I actually don't have a problem with the fire. It's the
Archmage's citadel, it's totally okay for his illusions to be
Spectre of the Gun quality. The secret of the flames is just a password of a different color.
I'll get the Powder, though I don't see any reason to believe that a single cast consumes an entire vial.
As he has told you, the two candles are self-lighting. The Blood Candle will last longer than the normal one.
The nest and golden egg are a mystery. Could they be useful if you come across Birdmen? Does the egg have any value? Or are they both simply luxurious ornaments? Will you find out?
He has on his shelves some of the artefacts that you may need for the spells listed in your Spell Book. Furthermore, he will let you have two artefacts for 8 Gold Pieces, three for 10, and any others you may wish to buy will cost you only 1 gold piece each. He can offer you: A Jewel of Gold, Yellow Powder, A Gold-Backed Mirror, an Orb of Crystal and a Jewel-Studded Medallion.
If you have now investigated all of your purchases, leave the merchant and continue to the door at the end of the passageway.
The door opens into a passageway. To the right, the way leads onwards and the passage widens. To the left, it reaches a dead end. You decide to turn right and follow the passage.
The passageway widens until you reach an open hallway which is evidently a main thoroughfare. Several passages open out into this area and the way onwards is a choice of two doors. Ahead are two heavy wooden double doors, standing some three metres high. Your caution is aroused by the fact that one of these doors is slightly ajar. The other door is a more ornate affair, a few yards to the left of the double doors. Carvings are set in its wooden timbers.
• Investigate the large double doors?
• Instead try the smaller door? √
The carvings on the door itself are interesting, but give you no useful information. Grasping the handle, you open the door. Inside, you find a bare room with a mechanical contraption of some sort standing alone in the centre of the floor. It is made of brass and iron, with wheels, bands, and cogs linked together in a way that suggests some sort of machine designed to work metal. But it is still.
• If you wish to discover how it works,
Test your Luck. √
• Or do you not want to waste your time with it?
5 is Lucky!
You turn a few wheels and push a couple of levers, but nothing seems to make any difference. Suddenly it splutters! You repeat your actions and it splutters again, but this time something catches and the machine springs to life! Wheels turn, plates move up and down and steam rises from the top of the contraption. But you still cannot decide what it does. Finally, it dawns on you. This is a device for sharpening weapons and knives; it has a large grindstone rotating at the back. You may use it to sharpen your own weapons if you have any. Anything you sharpen on the machine will add a bonus of 1 point on to your attack strength from now on. When you have done this, you can turn the machine off and concentrate on your mission. You don't seem to be able to get through this room, so you will have to return to the main hallway.
You are naturally suspicious of such an important-looking door being open. It looks safe enough, but are you walking into a trap? You pick up a length of wood lying in the hallway and touch the door. Nothing happens. You shove the door open a little further and then you realize the trap. A roaring flame and blast of heat flare up from behind the door, causing you to shield your face! The door opens directly into a burning inferno! Your heart sinks. There seems to be no way through here.
• Let the door close and try the ornate door, perhaps to return here later?
• Risk an all-or-nothing run through the inferno? √
You use the sapling once more to shove the door wide open. The roaring swells and the heat blasts your face. With stolid determination, you leap through the door. This leap is noble, but foolish. You land in the centre of the inferno, screaming wildly as your clothes, then your hair, catch fire, and your blood boils. Your death is mercifully quick.
The flames lick your clothes and the heat begins to feel unbearable. But you have seen through its illusion. As you continue through the inferno, its effects die. The flames are cold. There is no heat. On the far side of the inferno is another door, which you walk comfortably up to.
A sign over the door catches your attention. It reads 'Chamber of Night.' You pause for a moment before you try the door. What can the Chamber of Night hold in store? Night creatures? Sleeping gas? There is only one way you will find out. You turn the handle.
The door opens to a room as black as coal. Not a beam of light comes from the room. Even the dull light from the area where you now stand cannot penetrate its blackness.
• Do you have a candle which you can use to light your way through this room? √
Which candle will you use to light your way?
• The blood candle?
• An ordinary candle?
Name: Fletch Beckett
SKILL: 9
STAMINA: 20/23
LUCK: 11/13
Favor of Libra: x
Backpack
Bag of Teeth (3 Goblin, 1 Giant)
Beeswax
Torch
Tinderbox
Gold-Backed Mirror
Incomprehensible Parchment Scroll
Green-Haired Wig
Bracelet of Bone
Serpent Ring
Galehorn
Chakram
Vial of Yellow Powder x2
Crystal Orb x2
Pearl Ring
Brass Pendulum x2
Mail Shirt (+1 SKILL, DR 1 on a 5+)
Snake-Bite Antidote
Hewing Axe (-2 CS)
Vial (for Sleepless Ram)
Sand x2
Stone Dust x2
7 Pebbles
Jewel-Studded Medallion
Calling-whistle
Potion (cures disease)
Potion of Fire Water
Sun Jewel
Nose Plugs
Orange Powder
Throben Door Key
23 Gold Pieces
Vial of Glue
2 Provisions
Ring of Green Metal
Amulet of Luck
Holy Water
Sword (+1 Attack Strength)
Silver Whistle
Blood Candle
Candle
Nest w/Golden Egg
Jewel of Gold
