In Our Violent and Uncertain World

Mine of Torments, the third book in David Tant's The Legends of Skyfall, is the only one in the series that I never owned in my teens. I could have done: a classmate at school even lent me a copy he'd already won, hoping to sufficiently engage my interest that I'd buy it from him, but it failed to grab me at the time, and when I did buy some of the books years later, the market stall from which I purchased them didn't have any copies of Mine, just the first two and the fourth. My memories of having borrowed and not got on with the book I lacked left me with scant motivation to complete the set, and the ones I did have were among those I sold to second-hand shops during my gamebook purge of the early 1990s. Nowadays, like pretty much everyone else I've seen express an opinion on the Skyfall books, I consider Mine to be the best in the series. 

When I ran it for a group at rpg.net, they failed at it fewer times than any other in the series, and yet it is the one that I am least confident about winning here. The thing is, the vast majority of times that the rpg.net crowd failed a Skyfall book, it was on account of making the wrong decision. Sometimes what got them killed was an actual bad idea that they hadn't thought through, sometimes it was what appeared to be a reasonable course of action, but which turned out to end badly because the author said so. And it's easy to avoid making poor choices if you know that they're not the smart thing to do (in gamebooks, at least - history is littered with examples showing that people often find that harder in real life), so I need not worry about falling victim to most of the things that doomed the players at rpg.net.

However, of the three times that the rpg.net group met with a sticky end in Mine, two were on account of the toughness of the final fight. (The other was more normal for them: they ignored the advice of a character who knew better than they did, and demolished a wall that was keeping a subterranean river from flooding the part of the mine they were in.) There is a way to make that climactic battle less of a challenge, but that involves getting into a nasty fight right at the start of the adventure, so whichever route I choose, there will come a point at which success or failure depends on the fall of the coins (Skyfall favouring the flip of coins over the roll of dice).

Well, that's enough about my past with the book: it's time I got going with a fresh attempt at it. As at the start of the second book, there's no sign of any of the loot I acquired in earlier adventures, and my stats have reverted to the baseline, with only Fortune being randomised. On this occasion I start with 13 points, the highest possible starting score, so I'm going to try the variant with the tricky fight at the start.

The adventure starts with a visit to my uncle Velic. He works as a miner, and things have recently become... interesting for him and his colleagues. The silver mine where he works is all but worked out, but the local mining industry has potentially been saved by the discovery of a long-lost mine rich in the precious metal Mithral. However, the miners have started running into difficulties, and not with the Tolkien estate's lawyers.

For starters, work on a bridge to enable ore-wagons to cross the Pola River has been halted, as felled trees have vanished overnight, or regrown lopped-off branches, and a couple of lumberjacks are missing, presumed not okay. Then there's the valley near the mine which has become a focal point for extreme weather, flash-floods, and avalanches. And the mine itself appears to be haunted, with at least one fatality caused by whatever is in there, so this is more serious than just old man Withers in a rubber mask. But I'm no bunch of meddling kids, so maybe I can deal with the forces responsible anyway.

Uncle Velic provides me with a mule, camping equipment, and food for three days (and I had two days' worth of supplies already), and I set off through the mountains towards the mine. After a while the mule and I reach a fast-flowing stream, in which the remnants of a stone bridge serve as stepping stones.

In the interests of fairness, I should mention the unnecessary section transition that precedes my attempt at crossing the stream: having repeatedly complained about the excess of such things in an adventure I played last year, I shouldn't gloss over the fact that this book also has quite a bit of section number padding. Still, a quick comparison of what's in my gamebook manager shows that getting less than half way through Starhunt: Void Slavers took in almost as many decision-free sections as did the whole of the rpg.net crew's successful attempt at Mines, though the latter adventure is almost twice as long. If this book suffers a little from section bloat, the Fantazine adventure is morbidly obese.

An element of randomisation determines whether or not I cross the stream without stumbling, but I may use Fortune to improve the result, and spend a point to ensure success. While falling into the water would not be a game-ender, the consequences would be likely to put me at a disadvantage in the coming fight and end up costing me a lot more Fortune in the long run.

So, we reach the other side, and I decide to take a break and build a fire in the mouth of a nearby cave. I could light a torch and investigate the cave first, but I think that might have regrettable consequences for the mule, so I get a proper campfire going. I've barely started to warm myself before sounds of distress from the mule attract my attention. Descending the mountain is a creature I initially take for a bear, until its gait and posture lead me to the conclusion that this is actually a Yeti.

