Entity's Long Way Home (CYOA Civilization)

[Ahigin]

Entity's escape plan never looked like a great idea to its accomplices. Rumors had it, the transdimensional prison it was locked in was designed to be a place of permanent exile for the worst of the galactic criminals. Even if the convict could succeed in their mad scheme of breaking through the time-space barriers, the prison architect argued, they'd still get flushed out in a desolate corner of the Milky Way galaxy, a cosmic wasteland that never produced any life forms worth mentioning.

Entity didn't argue against the rumors. Its prison confinement was comfortable enough to spend aeons in quiet contemplation. Yet, Entity had what its other fellow convicts didn't: readiness to risk it all for its endless ambition of return.

Now, the daring escape is far behind. Several of its accomplices didn't make it, but Entity itself is free... Yes, weakened, tortured, but free. Yet, its new form is limiting, and the only way Entity will be able to make it back home, to the Planegate, is with somebody else's help. Now, if only this darn exoplanet it landed on had some space-faring civilization worth mentioning... Oh well, Entity has time, and Earth is still young. Perhaps, these hairless apes swarming its surface could be of some use for it, after all.

===

Welcome to this thread!

What is it? CYOA stands for Choose Your Own Adventure. It's a story, in which each step is determined by you, the readers. Or, to be more honest, it's determined by your votes and an honest roll of dice.

What's unique about it? You don't play a single character. Instead, you're in charge of Entity, an intergalactic being that found itself in a precarious position: locked in a piece of living metal and completely stranded on our God-forsaken planet. The caveat? Entity can be turned into artifacts, and these artifacts could grant abilities to their wielders. Entity's goal is to guide human civilization with the hands of the "great people," who just happen to be the vessels of its power.

With your help, we'll try to progress from the Copper Age all the way into space.

 

[Ahigin]

Episode 1. Entity's entry.

Entity's capsule disintegrates just as it hits Earth's stratosphere. Chambers with several of its fellow escapees - anonymous, grim creatures it barely grew to know during its escape - fall out and disappear in jetstreams of burning hot air. Will they survive? Entity isn't sure. Yet, it manages to hold on to the capsule remnants. From a nearby chamber, barely hanging on the capsule's framework, it hears the ethereal scream of the last runaway accomplice: We probably won't make it. It was a good run, though. Who were you before you got locked out?

Who were before the prison and your grand escape?
1. Ruthless galactic powermonger. (Grants "Entity the Cruel" Reverie. Reroll Vitality rolls once per Vessel's lifetime.)
2. Prophet of dark singularity. (Grants "Entity the Unholy" Reverie. Reroll Charisma rolls once per Vessel's lifetime.)
3. Inventor of the chrono-bomb. (Grants "Entity the Trickster" Reverie. Reroll Intelligence rolls once per Vessel's lifetime.)

 

[Seon]

1. Evil galactic whatsit

 

[Kyzarc Fotjage]

3) Entity knew that these filthy apes weren't good for much, Entity wasn't even sure if they could even deliberately combust carbon, let alone create ramen or build subspace warpgates. It was a sick joke that Entity, creator of the dreaded chrono bomb which devasted stars, was forced to rely on them for its grand return home. Oh well, Entity would show them. Entity would show them all

 

[J.A.M.]

1, you want to end up like Starro? Dead to a single javelin? We were the greatest! The best! I was immortal! Not even the transdimensionalists could end the life that was! Our vessels must be mighty, they must be unstoppable. These hairless things know the simple truth that is survival, and what better way to have them become our tools than intimidation? If those that "wield" us can kill even the beasts of fur and scale that so terrorize them, imagine what they could do to their former fellows! Imagine how easily the swarms of hairless bipeds will buckle to the might that will be us once again!

 

[Ahigin]

Option 1 wins.

Episode 2. The crash.

"Get lost! The likes of you used to kneel before my throne," Entity shrieked at the escapee, just before the loser's chamber got sucked out of the capsule and consumed by the flames. Soon, the capsule started melting in a flaming ball of plasma, with only a few landing thrusters still operations. Swearing in sixteen tongues, Entity projected itself at the landing controls, aiming for the green landmass vaguely seen through the cloud cover.

Where will Entity crash-land?
1. Fertile Crescent.
2. Mediterranean Island.
3. Eurasian steppe.
4. Nordic fjord.
5. Indian doab.
6. East-Asian floodplain.
7. African savanna.
8. Australian outback.
9. North-American forests.
10. Mesoamerican jungle.
11. South-American mountains.
12. Choose your own.

 

[J.A.M.]

