Comics by Shaenon II

Ok... with the current Exalted campaign ending very soon, I wanted another project to keep my feet wet in the Exalted universe without all the actual work involved in running a full-on game for a while.

To that end, I present...

Taking Back Hope: An Exalted Choose Your Own Adventure

First, some rules:

- Everyone as a group controls a single character whose actions are driven by collective suggestion.
- This game will last as long as people keep posting on it. I'm not gonna commit to regular updates, but as long as there's interest, I'll keep updating it.
- Taking Back Hope is a choose-your-own-adventure story, much like the old Choose Your Own Adventure novels, except with no predefined paths. You tell the character what to do by posting in TOM and then they do it. If there are multiple commands, they'll do all of them unless they contradict or there is a noticeable time limit, in the order in which they're posted.
-Silly commands are encouraged, except in situations when they would get your character killed.
-This is a text-only adventure because my artistic skills are crap. If people decide to draw art about it for some reason, I'll use it, but otherwise I'm drawing a picture with words alone.
-As with Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books, there is a possibility of "losing" by doing something that renders your character unable to keep going forward, or by getting your character killed. Because it's impossible for you to just go back to the start fo this choose-your-own adventure novel and start over, the Maidens have granted your character, whoever they are, 5 lives: one for each of the Maidens of Fate. This means your character can die/lose up to five times without the game ending
-Claire is not permitted to do Origami in Creation anymore. Not after what happened last time.

Now then...

The Premise:

A long time ago, the villiage of Kilva in the snowy north lost the mine it grew up around. The miners dug too far and too deep and found something beneath the frozen mountain which drove them off, killing whatever it found. From the mine came an evil power, which terrified men and dragged people from the village off in the night. The wealthy fled the villiage to save themselves. The poor who had no way of leaving, however, had no choice but to remain...

The village seemed destined to be destroyed.

But then... from the south, a woman appeared. Introducing herself as hope, a bright blonde firebrand who united the people and cut the darkness like a glaive, driving the forces back. "If you follow me," she said "and do as I guide you, we can make this town great again. We can find other things to make this town wealthy, beyond the mine. And I will protect you, and teach you to protect yourselves"

The people gathered around Hope, for she was eternally her namesake, and her plan for the villiage gave it life again.

Until, one night... terrible shadows came from the mine. Monsterous things which beat the air with leathery wings, and poisoned the ground which they walked upon. The people tried to resist them, but they could not.

They came. And they took your Hope away. Away to the mine.

The people gave up a great lamantation, and despaired, waiting to die.

All save a single youth, inspired by the example of noble Hope. A youngster who rose up, all alone, to bring her back to her adopted people.

The Start:

Though the people of Kilva despair, for they fear what lurks in the mine, one brave soul regardless stepped forward to go in, find Hope, and rescue her from evil.

Yes, one brave... um... who is it that's doing this again?



[Please specify your character's gender, eye and hair color, name, apprenticed profession, and a special talent they possess now.]

Okay... anyone, feel free to dispute my suggestions.

Male, green eyes pink hair (because it's funny).

Pink hair is an acceptable option in the universe of Exalted, but you haven't provided our hero with a name, much less any professional background!

Rennet, the Apprentice Cheesemaker. Unless someone has another idea?

Audalade, the Well Digger. Brown hair, eyes, clothing, grey outlook, crown shaped birthmark.

Yes, that's right! Your name is Rennet Audalade, and you're an Apprentice Cheesemaker! You have pink hair and green eyes, and a crown-shaped birthmark on your left thigh. Not that it means anything, though. Your pap had it and he's as common blooded as a mule. You've spent the last 5 years of your life studying the art of Cheesery from Swiss, the Grande Cheesemaker of Kilva. At least until the evil in the Mine began to become a problem and Swiss packed up his bags and left town. Since then you've been the only cheesemaker in Kilva, and an inexperienced one to boot.

You WOULD have been the Well Digger, but that'd have meant apprenticing under Boggity Jeremiah, and he's got that crazy left eye and that weird cackle and ohgods you begged your parents to pick anyone other than him for you to be apprenticed under. You swear he's not all right in the head.

