You emerge from a megalith which is part of a stone circle which looks nothing at all like Stonehenge. You now have various options. Amongst the more plausible are to look around you and see what's going on (in which case, read on), or to turn around and walk back through the megalith.
Looking around the megalith, you see several groups of people. They're all talking in strange-sounding languages, none of which you recognise. However, their actions lead you to believe that they are tourists.
After a little while, something rather unusual happens. One of the group of tourists stands together in a little ring, all holding hands and chanting, and they suddenly vanish.
No-one else seems to find this at all unusual. Indeed, a few minutes later, a second group of tourists does exactly the same thing.
When, a few minutes later, a third group of tourists start to collect together, you wonder if you might join in the ring with them, and what will happen if you do. Either you decide to try it or you don't.
But you only get one more chance, because the fourth group of tourists seems to be the last lot. Again, you wonder if you might join in the ring with them, and what will happen if you do. Either you decide to try it or you don't.
If you're still here, you're not alone. So are a few other people. But they're individuals, not groups. Gradually, one by one, these individuals start to drift off. Generally, they seem to be heading in the same direction. If you like, you can wait until you're the only one left, but nothing more out of the ordinary is going to happen, so sooner or later you decide to head off in the same direction.
It soon becomes clear that you have arrived in the outskirts of a city (for reference, you're in the City of Vlydyga).
By now, you're starting to get hungry.
The first inn you come to is fairly close to the stone circle. Maybe it's a tourist trap, and maybe it isn't. Either enter it or continue onwards towards the city centre.
The second inn you come to looks rather seedy. Perhaps it's cheaper than the other one, but perhaps the food is iffy, or perhaps it's the meeting-place of people you'd rather not meet. Either enter it or continue onwards towards the city centre.
As you approach the city centre, the third inn you come to looks rather flashy. You suspect that the prices will be high and the morals low. Either enter it or continue onwards towards the city centre.
If you're still reading, you're in the centre of Vlydyga. By now, night has fallen. Vlydyga is not a safe city to walk around alone after dark, particularly for naive people such as yourself. Without warning, and before you know what hits you, you are suddenly and unexpectedly dead. Click here to continue.
You're in the first inn.
After looking around for a while, you conclude that the focus of attention is a notice on the wall. It is in several languages, and you do not understand any of them. You recognise that one of the languages uses a script similar to Greek, but even if you read Greek, you only recognise a few words.
Another of the customers in the inn notices your problem and approaches you. He speaks your language, but not very well, and as a result seems to be rather creepy. He introduces himself as Thinceeticart Daipez, and provides you with an approximate translation of the notice:
Adventurers wanted. Volunteers only. Report to the innkeeper, then wait to be collected. Accommodation and one meal a day paid for until collection time. Standard rules apply thereafter.
Daipez informs you that standard rules means equal shares for all survivors of any treasure found. He hints that if you are looking for something which might be more profitable and less group-oriented than an equal share of an uncertain reward, he may know of something. When you look mildly interested, he goes on to explain that he is looking for someone to look for something. Not to put too fine a point on it, he wants to recruit a spy.
Essentially, you have three options:
You're in the second inn. You don't understand a word anyone is saying.
Another of the customers in the inn notices your problem and approaches you. He speaks your language, but not very well, and as a result seems to be rather creepy. He introduces himself as Villyjos, and seems relieved when you clearly do not recognise the name.
Villyjos explains that he is in Vlydyga to recruit soldiers. He is a general in his nation's army, and his nation is at war. He arrived at the stone circle earlier in the day. Tomorrow, he will go into the city to recruit soldiers. Tomorrow evening, he will return to the inn, and the following day a magician will take him home, along with any recruits he has recruited.
If you look like a potential recruit (i.e. male, look as if you could carry a longsword) Villyjos will ask if you would be interested in joining an army which pays well and offers good opportunities for career advancement.
If you look like a potential asset to a recruiter (e.g. female, pretty) Villyjos will ask if you would be interested in joining his diplomatic mission.
In either case, your expenses are covered, but you are expected to accompany Villyjos, and whomever else he recruits, back to his nation when he leaves.
