[Let's Play] ACE Gamebooks - Shakespeare Vs. Cthulhu - What Dreams May Come

[deaddmwalking]

35

The sword is heavy but well-balanced, even if it is only a stage prop. And while it might not have the keenest edge, it could still deal an opponent a nasty blow, should you so choose. Finding a belt and scabbard nearby, you buckle it on and sheathe the blade.

“Best draw my sword,” you say, pulling it from its sheath and giving it a satisfying swing.

(Record the Sword in the Props box of your Adventure Sheet. For as long as you wield it, you may add 1 point to your Combat score.) Choosing something you haven’t tried already, what do you want to do now?

Put on the Crown? Turn to 20.

Try on the Breastplate? Turn to 44.

Search among the pieces of scenery? Turn to 88.

[Beroli]

Search among the pieces of scenery.

[deaddmwalking]

88

The way the wood and canvas flats have been arranged, the only way through to the back of this side of the Tiring House is through one of two scenery arches. One is decked out with greenery to look like the way into a forest, while the other has been painted to give the impression it has been constructed from stone, just as the columns that hold up the roof above the stage of the Globe are wood painted to look like veined marble.

Which arch do you want to pass beneath? The forest arbour (turn to 106) or the stone arch (turn to 220)?

[Beroli]

Pass under the stone arch.

[Thaluikhain]

May as well, and perhaps the forest one holds another Green Man.

EDIT: To clarify, I mean go under the stone for purposes of avoiding potential Green persons, though which would seem more likely in-universe than I think would be in-gamebook.

[deaddmwalking]

I thought the Green Man was a pretty easy fight...

220

Passing beneath the stone arch, and pushing aside a piece of cloth that has been daubed with plaster to be made to look like rough-cast, you suddenly find yourself in a bustling city street. But this is no London street you have ever seen. The sun, high in the sky, beats down upon the honey-coloured walls of a fine, Italian town.

You are assailed by all manner of scents and sounds, from the stink of unwashed labourers and the jangling of the bells of more than forty churches, to the sweet smells of pomegranate and rosewater, while apprentices call their masters’ wares from the garishly-adorned shop fronts you pass.

“Excuse me, my lady,” you ask a plump dowager, arrayed in a gown of gold brocade, her fingers and ears dripping with silver and pearls, “but what place is this?”

“You are in fair Verona,” she replies, before moving on while you come to a halt in stunned confusion. How can this be? Verona must be close on a thousand miles from London.

Hearing cries of alarm, you realise that a fight has broken out in the street ahead of you.

“A plague o’ both your houses!” you hear someone cry.

Mere moments later a young man comes barrelling through the throng of people towards you, his rapier drawn and bloodied at the tip.

“O Romeo, Romeo,” comes another voice from among the crowd, “brave Mercutio’s dead!”

The villain bearing the bloodied blade clearly heard the pronouncement too, and fixes you with a steely stare.

If you have a Sword and want to stop him fleeing the scene of his undoubted crime, turn to 10. If you would prefer not to engage and let the rogue pass, or have no Sword, turn to 75.

[Thaluikhain]

Hmmm, we have a sword, so...half vote for fighting the man (is he wearing green, at least?).

(As an aside, I always thought I'd be the sort of person who provides good exposition in times like this, like when someone asks you what city they are in. But several months into the pandemic I was working in a call centre and got asked what the big deal about being sick in public by someone who'd not heard of covid or coronavirus...turns out I'm a bit more of the person who asks the Doctor where he's been at such times, rather than someone who patiently explains something all non time travelers should know)

[Beroli]

He's the hero, let him go. Even if stopping Shakespeare's tragedies from being tragedies is a thing we should do during this, killing Romeo at this point certainly won't do it.

[deaddmwalking]

Letting him pass wins by a 1.0 to 0.5 vote.

75

You step out of the way, and the young man hurries through the crowd, followed by a gang of his fellow roisterers. The excitement of the villain’s appearance and subsequent disappearance may have passed, but the turmoil that has been raised inside your mind has not. How can it be that you are now wandering the streets of a town in Italy, when only hours ago you were working late at the Globe Theatre on Bankside. What is going on? (Gain 1 Madness point.) But then the damn’d commotion starts up again. You hear the cries and complaints of the citizenry who are being jostled up ahead and see the tops of polearms being carried through the town by armed men.

You suddenly find yourself face to face with one of them. He is attired in the manner of a militiaman and wears the colours of his patron, Prince Escalus of Verona.

