Curse of the Pharoah
by Oliver Johnson
Somewhere, half-buried by the drifting sands of the desert Khem, lies the pyramid tomb of the Lost Pharoah. Great Wealth and magical power await its discoverer.Back Cover wrote: This is a fantasy adventure with a difference - YOU are the hero! A pencil, an eraser, and two dice are all you need to embark on your quest. Success and vast riches - or failure and savage death - will depend on the decisions YOU make! Chose your fate and change it.
You search the bazaars of the city for a guide, your footsteps dogged by would-be assassins. You battle against the burning sun to reach your destination. There you meet the deadliest obstacle of all - not in the dark passageways filled with fatal traps, nor in the undead mummy guards, but in the Curse of the Pharaoh, which no one has ever survived!
Inside Cover wrote: You are a skilled adventurer who has roamed over much of the known world. In your yearning for constant challenge and the excitement of battle you have fought trolls, orcs, goblins, mad warlocks and many other strange and terrifying opponents. And you have always won. The years of adventure have honed your reflexes and fighting skills so that few men could hope to stand against you in single combat. Be warned: this adventure is not easy. It may take more than one attempt, but if you persevere you will eventually find a way past the Curse of the Pharaoh.
And now—your adventure begins...
INTRODUCTION
Imagine how it would be if you were someone like Indiana Jones, or Conan the Barbarian, or Luke Skywalker. Rather than merely sitting back and watching somebody else’s adventures, the thrill and danger would be yours to experience at first hand. Only your own skills and daring, and the decisions you made, would stand between you and a hundred hideous deaths.
In Golden Dragon Gamebooks, you are the hero.
You are a skilled adventurer who has roamed over much of the known world. In your yearning for constant challenge and the excitement of battle you have fought trolls, orcs, goblins, mad warlocks and many other strange and terrifying opponents.
And you have always won. The years of adventure have honed your reflexes and fighting skills so that few men could hope to stand against you in single combat.
To determine just how good an adventurer you are, you must use the dice:
Roll two dice. Add 20 to this number and enter the total in the VIGOUR box on your Character Sheet. This score represents your strength, fitness and general will to survive. Any wounds you take during your quest are subtracted from your VIGOUR score — if it ever reaches zero you are dead.
Vigour Roll: (1, 1) 2 VIGOUR 22
Roll one die. Add 3 to the number rolled and enter the total in the PSI box on your Character Sheet. The higher this score, the better you are at resisting spells cast at you and the more sensitive you are to psychic impressions. Roll one die, add 3 and enter the total in the AGILITY box. This score reflects how nimble you are. You will need a high AGILITY to scale walls, leap across chasms, and so on.
Psi Roll: (6, 1) 7 PSI 10
Agility Roll: (6, 2) 8 AGILITY 11
YOUR NAME
Try to personalize your adventure persona by thinking of a heroic name. You might call yourself Lucas Starkiller or Sir Bergan the Bold, Lady Angela Centuri or Li Chun the Black Dragon, or any other name you can think of. Imagine what sort of adventurer you are first — a noble knight, a crafty rogue, a dashing swordsman or a rugged Viking, perhaps - and then choose a name to reflect that.
VIGOUR, AGILITY and PSI
Your VIGOUR will change constantly during the adventure — every time you are wounded, in fact. You may acquire healing potions or find refreshment on your journey. This may restore some of the VIGOUR points you have lost owing to wounds - but unless you are told otherwise your VIGOUR will never exceed its original value. This is your normal VIGOUR score, and you must keep a careful note of it.
Your AGILITY and PSI are less likely to change, although this is possible. Spraining your ankle, for example, might reduce your AGILITY by 1 point. A magic helmet might increase your PSI. But, as with VIGOUR, your AGILITY and PSI will never exceed their normal scores unless you are specifically told otherwise.
COMBAT
During the course of your adventure, you will often come across a monster or human enemy whom you must fight. When this happens, you will be presented with an entry something like this:
At the start of every combat, you should record your opponent’s VIGOUR score in an empty Encounter Box. You then roll the dice to see who has been wounded. If both you and your opponent still have VIGOUR scores of more than 0 , you must continue to roll the dice until the VIGOUR score of either you or your enemy is reduced to 0 — indicating death. Keep note of the VIGOUR scores on your Character Sheet and in the Encounter Box.107 wrote: The Giant tears a branch from a nearby tree and lumbers towards you. There is nowhere to run — you must fight.
