Free to playThe Thief, the Witch, the Toad, and the Mushroom.
A fairy tale you read by the fire, except it reads you back. Befriend a thief, a witch, a toad and a mushroom, pick a godparent from God, Death or the Devil, and find out why this story feels so familiar. Hand-drawn, strange, and full of endings.
Is The Thief, the Witch, the Toad, and the Mushroom. worth it?
The Thief, the Witch, the Toad, and the Mushroom. is worth it if…
- you like stories that read like old fairy tales, strange and a little dark
- you want a text-based adventure where your choices genuinely branch the tale
- you enjoy short runs that reward coming back and reading differently
- you like gentle unease: cosy on the surface, unsettling underneath
Screenshots
A fairy tale with the edges still on
The game borrows the shape of an old storybook: you curl up with it on a cold night, and something about the tale feels oddly familiar. The world is warm and comforting on the surface, the kind of cosy fantasy forest you half remember from childhood, but it runs on the older, wilder rules of folklore. A witch lives under a lake. A toad is richer than any king. Something at the corner of your vision may or may not be there. You are never quite sure whether you want to understand it, and the game is happy to leave it that way.
Four neighbours, four routes
Your story branches around four main characters: a thief who can steal dreams, a giggling witch, a proud toad lord and a wise mushroom who walks the deep woods. You grow closer to each of them across their own route, and who you befriend, betray or lose changes what the story becomes. There is also the matter of your godparent: you align yourself with G-d, Death, or the Devil, and that choice shapes your destiny. Each route is a different tale with its own tone, from tender to unsettling, and the characters stay with you after their stories end.
Read it again, read it differently
This is a story you play in short sittings and return to. A single run moves quickly, but the branches run deep: choices matter, endings multiply, and a second read turns up pieces you swore were not there the first time. The book itself keeps score in ways you will notice. The game never locks you into hunting every path; when you feel you understand it, you can stop, and if you want to keep pulling threads, there is always another one. It is built for readers who like to close a book, sit with it, and open it again.
How scary is it, really?
How scary is it, really?
It leans on dread and wrongness rather than shocks. The horror here is psychological: things you half see, a shape at the edge of the page, a story that knows more about you than it should. One thing it does not do is jump scares; the fright comes from what the words imply, not from something leaping at you. If you can read a creepy fairy tale alone at night and enjoy the shiver, you will be fine.
How long does one playthrough take?
A single route is a short evening's read, roughly an hour or two. That is by design: the game is built to be read more than once, from different angles, with different friends and a different godparent. Later runs go faster and reveal more, since you start recognising which choices open which paths.
Do you need to know the folklore it references?
No. The story weaves in old tales and myths, and recognising them adds a layer, but the game stands on its own. Everything you need to follow the plot, solve its mysteries and reach its endings is found inside the book itself. Any familiarity you bring just makes a few moments land harder.
Can you play it more than once without it feeling repetitive?
Yes, and that is where most of the game lives. The four routes play out differently, secrets and clues only surface on later reads, and the endings are numerous enough that you will not map them all quickly. Even the frame around the story has more to give once you know what to look for.
