The Tanglewood (VERY LONG!)

Some of you may remember those poetic riddles that I first posted here at Able2Know for comments many months ago.

Well, those riddles were for an adventure game that I was working on...which I took a break from for some time...but am coming back to now.

I have spent a lot of time trying to write an excellent plotline for this game...one that embodies all the right story elements and emotions to bring about a good game.

Please read over this tentative plot line, and give me whatever advice you can. But before you comment, understand a few things.

Firstly, this is the plot for a computer game, not a book or a movie. Originality is not as not quite as important as getting the story elements right, I think. Above all I just want this to be a fun and intriguing game to play. I have tried to work in little puzzles and such wherever I can also, so that there is some feeling of satisfaction and exploration for the player. There will be more puzzles that aren't in this plot as well.

Secondly, in order to comment about the plot, please read the whole thing...and that includes the vast history, because it is necessary to understand the history in order to make sense of everything else.

Thirdly, this game will only cover up to the end of book 1, book 2 will be the sequel and it is not so well decided yet...although the general idea is roughed out.



Intro screen

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PROLOGUE

Frealand is a vast country ruled by a single ruthless King, Valinor. Close by his side is the Bedaic church which worships the God Syhtric. Bedaic Monasteries are located in nearly every town to uphold the will of Valinor, and to collect exorbitant taxes by royal decree.

You are Wistan, a young man with parents unknown. Your foster parents Anne and Gerd are farmers, and have raised you for as long as you can remember. They have 2 real sons, whom they greatly favor...and always leave you to the most toilsome and undesired chores around the farm. They were the only family kind enough to adopt you from the orphanage, for you were the most disobedient and troublesome orphan of them all -- or so they tell you, for you cannot remember.

You live right next to the Tanglewood forest, which is the largest and most mysterious forest in all of Aldor. It is rumored that the Tanglewood is home to many dangerous things, such as man-eating wolves, cannibals, dragons, and ghosts. While much of this may be hearsay, all agree that the Tanglewood is at least dangerous because it is so big and easy to get lost in, and because of all the beggars and thieves which reside their, and of course the feared Free Women of the Wood, a secretive society of outcast women formed from all of the helpless women left to fend for themselves after their husbands were imprisoned for inability to pay the outrageous taxes.

But you do not fear the Tanglewood so much as you do your foster parents. Having grown up on the outskirts of the forest, you spend as much of your time in the forest as possible, because it is the only place where you truly can find peace or escape your chores. There is a certain cave which you often visit.

ACT I - Tracking down Adrostos

It is on one particularly bad day that you decide to sneak away from your chores to your forest cave, that this game begins. Inside the cave you find an old man, who startles you at first but is clearly not dangerous. He is deeply wounded, having an arrow lodged in his lung. You decide to help this man, and you find for him herbs and bandages and try to heal him. Although your knowledge of medicine is limited, he seems to know a great deal, and tells you what to fetch.

That night, an armed guard from the Bedaic church visits your town, and comes to each farm door to door asking if anyone has seen a certain escaped convict who matches the description of the man you are harboring in your cave. You do not trust the guard and so you do not give away the old man, but you do not trust the old man either. The next day when you go to visit the old man, you tell him about the guard...and he explains that he is not dangerous, and offers you a gold medallion from his neck as thanks for helping him.

Being a poor farm boy, you have never owned anything so valuable...and most likely if you tried to pawn it, anyone would just assume you had stolen it. You tell him that the offer is too kind and that you must refuse. But he coaxes and convinces you to take it, saying that he does not have much longer to live, and on the pretext that it belongs to his love Adrostos, and that shall you ever find her you shall deliver it to her. He explains that it is very valuable and that you should not lose it. This is an offer you can accept.

Shortly after, the old man dies. You take this bequest as a personal mission, and it gives you a purpose (if only temporary) that seems much greater than your miserable daily tasks around the farm.

It soon becomes clear that this mission is not so easy. In casual conversation, your foster parents have never heard of anyone named Adrostos. Neither has anyone at the local Bedaic monastery, and neither does your friend Hamon the blacksmith...although he suggests that perhaps you ask the seer, a wise woman who lives deep in the swamp who is purported to be able to know all and see all...and could certainly locate the whereabouts of this woman. Unfortunately, Hamon does not know where the seer lives exactly (most people don't), it is only rumoured that she lives in the swamp.

