Quillwater

The fog comes up the river Quill at nine o'clock. Tomorrow a copper bridge opens across the narrows and the ferry Heron will be tied up for good. Tonight you pilot her one last time, upriver through the dark with the last sack of mail and five passengers who each carry something they have not told anyone.

Over one night and six chapters, their stories turn out to be one story: a flood thirty years ago, two brothers who stopped speaking, a weir set to open at dawn and a telegram that calls the low fields of Saltmarsh an acceptable loss. Who you sit with, which channel you take and whom you trust decide what is said before morning and how the night ends.

• Over 10,000 words: an original story in 53 scenes
• Real choices: flags and a trust value for each passenger change scenes, open or close options and decide the ending
• Four distinct endings: from a reconciliation to a flood
• A scene behind every text box: docks, reeds, a dead mill, a lock with its bell, a stilt town and the dawn, all drawn in code
• Reader comforts: four text speeds, skip for read text and chapter select after your first ending
• Keyboard or touch: read and choose with keys or a tap

Code and text written with AI assistance; checked by PN Scripts with automated tests. Every shape is drawn and every sound synthesised by code; there are no AI-generated image or audio files.

Controls

• Enter / Space / tap: read on
• 1-3 or tap a choice; arrows + Enter also work
• T: text speed (slow, normal, fast, instant)
• S: skip text you have already read
• C: chapter select (after your first ending)
• P / Esc: pause, M: sound

Made by PN Scripts.