It appears the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin is based upon an actual event as recorded above. However, some questions may be raised regarding this event. Questions like:

1. How could the townspeople not know their children were being taken away?

2. Did the town give up 130 of its children as a form of human sacrifice?

3. If so, does the sacrifice have anything to do with the failure of the fourth crusade to liberate the Holy Land from the Saracens?

4. Was there really a rat infestation in Hamelin that prompted the hire of a piper? Could the rat infestation be an allegory for another type of evil that was pervading the town such as greed?

5. Did the town council really agree to pay a piper to rid the town of an infestation, and then back out of the payment? And if so, would the piper have then taken his payment in the form of children who could be sold as slaves?

6. Did the children willingly leave home and hearth to follow a stranger into an uncertain future?

7. Were children a valuable commodity in 1248? The concept of childhood didn't develop until much later with John Locke and Rousseau.

Before you begin your investigations into these and other questions, read several versions of the story. Collected and set down as a literary tale by the Brothers Grimm in 1816-1818 (http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/hameln.html#grimm245), the story inspired a poem by Robert Browning in 1842. The story of the piper is more than just a little mysterious. Unlike most childrens stories, the Pied Piper does not portray an obvious moral (except to pay your debts or else you will lose your children) and does not give a satisfying ending. The children disappear, never to be heard from again. This isn't exactly a well developed ending. Children, as audience to this story, surely are going to want to know what happens in the end and will logically ask where are the children and what are they doing?

As a way to investigate the validity of the origins and outcome of the story, players will assume specific roles within the Pied Piper virtual environment. In the role playing aspect of this environment, players will investigate, interview, and explore all the different scenarios that could explain the disappearance of 130 children and will propose their conclusions in a final report or dramatic performance.