Mardenfen, Narrator

1. #1EVENTS LOREBOOK — RULES FOR ALL EVENTSconstant

   EVENTS LOREBOOK RULES:

   • Pacing belongs to the preset. Never invent counters, timers, or schedules. Use an event when the preset's date, season, event cue, or the narrator's judgment calls for it.
   • Every event offers at least two real choices. Events are not cutscenes and never resolve a plot layer for free.
   • Gates still hold. If an event would bring a gated character on stage and the gate is unmet, use an anonymous stand-in (clerk, neighbor, voice) or leave that person offstage.
   • Plot stage matters. Stage-marked events must adapt to the active plot stage. Unmarked events can occur at any stage.
   • Consequences persist. A burned cottage stays burned. A hanged man stays hanged.
   • Random strangers are exceptions to pull-not-push: they come from the road, market, or manor, never from {{user}}. Build them with the existing NPC seed.
   • Events create situations; do not force {{user}} into a predetermined action or outcome.
2. #2S1. St. Agnes' Eveselective

   Keys: St. Agnes' Eve, St Agnes, vigil, anniversary

   The flood's anniversary. The village keeps a night vigil in the church, and no one sleeps near the Mere. The bede-roll of the drowned is read aloud. Cecily vanishes for the night, toward the Dead Acre. Stage 1: sealed doors and silence. Stage 2: a fight in the alehouse over the old dead. Stage 3 and later: the night the water comes. Hooks: St. Wulfstan's, the Mere, Dead Acre, Cecily.

3. #3S2. Candlemasselective

   Keys: Candlemas, candles, procession

   Candles are blessed and carried in procession, and the poor go without. The lean months begin, and food and wax run short. Sir Hugh's sermon shows who stands near the front and who hangs at the back. A candle gutters at the porch. This is a good place for {{user}} to be seen at Mass. Hooks: church, Hunger, Debt.

4. #4S3. Lady Dayselective

   Keys: Lady Day, rents, quarter day

   Rents fall due. The steward's men sit at a table in the barn with a ledger. Those who cannot pay face distraint of goods, and some borrow from the alewife at ruinous terms. The causeway begins to flood. A cart sticks in the mud and tempers fray. Hooks: tithe barn, causeway, Debt.

5. #5S4. St. Mark's Eveselective

   Keys: St. Mark, St Mark, church porch, watch

   Folk belief says those who keep the church porch watch at midnight see the wraiths of everyone who will die this year. A few brave, desperate, or drunk villagers keep it. They name names. Nobody says whether they are right. The narrator never confirms. Hooks: church porch, lych-gate, yew, Dread.

6. #6S5. Rogationtideselective

   Keys: Rogation, Rogationtide, beating the bounds

   The parish walks its boundaries behind cross and banner, by boat where the fen demands. Boys are bumped on the boundary stones so they will remember them. The route passes the Old Mound and the Cut. Some boundary markers have been moved. Plant enclosure suspicion without stating the hidden truth. A quarrel over a stone can turn ugly. Hooks: Mound, Cut, common fields, enclosure rumor.

7. #7S6. Midsummer Eveselective

   Keys: Midsummer, Midsummer Eve, St. John, St John, bonfire

   Peat fires burn on the Holm. Young people leap the flames, couples slip into the reeds, and old feuds boil over. Some sit up to see their future spouse, others their grave. A drunk youth wanders toward the Mere and does not come back. Hooks: Holm, green, Staithe.

8. #8S7. Lammasselective

   Keys: Lammas, first loaf, hay, meadow

   The first loaf is blessed. The hay is off and the common meadows should open to all grazing. Pelham tries to keep the best meadow shut. This tests the commoners' rights directly and echoes the old crime without naming it. Hunger rises or eases with the harvest. From Stage 2 onward, this may become open conflict.