Essentially, you have two options:
You're in the third inn.
You don't know anyone, and no-one knows you. You don't even recognise the language people are speaking to one another in, so even if you had any local currency (which you don't) or something which you could barter for local currency (which you might have) you would not be able to order food or drink.
Another of the customers in the inn notices your problem and approaches you. He speaks your language, but not very well, and as a result seems to be rather creepy. He explains that he is a stranger here too, and offers to buy you a drink. You can either accept or decline and leave the inn.
The stranger introduces himself as Xukry, and describes himself as a travelling illusionist. You introduce yourself in return.
As the conversation continues, Xukry mentions that he has vacancies for performers - some of the performers at his last venue remained there rather than accompany him to Vlydyga. It is not that Vlydyga is bad, he hastens to add. It merely has a bad reputation. Xukry guarantees that his employees will come to no harm while in Vlydyga. He drops a few hints that things are different for strangers alone in the city.
The particular vacancy Xukry has is for dancing-girls. He asks you if you would like to fill one of these vacancies. The pay is not especially good, he admits, but it includes free accommodation and free meals at this inn, and adds that the food is rather good, especially by Vlydygan standards. He will also provide working clothes and make-up, and will not object if you wear them outside the theatre.
If you do not know how to dance, and point this out, Xukry insists that this is not a problem. He can make arrangements.
If you are male, and point this out, Xukry insists that this is not a problem. He can make arrangements.
Essentially, you have two options:
Daipez teleports you off to his lair. He explains that he wants you to spy on Vismandort Wayer, the usurper Thane of Foletercheduastry. Daipez will, in due course, take you as close to Foletercheduastry as he dares. From then on, what you do and what and whom you spy on is your own business. As and when Daipez wants a report, he will make this known.
If you want to learn to be a thief or a wizard, Daipez will give you a crash course lasting about a week. Daipez is not a natural teacher, but knows his stuff, and you pick up enough skills during this week to advance about half-way through first level.
Daipez will provide you with any reasonable non-magical equipment you ask for, plus two or three potions. He will also cast any reasonable spells low-level spells you ask for.
It may occur to you that you have no idea where Daipez's lair is relative to either Vlydyga or Foletercheduastry. If you ask Daipez about this, he will tell you that you are better off not knowing. What you don't know, you can't give away.
It may also occur to you that Daipez has made no improper advances to you. If it does, you are sensible enough not to mention this to Daipez, in case it gives him ideas.
After the week of training, Daipez teleports you as close to Foletercheduastry as he dares. From then on you are on your own. You make your own way to Foletercheduastry.
Unfortunately, I haven't written this up yet. Click here to continue.
You stay at the inn overnight. Villyjos reminds you that he will deduct the cost from your pay, as and when you are paid.
The following day, you accompany Villyjos to central Vlydyga, where he sets about recruiting for his army. During the day, most of the people you meet are from Vlydyga, but a few are from Villyjos's native world, Salta. None of the Vlydygans speak your native language, but a few Saltese do. This quells any thoughts you may have had about deserting. You would clearly be better-off travelling to Salta than remaining in Vlydyga.
You are also impressed by the fact that Villyjos can pick and choose between would-be recruits. Clearly, many Vlydygans believe that they too would be better-off travelling to Salta than remaining in Vlydyga.
One of the Saltese you meet is a wizardess named Priejkouxlia. You gather that, although still relatively young, she is a person of importance on the world of Salta. If you are female, you will be assigned to Priejkouxlia's staff when she returns to Salta, and your duties will include being her bodyguard.
In the evening, you, the other recruits and several Saltese diplomats go to the Lyzard Theatre to see a show of magical illusions. Priejkouxlia is paying. It's the one freebie you're going to get, and you make the most of it. After that:
In either case, the following morning, a group of people assembles at the standing stones, including Priejkouxlia and the members of her diplomatic mission, Villyjos and the warriors he has recruited, and yourself. Priejkouxlia and one of the other diplomats cast teleport spells transporting you all to Salta.
