The Caretaker Quest - Part 7

This is part 7 of the "side quest" for "Disappearing Hogwarts".
An unofficial alternate timeline based on HeadQM´s highly praised quest, Disappearing Hogwarts.
Reading the original story is not exactly necessary but heavily encouraged since this quest will contain references to it.
Created mostly as a place to wait while HeadQM was away for a while but slowly evolved into his own thing.

Quick recap so far:
>Recently graduated Ravenclaw student is hired at Hogwarts as the new Caretaker.
>Merlin somehow ended up inside your head.
>Harry Potter´s daughter died, letting Salazar Slythering (previously stuck inside her head) free to continue his quest to control The Beast, an all powerful ancient creature accidentally created by Merlin.
>He is currently now trapped inside a poor and weakened girl named Artemis.
>This bought you valuable time while you learn how to contain The Beast
>Hogwarts is slowly becoming an administrative mess now that Harry Potter himself disappeared.
>You have a private investigator lurking around Hogwarts and is heavily suspicious of you.
>You also learned an ancient powerful spell
>Fought Artemis while she was possesed by Salazar and took her to St.Mungos after defeating her.
>Merlin regained some of his senses back and you are now lurking around St.Mungos looking for an explanation.

What will happen now? Let's find out!

Part 6 here >>6236973

links to previous threads
Part 1:
https://archived.moe/qst/thread/6038711/

Part 2:
https://archived.moe/qst/thread/6080818/

Part 3:
https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2024/6122821/

Part 4:
https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2025/6159531/

Part 5:
https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2025/6196175/

Part: 6:
https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2025/6236973/

List of currently archived threads
https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?tags=Caretaker%20Quest
Thanks to IlvermoryQM for the links!
(if anyone can figure out a way to save the ".moe" threads into "thisisnotatrueending" that would be much appreciated)

In this quest, we'll play as Eric, a young man who has decided to try to resist the Urge as long as possible without feeling the magnificent power of the Orgasm.
However, he will have to resist the temptations of the Outside World.
I hope this topic doesn't violate the guidelines; if so, please feel free to delete the thread. I promise to be as unobtrusive as possible.
Let's consider this as Session 0 and create the character.

Let's start with a few questions:

>Setting: Do you prefer medieval, modern, or futuristic?

>What will Eric's height be: short, tall, or medium?

>What will his hair be like? Choose a hair color.

>Do you want him to have a weakness? If so, let's discuss it together.

One day, you suddenly find yourself groggily waking up in a WAYFISH world of WIZERDS that live under the eyes of the WUNDERWURM. Seems like a cozy room... Maybe a bit too cozy.
You're not here by complete accident. You've done your research on the WIZERDS. You've done your homework for the WUNDERWURM. And you're definitely starting to feel WAYFISH... In some way or the other. However, all of that is behind you.

You're currently in ???.
You think have to meet with a WIZERD.
You believe the WUNDERWURM smiles upon you.
You're feeling... WAYFISH.

An icy wind blows through the small, barred window of the interrogation room threatening to put out the only torch illuminating the small cramped space. The sound of dripping water patters to the ground in uneven drops as the icicle that had formed under the torch's sconce hours ago melted from the heat of the flame. It was an almost defiant sound as the water refused to return to it's icy prison. It was this battle of the elements that seemed to add to the tension of the small room. Across the table from you were a pair of guards clad in plate and chain mail. One of the two bore a full helm that he never removed. Part of you wondered why. With the temperatures so cold, it must have been incredibly uncomfortable to wear ice cold metal over their head. Or perhaps the helmet was slightly stuffy as most of the man's breath would be contained within the helmet thus keeping it warm.

The sound of something slamming into the table pulls you away from your thoughts. "I'm telling you. We know as much as you do!" Irene shouts as she glares daggers at the two men in front of you. The two of you had been in detainment for about an hour or so after the fight. The guard directly in front of you, a rather serious man who was clearly at the end of his patience speaks up once more.

"And we're telling you that it makes no sense that two foreigners, who just recently arrived, immediately find signs of heresy in our city. So we can only assume that you might have had something to do with this." He says, his arms crossed and hands tugging irritably at one of his sleeves. Irene throws her hands up in the air.

"What more do you want us to say? That we're here to kill the High Priest? Maybe burn the whole city of Valford and it's surrounding towns to the ground?!" Irene shouts back. "We've told you already! We're just travelers!"

"You'd do well to keep your servant in check, sir. Her outbursts look poorly on your house." The guard grunts out through gritted teeth.

"I'm not his servant! I'm his teammate! He's not even a noble!" Irene continues to shout. The two of them had been arguing in circles for quite some time and it seemed that the only thing you and the other guard had in common was that neither of you seemed to have the opening to speak up. Part of you found it very amusing and another part of you found it rather fascinating. Irene was never like this outside of the game. She was always far more calm and collected. As a matter of fact, you don't think you'd ever seen her angry at work.

Now choose you wrecker path either Pam a DEI agent or Riddles who's only personality is being black and long.

You are a Wizard working for the MAFIA
What are the wizards powers name motive etc
I will throw scenarios at Yall so be on your toes if the wizard dies than this thread is over

The world is ash.
The sky never clears.
And it is all your fault.

Once, you stood at the pinnacle of mortal ambition. As an archmage of the Red Hand, you commanded armies of zealots, twisted the forces of the world to your will, and cracked open the forbidden seals of the lower realms. Together, your cult summoned the Demon Lord—a living apocalypse who devoured the lifeblood of the world. Magic itself guttered and died in his maw, the oceans boiled, and the continents withered. When his hunger was sated, nothing remained but ruins, corpses, and the scattered remnants of his horde.

And yet... you endure.

