A Moment of Reflection

A Moment of Reflection

You pull out the reflection of a map and take a moment to reflect on it.

It's becoming more and more transparent by the minute -- if you're going to follow it somewhere, you'd better do so in a hurry before it disappears completely.

---

The Field of Strawberries

You follow the map to a delightful field of red, ripe strawberries. It seems to go on forever, but you're pretty sure it doesn't -- I mean, you'd probably remember if you had always been in a field of strawberries, right? Anyway, you wander through the fields, and after a while you get a little bored with the endless rows of berries, so you close your eyes to give them a rest.

Living may be easy with eyes closed, but walking sure isn't: you walk smack into a brick wall. Before you open your eyes, you hear a "Woooooaaaah!" followed by a "THUD" and a "SCHPLURT."

You open your eyes and see something that looks like a cross between an egg and a man, lying shattered on the ground in front of you. Don't worry, I'm sure that happened way before you got here. You see a little bowl full of custard next to the eggman's hand, and figure the best way to honor his memory would be to take it for yourself. You don't feel terribly guilty -- I mean, if the eggman was eating egg custard, that's more than a little creepy, and maybe he deserved to take a header off the wall.

You acquire an item: yellow matter custard

---

The Caucus Racetrack

You wander down to the caucus racetrack. The participants are lining up down on the track, doing various improbable stretches to warm up. You see that the stands are packed with people-- well, various off-putting and absurd anthropomorphic animals -- waiting for the main event to start.

The Dodo sees you walk in, and impatiently waves you down to the track. You quickly find a place at one of the starting blocks so the Dodo'll quit staring at you with his creepy reptilian eyes. "Hey," you whisper to the racer next to you (an anthropomorphic badger, if you must know), "how does this work? What are the rules?"

"Well," the badger replies, "we all run around and around in a circle, claiming that we're doing the best we can to get to the goal. Meanwhile, we trip the runners next to us, and then complain that they haven't run far enough."

"But who wins?" you ask.

Before the badger can answer, the Dodo fires the starting pistol, and you take off running. You assure the crowd that you'll reach your destination any minute now, as you go around and around the track. You manage to trip a few other runners, and manage to make it look like it's their fault they haven't gotten farther.

The whole process leaves you a little sick to your stomach, and you're not sorry to see the Dodo fire the pistol again to end the race. "Congratulations!" the Dodo says. "You've all worked very hard together to accomplish nothing! You all lose! Here are your consolation prizes!"

You acquire an item: delicious comfit?

---

The Croquet Grounds

You follow the map past the Coffee Grounds, past the Grounds for Dismissal, and finally find yourself on the Croquet Grounds. You join a line of surreal and off-putting anthropomorphic animals waiting for their flamingos and hedgehogs.

As you wait in line, you notice that your foot is tapping out a complicated little rhythm, seemingly of its own accord. You concentrate hard, and realize you can hear beautiful music coming from the far side of the grounds. Your hips start to sway back and forth a little as you hum along.

Follow your hips

Stick to croquet

Fight a croqueteer

---

The Duchess' Cottage

You follow the map -- as well as the smell of pepper and the sound of breaking pottery -- to the Duchess's Cottage. You knock on the door, but no one answers.

After a few minutes the door cracks open and a footman in livery (which is much fancier than a liverman in footlery) comes running out. "Screw this!" he shouts. "Life is too short to --" he stops abruptly as a huge soup tureen shatters against the back of his head, knocking him out cold.

"I'll just let myself in," you say, and walk through the door. It's dark and stuffy inside, but you can see the Duchess sitting at the head of table, and it's enough to make you wish it were even darker. She's profoundly, deeply, indelibly ugly, with a giant head, beady little eyes, a sharp chin, and pointy knees.

You tiptoe up to the table and sit down. She hasn't chucked a plate at you yet, so maybe you're welcome to stay. After what seems like an eternity, she finally fixes her piggy eyes on you and shouts, "where's my supper, then?"

"Um . . . well, I guess I can whip something up," you say, nonplussed.

"Fine," she says. "We'll want at least five courses. Pig!"

Before you can say, "well, you don't have to call me names," a piglet runs over your toes and out the door, squealing all the way.

"Now, let us eat!" she says.

Feed the Duchess, If You Know What I Mean

The Duchess taps her foot impatiently while you show her what foodstuffs you have, then turns up her nose. "Come back when you can provide proper food for someone of my station, pig!" (Okay, this time, she was totally calling you names.)

Walk Away

---

The Great Big Chessboard

ou follow the map to a huge sunny meadow, meticulously landscaped and criss-crossed with sparkling brooks that divide the grassy plain into sixty-four squares, some of which are occupied by people in dark-colored clothing who appear to be waiting patiently for something. As you approach the first rank of squares, marveling at the strange beauty of the scene, you accidentally bump into someone dressed as a bishop who was running to occupy the same square. They fall over backwards with a surprised squawk and vanish mysteriously when they hit the ground. Even mysteriouser, you feel a strange tingle throughout your body, and find that your clothes have changed into a bishop's outfit. Huh.

Standing at the first rank of the chessboard, you see a large golden chest sitting just on the opposite side of the eighth rank. I believe the first rule of adventuring is "Anything in a treasure chest is yours, if you can grab it."

To complete the puzzle: Play chess by moving pieces allowing the treasure to get to the other side of the board.

When other side of the board is reached: Trumpets blast a fanfare as you advance to the eighth rank. You kneel to open the golden treasure chest, and it melts and shifts in your hands, turning into an elegant golden tea-tray. There's only one cookie (or 'biscuit', as people who own tea-trays are wont to say) left, but it looks like a particularly tasty one.

You acquire an item: king cookie

---

Put the map away

You fold the reflection of the map back up (backwards) and put it back in your sack.

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Occurs upon use of a reflection of a map.

Notes

• Choosing "Put the map away" does not consume the item.
• Does not consume an adventure.