The Witch’s Warlock's Game
I know the rules, show me the story!Take me to the dark, black truths!
The Witch’s Game is a pure battle of wits using nothing but text!
The game is played between two teams, the Humans and the Witch (or in this game, a Warlock).
The Warlock is the Game's Master, and everyone else plays on the Human team with the goal of defeating the Warlock.
The Game Master will weave together a tale, creating a scenario in which one or more people are murdered in a mysterious fashion.
The game is centred around these mysteries.
The Warlock's goal is to convince the Human team that the mysterious events can only be explained through the use of a Warlock's Magic!
The Warlock is allowed to use any amount of deception and illusions in their narrative to accomplish that goal. However, a Warlock can't be trusted!
After all, there's no such thing as magic right? The illusions shown in the narrative must have an explanation!
So, the goal of the Human team is to come up with an explanation, ANY explanation that explains how a human could have possibly committed the crimes.
The Human team wins if they are able to explain the crimes through human means.
However, isn't this too easy? You can just come up with any crazy explanation and claim that you have won...
But the Warlock is given a single weapon to fight against these crazy theories!
That weapon is the Warlock's
Black Truth!When the Warlock speaks in black, it will be the truth.
When the Warlock speaks the truth, it will be in black.By using the Black Truth, the Warlock is able to cut down opposing theories and preserve the illusion of magic.
Black statements are the only trustworthy words that a Warlock will speak. They are the only absolute truth within this game.In other words, if it's not in black, you have every right to doubt it!
The Warlock may use the Black Truth at their own leisure.
If the human team asks a question, the Warlock can choose whether or not to answer it in black.
If the human team asks for a statement to be repeated in black, the Warlock has every right to refuse should they choose to do so.
It's the Warlock's ultimate weapon!
However, isn't this a bit unfair, again?
If the Black Truth is the one thing in this game that can be trusted, what if the Warlock never speaks in black? What if they just never drops a single solid footing for the human team to stand on, and vanishes forever within the shadow of illusions?
With no lead, the humans stand no chance, which is why they are given a weapon of their own!
That weapon is the counteracting
white Truth!A white statement must provide a complete theory on how a mystery is possible for humans.
If the white statement is valid, then it MUST be countered in black, or the Warlock must forfeit that mystery to the Human team.
In other words, if the Human team can land a white Truth for every mystery in the tale that the Warlock is unable to counter, it is their win!
There is no limit to the number of white Truths you can say, as long as it provides a valid human theory, you can fire away.
That's the game's premise. If it doesn't make sense to you, don't worry. Once you give it a try you'll understand how it works very quickly.
The remaining rules are just some logistical guidelines to follow.
There will be one Warlock and Game Master for each game session.
The Warlock's Black Truths will be spoken in
Bold and the colour "black".
Everyone else is on the Human team.
The Human team's white Truths will be spoken also in
Bold and the colour "white" (You don't have to type this out. Hooray! 
).
Should the human team win, the person who lands the final white truth can decide the next Witch Game.
The last thing is a guarantee of fairness in the game. As this must be a fair game in nature, the Warlock must have an appropriate line of "logic" for the Human team to find. In other words, to be a fair game, the human team needs to have a fair chance at winning.
Any situation where a Warlock's black truths make it truly impossible to construct a white truth is called a "Logic Error". It is the one thing the Warlock cannot allow to happen on their gameboard.
In any situation where you don't trust the game itself and suspect a Logic Error has occurred, we can call in an "Observer".
The Observer will check that the Warlock's Logic is still valid and does not contradict any of the prior black truths.
Everything clear? Good, then let me present the gameboard of the fourth game.
The Fourth Game"You okay Kayla?" Her defeated face was defined less by her messy hair, and more by her baggy eyes.
"What do you think? I've been working on a project for the past 48 hours non-stop. Let's just hurry."You've never been on a train like this before; although it wasn't as modern like Japan's bullet train, it had its own unique style and mix between conventional subway trains and more traditional trains - 2 floors, bathrooms, and even a cart to obtain food. But enough of that. It was getting close to departure time, and you were still a couple blocks away.
