Story
Halfway
(Idea) A walled market town at the bridge where the Sallow Road crosses the Sallow, with roads out in four directions (concept halfway-overworld-a). Neither side owns it. It runs under the Halfway Truce, kept by an elected Reeve and enforced at the gate. The Act 1 hub.
The truce
- Everyone may trade; every customer is served.
- No casting inside the walls, except in the Proving Ring under its wards.
- No recruiting by force, no un-teaching, no Warden courts.
- Breaking it gets a visitor barred at the gate: Halfway is the first town where the main tab's "refused entry by gate guards" (section 7) can happen. Act 1 never makes the player break it.
Districts
| District | What's there | Mood |
|---|---|---|
| Bridge Gate and the Truce Stone | Arrival from the Sallow Road (Spawn_from_overworld, Exit_to_overworld); the Gate Pair; the Truce Stone. | Busy, checked, polite. |
| The Pale Row | Evane stalls under pale blue awnings: Sister Orla's Remedies, Harl the silversmith, the Measure Post. | Symmetrical, quiet, fixed prices. |
| The Amber Row | Facet stalls under amber lamps: Quill's Cut Glass, Nell's free glyph table. | Mismatched, loud, haggling. |
| The Middle Market | The square between the rows: Hob's Sundries, the Market board, the Truce Board, the token-changer, the Split Loaf inn. Unaligned. | Market-day crowd. |
| The Barge Landing | Moorings on the Sallow, Dorrit's barge, a fish stall. | Wet, working, worried. |
| The Quarry | Quarry Lane out to the Proving Ring in the old quarry. | Echoing; a crowd on bout days. |
| The gate square | The Pale Gate (Twinhold road) and the Amber Gate (Lanternfall road), facing each other. | Open from the end of Act 1. |
Rough layout: the Sallow runs along one side with the bridge and landing; the Bridge Gate opens onto the Truce Stone; the two Rows run parallel from the stone with the Middle Market between them, so the Pale Row and Amber Row face each other across the square; the Split Loaf closes the far end of the square; Quarry Lane leaves from one corner to the Proving Ring in the old quarry, still inside the walls and the truce stones (the one place inside them where casting is allowed); the gate square is at the far end beyond the inn. Keep the square open in the upper middle of the screen, with stall fronts on the sides.
People
| NPC | Where | Role |
|---|---|---|
| Reeve Hollin Tace | Truce Stone, Mark_reeve | Keeps the truce; elected; pays the Wyrm reward. |
| Sef (Warden) and Wren (Facet), the Gate Pair | Bridge Gate, Mark_sef, Mark_wren | Check everyone entering; bicker; finish each other's sentences. |
| Bram Tolley | The Split Loaf | Innkeeper; rooms ("Rest"); gossip. |
| Hob | Hob's Sundries | General goods; keeps the Market board. |
| Sister Orla | Pale Row | Tender healer; teaches Mend. |
| Harl | Pale Row | Evane silversmith; sets the wyrm plate in a locket. |
| The Measure Post clerk | Pale Row | Warden letter office; won't carry Aske's letter ("That seal says by hand."). |
| Quill | Amber Row | Facet glass-cutter; cuts the wyrm plate. |
| Nell | Amber Row | Gives away chalk copies of Facet glyphs. |
| Ringmaster Ulla Stroud | The Quarry, Mark_ulla | Runs the Proving Ring. |
| Dorrit Mallow | Barge Landing | Bargewoman; brings the Wyrm news. |
| A Still Choir monk | Wanders the Middle Market | Never speaks; signs with mirrored hands; a seed for Hushfold (concept choir-monk-concept). |
Shops
Prices are in copper, the one currency: Halfway's holed copper coins (concept items/currency-a, which also shows Evane silver and Facet tokens; those are valuables to sell, not money). Every item here is (Idea). Ids, effects and prices follow the items tab's catalogue (VEL-61); dry_boots, rope, lamp_oil and twinhold_road_map are quest props with no catalogue row. Items can't be used in battle yet; the battle effects listed assume they will be.
| Shop | Keeper | Sells | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hob's Sundries | Hob | honey_bread (before battle: +10 max HP in the next battle) | 6 |
herb_salve (belt: clears every harmful effect, then heal 5) | 15 | ||
copper_band (band: sync grace +10 ms) | 45 | ||
dry_boots (cosmetic; Aske notices) | 30 | ||
rope, lamp_oil (for side jobs) | 3 each | ||
| Sister Orla's Remedies | Sister Orla | mend_tonic (belt: heal 20) | 18 |
herb_salve | 15 | ||
| Harl, silversmith | Harl | Sets the cut wyrm plate into a still_water_locket (charm: breath +8%) | 25 |
| The Measure Post | Clerk | Sends letters; sells a twinhold_road_map (marks the Pale Road) | 10 |
| Quill's Cut Glass | Quill | sigil_pendant (charm: independent spells' sync grace +30 ms; Quill helps design the protagonist's sigil, a hook) | 170 |
shard_cuff (band: independent spells +5% power; odd pair: their sync grace +30 ms), a commission | 90 and 3 mirror_grit | ||
| Cuts the wyrm plate | 20 | ||
| Nell's table | Nell | Chalk copies of Facet glyphs (free; they fizzle until traced from a real fragment) | 0 |
| Token-changer | (unnamed) | Buys Evane silver measures (evane_silver) and Facet glass tokens (facet_token) for copper | 50 each |
Act 1 income: 60 copper from the Reeve, and Truce Board jobs. Glints pay in materials, never copper: glint_quicksilver (about 1 per 2 glints), which any shop buys at 4. The protagonist starts Act 1 with whatever the Prologue gives (nothing today; the items tab proposes 20 copper from Aske at the send-off), so the first tonic costs a Truce Board job or a few sales of quicksilver.
The Proving Ring
- An old quarry turned arena: a round sand floor, tiered stone seats, pale blue banners on one side and amber on the other.
- Ring wards: old training-golem glyphs painted under the sand, so every spell pulls its punches. Nobody is hurt badly; a beaten fighter is stopped, not killed.
- It is the one place PvP lives (main tab, section 10): no open-world PvP, no taking anyone's things. Later it hosts player bouts and the scheduled tournaments with their leaderboard.
- In Act 1 it hosts the story bout with Tamsin, and optionally a Ring Card of NPC challengers (section 11).
Halfway music and sound
One loop built from two motifs played together: a mirrored, symmetrical Evane phrase and an off-kilter Facet one, over market percussion. The Split Loaf has its own warm ambience; the Proving Ring has a crowd loop. The existing loops are music_sallowbank_loop, music_overworld_loop, music_barn_night_loop, music_battle_loop and music_victory_sting.
Concept art
