Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2016 7:49 am
Gilgamesh because bug exploiting is clearly more important than finding out about someone who we know sounds like a Useful Companion(tm).
Welcome to the Gaming Den.
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Giza again! Interesting....A street-vendor offers books, pamphlets and scan-disks containing a vast wealth of chaotic information. You search through shelves and old boxes until you learn everything you need. Gilgamesh was the name of a military project centuries ago. The idea was to construct a battle-froid that was immune to paradoxing, in the hope that an army of such warriors could overwhelm Du-En. But then Du-En fell of its own accord, and the project was apparently abandoned.
You check the location of the Gilgamesh research base. It was at Giza, just outside Kahira. If you have LORE, turn to 95. If not, turn to 311.
We still have 64 scads left. Where do we want to spend the night?The hour is late. It is time you found somewhere to pass the night. The Ossiman Hotel is still open, and charges 5 scads for a bed. If you wish to take a room there, cross off the sum of 5 scads and turn to 333.
If you prefer to save money by sleeping rough on the streets, turn to 165.
Shopping time!Early morning sunlight drives away the wisps of mist, but there is still a nip in the air as you walk along the narrow streets. Even in this impoverished age, the bazaar of Kahira retains the quaint and colourful air for which it is famous. The alleyways are barely wide enough for one man to pass another without intimacy. Shutters of dark wood open onto shops which display artwork of ancient times: carpets and tapestries, silks, ivory carvings, gold and silver filigree, amulets, spices, wines, dyes and sultry perfumes. A thousand scents mingle in the hazy morning air, wafting from the food stalls where coffee bubbles in tall kettles and pancakes sizzle on the stoves.
You pass a man with a long clay pipe. No doubt his ancestors looked out from that very stall with the same brown high-cheekboned features. Mistaking your thoughtful expression, he beckons you over. ‘See my fine goods. I have thick furs to keep out the cold.’
If you want to buy a fur coat, cross off 3 scads and add the coat to your list of possessions. When the stall-holder learns you are undertaking a journey, he insists that you follow him to a courtyard wedged between the narrow buildings, where his cousin sells animals and slaves. If you go with him, turn to 338. If you want to look around the rest of the bazaar, turn to 359.
Hey, where are the slaves?You are shown a burrek – a hulking, thick-shouldered animal with shaggy white fur and a lugubrious snout. ‘The nomads use such creatures when they wish to cross the Ice Wastes,’ the trader tells you. ‘They huddle beside the beast in blizzards, and when hungry they tap its veins to make a blood pudding.’
‘What a sickening thought.’
He nods sagely. ‘Indeed, it is probably only just preferable to dying of starvation. Still, if you intend to cross the Sahara you cannot do without a burrek. This stout animal is for sale at the generous price of thirty scads.’
After some haggling, the price drops to 10 scads. If you want to buy the burrek for this sum, adjust your remaining money and note the burrek on your Character Sheet. The burrek does not count against your limit of eight possessions because, of course, you do not have to carry it: it will follow you around. (If you have a Manta sky-car then there is no point in buying a burrek, as it would not fit inside.)
After buying the burrek, we have 48 scads left. Note that we already have the goggles and the flashlight.Strolling through the bazaar, you find the following items for sale:
Gas mask 15 scads
Flashlight 8 scads
Medical kit 8 scads
Food packs 2 scads each
Polarized goggles 6 scads
Rope 3 scads
Buy what you wish and mark the appropriate changes on your Character Sheet. If you have the codeword Diamond, turn to 381. If not, turn to 402.
By the time you have finished your shopping it is mid-morning. Crossing the street at the entrance of the bazaar, you see Kyle Boche lounging at a pavement table in front of the Empty Quarter Cafe. ‘Where were you earlier?’ you ask him. ‘We were supposed to meet at sunrise.’
‘I don’t know what you mean. I was here. You must have missed me. In fact, I was just about to give up and leave.’