I don't think this fight is avoidable (except by taking a completely different route through the book), so I draw my sword, not wanting to waste time or my mule. It's not going to be an easy combat, though: not only is the Yeti's Expertise identical to mine, but it also possesses a terrifying gaze, and whenever it wins a round of battle, I must spend a Fortune point or become paralysed with fear.

Luck is on my side. The Yeti wounds me twice, but I manage to kill it. At the cost of half my Fortune, since I increased damage when I won rounds as well as negating the effect of the gaze when I lost them - ending a fight like this as quickly as possible seems the wisest course of action. In any case, I gain a couple of points for my victory.

The mule is still terrified, so I need to get the Yeti's corpse out of its sight. There's a minor error in the book here, the text assuming that I chose not to check out the cave because I got wet and needed to dry my clothes. Not that that makes any difference to the choice I must now make. Hiding the Yeti in the cave would require me to drag it past the mule, and searching the cave would mean leaving the mule alone with the body, either of which could cause the poor beast to bolt, so I think I'll stable the mule in the cave while I drag the Yeti a decent distance away.

That was the right decision. The mule calms down, and I can eat my day's meal, thereby restoring the Vitality I lost in the fight. Then we resume our journey, heading towards a valley through which a glacier passes. We cover some more distance before I make camp for the night, and it's good that I ate when I did: if I'd waited until now, the Vitality restoration would have been diminished owing to the cold and damp conditions.

In the morning we head onwards, and the route forks. I head towards a pine forest, and the mule gets spooked again. This time I disregard its fears, and it tries to flee. A contest of strength ensues, and I narrowly prevail. However, it becomes apparent that I'm not going to be able to drag the mule through the entire forest, so I tether it to a tree and proceed alone.

The forest is unusually quiet. Eventually I emerge from it on the shore of a lake. Tall cliffs surround the lake on three sides, but I can see a narrow defile on the far side. Not far from where I stand are the remains of a log hut, so I take a look inside there. It's been damaged by fire, and the door hangs from one hinge. I haven't attempted to swim across the lake, so I don't have to light the brazier that lies near the fire damage, but I don't want to convert the door into a raft or turn back, so getting another blaze going and settling down for the night is the only option.

While straightening the place up a bit, I catch sight of a length of metal in amongst the cinders. Taking a closer look, I find it to be an iron mace, with 'F.E.D.U.S.A.R.' engraved on the title. As far as I know, no explanation of this weapon's origins is to be found in the book. Was there ever a time in the history of Skyfall when parcel deliveries became one of the responsibilities of the armed forces back on Earth? If so, this may once have been the property of the Federal Express Division of the United States Armed Reserves.

Regardless, I decide to keep the mace in spite of warnings about possible encumbrance penalties, and then get ready for bed. Before long I doze off, but it's still dark when I suddenly awaken. Something is happening on the shore of the lake, and a hideous bubbling laugh alerts me to the approach of something monstrous. And this is one instance where a non-essential section transition is used to good effect: the delay caused by having to turn to a new page helps build tension about the unknown threat.

A vaguely humanoid apparition that appears to be composed entirely of water sloshes towards the hut, arms outstretched as if to embrace me. Arming myself with the mace, I get ready to fight. With the mace, I have a decent lead in Expertise and do double damage, which is a good thing, as the Phantom gets two attacks to my one, and can cause some serious unpleasantness if it ever beats me with both. 

As it turns out, I only sustain one blow from a watery fist before reducing my fluid foe to a powerless puddle. My win gives me a decent Fortune bonus and enhances my Expertise, but I'll be getting no more rest tonight, as the expiring Phantom wet the bed. Still, I have no reason to loiter here any more, and as I'm pretty sure that crossing the lake will only bring unnecessary complications, I head back the way I came. The mule is where I left it, but died overnight. I take some of the food that it was carrying, and proceed along the other branch of the track.

After a few miles I find myself on a narrow ledge connecting two valleys. To my right a snow-covered slope leads down to a sheer drop. Carefully moving along the ledge, I get about half way before catching sight of something moving up the slope towards me. This time it is a bear, and it's coming at me too quickly for me to be able to get off the ledge before it catches up. I could try something tricky, but I think I'll just draw a weapon and fight - and I don't think the mace would be a good choice here.

