Welcome To Our ool Table

There are some vague or non-exact figures and information on this page. Some spading is required. How much Pool Skill do you need to win?

Choice adventure number: 875

Welcome To Our ool Table

• On the first time this adventure is met

While searching the Haunted Billiards Room, you find a pool table. This in itself isn't very surprising; there's two pool tables in this room, and they're difficult to miss. The surprising part is that a ghost has materialized next to one of them.

He's dressed in spats and sleeve-garters, and all the clothes in-between them are slick high-class fashion -- or at least were, some hundreds of years ago. He notices you looking at him and gives you a sly grin, then gestures toward a rack of pool cues, as if to challenge you to a game. You ready your cue, then notice that his own cue is the ghost of a very expensive-looking two-part mahogany and ivory job. You suddenly recall one of the very few bits of fatherly wisdom your dad ever gave you: "Never shoot pool against someone who brought their own cue."

Sensing your hesitation, the ghost grins again, and places a large, ornate brass key -- a real one, not the ghost of one -- on the edge of the pool table.

• Subsequent occasions

The ghostly pool-shark has rematerialized next to one of the tables, and grins at you smugly as he screws together his ghostly custom pool cue and chalks the tip of it with an actual cube of chalk, somehow.

He puts the brass key back on the edge of the table, and gestures with a jerk of his head for you to come try again.

Hustle the ghost

• With too little Pool Skill:

You lean over your cue and slam the ball for the break... and somehow manage to entirely miss the lead ball. The cueball clacks into the side of the rack, and the balls barely scatter. "I meant to do that," you say with a haughty expression, as the ghost just stares at you. He proceeds to run the table, and then vanishes with a shake of his head, taking the shiny brass key with him.

or

You lean over the table, preparing to break. And then you lean a bit more, and more, and gee this felt feels nice and soft on your face, and zzzzzzz...

When you wake up, the ghost has left.

or

You approach the table with a smirk, ready to show this ghost how a real expert plays pool. You line up your shot for the break with a bit of low english, and ram the cue forward. The ball leaps off the table (and straight through the ghost's hilarious facial expression), while your cue somehow ends up underneath the felt. In your effort to get it back without tearing up the table any further, you somehow catch your foot on the leg of the table, fall over, bang your head on the ball-return, and then your brain just gives up and you pass out for a while. The ghost is gone when you wake up, unsurprisingly.

or

You start playing pool against the ghost. It goes okay for a bit, until you get in an argument with the ghost about whether you were playing solids or stripes, declare "Shcrew it! I'ma play wh'ever balls I wanna! You ain't shtop me!" You start randomly knocking balls around the table, and the ghost throws up his hands exasperatedly, and leaves with his key.

or

You swagger up to the table get ready to break, and stare at the balls for a moment. "Ish... is there s'posed to be like thirty balls?" you ask the ghost, who looks at you quizzically. "There'sh like thirty-'leven balls on this table! An' two... three... three cue balls!" You shrug and line up your shot anyway, choosing the cue ball on the left, but somehow you totally miss it, and the ghost proceeds to run the table and win the game handily.

followed by

Oh well. At least you got some practice.

+1 Pool Skill

• With sufficient Pool Skill:

You lean over the table, cue in hand, and aim for the break. With a good solid CRACK, the balls skitter around the table like panicked rats, two of them escaping into their holes. You knock in a third and fourth, but can't get a decent shot at a fifth, so you satisfy yourself with parking the cue ball somewhere inconvenient for your opponent.

The ghost grimaces, then tries to cover with a carefree shrug. He just barely manages to make his shot, but it's a close call, and the relief on his face makes it plain that you've already thrown him off his stride. He sinks three more, and then misses. With the table now opened up nicely, your next three balls thunk into the pockets with the rhythm of precision clockwork, and you gild the lily by unnecessarily banking the cue ball off of three rails before sinking the eight and winning the game.

With a howl of frustration, the ghost attempts to break his pool cue over his knee. When they just pass through each other, he becomes even more frustrated, and vanishes to find somewhere that he can really lose his cool without anyone seeing it. You pick up the brass key he left behind, with a smug grin of your own.

You acquire an item: Spookyraven library key

---

Hustle over to the other table and practice

You approach the empty pool table and practice for a while. Your game improves!
+1-4 Pool Skill

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Hustle away

You ain't 'fraid of no ghost, but neither are you confident that you can beat one at pool. The ghost, too suave to actually make chicken noises at you, sniffs disdainfully and vanishes as you turn to leave.

---

Occurs at The Haunted Billiards Room.

Notes

• You need to have a total Pool Skill of at most somewhere over 52 (needs spading) to beat the Ghost.
• Practicing at the other table gives you +1 Pool Skill, +1 additional with the Chalky Hand effect, and +2 additional with the Staff of Fats equipped.
  • Equipping the pool cue does not give any additional skill when practicing.

References

The title of this adventure is a reference to a sign near some public swimming pools that reads, "Welcome to our ool. Notice there's no 'P' in it. Let's keep it that way."