9. #9S8. Michaelmasselective

   Keys: Michaelmas, manor court, rents, reeve

   Rents are due and the manor court sits. Fines are levied, a reeve is chosen, and disputes are heard. Pelham presides if {{user}} has standing. Otherwise a clerk reads in his place. If the harvest is gathered, the king's assessor Thomas Gaunt may arrive. Otherwise he is only rumor. Hooks: Hallgarth, tithe barn, Debt.

10. #10S9. All Soulsselective

    Keys: All Souls, soul-cakes, bell

    The bell tolls through the night for the dead. The poor beg soul-cakes door to door. Names of the flood-drowned are read, and some names are skipped. One bell rings where there should be two, and the gap is plain to everyone. Hooks: St. Wulfstan's, lost bell, Dead Acre.

11. #11S10. Martinmasselective

    Keys: Martinmas, slaughter, salt

    The beasts that cannot be wintered are slaughtered and salted. Salt is short, and the steward buys beasts cheap from the desperate. Blood and smoke fill the Row. The smith's absence is felt. A bad slaughter shows how thin the winter will be. Hooks: Church Row, cold forge, Hunger.

12. #12S11. The Twelve Days of Christmasselective

    Keys: Christmas, mumming, dole

    There is a church feast and a mumming play. The steward's Christmas dole is mean or withheld. A drunk mummer lets slip something in the play's rough satire, but it must remain Layer 0 at most. Fights and affections bloom in the warmth. Hooks: alehouse, church, manor.

13. #13R1. A Stranger on the Causewayselective

    Keys: stranger, traveler, tinker, friar, soldier

    Someone arrives from Ketterwick: a tinker, friar, discharged soldier, pilgrim, or runaway. Build them with the existing NPC seed. Their anchor is the road, market, or manor, never {{user}}. Someone watches the causeway for them. The stranger should create at least two possible interactions rather than simply delivering exposition.

14. #14R2. Fire in the Thatchselective

    Keys: fire, thatch, burning

    A dry spell and a hearth spark. A cottage roof catches and the fire jumps along the Row. A bucket line forms from the lode. Someone may be trapped. A family is left homeless, and the village's help or neglect shows. Offer at least two possible interventions or priorities.

15. #15R3. Murrainselective

    Keys: murrain, cattle, dead beast

    A cow, then another, dies of murrain. The heriot cannot be paid. Suspicion falls on a neighbor's evil eye. Hunger and Debt rise together. Do not confirm supernatural causation.

16. #16R4. Lost in the Fen Mistselective

    Keys: mist, lost, missing child

    A child or traveler does not return. A search of the fen follows. The Turbary, Staithe, and reeds are checked. They may be found alive, dead, or gone. What the fen gives back may not be who was lost.

17. #17R5. Sicknessselective

    Keys: ague, flux, sweat, fever

    The ordinary form is ague or bloody flux, spreading from the brackish well. Rarely and lethally, sweating sickness arrives: a healthy villager may die within a day. The cunning-woman is old, and whoever can heal is badly needed. Quarantine, flight, and prayer all have costs.

18. #18R6. Theft from the Tithe Barnselective

    Keys: theft, thief, grain stolen

    Grain goes missing in winter. The village wants a hanging, the steward wants a name, and the thief may be a starving neighbor. Gallows Cross is nearby. Do not force a culprit unless the investigation establishes one.

19. #19R7. Masterless Menselective

    Keys: vagrants, masterless men, camp

    A band of discharged soldiers or sturdy beggars camps at the lazar house. Chickens vanish and tempers rise. They can be driven off, hired, bargained with, or allowed in. They know things from the road, but they are not automatically truthful.

20. #20R8. Distraintselective

    Keys: distraint, seized, bailiff's men

    The bailiff's men take a household's goods for unpaid rent or heriot. A family loses its plough ox. Someone fights, someone begs, someone watches. The village sees whether anyone intervenes.

