Gates to Beyond/Story

Stanza

Stanza is the ‘canon storyline’, taking the player to each location in the game in a linear order.

Arc 1: Hamlet

Introduction

The player starts out hooded, with their features obscured, carried in a hay wagon to the centre of Hamlet. The driver, a character who shows up a few other times in the story, has a brief monologue regarding the conversation had between the two of them earlier on, affirming that they have reached the destination they wanted to reach, the House of Justice (otherwise known as Hogg House). The driver knocks on the door before pulling away in his wagon, leaving the protagonist to interact with the mayor of Hamlet, Bass Hogg (so named for the deep and bassy inflection with which he speaks). Hogg assumes the player character has been sent by Gordo, head of Forward Venture (the adventuring agency that has contacted him to deal with his town's problems), and asks to see their paperwork. Realising it has not been filled out, Bass Hogg takes the player into his office, effectively leading the player into character creation, which is a fairly quick process where the following sentences must be filled out:

• My name is ........... (Free choice, if left blank the name will default to 'Traveller')
• My ethnicity is ........... (Multiple choice between Marchlander, Flondrish, Bleaksen and Sliverian, with brief descriptions of each)
• I would describe myself as a ........... (Multiple choice between Duelist, Brawler, Ranger, Magician, Mechanic, People Person, Devout, or Nobody. This gives you a starting class and raises one skill of yours by 3, one by 2, and two by 1. If you are a Nobody, you start with a 0 in everything.)
• I am an adventurer because ........... (Multiple choice between 'I seek fame', 'I seek power', 'I seek fortune', 'I seek righteousness', 'I had no other choice', and 'I'd prefer not to say')

After this paper is signed, Bass Hogg asks the player character to stop mumbling and take off their hood so he can get a good look at them - this serves as the final part of character creation, as the player can unveil themselves to pick either a male or female appearance that reflects their ethnicity with a voice to match, or keep the hood on. The character's voice can be changed or turned off in the settings at any time.

Arc 14: Vlossen

• Player arrives in the city, a tax haven with an obscene quantity of factory fishing and textile milling, to the point where yarn flows out of the buildings themselves. 15 years ago Vrelon was the only island on the Flondrish Archipelago to avoid a great famine caused by a storm, and as the other islands became depopulated the Free Isle industrialised rapidly, giving its capital Vlossen an outsized influence. The player arrives during a storm that Ambrose has cast to impede their progress so he can reach Sunset before they do and begin the complex setup ritual for his final plan, as a result colliding with another boat and sending its cargo to the bottom of the ocean. This storm sets in motion a system that later brings a typhoon to Vlossen in time for the final sequence, and confirms what many townsfolk believe about a 'Vengeance Storm', a cultural concept amongst the Flondrish that nature will take its toll on the greedy. Normally famous for its pleasant sun, it rains the entire time in Vlossen, with sailors afraid to sail due to the rumoured massive storm on the horizon.
• As the player ventures across the Vlossen beachfront, they are repeatedly approached and offered a job by representatives of Astern Mills, a company run by Velvet Astern offshore on a nearby islet, filled to the brim with factory workers kept in less than stellar conditions. The job offers become rather ridiculous if multiple are declined, and those offering them become more and more desperate to bring the player into Velvet's operation. The amount of money involved for a short term protection contract is obscene and may tip the player off that something isn't right. The narrative for this island splits into two from here depending on whether the player accepts or rejects these contracts, either gradually gaining insight into their true nature from escaped employees by staying in town or remaining under Velvet's employ whilst she attempts to set up a variety of 'industrial accidents' with the aim of crippling the player and being more able to take her revenge.
• The most consistent contract pedlar, a strange woman clearly out of her depth when it comes to social skills, turns out to be a recruitable companion. Known as Dragonbreaker, she moved to the city for its tax breaks, having had a great life of adventure already, only to blow it all gambling and end up hideously indebted. She sees the player as a kindred spirit and will follow them to the island if they take a contract from her.
• Either way, Vlossen will last less than a week, with Velvet's agents eventually acting to kidnap the player and bring them before her on the islet if they do not go willingly by signing a contract. The barracks are evacuated on the night of Velvet's grand revenge plan as she intends to use every single tool she has available to her. However, consumed by her greed and due the lack of heed she gives to her inferiors within the company, she fails to account for the incoming typhoon, which was the real reason her scheming advisor-servant suggested an evacuation of the barracks. With no boats left to take the player back to the mainland, the factory is torn up by the Vengeance Storm, and Velvet watches on in horror as her master plan effectively collapses.
• As it turns out, Velvet is a Fabric-Witch, masterful at manipulating all fibres, dyes and pottery. She hears things through the fibres of the town and is aware that it was the player's boat that sent her greatest acquisition, the Spectral Skein (a special woollen yarn said to be harvested from a ghostly sheep, purported to grant immense luck to any who wear a garment made from it), plummeting to the depths below. This is the reason she has such a keen interest in the player, and, having the culprit behind the situation in her grasp, she is ready to fight to the death despite such actions normally being seen as unbefitting of a 'cunning mastermind' like herself. She comes from a very humble background and were it not for the actions of her father and herself in being ruthless industrial landowners she would likely live her life the very same mills she runs - this is why she obsesses so much over a true heirloom such as the Skein, as she hates the thought of being viewed as no different from anyone else.
• Fight with Velvet to end things amongst the ruins of her factory island while a maelstrom blows through the night. As the windswept and thunderous arena batters the Traveller and Velvet with various goods that would have been sold like vast boulders of yarn, ornate pots and jars of dye prone to violently shattering, an epic reprise of her theme, Dye in Vain, echoes across the ruined complex. As the future centrepiece of her fabric collection has been lost, she has been driven to the point of insanity, claiming there is no difference any more between her and a commoner, and that the player will have to enlist at least 50 of their descendants for lifetime servitude to make up for the loss and find her a new Skein. As her health gets lower she taunts the player about their lack of a route home and how they will surely die in the typhoon even if they defeat her. When slain, the storm begins to subside, as though despite being partially manufactured by Ambrose using Yhorme's power, it still follows the rules of Flondrish folklore and has taken its revenge on the greedy. This allows the player to leave the city, moving on to their penultimate destination of Failsbury.

Vignette

Vignette is a story with branching pathways, providing an alternative to the linear Stanza and granting players a more truncated storyline that focuses on the agency of the player character.