(For the full story up to the latest update go to therubyritual on tumblr. I wish I could post the URL here but sadly this website won't let me.)
Your name is Ruby Rose. You have just been kidnapped.
You're kind of embarrassed about the whole thing. After all you are a huntress, albeit one still in training, so getting blindsided by someone outside the ice-cream store is going to be a real black mark on your record if you don't manage to get out of this situation on your own.
Assuming you can get out of it at all.
You take a moment to review your situation. You are currently in the back of a moving van, and both your hands and your feet have been zip-tied together. You also feel kind of drowsy, so they might have drugged you with something after they knocked you out. Fortunately it seems that the "toxin resistance" part of your training is beginning to pay off, so you shouldn't worry about your movement being impaired once you get free. There's not much light, but you can see that there doesn't seem to be anything in here to help you cut yourself loose.
If you were to take a guess as to who abducted you it was probably some sort of demon summoning group, since statistically such groups are responsible for about three out of four abductions. Their ritual probably called for 'virgin blood', so they decided to grab the first young girl they saw, ignoring the fact that 'virgin blood' means blood that has never been used in a ritual (not that it actually matters since your blood would fulfil the requirement either way).
The van slows to a stop, and you hear the crunch of gravel as your kidnappers disembark. You only have a few seconds at best to think of a plan of action.
What do you do?
Pretend to still be asleep
FIGHT! NEITHER MERCY NOR SURRENDER WILL BE ACCEPTED!
Act eager, as though being kidnapped and used for demonic sacrifice is the best thing that ever happened to you.
Lie. "I'm not a virgin so it won't work."
Other (please specify)
The number is 0000. Please start all commands for this post with the number.
0000
0000: close your eyes. Imagine in great, vivid details, what you're going to do to your kidnappers once you're free. Motivated enough? Great. Now, open your eyes, and try to locate your weapon, count how many people are around you, and generally try to get as much info about your foe's weaknesses and strengths.
You take a moment to imagine yourself kicking your kidnappers through a wall. The mental image gives you a warm fuzzy feeling in your belly.
Alas, you left Crescent Rose at home today. You didn't think that there would be a need to bring it with you for a five minute stroll to the shops. It wouldn't have helped you in your present situation since they would have confiscated it anyway, so the fact that your sweetheart isn't in the hands of some weirdo is actually quite comforting.
You resolve to keep a close eye out to look for any information that might help you.
0000: tug a lil on your ties. see if they're solid.
You try to break out of the ties using force, but sadly they don't budge. They seem to be the type the police uses to restrain criminals, rather than the ones normally used for luggage, so breaking them is way harder.
Even if you did break out of them though, the only way out would be to fight off whoever opens that door. If you can get a weapon, even if it was just a small knife or something, you think you could take on anyone as long as they aren't trained in combat, but your hand-to-hand combat skills are nil. Maybe at some point you'll have to think about rectifying that.
The van door is opened and you finally get a glimpse of your captors. One of them is pretty unremarkable aside from the fact that his nose turns upwards in a way that makes him look like a pig, and you could probably have gotten away from him on his own even without a weapon, but you are 95% certain that the second guy is half ursa. Trying to get through him unarmed would end badly.
0000: lie, tell them yer not a virgin. This seems like the smartest course of action for now.
"Uhh, guys? I hate to burst your bubble but if you're planning on using me as a virgin sacrifice or something its not gonna work because I'm… You know… Not one."
The two men momentarily freeze in their tracks, disbelief etched onto their faces, before the ursa lets out a bark of laughter.
"Nice try kid," He says. "But if we just needed a virgin we would have just used Paul here."
Piggy gives him a dirty look. "Hey man, she didn't need to know that."
Ursa shrugs. "Doesn't matter, she'll be dead in 15 minutes anyway." He grabs you and slings you unceremoniously over his shoulder. "The only requirement for the ritual sacrifice is that they're young, and you meet that unless you're secretly fifty years old."
You ignore him and take note of the fact that you are currently at the docks. The area around you appears to be deserted so calling for help is unlikely to do anything aside from annoy the Ursa.
