Dorian Starfrost: The First Song
A 26-stage quest in four acts. The Hollow Song took his sister Lyra into the winter woods. Somewhere out there is the counter-melody — the First Song — that can call her home.
The First Song
Eight winters ago, on the longest night, Lyra followed a song no one else could hear into the woods. Tonight the frost-white feather in Dorian's pocket has grown warm — and it points the way.
Find the three lost Verses of the First Song, face the Hollow Herald, and sing Lyra home. A flawless quest — every note gathered, every foe felled, nothing missed — earns a different ending.
The Longest Night
How to Play
Run & jump with the arrow keys or A / D, jump with W, ↑ or Space. Press jump again in mid-air for Pip's tumble — a second, higher leap.
Rapier (X or J) — a fencing thrust, 1d8+2. Vicious Mockery (C or K) — a cutting word that deals 1d4 psychic and slows its target. Cure Wounds (E) — heals 1d8+3, two spell slots, refilled at lanterns. You can also land on a foe's head.
Collect star-notes for score. Lanterns are checkpoints. The feather compass at the top of the screen leans toward the nearest Verse — or the way onward — and glows warmer as you near it.
One Verse of the First Song hides in Acts I, II and III. Gather all three before the Herald falls, or his song cannot be answered. Falling costs 2 HP; an empty health bar ends the stage attempt — but a bard always gets an encore.
The Perfect Performance: clear a stage gathering every star-note in it and felling every foe, and that stage is remembered as flawless — watch the tallies at the top right of the screen, and the gold mark it earns in the stage list. Do it on all twenty-six stages, find all three Verses, and then sing the First Song itself without missing a single note, and the ending changes. Some performances deserve a different dawn.
Music: the menu above the game plays Marcus's own songs for Dorian — The Lantern's Lullaby in Frosthollow, The Starfall Reel in the Reaches, Lyra's Verse in the woods and the Vale — or pick one song, or the original built-in game tunes.
Screen size: the same menu makes the game Standard, Large or Extra Large, or fills the whole screen — the bigger sizes help most on a computer monitor or TV.
Choose a Stage
Stage Clear
Paused
The song waits, patient as snowfall.
The Song Falters
Dorian's light goes out among the trees — but somewhere, faintly, a small voice is still humming. He gets to his feet. A bard always gets an encore.
The First Song
Lyra's Verse, Finished
The Story of the Hollow Song
Dorian Starfrost grew up in Frosthollow, a small northern village where winter lasts half the year and the stars are the brightest thing in the sky. His mother Elara sang while she wove; his father Tomas charted the stars for travellers who had lost their way. His little sister Lyra followed him everywhere, and he taught her her first song — a lullaby their mother called The Lantern's Lullaby.
When Dorian was sixteen, on the longest night of winter, Lyra followed a strange, beautiful music into the woods — a song no one else could hear. The whole village searched until dawn. They found only her small red scarf, folded neatly on a stone, and a single frost-white feather that never melts, no matter how warm the fire.
Dorian does not believe Lyra is gone for good. He believes the song that took her can be answered — that somewhere there is a counter-melody, the First Song, that can call her home. This game is that journey: twenty-six stages through Frosthollow, the winter woods, the Starfall Reaches and the Hollow Vale, gathering the First Song's three lost verses one stage at a time.
Meet Dorian Starfrost
Human bard, entertainer, and member of the Wandering Lantern troupe, who took him in at seventeen and taught him the stage: Mira Thorn the fiddler, Old Bram the storyteller, and Pip the acrobat, who taught him that falling is only dancing in the wrong direction. He is quick with a song, quicker with a kind word, and slowest to leave when someone is hurting.
Dorian holds a place no other hero can take: he is Marcus Draper's first-ever Dungeons & Dragons character — the first hero Marcus ever rolled up, the one who started it all. Every song on this page, and this whole quest to bring Lyra home, grows out of that very first character sheet.
He carries: a frostwood lute carved from wood struck by starfall, whose strings shimmer in cold air; a rapier and dagger; his mother's silver star brooch; a worn songbook with Lyra's handwriting in the margins; and the frost-white feather that never melts. His star-ear remembers any melody after hearing it once.
His Abilities in the Game
Rapier
X / JA fencer's thrust: +4 to hit, 1d8+2 piercing. His sheet's own numbers — every swing rolls real dice, and an 8 on the die is a flourish worth double.
Vicious Mockery
C / KA sharp word that rattles a foe: 1d4 psychic damage, and the target is slowed, its next efforts spoiled — just like the cantrip, DC 13 and all attitude.
Cure Wounds
EA healing word sung over himself: 1d8+3 hit points. Two 1st-level spell slots per stage, refilled whenever he passes a lit lantern.
Pip's Tumble
Jump, then Jump againA second leap in mid-air, learned from Pip of the Wandering Lantern. Falling, after all, is only dancing in the wrong direction.
Bardic Inspiration
Star pickupsGolden stars scattered along the road are applause made solid: each one restores 2 HP and lifts his heart.
The Feather Compass
Top of screenThe frost-white feather has begun to warm, and it leans — like a compass needle — toward the nearest Verse of the First Song.
The Road: Four Acts, Twenty-Six Stages
Act I — Frosthollow & the Lantern Road (Stages 1–6). Home, lamplight and rooftops. Gentle stages to learn the road — ending at the village edge, where the first Verse waits: The Lantern's Lullaby, his mother's song.
Act II — The Winter Woods (Stages 7–13). The trees Lyra vanished into. Wider gaps, longer thorn-brakes, wisps in the dark — and a small red scarf, folded on a stone. The second Verse sleeps here: What the Wood Remembers.
Act III — The Starfall Reaches (Stages 14–20). The high passes where starfall wood grows. Moving star-platforms, aurora skies and the hardest climbing yet, until the third Verse: The Star-Ear's Gift.
Act IV — The Hollow Vale (Stages 21–26). The source of the Hollow Song, where its thralls shuffle in a quiet choir and the feather burns warm in his pocket. At the end waits the Hollow Herald — and, if all three Verses are in hand, the chance to sing the First Song and call Lyra home.
His Songs — Now Playing in the Game
Three real songs, written for Dorian by Marcus Draper. Press play to hear them here, or leave the Music menu above the game on Auto and each one will play where its story belongs. The Sound button above the game silences them along with everything else, and Pause rests them too.
“The Lantern's Lullaby”
Plays in Act I — Frosthollow & the Lantern Road · 3:17
His mother's song — the one Elara sang by the fire, the one Dorian taught Lyra first, about the lantern left burning in the window for anyone finding their way home in the dark. He hums it when he is afraid. The first Verse of the First Song hides inside it.
“The Starfall Reel”
Plays on Stage 3 and across Act III — The Starfall Reaches · 1:21
A fast, joyful dance for the Festival of Falling Stars — stamp your feet, clap your hands, spin your partner under a sky full of silver. Stage 3 is named for this tune, and it carries him all the way across the Reaches.
“Lyra's Verse”
Plays in Act II — The Winter Woods, Act IV — The Hollow Vale, and over the ending · 3:05
The song Dorian wrote one line at a time: he taught her first song by the fire in Frosthollow; she followed a song he could not hear; he found her scarf on a stone in the snow, and a feather white and clear. Whenever Dorian learned something new about the Hollow Song, the First Song, or Lyra, a new line came — and the last line waited until the road finally led home. This game is where he finishes it. Hear it play when she comes home.
“When the road finally leads home,
And when I find you light,
And I sing you home by lantern light.”