User:Torenity/sandbox

The Wandering Inn is an on-going, self-published web serial by an unknown author under the pen name "pirateaba". The story first follows Erin Solstice, a girl from Earth who finds herself in a fantasy world ruled by a LitRPG-like system with classes and levels. The series expands to follow a large cast of characters and a variety of themes.

Publication
The Wandering Inn is being published as an online serial on a Wordpress blog with two chapters released every week. It began online publishing in July 2016 and has currently approximately 12,560,000 words.

New chapters are released every Tuesday and Saturday. These chapters are arranged in ten volumes so far, each of which covering a specific series of events over 52 to 105 chapters.

Since August 2018, The Wandering Inn is being edited and as of January 2024, 11 ebooks (covering whole volumes or parts thereof) have been published on Amazon for Kindle. Audiobooks based on these ebooks, narrated by Andrea Parsneau and published by Podium Audio have been releasing since September 10, 2019. As of January 2024, 11 audiobooks have been released.

Volume 1
The protagonist Erin Solstice gets teleported to Innworld. After some initial dangers she finds an abandoned inn, which she claims for herself in need of shelter and names it The Wandering Inn. Very soon she is found by the Drake Relc and Antinium Klbkch, guards of the nearby city Liscor. Her inn gets known a little bit and she gets visited by the stigmatized Human necromancer Pisces and the adventuring team The Horns of Hammerad, which include Half-Elf mage Ceria and Minotaur warrior Calruz. Erin also cares for the Goblin Rags – besides being almost raped by her chieftain earlier which she killed with boiling oil – and the Antinium workers she encounters and grants full sentience by accident. The broke Pisces gifts her an Undead skeleton warrior as payment for the food she gave him. Unbeknownst to all but the reader Toren is fully sentient as well but treated like a slave by Erin and used as a bar maid.

A week after Erin's arrival in Innworld other people from Earth (called Earthers) get teleported, scattered over Innworld. For now though, the story mainly follows – besides Erin – the temperamental Ryoka, who landed in a safer spot and accustomed rather quickly, making a living by doing deliveries per foot. She also meets the Horns of Hammerad, but not Erin for now.

Eventually the Horns of Hammerad and other adventuring teams explore a new dungeon found near Liscor. They get surprised by a powerful Undead named Skinner and many adventurers die. Ceria and Calruz vanish. Skinner escapes the dungeon, leads Undead into Liscor leading to high casualties, and itself attacks The Wandering Inn. Erin, her Antinium, Toren and Rags' Goblins manage to kill Skinner eventually, with more casualties. The volume ends with Winter Sprites arriving and letting snow fall over Innworld.

Volume 2
Ryoka and Erin finally meet after Ryoka recieved a call from the other Earthers via her iPhone. Erin and her friends rescue Ceria and another person from the dungeon, but Calruz is still missing. Due to her knowledge from Earth, Erin understands the Winter Sprites to be Fae and is able to talk to them, even offering them a feast, for which she is paid in flowers by the Fae.

In Liscor a Human princess gone thief named Lyonette accidentally destroys a fortune of a Gnoll leader. She is saved from execution only to be exiled from the city into the harsh winter landscape. Erin saves her from hypothermia and welcomes her to the inn.

Meanwhile Ryoka is on a high-paying delivery run to The Necromancer, a villian who Innworld falsely believes to be slain by Drake Zel. Accidentically she meets Zel and his rival Drake Ilvriss, both generals of opposing armies, before she enters The Necromancer's abode. She gets out alive and on her way back to The Wandering Inn she saves a mute Gnoll girl named Mrsha from certain death from a Goblin Lord army (no affiliation to Rags) with the help of the Fae, although Mrsha's fur becomes white.

Rags leaves the vicinity of Liscor to conquer other Goblin tribes. Pisces, Ceria, human warrior and survivor of the dungeon raid Yvlon and exiled Antinium Ksmvr reform the Horns of Hammerad. Ryoka leaves Mrsha at The Wandering before travelling on. The volume ends with Erin falling asleep on a sleigh pulled by Toren, who – in an act of defiance – leaves her to die in the wilderness, but she manages to make it to the Human city of Celum.

Book 3
The start of Book 3 details the arrival of Laken and Geneva to Innworld. Laken abuses the System to become an emperor while medical student Geneva becomes a field doctor. The Horns of Hammerad have a major break-through in a dungeon by another city, getting a magical door besides other things, albeit Yvlon's arms get seriously damaged. In Erin's absence, Lyonette is almost forgotten in the inn, but she manages to survive and even adopts Mrsha, who accidentally creates a new form of fully sentient Antinium. Zel and Ilvriss, having pursued Ryoka, finally make it to Liscor where they meet a delegation from the other Antinium hives.

The volume ends with the Battle of Esthelm, where four factions fight for the fate of the city. Toren, now free of Erin, is the main villain in this battle and leads Undead against the other forces.

Erin's role in this book is more of the slice of life variety, although she manages to found a troupe which she gifts the work of Shakespeare and Frozen from Earth. She also claims the door the Horns found for her help.

Book 4
After having successfully subjugated many tribes including the infamous one led by Goblin Garen, Rags meets with Goblin Tremborag hoping to found an alliance against the Goblin Lord coming in their direction. However they disagree on fundamental issues, which leads to Rags plundering Tremborag's weapon stock and escaping.

In the meantime, while the Horns of Hammerad and Erin travel back to Liscor with the magical door, Pisces and Ceria narrate their time in Wistram.

Ryoka meets Laken in the big city of Invrisil, gives him plans how to build trebuchets and delivers necessities to the village Laken claimed.

Back in Liscor Erin introduces Christmas to her friends and guests. The book ends with the Winter Solstice during which Erin and Ryoka are visited by three apparitions each. This event will not become relevant until Volume 8, however.