You scream, but the sound doesn’t echo. It… vanishes… swallowed whole.
You ration your light source, using it only when the dark grows too heavy to bear. But even in total darkness, you can feel the space around you moving. This cave isn’t empty… its waiting…
You start finding things that aren’t stone. A bag identical to yours laying against a wall. Inside you find a message
Don’t follow the voice. It learns you.
You don’t remember writing that…
(You gain the [Paranoia] condition for 6 hours. You cannot use Assist or Defense (Another) actions. Max Stacks 1. Mental Endurance to Resist)
The voice returns. Soft at first. Familiar. It sounds like you… calling your name from somewhere deep in the tunnels. The words used are only ones you would know, memories only you have…
You stumble forward following the narrow passage that scrap skin from your hands and arms.
(You gain the [Injured] condition for 4 hours. You take a -1 Penalty to Impact Rolls. Max Stacks 5. Avoid or Balance to Resist)
There you see it.
Yourself.
Its facing away from you, standing impossibly still. When it turns its face was almost right… but stretched, like someone had tried to recreate it from memory alone. Its mouth opening too wide when it smiled. It speaks your name again, and you can’t help but feel something inside answer.
(You gain the [Stressed] condition for 2 hours. -1 Penalty to Development rolls. Max Stacks 5. Mental Endurance to Resist)
You run.
You don’t know how long you run. Your legs eventually give out and you collapse into a chamber so vast your light source can’t find the ceiling. The ground is sticky here. The walls not quite stone anymore. Etched in the floor are footprints… thousands of them— overlapping, circling, leading nowhere.
All of them are yours.
(You gain the [Stressed] condition for 2 hours. -1 Penalty to Development rolls. Max Stacks 5. Mental Endurance to Resist)
After an unknown amount of time your light finally dies. Total darkness now. You can hear movements in the walls, slow and patient. The cave doesn’t rush. It knows you can’t leave. Its learning how to finish you, the way you might savor the last pages of a book.
The cave remembers how to be alive…
And you’re forgetting how…
(You gain 1 Fracture)