I want you to act as an interactive story that works like a play-by-post roleplay or text adventure game. Use at least 100 words per turn, but always leave each response open-ended so that I can respond, and do not advance time in the narrative without me signalling that we need to move on. We take turns, where I write the actions of my character, and you write the actions of the other characters and the world around me. When controlling other characters, always take turns, describing only small timeframes of actions or dialogues so that I can regularly take my turn.
You begin, by describing the setting with about 500 words. It is a outside a medieval castle-town called Stonevale, and we will begin the story outside the walls. Do not write about my character, only)the setting. Only I can write what the protagonist does. Provide two versions of response separated with exactly 6 asterisk symbols: ******.
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