[Let’s Play] ACE Gamebook 03 – Neverland: Here Be Monsters!

[deaddmwalking]

I think it's an anklyosaurus. I don’t want to fight it, and I don’t want to retreat. I think appearing threatening is the best option of the three, but we do have Earth Lore, so I'm for using that.

[Dogopolis]

We have a skill, may as well use it.

[JourneymanN00b]

Votes registered; using the Earth Lore Special ability.

340

(Cross off one use of the Earth Lore special ability.)

You can’t help noticing that the ground here appears very crumbly and, lacking the root systems of plants to hold it together, it could be prone to landslides, particularly with something as big and heavy as this bony-plated brute stomping about the place.

What do you want to do next? Will you:

Use the Beast Lore special ability (if you can)?     Turn to 280.
Retreat and find another way through these desolate crags?     Turn to 88.
Threaten the beast?     Turn to 202.
Attack the animal?     Turn to 263.

Please make your votes by 7:00 PM PST or before a choice receives 3 votes to ensure that they will be counted.

NEVERLAND Here Be Monsters! ADVENTURE SHEET
Character: Tiger Lily
Agility: 10
Combat: 11
Endurance: 20
Equipment:
Spear
Tomahawk
Shardstone Amulet
3 Meals
Special Abilities:
Hieroglyphs: 3 uses
Earth Lore: 2 uses
Strength of Will: 3 uses
Tracking: 3 uses
Companion: Yes
Code Words:
None
Mutiny: N/A
Steed: Sabretooth Tiger
Agility: 10
Combat: 10
Endurance: 24

[Dogopolis]

Retreat and find another way. I forgot that the uses were limited.

[deaddmwalking]

I think we threaten it. If it backs toward the edge of the cliff the grou d will collapse. One step back...

[Beroli]

We may regret this but. Threaten it.

[JourneymanN00b]

Votes counted; threatening the beast won by a 2-1 vote.

202

“Yah!” you shout, shaking your spear threateningly, whilst fixing the beast’s eye with a furious, unrelenting stare. Fang joins in, snarling viciously and pawing the ground with his claws bared.

If you want to employ your Strength of Will special ability, turn to 181. If not, turn to 161.

Please make your votes by 9:00 AM PST or before a choice receives 3 votes to ensure that they will be counted.

[Beroli]

Use Strength of Will.

[Dogopolis]

Use it

[deaddmwalking]

I guess if that's what it's going to take to intimidate it.. might as well.

[Thaluikhain]

Use it.

[JourneymanN00b]

Votes recognized; employing her Strength of Will special ability.

181

The Club-Tail gives a bray of annoyance even as it slowly backs away from you. Finally, it turns tail and thuds away into the crags to join the rest of its family pod, no doubt.

With that bad-tempered obstacle out of the way, you breathe a sigh of relief and urge your steed on along the path through the hills.

Turn to 320.

320

You come to the top of a rise and through a break in the trees you are presented with a jaw-dropping sight. Rising out of the jungle are the ruins of a temple-city raised by the ancient civilisation that once dominated these lands. You see huge carved stone faces clung with vines and teetering towers, almost entirely reclaimed by the forest, their stones forced apart by the roots of huge trees.

But central to the ruins and dominating the vista is a huge stepped pyramid. Its highest tier rises high above the trees, although it is still overshadowed by the volcano behind it, crystal waterfalls cascading down the sides of the peak amid spray-born rainbows.

The rite of passage to become a hunter forgotten, you direct Fang down the other side of the rise and enter the outskirts of the abandoned temple-city.

You soon come to a plaza surrounded by high walls, covered in carvings depicting whatever was important to the people who once lived here, the myriad tesserae tiles that pave the square cracked now and riddled with pernicious creeper vines. As well as the carvings of battle scenes and the ancient animals that share the island with you, there is column after column of the Ancients’ strange picture writing, which can still be read by the elders of your tribe, and those whom they have taught to decipher the mysterious letter-forms.

If you have the Hieroglyphs special ability, and you want to use it now, turn to 391. If not, turn to 413.

Please make your votes by 7:00 PM PST or before a choice receives 3 votes to ensure that they will be counted.

NEVERLAND Here Be Monsters! ADVENTURE SHEET
Character: Tiger Lily
Agility: 10
Combat: 11
Endurance: 20
Equipment:
Spear
Tomahawk
Shardstone Amulet
3 Meals
Special Abilities:
Hieroglyphs: 3 uses
Earth Lore: 2 uses
Strength of Will: 2 uses
Tracking: 3 uses
Companion: Yes
Code Words:
None
Mutiny: N/A
Steed: Sabretooth Tiger
Agility: 10
Combat: 10
Endurance: 24

[deaddmwalking]

We must read the writing.

Seems strange that an ability like that would have limited uses, but I guess those are the rules.

[Dogopolis]

Yes use Hieroglyphs.

[Thaluikhain]

Hieroglyphs to be used.

[Beroli]

Use Hieroglyphs.

[JourneymanN00b]

Votes acknowledged; using the Hieroglyphs special ability.