Thanks to the Expertise boost I got after fighting the Phantom, the bear has only a 1 in 256 chance of hitting me in any given round, and not much better odds of even getting a tie. I win the fight with ease, and receive another Fortune bonus. Continuing along the ledge, I reach the other valley, but by now dusk is approaching, and I had to leave most of my camping supplies with the mule, so I gain no Vitality from the day's meal, and have a pretty miserable night.

The following day I resume my travels, eventually reaching a trail that shows signs of recent traffic. The sight of smoke helps me find my way to the mining settlement, where I have no trouble finding lodgings for the night, replacements for everything I lost, and an audience for my tales of the perils I faced on the way here. Oddly, there are no Dwarves present in the mining community, just humans. They tell me more about what has been happening locally, via a chain of decision-free sections.

All ghost sightings took place in the part of the mine where the Mithral deposits are, and the manifestations were always glowing transparent figures. As for 'Hostile Valley', the disturbances occurring there only seem to affect people travelling west through it.

After a decent night's rest, I must choose where to commence my investigations, and I head for the valley, because this is where it all gets a bit counter-intuitive. The thing is, while the mace vastly improves my chances of winning the final fight (and that Expertise bonus will also help), and I couldn't have got it unless I chose to travel via the mountains right at the start of the adventure, the only way I can survive the climax of the book (and my best chance of living long enough to reach the last battle) is to deal with the bridge-builders' troubles first, so I now have to travel west to the River Pola.

Initially the journey is uneventful, but after a few miles I come across signs of an abandoned attempt at road construction, and realise that I must be approaching the valley where the trouble is. As my more observant readers may have spotted, I am travelling in the direction that tends to provoke the manifestations, and as I'm not yet equipped to deal with their source, I need to avoid going through the actual valley, so I now have to do more climbing. Which means leaving my replacement mule tied up at the eastern end of the valley. Maybe I shouldn't have bothered getting one.

As with crossing the stream back at the start of this adventure, a random factor helps determine how well I do, and Fortune may be spent to avert an undesirable (and in this instance lethal) outcome. On this occasion I get a good enough result not to need to modify my score.

At the top of the cliff I find a plateau, too criss-crossed by fissures to be usable as part of a trade route instead of the valley, but I can traverse it on foot, and reach the other end of the valley without any bother. For a while I watch from above to see if anything strange happens in the valley, but after a couple of hours of watching a calm and picturesque valley, I'm bored enough to be wishing for some kind of monster to attack. Staying up here until nightfall would be inadvisable, so I climb down at the west end. Again randomness influences the outcome of the climb, and again I have no need to spend Fortune to avoid a broken neck.

Having successfully bypassed the valley, I press on in the direction of the Pola. There's still some way to go, but at about the half-way point I find a quarry owned by an elderly Dwarf. When I tell him of my quest, he warns me against disturbing the evil forces that lurk in the mine. That's a potential wrinkle I hadn't anticipated: encountering this Dwarf after successfully resolving the issues with bridge construction results in his giving me an item that simplifies dealing with one of the threats in the mine, but on this route I get no plot token from him. Still, he does also offer a meal and a bed for the night, and since my replacement mule is still at the other end of the valley, his offer is very welcome.

In the morning I resume my travels, and by dusk I've reached the site of the planned bridge. It appears to be an ideal location: the river narrows here, and a small island in the middle could provide added support for the structure. On the far bank there's a camp for the people who would be working on the bridge if not for the peculiar goings-on that have brought construction to a halt.

I call out and get someone to ferry me across, after which I get directions to the chief engineer's tent. The overseer has obviously been hitting the bottle, and appears unconvinced when I explain that I've come to deal with the unexplained shenanigans, but nevertheless explains what's been going on in more detail (and in another chain of decision-free sections).

The trouble started on the night after tree-felling started. All the trees that had been cut down and dragged to the bridge site disappeared - or possibly stood up and took root: many workmen are sure the area by the river wasn't as heavily forested the day before. On the following day, work concentrated on felling large trees and building them into the central framework of the bridge. Guards were posted to keep watch on the structure overnight, but a massive flock of bats knocked over the lanterns, causing them to go out, and by the time illumination was restored, the trees had disappeared.

On the next day, tree-felling was interrupted by the death of one of the workers. After that none of them worked unaccompanied, which just meant that there were two victims in the next incident. Most lumberjacks subsequently opted to seek more normal and less hazardous employment elsewhere, so work has virtually halted, though reinforcement of the ground at the river's edge with stone from a nearby quarry has been allowed to proceed without interruption.