The Ursa carries you towards the open doorway of a warehouse, pausing momantarily to drop his scroll into a box by the door, which you note that in addition to containing a bunch of other scrolls also contains a handgun. That could come in handy if you can get to it.
As you are taken inside, you examine what they've got set up.
*Wow…* You think to yourself. *These guys are the lamest cultists ever.*
Their ""Sacrificial Alter"" is a plastic table with some ropes tied to it. The multitude of candles that take up a good chunk of the warehouses floor space are cheap, scented ones. In addition to this, you're pretty sure that the robes that the thirteen cultists are wearing are literally just bathrobes with hoods sewn on.
The summoning circle looks fine, but the containment circle that they've drawn around it is one designed for demons significantly weaker than anything that would require a human sacrifice. You also have no idea why they've drawn another circle around the ""Alter"", as you've never heard of a ritual where that is necessary. They've also coated the walls with runes. The runes look vaguely familiar to you but you can't quite remember where you've seen them before.
There are at least a few of things in this room that look professional. For a start they seem to have done a decent job installing heavy blackout blinds over all the windows. One of the cultists (who you assume must be the leader) has a simple stone knife tucked into the belt of his bathrobe, and the fact that its so ordinary looking, as opposed to the gaudy knives that most cults use, means that its probably a legitimately powerful artifact. Finally, next to the ""Alter"" is a large, clear glass bowl filled with water. It looks ordinary enough at first glance, but you can feel an immense amount of magic radiating off of it.
The Ursa places you on the ""Alter"", cuts off the cable ties, binds your hands and feet with the ropes, and walks off with Piggy to put on their own bathrobes. You give the ropes an experimental tug, and discover that the Ursa is actually very bad at making knots! You could probably get out of your bindings at any time, but you'll need a plan of action otherwise the cult will just grab you and you'll be back to square one again.
What do you do?
Wait for the head cultist to get close with the knife and grab it off him
Wait for a clear path to the door and go for the handgun
Other (please specify)
The number is 0001.
0001
0001: going for the handgun is too risky; you don't know if it's charged, and you might get caught on the way. Grab the head cultist's knife as soon as you can and stab them. You have the surprise effect. What's the worst that could happen?
0001: Wait for the head cultist to get close with the knife and grab it off him
0001: Go for the knife.
Knife it is! Now you just need to find a way to get the leader to come closer.
"Is everything ready?" The leader calls out. "Have you checked that there is no light aside from the candles?" There is a chorus of affirmatives from the other cultists. "Wonderful! Begin the ritual!"
The cultists all pull out notebooks and begin reading a chant out of them. They can't even be bothered to remember their lines, unbelievable!
0001: talk to them a lil, try to get out of them what exactly they're trying to summon.
0001: tell them how much their altar suck. Add that yourself has been summoned in a much classier altar, see if it freaks them out.
0001: complain about their incompetent sacrificial cultism
You yell at the leader. "Hey knife guy!"
He carries on chanting, but its clear he heard you.
"Hey, come on I'm talking to you"
He groans and snaps his notebook shut while gesturing toward the others to continue. "What is it?"
"What the heck is with the set up you have here? Your candles are terrible, you're wearing bathrobes, and you couldn't even get a proper stone alter! I'm actually kind of embarrassed to be a part of this right now."
"How… How DARE you! Watch your tongue you fool!"
You're clearly hitting a nerve, so you keep going. "Admit it! You blew all your budget on the knife and the bowl and had nothing left for everything else."
The cult leader opens his mouth as if he was about to yell at you again, but then seems to visibly deflate before your eyes. Looks like you hit the nail on the head.
"Actually, we only managed to buy the knife before we were all bankrupt." He says mournfully. "The bowl, and the instructions for the ritual itself, were gifts."
"Gifts? From who?"
"A patron! Someone who recognised our incredible talents!"
You notice that as he has been talking he has slowly been walking towards you. You just need a little more and you can go for the knife. "And what does this ritual do exactly? If I'm gonna die for it I at least deserve to know."
