The Game at Carousel: A Horror Movie LitRPG-Chapter 63Book Eight, : The Provisions

By the time we made it back to the boat, we were in a dead sprint. The water was rising, and the river, which previously had ended at the banks of the muddy marshland, was now running through it because we had cleared the storyline.

We worried that the boat might get taken away by the current, or worse, that our little homemade homing beacon might be gone by the time we got there. Luckily, that wasn't the case, because when we got there, there was something pinning the little plastic contraption down to the ground so that it couldn't float away as the water rose.

It was Silas, the mechanical showman.

As we approached and realized what he had done for us, we were amazed. Water was rising almost a foot up his red wooden box, but he stayed there on top of the tracking device so that it wouldn't float away. We didn't have time to marvel at it, although Camden seemed to get a kick out of it, at the implication that whatever controlled this machine was on our side in some small way.

“The only question is,” he said, “is this a servant of Carousel, or did the consortium send it here, or does Silas the mechanical showman have a soul?”

He continued to ponder things.

We were in a hurry as the river rose, so we each quickly hit the red button one after another without examining our prizes. After we collected our stuff, we ran one after another over toward the boat in order to get it ready to start back on the chase.

“So what are we doing?” Cassie asked as soon as everyone had collected their rewards and was aboard the boat. “We just wait for that thing to float away?”

“That’s the plan,” I said. “Once the current takes it, we follow it.”

It was a simple plan.

“I almost forgot that the only reason we ran that storyline was so that we could make a turn in the river,” she said.

So much work just to keep moving forward, and when we got where we were headed, we were in for an even more challenging storyline.

For an animatronic ticket dispenser, Silas was showing a lot of free will all of a sudden, staying in that spot as his red box sank into the mud, his dull lights flickering, and the mannequin’s arms flailing, shining its little usher’s flashlight around. It was like he was waiting for us to be ready, holding down our tracking beacon until, eventually, he just disappeared.

A bunch of water moved in to replace him, and as it did, the plastic bag with the orange water wing and the magic cue ball surged up to the top of the water and began floating with the current.

We used the trolling motor at first because the marshland wasn't exactly deep, but we didn't end up in too many tough spots. Eventually, we could relax and follow the river through the marshland wherever the tracker led us.

Only then did any of us actually review our rewards.

I got two stat tickets and some money, as well as two tropes. That was a pretty good haul. I was the highest-level player on the team, and it was nice to start leveling again, even if it was only a bit at a time.

I looked over my tropes.

Type: Rule/Insight

Archetype: Film Buff

Aspect: Filmmaker

Stat Used: Hustle

Dodging kaiju, running from zombies, documenting ghosts, these are only a few of the tasks a camera operator must do during a found footage horror movie, all while getting the perfect shot.

With this ticket equipped, the user will always pick up useful footage while On-Screen if they are recording the scene with a camera or recorder. The shot will be clear enough to make out, and any background details, even those they might not have noticed at the time, will be captured when the film is reviewed. The recording might even catch things that weren’t there but could have been as the narrative goes on.

If it didn’t happen on film, it didn’t happen.

If I was understanding it correctly, that could be a pretty powerful trope. Being able to review old footage I had filmed to find new insights, even ones that weren't there to begin with, could be quite useful.

But it would require me to double down on a cameraman build. I still had a camera somewhere in my pockets.

While the power of a cameraman was undeniable in the Carousel meta, it was a real handicap in a lot of ways. It made it hard to develop my character, and it was distracting. But it was nice to have multiple builds I could adapt.

Type: Perk

Archetype: --

Aspect: --

Stat Used: --

Sometimes a character can be dead, but not gone.

While the Dead status is lit, the user will not feel physical pain and will be able to dull other emotions considerably. They will not require the basic needs of living, such as food, water, or even air.

Everybody talks about the bad parts of being dead. No one ever mentions the benefits.

That was quite a useful perk. It seemed clearly designed for a build that would make the player a reanimated dead person of some kind, but it would work with my method of using Cutaway Death. I had to wonder how many benefits I could squeeze out of a trope like that, or if I could justify putting it in my loadout at all. Feeling pain sucked, but I was used to it.

Cassie got three stat tickets as well as two tropes. She was the lowest-level player, and she had a nice streak going where she was stealing scenes and really driving the plot, even though she did kind of die with a whimper in the finale.

As best I could figure, Antoine’s Willpower Is Magic was actually what did her in. It gave her the ability to struggle against the familiar’s magical embrace at the cost of her own health, but she didn't have the grit for something like that. Ironically, she probably would have survived if that trope hadn't been in effect, but we would have lost the storyline, so it was well worth it.

Type: Action

Archetype: Psychic

Aspect: Seer

Stat Used: Moxie

As a psychic sheds their mortal coil, they often become more powerful than they ever were in life, their connection to the hereafter being that much stronger.

