Inquisition

                                    

                                              
Challenge #11: Write a work of interactive fiction beginning with a knock on a door.
                          
   	 	
                          
1 
                          
You knock on the door. 
                          
There is no answer. 
                          
Knock again: 2 
                          
Shout: 3 
                          
2 
                          
You knock again. 
                          
"Who's there?" calls a voice from inside. 
                          
Shout: 3 
                          
Kick down the door: 4 
                          
3 
                          
"This is Inquisitor Kostov of the Empress' Hand!" you bellow through the wood. "Open the door immediately!" 
                          
"A moment, please!" calls the voice from inside. 
                          
Senator Vye is a prominent figure in the City, and a crowd is beginning to form. 
                          
Grant him this mercy: 5 
                          
Kick down the door: 4 
                          
4 
                          
With practiced ease, you drive the heel of your boot into the wood just beside the handle. 
                          
The jamb splinters. The door crashes open. 
                          
Step inside: 6 
                          
5 
                          
A moment - no more - and the door opens. 
                          
Your gesture draws no respect from the crowd: they know only fear. 
                          
Step inside: 6 
                          
6 
                          
Your party makes its way silently inside. 
                          
The eyes of the crowd are wide as Syndergaard sets a chair in the centre of the room, and Creegen slowly shuts the door. It takes all your will to meet their gaze. 
                          
Sooner or later, your old commander said, you will become as terrible as the things you are sent to destroy. 
                          
You like to think you haven't yet. 
                          
"Sit," says Syndergaard. 
                          
Senator Vye obeys. 
                          
Read him the charges: 7 
                          
Speak to him honestly: 8 
                          
7 
                          
"Anaiah Vye," you read from the Empress' writ. "You are charged with these crimes: practicing witchcraft, conjuring miasmas, summoning profane creatures..." 
                          
"It's not true." 
                          
Creegen begins to swing the cherub's horn on its cord, the instrument producing an unsettling roar. 
                          
"...and the harbouring of maleficent spirits." 
                          
Senator Vye stares at you with tearful eyes. "I haven't done anything!" 
                          
Reassure him: 9 
                          
Read him his sentence: 10 
                          
8 
                          
"I know better than anyone that not every accusation is true. I understand--" 
                          
Creegen begins to swing the cherub's horn on its cord. Wincing at the noise, you raise a hand for him to stop. 
                          
"I understand that this may all be for political gain. But you must understand that a charge of necromancy cannot go ignored." 
                          
"And yet even if I am found innocent, my place in the Senate will never be restored." Vye fixes his eyes on yours.