Go to The Prisoners of Time. Go directly to The Prisoners of Time. Do not pass through Echoes of Lost Light. Do not collect Endurance penalties that will further diminish the already negligible likelihood of your surviving the toughest of the original run of Lone Wolf adventures.
The few memories I have relating to my buying The Prisoners of Time back in the 1980s suggest that I popped into town to get it during the lunch break on a school day. I remember that I was in the kitchen at my friend Duncan's home when I got to one of the puzzles in the book, and the detour required to visit him was just enough that I don't think I'd have been there unless I'd accompanied him straight there after school. I suppose I could have bought the book a day or two before and taken it in to school with me, but that was during the phase when I was mostly getting gamebooks out of habit, and I doubt that I'd have been sufficiently invested in Prisoners to take it to school after I got it home. I didn't play it by the rules until my epic Lone Wolf play-through of the early 1990s, and readers familiar with the book can guess how delighted I was to reach a certain fight for the first time. Hey ho, back to Flight from the Dark again!
So, at the end of the previous book I fell into Darklord Gnaag's trap and got dropped into a Shadow Gate. Now, I may be falling through a portal of total darkness that will take me to the twilight world of Daziarn, a dumping-ground for some of Magnamund's worst criminals, but that doesn't meant I can skip the usual between-book administrative duties. The Lorestone I retrieved just before getting cast into the unknown provides me with another Discipline, and if I choose Pathsmanship, I complete the Lore Circle of Solaris, thereby gaining a point of Combat Skill and 2 Endurance. More trivially, I gain proficiency in another weapon (for what it's worth, I choose Broadsword). Under the circumstances, it's not surprising that there's no sign of the usual choice of new equipment to collect at the start of a new book.
It's been a while since I last listed Lone Wolf's stats. Before my previous Lore Circle-derived increases, even. So, I enter the adventure with
Combat Skill: 21
Endurance: 30
Disciplines: Divination, Psi-screen, Weaponmastery (Sword, Bow, Dagger, Mace, Axe, Spear, Quarterstaff, Broadsword), Huntmastery, Psi-Surge, Nexus, Invisibility, Pathsmanship
Probably doomed. Especially as passage through the Shadow Gate takes its toll on my health.
Luck is with me, as that turns out to be just 1 Endurance damage, but as it's not combat-derived, Healing won't do anything about it. Curing would, but if I'd chosen that Discipline, I'd have one fewer Lore Circle (unless I'd also gone for Animal Control rather than one of the other abovementioned, but the Lore Circle with those two in provides no Combat Skill bonus, and an additional 1 CS in the right place can be worth a lot more than the recovery of one point of Endurance).
I hadn't actually picked up on the fact that Healing only restores Endurance lost in combat, while Curing puts right all manners of ill, until a helpful reader of this blog drew my attention to the distinction. It is, thus, possible that in one of the books where I only narrowly survived a fight, I should actually have died, having erroneously healed damage that was sustained outside of battle beforehand. If so, tough. Pedant and stickler though I am, I'm not replaying books 1-10 again just to make sure I didn't offend against an arbitrary limitation. Besides, if I'd chosen to use Healing to prove myself a Kai way back at the start of book 2, I'd have demonstrated it by deliberately cutting my hand with a broken glass and then causing the wound to disappear, and that's not combat, so not even the author held closely to the letter of the rule.
Enough chit-chat. Time to get on with the adventure. I find myself on a desolate plateau beneath a sunless, moonless sky, illuminated by a glow on the horizon. This is the Daziarn Plane, believed by the magicians of Sommerlund to connect Magnamund with other planes of existence, like a less verdant version of C.S. Lewis' Wood Between the Worlds. According to those magicians, travel here is strictly a one-way journey, so I'm guessing that Grey Star never published his memoirs in Sommerlund. Nevertheless, I'm not accepting that return is impossible without more compelling evidence than, "Well, nobody we know ever came back after passing through a Shadow Gate."
Finding my way back home isn't my only concern. There's also the little matter of retrieving the two Lorestones that fell through the Shadow Gate just before I did. Still, I am sufficiently advanced along the Kai career track that Divination should be able to pinpoint their location. And it does, at least insofar as 'not here at all' constitutes a location. Let me guess, the 'connected to other planes of existence' part of the magicians' theories is correct, and the Lorestones bounced straight out of the Daziarn and into the world without shrimp or some other alternate reality.
The wind blows crimson sand into my eyes, and I become aware that there's a proper storm on the way. I need to find shelter, and quickly. Two options stand out to me: a mound of volcanic rocks in the middle distance, and a gully further away. Unless sandstorms are a very rare occurrence in this region, the fact that the mound is still standing suggests that it's not likely to topple over in this one, so I'll head there, as it's closer.
Between the increasingly strong wind and the soft sand underfoot, getting to the mound takes some effort, but I get there without sustaining further damage. It is only then that the symmetry of the mound catches my attention, and I realise that this has been constructed. Closer examination draws my attention to one particular stone, which is polished and bears an inscription, features you'd expect to have stood out without the need for detailed scrutiny. My freshly-acquired Pathsmanship comes packaged with enhanced language skills, which enable me to make vague sense of the inscription: it's an epitaph to somebeing named 'Ztuul', who lies buried in this cairn.
A combination of curiosity and the need for better shelter prompts me to extract the inscribed slab. Inside, I can make out a metallic statue on a mound of sand. Taking out my Firesphere, I illuminate the interior of the cairn, and closer examination of the statue reveals it to be Ztuul's remains, wrapped in a thin sheet of metal. The tinfoil mummification has done little to preserve the body: only the skeleton and a Silver Rod remain. I could take the Rod, but I can see no good reason for robbing this grave, and more than one (beyond the basic moral one) for leaving things as they are: I'm already at my carrying capacity for Special Items, no Disciplines are giving any indication that the Rod could be of use, and I'd have no way of concealing the thing if I did hang onto it, so any live members of Ztuul's species that I encounter would be likely to spot that I've been plundering a tomb, which could lead to violence. Unless they have some wacky beliefs involving reincarnation, in which case I might get mistaken for Ztuul reborn, and doubtless wind up getting into a completely different sort of trouble.
For a while I watch the storm raging outside. Then I need to eat, and it's a good thing I have a couple of Meals in my Backpack, as I don't think Huntmastery would be of much use for finding something edible while I'm stuck inside a tomb on a desert plateau in a world separate from the one in which I grew up. Once I've eaten, I doze off.
When I wake up, my ears immediately tell me that the storm is over, and that a large winged creature is flying close by. Emerging from the cairn, I discover that there are, in fact, six large winged creatures flying close by. They look like dragons, and are being ridden by large, hairless, gold-skinned humanoids. As Ztuul's skeleton suggested a height of around nine feet, I'm guessing that these big fellers are of the same species. And they're hunting something on the ground. Not me - at least, not yet. Climbing to the top of the cairn, I can see that the airborne sextet are hunting a brace of big red lizards. One of the lizards heads in my direction, and draws the hunters' attention to me.
They land close by, and a few approach. Their leader asks me something in an unfamiliar language, and the word 'Ztuul' in there strongly suggests that he wants to know what I'm doing on top of the tomb. Pathsmanship again aids with comprehension, indicating that he's asking why I have violated the sacred tomb of the revered hunter Ztuul. Awkward, but it could be worse - at least I haven't broken into the eternal prison of some powerful undead necromancer who's been awaiting the opportunity to break free and wreak a terrible revenge on the descendants of his captors. That kind of situation rarely ends well.
Another of the hunters asks how I managed to get here on my own and with no means of transportation, and I sense that, rather than using their native tongue, these beings are speaking to me in a second language which they assume me to know. This suggests that there are people more like me somewhere relatively close by, and that relations between the two species are at least civil. Though my having broken into the tomb could cause a diplomatic incident, so I'd better explain that I'm from another world, and my having sought shelter from the storm in the tomb should not be held against the locals to whom I bear a resemblance.