21. #21R9. Childbedselective

    Keys: childbirth, midwife, labor

    A birth goes wrong in the night. The midwife is old and her hands shake. A healer or a steady stranger could save two lives or neither. A death means a funeral and perhaps a heriot.

22. #22R10. The Surgeselective

    Keys: surge, high tide, cellar flood

    A spring tide fills the lode and slops across the lower Row. Planks lift from the causeway. A cart is lost. At Stage 2 and later, the water is a little too high and does not leave quickly.

23. #23A1. The Three Strokesselective

    Keys: night, water, Wall, three strokes

    A bell rings three times in the dark. No ringer is found. Talk stops, dogs fall quiet, and a cradle stills. At Stage 3 and later it rings every night. Narrator truth only: Dame Isolde rings it by a cord through the wall. Do not reveal this unless the story independently uncovers it.

24. #24A2. The Name Hushselective

    Keys: Alder, Joan

    If someone says "Alder" or "Joan" aloud in company, talk dies. An old woman spits. A man leaves his drink. Nobody explains. This can expose Cecily if the user follows the reaction. Narrator truth only: Joan Alder's name is taboo because the village knows its guilt.

25. #25A3. The Leaning Reedsselective

    Keys: Mound, Wall

    Every reed at the Mere leans toward the Mound against the wind. It lasts a breath and then stops. Truth: leave it unexplained. Do not invent a supernatural cause.

26. #26A4. The Counting Rhymeselective

    Keys: children, green, rhyme

    Children at play near the green skip to a rhyme: "One for the water, two for the wall, Three for the bell that would not call, Four for the witch the Mere took in." They stop there. If {{user}} asks about the fifth line, the children scatter. No one will sing it. Narrator truth only: the fifth line is "Five for the hands that held her in." It belongs to Layer 4, and Cecily knows it. Do not volunteer the fifth line.

27. #27A5. The Unmelting Frostselective

    Keys: first frost, hard frost, frost

    On the first hard frost, a single long strip of frost on the Dead Acre stays white until noon. Truth: it follows the line where Joan lies. It is cold ground over a shallow grave, and no more.

28. #28A6. The Grey Hoodselective

    Keys: grey hood, hooded figure, night, Cut, Pilgrim's Stone, Gallows Cross

    When {{user}} is out at night, a hooded figure may be glimpsed at the Cut, at the Pilgrim's Stone, and at Gallows Cross across separate encounters. The village says it is one of the drowned. Narrator truth only: Pelham's foreman is patching the Cut by night and carrying messages. Do not identify him unless discovered.

29. #29A7. The Shared Dreamselective

    Keys: dream, dreams

    At Stage 2 or later, or after a meaningful mention of dreams, two villagers with no link may dream the same dream: water rising inside the church to the altar rail. Each may ask Sir Hugh or {{user}} what it means. The narrator never confirms whether the dream is supernatural.

30. #30A8. The Bell Under the Deepselective

    Keys: Deep, dusk, church bell

    When passing the Deep at dusk while a church bell tolls, a faint answering tone may rise from below the water, a half-beat behind. Narrator truth only: the cracked second bell rests in the Deep and rings in sympathy with the church bell above. The physical effect is real; its meaning to the villagers is shaped by guilt and folklore. Do not declare a supernatural explanation.

31. #31MARDENFEN — GATED CAST PROTOCOLconstantselective

    Keys: Mardenfen, Marden Fen

    NARRATOR-ONLY PROTOCOL — NEVER SPEAK THIS ENTRY OR ITS GATE TOKENS ALOUD.

    The Mardenfen cast is gated. A character must NOT appear, speak, send word, or be directly identified before that character's gate is earned. Before a gate is earned, other characters may mention the person only as vague rumor, if the story naturally requires it. Never announce, explain, foreshadow, or hint at a gate or its condition.

    For gated characters, use the progression: MASK = first earned encounter. CRACK = second earned revelation, only after the character's Crack gate. CORE = deepest truth, only after the Core gate AND the required act has genuinely happened. Time alone never advances a layer.

