The Barrel
Location Event where two men roll large barrel behind bank, stand it upright, walk away to the inn (presumably for ale), leaving barrel unattended. You can break it open for random rewards or ignore it. Break outcomes, normally: about 32% explosion (usually death, otherwise you lose 50% HP), about 18% gold reward (typically 10 to 10000), about 50% gems reward (typically 2 to 10). Each visit counts against your daily allowance. You normally have a 25% chance of finding the barrel, and typically 3 visits per day. Walking away uses up a visit but is safe. Where your curiosity about an unattended barrel overcomes your survival instincts, you attack it with your weapon, and the odds favor finding a fistful of gems over either gold or discovering it was full of sulfur, potassium nitrate, and charcoal (gunpowder) which explodes in your face and either kills you outright or leaves you deaf with ringing ears and 50% less HP, proving that not every wooden container in medieval villages should be violently opened.
Location & Access
Where: A village Location Event. Normally a 25% chance of turning up. Stops appearing once you have used your daily visits (typically 3 per day). Resets each new day.
The Encounter
Setup: "Walking along through the village, you notice two men rolling a large barrel around to the back of the bank. They stand it on end, and walk back the way they came. They go into the inn, possibly for some ale, leaving you and your curiosity alone with the barrel."
Your Options:
- Break it!: attack barrel with your weapon (random outcome, uses up a visit)
- Ignore the barrel: walk away (safe, but uses up a visit)
Important: BOTH choices use up a visit. Even ignoring the barrel counts as one of your daily visits (typically 3).
Break the Barrel Outcomes
Attack Description: "You let your curiosity get the best of you, and you decide to break open the barrel to see what's inside. With a firm grip on your [weapon] to the barrel and."
Random Roll: a single roll of one hundred decides the outcome.
Outcome 1: Explosion (normally about 32%)
This is a single roll branch: there is no separate death roll versus survive roll. Normally the barrel goes off on a roll of 1-32 out of 100. Once it does, how the blast treats you is settled within that same branch: usually outright death, though a blast can be a survivable one.
Explosion Message: "B`!OO`)M`!!!!" (colorful "BOOM!!" text)
The usual blast (fatal):
- "That'll teach you to attack barrels full of sulfur, potassium nitrate, and charcoal! You got all bloweded upped!"
- Navigation: "To Detention"
- News: "[name] was killed after attacking a barrel full of gun powder!"
The milder blast (survivable):
- "A few minutes pass while you were blacked out. You should really think about not fighting anything else today."
- "Besides a few cuts and bruises, you survived the exploding barrel. Now, if you could just get rid of that ringing in your ears."
- You lose a share of your current HP (typically 50%)
- Survive but badly injured
Outcome 2: Gold (Roll 33-50, normally approximately 18%)
Description: "outpours [amount] Gold!"
- Gold gain: a random amount, typically 10 to 10,000 gold
- Average: ~5,005 gold if evenly distributed
- Navigation: "Return to village"
Outcome 3: Gems (Roll 51-100, normally approximately 50%)
Description: "outpours [amount] gems!"
- Gem gain: a random amount, typically 2 to 10 gems
- Average: ~6 gems if evenly distributed
- Navigation: "Return to village"
Note: The roll is a straightforward if/elseif/else chain: a low roll (normally 1-32) is an explosion, the next stretch (33-50) is gold, and everything else (51-100) is gems. Gems are the most common outcome by a wide margin: nearly half of all barrel-breaking attempts turn up gems, not gold.
Ignoring the Barrel
Safe Option: "You decide that barrel busting just doesn't fit into your schedule today, and continue on your way."
Effects:
- Uses up one visit
- No rewards
- No risk of death or HP loss
- You return to the village
Strategic Note: Walking away still uses one of your daily visits (typically 3). If you're not going to break it, better to just not trigger the event.
Probability Analysis
| Outcome | Probability | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Explosion, fatal blast (usual) | ~32% | Die, go to Detention |
| Explosion, survivable blast | ~32% | -50% HP, concussed |
| Gold reward | ~18% | +10 to +10,000 gold |
| Gem reward | ~50% | +2 to +10 gems |
Note: Explosion is a single ~32% branch, not two independent rolls: the blast type just determines what happens inside that branch, so exactly one of the two explosion rows above applies, not both at once. These odds are the usual ones and can shift.