----------------------------------

Quick Character Sheet:

Strength: So-So Dexterity: Fair Stamina: So-So
Charisma: Fair Manipulation: Crap Appearance: Good
Perception: Good Intelligence: Fair Wits: So-So

(Note: Only abilities he has are listed)

Martial Arts: So-So Awareness: Good Archery: Crap
Integrity: Crap Craft Water: Good
Resistance: So-So Presence: Good Dodge: Good
Stealth: Fair Socialize: Fair Linguistics: Crap
Larceny: So-So Athletics: So-So Thrown: Godly
Melee: Crap Investigations: So-So

Specialties:
-Craft (Water) Cheese-Artisanry: So-So
-Manipulation: Create a Distraction: Crap

Current Inventory: Cheesemaker's Serving Tray (Silver)

--------------------------------

As previously stated, you are RENNET AUDALADE, and you alone have taken up the task of going into the mines and rescuing Hope from the icky forces of nastiness that may even as you narrate be attempting to pickle her feet, or shave off her hair, or something like that! But before you enter into the deadly mine, you thought it might be wise to gather up some equipment of some sort.

You're currently standing in Swiss's old Cheesery, because this is the only building you could think of that you have the key to. Specifically, you're standing in the FRONT of the store, where all the delicious cheeses Swiss made were displayed back when he was in town. Over the counter there's a door to the KITCHEN, and to your left there's a door to the BARN where Swiss kept his cows. Vaguely you miss the tranquil mooing of Bossie, the most spiritually attuned cow you've ever known. But Swiss took her with him. There's also another door right behind you, the front door, which your key to the building is still sticking out of. There's a note on the counter, covered in dust.

You need some EQUIPMENT before you leave town to go to the mine, and it is early morning.

What do you do?

Take my key out of the door, and lock the door behind me so I can rummage uninterrupted. Read the note on the dusty counter. Start searching the shelve in the room I'm in, before lootingexploring further.

Yeah, ok. You take the key and look the door.

The note reads as follows:

Dear Rennet,

If you're reading this, then you've come into the Cheesery! Well done, m'boy. You've taken the first step towards proving yourself worthy of my Kitchen!

It's your responsibility now to be the Cheesemaker for all of Kilva. I know the abrupt "packing up and moving away abruptly without even saying goodbye" thing might seem harsh and cowardly to you now, but I can certainly assure you I was in your extremely amateur boots once, left to stand on my own without the guidance of my former Master. When I was your age all I had was my wits, my single cow, and an outrageously large inherited fortune to buy my own shop and supplies with! I'm lucky I even got off the ground, starting out like that!

So you see? You can do this! Nothing you're having to face now is anything I haven't faced before you. If I could do it with almost nothing like that, so can you!

I believe in you, boy. Let me know how the business turns out, what with the horrible terrors in the Mine and all. Remember to send 50% of your earnings to me in Nexus because you're using my shop. That's how these things work, you know.

Wishing you good fortune,

Swiss

...yeah. Good old Mr. Swiss, always there with an uplifting word. Yup.

Your GOOD Perception and your SO-SO Investigation make searching the shelves of the Display Room a fruitful venture, however. You find a variety of ingrediants that Swiss left behind, presumably because he was in such a hurry and he forgot about them. There's some baking soda and some flour here, (Swiss doubled as the town baker) and what looks to be some old apple cider vinegar. Also something labeled Arsenic, in a little metal jar. Also some weird deep red bottle labeled "Sweet Cordial" and dated as being bottled about 10 years ago. You're not really sure if any of this stuff would be useful, though.

So anyways...

You're currently standing in Swiss's old Cheesery, because this is the only building you could think of that you have the key to. Specifically, you're standing in the FRONT of the store, where all the delicious cheeses Swiss made were displayed back when he was in town. There's some shelves over on one side with a bunch of old ingredients Swiss left behind. Over the counter there's a door to the KITCHEN, and to your left there's a door to the BARN where Swiss kept his cows.

Current Inventory: Cheesemaker's Serving Tray (Silver)

What do you do?

Amuse myself using a little of the baking soda and the vinegar to make a volcano. Pick up the arsenic and the sweet cordial to take along. The bottle's pretty, anyway. Hmm, did old Swiss make any arsenic cheeses? Try to remember. Maybe mom's cookbook will tell me what those those weird ingredients are for later, if I can't remember. Keep the note. If I survive, it's proof that the shop is mine! All mine!
Wait, the mine, rescuing Hope...Better get a move on.
Go to the kitchen to search around, then the barn.

You find a discarded pewter mug and pour the baking soda into it! Giggling madly, you dump the baking soda into it and imagine groups of natives watching the mighty Mt. Metallix for their final moment. Plucking up the bottle of cider you uncork it, a manic grin spreading across your face as you slooooowly tilt the bottle towards the [s]mug[s] volcano. A single drop, the harbinger of devastation, escapes the lip of the bottle, slamming into the height of your powdery peak. Slowly the drop becomes a continuous drip-drip-drip and then a rushing torrent of apocalyptic liquid bubbling in a chemical reaction of destruction and doom. The tiny imaginary people of the tribes living below Mt. Metallix flee in terror, but nowhere near fast enough to escape the eruption of the mountain as it all ends.

