It's raining again...

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Written for Endmaster's Prompt Contest 3

Prompt 42: A story set in an area ravaged by a plague or famine.

S.D.G

Edit 5/4/24: removed square brackets outline accidentally left on one page

Edit 14/4/24: eliminated several typos

The fish are hungry...

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Scores:

-3: You let innocents die and joined a death cult. You are scum.

-2: You let innocents die, but you chose an 'honourable' death.

-1: You joined the cult, like a sheep.

0: Nothing meaningful happened to you (you met an untimely death).

1: You destroyed the cult, but failed to kill the fish

2: You eradicated the fish, but the cult remains, hidden deep in the shadows...

3: You destroyed the cult AND eradicated the fish. Impressive.

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Written for the Gone Fishin' Contest 2023.

S.D.G

Edit 10/7/23: fixed green shoots error, clarified that swamp-fish can live in any water-type, proofread for spelling errors.

Edit 12/7/23: fixed Question Cultists loop error

Edit 19/10/23: fixed Resigned to Waiting paths loop error

Edit January 2024: added title page picture (drawn by mizal, not me - thank you!)

You, a human mage with little to no reputation (who needs that anyway), are friends with an elf from Summer called Cocoa Lire. You (for some mysterious reason) call her Watermelon.

However, you learn that she is having an affair with a human commander called Jael Rock, which is disastrous for a whole host of reasons:

• Too many to list here (but you get the idea)

Your solution? Convince them to end the relationship!

However, a small problem called 'true love' may make this harder than you think...

WARNING: Contains sadistic goats, holy cucumbers, and a whole lot of other things that may cause heinous offence. You have been warned.

There are seven 'endings' to reach. If you like that kind of thing.

Written for EndMaster's Prompt Contest 2.

Prompt 35: 'A story where you must save someone close to you from a disastrous relationship.'

S.D.G

Edit 6/6/24 - fixed some typos

Every few days the cats emerge from the thicket and attack us. Their numbers have been growing ever since the first attack - the last time there were over 20 surrounding the village on all sides. Seven men and two women were severely injured in the assault, with one succumbing to his wounds and the other six permanently incapacitated in some way. Thankfully no children were taken, though Bobby Smith was dragged part-way into the undergrowth before Carpenter Sam wrenched him out of the mogs' grip (Bobby's dad, Digby, was one of those wounded).
Now that winter's mostly passed a few of the others are suggesting we call for help, send a messenger to the governor perhaps. Most agree, though I see little chance of Governor Hinkley lifting a stubby little finger to do anything. Mercenaries are too expensive for a little village like ours, where hunger and disease'll likely kill us off anyway.
Last meeting I suggested we write to Cooper to see whether he'd help, but everyone was against me on that. Ma'am Gertrude reminded us all of the last time Cooper was in town: he and his fellows caused a major ruckus at her inn, scared away the chickens and blew a hole through the bar. Her daughter is still traumatised by Cooper's 'magic tricks', and said as much. I tried to explain that he hadn't meant to scare her (the love-blinded fool) but no one listened. As usual.

I'd be up for that.

6 if I have a recipe with cooking times, ingredients etc.

2 if I have to work from memory because I will definitely make stuff up.The only thing I can make without a recipe is brownie, because brownie is awesome.

Don't forget about all the words we stole as well.

Speaking of character dynamics, will you ever finish the third step of this thread?

Anyone reading who struggles a lot with character writing, definitely read both the above linked thread as well as Mystic's other stories (which I should definitely do as well, they're just too long and beautiful to read in a short period).

I would be interested in playing any of these, with preference for The King's Dilemma and Fallen Land.

Thank you so much for this review (and to Peng for recommending it - you should definitely review his contest entry next, it's well worth a read).

When writing this story, I thought: 'Let's aim for quintessential Britishness.' I'm glad this seems to have worked out.

Again, thank you for the detailed review, Mystic.

Congratulations to Sherbet for winning and writing a massive story that made full use of the time given (let's face it, most of us didn't).

Thanks for the contest.

The Village That Was
I am done.

The minimum site standards state that any story game rated under 2.5 after 10 ratings will automatically be unpublished. Try responding to feedback/comments to raise the rating.

Edit: it seems as if I was beaten to this by 30 seconds...