GravenImage

The inscription reads //Mortals attend as you pass by And learn of me that you must die How swift the fleeting minutes pass 'All flesh," thePprophet cries, 'is grass'// The last line has sunken partially into the ground, but you know the words by heart. (set:$gravepeeping to it + 1) [[< ->stones]]

You actually knew her, poor bastard. She was the one who had this job before you. (set: $gravepeeping to it + 1) [[< ->stones]]

A death's head framed with wings crowns the stone. The cartoon face is mushy, half a cherub and half a skull. Its distinctly triangular nose marks it as the unmistakable grave-carving work of [[Winston Wright->Winston]]. (set: $gravepeeping to it + 1) [[< ->stones]]

Winston Wright, 1748-1789, was a widely renowed stonecarver, and by all accounts, a rather obnoxious prick. He's buried in a wealthier cemetery on the other side of town, under an extremely ostentatious headstone of his own design. [[<->stones]]

You sink your shovel into the earth and |D1>[dig]. (click:?D1)[|D2>[Deeper.]] (click:?D2)[|D3>[Deeper.]] (click:?D3)[[Deeper.->deeper]]

# Car Trunk The car thunks open, sending a rattle across the whole of the old machine. Your gear rests inside. {(if: not ($has_shovel is true))[ [[Take Shovel ->take shovel]] ] (if: not ($has_cutters is true))[ [[Take Metal Cutters->metal cutters]] ] (if: not ($has_parchment is true))[ [[Take Parchment ->take parchment]] ] (if: not ($has_wax is true))[ [[Take Wax ->take wax]] ]} [[Close Trunk->graveyard entrance]]

(set: $cut_chain to true)Your metal cutters cleave the snake like butter. The cut is silent, but it is followed by the hissing of the chain falling to the leaf-bedded soil, and the gate screeching open, freely abiding to the uneven and unoiled hinges. [[Back->graveyard entrance]]

Your shovel thuds against [[something->digsite-exhumed]] less yielding than soil. (set:$exhumed to true)

A headstone, carved in a perfect replica of Humility Cotton's style. Fresh carved, painstakingly, in your own hand, this morning. The date read 1673. { (if:$has_shovel is true)[[[Now, to see if anything's taken the bait.->bait]]] (else:)[[[Now, to see if anything's taken the bait.->noshovel1]]] } [[<->graveyard path]]

{(if: $cut_chain is not 0)[ A shining thing, it snakes around the bars. ](else:)[ A broken chain has no use.] } [[Back->graveyard entrance]]

You trudge deeper into the graveyard, past the old cemetary (link-reveal: "You walk.")[(link-reveal:" And walk.")[ And walk. Until you come to the [[stone where no body lies buried->digsite]].]]

# Graveyard Entrance You stand before a weathered black iron gate. Behind you, your car sits patiently in the mud. You hear distant birdsong and you smell fresh dew. {(if: not($cut_chain is true))[ A bright chain shines around the gate's iron bars, marrying the two doors. ](else:)[ The gate is open. ] (if: $cut_chain is true)[[[Enter Graveyard->graveyard path]] ] [[Inspect Chain->gate chain]] (if: $has_cutters is true and not($cut_chain is true))[ [[Use Metal Cutters to Cut Chain->cut chain]] ] [[Open Car Trunk->car trunk]]}

#Graveyard Path (set: $gravepeeping to 0) A yard of weathered white stones stand erect over sunset-colored leaves. A place constructed for dead humans becomes the deathsite of many other things. {(if: $has_shovel is true)[Before you lie a 1000 stones and 999 corpses. The shovel weighs heavy and time is running out. ](else:)[ You stand empty handed. Do you plan to dig with your hands? ]} [[Return to Car->graveyard entrance]] [[Examine the Stones->stones]] {(if:$exhumed is true)[ [[Get to work->digsite-exhumed]] ](else:)[ [[Get to work->get to work]] ]}

Crowding the curling walls of the mooncapped fogshaft sit a thousand figures of Gargoyle Grimdeath. Winged figures, all, motionless and scrabbling. All the world's atmosphere seems fog now -- the spirewell stretching impossibly high, with a moon now impossibly remote. A piss coloured pebble of worldFUCKED hope-fascimile getting further away with each passing moment. Grin down they do. And they perched there with their chitinous limbs of exopuissance, allowing them their unnatural fog purchase. The [[incursi]] are here, you really fucked up now.