He smiles. "It will bring about a new age young lady. You see, up until now, no one has been able to bring into this world a demon strong enough to rule because gathering enough sacrifices to do so is time consuming, and draws the wrong kind of attention. But my patron has promised me that this single-sacrifice ritual, along with the bowl as a vessel, will produce energy more than twelve times greater than a single life would normally produce."
He giggles madly, and takes another step forward. He is on the edge of the circle surrounding your ""Alter"" now. Just one more step and he'll be close enough for you to go for the knife."
Meanwhile, the leader continues his speech. By now he is visibly panting from excitement. "With the power we gain today we will be unstoppable!"
Actually you're starting to think that excitement isn't the reason why he's panting.
"We will be able to perform even grander rituals and harness the power if the gods and titans of old!"
Yeah he's really starting to not look so good what the heck is going on?
REJOICE CHILD! You will be part of something great! IT ALL BEGINS HE…. It all begins her…. It all begins… It all…"
And with that, he keels over, dead as a doornail.
Well… That does make things slightly easier you suppose.
The sight of their leader falling snaps the other cultists out of their chant.
"Boss! Are you alr… Are you alri….." One manages to stammer before keeling over in a similar fashion.
All around you, the cultists are dropping dead. You notice that the runes on the walls are glowing, and finally remember what they are. They're ones meant to suck life-energy out of a sacrifice for use in a ritual. The circle surrounding your ""Alter"" seems to be protecting you from the runes' effects. In other words: These guys ended up using a ritual that kills all participants EXCEPT the intended sacrifice.
For the rest of your life, whenever you make a mistake, be sure to look back on this moment and think to yourself "Well at least I didn't screw up as badly as those idiots."
You wriggle your way out of your bindings, no point in staying in them anymore after all. The glow of the runes fades, their job complete. Its probably safe to leave the circle now. You feel a rush as the cultists' life energy is collected in the bowl, causing it to glow faintly blue.
The ritual is almost complete, and the summoning has now begun.
Bad does not begin to describe the current situation. One human sacrifice will bring out a fairly strong demon, but thirteen sacrifices won't just bring out a demon thirteen times more powerful than that. As you increase the sacrifices it has a multiplicative effect, so whatever demon, or demons, come through thanks to this ritual will probably be sixty to seventy times more powerful than what was originally intended.
That's enough to wipe Vale off the map.
By now the Hunters will have detected the energy the ritual is producing, and if the containment circle was halfway decent they might get here in time to fix things, but it would barely hold an Imp-class demon, never mind whatever being is about to come through the rip between worlds. You need to do something to disrupt the ritual NOW before it completes, but you don't have much time.
What do you do? (AN: There are three correct answers, and so you may vote for any three options. Whichever three get the most votes will win. You will need two correct answers to disrupt the ritual. Failure perform correctly will have an immense impact on how the story progresses from here. Good luck!)
Extinguish the candles
Rip off the blinds
Destroy the circles
Damage the runes
Tip over the bowl
Break the knife
….Of course you could also flee. You'd most likely be dooming the entire city, and you would almost certainly hate yourself forever for your cowardice, but there is a chance that you may escape.
The number is 0002
0002
FINAL SCORE:
Candles: 6 votes
Blinds: 4 votes
Runes: 3 votes
Bowl: 7 votes
Circles: 3 votes
Knife: 1 vote
You picked 2 out of 3 correct answers: Blinds, and Bowl. The third correct answer was the runes. (It should be noted though, that extinguishing the candles WOULD have helped disrupt the ritual, but the quantity of them meant that it would have taken far too long to extinguish enough of them to have an effect. I guess you could say you got 2.5 out of three correct.)
With your choice made, you leap into action. You first grab the bowl, gasping in surprise as touching it reveals that its not made of glass, but rather some kind of unmelting ice. You then fling the water that the bowl contains over the candles, dousing more than half of them.
You stamp out a few more candles as you rush towards the first blind. You tear it off, flooding the room with the grey light of evening. You then move on to the next, and then the next, and then the next….
