alices_nightmare
Page 15
Now what would you like Alice to do?
Pour herself a cup of tea? Turn to 338.
Pick up the bread-knife? Turn to 359.
Take a closer look at the tea tray? Turn to 369.
Leave the table and be on her way? Turn to 15.
350
A red rose bush has been planted at the next junction in the path. Now which way should Alice go?
North? Turn to 274.
South? Turn to 370.
West? Turn to 340.
351
The key fits the lock perfectly; the tumblers turn and the door opens. Beyond it lies a small passage, not much larger than a rat-hole. Kneeling down, Alice looks along the passage into the loveliest garden she has ever seen.
It pains her heart to gaze upon the well-tended lawns and beds of bright flowers. She longs to leave the dark hall and wander about among the cool fountains she can see beyond the end of the passageway, but she cannot even get her head through the doorway.
If you think Alice should try the normal-sized unlocked door instead, turn to 366. If you’d rather that she drank the contents of the bottle, turn to 355. However, if you want her to open the little glass box, turn to 368.
352
Alice throws herself out of the way and the charging boar-like beast hurtles past her and through the kitchen door. Thinking quickly and fast on her feet, Alice runs to the door and pulls it shut before the pig-baby can correct its mistake and charge her again.
Now turn to 148.
353
As Alice gazes into the still waters of the pool, a slight breeze sends ripples undulating across the pool and the reflection of the sky above changes to become an image of a grim-looking palace that holds about its battlements a sinister atmosphere, despite the ostentatious heart-shaped ornamentations.
Another moment and the scene changes again, this time to that of a dingy, steam-filled kitchen. Seconds pass and the scene changes yet again, this time revealing an intersection in the maze.
“I wonder if, as well as looking upon these other places, I could transport myself to one of them by entering the pool,” ponders Alice.
What do you think Alice should do?
Enter the heart-shaped pool? Turn to 403.
Keep watching the waters? Turn to 373.
Leave the heart of the maze by
passing beneath the topiary arch
to the north? Turn to 340.
Continue on her way by passing
beneath the topiary arch to the south? Turn to 170.
354
“Right again,” says the Cat, “or at least I think that’s the right answer. Although, to be honest, I’m not sure if that particular riddle really has an answer at all.”
Alice sighs wearily. “I think you might do something better with the time,” she says, “than waste it in asking riddles that have no answers.”
“Very well. Question Three!” declares the Cat. “‘Do you play croquet with the Queen today?’
How should Alice reply this time?
“Yes!” Turn to 313.
“I should like it very much, but I
haven’t been invited yet.” Turn to 376.
355
Alice puts the bottle to her lips and takes a sip. The liquid, which is now coloured pinkish-red again, tastes like cherry-tart.
“Delicious!” says Alice and takes another swig. The taste tantalises the taste-buds, the flavour changing on her tongue from one moment to the next – a mixture of cherry-tart, custard, pineapple, roast turkey, toffee and hot buttered toast.
“What a curious feeling!” the child declares as a curious feeling overcomes her. It feels as if her organs are contracting inside her, her skeleton shrinking in response, followed by the rest of her. “I must be shutting up like a telescope.”
And indeed she is, as the table soars above her, its glass legs growing to the size of tree trunks. When she is only ten inches high, Alice stops shrinking.
Curiously, the bottle has shrunk along with her (as have her clothes) and it still has one measure of the potion left inside. (Add the Shrinking Potion to Alice’s Adventure Sheet.)
Alice’s face brightens up at the thought that she is now the right size to go through the little door into the lovely garden, and without a moment’s delay that is precisely what she does. Turn to 136.
356
“I wish you were here, dear Gryphon, to return the favour you owe me now,” Alice says, finding herself stroking the golden feather in her pocket.
Suddenly there is a great squawking cry, a furious flapping of wings, and the Gryphon flies into the throne room.
“Come on! Climb onto my back!” says the Gryphon and Alice is not inclined to argue, given her current situation.
“Don’t let them get away!” shrieks the Red Queen as the Gryphon takes off again with the child on his back.
“I couldn’t kill her!” Alice cries as her emotions overcome her. “I tried, but I couldn’t do it!”
“There is a way,” the Gryphon says. “There is a weapon, so legend says, that has the power to slay anyone and anything.”
“What weapon?” Alice asks, a glimmer of hope entering her heart.
“Its name has gone down in legend as the Vorpal Sword,” the Gryphon replies, “but it lies many leagues from here, on the island of the Jabberwock.”
“How do we get there?” Alice asks, her question a desperate plea.
“There might be a way,” the Gryphon says swooping through a door into a bare stone chamber and setting Alice down in front of the large, heart-shaped mirror hanging on the far wall.
“I’ll hold off the Queen as best I can,” the brave creature says. “You find the sword!” And with that it flies out through the door again, ready to do all it can to stop the vampire catching up with Alice.
