Pickles: A TG Choose Your Own Adventure

By Melanie E.

Page 5

"Buy the belt... err, girdle, that is."

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The decision is tough, but after mulling over what to do you finally decide on the belt. Girdle. Whatever.

"How much for the girdle-thingy?"

The vaguely humanoid figure in the tattered robe looks you up and down before raising what you desperately hope is a hand and pointing at the bag in your hand. "How much ya got?"

"Dunno."

"Half that."

You start to object, even in your vulnerable position knowing a scam when you see one, but before you can so much as mutter "fiddlesticks" the bag is snatched from your hands and emptied on the table. The figure cackles gleefully before shoveling what is quite obviously less than half of the coins back into the sack along with the remainder of his sandwich.

"Here's yer money, and yer girly belt," he says, handing you both, then spinning you around. "Now, off you go, much to do."

"Hey!" You call, but it is too late, as you tumble out the window to the grass below.

Picking up your much reduced bag of coins (and sandwich) as well as your newly acquired girly-belt -- sorry, girdle -- you make a bee line for the lamp that still rests in the center of the plaza. Both the blacksmith's shop and Arwen's now have "closed" signs hanging in their doors, leaving you little choice but to head arbitrary-north. You grab the lantern on your way, never knowing when the light could come in handy.

After about half an hour of walking, during which you run through every possible scenario and still find no logical conclusion to how a simple trip to pick up some jujubees could have morphed into a magical quest, you come across an intersection in the road, complete with an all too convenient signpost. You read the choices, and after adjusting your internal compass to compensate for learning you've actually been heading south, lean against a nearby tree as you think.

What do you do?

---Turn East, toward the Village Of Villagers
---Turn West, entering the Woods of Adventuresome Adventuring And Squirrels
---Continue South, into the Swamp of Icky But Actually Quite Harmless Things

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The voting begins...NOW!("Page 4" posted on 1/21/2011, voting to close at noon CST on 1/22/2011)

NOTES: Yes, the adventure is taking a decided turn for the silly, but it's all in good fun, so hopefully no one minds.

What does the girdle do? What's going on? What kind of sandwich did the thing leave to mold among your coinage? Vote, and ye shall discover!