Answers for Daily #20

The starting word was

First moves

8 words are one letter away from MASK.

BASK: verb To bathe in warmth; to be exposed to pleasant heat.
CASK: noun A large barrel for the storage of liquid, especially of alcoholic drinks. (See a diagram of cask sizes.)
TASK: noun A piece of work done as part of one’s duties.
MUSK: noun A greasy secretion with a powerful odour, produced in a glandular sac of the male musk deer and used in the manufacture of perfumes.
MARK: noun Boundary, land within a boundary.
MASH: noun A mass of mixed ingredients reduced to a soft pulpy state by beating or pressure; a mass of anything in a soft pulpy state.

Also: MASS, MAST

MASK → BASK → BARK → BARB → GARB

Once the words before it are used, nobody can change GARB: a dead end, worth 3 extra points.

Every Daily hides one golden word a few moves from the start. This one was TALE.

From MASK, 2,140 words can be reached one letter at a time.

2 players. Best: 17 words and 25 points. Average: 8.5 words.

Definitions from Wiktionary