“Which way ran he that kill’d Mercutio?” he shouts in your face. “Tybalt, that murderer, which way ran he?” You indicate the way the young villain went. “Up, sir, go with me; I charge thee in the Prince’s name, obey.”

Take a Madness test. If you pass the test, turn to 100. If you fail the test, turn to 87.

**************
With the additional point of madness just acquired, you could technically fail.

Roll: 6 (5,1)

But you didn't.

100

“The villain went this way,” you say, barging through the crowds as they begin to part before Prince Escalus’s guards; no one wants to draw attention to themselves, knowing how heavy-handed the Captain of the Guard can be.

“I spy the villain, over there!” one of the guardsmen suddenly cries.

“After him, fellows,” orders their Captain. “Bring him to the block.”

You do not know what the guards think they have seen, but they appear to have forgo􀀪en all about you, for the time being at least, which does not make you an unhappy passenger.

With the guards gone, you continue on your way, hoping to find a way out of Verona as quickly as possible, even though your strange journey may take you to unpath’d waters, undream’d shores, most certain to miseries enough.

Turn to 118.

118

But soon you hear the hue and cry being given again and, your a􀀪ention drawn by shouts from nearby, turn to see a handsome youth running in your direction. The panic in his eyes is a sure sign that he is clearly being chased.

You could grab him and pull him into the shade of the side-street from which you have just emerged (turn to 108), or you could keep out of whatever is going on here and leave the young man to his fate (turn to 98).

William Shakespeare
Agility: 10 [10]
Combat: 10 [10]
Endurance: 15 [15]
Madness: 2
Meals: 0
Where There's a Will: 3 [4]
The Pen is Mightier: 3 [4]
Props: Doublet & Hose, Quill, Manuscript, Breastplate, Sword
Stage Directions Obtained: Guilty Mind; Strange Fellow;
Stage Directions Possible to Acquire: A Flattering Tongue; A Most Exquisite Lady; An Armed Head; An Evil Sign; Book of Riddles; Cunning Man; Double, Double Toil and Trouble; Dreadful Minister; Exit, Pursued by a Bear; Fell and Wrath; Fortune's Fool; Foul Fiend; Give No Words But Mum; Give't to thy Crone; Good Mother; Graves All Gaping Wide; His Commandment; Horned Man; Ignoble Traitor; Instinct is a Great Matter; Is This a Dagger Which I See Before Me?; King of Infinite Space; Knavish Sprite; Maiden Pilgrimage; Murder Most Foul; My Honour'd Lady; My Verse Astonished; Prince of Cats; Servant-Monster; Star-Cross'd; Speak the Speech; The Charmed Pot; The Ides of March; The Spirit of Banquo; The Worst Rank of Manhood; Unspeakable Deserts; Yellow Gold; Yellow Hue; Yellow Melancholy; Yellow Sands

[Thaluikhain]

Hmmm...being less familiar with Romeo and Juliet (though our character probably isn't), half vote to stay out of the way.

[Beroli]

Grab him and pull him into the side street. It appears we missed the chance to kill Tybalt, not to mug Romeo.

[deaddmwalking]

Love's Labour's Lost is one of his early plays, written after King Richard III and Two Gentlemen from Verona, but before A Midsummer's Night's Dream and Romeo and Juliet - so within the game fiction, Shakespeare could be becoming acquainted with the stories that would then inspire his famous plays. I'm of course assuming that Love's Labour's Won (the title of the manuscript you bear) becomes Love's Labour's Lost as a result of your actions in this story. Verily, you could argue that your knowledge of the setting should exceed that of our titular character.

Pulling him into a side-street wins by a 1-0.5 vote.
****************************************************

108

“Look out there!” you hiss.

The youth skids to a halt, takes one look at you, secreted in the shade of the side-street, and one look behind him, and then joins you in the alleyway.

Not many moments later a squad of the city guard trots past – puffing and panting, red-faced and dripping with sweat, stiff and weary – as the two of you press yourselves against the cool wall at your backs.

When he is sure he is safe, the youth turns to you and says “Thou hast saved me, sir. The citizens are up, and Tybalt slain. O, I am fortune’s fool!”

(Tick off the Stage Direction Fortune’s Fool.)

“And you are?”

“Romeo – my father is old Montague. But villain am I none,” the youth states with such conviction you are inclined to believe him.

If you have the Stage Direction Prince of Cats ticked off, turn to 84. If not, turn to 64.

