The Chasm of Doom (7 page)

As you tread on the fungi, the pink flesh splits releasing clouds of spores into the tunnel. They fill your eyes and nostrils. You cannot breathe. Blindly you stagger forward until you are clear of the fungi, but as you emerge from the cloud of spores, you are confronted by another peril. A host of hideous, bat-winged reptiles are flying towards you, their scaly hands grasping jagged pieces of stalagmite. You cannot evade combat and must fight them all as one enemy.

Tunnel Fiends:
COMBAT SKILL
 20   
ENDURANCE
 10

If you win the combat,
turn to 298
.

You land and roll forwards. The Vassagonian leaps after you, hoping to deliver a killing blow before you can rise, but he does not realize he is fighting a Kai Lord. You strike him in mid-air, and he is dead before he hits the ground.

D'Val runs past to your left. He leads a dozen of his best swordsmen in a countercharge, driving the enemy back to the barricade. None escape alive. Those who survive D'Val's swordsmen are cut down by his archers as they run across the plain. But the shout of victory has barely died away when you are faced by another formidable attack.

Turn to 124
.

Your men are hungry and exhausted, but they possess an unshakeable faith in the infallibility of your Kai sense. You give the signal to leave, but as you near the town entrance, you hear a thin whistling noise. A ranger at your side suddenly screams in agony, a flat circle of razor-sharp steel embedded in his chest. More of the discs follow whistling down from the rooftops to claim their victims. One grazes the back of your hand before embedding itself in the neck of your startled horse. You are thrown to the ground and lose 1
ENDURANCE
point.

Illustration IV
—Razor-sharp discs of steel whistle down to claim their victims.

Staggering to your feet, you run, half-crouched, to the shelter of a wagon. Two of your men lie dead upon the road, but the others have escaped the ambush and are galloping away from the town, hidden by the rising clouds of dust.

You turn to see a bandit warrior standing at a nearby balcony. He is dark-skinned, with oily black hair and beard. He flicks his hand and a deadly disc whistles towards your face.

If you possess the Sommerswerd,
turn to 292
.

If you do not possess this Special Item, pick a number from the
Random Number Table
. If you have either the Kai Discipline of Hunting or Mind Over Matter, add 2 to the number that you have picked.

If your total is now 0–4,
turn to 242
.

If it is 5–8,
turn to 263
.

If it is 9–11,
turn to 278
.

One sharp blow with the edge of your hand is all that is needed to smash the lock on the boathouse door. Your curiosity is soon rewarded by the sight of an upturned rowing boat resting upon a pair of wooden trestles. A pail of pitch stands beneath it. From the layer of dust covering the surface of the boat, you judge that it has stood undisturbed for several months.

If you wish to launch the rowing boat,
turn to 180
.

If you wish to search the boathouse for other useful items,
turn to 213
.

As you step over the dead guard, you follow the line of the hanging rope to a pair of locking pins, which secures the bridge to the edge of the mine shaft. If the guard had pulled the rope, the bridge would have fallen away, and you would have been trapped on this side of the chamber.

You run across the bridge just as your pursuers enter. A rope, similar to the one opposite, hangs from the ceiling next to the tunnel entrance in the west wall. You look back to see that your pursuers are now halfway across the bridge.

If you wish to pull the rope,
turn to 125
.

If you wish to ignore the rope and escape into the tunnel,
turn to 348
.

Your passage through the trees is lit by the flickering glow of the campfires that line the highway. Bandit warriors huddle round drawing warmth and comfort from the flames. They take little interest in their guard duties, and you find it easy to avoid their patrols.

By morning, you have reached the edge of the forest. You stare out across the fields of crops towards a small village that lies at the base of a shallow valley. The fields are only separated by narrow tracks, and these are alive with flying insects, hovering in swarms. You are walking along one of these tracks when suddenly you spot bandits ahead. They are wandering idly up the track towards you, their spears slung over their shoulders.

If you possess an Onyx Medallion,
turn to 305
.

If you have the Kai Discipline of Camouflage and have reached the Kai Rank of Guardian or higher,
turn to 49
.

If you do not have this Special Item or this Discipline and Kai Rank, dive into the tall crops and hide by
turning to 159
.

As the warrior falls dead at your feet, you turn to rally your men. To your horror, you see three of them lying spread-eagled on the stairs, killed by crossbow bolts. The other man is wounded and surrounded by the enemy. As more guards flood into the chamber, he shouts in desperation, ‘Flee, my lord. Escape while you still can.’

