Introduction

This is what I intend to read to my players before we begin the game.

An eternity of darkness precedes you...

For the first time, you are aware of your existence. For a short time that is all there is of you - an affirmation of existence, but it doesn’t last. A shrillness and unpleasantness starts to fill your being, and every moment it intensifies. Before long, your existence is filled with this sensation; not heard, but felt. Within moments, every particle of your being - both mental and, you realize, physical - is tingling, buzzing, then screaming with pain. It continues to mount, growing more painful with each passing instant, threatening your sanity until ----

---- Peace. Warmth spreads over you, silencing the pain, calming the clamor in your mind and the chaos in your body. You feel a sensation of recall - a sense of past, distinct from the now; almost the seed of a memory. This is... familiar. You shift, weightless, consciously moving your muscles for the first time. There is stiffness but no discomfort.

Equilibrium shifts in your center, and you feel a gentle current around you flow faster. As the stream quickens, you realize without fear that your current sensation is that of being submerged completely underwater. The pace of the water quickens again. You feel a sense of vacuum beneath you, and without warning you drop down into deep darkness, out of the comfort of the water and into frigid air, and you crash onto a hard surface with a wet slapping sound. Gasping from the shock, you inhale a great breath of air, and immediately begin to choke on the water that has filled your lungs. You clamber awkwardly to your hands and knees, your head down, coughing out water and quickly gulping the harsh air, until weakness fills your body and unconsciousness begins to take you.

Unfamiliar footsteps approach you as you fade to black...

...

You awaken in a small concrete block room. You are clothed in white robes and seated in a small metal 4-legged chair at the end of the room. The air is crisp and smells of ozone. Twenty feet above you, a small dome light provides fair but flickering illumination. At the far end of the room is a closed steel door.

Who are you? Where are you? Why are you here? These are among the questions that are welling inside your mind. Perhaps the answer is here.