Votes tallied; using the The Pen is Mightier ability won over not using it by a 1.5-1 vote. As requested, Alice will also eat a portion of marmalade.
441
With a mighty roar, the Executioner raises the enormous axe above his head, ready to bring it down on Alice’s neck, but suddenly trips on an uneven flagstone at the top of the steps. Unbalancing, the brute tumbles forwards down the stairs, the axe tumbling after him.
By the time the Ace of Spades reaches the bottom of the steps, Executioner and axe have been reunited, although, admittedly, the axe is now buried in the Royal Executioner’s head.
Turn to
456.
456
Alice can take the Executioner’s Axe with her, to be her own weapon, if you like. Every time she delivers a successful strike with the weapon, it will cause 3
Endurance points of damage; however, because the axe is so heavy and hard to wield, Alice must also reduce her
Combat score by 1 point for as long as she is using the weapon.
With no other obstacles barring her way now, Alice pushes open the ornate double doors and enters the palatial room beyond.
The throne room is as splendid as one might expect of the Palace of the Queen of Hearts, with pillars running round the outside edge of the heart shaped chamber, a grand chandelier hanging from the high, vaulted ceiling bedecked with cut-crystal hearts and, at the centre of the room, where the curves of the heart join, is a magnificent royal seat that continues the heart theme in both form and decoration.
Seated upon the throne is a tall, thin woman, wearing an elegant crimson gown, its embroidered detailing making much use of a teardrop pattern, and with a delicate diadem upon her head set with a blood-red ruby. The woman’s skin is as pale as porcelain and her hair is as fine as spun silver. The irises of her eyes as are black as obsidian, and she is possessed of an unearthly beauty.
Lying beside her, on the heart-patterned rug at her feet, is the body of a much shorter woman, wearing a dress decorated with all manner of hearts and stained red with blood. Apart from the fact that she is lying spread-eagled on the floor, there is one obvious thing wrong with the woman’s body; it is quite clearly missing its head.
The mysterious beauty sitting on the throne is holding the missing head in one hand, smiling at the ugly woman’s rigor mortis-locked expression of horror and disbelief that have seized her sagging features. In the red-robed woman’s other gory hand is a still gently pulsating fist-sized lump of meat.
“Off with her head!” the woman says, a cruel smile curling her rosebud lips. “That was her favourite expression, wasn’t it? Well you know what they say, you should be careful what you wish for…”
Alice cannot move, she cannot even speak, so appalled is she by what has been revealed before her in the throne room. And it is then that she realises the woman’s dress isn’t decorated with teardrops but rather it is embroidered with droplets of blood.
“The Queen of Hearts,” the woman goes on, fixing Alice with a soul-penetrating stare. “Well not anymore.”
With that she takes the Queen’s still beating heart and opening her mouth wide, dislocating her jaw as if she were a snake, swallows it whole.
“And I suppose you were sent here to do away with the insane tyrant,” she adds, licking her fingertips clean with a long, snaking tongue.
The woman, smiles seductively at Alice. “Come here child,” she says, her unblinking gaze never once faltering, and beckons to Alice with a still bloody finger.
Take an Insanity test. If Alice passes the test, turn to
486. If she fails the test, turn to
476.
Rolling the dice yielded a 9, so Alice passed the Insanity test.
486
As the Red Queen’s stare bores into her soul, Alice finds herself pacing across the throne room as if sleep-walking, a part of her screaming at her to break eye-contact with the blood-sucking leech and save herself.
“Now then, my dear,” says the Red Queen, smiling languidly, “I know what you’d like.”
It is then that Alice hears a voice carried as if from far, far away on a zephyr from a land beyond the borders of Wonderland: “Wake up, Alice dear!”
And as the Red Queen opens her mouth wide, to sink snake-like fangs into the child’s neck, Alice succeeds at last in breaking free of the Red Queen’s spell, and readies herself to fight back against the murderous witch.
“Very well!” hisses the harridan. “After all, it is better to be feared than loved.”
If you think Alice should use
The Pen is Mightier ability now, turn to
506. If not, turn to
496.
Please make your votes on whether to use the The Pen is Mightier ability and whether to take the Executioner’s Axe before 9:00 AM PDT or a choice receives 2 votes to guarantee that they will be counted.
Alice’s Adventure Sheet
AGILITY: 10
LOGIC: 10
INSANITY: 2
COMBAT: 10
THE PEN IS MIGHTIER: 1 uses
CURIOUSER AND CURIOUSER: 2 uses
ENDURANCE: 13
EQUIPMENT:
Scissors (Deals 3 damage in combat)
Jar of Marmalade (1 portion, +4 Endurance per portion)
Golden Key
Shrinking Potion
Bread-Knife (Deals 3 damage in combat)
Mallet (Deals 3 damage in combat if 2-10 is rolled, knocks out opponent if 11-12 is rolled)
Spade (Deals 3 damage in combat)
Slug Pellets
Bloom’s Patent Plant Provender
Tin of Red Paint
Club (Deals 3 damage in combat if 2-10 is rolled, knocks out opponent if 11-12 is rolled)
Gryphon’s Golden Feather
RESURRECTIONS: 2
Say No To Fascism. The left is the one true way to go.