As you turned the corner, you noticed a homeless looking fellow partially stumbling out of the path of an older couple, noting the older gentleman was about to strike him with the back of his hand before his (implied) wife restrained him. The couple quickly moved towards the platform, while you and Kayla steered clear of the vagabond staring at you with an almost lifeless hope. You looked back at the vagabond, noticing his plea attempt on a college student, but instead of withdrawing, the student instead decided to offer him some money, and the homeless fellow bowed repeatedly and took the money.
You look up towards the sign saying 'STATION b', realizing that it was supposed to be 'B', but the top part of the letter was worn out. The train was in sight, and eventually, the conductors came out to welcome all of the passengers.
["TRAIN. NUMBER. SIXTY-SIX. NOW BOARDING. HEADED TO:-"]All of the passengers boarded the train on the 4th cart platform; as you all congregated towards the entrance, you notice two 'punk-looking' teens (or young adults) snickering at the collision between a somewhat scrawny man with a suitcase and the student; the latter apologizing profusely and quickly gathering his dropped items. The former just annoyingly shaking his head after picking up his own possessions.
In the corner of your eye, you noticed a shadow move beyond the train, but maybe it was your imagination. The foggy weather wasn't helping. You entered the bottom floor.
After passing the bathroom and bottom row seats, and ascending the stairs, you look at the inside of the train - very well-kept, nice cushion seats, polished steel ceilings and walls, and enough overhead space for all sorts of luggage to be tucked into. Hell, a person could fit there! (granted, it wouldn't be very comfortable)
You decided to ask,
"Where do you want to si-""Here's fine." Kayla threw her bag under the seat closest to the staircase, and sat right next to the window, her head already resting on the Velcro detachable pillow. You didn't argue. The other passengers seemed to have scattered themselves accordingly, but you overhear a few hushed conversations here and there...
"Sir, just letting you know that you cannot sit in the Diner's cart until we have checked your tickets. You may however, purchase items and use the bathroom before we check tickets, but please remember that the VIP 2nd bath-""...dude, we should... ... alcohol; what are...-""O-oh! Sorry, pardon me... John, can you put this there for me?"
The Warlock had broke into the train and finalized his plans. He had saw demons all his life, but he did nothing... until now. His first two acts of manipulation were already done by taking the invisible blessing of a fiend and bloodletting himself to allow his pet to come on board. His next plan was to curse a fallen angel through her greedy ways; a healer who had known better but was corrupted over the years. She would suffer a slow and painful death, one that she would not be able to remedy in her enfeebled state.
Several minutes had passed by as everyone had seated. You note the elderly couple was sitting a few seats on the opposite row behind you; the older woman made a slight smile before returning to her book - her husband was busy flipping through a newspaper. You also spot the two skateboarders sitting up front... apparently poking and giggling at each other. A tall, thuggish man had sat behind them with a glaring face; the thuggish man and the two teenagers were facing towards the back, while you and Kayla were facing the front.
"Tickets please?"You hand your tickets over to the conductor for her to clip; her name 'PATTY' shown brightly on her name badge. More minutes passed, then the train slowly accelerated... the fog outside was substituted by an equally obscured sky.
A businessman had walked towards the diner's cart; you glance back at the thuggish man still glaring ahead, while the two punks (one with black hair, the other with brown hair) were oblivious to his stares. You turn away awkwardly to the window and realize Kayla was dozing off.
"Uh, it's okay to sleep, you know?""It's not that... " Her stomach grumbled.
The businessman busted through the door with a hoard of food; hot dogs, two diet cokes, cheese-stuffed pretzels and even bagels... the smell of cheese, cinnamon, and coffee perked everyone's attention in the cart it seemed, as everyone's head pivoted towards the man's meal. He took a few moments to press the door open to the 5th cart, then disappeared behind the tinted glass window on the door.
"...damn, that smells hella good..."You smirk.
"I'll get something then." The dark haired guy quickly sprung up and headed towards the diner's cart; everyone else followed a bit later.
The diner's cart was clean, but had chairs that were difficult to sit in. With the train shaking so much and making so much noise, the chairs were unstable - a woman (who wore expensive clothing) sat near the food server. Both of the female conductors (PATTY and MARCIA from their name tags) were both standing by near the 2nd cart's doorway chatting. The dark-haired guy partially danced away with a bottle of orange juice; the food server, named 'SHANDELISE' from her badge, came to the counter.
