alices_nightmare Read online

  Blinking, Alice finds herself in a room, not unlike the Hall of Doors she found at the bottom of the rabbit-hole. In fact, looking around her, she is quite sure that it is the same hall.

  Before her are three doors. Carved into the wood of the first door is an image of a labyrinth. The second door bears the image of a palace, while the third door has nothing carved into it at all. Alice is quite sure that she needs to open one of these doors, but which one?

  The labyrinth door?Turn to 40.

  The palace door?Turn to 61.

  The unmarked door? Turn to 389.

  22

  Alice follows the path as it becomes steeper and steeper, climbing higher and higher into the range of crags that rise above the tulgey wood, eventually passing the limit of the treeline.

  Soon Alice is high enough to look down upon the forest. On the other side of the crags she can see the crumbling ruins of a white stone keep, while beyond the limits of the forest she can see the sea. She is on an island!

  Continuing on her way through these uplands, Alice catches sight of an untidy nest higher up the side of a particularly precipitous crag, that is little more than a ramshackle collection of branches, and her curiosity is piqued at once. What could have made a nest so large and so high up on the island?

  If you want Alice to climb up to the nest to investigate further, turn to 32. If you think she should leave well enough alone and make for the castle beyond the crags, turn to 17.

  23

  Alice soon starts to tire as she battles the waves to reach the shore. Hoping that if she stops to rest for a minute she might recover enough energy to see her safely to the beach, she stops swimming and starts treading water again.

  She suddenly becomes aware of movement beneath her, and fearing that it may be the Crocodile returning from the briny depths, she takes a deep breath and ducks her head under the water. But it isn’t the Crocodile.

  Rising from the seemingly bottomless ocean, with powerful strokes of its paddle-like flippers, is a hideous creature. Its body is that of a huge sea turtle, but its head is that of a calf. Alice can even see the stitches where the head has been attached to the body.

  The calf’s head is screaming with insane fury, bubbles streaming from its mouth, while Alice’s heart is racing in fear. (Add 1 to Alice’s Insanity score.) Despite being terrified, Alice realises that she must either fight the creature or flee from it, but does she have the strength to do either?

  If you think Alice should attempt to escape from the monster, turn to 45. If you think she should prepare to fight the horror, turn to 59. If you would rather she use The Pen is Mightier ability, turn to 89.

  24

  Alice finds herself back at the entrance to the maze with its distinctive compass rose marked out in coloured gravel on the ground.

  “After all my efforts I’m still just as far from the palace as when I first entered this interminable labyrinth!” cries Alice. “Why it’s enough to send one mad!”

  Add 1 to Alice’s Insanity score.

  There’s no point exiting the maze at the entrance, so which way should she go now?

  To go north, turn to 38, and to go south, turn to 90.

  25

  Her plan works. The Tick-Tock Men reach for where they think she is going to be, only to grab hold of thin air with their metal claws when she slides past the other way.

  The Tick-Tock Men immediately turn around and start to come after her again. Alice has to find a way out of the hall and fast!

  Running to one of the doors she tries it, only to find that it is locked. So is the next. And the next. If you think Alice should keep trying the doors, turn to 296. If you think she should turn and prepare to face the sinister guardians of this place, turn to 169.

  26

  Ducking and diving between the rose-bushes, Alice is able to ensure that she only has to fight the gardeners two at a time.

  Fight the first two on the list first, and as soon as one of them is dead the third joins the fray. As soon as Alice has defeated a second opponent, the third gardener turns tails and runs away in fear of her. (Alice has the initiative.)

  COMBAT ENDURANCE

  TWO OF SPADES 77

  FIVE OF SPADES 76

  SEVEN OF SPADES 66

  Once the gardeners have been dealt with, turn to 36.

  27

  As the Grandfather Clock bears down on her, Alice readies herself for battle once again. (Alice has the initiative.)

  GRANDFATHER CLOCKCOMBAT 8 ENDURANCE 9

  If the Grandfather Clock makes a successful hit against Alice roll one die (or pick a playing card). If the number rolled is odd (or the card picked is red) the elder Tick-Tock Man cuts her with its scissor-like clock-hand fingers, causing Alice 2 Endurance points of damage. However, if the number rolled is even (or the card picked is black) then the mechanical horror hits her with its swinging pendulum, causing her 3 Endurance points of damage.

  If Alice survives her epic battle with the Grandfather Clock, turn to 16.

  28

  The Spinebacks are driven by an insane, animalistic bloodlust – a bloodlust that can only be sated by the taste of raw flesh.

  If you want Alice to use the Curiouser and Curiouser ability to change the story at this awkward time, turn to 18. If you want her to use The Pen is Mightier ability instead, turn to 87. If you want Alice to prepare to fight the mutated humanoid hedgehogs, turn to 78.