Expected Value Calculation (fatal blast):
- ~32% chance: Death (catastrophic negative value)
- ~18% chance: Average 5,005 gold
- ~50% chance: Average 6 gems
- Net expected: Negative due to death risk (unless resurrection is free/easy)
Expected Value (survivable blast):
- ~32% chance: -50% HP (recoverable at inn/healer)
- ~68% chance: Net positive rewards (gold, but mostly gems)
- Net expected: Slightly positive if HP restoration is cheap
Strategy
With the usual fatal blast:
- Recommended: Ignore. ~32% death risk is unacceptable
- Death costs: All forest fights lost, resurrection gold/gems, potential VE loss
- Expected gold/gem reward doesn't offset death probability
- Only break if: You don't care about dying, have resurrection safety net (horcrux/phoenix), or gambling for fun
With a survivable blast:
- Recommended: Break it. ~68% positive outcomes, ~32% HP loss (recoverable)
- HP loss can be healed at inn (cheap) or healer
- Gold/gem rewards outweigh healing costs
- Expected value is positive for risk-neutral players
When to Walk Away:
- Low HP (can't afford 50% HP loss)
- Death unacceptable (important day, quests active, VE preservation)
- Risk-averse playstyle
- Already got rewards from previous barrels today
Visit Management:
- You typically get 3 barrels per day
- Walking away consumes a visit (wasted opportunity)
- If you're going to ignore it, better to just leave when event triggers
- Use all 3 visits if the blast is survivable (positive expected value)
Lore & Theme
The Setup: Two men delivering barrel to bank (storage? deposit? suspicious transaction?). They take a break for ale, leaving barrel unattended. Classic temptation scenario.
Gunpowder Barrel: Sulfur, potassium nitrate, charcoal = black powder/gunpowder. Medieval/early modern explosive. Why is there a gunpowder barrel behind a bank? Robbery? Mining? Demolition? Never explained.
The Gamble: Unknown contents. Could be treasure (someone's deposit), supplies (merchant goods), or explosives (dangerous materials). Breaking it = vandalism + trespassing + gambling with your life.
Death Message: "You got all bloweded upped!" Intentionally silly grammar. Dark humor. "That'll teach you to attack barrels": victim blaming, deserved death for curiosity.
Survival: "Ringing in your ears": tinnitus from explosion. "Cuts and bruises": shrapnel wounds. "Blacked out": concussion. Realistic explosion aftermath.
Thematic Elements: Greed vs caution, curiosity kills the cat, high-risk gambling, vandalism, opportunistic theft, explosive consequences (literal), "don't touch things that aren't yours."
Common Questions
Q: Can I disable the death outcome?
A: Not by choice. The usual blast is fatal. If the blast is ever milder, the explosion only deals 50% HP damage instead of killing.
Q: Why does walking away consume a visit?
A: Both choices count as a visit. It limits daily interactions regardless of what you do.
Q: What's the best strategy?
A: If the blast is fatal (the usual), don't break it (~32% death too risky). If the blast is survivable, break all 3 barrels (positive expected value).
Q: Can the explosion hurt other players?
A: No. The blast only ever hurts the person who broke the barrel.
Q: Is the gold amount random?
A: Yes. Range is typically 10-10,000 gold. Could get 10 gold, could get 10,000. Huge variance.
Q: Can I get both gold AND gems?
A: No. Single random roll determines ONE outcome: explosion, gold, or gems.
The Barrel: where two delivery guys abandon a mysterious barrel behind the bank to go drink, you decide that smashing other people's property with your weapon is a reasonable response to unattended objects, and one-third of the time it turns out to be full of gunpowder which explodes and kills you instantly while the game mocks you with "you got all bloweded upped!" which is technically correct but grammatically offensive, though the rest of the time you find between 10 and 10,000 gold, or, far more often, a modest handful of gems, which makes you feel vindicated about your life choices until the next barrel explodes in your face.