**************************
We have not obtained the stage direction Prince of Cats.
**************************

64

“Where will you go now?” you ask the youth.

“I have a friend close by, one Friar Laurence,” he says, pointing at an apothecary’s shop on the other side of the street, outside which hangs a sign in the form of a golden sun. “I will hide me there.”

“Then hie you hence to Friar Laurence’s cell,” you tell him.

“Will you come with me?” he asks you.

If you want to go with Romeo to visit this Friar Laurence, turn to 54.

If you would prefer to leave the town through the north gate, turn to 111.

William Shakespeare
Agility: 10 [10]
Combat: 10 [10]
Endurance: 15 [15]
Madness: 2
Meals: 0
Where There's a Will: 3 [4]
The Pen is Mightier: 3 [4]
Props: Doublet & Hose, Quill, Manuscript, Breastplate, Sword
Stage Directions Obtained: Fortune's Fool; Guilty Mind; Strange Fellow;
Stage Directions Possible to Acquire: A Flattering Tongue; A Most Exquisite Lady; An Armed Head; An Evil Sign; Book of Riddles; Cunning Man; Double, Double Toil and Trouble; Dreadful Minister; Exit, Pursued by a Bear; Fell and Wrath; Foul Fiend; Give No Words But Mum; Give't to thy Crone; Good Mother; Graves All Gaping Wide; His Commandment; Horned Man; Ignoble Traitor; Instinct is a Great Matter; Is This a Dagger Which I See Before Me?; King of Infinite Space; Knavish Sprite; Maiden Pilgrimage; Murder Most Foul; My Honour'd Lady; My Verse Astonished; Prince of Cats; Servant-Monster; Star-Cross'd; Speak the Speech; The Charmed Pot; The Ides of March; The Spirit of Banquo; The Worst Rank of Manhood; Unspeakable Deserts; Yellow Gold; Yellow Hue; Yellow Melancholy; Yellow Sands

[Beroli]

Go with him. I am unsure whether sanity involves sticking to Shakespeare's plays or making events go better, but we gained a point of Madness when we didn't kill Tybalt in Romeo's place, so I'm going with the latter for now.

[Thaluikhain]

Go with him.

(Oh, so weird magic things showing him the stories inspired Shakespeare to write later plays? That makes sense, I guess)

[deaddmwalking]

(Oh, so weird magic things showing him the stories inspired Shakespeare to write later plays? That makes sense, I guess)

That's my guess, but I haven't seen anything that says that explicitly. But if it weren't the case, I would definitely expect him to say 'huh, this is weird, it's like my play has come to life', and we haven't seen that. In terms of how to guide your play, pretending that these are the 'real events' that later inspired a fictionalized play probably works the best - sometimes doing exactly what happened in the play might not be the best thing. It may not even be possible! In the play, Tybalt kills Mercutio, then Romeo kills Tybalt. But the man fleeing with a sword that you let escape was Tybalt (as you surmised). So Romeo hadn't had a chance to kill him at least up to that point, and you could have. At this point, I think we can assume that Romeo did kill Tybalt after you missed your chance... If it matters...

54

“Very well,” you reply, and the two of you dash across the street and through the shaded doorway beneath the golden sun sign. As you do so, your eye is drawn to the curious sigil that has been carved into the lintel. It looks like a five-pointed star, but the points, rather than being connected by straight lines, are linked by wavy ones. And at its centre has been carved an eye. (Tick off the Stage Direction An Evil Sign.)

Inside the shop are rows of shelves bearing all manner of earthenware pots and jars, and mortars filled with crushed herbs. More dried plants hang from the rafters, filling the air with their heady aroma, and against one wall stand several charcoal braziers, upon which a series of small cauldrons have been le􀀡 bubbling.

“Benedicite!”

Romeo is welcomed warmly by a middle-aged man wearing a friar’s habit, and the youth hurriedly relates the chain of events that has brought the two of you here, at this time.

“These violent delights have violent ends,” Friar Laurence muses, when Romeo has told him all about the quarrel in the square that ended in Tybalt’s death.

“But this goodly friend offered me protection when Prince Escalus’s guards were in hot pursuit, leaving them to go off on a wild goose chase,” Romeo explains.

“So smile the heavens upon this holy act,” says the friar. “By way of thanks let me offer you one of my healing potions.”

If you have a flower with you, and wish to show it to Friar Laurence, turn to 70. If not, turn to 105.

[Beroli]

...do we? I don't remember getting a flower but I may have missed it. If we have it, show him.

