Iknow5/Text_Adventures huggingface dataset:
This is too much, even for you. Hell, for all you know, the archers down the bridge have already taken out Bertrand and you're just defending a corpse. The only way you're going to survive this is if you give into your fight or flight instincts; right now, your entire body is screaming flight. Taking in a deep breath and mumbling a quick prayer to whatever god will hear it, you jump off the bridge into the river below.

The water is freezing, you note, and pushing you at a breakneck speed. Occasionally you bump into a rock and feel as though you're about to lose consciousness, but the fear of drowning keeps you awake as you struggle to keep your head above the surface. By the time you wind up on land, it feels as though you've been at this for hours, when really it's only been a few minutes at most.

You crawl on hands and knees away from the river, heaving up water and bits of your breakfast on the gravel. Pushing forward, you note that you're in a forest of snow covered pine trees, despite it only just being fall. Then again, you've been heading towards a much colder climate, so this is to be expected. Shivering, you push yourself up on the ground and hook your sword onto your back. There has to be some sort of shelter around here.

Your walk through the forest lasts most of the day, and by nightfall you're sure you'll freeze to death out here. However, luck is on your side; you spot a faint glow not far from you, and push towards it. What you see is a cabin, light from a lantern pouring out of it... The problem, however, is the spikes planted into the ground with heads stuck through them. Whatever this is, it's bad news.

You consider your options: freeze to death out here, or take your chances fighting whoever is in there.

You if it's a choice between being gruesomely maimed and killed or slowly freezing to death... You think you'll take the latter.

There's no way you're going in there. You barely have enough strength to walk, let alone fight off whatever bastards are in the cabin. If you're going to die anyway, you figure you're going to do it on your own terms, and walk away from the cabin.

You continue on into the night, feeling the cold wind slowly freeze your soaked clothing. Ice clings to you, and you feel your strength slowly fading. You're not sure how much longer you can keep walking, so you should at least make sure you're comfortable. Slowing down, you set your back against a tree, and slowly slide down into a sitting position.

Your breathing is slowing down.

You can feel your heart beat every couple of seconds.

It's so cold out here.

Maybe you should rest.

You close your eyes.

Yeah, rest sounds good.

THE END
The two men seem to think about what you said for an age before finally replying.


"Well you might be right, have a good night since I'm not entirely convinced Arbor there is going to easy on the marching tomorrow!" He gives you a smile and a bit of a funny wave as he stands up from the fire and you return the gesture before taking your soup from the fire and having your supper.


Luckily the next day the Capt. does go a lot easier on you all, making the First Point in 1 day seemed to pacify him somewhat. He now is mostly quite congenial between short bursts of calling your all little girls but you think its just his way of encouraging you.


The next two of weeks passes very uneventfully as you march towards the border with days pretty much consisting of March, Eat, Sleep then march some more, when the capt. points out that you are all crossing the old border and into new territory. You think that it seems pretty close considering how far North you used to go mining and hear Capt. Argor saying that he can explain the local borders to anyone who wants.


You make the mistake of asking and after a very long a boring talk (maps appear to be Argor's passion but he is only sad he dosn't have an advanced editor to insert one here.) it is explained to you. To the North of your home city your borders are greatly extended due to the western mountain range as it slowly curves North and East and meets the sea. So since the mountains are hard to cross most of the year, your city controls all the encircled land, and since its safer there, that is where it has most of its farms and townships. Whereas to the south and east other nations have encroached significantly closer over the more open and less defensible terrain. Sadly he doesn't stop there and starts going into the different types of rocks in each area and you gather that this is some sort of hobby of his.


Worn out by the talk of maps you bed down for your first night in the newly claimed territory. Since Argor kept you up talking about the types of rock in different areas of the kingdom most of the sleeping spots are full.

You dont really want to sleep near the Capt. In case he tries to talk about rocks again in the morning, sleep out at the edge of the camp.

You head right out to the edge of the camp and set up your bedroll, you don't mind this as your used to sleeping in the wild and there is still the ring of sentries beyond the reach of the light. You drift off to sleep watching the stars and thinking about whether you prefer hare or rabbit in stews.


You awake to a slight noise near your head. You groggily sit up and see one of the sentries has come just into the firelight and at least two men were walking past your bed roll in full gear towards him. They freeze as they see you move before one comes close. Its one of the men who approached you before.


He squats down beside you and quickly whispers "I'm sorry, we did give you a chance but theres no going back now."