391

(Cross off one use of your Hieroglyphs special ability.)

You are not as proficient as some at reading the near-forgotten written language of the Ancients, but you know enough to work out the gist of what the hieroglyphs are trying to tell you.

And within a sacred chamber that pointed North towards Great Kra’Tum, Queen Lai Tai’Glaa commanded that her stone-carvers record the tale of the coming of the Accala.

Now turn to 413.

413

Dismounting, you lead Fang through the vine-clad ruins, as if drawn onwards by the feeling you have been here before, even though you haven’t. It is as if your feet know exactly which way to go even though this is the first time you have ventured beyond the Teeming Plains.

You climb a set of broad steps and enter a broken plaza that is surrounded by the forest as much as it is by the ancient walls of this long-abandoned temple-city.

If you want to stop and use your Tracking special ability before proceeding any further, turn to 434. If you would rather let your feet lead you where they will, turn to 455.

Please make your votes by 9:00 AM PST or before a choice receives 3 votes to ensure that they will be counted.

NEVERLAND Here Be Monsters! ADVENTURE SHEET
Character: Tiger Lily
Agility: 10
Combat: 11
Endurance: 20
Equipment:
Spear
Tomahawk
Shardstone Amulet
3 Meals
Special Abilities:
Hieroglyphs: 2 uses
Earth Lore: 2 uses
Strength of Will: 2 uses
Tracking: 3 uses
Companion: Yes
Code Words:
None
Mutiny: N/A
Steed: Sabretooth Tiger
Agility: 10
Combat: 10
Endurance: 24

[Thaluikhain]

Use tracking.

[Dogopolis]

Let feet guide us.

[Beroli]

Use Tracking.

[deaddmwalking]

Our crocodile adventure was short, so it seems that having 3 places where tracking is important isn't a given. That said, the descriptive text where we feel guided seems like tracking isn't necessary here. I'm with Dogopolis on this one - let our feet guide us.

[JourneymanN00b]

Thank you for voting. I will break the 2-2 tie by letting Tiger Lily’s feet guide her where they will.

455

You have only gone another three steps when, with a great heaving crack, the ground opens up under you and you start to fall.

Take an Agility test. If you pass the test, turn to 475. If you fail the test, turn to 495.

Rolling the dice yielded a 5, so Tiger Lily passes the test.

475

As you fall, you reach out and grab hold of a trailing liana and hold on as the ground gives way beneath you. Stones and earth cascade into the hole that has opened below you and as sunlight streams into it – probably for the first time in centuries – you see that the hole is actually a large man-made chamber.

You are dangling above a paved floor, which the end of the liana you are holding just reaches. The four walls of the domed chamber are covered with more of the strange carvings, exposed to the light after only Kra’Tum knows how long.

Fang peers down at you from the edge of the substantial opening above, most of the domed roof of the chamber having caved in beneath your unwary tread, but you are not ready to return to him just yet.

“Wait there, boy,” you tell your tame Sabretooth and start to lower yourself down the liana, into the chamber below, your curiosity getting the better of you.

Turn to 516.

516

The subterranean chamber is even more impressive from where you are standing now, at the bottom of the pit. The hole in the roof certainly appears to be a very long way up.

Surveying your surroundings, you see two shaded archways leading to two tunnels – one on the north side of the chamber and one to the south, smothered in webs – leading away into darkness under the temple-city.

A strong smell of brimstone permeates the chamber and in one corner you spot thick black tar oozing between the stones of the floor, gas bubbles forming slowly within it before popping and adding to the intense, sulphurous aroma.

You become aware of a blue glow coming from below you. Looking down, you see that the spiral of crystal winding through your Shardstone Amulet is glowing.

It is not the first time your amulet has done this, but it usually only happens when you are in the presence of the Earth Stone, back at the Citadel. You wonder if it is in reaction to something nearby.

Intrigued, you decide you can’t leave until you have found out why your amulet is glowing like this now.

However, before you explore any further, do you want to try to make yourself a torch, to help you to see (turn to 536), or will you rely on the glowing amulet to provide you with enough light to see by (turn to 556)?

Please make your votes by 7:00 PM PST or before a choice receives 3 votes to ensure that they will be counted.

NEVERLAND Here Be Monsters! ADVENTURE SHEET
Character: Tiger Lily
Agility: 10
Combat: 11
Endurance: 20
Equipment:
Spear
Tomahawk
Shardstone Amulet
3 Meals
Special Abilities:
Hieroglyphs: 2 uses
Earth Lore: 2 uses
Strength of Will: 2 uses
Tracking: 3 uses
Companion: No
Code Words:
None
Mutiny: N/A
Steed: Sabretooth Tiger
Agility: 10
Combat: 10
Endurance: 24

[Dogopolis]

Glowing amulet. Probably something flammable.

[deaddmwalking]

Yes. Rely on the amulet. Lighting a torch seems like an invitation to blow ourselves up.

And when given the choice, go North (which the Hieroglyphs seemed to support).

[Beroli]

Rely on the amulet.