[Thaluikhain]

I agree with that.

[deaddmwalking]

Sorry guys, you do not have the flower. I was in a bit of a rush. Then had a major internet outage. Sorry for the delay.

105

“Here,” the holy apothecary says, taking a vial from a shelf, “take this.”

“What’s in it?” you ask, accepting the item.

“There’s fennel for you, and columbines: there’s rue,” he explains, “and camomile; the more it is trodden on the faster it grows.” (Record the Pleasing Cordial on your Adventure Sheet. It contains three tots and when drunk, one tot will restore up to 3 Endurance points.)

If you have the Stage Direction Fortune’s Fool ticked off, turn to 25. If not, turn to 111.

**************
You do have this stage direction.
**************

25

By the time you are ready to leave the apothecary’s shop, the weary sun hath made a golden set, and by the bright track of his fiery car, gives signal, of a goodly day to-morrow.

“Where will you go now?” Romeo asks you.

“Away from Verona,” you reply. “I need to find a way home, to my wife Anne and our children. When I was at home I was in a better place. Where thou?”

“Plainly know my heart’s dear love is set on the fair daughter of rich Capulet. I go now to old Capulet’s orchard, there to woo the Lady Juliet.”

“Holy Saint Francis, what a change is here!” exclaims the friar. “Is Rosaline, whom thou didst love so dear, so soon forsaken? Young men’s love then lies not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes.”

“Thou chid’st me oft for loving Rosaline. I pray thee, chide not; she whom I love now doth grace for grace and love for love allow; the other did not so.” Then Romeo addresses you. “I would win her with fine words but my tongue-tied Muse fails me. Come with me now and speak on my behalf.”

“But you are a Montague and your new love a Capulet,” the friar rails. “Two households, both alike in dignity, from ancient grudge break to new mutiny, where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.”

If you agree to help the lovesick youth, turn to 165. If you think it would be wiser to leave Verona as soon as possible, turn to 111.

[Thaluikhain]

We aren't going back to our time by walking to England...probably...but half vote for leaving anyway in the hope it's time for a new play.

[Beroli]

Help him. Whether we need to learn more or change the ending, "leave" is not what will accomplish it.

[deaddmwalking]

165

“Come, young waverer, come, go with me, in one respect I’ll thy assistant be,” you tell the youth, “for this alliance may so happy
prove, to turn your households’ rancour to pure love.”

“O, let us hence; I stand on sudden haste.”

Romeo leaves the apothecary’s shop through the small, sunlit courtyard that lies behind it, and you follow. He leads you through the backstreets and along narrow alleyways between the houses, until you come to a walled orchard. The two of you scramble over the wall and hide yourselves among the apple trees.

At that moment, a girl appears above at a balcony overlooking the orchard. Such is her beauty, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!

“But, soth! what light through yonder window breaks?” whispers Romeo beside you. “It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.”

“O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?” the girl suddenly cries, although you do not think that she knows the two of you are hiding in the garden. “Deny thy father and refuse thy name; or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, and I’ll no longer be a Capulet.”

“Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?” Romeo asks in a hushed voice.

Before you can answer, the maiden speaks again.

“’Tis but thy name that is my enemy; thou art thyself, though not a Montague. What’s Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot, nor arm, nor face, nor any other part belonging to a man. O, be some other name! What’s in a name? that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet; so Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d, retain that dear perfection which he owes without that title. Romeo, doff thy name, and for that name which is no part of thee take all myself.”

Then, parroting the words you give him, Romeo addresses Juliet: “I take thee at thy word: call me but love, and I’ll be new baptized; henceforth I never will be Romeo.”

“What man art thou that thus bescreen’d in night so stumblest on my counsel?” she replies, clearly surprised.




“By a name I know not how to tell thee who I am: my name, dear saint, is hateful to myself, because it is an enemy to thee; had I it written, I would tear the word,” Romeo declares, at your direction.

“My ears have not yet drunk a hundred words of that tongue’s utterance, yet I know the sound: art thou not Romeo and a Montague?”

And so they continue, in this fashion, back and forth, until, lecherous as a monkey, Romeo climbs an apple tree and from there swings himself up onto Juliet’s balcony, and the pair of star-cross’d lovers disappear into the lady’s bedchamber.

Your work here is done and so you leave Verona under cover of darkness, though parting is such sweet sorrow, and make it to the river unseen. Several ships are moored at the docks there.

One of the ships – a large galleon of black oak – is preparing to cast off and, just before the sailors can pull up the gangplank you board the vessel.