This is incredibly silly!

You get back to the point. Yeah, Swiss did used to make some cheeses with arsenic in them. The old mayor of the city used to love them, according to Swiss. At least until he died from unknown circumstances. That was the year the new mayor, Zephas Umbra, took office and doubled the nearby mine's workforce, allowing them to dig faster and harder than they ever had before. And then it was only about a year until all this trouble started.

You take the note, which you'll now refer to as PROOF OF OWNERSHIP, and also the half-empty tin of arsenic and the Sweet Cordial. Even if you don't really know what Sweet Cordial actually is.

...also, you start to wonder why the voices in your head are talking like they're a part of you, even when your voice is more of a baritone. You decide to name the current voice Chicgeek, on an entirely random whim. You say hello to her as you meander into the kitchen.

The kitchen is in a state of total disarray. Swiss must have been in a REAL hurry to get out of here; there's spilled, dried milk all over the counter, and a bottle of wine left shattered all over the floor. You wonder how that happened, Swiss loved his wine too much to ever risk dropping any. There's a lot of stuff left behind here. Some stray cheeses in a little wind-elemental storage box, an elongated curved fruit that's juuuust now ripe sitting in a corner near the window on the counter, and a few cheese knives of varying sizes in a knife holder on the counter. Beneath the counter there's a lot of cupboards, presumably for more ingredients. One of them is creaking open, and it happens to be completely empty. There's a cheese wheel in a corner with some mold growing on it. You guess Swiss didn't have time to throw it out.

To elaborate, the Kitchen has a Wind-Elemental storage box in one corner, a trash bin in another, and counters stretching between the two with some spilled dry milk there and a cheese knife holder sitting on it. There's also some unopened cupboards beneath the counters with unknown contents, and a Fire-elemental powered oven on the entire other side of the room, away from anything that's easily flammable. On the floor there's a broken bottle of wine that looks to be midway dried.

Current Inventory:
-Cheesemaker's Serving Tray (Silver)
-Proof of Ownership
-Sweet Cordial
-Arsenic container (half full)

What do you do?

(After you're done here)
There must be someone in town who knows a bit about the mine and mining. Find out if there's anything you need to know or do before you go in.
Surreptitiously of course, so they don't stop you.
Also get some tin cans, water, a flint and steel, and calcium carbide if you can find them, acetylene lamps, for the making of.

Eat the elongated fruit, I'm hungry. Take the cheese knives. Take the wind powered box if it's portable-I might get hungry before I'm done, or maybe I can put something else in the box! If it's too big, just fill my pocket with cheese. Check the rest of the cupboards, then go to the barn, before finding someone to talk to about the mine.

You peel the fruit down and take a bite. It's somewhat sweet, somewhat bland, which is somewhat surprising to you. Given how rare they are in this part of the world you always imagined them tasting sweeter than this, like the special toffee your mum used to make or something. Still, you eat the whole thing, just for the experience if nothing else, leaving behind an Elongated Fruit Peel, vaguely slimy and slippery to the touch. Because you don't really want to make a mess in Swiss' kitchen, you pocket it, at least until you can throw it away.

Hey, that's a great idea, mysterious-voice-in-your-head-you-named-Chic! These knives are shart and pretty light-weight and you've used them as an Apprentice Cheesemaker before. You'd still prefer something, you know, like a broadsword or a bow if you HAVE to get into a fight, but at least you know how to use these. You take the two cheese knives and slip them between your cool belt you just now mentioned you have and your waist.

Um... you GUESS the box is portable? It's pretty light weight, but about as wide as you are and rather large and boxish in design. Still, Swiss told you about how it's cooled by the little air elemental trapped inside it, and you've always been somewhat fascinated by magic. Sure. You'll pick it up. Even if carrying it around would be kinda unwieldy. You're actually kind of surprised Swiss left it behind... even for a fancy man from Nexus, something like this is probably pretty expensive.

As you lift it up, there's a loud whooshing in your ears-

.... . -.-- .--. ..- - -- . -.. --- .-- -.

-which you figure is probably just part of how the box works or something. You have no idea how magic stuff works. It probably makes noises like that whenever someone picks it up or something.

