Story Ideas

Each story is rooted in real local history and landmarks

The lake that fell from the mountain

3,200 years ago, a child watches the Doldenhorn crack and roar as a colossal rockslide dams the valley, creating Oeschinensee. In the silence that follows the thunder of falling stone, a spirit rises from the new lake, and the child befriends it -- learning that even destruction can create beauty, and that the most wondrous places are born from the mountain's deepest scars.

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The maiden of the Blausee

A shepherd's child discovers the stone maiden on the lake bed and, diving into the crystal water, enters the old legend itself. They must help the blue-eyed maiden and her lost shepherd find each other before the lake's enchanted colour fades forever -- a quest that takes them through 15,000 years of the Blausee's shimmering history.

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The tunnel and the flood

July 1908: an Italian tunneller's child in Kandersteg feels the ground shake as the Loetschberg tunnel breaks into a glacial abyss 170 meters below. The Kander river spirit, disturbed from its underground sleep of millennia, surges through the breach. The child must find a way to calm the ancient water before it drowns the mountain and the dream of connecting two valleys.

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The pink scarves of Kandersteg

A child arrives at the International Scout Centre and finds a dusty trunk in the original 1908 chalet containing Baden-Powell's lost field journal. Following its clues leads to a treasure hunt across the Kander valley, uniting Scouts from five continents in a quest that reveals how a workers' dormitory became a place of global friendship for over a hundred years.

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The herdsman who would not share

A child from the starving valley climbs to the impossibly lush Bluemlisalp and confronts the proud herdsman who bathes his sweetheart in milk while others go hungry. When the ice comes crashing down as divine punishment, the child must race down the mountain carrying the last wheel of cheese to save the village -- learning that abundance shared is abundance preserved.

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The Gemmi crossing

A child joins a mule caravan crossing the Gemmi Pass in winter and meets the ghosts of all who have walked the ancient path. At the Schwarenbach Inn, Roman soldiers warm themselves by the fire, Mark Twain scribbles in his notebook, and Picasso sketches on a napkin -- each leaving a mark in the guest book that spans two thousand years of mountain crossings.

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The river that changed its mind

In 1714, young Samuel Bodmer watches in horror as the tunnel collapses and the Kander carves a wild new gorge overnight. The river itself speaks to the child: 'Where should I go?' The child must decide between the old path and the new, learning that even the best-laid plans can unleash forces beyond anyone's control -- and that a baker can change the course of a river, for better and worse.

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The wild valley's last family

In the 1790s, a child lives with the last 50 inhabitants of the Gasterntal, deep in a valley accessible only through a limestone gorge. As winter closes in and the hay runs out, the Kander glacier whispers secrets of the valley's ancient past. The child must decide whether to stay in this wild, beautiful place or follow the others down to Kandersteg -- knowing that to leave may mean the valley returns to wilderness forever.

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