Glancing beyond the awning of the cafe, you see that the owner is only just lighting the stove. It is obvious that the place cannot have been open for more than a few minutes. You sigh. Boche is the sort of person who will never admit he is in the wrong. ‘Come on, then,’ you say to him, swinging your pack onto your shoulder and setting off at a brisk stride towards the city gate. The lift carries you down to ground level, where you emerge into a raw wind. Pockets of mist swirl above the river. West lies the gleaming white expanse of snow that is the Sahara Desert.
If you want to take a detour to the pyramids at Giza, turn to 423. If you wish to head straight out across the Sahara towards Du-En, turn to 393 (if you are on foot) or to 289 (if you have a Manta sky-car).
Apparently classical education is still a thing even this Age, so even our mutant rogue has the knowledge.The landscape stretches on, a sea of white broken by islands of bare black rock. Rays of sunlight, skimming from the horizon behind you, make the snow flash like ground glass. Soon you can see man-made hills that jut up against the drab skyline. These are the pyramids, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. And in front of them reclines the Sphinx, its inscrutable gaze fixed on Kahira, which is outlined by the rising sun. According to superstition, the Sphinx watches over Kahira and keeps it safe from the desert’s threat. You are not so sure. Doesn’t a watchdog face out from the place it is guarding? It looks to you as if the Sphinx carries in its proud impassive face a clear warning about the Sahara. You are reminded of the words written over the gates of Hell: Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch’entrate.....Abandon hope, you who venture here.
We don't have the codeword, but do have both skills. Which do we use?Greatest of all the monuments here is the Pyramid of Cheops, a structure of smooth black stone a hundred and fifty metres high, with a long ramp leading up to a door set two thirds of the way up the east face. You make the long climb, your breath steaming in the cold air. Finally you reach the heavy steel door. A symbol is etched into the metal. The emblem of a long-forgotten cause, it means nothing to you. The wind howls dolorously around the pyramid’s peak.
If you have the codeword Humbaba, turn to 167.
If not you can use either ROGUERY or PARADOXING and a psionic focus.
Otherwise, turn to 361.
Oh, good point, I'd overlooked that. Somebody has taken over and refurbished it?Judging__Eagle wrote:Also, the pyramid of Cheops being... smooth, and black; seems interesting. It was originally faced w/ limestone, so it was white. However Dark Ages looters quarried the facing, and now the pyramids are down to their supporting undermass.
We've only used it once, and while it gave us helpful hints, I wouldn't say it was gamebreaking on that occasion. AGILITY was what saved us from insta-death.Judging__Eagle wrote:Let's try Paradoxing? It's sort of a game-breaker power so far.
Glancing around for a means of opening the door, you notice an alphanumeric keypad set in a recess to one side. As you are cleaning away the crust of snow, it strikes you that a hundred years might have passed since this door last opened. There are billions of possible combinations, but whoever used it then would have known the correct sequence to punch into the keypad.
You close your eyes, focusing with that inward mental sense which transcends ordinary reality. The veil of time draws aside. For a moment you glimpse a figure in military dress of an earlier era, stabbing impatiently at this very keypad.
The image flickers, breaks apart like a projection on smoke. With bated breath you enter the same sequence you thought you saw the soldier use: H-U-M-B-A-B-A. There is a crackling of ice as the door slides up to admit you.
We lose that codeword that we never had.....seems like even the new publications of the book hasn't been properly edited for errors.Delete the codeword Humbaba.
A tunnel beyond the doorway is lit by luminant strips close to the floor, which bathe you in a sinister blue glow as you advance towards the centre of the pyramid. You reach a room whose walls are covered with video screens. A partial projection of the world’s surface stretches across the ceiling, reduced to a chequerboard of black patches where the scanning satellites have gone offline over the years.
In the centre of the room is a shaft that descends into the depths of the pyramid. A circular steel plate hovers at the top, beside a row of buttons. You guess it is a sort of elevator, although a much more sophisticated design than any in existence nowadays. Studying the buttons, you discount the levels given over to dormitories and recreation. That leaves the research and military levels, located furthest down in the building.
If you risk taking the strange elevator, decide whether you will go to the research level or the military level at the very bottom of the shaft. If you think it would be wiser to leave the way you came, turn to 361.