Fiction | Game | Medium Adventurers League ⚔️

Mansion by the Lake

A Primatria quest, part 1

This is part of a story that works as an interactive game. You’ll need to have dice and a notepad at the ready! Click here for the beginning of the Medium Adventurers League, or here to return to rebel bar.

It’s time to find a new quest, and earn some silver.

For a few hours, you struggle to get anyone in Rebel Bar to talk. But then, after you drink a couple of ales and glare at a few locals, a dwarven rogue beckons you over.

“Got a couple of days spare for a job?” he asks gruffly.

“Sure, if the price is right,” you respond.

He nods, sniffs, then pats his coin pouch. “Don’t you need to know what it involves?”

“Is it dangerous?” you shoot back.

“Probably not, at least for you.”

“Then just tell me your fee.”

He slowly pulls our five silver coins. “A token payment up front, but there’s much more when the problem is dealt with. I need you to go to the Wailing Lake, and get some villagers to stop being a problem for my mistress.”

“Sounds easy enough. What are these villagers doing that’s such a problem?”

“Just… being,” he responds.

You gulp. Is he seriously expecting you to slaughter an entire village? Even for you, that would be cause to hesitate…

But now your would-be employer leans in. “If my mistress is to build her country house by the lake, the villagers need to not be there. As to where they go, that’s up to you. I just need you to move them on from their current home, Selkirk Village.”

You breathe a sigh of relief, sweep up the five coins, and stand. “And when the job is done?”

“Another forty silver. And, I’ve been told, maybe a special gift, if you get things sorted quickly. My mistress has an interesting collection of ancient artefacts. It wouldn’t hurt to impress her…”

Soon, you are leaving town. It’s a chill, windy day, and locals and travellers alike hurry past, cloaks gathered close around them.

You look at one family who cross the street ahead of you, and wonder if they, too, were country villagers at some point. Perhaps the locals by the Wailing Lake could be persuaded to move to the city?

But then again, you can’t pay them to go, or you’ll lose your profit…

Pondering over the task at hand, you set off on the road north.

Check out the map of the realm here!

You know that you don’t have far to go on the main road. And sure enough, you’ve only been walking for an hour when you see an ancient watchtower ahead. It stands by the shore; you know that by night, a fire is lit to warn ships about the rocky reef nearby.

For now, it acts as your signpost to turn inland, and move along smaller, country roads. Local roads. It’s still cold and breezy, but you have warmed up as you walk. You pause to take a drink and a bite to eat, looking around for passers-by or for danger. But for now, you see nothing beyond a squirrel scampering on a nearby tree branch.

Remove one day’s rations from your character sheet.

You press on.

Before long, you begin to see signs of civilization— small cottages with smoke rising from their chimneys, and simple folk working in their cottage gardens.

You pause to speak to one of these locals, asking about Selkirk Village. The older woman looks you up and down, her arms folded. “There’s nothing there for the likes of you, I’ll say that much.”

“Probably true enough,” you reply. “All the same, I need to visit. People that I need to see.”

“Which people? I should know their names, I bet.”

You clear your throat. What should you say? You’re not sure it’s wise to tell the woman your true plan…

You decide to…

1. Lie — make up a name (click here).
2. Ask about your mysterious benefactor, the woman who is building a house by the lake (click here).
3. Tell the local to mind her own damn business, and answer your question (read on below).

You decide to be firmer in your approach.

“Just answer my question, woman,” you snarl, pulling back your cloak and putting one hand on the hilt of your sword. “Where is Selkirk Village?”

(Here is a link to a dice-rolling app!).

Social encounter: Intimidating the locals.
Challenge rating: Medium (roll 13+).
Roll using charm.

If you fail, the woman utters a string of curses at you, then hurries into her home and bars the door. Lose -1 reputation, then click here.

But if you succeed, read on below.

The woman pauses, looking over her shoulders in both directions, perhaps wary of who might overhear.

Then she takes a step closer. “Perhaps I should have been more helpful,” she says in a low voice, glancing at your sword as she speaks. “It’s not far from here. Take the left path when you reach an old oak that has been struck by lightning. Then, follow the lakeside until you see a hillock with a ruined tower, and from there, head west for a half mile.”

“Good enough,” you say, letting your cloak fall back over your weapons.

“Don’t tell them we spoke to you,” she mutters.

Click here to continue.

Thanks for reading — and playing! ⚔️

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