#codex calluna

As you stand on the vast moorland, near where the hills end and the bog starts, your mind rushes with anticipation. Today, you are going to RAISE THE DEAD!!!

… More specifically, you’re going to try necromancy on some dead frogs. You’ve been practicing for months, and now that you’re 12 years old, you feel like you should at least be able to make small animal skeletons move. 

First, you’ll need to find some bones. 

All you need to do is search the large, carnivorous pitcher plants and sundews that grow in the area. There are a lot of plants, so it would be easier if you had someone to help you search. This is where your pet golem, Pete, will come in handy. You like to mold him into a different shape every time you remake him. 

This collaborative choose-your-own-adventure comic is called Codex Calluna. A new page will be posted every Saturday evening (est). If you would like to, reblogs mean more people will be able to see this and participate!

You want so badly to throw a mud ball and knock her off that unicorn. But you don’t. Suddenly, you feel like you’re being watched by dozens of metal eyes inside your head. It sends a cold chill through your teeth. Just as quickly, the feeling passes. Maybe you’re too close to the bog already. 

You tell Heather that she’s the dirt-brained one, for trying to go any further into the wasteland. You warn her about fairy circles, the cold, and all the ways a person can drown. You’re not very good at coming up with insults, but you make sure to say the words ‘idiot’ and ‘stupid’ as many times as you can. Heather just stares at you like she’s waiting for something. 

When you get around to warning her about how bad miasma can get out there, her expression cracks into a nasty smile. She interrupts you. “That’s not real, you know! Bad smells can’t hurt you. Here you are, calling me stupid, and you don’t even know basic science!” 

Oh. Here she goes again. You’re pretty sure this is a prank. She’s tried convincing you of this before; that there are tiny invisible animals that make people sick. Something that has never been said by any scientist ever. Maybe she’s being genuine and is just very confused about how elf-shot works. As she goes through her “jerms” speech again, she hops off of her unicorn and walks to stand next to you. She looks down, sees Pete returning with his latest batch of bones, and gasps. 

“You’re trying necromancy, aren’t you? Oh, you’re going to be in so much trouble when you get home. Or you would be, if I told people. But I’m nice, Katylein.” She says this like she thinks you aren’t nice. “I won’t tell a soul about this. Is that a ritual circle? That’s not how that should look, for necromancy. It’s about directing energy. You’re going to set something on fire.” 

She grabs one of the larger bones, bends down, and starts erasing and redrawing random lines from the ritual circle that took you 20 minutes to draw. 

This collaborative choose-your-own-adventure comic is called Codex Calluna. A new page will be posted every Saturday evening (est). If you would like to, reblogs mean more people will be able to see this and participate! 

Archive blog with only the comic pages: here

You spend a very long time trying to decide what shape to make Pete. You immediately decide against a human or cow shape; A human would be too boring, and you don’t want to even try making something imaginary like a cow. The decision you struggle with is whether it will be a rat or a dragon… you really like both animals.

You decide you like dragons a bit more, so you gather up a mound of dirt and sculpt it into the shape of a tiny wyvern. You were thinking about rats so much while sculpting that it ends up looking a bit rat-like… that’s fine. It’s still clearly a dragon, even with the whiskers. 

You take a little stick and carve his name into his forehead (it’s the only thing you know how to spell in Shebic), and then you use petramancy to bring him to life!!!

He doesn’t need any instructions from you, he automatically knows what to do. You’ve made Pete so many times that he can basically read your mind. He runs off and starts searching the pitcher plants and sundews, quickly finding plenty of little bones. You’re so proud of him.

He drops the skeletons he's collected so far at your feet, and then turns around and runs off again to collect even more. Suddenly, you hear soft hoofbeats approaching. You turn around and see…

YOUR ARCH NEMESIS!!!!! ... It’s Heather Destrier. She thinks she’s so much better than you just because she’s a year older and knows history facts and is the daughter of a baroness. She thinks she’s better even though she has a weird haircut and a weird dad. One time she put a worm in your food when you weren’t looking. And she’s always saying mean things. Mean things like… “Ugh, what are YOU doing here?? You’re like, a two hour walk from your house… Did you get lost?? Is your brain made of dirt?? Is your dirt-brain the reason you’re always playing in the mud? That's so embarrassing for you.” Heather says.

You bet she’s just jealous that you can make a golem and she can’t. It doesn’t stop you from feeling angry. More than angry, though, you’re confused. Why is Heather riding her unicorn all the way out here? Right now, you two are at the farthest point into the bog you feel comfortable going. If a person goes much further they start running into the fairies, the harpies, the water monsters. They start running into the deceptive blankets of ground that float above the water and suck you in when you make a wrong step. Heather could die if she rides out there. You think about what you should say next.

Your first thought is that warning her away from the bog will be a great opportunity to call her an idiot, and just insult her in general. And she'll totally owe you one for saving her.

Your second thought is: why even warn her! If she gets lost that’s her own fault. You should skip straight to the insults. You could even remind her that her dress is illegal. She hates that.

Your third thought is…maybe you should try to stop her from going any further… by force. She needs to be saved from her own stupid decisions!! You could use magic to knock her off her unicorn! It would totally be for a good and moral reason. And not just because you want to knock her off her unicorn. 

This collaborative choose-your-own-adventure comic is called Codex Calluna. A new page will be posted every Saturday evening (est). If you would like to, reblogs mean more people will be able to see this and participate!