diff --git a/story.md b/story.md index 911e1b19..21fd3b8d 100644 --- a/story.md +++ b/story.md @@ -72,13 +72,45 @@ king's word as gospel without question. Even so, the job needles at him from the start: why this person specifically, why this remote location - questions he swallows, because it isn't his place to question the king. -Getting to the mountains feels like a stroke of luck: a teleporter takes -them straight up the mountain for next to nothing. What the party doesn't -yet understand is *why* it was so cheap - a teleporter at the mountain -doesn't care what they're carrying upward, only that it gives them an -excuse to make the climb, since all that actually matters to them is -filling their mana hauling ore back down (see World Notes). Getting a -teleport back *down*, they'll soon learn, is another matter entirely. +**Opening scene.** The story begins in a village square - a small, quiet +settlement with one modestly bustling street, the last real point of +civilization before the mountain range swallows everything beyond it. The +bubbly ranger enters first, delighted just to be somewhere new, already +itching to go sample everything the village has to offer. The rest of the +party follows a beat behind: the party leader, steadfast as ever, keeping +everyone's eyes on the mission first and foremost; the fratboy mage, big +and boisterous; and the rogue, shy and silent, saying nothing at all. The +party: + +- **The Party Leader** - the group's tank/paladin. +- **The Bubbly Ranger** - ranged attacker, longbow. +- **The Fratboy Mage** - support and primary magic attacker. +- **The Rogue** - shy and silent but strong, the party's main melee + frontliner. + +They head straight for the village's guild hall to find a teleporter up +the mountain - there's no time to rest, and that urgency is exactly what +surfaces the party's first real friction: funds are already thin, and +every extra night spent in town is a night they can't really afford. A +minor bicker over money breaks out - nothing serious yet, just the first +crack. + +Eventually they find a teleporter willing to take the job: rugged, +plainspoken, a cowgirl through and through. She offers to take them up the +mountain for a third of what the guild hall was asking - a deal too good +to question closely. The catch, mentioned almost as an aside, is that she +can't bring them back down; she's got a contract of her own to honor once +she's up there. She waves it off as nothing much - they can figure that +out later, can't they? - and the party, just relieved to have a way up at +all, doesn't push it. + +None of them understand yet how ordinary an arrangement this actually is. +A teleporter at the mountain doesn't care what she's paid to carry +upward, only that it gives her an excuse to make the climb, since all +that actually matters to her - to every teleporter working that route - +is filling her mana hauling ore back down (see World Notes). Getting a +teleport back *down* the mountain, the party will learn, is another +matter entirely. They arrive to find an isolated, blizzard-bound mining town built around that rare ore. The culinary mage they've come for is well-liked and @@ -94,8 +126,12 @@ way down, and nowhere welcome to wait it out, the party fractures. Some see easy, guaranteed pay in the town's mines and no reason to stay loyal to a king who clearly doesn't value them; others still see the king's request - however small and uncertain the eventual payout - as the job -they signed up to finish. The party splits, and what's left sets out to -trek down the mountain the old-fashioned way. +they signed up to finish. The bubbly ranger is the first to go, no longer +willing to freeze and starve for a job that was never straight with her. +The party splits, and what's left sets out to trek down the mountain the +old-fashioned way. +*(Whether the fratboy mage and/or the rogue also leave here, or stay +through to the castle: TBD.)* What remains is a smaller group, supplies dwindling, no clear sense of why any of this is still worth it, hauling what feels like dead weight: a @@ -319,6 +355,42 @@ and no one else, at the cost of her own life. The protagonist has no memory of her. *(Name: TBD.)* +### The Bubbly Ranger +One of the party leader's original bounty-hunting party - the group's +ranged attacker, fighting with a longbow. Enters the story first, ahead +of the rest of the party, delighted at the chance to explore the small +village at the mountain's foot. Her enthusiasm doesn't survive the +mountain: she's the first to abandon the mission once the party's stranded +and broke, unwilling to keep freezing and starving for a job that was +never honest with her from the start. +*(Name: TBD.)* + +### The Fratboy Mage +One of the party leader's original bounty-hunting party - support and +primary magic attacker. Big, boisterous, overconfident energy. Whether he +stays with the party through to the castle, or leaves alongside the +ranger: TBD. +*(Name: TBD.)* + +### The Rogue +One of the party leader's original bounty-hunting party - the group's +main melee frontliner. Shy and silent, says almost nothing, but +physically strong and imposing - a quiet contrast to the ranger's +bubbliness. Whether she stays with the party through to the castle, or +leaves alongside the ranger: TBD. +*(Name: TBD.)* + +### The Mountain Teleporter +A rugged, plainspoken, cowgirl-type teleporter met at the village guild +hall at the foot of the mountain. Offers to take the party up for a third +of the guild's asking price - a deal too good to question - and mentions, +almost as an aside, that she can't bring them back down; she has her own +ore-hauling contract to fulfill once she's up there. Framed as an +innocent, easily-dismissed detail in the moment, it's actually the seed +of the chapter's central complication (see World Notes on Teleportation +Magic). Likely a one-scene character, not expected to reappear. +*(Name: TBD.)* + ### The Party Leader The story's second main character, and whose perspective opens Chapter 1. Leads the band of bounty hunters secretly hired by the king to retrieve @@ -491,9 +563,13 @@ intentionally undefined for now. doing now - allies, threats, or unaware of each other entirely. - Why the king specifically wanted *this* mage, from *this* location - deliberately left unanswered in Chapter 1, to be paid off later. -- The party leader's name, background, and what became of the bounty - hunters who split off from his party. -- The mining town's name and its rare ore. +- The party leader's name and background. +- Names for the bubbly ranger, the fratboy mage, the rogue, and the + mountain teleporter. +- What becomes of the bubbly ranger (and possibly the mage/rogue) after + they split off from the party at the foot of the mountain. +- The name of the small village at the mountain's foot, and the mining + town's name and its rare ore. - Whether/how the party leader and protagonist's paths cross again after Chapter 1. - Whether teleportation magic (and its rarity) becomes relevant again