Renee enters the abandoned town with eleven ordinary strangers and two men whose secret hunger remains hidden. Dust drifts through the empty street as shutters knock in the wind.
Search every house. Find food, water, tools, anything that tells us why this place was left.
The group scatters cautiously. Doors groan open, cupboards yield only dry beans and mouse-chewed cloth, and old hearths stand cold beneath layers of ash.
I walked beyond the western field before sunset. The road was there, but something stopped me. I could go no farther.
Beyond the town, the boundary shimmers faintly in the lowering light, bending the distant grass like heat above a forge. No one dares approach it now.
Then we bar the doors before dark. Whatever brought us here, it means to keep us here.
As dusk gathers, two quiet men return from opposite ends of the street and join the others near the square. Their faces remain composed while the town falls silent.
✓ Quest Accepted
Find a way beyond the boundary
✓ Quest Accepted
Rebuild a house and have a roommate
“I choose a house and begin clearing its ash and broken debris.”
SUCCESS (Good Strength, rolled +0)
Renee chooses a narrow house near the square and shoulders its swollen door open. Ash lies thick across the floor, mixed with splintered boards, fallen plaster, and brittle straw.
She works methodically, carrying broken debris outside and sweeping the hearth clear with a cracked wooden stave. Dust coats her platinum hair and settles in the evening light.
Renee
The hearth was used after the house was abandoned.
Beneath the ash, she uncovers a sound flagstone and clears its edges. The room opens into a usable shelter, with enough floor space for supplies or a bedroll.
A faint draft moves through the cleaned hearth, carrying the smell of damp earth. Behind the chimney, Renee finds a narrow wooden niche containing a clay cup and a rusted iron key.
Several survivors notice the cleared doorway and begin hauling their own salvaged bundles toward the house. The abandoned room becomes the first place in town fit for guarded rest.
Outside, dusk deepens across the square. The two quiet men watch the work from opposite sides of the street, their stillness difficult to distinguish from patience.
“I invite one of the guys who are away from the group to be my roommate.”
SUCCESS (Fair Diplomacy, rolled +0)
Renee steps into the square and approaches the quiet man lingering beyond the others. She gestures toward the cleared house and offers him the shelter as a shared room.
Renee
You may share my shelter tonight, if you wish.
A practical kindness. I accept.
He crosses the square and enters without hesitation. His boots disturb the ash near the hearth, and the rusted key clicks softly against his belt.
Renee
The room has only one door and one window.
A woman carrying blankets pauses outside, watching the arrangement with narrowed eyes. Wordlessly, she turns away and tells the others the quiet man has claimed a place.
Bar the door after sundown. I have no wish to discover what walks these streets once the light is gone.
Quest Complete
Rebuild a house and have a roommate
Skill Upgrade: Diplomacy Fair→Good