2, our "great people" shall emerge from beneath the waves to hold dominion over isolated pockets of the hairless folk! Entity will rule with a fist as crushing as the ocean depths! Entity will return to our galaxy through the stolen fruits of the labor of islands!

 

[Kyzarc Fotjage]

Descending order 2-1-4-3-12 (Ocean)

Entity couldn't believe Entity's luck. Here? Really? Planet ripe with opportunities and it wound up in the worst, most boring possible location. Oh well, one couldn't expect to rebuild a galactic empire without the occasional setback. Just means it'll be all the more rewarding when Entity had won

 

[Seon]

10-9-6-1-2 in that order.

The lack of functioning opposable appendages would only be a minor problem to the Entity. It had created an empire before whose victims ashes could be pressed into a diamond moon. What chance did primitive apes have against such a being? Even if it had no legs, or voice, or means of communication, or….

 

[Jehoshua]

In descending order of preference

8) Australian Outback
12) Tristan de Cunha (most isolated of islands)
2) Mediterranean Island
10) Mesoamerican Jungle
11) South American Mountains
5) Indian Doab
3) Eurasian Steppe
6) East Asian floodplain
4) Nordic Fjord
1) Fertile Crescent
7) African Savannah
9) North American Forests

 

[NinjaCow64]

2

 

[Ahigin]

Option 2 wins.

Episode 3. The discovery.

Some are born to rule, some are born to pilot spaceships. Entity was clearly created for the former. No matter how hard it tried, the capsule kept stirring toward the ocean. Yet, just when it thought the water landing was inevitable, the capsule did manage to strike the ground, blasting at terminal velocity at a small rocky island in the middle of a shallow inner sea. For a moment, everything went blank...

When Entity awoke, it feverishly checked the time-space continuum with its chrono-scanner. Only distant info-waves from an alternative timeline reached it. The island on which Entity landed would be named Malta, and the local civilization would call the sea surrounding it the Mediterranean. Oh, the irony.

This timeline, however, was barren of any names for the entire sea, and even the tiny landmass on which Entity was stranded was only known to the local wildlings as the Island. The echoes of the bipeds' thoughts were a disappointment for Entity. Primitive beings, living simple, short, and hungry lives. As the Earth was a tiny exoplanet revolving around a young star, the time flew fast here, and Entity started to surrender to its fate, watching the fast-paced kaleidoscope of the local wildlife without interest. Was that its ultimate prison?

No, Entity wasn't made out of a loser material. Perhaps, the humans, these hairless apes, were worth something. They were, after all, a fixer-upper species. With enough guidance, they, too, could reach the stars. They didn't even need to rule them - they only needed to pass Entity to one of its sleeper cells in the Norma Cluster. All Entity had to do, was teach them a few tricks. Well, a bag of tricks, really.

Soon, Entity got to work. It spread its echo across the psycho-waves, projecting its calling to the humans beyond the impact crater. Several centuries passed by, but eventually some curious face appeared peeking into the basalt cavity. The Entity's first vessel had arrived.

Who finds Entity?
1. Priest of ancestor faith.
2. Aspiring strongman.
3. Exiled witch.
4. Innocent boy.
5. Cocky hunter.
6. Choose your own.

 

[Seon]

3. A witch, exiled for being suspected of causing a plague in the local village. Certainly not an evil overlady material, but curious and intelligent. Maybe we can work with something here….

 

[J.A.M.]

3, what are we gonna do with those other dregs? A priest of some wacky religion that doesn't have us as the figure of worship? Bah! A simpleton strongman not even yet the champion of his local competitions? Bah! A innocent boy not even having killed his first ant? Bah! A hunter that thinks themself so great even when in the presence of us? Bah!

The witch will find us, veteran of many winters alone. Surely we can foster some more vengeance and callousness in any of them, but why not take a headstart where we can get it? It'll take wits and grit to be a more successful vessel and this witch surely has that in them. How could the rest ever survive in the ocean if they have had the support of their tribe all their life? No no, the witch will be our vessel ideal.

 

[NinjaCow64]

3 - We shall facilitate her revenge against her people, and she shall facilitate ours…

 

[jackelgull]

2, Like calls to like, and ambition is surely one of the greatest bargaining chips we can hold over someone's head, but 3 is also an intriguing option - an exile lacks any sort of network and will be dependent on us, and we can with a little molding, encourage them that their revenge and our interests align

2 is my first choice and then 3

 

[Jehoshua]

4) No one else for concocting a creepy child avatar?

-

ps: the witch is also acceptable. It's my number two option.

