Baker's Boy [TEXT]

[Navigatorblack]

You were born in a violent era, where knights roamed the land and saved lovely dragons from ferocious maidens. Or something. You're not sure. Anyways, the point is, you were brought up in a castle kitchen to be a bakers apprentice, but you've never been happy with your life. You have decided to take this show on the road, take charge of your destiny, and have some adventures. And learn how to cook things apart from the stupid things the King wants to eat. Always the same. Roasts, bread, spuds, and mead, every day, every meal. King Osric is a nice enough king, but his tastes are killing you.

Welcome, Bakers Boy.

You are woken up by a kick to the head. Charlie, the head baker, wants you up to get the loaves in the oven. You are planning to leave this evening, but you have twelve hours before darkness. A number of things assault your mind. Firstly, you've misplaced your name. Secondly, you have no money. Thirdly, you have no weapons. Fourthly, same for armor. And lastly, you need an idea of where you're going. What do you do?

Maps so far

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Original Castle

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Village of Durbon

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Inventory

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Capacity: 1/20
Bag of Holding (lvl1) 1 weight (Capacity 6.1/20)
Coins: 0 Golds, 1 Silvers, 4 Bronze
-Flat Skillet 1 weight
-Wooden Spoon .5 weight
-Spoon and Fork (nondescript) .5 weight
-Normal Clothes (complete set) 1 weight
-Small handful of Wild Strawberries .5 weight
-A Stout Branch 2 weight
-Map (Purportedly of Rainstown) .5 weight
-A White Mushroom .1 weight

Equipped
-Leather Armor (complete set; leggings, chest armor, forearm armor) giving +5 Armor Bonus
-Silver Dueling Dagger giving +3 to Close Combat

Status

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Level Three Apprentice
Current Class: Baker/Ranger cross-class
Baker Level: Two
Ranger Level: One
Current Cook Skills: Making and Baking Bread, Basic Cooking Meat, Short Order Chef
Current Ranger Skills: Silent Walk (lvl 1)
Current Cross-Class Skills: Foraging (lvl 1)
Secret Ability: Pastry Roll Making +(lvl of character)
Attack: 2 (+3 in close combat)
Defence: 2
Speed/turn: 5
Acc: 5
Armor Bonus: 5 (Leather Armor)
Appeal Bonus: 0/+2 (Leather Armor giving +2 Appeal towards Rangers and Rogues ONLY, No Scent, No Jewellery, Normal Physique)

Descriptions of skills

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Silent Walk (lvl 1) - +5 to walk without making sound in known environs. (lvl of ability+lvl of character+lvl of Ranger class) in Forest environs.
Foraging (lvl 1) - (lvl of ability+lvl of cook class+lvl of ranger class) to find edible food and identify if a plant etc is poisonous.
Making and Baking Bread - Bread (and bread-based foodage) holds no mysteries for you. You can make bread easily.
Basic Cooking Meat - You know how to cook meat well, and flavor it with spices properly. People are happy with your meat cooking.
Short Order Chef - You can cook a lot of food in a hurry if need be, but this is tiring for you.
Pastry Roll Making +(lvl of character) - Pastry rolls are something you learned to make on your mothers knee. You get bonuses for impressing people with your cooking if you make these, but they have to suit the occasion. No spamming pastry rolls!
CURRENT KNOWN ENVIRONS: Rainstown if the map is accurate.
CURRENT RANGER HELD AREAS: None known.

[Whimbrel]

Benjamin Baker the pastry roll maker.

You are going to go get those loaves, while keeping an eye out for anything you can swipe (Knives are good)

[Navigatorblack]

Benjamin Baker the pastry roll maker.

You are going to go get those loaves, while keeping an eye out for anything you can swipe (Knives are good)

You get up, grumbling. Benjamin Baker seems a reasonable name, but you see no need to confine yourself to pastry roll making. You walk towards the kitchen, where the loaves have been rising overnight, and start loading them into the great oven (by the great grate), so that they are baked by the time the castle rises. You look around the kitchen. To the north is the stairs into the kitchen from the above floor, and the small corner where you sleep on your pallet. To the east is the stable yard.

There is no one else in the kitchen at this moment, but you know that charlie moves light on his feet for a big man. There are a number of knives and such in here; carving knives, steak knives, etcetera, but Charlie keeps a close eye on where the sharp knives are. Charlie dotes on his knives like they were his children, which is strange, as it was an incident with a knife that kept him childless. He has a silver butchers knife that he always keeps by his side, which would be your best bet. It would be hard getting it away from him though.

The kitchen is a large, open area. There is a lot of other tools around here as well. If you're considering nicking off with a knife, may as well steal some other cookware too, so cooking is easier later on. But what to steal? You don't want to be carrying anything too heavy or obvious.

[Whimbrel]

Hmm, do you have some sort of bag or somewhere you can hide things until you are ready to go? It would make things so much easier.

If not, see if you can't hide a ladle and a flat skillet about your person.

[Navigatorblack]

Flat skillet goes down your pants. +1 armor against dirty fighting.

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You know what I mean.

You attempt to hook the ladle over your shoulder under your shirt. It'll stay there for now, but if you get frisked it will be found. If you run somewhere, it's likely to fall off as well.
You'd hide things in your bed, but that's likely to be the first place they'll check if they notice anythings gone missing.

[Whimbrel]

Hm, put the ladle back, see if you can't stow a spatula or a wooden spoon more easily.

[Copygoo]

>Hide a spoon and a fork up each sleeve, then tend to your chores before heading out and leaving forever. Sell the spoon and fork.

