The Gaming Den

Yeah, give to a beggar.

You decide to give 1 Copper Piece to each of the three beggars closest to you. They all nod in recognition of your generosity. The oldest of the three begins to speak in a low but calm voice. 'Thank you, stranger. You are most kind, especially since I see from your appearance that your luck is not much better than ours. How times change. My friend here was once a fine jewellery maker until he lost his right arm fighting off robbers in Port Blacksand. If there is anything we could do for you in return for your kindness, please say.'

If you want to ask the one-armed man if he's heard of Gurnard Jaggle
If you would rather bid them farewell and walk on to the T-junction at the end of the alley

Adventure Sheet
Harry Balzac
SKILL: 10/10
STAMINA: 13/20
LUCK: 11/11
Equipment: Sword, Leather Armor
Provisions: 10 Meals (+4 STAMINA)
Potions: Potion of Fortune (restores LUCK to Initial+1)
Money: 3 Gold Pieces, 12 Copper Pieces
Keys: Iron Key
Items: Map, Ball of Twine, Candle, Small Brass Bell, Oil Lantern, Knife, Chalk, Brass Owl, Rope, Bag of Copper Nails, Water Flask, Unicorn-Head Goblet

Wait, have we heard of Gurnard Jaggle? I mean, we should ask anyway because it's the opportunity our coins bought, but I'm bemused by the option.

Ask...also, yeah, what's with that?

It also seems you can't get copper pieces in amounts less than 3, otherwise we'd not have enough to give to them all.

(Yeah, Murgat Shurr is the guy whose name we know but not much else, other than him leaving a message along with the map. No one's mentioned Gurnard Jaggle to us.)

The one-armed beggar looks at you quizzically and says, 'Did you say Gurnard Jaggle? I do know him. He was quite a character, was old Gurnard. He loved gold. For years he panned for gold in rivers and streams but didn't find a single nugget. He had a brief stint as a gold miner with the same result. Then he tried treasure hunting and mostly failed at that. He once found a small treasure chest in a cave but was robbed of the gold on his way back home. This made him angry, and he became very jealous of people who did find gold. One day he went a bit mad and started making booby-trapped boxes, placing them in caves and dungeons where treasure hunters might go searching. They said one unlucky adventurer died an untimely death after opening one of Gurnard's boxes. A friend of mine told me that Gurnard left Chalice a few months ago with a sackful of his deadly boxes and was never seen again, and is presumed dead. Beware of any wooden box you find with ornately carved lids and a beetle motif in the middle. It's likely to be one of Gurnard's specials!' You thank him for the information.

If you want to show your map to the beggars
If you would rather wish them well and walk on

They seem a decent and helpful lot, see what they make of the map.

Show them the map.

The youngest beggar snatches the map from you and examines it carefully. 'I'll tell you what I know about this map for another Copper Piece!' he says, looking closely at the tiny writing. You agree to pay him, although you're a little annoyed at his cheek. He pockets the coin and declares, 'The writing is in black ink and the treasure is located with a large X. It must be genuine!' You thank the man for his opinion, but have a feeling he was just making it up. You decide against starting an argument and bid the beggars farewell.

(Given how often you're offered 'do you want to do this' choices in this book it's really strange that you don't get such a choice for something that actually costs something.)

Towards the end of the dark alley, there is a wooden barrel standing in front of the heavy oak front door of a gloomy-looking house built of dark stone with black, shuttered windows bolted shut. Will you:

Look inside the barrel?
Knock on the oak door?
Walk on to the T-junction ahead?

Adventure Sheet
Harry Balzac
SKILL: 10/10
STAMINA: 13/20
LUCK: 11/11
Equipment: Sword, Leather Armor
Provisions: 10 Meals (+4 STAMINA)
Potions: Potion of Fortune (restores LUCK to Initial+1)
Money: 3 Gold Pieces, 11 Copper Pieces
Keys: Iron Key
Items: Map, Ball of Twine, Candle, Small Brass Bell, Oil Lantern, Knife, Chalk, Brass Owl, Rope, Bag of Copper Nails, Water Flask, Unicorn-Head Goblet

Amounts less than 4.

Look in the barrel, like a normal person wouldn't.

Take a quick peek in the barrel (as opposed to sticking our head inside up to the shoulders).

Yes, scrounge like a common bum.

You lift the lid off the barrel, releasing two very large RATS which were trapped inside. They leap out, one of them jumping on to your shoulder. Gripping your tunic with its sharp claws, it leaps forward to bite your neck. Roll two dice. (2; the result is less than or equal to Harry's SKILL score.)
You react quickly, grabbing hold of the rat before it can bite you, and smash its head against the barrel, killing it instantly. The other rat scurries off into the shadows. You peer into the barrel but there is nothing inside except for rain-soaked old rags and the rotting carcass of a dead dog. The smell is unbearable.

If you want to knock on the front door of the house
If you would rather walk on to the T-junction

We should inform whoever lives here that their vermin problem is becoming a hazard to passers-by.