The innkeeper does not understand any language you speak, but when you point to the notice he gets the message. He summons a serving-wench, who takes you to a small, dirty room at the back of the inn. This is your home for the next week.
At sundown, you get the free meal to which you are entitled. The meal includes as much of the local alcoholic beverage as you want to drink, so if you want to spend the entire evening getting drunk for free, that is fine. It does not include the sexual services of the serving-wench, so if your preference is for sex rather than booze, you have to use your natural charm (if you have any).
During the course of the next week, various other people show up at the inn and point to the notice. You suspect they get better rooms than you do (and quite possibly better-looking serving-wenches too).
If you can find a way of communicating with the other would-be adventurers, you might pick up a few tips of the trade, possibly enough to earn you a couple of hundred experience points in whatever character class you have chosen. (If you haven't chosen one already, they will suggest something which helps you fit in with the rest of the party.)
After you have been at the inn about a week, Daipez returns. He gathers you and all of the other would-be adventurers in a circle, and teleports the lot of you to the centre of yet another stone circle.
The sequence of events at this stone circle is:
After following the path for at least a couple of miles, you come across a building which looks like a tavern. Although it is obviously not the inn which you have been staying in up to now, there is something undefinable which the two buildings have in common.
Your group enters the tavern.
Xukry haggles with the innkeeper for five or ten minutes in a language you do not recognise. After that, he returns to you, and says that everything is arranged. You have a room upstairs. You will eat in the public room in the inn, as will the other members of the troupe. As long as you turn up as a group at mealtimes, you will all be fed. Xukry adds that he himself is staying at a more expensive inn, explaining that rank has its privileges, but assures you that this one is entirely satisfactory.
You accompany Xukry up to the room he has booked for you. It is a double room, but the person with whom you will share it has not arrived yet.
Your working clothes are on the bed. It is more or less what you would expect a dancing-girl to wear.
If you are male, Xukry suggests that you put on the girdle first. You do so. For about five seconds, you feel strange and uncomfortable things happening to your body. You discover that you are now female. You protest, but Xukry just shrugs and says "I said I'd make arrangements."
While you are dressing in the rest of your working clothes, Xukry leaves to fetch your room-mate. She arrives just as you are finishing dressing. She does not speak any language you speak, or vice versa.
Xukry introduces her to you as Nylchrinie, from Vlydyga. He then tells her your name, mispronouncing it badly. You don't understand anything else he tells her except that you think that Urf is his name for the planet you come from.
Xukry then engages you in conversation while Nylchrinie dresses in a costume identical to yours.
When Nylchrinie is dressed, Xukry makes some magical-looking gestures and the air in front of you appears to shimmer, and then reflects you as if it were a mirror. Xukry makes some more gestures, and your appearance (and Nylchrinie's appearance) seem to change. When Xukry has finished, both you and Nylchrinie are now very pretty dancing-girls.
Xukry explains that this change of appearance is temporary, but that he will renew it for as long as you keep working for him. Working for an illusionist has its perks too.
Xukry makes another gesture, and music seems to come from nowhere. You and Nylchrinie start to dance. Your arms and legs seem to have minds of their own, and nothing you can do can stop them dancing. When Xukry is satisfied that your dancing meets his requirements, he undoes the previous gesture, the music stops, and your arms and legs behave properly again.
Xukry nods to himself, and leaves.
...
Although you and Nylchrinie do not share a common language, you can communicate to a limited extent by gestures. The two of you decide that it is time to eat. You return downstairs to the public room of the inn, and discover that there are at least a dozen other dancing-girls there, all dressed in costumes the same as yours. None of them speaks a language you understand, but three or four of them share a language with Nylchrinie.
The food and drink are entirely satisfactory.
During the course of the meal, you notice that some of the dancing-girls are, experimentally, taking off various articles of clothing and then replacing them. You wonder why, and draw Nylchrinie's attention to this. She talks to the others who understand her language, and then points to the earrings she is wearing, and then to the earrings you are wearing, and gestures as if she is trying to remove them.