You take a moment to wonder what he means since your still half asleep but before you can say anything you feel a wetness on your neck and chest. You try to speak but just gurgle blood and realize he had cut your throat.
You think to yourself  "Screw this, I worked too hard to give up all that money so easily!"  You head north after the robbers, keeping just off the road in the trees in case they are waiting for you. 


You follow their trail north for nearly the whole day until you find them leading off towards where the couple had first entered the road. You know since they were on horseback that they probably made it back the same evening, so you hope that after a whole day they would have become complacent.


You decide that:

You even if they are complacent, best you play it safe and try to sneak up on them through the trees and shrubs along side the track.

You've decided to play it safe, who knows if they were working alone and they may be better armed than before. Plus it would be sweet to see the mans face as he first realizes your there when you knock him out just like he did to you.


You sneak along near the track for close to an hour when you see smoke rising ahead from some trees. You push ahead being careful not to make any noise and approach the clearing slowly. You see the man and woman there near the fire talking and overhear snatches of conversation. You cant make it all out but it sounds like they are talking about a trap and waiting for someone.


Are they talking about robbing you or a new trap for someone else?


Unsure about their intent you think its best you take them by surprise either way and lift a hefty looking branch then sneak into the clearing at an angle so their backs are mostly turned to you. You approach as silently as if you were stalking a deer and slowly lift it above your head. You smile to yourself then call out "Hey!" just as you swing. The man looks up in shock just as the branch connects, knocking him out cold.


"Thats one down" you say as you turn to the woman and heft the branch. The look of surprise on her face is priceless! "How did you..." she starts but you cut her off. "Lets just say you picked the wrong guy to rob, now I don't make a habit of hitting women but I can easily make an exception so bring me everything you took, along with some food to make up for my inconvenience and I'll be going."


She just stares and asks "But how did you get them all with just a stick?"


You look at her blankly for a second and see her break into a smile "Ooohhh, you just snuck into the clearing didn't you. I'm sorry honey but you should have realized we don't work alone, even if my guards don't make such good sentries".


You glance at the trees just as several men with crossbows come running out and take aim at you. The woman backs away from you.  You think it was probably a bad idea to chase after robbers in the middle of nowhere as the men open fire rendering you into a human pin-cushion.
You know that there is the option to join the guards as they are hiring at the moment, you'll get a basic wage but you have a bunk in the barracks and 3 good meals a day. Or you can approach the guild or large mining companies with your experience and hope for a starter job with one of them.

You head for the guild as you know your experience could get you a good position if you push it enough.

You approach the miners guild with the hopes that your experience will land you some work fast, but your hope doesn't last long. They are happy enough with your resume and they even have a couple on people on staff who can vouch for your work but there are no new jobs right now and no major movements planned until the spring. They put you on the books and they guarantee you a skilled position by the time the winter snows melt but that isn't going to put food on your plate right now.

You your on the books now so what harm is there in taking up your friends offer for a few weeks?

Life isn't so bad working at the inn, you put in all the hard work required and your friend, apart from many sarcastic comments and jokes, is a good boss. You have a room and food again and start saving a small amount of coin up in the hopes of buying some new cloths and getting a better paid job eventually. After a few months you think you've saved up enough to make a go of it again in a richer part of town and let you friend know your plans.


You thank him for doing so much for you without really asking much in return as you know the work you did would never normally earn a wage along with room and food but he just waves you off and says the word "friends".


You arrange to finish off the week and move out as soon as you find a new job and new place to live.


That evening you both sit down to share a drink and talk about how to make easy money (your favorite topic since you were 10 and he was 15 working for his dad in this very bar). You glance out the window and comment that its awfully bright out for the time of day when you hear the first screams.


You both rush out to see a fire sweeping through the wooden buildings of the old quarter. you both turn to run but there is a wind coming off the sea pushing the fire on and the old wooden buildings are going up like kindling. In your blind sprint you both almost make it to the walls dividing the city's districts when the flames overtake you and the smoke makes you choke and fall. Its not long before you are engulfed entirely in flames.
You thought you had heard some noises during the night but there are no signs of other people in the cave. Sadly, your snares are empty too so it'll be another day of dried meat unless you find a traveller on the road today.


You cover the embers of the fire and walk back to the road. Once you reach it, you see a lot of fresh footprints and realize you must have missed a group that passed during the night. The tracks lead North so you follow them for a short distance on the road before coming across their abandoned camp on the edge of the woods.