The hunters are sceptical, but intrigued by my appearance and voice. Maybe I'm not that much like whoever speaks the language in which I'm being addressed - though still closer in appearance to them than to the hunters. The leader tells me that his people are the Yoacor, and I can tell that what follows is intended as a boast, even if the references mean nothing to me. Masters of the Abaxial of Czenos, eh? That's... a thing. Probably. Could be handy to know if I get drawn into a game of Scrabble while seeking the Lorestones.
The Yoacor leader states his intention to take me to the Beholder and see what he makes of my story. This seems my best chance of getting away from the wilderness that surrounds me, so I agree to accompany him. The subsequent ride on dragonback takes quite some time, though with no cycle of day and night, it's hard to judge exactly how long. I doze off twice, but don't have to eat at any point - not that that tells me a great deal, given the inconsistent way in which the Lone Wolf books handle the need for food.
Eventually the desolation gives way to grassland interspersed with marshes, then hills and valleys, before we pass between a couple of mountains to a crater with a city in it. A fairly lengthy description follows, and I guess the 'fragrant, tree-like plants' lining the avenues must have a very strong scent if I can perceive it from this height. We land on a platform attached to the citadel, and the Yoacor leader takes me to a room and telepathically advises me to wait, indicating a room where I can rest while he sees the Beholder. I check out the other room in case there's food or healing to be found in it.
There is food. Whether or not it's something I can safely eat remains to be seen, and it's Curing rather than Huntmastery that would provide a hint about what to avoid. Well, sooner or later I'm likely to have to sample the local produce, so I might as well start now. And not only is it edible: it's restorative, making good the damage sustained by my journey through the Shadow Gate. There's enough left for a Meal, so I add it to my Backpack.
Returning to the first room, I spend a couple of hours staring out of the window, and then have another nap. The Yoacor leader wakes me for that meeting with the Beholder, and as I'm being escorted to it, I indulge in speculation about the doubtless powerful and wise being with whom I am to speak, convincing myself that he'll be able to help me find the Lorestones and get home. It consequently comes as a shock to find that he looks a lot like the Mekon. As a reader, not Lone Wolf, I am decidedly uncomfortable with the attitudes implicit within the text. Equating physical strength with wisdom and goodness is already dodgy, and it gets worse when the Beholder's crippled body is said to be 'loathsome' and 'repulsive'. If I remember rightly, there's worse to come yet.
Speaking a language similar to my native tongue, the Beholder urges me not to judge by appearances. Divination takes me to section 291, where I sense that he is powerful, but could be a force for good or evil. And his expressed desire to show me some of the wonders of his realm comes across a lot like a Bond villain showing off his lair to 007.
Carried by a Yoacor guard, the Beholder leads me to the gallery containing the reason for his name: a portal that enables him to view whatever is happening anywhere in the Daziarn. He saw me arrive (and survive the journey, which apparently was not the case with some of the people previously cast into a Shadow Gate), and claims that my bones would be bleaching in the desert if his hunting party hadn't found me. Well, I might have died but for their arrival, but I doubt that my flesh would have decayed quite so rapidly, and as the Yoacor were not expecting to find me, I am sceptical regarding the Beholder's implication that he sent them to rescue me.
Activating his Beholdamatic ('spying machine' is such a prejudicial descriptor), the Beholder shows me the world in which I am apparently to spend the rest of my life. Well, actually he shows me a panorama that includes my home universe as well as his own realm, the aforementioned Abaxial of Czenos, which he claims to shape as he wishes and populate with beings embodying his ideals. And then, perhaps wondering if I disapprove of his ways, he tries to probe my mind. Psi-screen reduces the damage thereby inflicted to just 1 Endurance, but it's still an intrusion of mental privacy combined with harm that Healing won't fix. He grins, and the text suddenly makes his face out to be grey rather than green. Both editions, incidentally: I am still comparing them, but there's been nothing particularly worthy of mention so far.
Expressing approval of my character, the Beholder notes that, had I not been such a decent chap, he would not have hesitated to get rid of me, "for I will not tolerate the weak and untrustworthy in my realm." No comment. However, as there are some in this world who would wish to destroy me, I must leave this place so that somewhere else can bear the collateral damage. However, I will receive the Beholder's assistance, just to show that my enforced departure is not the same as being got rid of. After all, we wouldn't want people thinking that the arrogant, hypocritical, mind-violating snooper with a god complex considers me a bad sort, now would we?
Knowing where and when I arrived enables him to make a rough calculation of where the Lorestones must have landed. That turns out to be the realm of Vhozada, which can sustain human life, and is the home of a being named Serocca, whom the Beyonder advises me to seek, as she should have more accurate knowledge of the Lorestones' whereabouts. As I'm not able to just jump between realms of the Daziarn, the Beyonder also offers me transportation, with an ominous section transition before the book will let me know why I find the specifics of the impending journey so horrific.
It's a Dimension Door. That's anticlimactic. Okay, so it probably defies multiple laws of physics, and maybe it's uncomfortably similar to the Shadow Gate, but given the build-up and the questionable character of the Beholder, I was half-expecting some kind of slave-drawn Ethetron with live kittens wired into the controls.
Stepping through the portal, I experience edited highlights of the penultimate reel of 2001: A Space Odyssey and lose another 3 Endurance before arriving on a hill overlooking grassy plains and forests. The landscape reminds me of home, prompting a wave of homesickness. And the recent scarcity of decisions - it must be a dozen sections since I last got to make a choice - reminds me of Jon Sutherland's gamebooks, prompting a wave of ennui.
My Huntmastery-derived telescopic vision indicates that there are some pyramid-like structures on the horizon, so I follow a nearby stream that meanders towards them (and no, a Discipline check does not constitute a proper decision). After a while I reach a clearing with a monolith in it (grey metal, not black slab), and have the option of taking a closer look. 'Investigate the interesting thing or ignore it' is barely a choice, but I'll take what I can get.
Though plant growth indicates the monolith to have been here for some time, it shows no signs of weathering. A transparent spike protrudes from the top, and up close I can hear a humming noise that seems to originate underground. Oh, and the ambush-detecting function of Pathsmanship lets me know that I've just triggered a silent alarm, and hostile creatures are approaching. I shan't wait for them: there's plenty of unavoidable combat later in the book, and I'm not so bored at having had few opportunities to determine my actions of late that I'd choose to get into an unnecessary fight just for the sake of a little action.
And it's too late: a group of hairy brutes with spears is already close enough to cut off my return to the stream. I could try using my bow, but that term 'group' is unhelpfully vague - if we're talking just a handful, I could potentially deal with them before they get within poking range, but a mob in excess of a dozen would still be a threat even if I could take down one with each arrow. Maybe I should see if Invisibility can help me hide well enough that they blunder straight past me on their way to the monolith, and I can sneak off while they're checking its immediate surroundings.
Yes, that works. I hurry along the stream until I reach some hills, and as I reach the top of one, I see something, though I have to turn to another section to find out what it is. As with my means of travelling to Vhozada, the revelation is rather less impressive than the section transition implied. A city of pyramid-like dwellings, its streets teeming with creatures like those that came to investigate the alarm at the monolith. My Sixth Sense informs me that the sky-grey citadel near the centre of the city is the home of Serocca, so I'm going to have to go in.
There are a couple of those creatures guarding the main gate, but I see no reason to seek an alternate entrance. It'd be different if I'd fought with the ones who came to investigate the alarm I triggered, but I have no blood on my hands in this realm, and a direct approach seems like the simplest way of getting to where I need to go.
As I approach, the guards close the gate and relocate to the battlements before challenging me in a twittering tongue. They want to know who I am, and why I've come to their city, and I explain that the Beholder sent me and I need to speak with Serocca. Alarmingly, here Animal Mastery would be just as effective as the advanced language skills provided by Pathsmanship as regards enabling me to understand what is being said. The Mongoose edit makes things worse, changing the guards' response into the sort of pidgin that frequently gets used to portray people with non-pink skin as being primitive and intellectually inferior. To add to the uncomfortably racist-ish tropes, the crowds through which I am escorted to the citadel combine fascination at my different-ness with a complete disregard for personal space, and their pawing and prodding causes further Endurance damage.
