You enter a cavernous sandstone chamber. A wave of heat crashes into you, and sweat immediately begins to drip from your brow. The roof has decayed, and great shafts of sunlight fill the room. Dried, dead leaves litter the floor - fallen from the gapping holes in the roof. Frescos fill the walls, too faded to make out distinct images, but there are traces of golden and orange pigment in the grooves of the stone. The floor glows, almost too bright after the gloom of the forest. A dead vine crawls limply across the back wall - withered and dried from the lack of shade and the oppressive heat. At the end of the room, a gleaming copper chest sits atop a raised dais. It is unlocked. Within the chest is a small dagger in need of sharpening, an empty flask, a rusted key, and a spiked, metal crown. The metal of the crown is dull despite the overwhelming brightness of the room. You reach for it and immediately slice open your palm on the sharp edge of the band. A drop of blood lands on the golden velvet that cushions the chest.
Codex Entry: The Crown of The Sun
Material: Unknown metal
+60% Critical hit damage bonus
+60% Attack power
+60% Increase in mana for mages
+40% Mana regeneration for elves
+20% Fire damage
+20% Resistance to fire damage
+10% Critical hit chance
A spiked crown that mimics the rising sun above the head of the wearer. The metal is dull and lifeless with sharp edges which seem impossible not to cut oneself on.
When worn, the dull metal begins to turn a rosy fired hue as though heated by flames. Slowly overheats the wearer's brain and causes blood loss through cuts and wounds where the crown touches the wearer. Can only be worn for a maximum of 300 seconds before death of the wearer.
Causes irreversible damage at intervals before death of the wearer.
After 60 seconds: Internal bleeding begins
After 120 seconds: Nerve damage and loss of sensation in extremities begins
After 240 seconds: Degradation of mobility in limbs begins
For mage class: Wearer will hear a low voice encouraging the use of blood magic which increases the speed of blood loss. Blood loss will weaken the wearer but add +3% chance to cause spontaneous combustion in enemies.
You hear scrapping from the hallway outside of the chamber - like long claws being dragged across stone. The dagger may come in handy, but what about the crown?
You are faced with a choice. Do you:
⟡ Take the crown along with the other items
⟡ Leave the crown behind but take the other items
⟡ Take nothing
GO TO NEXT ENTRY ►
Developer Notes Below!
HI AGAIN ! It's everyone's favorite Worst Dad Ever - Elgar'nan for day 1 of @evanurisweek ! Given his status in the hierarchy of the Evanuris, I thought it was fitting to make his object a crown. With sun motifs of course (as is tradition). I had a lot of fun thinking about the attributes / abilities this crown might give the wearer and landed on general attack and damage boosts in combat. I thought adding some favor (is it really favor?) to elves and the mage class was a fun way to show how his bias might pervade even his crown.
I know this is a bit of a jump from the intro, and really I would love to one day think through more details of the journey of this dungeon crawler. But I am making an effort to not go 1000000% or overboard on every single thing I touch just in the hopes of avoiding burnout. And we have other days to get to this week! In that vein, I would have loved to provide different angles of the crown, but I'm trying to stick with simple visual story telling and writing for this project :)
p.s. I hope everyone likes the layouts for these ! I will be attempting to format these in a way that would be easy to click through like an actual codex. And I will be making a master post at some point that will look like a main menu but :) later :))
For this "nine-days-long-week", I will be sharing my mosaics based on the games, mixing them with the pantomime theatre masks (Dragon Age The Veilguard), their respective vallaslin, and other symbolism <3
The sharp tang of iron coats your tongue, and the thready beat of your pulse thrums along your neck.
With great effort you open your eyes, flinching from the blinding sun that filters through the canopy of leaves above. You roll to your side, and a flare of pain races along your spine. Your vision blurs. You blindly reach your hand out to brace against the tall object in front of you. Rough, textured, like bark. A tree? The shifting shadows and dappled sunlight flickering through the leaves makes your head spin. Nausea twists through your gut.
After a moment of labored breathing, your vision clears. Your eyes land on a scrap of parchment abandoned in the roots of the tree, crumpled and damp as though it was recently clenched in a sweaty grip. There is writing. The scrawled lines are blurred but still legible.
Come to the ruins. You will find what you seek there.
"What I seek?" you croak.
A flicker of recognition. The handwriting is familiar, yet your mind is a haze of emptiness and confusion. Where are you? And... who are you?
You stand, brushing leaves and sticks from your cloak. The fabric is worn at the seams, and the tattered ends sway in the breeze. A gust of wind slams into you, nearly toppling you to the ground. You twist, eyes squinting against the sun - one hand raised to shadow your face while the other braces your weight against the tree.
You stand near the edge of a cliff. Before you lies a valley so thickly forested that you cannot see the ground beneath the tree canopy. Across the valley your eyes catch on something, something nestled into the base of mountains and crawling up to the highest peak. Spindly structures - buildings - ebb and flow like vines along the face of the mountains. The jagged bones of decrepit towers pierce the sky along the crest of the mountains. Crumbling buildings on islands of stone halo the highest peak.
"The ruins," you murmur.
Your grip tightens around the note. The folds of the parchment fit neatly into the creases of your palm.
You are faced with a choice. Do you:
⟡ Descend into the valley
⟡ Discard the parchment note and abandon your journey
Developer Notes Below!
Hi! It's me, MIN :) for @evanurisweek I decided to make art centered around a fake Evanuris themed Indie game called "Ashes of Arlathan". While I don't have the game planned out for you, I did make art for objects you might find along your journey as the idea is the game is a dungeon crawler through the ruins of Arlathan, and I'm your guide / codex! Each day is themed around an object related to one of the Evanuris you might find among the ruins on your journey. Will the object aide you or cause you further harm?
Only one way to find out :)
Heavily inspired by my general love of game design, particularly of random objects with notes or a codex attached. Also heavily inspired by Vermis by @/plastiboo. I have been thinking about starting vis dev / game dev for an original concept for a really long time, and I'm using this as an opportunity to dip my toes in :D
Even though this is a day early, I wanted to provide an intro post to give some context before I post for the week <33
immediately after an interaction: i have GOT to get more normal oh god i need to get more normal immediately i have to get more normal or they're going to hunt me down they're going to hunt me down and flay me for sport
during an interaction: and why not put a little spin on it? why not add some conversational zest?
I LOVE COLLABORATIVE SOTRYTELLING I LOVE CREATING THINGS TOGETHER I LOVE "YES AND"ING WITH OTHERS I LOVE "NO BUT WHAT ABOUT-"S I LOVE HEARIJG MY FRIENDS' IDEAS I LOVE BOUNDING OFF OF THEM I LOVE ART I LOVE STORIES I LOVE ALL THE DIFFERENT PASSIONS AND SKILLS REQUIRED I LOVE ALL THE DIFFERENT MEDIA IT TAKES I LOVE I LOVE I LOVE
it's so annoying now that any time a new game comes out that isn't just generic white guy shooting people simulator we get hundreds of whiny youtube videos and think pieces about how the "woke mob" is destroying games like holy shit can you all shut the fuck up for five seconds
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