"Oh hay, what can I git you today sir?""Two bagels with two cream cheese packs. And two cups of coff-", you paused.
"Er, scratch that, just a bottle of water also." You saw a glass door behind her leading to a staircase below, but saw a very obvious key hole. The other staircase across the food service area was blocked by multiple ribbon signs crossing the stairway handles stating, 'PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS FOR ENTERING OR EXITING THE TRAIN. THANK YOU.'
"Sure thang." Shandelise quickly turned and began maneuvering items from shelves and drink coolers towards the counter.
"You know what would be AWESOME with that? A screwdriver."Everyone turned at the dark-haired guy pointing at his juice in the air.
"SIR, I'm gon' need to see YO' OWN IDENTIFICATION fo' that trensaction." Shandelise retorted acidly. The elderly lady shook her head smiling, while her husband just grimaced. However, the thug's face hadn't changed at all - still angry. Rolling his eyes, the dark-haired skater chuckled and rhythmically stepped back to the 4th cart doorway.
You eavesdrop on the conversation that Patty and Marcia were having, despite their 'whispering'...
"I don't know about Jack's behavior, but he won't do it again I think... right Marcia?""It won't be if I catch him pulling the same ******* **** one more time. Tired of him getting away with this...""Well... what um, exactly was he looking a-""...Do I really need to explain that to you? Jus- no. Patty, if we were fined every time I walked by his STUPID laptop with some nasty stuff being displayed in 1080p HD, all of us would be declaring bankruptcy and the train itself would have to be sold for scrap metal as payment. Nevermind the fact that he just LEAVES his belongings and the laptop wide open while he goes downstairs and just hides in the bathroom for who knows how long. Even Elle once left a bunch of sticky notes all over the screen as some sort of half-baked attempt to stop it, but give me a break. I'm done with his ****.""If he does it again, Carl would be the one to deal with it."Marcia rolled her eyes and looked away. You paid for your items and returned to your seat. Unsurprisingly, Kayla passed out. Soon, the other passengers soon returned with their food items, and for several minutes, everything was pretty typical. You ate one bagel and kept the other one wrapped, just in case your co-worker got hunger pains.
"Bathroom?", you hear the brown-haired guy question to his close friend. The other nodded; he looked slightly disoriented based on his movements. Both of them headed downstairs... their footsteps faded into silence temporarily, as you heard an argument explode seconds later.
"W-W-WHAT THE HELL!? YOU CAN'T USE THIS BATHROOM TOO!""Chill the **** out fatass and wait or use another one, damn dude!""THIS IS ********! I CAN'T USE THE VIP BATHRO- OH **** IT."Two doors opened and closed, and a relative peace followed once again.
The warlock saw his opportunity; the Satyr had been distracted and as such, he placed a new hex on the Satyr's tool of chaos, noting that whoever would see it would be consumed by rage or overwhelmed by fear. Hopefully both. Time passed - and soon enough, the Banshee screeched at the illusion and began to call upon the Satyr for punishment.
More gray clouds and over the hillside. At this point, the city was far gone and now you had a few hours left until you hit your destination, but there were no towns or structures within sight. Just the weather and weeds. You glance through the tinted window of the diner's cart door and notice someone waving their hands in frustration. You ignore it. However... the call from below couldn't be ignored.
"Dude. Dude stop... Uh... um.....oh, heeyyy, Zack? Crap, h-hey uh, hey, HEY someone? HELLO? Can I- er, we get some help down here please? ANYONE? ooOo-Oh g-god..."The older couple looked at each other and at you; you realize you've been staring at people all day, and turn around.
"Betty, don't be messin' with those kids now-""Oh stop it. I'm going to check on them, they need someone!"The two of them descended the staircase. The thuggish guy quickly got up and went into the 5th cart, placing his hoodie over his head. Something seemed definitely off at this point, but... no, don't think about it.
No time to waste - the Warlock had demons to enslave, remove, and of course, test for his own purposes. He quickly manipulated the fiend towards him, and then with a flick of his wand, levitated a gigantic worm of disgusting proportions over the fiend, using the wand to quickly incinerate their souls in a pit of offal. A befitting punishment for these two similar creatures.
