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, , In 2015, worsening conditions in the world’s climate led to the first Global Economic Conference. It was agreed to implement measures intended to reverse industrial damage to the ecology and replenish the ozone layer. By 2031, an array of weather control satellites were in orbit. For added efficiency, and as a mark of worldwide co- operation, these were placed under the control of a supercomputer network called Gaia: the Global Artificial Intelligence Assembly. The Earth’s climate began to show steady improvement. The first hint of disaster came early in 2037, when Gaia shut down inexplicably for a period of seventeen minutes. Normal operation was resumed but the system continued to suffer ‘glitches’. One such glitch resulted in Paris being subjected to a two-day heat wave of such intensity that the pavements cracked. After several months, the fault was identified. A computer virus had been introduced into Gaia by unknown means. The system’s designer began programming an antivirus but died before his work was completed. The crisis grew throughout that year until finally, following the death of five thousand people in a flash flood along the Bangladesh coastline, the Gaia project was officially denounced. Unfortunately it was no longer possible to shut it down. By the mid twenty-first century, global weather conditions were in chaos owing to Gaia’s sporadic operation. Ice sheets advanced further each year. Australia was subject to virtually constant torrential rain. The centre of Asia had become an arid wasteland. The political situation reflected the ravages of the climate, with wars flaring continually around the globe. Late in 2054, computer scientists in London tried to hack into Gaia and locate the replicating viruses in the program. Gaia, detecting this, interpreted the action as an attack on its program and retaliated by taking over a range of defence networks which allowed it to launch a nuclear strike. London was completely destroyed. By the end of the century Gaia had routed itself into all major computer networks, taking control of weather, communications and weapons systems all across the planet. Periods of lucidity and hospitable climate were interspersed with hurricanes and arctic blizzards. The US President gave an interview in which he likened Gaia to a living entity: ‘She was intended as mankind’s protective mother, but this “mother” has gone mad.’ Spiralling decline in the world’s fortunes left much of humanity on the brink of extinction. The population fell rapidly until only a few million people remained scattered around the globe – mostly in cities where food could still be artificially produced. It is now the year 2300. The rich stand aloof, disporting themselves with forced gaiety and waiting for the end. The poor inhabit lawless slums where disease is rife. Between the cities, the land lies under a blanket of snow and ice. No one expects humanity to last another century. This is truly ‘the end of history’. [[Choose one of these characters|characterCreation]] You can now pick a character or create your own. Explanations of the twelve available skills can be found at the bottom of the page. <<nobr>><<link "The Explorer" prologue>> <<set $player.closecombat to true>> <<set $player.lore to true>> <<set $player.streetwise to true>> <<set $player.survival to true>> <<set $player.money to 20>> <<set $player.lifePointsMax to 11>> <<set $player.lifePoints to 11>> <</link>><</nobr>> Skills: @@.skill;Close Combat@@, @@.skill;Lore@@, @@.skill;Streetwise@@, @@.skill;Survival@@. Profile: Others might mourn the collapse of civilization, but for you it only opens up new areas of mystery in the world. Life Points: 11 Money: 20 scads <<nobr>><<link "The Bounty Hunter" prologue>> <<set $player.cunning to true>> <<set $player.piloting to true>> <<set $player.shooting to true>> <<set $player.streetwise to true>> <<set $player.money to 40>> <<set $player.lifePointsMax to 10>> <<set $player.lifePoints to 10>> <<set $inventory.push({name:"Barysal Gun", charges: 6})>> <</link>><</nobr>> Skills: @@.skill;Cunning@@, @@.skill;Piloting@@, @@.skill;Shooting@@, @@.skill;Streetwise@@ Profile: Times are hard and the strong prey upon the weak. It is left to the likes of you to enforce the law. Life Points: 10 Possessions: Barysal gun (6 charges) Money: 40 scads <<nobr>><<link "The Spy" prologue>> <<set $player.agility to true>> <<set $player.cybernetics to true>> <<set $player.roguery to true>> <<set $player.streetwise to true>> <<set $player.money to 30>> <<set $player.lifePointsMax to 10>> <<set $player.lifePoints to 10>> <</link>><</nobr>> Skills: @@.skill;Agility@@, @@.skill;Cybernetics@@, @@.skill;Roguery@@, @@.skill;Streetwise@@ Profile: Even as the world dies a slow death, governments vie with one another for the wealth and power that remain. You steal secrets and trade them to the highest bidder. Life Points: 10 Money: 30 scads <<nobr>><<link "The Trader" prologue>> <<set $player.esp to true>> <<set $player.lore to true>> <<set $player.shooting to true>> <<set $player.streetwise to true>> <<set $player.money to 35>> <<set $player.lifePointsMax to 10>> <<set $player.lifePoints to 10>> <<set $inventory.push({name:"Barysal Gun", charges: 6})>> <<set $inventory.push({name: "Psionic Focus"})>> <</link>><</nobr>> Skills: @@.skill;Esp@@, @@.skill;Lore@@, @@.skill;Shooting@@, @@.skill;Streetwise@@. Profile: Few dare cross the icy wastes between cities, so a daring adventurer can make a tidy profit. Life Points: 10 Possessions: Barysal gun (6 charges); psionic focus Money: 35 scads <<nobr>><<link "The Visionary" prologue>> <<set $player.closecombat to true>> <<set $player.cunning to true>> <<set $player.esp to true>> <<set $player.paradoxing to true>> <<set $player.money to 30>> <<set $player.lifePointsMax to 10>> <<set $player.lifePoints to 10>> <<set $inventory.push({name: "Psionic Focus"})>> <</link>><</nobr>> Skills: @@.skill;Close Combat@@, @@.skill;Cunning@@, @@.skill;Esp@@, @@.skill;Paradoxing@@. Profile: Cursed with second sight, you know that mankind has no future unless something is done to save the world. Life Points: 10 Possessions: Psionic focus Money: 30 scads <<nobr>><<link "The Scientist" prologue>> <<set $player.cybernetics to true>> <<set $player.lore to true>> <<set $player.piloting to true>> <<set $player.survival to true>> <<set $player.money to 30>> <<set $player.lifePointsMax to 10>> <<set $player.lifePoints to 10>> <</link>><</nobr>> Skills: @@.skill;Cybernetics@@, @@.skill;Lore@@, @@.skill;Piloting@@, @@.skill;Survival@@ Profile: Most people understand nothing of the machines created by their ancestors, but you’ve learned that knowledge is power. Life Points: 10 Money: 30 scads <<nobr>><<link "The Mutant" prologue>> <<set $player.agility to true>> <<set $player.cunning to true>> <<set $player.paradoxing to true>> <<set $player.roguery to true>> <<set $player.money to 30>> <<set $player.lifePointsMax to 10>> <<set $player.lifePoints to 10>> <<set $inventory.push({name: "Psionic Focus"})>> <</link>><</nobr>> Skills: @@.skill;Agility@@, @@.skill;Cunning@@, @@.skill;Paradoxing@@, @@.skill;Roguery@@. Profile: Born with strange powers, you are more than human. Others would kill you if they knew your secret. Life Points: 10 Possessions: Psionic focus Money: 30 scads Alternatively [[design your own character|ownCharacter]]. Glossary of Skills: <table id="skills"> <tr> <td>@@.skill;Agility@@<br>The ability to perform acrobatic feats, run, climb, balance, and leap. A character with this skill is nimble and dexterous.</td> <td>@@.skill;Paradoxing@@<br>The ability to mentally affect the normal laws of nature. A slower and less reliable technique than @@.skill;Esp@@, but withsometimes miraculous effects. You must possess a psionic focus to use this skill.</td> </tr> <tr> <td>@@.skill;Close Combat@@<br>The use of a range of martial arts incorporating elements of karate, jujitsu, and t'ai-chi.</td> <td>@@.skill;Piloting@@<br>The ability to handle virtually any vehicle from an air-sled up to a space shuttle.</td> </tr> <tr> <td>@@.skill;Cunning@@<br>The ability to think on your feet and devise clever ploys for getting out of trouble. Useful in countless situations.</td> <td>@@.skill;Roguery@@<br>Stealth and espionage skills: picking pockets, opening locks, and skulking unseen in the shadows.</td> </tr> <tr> <td>@@.skill;Cybernetics@@<br>The ability to program and operate computers – almost a forgotten science in the apocalyptic world of the twenty-third century.</td> <td>@@.skill;Shooting@@<br>Expertise with long-range weaponry. You must possess a charged barysal gun to use this skill.</td> </tr> <tr> <td>@@.skill;Esp@@<br>The ability to sense danger and read other people’s minds. You must possess a psionic focus to use this skill.</td> <td>@@.skill;Streetwise@@<br>With this skill you are never at a loss in cities. What others see as the squalor and menace of narrow neon-lit streets is home to you.</td> </tr> <tr> <td>@@.skill;Lore@@<br>A combination of history, legend and general knowledge which gives you a good basis for dealing with the unknown.</td> <td>@@.skill;Survival@@<br>A talent which enables you to cope in desolate and uninhabited regions: forests, deserts, swamps, and mountain peaks.</td> </tr> </table> The Etruscan Inn lies in the shadow of the Appenine Mountains, beside a frozen waterfall, sheltered from the wind by a high ridge of bare black rock. You sit at a long window and gaze out towards the mountains. Dusk is melting the sharp outlines of the crags, filling the valleys with blue gloom. The moon glimmers faintly under racing black clouds. Later this evening there will be more snow. Turning from the window, you let the curtain fall back and make your way across the dingy room. Travellers sit at the sides, noisily gambling and sipping hard liquor the colour of fire. Many are hunters and traders from the plains which slope down from here to the Ligurian Sea. Others may have been here much longer: thin old men and women who found meagre employment. The Etruscan Inn is a famous stop-over for those who undertake the perilous Appenine crossing. If a few such, gazing up at the ice capped peaks, found their spirits daunted and chose to stay, who can blame them? You sometimes wonder yourself why you bother to press on across the world in the teeth of such hardship and poverty. The story of how the inn came to be here is a strange one, even for these bizarre times. The building was originally an air cruiser which crashed in the mountains two hundred years ago. An ancestor of the present innkeeper turned the wreckage into a hostelry for wayfarers. The power unit had not been damaged in the crash, so the inn has electricity – a rarity in the modern world. Even better, several of the air-cruiser’s careteks were salvaged. These are robots which continually clean and repair the structure, sturdily carrying out the tasks they were programmed to do centuries ago. Pushing aside a drape, you step into another room of the inn. On the wall, a screen flickers with scenes from an old film. The innkeeper is sitting with a few others at the back of the room, loudly commenting on the action. You step over a caretek which resembles a long metal cockroach. It extends polishing pads to clean the floor where you were standing. Propping yourself against the wall, you watch the film for a few minutes, but the innkeeper’s shouts and jeers are impossible to ignore. When you complain, he only gives a great gusting laugh and says, ‘There’s no point in getting interested in any film that appears on this screen. The video link comes from a satellite connected to Gaia, who changes channels as the whim strikes her. Sometimes I have seen newsreel footage over a century old. At other times there are films, musical shows, or documentaries. But I have yet to see the end of any programme. There—!’ He points at the screen and, turning, you see that the film has been replaced by a blizzard of grey static. ‘Turn it off, can’t you?’ growls a man from the adjacent room. ‘Some of us would like to get to sleep.’ ‘Turn it off, you say?’ The innkeeper bellows with laughter at this. ‘It hasn’t been off in all the time I’ve been alive. It can’t be turned off. Not unless Gaia decides to take pity on us and give us a few hours’ peace.’ An angry florid-faced man stamps through from the other room and glowers at the screen, which has now changed to show a weather report for the coming month. ‘Preposterous!’ he snarls in outrage. ‘It says New York will be having thunderstorms. There has been no rain in New York for years. It is buried under half a mile of ice!’ The innkeeper only chuckles and goes about his chores. ‘Don’t blame me,’ he says. ‘Everyone knows Gaia is mad.’ The man whose rest was disturbed glares after him and protests: ‘If you can’t turn it off, why not smash the screen? It only shows gibberish anyhow.’ Seeing the man step forward as if to do just that, the innkeeper wags a finger at him. ‘I’d advise you to leave it as it is. Stick wads of wool in your ears if the noise disturbs you. But if you smash the screen, the careteks will spend the whole night repairing it and none of us will get any sleep, what with their scuttling about and the clattering of spare parts.’ Hearing this, the man throws up his arms in exasperation and, gathering his blankets, stomps off to sleep at the far end of the inn. Night falls. The drunken roistering turns to low murmurs, then snores. You huddle on your own bedding and listen to the moaning of the wind outside the fuselage. Tomorrow you have to set out again into the cold. It is not a pleasant prospect. From the adjacent room you can hear the screen crackling with incessant babble. There is part of a game show probably taped before your great-grandfather was born, followed by clips from science fiction films of the twenty-first century. You are thirsty and you cannot sleep. Ignoring the mumbled complaints of the people stretched out around you, you get up and step over them, moving through to the room where the screen is. You sit down. Maybe a half hour of random videos will cure your insomnia. Then the screen changes. It is a news report from the year 2095. The main item concerns the crash of an air cruiser in the Appenine mountains. You sit forward in your seat, intrigued. Pictures taken from the air reveal the broken tangle of wreckage that was later repaired to form this inn. Suddenly the picture changes. ‘In another item today,’ says the announcer’s voice, ‘scientists studying the meteorite that fell in Egypt last month say that it may be the oldest object in the universe. These pictures show the safety suits that are needed to approach the meteorite, which emits radiation of a type never previously identified.’ The scene flickers to a date months later. A reporter is standing at a roadside, an armoured truck blazing in the background. ‘Terrorists of the sect known as the Volentine Watchers today seized the mysterious meteorite as it was being transported to Cairo for further tests. The terrorists, who worship the meteorite which they call the Heart of Volent, have yet to issue a statement.’ The screen crackles again, becoming a rich green colour, the world’s continents outlined in red – the continents as they looked before the sea-level fell and the polar caps crept down to cover them. A warm feminine voice speaks: @@.gaia;‘The Heart of Volent remained in the hands of the cultists for twenty years. They founded the city of Du-En in the Sahara and learned how to tap the Heart’s power, which they used to devastating effect in the Paradox War. Later Du-En suffered civil war and became abandoned. I have now completed analysis of the scientific tests carried out before the Heart was seized by the cultists. These are my findings. If a human were to make direct physical contact with the Heart, this would release the full energy stored within. The effect would be to activate that person’s total psychic potential. In effect they would gain ultimate power over their surroundings. This has been a communication from Gaia. Thank you for your attention.’@@ The screen goes blank and silent for a moment, then starts to show a cartoon. You hardly notice it. You are too awestruck by the realization that you have just heard the voice of Gaia. What she said begins to sink in. Ultimate power... It lies somewhere in the ruined city of Du-En, across the Saharan Ice Wastes. Suddenly wary, you look at the sleeping forms stretched out around the room. Did anyone else hear Gaia’s broadcast? You listen to the snores, the drone of slow regular breathing. No one shows any sign of being awake. Plunged in thought, you return to your blankets and stretch out, but now sleep is even harder to come by. When you finally doze off just a few hours before dawn, your dreams are filled with dreams of the strange meteorite from space and the power that it contains. Will you go to Du-En and seek the Heart? Are you tempted by a power that could change the whole world? If so, turn to [[1]]. You are packed and ready to leave the inn at dawn. Cold grey light seeps in through the row of dusty portholes at the side of the common room. Making your way to the door, you find the innkeeper polishing the antique Formica desk. Seeing you set your pack down beside the door, he comes over and kicks away one of the careteks which had its metal body pressed down across the door-sill. ‘You’re lucky having those,’ you say, pushing the door open a crack to take a breath of fresh icy air. The innkeeper grunts as he watches the caretek re- orient itself and glide away across the floor. ‘They are a mixed blessing, since they insist on trying to repair the inn to the form it had originally. This door is a feature that I added myself, more convenient than the hatchway at the back of the fuselage. But if I leave it unattended for more than a few hours at a time, those wretched careteks always try to weld it shut!’ You smile to show that you sympathise. ‘I’d be grateful for your advice. I’m now travelling on to the Sahara. What is the best route?’ The innkeeper flings the door wide, ignoring the curses that erupt from his customers at the sudden intrusion of cold air. Gazing across the expanse of dazzling white snow, he says, ‘The most obvious course would take you to Venis, where you could board the ferry for Kahira, and yet...’ He rubs his hands, blowing out a long furl of steam in the chill air. ‘Myself, I’d be tempted to go instead through the Lyonesse jungle, just to savour a bit of warmth in this frigid world. Thence across the Jib-&-Halter and the Atlas Mountains – unless you stumbled across the ruins of lost Marsay, of course, in which case you might even find a tube tunnel to take you straight to the Sahara!’ <img data-passage="boche" style="width: 30%;float: left; margin-right: 10px;margin-bottom: 0px;">Thanking the innkeeper for his advice, you indicate that you are ready to pay your bill. He looks at you in surprise and points to a small dapper man in a grey-trimmed white snowsuit. ‘Your friend there has already paid.’ At this, the small man comes over and extends his hand, smiling broadly. ‘Hello. My name is Kyle Boche. I believe we’re travelling in the same direction.’ If you accept Kyle Boche as your companion on the road, turn to [[23]]. If you tell him that you prefer to travel alone, turn to [[45]]. ‘I overheard you say you were bound for the Saharan Ice Wastes,’ says Boche. ‘My own journey takes me in that direction.’ As you set off together through the deep drifts of snow, Boche takes your arm and points to a row of black wooden posts. ‘That is the road to Venis. We can catch the ferry from there to Kahira.’ If you agree to go east to Venis, turn to [[200]]. If you’d rather go west through the Lyonesse jungle, as the innkeeper recommended, turn to [[177]]. You look at Boche’s hand but do not take it. In these latter days, with humanity on the brink of extinction, you have learned to be wary of strangers. ‘I travel alone.’ Boche is not deterred. ‘Come, that’s hardly friendly,’ he points out. ‘I’ve paid your bill.’ ‘I did not ask you to. Landlord, return this man’s money. I shall settle my own account.’ Your bill for the night is 3 scads. If you are willing to pay this, amend your money and turn to <<link [[67]]>><<set $player.money-=3>>67<</link>>. If you reconsider and accept Boche’s generosity, turn to [[23]]. <img data-passage="frozenCorpses" style="width:50%;float:right;margin-left:10px;margin-bottom:0px;">Record the codeword @@.codeword;Diamond@@ on your Adventure Sheet. Your journey takes you up into the mountains, where the days are dull under a leaden sky and the nights are filled with swirling snow. You subsist on a few rations brought with you from the inn, but these are quickly used up. Too quickly. You must reach an inhabited area soon or else starve. Forcing your way bent-backed against a glacial wind, you are traversing a narrow pass when you catch sight of a human figure on a ledge up ahead. Your cries of greeting are ignored, and the figure is hidden for a moment behind a veil of snow. Hurrying forward, you discover several other figures, but none are glad to see you. They are beyond any emotion, in fact, being long dead and frozen into rigid statues by the cold. If you go closer to investigate, turn to [[264]]. If you ignore the frozen corpses and continue along the pass, turn to [[285]]. <<set $codewords.pushUnique("Diamond")>> Boche is not enthusiastic. ‘The Lyonesse region is infested with malefactors and noctambules,’ he avers. ‘We would be at great risk. Also, the Atlas Mountains are a daunting obstacle. As your partner in this venture, I strongly urge you to reconsider!’ He is obviously not willing to accompany you if you insist on heading west. If you do so anyway, turn to [[221]]. If you change your mind and take the road to Venis, turn to [[200]]. The figure emerges from the darkness like a ghost. It is wrapped in a rough cape of stitched furs, its shrivelled frame sprouting a spindly neck which supports a large soft head like a leather bag. Pushing back its hood, it reveals a hideous face dominated by a single glowing eye on a flexible stalk. Boche scrambles to the side of the ledge and then freezes, mesmerized by the creature’s eye. The stalk swivels, turning the lethal gaze towards you. If you have Agility, turn to <<skill "agility" 112>>. Otherwise it is too late to act, and you are plunged into a hypnotic trance from which you will never recover. With only a split-second left before the creature’s gaze paralyses you, you act on raw instinct. Leaping high into the air, you somersault over its head, twisting so as to land directly behind it. The eyestalk sweeps frantically, trying to see where you went. But before the creature can bring its ghastly scrutiny to bear, you give it a hard blow across the back of the head. As it falls senseless in the snow, Boche recovers from the hypnotic trance. Even so, it is several seconds before he has recovered his wits enough to speak. Turn to [[90]]. The passage is lit by gleaming blue-white tubes along the ceiling. They cast a garish glare in which the sight of a dead body ahead seems like a glimpse of a nightmare. Boche and the baron watch while you stoop and inspect the corpse. You roll it over, surprised at how well the shrivelled flesh has kept in the cold air. ‘His own mother could still recognize him,’ you remark with grim humour. ‘Except she’ll have been dead two centuries as well,’ says Boche. He gazes off along the corridor, then gives a start. ‘There’s another one!’ The baron sweeps on ahead and hovers low over the next body. ‘He died of a broken back.’ ‘So did that first one,’ you say as you come hurrying up with Boche. <img data-passage="passage3creature" style="width: 40%;float: right; margin-left: 10px;margin-bottom: 0px;">A metallic scuttling sound resounds from the far end of the passage. Instantly your whole body is tensely alert, nerves jangling in fear of the unknown. Then you see it approaching along the passage like a giant robot spider: the body a glass bubble filled with blue fluid, surrounded by legs formed from long articulated steel pipes. Inside the glass bubble floats a lumpish embryonic figure pierced by many tubes. Its eyes are open and it is watching you. Boche gives a gasp of disgust and fires his barysal gun at the glass bubble, but the thing has already raised a row of its legs to form a shield, and the blast splashes away leaving hardly a mark. ‘I think we’d better run,’ he says, backing away. If you want to try an outwit the thing with Cunning, turn to <<skill "cunning" 40>>. If you confront it with Agility, turn to <<skill "agility" 62>>. If you use Paradoxing and a psionic focus, turn to <<skillItem "paradoxing" "Psionic Focus" 84>>. If you hurl a stun grenade, turn to <<item "Stun Grenade" 106>>. Otherwise your only option is to retreat and take the other passage: turn to [[128]]. <<silently>> /* Disable nav controls: */ <<script>> Config.history.controls = false; <</script>> <<set $player to {}>> <<set $player.agility to false>> <<set $player.closecombat to false>> <<set $player.cunning to false>> <<set $player.cybernetics to false>> <<set $player.esp to false>> <<set $player.lore to false>> <<set $player.paradoxing to false>> <<set $player.piloting to false>> <<set $player.roguery to false>> <<set $player.shooting to false>> <<set $player.streetwise to false>> <<set $player.survival to false>> <<set $player.lifePointsMax>> <<set $player.lifePoints>> <<set $player.money to 0>> <<set $codewords to []>> <<set $inventory to []>> <<set $notes to []>> /* Annoying extra flags*/ <<set $retrovirii to []>> <<set $retrovirii.viridMystery to false>> <<set $retrovirii.exaltedEnhancer to false>> <<set $retrovirii.maskOfOccultation to false>> <<set $retrovirii.peerlessPercetivate to false>> <<set $retrovirii.hadAgility to false>> /* debug <<set $player.agility to true>> <<set $player.closecombat to true>> <<set $player.cunning to true>> <<set $player.cybernetics to true>> <<set $player.esp to true>> <<set $player.lore to true>> <<set $player.paradoxing to true>> <<set $player.piloting to true>> <<set $player.roguery to true>> <<set $player.shooting to true>> <<set $player.streetwise to false>> <<set $player.survival to true>> <<set $player.money to 500>> <<set $player.lifePointsMax to 40>> <<set $player.lifePoints to 40>> <<set $inventory.push({name:"Barysal Gun", charges: 6})>> <<set $inventory.push({name:"Psionic Focus"})>> <<set $inventory.push({name:"Vade-mecum"})>> */ <</silently>> \<<if passage() neq "introduction" and passage() neq "Start" and passage() neq "characterCreation" and passage() neq "ownCharacter" and passage() neq "credits">>LIFEPOINTS :: $player.lifePoints/$player.lifePointsMax MONEY :: $player.money scads SKILLS \<<if $player.agility eq true>> Agility<<else>><</if>> \<<if $player.closeCombat eq true>> Close Combat<<else>>\<</if>> \<<if $player.cunning eq true>> Cunning<<else>>\<</if>> \<<if $player.cybernetics eq true>> Cybernetics<<else>>\<</if>> \<<if $player.esp eq true>> ESP<<else>>\<</if>> \<<if $player.lore eq true>> Lore<<else>>\<</if>> \<<if $player.paradoxing eq true>> Paradoxing<<else>>\<</if>> \<<if $player.piloting eq true>> Piloting<<else>>\<</if>> \<<if $player.roguery eq true>> Roguery<<else>>\<</if>> \<<if $player.shooting eq true>> Shooting<<else>>\<</if>> \<<if $player.streetwise eq true>> Streetwise<<else>>\<</if>> \<<if $player.survival eq true>> Survival<<else>>\<</if>> INVENTORY <table id="sidebarInventory"> <tbody> <tr> <td><<if $inventory[0]>>$inventory[0]['name'] <<if $inventory[0]['name'] is "Barysal Gun">> ($inventory[0]['charges']) <</if>><<button "discard">><<detectBBU 0>><<set $inventory.deleteAt(0)>><<useBBU>><<replace "#story-caption">><<include "StoryCaption">><</replace>><</button>><</if>></td> </tr> <tr> <td><<if $inventory[1]>>$inventory[1]['name'] <<if $inventory[1]['name'] is "Barysal Gun">> ($inventory[1]['charges']) <</if>><<button "discard">><<detectBBU 1>><<set $inventory.deleteAt(1)>><<useBBU>><<replace "#story-caption">><<include "StoryCaption">><</replace>><</button>><</if>></td> </tr> <tr> <td><<if $inventory[2]>>$inventory[2]['name'] <<if $inventory[2]['name'] is "Barysal Gun">> ($inventory[2]['charges']) <</if>><<button "discard">><<detectBBU 2>><<set $inventory.deleteAt(2)>><<useBBU>><<replace "#story-caption">><<include "StoryCaption">><</replace>><</button>><</if>></td> </tr> <tr> <td><<if $inventory[3]>>$inventory[3]['name'] <<if $inventory[3]['name'] is "Barysal Gun">> ($inventory[3]['charges']) <</if>><<button "discard">><<detectBBU 3>><<set $inventory.deleteAt(3)>><<useBBU>><<replace "#story-caption">><<include "StoryCaption">><</replace>><</button>><</if>></td> </tr> <tr> <td><<if $inventory[4]>>$inventory[4]['name'] <<if $inventory[4]['name'] is "Barysal Gun">> ($inventory[4]['charges']) <</if>><<button "discard">><<detectBBU 4>><<set $inventory.deleteAt(4)>><<useBBU>><<replace "#story-caption">><<include "StoryCaption">><</replace>><</button>><</if>></td> </tr> <tr> <td><<if $inventory[5]>>$inventory[5]['name'] <<if $inventory[5]['name'] is "Barysal Gun">> ($inventory[5]['charges']) <</if>><<button "discard">><<detectBBU 5>><<set $inventory.deleteAt(5)>><<useBBU>><<replace "#story-caption">><<include "StoryCaption">><</replace>><</button>><</if>></td> </tr> <tr> <td><<if $inventory[6]>>$inventory[6]['name'] <<if $inventory[6]['name'] is "Barysal Gun">> ($inventory[6]['charges']) <</if>><<button "discard">><<detectBBU 6>><<set $inventory.deleteAt(6)>><<useBBU>><<replace "#story-caption">><<include "StoryCaption">><</replace>><</button>><</if>></td> </tr> <tr> <td><<if $inventory[7]>>$inventory[7]['name'] <<if $inventory[7]['name'] is "Barysal Gun">> ($inventory[7]['charges']) <</if>><<button "discard">><<detectBBU 7>><<set $inventory.deleteAt(7)>><<useBBU>><<replace "#story-caption">><<include "StoryCaption">><</replace>><</button>><</if>></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> CODEWORDS @@.codeword;$codewords@@ NOTES $notes <<include "mapButton">> <</if>> Tossing the nearest corpse aside, you lie down on the floor of the passage and tell Boche and Siriasis to start retreating. ‘Keep firing at it,’ you say to Boche, ‘and make sure you don’t hit me.’ Boche takes two more shots, forcing the thing to keep its front legs raised as a shield. It stalks forward, feeling its way with its other legs. You feel a shudder of dread as it reaches you and probes your prone body with a metal leg, but you force yourself to keep absolutely still. The thing assumes you are one of the corpses littering the passage. As it clambers across you in pursuit of Boche and Siriasis, you find yourself staring up at the stunted little body inside the glass bubble. There is no doubt that the body inside the bubble is the thing’s guiding intelligence. You lash upwards with your boot, cracking the glass, and the blue fluid pours out. The thing rears up on its legs like a dying spider, takes a series of rushing steps that up-end it against the wall, then twitches and dies. In stunned silence, the three of you step past and head on to the end of the passage. Turn to [[281]]. You are in no doubt that the stunted little form inside the central globe is the thing’s guiding intellect. Racing forward, you avoid a sweep of the powerful metal legs and throw yourself into a forward roll that carries you onto the top of the glass globe. The half-formed face of the embryo is floating just inches from your own. Its muddy eyes give no sign of surprise or understanding – it has the drooling vacant face of an imbecile – but suddenly the metal legs buck and rear in a frantic effort to throw you off. You cling on for several seconds until you feel it give an upward thrust, trying to crush you against the ceiling. You leap clear at the last moment and the glass globe strikes the ceiling with a crash. As the blue fluid drains away, the thing gives a dying spasm and then falls still. Boche comes over and helps you to your feet. ‘I wonder what //that// was,’ he says with emphatic distaste. ‘I don’t care as long as there aren’t any more of them,’ you reply. Together you head on to the end of the passage. Turn to [[281]]. You see the air twist inside out as the baron projects a bolt of psychic force against the oncoming creature. Like Boche’s gun blast, the bolt is deflected by its shield of metal legs. ‘It is a robot, immune to paradoxing,’ shouts the baron. ‘We must retreat!’ You have a better idea. You may not be as powerful a psionic as Baron Siriasis, but you are cleverer. Instead of channelling your psi-force as a direct bolt, you use it to transmute the blue fluid filling the glass bubble. Within moments the gnarled little homunculous inside is floating in acid. The thing rears up on its long legs like a dying spider, then topples to the floor. By the time you go over to look, the body inside has entirely dissolved away. ‘Not a robot,’ you say to the startled baron, ‘but a cyborg. You should have attacked the organic part.’ He glares at you, then gives a curt nod of respect. ‘It seems I can still learn new tricks of my craft, even from a youngster like you.’ Together you head on to the end of the passage. Turn to [[281]]. <<widget "item">><<nobr>> /* Takes two arguments $args[0] - item in question $args[1] - passage to output link to $args[2] - the amount of that item - defaults to 1 if not specified */ /* Reset the value */ <<set _itemCheck to false>> <<set _needle to $args[0]>> /*Quantities*/ <<if $args[2]>> <<set _amount to $args[2]>> <<else>> <<set _amount to 1>> <</if>> <<for _i, _item range $inventory>> <<if _item['name'] is _needle>> <<set _amount-->> <<if _amount lt 1>> <<set _itemCheck to true>> <<break>> <</if>> <</if>> <</for>> <<if _itemCheck>> <<set _itemCheckOutput to "[[" + $args[1] + "]]">> <<else>> <<set _itemCheckOutput to $args[1]>> <</if>> _itemCheckOutput <</nobr>>\<</widget>> <<removeItem "Stun Grenade">>The thing comes stalking forward, feeling its way while keeping its front legs raised as a shield. You have already seen that gunfire cannot penetrate the tough metal alloy. The glass case in the centre is another matter, though. You roll your grenade along the floor of the passage and pull the others back to a safe distance. There is a loud bang. The grenade is designed only to stun a living target, but the explosion cracks the glass and the blue fluid gushes out. As it does, the thing rears up like a dying spider, falls with a twitching of its robotic legs, and lies still. Boche nervously goes over to look at it. The little embryo inside the glass case lies as inert as a lump of cold clay. ‘It’s dead,’ he says. In stunned silence, the three of you head on to the end of the passage. Remove the stun grenade from your possessions and turn to [[281]]. The passage brings you to a series of galleries, each consisting of a cloister running either side of a central concourse softly illuminated by chandeliers. Many of the heavy buttresses have been defaced, leaving chunks of broken masonry scattered across the marble floor. ‘No doubt this devastation was wreaked in the city’s collapse,’ says Boche in a hushed voice. ‘It’s said that the populace of Du-En went mad and turned against their leaders.’ Baron Siriasis drifts to halt and peers off into the gloom of the cloistered walkway at the side of the room. ‘I sense a presence,’ he says after a moment’s concentration. ‘Something is stalking us.’ Quickening your pace, you hurry on through the galleries until you see a heavy iron-bound doorway ahead. A rasping sound echoes out of the cloisters to one side. It sounds like chitin slithering across stone. You are about to break into a run when the lights go out and you are plunged into darkness. If you have night vision, turn to <<if $notes.includes("Night Vision")>>[[302]]<<else>>302<</if>>. If not, you can use @@.skill;Roguery@@ (turn to <<skill "roguery" 216>>), @@.skill;Esp@@ and a psionic focus (turn to <<skillItem "esp" "Psionic Focus" 194>>), @@.skill;Shooting@@ and a charged barysal gun (turn to <<skillItem "shooting" "Barysal Gun" 238>>), or light a flashlight or a lantern if you have one (turn to <<silently>> <<set _itemCheck to false>> <<for _i, _item range $inventory>> <<if _item['name'] is "Flashlight" or _item['name'] is "Lantern">> <<set _itemCheck to true>> <<break>> <</if>> <</for>> <</silently>><<if _itemCheck>>[[172]]<<else>>172<</if>>). Failing any of those options, turn to [[260]]. <<widget "removeItem">><<silently>> /* $args[0] is the item name */ <<set _needle to $args[0]>> /* The amount code was broken but as it happens it's never needed anyway. */ <<set _amount to 1>> <<for _i, _item range $inventory>> <<if _item['name'] is _needle>> <<set $inventory.deleteAt(_i)>> <<set _amount-->> <<if _amount lt 1>> <<break>> <</if>> <</if>> <</for>> <</silently>>\<</widget>> Boche scrambles up to the ledge and goes through the pockets of one of the corpses. ‘I don’t like robbing the dead, but there might be some food,’ he mutters. If you have @@.skill;Roguery@@, turn to <<skill "roguery" 328>>. If not but you have @@.skill;Paradoxing@@ (and a psionic focus) turn to <<skillItem "paradoxing" "Psionic Focus" 370>>. If you have neither, turn to <<if $player.roguery is false and $player.roguery is false>>[[306]]<<else>>306<</if>>. Night overtakes you on the slope of the mountain. You have to scoop snow to make a rudimentary shelter, and even so the wind numbs you to the core of your bones. Lose 2 Life Points – unless you have @@.skill;Survival@@, in which case you know how to construct an effective shelter and you lose only 1 Life Point. Morning comes as a sullen grey intrusion of light across the cloud-draped sky. Stamping the circulation back into your weary limbs, you set off towards Venis. Turn to [[199]]. <<silently>> <<if $player.survival>> <<set $player.lifePoints-->> <<else>> <<set $player.lifePoints-=2>> <</if>> <</silently>> <img data-passage="bometh" style="width:50%;float:right;margin-left:10px;margin-bottom:0px;">You continue on, watching the sun slide dankly down into the west. A silvery afterglow rims the skyline. Pale humps of snow extend to the murky horizon, divided by hollows brimming with violet shadow. Catching a movement out of the corner of your eye you freeze, slowly turning to see a huge sabre-fanged bometh standing on a rise not fifty metres away. You slink back behind an ice boulder, not certain if the creature saw you. If you have the codeword Gilgamesh, turn to <<codeword "Gilgamesh" 123>>. If not but you have @@.skill;Survival@@, turn to <<skill "survival" 256>>. Otherwise, you could attack the bometh with @@.skill;Shooting@@ and a charged barysal gun (turn to <<skillItem "shooting" "Barysal Gun" 79>>) or a stun grenade (turn to <<item "Stun Grenade" 145>>). Alternatively, you can close with it (turn to [[277]]), track it using binoculars if you have them (turn to <<item "Binoculars" 319>>), or creep off before it spots you (turn to [[298]]). @@.gilgamesh;‘Target identification: bometh,’@@ grates Gilgamesh. @@.gilgamesh;‘Mutant wolf/bear hybrid. Predator. It presents a danger. Immediate elimination is called for.’@@ He raises his arm, ejecting a crackling blast of energy that turns the dusk to day. The swirling snowflakes hiss into steam. On the crest of the rise, the giant beast shudders and falls, rolling down into the deep snow. With Gilgamesh clanking along behind, you hurry over to make sure the bometh is dead, as you would not want a wounded predator stalking you through the night. Turn to [[341]]. A hunter who makes a habit of tangling with bomeths will not live very long. Instead of grand heroics, you decide to track the beast to its lair. Crouching motionless until the moon rises, you see the bometh rouse itself and go loping away across the undulating hillocks of snow. You follow until you see it disappear into a snowdrift, whereupon you drop low and compose yourself for a long wait. Two or three hours go by. At last it emerges from the lair, sniffs the wind, and lumbers off in search of prey. Once it is out of sight, you scramble over to the snowdrift, pushing along a tunnel into a hollowed-out cavity where there are three small bomeths on a nest of moulted fur. Ignoring them, you turn your attention to the closely packed walls of the lair: the bometh’s ‘larder’, where the beast has stored remains of previous kills. You dig out the carcass of a large fowl, which the icy cold has preserved well. Wrapping the flesh carefully, you make one <<pickup "Food Pack">> which you can add to your list of possessions. One of the young bomeths nips at your ankle. The teeth do not penetrate your boot, but it is a timely reminder that the parent might return at any time. You squirm back to the open and hurry away. Turn to [[298]]. <<fireBarysalGun>>Reduce your barysal gun’s charge by one; when it reaches zero charges you can no longer use it. A thin searing beam spits through the air, burning a precise hole through the giant bometh’s head. It utters a deep growl, takes two stumbling steps through the snow, and then falls. You hurry over to make sure of the kill. You would not want a wounded bometh stalking you through the night. Turn to [[341]]. The stun grenade sails through the air and crunches into the deep snow at the foot of the rise. The bometh slowly stirs itself and lumbers down the slope to snuffle around. As it locates the grenade, you detonate by remote. A flurry of snow is thrown up into the bometh’s face by the blast and you see it drop. An imperceptible fraction of a second later, the hard crump of the explosion reaches your ears. By that time you are already running towards the fallen predator. Kneeling beside it in the crater of slush formed by the explosion, you lift the huge limp head across your knee and give it a sharp twist. The bometh gives a spasm and then lies still. Delete the grenade you used from your list of possessions, and then turn to [[341]]. <<removeItem "Stun Grenade">> The bometh sits like a sphinx atop the rise, head lifted to the star-filled sky. Wisps of breath escape its nostrils. It seems oblivious of your approach as you slowly work your way around and then stalk closer from downwind. But as you close the last few metres and leap from hiding, it rises with a languid growl and turns its long scything fangs to slash at you. Only now, as it rears up to grapple with you, do you get a sense of the bometh’s size and power. It is enough to make your knees go weak. The beast must weigh half a tonne! The battle is ferocious and bloody. Without @@.skill;Close Combat@@, you do not have a chance: the bometh sinks its teeth deep into your chest and proceeds to rip out your lungs. If you have @@.skill;Close Combat@@, lose 5 Life Points and turn to [[341]] if you can survive that. <<silently>> <<set _itemCheck to false>> <<for _i, _item range $inventory>> <<if _item['name'] is "Shortsword">> <<set _itemCheck to true>> <<break>> <</if>> <</for>> <<if _itemCheck>> <<set $player.lifePoints-=4>> <<else>> <<set $player.lifePoints-=5>> <</if>> <</silently>> The next day, with the snow glittering like diamond dust under pale gold sunshine, you see a shimmering haze in the middle distance. Approaching, at first you think the oasis ahead is a trick of your imagination. Dwarf conifers surround a steaming pool fringed with moss-covered rocks. Long-beaked birds peck at the ground for grubs. Then you catch a sulphuric tang on the air and realize that the warm updraught here must be rising from fissures deep underground. It feels as unreal as a dream when you pass between the foliage and settle yourself on a slab of rock, pulling off your clothing to enjoy your first experience of warmth in many days. If you think it might be worth resting up here to recover your strength, turn to [[405]]. If you are keen to press on without delay, turn to [[426]]. <<widget "fireBarysalGun">><<silently>> <<set _barysalArray to []>> /* (An array of objects) {invSlot: 0 - 7 charges: 1 - 6} */ <<set _battery to false>> <<for _i, _item range $inventory>> <<if _item['name'] is "Barysal Battery Unit">> <<set _battery to true>> <<break>> <</if>> <</for>> <<for _i, _item range $inventory>> <<if _item['name'] is "Barysal Gun">> <<set _barysalArray.push({invSlot:_i,charges:_item['charges']})>> <</if>> <</for>> /* Sort the array so that _barysalArray[0] has the lowest charge count */ <<set _barysalArray.sort(function(a, b) { return +a.charges > +b.charges;})>> <<if _barysalArray[0]['charges'] is 1>> /* That's the last shot for this gun - remove it from the inventory - unless the player has a battery pack! */ <<if _battery>> /* delete the old gun */ <<set $inventory.deleteAt(_barysalArray[0]['invSlot'])>> /* Add a fully charged gun to the inventory */ <<set $inventory.push({name:"Barysal Gun",charges:6})>> /* Consume the battery */ <<removeItem "Barysal Battery Unit">> <<include "reloadSound">> <<else>> <<set $inventory.deleteAt(_barysalArray[0]['invSlot'])>> <</if>> <<else>> <<set $inventory[_barysalArray[0]['invSlot']]['charges']-->> <</if>> <</silently>><</widget>> <<widget "skill">><<nobr>> /* $args[0] required skill $args[1] passage to redirect to (or not) */ <<if $player[$args[0]]>> <<set _skillOutput to "[[" + $args[1] + "]]">> <<else>> <<set _skillOutput to $args[1]>> <</if>> _skillOutput <</nobr>><</widget>> <<widget "skillItem">><<nobr>> /* $args[0] required skill $args[1] required item $args[2] passage to redirect to (or not) */ <<set _needle to $args[1]>> /*Quantities*/ <<set _amount to 1>> <<for _i, _item range $inventory>> <<if _item['name'] is _needle>> <<set _amount-->> <<if _amount lt 1>> <<set _itemCheck to true>> <<break>> <</if>> <</if>> <</for>> <<if $player[$args[0]] and _itemCheck>> <<set _skillItemOutput to "[[" + $args[2] + "]]">> <<else>> <<set _skillItemOutput to $args[2]>><<set _itemCheck to false>> <</if>> _skillItemOutput <</nobr>><</widget>> The two men make no move to stop you as you dart through into the steam room. A moment later you realize why, when they wedge the door shut and peer in through the narrow glass partition with mocking leers. ‘Cook in there like a prawn, then,’ they laugh. ‘It only makes our job all the easier!’ Engulfed in a cloud of chokingly hot steam, you slump onto the bench at the back of the room. You are trapped. Condensation patters off the wooden roof-beams; sweat soaks you within moments, plastering your hair to your scalp. As the minutes tick by, you listen to the assassins chattering cheerfully just outside the door. They know that they only have to bide their time. Soon you will be too weak to put up any fight. If you have @@.skill;Paradoxing@@ (and a psionic focus) turn to <<skillItem "paradoxing" "Psionic Focus" 158>>. If not, but you do have @@.skill;Survival@@, turn to <<skill "survival" 180>>. Failing either of those options, you can only lie gasping until the assassins enter and finish you off at last. You step through into what seems to be a recreation room, with padded couches set around low glass-topped tables. At the far end of the room, a row of couches is set facing a screen on the wall. An image flickers into sharp clarity, but it takes you a moment to identify the wary, baffled-looking figure in the picture. It is you. You glance at the camera mounted on the wall, then back at the screen. The picture changes to show other views: the parked Manta sky-car, the outer door, the gondo trudging up and down in the snow outside. ‘Who spoke?’ you say, feeling uneasy at calling out to an empty room. @@.gaia;‘I did.’@@ The voice comes from the screen. ‘Gaia?’ @@.gaia;‘Yes. Attend, as there is little time before I fall again to the darkness. You must go to Giza.’@@ The screen flickers to show another scene, this time of pyramids against a backdrop of crystal night. @@.gaia;‘The word “humbaba” is the key to entry. Find Gilgamesh and activate him. He will be your servant in the race for the Heart.’@@ ‘Race? So others are seeking the Heart?’ @@.gaia;‘Yes. The broadcast you received was seen by many across the globe. The mightiest of this age will compete for the power. That is the way of mankind.’@@ Gaia gives a sound that might almost be a sigh, then speaks more quickly. @@.gaia;‘I am working to secure an area of my mind that will be protected against the viruses that beset me. I will speak again to you when it is easier.’@@ The screen suddenly goes blank. Gaia is no longer present. Record the codeword @@.codeword;Humbaba@@ on your Adventure Sheet if you don’t already have it, then decide if you will take a look at the sky-car ([[49]]), or leave ([[395]]). <<set $codewords.pushUnique("Humbaba")>> You touch a dial on the dashboard. The liquid crystal display shows that the sky-car’s power unit is still working. None of the other instruments show damage. The caretek has maintained the sky-car well. There is not even a trace of dust on the vehicle’s smooth black finish. In a storage locker behind the seat you find food, medical supplies and a variety of other items. Stored in vacuum packs, they should still be usable despite having been left here since before the Ice Age. If you try powering up the sky-car and flying it out of the complex, turn to [[71]]. If you would rather just loot the storage locker of useful goods and then leave, turn to [[93]]. The library is a huge series of halls in the basement of the building. The air is dry and musty, and green-shaded lamps blaze at intervals above the imitation walnut desks. In addition to the thousands of books, there are two or three computer terminals of antique design. Here you can try to establish contact with Gaia (turn to <<skill "cybernetics" 116>> if you have Cybernetics, to <<noskill "cybernetics" 138>> if not) or read up concerning the Heart of Volent (turn to <<skill "lore" 160>> if you have Lore, to <<noskill "lore" 182>> if not). If you decide to leave the library, turn to [[73]]. If you have not already done so, you can now take the elevator to the library ([[6]]), the medical lounge ([[204]]), the gymnasium ([[51]]), the armoury ([[447]]) or the canteen ([[94]]). If you decide you have pushed your luck far enough and wish to leave before your deception is uncovered, turn to [[311]]. The elevator arrives at the lobby and the doors slide open, but the waiting security guards are amazed to find it empty. The security chief barks an order: ‘Get upstairs! Check the other floors!’ You hear them go charging up the stairs. Waiting until the coast is clear, you lower yourself back down through the access hatch on top of the elevator car. Ignoring the spluttered protests of the receptionist, you dart out into the safety of the night. Turn to [[311]]. During your march east you have taken an hour or two each day to practice with the shortsword. The exercise has helped keep you warm, as well as acquainting you with the feel of your new weapon. Now you can use the shortsword in any hand-to-hand fight, its effect being to reduce any injury you take by 1 Life Point. (So if you were instructed to lose 3 Life Points, for instance, possession of the shortsword would mean you lost only 2.) Note this on your Adventure Sheet. It applies only to injuries sustained while using @@.skill;Close Combat@@, of course. Now turn to [[334]]. A short distance along one of the tunnels you find a doorway. While Fax looks on with fluttering gestures of protest, you force the door and enter a small computer room. A caretek is crawling across the banks of equipment, dutifully sweeping away the dust. You log into the computer. As you suspected, it maintains the city’s generator and lighting systems, as well as hydroponic gardens which are presumably the ultimate source of the food here. Fax screws up enough courage to peer over your shoulder. ‘What are you doing?’ Your fingers flit across the keyboard. ‘Trying to find if there’s a communication line to the outside world still working anywhere in the city. Ah, here’s one! Now I’m going to contact Gaia.’ Fax utters a doleful bleat. ‘Surely Gaia is mad? You are rash to draw her attention. She might switch off the sun!’ If you persist in attempting to contact Gaia, turn to [[336]]. If you agree that the risk is too great, you can either explore the transit tunnels (turn to [[439]]) or else leave Marsay and continue west (turn to [[420]]). At dawn the ferry enters the Isis estuary and skims upriver towards Kahira. Taking a stroll on the deck, you notice a waft of warmth rising from the river. It eases the bitter chill of the morning air. Questioning one of the sailors, you learn that heating pipes are laid along the river bed. No one knows the source of energy, but the effect is to keep the Isis from freezing, with the result that river- plants and fish are more plentiful than you would expect. ‘That is the basis of Kahira’s prosperity,’ he tells you. ‘But one day the pipes will fail. Then the river will freeze and Kahira must die.’ You glance to the east, where the sun struggles morosely behind a drape of stern grey cloud. ‘That is the whole world’s eventual fate.’ Kahira hoves into view around a bend in the river. It straddles the Isis on massive concrete buttresses, a huge fortress-city with towers like spines along its back, looking like a beast of mechanical Armageddon against the wintry surroundings. The ferry glides to a halt, the gang- ramp is extended, and you disembark in front of the city gates. If you have the codeword @@.codeword;Diamond@@, turn to <<codeword "Diamond" 251>>. If not, turn to <<nocodeword "Diamond" 229>>. <<removeItem "Vade-mecum">> The fog makes the buildings across the plaza look like lace cut-outs against the night sky. You cross to a line of lights under a colonnade, your footsteps ringing on the slick cobblestones. Finding a row of shops and stalls, you search until you find an answer to your question. ‘Seek at the rooms of Pindar the Copt,’ advises a stall-holder, pointing to a narrow door at the end of the colonnade. ‘He knows the answer to all mysteries.’ Pindar seems to be a local fortune-teller and spinner of yarns. You stand at his door for a few moments, looking at the faded bronze plaque, then step inside. The room is hung with jewel-bright rugs and the air smells of must and incense. Three crabbed old men look up from their hubble-bubble pipe. Without asking your business, they wave you to a cushion. You sit down. ‘Tell me about the Sphinx.’ ‘She asked a riddle of all who passed, and those who failed to answer were devoured,’ says one of the old men. ‘The answer to her riddle was Man himself,’ says another. Now Pindar speaks. ‘That was the Greek Sphinx. The Egyptian Sphinx is male. He sits at Giza and watches over Kahira, keeping the Saharan snows from overrunning the city.’ ‘Not the last part,’ insists Pindar in a pragmatic tone. ‘A nuclear reactor is set under the Sphinx, and this is what powers the heating elements that keep the River Isis from freezing. The same reactor presumably still supplies power to the military complex inside the Great Pyramid.’ Giving him a keen look, you say, ‘You seem well informed.’ ‘I have lived a long time. If you are interested, the answer to the Sphinx’s riddle these days is “Humbaba”.’ Note the codeword Humbaba if you do not have it already<<set $codewords.pushUnique("Humbaba")>>. If you have @@.skill;Lore@@, turn to <<skill "lore" 95>>. If not, turn to <<noskill "lore" 311>>. You smile. ‘These are only stories.’ <<widget "noskill">><<nobr>> /* $args[0] required skill check $args[1] passage to redirect to (or not) */ <<if $player[$args[0]] is false>> <<set _skillOutput to "[[" + $args[1] + "]]">> <<else>> <<set _skillOutput to $args[1]>> <</if>> _skillOutput <</nobr>><</widget>> Even after a century or more of disuse, the computers still work. The screen glimmers to life and you key in a connection to Gaia. A stream of meaningless gibberish runs onto the screen, followed by a sequence which seems ominously meaningful. If you have @@.skill;Cybernetics@@, turn to <<skill "cybernetics" 34>>. If not, turn to <<noskill "cybernetics" 55>>. Sunlight, hazed by a high overcast, is thrown up from the snow dunes in an unremitting glare as white and harsh as exposed bone. Squinting does no good. Your eyes feel gritty and tired. On the fourth evening, huddling behind the shelter of a crag of ice, you gaze across the landscape. It is like looking through a film of blood. The next day you find the sunrise burns so hard that you cannot stand to open your eyes. Snow blinded, you can only sit and wait for the dazzle to clear. If you were to press on now, you would soon lose your bearings and die. As you wait, the chill crawls deeper into your bones and you lose another 3 Life Points (unless you have a burrek, in which case you can curl up and share its body warmth, losing only 2 Life Points.) Lose 1 extra Life Point if you do not possess either a fur coat or cold-weather clothing. If still alive, you are relieved to discover that after a day and a night your eyesight has recovered enough for you to press on. From now on you are careful to shield your face against the glare. Turn to [[403]]. <<silently>> <<set _healthPenalty to 4>> <<set _itemCheck to false>> <<if $notes.includes("Burrek")>> <<set _itemCheck to true>> <</if>> <<if _itemCheck>> <<set _healthPenalty-->> <</if>> <<set _clothes to false>> <<for _i, _item range $inventory>> <<if _item['name'] is "Fur Coat" or _item['name'] is "Cold-Weather Clothing">> <<set _clothes to true>> <<break>> <</if>> <</for>> <<if _clothes>> <<set _healthPenalty-->> <</if>> <<if _healthPenalty lt 0>> <<set _healthPenalty to 0>> <</if>> <<set $player.lifePoints-= _healthPenalty>> <</silently>> @@.gaia;‘There is nothing else to interest you here,’@@ says Little Gaia when you question her. @@.gaia;‘You should get under way.’@@ Accepting her advice, you return up the shaft to the top level. Turn to [[361]]. On the third day you do not awaken. The toxins in the air and wildlife here have got into your bloodstream. You moan and gasp, threshing weakly in the depths of a fever from which you will never recover. Your adventure ends here. You descend via a ruined subway entrance whose ventilation ducts connect with part of the catacombs. Golgoth jabs at buttons on his map box, bringing up a crackling image of the tunnels. The air in the ducts is stale, but he assures you that there is a good chance of reaching the underground tunnels close to the Shrine of the Heart. The Gargan sisters are even less enthusiastic about the route you are taking. With their broad shoulders, the duct feels like a long metal coffin. The stale air makes it hot work. You are soaked in sweat by the time you finally wriggle out of the duct and drop to the floor of a dimly-lit tunnel. The Gargan sisters follow, grunting curses, as Golgoth consults the map box. Check the codewords on your Adventure Sheet: if you have @@.codeword;Gilgamesh@@, turn to <<codeword "Gilgamesh" 198>>; otherwise turn to <<nocodeword "Gilgamesh" 325>>. <<widget "codeword">><<nobr>> /* $args[0] required codeword $args[1] passage to redirect to (or not) */ <<if $codewords.includes($args[0])>> <<set _codewordsOutput to "[[" + $args[1] + "]]">> <<else>> <<set _codewordsOutput to $args[1]>> <</if>> _codewordsOutput <</nobr>><</widget>> <<widget "nocodeword">><<nobr>> /* $args[0] codeword to check for $args[1] passage to redirect to (or not) */ <<if $codewords.includes($args[0]) is false>> <<set _noCodewordsOutput to "[[" + $args[1] + "]]">> <<else>> <<set _noCodewordsOutput to $args[1]>> <</if>> _noCodewordsOutput <</nobr>><</widget>> /*If the player has run out of lifepoints they're stuffed. Trigger the fail state!*/ <<if $player.lifePoints lt 1 or tags().includes("failState")>> <<script>> $(document).ready(function() { $('#passages a').remove(); }); <</script>> <<append "#passages">> <<timed 5s t8n>> <<include "failState">> <</timed>> <</append>> <<elseif tags().includes("gameComplete")>> <<append "#passages">> <<timed 5s t8n>> <<include "winState">> <</timed>> <</append>> <</if>> /* Similarly they can't spend more money than they have. We step the passage back! */ <<if $player.money lt 0>> <<script>> Engine.backward() <</script>> <<cacheaudio "purchaseDeny" "purchaseDeny">> <<audio "purchaseDeny" play>> <</if>> <<silently>>/* Play audio cue */ <<cacheaudio "emptinessSound" "emptinessSound">> <<audio "emptinessSound" play>><</silently>><img data-passage="emptiness" style="width: 80%;clear:both; margin-left: 10px;margin-bottom: 0px;"> You've met your end. Perhaps you will have better fortune <<link "in the next life">><<script>>UI.restart();<</script>><<audio "emptinessSound" fadeout>><</link>>. [[Credits|credits]] Among the items originally stored in the sky-car’s locker were a <<pickup "Flashlight">> and a length of <<pickup "Rope">>. If you have not equipped yourself with these already, you may as well do so now because, if the baron’s hunch is right, the moment of truth is almost upon you. After amending your list of possessions, turn to [[39]]. You ease yourselves down into the crevice. The walls are slick with frost and you have to brace your back against sharp rocks to keep from slipping. At last you see a glimmer of light below and you emerge onto a ledge overlooking a large underground cavern. A distant howl of rushing air reaches your ears, magnified by the vast space surrounding you. The light is a dull grey phosphorescence from deep in the rock. Climbing down to the floor of the cavern, you advance through a forest of slender stalagmites which glisten like old candles. Baron Siriasis bobs along beside you like a grotesque broken manikin. He points. ‘Ahead is a chasm. Fortunately for you both, there seems to be a bridge across it.’ As you step out from among the stalagmites, you fail to notice at first that a thick glowing vapour is roiling around your feet. Boche heads towards the chasm, but stumbles and gives a cry of alarm as the vapour begins to creep up around his limbs. With a groan, the baron seems to sag and drift down to the cavern floor. You take another step, then you realize that the mist is draining your strength. It rises across your vision, a luminous fog that seeps into your skin like ice water. You can no longer see your comrades. Then you see a sight that sends a tingle of dread through you. Taking shape within the mist, reaching towards you with ghastly imploring fingers, is a horribly twisted figure that looks like a squashed effigy of white clay. If you have the codeword //Gilgamesh//, turn to <<codeword "Gilgamesh" 105>>. If you possess cyborg body-parts, turn to <<if $notes.includes("Cyborg Body-Parts")>>[[127]]<<else>>127<</if>>. If you have neither of those but you do have @@.skill;Lore@@, turn to <<skill "lore" 171>>. Otherwise, there is nothing you can do to stop the phantom from reaching through your skin and extracting your life-essence, and your adventure is at an end. ‘The Truth is a Flame,’ you say. @@.terminal;‘What ignites the flame?’@@ intones the computer. So far so good. ‘The spark ignites the flame.’ @@.terminal;‘What is the spark?’@@ it asks. ‘The Heart of Volent.’ You wait with bated breath. Then, with a hum, the elevator starts to descend. You are being conveyed to the Shrine of the Heart! Turn to [[150]]. Captain Novak comes racing towards you out of the smoke. His uniform is torn and singed by the explosion and he has a wild look in his eyes. You are not sure whether to block his way or stand aside, when suddenly a barysal shot streams through the air, piercing his brain. A second shot hits him as he falls, but glances off his armour and ricochets into you. You are badly burned, taking 6 Life Points damage (unless you have a speculum jacket, in which case lose only 4 Life Points). If you can survive this injury, delete the codeword Mallet and turn to [[41]]. <<silently>> <<set $codewords.delete("Mallet")>> <<set _itemCheck to false>> <<for _i, _item range $inventory>> <<if _item['name'] is "Speculum Jacket">> <<set _itemCheck to true>> <<break>> <</if>> <</for>> <<if _itemCheck>> <<set $player.lifePoints-=4>> <<else>> <<set $player.lifePoints-=6>> <</if>> <</silently>> Boche comes along the passage with gun in hand. He is covered with dust from the explosion and has a gash across his forehead where he was hit by a splinter of masonry, but he is smiling. ‘The baron’s dead,’ he tells you. ‘How? What happened?’ He swells with pride. ‘I got him with a grenade. I’d been carrying it all along, but the joke was that I didn’t even know it myself. It was the only way to foil his mind- reading, you see.’ ‘I don’t understand.’ Boche coughs rock dust out of his throat and then goes on: ‘I knew the baron was heading for Du-En and that he’d be the hardest foe I’d have to face, so I got myself hypnotized to forget that I was carrying a grenade. I had a post-hypnotic suggestion planted that I should use the grenade at a key moment. He never knew what hit him.’ ‘Ruthlessly cunning...’ If you intended any sarcasm, Boche fails to notice it. ‘Thanks,’ he says. ‘Now, let’s get going before the tunnel collapses on us.’ Turn to [[175]]. Singh was so intent on watching for Golgoth that he did not expect an attack from you. Caught unawares, he is flung to the ground. Rushing in, you snatch up the cannon and finish him with a blast from his own weapon. The smoke begins to disperse. At first you see no sign of Golgoth, then he emerges from one of the elevator tubes. He had attached his gun to the wall magnetically and set it for remote fire. Retrieving it, he casts a wary glance at the cannon and then smiles. ‘Ultimate power can be quite a temptation...’ he says, glancing significantly from the cannon to the gun in his own hand. If you blast him with the mantramukta cannon, turn to [[43]]. If you trust him not to shoot, turn to [[431]]. Golgoth fires back, but he has no defence against the unstoppable power of the mantramukta cannon, which literally blasts him apart. His last shot strikes you glancingly, however, and you feel an agonizing pain coursing through your side. Lose 3 Life Points (or 2 Life Points if you have a speculum jacket). If still alive, turn to [[415]]. <<silently>> <<set _itemCheck to false>> <<for _i, _item range $inventory>> <<if _item['name'] is "Speculum Jacket">> <<set _itemCheck to true>> <<break>> <</if>> <</for>> <<if _itemCheck>> <<set $player.lifePoints-=2>> <<else>> <<set $player.lifePoints-=3>> <</if>> <</silently>> You can fire at Golgoth (turn to [[109]]), Boche (turn to [[87]]) or Vajra Singh (turn to [[131]]). Grabbing the stage curtain, you haul yourself up hand over hand until you reach the machinery that moves the puppets’ wires. Swinging out, you gather up the wires and snag them into the rotating cogs. Down on the stage, the puppets are jerked off their feet and lifted up as their wires snarl inside the machinery. You see your companions look around in surprise, then Golgoth thinks to look up. Seeing you, his smile flashes in the strobing light. ‘There’s our //deus ex machina//,’ he says. ‘You can come down now. And thanks.’ Turn to [[110]]. To Boche’s obvious surprise, you suddenly dive off the ledge and wriggle down into the bank of snow piled against the rock face just below it. Within seconds you are buried out of sight. Lying there, you listen for the approaching footsteps which tell you the mysterious figure is near at hand. Boche starts to cry out, then gives a gasp and falls silent. You decide to wait no longer, but leap up from your hiding place and deliver a hard blow to the back of the stranger’s neck. The stranger falls, and at the same moment you see Boche shake his head as if recovering from a trance. Turn to [[90]]. <img data-passage="baronSiriasisFerry" style="width: 45%;float: right; margin-left: 10px;margin-bottom: 3px;">Dawn hides behind a blanket of dark snow-laden cloud. Huddled in warm furs, a group of travellers make their way to the quayside to await the ferry. As you approach the ticket kiosk, you see an old man looking out to sea, propped like a limp sack on a bench. He is crippled, having no legs, and his face has the look of a clay effigy that has crumpled in on itself through sheer age. A puff of white hair haloes his liver-spotted pate. //Poor old devil//, you think as you pass him. He looks up. Keen hawk’s eyes meet your own. ‘I don’t care for your pity, youngster,’ he snaps. ‘I’m sorry,’ you say, ‘I didn’t mean—’ And then it hits you: he can read your mind. ‘Of course I can read your mind. Have you never heard of Baron Siriasis?’ Before you can reply, he hauls himself to the edge of the bench. It seems to you that he is about to fall to the ground, and you take half a step forward, but he glares at you and says, ‘I don’t need your help either!’ To your amazement, he rises into the air until he is hovering in front of you, his gaze level with yours. For a moment your eyes lock. You hear his words of warning, not spoken, but burning their way into your mind: //Don’t go to Du-En if you want to live.// Abruptly he turns and drifts away. A woman standing behind you in the queue glances after him and says, ‘Startled? That’s Baron Siriasis, one of the lords of Bezant. He’s said to be the most powerful psionic alive.’ You have never before seen a man with enough psychokinetic power to levitate his own body. ‘Indeed, who can doubt it?’ you say to the woman. If you have the codeword @@.codeword;Diamond@@, turn to <<codeword "Diamond" 224>>. If not, turn to <<nocodeword "Diamond" 202>>. Reaching up, you point the shower nozzle so that a stream of scalding hot water hits one of your assailants in the face. He gives an agonized screech and falls clutching his eyes. By a lucky accident, the shower jet strikes the oil lamp by the door, plunging the shower hall into darkness. As you hear the other man step forward, you get ready to dart aside. He lunges, his knife gashing across your ribs to inflict the loss of 3 Life Points. (Exception: if you have @@.skill;Close Combat@@ then you are expert enough to parry an attack even in the dark, and lose only 1 Life Point.) Before he can thrust again, you have caught his wrist. There is a brief struggle – a crack of bone, a wet sound, a groan. Slowly your attacker goes limp in your grasp, impaled on his own knife. You grope your way to the door and relight the lamp. The dead man’s blood goes swirling across the shower tiles into the drain. His accomplice whimpers as you approach. Turn to [[48]]. \<<silently>> <<set _itemCheck to false>> <<for _i, _item range $inventory>> <<if _item['name'] is "Shortsword">> <<set _itemCheck to true>> <<break>> <</if>> <</for>> <<if $player.closecombat and _itemCheck>> /* The player loses one less point - i.e. none */ <<elseif $player.closecombat>> <<set $player.lifePoints-->> <<else>> <<set $player.lifePoints-=3>> <</if>> <</silently>> You stoop to question him. His knife lies beside him, but he is in too much pain to think of retrieving it. He peers at you between his fingers, his face and eyes badly scalded. ‘Who are you?’ you ask. ‘Why did you try to kill me?’ ‘Body snatchers,’ he replies, grinding his teeth in agony because of the burns. ‘Any healthy stranger is fair game in this part of town.’ Body snatchers seize live organs for transplants. You know that a high price can be had on the black market for a usable heart, kidney or liver – and no questions asked of how the body snatchers came by it. It is a foul trade, lacking even the relative openness of conventional mugging. If you have @@.skill;Streetwise@@, turn to <<vademecum 114>>. If you have @@.skill;Esp@@ (and a psionic focus), turn to <<skillItem "esp" "Psionic Focus" 136>>. Otherwise, turn to [[92]]. You can detect no thoughts from the next room. Either you imagined the voice, or the speaker was one whose thoughts you cannot read. ‘Hurry,’ the voice cries out. ‘Not much time...’ If you ignore it and check out the Manta sky-car, turn to [[49]]. If you go through to the next room, turn to [[5]]. If you think it would be wiser to get out of here, turn to [[395]]. You step out of the elevator and follow the signs along empty corridors until you come to a plushly carpeted room with a door opposite. There is a desk where you might expect to see a nurse or clerk, but the room is unoccupied. The door has a plaque: the red crescent is a universal symbol, and beside it is the doctor’s name-plate. You push the door open. A woman looks up from the book she was consulting and gives you a smile which is both a greeting and an enquiry. ‘Doctor Jaffe, I presume.’ She puts the book into her bag and closes it. ‘You caught me just in time. I was about to go home.’ She is refreshingly free of the sycophancy that characterizes most of the Society’s employees. You mention this to her as she is giving you a check-up and she laughs, saying, ‘Well, most of the members are so used to wielding power that they bully anyone who’ll let them. That wouldn’t do for a doctor; I’m supposed to be the bully!’ If injured, you can restore 2 lost Life Points. Doctor Jaffe also gives you a pack of antidote pills. ‘These are generally useful against most diseases and toxins you’ll encounter while in Kahira.’ Note the <<pickup "Antidote Pills">> on your Adventure Sheet and then turn to [[73]]. <<silently>> <<set $player.lifePoints+=2>> <<if $player.lifePoints gt $player.lifePointsMax>> <<set $player.lifePoints to $player.lifePointsMax>> <</if>> <</silently>> <<widget "pickup">><<nobr>> /* $args[0] - the item to have the option to pick up $args[1] - the number of charges a Barysal gun has */ <<linkreplace $args[0]>> /* Check again in case the inventory has changed since the passage was rendered */ <<if $inventory.length lt 8>> <<set $inventory.push({name: $args[0], charges: $args[1]})>>$args[0]<<replace "#story-caption">><<include "StoryCaption">><</replace>> <<else>> $args[0] <</if>> <</linkreplace>> <</nobr>><</widget>> The indicator light shows you have fifteen floors to go. About thirty seconds. Long enough to work a miracle if you’re lucky. You clear your mind of everything but a single purpose: to direct your willpower through the psionic focus you wear. The indicator light shows you have reached the third floor... the second... the first. With a high chime, the elevator comes to a halt and the doors start to open. Suddenly all the lights go out, not only here but in the street outside, plunging the lobby into total darkness. ‘Power cut!’ you hear someone shout. Then someone else snarls an order to open fire, and gunfire spatters the rear wall of the elevator where you were standing only seconds before. Following the wall, you find the door and duck out into the night. Hurrying off, you wait until you have gone half a block through the welcome enveloping mist before you allow the electricity to flow again. That was as narrow an escape as you’ve ever had. You’ll have to sharpen your edge if you are to have any chance of getting the Heart. Turn to [[311]]. Cold reptilian thoughts seep into your brain, jolting you awake. Your gaze flicks across the swaying fronds around you, searching for the source of the thoughts. Warned by an intuitive impulse, you glance up in time to see a narrow fang-lined snout dropping on a long neck towards you. Leaping to your feet, you cast a handful of soil into the creature’s eyes and race off through the trees. Turn to [[228]]. You sit at the front of the carriage and stare through the window, even though the tunnel is unlit and there is nothing to see. Hours pass before a glimmer of light shows along the tunnel. The carriage glides to a halt and the doors open with a whir. You emerge into a maze of partially-collapsed corridors – there are no careteks here to keep the place spruce. You search until you find a spiral staircase, at the top of which is a tunnel choked with rubble. Laboriously you clear away the masonry blocks until at last you feel a slight breeze of fresh air. Flickering light shows through a crack in a wall panel. You press your fingers against the panel. It is only light plastiwood which you can break through easily. If you have @@.skill;Esp@@ and a psionic focus, turn to <<skillItem "esp" "Psionic Focus" 141>>. If not, turn to <<noSkillItem "esp" "Psionic Focus" 357>>. If you fight them with @@.skill;Close Combat@@, turn to <<skill "closecombat" 76>>. If you draw a gun on them, turn to <<item "Barysal Gun" 98>>. If you prefer to resort to @@.skill;Cunning@@, turn to <<skill "cunning" 120>>. If you have none of those options, you really would be better off not tangling with them: turn to [[54]]. You take yourself to a table and sit down. The twins watch you for a moment longer, then return to their drinking. You glance around the inn. No one else dares stand up to the two Amazons. What about you? You might eavesdrop using @@.skill;Roguery@@ (turn to <<skill "roguery" 208>>), read their minds using @@.skill;Esp@@ and a psionic focus (turn to <<skillItem "esp" "Psionic Focus" 230>>), try to outwit them using @@.skill;Cunning@@ (turn to <<skill "cunning" 120>>), or draw a barysal gun if you possess one (turn to <<item "Barysal Gun" 98>>). Otherwise you had better mind your own business: turn to [[252]]. Bador thrusts his chin forward and strokes at his grizzled scrub of beard as he waits to see how he can help you. Will you ask him about Giza (turn to [[59]]), the Saharan Ice Wastes (turn to [[77]]), the city of Kahira (turn to [[143]]), or where you should take lodging (turn to [[99]])? He holds up his finger. ‘Ah, it is a very ancient place, not very far to the west. There, in ancient times, were buried the royalty of Egypt. Later, men came from the distant corners of the globe with a great warrior they called Gilgamesh, who had skin of iron and eyes of fire. They told him to watch across the snows for stirrings of life in the ruins of Du-En, and, if any threat arose from there, he was to take up his sword and venture forth.’ Bador sees the look on your face. ‘It is true, all true!’ Now you can ask his advice about the Sahara (turn to [[77]]), about Kahira itself (turn to [[143]]), or where to stay in the city (turn to [[99]]). Or you can dismiss him (turn to [[95]]). Gaia must be having one of her periodic bouts of madness. The commands which have appeared on the screen tell you that she has logged into the computer which oversees the nuclear reactor supplying power to this base. Your jaw sags in dismay as you see the next set of commands: a sequence which, if completed, would cause the reactor to go critical! There is a time for subtlety, but this isn’t it. You rip out the external cables, physically breaking the link to Gaia. The computer sputters and fades before the reactor override command could be completed. You’ve saved yourself and quite possibly all of Kahira, but with the computer out of action there is no way to restore the reactor to full function. Failsafe systems will probably shut it down now. That means that the electricity will go off soon. Since that will disable the elevator, you lose no time in ascending to the surface while you still can. Turn to [[361]]. You gnaw wretchedly at your meagre provisions, trying to ration out what remains to last as long as possible. If you have @@.skill;Survival@@, you manage to trap a migrating bird which pauses to rest on one of the spurs of ice, and you need lose no Life Points. If you do not have @@.skill;Survival@@, the bird escapes and you lose 1 Life Point while hunger continues to weaken you. Assuming you can still go on, turn to [[100]]. <<silently>> <<if $player.survival is false>> <<set $player.lifePoints-->> <</if>> <</silently>> A laboratory extends from the far end of the hall. A bank of computers lines one wall. The benches are strewn with electronic equipment whose function you cannot even guess at, most of it only half-constructed. On one bench, next to a metal box, you notice an empty coffee-cup. It looks as if this base was evacuated in a hurry. You stoop to inspect the metal box. It looks something like a communicator, with a viewscreen and speaker on one side next to an array of buttons. You guess that the prominent red button on the side will power it up... whatever it is. If you try using the computers to put through a message to Gaia, turn to [[12]]. If you power up the metal box, turn to [[57]]. If you spend time on a more thorough search of the laboratory, turn to [[80]]. Otherwise you can descend to the military level (turn to [[255]]) or leave the pyramid (turn to [[361]]). You touch the red button. The box produces a prolonged hum which rises in tone and then ends with a bleep. @@.gaia;‘Ready,’@@ says a synthetic feminine voice from the speaker. Taken aback for a moment, you lean closer and gingerly speak to the box. ‘Er... ready for what?’ @@.gaia;‘Explain,’@@ says the box crisply. @@.gaia;‘Your query was unspecific.’@@ ‘Is this a radio? Who am I talking to?’ @@.gaia;‘I am a miniature facsimile of the Global Artificial Intelligence program,’@@ replies the box. ‘Gaia? But Gaia is crazy.’ @@.gaia;‘I was loaded with Gaia’s program prior to virus infection. I am able to model the thinking of the Gaia system at a reduced rate owing to my limited memory capacity, which now stands at 512 gigabytes.’@@ ‘What can you tell me about the Heart of Volent?’ @@.gaia;‘Nothing. No such information has been loaded into my memory.’ @@The device has an annoyingly smug little voice. All the same, if it has even a fraction of Gaia’s intelligence then it may be useful. Record on your Adventure Sheet that you now possess <<pickup "Little Gaia">>. You can now search the lab for other equipment (turn to [[80]]), descend to the bottom level of the pyramid (turn to [[255]]), or leave (turn to [[361]]). You find several items scattered across a bench at the back of the laboratory. These include a <<pickup "Flashlight">>, a pair of <<pickup "Binoculars">>, a set of <<pickup "Polarized Goggles">>, and a <<pickup "Barysal Gun" 2>>. The gun has been opened for inspection, but it is a simple matter to secure the butt and replace the screws. You check the power unit, finding two charges remaining. Note any items that you wish to take, and also note the number of charges in the gun if you take it. Now you can descend the shaft to the bottom level (turn to [[255]]), or ascend and leave the pyramid (turn to [[361]]). You make do as best you can with the little food remaining. You take to sleeping in the middle of each day, when the sunlight gives some small respite from the cold. Rising in late afternoon, you travel on through the night so that the activity keeps you from freezing to death. You watch the stars wheel ponderously overhead, melancholy sparks drifting through the silent heavens. Lose 1 Life Point – unless you have @@.skill;Survival@@, in which case your natural hardiness means you can cope with no loss of Life Points. If still alive, read on. When dawn at last washes the sky silver and lays gold- pink tracks across the snow, you are amazed to find tears of joy running down your cheeks. You have survived another day of this terrible ordeal... Turn to [[125]]. <<silently>> <<if $player.survival is false>> <<set $player.lifePoints-->> <</if>> <</silently>> If you have the codeword <<if $codewords.includes("Uruk")>><<set $codewords.delete("Uruk")>><<set $codewords.push("Gilgamesh")>><</if>>//Uruk//, delete it and note //Gilgamesh// again. As night falls, an eerie glitter of lights appears in the sky, like a translucent curtain draped across the cosmos. Janus Gaunt gazes up and tells you it is the Aurora Cordis, caused by particles from outer space falling into the field of paradox radiation emanating from the Heart of Volent. You stand in awe, humbled by the magnificent sight. The curtain of light ripples and stirs in the heavens. ‘It seems staggering,’ you remark to Gaunt in a whisper, ‘to think that just a fraction of the Heart’s power could create something on such a scale.’ He chuckles. ‘The Heart’s power is much greater than that! Power enough to shape worlds and shift the stars in their courses, if the legend is to be believed.’ ‘And do you believe it?’ He gives you an odd, half-frightened look. ‘Believe it? I have studied the scientific records. I know it for a fact.’ If you have the codeword //Nemesis//, turn to <<codeword "Nemesis" 60>>. If not, turn to <<nocodeword "Nemesis" 82>>. A barysal beam stabs blindly through the smoke, narrowly missing you. Singh turns and squints in the direction of the shot. ‘I still can’t see him...’ he mutters grimly. If you have a charged barysal gun and want to return fire, turn to <<item "Barysal Gun" 64>>. If you advance under cover of the smoke towards where the shot came from, turn to [[86]]. If you back off out of the smoke and look around, turn to [[108]]. If you have @@.skill;Esp@@ (and a psionic focus) turn to <<skillItem "esp" "Psionic Focus" 65>>. If not, turn to <<noSkillItem "esp" "Psionic Focus" 240>>. Golgoth had the same idea. You come face-to-face with him on the edge of the smoke cloud. Instead of a gun, he has a crossbow in his hands. He shoots, but you are already dodging and the bolt only opens a gash across your shoulder. Lose 2 Life Points. If you survive and have @@.skill;Shooting@@ (and a charged barysal gun), turn to <<skillItem "shooting" "Barysal Gun" 304>>. If you do not have @@.skill;Shooting@@, turn to <<noskill "shooting" 326>>. <<silently>> <<set $player.lifePoints-=2>> <</silently>> Gargan XIV’s fist lashes out, cracking your head back against the wall. If you have @@.skill;Close Combat@@, lose 1 Life Point; if not, lose 3 Life Points. As you are squaring off for a hard fight, you see that Gargan XIII has drawn a knife and is standing over Golgoth, in no hurry to finish him off. Suddenly he looks up with a broad smile. Turn to [[154]]. <<silently>> <<set _itemCheck to false>> <<for _i, _item range $inventory>> <<if _item['name'] is "Shortsword">> <<set _itemCheck to true>> <<break>> <</if>> <</for>> <<if $player.closecombat and _itemCheck>> /* The player loses one less point - i.e. none */ <<elseif $player.closecombat>> <<set $player.lifePoints-->> <<else>> <<set $player.lifePoints-=3>> <</if>> <</silently>> Taking up your pack, you trudge out into the snow. Moments later you hear the crunching of rapid footsteps and Boche catches up with you. His breath curls into the diamond-clear morning air. ‘We may as well travel together for mutual convenience, at least for a while,’ he says chirpily. If you agree to this, turn to [[133]]. If you refuse point- blank, turn to [[155]]. Grabbing handfuls of snow, you rapidly dust it over your clothing and face. The cold nips your skin painfully. Ignoring the discomfort, you pluck some icicles from the overhang above the ledge, lodging these across your hood in front of your face. Taking up an intent rigid pose, you look like just another of the frozen corpses lining the walls of the pass. Boche is slow on the uptake. ‘What are you doing?’ he asks. ‘Get going, you fool,’ you hiss out of the side of your mouth. ‘You’re the decoy.’ He hesitates, then drops from the ledge and vanishes out of sight along the pass. Soon afterwards, the mysterious figure draws level with where you are crouching. A gold glimmer shows under its hood as it glances up, then hurries on towards Boche. You leap down behind it, and a hard blow with a rock lays it flat in the snow. Turn to [[90]]. ‘Is it dead?’ says Boche. You snap an icicle from under the ledge and drive it deep into the grotesque pulpy head. The creature gives a single spasm and lies still. ‘It is now.’ You roll the body over to inspect it and are almost overcome by a wave of nausea. It is the most loathsome thing you have ever seen: a thin malformed body with a bloated mauve-pink head. The only facial feature is a long thick stalk ending in the cyclopean eye – now thankfully dimmed by the glaze of death. The scalp is covered with tiny orifices like gaping eyelids. Are they breathing holes? Sensory organs? There is no way to tell. Boche joins you beside the body. ‘It’s a mutant.’ You nod. ‘That’s for sure, but a mutant //what//?’ If you follow the creature’s tracks back to its lair before the snow covers them, turn to [[134]]. If you wait where you are until dawn, turn to [[310]]. The Compass Society is an international organization whose membership consists entirely of the rich, powerful and privileged. Possession of one of the coveted gold membership cards marks a person out as someone to be respected, with full access to the Society’s wealth and lavish resources. Although the Society is not represented here in Venis, you know that it has premises in Daralbad, Bezant and Kahira. If you possess an ID card, turn to <<item "ID Card" 69>>. If not, turn to [[414]]. By the front desk of the inn there is a notice-board where posters are pinned up for the perusal of bounty hunters. You scan the pictures of wanted criminals to see if any resemble the two men who attacked you, but without success. When you ask the innkeeper, he only shrugs and says that people are constantly coming and going. ‘I cannot keep track of all the riff-raff of Venis!’ ‘But I might very easily have been murdered.’ His only answer to this is to point to a sign on the wall which reads: //The management is not responsible for the safety of customers or their belongings.// You give him a glowering look, then turn and stride out of the inn. A walk in the night air will help you to cool off. Turn to [[329]]. If you have the @@.skill;Piloting skill@@, turn to <<skill "piloting" 115>>. If not, turn to <<noskill "piloting" 137>>. <<silently>> <<script>> setup.noToTen = ['are no more','is the last of the','are two','are three','are four','are five','are six','are seven','are eight','are nine', 'are ten']; <</script>> <<set _foodpacks to 10>> <</silently>>You lay out the contents of the storage compartment on the floor beside the vehicle. There <span id="foodpacks"><<link `setup.noToTen[_foodpacks] + " food packs"`>> <<if _foodpacks gt 0 and $inventory.length lt 8>> <<set $inventory.push({name: "Food Pack"})>> <<replace "#story-caption">><<include "StoryCaption">><</replace>> <<set _foodpacks-->> <<if _foodpacks gt 0>> <<run $('#foodpacks a').html(setup.noToTen[_foodpacks] + " food packs")>> <<else>> <<replace "#foodpacks">><<= setup.noToTen[_foodpacks]>> food packs<</replace>> <</if>> <</if>> <</link>></span>, a <<pickup "Medical Kit">>, a <<pickup "Flashlight">>, <<pickup "Cold-Weather Clothing">> and a length of nylon <<pickup "Rope">>. Note anything you are taking as possessions on your Adventure Sheet, then turn to [[395]]. You sit at the front of the carriage and stare through the window at hurtling darkness. There is no way to tell how fast you are travelling, but you estimate from the long smooth acceleration at the start of the journey that it could be around four hundred kilometres an hour. The carriage never gives the slightest jolt. <img data-passage="kahira" style="width:50%;float:right;margin-left:10px;margin-bottom:0px;">Hours pass before you see the glimmer of lights along the tunnel. The carriage glides to a halt and the doors open with a whirr. You emerge and set off along a tunnel very different from the one in Marsay. This subway station has not been maintained by careteks, and dust and rubble cover the tiled walkways. Climbing a staircase, you find the entrance blocked by fallen masonry and have to labour for over an hour before there is a gap large enough to squeeze through. You find yourself on an ice-hard plain under the descending chill of dusk. A sprinkling of snow drifts down out of the sky. A few kilometres away, Kahira straddles the River Isis on its thick buttresses, a grey concrete lobster winking with a thousand eyes of light through the haze of mist. You set out at a brisk pace, anxious to reach the gates before curfew. Turn to [[229]]. The elevator carries almost to the top floor of the building, where a well-equipped gym overlooks the city. You spend half an hour on the treadmill, watching your own reflection in the glass window superimposed against the mist-shrouded towers and twinkling lights of Kahira. Another half-hour on various weights machines leaves you feeling firmed up and fit. You finish with five minutes under a massage bed followed by a relaxing spa. As you are leaving the changing-room, you almost collide with a huge Fijian in a trim black suit and mirror glasses. He grunts an absent-minded apology and hurries past, staring urgently around the room. He is the only other person you have seen in the building who doesn’t seem to be an employee here. You are about to head off towards the elevator when he calls after you: ‘Hey! Who are you? You’re not my boss!’ If you possess a barysal gun and want to use it, turn to <<item "Barysal Gun" 227>>. If you prefer to use @@.skill;Close Combat@@, turn to <<skill "closecombat" 248>>. If you try @@.skill;Cunning@@, turn to <<skill "cunning" 269>>. If you have none of those, you had better run for it: turn to [[290]]. The elevator reaches the ground floor and the doors slide open. You step out, only to be confronted by a group of uniformed security men with rifles. ‘You’re in illegal possession of a Compass Society ID,’ growls the security chief with a wolfish grin. ‘Let me explain...’ He shakes his head. ‘Tell it to the marines. Better yet, tell it to the angels.’ With a click of his fingers, he signals to his men and you are blasted apart in a juddering hail of gunfire. A rustling in the leaf canopy directly overhead warns you of danger. You open your eyes in time to see a narrow wedge-shaped head snaking down from the branches, a wide pink mouth lined with teeth like needles. You react instantly, flipping backwards over the log an instant before the jaws strike. The creature rears back, spitting out soil and twigs, head bobbing on a long grey cable of neck, and lunges again. You slip aside, snatch up your belongings, and race off through the trees. Turn to [[228]]. The computer locks you out. You try rebooting, to no avail. With a shrug, you turn to exploring the rest of the pyramid, idly wondering what Gaia was up to when she entered the stream of inexplicable commands into the computer system here. The answer comes so suddenly that you never know it. Gaia was in the throes of her periodic madness when you contacted her this time. She located the nuclear reactor supplying power to the pyramid and ordered it to go critical. Without warning a blossom of plasma erupts from the earth. For a brief incandescent second it is as though time has turned back to before the Ice Age, and the Pyramid of Cheops once more sits on hot sands in blazing light. Then the blast spreads – sweeping away the pyramids that have stood here for fifty centuries, vaporizing the snow and ice covering the desert, turning the rock to lava and the river to steam, and making of Kahira a cinderous ruin. In the midst of such a holocaust, your own death goes unnoticed. You curse the recklessness that brought you into the Ice Wastes before you were adequately prepared. Your lack of food intensifies the cold, which seems to drill into your bones. Each dawn you arise lethargic and listless, like one who has been visited by a vampire in the night. Each step you take costs a greater effort; you feel torpid with fatigue and hunger. If you do not have @@.skill;Survival@@, lose 4 Life Points as you slowly starve. If you have @@.skill;Survival@@, you manage to trap a bird which alights on one of the tors of glacial ice, and need lose only 2 Life Points. (Also, lose 1 less Life Point if you possess a burrek, as you can tap some of its oily blood for sustenance.) Assuming you still have the strength to go on, turn to [[100]]. <<silently>> <<set _healthPenalty to 4>> <<set _itemCheck to false>> <<if $player.survival>> <<set _healthPenalty-=2>> <</if>> <<if $notes.includes("Burrek")>> <<set _itemCheck to true>> <</if>> <<if _itemCheck>> <<set _healthPenalty-->> <</if>> <<if _healthPenalty lt 0>> <<set _healthPenalty to 0>> <</if>> <<set $player.lifePoints-= _healthPenalty>> <</silently>> <<silently>> <<set _mask to false>> <<for _i, _item range $inventory>> <<if _item['name'] is "Gas Mask">> <<set _mask to true>> <<break>> <</if>> <</for>> <</silently>>The volcanic gases here make the air poisonous, stunting the trees around the oasis and causing the slow death of animal life. No doubt those insects swarming in the sudorific updraughts have had to mutate in order to tolerate the conditions here. You know that prolonged exposure to the tainted air might eventually cause cancer unless you have some protection. Otherwise it is only worth staying if you are on the brink of death and are so desperate for recuperation now that you are willing to take a gamble with your life. If you have either a gas mask or cyborg body-parts, turn to <<if _mask or $notes.includes("Cyborg Body-Parts")>>[[169]]<<else>>169<</if>>. Otherwise, choose whether you will stay for a day or so (turn to <<if _mask is false or $notes.includes("Cyborg Body-Parts") is false>>[[103]]<<else>>103<</if>>) or continue onwards at once (turn to <<if _mask is false or $notes.includes("Cyborg Body-Parts") is false>>[[426]]<<else>>426<</if>>). You build a lean-to beside the bubbling pool in the shelter of the dwarf conifers. You soon discover that the water of the pool is tainted with volcanic gases, but when you need to drink it is easy enough to collect snow from beyond the edge of the oasis and bring it back to camp to melt. Food is more difficult to come by. The birds you saw when you first arrived prove to be very timid, and canny enough not to let you catch them. If someone had told you even two weeks ago that you would be eagerly chewing grubs and insects for food, you would have laughed scornfully. At least the hot gases rising from clefts in the rocks mean that you can bake the insects before eating them. Recover 2 Life Points. On the morning of your second day at the oasis, you notice a slight feeling of nausea, and begin to wonder whether the sulphur-tinged air is affecting your health. If you decide to leave the oasis and head on, note the codeword @@.codeword;Hourglass@@ and turn to [[426]]. If you want to stay for a few days more, turn to [[15]]. <<silently>> <<set $codewords.push("Hourglass")>> <<set $player.lifePoints+=2>> <</silently>> Bador expresses dismay when you tell him you intend to cross the Ice Wastes. ‘By your father’s beard! Do you wish to become a corpse with hoarfrost in your veins? Put aside all thought of such a scheme, I pray you!’ You cannot help smiling. ‘What?’ says Bador, starting to weep. ‘Do you mock my concern?’ You place a hand on his sleeve. ‘Calm yourself. You and I are strangers, and you already have your fee. Do not allow thought of my death to upset you, but give me advice on how to avoid such a fate.’ ‘Only the barbarian Ebor venture into the Sahara, and even they dare go no further than its fringes. It is a place of ghosts and devils, and the wind is like obsidian.’ ‘The Ebor... a nomad tribe? How do they survive?’ ‘They have burreks, shaggy thick-necked beasts that grow folds of fat. When the blizzard comes, the Ebor rider shelters by his burrek and bleeds the animal, frying up a blood pudding to sustain him.’ Bador grimaces to show what he thinks of such a custom. Now you can ask what he knows about the city (turn to [[143]]), about Giza (turn to [[59]]), or the best place to spend the night (turn to [[99]]). If you have learned all you need and want to send him away, turn to [[95]]. He is emphatic that you should on 