The Mirage

Escolhas

1. 1

   Investigate. Mirages distort real objects - there might be an actual structure out there.

   sem requisito
   Sucesso

   You walk toward the shimmer. The 'pond' evaporates as you approach, as expected. But the building is real - a half-buried concrete utility structure, its door ajar. Inside: shade, a temperature drop, and a rusted shelf holding two sealed tins that someone left and never returned for.

   Falha

   You walk for thirty minutes toward the shimmer. The pond vanishes. The building vanishes. There is nothing here but flat, baked earth stretching to the horizon. You've lost thirty minutes and half a liter of sweat chasing photons.

2. 2

   Ignore it. Mirages are mirages. Keep walking the actual trail.

   sem requisito
   Sucesso

   You note the direction and keep to the trail. The shimmer fades as the angle changes. Whether there was a building or not, it's off-route and not worth the detour. Discipline keeps you alive more often than curiosity.

   Falha
3. 3

   The way the structure's outline behaves in the heat shimmer tells you whether it's real or refracted.

   Bolt Action Rifles Mastery nv 3
   Sucesso

   You've spent enough time looking at distant objects through heat shimmer to know the difference between a refraction and a reflection. A mirage building would waver uniformly. This one has a fixed bottom edge - the foundation is below the thermal layer. The structure is real. You walk directly to it and find an intact pre-war pump station with a still-functional hand pump. The water is silty but drinkable after straining.

   Falha

   You study the shimmer and conclude the building is real based on its lower edge behavior. You walk out to it and find... nothing. The building was a refraction of a mesa formation three kilometers further east, bent by an unusual thermal layer. Your optics theory was sound but the variables defeated you.