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Chapter 3: Save and Enter

GunFu is an easy decision. Who doesn’t want to be all John Wicks Woo bang banging it up? I click on that first.

The next choice takes me awhile but I decide on Drop it! Although the others seem good, this one has the potential for use both in and out of combat. I’ll just have to hope that my Lightning Reflexes and Danger Sense combo is enough to compensate for the lack of Quick Draw though.

With the last points, I increase Recovery by one. Stun by two and try not to think about all the wasted points in Allure.

As soon as the final point is spent another window opens

“Choose a Limitation”

Dependence          Distinctive Features          Hunted          Negative Reputation

Physical Limitation          Psychological Limitation          Rivalry

Social Limitation          Susceptibility          Unlucky          Vulnerability

Character Limitations

Distinctive Features: Dark Elf – Unless efforts are employed to disguise yourself it is clearly apparent that you are a Dark Elf.

Vulnerability: Flash attacks based on bright light have increased effect and duration.

Physical Limitation: Light-Sensitive Eyes- When exposed to bright light character has a penalty to Perception Checks.

Rivalry: Gunslingers - Contenders often seek you out to prove who is better.

It must be getting close to the end of character creation now. I mull over my choices noticing that I already have a few pre-assigned. Nothing has a strike through so I suppose I could chose another in the same category but I'd rather take something different.

Seems I kind of already have Hunted with the Rivalry thing. Though by that title Hunted sounds like it edges more toward a deadly confrontation instead of a friendly competition. Let's not have some bad ass enemy gunning for me straight out of the gate.

Social Limitation I could easily write up as the typical cliché of Dark Elves being untrustworthy and people being wary or fearful of them. Pass.

How about Psychological Limitation: Fear of Spiders. That could rather funny. Perfect to turn the whole Drow and their close association with the Evil goddess of spiders thing on its head. I almost type it in.

Maybe I’ll just make that more of a Role Play personality trait instead.

“Yeah.” What is something that I can role-play easily?

I type, Unlucky.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

I laugh out loud at myself which sets me off coughing. That definitely works but it is a little bit too broad I think. I don’t want my gun exploding in my face every fight or to have my character tripping on banana peels.

Unlucky in Love.

Yeah, totally fitting. I haven’t had a girlfriend since High School, and even then I’m not one hundred percent sure we were actually dating. Just a couple of clumsy kids making out a bit. Sure the times may be changing and it may be cool to be into geeky things nowdays, but that certainly hasn’t translated into any sort of interest from the opposite sex towards me yet.

I hit return and I’m taken back to the character sheet, now with my Character Limitations added to the bottom.

Along with a pop-up window from the WorldShaper Bot.

“Do you wish to Continue”

Delete and Exit                              Save and Enter

Your choice is final.

I guess this will save into my user profile?

That 'your choice is final' thing makes me pause. Can I not redo my character if I chose Exit? Is this like a one-time thing per profile? I certainly don’t want to have to go through the hassle of remaking a new account from scratch. And, I don't even know how I triggered the WorldShaper bot in the first place.

Though my real name on the character sheet does bug the breath out of me.

Maybe I’ll send in a support ticket to the site administrators and ask if they can change it. That shouldn’t be a problem. Perhaps I’ll suggest they add something to the WorldShaper bots initial message too. So others don’t fall into the same trap I did. I’m one hundred percent certain I’m not the only one that has made that mistake.

I give the sheet another look and move the mouse to the Save and Enter button. I click and release and my apartment goes black.

“No. No! Damn it!” Did it save?

The dying screen turns into a grey light allowing me to see the outline of my monitor for but a moment then it too is gone.

“Are you kidding me?” In the dark, my fingers tap on my dead keyboard and click on the mouse in a frantic one, two, three, four beat.

Nothing.

“Typical.” It wasn’t that uncommon to have a blackout in my apartment complex. The building was old and in desperate need of rewiring. They would usually last for a half hour or so, maybe less if the superintendent got off his lazy butt and flipped the breakers.

My flu is starting to get the better of me and I feel like I need to go and lay down. I lean back in my chair and stare upward into darkness.

I can’t even see the ceiling. My crappy shoebox apartment is in the middle of the building. Another reason for the inexpensive rent, so I don’t even have any windows to open to let in any light, or fresh breeze for that matter. With the central air now off I know it’s only going to be a matter of minutes before the entire place becomes a sweltering hotbox.

I wait for what feels like three-quarters of an hour but what is most likely no more than a few minutes. On shaky legs, I stand and take a step toward what I think is the corner and my mattress.

Maybe I can get to sleep before the temperature becomes unbearable. Though sitting in a sauna is supposed to be good when you're sick, right?

I reach out into the black and my forearm hits something. A split second later I hear the smash of what can only be my plastic bin of minis tumbling off of my bookshelf and spilling across the floor like the painstakingly painted, pewter caltrops, they now are.

'Wonderful." Reaching back for my chair I hit my desk and there is a second crash and a wetness seeps into my socks from a now shattered glass of juice infused orange soda. My panic grows as I stand in the dark and reach about frantically for my desk chair and am rewarded with empty air.

Crap. It must have rolled back when I stood up.

I’m getting scared now. Not because of the very real threat of stepping on shards of broken glass and beverage coated gaming figures. Nor the fact that I’m completely blind. No, I'm frightened because I’m getting very light headed.

Somehow the blackness is spinning, my breath coming faster as I start to hyperventilate.

What do I do? What do I do?

Breath into a paper bag! There are paper bags in the kitchen cabinet. Stumbling in what I hope is the right direction I forget the dangerous terrain and am rewarded with a stab of pain in my left foot. I cry out, tumble off balance to collide and trip over something at shin height.

My second cry of pain rises to a scream of terror as I fall for way, way too long.

I flail about for a good minute in the eerie, all-consuming blackness until I hit the floor with a... splash?