In due time, I\'m going to write a series of these little \"challenges\" - I post a situation, and you have to put your character\'s reaction into a reply. Sounds easy? Try it, then...
I) On your way out of the market, with a full purse and empty hands, you find a little shop buried between two old buildings. It has no flag or other marking that would indicate its purpose, but through its open door, a counter and a full rack of odd objects behind it can be seen. Whatever you\'ve been looking for, it seems the marketplace had not been a good place to search... This shop, however, might prove more adequately stocked. Inside, after you inform the merchant of your needs, he simply nods, turns to the rack and fetches a large wooden box. In a bizzarre cage stashed in a dark corner of the shop, you notice the very object you were looking for, but rather than pick it up, the merchant simply brings the box on the counter and hands it to you. After taking a few trias - fewer than you\'d have expected, given how valuable the item was - he asks that you don\'t open the box until you truly need the item inside it, and that you return the box once you\'re done with it. He stresses the second part, insisting that he won\'t do any more business with you unless you return it intact, and carves out your name on its lid. Beside this marking, the box itself appears distinctly plain. Would you agree with the merchant\'s proposal? Would you defy it, or do something completely different?
II) Halfway done with your trek through the woods, you settle into a less thickly wooded area, hoping for a moment of rest. It seems someone else had done the same, as you find a campsite nestled in the side of a small clearing. Whoever was there had certainly left, perhaps for a short while, perhaps forever... There are no signs of life, human or otherwise, nearby.. Still, nothing has been tampered with - not even the campfire, which still roars in its round cradle - and of the two tents propped beside you, one holds a stash of unremarkable supplies. The forest itself seems inviting in these parts, given the width between the trees and the soft undergrowth. There is silence around you, except perhaps for the fire\'s frequent and mischevous whispers... Given that no one seems to be nearby, what do you do?
III) Cholera has come against the city, rending the bodies of its men and harvesting tears from their families. Few do more than count their living relatives and pray to their gods for a remedy, before falling themselves to the disease\'s vicious touch. None may leave, so that the sickness might not sneak out with them, and none dare step into the doomed city. The walls are guarded, and the gates tended from above, by guards too wary of the illness to let anyone pass. As a long-time inhabitant or an unlucky guest, how do you deal with this?