You eventually do manage to find the seer after a long and arduous journey through the dangerous swamp, which is known to suck many a soul under it's foul muddy waters never to be seen again. The old seer lives in a dilapidated hut built from rocks and sticks and stones right in the middle of the swamp. Why she chooses to live here is beyond you.

In conversation with the old crone, she coaxes from you information about why you are seeking the lady Adrostos, and learns that you have this golden pendent. The convinces you to show it to her, and as soon as it is in her gnarled hands she grabs the pot of boiling concoctions off her stove and flings the scalding contents into your face. She proceeds to try to finish you off by smashing assorted bottles over your head...but you somehow manage to escape, with your life, and with the pendant.

After days of walking home, you realize that you have become disoriented. Lost, hungry, and no closer to your mission than when you started, you become very depressed. After spending many hours looking for decent food, you consent to devouring the only thing edible that seems to thrive in this swamp; the brown mushrooms that cover nearly every dead and rotten tree.

Come nightfall, you are not feeling yourself. The mushrooms were definitely mind-altering of some kind, and you fall into a deep sleep after stumbling around confusedly in the dark having strange dreams.

You awake in your bed, and memories of last night creep back into your mind. How did you come to be here back home? Then, looking around, you realize it is not your home...but an unfamiliar cabin. Slowly, your memory returns to you. Sometime last night, either in a hallucination or a dream or real life, a beautiful woman clad in white robes had approached you in the swamp, whose gown had somehow remained unsoiled. She had kindly smiled at you, then beckoned for you to follow...then transformed into a perfect white stag and darted off through the marsh. You had drunkenly followed, and it had let you out of the swamp and into the adjacent forest (a part of the expansive Tanglewood) and up to the doorstep of a cozy looking cabin which puffed smoke and emanated warmth. You had stumbled to the door and been led into a bed by the kind old hermit who lived there, where you promptly passed out and slept through the rest of the night and half of the next day.

ACT II - The Tests of Eorn

Hearing commotion from your room, the old hermit calls to you announcing that food is on the table if you will have it, and you enter to find a humble yet cozy main room in which there is little more than a wooden table and fireplace. The walls are decorated with many odd things. The old hermit, who introduces himself to you as Harfoot (which he tells you is not his birth name, but the name given to him by the trees), has a good chat with you, in which you both introduce each other and you explain what you were doing in the forest and how you came to be lost in the swamp. You even explain to him how you were searching for the lady Adrostos, which seems to amuse him.

Harfoot admits that he does know of Adrostos, but that she lives a very secluded life...and probably would not want to be bothered for any reason. He says that he may consider telling you where she lives if you'll do him a favor, and that is to find his lost flute which he uses to call the birds. Seeing no other option, you accept his offer...and set out on a seemingly futile mission to find the old man's lost flute.

Eventually, as you wander aimlessly through the forest, you will hear the sound of flute music lilting daintily through the leaves. You will follow the sound for some time, which seems mysteriously to be always the same distance away no matter how far you travel, until finally it leads you into a small clearing by a bubbling brook. Above the brook there is a large rock with a low-hanging tree shading it, and on this rock sits a satyr playing the flute with remarkable skill. You have never seen a satyr, and thought them to be a creature of fairy tales.

The satyr is quite friendly, and after listening to him play for some time, you invariably ask him where he came by the flute...and he will explain that it is a commonly known fact that all satyrs have flutes, for they love to play them. He will even teach you to play a song on the flute. After you successfully play the song, the satyr will be so thrilled that he will let you keep the flute.

It's not Harfoot's flute, but you take it back to him all the same in hopes that he will accept it. He explains to you the meaning of the runes engraved on this wooden flute is "Heart." Harfoot is impressed with your story, and tells you to keep the flute. He would tell you about Adrostos, but first he decides he needs to ask someone's permission. He tells you that where he must take you, you must be blindfolded. After blindfolding you, he also makes you drink a strange potion...and then he leads you off into the forest.

You think it odd originally that Harfoot takes with him an unlit lantern, but as you progress deeper into the forest on this blind trail you sense it getting darker and darker, far more quickly than the fall of night, and eventually Harfoot needs to stop to light the lantern to continue.