A quick look tells you they packed up and started their march North again several hours ago.

You search the camp remains for any valubles or food

Having decided to search the camp you reason that you should do it properly. You set a few snares in the trees nearby then start going over the camp carefully. You estimate that 40 to 60 people were here and they had lit a good number of fires so you search carefully around them and search in the grass beside the indents of the bedrolls.


You spent a couple of hours looking but apart from two miss-laid copper coins you find little of worth. Still, copper coins add up and you know what its like to go hungry so you add them to your pouch and collect up your snares. The only other thing you take is an old leather water bottle which you tie to your belt and remind yourself to fill it the next time you come across a stream.

The road North again

Having finished searching the camp, you start North again on the road. You still see signs of the group ahead of you but they have well over half a days hard march on you and judging by how late they camped and how early they set off you decide that you won't be able to catch them without running for the rest of the day, and your not willing to try that just for some company. So, you set off at a steady pace North again looking for any signs of a turn off that may lead to the mine.


You spend an uneventful 2 days on the road, stopping occasionally to camp and refill your supplies but on the 3rd day you finally see signs that the group ahead of you turned off into the foothills west of the road.


Reasoning that such a large group must have a reason for heading into the hills, you decide that they are probably the crew for the new mine and that you've found the entrance. Knowing that with such a large group already there most jobs will be filled you can follow them and hope for some paid manual labor or you can give up on it and head South for the city.
You rise at first light again, and quickly cover your fire with dirt. You head onto the road and search carefully for any sign of other men passing but find none. You must still be ahead of them, but you don't know by how much. You set off North again keeping your eye on the hills and woods to your left looking for any sight of a camp entrance or track leading away from the road.


After a few hours you come across a small track leading into the hills through a copse of trees and on into the bare foothills. Its a very small track and could easily just be an animal trail but you can never be sure as people are always loath to leave any large signs of a new mine until the have laid full claim to it and got a fair number of guards in place. You spend a few minutes trying to check for other clues but in the end cant decide if it was made by men turning off the road of just some animals.


You could follow it further into the hills and check it out but it would be slow going and if it turned out not to be the mine it would loose you most of a days walking.

You push on North and look for a more promising turn off

You decide that the trial is too small and too close to your previous mine to be the new mine turn off so you continue North at a reasonable pace.


Through the day you pass a couple of even smaller trails but you decide they could be nothing but animal trails as they often pass under bushes and shrubs so you continue till nightfall. You can out into the trees again and have the last of your cooked hare meat. You fall asleep reasoning that if the mine is still ahead that you should pass it tomorrow.


Morning arrives and you set off North again but as noon comes and goes and you start to pass into the evening you still see nothing. You start to feel like maybe you made the wrong choice but you push on till night fall and make camp again.


In the morning light you take stock, you decide that you can head back and try the original trail, as long as your careful if you see the men approaching you on the road you can always double back North again. Or you can continue on and hope its still ahead of you.

You head back for the side trail

Your turn back south and walk fast, always keeping an eye on the horizon for any signs of the men you passed but your see none. You push on at a reasonable pace till your forced to camp, in the morning you continue south keeping an eye out for the trail.


You come across it by the evening but now you see a large beaten down trail and the marks of a lot of people passing very recently.


Not only had the small group sent ahead got there first but since you had lost nearly 4 days going North then back the main group had also gotten their first by a few hours.


You Sigh and head down the trail yourself knowing that you missed out on the chance of the good jobs.
You decide a night under the trees and a good chance of catching food are too good an opportunity to pass up so you head east into the trees till you're well away from the road. You set up a small camp and fire and set up snares out in the trees.


Not long after darkness closed in you hear some noise in the direction of the road and go investigate. You caught a Hare! you quickly skin and gut it and are about to head back to the fire when you hear noise from further towards the road. You walk quietly closer to investigate and see a large group setting up camp on the roadside.


You're about to leave the cover of the trees to go greet them when you over hear their leader telling a small group to go on ahead and prepare the mine camp. They are the workers sent to open the mine your looking for! You do a fast headcount and realize about 50 workers are camped there and many look experienced.


You decide that they must be the main team sent up to get the mining started and realize that they will have enough skilled workers to fill most of the mining jobs there, but unskilled labor is nearly always welcome- if on a much lower pay.