Serocca turns out to be a feline anthropomorph. She greets me by name, and invites me to join her and discuss what brings me here. Psi-screen lets me know that a psychic barrier holds her prisoner here: I can pass through it without trouble, but if she were to try and leave, the resultant explosion would destroy the whole city.
I ask how she knows who I am, and, using a remote viewing device of her own, she explains that I am the chosen one of Destiny, and my actions will determine whether good or evil prevails in both my own world and the Daziarn. This is the prelude to another info-dump: the Chaos-master is causing trouble again, only now he's raising up armies and laying waste to the more civilised regions of the Daziarn, which is a bit of a step up from the 'forcing two people who really don't get on with each other to travel together' shenanigans that used to amuse him.
The book then gets me to actually regret being offered a choice. As Serocca explains about the carnage being wrought by the forces of Chaos, it becomes clear that she is particularly distressed about the destruction of one specific region, and I have the option of intruding on her grief with questions that are none of my business. As I recall, the sordid tale she would recount if I were to stick my nose in reveals the Beholder to be a thoroughly abhorrent individual who doesn't get that no means no, but makes out that he's a tragic figure because his refusal to uphold his end of the vile bargain into which he entered led to his being transformed from an arrogant jock into a sickly nerd.
Getting back to the reason for my visit, Serocca shows me the rough vicinity of where the Lorestones arrived. It's a forest, not far from the ancient burial grounds of Tolakos, and also close to where the Chaos-master's armies are currently encroaching. I'm all set to go there and try to recover the Lorestones, but Serocca urges patience while she shows me the way to the Shadow Gate that will take me back to Magnamund. Yes, there is one, but a key is required to use it. Luckily for me, that's not a literal key - what is required is power, and the Lorestones will provide that.
There's quite some distance between where the Lorestones are and the location of the Shadow Gate, and Serocca hands me a Map to aid with navigation between the two places. The Mongoose edition states that if I'm already at capacity on Special Items, I must discard something to make room for the Map, so I ditch the Sommerswerd. No, just kidding - actually I dispose of the Gorodon horn that I picked up and never found a use for last book. I was tempted, though, as possessing the Sommerswerd makes the hardest fight in this book significantly more difficult. However, getting rid of it would add complications in some later books, and I'm not quite ready to give up on this series in disgust.
Serocca urges me to rest while she makes preparations for my journey, and I finally get to regain the 6 points of Endurance that I unavoidably lost and couldn't replenish with Healing since I last ate. Waking me once all is ready, she explains that she's arranged for a company of guards to escort me to where I need to go, and gives me an Obsidian Seal that will identify me to the locals as an ally. This is, of course, another mandatory Special Item that forces me to dispose of something else to make room for it. Don't suppose I can chuck the Map, can I? Well, I think Nexus has rendered my Platinum Amulet surplus to requirements, so I'll bin that. You know, inventory management is the only remotely meaningful choice I've had since I reached the city gates.
The book has me turn from section 210 to section 211. That really does highlight just how pointless the bulk of the jumping from section to section in this book has been. And as it comes just after a complete restoration of Endurance, it's not even as if this transition enables use of Curing or Healing. Okay, time for a spot of research. My gamebook manager makes it easy to track these things, so I'm taking a look at how the book has been structured thus far. It turns out that I've been through exactly 50 sections. 30 of them end with a single direction to turn to another section. Another 10 of them end in Discipline checks. That leaves just 10 actual choices (plus a couple of 'decide what potentially useful item you're going to chuck out' moments). I recognise that some of those single-direction transitions are to make paths through the book converge, cutting down on duplication of text, but around half of them are just there to break up lengthy passages of not-getting-to-take-action and make it less obvious how little agency the reader has. It also helps with ensuring that the book has the requisite 350 sections, of course, but there are better ways of reaching the target.
Serocca introduces me to T'uk T'ron, the leader of the company that will escort me to my destination. He speaks, and the Mongoose edit renders his greeting in stereotypical-ignorant-savage-ese. He then leads me outdoors, and I board one of three chariots. After spending ages going into way too much detail about things, the book now goes too far the other way, giving the onipa which draw the chariots the vague description of 'strange, horse-like creatures'. Strange how? Are they green? Six-legged? Horned? Levitating purple arthropods that are only 'horse-like' in that they obviously serve the same function here that horses do in Magnamund?
We travel for a few hours, and then catch sight of a village. T'uk T'ron asks if I want to stop for a meal. That means there's probably another 'you must eat or lose Endurance' coming up, and as I'd rather not waste the Endurance-restoring food I got at the Beholder's, I think I'll stop and sample the local delicacies. The villagers are pleased to see us, and an elderly fortune-teller shows an interest in me. On this occasion the 'primitive' language is already present in the original, and as it's T'uk T'ron who's speaking, there is a jarring contrast with his earlier eloquence (though I'd have preferred it if Joe Dever had corrected the mismatch by improving the syntax here rather than making the earlier exchanges equally 'funny foreigner').
Getting my fortune told hasn't been that helpful in the past, but I'll give it a go anyway. The outcome of this reading is randomised, and T'uk T'ron translates the fortune-tellers words for me. His language is slightly simplistic in the original text, and dumbed-down for the Mongoose edit. Either way, the fortune indicates that I am to dream of when I was younger. This dream will make things clearer to me, and strengthen me against my enemies. Oh, goody, more exposition on the way!
We set off again, and approach a bridge across a river. Sensing that something is amiss, I use the telescopic vision provided by Huntmastery, and see that a hole has been made in the bridge and then crudely concealed. I warn T'uk T'ron, who is able to call a halt in the nick of time. Pathsmanship's ambush-detecting capability then kicks in, alerting me to the presence of enemies in the trees. Again I let T'uk T'ron know of the danger, and he warns the guards to take cover behind the chariots while he and his driver take a closer look at the bridge. I choose to accompany them, and see that the damage can be repaired: it was intended to hold us up, not put the bridge completely out of action.
Apparently forgetting what I told him, T'uk T'ron summons the rest of the guards to assist with the repairs, at which point the lurking agents of Chaos emerge from the trees, meaning to put the chariots out of action. T'uk T'ron and his troops hurry back to defend the chariots from the attacking Agtah, shambling fusions of human and animal, but I stay to try and fix the bridge and make it possible for us to resume our journey and flee from our assailants.
Most of the damage is trivial, but there is one vital supporting beam that's out o' skew on t' treadle. The telekinetic side of Nexus enables me to manoeuvre it back into place, but as I'm doing so, a sinister laugh warns of trouble, and the combination of Divination and Huntmastery enables me to pinpoint the location of the creature preparing to attack me. Hurriedly drawing my bow, I put an arrow through the lurking beast's frontal lobe, and then turn my attention to the nearby battle. It's not going well for my companions, and T'uk T'ron heads for me and tries to tell me something. I move closer, and hear him yell that they've been defeated and I should save myself. I do as directed, while he and his surviving guards do what they can to buy me more time.
For some hours I continue on my way, halting when I catch sight of three humanoids watering their steeds at a pool of water. Divination or Pathsmanship tells me that they're scouts from the army with which Serocca advised me to hook up, sent to meet me and escort me to their leader, Lorkon Ironheart. Sneaking up on them looks like a great way to experience a friendly fire incident, so I step into the open - and one jumpy idiot promptly looses a crossbow bolt at me. Randomness determines whether or not it hits, though Huntmastery and my level of experience improve the odds. As it turns out, I get the best possible outcome even before modifiers, but it's good to know that most veteran players are at no risk of a fatal outcome here.
Dodging the bolt (which is a more narrow miss in the Mongoose text), I disappear into the undergrowth and discreetly move closer to the scouts. Divination will allow me to contact them telepathically, and even if they react with hostility again, they won't be able to pinpoint my location as well as they would if I were to call out, stand up, or raise a banner that reads, "Hold your fire - I'm the person you were sent to collect, and prophesied saviour of the region, you trigger-happy fools!" Not that the latter is suggested as an option.
