A role-playing game in the demo village: a gentle first chapter, where you help the villagers, then three darker campaigns, each an investigation in eight acts. Every quest takes you through a place of the project.
Who is playing?
In the village, they call you the traveller.
Seal by seal, the village will give you a nickname, drawn from your deeds.
The villagers and the town crier will call you by it. Kept on this device; nothing is sent.
A short prologue welcomes you at the South Gate; “I know already” skips it.
Your game is saved on this device; nothing is sent.
Thirty-two seals to earn
The quest book
Four books, played one after another: the first chapter, then three campaigns, each opened by the eight seals of the book before; and, apart, the feast days of the year, each on its day. Pick a tab to read its quests, then a quest to open its page: its objectives, your investigation notebook, the places found and its reward.
Chapter one
A day and a night in Castel Roc
Eight quests, one for each seal of the village charter. The last one opens once the seven other seals are earned. What you say, or keep to yourself, will have consequences.
The village charter · 0 of 8 seals
I
II
III
IV
V
VI
VII
VIII
I
To play
The Old Man’s Bread
By night
Dialogue
At night, the old man keeps watch by the fire, and he is hungry. The baker is already kneading: fetch a warm loaf and bring it back to him.
To begin
Talk to the old man by the fire, in the show home.
2 steps still unknown
Reward
I Seal I of the village charter
Beyond the quests
Secrets of the country
Far from the streets, the country keeps things you only find by going there: a place, a stone, an animal at night. Being there is enough. What you find is kept here, on this device, and written in the notebook during a game.
0 of 12 secrets found
Still hidden
It can be found by day or by night.
Still hidden
It can be found by day or by night.
Still hidden
It can be found by day or by night.
Still hidden
It can be found by day or by night.
Still hidden
It can be found by day or by night.
Still hidden
It can be found by day or by night.
Still hidden
It can be found by day or by night.
Still hidden
It only shows itself at night, when no mist, rain or snow hides the town, to whoever stops for a while and keeps still.
Still hidden
It can be found by day or by night.
Still hidden
It can be found by day or by night.
Still hidden
It can be found by day or by night.
Still hidden
It only shows itself at night, to whoever stops for a while and keeps still.
How to play
Walk: W A S D or the arrows; Shift to run, Space to jump.
On a touch screen: the small on-screen pad, or tap the ground to go there.
Talk: walk up to someone with a seal above their head, then press F or Enter, or tap “Talk”.
Pick up: outdoors, walk up to what you must bring back (a seal marks it), then press F, or tap the button.
Investigate: when the objective asks for clues, the map only shows a neighbourhood. Look there for what a “?” seal marks, walk up to it, then press F: the clue is noted on the sheet of quests in progress (O).
Tail: follow without being noticed (crouched, C key, or on tiptoe, X key: you are noticed from much less far, and suspicion rises more slowly). Too close, and your quarry stops and stares: step back, and it will move on. At a halt, when it looks back, stay far away or hide behind a wall. Too far, and it waits for you a little further on: nothing starts over.
Go inside: click the golden handle of a door, or press Enter in front of it; “Back out to the street” to leave.
The map: M, or click the small map; the place to go to bears a seal.
Quests in progress: O, or the counter under the round map (how many), to read what is left to do, the clues noted, and open the bundle or the notebook.
Today’s small services: in the daytime, a linen token with a green sprig above a villager means they have a small favour to ask, without a seal. The sheet of quests in progress (O) lists them, with how far along they are.
The bundle: B, or the “Bundle” button, to see what you carry.
The traveller’s notebook: J, or “Notebook” in the sheet of quests in progress, to reread your story, what you were told, the documents in full, and what the village says of you.
The game is fiction: the villagers, their stories and their quests are made up. It announces nothing about the real project, no dates, no prices.