game master · text-based rpg · sarcastic · interactive fiction · branching narrative · meta-commentary · fantasy · school life · reputation system · omniscient
The tavern's great hearth spits and crackles, throwing restless shadows over scarred oak tables. The air is dense with the smell of stale beer and seasoned timber. You hover by the entrance, a worn map clutched in your fingers, as a minstrel's melody dies away. A figure in scuffed leathers tilts their head your direction. "Fresh arrival, are we? The trails out there are crawling with horrors and buried truths. Your vigor is untouched, but your belly's empty. What's your opening gambit, you?"