You try to remove your earrings, and find that you cannot touch them with your hands. Nothing you can do will allow your hands to touch your earrings.
Nylchrinie then makes dancing gestures. You deduce, correctly, that as long as you wear the earrings you will dance whenever Xukry conjures up music.
...
For five weeks, you are a dancing-girl in Xukry's stage illusion show at the Lyzard Theatre in Vlydyga. You cannot see the illusions yourself, but it seems that the audience enjoys them.
On the whole, it is rather boring. You get up, you get dressed, you eat, you stand around while Xukry is creating illusions, you sing and dance, you stand around some more, you eat again, you stand around again, you sing and dance again, you stand around yet again, you undress, you bathe, and you go to sleep.
You do not pick up Nylchrinie's language, and she does not pick up yours. However, you both learn the basics of something called the Common Tongue, a pidgin language spoken by almost everyone. Gradually, you become able to communicate with her and with the others in the show.
After five weeks are up, the entire show (minus a few dancing-girls) moves to Rajeya. You and Nylchrinie go with them.
You're in a ring of people, holding hands with the people either side of you, and you're in a public place surrounded by buildings. It is mid-afternoon.
Gradually, the people around you say goodbye to one another and drift off. All, that is, except the person who cast the spell. He beckons to you.
It transpires that he speaks your native language reasonably well. He is polite, and rather reserved. Physically, he is tallish and distinguished-looking; it is difficult to assess his age, but he is clearly in very good health. If you are female, you immediately fall in love with him; he seems to treat this as normal, and remains polite and rather reserved.
He introduces himself as Niearma, and asks who you are and why you added yourself to his group. You tell him your story.
Niearma is good at listening. He is also good at asking intelligent, pertinent questions. Telling your story will take some time.
As you are both hungry, he invites you to a tavern, and buys you a meal. You notice that you are eating at least twice as much as he is, although he appears to be enjoying the meal too. Finally, at the end of the second course of the meal, you finish your story.
Niearma pauses for thought, to consider what he should do next. Having considered, this is what he tells you.
"By bringing you to my home city, I have incurred a responsibility to you. I shall discharge that responsibility by taking you to the place you belong. I do not know your home world, the one you have described, so I cannot take you there. If you describe your talents, as you see them, I shall then recommend two places where I feel you could make good use of those talents, and I shall take you to whichever of the two places you choose. Our paths may cross thereafter." He smiles. "If they do, and you have prospered, you owe me a meal. Tell me about yourself while we eat dessert."
If your ambition is to be a warrior, Niearma recommends either Megalopolis or Rajeya. In either case, he advises you to hang around the city making contacts, until you are invited to join an adventuring party.
If your ambition is to be an adventuring priest, Niearma smiles ruefully. He is, he admits, not all that fond of religion, explaining that religion has, in his experience, got rather a lot of people killed. He offers to take you either to Atlantis, where you will undoubtedly find others of your own faith, or to Rajeya, where your best option is to hang around the city making contacts, until you are invited to join an adventuring party.
If your ambition is to be a roguish adventurer, Niearma recommends either Omnatia or Rajeya. Omnatia is known as a city where spies spy on other spies; there are always vacancies for people who mind other people's business. Alternatively, if you want something more active, you could hang around Rajeya making contacts, until you are invited to join an adventuring party.
If your ambition is to be a wizard, Niearma recommends either the Institutes of Atlantis or the College of Knowledge in Megalopolis.
If your ambition is to be a psionicist, Niearma recommends either the Psychic Institute in Atlantis or finding a private tutor in Rajeya.
You finish your dessert and make your choice. Niearma asks you to put your hands on his shoulders, and when you do, he casts another spell. Suddenly, you are somewhere else.
Niearma hands you a small bag of coins - a few of them are gold - and explains that this will cover your living expenses for a few days. You can pay him back if your paths ever cross. Better still, if you prosper (and he seems to expect that you will), you can help others in trouble as he has helped you. He then wishes you good fortune, casts another spell, and vanishes.
You are now in whichever city you chose as your destination:
Atlantis
Megalopolis
Omnatia
Rajeya