Lock in Chapter 1's literal opening scene

The village square at the mountain's foot, party roles established
(tank/paladin leader, ranged ranger, support mage, melee rogue), the
funds bicker, and the cowgirl teleporter's too-good-to-question,
one-way-only offer up the mountain - the innocent-sounding line that
seeds the whole chapter's central complication. Adds character stubs
for the three other party members and the teleporter, and confirms
the bubbly ranger as the first to abandon the mission.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Sonnet 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

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
+**Opening scene.** The story begins in a village square - a small, quiet
-them straight up the mountain for next to nothing. What the party doesn't
+settlement with one modestly bustling street, the last real point of
-yet understand is *why* it was so cheap - a teleporter at the mountain
+civilization before the mountain range swallows everything beyond it. The
-doesn't care what they're carrying upward, only that it gives them an
+bubbly ranger enters first, delighted just to be somewhere new, already
-excuse to make the climb, since all that actually matters to them is
+itching to go sample everything the village has to offer. The rest of the
-filling their mana hauling ore back down (see World Notes). Getting a
+party follows a beat behind: the party leader, steadfast as ever, keeping
-teleport back *down*, they'll soon learn, is another matter entirely.
+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
+they signed up to finish. The bubbly ranger is the first to go, no longer
-trek down the mountain the old-fashioned way.
+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
+- The party leader's name and background.
-  hunters who split off from his party.
+- Names for the bubbly ranger, the fratboy mage, the rogue, and the
-- The mining town's name and its rare ore.
+  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