Dining room
You sneak into the dining room, which is positively huge, though that's not really surprising since there's a lot of bandits to feed. What is surprising, though, is the fact that the long tables, sideboard, and china cabinets are all made of mahogany, the immaculate white tablecloths and napkins are silk, and the salt shakers and various condiment cruets are made of silver and crystal -- as is the gleaming chandelier hanging from the ceiling.
Enough gawking, though -- you need to find those keys before someone finds you in here.
| Search the tables |
Looking at the long tables with their immaculately white silk tablecloths, you can hardly imagine a gang of bandits eating their meals here. Do they dress for dinner, you wonder? What would be more weirdly incongruous: three dozen bandits wearing tuxedos, or three dozen bandits in their normal bandit outfits, eating in a room like this?
You walk up and down the long tables, looking underneath the chairs and moving around the silver salt cellars and sugar bowls.
You hear someone whistling tunelessly out in the hall, and turn just as a bandit enters the room and blinks at you in surprise.
| Fight! |
or:
Eventually, with the tables thoroughly searched, you have to concede that there's no key here. So as not to leave empty-handed, you pilfer one of the salt-shakers.
 | You acquire an item: silver salt-shaker |
or:
Finally, next to a little set of crystal condiment dishes in a silver holder, you find an ornate brass key. Excellent.
 | You acquire an item: hacienda key |
or:
You don't find anything new in here. Shrugging your shoulders, you decide to search somewhere else.
| Search the sideboard |
You examine the antique mahogany sideboard, which is lined with ornate chafing-dishes. The cupboards underneath hold more of them, as well as spare cans of fuel, serving spoons and tongs, and other fancy accouterments.
Possible results:
You hear footsteps out in the hall, and turn just as a bandit enters the room and blinks at you in surprise.
| Fight! |
or (first time):
You move the chafing-dishes around to look underneath them, and ransack the cupboards pretty thoroughly, but don't find anything of interest. Grumbling, you take a few cans of sterno just for the hell of it.
 | You acquire 3 cans of sterno |
or (subsequent times):
You ransack the sideboard for a while, but don't find anything new. Hmph.
or:
You start moving the chafing-dishes around for a more thorough search, and find an ornate brass key lying underneath one of them. Sweet.
| You acquire an item: hacienda key |
or:
You carefully search the area, but don't manage to find a key to Lopez's hacienda. You do find a clue, however, which strikes you as oddly out of place considering how fastidiously tidy these bandits seem to be. Hmm.
| Search the china cabinets |
There are four large antique china cabinets here, filled with various sizes of bone china plates and bowls, each one no doubt intended for a very specific sort of food and probably matched with a specific size and shape of fork or spoon (which, since I mention them, are stacked neatly in drawers in the cabinets, and made of gleamingly-polished sterling silver). You have some trouble imagining a rough unshaven mariachi bandit eating off of a delicate china plate with elegant rose patterns on it... though, if you imagine the pattern being cacti or barbed wire or something instead, it doesn't really get any easier.
Possible results:
- First time:
As you poke around the silverware drawers, you find an ornate brass key that someone left in with the butter knives for some reason. Rockin'.
| You acquire an item: hacienda key |
or
Unfortunately, you don't find anything that looks like a key. Just to be spiteful, you steal one of their sterling silver paté knives. Hah! Now they don't have a full set!
 | You acquire an item: silver paté knife |
Subsequent times:
You search for a while, but don't turn up any keys, or anything else of interest. Grumbling, you look around and try to decide where to search next.
or
- You hear footsteps out in the hall, and turn just as a bandit enters the room and blinks at you in surprise.
| Fight! |
| Sneak out of the fort |
Quietly as the shadow of a very quiet thing (like maybe a snake or a giraffe), you sneak back out of the bandits' barracks. (still consumes an adventure)
Occurs in The Barracks as a choice of Hallway Left
