Gingerbread House
The Gingerbread House is a magical cottage located in the Wonderlandian province of Motherland. It was built by a sorceress during the Great Famine of 126, a wicked woman filled with evil intent, but these days it is the gateway to a candy-themed pocket dimension which has been affectionally dubbed “Confection Country.”
Purpose / Function
The building’s original purpose was to lure hungry children to the door, so that the opportunistic crone inside might survive the famine through cannibalism. And yet, after some early success, the wicked sorceress was bested in a contest of wits by the future Queen Gretel and her twin brother Hansel. After that, it lay abandoned and empty for a great many years—lost in the forest.
Alterations
Upon the home’s rediscovery in 146, a now-adult Hansel decided to turn this place full of bad memories into some place for his less fortunate countrymen to enjoy. Together with his elven husband, and with funds donated by his sister the queen, Hansel made the cottage “bigger on the inside”—creating a pocket dimension made of all the sweet foodstuffs he could think of, and then adding an amusement park on top of that.
Selected rides include:
- Confection Country Carousel, where guests can ride upon the backs of unicorns made of cotton candy
- Molten Brownie Mountain, a thrilling roller coaster where guests try to outrun the chocolate lava pouring forth from the caldera at the top of Mount Brownie
- Gummy Bear Jamboree, a relaxing boat ride through Lollipop Forest with a Gummy Bear Guide who will sing you songs and tell you dad jokes along the way
And at the center of it all is Castello Gelato, a brightly colored fortress meant to look like a bowl of ice cream with towers made out of waffle cones.
Architecture
The exterior of the Gingerbread House is made mostly of gingerbread, of course, and embellished with candy canes, gumdrops, melted chocolate, and other assorted goodies. It appears from the outside to be a modest two-room cottage with a gabled roof.
Defenses
The house will disappear for a time if anyone dares to eat a part of its exterior. The amount of time it is gone depends entirely on how greedy the culprit was. When it returns, it returns as it was before—with any guests who were stuck inside blissfully unaware that anything happened at all.
Until, that is, they go home and realize that days, weeks, or months have passed.
Tourism
Admission to the Gingerbread House is free, though the popularity of the place and the bottleneck of getting guests through the front door requires that reservations be made in advance.
Whole new meaning to don't eat fairy food.
Haly, the Moonlight Bard
Rhapsody by Moonlight , a daily email worldbuilding newsletter.
hahaha, yep!