I suggest that, since someone or something seems to want the trees left alone, a stone bridge might be a simple solution. The somewhat exasperated chief engineer points out that a timber framework would still be necessary to hold the stones in place during construction, and I decide not to bother him any more. Joining the other workers, I have my day's meal and turn in for the night.

The next day I decide to have a look in the Fellwood, hoping that since I don't plan on cutting any trees down, I won't be harmed. It seems like a nice place in which to take a walk, and I reflect that it wouldn't be so picturesque if the felling were taking place as planned. Animals seem scarce, though, but I do start glimpsing squirrels and rabbits after about ten miles. I have the option of trying to trap a rabbit in order to supplement my rations, but I remember enough from partially playing this book back in the 1980s (and then running it online around a decade ago) to know that that would be a very bad idea.

My decision not to kill any of the cute ickle bunny-wunnies prompts reflections on the deaths that have occurred, and I briefly contemplate the possibility that bandits could be responsible, concluding that lumberjacks aren't likely to be particularly profitable targets. Heading deeper into the forest, I am beginning to think that it's about time to take a rest when I hear a wolf howling, but in distress.

Investigating the sounds, I find that the wolf in question is trapped in a rather peculiar manner. The soil beneath one particularly old-looking tree must have receded quite drastically, as a fairly substantial length of the roots supporting it is above ground level, forming a sort of natural cage, and a large Timberwolf is confined within it.

Now I have to try and free the wolf, which whimpers and holds up a paw as I approach. Not having any woodworking tools on me (and being aware that the shedding of sap tends to have unpleasant consequences around here), all I can do is attempt to force a couple of the roots far enough apart to make a gap big enough to enable the wolf to get out.

There's a mildly amusing opportunity to get myself into a loop of sections here: if I decide that I don't want to risk being attacked by this vicious wild animal, I wind up wondering if I really intend to abandon the poor, helpless beast to its cruel imprisonment, and choosing not to be so mean to it leads straight back to the question of whether or not it's safe to make myself vulnerable to the savage brute. It's not an inescapable loop, as I always have the option of sticking with whichever course of action I was favouring, and either walking away or letting the wolf out, but someone like The Fast Show's indecisive Dave could end up going round in circles forever.

Since I want to make progress (and not fail at the book) I go with releasing the wolf. Anticipating a titanic struggle to wrest the roots apart, I am pleasantly surprised to find that they offer no resistance, and I easily create a suitably-sized opening. The wolf springs out of its confinement, and cheerily turns its attention to something behind me. Something, or rather someone, who congratulates me on my action.

Turning, I see a grey-haired woman with a hawk on one shoulder. The wolf lopes over to her for a scritch, and she tells me that I have been under observation since I entered the forest. As I have shown myself to be more eco-friendly than the workers at the bridge site, the woman wants to know why I associate with them, and what I want. I explain that a bridge is required, diplomatically keeping quiet about the need for wood in the building process (and entering into another chain of choice-free expository sections).

The woman tells me that she is the Warden of the forest (thereby indicating herself to be a powerful Druidess), and that her primary concern is for the well-being of all its inhabitants. All killing has been banned, and transgression of this law merits the death penalty, hence the fate of the deceased lumberjacks. I ask what the wolves eat if they can't prey on smaller animals, and the Warden smugly informs me that she feeds them with a nut-and-cereal-based porridge that they prefer to meat. The wolf's reaction discreetly conveys the message 'actually, we'd love to get our jaws into something bloody, but as long as this mad old bat's in charge, we're stuck with the vegan option'.

While the Warden is unwilling to have the peace of the forest disrupted, she has no objection to the establishment of the planned trade route along the riverside, and asks why the bridge can't be made out of stone. Resisting the temptation to smirk at her cluelessness, I explain the need for a wooden framework, and she indicates that a mutually beneficial arrangement could be reached, so long as I'm willing to help her out with something, and the bridge-workers leave the forest and her woodland chums alone from now on.

Accepting her terms (in part because she has threatened to destroy the whole camp if any more of her charges are harmed), I enquire as to the nature of the assistance she requires. She explains that there's one denizen of the forest which resists her authority: an intelligent and predatory strain of ivy that enjoys killing flora and fauna alike, and has its brain situated deep enough underground that she can't do any serious harm to it without causing an unacceptable degree of collateral damage. Now the Killer Ivy has targeted Father Oak, the most venerable tree of the entire forest, and it must be stopped.

