Chapter 5 · MalebolgematerialCircle VIIIPlayable
Lump of pitch
The tenacious pitch of the fifth ditch: it pitches the cross nails, and is never used up.
La pece della quinta bolgia: «bolle l’inverno la tenace pece» (XXI, 8). Ci stanno sotto i barattieri, che fecero mercato dei pubblici uffici.
Quale ne l’arzanà de’ Vinizianibolle l’inverno la tenace pece
The fifth ditch is boiling pitch, and Dante explains it with the arsenal of the Venetians, where in winter the pitch boils to caulk the ships that are no longer sound; under it lie the barrators, who made a market of public office. The game takes a lump of it off the bank beside the ribaldo, and the line of the step tells you to.
It is the one ingredient in the game that is not used up: laid against a cross nail it pitches it into four shots and stays in the bag, and the page under H writes «(resta)» beside its name, so that nobody goes looking for another one at every load. Whoever leaves the bank without it finds one there as long as they have none; whoever reaches Cocytus without it finds it in the bag, beside the three weapons, because without pitch the ribaldo cannot be loaded and the last fight cannot be won.
The numbers
| What | How much | When |
|---|---|---|
| Space in the bag | 1 cell by 1 | |
| Per stack | 1 | |
| Used up by a recipe | never | it only has to be in the bag |
| Nails from one lump | 4 for every cross nail |
Links
- Found in
- The Fifth Ditch, the Pitch
- See also
- Nail, Cross nail, Ribaldo, The Malebranche
- Named by
- Nail, Cross nail, Ribaldo