The user’s dying words gain incredible prophetic power, allowing them to shape the story in their final moments. However, such a power is not without risks. Their prophecy must stem from the story as it has been told.

Be warned, death is no time to get greedy.

That could be an incredibly powerful trope. The only danger was that she would have to have the presence of mind to make some prophecy that would be helpful, but not something that Carousel would warp into a monkey's paw situation, because she got greedy.

We could probably work through some templates that she could build off of. We weren't really in a good place for experimentation.

Type: Healing/Insight/Buff/Perk

Archetype: Psychic

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Aspect: Exorcist

Stat Used: Moxie

Near-death experiences often awaken psychic phenomena, but it isn’t always a superpower. Sometimes, a brush with death is just enough to let someone connect to the other side enough for a final burst of inspiration.

When any player in the story, or a similar ally, has a near-death experience where they are close to death, even moments away, they can receive a message from previously killed players or encouragement, love, or information. The effects will match the message and narrative. If poignant enough, it can actually bring the character back from what would have been a death blow.

If you get close enough to death, it might just say hello.

If I understood the text of this trope, it could basically bring someone back from death, or very nearly so. It was also a good emotional beat that paired well with Anna’s build. We might have to incorporate it.

Anna got the most stat tickets, at four. She also got two tropes.

Interestingly enough, neither she nor Antoine got the enemy collector ticket for Ol’ Nonnie. That meant that pushing her into her own brew didn't actually kill her meaningfully within the world of this story. It was probably impossible to kill a creature like her, but they had done enough to win the storyline.

Type: Buff

Archetype: Final Girl

Aspect: Girl Next Door

Stat Used: --

Being the last one alive means watching everyone else die. But death doesn’t have to be in vain. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Whenever the user is the Last One Alive, they gain stat buffs based on the dominant stats of all of their fallen allies. The more personal the On-Screen connection, the stronger the buff.

They got you to the end. Now, you have to finish it.

We never really wanted to rely on Anna being the last one alive. It was just a really precarious thing to plan around. But she was collecting enough tropes to build a good loadout for that strategy.

At the end of the day, it didn't cost much for her to devote herself to being a really powerful survivor.

Type: Debuff/Buff

Archetype: Final Girl

Aspect: --

Stat Used: Moxie

After a full movie of back and forth, fights, verbal spats, and general conflict, it comes down to the end where the hero must stare down the villain and call upon the most powerful words of all: names.

In the finale, reciting names will have more narrative weight. It might be calling on the names of the fallen, or calling out the name of the enemy in a showdown. These words can empower, and they can tear away.

Better not get tongue-tied.

This was another trope we would have to experiment with. The use of a name really was quite powerful, but when the only benefit was narrative weight, and that was a part of the gameplay we were still trying to master, it could risk wasting a slot. It had potential, though.

Camden got three stat tickets and three tropes. He was essential to our victory, even though he didn't get as much screen time as the rest of us. He sure suffered for every bit of information he got for us.

Type: Rule

Archetype: Scholar

Aspect: Researcher

Stat Used: Savvy

Planners in movies often have the whole strategy mapped out in their minds before their allies even know what is going on, but true leaders ask other characters for input.

The user may borrow an ally’s savvy-based Insight tropes temporarily, regardless of Archetype or equip limits. Replicating this exchange in the form of a conversation On-Screen give narrative weight to the information.

Now you’re really a know-it-all.

Our fallen friend Grace had this trope, and she'd used it on my hysteric trope I Don't Like It Here. It could be really useful in the right circumstances, especially if an ally had a savvy-based insight trope, but they didn't have a lot of savvy.

I could also tell that Camden would get a lot of satisfaction out of being able to use other people's tropes to learn things. It also meant he would be a viable scout now that he could use my scouting trope. That could take a big burden off of me.

I just had to find a way to make him think it was his idea.

Type: Rule

Archetype: Scholar

Aspect: Sleuth

Stat Used: Savvy

Information gathering is easy when holed up in a library, but gathering information while avoiding detection is another world of difficulty.

When the user searches for clues while under the nose of a nearby threat, suspect, or antagonist, they will have more luck finding that information.

Do you know what could have happened if you got caught?

A classic sleuth trope. While Camden didn't do a lot of sleuthing in general, it was definitely something he could work into the rotation.

Type: Buff

Archetype: Scholar

Aspect: Strategist

Stat Used: Savvy

A direct attack against a magical or fierce enemy will almost certainly fail for a normal person. The audience will have a firm idea of the power scales, and the average character cannot compare to the average enemy. But there are ways to throw off those scales.

The user's effective Mettle is increased when an attack includes intermediate steps between the user's action and the damage dealt to the enemy. Each step in the cause-and-effect chain adds more damage.

