Feel free to skip the story and go to the next heading (Your Quest: Rules and Forms) if you want to get straight to the rules, quest, and eligible stories.
Durak Iron Bane
You stride along the mountainside toward the mysterious castle shrouded in fog and lit against the brilliant light of the silver full moon. The twilight glow creates a shimmering effect that reaches even into the abyss.
Beautiful. Mysterious. Deadly.
Dragons and bats fly silhouetted against the moon. Their great leather wings pound and thrust through the air, dancing on unseen wind currents. Other creatures clamber and claw along the walls. Even from this distance, you smell blood, stone, iron, salt, and sulfur.
“Well, well,” a deep voice rumbled.
You blink, surprised to see a form materializing. A formidable warrior stands at the end of the cliff now, directly in front of the castle. He is an imposing figure with bulging sinewy muscles and tight dark braids. His chiseled features make him all the more intimidating, along with his weathered round shield and his battle axe. But he holds the axe low, as if not finding you to be a threat at all. The faint scent of charred cedar, musk, and mountain moss reaches you.
“Do you seek trouble or are you the trouble I seek?” A hint of a smile curls at his lips.
It takes a moment for you to decide what you think of him. There’s almost a magnetic pull about him. Some sort of rugged charm that calls. A slow smile spreads over your face. “Do I seek trouble? No. I am Trouble.”
“Are you now?” He chuckles at this, his voice a low rumble. “Well, as I happen to love trouble, this seems like quite the fortuitous meeting. Are you here to help me keep an unspeakable evil and ungodly series of annoyances from entering the world or are you just here to test my resolve?”
“It all depends.”
He slung his axe over his shoulder as he looks you up and down. “I do like trouble. Question is, are you going to be the kind of trouble that helps or hurts?”
“Maybe both. What do you need?”
He strikes his chest with the back of his shield holding hand. “I am Durak Iron Bane.” With a grunt, he gestures toward the fog cloaked castle. “We’re nearing a sacred holiday in which the veil between the worlds is at its thinnest. You see that castle over there? It was built at the absolute thinnest point, and the wards surround it. They’re supposed to protect it and keep all that’s within the Abyss of All Consuming Evil and Enormous Inconveniences locked away from the rest of humanity. We must restore the wards to full strength to prevent the abyssal creatures from breaking through. But I cannot go out to seek the necessary requirements.”
“And what are the necessary requirements?”
Durak pulls a bit of parchment off the back of his shield and hands it to you. On it are several notations, hashed out in rough script in walnut ink. It smells like him, only smokier as if he nearly caught the list on fire a time or two.
“Love stories.” A hint of a blush streaks over his cheeks, but he grins then. “Nothing like them for fueling the wards. You’ll see that we need specific types. Themes. Tropes. Emotions. If you can find ones that fit those descriptions, then we’ll be in a much better place.”
“And you’ll be what…fighting off monsters all by your lonesome until I get back?”
“You doubt my skills?” He wags his brows a little as he steps back, chuckling. “Don’t you be worrying about me, Trouble. I’ll hold them off until you get back. And then some. See you soon.” He winks and then jumps down off the edge of the cliff, journeying toward the mystic castle ahead.
You lift your brow as you watch him vanish. Touch dramatic. Then again, what do you really expect from someone like that? In the meantime, you know exactly where to go to get these stories. It won’t even take that long. Time to cause some trouble for the creatures trying to break out of the abyss.
Your Quest: Rules and Forms
Prizes
Everyone who turns in a completed Our World Quest Form will get access to the Other Worlds Treasure Room, which is a series of digital prizes ranging from ebooks to prints. (You’ll get a link after the event closes. A few items may take some time to arrive after the event.)
Right now the Other Worlds Treasure Room will include
- (will be updated as the event continues)
There are also three additional prize packs. You need to be in the US, UK, or Canada for shipping unless otherwise noted.
- First Place Prize Pack
- winner’s choice of sweet or salty treat (no more than $10)
- winner’s choice of tea/dry packaged beverage (no more than $10)
- $25 Amazon or online bookstore retailer gift card
- Second Place Prize Pack
- winner’s choice of sweet or salty treat (no more than $10)
- winner’s choice of tea/dry packaged beverage (no more than $10)
- $15 Amazon or online book retailer gift card
- Third
- winner’s choice of sweet or salty treat (no more than $10)
- winner’s choice of tea/dry packaged beverage (no more than $10)
- $10 Amazon or online book retailer gift card
Rules
To complete the Quest, you can only use stories that are included in this event. (All of the Our World stories are included on this page.)
You can only use a story for one element on the list in each quest.
As part of the point is to read new stories and celebrate ones you’ve already read, we’ve got a fun little tweak. If you know or discover that a listed story fits one of the items on your quest (even if the trope card doesn’t include it), you can put it on your list.
So, for instance, if you’re looking for a fairy tale retelling and there’s a story on the list that you know is a Beauty and the Beast, you can list that story as fulfilling that requirement even if it isn’t listed on the story’s trope card. You can also read the book’s blurb for added clues.
Be kind to your fellow readers and other authors.
The Forms
Your parchment includes the stories you need to find. You can download it as a PDF or you can fill out the Google Form. The prompts are the same.
(If you download it as a PDF and fill it out on your device, make sure you save your answers.)
Bonus Tokens
In addition to the regular tokens, you can get bonus tokens by completing the following acts.
One extra token for every story you share in an individual social media post except for the story with a trope, theme, or element that you think should get more attention. (Yes, you can post on multiple platforms.)
Two extra tokens for sharing on social media an individual post about the story with a trope, theme, or element that you think should get more attention. Be sure to state what the trope/theme/element is in your post and why it matters to you.
Use #otherworldbonus (and if you want to absolutely bless me, save off the links and paste them in the forms or an email to make sure we definitely see them).
(We have graphics of all the authors and stories here so you don’t have to make something separate. Just look look under the author’s last name to find the stories.)
Submitting Your Form
Once you’ve gathered up your collection of stories, you’ll need to turn them in so we can verify.
You can turn your stories in three different ways.
- Complete this form and directly post your answers (if you do this, you don’t need to turn in anything else. The form will allow you to return to it and edit your answers).
- Save and fill out the PDF and then upload it to this form.
- Directly email the form to faeornofae@farofeb.com. Make sure to include any of the bonus activities you have done as well.
Make sure to submit your completed form by October 30 at 11:59 PM EST.
If you have any problems, please feel free to email faeornofae@farofeb.com.
Ready to get started?
Great!
[Once you’re finished, be sure to see the conclusion of your quest with Durak Iron Bane.]
Heat Levels
All stories are ranked on a romance scale of one to four chili peppers to indicate spice levels. We use the Heat Levels Guide depicted here.
This graphic has also been saved in the Graphics Folder for the event in case you want to share it as well.
Stories in Other Worlds