Searching the cupboards is fairly useful with your GOOD Perception and your SO-SO Investigation! Although there's honestly not much there to look through, so it's not that hard. To make it easier, you put down your Wind Box for a moment to look around. You find a few pots and a frying pan that you didn't even know Swiss had. It's not surprising that he left all this stuff behind; the pots are dinged and scraped up and the frying pan has a cracked handle. Still, it looks perfectly useful. One of the pots looks big enough to fit over your head, while the others are smaller. The other thing you find in the cupboards is...

um...

Wow. You guess Swiss must have forgotten about something important... hidden in a small bag that looks to be attached to the ceiling of the cupboard to the farthest right in the room is a bag of some sort with something metal inside it. Reaching in, you withdraw a set of steel lockpicks, like the kind a Locksmith might use. You have no idea why these would be here!

Yeah, that's a good idea. Finding someone who could tell you about the mine itself so you know what to expect makes a lot of sense. Thanks other-mysterious-voice-in-your-head-you've-spontaneously-named-Sarah! You make a note to look into this after you're done in the kitchen. Unless you want to check out the barn first.

...huh? Ok, you can kind of see why you'd get water and flint and steel. But what's all that OTHER junk, mysterious-voice-named-Sarah? You have no idea why you would need cans made of Tin. You're a bit skeptical that you even know what tin is! It isn't really something you've heard of on your Apprentice Cheesemaker's curriculum, or around town, like iron or steel. If you had to guess you'd say it's some sort of metal, so maybe you could ask the blacksmith about it? Maybe you should know what tin is. Maybe it's used all the time in a vaguely fantasy-ish pseudo-medieval setting and everyone knows about it other than you. And what the heck are what the heck "Calcium Carbide" or "Acetylene lamps" anyway?!? Honestly, you don't know, and speculating on it or why you would need empty tin cans or weird word-salad-y things makes you feel ignorant and just a bit angry! You hate it when people talk around you about stuff you don't really know about!

Er, um, sorry. You got kinda angry there. No offense meant, Mysterious-voice-Sarah. It's just that one of the few ways you get really angry is when people talk about stuff you don't understand right in front of you without explaining it for you. It's a bit of a pet peeve. You hope that this doesn't mean you can't be friends.

The kitchen is in a state of total disarray. Swiss must have been in a REAL hurry to get out of here; there's spilled, dried milk all over the counter, and a bottle of wine left shattered all over the floor. You wonder how that happened, Swiss loved his wine too much to ever risk dropping any. There's a lot of stuff left behind here. Some stray cheeses in a little wind-elemental storage box, and an empty knife holder on the counter. Beneath the counter there's a lot of opened cupboards, presumably for more ingredients. One of them contains a few pots, including one as large as your head, and a frying pan with a cracked handle. Another had some steel lockpicks hidden in it, for some weird reason. There's a cheese wheel in a corner with some mold growing on it. You guess Swiss didn't have time to throw it out.

To elaborate, the Kitchen has a Wind-Elemental storage box which you are now carrying, a trash bin in another, and counters stretching between the two with some spilled dry milk there and a cheese knife holder sitting on it. There's also a Fire-elemental powered oven on the entire other side of the room, away from anything that's easily flammable. On the floor there's a broken bottle of wine that looks to be midway dried.

Current Inventory:
-Cheesemaker's Serving Tray (Silver)
-Proof of Ownership
-Sweet Cordial
-Arsenic container (half full)
-Elongated Fruit Peel
-Wind-Elemental Storage Box (Held in both hands)
-Cheese Knives (2)

What do you do?

Try on the pot that's the size of my head-could it work as an impromptu helmet, or would it just slide over my eyes and stuff? Take the lockpicks. Hmm....that flint and steel idea the Sarah voice came up with is clever. And it has me wondering....some cheeses are coated with wax-is there any wax around? I can't burn a wax covered cheese like a candle. Or... can I? But maybe with wax and or rags, I could make some easy to set on fire torches from branches later! It's probably dark in the mine.
Check out the barn, before I follow the sarah-voices other good idea, about talking to someone about the mine.

I apologize for my assumptions.
Calcium carbide is not something you're likely to find since the technology to manufacture it apparently hasn't been developed. It is a substance that produces a flammable gas on contact with water. The tin cans were not strictly necessary; any container to hold both substances and channel the gas to the flint and steel (the discovery of the lockpicks and the knives means you now only need to find flint) would have been appropriate.

But yeah, make a torch. Make several. Is there any expendable firewood anywhere? Any old cleaning rags?