No sooner have his words echoed through the hall than a sword blade pierces his heart. You turn and run towards a distant door where a tunnel disappears towards the north. Slamming the door you draw its bolt. As you race along the dusty tunnel you pray that the door will hold and keep your pursuers at bay.

Turn to 348
.

The flat Wildlands offer no cover in which to hide from the bandit horde. You know that if you are to avoid combat with an enemy which vastly outnumbers you, you must split up your company and try to outrun them.

You detach a troop of ten rangers to follow you and send the remainder off towards the west, in the hope that they may lure the bandits away to the Durncrag Mountains.

With one last glance at the enemy, you lead your ten rangers on a deadly race along the Ruanon Pike.

Turn to 211
.

You circle the temple, keeping just out of reach of the blue-flamed dagger. Barraka unsheathes a scimitar with his free hand, cutting the air about your head with its mirror-like steel but drawing no blood.

If you possess a Flask of Holy Water,
turn to 283
.

If you do not possess this item,
turn to 325
.

The night passes without incident, and you awake refreshed by your sleep: restore 1
ENDURANCE
point. After breaking camp, you enter the forested valley. Your warrior instincts warn you that the highway would be the ideal place for an ambush; the densely packed trees lining the roadside could easily conceal an attacker. As a precaution against such a surprise attack, you send three of your men on ahead with orders to report back if they should sight anything at all unusual.

After travelling some distance, you come across the wreck of a burnt-out wagon abandoned at the side of the road. Behind it, a track disappears eastwards up into the hills. There is no sign of your scouts, who should have returned to report this abandoned wreck.

If you wish to search the wrecked wagon,
turn to 38
.

If you wish to ignore the wagon and continue along the highway,
turn to 175
.

If you wish to investigate the track leading into the hills,
turn to 293
.

No sooner has the first warrior collapsed when another is hacking at you from the side. As you turn to face him, a spear thrust gashes your left arm and you lose 2
ENDURANCE
points. You recoil in pain and, in the crush of battle, you slip and fall to the floor, which is already strewn with bodies. Then you glimpse an open door and crawl towards it.

Pick a number from the
Random Number Table
. If you possess the Kai Discipline of Camouflage, add 3 to the number you have picked.

If your total is now 0–5,
turn to 192
.

If your total is now 6–12,
turn to 16
.

The guards will not answer your questions. They seem to be more afraid of what their leader will do if they betray him than any torture they may face at your hands. All that you can determine from their uniforms and their manner is that they are part of the bandit horde that attacked you earlier.

If you wish to search them,
turn to 268
.

If you wish to leave the chamber,
turn to 64
.

An evil sneer spreads across his savage face. His words sound in your mind although his lips never part. This warrior is skilled in mind combat. Unless you have the Kai Discipline of Mindshield you will lose 1
ENDURANCE
point for every round of combat you fight with him. He is immune to Mindblast.

Vassagonian Captain:
COMBAT SKILL
 22   
ENDURANCE
 28

You may evade combat after 2 rounds by
turning to 98
.

If you win,
turn to 10
.

As you approach they slip back their hoods to reveal two smiling faces. They seem relieved to have made friendly contact in the middle of this inhospitable wasteland. Neither of them speaks, but they remove amulets from around their necks and offer them as some kind of identification. The small wooden fish hanging on the neck-chains are symbols of a Holy Order known as ‘The Redeemers’, a silent order of pilgrims devoted to a lifetime of prayer and the study of the healing arts.

One of the pilgrims hands you a small earthenware Flask that contains a potion of Holy Water. If you wish to keep this Flask, mark it on your
Action Chart
as a Backpack Item.

Your men pitch camp beneath the marble canopy and preparations are made to get some sleep. You are hungry and must now eat a Meal or lose 3
ENDURANCE
points.

Turn to 233
.

Struggling to your feet, you stagger along the forest track as it ascends into the darkening foothills of the Maaken Range. The track comes to an abrupt end at the entrance of a mine tunnel, partially obscured by foliage. You realize this must be a disused route into the Maaken Mines, for they honeycomb the foothills and mountains of this region. You know that if you can locate one of the major shafts, you should be able to trace your way through the mines to Ruanon itself.

Just inside the tunnel entrance, you find a broken crate containing five Torches and a Tinderbox. The tunnel is pitch black and you will need at least one torch to light your way. You may take as many additional Torches as you wish before continuing, but each Torch takes up one space in your Backpack.
⁴

The tunnel is cold and forbidding. You explore for over a mile before arriving at a junction. Here, another tunnel branches off towards the south. It appears to be a recent excavation, and you follow it in the hope of finding a major shaft.

Turn to 117
.