Burial at Crossroads

User Summary: Submission for the Game Chef 2010 Competition. Author Blurb: At the crossroads, a pile of broken water-rich rock marked the road west; the north road bore a sign marked ‘To New Askja.’ Those who could read went north. You journeyed west. West across the volcanic desert, past other greners who already marked their claims with names like Lamia, Usha’s Hole and Lunar Landing. Your claim, illegally named after your lost love, proved barren. Without money, without food, without friends, without love, taking a job meant a chance at another claim and wealth and maybe love. The job: Deliver a skinner to Oasis, the city of exile. An exile’s fresh start means your fresh start. To help you along your journey, someone in exile hired a mercenary, a scientist, a gambler, a frontiersman, a forgotten marshal and a native. Each of you have something to gain and something to lose. You’ll journey to Oasis together, apart or alone, and deliver the skinner or be consumed by the desert.