The Shop

Note to the GM right up front: Even though Quinn told the PCs up front that he didn't want them snooping around, this whole shop is designed to pique their interest and get them poking about the rooms, and subsequently, into trouble. Use the following methods to get them exploring:

Another thing: It is officially OK if the party gets split up into two or more parties. In fact, the adventure was designed to accomodate (and even encourage) such a split up. Try to reunite them fairly quickly though, as being split up for long periods of time can get a little dull for some of the players.

The Layout

Here is a listing of the rooms in the shop and how they are laid out:

Vestibule - Hall-like entryway that goes from the front door to to the main showfloor; place to hang your hat & coat. Due South of the showfloor in the middle.

Main Showfloor - This is the room in the shop with all of the books, games, displays, and odities.

Conservatory/Study - Has a harpsicord, a big fireplace, a free-standing harp and lots of bookcases.

Billiard Room - Room with a big billiard table. East side of the showfloor, but Southward nearer the Conservatory.

Cellar - Staircase leading down to the cellar. East side of the showfloor, but Northward nearer Quinn's Room.

Quinns' Personal Quarters - Rather large and full of his favorite of the curiosities. North-East of the showfloor.

Bathroom - Contains a lavy and a very large bath, seperated by a door. Due North of the showfloor.

Kitchen - North-West of the showfloor.

Art Gallery - West of the showfloor. Features a large painting.

Taxedermy - Kind of a "trophy room" with lots of animal skins that have been stuffed. South-West of the showfloor.

The Vestibule

The vestibule is the little walkway from the outside door to the inner door. It is in the middle-south of the lot (between the taxedermy and conservatory/study). There is a large tapestry on the floor, some coatracks, benches, and a wardrobe here. The characters will notice strange Sumerian/Egyptian heiroglyphs and images along the walls or ceiling.

This room is relatively harmless, but if the PCs get spooked with the shop and try to get out, they could fall into the tapestry (rug-trap) or if they leave the front door, they could find themselves running through the twisty alleyways they walked down to get here, run into a wall/fence, and on climbing over see that they are now in fantasy-land.

The Main Showfloor

Some obvious, notable items here: There is a big rock display in the middle of the room with some plants, taxedermied animals, and possibly a little trickle of water on it. The left half of the room has many more plants and has a notable little doll-house that is mushroom shaped. The right half of the room is much darker, filled with models of buildings and has what looks like a re-creation of the Greek parthenon (columned edifice).

Quinn's shop is truly decked out with some strange stuff besides. As mentioned earlier, use the character's fetishes to come up with some stuff. Roll on the oddities table, and feel free to add your own stuff. I was able to get a hold of some "Ripley's Believe It Or Not" brochures that were just filled with odd stuff.

The Kitchen

Plain old kitchen. The refrigerator has some interesting foodstuffs, reflecting on Quinn's eclectic tastes. There might be a trap here in the form of a trick chair or closet, just play it by ear.

The Billiard Room

This room is actually rather small compared to many others in the shop. It has little more than a billiard table in the center of the room. There's just one thing about this room that makes it seem a little odd: all of the walls are decoraged with pictures of enormous oyster and clam shells, the kind that live deep under the sea. There is a fairly predominant undersea theme here on all the walls.

There is one other thing about this room that is a little strange, but the characters will not notice it without an IQ roll (possibly at -2): the eight ball does not have a number inside a white circle like the other balls do; it's perfectly round and smooth and does not appear to be painted.

Hint to the GM: The eight ball is a big clue / component of this adventure. It contains a ring or a jewel (not sure which one yet). Alternatively, it could be that the perl itself is the component. Yeah, I think I like that the best.

This room connects with the ocean at the far East side of fantasy land.

The Art Gallery

A variety of interesting sculptures and paintings fills this tiny art gallery (it's just a big room). The sculptures have a Rodin-like quality about them in that the figures all look very lifelike and animated. The paintings are mostly dark with a Dore like quality to them, except for one at the far end of the room (visible from the main shop if you're standing by the entrance). It depicts a wooded scene, complete with trees, rabits, a babbing brook, and thick vegitation. (Note: Try to add something to the scene that will appeal to one of the PCs in particular. If one of them has got a craving for apricots, you can bet there's an apricot tree in there.)

As the PCs approach the painting, they will find that it has an incredible amount of depth to it; objects in the painting seem to move at different rates as they approach with distant objects moving nearer and near objects moving out toward the periphery. The frame surrounding the painting, which is already quite large, seems to grow in size as well, the base moving closer to the floor, the top moving closer to the ceiling, and the sides moving farther outward--or perhaps they just didn't notice how large it was in the first place. The "painting" will begin to appear more like a diarama and it will be trivially easy for the PCs to step inside. Soon they are walking on green grass and rich soil with the sound of the flowing brook close by.

In the distance they can see a little cottage and there appears to be a little trollish fellow outside sweeping the steps. Should the characters turn around to look behind them, they will find their view of the art gallery obscured by trees and scrub. Should they try to return, they might trip over a root, get caught on the opposite side of a rather wide river, or an animal might attack them--whatever it takes to keep them in there.

Eventually, they will meet the little trollish fellow, and at that point we are into the woods.

The Taxedermy Room

The first thing the PCs will notice as they enter the taxedermy is that it has been luxuriously decked-out to look like the outdoors: tall, free-standing indoor saplings, old branches nailed to the walls, fake cattails and low/sunken flowerbeds full of forest vegitation all contribute to a feeling of being right outside.

The second thing the PCs will notice is the oddity of the animals here. Many of them appear at first glance to be pre-historic era animals, but further inspection reveals that they have strangely human features: the erectness of a bipedal stance in a bear, the softness of a clydsedale's eyes, or the overall humanity of a gorilla.

A large central display is arranged in the center of the room that blocks sight of whatever is behind it. The idea here is to get the PCs on the other side of the display so that they lose sight of the door. Once that is accomplished, they won't find the door again: if they try coming back around, they'll feel like the door is just a little bit more around the turn; if they try backtracking, they'll find the room looks different than it did before; if they look for familiar animal displays that they saw before, they'll find that they're no longer where they remembered seeing them and have been replaced with more vegitation.

Eventually, they are deep into the woods and will run into the cottage with the trollish little man described previously.

The Cellar

The stairs to the cellar are on the East wall of the showfloor, almost in the North-East corner. This place could have all kinds of junk and probably needs a table. Similar to the taxedermy room, the idea here is to have lots of tall, free-standing piles of junk that the characters have to walk behind, such that when they try to walk back, they can't get out the exit.

Quinn's Personal Quarters

Quinn has very eclectic tastes. He's doubtless got a few mummy caskets, a big, walk-in closet that will take the PCs to fantasy land, and possibly some trick furnature or a pit-trap bearskin rug.

The Bathroom

The bathroom is at the middle-North of the lot, between the kitchen and Quinn's quarters. It is split up, having the toilet/sink in the southmost part and a large bath in the north part. The bath could be a trap of some sort, or the PCs could see that the bath looks very deep. There could also be a hole where pipes come through or a drain that is irresistable.