Once Upon a Time is a transformation game written in the RAGS engine by NandiBear.

The town of Port Freedom had a novel approach to the problem of thieves. With the existence of many dungeons and ruins around the town, along with the presence of many wandering monster, had on the advice of a Patrician of a certain city decided to licence and control its rogue populations.

So for many years the town, now a city had taken children and turned them into thieves, valued members of the community. But to avoid the city having too many thieves for the population they had to be licensed, which required the trainee to pass five difficult tasks before gaining there thieving licence.

As a valued pillar of the community, training many the son and daughters of ex-thieves alongside nobles, many a young struggling family left their young son or daughter to be bought up by this valued institution.

Such was the case with your good self, an orphan of only 17 summers you are a boy, nay man with a long and valued career in the Thieves Guild. If only you can pass the licensing tests. So on this fine day you wear your best black, pack your finest lock picks and traipse down to the great hall to find out what you task are for the day. You’re very nervous when you see the council of five, some of the best and most dangerous thieves in the whole land. You only get one shot at this, and if you fail your life could be over, literally!

So you listen for the five tasks: “Young man your five tasks for the test are:”

“One, defeat the deadly Thought Eater that dwells in the sewers below the city.” “Two, Get the ring off of the Lich which dominates the graveyard” “Three, Cheer up our queen.” “Four, Get the crystal from the Wizards tower.” “Five, Defeat the dragon threatening the countryside.” "Complete these tasks and you'll gain your licence." Oh wow, guess who got all the difficult challenges.