Weapon in hand you prepare to take on the monstrous hound. Existing half in the Ethereal Realm and half on the Earthly Plane, the Moon Dog is as effective at harming your spirit-form as it is a physical body.
MUTANT MOON DOG SILL 9 STAMINA 10
If the dog finishes you off, write the number 182 on your Adventure Sheet and turn to 100. If you slay the monster, however, turn to 53.
Don't we have our own dog? It can take on one of the heads!
COMBAT LOG:
Mutant Moon Dog 16, Isolde (Marrok) 16. Tie.
MMD 16, Isolde (Marrok) 21. MMD is at 8.
MMD 12, Isolde (Marrok) 16. MMD is at 6.
MMD 15, Isolde (Marrok) 19. MMD is at 4.
MMD 14, Isolde (Marrok) 13. Marrok is at 16.
MMD 16, Isolde (Marrok) 17. MMD is at 2.
MMD 18, Isolde (Marrok) 20. MMD is killed.
Stepping past the massive beast, you stand at last before he mirrored shield. If you still have a physical form you can take it with you. (Ass the Soul Shield to your Adventure Sheet and add 1 to your SKILL score, even if this takes it above its Initial level.) If you are in your ethereal form, there's nothing you can do other than exit the chamber again. Whether you take the shield or not, you ultimately leave the Moon Dog's cell.
If Marrok survives at the end of this, at least we've paid him back for taking his body without permission with all the loot we've gotten thus far, especially this shield!
The passageway brings you to a flight of stone steps that descend into the darkness below. Considering what you have encountered so far in the dungeons, as you follow the steps down into the gloom, you wonder what horrors await you deeper beneath Valsinore.
The stairs double back on themselves and then you find yourself in another stone-walled passageway. A sound like a rattlesnake's tail vibrating causes you to freeze and you peer into the murk ahead of you. A little further on a new passageway branches off to left. The tunnel also continues ahead of you, but clinging half to the wall and half to the ceiling by its large ivory dew-claws is a hideous creature that appears to be an amalgam of a large lizard of some kind with a rattlesnake's tail, its scaly skin mottled green and brown. However its head looks horribly like a fleshless human skull, although the nictitating golden eyes in that skull are undoubtedly reptilian and a forked tongue darts from its open mouth tasting the stale, musty air of the dungeons. If you want to continue along the corridor, you are going to have to fight the Catacomb Crawler. If you are prepared to do this, turn to 219. If not, you could try taking the turning to the left before the creature becomes aware of your presence.
Fight another mutant freak?
Adventure Sheet:
Name: Isolde Laodegan
SKILL: 12/12 (Host: 12/12)
STAMINA: 19/19 (Host: 16/22)
LUCK: 7/7
WILL: 13
Equipment: Deathsbane, Nightslayer (does 3 STAMINA damage on Undead), Velvet Purse (worth 6 GP), Potion of Fortune (restire LUCK to full), Potion of Strength (restore STAMINA to full), Codex Mortis, Oil of Midnight, Soul Shield (+1 SKILL)
Abilities: Apparition, Poltergeist, Shade, Spook, Fizzgig the Homunculus (2 uses out of 4 following spells: Banish Undead, Luck, Skill, Strength)
Codewords: Ironheart, Barking, Best Friend, Steed, Gateway, Devourer, Rest In Peace, Banshee, Catacombs, Watcher, Host, Hellfire
Provisions: 5 Meals (+4 STAMINA each)
Note: When fighting opponents with physical forms, opponents' Attack Strength is reduced by one while Korzen ("Best Friend") is with us.