Tick off the Stage Direction Star-Cross’d and turn to 121.

121

When the crew challenges your presence on board, you tell them you are a merchant of Syracuse: “The enmity and discord which of late sprung from the rancorous outrage of your duke to merchants, means I am done with Verona and would seek to take my trade elsewhere.”

But you are not the ship’s only passenger. Two noblemen of Danish descent are also on board, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and from them you learn that the Tiger is sailing to Denmark. Seeing your dishevelled state, they take pity on you and gift you a cloak and a pack (as well as a Sword if you do not have one, which will add 1 point to your Combat score whilst you are using it). Record these on your Adventure Sheet.

A􀀡er weeks at sea (restore your Agility, Combat and Endurance scores to their highest levels to date) and with the climate having become noticeably colder you sail into the port city of Elsinore. It would appear to be that time of the year when icicles hang by the wall, and Dick the shepherd blows his nail, and Tom bears logs into the hall, and milk comes frozen home in pail.

On the cliffs above the harbour are the forbidding walls of Elsinore Castle itself. Not far from the citadel you can see the silhouettes of gravestones protruding from the scrubby grass of a graveyard that lies atop the craggy bluffs.

You disembark from the Tiger along with your new friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and they invite you to go with them to Elsinore. If you want to take them up on their invitation and follow them along the road that leads directly to the castle, turn to 225. If you would prefer to take the clifftop path that leads towards the jumble of gravestones, turn to 189.

[Thaluikhain]

Oh, see we are trying to make sure things happen like in the plays, it seems. Which would be useful to know if I was more familiar with Shakespeare's plays.

Half vote to go to gravestones.

[Beroli]

Um hm. Accompanying them may get us executed. Take the clifftop path.

[deaddmwalking]

189

Heavy grey clouds crowd the sky above the cliffs so it as ’twere a shrouding sheet has been laid over the land, hiding the sun that even now hangs low in the sky.

“Come, thick night, and pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell,” you mutter to yourself, pulling your cloak tighter about you ’gainst the biting teeth of the wind.

As you approach the graveyard, you realise that its periphery reaches right to the cliff edge. Over the years the land has subsided and fallen into the sea, taking many of the older graves with it, exposing what lies interred beneath. The cliff edge is pock-marked with the open chambers of ancient graves.

It is then that you realise you are not alone. You can see humanoid figures skulking among the graves in the grey half-light. Humanoid but not human; there is something predatory and canine about them. You pick up the pace as you turn your steps towards the castle, thinking that you made a mistake by coming to this place. And then one of the creatures, bolder than the rest, creeps from behind a broken tomb and you see that its face is some amalgam of man and beast.

(Add 1 to your Madness score and tick off the Stage Direction Graves All Gaping Wide.)

What do you want to do?

Attempt to flee? Turn to 169.

Stand and prepare to sell your life dear? Turn to 149.

William Shakespeare
Agility: 10 [10]
Combat: 10 [11*] (includes +1 from sword)
Endurance: 15 [15]
Madness: 3
Meals: 0
Where There's a Will: 3 [4]
The Pen is Mightier: 3 [4]
Props: Doublet & Hose, Quill, Manuscript, Breastplate (50% chance to reduce damage by 1 point), Sword, Cloak, Pack
Stage Directions Obtained: An Evil Sign; Fortune's Fool; Graves All Gaping Wide; Guilty Mind; Star-Cross'd; Strange Fellow;
Stage Directions Possible to Acquire: A Flattering Tongue; A Most Exquisite Lady; An Armed Head; Book of Riddles; Cunning Man; Double, Double Toil and Trouble; Dreadful Minister; Exit, Pursued by a Bear; Fell and Wrath; Foul Fiend; Give No Words But Mum; Give't to thy Crone; Good Mother; His Commandment; Horned Man; Ignoble Traitor; Instinct is a Great Matter; Is This a Dagger Which I See Before Me?; King of Infinite Space; Knavish Sprite; Maiden Pilgrimage; Murder Most Foul; My Honour'd Lady; My Verse Astonished; Prince of Cats; Servant-Monster; Speak the Speech; The Charmed Pot; The Ides of March; The Spirit of Banquo; The Worst Rank of Manhood; Unspeakable Deserts; Yellow Gold; Yellow Hue; Yellow Melancholy; Yellow Sands

[Thaluikhain]

Hmmm...I don't like the "attempt" to flee. Half vote for fighting.