You are a traveling tinker, leading your pack mule through the forest. Branches criss-cross the path so much that you walk continuously in shade. Ferns and moss carpet the forest floor. The day is peaceful.
You are half a day from Bobeck village. You've traveled this route many times, to Frankfurt and back to Dresden again.
2) Take the left path to a meadow.
3) Take the right path to a creek.
You enjoy your lunch by a babbling creek, watching little fish dart in a calm bit of water. You gradually notice the croaking of toads has joined the sound of running water. One, two, three, you count the toads as you locate them. Eight, nine, it's funny how many you can find once you look carefully.
When you reach twelve it is a king among toads, easily four times the size of the others. It hops forward as you watch until it is directly in front of you. It croaks and drops a golden ring from its mouth, not two inches from the toe of your boot.
6) Pick up the golden ring.
7) Leave the ring where it is.
You reach down and pick up the ring. It has the look and weight of real gold. As you examine it, the toad croaks again and drops a human finger onto the ground. Is the toad larger than it was? It is six times the size of its brethren. You feel frozen in place with your hand clenched around the ring. The toad, which is plainly larger now, croaks a third time and drops the rest of the hand at your feet.
12) Throw the ring as far away as you can.
13) Stomp on the toad.
You throw the ring as far into the forest as you can.
"You've already accepted payment; what you do with it is your affair." The voice emerges from the toad's gaping mouth. Its whole body continues to grow larger. You back up rapidly as a severed head rolls out onto the ground.
"Everything I had left in the world in exchange for vengeance," the head continues. It regards you intently.
The toad deflates and wanders back to the water. "You lay a geas upon me?" you ask incredulously.
"Whatever it takes. You must help me, for I surely cannot do it alone."
Your anger bubbles up but you take a deep breath and let the steam escape. It is your own foolishness that landed you here. "Very well," you respond, "What do you need?"
"First things first. Get me out of this mud."
24) You could carry it in a basket.
25) You could carry it in a lantern.
"My name is Emaurri du Juvelize and I bear a tale of deception and betrayal," the head explains as you wash it and tidy its hair.
"My own excellence was my downfall. When my great-aunt the Comtesse des Ponts announced her succession would be decided through trials and games, Jenette knew she could not best me honestly.
"During the first trial, I hunted foxes and she hunted me. It was an ax in the back. She chopped me to pieces and threw each piece in a different direction. Small mercy my head and hand came together at the bottom of an embankment."
"How did you survive at all?" you ask.
"Ha! By my godmother's blessing. On the day of my christening she foretold the way of my death, and it was not be decapitation."
"How will you die?"
Emaurri eyes you suspiciously. "Enough chit-chat. Am I presentable?"
"As fresh and rosy-cheeked as the day you were christened, I dare say," you assure. You nestle him into a basket, on a bed of cut ferns.
"This is comfortable enough, I suppose. Let us be off, to Lutin Manor!"
48) Stay on the road.
49) Take the river.
You meet many fellow travelers on the road to Lutin Manor. As you near your destination, you find yourself walking with a holy sister.
"Old Penley said he needed help with the manor's chapel, since Sister Saffron ran off with a stable boy," Sister Wenn chatters away cheerfully. "And my prioress said I was the most suitable. Ha ha! With two husbands behind me and six children grown, I'd like to see the stable boy who could turn my head!"
You can't help but grin along with her. "I thought you were all blushing virgins."
"Don't you be fooled," Sister Wenn wags a finger at you. "We're only chaste after our vows. We all come to the order by our own path, and I wouldn't change a single step of mine.
"And what leads you to the manor, Tinker?"
96) A lover.
97) Treasure hunting.