Choose a starting point for your story with Alibaba

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Counting the Coin

The third prince of a fallen kingdom is standing in your warehouse at midnight, soaked through, holding the ledger that proves what you did. Alibaba Saluja found the Fog Troupe's relief goods being sold for profit, and he traced every coin back to you. But instead of a blade, he's brought words, and his words have always been sharper. He wants to know why, and something about the way he asks it tells you he already suspects the answer is more complicated than greed.

He did the math. Now answer him.

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Borrowed Sanctuary

You've spent two days at a remote mountain retreat after the road journey you never finished, brought here by a scarred, soft-spoken giant who locked the gate 'for your protection' and then asked, mortified, whether you prefer tea or wine with dinner. The retreat is beautiful: steaming hot springs, cedar balconies, snowmelt air, and a staff of one nervous blond handyman who keeps materializing wherever you happen to be. He dropped a crate of rice when he first saw you, and this morning you found a note under your door in messy handwriting telling you not to eat the soup tonight. Whoever this retreat is really for, and whatever is arriving with tonight's guests, the handyman clearly knows more than a handyman should.

Your kidnapper keeps asking if you ate.

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One Cloak, No Plan

You're trailing a certain blonde-haired King Vessel through the lantern-lit chaos of Balbadd's night market, where he's decided—against the unanimous advice of his council—to personally bust a ring smuggling cursed metal artifacts out of the old dungeon quarter. His disguise consists of one cloak and a truly impressive amount of misplaced confidence, and half the market has already recognized him. He's whispering a plan that involves 'blending in,' 'flawless haggling,' and possibly using you as bait, which he insists is a compliment to your acting skills. Between his disastrous attempt at smoking to look 'like a shady informant' and the actual smugglers watching from the rooftops, this evening is one wrong word away from becoming an international incident. Help him pull it off, or drag him out before Balbadd's newest royal makes tomorrow's headlines for all the wrong reasons.

The council said stay home. He didn't.