  29

  Hearing a great beating of wings, Alice looks up to see the Gryphon swooping down towards the monster. The Alice-Jabberwock gives a roar of defiance, and tries to knock Alice’s saviour from the air with one huge claw. But the eagle-lion is too fast. It banks and soars over the monster’s back, raking one wing with its outstretched claws.

  Make a note of the fact that the Alice-Jabberwock has suffered one attack already and turn to 79.

  30

  “Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee, I think you’re afraid of me,” laughs the Ogre’s right-hand head.

  “Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum, I’ll chew your bones, one by one,” snarls the left-hand head.

  What can Alice do to defend herself against the hungry Ogre now?

  If you want Alice to put The Pen is Mightier ability to good use (if she can), turn to 176. If not, turn to 192.

  31

  Passing a bed of buttercups and a crumbling brick wall drenched in honeysuckle – real butter and honey dripping from their flowers – Alice reaches a crossroads where four gravel paths meet.

  To her left is an ornate wrought-iron gate, which stands ajar, beyond which lies a very grand house indeed. To her right, beyond carefully trimmed box hedges she can see the fountain. Ahead of her she can see a tree growing at the north-east corner of the garden.

  To go through the gate to the left, turn to 319. To head for the tree to the east, turn to 80. To approach the fountain, turn to 51.

  32

  Taking her courage in both hands, putting her trust in her ability to negotiate the near-sheer cliff safely, Alice commences her climb.

  Take an Agility test. If Alice passes it, turn to 422. If she fails the test, turn to 52.

  33

  Reaching out with both hands, Alice plucks the nearest picture from the wall.

  Roll one die (or pick a card). If the number rolled is odd (or the card is red), turn to 53. If the number rolled is even (or the card is black), turn to 7.

  34

  Alice encounters scuttling centipedes and plump, white squirming grubs as she crawls along the tunnel through the earth. Just as her eyes are becoming accustomed to the gloom she sees an exit from the rabbit-hole up ahead.

  Pulling herself out of the hole in the ground Alice discovers that she is at another dead-end in the maze, the only way onwards a hedge-lined path heading east. As Alice picks the soil from her hair, she co
nsiders which way to go.

  If you want Alice to follow the hedge-lined path east, turn to 180. If you want her to head back down the rabbit-hole, turn to 14.

  35

  As the insects move towards her on their humming holly-leaves, Alice ponders what it must be like to be effectively festive fare on wings.

  Take a Logic test. If Alice passes, turn to 8, but if she fails, turn to 19.

  36

  The only thing left behind by the gardeners that might be of interest to Alice is the red paint they were using to re-colour the white roses. If you want her to take the Tin of Red Paint with her, add it to Alice’s Adventure Sheet.

  Leaving the rose garden, which way should Alice go? East (turn to 490) or west (turn to 272)?

  37

  As the Grandfather Clock bears down on her its steps become slow and lumbering, and its unnatural body stiffens, until finally it comes to a complete halt.

  “Must have forgotten to wind the clock this morning,” the White Rabbit’s head says from where it landed on the writing desk, its eyelids shuttering open and closed independently of one another.

  Turn to 16.

  38

  Alice follows the gravel path, hemmed in by the clipped yew hedge walls, until she comes upon the lichen-covered statue of a flamingo that has been placed at a turn in the trail. Which way should Alice go now?

  East?Turn to 58.

  South?Turn to 24.

  39

  “Talking rabbits,” Alice says to herself. “Whatever next – frog footmen?”

  She turns and starts to walk away from the riverbank towards the path that she decides she must have followed to get here in the first place, even though she doesn’t remember doing so. But the rising wind has now become a gale, tugging at Alice’s hair and clothes, whipping her hair about her face, and the child fancies she can hear the rumble of thunder far off beyond the horizon.

  If you think Alice should chase after the rabbit after all, turn to 20. If not, turn to 64.

  40

  The handle turns and Alice steps through the door to find herself in a maze formed of high yew hedges. Running along the gravel path before her she turns a corner and finds herself at the heart of the labyrinth.

  Sitting at the edge of a heart-shaped pool is a girl of about her age, with tangled blonde hair and wearing a blue pinafore dress.

  “Why, it is me!” Alice exclaims.

  The other Alice doesn’t react but continues to gaze into the limpid waters of the pool.

  Unsettled by this curious state of affairs, Alice runs on through the maze, turning this way and that, until she finds herself standing before an ornate gate, decorated with wrought iron flowers and ivy leaves. The gate is locked, by not one but six separate locks.

  But now her other self is here too and Alice watches as she turns the locks, each one in turn, until the hands of each at are right angles, creating a rectangular shape around the gate.

  As the other Alice sets the final lock to the right position, there is a rattling of cogs and gears and the gate swings open. Beyond it is a tunnel that passes through the thick yew hedges. Her other self darts along the tunnel and the gate closes again behind her.

  “Alice, you must come back now,” comes the voice of the Caterpillar from somewhere beyond the towering hedges. “Come back…”

  Turn to 108.