But he wasn't done. Forsaking his previous power of invisibility for teleportation, he warped from the bottom floor to the inside of the driver's cart, where the Banshee, the Satyr, and two other imps had spun around in hostility. His enchanted wand had purged them of their armor and abilities, and shot fireballs through both of the imps heads. Summoning a portal, the warlock banished the Satyr into its abyss, while finally exorcising the Banshee into nothingness.
Your curiosity gets the better of you and you head downstairs to the bottom floor, where Zack is lying down. Irregular breathing, sweating, shivering, and the worst - a small trail of vomit from the bathroom to his (once) current position. The train began shaking more violently than usual.
"YOU HAVE TO HELP!" the brown-haired guy screams at you.
"Leo, now you listen to me here boy; we're going upstairs and we're gonna find someone that can actually help or someone to stop the damn train so help can find us."The old man and Leo swiftly run up the stairs towards the diner's cart apparently to grab a hold of Shandelise.
"What's going on? Why is he like this?" you questioned the old lady softly.
She guarded her chest with both her hands.
"I don't know. I don't know what to do to be honest, but all I can do is try to talk and make sure he understands us to let him know we're here and getting help."You look at Zack again, his eyes now starting to dart between the both of you. Betty soon began to call for her husband and climbed the steps - wait, what are you supposed to do with this guy? You knelt down and noted that his lips weren't just chapped... something was seriously messed up with them. Footsteps behind you clanged on the metal, and the woman from the diner's cart from earlier had donned glasses. Leo followed.
"I'm a medical professional here; Doctor Olivia Charter - what happened?""I don't know! He just started to feel sick, and then he vomited, and then-""...y-yyou..." Zack coughed up something before continuing,
"pp-poooi-s-soonn..."She paused before kneeling down, looking suspiciously between you and Zack.
"Wait... you were the one who gave him the damn juice!" Leo shouted.
"Look, I don't know what's going on here, but I didn't do a damn thing to him! I can save him, I have medications that can stop this condition. Both of you need to hold him still though because this process won't be easy."You follow her orders, but you feel that this isn't over yet.
The warlock was furious now - the fallen angel was not gone, but he had no way to get to her... but how?
His translucent eyes let him spy onto the other demons in the train... some of them were easy pickings, but he wanted to save his magic for only the most deserving. In a bold attempt, he managed to lure one of the demons in the diner's cart towards a blood ritual; a ritual so bad that the horror alone would cause all of them to implode into nothingness. It worked like a charm, and he had no qualms creating a tempest to scatter the elements - he no longer had a need for teleportation, for his powers had grown ten-fold as a result of the chaos.
A few minutes pass and Zack is able to breathe normally again, but you tell them all that you're going to alert Zack's status to the old couple and the driver's cart. You go up, pass Kayla (who hasn't moved a bit), and enter the Diner's cart... only to find it completely empty and in disarray. The signs over the closed off stairwell were ripped to shreds, and a trail of plastic forks and knives lead to the bottom.
Cautiously stepping down, you enter the bottom of the diner's cart - a single hallway with multiple storage closets, all seemingly locked. A key is on the ground. Before you can touch it, you note that it has been seeped in an unidentified liquid, and its odor was too strong to deal with. Ditching the key, you head to the 2nd cart's bottom floor and... upon turning to the bathroom, see the body of the meal-hoarding businessman covering the body of another person... no, too much blood. It leaked from their heads in a slow, coagulated manner. You have to alert the drivers NOW.
Fully satisfied, the warlock no longer cared about his original target and decided to press forth - another worthless monster stood in his way, but this one was far stronger than anticipated. Although he was able to force the beast towards the earth, he was unable to shackle it, and found himself in a dreadful position. Instead, he decided to unleash all of his remaining power - while the blast itself caused the monster to fly into the atmosphere, it also caused damage to the warlock.
Now was the time to retreat - there was only one way out of this now... as a last minute attempt for survival, he summoned his pet to do his bidding, but when it refused, his anger boiled over to a most dangerous point.