GIANT VIGOUR 15
Roll two dice:
score 2 to 6: You are hit; lose 3 VIGOUR points
score 7 to 12: The Giant loses 3 VIGOUR points
If you win, turn to 273.
ESCAPING FROM COMBAT
In some cases you may be engaged in combat and find yourself losing. If given the option, you may FLEE from the combat. Your enemy will, however, attempt to strike a blow at your unguarded back as you turn to run. To represent this, whenever you choose to FLEE you should roll two dice and compare the total to your AGILITY score. If the dice roll exceeds your AGILITY then you have been hit (losing 3 VIGOUR points) as you FLEE. If the dice roll is less than or equal to your AGILITY score, however, you dodge your opponent's parting blow and escape without further injury.
ITEMS
You are certain to come across a number of ITEMS on your travels. Some of these may turn out to be useless — or even harmful — but sometimes even the most insignificant-looking acquisition can prove vital to your quest. You should fill in items on your Character Sheet as you acquire them and cross them off as they are discarded or used up. Leaving aside such obvious possessions as your clothing, backpack, etc, which need not be listed, you begin with several important items. These have already been filled in on your Character Sheet:
your sword
half a stone tablet
30 Gold Pieces
YOUR ADVENTURE
You are now almost ready to begin. You will start by reading the BACKGROUND, and then proceed to 1 and thence to further entries according to the decisions you make. You may find it useful to take notes as you progress through the adventure. When you enter the Pyramid, make a map of its rooms and passageways.
If you get killed, fill in a new Character Sheet and start again — using your earlier maps and notes to guide you. It may take more than one attempt, but if you persevere you will eventually find a way past the Curse of the Pharaoh.
And now - your adventure begins... .
BACKGROUND
Sweat trickles down your brow into your eyes, blinding you. The heat of the sun has bleached all colour from the land; all is a dazzling white. The horizon is a watery mirage where men and camels appear to walk not on sand but in mid-air. In front of you, minarets and towers, palm fronds and low buildings seem to hover in the dust-choked sky. The sun beats down on your head, seeming to boil your brains, and the metal of your sword burns with an intense white heat from where it hangs at your belt.
Two hundred miles you have travelled across the burning deserts of the land of Khem, following the caravan trains of the nomadic hawkers and merchants; in your belt a small slab of carved granite. It seems to have been half of a larger stone tablet judging by the rough edge down one of its sides. On it are the royal arms of a long dead Pharoah of this ancient land, Kharphut the Mighty. His tomb has been buried by the drifting desert sands for hundreds of years. This slab of stone, you hope, could be the first clue in finding it. The man who sold it to you told you it had been discovered near the city of Arkos, and told you the name of the dealer who he bought it off, one Gabbad, a merchant of antiquities. Many others have tried to find the tomb of this Lost Pharoah, for mighty treasures were buried with him, but not only did they fail, they also all perished. Not one of them has been seen again striding back across the desert to the city of Arkos.
Finally, after miles of trudging during which the buildings you are approaching seem to recede from you, you wearily pass through the monolithic carved gates of the city. You are immediately surrounded by a crowd of excited children and beggars, some wear ragged cloaks, others are naked save flimsy loin cloths. They cry out, offering to take you to a good inn. You feel urgent hands tugging at your tunic. You brush past them, your eyes fixed upon the name carved over the entrance of a particularly shabby-looking inn just inside the city gate. The crowd fall back from you as you approach it; one of them calls out to you: ‘Master, do not enter. That inn is accursed. There are many better ones in the city.’ Ignoring their cries you enter the darkness of the Inn of the Coiled Serpent, eager to slake your thirst.
Your eyes gradually grow accustomed to the darkness. The inn has a dirt floor, and crude. wooden tables and benchs. Flies buzz in swarms around the earthenware pitchers and stale loaves behind the counter. A small, wizened old man with a fawning smile sidles out from behind the bar. You order some of the cool local beer and some food and sit down with it at one of the rough tables. The only other customer sits in a shadowy corner, his features obscured by one of the all-enveloping white cloaks of the desert nomads. After a while the innkeeper returns to Gabbad the antiquarian dealer is. He pulls at a hair growing from one of his warts and looks at the ceiling, creasing the features of his face: ‘Let me see now ... let me see ...’ he says. ‘The memory of an old man isn’t what it used to be.’ You toss a gold piece on to the table (cross it off your Character Sheet) and he snatches it up greedily.
