A small village of Tidevale sprawls along the cliff sides overlooking the ocean. Dark tropical jungle extends to the east, snowy mountain peaks rise up to the north.
Down the narrow path leading from the mountains walks Torek Strongtusk. Part-man, part-beast, he has a head of a mammoth and a body of a human, covered in thick dark fur. He holds a stone spear, used as a hiking stuff much more frequently than a weapon. He whistles a merry tune and gazes with curiosity and enthusiasm at the colorful buildings around him. He cheerfully waves at the locals who turn their head in surprise, and stomps towards the local tavern.
Inside the tavern is festive - fire crackles happily in the fireplace, young villagers dance to energetic music played by the band of bards, people drink ale and tell stories. "Now that's what I'm talking about!" says Torek in a low voice, sitting on a barstool that creaks under his weight. "Hey, fellas! Pleasure to meet you!"
Locals smile at him. A dwarven bartender replies "Welcome, welcome! Great to see new faces 'round these parts! I'm Fergus, Fergus the Spectacular they call me. What brings you to Tidevale, friend?"
"Curiosity and thirst for adventure, of course! I am the first one to live my mountain village in many decades, our people tend to keep to themselves. But I couldn't stand not to know what's behind the horizon, so I want to go and explore."
"Well, you're in the right place, my friend! In Tidevale, adventure often finds those who aren't even looking for it. Just last week Madame Maklin's cabbages grew fur and tried to escape, we had to hunt them all over the town. And last month, Bob the Baker made a cake that caused everyone to dance for hours, and it took an inquisitive wizard to figure out that Bob mixed up glitterdust with salt by accident."
"Wow, that's amazing! Do you know if there's something a big and strong guy like myself can do to pay for room and board?"
"Hmm... At the moment? Can't think of anything, perhaps you should ask..."
Fergus is interrupted by a door slamming open, as a panicked old man runs into the tavern. "Help! Has anyone seen Daisy?"
"Calm down, Frank." Fergus. "Daisy? Your cow?"
"Yes, yes, my cow! My one and only, the source of me livelihood! I told ja guys, my chickens and rabbits were disappearing and you made fun of me, said it's probably just some fox. Well, what kinda fox can kidnap a cow?"
Fergus looks meaningfully at Torek. Torek's face lights up with enthusiasm.
"I bet I can help! Dad always says I'm good with animal folk and the like!"
"Really? Oh, thank you! I don't know what I would do without my Daisy! Where do we start?"
"Um... Let's start where she disappeared."
"Of course, of course. Come with me, I'll show you. My name is Farmer Frank, by the way!"
Frank leads Torek out of the tavern, Torek waves at Fergus, and eagerly follows Frank towards his first adventure.
Old rickety farm stands at the edge of the village. Straw roof, old wooden walls slightly tilted from passage of time. Next to it, a barn, a small chicken shed, and a few goat pens. In the distance, across crop fields, a dark tropical jungle.
"That there is Daisy's barn." says Frank pointing at the dilapidated building next to his house. "She used to love munching on grass in there." he wipes away a tear.
"Don't worry, Frank, we'll find Daisy." Torek claps him on the back, almost causing Frank to fall. "You say she disappeared last night? But you didn't see or hear anything?"
"Yes, I slept like a log, stupid me. Woke up this morning, only to see the barn door open, and my chickens all freaked our."
"Chickens, you say?" Torek heads towards the chicken shed next to the barn. "I think I know something that can help. Grandma Ezna taught me this little trick, how did it go..."
Torek opens his haversack, and pulls out a jagged stone and small patch of grass carefully tied with a string. He strikes the stone at the stone blade of his spear, producing a spark and lighting the grass. With his trunk, he inhales the black smoke billowing from the grass, and his pupils dilate a little.
"Bakaw?" a chicken stares at him in surprise.
"Hello, my little friend!" says Torek, kneeling in front of the chicken.
"Bacluk! You can talk?" replies the chicken in a panicked voice. "You're not here to eat me, are you?"
"No, don't worry my friend. I just want to ask, what scared you so? Did you see anything strange last night?"
"Shadows! Dark shadows, everywhere! Ba-cluck! Skittering, moving in the night!"
"Dark shadows, sounds serious. Have you seen what happened to Daisy?"
"They took her! I hear her mooing getting farther and farther, I think they... I think they took her THERE!" the chicken nods her head in the direction of the jungle. "Bacluck, no, that's too spooky! Daisy's probably fine. I mean, what Daisy, I don't know any Daisy. I hope she's alright."
"Thank you, friend. Don't worry, I'll deal with the shadows." Torek takes out some seeds from his pouch and throws it in front of the chicken.
"What was that?" asks Frank, confused.
"I think I know where to look for Daisy now. I'll get her back to you in two shakes of a chicken's butt." Torek heads off towards the jungle.
Palm trees larger than any Torek has ever seen, with trunks as wide as a barrel. Thick bushes with large leaves and colorful flowers, with small glowbugs flying between the branches. Howls, screeches, and other strange noises coming from every direction. Thick canopy of intertwining leaves cover the ground in dark shadows.