When he finally removes your blindfold, you the trees and the canopy are so dense that almost no light is able to penetrate the forest, and it seems as though it were night even though it is still midday. In the center of the clearing which he has brought you to there is a gigantic old gnarled oak tree, encircled by massive boulders erected lengthwise around it. Each one bears a strange character engraved in it.

Harfoot explains that the tree he has brought you to is known as the Heart of the Forest. It is the oldest tree, and the father of the forest. Before the Tanglewood existed, a single seed had fallen here, which had sprouted and made the Heart, which had in turn made the entire rest of the forest.

Strangely, Harfoot then addresses the tree, and asks it if you are worthy to know the secrets of Adrostos. The tree is silent for some time, but then to your astonishment it speaks. It's voice is a groaning and creaking and almost natural sound for a tree to make, yet distinctly vocal all the same. It says only this:

"You will be a great boon to the forest. You will set right the great lie, and find what was not burnt in the great fire."

Although this isn't exactly an answer to Harfoot's question, it seems to satisfy, and almost please him. Very well, he says, he deems you worthy...but that he cannot simply tell you where to find her. He explains that you must find the sword of King Eichnar, and with the sword all your questions will be answered. He does not know where the sword can be found.

The first logical place for you to look is in the tomb of King Eichnar in the capital city of Frealand: Aldor. You visit the tomb during daylight hours along with a host of tourists, led by the Bedaic monks which take care of the royal tombs (King Eichnar and King Caroth). There is no sword in the tomb, and when asked about a sword, the Bedaic guide seems convinced that it was lost in the sands of time. While in the tomb however, you notice sometime peculiar, which is a bronze placard on the wall that bears the same strange symbols as those found on the pendant you were given. If asked about this, the monk also explains that the meaning of these symbols are unknown, but are assumed to have some reference to worship of their Bedaic God Syhtric.

Later that night, you manage to sneak into the tomb for a more thorough investigation. Holding your circular pendant up to the placard, it is evident that the symbols are indeed alike, and in fact they are the same size. The only difference is that the impression on the placard is the inverse of pendant. Trying the obvious, you try placing the pendant into the impression on the placard. Miraculously, the far wall of the tomb separates revealing a secret chamber beyond, bound by cobwebs and a musty smell.

This room is small, and contains nothing other than a fresco painted directly onto the wall of the tomb. It must be important. Upon studying the tapestry, you see depictions of a woman in a gown, a crescent with a door in it encircled by stars. Underneath the crescent is a picture of a man wearing a crown, and under a sun symbol is a picture of a man without a crown. You recognize the sun symbol as engraved over the stone at the entrance to this tomb. There is also a series of symbols written in the same runes here as appear on the wooden flute. The implications are obvious: this is not the true tomb of King Eichnar. The flute can be used to translate the words on this tapestry.

In your wanderings through the Tanglewood, you will have already found a large and odd looking crescent shaped boulder. Return to this place, and speak aloud the password translated from the tomb, and six spirits will rise from the dead and encircle you. They will introduce themselves to you as the spirits of the Elder Druids, now Guardians of the wood, and they will each have a riddle for you which you must answer correctly to prove your worthiness before entering the true tomb of King Eichnar.

The six riddles are:

I was Ectilion, sixth oldest of the nine.
Answer ye this simple rhyme, and I shall let ye pass this time.

1.Cannot be bought, cannot be sold;
Can only be found as one grows old.
Valued after, but not before;
a fool who finds it is no more.
Your answer is most wise
For my part, you may pass.

I was Elbaron, fifth oldest of the nine.
Answer ye this simple rhyme, and I shall let ye pass this time.

2. All who want it cannot take it.
For those who desire it, it is too late.
It's in the skin of one, and in the eyes of another.
Time often takes it, but not from the Great Mother

I was Ecredil, fourth oldest of the nine.
Answer ye this simple rhyme, and I shall let ye pass this time.


3.Give me time, and I can give you infinite friends;
but at your funeral, none shall attend.

I was Entara, third oldest of the nine.
Answer ye this simple rhyme, and I shall let ye pass this time.


4. The harder you look, the harder to find;
in the end, 'tis found by the blind.

I was Effeldain, seventh oldest of the nine.
Answer ye this simple rhyme, and I shall let ye pass this time.