I ask what she expects me to be able to do against the Ivy. The Warden reveals that she has been harvesting and refining venom from the forest's serpents to create the ultimate weedkiller. All I have to do is find a way to administer the toxin (without, of course, harming any innocent plants at the same time). Not having any real choice in the matter, I agree to try, and the Warden takes me a few miles further through the forest, to a clearing containing an ancient oak tree, wreathed in ivy and obviously in poor health.

The Warden hands me a metal flask containing her noxious brew, and says that I just need to get one of the ivy's feeding tendrils into it, and make sure that it stays there for long enough. She also warns me that the ivy is smart enough to defend itself, so I'll need to be careful. Not the most promising of situations, and as I head into the clearing, I am uncomfortably aware that I'm being watched by enough woodland creatures to provide a full cast (including chorus, extras and stand-ins) for a major Broadway musical based on the works of Beatrix Potter.

Getting closer to the oak, I become aware that it's not going to be easy to identify a feeding tendril amidst the mass of creepers festooning the tree. The ivy isn't so thick higher up, but climbing a mass of devious and hostile foliage to get there has obvious drawbacks.

By now it's early afternoon. I decide to take a break and have some lunch (hoping I didn't bring any ham sandwiches, in case that triggers the Warden) while I think over the problem. This is, as it turns out, the only workable solution to my dilemma. The ivy responds to vibrations and, having sensed that a living organism has entered the clearing and then stopped there, it wants to know if I taste good. A length of ivy detaches itself from the tree and slithers in my direction, so I unstopper the flask and position its mouth in the path of the questing frond, which probes its way inside. So far, so good...

It doesn't take long for the tendril to realise that it is now immersed in something harmful, and it attempts to pull out. I grab onto it, trying to keep it inside, and further creepers detach themselves from the tree and flail at me, inflicting damage. I'm too busy wrestling with the feeder to defend myself, and a coin flip (which I can, if necessary, modify with Fortune) determines whether or not I am able to keep the tendril trapped until it has absorbed a lethal dose of the herbicidal mix. I score just enough not to need to spend Fortune, and Ivy the Terrible is vanquished.

The Warden congratulates me, accompanied by assorted bears, foxes, deer, rabbits and other denizens of the forest, and presents me with a gift: a Horn of Voices, which should be of more use to me than to her, as she can communicate with the plants and animals in her domain without it. She then explains that no trees need to die for the sake of the bridge-building, as she can get some of the ones growing closest to the site to create a living framework across the river for as long as it takes to construct a stone bridge.

We head for the camp, with a train of animals following, and while this initially causes some agitation, an agreement is reached without any further unpleasantness. An evening meal with the workers restores what Vitality I lost to the Ivy, and in the morning I decide to move on. There's actually an error in the gamebook here: while there's no way of resolving the problems in the mine and living unless you have the Horn, the section has an 'If you've already dealt with what's up in the mine and the valley' option, and since it leads to the 'successful outcome' section, it can't be a trick to catch out cheats.

Incidentally, this book does contain one of the most stylish responses to cheating I've ever seen in a gamebook. Particularly belligerent players can get into a fight against an opponent with an Expertise significantly higher than the maximum attainable by a player, and a massive Vitality score as well. Flight is always an option, so it would take a particularly stubborn and unwise player to stay in the fight - with (at best) a 1 in 256 chance of winning any round of combat, 245/256 odds of losing each round, and the need to win at least 20 rounds to defeat this creature, the chances of killing it are infinitesimally tiny. Claim to have won the fight anyway, and the book says words to the effect of 'Well, anyone lucky enough to triumph in a battle like that clearly doesn't need a Fortune bonus, so you gain nothing for your highly implausible victory'. I wish Mr Tant's sense of humour had come into play a bit more often over the course of the series.

But I digress. It's time to head back the way I came. Again I get ferried across the river, as the bridge hasn't yet been built, and by midday I'm back at the Dwarf's quarry. As it turns out, my already having been here once makes no difference - we still end up talking about my mission, but now the Horn of Voices has come into my possession, and while I could choose to make this adventure more difficult for myself by not mentioning it, that would be silly. Besides, this is probably the quarry that supplied the stone for the reinforcement of the river bank, so the Dwarf is likely to know something of the weirdness that's been going on at the site, and being able to say, "Take a look at this neat magical item I got as a reward for ending the paranormal troubles at Fellwood," could be enough to convince him that I'm up to the task of overcoming the evil that infests the mines.