It turns out that I can only initiate telepathic contact with people who possess some psychic ability, and two of the scouts have none. Nor, judging by their actions, do they have much in the way of intelligence, either, and the third isn't much smarter, neglecting to point out that I'm the man they've been sent to meet until his companions are on the verge of shooting me down after I obey his spoken instructions and surrender. I'm willing to bet that the main reason the Chaos-master's troops are gaining so much ground in this region is because Ironheart's troops are constantly killing each other over such provocative actions as standing nearby, wearing their uniforms and breathing.
As the bow-wielding cretins are still suspicious, I urge them to check my pocket for proof of who I am. They find the Obsidian Seal andpromptly fill me with arrows on suspicion of having murdered and robbed Lone Wolf finally concede that maybe they shouldn't kill me, at least until after I've met their leader and saved their world. Taking the Seal, a scout indicates that I should ride pillion behind him. It's not made clear whether or not their steeds are also onipa, but I do get a hint as to what makes these horse-equivalents strange: their long hair.
Following another journey, during which I imagine the scouts to be constantly keeping their bows trained on me, each other, and themselves, we reach an encampment in a forest. Somehow we manage to get beyond the perimeter wall without being puréed, flattened and pulverised as a precautionary measure, and (doubtless following a brief pause in which our approach momentarily distracts the guards from throttling each other) enter Ironheart's tent.
Inside the tent, a couple of nobles are planning battle strategies, perhaps debating the controversial suggestion that their troops try attacking the enemy rather than their own commanders, just for a change. A scout tells one of the officers about how they met me, also mentioning the massacre of my previous escort - not actually taking credit for it, but most likely being ambiguous enough to give the impression that they might have been responsible, lest anybody accuse them of negligence for having only almost killed me a couple of times.
Ironheart, who takes being blue-eyed to extremes (no whites, no pupils, just featureless cerulean orbs), attempts to read my mind, but he's no Beholder, and does no Endurance damage before Psi-screen blocks him out. He makes a snarky comment about having to put the War on Chaos on hold for the sake of my 'treasure hunt', and I diplomatically raise a toast to his victory, privately reflecting that, the way his troops conduct themselves, stopping them from fighting is easily the best way to hinder the advance of the Chaos-master's armies. The Mongoose edit gratuitously changes the wine we drink from 'bitter' to 'rare'.
According to the most up-to-date battle maps, the Chaos-master's forces are only a few hours from the burial grounds where the Lorestones arrived. Having previously blamed me for holding up his war effort, Ironheart now states that holding Tolakos is part of his strategy anyway, and the only reason he and his troops aren't already marching there is that reinforcements are on their way here, and he needs to wait for the survivors. He can spare one guide to take me there, but if the armies of Chaos arrive before Ironheart's forces, we'll have tobutcher each other defend the place on our own.
Ironheart also suggests that we check out the equipment tent before we go. Having relinquished the Obsidian Seal leaves me free to collect one more Special Item, and I have a couple of spaces in my Backpack, so I'll take a look on the off-chance that there's something more useful than the inevitable suicide pills, sideways-firing crossbows and armour with spikes on the inside. The options are almost all weapons, so I replace the arrow I fired at the thing that almost attacked me on the bridge.
I depart, accompanied by my guide Odel, and we enter the forest. Owing to the thick tree canopy overhead, the only growth at ground level is a lichen that produces orange 'berries'. Curing would tell me if they're safe to eat (since Huntmastery, the Discipline that enables me to find food in almost any environment, is obviously not going to be any help in identifying what's edible), but as I don't have it, I can only help myself to a handful or ignore the hunger pangs they have stirred up. Asking Odel is not an option, presumably because there's no way of getting him to understand that I seek sustenance rather than a means of terminating my existence.
Despite having just been told that I'm hungry, I get no 'you must now eat a meal or lose 3 Endurance'. We reach a fallen tree, which Odel recognises as being just a league from our destination, and then Pathsmanship's Admiral Ackbar factor kicks in, drawing my attention to the blowpipe-toting creature lurking in the tree canopy. Let's see if my bow has better range than the blowpipe. Yes, I fell the Agtah sniper without even having to generate a random number. Odel hurries across to check the body, and I keep watch in case the sniper wasn't alone, angling my bow upwards to reduce the risk of Odel's assuming that I plan to make him my next target.
Odel finds nothing of interest on the corpse, and urges me to hurry on. I catch sight of another creature scurrying away, but all that looking for additional enemies in the vicinity left me completely unprepared for taking action against further foes nearby, so it gets away.
At last we reach the burial grounds, which evoke a frisson of fear. Lone Wolf is afraid because they're a bit spooky, and I'm nervous because Odel identifies all the different tombs, and I remember that at some point Joe Dever developed the conviction that trivia quizzes were an important element of interactive fiction.
Near the centre of the burial grounds is the Grand Sepulchre, last resting place of Ironheart's ancestors. Naturally that's where I sense the Lorestones to have landed. When I tell Odel that I need to go in there, he explains that clan law forbids him from accompanying me. He will wait outside for me, though, so I'd better get ready to add another entry to my list of companions who didn't survive to the end of the adventure.
Hurrying over to the entrance, I find a lock divided into four squares. There are patterns of shapes on three of them, and the blank one is made of a soft substance into which it would be easy to inscribe something. A Discipline warns me that drawing the wrong pattern will trigger a trap. The book suggests four possible solutions, one of which matches what I thought the answer should be, and it is indeed the right one. Possibly also a Douglas Adams in-joke. And I'm delighted to see that Mongoose have stopped adding those patronising 'this is the section for having correctly answered the puzzle at section XX' paragraphs.
I enter the Grand Sepulchre and proceed to a chamber containing a statue and an assortment of tombs, only half of them currently in use. I sense that the Lorestones aren't in here (though, what with this chamber having been sealed for decades, common sense should have sufficed to tell me that). and turn my attention to a flight of stairs leading to a portal in the ceiling.
The Sommerswerd vibrates and lights up, so I draw it, and its flames illuminate the portal, indicating that the Lorestones are beyond that. Also, incidentally, diverting me from discovering a magical broadsword that would make an impending battle a good deal less harsh. There are enough sentient swords in fantasy fiction (and gamebooks) to make me wonder if the Sommerswerd might be a little bit possessive of its wielder. But this is metaknowledge. I hurry up the stairs to the portal and open it.
I'm about to clamber out when a shadow falls and I feel a cold wind, causing me to flinch away. Then I hear the unmistakable sound of Odel being added to the list I mentioned four paragraphs ago, and hurry onto the roof to confront 'an unexpected adversary'. This is not somebody known to me, so it's not unexpected in the sense of being an illogical twist that suddenly pits me against the likes of Ironheart, Serocca, the Beholder, T'uk T'ron (having faked his death), Paido or Maouk.
In fact, it's an armoured warrior with a helmet designed to look like a dragon's head, who travelled here on a huge black bird, and looks set to steal the Lorestones, which lie undefended on the mist-wreathed roof of the Sepulchre. The illustration of this scene has its flaws in both editions of the book: the slightly cartoony look of the original picture makes the glow of the Lorestones look like impact lines, as if the warrior has just thrown the Lorestones down, while the newer version suggests that the artist doesn't know what shape a sphere is.
Telling him to leave the Lorestones alone is unlikely to achieve anything worthwhile, so I must attack. The armour makes using the bow more challenging than the last couple of times, but the helmet has eyeholes, so I'll give it a shot. The warrior turns out to be almost as good at dodging missiles as I am. Almost. While the arrow misses his eye, it dents his nose guard, doing superficial damage to the skin below. That's not enough to keep him from grabbing the Lorestones and dropping them into a pouch on his belt, though, so I'll have to use the Sommerswerd on him.