By the time you are finished, the warehouse is a complete mess, with ripped blinds and stepped-on candles littered everywhere (and that's not to mention the corpses). However, there is a notable absence of demons, and you can feel the energy of the ritual fading. There might be a few minor demons wriggling through the crack between worlds that the ritual made over the next few days before it closes up, but that's nothing to really worry about. You did it!
Now you have to make another choice. Do you stay and wait for the Hunters to arrive, or get out of here to avoid awkward questions? Its probably best if you stay here, since you won't get in trouble for running away and you'll also probably get praised for stopping the disaster. From where you're currently standing, you can't see any reason to run away.
If you choose to stay, you could also have a look around at the remains of the ritual. Perhaps you could find something interesting out (its unlikely that you'll get in trouble for tampering with evidence considering how much you've already wrecked the place).
What do you do?
Stay and wait quietly.
Stay and examine objects at the scene (Most interesting objects are: the knife, the bowl, the lead cultists notebook, the scrolls that the cultists left outside. Pick whichever two you want to look at the most, as after that the Hunters will arrive and you won't be able to look at any more)
Get out of here before the hunters arrive
The number is 0003
Author's Note: Congrats on stopping the ritual guys! I almost kind of wish I made it slightly harder to guess the right answers, but that may have been a bit unfair.
I must say I'm kind of surprised that no one deliberately tried to pick wrong answers to let the ritual go through. I can pretty much guarantee you that later on a few of you will be going "Huh. If I had known this back then I would have let the ritual complete". That's not to say that letting the ritual complete wouldn't have been a bad thing for Ruby (probably would have put this up there with the time she called the teacher mum on the worst moments of her life rankings), but… you'll see.
It should be noted that just because you can't see the benefits of picking an option right now, that doesn't mean that there won't be upsides later. Of course, that doesn't mean that there aren't downsides either. Generally I'll try and give you enough information to make an informed decision though.
In this particular part there are actually no decisions that can be called bad. There will be an impact though, so choose carefully.
0003
Stay and examine the bowl and notebook were the most voted for choices.
You decide to try and figure out a little bit more about what happened here while you wait for the hunters to arrive.
You start with the bowl, since it seemed to be the main focus of the ritual. Despite the fact that you dropped it fairly roughly earlier, it is completely undamaged. You can also make out small runes carved into the inside now that the water has been emptied.
As you lift the bowl up closer to your face, you suddenly see a reflection of a pair of pale blue eyes staring out of it. You drop the bowl again with a shriek, and immediately feel really glad that no one is around to have heard it.
You hope that what you just saw was only a trick of the light, but you doubt it (its never just a trick of the light when it comes to stuff like this). In any case, you really don't want to touch that thing again.
Next you go and retrieve the cult leader's notebook from his hand (EW! EW! EW! HE'S ALL SHRIVELLED UP AND NASTY AND A CORPSE AND UGH THIS IS SO GROSS!). A lot of what is inside is just the gibberish that they were chanting during the ritual, but towards the end of it you find a bit of interesting information.
"The ritual does not have a specific target, summoning one or multiple demons at random. It can however be influenced via the conditions in which the ritual is performed (in a forest you will get a plant demon, in a cave an earth demon, using animal sacrifices may produce a Grimm etc). Given that the ritual vessel that we will be using is made of ice, there is a high probability of an ice demon being produced. When we voted we decided we would most like a shadow demon so perhaps by blocking out as much light as possible, and balancing the ice with a large source of fire (candles or something similar), we might get lucky."
Wow these guys didn't even know what demon they were calling. Even in death they keep finding ways to lower your opinion of them.
As you place the notebook back down on the ground, the warehouse door is kicked open, and a large group of uniformed Hunters and Huntresses rush in, guns at the ready, led by a severe-looking woman with white hair. You remember hearing about a company of Hunters from the Atlesian military visiting Beacon. You guess they must have volunteered to help out.
The white-haired woman looks over the scene with a frown, her gaze eventually settling on you.
"I don't suppose you have an explanation for what happened here?" She asks.
What do you say?
The number is 0004.