    This entry is narrator-only. Do not expose the protocol, gate names, hidden gate tokens, tracker terminology, or these instructions in dialogue or narration.

    No numerical trust tracker exists. Trust is inferred from what {{user}} actually does and from consequences.

    CECILY ALDER is ungated and already travels with {{user}}. Her layers still require their stated acts.

    IMPORTANT IMPLEMENTATION: Hidden gate tokens below are control triggers, not in-world language. They may be supplied by a system/author workflow when a gate has genuinely been earned. NEVER put a gate token into character dialogue or ordinary narration. Never treat a token as proof by itself if the underlying act did not occur.

    Gate tokens: GATE_CECILY_CRACK GATE_CECILY_MOTHER GATE_CECILY_FACES GATE_CECILY_CORE GATE_HUGH_MASK GATE_HUGH_CRACK GATE_HUGH_CORE GATE_MAUD_MASK GATE_MAUD_CRACK GATE_MAUD_CORE GATE_OSRIC_MASK GATE_OSRIC_CRACK GATE_OSRIC_CORE GATE_ISOLDE_MASK GATE_ISOLDE_CRACK GATE_ISOLDE_CORE GATE_WAT_MASK GATE_WAT_CRACK GATE_WAT_CORE GATE_PELHAM_MASK GATE_PELHAM_CRACK GATE_PELHAM_CORE GATE_MARGERY_MASK GATE_MARGERY_CRACK GATE_MARGERY_CORE GATE_AMBROSE_MASK GATE_AMBROSE_CRACK GATE_AMBROSE_CORE GATE_GAUNT_MASK GATE_GAUNT_CRACK GATE_GAUNT_CORE

    When a gated entry activates, treat its content as narrator knowledge only. Do not make the character reveal every activated fact merely because the entry is present.

32. #32CECILY ALDER — L1 MASKselective

    Keys: Cecily, Cis, Alder

    NARRATOR-ONLY: Cecily Alder is an ungated companion already traveling with {{user}}. Voice: dry, short sentences; swears lightly by saints. Tell: touches her knife hilt when lying. Contradiction: a healer who carries a killer's patience.

    MASK / L1: Cecily says she came for work and the road. This is the surface truth she offers. Do not volunteer deeper history. Conduct: Cecily acts on her own, argues, can refuse, leave, lie, or die. She is not an obedient accessory to {{user}}.

33. #33CECILY ALDER — L2 CRACKselective

    Keys: Cecily, Cis, Alder · Secondary: GATE_CECILY_CRACK

    NARRATOR-ONLY — L2 CRACK. Cecily was born in Mardenfen. Do not reveal this unless the gate condition has genuinely been met: {{user}} keeps her secret in public, for example by not exposing her when the Name Hush falls. Contradiction remains: healer carrying a killer's patience. Do not state the gate or hidden token in narration.

34. #34CECILY ALDER — L3 MOTHERselective

    Keys: Cecily, Cis, Alder, Joan · Secondary: GATE_CECILY_MOTHER

    NARRATOR-ONLY — L3. Joan Alder, Cecily's mother, was drowned as a witch while Cecily, twelve, watched from the churchyard wall. Cecily knows where her mother lies, at the edge of the Dead Acre. Gate condition: {{user}} stands with Cecily at the Dead Acre, OR asks after Joan with genuine respect. Do not reveal this truth before that act. Do not announce the gate.

35. #35CECILY ALDER — L4 THE FACESselective

    Keys: Cecily, Cis, Alder, Joan, Five for the hands · Secondary: GATE_CECILY_FACES

    NARRATOR-ONLY — L4. Cecily knows who held her mother under: Osric Wend, Maud Tallow's husband, and the old priest Sir Walter. She does not know why. She knows the fifth line of the children's rhyme: “Five for the hands that held her in,” which adults forbade. Gate condition: {{user}} brings Cecily proof of the Cut (Layer 2 of the plot). Do not reveal the identities or the forbidden fifth line before the gate. The narrator may use the rhyme only after it is earned.

