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A steep path leads to a turreted gate which marks the entrance to this manor house. The house itself is barred and shuttered as if to withstand a siege. You ring a bell at the door but there is no reply. When you ring a second time, the shutters on an upstairs window creak open and the sneering face of a startlingly ugly woman peers down at you.
‘Whadya want?’ she snaps.
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‘A room for the night and feed for my horse, if you’d be so kind,’ you reply, as politely as you feel able. ‘I’d be prepared to pay, of course.’
The wart-faced old woman snorts and retreats from view. Moments later, she suddenly reappears and hurls a rotten cabbage which catches you squarely in the face (lose 1 ENDURANCE point).
‘Be off, y’ scraggin’ Northlander,’ she yells, ’afore I set the dogs on ya!’
Wiping a trickle of blood from your nose, you turn your horse about and ride back down the path, cursing the old woman under your breath. As you pass through the turreted gate, she shouts out: ‘I heard that!’
As soon as you rejoin the main road, you urge your horse to a canter and ride into the village that lies a little way beyond.
