The Gaming Den

Quick look around.

Look around.

Glancing around shows you nothing new. If you search the room, you will inevitably rattle some of the chains, and will need to Test your Luck to avoid the Chainmaker, or whoever else might be in the shop, realizing what you are doing.

Conduct a search of the room (Test your Luck accordingly)?
Call out to the Chainmaker?
Leave?

Name: Jason Beckett Mordred
Sex: Male
Skill: 11/11
Stamina: 17/19
Luck: 10/11
Weapon: Sword
Inventory: Blimberry Juice (+3 Stamina), beeswax, silver key, Borrinskin boots, Ragnar's Armband of Swordmastery (+2 Attack Strength when using a sword), 2 backup swords, torch, tinderbox
Gold Pieces: 14
Libra's Favor: Not yet used in this adventure
Notes: You can call on Vik for help in Kharé; Flanker will be your friend in Kharé

I vote to just call out to the Chainmaker, as I am not willing to spend a Luck point to continue the search.

Search the room, we might find something good.

Half vote for calling out.

Calling out to the Chainmaker wins 1.5 to 1.

As you wait you can hear shuffling beyond the far door. Eventually a figure appears and you recognize the Chainmaker as a SVINN-–one of the man-orcs from the village of Torrepani. He addresses you gruffly and asks whether you are interested in buying his chains.

Select an interesting-looking chain and ask him how much he wants for it?
Ask him if he can help you find the spell to open the North Gate?

Name: Jason Beckett Mordred
Sex: Male
Skill: 11/11
Stamina: 17/19
Luck: 10/11
Weapon: Sword
Inventory: Blimberry Juice (+3 Stamina), beeswax, silver key, Borrinskin boots, Ragnar's Armband of Swordmastery (+2 Attack Strength when using a sword), 2 backup swords, torch, tinderbox
Gold Pieces: 14
Libra's Favor: Not yet used in this adventure
Notes: You can call on Vik for help in Kharé; Flanker will be your friend in Kharé

I vote to ask for help to find the spell. Maybe honesty will work here.

Ask about the spell.

He knows nothing of the North Gate spell and is angry with you for disturbing his work.

Leave?
Attack and rob him?

Name: Jason Beckett Mordred
Sex: Male
Skill: 11/11
Stamina: 17/19
Luck: 10/11
Weapon: Sword
Inventory: Blimberry Juice (+3 Stamina), beeswax, silver key, Borrinskin boots, Ragnar's Armband of Swordmastery (+2 Attack Strength when using a sword), 2 backup swords, torch, tinderbox
Gold Pieces: 14
Libra's Favor: Not yet used in this adventure
Notes: You can call on Vik for help in Kharé; Flanker will be your friend in Kharé

I vote to leave. I don’t think robbery is the way to go here.

Leave, we've no reason to fight.

Opposite the Chainmaker's hut is another, from which a pleasant smell is wafting.

Go over and investigate that hut?
Continue down the road?

Name: Jason Beckett Mordred
Sex: Male
Skill: 11/11
Stamina: 17/19
Luck: 10/11
Weapon: Sword
Inventory: Blimberry Juice (+3 Stamina), beeswax, silver key, Borrinskin boots, Ragnar's Armband of Swordmastery (+2 Attack Strength when using a sword), 2 backup swords, torch, tinderbox
Gold Pieces: 14
Libra's Favor: Not yet used in this adventure
Notes: You can call on Vik for help in Kharé; Flanker will be your friend in Kharé

Investigate all the things

Sure, I also vote to check out the hut.

Investigate pleasant-smelling hut.

You try the door. It is open, but you may wish to announce your entry.

Ask for permission to enter?
Shove the door open quickly to surprise anyone who might be inside?

Name: Jason Beckett Mordred
Sex: Male
Skill: 11/11
Stamina: 17/19
Luck: 10/11
Weapon: Sword
Inventory: Blimberry Juice (+3 Stamina), beeswax, silver key, Borrinskin boots, Ragnar's Armband of Swordmastery (+2 Attack Strength when using a sword), 2 backup swords, torch, tinderbox
Gold Pieces: 14
Libra's Favor: Not yet used in this adventure
Notes: You can call on Vik for help in Kharé; Flanker will be your friend in Kharé

Be polite.

Ask permission.

I vote to ask permission to enter as well.

You call out to anyone who may be inside. A voice replies: 'Enter, my friend, but take care as you open the door!' You give the door a shove and step back quickly as a vial of liquid falls on to the floor from the top of the door. You walk forward into the hut.

You look around the room. Herbs, vegetables and meats are lying on tables around the centre of the room and hanging from the walls. Evidently you are in a kitchen of some kind. At the far end of the room is a fire in a chimney and suspended over the fire is a pot containing a bubbling broth, the source of the smell which you picked up out in the road. Standing by the fire is an odd-looking creature. It has a humanoid torso and legs but its head is a solid blob of jelly and its eyes float loosely about in the 'front' of its face. Hanging down from its head on all sides are numerous long tentacles. These appear to be its hands (as it has no others) and it grips a ladle and stirring spoon. This strange creature holds your attention, but under one of the tables you have noticed a box, from which a scroll and shiny mirror protrude. Your host is waiting for your reaction.

Talk to it as part of a scheme to steal the box?
Attack and rob it?
Leave?

(No, you don't have any option to be genuinely friendly.)

Name: Jason Beckett Mordred
Sex: Male
Skill: 11/11
Stamina: 17/19
Luck: 10/11
Weapon: Sword
Inventory: Blimberry Juice (+3 Stamina), beeswax, silver key, Borrinskin boots, Ragnar's Armband of Swordmastery (+2 Attack Strength when using a sword), 2 backup swords, torch, tinderbox
Gold Pieces: 14
Libra's Favor: Not yet used in this adventure
Notes: You can call on Vik for help in Kharé; Flanker will be your friend in Kharé

If we don't have the option to be genuinely friendly, I vote to leave. Committing robbery against a creature who knows how to protect itself with that makeshift alarm is just asking for trouble.

We don't need the mirror, so let's leave. Too bad we can't eat some of the creature's cooking.

Jeeze, the book wants us to be a terrible person. Leave.

Along the road ahead of you, you can hear the mixed sounds of a large crowd. Perhaps you are heading towards a market or fair of some kind. You arrive at a junction.

Continue?
Turn left?

Name: Jason Beckett Mordred
Sex: Male
Skill: 11/11
Stamina: 17/19
Luck: 10/11
Weapon: Sword
Inventory: Blimberry Juice (+3 Stamina), beeswax, silver key, Borrinskin boots, Ragnar's Armband of Swordmastery (+2 Attack Strength when using a sword), 2 backup swords, torch, tinderbox
Gold Pieces: 14
Libra's Favor: Not yet used in this adventure
Notes: You can call on Vik for help in Kharé; Flanker will be your friend in Kharé