The book makes this out to be a difficult fight, but in reality it takes me just two rounds to wound my foe so badly that he flees, grabbing the rope ladder attached to the bird's saddle and commanding his winged mount to take off. I try to cut loose the pouch containing the Lorestones, and though the warrior tries to fend off my blow, I am partially successful: the pouch is split, and one of the Lorestones falls to the ground near the Sepulchre's entrance. Also, he loses his sword, and possibly the use of the hand that held it. However, he manages to retain the second Lorestone, and the bird carries him out of bow range before I can ready another arrow.
When I wake up, my ears immediately tell me that the storm is over, and that a large winged creature is flying close by. Emerging from the cairn, I discover that there are, in fact, six large winged creatures flying close by. They look like dragons, and are being ridden by large, hairless, gold-skinned humanoids. As Ztuul's skeleton suggested a height of around nine feet, I'm guessing that these big fellers are of the same species. And they're hunting something on the ground. Not me - at least, not yet. Climbing to the top of the cairn, I can see that the airborne sextet are hunting a brace of big red lizards. One of the lizards heads in my direction, and draws the hunters' attention to me.
They land close by, and a few approach. Their leader asks me something in an unfamiliar language, and the word 'Ztuul' in there strongly suggests that he wants to know what I'm doing on top of the tomb. Pathsmanship again aids with comprehension, indicating that he's asking why I have violated the sacred tomb of the revered hunter Ztuul. Awkward, but it could be worse - at least I haven't broken into the eternal prison of some powerful undead necromancer who's been awaiting the opportunity to break free and wreak a terrible revenge on the descendants of his captors. That kind of situation rarely ends well.
Another of the hunters asks how I managed to get here on my own and with no means of transportation, and I sense that, rather than using their native tongue, these beings are speaking to me in a second language which they assume me to know. This suggests that there are people more like me somewhere relatively close by, and that relations between the two species are at least civil. Though my having broken into the tomb could cause a diplomatic incident, so I'd better explain that I'm from another world, and my having sought shelter from the storm in the tomb should not be held against the locals to whom I bear a resemblance.
The hunters are sceptical, but intrigued by my appearance and voice. Maybe I'm not that much like whoever speaks the language in which I'm being addressed - though still closer in appearance to them than to the hunters. The leader tells me that his people are the Yoacor, and I can tell that what follows is intended as a boast, even if the references mean nothing to me. Masters of the Abaxial of Czenos, eh? That's... a thing. Probably. Could be handy to know if I get drawn into a game of Scrabble while seeking the Lorestones.
The Yoacor leader states his intention to take me to the Beholder and see what he makes of my story. This seems my best chance of getting away from the wilderness that surrounds me, so I agree to accompany him. The subsequent ride on dragonback takes quite some time, though with no cycle of day and night, it's hard to judge exactly how long. I doze off twice, but don't have to eat at any point - not that that tells me a great deal, given the inconsistent way in which the Lone Wolf books handle the need for food.
Eventually the desolation gives way to grassland interspersed with marshes, then hills and valleys, before we pass between a couple of mountains to a crater with a city in it. A fairly lengthy description follows, and I guess the 'fragrant, tree-like plants' lining the avenues must have a very strong scent if I can perceive it from this height. We land on a platform attached to the citadel, and the Yoacor leader takes me to a room and telepathically advises me to wait, indicating a room where I can rest while he sees the Beholder. I check out the other room in case there's food or healing to be found in it.
There is food. Whether or not it's something I can safely eat remains to be seen, and it's Curing rather than Huntmastery that would provide a hint about what to avoid. Well, sooner or later I'm likely to have to sample the local produce, so I might as well start now. And not only is it edible: it's restorative, making good the damage sustained by my journey through the Shadow Gate. There's enough left for a Meal, so I add it to my Backpack.
Returning to the first room, I spend a couple of hours staring out of the window, and then have another nap. The Yoacor leader wakes me for that meeting with the Beholder, and as I'm being escorted to it, I indulge in speculation about the doubtless powerful and wise being with whom I am to speak, convincing myself that he'll be able to help me find the Lorestones and get home. It consequently comes as a shock to find that he looks a lot like the Mekon. As a reader, not Lone Wolf, I am decidedly uncomfortable with the attitudes implicit within the text. Equating physical strength with wisdom and goodness is already dodgy, and it gets worse when the Beholder's crippled body is said to be 'loathsome' and 'repulsive'. If I remember rightly, there's worse to come yet.
Speaking a language similar to my native tongue, the Beholder urges me not to judge by appearances. Divination takes me to section 291, where I sense that he is powerful, but could be a force for good or evil. And his expressed desire to show me some of the wonders of his realm comes across a lot like a Bond villain showing off his lair to 007.
Carried by a Yoacor guard, the Beholder leads me to the gallery containing the reason for his name: a portal that enables him to view whatever is happening anywhere in the Daziarn. He saw me arrive (and survive the journey, which apparently was not the case with some of the people previously cast into a Shadow Gate), and claims that my bones would be bleaching in the desert if his hunting party hadn't found me. Well, I might have died but for their arrival, but I doubt that my flesh would have decayed quite so rapidly, and as the Yoacor were not expecting to find me, I am sceptical regarding the Beholder's implication that he sent them to rescue me.
Activating his Beholdamatic ('spying machine' is such a prejudicial descriptor), the Beholder shows me the world in which I am apparently to spend the rest of my life. Well, actually he shows me a panorama that includes my home universe as well as his own realm, the aforementioned Abaxial of Czenos, which he claims to shape as he wishes and populate with beings embodying his ideals. And then, perhaps wondering if I disapprove of his ways, he tries to probe my mind. Psi-screen reduces the damage thereby inflicted to just 1 Endurance, but it's still an intrusion of mental privacy combined with harm that Healing won't fix. He grins, and the text suddenly makes his face out to be grey rather than green. Both editions, incidentally: I am still comparing them, but there's been nothing particularly worthy of mention so far.
Expressing approval of my character, the Beholder notes that, had I not been such a decent chap, he would not have hesitated to get rid of me, "for I will not tolerate the weak and untrustworthy in my realm." No comment. However, as there are some in this world who would wish to destroy me, I must leave this place so that somewhere else can bear the collateral damage. However, I will receive the Beholder's assistance, just to show that my enforced departure is not the same as being got rid of. After all, we wouldn't want people thinking that the arrogant, hypocritical, mind-violating snooper with a god complex considers me a bad sort, now would we?
Knowing where and when I arrived enables him to make a rough calculation of where the Lorestones must have landed. That turns out to be the realm of Vhozada, which can sustain human life, and is the home of a being named Serocca, whom the Beyonder advises me to seek, as she should have more accurate knowledge of the Lorestones' whereabouts. As I'm not able to just jump between realms of the Daziarn, the Beyonder also offers me transportation, with an ominous section transition before the book will let me know why I find the specifics of the impending journey so horrific.
It's a Dimension Door. That's anticlimactic. Okay, so it probably defies multiple laws of physics, and maybe it's uncomfortably similar to the Shadow Gate, but given the build-up and the questionable character of the Beholder, I was half-expecting some kind of slave-drawn Ethetron with live kittens wired into the controls.
Stepping through the portal, I experience edited highlights of the penultimate reel of 2001: A Space Odyssey and lose another 3 Endurance before arriving on a hill overlooking grassy plains and forests. The landscape reminds me of home, prompting a wave of homesickness. And the recent scarcity of decisions - it must be a dozen sections since I last got to make a choice - reminds me of Jon Sutherland's gamebooks, prompting a wave of ennui.
My Huntmastery-derived telescopic vision indicates that there are some pyramid-like structures on the horizon, so I follow a nearby stream that meanders towards them (and no, a Discipline check does not constitute a proper decision). After a while I reach a clearing with a monolith in it (grey metal, not black slab), and have the option of taking a closer look. 'Investigate the interesting thing or ignore it' is barely a choice, but I'll take what I can get.
