The Cloud Keep of Grommbald

The stalk sprang from nothing overnight and vanishes, creaking, into the clouds high above the village. Leaves as broad as sails wave in a wind you cannot feel on the ground. As you climb, everything shifts scale: a bird's nest becomes a fortress, a dewdrop a pond.

At the top a realm opens where everything is four times too large, and where Grommbald, de Wolkenreus, rules a castle with a kitchen that never rests. His cook gathers little creatures from below, villagers, animals, and now you, to fill the pride of the house: a pie large enough to feed a village. The villagers who vanished these past weeks are already locked in the pantry.

You creep through a world built to giant scale: you balance on tabletop edges as high as cliffs, dodge a cat the size of a horse, free the captive villagers from their cages, and hunt for the golden harp and the hen that grant Grommbald his riches. Every step is a climb, every piece of furniture an obstacle, and one misstep means being crushed under a falling heel.

Then the giant comes home, sooner than expected, and smells human flesh in his hall. You must guide the villagers to the stalk and decide: flee down and chop the stalk while Grommbald gives chase, or bring him down in his own kitchen. The climax plays out on the swaying stalk itself, with the ground dizzyingly far below and a raging colossus climbing after you.