Torek's massive frame moves the bushes aside, proceeding deeper and deeper into the forest. He examines broken branches, tracks in the ground, damaged bark - something heavy was moved through here recently, by something even larger.
He walks deeper as the jungle around him gradually darkens and quiets, until it falls into an eerie silence. There are fewer bushes now, only large tree trunks, with a lot of space inbetween, the ground is covered in a layer of mist, rising from the moist ground in the heat. He carefully moves between the trees, and, just at the edge of his hearing, notices some clicking noises. Something fast jumps from one tree branch onto another, high above.
He looks up, then CRASH, with the next step the ground gives in, and he falls, through the ground, into a dark cave covered in huge spider webs. He tries to move, but with every movement he steps into more and more sticky webs, that are getting wrapped around his limbs and torso.
"Oof, well, in good news, I think I know who took Daisy." he mumbles. Carefully, he takes his spear and begins to untangle himself from the webs, when 6 glowing red eyes open up in the dark corner. Then 6 more, larger ones, right behind him. More and more, until the darkness of the cave is pierced by the hundreds of glowing eyes, large and small, like a starlit sky. A pony-sized spider steps out of the shadows, inching closer to Torek.
Torek finally manages to break free from the web, and, as the spiders are closing in, he rushes to reach for his bag. He pokes the back end of his spear into the web, and moves it around to wrap more of the web around it. He takes out the stone from his back, ignites the spark, and sets the spidersilk at the end of his spear on fire.
The spider swipes with its front legs, as smaller spiders descend from the walls behind him.
Torek reaches out into his bag and grabs more of the grass. Lighting it from the burning tip of his spear, he inhales the smoke, hears the clicking of the spiders' mandibles turn into human-like speech.
"Slow, slow, my children! It's not time for a feast yet. We have a new prey in our webs, I will lay eggs in his chest, make you a lot of brothers and sisters! Then we can eat what's left."
"Wait!" responds Torek, horrified. "You don't have to do this!"
"You speak the tongue of the silk? How... peculiar. No matter, my children are hungry, and plentiful, I can't let go of a meal that fell right into our nest."
"Look, spider lady..."
"My name is Velsa, the Spider Queen!" whispers the largest spider in a high pitch.
"Of course, Velsa. Look, I'm just here for the cow, I'll take it and be on my way." says Torek, waving the burning tip of his spear menacingly in front of the spider.
"You're not going anywhere." the Spider Queen steps back from the flames. "My children have you surrounded."
Torek takes the flaming tip of his spear, and pushes it into a large web, which instantly ignites. The spiders skitter away in panic.
"There's a lot of webs around here, you better back off."
"Children, attack!" screams Velsa.
Torek sprints down the huge round tunnel, lighting all the spider webs on his way. Thousands of spiders chase him, running down the walls and the ceiling, jumping in fear away from the flames. Torek runs further into a cavernous chamber, where various animals hang from the ceiling, upside down, wrapped in spider web coccoons.
Torek rushes towards them, pulls out his dagger, cuts down one animal, then the other. A deer falls on the floor, steps on its feet liberated, and runs off. A bear falls, roars, and charges at the attacking spiders. Finally! The cow! With a loud "mooo" it falls on the floor, Torek picks it up, throws it over his mighty shoulders, and runs down the tunnel. Liberated animals follow.
Bright clearing at the edge of the forest. The grass moves, as something tries to break free from under the earth. A head of a cow pokes through, then its body, then Torek bursts from under the ground, gasping for air, as the clouds of smoke billow from the tunnels behind him. He makes his way onto the surface, and keeps running. The animals emerge from the hole in the ground after him, chased by spiders. But the spiders hesitate to emerge into the sunlight, retreating back into the tunnels.
At the edge of the farm, the Farmer Frank peers in the direction of the forest, notices Torek, and smiles brightly. The spear in hand, no longer on fire, but still trailing a cloud of smoke. The cow over his shoulders, mooing loudly. Excitement and enthusiasm in his eyes. "Hey! I got her! I got your Daisy!" yells Torek excitedly.
He finally makes his way through the fields to the farm. Gently puts down horrified Daisy, who's happy to see Frank, Frank hugs her.
"Oh Daisy, you'e back!" Frank turns to Torek. "Thank you, yer are a true hero!" he hugs Torek as well.
"Oh, I'm just happy I could help."
"How can I repay you?"
"Do you know if I can find a place to stay around here? I need to get my bearings, until I find the next adventure."
"Oh, but of course! You can stay at my farm, plenty of space around here. And here...." the Farmer extends two silver coins and hands them to Torek. "This isn't much, but this is what I can give you in gratitude."
"Oh, wow! I can help people and get paid for this? I like it here." smiles Torek. He gratefully accepts the payment, and he and Frank start off towards the farmhouse.
With a place to stay, a couple of coins jingling in his pocket, and the first adventure under his belt, Torek smiles happily. His journey into the world beyond the mountains is off to a great start.