If you add mix sulfur and lime (chalk) into the wax (pitch would also work) when it is molten, the torch will not go out if dropped in water. Use the fire-elemental oven and the pot for this, if you feel you have the time to spare. Be careful, because sulfur burns like the devil.

Speaking of which, it's used as a fungicide and pesticide so Swiss might have some (although seeing the cheese wheel, maybe not). You can't miss it. Nothing else is that yellow.

If you do find and use the chalk, have some left over for marking your way on the mine walls.

If the "Sweet Cordial" is what I think it is, i.e. distilled alcohol, you could use that instead of wax or pitch. Although you'd probably be haunted by the smell of departed spirits.

Of course, whether or not you do this is up to you.

Also: wonder why, if Swiss liked his wine so much, it is being wasted on the floor instead of him. Consider the possibility of sudden abduction.

Also rope. You will want it, if you haven't got it.

(My apologies for the delay. I have been having trouble with my internet on my computer lately so posting for this has been a pain! There will be stuff up tomorrow

...this is the best idea.

Now securely equipped with your new Pothelm, you feel a bit safer in braving the terrors of the old mine. At least part of your body is covered by metal now, which should protect you as long as anything dangerous is nice enough to aim for your head and not your flesh.

Ok. You've got the lockpicks. Although with all the stuff you've picked up, you're kinda running out of space to pick up more stuff. You need a backpack or a pouch or something. Or maybe if you're going to keep bringing the Wind-elemental box with you, you can just shove stuff in there. It's certainly big enough to hold a whole lot. It's like carrying around a very chilly treasure chest.

You don't really know if a wax-covered cheese would burn like a candle. You think you remember someone saying something about how the wick of the candle is the flammable part, and the wax melts just because of the heat. But you don't really know for sure, so you guess it's worth trying? Anyway, of course there WAS wax. Swiss kept some wax in the cupboards for making some of the cheeses. And you know for a fact that there was always extra wax stored out in the barn, in the storage area. There's probably some there.



...buh? Gas flame water what? Ok, now the voices in your head are making you regret not being an apprentice alchemist like your old buddy Joule. Although HIS master skipped town with all the tools of their trade and now he's just left with almost nothing to do his weird alchemy stuff with, so you guess you lucked out a bit since you can pretty much make cheese if you need to with the stuff Swiss left behind.

There's some firewood near the fire-elemental oven, yeah. It doesn't really NEED firewood, but when your primary source of flame is a tiny elemental that gets annoyed easily, you make a note to give him regular "offerings" so he doesn't burn the place down. And wood is basically his favorite offering ever. And there's probably some old rags in the barn you can scrounge up. You take some of the firewood just to prepare.

Really? You can use sulfur for THAT? That's awesome! They found some in the mine a few weeks before all the trouble started, and you remember people getting really excited about that for some reason, but you didn't pay much attention because you were learning how to make bleu cheese. Now you wish you'd listened in more.

In any event, unless there's some sulfur in the barn somewhere, you're pretty sure you're not going to find any in Swiss' shop. He seemed to have cleaned out most of the valuable stuff here. Sulfur's valuable, right?

You know where you can probably find some chalk out in the village. There was an old school there run by a woman named Dusk, on the outskirts of town. Although they called it a school, but you never heard of any kids going there. Just young adults... typically coming in and going out at all hours of the night. They were there for a good six months and left about a month before the death of Mayor Maer. You don't really understand why they left, Miss Dusk was a nice lady and they really should have stayed for the Wyld Hunt's Dragon Blooded Pride celebration when it came to town just a week later. But there's probably some chalk left in their old school house, you know teachers use the stuff all the time for some reason.

Er, you aren't exactly an alchemologist, but you seem to remember your pappy telling you that Sweet Cordial was one of the best sorts of medicine there was. Then again, he calls whisky his "medicine" too. And mead. And rum, when he can get his hands on it. So you're not really sure. You guess you could TRY? It's worth trying.

You guess that SORT of makes sense, voice-in-your-head-named-Sarah, but why would anyone abduct lovable old Mr. Swiss?

Agreed. Man, you really wish you had some rope.

Ok, ok! You finally give in to the voices in your head and go into the mine. Not before grabbing some of the firewood you talked about before, though, and storing it in the wind-elemental box.

You are now in the Barn... there's a brief smell of decaying hay here, mainly due to the large pile of it in one corner, which is bigger than you are tall. You guess Swiss never decided to bale it. There's a bunch of stalls for animals, which all are pretty empty now, and a a ladder going up to the loft, where Swiss used to store extra materials and such.