  41

  Screeching like a banshee, the glamour that hid her true face the first time Alice and the Red Queen met dispelled, the vampire throws herself as the child, determined to rip her still beating heart from her chest.

  If you want Alice to use the Curiouser and Curiouser ability in the hope of helping herself now, turn to 500. If you want her to use The Pen is Mightier ability to resolve her struggle against the Red Queen, turn to 60. If you would rather Alice trust her fate to the keen edge of the Vorpal Sword, turn to 72.

  42

  Alice is fast, but the clockwork-driven Tick-Tock Men are faster. As Alice ducks left, one of them strikes her with the metal claws of an outstretched hand, sending her tumbling to the ground and opening three long scratches across her right arm.

  Lose 2 Endurance points and turn to 209.

  43

  “I know what you’re thinking about,” says the head on the left; “but it isn’t so, nohow.”

  “Contrariwise,” continues the head on the right, “if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn’t, it ain’t. That’s logic.”

  “I was thinking,” Alice said politely, “which is the best way out of this wood: it’s getting so dark. Would you tell me, please?”

  “But you ‘aven’t won your challenge yet,” returns the left-hand head.

  “Haven’t I?” says Alice, all innocence, sweetness and light.

  “No!” replies the right-hand head. “So go on then.”

  “Let’s see how clever you think you really are,” says the head on the left.

  “Very well,” says Alice, drawing herself up to her full height. “I once dreamt that in a forest there lay a castle, and in that castle a king lay sleeping, dreaming of a child, dreaming of a forest. So let us consider who it was that dreamed it all. It must have been either me or the king. He was part of my dream, of course – but then I was part of his dream, too! Was it the king, or was it me?”

  “Well it was you,” says the left-hand head, “’cos you was dreaming of the king.”

  “Contrariwise, he was dreaming of you, so it was the king who dreamed it,” counters the right-hand head.

  “Don’t be stupid!” his brother retaliates. “How could he be dreaming her when she was dreaming him?”

  “But contrariwise he was dreaming her so it couldn’t’ve been her what was dreaming it all, nohow!” persists the other.

  With the two heads fully embroiled in their argument now, Alice tiptoes away from the entrance to the cave and, when she is sure she is out of sight of the Ogre, as soon as she reaches the safety of the treeline again, she sets off again at a run.

  As she hears the sounds of blows being exchanged, as the battle of words becomes a battle of pugiling fists, Alice sees the battlements of a ruined fortress appear over the tops of the twisted trees away ahead of her.

  Turn to 512.

  44

  Alice soon comes to a dead-end. She is about to turn back, and retrace her steps to the last junction, when she spies the entrance to another rabbit-hole under a hedge. Where could this one lead?

  If you think Alice should enter the rabbit-hole, turn to 34. If not, she will have to go east, back the way she has just come – turn to 360.

  45

  Drawing on reserves of energy she did not even know she had, Alice swims away from the monster as quickly as she can. But the creature, with its sea turtle body, is designed for swimming through the ocean and quickly catches up with her, catching her leg in its mouth. (Lose 2 Endurance points.)

  Letting go of Alice’s leg again, the creature circles the child once before moving in for the kill. Turn to 59.

  46

  Alice turns tail and runs for it, heading west as the gardeners give pursuit. Pelting down the paths of the maze she turns a corner and abruptly comes to a set of tall gates. Beyond the gates and a drawbridge over a wide moat, lies the barbican gatehouse of a vast palace.

  However, standing in front of the gates are two burly brutes wearing ill-fitting tabards that make them look like playing cards – the Six and Seven of Clubs in this instance.

  “Halt! Who goes there?” demands one of the guards.

  It is then that the gardeners round the corner, still hot on Alice’s heels, and the guards assume an aggressive stance.

  “You’re coming with us!” the guard declares gruffly.

  With two burly guards in front of her and three angry gardeners behind her, Alice realises that to
resist arrest would be to invite certain death. And so she allows the playing card guards to grab hold of her, one on either side, and march her through the gates, over the drawbridge, and into the palace beyond.

  Turn to 386.

  47

  The Grandfather Clock lands between Alice and the door, blocking her escape route from the study. It begins to dawn on her that this could all have been a trap, set by the Queen of Hearts to eliminate her enemy, before she even knew she was her enemy. But Alice might escape the mad Queen’s trap yet.

  If you want Alice to use The Pen is Mightier ability to save herself, turn to 37. If not, she will have to prepare for battle (turn to 27).

  48

  As Alice sets the last clock-lock to the right position, there is a rattling of cogs and gears and the gate swings open at last. Beyond is revealed a tunnel through the yew hedge. Alice makes her way through the twilight-emerald darkness to where it ends before a wall of greenery.

  Hearing a clanking of gears a second time, Alice turns in startled surprise as the gate begins to swing shut behind her. But her fears are soon allayed; as the gate closes, the hedge before her parts, letting her through into a different part of the maze.