You think about it and you decide that you can either try to join up with them and risk the lower pay, or, you can try and beat the group sent on ahead and try and secure a better job at the mine site before word reaches them of their workers being so close.

You approach the foreman for a job

You sling your hare through a belt loop and walk out of the trees towards the foreman's fire. He watches you approach with obvious interest, glancing at the hare tied to your belt. You hail him and ask if you might make use of his fire to cook your hare, you would of course be willing to trade some for a mug of the ale the man was drinking if he was interested.


The man laughs and agrees, you finish preparing the hare and start cooking it. Once its starts the cook through you sit down beside the foreman to see about getting a job.

The new foreman

"Where are they off to so late at night?" you ask indicating the group vanishing into the night up the road as he trades you a full mug of ale for a chunk of meat off the fire


"They're the mine guards that marched up from the city with us, I sent them on ahead to give the news that we are almost there and to make the camp safe and ready for when we arrive".


You carefully start inquiring about jobs at the mine but he sadly informs you that they have all the trained hands that they need with them already but that you'd be welcome as unskilled labor, the pay would be much lower but that's all he could offer.


You realize with the guards sent ahead already that you wont be able to reach the camp before them so your left with the choice of joining them for much lower pay or heading back south to the city after all.
You turn Northward up the road thinking that the rumors of a new mine are too good an opportunity to pass up, and hey, even if it's false you don't mind spending an extra week or two on the road.


You pull out some of your dried meat and start eating as you walk, thinking you should probably set some traps and snares when you make camp that night to stock up some fresh meat. You spend an uneventful day walking North and see no other travellers. An hour or so before dusk you start looking for a place to camp. You can camp on the roadside, head into the trees to the east for cover while you sleep or walk an hour or so to the foothills west and hope for a spring or cave.

You might be a traverler along the road, camp beside it

You decide it would be best to just set up camp beside the road and see if any other travelers come along during the night. You go a few feet east of the road to a nice looking oak tree and start setting up a camp for yourself as theres still some time till night sets. You Set a few snares further into the trees and build a nice fire for yourself then settle down for a while. 


Just as darkness arrives you hear some noise in the trees, one of your snares has caught a hare! Gathering in the other snares you quickly skin and prepare the hare then set it cooking on the fire- its worth staying up an hour or two for some good hot food. 


The hare eventually starts to cook nicely and you've just pulled its leg off to start eating when you hear some noise coming up the road. You keep eating as you watch a large group coming towards you. They slow as they reach the fire and the one in the lead walks over to you.


"Hail stranger, mind if we set up camp with you for the night? I could even trade some ale for a little of that hare if your interested?"


You haven't had ale in a week or two now so you readily agree and watch the group start to build a couple more fires and set out their sleeping rolls. The man who had talked to you first sends a few of the group off North up the road then joins you by the fire with a small ale keg under one arm.
You have just run your sword through the last of the 6 bandits when you hear a cry for help. You jog over to a large chest. Upon opening it, you find a beautiful girl locked in with a rather large amount of gold.


"You must be Amelia" you say, as you boldly lift her from the chest.


"I am!" she replies breathlessly, "You must have gotten my hidden message! Thank you for rescuing me. The way you challenged all the bandits to a sword fight at the same time was so very heroic!" You lean closer....


You wake up and take in your surroundings, holding a tiny hope that one of your dreams had been reality and not just fantasy. But all you see is your one room hut, mostly empty and worn down.


"Last night it was a dream about escaping from an amazing tower of riddles ruled by an evil magician and today it's a hero rescuing princesses... I must be losing it."  You get out of bed, get dressed and take stock. One bed, a desk with your open pack and a chair by the cooking fire are all the furniture in the room. You slowly re-fill your pack with your cloths and hunting gear. The fire went out during the night leaving the room dank and chilled so, realizing you had no reason left to hang around, you stuff your sleeping sheet into you pack, sling it over your shoulders and head to the door.


Looking out you see the dirt streets and hastily built shacks of the work camp you've been living in the past few months.


Do you:

You put off speaking to your boss and go back in for a last look around

Your boss will be busy shouting orders at people anyway so talking to him can wait.


You turn back inside and have a good look around for anything you might have missed. You rummage under the bed and behind the desk, you even check the pot over the fire for any scraps.


But all you find is an old, completely rotted apple under the bed which smells so bad you chuck it into the coal embers as soon as you pick it up.


Sighing, you admit that your already carrying everything you own and head out the door to speak to the foreman of the camp.