 

[Kyzarc Fotjage]

3- The Entity never was any good at telling filthy monkeys apart. This one seems to be wearing some kind of wide-brimmed hat, perhaps it is afraid of the sun? It must recognize that the giant ball of fusing hydrogen and helium cares naught for its existence, sensible if rather superstitious. In any case, the Entity will show it that it has nothing to fear from mindless matter, and with the Entity's power none can stand in its way.

 

[Ahigin]

Option 3 wins.

Episode 4. Coruncanu, meet Entity.

A brown-skinned woman with curly hair descended into the crater, her forearms and neck covered in tattoos and her loins hidden under a skirt of black swan feathers. Entity read her aura eagerly: Coruncanu the Witch, a once-respected herbalist and sickness whisperer, exiled from her clan when pestilence culled their ranks. The pestilence-bringer, they called her. Entity was satisfied. She was a worthy vessel: bitter and lonely, but sharp, proud, and unbroken. Without hesitation, Entity projected its calling on her.

It took the woman some time find the twisted shard of living dark metal, Entity's cursed chamber. Lacking anyone to help her, she spent a good week excavating the shard and detaching it from the capsule remnants. Yet, eventually Entity was carried to a cave in which the woman lived alone ever since her exile. Sensing Entity's calling, she placed the cryptic shard on an improvised altar of spirits, consisting of small stone circle, decorated with feathers and bones. Exhausted after a long day of labor, the woman knelt before Entity that night and quietly cried.

Weeks passed, and her bond with Entity grew. It read deeper into her thoughts and knowledge, learning about the three clans populating the Island. Coruncanu's past clanmates of the Swan tribe lived up north, in the game-rich valley below, ruled by her stone-hearted uncle, the priest of these people's ancestral faith. To the south, across the same mountain range Coruncanu hid in, the fishing communities of the Mullet clan resided under a loose leadership of a prominent fish-catcher who sought her marriage once, but was refused by Coruncanu's uncle. Finally, on a smaller island across a thin strait, an insular and warlike Giant clan suffered under the cruel rule of bloodthirsty brute, who Coruncanu was once betrothed to by her uncle, shortly before her exile.

At last, Entity felt it was ready for the first move of its long game.

What should Coruncanu do?
1. Return to the Swan tribe and beg for forgiveness, bringing Entity as a gift of good faith. (Challenge: low (Charisma/Spirituality); Effort: low; Risk: medium; Reward: low (Background: Swan tribe healer; Entity might switch to another vessel))
2. Further learn the secrets of healing and poisonous herbs of the Island, accepting patients as a medicine woman. (Challenge: low (Intelligence/Learning); Effort: high; Risk: medium; Reward: high (Background: Medicine Woman of the Hills; Asset: Wealth, Asset: Poisons and Potions))
3. Open her loins for any man wondering into the cave, spawning her own clan as a matriarch. (Challenge: low (Vitality/Command); Effort: high; Risk: medium; Reward: medium (Background: Great Mother of the Hills; Asset: Black Swan clan))
4. Decorate the cave, fill it with herbal smoke, and learn blood-chilling chants, playing on people's superstitions. (Challenge: low (Charisma/Performance); Effort: low; Risk: high; Reward: high (Background: Witch of the Hills; Asset: Sacrificial gifts))
5. Ask the prodigious fisher from the Mullet clan to accept her as his second wife. (Challenge: low (Charisma/Politics); Effort: low; Risk: low ; Reward: low (Background: Mullet tribe elder's wife; Entity might switch to another vessel))
6. Allow herself to be captured by the Giant clan raid, looking to rejoin their strongman's harem. (Challenge: low (Vitality/Cunning); Effort: low; Risk: low; Reward: low (Background: Giant tribe ruler's concubine; Entity might switch to another vessel))
7. Choose your own.

Entity
Attributes
Vitality 1 | Charisma 1 | Intelligence 1

Abilities
Melee 1 | Spirituality 1 | Learning 1
Cunning 1 | Politics 1 | Commerce 1
Command 1 | Performance 1 | Craft 1

Reveries
Entity the Cruel Reroll Vitality rolls once per Vessel's lifetime.

Coruncanu
Attributes
Vitality 1 | Charisma 2 | Intelligence 3

Abilities
Melee 1 | Spirituality 3 | Learning 4
Cunning 3 | Politics 2 | Commerce 1
Command 1 | Performance 3 | Craft 2

Health 8
Sanity 8

Assets & Backgrounds
Exiled witch 1

 

[Seon]

Our powers are weak and our knowledge incomplete. We will live long after this puppet is dust and thus we should prioritize getting a base of knowledge with which to lord over the primitives of this planet with. Medicine and poisons are as great a place to start as any…

2.