The World Beyond is a community-based Choose Your Adventure story. The narrator will be exploring the various lands of a world, one that will be invented wholesale as the readers vote for the path the narrator will follow. After some time, the writer and narrator could conceivably change hands, too; I'm feeling this out for now. I don't know if this will work, but I want to give it a try.
[ic=Travelogue of Eveline, Part 1: Hantrum]
There exists in this world a town, not much more than a village truthfully, nestled at the mouth of the River Andronne. You may be forgiven for not recognizing the name of Hanturm, nor of Andronne, nor even of Hantrum's nearest neighbor, Essenville, for one well-traveled would not deign to there travel, and one well-learned would pay little mind to these, the loneliest of landmarks.
How can one describe Hantrum? It has walls, to be sure, and cottages both inside and out. There is a wharf, little more than a pier in truth, where the fishermen and trader boats dock on rare occasion. Inside the walls, the Elders hold sway; outside, homage is due to Count Durrig, who reigns, so it is said, in the remote north. In truth, there is rarely need for laws or courts, as in a place such as Hantrum, justice tends to be delivered through rather more direct means.
My father's family did not always live in Hantrum, so I am told. His roots to the village stretch back not more than two generations, when my grandfather, a man named Abnul, came here from a distant city, with my father-but no wife-in tow. The city they departed from has never been named, which the gossiping priestesses always claimed was proof that Grandpa Abnul was nothing more than a troublemaker.
On my twelfth birthday, Grandpa Abnul was abducted by the Hapshire Boys and put to death, under suspicion of cattle-rustling.
The three cows for which Grandpa Abnul died were later discovered as having wandered too near the Eldrenwood, where dark things prey. As punishment for their folly, the elders ordered the Hapshire Boys to make reparation to my family in the sum of three hundred ingots. The Hapshires have little gold, certainly not any imperial ingots, and what little they have is put to running scams on the side of the wharf. To avenge my grandfather, my father appealed to Count Durrig, on account of the Hapshires being outer-wallers.
Count Durrig sent a reply, or one of his men did, at least. Four words the Count's justice: "What is a Hantrum?"
My mother's family goes far back on the land, farther than even Hantrum. Before the Faceless Statues in the square were Faceless, before the Forgotten Names were Forgotten, before the Church of the Mystery had even discerned a mystery existed, my mother's family roamed the fields now belonging to Durrig, fished the River Andronne, and fought and vied with the things in Eldrenwood. Unlike so many, they did not abandon Hantrum when the cities grew large, did not flee from the Seven Invasions, and did not die in the River Plague. She has always been like the Andronne-calm, uncaring, and life-sustaining-but I am not my mother.
Now, seven years after Grandpa Abnul's death, the Hapshire Boys are again causing trouble. My father is too timid to speak against them, my mother indifferent. Things here never change; things never improve. There is a vast world beyond this village, past the Andronne, over the Shimmering Sea, over the Kingsway, past the brooding Eldrenwood! With a handful of coins and a spare change of clothes, I intend to steal myself away from this place. Like the Forgotten Names of the heavenly kings and queens, I hope to forget the very name Hantrum.
I shall bury Hantrum in a shallow grave, dotted with the tears of a twelve year old girl.
And I will walk away from that grave and that girl without remorse. I need only choose my course.[/ic]
Should Eveline:
[ ] Hitch a ride down the River Andronne with the next boat headed downstream?
[ ] Venture into the Eldrenwood, unarmed?
[ ] Travel down the Road to Essenville, the nearest approximation to civilization within her reach?
[ ] Explore the Fields of Durrig, in hopes of holding the Count's men to task for their negligence in dealing with the Hapshires?
I tried to upload a map but it keeps giving me an error, saying the "Upload folder is full." So use your imagination.
Explore the Fields of Durrig.
Hitch a ride down the river.
Quote from: Rose-of-Vellum
Explore the Fields of Durrig.
This.