Anyway, I show the Dwarf my new treasure, and he realises that I might have what it takes, so he excuses himself for a moment, and returns with an ancient bronze urn. He then tells me what he knows about the mine, and I'm in another chain of expository sections.

Over a century ago, back when the mine was a going concern, an unknown disaster occurred. One day, the miners just failed to emerge at the end of their shift. An investigation revealed no bodies, just signs of an abrupt interruption to the work, and a couple of places where the rock appeared to have turned to liquid. Other miners resumed the work, but then ghosts started appearing, and more Dwarves vanished. The four who remained decided to seek the assistance of a Cleric, but their route took them through that valley.

While the valley already had a reputation for strange happenings, the mysterious occurrences had previously been trivial in nature: persistent gusts of wind sending hats and the occasional heavier item flying, unusually large waves in the stream splashing passers-by, small fires appearing for no apparent reason, and rocks rolling around without having been disturbed. However, it was at this time that the phenomena in the valley turned nasty, and two of the Dwarves died there. The others managed to retreat to safety, and opted to circumvent the valley by climbing the cliff. Not being good climbers, they fared less well than I did when doing the same a few days ago: one fell to his death, while the other got off comparatively lightly with a broken leg.

Somehow the survivor made it to Wolvenford and told of what had happened. The Clerics there explained that Dwarven ghosts only manifest when the body that the spirit formerly inhabited does not lie at rest, and provided the last of the miners with the Urn of Mungo (evidently the patron saint of doomed gamebook characters), a holy vessel that can attract undead spirits and lay them to rest. Less helpfully, they also stated that their beliefs did not permit them to do battle with the very elements, so none of them would go anywhere near the valley, leaving the lone miner to find his own way back to the mine.

Never having learned that the hostile manifestations only affected people travelling west, the surviving miner was too afraid to head back through the valley, and his injured leg ruled out further climbing, so he never managed to get back to the mine. Instead, it seems, he opened a quarry, and managed to do good enough business to sustain himself until the present day. And now, in me, he's found someone sufficiently heroic, adept, and/or stupid to finish the job for him.

Bizarrely, I now have the option to return to the bridge-building site, even though the only way to get the urn and the Dwarf's info-dump is by showing him the item I received for sorting out what was going on there. Perhaps there was a time when a greater variety of viable routes through the book was planned - it could be that originally the Dwarf could have been convinced to hand over the urn and tell his tale if I had the mace, too - and some traces of the original design remained after the book got changed to make 'Fellwood first' the only viable approach.

There's no point in turning back and having to redo what I've already achieved, so I continue on my way back to the mine. By mid-afternoon I'm back at the valley, and this time there's no need to climb, as I'm heading east. Besides which, it's better (at least from a narrative viewpoint, and possibly also as regards life expectancy) to discover what's afoot here before I enter the mine, so I enter the valley.

Passing through it, I can see that it would make a good route for a wagon trail, if some boulders were shifted. And if the potentially lethal paranormal occurrences of which I've heard were to cease. Owing to my direction of travel, it comes as no great surprise that I reach the mid-way point of the valley without incident. But now I need to encounter a bit of the local weirdness, so I turn around and start going back west.

The first vaguely untoward thing to happen is that I get a second description of the stretch along which I've already travelled. The wording is a little different: these books tend to avoid blatant repetition when verbally depicting the same area from different perspectives, but the essential meaning is the same. More significantly, I start to feel uneasy, the place gets darker, and a cold wind blows towards me. Under most circumstances this would all be a bit ominous, but right now it's a promising sign.

As I continue west, it starts to rain, the stream gets agitated, and stones fall, one of them caught by the wind and sent towards my head, though I dodge it. Undaunted, I press on, and the sky darkens further, the wind gains in intensity, and the atmosphere becomes downright menacing. And then things change from 'typical British Bank Holiday weather' to 'undeniably peculiar'. Ahead of me, a whirlwind takes shape. To my right, the stream's waters have surged up into a big wave that just hangs there in defiance of gravity, and on the left, the rocks at the foot of the cliff are moving and coalescing into humanoid form.

Most readers will probably have figured out that I've encountered a group of Elementals, and some may be anticipating the revelation of some fiery manifestation behind me to make up the quartet, but there are only the three. Now that the Elementals have made themselves known to me, there's no reason to keep going west, and trying to attack them would not be smart (the book mentions that most of the legends of people who tried to do anything with Elementals end with the spectacular death of the human concerned), so it's time to try and establish communication.