Equipment:
-Pothelm (Worn on head)

Current Inventory:
-Cheesemaker's Serving Tray (Silver)
-Proof of Ownership
-Sweet Cordial
-Arsenic container (half full)
-Elongated Fruit Peel
-Wind-Elemental Storage Box (Held in both hands)
-Cheese Knives (2)
-some sticks of firewood

So what now? Do you explore the loft to try and find other useful things, or do you go find other people in town to ask about the mine?

Decide regretfully that I need to leave the wind elemental box behind, even though it's the coolest thing ever. It's just too bulky to carry-I may need my hands free at some point. Go to the barn, get some wax for torches. Wax dipped wood should fire right up! I hope...
See if I can find anything else useful. I need a bag, a backpack, something to lug stuff around with! Hmm...maybe there's a saddle bag. Or an old blanket. Maybe a feed sack? Don't forget to lock up the shop!
After checking out the barn, finally get on my way to adventure!

Check up in the loft, maybe there is some equipment that can be used.

Devise straps of some kind for Wind Elemental box and use it as a backpack.

Brilliant!

B-but! You don't wanna!

Yes, yes! Miss-Voice-You-haven't-named-yet! That's a great idea! Thank you! Once you find some leather or even just some belts or something this is a great idea! And then you get to keep your windbox!

Ok, ok! You know you've both lollied and gagged in Swiss's old shop, but it's nearly high time for adventure!

...just... time to check out a loft, first!

You begin climbing up the ladder to the loft. For practicality's sake you set down your windbox and some of the more bulky stuff first. The loft is pretty well cleared out. Swiss or whoever was here must have gotten most of the stuff out already. There's one or two old boxes left, probably stuff he/whoever considered not valuable enough to take with. Inside them, you find...

Well, you DO find some old wax Swiss left behind. This particular wax is supposed to be melted to cover cheese with, so it doesn't go bad as fast. This box only had a bit left in it, though. There's just enough to make two, maybe three torches. The other box just has some clothing and stuff in it. Some jerkins two sizes too large for you, and a few belts and shoes and-

Belts!

You grab the belts and the wax and rush downstairs. You have work to do. AWESOME work.

----------------------------------------------

You are now Hope.

Yes, THAT Hope.

You are currently tied up and suspended upside down by a rope, or some kind of spider's thread. You're not really sure yet, given how you haven't really wanted to open your eyes yet. To make matters worse, you're pretty sure you have a hangover. That or someone played drums with your skull while you were asleep for a while. Beneath you, two giant spiders chitter. They've been doing it for at least an hour and it's driving you crazy but at least they aren't eating you. Yet.

You hardly feel like you could be blamed for being in a foul mood.

You stop being Hope because Rennet is finished doing AWESOME stuff.

-----------------------------------------------

Ok, but before you do that, you want to show off the results of your incredible labors.

First, you've made several torches. Three of them, in fact. You have to make a note to thank the Sarah-Voice for the idea. With a bit of wax and the firewood, you're sure they'll burn.

Second, using the belts you found, you've fashioned a makeshift backpack wiht your Windbox. At last, a portable container which can not only keep your hands free, but also keep your various inventory objects lightly chilled! Granted, the belts kinda constrict the door of the windbox from opening, so you have to set it down to get at stuff, but as a backpack it works pretty well. You're quite proud of it. You've taken the liberty of storing everything you found before, with the exception of the cheese knives, in the windbox for safekeeping.

You lock up Swiss' shop behind you as you exit into the Main street of town. Kilva was a decent sized town, but now there's just one shop still open, a general store a bit up the ways. The main street, even now at midday, is barren and most people have hidden away in their homes. Nearby, a lone town guard does his rounds, nervously looking around. A lonely breeze blows across the townscape, blowing the dust of the dirt road beneath your feet about like a tiny maelstrom. Before you, off in the distance at the nearby mountain top, looms the Kilva Mine, like a vulture perched above the dying body of your dehydrated town. Above you hangs the shining sun, ruining the atmosphere of doom and gloom with its regular shiny presence. The town's still relatively safe during the day. It's at night when things have been getting bad. Hope wasn't the first person to get taken away in the night, and unless something changes, she won't be the last. But she was the one who mustered everyone into a town militia, arming even women and children and forcing them to learn to protect themselves. And for a while it was WORKING, darn it. it's only been a day since she was taken away, but people just seem resigned to everything falling apart again.

Er, you kinda meandered off topic there. What do you do now?