[Navigatorblack]

You take a spoon and a fork. You take the non-descript type, as they won't be missed as easily. You roll up your sleeves, with the spoon hidden in one and the fork in the other. Sneaky.
Removing the ladle, you put it back, and take a wooden spoon. You put it in the back of your pants behind your shirt, so that it is held in place by your belt and hidden by your shirt. Much better.
You take the bread out of the oven and put another tray in, before starting to cut up the bread.

Charlie comes into the room.
"Boy! I'm going into town to buy some vegetables. If Simoni comes by, tell her to leave the key in the usual place."
Charlie leaves the room.

Simoni is one of the chamber maids. You wonder what key she has.

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But not too much, as you're pretty sure they're having an affair.

[Whimbrel]

Do your duties as quickly as possible so that you can look for things to take with you from other rooms.

[Navigatorblack]

Baking bread takes time. If you let any burn, they'll whip you. And then they'll find all the things you've hidden in your clothing, and whip you some more. One more turn in the kitchen left before the bread is ready though. You take out a tray of bread and put the last tray in. You cut up the loaves and put them into piles to be taken to different areas of the castle, and decant a large mug of mead for the King. You organise cold meats and potatoes on a plate with a large quantity of bread, and put it on a plate to be taken to him by his servants.

Simoni enters the room.
"Boy, where is your master?"
Though technically you rank higher than her (as lots of people are able to clean but not many can cook well), she acts like she's better than you.

[Whimbrel]

He went to buy some vegetables. He said to leave the key with me.

[Navigatorblack]

"He went to buy some vegetables. He said to leave the key with me"
She looks at you doubtfully, but you haven't done anything (that they've found out about) that'd show you to be anything but trustworthy, so she hands you the key. You put it in your pocket, then go on with taking the last tray of bread out of the oven and putting it on the table, then slicing the loaves.

Simony watches you for a while. She seems to be about to say something, but then shakes her head and goes North and up the stairs.

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[Whimbrel]

Do you know what the key is to? I'm guessing his room. Go invade his room and look for monies.

[Navigatorblack]

You go North and up the stairs.
You are in a north/west corridor. Steps here lead Down. Charlies room is to the south, above the kitchen.
Simoni is here.
Simoni goes West and out of view.

You unlock Charlie's door.
You go inside.

You are in Charlie's room. The room is relatively clean. His beloved knife is sitting on a polishing cloth, a-glinting at you. He has taken his money with him, as he was heading down to town anyway and wanted to get some wine for a later tryst with Simoni. The bed is covered by a thick duvet. There is a bedside cabinet. Its drawers are closed. On top of it is a small sack of unknown type.

[Whimbrel]

Open sack, investigate drawers. Leave the knife, he's sure to notice it missing.

[Navigatorblack]

The inside of the sack is frighteningly large. Small sack, big interior. Level one Bag of Holding you'd say if you had to guess. Currently empty. What is a chef doing with a bag of holding? Hmm...

You open the drawers. Not much to see, but you do find a large, thick book; Charlie's book of recipe's. He knows it off by heart; he'll miss it for sentimental reasons if you take it, but you will have immediate access to a large collection of knowledge you never had before. Charlie guarded his recipe's jealously; the king only let him cook anything different on special occasions, and he didn't want anyone taking that from him.

[Whimbrel]

New plan: Instead of waiting for the evening, put the knife and the recipe book in the bag and get out of there as stealthily as you can (Hint: stealth is not always skulking in the shadows. Sometimes it is confidently walking in the light) Seriously, this is a treasure trove right here.

[Not Important]

Read one recipe you don't know and try to keep it in mind. No need to deprive Charlie or the king, or attract suspicion. Try to figure out where the usual place is.

[Navigatorblack]

You stick all of the things you have gotten in the bag of holding (-1 defence against dirty fighting) and put it in your pocket. Even though the voices fight in your head, you take the book, mostly to get back at Charlie for kicking you in the head to wake you up every day.
You go North
You lock the door.
You assume they meant under the pot plant? That would make sense, you suppose. You put the key there.
Knowing that a man with his sleeves rolled up holding a piece of paper is seldom stopped, you find a piece of paper and ready yourself to head for the entrance. If you can find the entrance.
What do you do now?

[Navigatorblack]

Lacking input, you wander Down and then East. You are now in the Stables. To the North is the Courtyard, and beyond there, the Castle Gate, which is currently open. A set of leather armor, nearly your size, is drying here, draped over the side of an empty pen. It looks well cared for, and so is in good order.

[Copygoo]

>Put the armor in the Bag of Holding for now. No need to look suspicious. Try to make your way to the Castle Gate. Say Charlie went by here and he forgot his bag, and you need to deliver it to him if anyone asks.

[Navigatorblack]

You do that. No one asks; you get some strange looks from the guards, but no one is going to bother you. You don't rank highly enough in their eyes yet.

You are now outside of the castle. There are two guards here, looking at you and wondering why you're just standing here. The castle walls continue to the East and West. To the North is the path leading down to the village, and to the South is the castle. North-East is the forest, but to get there you need to go to the village first, and North-West is farmland. There is a style you can jump over even, talk about style.

[Whimbrel]

North!

[Navigatorblack]

You head North. Leaving the immediate vicinity of the Castle, you move on to a second Map. You enter the Village from the South. To the North is the Village Square and then the Grasslands. To the East is the Residential Sector and then the Forests. To the West is the Business Center and Farmland. Charlie will most likely be in the Business Center buying the things, but there is a likelihood that he might have gone to the Village Square to meet someone.

Hint:

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Before leaving this village, it is a good idea to choose a second class. This is done at the Village Square/Town Square/City Center of any city. The earlier you choose a secondary class, the faster you can level it up. Also, make use of your map, status, and inventory listings; they are being put in the first post at the moment.

[Whimbrel]

See if you can spot Charlie in the Square from a distance. If you don't see him, make your way carefully to the Square. If you do see him, go East and hide for a bit.