Understanding the Menu

Bryan and Conrad spent another hour figuring out the parts of the menu while Nubia and Wanda stubbornly refused to ask for help opening their own menu's.

"Ok guys, bad news: we have exhaustively checked and there doesn't seem to be an 'exit' button."

"Bad Design."

"Tell me about it man. Anyway, that and the lack of an 'options' menu is the bad news, the rest is pretty cool."

Nubia smirked, "And here I wanted to turn on subtitles." Bryan beamed at her.

"Gather round, gather round... So:

1. We got the inventory: stick whatever you need in there and you don't have to worry about it again until you hit your carrying capacity.
2. We got the journal: has all your notes. Oh hey, looks like we already... nevermind, moving on."

He hurriedly clicked out of the journal and Wanda spoke up,"Wait what was that? It had my name in it!"

Bryan blushed, "Uh... well. Some games like to write down quests or events for you 'in character', meaning they're written as though you the character wrote them. But since this is a magic game, it's like a blow by blow of your experiences in your own words... which is actually pretty fucking cool but that particular passage is uh...(cough) private."

"Why did it have my name in it Bryan."

"Moving on!

1. Inventory...
2. Journal...
3. Questlog: Very important, it tells you what your current objectives are and evidently does not mark it on your map which is going to be super annoying later on... calling it now. Which brings us to:
4. Map: Exactly what you think it is, it shows you where you are, where you've been (or at least what you've discovered) and vaguely-ish where you need to go. Like I said, it's gonna be annoying.
5. Party Menu: This is the crazy one. Usually you get a personal character menu in rpg's but this one tells you the status of all the party members in one place. It's pretty neat."

Bryan brought it up:

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Galden Uren: Paladin

Strengths: Patron Goddess Vienna, Leadership, Charisma

Weaknesses: Magnetic Personality

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Ivana Shackledem: Witch

Strengths: Dark Magic, Occult Knowledge

Weaknesses: Mana Pool Recharge, Strength, Holy

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Caidog Whersmibeer: Barbarian.

Strengths: Strength, Size, Situational Stoneface

Weaknesses: Words, Non-Situational Stoneface

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Plyth Kuminsiedhe: Dhampir

Strengths: Stamina, Lifeleech, Stealth

Weaknesses: Diet, Bright Sunlight, Holy

"With my suddenly amazing grasp of the english language, and by therefore 'puns', I can't help but feel annoyed that you guys named my character Plyth Kuminsiedhe."

Bryan held up his hands placatingly, "We chose from a predefined list of characters and we are both really sorry." Conrad nodded stonily, "We honestly just thought it was funny and we obviously had no idea this would happen. Can you forgive us?" The last part slid out before Bryan could stop it and he held his breath as Nubia gave him a hard look. Her mouth twitched and he sighed in relief as she turned to hide her smile. Man what is up with me?

Then he realized the answer was staring him in the face, "Holy shit guys, these strengths and weaknesses are straight up affecting our personalities. I've been feeling really, just, well spoken since we got here and one of my strengths is charisma!"

The others peered closer:

Conrad scowled harder, "Weakness words... Figured that out."

Wanda squinted and smirked, "Stoneface makes sense too. Here I thought you were just super pissed about everything." Conrad scowled at the ground and Bryan gave Wanda a meaningful look, "I mean... who wouldn't be right? I totally get you, either way." For the first time since their arrival, Conrad almost seemed to not-scowl as he looked up at her.

"My weakness is sunlight?! But I love the sun! And I feel fine..." Bryan glanced at the afternoon sun shifting through the clouds, "Yeah I don't think this counts as bright sunlight. You probably get weaker at midday or something as part of the whole Dhampir thing." Nubia gave him a quizzical look and he elaborated, "Dhampir's are half vampires, they usually are stronger and faster than normal humans without most of a vampire's normal weaknesses. Based on these admittedly unhelpful stats... you probably have to worry about crosses, midday sun, and... diet. Hm..."

Nubia scrunched up her nose, "Does that mean I have to drink blood?" Bryan shrugged uncertainly at the same time Conrad nodded grimly. "We can worry about that if it becomes a problem... hopefully it doesn't."

"You guys made me a witch?" Wanda actually sounded a little hurt.

Bryan wasn't letting her turn it into anger: pitching his voice higher he faux-complained, "'Oh man, you guys gave me a super-hot avatar who sort of looks like the real me but with magic powers? I'm so mad...' That's you. That's what you sound like."

Wanda gave him a weak shove but couldn't hide her smile, "Shut up! What about you? Why do you have so many good traits? How is a 'magnetic personality' a weakness?"

He shrugged, "What I can't figure out is how the whole 'patron goddess' thing factors into this. Is she a physical entity? Or do I get a passive buff when I pray to Vienna." Bryan was suddenly overcome with blinding white light and, for the second time that day, instantly found himself in a completely different place.