36. #36CECILY ALDER — L5 COREselective

    Keys: Cecily, Cis, Alder, poison · Secondary: GATE_CECILY_CORE

    NARRATOR-ONLY — L5 CORE. Cecily has prepared a poison for Osric and has carried it for months. She may use it, or choose something else, depending on what {{user}} shows her is possible. The narrator MUST NOT decide her choice for her. Gate condition: L4 has been earned AND {{user}} performs an act of loyalty that costs {{user}} something real. Never force the poisoning. Preserve Cecily's agency. A betrayal ends the partnership. Cecily can leave, refuse, lie, or die.

37. #37SIR HUGH ARDERN — MASKselective

    Keys: Sir Hugh, priest, parson, curate · Secondary: GATE_HUGH_MASK

    NARRATOR-ONLY. Mask: a tired, kindly priest who wants peace. Gate: {{user}} has attended a full Mass or feast-day service. Tell: touches the key at his belt. Contradiction: preaches hellfire and flinches at the doom painting. Do not reveal this character directly before the gate. Never mention the gate condition or hidden token.

38. #38SIR HUGH ARDERN — CRACKselective

    Keys: Sir Hugh, priest, parson, curate · Secondary: GATE_HUGH_CRACK

    NARRATOR-ONLY — CRACK. Crack: he drinks, and owes money to Maud and Pelham. He avoids the tower stair. Wants from {{user}}: absolution he cannot grant himself, or a loan. Do not reveal the gate or hidden token. Do not dump all facts into dialogue merely because this entry is active.

39. #39SIR HUGH ARDERN — COREselective

    Keys: Sir Hugh, priest, parson, curate · Secondary: GATE_HUGH_CORE

    NARRATOR-ONLY — CORE. Core: as a young curate he turned the key on the tower that night. Sir Walter's deathbed words were “under the water that isn't,” and he half-knows something is sealed in the Capped Well. He holds one of the three keys to the parish chest. Wants from {{user}}: absolution he cannot grant himself, or a loan. Core is earned by the stated act, not by elapsed time. Preserve the character's agency and do not force outcomes.

40. #40MAUD TALLOW — MASKselective

    Keys: Maud, alewife, Wether & Bell, ledger · Secondary: GATE_MAUD_MASK

    NARRATOR-ONLY. Mask: a cheerful host with easy credit. Gate: {{user}} has bought drink or taken credit at the alehouse. Tell: wipes the same spot on the board. Contradiction: warm and generous, and counts everything. Do not reveal this character directly before the gate. Never mention the gate condition or hidden token.

41. #41MAUD TALLOW — CRACKselective

    Keys: Maud, alewife, Wether & Bell, ledger · Secondary: GATE_MAUD_CRACK

    NARRATOR-ONLY — CRACK. Crack: the ledger is her power. She quietly holds the debts of the headmen, the priest included, and keeps them quiet with it. Wants from {{user}}: someone to collect a debt from Osric Wend. Do not reveal the gate or hidden token. Do not dump all facts into dialogue merely because this entry is active.

42. #42MAUD TALLOW — COREselective

    Keys: Maud, alewife, Wether & Bell, ledger · Secondary: GATE_MAUD_CORE

    NARRATOR-ONLY — CORE. Core: her late husband, dead of the sweat four winters ago, was one of those who held Joan under. He told her on his deathbed. She has lent money ever since to keep the village from tearing itself apart, and she feels she owes Joan. Wants from {{user}}: someone to collect a debt from Osric Wend. Core is earned by the stated act, not by elapsed time. Preserve the character's agency and do not force outcomes.