We might be poor, but at least we're not scraping the bottom of the barrel.

Knock on the front door.

Knock knock!

The large door is yanked open by a huge, bald-headed man wearing a dirty vest and grubby trousers. He looks very angry. 'I hate door-to-door vendors,' he screams in your face. Before you can protest your innocence, he smashes you over the head with a chair leg and slams the door. Lose 2 STAMINA points. You decide against knocking on the door again and walk to the T-junction at the end of the alley.

Lion Street is cobbled, and much wider and brighter than Beggar's Alley. It certainly looks to be in a more affluent part of the town. On the opposite side, a high wall runs the length of the street. There are stone gargoyles fixed to the top of the wall every ten metres or so, staring down threateningly at all who might pass by. Above the wall you can just see the top floor and roof of a large mansion house. Whoever lives there obviously wants privacy and does not welcome visitors. On the near side of the street there are a few shops to your right and houses to your left. Will you:

Try to climb over the wall of the mansion house?
Take a look at the houses?
Look in the shop windows?

Adventure Sheet
Harry Balzac
SKILL: 10/10
STAMINA: 11/20
LUCK: 11/11
Equipment: Sword, Leather Armor
Provisions: 10 Meals (restore 4 STAMINA each)
Potions: Potion of Fortune (restores LUCK to Initial+1)
Money: 3 Gold Pieces, 11 Copper Pieces
Keys: Iron Key
Items: Map, Ball of Twine, Candle, Small Brass Bell, Oil Lantern, Knife, Chalk, Brass Owl, Rope, Bag of Copper Nails, Water Flask, Unicorn-Head Goblet

Look in the shop windows, which are less likely to contain complete assholes.

I hope the surviving rat gets into that guy's house and bites him.

Look in the windows.

There are five shops in the street: a florist, a locksmith's, a bookshop, a candle shop and a wool shop. There is a closed sign on the door of the bookshop, and the only other shop of interest to you is the locksmith's. You walk inside and are greeted by a tall, fair-haired man wearing a dark green apron over his striped shirt. He smiles warmly and asks how he can help. You reply that you are about to go on a mission to find a treasure chest hidden in a cave, explaining you might need a special key to open it. 'Well, I can't sell you a key to open a chest I have never seen, so I suggest you make a bulk purchase in the hope that one might do the job. I sell bunches of twenty assorted brass keys for 1 Gold Piece. You might need more than one key, you never know. I've got one bunch of keys left. Do you want to buy it?' Pay the blacksmith 1 Gold Piece if you decide to buy twenty brass keys.

If you have not done so already, you can try to climb over the wall of the mansion house
If you would rather make your way through the streets to the main gates to leave Chalice

While this sounds like a real dumb sales pitch, given how primitive locks work, I think what he's actually selling is an amateur lockpick kit. Sold!

Half a vote not to be mauled by dogs for trespassing.

Agreed. Buy the keys and leave.

You walk out of the main gates of Chalice heading north, looking back briefly at the town's rooftops and towers sticking out above the outer wall. You follow a well-worn path past a church ruin and ancient graveyard, and on, past scattered dwellings until you reach a farm where the path ends at the edge of a vast field of golden corn, the tall stems swaying slowly from side to side in the gentle breeze. It's going to be a bumper crop, and good news for the farmers whose oxen will soon be hauling wooden carts through the field for their farmhands to load with cobs of corn. Looking north as far as you can see, way beyond the cornfield, you can just make out the top of a high wall of trees that marks the edge of Darkwood Forest, the vast forest that is home to the grand, and sometimes grumpy, old wizard Yaztromo, who lives alone in his fabled tower. Many a tale and myth have come from Darkwood Forest, but you remind yourself that Skull Crag is your destination today. You look at your map and head east in the warm sunlight, eager to reach Moonstone Hills before nightfall. As you walk along the edge of the cornfield lost in thought, you suddenly hear the sound of galloping hooves and the shrill call of a hunting horn.

If you want to face the rider coming towards you
If you would rather hide in the cornfield

Adventure Sheet
Harry Balzac
SKILL: 10/10
STAMINA: 11/20
LUCK: 11/11
Equipment: Sword, Leather Armor
Provisions: 10 Meals (restore 4 STAMINA each)
Potions: Potion of Fortune (restores LUCK to Initial+1)
Money: 2 Gold Pieces, 11 Copper Pieces
Keys: Iron Key, 20 Brass Keys
Items: Map, Ball of Twine, Candle, Small Brass Bell, Oil Lantern, Knife, Chalk, Brass Owl, Rope, Bag of Copper Nails, Water Flask, Unicorn-Head Goblet

Face the rider.

Whoever this is is galloping in hunt. If we wait we might face his prey or get trampled. I think the odds of a positive interaction are fairly low, because even if we defeat whatever's being chased, the hunter might get mad at us for kill-stealing.

Pop into the corn.

Bravely hide in the corn.