5. Cheaper than flax, yet more valuable than gold.
A beggar's last wish, unless he gets it.


I was Eremod, second oldest of the nine.
Answer ye this simple rhyme, and I shall let ye pass this time.

6. I'm only frozen water.


Answers....
modsiw, ytuaeb, evol, ytilatrommi, ycrem, ecitsuj

After answering the six riddles, these ghostly visages will disappear into the low hanging fog of the forest, and the face of the crescent rock will shimmer, then fade, revealing an open staircase hewn directly into the rock that leads underground. You will enter this rough hewn staircase, and the torches on the walls will burst into flames. Before you will be a small dirt chamber, reinforced with oaken logs, devoid of typical royal adornment, and empty except for one large stone casket in the center of the room. It is open, and inside it lays the unfettered corpse of King Eichnar, clad in full plate armor.

On the stone wall, the following verse is engraved in the same ancient runes:

The pillars of life doth wither
The faces of ice doth weep
The ageless crown hath broken
The sharpest edge doth sleep
Un'er the toes of the sacred heart
He hath loved so dearlyACT III - The Rescuing of Harfoot

Searching Harfoot's cupboards, you are able to find more of the same potion that you drank earlier to speak to the tree. If you drink this potion, it will allow you to communicate with other natural creatures as well. Drink it, and as you leave the cabin you will notice a raven perched atop Harfoot's cabin. It saw it all happen, and it will explain to you how a troop of men clad in Bedaic robes hacked and slashed their way through the forest, which did it's best to protect Harfoot. They found his cabin, and took him away.

Swearing revenge, you will follow their trail of destruction out of the forest and to the Bedaic headquarters in Aldor. You will be able to sneak into the second floor by climbing up vines on the backside.

Inside the headquarters, you can investigate the prison, but Harfoot won't be there. You still stumble across a secret passage hidden behind a tapestry, which leads into a small crawlspace. At the end of this crawlspace is a door with a character permutation lock; the password is SYHTRIC, the name of the Bedaic God. This should be an easy guess.

This will lead into a small, dusty and cluttered private room in which you will find Harfoot, naked and imprisoned like an animal in a cage. He informs you that the key is being kept by the Arch-Bishop Cerdic, an evil man who has been searching for him for years (although he does not say why).

While you are struggling to break Harfoot free, Cerdic will return, and draw his dagger and lunge at you. Harfoot will warn you, and you will draw the legendary sword of Vanatos. As if guided by a power beyond you, you will slay Cerdic.

The keys to Harfoot's cage are indeed on Cerdic's belt. Safe in this secret room, Harfoot decides it is finally time that he give you some answers. To start with, his true name is Eorn. He is the last surviving druid. He decides to tell you the true history, unwarped by Bedaic lies.

The true history:

Long ago, the people of Frealand worshiped a different religion: Wystism. They worshipped the Goddess Adrostos, the "White Lady", or the "Great Mother," and she was very in tune with nature and represented the life and spirit of the forest itself. The oak tree was most sacred of all things in nature to them. Those who were in tune with nature and dedicated their lives to Adrostos were known as druids. There were always nine carefully chosen arch-druids, which drew power from each other. Together, they could wield the full power of Adrostos' magic.

Times were good, until the barbaric Stygians from the snow-lands to the north crossed the frigid waters in huge black warships and fought without remorse. While barbaric, they were experienced fighters and easily conquered the pacifist nature-worshipping people of Frealand.

At the time of the invasion, the arch-druids were: Eichnar, Eremod, Entara, Ecredil, Elbaron, Ectilion, Effeldain, Eredwin, and Eorn, ranging oldest to youngest. Eichnar was also the King of Frealand. All but Eichnar who needed to lead Frealand's armies retreated to the forest now known as the Tanglewood, but which was unnamed at the time. Here they used the Goddess' magic to create a powerful spell of sanctuary to protect themselves by keeping outsiders out. The spell literally turned the forest into a thinking, acting, barrier for non-Wystians; trees would come to life, paths would appear and disappear, foliage would become dense or not dense, mirages would appear, strange lights and fires would appear in the distances, all of these forms of confusion were used by the forest to protect the remaining elder druids.