‘Aha! I’ve remembered now; his shop lies just off the bazaar, but hurry for night is falling, and to be around the bazaar after night-fall is to be weary of one’s life.’ You quickly hand over the few coins to pay for the meal and step out into the evening air. Ahead of you, you fancy you see the white-cloaked figure of the man in the inn slip through the gates of the city, apparently in a great hurry. You turn to your right and join the sweating mass of humanity crammed into the narrow streets of Arkos. Soon you reach the edge of the bazaar area. Your adventure begins here.
TURN TO 1
1
The last merchants are packing up their stalls as you enter the large open area of the bazaar. The remaining customers barge unceremoniously past you as you stand at the head of the alley, undecided what to do. The merchants seem too busy in their haste to answer your enquiries. The sky blushes a deep crimson as twilight settles. The only sounds are the excited shouts of a group of ragged children rushing around one corner of the square in wild circles.
In the distance a few country folk linger, gawping at the antics of a fire-eater who blows great gouts of flame into the darkening sky, throwing the spectators’ faces into sudden relief. In another corner of the square, a group of rough looking men with scimitars in the belts of their robes lean against the wall of a small hut with the sign ‘Gambling’ outside the door. Immediately in front of you is a tavern where lanterns have already been lit, the lively music of the native drums and flutes echoes out into the square, and you hear shouting and clapping from within.
There is one stall left open. You can see a turbanned trader sitting in the shadows at the back of it smoking a long pipe. Unlike the other traders, he doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to get out of the bazaar despite the coming darkness. You can dimly make out a number of items laid out on a carpet in front of him. Turn to 65.
65
You stroll up to the stall and see a sign hanging from one of the supports of its awning: ‘Ahmed’s Emporium’. There is a flash of white teeth as the trader smiles in the blackness of the stall. ‘Greetings, warrior from the North. Tonight I have a choice selection of articles.’ Ignoring the cheap trinkets laid out on the carpet in front of him, he brings out a mouldered old carpet, much frayed at the edges. He unravels it, revealing an assortment of articles.
‘All these are excellent bargains, noble sir. This pair of gloves are strong enough to keep you safe from the bites of snakes — a mere 5 Gold pieces. And this Potion of Levitation will enable you to drift through the air at a height of 1 metre above the ground — again, a bargain at 5 Gold pieces. This water bottle always has at least one gulp of water in it.’ He pours water in at the top of the bottle but the water quickly dribbles out of the bottom as if it was riddled with holes. After this flow has stopped, he triumphantly reverses the bottle and a small amount of water pours out of its spout. ‘See!’ he exclaims. ‘A wondrous device and a mere 5 Gold pieces. And here I have two potions of swiftness: these will enable you to escape a deadly foe — for only 2 Gold pieces each. Finally, a bargain that even you cannot refuse — a genuine flying carpet! Admittedly, it has only one hour's flying time left in it, but I am selling it at the bargain price of 5 Gold pieces.’
If you would like to buy any or all of these articles, you may hand over the money and add the articles to the items listed on your Character Sheet. Then you turn to look at the other things in the Bazaar.
If you want to risk some gambling to improve your funds, turn to 218. Otherwise, do you want to:
Go over and speak to the group of children playing in the corner of the square? Turn to 190
Join the group of people staring at the fire-eater? Turn to 210
Cross the square and investigate the inn? Turn to 123
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I've recently left my high-paid corporate job to preserve what's left of my soul and potentially my health and work-life balance. I have been accepted into a teacher certification program that starts in the fall, and I'll be doing substitute teaching until the end of next week when school breaks for the summer. I will be taking several trips this summer that may create delays in regular posting, but if you've played a game I've run before you know how it is - I'll try to let you know when I expect a delay and I'll try to minimize them the best I can - but there will probably be a few.
I don't know how deadly this module is compared to the last one, but I'll be trying to find out ahead of time. I'm assuming that achieving victory without at least one death is highly improbable. This character has poor Vigour, and relatively average PSI and Agility; in the case this character dies, please decide whether we will resurrect them or roll a new character.
Finally, in addition to deciding on your next action, please decide on your character name.
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CHARACTER SHEET
Name:???
VIGOUR: 22
PSI: 7
AGILITY: 10
Treasure: 29 Gold Pieces
Items:
-Sword
-Half a Stone Tablet
-Torch
