The Gingerbread House
A house built entirely of confectionery sits at the edge of the village, run by Hissy, a woman of ageless and faintly alarming beauty who has been in business for a length of time it would be impolite to measure. She does not show you a menu. She decides what you need, hands it to you, and is almost never wrong about it, which is somehow worse than if she were. Visit to buy a sample for a random boon, talk with the other patrons, or involve a great deal of snow in someone else's day.
Where to Find It
The Gingerbread House appears in the village marketplace nav once you have at least the configured number of Voldemort Encounters (dragonkills; default 0, so it is usually there from the start). It is a permanent fixture, not a seasonal one, which means the snow is a deliberate choice the building has made and not a complaint about the weather.
Sampling Hissy's Wares
A sample costs 100 gold (the menu_cost setting) and you may accept up to 3 per day (the times setting). You do not choose your treat. Hissy chooses it for you, on the grounds that she has a better track record at it than you do. Eating it triggers one weighted outcome:
| Outcome | What happens | Roughly how often |
|---|---|---|
| Nothing | The treat is excellent. That is the entire event. Not every kindness comes with a receipt. | 14% |
| Gold | You are declared the day's randomly selected customer and win 50–300 gold. | 25% |
| More Gold | Something expensive happens behind a curtain and 500–1,500 gold finds your purse. | 10% |
| Turns | A sugar rush grants 1–3 forest fights. | 15% |
| HP Loss | The sample disagrees with you. You lose 5–15% of your max HP, never dropping below 1. | 18% |
| Healing | A warmth restores a share of the HP you were missing. Useless to the healthy, kind to the wounded. | 10% |
| Gems | An enormous sneeze deposits 1–2 gems beneath your chair. | 8% |
The percentages are relative weights across a single roll, not a promise. Hissy makes notes either way, and you get the strong impression they are not the first notes.
Talking Amongst the Others
An adjoining room holds a fire, some agreeably sagging chairs, and a commentary board (the gingertalk section) where patrons sit with their treats and say things sweetly to one another. It is a chat room. It is a chat room with a fireplace, which is the only meaningful upgrade chat rooms have received in centuries.
The Snow
The House is fitted with exactly one snow apparatus, chosen by the administrator (the dump setting). You get one or the other, never both.
| Apparatus | Cost | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Snow Bucket | Free | Pick an online player and upend a bucket of snow on them from an upstairs window. They get a harmless notice next time they enter a village, the news may mention it, and nothing of any consequence occurs. Limited to 10 bucketfuls per day (maxdump). |
| Snow-Shooter | 500 gold | Search for a sleeping (logged-out) player and fire. They wake up the next day covered in snow, take a minor attack debuff, and lose 1 turn tidying themselves up. One discharge per day (gun_use). They receive a message; they cannot prove it was you. |
The Snow Bucket is for the spectacle. The Snow-Shooter has measurable results. The universe is patient about snow: a queued incident waits, without hurry, until its victim next walks into a village.
Daily Reset
At newday your sample count, snow uses, and bucket count all reset to zero. If someone snow-shot you while you slept, this is also the morning you find out about it: you wake encased in a thin, deliberate layer of snow, take the Snow Shivers debuff, and lose a turn.