Though plant growth indicates the monolith to have been here for some time, it shows no signs of weathering. A transparent spike protrudes from the top, and up close I can hear a humming noise that seems to originate underground. Oh, and the ambush-detecting function of Pathsmanship lets me know that I've just triggered a silent alarm, and hostile creatures are approaching. I shan't wait for them: there's plenty of unavoidable combat later in the book, and I'm not so bored at having had few opportunities to determine my actions of late that I'd choose to get into an unnecessary fight just for the sake of a little action.
And it's too late: a group of hairy brutes with spears is already close enough to cut off my return to the stream. I could try using my bow, but that term 'group' is unhelpfully vague - if we're talking just a handful, I could potentially deal with them before they get within poking range, but a mob in excess of a dozen would still be a threat even if I could take down one with each arrow. Maybe I should see if Invisibility can help me hide well enough that they blunder straight past me on their way to the monolith, and I can sneak off while they're checking its immediate surroundings.
Yes, that works. I hurry along the stream until I reach some hills, and as I reach the top of one, I see something, though I have to turn to another section to find out what it is. As with my means of travelling to Vhozada, the revelation is rather less impressive than the section transition implied. A city of pyramid-like dwellings, its streets teeming with creatures like those that came to investigate the alarm at the monolith. My Sixth Sense informs me that the sky-grey citadel near the centre of the city is the home of Serocca, so I'm going to have to go in.
There are a couple of those creatures guarding the main gate, but I see no reason to seek an alternate entrance. It'd be different if I'd fought with the ones who came to investigate the alarm I triggered, but I have no blood on my hands in this realm, and a direct approach seems like the simplest way of getting to where I need to go.
As I approach, the guards close the gate and relocate to the battlements before challenging me in a twittering tongue. They want to know who I am, and why I've come to their city, and I explain that the Beholder sent me and I need to speak with Serocca. Alarmingly, here Animal Mastery would be just as effective as the advanced language skills provided by Pathsmanship as regards enabling me to understand what is being said. The Mongoose edit makes things worse, changing the guards' response into the sort of pidgin that frequently gets used to portray people with non-pink skin as being primitive and intellectually inferior. To add to the uncomfortably racist-ish tropes, the crowds through which I am escorted to the citadel combine fascination at my different-ness with a complete disregard for personal space, and their pawing and prodding causes further Endurance damage.
Serocca turns out to be a feline anthropomorph. She greets me by name, and invites me to join her and discuss what brings me here. Psi-screen lets me know that a psychic barrier holds her prisoner here: I can pass through it without trouble, but if she were to try and leave, the resultant explosion would destroy the whole city.
I ask how she knows who I am, and, using a remote viewing device of her own, she explains that I am the chosen one of Destiny, and my actions will determine whether good or evil prevails in both my own world and the Daziarn. This is the prelude to another info-dump: the Chaos-master is causing trouble again, only now he's raising up armies and laying waste to the more civilised regions of the Daziarn, which is a bit of a step up from the 'forcing two people who really don't get on with each other to travel together' shenanigans that used to amuse him.
The book then gets me to actually regret being offered a choice. As Serocca explains about the carnage being wrought by the forces of Chaos, it becomes clear that she is particularly distressed about the destruction of one specific region, and I have the option of intruding on her grief with questions that are none of my business. As I recall, the sordid tale she would recount if I were to stick my nose in reveals the Beholder to be a thoroughly abhorrent individual who doesn't get that no means no, but makes out that he's a tragic figure because his refusal to uphold his end of the vile bargain into which he entered led to his being transformed from an arrogant jock into a sickly nerd.
Getting back to the reason for my visit, Serocca shows me the rough vicinity of where the Lorestones arrived. It's a forest, not far from the ancient burial grounds of Tolakos, and also close to where the Chaos-master's armies are currently encroaching. I'm all set to go there and try to recover the Lorestones, but Serocca urges patience while she shows me the way to the Shadow Gate that will take me back to Magnamund. Yes, there is one, but a key is required to use it. Luckily for me, that's not a literal key - what is required is power, and the Lorestones will provide that.
There's quite some distance between where the Lorestones are and the location of the Shadow Gate, and Serocca hands me a Map to aid with navigation between the two places. The Mongoose edition states that if I'm already at capacity on Special Items, I must discard something to make room for the Map, so I ditch the Sommerswerd. No, just kidding - actually I dispose of the Gorodon horn that I picked up and never found a use for last book. I was tempted, though, as possessing the Sommerswerd makes the hardest fight in this book significantly more difficult. However, getting rid of it would add complications in some later books, and I'm not quite ready to give up on this series in disgust.
Serocca urges me to rest while she makes preparations for my journey, and I finally get to regain the 6 points of Endurance that I unavoidably lost and couldn't replenish with Healing since I last ate. Waking me once all is ready, she explains that she's arranged for a company of guards to escort me to where I need to go, and gives me an Obsidian Seal that will identify me to the locals as an ally. This is, of course, another mandatory Special Item that forces me to dispose of something else to make room for it. Don't suppose I can chuck the Map, can I? Well, I think Nexus has rendered my Platinum Amulet surplus to requirements, so I'll bin that. You know, inventory management is the only remotely meaningful choice I've had since I reached the city gates.
The book has me turn from section 210 to section 211. That really does highlight just how pointless the bulk of the jumping from section to section in this book has been. And as it comes just after a complete restoration of Endurance, it's not even as if this transition enables use of Curing or Healing. Okay, time for a spot of research. My gamebook manager makes it easy to track these things, so I'm taking a look at how the book has been structured thus far. It turns out that I've been through exactly 50 sections. 30 of them end with a single direction to turn to another section. Another 10 of them end in Discipline checks. That leaves just 10 actual choices (plus a couple of 'decide what potentially useful item you're going to chuck out' moments). I recognise that some of those single-direction transitions are to make paths through the book converge, cutting down on duplication of text, but around half of them are just there to break up lengthy passages of not-getting-to-take-action and make it less obvious how little agency the reader has. It also helps with ensuring that the book has the requisite 350 sections, of course, but there are better ways of reaching the target.
Serocca introduces me to T'uk T'ron, the leader of the company that will escort me to my destination. He speaks, and the Mongoose edit renders his greeting in stereotypical-ignorant-savage-ese. He then leads me outdoors, and I board one of three chariots. After spending ages going into way too much detail about things, the book now goes too far the other way, giving the onipa which draw the chariots the vague description of 'strange, horse-like creatures'. Strange how? Are they green? Six-legged? Horned? Levitating purple arthropods that are only 'horse-like' in that they obviously serve the same function here that horses do in Magnamund?
We travel for a few hours, and then catch sight of a village. T'uk T'ron asks if I want to stop for a meal. That means there's probably another 'you must eat or lose Endurance' coming up, and as I'd rather not waste the Endurance-restoring food I got at the Beholder's, I think I'll stop and sample the local delicacies. The villagers are pleased to see us, and an elderly fortune-teller shows an interest in me. On this occasion the 'primitive' language is already present in the original, and as it's T'uk T'ron who's speaking, there is a jarring contrast with his earlier eloquence (though I'd have preferred it if Joe Dever had corrected the mismatch by improving the syntax here rather than making the earlier exchanges equally 'funny foreigner').
Getting my fortune told hasn't been that helpful in the past, but I'll give it a go anyway. The outcome of this reading is randomised, and T'uk T'ron translates the fortune-tellers words for me. His language is slightly simplistic in the original text, and dumbed-down for the Mongoose edit. Either way, the fortune indicates that I am to dream of when I was younger. This dream will make things clearer to me, and strengthen me against my enemies. Oh, goody, more exposition on the way!
We set off again, and approach a bridge across a river. Sensing that something is amiss, I use the telescopic vision provided by Huntmastery, and see that a hole has been made in the bridge and then crudely concealed. I warn T'uk T'ron, who is able to call a halt in the nick of time. Pathsmanship's ambush-detecting capability then kicks in, alerting me to the presence of enemies in the trees. Again I let T'uk T'ron know of the danger, and he warns the guards to take cover behind the chariots while he and his driver take a closer look at the bridge. I choose to accompany them, and see that the damage can be repaired: it was intended to hold us up, not put the bridge completely out of action.