Rejecting the 'English tourist abroad' options of speaking slowly and loudly or resorting to mime, I take out the Horn, and the whirlwind visibly reacts. Placing the Horn to my ear, I hear a whistling voice, which introduces the speaker as Ianto the Air Elemental and announces that he has a task for me. A polite request would have been nice, but I guess not blowing me into the water and dropping boulders on me is about as polite as they get.

Some discussion elicits an explanation. These three travelled here with a Fire Elemental named Magarth, planning on just vacationing in the valley for a couple of weeks. However, Magarth somehow got captured by a couple of demonic entities known as Vretch, which trapped him in a Mithral globe and proceeded to torture him by dripping water into his prison. Since the Elementals can only travel as a group, the other three are also trapped on Skyfall until Magarth is set free. Despite their great powers, there's nothing the Elementals can do to help him by themselves: Shurfa the Water Elemental can't travel across dry land, Rhum the Earth Elemental finds his way blocked by the veins of metallic ore in the mines, and Ianto lacks the physical form required to dismantle the mechanism containing Magarth. Consequently, they require the assistance of a mortal with fingers, and have been working to discourage travellers in the valley from heading away from the mine, in the hope that sooner or later somebody will go into the mine, kill the Vretch, and release Magarth.

Looks like I have to be that somebody. The Elementals (well, Ianto) will provide what help they can, though. In addition to providing rough directions to where the Vretch are holding Magarth captive, Ianto can protect me from the Vretch's breath, which could melt rock.

Turning around, I head east, and can presumably collect my second mule from where I left it, providing it hasn't died or been stolen while I was away. Being a mule on Skyfall can't be much fun. In any case, with mule or without, I proceed back to the mine, arriving towards evening. There's no 'if you have been here before' option, so I have to go through all the exposition again. Once I am again able to make a decision, on the following morning, I choose to investigate the mine.

It would be helpful to have a guide, so I ask if anybody is willing to accompany me. The miners suddenly remember urgent chores that must take precedence over assisting the adventurer who's come to help them, and the offer of payment does nothing to change anyone's mind. I then reveal that I have obtained the use of a spirit urn that should deal with the spooks, and that suffices to persuade one of the miners to assist me. Slightly oddly, for this outcome the book merely required me to explain my plan for dealing with the Spectres, without checking to see what that plan was or what useful items I might have to facilitate it, so the miner would have been just as convinced if I'd said I was going to stab the ghosts with my sword, or sing a medley of Ray Parker Junior's greatest hits at them.

My guide is a young man named Jem, who knows the mines well, but isn't that smart in other regards. Well, he'd have to be a bit dim to have his fears overcome by the mere fact of my having a plan, no matter how ludicrous that plan might be. He collects some food and a mattock, and we set off.

As we enter the mine, Jem explains that much of the work which has been done so far has been enlarging tunnels, since they were originally dug for Dwarves, not humans. Many of the old tunnels appear unprofitable, and have been left alone, so nothing has been done to reinforce the pit props, and there is some risk that they might collapse. Well, that's some danger that I've avoided by not blundering in on my own.

Jem goes on to tell me that the main passage leads to an apparently bottomless chasm, which gets used for dumping rubble. He's not willing to go that far, as one of the miners thinks that it leads to the Underworld, and the vengeful spirits of the dead have started attacking miners because they don't like having rocks dropped on them. I refrain from commenting on the plausibility of this theory.

Further in, we pass an area that has a stream running through it, and Jem tells of the likelihood that some Dwarves were drowned when the mine workings first intercepted its flow. There are metal doors in parts of the mine to guard against flooding.

Eventually we reach a side turning that leads to the main vein of Mithral. Jem wants to go that way because the alternative is to continue to that chasm, and I also want to go where the Mithral is, because Ianto told me that that's where the Vretch are holding Magarth. We head that way, passing the wall where the rpg.net players made their one fatal error during this book, and I ignore it.

At last we reach the main site of the excavations, and a scattering of abandoned mining equipment on the ground suggests that the miners fled from this area in a hurry. A spectral Dwarf miner drifts out of one of the galleries and heads towards us, so I produce the Urn and invoke Mungo's name. The ghost is instantly sucked inside, and I gain a Fortune bonus.

