Main Story

## The World

The world of Bells and Thistles is a pastoral fantasy universe where the majority of characters (including the player characters) are humanoid plant people.

There are also faeries, which are a kind of semi-deity plant person. Most are patrons of regions or ideas - like literal saints or guardian spirits. Faeries have special powers, but those powers are dependent upon the health and power of that which they embody.

(There may also be kelpies, plant mermaids, because I think that would be fun. If there ARE kelpies, then I am toying with calling the plant people "leafies" - but is that too twee? And yes, I know Kelpies are usually water horses not plant mermaids but consider: the pun.)

Animals/creatures in the world are also often plant based, or based on bugs or small mammals. There is some potential implication that this is an entirely miniature world. Or is it? Maybe that's just this universe. Who can say?

The plant people reproduce when two of them create a seed together, and then that seed is planted (usually in a special nursery in the home) and grown until a baby blossoms from it. Any two consenting plant people(/faeries/kelpies) can do this, regardless of gender presentation.

The plant people are also able to regenerate limbs if they are lost due to accident or illness. This process takes time and is draining, but may provide an opportunity for grafting for specialized abilities.

Fast travel is accomplished through a network of mushrooms.

## The Story

### Part 1

The game opens with you, the player character, choosing to move to a small remote town after seeing an ad offering free land and plenty of work. There is no fast travel within the town, as the townspeople prefer to keep the mushroom network out. This dissuades most people from taking the offer, as life without the mushroom network feels unimaginable, but you do. You and two other takers (both marriage candidates) are taken there by the recruiter, who also lives and works in the town.

The three of you get a warm welcome and kind orientation, during which you tour the town and meet the residents. You are given the largest plot of land after the two newcomers each choose to apprentice under a different tradesperson already living in the town. The townspeople are incredibly endearing and the town is idyllic, but for an abandoned schoolhouse.

All of the existing residents are middle-aged or elderly, with the exception of two (also marriage candidates). One is missing an arm and a leg and uses mechanical prosthetics, which is unusual as usually regrowing a limb is usually not a problem for plant people, but the amputee brushes it off with a smile. The other is a sarcastic and constantly tired woman. There are no children in the town.

You are shown the ropes of running your small farm and taking advantage of the local businesses (where you can later also apprentice, if you wish). You also meet the town's fairy custodian, who lives in a shrine towards the center of town, where they accept prayers from the townspeople.

The fairy is surprised when you can see her, as she hasn't been visible for some time. She has long since lost the ability to help anyone in the town, and has been in dismay over it. She begs that you help her to make the town happy. She tells the player character that they are touched by the gods, who will surely watch over the town through them.

It is at this point that the game acknowledges you as the player, giving you access to the game's guide menu, scoring, and encyclopedias (yet unfilled). This is the information you'll need to help guide your character through the story. In it is supposed to be a profile and history of every resident and kind of creature, dish, and craft in the town, but it is blank. You must interact with the people and the town in as many ways as possible so you will learn things about people (their birthdays, their preferences, their pasts), the world (plants, creatures, minerals), and the trades (food recipes, fashion designs, tool crafting, furniture crafting) and that information will fill the compendium. It will also tell you what you need to know to be able to address the people's wishes and requests, to make the town happier.

You set about getting the know the people in the town, filling out your compendium, but the more you learn the more gaps and mysteries you come across. You find out that years ago the people of this town suffered a terrible loss.

Certain nearby creatures had gained the ability to use the mushroom network and had started warping into town. To keep them out, the town set about culling the mushroom network back so they could more easily guard the entrance points. It was not easy to do, as the mushroom network was hearty and quickly recovered. They amped up their efforts when the creatures started showing up inflicted with a dangerous blight.

Then one day, three kids had returned to the schoolhouse after hours when there was no usual guard post at the mushroom warp there. A blighted creature warped there and attacked the children. Two were killed. The third lost an arm and leg and was infected with the blight. The doctor could do nothing, so they turned to the town's custodian fairy, who was able to magically amputate him above his wounds and provide a protective seal to prevent the blight's spread.

The town had had enough, and asked the custodian fairy to remove all the mushrooms, but she could not. Even if she hadn't drained all her power healing the boy, the mushroom network was outside her domain. But she knew another fairy that might have the necessary power.

The town went to the mountain, to the shrine of the mountain fairy who could help. The fairy advised against their plan. They said it would cost the town too much. The people said they would pay anything.

So the mountain fairy went to the town and summoned a fairy ring, creating a circular barrier far around the town that the mushrooms could not cross.

And then he turned to leave, and the children followed him.

All but two. The injured boy could not follow, as he was still bedridden.

And there were a pair of twins with a widowed mother. They did not want to leave their mother alone, so they took turns pulling petals off a flower, until the girl who was left with the last petal stayed.

You are asked to go to the mountain and find the shrine and the entrance to the underground, where you may seek the town's lost children. You find (at least) the first child - now an adult - at the end of a dungeon. They fight you, and when the ultimately lose, agree to come back with you.

The fairy custodian gives you a quest to bring new love to the town. You matchmake your first couple. That couple finds themselves in a bind - despite their efforts, they cannot have children. When they go to their parents with this, they learn a terrible final secret about what happened back when they children disappeared.

Stricken by grief, parents prayed to the town's custodian fairy, swearing an oath. They would not have any more children until theirs were returned.

In secret, many have tried breaking the oath, but found the seeds they planted would not grow.

People left the town, and the population aged, and they wouldn't be able to continue like this. Which is why they needed to recruit people to move in.

After you have completed enough missions to have fully unlocked matchmaking and either been the first in town to marry, or married two NPCs together, you learn the last of this story. Outraged you go to the custodian fairy. Why couldn't she release the town from their grief-imposed curse?

The fairy tells you - she is not the one stopping the seeds from growing. She doesn't have that kind of power. She never had the power to enforce that oath and wouldn't have if she could. Her power has been almost nothing since that time - no one has been able to see her. They all think she abandoned them. But she didn't. And something else is preventing the town from having children.