The Time-Share Baron

Hunt 46: Ten Years a Week

PeopleGelm

LensMadcap

LeadLio

RegionThe Goom

RunLate Run

Hunt 46 · Madcap

Ten Years a Week

The Time-Share Baron · Gelm

Lio checks in to the Time-Share at the Goom for a free brunch and a mandatory presentation, and the Time-Share Baron, a jelly host who tastes each of Lio's five selves in one handshake, promises to merge them in a week, with a Return Week clause that bills whoever comes after him.

On the boardSells time, which at the Goom is a real bargain at ten years a week. The presentation is mandatory.

WhereThe Time-Share at the Goom (street name: the Brunch), The Goom. A resort where ten years is a week.

How it feelsA buffet, a sales pitch.

House ruleNobody checks out until they sit through the full presentation, which ends only when they sign.

Leads the huntLio Twil

PeopleGelm, from Gelmoor

Abigail's notebookThe Brunch. The clock doesn't get to zero.

Tuesday. The Brunch.

I've got a lanyard.

"The vacation your problems can't survive." A resort in low orbit over the Goom, with a lobby fountain of something pink and carpet patterned like a spreadsheet, and a week in here's ten years for everybody outside. It's a real bargain if there's something you need to outlast. So an hour in there's about three weeks out here. I was in for fifty minutes by my watch, and I checked it a whole lot. Nobody checks out till they've sat through the full presentation, and the presentation starts the moment you try to leave and ends when you sign. You can decline, sure, but every time you decline they give you a free upgrade, and every upgrade adds a week. See the problem?

Lio came in for the free brunch. He came in for the free brunch!

· · ·

I've asked to leave. I've been upgraded.

The Time-Share at the Goom, development art — The Time-Share at the Goom. Development art. Find it in the galaxy ▸

The people

Gelm

Soft, round, and warm to the touch. They taste what they touch and store food in a second stomach.

Kind, nosy, and dangerous in the kitchen.

ALSO ON THE BOARD: The Gentle One (24), The Emperor of Snacks (68), The Mayor of the Garbage Moon (88)

MORE ABOUT THE GELM ▸