In the course of further exploring the area I encounter and similarly deal with several more Spectres, and at the end of one of the galleries I see the last remaining ghosts pointing at one of the walls and beckoning to me. I add them to the urn, and then fetch a pick and shovel from the items left lying around, to see what is behind the wall indicated by the restless spirits.

It doesn't take me long to break through, and based on some of what the Elementals told me, it's easy to infer from the state of the rock on the other side that the Vretch used their breath to melt the stone and sculpt this wall from it in order to conceal their home. And their morbid handiwork: standing around a pit in the centre of the chamber beyond are a multitude of Dwarven skeletons, all of which appear to have had their feet cut off. The reality is even nastier: the rock floor was melted to ankle depth, the Dwarves were stood in the liquid rock, and then it was allowed to resolidify, trapping them in a position that ensured that their ghosts would haunt the mines once they died.

A whirlwind forms by the entrance to the chamber. Realising that Ianto has manifested to assist me, I use the Horn for a quick recap of battle plans as a golden glow shines from the pit, heralding the arrival of the Vretch. The book suddenly remembers that Jem might still be present, and reveals that if he hadn't already run away, he does so now.

The Vretch exhale incandescent vapours at me, but Ianto blows them aside, causing them to melt the wall. I get out the mace and leap to the attack. This is the fight that caused the rpg.net players to fail the book twice more, but my convoluted route through the adventure now pays off. Thanks to the Expertise bonus I gained by killing the Phantom, I'm as adept a fighter as my opponents, and the mace is able to shatter a Vretch with a single blow, whereas it would take multiple hits with a sword to kill one.

It's almost anticlimactic. In the first round of the fight, I get two heads, and each Vretch only manages one. Thus, with a single swing of the weapon, I annihilate my enemies (the book explicitly states that I can hit both in the same round if my score beats theirs), and the evil at the heart of the mine is no more. Actually, forget 'anticlimactic'. That win rocked.

My victory nets me a superfluous bonus to Expertise and a larger-than-I'm-likely-to-need one to Fortune (these things never carry over to subsequent books, and I've almost finished this one). Ianto urges me to enter the pit and free Magarth, warning me to keep the Horn handy.

Tying my rope to a roof support, I climb down into a large chamber. At the far side, flames and unpleasant vapours emanate from a cleft in the floor, perhaps the means by which the Vretch came here. In the middle of the floor is a pool of water, spanned by a device built from Mithral, which holds a globe of the precious metal suspended in the water. Operating the device, I raise the globe from the water and find a hatch set into one side, secured with a handle. I use the handle to open it, and this is why it is absolutely essential to resolve the situation at Fellwood first: if I hadn't learned what was going on from the Elementals, I would now be immolated by Magarth as he erupts from his prison. Having been forewarned, I use the Horn to inform him that I am his rescuer and Ianto is waiting for him, and the Fire Elemental refrains from incinerating everything in the vicinity, and heads straight for the way out, mildly singeing my rope, but doing no harm apart from that.

I help myself to as much of the Mithral as I can carry, and don't even need to spend Fortune to ensure that the rope holds when I climb back up. The two Elementals are waiting for me at the top, and thank me for my assistance. They tell me that they and their fellow travellers will be returning to the Elemental Plane, and from now on I 'need not fear death from fire, flood, tempest or landslide' (a detail that will be completely forgotten in the next book).

Bizarrely, the book now asks if I still need to deal with the troubles at the bridge-building site, even though the fact that I'm not a charred corpse in the chamber below is proof positive that I already took care of it and was gifted the Horn of Voices. I exit the mine, confirm to the miners that the hauntings are over, Hostile Valley will henceforth be benign, and work on the bridge has already commenced, and am rewarded with fame, fortune, and other stuff equally non-transferable to the final book in the series. Just as the first two books ended with a hint of what would come next, so this one concludes by mentioning my intent to visit the capital city.

And that's Mine of Torments done. It has its flaws, but it's a definite improvement on the previous two (and, for that matter, the following one). Any reader who actually enjoyed all the wandering around with no clear goal in sight and drawing a map to try and keep from getting lost that was such a major element of the earlier books can get a bit of that by entering the mine unaccompanied, while readers who found that aspect tiresome can skip it. There are some challenging encounters, but it's not too difficult, and this almost certainly comes closest of all the Legends of Skyfall books to living up to the author's claim that they are 'structured carefully to reward the thinking player and to penalise the careless'. A pity the conclusion of the series won't build on this improvement, but I shan't go into detail until I'm actually playing that one here, which probably won't be for a long while.