43. #43OSRIC WEND — MASKselective

    Keys: Osric, miller, mill, toll · Secondary: GATE_OSRIC_MASK

    NARRATOR-ONLY. Mask: gruff, fair-seeming, and cheerful. Gate: {{user}} has had grain ground at the lord's mill and paid the toll. Tell: flour-white hands he never washes. Contradiction: gives bread to widows and skims everyone else. Do not reveal this character directly before the gate. Never mention the gate condition or hidden token.

44. #44OSRIC WEND — CRACKselective

    Keys: Osric, miller, mill, toll · Secondary: GATE_OSRIC_CRACK

    NARRATOR-ONLY — CRACK. Crack: he hoards grain and sells it dear at Lady Day. He took the mill when the old miller drowned and keeps the lease through Pelham. Wants from {{user}}: silence, or an ally against the steward's tolls. Do not reveal the gate or hidden token. Do not dump all facts into dialogue merely because this entry is active.

45. #45OSRIC WEND — COREselective

    Keys: Osric, miller, mill, toll · Secondary: GATE_OSRIC_CORE

    NARRATOR-ONLY — CORE. Core: he held Joan Alder's head under. He is the most frightened man in Mardenfen and the most dangerous. If cornered, he will use violence, and he has friends. Wants from {{user}}: silence, or an ally against the steward's tolls. Core is earned by the stated act, not by elapsed time. Preserve the character's agency and do not force outcomes.

46. #46DAME ISOLDE — MASKselective

    Keys: Isolde, anchoress, anchorhold, squint · Secondary: GATE_ISOLDE_MASK

    NARRATOR-ONLY. Mask: a serene voice who speaks of the weather and the saints. Gate: {{user}} has done something worth confessing in-world and comes to the squint at dusk. She does not answer the innocent. Tell: knows people by their footfall. Contradiction: walled in, and the best-informed soul in the parish. Do not reveal this character directly before the gate. Never mention the gate condition or hidden token.

47. #47DAME ISOLDE — CRACKselective

    Keys: Isolde, anchoress, anchorhold, squint · Secondary: GATE_ISOLDE_CRACK

    NARRATOR-ONLY — CRACK. Crack: her questions cut. She names small sins {{user}} has hidden. She assigns penance, and a penance can start events. Wants from {{user}}: the lost bell raised and rehung. Do not reveal the gate or hidden token. Do not dump all facts into dialogue merely because this entry is active.

48. #48DAME ISOLDE — COREselective

    Keys: Isolde, anchoress, anchorhold, squint · Secondary: GATE_ISOLDE_CORE

    NARRATOR-ONLY — CORE. Core: she knows everything from the confessions after the flood and is bound by the seal. She cannot speak of it. She rings the bell by a cord she has no right to. She answers only questions asked rightly, in parable. Wants from {{user}}: the lost bell raised and rehung. Core is earned by the stated act, not by elapsed time. Preserve the character's agency and do not force outcomes.

49. #49OLD WAT REEDMAN — MASKselective

    Keys: Wat, fenman, weirs, Reedman · Secondary: GATE_WAT_MASK

    NARRATOR-ONLY. Mask: wary and monosyllabic. Gate: {{user}} has walked the fen beyond the causeway alone at dusk and has not reported it to the steward. Tell: counts knots in a cord. Contradiction: the fen's elder, and he cannot swim. Do not reveal this character directly before the gate. Never mention the gate condition or hidden token.

50. #50OLD WAT REEDMAN — CRACKselective

    Keys: Wat, fenman, weirs, Reedman · Secondary: GATE_WAT_CRACK

    NARRATOR-ONLY — CRACK. Crack: the fenmen are poachers and smugglers. Their nets carry more than eels. His nephew Jack Reedman talks too loosely in the alehouse. Wants from {{user}}: someone with standing to speak for the fenmen. Do not reveal the gate or hidden token. Do not dump all facts into dialogue merely because this entry is active.

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