366

Reaching the door isn’t exactly straightforward, as you have to climb over a pile of debris; pieces of carriage, tree branches, destroyed shrubs. A lot of it caves when you step on it, nearly losing you your balance. Still, you make it to the opening. You can’t really see anything from without, so you lean into the door-shaped hole. Soon your eyes adjust to the darkness, and you see the body slightly more clearly, lying face-down on the ceiling. The dead passenger seems to be the only object inside the box. Taking a deep breath of air from outside, and bracing yourself for an ugly sight, you reach in, grab hold of the corpse’s clothes, and heave.

You fall backwards into the debris, wood snapping and bending under you, the odd pointy cut-off pricking into your back. When you get up again, shocked, and bruised all over, you look around for the corpse. It lies completely out of the carriage on the very edge of the debris field, having shot past and over you like a rag-doll. As you move closer you discover why it was so much lighter than you expected: it is little more than a sack of bones. Only, it does look fresh. Kicking it to see it face up you look upon the emaciated, ashen grey features of an old man, bushy white beard still attached to his chin, balding mane still crowning his fleshless skull. His clothes look no more worn than yours. It’s as if everything of substance, every bit of throbbing, live tissue had been sucked out of him. He doesn’t even stink.

You search through the dead man’s pockets and find a small pouch. It feels full, and when you open it into your palm it spills gold. Add 10 gold pieces to your character sheet under ‘GOLD’.

Pleased, you straighten up and start looking for a way that might lead back to the path. In any case you need to travel downwards, so if you simply start moving further off the plateau the track is bound to zigzag back to you at some point. But you hesitate. The man, compared to you at least, was rich to carry gold on him like that. You wonder if there mightn’t be any other valuables lying around. But the longer you stay, the more likely someone else could find the carriage while you’re present. Anything could happen then, from having your newfound treasures taken to outright getting the blame for the old man’s ****.

To stay and search for more loot, turn to 53. To avoid potential trouble and leave to rejoin the path, turn to 156.