Apparently forgetting what I told him, T'uk T'ron summons the rest of the guards to assist with the repairs, at which point the lurking agents of Chaos emerge from the trees, meaning to put the chariots out of action. T'uk T'ron and his troops hurry back to defend the chariots from the attacking Agtah, shambling fusions of human and animal, but I stay to try and fix the bridge and make it possible for us to resume our journey and flee from our assailants.
Most of the damage is trivial, but there is one vital supporting beam that's out o' skew on t' treadle. The telekinetic side of Nexus enables me to manoeuvre it back into place, but as I'm doing so, a sinister laugh warns of trouble, and the combination of Divination and Huntmastery enables me to pinpoint the location of the creature preparing to attack me. Hurriedly drawing my bow, I put an arrow through the lurking beast's frontal lobe, and then turn my attention to the nearby battle. It's not going well for my companions, and T'uk T'ron heads for me and tries to tell me something. I move closer, and hear him yell that they've been defeated and I should save myself. I do as directed, while he and his surviving guards do what they can to buy me more time.
For some hours I continue on my way, halting when I catch sight of three humanoids watering their steeds at a pool of water. Divination or Pathsmanship tells me that they're scouts from the army with which Serocca advised me to hook up, sent to meet me and escort me to their leader, Lorkon Ironheart. Sneaking up on them looks like a great way to experience a friendly fire incident, so I step into the open - and one jumpy idiot promptly looses a crossbow bolt at me. Randomness determines whether or not it hits, though Huntmastery and my level of experience improve the odds. As it turns out, I get the best possible outcome even before modifiers, but it's good to know that most veteran players are at no risk of a fatal outcome here.
Dodging the bolt (which is a more narrow miss in the Mongoose text), I disappear into the undergrowth and discreetly move closer to the scouts. Divination will allow me to contact them telepathically, and even if they react with hostility again, they won't be able to pinpoint my location as well as they would if I were to call out, stand up, or raise a banner that reads, "Hold your fire - I'm the person you were sent to collect, and prophesied saviour of the region, you trigger-happy fools!" Not that the latter is suggested as an option.
It turns out that I can only initiate telepathic contact with people who possess some psychic ability, and two of the scouts have none. Nor, judging by their actions, do they have much in the way of intelligence, either, and the third isn't much smarter, neglecting to point out that I'm the man they've been sent to meet until his companions are on the verge of shooting me down after I obey his spoken instructions and surrender. I'm willing to bet that the main reason the Chaos-master's troops are gaining so much ground in this region is because Ironheart's troops are constantly killing each other over such provocative actions as standing nearby, wearing their uniforms and breathing.
As the bow-wielding cretins are still suspicious, I urge them to check my pocket for proof of who I am. They find the Obsidian Seal and
Following another journey, during which I imagine the scouts to be constantly keeping their bows trained on me, each other, and themselves, we reach an encampment in a forest. Somehow we manage to get beyond the perimeter wall without being puréed, flattened and pulverised as a precautionary measure, and (doubtless following a brief pause in which our approach momentarily distracts the guards from throttling each other) enter Ironheart's tent.
Inside the tent, a couple of nobles are planning battle strategies, perhaps debating the controversial suggestion that their troops try attacking the enemy rather than their own commanders, just for a change. A scout tells one of the officers about how they met me, also mentioning the massacre of my previous escort - not actually taking credit for it, but most likely being ambiguous enough to give the impression that they might have been responsible, lest anybody accuse them of negligence for having only almost killed me a couple of times.
Ironheart, who takes being blue-eyed to extremes (no whites, no pupils, just featureless cerulean orbs), attempts to read my mind, but he's no Beholder, and does no Endurance damage before Psi-screen blocks him out. He makes a snarky comment about having to put the War on Chaos on hold for the sake of my 'treasure hunt', and I diplomatically raise a toast to his victory, privately reflecting that, the way his troops conduct themselves, stopping them from fighting is easily the best way to hinder the advance of the Chaos-master's armies. The Mongoose edit gratuitously changes the wine we drink from 'bitter' to 'rare'.
According to the most up-to-date battle maps, the Chaos-master's forces are only a few hours from the burial grounds where the Lorestones arrived. Having previously blamed me for holding up his war effort, Ironheart now states that holding Tolakos is part of his strategy anyway, and the only reason he and his troops aren't already marching there is that reinforcements are on their way here, and he needs to wait for the survivors. He can spare one guide to take me there, but if the armies of Chaos arrive before Ironheart's forces, we'll have to
Ironheart also suggests that we check out the equipment tent before we go. Having relinquished the Obsidian Seal leaves me free to collect one more Special Item, and I have a couple of spaces in my Backpack, so I'll take a look on the off-chance that there's something more useful than the inevitable suicide pills, sideways-firing crossbows and armour with spikes on the inside. The options are almost all weapons, so I replace the arrow I fired at the thing that almost attacked me on the bridge.
I depart, accompanied by my guide Odel, and we enter the forest. Owing to the thick tree canopy overhead, the only growth at ground level is a lichen that produces orange 'berries'. Curing would tell me if they're safe to eat (since Huntmastery, the Discipline that enables me to find food in almost any environment, is obviously not going to be any help in identifying what's edible), but as I don't have it, I can only help myself to a handful or ignore the hunger pangs they have stirred up. Asking Odel is not an option, presumably because there's no way of getting him to understand that I seek sustenance rather than a means of terminating my existence.
Despite having just been told that I'm hungry, I get no 'you must now eat a meal or lose 3 Endurance'. We reach a fallen tree, which Odel recognises as being just a league from our destination, and then Pathsmanship's Admiral Ackbar factor kicks in, drawing my attention to the blowpipe-toting creature lurking in the tree canopy. Let's see if my bow has better range than the blowpipe. Yes, I fell the Agtah sniper without even having to generate a random number. Odel hurries across to check the body, and I keep watch in case the sniper wasn't alone, angling my bow upwards to reduce the risk of Odel's assuming that I plan to make him my next target.
Odel finds nothing of interest on the corpse, and urges me to hurry on. I catch sight of another creature scurrying away, but all that looking for additional enemies in the vicinity left me completely unprepared for taking action against further foes nearby, so it gets away.
At last we reach the burial grounds, which evoke a frisson of fear. Lone Wolf is afraid because they're a bit spooky, and I'm nervous because Odel identifies all the different tombs, and I remember that at some point Joe Dever developed the conviction that trivia quizzes were an important element of interactive fiction.
Near the centre of the burial grounds is the Grand Sepulchre, last resting place of Ironheart's ancestors. Naturally that's where I sense the Lorestones to have landed. When I tell Odel that I need to go in there, he explains that clan law forbids him from accompanying me. He will wait outside for me, though, so I'd better get ready to add another entry to my list of companions who didn't survive to the end of the adventure.
Hurrying over to the entrance, I find a lock divided into four squares. There are patterns of shapes on three of them, and the blank one is made of a soft substance into which it would be easy to inscribe something. A Discipline warns me that drawing the wrong pattern will trigger a trap. The book suggests four possible solutions, one of which matches what I thought the answer should be, and it is indeed the right one. Possibly also a Douglas Adams in-joke. And I'm delighted to see that Mongoose have stopped adding those patronising 'this is the section for having correctly answered the puzzle at section XX' paragraphs.
I enter the Grand Sepulchre and proceed to a chamber containing a statue and an assortment of tombs, only half of them currently in use. I sense that the Lorestones aren't in here (though, what with this chamber having been sealed for decades, common sense should have sufficed to tell me that). and turn my attention to a flight of stairs leading to a portal in the ceiling.
The Sommerswerd vibrates and lights up, so I draw it, and its flames illuminate the portal, indicating that the Lorestones are beyond that. Also, incidentally, diverting me from discovering a magical broadsword that would make an impending battle a good deal less harsh. There are enough sentient swords in fantasy fiction (and gamebooks) to make me wonder if the Sommerswerd might be a little bit possessive of its wielder. But this is metaknowledge. I hurry up the stairs to the portal and open it.