The bullet didn’t kill the monster. The chandelier that fell when you shot its chain did, though.

The moment I read chain reaction, my imagination went wild with the possibilities. I had little doubt that if it worked the way it seemed it would work, it could become a staple of his loadout.

Antoine got two stat tickets and two tropes, as well as an enemy collector ticket for the familiar.

Ol' Nonnie's Familiar

Feline Stitchling

Ah, the Familiar, Ol' Nonnie's darling errand runner, her ever-faithful fetch-and-carry, stitched together from the leftovers of guests who overstayed their welcome. A hand from a traveler who wandered too far. A jaw from a skeptic who asked too many questions. A generous length of spine from someone whose name was forgotten before the thread was even dry.

The Familiar did not hunt for sport or malice. It hunted because it was told to, and it consumed because that was all it knew how to do, swallowing its meals whole, keeping them warm and alive inside that patchwork belly until the Crone was ready to make use of them. One does wonder, though, whether all those borrowed pieces ever stirred in the night. Whether a stolen hand ever twitched with a purpose its new owner never gave it. Whether, somewhere deep in that quilted darkness, the threads remembered who they used to be.

At the end of the storyline, we all got one or two pips on the Adventurer's advanced archetype tracker, but Antoine got three, which put him at ten.

And as a result of that, he officially became the first member of our team to achieve an advanced archetype.

The Adventurer

Advanced Archetype

You are the Adventurer, the one who goes first and who has been there before. When the road ends and the map goes blank, you keep walking. Where others see the edge of the known world as a warning, you see it as a starting line.

In the face of the unknown, your mind is your compass, and your will is your engine. You don’t know of ancient cities or faraway places because you read about them in a book; no, you know about them because you’ve been there. You recognize the architecture of a collapsed outpost because you've crawled through three others. You can name the culture that carved those symbols because you've seen their work before, in worse condition, in a worse place. Your knowledge is not merely academic. It is earned in mud, blood, and altitude.

Will your drive to explore lead to your salvation, or will you and your allies be lost in the wilderness?

Story Alteration: The Expedition Plot

When the Adventurer's Archetype Ticket is equipped, the storyline undergoes a fundamental shift in structure. The story becomes an Expedition.

The threat is no longer concentrated in a single location or a single enemy. It is distributed across the journey. The setting expands. Distances between key locations grow, and the terrain between them becomes hostile, meaningful, and dangerous in its own right. Weather, wildlife, exposure, hired guns, navigation, legendary curses, and environmental collapse become genuine threats that must be overcome alongside the primary antagonist.

The tradeoff is real. The environment absorbs a share of the story's danger. The big bad at the end of the road is more manageable by default, but the road to get there will cost you. Players will arrive at the climax tested and depleted, but also prepared and changed by what the journey demanded of them.

I smiled widely as I read it. Well, it wasn't always going to be an advantage to turn a storyline into an expedition. There were certainly cases where it would be.

Being able to mete out the danger of a storyline across an entire expedition would be great, strategically. It was also great because it gave Antoine a path to use his physical stats for insight abilities.

I could tell he was quite proud of it, but he wasn't smiling too much, and he probably wouldn't for a long while.

Both of the tropes that he got were Adventurer tropes.

Type: Insight

Archetype: Adventurer

Aspect: --

Stat Used: Hustle

As the explorer pulls back the vines grown upon the ancient temple, she recognizes the markings as something she has seen before. It’s remarkable how far she had to go to find it.

The user will obtain knowledge that their character might know when they make discoveries of remote places or objects. The amount of knowledge will be proportionate to how far they had to travel or how difficult the traversal was.

The real treasure is the things you learn along the way.

This was a classic and quite useful. Being able to just know things about the history and lore we were delving into would really make him an asset.

Type: Rule/Buff

Archetype: Adventurer

Aspect: --

Stat Used: Grit

The Adventurer often has that sentimental item they carry with them wherever they go. Maybe it is the hat that creates their signature look, a special pack that has never let them down, or a knife that has gotten them out of some tough scrapes. Whatever it is, it is special, both to the explorer and to the movie.

The user can bring any item an adventurer might carry into the storyline. The more well-worn and sentimental the item, the more narrative weight it carries throughout the adventure, imparting great utility to even otherwise mundane objects. The user gets a buff to Hustle and Savvy for looking the part.

Dress for comfort, practicality, and that epic pose.

This trope did a lot of heavy lifting. It not only allowed him to take in a wide variety of weapons and tools into a storyline, but it also powered them up and rewarded him for dressing the part.

All in all, we took Antoine's achievement for what it was, and we celebrated to the limited extent that we could. We let it distract us from what was up ahead on the river because we knew, more than most people, the value of a good distraction.

But even as we tried not to think about the fight ahead, we knew that every mile we sailed down the river was possibly one of our last.