I was in Dortmund for three weeks, tidying up my parents' house. One night I wrote a dungeon adventure for Lina (5) and Hendrik (3), my two older kids. (Joaquín is too small to play dungeon adventures, I guess. He just turned one.)
Before I left, I asked them what characters they want to play. Lina wants to play princess Blume, a girl with magical abilities who knows three spells: Fire, Lullaby and Glitter. (I suppose glitter is helpful if you are in a dungeon and forgot your torch.) Hendrik wants to play prince Marmelade, equipped with bow and arrows. They are the children of the king and queen of the island Kalimera.
The adventure starts in the royal kitchen. The cook needs olives to make a greek salad but doesn't dare to go into the cellar where they are stored. He is afraid of mice. (Musophobia.) He already sent the kitchen boy but the kitchen boy didn't return. So now he asks princess Blume and prince Marmelade, our two brave heroes, to fetch some olives for him. They are always up for an adventure and go down the stairs.
1 At the bottom of the stairs, they encounter a cat. The cat asks: "Which animal walks on 4 legs in the morning, on 2 legs at noon and on 3 legs at night?" The cat will follow the heroes around. It likes to be stroked.
2 A room full of stuff. Chests and baskets. Plates and pots. Potsheds. An old fisher net. A flute. A lyre, missing a string or two. A large shield covered with dust. A rolled up carpet.
3 A large room used to store white and red wine in amphorae. Alex, the kitchen boy, lies on the floor and sleeps. He snores in a scary way. He sounds like a giant insect. If princess Blume and prince Marmelade manage to wake him up, he will notice that he lost the keys, the cook gave him, and panic.
4 Another storage room, measuring 3m x 3m. One door is open, the other locked. More chests and baskets filled with stuff. If the prince and princess take a closer look, they will notice that there are traces of animals everywhere. The room seems to be the dormitory of large rodents.
5 The door to this room is locked. Looking through the keyhole, prince Marmelade and princess Blume can see 5 giant olives on legs, wearing red sneakers, and a pickled red pepper and a couple of giant tomatoes, also on legs, also wearing sneakers. As soon as the door is opened, the vegetables will try to get out and run away.
6 Another locked door, another 3m x 3m room. (I like 3m x 3m rooms, don't know why.) There is an opening in the floor, leading to level 2 of the dungeon with a ladder. A foul smell comes from down there.
7 This room is used to store cereals. It has 3 doors. The door to the west is open, the other doors are locked. Two very large mouse-like creatures are bend over a sack eating wheat. They are about 2 meters long and fat. They have grey fur and pink little hands, much like human beings. Taken by surprise, one of them picks up the missing keychain from the floor and runs for the door to the north to open it. (The creature stole it from the kitchen boy while he was sleeping.) The other dire mouse grabs a broom to defend itself. The creatures will try to escape to room 6 and go down to the second level of the dungeon, taking the keys with them.
8 I think, Lina and Hendrik will like this room, especially if I use props. There is a beautiful little box on the floor, filled with cookies in the form of islands. On one cookie, it says "The Karubi Islands", on another: "You need to pass the pillars of Hercules, sail to the west and south for many days, fight the mighty sea scorpion, go on for 7 more days and if Neptun favours you, you will find the Karubi Islands."