I'm about to clamber out when a shadow falls and I feel a cold wind, causing me to flinch away. Then I hear the unmistakable sound of Odel being added to the list I mentioned four paragraphs ago, and hurry onto the roof to confront 'an unexpected adversary'. This is not somebody known to me, so it's not unexpected in the sense of being an illogical twist that suddenly pits me against the likes of Ironheart, Serocca, the Beholder, T'uk T'ron (having faked his death), Paido or Maouk.
In fact, it's an armoured warrior with a helmet designed to look like a dragon's head, who travelled here on a huge black bird, and looks set to steal the Lorestones, which lie undefended on the mist-wreathed roof of the Sepulchre. The illustration of this scene has its flaws in both editions of the book: the slightly cartoony look of the original picture makes the glow of the Lorestones look like impact lines, as if the warrior has just thrown the Lorestones down, while the newer version suggests that the artist doesn't know what shape a sphere is.
Telling him to leave the Lorestones alone is unlikely to achieve anything worthwhile, so I must attack. The armour makes using the bow more challenging than the last couple of times, but the helmet has eyeholes, so I'll give it a shot. The warrior turns out to be almost as good at dodging missiles as I am. Almost. While the arrow misses his eye, it dents his nose guard, doing superficial damage to the skin below. That's not enough to keep him from grabbing the Lorestones and dropping them into a pouch on his belt, though, so I'll have to use the Sommerswerd on him.
The book makes this out to be a difficult fight, but in reality it takes me just two rounds to wound my foe so badly that he flees, grabbing the rope ladder attached to the bird's saddle and commanding his winged mount to take off. I try to cut loose the pouch containing the Lorestones, and though the warrior tries to fend off my blow, I am partially successful: the pouch is split, and one of the Lorestones falls to the ground near the Sepulchre's entrance. Also, he loses his sword, and possibly the use of the hand that held it. However, he manages to retain the second Lorestone, and the bird carries him out of bow range before I can ready another arrow.
A discordant thrumming noise heralds the arrival of some Agtah. I hurry downstairs and outside, hoping to find the Lorestone before any of the Chaos-master's minions can get their paws on it, and Healing has just taken care of the minor wound the warrior inflicted on me when a couple of Agtah pounce. My Huntmastery keeps me from incurring a Combat Skill penalty due to the surprise attack, but some abysmal random numbers cause me to take 8 Endurance damage in the course of shredding the brutes. Damage that is healed moments later as I find and retrieve the dropped Lorestone, but even though the text states that 'the wisdom contained within the Lorestone is infused into [my] being', I don't get to select a new Discipline.
Heading for the Sepulchre entrance, I trip on the warrior's sword, which inflicts a nasty cut on my boot, though my foot is unscathed. At this point the limitations on carrying weapons become tiresome: I don't think I can take this with me to keep it out of the hands of other enemies unless I ditch my bow or magic spear. The bow is useful, and abandoning the spear would be just as inadvisable as leaving the sword lying around. Memo to myself: in the increasingly unlikely event of my ever trying to play through this series from earlier on again, put the spear into storage after book 9.
I'm about to hurl the sword away when I spot that it's engraved with an image I recognise from what Serocca showed me earlier. The same picture is engraved on the gate of Haagadar, the abandoned city that houses the Shadow Gate that can take me home. Not so abandoned, if the warrior came from there, and the obvious place to check out when I can turn my attention to retrieving the last Lorestone.
The arrival of more of the Chaos-master's troops brings me back to the current situation, leaving unresolved the question of what I did with the blade. I'm going to assume that it tumbled through a quantum indeterminacy into the box housing Schroedinger's cat. Allowing the advancing monstrosities to surround me would be a bad idea, so I resume my rush to the relative sanctuary of the Sepulchre, but three fat blobs with armour and tentacles get in my way.
Sensing that Ironheart's army is en route, I figure that I need to shelter somewhere until they arrive and distract the chaos-creatures. Only the Sepulchre and Baylon's Tomb are defensible structures, and as I remember having had to solve two different doorlock puzzles when I played this book before, I guess I'm better off heading for Baylon's Tomb rather than trying to fight through the tentacled trio.
Two Agtah armed with chunks of masonry attempt to intercept me, but I dismember them so easily, there's no need to disturb the Combat Results Table. As I thought, there's a puzzle lock on this tomb as well, and this one is also booby-trapped. This one's a bit trickier: I can rule out two of the four suggested solutions straight off, but neither of the remaining options is obviously right - they're just not as blatantly wrong as the ones I've dismissed. Applying 'standard sneakiness of multiple-choice question author'-based logic makes one of those two seem more plausible, so I give it a go... and it's right. Phew!
Now I've beaten it, let's check online to see what reasoning others have come up with for the solution... Frankly, none of the explanations I can find make much more sense than my own. The consensus seems to be that, while that has to be the right one, it's a bit vague why it is. And if I were the type to post animated .gifs, I'd have to use a flabbergasted Nathan Fillion in response to the person who said that the triangle in one of the patterns is not a triangle, it's a triangular portion of a partially unseen square.
Anyway, I'm inside the tomb, and have closed the door behind me. There's a sarcophagus, and a flight of stairs leading to the roof. Should I search the place, or head straight up top? It seems that the Lorestone doesn't count as any sort of Item, inventory-wise, so I still have space for stuff. As long as Divination doesn't take a break from detecting traps (there's precedent), I can't see what harm having a look around could do, and it'll help pass the time until Ironheart and his troops arrive. And the chamber contains nothing of any practical use, so I just take the stairs to see what's going on outside.
Ironheart and his troops have arrived, and the 'attack the enemy, not your allies' contingent has prevailed. They rout the attacking Agtah, but a roaring sound indicates that their victory may be short-lived. The sound of something huge approaching terrifies the troops, and then a couple of trees are torn aside to reveal the Chaos-master, a 30-foot-tall being whose form is in constant flux. Ironheart, perhaps missing the feeling of being constantly under threat of death, challenges the Chaos-master to single combat. After mocking him, the Chaos-master accepts the challenge, uprooting a tree to use as a club. For a while Ironheart is able to evade the blows, but eventually he stumbles. Fortuitously, this happens while he's close to Baylon's Tomb, and stomping across in readiness for delivering the coup de grace brings the Chaos-master within range of my sword. I get in a palpable hit, but it's not as effective as it could have been, because the Chaos-master senses its 'goodly' power and dodges well enough to turn what could have been a killing blow into just a wound. And now I have to finish the fight.
The Chaos-master's stats have been toned down in the Mongoose edit. Still no pushover, but that 3-point reduction in Combat Skill could make a big difference. I swallow the Combat Skill-enhancing Alether berries I've been saving for just this battle, and I'm going to use Psi-surge, as Mindblast won't affect the Chaos-master. The rules governing Healing (rather than Curing) don't mention the Endurance cost of using Psi-surge (largely because Psi-surge wasn't around back when Healing was being mentioned in the rules), but I think it can be classified as 'points lost in combat', so if I survive this battle and there are more than enough combat-free sections before the next fight to heal whatever damage is unambiguously inflicted by the Chaos-master, I should be able to go on recovering Endurance.
Well, this is interesting. Using the stats from the original text, I die. Using the Mongoose stats, I survive with 2 Endurance remaining. So do I go with the edit and play on, or treat that as a defeat? Either way, I'm taking a break here and posting what I've achieved so far. Depending on feedback received, my next post will either see a nearly-dead Lone Wolf continuing this adventure or move on to cover my playing the next Fighting Fantazine mini-adventure.
Oh, and now I've been reminded of the full healing that's provided at Serocca's, one of the strongest arguments against including the book 10 mini-adventure in the sequence of events has been undermined, so if anyone wants to argue the case for my having another go at Echoes of Lost Light before replaying this book, now is the time to say something.
