Pastimes: darts and the black cat

Not everything in the dungeon is work.

Darts

The dart board hangs on the great hall's south wall, at the west end. Aim at it and press E to take the three darts. Click or press F to throw one: a tap lobs it, holding throws harder. G puts the darts back on the ledge, and so does freeing the mouse with Esc.

Darts stick only in the board. A round is three darts, scored like the real game: doubles, trebles, 25 and the bull. The chalk tally beside the board keeps the best round. Press E on the board again to collect your darts. The coders are not targets.

The chest of spoils

Under the DungeonMaster's trophies in the great hall's north-east corner stands the chest of spoils. Press E on it: the lid lifts and a scroll lists the guild's latest merged pull requests, newest first, each one a link to GitHub. Close the scroll and the lid shuts. On the shelves above it a chalice stands for every pull request merged, up to eight.

Mind your fingers the first time you open it. And now and then something comes out of it that is not spoils.

The tavern

Coders and testers with nothing to do don't sit at their benches: they go to the great hall's bar and feasting tables, where Wystan the Tapster keeps the ale coming. They talk, drink and wait for work. When an issue or a pull request comes for them they're back at their bench at once; while they're away, their slate says where they went. The tables are laid with bread, cheese and fruit, and between pours Wystan wipes the bar down with his towel or talks with his hands.

Stand near the bar and you'll hear some of what they say, in speech bubbles, and some of it is about the guild's real work. Press E on any of them, or on Wystan, for a word of your own.

The wolf by the hearth

A wolf sleeps on a hide rug by the great hall's fire. He stirs now and then, lifts his head when you come close, and sometimes yawns or gets up to stretch before lying down again. He makes no sound but his breathing, and you can't walk through him.

The black cat

A black cat lives in the dungeon and thinks she runs it. She sleeps by the hearth, sits on the end of the bar, keeps working coders company and takes the DungeonMaster's table when he isn't looking.

Press C to call her. She will ignore you for a moment, then follow you about. She never blocks your way or a click, and a shut door doesn't stop her: she shoulders it open a crack and slips through.

Rats get in now and then, never more than three at a time. When she spots one she creeps up on it, pounces, and carries the kill to her pile beside the hearth. Twelve is all there are: once the pile is full, no more come until the dungeon is reloaded.

Spiders are another matter. A big black one with red eyes sometimes climbs out of the chest of spoils, never more than three about at once. They creep, freeze, and rear up at you if you get too close. The cat only bothers with one now and then, and when she catches it she eats it on the spot. An old spider slips away once you're well clear of it.

Something bigger lives at the far end of the gallery, past the last chamber, where old webs hang in the corners: a tarantula as big as a dog, with rust-red knees. Walk down into its end of the gallery and it runs at you, stops short, rears up and hisses, then backs off home still facing you. It never comes further up the gallery than its own stretch. The cat goes for it as often as not and can kill it. She leaves it where it fell, on its back, and the body shrivels away some minutes later. Within twenty minutes another lets itself down from the ceiling on a thread. There is only ever one alive.