As Alice looks at the mirror, the reflection of the room dissolves, revealing a dismal wood beyond the looking-glass. It hardly appears to be the most inviting place but surely anywhere would be better than where she is now, hunted by the blood-thirsty Red Queen, just so long as she can actually pass through the mirror.
If you want Alice to try to reach the sinister forest beyond the looking-glass, turn to 155. If not, turn to 196.
357
“Thank goodness!” exclaims the Caterpillar, the spiracles along the sides of its body opening and closing in breathless agitation. “I was starting to think I had lost you to a higher state of being, never to return.”
Alice feels a little woozy and a little dizzy, as if her mind is not wholly connected to her body. But then, the strange melange of memories stirred up from the depths of her unconscious, Alice remembers…
“I remember it all!” she exclaims excitedly. “The rabbit-hole, the Hall of Doors, the White Rabbit’s House, meeting you for the first time, the Duchess and her baby, the Cheshire Cat, the mad tea party, playing croquet with the Queen…”
Alice breaks off, temporarily out of breath and overwhelmed by her recollections.
“Welcome back to Wonderland,” says the Caterpillar. “I only wish we were meeting again under better circumstances.”
“So what circumstances are we meeting under?” says the child.
“It’s the Queen of Hearts. She’s even madder than she was before.”
“We’re all mad here,” Alice mutters under her breath.
“Her lunacy has infected this reality, turning the dreamscape of Wonderland into a nightmarish realm of imagined horrors and manifest phobias. Do you see?” says the Caterpillar. “That is why the Queen must die.”
Alice doesn’t understand half the words the Caterpillar has been using, but she understands that everyone she meets in Wonderland seems dead set on her doing away with the monarch of mayhem and madness.
“Do you have any quest
ions before you set off on your way again?”
“Yes, I do,” says the child, after pondering the question for a moment. “You were a caterpillar when we met previously, so why aren’t you a butterfly by now?”
“Old Father William says I have a bad case of neoteny. Now, if you want one last piece of advice, steer clear of the Duchess’s madhouse. The Nightmare has already well and truly taken hold there. Make for the Palace instead and remember, keep moving forwards, never turn back. Now, be on your way.”
Record the words ‘Revelation’ and the number ‘236’ on Alice’s Adventure Sheet, along with the word ‘Metamorphosis’, and then turn to 316.
358
As its vine-like limbs drag Alice closer and closer to the tree’s champing maw, she manages to free first one arm and then the next, and starts to fight back against the pernicious plant (which has the initiative in this battle).
TUMTUM TREECOMBAT 8 ENDURANCE 10
If Alice defeats the tree she has not killed the plant, but only cut herself free of its clutches – turn to 307.
359
The bread-knife could be used by Alice as a weapon, if she doesn’t already have one.
If you decide to take the Bread-Knife, add it to Alice’s Adventure Sheet. If she ever finds herself in combat using the Bread-Knife, any successful strikes she makes against an opponent will cause 3 points of damage, rather than the usual 2.
Now what do you want Alice to do?
Pour herself a cup of tea? Turn to 338.
Make herself a picnic to take with her? Turn to 349.
Take a closer look at the tea tray? Turn to 369.
Leave the table and be on her way? Turn to 15.
360
No matter which path Alice takes, there is always another branching of the ways, and another decision to be made. Which way should she go now?
North? Turn to 254.
South? Turn to 400.
West? Turn to 44.
361
Not much further on Alice comes to a fork in the path. If you want Alice to follow the left-hand branch, turn to 407. If you want her to follow the right-hand path, which disappears into the mist among the fungi-trees, turn to 285.
362
As she meets the Spider’s many-eyed stare, a rhyme she last heard years ago, back in the Nursery, pops into Alice’s head:
“Will you walk into my parlour?”
said the Spider to the Fly,
‘Tis the prettiest little parlour that ever you did spy.”
Alice suddenly becomes aware of a droning susurrus and looks up to see a fly – which looks about as big as a cat – come buzzing down towards her. The Spider sees it too and springs.
Snatching the startled fly from the air, the Spider rapidly binds its victim in silk that it exudes from spinnerets at the end of its abdomen, before scuttling back under the door with its ensnared prey held between two legs.
“Up jumped the cunning Spider, and fiercely held her fast.
He dragged her up his winding stair, into his dismal den,
Within his little parlour — but she ne’er came out again!”
Finishes Alice, with a heartfelt sigh of relief. Turn to 260.
363
Blood running from the wounds it has already received, the Alice-Jabberwock falters. But then, shaking off those injuries, the monster rallies and comes for Alice, while the child prepares to fight for her life one last time.
(Alice has the initiative in this battle, but the Vorpal Sword will only cause 3 Endurance points of damage to the monster’s iron-hard scales, rather than the usual 4.)
