Temple of a Thousand Doors

[kitoba]

This is sort of a game and sort of a low-key RPG based on a location in Michael Ende's "Neverending Story".

Basically, each room in the temple has two or more exits, which are alike in all significant ways except one. When the player chooses an exit, they enter a new room.

For the purposes of our game we'll have two alternating types of plays. The first type will be to choose a door and tell why. The second play will be to describe the new room (which reflects the last choice in some way) and a new set of exits.

(I know it's a bit risky/complex to try to have two types of plays, but I like the idea of keeping the choices and the consequences separated. You don't have to stick to any one role when you play, you can switch as you like. If we don't have enough players I can either be permanent player one or permanent player two as needed.)

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PLAYER ONE: You are in a plain white room. It is small and square. The door you entered by is locked. On your left is a plain wooden door painted white. On your right is a plain wooden door painted black.

PLAYER TWO: I pick the white door because to me it represents a fresh new start.

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You leave the square white room and enter a new room filled with bright white mist. It is hard to see anything through the mist, but you locate two exits by touch. One door is completely smooth. One door is very rough. Which one do you choose?

[Edguy]

I choose the rugged door, as it seems much more like a back door than a main entrance. Not knowing what lies ahead, I figure it's wise to stay low key.

[Zillatain]

The previous room impaired your sight, now this room impairs your sense of smell.

The room is paneled entirely in rough hewed cedar planks. The odor is very overpowering.

There is a door in the ceiling and one in the floor. They look identical in construction. Upon closer inspection, the lower door is cold to touch and you can make out a (very faint) musty smell. The upper door feels hot but you only smell cedar.

[kitoba]

I choose the upper door, because I prefer to travel up than down.

[Steave]

You climb up through the door and almost break your neck as you fall down from the ceiling. Lying on your back looking up at a mural of a clear blue sky you see the door you fell from in the centre of a painted sun. It is far to high to reach however there seems to be two doors in a wall painted to look like the ocean. The doors are positioned to look like doors to a ship. They are very similar but for one small variation. The door handles are moulded into the shape of coiled rope. One coiled clockwise. The other not.

[drachefly]

I like time travel, so I take the counter-clockwise door.

[kitoba]

You find yourself in what appears to be a musty old antique shop, filled with strange artifacts, but to your immense irritation, everything seems to be permanently immobile and attached securely to the spot where it is. Nor can you break, open, or significantly interact with any object in the room in any way --except for two wooden cabinets, which seem (Harry Potter/Narnia style) to be this room's exits. One cabinet is tall and roomy, the other is squat and claustrophobic.

[Solara Hanover]

I take the squat and claustrophobic cabinet, for I am short and squat and not so claustrophobic.

[Zillatain]

You open the door and see it is completely dark. But darkness doesn't bother you, so you move forward. The door closes behind you. No light can be seen.

As you are moving forward the walls and ceiling start getting tighter. You are almost getting stuck, when suddenly you're past and fall on your face. Pushing yourself back up, you see some light up ahead. Also you can sense that you are in a very large space, but you can not see the walls. It is oppressively dark.

Moving somewhat quickly towards the light, you start to make out that the light is a lamp that is hanging from the ceiling over a small oak table. Following the wire upward, it disappears into the darkness. On the table is a paper and what looks like an unlit flare. The paper has words on it.

You have very little time to decide.
Is it the door to heaven you want to the left?
Or is it the door to hell you want to the right?
Or would you rather be in limbo?

(OVER)

You pick up the paper to see the reverse, and are startled as the flare ignites. Looking back at the paper, it says:

Five minutes.
Flares are not immortal.

Tick, tock...

The ceiling light flickers then goes out.

[kitoba]

I'm pretty religious --I'll go left, thank you.

[CCC]

Left leads to a perfectly circular, brown room with two wooden doors, one to the left and one to the right. At first glance, the two doors are identical; vertical planks, brass doorknobs, arch-shaped.

Closer inspection reveals that the left-hand door has the hinges on the right-hand side, while the right-hand door has the hinges on the left-hand side. (Both doors have the doorknob on the right-hand side, however).

[Zillatain]

Before choosing, I decide to catch my breath after running to this door before the flare went out. Which it now sputters and dies.

Also this room looks nothing like what I would can "heavenly". Oh well, I think I'll go with the left door since it appears to be created by a warped or humorous mind. I would like to see more.

Just hope I can get exert enough leverage to open the door.

[Steave]

Owww! You've given yourself a serious sprain but at least the door is open. You step into the next room and feel a sudden sense of loss. You remember a perfectly circular, brown room but somehow you feel there was more. Something that you can't remember. You try to return but the door from which you entered has disappeared. It is with a heavy heart that you examine your new surroundings.

What a mess! Tables and chairs lay upside down with books and pots on top of them. You notice the books all have their spines on the right. The handles of the pots are at the bottom and the handles for the lids are on the inside. There is a manikin dressed in the corner you can see a jacket underneath a white shirt and some cleanly pressed trousers underneath a pair of spiderman boxer shorts.

There seems to be only two ways out of this madness. A couple of windows are on the same wall. They both look out upon a green field with a single tree however through one the tree appears to be a lemon tree, the other looks like apples.

[kitoba]

What can I say, I like it tart! I dive for the window with the lemons.

[CCC]

The window opens, and leads to a small, square room. There's grass on the floor, and a lemon tree growing in the middle of the room; but what looked like a nice, blue sky with puffy clouds turns out to be a painting on the opposite wall.

To either side, not visible when entering the room, stands a pair of doors. Both are yellow, with odd-shaped doorhandles; the one to the left is lemon-shaped, while the one to the right is banana-shaped.