You are immortal, though no longer mighty. Every spell has fled from your veins. The rituals of power, the storms of fire, the curses that once bent kings to your will—all gone. What remains are the secrets: hidden truths gathered over lifetimes of study, whispers of older catastrophes and how ancient races clawed their way back to power. The world has ended before, and it will rise again. But only if you seize the knowledge to restart the current of magic... no matter the cost.

The date is April 1st, 1669. The sky is afflicted by the rising presence of the CRANITORIUM, ushering in the FOOL MOON and the dominion of MONSTERS. This same skull shaped silhouetted bound to the earth with chains appears every 101 years, an entirely arbitrary number.

This horrible omen heralds the rebirth of LADY JOHANNA SUGGSALOT, an undying wretch driven by the ongoing suffering of man. With her legion of creeps, ghouls and ghosts, she seeks to drive a dagger of fear and misery into the very soul of humanity.

But that bitch is shit outta luck, because it’s YOUR time. You are SPHINCTER SMELLMONT, professional monster slayer and distant cousin to CLAN ARSENE (Thrice removed). You uh… don’t prefer your given name. So you’ve chosen a more fitting name for the a slayer of occult beasties. Something hard. Something TOUGH.
What is your name?

This is meant to be a discussion / feedback thread.

About the future of the quest. A couple problems have appeared as I ran it and checked the notes. First, over the past 3 months that I've tried my hand at various oneshots, I have mostly forgotten the plot. The notes are still there, and I remember the general direction, but the details of the scenes I planned are lost to time. I can reinvent them as I go (probably), so this is not a big problem for me, but maybe for you, my players, it will be a greater one. Lesson learned, do not take long breaks between threads without extensive note-taking.

The main problem is the progression and system of Monster Reincarnation. I've started it as a LitRPG type thing, with all the system notifications about health lost, skill usage, levelling up, formal quests - basically the entire videogame turned quest package. The difficulty about this is that it takes up a lot time to balance it against itself, remember all the stats and mechanics I invented, and integrate all the new mechanics I come up with (I did that over the course of the quest) for essentially no gain. Like I've said a couple times in the past, it is mostly fluff for the "number go up" feel with <span class="mu-i">some</span> but not a lot of effect on the plot and battles. Like "you have a freezing spell, so it affects fire monsters more" or "it takes few hits to kill a 300HP monster with 80 damage skills" type stuff without sure numbers behind it.

Over time I lost interest in this type of system. It's a lot of work to write down and update the stats and skills, think of how strong the later monsters will be and which skills it makes sense to give them, invent stats and skills befitting an NPC. Basically a lot of technical note-taking that you'd expect from a videogame database, not a questmaster.

I thought about retconning it completely, so the world doesn't work on skills and videogame mechanics anymore, but they're deeply embedded in the worldbuilding and the previous plot, so that would be a very different type of story. Also, most of the previous events wouldn't make sense without this system, so that would break the plot a lot.

Starting the quest anew, without it? I'm not sure you, my players, would be interested in that type of quest, or really even ready to go at the same premise for the third fucking time holy shit (fourth if you count the og quest by another QM). Also I didn't only work on mechanics, but also the lore of the kingdoms and gods, characters and history, so it'd suck to lose all of that and start fresh.
(1/2)

Your name is <span class="mu-s">Vincent Cruz.</span> You work at a small accounting firm somewhere in the middle of nowhere, Texas. By accounts, you are a complete and total nobody.

You've spent the last five years of your life doing the same monotonous routine day in and day out.

Wake up. Catch a bus. Suffer the indignity of underfunded public transportation for an hour. Arrive at work.
Get a cup of coffee. Go to your cubical. Work on financial and tax paperwork for eight hours.
Go home. Watch TV. Get a restless six hours of sleep.

30 GOTO 10.

That's the way it's been up to this point. The job pays well enough and the other options weren't much better.

Today begins as much as any other day. You step off the rolling hunk of steel which you could call a bus and into the looming shadow of your workplace, a grey steel and glass monolith that holds nothing but human misery inside. Just how you like it. Ha.

Your body and mind prepare to go on autopilot to get through your routine. Your legs carry you forward automatically and your face is set into the daily mask of impassivity.

You're stopped by the receptionist before you can even step foot into your office.

"Mr. Cruz." The chipper receptionist offers her usual plastic smile. "Mr. Cantwell would like to speak to you."
Oh. <span class="mu-i">Great.</span> Your manager wants to talk to you? You can already imagine the dragged out conversation he's going to put you through.

You slump your shoulders. "Okay. Thank you." Your body swerves down the hallway opposite of where your office is. It doesn't take long to find yourself in front of his office door. Lucky bastard actually gets an office all to himself. You knock on the door. No answer.
You check the doorknob and it's...<span class="mu-b">unlocked?</span> Huh. You open the door to reveal a room completely shrouded in darkness. You can't see a damn thing in here.

You have half the mind to leave right now... but you might as well see this little jape all the way through. Why not? You step inside and the last thing you remember is <span class="mu-r">two metal prongs being jabbed into your back</span> and the <span class="mu-r">accompanying surge of electricity flooding through your entire body.</span>

You wake up after God knows how long. You can't see anything and, as you try to get up, you realize your arms and legs are tied to something. There's a few whispers and footsteps then the bag gets removed from your head. It's still too dark to make out much of your surroundings, but you can make out what's immediately in front of you.

There's a man sitting on the other side of the stainless steel table that you're forcefully sat at. He's an older gentleman wearing a simple white labcoat with a turtleneck sweater underneath, late 50s if you had to guess. He adjusts the desk lamp (the only source of light in this room) to get a better look at you.

"I apologize for the, erm, troublesome circumstances that surround our little introduction." He lets out a forced chuckle. "<span class="mu-b">To keep it brief, you've been promoted!</span>"