JABBERWOCKCOMBAT 9 ENDURANCE 12
If Alice manages to slay the Jabberwock, turn to 520.
364
Alice finds the path she is following skirts the base of a craggy peak, the steep face of which looks to have been savaged by the claws of some gargantuan beast. Not much further on Alice comes to a cleft in the side of the rock.
Approaching the mouth of the cave Alice is startled to hear a snorting grunt and the sound of footsteps approaching from the gloom of the cave. It is then that she notices the bones strewn across the entrance, some of which appear to be human in origin.
What should Alice do?
Run for it? Turn to 501.
Stand her ground? Turn to 399.
Try to find somewhere to hide? Turn to 343.
365
“I should quite enjoy a game of croquet,” says Alice, but where are the balls and mallets?
Just then she spies a pink mallet resting against a bench at the edge of the lawn, and a moment later she sees what she supposes pass for balls in this warped Wonderland.
Hunched in the middle of the lawn are two large spiky balls. “Why,” says Alice, “they look just like hedgehogs.”
As if having just heard the child, the balls twitch and start to roll towards her. They are only a few feet away when they unfurl and get to their feet.
Alice has never seen hedgehogs like these before. As tall as men, with a thick cloak of quills covering their backs, their fingers end in sharp claws and their eyes burn with a bestial fury. Giving a blood-curdling cry, the mutated humanoid hedgehogs bound towards her.
Take an Insanity test and if Alice passes, turn to 515; if she fails, turn to 485.
366
Alice is surprised to find herself bathed in bright sunshine, which spills in through the open door. She is standing at the end of a winding gravel path, which leads to a neatly kept house. Alice can make out a polished brass plate on the front door of the house that shines in the impossible sunlight – she is deep underground after all – but she cannot make out the name engraved upon it.
If you want Alice to step through the doorway and follow the path to the house, turn to 2. If you would rather that she closed the door again she will either have to drink the contents of the curious bottle (turn to 355) or examine the glass box under the table (turn to 368).
367
Wondering what could have created such a chilling sound, Alice decides that the longer she stays where she is, the more likely it is that the monster will find her.
She can make out a vague path through the wood ahead of her and so, with nowhere else to go, sets off along it. However, the ground underfoot steadily becomes softer and softer until Alice is picking her way through a stinking bog. Fat-bodied flies hum overhead, only to be plucked from the moist air by warty, amphibian creatures squatting, half-submerged in their brackish pools.
Suddenly a pair of creatures pull themselves from the slime and onto the narrow path Alice is precariously following through the marsh. They look like a cross between a lizard and a salamander, but their sinuous bodies are marked with distinctive black and white stripes, and their claws are curled like corkscrews. The creatures hiss as they stalk towards the wretched child, opening their mouths to expose myriad sharp pointed teeth.
How do you think Alice should resolve her current predicament?
Try to leap over the creatures and
hurry on along the path beyond? Turn to 459.
Attack the newt-like creatures? Turn to 275.
Try to think her way out of this
situation? Turn to 383.
Alternatively, Alice could use the Curiouser and Curiouser ability, if that option it still available to her (turn to 509).
368
Inside the box is a dainty cake in a paper case, on which the words ‘EAT ME’ have been painstakingly marked out in currants. It looks delicious.
So what’s it to be – ‘Eat Me’ (turn to 77) or ‘Drink Me’ (turn to 387)?
369
The tea tray is large and heavy and could be used as a shield, should Alice wish to use it as such.
If she does, record the Tea Tray on Alice’s Adventure Sheet and make a note that it
will reduce the damage caused by enemy attacks by 1 point. However, carrying it will also impede Alice’s movements and so you must reduce her Agility score by 1 point for as long as she still has it in her possession. Alice may discard the Tea Tray at any time, losing both the benefit and the burden it brings, but she will not be able to recover it again during the course of her adventure.
What should Alice do now?
Pour herself a cup of tea? Turn to 338.
Prepare herself a picnic to take with her? Turn to 349.
Pick up the bread-knife? Turn to 359.
Leave the table and be on her way? Turn to 15.
370
The air is thick with the distinctive aroma of the evergreen boughs all about Alice. Reaching another junction, Alice comes to a bubbling fountain and is glad to take a drink of the refreshing water. (Add 2 Endurance points.)
Choosing a way onward, do you want Alice to head north (turn to 350), go east (turn to 390), or make her way south through the maze (turn to 405)?
371
Walking between the flower beds bursting with colour, the air filled with their aromatic scent, Alice begins to feel wonderfully relaxed. (Subtract 1 point from Alice’s Insanity score). Reaching the north-west corner of the garden she comes upon a brass sundial mounted on a weathered stone plinth. The gravel path turns right, leading eastwards further into the garden.
If you want Alice to take a closer look at the sundial, turn to 391. If you would rather she continue on her way through the garden, turn to 31.