Each month we post one of the true stories, that we used to create Welcome To Elk. If you follow them, playing Welcome To Elk will be like hanging out with old friends. Reading the stories will give you no hints on how the game will end or how we will use the story in the game
We want to introduce you to Mister Bo.
Mister Bo is one of a kind. A man who doesn’t just generate one story but hundreds, even if most are probably rumours.
It would be true to say Mister Bo has a lot. He lives in a big house full of expensive bits and bobs. He owns a bar, which he only opens when he wants to hang out with friends. He even has his own fire engine! He allegedly bought it so he could have his own fire brigade and “help” protect the island; however, people suspect that it might have more to do with the fact that having your own fire brigade sounds pretty cool and means that you get to wear a red jacket pinned with old medals you found at a flea market – something Mister Bo enjoys doing frequently.
But Mister Bo is also generous. He loves to play the piano and sing, and all are welcome to join when he does. At his bar he welcomes everyone with a smile and a free beer, whether they’re rich or poor. At Mister Bo’s bar it’s a pay-what-you-want arrangement and usually the locals never really pay with anything other than their presence and good stories (unless they lose in a card game that is).
Among the visitors of Mister Bo’s bar, it’s theorized that he opened it so he would never feel alone, but instead be surrounded by people who like him and have great thoughts about him.
But how could Mister Bo have a free bar, a big house and his very own fire brigade?
You see Mister Bo is very rich because his dad Mister Noland was very rich. Mister Noland made it big selling beer with his own brewery on the island. In fact, the old man owned everything through that beer, employing most of the locals and building up shops and a school when before there was nothing.
But as amazing as it all looked and as popular as Mister Noland was for what he was doing for the island, there was a hidden evil under the surface; a cruel man, and his son knew it most of all.
The young Mister Bo, feared his dad, as he was sure to get a beating from him daily. His father was a petty man and as Mister Bo would grow and become older, he would get more nervous that one day his son would be able to stand up to him and get revenge for his many years of tyranny. Pre-empting any sort of rebellion, he locked up poor Mister Bo in a shed.
Mister Bo would sit alone in that dark, small shack. How long he lived there he can’t really remember. But he didn’t spend his time planning for revenge. Instead, to keep his mind occupied, he would dream of all the nice things in life. Like having a big house all to yourself, doing something important like being a fireman or always having friends around you.
Then one day, unexpectedly Mister Noland died of illness meaning Mister Bo was released from his prison. Mister Bo was suddenly a free man, free from the shed and free from his father’s cruelty. It’s said that the people on the island often feel guilty about Mister Bo’s tragic childhood, many claim not to have known, but maybe they just chose to turn a blind eye because they had jobs and money, in big part thanks to Mister Noland.
The aftermath of course was that Mister Bo was an only child, and therefore the sole benefactor of his father’s inheritance. After years of living with nothing, he suddenly had everything. He didn’t care about his father’s legacy of the brewery, so he closed that. Instead he got to live all the nice things in life, having a big house, being a fireman and opening a bar to be welcomed by all his friends, old and new. And he would welcome them all there with open arms.
Story teller, Lauge Christensen
Story writer, Astrid Refstrup