Bastard children of Mind, they If death is but Sleep with another face, and the WORLD WE KNOW EARTH is the marital bed of God and his Children. Incursi. Incursi are the sleepless things born out of mindlock. The opusses conceived in the magnum ovum mindwombs of antiquities' most prolific lunatics. hypnogogic hamulluculi crawling into the world from the brain brine amniotic void door (Death bed). The first Waking day, the death dreamers whose bedtime prayers out of the fel world dwellers [[fuck!]]

(set: $has_cutters to true)You take the metal cutters. [[And with it I will divide->car trunk]]

You have no shovel. No matter. You kneel and place a hand on the cold earth—palm down, fingers splayed. And you [[wait]].

The glyphs aren't from any language that has ever existed in your world, but you carefully copy them down while cross-referencing against other inscriptions recorded on your parchment, noting down any new variations on the pattern. You don't have time to do a full decipherment now, but you can analyze it all in detail later. (set:$transcribed to true) (set:$contagion to it + 1) For now, [[back to work.->digsite-exhumed]]

You pull a lighter from your pocket and soften the wax, then smear it across the coffin. The work of sealing incursi is more symbolic than physical. The wax //marks// it as something Other, prevents it from asserting itself as a part of our reality. (set:$sealed to true) [[>->digsite-exhumed]]

Barret told you to pay no mind to the writing. Said it wasn't worth it—nothing there but madness. You're not so sure, though. There's too much we still don't understand about the incursi. If we can figure out more about where they come from, how, //why//, there may yet be a way to put an end to this once and for all, rather than scrabbling in the dirt night after night. You argued with her over it more than once, but, well—[[she's not here now, is she?->not here]]

You stroll past rows of familiar names. [[Here lies buried ye body of Prudence Coffin Departed this life 17th of October, 1783 ae. 23 years->Prudence]] [[Cicero Fish Loving husband and father Died Jan, 1845->Cicero]] [[Wife of Judah Barret Died 1823 71 years of age->Judah]] (if: ($gravepeeping > 2))[A crow caws loudly. Dawn approaches.[[ You are wasting time|get to work]]. ]

(set: $has_parchment to true)You take the roll of parchment. [[And with it I will chart->car trunk]]

(set: $has_shovel to true)You take the shovel. [[And with it I will seek->car trunk]]

(set: $has_wax to true)You take the dyed beeswax. [[And with it I will mark->car trunk]]

You can feel it down there. The incursus reacts to your presence, reaching up thin tendrils of potentiality. //I have always been here.// //We have always been here.// //You have always been us.// (set:$contagion to it + 1) (set:$felt to true) [[Enough of that.->digsite]]

Before the headstone sits the exhumed wooden coffin engraved with (if:$has_parchment is true)[[[spidery writing->spidery writing]]](else:)[spidery writing.] (if:$transcribed is true and $sealed is true)[The graveyard fogs shifts posture now, allowing a shaft of gangrene moonlight to pierce through, shining on your face like you are a wellbucket looking up into a citrine sky. A well wisher draws near my bucket. They are [[here.]]](else:)[ (if:$has_wax is true)[Time to do your job, [[warden->seal coffin]].](else:)[You'll need your wax.] ]

You run back towards the gate, towards your car. If you can just make it out, then your work will be [[done->wd]].

[[If you can just make it out.]]

[[You just need to make it out.]]

[[THE END]]

thank you for playing :)