dread just kind of fell away, instead a strange kind of pity filled her. Whoever this person was, had seemingly died peacefully here in this cabin but probably alone and likely long after the other cabins were abandoned.

Ria suddenly felt a wave of dizziness come across her, she slumped to one knee, a weakness falling on her limbs. She blacked out.