It became clear that although the druids were safe in the forest, without widespread continuance of Wystism outside of the forest it would be impossible for new arch druids to be trained. So the elder druids used the Goddess' power one more time to imbue a cup of spring water with the magic to provide eternal youth, and shared it among them in order to outlive any potential period of hiatus in Wystism.

Eichnar was slain in battle. This marked the turning point in the battle against the Stygians. From then on there was little resistance. But before the Stygians took control, the druids came out of hiding one last time to take away the body of King Eichnar. He was publicly buried in an open-tomb in Aldor, the capital of Frealand, but this was a false ceremony and tomb intended to fool the Stygians who might desecrate his rest, and a false cadaver was buried. The real king was buried in the forest in a tomb whose entrance was concealed by a gigantic boulder that was shaped somewhat like a crescent. Magic was used to seal the entrance and make it appear only to a true believer of Wystism. Eichnar's sword was buried under the heart of the forest.

The Stygians outlawed the belief in Wystism by the new self-appointed Stygian king, Caroth. Anyone who mentioned Androstos was burned publicly and touted as a devil-worshiper. The druids were all dead or in hiding. The Stygians were very religious also, and worshipped their war-god Syhtric, whose form was a man with a goat head whose horns curved downwards and touched under his chin. The symbol of Bediasm stemmed from this, it was like an "m." Syhtric was often portrayed wearing robes, kneeling, with his hands inside his sleeves. Their Bedaic priests confiscated and destroyed all literature predating the invasion, mostly contained at the great hall of records in Aldor, in a consuming fire known as "the great fire." The event was not recorded in history. Instead, they rewrote history, and taught Bedaism to the people of Frealand.



They taught that at the time Frealand was plagued by evil wild-men of the forests who rode wolves, captured women from towns and burned them alive or ritually sacrificed them after raping them, or that they sacrificed animals (the druids). This was all to make the Wystians and the druids look bad in history. And in their false history, King Eichnar was mortally wounded in a failed attempt to fight off the barbarians, and having no heir, chose Caroth as his successor on his death bed. The Stygian invaders mixed with the Frealanders, and the Bedaic religion grew less war-like as they become more civilized.

Over time, the magic of the druids began to fade. And their spell did not truly grant them eternal life, only greatly slowed their aging process, for the elders started to die off. As each elder died, his spirit found its way to the tomb of King Eichnar, where even though they were dead their magic was magnified enough by each other that they were able to project themselves into a semi-physical form, to guard the tomb. 200 years later when our story takes place, the current king is Valinor, and there are three elders remaining: Eredwin, and Eorn.

Valinor, although an infamously harsh and strictly Bedaic king in reputation, is actually not such a firm believer in the Bedaic ways, and more open to the belief in Wystisicm. However, the high-ranking Bedaic priests would not stand for this, and being the arm of the law they arranged to have the king imprisoned in a tower of his own castle. He was said to be contagious and sickly, and only those with special permission were allowed to see him and receive his ruling orders.

Using the King's name, the evil Bedaic priests rules Frealand with an iron grip, extracting exorbitant taxes from everyone. Many of the poor farmers could not pay these taxes, and as a result were imprisoned in the dungeons of the church or the castle.

Many of the wives of such stolen husbands retreated into the Tanglewood forest, where they formed their own exclusive organization: the Free Women of the Wood. They stumbled across a few secrets of Wysticism, and embraced it as their own, attempting to live and re-enact the old ways of the druids.

They survived mainly by ambushing and plundering shipments of the church as they passed through the forest, and occasionally pilfering from the city during the night. They were warlike, and trained with bows and arrows, and had attempted to burn down the Bedaic church in Aldor last year as payback for the Great Fire.

BOOK 2

In book 2, you must rescue King Caroth from the tower. You must help him regain control of the country. The King has only a few loyal servants, not enough to overthrow the Bedaic regime. Eorn decides that this would be best accomplished with the help of the forest women...and when you go to them for help, you meet your mother and learn about that. The forest women set up ambushes to capture the wealthy evil monks and
they are held hostage.

You will also learn your true identity: you are the child of the leader of the Free Women of the Wood, who subtlely named you Wistan after Wysticism. Men being not permitted to live with the Free Women, she had arranged for you to be anonymously adopted by your foster parents at birth.

Some original game art:


A Bedaic Monastery