You go up, see the door to the driver's cart is open and... this can't be real. With wind slapping your face at random intervals, you recoil and try to adjust, finally seeing the shattered windows, Marcia's lifeless body, and the drivers both dead. Marcia and an older man with a mustache were both laid across the floor, while the female blonde driver was slumped over the counter; multiple sirens were going off in this room, but with the overbearing sound of the wind, it was barely audible.
["EMERGENCY BRAKING SYSTEM OVERRIDE REQUIRED. EMERGENCY SERVICES ALERTED. EMERGENCY BRAKING SYSTEM OVERRIDE REQUIRED. EMERGENCY SERVICES ALERTED. EMERGENCY BRAKING..."]You also see that there is a roof panel open allowing light to come in, but no obvious way to get up there. At this point, you quickly grab your cell-phone and dialed 911 while heading back to the fourth cart. You swiftly arrive and Kayla is now awake, with Olivia standing near your seat.
"He's fine now," Olivia turns to you,
"...but they're locked in the bathroom. I can't get them to leave! They won't listen to me about how it's not safe here and we need to stick together.""Wait what? How long have I been asleep? I am so lost right now, what's going on?" Kayla blurted out.
You decide to tell what you witnessed to both Olivia and Kayla; their mouths slowly formed an 'O' shape. And then, a gunshot.
"...oh... sh,,, did we jus-" Kayla was interrupted.
"GET AWAY FROM ME! GET AWAY FROM ME!" You hear and see the limping college student - a complete mess, with blood trailing down his entire body - barely push the cart door open.
Olivia began to step towards him to catch his fall, but at that very moment, the train suddenly jerked and everyone was sent forward. The train was coming to a stop.
The doors to the bottom floor could now be opened as the train was fully stopped, but upon stepping out with Kayla, Olivia, Leo, Zack, and the injured student, the three police officers slowly pointed their guns at you... only to lower their weapons in realization of what happened. Two of them approached your group cautiously and began asking if everyone was okay. The third, however, entered the train through the 5th cart's door and immediately took notice of a homeless man stepping out of the bathroom.
"STEP AWAY FROM THE WEAPON WITH YOUR HANDS BEHIND YOUR HEAD." The officer commanded.
Your group turned towards the scenario, and there... the homeless man from early that morning slowly stumbled out of the train in a dizzy manner, hands on his head whilst mumbling something. Wait a minute, how did he even get on the train?
The officer kicked off two objects; a crowbar and a gun.
"What is he saying?" Kayla whispered to you.
You hone in; the homeless fellow spoke the words over and over...
"...Magic...? Magic...! MAAAGGGGIICCCCCCC~"The officers alerted everyone to not re-enter the train in case the suspect (the homeless man) had put any further traps... but, for some reason, you couldn't help but feel that whatever was going on, was definitely not through the use of any 'magic'. As one of the officers turned to you for question, you decided to give your own side of the story.
It doesn't matter what happens now, the Warlock thought. He already won, he already proved that magic and demons exist... and he, was a master of it all.
The officers listened to your story carefully, but took note of something.
"...and then after reaching the top of the stairs, you entered the driver's cart where you saw the three corpses of the train staff and ran off immediately due to fear and to find help possibly?"You claim yes and told them that's what you last saw before running off. Out of caution, one of the officers boldly decided to enter the train of the 2nd cart (the door had been opened as the train was stopped), and took a peek around. As the group watched the officer take a pause after turning to the bathroom, the officer then carefully stepped up to the top floor of the 2nd cart... only to come down back with a tense face.
"...are you sure it was three?" The officer asked.
"I'm pretty sure it was three, my vision isn't blurry-""I just counted four. There was a non-train staff person in that same cart who has apparently bled to death. Probably no older than 22.""Are you talking about the black guy?"Everyone besides you had turned to Leo at the point. The officer gave an eyebrow.
"...yes, he was black. And he was wearing a hoodie."You didn't realize six people were dead until this point. How did a corpse magically appear there?
MAGIC EXISTS:
- How is Zack's current condition possible without the use of magic? Solved!
- How could the people in the driver's cart have died without the use of magic?
- How could the people in the 2nd cart's VIP bathroom have died without the use of magic?
- How did Damien's dead body magically appear in the driver's cart after you searched it? Solved!
- How did Ivan get onto the train without the use of magic? Solved!
- How can there be people missing from the train if magic isn't possible?
